A/N: So sorry this took so long, but real life really got in the way and I had a few problems that needed to get ironed out. And to top it off, now my Beta is unable to beta for me so this is unbeta'ed. As such there may be various mistakes which I will apologize for right now. Just drop a review if you spot any mistakes and I will try and fix em. Anyway, longer A/N will be at the bottom so for now enjoy the chapter!
Lieutenant Commander Shepard
Commanding officer of the SSV Normandy SR1
Current Location: Noveria, Peak 15
Current Time: January 29th 03:16
The first thing that Shepard noticed as the elevator began ascending, was the muffled sound of gunfire getting louder slightly as the elevator neared the VI core. Exchanging glances with Garrus and Wrex Shepard readied her SCAR. "Sounds like Titan is under fire. Get ready to go in hot."
Wrex grinned "Ahh. More action. I love this."
Before anyone could respond to Wrex, the elevator doors slid open and the previously muffled sound of gunfire became more pronounced, echoing from the cavern they had entered in earlier. "Go! Go! Go!" the three man squad rushed out of the elevator, Shepard's orders following them as they ran towards the sound of gunfire and into the cave, and now that they didn't have the elevator walls and doors in the way, the sound of the high pitched ceph weapons. A moment later their VI's linked with the VI's of Titan, and they could see the various icons depicting Titan and the Ceph through the walls and rock out croppings.
Rounding one last corner, Shepard saw Loki watching the path that Shepard had just come from, obviously making sure that Titan wouldn't be flanked by the ceph. Upon seeing the Inquisitor Shepard called out to her "Loki! What's the sitrep?"
"The geth appear to have lost their skirmish with the ceph. Ceph showed up a few minutes ago, swarming in through the caverns. We're keeping them at bay for the time being however."
"Understood! Stay put, we'll push them back. Has Kaiden's team arrived yet?" Shepard motioned for Garrus and Wrex to continue on ahead while she stopped in front of Loki.
"Negative. Sable Two has not reported in yet."
"Right well tell Kaidan to get his ass over here when you see him!" Shepard ordered as she followed Wrex and Garrus to the fight. Running around the circular VI core Shepard was able to glimpse her first view of the battle in person. Garrus and Zeus were leaning up against the corners leading into a hallway, putting them the furthest away from the ceph, taking potshots with their sniper rifles. Atlas, Athena, Ares and Liara were a little ways down the corridor, behind various pieces of cover, laying down heavy weapons fire, tech and biotic support while Achilles and Wrex were furthest down the corridor, currently blasting a ceph trooper apart with their weapons.
Drawing her Marshall, Shepard flared her biotics and with a loud battle cry propelled herself down the corridor straight into a small Ceph Trooper that had just opened fire on Wrex. Her shotgun barked a moment after she smashed into the trooper, the force of the charge and the shotgun blast combined, tore the small ceph apart. The ceph were quick to react to her new presence however and two ceph quickly turned their weapons at her. She was able to blast two more ceph apart before her shields suddenly dropped and multiple projectiles slammed into her armor, forcing her down into cover. The Coltan-Titanium plating of her armor mostly held strong against the hail of silvery rounds, but one found a weak spot right between two plates over her left shoulder and slammed through the nanoweave into her shoulder.
Shepard gasped at the pain, as she silently berated herself for being slow. Immediately her armor applied medi-gel to the shot and the pain faded, but the fading pain only made Shepard realize something else. The pain had been replaced by a freezing sensation. Her eyes widened as she noticed that lying all around here were slivers of shattered ice. The ceph were firing shards of ice from their weapons. She swallowed, just now was she beginning to realize just how advanced, and how dangerous the ceph were. Her mind was brought back to just before Wraith had been taken and how worried he had been about the spore that his suit had detected. She remembered how SECOND had given the warning about the spore being detected, followed by a warning about detecting some kind of spore infestation. That had been all that SECOND had announced out loud, but she was sure that it had said more to Wraith in private. At first she had thought that the spore infestation had referred to the spore having saturated the air in the facility, but now she began to wonder if maybe it had been referring to an infestation of Wraith himself, and if it was able to infest the suit, then she doubted that GHOST armor would have any more luck against this invisible killer.
"Shepard!" She tore herself from her thoughts as Athena ran up to her, a hail of fire from the rest of Titan covering her charge. "Hold on!"
Shepard shook her head, berating herself once more for losing concentration in a firefight. "I'm alright." She called back to Titan's medic as Athena began scanning her shoulder with her omni-tool.
"It may seem that way Commander, but MOAC's can do a hell of a lot of damage, And I'm not just talking about the impact damage. The freezing can cause additional damage on its own. Gotta make sure that wound isn't gonna get worse."
Before Shepard could respond, Atlas' voice crackled in over the radio. "Shepard, we need to fall back. Charge has been placed and is ready to detonate."
"Understood! Lets bury these fools!"
The explosives detonated as Shepard threw herself down behind a wall. Her armor dampening the sound of the explosion for a few moments, resulting in her hearing only a muted boom followed by complete silence as her audio receptors slowly returned to their normal functioning range. Standing up, Shepard took in the effect of the explosion. Snow and dust filled the air, but Shepard was able to see that the hallway had completely collapsed around the explosion, blocking off access for the ceph to get through.
"Well, that will keep the ceph off our backs for a while." Garrus said as everyone slowly got to their feet.
Shepard nodded "Yeah but for how long? Lets get to that tram before they find another way around."
"Or they break through." Wrex said.
"Or they break through." Vanyali echoed in agreement as she began leading the way toward the tram line.
After the skirmish at the VI core, their trip to the tram was completely uneventful, nothing remotely hostile had found them until they had exited the tram and gotten onto an elevator leading further into the facility, where upon exiting they found themselves confronted by the muzzles of three ERCS guards. Raising her hands slightly Shepard slowly stepped out of the elevator "Wow wow wow! We're friendlies!"
The one standing in the middle motioned for the other two to lower their weapons. "Sorry. We couldn't be sure what was in the elevator."
"Looks like you encountered those fuckers." Shepard said.
The guard gave a dry chuckle. "Encountered. Fought. Seen men ripped to shreds by them. Look you're human and that's enough that I won't shoot you. But who the fuck are you? CryNet?"
Shepard shook her head "We're not." She motioned towards her squad. "But I do have an inquisitor team coming up soon. I'm Shepard. A spectre."
The man shrugged "Huh, the bureaucrats would probably have a fit if they knew CryNet inquisitors were around here. But I won't look a team of heavily armed inquisitors and a Spectre in the mouth now. I'm Captain Ventralis. We've been holding out for a week now. First those bugs overran the hot labs. Han Olar was the only one who made it out alive, but he isn't all there anymore. First thing we knew, the bastards were clawing into my command post. We had a lot more staff back then. Then those robots showed up, at first they tore apart the bugs but they quickly started tearing us apart as well."
"Rachni are no problem." Shepard said as the elevator opened behind her again and Titan. "We're well equipped. As for the ceph.. well." She trailed off.
"Wait, Rachni? Ceph? What the fuck? Those robots are Ceph?" Ventralis exclaimed.
Atlas stepped out of the elevator to stand next to Shepard "Indeed. A very strange occurrence, especially since merely not reporting the presence of the ceph is a breach of the accords. Actually experimenting on them… well thats whole new can of worms."
"Look, I just man security out here. I had no idea what the eggheads were doing down there. Those kinds of labs exist to do stupid crap that gets people killed. But the board sent an asari to clean up the mess. She went down to the hot labs yesterday. We haven't heard from her since."
"Benezia." Shepard muttered. "Is she still down there? I need to speak to her."
Captain Ventralis merely shrugged "Like I said earlier, we haven't heard from her since she went down. I have no idea what one person is supposed to do against all that. But there's an emergency elevator down on the tram level. This key card will give you access, and it will take you down to the hot labs."
"What do you think?" Shepard turned towards Atlas. "Should we split up? You can stay here, help protect these people. And see if you can't get any more info." She added over the private channel.
"Sounds good to me. We'll keep our eyes and ears open. Be careful out there. Who knows what else is crawling around out there."
"Will do. I'll let you know if I find anything interesting Atlas."
"I appreciate that. Oh and Shepard?" Vanyali turned back to face the inquisitor "Keep an eye out for Wraith, he has a habit of popping up at the most opportune times."
"What do you think we'll find down there commander?" Kaidan asked during the elevator ride down to the hot labs.
Shepard was kept for answering for a moment as a series of coughs wracked her. When they subsided she answered "No idea. Rachni? Ceph? Geth? Anything is possible now. Just stay sharp and we won't have any problems." She raised her shotgun as the elevator slowed to a stop and the door slid open. She immediately stepped out scanning the room. She lowered her shotgun slightly, eyes narrowed in confusion and suspicion when she saw that the room was empty, aside from a single man, sitting in a chair, facing them.
She slowly approached him, her eyes roving up and down his body before fixing on strange and disgusting organic growths on his stomach. "Wow, what the fuck is wrong with you?" She asked lowering her shotgun and walking over to the man.
"Nothing. I am fine! More than fine, I am wonderful! My work woke the gods from their sleep." Shepard's eyes narrowed as she listened to the mans rambling. "Our mistakes let us wake the gods!"
"What the hell are you talking about?" Ashley asked "What gods?"
"Binary Helix found the temple of the gods here, we built our facility around it, to see if we could learn something from them. Then they found an old derelict ship! It was rachni ship. We found an egg held in cryogenic suspension."
"Let me guess, you hatched it?" Shepard asked.
"Binary helix hoped to clone it. Mass produce rachni. Create an army. But when it hatched they learned it wasn't a normal rachni! It was a queen. Capable of laying eggs. When Binary helix learned this they had her lay eggs then moved her to rift station. They are thinking that without her, they can raise the babies to be obedient."
"So that didn't work so well did it?" Wrex growled.
"It was the exactly wrong thing to do, yet it ended up to be the exact correct thing to do! Without a queen, rachni do not develop properly. Her mind shaping theirs, these rachni are uncontrollable. They escaped, they woke the gods, now the gods will save us! But first the rachni must be euthanized, they have served their purpose. You must give Mira the authorization codes for the neutron purge."
Shepard held up a hand "Wait wait wait. Did an asari matriarch come through here?"
The man shook his head impatiently "No. No. No asari here. Now go set off the neutron purge."
"She must be up in rift station with the rachni queen." Garrus guessed. "We should set off the purge and get up there and stop them. Maybe then we can find a way to stop the ceph."
"Wait, no! You may not stop the gods!"
Shepard glanced at the man, eyes narrowing "What do you mean gods? The ceph are a danger to us all."
"No! I will not let you stop the gods!" The man screamed and lunged forward, clawing at Shepard.
"Hey! What the hell?" The unarmed strikes were unable to do anything to Shepard's armored form and she pushed him roughly away sending him reeling to the ground. She leveled her shotgun at the man "Sir do not move." She warned him.
Before the obviously crazy man could respond Shepard heard a clanging sound coming from behind him and in a flurry of movement a brownish tentacle burst through his chest, accompanied by a loud squelching sound and a splatter of blood.
Shepard heard various shocked and disgusted exclamations from her squad as she pulled the trigger on her marshall sending multiple tiny slivers of tungsten into the rachni that had just appeared from the grate behind him. The bug screeched and a moment later another blast this time from Wrex sent it to the ground permanently. In response Shepard heard the distant screeching of more approaching rachni.
"Cover me! He must have had the neutron purge command codes on him!" Shepard ordered and ran over to the dead body of the man and began searching his pockets with a grimace, ignoring the massive hole in the middle of his chest. After a few moments of searching Shepard found a small chip in one of his pockets and a quick scan showed that they were the codes that she was looking for. A second later and with loud screeches rachni began rushing out of the vents towards the squad. Shepard's shotgun barked, sending a rachni to the ground as she rejoined the squad. "I got the command codes! Find a VI terminal."
"Commander! In here." Shepard looked over at Kaidan who was motioning towards an open door.
"Roger that. Keep the fuckers away from me while I initiate the purge." Shepard shouted running through the the door into a small room with a holographic terminal in the corner.
"You got it Shepard. COME AND GET ME INSECTS!" Wrex roared from behind her as she activated the terminal and the holographic form of Mira fizzed up over the terminal.
"Greetings commander Shepard. How may I help you?" Mira asked pleasantly.
"Initiate the Neutron purge!" Shepard ordered quickly.
"Please input authorization code."
"Code input: Eight-Seven-Five Zero-Two-One Zero-Seven-Nine." Shepard said reading the code from the chip before finishing the command "Code Omega local Execution."
"Verified. Code Omega execution in 120 seconds."
Without a second glance Shepard turned and jogged out back into the main room where her squad was holding off the Rachni horde. "Alright boys and girls lets get the fuck out of here! We have two minutes before we are all dead so lets get out of here in one! Move it!" Not waiting for a response Shepard led the charge back towards the elevator, shotgun blasting any rachni that got close.
She slid to a stop right outside of the elevator and began motioning for the rest of the squad to enter, counting down the time left until detonation in her head. The moment the last person, Wrex made it past her she turned and followed the krogan into the cramped elevator and hit the button, causing the elevator doors to slide closed. Far too slowly for Shepard's liking the elevator began rising up as Shepard continued her countdown that was growing ever closer to zero.
Silence filled the elevator until a loud rumbling sound emanated from below them that continued for a few moments until it subsided and everyone let out a sigh of relief. "Well. I'm glad that that's out of the way." Shepard said as the elevator slowed to a stop and the doors opened up letting her step out.
"You and me both Commander." Garrus agreed as he walked out behind Wrex.
"Now lets go see what Titan has been up to since we left." Shepard said walking into the next elevator.
"Hey Shepard. Heard that the hot labs had been hit by a neutron purge. I'm assuming you had something to do with that?"
"I most certainly did. Turns out Binary Helix found the egg of a Rachni queen. They grew it and then began harvesting its young, who then went crazy. But that's not all. There was a guy down there, with really strange growths on his abdomen."
"Hmm, those could be symptoms of the biological weapon that the ceph use. I was never able to get a very detailed look into the files on it, but it does ring a bell."
Shepard nodded "Well I think its likely, because he was clearly delusional as well. Seemed to believe that the Ceph were gods, when we mentioned that we wanted to stop them, he got pretty violent."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Tried to attack me with his bare hands, didn't do anything of course, but before we could restrain him he was killed by the rachni."
"Damn." Atlas sighed. "Would have been nice if we could have found a cure for him."
"That it would have. But we weren't able to. So how's it been going here. Anything interesting?"
"We've had a few things happen. We helped a Doctor get a cure to some sort chemical weapon that BH was working on, it wasn't the Spore I made sure of that." Atlas added before Shepard could ask. "But while we were down here an Asari brought a couple geth up from a maintenance shaft. We took care of them pretty easily. Then Benezia sent a message to the security team with orders to kill us, but luckily we were able to talk them down."
Shepard let out a relieved sigh "Well I'm glad that we were able to avoid that particular incident."
"It wasn't too difficult to be honest. They had seen what we did to the geth, and they were pretty intimidated by the sheer number of us. We pretty much have equal numbers to them, and we're better equipped and better trained. They knew that they would only die if they tried to go up against us."
Shepard nodded "I'm glad that they saw reason. We're losing enough people to the ceph, rachni and geth. We don't need to start killing off each other as well. You mentioned that the geth came out of a maintenance shaft? That will probably be our best lead to finding Benezia then."
"Thats what I thought, I have Mathews and Corde keeping an eye on it, incase any more geth come knocking."
"Well no sense in waiting around. Lead the way." As Atlas turned and began leading the group through the facility, Shepard motioned for Liara to talk with her.
"Commander?" The asari archeologist asked as she fell into step beside Shepard.
"Liara, how are you doing?"
"I'm slowly getting used to it. Out on digs, the only thing I'd really have to worry about was the occasional pirate and making sure my air supplies were working properly. Now we have a race that were driven extinct two thousand years ago, A long dead race returning and apparently my mother is behind all this. It's hard Shepard, but I'm managing."
"That's good. Listen if you want, you can stay here. No one will blame you if you don't want to face your mother."
"I have to Shepard. I have to know why. Why would she do this?"
"I understand, but I have to warn you, It's very likely that there will be a confrontation and I don't want to force you to have to fight your mother. I need to be sure that you…"
"You want to make sure that I won't be a liability."
Shepard sighed "Unfortunately yes. I hate saying this, but unless I can be sure that you won't be a liability it might be best that you stay back. Can you promise me that you won't be? That if it comes to that you will fight your mother with the intent of stopping her?"
Liara took a deep breath as she turned to look directly at Shepard. "I promise. I promise that if it comes to it, then I will do my absolute best to stop her."
"That is all I ask. Hopefully we won't have to fight her, but I would rather prepare for the worst."
As they reached the apparent mess hall, Shepard spotted Captain Ventralis and two of his guards sitting at a table and eating what Shepard immediately recognized to be military rations. Upon spotting her, Ventralis stood up and greeted her. "Ah, Shepard. Its good to see that you're still alive. I was worried that the bugs might have killed you."
Shepard shook her head "It will take more than overgrown insects to kill me. We were able to initiate the neutron purge and that should have killed all of the rachni."
"I thank you Shepard. But we still have the ceph to deal with."
"If I can get any sort of message out, I will contact CryNet and have them send reinforcements." Atlas said joining them.
"I appreciate that Atlas. I only hope that we can survive for long enough."
"Just keep alert and stay calm." Shepard advised "We'll see about getting rid of the ceph as soon as Benezia is in our custody."
"Yeah, I had no idea that she was a criminal when she came here, I thought that she was here to help us." Ventralis said. "I'm glad that Atlas was able to tell us about about that, otherwise I'm afraid that we would have died trying to stop you."
Shepard gave the security captain a reassuring smile "Well it didn't come to that. So there's nothing to worry about."
"And I am extremely thankful for that."
Shepard gave Atlas a glance before turning back to face Ventralis "We really should get going. Benezia needs to be stopped before she can get what she wants here."
Ventralis nodded and shook Shepard's hand "Of course Commander. Good luck in hunting down Saren, I had friends on Eden Prime."
"Don't worry Captain. He won't get away from me." Shepard gave him a reassuring smile.
"So this is where the geth that attacked you came from?" Shepard asked as Atlas swiped a card over a reader beside the maintenance door.
"Well its where Han Olar, a volus scientist said he saw them coming from. Blueprints show that the maintenance shaft will lead into a secret lab of some sort. I was unable to get any more info about it."
"Understood. Everyone, be on your guard. I'm expecting geth, rachni, asari commando's, ceph. Hell at this point I wouldn't be surprised if there was a goddamn Pit Fiend in there. Just keep your eyes peeled." Shepard ordered as she stacked up on the door.
"A what?" Garrus asked curious?
"A pit fiend, you know, covered in flame, most powerful type of devil. Like a Balrog. No one? Ah whatever. Lets just go." Triggering the opening mechanism the door slid open and she stepped through into an icy cavern, followed by Atlas.
"Ok, less pit fiend, more ceph. Or white dragon." Shepard muttered as she looked around the cave.
"The ceph always do seem to come from caves like this." Kaidan agreed looking over the cave walls.
"It doesn't look like the ceph have come through here yet though. Walls are still intact."
"Well lets move on. I really don't like just standing around here." Shepard muttered remembering what happened when Wraith was taken.
The cave eventually ended with another door that was guarded by a single rachni that was immediately riddled with rounds from various different guns.
"Looks like there are still a few rachni that escaped the neutron purge." Garrus commented as Shepard walked up to the door and opened it.
"It was to be expected I suppose." Kaidan responded. "It would have been extremely unlikely that all the rachni were down in the hot labs when the purge went off."
"True, but I guess I had just hoped that we wouldn't have had to face any more of them." Ashley muttered.
"Yeah, well be glad that its just one rachni, not an entire swarm. Or even worse ceph." Kaidan retorted.
"It would have meant that we could shoot more things." Wrex muttered.
"Alright everyone, cut the chatter." Shepard ordered slowing to a stop in front of a particular door. "Map indicates that this door leads into a secure lab which is where I expect Benezia would be. Everything else around here doesn't look to be anything of interest to her. I don't expect her to come quietly so be prepared for geth, commando's, anything really. Liara, you sure that you're gonna be alright?"
The asari nodded resolutely. "I'll be fine commander."
Shepard gave her a last concerned look before turning back towards the door and opening it. She immediately noticed the series of walkways and the tall asari standing on one walkway facing something that was blocked from Shepard's vision by a large support pillar.
As Shepard walked into the room Benezia spoke still looking at whatever it was that was blocked from Shepard's view. "You do not know the privilege of being a mother. There is power in creation. To shape a life as you desire, towards happiness or despair. Her children were to be ours. Raised to hunt and slay Saren's enemies." By this time the rest of Sable and Titan had arrayed themselves behind Shepard. Now Benezia turned to face her "I won't be moved by sympathy. No matter who you bring into this confrontation."
Shepard felt Liara shift slightly behind her. "You would fight your own daughter? And unlike what you think, I did not order Liara to join me. She's here because she wishes to be."
"Indeed? And what have you told them about me Liara?" Benezia asked coolly.
"What could I say mother?" Liara asked, emotion creeping into her voice. "That you're insane? Evil? Should I explain how to kill you? What should I say?"
Benezia seemed completely unfazed by Liara's words as she stepped forward "Have you faced an asari commando unit before? Few humans have."
Shepard's voice rang out loud and confident "I'm going to give you one chance. Surrender now and you're own daughter won't have to watch you get taken down."
"I now realize, that I should have been stricter with her." Benezia said flaring blue.
"Engage!" Shepard shouted starting to run to the side but before she could take more than half a step she froze as Benezia cast a stasis field on the entire group, freezing them in their tracks. Releasing a loud angry growl Shepard released her own biotics and with a loud shout broke free of the stasis with a biotic charge at an asari that had run in through another door.
Shepard slammed into the commando sending her flying but with a flare of her own biotics the commando righted herself and slowed her flight until she landed lightly on her feet. The commando ducked behind a wall to avoid a shotgun blast that Shepard sent in her direction followed by a quick roll to the side to dodge the asari's retaliation. A bolt of dark energy flew straight through the space that Shepard had occupied a moment before and as Shepard came out of her roll she pulled the trigger on her shotgun once more. The blast from her marshall sent deadly shards of titanium tearing straight through the asari's barrier. Her body suit, while not impeding her movement in anyway, didn't protect her in the slightest against the titanium that tore a gaping hole in her side.
The asari gave a pained scream as she fell to the ground where she lay writhing and moaning in pain as she quickly bled out. Shepard immediately fell into another roll to avoid a second biotic blast from another door where two asari were standing, both hurling bolts of energy at Shepard. She ducked behind a wall, pulling out her SCAR as she did so. Her position gave her good cover against both asari and matriarch Benezia who was now also throwing biotics in her direction. Taking half a step to the side Shepard brought her SCAR to bear against Benezia and unleashed quick, accurate bursts at the matriarch who ducked out of view of Shepard a moment later as her barriers started to drop.
As Shepard stepped back into cover she noticed a large, dark shape held inside a large container on Benezia's platform. Shepard was however not able to get a good look at it because a moment later she heard a loud angry roar coming from across the room and she noticed Wrex charging toward a group of geth in the opposite corner of where she was now. One ton of armored krogan smashed into the geth, sending two of them tumbling over a railing.
Shepard heard the familiar crack of a DSG-1 sounding over the staccato of multiple different assault rifles opening fire at the same time. Springing into motion once again, Shepard raised her SCAR to her shoulder and turning around the corner let loose a deadly hail of rounds at the two asari that had paused in their biotic assault for just one moment. Shepard's assault forced both asari to duck behind cover as their shields started to fail. Without hesitation Shepard pulled out a grenade, primed it and tossed it right over the asari's cover.
"I got a present for ya!" She shouted and a moment later heard a single oath before the grenade exploded sending shrapnel flying everywhere accompanied by two pained screams. A flare of blue drew her attention once more to the platform in the middle of the room where she saw Benezia hurling a bolt of dark energy in her direction. Throwing herself to the ground she let the blue orb fly overhead as she opened fire on the asari matriarch with her SCAR. The moment the biotic attack slammed into the wall behind her, tearing a gaping hole in the metal Shepard scrambled to her feet, blue fire wreathing around her. With a loud shout Shepard propelled herself forward over the chasm and straight into the asari matriarch with a loud thud.
Benezia was sent reeling to the ground from the impact and when Shepard raised her SCAR to cover the matriarch, Benezia let loose an angry shout and started to stand up glowing blue with energy. Shepard didn't let her get much further, unleashing a long burst from her SCAR that quickly tore through Benezia's shields and impacted in her stomach forcing the asari to fall back to the ground.
"This is not over." She spat angrily "Saren is unstoppable. My mind is filled with his light! Everything is clear."
"It is over. Saren will be stopped. But I am sorry it had to come to this. What did you seek to gain here?" Shepard asked her, SCAR aimed squarely at Benezia's head.
The asari shook her head, seemingly fighting with some unknown force. "I will- I will not betray him. You will- You!" Shepard's eyes narrowed, finger tightening on the trigger as she watched a strange change come over Benezia. "You must listen! Saren still whispers in my mind. I can fight his compulsions, but only briefly. The indoctrination is strong."
"Why are you able to break free now, of all times?" Shepard asked suspiciously, not relaxing in any way as the rest of her squad and Titan joined her on the platform.
Benezia took a few pained breaths "I sealed a part of my mind away from the indoctrination. Saving it for a time in which I could destroy him. I do not have much time."
"You're talking about the same thing that Shiala on Feros was talking about." Shepard stated.
She nodded slowly "People are not the same around him. They start to worship him so that you would do anything for him. The key is Sovereign, his flagship. It is a dreadnought of immense power."
"Sovereign isn't like most ships is it? Where did it come from?" Shepard asked shrewdly.
"I cannot say. The geth did not build it. The technology is far more advanced than anything of any known species, although the Ceph may come close. The longer you stay aboard, the more saren's will seems correct. You sit at his feet and smile as his words pour into your mind. You do not notice it, it seems weak at first, so weak that I thought that I was strong enough to withstand its effects. I was terribly mistaken, instead I became a willing tool, eager to serve."
"Goddess" Shepard glanced to her side to see Liara listening to Benezia talk with a look of horror on her face.
Turning her attention back to Benezia Shepard continued questioning the matriarch. "What did Saren send you here to do? What do the rachni and ceph have to do with it?"
"Saren sent me here to find the location of the mu relay. It was lost long ago in rachni space." Shepard noticed Benezia close her eyes for a second before opening them again. "Rachni queen's inherit the memories of their ancestors, so I came her to take the location of the relay from the queen's mind." She waved her hand limply at the container behind her. Shepard's eyes widened as she realized what the large dark shape inside the container actually was. "I was not gentle."
"We need that information." Shepard told her lowering her SCAR slightly.
"Here!" Benezia weakly extended her left hand, an OSD visible in her hand. "I transcribed the data on this. Take it!"
Lowering her SCAR, Shepard reached out and took the OSD from Benezia's hand, placing it in a pouch on her belt.
"And once Saren finds the relay, what does he hope to do with it?"
Benezia shook her head limply "I do not know. Saren did not tell me. But you must hurry. I sent the coordinates to him before you arrived. You have to stop-" She hesitated seemingly fighting the indoctrination within her mind, causing Shepard to raise her SCAR once more. "-me. I can't- I can't-"
"Please mother! Hold on be strong. Fight him!" Liara cried out as Shepard took a step back, SCAR aimed squarely at Benezia's heart.
Benezia seemed to regain control for a quick moment as her eyes met Liara's "You've always made me proud Liara!" Her control visibly slipped a moment later and a cruel, almost feral look crossed Benezia's face as she started glowing with biotic energy once more. "Die!"
Without hesitation, Shepard pulled the trigger on her scar causing it to bark loudly in her hands as it sent two grain sized shards of tungsten into Benezia's heart. The two loud cracks echoed in the stillness of the room as Benezia's eyes widened for a moment before they slowly and finally closed.
"Mother?"
Shepard closed her eyes in sorrow, releasing a soft sigh and hearing a soft thump she opened her eyes she saw Liara kneeling in front of her mother, wracked with quiet sobs. Kneeling down next to the grieving asari Shepard pulled her in for a comforting hug. "I'm so sorry Liara." Shepard murmured. "I am so sorry."
Liara shook her head "Don't be commander." She said quietly between soft sobs. "You did the only thing you could. But Shepard." She pulled back, eyes red with grief as an angry expression crossed her face "When we find Saren. Make him pay for what he did to my mother. Keep him from doing anything like that again."
Shepard nodded grimly "Saren will pay Liara. I promise you."
"Uh commander?" Shepard frowned as she looked up at Kaidan who sounded rather shaken.
"Yeah?"
"You might want to see this."
Standing up Shepard walked over to where Kaidan was standing, looking out towards one of the entrances that Benezia's commando's had entered in. "What's the..." Shepard trailed off when she saw exactly what Kaidan saw. "What the fuck?" She muttered as the body of an asari commando started shambling along the catwalk towards the platform they were standing on. Shaking off her surprise Shepard snapped up her SCAR to aim directly at the asari, yet it didn't so much as blink at the weapon pointed at it. The dead asari continued to shamble towards Shepard and Atlas who were standing in its path.
Shepard took a step to the side in order to avoid the body as she doubted that her shooting the body would stop whatever was happening. The asari ignored her movement and continued stumbling towards the large tank behind the platform which was still shrouded in darkness. As it reached the tank it slowly turned around and stood there, swaying as if drunk. A moment later its mouth opened and it spoke with strange whispering sounds coming from behind it. "This one, Serves as our voice. We cannot sing. Not in these low spaces. Your musics are, colorless."
"What the fuck is going on here." Shepard demanded, keeping her SCAR aimed squarely at the asari.
"We are the mother. We sing for the ones you silenced. We are Rachni."
Shepard narrowed her eyes as they flicked over to the large tank and the creature that was inside of it. "How the hell, are you controlling her?" She demanded of what she now realized was the Rachni queen.
"Our kind, speak with thoughts, we pluck the strings she answers. This one is weak to our urgings. Her music is bittersweet, she is fading. We sing for our children you silenced. We are grateful."
Shepard's eyes furrowed in confusion "Why are you grateful that we killed your children? Shouldn't you be angry?"
"No. These needle-men, stole our eggs from us. They wished to turn them into beasts of war. Claws, with no songs of their own." The whispering voices that Shepard heard grew louder as the queen said this. "Our elders are comfortable with silence. Children know only fear if no one sings to them. Fear had shattered their minds!"
"A child locked away in a closet for ten years would hardly be sane." Athena murmured
Shepard nodded somberly "I understand. But what about you?"
"You stand with a choice. What will you sing? Will you release us? Will you have us face away once more?"
Shepard raised an eyebrow "And why should I release you? Your kind rampaged over the galaxy two thousand years ago. Me releasing you would only allow you to do the same."
"No! We do not seek conflict!" Shepard was taken back by the vehemence of the statement. "We do not know what happened during the war. We were only an egg, hearing mother cry in our dreams. I remember only songs, the color of oily shadows, changing our songs, bidding us towards war. It was not our will to fight."
Wrex pushed himself through the others to stand next to Shepard, unfazed by the queen's pleas. "Shepard, there are acid tanks rigged above that thing. Set them off. Millions of my ancestors died to put these things down. Do not let them return."
"Shepard, If you kill her, you'll consign an entire race to death." Garrus warned "We should let the council decide."
Shepard frowned deep in thought as she let her eyes roam over the Rachni queen that seemed to be watching her closely. Releasing a deep sigh Shepard slowly walked over to the controls and punched in a series of commands. "I won't send your entire race to extinction. You'll go free."
"Are you stupid?" Wrex growled glaring at her "Your people didn't fight these bastards, so maybe you don't get it!"
"Be that as it may, the rachni may make a very useful ally to have in the future." Shepard said as she hit the final button that caused the cage the queen was in to slowly rise up to a tunnel where the cage doors slid open and the queen scurried out of her prison. With a final look down at Shepard it turned and ran away.
"That's a risk Shepard. How do you know that she won't be hostile in the future?" Atlas asked.
"I don't. However her story, and Benezia's add up. Benezia mentioned how Saren's flagship can indoctrinate anyone nearby it. And if that ship is as old as I suspect it to be then it, or something like it could have been the source of those 'songs the color of oily shadows' that the queen mentioned."
"Yeah, but unless you're saying that something else has been using that ship for more than two thousand years-"
"Look." Shepard said interrupting Garrus who had been speaking "We both know that Saren wants to have the reapers, whatever they are, return. And we believe that his flagship is a reaper ship of some kind, therefore it isn't that much a stretch that someone else has been using it in an attempt to get these reapers to return earlier. Besides its done. Now lets just get back to the guards and see if we can't get word out to send reinforcements against the ceph so that we can rescue Wraith."
"Ah commander! I see that you've returned. Did you find Benezia?"
Shepard nodded at Ventralis who had called out to her as she led her crew and Titan into the crew quarters. "We did and she has been brought to justice."
"Excellent." Ventralis said clasping his hands together. "I'm glad to see that such a dangerous criminal has been brought to justice." Shepard merely gave Ventralis a curt nod in response. "So... what will you be doing now? We've been talking about trying to move our camp further into the facility, it should be safer further in."
Shepard furrowed her eyebrows in confusion "How would you moving further into the facility make you safer? Wouldn't that just put you closer to the Ceph and in more danger?"
Ventralis shrugged "Well not really. The gods will watch over us and keep us safe."
Shepard froze as she remembered the man in the hot labs who had also mentioned some kind of 'gods'. "Say Captain, are all of your men healthy?" She asked casually, surreptitiously sending a message to her squad and Titan to be on their guard.
"Oh yes, we are completely healthy. We feel that if we head in further we will stay healthy, perhaps become even healthier."
"And you think that these 'gods' will protect you from the ceph." Shepard asked slowly.
Ventralis nodded enthusiastically "Oh yes. We do not have to fear the ceph for the-" Ventralis was unable to finish his sentence as suddenly a massive flash of white accompanied by a massive rush of wind.
Before the white had subsided Shepard heard her VI pipe up dispassionately.
"Warning. Sizable temperature drop detected. New temperature: 83 Degrees Kelvin."
During her VI's speech the blinding white had faded to reveal something that reminded Shepard more of Noveria, outside of the facility. Frost had covered every single surface around her. The walls, floor and ceiling were completely coated in frozen water and drifting in the air were tiny snowflakes. Shepard gazed around her in shock as her VI continued talking.
"Alert: temperature regulation system unable to provide suitable temperature for wearer. All power rerouted to temperature regulation."
It was now that Shepard noticed that Ventralis and all the scientists and guards were completely motionless, also covered in a layer of ice. Suddenly her armor seemed to weigh a ton, as the VI voice piped up once again.
"Warning, Shields and nanoweave power offline."
Turning to look behind her Shepard saw the rest of her squad and Titan all looking around in shock, equal to her own. "What the fuck just happened." She muttered.
Atlas shook his head slowly "This- This is. I never expected anything like this! The ceph have drained most of the energy from the area, much like the way the Nanosuit gains its energy, only on a much, much larger scale. This is unbelievable."
"Oh my god. Look what happened to those poor people!" Shepard turned around to see Ashley standing in front of Ventralis staring at his frozen body in horror.
"They've been frozen completely solid." Kaidan muttered walking over to join her. "Imagine dying like that, one moment you're fine but the next..." He reached out with his hand to touch Ventralis' hand as if to prove that what he was seeing actually happened. As he ran his hand over the captains frozen fingers there was a sharp snap and Kaidan cursed as Ventralis' finger snapped off and fell to the ground where it shattered.
"Shepard." She turned to face Atlas who had stomped over to her, the layer of ice cracking underneath his weight "We need to get out of here. Without shields, or the more advanced features of the GHOST armor we're done for. Not to mention I'm not sure how long the armor will be able to keep us warm in this cold."
Shepard started to nod in agreement but stopped as she heard something that caused her to slowly shake her head. "Its too late. We've got incoming. GET BEHIND COVER!"
A/N: Slight cliffhanger. So yeah, ceph have activated their sphere, and Benezia is dead. Next chapter we should end up seeing Wraith again, the two chapters have had no Wraith at all, with everything being from Shep's point of view, but next chapter we'll be seeing Wraith again.
So anyway, I've started university, studying biology so I'll probably be able to start sneaking in some biological stuff on how stuff works, we'll see. Uni is taking a pretty big chunk of my time but I should hopefully be able to update in two weeks time. But I can't promise anything at the moment.
And finally like I said, this chapter is unbeta'ed so there may be mistakes here or there, just let me know and I'll try and fix em.
Like always if you have questions or feedback, let me know, and until next time.
~LEGION