Chapter 13: Kallini

Mora T'Lenae walked along the corridors of the monastery. She had been undisturbed for the past hour, finally able to meditate properly when shouting broke her peace. She got up angrily and went out to search for the problem. She turned to the door nearest to the entrance.

"It's probably this one," She thought to herself.

She knocked, and when there was no answer, she opened the door to discover the culprit. No one was in. Grunting, she shut the door, and kept going. After about an hour of searching, no one was to be found. The place was empty. Seeing that as strange, she kept going, this time, heading towards the mess. Entering the new area, a small gasp emerged from the asari's mouth. The lights were out, and the tables were all over turned. She walked in slowly, unsure of what had happened. Her foot hit something, causing her to look down. She quickly fell back and crawled away after seeing it. It was a dead asari. It had a huge puddle of blood underneath it, the right arm gone. Mora felt like she had to puke all over the floor, but controlled herself. As he sat, recovering from the experience, she suddenly registered another sound. It sounded organic. Someone or something else was in here with her. Panic filled her mind as she began looking around. If she were to move too fast, the thing might hear her. Eventually, her panic overruled her caution, causing her to blast out of the room with a push of her biotics. As she stood and ran, a horrible scream filled her ears. It was a deathly scream, which rose in volume as she left the mess. The thing had found her. She had to get out. More screams filled the air as she ran down the long corridors. There were more of those things out there! Turning the corner at a fast speed, she didn't realize that one of the creatures stood in her way. She was moving too fast to stop suddenly, and crashed right into the creature. She rebounded off of it and slid to the floor. She looked up at the creature and beheld an eerie sight. Pure fear took over, and her body refused to listen to her anymore. She stayed there, trembling as the creature reached out towards her, its huge claws opening up to grab her. The last thing she heard before it was over was the deathly shriek of the creature as it plunged its other arm through her.

Shepard really hated breakfast machines. They always seemed to be against him. This time, the coffee machine refused to release the brown fluid for him to drink.

"C'mon, really?" the commander shouted angrily.

He was tempted to pull out his pistol again, but doing that didn't end well the last time. Instead, he smashed the machine with his cup. Nothing happened. He tried again, but his cup shattered into little fragments of glass.

"REALLY?" he shouted, louder than the first.

His anger caught up to him and he pulled out his pistol.

"Spill the coffee, you machine!" he shouted as he pointed his pistol at the machine. "You're in league with the reapers aren't you? All of you!"

The machine remained rebelliously silent.

"Umm… commander?"

Shepard turned his head in the direction of the voice. It was Joker.

"You okay, commander?" he asked, shifting his cap a bit. "I think you should get more sleep."

"Everything's fine Joker," the commander covered. "I just thought the machine might be a reaper spy."

Before Joker could tell him to get some sleep again, Shepard dashed off back to his room.

He locked the door and wiped some sweat from his forehead. Before he could contemplate what he just did, his console let out a beep. That only happened when he received a message, and messages for him usually meant missions.

"Awesome!" Shepard shouted.

A mission was just what he needed to get his mind of the breakfast machines. Knowing it was probably Hackett, Shepard took his time walking to the console. He enjoyed making the Admiral wait. He pressed the button and activated the message. Strangely enough, the admiral's face didn't pop-up on the screen. Instead, a huge flow of text appeared, catching him off guard. He didn't bother to read it much, but it did tell him that someone needed help on some other planet. He scrolled all the way down and found the location.

"Kallini – Ardat-Yakshi Monastery."

Shepard gave that word some thought. It kind of sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite put his metaphorical fingers on it. He gave up on trying to remember it, but it was a mission, so he headed to the elevator and pressed the button, ready to equip himself.

The shuttle ride to the planet's surface was like any other shuttle ride he had been on. Shepard stood as usual, holding the handrail as the shuttle jostled around. Raiden and Mason sat on the comfortable seats, waiting for the ride to be over. Mason checked out his nanoforge, tinkering with his abilities, while Raiden took out his blade and studied it, probably making sure it was sharp enough to cut everything at will.

"Not sitting again, commander?" Mason asked, looking up.

Shepard shrugged. "I always stand. Maybe because I'm the coolest hero in the galaxy?"

The rest of the ride went on in silence after Shepard's comment.

Shortly after, they got through the planet's atmosphere, arriving in a dark, blue world.

"Facility's just ahead, commander," Cortez said as he controlled the shuttle. "You should be able to see it soon."

Shepard walked over to the window to take a look. The buildings were all white, and quite clean, and everything looked perfectly fine. No fires, or dead bodies, or any of that.

"No battles or anything?" Shepard asked out loud. "I wonder what happened here. Doesn't seem like there's any damage at all."

When the shuttle was low enough to disembark, Shepard popped open the door and jumped out. Right after landing, he pulled out his Phaeston assault rifle, ready for any surprises that might meet him. Nothing came. No Cerberus airdrops or reaper husks came out of nowhere. He aimed down the sights of his weapon, weary of any surprises that might jump out at any moment.

"No one home?" Raiden asked, landing in a cool pose next to Shepard.

"I guess they won't mind us breaking and entering then," Shepard said, also reminding himself to try out a cool pose when he jumped out of the next shuttle.

Team Shepard walked over to the main door. Mason tried the door, surprised to see it unlocked. They walked in cautiously, careful not to cause too much noise. The room was all dark.

"The light's not working," Raiden said as he tried the switch.

"Perfect," Shepard sighed. "Nothing's ever easy anyway."

They switched on their flashlights and beheld an eerie sight. Bodies of dead asari were strewn all across the floor. Some were even missing body parts. Besides the bodies, the whole room was a mess. Tables lay on their sides, shelves had fallen over, and even plants were scattered all over the place. Shepard had to hold back his stomach fluids from rising, but he managed to not run to the nearest toilet. They continued forward after Shepard regained his composure, careful not to look too intently at the bodies.

"What in the world happened here?" Mason asked.

"Looks like the work of some cyborg ninjas," Raiden speculated.

Shepard kept silent for once, edging towards the nearest hallway. Something was telling him it wasn't cyborg ninjas, but he had no idea if Cerberus was behind this. The Illusive Man might be evil, but this massacre seemed really pointless. Shepard took a quick peek around the hallway. It was pitch black, but he could make out two doors on the left and right sides of the wall. Shepard was happy that it was dark. His hands were shaking so much, that if something were to appear, he would shoot all around the target without hitting it.

"Uhh…" the commander said, trying to steady himself. "We'll split up. Mason, you go left, Raiden, you take center. I'll take the right corridor."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Mason asked.

"Do it," Shepard commanded.

"Alright," Mason replied slowly.

The team spread out to their different directions. Once Shepard made sure he was far enough down the corridor, he stopped to take a few deep breaths.

"Phew!" he managed to croak. "Gotta stay calm. It's probably just some random Cerberus attack."

The commander continued down the corridor alone, unsure of what he was up against. He approached the first door. According to a sign, this door supposed to lead to a mess. He opened the door, and immediately, his head was filled with a ghastly scream.

Mason thought he had heard some kind of scream. Hopefully, no one was dying. He activated his torch mod on his rifle, scanning the dark hallways with it. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The doors were closed, and the place was deathly quiet. Maybe because everything was dead, but he tried not to think about that. He walked along, listening for anything that might give him a hint of life. He walked around, seeing if he could find an elevator, or a way down.

"Hmm… perhaps I should go to the lower levels. See if there's any survivors."

He found an elevator, or at least, the remains of one. The floor and doors of the elevator were missing. Mason took a look down the shaft with his light. Sure enough, two dead asari lay at the bottom, their bodies contorted into strange shapes from the impact. He returned his attention to the room. Another dead body lay two meters in front of him, its arms gone. He quickly turned away as to not sear terrifying pictures into his mind. Walking forward, he found a staircase. The door was unlocked, so he strolled right in. Mason checked his corners, watching out for anything that might be dangerous, but nothing came. After he started to relax, he heard them. Shrieks. It was soft, meaning it must be farther away. Mason readied his rifle again, careful to not make any noise while walking down the stairs. It definitely wasn't Cerberus here, so it must mean reapers. The bottom of the staircase was pitch black like most of the rooms he had seen. As he approached the door, he heard footsteps on the other side. Something was out there, and it was probably something hostile. He swished open the door, but saw no one. He crept along the next hallway as he took in a terrifying sight. Below him, down in the courtyard, stood two creatures. He hadn't seen these types before, but he was sure they were reaper forces. They would occasionally give out a little shriek as they surveyed the area. They were clearly looking for something, or someone, and Mason hoped it wasn't him. They were gruesome creatures, studded full of wires and holes. Their skin was blue like all the other reaper forces, but what scared him the most were their arms. They had long arms and fingers, and at the ends of them, sharp spikes. He tried not to imagine what those arms could do to a human. Suddenly, one of them let out a loud shriek, momentarily stunning him. It had caught scent of whatever it was after, and the two creatures stalked out of the courtyard.

"That can't be good."

Raiden led Falere down a hallway as the creatures gave chase. He had found the asari earlier, trying to get past a locked door. She had been on the run, looking for her sister, Rila, while at the same time hiding from the grotesque creatures. Their features were similar to an asari, which only means that the creatures were indoctrinated forms of asari. One of them gave out a ground-shaking shriek, stumbling the asari. Raiden held his ground, but he couldn't move as fast with someone else with him. He unsheathed his sword. It was time to take one of them on. The 'banshee', as he had begun to call them from their annoyingly loud screams, warped towards him slowly. He took his form, and waited as the banshee got nearer. Right as it warped at him to grab him, Raiden moved, slicing straight forward, cutting the banshee clean in half. He would have tried his zan-datsu, but he didn't have the time, as the second banshee closed in. It stabbed towards him with its arms, but Raiden had the speed to avoid everything without trying. He threw his sword up in the air, and while the banshee was distracted by it, he leaped up and grabbed it, and with a small surge of electricity, he stabbed down on the banshee's head, bringing it down to the ground with a small crack. He got up and sheathed his sword, checking on his companion.

"You all good?" he asked.

"Yes," she replied. "Let's keep moving. We have to find my sister."

Raiden nodded, and they continued down the passage. Falere had said earlier that her sister might be on the lower levels. Apparently, the lower levels were where the reapers struck first, so the chance of finding her was slim, but Raiden didn't tell her the chances.

"Right," he said. "Is there still a working elevator by chance?"

Shepard had found his old teammate, Samara, when he opened the door earlier. She almost took his head off with a biotic blast, but she softened the blow just as it hit him in the face. He had lied that it didn't damage his well-being at all. He had dusted off himself before they continued. Apparently, the asari justicar was here to find her two daughters, Falier and Zilla, or something like that. Shepard was bad with names, but he didn't ask her to repeat them. Samara wanted to go to the lower levels, but Shepard tried to convince her that the elevator was down.

"We don't need an elevator," she told the commander.

"What then? We fly?"

Before speaking another word, Samara enveloped both of them in a biotic field, and jumped down the elevator shaft. The floated down slowly, so Shepard wasn't too scared. They landed on the bottom with a small thud, which echoed out in the small space of the shaft. They climbed out of the elevator doors and surveyed the surroundings. The place was awfully dark. Shepard couldn't see anything so he activated his flashlight attachment on his rifle. The place was mostly empty, except for a huge, black, metal thing in the middle of the room, and a lone asari hanging around it.
Samara suddenly floated down towards the asari. "Rila!"

The asari looked up and widened her eyes. Suddenly, she put on a face of rage and flew straight at her mother. She slammed right into Samara and they tumbled down and struggled. Rila fired a biotic blast at Samara, but she dodged and sent a blast of energy to Rila, forcing her to let go and hover a few meters back. Shepard ran in to stop them, but they fired at each other again, creating a shockwave, sending Shepard flying back into a potted plant. He tried to get up, but his bottom section was stuck in the pot.

"Perfect placement…" he shouted out over the raging battle.

As he struggled to lift himself out of the pot, a hand grabbed him by the collar and pulled him out in one quick swing. Shepard turned around as he regained his footing to see it was his cyborg friend, Raiden, who had found another asari survivor.

"Who's this?" he asked, trying to forget that he needed help.

"Oh, this is Falere," Raiden answered. "She's one of the ardat-yakshi here. Apparently, she's here to find…"

He was cut off as Falere moved towards the fighting asari. "Mother! Rila!"

Both asari turned to her. A look of recognition appeared on Rila's face as she saw her sister. That distracted her long enough for Samara to fling her away with a biotic throw. Both standing asari went over to the downed one.

"Rila! What's happened to you?" her sister asked.

"She's been indoctrinated," Samara told her.

"She's right."

Everyone turned to Rila.

"The turning process is already proceeding to take over my mind. Soon I will become one of those mindless creatures."

"No!" Falere shouted. "Is there any kind of cure out there?"

"None yet," Rila said. "But I have a plan to-"

Without warning, her body spasmed and went limp.

"Rila!" Falere shouted, shaking her sister. "What's the plan?"

Shepard walked over. "Well we'll just wait till she recovers. We've got plenty of time!"

On cue, many shrieks were heard from around the room.

"Of course, there's a twist," Shepard said, pulling out his rifle.

"Shepard," Samara said, looking around. "Keep those creatures away. I'll see to Rila."

"Right."

Raiden pulled out his sword and ran to the shadows. Slicing was heard, but Shepard couldn't see him.

Suddenly, Shepard remembered something. "Where's Mason?"

Darius Mason turned another corner, arriving at another dead end.

"Hmmm," he said to himself. "Yeah, I'm lost."

Earlier, he had taken out one of the strange asari creatures. He used a singularity, which pulled the creature in, and when it blew, it sent the creature out a window and impaling it on an asari structure. He put a few bullets in its head to make sure, and carried on after that. Shortly after the fight, he had found himself wandering the corridors, unsure of which path to take. He had chosen a few that have ended in dead ends, and now once again, he'd found himself in another dead end.

"Great."

Suddenly, a multitude of screams echoed out all over his little hall. Mason quickly looked around to see if he got ambushed. Nope. None of the screaming creatures popped out from any dark corners. Listening carefully, the screams were coming from beyond the wall. He knocked the wall.

"Metal, eh?"
He pulled out his magnet gun. He magnetized the wall and the floor out in the corridor. As soon as the wall broke off towards the floor, Mason had to do a dodge roll to avoid being smashed by the debris as it crashed to the floor. Now with a doorway, he could see the screamers. At least four of the indoctrinated asari were warping towards the middle of the new area, and in the middle, there were two asari in the back, while a familiar face started shooting at the creature nearest to him.

"Eat bullets, you banshees!" Shepard shouted as he fired away at the nearest one.

His gun did little against the barriers of the banshees, but it was the best he could do for now. Mason rushed in and pulled out his rifle and started shooting the furthest banshee from Shepard. It stopped warping and turned its head towards him.

"Uh oh," Mason said, just as the creature lobbed a ball of energy towards him.

It moved slowly towards him, allowing him some shots at the creature before he had to jump out of the way. It exploded on the wall behind him, making his neck hairs stand from the strange aura. He grunted and continued shooting as the creature advanced on him. It suddenly warped right in front of him when it got close enough and picked him up. Mason struggled, but couldn't get free. The banshee pulled its other arm back, ready to thrust it into him. Mason flinched as the arm flung back to him, but nothing happened. He opened his eyes to see that the banshee's head was gone. The body dropped to its knees, allowing Mason to rip free from its grip. The cyborg ninja stood a few feet in front, his blade buzzing with electricity.

"Umm… thanks man," Mason said.

"Anytime," Raiden responded. "But we've still got more to deal with. You have anything bigger than a machine gun?"

"I do have a rocket launcher, but it only has two shots."

"That'll do," Raiden said as he turned his attention back to the banshees.

Shepard felt like he wasn't getting anywhere. No matter how much he shot at the banshee, the barriers wouldn't go down. He needed a new weapon. If only he could find one. He quickly dodged to the right just as an energy orb blew up where he last stood. Something glinting in the corner caught his eye as he stood up. A red rifle lay on the ground in the corner of the room. He ran over and picked up the gun. It was a M-76 Revenant assault rifle.

"Now we're talking!" he whooped. "Or shooting."

He turned to face the banshee again. It got a little too close when he ran for the weapon, but that just gave him the perfect chance. He fired the rifle, holding down the trigger the whole time. The bullet barrage hammered into the banshee's barriers, taking them down, and tore away at its flesh. Soon, it was down, nothing more than pieces on the floor.

"Oh yeah!" Shepard cheered. "Who's the best hero in the galaxy? ME!"

He ran towards the second one, who was nearing the asari. He reloaded a thermal clip and fired at the banshee. It didn't even have time to turn towards Shepard, and it went down quickly.

"Good work, Shepard," Samara told him. "Just like old times."

"Yeah," Shepard said, reloading another thermal clip. "I used to have plenty of weapons, but the silly Alliance people took away everything when they arrested me."

The screams of more banshees stopped his conversation. More were pouring in. Shepard rolled his eyes and ran towards another one. It swiped its arm at him, but Shepard countered with his omni-blade. He hopped back a step and unleashed the hailstorm of bullets on the new banshee. After a while, it went down easily like the other ones he killed. He saw Mason and Raiden as he neared the top of the staircase. Raiden cut away at the banshees like they were made of tissue.

"Oh!" Shepard realized. "They were made of tissue."

Mason had a rocket launcher on his shoulder, but he hadn't used it yet. Shepard didn't hear any explosions. Just as he thought that, Mason shot out a rocket, taking out a banshee near the back wall with a huge ball of fire. Rubble flew out and hit Shepard, but it didn't damage him physically. He swung his attention to another banshee, but Raiden was faster. He flew around the room, taking out countless banshees with his sword. To pretend he wasn't outmatched, Shepard ran back to the asari to stand guard.

"You guys stop them there!" he shouted. "I'll watch Samara and her daughters!"

"Got it," Mason replied.

After minutes of slicing sounds, the battle was over. Mason and Raiden walked over to join Shepard.

"Now what?" the mechanic asked.

"Well, now that we've finished the battle," Rila should wake up anytime now.

As he finished those words, the asari coughed and rose up.

"Rila!" Falere shouted again. "Are you better?"

"No," she replied. "The indoctrination process is almost complete."

"Great," Shepard said. "Nothing we can do?"

"No," she confirmed. "But I did have a plan."

She pointed to the black object. "This thing is a bomb. I have the detonator. When you get to the elevator, I'll activate this."

"What?" Falere said, completely shocked. "You can't do that!"

"She has too," Samara added. "Otherwise, she'll turn into one of those things."

Samara signalled to Shepard. He didn't get what she wanted, but eventually, with a lot of help from his teammates, he got what she was trying to tell him. He walked forward and grabbed Falere and ran as fast as he could to the elevator.

"What are you doing?" she asked, outraged. "We can't leave my sister here!"

"We can," Shepard added. "If we don't, she'll transform and attack me… I mean all of us."

Falere still struggled, but Shepard was strong enough to carry her all the way to the elevator, with his teammates and Samara behind him. As they got in, more banshees arrived at the scene, walking slowly towards them.

"Go!" Rila shouted as she shot a biotic orb at the banshee closest to the elevator.

Samara hit the button for the top floor and the lift doors closed just as the banshee screamed at them. The lift rose, carrying Shepard and the rest up from the horror downstairs.

Rila fell next to the bomb. A banshee walked up to her slowly and picked her up by the head. She didn't struggle. It screamed at her as it thrust its whole arm through her. She coughed, but used her last strength to bring up the detonator so the banshee could see it.

"I'll never… be one of you."

She brought her thumb down on the red button.

Shepard felt the explosion as the elevator rocked around a bit.

"No…" Falere said, giving up trying to get back.

"It's what she wanted to do," Mason told her.

"Yeah," Shepard said. "She would have turned into one of those banshees as we call them now. Then she would have attacked you. Maybe killed you too."

The elevator arrived at the top. Raiden was the first out, carefully surveying the area.

"Area's clear," he said, sheathing his sword. "I think we got them all."

Shepard didn't ask how he knew there weren't any enemies left. "That's good."

He turned to Samara. "What will you do now? Will you join my team again?"

The justicar shook her head. "I cannot. I still have things to do. But first, I need to deal with my daughter."

She turned to Falere. "My code says I cannot let the ardat-yakshi leave this place, so…"

She pulled out her predator pistol. Shepard walked in between them.

"You can't kill her," he shouted. "We spent too long trying to save her. If you kill her now, I'd have wasted my time."

Samara shook her head. "I wasn't going to."

She brought the pistol to her own head. Shepard moved to try to stop her, but he was too far away. Before she could pull the trigger, Raiden had stepped forward and ripped the gun out of her hand.

"No, I must do it. My code -"

"Mother!" Falere shouted, walking forward. "I won't leave this place, so you won't have to kill yourself. I will stay here, and if the reapers come back, I won't be alive for them to turn me."

"Well that still defeats our purpose of being here," Shepard told her. "Although, if we do beat the Reapers before they can get back here, that might work."

"Then see to it," Falere told him, and walked back into the building.

"Ok," Shepard said as she disappeared in the doorway.

Shepard walked towards the railings. "Cortez, we're ready for a pickup."

"What will you do now," Mason asked Samara.

She looked to the sky. "I guess I'll join your war assets then. There is nothing more for me to do here."

"Right ho!" Shepard shouted. "I'm sure Admiral Hackett would be pleased with this. I'll let him know."

"What will we do when we get back?" Mason asked.

Shepard's stomach rumbled. "I'll need some lunch. Ramen anyone?"

Project Eel - Kallini