It just had to be spiders. There were very few things in the galaxy that Tali was terrified of; total suit failure, suffocating, thresher maws, and spiders. While the final item on that list wasn't entirely lethal like the rest, it still remained a source of terror for her. As a young child, her mother had brought her for a trek on a planet while the Rayya crew gathered supplies. It had been a wonderful trip, until she had wandered into a cave, not noticing or at least caring about the webbing covering the entrance, and the horde of tiny spiders that covered it. Within seconds, she had been covered in the scurrying insects, dozens all over her visor. Tali doubted she'd ever screamed as loud as then. It had taken hours to remove them from the exterior of her suit, having found their way into her pockets and head-scarf. Ever since, she had been mindlessly terrified of the things, or anything that bore resemblance, and the Rachni were similar enough for her. That they had piercing shrieks made it even worse, and harder to focus on the task at hand.
The section of the base that they'd been traversing had been disabled in an attempt to quarantine one of the buildings from the other, she assumed, and it was her duty to repair the VI core so that they could re-enable the systems and gain passage to Rift Station, the other half of Peak Fifteen's facility. It wasn't proving to be a difficult fix, just a lengthy, tedious one. These were the moments she felt proudest, knowing she was the best for the job and that the rest of the group both needed her and trusted her to accomplish the goal. She could only hope that perhaps one day, she'd be just as capable and trustworthy in combat situations. She did have a growing fondness for her shotgun, after all.
"Tali, you almost done there?" she heard Shepard ask kindly from above the pit she sat in. It was an odd structural decision, but she wasn't complaining too much. It kept the rachni out of sight, even if not out of mind.
"One last pass, Shepard. Just waiting for it to boot up, should only take a few more seconds." She spoke, standing up and confidently crawling out of the pit, taking the commander's hand for leverage.
As she finished brushing herself off, the VI came online as she had predicted, and Shepard immediately shifted her focus from her to the VI. Tali listened as it rattled off necessary procedures for powering the building up and releasing it from quarantine. There wasn't much to do, it seemed. With the amount of people we have, we can do all of that in a few minutes, probably. You would think that ending a quarantine would be more difficult…
"Tali, I want you, Kaidan, Garrus and Ash to fix the reactor core. I'm taking Shiala, Liara and Wrex to go take care of the land lines. We meet back here when we're done, alright?" the woman asked, drawing a nod from Tali. She liked her team; Kaidan was always kind, and both Garrus and Ashley were amusing at the very least, so long as Williams was able to keep her lack of expertise in galactic species in check.
"Sounds good, Shepard. We'll handle it." She said cheerfully, bounding off to meet up with the rest of the group, quickly joining their pack as they moved into the corridors leading to the reactor room. She expected it would be easy, she often would fix engines on the migrant fleet for fun. When the doors opened and more than a dozen geth were waiting in the large area, she tempered her expectations a little bit.
Garrus and Ashley immediately sprang into action, prompting Tali and Kaidan to pair up and take cover behind a terminal desk. She quickly loaded up her combat drone, sending Chiktikka to guard the doorway to her left, while the rest of the group made a push on the right side walkway. Ashley, as always, was firing maniacally with her assault rifle, both herself and Garrus overloading geth, while Kaidan used his biotics to send the machines toppling over the rails. It made for a solid strategy, and soon they had pushed through to the reactor core, Tali unleashing Chiktikka once again as she got to work on fixing the disabled machinery.
Her talons nimbly got to work, both rearranging physical hardware and tapping away on her omni-tool, bypassing security protocols and activating the core's boot processes. She was sure the fix hadn't taken long, but when she got up and turned around, the rest of the group were taking a breather, leaning up against nearby railings, no enemies in sight.
"I counted seven, Garrus." She heard Williams speak in a teasing manner, Garrus' mandibles vibrating in annoyance soon after.
"Eight. I had eight, that last one counted." The turian noted, crossing his arms.
Kaidan gave a small laugh, garnering his attention. "The one I sent over the railing whose foot you clipped with a round?"
"I hit it last before it was wrecked. I got eight." She saw Garrus harrumph, and turn away from the rest in frustration, prompting Williams to prod his shoulder lightly.
"It's alright, Garrus. Maybe you'll beat me next time if you shoot at their feet more often." Williams chuckled softly.
Tali decided that, despite having fun watching the turian be teased, it was time to go. "Fixed! Let's meet up with Shepard." She called out, bringing an end to a short but welcome reprieve.
The four of them soon found themselves back in the designated meeting area, only one Rachni having found its way there. At least it was only one… she thought, after the group quickly dispatched it. I can only hope that Rift Station doesn't have many of those bosh'tets left either.
Shepard and her group arrived a few minutes afterward, the commander missing a plate on her right shoulder, slight traces of crushed ceramic blend remaining over the durable under-armor weave. She hoped the woman wasn't too banged up, as she felt that they still had a long way to go.
The woman led the whole ground team through the unnecessarily winding corridors toward the tram, stopping them as they reached what seemed to be a decontamination checkpoint, though the warning of 'loose contaminants' displayed on a screen above, and coming in through the system's loudspeakers, was a little unsettling. Just great…'loose contaminants' in a decontamination chamber…Keelah, inadvisable is putting it lightly…
"Must be some way to easily deal with those things, in a place like this." Shepard noted calmly, turning towards her. Tali felt her stomach sink, having a good idea of what her friend would ask of her. "Tali, I want you to check out their systems, see if there's no way to purge whatever's in there."
Tali felt herself nervously wringing her talons, desperately not wanting to have to even look at another rachni while she was there. The thought of having to look at even one of them through a tempered glass panel was more than her insides could take at the moment.
"Sh…Shepard, there are a lot of us, I…can't we just open the doors and…and open fire?" Tali asked anxiously, her eyes flitting back and forth between the woman and the door to the security booth.
"We need to make sure we don't take on any more damage than we need to, and if we had to use grenades, that would be even worse." The woman spoke over personal comms, moving closer to her and resting a hand on the top of her head. "Any way I can bribe you with some high quality dextro stuff?"
Tali's shoulders slumped forward, knowing full well the commander was just doing so as a formality. "I…sure. If you could get some sterilized turian chocolate…" she started, her voice trailing off as her fear of rachni and other spidery things bubbled inside of her.
"Deal. I'll pick some up personally next time we're on the Citadel." Shepard said softly, and she noticed the woman dropped comms with her right after, moving to the universal channel they'd been sharing as a team. "Tali's going to check out how to deal with the chamber. Just sit tight everyone."
Tali moved to the doorway, freezing momentarily at it, her hand hovering over the access panel. As she moved her hand to the lit green square, she felt a hand grab her by the shoulders and casually place her a foot away; her eyes caught sight of Wrex looking unimpressed at her.
"I'll watch over the pup. Can't afford to lose the tech expert." The krogan grumbled, opening the door and revealing a series of terminals and equipment, which Tali made a beeline for. She decided to just ignore the krogan temporarily, as he always made her nervous. Quarians had rather dense skeletons, but she was pretty sure Wrex could still break her in half like an old rusty pipe. She was also pretty sure that the krogan wasn't fond of her, by how often he would call her pyjak whenever the opportunity arose. He probably only didn't call me it this time because Shepard was around…stupid bosh'tet…
Only vaguely was she aware of the rachni in front of her, the continual skittering of the insects occasionally stealing her attention from her work. She was desperately trying to keep from thinking about the fact that there were at least eight packed into the small compartment, with possibly more underneath the floor panels.
As usual, she eventually found herself within the previously locked out systems and quickly engaged plasma jets within the decontamination chamber, turning away from the window toward the krogan; she hated the rachni, but she didn't take any pleasure in killing them, or watching them die. She just never wanted to see them ever again.
As she opened her mouth to signal the krogan that she'd completed her job, floor panels erupted around her in the room, knocking her onto her back, and sending the krogan stumbling.
"Wrex!" she yelled out, swiftly reaching around to her mag lock and spraying an emerging rachni with a two shot volley from her lovely, beautiful firestorm shotgun. The beast went down quickly, to her surprise, and she hopped up to her feet, seeing the krogan brutally dispatching a rachni. It was only when another came up from the ground and managed to trip the krogan that she burst into action, dashing across the room and firing her last shot into one of the rachni on top of Wrex. Her shot managed to stagger the insect for a moment, though it only seemed to infuriate the thing, as its head turned toward her.
With her weapon overheated and only Chiktikka available to her, she did the only thing that came to mind. She tried squashing it. Tali quickly took her weapon and gripped the barrel with both of her talons, swinging it down violently against the insect's carapace, cracking it and causing a spatter of green ooze to spray from its head. Its set of pincers lashed out at her clumsily, enough so that she was able to duck and swing her rifle hard against the side of the rachni's head, sending it teetering a little bit. She didn't even notice the krogan holding the pincers out of harm's way as she continually brought the butt end of her firestorm down on the beast, only stepping away, breathless, when she was certain its head was thoroughly crushed.
Still dazed from the adrenaline and the fact that she'd successfully won a hand to hand battle against one of the terrible, disgusting spidery creatures, she simply put her shotgun back on her mag lock and moved toward the door, wanting to get the mission over with. A satisfied chuckle from the krogan reverberated through the room, but she wasn't sure what was so funny.
Seeing Tali covered in green ooze after the decontamination mishap had only furthered Shepard's notion that things just weren't going according to plan. She had made what she thought was a safe assumption that a secure facility would be built so that entrance from the decontamination chamber to the security room was impossible. She'd been wrong, and was thankful that Tali and Wrex had been basically unscathed, physically at least. She looked across the tram at Tali, who was still shaking, and frowned. I need to be more careful, more cautious…can't take anything for granted. Almost had another Binthu situation…
She knew she couldn't afford more injuries. They'd managed to avoid any major wounds, but the minor ones were adding up, bodies were tiring, and mistakes would surely be made going forward. Shiala's definitely sprained her left leg, or maybe roughed up a ligament. Not sure, but she's hurting, and her mobility's her third best asset. Tali's in shock still. Kaidan's nursing a migraine, Ash's armor is nearly corroded away on her back, Garrus' legs are cut up, and as per usual, my right shoulder's messed up. Only Wrex and Liara are pretty much fully healthy, but even that won't last long at this rate…
It was fortunate that the rachni were so predictable. At first, they'd been caught off guard, and took a while to adapt to the tactics of the insects. Well, not sure I'd call rushing blindly at the nearest threat tactics. I find it hard to believe that a race of insects that threatened to overrun the galaxy were so damn stupid. At least it's kept us from piling on more injuries recently…
Shepard's eyes glanced over to Liara and Shiala, sitting on the far edge of the tram, both of them holding hands and talking quietly to each other. She hoped that the elder asari could bring Liara some peace of mind, and that maybe their collective presence could help win over the matriarch. It seemed like a dim ray of hope, but she knew she had to take it to drown out the logical side of her brain that kept telling her that one side would have to die. I can't let it come to that but…how the hell is anyone going to convince a brainwashed biotic powerhouse to stop doing her overlord's bidding? Fuck…I have a bad feeling about this…
The tram slowly crawled to a halt, Shepard signaling everyone to take caution as she led the way off the vehicle. The area looked entirely free of signs of battle, which immediately set her on her guard. Too clean here…how the hell did those rachni not make it over here? A straight path, already carved out for them to follow…they should be here. Or signs that they were…but there's nothing… she thought, creeping forward with her shotgun drawn. Signs up ahead gave rudimentary directions to what could be a lab ahead, and a barracks to the left. Well, the lab looks closed off for now…and I'm not sure we have the time to sit around for a while hacking into a secure lab, so let's see if there's anyone else around first…
Shepard took the left path, moving through a doorway into a smaller room with two exits side-by-side, one marked with the symbol of a flame, and the other with the familiar barracks sign. Odd sign combinations… she thought, stepping into the elevator, once again finding herself greatly amused as everyone worked to cram themselves inside.
"Be on guard, everyone, I want biotics near the doors, barriers up in case of an ambush. Something doesn't smell right." Shepard noted, drawing a few nods, as well as a grunt from Wrex. The trip upward didn't take long, and soon the doors slid open, the group's barriers peppered momentarily with sparse gunfire before a balding man stood and yelled for his team to stand down.
Shepard squeezed through the party and strode toward the four soldiers, one in generic white armor making his way across the room to meet her.
"Sorry, couldn't be sure what came in on that tram." The man said apologetically, holstering his rifle on his mag lock. The statement rang a little false to her, and something about the situation didn't seem right. Only four of them?
"Pretty sure they're dumb as stumps, no way they could run a train. But hey, no autopsy, no foul, I guess." She said with a slight shrug, checking around for extra turrets or defensible positions. The room looked as if it had seen considerable battle. "Just the four of you?"
"Used to be twelve under my command here on a regular basis, with rotation, but the damn insects have been relentless, and some manage their way up here too often to really take many breaks. So when we learned the tram was active, I wasn't about to assume any god-damned thing." The man said tiredly, wiping stray beads of sweat from his brow. "Look, you're not an insect, so we're not going to shoot you, but I need to know who you are and why you're here."
"Name's Shepard, I'm a Spectre. Was in town for some business, and then heard this facility was having a bit of trouble. A companion of mine's house holds a major stake in this corporation, so I'm doing them a favour." She noted as confidently as possible. She knew she was capable of lying when she needed to, but whether it was received well often depended on how well people could read her.
The man shook his head in slight disbelief and leaned up against one of the barricades and gestured to himself. "Captain Ventralis, and I didn't get to be that rank by looking heavily-armed horses in the mouth." The man noted with a sigh. "The insects overran the hot labs a few days ago…five or six depending on if it's evening or not. Only one of the doctors, Han Olar, got out and…well, he hasn't really been in the best of shape since then. A little paranoid, or at least, a bit more than the rest of us. We're all a bit trigger happy and running on fumes, trying to last this out."
"Well, you probably have civilians you were protecting, and you were caught off guard, so I don't think anyone's going to fault you for lasting this long." Shepard said, hoping to both draw out information, and lighten the mood.
"The dead's families will, let's not lie to each other here." The man said gruffly, a flash of frustration rushing across his features. "Look, the board sent some asari to help deal with the situation, but we haven't heard from them since they went into the labs. As far as we know, they're dead, so if you all could help, even enough for us to catch a few winks, that would be fantastic."
Shepard mulled over the prospect and found herself uncomfortable with leaving a complement of her crew to man the barricades. There's eight of us, and if I kept three here, I'd only have five, and if Benezia or more rachni surprised us…it could be tough…
"Where are these things coming up from anyway?" Shepard asked, looking at a dislodged floor panel near the elevator.
"The hot labs, a few hundred metres beneath here. Somehow they've tunneled up from there…don't ask me how, or why they decided this would be a good place to attack." Ventralis said, gesturing to the improvised entrance the rachni were using.
"Well, I'm not sure I can spare the people to hold this position, but I can send some down to see what can be done about the rachni in the hot labs. Better to attack the source of the problem than let it grind you down." Shepard said, drawing a reluctant nod from the captain. "I promise you, in a matter of an hour or two, this will all be over. You've worked long and hard, I just have to ask that you work a little longer."
Ventralis looked to his men and dipped his head a little bit. "Yeah. We'll hold out here, keep the civvies safe. Just try and be quick, we're swimming in medi-gel and stims…won't be long till we crash." The man said sadly, handing over a passcard for the hot labs.
Shepard turned to her crew and thought for a moment, deciding some tact was needed in dealing with the issue. Bullets seem to be hurting them more than biotics, really, and their acid's taken a toll on even mine, Wrex's and Ash's armor. If I sent down Shiala and Liara to deal with it, they could be eaten alive…
"Kaidan, Ash, Wrex, Garrus…head down there, see what you can do, what the situation is down there. No heroics, we need you back as soon as possible." She noted, watching Wrex slam his fists together excitedly as the other three looked entirely lacking in excitement. She handed off the pass to Kaidan and turned back to Ventralis. "How are the civilians doing?"
"They're a bit antsy and panicked, but fine, all things considered. Haven't seen any in over half a day. Doctor Cohen's still probably running shop over there, so if your crew needs some fixing up, he could help." Ventralis said, returning to his post. "Anyway, we'll be here."
Shepard nodded and led the remaining three crewmates toward the barracks, stopping at a small alcove further down the hallway leading to their destination.
"Is something wrong, Shepard?" Liara asked, immediately finding the asari by her side. It was odd how the doctor could sneak up on her so quickly like that.
She knew she was probably just feeling paranoid, but she didn't want to put anything to risk. She'd been too reckless before, and it was time to be her more usual, cautious self. "No amount of stim-haze will have anyone mistaking a group of humans and asari and krogan and quarian and turians as rachni. I…I don't think those initial bursts were by instinct. Rachni can't work doors, we've seen that, so no way they could run an elevator." She rambled, noticing a look of understanding come across Shiala's face.
"They fired at us on purpose, probably weren't expecting barriers, or the numbers we carried." The elder asari stated, nodding her head. "Was it smart to send half of us down to the hot labs, then, knowing this?"
Shepard shrugged, letting out a light sigh. Whether her decision was smart, it was a neutral option that kept both sides balanced. "We may be groups of four now, but we're all diverse enough to be able to hold our own against those four, and any others that are in the barracks. And so long as the other group stays composed, I don't see them running into too much trouble." She started, giving a quick squeeze of the shoulder to Liara before continuing. "There's always a chance that either group runs into asari commandos, but if they haven't been seen in a while, then those are odds I'm willing to play. While they search the hot labs, we figure out how to get into the other labs on this level…we'll eventually find the Matriarch, and we'll get this mess over with."
"There's a distinct lack of weight behind your words, Commander. I sincerely hope you took my warnings about the Matriarch to heart." Shiala noted sidelong, drawing a short laugh from Shepard.
"Shiala, I fully understand the magnitude of the situation, as much as I possibly can, I figure. You think I don't realize we're heading in with the odds in their favour? We'll deal with it when we get there. No need to stress over it now and miss important details in the meantime because of it. We need to stay sharp, not worrying about how some future encounter could turn out." Shepard said, gesturing for the rest to continue along to the barracks with her.
A short trek through a few winding pathways led them to a large, open room; sleeping quarters to the right, an elcor merchant and wounded, bed-ridden scientists ahead, and two pathways to the left, one apparently leading to a lab, and the other a medical ward. To Shepard, everything looked fairly standard, the layout was similar to the one on Luna. The guards looked more tired than on edge over their arrival, though there was a hint of hostility in their body language. She'd excuse it , though her gut kept her constantly aware of the more heavily armed ones in the area. Last thing I need is to start getting complacent…
"Shepard, I'm just going to see about maybe getting some supplies." Shiala said, her tone brokering no argument as she quickly walked over to the large elcor. Well, I'm not going to brave talking to another elcor anytime soon, lest I make a fool of myself again…though I'm not sure why it's so urgent, we're well stocked still…
She shrugged her shoulders and gestured for the other two to follow her over to some of the beds, stopping abruptly as a nearby salarian cried out in panic, nearly scrambling fully off his bed before he seemed to become aware of his surroundings. Shepard cocked her head to the side a little in confusion and took a step toward the increasingly sheepish looking salarian.
"Sorry for the disturbance, I…haven't had much sleep since the attack, and…well, what little I get doesn't last long enough." The scientist rambled nervously. "Is…is there something you need?"
"Sounds like you could use a vacation, right about now." Shepard noted, hoping to relieve the scientist of his jitters.
The salarian made a snorting sound and shook his head quickly. "Vacation? No. Eight more months on my contract. The location is terrible, and I didn't expect anything like this, but the pay is a lot better than any other commercial lab. I'm fine here."
Shepard nodded, thinking of her next question. Well, Saren seems to be paying these guys well, so this is definitely a major base of operations for him…but mindless rachni drones doesn't seem to be…well, worth the investment. Must be something else…
"Outside of the pay, you don't like it here, though…right?" Shepard asked, hoping to maybe draw some more information on the working conditions from the scientist, in hopes to empathize with him, earn his trust.
"You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who enjoys Peak Fifteen. The outside world doesn't exist here, just walls of ice and rock…just the work and the discoveries…" the scientist said quietly, his words trailing off momentarily, uncharacteristic for what she knew about salarians. "It's easy to forget why science is guided by ethics in this vacuum. I guess we're paying for that now."
The scientist slumped back onto the edge of his bed, lending Shepard the will to move a little closer, taking a seat on a nearby vacant cot. "What do you do here, if you don't mind me asking?"
"I'm a toxicologist…but I can't talk about my work. Not…not that I'm doing anything since the accident, anyway." The salarian noted tiredly, stumbling over his words a little at the end. Predictably, she latched onto that slip and yanked at it.
"The hot labs accident?" she asked simply, working off what she knew, though something told her that someone working in chemicals wouldn't likely be working with the rachni. Galaxy already has deadly corrosive ammo, thresher maw shit's much worse than what the rachni have, so they probably aren't making weapons with the rachni venom…
"No, nothing of the sort. I can't…I can't talk about it here, too public, would put my job at risk. But…" the scientist began, taking a moment to find his words, it seemed. "But you could talk to Doctor Cohen, down in the medical ward. He led the project."
Shepard nodded and wished she could smile, but didn't want to seem like too much of an opportunist. The salarian was obviously still affected by all the chaos on the station, and she understood that he needed a bit of time to recover. And maybe, if I can find a reason to involve myself, I can help these scientists out AND get entrance into the labs, to find Benezia…
"Hey, no worries. Just rest up… we'll have the hot labs cleaned up soon, and things will be back to normal before you know it." She said, getting off the bed and offering him a kind smile. "Thanks for your help."
The trip down to the medical ward was long and winding, a number of stairwells leading them further into the mountain's glacial walls. The trip hardly seemed worth it as Shepard stepped into the tiny room filled with cots, all holding bodies. Whatever happened, there's a lot of sick looking people, and a big lack of acid burns and limb damage...
After allowing her eyes to scan the plethora of bodies crammed within the room, her eyes caught sight of a thin man with salt and pepper hair leaning over one of the makeshift beds, scowling in her direction.
"What? What do you want?" the man asked quickly, obviously frustrated and agitated. "Tell Captain Ventralis to stop sending you down here, having you brutes hassle me will not provide any of you with an antidote!"
Shepard gulped back her instinctual retort and simply let the information sink in for a moment. "I'm sorry for disrupting your work, Doctor, I didn't mean to cause any disturbance." She noted, as she gathered her thoughts, stepping forward and offering her hand. "Commander Shepard of the SSV Normandy, council Spectre."
The man gave her a quick curious look and took the handshake warily, nodding slowly. "Doctor Zev Cohen. So they finally let a human in? Good. I take it my assumption that you were with Ventralis was erroneous then?"
"Afraid so, Doctor, but if it's been a common enough occurrence for you to jump to that assumption, I can hardly blame you, can I?" Shepard said jovially, letting out a soft chuckle before returning to a more serious expression as she stood at the end of one of the cots. "Notice whatever you were hit with seems to have taken a bit of a toll on the crew here."
"A recent accident…they were unlucky enough to have been exposed to the toxin and…and I'm unlucky enough to have signed a non-disclosure agreement, and can't disclose any information, unless I wish to be blacklisted from private labs across the galaxy. Gods!" the doctor finished, turning his back to Shepard and firmly planting his hands down onto a nearby table.
Shepard could see the conflict seeping from the man's body language; she knew it would be simple enough to pry the details out of him. I just don't want to pry it out…I prefer when it's offered.
"Look, I'm here on official business to help secure this facility, and…say that I thought that in order to secure this facility, I had to extinguish all possible threats. An order from a council Spectre to disclose such information…especially an order from someone with my colourful military history…I don't think the company would place too much blame on you." Shepard said as casually as she possibly could, quickly gaining the man's rapt attention. "Of course, this is a hypothetical situation I'm speaking of. Just saying." She finished, a sly grin curling slightly on her lips.
"I would say…under such circumstances…that I would hope the company values its people more than its secrets." Doctor Cohen noted, pausing deep in thought for a few long moments before continuing. "When the facility went into full quarantine and Mira shut down, the systems quarantining the toxin we'd been developing failed, and everyone nearby was affected by it."
Shepard nodded and moved closer to the doctor leaning up against the wall by the table he was at. "If I'm going to fix this for you, I'll need a little more than that." Shepard said, gesturing to Liara and Tali, who were still across the room, more or less; Liara standing awkwardly by the doorway, trying not to look at the bodies, and Tali hunched over by a series of crates. "I might not have a mind for science, but my partners here are probably capable of at least remembering long, tricky words that might escape me."
The doctor let out a heavy sigh and wiped his forehead. "We were developing a…bio-weapon. A lot of mining installations in the traverse have come in contact with a specific exotic species that can easily disrupt productivity…this was meant to target it, kill it." The man said hesitantly, and Shepard couldn't help but pounce on it.
"I'm sensing a 'but' somewhere in there, Doctor." Shepard noted lightly, hoping to keep the atmosphere from falling even closer to soul-crushingly depressing than the amount of prone bodies already made it.
"Isn't there always? The toxin was successful, but…not profitable. No money in making a toxin to affect just one species…at least that's what the board told me. We were tasked to keep working on it, adapt it to affect more species. Specifically, the decision to use samples from our own demographic here to test on was a foolish mistake." The doctor rambled, Shepard soon finding Liara had passed through the room, gathering closer to herself and the scientist. "Thoros-B, the toxin, is highly infectious, but it isn't transmittable from person to person. It could not cause a pandemic."
To her credit, Shepard didn't quite recall what a pandemic was, exactly. Or what a demographic was. She was thankful when she heard Liara's voice ring through the room. "More like a bullet or a bomb, than a plague." The asari spoke, immediately making sense of it to the commander. "Despite your intentions, and your pseudo-freedom from Citadel ethics boards here in Noveria, certainly you could have understood the absurd level of danger in this?"
"We thought that by developing it ourselves, we could limit the potential damage…militaries and mercenary groups would get a hold of weapons like this anyway, after all. I suppose it's hard to keep perspective here in our ivory tower…well, less a tower, and more a dungeon of ice and rock." The doctor noted sadly, his focus falling on Liara. "Regardless of whether you understand or not, this situation has left my control. Ventralis is keeping me here to look after the patients, and has quarantined my lab along with my notes and equipment. He refuses to allow any more contamination, despite it being impossible to contaminate anyone currently."
"How's that? Wouldn't the toxin still be dangerous?" Shepard added, drawing a brief look of scorn from the scientist.
"No! There's only a brief window of time when the compound is effective. It quickly breaks down into harmless protein within the span of a minute, but the Captain won't listen to me. So here I am. A microbiologist playing medical practitioner." Cohen said, crossing his arms, clearly annoyed at the situation.
Shepard quirked her mouth to the side, hoping Cohen was right, and that she wouldn't be putting anyone at risk unnecessarily. She still didn't completely trust the people on Rift Station, but the scientist had seemed fairly honest and truthful in his reactions and tone. "Well, I'll do what I can to convince Ventralis, if you let me know what I need to do." She said, shrugging.
"He won't let me down into my lab, that's for certain. Even though the…infestation issue wasn't my department, he still blames me for the initial outbreak. He's stubborn, someone else will have to take my place and create the antidote." Cohen spoke, brow furrowed as his focus shifted about the room.
"None of us are toxicologists or biologists or whatever. Think you could spare one of the scientists here?" Shepard asked, drawing a firm shake of the head from Cohen.
"I don't see it as possible. Anyone who has experience with this project worked under me, and to the Captain, any of them may as well be me." The doctor said, shifting his gaze between Liara and Shepard. "You all have proper environmentally sealed hardsuits and filtration systems. Even a simpleton like him would be able to understand that the threat of an airborne toxin would have no effect on you."
Shepard's hand pawed at the back of her neck, her fingers finding a path around the oxygen line to where the helmet's environmental seal rested; the instinct to scratch her neck was quickly subdued by logic, though it didn't make her feel any less nervous or stupid.
"There's still the issue of creating the antidote." Liara spoke up, a flash of clarity falling across Cohen's face.
"Of course, of course, I forgot to mention specifics. It is rather improper to develop a toxin without an antidote. Of course, as our toxin was adapted, our antidote needed to be as well. For this particular strain of it, we hadn't readied any anti-toxin by the time the quarantine broke, but we had readied the necessary supplies and instructions. It's actually quite simple…I have gained some new research assistants in recent weeks, and have worked to acclimate them to the technology we use. Everything will be spelled out as clear as day in my notes." Cohen rambled, drawing nods from both Liara and Shepard.
"I guess we'll see to it then, doctor. Carry on." She noted, turning toward the door, Liara falling in by her side. Tali, however, delayed for a moment, her omni-tool's orange glow clearly working at something during the brief time span.
As they exited the ward, Shepard opened a private comm channel to her favourite quarian, deciding to get insight into what had occupied Tali for so long.
"Hey, Tali, what were you working on back there?" she asked simply, hoping for an equally simple answer. She was tired of scientific rambling; it only ever seemed entirely compelling when coming from Liara, really.
"I was scanning some of the supply crates in the medical bay. Shepard…" Tali started, her voice trailing off into silence over the channel for a few moments. "Shepard, they were consistent with the codes found on Binthu and Feros."
Shepard ascended yet another flight of stairs, mulling over the possibilities. "What are you saying, Tali?"
"I'm…well…while there's a chance that they all originate from Binary Helix itself, I…I just have found too many similarities to the processing codes at Binthu that weren't flagged as from this place." Tali spoke, words stumbling out nervously.
She let out a deep breath and shook her head, hoping that the trail wouldn't have entirely continued to Noveria, but she knew if it did, she hoped it would end there. "Are you saying some of the people here are Cerberus?" she asked, more than a little confused. It was hard to imagine the group working with non-humans, but the fact that they had been working with Saren already set that precedent.
"I'm not sure, but there's a…modest chance, Commander." The engineer said, her statement only putting Shepard more on edge than before.
Great, now I have a matriarch, asari commandos, and goddamn Cerberus to worry about. And angry rachni. Just fucking great… she thought, ascending another staircase.
"Thanks, Tali. Let's get this over with."
Her prey was patient; it had been over a minute since Shiala had watched Shepard, Liara and Tali leave for what she expected was a lab, and the Matriarch's acolyte simply stood, meditating, biding her time. It had been both tremendously frustrating and exciting to learn that Alestia Iallis was planted in the barracks area, and that the acolyte had not recognized her. I brought her through all of the training programs, I assigned her every detail she was given for close to sixty years in a row…she invited me to her sister's bondmate ceremony not a half century ago…how she does not recognize me is…astonishing…
She had, upon entering the barracks, recognized Alestia immediately, and had made attempts to guard her own identity for as long as she could, but her former peer's focus never left her meditation, or Shepard. Shiala had even walked directly past the other asari a few times to try and provoke a response, but none came. I knew that indoctrination dulled the senses, dulled memories in favour of Saren's thoughts and orders, but… I had no idea that it was so blinding…we…we may have a chance after all…
Seconds after Alestia disappeared down the same hallway Liara had, Shiala followed suit, heading down the long, winding stairwells and toward the quarantine zone for the area. She was thankful that the guards weren't so thorough; telling the guard that she'd needed to bring necessary supplies to Shepard was all that was needed, even if the supplies were containers of medigel she'd taken a few seconds to squeeze into glass containers. I didn't truly expect it would work, but I had hoped it would allow me the opportunity for a surprise attack…it seems these guards are truly too tired to concentrate. How fortunate for me, then…
Shiala entered the main room just as Alestia was animatedly shooing the human workers away, many quickly scattering past Shiala, while others escaped into a storage area, by the look of the sign over the door. Shiala slipped behind some nearby crates, finding a volus cowering there, seemingly not having noticed her.
She didn't stay for long. Alestia disappeared into a room, and as the door shut, Shiala's plan set into motion, moving from cover to cover quickly, sneaking up on the only remaining armed individual aside from her in the room. The turian guarded the lab, though she felt it was a loose interpretation of the idea; his focus was lazy, his eyes weren't scanning the area actively, and that allowed her to easily find herself behind a pillar, ten feet away. She crossed the ten feet quickly as his distracted behaviour continued, her biotics tossing him into the wall fiercely. As his mouth opened to speak, her hands were already in motion; her elbow crashed down on his collarbone with biotically infused force, her right leg sweeping his as her hands grabbed his fringe firmly. The distinct, familiar sound of turian skeletal structure fracturing as his vertebrae splintered brought her no joy, but it at least allowed her to keep her mission intact. His headset wasn't activated during the attack, and what sounds he did make…well, they weren't loud enough to draw attention, it seems. Good.
Shiala moved across the room quickly, positioning herself on the wall beside the doorway Alestia had vanished into. She could hear dull sounds from within and readied her knife. She knew the acolyte was much more effective with a firearm than in melee combat, and Shiala was intent on taking advantages where she could find them.
Her thoughts swirled around the possibilities of whatever encounter awaited her; Alestia was a competent commando, so she couldn't help but worry over having to deal with her and any potential backup. She'd followed them all down to the lab to help Liara avoid the danger of facing a commando, but that was still a possibility, if she failed. Though I can't…I can't fail, and…and if her senses aren't sharp, I might be able to do away with her quickly…if she is with other commandos, I fear I will not be so lucky as to live.
As the door slid open, it seemed as if time slowed considerably; her arm was in motion the second the sound found its way into her ear canal, arcing the blade downward in expectation that Alestia would do as she often would, succumb to her ego and lead. She saw a body emerge from the doorway and react. Shiala suppressed a frown at the ever so slight hesitation on her counterpart's behalf, a quarter of a second slower than it should have been, enough for Shiala to adjust the trajectory and plunge the knife into Alestia, the blade severing her subclavian artery. She braced her barriers for the acolyte's reactive biotic push, and grabbed the asari, having noticed the geth following her out. She should have been able to react…you never walk out blind when on a mission…might have been a fraction of a second, but it was enough. Sloppy, amateurish.
The machines fired at will; a barrage of gunfire exploding across the dying acolyte's body, as she tossed a singularity behind the three geth soldiers. It took only a moment for her to charge into the trio of machines, knocking them backward into the singularity as Alestia's former body took the brunt of the impact. A swift biotic warp quickly followed, the geth erupting into shrapnel that thankfully only managed to graze her armor, as her old student and peer once again absorbed a considerable amount of projectile violence. Shiala loosened her grip, taking possession of her knife in the process, and let the corpse unceremoniously fall to the floor. It should have been different, Alestia…what happened to you? She thought, shaking her head and turning to exit the room. I trained you better than that…didn't I? Was she always so…lacking? Were the Matriarch and Liara always in danger because of it? No…no…it has to be this indoctrination…Goddess, I'm not sure whether to feel relieved or horrified.
It took a few steps toward the lab for her to come to a conclusion. Both. Certainly both.
Kaidan was glad that Shepard hadn't been in his group, as the elevator crept toward their destination. It had been eight minutes of elevator action, and he knew the woman would be absolutely livid and raging by that point. Though it's not like I have a much better squadmate in Wrex…he keeps looking like he's about to tear off the doors and try to jump down. Wouldn't put it past him, really…
It had been a trying experience on Noveria, being paired mostly with Wrex. He wasn't sure whether she did it to try and get him to stop holding back in his abilities, or to try and keep Wrex from being full blood-rage all the time. Either way, he took it as a compliment, albeit a confusing one. Having the team of Garrus and Ashley accompanying them only added fuel to the growing sense of teamwork between himself and the krogan. Wrex, despite his chaotic attacks, was more and more predictable the longer he was around him, and that let him fill in and cover the krogan's blind spot and provide suppressive attacks during cooldown. They weren't the well-oiled machine that the turian and the marine were, but he liked to think that they were a little more ready for any surprise, given their combined biotics and the krogan's regeneration, alongside his mind for tactics.
As the elevator doors finally slid open, the sense of disappointment was clear in his partner, though he knew the rest of them were more than a little relieved; there were no rachni in sight, only a single, wounded human scientist.
"Are you here to secure the situation?" the scientist called out from his seat in the middle of the nearly empty room, nestled tightly behind a small desk; his voice strained and wary as he shifted in his seat. The man looked to be in his early forties, his accent from one of the northeastern regions within the European Union, from what Kaidan could tell.
He felt a slight pit in his stomach from the situation, looking around the barren room, clear signs of equipment having been hauled out of the area quickly and without consideration to the floors, all scratched and torn up from the apparently quick evacuation.
"How are you holding up?" he asked the man, slowly moving further into the room. "We were told the situation here was…grim."
"You…listen. If we do not contain our mistake, they will drop bombs onto the facility from orbit…none will survive. Do you understand?" the scientist asked, his speech quickening as each word spilled out.
"The mistake being that you let these rachni loose?" Kaidan asked, crossing his arms, causing the man to frown instead of the flinch he was expecting.
"I was only following orders. We found an egg on a derelict ship a few months ago, it had spent thousands of years just…drifting." The man noted carefully, clearly trying to choose which words in order to tell the story his own, safe way. "Inside we found more, smaller eggs in cryogenic suspension. It was…well, a miracle."
Kaidan's eyes widened at the confession, not understanding why anyone would consider the return of the rachni a miracle. "Well, an egg that old hatching is a bit…it's a little amazing, but I wouldn't say the result has been worth it."
"Yeah, LT, I'm not sure this would qualify as a miracle." Ashley added sounding a little angry and a little confused.
"That it hatched was miraculous. We planned to clone the rachni…" the man started, before Wrex surprisingly stepped forward, his posture full of rage.
"Mass produce them…create an army! You…" Wrex growled, ending his small bout of words with a loud roar as his fist crashed down upon the man's desk, breaking it in half.
The scientist rolled back in his chair, away from his destroyed desk and Wrex, but his look of disappointment didn't fade. "Except the egg was no ordinary egg…it was a queen. We thought it would simplify the process, let her lay fresh eggs and raise them apart from her to make them obedient…but it appears she is needed to shape their minds. Without her, they have been uncontrollable."
Wrex once again began pacing nearby, though it seemed more like stomping than anything, to Kaidan. "I was wondering why this place wasn't overrun. You only had the first few groups of eggs that hatched…I remember stories of my ancestors thinking they'd eliminated a colony, only for a hidden queen to re-colonize it within days…they're like a living plague."
The scientist faced the krogan and gave him a tired, scornful look. "Yes, we quickly realized the situation was out of our control." He noted darkly.
Kaidan had noticed the man's avoidance of saying who he worked for, and considering the facility was run by Binary Helix, he knew it was either the scientist considered it too obvious to state, or it was a more troublesome group that would only make him even happier than Shepard wasn't there with him.
"And by we…you mean Cerberus?" he asked simply, drawing the man's attention. He hadn't seen any non-humans through his limited time in the facility, but humans were vastly outnumbered in Port Hanshan by the council races. The look on the scientists' face confirmed his suspicion, as the man turned away and looked to the door on the far side of the room.
"I am human, am I not? If we had been able to control the rachni, hundreds…thousands of human soldiers would not need to be sacrificed so carelessly by the Alliance. We're simply trying to advance humanity's interests, soldier." The scientist noted casually, letting out a brief yawn afterward. "We have a neutron purge system set up as a failsafe in case of emergency, but it is a number of rooms away, through secure quarantine zones. Not a far distance, but there are rachni there and they would be alerted if you attempted to pass through."
Kaidan wasn't pleased with either the explanation of the scientist's ideology, or the fact that they would be wading through insect hides waist high, soon enough. He spotted Wrex moving toward the door out of the corner of his eye before looking over the scientist; the man's wound across his stomach was severe, and it likely wouldn't be long before he would succumb to the injury. I should help, he's unarmed, and a civilian, but…he works for a terrorist group and might have unleashed the rachni on the galaxy again…and we might need our limited supplies in case there's an encounter with Liara's mother…
"How do we execute the purge?" Kaidan asked, simply.
"The arming controls are in the central control lab. Through the door, keep going straight until you hit a fork in the hallway. Take a right. First door on your right. The door's access code is 144301, and…and this is the key to engage the purge. There is a dock with Mira in the room, and there will be a slot in it. Simply insert the key, turn it on, and give the code 875-020-079 to the VI." The man said slowly, ensuring Kaidan was keeping track of the information as he handed over a small silver key. "Then get the hell out of there, the rachni will probably come further topside due to the heat and noise of the purge preparation process."
Kaidan shook his head, wishing he hadn't had to deal with such a mess. I could call Shepard for backup, but…I think we can handle this. It IS my call…
"Williams, Vakarian, let's move out. We'll patch up the scientist on the way out." He said, knowing the last part was a lie, but he couldn't quite handle telling the truth of it to the man, and he didn't really want to think of the implications it had on his character for not providing help when possible. He made the comfortable decision, he knew, not necessarily the right decision, or the just decision, or even the moral decision.
In the end, he decided not to think about it, and just get it done.
"Wrex, let's GO!" Garrus heard Kaidan yelling as he and Ash provided cover fire from the elevator for the third time. It had been easy to get to the Mira dock and enact the purge, and getting back to the elevator was much harder. However, it was not as difficult as getting Wrex to go inside the elevator, and a few times, they'd had to leave in order to help the krogan destroy another wave of the insects. He shot another rachni in the nose, a weak spot he'd found, as his partner sprayed down and pushed back a few more coming up from the floorboards.
"It's my duty to destroy…" Wrex started yelling, but a powerful push from the human Lieutenant sent the krogan across the room toward the elevator, skidding on his back. Garrus and Ash took the brief opportunity and dragged Wrex closer toward the elevator, though the krogan soon shook them off and stood.
"We've done it, but I don't plan to die down here, Wrex! These things are dead, they just don't know it, but I know we'll be if we don't get out of here right now!" Kaidan yelled out with a ferocity he hadn't seen from the human before. "Now get in the elevator, or Williams is going to trounce you in your damn kill count for the mission! She's up by three!"
Garrus snickered at the tactics, deciding to add in for fun. "Or a certain turian could take the crown. Heck, I hear that Tali's racked up a pretty high number herself." He added, hiding his amusement as Wrex continued to blast away with his shotgun from the elevator's doorway.
"That pyjak's cheating, using a stupid combat drone." Wrex growled, erupting yet another rachni.
Kaidan gave Wrex a futile push with his hand, and stared the krogan down. "Well I guess you'll have to show us that a krogan is at least equal to a quarian and her little pet, then, won't you?" the Lieutenant asked, his voice holding some steel to it. Garrus wondered whether the man had been so aggressive through the whole mission, or if it had been a recent development. The Normandy had been a catalyst for change, he knew, and it had been interesting to see so many people's perspectives or skills shift.
Wrex merely growled, fired off another volley of shots, and then stepped into the elevator. "Damn thing better kill them all. I don't trust VIs to do a krogan's job." The krogan grumbled, holstering his weapon and crossing his arms.
The group quickly made their way back toward the main lobby of the station, explosions erupting beneath them, momentarily rocking the transport, but it seemed they were too far out of range of the blast for any serious damage to be wielded on it.
Another short elevator ride toward the barracks, and they came face to face with an empty room, the previously manned barricades seemingly forgotten.
He saw Kaidan bring his hand up to his helmet, opening a channel. "Commander, the hot labs are now secure. We've headed back and…yeah, the labs are clear, and … I'm just wondering where Ventralis and his people are…" the Lieutenant said, looking like he was straining to hear Shepard. "Oh…alright. We're on our way."
Garrus cocked his head at the man as he fell in step with him. "What's going on?"
"Shepard apparently found out Cerberus was here when Ventralis and his guards decided to fire on them. They're down in Lab B, we need to hurry." Alenko noted with haste, continuing to rush down the corridors toward the lab, the map of the facility shining from his omni-tool.
Each elevator was unguarded, each obvious checkpoint left unstaffed. Garrus couldn't help but hope that they weren't up against a few dozen guards, and that many of the posts had been abandoned beforehand due to casualties. It would just make things easier. We left the hot labs with a few scratches on us, and we can't afford to get hurt fighting these xenophobes.
A few steps ahead, Kaidan raised his hand, signaling them to stop. As soon as Garrus got close enough, he understood. The Cerberus guards were piled up outside the entrance of a door of some maintenance area, gunfire sounding from within the corridor.
Garrus watched as guards rotated, to keep a steady stream of fire and in order to re-supply. There weren't a lot of guards, but there were just under twenty, and he could spot Ventralis from where he stood. This should be…surprisingly easy. I guess when you're dead tired, you kind of forget about important things like watching your flank…Almost feel bad for what we're about to do…
Kaidan lifted his hand and began making certain orders, Garrus sitting back behind a crate for cover and stabilizing his rifle atop it, while Wrex prepared to charge in. At Alenko's signal, he fired a shredder round clear through the captain's head, watching Wrex and Ash pressure the present Cerberus flunkies into the maintenance tunnel with their body and heavy barrage respectively, Alenko's blue bursts constantly lifting any stragglers off to the side and neutralizing them for easy pickings. The chaos worked against the exhausted guards and soon, they were merely a pile of corpses between their group and Shepard's.
In truth, he had grown to hate Cerberus, though the growth was short lived and rapid. He'd gone to Shepard about a notorious criminal he'd spent time chasing while a part of C-Sec, detailing the gruesome ways that Doctor Saleon would treat his patients, and ultimately what came of it. He was surprised to hear that, while not as manipulative on a physical level as the salarian, Cerberus had done their own horrific things and played on the tragedy of children to gain their advances. To hear that their capture of the Cerberus agent resulted in no new information and what seemed, to him at least, to be a mercy death by the Alliance instead of proper interrogation, just brought on a similar fury. Each Cerberus guard he saw, he imagined the helpless, desperate patients under Saleon's 'care', refusing to let himself consider that perhaps these guards deserved a fair trial. They're too corrupt…too long from the reach of justice…
Kaidan led Garrus and the others through the corridor, meeting Shiala and Shepard, who had gone out to scout, and reconvened with Liara and Tali shortly afterward.
"Seems Cerberus doesn't like you, Shepard." He noted slyly, patting the woman on the shoulder, drawing a hard laugh from her.
"Can't see why. I gave them a cure, and all I got in return were hostile ballistic rounds." The woman stated jovially, moving over to the quarian, who was busy working on a nearby door. "Anyway, listen up everyone. We've checked pretty much every lab but this one and a smaller one a few metres down the hall. I want everyone to know what's needed of them."
Garrus did his part, paying apt attention to the woman as the rest formed a small half-circle by the door. Only Wrex seemed bored, but that was no surprise; Wrex rarely seemed excited out of combat.
"I'm pairing non-biotics up with biotics to make sure everyone's nice and balanced. Garrus, you're with Kaidan. You're both pretty good at everything, so I'm going to need you both to really be on your A games, and multitask well. Tali, you're with Wrex. His size and recovery should buy you time to use Chiktikka effectively, and the shotgun should help take care of everything else. Ash, you're with Liara. I want you railing away with suppressive fire and basically just tearing any enemies new ones, and if I want that to happen, you'll need someone with great barriers. Liara's a good fit for you." Shepard listed out, gaining nods from everyone, and a surprising lack of a disdainful grunt from Wrex. "Shiala and I will be running the gauntlet…drawing fire and basically helping out any pair we see in trouble. We're a bit more mobile, so with any luck, we should be able to hopefully keep any group from being too overwhelmed."
Shepard gestured to Garrus, who laid out a moderately sized backpack on the ground in the middle of them, spreading out the items he had been carrying.
"I don't know exactly what to expect, but everyone should have their main weapon modified to use either radioactive or proton rounds, because chances are, we'll be dealing with biotic barriers. We take away that strength, and we'll stand a chance." The woman continued, stopping her brief stint of pacing by the doorway. "If we come into contact with commandos, they are your top priority above all else. Otherwise, anything that's an enemy, and that moves…shoot it, preferably from cover. We have a shuttle inbound for evac, so we'll check here, and then the next lab. We finish the job, and we go home, alright?"
Garrus once again gave confirmation, grabbing an ammo mod and modifying his rifle on the spot, soon finding himself modifying Liara's handgun as well to speed things up.
From his point of view, the group as a whole had taken some damage, but they were all in fighting form. He figured that, whatever came next, they would be ready for it.
When they eventually hacked into one of the doors to the nearby lab, that expectation was flipped on its head considerably.
Spirits…
Goddess…
The rachni queen was massive, and even though it was stored in what seemed to be a large, reinforced glass tank, it was still quite terrifying to Liara. She couldn't imagine how terrified Tali was, even while feeling the quarian's talons clutching her shoulders tightly as she cowered behind her. That queen is enormous! Hatching it…I cannot imagine how shocking it must have been. I merely hope it cannot escape from where it is…
Liara tore her gaze from it and briefly glanced at Shiala and Shepard to her left, who were busy staring directly ahead of them. Liara turned to match theirs and noticed her mother, standing calmly on the platform up the staircase ahead of them, too busy staring at the queen to have paid heed to their entry.
"Matriarch Benezia." Shepard stated simply and firmly, slowly drawing her mother's attention as the elder asari's head turned to face them.
The Matriarch's eyes were slightly unfocused and dull, lacking the crisp, lively blues she recalled so fondly. From her eyes, to her stony expression and her absurdly dark clothing that her mother would have loathed on any occasion, Liara knew that whatever she was staring at was not her mother. It lacks her essence…this is a wretched imposter!
"You do not know the privilege of being a mother. There is power in creation, to shape a life…turn it toward happiness or despair." The Matriarch began, turning her whole body toward them. Liara hadn't heard such a tone from her mother in decades, not since she warned Firaya T'Susza about her reckless political behavior at one of the forums held at her household. It was unnerving. "Her children were to be ours, raised to hunt and slay Saren's enemies. It is unfortunate, Shiala, that you have strayed from Saren's light."
Liara watched Shiala take a step forward, only then noticing the handful of commandos slowly moving into position in the room. Shepard seemed to be aware of it as well, her right foot constantly pivoting as it pointed out the commandos in the room.
"Matriarch, Saren's light is just a trick on your mind…it has fouled it, led you astray. I am free of his reign, and see the truth of his deceit and manipulation. Return with us, and we will help free you of his influence. Let us return to Thessia." Shiala spoke earnestly, drawing a nod from Liara.
"Commander Shepard, are you so foolish to believe I will be moved by sympathy? By bringing in my traitorous former acolyte, and my foolish daughter?" The Matriarch asked, a hit of amusement in her voice, though her expression remained flat.
"Liara's here because she wants to be, it's that simple. Shiala's here to show you that life without Saren is preferable. I'd prefer you come with us without any conflict, but I see you've come prepared, Matriarch." She heard Shepard say as her own eyes remained locked on her mother's face. She felt a pit form in her stomach as her mother's eyes caught her own.
"Indeed. Tell me, Liara, what have you told her about me?" Her mother's voice filled the room, though there was something inherently wrong about it. Her brow furrowed in anger at the thought of this doppelganger asserting it was her mother.
"Nothing. You are not my mother. My mother would never ally herself with Saren, never bow to his will, never attempt to assassinate me! What could I say about you? Should I explain how to kill you? What could I say?" she asked, frustrated beyond belief that she was in her current situation. It felt disgusting hearing her mother's voice be so tainted, to see her mother's body be abducted by Saren's will.
She watched the Matriarch shift her focus slightly to Shepard. "Have you faced an asari commando unit before? Few humans have." The imposter said, as Liara noticed the commandos were fully set up in their positions.
"No, but I've fought krogan battlemasters, and I'd like to think they're an alright equivalent." Shepard quipped, her right hand reaching for her shotgun.
"Your insolence is a poor mask for your fear." The Matriarch spoke coolly, tossing out a stasis field that Liara and Shiala's barriers were quick enough to repel.
Liara quickly backpedaled to Ashley's position, raising her barrier as she followed the woman down a corridor to a set of crates, taking cover behind them as the woman barraged the oncoming duo of acolytes, who pressed on as their own barriers held. For a moment, at least.
Shiala's flying body knocked the one in the rear of the two onto the floor, allowing herself and Ashley to focus on the one remaining threat. The acolyte took up cover behind a nearby pillar, tossing out the odd biotic push or explosive round from her cover, while Ashley followed what the marine called a 'spray and pray' tactic, riddling the pillar with bullets to the point where Liara couldn't help but wonder how it remained upright and stable.
It was only when geth broke into the lab entrance behind them that the stalemate was broken, Ashley turning her fire toward the machines, letting Liara deal with the unenviable task of repelling the acolyte. Lacking any heavy or significant weaponry, she found herself unable to do major damage to the asari, only a small stomach wound, and quickly found herself in hand to hand combat once the acolyte closed in.
From a certain range, and if all attacks were biotically enforced, Liara was sure she could repel the attacks, but it wasn't one of those times. For every three strikes Liara blocked with her arms or repelled with her barrier, two regular strikes found themselves through her defenses, an uppercut staggering her backward momentarily, a kick sending her tumbling onto her back.
Gritting her teeth, she got to her feet just in time to block a biotic punch, the acolyte easily avoiding her feeble attempt at a sweep. I need to remind myself later to take hand to hand lessons with Shiala…or Shepard… Goddess, I am poor at this! She thought, pushing out her barrier to put some space between them, and quickly tossing out a throw to interrupt the acolyte's attempt to put Williams in stasis.
Ashley was back in the battle quickly, and not a moment too soon. The acolyte seemed to have little trouble at close range, knowing Ashley couldn't fire without potentially hitting Liara. Both fought hand to hand, Ashley the only one carrying a weapon as she tried to make contact with her knife, slashing down at the acolyte after a landed punch from Liara seemed to wind the asari.
The commando quickly reacted, swaying to avoid the knife and kicking hard at Williams' knee, crumbling the soldier to the ground as Liara blocked yet another biotic throw, keeping her from taking advantage of the acolyte's vulnerable state. The three of them went on for what seemed like forever, trading blows, but the commando seemed to be getting the better of them constantly. Liara did her best to stop any stasis attacks or biotic strikes, but often paid for it in the volume of purely physical strikes she received. Ashley, for her part, had managed to cut open the acolyte in a number of areas, but her own face had taken damage, and the marine was favoring her left leg considerably.
Liara yet again interrupted the acolyte's attempt at stasis, a sneakily hidden attempt in her recovery from a kick, and threw out a punch, which the asari caught. Ash, getting up from another hard kick to her weakened knee, was too slow to stop the vicious elbow that impacted against Liara's face, sending her stumbling back into the nearby railing. Liara went to raise her arms to guard herself for the next attack, but it didn't come; a bright blue flash erupted in front of her, knocking the acolyte a number of feet backward violently.
Ashley didn't waste the opportunity, drawing her gun and riddling the asari with bullets, her proton rounds occasionally pushing past the commando's barriers and turning her into a bloody mess. Liara gave a thankful nod to Shiala and turned to see the rest of her surroundings. It was only then that she noticed the chaos.
Across the room, she spotted Garrus and Kaidan fighting off another commando in close quarters, Tali a few metres away methodically dismantling geth soldiers, and upon the platform her mother had stood, she witnessed Shepard and Wrex battling the Matriarch. Goddess… she thought, never having seen her mother in the heat of battle. She'd only been watching for a few seconds, and it was enough to tell that by how both seasoned soldiers were being rag dolled, they were clearly overwhelmed.
"Help Garrus and Kaidan, Shiala…the gunnery chief and myself will assist Shepard and Wrex." She spoke firmly, moving slowly toward the staircase up to the battle.
"My lady, I would prefer…" she heard her mentor spoke, but she would have no disagreements. Too much was at stake, and she recognized the remaining acolyte as Shiala's second in command, a constant favourite in An'Jukh tournaments across Thessia. Without the aid of someone better versed in hand to hand, she felt that both Garrus and Kaidan's lives would be in danger, and her conscience would not allow her to let Shiala focus on her mother while those two toiled with a hand to hand specialist.
"You will aid them immediately, then return and help us with mother." She said, not taking her eyes off of her mother as the made it to the base of the stairs. She heard Shiala dart away and was pleased that her mentor's emotions hadn't clouded her judgment for too long. She knew she'd been guilty of it, though she was now clearly seeing the source.
Memories of her mother, both good and bad, flowed through her mind as she took a step onto the staircase. It was so easy…before, it was so easy to just assume that mother's behavior toward me was a growing frustration in my career choice, but now I see it so clearly. Even before, there were amused grins during vid-calls, knowing smiles when I'd explain my research and my issues with being taken seriously by my peers. She may not have approved, but there was always a light in her eyes, and in that, I knew that she was still my mother…that she still cared…it was only in the past two decades that she had begun to change…I would see her less often, I would be denied communications…eventually disowned, but her eyes… she thought of how slow the progression was across the past years, but she clearly recalled the tour her mother did, and how she had seemed so flustered afterward. It had to have started then…twenty two years ago…but…if this has gone on for that long…no, it must have. It must have. I witnessed that light in my mother twist into darkness, her love evacuate her body alongside her essence…she only changed and began tormenting me, hating me…because of HIM…
Liara took another step, and then another, each filling her with more rage than the last at how her mother was stolen from the galaxy by Saren. Her bold, intelligent, kind mother who had vowed to create a cohesive galactic community, who had promised Thessia that she would lead them to a brighter future, who had imprinted on Liara the knowledge of her boundless, eternal love for her, a love Liara had never given up on.
"Fire on the Matriarch and do not stop until I say so." Liara gritted out, raising a barrier around the both of them as they ascended. Ash kept to her promise, sending a torrent of gunfire at the elder asari. The response was quick and vicious, the Matriarch hurling a powerful biotic throw at them, Liara's barriers just managing to hold under the strain. Liara, in her rage, focused as hard as she could and tossed one back at her mother's body, managing to stagger the elder asari slightly before yet another blast collapsed Liara's barrier and sent her stumbling down a number of steps from the sheer force.
As she regained her footing, she held her breath, watching as the Matriarch turned aside one of Shepard's biotic kicks and brutally launched her backward, a loud crack emanating through the room as Shepard's spine impacted against the railing, her body sliding over it. The woman's hand caught hold of the railing, letting Liara know she was alive, but in danger. I have to act now!
She continued up the stairs to the platform quickly, witnessing Wrex charge into the Matriarch, who absorbed some of the hit, sending her skidding back a foot or so, before throwing Wrex into a nearby pillar and biotically lifting him, making him prone as well. Williams' gunfire had merely bounced off the asari's barrier, but Liara was hoping that soon, it would penetrate and allow them an upper hand. She knew she'd have to help weaken her mother's barrier, and the thought was intimidating. She had seen her mother's biotic strength before, but she knew she'd have to break it if they were to make it out of Noveria alive.
"Fire, Ashley!" she yelled, standing in the way of Shepard, hoping to prevent her mother from capitalizing on the commander's vulnerable situation. As Ashley's barrage peppered into the Matriarch's barriers, slowing her progress, the elder slowly moved across the platform toward her, a terrible grin on her face as she lashed out with powerful biotic attacks, Liara's barriers erecting and collapsing under the force constantly. She just tried to believe she was back in the Normandy's cargo bay, sparring with Shepard, keeping herself as a wall in front of the woman as she recovered, erecting small, sturdy barriers to block directional attacks. She didn't hear Shepard get to her feet behind her, her senses fully captured as Shiala charged into view, impacting against the Matriarch's barriers, collapsing them momentarily, enough for a single wound to pierce the asari's midsection.
The elder asari lashed out quickly, both erecting her barriers again and forcefully slamming Shiala into the terminal desk across the room. As she saw Wrex finally drop to the ground from the effects of the lift, another blue blur blew past her and crashed into the Matriarch, again destroying her barriers, letting Williams land another three shots before her weapon overheated.
Shepard took action quickly, grabbing the staggering asari by the arm and flinging her hard onto the ground, landing a vicious biotically charged strike to the Matriarch's ribs before straddling her.
Liara rushed over, seeing her mother's body coughing up blood, a pained look on her face as Shepard had an arm cocked back, ready for another punch.
"Saren…he's…he's unstoppable! Filled with his light, my…my mind is…clear… you will…you…" The Matriarch spoke between bloody coughs, Liara noticing a clarity emerging in the asari's eyes. Mother? Are…are you trapped in there? Goddess!
"You're lying. Mother, I know you're still in there, please, fight him!" she yelled, kneeling beside Shepard and staying the woman's arm as Williams quickly made her way over to the terminal, helping Shiala to her feet.
"I…Saren, he…Saren…I can't…betray…" the asari spoke, her words lacking the previous certainty, her eyes shifting over and finding Liara's. "Liara…my child."
"Mother!" she cried out, taking Benezia's hand in her own.
Benezia's face twisted for a moment, before falling into a familiar calm expression, her eyes glimmering with the light that she hadn't seen in decades. The mere sight of her mother, of her mother's essence, nearly brought her to tears. She wanted so badly to meld, but knew it would be too terrible of a danger to risk it.
"You must listen. I still hear Saren's whispers…in my mind. I can only… briefly fight his compulsions. Indoctrination is…strong. So strong. Sovereign…it bends thoughts, realities, to fit Saren's will." Her mother strained out; the pain from her injuries seeping into every word, though Benezia still held a warm smile for her.
"How did you manage to break free now?" Shepard asked with ragged breaths, obviously wounded from the fight. Benezia gulped back the blood she'd been coughing up and kept her focus on Liara as she spoke.
"I sealed a part of myself away from indoctrination… saving this untainted part of me for a...time when I could destroy him. It was difficult…I thought I could resist it…I became a willing tool, eager to serve…I failed." Benezia answered, freeing her hand to wipe the brimming tears in Liara's eyes. Very quickly, her emotions were too much for her to hold back, mentally tossing aside asari customs in favor of a heartfelt plea.
"You have not, you…you can still help us, mother." Liara choked out, biting down on her lip to repress her tears. "I can't watch you slip away from me again, I…I cannot. You must fight it, help us!"
Benezia let out another few coughs, her purple blood spattering across the steel floor. "I have already helped Saren. I…I mined the Rachni Queen's brain…for the coordinates of the Mu relay. I was not kind…gave them to Saren, to help find the Conduit." Her mother spoke, her breathing slightly easier as Shepard shifted her weight from Benezia's chest to her hips, which Liara was thankful for. She could see the puppet of her mother's body hurt, but seeing her mother in pain was horrible.
"The Mu Relay was lost in one of the rachni's nebulas. Hard to believe Saren would go through this trouble just to find it." Wrex grumbled, limping nearby and leaning on the railing.
"He will do anything to find the Conduit. He will…do anything to bring back the Reapers." Benezia spoke, finally turning her gaze from Liara to Shepard. "There is…an OSD in the terminal…it has a copy of the data I gave Saren just a few minutes ago."
Liara noticed Garrus limp his way over to the terminal out of her peripheral vision, glad to see he was alright.
"Where does Saren plan to go from the relay?" she asked, bringing her mother's attention back to her.
"I cannot say. This…was my mission to get back in…good standing with him again. And…Goddess…" Her mother spoke, words intermixed with coughs. "You need…you need to stop… me. His teeth are at my ear. Fingers…my spine. You…"
"Fight him, mother, please!" Liara cried, her hands scrambling for Benezia's, but her mother moved her hand out of the way.
"He is in my head…always…I will never be the same again. End me." Benezia said as clearly as possible, gulping back the blood and looking deep into Liara's eyes. "You have always…made me proud…my Little Wing."
Liara's tears slipped down her cheeks, the pain too much to bear, watching her mother drift away again, hearing her earnestly say the pet name she'd secretly loved hearing as a child. It still reminded her of happier times, and only made her want such memories for the both of them in the future.
"Come on, just stay with us, Matriarch." Shepard spoke, though Liara could see her mother's eyes turning darker, colder, and she choked back a sob when her mother's body wreathed itself in blue.
Shepard didn't react fast enough before her mother's biotic nova propelled her into the air, letting the Matriarch stand. Shepard landed roughly, but charged back into her, Wrex, Ashley and Garrus focusing fire on her mother's barriers as she sent a powerful warp out at Shiala, who just managed to block it.
As Liara was readying a biotic throw, she saw her mother's barrier flicker after a shotgun blast from Wrex; Shepard's arm rose up quickly, signaling them to hold fire as she landed a wild punch to her mother's face, sending the asari staggering until a ferocious kick to her midsection toppled her over back onto the cold, hard ground. She winced at the strikes the commander laid into her mother, and closed her eyes as Shepard reeled back for a more powerful punch. The sound of the impact nearly made her vomit.
Her eyes opened soon enough to see Shepard topple over from exhaustion beside Benezia, the woman breathing heavily and blood seeping out of her mouth. Her mother seemed unconscious beside her, and Liara rushed to their sides immediately.
"Take the Matriarch to the shuttle platform." Shepard said, spitting out a large amount of blood directly afterward. "Wrex, go with her. Through those doors." She finished, pointing to doors on the far side of the room.
Liara, already in the process of using her medi-gel to patch her mother up, quickly finished the wound she was working on in time for Wrex to finally relent, after some grumbling and growling, and probably some words she hadn't spent the attention to listen to since the order. Using her biotics, she slowly lifted her mother into the air, Wrex easing the load with his own. They quickly moved through the room, Liara noticing her companion's eyes never leaving the rachni queen's form until the doors to the room shut behind them.
Soon, they were outside, rushing toward the shuttle on the platform, recognizing one of the Normandy's co-pilots waiting inside for them with the stasis pod they'd obtained from the Ylentek firm. After the pilot had opened the pod, Liara and Wrex gently lowered her into it, Liara patching up one final wound to stop the profuse bleeding before closing and activating it.
It will be some time before we know if we succeeded, but…but at least there is a chance. She thought, hopeful that her mother would live, despite her grievous injuries; thankful that Tevos had convinced Ylentek to release the pod to their custody. I can hardly believe Shepard managed to sway them with her reasoning. Yet…I suppose the prospect of Thessian hospitals and clinics using their technology on colony worlds was likely enticing for them…many don't have such technology available, and it could help in bringing injured asari safely to Thessia for treatment. Much like we are doing by returning her to the Citadel…Goddess, I hope she will be alright…
Liara sat back in the shuttle's row of seating, and began silently reciting a prayer to Athame that her mother had taught her when Tevos' bondmate was sick, over half a lifetime ago. She had a feeling her mother would need it.
A/N: Goddamn I am so nervous about this chapter. It's been hounding me, tormenting me…for weeks! I just decided I had to be done with it and stop editing and re-writing areas. I needed to get it over with, it was just getting to be too frustrating, and I think it has actually tossed me into a mini-depression lately. So yeah…it's done. It's a break from canon that I needed to make, in order for some potentially planned events in ME2 and ME3 to make sense. So that's that. :P
Credit to DrJekyl on AO3 (archiveofourown dot org /works/496401/chapters/869441) who came up with a similar idea (though I haven't read more than the summary for it…but it seems pretty interesting! Check it out if you have time, it's probably pretty solid). I more or less decided that if the protheans can develop stasis pods that remain active for millennia, the current galactic races could make some that lasted a few weeks, months, years fairly efficiently.
So yeah. Noveria's over. And March has been a big blank aside from this so far. Nearly 3 weeks between chapters! I'm so, so sorry… between school kicking it up, and this chapter killing me, and real-life stuff, it's been hard. I DO have the next few chapters fully outlined and ready to go, but I'll probably not break 4 chapters this month, due to the amount of days I've lost so far. I'll try my best, though.
Fair warning, though. The next few chapters are pretty unrelated to the core storyline, and will mostly be fluff with some angst sprinkled in. So if you're not into that, then April would be a good time to check back in. For anyone ready for some fluffy good times, I'm excited for the next few chapters and can't wait to start on the veritable fluffstravaganza.
Anywho, I want to thank you all for your incredible support. I have officially passed 25k views on Feathers, I've now written over 400,000 words according to FFnet, and that's amazing. Seriously. To everyone so far who's read my stories, to everyone who left reviews, to everyone who followed me and my stories…you're incredibly awesome, and I cannot state that enough. Thank you.
I hope the rest of your week is excellent and I hope I can push another chapter out quickly, to rinse the bad taste of this one from my mouth. Blegh. :P