Shepard found his squad waiting at the parking garage. They'd asked if he wanted the full marine contingent, and he had declined, hoping things weren't worse than they appeared. The matriarch would be formidable, and the contingent of guards no joke, but he hoped he wouldn't need to give an all-out assault on the research labs. Shepard was in the process of discussing potential exfiltration strategies – peak 15 in particular seemed like a fortress – when ensign Tucks gave a cry and dove on top of Shepard, knocking him down.
Geth gunfire chattered over their head, eating into the tall walls of the garage. Shepard was rolling, calling out, "Ambush!" before he could think. He zigged and zagged forward, leaving half his hardsuit behind in the case it had been brought in.
A bright light peeped from behind cover, and Shepard pulled, his mutant nerves singing as he called gravity to his beck and call, ripping the machine from cover. He heard a shotgun blast go off, and the machine sprayed white fluid and spun off, landing with an echoing clang as gravity reasserted itself. Shepard spun around the crate he'd been crouched behind, moving towards the muzzle flashes and geth lights. Something detonated, and a massive EMP shook the facility, causing him to stumble and his omnitool to shut down. The hardened circuits wouldn't be damaged, but the overload would cause a reboot. The lights went out, and Shepard rested against his crate. He didn't even have a pistol, just his concealed knives and biotics. Swearing to himself, he pulled one of his knives, and waited. Hearing a break in the gunfire, he dashed around, running as silently as he could towards where thought the geth were.
Silently thanking Nihlus for relentlessly drilling him on scenarios that had him outgunned and underequipped as he snaked around the corner, Shepard found himself sure of his movements despite the situation. He spun around the last corner, and found himself face-to-face with a geth sniper crouching for a great leap. He lunged instinctively, grabbing its leg as it rocketed upward. There came a great yank, and Shepard felt the ground fall away beneath him. He grunted, and planted his knife in a slot underneath the geth sniper's armor, severing a few cords as he did. White fluid leaked down the machines side, a ghostly white waterfall erupting in the middle of the dark garage.
They reached the apex of the Geth's jump and hung still for one silent second. It was far short of the ceiling, but high enough up that the landing would hurt, Shepard guessed. He glanced around. The landing might really hurt. Industrial garages weren't exactly replete with soft, rounded surfaces.
His head gave another throb, and Shepard suddenly decided he was out of patience for the situation. He yelled, and flared blue – a hanging star in the dark garage, and yanked the sniper beneath him, grabbing the thing's rifle. He kicked, and the machine went tumbling back to earth, still trailing white fluid and making digital noises that somehow managed to convey concern.
Shepard released the field he'd held himself aloft with, and felt Noveria's gravity take hold, yanking him downward far too fast. He barely noticed as the lights came on in the garage. He had seen what he'd wanted to see – his team working autonomously, without his orders, flanking and taking down the remaining geth with methodical precision. Shepard flared blue again, and slowed his descent again – a move made tricky not by the technical mastery required, but for keeping one's balance in the fighting gravity fields. He landed safely, and shot the feebly struggling geth sniper in the head with its own gun.
The echoing blast was the last shot of the fight. Ms. Matsuo burst into the garage, looking angry and ready for a confrontation. She and her security detail stopped, mouths involuntarily opening and closing in shock.
Shepard dug his knife out from the torso of the geth sniper, white coolant coating his hand and dripping off of it as he turned to confront the shocked security chief.
"You and I have different ideas of how to keep people from leaving a party." Shepard snarled, headache and the sudden absence of adrenaline making him irritable.
"We had no idea... How could they have…"
"I think Benezia snuck them in here with the cargo." Tali said quietly. Shepard nodded to himself. That seemed likely. The geth wouldn't give off life signs, and would have sophisticated defenses against detection by mechanical sensors. What was curious though, was the reason the matriarch had felt the need to leave an ambush in the garage.
"But we scanned…" Matsuo began.
But Shepard had had enough. "Ensign Tucks."
"Yes sir!" The ensign dusted himself off and saluted.
"You have my sincere thanks for saving my life. Unfortunately, I'm going to need you to explain the situation to Ms. Matsuo here. We have a Research facility to get to."
The ensign nodded, beaming in pride at having saved the commander's life. He stepped forward primly to meet the security chief. Shepard had no idea what he would say, but hoped it would be good. He motioned to the rest of his squad, and they started packing themselves into the OAV[1]. Shepard slapped on the rest of his armor, pulled the helmet over his head, activated the pass Parasini gave them, and headed out into the swirling white void in front of them before the security chief got herself together enough to wonder what they were doing in the garage in the first place.
Noveria's climate was almost as inhospitable as the corporate culture. A blizzard swirled and whipped around their vehicle, the questing shards of its fingers scrabbling like some furious and insubstantial beast at the cracks in the lumbering vehicle's armor. Tali, sitting next to him, shivered. The thick armor plating of the OAV couldn't quite drown out the howling roar of the storm.
"Cold?" Shepard asked.
Tali nodded. "I am still not used to-" She paused and looked down. "Well, I am not used to weather." She shook her head slightly. "It's not something you think about when you live on a ship for most of your life."
Shepard nodded, and was about to say something, when there came a rather distinct ping! and the OAV shook slightly.
"What was that?" Liara asked, her eyes giving away what she guessed.
"Gunfire." Ashely and Wrex grunted, putting on their helmets and moving to defensive positions. Kaidan, who was driving up front yelled back to them.
"I think I see them commander! Two contacts, 3 o'clock."
"Are there any weapons on this thing?" Garrus asked, flexing his talons.
"No." Wrex said. He sounded disappointed.
Shepard sighed, and tilted his head at Ashley. "Ash, on me."
They got up, Ashley grabbing her rifles, and Shepard an assault rifle and his pistol. Putting on their helmets, they stepped quietly out into the freezing wind, while the OAV kept up a slow course beside them. They ducked and snaked around, trying to gain visual on the geth shooting at them.
Shepard thought as they settled into position, the weather only barely held at bay by their sealed hardsuits. The Matriarch had left obstacles for them along the way. Whether from paranoia or some knowledge she'd had of their chase, Shepard didn't know. And it bothered him.
"I've got a clear shot." Ash said over the comms.
"Take it."
There came an echoing crack, and one of the geth soldiers went down. The other one turned directly their direction, and began firing. Shepard hit the deck, as did Ash, a second later. They crouched there, not moving, waiting as Ashley lined up another shot. There came another crack, and a grunt of satisfaction from Ash.
"Starting to think you don't need me around." Shepard quipped.
"Someone's gotta be the eye candy." Ashely said, a grin in her voice.
"Remind me to send you to Chakwas for an optometry exam." Shepard said dryly.
There was an ominous rumble that shook free of the howling of the blizzard. Great white bursts of powder shot from the mountainside they were on. Ash and Shepard looked at each other. Then they sprinted into the OAV.
"Step on it Lieutenant!" Shepard said as the door closed behind him. "Avalanche!" a deep rumbling now complementing the screeching chorus of the blizzard, as thousands of tons of snow and rock began tumbling down the mountainside.
Kaidan obliged, spinning the wheels and speeding them around the twisting mountain path with surprising alacrity for the lumbering ox of a vehicle. Shepard held on as he felt the wheels spin out, skidding across the frozen surface. They rounded a draw, Kaidan using the slide to make the turn at speed. He released the pedal, letting the wheels find traction again, then punched them forward once more, as what seemed like half the mountain came down behind them, barreling over the path and destroying their way back.
"We're clear commander." Kaidan said, letting out a long breath, and wiping the sweat that had gathered on his face. "But we're not going back the way we came."
That somber news kept everyone quiet as they rode towards Peak 15 – a massive, crowned and jagged mountain that deserved a name much loftier than peak 15, Shepard thought, even if it had been John Grissom who'd originally named the range. The encountered little resistance as they made their way towards the peak, and were able to speed by the geth sentries. They'd know they were coming, but they hadn't expected catching Benezia would be easy, either.
The sense of unquiet dread only grew as they reached the entrance to Peak 15, and found another OAV empty, the garage door broken in three places and tilted crazily on its tracks. Kaidan pulled up broad, pointing the strong side towards the door. As soon as their OAV came near the door, geth bullets started pinging the sides of the vehicle. They poured out of their transport, assembled into two teams, flanked the metal bastards, and tore their way into the facility.
Stopping to catch their breath once the geth had been reduced to so much broken robotics, the team looked around, examining the damage that had greeted them. Two OAVs had been destroyed, their tires melted and now congealed. One lay on its side, broken axles sticking out at crazy angles. There was a group of 4 dead humans, all in lab coats, that lay near the access door to the garage. They'd been shot from behind.
"Looks like they burned their ships." Kaidan said. Ashley nodded, and Shepard, confused, asked,
"what do you mean?"
"Cortez." Kaidan said, confused.
Shepard joined the aliens in looking perplexed.
"Conquest of Mexico?" Ashley offered.
Shepard and the nonhuman's confusion did not abate.
Kaidan sighed. "Cortez, during his conquest of Mexico, against numerically superior and technologically inferior forces, burned his ships so that his men would be forced to commit totally to their goal."
"Sleep through that lecture, Skipper?" Ashley asked, grinning impishly.
Shepard grunted. "Raised on Thessia, remember?" The chasm between himself and other humans always yawned open before him at inopportune moments.
Ash was saved from having to reply by Liara, who said quietly,
"I did not think my mother could be so… ruthless." Liara took a breath. "Committed, yes, but this…" She trailed off.
It was Wrex, of all people, who comforted her. "Her choices are not yours." He rumbled, giving her a look in his great red eyes that seemed to foster a resolve in the shy former archaeologist.
Shepard nodded. If anyone knew what Liara would be feeling, it would be Wrex.
Liara took a shuddering breath, held it, and then released it, her eyes clear and focused. "I am ready." She said simply. Shepard nodded, and they moved onward.
The tunnels and corridors they searched their way through were simple and spare, industrial steel and plastics only marred by the fallen corpse of a former researcher, security guard, or serviceperson. It was grim walking, but they encountered little resistance. As they wound their way around, searching for a sign of life, or even a console with power, the oppressive silence and feeling of unease only increased.
Finding nothing, they headed towards the elevator, opening the small antechamber, presumably for decontamination or even just the chance to put on warmer gear. There were two autoturrets propped up.
"Commander. They're facing the wrong way." Garrus said, a hint of his unease showing through the harmonics in his flanged voice.
"Make a firing line. Wrex, take point, Ash, Garrus, give him back up. Liara, Tali, I want you further back, ready to assist. Kaidan, with me."
The squad lined themselves up as ordered, the corridor now packed with bristling weapons as Kaidan and Shepard snuck down the hallway, as he and Kaidan crouched and positioned themselves on either side of the elevator door. Shepard pressed the button. There was a tense few seconds of silence, then the elevator reached their level, and opened with a pleasant ding! Despite being one of them, Shepard was never sure why humans felt the need to make their elevators vocal.
The doors slid open smoothly, a slight pneumatic hiss the only sign of the facility's built-in security measures. The squad's fingers tightened on their guns and…
Nothing. The elevator was empty.
Shepard took his angles, making sure the elevator was truly empty, before shrugging, and stepping inside. The squad followed him in. It was a little cramped.
The doors opened once more, and they spilled out of the elevator, guns up and tracking. Even Liara and Tali, the ones with the least military experience, were showing good discipline. Shepard spared a moment to be proud of how much they'd improved with the continual drilling.
They exited a similar airlock to the one a floor below, and freezing wind hit them, along with a howling whistle that came from Noveria's angry wind glancing furiously off of a shattered window.
"That's not good." Shepard heard Kaidan say.
"Ya think, Lieutenant?" Ash said tartly.
"Shepard, come look at this." Tali motioned to him, and Shepard walked over. Two geth platforms lay in a twisted and melted mess near the door, their 'arms' entangled and their legs melted and congealed on the industrial flooring, half covered by snow that had been blown in.
"The alloy the geth use to construct their platforms has trace amounts of platinum and gold in it. It's extremely unreactive. Whatever acid did this…" Tali trailed off. Shepard's face tightened, but he just nodded and patted Tali's shoulder.
The squad moved down the hallway, into what had been a mess hall. Snow had covered the surface, presumably from the now closed blast curtain from where a large floor-to-ceiling window had once been. Dead researches lay sprawled in awkward positions, their bodies stiff and half-covered in snow. Two more geth platforms lay on the stairs, showing acid burns and melted deformities.
"What was that?" Kaidan asked, whipping his rifle around a strange shifting, skittering noise.
"Probably debris." Wrex said mockingly. "Don't panic. I'll protect you."
Shepard was about to order to squad to stop picking on Kaidan when he heard the sound again, a tapping, rushing, insect-like sound. The back of his neck prickled. Motioning to Garrus and Wrex, he had them cover him as he crept his way up the stairs. He'd made it about half-way up when there came a sudden crash and a shriek that seemed to go beyond physical sound.
A thing rounded the corner, reddish brown and not quite the size of a small car. Its razor-sharp mandibles glistened with acid, while two probing, pincer-like antennae snapped at the air in undulating waves. It leaped on its four legs in a deadly arc, it's mouth opening and coming straight for Shepard's helmet.
"RACHNI!" He heard Wrex bellow.
Moving before he could think, he dove forward, under the leaping creature. Shepard was already limned in the blue corona of biotics as he fell, thrusting upward as Wrex sent his own warp at the creature. The resulting conflict of gravimetric fields sheared and exploded, tearing the creature in half in mid-air.
"Weapons free!" Shepard bellowed as he came up, rachni-guts splattering on his armor. Two more of the creatures leaped over the railing in the mess, landing amidst his scattered squad. There was chaos – gunfire, blue flashes, brief explosions they fought, tearing into the rachni that poured from a vent. At one point, Shepard found himself back to back with Garrus and Wrex, all spinning and shooting, a triumvirate of death that held the stairs. Below he could see Tali slide and come up shooting as Liara lifted the mess table and slammed it down – both cover and a weapon. Kaidan and Ashley held the squad's six, Ashley's rifle cracking as she got shots at the writhing mass of rachni.
And then there was stillness. Acid bubbled and steamed, melting through the table and railings. A few rachni twitched and went still, and the squad looked at each other, breathing hard, their pupils dilated as far as they could go.
"Binary Helix does genetics research, does it?" Shepard finally said, an edge to his voice.
Wrex kicked the corpse of one of the Rachni. "This is dangerous foolishness, Shepard. My people died by the thousands to defeat them." He focused his angry stare at the human. "And now your people want to turn them into weapons."
"You'll hear no argument from me." Shepard grunted. He paused, turning to the rest of the squad. "Did you hear its scream though?"
"Hard not to." Garrus said dryly.
"It sounded almost… pained." Liara finished quietly, nudging another rachni corpse with her toe. Shepard nodded in agreement.
"I'm not sure we have time to pity them, Commander." Kaidan spoke up.
"No." Shepard conceded. "But I think it means there's something more going on here. They didn't attack with any sort of coordination, just a blind, heedless swarm. More like lemmings than the highly intelligent foes that nearly conquered council space." Shepard unshipped his shotgun. "Keep an eye out." The squad nodded, mollified they weren't being asked to play therapist to the ravening, acid-spitting, alien monsters.
They moved on. Shepard had Garrus take point, for two reasons. The first was to test his leadership under pressure. The turian had a cool head, and had been a unifying force in the drills they ran, managing to keep his team together, even when it had included the relatively untrained Tali and Liara, or an oppositional krogan. The second reason was more self-serving. Shepard's head had begun pounding again, and his vision would intermittently go hazy. Not something he wanted to have happen when they were facing rachni swarms. When he gave the orders, Kaidan had looked at him like he guessed what might be going on, but said nothing.
"Why might Benezia be interested in studying rachni?" Shepard asked Liara. "Aside from the obvious."
Pain twisted Liara's face, and Shepard felt a brief pang of regret. But it was a question that needed asking.
"I do not know." Liara said softly. She pondered for a moment, before turning to Shepard. "It is said that the Rachni communicate telepathically, or seem to. And in your memories of Feros, Shiala mentioned a process of indoctrination – a mental dominance. Perhaps it is research along a similar line. Or maybe it is an attempt to swell Saren's army, uniting all the former galactic terrors under one banner. Or perhaps it is simply a way to procure large amounts of an extremely reactive acid. I do not know, Alexander." Liara shook her head. "I wish I did." She added bitterly, her knuckles growing tighter on her gun. "I wish I did." She said once more, almost to herself.
They proceeded through the labs, tense and alert, straining to catch the tell-tale skittering that would indicate an oncoming rachni horde. They fought two more battles with the insect-like creatures, and each time they exhibited the same lack of tactics, coming in a frantic and mindless charge, giving off that pained and terrifying shriek. The discovery of some dead scientists who had given their lives to contain the spread did not raise morale. Their nerves were near shredded by the time they found their way to the power station, and even the obtuse VI seemed eerie in the silent sparking of downed generators.
Shepard had Tali and Kaidan set to work on restoring system-wide power, in the hope that the containment procedures would help keep the rachni off of them, provide them a way to punch through and catch the asari matriarch. The rest of them acted to help them, and split up in teams to bring the station back to power.
They all gave a cheer as Tali and Kaidan emerged, and the lights all sprang back on. Their celebrations were cut short, however, but screaming rachni that emerged, smoking from the plasma conduits. Already singed, the squad made short work of them. But the unease stuck with them. Even their victories could bring more danger down on them.
After some brief discussion, Shepard had Tali activate the trace she'd put on Lady Benezia's omni-tool. Ashley and Garrus argued for maintaining the element of surprise, but were overruled. Shepard, he didn't want to fight through hordes of Rachni without a clear idea of where he was going.
They waited with expectant breath as the ping on Tali's omni-tool went out, the hours of ambushes having sensitized their nerves to the slightest of potential surprises. But they needn't have wasted the vigilance. The internal map of the station (granted by the VI) painted a marker on a place in the hot labs.
As they entered the tram station, they found the first real indicator that it had been Benezia who had come before them, not another of Saren's minions. Four asari Commandos lay draped in various positions across a barricade near the operator console for the tram, their bodies shredded or partially dissolved by the furious attacks of the Rachni. A mound of insect bodies lay scattered around them, broken and leaking the foul bile of their kind.
"They died like warriors." Wrex rumbled as they surveyed the scene.
Shepard found himself agreeing. Four commandos had stayed to secure the tram, but had only fallen atop a hill of their enemies. A gruesome testimony to the lethal effectiveness of the elite asari soldiers.
"Wonder if the rachni got all of them." Ashley checked her gun over.
"Do we know how many commandos Benezia commanded?" Kaidan looked hesitantly at Liara, who was staring mutely at the lifeless face of the commando nearest the tram.
Liara shook herself from whatever dark reverie she had fallen into. "My mother was a very influential matriarch. Aside from the T'Soni honor guard, she carried much weight with the commando cohorts." A bitter note entered Liara's voice. "Like them, she espoused an opening and hardening of asari society."
"Your mother has an honor guard?" Ashley asked, with an impressed nonchalance.
Liara colored slightly. "It is a relic of the Warring states period. The T'Sonis were once quite influential. It is only recently that the honor guard became more than a symbolic force." She hesitated, seeming to grapple with some moral question, then turned to look earnestly at Shepard.
"Commander, how do you plan to fight them? Our team is formidable, but these are soldiers with centuries of experience in warfare, superior technology and biotic firepower."
Shepard tensed as he saw the rest of the squad look to him expectantly. His answer would determine morale, which could make or break them. He glanced around. They were frayed already, their hope worn down by waves of alien insects and the threat of greater peril ahead. His head chose that moment to throb viciously, and Shepard had to prevent himself from grabbing it reflexively. Now was not the moment to show weakness.
"We already have a tactical advantage – whatever rachni we're facing they have already had to cut through." He motioned to the fallen commandos. "They're tired, and fighting for a genocidal SpecTRe. We're fresher, and we have the better cause." Shepard began to pace. "We have the fury of Eden Prime, we have the knowledge of Feros, and the trust of the Council and all its constituents on our side. We have the greater will, and the better people." He turned to look at his mismatched team with a warm smile of pride. He began, turning to each of them in turn. "Garrus Vakarian, the best damn sniper I've ever seen. Tali'Zorah, the most ingenious engineer I've ever met. Urdnot Wrex, who's won more battle's than I've eaten breakfasts. Ashley Williams, the most naturally gifted soldier I've ever served with, and Kaidan Alenko, who keeps teaching me what it means to be resourceful." Shepard turned back to Liara, "And you, Dr. T'Soni, who chose to involve yourself in this fight despite common sense and your own mother's affiliation with our enemies."
"And we have you, Shepard." Tali said quietly and unexpectedly.
Shepard nodded modestly. "and you have me. I have a few tricks of my own I can bring. But that is why I am confident we will overcome our enemies and find this Conduit Saren is searching for."
And with that, Shepard stepped on the train, waving the doors open with his omni-tool. The display of his resolve kept him from seeing the reactions of his squadmates, but he didn't really need to. He felt the mood shift, their hope restored. Even Wrex seemed cheered, Shepard's speech having somehow penetrated beyond the thick walls of his sarcasm and world-weariness.
Shepard slept on the tram, grasping at the opportunity like the seasoned soldier he was supposed to be. Dreams plagued him, even in the light slumber – impotent screams - batarian, prothean - echoed through his head, while synthetic chatter and the annihilating cacophony of the Reaper assault shattered sound into meaningless, empty noise.
"I am Vijori, the last Oracle –"
Shepard awoke as the tram slid to a stop, his head pounding even more fiercely, his eyes watering and vision hazy. They had arrived.
"Hold your fire!"
The human voice was a strange and relieving sound on their ears, after so long with only their squadmates for company under the dangerous mountain. The white-armored figure stepped out from behind his firing line.
"Sorry, we had to be sure." He said.
"I'd only be upset if you had shot at us." Shepard said dryly, stepping forward.
"Even hopped up on stims, my people know the rule: Two legs good, four legs bad." The man shook his head, and removed his helmet, revealing a bald head and high cheekbones.
"You're human, and that's enough I don't shoot. But I'd like to know who you are and what you're doing here."
Shepard looked at the man closely, then took off his own helmet.
"Commander Alexander Shepard. I'm a council SpecTRe."
Shepard saw what he knew to be fear flicker and disappear in the man's eyes.
"Well. I won't look a heavily armed horse in the mouth." He said with admirable bravado. Shepard examined his face further, and saw the dark bags, and overly dilated pupils that were indicative of extreme fatigue propped up by stims.
The man seemed to come to a decision, and held out his hand. "Captain Ventralis. My men and I have been holding out since the aliens overran the labs last week. We're all barely scraping by on stims." He shook his head slightly.
"How did it start?" Shepard asked.
The captain appraised him once more, before telling him about the previous week – the surprise of the outbreak, the casualties, pulling together men at the last moment. How he'd managed to collect the scientists, and the repeated, senseless raids against their position, which was a natural killzone.
"Even animals learn not to stick their nose where it hurts." He finished.
Shepard peppered the man with further questions, and learned that Benezia had arrived hours ago, and had disappeared towards the hot labs with her commandos. When he had learned all he needed, he thanked the Captain, and told him that he'd held out better than he'd had any right to. Ventralis seemed surprised and grateful at the compliment.
"Come on, lets head down to the hot labs." Shepard said. "If things are as the captain says they are, we might learn more about what Benezia was after here."
The squad nodded, and put their helmets back on.
That was naturally the moment when the next wave of rachni soldiers swarmed up through the shaft and attacked their position. The squad went into a defensive formation and dropped behind the cover Ventralis' men had set up, using the natural killzone to full advantage.
The battle was over quickly, the split and broken rachni bodies joining the rest of the stinking pile and tossed down an adjoining chute.
Ventralis just shook his head, calming his erratic breathing. "Well, at least the passageway will be clear down to the hot labs."
Shepard just nodded his thanks, and turned to go.
"Commander?"
Shepard turned back, his helmet reflecting in the light.
"Good luck." Ventralis said, not without a struggle.
Shepard frowned beneath his visor, but nodded his thanks. Something was off here. Something beyond the resurrected galactic menace harrying the last holdouts of a corporate research lab. Shepard shook his head, and headed down the warren of industrial corridors to the source of the tragedy beneath Peak 15.
The Hot Labs were suspiciously empty, save for the still-warm corpse of a human in scientific gear. His omni-tool identified him as Yaroslev Tartakovsky. It chimed, and opened a video file.
"If you're hearing this, then the last of a long series of mistakes has finally killed me. The singular bit of principle I held to is now the only hope Noveria has. Since we found the derelict rachni ship, I insisted we include a failsafe at every step of the way. One for the queen we found on the derelict, and one for her brood that we so unwisely separated from her." Here Tartakovsky gave a dark laugh. "The board wanted an army. Armies are useless if you can't control them." The holographic scientist shook his head. "There's only one code that will activate both failsafes - 875-020-079. Now go, purge this hell I've helped create."
The omni-tool switched off, and Shepard looked up at his team, their grim faces echoing his own.
"Shepard!" Tali said, a note of horror in her voice. He looked to where she was pointing, and saw that the hallway they were in actually had windows.
Two, actually. Two long, corridor-length observation windows.
Windows that appeared solid, because they were coated in rachni. Rachni whose haunted, insane eyes followed them, the razor-sharp antennae questing over the too-worn and too-chipped glass.
Shepard gave no order, but they all dashed down the hallway to the adjoining room, where an innocent seeming VI console would either be their salvation or their deaths.
They began hearing sharp cracks coming from the hallway as Shepard frantically enacted the fail-safe, a neutron purge that would destroy all life in the overflowing hot-labs.
"Neutron purg-"
The rest of the VI's sentence was drowned out by the dreadful shattering of hardened safety glass. That awful, mind and ear-rending screech, magnified by a thousand tore down the hallway.
"Wrex! Ash! You're vanguard. Grenades and Biotics, clear us a path! Everyone else, fire support!" Shepard said frantically, looking at the 60 seconds he had to vacate the hot labs.
Wrex roared, and charged down the corridor. Ashley screamed a terrible battle cry, and tore off after him, the rest of the squad sprinting behind. The corridor was carpeted in rachni small and large, and the chittering, scraping and screaming was incredibly loud, coming through three gaping holes in the glass. The world was thundering gunfire, yelling, and screeching aliens. Shepard and Liara had the rearguard, using their biotics to blast the rachni attempting to flank them, while the rest of the squad carved their way through the horde with savage desperation.
The elevator was 20 feet away. Shepard spun his rifle and lashed out with a biotic punch, sending a rachni soldier careening into the broken glass. 10 feet. Tali was desperately firing, her shotgun blowing chunks in the rachni that swarmed them. 5 feet. Wrex, wreathed in blue fire, roared, and lashed out with both hands, sending a wave of force that pushed away everything around him.
The doors opened, and they rushed in, squashed against the walls, and turning to bring a wall of lead to bear on the horde scrabbling at the elevator doors.
The lift rose with a pleasant sound, and there was nothing but the panting of the squad, fear and adrenaline making their hearts race at many times their normal rate. There came the sound of a deep, far off explosion, and they knew that the neutron purge had detonated.
The rachni hordes were dead.
But Benezia – well, Shepard thought, Benezia must be with the queen.
The squad spilled out from the elevator into the passageway leaden and tired, the silence between them full of its own weight. Shepard let them stay like that for a minute, all of them hollow eyed and empty, terror and desperation having violently ripped all other emotion out. All except himself and Wrex. He shared a glance of mutual, unspoken respect. It wasn't their first time for truly desperate and near horrific acts.
"We really killed all of them." Ashley said, her voice far away. She gave a small, empty laugh. "I thought I would be relieved."
"It's one thing to shoot a thing that's attacking you, but quite another to look it in the eye as you lock it in a closet with a neutron bomb." Shepard said, clapping the Chief of the shoulder. "Come on. We did what we had to, the only choice left to us. The shame in the situation was not of our making, despite what your mind is telling you."
"Is that what you told yourself after Mindoir, sir?" Kaidan said unexpectedly, anguish and anger threatening the man's tight hold on his control and making his voice rigid.
Shepard paused, the old pain, the ancient, deep-seated and unrelenting guilt making him tense, then relax, as he remembered how far he had come, that scars were just scars.
"No, Kaidan." Shepard said, opting to use the Lieutenant's first name. "I called myself every name under the sun to try and wash their blood off of my hands. It never helped, and it took my adoptive mother years to overcome the self-hatred." He grimaced. "It didn't help when she began training me as a weapon herself, but she wasn't wrong. Self-flagellation isn't justice."
Kaidan didn't seem completely convinced, but the hollowness to his eyes seemed to dissipate somewhat.
"Come on." Shepard said again. He glanced at Liara, who was staring with a faraway expression at a blank patch of wall. He hoped she was preparing herself, really listening to what he was saying. But there was no way to get around that she might be asked to commit matricide, however noble the cause.
They moved on, tired and silent. They made their way up the shaft, and then came face to face with Captain Ventralis and his men, situated behind their barrier, that wonderful killzone now pointed directly at them.
"Don't make this difficult Commander. I have my orders." Captain Ventralis said through his helmet, a note of tired regret in his voice.
Sudden fury coursed through Shepard.
"Captain, apparently you didn't hear me the first time. I am a Council SpecTRe."
Shepard let the threat hang, walking forward slowly, staring without blinking at Ventralis, heedless of the guns pointed his direction. He pressed himself up against the barrel of Ventralis' rifle. It told just how tired the captain was, that he let Shepard that close.
"Don't let your men die after all they've been through." Shepard said quietly, and felt the barrel of Ventralis' rifle tremble slightly. "You don't want to die for people whose idea of rescue involved leaving you to fend for yourself while they protected the hell they'd created."
Shepard pushed the gun barrel down, finding the captain no longer resisting. "You're a good soldier, Ventralis. No reason to die for a cause that's not your own."
"Commander!" Tali said, stepping forward. Shepard looked back, and the move almost cost him his life.
The asari assassin sprang out of the shadow she'd been hiding in, already limned in a blue glow. Shepard twisted, already reacting, but was caught and sent spinning, falling, and skidding across the ground, his hardsuit scraping against the industrial floor. He rolled, his honed instincts already intercepting the next blow.
He caught the fist, his arms held loosely, his body flexing and moving with the sheer force of the blow. He arched, letting the energy of the blow travel downwards, and out his foot that he snapped upwards, augmented by his own biotics.
Lyvanis had tried to make him her weapon. She failed, but Shepard had learned much from the secretive cabal of asari she'd sent him to for training.
Shepard's biotically assisted kick connected with the asari's shin, and it broke with a sharp crack! The assassin had time to look at him in pained disbelief before his squad filled her with holes.
"Anyone else have something to add?" Garrus asked, stepping forward and staring down the shocked human soldiers.
Shepard snarled, and straightened. His gauntlets had cracked with the blow, and the cold air felt odd on his otherwise armored hands. His joints ached from the unnatural strain of flexing and clenching for the technique, and his head was now throbbing with insistent regularity. He shook himself, and turned to Ventralis, eyes flat.
"Give me the key, and the matriarch's location."
Captain Ventralis stood silent for one moment more, then nodded and waved his omni tool, stepping aside. His voice was defeated and tired,
"The matriarch is with the queen." He said. Looking up at the hard faces and gun barrels still pointed at him and his men, he asked. "Can I just get my men out of here?"
"As long as there aren't any more assassins among them." Shepard said acidly.
"Iallis? The matriarch left her." The tone of disgust was evident in the Captain's voice. "She mostly cleaned her nails while we held this position."
Shepard just shook his head, and began walking towards the back, through the suddenly hopeful and chattering civilians, past the turrets (pointed the wrong way, again.) and into the adjoining chamber. Shepard moved before anyone had really prepared themselves, just wanting to be done. The door opened with a hiss.
What lay on the other side of the door was unexpected. The air was fresh, and though the heating elements were working, the filtering couldn't quite get rid of the cold Noverian bite. The ceiling was cavernous, stretching and disappearing to a bright point of white light that suggested the place was at least somewhat open to the elements. There were walkways that circled the perimeter of the room, with raised platforms so that workers and scientists could attend to the two prominent features of the room.
The first was a sight no one had seen in generations, a dark, almost carapace-like hull in smooth, organic lines. An entire rachni ship stood before them, its dark surface gleaming menacingly in the natural light of the chamber. The second was a massive tube, with large tanks attached on either side of it. Inside the tube was the largest Rachni of them all, its eyes glowing, and mandibles clacking, and multiple sets of antennae questing, feeling the confines of its tank with a desperate, but not mindless or animal intensity.
Matriarch Benezia stood with her eyes closed, and her hand against the tank. There came a sudden, soundless shriek that blasted through all of their minds, and the rachni queen recoiled, scrabbling frantically to get away from the bent form of the matriarch. The ghost of a victorious smile appeared on the matriarch's lips, and she turned to face them, delicately removing her hand from the glass.
"Alexander Pastoris. We meet again." Benezia said, her poise and posture making the words drip with condescending irony.
"Lady Benezia." Shepard said shortly. He opened his mouth to continue, when Liara cut him off, stepping forward, radiating earnest, confused hurt.
"What are you doing mother?"
Lady Benezia's poise dropped for a single instant, when doubt, too small and too subtle for most observers to have seen, flickered across her face. Then it smoothed out once more, and she turned to face the queen again.
"You cannot stop me. I have taken the location of the Mu relay, and so the Conduit." The matriarch's voice faded slightly, and she said, "I wrested it from the last of the rachni." There was a sudden, almost imperceptible shake of her head, and Benezia T'Soni turned to face the squad.
"You cannot stop the coming of the Reapers. You will either ascend in glory, or be tossed aside with the chaff. For there will be no war when they come, only the harvest of civilizations."
Liara let out a quiet, not-quite-stifled sob. "Mother! I have seen visions of this harvest. I have seen the work you are toiling to bring about. How can you want this?" She took a shuddering breath. "How did this become the ascendancy of civilization?"
"Child." The matriarch said, seeming to stare right past her only daughter. "My vision was too narrow before. Surely you, who study the past, can appreciate the problem of scale?" She said, tilting her head inquisitively. "I thought before in centuries. What Saren has shown me stretches to eons. I thought before in terms of advancing one to advance all, of a rising will that would drag disunity to a higher plane." She turned to face the squad fully, a fell light now in her eyes. "But I have seen truly, now, and it is within reach to bring true unity, universal sovereignty. One galaxy, united and brighter than the stars."
Benezia's terrible gaze turned back to them, and she lowered her hands. "Now, you can join us, or you can die."
"Snipers!" Garrus yelled suddenly, pointing his own rifle at the catwalks above, where 3 asari commandos had them all in their sights.
Benezia smiled. "Join the harvest, or die in the fire." She said simply, and turned away, beginning to type on a datapad.
Garrus snarled his frustration, and shot the datapad from her fingers.
The echo from the shot bounced once, and then all hell broke loose. Benezia suddenly outshone the light in the chamber, while commandos and geth suddenly poured from every door, bringing a wall of fire towards their small team.
In the split-second they had, Liara screamed a barely intelligible "NO!" and threw herself in front of the squad, a huge barrier bubble surrounding them all.
It broke with a thunderous report, and Liara fell, stunned by the biotic feedback. They were already moving - Kaidan scooping up the doctor and moving them behind cover, as Wrex charged forward, assault rifle neatly taking out geth even as he became the equivalent of a biotic wrecking ball on their ranks. Ashley dove for cover, Tali following her, as they played a double-edged game, Ash sniping and keeping them down, while Tali swept the approaching geth and commandos with tech mines and well-timed shotgun blasts. Garrus, his gun still cooling, rolled forward, swapping the weapon for his assault rifle, began spraying the other pincer of the geth assault.
Shepard - from nerves, his pounding headache, or simple anger at the callousness of the situation - did something rather foolish, and charged the ancient, incredibly powerful asari matriarch.
Only his training, the lessons by which Lyvanis would have made him her tool, kept him alive. He arched and bowed nimbly backwards, as a huge warp slid past, strong enough to fold his chest in half like paper. Feeling the sheer pull of the gravity from the blast alters his trajectory, and the shots from his rifle went wide. The matriarch smiled, and grasped the air towards herself, ripping the gun from his hands and casually crushing it. Without time to draw his sidearm, Shepard lunged, throwing himself forward and to the side as another crushing warp tore the railing behind him into modern art. Finally in hand-to-hand range, Shepard ducked to the side, and landed a single, biotically assisted punch on the matrarch's ribs before being thrown backwards by a reactive pulse of biotic power.
As he sailed through the air, Shepard took a moment to fearfully wonder just how long the matriarch could go before needing to go through cooldown. He landed and skidded with bone-jarring thuds, frantically scrabbling up and throwing himself out of the way of another warp that made the smooth deck plating ripple and buck, forming small mountains of torn steel in the floor.
Recalling every trick in his particular book, Shepard launched himself forward, a tiny boost of biotic power sending him farther than he should. He was fighting on pure instinct and training, dodging and moving frantically, erratically around Benezia's incredibly powerful attacks.
Around them, rifle fire and biotic attacks tore chunks in the scenery, the hail of destruction causing the rachni queen to cower in her tank. Garrus had moved forward, back to his sniper, picking off the asari and geth who tried to gather on the upper levels. He took a bullet in the shoulder, but kept moving and shooting, blue blood leaking slightly from the medi-gel sealed wound. Tali and Ashley were a storm of death, until an errant biotic blast knocked Ash from her feet, sending her sniper rifle skittering over the edge of the platform. Tali covered for her, pumping blast after blast into the approaching geth until her gun overheated. Wrex, covered in white coolant and his own orange blood, roared repeatedly, and broke the geth before him, bringing Tali and Ash a reprieve.
Then Kaidan rejoins the fight, moving quickly, efficiently, his tech mines shepherding the geth into a killzone, while his biotics hit them all at once. Soon only the commandos, moving with efficient, deadly movements, were left.
They said something behind their helmets, a decision made, and suddenly all the remaining commandos focused their fire on Shepard, moving quickly out of range. Kaidan, who always too care to keep his finger on the pulse of the battle, threw himself in the way. In an instant, his shield shorted, his barrier fell, and bullets pierced his calf, thigh, and bicep. But he gave a bloody smile as he fell, consciousness fleeing. Grenades, tossed in his desperate move, blasted on either side of the funneled asari. Shrapnel killed two and wounded two more.
Ash leapt up to take Kaidan's place, but the matriarch, who'd just thrown Shepard into the railing with an expert flick of her finger, turned her attention to the human woman. She gestured, and Ash felt gravity intensify, tearing muscle and pulling her forcefully down into the walkway. Ash, stubborn to a fault, screamed, and was able to get off two blasts of her shotgun, before her head bounced off of the steel floor. Wrex, having torn through the geth advance, sprinted around the long end of the rectangular platform, and bulled into the final two commandos ending one with a point-blank warp, and the other with a great stop of his foot. Purple blood leaked from the shattered helmet, and the ancient battlemaster stared down the blazing matriarch.
There was a sudden lull, where both sides regarded each other. Benezia stared at the squad, no longer glowing with the brilliant corona. Shepard picked himself up off the floor, moving as stealthily as his battered body would allow.
A crack shattered the stillness – a sharp echo that seemed to bypass mere sound. The matriarch stiffened, and a flicker of red light danced across her face, almost too brief to be seen. Her limbs returned to their fluid grace, and she tilted her head, and gave a leering grin, a vicious expression that terribly profaned the grace and power that normally surrounded her.
Then she exploded into motion. She flash-stepped into Wrex, sending the two-ton krogan flying into the upper bannister, which shattered under the weight. Wrex bellowed, and struggled to lift himself up quick enough, but Benezia was already among the squad. She charged again, blue light leaving streaks on Shepard's vision as she bowled into Garrus. He was saved by a quick roll, but the force sent him skidding, stabilizing himself by a four-point slide, sparks spraying where his armor burrowed into the platform. He turned into the skid, rolling up, bringing his pistol to bear. Three quick shots, all deflected by Benezia's barrier. The martriarch yanked him forward, and casually broke his arm, through the armor, with a quick, blazing strike strike. His face set into a rictus, Garrus, struck with his other hand, knife appearing in it from nowhere. Benezia backhanded him, and his helmet cracked with the force of it, sending him sprawling.
But then Liara was there. She let loose a scream that rent her throat, and, to the surprise of everyone, did a flash-step of her own, a blue corridor of light that impacted like a freight train into her mother's form, shattering the matriarch's near-impenetrable barrier, and rocking her backwards. Benezia stood still for an instant, reeling, and Liara gave a quick motion, biotic throw sending her mother flying.
But it was only an instant, and the matriarch stabilized in mid-air, blue coronas around her feet, before dropping and sending a shockwave at Liara. Shepard saw his opening, and pounced, joining the battling asari. Shepard's vision narrowed, every move a concentrated, precise, and focused, as he leaped around the great blasts of biotic energy flying between mother and daughter, countering with tiny, fractional fields that parried rather than blocked, redirected rather than blunted. He was fluid, fighting more desperately and more intently than he ever had before, knowing one slip could snap his bones or pop his head like a balloon.
Then three things happened at once. Shepard saw an opening, a micro-second where Benezia's barrier flickered, taking the brunt of a warp, and balancing against a singularity that Liara used to throw off her blasts, and he took it, lunging in and slamming an open, biotically enhanced palm into the matriarch's solar plexus, and ducking away as the retaliatory backhand came. Liara's already flying warp, by sheer chance, hit the same spot, shattering the barrier for good, and Wrex, bleeding from a million places, limping, and carrying a shotgun in one hand because his other was too mangled, threw his own throw, knocking the matriarch to the ground.
Shepard saw the plays of the respective players in that surreal, perfect battlefield clarity. This was the last move – a sacrifice play. Benezia knew she would not get back up, but her corona was already lighting up, ready to destroy the person who finished her. Liara, sweet, shy, Liara, saw it too. And she was launching herself forward, a flying leap that would utterly destroy her mother, and herself.
And before he could think, Shepard was between them, moving with tight efficiency, falling to meet the matriarch as she rose, his pistol already out, pressed up against the matriarch. There were two quick shots, and a roaring blaze of blue, and Shepard was thrown high. Much too high. Someone called his name.
He didn't remember landing. That was bad. A presence shifted and slid up against his own, deep strains of sepulchral and otherworldly music echoing from strange valleys resonated through his mind.
Your song is fading.
It wasn't a thought, so much as an impression. Something sent to him through the colored and unearthly motes of music.
But you are on the edge of something. Something more.
Shepard floated on the hazy clouds of the haunting melodies, trying to remember, trying to care. He was dying. He knew that. Expected that, somehow. But it would be nice to put down all those masks for awhile.
Speak for me.
The notes were more urgent now, insistent. Shepard gasped, feeling breath – a hard thing now – fill his lungs. He staggered to his feet. The movements were clumsy, like he wasn't quite under his own power. Sight greeted his bleary eyes, and had a double meaning – at once familiar and reassuring, and strange and threatening. An asari, tears pouring from her cheeks. A human woman, moving slowly, like every move pained her. A quarian, head drooping and gestures hesistant. A krogan, tottering on the edge of consciousness, vengeance in his eyes.
Tell them. The music, softer now, but insistent.
"The Rachni queen. She offers a choice." Shepard swayed, feeling his body begin to shut down. "Two melodies." He said dreamily, not quite registering the looks of concern from his friends. "A song of bittersweet endings: For the mother, bright chemical chords that join her with the estranged ones. For this one-" Shepard made a floppy gesture with his hand, vaguely indicating himself. "-a fall just as the melody shifts."
Wrex swayed heavily, and said with choked determination. "Kill them. Can't trust…" and then he fell over, his body shutting down to heal the extensive damage.
"Or, a song of forgiveness – far away from the colorless notes of your civilization, and the sour yellow perversion." Shepard gave another flopping gesture, pointing to the ship. "We will take you. Fly to meet your –" Shepard paused. The song didn't quite translate. "carrier." He said finally. "A song of hope, for all." Shepard made the gesture to himself again.
He vaguely noticed Tali's bright eyes go wide, and her omni-tool rising.
"Joker! Can you get a geosynchronous orbit on our position?"
"We can't trust them, Tali –" Ash croaked.
"We can't –" Shepard's vision was fading to black, his hearing retreating within him. "-genocide!" he heard Tali say, and then he collapsed.
Let me sing of the lost, bright one.
And Shepard's mind was filled with somber colored song, as his consciousness fled to the strange ridges and valleys of the Rachni's echoing music.
A/N: It has been awhile! Glad to be back though, and I hope my alternate take on Noveria was more fulfilling, and less forced, than the original. I always felt Benezia to be the worst boss in the game, both because of the missed pathos, the incredibly cheesy script ("You do not know the privilege of being a mother" - ...what?) And, lets be honest, the technical limitations of the game engine and biotics. Noveria was an excellent place to show the dual role of the SpecTRes - both spy and soldier: Schmoozing around bureaucracy, to fighting overwhelming odds against strange foes and emerging victorious. Noveria in the game only halfheartedly accomplishes that.
From here on out, things will get considerably more AU. You will recognize the events, but much of the reasons, the plot events that connect Noveria to Virmire to Ilos, will be changed.
Leave reviews and tell me what you think! At the moment, I have lots of ideas about how I would considerably rewrite, and improve Mass Effect 2 and 3. But that's a significant undertaking - one that's fueled by reviews ;)
Hope you enjoyed reading!