Decided to take some artistic liberties with this one, specifically the layout of the Secure Lab to make the fight a little more interesting….
….
2151 Hours, March 21st, 2683
Peak 15 Research Facility, Noveria
Pax System, Horse Head Nebula
….
*SKREEEEEEE!*
The Rachni squealed in pain and surprise as it suddenly found itself riddled with bullets and bleeding green ichor out of a series of freshly-drilled holes in its exoskeleton. It keeled over, its blood intermingling with the partly-melted ice of the maintenance area, a hollowed-out cavity in the glacier. "Negative contacts." Cortana reported. "I think that was the only one around."
Chief gestured his team to keep moving before resuming their march. They continued through the ice tunnel, a surreal change of pace from the sterile aesthetics of Rift Station, before arriving at a door. It lead into another hallway featuring the metal railings and dark green tiled walls that the team had gotten used to by now. They followed it into another room with two doors, one of which had a sign saying 'Secure Lab' floating over it in reddish-orange neon.
"Weapons check." Chief ordered. "This could get ugly." Once everyone checked their weapons and winked green, Chief opened the door, and Blue Team proceeded through the airlock and into the Secure Lab.
The first thing immediately visible about the Secure Lab was its sheer size. It was a massive chamber, almost as big as a small warehouse, filled with a labyrinthine network of catwalks and suspended glass tanks. The ceiling went thirty feet up, and a glance over the nearest rail would reveal a floor more than thirty feet down filled with crates and tanks.
The next thing immediately visible was an incredibly large Rachni sealed inside an equally large glass tank that was about twenty feet in front of them.
And standing by the Rachni was the last thing immediately visible; Matriarch Benezia.
Chief zoomed in on her as she stared into the Rachni tank. She was a perfect match for the description given to him by the Citadel Council in one briefing document. Long black dress, ceremonial crown, pronounced bust, mottled-blue skin, dark circles under the eyes; this was the Spartan's target alright.
"You do not know the privilege of being a mother." she stated. She wasn't shouting, but that didn't stop her voice from echoing off the walls of the cavernous room anyway. "There is power in creation. To shape a life. To turn it toward happiness or despair." she continued staring at the massive Rachni as she went on. "Her children were to be ours. Raised to hunt and slay Saren's enemies."
"Her children?" Cortana asked. "Holy crap. Chief, that's a Rachni Queen. Binary-Helix wasn't cloning them, they were breeding them."
Benezia finally turned around to fully acknowledge the Master Chief's presence. She casually walked a few feet closer. There was a long catwalk ramp between her and the Chief, forcing the Spartan to crane his neck up to face her. "I won't be moved by sympathy. No matter who you bring into this confrontation." she said, most likely referring to Liara.
"Matriarch Benezia, by the authority vested in me by the Office of Special Tactics and Reconnaissance, you are hereby under arrest for aiding and abiding former Spectre and registered war criminal Saren Arterius. Put your hands on your head and relinquish any and all weapons on your person." Chief rattled off.
Benezia simply studied the Chief, as though he were a monkey in a zoo. "Indeed?" she asked. She then turned her gaze on her daughter. "What have you told him about me, Liara?" she asked, opting to completely ignore the Spartan's demands.
Liara looked unsure for a moment. She turned to the Chief, who nodded at her. Liara nodded back and took a step forward. "Mother…." she began. "We do not want to hurt you. I do not know why you have chosen to side with Saren, but…we can talk about it. If you surrender peacefully." She started wringing her hands nervously. "Please…this doesn't have to end in violence."
Chief watched Benezia carefully as Liara begged her to end things peacefully. Specifically he watched her face for any signs of hesitance, anything to indicate that Liara's words were getting through to her. Chillingly, the Chief saw nothing. Her face remained in a slight smirk as though it was frozen like that, eyes as empty as a derelict ship. There was literally nothing there. For some reason, that put the Chief on edge. His gut was telling him that there was something very wrong here.
"….I realize now I should have been stricter with you." Benezia told Liara. The younger Asari's mouth briefly hung open in shock. "Have you faced an Asari Commando unit before?" Benezia asked the Master Chief as she turned her gaze back on him. "Few Humans have."
"Have you faced a Spartan unit before?" Chief asked back before withdrawing his assault rifle. "Few Asari have." No choice now. Benezia wanted to do things the hard way.
"Then this should be interesting…" Benezia replied as her body was wrapped in a biotic aura. She quickly swung her arm in a down-facing horizontal arc, slashing a huge gap in the ramp between herself and Blue Team. She then turned around and walked away.
"That gap's too big to jump across." Cortana said. "Incoming hostiles." she reported.
Chief's eyes glanced at his motion tracker and saw a line of red dots converging on Blue Team's position. He turned and saw a trio of Asari Commandos approach. "Overlapping fields of fire!" Chief ordered. Ashley, Kaidan, Tali and Liara all bent down on one knee. Garrus, Wrex, N'tho and the Master Chief stood behind them. They all opened fire.
Their combined fire made quick work of the commando out in front, even with her biotic barriers up, but the other two weren't having it. They each lifted their hands up before taking cover behind crates. Before they realized it, Chief and Garrus found themselves floating up into the air at an alarming rate. When the aura went away, the two landed on another catwalk higher above.
For a Turian, Garrus was rather lightly built, only weighing a little over 225 pounds with his armor on. This was in stark contrast to the Master Chief who, fully armored, weighed half a ton. This contrast became all the clearer once the two of them landed on opposite ends of a catwalk segment, the end that Chief landed on shook the whole catwalk.
As soon as they got up, Chief immediately noticed a pair of Asari Commandos approach them with weapons raised. The Chief also heard a creaking sound coming from the catwalk he landed on, which gave him an idea. Thinking quickly, he sprung up and backpedaled as he opened fire on the commandos. He lobbed a grenade at them just as they were preparing a biotic attack.
The grenade detonated near where the Master Chief landed, breaking the already-compromised catwalk connection there. Chief then stood over the next connection, shot the bolts and screws off, grabbed the end and lifted. The stretch of catwalk tipped forwards like a see-saw, catching the two Asari off guard as one tumbled off and the other dropped her rifle to grab onto the grating. It didn't help much as Garrus raised his sniper rifle and shot the Asari in the head, right through one of the holes in the grating. Her body slid off, succumbing to gravity. With both assailants dealt with, Chief dropped the catwalk into its regular position.
"Chief!" Ashley yelled. Chief and Garrus looked over and saw Ashley on a catwalk that was one level down, taking cover behind a crate. "Little help here!" she called as another pair of commandos closed in on her. Chief reacted first, opening fire with his rifle on the commandos while Garrus lined up a headshot and took it. Ashley finished off the remaining Asari with her SAW.
"This isn't good." Cortana reported. "Those commandos used their biotics to lift Blue Team up into the higher catwalks. They're trying to split us all up."
"What do we do?" Ashley asked over TEAMCOM.
"We adapt." Chief replied. "Blue-Four, you have overwatch. Stay here and provide support fire wherever you can."
"Copy." Garrus replied. "But what about you?"
"I'm going after Benezia." Chief said before sprinting off. He eventually found a ramp leading down to another level and headed down. He knew that he couldn't simply jump from one catwalk to the next. Otherwise -
Chief's train of thought was interrupted when he bumped into another Asari Commando. They both raised their rifles to open fire on one another. It was then that they both heard a ferocious roar. They looked up and saw Wrex roaring as he leapt from a catwalk higher above and landed on their level, shuttering the whole catwalk.
More than shutter, actually, as the entire segment of catwalk collapsed from the sudden shift in weight, not built to withstand the impact of a flying Krogan. The segment landed on another catwalk further down, right on top of another pair of Commandos, inadvertently lending a hand to a pinned. Wrex then finished off the commando that collapsed with him with his shotgun.
And that was why the Chief wasn't jumping from one catwalk to the next. These things were unstable and couldn't handle sudden changes in weight. He'd have to get down to Benezia's level the old fashioned way.
"No more jumping." Chief said over TEAMCOM. "These things aren't stable enough for that, just use the stairs to get down." With that, he turned around to find another means downward.
…..
Ashley slid down the latter, landing on another catwalk further down. She looked at a catwalk across the way and saw that Tali was pinned down by a trio of commandos. "Blue-Four, Six needs support fire!" Ashley said over TEAMCOM.
"Copy." Garrus acknowledged as Ashley took out her beam rifle and propped it on the railing for stability. With a distant bang, one commando's head exploded, which was the unofficial signal for Ashley. She pulled the trigger and a screeching golden beam of energy drilled into another commando. The beam knocked the commando off her feat and sent her over the railing. With the odds more in her favor, Tali popped out of cover and unloaded on the Asari with her assault rifle, finishing her off with a frag grenade once her shields were down.
"You're welcome." Garrus said as Ashley crossed the catwalk that connected the two walkways to link up with Tali.
"You okay?" Ashley asked.
"Yeah. Thanks for the save." Tali replied. It was then that Ashley thought she saw something behind Tali. It was a shimmering silhouette, not unlike N'tho's active camo. Except the silhouette wasn't that of a Sangheili, but rather one of a…..
"GET DOWN!" Ashley shouted as she shoved Tali back behind the crate as she held up her beam rifle and fired. The silhouette's shields flickered and died before its chest exploded in a shower of sparks and metal splinters. It collapsed onto the floor as its cloak wore off, revealing an odd-looking Geth with a white chassis and a pair of long rods sticking out of each shoulder, similar to the ones on primes and juggernauts, except this one was much smaller.
"Chief, this is Tali." Tali reported in over TEAMCOM. "Benezia isn't just throwing Asari Commandos at us. She's got cloaked Geth too!"
…
"Repeat that, Blue-Six?" Chief asked. "You said cloaked Geth?"
"Active camouflage, like the Sangheili have." Tali replied.
"You heard the lady, people. Watch your motion trackers." Chief announced to the rest of the team. He then noticed a silhouette on the catwalk across from him on his left that was jogging quickly somewhere. "Blue-Four, catwalk on my nine'o clock."
"Your what?" Garrus asked.
"My left." Chief replied.
"Copy." Garrus replied. A shot rang out and the Geth crumbled to the ground before losing its cloak.
"Good. Keep watching my six." Chief replied.
"What is it with you and numbers?" Garrus asked.
"What is it with you and not reading the Alliance field manual?" Chief countered.
"I've never heard of Geth with active camouflage before." Tali commented. "This must be further evidence that the Geth are evolving beyond their original forms, like the hoppers."
"Stay focused." Chief sternly ordered as he took cover upon bumping into a pair of Asari Commandos. He then noticed the silhouette of a Geth Hunter creeping up on him from the end opposite the commandos. How long had this one been following him? Thinking quickly, he threw a tech grenade at the Geth, disabling both its shields and cloak, before finishing it off with a quick burst of fire from his assault rifle. With that nuisance dealt with, he began a proper firefight with the commandos.
….
A half-ton of Krogan muscle charged forward and smacked a Geth Hunter clean over the rails before turning to pump a few rounds into the other hunter. He then noticed a trio of Asari Commandos charging down the catwalk towards him. Grinning, he threw a spiker grenade at the one in the middle. She caught it with her biotics, and flashed a victorious smirk.
A smirk which quickly went away when it detonated, sending one of a dozen spikes into her head. Another Asari slumped to the ground, a particularly long spike sticking out of her chest, right where her heart would be. The third and final one was still very much alive, unfortunately for her, as one spike went right through her foot and into the catwalk, effectively pinning her in place. She screamed in anguish as she tried to biotically pull the spike out. That was when Wrex biotically charged into her, sending her careening off the catwalk, her severed foot still held in place by the spike.
Wrex peaked over the railing and saw Liara locked in a biotic battle with another pair of commandos. To her credit, the Asari scientist was putting up a decent fight, but she was clearly outmatched. Wrex rolled his shoulders as he prepared for another biotic charge. In a blink, he warped to the catwalk below him, knocking off the two commandos as he hit the catwalk.
He also knocked the catwalk off its hinges, which then fell on top of another catwalk with Wrex still standing on it. Wrex picked himself up and dusted himself off, turning and looking to see Kaidan coming out from behind a crate. "Thanks for the save." the Human said.
"What?" Wrex asked. He then looked down and saw that his catwalk landed right on top of a pair of commandos. "Oh. Funnily enough, that's the second time that's happened."
"Yeah, I'm starting to doubt these things are fully up to code." Kaidan commented.
"Wouldn't be surprised." Wrex said. "This place was built by Kig-Yar, after all."
"Eyes peeled, there's a Geth sniper somewhere around here." Ashley said over TEAMCOM. "Ten to one he's got active camo too."
Wrex looked up and around and saw a Geth silhouette standing still on the catwalk above him. "I've got him." he said over TEAMCOM before charging up there, knocking the Geth off the catwalk and sailing through the air. "I think that was the sniper." Wrex commented.
He then felt his shields go out and a sniper rifle round pierce his armor and hit into his hump. He winced and hissed out a curse as he whirled around and saw another silhouette in the direction the shot came from. "Nope, that wasn't him." Wrex said as he switched to his railgun. "One sec."
He fired right at the camouflaged sniper, sending up a shower of hydraulic fluid and Geth bits. "That should do it." Wrex commented over TEAMCOM.
….
With the deployable Forerunner turret watching his back and keeping the Geth at one end of the catwalk at bay, the Chief was a little more free to deal with the Geth at the other end. The Spartan threw a tech grenade at the quartet of Geth, disabling their cloaks, shields, weapons and themselves, giving him the opportunity needed to drill neat holes right into their mechanical hearts.
By now, there was no doubt in the Chief's mind that Benezia was given these new cloaked Geth models almost specifically to deal with Spartan interference, in case the Asari Commandos weren't enough. Unfortunately for Benezia, any tactical advantage given to the Geth by their active camo was negated by the terrain of the Secure Lab. Each and every catwalk was a perfect choke point. All Chief had to do was fire down the way and, if a cloaked Geth was there, it would definitely get hit. Active camouflage is useless if you don't have room to maneuver and position yourself to attack from an unexpected angle.
The Chief then felt plasma shots ricocheting off his shields, prompting him to dive behind a crate. He looked over the crate and saw that the Geth that the Forerunner turret was supposed to be keeping occupied were pressing in on him. The turret had been destroyed. Again. Sighing, the Chief threw another tech grenade at the Geth pack before switching to his shotgun. Perhaps one of his armor's other new systems would prove more effective.
Once the grenade had detonated, Chief swung out from behind the crate and activated his M805 Forward Acceleration System. The thruster pack made the Chief shoot forward, leaving twin trails of white exhaust in his wake, slamming forward into one of the Geth, sending it hurdling over the railing. Chief then used his shotgun to quickly finish off the other two Geth. The hostiles around him dealt with, he turned to continue his descent down.
It was then that N'tho suddenly landed in front of the Chief in a heap, a lingering biotic aura around him suggesting that he wound up landing where he did after a commando lifted or pushed him from somewhere else. "You okay?" Chief asked.
"Why does this room have so many catwalks?" N'tho groaned. "What's the point of all these catwalks? What purpose do they serve?!"
Chief peeked over the railing. "I'm right above the ground level. I'm going after Benezia. Watch my six." he ordered before hopping over N'tho and trotting over to the ladder that lead down. "Has anyone else made it to the bottom level?" Chief asked over TEAMCOM.
"Almost." Liara replied. "I can see Benezia from up here. I'll meet you there."
"Solid copy. I've got visual too." Chief said as he slid down the latter and saw Benezia standing in front of the Rachni queen's tank, just further down the catwalk and up the ramp from where he was. Taking out his assault rifle, he took off at a sprint. He reasoned that if he moved fast enough, he could potentially get the drop on her before she has a chance to retaliate with her biotics. Within seconds, he was able to close the distance, charging headlong up the ramp and towards Benezia.
Benezia then turned on her heel and thrust out her glowing blue arm.
The Master Chief suddenly felt as though his whole body was in a vice. No longer was he running, but was now standing with his arms and legs splayed apart, his rifle clattering to the floor. Actually, 'standing' wasn't the right word, as he was now floating several inches above the floor. He tried to move, but none of his muscles would budge, as if the air itself was squeezing him tight.
"Rushing towards me with gun in hand? Did you truly think that would work?" Benezia asked. "Please. I am a Matriarch. I have honed my biotic talents over the course of centuries, and have mastered countless techniques in that time." she smirked. "One of my personal favorites is the biotic stasis."
With a slight movement from her wrist, the Chief floated closer to the ancient Asari. "This particular kind of stasis field is an incredibly advanced technique that is only mastered after decades of practice. As you can see, the field is as unyielding as steel to you. But to me, it is as pliable as clay. I can manipulate it in anyway I see fit…"
She then began to slowly curl her pointing finger inward. Chief then felt the air squeezing his neck. He wheezed and gasped, becoming increasingly desperate for air with each passing second. "Such as slowly shrinking the field around your trachea." Benezia replied. She scoffed. "And here I was expecting a challenge from the Last Spartan."
It was then that Liara ran up the ramp and gasped at what she saw. "Mother!" she cried as she took out her pistol and pointed it at Benezia. "Put him down! Now!"
"Or what?" Benezia casually asked as she turned her head towards her daughter. "You'll shoot me?"
"….Please." Liara begged. "Do not make me."
Chief watched as Benezia met Liara's pleading gaze head-on. For a few seconds, the matriarch's face was still as stony as ever. But then, something in her eyes changed. They became softer, if only for a half-second. She was starting to hesitate. "Just put him down, Mother." Liara quietly said. "We can end this without anymore bloodshed. Please understand, Saren's a madman - "
"I will not betray him." Benezia interrupted Liara. Her eyes were getting softer now. She was finally cracking. "You will…you…."
Then, the blue glow around her arm faded as she clutched her head, as though she suddenly developed a migraine. The Chief dropped back onto the floor and took in a few ragged gasps. But only a few. Once he had some oxygen in his lungs again, he grabbed his rifle and stood back up in a firing stance, the rifle shouldered and aimed squarely at the Asari matriarch. "Hands up." he ordered in a voice that was raspier than usual. "Now."
Benezia looked up and saw the rifle pointed at her. As she raised her hands in the universal 'I surrender' gesture, Chief noticed something different about her eyes now. They were no longer empty. They were now filled with fear and desperation. "You must listen." Benezia began. "Saren still whispers in my mind. I can fight his compulsions briefly, but the Indoctrination is strong."
"What are you talking about?" Chief demanded.
"I sealed a part of my mind away from the Indoctrination." Benezia replied. "Saving it for a moment when I could help destroy him. It will not last long."
"What's this 'Indoctrination' you keep mentioning?" Chief asked, though he suspected he already knew the answer. He had heard that word before.
"People are not themselves around Saren." Benezia explained. "You come to idolize him. Worship him. You would do anything for him. The key is Sovereign, his flagship. It is a dreadnaught of incredible size and its power is extraordinary."
"Where did Saren get it?" Chief asked.
"I cannot say. The Geth did not build it. Its technology is far more advanced than that of any known species." Benezia replied. "The longer you stay aboard, the more Saren's will seems correct. You sit at his feet and smile as his words pour into you. It is subtle at first. I thought I was strong enough to resist. Instead, I became a willing tool, eager to serve."
She paused and shook her head. "It is a terror to be trapped in your own mind." she added. "To beat upon the glass as your hands torture and murder. I was powerless."
"Why are you here, Mother?" Liara asked as she lowered her gun. Chief kept his rifle good and ready to fire. As Benezia herself had said, her resistance won't last long.
"Saren sent me here to find the location of the Mu Relay." Benezia answered. "Its position was lost thousands of years ago."
"How do you lose something as big as a mass relay?" Liara asked.
"Four thousand years ago, a star nearby went supernova. The shockwave propelled the relay out of its system, but did not damage it. Its precise vector and speed are impossible to determine. As millennia passed, the nebula created by the nova enveloped the relay. It is difficult to find any cold object in interstellar space, particularly something swathed in hot dust and radiation."
"But someone here found it." Chief stated more than asked.
"Two thousand years ago, the Rachni inhabited that region of our galaxy." Benezia answered with a nod. "They discovered the relay." She turned towards the Rachni queen, still sitting in the giant glass tank. "The Rachni can share memories across generations. Queens inherit the knowledge of their mothers." She paused and lowered her head. "I took the location of the relay from the queen's mind. I was not gentle."
"Why does Saren want the Mu Relay?" Chief asked.
"He believes it will lead him to the Conduit. I would tell you more if I could, but Saren did not share his counsel with me. I was merely a servant to his cause." Benezia answered as she turned back toward the Spartan and her daughter. She then winced slightly, but continued. "I was not myself, but…..I should have been stronger."
She reached into a pocket on her robe, and pulled out an OSD case. "I transcribed the data to an OSD." she said, her tone quickly becoming more strained. She placed it on the floor and slid it over to the Spartan's feet. "Take it. Please."
The Chief picked up the case and slid it into one of his utility pockets. "Mother, knowing the location of the relay is not enough." Liara said. "Do you know where he planned to go from there?"
Benezia shook her head. "Saren wouldn't tell me his destination. But…you must find out quickly, I transmitted…..the coordinates to him before you arrived." There was even more strain in her voice now, as if getting every sentence out was a battle. She clutched her head again. "You have to stop…..me, I can't…His teeth are at my ear! Fingers on my spine! You should…you should…."
Benezia clutched both hands to her head as she stumbled over to the railing, leaning on it for support. "Mother!" Liara pleaded. "I….Don't leave! Fight him!"
"…..You've always made me proud, Liara." Benezia whimpered out. A moment passed, then Benezia stood back upright, her arms glowing with biotic fury once again. "Die." she growled as she locked eyes with the Master Chief.
*BANG!*
A gunshot rang out and Benezia backed away, catching herself on a railing before slowly sliding to the floor. Her hand was covering a bloody wound in her abdomen.
Chief's gun wasn't the one that fired.
Chief turned and, much to his surprise, saw that Liara had her pistol raised once again, a tiny wisp of smoke trailing up from the barrel. "Oh my Goddess….." Liara softly said as she dropped the gun and rushed over to her mother's side.
"I cannot go on." Benezia softly said. "You will have to stop him, Little Wing."
"Hold on!" Liara quickly said, panicking as he unbuckled her utility belt and laid it on the floor. "I've been trained as a field medic and I have biofoam and medi-gel. You'll be fine Mother, I just need - "
"No." Benezia firmly said.
"I can save you!" Liara pleaded.
"He is still in my mind." Benezia said. "I am not entirely myself. I never will be again."
"Mother…." Liara whispered.
"Good night, Little Wing." Benezia said as she continued to slump to the floor. "I will see you again with the dawn…"
"Mother!" Liara shouted as she grabbed Benezia and shook her, desperately trying to rouse her.
"No light….?" Benezia muttered. "They always said…there'd be…"
"Stay with me!" Liara shouted. Benezia's eyes shut.
"No!" Liara cried as she went to work. She set Benezia on the ground and quickly began searching for the bullet wound.
"Liara." Chief said as he walked up to the young Asari.
"I just need to seal the wound!" Liara shouted as she vainly stuck a biofoam injector into Benezia's bullet wound. "Stop the bleeding!"
"Liara." Chief repeated.
"I've been told that bio-foam hurts, like a thousand little needles!" Liara said as she grabbed medi-gel capsules next. "So some medi-gel should ease her pain. We can get her back on the ship and - "
Chief got down on one knee and put a hand on Liara's shoulder. She looked up at him with desperate eyes that were blinking back tears, a few already running down her cheeks. Chief turned towards Benezia. "Cortana?" he asked.
"….I'm not detecting any vital signs." Cortana sadly said. "She's gone."
Liara was silent as she regarded the corpse of her mother for several long seconds. Her lips started quivering before she quickly wrapped her arms around the SPARTAN-II and sobbed into his shoulder. The Spartan held her close and rubbed her back. "I'm sorry." he said. "I'm so sorry."
The Master Chief had made Liara a promise. One that he couldn't keep.
The weeping was interrupted by the sound of a body hitting the floor. Both Chief and Liara looked behind them and saw that it was a dead Asari Commando, followed closely by Wrex, who landed on his feet. "Told you I'd beat the rest of you down." he boasted.
"Congratulations." Ashley snarked as the rest of Blue Team approached from the side, presumably using methods more sane than jumping to navigate their way down. Ashley saw Benezia's body and the way Chief was holding Liara. "Woah." was all she could say.
"Benezia's dead. Resisted arrest." Chief stated as Liara awkwardly released her grasp on the Spartan and tried to wipe her tears. The two of them then stood up. "But before she died, she gave me this." he added as he held up the OSD case.
"What's that?" Garrus asked as Blue Team ascended the ramp.
"It's the coordinates to the Mu Relay, a mass relay Saren wanted." Chief said as he took the disc out of the case and inserted it into his omni-tool.
"And she just gave it to you?" Ashley skeptically asked. "Sounds fishy to me, Skipper."
"Hence why I've got Cortana scanning it for bugs." Chief said. "Anything, Cortana?"
"Scanning." Cortana said. "No bugs. It's clean."
"Wait, I don't understand." Kaidan said. "She resisted arrest, and then she gave you vital intel? Just like that?"
"Her will was not her own." Liara quietly said as she turned to her mother's body. "She was indoctrinated to Saren's will, but she was able to break free long enough to give us all the information she could."
"Indoctrinated?" Wrex asked. "You mean that BS brainwashing excuse that one Asari on Feros gave us?"
"I'm starting to think it's not just an excuse." Chief confessed as he too looked at Benezia's body. "Something about Benezia was…off. It was only after Liara talked her down that she was able to shake it off long enough to tell me about Sovereign and give me this disc."
"You really think that ship can brainwash people?" Ashley asked.
"I'm definitely picking up some kind of pattern here." Chief said.
"Well, I guess Benezia's dealt with." N'tho asked as he approached the glass tank containing the Rachni Queen. "So what do we do with the big bug here?"
"Tali, take a look at that control panel." Chief ordered. "See what - " he was interrupted by a red dot slowly creeping up behind Blue Team on his motion tracker. "Contact! Behind us!" he shouted.
They all swiveled around with their weapons raised. Before them was an Asari commando, specifically the one that just fell onto the floor from a catwalk high above. She was walking with a noticeable limp, but seemed oddly oblivious to it. In fact, her eyes weren't even open, nor were her biotics glowing and ready to fire. She wasn't even holding a weapon. Still, the team weren't about to let their guard down. "Hands on your head!" Chief shouted.
The Asari shuffled onwards, heedless to the Chief's warnings. "On your head!" Chief repeated, hoping a louder shout would get through to her. It did not as she nonchalantly walked past Blue Team and over to the glass tank containing the Rachni Queen. She then turned around and opened her eyes.
"This one…..serves as our….voice." the Asari said in a very deep tone. "We cannot sing. Not in these low spaces. Your musics are…..colorless."
"….Say what?" N'tho asked.
"Your way of communicating is strange. Flat. It does not color the air. When we speak, one moves all." the Asari replied.
It was then that the Chief noticed that the Rachni queen was facing Blue Team, her eyes (or at least, he thought those were her eyes) squared fixedly on the SPARTAN-II. She was pointing one of her tentacles at the Asari, her glowing blue eyes softly pulsing in time with each syllable the Asari spoke.
The Spartan immediately put two and two together, difficult though it was to actually believe. He holstered his weapon and walked past the Asari Commando, who seemed oblivious to him doing so. He stared into the glass tank, looking at the queen right in the eyes. "I'm not talking to an Asari right now, am I?" Chief asked.
"We are the mother." The Asari replied. "We sing for those left behind. The children you thought silenced."
"We are Rachni."
…
For a while, this chapter was going smoothly enough. I dare say that writing the catwalk fight sequence was kinda fun! But then I got distracted by…pretty much everything and anything that wasn't this fanfic.
I dunno. Lately putting these chapters out feels like pulling teeth. Maybe it's cuz there's been something of a lull in Halo / Mass Effect news lately and in that lull, my mind has been wandering over to other things. Maybe I should just pony up and buy an Xbox One already. The Master Chief Collection is out, so it might be just the thing to get me back into my video game space opera groove.
This chapter was pretty short. So too will be the next chapter, so with any luck and distractions permitting, it should be out within the next few weeks.