Matryoshka

Disclaimer

Starcraft is the property of Blizzard entertainment.

Mass effect is the property of Bioware.

Any elements used in this story are used only in order to create a story for no monetary gain nor do I claim any ownership over them, beyond the names and characters unique to this story.

Protean ruins - Therum

Kaidan Alenko.

Silence filled the room as despair began to set in.

No one knows how it will end.

But Kaidan sure as hell didn't expect it to be like this.

"Joker!" Shepard began as he tried to reach the Normandy " Damm it! We can't get a signal out" he turned to the rest of the team. He watched as everyone looked resigned to their fates, for in their heart that room was already their crypt.

Kaidan continued to patch the protoss up. He originally had nothing but distrust for the creature. After he had confessed that he was the stowaway from Eden Prime, Kaidan tried to keep a close eye on him. Not trusting his intentions or motives he had harbored nothing but mistrust for the creature, but now…

"Thank you, Kaidan Alenko…" Xiltar responded as Kaidan applied a pack of medigel to his torso. His wound had been deep, but fortunately it had failed to rupture whatever organ it had struck.

"No problem Xiltar" Kaidan had realized his mistrust had originally been well founded, now however…

"Worry not, friend. You were right to mistrust my intentions. Even at the council chamber, you should have acted had I possessed a threat to your kind…" Xiltar said. That had been a defining moment in galactic history, but the worry in Kaidan's mind had been too much to bear. What if he attacked or antagonized the council and humanity was made to pay the price.

"Yeah, just…"He did not know what to say "nevermind" He rose to his feet and made his way to the rest of the team. The protoss eyes trailed him.

"So, Shepard…" Kaidan heard Garrus say "What's your plan to get us out of this mess?"

"I'm open to ideas…" Shepard was unsure as to how to proceed, waiting for a rescue team would be a mut point. The Normandy didn't come with excavation equipment aboard, unfortunately. "Xiltar already told us he couldn't manage to teleport out of here… but there has to be another way"

A moment of silence passed as everybody eyed the others "There might be another way out" Liara's statement grasped the group's attention"If we go deeper there might be another cave system we could use to reach the surface…" Liara concluded as she finished drinking some water from the canteen that Shepard had shared.

The odds of such a cave system existing were slim. Yet they decide it was most likely their only course of action. They were in too deep.

"So be it. Liara see if the platform can take us down…" Shepard said. Liara did as he asked and commanded the platform at the center of the room to descend.

They slowly made their way down the structure. every exit they passed was blocked by debris, so they continued to descend. Slowly and slowly.

Kaidan made his way to Williams and sat down next to her "Hey ash, quite a first mission. Don't you think so?" He tried to start a conversation. She in turn layed down on the platform's floor and let out a sigh.

"If I'd known what it would have been like, then there wouldn't be a chance in hell of me coming along" She began with a smile "Heck! This is bound to be fun" She let out another sigh "If we don't die that is".

"What a downer Williams" Kaidan answered with a cheeky smile.

"And here I thought you would be the funny one" answered Williams in turn.

The silence between the two resumed. The platform descending at its own pace, slowly.

"Soo…" began Kaidan "you and the commander…" a frown appeared across Ashley's face.

"Me and the commander what?" Asked Williams in an irritated manner.

"Nevermind, Ash" Kaidan cursed under his breath. Williams just thought that his timing wasn't right.

Shepard.

He was bored. After the first 10 collapsed corridors one tends to lose himself in the tediousness of such an ordeal as counting them.

He was truly bored, the rest of his squad had gone to different parts of the platform. Kaidan and Ash had decided to lay down and speak about something. Garrus decided to disassemble and reassemble his rifle as a form of entertainment, the time getting shorter between attempts. Wrex was teaching Tali a trick with his shotgun, as they both preferred this manner of combat. Xiltar was just looking down at his wound, the patch was doing its work but something seemed to be bothering him. That just left…

"Ahem!" Liara called in order to try and grab Shepard's attention. He had been so focused on the rest of the squad that he had neglected to pay much attention to her calling "Shepard…" she said with a tinge of irritation in her voice.

"Ah, sorry Liara" was Shepard's answer. Quite rude. That's what Liara most likely thought as Shepard looked as she frowned at him "I'm sorry professor, I was just in my own little world" confusion appeared on her face as she returned him the now empty canteen.

"Your own little world?" Did she not know what metaphor was… no, that couldn't be. She was a doctor for goodness sake.

"Sorry, it's a human expression" confusion remained "just saying that I was too focused on another subject"

She slapped her own face at this explanation "Goddess…" she removed her hand and showed her face once more "sorry commander, human habits are a little foreign to me. I…" she trailed off as she looked down "I hope I didn't offend you".

Shepard smiled at this, the asari relaxed and smiled back "No offense taken" she didn't answer. And the echo from the others filled the room. "So…" Shepard began "I imagine you didn't manage to reach this deep down the structure…" Liara began to look up as a smile formed on her beautiful face.

"How did you know?" Liara asked.

"The lack of several companies worth of archeologists gave it away" Liara looked at him confused once again "that was a joke" he clarified. She then proceeded to cover her face once again. Cute. "What is this place anyway?"

Liara recovered as well as she could and then tried to explain to him what she knew of the place "Like most prothean structures the records don't state what the main purpose of this place was" she continued "but I have seen other sites that resemble the layout of this one" she proceeded to raise two fingers "There are two possibilities, this is either a tomb or an archive"

Shepard's curiosity was piqued by this "why would the prothean build crypts so deep underground?" She looked confused again. Was it not a costume of the asari to build crypts?

Realization struck her "Oh goddess, no. That's not what I meant by tombs" now Shepard was confused "those places I mentioned weren't meant to be crypts. They were actually more along the lines of bunkers"

"Bunkers?" Shepard remained confused.

"Yes. Superstructures with many traps embedded in them. Several archeologists have been lost to these places throughout galactic history" Shepard began to hum a tune. It was from an old vid her mother had told him about. The favorite of his father apparently "I have only been to one. They had called it a tomb due to the large quantity of bones from extinct animals and broken equipment.

"And if it's an archive?" Shepard began, trying to stir away from the now grim subject.

"It could range from a repository of knowledge to an excavation of some sort" an archeological site inside another archeological site, neat.

Before either of them could continue they felt as the platform shook.

Not long after, the sight of the platform hatch began to be left behind, as they now began to descend into a gigantic cavern.

Everyone stood at the ready as they neared the base of the elevator. They descended into another prothean structure. Incredibly small compared to the elevator it presided over.

They reached the selling of the structure and began to descend its length. The place was filled with a stench they could not describe and what they saw shocked most of them.

"By the goddess…" Liara whispered as she looked around the room, what greeted them once they reached the bottom was a scene of woe… and desperation.

The room they found themselves in was massive. Along all of the room Shepard saw as several slabs of metal adorned the floor, along with what he thought might be some weird design of chair. He saw as green holograms flickered over the slabs, they might have been some kind of advanced form of computers.

Upon the floor of the room he managed to see… bodies. Along all of the floor he saw as several mummified corpses covered the floor. The density and frequency of the corpses diminished the further they were from the platform.

The majority of the remains congregated where they were landing. Mountains of corpses piled atop each other. Were they trying to escape?

Once they made their way to the bottom Wrex and Xiltar began to push the corpses in order to make a path out. Shepard was glad and disturbed that they had not much qualms in desecrating the dead.

Once they left the mountain of corpses behind, his group began to investigate the room. Liara seemed to forget all about the remains they left behind and began to explore the room in earnest. She made her way towards a terminal that looked functional. "This… this is a treasure trove of knowledge… there could be centuries worth of data in this place alone…"

"Sorry to burst your bubble doctor. But there better be a map out of this place if you don't want us to end up like our friends over there" Liara shuddered at Ashley's response but continued to comb through the data.

"There's references to the excavations along this site, let me see if any contain any references to any exit… there!" As she said this, the holo display showed what Shepard could only guess was prothean language. In the report was the image of rune that was familiar to Shepard. Where had he seen it? "This report makes reference to a primary excavation site. There they found a superstructure of unknown origin and theorized that the construct may reach all the way to the surface. They designated it site Aleph" she read further down in the file " It shows that the structure they were studying is millions of years old! Wait there's more…" She returned to the symbol at the top "They might have found the name of the race that built the structure. It's…"

"The Xel'naga" Xiltar answered from behind them.

"How did you…" Liara began her question but stopped midway through it as she turned around to him. Shepard and the rest turned to follow her haze. And as they did something caught his eye.

A small rune carved at the center of his armor, the same symbol.

Afterword.

Mhm… mhm mhm mhm… mhm… mhm mhm mhm mhm… /°\

InSaNEC - Hello m8, I answered your question in the last chapter. It's in the afterword.

vmoneywashere - Thanks m8, I will tend to space my comedy a fair bit. But you will always find a laugh or two along the story.