Jade leaned back against the truck wall and closed her eyes, suddenly exhausted as the adrenaline of the last few minutes drained out of her. The rumble of the truck jolted her and she winced at the pain. She felt a brisk tap on her shoulder and opened her eyes to a three-fingered hand offering two white pills.
"For the pain," Mordin said as she looked up at him. "Bitten tongue not fatal, but could distract at a critical moment."
Jade took the pills and grimaced as they scraped against the wound. She held the tablets under her much-abused tongue and, as they dissolved, she felt the drugs take effect. She took a sip of water from her suit's filtration unit to help wash the bitter taste out of her mouth, then gave the salarian a look of gratitude.
Mordin nodded and returned to his seat with Eve.
Once the sharp edge of the pain faded, she turned her attention back to the conversation in the truck.
"Have there been any updates?" Jade asked, grunting as she hauled herself upright and moved to the bench seats.
"Shepard's reporting some tremors in the ruins she's moving through," Wrex's tone was censorious. "If you hadn't been over there whimpering over a bumped head, you'd have heard the report."
Jade clenched her jaw and counted the reasons it would be a bad idea to insult yet another of Shepard's allies. Instead, she raised a single eyebrow. "And?"
Wrex gave a snort that half derision and half amusement. "And it's probably Kalros. These are supposed to be her hunting grounds, after all."
Jade shook her head briefly at the krogan leader. "That means exactly dick to me. Who the fuck is Kalros?"
The shrouded female krogan turned her head to regard Jade with steady yellow eyes. "Kalros is the mother of all thresher maws."
"Still nothing," Jade shrugged. "I was on ice when humanity took to the stars, so I haven't got the foggiest as to what a thresher maw is. And, to be quite honest, I fail to see how any of this can help us against that ginormous machine out there."
"Thresher maws are a type of aggressive, territorial, subterranean segmented worm found throughout the galaxy," Mordin pulled up an image on his omni-tool as he spoke. "Highly dangerous species, capable of spitting acid over several hundred meters and known to chase or kill anything that enters its territory."
"Fuck me," Jade opened several files as the scientist sent them to her. "It's like a fucking centipede on some serious steroids. I can't imagine the kind of damage a small one could do, let alone one called the 'Mother of all thresher maws'."
"That's the whole point," If Wrex had been human, Jade would have said he was beaming. "Eve here thinks we might be able to get Kalros to help us out with the Reaper. They're territorial, very territorial, and we know this area has two of the largest Maw Hammers ever made. If anything can call up the ultimate thresher maw, they can."
"You want to call one of those monsters here? It's your funeral." She shook her head. "It's a crazy idea but what else can we do? You talk to Shepard about this?"
"Shepard's got enough on her plate," Wrex rumbled. "We'll give her the details once she gets out of the rubble."
They rode on in silence for another few minutes, getting sporadic reports from Shepard's team. Periodically, Wrex would move to the front of the truck and peer out the windshield at the Shroud Facility and the Reaper guarding it.
"Really pisses me off, seeing that damn thing on my planet," he said. "And trying to kill us with poison too. Guess they thought we were too difficult to try to take over our home world the way they did Earth. Nice to know someone in this galaxy still considers us a threat."
Mordin started to comment on how the Salarian Dalatrass' attempt at bribing Shepard into sabotaging the genophage cure was evidence that she considered them a real threat, but Jade had latched on to the krogan's statement about her home planet.
"Wait, these things are on Earth?" Her blood turned to ice as she struggled to keep her face a neutral mask. "How many? When?"
"Yeah, Shepard didn't tell you?" Wrex seemed genuinely confused by Jade's reaction. "They were the first planet hit, after the batarians anyway, but nobody counts them."
Mordin glanced up from the simulations he'd been running on his omni-tool.
"Understood Earth hardest hit so far," His hands still flew over the haptic display as he spoke, making minor tweaks to the cure formula. "Government on Arcturus Station first to be hit, then Luna and large hubs on planet. Only resistance now is small, scattered guerilla units led by Admiral Anderson. Unlikely to be effective, but good for morale. Shepard organizing alliances to support effort to free earth."
He spread his hands in a gesture that encompassed all of them. "Is what all of this is for. Krogan provide support to Palaven, then turians free for assault on Earth."
Jade blinked slowly as all the puzzle pieces fell into place; Shepard's refusal to consider swinging by Earth to let Jade look for her family, how she shut down any time Jade mentioned going home, the pitying looks she'd gotten from some of the crew when she told some of her stories from her time in the field. Her thoughts were roiling at the implications of what the old salarian had said and her emotions weren't in much better shape. But she tamped it all down and put it away. Compartmentalizing, just the way she'd been trained.
"Well," she said slowly and evenly as she fought to keep herself in check and shut her feelings away. "I guess that explains a lot."
She fell silent as Mordin returned to his work on the cure, speaking softly to Eve every so often. Finally Shepard announced that they could see sunlight, they were exiting the catacombs, but there were reaper forces in the city. It was shortly thereafter that the tremors Shepard's team had been reporting.
"Christ, was that Kalros?" Jade turned a delicate shade of chartreuse as the tomkah pitched and rolled. She glanced at the viewscreen that showed the terrain outside the truck. Right now it was focused on the view behind them and she saw, behind Wreav's truck, a fountain of dirt. Vaguely she heard Mordin and Wrex bickering behind her, something about iron in the truck and dietary supplements. She leaned over the driver's shoulder, focused on that fountain of dirt as it gained on them.
"Faster," she mumbled, half to the driver, half to herself. "Must go faster!"
They raced pell-mell through the ruins searching for the rare rocky patch where Kalros couldn't follow, eking every ounce of speed from the cumbersome trucks in an effort to get just another hundred meters on the monster. Finally, they managed to elude the beast in time to pick up the commander. Jade hauled Javik through the door, her face grey with nausea and her mouth drawn into a grim line.
"Move it you ancient asshole," she grunted as she shoved him into the already crowded passenger area and extended her hand to Shepard. The rumble that preceded the massive thresher maw was getting stronger. The screech of rending metal heralded Kalros' return and Jade slammed the door shut on the commander's heels.
"Go, go, GO!" the order came from at least three throats as they raced away from the scene of destruction. In a moment of absurd clarity, Jade realized that, had she not changed trucks when she did, she'd be dead or dying right now. Just like Wreav. Her hands trembled ever so slightly as she made her way back through the press of bodies in the passenger compartment.
Javik gave her a strange look as she brushed past him but held his peace. Jade was grateful to him. This was neither the time nor the place to attempt to pin down what was going through her head. She propped herself up in a corner away from the main players. Shepard, Wrex and Mordin were all talking animatedly.
Get a grip Harmon. She shook her head and sipped a little more water to settle her stomach. You can't afford to lose your cool now. Besides, it's not that different from any other op, you could have died a million times in a million ways before this moment. Just count your blessings and your ammo and get your head in the game. This isn't half over. Not even close.
It seemed that the sacrifice of the second truck had distracted the thresher maw enough to allow them a clean get away. Jade lost track of time and it seemed like mere moments before the tomkah was again slowing to a stop. Jade exited the truck and stared up at the massive machine blocking the path to the shroud.
"That's one of the smaller Reapers," Javik said as he drew even with her. "There are others nearly two kilometers in length."
They listened as Wrex and Eve outlined their plan to Shepard. Jade saw the doubt flicker behind the commander's eyes and the resolve that firmed them when she came to the same conclusion the others had.
"The commander is a remarkable woman," Javik said softly. "This plan is suicide, but she will follow it through because there is no other way forward."
"Yeah, she is," Jade replied. "They broke the mold when she was born."
Mordin pointed out the nearby lab where he could finish the synthesis of the cure, and Shepard nodded to Jade.
"Harmon, I want you to stay with Mordin. We don't know that the three of us will be enough of a target to distract all the Reaper forces so you're on guard duty. No matter what you make sure you give him enough time to finish this." Jade saluted the commander and turned to trot after the salarian's retreating back.
"See you on the other side."