A/N: Sorry for being so late! Stuff interrupted me polishing up this chapter last weekend and I only now got it done.
Disclaimer: I still don't own Mass Effect or Crysis. If I did, well, I probably wouldn't be writing fanfiction. . .
Lieutenant Commander Shepard
Commanding officer of SSV Normandy SR1
Current Location: Feros, Skybridge
Current Time: January 17th 14:48
A short ride and a few dead Geth later, Shepard stopped the Mako outside of the small outpost where the ExoGeni staff were hiding. The squad heard Juliana and Jeong get into an argument over the comm and so they tried to stay hidden, in order to see what it was about. The chief ExoGeni employee was in a heated argument with Juliana who was apparently protesting about what Jeong was planning. Unfortunately the squad was unable to figure out what his plans were, because when Jeong ordered Juliana to be taken away, Lizbeth jumped out in angry protest at how her mother was being handled.
"Damn it! Come out where I can see you! All of you!" Jeong shouted. Shepard slowly got up and walked down to him. "Shepard. Damn it! I knew it was too much to hope the Geth would kill you."
This caused Shepard's eyes to narrow and her glare at Jeong intensified. "I found some interesting facts about you in the ExoGeni database. I know what happened on Akuze. This doesn't have to-" He broke off immediately as Shepard drew her pistol and aimed it at his head.
"Shut the fuck up and let them go." She said in her most dangerous tone.
"You can't just order me around! I got orders from ExoGeni. This colony is being repurposed." Jeong blustered raising his own pistol feebly.
"This is a human colony, Jeong. You can't just repurpose us." Lizbeth argued angrily.
"It's not just you! There is something here far more valuable than a few colonists."
"You mean that telepathic plant that is living under Zhu's Hope taking control of the colonists there. Something ExoGeni knew about all along." Shepard said.
"You won't get away with this, Jeong." Juliana said.
"So you keep saying. But nobody is going to miss a few colonists." Jeong stated.
"Alright that is fucking it. I do not have the time for this fucking shit. How about I tell you what to do huh?" Shepard growled. "You tell ExoGeni that the Geth destroyed the Thorian, and I won't shoot your head off."
"You- You cant! You'd go to prison!" Jeong blustered.
"Unlikely, because I am a Spectre, while you are a bean counter. I could easily get away with killing you, and right now, that isn't looking like such a bad idea." Shepard pushed the barrel of her pistol towards his head and slowly moved her finger from outside the trigger guard to rest on the trigger.
The action immediately sent the entire room bursting into activity. The ExoGeni guards raised their weapons at the threat to their boss, while Garrus and Wrex both covered Shepard with their weapons.
"Drop your weapons or I give the order to fire!" Jeong shouted, eyes crossing in order to keep the barrel of Shepard's Majestic in sight.
Shepard tilted her head "Really? Let me tell you something, Jeong. We are wearing top of the line GHOST armor, equipped with state of the art kinetic barriers. And this," She nodded towards the pistol in her hands "is a CTA-14 Majestic. It is capable of tearing through most barriers and armor with a single shot. And it can fire six times using six separate heat sinks. I believe the idea came from the old revolvers that were used half a millennium ago on Earth. Meanwhile, you don't even have a kinetic barrier. What do you think a shot from this at this range will do to your skull? As for your goons over there." She nodded towards the guards "They are armed with the M-8 Avenger. And while the avenger is a good, reliable weapon, it isn't known for its power. I could kill you, and then me and my squad could kill every single one of your guards without our barriers dropping. So, tell me again why I should drop my weapons when I hold all the cards?"
A blood vessel in Jeong's temple began pulsing as he glanced warily around until finally giving way under Shepard's fierce glare, that was only magnified by the intimidating look of her helmet. "Fine. Fine! But the infected colonists can't be here when the company men come."
"You can't just kill the colonists though. It isn't their fault!" Juliana said appalled.
"If we kill the Thorian, further infection should be halted and the colonists can be treated and quarantined if necessary, correct?" Shepard asked Lizbeth who nodded. "Then the only problem is that they are between me and the Thorian."
"I believe we might have something. One of the insecticides we use in the gro-labs contains tetraclopine, a neuromuscular degenerator. If the colonists' immune systems have been compromised enough by whatever means the Thorian uses to assert control, then they'll succumb to the gas. " Juliana said.
Shepard mulled over the idea "I'm assuming the insecticide itself is non-lethal. I don't want a potential biohazard lingering around."
Juliana shook her head "No. The tetraclopine in the insecticide is no where near weapons grade concentration, and the insecticide is requires oral consumption of a high concentration to be lethal."
"Besides, your armor should be able to filter out the gas as well." Lizbeth added.
"If we must consider it, drop it in a concussion grenade." Wrex suggested.
"Good idea. Give me that nerve agent and let's go." Shepard said collecting the gas. Just before she was about to leave she turned and tossed an OSD to the colonist who wanted his data. Without a backward glance she headed back up to the Mako.
"She seems to be very worried about Wraith." Garrus told Wrex as they followed her.
"Of course Turian. I've heard that they go way back." Wrex grunted.
The ride towards Zhu's Hope was quiet. When they finally pulled up to the entrance to the colony they got out and saw what looked like a zombie. "Those look like what Wraith said he encountered at that Cerberus base." Wrex said.
"If it is, kill it." Shepard ordered, and as the zombie stood up and tried to charge them the squad filled it with bullets causing it to shower the area around it with acid.
"Definitely looks like it Commander. I guess we know where Cerberus got those from." Garrus said.
"Was that one of the colonists?" Wrex asked.
"I doubt it. That level of mutation probably would take quite a bit of time." Garrus gave his opinion.
"Cobolt, this is Sable. Whats your status?"
Almost immediately, Kaidan's voice responded. "Sable, this is Cobolt. All clear down here. We're waiting down in the sewers. No colonists came down here aside from an insane guy. What the hell is going on up there? Joker mentioned that the colonists went hostile."
"That's an affirmative Cobolt. Colonists have become hostile. There is an indigenous plant here that has brain washed the colonists. Are your suits sealed?"
" Yes Commander. Suits are sealed. Brain washing you said?"
"Yeah. I'll tell you about it later. Stay where you are until further notice. If you encounter any colonists, non-lethal shots only understood?"
"Understood Sable."
"Be advised, operative Wraith is suspected to have been captured by the colonists. I suspect EMP."
"EMP? I- fuck."
Shepard furrowed her brows "What is it Cobolt?"
"Affirmative on the EMP. We found the power cells for the damn thing. Colonists said that they wanted to set up an EM-field to ward off the geth. They may have used it on the operative."
Shepard nodded grimly, "Understood Cobolt. Sable out."
"Alright." Shepard turned to regard Garrus and Wrex. "You heard Cobolt. It looks like the colonists have EMP's. Be ready to engage backup power for your armor. We are going to go in there and clear the area. Try not to kill the colonists. We have the gas grenades if they prove to be hostile. If you absolutely must, non lethal shots only. Lethal force is authorized against those zombie creeper things. " Shepard ordered and after receiving an affirmative from both Garrus and Wrex opened the door revealing a whole host of those Creepers as Shepard decided to call them.
"How many of these things are there?" Garrus yelled as he saw them.
"Garrus, Wrex take out those creepers. I'll knock those colonists out!" Shepard shouted pulling out a grenade and with the help of her armor's VI threw it right between the four colonists where it detonated causing them to slump down. After the colonists were down it was only a matter of killing the creepers which usually died to a couple of shots to the head.
With the creepers dead, the squad head into the elevator leading down to the main area of Zhu's Hope. They came across another four creepers which they quickly killed and two colonists who Shepard knocked out. Continuing on they kept killing creepers and knocking out colonists. They had just knocked out Arcelia when Shepard noticed something. "Wait, I know those weapons." She muttered grabbing the assault rifle and shotgun Arcelia had been using and inspected them. "These are Wraith's weapons. I knew it. They got him."
"What should we do Commander?" Garrus asked.
She glanced at Garrus before contacting Cobolt once more. "Cobolt, this is Sable. You're free to come up. We are clearing the colony now. Form up on me, nonlethal against colonists only. Lethal force against creepers authorized."
"Creepers?"
"Tactical data being transferred now." Shepard said, initializing the data transfer.
"Data received and understood Sable. Cobolt moving now. "
"Stick together and search the colony." Shepard ordered Garrus and Wrex.
"You got it Shepard" Wrex said.
The squad slowly moved through the entire colony, knocking out any colonists and killing any creepers they encountered. Eventually they were joined by Kaidan, Ashley, Liara, and Tali. Eventually they arrived in a courtyard where they spotted a series of generators and control panels along with a sniper rifle and knife. Shepard immediately recognized them as Wraith's.
"I assume these are their EMP generators." Shepard said, examining them.
"It certainly looks like it." Tali said also examining them. "But it looks like they weren't hardened against EM pulses of the strength that they used because they are all damaged by the pulse."
"Looks like they didn't think their EMP through very well. Or it was only meant as a one time use thing." Ashley commented.
"I think that it's rather that they hadn't planned on using it as a single powerful pulse." Tali responded. "I believe that it would have held up against a field, but when they pushed all the power into a single pulse it was able to overcome any protection that it had."
"I don't really care about that. We really need to find Wraith and-" Shepard broke off when she heard something behind her. Spinning around she leveled her pistol at the disturbance to see Fai-Dan stumbling towards her his movements jerky.
"I tried to fight it but you can't imagine the pain." He gasped. "It wants me to kill you but I won't!' I started to raise his pistol to his own head still fighting the Thorian's control. "I WON'T!" At that moment Shepard forced her suits overcharge to activate and charged forward in an attempt to stop him from committing suicide. Unfortunately, moments before she reached him his gun sent off, sending a shower of blood and bone out the side of his head.
"Fuck!" She swore loudly. "Alright come on, this Thorian needs to die. Where the hell would it be?"
"Well didn't the VI at the Exogeni base say something about the Thorian being in the substructure of the colony?"
"That's right it did. And I recall the colonists lowering a large freighter when we arrived. What if they were hiding a way down?" Wrex asked.
"Well lets find out" Shepard said stalking towards towards the crane in the center of the colony, and upon arriving she examined the crane controls nearby. A few punched buttons and the freighter was slowly raised up revealing a set of stairs leading down into the dark.
"Looks like we found the way down." Liara said, looking down the stairs. The stairs were pitch black and in order to see the squad activated their night vision. After following the tunnel for a couple of minutes they finally saw a faint light coming from the end of the passage they were following allowing them to deactivate their night vision.
"All right, we just need to find this creature and determine what it. . . what it. . ." Garrus trailed off at his first glimpse of the Thorian. "This was not covered by my training manuals." He stated unnecessarily. The Thorian was huge. It had a round body that was hanging in the middle of a large chamber. It also seemed to have a head-like appendage with some tentacles hanging from where the mouth would be.
"Nothing's ever simple, is it?" Shepard asked annoyed, walking forward. The Thorian soon started making loud grunting noises and seemed to be contracting. Fluid started dripping from its mouth and before long something fell out that made the entire squad take a step back in shock.
It was a horrible, twisted version of a nanosuit. Where normally the black nanoweave coiled around the body like muscles, there were now sickening green fibers, all pulsing as if with a heartbeat. The coltan-titanium had been replaced with a white bone-like chitin. And most surprising of all, was the person inside of the suit. There was a green asari. The Thorian had grown a nanosuit and placed it on an asari.
Before the squad could do anything other than gawk the asari spoke. "Invaders! Your every step is a transgression. A thousand feelers appraise you as meat, good only to dig or decompose. I speak for the Old Growth, as I did for Saren. You are within and before the Thorian. It commands that you be in awe."
"Oh shut up and tell me where Wraith is." Shepard said drawing her shotgun.
"The Organic Machine will be very useful to the Thorian. It will clone an army of them to-" The asari's speech broke off as Shepard flared blue and tossed a biotic throw at the cloned nanosuited asari.
The blue orb flew straight at the clone and hit it square in the chest. Shepard was extremely surprised when instead of flying backward as she had expected, the clone merely stumbled back for a moment before letting out a screech and charged straight for her, faster than any normal asari.
The squad scattered to avoid the charging juggernaut. Shepard was able to roll to the side in time before coming up, a biotic warp flying from her hand. The warp collided with the back of the clone sending it stumbling once again.
However just like her throw earlier, the warp didn't have nearly enough effect as she anticipated, the unstable ball of dark energy merely shaving a small portion of the green suit off. In response the mutant asari clone screeched at her before suddenly a blue glow began traveling along the green strands into its arm. A moment later a blue pulse of biotic energy blasted out of its outstretched arm towards Shepard who was unable to dodge out of the way in time. The orb slammed into her sending her flying painfully into a nearby pillar.
The asari gave another screech before charging at Shepard, who was still stunned from the collision. The mutant was however intercepted by Wrex who hurled himself at it with an earth shattering roar.
The mutant was unable to dodge out of the way of the krogan freight train who smashed into it sending it crashing to the ground with an angry hiss.
Shepard shook her head before getting to her feet. Looking around she saw that the rest of the squad was busy holding off a horde of creepers that had appeared while Shepard had been distracted by the asari nanosuit mutant. Wrex was the only one who wasn't fighting the creepers, as he was grappling with the nanosuit imitation.
Letting loose a frustrated growl, Shepard looked around her for something to help turn the tide. She smirked as she noticed a very old pipe, hanging off the wall. Running over to it it grabbed hold of it and with violent tug, wrenched it from the wall. Spinning it, she grabbed hold of one end and charged towards Wrex and the mutant.
"Wrex! Get down!" She shouted in warning as she neared the two. Wrex didn't even bother to look around before dropping to the floor giving the nanosuit one last headbutt on the way down. Shepard raised her makeshift club and brought it swinging across the space that Wrex had occupied a moment earlier and smashed it into the nanosuited asari. The club sent her flying off the walkway straight into the Thorian before bouncing off of it and falling down into the pit with an angry wail.
"Hah! I like you Shepard." Wrex shouted, thumping his chest. "Just like a true warrior."
Garrus nodded in agreement "Yeah I have to admit that was impressive."
Shepard looked up to see that the creeper wave had slowed with only a couple coming through the archway leading on. "Come on. Wraith has to be here somewhere, and the Thorian must have a weakness of some kind." She ordered blasting a Creeper that came running around the corner.
"That growth looks like it's holding up the Thorian." Garrus said pointing out a large node that was connected to the wall.
"I see it." Shepard shouted blasting another two creepers before loading a carnage shot and firing it at the node causing it to explode. A creeper tried attacking her while her back was turned but she spun and kicked, knocking it down, and shot it. The Thorian made a loud screaming sound of pain as it felt the node being destroyed.
"That hurt it. A few more of those and it's in trouble." Wrex said gleefully at hearing its scream.
Heading up a flight of stairs the squad entered a room with no less than fifteen Thorian creepers waiting for them with more charging into the room. The squad had little trouble dealing with the creepers, only a single one getting close enough to spew its acid on the squad before being nailed by a shotgun blast from Ashley. Eventually the squad began pushing through the waves of creepers that the Thorian kept sending at them.
Shepard destroyed another node causing the Thorian to scream in pain and fear once more. This caused the Thorian to send another large wave of creepers at them. The squad continued on, blasting creepers as they encountered them until they came across another node which Liara warped. Tali incinerated the next node and as they entered the next room they received a pleasant surprise.
"Commander! Its Wraith's suit signal! It just popped up!" Tali called out excitedly and sure enough Shepard noticed that her HUD was displaying his suit signal coming from a room just ahead.
Without responing, Shepard rushed forward into the room before suddenly skidding to a halt, the squad right behind her. "I thought I killed that thing already." Shepard grumbled. Standing in front of them was the same asari with the mutated nanosuit.
It let out an angry howl and immediately charged at the squad, biotic energy streaming from its body. "Scatter! Shepard shouted diving to the side as the mutant leaped into their midst before exploding in a massive biotic explosion.
The blast threw most of the squad off their feet. When Shepard finally shook her head, clearing it of the ringing caused by the explosion she stopped short for a moment, gaping at the scene in front of her. The nanosited asari was engaged in a fierce biotic batle with Liara, and it looked like the GHOST armored asari was winning as she sent bolt after bolt of biotic energy at the thorian spawned asari. Said cloned asair was having a hard time sending any attacks back at the Prothean scientist, any attacks that it did send were immediately blocked by Liara's shimmering barrier.
Gripping her shotgun tightly, Shepard began walking towards the green asari. Noticing Shepard approaching Liara sent out a whip of biotic energy, which curled itself around the nanosuit doppelganger and yanked it up into the air. "Now Shepard!"
Concentrating, Shepard gathered biotic energy in her hand before hurling the overcharged warp at the struggling asari with a savage shout. The bolt of energy impacted with the nanosuited clone. The already unstable biotic energy destabilized further as it conflicted with Liara's. The two energies destabilized to such a point that all of its energy was released simultaneously, resulting in another explosion that sent the nanosuit mutant flying.
Shepard took a deep breath, before pulling out her Majestic and walking to stand over the now motionless body of the Thorian's "Champion." Raising the hand cannon, she pulled the trigger six times, sending six high caliber, hyper-velocity rounds thundering into its armored chest, leaving gaping holes in the things body.
"Hah!" Wrex let out a loud chuckle "I'd say it's dead now Shepard."
"It better be." Shepard growled raising her now beeping Majestic before turning around and seeing a pulsing sac with Wraiths suit signal, pulled out her combat knife. Running over to the sac she was able to make out a dark man shaped shadow inside. Just before she was able to sink her knife in the sac to free wraith, the sac burst open by itself, sending wraiths armored form falling out.
CryNet Phantom operative designation Wraith
Current Deployment: Unknown. SYS FLR
Current Location: Unknown. SYS FLR
Current Time: Unknown. SYS FLR
I did not know when I came to, only that I was in a haze of unimaginable endless pain. It was all encompassing, eradicating every other thought. I could see nothing through a haze of red. Hear nothing save for a loud thundering noise. Taste nothing but the taste of blood. Smell nothing but the smell of blood. Eventually, I was able to make out a voice through the hammers that were pounding in my ears.
"Spore Infestation critical. Nano-systems Impaired."
"Foreign identity detected. . . Initiating countermeasures."
"Primary countermeasures, Failed. . . Unable to Purge."
"Spore infestation reaching terminal levels. . ."
"Switching to core function mode... Life support priority."
"Warning deep layer protocols engaging. . ."
"Releasing symbiosis inhibition systems."
"Re-purposing nanocells."
"Nanocells. . . Re-purposed. Releasing. . ."
"Infestation. . . Contained. . . Rebooting core functions. . ."
"Alien tissue vector isolated. . . Retained at deep layer. . ."
"Processing. . ."
"Nano-form analysis underway. . . Compatibility register enabled."
"Processing."
"Compiling Profile."
"Nano-catalyst viability assessment underway. . ."
"Processing."
"Alien tissue vector analysis complete. . ."
"Nano-form profiling complete. . ."
"Nano-catalyst viability assessment complete. . ."
"Compatibility registration enabled."
"Processing."
"Compatibility registration complete. 100 percent."
"Allied forces detected. Re-booting nano-systems. . ."
"Re-boot successful. Broadcasting suit signals."
"Beginning foreign identity purge. . . Seek distance from identity neural node. . ."
By now the pain was slowly fading and I suddenly felt a surge of energy and I finally regained my ability to move my limbs. I immediately felt the undeniable urge to kick out with my foot. I wasn't one to argue with the urge and kicked out. I felt my boot burst through a wall of my prison and immediately felt myself fall down, accompanied by a rush of fluid.
"Total systems online. . . Ready to deploy. Seek interface with neural hub."
I looked around blankly, not recognizing anything except for a single, large bulbous thing. I immediately began stumbling towards it, driven by some sort of instinct. At some point I found my self on top of the plant-like thing, somehow having made my way on top of it. Once there I raised my fist up, before sending it speeding down into the pulsing plant. It impacted with a splatter of green fluid.
"Spore infestation: Filtering. . . Seeking interface. . ."
The plant I was standing on released a massive scream. The moment the first scream sounded I pulled my hand free and jumped off of the plant following an instinct of self preservation. I hurtled towards the stone ground, watching it detachedly as it rushed up to greet me before I blacked out with a large crunch.
A/N: And there we go. The end of Feros. Next chapter will be the debriefing.
As always if you have questions, feedback etc. Don't hesitate to leave a review or send me a PM.
~LEGION