ALPHA CITADEL
THE VOID
SYSTEM INAPPLICABLE
LATE OCTOBER 2188
"THEY'RE REALLY THAT DANGEROUS?" Jack had backed away from the one entrance with the others. Mulholland nodded – again.
"Yes for the fifth time!"
Shepard and Javik were scanning the room furiously looking for any exit, as it appeared that they were sealed in tight. The rest of Murtock's pack had been scavenged and now everyone was armed with something, even if just a pistol, all save Mulholland who insisted she knew nothing of firearms.
"I was a starship engineer before I got here," she informed them. "We received very basic training, but nothing I remember. I'm more apt to shoot one of you trying."
Shepard had 'borrowed' Murtock's Avenger. Pre-T-clip was a bonus in this situation. He was certainly proficient in the standard arms, but he'd always thought thermal clips a rather limiting 'upgrade'.
"Excuse me," Firs'ehcô interrupted. "Several of the approaching persons designated "Pandemonia Inquisitoria' by Mulholland appear to have broken off from the initial group."
"How many?" Shepard inquired.
"Thirty-five."
"Well, that evens the odds somewhat." Javik intoned but Mulholland shook her head.
"Still too many." She told them, as grim as a tomb.
"Come on," Grunt growled.
"You could handle five. Maybe ten, armed to the teeth. Maybe. Not fifteen."
Shepard looked back at Javik.
"Keep looking," he said with a growl. Amy was right. In their present condition, even with Jack and Javik's biotics, what weapons the non-biotics did possess were old and scant, their options slim-to-none.
Jack shook her head and leaned against a wall. She doubted those 'Inquisitoria' were all that dangerous. Still, Shepard was taking the new girl at her word and that was good enough for her. Murtock, she noticed, was just staring at Firs'ehcô. She pushed herself off the wall and went to him.
"Hey, what's so damn fascinatin'?" She poked him. Murtock just nodded and continued to stare.
"I was jus' curious. That thing…"
"Firs'ehcô." Jack interrupted.
"Whatever. That probe got in here by crashing into this station, yeah?"
Jack nodded, wondering where he was going with this. Despite how he might appear to others, Murtock wasn't stupid.
"Yeah…"
"So's the Keepers' been sealing it in here, right?"
"That's the story, yeah." Jack crossed her arms, leaned back to regard him and added with just a hint of sarcasm, "Doing all that damage control trapped us in here."
"That's the story," Murtock rejoined. "Again, just curious – it said it was integratin' itself into the local networks. All well-and-good, but how's it doin' it?" He turned and waved an arm to encompass the room. "Lookin' at them panels, they ain't original. I think this room was a bit smaller before it got here. The crash blew it open."
Shepard overheard and joined them. Jack stepped closer to the big man unconsciously and Murtock frowned.
"That makes sense. You have a point with all of this?" Shepard asked, voice neutral.
"Uh, yeah. If that was one section," he pointed to the door. "And this was a different section," he pointed to the different style of panelling then jabbed a thumb at Firs'ehcô behind him. "What's behind the big face up there?"
Jack half-smiled and Shepard slapped Murtock on the back, which he resented.
"Lateral thinking," Shepard told him.
"That was a compliment," Jack told Murtock who appeared unmoved. Like he gave a damn.
Firs'ehcô reported another series of doors blown open.
"Anomalous readings," Firs'ehcô added. "It appears that the thirty-five deviated from the initial group have engaged other residents of this station."
"Other residents?" Javik asked. Jack answered.
"Yeah, when we first got here, Firs'ehcô told us there were at least fifty other people besides us here."
"I see." Javik replied, then turned his attention to Firs'ehcô. "Is it true what this human surmised? What lies behind you?"
"Five hundred forty seconds to penetration by the Inquisitoria to this section. To answer your question what you converse with is merely an interface. The rest of …me extends for several sections behind it, including myconsciousness emulation processors and legacy bank."
"This will sound odd," Shepard told the probe. "But we need to get in you."
Firs'ehcô blinked and seemed to consider what he'd said.
"Being that it is within my protocols, I must inform you that any entrance into my superstructure carries with it some risk. There are many and varied safeguards present that discourage tampering with either my CEP's or my Legacy Bank."
"We just want a way out," Shepard told it.
A few far-too-long moments later, a hatch opened on the side of its 'head' a few meters off the floor.
"Good call!" Jack punched Murtock in the arm as she went by. Mulholland followed with a smile and a "Soundly reasoned."
Shepard and Javik went past him without a comment. Grunt just growled, "Would have figured it out eventually," and stomped on. Murtock just smiled to himself. The big heroes missed one.
"It's a bit high," Shepard announced, eyeing the hatchway. Jack tapped him on the shoulder.
"I can do it." Her biotics flared. "Let's make it quick." Shepard eyed her for a moment, then nodded. Better part of valour and all that.
"Ninety seconds to penetration of this section."
Jack rather effortlessly lifted her companions to the hatchway, hardly feeling the strain. Her new self-designed amps barely registered the required energy. Murtock and Shepard were last.
"Now you," Jack told Murtock as she waved him to come nearer. He was shaking his head. When he'd known her, lifting a krogan as big as Grunt would have been a visible strain. She'd barely seemed to notice. Things really were different. He pointed to Shepard.
"No, send him. Somebody's gotta hoist you."
"Sixty-one seconds."
"Just do what you're told." She said in that tone that brooked no arguments. "I have my tricks."
"No, look - !" He protested and with an exaggerated sigh, Jack 'grabbed' him and practically flung him to the hatchway. Grunt caught him as he hurtled, quite surprised, through the opening.
"It'd just be easier if they listened, y'know?" She told Shepard with a grin. He simply nodded, gave a slight bow and was shortly deposited up above. Murtock stepped forward as Shepard touched down.
"All right, let's get… her…." Murtock slowed as Jack gracefully floated up and stepped in. The hatch closed behind her. She cocked her head at him.
"Get it?"
Murtock just shook his head and conceded.
"Got it." Below, they heard a muted crunching explosion.
"Time to go," Shepard informed them. The space they were in was tube-like, a dim maintenance corridor lined with glowing panels in various shapes pulsing on and off with no readily discernible rhythm. A shirring hum interspersed with staccato clicks the only sounds.
"The Mryth'dehl were not a tall species." Javik informed them. Only Jack could stand at her full height. Everyone else had to crouch at varying degrees. Grunt filled the entire space a little too adequately.
"Firs'ehcô," Shepard asked quietly, as he led the rest down the corridor. "Can you still hear us?"
"Of course," it replied as quietly. "The individuals you termed 'Inquisitoria' are currently searching the area. They seem taken aback at my presence."
"We'd like to use that, if you don't mind. Feel free to engage them in conversation while we leave."
"I have always enjoyed conversing with organics." It stopped speaking for a moment to run an internal scan, then resumed. "My main processors are two sections ahead of you. There is a fuel-processing hatchway behind the legacy bank which is pyramidal in shape." A holo popped up to show them what it described. "Good fortune."
"Appreciate the help," Shepard told it. "Post-haste, everyone. I know it likes to talk, but I don't think those Inquisitoria are the talking types."
They hurried on.
THE INQUISITORIA were not distracted from their goals easily. Yet they could be forgiven upon encountering Firs'ehcô.
All but the Captain knelt before it. Its face was one they'd seen before. The Captain of the troop marched fearlessly in.
Firs'ehcô had to admit that this was the first time this had ever happened. It was not until it spoke that the Captain hastily likewise dropped to one knee.
"Greetings, representatives of the Inquisitoria," Firs'ehcô said and it was also surprised to see one of the red-clad beings tremble ever so slightly. Most peculiar. It had never before elicited fear in anything.
"We seek the enemies of the Desolation," Firs'ehcô was told in a voice as cold and toneless as any VI. "Do you sing of the True Echo?"
"True echo?" The great face asked. "Curious. I am called Firs'ehcô. Perhaps I can be of service?" Again the Inquisitors did something Firs'ehcô found odd. At the pronouncement of its designation, all of them prostrated themselves onto their bellies, faces on the floor.
"The First Echo!" They muttered in unison. The Captain crawled forward still on her belly with one hand raised in supplication.
"Forgive us! We would not have been so bold in Your Presence had we known!" Firs'ehcô blinked in confusion.
"Not at all. Please, I am not used to abjection. Rise, by all means."
Only the Captain did so and then only back to her knees.
"You are most interesting creatures. Were you seeking any particular enemies?"
"All on this Pivot not of this Pivot." The Captain returned.
"I am not of this 'Pivot' as you call it. Technically, I believe I qualify as an enemy under that rather narrow criteria, would I not?"
The Captain seemed taken aback by the statement. Heads of the troop behind her came tentatively up.
"Do you call Yourself our enemy?" She tried, trepidation in every word.
"By my personal definition, I do not. Yet by your stated criteria I would qualify, as I am not native to this station."
One could almost see the confusion on the Captain's face through her fierce helmet. Fourth Knight rose to one knee and slowly edged toward her.
"Forgive me, Captain. Perhaps this is a test…?" The Captain waved him back, but concurred. Her mind was still swirling from the revelation of the face before her.
All over True Space, that face rode the banners of the Lord Remnant, the Image of the Father Echo, the True Word, the Face of the Desolation. Even the Lord Remnant Himself wore the Dagger of the Mark, that which granted Him His Office, the very shape that could be seen on the Face before them. It shook everything she knew to be here in the Presence.
Yet it denied itself. But then, was that not the first thing a god did?
"Your logic is flawless, of course," she told it. "Yet you cannot be an enemy."
"If I wished it, I could. I appreciate that I am not." Firs'ehcô scanned them and found them to be most peculiar. These beings had been heavily and extensively modified, both cybernetically and genetically. Using its previous scan of humans, it determined that the Inquisitoria before it had no fewer than thirty separate gene-mods applied. They also seemed to be grafted physically into their armor. The removal of any piece, save some parts of their helmets, would likely cause grievous bodily harm.
"Tell us, O First Echo," The Captain said, reinforcing the memory. "Why do you reside on this, the Silent Pivot?"
"I crashed here."
Inside her helmet, the Captain's HUD was registering many odd things, things she would normally not attempt to ignore. Flat energy readings from the Face before her. Traces of Human and brute DNA. That the Face gave off no discernible life indicators of any kind. True, a god would be beyond any mundane instrumentality, but it should have been registering something beyond what one would normally receive from a mechanism. Still, if a god wished to test her in such a manner, she was not one to gainsay it. Firs'ehcô was not finished, however.
"I am the formerly-autonomous platform of the Mryth'dehl peoples, bearing their genetic legacy away from the destruction of the Ancient Machine Enemy, recent nomenclature referent 'Reapers'."
The Captain frowned. Behind her she heard a Knight mutter. She stood to her full height.
"That is a thing a machine might say."
"I am a machine, so it is precisely something a machine would say."
Behind her the rest of her Knights likewise stood.
"You are no god!" one shouted at it. Firs'ehcô was unperturbed.
"I did not state at any time that I was." The great eyes fixed themselves squarely on the Captain. "That was a determination you made entirely on your own initiative. I am beginning to suspect that this is something your species does quite readily, given past experience and recent information acquisition."
"A trick." The Captain said, suddenly certain. Not a god. A trap. A delaying tactic. Heretics had no shame, so they would have none using holy images in their ploys. The DNA traces were fresh – which meant that prey were here shortly before they arrived – and there was only one way out.
Which meant…
The Captain's in-built arm cannon flared, her targeting reticle on her HUD lining-up squarely with the Face before her. Using a god's image to deceive the faithful was beyond blasphemy. The image itself became profane. This blasphemy befouled all of the Faith.
This could not be permitted.
The ensuing detonation cleanly punched between Firs'ehcô's eyes and the mechanisms behind them. One of the eyes, dislodged from its socket by the shot fell with a crystalline crash and a welter of starry fluid. Behind the gaping hole, the Inquisitoria could see an open space. Being augmented, it was no real effort for them to reach the lip of the hole and climb in. They wasted no time.
Somewhere ahead the prey ran.
THE BLAST REVERBERATED all the way down Firs'ehcô's superstructure.
"Yeah. That was bad." Jack muttered as they made their way. Ahead a glowing pyramid announced their arrival at the so-called "Legacy Bank".
"Firs'ehcô – can you hear me?" Shepard asked.
"Of course." It replied almost instantly. "The Inquisitoria have destroyed my interface. They seemed to be rather disturbed that I am not a deity."
"Happens to me all the time," Murtock offered. Jack snorted. Shepard rolled his eyes as Grunt chuckled behind him.
The knights followed her into Firs'ehcô's interior. Internal bulkheads slammed down as they entered, but that slowed them hardly at all. Fourth Knight used his heavy cannon and simply burned through. An unseen sonic cannon killed him, shredding the armor from his body, that armor's internal powercells detonating as the shell was breached, killing Fifth and Seventh Knight behind him. The Captain did not relent. She ordered the surviving Knights to simply cut their way through.
"Here's the hatch," Mulholland told them. As she announced it Firs'ehcô opened it. Behind them they could hear the Inquisitoria firing their weapons and the subsequent explosions – as well as a few shouts of what sounded like men dying. Through the hatchway they could see another corridor below. Shepard dropped onto his stomach and stuck his head out as his companions watched the area behind them. The corridor below was empty and lined with windows. The empty space beyond those windows made them seem opaque. At the end of the corridor, Shepard could see a heavy door that marked the terminus of the inner Citadel and its outer shell; usually where the docks tended to be and hopefully access to Javik's ship.
"I think we're in luck. It looks like a short run down another corridor to a docking annex." Shepard told them as he hauled himself back to his feet. "The drop is only a couple of metres to the floor."
"My ship was directly below where I first appeared, Commandah. We are yet going in that general direction." Javik informed him. Shepard nodded in affirmation as he waved them all forward.
"That's a plus. Let's get out of here."
By the time they'd found the exit, The Captain had gone from fifteen Knights to six, all killed by the unexpectedly formidable defences of the ancient probe. Arc cannons fired high-intensity electric beams that cooked men in their shells, sonic weapons shredded armor and killed Knights untouched by any weapon with the eruptions of the penetrated armor's powercells. Focused plasma cutters that killed by slicing through armor and man like the proverbial hot knife. Her Knights tried to scatter, but most didn't know what hit them, their shouts of alarm and agony entirely justified. Half the casualties came from the armor shorting out and detonating as it was breached.
One by one, they dropped through the hatch, Grunt a bit of a squeeze but a solid shove popped him through. Shepard hesitated dropping through himself as Firs'ehcô seemed to give off an odd whirring noise, then spoke.
"You were very intriguing beings. The Inquisitoria seems to be somewhat confused as to the direction they should take." There was a distant popping sound. "They have determined a more direct approach is warranted." Another crunching blast, slightly closer. "Goodbye, human. My internal defences will become automated and indiscriminate if I am attacked internally. The Inquisitoria is discovering that at this moment. You need to hurry. They are also …destro…ying my cognit…ive processors in an attempt to ridiculous ham…mer tyrannical assembly bartles."
Shepard cursed to himself. Zealots were an enemy he'd rather avoid, if possible. There would be no reasoning with them and no fear in them. Only death would stop them. Even a god, apparently, would not bar their way.
"I appreciate your help, Firs'ehcô. I'm sorry we couldn't have done more."
Firs'ehcô's reply, if it was a reply, was merely a burst of juddering static.
Shepard dropped himself through the hatch, landed solidly below where his companions waited. Above, the hatchway closed.
"Go! They're right behind us!" At that they all took off at a fast trot. At the end of the corridor the heavy door opened with no trouble and closed behind them. Shepard skidded to a halt, searched for a moment, found the door control access and slammed a fist into the circuitry behind the panel. Sparks climbed his arm as the door shorted out. The pain was minor and Shepard ignored it, trying to quickly assess the bay.
The others were running to a control station. Mulholland gracefully leapt over the short wall and was at the console, where she immediately tried to call up an interface. Her curse was loud when nothing happened.
"What?" Jack asked her, coming over the wall to stand beside her.
"Nothing's happening! Where's the interface?"
Jack reached forward into the activation field and the computer interface flared into existence. She eyed Mulholland with skepticism.
"You don't have the implants?" Jack held up a hand, waved her fingers.
"What implants?"
"Haptic adaptive interface – all the interfaces are virtual. We all have little wafer sensor-things implanted in our fingers. You don't have that?"
"Not where I come from. We have buttons." Mulholland countered.
Jack simply touched a key and a physical keyboard rotated out of the console.
"That help?" Jack asked.
Mulholland shook her head, finding a virtual interface rather stupid. Without the mods, what did you do? She started typing furiously.
Behind them, a large muted blast sounded behind the heavy door.
"So pass the Mryth'dehl," Javik shook his head in disgust.
"I've got docking control and an automatic manifest of all vessels currently berthed." Mulholland announced. "Apparently there are a lot of ships out there. Most are depowered hulks, from the looks of them." Her fingers did another quick dance on the controls. "I scan two vessels in our near vicinity powered and in standby. One is Javik's, and it's right… here." She pointed to a small glowing dot on the map of the area she called up. "It's two sections directly below us – that way," she pointed to her right. "It's no short run even so."
In the window of the heavy door, a red dragon's face suddenly appeared.
"We can't beat them," Shepard muttered, staring at that door with a half-believing tone while assessing his resources. Jack came to stand beside him to watch him think. Her fingers brushed his hand and he reflexively grasped her pinkie with his, gave it a small tug. He glanced down at her with a half-smile.
"The hell we can't. We only have her word for that." Jack said quietly.
"I think her word is good," He stated, nodding slightly toward the red helmet in the door's window. Jack accepted his validation of Mulholland without comment. His word she trusted. He ground his teeth. "I don't like to lose. Or run."
"Anybody can be beaten." Jack reminded him. "Just a matter of how and when."
"Amy - Inquisitoria. Weaknesses?" Shepard demanded. Mulholland looked up from her scanning.
"Hard to say. Defeat for them is very rare."
"Sounded like Firs'ehcô took out a few." Jack reminded her.
"As far as I can recall, their armor is composed of a carbon-nanofibre weave with molecular diamond interlacing. Makes it very hard to crack. But, if you can breach it the armor kills them all by itself."
"Okay, that's something," Shepard said. "The diamond would make it brittle, though. Can I also assume our weapons won't breach it?"
"You can." Mulholland went back to the computer. After another moment, she looked back up. "I don't know how relevant this is, but there are very few living biotics in their space. Against their laws. All I know."
Arriving at the end of the corridor, the Captain ordered burners deployed, and the heavy door would slowly begin to give way.
"Am I right in that docking areas on the Citadel are modular? Or is that an addition only to my Citadel?" Shepard asked. Mulholland wondered what he was thinking.
"The docking gantries are modular. They're hot-swappable depending on ship size. They can be blown in case of emergency, stuff like that." She narrowed her eyes at him in suspicion. "Why?"
The heavy door barring the Inquisitoria began changing colour.
"Probably nothing. Any schematics of this ward available?" Mulholland was shaking her head as he said it, hunted through the computer's guts for a moment then called up the internal schema for the ward.
"Whatever you're planning very likely needs Citadel Control."
Shepard mulled the schematic then apparently decided as the heavy door went from gray to purple.
"Jack and I will be staying here. The rest of you head for Javik's ship." He turned to look at them. "Javik, once on board, head to the Presidium. At its peak on our Citadel were the Council escape pods – it's how they ran when Sovereign attacked. The pods replaced the original hatchway system on it, so it's likely this Citadel has one or the other."
"And?" Javik asked.
"That's where you'll pick us up."
The Prothean nodded. Murtock demanded that Jack leave with them and Grunt insisted that he stay instead.
"Not debating this." Shepard told them in his 'command' tone. "We need to get off this station and back to our own Galaxy. We need to stop them and keep them from following us. We can't do anything from here except slow them down. Go. Now."
Grunt planted his feet, looked truculent.
"The ship is Prothean, so Javik needs to be dealing with that. Amy's not a fighter, and Murtock is… " he tried to be diplomatic for Jack's sake, but she beat him to it.
"…Murtock."
"Doesn't anybody love me?" Murtock growled as she shrugged.
"It's about trust, Grunt. Who else would I have watching their backs?"
Grunt snorted, nodded once and marched to the other door.
"Let's go!" he growled. Reluctantly Javik and Murtock joined him.
"Shepard," Mulholland hesitated. "This is not your Citadel. It's never been inhabited for very long."
"It's a big gamble I know, but so was the Crucible."
"Once again, the Inquisitoria have rarely been defeated. You should really keep that in mind."
Shepard pointed to the door where Grunt waited.
"Then they're due." Jack growled. The door was now an iridescent white-pink turning to a hot red.
"Lock it behind you." Shepard told Mulholland, then forgot her. Behind him, Mulholland sighed and they all stepped through. The door slid closed with a heavy thud, then a pronounced clack announced it locked as the heavy bolts in the frame slammed into place.
Through the portal, she could see her prey. They spoke and the apparent leader after some discussion ordered the bulk of his group to exit, leaving just he and a heavily-tattooed female behind. Curious. In True Space only the Beloved's Flesh, marked with the Living Word of the Will of the True Echo was so extensively covered.
Shepard tugged the pinkie he'd yet to relinquish.
"What do you think?"
Jack took his hand in hers and squeezed it.
"How long did you need?"
"Two minutes."
Jack scoffed.
"Well, shit. Easy." She let go of his hand. He nodded once at the figure behind the door. After a moment, it nodded back.
Beneath that dragon's face, the thirty-centimetre thick door was starting to melt.
When he nodded at her, she returned it as one veteran to another.
Then he left the girl to stand alone as he disappeared beyond her viewing range.
For the first time since landing on the Pivot, The Captain felt the need to be wary.