DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Thank you all for giving me all your thoughts on krogan lifespan. I am not going to be extreme as some of you had suggested could be possible on krogan age in general, but I am going to make Wrex's apparent age somewhat greater than what I previously did, and I'll edit the chapters accordingly. Also, I am going to be purposefully vague on the matter of his exact age, just like the games were, but I'll say he's an old, experienced dog.
I also apologize for this chapter being slightly late (about 3 days late than what I intended, actually), and the reason for that is because a colleague has taken an emergency sick-leave and my workload has increased by 30%. Things had been pretty hectic, obviously.
Now, this chapter is obviously a bit shorter than usual, and I'm afraid that the next one will be too, but I hope that the quality of it makes up for any subsequent delays that might happen because of the sudden workload increase that has prevented me from writing as much.
Chapter posted on 2.3.2017.
Main Tags: Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love.
Additional Tags: Slowly turning AU, Technology-heavy, Geopolitical themes (to an extent), Economic themes (there are some), Intrigue (a bit o' that, too)…
Rated M – for mature and adult content.
Enjoy…
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Chapter 19 – New Mysteries
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Adams looked intently through the 3D sketch schematics in front of him, his keen engineer's eye scanning and correlating what he was seeing in front of him with what he already knew.
"What do you think?" Marcus asked from the other side of the work desk, wearing his full armor.
Adams was silent for a moment before he reached out with his hand and pointed at a section of the model.
"I know this is the mass effect module," he said, "and these here are the relay nodes. This whole thing here is the amplifier." His finger then moved to point another section. "However, I have no idea what this entire section is supposed to be about. I know that this here inside of it is a power source, but it, and everything else is like nothing I've ever seen."
"I'm pretty sure it's a helium-3 disassembler generator," Marcus said. "It's set to project a quint-phasic current. I'm thinking that most Prothean tech was based on using quint-phasics and that that's why we're having problems understanding it."
"I think I follow," Adams murmured as he frowned at the schematics. "If this produces quint-phasic currents, then this part here starts to make some sense. I think it's an oscillator of some kind."
Marcus reached to his side, grabbing a datapad and showing it to Adams. "It works on this principle," he said.
Adams took a few moments to look it over as he pondered.
"I know these formulae," he said in the end, and then pointed one segment of it. "But, what the heck are these symbols?"
"That's the problem," Marcus said, pointing at it with his upturned palm. "I can't translate those operator symbols. It's Prothean-specific; like an extra set of letters that our languages simply don't have and cannot use. But if you think of this operator here as a mathematical 'if' and this one as a 'del'…"
"Hmm," Adams nodded. "I think I get it. It's a…" he shook his head. "I don't know what to call it, but I think I know what it does. This module might very well be the solution to the particle weapon problematic that everyone had encountered."
"I figured as much as well," Marcus said, shifting the 3D view to another image. "That's why I made a detailed render of the part."
Adams looked at the render, his lips curling upward in a greedy display of engineering desire.
"Amazing," he said, then looked up at Marcus. "And you extracted all of this from that Prothean orb computer you picked up on Illium?"
Marcus nodded. "It's more than just a computer, though. It's a memory bank – but for brains. Imagine you now suddenly knew bio-genetics on par with the greatest scientific mind in the field. That's what this thing does. It gives you memories. It's up to you to be smart enough to use them."
"Damn, I wish I could use it then," Adams commented.
"Then you'll be glad to know that I think these orbs could be used by any species," Marcus said with a knowing smirk. "We just need a proper 'adapter'. I've given the orb to Tali and told her what to look for. I think she might surprise us very soon."
"So that's where the little sparks had disappeared to?" Adams said, smirking back. "If anyone can figure that out, it's her."
"That's what I'm counting on," Marcus said more somberly. "Whatever's going on in the Galaxy is too big for the entire Galactic R&D to rely solely on me."
"I hear ya," Adams said. "But even if we did have the detailed schematics, it'd take months, maybe even years, to reverse-engineer them." He then looked over the schematics once more and lifted the datapad to point it out. "You can count on me with this, Commander. You sure have given me something to gnaw on my mind; I know I won't be able to sleep until I figure this one out."
"Take your time," Marcus said, then nodded with his chin toward the swirling mass of eezo core. "With you and Tali to teach them, your men had become quite proficient with the new core. I think you can take your leave from overseeing them and be sure they won't burn the house down."
Adams chuckled. "You can say that again."
"I should go," Marcus said, stepping away from the work bench. "We're about to test the new hover systems."
"Good luck with that, Commander," Adams said with a nod, before stepping away.
Marcus turned and walked from the engineering and into the cargo bay. His eyes scanned the scene.
The cargo bay was a crowded mess. With the two Triton mechs, two Makos, a number of cargo crates on either side and a veritable junkyard of mechanical parts of various sizes, the cargo bay looked more like a skunkworks garage. It felt good seeing it like that. He liked skunkworks.
His ground team specialists were to the side, preparing their gear for the sortie.
"Everything ready?" he called as he approached them.
"Everything is prepared, Shepard," Garrus replied with a nod, then looked to the side. "The hover system is functioning."
Marcus followed his gaze to where one of the Makos stood – or more accurately, hovered some half a meter off the ground. All of its wheels and suspension were completely removed, now laying stacked at one side of the cargo bay, and the Rhinok hover system was installed in their place, along with a set of afterburners at the rear. A set of makeshift armor plates was covering the hover system's sides, providing some basic protection to the set of manifolds and projectors until the proper armor could be designed.
"What are the readings?" Marcus asked.
"The powergrid and the mass effect field are stable," Tali replied from where she stood next to the Hover-Mako, making adjustments on her omni-tool that was interfaced with the machine. "The limited thruster testing we did shows them as functional. We'll just have to see about their power draw once we're planet-side."
"Good," he said, looking around at the assembled team, then at Jaina who joined him to his side. "Looks like we're all ready and set. What do you think? Both teams – one in the modified Hover-Mako and the other in the old, unmodified one, running as support in case shit?"
"No other way to do it," she said, then nodded at the Hover-Mako. "I'll take that one," she said in an already-decided tone. "You've set its control scheme to be akin to a gunship. I fly better than you do, and you'll need a really good pilot in order to be sure there won't be an accident. Doubly so, since it's a brand new and untested prototype."
He nodded, not taking his eyes off the Hover-Mako. "You'll get no argument from me there. You'll still need the engineering team that worked on its systems the most, though. Take Garrus, Tali, and Kaidan with you. I'll take the others with me in the Old-Mako." He then looked to the rest of the assembled team. "Everyone clear on that?"
"Yeah, we're clear," Wrex muttered in annoyance.
Jaina and Marcus folded their arms over their chests as they turned toward the rest of their team.
"Something wrong, Wrex?" she asked.
Wrex looked sullenly at the new vehicle. "I wanted to go."
"I know what you mean," Ash added. "I seem to never get picked to do some fun stuff."
Jaina shared an amused smirk with Marcus.
"You'll get your chance soon enough, we promise," Marcus said patronizingly.
"And the sooner the testing is done, the sooner it can happen," Jaina declared with a motherly tone, then tapped the comms, returning to business. "Joker, what's our status?"
"Steady orbit at three hundred k, Commander, coming up on the sunward side in little over five minutes. Ready to descend at any moment."
Marcus shared a nod with Jaina, and she clapped her hands once.
"Alright, kids, get to your rides!" she declared, making a sweeping ushering motion with her arms.
"Pack up into the Makos, people! Move!" Marcus followed up.
The scuttling of feet echoed across the cargo bay as the ground team specialists walked briskly up to their designated vehicles and piled inside with quick and practiced movements.
The Hover-Mako's hover system held the vehicle even steadier than the suspension of the Old-Mako did as the crew clambered in.
Strapping herself into her seat, Jaina looked around where Garrus, Tali, and Kaidan had settled themselves in the newly-fixed seats, straight behind the driver and shotgun seats. The internal space of the new prototype was severely reduced now. The newly-installed Martelix eezo core along with mass effect field projectors was taking up a huge chunk of space at the rear half of the vehicle, and the previous eight-people capacity of the vehicle was reduced to four, the entire rear half of the vehicle now carrying the sectioned-off Martellix core.
She activated all internal systems, going through the pre-flight checks with a practiced ease of someone who could only have the latent talent in them.
"All systems green, operating at peak capacity," she declared into the comms."
"Link the feeds into my system. I'll need to monitor the systems from here," Marcus called as he sent out a platoon leader flag on his vehicle.
"Receiving the platoon-leader requisition," she acknowledged as the system indication popped up. "Linking up… System linked up and ready."
"Thanks," he said, then tapped the general comms. "Alright, Joker, take us down Standard atmospheric drop, nothing flashy."
"Aye-aye, Commander. No-fun way it is!" Joker replied instantly.
The Normandy descended into the thin atmosphere of the small planet and decelerated accordingly down to three hundred kph. The yellow warning lights on either side of the cargo bay doors flashed on and the cargo bay ramp slowly lowered, showing the barren vista of an alien world streaming beneath them.
Joker's voice came over the intercom:
"Assuming constant velocity. Shutting down launch pad inertial fields. Applying aerobrakes brakes in three, two, one – brake!"
The aerodynamic surfaces on the Normandy's outer hull flared open, producing mighty drag and decelerating quickly, letting the inertia launch both of the Makos forward and out of its cargo bay.
The two vehicles sailed through the air in a parabolic free fall before they simultaneously braked – the Old Mako applying descent thrusters and the new Hover-Mako boosting its mass effect hover field.
For a fraction of the second, the two vehicles descended toward the earth side-by-side before the Hover-Mako suddenly broke its fall completely, then shot back up like it had bounced back up from a trampoline.
Proximity alarms blared loudly.
"Whoa, release the brakes, release the brakes!" Kaidan shouted as he realized what was gonna happen.
Instead, Jaina slammed them hard into a half-roll, flipping them upside-down and slamming onto the full vertical ascent boost. The Hover-Mako braked hard, just in time for its hover system to deflect it against the oncoming Normandy's belly as the giant frigate pitched hard up in an attempt to avoid the climbing vehicle.
The two vessels missed each other by mere meters as the Normandy slid above it in its frantic pitch, is powerful engine exhausts engulfing the smaller prototype in a violent stream of hot fumes. The Hover-Mako vibrated through the short ordeal as its hover system compensated, the warning alarms signaling the overstress of the kinetic barriers, and then – nothing.
"Commander, are you alright?!" Joker called frantically.
"We're alright, everyone," Jaina called out on the general frequency. "We were just shaken up by the turbulence, nothing major!"
"You were engulfed in an antiproton fuel jet stream for half a second, Commander," Joker said dryly. "With all due respect, but that's not what experimental technology should be for! I had to pitch up hard just to avoid colliding with you."
"And what an awesome job you've done, Joker! I always knew you had it in you," Jaina replied amusedly, then looked toward the back seat over her shoulder. "See, kids? That's why you have good pilots at the prototype's control sticks."
"Well, at least I'm appreciated," Joker quipped.
"I was referring to myself," Jaina responded dryly.
"Oh, come on!" Joker complained.
Marcus's deep chuckle carried through the comms:
"Alright, enough with the chatter," he said. "We got work to do. Tali, make a note: 'adjust hover system deceleration controls and automation'."
"Noted," Tali said dryly as she typed away at her omni-tool.
"At least we now know that the hover system is good enough for enduring massive pressures and forces," Marcus spoke up. "So, come down now, let's see what kind of fun we can have on this rock!"
"Commin' to ya," Jaina responded, angling the vehicle into a descent.
The Hover-Mako maneuvered downward in a gentle arc until it hovered half a meter above ground. Moving solely under the mass effect drive, it joined up with the Old-Mako and the two vehicles throttled up, blasting at full speed across the barren landscape side-by-side.
"How does it feel like?" Marcus asked over the comms.
"The drive feels smooth," Jaina commented. "No shakes or tremors. No vibrations. The controls were extremely responsive back up during the near-miss."
"The energy flow and mass effect are both stable," Tali said as she monitored her devices. "Structural integrity is sound." She then chirped happily, "I'd say we're good for more fun!"
"I'm moving away to have more room," Jaina declared, then gently turned to the left, separating from the Old-Mako.
She began turning and banking sharply left and right, pitching up and down, then strafing left-right, up-down, testing as much of the hover system as she could.
"I'm not feeling any of the inertial forces," she said. "The system seems to be very powerful at compensating."
"Maybe it'd be good to have simulated inertial forces inside," Garrus said. "It'd be good to know by feel, rather than just by instruments as to how the vehicle's moving."
"We'd avoid scenarios like just now – accidentally climbing back into the Normandy," Kaidan added.
"I'll adjust the threshold of inertial dampeners a bit so they let the low forces through," Tali said, as she tapped away at her omni-tool. "Try maneuvering now."
Jaina banked to the left, and the crew felt a barely-perceptive tug into the opposite side. She then banked back into the right, hard, adding an extra force into the hover system, and the crew felt a slight jerking tug at their bodies.
"That was an eight-G turn just now," she said, monitoring the instruments.
"Barely felt it," Garrus said appreciatively as he turned to Tali. "That was pretty good! I could maintain perfect control over the gun in full manual mode."
"Looks solid from what I'm seeing from its systems here," Marcus said over the comms.
"I'm gonna attempt some higher-altitude flight," Jaina declared. "I'm pretty interested in seeing how the hover system performs."
"Go for it," he encouraged.
Jaina throttled the altitude control, climbing the vehicle full thousand meters above local ground using hover systems alone, and then maintained altitude.
"Everything seems stable," she said, then maneuvered some more, performing banking, rolling and looping maneuvers. "The controls are responsive. My instruments show minimum oversteer or understeer."
"Jaina, we might want to consider descending," Tali said. "I'm detecting an increased heat buildup in the hover system."
"Understood," Jaina said, then promptly maneuvered the vehicle into a dive, quickly descending down to a couple of feet above the ground. "How's it look now?"
Tali nodded. "It looks to be stabilizing. I think that too much maneuvering on high altitudes can overstress the system; nothing that a few dedicated heat sinks couldn't handle."
Ashley suddenly spoke over the comm: "Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that hover system supposed to be used for hours on gas giant lifters, and that it needs to maneuver through powerful atmospheric turbulences? It should be able to fly you out of the atmosphere. Why did it overheat now?"
"True, but those lifters have massive heat sinks," Kaidan said. "We have completely removed those from these hover systems."
"I have taken that into consideration when I designed the Scorpion plans," Marcus said. "I had planned to use the oversized eezo core to rig a similar heat sink system like I've used on our weapons."
"And that's why we have this oversized eezo core, right here," Tali said motioning to the crudely walled-off compartment behind her.
"Say, Tali," Garrus called to her, "are we good for another high-altitude climb?"
"We are," she said as she checked out the head readings.
"What are you thinking?" Marcus asked from the other vehicle.
"No, it's not like that; it's just that there was a blip on the radar," the turian responded. "I think I've detected something on the broad area scanners when we were all the way up there." He then addressed Jaina, "Can you climb us up and keep us there for a few moments longer?"
Jaina nodded and gently began lifting the vehicle upward, keeping an eye on the heat gauge. The Hover-Mako rose to about a thousand meters of altitude where Garrus activated the broad range scan.
"Definitely something out there," he said as he examined the signal, switching to a directed narrow-band scan toward a point of interest. "There," he said as he brought the scan onto the main screen. "At ninety-five degrees, ten clicks distance, just behind that edge. The identification system marks it as either a mangled prefab building or a small transport ship."
"A vessel or a vehicle, most likely," Jaina commented as she viewed the feed. "Can our optics show a clearer visual?"
Garrus switched to main gun's targeting optics and zoomed in toward the object. He shook his head.
"Something is there, obviously, but I can only see its top from this angle," he said. "It does look like a vehicle or a crashed ship, but I'm not sure about the model."
"Is it just me, or does that thing resemble a UT-47?" Kaidan asked as he observed the image.
"If it is, then it fits alliance color scheme," She murmured as she observed the feed grimly.
"That shouldn't happen," Marcus commented. "The Alliance doesn't have any presence in this system other than an occasional frigate patrol. This cluster is secluded from any major routes. The closest base is on Therum."
"I agree. Something's fishy here," she declared, directing the Hover-Mako into a descent. "Did you happen to hear someone say that this planet was important for anything?" she asked.
"No, nothing," he replied, just as grimly. "What about you? What did the navigation charts say about the world again?"
"Nothing," she replied. "Edolus is a silicate sand wasteland, unbreathable atmo, and under constant meteor showers. The initial flyby probes haven't even shown any mineral wealth whatsoever. Not even wildcat miners are interested in this place."
Marcus hummed, then tapped the comms to Normandy.
"Joker, have you achieved a stable orbit?" he asked.
"Just this second, Commander," the voice came.
"Then break out those hyper sensors and train them toward the planet," Jaina commanded. "We want deep scans, but start from the area we're about to send you the coordinates for. There's something on the surface, and we want to know what it is."
"Aye-aye, ma'am, sir," the pilot called and went to work just as the Hover-Mako touched down next to the Old-Mako, the two vehicles driving silently side by side across the desert wasteland.
"Uh, Commanders, you're not gonna like this," Joker called. "That thing down there is a standard alliance UT-47, complete with all the markings. It appears to belong to the 12th Flotilla, under Admiral Kahoku. And it's heavily damaged. There are bodies around it. Their armor is the standard Alliance Marines gear."
"Dammit," Kaidan cursed. Marcus and Jaina just listened on grimly.
"And there's something more," Joker continued. "There appears to be an Alliance distress beacon right at their location coming from a derelict ground vehicle next to the shuttle, but the distress signal's coding itself does not come from the Alliance. Those men must've been sent to see what the distress signal was about."
Jaina spoke up: "That doesn't make any sense. This system is isolated. There was no way that a distress call could reach another system. And even if it did, why would anyone send only one ordinary Marine squad in nothing but a Kodiak all the way out here?"
"No idea," Marcus replied. "But this hover system test run just got a lot more interesting. Joker, you keep the deep scan of the planet, but keep a lookout for what's going on in the system. Keep the stealth field up, you hear!"
"You don't have to tell me twice, sir," he replied and went silent.
"Jaina, we're going down there, fast pace," Marcus ordered.
"How quickly do you think your Mako can get us there."
"At this terrain? One and a half clicks per minute."
"Alright. We'll stay close to you and perform occasional high altitude sorties."
The two vehicles changed direction slightly and proceeded with maximum possible speed toward the sight of the disaster. The terrain was mostly flat or rolling sandy ground, with rocky hills and outcroppings spread throughout. It was here that Old-Mako's all-road capabilities were shown in full light. The APC was devouring distance at ninety kph, with Hover-Mako trailing close next to it. Every couple of kilometers, Jaina would lift his vehicle a few hundred meters into the air, surveying the seemingly barren area.
When they were about one kilometer from the disaster site, and both vehicles descending down toward it from the nearby ridge, Marcus's inner warning bells began ringing like crazy.
"All stop!" he shouted over the comms, applying brakes and drifting down into an emergency halt.
Jaina's Hover-Mako banked hard mid-air, drifting, then descending down in a vertical pitch before it rolled around to where Marcus had stopped his vehicle.
"What have you seen?" she called.
Instead of answering her, Marcus called to his vehicle's companion:
"Wrex, are you seeing what I'm seeing?" he spoke as he scanned the area around the disaster site.
"Yeah," came the battlemaster's grim voice. "That Kodiak is sitting in the middle of a thresher maw nest."
"A thresher maw nest?!" Ashley exclaimed. "How can you be sure?"
"Only the thresher maw leaves those huge mounds of dirt and those kinds of trenches on the surface," he replied. "Trust me, I should know."
Marcus nodded in agreement, examining the local area and thinking up a course of action.
"The threshers like to perform assault down-up from the ground. They've been known to tear the Mako in half when they launch up, and they're precise as hell; we don't stand a chance in hell if we go down there on wheels."
"So you don't," Jaina spoke up. "We have the altitude and the maneuverability. We'll go in and act as a decoy. Once the bestie is up, we both turn on it – you sniping from the distance and us from above."
"Hmm… it'll have to do," he agreed, a grim frown on his face. "Otherwise, we can't get down there, and there's no way we're leaving our own fallen behind." He scanned the area left and right, then came to a conclusion. "We're taking that rocky high ground to the right and snipe it out with our main gun from the ledge. That's where we're safest. You go down there and draw the beastie out."
"Understood," she said grimly, throttling up the hover systems as she rose higher up.
Marcus revved up the engine, the Old-Mako's tires spinning mightily as they lifted a cloud of sand, spinning a vehicle and launching it toward the rocky ledge.
Jaina tracked them until the other vehicle was safely on the rock and the vehicle set up for long-range sniping.
"Alright, we'll be going in," she said. "Keep your eyes peeled."
"I'm heading out, too," Wrex spoke up, moving up from his seat in the Old Mako and popping up the hatch. "I'm going to set up next to the tank with my machinegun, as well."
"Good thinking," Marcus said.
"We could use every gun we have for this," Jaina murmured as the Hover-Mako glided across the sands, approaching the site. She then tapped a command, and the main thrusters they had installed along with the hover system came to life. "And every other edge at our disposal," she added.
"We intended to test those thrusters anyway," Tali said with a shrug. "Might as well be now."
The Hover-Mako reached the disaster site, hovering a couple of meters above the ground. The ground looked like it was ploughed with a giant machine, and torn human bodies were littering the surface.
"How come the thresher maw didn't eat them?" Kaidan asked as he watched the scene of carnage.
"Thresher maws like to leave their victims where they killed them," Wrex spoke into the comms as he scoped the area from where he set up the biped machinegun stand in a prone position. "It may attract other predators or scavengers that the thresher maw can also then eat. Besides, the thresher maw does not need to eat flesh to survive. It absorbs radiation and consumes minerals from the ground. Its guts work like a reactor."
"I think I know what might have happened here," Garrus said as his eyes darted around the scene, examining the details. "See that wreck over there?" he said pointing with his chin. "That looks like an M29 Grizzly, badly mauled. The distress signal is coming from there. The marines came down with the shuttle and walked out to examine what is going on; they must not have known they were walking into the middle of a thresher maw nest. The thresher maw must've attacked the Kodiak first. Otherwise, a pilot would have lifted off. Then, it was easy pickings with the rest of the marines."
An alarm started beeping on the sensor console. Jaina shifted the external view camera and directed it toward the point that the sensors were alerting her to, only to see dirt beneath their vehicle shift.
She punched the throttle of the hover system violently, pitching the vehicle's nose upward and ascending rapidly just as the dirt beneath them surged upward and then exploded with a thunderous roar. The thresher maw surged straight up after the shuttle, spreading its mandibled jaw widely as it roared, trying to catch the ascending Hover-Mako.
Punching the controls, Jaina gave a full power to the rear thrusters, blasting the thresher maw's face with the roaring flames and making it screech out in pain just as its jaws snapped shut. Just as it did, a high-velocity round from Marcus's Mako from up on the cliffs slammed into the beast's neck with a violent impulse.
The round impact worked like a fist punch into the beast's side, swaying it in the air and making it drop down like a humongous log. The thresher maw caught itself with its huge scythed front claws as it struck the ground, just as a hailstorm of heavy machinegun rounds started peppering it – from both Mako's coaxial machinegun and Wrex's Devastator.
Jaina spun the Hover-Mako in the air, turning the nose downward, making the vehicle hover, and letting Garrus take aim with the main gun. The thresher maw had already begun pulling back into its burrow with speed that bellied its size but failed to hide before Garrus managed to hit it from the vehicle's main gun.
Liara's voice came through for the first time:
"By the Goddess, how tough are those creatures?"
"Very," Wrex growled out succinctly.
"It's moving through the ground," Kaidan said as they watched the ground beneath the Hover-Mako ripple.
The thresher maw broke the surface once more, but instead of trying to surge after the levitating vehicle, it angled its giant head toward it and launched a green projectile at the Hover-Mako with a burst of pressurized gas. The projectile surged toward it with impressive speed, only narrowly missing the moving vehicle.
Another projectile slammed into the beast's side from the Old-Mako, disrupting it from launching any further acid spike volleys and giving Garrus the opening to finally finish it off with the shot from the Hover-Mako's main gun. The final projectile slammed with turian precision straight through the massive beast's gaping and unarmored mouth, the impulse shock gouging through its cranium with absolute damage, making green acidic blood burst forth from numerous orifices from the internal pressure shockwave.
The thresher maw swayed like a limp hose, finally slamming down onto the ground and raising a cloud of sand before Garrus launched one final round down into it, just for good measure.
"Dead and done, just the way I like 'em," Wrex declared proudly.
"Do you think there might be other thresher maws around?" Jaina asked.
"If there are, the closest one would be at least a hundred kilometers out," Wrex said. "Thresher maws are solitary and highly territorial. Trust me, this one here is the only one we're gonna find."
"That's a relief," Liara commented into the comms. "I've never encountered a live thresher maw before, and I did a lot of travels."
"If you did, you'd be dead, kid," Wrex replied in a no-nonsense tone.
"And I, for one, am glad that that did not happen," Marcus stated firmly. "Now, Wrex, board up. We're heading down here. Let's try to find out what happened down here."
"I'm descending down," Jaina declared as she directed the Hover-Mako into a descent, just as the Old-Mako rolled down from the cliffs after Wrex climbed aboard.
A couple of minutes later, all eight of them were strolling amongst the wreckage, examining the situation in close regard.
"How long ago do you think this happened?" Marcus asked Garrus as they examined one of the Marine's bodies.
"Hard to say," Garrus replied as they both crouched next to it. "There are no scavengers here, no insects, only indigenous microbes that don't exactly know how to decompose an alien body. Judging from the tissue mummification process, I'd have to say it was two-to-three weeks ago.
"Marcus, you're not gonna like this," Jaina called. "I've checked these Marine's IDs, and they're all N3-s."
"An autonomous unit?" Garrus queried.
"Yeah," Marcus nodded.
"What does that mean?" Liara asked.
"N-ranking," Kaidan said. "Men that go through it are usually deployed together in specialized teams and units based on their final N-ranking. N1-s are special weapons and tactics. N2 is a higher level of that, and they get assigned to spec-ops ships – like Miller's squad is on the Normandy. N3 is still a higher level of that, and they're semi-autonomous. They get a small armed and armored transport ship and they go about performing high-level, high-risk missions."
"We're talking black ops here," Marcus said as he was crouching next to the body, observing it. "The N3-s receive missions from a task force commander, or higher."
"Which in this case should be Kahoku," Jaina said with a frown and shook her head. "But if that's the case, then why have they been left here to rot for three weeks? Judging by their gear and supplies they brought, this was supposed to be a quick mission – two or three days tops! Someone in their command should have noticed something had gone awry long ago."
"I don't like this one bit, Marcus," Garrus said. "This has all the hallmarks of an intentional sabotage."
"What about that distress signal that got them here?" Marcus asked, turning around to look at what were mangled remains of the out-of-place M29.
"Here," Tali said, approaching him and raising her omni-tool. "The signal was coming from a rigged distress beacon inside the Grizzly. It's broadcasting on a military frequency, but it doesn't use the standard Alliance codes. It's something else entirely."
Garrus looked at Marcus. "My gut feeling tells me that these marines knew what that signal was about. That's why they came looking for it specifically."
Marcus ground his teeth as he contemplated things sharing a grim look with Jaina.
He tapped the comms.
"Joker, have you found anything out about this rock we're on?" he demanded. "Tell us everything, and don't spare the details."
"Aye-aye, Commander," the pilot reported back. "There don't seem to be any real artificial constructs on this planet. The only other thing we have detected is a probe that has crashed on the southern hemisphere, but that one looks like an ancient turian survey flyby probe model; must've been there for centuries."
"And anything of natural value?" Jaina queried.
"Well, Edolus does seem to be rich in regard of ores," Joker said. "Lots of heavy, light, and rare metals all across the board, and it seems to be quite accessible. But that's about it."
"I thought this world was supposed to be bereft of valuable minerals," Marcus said, turning to Jaina and sharing a confused look with her.
"Yeah, that's what all of those dull civilian survey scans think," Joker spoke smugly. "A few meters of this particular type of silicate sand is enough to confuse ordinary mining scanners, but that's not the case with our baby here. The Normandy uses the Pulsar resonance scanner. It makes everything flare up like a Christmas tree!"
Kaidan shook his head. "I kinda doubt this was about some mining rights, Commander," he said. "You don't send the N3-s in the middle of nowhere to go protect prospecting interests."
"I agree," Jaina said, crossing her arms. "If we want answers, we're gonna have to go to Admiral Kahoku."
Marcus nodded. "Alright, Joker, bring the ship down. We're bringing these men back home for a proper burial."
"Aye-aye, Commander," the man replied and ended the comm.
"Is everyone ready?" Marcus said as he cast a look over the assembled teammates and then frowned, looking around. "Where's Wrex?"
Everyone turned to look around each other searchingly.
"Umm…" Garrus spoke up, looking somewhere off to the side behind Marcus and pointing with his finger.
Everyone turned to see Wrex shuffling out from behind the mangled shuttle, a huge scythed thresher maw claw trailing behind him as he dragged it along.
"Wrex?" Marcus asked as the burly battlemaster lumbered past him.
"Shepard," the krogan responded noncommittally.
"What's with the thresher claw, Wrex?" Jaina prodded on.
Wrex stopped and turned to look at her and Marcus in confusion, and then down at the claw.
"Well it's kinda obvious," the battlemaster said, motioning in circles with his free hand. When no one responded, he said, "Don't you humans decorate your ships with trophies of the things you killed?"
"Uh… no, we don't?" Ashley said pointedly.
"Well, you do now," he replied and continued dragging the claw toward the Old-Mako.
The rest of Shepards' teammates looked amongst each other with a mixed assembly of both incredulous and amused looks.
"Hmm…" Marcus mused.
"Skipper?" Ashley queried uncertainly. "Not to sound like a stickler for Alliance regs, but… don't you think hanging dead carcasses in our ship might be a bit too much?"
"What are you thinking?" Jaina asked from next to him with a smirk in her voice.
"I'm thinking of how the Normandy would look like wearing Sovereign's armor after we flay it off of him," he declared.
There was a moment of utter silence.
"I could rig that to work!" Tali declared with a happy chirp.
"That's the spirit," he said smiling down at her. "As for the trophies – We'll allow it, as long as you report it to me or Jaina, first. Hey, Wrex!"
"Ya?" The krogan hollered back from where he was tying the thresher limb on the Mako.
"You're the resident trophy expert," Marcus declared. "Make sure you scrub the trophy from all the acid blood and stuff it properly. The same will go for any other trophy we might bring on board."
"Sure," the krogan replied with a shrug.
"Alright then," Marcus nodded as he looked skyward toward where the Normandy could be seen piercing the skies as it descended. "Time to get to work."
.
One hour later; Normandy's cargo hold.
.
Doctor Chakwas's omni-tool was chirping continuously as the good doctor crouched next to the body of a dead marine, passing the scanner across the remains. Somber sadness was etched on her face. The omni-tool beeped, and she checked the readings before rose from her crouch and sighed.
"That was the last of them," she said. "It's pretty clear, Commander. All of these men were killed by a thresher maw."
"Thank you, Doctor," Marcus said as he scrutinized the dozen body bags arranged in two rows in the corner of the Normandy's hold. "That'll be all."
Chakwas nodded and wordlessly left toward the elevator. Marcus waited a bit, watching her go before he crouched next to the closest body bag and frowned at it. Ever since he witnessed the scene where the carnage happened, there was a sensation in the back of his mind that nagged at him, and that odd tingle in his palms that he had been aware of ever since that day on Illium.
He chewed on his lip, and then he reached out and opened the body bag. He looked down at the body, and slowly reached out with his hand, passing it near the surface of the body, and concentrated. A flurry of strong sensations originating from the body surged into the back of his mind. The panic. The terror. A flurry of the last, strongest images, before the man died. A murky image, but it carried an unmistakable silhouette and the clear roar of a thresher maw surging out of the ground. Screams of soldiers.
Marcus took his hand back and breathed.
It was just like Akuze. It was a long time ago, but he could recognize it anywhere, anytime. But this new ability was what his mind was interested in much more than old memories.
It was true. Liara had mentioned before that she had sensed during their meld that the Cipher was much more than just transferring memories of the Protheans. This new ability was there along with it. Sifting through the memories of the Beacon, he realized that that information about this ability was always there. It was innate to the Protheans, and now, it was a part of him as well.
Only, it was still developing. Still settling in.
He licked his lips. There was no telling what it would do once it was fully developed. It could be a boon or it could be a hindrance. A part of him was telling him the former, though… This thing could be a major asset. A ghost of a smile appeared for a moment in the corner of his lips before he reached out and closed the body bag, then stood up and left.
...
...
ON ANOTHER NOTE (rant, actually):
I hope someone develops some face mods for ME: Andromeda real soon after it's out. About the only female face I like among all that I've seen there is Vetra.
What - I want my super hotties like Miranda and Kelly were in ME2, and like Yen, and Triss, and Keira, and Frangilla, and – hell, even my girl Ciri – are in Witcher 3. Don't look at me like that, you know I'm right! Isn't that what games are supposed to be about ever since ever?
What was that? Oh – realism, is that it? Ugly women are more realistic and not sexist, which is what gaming industry needs to become? That right? Oh, I see. Well, piss off! If I wanted to look at ugly women, I'd go clubbing! - and that's how I feel about Cora, Sarah, Lexi, and pretty much every other female face I've seen in Andromeda. Even Peebee – I mean, yeah, she could be cute, but what's with the raccoon face?
Yeah, I'm superficial when it comes to virtual gaming girls – deal with it!
-End rant.-
OH! And I had placed an ME3 scene in this chapter! Bah, why do I bother - of course you've already noticed it!
In any case, the rev/fav/fol has grown to 176/268/306 - YAY! I have more than 300 follows! I feel like a special entitled snowflake all of a sudden! NOT! :D
[Chuckles] Thanks guys, though, really. The fact that I'm getting reviews and am being followed feels good - you know. It kinda feels like one of those small successes in life that make it awesome. So, thanks for being generous, and I hope you keep that up if you like my chapters.
See ya later, (but hopefully not much later, ehehe)...