A/N And here is part two of Feros, I hope you all enjoy it.
Feros
Zhu's Hope
"Look, I'm grateful that you helped us, but I don't know why the Geth would attack." Fai Dan said.
Chiron rubbed his temple, "Fine, if there is nothing here that you can think the Geth would be interested in, then why is the colony here in the first place?"
"Well, a company called ExoGeni set us up here, in an attempt to try and find potential Prothean artifacts on the planet." said Fai Dan as Chiron began to narrow his eyes, "Bu.. but they never told us of any findings."
Chiron sighed, "Very well, where is the ExoGeni facility?" he asked, "Maybe they have something hidden there that the Geth would want."
"It's down the elevator in the corridor you came from and down the Skyway, there should be a Mako in the garage that you could use." Fai Dan answered, "But we could still use some help gathering food, water, power, and tracking the remnants of the Geth down in the tunnels."
Chiron began to contact the Normandy, "Ground team to Normandy." he said as Joker came in over the comm.
"This is Normandy, how is Gethville?" Joker replied.
"Not the time Flight Lieutenant, I need you to send Barras and a squad of Commandos to the colony, so that they can take care of some issues in the tunnels, while we continue with the mission." Chiron said, "And relay the message to the Commander so she knows that we are borrowing some of the security force."
"Right away." replied Joker.
Chiron turned towards Fai Dan, "Alright, a Batarian named Barras, will be meeting with you shortly to deal with these issues, if there are any problems, he will comm. us and we will try to get back here."
Fai Dan nodded as Chiron's squad headed off to the Skyway. As they exited the elevator, they saw a couple of colonist guards take out a drone that had wondered into the garage. Chiron entered the Mako and took up the wheel, while Tali monitored the systems, and Vasir manned the gun.
As the Mako made it's way down the Skyway, they encountered heavy Geth resistance, but the Mako's gun was able to take out most of the opposition with little effort.
As the Mako hit the fourth bump on the road that made it jump in the air at an unusual angle, Vasir decided to speak up, "Alright Chiron, did you ever learn how to drive this damn thing?"
Chiron shrugged, "Not really, but it makes a good scare tactic." he suggested, "I mean who wouldn't be terrified of a screaming hunk of metal chaotically flying towards them while shooting a large gun, every which way."
Tali chuckled, "That depends, is the screaming coming from inside of the said hunk of metal."
Chiron turned around the grin at Tali, "Hey a good scare tactic, is a good scare tactic."
"Eyes, road Wraith, eyes, road." Vasir all but shouted before grunting to herself, "Note, never get into a vehicle with insane Wraiths again."
Chiron chuckled while turning back towards the road, "As if the, if it moves, blow it up Specres, are any saner." he replied.
Tali looked at the two of them in confusion, "I can't tell if you two hate each other, or like each other." she mumbled.
Chiron shrugged, "Don't worry about it, just some historical rivalry between our organizations." he explained, "dates back to the Wraiths foundation where we entered into a Cold War type situation against the Spectres, I can explain more later if you would like."
Tali nodded as they began to get a transmission from a nearby camp, "Can anyone here me out there?" the voice asked, "We need he... would you get off that damn comm. the Geth could be listening in!" another voice cut in.
Chiron brought the Mako to a stop in front of a ramp leading down into where the transmission came from.
As the squad walked down the ramp, they found themselves with a gun pointed at them, "S..stop right there, this is ExoGeni private property." stated a man in a business uniform.
Chiron raised an eyebrow at the man as his biotics flared, "I don't appreciate a gun being pointed at me" he began, "Because you are an Imperial citizen, I will give you three seconds to drop the weapon and forget it was drawn, otherwise you and everyone with you will die."
"Would you put that damn gun down Jeong!" shouted a woman coming up beside him, "Can't you see he is a Wraith, his authority supersedes the corporations."
Jeong paled in fear and quickly dropped his gun, "I...I'm sorry Wraith."
Chiron nodded and allowed his biotics to die down, "So what was with the distress call?" he asked.
The woman stepped forward, "That was me, sir, with the colony dead, I was hoping we could signal for rescue and get my daughter out of the headquarters building so we could leave."
Chiron looked at her in confusion as Barras came in over his comm, "Sir." said the Batarian, "we encountered light Geth resistance but we have turned on the water pipes, and killed an alpha Varren." He reported.
"However the colonists are acting strangely, whenever questioned about the colony, they point us towards Fai Dan, who tells us next to nothing, and there is a man down here in the tunnels, who is speaking of some kind of presence in his head." Barras continued.
Chiron nodded as Jeong began to shift uncomfortably at the mention of the colonists, "Alright, keep an eye on them and retreat to the ship if things get hairy." he ordered.
"Roger that, Wraith." Barras responded, "We are obtaining some power cells now and heading to destroy a Geth transmitter, we will head back once we are finished, over and out."
"Damn it Jeong, you said that they were dead." said the woman.
"I.. I said that they were likely dead." Jeong weakly replied.
"As charming as this argument is, could we please return to the mission." Vasir cut in.
Chiron nodded, "Yes, Ms. if we find your daughter we will try to return her here, until then bunker down and wait for us to come back."
As the two civilians nodded the squad headed back to the Mako and made their way to the ExoGeni headquarters.
The squad walked around the entry garage of the ExoGeni headquarters building, but found that the only direct access location was blocked by some sort of Geth shielding. Chiron and his squad walked over to what appeared to be a tunnel in the ground near the door, "We wont be able to climb back up this way." Tali muttered.
Chiron shrugged, "Perhaps, but it's the only entrance we have." he said as he jumped down.
The squad made it's way out of the tunnel but as they exited, Chiron heard a weapon fire and felt an impact in his barrier, followed by a small scream of shock, "I'm so sorry, I thought you were a Geth." said the female voice.
Chiron sighed and mumbled to himself, "What is with survivors on this planet and guns."
He turned to look at the woman, "You wouldn't happen to know what they Geth want here would you?"
The woman thought for a moment before seeming to come to a conclusion, "I.. I think it is the Thorian." she stated, "It's a plant based species we discovered on the planet with some kind of mind controlling spores."
"Hmm, interesting" Vasir noted, "I could see why Saren might want such a creature."
Chiron nodded, "Do you know where it is?" Chiron asked.
The woman nodded nervously, "Yes, it's under Zhu's Hope, ExoGeni was using the colonists as test subjects." she said.
"What?!" the squad shouted in unison.
Chiron growled before attempting to contact the Normandy and Barras, but all he got was static, "Damn, the Geth must be blocking our signals."
"I saw the Geth ship latched onto the building from outside, if we could detach one of it's legs, it might topple down, letting us get through the shielding and contact the Normandy." Tali said.
Chiron nodded, "Good idea." he said before turning towards the woman, "What about you?" he asked.
"I'll stay here and try to find us another way out." She responded as she handed him a card, "Here take my I.D. card, maybe it will be of use."
Chiron nodded, taking the card and led his squad to a nearby staircase. As they reached the top of the stairs, they heard a Krogan shouting, "Stupid machine, tell me about the Thorian!"
As they came into view, the Krogan spotted them and began to charge. Chiron and his squad jumped out of the way and began to fire at the Krogan as he passed by. Chiron used his biotics to try and lift the Krogan off the ground as Vasir used her own to try and throw him. As the two attacks hit the Krogan, he was torn apart by an explosion of biotic energy, "Interesting." Chiron muttered, glancing over towards Vasir who was just as surprised.
Chiron approached the terminal that the Krogan was attempting to use, "As a reminder to all employees, the discharging of weapons is forbidden on the premises." said the V.I, "Welcome back, Lizbeth Baynham, how may I be of assistance?"
"It must have a scanner for I.D cards." muttered Tali.
Chiron nodded before addressing the V.I, "What information was the previous user attempting to obtain?"
"The previous user, was attempting to obtain information on species 341, the Thorian." it said, "Other than lacking proper access, there is no new knowledge on species 341 to share."
"Well, at least Saren didn't get any more information." Chiron muttered as they continued on towards the Geth ship.
They reached another room and found Geth surrounding a glowing orb, contained in a metal claw and they appeared to be worshiping it. The squad managed to swiftly eliminate the kneeling Geth before they could respond.
"Do the Geth even do religion?" Chiron asked Tali.
Tali slowly shook her head, "It's possible the Geth have begun to question their place in existence and have chosen to worship something, I suppose." Tali offered, "But we know so little of how they changed since they forced the Quarians into exile."
Chiron nodded as they walked into what appeared to be an ExoGeni data hub, they began to clear the room of Geth and found an arm that was stuck in between a shutter, "Tali, do you think we could use this to remove the arm?" Vasir asked.
Tali nodded, "If we can raise the psi to a sufficient level, then it should be able to cut off the arm when the shutter closes."
Chiron grinned, "Then it is a good thing we brought a brilliant engineer with us." he said, "You work on that and Vasir and I will look around through some of these terminals."
Chiron searched through the emails on one of the terminals until he found one labeled Cerberus. As he read it, he learned that ExoGeni was being funded by Cerberus to conduct research on the Thorian.
"It's done Chiron" Tali said as shutter slammed shut on the leg, cutting it apart, "If we have time, I'd like to get some data from the Geth terminals, it could prove useful."
Chiron nodded and attempted to contact the Normandy, "Joker can you read me?"
"Finally, Wraith been trying to contact you." Joker replied, "The colonists just started going crazy, Barras got most of the men back safely but one fell behind and was torn apart by them."
"Damn." Chiron responded, "We're on our way Joker, keep the Normandy sealed and don't let anyone in."
"Got the date Chiron." Tali shouted.
"Good, we can analyze it later let's head back out." Chiron responded.
The squad met Lizbeth just outside of the door to the garage, "The shields are down Wraith, lets get out of here quickly." she said.
Chiron drove the Mako back down the Skyway towards Zhu's Hope. As they neared the outpost outside of ExoGeni, they picked up a transmission, "You can't do that Jeong!" said the female voice, "I said get away from the transmitter!" said Jeong
Chiron heard a shout from behind him, "Mother!" Lizbeth shouted as she tried to get out of the Mako. Chiron stopped the Mako and opened it up, following Lizbeth to the outpost.
"Making trouble again Jeong." he asked.
Jeong looked at him in fear, "Look, the company has put out a scorched earth policy, we wont be able to recoup our losses here."
The woman glared at him, "You can't just kill innocent people Jeong!"
Chiron glared at Jeong, "I know what ExoGeni was doing to the colony Jeong." he informed, "I'll take care of the colonists, but ExoGeni will be assisting the colony, afterwards to ensure that it can prosper."
Jeong was about to argue before he saw Chiron's biotics flare up, "U...understood." he said weakly.
Chiron nodded and headed back to the Mako to get to Zhu's Hope.
As the Mako entered Zhu's Hope's garage, they found themselves being fired on by the colonists, "Stasis fields only, if possible." Chiron ordered, "I want as few colonist fatalities as possible."
The squad made there way through the colony, killing only a couple colonists when they weren't able to use a stasis field on them.
"One of the terminals at ExoGeni, mentioned that the colonists had placed a freighter over the entrance to the Thorian," Vasir mentioned as she moved to some crane controls.
After Vasir moved the correct freighter out of the way the squad began to head down the stairs leading to the Thorian, but was stopped by Fai Dan, "I only wanted to protect the colony." Fai Dan said as he held up a gun, "But the voice is telling me to kill you... I.. wont... doo.." Fai Dan slowly brought the gun towards his own head.
Chiron noticed Tali turn her head as the trigger went off, "We will kill this thing." Chiron muttered.
The squad found itself at the bottom of the stairs facing a large plant like organism, suspending itself over a pit, "How do you suppose we kill it?" Vasir asked as the Thorian began to drip saliva and a figure came out of it.
The figure slowly stepped forward, revealing itself to be a green Asari in commando leathers, "The Old One knew the meats would send more to kill it." the Asari said, "You will all become slaves to the Old One!"
The Asari began to attack the squad with a mixture of biotics and shotgun shots. Chiron shot her in the head and saw her dissolve into a green paste, "Hmm, it seems to be suspended by nerve clusters in the wall, maybe if we sever those it will fall." Vasir suggested.
Chiron nodded and the squad began to head up the stair case towards the first nerve cluster. As they began to shoot the cluster, gray zombie like figures began to attack the squad. Chiron noted that, while numerous, they were relatively easy to take down.
While charging on towards the next few nerve clusters, they found themselves facing the green Asari again, "You will all die." she shouted before they managed to kill her again.
The squad repeated this pattern four more times, encountering the green Asari, all the way up to the final nerve cluster. As they severed the last cluster, the Thorian fell down into the pit and Tali threw in some explosives for good measure.
As they began to leave, the ran into the Asari from earlier, but this time she was purple instead of green, "Wait, please don't shoot!" she said.
"Who are you?" Chiron asked.
"My name is Shiala, I was a follower of Matriarch Beneziah until Saren gave me to the Thorian." she replied.
Chiron aimed his gun back at her head, "If you work for Saren, how can we trust you." he asked.
"I don't work for Saren anymore, and maybe I can help you." she said, "I can give you the information Saren was after."
Chiron began to slowly lower his aim, "What information?" he asked.
"Saren was looking for a Cipher that would help him interpret the information for Eden Prime's artifact, the Thorian had it and when I obtained it from the Thorian, I was able to transfer it to Saren." Shiala replied, "And as I could do for you."
Chiron looked at her in shock, "So it wasn't just a nightmare." he mumbled, "Fine give me the cipher."
"I will have to meld my mind with yours, the experience of an entire race, is the cipher and it can not simply be described." Shiala explained, "Relax human, close your eyes, feel the strings that bind all life throughout the galaxy, open yourself to the universe, Embrace Eternity!" Shiala shouted as her eyes turned black and she began to put the cipher into Chiron's mind.
Chiron felt a brief amount of pain in his head as the images from Eden Prime flashed in his skull again, but when Shiala was finished, he still didn't understand it.
"It may take some time for your mind to fully comprehend what it saw." Shiala said.
Chiron nodded as Vasir spoke up, "Shiala, do you know why Beneziah would betray the Council?"
Shiala nodded, "Beneziah wanted to try and guide Saren along a gentler path, but she underestimated him and his ship." she explained, "proximity to the ship, slowly changes people, I don't know, after a while, you begin to nearly worship Saren and do whatever you can to see his plans reach fruition."
Chiron frowned, "That doesn't sound good." he muttered, "What will you do now Shiala?" he asked.
Shiala looked down, "I would like to stay here and help the colony rebuild, as penance for the pain I caused." she said.
Chiron nodded as he and his squad began to leave, "Looks like this mission is done, we should report to Commander Shepard." he said.
Vasir nodded, "I would like to use your communication systems to contact the Council as well, they will want to know about the Thorian." she said.
Chiron nodded, "That can probably be arranged." he said as they walked back towards the Normandy.
A/N Alright I have decided that the next chapter or two will break away from the game slightly to deal with the Raloi, they aren't mentioned much and are rife for creative development in my eyes.
