Chapter 29 - Competing Factions
A/N - Eldar 'speech' will be using all three speech indicators, like so "(*This is eldar speech.*)" This is mostly because the Eldar are not going to be teaching their language to anyone, so everyone else will not understand it. Yet.
As a reminder, the current speech/communication indicators and what they mean: "speech" | *mental speech/thoughts* | (nonverbal communications) | {untranslated} | "(*Eldar language*)" |
Update 1: A reviewer point out I lost a plot thread, so adding a new section and reposting to tie off that plot.
Update 2: Fixed a lore problem, a couple punctuation errors, and some typos . Hopefully this is the last time I have to repost this chapter.
'I came to save the faithful. A pity all I found were heretics, mutants, and xenos.' - Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor
Joannis turned her attention to Arlas, who was sitting at the back of the bay as they headed back to the Normandy, as far from the twins as he could. Considering he had ordered them back to the bay after they had gotten to the central room, letting them see only scorch marks and grenade blasts. Jaclyn had finally stopped cursing Arlas and whoever had beaten them there, letting her speak. "So, did you show us what you wanted?
She hated how he would barely acknowledge whoever he was talking to at times, but the moments where she realized he was fully focused on her were infinitely worse. It was like staring down an enraged Mindior stone bear. "No."
Jaclyn's cursing took on a new vigor, making her look back to see the station dissolving in fire, before a bright white beam lanced into the explosion, making it even bigger. Joannis turned back to the eldar, glaring at him. "Was that necessary?"
"Consider it the price of correcting your mistake."
"Are we going to get an explanation as to why you reacted as you did?"
"No. Ignorance is the only defense against it, and even knowledge of it can corrupt. You didn't listen to my first warning on the Guided Wrath, this station died. And with one shuttle missing, we can only hope the next thing to die isn't a planet."
"All hands, this is the captain speaking, we will arriving at the Citadel in fifteen minutes."
Arlas ignored the rest of the message, focusing on Quel'Nayrae. *(And that is what has occurred since your host left.)*
He had been giving her a history lesson, as well as a summary of his mission so far, trying to convince the newest Eldar he was not fallen. She had been less than pleased when Arlas had greeted Tali coming out of the elevator to resume her duties after finally being released from medical, so the pathfinder had given the bonesinger a full debrief. Now he waited as the bonesinger absorbed everything. All the victories and defeats, the alliances and betrayals, the desperate gambles that succeeded and the assured tactics that failed, all of it that he knew. Neither bothered to react to the ship rocking slightly as the Normandy docked.
She had quietly listened to the whole history, one hand idly stroking Prarmer as she considered everything he had said. Her musings were interrupted after a short while by the sound of Arlas' omnitool pinging, and both Quel'Nayrae and Prarmer gave him a flat stare. Arlas sighed, before activating the omnitool. "Lioness, if the ship is not about to explode…"
"We need you to come with us to convince the Council to let us hold onto Matriarch Benezia longer. We announced it a quarter an hour ago."
Both eldar and the gyrinx stared at the omnitool, then at Arlas as he broadcast his exasperation before replying. "That is unfortunate. Perhaps if I had been informed ahead of time, I would not be doing something else."
He closed the communicator program, then disconnected the omnitool from the network, before standing and heading for the troop bay. He answered the spike of curiosity from the other eldar. *(To build something with their materials. I will be in the bay to not disturb you.)*
Arlas stepped out of the armory and took a seat in the troop bay. He flipped open the omnitool and began working on a weapon design, but had barely started when someone began pounding at the bay door. Yol'Pvera contacted him. *Angry mon'keigh at the bay door. Again.*
Arlas sent his exasperation, before mentally twisting the wraithbone near him to open the door. He didn't bother looking up from his omnitool. "Lynx."
The angrier twin was glaring at him from the bottom of the ramp, arms resting behind her in the 'warrior neutral' body position, but rather than in her normal armor, she was wearing a stiff outfit, dark blue with gold highlights. A floppy hat sat on her head, too small to provide protection from either the elements or bullets. After a few seconds she spoke. "Is there a reason you aren't coming to try and convince the councilors and the human ambassador that Benezia would be better off with us? Other than sheer pique at not being notified sooner?"
He mentally applauded the angry human, she was learning to control her temper. "Because your leaders will be even less likely to listen to me than you. I see no reason to waste my time."
Lynx blinked, opening her mouth twice before finding her voice again. "You were actually in Benezia's head, you could tell them what you experienced…"
Arlas finally looked up from his omnitool to give her a flat stare. "I would need to use words your languages don't have to describe a sense none of the races other than mine have. Of course they will believe me."
Jaclyn was being dense today, and not giving up easily. "But your presence would…"
"Encourage them to be diplomatic and waste more time. They already have made their decisions, my presence will not change their decision."
"Do you think you could at least help Benezia though?"
The question made Arlas snap his omnitool off, before standing to glare at the impudent human. "Do you have any idea what you are asking? I did not complete the basic training of the warlock, and you are asking if I am a mind healer?The damage I could do to myself? To her?"
Jaclyn looked him right in the eye, her expression carefully blank and her thoughts laced with amusement. "No."
The eldar resisted the urge to punch the human. "Then understand when I say that the damage would kill us both. If we were favored. While I MIGHT be able to help, I will not bother to even contemplate an attempt until I know she will not be yanked out halfway through the endeavor. And it WILL affect my ability to assist on ground missions."
Jaclyn stared at him for a moment, before bringing her hand around to reveal an active omnitool. She smirked as she deactivated the omnitool before nodding. "Fair enough. You have a nice day, Arlas."
He watched her leave without another word, before returning to his seat. He wasted a few seconds feeling vaguely outmaneuvered, before returning to his omnitool. He glanced up as Yol'Pvera relayed the message of the Twins leaving the Normandy, before returning to his program. The upgrade for his long rifle was coming along quite nicely; it would give him something to use at range against vehicles.
Arlas was at the workbench in the hangar a few hours after his talk with Jaclyn. Tali and Garrus were looking over the schematics of the upgrade to his geth rifle. Neither were very enthusiastic about the design, Tali calling it an 'untested rusty {boshtet} bastard of an overcompensating krogan,' while Garrus had simply said that it was 'at best a vehicle mounted weapon, and at worst a threat to everything within fifty meters.' Arlas had listened to Tali's many complaints about the weapon and then Garrus' less numerous ones before agreeing to make a second rifle, rather than attempting to modify the current rifle. He had already placed an order through a supplier the Twins had everyone use for things the requisition officer didn't offer, and was waiting for his datapad back before starting work on the rifle.
Arlas found the waiting was actually enjoyable for a change, rather than tortuous as he had expected and wondered what the difference was. Perhaps the changes from the merging with the Thorian were becoming more pronounced and obvious? He found himself using unusual turns of phrase and reacting differently than he had before, and the changes were worrying. He might be suffering from something the Thorian did while he was merged, he might be starting his own Fall, or it might be the mon-keigh were driving him utterly insane and his eldar companions weren't enough to stop it.
His thoughts were interrupted as the hangar lift chimed, and the door slid open. The eldar looked up from the workbench, ignoring Tali's latest rant about the rifle design. All three spectres and Liara entered the hangar, along with a familiar asari with reddish purple facial markings, and what passed among the locals for heavy blue and white armor. As the group approached, he felt the vessel shudder, disconnecting from the Citadel. "So, I presume the Council agreed to leave Benezia in our care?"
Liara and both of them humans looked exhausted, but Joannis nodded. "They did, though Spectre Vasir has been assigned to provide impartial observation of her while she is in the care of the Systems Alliance. We are currently heading to Arcturus Station to have a quick refit of several rooms on the third level, into a functional brig. Assuming of course that you can actually help Benezia. Chakwas has thrown in the towel, and has no idea what is wrong with her other than something is wrong with Benezia's brain."
He nearly asked what a towel had to do with what they were talking about, before dismissing it as unimportant. Instead, he simply leaned against the weapon bench he had been working at, and waited impassively. He felt Quel'Nayrae stepping out of the lander, and sent her a mental acknowledgement that he had sensed her. Liara spoke up. "You mentioned you might be able to help my mother. It formed the core of our argument to keep her here."
He could feel Quel'Nayrae's eyes boring into the back of his head, even before she sent her disbelief. *What are they talking about?*
Arlas allowed himself a mental sigh, before sending what he knew of the situation to her. *Injured mother of the blue mon-keigh, unusual psyker sense in her head. I have some training as a warlock, so I took the basic mind-healing training. I was sent to find out what was here. This is proof of something… different.*
The mind-word he used had significant connotations, most of them dangerous or threatening. As Quel'Nayrae consider his reasoning, he turned back to the conversation with the mon-keigh. "So I am to focus on assisting Benezia recover instead of ground operations?"
All four spectres gave him varying expressions of interest. He sighed, before going into specifics. "I am going to be merging my mind with someone of a different upbringing, gender, and race. And that is before whatever I sensed when I brushed against her mind. I will be expending more energy working with her for one hour than I do in a day of ground combat, and I am unpracticed for centuries and with incomplete training. Depending on what I sensed, there is a chance I will have to kill her to try and save myself if it tries to infect me.
"If nothing goes wrong, I am still trying to do something far outside my training. It may be the only thing I can do is confirm that nothing can be done without waiting for the rest of my people. And even if I can do something, this process can take decades among my kind, depending on the mental injury."
He debated going further into the dangers of what he was doing, not the least of which was that an errant thought might do irreparable harm to the subject, but decided that he was already overstating his point. Joannis nodded. "So her options are a medically induced coma, whatever you can do, or death?"
Jaclyn looked at Vasir, while Joannis looked at Liara, who spoke before anyone else. "Help her, please. It could take centuries for me to find another Eldar willing to help."
Jaclyn added her thoughts. "And we need to know what Saren is up to. We still have no idea what he was doing on Noveria with the Rachni."
Joannis nodded. "Alright, assuming you are willing, please assist Benezia in her recovery until further notice. You can begin after we leave Arcturus station, we are heading there now for refit, and should be leaving within sixty hours of arriving."
She paused as if she wanted to continue, before looking over the two crates of items that were near the lander, and another black crate that had been shoved into the corner of the hangar. Joannis looked back at Arlas. "Do I want to know?"
Tali answered before he could. "That crazy bosh'tet is… is… gah!"
She threw the datapad with the schematic he was working from at Joannis, before storming back to the engine room. Arlas shrugged, before heading to the crates as the newcomers looked over the data pad. Quel'Nayrae shot him a glare, reminding him that she was still waiting. "(*Have you Fallen?*)"
He glanced up at the ramp, noticing that Kap'Eiyl had come out join her in the wraithguard. Yol'Pvera joined in as well, making him mentally sigh in exasperation. *I wasn't concerned at first, but now your mind is different. Before you were concerned about them as useful pawns. Now I am unsure what you think of them. Teaching them our way of melee?*
Kap'Eiyl's arms moved to his side, disbelief and disgust coloring his wordless mental outcry. Arlas glanced at the workbench, and cursed as he saw that all four spectres were watching the Eldar, all of them showing concern or suspicion. Liara had left with Garrus at some point. Arlas turned back to the conversation "(*I am giving her absolute basics, she likely can barely handle that. In return, I am learning how to use their cognitors in return, which I can then pass on to others without needing to concede things. What she is giving me is infinitely more useful than guidance on how to not get stabbed.*)"
Kap'Eiyl finally vocalized his thoughts. *We don't need their help. We are the eldest race, and all the mon-keigh are good for is pawns and distractions. Asuryani spend lesser races to preserve their own. And if you can't remember that, you are NOT Asuryani.*
Arlas made a sweeping gesture with his left hand, indicating contemptuous dismissal of their position. "(*Enough! None of you have been on the craftworld for centuries, at the absolute minimum, so you know not its situation. How many lived on the craftworld when you were last on?*)"
Quel'Nayrae paused, not expecting the sudden turn of the conversation. "(*How does that concern this conversation?*)"
He didn't yell, as Eldar did not yell, but instead added a threatening hiss to his words. "(*Answer the question, and say when you last checked.*)"
Quel'Nayrae glanced back at the wraithguard behind her, then at Prarmer sitting between her and the pathfinder, before answering. "(*The craftworld contained one hundred twenty million Asuryani when we left.*)"
The pathfinder nodded as Yol'Pvera replied. *I did not check when we were last on the craftworld, but there were one hundred twenty seven million Asuryani when I died four centuries previous.*
Arlas kept his emotions closely controlled as he spoke slowly and clearly. "(*As of half a year ago, the craftworld contains a total of fifty million Asuryani.*)"
He watched all three of his Eldar companions mentally recoil in shock, before continuing. "(*Almost two hundred and twenty Asuryani years ago, the craftworld received a scream for aid from another craftworld. The entirety of the craftworld fleet responded. As was normal, the craftworld departed the star they were near as the fleet left, intending to linger in the dark space between stars.
"(*Just after the fleet left, the Craftworld reported they were detecting an overwhelming number of contacts at range. Then they screamed for assistance, before they were silenced by the sheer weight of their opponents.*)"
He took a deep breath, deliberately switching to only speaking to keep his memories of that time under control. "(I was on a Cresistauead world, hunting for spirit stones. I received the pained scream of utter terror from the craftworld, as did the two rangers I was working with. We immediately retreated to assist the craftworld. It took us a nearly a week to get back to the webway portal, and another day to make our way back to the craftworld. We were joined by what I believe to be every ranger and corsair that could return home.
"(We emerged into a scene from the Warp itself.)"
He took another deep breath, before continuing. "(The craftworld had been engulfed by the edge of a fleet like nothing we had seen since the fall of the homeworld. Living ships, directed by an intelligence more foul and vicious than anything other than warp born monstrosities. They were numberless, and would simply bury us forms.
"(It took a week to fight our way out of the swarm of living ships, losing nearly half our fleet in the process, and a year to finish sweeping the infantry out of the craftworld, and by then we were down more than half our population. We don't use guardians anymore, everyone is required to train at least a decade at a shrine, and that is the least of the changes required by the Seer Council.)"
He glared at the two present Eldar, ignoring the gyrinx at Quel'Nayrae's feet trying to comfort her. "(*So yes, I will continue to deal with the mon-keigh, and ensure that they view us as equals if not superiors. Almost anything is better than seeing another Asuryani child torn to pieces in front of me.*)"
He picked out the pieces he had come to the crates for before turning back to the mon-keigh. Icivia and Vasir were watching him carefully, as the Twins continued to examine the data pad, though Jaclyn was typing on her omnitool. Icivia spoke as he returned to the workbench. "What was that about?"
"They were protesting the unnecessary danger I am placing myself in."
Both Spectres did not look like they believed him, but dropped that line of questioning. Vasir glanced to the corner, her expression suddenly twisting to disgust. "Who ordered the Real Partner Mech?"
Arlas glanced at the black crate in the corner of the hangar, with a simple but surprisingly elegant engraved silver logo on what he assumed was the front of the large crate. It was as tall as him, and a meter wide and deep, and utterly featureless other than the logo. It had come in with his two crates of weapon parts, training blades, and assorted other items. Since the human who was supposed to be in charge of requisitions had checked everything that came through the bay door, Arlas wasn't worried about it. He knew exactly how difficult it was to sneak things on board human ships, he had had to do it nearly a dozen times back in his original universe.
His musings were interrupted as Jaclyn looked up. "No idea about the mech, but assuming the rifle doesn't tear itself apart, is there a reason you are building something that can engage frigates in low orbit?"
Arlas sighed. "What is a monkey?"
"Are you still going on about that?"
"Until I get an answer, yes."
Done with the conversation and ignoring the confused look Spectre Vasir was giving the others, he put the pieces of his rifle on the bench. He reclaimed the data pad and began putting the rifle together.
Arlas finished putting the last touch on the new rifle, having spent the entire time from leaving the Citadel putting it together. He lacked anything better to do, and his revelation of what had happened to the craftworld had rocked his companions, making them avoid him. He shifted the rifle, and frowned. It was heavier than he expected, almost outside his ability to carry. "(*Expecting to run into tanks?*)"
He glanced over at Quel'Nayrae, standing behind him and examining his creation while Prarmer stood in front of her, glaring at him. Arlas glared back. "(*Why is Prarmer so distrustful of me? He has been forcing my distance from you since he first woke up.*)"
She smiled softly, reaching down to gentle rub Prarmer's forehead. "(*Prarmer is simply doing the job my older brother gave him before he was killed. He was a warlock for the Dire Avengers, before he was killed by the forces of the Immaterium. He is simply protecting me, and does that to every male we meet.*)"
She gave the gyrinx a small smile, before straightening. "(*I have asked him to stop many times, he refuses. But that was an initiates attempt to dodge my question, Pathfinder.*)"
He gestured to the rifle. "(*I have forgotten how many times I have needed something heavier than a standard sniper rifle when scouting ahead of a host. This will, hopefully, correct that if required.*)"
He picked up the rifle with a soft grunt of effort. *Heavier than anticipated. Need to see about getting lighter materials. Might have to build some...*
The ship's comm cut off his thought. "Arlas, please report to Commander Shepard on deck three. Arlas to Shepard on deck three."
The pathfinder glanced up at the speaker, irritation lacing his thoughts, before shaking his head and carrying the rifle to the lander. "(*Need to put the weapons away so the children don't hurt themselves with them.*)"
Quel'Nayrae laughed, a sound like liquid crystal in his mind; soothing, pleasurable and enjoyable. "(*When did they mature to the state of children?*)"
He gave her a mental shrug, as he entered the elevator, leaving her to start working on repairing the Vyper. A minute later, he finally arrived on the third deck, and stepped out into a throng of humans he didn't recognize. He took a second to control the sudden urge to go for the only weapon he was currently wearing, his pistol, before continuing onto the deck. He headed unerringly toward the rear of the deck where the extra storage areas were being converted, sensing the Twins back near it.
He stepped around several humans lugging either crates or pieces of metal, while a couple others were walking while focused on their omnitools. After a moment, he spotted the Twins stepping out of one of the former storerooms, talking to a familiar dark skinned older human male. Arlas nodded to the trio. "Twins, Shipmaster Anderson."
The humans looked up, the females simply nodding in greeting as Anderson glared and growled a reply. "It is captain. We talked about that when we first met."
Arlas shrugged and turned back to the Twins, waiting for them to explain why they needed him. They didn't wait long. "We were inspecting the room Benezia will be held in while you work. Is there anything you will need in the room that we can provide? Captain Anderson was just catching up with us."
Jaclyn took over for her sister. "He has been assigned a small squadron of vessels, and will be out looking for proof that the Reapers exist while we run down Saren."
Arlas frowned. "Perhaps I should see the room before I say what it needs."
He entered the room the Twins had just vacated, and looked around. The room was small, only a handful of meters to a side and short enough he had to stoop slightly, and completely empty. A small bunk had been permanently affixed to the far wall, and a single light was recessed into the ceiling, providing ample light to illuminate the room without being too bright or giving a possible prisoner something to break and use as a weapon. The wall against the corridor had been curved inward, making it impossible for something to try and ambush anyone entering.
Looking over the room, he was slightly amused that he didn't need to request anything to be removed. But as he turned to leave, he glanced at the light again, and frowned as his danger sense suddenly twitched. He moved forward, but a more thorough examination of the light didn't reveal anything, the opaque covering preventing him from seeing anything inside. The eldar wasn't fooled by apparent normalcy of the light nor by his lack of finding anything. He trusted his dangersense.
Stepping out of the room, he looked at the Twins. "Have the light panel disassembled. I will return shortly."
He left before they could ask questions, returning to the hangar by way of the emergency ladder so he didn't have to wait until Armageddon on the elevator. A quick trip to the armory got him his sword and carapace armor, before he was heading back to the third floor.
Three minutes after leaving, he was back in the hallway, ignoring the confused glare he was getting from the Twins, or the amused look Shipmaster Anderson was giving him. The human male glanced at the two women. "Is he always like that?"
Joannis shrugged. "Making demands, vanishing without telling you why, and then ignoring you when you finally track him down and ask?"
Jaclyn nodded. "Yes, but usually he is worse."
"So pushy."
"And hairy."
"And stinky."
"And man is he UGLY."
Arlas simply turned his head, very slowly, to give the Twin humans a death glare, despite feeling that they were merely being humorous with him. "You realize that that litany of insults was enough to warrant the deaths of yourselves, you families, your friends, and your friends' families?"
Joannis kept talking like she hadn't heard him, clearly realizing he wasn't being serious with the threat. "Mean too."
"And so quick to anger. It's no wonder he doesn't have an asari girlfriend yet."
"Even with the voyeurism, kidnapping, stripping and bondage fetish he has."
"Maybe we should see if Liara is interested."
Anderson was doing his best 'military stare into the distance,' though his emotions were roiling with amusement laced with dread. Arlas glared at the two human women for a moment, before taking the mature choice and ignoring the Twins. Luckily for his sanity, a technician came out holding the light fixture. "Took it out like you asked ma'am. Didn't see anything wrong with it or the wiring."
Arlas frowned at the tech, before stepping into the room, and looking up at where the light had been. His dangersense was still twitching, which he knew from experience meant that it wasn't physically harmful, but could still do damage to him later. Other than a slight discoloration to a section of the metal ceiling behind where the light had been, he couldn't see anything odd. "Other than the discoloration, I don't see anything. Strange."
The tech looked up from his examination, blinking as his thoughts swirled suddenly. "What discoloration?"
Arlas pulled out his sword and tapped the discolored section of metal, idly noting it sounded different. Solid, as opposed to the more hollow sound the rest of the walls made when he tapped them. "That one."
The tech walked back into the room, followed by the two spectres and Anderson. "I didn't see a discoloration. And there isn't one where your sword is."
Arlas turned back to the mon-keigh, before abruptly stabbing the discolored section of metal as he realized that to the humans it wasn't discolored. He was only seeing it because he could see colors humans didn't have the ability to. The metal let out a couple feeble sparks, and then detached from the ceiling as it lost power. Arlas looked over the device on his sword, before carefully removing it.
A quartet of pistons had held the item in place, now slack as it had lost power, but he couldn't see anything that connected the device to the ship. "What is that?"
The tech carefully took the device from the eldar, turning it over in his hands, surprised and confused as he examined it. "I have… never seen something like this. And I know there wasn't supposed to be anything there."
Anderson scowled, before bringing his omnitool to his lips. "Anderson to security. Seal the Normandy's hangar, and have all the techs line up outside. Someone was planting tech inside the ship. Did any of the techs leave?"
Anderson's scowl only got bigger when he got a reply after a short wait. "Find them, all of them."
The captain closed the communication line, before shaking his head. "Three techs left the hangar already. Only one answered their omnitool. Give me that device, I will look into the missing techs. I am not scheduled to deploy for a while yet."
Arlas stepped around the others, heading back to the elevator. "I saw nothing else that needed corrections. I trust you do not require my help further?"
As the humans indicated they did not, he left, heading back to his ship. He needed to make an actual long rifle before working on the new rifle again, though after that he could start trying to make it lighter. If the rifle worked.
Joannis looked up from her desk as Jaclyn came in. "So, what did you and Anderson find?"
Jaclyn threw herself into the chair with a snarl of disgust. "One of the techs just up and vanished. Both the others were out getting supplies, but the third just up and vanished. No traces in the security systems, and only a couple eye witnesses. Me and Anderson think he got on one of the three ships that left before we could issue an alert to check all ships, but one is heading to an outpost that is famous for 'communication problems.' We probably won't find him there, but SAI is on it. They will track him down."
Joannis nodded, and shoved a data pad to one side, before picking up another. "And the device?"
Her twin shrugged. "Some kind of snoopy thing. I am not the brains of this pair, sis. You tell me what it does, I just break spines and skulls."
Joannis looked up from the report she was reading, an eyebrow raised as she grinned at her twin. After a moment, her twin laughed and nodded. "Yes, I did swing by to give Arlas a hard time again. What are you looking at?"
"Orders. Direct from Admiral Hackett."
She tossed the data pad to her twin, who read the orders with a frown. "Maroon Sea and wait for contact? What the actual fuck? Why not give us the assignment here?"
Joannis shrugged. "Super secret squirrel stuff, no doubt."
She reached over and tapped a button on the computer, activating her comm to the cockpit. "Joker, Joannis. How fast can we make to the Maroon Sea area? Two paths please."
The pilot coughed, and then swallowed noisily. "Dammit… I mean, err, sorry ma'am, having lunch. Aye aye, Maroon Sea at 'damn the engines' speed. ETA is… about seventeen hours fastest route, or another five hours to avoid being near the pasty slaver's space. Which do you want ma'am?"
Joannis glanced at Jaclyn, who shook her head slightly. "Longer route Joker, give the crew ten minutes to get back, then get us there. Have Pressly recall everyone."
She closed the communication line, and stretched. "Right, Benezia is in her holding pen, Vasir is set up in the new guard room beside it. Arlas said he would help Benezia tomorrow after spending today preparing, so he will be ready to start right about when we hit the Maroon Sea."
"Which means whatever mission we get from the communication won't have Arlas along. Hmm, should I be disappointed we won't have his weapons, or relieved we don't have to deal with his arrogance?"
"Disappointed. He has been getting better about keeping his arrogance in check since Feros."
Jaclyn gave her an arched eyebrow. "Really? I haven't noticed. Anything else we need to discuss, or can I go terrorize Joker for getting crumbs on the pilot's station?"
"Well, engineering has reported a way to possibly improve…"
"Arlas, report to the briefing room please. Arlas to briefing room."
The pathfinder paused with his hand nearly on the button to call the elevator, before turning and heading to the emergency ladder. He had been spending the last day preparing his mind for a mental merging with the comatose asari, and now the humans were breaking his carefully cultured calm. Arlas emerged on the third deck, and headed up to the briefing room, stalking in with only slightly concealed distaste. "I was about to start the first attempt to cleanse Benezia. Is this important?"
Jaclyn gave him a glare, but Joannis just nodded. "We dropped into real space from the relay, and spotted this."
The image screen behind her showed three Geth ships in space, all of them badly damaged. The center was the worst off, a small ship only a fifty meters long according to the scale attached to the image, while the two flanking ships were nearly five times its size. The outer two ships were connected to the first ship by what looked like docking tubes, but a closer look at the smaller ship showed the hull had buckled near where the tubes connected. Joannis let him examine the image for a minute before speaking. "Since we were ordered to loiter in system until contacted by command, I have decided to investigate the geth ships. None have active weapons or sensors, and only minimal engine power, indicating that they have been in that position for a while. We are going to board the smaller vessel after destroying the power plants and engines of the two larger ones.
"We called you because Tali said that each of the larger ships can hold up to a thousand standard geth chassis, and that she had never seen the smaller ship type before. Sorry to say, but you will be needed on this assault, there is no telling how many geth we are going to encounter. Records show no System Alliance ships have been in this system in a month, though there is currently an attempt at founding a colony in a different system of this cluster. Scans show four plants with limited resources, a modest planetoid in the asteroid belt, and nothing else. So whatever the geth are doing here, we need to know."
Arlas sighed, before nodding. "Fair. I haven't started assisting Benezia yet, so you can still request my help. I will need some time to get ready. Will we be using the lander to get to the geth ship?"
The Twins shared a look before nodding. Arlas turned to leave, "Very well, I will be ready in ten minutes."
It was a short trip back to the ladder, so he reached out to the other eldar. *The humans need my help in combat.*
Quel'Nayrae sent back her annoyance as Yol'Pvera began . *Again? Flighty creatures, you were supposed to be dealing with that elder asari.*
He sent back what he knew, as he entered the lander, making his way to the armory. He entered as Quel'Nayrae stepped away from the Wraithguard, its chest sealing shut to protect Kap'Eiyl's spirit stone. The spirit warrior sent a question as his mind expanded to fill the wraithbone construct. *What weapon should I take?*
Arlas pulled his tabard off, carefully folding the fabric as he placed it on a small shelf. "Derelict ship action, so mostly infantry. The shuriken cannon or the wraithcannon. Though you might not be able to board, depending on the damage"
The wraithguard sent his understanding before grabbing the shuriken cannon. A minute of work and Arlas was in his own armor, trusting Quel'Nayrae to have looked it over after each battle. She had certainly made enough noise about his inability to do so previously. He then grabbed the long rifle Tali had given him, the shuriken catapult, and his fusion gun, before filling the various pouches with grenades and a pair of melta bombs. Done loading enough explosives to blast his way from one end of the geth vessel they intended to board to the other, he headed to the cockpit.
Arlas took the co-pilot's seat, and lightly melded with the vessel. After a moment of being ignored by Yol'Pvera, he mentally 'walked' over to her spirit and rested beside her, before directing a thought at her. *You took the news of the craftworld fortunes poorly. I apologize, I thought the seers had let you know.*
The spirit gave a melancholic sigh. *They said they didn't need me distracted by things outside my craft. I didn't meet my sister or her two daughters, and now you tell me they might already be enshrined in the Infinity Circuit.
*Pathfinder, you are an unrepentant ass.*
She disconnected him from the ship with a mental twist, leaving him sitting alone in the cockpit with only his thoughts for company. After a moment he left the cockpit, pausing long enough to touch Kap'Eiyl's chassis, leaving only a feeling of lingering regret, the Eldar equivalent of an apology. A few steps later, he was in the troop bay, waiting for the mon-keigh. He wasn't aware he was broadcasting his emotion of self-disgust until someone coughed. "Arlas, everyone is here."
The Eldar glanced at Joannis as he got his emotions back under control, noting everyone was in their seats before hitting the wraithbone with his fist. The bay doors slid shut immediately, and the lander smoothly left the bay. Arlas glanced at the Twins as he thought of something. "Do we need to hit the larger vessels, or will yours handle it?"
His question was answered as the display on the bay door showed the Normandy swoop down on one of the vessels. The System Alliance vessel's main cannon fired twice, blowing the rear third of one of the Geth vessels completely off, before eviscerating the hulk with its guardian lasers as it swooped past. Not to be left out of the mayhem, Yol'Pvera fired her Pulsar once, vaporizing the forward half of the second vessel. A quick maneuver and she used her scatter laser turret to blast one of the boarding tubes from the smaller vessel, giving her a place to disembark the troops. Arlas stood up and grabbed one of the ceiling rungs, not needing to connect with Yol'Pvera to know what she was planning. "Everyone up, you will be doing a quick void jump to the geth vessel. Once open, we all have thirty seconds to jump, so move quickly. Seal armor now, troop bay is venting atmosphere. Kap'Eiyl, you won't be able to board."
Even as he finished speaking, the bay alarm sounded, and the pumps began sucking air out of the troop bay. Only Kaidan and Garrus had not already sealed their armor, but both had it done fast enough that he didn't need to delay the draining of the atmosphere. Ashley and Wrex jumped across the handful of meters to the derelict first, followed by the Twins, then Icivia and Garrus, and finally Tali and Kaidan. Liara stepped up to the edge, and looked around, before shuddering, and then jumping across, letting Arlas bring up the rear. He was amused by the fact that Liara forgot to turn off her communicator. "Don't look down. Don't look down."
Arlas landed on the other side of the small gap, Liara landing immediately behind him. He turned and watched the lander fly away, and sent a thought. *Sweep the hull of geth troops. They may try to outflank us along the external hull. Pulse and scatter lasers only please.*
The spirit pilot didn't respond, making Arlas sigh and turn back to the group. Half the group was already moving off into one of the corridors, leaving Ashley, Icivia, Liara, and Wrex waiting for him. "Mission?"
Icivia replied. "We are to hit the engine room, and try and rip any data from any active terminals. The others are heading to the main server room. But be careful, and make sure you isolate your omnis before you try. You don't want to bring back geth programs onto the ship."
The Pathfinder nodded, and pulled his shuriken catapult off his hip, ensuring the oversized clip was seated properly, before following along at the back of the group. He was using the jump jets on his armor to facilitate movement, rather than some sort of magnetic footwear like the rest of the squad.
Arlas found the entire mission slightly eerie. Maybe it was the lack of atmosphere on the ship, which he was told was normal for geth ships, as machines didn't need air, and it simply made it possible for damage to propagate further. Maybe it was the utter lack of noise, as even the space hulks he had helped clear before had had some kind of noise, even if it was simple vibrations he was hearing through his footsteps. But he suspected it was the fact there were still 'bodies, the destroyed chassis of geth, and fluids that hung above deck in void gravity, yet none of them were blood.
After a few minutes of moving through the derelict, and engaging a handful of geth, Icivia opened a squad communication. "Anyone seen anything other than geth?"
Wrex replied first. "Nope."
Arlas rolled his eyes at Wrex's extensive report, but no one else contradicted him. Icivia didn't reply for a moment, instead pausing at an intersection, checking all directions before snarling. "Then what were they fighting? I see nothing but destroyed geth."
Liara spoke up, her voice hesitant. "Perhaps they were fighting each other? Some kind of major systemic computer virus infection?"
Icivia's frown could be heard through the communicator. "Maybe. But that doesn't answer why the other geth boarded the ship. They would have blown it out of the deep black if it was a virus."
The Spectre looked over the corridor, before snarling something unpleasant. "We move down this left corridor. Wrex, you are rear guard, Liara will assist. Ashley, you clear the rooms with me on the right. Arlas, you get the rooms on the left. You find an active terminal, download everything into your omnitool. If you find more than one active terminal in a room, call out so we know what your delay is."
The group nodded, and proceeded down the hallway. Most of the rooms they checked were storage rooms for supplies or for housing and repair of geth chassis. None of them had active terminals. After a half hour of searching, the group continued down the main hall of the small geth vessel, and arrived in the engine room.
The engine room was oppressively tight, barely enough room for Ashley to squeeze between the machinery. Wrex had to stay near the bulkhead that separated the engine room for the hall, and Liara stayed with him. Icivia got caught twice trying to squeeze between machines before she finally changed her plans. "Arlas, you and Ashley are the only ones that can get through machines. I am heading back to the others. Keep in contact."
She turned back with a grumble, pausing to pull herself free of something caught on her armor, before continuing back to the entrance. Arlas looked at Ashley in front of him, before gesturing for her to continue. The human shrugged, before turning around to push through another narrow section. Arlas started counting in his head, and when he got to sixteen, Ashley spoke. "So, you mentioned fighting machines back home once. I think. Any tips here?"
Arlas snorted under his helmet, both disappointed and impressed. Disappointed she hadn't even made a third of a minute, impressed that she was focusing on the job for a change. "The machines I fought have nothing in common with these things. I would suggest not getting hit by the ones back home. Here, shoot harder, faster and straighter. Though having better armor wouldn't hurt."
Ashley turned her head to glare at him, halfway past the next toppled piece of engine machinery. "I am wearing some of the best armor in the galaxy that isn't reserved by a government for spec ops units. This Colossus mark ten heavy armor has the best plating available to the general public. It costs more than I make in four years, and I only got it because the Commanders got it for me. The only comparable armor is the Predator mark ten heavy, and it doesn't stop bullets as well despite having better shields."
Arlas nodded and started his way through the damaged machinery, Ashley finally making it out the other side. "And I am sure it is very impressive against your people's weapons. Let me test it against my fusion gun, and see how it does."
Ashley glared even harder as she waited on the other side of the blockage, before nodding. "Fair point, and I doubt it would resist your long rifle as well. What would you suggest then?"
Her question actually made him pause, before he finished climbing out from under the machinery and moved past her, getting over the next toppled piece of engine. "Thicker plating, maybe even more layers. And a fully encasing helm. Enhance the shoulder pauldrons, and make them even thicker than the rest, those provide cover for your head when you are firing. Build the armor like you would a tank, and then build tanks even heavier."
Ashley hummed behind him, waiting for him to get clear before she tried her hand at getting through the debris. "But then they are slow, and can't maneuver or keep up with an opponent."
Arlas sent back irritation, as he began examining the next set of debris blocking their path. After a few seconds, he reactivated his squad communication as he spotted something between a collapsed section of ceiling and a piece of engine. "Couple of active terminals on the other side of rubble, trying to find our way through. Significant damage to the engine room is making it difficult to path effectively."
He waited for Icivia to respond, before turning back to Ashley. "Then don't change them all. The biggest problem with all your weapons and armor is that they all use Eezo. Which means that if something can disable it from a distance, you are without weapons and armor. And what armor you do have is frankly pathetic."
"And how do you know that?"
"When I took out three 'tanks' with my Vyper that was built to shred infantry groups. They should have taken at least some form of sustained fire, not just a burst from each gun."
Ashley snorted behind him. "To be fair, those were owned and operated by a band of pirates."
He turned around and gestured dismissively at her. "No excuse. I did enough research on your people's equipment to know that 'tank' was a lightly armored troop transport back home. Likely improvised. One of my people's tanks could have shredded entire regiments of yours, likely without being hit."
Ashley grumbled to herself, but then tapped her omnitool, making Arlas blink. He tilted his head slightly, before continuing to try and find a path to the active consoles he had spotted. "What was that?"
"We have been trying to get your opinion on our tech for a while, and if we thought we might, record it. The eggheads have been pulling their hair out, trying to guess how our equipment measured up. We knew we were behind, sixty million years isn't going to be countered by gumption and guts and a bloody minded spiteful determination, but how far is good to know."
Arlas allowed himself to chuckle, as he squeezed between another piece of debris. "And yet that determination saw your people doing far more than most of mine thought. Your kind had less than fifty thousand years back home, and yet your people's greatest could stand against mine in open battle."
He didn't mention that 'open battle' only happened when every other option open to the Eldar had failed, and they preferred to never fight fairly. As his first Exarch had said, 'The only fair battle is your last one. Always manipulate the odds, your opponent will never hesitate to. Your job is to make the other side die for his people, as long as you are capable for.' He got out of the rubble, and sighed at the sight before him. The wall of the engine room and rubble on both sides blocked any further progress. Arlas activated his communicator, linking to Icivia. "The active consoles are completely cut off. I can get to them, but Ashley can't. Also, we have explored the entire engine room, those two consoles are the only active ones."
There was a long pause before Icivia answered. "The Twins want that information. Those are the only two active terminals on the ship, and the other ships are shrapnel after the pilots apparently had a competition to see who could more thoroughly demolish their target. So everything we can learn is on those two terminals."
Arlas rolled his eyes, before spinning his jump generator. Ashley was already making her way out of the engine room, cursing under her breath. As he landed after the leap through the Immaterium, he frowned. The warp had been slightly agitated, like near the Guided Wrath, but even more so. After a second of contemplation, considering that there might be another Eldar ship in the area, he reached out to the Eldar. *Can everyone see if they can sense any other Asuryani in the system? The warp is… disturbed.*
He cut the connection as the others acknowledged his request, before moving to the terminals he had landed beside. Both flickered, and the debris meant he had to stoop to get closer to the terminals. As he got closer, he felt the long rifle on his back suddenly catch on something. A quick glance showed the rifle had partially deployed, catching on some debris. It was a moment of work got the massive rifle off his back in the confined space, but he eventually slipped free and place the rifle on a nearby piece of rubble. He would figure out why it malfunctioned later.
It took only a moment to get the data from the first, but it still took too long and both consoles lost power just before he completed getting everything off the first console. He stared at the second console, before grabbing his rifle and began trying to get it to collapse again. "Icivia, got almost everything off the first console, but the section lost power before I could get to the second one."
He heard Icivia cursing for a moment, before she replied. "Acknowledged Arlas, get back to the extraction point. The other group is already waiting."
The pathfinder finally got his rifle to behave by expanding it fully and then collapsing it, returning its slot. A quick jump later and he was back near the entrance, where he joined Ashley and Icivia. He didn't see Wrex or Liara, but the others turned to leave before he could ask. Shrugging to himself, he continued after them, curious as to what the hurry was, even as he reached out to Yol"pvera. *We are done and require extraction. Find anything?*
She sent back understanding, followed by hesitant denial. *No, but there is something here.*
*Right, we can come back and check after we are not with the mon-keigh.*
He felt her surprise, and sent back his amusement. *Still Asuryani business, and I don't know that these ones require assistance. Or if they do, they aren't as blatant about it as the Guided Wrath was.*
Arlas looked up as they arrived back at the extraction point, and looked at the Twins who were standing to one side, and having a debate with each other on a private communication. He moved to Ashley, who was conversing with Tali on improving her armor's shields, and waited for a lull in the conversation. "What are those two debating about?"
Ashley looked over at him, her eyes narrowing behind his clear visor. "They are on a private channel. How do you know they are debating?"
He just turned to stare directly at the human, before tilting his head slightly, reminding her who she was dealing with. After a second, Ashley coughed and rubbed rubbed the top of her helmet. "Right, sorry, reflexive. Tali?"
Tali shrugged, not looking up from her omnitool. "They got a transmission from the Normandy, and immediately had us all turn around. Considering the main server room and bridge looked like it took a ship round through it, completely destroying all the controls, I doubt we would have found anything in there. The round also damaged just about everything else on the ship, according to the scan the Normandy did while we were exploring the ship. Not sure what destroyed the geth on board, but it wasn't mass effect technology."
Arlas nodded in thanks, waiting nearly six seconds before moving toward the area where the lander would pick them up. He was almost to end of the ship, with only open void in front of him, when someone finally noticed what he was doing. Liara's voice echoed through the squad channel. "Arlas?"
He glanced back as he jumped out of the ship, ignoring the sudden appearance of the landing, flashing into view before flipping over and presenting the troop bay door, just as he reached out for it. "Yes? Is everyone coming, or would they rather wait for the other ship?"
Done showing off, he entered the troop bay, and took his seat, acting unconcerned about his method of boarding, even as he sent a thanks to Yol'Pvera about being so precise. Once the others floated in in a more sedate and sane manner, he looked over at the Twins. "So, what did we learn?"
Jaclyn leaned back, talking on a separate channel as Joannis answered. "Something attacked those geth ships, and the wounds weren't consistent with mass effect rounds. Some were burnt while others were cut to shreds, though not like with your sword. We will have to wait until a science team gets here and examines the wreckage to know more."
Arlas turned to Tali, pulling off his omnitool and handing it across. "This interfaced with geth technology. Perhaps you should hold onto it until you are certain it isn't contaminated by geth."
Tali took the omnitool, but paused when she glanced at his shoulder, her voice suddenly flat. "You took the geth rifle onto the geth derelict?"
Arlas glanced at the rifle in question, before removing it from his shoulder and handing it to her. "I overlooked that fact."
He frowned inside his helmet, cursing his lack of foresight. Now he was down his only working long rifle. Just as well that he was going to be busy dealing with the comatose asari, if he was letting such minor lapses into his judgement. He certainly didn't need to be on a battlefield if he was going to do things like that. Shaking his head, he started a calming meditation. With any luck, he would be mentally stable enough to start working on Benezia today.
Joannis finished setting up the security protocols in the communication room, and activated the communication line, saluting as the hologram of her CO appeared. "Sir, Commander Shepard reporting as ordered. Sorry for the delay, we were investigating a derelict geth ship, possibly a scout."
Admiral Hackett returned her salute, before dropping to parade rest. "At ease commander. I look forward to the report on it, especially since we picked your location because the location should be abandoned."
A second hologram sputtered into existence, eventually solidifying into a second person. Hackett greeted him first. "Defense Minster Kreiggeory is the reason for the secrecy on this assignment, commander."
The german-descended Canadian nodded to Shepard. "I only have a few minutes, Hackett, so let's keep this quick. A week ago someone made what we assumed was an attempt to assassinate me in my home. Due to the various circumstances around the attempt, we have kept it relatively quiet.
"The attempt was made by rifle from a distance of at least five kilometers. It passed through two different kinetic barriers without triggering them, and embedded in a wall after passing exactly ten centimeters from my head. The shot was made exactly one Earth day before I was due to meet with a Salarian diplomat to discuss a joint research project. Needless to say, my security canceled the meeting, thinking it was an active attempt to kill me. Since then, they have reevaluated the case from an actual attempt to kill me to a warning.
"My chief of security found nearly three dozen similar cases, all of the shots fired from a distance greater than five kilometers and passed at ten centimeters from the target. All of the cases involved a human who was scheduled to meet an alien within a week to discuss some significant research, military or business deal. Of the thirty three cases, including mine, seven were assassinated later, usually right after the scheduled meeting along with the entire non-human group."
The defenses minister took a drink, letting Hackett speak. "Intelligence agrees with his security's assessment, and further research showed that while no one ever officially claimed responsibility for the attacks and assassinations, examinations of the projectile show it was the same type of bullet from the same weapon. It was also determined to NOT be a mass effect weapon, due to the size of the round."
"Because of the similarity of the cases, and the fact that all of them happened to include non-humans working with humans, we are inclined to believe this was an act of terrorism, and sending you after the only group that would do something like this, and may have the ability to. Even better, Alliance Intelligence recently got an anonymous tip as to the location of one of their outposts."
Defense Minister Rommel Kreiggeory put his drink down, and seemed to look Joannis in the eye. "Spectre Joannis Shepard, we request your help to send a clear message to the terrorist organization Cerberus located on the planet Binthu in the Yangtze system of the Voyager cluster that the System's Alliance will not tolerate terrorist attacks."
Joannis Shepard nodded, not hesitating at all. "I accept."
A/N - The Tali poll has closed, and a new poll has gone up. We are coming up on Virmire soon(-ish) so we ALL know what the poll's question is. Get in and vote for the highly anticipated but entirely expected poll.
Also, yes I am aware that gyrinx are not 'usually' as intelligent as I am writing Prarmer. So taking a few minor creative liberties.