Chapter 12
Dr. Liara T'Soni
Author's note. I have received a handful of complaints that the last couple of chapters were practically the same as the game, and they have a point. From this point on I am going to do the best I can to make this story completely original. Cut me some slack on this chapter though, it's kind of hard to change something like this, what am I suppose to do, put Flood on Therum?
"Alright, we're coming up on Therum," Joker said through the COM lines. Shepard was sitting in the back of a Pelican, along with the rest of the ground team, Rebecca, Kaiden, Garrus and Demas. He had tried to balance out the team, Rebecca for short range, Garrus for long range, Demas for medium range, and Kaiden for his biotics, overall he was pleased with it.
After leaving the Citadel a couple of days ago, the Normandy had traveled to Therum in the Artemis Tau cluster, looking for Dr. Liara T'Soni. Shepard had decided that finding Liara would be a good place to start, as she would most likely know how her mother would act. "Entering lower atmosphere," Joker said "Alright Richard, take them away."
The sound of clamps being released could be heard as the Pelican was released and flew out of the Normandy. "I'm picking up a massive energy spike," Richard said, as he controlled the Pelican from the Normandy. "It looks like it's coming from a Prothean ruin unearthed by mining companies. It looks like a good place to start looking so I'll drop you off there. A word of warning however, there has been increasing amounts of volcanic activity in the surrounding area."
"Yeah, so if you toast any marshmallows while your down there you have to bring up some for the rest of the crew," Joker said.
Shepard smiled slightly "I'll keep that in mind Joker," he replied.
"Does he always talk like that?" Demas asked, looking at Kaiden
Kaiden sighed. "Sadly, yes," he said.
"All right here we are," Richard said, as the Pelican touched down on the surface. "Give me a shout when you're ready to leave and I'll be here ASAP," he said as the ground team jumped out of the Pelican. As they did the Pelican's loading bay door closed, and the Pelican began to return to the Normandy.
"Liara's probably in there," Shepard said, pointing towards the gaping entrance at the top of a nearby ramp. "From what we've heard this is the most recently unearthed ruin, she would most likely be checking it out." The rest of the ground team nodded as they followed Shepard into the ruin.
The entrance led into a tube like tunnel the slopped downward gently. "Am I the only one that finds it a little strange that this place is completely deserted?" Kaiden asked as they walked forward. "I mean where are the miners? The researchers?"
"Kaiden as a point," Rebecca said as the reached the end of the tunnel and walked onto a catwalk. "Why would this place be completely deserted? Unless..." A rocket blazed past the heads of the ground team, exploding when it hit the wall behind them.
"Son of a bitch!" Rebecca shouted, as Garrus leveled his sniper rifle and fired a shot that pierced the optic of the Geth that had fired the rocket.
"Well, that's one explanation!" Garrus shouted as the ground team ducked behind the railings "The Geth are here!" Five armed Geth were standing on a nearby catwalk, aiming their weapons at the ground team. Garrus leaned out of cover and firing another shot, which pierced the optic of another Geth. Garrus was forced to duck down as the Geth opened fired at him, causing his kinetic barriers to collapse.
Taking advantage of the distracted Geth, Kaiden threw a Warp at them, causing the Kinetic Barriers of two of the Geth to collapse. Rebecca drew her magnum and emptied the clip into the chest of one of the unshielded Geth, causing the synthetic to collapse. At the same Shepard fire his battle rifle at the other unshielded Geth, causing it to stagger forward and fall off of the catwalk.
Jumping off of the catwalk, Demas activated his anti-gravity pack, which propelled him towards the Geth. As he landed on the catwalk, he activated his energy sword, thrusting it through the nearest Geth. Holding onto the Geth, Demas positioned it between him and the remaining Geth, using it as as shield from the remaining Geth's fire. Charging forward, Demas used the dead Geth to smash the remaining Geth into the wall, crushing it.
"Well, that's an interesting way of killing a Geth," Garrus said, as the rest of the ground team descended to where Demas stood. As Demas released his grip on the Geth, letting it fall to the ground, the ground team continued down the catwalk, coming across an elevator. As they stepped into the elevator, which began to descend automatically. As they neared their destination, the elevator began to spark, and by the time it finally stopped, it had begun to smoke.
"Well," Shepard said, looking at the smoking elevator as they team stepped out "I doubt that thing will hold if we take it back up."
"Um hello?" said an uncertain voice that came from somewhere nearby "Can anyone hear me? I'm trapped and I can't get out." Shepard glanced towards the origin of the voice, and saw an Asari in a doctor's uniform, floating behind what looked like a transparent barrier.
"Are you alright?" he asked, as they approached the barrier "How did you end up like this?
"I heard the Geth coming so I tried to activate this Prothean security device," the Asari said "But apparently I hit something that I shouldn't have and got stuck here."
"Don't worry we'll get you out of there," Garrus said reassuringly "Just one question, are you Liara T'soni?"
Liara blinked "How do you know my name?"
"We came here to look for you," Rebecca said "We need your help, you might not know, but a Spectre called Saren has gone rouge and is using Geth accomplish his plans. We're trying to stop him."
"How am I supposed to be able to help you?" Liara asked, clearly confused "What is so special about me?"
Rebecca rubbed the back of her neck in obvious discomfort "Your mother is working with Saren, we thought that it would be helpful having you on board because you know how she acts."
"Benezia is...but I don't know...she doesn't," Liara stuttered desperately, clearly in too much shock to from a coherent sentence. "Why would she do this?" she asked, disbelief heavy in her voice.
"We don't know," Shepard said "But we're going to try to find out. Now do you have any idea on how we can deactivate this barrier."
"The controls are behind this barrier," Liara said "You'll have to find another way around. Be careful, I saw a Krogan with the Geth trying to bypass the barrier."
"Thanks," Kaiden said "We'll keep an eye out for them."
Walking away from the barrier, the ground team descended a ramp and ended at the bottom of a cavern. "I find it a little hard to believe that the daughter of anyone who works with Saren can act like that," Rebecca said as she shook her head. "She just seems so...innocent."
"Sometimes the fruit falls far from the tree," Demas said, as Kaiden nodded in approval.
"Hey that looks like an old mining laser," Garrus said as he pointed towards a large piece of machinery laying not too far away. "I'm no Quarian, but I know a couple of things about machines, let me see if I can get it going again," he said as he pulled panel out and began to fiddle with the wiring. "If I guess cross these two and remove that one," he muttered, mostly to himself "This goes here, that goes there, and bingo," he said as he closed the panel and pushed a nearby button. A bright red laser shot out of the end of the drill, melting the rock face of the far end of the cavern, revealing a bright silver room on the other side as the laser deactivated.
"Well that worked pretty well," Shepard said "Nice work Garrus." The Turian nodded. "Come on," he said, as he and the others walked into the newly uncovered room, which contained what appeared to be an elevator. As the stepped onto the elevator, it automatically began to rise up, coming to a stop at the same level that Liara was on.
"How did you get back here?" Liara asked, craning her neck over her shoulder to look at Shepard and the others "I didn't think that there was anyway to get past the barrier."
"We'll tell you all about it later," Shepard said as he approached a counsel, pressed a few buttons that causing the field that was holding Liara up to be deactivated "But right now I think that it would be a good idea to get out of here."
"You make a good point," Liara said, as she got to her feet "I think I've seen enough of these ruins, but does anyone have a pistol that I can use."
"Here," Garrus said, throwing one to Liara, who caught it. "You can have mine, don't worry about it I have a spare."
"Thank you," Liara said, as they all walked back to the elevator.
"Is there any chance that you'll come along with us and help us stop Saren?" Shepard asked as they stepped onto the elevator "We could really use your help."
"Much of this is still confusing to me," Liara said rubbing her forehead "I haven't spoken to my mother in years. She always did belief that Asari should be more pronounced in galactic roles, but even she would not stoop to work with Saren. What exactly are they planning?"
"We are not certain," Demas said "We learned from a recording that Saren is looking for something called the Conduit, and it has to do with a race of machines called the Reapers. Do you have any idea what the Conduit may be?"
Liara shook her head, "I am sorry," she said "But I have never heard of something called the Conduit. Perhaps it is..." Liara's voice trailed off as the ruins began to rumble.
"What was that?" Kaiden asked, a worried tone to his voice.
"These ruins are not very stable," Liara answered, a slight hint of fear in her voice "Whatever you did must have triggered some sort of seismic activity."
"Richard!" Shepard shouted into his COM unit "We a pickup and we need it now!"
"Copy that Shepard," Richard said, as Liara approached a console and activated it, causing the elevator to move up. "I'm on my way down ETA four minutes."
"Let's hope he gets here in time," Kaiden said as the elevator began to move upwards. As the elevator came to a stop, Shepard spotted a Krogan and a handful of Geth heading towards them.
"We can do this the easy way or the hard way," the Krogan said "Pick the hard way if you feel like it, I don't mind."
"In case you didn't notice, this place is about to fall down on our heads!" Shepard shouted in an exasperated voice.
"Exciting isn't it?" the Krogan asked. "We'll let you walk away, we just want the Asari."
"Let me think about it," Demas said, as he propelled himself forward with his anti-gravity pack, activating his energy sword, and slashed the Krogan and half viciously. "No," he said as he jumped back, swapping his energy sword for his plasma rifles. As he landed everyone opened fire, and the Geth all collapsed under the superior firepower.
As everyone exited the elevator room, they found themselves in the uppermost part of the cavern, which was beginning to collapse around them. "MOVE!" Shepard bellowed, as everyone began to run forward, heading for the exit. They barely made it, for the second they had reached the tube like tunnel, a massive boulder fell from the ceiling, smashing the catwalks.
As they emerged from the ruins, they found a Pelican waiting for them, the back door open. "Are you alright?" Richard asked as they climbed into the Pelican.
"Yeah," Shepard said in a tired voice "Just get us out of here."
Author's Note: I decided that the debriefing wasn't really important enough to write about you I decided to skip that bit, I think I actually start writing the next chapter right about now. Go easy on me for this chapter being similar to the game, I couldn't come up with any ideas for it. Well ok I came up with one but I decided that it would force the plot forward too quickly and I'm saving it for later. I can't talk about it without seriously spoiling the story, so I'll just leave it here, I'll try to get the next chapter up soon to make up for how short this one is.