The hardest thing is to keep your mouth shut. You'll be tempted to say what you know, or mention that you've met people you've no right to meet. Keep your own counsel and guard your tongue. Good listeners live longer. Remember that it's especially hard to keep your mouth shut when you know more about the subject than those you're with do.
The Reclamation Effect
Chapter Four
phan·tasm (noun)
1. a figment of the imagination or damaged mind.
The aircar booms through the Omega smog, weaving deftly between skyscrapers and derelict industrial sectors. It's not a well-populated area, so any kind of occupied building should be hard to miss. I turn to Feron; the Drell has information and I hate going in blind.
"The SIU. What do you know about them?"
The Omega native leans forward, fingers interlacing as he delves into his memory. So long as he doesn't slip into sophilism, we should be fine. "The Special Intervention Unit is the Batarian Hegemony's equivalent to the Alliance's N7 program, the Union's STG, the Hierarchy's Blackwatch and the Republic's Commando units. They are brutally trained and possess the best of the Hegemony's equipment and resources. According to training given by SIU defectors to the Blue Suns, SIU training has approximately an 18% mortality rate. They are a separate entity to the Batarian External Forces, or BEF. Where the BEF specialise in infiltration, intelligence gathering and assassination, SIU units are trained in heavy assault, military demolition and, supposedly, execution of high-profile traitors and enemies of the state."
"Hence their appearance here with Shepard," Liara guesses.
"Probably," Feron murmurs. "Unlike BEF agents, SIU units are rarely deployed outside Batarian space."
"Preferred tactics?" Miranda asks from the driver's seat.
"Much of my information on the subject is as much supposition as fact," Feron warns. "Their common deployment zones and the Hegemony's information suppression makes gathering reliable information difficult. However, I believe they favour high-impact shock tactics. Favoured weapons are shotguns, assault rifles and high ordinance."
"Matches the grenade ambush," Lawson states. You can almost see the wheels in her head turning. "Storming a base filled with Special Forces is going to be difficult."
"Biotics?" Liara and I say almost at the same time, before exchanging looks.
"Unknown," Feron answers. "The Hegemony has a history of military biotic use but I have no information since the Hegemony left the Citadel."
Twin omnitool pings sound and both my and Miranda's eyes flick to our forearms. The name of the sender sends my eyebrows straight up and I can't stop an exclamation of surprise escaping my lips. "It's from Grizz?" Aria's enforcer?
"That guy guarding Aria's platform? What does he want?" Miranda frowns.
"The better question is, what does Aria want?" Liara clarifies, grimace straining her scarred face.
The message is just one picture, a fast shot taken of a Turian's face. The timestamp is only a few minutes ago, the location one of Omega's docking bays. For a second I don't get it, then in a flash of insight it all clicks.
"Fuck," I declare emphatically.
"What is it?" Three voices ask at once. I flick the file to Liara and Feron, watch them open the picture.
"I don't recognise him," Liara comments.
"His picture was never made public," I answer. I see by Feron's expression that I'm not the only one that recognises the Turian. "But you might remember an incident in the Temple of Athame on Thessia twenty years ago. An attempted assassination of a high priestess of Athame named Benezia T'Soni."
Liara starts, as I knew she would. "This is the man that almost killed my mother?" She asks, eyes wide.
"The battle destroyed an entire wing of the temple complex," I recall from Eri's lessons, "causing upwards of five billion credits worth of damage to ancient relics and sacred texts. According to eyewitnesses, both sides only used biotics. His name is Tetrimus Rakora, also known as 'The Dagger'. For the last thirty years he's been the Shadow Broker's sole enforcer. He is an exceptionally talented biotic, a former cabalist proficient in stealth, sabotage, hacking, all forms of weapon use, explosives, the works."
"Cerberus ranks Tetrimus Rakora as one of the top five most dangerous biotics in the galaxy, probably top three," Miranda comments, a new edge of tension in her voice. "How do you know about him, Parker?"
"I was raised by an Asari commando," I answer. "She made sure I knew what was out there." Not to mention that I virtually interrogated her about biotics daily.
"Either way, we're in trouble," Miranda summarises. "If the Broker is deploying the Dagger, then things are escalating quickly. We have to assume they're also pursuing the Hegemony forces." She taps a few buttons on her omnitool, opening a call. "Emmons? Sitrep." A few seconds pass and she nods. "The Dagger is on Omega. Exercise all caution."
"You sent your subordinates to watch the survivors of the Broker's force," Feron surmises. "A clever strategy."
"They reported that they had their own Batarian captive," Miranda grimaces. "If so, then they'll probably have the location of the body. This could easily turn into the three-way battle. Emmons will call again if he sees them moving out."
"Speaking of torture, there's something I want to ask," Liara says, leaning a touch closer, her voice a few decibels lower. "You enjoyed it. You enjoyed torturing a man and breaking his will." There's a subtle undertone of accusation in her voice.
"Actually, I didn't," I respond coolly.
"I saw you," she persists. Can't she just leave it alone? "You were talkative, engaged. You only get like that when you're enjoying yourself or what's going on around you."
I hiss in irritation. Are we really doing this now? "Fine. But you're wrong. I didn't enjoy the torture part of it. I enjoyed having power over an asshole like that and I enjoyed winning. Beating him. Are you happy now?"
The scarred Asari recoils just a fraction. "How can you enjoy something like that? How can you enjoy crushing someone's will, forcing them to beg for death? That's… sick. How long have you been hiding something like this?"
I've had enough of this. "You know I died once, Liara?" Let her think its allegory. I don't give a damn.
"When?" She responds guardedly.
"With Shepard." Sure, that's the moment I'm referring to. "Course you don't believe me, because I'm right here. Still breathing, still living. But you know, when you're two people one of you can die and to the eyes of everyone else nothing changes. But things change in here," I tap a finger to my forehead, "and in here," pointing to my heart. What started off as pure allegory holds more truth than I'd expected; a part of me did die with her. With my queen.
"So to answer your question," I drawl, locking flat eyes with the uncomfortable heiress, "I'm not hiding anything."
"Sometimes I think you're insane." she shivers.
"I'm not insane." A ghost of a smile graces my face. Oh, if only she knew. "I'm just alone."
It took the four of us another half hour to reach the safehouse. The Broker's forces have left their own base, moving in this direction. It's a safe bet they know where Shepard's body is. Miranda landed us on top of an old residential tower, mould and rust caking the external AC unit. The Batarian's safehouse is an old warehouse, squat and quiet. As for the Broker's people, we can't see them. They must be here somewhere.
"Three sentries," Liara reports, peering through a pair of binoculars. "All Batarians."
"Matching weapons and armour," Miranda observes. "That means an official unit."
"This is the place," Feron agrees.
"Was… was I right?" The Batarian weeps back at the Cerberus safehouse, still convulsing in agony. I pull the camera feed up on the inside of my helmet. I've never seen a Batarian cry before, so it's a novel experience. Even though he is twitching and occasionally screaming. Then again, I suppose he could be crying over what I asked Feron to put under his chair before we left.
I nod happily. "You were. Thank you."
"Then…" he sniffs piteously. "Please."
I sigh, touching my omnitool. "If you're so insistent."
Halfway across Omega the safehouse explodes in a white-hot inferno, hungry flames spilling out and engulfing the surrounding area. The nearby buildings catch, setting it all ablaze. Oh dear. I didn't think Omega would burn so well. Well, not a loss. They might have to vent the entire district to extinguish it though.
"That'll stir up the wasp's nest," Feron comments dryly. He does everything dryly. Liara just looks at me like I'm depraved.
"There were people near that apartment," she accuses. She'll learn.
I shrug nonchalantly while Miranda speaks. "The fire will both divert attention away from us and kill anyone who might have heard or seen anything," she guesses. "We had to get rid of the safehouse anyway. Very nice."
"Though Aria won't be too happy," I point out.
Miranda nods, conceding the point. "Only if she discovers who was behind the fire."
Then the Cerberus leader frowns, holds a hand to her ear and listens closely. Her mouth contorts into a savage growl and she clenches her teeth in anger. "Tetrimus Rakora has joined the Shadow Broker's surviving soldiers. Emmons and his squad tried to get closer to overhear their conversation. They're all dead."
That makes me blink. Cerberus commandos aren't the galaxy's best soldiers but they're pretty close. "All of them? Just like that?"
Miranda nods, still scowling. "The Dagger didn't get his reputation from rumours."
"Did we get a location on the Broker's forces, at least?" Liara asks. I expected her to be mourning the loss of life. It seems Omega is hardening her after all.
"Exact triangulation is underway," Miranda answers. "But based on early readings, less than five hundred metres. We won't be able to storm the facility without their knowing and if they intervene we'd be caught between two hostile forces. There's no way we'd make it."
"That leaves infiltration," I note.
Feron shakes his head. "Impossible. The cargo is too large. Escaping without detection is not plausible."
"Then what can we do?" Liara asks.
"It seems every aggressive movement is doomed to failure," Feron concurs, "so we must not strike."
"We just… wait?"
"Well, we can wait for the Broker's men to attack then hit them when they're weak," I suggest.
"Much like they want to do to us," Liara points out sardonically.
"But they can't wait," I point out. "The Broker is already playing with fire trying to pull one over on Aria. He can't wait around forever."
Miranda favours us with a condescending look. "And so you just assume he's going to have his men move in immediately."
Automatic weapons fire rips through the daytime, closer than the other sounds of violence. "That gunfire came from the Batarian's location," Feron reports mildly, tone coloured by interest.
Miranda's head whips around, a look of outrage on her face. I shrug. "It was the last thing you'd suspect," I point out. "That makes it the perfect choice."
"We were just fortunate that they couldn't infiltrate quietly," Liara remarks, already moving to the edge of the rooftop. "Let's go."
The scarred Asari hurls herself off the rooftop, body glowing biotic blue as she lowers her mass, touching down on the Omega sidewalk with ease. I leap down after her, body glowing green as I fall. Miranda follows a second later, slowing her fall with her own power. Feron takes the more standard route, sliding down a rusted ladder, gloves protecting his skin.
"We have to get to Shepard's body before they do," Miranda orders, drawing her SMG with practiced speed. Her grasp of the obvious is beginning to annoy me.
I'm about to say something clever and cutting when a wave of malevolent intent sweeps over me like a momentary cold gale. Some foreign instinct orders me to move, even if the only evasive movement I can make is an awkward, clumsy side roll. The space next to me suddenly glows a stark blue, exploding so perfectly that the only debris is dust.
The concussion wave picks me up like a great invisible hand, sending me tumbling head over heels before slamming me into a solid steel wall hard enough to crack my armour, barrier or not. My head reels with the force of the impact, that same instinct telling me to keep moving but my arms and legs won't respond. They just sit uselessly at my sides, buzzing with phantom response.
They respond a touch more appropriately when two pieces of steel rebar the width of my wrist drive through my legs, punching through barrier, armour and flesh alike without a touch of resistance.
The sudden, excruciating pain draws a scream from my mouth, pitiful twitching only amplifying the horrifying numbness in everything from my knees down. Some part of my brain responds immediately, the part that exists to catalogue damage in combat. Possible nerve damage, certainly two broken femurs, potential for additional cracked ribs from pressure wave and initial impact. Most likely severed femoral arteries, blood loss inhibited by the presence of the rods.
Did I step on a bomb? My body is made of pain, I can't move. And I have no idea in hell what happened.
Half a second after the blast, Miranda reacts. She's the first, followed a split-second later by Liara and Feron. Before any of them can move more than an inch a heavy bullet rips through Feron's left shoulder, his automatic response stopping the massive round from tearing straight through his neck.
Liara flares her biotics, a powerful barrier springing into existence quick enough to deflect a second round, the bullet passing through her forearm instead of her heart. Miranda's heightened reflexes allow her to move out of the way, avoiding the third and final slug completely.
All in all, it's been less than two seconds since the primary explosion.
The Cerberus lieutenant steels herself as a pair of combat boots touch down lightly on the ground, shrouded by a biotic barrier. A Turian voice echoes through the suddenly quiet street, his tone tinged with polite interest. "I must say, I've never seen a thinking being react that quickly," he says, dispassionate eyes regarding me quietly. Probably enjoying the sight of red blood bubbling from my shattered thighs, the bastard. "Your survival instincts border on the animalistic. But animals can be predicted."
The Dagger turns his head to Liara and Feron, both of them clutching their wounded bodies in obvious pain. Even if they're alive, they won't be able to do anything. Not to him. As if to prove the point, Miranda's Warp field fizzles against the Turian's barrier, absorbed like it never was. Rakora doesn't even flinch, just turns his gaze on his attacker. "And then there was one."
A massive biotic field shimmers around the Turian's fingers and with a movement so casual it's almost comical he throws a full Flare at the Cerberus lieutenant.
Miranda's eyes widen at the sheer power of the biotic field and she leaps in an acrobatic flip over the volatile mass of energy, the dodge propelling her near my prone form.
"The rods," I gasp, barely able to get the words out. "Pull them out."
"You'll bleed out," Miranda snaps, levelling her SMG and pulling the trigger until the heat sink drops out. Tetrimus slides smoothly behind cover, unwilling to test the unknown power of Miranda's modded weapon.
I force my head to roll to the side, trembling fingers pulling my shattered helmet off. The faceplate and HUD are cracked in more places than I can count; it's worse than useless. "I won't. Just do it."
"This had better be good," she mutters, grabbing one rod in each hand and yanking hard. Blinding white agony shoots through my body and I almost pass out. Before my vision can fade entirely green power pools around my body, instantly eating away at my reserves of energy. Life Transfusion has a terrible cost but I'll gladly pay it when the alternative is failure.
Bone re-knits in microseconds, veins and soft tissue only microns behind. Though the pain doesn't vanish entirely, it's better. A fiery, burning ache in my bones is better than total incapacitation. A few simple movements unlock the shattered plating and I stand without it, eyes narrowed and focused. "You're meat, Dagger," I threaten, cracking my knuckles, hands pooling with power. Ordinarily I'd turn off Life Transfusion to conserve my energy but this isn't an enemy I can beat without cheating a little.
"Impressive," Miranda whispers quietly, her own biotic aura flaring. "What happens if you keep that up?"
"I self-combust," I reply, deadpan. "So we'd better make this count."
Rakora's voice interrupts our banter, this time tinged with genuine interest. "First you avoid my Beam and now incredible regenerative ability. My master's suspicion may yet prove correct, Tobias Parker. A true anomaly. How rare."
"You won't be able to tell him anything if you're dead," I promise. "Let's go, asshole."
"Fascinating as it would prove to be," the Turian responds, rolling into the open as he unslings his sniper rifle, "I'm afraid I'll have to decline." Miranda and I break, forcing the Turian to go after one target at a time. I duck behind a low wall as the sniper round punches into the durasteel, cratering the metal. Miranda drops and rolls as a Warp field tears into the ground, biotic fire forcing her to stumble as she tries to stand. Rakora salutes sardonically and vanishes, shimmering for a second before his tactical cloak hides him from sight. I don't dare leave cover; the prospect of ending up on the wrong end of that rifle isn't an enticing one.
"We'll meet again," he promises, the sound of footsteps receding until they disappear altogether.
And suddenly, the only thing I can hear is Miranda's laboured breathing next to me. Thirty seconds pass, but the assassin doesn't reappear. Did he really just leave us?
"What the fuck was that?" I hiss, letting the Rachni power fade and slumping back against the wall. "That was the Broker's enforcer?"
"Tetrimus Rakora," Miranda reiterates, taking a second to catch her own breath. "Why did he let us go?"
I don't have an answer. But the way he said that to me, something about being an anomaly. Was that part of it? What was he even talking about? What does the Shadow Broker think I am?
"It doesn't matter," I declare resolutely, "It doesn't change anything about our job. We still need that body. Liara? Feron? You guys alive?"
"Alive," Feron confirms, "Though my combat ability will be significantly decreased."
"What he said," Liara groans, trying to tie a sling with a bandage. Blue blood is already seeping through it, despite her armour's automatic application of medi-gel. It doesn't look good. Was the bullet poisoned?
"Radioactive trace elements," Liara says, answering my unspoken question. "It's breaking down the medi-gel before it can take effect." She winces, pulling the knot taut with her teeth.
Feron's wound is bleeding, though not as badly as Liara's; the bullet must have passed straight through. On closer inspection, a neat half-circle of flesh is missing from the top of his shoulder, simply carved out by the path of the slug. It looks painful but thankfully not debilitating.
"We have to keep going," I tell them remorselessly. "We're here for a purpose and that hasn't changed." Liara steels herself and nods. Feron just watches me, before he too gives a small nod. That's some loyalty he's got there; I don't think I would stick something like this out if I were just fighting for money.
Now that the Broker force's cover has been well and truly blown, more gunfire sounds from the Hegemony base. The three sentries we noticed initially are nowhere to be seen; probably cut down by the Dagger's rifle.
The door to the Hegemony's base opens without any prompting; the Broker's forces must have already cracked the encryptions on the system. There's only one guard on this side, crouched behind a steel table laid on its side for emergency cover. They still have the discipline to keep the rear entrance under guard, so they must be faring well. No panic, no shocked surprise. Just the barking of assault rifle fire as the soldier opens fire. The shots are absorbed by our barriers, Feron carefully staying back. His gear probably can't stand up to sustained fire.
Miranda opens with a burst of automatic fire, forcing the SIU trooper back behind cover. I pool my energy and unleash the strongest Throw I can muster, choosing to blast the table itself. The steel structure jolts violently backwards, flipping over the crouched solder and knocking him prone. Feron blasts his shields with an Overload and Liara kills him with a flickering Warp field, wincing at the pain to her immobilized arm.
"Map data?" I yell at Feron. He crouches beside the corpse, manually fiddling with the Batarian's omnitool.
"Downloaded," he responds tersely. "There are multiple underground levels," Feron reports, "Old eezo mining tunnels. Precise navigation will be crucial."
Feron copies and sends the layout to our omnitools in case we get separated. "Any news on how the Broker's men are doing?"
"None," the Drell replies, arm locked in place with a stasis field. He should be able to break it if he absolutely needs to; it's one of the weakest stasis fields I've ever produced. "But assuming they face the brunt of the Hegemony forces we have a chance to get in and out before they catch us."
Before long steel corridors are replaced by dirty red rock, gradually sloping down into the core of the massive asteroid. These tunnels must be thousands of years old, maybe even multiple cycles old. I'd thought this was a horrible place for a safehouse but I was wrong. Supply caches and weapons fill offshoot dead ends; enough rations, water and materiel to fight a dozen wars.
"What about a rearguard?" Miranda manages in-between strides, "No competent military unit would leave all their forces at the main entrance."
I guess we won't know until we get there. "Booby traps could be a problem," I echo, watching the shadows suspiciously. Hey, it's not paranoia if everything really is out to get you.
The descending tunnel leads to a large room, three more offshoot tunnels branching off. The moment we pass through four metal shutters slam down, blocking off the passageways and sealing us in. Liara kicks the shutter in frustration, I just sigh. Right after I said the thing about booby traps, too. Damn you, universe. You and Murphy's Law.
"Humans," a voice spits, hatred and contempt dripping from every syllable. "Always sticking your noses where they don't belong. Turning our allies against us. The Hegemony was about to receive a seat on the Council before you Pillars-damned monkeys interfered with everything. Now you'll see why we Batarians are the true destined rulers of the galaxy."
One shutter slides up, the one directly in front of us. According to the map we stole, that's the way we need to take to get to the lowest level of the catacombs. An armoured Batarian walks through the portal, alone before it slams shut behind him. His SIU-issue hardsuit virtually shines in the low emergency lighting, the ambient red glare eerily similar to the luminescence of Omega's surface. His head is bare and his eyes flicker with blue sparks.
"I am Captain Kla'Sorin Rakaal of the Hegemony's Special Intervention Unit," the red-skinned alien announces imperiously, motes of cerulean light still flickering in his pupils. "Blessed of the Emperor's Glorious Might, Survivor of Girifon's Curse! Master of battle and of destruction. Compared to you worthless maggots, destined slaves, I am Master! Ruler! I am a biotic God!"
Power explodes from the black-eyed alien's frame. Most biotic power quietly surges, or grows from valley to peak. Lara's power is like the tide, changing so silently and swiftly you never notice. Miranda's power comes like water from a faucet, consciously increasing and decreasing with sheer force of will.
This Batarian's power explodes in a blast of near-celestial luminescence. Blue light bright enough to blind issues from the SIU trooper, more biotic power than I've ever seen before. More than Liara. More than Wrex. More than mine, even pushing my Rachni curse to the limit. More than Erintrea and Benezia.
Even more than Saren's Reaper-augmented form.
Impossible.
"You first," the SIU trooper says mockingly, pointing at me. He flicks a finger, launching Warp larger than any I've ever seen. The rending biotic field isn't even a globe like normal, it's a solid wall of biotic fire. I fortify my barrier to the very limit, crossing my arms in front of my and kicking Life Transfusion into overdrive to survive the assault. There's no place to dodge, nowhere to hide. The Warp tears at my shield, pulling and straining as it rips it out of shape. My barrier's strength drops drastically; this Warp isn't just massive, it's powerful as well. Probably as powerful as the one that scarred Liara, if not even stronger.
My barrier shatters as the roiling Warp storm dwindles, the last dregs of biotic fire tearing at my unarmoured skin. Life Transfusion heals the injuries as soon as they appear, each rent draining my already-exhausted body a little more. We're lucky he wants to toy with us first; if he'd made that attack any bigger he could have caught us all in it and wiped us all out. Stone dust and pebbles rain down from the ceiling; new stress fractures litter the walls. Maybe he couldn't. Another attack like that and the whole cave could collapse.
The dust cloud gradually settles, revealing Miranda and Liara, stunned expressions on their faces. In between them stands Feron, arms holding a small mechanical device in his hands, firm to his chest.
The Batarian tilts his head, the arrogant smirk vanishing. In its place forms a glare of pure loathing redoubling the biotic pressure. Hell. He wasn't even at full power the first time. People have called me monster, but this guy is the real deal. Can I kill him? Maybe. Can I do it without bringing the whole cave system down? Not a chance.
"Stop!" I shout. "You make another attack like that, you'll bring this whole place down!"
The Hegemony fanatic grins manically. "Maybe. But I'll survive! You, on the other hand, will not be so fortunate."
The armoured soldier reaches one hand out to the ceiling, eyes flashing with biotic power. There's nothing I can do, I'm tapped out. I doubt I could even muster a decent throw, not that it would get through that absurd barrier. The Batarian rips his hand downwards, eyes gleaming with the fervour of a fanatic.
And then nothing happens.
That was anticlimactic.
No rumbling, no pull, no warp. The Batarian jerks his hand up and down again, and again nothing happens.
"What did you do!?" He screams, for the first time showing uncertainty.
"I didn't… nothing-" I respond, before the red-skinned humanoid crosses the space between us and swings his fist at my face. I can't even muster the energy to move; I pushed it too hard enduring the first Warp. I brace for pain as best I can but the Drell gets there first. He intercepts the fist with a sweeping hand, sliding gracefully forward and driving the edge of his open palm into the biotic's unarmoured neck. Feron's hand somehow bypasses the Batarian's barrier entirely, forcing the SIU trooper to hack and cough, stumbling backwards.
One hand still holding that strange mechanical device, Feron draws his pistol and pulls the trigger once. Brains and blood erupt from the back of the biotic's head and he drops lifelessly to the ground.
I'm sorry, did the world suddenly stop? You can't just shoot past a barrier like that. Feron certainly wasn't close enough to get the barrel of the gun past the barrier. A knife-hand strike, maybe. But a bullet?
"Is that a portable phase inhibitor?" Liara asks quietly.
"Yes," Feron answers calmly, stowing the device away.
"I didn't think they were portable yet," Miranda comments, crouching over the body of the dead trooper. We're still trapped in here, even if we managed to win the fight.
"It's a prototype," Feron admits. "Each power cell can only power the device for a few seconds and cells are prohibitively expensive. The device even more so."
A phase inhibitor… That would explain it. They're rare, hard to make and equally hard to use. Mostly they're used in prisons for biotics, to restrain and limit their abilities. They're essentially powerful electromagnets that exude a field that prevents eezo from charging with electrical fields. The resulting disharmony stops element zero from affecting anything, shutting down all biotics in its radius. Barriers, close combat, ranged attacks. Everything.
Wait, why does Feron even have a phase inhibitor? They're not cheap, not by a long shot. They have only one use. Feron having one in advance would mean he absolutely knew he was going to come into conflict with a biotic, or more than one.
"You planned on using that on us if we couldn't pay, didn't you?" I ask, sighing. It would have hit me completely by surprise, that's for sure. I'm still not completely sure how Life Transfusion works but it relies on biotics. No healing, no barrier. I'd have died in an instant. "That's why you didn't use it on Rakora outside. You wanted to save it."
"The open ground would have made the device far less effective," Feron points out. "The range of this inhibitor is extremely low. But your conjecture is not completely false." He nods and goes to the shutter, opening a program on his omnitool and starting to burn through the metal.
Miranda steals my attention away, taking scans of the corpse. "This is fascinating," she says, projecting a readout of the corpse's nervous system from the tool. "The sheer amount of element zero in his system… it's far beyond any other known case of biotics. It would have been impossible to carry a child to term with this much eezo, for the mother or the child. There's no way they would have survived."
"Obviously, that's not the case," I point out, looking at the body. No ordinary being should have that much power. It's not natural, that's for sure. But you can't make an artificial biotic. It would kill the patient.
Liara frowns, leaning in. "There's something else unusual about this man," she says, magnifying part of Miranda's scan. "His nerve endings. Most are dead but many shouldn't even be there. The Batarian nervous system is extremely simple; a network this complex must be a mutation. Girifon's disease, I think it's called? It causes hypersensitivity in the subject's nerves."
"He did say he was a survivor of Girifon's Curse," I recall.
"The eezo is congregated around the nerve clusters," Miranda murmurs, highlighting them on the scan. "But not all of them are necrotic. Most are still functional… What would have caused this?"
She rifles through his suit and then holds the resulting package up to the light cast by her tool, reading the script. "An anti-rejection drug of some kind?" She drops it, withdraws another packet. "Vials of blood plasma laced with eezo." A final bag. "Syringes."
She stands, takes a few steps back. "I don't believe it. This man… he's not biotic by birth. He was made this way."
An artificial biotic? There's no way he would have survived! It's impossible! "Don't you think the Alliance looked into that when they first learned about biotics? They declared it morally and scientifically unsound. It would never work."
"Not on humans," Miranda corrects. "As for being morally unsound, well. The Hegemony was never in the running to win the Nobel Peace Prize. I don't know how they did it but the evidence is here. The Batarian Hegemony has somehow developed a process to create biotics from ordinary people."
Bleeding hell. As if the Batarians weren't already bad enough. "How?"
The Cerberus officer shrugs. "I'm not sure. But based on what we have here, I'd say transfusions of eezo-laced blood plasma. The element zero would naturally bond to nerve endings, making him biotic."
"It's not that simple," I argue, remembering my lessons. "Forty percent of nerves bonded with eezo would die immediately, even in Batarians. That amount of dead nerve tissue would kill the host."
"Unless the host could survive with only sixty percent of his nerves," Liara says slowly. "This mutation he has… he has almost twice as many nerve endings as a normal Batarian. Even with the death of forty percent of his nerves, he would survive. He'd lose most of his sense of touch, probably taste and smell as well. But he would live."
"Even then," I argue, a trace of anger in my tone. "Eezo is carcinogenic. Without the rest of the body adapting to the foreign substance in utero, you'd have tumours all over the place."
"Anti-rejection drugs," Liara counters.
"Power decay over time as bonded nerves die and become unusable."
"Additional infusions to maintain power." Miranda supplies.
"Total nervous system failure as nerve sheaths are destroyed. Even anti-rejection drugs can't stop that forever. You'd only accelerate it with additional transfusions."
"Then the host dies from cancer," Miranda allows and I smile triumphantly. Victory. "Then the Hegemony takes another sufferer of Girifon's disease and replaces the first host."
Oh. "Shit." I say at length.
A loud tearing breaks the sombre silence and Feron steps back from the hole he's carved through the shutter. "To be continued," Liara promises.
The rest of the tunnels are pitch-black, lit only by beams of light from omnitool torches. "Not much further," Feron says. "The next chamber."
The antique door slides open slowly and I storm into the room, biotics flaring.
Nothing.
The door on the other side of the room bursts open, three black-armoured soldiers rushing in, assault rifles glued to the shoulders.
For a single second, the Broker's private soldiers stand there in surprise.
Then they open fire.
A/N: Back on schedule. Feels good, man. First things first; a massive shoutout to LogicalPremise for allowing me to use his OC Tetrimus Rakora in this story. LogicalPremise has written this fantastic take on Biotics that is incredibly rare and extremely well done: The Encyclopedia Biotica. It's something that any prospective author should DEFINITELY read, and I strongly recommend it for anyone with even a passing interest in the ME code and lore. His Encyclopedia is also where I got the idea for the Batarian biotic in this chapter. Secondly, as one guest review noted, the quotes at the top of each chapter come from a book by Tamora Pierce, a great author (the book in question is 'Trickster's Choice'). Another note, if you're going to review as a guest that's awesome; but I can't respond personally to you without an account to PM :( Next, a massive shoutout to my editor and idea-bouncer, The Extroverted Recluse. She's always awesome and this fortnight has been no different.
With that done, I'm sorry for leaving you on a cliffhanger... kind of. Not really. A little bit. Look, a cliffhanger is a good thing every now and then. Either way, I hope you like the chapter! Let me know what you think, whether its plot, biotics, OCs or random tech that I've included. Reviews make for a happier author and hopefully less-confused readers.
Finally, the poll on my profile (the one about more original content) is still up and I hope you vote in it if you haven't already!
I think that's about it, so I'm signing off. I'll see you guys in two weeks!