Mars; Olympus hill; Unknown facility; Believed to be of Prothean origin.
"Dude, this place is awesome." A Human said, looking around with his flashlight.
"Yeah," a Quarian replied. "So old but at the same time very advanced."
"Indeed." The same human replied.
"Cut the chatter and stay focused, we don't know if this place has traps." The rest of the walk went silent until they reached a door.
"For fuck's sake, why in the hell do you need a door so big?" A Saryn said raising his flashlight, the door was at least a kilometer tall and 250 meters width.
"Hey, I found a lever!" A Quarian shouted.
"Good, everybody grab yours weapons and get ready!" The leader shouted, when the Quarian activated the lever, shotguns, pistols and assault rifles were pointed to the door which opened slowly while making sounds of suffering metal and machinery, as they opened a tense atmosphere was being built around the soldiers, after two or three minutes the door was fully open.
"Be careful, and don't touch anything." The leader said, slowly crossing the door soon followed by the rest. When everybody was on the other side lights activated automatically around them showing the full size of the room, it was so big that a one of the news Pacific class flagship could be able to barely fit inside.
"Holy. Fucking. Shit," a Saryn said wide eyed. "I retract my earlier words, why in the fuck someone needs a room so big?"
"There are plenty of replies for that question." Another saryn replied, they continued walking until they arrived at the center of the room where a sort of holographic interface appeared almost in the instant they approached earning a few gasps of surprise from the soldiers.
"You need to be kidding me." The leader said approaching, when he was in front of something that seemed to be a keyboard, a flying sphere appeared and everybody pointed their weapons at it.
"Don't shoot!" The leader barked then he approached to the mysterious object. "What the fuck are you?" When he said those words the object emitted a beam of green light, scanning him from head to toe. After a few seconds it made a bip, an instant later it returned from where it came.
"So, someone care to explain me what the fuck happened?" A Human asked, a Quarian was about to reply when all the lights went out.
"Fuck, we may have activated a sort of-" The quarian bite his tongue when a massive hologram appeared on the center of the room seeing them with narrow eyes.
"Race X-132B," he started with perfect English while his gaze softened. "Human. Race F-342C: Quarian. Race X-132C..." The hologram seemed to think for a few seconds. "Saryn." A minute of full and tense silence passed until it spoke again. "Hello little ones, my name is Vendetta, and i speak on behalf of the extinct prothean people," everybody was left on stunned silence.
"Call high command!" The leader roared. "Right the fuck now!"
A few hours later helicopters were flying near the hologram as several tanks and platoons of soldiers were securing the whole installation since most of the locked doors that the previous vanguard team had passed were now open, meanwhile the hologram looked to the impressive military display with amusement and a proud smile that a father would carry if his son bring a trophy to home, then his gaze lowered to a small group of six people. In a rapid scan he discovered that the civilians where the best that the three races had to offer while the armed where some kind of super soldiers called Deathclaws. He nodded satisfied as the super soldiers stopped and the three civilians advanced a little more, after seeing that no one was going to speak he did it.
"Do not fear me, little ones. My presence here is to bring understanding upon your people. Not death or fear." The Human separated for the rest and approached a little more.
"If this is not a recording from where are you communicating from?"
"You'll see, little one. This receiver of communications on Mars was created by my express orders about fifty thousand years ago; the emitter right now is located on the core of the citadel."
"What?" Asked the Human in utter and sheer confusion.
"If you don't mind, little one I'll give you a little history class, so that way you can understand everything," the Human nodded. "First let me start by saying that the galaxy we currently reside in has a cycle of extinction, civilizations would arise from a single world to empires that would span most of the galaxy, either by democracy or by the force. But every fifty thousand years these empires would be destroyed and their populations annihilated."
"By who?" Interrupted the Human.
"Let me continue, little one. This cycle had been going on for millions of years, maybe billions. The exact date of when started is unknown, even for me. Fifty thousand years ago as you can suppose it was the turn of the Protheans to be annihilated, the war was long and bloody and as you can suppose we lost."
"Look, sorry to interrupt but all this time you have referred to them like if they don't exist anymore, is that true?" Interrupted the Human again; the prothean looked at him with a small smile.
"Yes, it is. That's because at the start of the war we discovered a mass destruction weapon on our main archives about the Inussannon –the race that came before us- that was supposed to be able to end the war, the next few years were spent investigating, building, and trying to understand this weapon. And then, five years after the discovery the largest offensive of the Prothean Empire was mounted. We attacked the Citadel with everything we could muster on such conditions trying to activate the weapon."
"And what was it called? And why did you need the Citadel to use it?" interrupted the Quarian this time.
"The closest translation to your language would be 'Crucible,' and we needed the Citadel because it was used as the power source of the weapon. Anyway, our scientists had discovered that the Crucible had to be activated directly from the Citadel core so we fully assaulted it."
"What happened?" Interrupted the Saryn this time.
"I was badly hurt and the only survivor, I barely managed to reach the deepest part of the core. Once I reached the place something presented two options to me. Control the ones that tried to destroy us or that we destroyed them."
"What did you choose?"
"I committed the mistake to select the first."
"Why that was a mistake?"
"The process to control them needed me to destroy my body and integrate my mind into them. The problem as that the process took too long."
"How long?"
"Exactly three hundred and twenty nine years, five months and thirteen days, by the time they answered to me the war was long way over."
"Who answered to you?" The Prothean closed his eyes briefly before opening them with determination.
"The Reapers, a race of squid-like machines created eons ago by a race long forgotten, even for them."
"Reapers?" The Prothean sighed.
"Like I said, little one. The Reapers are-" that didn't go unnoticed. "-a kind of machines that were tasked with the 'preservation' of the space faring species, their motto basically is 'preservation through destruction.'"
"Are?"
"Yes, little one, are. They still exist." The human turned around.
"Call high comm-" The Human roared as he turned around before the prothean stopped him.
"Wait a second little one." The big hologram disappeared before reappearing on front of the Human, he put his hand on the Human chest. "That won't be necessary, little one, they're under my control and by nothing on the galaxy I would ever told them to attack again. Right now they're hibernating on dark space." The Human's posture visibly relaxed before tensing again.
"Why in the fuck you hadn't destroyed them?" He asked harshly. "What would have happened if they broke free? When would the cycle have repeated for us?"
"In twenty three years, little one," the Prothean looked to the ground in shame. "I always knew the risks about what I did. But I always wanted to see your race again, and see how far had you made it."
"What?" The Human backed away.
"We Protheans found the Homo sapiens fifteen thousand years before the cycle restarted and we'd been studying your species since. We were simply amazed by how fast you could advance, innovate, invent. How adaptable and ingenious your race, though I shouldn't be surprised by how harsh your homeworld is."
"Your race interfered with mine?" Asked the Human a little perturbed.
"Yes," the Prothean replied without a hint of doubt. "We knew something bad would happen so we put an 'evolutionary fail-safe' on your DNA," the Human pointed to his covered eyes. "Yes, that happened because of our intervention. Not try to ask, the process is impossible to explain to a non-prothean." He looked at the Saryn. "Your race was also visited by ours; we discovered your race a hundred years later. I also know the question that everybody is asking; your races are compatible biologically because your DNAs are merged."
"What the fuck?" Whispered the Saryn.
"You hear that right, little one. In an experiment we merged both of your DNAs on each other's species, just enough to allow you to have offspring and to be able to remain separate species."
"How in the hell?" Asked the Saryn again.
"Again, only a Prothean would understand it."
"And we believed ourselves to be masters of biology."
"My time here is ending, little ones," Said the Prothean while putting both of his hands on the human's shoulders. "Once I disappear I will destroy the Reaper fleet, and without a meaning to my existence I will self-destroy and join my deceased brothers."
"May you have peace on you journey through the afterlife trying to find your rightful place alongside the makers." The Saryn gave him the ritual speech that was given in traditional burials.
"Beautiful words." He looked at the Humans. "Do not waste your potential on your biotics, investigate them, and develop them. You don't know what surprises you can find along the road." He began to disappear. "Goodbye little ones." The Human's omni-tool beeped. "My best wishes on your journey through this cold and harsh galaxy." He totally disappeared as the room gone dark.
"What is it?" Asked the Saryn as he approached the Human while he looked at his omni-tool the file the Prothean gave him.
"The location for caches of data." He said while lowering his arm.
One out. One to go.
I changed it because a review pointed it was a little to much to give them the cure.
(sorry)