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Chapter 23
Recall
Something wasn't right.
From the moment the Normandy's Flight Lieutenant interrupted their briefing to inform them of Eden Prime's recent plight, something deep within him told him that this was no ordinary attack, no ordinary enemy.
And Nihlus' gut instincts were never wrong.
Surveying the deathly quiet scene before him, the gnawing at the bottom of his stomach only increased. It was too calm, too quiet. Long ago, he had learnt that every environment had its own natural melody, be it the hum of machinery, cries of animals, or the whispers of insects. But the barren land was unnaturally silent, eerily so.
There definitely was something very wrong.
As soon as he confirmed that Eden Prime's atmospheric chemicals were within safe ranges, he had discarded his helmet. Helmets were tricky, heavy things that dampened his sensory abilities. On a stealth mission like this, he would rather forgo that extra layer of protection and have the ability to hear, see and smell everything around him without a filter or screen being in the way.
That was, however, before he realized that the thick, pungent smell of burning flesh was strong enough to eliminate his sense of smell all together. Nihlus had been in this line of work for over a decade, and it did not take much to desensitize the soldier to such unpleasantness. He had only faltered for a second, before mentally blocking the horrid scent from his mind and concentrating on the task at hand instead.
Still… He had seen holos of Eden Prime before the attack. Despite being a turian, the colony was breathtaking enough to even impress him. He couldn't help but feel a little disheartened at the loss of such a beautiful place. It was Mindoir all over again.
The humans would suffer from this indeed.
"Nihlus." The sound of his name being called drew his mind back to the present. Kneeling behind a large fallen tree he turned his radio on.
"Shepard."
"We've engaged hostiles. Automated aerial drones by the looks of it."
"Got it. Clear on my end so far. I'll keep you updated."
"Alright." There was a slight hesitation, before the female continued. "Corporal Jenkins is down."
A beat passed and Nihlus almost asked how? But he knew that minute details should be left for after the mission is done. He cleared his throat, mandibles flaring slightly. "Noted Commander."
"Sir." A quiet click told him that she had turned off her communicator.
Three weeks ago, the Council handed him three dossiers and asked for his advice on who should be the first human Spectre. It was a difficult choice for each was a celebrity in his or her own right. There was Lt. Commander Rosenthal, whose parents' parents and every generation after served in the Alliance. And as if the lineage wasn't impressive enough, she was also the sole survivor of the thresher maw attack on Akuze, earning her praise and admiration from billions. But her strict upbringing and obey-the-book behaviour led him to believe she would be better suited as a Captain, and not a Spectre; and so he moved on.
Staff Commander Jason Little, was everything his last name was not. Nihlus had the good fortune to have met the giant of a man once before, and he had briefly wondered if he was, indeed, half Krogan. At the time Nihlus pondered on the possibility that Little was engineered to his size, but was later reassured that the large, burly human male had earned his mass wrestling street rats down in the dusty ghettos of Earth. Unfortunately, his reputation as 'Butcher of Torfan' made Nihlus a little uncomfortable with the idea of placing him in a position where he could freely abuse the Law, hence he disregarded Little as a candidate.
But Jane Amelia Shepard? That was a Spectre in the making if he ever saw one. Her history showed how courageous, intelligent and resourceful the vanguard was while her previous Captain commended her for being both fair and responsible. Coming from the decimated colony of Mindoir and declared the War Hero of Elysium, she was the paradigm of the perfect human soldier: a phoenix that rose from her tragic past into the wondrous fires of glory. He had high hopes for the Commander for he believed she had the strength and ability to go very, very far.
He only hoped that she wouldn't disappoint him now.
"Nihlus." Once again his radio registered Shepard's voice. He was quick to find cover before responding.
"Yes Shepard?"
"You won't believe this but-" Heavy gunfire thudded against the boulder that he was seeking cover from and he cursed himself for getting distracted. The Spectre quickly cut off communication, knowing that he needed to focus on the fight. Taking a quick glance around the rock, it took every ounce of willpower cultivated from his years of training to resist freezing in shock, and to instead begin returning fire.
But despite his solid concentration, one rebounding thought shook him to the core.
Geth!
Beyond the Veil!
The synthetics were relatively easy to take down, but there were only two of them at the moment, and he had a feeling there would be more nearby. Not wanting to risk reactivating any potentially hibernating machines, he forced himself to move towards the general direction of the dig site, but not before delivering several bullets into each machine's flashlight head.
Questions ran through his head at a thousand miles per hour. Spirits! What were the Geth doing here?
Tapping into the channel he quickly resumed their conversation. "Shepard. Sorry about that."
"It's fine." The Commander sounded slightly breathless. "I was about to inform you that there are Geth here."
"I know. I just encountered a couple of them." He couldn't afford to take 'breaks' anymore, so instead he walked quickly, but carefully through the wreckage that was the human colony, weapon tight in his hands, senses on high alert.
"We're nearly at the dig site. I'll let you kno-"
"Holy shit. Commander, what the Hell is-" The disbelief, fear and disgust in Alenko's voice spoke volumes. The link ended just as gunfire began and Nihlus knew that he was on his own for a while.
Damn. This was getting worse by the minute.
###
"Saren?"
"Nihlus."
Eleven years as a Spectre was bound to teach anyone a thing or another. To Nihlus, it meant trusting your instincts. Admittedly, it was a very difficult thing to get used to. But after years of trial and error, he began to realize that sometimes our brains made sense of things faster than our conscious can process it. Sometimes our bodies would move without thought, and there was no one else in the Galaxy Nihlus trusted more than his own body.
So why was his body telling him to get the fuck out of there?
Everything about this mission felt wrong. From the Geth's presence, to the easy decimation of an entire colony with 3 million people, to the large Alien mother ship that popped out of nowhere. He could scarcely believe his own eyes when they saw a fuzzy image of the squid-resembling machine on the Normandy, but to see it hovering above him mere minutes before, scared the living daylights out of him.
And you would be hard-pressed to find anything that scared the Spectre.
"This isn't your mission Saren. What are you doing here?"
"The Council thought you could use some help with this one."
His words sent a shiver of confusion up his spine. The Council had never underestimated his abilities before… Well, not in the past seven years at least.
Then again, this was after all Saren that was before him. Saren Arterius, the Council's front line and the Universe's most trusted Spectre. Maybe they had gotten wind that Eden Prime was under attack by more than just pirates. He suppressed a shudder as he recalled the way the Geth dealt with the human corpses. What kind of technology enabled them to transform organics into mindless killing machines? How did the Geth manage to come up with this sort of advance weaponry?
At the same time... He couldn't help but wonder how could the Council have gotten Saren here so fast? And why did they not tell him about it?
And even more importantly, why did his presence seem to aggravate, more than calm him?
Nihlus shook his head, pushing the doubts out of his mind. Saren, whom regardless of their clashing opinions about humanity's ambitions, was the closest thing he had to family. Despite appearances, Nihlus did not know of a more dedicated soldier than the old Spectre.
"I wasn't expecting to find the Geth here." Even as he said it, it was still difficult to swallow. Nihlus was only able to recognized the Geth from the vids about the Quarian's exile dated back almost 200 years ago. It was too surreal. "The situation's bad."
Perhaps it was the way the orange sun dipped into the horizon, filling the sky with sinister crimson. The shimmery brown of sunbeams hitting the wicked, threatening rocks below them brought an image to mind. A hair color rather, of the human psychologist - Doctor Skylar and with it, he was struck by the memory of her last message to him. Nihlus nearly jerked back at the sheer hilarity of his thoughts. Here he was in the middle of a mission and he was thinking about a human doctor?
"Don't worry." He heard Saren's behind him, but his brain brought another voice to mind instead.
Don't turn your back on your friends.
"I've got it under control."
Shoving the somewhat random intrusion of thought, Nihlus whirled around, mouth half open to ask one of the million questions running through his head and he was given a millisecond to register the circular barrel pointed at his direction.
A trillion and one emotions tore through him in that exact moment. Confusion and apprehension followed by betrayal, hurt, frustration, anger and sadness; and finally, comprehension. As though the last missing puzzle piece finally fell into place and he found all of his answers. Who else could have known about the Prothean beacon and his mission details? Who else but the person closest to the Council?
And yet as each question was dismissed in his mind, three more popped up in its place.
The most important one, why?
He clicked his displeasure and uncertainty in a frequency too low for anyone but a turian to pick up. Saren's hand trembled slightly and Nihlus almost thought the old man was just joking around.
A loud bang echoed throughout the docking bay, and the force of the bullet hitting him in the chest at pointblank range tore through his shields, ripped past his armor, and threw him over the edge…
Down to the jagged rocks below.
###
"And that was how we found him. He was barely alive, paralyzed and bleeding to death from a shoulder wound so severe that we were lucky the medics found him when they did. A moment longer and he would have been a goner." The Captain explained gravely.
"Oh my God." Jane placed a hand over her mouth, eyes widening in horror. "We didn't care to check, we saw your body and just assumed."
The Turian shook his head and the hologram flickered, trying to keep up with his fast movements. "The beacon was your priority. I am thankful that you did not waste your time with me, as it might have been too late for all of us had you not disarm Saren's-" The way he said the perpetuator's name surprised Sky. You would think one would have more hatred for the person who nearly killed you, but all she could sense was disappointment. "-bombs."
"Right..." Although the guilt was evident in the Jane's voice, Sky knew that the blonde registered the truth behind his words.
"We have much to discuss when we meet. For now I believe it is not wise to reveal our plans over unsecured channels. I trust that you will be heading towards the Citadel after you locate Dr T'Soni?"
"Yes sir."
Nihlus nodded, eyes flickering towards Sky for a moment. Even as a hologram his intense gaze was enough to freeze her in place, just like they did so many years ago. He almost looked puzzled, like he was trying to figure out a mystery that he eventually put aside. Returning his attention to the Commander he nodded at her. "I will see you soon then Shepard."
Jane saluted, "Will you be joining the ground team sir?"
The Turian froze, before his mandibles flared in a way that resembled a strange, sad smile that tore at her heart. He hesitated slightly, before reaching for his overcoat and dragging it off his right shoulder.
Sky stifled a gasp of surprise as she stared at the empty space where she was sure his right arm used to be.
"I can't." This time the psychologist could make out the unadulterated sadness and frustration in his voice.
"I'm no longer able to fight."
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I feel incredibly bad for doing that to Nihlus. I know. But I needed to do something so that he won't be galavanting all over the Universe and ruining the timeline and all that. Again, everything has consequences, and Sky will be knowing hers soon enough.
Quite a poorly written chapter in my opinion. Probably one of my poorest. I've been a little bit of a scatter brain lately. Exams coming up and all. I haven't been doing much and my brain keeps going off in tangents.
Anyway, I love Nihlus. If he had lived I would probably prefer him over Vakarian! I know. The horror. =P
Thank you SO SO much for everyone that reviewed, read, subscribed and favourited this story. I had the most reviews last chapter than I ever had! I was so shocked, and touched at the same time.
Thank you subsider34, greed11, Generator X, CuHnadian, stark40763, Death-Dimension, Liege Lord, Helljumper 1337, Rosiegirl52, Nanobot5770, PlutoAn, Harteramo, S058 and the anons Baka and Shadowfang for reviewing. Honestly, you guys are what keeps me going, keeps me writing.
S058 - By the Reveal do you mean Sky's origins? If so then no, not really. It won't be happening for a long time anyway. But certain characters may know it first before others... If you know what I mean. ;]
Rosiegirl52 - Hahahaha. Unlikely, but a fascinating idea all the same. =P
greed11 - Okay okay, I got it. =P It didn't irk me because you're right. I'll find a way around it eventually. Promise. I can see what you mean about the interrogation bit. I really should have expanded on it more. Maybe I will go back and edit it later on.
Baka (referring to Chapter 18's XO) - At that time she was still the XO. She only gets promoted to CO when she leaves the Citadel.
subsider34 - I'm glad you're liking everything so far. I know I do. It's a bad habit but I get too lazy to explain certain things in detail. I have that problem. I know, it's horrible. But no real timeskips for a while though! Not large ones at least.
Anyway, we'll get to see more action and character interactions next chapter! And we finally pick up Liara. Ooooh. =P
Until next chapter!
Peace out.
Much love,
Fee