Light fell onto Shepard's team from above. They had descended a hole in the ground to find a way into the interior of the skyscraper, a tower ExoGeni had first used as local headquarters and which now was the planetary main base of the geth. The synthetics had covered the interior of the building with an impenetrable force field, which so far had frustrated Shepard's advance. However, while every corridor, stairway and room seemed to eventually end in a blue-glowing field, the hole led to a tunnel without such, a way around the energy field.
The tunnel seemed to go straight through what once must have been a prothean wall, its sides clearly not constructed but cut. Eventually, it opened into a large, longdrawn hall. It seemed to be similar to the "garages" they had seen before, with a sort of road in a lower position in the middle, but it was in a much worse state of decay than Zhu's Hope's garage. Not only was it full of rubble like everywhere here, it also had several fires burning at different locations. And varren, or at least a varren cadaver. Carefully, Shepard approached it, wanting to take a closer look. Had it fallen to the geth, too? It looked like a fresh shot, so were maybe geth nearby? He went down to one knee to take a closer look when a shot grazed his shields. Immediately, all his team members raised their weapons.
"Damn it!" a female voice could be heard.
Shepard stood up again, and saw a young woman approaching. She wore the same kind of ExoGeni uniform most people in Jeong's refugee camp had worn. She held a pistol in front of her. However, her voice was meek and insecure when she spoke again.
"I'm so sorry," she said, "I thought you were geth, or one of those varren."
"Are you Lizbeth?" Shepard asked. "Juliana's daughter?"
"I... I'm Elizabeth Baynham, yes," she answered, finally lowering her weapon. "Have you... have you met my mother? Is she still alive?"
Shepard nodded. "She is with some others from the headquarters, at the way point station on the skyway."
"Oh thank god," Lizbeth breathed out. Her voice was near breaking, and even her knees seemed to give in for a moment. "She's alive. I thought I was the only one left."
"No," Shepard answered. "Zhu's Hope is still standing as well. But tell me, what are you doing here?"
"Ah, it's my own fault," Lizbeth sighed in response, "Everyone else was running and I stayed back to back up data. Next thing I knew, the geth ship latched on and the power went out. I was trapped. I tried to get out, but the way was blocked."
"The geth have docked a ship to this tower as well?" Shepard asked. "Just how many vehicles did they bring to this planet?"
"I can't say," Lizbeth answered, "but it's definitely still here. I think that is where they get the power for that energy field they've put up here. I've noticed they're laying power cables everywhere, and they seem to lead to the ship. They have us trapped here, they don't want anyone else getting access to the... to the, well..."
"To the what?" Shepard inquired, forcefully and to a degree even aggressively. He had quite enough of ExoGeni people blocking him.
"I-I don't know for certain," Lizbeth stumbled out an answer, "but 'm guessing they're here for the Thorian. It's an indigenous lifeform. ExoGeni was studying it."
"And what interest would the geth have in it?" Shepard asked. "What is it exactly, anyway?"
"I don't know," Lizbeth answered. "I think it's some kind of plant being. I know it's very old, thousands of years even. But I don't know why the geth would have any interest in it. ExoGeni was studying it, yes, but I don't think they found anything interesting." She paused and then added: "Maybe... maybe I can do some inquiries on it, but not with the geth crawling around everywhere. We need to get out of here, past the field."
"And the most direct way seems to be an attack on a geth ship," Shepard commented. "Even if a grounded geth ship. Great, just great."
"Here, take my ID card," Lizbethsaid, "it will open you any locked doors. And maybe you'll... ah, well, you might find something in the labs here. About the Thorian. But be careful, the geth are really everywhere."
Tali spoke up, determination in her voice: "They haven't been able to stop us so far."
Shepard smiled. Shooting geth seemed to definitely have raised her morale. And she was right, of course. "You search some safe spots down here," he told Lizbeth, "I'll see if I can disable that energy field, and then we bring you to your mother."
"Looking forwards to it," Lizbeth answered and even managed a small, ironic laugh, "In the meanwhile, I'll just find a small hole to hide in. Good luck to you."
The garage proved to be one long gallery of destruction. As the team walked along it, they saw it covered in debris and fires, with several packs of varren sitting or walking among them. All growled when in sight; some came too close and hot to be shot, but the majority had the good sense to stay away from them.
It took a while for them to find a staircase leading upwards, towards the offices and small laboratories of ExoGeni. Most of those consisted of some furniture and equipment crammed into the desolate rooms of the ruins, with little décor and with even the rubble only removed as much as necessary. Whoever set up this dependence must have been a hell of a miser. It was actually somewhat eerie, to find human belongings here, among the vastness of ever more bland concrete, standing among debris and dust.
They searched several of the rooms, finding nothing more than datapads and other office materials. Not even geth were here. Eventually, they came across one of their power cables and followed itt. It led them through further corridors and stairs, but at least they still encountered no geth.
They ended up on a catwalk that overlooked a large hall. Shepard stopped at the entrance to it and raised his hand, signalling his team to halt. Two monstrous metallic machines loomed over the room from the opposite wall, both connected to a huge amount of cables and tubes, entangled in such a mess that made them look like tentacles springing forth from a monster.
"It's the geth ship," Tali, who was right behind Shepard, commented with a subdued voice,"they use those claws to anchor their ships at the side of buildings."
"And to power their field," Shepard answered, likewise quiet, as geth could be nearby. "Is there any way to cut the power?"
"It will be difficult," Tali answered. "I don't think we have the necessary equipment. We can check the claws for weaknesses, but the geth are very thorough."
Shepard nodded and signalled his team to advance slowly and carefully. After the battle against the krogan mercenary on Therum he had taught his entire 'Spectre entourage' Alliance Navy hand signs. In hindsight, it was such an obvious thing to do, to unify communication codes, that the Commander even felt a bit abashed about not having done so earlier.
The team dispersed itself over the length of the catwalk. Wrex, as the toughest fighter, guarded the stairs, while the rest looked down over the railing. Geth were assembled down there, in between the two claws. They were kneeling, a gesture Shepard so far had never seen with any other geth unit he so far had encountered. Specifically, they were kneeling in the direction of a glowing orb. It looked almost like... prayer? Do geth pray?
Shepard pushed that thought aside. Interesting as it was, it also was irrelevant to the mission. "Fire!" he ordered, and began shooting himself. The geth did not stand a chance. Caught in a surprise attack from a broad front, most units were down before they could even put up only a minimal amount of resistance. Some units managed a counter-fire, but it was unaimed and ineffective. The whole battle was pretty one-sided. Just as battles should be. The ideal battle is one where the enemy has no chance.
However, the geth ship's claws and central cables proved to be tougher than the geth platforms. With their equipment at hand there was no way to even significantly damage them. Shepard wished for a good amount of explosives, but of course there were none around. Frustrated, he searched the room and watched the claws for several minutes, nervously pacing up and down. He came to a halt near the glowing orb, where the geth had knelled. Metal rods had been placed around it.
"This thing looks almost like a small chapel, doesn't it?" he asked.
"It's an almost peaceful place," Garrus, who stood nearby, commented. "But do you really think the geth were using it for religious purposes?"
Tali was walking towards them, and answered: "The geth do show some characteristics usually associated with organic life. It is natural to assume that seeking understanding from a higher power may be among those characteristics."
Shepard pondered that for a short while. It seemed the geth were more alike to organic life than he had assumed, even though Tali probably would never formulate it that way. He wondered if they could also be brought to making the same common mistakes in battle as organics. Not that it was really relevant right now.
"Did you find anything we could use to sever those claws, or the cables?" he asked the quarian.
"No," she replied. "Nothing we have brought along would do more than scratch them.."
"Suggestions?" Shepard prompted.
"There is a second pair of claws," Tali answered. "It should be above this one. We only need to find a way to damage a single claw to leave the entire ship off-balance, so our best chance is to keep looking for weaknesses."
"All right," Shepard agreed, "let's move out of here."
He was only too glad, too. The toughness of the claws frustrated him, and the geth 'chapel' made him feel uneasy. What would geth pray to anyway? Higher powers, but which ones? Contemplating a potential AI god left a bitter mental aftertaste.
The team continued their way, as silently and carefully as possible. They walked in a single file, Shepard in front and Wrex at the rear, and everybody tried to cover as much space with their respective weapon as possible. While this displayed sound military professionalism, in the end it proved to be futile. They managed to find a stairwell leading them straight upwards, and not a single geth unit appeared to block their way.
The stairs led to a longdrawn hall not dissimilar to the one they had just left, but much larger. Peering around the corner, Shepard could see several computers and electronics in the room, by the looks of it both human and geth designs. Massive claws were in one of the long walls, and like in the room below several tubes and cabled led from them. Most immediately important was that stairs to a catwalk were near the entrance.
Shepard waved his team to advance to the catwalk, which they did as soundlessly as they could manage. Surprisingly, even Wrex managed that very well. His weight and stature did not lend themselves to sneaking, but Shepard suspected the krogan had accumulated enough expertise during his centuries of mercenary work.
Going up the stairs, Shepard looked at the claws. They looked just as invulnerable as the ones they had just left. Noticing the Commander's sight, Tali commented quietly: "Same as before. We have neither the tools nor the ordinance to deal with those claws. But this room looks like the geth set up a laboratory. Maybe we will find somethi... – they have spotted us!"
Several units below them turned around and opened fire, and eventually they had the attention of all geth in the room. The team took up positions along the catwalk to return fire. Only Wrex stormed downwards the stairs to meet the enemy in close quarters. Without much thinking, Shepard walked down some stairs, jumped over the railing and joined the krogan. If they let the geth pin them down into a corner, this could only end badly.
Shepard worried how the anchored ship might intervene in the battle, but soon he did not think of anything any more. Again, he fell into a kind of fugue. It was very easy not to think while in battle. Shooting, running, shooting, unleashing biotic warps, shooting, going in cover, running, shooting, again seeking cover – it was almost an automaticism. Shepard surrounded himself with a deadly aura of bullets and dark energy. And Wrex even exceeded his actions, storming head on against geth, at times even entering physical close combat.
The geth did manage to build up a viable defence. As much as Shepard and Wrex were both in their element, they often were blocked by enemy fire, or hit themselves. However, even though the Commander had not consciously planned for that, the geth soon found themselves in a hammer and anvil situation. If they turned their direction to the catwalk, Shepard and Wrex would hit them hard from the side; but if they turned against them, the other team members could shoot at them from above. Thus, even geth barriers proved to be of little value in this crossfire.
Several units also ended up lifted into the air or thrown around by dark energy. The enemy had numerical superiority, but was thus thrown into deep disarray, by the crossfire, by biotics and by Shepard's and Wrex' charge. The most problematic geth were three light units who had found a good cover, from which they were needling and hitting Wrex and Shepard throughout the entire combat. However, the next time the Commander shot a glance towards them, they were involved in a firefight of their own, two against one. Confused, he looked up to the catwalk, wanting to see if others had observed that, too. Tali raised her omni-tool in salute, and Liara besides her smiled.
The battlefield cleared, and Garrus, Tali and Liara soon came down from the catwalk to join Shepard and Wrex again.
"You look hurt," Tali said to Wrex. Shepard had not taken time to notice it before, but she was right: His insane charges into enemy numbers had taken its toll. "You should apply medi-gel."
"I'm fine," Wrex replied gruffly. "This will heal on its own."
Tali nodded, apparently accepting this as sufficient response. As did Shepard; the krogan after all had centuries of experience, he would knew when medical attention was needed and when not.
"It looks like the geth took over an ExoGeni lab," Garrus commented.
Shepard nodded, taking a closer view of his surroundings. It was clear the room must have served as laboratory for ExoGeni, as it was filled with various electronics. But between them the geth had put their own terminals, and they also seemed to have tried to gain access to the human computers, as shown by several geth cables leading to them.
"I wonder what the geth were researching here," Tali said, "Part of it even looks like a containment lab."
"In any case, a lab should be full of data," Shepard summarised, "maybe we will find something that will help us against that ship. Tali, do you think you can secure the geth terminals?"
"It's difficult," she replied, "but manageable."
"Good," Shepard said, "then you do that and Garrus, you secure the human terminals." A grin appeared on his face. "The rest of us will, ah, cover you. That's a very important part, too, after all."
"What would the galaxy ever do without you biotics," Tali commented dryly, and then began to work.
The terminals proved to be a veritable treasure dove of information. The data gleaned from the human electronics was plentiful, but not very useful. Most of it detailed administrative decisions and shipments from and to Feros. The most interesting data was information about a deal some ExoGeni employees had apparently done with a group named "Cerberus". On the other hand, decryptable geth data was rare, but some of its information was explosive – like the plans to establish outposts for an invasion of Citadel space in the Armstrong Cluster. This news really shocked and excited Shepard; it was an enemy measure to be countered quickly and decisively.
It was, however, not the most shocking information to be found in the room.
"Ah, Commander?" Garrus called while Shepard was still going through the geth data about their operations in the Armstrong Cluster. He turned and walked towards the turian.
"I've managed to activate this VI here, but it will only give out informations to ExoGeni employees," Garrus explained, "you still have Baynham's ID, I think?"
Shepard nodded, and began to inquire the Virtual Intelligence. Apparently, the geth had tried the same, but failed, so Shepard began by asking about the geth's inquiries. It turned out they had been about the Thorian, or "Species 37" as the VI called it. For that reason now Shepard asked about it, and what ExoGeni knew about it.
And what he learned left him absolutely disgusted, shocked, angry. He clenched his fists and gnashed his teeth, and his breath became harder and more ragged. There was a great evil on this planet, but it were not the geth. It was not even the Thorian. It was ExoGeni.
"We need to find this lying, manipulating Baynham snake right now," he spat out, but was interrupted by Tali:
"Commander Shepard? I think I have found a way to damage the geth ship."
Shepard slowly breathed in and out, and willed himself to calm down. They still had a job to do. Afterwards he would be free to give in to his anger. He looked forwards to that.
He again breathed out slowly to regain a steady voice, and replied: "What is it, Tali?"
"Look at the message at this console," she said, "apparently one of the shuttle doors the geth ship has used to put a claw through is faulty."
Shepard sighed and came to look. If Tali thought this was a way to finish their job, then she probably knew what she was talking about. The console was part of a larger terminal, standing in one of the corners in the back. It probably was not part of the laboratory devices, but rather seemed to be a control unit, so far overlooked.
"The safety mechanism of the door is faulty," Tali explained, "If we can get it to close with just the right amount of power, then the mechanism will not stop it. Even though the door will at so much power tear through steel. Sounds like just what we need."
For once, Shepard was pleasantly surprised. That seemed like just the lucky break they needed.
"I have set up a configuration," Tali went on, "You just need to start the process."
Shepard grinned. "And that might cut off the claw?" he asked.
"And probably lead to the geth ship falling down," Tali confirmed, bile in her voice. She was obviously looking forwards to see geth falling to their death.
"Then I think you should have the honour," Shepard said.
Tali nodded, and pressed some buttons. A screeching sound came from the middle of the hall, and where the claws where anchored, and then an explosion could be heard: One claw had been severed, The ground and the entire tower vibrated, as the geth ship slid downwards. The three remaining claws seemed unable to hold its weight. Further explosions could be heard from afar as those other claws either snapped back from the building or were also severed, by the ship's own weight. Finally, the vibrations entered, and after a moment a far away sound of crashing metal could be heard – the ship had violently reached the rubble filled bottom of the planet.
Shepard was still grinning, now triumphantly. "Well done," he told Tali.
"I just hope that ship was full of them," Tali commented with a hate-laced voice.
Before Shepard could answer to that, the comm activated itself, a clear sign that the geth field, which so far had also blacked all communications, was now down.
Lieutenant Alenko's voice could be heard: "Ground Team Two to Ground Team One. Are you reading? Commander? I repeat: Ground Team Two to Ground Team One, please respond."
"We hear you, Lieutenant," Shepard answered. "Sorry, we had been jammed before."
"We have a serious situation here, Commander," Alenko explained. "Something happened to the colonists. They've begun hostilities with us, for no discernable reason. We've been able to hole ourselves up in one of the prefabs, but I don't know how long we can hold here. Or whether we should try to make a run for the Normandy."
"We know what happened to them," Shepard replied. "Just sit tight. They have no military-grade weapons, they should be no danger to you. Don't harm the colonists unless absolutely necessary, they're under some kind of alien mind control. Hard as that may be to believe."
"Not any more," Alenko answered. "But some of the marines here seriously see the colonists as a threat. Given that the colonists have completely surrounded us, and obviously have aggressive intentions, I can't blame them."
"Remind them of their oaths," Shepard ordered. "We servicemen and marines have sworn to protect humanity, and those people are still part of it. It's... well, it's just not their fault. No worry, we're on our way back. Just hold your position. And good luck to you."
"Aye-aye, Commander," Alenko confirmed. "Good luck to you, too. Ground Team Two out."
Shepard turned towards his team: "The destruction of their ship will have gotten the geth's attention. They'll soon flock to here like..." 'Like moths to the light' he had wanted to say, but he was unsure if making such similes would be wise in a crew of aliens "...like mad. We need to get out of here, fast. But before, we'll save and download as much of the ExoGeni data as possible. That company is going down!"
Since access had been established to every ExoGeni terminal in the room already, it was a simple and quick task. Thousands of files were downloaded, and would require detailed insight later on, but some of the already viewed files made sense now: The research project on Nodacrux, probably dealing with the Thorian. Or the deal with that 'Cerberus' group. He would have to check both after leaving Feros.
Afterwards, the group rushed to get outside again. Their sensors showed geth closing in to them, but fortunately from rather large distances. They would make it if they hurried, and so they hurried, weapons drawn and ready. Despite their haste, they remained observative, and Shepard especially was looking for geth in every shadow.
A humanoid shape appeared in a door frame in front of them. Shepard raised his pistol – but recognised Elizabeth Baynham before he could fire.
"There you are!" she exclaimed. "We should get out of here, I don't think..."
She stopped when Shepard raised his weapon again, aiming right at her. Her face became pale.
"You lied to me" Shepard hissed. Pouring everything he had found out about ExoGeni's relationship to the Thorian into his anger, he continued: "You knew! You knew about how the people from Zhu's Hope were abused. You knew how the Thorian releases spores, spores people breathe in. You knew how the spores are mind-controlling people, and you knew about how they condition people with pain. And more even, ExoGeni was studying it!" He went on in a mock-documentary voice: "The Zhu's Hope test group has yielded interesting results. Within 21 days, 58% of the colonists exhibited altered behaviour. Within 28 days, before the sensors went offline, almost 85% of the test group were infected." He came threateningly close to Elizabeth. "You enslaved over a thousand of colonists, had them go through horrifying pains while they were indoctrinated, all for your sick science projects!"
At that point, Lizbeth was trembling with fear, and near tears. "But I... I wanted to stop those tests!" She replied, in a weak but pleading voice. "I wanted... wanted to help those people." Her voice grew even quieter. "But they threatened me. Told me I'd be next." Again, pleading: "That's why I stayed behind when the geth arrived. I... I wanted to send a message to Colonial Affairs. About what happened here, about what ExoGeni was doing! The power cut before I could send the message."
That left Shepard stunned. He had so wanted to find an outlet for his rage, to find somebody to accuse of what ExoGeni had done – so much that his judgement appeared to have suffered.
"I just looked through the downloaded data about her" Tali spoke up quietly, in a neutral voice "When the geth hit, she officially was on probation for her protests regarding the treatment of the infected colonists."
That made sense. As did her reasoning of why she was still here when the geth struck. And she had hinted the team might find 'something' in the laboratories. Shepard's stature slumped together a bit. He breathed out, and said: "I... I'm sorry. I... Well, I guess it's unfair for me to expect of others to go against all odds. I'm a Spectre, I stand above the law. But of course, not everybody is. Seems like you did what you could, and... well, that even at great personal risk. I... well, I'm sorry. I so wanted to find a target to accuse, but you're clearly not it."
"No," Lizbeth answered weakly. "I did help to create this whole mess. I protested, eventually, but way too late. Maybe I did what I could, but it was not enough. So let me help you, please."
Seeing her so almost broken, Shepard's entire emotional disposition changed from rage to pity. Or rather, the rage was still there, but in the background now, waiting for new targets. "Okay," he agreed, "then tell me where the Thorian is."
"Just before the geth attacked, a central nerve bundle was discovered, probably the centre of the creature" Lizbeth reported. "It's directly beneath Zhu's Hope, but the entrance is blocked. The colonists covered it with a freighter just before the attack."
Shepard remembered that freighter, its surviving crew reduced to one. That would explain why she had not yet tried to leave – she was also already under the Thorian's control. "Smart move," he commented, "I wonder if the Thorian thought of that itself, or whether its thralls do the thinking."
"ExoGeni could never fully find out whether it's sentient or not," Lizbeth answered.
"In any case, that's where we have to go now, freighter or not," Shepard said. "Of course with a stop in between where your mother is. Your mother... and Jeong. Yes, that oughta be interesting." He grinned, the grin of a wolf stalking its prey. He would find the legitimate target for his anger soon enough.
The group made their way through the building, Shepard determined, Liara slightly shocked by what had happened, Lizbeth gloom, and the other aliens somewhere in between. Shepard still had trouble reading turian and krogan facial expression, and Tali's face could not be seen at all. When they were leaving the tower, Shepard saw that the Mako was still standing where he had left it.
"Engaging my suit's anti-nausea medication now." Tali commented just as she has reached the vehicle. "Most likely, it will be needed."
"I wish I had such a suit!" Liara exclaimed, "Such medication sounds practical when Shepard is driving." Then she thought for a moment, and ruined her attempt at humour by continuing: "That is, not that I want to make light of your people's fate or call the necessity for suits a good thing..."
Tali, as earlier, just shook her head.
"It's made worse by the fact we will have to find a place for Baynham," Garrus commented. "All seats are already occupied."
They ended up positioning Lizbeth between Garrus and Liara in the second seat row, partly occupying the edges of both seats. It was probably not very comfortable at all, but it would have to do.
Getting past the remaining geth on the skyway proved to be no problem at all. The Mako's interior were soon filled with Lizbeth's shrieks, as she was less militarily disciplined as the others and had not yet experienced Shepard's driving style, but actually it was a very much softer and smoother ride then on the way towards the ExoGeni building.
Entering the way station where the ExoGeni refugees had sought refuge, and driving down its large ramp, the Mako caught further comm chatter: "...anyone. Is there anybody picking this up?" – "Get away from that radio!" – "This is Juliana Baynham of Feros Colony. Please, help us." The transmission ended in static.
"That's my mom!" Lizbeth exclaimed. Shepard nodded. And the other voice is Jeong. I wonder what's going on down there. "Stop the Rover, stop!" Lizbeth continued once they had reached the end of the ramp, "I need to get to her!"
She tried to jump out of the Mako as soon as Shepard had brought it to a halt near the survivors' location, but was held up by Garrus, over whom she tried to climb.
"Careful," Garrus cautioned. "We don't know what is happening there." The turian seemed to have come to the same conclusions as Shepard.
Together, the group left the Mako, and made their way down to the survivors' shelter. Already at the top of the ramp towards it they heard shouting.
"You can't do that, Jeong!" That was Juliana's voice.
Jeong's voice responded: "Everyone shut up! Ah... let me think!"
"You won't get away with that." Again, Juliana. By that time, Shepard's team had passed half the ramp, and could see the scene before them. Jeong was nervously pacing around, while Juliana observed him constantly with a hostile view.
"Get her out of here!" Jeong demanded, and an ExoGeni guard grabbed Juliana, just as Shepard had reached the bottom of the ramp. Jeong whirled around, facing the Spectre. "Hah, Shepard," he said, "Damn it."
He was interrupted by Lizbeth darting forth towards her mother, and towards the guard holding her mother. "Get away from her you son of a bitch!" she screamed. Surprised, the guard let his attention down, allowing Juliana to wiggle herself away and come running towards Juliana. They ended up in a tight embrace.
Meanwhile, the other guards were not happy to see six heavily armed persons entering their domain, and weapons were raised by both sides. Tension was in the air. The company guards outnumbered Shepard's team, at a quick glance he counted eight or nine of them, but they were probably not nearly as well equipped.
Jeong looked at the mother-daughter reunion with distaste and then turned towards Shepard again: "Damn it. I knew it was too much to hope the geth would kill you. I found..."
"Shut up, Jeong," Shepard interrupted him, and raised his weapon. He let his anger out unconstrained. "You let hundreds be enslaved in the Zhu's Hope colony. You let them go through all this pain, so that ExoGeni could have a mind control substance. This ends here."
"What?" Juliana exclaimed.
"There's a plant life form beneath the colony," Lizbeth explained. "It has taken control of the colonists through its spores, and ExoGeni knew all along!"
"And now they want to kill them all," Juliana said.
"What?" Shepard asked, and then made some threatening steps towards Jeong. "Explain yourself," he hissed. He channelled dark energy through his hands, creating a blue aura, to strengthen the effect.
"Co- Communications are back up again," Jeong explained. "ExoGeni wants this place purged."
Rage raced through Shepard. ExoGeni was willing to have hundreds killed, to do the work the geth had not been able to do, just to cover their tracks. Just to cover their sorry arses. He was not about to let that happen. He focused his rage into determination, and a clear mind.
"Tali," he ordered, "secure the communication terminal. Especially that 'purge' order. Garrus - does your visor have recording capabilities?"
"Uh... yes, Commander", the turian answered, somewhat surprised.
"Start them now and let them keep running," Shepard commanded. "The rest – if any of those guards move only a hair width – shoot them down like rabid dogs."
The guards looked at each other, insecure. They had decent weapons, but their armours seemed to be of below average quality, by the looks of it, and they probably had only weak shields at best. Maybe they could have won such a confrontation, but only at high causalities. And corporate guards were not exactly known for their zeal. One guard tried to move forwards a bit, but Shepard saw that immediately. In a quick movement he positioned a warning shot mere centimetres away from the guard's feet. Afterwards, the whole unit stayed in place.
"You don't understand," Jeong pleaded, "The Thorian is much more valuable than a few colonists. And ExoGeni needs to cover up the story. The company is essential to human space colonisation!"
So far, Shepard had been able to keep his anger focused, towards a clear goal. But Jeong's comment brought him on the brink of losing self-control. His fingers itched, and he longed to shoot him, or at least punch him in the face.
"Data secured," Tali announced from the communication terminal.
Juliana smiled triumphantly. "See, Jeong, you won't get away with that!" she said.
"So you keep saying," Jeong answered. "But nobody's going to miss a few colonists."
"Nobody's going to miss you either," Shepard said, voice turned to ice. And shot.
It was almost an automatic, subconscious action. Anger had overwhelmed him. In the last moment he managed to turn his weapon downwards, and the shot ended up piercing through Jeong's left leg. Jeong cried out and fell down. The ExoGeni guards raised their weapons, but so did Shepard and his team. The stand-off was ended when one guard began to lower her weapon again. Following that, the guards' morale seemed to crumble, and they all lowered their weapons. Some even made placatory hand gestures.
"Liara, Tali, disarm the guards" Shepard commented. "As for you, Ethan Jeong – under my authority, vested into me by the Citadel Council as part of their Special Tactics and Reconnaissance arm, I hereby arrest you for slavery and bodily injury on several hundred counts, and for conspiracy to mass murder." He shot an aggressive glance to the various guards, who at the moment let themselves be disarmed. "By right, I should arrest all of you as well. You were all ready to take part in a mass murder, an atrocity, and I will make sure this gets widely known. You're scum. But there'll be enough trouble transporting this snivelling weasel already." He lightly kicked Jeong for demonstration, who was down on the floor, holding his leg and whimpering.
"Was that necessary?" Juliana asked.
"It's only the beginning," Shepard answered. "He's a small fish. He was ready to execute an order for mass murder, so he must be punished. But somebody sent that order, and I'll find that man or woman, too!"
"What do you plan to do?" Juliana inquired, looking uncomfortably back and forth between the Commander and Jeong.
"Gather enough evidence to have ExoGeni convicted," Shepard answered. "Or at least release the information and have ExoGeni going down that way."
Jeong's whimpering grew louder at that, but Shepard ignored it. However, Juliana, too, was aghast: "This colony is dependent on ExoGeni!" she exclaimed. "We need them!"
"Yeah, and look how that turned out for you," Shepard replied sarcastically. "They were ready to kill hundreds, and must be taken to responsibility for it."
"Besides," Lizbeth chimed in, "the colony is still infected. With or without ExoGeni, something needs to be done about that."
"Can something be done about it?" Shepard asked. He felt victorious, but for once did not like the feeling. With a bleeding, whimpering man at his feed the victory tasted hollow. Despite all his best intentions, despite his resolutions when he had become Spectre, despite his argument with Garrus, he had definitely been too brutal. His self-control had been insufficient. So while he felt the victory now, he did not like that. Probably he was simply coming down from his emotional high, from the rush of hormones. Thus he was glad that he could occupy himself now with another problem.
"If you kill the Thorian, it might be enough to stop the infection." Lizbeth answered, but then her voice became meeker: "Maybe. It depends... the spores would eventually be passed through the colonists' metabolisms, and in the meanwhile there would be no central control unit to take charge of the spores."
"Makes sense," Shepard answered, rubbing his chin. "So, it's worth a try. But those colonists will defend the creature now like bees their queen, no?"
"Yes," Lizbeth confirmed, "but there has to be another way, besides killing them to clear the way!"
"Maybe there is," Juliana said, "I think there's a way to neutralise the colonists without killing them."
The conversation felt somewhat weird to Shepard. He knew it was an important topic to be discussed, but he was all to aware of all the now disarmed guards standing around, watching him. And Jeong still lay to his feet. Yet, this all was ignored. Naturally, since saving the colonists was so important. However, it still felt weird.
"What do you have in mind?" he asked.
"The insecticides we use in the gro-labs contains trace amounts of Tetraclopine, a neuromuscular degenerator" Juliana began to explain. "If the colonists' nervous systems are already weakened, it may act as a paralysing agent."
"Right, and are we suppose to inject every colonist with that?" Shepard asked.
"It could be released in gas form," Lizbeth said, "Maybe stored within grenades. Your team confiscated a large amount from the guards which could be used. To a healthy neural system, the Tetraclopine will be no danger, while it may just be enough to knock the infected out."
"It would be easy enough to modify the grenades," Garrus commented. "Probably won't even take a single standard hour."
"Still, it sounds dodgy," Shepard said, "But if it will save the colonists I will definitely try it."
...
Starting with the next chapter, the story rating will be raised to M. Nothing bad, just to be on the safe side. Just as warning that after next chapter you won't find the story in the K-T rating setting.