Chapter 26 - Bug Problems on Noveria

'He is pulling out Tyranids! Quick, bring me my Basilisks, and the twelve foot long battle board.' - Imperial Guard player response to discovering he is fighting Tyranids.

Joannis stepped into the main server room, and nodded to Ashley. The marine nodded back, before pausing as the door closed behind her commander. "Others still working to repair the main power plant?"

Joannis shook her head. "Floor fell out. They dropped to the bottom, and something started jamming comms after they all reported in."

Ashley winced. "Well, that explains why no one has responded to comms in the last few minutes."

Ashley glanced back at the two extras, before turning back. "Any idea if they made it?"

Joannis shrugged. "Couldn't tell. Bad angle, poor lighting, and lots of crap in the way. Worst to worst, we deal with Saren's people, then go looking for them. No one gets left behind. No one."

Before they could continue the conversation, the door behind the server to the roof opened, allowing the return of the team that had gone to reconnect the landlines. Icivia in first, followed quickly by her twin, and Joannis immediately realized something was wrong. Wrex stomped in before she could ask, dragging something behind him. "We have a problem."

He threw the carcass he was pulling into the middle of the room. She looked at the vaguely insectoid corpse, noting that it looked like someone had spliced a cockroach and some other insect or insects together, and then slapped two tentacles onto the body for good measure. The whole thing probably massed more than any two individuals in the squad not counting Wrex. Wrex's tone was down right murderous, but she could see a very pleased glint in his eye. "We have a rachni problem."

Arlas glanced behind the group again, and spotted something scuttling out of sight. "Move faster. Whatever is following us is getting closer."

The had been in the under tunnels of the facility for less than five minutes, and already Arlas knew they were in a bad place; it had the feel of trying to clear tyranids out of their own tunnels. The facility's tunnels twisted and stopped unexpectedly, and all of the corners were blind. He had to hope that Tali was combat aware enough to check corners before stepping out, even with his desire to move faster. All he had seen were some low, scuttling things that screeched before scurrying back between pipes and shadows, and while he could mentally feel them, listening to their psyker emanations made him nauseous in a way even Chaos and Tyranids hadn't.

But what was most concerning was the fact he didn't recognize the glimpses he had managed. He had a fairly good idea what an entire bioform would look like for both types, but it was nothing like what he had seen before, and he had seen quite a large number of different Tyranids. The closest thing to what he was seeing now were Tyrant Guards, but the guards lacked the extra tentacles, weren't nearly as small or unarmored, and the guards' claws were much larger.

Tali finally replied. "Would you rather I walk into a group of whatever, or should I keep checking corners first?"

Arlas raised his death spinner, and fired twice, and watched the creature dodge the monofilament nets with terrifying swiftness. "Whichever means we don't get swarmed under."

A shotgun blast from ahead indicated that she had found something, but she didn't call out. Their long ranged communications were still being jammed, but the short range still worked. So both of the women heard him curse very loudly but briefly. "Swarm coming up the back!"

Nearly a dozen large creatures had suddenly boiled out from between the grates and piping on the walls and floor, and a tide of smaller bioforms rushed past those. Arlas fired his death spinner, trying to stem the tide, but even as the netting cut the leading edge of the swarm apart, the smaller forms burst, spraying acid everywhere and dissolving the monofilament net. He swore viciously in eldar before snapping an order. "Liara, singularity, rear, now!"

Even as he called for assistance, he primed and threw a plasma grenade. The explosion and singularity didn't even cause the swarm to pause, reminding him of Tyranid swarms whipped to a frenzy. The bioforms dove into the passage filling singularity, the smaller ones popping almost immediately, and Arlas could hear the acid landing on the metal grating and hissing. He turned and sprinted to the front of the small group, joining Tali at corner and firing his death spinner around the corner as fast as it could spin up a new monofilament net. "Next grenade explosion, we charge."

Tali and Liara stared at the eldar like he was insane. "There are dozens of ahead of us."

He primed and tossed grenade before replying. "And there are hundreds behind. PUSH."

Arlas didn't wait any longer, the grenade detonated amidst screeches of rage and pain, and he charged around the corner. A spike of some kind, leaking acid, slammed into the wall beside him, his reflexes saving him from getting sprayed. His net wrapped around one of the larger forms, its natural carapace deflecting the thrashing monofilament, until the net wrapped around its head, severing its antenna and slicing its eyes. That bioform screeched like the damned of the Immaterium, thrashing its tendrils about and gouging another form, which turned on it. Arlas ignored the infighting, and focused on the next creature. The singularity wasn't going to last forever, even though Liara had shown surprising competency with the skill.

A shotgun blast sent one of the larger forms tumbling backwards, missing most of its head, and then a warp hit another. He eviscerated a third, leaving only three more moving toward the small group, not counting the blind form and the one ripping it to pieces. He transferred his death spinner to his off hand, and drew his power sword, ignoring the smaller bioforms that were starting to rush toward him, having been driven back by the heat and sound of the plasma grenade.

He heard Tali cursing under her breath, before a sudden orange globe shot past his shoulder, arcing over and around one of the larger bioforms to slam into a smaller one right behind it. It exploded, splashing flames in a wide radius, covering the back of the larger bioform as it spat another acid spike, the smaller ones exploding in impotent acidic fury as the flames consumed them. Another bioform spat its acid laced spike, scoring another glancing hit on Arlas, but he managed to twist enough the spike deflected rather than shattered. Another spike slammed against Liara's barrier, splashing acid through her shield, making her scream in shocked pain as the acid began eating through the thin armor.

Arlas warp jumped behind the remaining two bioforms, stabbing the flaming one in the back and ripping the blade up to cut its head in half. Tali fired her shotgun at the two fighting bioforms, choosing the closest two targets instead of the still hostile distance one, while Liara stopped panicking to throw another warp in retaliation. He looked around, and failed to see any standing bioforms. "Move, now! That singularity can't last much longer."

He could hear screams of rage from around the corner, but didn't wait before following his own advice. He returned the power sword to its sheath, and leveled the death spinner at the corridor ahead. He jumped to one side as his danger sense tingled, firing the death spinner as he dodged, and sliced a smaller bioform into pieces before it burst, sizzling softly as it tried to eat through his wraithbone armor. A quick twist of thought, and he psychically brushed the acid off. Tali suddenly yelled. "There should be an elevator ahead of us."

Liara quickly announced a more pressing matter. "Singularity down. Thirty seconds until replace."

Arlas turned and fired a couple nets, hoping to stall the inevitable rush of bioforms, but apparently they were in a frenzy. They didn't even hesitate to rush the corner, the monofilament nets cutting the first two larger ones to shreds, but the rest just kept coming, a wave of chitin and claws. Arlas, who had seen what was about to happen more times than he cared to think about, turned and ran.

Tali got to the end of the passage, and activated the lift, before turning and drawing her pistol. Arlas wisely stepped to the side of the passage as Liara turned, both women firing past him at the horde, trying to slow it down. He managed to roll his eyes as he sidestepped an acid spike, keeping his thoughts on the amateurs to himself, even as he corrected their actions. "Explosives."

Tali immediately launched another of those incendiary balls, arcing it up and away from him so it wouldn't hit him. Liara however fumbled the grenade out of her pouch, took a second to figure out how to remove the detonator from the explosive, and then threw the grenade into a wall, causing it to bounce and fly at him. Arlas warp jumped to avoid having a grenade hit him, landing behind the women, quickly turning and firing into the horde. "Liara, learn to throw."

The lift dinged before she could retort, and both women got in, Arlas taking the time to throw another plasma grenade. Tali pushed the only button on the lift as he got in, and the elevator began its slow climb. Arlas glanced at Liara. "Lessons on explosives when we return."

Arlas looked up as the lift dinged, and as the doors began to slowly grind open, he leveled the death spinner. When nothing immediately came into view, he slowly stepped out of the lift, sweeping the ceiling and corridor, before slowly advancing, idly wondering how the others were doing.

Joannis looked up from the full facility map Dilteer had found, and rubbed her neck. "Alright, new plan. Ashley, Icivia and Dilteer will stay here. Everyone else will be pushing to the tram line. Once there, I want Jaclyn and Vasir to hold the tram room, while Wrex and I try to push to the bottom level of the silo. We haven't seen many rachni, so three options are possible. There aren't too many Rachni, the Rachni are holed up wherever they were being made and wherever we haven't been yet, or the security team did a hell of a number on the Rachni before getting killed. Personally, I am thinking it is the second, but I am prepared to be pleasantly surprised.

Assignments might change, depending on what we find when we get to the tram. Long ranged comms are still spotty, though, so if any team has no new orders in six hours, the mako is the rally point."

Arlas ducked as an acid spike nearly took his head off, and fired his death spinner back with equal success. He stepped back into cover, and watched as the rachni began to actually fight, rather than just mindlessly rush. They had encountered a dozen large biofroms halfway down the vaulted tunnel from the lift, and numerous small ones, but the piping jutting from the walls provided enough cover that Arlas wasn't concerned yet. They had killed off the smaller bioforms with a plasma grenade and incendiary charge, as well as the two larger ones that had tried to charge with them. The deaths of those two had caused another six to charge, while the other four had stayed back.

Tali put down the last of the second group of larger forms with a single shotgun blast, and the last four started their charge as the others died. Arlas frowned, wondering why they waited that long, and why his danger sense was slowly becoming more agitated. He did a quick glance behind them, but didn't see anything hostile. A glance to his side revealed only thick piping, with only a few clear areas but he could clearly see the wall on the other side of the piping, so there was no room for anything to lurk on the other side. And a glance up showed heavy grating, nearly five centimeters thick, with enough spacing in the grating to show if something was lurking in the upper area.

Shaking off the feeling, wondering if it was something more ethereal than a direct attack, he focused on the advancing enemies. Tali put one down, Liara warped another, and together the three of them put down the last two. As the last one collapsed, Arlas felt his danger sense suddenly spike, and reflexively dove toward the other side of the passage.

He barely avoid a spray of projectiles slamming into the piping he had been using for cover, coming from above and behind him. He had no idea how one of those creatures had managed to get there without alerting them all, but clearly the proper response was to use excessive force to discourage similar tactics later. He rolled to his feet, his off hand drawing and leveling the flamer pistol, his main hand holding the death spinner.

His opponent, however, had other ideas, and the grating it had been standing on suddenly fell out of the ceiling, the creature right behind it. Arlas reflexively triggered the flamer as he scrambled backwards, only to jerk his hand back and out of the way as the creature lashed out with one arm, the dim lighting reflecting off a blade of bone, wreathed in pale green-whitish energies, seemingly growing out of the creature's limb. He cursed, dropping the death spinner to grab his power sword. "Hostile rear!"

He winced as the death spinner hit the ground, but was quickly caught up trying to keep his opponent from using its two natural swords to remove his head. He frantically jumped to one side to avoid an organic blade, and parried the other, before having to warp jump to the other side of the creature as it leveled its large, conical ranged weapon at him. The warp jump was nearly instantaneous, but the creature had already started turning, one of its swords slicing to intercept his own attack. A screech from in front indicated that more of the scuttling horrors had joined the fight.

He heard Tali firing her shotgun and screaming, but the creature didn't react as it fired its ranged weapon at the two women. He couldn't spare any attention to figure out what happened to Liara. He gave ground, drawing the creature further from the exit and his allies. The creature followed him, and as it stalked him, he realized why he was so unnerved by the creature. Two legs, four 'arms,' and a large, wedge shaped head, taller than him, the darkness made it difficult to confirm what he was fighting, but he had seen too many similar silhouettes before to not recognize his opponent.

A Tyranid Warrior.

He was dueling a tyranid warrior bioform. And worse, it was playing with him. It had the upper hand, and knew it.

Or so he thought, before he did a basic feint at its head, and then cut off the end of its ranged weapon, disabling the weapon and making the warrior scream in rage. It lunged forward, launching a blindingly fast flurry of blows with its bone swords, and gamely followed the pathfinder as he gave ground in front of its superior strength and speed. He frowned as he dodged two blows with one move, and deflected a third strike; it was strange, the creature should have gutted him and moved on by now, but it seemed to be struggling, like it had no experiences to draw on. Which was impossible, as that would require breaking its link with the Hive Queen, or the Hive Queen being so young as to not have any experiences for it to use.

His musings were interrupted as the creature suddenly turned its head, a loud warcry echoing through the tunnel. He stabbed at one of the bone swords, trying to destroy the weapon, but the creature suddenly staggered and began floating, shrieking and flailing in rage, making the eldar miss. Arlas stared at the bioform in confusion, before spotting Liara standing with one hand on her hip, clearly pleased with herself. He quickly realized that she had hit it with a lift, as the creature thrashed and floated upwards.

He gave the asari an only slightly mocking salute with the blade, before putting up the flamer pistol and sword, and pulling out the fusion gun. Only to dive under the flailing warrior as a second one suddenly leapt down, claws reaching to remove the eldar's head. He rolled to his feet on the other side of the floating warrior, and then leapt backwards as the second warrior, moving with more purpose and assurity than the first one had, pointed its ranged weapon at the wall near him and fired.

Arlas swore as he watched the fist sized projectile hit the pipe, and penetrate it, immediately recognizing the weapon as a barbed strangler. He turned and sprinted down the tunnel as he heard metal straining, shearing, and shattering. He slowed only briefly, grabbing the confused Liara, and bodily carrying her another ten meters before slowing to a stop and setting her down. Behind him, a mess of thorns had grown to completely fill the passage, blocking the passage to the two warriors. He knew through previous experience that the thorns were as hard as metal, and only his fusion gun could burn through them before they dissolved away in a couple minutes.

Arlas did a quick check to make sure he didn't have some Tyranid bio-ammo sticking to him, before turning to the others. "Anyone injured?"

Tali shook her head. "No, but what was that thing you were fighting?"

Arlas glanced back at the tangled tendrils, before walking away from it. "A commander bioform of the Great Devourer. We should keep moving. Also, who..."

His question was answered before he could ask it, as a shotgun blast echoed down the corridor, followed by raucous laughter. A minute later, a familiar being stepped around the corner, making the two women sigh in relief, and then completely relax when a second followed. Tali waved, jogging forward, as Arlas rolled his eyes and turned around, still doing his job of rear guard, as Tali greeting their reinforcements. "Shepard, Wrex. I have never been more glad to see you two."

Arlas interrupted, annoyed that the mon-keigh were bonding instead of focusing on the possibility of ambush. "Can we get back to the upper levels before you all start congratulation each other on surviving? We are still in danger of being ambushed."

That got the two he had been with moving again, though Joannis paused long enough to do a double take at the passage the three of them had been proceeding down. "Are those… vines?"

He glanced back, and watched the vines begin sagging and then dissolving, and bent to grab his discarded death spinner. A quick check showed the weapon undamaged, and then he answered her as the vines finished falling apart. "Were."

A quick glance showed two destroyed sections of ceiling and one of the flooring. He glanced at the grating on the ground then at the ceiling, before turning back to Joannis. "We should be leaving, now."

"We know about the Rachni."

"Rachni? No, however bad those Rachni were, this is something far worse. Tyranids."

Joannis turned to Arlas as they came out of the elevator leading to the tramway. "Alright, we are out of the area where you were attacked. Now explain. I thought you said Tyranids were a threat from your home, and not here."

The tall alien simply held out its arm, and activated its omnitool, giving her a still image of a creature that looked nothing like the rachni, other in the most general of senses. "That is what I fought, and it appeared to be leading the things you called rachni."

Liara spoke. "Wait, it attacked you from behind and above while the rachni charged from in front. Why do you think they were leading?"

"Because the group that attacked used strategy. Very good for getting someone's attention, so another unit could get around behind the opposition and start butchering them. That last group would have gotten through if you two had turned to help me or if the warrior had killed me, and then we would have been surrounded and quickly slaughtered. If it WAS simply using them instead of leading, then it was in the exact place at the perfect time to do so. And I consider that happening by circumstance to being less likely."

The logic got a nod from the asari, before turning back to Joannis and Wrex, who were examining the image with a sort of fascinated, morbid curiosity, as well as the two new party members. He still didn't know why they were here, and frankly didn't care. Wrex spoke first. "Doesn't look that tough."

Arlas sighed before glaring. "That chitin is harder than my armor, its armed with two blades that act the same as my power sword, and its ranged weapon is armed with ammo that will eat its way to your nervous system, then up to your brain in seconds. It was also as fast as me, if not even faster. The second one had the ranged weapon that made the wall of vines, which were as hard as metal, and grew that big in less than half a second after being exposed to a heat source, in this case steam, though usually they aim for organics. I didn't see what it had for melee weapons other than claws, but either way, I would not willingly fight them in melee again."

Joannis raised an eyebrow behind her visor, surprised by his admission of weakness. Then again, he had always been fairly honest about his strengths. "Do those weapons have names? And did anyone else get a recording of the fight? Oh, and am I allowed to send these to command?"

She grinned as the eldar's helmet turned to focus fully on her, no doubt intuiting expression had been schooled to one of distaste. "The melee weapons were boneswords, the one that shot burrowing parasites is called a Devourer, and the one that made the obstruction is called a Barbed Strangler. All are designed to kill the targets in as horrific and disturbing a way possible. There is a reason why, after nearly nine thousands years of focusing on excelling at killing Orks, my craftworld turned to excelling at killing Tyranids in less than a century. That such a change didn't overly hamper our ability to butcher orks is simply a happy coincidence. And yes, these you can send back. They tend to just messily kill observers, instead of doing much worse.

Now, I believe we have someone to apprehend. We can discuss everything at the debrief. Assuming we get there before everyone expires from old age."

Wrex laughed. "Ha! Jokes on you, krogan don't die from age."

Arlas dismissed his omnitool, and turned to the krogan. "Truly? Then my people might have more uses for your kind yet."

Joannis watched with bemusement as the eldar and krogan walked to the tram, discussing the various merits of single and two handed blades, probably so Arlas could finish the weapon he had promised Wrex. After a moment, she shook her head. "I am not sure if that is the most natural or unnatural friendships I have ever seen. Definitely one of the more destructive though."

The human spectre glanced to one side as Tali spoke. "I thought Spectre Dilteer and I would be staying back to get through their security."

The volus spoke up. "Already finished. *wheeze* Security was *gasp* not as robust *gasp* as I anticipated."

Ashley decided to speak up. "Should we call Garrus and Kaidan from the mako then? Have the whole group to deal with Benezia and her associates?"

Joannis gestured to the tram, even as she walked toward it, getting everyone moving. "We don't know that she is here. All we know is that a group claiming to be Saren's associates arrived to deal with the Omega protocol situation. Six turians, krogans, and eight asari along with one individual in a full body cloak, and a dozen shipping containers. Listed as containing combat mechs, these were where the geth likely came from. Going by the amount Tali thinks can be stuffed inside, and adjusting for the larger chassi we have already destroyed, that makes it likely we have encountered all or almost all of the geth."

She was the last onto the tram, after the asari spectre Vasir. She raised her voice. "All in, let's go find this executor of Saren's."

Arlas looked up in relief as the tram finally began slowing to a stop. For two hours he had been ignoring the asari and volus newcomers. Both waiting for the engineers to fix the tram and riding on it. Both had tried to 'interact' with him, the former to try and liberate some of his equipment, the latter trying to scan it. They had been equally successful, though the volus was the winner due to taking his loss with more grace. The asari had finally muttered some interesting curses at him before storming off, and began talking to Icivia about him. Judging from the look on the turian, she was amused that someone else was having the same problems as she was.

Arlas didn't wait for the tram to dock, instead warp jumping to the landing to start looking around. By the time the tram had stopped and everyone was starting to get off, he could report. "One elevator active, another locked. Also a door, but it is sealed as well. Want me to open it?"

He hefted the fusion gun meaningfully, not truly serious in his suggestion. He was simply trying to get a rise out of the mon-keigh. Everyone responded at the same time. "NO!"

Wrex was the only counterpoint. "YES!"

Arlas smirked under his helmet, before relaxing, waiting for orders. He let the glares slide off him, and simply stared back at the twins. After a moment, they sighed together as only those who completely knew each other could. "Arlas, Vasir, and Wrex, with Jaclyn and me. Everyone else, you are second wave. Arlas, big rifle, everyone else, focus on a barrier. Jaclyn and I will focus on a second layer to protect from the acid."

The group piled in, and Wrex and Vasir began putting up a barrier, while Jaclyn and Joannis got the second layer working. Arlas simply switched out for his geth long rifle, and gently rubbed the scope, cleaning a bit of ichor off it. His dangersense wasn't tingling, so he wasn't concerned about what they would find at the top, though he did make a show of expanding the massive rifle, and then using Wrex's shoulder as a brace. The krogan was quick to knock the rifle barrel off his shoulder, and into Vasir, who glared and knocked it toward the ground. Always amusing, watching the mon-keigh perform their little dominance rituals.

Then the elevator opened, and Vasir uttered a startled oath, right before the other four dropped the barrier. Arlas couldn't see enough to understand why everyone was grabbing their weapons, being at the back of the group and only able to see a door on the other wall. Then Wrex and Vasir stepped through and spread out, and he spotted the remains.

They weren't bodies, as that would imply they were intact enough to identify what they were. These were just globs of bloody meat, strewn throughout the room and destroyed equipment. Arlas sheathed the geth long rifle, and grabbed his sword before moving to the nearest largest piece of meat to do a cursory examination. Sadly, the remains were too damaged to show anything, before his examination was interrupted by Joannis' voice, slightly watery, but her tone was firm despite the sight. "Second team, get down here now. And hold onto your lunches, it's… grisly."

Arlas glanced at Jaclyn, and tapped his hand against his thigh loud enough to make a sound. No one heard it. Once again reminded of the fact that mon-keigh lacked senses, he coughed loudly. No one jumped, but all four heads snapped around to glare at him. He ignored their ire with professional ease. "Permission to scout ahead."

Joannis didn't even hesitate. "Granted, try to not melt any holes through the wall."

He gave her a jaunty wave, before flipping his hood up and pushing psyker energy into the cloak, fading from view. A few quick movements took him to the door and it swished open at his touch, revealing it connected to a hallway. Blood on the walls here, but no bodies or remains. The door at the end of that connected to a security room, with two doors. Two control consoles sat on one side, and the door on the opposite of consoles led to what looked like an empty barracks. The door opposite the one he entered, however, was what he was looking for.

The interior resembled some of the worst Chaos infested charnel houses he had ever encountered, though it lacked the sheer volume those places had. It also had several identifiable pieces of beings, Most noticeably an elcor, though only through the sheer size of the pile. Now that he had more to examine, it almost looked like someone had hit the bodies with warp again and again, even after the target had died.

A quick look around revealed two more doors of interest, one of which was locked. He glanced at the open door, before pulling out his sword, and activating the power field, and then cutting open the sealed door. As he finished cutting, the door to the security room hissed open, and Jaclyn spotted him. "Arlas, what the fuck did my twin say?"

"To not melt any holes through the wall. I did not. I cut a hole in a door."

The look on the human's face under her visor was delicious, realizing that he fully intended to carry through with his threat to do exactly what they ordered. Joannis just sighed. "What about the open door?"

"No idea, just finished opening it."

"I meant the unlocked one."

"You didn't say that."

"...What about the unlocked door?"

"No idea, just finished opening this one."

He glanced inside the door he had cut open so as not to watch Jaclyn trying to control her temper, seeing only a short staircase down to another locked door, before turning to head to the unlocked door. Joannis spoke up before he had gotten three steps. "Arlas, you guard that door. Do not do anything to the next door. In fact, just stand there. If you are attacked, you may move and defend yourself."

The eldar stared at the human for a moment, before deliberating taking one step to the side, and leaning against the wall. As the Twins turned to talk to the group, he stepped to the other side of the door, before resuming the same position and pulling out his flamer pistol. Sadly, the group left before anyone noticed, so Arlas quietly stalked to the other side of the door, and leaned against it. Less than a minute later, his omnitool crackled to life. "Arlas, Joannis, got survivors. Saren's executors showed up, and the leader was a being in a full form concealing cloak. It was definitely NOT Benezia though. Will contact you when we get finished talking to the survivors."

She closed the communication channel before he could reply, making him smirk in pleased amusement. His malicious compliance was already working. It would make getting the information about what happened with the daemon report that much faster. He paused, hearing the door to the security room opening, and activated his cloak, fading from view. A couple seconds later three geth infantry and two hoppers breached the room. The two hoppers were fairly normal looking, having seen them first on Therum, and two of the infantry were normal troopers.

The last infantry was different though, and he could tell it was going to be a problem. A quick check of his communicator in his ear showed that comms were down again, and he swore before slowly changing his flamer and sword out for his long rifle. The one in charge was slightly taller than the other two infantry, and had significantly more armor, as thick as the armor on that mercenary group he had seen on Feros. It carried a shotgun in its hands, and had a second weapon on its back, though in its collapsed form he couldn't tell what kind of weapon it was. The real problem was the hilt sticking from its back, and what looked like some kind of integrated weapon on its left forearm.

As he observed them entering, he felt Yol'Pvera reaching out to him, her thoughts revealing the message she was trying to give him. He reached back, mentally showing the geth, and added that he would contact her after the mission, if it could wait. His pilot sent back agreement and amusement, before dropping the link.

Arlas watched the geth move through the room, pausing as they spotted the destroyed door, but after a second they started toward the door the rest of the team had gone through. Now Arlas had a problem: he wanted to continue the malicious compliance he had started, but letting something ambush the others was not a good way to continue to be trusted. But with the comms jammed, he couldn't warn them.

Then he realized that the leader of this group had stopped and was looking straight at him. A couple seconds later, all five of the geth were staring at him, and he cursed in his head, wondering how they had spotted him. After a minute, the leader turned away, but as Arlas raised his rifle, the leader turned back, this time aiming its shotgun at him. He wasn't particularly concerned about the shotgun, as it was nearly twenty meters between the two of them and for some reason shotguns here were useless past ten meters, but the other four would be a bigger problem.

He waited a moment as the other geth turned toward him, then back to the leader, and just as they started to resume moving forward, he shifted the rifle and fired. The shot hit the geth hopper closest to cover dead center, blowing open its chest and obliterating its processing centers before it could even warble.

Then everything started happening very quickly.

Arlas instinctively shifted to the side and fired again as the geth leader unit fired its shotgun. His shot hit the second hopper in the upper chest, killing it and severing the head, while the shotgun blast just missed his chest and stomach, the three bright blasts actually partially melting the wall. The other two infantry began turning and leveling their assault rifles, and Arlas heard his geth long rifle beeping its overheat warning. He warp jumped to cover on the other side of the geth, only to find the geth leader unit already turning and firing at and missing him. Apparently that unit had something that could see through his cloak.

He dropped the overheated long rifle, ripped the fusion gun off his back, and started to level it at the geth leader. The geth responded by pointing at him with its left arm, and something flew out of the small opening on its forearm. It looked like a small, harmless disk, and his dangersense didn't react to it, so he ignored it. He finished leveling the fusion gun, just as the disk hit him. He didn't have time to pull the trigger before suddenly he was on his back, his entire body aching and his chest warm, indicating he had taken the shotgun blast to the chest.

Arlas' quick glance around didn't reveal his fusion gun, but did show that he had managed to at least pull the trigger. Sadly he had missed the leader unit. Figuring that this was something the geth had come up with specifically to kill him, he rolled to the side, into cover, as a shotgun blast hit the floor where he had been lying. As he bumped the metal table, he heard a discharge of electricity, and realized the damned geth had hit him with an overload charge.

The sound of a weapon discharging and punching through the thin table near his head reminded him that he was still in combat. Then two assault rifles started firing, reminding him that he did, in fact, have other things to worry about then just a single cheating machine that could see him. He grabbed his sword and double pistol, before warp jumping behind the two troopers. Two quick slashes took out the troopers before they could react to him, but the leader fired again, hitting one of the destroyed geth as Arlas dodged. Arlas warp jumped again, landing behind another table, only to curse as a shotgun blast a half second later punched a hole through it, again just missing him.

They had some way of tracking his warp jumps, or the machines were just that good at noticing where he was ending up. He considered what do as he shifted slightly, only to pause at the clattering of metal on metal, and looked up as it happened again. He looked over the table, to see the unit drawing its blade and leveling the sword at him. He stared for a moment, before shrugging and leaping over the table. The geth was clearly plotting something, but if it wanted to commit suicide by eldar, he would be happy to assist.

Consensus Upgrade Report: unit, weapons

Analysis of upgraded sensors: Not effective against new species cloak, significant upgrade against jamming and spotting concealed units (see attached video), noticeable decrease in power draw, allowing more power to increase unit reaction times.

Analysis of upgraded sensors with enhanced power: Able to identify cloaked units. New species shows up as unusual static (see attached video).

Analysis of new weapon system, ammo: Significant increase to weapon power, can use internal coolant to supplement lithium clip system.

Analysis of new weapon system, shotgun: Highly accurate, able to perform to all specifications.

Analysis of new weapon system, assault rifle: Significant accuracy drop over previous system, cooling system inefficient. Weapon requires significant improvement.

Analysis of new weapon system, physical melee weapon: New species melee weapon sheared through on first strike (see attached video); unusual enemy weapon effect observed (see attached image) and result (see attached image); recommend check of similar weapon in storage to see if same effect occurs.

Analysis of new transmitter and secondary transmitter: Modest excess power draw, 97.8% of total programs successfully recovered after calculating total destruction of platform.

Arlas looked down at the destroyed geth unit, cut in half from shoulder to hip through its weapon as it had tried to block, and sheathed his power blade, before collecting his fusion gun and long rifle and returning to his position by the wall. He had no idea what the geth was trying to by willingly discarding its ranged weapons, but wasn't concerned. It was a machine, programmed by machines. Only a machine could guess what it had been attempting to do.

His musings were interrupted by his omnitool pinging. "Arlas, this is Joannis. Found a back way into the Secure Labs, and learned that the Hot Labs is where they were growing the creatures. They are Rachni, and the two you encountered are how they got out. Those things came from eggs the Queen laid, so they are Rachni too. The Queen is in the Secure lab, so we are going to enter the back way. What we need is you to make a lot of noise about coming in from the tram station. When we hear the fighting, we will come through the back, catch them in a vice."

Arlas waited for a moment. "And when would that happen?"

"Give us five minutes to get into position. After we deal with the Queen, we will deal with the hot labs."

He nodded to himself as the channel closed, before leaning back against the wall. At the five minute mark, he began banging his fist against the wall, before firing his pistol into the wall. After a minute, he got bored, and moved into Eldar songs, most frequently heard about the craftworld, until Kap'Eiyl politely asked him to stop mangling the traditional songs with his inability to carry a tune in a bucket, so he just waited against the wall.

About five minutes after he started, his omnitool pinged again. "Arlas, Jaclyn, its been ten minutes, why haven't you started?"

"I did, first banging on the wall and firing my pistol, then singing, and then dancing."

There was a pregnant pause on the other side as he heard someone laughing, before Jaclyn spoke again, her voice very controlled. "And that didn't get through the door, did it?"

"Wouldn't know, still standing where you told me to."

This pause was longer, and Joannis joined the conversation before Jaclyn quit. "Alright Arlas, you made your point. Can you please stop before we have to throw you off the ship?"

"I will stop when I get that list. But I think I have made my point clear enough for this mission. Opening the door in a minute, get ready to push two minutes after that."

He waited a second, before closing that channel and sending Jaclyn a simple text. 'Suggest not coming in. PLEASE.'

Done with the message, he walked up to the door, and slammed a melta to it. He wanted to make a point, and kill everything inside before the others got in, so he primed a second melta, ready to try throwing it. The melta bomb would take out a good sized chunk of the floor, but he really wanted to drive his point home to the mon-keigh. Maybe if he made the point thoroughly enough, they would start listening again.

He took a deep breath, before mentally activating the placed explosive, blasting open a three meter wide hole in the wall, and then throwing the one in his hand, putting a one and a half second timer on it. He pulled out the fusion gun, and activated the warp generator, jumping as he heard the second melta bounce and then detonate.

Arlas landed in of a large room, surprised at the large size of it. The map he had seen showed it to be about fifteen meters by thirty meters, but the one he had landed in was close to twice that on both sides. As everything was turning to the holes he had blasted, he took a second to note everything he could.

Metal walkways crisscrossed everywhere, three levels of them surrounding a large enclosure in the center, nearly ten meters tall, wide, and long, though it was encased in metal shutters, making viewing whatever was inside impossible. From his location, he could see more than two dozen geth, mostly the larger destroyers and juggernauts, though two primes each led a dozen geth near each door leading into the room, but there were two smaller geth carrying tanks on their backs near the door the others were planning to use. He could see five turians through out the room, armed with assault and long rifles, and there were six krogran. A dozen asari finished the enemy numbers, and the leader was obvious, standing on a raised platform that rested against the center enclosure.

It took only a handful of seconds to note the enemy positions, strengths, and the room's layout, and another to decide how to fight. He took a deep breath, reaching deep into his memories, allowing himself to smile as the geth and krogan finished turning toward the door and firing through the hole he had made.

Thrive in this fight, and I will recommend you to the path of the Warp Spider Exarch.

His eyes opened, his off hand drawing the last of his melta bombs he had brought today, and warp jumped, landing behind the prime leading the group near where the allied mon-keigh would be entering.

Mon-Keigh believe that the path of the Exarch is one bound by consuming bloodlust.

He fired the fusion gun as he landed, already swinging the melta to connect to the back of the prime. The blast of the fusion gun took out four geth chassi, and then he jumped away, the melta bomb consuming the prime as he jumped to the second group.

They are wrong, as they always are.

He fired the fusion gun, cutting the prime in half, before jumping away, landing behind one of the elevated turians. He drew his blade and struck with the same movement, bisecting the opponent's head, before dropping and rolling to the side as one of the geth fired at him.

The path of the Exarch is instead one of unparalleled focus.

He was standing beside one of the geth with a flamethrower, his sword already severing the fuel lines, causing a fire on the fuel tank. The second flamer unit turned and fired, the flames eagerly leaping from the weapon toward him, but he jumped again, feeling heat on his back as the warp generator began protesting his rapid assault. He ignored it, landing between three krogan.

You will walk an impossible path, the threads of fate tightening and slackening as you advance and strike.

Arlas came back from his memory standing over a gasping, dying asari, stabbed twice in the chest. He was losing himself in the weaves, and sidestepped a biotic orb. He warped jumped away, the pack now boiling on his back, and paused to vent the excess heat, shrouding a quarter of the room in mist as the vents hit the frigid air in the secure lab. Shots screamed by him, aiming where he had been, but quick movement prevented them from hitting him.

To falter is death and failure. To succeed is to court the Crone, and chance being called to her early. Such risks are necessary, to ensure the survival of the craftworlds.

He was losing track of reality and memory, but most of his opponents were down, but he had no idea how long he had been fighting. Then he took a shotgun to the side. His armor caught it, but the impact caught him off guard, and knocked him to his back. A quick roll and a warp jump got him out of danger, but he was completely out of synchronization with the threads of Fate, and had no idea now which were about to tighten, and which were slackening, to dump him in the void.

Realizing he needed to drop the Exarch sense, he jumped again as his danger sense screamed, and swore as a glowing greenish-red miasma formed where he had been, and began tracking him slowly across the room, but dissipated before it got halfway to him. Two krogan were advancing down parallel walkways, a geth juggernaut and destroyer assisting them, and he could see three asari around the cloaked leader, who was lowering their hand, four glowing golden eyes all he could see of them. Fire from the side alerted him to two geth troopers and another destroyer, but the rest of his opponents seemed…

He frantically dropped to a crouch as his dangersense shrieked at him, barely avoiding having his head taken off by a sniper round from a turian on the uppermost walkway. Realizing he was being surrounded and on the far side of the room from where the mon-keigh would be entering, he snagged a grenade off his belt and threw it at his feet. It exploded, filling the area with a bubble of psyker energies, completely cutting him off from the opponents. At least from their ranged attacks, they could still walk through the shimmer orb's barrier. He took a moment to consider his options, ignoring the fire from his opponents as it hit the field and stopped.

He did tense as one of the hostile asari threw a biotic orb at him, but it slowed significantly when it connected with the field, making dodging the attack simple. The eldar gave a mocking bow to his opponents, before drawing his sword in his main hand, keeping his fusion gun in his off hand. For a second, nothing happened, then the krogan and geth charged. Arlas ignored their weapon fire, watching it hit the shimmering field, waiting for them to get in the field before firing. Most of his attention was on the three asari and the leader, before shifting his attention to the turian. Done ensuring he knew exactly where all the enemies were, he set himself to receive the geth and krogan charge.

His was almost disappointed when the geth juggernaut charging him suddenly flailed as it lifted off the ground, and then exploded like a bomb in a burst of blue, taking out the nearest krogan and staggering the other krogan and geth destroyer near it. Guessing his allies had finally deigned to show up, he slammed both his fusion gun and sword onto his back, and drew his long rifle, warp jumping up to the walkway behind the turian. He executed the turian by placing the barrel of his geth long rifle against the back of his head and pulling the trigger before the turian even realized he was there. He threw himself down on the corpse, using it for additional cover, before picking off the two geth troopers.

He ducked back to try and avoid a spinning disk from the geth destroyer that had been with the two troopers, but it exploded in a crackling field, making him wince in pain as his rifle suddenly howled its overheating warning. He quickly dropped the weapon as every vent opened, not quite avoiding getting his hands burnt by the steam. His armor caught most of the heat, but his hands still felt a bit stiff. Cursing under his breath, he grabbed the barrel and collapsed the weapon, slamming it back onto its holder before throwing a plasma grenade into the cluster of asari.

The leader gestured at the flying orb, and with a flick of its wrist sent the orb careening towards Arlas' allies. Arlas mentally grabbed and twisted the energies in the grenade before it reached the group, causing it to detonate early. Cursing aloud, he hated intelligent and quick witted enemies, he drew his fusion gun and sword, before warp jumping into the midst of the asari.

He was quickly lifted and then flung to one side, having been anticipated, but he managed another warp jump before he was hit with a warp or a geth rocket attack. He reappeared low to the ground, and hooked his power blade into the grating to keep him from floating off, cursing softly as he kept low and waited for it to wear off. Arlas glared at Wrex as he slammed into the ground beside him a few seconds later. "Hey there Elfy, glad to see you left something for the rest of us."

Arlas glared as he heard several biotic explosions on the other side of the tank sized structure in the center of the room, but the firing kept on, unabated. He activated his omnitool, and rejoined the team channel, listening to the call outs while he waited for the biotic lift to wear off. They were down to a pair of geth destroyers, two asari, and the leader, but the last one was effectively stonewalling the entire group with the other opponents' support.

Even as he watched, the leader unit gestured at an incoming warp, deflecting the orb to arc up and around the cover, before throwing another of those greenish red clouds. He watched Tali frantically dive away from the cloud, but Liara didn't see the manifestation until it was too late, and screamed in pain as it enveloped her. When the cloud cleared a few seconds later, Liara was on the ground, unmoving, blood oozing from several gashes on her face.

Arlas was a bit surprised at how angry the sight of Liara on the ground bleeding made him. But it was modestly scary at how his rage amplified when he watched Tali get hit by one of the geth destroyer's micro-rockets. Tali landed hard, but managed to roll behind cover before the next micro-rocket hit. He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, before feeling the biotic lift wearing off, as Joannis came over the comms. "Damn, can't get close. Tali, Liara, report. Are you alive?"

Tali responded, her voice laced with pain and broken by gasps. "Alive… think I broke… something. Managed… to isolate… my suit breach… But I… uh…"

Liara didn't respond at all, and Joannis couldn't get Tali to respond again. Both were in cover though, and their omnitools were still broadcasting their lifesigns. Then the door the others had come through opened, and Arlas twisted, seeing what ha come through, fearing it was the Tyranids he had encountered. Thankfully, it was the two newest additions to the group, the asari and volus.

Before they could do anything, the three asari opponents gestured to the row of computers and equipment that Tali and Liara had been using as cover, trying to biotically warp and fling the cover out of the way to get to the two down behind it.

A roar of rage made Arlas flinch and turn, expecting the two tyranid warriors to have dropped onto someone, but instead spotted a streak of blue heading for the enclosed area the seven remaining enemy held. Jaclyn slammed into one of the geth destroyers, literally tearing its torso apart from the impact. She quickly lept into the air before slamming back into the ground, crackling with energy that erupted outward in a sphere from her, knocking the asari off their feet, the remaining geth bounced off the cover it had been using before falling, and the leader staggered but managed to catch itself with one hand, the other raised to put a barrier up between it and the human vanguard.

Jaclyn ignored the leader, and instead yanked her shotgun out, quickly shooting each asari in the head, the point blank shots turning their heads to mush. Garrus' long rifle barked twice, and blew the head off the last geth destroyer.

Then the leader finished getting its balance, and gestured with the hand that had been holding the barrier, releasing the energy as a massive sphere that appeared almost on top of Jaclyn. The human vanguard frantically jumped backwards, trying to get her shotgun around, but the sphere suddenly detonated, flinging her backwards to slam into the wall before limply sliding down. The leader turned and gestured at the asari spectre who was just about to charge it, and stopped as a biotic field suddenly appeared around her. She cursed and dropped into cover, avoiding a second biotic attack, but Arlas swore.

Because he recognized that attack, a dark channel, despite having never seen it before and being only slightly familiar with biotics. He would have to meditate on where this information came from, and why seeing it so enraged him, though it was a thin, fleeting rage, easily controlled and dispelled. Not at all like an Eldar's true rage.

Arlas shook off his wandering thoughts, as the leader tore off its cloak and threw it into an incoming warp, disrupting the attack, and revealing its true appearance. It was clearly insectoid, with two arms that ended in three fingers, a leg that had two toes, a large, elongated and tapered head, clearly vestigial limbs and a casing for it on its back, and black chitin covered a significant portion of its body. What wasn't covered in ash-black chitin was distinctly unhealthy orangish hued flesh.

Despite the appearance causing an unusual rage actually similar to an Eldar's in its intensity, Arlas wasn't sure why a half melted insect would enrage him so. He drew his flamer pistol, figuring fire would panic the leader, before jumping behind it. He landed behind the leader, impressed it was already turning toward him, its rifle unfolding as it turned. It looked like something a Tyranid would carry, disgustingly organic curves with metal pieces jutting out like misshapen teeth.

Arlas' initial sword swipe scraped along the greenish-red barrier, but the flames engulfed the creature, quickly eating through its barrier and engulfing the creature. Instead of flailing around like most creatures would, the half melted and now burning creature instead simply leveled its rifle at his chest, and fired. Arlas took six shots to the chest and stomach before he could warp jump out, and though he knew his armor caught a number of the shots, he had taken at least two hits.

He landed heavily, leaning against the container in the center of the room on the other side from the leader, and pulled out a block of wraith webbing, before placing it over the two holes and activating it with a thought and a burst of psyker energy. The temporary wraithbone sealed the hole, and he could remove it later with another burst of energy, but for now he wasn't leaking as much anymore and could move without worrying about ripping the wound wider.

He got around the corner, just in time to see Joannis flaring with biotic energies, clearly listening only to the power within her. A quick glance showed the leader struggling, but floating up into a singularity wide enough to cover the entire platform Saren's lackies had been using for cover. More concerning was that he couldn't see any of the bodies that had been on it, and the singularity didn't have a black center the size of his fingernail, but rather one the size of his fist.

The reason for the larger core became apparent as the leader touched it with the end of its leg, and suddenly it was yanked inside the hole. Arlas blinked, before watching the singularity fade away, and then Joannis collapsed to her knees, breathing heavily. She glanced about, before forcing herself to stand. "Ashley, check Jaclyn. Arlas, how you doing? Vasir, could you check Liara? I will get Tali. Dilteer, find out why they were protecting that console. Wrex, overwatch, make sure we don't get ambushed."

Arlas took a breath, before forcing himself to not cough. "Been better."

He stared at the mon-keigh for a moment, before she nodded, reaching up to pop her helmet open, cleaning blood from her nose and the corner of one eye. "Fine, get the wounded back to the ship once we get done checking them. Ashley and Wrex will help get them there and then return."

Arlas nodded, glad to be done with this mission, and moved to pick up Tali in both arms to keep her sluggishly bleeding gut wound from stretching more. Ashley grabbed Jaclyn, and Wrex hoisted Liara up and over his shoulder, before they headed toward the tram. Once he set Tali on one of the seats, he waved to Ashley. "She is still bleeding."

Ashley glared at him. "Then use medigel on her."

Arlas tilted his head slightly. "Use what?"

That got both of his conscious companions' attentions. After a moment, Ashley finally managed to speak. "How do you not know what medigel is?"

He just sighed, ignoring her as he turned his attention to his pilot. *(Yol'Pvera, what did you need?)*

She sent back her annoyance at how long he had taken, but replied readily enough. *The singing 'artifact' you found? It was an egg. It hatched. It was released from the ship to ensure it didn't damage anything.*

He let out a mental groan, before leaning against the wall. *(How long ago did it get off?)*

*About a solar mark.*

He did some quick math, converting the eldar times to local mon-keigh, and sighed. *(Almost an hour, right. Thank you for informing me. We have wounded, and will be taking them to the larger vessel.)*

Arlas tapped his omnitool, trying to alert Joannis to the new development, but she didn't answer. He glared at the omnitool, before looking up as the tram lurched, indicating it was leaving. He stood up and moved a ways from the others, before jumping back to the landing. He sent a message to Kaidan and Garrus as he walked to the secure lab. Multiple wounded on the tram back, meet with Ashley and Wrex to assist in moving them.

He finished the message, and then paused, having just entered the common room turned charnel room, his subconscious noting something. It took a couple seconds to realize what was wrong, but when he did he immediately drew his fusion gun and sword.

A couple of the piles of meat had been shifted, one of them significantly, like something large and heavy had kicked it.

He stepped back into the door to the security room he had just come out of, and observed the common room, trying to get an idea on how big the creature that had kicked it must have been. The pile he had noted was what was left of the elcor, so whatever it had been must have been as heavy or heavier than Wrex. But even as he observed that, his subconscious nudged him again, and after a moment he realized the problem. The bloodstain between the arm and the pile was too big. Something hadn't kicked the arm, something had picked it up, turned it over, and then dropped it.

Something intelligent had been examining the elcor arm, and had likely accidentally shifted the pile. He suspected the tyranid warriors, but there was no real proof of his suspicion, so he simply shelved it and moved into the room. Though he first pumped power into his cloak, fading from view.

He got through the room without issue, but couldn't shake the feeling something had been watching him. He stepped through the door he had melted, though he didn't turn his back on the room until he was at the door to the next room. Stepping into the next one, he saw the four spectres on the platform Saren's forces had been holding, talking to an asari that seemed to barely be on her feet, a gaping hole in her gut. But what got his attention was the powerful psychic emanations coming from the now revealed enclosure, though he couldn't see what was inside from his current angle.

Arlas had only to take a few steps forward, before he saw enough. A massive, four legged insect with glowing white eyes, two massive tendrils tipped with deadly looking manipulators, and a beak that looked like it could rip out an ork's brain without breaking the skull. It might not be a tyranid hive queen, but he wouldn't know either way, having never seen one or encountered anyone that had survived seeing one.

But he knew what to do, even without knowing if it was a hive queen or not. He put his sword away, and walked around the tank to the other side. He could hear the four spectres debating what to do with what they called the Rachni Queen, unaware he was about to take the decision out of their hands. His steps were unheard, not that they would hear him even if he wasn't deliberately trying to avoid being detected, and leveled the fusion gun, as the insect's head turned to him, suddenly noticing him. He ignored it, and simply began pulling the trigger, more than ready to do his duty to the craftworld.

A/N - *slams head against desk repeatedly* Another chapter that I couldn't write well, mostly because there is damned little on Noveria that I can toy with. And just following the canonical storyline is boring.

Oh, did Arlas kill the queen? Stay tuned to find out. Same Eldar channel, same Eldar time!

Anyway, complete the usual author requests of Follow, Fav, and Review, as well as pop over to the poll I have going.