I posted these next two chapters together because they just kind of go together. I hope everyone likes what I did with these chapters. Please R&R and enjoy!
Luke watched Claire move through the lab as the rest of the team fanned out. Claire seemed extremely interested in a large metallic spire on the lower level of the lab. There seemed to be a green energy surrounding it. Luke had never seen anything quite like it before.
"Claire, what is this?" Luke's questioned seemed to capture Claire's attention for only a split second before she returned to her inspection.
"This is a prothean beacon just like the one on Eden Prime. It might fill in the missing pieces of my vision," Claire said standing up in front of the beacon.
"Or it might turn your brain to jello like it almost did the first time." Luke bit his lip as Claire turned to look at him.
"That file was sealed. How did you find that out?"
"Um…hacker…remember?" Luke said raising his hand and waving. Claire rolled her eyes before turning back to the beacon.
She reached forward and flicked the controls. An invisible force seemed to reach out and lifted her off the floor. Luke tried to move toward her but Liara stepped in his way.
"What are you doing?" Luke snapped as he tried to maneuver past her.
"That is the way prothean technology works. It transmits information directly into the mind of the recipient. The cipher she received on Feros should allow her interoperate the information." Liara glanced back at the still floating commander as Claire's balled fists loosened and she opened her eyes.
"What must that be like? Having something that is 50,000 years old downloading into your brain… It would probably drive me crazy," Luke said as Claire dropped to the floor. He immediately brushed past Liara to check on Claire.
"I'm alright." Claire slowly stood slowing Luke's advance.
She had so be so strong to withstand not only the images that were poured into her head but the obvious discomfort that she must have felt as that knowledge forced its way into her mind.
"Commander, there is a terminal up here I believe you should see," Tali announced scanning a red display with her omni-tool.
"Coming," Claire answered. "It takes more than a beacon to rattle me." Her comment was obviously aimed at Luke as she winked in his direction. Luke smirked, his sister was never too tired to put up a fight.
As the team approached the red console, a hologram appeared in one of the strangest forms Luke had ever seen. It reminded him of the pictures of the geth drop ships they had shot down but with massive finger-like appendages. "Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh, you touch my mind, stumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding. There is a realm of existence so far beyond your own you cannot even imagine it. I am beyond your comprehension. I am Sovereign."
"God, Soveriegn isn't just some Reaper ship Saren found. It is an actual Reaper," Claire said looking back at the group. Luke could not take his eyes off the hologram. He felt the tickle at the base of his skull again and immediately focus all his attention on Claire and the reaper. Could Sovereign be trying to take over my mind like those salarians? I wonder if the others feel it too.
"Reaper? A label created by the protheans to give voice to their destruction. In the end, what they choose to call us is irrelevant. We simply are." The voice from the console was deep and inpossing. It made Luke's skin crawl. He could hardly understand just what exactly was going on.
"The protheans vanished over 50,000 years ago. You could not have been there. It's impossible," Liara spoke in an accusing voice as if trying to catch the synthetic in a lie, but Luke could not help but think there was something much bigger going on.
"Genetic life is nothing but a mutation, an accident. Your lives are measured in years and decades. You wither and die. We are eternal. The pinnacle of evolution and existence. Before us, you are nothing. Your extinction is inevitable. We are the end of everything.
Luke had had enough of the machine's babble and doom-and-gloom nonsense. He immediately stepped forward. "If you exist as a physical being, that means you can be broken, destroyed, and that is our specialty. I don't care if you think you are God, I'll kick your ass back into whatever hole you crawled out of."
Claire's hand clasped his shoulder and gently guided him back into the ranks of the group.
"Confidence born of ignorance. The cycle cannot be broken. The pattern has repeated itself more times than you can fathom. Organic civilizations rise, evolve, and advance. And at the apex of their glory, they are extinguished. The protheans were not the first. They did not create the Citadel. They did not forge the mass relays. They merely found them, the legacy of my kind. Like the many before you, your civilization is based on the technology of the mass relays, our technology. By using it, your society develops along the path that we desire. We impose order on the chaos of organic evolution. You exist because we allow it. You will end because we demand it."
The hologram's voice really starting to fracture Luke's calm. If half of what this machine was saying was true, then the reapers were far too powerful to be destroyed easily like the geth had been.
"You bastards are harvesting us!" Garrus snapped. Luke would have loved more than anything to join his friend in his rage and shoot the console full of holes but that did not seem like the most reasonable option.
"You don't know nor understand what it means to be alive. You are just a machine, cold and methodical. Like my brother said, machines can be broken." Claire turned and nodded to Luke with smile. Luke appreciated her jumping in with him. It helped stave off the pressing feelings of doom that encroached on his mind.
"Your words are as empty as your future. I am the vanguard of your destruction. This exchange is over." As the projection uttered its last words, there was a violent shaking as the windows all shattered and the terminal went dark losing all connection to Sovereign.
"Let's go blow this place to hell. The sooner we are out of here the better." Luke looked around as the other members of the team nodded.
"Luke's right, move out. We'll head for the bomb site and secure it," Claire said waning everyone forward.
000
Ashley applied medi-gel to one of the salarians as green blood gushed from his abdomen. They had made it to the AA Tower and had been successful in shutting down the main power to the guns. Normandy would be able to land without any problem to drop off the bomb.
"Captain, Jaeto has shut down the AA tower. We will rally with shadow for extraction, get the rest of your men clear of the blast zone," Ashley shouted into the radio. She was sure that the commander would help them break through the geth defenders if they needed it.
"Understood Williams, Mannovai and Aegohr will fall back to the safe zone and ride out the detonation. Good Luck Jaeto."
Ashley heard the comm signal cut out and knew that the other two teams were withdrawing. Not that it mattered, either they held the AA tower against the defenders or the Normandy would be shot down when it approached with the bomb.
"Gunnery Chief, we can't last much longer!" one of the salarians shouted firing a few more shots at the enemy at the geth troopers closed the distance. Ashley could not tell just how many defenders were coming against them but there was no doubt that they would need help breaking through.
"Bomb is nearly ready. Get to the rendezvous Williams!" The commander's voice was like a saving grace.
"Negative, we are pinned down. No way we're getting through," Ashley responded before firing a few blind shots over the crates. The geth responded by firing a barrage of rifle fire accompanied by a few missiles.
"We're on our way Ash. Sit tight and wait for reinforcements." Luke's voice was almost as welcome as Claire's. He would never let anything happen to her.
"Roger, I'll have dinner ready when you get here." Ashley smiled hearing Luke chuckle on the other end of the line as Claire ordered everyone up to the AA tower
"Williams, Lt. Alenko and Lt. Shepard are going to hold the bombsite. We're coming to get you. ETA five minutes," Claire informed her.
"Roger that commander." Thank God. They're coming. Ashley fired around the corner of the crate again and turned to the remaining members Jaeto team. "Commander Shepard is on her way to reinforce us. Hold tight to cover, pick your targets, and kick some geth ass!"
000
Mallory and Kaidan watched as Claire and the others race down the corridor fighting through a krogan battlemaster and several troops. Kaidan turned to the bomb and began making adjustments to the trigger.
"This is getting crazy. I'm going to set the bomb's trigger so that the bomb can't be shut down once activated, just in case we get overrun," Kaidan said as he punched in a few codes on his omni-tool.
"When have any of the missions with Claire have gone according to plan?" Mallory said closing the doors behind the team and moving crates around the bomb to be used as cover just in case of an attack. She needed a well concealed position with a clear line of sight so she could cover Kaidan as he worked on the bomb.
"I wonder how everyone is doing." Kaidan looked over at Mallory as she sighed. She was truly worried about Ashley and the others. She wanted everyone to be okay, but she had to stay calm, cool, and collected if they were going to accomplish their mission.