Disclaimer: I do not own the Mass Effect games. This story is written with no profit in mind. It isn't for sale or rent.
Phase9
=DC=
Part 1
=DC=
30.04.2183 GS
Peak 15
Noveria
Pax System
Horse Head Nebula
The few intact Cabalites secured Benezia, filling her with sedatives and administering medi-gel. Combat medics flooded the chamber seeking survivors to aid.
All things considered, the assault was an unmitigated success, Shepard decided while walking to the raised platform. Without Vasir and Wrex, the price for just breaking out of the killing zone would have been horrific.
"That's a big bug!" The Krogan chuckled darkly. "How do we kill it?!" He twisted his head to the side, showing a mangled face below a bloodshot eye, which focused on Shepard. Wrex huffed and slumped a bit. He raised his hands and tore away his broken helmet, showing he would get a new large scar on the relatively intact side of his face.
"There's this big red emergency button…." Vasir trailed off and looked away from the instrument panels around what looked like a huge cargo container with transparent walls. "No one is touching the damn thing until we know what it does!" She warned.
Shepard walked to join the two of them. The first thing he saw within the container was two giant tentacles weaving gently like stalks of grass in the air. As he approached, he got a good view of the largest bug he had ever seen. That thing was liable to give him a few new nightmares. It was a few orders of magnitude larger than the biggest Rachni warrior they had to fight.
Hell, the thing was larger than a Mako!
"We aren't killing it yet?! Why?" Wrex's voice rumbled with controlled rage.
"First, I'm not committing genocide without express orders." Vasir raised a gloved finger. "Second, it's contained. Third,' She stared down the Krogan, "If the Council wants it dead, they are free to order it."
"Covering your pretty blue ass, I see. You've changed." Wrex huffed. "The Council will want it dead."
"Movement!" A Turian voice came from below.
"Spirits isn't she dead!?"
"Hold fire!" Another voice barked. "You, stop, or we'll light you up!"
"This one will serve as our voice…." An odd female voice came from below.
"You two walk with me. After speaking with the Council, we'll decide what to do with the Queen of the monsters!" Vasir ordered and ran down the steps.
Shepard shared a look with Wrex, who shook his head in bemusement and stomped after the Asari. He definitely wasn't paid enough for this shit, Shepard decided and followed suit.
The source of the commotion became apparent as soon as he jogged around a pillar and got on the lower level. A Turian fire team aimed their weapons at an Asari Commando who looked mostly dead. She had a sizeable seared hole in her chest. Inferno ammo had done a number on her organs. She also missed an arm, though she didn't seem to notice. Her eyes were wide and empty, staring straight ahead.
"We cannot sing. Not in these low spaces. Your musics are colorless." The Asari kept speaking in that odd tone.
"Musics? Did someone clobber her over the head as well?" One of the Turians exclaimed.
"She should be in shock, if not dead already!" A combat medic added while pointing an SMG at the Asari.
"Your way of communicating is strange. Flat. It doesn't color the air with your songs. When we speak, all move as one."
"Does anyone have an idea what she is talking about?" A Turian Sergeant demanded.
"That's the Rachni Queen! I'm sure of it." Vasir exclaimed. "And no, I have no idea what it means."
The possessed Asari's head turned towards Vasir and stared her down with those empty eyes. Because why not? Possession was now a thing, apparently... Shepard decided that after this mission, he would need a vacation, which wasn't happening, and a lot of therapy, which might be possible.
"We are a female!" The Rachni declared, using the Asari Commando as a sock-puppet. "We are the Mother! We sing for those left behind! The children you are silencing."
"And here I thought it was my thing to put my foot in my mouth when speaking with females." Wrex chuckled. "I don't recall ever hearing of one of those things talking."
"They didn't. Otherwise, the Council wouldn't have let your people wipe them out in the end…." Vasir trailed off. "Or at least that's what the history books say."
So the Council might know better, or not, Shepard filled in that bit of trivia for later.
"The sky is quiet now." The not-quite-dead Asari stated. "Our mothers' songs are lost. And those who slew them walk to meet the same fate."
"From where I'm standing, the only one likely to go extinct soon is you!" Wrex growled at the perceived insult.
On the other hand, Shepard was curious if the Rachni could communicate as well as it might appear.
"The children we birthed were stolen from us before they could learn to sing. They are lost to silence." The Rachni continued, either ignoring Wrex or explaining what she meant. Shepard wasn't entirely certain.
"End their suffering. They cannot be saved. They will only cause harm as they are." The Queen finished.
"Elaborate," Vasir ordered. "Why are there Rachni rampaging all over this facility?"
"These needle-men." The scientists? "They stole our eggs from us. They sought to turn our children into beasts of war!" The Asari wavered at that proclamation and slowly slumped to the ground, though her eyes remained open, staring at Vasir. "They are claws with no songs of their own."
The Commando twitched with the effort to keep speaking. "Our elders are comfortable with silence." She said in a quiet, rasping voice. "Children know only fear if no one sings to them. Silence has shattered their minds."
"That makes a disturbing amount of sense. They're feral." Vasir concluded.
"If what we faced was mindless Rachni, I don't want to think about how dangerous their proper warriors would be," Shepard noted. In hindsight, facing crazy Rachni operating on instincts could explain the swarming behavior and the lack of proper tactics. They were still damn deadly in close quarters.
"Do what you must, as lamentable as it is. Before you deal with our children, we stand before you. What will you do with us? What will you sing? Will you release us? Will we fade away once more?"
"Kill it. Those things murdered billions of my people in the war!" Wrex glowered at the dying Asari and then at the edge of the container holding the Queen visible from their spot.
"We aren't letting her go, that's for certain. Get the wounded out of here and make sure Benezia makes it to the Normandy intact." Vasir barked. She raised her hand and activated her omni-tool. "Her fate is for the Council to decide."
=DC=
Part 2
=DC=
30.04.2183 GS
Council Chambers
Presidium Tower
The Citadel Station
Widow Nebula
Tevos slid through the private meeting room of the Council and opened the discrete bar with practiced ease. She pulled out a tall crystal bottle filled with strong glowing wine, rich in eezo. Behind her, Tevos could hear Sparatus sit heavily on one of the couches while Valern paced like an angry varen.
The Asari glided to the nearest chair after grabbing a cup and absent-mindedly used her Biotics to open the bottle. She poured herself a cup of wine and drank it as if she was dying from thirst. A delicious warmth spread through her, followed by a jolt of energy from the eezo-rich wine.
"Thoughts on the Rachni?" Tevos asked after she poured herself a second cup of wine containing enough eezo to kill anything but a Krogan or another Asari.
Sparatus shifted in his seat. His fringe perked up, and he moved his hand away from his face, where his fingers rubbed the patch of tough skin between his eyes.
"My instinctive reaction is to have it killed to remove the threat," The Turian's voice reverberated through the secure room.
Valern finally ceased his pacing. His huge eyes left the holographic display above his omni-tool and focused on the Turian Councilor.
"That might be too rash an action!" Valern gesticulated sharply, shutting down his omni-tool. "There are no records of the Rachni communicating during the war.
"There's that, yes," Tevos nodded morosely. "I am certain that many within the Republics would be infuriated if they learned of this particular complication if we remove the threat. Yet, countless Asari were raised with horror stories of the Rachni Wars who would sleep easier if they knew this threat could never return."
"We can defer this particular decision to our governments…." Valern suggested. His mouth twisted in a semblance of a smile. "Then they will, of course, happily throw the problem and the responsibility of such a decision back at us."
"The more open-minded Primarchs would want more information about this before deciding a genocide is the best option. The hardliners would scream for blood, like usual. The Primarch would likely prefer to avoid the political complications that come with backing either faction over this." Sparatus straightened up and looked at his colleagues. "Make no mistake! What we're discussing here is nothing short of a genocide that might not be necessary at this time. It would be different if the option were either killing the Queen or letting her, it, whatever, go. If those were the only options, I would back a permanent solution without a second thought," his fringe twitched, "and damn the political fallout!"
"Do we agree that killing the Rachni Queen right now might not be prudent?" Tevos asked. She slowly sipped her wine, taking time to enjoy its taste.
"Not at this time," Sparatus grumbled. He got up and marched towards the bar with a singular purpose.
"I would like to know more about the Queen in question and whatever she might tell us of her kind in general," Valern nodded rapidly.
"Containment options?" Tevos inquired.
"We need a secure black site we can dispose of in case of a breach!" Valern perked up. "A large asteroid base or a small moon where the Rachni could live. Some place we can crack easily if we lose containment."
"Even if it's an STG black site, we will have it staffed and run with Citadel forces and Spectres. Our collective governments would accept nothing less," Tevos looked pointedly at Valern. "No STG games behind our backs on this one, or there will be consequences."
"I have to agree," Sparatus mandibles twitched in grimly. "We will need proper contingencies to guarantee there will be no escape. If the Rachni becomes hostile, its kind will have to die in the facility meant to contain the Queen. There must be no new Rachni war."
"On that, we can all agree," Tevos mussed in a placating tone. "Containment and study it is, then? An opportunity to see what the Queen can tell us about the war and the current mess Saren and Benezia are involved?"
"That's another reason not to terminate the Rachni at this time," Valern noted. "Besides, if one queen egg survived in a derelict ship, others might be out there. We need more information and options on how to deal with a potential future Rachni threat now that the Krogan are not an option to throw at them."
Tevos looked between the two other Councilors and pointedly didn't argue the present form of the Genophage might not have been the best option, even if it worked in the end. They've had this argument before, and she, in particular, had it with multiple Turian and Salarian Councilors over the years. It was worst during the Quarian Crisis three hundred years ago. Sadly, it was not politically viable to launch another uplift program aimed at the Krogan to reshape their society into something that could coexist with the rest of the galaxy without the Genophage. And if the last thousand years or so were any indication, the Krogan as a species had no interest in constructively changing themselves. Realistically, the only viable option was to let nature take its course until the Krogan were on the brink of extinction, then move in and try to change them.
The Rachni were in a similar situation. It was just that, with a Queen willing to talk and on the edge of extinction, there might be an acceptable option besides condemning them to oblivion once again.
"Containment it is," Tevos said aloud. "Do I have your votes?"
"Yes!" Valern almost jumped in excitement.
"Aye," Sparatus agreed. He finally sat back into the armchair and took a hefty swallow of his bubbling drink.
"I'll inform Vasir. You two contact the Spectre office and begin hashing out the details of where we'll contain the Rachni and how we will get the Queen there safely."