Normandy
Chiron walked into the med bay to find Kayla getting deep gashes in her shoulder patched up by Chakwas, "Looks like you had some fun down there." he said.
Kayla winced as Chakwas applied some more medi-gel into the wound, "Ya, you should see the other guy." she replied.
Chiron chuckled, "So, the Rachni?" he asked.
Kayla nodded slowly, "Yep, I thought they could prove to be a useful asset, and that's just their feral warriors we met down there." she explained, "A trained regiment of Rachni warriors would make excellent ambush troops and that's ignoring any kind of cultural or scientific benefits they might end up bringing to the table."
Chiron nodded, "I hope so, we are taking a large risk on these bugs." he said, "Well, get better Sister."
"Ya, ya, go have your fun Xenophile, while your sister is tortured by the evil doctor." she complained.
Chiron chuckled as he heard her yelp while leaving the med-bay. He saw Alenko standing around the mess hall and headed towards him, "Alenko." he said.
Kaiden saluted Chiron, "Wraith." he said.
"At ease soldier, I'm just wondering how the ship is doing." Chiron explained
Kaiden nodded and relaxed, "Well, sir, Barras and his men are still a bit on edge thanks to the Spectre, but everyone seems to be warming up to Garrus and Wrex." he reported.
Chiron nodded, "Very good, the Commander wants us all to play nice, now if only we can get them to warm up to Vasir." he muttered as he walked down to the engineering room.
As Chiron exited the elevator, he came across Garrus and Wrex standing near the Mako, "Everything alright you two?" he asked.
Garrus and Wrex turned to him, "Sure, just discussing ways to upgrade the Mako and keep our baby safe while she is being driven." Garrus responded.
Wrex nodded his head, "Did you need something Wraith?" he asked.
Chiron shook his head, "Just checking on the crew while we try to pick up Saren's trail."
"Well, I caught Wrex here teaching some of the crew Krogan tactics during his off hours and I have been testing my shooting skills against some of your security soldiers," Garrus said, "They are pretty good shots, but none of them have beaten my record yet."
Chiron grinned, "Good." he said as he walked away from the two and towards engineering. As he neared the doors, he all but ran into Ashley, "Ah, getting along with the crew Williams?" he asked.
Ashley looked up at Chiron in surprise, "Oh, umm, yes Sir." she stammered, "Garrus has really proved trustworthy and while I still think Wrex is crazy, I doubt he would betray us."
"But I still have reservations regarding the Spectre, Sir." she continued, "Garrus might be a Turian but he is a good sort, but that Spectre is still loyal to the Council, we can't trust her to not leak secrets about the Normandy or the Empire."
Chiron nodded his head, "I understand where your concern comes from Williams, but if Vasir wanted us dead, we'd be dead by now." he said, "As it stands, she is monitored while on the Normandy and her calls to the Council are supervised, give her a chance."
Ashley nodded as Chiron continued into engineering. He spotted Tali working at her station, "Got some time to talk?" he asked her.
Tali nodded, turning around, "Sure, how can I help you Chiron?" she asked.
"Well, I was curious about the Quarian Pilgrimage actually." he said, "I mean that is why you were on the Citadel in the first place correct?"
Tali nodded, "Yes, as a right of passage, all Quarians are sent away from the Fleet when they reach the appropriate age, in order to find something out in the Galaxy that would be of benefit to the fleet." she said, "Usually, this consists of anything from stores of food to random ships that could be salvaged to repurposed."
Tali paused and began to wring her hands nervously, "However, there is a bit more expected of me, I need to find something that wouldn't just help the Fleet, but help us fight the Geth."
Chiron looked at Tali curiously, "Why would they expect more out of you, Tali?" he asked.
"Well, my father is on the Admiralty Board and as such, is a prominent figure among the Fleet, as his daughter much is expected of me." she replied.
Chiron nodded, "That must be difficult, being forced to live in your Father's shadow." he said as a pained look crossed is face momentarily.
Before Tali could question the look she saw cross his face, Joker's voice came on over the intercom, "Hey, Wraith, we have a message coming in from the Grand Marshall, he wants to speak with you."
Chiron shrugged and looked towards Tali, "Duty calls us all." he said as he walked back up to the CIC.
"Good that you got here quickly Wraith, we have a new mission for you." Hackett said when Wraith arrived in the comm. room, "After we analyzed your report and data from Feros, we dispatched Rear Admiral Kahoku to investigate this Cerberus organization."
Chiron nodded, "What did we find, sir?"
"Cerberus appears to have been a group that was formed shortly after they First Contact War, according to our reports, they are an extreme anti-Council group that conducts illegal and immoral experiments in order to, quote, advance the Empire and her allies," Hackett said, "However, we have lost word from Kahoku on an unnamed planet, you are to take a small team down to the planet and try and find Kahoku or any information he may have picked up, we are sending the co-ordinates now."
Chiron saluted, "Sir, yes, sir."
"For the Empire." Hackett said as he cut the link.
Chiron looked up towards the intercom, "Plot a course for the co-ordinates that High Command is sending us Joker."
"Ya, ya, I'm on it Wraith." Joker replied.
Binthu
"So, we are heading down to a base that we picked up on scanners, owned by an organization that wants to see Council races dead," Garrus summarized as the shuttle began to touch down, "and you decided to bring along a Turian and a Spectre, really Chiron?"
Chiron grinned as the shuttle landed, "Now Garrus, are you getting scared of a few Imperial supremacists now?" he questioned, "I thought you would have fun."
Garrus sighed, "I'm a sniper Chiron, we don't do well if we can't see our targets." he said, "And Imperial soldiers are good at not being seen, I doubt they would abandon that tech."
Vasir nodded as they exited the shuttle and faced the entrance to the apparently underground structure, "I have to agree with Garrus here, typical strategy when it comes to taking Imperial bases is to overwhelm with suppression fire in hallways, or distance bombardment, preferably orbital."
Chiron smiled, "Lets just say that the cloaks wont work with me here and they won't even try to use them," he explained as he began to raise his voice so an personnel in the area could here him, "Otherwise state secrets might end up getting leaked to the Council."
Chiron and his squad walked into the facility, noticing a number of scorch marks and bodies littering the hallway, "Hmmm, I would say that Kahoku was definitely here and managed to storm the facility." he said as he stopped to examine one of the Cerberus soldiers. Chiron noticed that while there uniform was similar, its colors were white and orange, and as well as the Imperial symbol on their chest they had an orange, hexagonal symbol with a single line outlining each side of the symbol.
The squad continued down the hallways, following the signs of fighting. As they walked they noticed several rooms filled with what appeared to be slabs of dissected Turians, Asari, and Salarians. There were also containment rooms for Rachni, and creatures that appeared to be Thorian zombies.
"This place is an abomination." Vasir muttered at the sight of a dissected Asari.
Finally they came to the end of a hallway and entered a pair of doors leading into a wide room. The room was littered with both Imperial and Cerberus bodies, bodies that appeared to have been cut, not shot and in the middle of the room stood a man in what appeared to be a Cerberus version of a Wraith uniform. At his feet lay, what appeared to be, Kahoku's body.
Chiron glared at the Wraith, "What is your name traitor?" he asked.
The Wraith began giggling, "Names." the Wraith's feminine voice said, "Names are pretty little things that an experiment doesn't need."
The Wraith kept giggling as she slowly turned around and raised what appeared to be a dark metal claw on her hand, "Traitor?" she asked as she staggered towards the squad, slowly waving the claw and wildly looking at the corpses around her, "I suppose that I might be, considering the body count." The Wraith seemed to start counting how many how many bodies were on the floor.
Chiron took a moment to examine the Wraith, he noticed that she appeared to be bald and had a large number of scars around her face and neck, he found that her eyes however were completely black.
"Eat they say, you'll be strong they say," she began to mutter, "We can see Eternity too they say."
She raised the claw like implement to her face, "It amplifies the Biotics as well and it cuts; steel, flesh, barriers, anything so far." she said as she rolled her head so she was staring at Chiron.
Chiron calmed down and tried to speak to the mad Wraith slowly, "Tell me Wraith, do you still remember our code?" he asked.
She nodded, "A Wraith exists to serve the will of the Empire, as a Wraith we are obliged to assist only the Emperor and our brother and sister Wraiths, so that they to may better serve the will of the Empire." she recited in a moment of lucidity before giggling again.
Chiron nodded, "Good, good" he said while slowly stepping towards her, "Now would you help a fellow Wraith and allow me to see that claw of yours?"
The Wraith appeared to look closer at Chiron's uniform before smiling brightly, "Sure thing brother Wraith." she said as she removed the claw and skipped towards him with it.
As she neared, Vasir and Garrus made sure that they had a clear line of fire on her. The Wraith handed the claw to Chiron.
"Thank you sister Wraith." he said using a similar honorific as her to try and keep her calm, "Could you tell me what happened?"
The Wraith looked down at the bodies for a moment before smiling again, "I killed them all, those who made me eat and those who began to shoot." she explained, "The ones with the many eyes made rather loud noises when they died by the way, you might want to wear ear muffs if you kill them brother Wraith."
Chiron slowly walked around her as she was talking and drew his knife. As he stood behind her he muttered, "I'm sorry we couldn't rescue you and the others."
The Wraith turned around quickly and felt a sharp pain in her chest, "W...what.." she mumbled as she looked down to find the hilt of a knife protruding from her chest.
"Check around and see if you can find a recording of what happened." Chiron muttered to his team as the Wraith's dead body slumped to the floor.
Vasir held up a data pad that she found on Kahoku's body, "Chiron, I found a recording from Kahoku." she said as she handed it to him.
Chiron played the message, "Raven, my poor daughter, I tried to get here as soon as I could." the message read, "To whoever is reading this, I want you to know that my daughter doesn't mean to do any of this, what Cerberus did to her was monstrous, please, forgive her and end the monster she has become."
"She will find me soon, all my men are dead, the Cerberus personnel are dead, and my legs are broken, it is only a matter of time." he continued, "All I ask is that the Empire remembers her as she was, not as this abomination."
Chiron grabbed the claw and data pad and signaled the squad to leave. The ride back to the Normandy was filled with silence as Garrus and Vasir didn't know what to say and Chiron just stared down at the data pad and the claw. Finally he turned his red cybernetic eyes towards Vasir and Garrus, "I'm sorry you two had to see that, I had hoped that we might be able to find survivors, I didn't know the extent of Cerberus's experiments." he said.
Garrus shook his head, "There was know way you could have known Chiron so you don't have to apologize to us."
Vasir nodded in agreement, "We will make them pay for what they did to all of our people."
Chiron smiled slightly, "All right then, I suppose we should turn in our report." he said as he brought the claw up, "And maybe see if there might be some benefit out of this mission."
Normandy
Chiron found himself in the training room after he turned in his report to Hackett. He hooked the claw up to his hand and tried to flex his fingers, finding that he still had full movement and that the claw was only not as heavy as he had anticipated. Chiron also noted that there appeared to be a round circle in the palm of the claw, "Hmmm, she said that it amplified Biotics, let see how much." he muttered to himself as he prepared to Biotically throw the closest target against the wall.
Chiron felt a slightly larger drain when he used the throw and saw the normal ball of biotic energy, however there appeared to be a darker tinge of energy to the ball and as it impacted it didn't throw the target, instead it caused a hole to appear threw the target.
Kayla walked up behind Chiron as he held up the claw and looked at where the ball came from it, "So, liking your new toy?" she asked.
Chiron nodded, "It's an interesting weapon, could prove useful in the right circumstances."
"Vasir told me about the facility, Chiron." she said, "How are you doing?"
Chiron shrugged, "I put down a fellow Wraith." he muttered, "It is what is expected of us."
Chiron turned towards Kayla, "Everyone knows the first part of the Wraith's code, but do you know that a second part exists, Sister?" he asked.
He saw Kayla shake her head, "I've never heard of a second part."
Chiron nodded, "We don't speak it often." he said before reciting, "So that they may better serve the Empire, and should we be compromised, by mentality or physical weakness, them brother must kill brother, sister must kill sister, so that the Empire's left hand, never falls."
Kayla looked at him in confusion, "So, the Wraiths are expected to kill each other if they go mad or are crippled?"
Chiron nodded, "When mad, we are a threat to the Empire, if crippled, we are a waste on her resources as service is all we know."
Kayla nodded and began to try and say something before Vasir burst into the room.
"Commander, the Council has sent news," she said smiling, "It seems that Saren might be on a planet called Virmire, if we hurry we might catch him."
Kayla nodded before looking back to Chiron, "Think your up for another mission?" she asked.
Chiron grinned as he held up his new weapon, "Oh, I can't wait to test this thing out in an actual fight, and Saren's blood will make for a great cleaner I think."
Kayla smiled at her brother's returning enthusiasm, "Good, I'll make sure Joker has the co-ordinates, maybe this whole Galaxy threat thing will be over soon, with as little death as possible."
A/N Alright, I think I went vague enough with the experiments and details that this should still be T-rated, if not then the rating can be changed (it probably will anyways when I get into the ME2 portion, though I havn't decided it I want to make a new story for that yet or just keep adding to this one.).
I hope people enjoy this one and I'll get out the next chapter as soon as I can.
