Chapter 6
The golden beam cut through space towards the defenseless turian cruiser. Kale forced himself to go faster, pointing the ring towards the side of the turian ship. Arriving in between the massive bolt of energy and the ship behind him, Kale's thoughts scattered, trying to think of what he could do. Using the spare seconds, he surveyed the immediate space, watching turian fighters scurry to evade the ocular drones.
Pouring all his willpower through the ring, he envisioned a shield to form in front of him, creating large hexagonal shapes all interlocking with one another. The web of emerald shapes grew larger as Kale started to grit his mandibles, hoping the shield would be enough. The patterned blockade now extended over the turian ship as Kale braced himself for impact.
"Here goes everything" he thought to himself as the golden beam made contact with the emerald shield. The force of the impact caused Kale to begin to yell as it felt like his arm had just broken in two places. He watched as the yellow energy splintered and began to dissipate around the shield, giving him the idea to add a slight curve to the shield. The curvature made the blocked energy easier to deflect as he strained to keep the integrity of the shield intact.
After what seemed like ages, the beam finally stopped, causing Kale to let out a tired breath he did not know he was holding. He kept the shield going while looking it over and saw several cracks beginning to form throughout it. He focused on strengthening and repairing it when he noticed the ocular drones were no longer chasing fighters. Kale glanced around and saw that they were now all converging on him.
Taking the opportunity Kale quickly brought the ring to his mouth and began transmitting on every turian channel he could think of, "General if you can hear me, it's Raynor. Get the hell out of here! Pull in all fighters immediately and get out of here now!" He let the message repeat a couple of times before a reply was sent through.
"Colonel we hear you. We're pulling in all fighters now, but the Collectors are focusing everything on you now. We won't leave you behind!" replied the General in a frantic voice. Kale instinctively flinched as an ocular drone dove in from behind him firing its main weapon at him. The blast was caught in the bubble that now formed around him.
"Yes you will!" he yelled back at the General, "I can distract them long enough for you guys to clear out. You can arrest me later; just get the hell out of here!" The com went silent as Kale watched the remaining turian fighters reach the launch bays. In the corner of his eye he saw the main Collector ship now coming towards him fast, while powering up its main energy weapon again.
"We're clear, Colonel. Spirits be with you" the General begrudgingly sighed into the com. Kale realized it was not easy for any turian to abandon a soldier, but it was something that had to be done. Seconds later the turian ship began to gain speed and soon vanished into the sea of stars.
The Collector vessel did not seem concerned that the General had fled, it still moved full speed towards the massive shield Kale still had up. Drones swarmed around him, taking shots at him when they could. The Collector ship fired its golden weapon once more, this time aiming directly at Kale. Having not to worry about anyone else now, Kale let the shield disappear and set his eyes on the incoming beam.
He raised his ring arm towards the golden column of light and accelerated towards it, leaving a green trail in his wake. Kale dove and spun around the yellow beam, making it nearly impossible for the ocular drones following him to get a clean shot at him. The Collector ship ceased its attack, failing to hit anything but empty space, and decelerated to stop.
The drones still swirled around Kale and being finally fed up with them, he turned to face the horde. Piecing together thought by thought, Kale was enveloped in a double turret anti-aircraft mechanism. With him inside, the emerald war machine let loose a volley of solid light projectiles at the incoming ocular drones.
Kale smiled to himself, never letting go of the firing triggers as he swiveled and followed each of circular fighters. The hard light cut through the drones, leaving nothing but debris floating in space. After he had hit over two dozen of them, Kale was satisfied and dissolved the apparatus around him and began gliding towards the hull of the main Collector Cruiser.
Floating next to it now, Kale noted just how large the Collector vessel was. He wondered what they were waiting for or why they had not just left yet. He wanted to know more about them, besides what most other people already knew because of Shepard and his crew. Kale wanted to know why they attacked now, so far from where they normally operate. He looked at the idle cruiser and thought they wanted him to come inside. He put no more thought into it and let the ring scan the outer edges of the ship.
"Find me a soft spot" he told the ring, shining its light on the hull.
"The hull is weakest when the metallic edges meet the hard sediment exterior." The familiar voice chimed in his head as he looked to where the ring was shining brighter. Kale saw where the metal met the hard rock and imagined a tool that pried itself in between the two surfaces and began to force them apart.
The metal creaked and the stone cracked as it began to give way to Kale's construct. He knew the hole didn't need to be big, just enough so he could fit through. When he could see light from within the dark fracture, he waved the tool away and began his descent into the hole.
Kale was surprised that as soon as he had entered, the rocky part of the hull seemed to close in on itself, sealing the rupture. He continued to float down until he found a walkway leading to a doorway.
"Yuck" Kale let slip as he touched down on the floor, which seemed soft, almost organic. He increased his light, shining green on the walls so that he could see better and noted the hive look of everything. He made his way to the door and sized it up, looking for a panel to open it.
"I could just have the ring hack the door and open it, but where's the fun in that?" Kale thought to himself as he raised his arm and took a few steps back out of caution. In front of the door formed a large turian right leg, outfitted with enhanced armor. The leg curled back and kicked, taking the entire door and frame flying into the next large area.
"No reason to be subtle, they already know I'm here" Kale mused to himself as strode through the now empty doorway.
"Indoctrinated threats incoming"
"Right on cue" Kale smiled as he floated into the air and let his green aura shine over him. He hung in the midair and crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for the welcoming party. He soon heard a buzzing in the air and started to see humanoid figures descend from the walls and corners of the large room.
"Wow are these things ugly" he said to himself, never actually have seen a Collector up close. The first Collector troops landed and began to fire at him with different weapons, ranging from small beam emitting rifles to small SMG type guns. Having more confidence in the ring now, Kale never even flinched at the oncoming fire, watching the projectiles and beams get lost in the aura that shielded him.
A funny thought then occurred to Kale as he began to concentrate through the ring. At first, only a sphere appeared around him, but soon it began to take shape of something almost bipedal. It had large thick arms and legs with scales running all over its round body. On top of its shoulders was a reptilian head, with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. The last part formed in the back, a tail that swayed from side to side.
Kale was proud of himself. The creature, a Bolieg, was something out of turian folklore; the closest thing it could translate to for most people would have been a troll. He now hovered inside the green Bolieg, controlling its arms and legs as his own, and landed on the ground in a sprint.
The creature construct growled and howled as it picked up Collector drones and crushed them in its clawed hands. Kale would whip its tail around, knocking back two more of the drones and then jump in the air, only to land on another. Three more drones flew in from a ledge above him and landed to his side, firing their weapons the whole time. Kale turned to look at them and then let the Bolieg roar, sending out green flames from its mouth.
Kale wasn't sure if the flames produced from the ring would be real fire or a construct, but that question was answered when the Collectors ignited, dropping their weapons. Kale turned and batted away a few more of the drones before an all too familiar feeling crept up on him; one you get with years of piloting military fighters.
Arrogance.
"IS THAT ALL YOU GOT?!" Kale laughed as he punted another drone away. More flew into his field of vision as he drew the Bolieg's hand back and flung it towards the drone, sending out an emerald lasso to ensnare the Collector. Kale then began to twirl the drone into others, finally letting it go into a far off wall.
Even with the losses they were taking, the Collectors did not falter. They continued to arrive in groups, all firing their weapons at him. Kale continued inside the Bolieg construct, as he started to think of other ideas when an intense blue beam caught him off guard and sent him hurling against a hive covered wall.
Rattled, Kale looked to where he had been and saw a new enemy hovering over the Collector drones. It was covered in metallic plating and looked almost insect like. Its four eyes glowed with a blue hue and when it opened its mouth, Kale had to squint to ensure what he was seeing.
Inside the mouth of the metal insect, were over two dozen snarling human looking heads. Each of them had eyes that matched the creature housing them; hollow, blue and lifeless. The creature stretched its mouth open, revealing more of the husks inside, and let out an ear piercing screech.
Kale knew what it was; a Praetorian. He had only seen them before in vids taken by Shepard's crew. Kale returned to his feet, dissolving the Bolieg and took to the air as he flew behind the Collector horror. The Praetorian spun in the air as it focused on Kale, letting its eyes burn bright, preparing another attack.
He was able to put up a strong shield to block the blue beams, despite not being able to avert his eyes from the dozens of husk heads inside the creature. Finally breaking his gaze, he let his shield morph into a blunt mace-like weapon and swung it directly into the Praetorian, sending it through the air.
The creature caught itself on the far wall and walked down it with is metallic legs until hovering back into the air to meet the Green Lantern. It opened its mouth once more, causing Kale to narrow his eyes and thrust his ring arm towards the floating horror. Two three fingered hands appeared and began to pry the Praetorian's mouth open further as Kale had a third construct form into an oversized incendiary grenade directly in front of its mouth.
"Open wide!" he called out as the grenade crammed itself against the husk heads inside the Praetorian. The hands then pressed against each other, shutting its mouth closed as an eruption of green fire and light detonated from the Praetorian's belly. The creature was blown into several pieces as metal debris flew in every direction.
Kale let a few of the pieces strike off his aura as he glanced at the remaining Collector drones. Most of them had never stopped firing at him, while others seemed to hide in cover. The Green Lantern surveyed the area from above them and crossed his arms as several miniature turian designed fighters materialized around him.
"Search and destroy" he smirked as the fighters scattered and zoned in on all the drones. Kale had to keep his focus up as he watched each fighter, but found it much easier than he thought. The tiny fighters let out streams of mounted gun fire and mini-missiles at the confused Collector drones. They returned fire, but were outnumbered as the fighters hunted each of them down.
As the last Collector fell, the fighters swooped in a formation and flew over Kale as he gave them a small salute, before they disappeared. He floated back down the ground and continued walking towards one of the larger doors in the area. He kept his green aura active, not knowing what he could encounter.
This time he let the ring scan and hack the door. Kale strode through it and stopped in his tracks at what he saw. The next area seemed to go on forever; it was an enormous open cylinder shaped chamber that was lined entirely by cocoon like pods. Kale guessed the chamber spanned the entirety of the Collector cruiser, meaning most of it was hollow. He gazed from top to bottom, trying to estimate just how many pods there were.
"Unbelievable" he muttered to himself, taking slow steps more into the colossal area. "Ring, find me an access hub or something like that" he casually said, finally grasping the ship's size. The ring sent out several pulses, scanning the immediate area.
"Access node located, 100 meters. Zero indoctrinated entities found."
"Why did they give up so easily?" Kale asked himself, spotting the node the ring had mentioned. Still taking cautious steps, he made his way to the node and looked it over. It had three projected screens showing data and numbers that he did not understand, but he hoped the ring did. "Ring, connect and find me anything useful. Why did the Collectors attack us, where did this cruiser come from, because I thought Shepard blew up the Collector Base?"
From the ring shot out several green cables that attached to different parts on the access node. A screen similar to the projected screens appeared over top of the ring, in a language Kale could understand. Data poured over the display as the ring spoke, "This Collector vessel is designated as one of many, hailing from a new Collector Base. Exact coordinates of the base are still to be determined.Analyzing data."
"Okay, so why did it come all this way to attack us now?" Kale asked, trying to keep up with the data sprawling over the emerald monitor.
"This cruiser received a transmission indicating that the last Oan ring had been activated and that this vessel was to locate and destroy the wielder and ring."
"Can you identify the source of the transmission?"
"Accessing. Data is unclear.The source is only regarded as 'Masters'.Linking data to known Hierarchy and Alliance networks.Accessing Commander Shepard's mission logs and gathered information.Confirming; source of the transmission was from dark space, beyond known galactic systems; designation: Reapers."
Kale had hoped it was not the Reapers, but knew it had to be. The Collectors were said to be the puppets of the Reapers. Kale began to think about how he could use this information, "Ring, pull everything you can about the Reapers through this node. I want numbers, I want trajectories, and I want firepower." Kale's military experience began to kick in as he saw the data begin to flash on the screen.
"Limited data available. Downloading relevant information."
Kale looked over what the ring could gather. It really wasn't a lot; the Reapers must keep the most vital information about themselves away from the cruisers to prevent hacking. What it did manage to gather was still crucial, such as known firepower each Reaper was capable of and attack patterns used during the Prothean cycle.
"That's not possible" Kale exhaled in disbelief as his eyes widened at the estimates of the total number of Reapers. "I knew there were a lot of them, but this is unreal" he began to think to himself.
"Numerous large, indoctrinated threats incoming" warned the ring. Kale refocused, guessing it had to be more Praetorians coming to him. He had vital information now that needed to be seen. He had to get out of there, now.
Kale let the cables and monitor disappear as his aura burned brighter over top of him. He took to the air as he could see multiple drones and Praetorians converging on his location. He flew away, leaving a faint trail behind him, as he searched for a way out. Beams of gold and blue streaked by him as he dove between the floating tiles the drones were now using to follow him.
He took a sharp right and smashed through one of the doors, out of the colossal pod chamber and into a much smaller corridor. Ignoring the Collector drones in his path, he formed a speared ram in front of him as he bowled them over, still searching for an exit.
Kale splintered another door as he came face to face with an entire battalion of drones, all with their weapons trained on him. Taking in a deep intake of air, he was about the plow through them when he saw one of the drones start to glow and form cracks over its exterior. The Collector seemed to be in pain as it twitched and writhed as more orange fractures appeared on it. Then to his disbelief, it spoke.
"ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL"
