Past: 15 Years Post War
For all the skills that she had, Shepard would never be as intelligent as someone like Miranda, or Liara. While she was not nearly as stupid as she thought she was, she had neither their scientific acumen nor their intellectual capabilities.
Even so, it would take a true idiot not to realize that Wilcher was being controlled by whatever that thing was stuck in the glass behind them. Sadly, she even knew how he had come to be on Rakhana and under 'her' sway.
After the War, two searches were quickly organized and implemented. The first (and largest) was to track down any surviving Reapers and eliminate them. Javik had accompanied this mission, his experience greatly helping the effort.
The second search was the one for rogue Cerberus operatives who had scattered after the Cronos base and Shiva were destroyed. Because of what they had done to the Folly and to Ori, Wilcher had devoted the remnants of Thanatos to finding these last stragglers.
If Cerberus refugees found this place by accident in an attempt to hide, Wilcher and his team must have followed them…only to fall into the same trap.
She wondered if any part of her friend remained alive in there. If he did, she knew what he'd want her to do. He had his helmet off. He was standing in the open, with nothing between him and a bullet.
She had no doubt, however, that if she were to plant that bullet the others would open fire. The three of them could hold this spot easily until the rachni swarmed in and eviscerated Orthrus from behind, but that would leave them with no answers. They still didn't know what caused the 'indoctrination', why the alien was sealed in the glass, or what that bank of equipment actually did. Examining the equipment directly might actually be the cause of the indoctrination…there was no way to tell.
To avoid the problem altogether, retreat, and blow the place from space might wreak more havoc than they could imagine. Destroying a relay had eliminated an entire system, after all. The destruction of this odd idol might do something even worse.
Then, low and deep beneath her boots, Del felt an ominous tremble. The faint groan of a long slumbering beast stirring in its sleep filled the air, and from above, chips of rock and thin streams of dust rained down upon them.
Shepard looked upward, holding her breath. There were nearly two miles worth of rock and stone above their heads. If a strong quake hit, it could not only crush them beneath a mountain, it could also trigger the oceans of tidal magma under their feet and consume them in molten fire.
The tremble seemed to steady, and Del let out a slow breath…but her relief came too swiftly. Another tremble began to build, this one far stronger. The ground heaved beneath their feet, enough to nearly knock them flying. Fist-sized, and then head-sized, cracked concrete and broken stone began to slam down from above. In the corridor, the indoctrinated mercs staggered and struggled to remain upright.
This whole place is about to come down!
Orthrus or no Orthrus they had to get out…now.
Liara flung up a barrier, deflecting a few of the falling rocks from striking her. Shepard hauled out her rifle, intent on firing into Orthrus and directing their run out of here. It was far to the surface, the path treacherous enough when it was still. It would be all but impossible to escape, but Del meant to die trying.
She ran over to Liara, gripping her arm to haul her toward the exit when the corridor itself came down with a deafening roar. Wilcher, who had been the closest to the chamber, made a frantic rush for the opening, diving through it as untold tons of rock and dirt collapsed behind him, instantly crushing the rest of the mercs. As he skidded over the floor, Shepard hauled Liara backward, the wall nearest the former corridor cracking and bowing toward them. She felt the hard punch of a good-sized lump of concrete as it slammed into her shoulder, denting her pads before tumbling away.
Then things went still again, the shaking slowing into low vibrations that might, at any moment, renew their violent throes. Shepard stared at the ruined wall. The only way out was now gone. If through some miracle communications were still strong enough to alert their forces, it would take even the rachni weeks to burrow down this far. They'd run out of oxygen long before they could starve to death or die of dehydration.
She heard the ratchet of a pistol and turned. Wilcher was half sitting on the ground, disoriented. Lane, liberally coated in dust, reached his side and planted her boot on his shoulder, shoving him to his back and aiming her pistol at his face.
"Orders?" she asked Del without lifting her eyes from the much bigger man.
"So long as he makes no moves, don't shoot him. We may still be able to help him."
"Del, I think we may have even bigger problems than just the collapsed corridor," Liara said suddenly, her voice trembling a little.
As Shepard looked at her, Liara pointed toward the ruined remains of the idol.
Some of the debris from the collapse had crashed into the odd and ancient equipment. Clearly damaged, the rings in the base no longer spun. The egg had tumbled free of its nest, lines along its sides flashing wildly. Even through her pads, Shepard could feel the rising static.
It's going to explode, she thought, amazed at her calm. There was nowhere to go. If that thing blew, they were dead, no matter where in this chamber they were.
She grabbed Liara's hand as the static reached a crescendo…and stopped. The lines of light on the egg simply faded and went dark, the electric feel of it just switching off. For a beat, there was still silence as she realized they were still alive and looked to remain that way.
Then, a rushing- wet and burbling and as eager as a cheerful stream chuckling its way through a stony creek bed. The glass wall- moments before as solid as diamond- was rippling and flowing, drawing away from its ancient prisoner.
Shepard and Liara both had weapons in their hands the next moment, watching as the Red Queen came free of her looking glass.
Her feet touched the ground first, her body folding and sagging to the dirt beneath her. The 'glass' seemed to withdraw into the very walls and disappear, and behind the crumpled figure, Del saw hope.
Another corridor, and quite possibly, another way out.
The Queen seemed to move only weakly, the slumped tangle of limbs shifting in disorientation. Her weapon pointed firmly at it, Del gestured at Liara to stay put, then did the same to Lane, who now held one pistol on Wilcher and another on the alien thing.
"Be careful," Liara said, blue eyes full of worry as Shepard started across the room.
As she neared the alien, Del could see the Queen's eyes were open now. The size of pomegranates, they were a silver-white centered with three triangular red pupils. They were oddly hot, dancing with feverish intensity.
We're all mad here, Del thought, the recent use of Alice in Wonderland prompting the thought. Her jaw tightened and she took a step backward instead of forward, before halting.
The eyes shifted, seeking, and for a moment Shepard was struck with the thought that the creature was actually blind. Then the pupils fixed to her, narrowing sharply.
"Don't move," Del ordered. "Who are you? Tell us your name, your species."
The eyes only shifted a bit. She was lying with her chin in the dirt, and a soft puff from her slitted nostrils blew tiny clouds of tan before her. The ground trembled again, warningly, and Del's tension only grew.
"Talk to me! You can talk, yes? You talked through Wilcher. You were controlling him somehow. Who are you and what do you want? Answer me!"
The head lifted a bit, cocking on that long neck. Limbs uncoiled, righting. Del gave her another warning not to move, and when she didn't comply, she spanked a warning shot in front of her chin. The spray of rock and dirt that it threw against her face made her recoil a bit, the eyes heating all the more.
I'm going to have to kill this thing, Shepard realized. What mind the Queen had ever once had, it had long ago disappeared. That she had been conscious while sealed in the glass and capable of speaking- even though that speaking was through another-showed the true torture of her imprisonment.
Billions of years awake and knowing, unable to move, escape, or die…anyone would be insane.
It was also clearly able to control others much as the thorian had once done. Wilcher was impressed to its will, as all the rest of Orthrus had been. The researchers who had stumbled on this place had felt its effects, but so far Del, Li, and Lane seemed immune of any such control. Perhaps it was thanks to the dampeners on their ears, or perhaps there was another reason that wasn't as evident.
Del no longer considered that this was some kind of hibernation or stasis. Such things would not have left her cruelly conscious. It was clear that the 'idol' had been what was keeping her trapped, but with two dozen mercs in her thrall, why had she not simply had one of them shut it off and free her?
A million reasons. Perhaps she was not familiar with the mechanism and was unable to direct them in its operation. Perhaps they were physically unable to, because it was coded or simply unfamiliar to their physiology. Perhaps her control is not absolute, or perhaps in her insanity…she just didn't consider it.
At this point did it really matter? They had to find a way to get out of here before another quake hit, and this entire area sank into the eager magma beneath them.
Tense from recoiling, the Queen looked wary a moment, before that tiny vestigial mouth proved it was anything but. In a remarkable display of elasticity, her thin lips drew back, her skull appearing to almost split in half as enormous jaws swung open. Thousands of teeth bristled and drooled with the viscous, ominous promise of venom.
Shepard opened fire.
In the millisecond it took the swarm of bullets to cross the ten feet from Del's gun to the crumpled Queen, the creature had leapt upward, its long fingers and toes gripping hold of the roof far above and clinging to its surface with the ease of any insect. Only one bullet struck home, punching through a thin leg before it whipped upward. The resultant squeal sounded less one of pain and more one of fury.
To the side, still lying in a foggy daze on the ground, Wilcher murmured weakly. "Off with her head…"
The Queen scrambled across the ceiling, her long limbs seeming to stretch for entire miles as she moved. Del followed her with the muzzle of her rifle, stamping a path along the rock just shy of the Queen's body. Not only was the thing fast, but it seemed to almost anticipate what Del was going to do. Even Shepard's enhanced reflexes couldn't keep up with her.
Darting away from the stone above she landed on the wall near where the idol had stood, bunched, and leapt again. The entire series of motions was like a lightning strike, so quick she seemed to nearly be in two spots at once. Her last leap sent her crashing into Liara and the asari went flying, her shoulders and back striking the far wall hard enough that Del heard the bark of lost air from where she was. Swinging her rifle, Shepard lunged, landing on the Queen's back as she sprang toward the dazed asari. Her rifle whipped around the tiny neck and she hauled with all her strength.
The Queen reared and bent backward, but the willowy neck which should have snapped with even gentle effort did nothing of the kind. Thin and delicate as she appeared, she felt made of nothing but steel and corded sinew.
A hand closed on Del's leg and she was torn free, skidding over the rock floor. Liara, coughing and dazed, was stumbling to her feet.
Lane opened fire as Shepard recovered herself. The Queen turned and slashed toward the little marine who slashed right back, having dropped a pistol in favor of her boot blade. The knife skidded over the narrow little nose, slicing open flesh in a glut of gelatinous ichor. Shrieking, the Queen darted backward, whirling as Shepard opened fire again.
She'd been aiming for torso, but the speed at which the creature moved resulted in the bullets tearing through its arm and wrist. It shrieked again, more furious than ever, one long fingered hand dangling from a few shreds of flesh.
Liara lit up with biotics, sending a flash of energy toward the beast. The Queen saw it coming, her enormous eyes widening even more, reflecting the shimmering blue before it flung itself aside. With a rattle and a squeal, it darted toward the black tunnel its former prison had been blocking, and vanished into the dark.
"The fuck…?" Shepard whispered breathlessly. Being slashed and shot had done nothing but make the Queen even angrier, however Del had seen the look in its eyes when those biotics had headed its way. That look, on any face, spoke of only one thing…terror.
The ground rumbled again, briefly but filled with dark promise. Shepard looked over at Liara as she headed toward Wilcher.
"You ok?"
"I am fine, you?"
"I'm fine. Lane? You not hurt?" She gripped Lane's shoulder lightly a moment as she stepped past her and crouched beside the prone Wilcher.
"Five-by, ma'am."
Wilcher looked terribly sick, his face literally streaming with sweat and his eyes sunk in dark hollows. He seemed dazed, confused, and half-conscious. Reaching out, Del tapped his cheek sharply.
"Wilch? Can you hear me?"
He groaned, then seemed to focus. "Shepard…"
"That you talking?" she asked warily.
He only looked at her in confusion, and she tapped him again. "God damn it, Sam, tune in!"
"I-I can't think, Shepard. Hard to…head's spinning."
"We need to get him out of here and to medical care," Liara said urgently, then looked around as the ground shook again.
"Yeah, before this whole place comes down," Lane agreed.
"And our only way out is down there," Shepard said, jerking her chin toward the dark corridor. "Deeper into the mountain and exactly the same way that thing went."
There was nothing for it. They had no other choice, no other path. It was either go down into the darkness, or stay here and wait to be crushed or burned alive. Gripping Wilcher's arm, she helped the big guy get to his feet, holding him steady as Lane quickly relieved him of his weapons.
"Just stay with us, Sam," Del told him. "Stay focused. I don't want to have to put you down but I will if I have to, you understand?"
He blinked at her dully, then slowly bobbed his head. "Yeah…I'm…Del, is this a bad dream?"
"Yeah, Sam," she told him, her jaw tightening as she looked down the dark corridor. "Yeah, this is a really goddamn bad dream."
Liara insisted on scanning what was left of the idol equipment before they started down into the dark, saving the results in her omni-tool. As cautiously as they could, they started down the new corridor, Del leading with Liara close at hand, Wilcher shuffling listlessly in the middle, and Lane bringing up the rear. Their omni-lights sliced through the darkness, their brightness cutting swatches through the heavy black.
"If the Red Queen shows her face again, Li, be ready with your biotics," Del said to her softly. "When you lit up she looked downright terrified."
"What would make her fear biotics more than bullets?" Liara asked.
"Fuck if I know, but if it works I'm not going to question it."
"Shepard, I believe the creature is telepathic to some degree," Liara told her. "As we three remained unaffected it could be that her power is limited to subharmonics of a certain frequency…the 'glass' she was trapped in may have even acted as an amplifier. Or, it could be she could only control so many at one time."
"Telepathy," Del eyed her skeptically. "Sounds a bit too close to magic to me."
"Any technology or ability far beyond the scope of our development would seem to be magic, just as our ships and weapons and medical devices would appear to be magic to someone of a bronze-aged level of development. Perhaps it is not true telepathy as we would consider it, but there are a wide variety of communications techniques that would resemble such. The elcor, the rachni, and the hanar all natively communicate in ways that would appear to be 'mind-reading' to someone on the outside who had no concept of pheromones, or that body language and other physical cues could be a full language all on their own. Without a close examination of the Red Queen's physiology I cannot speculate as to her method, but it very well may be that her species has found a way to influence minds directly absent any cybernetic assistance. We still have not unraveled the full truth of the Reaper's indoctrination methods, only that they start with subharmonics. If she is of a contemporary age with them, it may be that she uses similar methods."
Shepard suddenly paused as her omni-light fell over something on the ground. "Speaking of physiology…"
The Red Queen's hand lay in the dirt, the torn edge sticky with ichor. As Shepard carefully scanned around to make sure they weren't about to be ambushed by the bitch, Liara crouched and gingerly lifted the severed appendage. Her eyes widened.
"Del, our 'Red Queen' does not appear to be fully organic. This…this tissue appears to be normal flesh however there seems to be some level of sophisticated cybernetics actually woven through the bone and muscle fibers."
"A cyborg?"
"Yes, most likely. I speculated on her anatomy back in the chamber. To evolve naturally, she would have had to have come from a very low gravity environment, or her fragile limbs would snap under her own weight. Even water pressure would be enough to crush her at any but the most shallow of depths, yet she also had vestigial organs that resemble those of my people- folds that in times gone past were functioning gills. If her entire body has been cybernetically fortified, however, it would explain how she could sustain her own body weight in this gravity, and move as she did."
"And why her neck didn't snap when I wrenched her head around. It should have broken at a tenth of the pressure I was laying on it and she didn't even flinch."
"Precisely. She could-"
"Del…" Wilcher's voice was slurred and woozy as if he were drunk. Shepard turned and looked at him. He still looked horribly sick, but his eyes seemed clearer. "Del, where are we?"
"Wilcher, you ok?" she asked, taking his shoulder. "We're on Rakhana, looking for a way out of these tunnels. Do you remember?"
"Oh…yes, I…I think so. The Red Queen-"
"Yes. Exactly. Sam, I need you to think carefully. What can you tell me about the Red Queen? About what happened to you?"
His brows creased, and as he swayed she urged him to sit down against the wall, crouching in front of him.
"We followed a group of Cerberus ops down here. Guess they figured the hostile environment would make it hard to be found. They'd taken shelter in the cave and we followed them down. I…they were all sitting in that chamber, staring at that…that thing in the wall. Didn't even glance at us. Then she was…she was in my head."
"In your head," she repeated gently. "Can you describe it? Did you hear anything, touch anything?"
"No, no…just walked in and it was…there she was. It was broken up, kind of. Images, wants…like a nightmare, a jumble of images that just didn't make sense. She was…Shepard, the thing is loopy. She was trapped there a goddamn long time and she'd long gone over the bend. Her head was broken and…I don't think she really intended the results she got."
"What do you mean?"
"It's…it's hard to describe. She was obsessed with Iovino. She took images, memories out of our minds- all our minds, but she couldn't put them in context, couldn't see them properly, I guess. She gave us images in return but they were beyond comprehension, all shuffled around, so alien…"
"Please, Sam," Liara said gently. "I know it is difficult but you must tell us anything you could decipher."
"She latched on to 'Iovino' in my head, but at the same time, she dismissed any images of you, Del. When she herself thought of Iovino I saw…I saw something else. Something different. Iovino meant something different to her than it did to me. It's like…she wasn't looking for an individual, not really…she was looking for one of a kind."
Seeing Del's frown of confusion he sighed in frustration. "It's like…it's like she was asking for a krogan, not someone named Krogan."
Liara blinked. "So…to her, Iovino is not a person but…a race? A species called the Iovino?"
"Yes, yes, that's it! That's exactly it!" he said, seeming to light up a moment. "She wanted us to bring her a Iovino. I think…I think they're the ones that locked her in that trap and she thought they were the only ones who could operate the equipment to let her out again. She was mad enough not to realize that my idea of Iovino…you Del…was not hers, so she sent everyone to get you to her so you could shut off the trap."
"She wasn't really looking for me at all," Del said with a murmur. "She was looking for someone to let her out, someone with the right physiology to open that trap. She isn't aware that this Iovino species no longer exists."
"Why was she trapped in there? Why did they lock her up in that glass?" Liara asked.
"I'm not sure. I remember…I remember she wasn't alone. There were others with her, like her, and then different ones they were chasing. She was closest, nearly to them but they had the trap ready and she triggered it somehow. The glass consumed her and held her there…I think it blocked the corridor so the others couldn't get past and the ones she was chasing escaped."
"So her prey escaped, her clan barred from pursuing, trapped as well…" Liara said slowly. Del's jaw tightened as she looked at the asari.
"…in this very corridor," the human woman said, finishing her love's thought.
Liara shook her head. "That was billions of years ago, Del. They could not still be-"
From further down, deeper in the dark before them, they heard the Red Queen shriek eagerly. After half a heartbeat, her voice was echoed a hundred times over. Del, her gut cold, looked down into the unbroken gloom.
"Yeah," she said softly. "Apparently…they could."