The Odyssey

The Malevolence exited FTL and began cruising at a normal speed, right towards a pair of ships. Onboard, Gore stood on the bridge, staring at the ships. He looked behind himself, straight at a large specimen tank, where a hideous, grotesque, humanoid creature lay. The creature was pitch black with shimmering skin. Its two legs were made of three segments. The creature's long, black, arms dangled at the creature's side. Its long, thick, stiff, neck stuck out and ended with a set of flaps. No mouth was visible.

"Detecting two vessels," a Drell ensign said. "The cargo ship is being escorted by a Turian cruiser."

"Let's give them a proper greeting then," Gore said. "Target the escort. Fire all batteries."

The Malevolence was still cruising when it opened fire. Suddenly, a firestorm of lasers fired from the Malevolence. The storm engulfed the Turian cruiser in explosions as the lasers rained on it. Finally, the Malevolence stopped firing. As the cruiser moved forwards, one of the wings drifted off the ship. From the bridge on the Malevolence, Gore watched the ship fall apart. The cargo ship tried to fly away but the Malevolence blasted its engines.

"Prepare the boarding party," Gore ordered.

A hanar worked at a holographic computer at C-Sec headquarters. Its glowing, pink skin seemed to pulse at it worked. It looked up and saw Garrus run into his office.

"Garrus?" the hanar asked. "What are you doing back here?"

"Topa," Garrus said. "That transmission you sent me, was there anything else?"

"What are you talking about?" Topa asked flatly.

"That transmission that you intercepted from a pirate ship, was there anything else?"

"Yes," Topa said plainly. "Before the Council was taken hostage, a C-Sec strike team boarded a nearby pirate ship and took some data from the memory core."

"Do you have a copy?" Garrus asked. The Hanar typed at his consol for a moment.

"All the data taken from the ship is now transmitted to your data pad." Garrus nodded gratefully and was about to leave when he heard a yell.

"They're transmitting," a voice said. Garrus turned around and saw a hologram of Bane appear in the middle of the room. Every officer turned and faced the hologram of the bounty hunter.

"So, here's what you're going to do," Bane said. "It has come to my attention that the bounty hunter Zaeed Massani has been arrested and sent to the prison ship Purgatory. If you care about your Councilors, you will release him into my custody. Do not try to give me an imposter; I will know if that is the real Zaeed Massani immediately. You have thirty minutes to contact Purgatory to make the exchange." With that said, Bane's hologram disappeared. Garrus knew he did not have much time. He rushed out of the room.

The team, with Sidonis, quickly walked down the hall, getting their gear on.

"I got the data," Garrus said as he caught up with everyone else.

"What'd you find?" Ashley asked.

"It's not good. Sovereign's indoctrinated slaves are trying to bring him back."

"We shouldn't have assumed Saren was Sovereign's only slave," Ashley said.

"Sovereign?" Sidonis asked.

"A Reaper that was left behind," Tali explained.

"Reapers?" Sidonis exclaimed. "I thought they were a myth."

"The Council thinks they're a myth," Ashley corrected. Sidonis just stared forwards, unable to believe that all those stories he heard were true.

"How are they supposed to bring the guy back?" Wrex asked. "We blew him away already."

"Actually," Tali said. "There might be one way." They turned and looked at her. "Sovereign is a machine and an AI. All conscious minds, even AI's, need a place to be held in."

"Like a brain?" Ashley asked.

"Or an AI unit," Garrus added.

"If the AI unit is intact, it can be extracted and moved to another body," Tali explained.

"Then, why the kidnappings?" Liara asked.

"According to the data, they're making some kind of super-creature," Garrus said. "They've taken almost a dozen species: Turian, Drell, Salarian, Krogan, Asari, Humans, Quarians, Vorcha, even Rachni."

"I told Shepard he should have wiped out those bugs," Wrex grumbled.

"The data says that they're making some sort of creature by combining the best of their attributes."

"Let me guess," Ashley said. "It'll have all their strengths and none of their weaknesses."

"That's the idea."

"Do you know what this means?" Tali asked excitedly. "If they have a creature that has Quarian DNA but does not need a suit, then this could be the answer to strengthening our immune systems!"

"It might also have a cure for the genophage," Wrex said, smiling.

"It's not worth it," Ashley said. "What do you think they did with those people?" Tali and Wrex fell silent when they heard this question. They knew the answer.

"We can wonder what we are going to do with his body later," Garrus said. "First we have to make sure Sovereign never comes back."

"They are sending all recovered debris from Sovereign's ship to a nearby research station," Liara said. "They lost contact with that very ship a few moments ago."

"And then, he'll e able to bring back the Reapers."

"But he can't access the Citadel without electrical components, like those of Geth," Tali added.

"Well, it's a good thing for them that there are plenty of dead geth that were all over the station," Garrus said sarcastically.

"We have to get to the research station!" Ashley said firmly as they began to sprinting down the hall.

"How are we supposed to get there?" Liara asked.

"The Odyssey," Sidonis said.

"The ship's under lockdown and the Council has been taken hostage. And, even if they weren't, they won't let us fly it if they hear about the Reapers," Garrus said.

"Guess we'll just have to take it," Ashley said.

"What about the Council?" Sidonis asked.

"Shepard should've just let them die during the geth attack," Wrex said. Garrus ignored Wrex's comment.

"I'll take Wrex and Sidonis and deal with Bane," Garrus said.

"I'll get on the Odyssey and stop Sovereign," Ashley said.

"Who's going to override the security?" Sidonis asked.

"The Citadel heavily damaged and security systems are malfunctioning," Tali said. "We should be able to get out." They all looked at each other, the plan was set.

"Let's do this, then," Ashley said.