Author's Note: Hey, It's me. I was lucky to get this chapter out on time. Here it is.
Black Speech Translation: Conversation: Aye, the boss'll want to see what's in that damn cave. Yeah, I heard there are old Mordor artifacts in there. Probably worth a fortune back home. First Orc: Intruders! Get to the alarms!
Chapter Seven: Reclaiming The Artifacts, Virmire, and the Battle for the Citadel
It had been around two hours since Dâgalûr returned from Noveria, and he was trying to piece together what little information he was given in his telepathic message from Sauron. "Rayingri, Gagarin, Armstrong, traitors, kill them all… What does it all mean?" He pondered. His pondering was interrupted by Shepard, who wanted to have a chat with him. "Dâgalûr, what was all that about back there?" "I don't know for sure, but I have to tell you something." "What is it?" "When I blacked out, Sauron beckoned to me from out of the darkness… He called to me and said some words, but I can't figure out what they mean." "What did he say?" "He said the words "Rayingri, Gagarin, Armstrong, traitors, kill them all". Do you have any idea what that means?" "Not in particular…" She repeated the words over again in her head to try to find a connection between the words. Finally, she found a breakthrough. "Wait, I think I might know. He might have been talking about the Armstrong Nebula, the Gagarin system, and the planet Rayingri. I've got no clue what the 'traitors' or 'kill them all' parts mean, though." "Shepard, I know you've got the mission with this Saren guy to finish, but if you've got the spare time, please go to this "Rayingri" and take me with you. I have to find what Sauron wants with that planet." "Okay, if I've got the time, I'll let you know." "Thanks, Shepard. It's appreciated."
After a few hours had passed, Shepard fulfilled Dâgalûr's wish, and called him and Garrus up to inform them of what to expect. When they both reached the ship's bridge, Shepard began to brief them on what they should expect when they touch down. "Okay, we can't breathe the air on this planet, so I assume you've got a helmet, Garrus." "Yep." "Dâgalûr, I know that you don't have a helmet that can allow you to breathe on other planets, so we can just-" "Shepard, I have no need for it. Years of breathing in poisonous fumes in Mordor have allowed my species' lungs to take in harmful substances from the air and utilize them. As long as there's something to breathe, I can survive without a helmet." "Okay, then. If you say so. Considering this mission is for you, Dâgalûr, why don't you explain what we need to do?" "Alright. The Dark Lord commanded me to "find the traitors and kill them all", so we need to look for anything that could be linked to these traitors. We're looking for anything out of the ordinary." "Alright, Suit up and get down to the Mako." The squad got everything they needed, and hopped in the Mako. The Normandy quickly dropped them into the red sands of Rayingri, and headed back into orbit.
Joker radioed Shepard over the comms. "Commander, I'm getting insane dark energy readings a short distance up ahead. I'll mark it on your map." The planet had desert as far as the eye could see, and wind storms raged across the desert, blowing sand in every direction. The sky was black, Illuminated by the red sun in the distance. Shepard followed the map to where Joker placed the marker, and forced everyone out of the Mako. The began their trek up a hill "This is where Joker put the marker. I don't see anyth-" She cut herself off when she reached the hilltop. She saw something she wasn't likely to forget soon. A massive encampment, laden with tents and forts, was before them. At the far end of the stronghold, they saw a cave, orcs clad in metal plate armor entering and exiting the mouth, which had been transformed by Mordor brick and metal into what looked like the Mouth of Hell. All around the stronghold, they laid eyes upon torn purple banners, each bearing a red spider.
Dâgalûr knew this group of orcs. "Nûrzumthrakuk" "What?" "They are the Nûrzumthrakuk, the wrath-bringers. They're a group of Separatists that wish to see the downfall of Sauron and take the ring for themselves to rule Middle-Earth. Feh, they're spineless worms. Be careful and quiet. As much as I want their heads, I also want to know what the hell they're doing here." All three of them crouched down and took out their weapons. The suck up behind one of the tents, and Dâgalûr listened in on a conversation between two soldiers. " Aye, avhe boukuk'll wanav avo ukee whaav'uk shal avhaav damun shatroful." "Yeaga, jiak hearik avhere ayh kuu Mordor-aravifacavuk shal avhere. Probabpak woravh ij foravune kurrauz votar." "Well, I got all the information I needed from these unsuspecting idiots." Dâgalûr said triumphantly. Just as the squad was moving to the next tent, an orc left his tent to take a quick piss. The second he looked up, he saw the three trying to sneak over to another tent. He started snarling and howling like an ape and began to point to them to alert the other orcs in the area. " Inavruderuk! Geav avo avhe alaruk!" The orc drew his club to try to kill them, but Dâgalûr gutted him with his sword before he could continue trying to get the attention of his brothers in arms. He fell to the ground in a puddle of his own black blood. Three orcs were now looking at the corpse of the first orc, his intestines lying upon his chest. "We can't hide anymore. Time to bust open some skulls." "Dâgalûr's right. Charge!"
The squad came out from their hiding place to be met with three other orcs waiting to kill them. The middle one took out a bow and took out some arrows while the one on the left ran for an alarm and the fat one on the right charged them with two hand axes. The axe orc was shut down with a pistol blast from Shepard to his unarmored head, and Garrus took the archer out with a sniper shot to the head. The third orc had reached the alarm, and a loud horn was sounded to signal every orc in the area that there were intruders. Shepard was not happy."Shit!" Every orc in the area peeked outside of their tent to see what was going on. And once they saw the squad, they were driven into a frenzy. They formed up and charged the squad head on. Garrus reloaded his sniper rifle. "I think we're gonna need a few more guns."
The horde was stopped dead in its tracks by the supposed leader of the camp, who was clad in bits and scraps of Gondorian armor, animal fur, and human skulls. He wore the skull of a horse upon his head, its mouth open to allow him to see out of his yellow eyes. "Stop." The orcs began to wildly bang their weapons on their armor and roar, scream and yelp at the squad. "Who do you think you are, trespassing on Nûrzumthrakuk land? Who are you?" "The name's Shepard." "Well, Shepard, get the hell out of here. This is ours." "She's not going anywhere, Nûrzumthrakuk scum." The leader began to laugh, but his soldiers began to become disheartened by the sight of Dâgalûr. "You bring the "great" Dâgalûr? Don't make me laugh. You and your pathetic master will fall, and WE'LL be the power, not you!" "What exactly does your group want?" "What we want, you wretched human, is Sauron's Ring. Once we get it, we can throw aside that maggot-infested bread and those miserable taskmasters and live like kings!" "How did you even get here? I thought Dâgalûr was teleported here." "So were we, but the portal in that cave has yet to close on us. We can go back and forth at will." "Then that's enough out of you, you miserable rats. I'm gonna stick every one of you in the belly, and then I'm going home!" "Like hell you are. We'll make sure to split your bone marrow evenly so there's no fighting. That goes for all three of you! Kill them all!" He walked away and let his minions do his dirty work as he retreated for the cave.
The orcs charged at the squad in waves, each containing more soldiers than the last. Each wave was the same, more or less. The archers and spear-throwers would stay back and try to pick off Garrus, while the melee oriented orcs charged head on at Shepard and Dâgalûr with axes, scimitars, clubs, and pikes, only to be either gunned down, stuck with arrows, or hacked into with a sword. After every single orc outside of the cave was dead, a troll charged them, club in hand. It picked up Shepard by the leg, who used a pistol to try to get it to let her go. An arrow through the hand ended up forcing the troll to drop Shepard, and Garrus and Dâgalûr finished off the troll when it opened its mouth, putting an end to its life with a sniper bullet and an arrow through the roof of its mouth.
The squad continued into the cave, expecting an ambush. When they got inside, the found that the cave had been heavily modified with Mordor steel and brick, as it now resembled the inside of one of a Mordorian structure as opposed to a cave. The squad climbed the stairs, and archers perched up on ledges above began to rain arrows down upon them, but the archers were no match for a sniper rifle and pistol. As they headed farther into the cave, they seemed to meet less and less resistance, but all three of them began to hear whispers in their minds. "YOU CANNOT HIDE… YOU DO WHAT MY OWN SOLDIERS COULD NOT." They finally entered the deepest room in the cave, dimly lit by torches on the walls, which had sets of armor on armor racks on the side walls and a pedestal in the center of it. Upon the pedestal, there lay an orb, held up by a finely crafted stand made to resemble a clawed hand. The inside of the orb looked cloudy and murky, as if someone had put polluted water in it.
The leader orc jumped out of the shadows in the back of the room. "You'll not be leaving this room alive." "Says who?" "Says me." He drew a massive club, tied together by rope, which had crude spikes forced into it. "Now, if ya stand still, I'll make it quick. If not, well, I could use some entertainment." Shepard and Garrus pulled out their assault rifles and began to open fire at the leader, who let out a leopard-like roar and charged Shepard with his club. He began to swing it, and managed to hit Shepard hard in the ribs. But he was felled by a barbed arrow to the head, which pierced through the horse skull. The arrow head went straight through the leader's eye. And he fell to the ground with a thud. Shepard put medi-gel on her wound, and walked over to the orb. Dâgalûr was focused on the armor sets, which he decided to take with him. He joined Shepard over at the orb, and Garrus followed.
Dâgalûr knew what this orb was when he got near it. "Palantír." "What?" "It is one of the Palantíri, ancient artifacts used for long distance communication. How one got here is beyond me." A voice beckoned for Dâgalûr and Shepard to touch it. "GO ON, THEN. USE IT." Shepard and Dâgalûr both touched the Palantír at the same time, and both fell to the ground with the orb in hand. They saw nothing but darkness, but Sauron invaded their minds. Sauron had sensed both had touched the Palantír. "DÂGALÛR, SHEPARD, I SEE YOU." "Who...are you?" "I AM SAURON, THE ONE TRUE LORD OF THE RINGS, AND THE TRUE RULER OF MIDDLE-EARTH. YOU ARE STRONG-WILLED, SHEPARD. I SENSE A GREAT POWER IN YOU." "How do you know my name?" "I KNOW MANY THINGS. I HAVE DELVED INTO YOUR MIND." Dâgalûr interrupted, "It is done, master. The rebels are dead." "EXCELLENT, DÂGALÛR. I WILL SEE TO IT THAT WE FIND AND SLAUGHTER THE REST OF THOSE WRETCHED COWARDS. ALL OF MIDDLE-EARTH WILL BOW BEFORE MORDOR." "What now?" "YOU SHOULD SEE TO IT THAT YOU STOP THIS SAREN FELLOW. HE IS A THREAT TO BOTH OUR WORLDS, SHEPARD. GO NOW, I AM DONE SPEAKING." They were thrown back into reality to find Garrus worried. "Shepard, are you alright? You blacked out when you touched that orb." "I'm fine. We need to get back to the ship. We're done here." "I'll hold onto the Palantír for safe keeping." He stuffed it into one of his sacks.
Just as the squad was leaving the room, Dâgalûr noticed a button on the back wall. He ran back to push it, and found that the back wall was actually a door that hid the portal back to Middle-Earth. It was identical to the one that he had left Mordor through, with the same frame of bones and purple vortex. "HOME!" Dâgalûr yelled as he jumped straight at it. The portal closed while he was in the middle of his jump. He was furious. "ERU DAMNIT!" After pounding on the walls, he realized nothing would re-open the portal, so he grabbed the armor racks and headed for the exit. The Normand picked them and the Mako up, and Dâgalûr set up the armor racks in storage.
A few hours later, Shepard called up Kaidan and Tali for the next mission. About a half hour later, The Normandy landed on Virmire, a lush, tropical world. All squadmates were forced out, and Dâgalûr sat down in a tent alongside Liara and a Salarian soldier. Dâgalûr watched as Shepard settled an argument with Wrex. After Shepard picked her squad, the other squadmate, except Kaidan and Ashley, were sent back to the ship. Another half hour later every squadmate except Ashley was on board, and a deafening explosion could be heard as the ship got as far away from the planet as possible. Everyone was required to report to the comm room immediately.
As everyone took their seats, Kaidan began speaking. " I- I can't believe Ash didn't make it. How could we just leave her down there?" "Williams knew the risks going in. She gave her life to save the rest of us." "But why me? Why not her?" " I'm sorry, Kaidan. I'd never leave you behind. I couldn't. You know that." "I know. And I am grateful. But Ash died because of me. Because of us." "It wasn't your fault. It wasn't my fault. The only one to blame here is Saren." "Yes, ma'am. I- we'll get it done." "Commander? Excuse me for interrupting. But I have an idea. I think the beacon you found in Saren's base was similar to the one you found on Eden Prime. It may have filled in the missing pieces of your vision. I might be able to help you put all those pieces together." "You want to join our minds again, don't you? Okay. Go ahead." "Relax, Commander. Embrace eternity!" Both of them blacked out.
"Incredible I- I never thought the images would be so… intense. I need a moment to collect myself." "Did the vision make any sense to you?" :It's a distress call, a message sent out across the Prothean Empire. A warning against the Reapers, but the warning came too late." "What about the Conduit?" "There were other images. Locations. Places I recognize from my research… Ilos! The Conduit is on Ilos! That is why Saren needed the Mu Relay. It is the only way to get to Ilos." "We need to get to Ilos!" Tali interrupted, "Forget it. The Mu Relay's inside the Terminus Systems. Alliance Ships are not welcome. Neither are Spectres." "Who gives a damn? We need to stop that shrakh at all costs." "The Conduit's on Ilos. That's where Saren's heading. I'll be waiting for him when he gets there!" "That's what I like to hear!" "Saren will have his entire fleet orbiting Ilos. You will never make it down to the surface without reinforcements. You must alert the Council. We need a fleet to… ohhh… I am sorry. The joining is exhausting. I should go down to the medical bay and lie down for a moment." "We're done here. Dismissed!" Dâgalûr hurried out, as he was also exhausted.
He went back to storage to take a nap. When he awoke, he heard loud lasers going back and forth, along with the muffled words "Save the Council!" He shrugged it off and went back to sleep.
Conclusion of Mass Effect 1