"This stuff is disgusting," I said. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all completely coated in a thin layer of the sap-like slime.

"It certainly doesn't smell pleasant," Liara added, holding her hand up to cover her nose and mouth.

This place was a maze of pathways and trying to find our way through it was proving more difficult than it should have been. I kept trudging forward until Liara grabbed my arm and stopped me. "Do you hear that?" she asked.

I turned my head back down the hall and listened. At first I didn't notice anything, but I soon realized there was some sort of slapping sound that was steadily getting louder and louder. Then the shriek of something unnatural sounded and I looked at Liara. She gazed back with a questioningly look, like she expected me to know what to do. I was at a loss though. I felt anxiety steadily building up and was sure that my heart must have been beating so hard that Liara heard it. Instead though, we just looked at each other, silently asking the other what to do.

"You don't have any ideas?" I asked, "You're the one with the experience searching old places."

Liara glowered and whispered harshly, "None of those places had abominations running around trying to kill me!"

I looked in the direction of the noise, hearing another shriek. I tentatively started inching forward, all the while asking myself what the hell I thought I was doing. If I'd learned anything from horror movies, you never go toward the creepy noises, and yet that's exactly what I was doing. I reached the corner and pushed myself against the wall before slowly peeking around to look at whatever was coming.

I saw the source of the slapping noises. Feet, running along the slime covered floor at frantic speeds. The feet belong to Tali. The shriek that sounded out once again belonged to one of the two Creepers that were hot on her heels. I quickly stepped out around the corner and saw Tali perk up a bit at seeing me. I grabbed my rifle and shouted at Liara, "Liara! A singularity!"

I aimed down the scope while Liara stepped out to see what was going on and then launched a singularity that soared past Tali and impacted the first creeper, immediately grabbing it up along with the other and had them floating harmlessly. As soon as Tali got clear I started shooting at the things, but cursed when I realized it wasn't really doing anything.

I saw Liara step past me and launch another biotic attack, detonating the singularity and killing both Creepers. I looked at her and realized I'd completely forgotten that that was how we took out the first one. She looked at me with a smile and shrugged her shoulders.

We both turned to Tali to see her hunched over with her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath. "Keelah," she said, "Those things are fast!" She looked at us and I think I saw a smile in her eyes, "I'm glad I found you two. I thought I was going to be stuck down here. How do we get out?"

I sighed and shook my head, "I don't know. Without a map or something to follow, I've got no idea where to go." Tali's shoulder slumped at that answer and I suddenly realized that I was starting feel like the situation was hopeless.

"Perhaps if we just continue in the direction we were going, we'll come across something," Liara suggested.

I nodded, "Sounds fine to me."

"Me too," Tali said as she straightened up. "We should try to move quickly though. I don't know where Shepard is, but it can't be anywhere safe."

I nodded and then motioned for us to keep walking down the hall we'd been going down before meeting Tali at the intersection. While we did I activated my comm, "Hey, we met up with Tali and are going to look for a way out of here now."

"Great!" I heard Kaiden reply over the comm. "We're standing right next to this crate that Ash and Garrus said they saw Shepard and Tali walk into."

"That's where Shepard was grabbed by that vine!" Tali shouted, "He might be close to there!"

"What do you think, Shepard?" Kaiden asked, "Should we head down and look for you, or wait for the others three to find their way here?"

...

"Shepard?"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

"Anything yet?" I asked.

"Nothing," Kaiden replied.

I sighed, "Alright, we're at the crate and heading down."

"Right," Kaiden said, "Ash is on her way back to meet you."

"Got it," I said and then cut the comm.

After several minutes of getting nowhere, the others had decided to go down and start looking for Shepard while, Liara, Tali, and myself found our way out of the substructure. We thankfully did, and then had ran right to the crate. Now the three of us were descending the steps, back into the substructure. We reached the bottom and made for the doorway. The moment I stepped through and started turning I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and jumped back with a yell.

The person coming from the other way did the same. It was Ashley.

"Jesus Christ! What the hell, Daz?" she said.

I held my hands up, "Sorry! I didn't know you were gonna be there!"

She sighed and turned, "Let's go, it's this way."

We were walking in complete silence up until Tali piped up in an overly cheery voice, "I wish I'd gotten a picture of that."

I felt my face heat up and heard Liara trying to suppress a laugh. Meanwhile, Ashley just clenched her fists and picked up the pace. We finally made it to where the others had gathered and rejoined them.

"You're here! Great," Kaiden said, "Now we can keep moving. Dazac, any idea where we should go?"

I twisted my mouth in thought. Everything was so different here, I couldn't be sure of anything. I looked around the room and saw a total of three doorways. Nothing really seemed very defining enough to know where to go. Everything was covered in the slime. It was only once I looked at the corners of the rooms that I saw something that might be useful.

"The Thorian is supposed to be hanging over a pit in a circular structure that winds its way up," I explained as I walked toward the corner of the room, "If at least that is similar, then judging by the angle where these walls meet, the inner part is in that direction." I pointed at the wall opposite the one we had entered through.

"Hmm," Garrus muttered as he walked up next to me, "The angle is less than ninety degrees, so if that's true for the other corner as well, then this wall will be longer than... that wall." Garrus spun and looked from one wall to the other along with the rest of us. The difference was visibly noticeable.

"Well, I guess we know where to go," Kaiden said. "Let's get moving."

I knew we were getting close when the stench started to become unbearable and the sound of something wet and gross seemed to echo as it burped. We finally stepped into the space I'd been waiting for. It wasn't exactly the same as the game. There was a ceiling here, but the glow of the slime gave more than enough light to see by. We all walked to the ledge and looked down. Just below the level we were on, the main body of the Thorian was hanging, suspended by numerous tendrils.

"Ugh," Ashley stated, "This thing is the Thorian?"

"Yeah," I replied, trying not to breathe through my nose.

"This thing is a plant?" Garrus asked, shaking his head at it.

"I'm never eating a salad again," Liara stated, covering her mouth and nose with her hand.

"So which way do we go?" Wrex asked, getting impatient.

"Up, I guess," I said, "That's what I remember doing. Shiala should be up top."

"And what about Shepard?" Tali asked.

"If we're lucky he'll be there too," Kaiden said. "Let's go."

We swiftly made our way farther up and around the central chamber. I felt myself getting more and more nervous as we continued. There were no enemies. Nothing stopping us.

"This feels like a trap," Tali said matter of factly.

"You think?" Wrex asked, holding his shotgun at the ready.

"Well, we did take care of all the colonists already," Kaiden said. "Besides, this isn't a game. There aren't going to be enemies to kill everywhere we go."

"Plus we know that we can't rely solely on what information Dazac is able to provide," Liara explained, "Things have already proven to be quite different here."

Wrex shrugged, "I still say it's a trap."

"Quiet!" Garrus whispered as he stopped.

We all stopped as well and listened intently, just making out a squelching noise up ahead. We passed by another tendril anchoring the Thorian and went through another doorway and stepped onto what appeared to be the uppermost room. There was another tendril and four very distinct, human shaped bulges sticking out from the walls, coated in a thick, hardened layer of slime. And standing in front of one of them was something I didn't recognize.

"What the hell is that?" Ashley asked as we all brought our weapons up and pointed them at the thing.

It looked almost like a creeper, however it was clearly something else. Creepers didn't have vines and slime dripping off them, and this thing looked to be made entirely of slime. It turned to face us and I cringed. No eyes. No nose. And an oversized, crooked mouth with thick tendrils sticking out of it. It looked almost like how the colonist did before transforming fully.

"Don't know. Don't care," Wrex said as he swung his shotgun around and fired. The creature was blown apart by the attack.

"Well," Tali said as she grabbed her own shotugn, "At least they're easy to get rid of."

"Come on!" I said as I ran over to the nearest bulge in the slime, "Shepard's likely to be in one of these, Shiala too!"

The one I opened wasn't either of them. Instead it looked like one of the colonists, but they had been mummified somehow. "Well that's not promising," Garrus commented and I turned to see another one just like it. I looked at the other two and saw that they seemed a lot tougher and harder to open. I hoped it was because whatever was in the hadn't been dried out.

"Here!" Wrex said, pulling the slime away from the wall to reveal Shepard who started to cough and sputter as he was helped down. I felt relieved that he was alright. So, the last one had to be...

As Kaiden tugged on the hardened slime I watched as a face was slowly revealed. Yep, that was Shiala. Or at least I hoped it was. It was definitely an Asari but here face was obscured but a hard, sap-like substance. I wasn't even sure she could breathe. Wrex stalked over to help peel her off the wall and I turned to look at Shepard who was being held up by Garrus and Ashley.

"Hey, Daz," he said, looking at me wearily but with a smirk, "Try not to get lost anymore." He chuckled at his own joke and I just sighed and shook my head, not paying attention to what any of the others were doing. Instead I spun on my heel and walked to the edge of room where it dropped off into the pit the Thorian was suspended over. I looked down at it and couldn't help but notice how similar it looked to a human heart from this angle. Now all that was left was getting some samples and then destroying it. After that, we could head out to the Exogeni building and take care of the geth. Hopefully there would be some survivors there.

Well, I thought as I grabbed the extendable probe from my belt and activated it. The sooner we can kill this thing, the better.