*NOVERIA, PEAK 15 RESEARCH FACILITY*
Shepard stood awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck, and desperately looking to his squad mates for some sort of hint at what to say. "Wow… um… that sounds really… terrifying."
The Volus merely peered up at him with his expressionless mask.
The Commander stood staring back for a moment before finally gesturing toward the lift they had just come down. "Right… well, I'm sorry for everything you've gone through Han, but we're on the clock sooo… I should go." He motioned to his team with a slight jerk of his chin.
Just as the group was filing past, Han Olar spoke up again. "They came from back there."
The Commander looked to the ceiling and prayed the Volus wasn't going to tell another uplifting story like the last one. He was already so frazzled by the cold, and creepy crawlies popping out of every possible shadow, even being angry wasn't really fun anymore. "Who?"
"The Geth."
Kraven looked in the direction Han was pointing. "They came from the access tunnel? Did that Asari scientist come with them?"
"Yes." The portly alien wheezed as he took a breath from his respirator. "We thought it had collapsed, but they must have cleared enough away to get through from the hot labs."
That perked up the Commander's interest. Much better than heading back upstairs to try to argue with Captain Baldy about gaining access. "Much obliged. For what it's worth, not many people could have endured what you did without going crazy."
Han hung his head. "Oh I'm sane. God, am I sane."
Once again Shepard felt extremely awkward. Rather than attempting to jam his foot any further into his own mouth he decided to get moving while he had the chance. The ground team hastened through the portal at the back of the testing labs and into the snow-packed service tunnel beyond. Once again he was greeted by what they had learned was a Rachni. An ancient species of intelligent insectoids that had very nearly brought the entire galaxy to its knees. Only a Krogan intervention orchestrated by the Salarians had been enough to push them back until it was thought that not a single one remained. A belief that was now thoroughly debunked.
He couldn't help the mild grimace of distaste that warped his features upon seeing the creature. To him they were bugs. Really big ones. He had always made it clear to anyone he worked with how anything that shuffled, slithered, or skittered was squarely in the 'not with a 10 foot pole' category. Yet somehow he had barely even started his hunt for Saren, and had already encountered enough nightmare fuel to last him for months between here and Feros.
'Can only get better from here.' He tried to convince himself while pumping an extra couple rounds into the giant cockroach's twitching corpse. Its legs kept moving which only served to provide yet another image he was never going to be able to unsee. As they continued on to the hot labs he resolved that in order to shrug off the discomfort of the current mission, he would set aside some time to indulge in his guilty pleasure after they returned to the ship. 'I'm not made of stone after all.' He reasoned.
At last they came upon the final door separating them from where, presumably, Liara's mother waited. His heartening thoughts of quality relaxing time evaporated in a puff of smoke as all eyes turned on their Asari companion.
He slung his firearm and placed both hands on her shoulders so she was forced to look him in the eye. "Regardless of what happens in there, we're here to back you up. Whatever you need." They didn't really know each other, but he hoped she would appreciate the gesture nonetheless.
Her response was to maintain his gaze while taking a fortifying breath, before pursing her lips and nodding that she was ready. He gave her shoulders a quick squeeze before turning back to the door. As he did he caught Garrus' eye, and hoped the expression he made was enough to convey that the Turian should watch her. Garrus' subtle nod in return told the Commander he'd understood.
Kraven generally trusted Liara, but he knew that people tended to do crazy things when faced with a situation as complicated as this one. The safety of his team always had to come first, even if the truth might hurt someone's feelings. He took a deep breath himself to steel his own resolve before toggling the door open.
In an instant his squad filed through like a partially oiled machine before fanning out to cover the myriad of gangways surrounding their position. 'We're going to need to practice this a bit more before we catch up with Saren.' He thought to himself before seeing their target on an elevated platform ahead of them. His shotgun came up, but he kept his finger off the trigger as the ebony-clad woman slowly turned to regard them.
"So, we meet at last Commander Shepard. I have heard a great many things about you." Benezia said in a silken voice as she stepped to the top of the stairs.
"None of them good, I hope." Shepard responded somewhat snarkily.
She ignored his attempt at humor. "Indeed. I should warn you I will show no sympathy regardless of who you bring with you."
"You mean Liara? She's here because she wanted to be."
Benezia clasped her hands behind her back. "I see. And what have you told them about me, Liara?"
"What could I say? You are not who I remember you to be, mother. Please stop this while you still have the chance!" The young Asari pleaded as moisture pooled at the corners of her eyes.
The Matriarch shook her head and clucked her tongue in disappointment. "You still behave like a naive, spoiled child…" Azure fire began to dance around her body. "I should have been more strict with you."
The Commander's own corona flared. "You only get one chance to walk away from this. Don't do something you'll regret."
Her eyes flared with rage. "Insolent whelp, I…" Suddenly her head jerked to the side. The cobalt glow surrounding her sputtered and died. Her mouth moved but no sound came out as she continued to convulse. She grimaced in agony as her hands flew to her face. She doubled over which prompted Liara to start forward, but Shepard held out his arm to stop her.
"Wait." He said flatly before returning his hand to his weapon.
After a strained silence that seemed to stretch on forever Benezia finally lowered her hands, and stood. Her face lacked any of the malice it had displayed only moments before. "L… Liara?"
"Mother?"
Her eyes seemed to glaze over before screwing shut as if in pain. "I do not have much time. I can fight his influence for a few seconds before he swallows me up entirely."
Kraven looked to his squad, but all seemed equally as dumbfounded as he was. "What do you mean? Fight who?"
Benezia started to sway but caught herself on a nearby guard rail. "Saren. Or his ship, Sovereign. It alters your mind. Invades your thoughts until you lose control of yourself. I have managed to hide away a portion of my consciousness from his sight, but it will not be long until my barriers are overrun again." She raised a trembling finger to point at the holding cell she'd been standing in front of. "The Rachni queen. Saren needed the location of a relay that could transport him to the conduit. He used me to tear it from her mind."
Shepard was still completely lost, but decided it would be best to play along. He would worry about what was in the cell later. "Which relay? Where is he going?" He started forward to help her.
Her hand shot out to stop him. "No! I cannot hold on much longer. I made an OSD with the location to the Mu relay in case I was able to break free. Take it and use it to stop him." Her eyes started to cloud over with what looked like black ink as biotic fire flickered around her. "I cannot fight it any longer. Please, Commander… You must…"
He didn't know what was going on, but knew what she was saying. Liara apparently knew it too. "Mother no! Please, we can help you!"
Benezia managed a grim smile as her eyes turned a glossy obsidian. "Goodbye, little wing. I will see you again before the dawn." As the last word gently pushed past her lips she threw her head back, and screamed in sheer agony. The nails of her fingers dug deep gouges into her cobalt-skinned face while an enormous blaze of blue swirled about her.
Shepard didn't need any further invitation. His gut told him exactly what was about to happen, and as much as he enjoyed a good fight, he knew if he waited some of his people wouldn't be walking away. Possibly even himself. "OPEN FIRE!"
"NO!" Liara shrieked at the top of her lungs, but was completely drowned out by the booming reports of six firearms belching streams of slugs into the tortured woman.
For several seconds the lethal projectiles were turned aside by an impossibly strong biotic barrier before finally blasting through. Benezia jerked from multiple impacts just as the ground team's weapons started to overheat. In an instant, the terrifying blaze roaring around the Matriarch was extinguished and she fell to the deck. Rivers of blood poured from dozens of bullet wounds as her life force ebbed away.
As she crumpled, Liara pushed past the Commander to run to her mother. "Hold fire!" He commanded although everyone had already done so. As Liara gingerly cradled her dead mother's head in her lap Shepard turned to his crew. "Give her a bit. She doesn't need us sitting here watching this. See if you can find that OSD."
No one needed to be told twice as they all started to fan out in search of the tiny data storage device. There was no amiable chatter as was becoming usual when the team was searching for salvage. Just the spirit sapping sound of their newest team member crying over her terrible loss. Within only a few short minutes, every corner of the chamber had been searched without much success.
"C… Commander." Liara called through the lump in her throat.
He made his way up the stairs, and knelt beside her. He didn't say a word. Just laid his hand on her shoulder and hoped she would forgive him for doing what he had to do. He'd never been good with the soft stuff.
Fortunately, she was exceedingly graceful in accepting his condolences. "Here *sniff* she dropped it on the floor when she was speaking to us *sniff*." She handed the OSD to him.
He clasped the disk, and her hand in both of his. "Thank you, Liara. I'm sorry."
"I know." Was all she could manage.
He stayed there with her for a minute before eventually straightening to walk over, and look at the Rachni Queen that resided in the holding cell. He knew it could see him when it shifted to get a better look at the Human standing outside of its glass prison. An uncomfortable shiver ran up his spine as he locked eyes with the gargantuan insect.
"We're going to need a bigger boot." He mumbled mostly to himself. Knowing the oddballs he ran with, no one would have gotten the reference if they'd heard it anyway.
"Silence."
He practically jumped out of his skin and whirled about with his gun pointed at the source of the ghostly whisper.
"Mother?" Liara asked with barely a squeak.
Benezia's eyes were open but stared off into space. "We hear… silence."
"This is seriously starting to damage my calm." Wrex growled with his own snub nosed shotgun aimed squarely at the Matriarch's forehead.
"What is this?" Shepard questioned.
"It… it might be her." Tali ventured looking over at the caged Queen. "I've heard Rachni can speak through dead or dying members of other species."
"Goddess…" Liara covered her mouth with her hand before Garrus stooped to help her up.
For a moment, she resisted. "She's gone. This is just an empty shell now." The Turian reassured as she reluctantly stood before allowing herself to be escorted down the stairs, and away. This was already likely to irrevocably scar her psyche so no need to make it worse than it had to be.
Once she had moved far enough away so as not to overhear the Commander responded. "Are you using this Asari to speak?"
"Yes." The whispering voice was creepy already, but was made almost intolerable by the fact that each syllable was accompanied by a gurgling hiss as air sputtered out of the holes in Benezia's chest.
Shepard did his best to tuck his discomfort somewhere private. "How are you controlling her?"
"As the songs of others fade, we can pluck the strings. This one's song is soft yet it wreaks of the machine's sour, yellow note. It is bittersweet."
"Machine's yellow note? What does that mean."
"Her song was not her own. The maddening shriek of the machines had almost completely consumed her."
"Well at least she's free of it now, but that still leaves me with one loose end. What do I do with you?"
Kaidan came up beside him to point at the corners of the holding cell. "You see those tanks? Acid. Must have been a safety measure in case she ever tried to get out."
"Correct. We were always meant to live in these low places until we were no longer useful. What will you sing? Will you release us or end our song forever?" The ghostly voice asked emotionlessly.
Ashley immediately threw in her two cents. "Ghost it Commander. The last thing this galaxy needs is a resurgence of Rachni."
"Hold on. The Rachni were thought to be completely wiped out. Can you really kill an entire race?" Tali objected.
Shepard wrestled with the implications, but in the end knew that his gut had already made up its mind. He never argued with his gut. "You're both right…" He said as he reached out to the console. He closed his eyes so he wouldn't have to look and stabbed the button that would release the acid.
Only his aim was off. His eyes flew open when he heard heavy machinery whirring to carry the cell up into alignment with a release port. The enormous insect looked back in what might have been interpreted as a wave of gratitude if one knew bug body language before disappearing into the open shaft.
This left a flabbergasted Shepard standing in sheer terror at what had just happened. 'Oh shit…' was the first thing that ran through his brain. Followed closely by 'Who the hell puts the kill-it-with-acid button next to the fly-free-little-bird button?'. This in turn was followed by 'I'm going to find that bastard and pull his ass out through his nose.'
"Well… I guess what's done is done." Ashley grumbled. "Hope you know what you're doing, Skipper."
"You and me both." He said without turning around. No one needed to see the color draining from his face.
As the group delicately gathered up the Matriarch's body Tali stepped up behind him to offer her encouragement. "I think you did the right thing, Commander. Although I think a couple of the others might disagree with you."
"Y… Yeah. I just couldn't condemn a whole species to extinction, you know? Hopefully they don't hold it against me." He tried to play it off but still refused to turn around.
"I'm happy you feel that way. And don't worry about the others. There was a Human saying… Keelah, what was it? Keep a stiff one in the lips?"
'Godamnit!' He mentally screamed. 'Of all the bloody times…' He valiantly fought to keep his tone even. "A stiff upper lip, I think you mean."
"Oh, right. What did I say?"
"You said… Never mind. It's not important." A little piece of him died at letting the moment pass without even remotely calling attention to it. This was shaping up to be one of the worst days in Kraven M. Shepard's life.