Author notes: Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. I got blindsided by a really bad head cold, and unfortunately, my immune system is kinda shit. I don't get sick very often, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis. Seriously though, when I get sick, I stay that way for a god-awfully long time, like a month or more. It sucks. Hard. Hopefully, the drug cocktail I'm rocking will keep me going for now. I'll try to get the chapter after this one out quickly to compensate, but no promises.
Also, I seriously need to stop reading One Piece fanfiction. I can't help but feel that the middle section of the chapter got tainted by it, and I have major misgivings about the way it came out. I'm seriously considering going back and rewriting the whole damn thing. If there are complaints about the chapter that revolve around it, I will. If that happens, I'll put an update in the next chapter and fix it ASAP. Let me know what you think.
Chapter 17: The Traceless Massacre
As the group of soldiers moved further into the seemingly empty room, they we met with the sight of destroyed Geth platforms. Some looked like they had been melted through in various areas by powerful acid, but they were relatively few. Most of them looked to have been ripped to pieces by little more than brute force. Crouching down beside one of the latter, Shepard picked up a chunk roughly the size of his hand and turned it over slowly. The metal along the edges was ripped slightly, but not completely; the damage was too clean for that. Something had cut into the Geth before destroying it, and there were fairly few things that could do this type of damage to one of the synthetics.
"Tali, Garrus, take a look at this." he said, handing them each a fragment of the Geth. "Any idea what could cause this type of damage?"
"It looks like they were hit with some sort of bladed weapon." replied Garrus. "There's evidence of aborted slices near the edges, like you would see in a botched butchering."
"What would do this to synthetics, though?" asked Tali. "For organics, I could see this type of tactic being used for psychological reasons, but I don't think it would work as well on Geth."
"You are correct, Creator Zorah." said Pluribus, taking the fragment out of her hands and examining it. "We theorize that whatever destroyed these platforms used this tactic out of convenience or necessity, not intimidation."
"Well, let's look at this logically." said Shepard. "Anything that can get close enough to a Geth platform to cut it to pieces like this would either have to be heavily armored, extremely fast, or have the element of surprise. Otherwise, they'd just riddle it with bullets."
"I doubt whatever it was had that kind of armor. Destroying a Geth in melee is too dangerous, even for someone in a suit of power armor, or with biotics. They'd just shoot it." reasoned Tali.
"And the element of surprise would only work once on the Geth." continued Garrus. "There are too many of them here for that. Even then, they'd lose a few of their number, so we should see some evidence of them, right?"
"Well, in that case, we're looking for something light, fast, and viscous; something willing and able to go toe to toe with a Gath platform at melee range and cut it to pieces. What-"
Shepard cut off suddenly as he heard a faint clicking noise come from further into the facility. "Did you hear that?"
"Yeah." said Nihlus. Garrus nodded as well, but snapped his rifle up as the noise repeated, closer and louder this time. It sounded like a metal hand scrabbling over a hard surface, and it was accompanied by a high pitched chittering.
"Oh, fuck me." wheezed Ashley, her voice hoarse. "I recognize that sound. Why the fuck are there TDs here?"
The scrabbling sound got louder still, and suddenly, one of the little mechanical bastards came careening out of a nearby vent in the wall, making a flying leap towards the group, its' monomolecular bladed limbs outstretched. Most of them took an involuntary step backwards, and their eyes went wide in surprise, but Tali's Tesla Cannon shot up, and a single blast from the weapon blew the robotic menace to shrapnel.
It took a moment for the party to recover. "What the hell was that!?" shrilled Garrus, his voice uncharacteristically high pitched.
"Terror Drone." replied Shepard calmly, switching his sniper rifle for his shotgun. He almost never used the thing, but it wasn't like it was hard to aim, and it would be much more useful against TDs in the research station's tight confines. "Anti-personnel and anti-armor robotic drones. They're light, fast, and they like to dismantle things; sometimes, living things. Their legs are basically razor blades, and they're mean little bastards."
"So that's what destroyed the Geth?" mused Nihlus.
Shepard nodded. "Seems like it. Everyone, switch to a shotgun or assault rifle. TDs are lightly armored, so you should be able to take them out with one blast or a short burst. They won't give you time for a second, so you need to make sure it counts."
The rest of his team complied, though Wrex grumbled a bit at having to put away his Gatling. As they moved further into the base, the intercom sprang to life overhead.
"User alert: All Peak 15 facilities have suffered a great deal of damage. Biohazard material present throughout facility. Virtual Intelligence user interface offline."
"Guess that explains a few things." said Tali. "Let's see if we can get the VI back online. It might give us some answers."
The eight moved further into the station, and came across a pair of airlocks, apparently designed to serve as a security checkpoint. In the first, there was a pair of automated turrets, both of which were offline. They were facing inwards.
"What moron installed these turrets facing backwards?" groused Wrex.
"They want to keep their people in as much as they want to keep others out." replied Garrus.
"That's kinda ominous." remarked Tali.
After they passed the checkpoint and ascended an elevator, they exited into a destroyed section of the facility. There was snow coating the floor, and most of the windows had been blown out, exposing the room to the elements. The moment they entered, they were ambushed by Geth. Activating his chrono suit, Shepard appeared directly behind one twenty meters away. Before the synthetic could react to his presence, he blew a hole in its chest with his shotgun. He heard other shots ring out from his team, and he teleported a second time, directly beside another Geth, which quickly met the same fate as the last. Seeing the last of the synthetics in the room drop, Shepard moved back to his team, and was suddenly met by the sound of loud groaning that seemed to come from every direction.
"Was that one of those Terror Drones you mentioned, Shepard?" asked Nihlus warily, scanning his surroundings.
"Don't think so. Sounded too large."
There was a loud screech from a window on the opposite side of the room, and just as the team turned to face the source of the noise, a large, chitinous something burst through the glass and launched a globule of acid towards the party. They quickly dodged to the side as the beast and one of its' kin charged the heavily armed fire team. They were quickly cut to shreds, along with a trio of smaller creatures which exploded violently when shot, spraying acid over everything nearby.
"OK, now what?" asked Nihlus, moving over to the corpse of one of the creatures. "Is this another surprise of the Alliance's, Shepard?"
Shepard opened his mouth to answer, but was cut off by Pluribus. "Negative, Kryik Spectre. That is a Rachni soldier."
"A WHAT!?" yelled most of the party.
"A Rachni soldier." repeated the synthetic in exactly the same tone as before.
"The Rachni are extinct." replied Wrex angrily. "Everyone knows that."
"Apparently not." mused Shepard. "Whatever Saren's got going on here is bigger than we thought. If there are Rachni running around the base, it might explain the presence of Terror Drones."
"Fight fire with fire, eh Skipper?"
"Looks like it. Let's move out. We need to talk to that VI."
They moved forward, encountering several more Rachni as they progressed. Eventually, they reached a central computer cluster, which looked to be the primary hub for the station's VI. Shepard, Tali, and Pluribus descended a short lift into the VI's core. After a minute or so of tinkering, Tali got it to reboot, and the lift ascended once again. When they reached the top, they were greeted by the facility's caretaker.
"It looks like you're trying to restore this facility. Would you like help?" it asked.
"Great, a holographic Clippy." remarked Shepard sarcastically, smacking his head into his palm. "Just what we need."
Pluribus ignored the Commander. "Yes. What is your designation?"
"This system is monitored to respond to the name Mira. May I ask your name?"
"Commander Johnathan Shepard, Ranger Geist." replied Shepard, transferring his credentials over to the VI.
"One moment please. Geist authority confirmed. You are entitled to secure access to all systems. Please note that queries relating to corporate secrets require privileged access. Privileged access is only available to Binary Helix executives."
"We'll see about that. Pluribus, can you get us 'privileged access?' " asked Shepard, turning to the synthetic.
"Yes." He paused for a moment, and the VI's holographic form began flickering rapidly.
"Intruder detected in Virtual Intelligence processing network." replied Mira. "Security dispatched."
"I somehow doubt that." quipped Nihlus, who had moved closer to the trio.
After a moment, the hologram became stable again. "Privileged access granted."
"Where's Benezia?" asked Shepard without preamble.
"Lady Benezia departed on the passenger tramway to the Rift Station subsidiary labs. User alert: the tramway system is currently inoperable."
"Sitrep."
"One moment please: diagnostics in progress. Critical failure: main reactor shutdown in accordance with emergency containment procedures. Manual restart required. Critical failure: landline connections are disabled. Passenger tram systems are offline. Do you have additional queries?"
"Why are there Rachni in the facility?"
"The Rachni are part of Project R. Their physiology is being studied at the Rift Station lab as part of a greater probe into psionic abilities."
"Psionic abilities?" asked Tali, sounding alarmed. She regained her composure quickly. "Clarify."
"Rachni Queens possess psychic powers. The Queen at the Rift Substation is being studied to unlock the secret to these powers. The results from the experiment are being adapted to enhance the abilities of subjects in Project O. Rachni workers and soldiers are being studied to determine how they can be controlled."
"God damnit." growled Shepard. "First Geth, then Terror Drones, then Rachni, and now psionics? I'm getting that 'nuke everything and let god sort it out' urge again."
"Perhaps we should investigate the facility further before doing anything rash." said Yuri. "What is this Project O?"
"Data unavailable." replied Mira. "All information on Project O was deleted automatically as part of this facility's emergency containment procedures."
"Of course it was." remarked Shepard exasperatedly. "Look, it seems like all we need to do is to restart the reactor and reconnect the land lines. Then, we can take the tram to Rift Substation. Tali, Yuri, Pluribus, come with me to the reactor. Ash, take everyone else and head for the com lines."
Shepard's team made their way to the reactor containment area with relatively little in the way of resistance. As soon as they arrived, that changed. Nearly a dozen Terror Drones came charging at them, scurrying along the walls, floors, and ceilings like demented mechanical spiders. Fortunately, between the homing properties of the rounds from Tali's Tesla weapon, the volume of fire from Pluribus' assault rifle, and Shepard's own (admittedly meager) skill with a shotgun, they didn't get too close. Still, the robotic menaces were unnerving in the extreme.
"Why the hell would the Alliance design something like those?" asked Tali breathlessly when the fighting was over.
Shepard let out a chuckle. "Actually, they didn't. The original Terror Drones were created by the Soviet Union over two hundred years ago, during the third World War. They needed a way to attack Yuri's clones, since they were capable of mind controlling organic soldiers. They were originally designed to kill him." he said, pointing a thumb over his shoulder at the psychic.
"Pity they didn't succeed." grumped Tali.
"Yet." deadpanned Pluribus.
"Perhaps we should focus on the matter at hand?" said Yuri, his voice thick with annoyance.
Shepard only grunted in response. He led his team down to the base of the reactor, and motioned for Tali to take a look at the controls. A few moments later, she'd reconnected the Helium-3 fuel lines and restarted the reactor. When she was done, Shepard put a hand to his ear and contacted Ashley.
"Ash, you get the land lines back up?"
"Yep. We're on our way to the transit station now."
"Ten four. We'll meet you there."
The journey back was rather uneventful, and the two teams soon reunited just prior to reaching the tram station. Shepard found Ashley's team waiting in a control room outside a decontamination chamber filled with Rachni. It looked like she was trying to override the controls, and without much success.
"Problems, Ash?" he asked, entering the control room and moving towards her.
"Can't get the doors open, Skipper. You took both our tech experts."
"Fair enough. That said: you do realize that Wrex has a PRISM Gatling, right? As far as he's concerned, there is no door."
"I thought of that; I was just seeing if I could solve this problem without resorting to brute force." she laughed. "Then again, with you as a CO, that seems kinda stupid in hindsight."
"Very funny, Ash. Tali, get the door, please." A few moments later, the doors to the decontamination room opened, and the Rachni came charging out, only to be shredded by a hail of bullets. From there, it was a fairly short trip to the transit station, with no difficulties along the way.
"Well, that was easy." remarked Garrus as he boarded the tram. Shepard slugged him in the shoulder, and he grunted in surprise. "What was that for?"
"Ever hear of 'tempting fate,' Garrus?"
As the last of the windows on the tram shattered from the onslaught of Rachni soldiers, Shepard couldn't help but take a moment to slap Garrus upside the head one last time, just before he blasted the offending Rachni back out the way it came.
"See what I mean?" he growled, taking aim at a second Rachni that was clinging to the side of the tram. "You just had to say it."
The team had been ambushed midway to Rift Substation by a veritable army of Rachni. Wrex was in the front of what was left of the vehicle, his PRISM Gatling chewing through the bulk of the crazed bugs before they could close with the speeding train. Even so, a small army of them was still getting past him, and it was up to the six other armed team members to stop them. They had been at this for nearly five minutes, and the Rachni showed no signs of letting up.
"Sheesh, I get it already. Besides, it's not like they attacked us because I said something." he groused, taking out two more Rachni with his assault rifle before they could leap towards the tram.
"Sorry Vakarian, but I've got to side with the Skipper on this one." said Ashley, firing her shotgun into the hoard. "Still, if it makes you feel any better, I could hit you for a change." she teased, rapping him lightly on the head.
"I'll admit, that's a bit more pleasant, if only because you don't hit as hard as Shepard."
"What're you, a masochist or something?" joked Nihlus, his Riftblade cutting through a soldier that had made it to a hole in the roof of the tram.
"Considering I know for a fact that Ash is a sadist, it wouldn't surprise me." replied Shepard. "After all, there was that thing on Luna."
"What thing?" asked Nihlus.
Shepard realized what he'd said, and mentally face-palmed as he blushed slightly. It was bad enough that Garrus and Ashley had blackmailed him into a private performance at some point, so he was damned if he was going give anything else away. "Nothing." he replied quickly, his voice a bit high pitched.
Garrus turned to face his fellow Turian, and his voice got louder. "Well, it turns out tha-"
"I WILL MURDER YOU IN YOUR SLEEP, VAKARIAN!" roared Shepard, his face going crimson.
"Wow, touchy much, Skipper?" Ashley said with a laugh.
"Is this about the singing thing?" asked Tali, her voice so innocent it made Shepard want to throttle her. "I think it's cute."
"Shut-"
"What singing thing?" rumbled Wrex, cutting Shepard off as he glanced over his shoulder. The Rachni were beginning to thin out, and Rift Station was visible in the distance.
"It's-"
"Apparently, Shepard Commander has a high quality tenor voice and a natural talent for singing." replied Pluribus rapidly. "However, he wishes to keep this information private."
"Shepard can sing?" asked the majority of his team incredulously.
"And ballroom dance." said Tali nonchalantly.
Shepard's cry of bestial rage was so loud, it actually made the remaining Rachni hesitate in their attack, if only for a moment. It allowed the rest of them to be cut down, just as the vehicle came to a halt. Unfortunately, it only made his team laugh louder.
"I can't wait to tell the rest of the crew about this." said Nihlus, still chucking in amusement. "Joker's gonna have a field day."
"I swear to god almighty, if anyone outside my ship hears about this, I kill every last one of you!" raged Shepard. He seriously considered trying to MC the entire group of them, if only to teach them a lesson. Unfortunately, Yuri noticed, and a small smirk came to his face.
"Perhaps you should have considered this possibility before you began teaching your team to resist your influence."
Shepard's voice got immeasurably cold as he replied, and there was no emotion in it whatsoever. "Yuri, I can live with my friends knowing about this, because they're my friends. You, on the other hand, are not. I have enough reasons to kill you already, so I'd recommend against giving me another."
He said nothing, but Shepard's words wiped the smirk off his face immediately. They also served to kill the jovial mood amongst the rest of the group.
"Let's move."
The trip further into the station was surprisingly quiet, and as they made their way to the dormitories, they discovered why. Entering into the small room, the group was met with the dismembered bodies of what looked to be the entire research team. There were a few destroyed Terror Drones, but from the copious amounts of blood that seemed to cover every surface, there had been more when this occured.
"Keelah." Tali breathed, her face going pale. "What happened here?"
"It looks like whoever designed this place wanted to make sure nothing got out if there was an accident." answered Shepard numbly. "Terror Drones are a good way of doing that."
"Then why were there so many Rachni in the tunnel?" asked Garrus.
"It looks like the TDs couldn't hold the Rachni off. They got overrun." Shepard shook his head angrily. "That settles it. As soon as we figure out what happened to Benezia, we're vaporizing this place. I don't give a damn about the paperwork, sometimes a nuke is the best option."
"Fair enough, Shepard." replied the Turian sniper somberly. "What is it Humans call a burial by fire? A Viking funeral?"
"Norse funeral, actually." replied Ashley softly. "I suppose it's the least we can do."
"This is just one more thing that Saren needs to answer for." growled Shepard. "As soon as we finally do catch him, I'm going to enjoy mind-raping him into oblivion."
"I'd scold you for that, if I didn't agree with the sentiment wholeheartedly." said Tali.
"I guess I could bring the booze." deadpanned Nihlus. "Might as well have a good time while we watch him burn."
"Do they make dextro popcorn?" joked Tali, scratching her head. "I've always wanted to go to dinner and a movie like that, but John never seems to get around to asking me."
Shepard laughed slightly. "It's a date."
The trip through the remainder of the facility was fairly simple, if somewhat hectic. The eight had to fight through TDs, Rachni, and Geth, but eventually, they entered a high security lab. As soon as they did, a cold and eerily familiar voice greeted them.
"You don't know the privilege of being a mother." said Benezia haughtily. "There's power in creation: to shape a life; turn it towards happiness or despair. Her children were to be ours, raised to hunt and slay Saren's enemies. Her mind was to be the instrument of our will, subjugating all in our path." She turned away from the confined Rachni Queen in the center of the room, and began walking towards them slowly. "Have you faced an Asari commando unit before? Few Humans have."
"Have you ever had your mind eviscerated by a Human psionic, you Reaper bastard?" Shepard retorted. "Because you're about to."
"Your insolence is a poor mask for your fear."
As she finished speaking, nearly a dozen Asari commandos and Geth came bursting into the room, weapons blazing. The Normandy team went diving for cover, even as they returned fire.
"Yuri, help me break the MC on her mind! Everyone else, cover us!"
Shepard felt Yuri send a lance of psychic power towards Benezia as he spoke, and he could sense it rebound off her mental defenses. Like a sword impacting a suit of armor, it left a deep gouge, which was quickly repaired, seeming as if it had never been. The battle around him faded as Shepard and Yuri were drawn into a duel of the mind. There was something inside Benezia's consciousness, something… feral. It fought like a cornered animal, and every time one of the psychics was able to land a solid hit, they were repulsed by it. Benezia couldn't counterattack, at least not directly, but she was tenacious in her defense, and the slicing jabs they were taking at her mind weren't working.
'Time for a change of tactics.' sent Shepard to Yuri after his fifth failed attempt at breaching her defenses. He didn't speak, but then again, he didn't have to.
'How so?'
'Sometimes you need a scalpel. In this case, I think we need a sledgehammer.'
Shepard gathered his strength and sent an overwhelming concussive blast of psychic energy towards the Asari Matriarch. It caused her to stumble, physically and mentally, and her defenses faltered for a single instant. Yuri seized that opening and jabbed deep into her mind, seeking to undermine the bulwark around it. When he did, he was surprised to find a second layer of protection that preserved a small segment of her being. However, unlike the barriers he had just breached and was presently demolishing, they were focused on stopping the feral presence within her psyche as well as the more discrete Human invaders.
'Most interesting.' sent Yuri to Shepard as the commander joined him. 'It appears as if she sought to preserve a small piece of herself from being consumed. Perhaps we could speak to her directly.'
If Shepard's mind had a head, he would've shaken it. 'If we do that, we'll destroy the barriers she has around it. This… thing will consume her completely.' He struggled to hold the beast within her mind at bay, but it was tenacious.
'Her defenses will fail soon, regardless of what we do. We must attempt to gather as much information on Saren and the Reapers as possible.'
'I promised Liara we'd do everything we could to rescue Benezia. I'm not willing to give up yet!'
Shepard felt his mental control waver and nearly fail as a third voice popped into his mind. Yuri was equally shocked, but he had far more practice keeping his discipline under pressure.
'Why don't you just kill the beast?' it asked. The voice sounded… feminine. 'Then, she can come out of her shell.'
'Who're you!?' asked Shepard incredulously. There was no response, and the voice was gone. 'Yuri, did you recognize that presence?'
'No. It was… disconcerting.'
'Still, she makes a good point. Aim for the beast.'
The pair of psychics did exactly that, attacking the… whatever it was… with all their strength. It fought even harder when it realized they sought to destroy it, and not simply Benezia. It couldn't inflict physical wounds, but the mental attacks it sent towards the pair were just as dangerous, if not more so. Unfortunately, it was far more used to defending than to attacking, unlike the two Humans. Their session had prepared them well for this kind of battle. The fight seemed to last for an eternity, but eventually, they were successful, and the feral presence fell for the last time before Shepard and Yuri eviscerated it completely. As it faded, they withdrew from her mind, only to come back to a reality of pain.
The first thing that Shepard saw was the ceiling above him. Next came Tali, who was bent over his prone form, her face etched with concern and no small amount of fear. His head felt like someone had stuffed a particularly angry Thresher Maw into it while he wasn't looking. He tried to rise, but a massive wave of vertigo stopped him before he made it halfway.
"What happened?" he groaned. The sound of his voice intensified his headache
"We're not sure." she replied softly. "We took out the Geth and Asari relatively quickly, but by the time we looked back, you and Yuri were already on the floor." She reached down and applied a small amount of medigel to a cut the back of his head, likely put there when he collapsed. "What happened on your end? You've been like this for nearly ten minutes."
"Yuri and I… we fought Benezia mentally. We managed to break down her defenses and enter her mind. There was something else in there, something… savage. It fought us, and tried to stop us from retaking her psyche. We managed to kill it... whatever it was."
Yuri's voice came from a few feet to his side, and he looked over to see the man already on his knees. "I believe that beast was a manifestation of the Reaper presence within her mind. It fought to defend itself, just like a wild animal. I imagine that the experience of having something like that within your consciousness is likely… unpleasant."
"I suppose you could word it like that, yeah." replied Shepard, trying once again to rise. He made it to a sitting position, and was able to resist the waves of dizziness that assaulted him. "I don't know about you, but I feel like my head got hit by a train."
"That's a side-effect of mental exertion." he said, rising to stand. "Just as your body would be sore after a marathon run, your mind is sore after a fierce battle."
"And I suppose you didn't feel a thing?" sneered Tali. "After all, you've had plenty of practice with this sort of exercise."
Shepard put a hand on her shoulder and hauled himself to his feet. "Credit where it's due, Tali. We couldn't have saved Benezia without his help. Speaking of which, how is she?"
"T'Soni Matriarch is unconscious at this time." replied Pluribus, who was standing over her limp form. "However, her vital signs are stable, and she does not appear to be in any immediate danger."
"Good." replied Shepard, shaking his head in an attempt to clear the cobwebs. "I'm sure Liara will be glad to hear that. We need to-"
He cut off as he felt an overwhelming presence blanked his mind. It was like a gentle hand, reaching down to grasp him softly. He gasped in surprise, even as it faded. It had come from the Rachni Queen.
"What was that?" asked Yuri quietly. "It felt like…"
"I think it was the Queen." replied Shepard, walking over to stand near the containment pen it was in. There was a console near the tank, and it appeared to control some sort of psychic dampening field. He reached out to deactivate it, but stopped just short, instead reaching out with his mind to the Rachni Queen. When they met, he recoiled in shock from the contact, but then tried again, more slowly.
'Can you understand me?'
'We can,' she said, sounding surprised. 'We cannot sing… not in these low spaces. We never thought to encounter another who could.
"What's going on, Skipper?" asked Ashely nervously. "What was that… presence… we felt?"
"It was the Rachni Queen, Ash. I'm… talking to her, mentally. Let me focus for a minute."
'How can I speak to you?' he asked.
'You can sing, One of Troubled Melodies. Your music's are… pale, but they reverberate loudly.'
'Sing? You mean communicate psychically?'
'They mean the same. The rest cannot sing as you can, except for the other: the One of Discordant Harmonies.'
'Yuri. His name is Yuri. Mine is Johnathan Shepard, Commander in the Alliance Navy. Am I correct in assuming you're the Rachni Queen in front of me?'
'Yes, One of Troubled Melodies. We are the mother. We sing for those left behind. The children you thought silenced.'
'You mean the Rachni we killed were your children? Why did they attack us?'
'We were locked away here by the Colorless Ones. The children are beyond our songs, and they were driven mad by the lack of our voice. You gave them mercy by quieting them. They were… lost to silence.' she finished mournfully. She paused for a moment before continuing, a glimmer of hope in her voice. 'You are not in harmony with those who hoped to use us. What will you sing? Will you release us? Are we to fade away once more?'
'I… I don't know. Give me a moment.'
Shepard turned to his team. After quickly reiterating what he had just been told, Wrex recovered first, and he wasn't happy.
"There are acid tanks rigged up on that thing. Set them off! Millions of my ancestors died to put these things down."
"John, if we kill her, we consign an entire race to death. We can't make this decision on our own." said Tali.
"She's right, Shepard." said Nihlus. "This is a matter for the Council."
"You know what they'll say, Spectre." growled Wrex. "The Rachni are too dangerous to live. Kill the damn thing and get it over with."
"Wrex, I'm going to hear her out. If we'd attacked the true Geth before talking to Pluribus, we could've been committing pointless genocide. There may be mitigating factors. At the very least, we need more information." Shepard turned to the Queen once again.
'Why did the Rachni attack the Council?'
'We were caged against our will. Our mothers sang to the children, but the Black Ones silenced their voices. They soured the songs of our mothers and used them to manipulate the children to do their bidding.'
'Black Ones? You mean the Reapers?' he asked, now alarmed.
'Yes. They sought to use us as instruments of destruction, tools to their will. We were but an egg then, and we only faintly heard our mother's cries.'
'If the Reapers were controlling your people against their will, then I can't hold it against you. Yuri tried to do much the same to my people using machines, and we barely stopped him.'
'Then you will release us? You will give us the chance to compose anew?' she asked hopefully.
'I will. But there will be repercussions for my actions. My people will have only my word to go on here, unless we can find a way to allow you to communicate with my superiors. Releasing you could start a war, and with the Reapers coming, we can't afford that.'
'We would fight the Black Ones.' she replied firmly. 'They enslaved our mothers, just as they sought to enslave our children, and us. We will follow whatever commands you give us, so long as they allow us to sing once more.'
'I think I can live with that. For now, I need you to board my ship and come with me to a secure location. We should be able to get your people back on their feet. It'll take some time, but if you're willing to fight the Reapers, I think we can convince my people to help you.'
'We will remember you, One of Troubled Melodies. We will sing of your forgiveness to our children.'
When Shepard explained what had transpired, he was met with mixed reactions, the most vocal of which came from Wrex.
"Mark my words, Shepard: you'll regret this. It'll be my people's job to clean up this mess again."
"Wrex, they were being controlled by the Reapers. If they're willing to help fight them, then they deserve a second chance."
"Why?!" he growled. "They slaughtered billions in the Rachni Wars!"
"And the Krogan killed just as many during the Rebellions!" Shepard countered angrily. "Why don't they deserve a second chance?"
Wrex reacted to the question as if he'd been hit in the face with a sledgehammer. He sputtered for a few moments, and Shepard continued, this time more diplomatically. "Wrex, I believe the Krogan deserve a second chance too. What the Salarians and Turians did to your people was abhorrent, very nearly unspeakable, and it should never have happened. At the very least, the Genophage should've been reversed a long time ago. Everyone who fought in the Rebellions is dead, and the Krogan's are a dying race. Your people are no more to blame for what they did than the Rachni. The Salarians made your people into weapons, just like the Reapers did to hers."
Wrex's anger faded. "Huh. Never thought I'd meet a person who gave a shit about the Krogan, or the Genophage. Alright Shepard, you convinced me. I'll reserve judgment for later."
"That's all I ask, Wrex." Shepard opened up a com line to the Normandy. "Joker, I need you to prepare to chrono a large, non-standard container aboard the Normandy. Dimensions are about five by five by fifteen meters."
"Can do, Commander. We'll have to make some room in the cargo hold, though. What're we bringing on board this time?"
Shepard chuckled slightly, and an evil glint came to his eye. "Oh, not much: just a member of a royal family and her… baggage. Why don't you come down to the hold when she arrives? I'm sure the Queen will love to meet you."
"Queen?" he asked confusedly. "What're you talking about?"
"Just come down to the hold. Trust me, it'll be worth the trip."