Chapter 6: Utukku

Shepard was just hanging around his quarters for today. Nothing special was going on for him. Earlier, he had gone to the strategy room to watch an argument between Primarch Victus and Wrex, about the strength of their races. Then he had gone to the med bay to watch Mordin run some tests on the female krogan. He had readied a bunch of really pointy needles, so Shepard decided to leave. Then he went down to the armory to bother James, just because it was fun. After that he just retired to his quarters to get some sleep, just cause. Then Shepard went to have a shower before heading down for some breakfast. He sat at the table with a really bored face as he stuffed toast into his mouth. After a few minutes of slow chewing, Wrex came in and headed towards Shepard.

"What can I do for you, Wrex?" Shepard asked as he bit down on the toast.

"We've got a bit of a problem on the planet Utukku," Wrex explained. "Heard rumors from a squad of my best men."

"What kind of rumors?"
Wrex took a deep breath, and paused for some effect. "Rachni."

"Really now? I thought the queen told me she'd disappear?"

"Well, I don't trust the Rachni," Wrex added as he rattled the table with his fists.

Shepard got up. "Well, let us get to it then!"

"I'm coming with you, Shepard," the krogan added. "Been a while since we've fought together, against fearful odds."

Before Shepard could say yes, Mordin came in, needles ready. "Can't go. Need to run tests. Need male krogan for tissue sampling."

"Great," Wrex said. Shepard sensed fear in his words, but let it go. Krogans weren't afraid of anything. Were they? "Guess I'll join you another time."

Wrex left with Mordin, leaving Shepard alone in the dining hall.

"Alright then!" he shouted to himself. "Let's get to it then!"

Shepard stood silently as the shuttle took them down towards the planet surface.

"Rachni…" Shepard thought to himself.

The last time he had seen the queen herself was back on Noveria, where he had a face off against Liara's mother, Benezia. It wasn't something he had enjoyed, but it had to be done. After the fight, he had released the queen, and she promised she would never bother anyone ever again. Had she kept that promise? There was only one way to find out.

"So, bug aliens…" Mason said out with a sigh. "Never get tired of those."

"Relax, Mason," the Master Chief said, loading a clip into his assault rifle, that Shepard had never seen before in the Alliance and ISA weaponry. "The bug ones aren't so bad. It's the zombie ones that you have to be careful of."

Shepard was the first to walk out of the shuttle as it landed, wanting to be the first of humanity to exit that shuttle. He and his crew walked towards the krogan team that was awaiting them at the FOB. Apparently, this was Wrex's best krogan team. Aralakh Company. With some of the toughest krogan in the galaxy here right now, Shepard was anxious to see what kind of destruction they could cause. Before he could say or think anything else, Shepard heard a familiar voice out of the krogan crowd.

"Shepard!" A krogan said, as he parted his team and stepped forward.

Shepard recognized that krogan. He was part of Shepard's team when he went on that suicide mission through the omega 4 relay to hit the Collectors where they lived.

"Grunt!" Shepard shouted out, remembering that face.

"Good to see you, Shepard," the krogan said.

"What's the situation here?" Shepard asked.

"We're about to kill some bugs!" Grunt bellowed.

"Kill some bugs?" Mason asked. "I like this guy already."

Ignoring Mason, Shepard walked over to the only path that seemed linear enough. A building that looked like it was about to fall. His foot touched the stairs and the structure creaked. Shepard figured he wouldn't fall down, because he wasn't a really fat guy.

"Clear!" He said, gesturing for his team to move in and secure the building.

"You know," Mason added as he stepped in. "This place doesn't look very stable, commander."

"We're not camping here, Mason," Shepard said.

"Yeah," the mechanic said. "There's no one to shoot."

Shepard looked over to the door.

"Hey, Chief! Hurry up!"

As the Master Chief stepped into the building, the floor gave an ominous groan, and his foot went through the metal panels. The whole structure tilted, and Shepard and Mason had to grab the walls to steady themselves.

"You know," Shepard pondered out loud. "Maybe I shouldn't have eaten so many candy ba-"

Shepard never did finish his diet pledge, because at that moment, the entire building went crashing off the cliff, taking Shepard and his team along with it.

Chief pushed away a chunk of metal that was over his face. He could see Shepard and Mason had been knocked out by the fall, but he was just fine. He looked up. It was a long drop, and it would be a long climb back up. Chief could probably get up that cliff quite fast, by jumping, but Shepard and Mason probably couldn't, so in the end, he would just have to wait down here with them. As Shepard and Mason began to stir, the krogan, Grunt, shouted out from the top of the cliff.

"Shepard! Are you guys ok down there?"

"We're fine!" Shepard shouted back, standing up as well. "Find another path! We'll regroup up ahead!"

"Got it!" Grunt said, as he led his soldiers off the other path.

"How do you know we'll regroup ahead?" the Chief asked Shepard.

"We always do," Shepard answered, leading the way down the linear path.

Shepard, Master Chief, and Mason headed towards the big opening of a cave. Shepard swivelled around, aiming his Avenger assault rifle at everything he could see, so that he would look cool in front of his allies. As they progressed further into the cave, there was still no signs of life.

"Man," Shepard said, disappointed. "Nothing to shoot yet."

"You actually want to fight enemies?" Mason asked.

"Yeah," the commander replied. "Won't a mission get boring if all you do is talk, and not shoot anything?"

Just then, a mysterious creature moved up onto a nearby rocky platform. It was sectoid by nature, with strange orange sacs, but it had all sorts of wires and metal on its body. It closely resembled a rachni. Shepard and his team saw it, and immediately opened fire.

"Yeah!" Shepard shouted over the gunfire. "Now, that's what I want! Enemies!"

Their rounds of assault rifle fire didn't seem to be affecting the creature much, as it slowly made its way closer to the trio. Mason hit one of the creature's sacs, bursting it. Before a shout of victory could be used, smaller versions of the creature began pouring out of where the sac used to be.

"Great," Chief shouted out, over the gunfire. "We just had to be fighting carrier creatures?"

Shepard didn't reply, and used a concussive shot to blow the small creatures away. Mason continued to fire his assault rifle at the creature. Suddenly, lasers came out from the creatures 'head', aiming towards Shepard. Sensing it was dangerous, Shepard and Mason quickly ducked down beside the nearby chest-high rock. The Master Chief never even bothered to duck. He just ran straight for the creature, and jumped right at it. As the creature turned to face him, Chief slammed his hand right into the middle of its head. With the amount of force Chief had applied to his punch, the creature flew back into the cave wall, flattened by the impact of the punch and the wall.

"Very nicely done, Chief!" Shepard shouted out, standing up. "I could have done it, but I didn't want to."

Getting used to Shepard's attitude and ways, Master Chief didn't even bother to reply, as he walked back down the rock platform to join Shepard and Mason. Before they could properly regroup, a squad of the cybernetic rachni came out of a hole in one of the rocky surfaces.

"Alright!" Shepard shouted out suddenly, startling Mason. "Time to go!"

Mason thought he had heard Shepard wrong. "But I thought you liked to comba-"

"Uhh," Shepard tried to answer. "My attacks are too awesome for this many creatures… we should flee before they all suffer from my awesomeness."

Mason and Chief just ignored that last bit and followed Shepard down the nearby linear path, through another rocky surface. Shepard had yet to give a name to these weird creatures. They looked like rachni, but bits of cybernetics were sticking out here and there. Probably reaper tech. They should be able to blow things up. They had laser sights to target enemies. Shepard's face suddenly lit up metaphorically.

"I got it!" He exclaimed. "I'll call those creatures 'Ravagers'. Don't ask my why."

"Good enough," Chief said, out running both Shepard and Mason.

Two ravagers had managed to squeeze through the crack, and headed towards the team. Shepard turned to face them and let loose a volley of rifle fire. As from before, the rifle fire barely did any damage to the ravagers.

"I've got to get another weapon besides my rifle," Shepard thought to himself.

Mason pulled out his magnet gun, and flung the first ravage at the second, sending them flying backwards as Shepard and his team made it out of the crack. After leaving it, Shepard turned around and tossed a frag grenade in towards the ravagers. Before either of them could react, the grenade exploded, collapsing the tunnel down on the ravagers, and sealing the entrance.

"Haha!" Shepard laughed out loud. "Now, that was fun!"

A glint of metal caught his eye. As he turned towards it, the smile on his face got wider. It was a M-451 Firestorm flamethrower.

"Just what I was looking for!" Shepard said, bending down to pick it up. "Now I can kill those things… properly."

Grunt and his team entered the next cavern.

"Clear!" one of his men shouted.

Grunt checked the surroundings as the rest of his team entered. Earlier, he had lost one soldier to a sinkhole, which was just a really dumb way for a member of the Aralakh Company to die. After they made it into the caves, they encountered some weird rachni creatures. They had managed to take them down, but at the cost of one more krogan. The creatures were worthy opponents for the krogan team at least. Grunt felt like his team could take them out easily. Just one close range shot from their Claymore shotguns was enough to kill one rachni. As Grunt and his team traversed the rocky terrain of the caves, they had eventually stopped at some kind of barrier object. It was a huge metallic plate which bore an uncanny resemblance to reaper tech. The barrier was strong enough to withstand several claymore shots, but eventually, even that couldn't hold a team of skilled krogan.

"Hey!" Dagg, one of Grunt's men, shouted. "I found a console! I think it operates the metal walls!"

"Great," Grunt thought to himself. "What a waste of ammo."

Before the krogans could continue very far, Shepard's voice came up on the communications channel.

"Grunt," Shepard asked. "You there?"

"Right here, Shepard."

"Ah, great. Thought we might have lost your team. We're pushing through the caverns. So far so good. Fond one of those flamethrowers that the previous krogan left behind. It's been very useful in killing what I now call, the ravagers. There have been other reapers forces too, but we're holding out."

"That's good Shepard! We'll see where this cavern leads us. If it connects, we'll meet up on the other side!"

"Alrighty. Shepard out."

After signing off, Grunt turned to his team and gave them the signal to move out. It was time they show Shepard the power of Aralakh Company.

Shepard let loose a concussive shot, sending the nearest ravager flying off the cliff. They had fought through waves of reaper forces to get to their current location, and more were pouring in. Shepard had lost count of the amount of husks he had killed already. Maybe fifty. Master Chief had most likely killed more reaper forces than anyone else, but Shepard didn't want him to know that. Mason was holding out well, as well. His magnet gun was extremely useful against the robotic enemies, sending them flying into each other, off cliffs, and into perfectly placed explosive boxes.

"Keep shooting!" Shepard shouted over the constant gunfire.

A cannibal tried to get the jump on Shepard, but Mason used a singularity, and it just floated away towards other reaper forces and exploded, killing them all. Shepard didn't want to thank him, so he turned back and unleashed a volley of bullets, taking out three husks coming his way. Without warning, Chief left the holding point, jumping straight for a nest of marauders hiding up on the nearby cliff. They were startled when he landed on their platform, halting their fire. Before any of them could react further, Chief fought away with punches and kicks, killing all of them in one blow, each. Shepard whipped out his flamethrower and burned a ravager that was getting close to their position. Finishing off that ravager, his flamethrower emitted an odd sound.

"Great," Shepard remarked. "I'm out."

Suddenly, a bunch of krogan burst out of a nearby crack, sending many cannibals flying all over the place. Grunt lead the front, barrelling past husks, crushing them immediately, and killed off ravagers with one shot from his claymore. With renewed determination, Shepard rushed forward and grabbed one of the Phaeston assault rifles lying of the floor, and let out a ferocious howl, running forward, gun blazing. Mason followed him, but Chief just stayed up on his new sniper spot, taking out the husks and cannibals with one bullet to each of their heads. Shepard knew Chief was way better than he was, but he couldn't admit it. Even to himself, as it would break his super-ego. Shepard continued firing the Phaeston, mowing down more reaper forces in between him, and the army of krogan. Before much time passed, Shepard's team and the krogans made it across the cavern, into another tunnel.

"Nice work, Grunt!" Shepard told his friend as they stopped for a rest.

"Much of… what do you call them? Ravagers? Yes. There are a lot of them around. I've lost a few krogan on the way. All except one died honourably in battle."

They had all arrived in a huge cavern, which only had one way forward. It was through one of the metal reaper barriers that the krogan have encountered. Shepard had also decided to keep the Phaeston he picked up. It was quite good, and it handled better than the avenger. According to him. While the krogan technician fiddled with the conveniently placed control terminal for the barrier, Shepard and his team went around the cavern, picking up thermal clips that were lying all over the place. The krogan just checked their weapons and didn't move around much. They must have brought more than enough clips. More than Shepard did. He felt that next time, he should bring a lot more with him on the rest of his missions, but he only had so many pockets. Shepard decided that he would buy a pocket upgrade the next time he heads to the Citadel. While they restocked their ammo, and checked their weapons, skittering could be heard from the entrance that they had entered from.

Grunt brought up his claymore and reloaded the clip. "Alright! Here they come!"

Shepard ran up beside his friend, rifle ready. "We can take them."

"No Shepard! My team and I will handle the rachni! You keep going!"

"You sure? Ok, then. Chief, Mason! Let's go!"

Shepard and his team started running off, but then stopped before the reaper barrier.

"Riiiiiigggghhhht," Shepard said with a really slow voice.

Without warning, Shepard turned around and shot the console that the krogan was working at.

"Hey!" the krogan shouted.

It didn't seem like it worked, but a few seconds later, the barrier went down.

"Wow. Didn't think that would work," Shepard said, sounding very surprised. "Ok! Now, let's go."

Now, with the barrier down, Shepard, Mason and Master Chief ran off through the exit.

Grunt aimed down his claymore, ready for any enemies to appear. "Ok, krogan! Get ready for some action!"

Shepard had continued down the path. There seemed to be no end to this tunnel. It just winded and curved at certain turns, but it just kept leading deeper, and deeper underground. They could hear the gunfire blasting away from above. The krogans seem to be holding their own pretty well against the reaper forces. Chief ran ahead of Shepard and Mason, because he was faster, and he didn't tire as easily. Mason and Chief had their own assault rifles, while Shepard had his new Phaeston assault rifle out. They were prepared for anything that might appear in this long tunnel, but there seemed to be no enemies down here with them. The krogans had all the attention up above. Nearing the end of the tunnel, Shepard readied his weapon properly, sure that there would be enemies beyond this tunnel. As they stepped out, wave of air swept pass them as a scream burst out from the middle of the new cavern.

"Sounds like trouble," Mason said.

Shepard took a few steps forward. "This actually sounds pretty familiar. I'm sure I've heard that scream before. Nah, forget it. I'm probably just thinking too much."

In front of the team stood dozens of reaper barriers. There seemed to be no direct path to the middle of the chamber. Consoles for the barriers were scattered all over the cavern, but placed perfectly for shooting. As usual though, before a proper plan of attack could be formulated by Shepard's brilliant mind, enemies started showing up from all over the place. Husks came down in meteors, although there was a roof over the cavern, cannibals and marauders came running out from behind rocks, and ravagers crawled out from cracks in the walls. Even a brute showed up.

Shepard really hated those. "Great. Another one of those brutes."

Shepard shot in three-round bursts while moving to proper cover. Mason picked off targets with his assault rifle and cleared a few ravagers with one of his singularities. Chief went head on against the brute. He dodged pass its arm as it swung towards him, missing the chief, and taking out two husks trying to get him. The Chief then grabbed the other arm and threw it across the cavern. It landed on a marauder, who couldn't get out of the way in time. While some of the reaper forces were distracted, Chief had thrown in a couple of frag grenades, while shooting bursts from his assault rifle. He had killed two cannibals, seven husks, and three marauders by the time the grenades exploded, killing many ravagers and husks. He even managed to take out two consoles in the process, lowering two of the reaper barriers. Mason then moved behind some rocks in the newly opened area, and tossed a grenade up a sniper nest, blowing marauders down to their doom. He then pulled out his magnet gun and magnetized a console, and targeted several cannibals. As they tried to attack Shepard's team, the console flew by, flattening four of them against the nearby wall. The last one was taken out by a headshot from Shepard. The commander was liking the Phaeston more and more and he tore through the reaper forces. It had good damage output and stability. With every headshot to the non-shielded enemies, Shepard's smile grew wider. A marauder tried to come in with a surprise attack, but Shepard saw him just in time, and used an adrenaline rush, dodging the marauder's melee attack, and rolling behind its back for a perfect chance to stab it with his omni-blade. The marauder crumpled to the floor as Shepard stood up.

"What a cool move," Shepard smirked.

The enemy forces were thinning, but more were still pouring in. Shepard took down two more consoles with his phaeston's fire. Only one console remained, and the brute, having recovered, was guarding the last one. Shepard couldn't shoot through it, so he left this one to the Master Chief. Mason had taken out its shoulder plate with his magnet gun, giving Chief the chance to lodge a grenade in its shoulder. He did a side roll as the brute made a swing at him, but its arm never made it close to Chief. It blew up in mid swing, stumbling the big brute. That gave chief the chance to jam his magnum pistol in its eye, emptying his clip in it. The brute never got up after it fell. After getting up, the Chief walked over to the console, and with a light punch, destroyed the console, lowering the last barrier. Reloading a new magazine to his magnum, Chief, Mason, and Shepard took good shots at the rest of the reaper soldiers. After doing so, Shepard turned towards the middle cavern. There, he saw the creature that the reapers have kept hidden.

Grunt's squad kept firing their shotguns and flamethrowers at the ravagers attacking them. There seemed to be no end to their insectoid foes. He had lost two more krogans earlier to ambush attacks from the ravagers. He lost one more when a krogan decided to rush straight into the heart of the ravager army. He didn't last long, but at least he had the sense to pull a grenade as he got stabbed from multiple directions, taking a bunch of ravagers with him. He was down to six soldiers, but they were still holding their location well.

Blasting a ravager back with his claymore, Grunt growled. "Shepard better hurry!"

Some of the ravagers released their little swarmers that crawled in under their larger spawners. Some of the krogan didn't waste their ammo on those, just stomping on them when they got close. The swarmers were of little threat to the krogan. One ravager got close to Dagg, but Grunt took it out with a concussive shot.

Suddenly, Shepard's voice came over the comms channel. "Grunt! We need you here. Pull back, and let your troops handle the reapers!"

Grunt shouted back. "I'm not going to leave my men behind!"

"But it's the hero thing to do!" Shepard countered. "All side character leaders leave their men behind to go help the main character!"

Grunt couldn't counter that one. It was the rule of nature. "Fine! I'm on my way. If my men die, their lives are on you, Shepard!"

"Yup! Sure," the commander replied.

"Krogan!" Grunt shouted to his team. He lifted his claymore high above his head. "Handle the reaper forces here! I'm going to go help Shepard!"

With that, the tank-bred krogan ran off down the tunnel that the commander had left in earlier.

What stood before Shepard and his team was a monster that he had saved long ago. It had promised that it would no longer bother people anymore, and here it was again. Here stood the rachni queen.

With subtle warning, the dead krogan began to speak. "We remember you!"

"Yeah," Shepard said, smugly. His memory was as sharp as ever. "I remember you, too. I saved you. I let you go."

"Yes," the queen replied. The mouths of the dead moved as one. "You let us continue our existence in secret. But a dark force has returned. It has taken us and uses us. Release us! We will fight for you!"

Shepard stood to contemplate this choice. He moved his right hand to his chin in a thinking pose.

Mason spoke up first. "Now, commander. Think about this. Bug aliens are -"

"Meh," Shepard said. He then shot out a concussive shot, destroying the console, freeing the rachni queen from her imprisonment. "Why not?"

The queen twisted free of the reaper tech, able to move freely once again. She screeched with delight as she turned to leave. The screech did more than just defy the reapers. The cavern started to collapse.

"Great," the commander said. "Things are never this easy…"

The team then started running, but their exit was gone. A rockslide had replaced their tunnel of escape, as they stood there, looking for another way out.

"Grunt!" Shepard shouted over the radio. "Our route is blocked. Not sure where you are but -"

The commander was cut short as the rocks flew off in different directions.

"I. Am. Krogan!" Grunt shouted, stepping down from what remained from the rockslide.

"Nice timing, buddy," Shepard said. "Now, let's get out of here. Fast."

Chief led the way back up the tunnel. It was a long spiralling path, but they were traveling faster than they did when they went down. Master Chief burst out of the tunnel first, scanned the surroundings very quickly, then turned and continued running for the exit. Shepard struggled to keep up with him, but kept a steady pace. He was kind of disappointed that he couldn't run as fast, though.

"I'll have to train when I get back," he thought to himself. "Can't let myself get beaten by one of my subordina- I mean, crew."

Grunt charged after the Chief, followed by Shepard. Mason was the slowest, which made Shepard happy. At least he wasn't the last one. As they rounded a turn, Chief stopped abruptly. Grunt almost ran him over, but stopped in time. Shepard and Mason joined in a few seconds later.

"Ravagers," Chief said, readying his weapon. "At least our exit is on the right tunnel.

The ravagers were stationed over at the left tunnel, searching for them, but they had to head to the right tunnel. Shepard considered himself lucky. At least he didn't have to fight his way out of the collapsing cave.

As he proceeded up front to lead the way back to the Kodiak, Grunt stepped up, claymore shotgun ready. "Go Shepard. I'll hold them off."

"What?" the commander asked, confused. "They're in the other tunnel. We don't need to go that way."

"No," the krogan answered. "I'll keep them off your back. I feel the urge of 'heroic powers' in me."

With that, he charged into the tunnel, turning only to tell Shepard one thing. "Thanks, Shepard. For getting me out of that tank."

Shepard and his team waited as Cortez begun his descend of the Kodiak shuttle. Shepard had hoped that his friend was doing well, but he couldn't know for sure.

As he finished his descent, Cortez paged out to the commander. "Anyone else, commander?"

"No," Shepard answered, slowly. "We're the last ones out."

"Copy that commander."

Shepard began to step up on the Kodiak. Chief and Mason were already seated, buckling themselves in. As Shepard turned to gaze out one final time, he spotted someone leaving the cave system. His silver armor was now stained red all over, making it hard to tell who it was, but as the figure got nearer, Shepard jumped out to meet him. As Shepard reached him, Grunt collapsed in Shepard's arms.

"Heheh," the krogan managed to utter, letting Shepard haul him into the shuttle. "Got anything… to eat?"

Project Eel - Utukku