KABANG. KABOOM. There were even some KA-BLAMS.
Or those were the sounds that we WOULD have heard had we run into any more of Benezia's commandos or Geth. Fortunately for them, the remaining hallways of the science facility ahead of us had been completely empty. We made our way down through the lower levels, turn after turn, door after door, and bizarrely, reached our final destination without incident. But everything was a little quiet. A little too quiet. Or I guess quieter than a laboratory host to a gaggle of scientific horrors should be. Assuredly, the noise level of the facility was not at its right amount.
As I pondered this phenomenon, I found myself stopped right as I turned the next corner, and my eyes bulged, already panicking with what abomination could be holding everyone up in the hall ahead now. What I soon learned to my annoyance however was that we were all just waiting for Shepard, who was currently staring up absent-mindedly at a bright, orange, neon sign. After some time, she subtly looked back over her shoulder at us, presumably checking to see if everyone was at the ready. And as she did, I think we all knew this was it. Crunch time.
Her worries apparently sated, Shepard took several more steps toward the door in front of us before making her belt dispense a small grey capsule. Pressing the thing up against the door, she activated her omni-tool and with a bright orange flash from her handheld, the capsule erupted into a considerable amount of grey goop. And with that inordinate amount of omni-gel slathered over the door, the barrier's locking mechanism began to go haywire.
The yellow-red-yellow-red-orange-red-yellow-orange-red-yellow circle stopped once it finally turned green, and then slowly slid open before us. And as everyone else began to put on their game faces, cocked their guns, and readied themselves for the final confrontation straight ahead, I could only think one thing as we walked into the lab and laid our eyes on our final foe.
DAT BOOTY.
All of my dread, anxiety and fears up to that moment were immediately washed away by the fact that Stacy's mom didn't have diddly-squat on Liara's. With her back turned, you could have mistaken her for a latin pop-star. I mean, the way her clothes were hugging her curves was just straight-up gratuitous man. I mean damn gurl. Asari promiscuity was obviously just an urban legend in the MEverse...but if that's how a majority of Asari Matriarchs dress, with skin-tight pinstriped suits leaving almost nothing to your imagination, then I could see why most thought the myth true. Real talk. It was kind of hard to focus when the thousand year old Asari turned around and started her monologue.
"You do not know the privilege of being a mother. There is power in creation. To shape a life. Turn it toward happiness or despair." Benezia had already turned her back on us again, redirecting our attention to the tank beside her.
I'm pretty sure my jaw dropped again now, but for different reasons. Like everything so far...the graphics of second gen consoles didn't do it justice. Before us, inside the insanely large tank, was the most gigantic lobster I had ever seen in my life, what must have been a fifty-foot long abomination. Dozens of bright blue evanescent orbs were embedded all over its body, causing a faint aura to emit beyond its enclosure. It honestly just hit home why the things looked so much like the xenomorphs from Alien. They were both hella ugly. The monstrosity before us was most definitely the Rachni queen. And just like that, I had the fear of god put back in me.
"Her children were to be ours. Raised to hunt and slay Saren's enemies." Benezia's head swiveled back around. "I won't be moved by sympathy...no matter who you bring into this confrontation."
Really? Is that what would you call this? A 'confrontation'?
"I have no idea what you're talking about, and I don't really care," Shepard retorted.
"Indeed?" the old Asari replied incredulous. Benezia's eyes then focused on the Asari beside her. "What have you told her about me, Liara?"
"What could I have possibly told her mother? That you're insane? Evil?!" Liara's voice steadily climbed. "Should I explain to her how to kill you?! What could I SAY?!"
Benezia seemed to ignore her child's words now, her eyes retraining themselves upon Shepard. "Have you faced an Asari commando unit before? Few humans have."
Wait...how long have Humans been a part of the Galactic community? You're telling me that over several decades of integration, only a handful of us have ever run into Asari-
"Doesn't matter. You and your commandos won't look so smug with holes in your heads," Shepard bit back.
"Your insolence is a poor mask for your fear."
Now...I've never quite heard someone talk like a villain from a James Bond movie before. So I have to say, this was a pretty special moment for me.
Then before I knew what was happening next, Benezia shot out her arm, unleashing an enormous shockwave of violet energy in our direction. As I prepared myself to be flung across the room, Shepard immediately responded with her own, thrusting a giant azure sphere from her hands at it. The two biotic fields collided and exploded in dramatic fashion, with the light emanating from the blast matching a supernova.
Or I would think. Because it was pretty bright. Bright enough to blind us all anyway. And as everyone covered their eyes in response, barely enduring the gales coming from the detonation, we heard the doors across the room slide open. Through squinting my eyes and blinking furiously, I could just barely make out Asari commandos and Geth pouring into the room behind Benezia.
"Kill them all!" Wrex suddenly shouted. Wasn't quite the most heroic battle cry but...whatever.
Following his lead, Shepard immediately started open firing on them with Ashley, while Tali took cover and began operating her tool. "Team Bravo! Cover the other walkway!" she shouted. Kaidan, Garrus, and Liara immediately made for the right side of the room in response. "You too Shield!" she grunted swinging behind a human-sized crate.
I was going to move regardless. I was standing in the middle of a doorway completely exposed to all the bullets and mass effect fields flying across the room. Before I knew it, I was already diving for the floor as an Asari flung a warp toward me in particular. After face planting into the metal grate below, I immediately popped back up and made a dash to the right after the others. I could hear Shepard uttering expletives as she subsequently got hit by a mass effect field behind me.
I got to the other side of the room right in time to find a Geth suddenly float over my head.
"SHIELD-"
"I got it!" I shouted as I shot it twice through the headlight. At the same time, Liara decided to fling a singularity down our designated walkway. Two sluggish commandos were immediately caught in it, and soon found themselves being lifted up into the air. They didn't have a chance as they were then subsequently shot like the fish in a barrel they were. The next thing I knew, Kaidan was shouting "Cover me!" as he enveloped himself in a violet barrier and started sprinting down the walk himself. I obliged, helping Garrus open fire on a Geth sniper at the end of it. Garrus somehow got the kill, landing a head shot once its shields had downed, and in doing so, simultaneously cleared the opposite end for Kaidan. After that, Garrus gave a quick nod to me, and I took that as my own cue. I felt my feet pound down the walkway after the lieutenant next.
Bad idea it turned out, because as soon as I had, three Geth entered the room from the door behind me. Liara and Garrus suddenly found themselves grappling with the robots in hand to hand combat. Before I could run back to help them however, the four Geth in the only unsieged corner of the room began open firing. On me. On him. On us. Kaidan and I both gritted our teeth as our kinetic barriers were suddenly pelted with slugs. A second later and we had already been forced to take cover.
"What's the move?!" I shouted.
As he was about to speak, a woman suddenly yelled out in pain. Both our eyes immediately swung toward the center of the room, focusing on the platform in front of the lobster cage. A platform upon which Shepard and Benezia were currently locked in a biotic duel. Violet sparks and explosions were happening left and right, vaguely reminding me of an episode of Dragon Ball Z. Ashley and Tali were still laying down cover fire from our original entry point. And I quickly deduced that Wrex had been flung off the walkway during the fight, as the Krogan was currently trying to climb his way back to the action from a pit deep below the Rachni cage far above.
"SHEPARD!"
It didn't seem to matter who the cry belonged to, as Kaidan was already running to Shepard's aid. Right down a path that had him heading straight for the corner across from us. The corner still occupied by four Geth soldiers. Or three, as one of them suddenly dropped. Feeling a sudden tap on my shoulder, I turned around to find Liara motioning for me to stand aside. Obliging her, the blue beauty flung another singularity from her hand, albeit with a slight grimace on her face. The action lifted two more Geth opposite of us into the air. And right as Kaidan reached the corner, he obliterated the remaining Geth trooper standing in his way with a biotic blast.
Apparently Liara and Garrus hadn't needed our help after all. Once our resident Turian joined us not a moment later, we three followed the Lieutenant's trail, not failing to off the two remaining Geth floating above us on our way over. And upon climbing the stairs after him, I found that Alenko and Shepard didn't need our help either. They simply stood where they were, posing heroically, towering above the fallen Lady Benezia.
"This is not over," the Matriarch spoke mistaken from the ground, holding her bleeding stomach. Ashley, Tali, and Wrex didn't take much longer to join us. "Saren is unstoppable. My mind is filled with his light. Everything is clear."
"Your soldiers were sloppy," Shepard said, hanging her pistol at her side. "I expected better from Asari commandos. Probably why Humans have seen so few of them."
Benezia slowly tried to push herself off the ground, causing several squad mates to raise their weapons in response. "I will not...betray him. You will...uhhh...you-"
Then I saw it. Or I thought I saw it. Though I guess...it wasn't something that I could ever physically see. Not like her pupils had just dilated or anything, but...it was like you could actually see it lose hold of her. Like you could tell that an immense burden had just been lifted off her shoulders, like witnessing the mood shift of someone who just heard that they were going to be a parent or that a relative just passed. It was a strange thing to observe...and I didn't like it.
Though I also like to think that Shepard noticed this sudden change in Benezia's demeanor as well. "You must listen," Benezia suddenly blurted in distress, in a tone far different from the one of superiority she had just seconds ago. "Saren still whispers in my mind. I-I can fight his compulsions. Bu...But the indoctrination...is strong." She brought her hands to the sides of head.
"What?" Wrex immediately replied, with a tone of his own that seemed to say 'bullshit'.
"Saren's controlling you?" Shepard now asked too with a healthy serving of doubt. "Why are you suddenly able to break free now?"
"It wouldn't happen to just be because we won would it?" Ashley added.
"I sealed a part of my mind...sealed it away from the indoctrination," Benezia struggled to reply. Then she suddenly shut her eyes, seemingly in great pain.
"Uhuh," Ashley muttered under her breath.
"Saving it...for a moment when I could help d-destroy him...it will not last long," Benezia gasped as she suddenly fell against the railing next to her.
"You expect us to believe that load of varrenshit?" Wrex grumbled.
But before Shepard or anyone else could mouth their skepticism again, I made my own attempt to sway the others to the truth. Because they weren't supposed to show this much skepticism for the Matriarch. They were never like this during the game. They never questioned this.
"Even if she's not telling the truth...maybe Benezia thinks that she is? Shouldn't we give her a chance to at least explain herself before we do something we might regret?" It was impossible to not notice how my unwarranted opinion caused a glimmer of hate to appear in Shepard's eyes, though her attention was still focused on Benezia. Out of everyone, Liara appeared to be the only one who appreciated my words of reason.
"How can he compel you? He's not even here." Though Shepard didn't exactly seem fond of my outburst...she at least took the advice. Or maybe she had already planned to ask in the first place. Regardless of the reasoning, yeah, at least she addressed the idea of how such a thing would even be possible if it were true. I'd take what I could get at any rate. I tallied this as a win in my book.
"People are not themselves around Saren," Benezia slowly responded. "You come to idolize him. Worship him. You would do anything for him."
"Why?" Garrus asked.
Benezia suddenly stared him dead in the eyes and said, "Sovereign. The key is Sovereign."
"Sovereign?" Tali asked confused.
"His flagship," Benezia clarified. "It is a dreadnought of incredible size, and its power is extraordinary."
"The ship that was on Eden Prime!" I decided to add theatrically, almost like I was part of a play, just in case one of their memories needed refreshing.
"I remember seeing it when we first touched ground," Shepard muttered next, clearly uneasy. "Ships of that size shouldn't even be able to land on a planet."
"It has a very powerful mass effect drive. But that is not an inkling of Sovereign's true power." Benezia then seemed to take a pause solely for dramatic effect. But it was enough to capture everyone's attention. "The longer you stay aboard, the more Saren's will se-seems correct. You sit at his feet and smile as his words pour into you." Her words were haunting, piquing the interests of some, deeply disturbing the rest. I for example, felt a sudden chill creep over me as she had spoken."It is subtle at first. I thought I was strong enough to re...resist. Instead...I became a willing tool. Eager to serve. He sent me here to find the location of the Mu Relay. Its position was lost thousands of years ago."
The gravitas of her words seemed to only go over Shepard's head, as our Spectre then simply replied, "Tell me where the Mu gate is then. Before I lose my temper."
"Of course Commander," Benezia complied. She gently pushed herself of the railing with strained effort, and started to slowly take steps closer to the Commander. And as she did, everyone tensed. But instead of the weapon they all expected, the Matriarch just drew from her sleeve a small metal object. "I transcribed the data to an OSD. Take it. Please."
"Knowing the relay's coordinates isn't enough," Garrus suddenly spoke up next. "Do you know where he planned to go from there?"
"Saren wouldn't tell me his destination. But...you must find out quickly. I transmitted the coordinates to him before you arrived. You have to stop-" The Asari suddenly brought a hand to her head with a gasp of pain. "I can't-AH." She shook it. "His teeth are at my ear. Fingers on my spine. You should-" She let out another groan and staggered backwards. "You should-"
"Mother!" Liara pleaded after her. "I-Don't leave! Fight him!"
Benezia gave her a sad smile. "You've always made me proud, Liara." And just like that. Gone. Her eyes dropped to the ground for less than a second before turning back up at us.
"Die."
As biotic fields began to swirl around her, Shepard open fired. As did the rest. Though not all at her. Some were aimed at the Asari commandos trying to sneak up on us. Some at the air as they were lifted up into it. But by the end of the ordeal, our enemies were dead, and we weren't. Though, I hoped that the rest didn't just think Benezia did all this to distract them. That would turn out to be...problematic.
"I can...not...go on," the elder Asari started to speak again with her sanity returned, albeit now bleeding even more profusely. "You...you will have to stop them Shepard," she said kneeling now, blue blood continuing to drip onto the floor.
"First you turn on the Council, and now on Saren. You're not loyal to anything, are you?"
"Didn't you just hear she was brainwashed?" I quickly snapped. There couldn't be any doubt. No one could be allowed to think that her indoctrination was just...made up.
"Hm," the matriarch just seemed to utter absent-minded in return. "I suppose that...that is how history will know me." The Asari tried to stand up, but staggered backwards to a column behind her and slid down it.
"Mother..." Liara murmured.
"Good night...Little Wing. I will see you again...with the dawn." I looked away from the dying woman, only to find a single tear roll down our own Asari's cheek. Then Benezia spoke her final words, which caused me to reluctantly return to the sight of the dying woman in front us. "No...light? They always said there would...be a...a..."
And then she left us, her head rolling limply to its side, the sight leaving a rank taste in mouth.
Finding out in your last moments alive, after being killed by the friends of your own daughter, that the afterlife you believed in for the last thousand years didn't exist? Thoroughly horrific. And depressing. It sucked. And then I almost laughed. This whole planet sucked.
As she passed, Liara looked away, tucking her hands underneath her armpits, tears rolling down her cheeks silently. I tried to put a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her but...I didn't have any words to console her with. I didn't know what I could possibly say. And after grimly watching Benezia's passing, Shepard turned slowly to the only other loose end remaining. She approached the cage while holding a hand warily to her face, edging toward the creature responsible for all this. As I retracted my hand from Liara's shoulder, I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. And so did several others.
"Shepard!"
As they yelled to get her attention, the Rachni queen suddenly let out a screech, causing Shepard to leap backwards, right into the shambling corpse behind her. Shepard shoved herself away from the dead Asari, and Ashley immediately put a few bullets into it with her itchy trigger finger. But despite this, it remained standing. Standing still. Deathly still.
"We filled you with enough lead to stop an Elcor," Shepard said shocked, pointing her gun at her. "How are you still alive?!"
"This vessel is at the edge. Yet she struggles. You cannot see her magnificence. We are breathing on the embers."
"Who I am speaking to here?" Shepard quickly asked, eyes darting from the Asari zombie to the creature behind her. I think she already knew the answer before the corpse gave her a reply.
"We are the mother. We sing for those left behind. The children you thought silenced. We. Are. Rachni."
A look of distaste crossed Shepard's face. "I didn't come here to talk to bugs."
Yeah because...when does anyone ever? Who the hell DOES talk to bugs Shepard? Tell me. Who?
"But. You do not. This one serves. As our voice. We cannot sing. Not in these low spaces. Your musics are colorless."
"Musics? What?" Ashley asked completely confused.
"Your ways of communicating are strange. Flat. It does not color the air. When we speak. One moves all."
"This is going to be a fun conversation," Wrex muttered.
"How are you speaking through her?" Kaidan asked in bewilderment, taking his turn next.
"Our kind sing through touchings of thought. We pluck the strings, and the other understands. She is weak to urging." Her words were pretty much complete nonsense, but at the same time, as I heard them leave the Asari's mouth, also sounded utterly poetic. "She has colors we have no names for. But she is ending. Her music is bittersweet. It is beautiful."
Wait. Did that thing just say the death throes of someone dying were beautiful? That's not exactly something you want to tell someone deciding whether or not to kill you. Especially since you're already using a dead corpse to talk to them-oh...oh dear god. Is Shepard going to-
"You are not in harmony with those who hoped to control us," the dead Asari with pale, milk-white, pupil-less eyes continued to echo. "What will you sing? Will you release us? Are we to fade away once more?"
"There are acid tanks rigged up on that thing," Wrex suddenly boomed next to Shepard. "Set them off! Millions of my ancestors died to put these things down. Don't let them come back!"
"Shepard," Kaidan immediately retorted next, now at Shepard's other side. "There's some old grudges in the galaxy. Grudges Humans should stay out of. If we kill her, we'd kill an entire race."
"Commander I disagree," Ashley now spoke up. "I don't trust this thing. We know its kind are killers. Who's to say they won't do it again?"
"No! We...I do not know what happened in the war. We only heard discordance. Songs the color of oily shadows. Their tones from space hushed one voice after another. It forced the singers to resonate with sour yellow notes."
"I still fully recommend using the tanks," Williams remarked.
"They made a mistake," Liara suddenly objected, throwing off her state of melancholy. "They let the Krogan go too far! This is a chance for us to atone. She has done nothing to us Shepard!"
"What would you do if you were freed?" Tali took the short lull to ask innocently.
"We would seek a hidden place. Where we could teach our children harmony. Without the involvement of others. If they understand...perhaps...we would return."
And upon hearing that, it seemed Tali reached consensus. "She's the last of her race, Shepard!" the Quarian suddenly blurted. "I don't think we have the objectivity to judge her," she sheepishly added. Strangely enough, it seemed that our Quarian could identify with someone who's entire race was on the verge of extinction.
"I agree with Tali, Shepard. If you kill her, you consign an entire race to death. We should let the Citadel Council decide her fate," Garrus advised.
"Your companions hear the truth. You have the power to free us, or return our people to the silence of memory."
"..."
She was lost in thought. Silence fell across the room as our options became clear. Kill the Rachni. Or free them. Both would lead to their reappearance two years from now, but no one around me could possibly know that. I was split on what to do myself. Morality aside, war assets were all that came of the Rachni in the end. Regardless of choices made. What happened here made no difference. None at all. Hell, I wasn't even planning to be around by 2186. But regardless of what I thought, before I had the chance to give my own two-cents, Shepard handed the Rachni Queen her answer.
It was not what I was expecting. Or maybe it was. After everything...I guess it was probably what I should have.
"...make your peace with the galaxy. The Rachni are a dead race."
"No!" Liara suddenly said alarmed.
Ashley suddenly whipped around and gave her a cautionary look. As if she was warning her not to do anything stupid.
"Stop feeling and think!" Liara suddenly spoke with conviction despite the stink eye. "Even if you disagree with Asari morals, you must see she could be an ally!"
"They were supposed to be an ally of Saren. You saw what happened," Wrex retorted.
"Commander," Kaidan now spoke again. "Genocide is way beyond the scope of our mandate here."
"Our mandate is 'whatever's necessary'," Wrex bit back. "If you don't have the guts to follow through, the door's over there."
"Is our kind so frightening? You would seek our silence if you cannot muffle our songs? If you cannot have us as your obedient claws?"
In response to them all, the Commander merely gave the crew a cursory glance before uttering this timeless, philosophical piece-
"This time, stay dead!"
Garrus and Kaidan looked solemnly on as the Commander made her decision clear. Liara and Tali just looked on in shock as Shepard made her way over to the console. Wrex and Ashley merely looked on with approval as Shepard neared the controls. The dead Asari thrall simply looked on with a face contorted in rage.
"We will not embrace the great silence!"
The Asari suddenly leaped at Shepard, causing her to stumble backwards. The rest of the team could only look on in shock as the Commander now found herself grappling with a blue zombie. As it brought down its blue nails against Shepard's face, and with everyone else frozen in place, I took it upon myself to sprint toward the console that would decide her fate. I started tapping away wildly, clicking whatever buttons I could at random until two brightly colored options popped up literally not a second later. Thank god. One purple, one grey, both completely indecipherable with alien symbols. I winced as I quickly hit the purple one without delay, and shut my eyes as the cage above me let out a loud hiss.
Oh what the fuck did I just-
The next thing I knew, my knees were buckling beneath me, a searing pain was spreading from the base of my skull, and I was hitting the cold metal floor. With my head. And as I begun to lose consciousness, everything turning black around me...one last thought crept across my mind. A singular realization. An epiphany if you will.
I really...need...to wear...a helmet-
I blinked my eyes once. Then twice. And then I sighed once they adjusted to the sight above me. Or in front of me. Or whatever. It was hard to tell it's position in a place that lacked both space and/or time.
"...and what the hell do you want?"
It simply flickered.
"Heh...you're a worthless piece of garbage you know that?"
It's light dimmed.
"Yeah...no, you're right. Not like it's your fault I'm so shitty at everything...but then...what the fuck. Does any of this actually impact anything? Does leveling up one thing unlock another previously locked thing? And really. What even constitutes a level up? Is there any set of guidelines at all for any of this shit?!"
It flickered. And then dimmed. And then flickered again. It wasn't sentient. It didn't register anything I said...nor anything I said for the last three sessions for that matter either. But I liked pretending it did. Liked to pretend I had something to remind me that I was a stranger here. That I didn't belong to this place. That I wasn't completely insane. Or realistically, I probably already was. I couldn't really tell anymore and I couldn't really do anything about it at this point.
"Right...so...I don't know board...what the hell do you think I should pick?"
Skill Rank (0-7)
Pistol - 3
Shotgun - 0
Assault Rifles - 0
Sniper Rifles - 0
Adrenaline Rush - 3 *Locked*
First Aid - 0
Electronics - 0
Decryption - 0
Fitness - 1
Combat Mastery - 1
Persuasion - 4 (Medium)
*Locked*
Available Points: 3
It flickered silently again.
Codex Entry:
NDC Board Meeting - Subject: Peak 15
/20:02/ Secure Comm Buoy #54789254 / Encrypted / #5496 - MS - 5984
Sender: Agent Crawford
*Play Recording*
Before I send you over the transcript Gellix, I'm gonna warn ya, there's a lotta shit to comb through. A week's worth of information to read up on easily. The 'Board' have this agenda they go through at the start of every meeting that easily lasts an hour- basically just a bunch of name dropping and subject taglines and who's present to talk about what and shit. You can easily go brain dead within the first minute. And then after that, they go over the protocols for addressing one another next, who can speak when and for how long and yadda yadda yadda. Honest to god, I'd never support bureaucracy if this bullshit is that common, I'm telling you. And then to top it all off, they take breaks as soon as they finish discussing a single topic. The entire thing easily lasts a day and is easily the worst point of my week.
So you better thank me for combing through it beforehand. The amount of information in just one of these meetings could easily fill an encyclopedia. So...I guess I should go ahead and start. Uh...let's see...there was the matter of the protesters sneaking into the Port to protest Synthetic Insights' work earlier this week...security got 'em pretty easily though...then there was the debacle with Synthetic Insights manager being corrupt...that was a doozy for the board...oh, and then there were those dead mercenaries found in Synthetic Insights later that week...man was that one an eye-opener. Easily caused an uproar. Then, actually, right after that, an agent of theirs brings up the fact that the manager of Synthetic Insights formally accused of corruption had sent an official testimonial to the Board that Anoleis was skimming funds himself!...Synthetic Insights actually had quite the handful this time around. Their busiest week, easily. And responsible for probably one of the most entertaining meetings I've watched since I got here. The only other time I found that riveting was when they dealt with that whole Van Allen debacle. Sentient beltwear. Ha! Hilarious.
But yeah...they did mention Peak 15 at the very end. Which is what you were looking for right? I marked the time in my notes...I think they start discussing it at 17:58:29. Anyway, hope you find what you're looking for pal.
PS, by the way...think you can put in a good word with the Broker for me? I really hate this job. The worst one I've had, easily.
...PPS ...think you could spare a few chits while you're at it? My subscription to Fornax just ran out. It was the low point of my week. Easily.
Author's Notes:
"Did...did this story update?"
"What? I thought this story was finished months ago."
"No, no. It went on hiatus when the author got a message to cease and desist from Bioware."
"Are you sure?"
"I wouldn't know. I stopped reading it after the third chapter. The writing was just atrocious."
"I don't know, I always thought the author was kind of witty. And they sounded really handsome too."
"I heard the author quit fanfiction altogether after someone emailed him a death threat with his portrayal of Asari courting habits."
"I heard the author abandoned this story like 70% of all fanfic writers do once they get bored."
"What was this even about again? A GarrusxConradxShepardxSovereign ship?"
"I heard the author died in a tragic clowning accident."
Wrong, wrong, and wrong you wily rascals. I'm still very much alive (despite the lack of evidence contrary), and like it or not, still plan on finishing this piece of garbage. Call me a dreamer, but I was never one to quit while I was ahead. And since I'm really behind, I really can't quit now. So much time has passed though, so much has happened. The entire Summer and Fall of 2015 gone. Lost forever in the annals of history. What did I do? Where have I been? Such mysteries will forever go unanswered.
"You sat on your ass and diddled yourself all day-"
"SHUT UP DAN-"
Ahem. Anyway. While it might be awhile til the next chapter, as I do need time to get back my groove, I hope you guys have had a swell 2015 yourselves and look forward to seeing what the wily Marauder Shield gets up to next after this long hiatus!
And since it is FUN FACT FRIDAY, I'll leave you guys with this enlightening bit of information:
Fun Fact - 'Black Friday' was named so for an annual custom performed by the pilgrims of Plymouth Rock after each Thanksgiving dinner. After the feast, each pilgrim would return to their cabins and dab various paints, dyes, and tar (usually tar) on their faces in an attempt to conceal their features. Then afterwards, they would come out of their homes in a tasteful 'black' face in an attempt to scare the local Native Americans off their land. Suffice to say, the Native Americans were quite accepting of different cultures and didn't fall for it. Black Friday was NOT named so for the rumor that slaves in America were commonly sold on this day. That's abhorrent, ignorant, and utterly racist. And Black Friday was ESPECIALLY NOT named so for retailers making their profit during the holiday season, beginning on the day after Thanksgiving. The 'theory' of this being that profit recorded would be used with red ink to show negative amounts and black ink to show positive amounts (which was common practice). Black Friday, under this 'theory', is the beginning of the period when retailers would no longer have losses (the red) and instead take in the year's profits (the black). Simply outrageous.
"...Hm. Whatever. I only read this when I'm waiting for a new Surviving a World of Fiction by Trebor or Reduced Mass chapter. Or hell, one of Lanilen's My Effect series updates. And I mean...I usually have to be PRET-TY bored."
"Yeah, did you see the word count for this thing? The author's not even at Feros yet and it's almost over 200k...what a load of shit."
OH YEAH DAN?! ...well...uh...
*Sobs in corner*
In the Next Chapter: Uh...do you two need a room?
Tune in next time on Mass Effective: A Hero Made!