Chapter 28 - Intrigue and Consequences
'Not every inquisitor is a 'kick in the door and shoot you in the face' kind of inquisitor. Some of us prefer handing you a rope, and watching you hang yourself.' - Ordo Xenos Inquisitor
Two days after Noveria, Arlas stood up from his meditations, controlling his frustration. All his scrying had revealed were fragments and those were the productive part of his last two days, other than repairing most of his equipment. He lacked the formal training of a Bonesinger to actually do more than just make field repairs, but he was ready for the next battle. The eldar just wished that visions were so easy to decipher.
A massive weight on his chest, as two voices screamed in mortal terror.
A sky filled with flames, a flash of white in a frozen cloud of brown, and the distant echo of hollow laughter.
A dirge, coming from a dozen voices behind him, in a room filled with flames, shadows and bodies.
A planet awash in flames, a massive crater, and a monster clad in hatred and arrogance, wielding a whip of insanity, driving a star before. A dozen smaller beings writhed behind the monster, dragged toward the burning planet by the falling star.
An ancient, massive wreck the size of a small planet, floating amongst the stars.
A powerful avian, wings spread and beak open, resting behind a battered, bleeding and snarling hound in shadows.
A lost soul, hiding on a destroyed ship from hunters that looked identical to them.
The vile symbol of Shi who Thirsts, broken and scorched, hanging between three small jewels on black velvet.
A female silhouette, wearing an ornate but battered and cracked crown, silently screaming in agony and despair in a far too small cage, while a second identical silhouette silently observed.
Arlas shook off his unease, before looking down. He found himself already in his armor, and grabbing his last weapon, his local long rifle, and made a note to add a proper eldar long rifle to his arsenal after he made Wrex's chain sword. Putting together a shuriken catapult from one of his wraithseeds had been child's play, though it was basic, only a massive supply of shuriken differentiated it from a normal catapult. He also had grabbed his fusion gun and flamer pistol, and his sword was already on his back.
The prototype local chainsword he had tried to craft for Wrex had refused to activate, as had the second, but the third through fifth had ripped themselves apart. He was fairly certain he knew what had gone wrong each time, and was reasonably certain he would have one completed for the krogan sooner rather than later. Which was just as well, Wrex had confronted him yesterday about it, and hadn't been amused.
Done arming up, he finished checking his armor, and made a note to either do full repairs to it as a priority to get his psy-shields back, or waive off the mission after the deep space research station that had gotten the images of the daemons.
He headed for the airlock, where most of the combat ready ground team was waiting, including Liara. Jaclyn was still on bed rest as per threats from Doctor Chakwas, or else she would put Jaclyn in an induced coma to keep her resting, and Tali was still unconscious. The doctor had tried to make Liara stay, but the asari maiden had countered that she had to be there for the confrontation, otherwise the matriarch could simply leave and not be challenged again. It was bad enough they had arrived nearly an hour behind her, she could easily be heading to her ship now to leave. Liara had countered that asari politics and legalities would keep her in place for hours, and that was if these 'lawyers' were being helpful. If they weren't, the process could take days.
The ship rocked slightly as it came to rest in its hangar, as Icivia and Joannis approached. "Alright, cabs are waiting just out of the dock for us, Icivia will have Garrus, Wrex, and Ashley with her, Icivia leads. Arlas, Liara, Kaidan, you three with me. It's a fifteen minute drive, and our guests will see themselves off as they are able."
Arlas turned to Icivia as everyone began filing in, and held out his hand. "I will take a biotic inhibitor."
Icivia gave him a death glare, before entering the decon room. "And why would I give you one?"
He ignored the others watching and listening. "Because as a teleporter, I am most likely to get it on Benezia without killing her first."
That made the turian pause, before pulling a pair of devices out of one of her belt pouches. "Push the button on the back, then place at the base of the neck. It will only work for a minute on a matriarch of her power before the device burns out, but that should be enough time for us to subdue her and get something that isn't disposable on her."
Liara gave him a quick smile as relief poured off of her, apparently taking comfort in his attempt at taking her mother alive. He didn't react to her, already sealed in his armor, and instead examined the devices he had been handed. It was unpainted metal and had three articulated prongs with some kind of suction device on the underside. At the end of each prong was a ring, and he could see a small needle in the end of each. He nodded to the turian spectre, before reaching up and grabbing a handrail from the ceiling.
A full minute after entry, the decon chamber opened, and the eight ground team moved to the waiting vehicles. As they entered the rented vehicles, Kaidan and Icivia's omnitools beeped, but the tech waited until the vehicle was moving before checking them. After a moment, Kaidan groaned, and connected his tool to the dash of the car, bringing up a view screen. It showed an asari standing behind a wall, with a bullet passing behind her every few seconds. "This is reporter Ophelmia Provola of Thessia News, reporting live from Athame Park, where Asari Republic royal troops have engaged in a pitched battle. The royal troops arrived in the park nearly a quarter hour ago, and began evacuating the area and setting up defenses, and refused to answer any questions as to their purposes. Less than a two minutes ago, a group of asari entered the park from the south entrance, making their way toward the primary Temple of Athame. We have no idea who they were or what their goals were, but the commander of the royal troops ordered them to stand down, lay down their arms, and surrender. Instead, the group attacked. The royal troops are holding firm, but are clearly being pushed…"
Arlas sighed as the camera swung around to show the park, and a group of asari in black leathers fighting a larger group of asari in gold and red leathers with actual plating on them. While the gold and red plating side outnumbered the black leathers, the leathers were relentless, and didn't break or even flinch even as two of their own went down silently. The eldar could see the red and golds losing momentum even as the blacks lost numbers, shifting backwards, and then suddenly a second group of black leather clad asari came out of the alley on their right flank, already firing as they advanced. Arlas frowned as he watched, he had studied military tactics extensively in his 'free' time, and what he was seeing was concerning.
The red and golds gave ground, refusing to hold the line, one of them already talking into an omnitool, the others covering each other, moving quickly and erratically, and while a couple had been hit, none had died. The wounded were still fighting and moving, covering their sisters with fire and biotics, and retreating as best they can. But the black leather group had already lost seven, now nine, and fought like he knew the geth did. He doubted anyone else caught the mechanical movements, how each black leather picked a target and fired until they couldn't target them, before moving to the next target. How each black leather moved in the fastest line at a dead sprint, no change of speed or direction unless the cover was destroyed before they got to it. It was nothing like how the asari were supposed to fight.
Arlas sighed in the privacy of his helm as the screen clicked off, before Joannis turned to Liara. "Liara, did you see your mother in the feed? And who were those 'royal troops?'"
"Yes, she was with a third group, waiting near the entrance to the park while the first groups cleared the area. As for the royal troops, those are asari that have pledged themselves to the Empress and her family. Right now, that is just her eldest daughter, Lyleeria V'Zaeva, but in a half century her youngest daughter will also be publicly announced and granted her command from it. Those are some of the best asari troops in existence, and have the best training and equipment."
Arlas snorted. "And yet they are giving ground to half again their number."
Icivia cut in over the communicator before they could descend further into the argument. "We are five minutes out, and the Royal Troops are calling for help. Any idea why they were there in the first place?"
Joannis shrugged. "Could be one of our guests called ahead, and notified the royal family of Benezia's arrival. But that is nowhere near the law firm Benezia should be heading towards, right Liara?"
"Correct, the law firm is on the east side of the city, while the park is nearly in the center."
Arlas leaned back in the back seat, getting comfortable as he stopped listening to the conversation. They would figure out what the asari target was thinking when they captured her, or they could keep guessing after she had died. Either way, the Eldar wasn't concerned. He did returning to the conversation as Joannis spoke. "Alright, two minutes from the park. Local reports show Benezia advancing north toward the main temple of Athame in the city, so we will set up about a minute ahead of her on the north side of the park. I have coordinated with the local troops that attempted to bar her way, and they will be providing support after they regroup, more are en route; they were expecting Benezia to be on her own, not having troops, so were equipped to resist biotics, not bullets, according to the local officer. Arlas, you are on the flanks, stir them around and keep them from focusing, but be ready to assist if they do a suicide push. Liara, you said you have to directly challenge her, so front and center, but be smart about it. Garrus..."
Arlas stopped actively listening again, as he had his assignment. No one spoke to him during the rest of the trip, so he came out of his meditations as the aircar suddenly banked and slowed. A moment later the vehicle came to a halt, and the others began climbing out. Arlas jumped out, and looked around, taking in the soaring buildings, and abundant plant life, before humming softly to himself. "Apparently the asari are more aware of aesthetics than I anticipated."
He cursed silently to himself as the three mon-keigh turned toward him, not aware he had been speaking out loud. Joannis had a mischievous grin on her face, and he moved to quickly cut it off. "At least compared to the humans. Focus mon-keigh. I am going up to snipe."
The eldar pathfinder fired his integrated grappling hook into a nearby building, pulling himself up before activating his jump jets. It took less than half a minute to scale the small building, only a hundred meters tall, where he activated his cloak before getting out his long rifle. A quick examination of the building showed no real cover at the edge, so he simply picked a spot before sighting in the rifle. A quick sweep showed the group setting up at the top of the ramp leading to the temple, a handful of the gold and red leather asari falling in with them and Liara right in the middle of the ramp, standing tall even though he could see signs of pain in her posture.
Done checking his team, though he couldn't stop himself from snorting in amusement at using that term to include mon-keigh, he turned back to the park, and quickly counted the number of black leathers approaching, but froze when he saw Benezia for the first time in person. It had to be her, wearing a form fitting black dress, a few black strips of hardened cloth on her forehead giving her the impression of a crown. But she was so… gaunt, like she had been starved. She looked more like a skeleton with skin or an asari version of death itself than the mother Liara had often talked about before she had learned that Benezia was working with Saren. He shuddered, before suddenly frowning. He had seen far worse in his wanderings than this, so why had his mind revolted against further examination of the target? The only times it had done that before was when the target had stronger psyker potential than him, or the one time he had encountered a necron lord.
Pushing the mystery aside, he activated his communicator on the squad channel, idly noting the new name on the list; likely the asari commander. "Joannis, Arlas, forty three black leather asari approaching, Benezia sighted at rear. Permission to engage?"
The human turned to Liara, and conversed as the hostiles approached. "Negative Arlas, Liara has to initiate this fight, otherwise Saren might be able to keep his mitts on the funds. And remember, we are trying to take Benezia alive. The guards are a non priority, but we would like a few for questioning. Wait for Benezia to start flinging biotics, Liara won't, then light up the blacks. Remember, your job is to keep them from focusing us down. They are heading for the temple behind us, so we can't move."
He hummed a few bars in the eldar language, before remembering that the mon-keigh didn't know it. "Orders received."
Arlas grumbled to himself, speaking eldar to a mon-keigh, he was starting to go native. And after only six months? Something was wrong with him, it couldn't just be the lack of background psy-noise. And it had really only started on Feros. He dismissed the thought as gun fire suddenly broke the silence. His head snapped back to his scope, spotting the three leading black leathers firing at Liara. A hasty barrier from Joannis ensured the asari got into cover, as more of the black leathers took cover and began firing at the others.
He could hear Liara calling something to Benezia, but he was focused on his long rifle, sighting the furthest black leather from him, and removing her head with a squeeze of the trigger. He smirked as the upgrades Tali and Garrus had installed did their work, an extended, high velocity barrel, armor piercing kinetic coils, and a tracking, high magnification and multi-spectrum scope, on top of the phasic ammo, all combined to ensure the asari hadn't even realized she was in danger before she was dead. The only problem with the rifle was that it couldn't fire more than once every three and three quarter seconds, which was an eternity for an eldar sniper.
By the time he had fired his third shot, he knew the situation was bad. Benezia had spouted some garbage about being a mother and being more strict with her daughter, and the black leathers were pressing. Two of the local supporting asari were dead already, but another four of the six remaining were badly wounded, in spite of killing eight of the black leather asari. The black leathers were simply bombarding the terrace the group was using as cover with biotics, firing their assault rifles when they weren't flinging biotics. Liara, Kaidan, and Joannis were blocking what they could with their barriers, but there were just so many opponents.
Cursing, Arlas fired his fourth shot, this time managing to kill one asari and hit another as the bullet over penetrated, before folding the rifle onto his back and drawing his fusion gun and sword. He set himself, and then warp jumped, performing a zha'til counter charge, landing right in the middle of three asari rebels. His sword slashed twice, and the fusion gun screamed once, before he sprinted for the nearest pillar. He performed two flips to dodge a burst of fire, before sliding behind the pillar. Out of sight, Arlas jumped again, firing his fusion gun as he landed, a technique perfected during the skirmishes with the densorin, vanguards leaping behind turrets to decimate their operators, opening the way for the follow up troops to push in.
Arlas froze, at the sudden realization he didn't know that word, but a sudden biotic push staggered him, bringing his mind back to the fight. He jumped again, avoiding several biotic attacks, and mentally kicked himself as he landed in cover. Figure out what is wrong with you later, fight now.
He stayed behind the pillar for a couple seconds longer than necessary, letting the asari waste bullets and attacks on an attacker that didn't materialize, and let his allies reacquire the initiative. Wrex's charge in particular was effective at getting attention, as he had killed one asari on impact with the biotic charge, and then used a second one as a flail at the four nearest, cackling madly. Garrus was sniping with his long rifle, Icivia was throwing disposable turrets and tech attacks with abandon, and Liara had finally gotten her mother's attention by starting a biotic duel with her. The others were attacking the black leathers, but even with half their number dead and climbing, they still didn't break, didn't falter; by the Warp, the eldar wasn't even sure if they had blinked.
Another asari died, and the other simply shifted, solidifying Arlas' suspicion that something else was going on here. These weren't fanatics, these asari were acting more like they were suffering from some sort of mind control, admittedly more subtle than any he had ever heard of. Done analyzing the situation, he warp jumped above the asari, only a hundred meters, and pulled his long rifle out again, hovering on the jump jets as he fired down at them.
He watched Liara stagger as Benezia hit her with a powerful lift, but used her own biotics to counter it, and then deflect a warp with a barrier. Benezia's singularity was countered with a warp, detonating it early, before she froze, succumbing to a stasis attack.
Arlas swore as his brain sped up, realizing what Benezia would do next. Singularity right on top of Liara, and then detonate it when Liara came out of it, shredding the young asari. She would be dead before she could counter it or even understand what had happened. He slammed his rifle onto his back as he drew his sword, checking to see if the others were able to do anything. None of them seemed to have noticed the threat to Liara, too busy engaging the black leather asari, or in Kaidan's case performing first aid to save the gold and red armored asari who were still alive.
Seeing no one else in position to prevent disaster was no surprise to the Eldar, so he simply warped in behind Benezia, his free hand diving into a pouch for one of the biotic inhibitors. "Asari, your..."
Arlas actually yelped in shock as he warp jumped to avoid a high speed biotic warp, not expecting a walking corpse to move so quickly. She hadn't participated or even reacted to the battle, and her attacks against Liara had goaded him into a false sense of superiority, believing he could easily dodge her attacks. Even with his reactions, she had nearly taken his head off. Landing safely, and now more aware of her speed, he tried again. "That was…"
He dodged what looked like a throw orb, landing back where she nearly warped his head off. "Must you…"
Another dodge as a singularity bloomed next to him, nearly yanking him off his feet. "Can I…"
This time the asari matriarch screamed, energy blasting outward in a crackling sphere, throwing him nearly ten meters before he managed to land on his feet. He recognized it as a nova attack, the signature attack of the other twin. Arlas was grateful his psy-shields were working again, though they were somewhat unreliable. "Are you done yet?"
Benezia turned and dropped another singularity behind her, bracketing her back with the previous one, preventing him from easily getting behind her. "This is not over. Saren is unstoppable. My mind is filled with his light, and everything is clear!"
Arlas didn't respond, simply shifting toward the side covered with the new singularity. The other singularity from her fight with Liara was still going, approaching the two minute mark. But even as he checked on it, the singularity near the stasised Liara collapsed with a loud bang, making him note the time, even as he resisted the urge to check on the friendly asari. Almost one hundred thirty seconds exactly. That has me impressed, for an ability a non-psyker used.
Instead, he spoke, delaying the asari. "Sounds like you are trying to convince yourself rather than me. Though I must say, you are quite surprising. I didn't expect someone to strike their own daughter with such intent to kill, especially considering how highly she spoke of you."
The older asari's face sneered at him. "I will not be moved by sympathy, no matter who you mention or bring into this fight. I do what must be done."
He took a subtle step back, his opponent matching his step, pulling her out of the safety of her two singularities. Have to time this just right. Immediately after the singularity detonates, jump, land, attach inhibitor, beat unconscious. Not subtle, but I don't do subtle.
"You say that like I haven't heard it before, countless times. I stopped them, just like I will you, and then go on to stop Saren."
Arlas couldn't hear fighting anymore, but the others weren't intruding, giving him the ability to stall her. He didn't check on his allies however, keeping his focus on his opponent. Therefore, he was ready to act as she suddenly staggered forward two steps, giving him enough room to jump behind her. He landed as her head came up. "Wait, you must…"
He didn't hesitate, placing the biotic inhibitor on her neck even as she tried to turn toward him. She paused, her entire body suddenly stiffening as her back arched. He jumped away before the oldest singularity detonated, and could see she was crying, her mouth opened in a silent scream of agony, eyes rolled back into her head as she jerked, as if having convulsions. He reached out with his left hand, grabbing her shoulder, his right hand raising to strike her on the temple with his sword hilt, hopefully rendering her unconscious.
As soon as his left hand touched her shoulder, though, he jerked back, releasing her shoulder with a startled oath. He hadn't been shielding his mind when he had touched her, not believing he would need it, and had learned a few things as their minds unexpectedly touched. First was that the asari matriarch had minor psyker potential. Not a significant talent, but enough that the wraithbone prosthetic arm had reacted to her. Second, her mind was… difficult to describe, but it felt like her mind was encased, or maybe submerged, in a thin, greasy liquid. Third, was that the 'biotic' inhibitor was affecting the 'liquid' in her mind, causing it to feedback onto itself, which caused the convulsions.
Arlas hesitated.
He finally screamed a curse in his own head, before activating the omnitool and loading an overload program with a practiced movement of his hand. Arlas didn't fire it, instead slapping the omnitool beside Benezia's head, and discharged it directly into her, causing her convulsions to stop and her to collapse. He quickly caught her before plucking the sparking and hissing biotic inhibitor off the back of her neck. He hissed in pain as electricity arced to him, before flicking the broken inhibitor aside with all the haste he could muster. He shook the residual electricity from his hand as he hauled Benezia up onto his shoulder, before glancing back at the mon-keigh. "I thought you wanted her alive for questioning?"
Joannis shook her head, before turning to Icivia. "Icivia, get Liara, Arlas, and Benezia back to the ship. Tell Chakwas to keep her sedated until we know why she went into convulsions from the inhibitor."
Arlas glanced at the eldar and her guardian, the gyrinx staring back at him as the female eldar shifted. Liara however was oblivious to his interest. "Doctor Chakwas, what can you tell me about... my mother? Why she... had convulsions?"
The human sighed, before shaking her head. "I have done scans, but…"
Chakwas glanced at the datapad in her hand, before tapping it to bring up an overlay over the asari on the third bed of the medbay. She glanced at Icivia and then Arlas, but at Liara's insistent gesture continued. "She is suffering from severe malnutrition and moderate dehydration. She also has several healing bone fractures to both arms and legs, multiple contusions and lacerations in various states of healing on both arms, legs, chest, neck, and face."
Chakwas paused, looking at Arlas and Icivia, before gesturing to the door. "I would like to talk to Liara alone about the further injuries her mother has."
Neither of them moved to leave. Icivia spoke first, mandibles spread and her head shaking. "Absolutely not. Until she is in a biotic inhibitor collar and cuffs, I am not leaving her in here without at least three guards. Once the guards finish converting one of the smaller rooms to a cell, she will be moved in there and kept in isolation until we finish interrogating her, and the judicial courts decide which race gets to press charges."
Arlas simple glanced back at the table with his kins-woman. "She will be waking up soon, and you do not desire an eldar bonded to a gyrinx to waken without at least one other eldar to inform them as to why they are on a mon-keigh ship."
His statement made all three women glance at the far examination table, only to see the gyrinx calmly returning their stares. Liara shook her head and recovered first. "Doctor, please continue."
Doctor Chakwas sighed, before nodding. "Your mother also appears to have been beaten and raped several times from her wounds, and judging from the damage my scans showed, it was not a recent development."
Liara's face paled, her expression shocked, but Icivia's tone was disbelieving. "You mean to tell me someone, probably Saren, managed to rape an asari matriarch repeatedly, and didn't get slapped with a singularity and then warped into their next life? I find that… hard to believe."
Arlas rolled his eyes. "You can discuss and argue about her willingness to submit later. Have you discovered why she reacted as she did to the inhibitor?"
Doctor Chakwas quickly reminded him of the old adage of why one never angered a healer when she glared at him, but answered anyway. "No, but I could find no biological reason for the inhibitor to malfunction like that."
Arlas hummed, before turning back to the unconscious asari. "When I touched her, I sensed something in her mind. Something I have never encountered before and unnatural."
That caused the conversation to pause, as Chakwas did a quick scan with some of the tech attached to the medical bed. As it finished, she frowned. "Despite being unconscious, she is also showing extensive beta and gamma brainwave activity. Which is very unusual as she should be mostly delta waves, with some theta waves, and a spike of an alpha wave once every couple of minutes. There is definitely something going on here."
Arlas frowned, but before he could respond he felt a mental groan. He sighed, before turning and striding over to the table with the eldar, only to get pushed back by the gyrinx's psyker powers, while the gyrinx dropped into a combat stance and hissed at him. He gave the gyrinx a flat stare, before stopping next to the medical bed, only to get shoved away again. *(Stop that before you annoy me.)*
Arlas was mildly thankful the other eldar regained awareness before he lost another exchange with the gyrinx. He could feel Icivia's eyes on his back, sliding to the gyrinx and back, and could hear his credibility plummeting. The eldar woman brought her hand up to her forehead, before pushing herself upright. She gasped in pain, one hand going to her forehead, before her mind reached out, sensing her surroundings.
Arlas quickly brushed his mind against hers, greeting his fellow eldar mentally. *Greetings, I am pathfinder Arlas of craftworld Ae'Imedra. You are on a mon-keigh vessel, of several different species. So please refrain from abrupt actions. And please tell the gyrinx to stand down, before it damages my credibility even more.*
He shot the gyrinx a glare and a thought of disdain, only to get it returned. He felt a surge of amusement from the female, and waited for her to reply. It took a moment for her, and the weakness of the mental voice made it clear she was still recovering from the improper awakening from the cryostasis. *I am Quel'Nayrae... bonesinger… of craftworld… Ae'Imedra. This is Prarmer... my friend and guardian.*
Arlas took a step forward, only to get pushed back by the gyrinx again. *(What is your ancestors be damned problem, Prarmer?)*
He would admit it was less than diplomatic, but he let his frustration with everything seep into his thoughts. It showed less than perfect control, and would likely hurt Quel'Nayrae's trust in him, but it made him feel better. He did not expect a mental spike of pure hostility from the gyrinx in return however. Both eldar turned to the gyrinx in surprise, but a brief mental conversation between Quel'Nayrae and Prarmer caused the gyrinx to stand down, though he still glared at Arlas. It was surprisingly effective, considering the glare was coming from a meter long ball of brown fur and green slit eyes with red ears and white stripes on his sides.
The glare only got harder as Arlas noted the gyrinx's appearance, but the Quel'Nayrae sent ripples of amusement, before reaching an arm out. He helped her to her feet, only to catch her as her legs abruptly buckled. He mentally waved off a feeling of thanks tinged with embarrassment, before carefully slipping his arm around her chest. Such contact would be unseemly back at the craftworld, but falling in front of mon-keigh was even less so. But then Quel'Nayrae glanced at the asari unconscious on the third bed, and she mentally gagged. *(By Khaine, what is wrong with her?)*
Arlas sent a mental shrug in reply. *(I do not know, but that is why I want you out of here. I have a lander below, you can use the personal room. I will move my things into the armory.)*
She gave him a feeling of surprise, before letting him help her out of the medbay. Once they were in the elevator, she opened her mind to converse, only to stop when he sent back caution. He knew she had questions, but right now he did not have time. He gave her a brief over what had happened, starting from him extracting her stasis pod, until now, which got them to the hangar bay. As the elevator finally got to the bottom, she asked her first question since leaving the medical bay. *(Why are their lifts so slow?)*
Arlas snorted in amusement, before letting her walk to the lander, her strength recovering as she had moved about. *(When I get a straight answer, I will let you know.)*
Her surprised laughter echoed through the nearly empty hangar, only three humans in it to hear, but judging by how their heads snapped around, they hadn't heard anything quite like it. And judging by how all three of them stared, they had never seen one like Quel'Nayrae before. Arlas shot them a glare, as Prarmer gathered psyker energies to give himself a visible aura, quickly convincing the humans to return to their business. After convincing the mon-keigh to get back to work, he turned back to the lander, where Quel'Nayrae was examining the unique vehicle already.
She was clad in the simple black body suits all Eldar wore outside the craftworld, clinging to her lithe, athletic form. Her void black hair was longer than his own, reaching down to mid thigh and done in a single, elaborate, eye catchingly elegant braid. Her pale emerald eyes were examining the minor damages done by the geth on Noveria, which he still hadn't had time to fix. She was simply… Eldar, grace and elegance in a perfect package, like all Eldar were.
He forced himself to focus as he realized his thoughts were turning caustic, before realizing the gyrinx was glaring at him again. He sent back his distaste to the gyrinx, before heading up the ramp to strip out of his armor, change into a tabard, remove his personal effects from the cabin and place them in a storage container in the armory. He took only a couple minutes to complete his tasks, before moving his few personal possessions, a trio of pictures, a pair of small memory crystals, and a handful of other objects in a storage container into the armory. He then set up a small section for him to rest and recover in, before putting his pistol on his hip and his sword on his back.
Arlas then introduced Quel'Nayrae and Prarmer to Kap'Eiyl and Yol'Pvera, the first and third quickly moving to a private conversation, having known each other before Kap'Eiyl had died. Prarmer simply moved into the cabin, and curled up on the bed. Yol'Pvera didn't do more than simply greet Quel'Nayrae, before turning her focus back to her vessel. Realizing he was done assisting Quel'Nayrae with what he could, he headed for the hangar fabricator to work on making a working chainsword for Wrex.
Two and a half days later, Arlas stepped into the CiC of the Normandy with the air of a man about to kill something. He looked around before spotting Joannis at one of the terminals before making his way over to her. "Please tell me we are there."
Joannis glanced up with amused curiosity, but answered anyway. "About a minute out, actually. I was going to contact you after we oriented and contacted the security frigate in the system. Sensing something wrong?"
He shook his head, not bothering to inform her about purely Eldar matters. His recent falling out with the bonesinger due to his inability to maintain his equipment to bonesinger standards was not a concern for a human. He glanced at the cockpit, before heading to the nearest wall to wait. He was in his pathfinder carapace armor, the rune armor he had been using had been confiscated by the bonesinger for repairs, hence their current falling out. Arlas was dreading her reaction once she finally noticed the wreckage of the Vyper in the corner of the hangar, broken but no longer slowly degrading back to warp energies.
As he contemplated her reaction, the Normandy lurched as it dropped out of FTL. The mon-keigh still didn't appear to notice it, and Arlas was long since acclimated to it, but a sudden psionic curse made him smile slightly. Quel'Nayrae had survived her second FTL deceleration just fine.
"SAS Orleans, this is SAS Normandy, please respond. Security code Zulu-Epsilon-Seven Niner-Zero-Alpha Alpha-Gold-Eight-Yankee."
He glanced at Joannis, standing at the podium above the hologram that currently displayed their location, a star system with only three stars in it. The rest of the light display was empty, making his paranoia kick into overtime; thoughts of betrayal flashing through his mind.
"SAS Orleans, this SAS Normandy. Please respond."
Or maybe not, the human was sounding confused, not a good sign. She had waited a minute between sending the security code and the second hail, and now looked to be trying for a third time. "SAS Orleans, respond immediately. This is SAS Normandy, sending Spectre and Systems Alliance authentication codes."
Silence echoed through the CiC, before she turned to one of the humans at a station. "Serviceman Douglas, fire up the sensors, I want to know why they aren't responding."
Arlas actually grimaced at the order, before mentally reaching out to Quel'Nayrae and the two spirit stones. *Humans are about to be noisy, protect your psy-hearing.*
He barely finished the warning when his world suddenly rocked, not-light and noise blaring in his head for an eternity. A glance at the clock as it ended showed it had been less than a second in real time, but he could hear someone mentally snarling in shock and anger. *Oh, right, warn the gyrinx please.*
He ignored the mental snarl from the gyrinx, the amusement from Kap'Eiyl, and the disbelief from Quel'Nayrae and Yol'Pvera, turning to the humans. *Kap'Eiyl, we got the wraithguard repaired. Mount up and bring the shuriken cannon. We are hunting possible mon-keigh chaos cultists.*
Kap'Eiyl sent a feeling of agreement and vicious glee. *Not feeling any taint, but best to be ready. Planning on taking the lander across? And how many of the mon-keigh?*
*Yes, and the twins only. Hate to have to shoot more than I have to.*
He glanced over at the star system display, which was now showing two more contacts in between the three stars, a binary star with the third orbiting them. One was labeled as space station Houska, and the other was labeled as SAS Orleans, but had a question mark after it. After a moment of examining the map, Joannis spoke. "Full stealth mode, Joker, bring us around on an oblique path, we should have more than enough time to get in close before the sinks need to discharge."
One of the sensor techs spoke up. "Ma'am, not picking up any active pings in the system."
Arlas frowned behind his helmet, as Joannis spoke. "None? Right, Joker, microjump us closer."
The Eldar watched as the icon for the ship pulse, displaying a second icon a 'short' ways from the station, at least in stellar terms. The destination was still a couple light minutes from the station, if the scale was correct. He didn't bother warning Quel'Nayrae about the jump, it was only a couple seconds long, and was rewarded with a second curse, followed quickly by an even viler curse when they reverted before she could correct herself, falling over.
Arlas didn't reply too busy turning to Joannis after seeing what the scanners picked up. "No recordings. At all. I will enforce that."
He turned back to the sensor station, showing the frigate, its symbol of alliance to the local humans defaced by an eight pointed star with a skull in the center. The Eldar glanced back at Joannis. "Destroy that thing. Now."
The entire crew turned to him, shocked, but he kept his gaze on the Lioness. After a moment, she glanced at the sensor technician. "Anything from the Orleans?"
The human female shook her head, and reviewed the data, before gasping. "Ma'am, the other side of the ship is gone."
"...What?"
"A directed scan is showing that the far side of the Orleans is gone. Can't tell for sure from this side, but it looks like it is melted. Not detecting any active power sources, life signs, or even heat sources above standard background. It has been completely dead at least a day, judging from the scans."
They were above and to the right of the desecrated ship, approaching the station. Arlas glanced at the scan as the ship moved around the hulk before stiffening. Globs of armor had congealed near the ship, but the sensor tech was correct in that the hull had been melted in a way Arlas was familiar with, both from boarding ships with that kind of damage and surviving his own vessel being hit.
A plasma attack had destroyed that ship.
Arlas glanced at the human commander. "We will take my lander across. You, your sister, myself, and the walker. And no recordings. At all. I leave in five minutes."
Arlas took the stairs down to the mess hall, then the elevator to the hangar. While descending, he reached out to the others. *Yol'Pvera, prepare to sortie. We obliterate the chaos heavy bomber, then board the station.*
Quel'Nayrae sent her own question. *I presume you require my assistance?*
*Absolutely not. This is a scouting mission into a chaos infested space station. A bonesinger would be required if we planned to do anything other than blow it out of the Void at the end. We run into anything a wraithguard and a pathfinder can't deal with, we aren't going to have time for you to build a turret. The two mon-keigh are coming to see what their Khaine be damned ignorance has wrought, otherwise I would have Yol'Pvera sortie long enough to purge both targets. I want them to see the cultists and whatever they have summoned.*
He kept his mind clear of any censure, she was asking a question and he was correcting her assumption. He politely ignored the thread of relief she allowed, as well as how the gyrinx's mind relaxed when he understood his partner wasn't going into the fray. He stepped out of the elevator and strode to the armory, stopping only long enough to grab his geth long rifle, his shuriken catapult, the fusion gun, and a handful of grenades. This wasn't going to be a long fight, just enough to get the Twins to understand why he had reacted as he had.
Quel'Nayrae retreated to the armory, avoiding the humans 'polluting' the troop bay, though he could hear her thinking about cleansing it to get the mon-keigh traces out. He let the twins get seated, before having Yol'Pvera fly the lander to the station, diverting enough to fire the Pulsar at the derelict local chaos frigate. *I refuse to call that thing a frigate. It is barely armored, completely lacking and weapons, and I suspect a single Nightwing fighter could kill a squad of them with ease. Those are, at most, bombers, and at worst targets.*
He ignored the outcries from the humans in the bay at the casual destruction of the frigate, and chuckled back at Yol'Pvera. *I agree, but let them have their delusions. Once the craftworld and its fleets arrive, they will learn how pathetically under-powered they are. Though running them down will take some doing. It will be good for the fleet, bunch of lazy…*
Yol'Pvera twisted the wraithbone below him, knocking him out of mental alignment with her to stop his comment. *I was with the fleet before becoming a builder.*
Her tone shifts to professional, including the troop bay which now has Kap'Eiyl as well as the humans. *Landing in one minute. Target is the main bay. Prepare to repel local defenses.*
Arlas made his way back to the troop bay, letting Yol'Pvera bring the lander in. "Expected hostiles are daemons and cultists. First out is Kap'Eiyl, he has a wraithcannon, so stay behind him. You get sucked into another dimension, I am not going hunting for you. I will be rearguard. Twins, left and right flanks. I strongly suggest shooting everything that moves, but I doubt you two will listen."
Joannis gave him a flat look. "We are here to save lives, not mindlessly kill everything. And we will be talking later about you obliterating System Alliance property without waiting for authorization."
Arlas simply gave her the briefest of glances, his helmet hiding his expression. "And I am saving souls. Infinitely more important."
The lander shuddered as it came to rest, and Yol'Pvera interrupted the argument. *The station hangar lacks atmosphere, so sealed armor will be required.*
Arlas snorted, before checking his armor to ensure he had sealed it. He had, but he had learned the benefits of checking one last time to be sure. The Twins put on their helmets, their visors already integrated into the modular helms. Kap'Eiyl just sent his amusement. Once everyone had reported sealed armors Arlas opened the bay door, and let the wraithguard stride into the hangar.
After a few seconds of nothing happening, Arlas nudged Jaclyn's shoulder. "One of you two were next."
The Twins shot him a glare, before they both stalked out of the lander. He waited a second before following them out, his long rifle sweeping the hangar. The only thing in the hangar other than the group and the lander was the wreckage of a shuttle in a painted circle, and three other empty circles. "Joannis, how many shuttles should this station have?"
He got a shrug in reply, but heard her open the communicator back to the ship. "Lieutenant Pressley, check the records for the station, see how many shuttles they should have. Let us know when we get back."
Arlas nodded, before following Kap'Eiyl through the open airlock at the back of the hangar, letting the twins drop back to rearguard position, clearly unnerved by either the situation or the location.
Truth be told, Arlas was getting unnerved as well.
The station was dead and empty. No lights, no air, no power, nothing. There were a few spots where bulkheads had been deployed but something had melted through them, causing them to run and congeal into polished, uneven puddles of metal. A couple of the rooms had been coated in soot, like something had burned through the room with a flamethrower thoroughly enough to prevent him from discerning what had been burned. Even the walls were covered in it, indicating someone had been extremely methodical and thorough in their cleansing of this place.
It wasn't until they got to the heart of the station that Arlas found anything intact enough to identify. KAp'Eiyl stepped in first, and did a quick sweep of the room, before turning back to Arlas. *Nothing alive.*
Arlas sent his understanding, before stepping into the center, and cursing loudly. A mostly melted device was sitting proudly in the center of the room, and everything else was even less recognizable. Arlas recognized the device, however, having used a couple of them on his last mission before coming to through the Abandoned Webgate. It was a powerful melta bomb, meant to destroy everything within the blast radius, though on his last mission he had mixed a few regular bombs in for variety and to spread the debris. A quick glance around made him mental snarl in frustration, though he was surprised as Quel'Nayrae responded to his mental cry first. *What is going on over there?*
Arlas simply glanced at the extremely distinctive holes in the walls, ones he had seen dozens of times before in his life, as well as slightly smaller holes that were far more common. He glanced back at the melted bulkhead, and the hallway lined with soot, before shaking his head. He broadcast his thoughts out, but didn't include the two humans. *They used flamethrowers, what looks like a plasma cannon for the bulkheads, a heavy bolter, and several bolters. We were beaten here by what appears to be an Astartes Squad.*
A/N - Next week the current poll closes, and the most anticipated and shocking moment of Mass Effect goes to the poll. You veteran players know what I am referring to.
And if anyone is curious as to what the long rifle Arlas uses is, it is a prototype of the geth Javelin from ME3, with four mods and an extra ammo mod. Yes, it breaks the game rules, and no, I don't care that it does. In war, the side that makes the second to last mistake wins, and that is the only rule. So if a character can fit eight mods on a weapon in the story, they can do it. Though you have no idea how strong the urge was to make the maximum range of the long rifle 400 meters (same as it was in Mass Effect; as an infiltrator, I KNEW the arbitrary range limit, and cursed it several times), and have Arlas make snide comments.