Chapter 22 - Desolation and Resolution

"SIIIIINNNNNNNDREEEEEEEE!" - Last word of Warlord Bael, Dawn of War

Jaclyn cursed under her breath, flinching slightly as another armature siege pulse slammed into the low, large piece of rubble protecting her. She hissed in pain, a pair of bullets had pierced her abdominal armor, not doing much damage but definitely requiring a medbay visit later. Medigel had sealed the hole, and now she was just angry; mostly at herself for letting herself getting hit, but she directed it at the Geth.

At this point she reflected that her sister had been smart about having the Exogeni survivors and guards stay back at their hiding place. They would have been butchered already. Phalanx company had two dead or unconscious, another three were too wounded to keep fighting, Ashley was trying to fire her sniper rifle one handed, Kaidan was unconscious after a too-close rocket explosion and needed medical attention, and Liara had collapsed after trying to block two siege pulses with her barrier rather than let Tali take the hits, though she was barely still conscious. The geth were down an armature, all their rocket troopers, a dozen of their regulars, both juggernauts, three destroyers, and all but two snipers. Unfortunately, that still left them with almost a third of their infantry including a Prime and Destroyer, and three armatures.

She leaned out and blindly fired a barrage from her Hurricane submachine gun, not expecting to do more than maybe force a geth infantry to duck, when she heard something splat, and Garrus swear. "What in the spirits was that?"

"What happened?"

"Something just dropped down onto one of the armatures."

Another splat stopped the conversation, and Jaclyn could hear the geth firing their weapons as fast as they could, but she couldn't see any shots streaking past her. As even more splats were heard, now with a background noise of hissing with occasional wails of binary, she poked her head out. Even as she watched, something dark green and grey fell onto one of the geth troopers, crushing it, and causing whatever was falling to explode from the impact. The geth warbled in distress, as even more streaks plummeted down onto and among the geth.

The armatures couldn't aim up enough to try and hit the descending attacks, whatever they were, but the rest of the geth were desperately firing upwards. Suddenly, one of the armatures collapsed as four more plummeting things hit its shields in sequence, dousing it in fluids. Half a second after the armature had collapsed, every geth still standing suddenly turned toward the garage and charged Phalanx company. Ashley quickly got on the comms, even as she fired at the suddenly charging horde, along with every member of Phalanx still capable of holding a weapon. "Commander, we can't stop that charge!"

Jaclyn forced herself upright, setting herself to biotically charge the Destroyer, when suddenly both surviving armatures suddenly warbled, and began flailing their legs as they drifted upwards. Jaclyn took a quick glance back, and saw that her sister and Liara had somehow managed to lift the two armatures, but that was only going to delay the inevitable, not stop it. She took a deep breath, before roaring an order. "CHARGE."

She biotically charged the remaining Destroyer, as Wrex did the same to the Prime. More acidic things plummeted from above, landing around and behind the Geth, but a warp attack from above attracted her attention for a split second. Jaclyn didn't look up, too busy unloading her scimitar shotgun into the Destroyer's back. The destroyer hit the ground before it could finish turning toward her, and Wrex sounded particularly happy, indicating that he had taken out the Prime. She shoved the choke of her shotgun closed, forcing the pellets to spread less and give her greater accuracy at range, before eviscerating a geth trooper from behind.

Even as she fought, more geth were flattened or splattered with acid from the plummeting things, and she glanced up, before gaping in shock. Dozens of plant monsters were leaping from the building, and a couple female plants watched from above. She could see the side of the tower was covered in plant monsters, crawling down to the roof of the vehicle bay. She cursed, before returning her focus on the fight, though only the two armatures remained. "Tali, drop your drone, ensure you can observe what it can, then everyone move to the hangar bay, bring those that are down. NOW!"

She blurred to the leftmost floating armature, hitting it with a charge, before using nova on it, and then diving out of the way. She read the situation right, as Wrex was right behind her, hitting the same armature with his own charge, before ripping the head stalk off with a discharge of his shotgun. Jaclyn looked at the last floating armature, before smiling evilly at it. "Wrex, wait."

Wrex had been about to charge it, but looked at her curiously. "Why?"

She gave him the same smile, before turning back to the armature and gesturing. "Throw."

Wrex watched the armature suddenly start tumbling toward the edge, and harrumphed as it went over. "Not nearly as fun."

Jaclyn shrugged, before looking up, noticing the dozens of plants staring down at the group, before the plants all turned and began climbing back up the exterior of the megatower. She shrugged to herself, before heading into the vehicle bay. "Jaclyn to Normandy. Come in Joker."

"Normandy here ma'am."

"Can you land the frigate somewhere? We have wounded that need the doctor's attention."

Joker kept his sardonic comments to himself, knowing she was rarely in the mood for them, and a moment later replied. "Sorry ma'am. Closest point we could use as a pick up point is the Exogeni tower's hangar bay."

Jaclyn cursed, before thinking of something. "Contact the eldar's lander, ask his companion to come and pick them up. It can handle the landing, easy."

Joker signed off to have that conversation, while everyone collected in the vehicle bay. She looked around, before frowning. "Where is Lieutenant Michael?"

One of the mercs looked at the others, before shrugging. "Dead ma'am, caught a siege pulse."

Jaclyn swore, before looking at the one that had spoken. "Does that put you in charge of your squad?"

He nodded, a grim frown on his face. "Yes ma'am. Corporal Tenenbaum. Both the sergeants are down, as well as the other corporal."

She looked over the mercs, and nodded to him. "See to your men, corporal, we will be moving out soon. The Normandy will see to your wounded as well."

Joker suddenly pinged her omnitool, and once she opened the communication channel, he gave her some good news. "Lander on its way to you, ma'am. ETA about a minute."

Jaclyn clicked the mike once to let him know she had heard, before closing the channel and going to find her sister. They needed to plan an assault.

Joannis waited as the elevator door opened. Wrex and Jaclyn were at the front, with Tali and Icivia just behind them, all with shotguns ready. Joannis and Garrus were behind them, ready to provide support after pushing out of the elevator, but first they had to get out. However, after a few seconds of silence, the first four moved out, Jaclyn on the comm channel. "No contacts. Stairs down toward colony are clear."

Wrex poked his head into the passage leading to the tunnels deeper into the megatower. "Nothing here."

Icivia and Tali checked the room that the Geth had been dropping troops into, and after a moment Icivia reported. "No hostiles present. Returning to group."

Joannis shared a look with Garrus, before Garrus set up at the stairs with his assault rifle. It was two stories down to the colony landing, and they wanted all the power they could muster for pushing in. Phalanx Company was coming up the elevator behind them, but the group had agreed to press until contact, and then back up. Phalanx was going to hold the elevator landing, give them Normandy team a place to fall back to if they needed it. If it got so bad they needed to fall back further, then the plan was to blast open the elevator doors beside the working one, and slide down the cables to blast the doors open on the vehicle bay level.

Joannis sighed, unhappy with the plan, but the other plan was having the Normandy try to snipe the turrets with its own lasers, and while the turrets might not be the most powerful on the market, they were one of the faster firing and better cooled ones. While it was unlikely they would take out the Normandy, they would do significant damage to the ship before the Normandy could destroy them. And while Arlas' lander might have been able to, the sheer power of the eldar ship's shots would cause extreme collateral damage.

She shook her head, and refocused as Garrus, taking point with his sniper rifle, spoke on the comms. "Commander. Single asari at the entrance. Wait, that is a plant monster. Looks like a naked asari. What did Williams name them?"

"Succubus. Succubi in groups."

"…Weird. One succubus at the entrance, just staring at me, no other plant monsters nearby. Can't see much of the colony from my current location, just a few meters. Orders?"

Joannis grabbed her twin's shoulder, preventing her from responding immediately, and had a quick, wordless debate with her that took all of a second. Joannis won, she usually did, and responded. "On my way to you. Keep an eye out, but don't attack unless it makes undeniably hostile moves. I will make contact."

Garrus didn't reply on the comms, but Wrex grumbled about being denied a good fight again as she passed him. She just raised an eyebrow inside her visor and gave his armor a significant look, noting the holes the geth had put in it, before continuing onward without a word. She paused by Garrus, examining the asari plant monster, idly realizing that Ashley had named them correctly. Tight muscles, generous curves, medium heeled boots and nothing else, this asari was built to distract. Garrus spoke quietly, sniper rifle never wavering from the ambulatory plant's head. "Commander, you sure about this?"

She sighed, before deliberately nodding. "No, but we need to know what Saren was doing here. He came here for something, and vanished for several hours under the colony according to the logs we found at Exogeni. The Thorian was is the only thing there, and it controls the plants. Therefore, we need to..."

Joannis paused, suddenly realizing how crazy what she was about to say sounded but said it anyway. "Talk to… the plants. Dammit."

Garrus issued a soft whistling noise, the turian's version of laughing. "Not something a sane person expects to say, much less seriously."

She sighed, before walking down the stairs, deliberately putting her Carnifex pistol away before approaching the asari facsimile. She simply met the dark orbs that the plant used for eyes, but idly noticed several blue bulbs hidden under the fibers, visible only when the plant shifted. Looking closer, she realized the plant had a bulb located in the center of every 'muscle' group, as well as another at each joint, in addition to the large one inside the plant's 'head.' She dismissed her observation, noting it wasn't important to the current situation, and turned her attention back to the plant as she activated her external speakers. "Can you understand me?"

The plant woman stared back for a moment, before slowly its head moved in a nod. Joannis felt her eyebrows rise in response, but contained her shock. "Are you or the other… plants going to attack me?"

This time the plant paused longer, before shaking its head. She frowned, wondering if it was a problem of understanding, or if the plant had just lied. Either way, it would lead to the same goal. "Are you to take us to the Thorian?"

This time the plant didn't move. Joannis frowned, before trying again. "Are you to lead us to the intelligence below the colony?"

This time the plant woman nodded immediately, before turning and walking into the colony. She sighed, ignoring the callipygian spectacle in front of her, calling the rest of the squad. "The Succubus is a guide, it is taking us to the Thorian. Follow it in, keep your eyes open and weapons out, but keep them pointed down. If it is a hostile, we have enough firepower on us to take care of it. Wrex, center of the line, you have the big bombs now, so you have to get to the plant. We can't talk it down, you put it down."

Done issuing orders, she set off after the plant woman, ignoring the private comm channel her twin sister opened, her twin's singing taunting her. "Follow the ass, follow the ass, follow the ass, follow the ass…"

It sucked sometimes, having someone that knew your mind almost as well as you did. But at least she was nice enough to keep it private. Otherwise she would have to drag Jaclyn into the sparring ring again for another 'discipline' bout. But it was a nice view…

Icivia frowned as the group moved through the colony. There were Creepers everywhere and Crested in front of each closed door; though only half had weapons, all of geth make. No colonists, and while the group were being watched, clearly surrounded and outnumbered, they weren't attacked. It was unnerving, how every plant monster would track them as they moved through the colony, toward the disassembled freighter in the middle of the colony. She glanced at the Twins' wondering about their choice, but she was just here to monitor them, and critique them afterwards. So far, there had been only minor things on the previous missions, but this mission was going to take hours to go over. It was the kind of mission Spectres both detested and loved; complex, fluid, shifting, murky, and vicious, it was missions like this that had lured her into the Spectre Corps.

The geth problem had been straightforward, just damned hard, though she would only admit to herself that the Eldar had simplified the problem greatly. Wiping out a dropship in the hangar had caused problems, yes, but it had solved three extremely big ones, killing geth ground units, killing geth dropships, and preventing further attacks. Then they had gotten to the Exogeni Tower, and the situation had gone both fluid and murky. Now, there were illegal corporate experiments and actions, initiating an official first contact with a mind controlling plant creature, and the geth were still a problem. Then they had wiped out the geth, with the plants helping wipe out the geth, and now the situation was just murky and complex, with a bit of shifting. It would really depend on the Thorian now. Oh, and that damned eldar, of course, wherever he had gotten to. They hadn't heard anything from him in nearly half an hour now.

As the group approached the stairs in the middle of the colony, which weren't on any plans she had seen of the colony, either, she took another look around. Just Creepers and Crested, with the rare Succubi standing about. All of them watching the group. She couldn't help but notice that the controls for the crane had been smashed, leaving the crane stuck in the up position. She frowned at the sight, debating if it was an act of arrogance, trust, or defiance, and by who. After a second, she turned her attention back to the hole; it didn't matter, all that did was finishing this mission and getting to the debrief with the information about the Barefaced Bastard Traitor.

She frowned at the plant monster leading them, it had stopped at the edge of the hole, and pointed down. At the bottom of the stairs, another Succubus waited, and once the group got halfway down the stairs, it started moving. Apparently they were being led in relay. Or the plant creatures were being controlled by the Thorian, and it didn't care about which specific plant clone led the group to it.

She frowned, worried she might be overthinking it, before glancing at the Succubus they had just left, still standing at the edge of the hole down, then glancing over the railing at the one leading them. Wrex suddenly spoke on squad channel. "Seeing something you like, turian?"

Icivia rolled her eyes in the privacy of the helmet. Everyone was still fully sealed, orders from both Twins and she agreed, but she had forgotten krogan could see in a two seventy arc, and certain individuals, like wrex, could see slightly further. "Trying to see if these things are mass produced, or individuals. If mass produced, they will likely all have the same abilities. If individuals, they will likely not work as well together."

Wrex grunted. "Doesn't matter, everything burns. Even this Thorian, especially if it is only the size of a hovervan. Got a few cans of Xiuhzuma, Fire's Wrath in human tongue. That stuff will burn through a cruiser's hull in a vacuum."

Everyone in the party paused before turning to him, causing him to cough suddenly. "Uh, or so I have heard. Don't ask me how I know that."

They group all shared glances, but no one was brave enough to ask the obvious question, so they quickly resumed descending. After a moment, Wrex continued, as they followed the Succubus down a hall. "But yeah, carry that stuff with me wherever I go, except the Citadel. C-Sec kept taking it and whining about 'safety regulations.'"

Garrus snorted. "Wrex, as you said, that stuff can melt a cruiser's hull. And it is impossible to put out before it burns itself out."

"Exactly, fun stuff. Great for parties."

"The kind of parties that C-Sec spends more time on clean up than investigation, maybe."

"Bah, you are just lazy, Princess. Anyway, I got a few cans of Wrath, and that will… that will… that… huh."

Wrex was near the front of the group, and slowly stopped talking, his head slowly rearing back to stare up at something. The rest of the group filed in, and Icivia entered the room last having been rearguard, she heard both twins speaking at the same time. "Well that's just great." "That… is a plant?"

As she stepped into the room, her gaze slowly climbing the plant, Wrex got his voice back. "...that will not be enough. Wow, three cans of Xiuhzuma might actually not be enough. I do believe that is the first time that sentence has ever been uttered. Well, time to start carrying four. Size of a hovervan, my scaled ASS!"

Garrus sighed. "Spirits save me. Wrex, that is four more cans than is legal in some Terminus systems! The entire system, not just per person."

Icivia sighed and used her omnitool to mute both males from her headset, before turning to the Twins. "Do we have enough ammo and a plan for… that?"

She looked around the room, noting the thing was as big as a corvette, at least fifty meters tall, and twenty meters deep and wide, and that was just counting the main 'body.' There were dozens upon dozens of 'roots' reaching out to the walls, firmly anchoring the monstrous plant. After a minute of staring at it, she suddenly frowned, and activated her external speakers. "Arlas, are you alive?"

From somewhere above them, they heard a familiar voice. "No. Now hurry up and deal with this thing, so I can go get clean."

Arlas immediately realized that the last sentence could have been better worded, and spoke quickly. "And if any one feels the urge to be witty, I will simply remind you I am fully capable of cloaking, burning through the hull of the starship with my mind or my fusion gun, and that I am a sniper by trade and preference."

He jumped down for the upper area where he had been waiting for the team, desperately trying to ignore the feeling of the mucus from the Thorian's merging tendril sliding down his scalp. He had stripped as much mucus off as he could, but a third of an hour conversing with the plant had given it plenty of time to utterly drench him. Now, he just wanted to get back to the ship, get a shower, and then something to eat, and not deal with overly eager, but surprisingly slow on understanding, psychic plants. He glanced back at the plant as it started to make retching noises, and saw the 'mouth' of the plant frantically moving before deciding to make haste. "I am heading back to the ship. Inform me when the situation is resolved, I need to recover my attack craft."

He stalked out of the room, still trying to strip mucus from his hair, idly reflecting that the rangers that cut theirs might have had a good idea after all. But longer hair was a status symbol back on the Craftworld, and he had few things to try and improve his standings among his kin, so he had to use what few methods he could. He heard something splat behind him, and as he got to the stairs, he heard someone begin talking. "I speak for the Old Growth. The One of Fluid Thought has said you are here to bargain. Like the Mindless One before…"

He got out of range of even his exceptional hearing, though the mucus in his ears meant he wasn't as good at hearing as he could be. He reached out to Yol'Pvera, let her know he needed pick up at the room the geth dropship had been dropping troops in, not the bay. A couple minutes later he stepped out into the weak daylight of the planet, and took a deep breath before looking around. Only a few of the plant puppets were around, a handful of Crested and a Succubus using biotics to remove debris around the colony, though he couldn't see any of the Creepers around the colony. Most of the colonists were still hiding in their buildings, but he could see a handful moving around.

With a sigh, he turned from his path, and sent a thought and what he was seeing to Yol'Pvera. *Might be delayed a bit, local mon-keigh are poking the Vyper wreckage with sticks.*

He got a feeling of disgust back. *You lost the Vyper?*

He winced, but before he could defend his actions, she cut the mental link with a snort of disgust. With a mental shrug, he finished his approach to the downed Vyper and the trio examining it. "Avoid disturbing the wreckage, lest you destabilize something."

All three colonists jumped, quickly straightening and turning toward the Eldar, but he was already turning away, spotting someone walking toward him. "Fai Dan, I believe?"

The colony leader nodded. "Yes, I saw you heading to your craft, and wanted to apologize for the damage done to it."

He glanced at the craft as the human male babbled on, noting the extensive damages, before taking a deep but subtle breath. It was an effect of collateral misfortunes, and screaming about it would only worsen the effect. "Fai Dan, I understand the Thorian was responsible, not your people. However, the power systems of the craft are damaged, but still providing power. Tampering with it may cause further damage to the system, with catastrophic results. I will remove it as soon as you ensure the defenses aren't going to shoot down my other ship."

That got the response he needed; Fai Dan nodded. "We did that as soon as the plant stopped using pain to control us."

The human twitched slightly and gestured for the others to go, before taking a quick look around and speaking softly. "Are the commanders going to kill the Thorian?"

He noted that the leader hadn't actually put any emotions into the words, but Arlas did notice a few drops of sweat rolling down the sides of his head. He let himself give a grim smile, idly curious if the plant was smarter than he had thought. "That is up to them and the Thorian. But from what I know of them, they consider such an outcome undesirous."

He watched the human twitch again, before the eldar nodded to him. "If you will excuse me, Fai Dan, I will get my other craft here to remove this wreckage."

He sent Yol'Pvera a thought, letting her know about the change of the pickup location, as well as the fact they would be gathering the Vyper wreckage. It took nearly half an hour to get the wreckage into the troop bay of the lander, using the interior gravity tethers and his own strength to eldar-handle the wreckage into it, and by then the commanders had returned, leading the rest of the ground team, as well as a mostly naked asari and plant asari. Deciding he didn't want to know, he simply boarded the lander, and activated his omnitool. "Anyone else for the ship?"

Arlas felt much more like living and less like killing everything around him, having finally gotten that shower he needed. Sadly, it had also earned him a lecture on ship resources, as not everyone could use the showers for twenty minutes and still have hot water for everything else. Everyone apparently had a five minute shower limit for hot water, or ten minutes for heated water. Water and heat were of the few luxuries allowed on the eldar vessels regardless of size, and some of the few luxuries allowed overall, so it had been dismaying to learn he would have to reduce his shower lengths. Especially since five minutes would be just enough to get started.

It took them another six hours after finishing on the planet to leave, mostly due to the Phalanx Company wounded having to be transferred back down to the planet. They had been hired to do a job, and hadn't yet completed it. Doctor Chakwas had treated the worst of their wounds, now all the wounded needed was rest, easy enough to do while yelling at colonists. The Normandy's own casualties had been fairly light, though a couple were going to be down for a week. Ashley in particular had been hurt badly, the geth round had shattered the ball of her left shoulder, and would be spending the entire trip back to the Citadel in the medical bay getting that shoulder repaired. Kaidan was still unconscious, and his armor would need replacing, but Liara had already been released; she had simply overstrained her biotics trying to block armature siege pulses. Jaclyn was currently at the doctor's tender mercies however, and finding her unamused to learn she had been fighting with a half dozen bullets in her gut rather than pulling back with the other wounded.

Arlas spent the time salvaging what he could from the destroyed Vyper, which was almost nothing. Everything was either badly damaged, or outright destroyed, only the wraithseed that made the core of the vehicle intact, and even that felt like it had suffered a couple of cracks. It would take a wraithbone singer to repair that, and he didn't have the skills. Even the shuriken cannon, slung under the vehicle, was badly damaged, the entire barrel warped by the last impact with the ground. Both starcannons were half melted, the turret fused solid, the main power plant of the Vyper was shrapnel and debris. He was tempted to yank out the seed core, but was concerned that the pieces of vehicle surrounding the seed might be all that was keeping it intact. So for now, he had it set into the corner of the Normandy's hangar, until he had the time to deal with it.

Despite the relief fleet being nearly four and a half days out at this point, they were already burning hard for an FTL point. Arlas guessed it was due to the small frigate having done what it could, and now the larger and more heavily stocked and manned ships would be able to deal with the rest of the colony's problems. As for him, he was working on his bladework again, learning the two new blades as best he could in the tiny time he had before the tournament. They would make the tournament, or so Lioness had assured him, so he did not concern himself about it. Either they would, or they wouldn't, he had done everything he could to ensure that he made it, so now he simply would ensure he was as prepared as possible.

Several hours later, Lioness came over the loudspeaker. "All ground crew cleared by medical, report for debrief."

Arlas paused his exercises, and sheathed both the power sword and the chain blade, having been experimenting with a dual blade technique he had seen a handful of striking scorpion and howling banshee exarchs use. Rather than returning the two blades to the lander, he headed for the elevator with them, pulling his body suit back up and putting on his plain grey tabard. A few minutes later, he stepped into the briefing room, and leaned against the wall. For once, he wasn't the last to arrive, as Liara was still missing. While he waited, he idly leaned against the light fixture nearest the door, checking the recording crystal he had hidden there back during the second meeting in it that he had attended, before straightening again.

Five minutes later, Liara rushed in, her crests still wet and uniform clinging to her. "Sorry I am late, I had just gotten in the shower."

Liara took her seat and then stared at Lioness for a moment. "Commander? You look… pale. Well, paler than normal. Are you suffering any ill effects from the Cipher?"

Arlas looked up, an eyebrow elegantly raised at the mention of 'The Cipher,' curious as to what that was. Joannis shook her head. "I am fine, mostly. Just a cotton stuffed in head kind of sensation. A bit shaken, maybe, but not stirred."

She paused, and looked around the room, before sighing. "Nevermind, was trying to make a joke. I am mostly fine."

Liara hesitated a moment, glancing at Tali next to her before speaking. "I… might be able to help you. I am an expert on the Protheans, and that is why I am here. If I meld with you, maybe together we can make some logic of the Cipher."

Joannis nodded immediately, standing and moving toward her. "Go ahead. We may have less time than we think."

Liara nodded, standing in front of the Commander in the center of the room, and her voice took on a soft, almost ethereal quality to it. "Relax commander, and embrace eternity!"

Arlas watched with interest as the asari did whatever she was doing with the human, idly noting the flickers of biotic aura around the asari, with the tiniest flames of white, coming from around her eyes which had gone solid black. The two stood together, the asari's hands positioned around the commander's head, not quite touching her. After a couple minutes, Liara suddenly staggered back, and Tali was suddenly up and behind her, holding her up. "Liara, are you well?"

"Yes, that was… that was incredible. All this time, research… I never…"

She paused, clearly rallying herself, before shaking her head. "Apologies, Commander. The images were so… vivid, like I was there. I never… thought the experience would be so intense."

Joannis and Tali helped Liara to her seat, before taking their own, though the asari almost didn't seem to notice. "That was… almost overwhelming. You are remarkably strong willed, Commander. What you saw, and experienced not just with the Cipher, but also the beacon… Each of those would have destroyed a lesser mind."

Arlas snorted quietly, idly curious as to what they were going on about. Garrus spoke up. "Well, don't keep us all in suspense, what did you see? The commander tried to describe it to me once, but said it was mostly nonsense."

Liara nodded. "That was because she lacked a reference to understand what she was seeing. That is what the Cipher gave her, the understanding of a Prothean, what it means, feels like to be one. But the beacon on Eden Prime didn't give her the full message. Significant parts are missing, and the data transferred was likely incomplete."

Arlas shrugged. "Oops. The other choice was letting it explode."

Joannis gave him a small nod, before turning back to Liara. "Better than having it explode in my face. Doctor, please continue. There must have been something useful."

Liara regretfully shook her head. "Everything I saw you already knew. Protheans being destroyed by sentient synthetic lifeforms. Machines. Clearly there must be a connection between the Reapers, the Prothean extinction, and the Conduit that Saren is looking for. But your message didn't contain that. Perhaps we can check with the Prothean Archive Division on the Citadel, and see if they have repaired the beacon. The Beacon may contain the full message the… "

Liara abruptly swooned, before shaking her head. "Apologies, the merge drained me more than I anticipated. I believe I should go and lie down for a while."

Joannis stared at her for a moment, before nodding. "Alright, report to medical. Have Doctor Chakwas look you over before you go get some sleep. Tali, can you go with her? After she gets to medical, you are off duty until your next shift."

Tali and Liara left, leaving the eldar with the human, krogan and both turians. Joannis turned to him. "Arlas, what happened after you got into the hole? You were remarkably light on details before leaving."

Arlas sighed, before shrugging and… 'sanitizing' his report slightly. "As I said, I made my way into the tower, and found a second staircase that took me below the Thorian. Or H'aaztre, as it calls itself. Found a level full of plant life, and tried to backtrack when I got cut off by two Crested. Entered a room to avoid being shot, and then had the roof fall on me as the Creepers disemboweled themselves to destroy the floor. Fought for about fifteen seconds, before one of the Succubi hit me with a stasis, and then they surrounded me.

"Once the stasis wore off, they demanded I come to the Thorian, and lacking better options, being surrounded by at least three Creepers, two Crested, and two Succubi, I agreed. The group escorted me to the Thorian, where I was directly linked to the creature by way of a melding limb it produced. It took some time, but eventually I was able to form a point of reference with the creature, and we began to converse."

He noted all four of the other occupants were looking very interested. "Most of it was trying to convince the plant that non-psykers weren't just animals, something that took a significant portion of time. The other information was that the Crested were its version of creatures it called the Creators. It showed that they didn't actually create it, but did do something to awaken and enhance its intelligence. The Creepers were based on something even older than the Crested, but it didn't have any clear memories to show me, only vague impressions of them."

He did allow himself to frown, abruptly wondering how the Thorian had managed to form a point of reference with him. They literally had nothing in common other than being alive, but after a moment, he mentally frowned and shook his head, realizing it had given the human a reference to being a Prothean. Forming one with him would have been simple, assuming it hadn't just tossed that Cipher on him. He shook his head again, indicating he was done. Joannis waited a moment to see if he would continue, before nodding. "Alright, that about covers everything we needed to know. Everyone, dismissed. I have to call the Council and let them know about this mess."

Icivia spoke up as the rest got up to leave. "You don't have to call them after every action report."

"No, but they are very interested in the mission, and my twin and I are the first human Spectres. They want eyes on the mission as much as possible."

Arlas noted the turian female flinched slightly at the mention of being the first human Spectres, and was curious as to why she did that, though he suspected he was the only one to notice. There hadn't been any before the Twins, and he had seen the ceremony inducting them in. He felt his eyes narrow slightly, and quickly schooled his features to their impassive normal positions, quickly vacating the room, as he remembered that the minds of the 'leaders' had been rather… unconcerned and distracted during it. Maybe the other Spectres had noticed, and didn't think the title was going to be permanent? He would need to meditate on how to determine his course of action later.

For now, he returned to the hangar, and entered the lander. He paused in the troop bay, before entering the armory. He was immediately mentally assaulted by the two eldar spirits housed in the various wraithbone constructs. Yol'Pvera was loudest and went first. *What did you do to my secondary vessel, you misbegotten undesired offspring of the Laughing God's madness?*

Kap'Eiyl was a bit more reasonable. *Are you trying to destroy all your equipment?*

Arlas just sighed, and rolled his eyes, before putting his weapons on the armory bench. Maybe he should head up to the medical bay and get examined, the Vyper crash had likely not done anything good to his still healing ribs. And it would mean he didn't have to deal with these two right now.

A handful of hours later, the two spirits had finally finished their yelling, and Arlas turned to the two stasis pods placed in the corner of the armory. "How are our guests doing?"

Kap'Eiyl answered, as Yol'Pvera was still very annoyed with him. *Better than they could be. Both are showing all the signs of coming out of long term stasis without complications. The eldar's pod should be done in about nine standard days, the gyrinx will be done in eleven days. According to what I remember of the pods.*

Arlas converted the time over, and noted that the eldar survivor would wake up as they left the Citadel at the end of the tournament. He nodded, before suddenly remembering something. "I will go inform the Twins of this. They will need to know so they can get more supplies."

He found Joannis in the mess hall, which was convenient as he was heading to the adjacent medical bay next. "Lioness."

She snapped her head around, having not heard him approach from behind, and gave him a terse nod. "Arlas. What do you need?"

He debated being flippant for a second, before deciding to keep the discussion professional as he took a seat across from her. "I wished to inform you that my crew and I are awakening the occupants of the two stasis pods. The first will awaken at the end of the tournament, and the other a pair of days later."

She nodded, eyes narrowing in thought. "So two more eldar around then? Not sure where we can put them, unless they want to use the sleeper pods."

Arlas shook his head. "One eldar, and they will use my lander unless it is deploying. The other one is more unusual, though I will have to wait until it is closer to their awakening before I know if they survived long stasis sleep."

That comment made Joannis look up at him in surprise. "What can you tell me about them then?"

"I will tell you more when they get closer to awakening. Also, I remember the humans back home enjoyed betting on arranged fights. Will there be betting allowed on this tournament?"

Joannis chuckled grimly. "Damn right there will be. The betting is the main way the tournament funds itself. One percent of all bets through authorized bookies is taken as a tax to fund the tournament. I am told they make billions on this one tournament alone, and they hold a dozen throughout the year. This one is simply the biggest and most popular one. Why? Thinking of placing a bet on yourself?"

He nodded. "Yes, it should be a good way to make some currency so I can perform my own projects without needing to ask you for help each time."

She leaned back, and simply stared at him for a few minutes, no doubt calculating how she thought this would go. "You already used your full allotment to get into the tournament. In fact, more than your full allotment. If my twin and I are going to forward you enough to make a bet enough to matter, you are going to have to offer collateral."

He frowned, before raising an eyebrow, causing her to explain. "Collateral in this sense means something that you are putting up insurance. If you win, I get a portion of your winnings, and you get the item back. If you lose or fail to complete the deal, I get the collateral."

He considered the request, before frowning. "I think I will go talk to Wrex first. You would want something I can not give, and while I am certain I will not fail to deliver, your twin would insist on keeping the item with you two."

Joannis gave him a confused look, and he just smirked softly, before standing. "I will speak with you again soon."

He left the human contemplating him, and easily found Wrex, down in the weapon range with Tali, going over the geth equipment the group had scavenged on Feros. He tapped Wrex on the shoulder to get his attention, and then sidestepped a reflexive punch. The krogan glared at him, before huffing in annoyance. "Don't do that. You are lucky I didn't go for my shotgun. What?"

He outlined his desire to make a bet on his performance during the tournament, but needed currency. Wrex frowned, before nodding. "Alright, I get that, what do I get from this deal?"

"A quarter of the winnings, and a melee weapon built for you based on something my people use if I deliver. If I fail, you get the weapon."

Wrex frowned at him, before leaning back against the table, effecting a bored expression, but Arlas could feel his sudden interest. "Why me, and how much are we talking here? I might have a few credits to spare for such a risk."

"The Twins demanded collateral, and to keep it with them. The collateral they would want was not something I can offer. A melee weapon, however, is definitely allowable. As for how much, well, I am not sure what bet should be, but more is better, yes?"

Wrex stared at him a moment, before shrugging. "I want to see what you will be putting up first."

Arlas shrugged, before pulling out the chainblade, and showing it to Wrex. He then activated it, causing the teeth of the blade to quickly spin up to speed. "I was thinking the one you would get should be a two handed one. Of course, such a weapon would be somewhat unwieldy, so maybe you would like a one handed one, so you can use a pistol with it?"

Arlas knew Wrex would take the offer as the krogan watched the rapidly spinning blade with wide eyes, and a grin so big it looked to nearly encircle his head. A moment later, Wrex started laughing, a low, dark, evil chuckle that wouldn't have been out of place coming from his fallen kin, before looking up at the eldar. "Hell, I would pay a million credits for a weapon like that. A chance to make money and get one? You bump my share up to a third, and you got a deal, Arlas."

Wrex stuck a hand out, and Arlas took it, his hand wrapping around the wrist in an old eldar custom, before suddenly remembering that the humans didn't shake like that. Wrex however, nodded to himself, apparently not offended. "Good, you do know something about krogan."

Wrex suddenly blinked, before his expression fell, and he started cursing softly under his breath. Arlas raised an eyebrow, and Wrex eventually stopped, a sheepish expression on his face. "Don't tell Fel, he will never let me live it down, getting my own blade after I taunted him that hokey melee didn't compare to a trusty shotgun."

A/N - Arlas hates me. Thinks I get way too much enjoyment out of annoying him. And torturing him. And hurting him. I hope it is entertaining though. But anyway, on with the ending of the second main mission. And yes, canon Mass Effect events will be more… a set of guidelines, rather than a strict rulebook. In case someone didn't figure it out last chapter. Anyhoo, the usual author requests go here.

Also, people using a guest account to ask review questions is just mean. I can't respond to them. And to the people that asked about the 'mostly' good guys, every group has their share of unscrupulous, mean spirited, or just assholish people.