Chapter 8: Cold reception
The Normandy approached the planet Noveria, a 'private' world owned by a corporation that would lease laboratories for other corporations;
to perform research that is controversial on too dangerous to be done anywhere else.
Joker requested a berth from Noveria's flight control. They reception wasn't very welcoming;
Normandy's arrival wasn't scheduled and their defense systems were tracking them.
After Joker stated their business, they were finally allowed to land.
Once they landed, Shepard spoke: "We'll first scout around, see what's going on. I'm taking Garrus, Jaden and Liara with me on this one. Liara might find something about her mother. Once we know more, we'll call for the rest of you."
They all went to gear up. When Shepard entered into the airlock, she saw Garrus and Liara waiting for her. "Where's Jaden?" She asked.
"Right here.", came the reply next to her, seemingly out of nowhere. "I will say invisible most of the time. At least until we are able to leave this port. Noveria is an inhospitable planet. In more ways than one. You will understand soon enough."
"All right but stick with us and don't do something we'll regret."
"I understand."
They exited the Normandy. They got to the end of the docking bay, into a smaller room, when first trouble arrived.
A security team was blocking their way. A few Turians and two women. One of the women was clearly the leader of the team.
"Hold it. Let's see some ID", the leader said.
"My name is Shepard. I'm a Spectre", Shepard said.
"Load of horse-crap ma'am", said the other woman.
"We are in the process of confirming that, Sgt Stirling." the leader said to her.
The leader then pointed at their weapons and added: "Weapons are not allowed in Noveria, you will have to hand them over."
"I'm a Spectre, I'm not surrendering my weapons.", Shepard responded coldly.
"Then... we will take them by force.", Stirling said. And, as if trying to act more dangerous, she also activated her biotic aura.
The biotic energy surrounded her hand.
Both Shepard's team and the security team drew their weapons.
It was about to erupt in a firefight.
Shepard could almost feel Jaden move, before it happened.
By an unknown force, unknown to the security team, every member of the security team was thrown against the walls of the room, unable to move.
The force also extinguished Stirling's biotic aura.
The temperature in the room lowered. Both figuratively and literally. Icicles began to form from the ceiling and frost appeared on the windows.
A third woman approached them from inside the port. She was not security; her clothing suggested she was a member of the administration.
She then called: "Stand down! We confirmed their identity, Spectres are allowed to carry weapons."
At this point she realized what was happening in the room. Her demeanor quickly changed.
She said:
"Spectre. Please. Let them go, they are only doing their job."
Shepard rolled her eyes. She wasn't doing it. Jaden was. Still, Jaden complied with the request.
The security team was dropped onto the floor. And the freezing effect stopped as well.
The third woman the introduced her as Gianna Parasini, administrative assistant to Administrator Anoleis, the leader of the port. She then told them meet her by the reception desk, if they had more questions.
At this point, sergeant Stirling couldn't help herself. "Behave yourselves.", she called, though it was clear she was no longer in control of the situation.
Shepard and her team began to walk towards the reception desk to talk more with Parasini.
Before the doors closed, they could hear Stirling ask from the security team:
"What the hell was that?"
No one could answer.
Shepard then asked over the comms: "Was that necessary?"
"It was going to evolve into a firefight", Jaden answered calmly, then added "This port is overflowing with corporate corruption."
"Just... warn me next time."
They got up to Parasini and asked some questions. They found out that someone special, Matriarch Benezia, had arrived there recently. After having asked all their questions, they thanked Parasini and left.
"Goddess, she is here", Liara whispered. "I.. I suppose you want to talk to me, Commander."
"No. I don't. I trust you, Liara."
"Thank you, it means a lot to hear it from you."
Parasini had told them that in order to leave Port Hanshan, they would need a pass from Administrator Anoleis.
Anoleis, however, wasn't very keen on giving one to them.
As they left the Administrator's office, Parasini quietly whispered them to go meet with Lorik Qui'in, A Turian who was currently in the bar upstairs.
They did, and they found out some interesting facts about Anoleis.
Anoleis was corrupt and Lorik had proof of it, so Anoleis accused him of being corrupt and ordered Hanshan's security to search his office in order to find it.
He then proceeded to explain that Anoleis was paying them under the table.
Finally, Lorik offered to give them his pass, if they returned the proof to him. They agreed to do so.
Once they arrived at Lorik's office, they were stopped by a pair of security guards. Shepard called them out of being in league with Anoleis.
The guards, not wanting to fight a Spectre and her team, agreed to leave.
There was another pair of guards upstairs, who weren't going to leave.
They drew out their weapons and aimed them at the group, but Shepard and Garrus shot them before they could fire.
Shepard and he others got to Lorik's hidden computer and uploaded the proof. They then turned to leave.
At this point, Jaden warned: "Incoming. Looks like Stirling wants another round."
"How many?", Shepard asked.
"Five in total. Two remained downstairs, others are coming up. They are going to attack you."
"Damn it.", Shepard cursed. She wouldn't want to start fights, not in here, but she would if she had to. She then told Garrus and Liara to get ready
"I'll take the ones downstairs", Jaden said and then added: "See if you can distract the ones coming up."
Like Jaden had said, Shepard, Garrus and Liara ran into Stirling and two other guards after exiting Lorik's office.
The two other guards stood couple meters behind Stirling.
"You're not supposed to be here, Shepard", Stirling said.
At this point, Jaden became visible, behind the two guards. He quietly approached them.
Shepard noticed him, but didn't express it, so Stirling or the others wouldn't notice him.
"Neither are you. You're in league with Anoleis and his corrupted lackeys.", Shepard said to Stirling.
Jaden grabbed the two guards from their necks. They weren't able to scream, gasp, or anything.
At first it didn't look like anything else was happening.
Then Shepard and others noticed.
Where visible, the skin of the guards turned paler and paler, until it was unnatural white color.
Simultaneously, frost began to form on their armor.
The horror on the guards' faces was clearly visible.
Jaden literally drained all the energy from them.
Finally, all that was left, were two icy statues, perfectly still, where the guards once stood.
"Anoleis would throw you off the planet for what you have done.", Stirling said, not noticing what had happened.
She raised her voice. "But I won't. Do you know what we do to cop-killers here?!"
At this point Jaden spoke: "The same thing we do to corruption. We cleanse it."
Striling turned around, her eyes widened, when she saw what once were her escort.
Quickly she brought up her shotgun and fired at Jaden; the tiny metallic shavings simply evaporated on his shields.
Stirling then brought up her biotics and attempted to throw Jaden further away.
Jaden allowed to biotic attack to hit him; as he was pushed away, he pulled Stirling with him, using his own powers.
Before he hit the wall, Jaden slowed himself, turned around and launched himself towards Stirling.
With a single swift swipe, almost too fast to even register, Jaden severed one of Stirling's hands with his energy sword, as he flew past her.
Stirling turned to face him; the pain from the cauterized wound was visible on her face.
With her other hand, she intended to attack Jaden again with her biotics.
Jaden reached out with his hand and lifted her off the floor.
Then he proceeded to slam her against the roof, on the floor, left and right, again and again. He was practically toying with her now.
When Jaden stopped, Stirling was on the floor. She got up as fast as she could, when she saw Jaden approach her.
All she managed to do was reach for her pistol and shoot Jaden once; his shields again blocked the shot. Then Jaden grabbed her by the throat.
"Your existence... is at an end.", Jaden stated and slowly began to drain energy from Stirling.
After he was done, the threw the frozen statue of Stirling at the wall, where it shattered.
"Goddess...", Liara whispered quietly.
What Jaden had done to Stirling and others... It was so... different. Normally she would have expected to see firefighting and things like that. But to just freeze them like that? It seemed so unnatural and terrifying.
They proceeded to leave. Jaden became invisible again. As they got downstairs, Shepard saw that the guards downstairs had met the same fate as the ones upstairs.
They got to the elevator.
Gianna Parasini was waiting by the elevator as they got off. She then asked Shepard:
"I heard reports of noise at Lorik's office. Would you know something about that?"
Shepard shrugged: "Wasn't me." Technically it wasn't her.
"Still a smart ass, I see", Parasini responded, then added: "Meet me at the bar, before you talk to Qui'in."
After getting up to the bar, they did talk to Parasini first. She then explained who she really was.
Noveria Internal Affairs knew about Anoleis' corruption, but needed hard proof. Something Lorik had. All Shepard had to do now, was to get Lorik to testify against Anoleis. When Shepard told about the pass she needed, Parasini then said Shepard could have as many passes as she needed.
Garrus did support the idea, saying that Anoleis was dirty. Jaden agreed and so did Liara.
It took some persuasion, but Lorik agreed to testify. They returned to Anoleis' office, where Parasini then arrested him. His arrest was nothing short of spectacular. With Anoleis' pointless threats and Parasini's indifferent 'yeah yeah, get a move on' approach.
Afterwards, as she promised, Parasini gave Shepard the pass to leave port Hanshan.
They made it to the garage door where the guard verified the pass and allowed them to enter.
They entered the garage. It was quiet. Too quiet.
Geth appeared from behind all the boxes. Shepard and the others drew their weapons and got to work.
After they were done, few guards appeared behind them, led by the same woman who had originally led the first, not so pleasant, group.
From Lorik they heard that her name was Matsuo.
"What did you here, Shepard?", Matsuo asked.
"Wasn't me. it was the Geth."
"Geth? You except me to believe..?"
"Look around for once. And tell me those aren't Geth."
"I... I'll have to report this. If news about Geth got out, there will be investor panic."
Matsuo left.
At this point Shepard contacted the Normandy and told the remaining team to get to the garage.
Once they did, they got into the Mako that was ready for them.
"Jaden, you here?", Shepard asked.
"Yes." He appeared.
They drove off into the blizzard.
Due to the blizzard, Jaden couldn't provide extra firepower with his Thunderbolt, like he did on Feros; they would have to rely on the Mako's weapons.
The path towards Peak 15 was quite narrow, with mountains on one side and a deep abyss on the other.
The narrow path wasn't their only problem. The Geth had some turrets and armatures, plus lots of troops in their way.
With the Mako, it wasn't that big of a problem, but they did notice that this Mako wasn't as good or accurate as their own.
Garrus really had done good work on their own Mako.
After couple of tunnels and few blockades of Geth, they finally reached Peak 15.
They exited the Mako and quickly entered. Being in the blizzard wasn't preferable, especially for Garrus.
Inside Peak 15's garage, they were greeted by more Geth and a few Krogan.
The Geth were taken out easily, but these Krogan were much more resilient than the ones they've fought before.
It took combined sniper fire from Shepard, Ashley and Garrus to take down one. Jaden took another down with his Thunderbolt.
The last Krogan charged at Jaden, who pushed the Krogan backwards and fired multiple red crystals at the Krogan.
The Krogan looked down and saw the crystals stuck in his armor. He laughed at the sight
"Ha! Your pitiful weapon couldn't even go through my armor!", he yelled.
"They're still stuck in you, aren't they?", Jaden remarked and, in front of the Krogan, tapped the activator button on his Detonator.
The Krogan looked again and saw the glowing crystals "ah...", the fiery explosion consumed the Krogan.
They checked the garage for more Geth.
When they found none, they entered deeper into the Peak 15.
Notes
Soo, we got to Peak 15. Rachni incoming soon.
In the games, i personally really, really hated Kaira Stirling. Even to the point where i used to noclip through the two points, so i wouldn't have to interact with her.
So i had Jaden throw her around the place and the have him kill her. Slowly.
This is the first place where Jaden used his abilities to freeze things. He could do it elsewhere too, but its easier to do in a planet that is naturally cold.
Sometimes i feel like i use the word 'They' or 'the' way too much, but i'm not sure.