Chapter 7: When Going Through Hell...
Date unknown, location unknown.
Prolov died less than an hour later, his injury was too great. Every Turian captive was forced to swallow their fury as the group was forcefully herded deeper into the alien ship. Their captors were armed with what looked like massive pistols and even larger rifles, both with huge blades affixed to them. It was obvious an attack would be costly and more Turian deaths wasn't a suitable repayment for their comrade.
Garrus had positioned himself towards the back of the group. He glanced behind him in time to watch Prolov's corpse thrown out of the hanger and into space. Garrus refocused on the hall in front of him.
The prisoners were herded through one purple hallway, then another identical purple hallway, then another, and another, and another. Before the group trudged through another door, the deck under their feet rumbled slightly, just enough to cause faint vibrations. After that, the group entered another purple hallway. Never before had Garrus felt so annoyed at how the inside of a ship simply looked.
Eventually they arrived somewhere different. To the Turians' dismay the new area was a brig. The brig was large, with a high ceiling and wide walls. Both walls on either side of the entrance were lined with about a half-dozen cells. Each one was closed off with black metal bars that contrasted heavily against the purple color of the walls. More alarming was the presence of medium sized animal cages lined up in two rows and stacked two high in the center of the room. Inside was a variety of creatures the Turians had never seen before. The most numerous being a hunched over bipedal animal with a rounded head and two large protruding tusks.
The Turian prisoners were then shoved into cells seemingly at random. Garrus wound up in a cell adjacent to the entrance with four others. Thankfully, no one was placed in one of the cages with the strange beasts. However, the distribution was uneven leaving some cells crammed and others not so much.
Finally with a moment to at least think, Garrus propped himself against the wall as the cell's bars slid in place. He'd come up with a comparison for these hostile aliens. During his time with Commander Shepard, Garrus had seen pictures of species native to Earth and easily remembered the Gorilla. There were physical similarities, but that was about it.
Another thing that came up was the inconsistencies Garrus had seen. This ship had shielding technology as was demonstrated in the hanger, but they used solid metal bars on their jail cells. Furthermore, on the way to the brig, some of the doors between hallways had opened automatically, yet one or two had to be forced open by a pair of aliens. Garrus even thought back to the skirmish that put his crew here. The alien ship had crippled them with an energy based missile, but their first salvo had been ballistic missiles. Why did they use such old tech if more advanced technology was obviously available.
Even though this was interesting Garrus knew it probably wasn't relevant to the situation he and his men were in. Already Garrus could hear other Turians pounding on the walls of their cells or rattling the bars looking for a weak spot. Even if they did escape, starvation would soon become a problem. Garrus didn't know what these aliens ate, but if it wasn't Dextro amino acid based, no Turian could eat it.
Garrus summed up his thoughts with a single word without any second thoughts as to its origin, "Shit!"
"Speak human?" a squeaky alien voice piped up.
Garrus came to the realization that there was a fifth person sharing his cell. The other four Turians had noticed the squat creature earlier, but chose to just observe it.
The new alien barely reached over five feet. It had a broad chest and shoulders as well as stubby appendages, a bulbous head, and beady red eyes. The most prevalent feature was the tank like backpack and breathing mask connected to what appeared to be a harness the alien wore.
"Well?" the alien squeaked, "Speak human? No?"
Garrus did know how to speak English, at least proficiently. He'd learned the language along with many other things from his time on the Normandy.
"I do speak the language," Garrus glared at the alien with suspicion then asked, " how do you know what a human is? Furthermore, what are you?"
In response the alien pointed to himself with a stubby finger, "Me once merchant. Do trades with humans. Need learn language, make easy. Also good challenge." The alien paused, then attempted to sum up his grasp of English, "I not good."
All Garrus really found interesting was the notion that humans lived in this dimension. He filed that information away for later as the alien continued.
"Me an Unggoy. Me named Yulassess," he said. "What you? Who you?"
"My species is known as Turians," Garrus answered not seeing any reason to keep it a secret. "My name is Garrus." He spared the other Turians a glance. Garrus didn't know any of them as they had been crew of the Menae's Might. They in turn were more interested in their own things, and only spared an occasional glance at the commander.
"Me no heard of Tur-yans before," Yulassess said, testing the new word. "Where you from? Human space? No from Coalition space, I'd know."
Something that dawned on Garrus was how this "Unggoy" wasn't acting like a typical prisoner. He was chipper, inquisitive, and very interested in his new cellmates. Usually, people in their position couldn't care less, but this alien didn't even seem to acknowledge that.
As if to prove Garrus's observations, when one of the Gorilla like aliens shambled near their cell Yulassess leapt to his feet and waddled up to the bars. Repeatedly, he slammed his fist against the bars catching the other alien's attention. What followed amounted to a terse exchange of barks, grunts, and growls no one else could make sense of. After a minute the larger alien made what looked like a flip gesture then walked off. Yulassess waddled back to his corner and sat down with a clang as his tank smacked the wall.
"Told him need new tank," the unggoy said. He casually pointed towards the one on his back, "This one low." He snickered, "Dumb Brute say stuff head in ass. He not know what I'd do," Yulassess continued snickering at his own joke, which was mostly lost on Garrus.
"So, they're called Brutes?" Garrus asked while gesturing towards the entrance.
"Yep," Yulassess answered, "real name big mouthful. Brutes easy."
Garrus did find the name fitting, but he had other questions. "Where are they taking us?"
"Many places possibly. Have idea and plan," Yulassess said catching Garrus off guard. "No talk here. Brute feast soon, start then." The Unggoy paused, "Tur-yans need food yes? Brutes bad feeders. What food?"
Garrus was definitely finding this suspicious, but he didn't have much choice. "We can only eat Dextro amino acid based foods. Anything else will cause issues." Garrus thought for a second, "do you know if the Brutes have or use any?"
"Me no heard of it," Yulassess admitted. A moment later the Unggoy perked up with an idea. "Tur-yans come in ships yes?" he asked to which Garrus nodded. "Good, Brutes dumb raiders. Take all that not stuck. Maybe took Tur-yan food."
It wasn't a bad assessment, but there was still a problem. "Even if they did, how would we get it?" Garrus asked.
"Easy, go down hole." Yulassess pointed out said hole far in the back of the cell. "hole for craps. Goes to very low level filled with yuck."
It was to convenient for Garrus, "Why do the Brutes ignore this?"
"Fall long. Most break legs then die in yuck," Yulassess seemed to puff out his chest in pride, "Unggoy legs strong, no break. Me go down bring Tur-yan food."
A semblance of a viable escape plan entered Garrus's thoughts. "So, you head down the hole. Then you come back and us out. We'll gather supplies then steal a vehicle and run for it." It seemed sound.
Yulassess however knew otherwise. "Bad plan. Bad plan. Brute ship in slip...space," the Unggoy struggled with those words, "Felt shaking. Leave ship in slipspace. Very bad."
Although Garrus had no idea what slipspace was the way Yulassess spoke of it convinced him it wasn't to be trifled with. "So what do we do then?"
"We wait. Me have plan. Brute feast soon. Get stuff then," Yulassess explained.
"How long do we have to wait?" Garrus asked feeling more than a little impatient.
"Soon, till guards leave," Yulassess pointed to the entrance of the brig which was guarded by two Brutes.
Garrus settled in for the wait, which turned out to be a couple of hours by his estimates. In that time he learned who his other cellmates were. One was a stocky old Turian named Magnolum who'd served aboard the Menae's Might as chief gunnery officer. Garrus took an instant liking to him, as they shared interests in precision weapons. The other three, Prelas, Acktium, and Sylis had been junior crewmen aboard the frigate. These four were optimistic and ready to follow Commander Vakarian in whatever plan he'd created with the Unggoy alien. They felt like they were in the best of hands according to Garrus's reputation. Unfortunately, Garrus knew they only knew a fraction of his past.
From these four Garrus learned exactly what had happened on the Menae's Might during the attack. The weapon the Brute ship had employed against the frigate had locked up the ship's systems then siphoned all power from them. Without gravity, lighting, and even life support the crew had been vulnerable to boarders who soon swarmed the ship disarming and apprehending everyone aboard with little resistance. Hopefully, the Brutes had done what Yulassess predicted and seized everything in sight, including the Might's ration stockpile.
"We ready. Plan go," Yulassess hissed suddenly.q
Garrus looked towards the entrance just in time to see the guards disappear through the door.
"How long will this take?" Garrus plainly asked.
"As long as needed," Yulassess replied, "Be back. Then tell rest of plan." With that the Unggoy jumped to his feet and with barely a moment's hesitation he leapt into the hole in the cell's floor.
Garrus could hear the alien screaming all the down, whether in terror or excitement he couldn't tell. He definitely hoped it was the latter.
The other Turians had long since settled into their cells, giving up on forcing their way out. Silently, Garrus relayed what was happening with specific Turian hand signals. The crews' responses varied from affirmative to questioning if they could trust the Unggoy at all. Garrus could only remind them that they had no choice in the matter, and that they should try to save their energy.
As the hours trickled by, the Turian prisoners attempted to occupy themselves in any way possible. Mostly it was swapping stories of past events and accomplishments, while others tried to get a simple game going. The general lack of space and materials effectively handicapped any hope for an engaging game. Meanwhile, many others simply tried to sleep the hours away with varied results.
Garrus was quick to join in on the storytelling. He was in command of a large group in a serious situation, and parallels to Garrus's disastrous mission on the space station Omega were too easy to contemplate. Everyone on his team died when another betrayed them to the mercenary gangs and Garrus had been to far away to do anything. He refused to let his mind wander towards that experience and impair his self-confidence, especially now.
The crew enjoyed the story of how Garrus and Commander Shepard stormed Chora's Den and the Assault on the Collector Base was a classic. Tales of the Reaper War and Omega remained absent, but there were plenty of others to fill that gap.
The hours sped by till it seemed Yulassess had if fact forgotten about the Turians or had failed. The stories got repetitive and uninteresting while sleep offered no relief. No one even notice the faint rumblings under their feet. One Turian wearing a uniform with the markings of the Palaven's Pride leaned up against the wall of his cell located at the back of the brig. Him and five others were desperately trying to appear engaged as a seventh Turian told yet another tale of yet another girlfriend. Quite suddenly, something smacked him in the head and landed on the floor. The Turian stared dumbfounded at the all too familiar silvery rectangular shape of a standard Hierarchy military ration. Looking up, the Turian discovery that a panel in the ceiling had disappeared, and staring down on him was a pair of beady red eyes. Before he could do anything another half-dozen rations rained down upon him and the previously missing ceiling panel reappeared in its original place.
Pretty soon enough Turian rations were falling from the ceiling of every occupied cell to provide one per Turian. Meanwhile, high pitched squeaky laughter could be heard echoing throughout the air ducts above the brig. Garrus watched expectantly as a panel in the ceiling of his own cell was removed. From the new hole dropped a cloth bag which landed with a muffled thump spilling handful of rations on the floor. Next, a metal pole roughly five feet in length hit the floor with a loud clang.
Then Yulassess himself fell through landing with a muffled grunt. Quickly, he snatched up the pole and use it to replace the ceiling panel he'd removed. Finishing that, he tossed the pole, and at the same kicked one of the spilled rations, at Garrus who caught them both.
"Quick now, eat," Yulassess implored, "Plan soon."
The Unggoy didn't need to say that twice. Every Turian prisoner wolfed down the distributed rations, dissipating the pangs of hunger that had been steadily creeping up on them.
Something Garrus noticed was that fact that Yulassess was awfully clean for someone who had just literally jumped into the ship's bilges.
Sensing the Turian's questioning stare, Yulassess was quick to deduce its meaning and offer an explanation. "Me shower in officers rooms. Got new tank. Brute feast big, go for long time, few guards."
Garrus decided that probably true and switched to examining the metal pole. It was a simple five foot long stick of steel. Garrus estimated it at about ten pounds and it had a sharpened point on one end. He assigned it a weapon role.
Not a moment later the entrance to the brig opened with its signature chime. A single Brute strode in sweeping its head back and forth examining every cell and cage it could see. It's gaze traveled over Garrus's cell and locked eyes with the Turian whose blood had just gone cold.
The source of Garrus's unease wasn't the myriad of multicolored stains surrounding the beast's maw. It was the single massive dark blue blood strain covering the majority of the Brute's upper body.
Cold fury blossomed in Garrus's mind and as the Brute stalked up his cell, he waited for an opportunity. The Brute got right up close to the cell bars and repeatedly smacked them while growling in its native language and gesturing at the bag of rations lying on the floor. It obviously wanted to know where it had come from. Yulassess desperately tried to talk the Brute down to no avail, and In the middle of their rapid conversation Garrus saw his opportunity.
The Turian commander gripped the steel pole, which he'd managed to keep out of sight, and launched himself to his feet. Garrus's charge lasted barely two seconds, just enough time to catch the Brute's attention. Screaming something akin to a battlecry, Garrus didn't hesitate as he threw the pole like a javelin, pointed end first, at the stunned beast. His aim was spot on. The pole passed cleanly through the bars and struck the Brute in the eye with enough force behind it to pierce the back of the eye socket and skewer the Brute's brain, killing it instantly.
Yulassess was so startled that he fell, his tank creating a loud bang as it hit the floor. However, as the adrenaline rush died down the Unggoy gave Garrus an incredulous glare. "What took so long Tur-yan?" he asked.
Garrus hardly paid the comment any mind. Although, it reinforced his notion that the Unggoy was not really a prisoner and that there was something else going on.
There wasn't time to further dwell on that thought. Garrus had just placed himself and his crew in a do or die situation. If they didn't escape now the repercussions for what had just happened would undeniably by extreme.
On the other hand, killing Prolov's murderer was at least a moment of satisfaction. The navigator was the first casualty under Commander Vakarian's command of the Palaven's Pride and he refused to take that lightly.
Yulassess meanwhile, began to frantically search the Brute's corpse, which had landed parallel to the cell bars. The Unggoy exclaimed excitedly when he procured a set of purple glowing disks attached to a cord. Before any of the Turians could ask Yulassess reached through the bars and swiped one them through the cell's locking mechanism.
The bars retracted, creating an opening. Yulassess waddled through followed by Garrus and the other four Turians. As the Unggoy went from cell to cell releasing the other prisoners Garrus told one of the junior officers, Sylis, to retrieve the bag of rations. Garrus then approached the dead Brute who still had the steel pole in its head. The pole made a sucking sound as Garrus removed it from the Brute and wiped off the gore on its shaggy chest.
He turned around and found 50 now freed Turian survivors looking back at him. Garrus forcible prevented his mind from drawing similarities between this situation and Omega. Instead, he placed his focus on Yulassess, who'd just waddled by. Garrus had a handful of questions for the Unggoy.
"Yulassess," Garrus began, catching the Unggoy's attention, "how did you know this Brute would have those keys?"
Yulassess's answer was only a little vague, "him Master of Jail. Me kept watch, timing everything." The Unggoy's voice suddenly became serious, "had to see if Tur-yan kill Brute. If willing." Yulassess came up to a console and began inputting commands.
Garrus simply ordered his men to be ready to move and then continued with his questions. "What is your plan exactly? How do you expect us to help if you keep us in the dark?"
"Good questions Tur-yan," Yulassess replied without pausing his work on the console, "Plan simple, easy. Reach hanger, catch ship, leave. Brute feast almost done, must hurry. Friends already in hangar, waiting."
This new information cleared things up a little bit, but also added more questions. "How do you have people in the hanger and how can we leave? You said leaving the ship in slipspace was not a good idea."
Yulassess turned on Garrus, his red eyes narrowed in annoyance, "You not hear other rumbles?! Ship out of slipspace. Good to leave." The Unggoy pointed at the cages containing a dozen agitated tusked creatures stacked up in the middle of the brig, "Cages on timed release. Let beasts out, make distraction. Rest you learn later. No time."
The Unggoy returned to fiddling with the console. Garrus decided not to push it, pissing off their guide was not at all a good plan. He briefly examined the animals in the cages, barely a meter tall with sharp tusks, teeth, and a reptilian appearance. Garrus could only hope these bipedal creatures could keep the Brutes occupied while the Turians escaped.
The door chimed open and Yulassess scurried through, motioning the Turians to follow. Garrus took point along with Magnolum who'd retrieved a large bladed pistol or submachine gun from the dead Brute. Meanwhile, the other survivors kept in a close formation keeping an eye on the group's six.
The journey was an uneventful backtrack through repetitive identical hallways. Until the last junction between them and the hanger when a single Brute rounded the corner. It caught sight of the escapees first and bellowed a challenge before reaching for its own weapon. Unfortunately for the Brute, Garrus and Magnolum's instincts were faster.
Garrus launched his makeshift spear at the Brute, catching it in the throat before it could fully draw its gun. Then Magnolum squeezed the trigger of his recovered weapon and was briefly shocked at the automatic flurry of yellow-hot spikes that perforated the Brute's upper chest and head. The Brute fell to the deck in a heap, riddled with sharp objects.
Besides Garrus who paused to retrieve his weapon, the group barely paid the corpse a second glance. Soon after, the group entered the previously empty hangar where the whole thing began.
The first thing Garrus noticed was that the hanger was no longer empty. A pair of bulbous beetle-like vessels now filled up the previously empty space. Just underneath one of these strange ships was a completely new alien tapping its foot with impatience.
Garrus and Magnolum automatically readied their weapons just in case, but were discouraged by Yulassess who charged forward to meet the new alien. Remaining alert, the two armed Turians followed the Unggoy at a distance while the other survivors filed into the hanger.
Yulassess's meeting with the new alien consisted of a handful of exchanged sentences in another language no Turian had ever heard. Garrus in the meantime was examining the new alien. It was shorter than a Brute but still taller than a Turian. Where the alien's mouth would've been there were four mandible like appendages. Its knee joints and hands had a similar structure to that of a Turians. However, where Turians had an avian appearance this alien looked more reptilian.
A moment later the unknown alien finally seemed to take notice of the large group of Turians in the hanger. "English? Interesting," it said.
Garrus decided now would be the best time for some sort of introductions. "That seems to be the only common language," he began, planning on asking about that later, "I'm Garrus Vakarian and this is Magnolum," he gestured to the Turian next to him.
"Jul 'Allum," the alien simply said. "We must go. The Brutes will be back soon and our jamming measures won't last long." His voice was deep and throaty.
Although Garrus was grateful for the help, he wasn't as foolish as to jump in blind, "Exactly where are you taking us and why?"
Jul didn't seem to find the delay off-putting. Instead he simply explained, "Yulassess here is a recruiter. One of our best, and one who needs to get back to work," Jul shot a telling glare at the Unggoy.
To Yulassess's credit he didn't argue. He simply scampered towards Garrus and said, "Good luck Tur-yan Garrus," then left the hanger and disappeared into the ship.
"He travels the Brute slave routes," Jul resumed, "and delivers personnel and supplies when he can. Escaping and getting caught when necessary." Jul then pointed outside the hanger.
There Garrus got his first look at the planet the Brute ship was speeding towards. He would've described it as a garden world if only a large portion of it hadn't been charred black and its upper atmosphere wasn't clogged with rocky debris.
"That is where we are going," Jul explained, "The Brute occupied Sangheili colony Saepon'kal." Although Garrus didn't know it, Jul was smiling, "get your soldiers aboard the Phantoms, Garrus Vakarian. You're all now members of the resistance."
Just then the Brute ship's alarm began blaring away.