Sorry for the spaced out updates. I have a lot of plans for this story, just need the time and motivation to keep it going. Favorites and follows are always appreciated, thank you for reading! Enjoy!
Shepard stared at the airlock's door, hearing nothing but her heart beat rapidly in her eardrums as the decontamination process scanned her crew. Right behind the doors that separated the Normandy from the outside world of Helyme. Her father was within her reach, but he still felt so far away. EDI's readings were unable to completely narrow down the source of the Munich's distress signal, so they had to scout by foot. Landing the ship fully on Helyme, especially without the proper authorization, was a huge risk. Javik and Tali elected to stay behind to watch over the ship. The Normandy had been vulnerable when the Collectors hit, kidnapping everyone aboard when Shepard and her team had been absent. Shepard vowed to not let that happen again. Javik was continuously combing through his memory shard to find any information he could, while Tali was nursing a fever but still willing and able to protect the ship at all costs.
Kaidan placed his hand gingerly on Shepard's shoulder, making her jump from the unexpected touch.
"We'll find your dad, Shepard, we won't leave this planet until we do," Kaidan assured her in a hushed voice.
"I hope you're right..." she replied, her voice quiet and drifting.
The airlock doors whooshed open, a burst of uncomfortably warm air rushing in to greet them. The crew jumped out, greeted with a lush jungle, and dark clouds forming above. Shepard could smell rain in the air, knowing one of Helyme's infamous thunder storms would be starting soon. She noted how different the atmosphere on this side of the planet was compared to the mining facility she had stopped the Eclipse on nearly a year ago. It reminded her of Earth, but there was something unwelcoming about this planet in comparison.
"Shepard, due to pressure changes I indicate a storm will be heading this way soon," EDI chimed in, shaking Shepard from her thoughts.
"Right," Shepard responded with a mutter, the jungle still drawing her thoughts in like a moth to a flame.
She turned to face her crew, watching her in patience, awaiting her orders on how they were going to explore an entire planet in limited time. The dark clouds brewed above, a stark reminder like an hourglass with sand trickling down. Shepard's paused silence made the crew feel uneasy, it wasn't normal for her to question her resolve. She'd been in so many situations where the magnitude of possible bad outcomes didn't leave her so spooked. Liara and Kaidan glanced at each other, their expressions matching how they both felt. There was something that was bothering Shepard, something that she was keeping buried.
"Commander Shepard, you don't have much time. We're already putting the Normandy at risk for landing it on the planet to avoid detection from Illium officials and Reapers, but the storm also poses a threat. Try to find any remnants of the Munich or your father as fast as possible." Cortez's voice cut in through her comm, jolting Shepard back onto the task at hand. "Javik, Tali and I will protect the ship at all costs." He added with sincerity.
"You're right, I'm sorry!" Shepard replied hastily, glancing guiltily back at her crew as they still waited. "I'm going to split the crew into teams so we can cover more ground."
"Just hurry, Commander, I don't know how well Normandy's hull will handle multiple lightning strikes," Joker chimed in over the comm.
"We'll be quick," Shepard assured him, making her voice stern.
Shepard felt embarrassed for how she was acting. She wasn't the type of person to let personal history or even fear make her falter before a mission. She always had a logical plan and keen insight, even when a mission had a probability of going south. She was a solider who always had a clear head about her duty, but now in the face of her father's disappearance and a haunting feeling of a fleeting nightmare, she found her morale wavering.
"Liara, James, and EDI, you three will go by foot in that direction," she pointed into a section of jungle. "Go about three or four klicks in if you can. If you still haven't found anything, report back to me. Kaidan and Garrus will go with me in the opposite direction. We don't have much time, people, so let's do this quick and quietly."
"Right Shepard, remember to be careful. Little is known about the arthenn and what they left on this planet. Also be prepared for the possibility of..." Liara's voice trailed off, her eyes averting Shepard's gaze as she searched for the right words that didn't sound insensitive. "About your father..."
"I know," Shepard clipped, masking her emotion by clenching down on her teeth and locking her jaw firmly, pushing the thought of stumbling upon her father's corpse away. "Let's just see if we can find anything from the Munich to figure out what happened. Move out!"
Shepard made a movement with her hand to indicate it was time to get going. A distant 'boom' of thunder hurried their pace along.
The jungle was dense; the ground covered in plants and roots jutting out from the thick trees. The humidity made the atmosphere inside the jungle steamy like a sauna; condensation gathering on the leaves in droplets as if it had already rained in this area. As much as Shepard wanted to quicken her pace, the tangle of vines and roots on the jungle floor made it impossible, unless she wanted to topple over and land on her face. Shepard didn't like this jungle, it wasn't like the rainforests back on Earth she'd watch in vids - those were teeming with life, insects, the sound of animals inhabiting the trees. But this jungle was silent. The silence was unnatural, but even with the lack of evidence of wildlife living on Helyme, she could feel things watching her in the distance.
"This... forest is... strange," Garrus echoed Shepard's thoughts aloud, scanning the treeline above, his rifle tucked closely to his chest as if for comfort.
"Took the words right out of my mouth," Shepard muttered, using her omni-tool to scan for signs of the Munich.
"Last time we were on Helyme it seemed different," Garrus added.
"Last time we were on the other side of the planet in a mining facility being overrun by the Eclipse, not quite the same."
"True, but Helyme at least was inhabited by others. Right now it seems deserted, it's creeping me out." Garrus countered, visibly shuddering.
"You're right, you'd think we'd at least run into mercs or something conducting work out here in secret," Kaidan agreed, looking to his left to scan the environment.
"Well according to Liara the Illium government doesn't let people poke around on here, and the Reaper invasion has put even criminals plans at bay. Asari are trying to keep whatever remains for ancient arthenn civilization intact," Shepard replied.
"If Illium were really doing their job, those Eclipse members wouldn't have been running a full operation on here last year. Something isn't adding up, Shepard, I don't like it. And that's just the first of it," Garrus continued on, maneuvering carefully over a giant root sticking out of the ground, "your dad crash-landed on this planet twenty solar years ago and no one heard his distress signal until now? You'd think the asari would take notice to an Alliance vessel flying around their precious planet, even out here in the Terminus Systems. Even without his audio recording, a distress beacon would've been deployed automatically if it wasn't damaged. Remember Jacob's dad Ronald Taylor on Aeia? After years of being stranded on the planet, the beacon purposely remained damaged so he could live out his sick fantasy. Something is just off, Shepard, I can feel it."
Shepard stopped abruptly, and whirled around to face Garrus, her face scrunched up in anger.
"Don't compare Ronald Taylor to my dad!" She chided, pointing a steady finger in the turian's direction. "Ronald Taylor was a monster who purposely let his crew fall into madness so he could play king of a harem! My dad is nothing like him! He has honor and would never treat another human or alien that way!"
Garrus put his talons up defensively as Shepard yelled at him, his mandibles flapping out in surprise at her sudden mood change.
"Calm down, Shepard, I didn't mean it like that and you know it. I'm just saying that the Hugo Gernsback crashed ten years before it was discovered, and it was being hidden purposely. I'm just saying that the same deception could be going on with the Munich. I wasn't making a personal jab at your father. You know that recording of your father was made right when the Munich crashed, and then nothing after that for years."
She knew that Garrus was right, but her pride and defensiveness toward her father clouded her judgement. She turned back around in a grumble, feeling irrationally angry still that Yuudai Kobayashi was compared to the likes of disgraced Ronald Taylor. He was a well respected major in the Alliance, he taught Shepard well and always did his duty with great dignity. Imagining him brainwashing his crew with toxic native plants and abusing them was unbearable. She tried to think of some explanation as to why the distress signal he left took so long to uncover, but she knew all her conclusions led in a direction she didn't want to face. Shepard wiped sweat beading on her forehead with the back of her wrist, trying to cool down from Garrus' words and focus on the trek ahead. Garrus fell silent behind her and she felt guilty suddenly for snapping at him. She could feel Kaidan's gentle, amber eyes on the back of her neck, knowing he was trying to understand and sympathize with her emotions and pain. She thought of her mother and all those sleepless nights she spent searching for her father, crying when she thought no one was looking, trying to muster a smile when speaking to her daughter and pretend everything was alright.
A few minutes of silence between the teammates went by.
"So Shep, I have a question I've always wanted to ask but wasn't sure how-" Kaidan begun, testing out the waters to see if Shepard was still fuming.
"What is it?"
"Why did you take your mother's last name?"
Shepard paused, realizing she was never asked that before. Everyone in the Alliance just thought it normal and headed on their way. The truth behind it made her flush, not wanting any shame to come to her parents who she admired so much. She knew it was hypocritical to hold them in that esteem when she committed the same exact "crime" in the military as they did: fraternization.
"My parents weren't married when they started having an affair in the Alliance. They were both soldiers, and you know how human militaries look down on that..." Shepard started to explain, clearing her throat in discomfort. She glanced behind her shoulder and saw Kaidan's cheek slightly blush. "When my mom, Hannah, became pregnant, they reassigned her to a different ship and demoted her. Because of my dad's higher rank he was able to pull some strings and still see me and mom as often as he could. I didn't grow up away from him per se, but him and mom weren't stationed on the same ship together after I was born. I'd spend majority of my time growing up with my mom, growing up an Alliance brat, but my dad made it a priority to spend as much time with me as possible. You know how the Alliance is, they did not approve of two officers having an illegitimate child, especially since my mom served under him. So my mom tried to mask it by naming me Shepard instead of Kobayashi but everyone knew."
"Oh..." Was all Kaidan could muster, feeling embarrassed that he even brought the topic up.
"Like mother like daughter, huh? Minus the kid." Shepard tried to joke, smirking weakly in Kaidan's direction.
Kaidan's face went even redder and he looked away from her and into the trees. She meant to make the joke about breaking regs funny, but instead it just created awkward tension and she cursed herself for it. During the Reaper invasion it wasn't a big deal for her and Kaidan to maintain their relationship, and she wouldn't prevent herself from being with the man she loved with the war raging on. But she was a product of fraternization herself, and she saw the strain it brought her parents. If the circumstances surrounding her and Kaidan hadn't been so vastly different, she knew Kaidan would've been reassigned from the Normandy and Shepard could've possibly been demoted and lose her ship. But danger and stranger than fiction type scenarios seemed to follow Shepard around like her own shadow, saving their "illegal" relationship.
To break the tension, Shepard opened her omni-tool again to contact EDI.
"Hey EDI, any luck in finding anything out of the ordinary?"
"Negative, Shepard," EDI replied in her robotic and oddly melodic voice.
"We've been walking for over an hour, haven't even seen a scrap of metal or even a damn sign of any civilization," James huffed.
"Same here, nothing yet," Shepard answered, glancing up and noticing the hurdling storm clouds ahead made it darker. She had been so focused she hadn't even realized the thunder had gotten much closer. "We can't give up yet, we still have time." She added in a tone of desperation, not wanting to leave before finding out what happened to her father.
"Shepard, we can't take too much longer out here, for the Normandy's sake..." Liara replied.
"It's going to start raining soon," Kaidan piped up behind her, "it's going to be harder to search."
"We're not stopping the search, not yet. Joker will let us know if things start getting too dicey. I don't want to leave and all this be in vain. We cant give up now, there could be Munich survivors or something else going on," Shepard concluded, her tone final.
"Very well, Shepard," EDI stated.
Shepard disconnected from her comms, turning back to face Kaidan and Garrus.
"Okay, let's double time it!"
Thunder rumbled overhead, making the three start to hurry as fast as they could over the thick vegetation. On her omni-tool readings began to go fuzzy, as if there was some type of interference. The atmosphere started to grow thicker, but it wasn't just the humidity of Helyme or the electricity in the air from the storm. It was like they walked into a flux threshold.
"Shepard, our instruments are going haywire," Kaidan alerted, his omni-tool suddenly malfunctioning. "There's no way a storm could make this happen."
The thunder roared as a crack of lightning hit the treeline way too close for comfort. The three of them ducked, covering their heads as rain began pouring down on them. The snapping of branches and vines in the distance made Garrus snap his rifle upward. Shepard's knees began to shake as the presence of something distantly familiar and sinister approaching them. She felt this before all too recently.
Cold... dark... hollow...
"Shepard! There's something moving out there!" Garrus barked, staring into his scope. "Whatever it is, it's circling fast."
"I can't patch the Normandy through!" Kaidan reported in frustration as he continued to try to work on his omni-tool.
The rain started to make the ground almost muddy; the pounding of the rain on the leaves grew louder and louder, as did the mysterious presence rapidly moving around the tangle of the jungle. Shepard was frozen in place, petrified of the force that was heading right toward them. Her nightmare came barreling back vividly - the feeling of having no control and her took hold. The source of the set of eyes that was peering at Shepard through the darkness was incomprehensible. Helyme's storm raged overhead, the lightning lighting up the treeline with abrupt flashes, the rain making their sight grow dimmer and the temperature raise, the thunder drowning out Kaidan and Garrus' cries for her attention.
Shepard.
The sinister voice called to her. Spooked, she whirled around behind her, only seeing Kaidan and Garrus glance around the jungle, soaked from head to toe. They seemed unaware of the horrifying voice speaking her name. Her gut felt like it sank down to her knees, her guns left holstered on her back, her biotics nearly forgotten. Whatever was dashing around them in the distance that Garrus was telling her about was the source of the voice. Shepard suddenly had the urge to vomit. Unable to contain her nausea, she fell to her knees and began throwing up. The ground was slick and muddy, she felt like she was slowly sinking underneath.
"Shepard!" Kaidan's concerned voice was drowned out by the storm. He knelt beside her, trying to steady her. Her body shivered and swayed as she continued to be sick.
Kaidan tried to call for EDI and the Normandy again, but his omni-tool was still not working. Helpless, he slammed his fist into the densely covered ground.
"Shit!" He swore. He turned his attention back to Shepard, who was now on both her hands and knees, panting for air. "Shepard, what's wrong? We need to head back."
"Something is still out there," Garrus warned, still scanning with his rifle and scope. "I can see it moving in flashes, it's wickedly fast."
"We have to get out of here and head back to the Normandy, Garrus, this storm is getting worse!" Kaidan urged. "Come on, Shepard, we have to go!" He tried to pull her up, but she remained planted to the ground.
The snapping of the jungle and vines rushed toward them, drawing Garrus' attention to his right. He readied his rifle as the presence stalking them came into view. Even in the storm Kaidan could hear Garrus' gasp of disbelief, making him look away from Shepard for a moment to see what was heading for them.
"Spirts! What is that?!" Garrus hollered.
An incredibly large and impossibly long black tentacle shot out from between the trunks of the trees. Garrus and Kaidan watched, both mystified and horrified as it towered above them, curling at the end. The tentacle slammed back and forth into two trees, cracking the trunks and making one tree fall over effortlessly. Garrus opened fire as rapidly as he could, his aim shoddy with worry. The tentacle evaded the bullets almost faster than Kaidan could blink, destroying any tree in its path as it moved.
"What the fuck?!" Kaidan cursed in bewilderment, as he jumped up on his feet to throw a Warp at the strange monster.
All their attacks were meaningless against this giant creature. Kaidan couldn't believe his eyes. Whatever creature they were facing had to be bigger than a thresher maw; the origin of the rest of its body completely unseen from where the confused soldiers stood, it seemed to stretch for miles through the jungle. The endless tentacle thrashed about, aiming for Garrus as he shot at it. Kaidan flared his biotics again, trying to aim, but he was too slow.
Kaidan slung his arm around Shepard, trying to get her to stand, but it was like she was cemented to the ground in a trance. Attempting to pull her up made him fall flat on his back in the mud. The rain continuously poured down harder and harder, their sight so dim it looked like night. The tentacle suddenly whacked Garrus' rifle out of his talons, sending it flying into nearby shrubs. The turian dove out of the way as the tentacle went to squash him, smashing relentlessly into the ground. Lightning struck a nearby tree, splitting it down the middle with a burst of hot energy, forcing Kaidan and Garrus flying backward. It was absolute chaos.
"What the hell is going on here? Shepard! We need to leave now!" Kaidan tried to pull the commander along again, but she remained.
The tentacle suddenly got a hold of Garrus, wrapped around him like a giant python. Garrus cried out in fear as it slithered around him, hoisting him in the air. He tried to squirm, but it started to squeeze him, crushing his body little by little. Kaidan leapt up, running closer to the tentacle so he could get better aim to shoot at it. The bullets did nothing but make it wiggle out of the way. The sound of squelching mud bubbled behind Kaidan, in a panic he turned around to see Shepard being pulled into the ground like a sinking ship.
"SHEPARD!" Kaidan screamed, diving toward her as the earth swallowed her.
It was like some old adventure vid where the heroic characters started to sink in quicksand. He thought he was going insane, that everything he was witnessing was a dream or a hallucination. First a monster so large that its tentacle seemed to stretch for miles comes out of nowhere and grabs Garrus, now Shepard is sinking the ground, which was solid a moment ago. Kaidan desperately tried to grope for Shepard as the top of her head disappeared under the mud. He couldn't even grab at her hair, she was completely submerged. Kaidan thrust his hands into the mud, but the depth had changed back to its original form. The tentacle threw Garrus down harshly, then began to retreat back into the darkness of the jungle. Garrus lay on the ground, unconscious, as Kaidan continued to frantically dig through the mud.
"SHEPARD, NO! SHEPARD, WHERE ARE YOU? SHEPARD!" Kaidan wailed, tears now streaming down his eyes.
It was like Alchera all over again. Kaidan watching from the surface the icy planet as the Normandy exploded in the planet's stratosphere. His escape pod had landed safely, but he never saw Shepard get onto one. She was making sure everyone got off the ship safely, everyone she could reach in time. The last he saw was her going to save Joker. He knew she didn't make it off the ship, something in his gut had told him. He cried then, knowing he lost the woman he fell in love with. Now he lost her again, but this time in a way that was unexplainable. Helyme had eaten her whole, and he had no way of getting her back out. Garrus was injured, an unknown enemy could return and kill them at any moment, and the thunderstorm was still pounding them from above.
All hope was lost.
EDI led Liara and James further into the jungle, the AI scanned the perimeter with near perfect accuracy, making the team's continuous lack of findings more and more grim. The jungle on Helyme appeared to just be a vast tangle of trees and exotic plant life, nothing more.
James wiped the sweat away from his eyes, groaning in irritation as it stung his eyes.
"Ugh, how much longer. This humidity sucks."
"That storm does sound like it's approaching," Liara added, slightly worried. "We haven't heard word from Shepard or the others in quite some time."
"Are you suggesting that we call off the search?" EDI questioned, turning to face them. "I am reading seismic activity ahead, perhaps it is a lead."
"C'mon, EDI, that could just be lightning striking the ground. Which also brings up Liara's point, we really shouldn't be out here when that storm hits. Tell the commander that we tried, but we're going to get stuck in a downpour or worse if we stick it out any longer." James huffed.
"Very well," EDI chimed, bringing up her omni-tool, patching in communication to Shepard. "Shepard, the storm is on a trajectory right toward our location, I suggest returning to the Normandy. The conditions are dangerous for organic life."
Silence.
"I repeat, Shepard, I suggest returning to the Normandy." EDI tried again, but there was no answer, not even static.
Liara and James glanced anxiously at each other as EDI continued to try and hail the commander.
"Try contacting Kaidan or Garrus," Liara suggested.
"Garrus, I have failed to contact Shepard, are you available?" EDI asked, but once again was met with silence. Her robotic fingers worked over her omni-tool, trying to pinpoint where the other team was. "Kaidan, are you there? Is anyone on this frequency?"
Silence.
"Nah, something's not right. Why wouldn't any of them be responding?" James said.
"It... is concerning. They could be in trouble." Liara agreed.
"The source of this communication failure is an anomaly. I cannot get a clear reading of their GPS location, it is almost like someone is actively jamming it." EDI answered.
"Jamming it? You think it's interference from the Munich?" Liara asked.
"No, this is strange. It is like the scrambled signal's source is coming from every direction. Like Helyme itself is trying to shut down our communications."
"That doesn't make any sense! Other than that mining facility on the other side of the planet, there's no one living here!" James exclaimed.
The snapping of branches made the three of them whirl around in shock. James and Liara readied their weapons as the booming of the thunder grew closer. The storm clouds seemed to appear in a flash as the atmosphere around them grew dense and filled with electricity. EDI continued to attempt to reach Shepard, but the geographical location and all communications, even to the Normandy, had been suppressed.
"It's like... the planet is waking up..." Liara shuddered, her mouth agape as she gazed at the darkening sky.