Chapter 18
Thorian Crisis
Author's Note: Just wrapping up the events on Feros here, and by the way, for those of you that didn't understand it, I'm taking an indefinite vacation on September 14th because that's the day Halo: Reach comes out.
"I hope you can understand if I find this a little overwhelming," Issac said, as he rubbed his head. He was standing in the outpost with Shepard and the two ODSTs that had come with him, the Quarian and the Sangheili having remained outside as sentries. "There's a 50,000 year old plant living under Zhu's Hope that can control people with spores. And to top it off ExoGeni put us on top of it just to see what would happen, like we're nothing more than bacteria in a petri dish." He sighed "Though I guess it does make sense. It's just hard to believe that I wasn't infected by some miracle.
"That reminds me," Shepard said frowning "Why are you here instead of Zhu's Hope."
"Simple really," Issac said in a slightly angry voice "Fai Dan tried to kill me." Shepard's eyes widened slightly, but he said nothing, silently asking Issac to continue. "He took a shot at me, but jerked when he pulled the trigger, he missed by a mile. I think that he's still in there somewhere."
"He is," Lizbeth said, causing Issac to look at her "The spores left his mind intact, they just give him directions on what to do, and cause him pain if he refuses."
"So that's why he missed," Issac said, more or less to himself "He was fighting the Thorian's control."
"Is there anyway to free the colonists from the Thorian's control?" Shepard asked looking at Lizbeth.
"I'm not certain," she said hesitantly "But if you kill the Thorian it should break the control that it has over the colonists," Lizbeth said.
"Easier said then done," Issac said "If it saw me as a threat all of a sudden, then I doubt the colonists are just going to let us walk in? And yes I said us," he said, a little sharply as he looked at the ODSTs "I coming with you, this thing is tearing up my home and my friends and I'm not just going to stand around and watch."
"I was going to suggest that myself," Shepard said, a little surprised at the outburst.
"Yeah," Ashley said "I mean it's pretty obvious that your ex-military."
Issac stiffened "What?" he said plainly.
"It's from the way you hold yourself," Taylor explained "No untrained civilian holds a rifle the way that you do. Not to mention you were head on when you shot Jeong."
"I...," Issac said defensively "Fine, I used to be a Marine, I was on the ground on Elysium when the Blitz happened. I saw around a dozen civilians squished into cages, and god knows what would have happened if we hadn't killed them."
"Why did you retire?" Shepard asked.
"PTSD*," Issac said. "That battle screwed with my head, Batarians are ruthless bastards, almost as bad as Jiralhanae. After I saw a therapist, I decided to retire to a small colony, and what do you know, two weeks after I get there, the Geth show up," he said bitterly. He shook his head again "We can talk about this later, what are we going to about Zhu's Hope? We can't just kill the colonists."
"You won't have to," Juliana said, standing up from the table, where she had been tinkering with a series of metallic objects for the past couple of minutes. "We normally use these grenades as pesticide, but I modified them," She said, as she handed Shepard a small leather bag filled with gas grenades. "They should knock the infected colonists out without harming them. After they no longer pose a threat you should be able to take care of the Thorian."
"Where is the Thorian exactly?" Taylor asked, looking at Lizbeth.
"From what I read in the reports, it's located in a lower protein of the skyscraper. The colonists moved part of an old freighter in front of the tunnel that leads to it."
"That old thing?" Issac asked "Fai Dan told us to put that there so that the Geth couldn't come up from below. Looks that was a load of shit."
"Looks that way," Shepard said as he began to hand out the gas grenades to Issac, Taylor and Ashley. "All right let's go, the longer we wait, the more time the colonists have to dig in." The others nodded as the began to head for the Warthog.
"Issac wait," Lizbeth said, causing the ex-Marine to turn around and look at her. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry about what happened."
Despite of the hardships that he had gone through Issac smiled. "Were you one of the people that was responsible for what happened? Did you give the order for us to be right on top of a brainwashing plant?"
"No," Lizbeth said "But I..."
"Then there's no reason for me to be mad," Issac said kindly "I'll see you later."
Five minutes later, the Warthogs were heading down the Skyway, towards Zhu's Hope. Issac was riding shotgun in the same Warthog that Shepard was driving and Ashley gunning. Taylor was driving the other Warthog, with Tali on the gun and Iasa in the passenger's seat.
"All right," Shepard said, as the Warthogs came to a stop outside of the Zhu's Hope access door and everyone exited the Warthogs. "We're here to save the colonists. Use the gas grenades to stun them, or immobilize them in another way. Only shoot them if you absolutely have to."
"Understood," Iasa said as she took one of the gas grenades from her hip, the others taking their own gas grenades from the various places that they had been keeping them, Issac actually loading one into his grenade launcher. As they approached the door, it opened automatically and three colonists fired from behind a makeshift barricade.
The bullets slammed into the shields of the ground team, holding as Issac fired his grenade launcher. It arched over the barricade and exploded behind it, knocking the colonists out. "All right move up," Shepard said, as he began to move up the stairs that led to the upper levels of the colony, the others following him.
As they reached the top of the staircase, two colonists opened fire on them. Ashley threw one of her gas grenades at the colonists, however one was able to jump out of the way and avoid the blast, while the other was knocked out. Taylor threw a biotic Pull at the remaining colonist, causing him to float helplessly in the air while Iasa walked forward and knocked him out with a blow to the head.
Continuing through the colony, the ground team came under fire from five spread out colonists. Tali, Shepard and Iasa all threw their grenades at their various positions, which knocked them out as they detonated. "All right," Shepard said, as they came to the wreckage of the freighter "Issac, can you get this thing out of the way?"
"Yeah," Issac said as he approached a terminal in front of a crane, and began to type on it. The crane began to descend, grabbing the freighter and lifting it out of the way, revealing a tunnel behind it. "All right," Issac said, as he stepped away from the terminal, "We're golden."
"You know what it means to be a leader don't you Commander?" A voice asked. Everyone wheeled around, weapons raised, to see Fai Dan holding a magnum loosely at his side. "Leaders are supposed to watch out for the people under them, make sure nothing bad happens to them. It want's me to kill you, to throw away my position as leader. But I won't," he said as he began to raise his magnum, pointing it at his head. "I WON'T!"
"Fai don't!" Issac shouted, but it was too late, Fai Dan had already pulled the trigger, the bullet, piercing his brain. "GOD DAMN IT!" Issac swore loudly. "I swear to christ that fucking plant had better have lived a full life, because it is not living past today!"
As the ground team descended into the tunnels, they kept their weapons raised, looking for any signs of trouble. "Know that I think about it," Ashley said, as they continued to move forward "How will we know what the Thorian looks...looks...oh my God."
They had just stepped into a chamber, with a massive growth, easily kilometers long, holding itself in the center up, with massive tentacles that spread across the entire chamber. "That's a plant?" Taylor asked in a clearly disbelieving voice.
"Apparently," Issac said, in an equal amount of shock. Tentacles, that seemed to be coming out of what looked like a face, began to to quiver, and a green Asari fell out of it's "Mouth." "Who are you to disturb the rest of the Old Growth?" the Asari said angrily, pointing at Shepard with an accusatory finger.
"You've infected UNSC colonists," Shepard said coldly "Free them now, or we'll be forced to eliminate you."
"The Old Growth will not stoop to demands from lesser beings," the Asari said, as a second green Asari fell from the Thorian's mouth.
"They are useful Thralls," the second one said, as a third fell from the Thorian "You will kneel or die."
"Oh shut it!" Ashley shouted, as she raised her assault rifle, opening fire at the middle Asari. The Asari extended her arm, creating a Biotic Barrier in front of herself, which blocked the bullets. All three of the Asari jumped backwards, onto the Thorian, and began to climb until they were out of sight.
"Take out the Thorian!" Shepard shouted "Aim for those tentacles!" Shepard, Ashley and Iasa sprinted to the right, heading up a ramp, while Tali, Taylor and Issac dashed up the ramp to the left, both groups heading upwards to where the tentacles were attached to the wall.
As the base of one of the tentacles came into view, Issac aimed his grenade launcher, and fired it. The grenade slammed into the tentacle and exploded, tearing away large amounts of flesh and causing it to go limp. There was an ungodly roar from the Thorian as it roared out in what sounded like pain.
Almost automatically, one of the Asari leapt into the room, throwing a Biotic Warp at Taylor, who barley created a Barrier in time to block it. Turning on her heel, the Asari threw a kick at Tali, who raised her shotgun to block it. As the Asari's foot slammed into the shotgun, Tali staggered back, knocked off balance.
It still empty, Issac raised his grenade launcher, and swung it like a club, aiming for the Asari's head, but she ducked the blow, landed a kick on Issac's chest as she did so. Taylor took advantage of the Asari's compromising position and threw a Warp at her, tearing a massive hole in her stomach. As she fell to the ground in pain, Issac dropped his grenade launcher and unholstered his assault rifle as Tali brought her shotgun up, and Taylor did the same with his DMR. They all opened fire, the combined assault killing the Asari.
"What the Hell are these things?" Issac said as he picked up his grenade launcher and reloaded it.
"No freaking clue," Taylor said "But right now isn't the time to be thinking about it, we have to kill this thing." Issac and Tali nodded as they continued to move upwards.
On the other side of the chamber, Iasa, Shepard and Ashley sprinted towards another one of the Thorian's tentacles. As they drew closer, Iasa activated both of her energy swords and jumped over the tentacle, slashing it as she did so. It went limp as the Thorian let out it's haunting roar again. Another one of the green Asari swung into the room, kicking at Iasa with both feet. Iasa easily dodged the move by throwing herself across the room, landing gracefully. As she did so, she swapped out her energy swords for her carbine, firing bursts at the Asari.
The Asari extended it's hands, projecting a Barrier that blocked the plasma bolts. Despite this, she was forced to jump out of the way when Ashley fired at her from behind, aiming a Biotic Throw at the ODST as she did so, which Ashley barley avoided. This had sealed her fate however, as she slid across the ground, Shepard fired three bursts from his battle rifle, all of them hitting her squarely in the chest. "Keep moving!" Shepard shouted, as Ashley threw a plasma grenade at another nearby tentacle, which earned another roar from the Thorian. "I don't think that it can take much more.
As Taylor, Tali and Issac moved even higher, the found the last Asari standing in front of another tentacle. "The Old Growth will not fade, she said, in a voice that sounded faintly hysterical. Instead of using biotics, she simply lunged forward, lashing out violently at Issac, who swung his grenade launcher, catching her firmly in the chest. Letting out a cry of pain, the Asari staggered back, only to be killed when Tali leveled off a shotgun blast at her chest.
"Let's see if this does the trick," Taylor said, as he threw a Warp at the tentacle, tearing a hole in it. The Thorian let out another roar, the loudest it had done so far, as it's weight became too much for it's remaining tentacles to handle as they gave out, the Thorian falling into the deep pit it was hanging over.
"Keelah I'm glad that's over," Tali said, as she stat down on a lump of stone.
"Yeah," Taylor said as he turned to face Issac "You handled yourself pretty well, any chance you'd like to tag along with us?"
"You said something about a rouge Spectre, is he the one who commanded those Geth?" Issac asked. Taylor nodded. "Then count me in, just give me the 411."
"Is it dead?" Ashley asked, as she Iasa and Shepard looked down into the pit that the Thorian had just fallen into.
"I believe so," Iasa said, as she kicked a pebble into the pit, and wasn't rewarded with a sound "It could not survive a fall like that." Shepard was about to say something, when all three of them heard a tearing noise. Turning around, they saw a large organic sack attached to the wall, with something punching itself out from the inside. The sack tore open and a purple Asari that resembled the green ones tumbled out, breathing as if she had spent the last couple of minutes underwater.
"Who are you," Shepard said cautiously, maintaining a grip on his rifle, but not raising it.
"My name is Shiala," the Asari said, gasping for breath as she did so "And I am in your debt."
"What are you doing here?" Iasa asked curiously. "I am...was loyal to Matriarch Benezia, and by extension Saren," she said "Asari are the only known telepathic creatures in the Galaxy, he wanted me to communicate with it."
"Why?" Ashley asked, clearly confused.
"You touched a Protean Beacon correct?" Shiala asked, pointing at Shepard, who nodded. "Did you understand it?"
"No," Shepard said reluctantly "It was all blurs and shapes.
"That is because the message was designed for a Prothean mind," Shiala said "Another race can not understand it, in fact it is a miracle your mind wasn't destroyed. The Thorian absorbs intelligent life, the way it nearly did to me, and gains their memories. Saren used me as a bridge to obtain the Cipher."
"The what know?" Ashley asked.
"It can not be explained," Shiala answered "It would be like describing smell to someone that lacks a nose. It is the spiritual context of the Prothean race and it should allow you to understand the message from the beacon. I could give it to you the way I gave it to Saren."
"Hold on," Shepard said "I have a couple of questions first, first off how did you wind up down here alone. Why did you follow Saren, and for that matter why is Benezia?"
"I was trapped down here as part of a trade," Shiala said sadly "The Thorian gave Saren the Cipher in exchange for me. Afterwards though, Saren ordered the Thorian destroyed, but it was able to use the colonists that is infected to drive the Geth off. As for Benezia, that is a little more complicated.
"Saren's flagship, a ship calls Sovereign, emits an indictable signal, that bends organics to it's will. It it subtle, taking weeks for some people, and by the time you realize what has happened, it is too late." Shiala smiled sadly. "Matriarch Benezia followed Saren because she believed that she could out him back on the right path, believed that she would be able to resist Sovereign's effects, but it proved to be too much. Now she is much of a slave to him, an I was before the Thorian shattered the connection."
"Saren's ship can control minds?" Iasa asked in a shocked voice.
"Why is it every time we learn something new about the guy, we learn how royally screwed we all are?" Ashley asked angrily.
"I know that it is intimidating, but do not lose hope," Shiala said "Shepard, if you want to understand the vision, you must have the Cipher, are you ready to receive it?" Shepard nodded determinedly. "Very well," Shiala said as she walked forward "Try to relax, loosen your earthly bounds, every living thing is connected, it is one, yet separate. Embrace Entirety!"
Shepard's eyes shot wide open as the vision from Eden Prime came rushing back. Seemingly random shapes and images of chaos and destruction flashed before his eyes, yet it ended as soon as it had started. "It still didn't make any sense," Shepard said, panting as she looked at Shiala. "Did it not work?"
"No," Shiala said, shaking her head "It worked perfectly, your brain simply needs time to process it."
"So what are you going to do now?" Ashley asked.
"These colonist have suffered much because of the Thorian," Shiala said "If you would allow it, I would like to stay and help them rebuild.
"I have no problem with that," Shepard said "I'm sure that they'll like the help."
"Shepard there is one more thing," Shiala said. "As much as it pains me, I believe Benezia is beyond saving, if you meet her you must kill her or she will kill you."
"That will be rather painful for one of our allies," Iasa said "Liara T'Soni, Benezia daughter, is with us."
Shiala gasped. "Goddess," she said "I am sorry but I do not see another way, please pass on my condolences to the poor child."
*PTSD stands for Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome
Author's Note: I feel inclined to write this here, I would like to thank a specific website that helped give me a lot of ideas for my stories in general, and helped structure them. The name of the website is Tvtropes which is like a dictionary for literary items (Tropes). It's rather hard to explain, let me give you an example, one trope is called "Mook" which basically describes various forms of those little minions the bad guys have that fight the hero but never really stood a chance. Another trope is called "The Spartan Way" which basically describes people being exposed to ridicules amounts of training in order to become effective solders Chief is an example of this. I would recommend that you check it out, it's really interesting.