Garrus and Nihlus found themselves on the same hill overlooking the human camp each day they weren't allocated to be scouting elsewhere or on some meaningless duty. Vienne had been in the cell for the first two days, but had been moved sometime while they were away between days three and five.
Nihlus had cursed at their lack of luck and Garrus was just as pissed off that they hadn't been able to locate Vienne again. Her team were also conspicuously not present for much of the camp's activities.
Other teams were going on patrols, participating in exercises, and generally being soldiers while none of the team Vienne was with were present.
"This is just weird." Garrus had broken the silence with a grunt.
Nihlus hummed his agreement when they were both taken by surprise by a shuttle coming in from the North. The North was the only safe route and although the turian forces attempted the shoot the shuttle down from the South, they were unsuccessful due to the pilot's maneuvering and the shuttle landed safely on the camp's landing pad.
Both Nihlus and Garrus situated their sights on the passengers of the shuttle and were somewhat disappointed by what they saw. Disappointed and confused – three scientists exited the shuttle and were directed into the building where they had determined the leadership was – and the medical facility.
The camp was right against turian dominated territory and they were flying in scientists instead of soldiers, it was strange to Garrus. Moreover, they were going in to the building where Nihlus and Garrus had surmised Vienne and her team were being held.
The other buildings seemed to be more for barracks or civilian housing – none had the influx of soldiers like the large central building.
"I don't like this." Nihlus commented as he rolled on to his back and seemed to fall deep in to thought.
Garrus had to agree, though he had no idea why. With the way the commander had treated Vienne before and her lack of presence now could justify his concern, but there was something else – something he couldn't put his finger on it.
"Vienne had said that they experimented on their own soldiers – changed them. Our target is one of those altered soldiers, but the influx of scientists concerns me. They could be planning something." Nihlus thought out loud to Garrus' surprise.
Garrus had known that they were looking for "different" humans, but Nihlus hadn't said much in the way of why they were looking for them. He was playing his cards close to his chest and Garrus had thought he understood until now.
Nihlus knew that Vienne was one of their targets and had purposely not apprehended her. Garrus didn't know what to think of that, he usually thought in simple black and white. He deal in gray areas, he didn't know what to do with gray.
But here he was, worried over a gray area. She had helped him when she had no reason to. It would have been easier simply to kill him, but instead she helped. She was a target of his mission, but he really didn't want to take her in.
They were to take their marks back to their camp and hand them over to a Dr. Solus – a salarian. The salarian had specifically stated that he wanted his subjects alive, but dead would be acceptable if they put up too much resistance. Garrus could just imagine what the doctor had in mind for any humans they caught and he was sure Nihlus had the same idea, which was why he hadn't captured Vienne and turned her over.
Garrus shuddered a bit as the thought of his strange human… not-quite-friend, on some autopsy table.
"So Vienne is one of the altered humans?" Garrus pried deeper, suspecting the answer but still curious as to how much Nihlus knew.
Nihlus nodded and seemed to think on something before elaborating, "Yes, she must be significantly altered." He started, finishing up with the hard truth of the situation, "She's Subject Alpha, our top priority. She's the most altered and the one that Solus wants above all others."
Nihlus was looking at Garrus as he admitted this, gauging his reaction as he basically stated that he had saved their only target and had elected to fail at their mission.
Garrus tensed when he thought of Vienne's strange behavior when they met and how she seemed to get along so well with an invading species. "Is that why she helps us?" He couldn't help but ask.
Nihlus nodded and sighed before continuing, "I suspect so. I spent a few weeks with her before letting her go the first time. I didn't know that she was Subject Alpha, but I suspected she was altered. She never came out and directly said so, but she referenced her military using and throwing away soldiers a lot. Her scars also indicated a lot of surgeries and not just injuries. She called it being 'volun-told' to do things.
"I don't believe she'll actively help us conquer her species, but she won't hold our circumstances against us for being here and being the 'enemy'. It's not so cut and dry to her."
Nihlus seemed to deflate a bit while he recanted the story of Vienne and Garrus wondered if Nihlus had wanted to have someone to talk with about this. Garrus noticed that Nihlus' subvocals had keened affectionately whenever he spoke of Vienne and Garrus questioned his mentor before his brain caught up to his mouth.
"Does she accept your feelings?"
Garrus' gizzard clenched as he watched Nihlus tensed with the question then eventually relaxed, a lazy smile spreading his mandibles.
"I don't know that she feels the same to the same extent, but from my experience with her… She's not opposed to an inter-species liaison and we're completely compatible anatomically. Why, were you hoping she'd be open to it?"
Nihlus joked at the end, his eyes watching Garrus closely for any indication of interest. Garrus quickly denied any interest in the human although his mind was racing with scenarios. How had Nihlus discovered the anatomical compatibility? How far had he gone with Vienne? Why was he so interested in this?
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Nihlus watched as a variety of emotions played over Vakarian's face and subvocals. He was confused and also intrigued by what Nihlus was saying. While Nihlus enjoyed opening the horizons of others, he felt the need to assert his dominance over the human in question. He was pursuing her and he wouldn't allow his apprentice to interfere.
Before he could tell the younger turian, a commotion in the camp stole away their attention. The soldiers were amassing and were preparing for an assault on the entrenched scouting parties over the main battlefield.
Between the turian and human camps there was a large stretch of cleared land. Once, Nihlus was told, that it had been a forest with large houses and beautiful trees. Now it was a flattened, blackened wasteland. The turian camp was roughly a mile away from the human camp and was situated up a hill. Both camps were protected by mass effect fields that disallowed for artillery bombardments, so the two fought the more traditional way – through a ground war.
The skirmishes were long and bloody, each side relatively equally matched on the ground. A war of attrition. The turians reigned supreme in air support and firepower, but this far North from the main fighting they weren't getting many reinforcements. They were a distraction, just to keep the small bit of land while each species main forces fought on other planets.
This was a spit in the face of the human leaders, they had a few garrisons on the human home world while humans had none on Palaven.
Another pointless bloody battle was about to begin and as if on cue the floodgates opened and the human soldiers poured out with their mix of high-tech and more rustic weapons. Garrus moved to aid the turians, but Nihlus signaled for him to stay his hand. Their objective was to scout, not to give away their position.
As it turned out, Nihlus didn't have to wait long to get the intel he was after. Shortly after the main rush a small contingent was brought forth from the main building – Vienne's team. They were armored with their helmets under their arms. None of them looked particularly pleased, but it wasn't the mask of people who were about to willingly go in to battle.
They looked like they were furious.
They were escorted by soldiers and scientists to just within the walls of the camp when the scientists started injecting each team member with some sort of black liquid into their necks. The assault team adorned their helmets and waited for a moment.
Nihlus was intrigued by the display until he noticed something very, very wrong with each member of the assault team. They seemed like they were in pain, each member clenching and unclenching their hands and the biotics on the adepts were flairing seemingly uncontrollably. Those without biotics were holding their heads. All the while the scientists plucked away on their datapads.
"They're drugging them." Nihlus stated the obvious, his disgust and apprehension palpable.
"What for, though?" Garrus asked as he watched intently through his scope.
They watched as the soldiers in front of the team moved out of the way and the gate opened. A path was cleared in front of the team of four as they were unleashed on the unsuspecting turians.
Just to say that they were unleashed on turians was unfair to the few human soldiers that did not get out of the four's way fast enough. They were indiscriminant in their attacks, rendering those who got too close ineffective in seconds.
Vienne was the most vicious and terrifying of all, her biotics sweeping enemies down left and right as her nimble body dodges all incoming attacks. She overpowered the turians that managed to get within her reach and simply biotically plowed the rest out of her way.
Garrus and Nihlus just watched in abject horror as she was shot repeatedly and seemed to take it in stride. Nihlus surmised that the drug they were injected with worked partially as a neural inhibitor for pain as every member of the team was shot multiple times.
None of the four berserk humans seemed to tire or lose their momentum until one of them – the male soldier with no biotics – was finally relieved of his helmet and shot point blank in the head. It took four turians to kill the soldier and Nihlus was conflicted in feeling glad that at least one of them was taken out.
His own people were down there being killed and maimed and he was worrying about the one doing the most damage. His priorities were most definitely skewed.
After about 45 minutes of intense fighting, the three remaining berserkers were starting to slow down. The male biotic was the first to collapse, followed by the female soldier. They were quickly reacquired by apparent specially trained recovery teams that efficiently kept the drained persons under cover fire until they could be dragged or carried back to the safety of the walls where they were quickly shuttled back to the main building.
It took another twenty minutes for Vienne to finally stumble. She took a few steps back towards the human camp when a pulse round tore through her armor and shoulder. She felt with a strangle cry and Nihlus knew the drug had finally worn off. Her shields had been drained long ago and the pain she was feeling was felt by the two turians watching on the hill.
Garrus tensed and Nihlus quickly followed his gaze, noting that an assault team of their own was already en route to try and finish her off. She was saved by her own recovery team who gracelessly hoisted her over a large man's shoulders and spirited her back to the safety of their shields.
They watched as she too was taken back to the main building, hopefully to receive medical attention.
Nihlus instantly started typing up his report to Dr. Solus. This changed the game if the humans were going to start drugging their altered soldiers to the point of insanity.
Insanity was the only way to describe what he just witnessed. They weren't ultimate soldiers, they were ultimate weapons. They were indiscriminant in who or what they attacked, as long as it was living and within their radiuses. They seemed immune to pain until the drug wore off and were left weak and unable to do much of anything once the drug started to dissipate.
Nihlus didn't like having to admit that he had found Subject Alpha and her team, but they needed to find a countermeasure or way to subdue the team before more turians were killed or injured – or before Vienne was killed.
Her injuries today weren't fatal, but they would be painful and she would most likely be kept under close watch for quite a while.
Nihlus cursed the scientists for more than just the drug now, he wouldn't have another opportunity to see her for a long while.
Perhaps, Nihlus thought, This is a good thing. A chance to reprioritize and clear my head.
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Garrus didn't like this one bit, his entire body was thrumming with rage over what he had just witnessed.
Ironically, to him at least, his rage was not focused on the one doing most of the killing and maiming, but in fact focus on those who had pushed her in to that position.
What would this drug do to her? Were there permanent side effects? Could he trust her again?
The last question seemed to pain him the most and his gizzard clenched a second time.
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Vienne was screaming, or so she thought.
She couldn't hear much more than her own blood pounding in her head, but she could feel quite a bit. Everything seemed enhanced, her pain, her reactions, the brightness of the light and the way it hurt when people just touched her.
She wanted to rip their fingers off, jab spikes under their nails, but all she could do was tense and scream.
She couldn't even make her body fight back anymore, it was too exhausted, she was too exhausted.
"This will help you concentrate." They had said. "You won't feel a thing." They promised.
She guessed the second wasn't entirely a lie. She hadn't felt anything other than blinding rage until she finally fell to her knees. Then she had felt everything, too much.
She heard someone mention a sedative and she screamed again.
No more needles! Don't inject me with something else! Not again!
She felt the prick of the needle and she felt like she was being stabbed in her neck. She tried to jerk away but was pinned by a large man.
He told her it would help, promised her a reprieve.
He didn't lie and she quickly felt the world blacken. She wished for death but knew that was too much to hope for.