Soluvermus - A small (average size 8-12 cms/1 cm diameter), heavily armoured earthworm native to Palaven's more northern and southern regions.
Ahmu - (Prothean) Mother
Bahta - (Prothean) Father
Bihni - (Prothean) Daughter
Kerashe - (Prothean) Dearest one
Suum - Slaves. Thralls. The races under Leviathan that rose up to depose them.
Tar'za'liik - Ancient turian god of storms. His roar was thunder so loud that it was said to drive whoever heard it insane, and his lightning so bright and fierce that it could turn anyone who displeased him to ash at a touch. Those who bore his favour were branded with fire, usually somewhere conspicuous, the brand ghastly, for to be favoured by the gods always bore a price. His was disfigurement.
56 Days ASR Horizon
Why Horizon? Of all the planets for the Collectors to target, why the third planet in the Iera system? When they'd landed, he'd watched Shepard to see if anything about the planet triggered her, but she acted closed off, as if something stood between her head and her heart. He supposed that he should have expected as much: she always managed to keep Tashac sealed away. He wished he could keep Merol silent with that level of thoroughness.
Amani. The planet is Amani; the ball of flame burning in the blue is Jikomuja. The ground beneath our feet screams with rivers of blood. With the blood of—
Nihlus shoved the voice back through the tiny trapdoor that kept Merol at bay , slamming it in the prothean's face: that distraction the last thing he needed. Bad enough that the entire planet felt like a fist poised to drive straight through his chest. The sun shone too brightly, the sky too wide, the rolling hills and light forest far too open. He pressed his back to the metal wall and watched the world go mad around him, a nest of hibernating soluvermus writhing in his gut. Iera's bright fire did nothing to break up the chill, second skin that settled inside his armour the moment he stepped off the shuttle and looked up at the golden leaves hanging heavy and still on the trees.
'It's fall, the leaves golden and sweet-smelling at last. So many days painted morning and night with summer colours, each feeling as though the season—the siege—would never end.' A sigh drifts behind the words, sending them swirling amidst those leaves. 'If our luck and stealth systems last until winter, the base's geo-thermal grid will allow those sheltered here to slumber undisturbed by time and the last days of our defeat.' Warm hands slide beneath his robe, welcome comfort—
"Nihlus!"
Garrus's shout pulled the Spectre's mind from the thick soup swirling just beneath his skull. He shook his head and brushed a hand over his face, then lifted up just high enough to scan the courtyard. Husks and Collector monsters converged on the general and Javik, who'd managed to circle around to the head of the complex, finding slightly elevated cover.
"Get to Shepard. We'll cover you. Martin, cover his back." The filament of fear threaded through the general's unflappable calm pulled Nihlus the rest of the way back to the warm, fall day. Lifting higher, he saw Shepard trying to bolt around the far side of the complex, making for the second level and a decent sniper perch.
Right, double bolting the lock on Merol's trapdoor, he glanced over at Martin. "You got my back, kid?" he called, turning away to slip down the wall to the nearest door. He pulled one of his last few grenades, set it for an incendiary blast.
"Ready when you are," Martin replied, crouching below the large window and perching his Revenant on the sill.
"Wait for the boom." Nihlus leaned out, lobbing the grenade seven metres away from the door before ducking back and covering his head. "Fire in the hole!" A bright flash of superheated flame consumed everything within its radius, clearing the path. "Kryik crossing the courtyard!" he called then bolted.
Before he covered half of the courtyard, dodging the husks and Collector drones that made it past Martin's assault rifle, Nihlus saw the giant bug thing leap nearly the entire length of the space to cut Shepard off from the stairs. It let out a blast of power, throwing Shepard backwards down the stairs. Damn it! Why couldn't she just stay with the rest of the group instead of trying to draw fire? Trying to protect the rest of them was going to get her killed.
"Shepard!" He dug in, bolting another three metres before being forced back into cover.
Peering out, he watched her scramble away from the monster, but it pounced, just missing impaling her when she rolled aside at the last second. Damn but the woman possessed extraordinary reflexes. When it fired its twin particle beams, she threw herself from flat on her back into a roll that made his bones ache just watching it. She crashed into the back leg, cursed and then leaped out from underneath its chassis and bolted up the stairs.
Spirits, in action hero mode, Shepard was hotter than any being had a right to be. The second after that highly inappropriate thought crossed his mind, realization dawned. He stood in the middle of the complex, no cover, surrounded by enemies, devoid of purpose since Shepard had rescued herself, and bullets ate away at his shields. Priority: cover and fast.
Halfway to the stairs, using the massive bug-thing as partial cover, Nihlus stalled, a strange pressure flooding his senses. It pressed in and down like huge hands trying to crush his skull between them. He stumbled mid-stride, a flailing hand stopping him from going down as it slammed into a planter. He blinked, his vision blurred, his head aching. What in the pits ...?
The Collectors all let out blood-chilling screams, and the constant battering of their firepower against the back of his failing shields disappeared. Refusing to check a gift rifle's firing pin, he pushed on and up the stairs, taking cover at the top next to Shepard, who stood out in the open, an expression of utter bemusement contorting her face. He glanced between the Collectors tearing one another apart and Shepard, who looked up, watching not the battle below but the skies above.
Leaving her to gawk, he turned his assault rifle on the Collectors, finishing off the ones that lie, twitching on the ground. Still, he saw orange light flare in his peripherals as she activated her omnitool and lifted it, running scans on whatever it was that dimmed the skies.
"Dammit." Closing down the scans, she stepped up to the edge of the stairs. "I'm so damned sick of this stupid war getting weirder and more horrifying. Just die. Fucking all of you just do us a favour and kill each other." She lifted Ingrid to punch fist-sized holes through first the cryo-zombie's heads, then the carapace of the bug-shaped one.
The giant bug Collector ended the fight lying on its side, the metal legs twitching, the husks inside still shrieking like souls being dragged down into the pits. Spirits, that noise! It felt as though it sucked the energy straight out of his cells, an aching draw that left him exhausted despite a good twenty metres separating them.
Shepard silenced the cacophony with three shots straight through the thing's … eyes? Weapons? She hung Ingrid up and turned to face Nihlus, but before she could speak, the chiastyllia did.
"The suzerain have come!"
Instead of acknowledging the gauntlet, she turned to the sky once more, her mouth working as if she possessed so many questions that they fought each other to get out.
"The suzerain have come!" the chia cried again.
Nihlus finally looked up, unwilling to admit that he dreaded acknowledging whatever it was. He agreed with Shepard that they dealt with far too much strange and horrifying as it was. Still, he looked and could have sworn he stared straight into some sort of crystal mirror that blocked the entire sky. It reflected the ground and compound below, but not perfectly … some of the blue sky showed through. It could almost be considered innocuous, its shape sleek and glistening like a faceted jewel in the heavens. Almost, except for the crushing pressure of malevolence that oozed down from it, invisible twins of the twisted spectres of black the Conduit gave off.
"So many screaming," the chia cried. "So many in pain."
Nihlus shuddered, the muscles to either side of his lower spine seizing. Somewhere in the hidden folds of his brain, he could hear the screams. Billions of tiny voices that hadn't stopped crying out in their agony for millions of cycles.
"Shut it," Shepard said, both her words and the hand that sliced the air, scalpel sharp. "Are the Collector units all dead?" she asked, pivoting on her heel to search inside the building. Inside, frozen colonists stood, knelt, and sprawled, amber and black-smoke statuary standing vigil over the Collector dead. In that same space that heard the enslaved chia calling out, Nihlus felt something moving inside his skull. It didn't step forward, didn't try to take him over as it had on Illium, but present.
Perhaps Merol had slipped his cage once more.
"Giran! My beautiful, fierce bihni … ." Merol backed toward the door. Panic drove a long knife through his chest at the thought of leaving his last daughter among the sleeping-dead. "Come with us, kerashe. You should be with your ahmu and I."
She smiled and stepped into his embrace, brushing her kepala along his. "You have one another and Attit. These people need me, you do not." His last daughter left a strong imprint of love and devotion, then stepped back. "When you've hidden the Conduit, return and wake me. We'll be together again."
"Shepard," Garrus called. "You and Nihlus all right over there?"
"Yeah, fine, big guy. Just sweeping the upper level. On our way back down in a second, and we've got a colony to save." Shepard's voice cracked a little. She twisted her neck until the vertebrae snapped like a series of dry twigs. Perhaps she didn't have Tashac as well contained as he imagined. Still, she pushed on, strong, angry, and determined. "Assault team, let's keep moving. Meet me at the gate at the back of the compound," she called, her fingers resting over her radio. "Science team, everyone all right?" After a second, she nodded. "Excellent. S&R team, report in?" Even as she spoke, Shepard moved with purpose, her weapon nestled in the crook of her arm. He caught up with her as she signed off with Lt. Cortez.
"Looks like it didn't damage anyone but the Reapers." She nodded toward the door out, but then stopped and lifted a hand to press against his cheek. For a second, as their eyes met, the captain stepped back in favour of the dilan. "You're all right?"
Nihlus pressed his hand over hers, the contact an anchor that helped contain the pressure in his head. "It felt like someone was crushing my head for a couple of minutes, but it's fine now … just feel like someone's watching from inside my own skull." He sighed and waggled his head a little. "Being here has Merol coming out of his skin as well." He fluttered his mandibles and leaned into her palm. "However, this helps." For what felt like the millionth time, he thanked the spirits or whatever powers watched over the universe for Shepard and Garrus … for that connection and family. The more insane the universe became, the more he cherished them.
Shepard's hand lingered, warming his face for a couple more seconds before Captain Shepard settled back in place. "Yeah, I've got everything locked up behind two-metre-thick security doors, but I can feel something. It's not interfering—just sitting there—but I don't trust it." She gripped his hand, leading him toward the door, apparently savouring that one bright point of normal and sane as much as he. "Come on, let's go see if the suzerain just saved all our colonists."
"No," the gauntlet said, the voice of the chia strident. "Suzerain don't save; they enslave. They came for a reason, but it was not to save the humans living on this planet. They would sacrifice every human, every turian … every life to reclaim their former glory."
"Of course they would." Shepard dropped his hand.
Nihlus stepped up beside her. "So, what are we looking at? What is that thing overhead?"
"During the great insurrection, the suum became far more powerful than the suzerain could have imagined. The most advanced races formed a brotherhood with artificial life, and upgraded themselves until they became capable of building great ships and constructing mighty weapons. They fought the suzerain to the brink of defeat." The chiastyllia let out another wail, stilling even as Nihlus saw Shepard's jaw clench. "Then the suzerain discovered the chia," the gauntlet continued, calm once more. "Their will formed the people into terrible, massive weapons of war like the one above. Only through using the people to enhance their power of subversion and domination did they survive the war and crush the suum rebellion."
"So, that thing up there is what?" Shepard asked without glancing down. She palmed the next door and jogged through, speeding up. A long, furious-sounding sigh roared in her throat as she exhaled. "Is it some sort of biotic amplifier?"
"Yes, a vehicle designed to render a system helpless and cut off. Three of them together can destroy every form of resistance on a planet with a single command."
Nihlus felt his gut drop into his boots. He took a breath to ask the obvious, but Shepard beat him to the punch.
"Can they kill Reapers with those dreadnoughts?" They emerged outside at front of the compound, but on the opposite side, and Shepard stopped to look down at the chia when they remained silent. "Can they?" She lifted the gauntlet, once again making as if to leave them behind. Her tone and actions began to feel brittle, on the edge of turning into just slamming her way through everything like a mako through a thresher maw.
Not that he blamed her as he looked back up at the dreadnought just sitting overhead. How were they supposed to fight that thing if it came down to it?
"Damn it, answer me. Can that monstrosity kill a Reaper?" Fury snapped and licked around her like flame, and he opened his mouth to suggest that she let him deal with the chia.
Then the gauntlet answered, "Yes, and they have in the past, but they will not unless one of their kind is threatened. They do not wish the servants destroyed, they wish them to return to their duties in an empire restored. Do not consider the suzerain as potential allies, they are a threat."
"So, they're not above killing all of us if they see us as challenging them?" Nihlus asked. He gripped Shepard's shoulder, supportive but a slight increase in pressure and twitch of a brow plate asked, was she okay?
Shepard nodded as the chia answered, "They have allowed the Reapers to destroy all advanced life many thousands of times over millions of cycles. They have done this because better that than allow the Reapers to discover the answer to the question and discover the limitless possibilities of imagination and connection. Better trillions dead than allowing their servant to attain true freedom."
Shepard's nod amounted to nothing more than a faint twitch, but her jaw relaxed. He released her. Letting out a long, rough breath, Shepard led the way through the middle of the compound to where the others waited, everyone casting nervous glances toward the sky.
They passed into shade beneath the building, and Nihlus straightened, not realizing that he'd been ducking until his spine protested. The rest of the team seemed to feel the same pressure, not that he blamed anyone for being skittish with a massive doom machine made up of barely known, let alone understood, aliens sitting over their heads.
Shepard strode over to the gate and began bypassing it, Nihlus able to see her mind working faster than the omnitool. She glanced back at him and then Garrus. "Okay, they told me that the Reapers have discovered the means to answer the question." She looked up, meeting Nihlus's gaze. "They told you that as well."
"And that they're building the Catalyst. They said that—" Once again, Nihlus's gut took a belly flop into icy water. "Spirits, the Catalyst … they're building it out of colonists … it's another Reaper … a Reaper that answers the question." He saw the realization dawn in Shepard's eyes as well.
"A Reaper with a soul," she agreed, her whisper pressed flat, a barely vocalized thought.
"Shit, the colonists!" She brought up the manual interface, fingers flying through the commands, the gate relenting to her within seconds. It opened to reveal a large yard filled with dead Collectors and husks in all their forms.
The crackle of static over their radios stopped the small party just inside the bay that housed the frigate that would become their home until the Reapers returned to dark space. "Commander Jacar … Ahmu, Bahta … the base is under attack! Get clear!" Giran's voice rose harsh and furious over the sounds of battle.
"Giran!" Tashac called, beating Merol to the radio. "We're returning to your side, kerashe. We can help hold the base."
"The base is overrun." Their last daughter paused before she said, "I love you all." Soft tones hardened. "Attit, get our parents clear!"
The roar of distant explosions yanked Nihlus from the memory, rough claws spinning him around to stare as the Collector ship began to blow up from the inside. "What in the pits?" he said, the words a thin whisper, disbelief rooting him for a half-second despite the chia's warnings. When it broke, he bolted toward the spaceport, strong hands stopping him as he passed between Shepard and Garrus.
"Nihlus, no," the general said, his expression as miserable and furious as Nihlus felt. "There's nothing we can do. It's too late."
"The suzerain are controlling the Collectors?" Shepard asked, her demand hissing between clenched teeth even as she pulled him back toward the gate. "They're making them destroy their own ship?"
"To deprive the Reapers of their building materials," the chia replied, "yes."
"How can they ... ? Can we stop them? They can kill the Collectors, and we can get the people out." She turned to Garrus and then to him, panic and imagination spinning alternatives so quickly that he could see the screens flipping.
"They will not risk another Collector vessel returning to salvage the vessel and remaining colonists."
The entire skin of the Collector ship began to crack, fires erupting through the fissures. "Everyone through the gate, get into cover!" Shepard ordered, turning to shove Martin back the way they'd come before she and Garrus ran, arms urging one another on.
"No! You don't need to— They're innocent—"
"Nihlus?" Shepard called, slowing and turning to wait for him.
No, his anger couldn't be allowed to put Shepard in danger. "Right behind you." Nihlus tossed Javik through the gate with one massive heave when the Prothean just stared at the corrupted vessel, a satisfied sneer celebrating its destruction.
Then the explosions reached the drive core, announced by a blinding flash followed by Tar'za'liik's roar. The shockwave flicked Nihlus into the air with all the effort of someone brushing an insect from their clothing. He tucked, rolling as he hit, then scrambled behind cover next to Shepard and Martin.
Debris, shrapnel and dust pelted their cover, shredding the thin metal of the prefabs in the compound. When the wind and cacophony died down, Nihlus reached up, digging the heels of his hands into his aural canals, the ringing in his head worthy of the storm god's wrath. Shepard stirred next to him, pushing herself up, her face frozen in a rictus of a fury that matched the fire raging in Nihlus's heart.
He leaped to his feet, entire body screaming in protest. "You bastards!" he shouted, railing against the impassive monster in the sky. A hand rested on his arm, turning him to face Shepard. Tears streaked the filth on her face, but he knew they merely reflected the impotent fury burning at her core. Shepard needed to rescue everyone, and it never failed to carve huge gashes in her heart when she couldn't.
"All hands, converge on the periphery of the explosion site," she said, shouting into her radio. "Miranda, you're in charge of search and rescue efforts. Get Dr. Eis down here to help Chakwas and Mordin. We could use Ms. Chambers and Vincent as well. All hands on deck. This is going to be a hell of a mess."
"Shepard … ." Nihlus didn't continue but tipped his head up at the dreadnought poised overhead and cocked a brow plate. Did they need to herd more drellak into the slaughter yard if the suzerain decided to obliterate the planet's population? She nodded, but continued, calling down all hands and shuttles to aid with the wounded.
"Whatever you and the docs need, get it, understood?" she said into her radio as she twisted a bandage around her hand, applying pressure to a gash across her palm. Nihlus held his hand out, giving it two, emphatic shakes when she refused to relinquish it. She grumbled a little as she placed it in his talons and he unwound her sloppy work.
"Me?" she continued with Lawson. "I'm taking the assault squad in to see if there are any survivors, start putting out fires, whatever we can do." A sharp breath cut through what he felt sure was yet another case of Miranda's insubordination. "Opinion noted. Shepard out." The second she closed the channel, Shepard's eyes focused past him, though she hissed a little as he peeled off her glove. He winced at the depth of the slice, but merely lifted a foot onto a piece of rubble and laid her hand palm up across his thigh.
Shepard gestured with her other hand as she gave orders, moving enough to make cleaning the wound an exercise in frustration. "Garrus, Javik … see if you can find fire extinguishers and stockpile them at the back gate. Martin, go back to the garage. If the people are out of stasis, send twenty or so skilled volunteers our way, get the rest to Miranda."
His turn. A laser stare bored into the side of his head as he turned his attention to dressing her wound. "I wasn't questioning you," he said without her needing to speak. Her intensity began to burn. "Betting that they won't take out the settlement because we're here is a gamble, that's all."
A sigh, steam hissing through a cracked valve, broke from her lips, and she nodded. "I know, but what's the alternative? Sit here and leave the colony to burn?"
Nihlus smeared a thick layer of medigel across her palm, and wrapped the hand tight, so her glove would slide back over it. He hesitated, pretty sure even with the medigel, she needed the wound sealed properly, but then just passed her the glove. She wouldn't stay still long enough for healing until after she'd secured the colony.
"Thanks, cikabeknai," Shepard said, grabbing hold of his yoke and pulling him down for a quick kiss. She moved to pull away, but he grabbed hold of her upper arms and held her, their brows touching.
"We'll do everything we can, haksaya kubenar," he said, sliding a thick layer of calming subvocals under the words. He breathed her in, drawing as much strength as he hoped he gave, the hint of jasmine and spice caressing his olfactory and pheromone receptors and slowing the beat of his heart. "Everything we can. Right?"
Shepard took a breath and pressed into the contact for a second. "Right." Another soft press of lips against the rigid plate of his mouth and she pulled away, turning toward the sound of running feet.
Martin raced around the corner from the garage, an orderly double line of colonists right behind him. "I found your volunteers." He stopped and looked back at the group with a respectful sort of pride. "They worked on the colony's emergency and fire brigade or at the spaceport, so even come complete with hazmat gear."
Shepard grinned, the first real smile Nihlus had seen on her face since they landed. "Excellent work, Instructor Weaver." She nodded to the colonists, the mantle of leader easing some of the brittleness as it settled onto those deceptively narrow shoulders. "Thank you for volunteering. I've got doctors, medics, and bodies on their way, but the faster we get into the site and start disaster control protocols, the better."
An older man in red overalls stepped forward. "Chief Randall McQuire, ma'am. I was the head of the Emergency Management department at the spaceport." He looked around, his entire body sagging for a moment before he straightened. "Most of my people are missing, but we need to get in there and see if the fire suppression systems are intact. The land is dry as a bone this time of year. We could lose the entire colony."
Nihlus glanced at Shepard, seeing his relief mirrored there. He didn't have the first clue about fighting a fire of that magnitude.
"Then we'll gladly leave that to your people, Chief," Shepard replied. "However, if you need help, shout. We'll get you whatever you need."
Nihlus and Shepard spun in sync, hearing footsteps running up from the ruined compound the other side of the gate. Garrus and Javik both wore helmets, and judging by the rasp in his voice, Garrus had done some choking on smoke before giving in.
"It's bad back there, Shepard," he said, cutting an arc over his shoulder with his thumb. "But we found twenty or so emergency kits, fire extinguishers, pry bars. They're all piled away from the fires, just this side of the entrance to the landing field."
Nihlus packed down the anger. He couldn't do anything about the suzerain in their dreadnought, but trying to save their victims … that formed a task he could sink his teeth into.
"Excellent." Shepard turned to the Emergency Chief. "Let us know when the area is safe to start searching for survivors, Ch—"
Movement at the far end of the complex caught Nihlus's attention as Shepard's mouth snapped shut, the pair of them turning toward the battered figure limping toward them.
"Skipper?"
As one, the rest of the squad spun toward the voice, their weapons lifting to face the new threat. For a moment, Nihlus just stared at the woman. Williams stumbled to a halt, leaning against the bumper of a truck, blood running down her face and splashed all over her pink and white armour.
"Ash!" Shepard lowered her Mattock and raced to the Marine's side, Nihlus right behind her. Each taking a side, they wrapped an arm around Ash's back, supporting her even as her knees buckled. "Nihlus, take her," Shepard ordered, helping him lift the woman into a cradle carry. "Got her?"
He nodded, and Shepard hung up her gun, bringing up her omnitool to scan the Marine. "Sweet baby Jesus, Ash, you're beaten to crap." The captain spun, searching the debris field, then lifted her hand, beckoning to the lieutenant even as they made their way to the garage. "Sparky are you close to my signal? Ashley needs medical attention. We need you and the docs here now!"
They made it back through the gate before Alenko raced around the corner, a med kit slung over his shoulder, omnitool active. "Ashley?" Kaidan called as he matched strides with Nihlus, scanning her even as they moved. "What are you doing here?"
The chief's head wobbled a little as she lifted it from Nihlus's chest. "Hey, LT. Well, you know … just living the dream." A thick, wet cough chased her brittle chuckle from her chest.
"You're here keeping an eye on the colony for Cerberus?" Nihlus asked. He took a long step over a twisted piece of prefab, the jarring pulling a thin moan from the chief.
She nodded. "Good thing, huh?" Her head made a soft, hollow thock as it dropped back against his armour. "I did a bang up job saving all these people." She shook her head, just a faint tremor to either side and then closed her eyes.
"Hey," Nihlus said, understanding and empathy lending steel to the word. When she didn't open her eyes, he gave the soldier a slight squeeze. "Hey, Williams." With a stubborn reluctance that tugged at his mandibles, she cracked one eye to glare at him. "There wasn't anything any of us could do against that dreadnought, but we're here because you were here. If you hadn't been sent to check in so regularly, it could have been days before anyone found out."
"Cold succor, Spectre," she said, the grumble thick and wet, blood bubbling inside her lungs.
"It is what it is, Williams. Sometimes the galaxy just throws handfuls of tarc at you, and the only thing you can do is hose down and carry on." He nodded toward Shepard who tossed rubble, spurred by worry and rage to feats of freakish strength as she dug a table out of a pile of ruin. Her bellows roared over the sound of rescue crews as she called for Chakwas or Mordin.
"Shepard! Ease up!" Garrus raced over and dug in, no doubt trying to help to spare her a week of chiropractic treatments.
"What do you think she's telling herself?" he asked, leaning down so only Ashley would hear him. "Don't you think she's furious and feeling helpless?"
Ash looked over at the captain. "She always did take every bullet fired at the squad like a shotgun to the gut." Sucking in a deep breath, she nodded. "Okay, I get it, Spectre." She grinned, a sharp, toothy expression. "You've been taking Shepard lessons." A shrug lifted one shoulder. "You need to work on getting some grit and volume, though. When Shepard tells you off, she leaves abrasions that bleed for a couple of hours."
He chuckled, obeying Shepard's waved summons to lay Ashley down on the cleared table. "Yeah, I don't think anyone will knock her off that throne."
"Where are you hurt?" Shepard demanded, helping Kaidan peel off the Marine's armour, searching her for wounds. "The doc is on her way. She and Sparky will set you right." She winced, finding a hunk of shrapnel embedded just about Ashley's hip. "What's the situation, Ash?" she asked, continuing to remove armour. "We're not finding nearly enough colonists—dead or alive—for a settlement this size."
Nihlus's hand reached out to grip Shepard's wrist, just a quick squeeze to silently communicate the worry that burned at the base of his throat. One glance from Shepard halted it before it made contact.
'I'm fine. Don't coddle me,' snapped from that pointed glare, returning his talons to removing the chief's armour.
"We found a huge series of tunnels and what looks like a hangar complex buried under the hills on the north end of the colony," the chief reported, the words sluggish and punctuated with sloppy coughs that splashed her lips and chin with blood. "As soon as that thing appeared, we evac'd as many as we could."
Kaidan placed a wadded up canvas tarp under Ashley's head. "That's enough talk, Ash. Just lay here and let me look after you, okay?"
"You're in good hands," Shepard said, before pressing a hand against Ashley's cheek and then Kaidan's. "Good man, Sparky." She looked up into Nihlus's eyes, holding his stare with one haunted by the memories that kept flashing through his mind.
"The Senarium's base," he whispered, reaching out to take her hand as she rounded the head of the table. She passed by him to stare to the north, past the belching smoke of the fires.
She squeezed his hand, pulling it tight against her side, her voice small and lost as she replied, "Giran."
Senarium - The division of the Prothean government's science branch that was tasked with ensuring that the five major keys to dark space were stolen and hidden.
(A-N: Heyas. Sorry if this chapter is rougher than usual. At least my beta assured me it didn't suck. :D So if it does, address all angry letters to her. :D *runs and hides from Vy* Lots of important stuff in this one, and the next, but I've been sick, and had two computers die in a week, so I'm off my game a little and my fingers are really confused by three different keyboards. Hopefully I can get 147 out faster than this one. Sorry for the wait. All the love.)
(A-N-BETA: NO ANGRY LETTERS! NO! ~ Vy) Sometimes betas having edit access gets abused, that's all I'm sayin'.