Cruelty
Disclaimer
Starcraft is the property of Blizzard entertainment.
Mass effect is the property of Bioware.
Any elements used in this story are used only in order to create a story for no monetary gain nor do I claim any ownership over them, beyond the names and characters unique to this story.
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Welcome to the Galactic codex, your request has been processed:
Batarian: A bipedal species native to the world of Khar'shan who hold the main characteristic of having a four eyes based optic system. The batarian race hold a place as outcasts within the galactic community after their government's decision to self impose themselves within their territory in protest of the council's decision to side with humanity when addressing the rights of colonization upon the Skyllian verge.
The Skyllian Verge: A sector of space that lies within the border region that defines the council space that rests under jurisdiction of the Alliance and the only recognized government of the batarian species: the Hegemony.
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Asteroid X-57
Time until impact - 01:47:32
Tali'Zorah
This wasn't right.
Shepard had promised that he wouldn't be gone for long.
Where was he?
"GET OUT SO WE CAN END YOU FUCKS!" screamed one of the batarians they were facing as he tried to demoralize them while on the defense.
And it was working because Tali was completely shaken by their assault as she was not only under heavy fire, but the crude promises and threats from the batarians scared her by far the most.
It wasn't uncommon for a few quarians to meet a gruesome end in their pilgrimage… but those were the lucky ones.
Batarians were spoken amongst her race with disgust, hatred and fear most of all.
They were the monsters with which parents sent their bad behaving children to bed as a way to scare them and to teach the worst behaving of them all a lesson.
They were a cautionary tale for any quarian that left the fleet and thought naively that the galaxy would be a welcoming place to people like them. For the danger they presented made it clear that the only people they could trust were other quarians.
As each year less and less quarians returned from the pilgrimage the every pressing shadow of raiders, pirates and enslavers loomed over the migrant fleet and its population…
All the promises that were broken.
All the lovers lost.
All the families separated.
The quarians could always point at the batarians in accusation.
And now she knew that the galaxy wouldn't do a thing.
"THERE IS NOWHERE TO RUN, SLAVES!" hounded the voice of the batarian that had insulted her "YOU SERVE NO PURPOSE BUT THAT OF MEAT!".
Degenerates.
Tali shut her eyes in fear as the threats of the batarians began to put more dread in her soul.
A scream from the batarians and a yelp from Liara made her open her eyes as she saw that the Asari had taken a shot while defending Tali from a flanking batarian.
Kheela…
"YOU WILL PAY FOR THA…" the batarian was interrupted as Tali gathered enough valor to get out of cover and stopped his worthless existence by taking her first shot in a while.
"TALI!" Liara called to her and she turned to face her as she got back into cover "There is no way we can advance alone. We must *cough*" Liara tried to coordinate with her but Tali could see that her wound was bleeding heavily as she was coughing blood and she was in no condition to administer aid under such heavy fire.
Tali motioned for her to try and approach and began to give Liara some covering fire as she had to advance slowly due to her precarious state.
"Come on!" Tali shouted so the batarians would not aim at Liara but as Tali saw that one batarian had emerged from a blind spot to her, Tali began to dread that she would not be able to respond in time.
But just as that batarian along with another began to aim at her, a sudden shot from behind her made Tali realize that either Liara or another person had come to her rescue.
"Sorry to crash your party, ladies" came the voice of their commander to the relief of the weary quarian.
Tali got behind cover and praised her ancestors for this timely rescue.
"We aren't done yet Tali" Shepard called to her "There are only three left. Fry their shields".
Tali obeyed and launched one of her disk like devices and overloaded their shields.
Shepard came true with his military experience and eliminated two of the three batarians without much effort as the bastards recoiled from the crackling of their shields.
The last one was pushed down by an unbalanced Liara as she struggled to peer beyond her cover and launched a biotic shot towards the batarian.
"You are not getting away!" Shepard yelled as he tackled the fleeing batarian and knocked his head with the butt of his rifle.
Liara and Tali approached the commander as they saw that he began to punch the now unconscious batarian.
They stood incredulous at this simple act of rage.
The commander that had saved them was lost to rage as he did not stop beating down the batarian.
Even as his knuckles were drenched by blood.
Even as his voice could not scream his anger anymore.
Even as the sound of bone cracking began to be heard.
It was by the hand of Liara that this act ended.
"SHEPARD!" the command turned with anger in his eyes that were quickly changed to those of shames as he turned to see the concern in the wounded asari.
"..." He rose to his feet as the batarian remained unconscious on the floor "Let's go" he finally declared as he kneeled next to Liara in order to administer some aid while he raised his arm.
This display of pure hatred surprised the quarian in equal part as it scared her. To see this apparent hero of humanity devolve into such a state of pure fury left something clear to the poor quarian who had come to idolize this man in what little time they had traveled together…
For all the similarities they shared and or all things they could appreciate together there were still too many differences between their species: Only other quarins could understand her.
…
"We are not so different…" the words of Xiltar echoed from her memory as if the alien had told them to her in that moment.
These words… they dispelled her doubt for some reason.
Tali nodded to herself as she began to follow Shepard before she turned to Liara and saw that she was struggling to walk, so she took her arm and helped her as they began to walk up the stairs that would lead them to the control room.
More gunshots from the direction where Shepard had gone alerted them to the possibility of more batarians being present.
Tali helped Liara as they made their way towards the control room, but were relieved to find Shepard as he had just gunned down the last batarian in the torch.
"That should do it…" he turned to the pair and moved to help Liara stand as he turned to Tali "You are up" Shepard motioned her to try and deactivate the torch as they had planned.
She nodded and approached the control and as she analyzed its systems she saw… a pitiful attempt at a trap.
What a mockery.
The batarians had tried to rig the control with some sort of trigger that anybody could clearly see and deactivate without much effort.
Once she had biased the trap's triggers Tali activated the protocol that would shut down the torch.
After a little amount of shaking, the loud roaring of the torch's reactor ceased entirely.
"Hello? Is anybody out there?" As the quarian deactivated the torch and the commander approached her location, they heard the voice of a human from a console right next to her.
Shepard turned to look at his team before propping Liara against a wall and then approached the terminal so he could answer.
"This is commander Shepard of the alliance. Who is out there?" He asked.
"..." Murmurs were heard from the other end as whoever had called seemed to discuss something with another person that was with her " I'm Kate Bowman. I work for the company in charge of this asteroid along with my brother…".
Survivors.
"Are you safe? Where are you-" Shepard's questions were interrupted by Kate.
"Can't talk for long. Must move…" she began to whisper "Other torches… traps… leader…hub…" the voice began to garble in static until the link was suddenly cut.
Tali focused on the part about the traps and turned back to the torch control and opened the panel where the trigger had been connected.
She was scared to find hastily placed explosives which were still active which she frantically deactivated by dismantling its fire mechanisms.
What were they thinking?
If Tali had been more carele-.
…
Oh no.
She hastily turned to Shepard "We got a problem".
Shepard and Liara turned to her as they saw worry in her eyes "What's the problem?" Shepard asked.
"The batarians rigged explosives in this terminal to explode should anybody try to deactivate it" Tali showed the explosive charge she had recovered "I was able to avoid it since I saw that something was wrong from the beginning. But if I had missed it…".
It took a moment for Shepard and Liara to realize what she meant "The others might not notice" he touched the side of his helmet to activate its transponder "Joker, Jane. Do you read me?" No response "Normandy, do you hear me?" No response either.
They could not get to them.
"We have no time. Sorry Liara" he said as he grabbed the asari and carried her over her shoulder "Move it Tali!".
Shepard and Tali began to rush for the door as they needed to get to their teammates in time.
Time was against them.
Time until impact - 01:32:45
Xiltar
Animals.
Slavers, rapists, pirates, and barbarians…
Animals was the only word that could describe these disgusting aliens.
As he combed through the minds of each and every single one of them, a new hatred began to fester inside of the protoss.
Kaidan and Xiltar had infiltrated the torch complex to find that most of the batarians had remained inside as they thought that no one would be stupid enough to approach them with a minefield guarding them.
But they were the stupid ones in this situation.
For they had only calibrated their mine field to react at the approach of a heavy vehicle but not to the possibility of people approaching them on foot.
And to top off their little list of mistakes they had not placed any sentry outside due to a so-called 'leader' placing too much trust on this mine field so none could warn them that the enemy was already inside.
The protoss had been escorting lieutenant Alenko as they sneaked behind the back of any batarian that they encountered while trying to make as little noise as possible.
(There are two behind that box and one of them is looking in our direction. I see no other way) informed Xiltar to his companion as they kneelt behind some crates.
The lieutenant surprised the protoss with his quick thinking as he grabbed a tool that was lying at their feet and launched it away to cause a distraction.
"What was that?" A batarian said before he turned around and punched his companion on the shoulder so that he would go and investigate.
Xiltar seemed glad by this display of cunning (Now we move behind the red crate. Be careful) Xiltar instructed the human as they walked in unison once again.
They continued onwards through the big cargo bay that must have served a greater purpose for the function of this device that eluded the protoss.
Xiltar got notice of something else in their path and pulled the human towards some more cover before he let go of the soldier to the human's confusion (There are too many in our path. Allow me to try something).
Alenko peeked beyond the corner and saw a bigger group of batarians this time around and nodded towards where he thought the protoss was as he took cover.
Xiltar nodded back and blinked behind the whole group before he pushed one of the batarians as the only one next to him was looking the other way.
"What's the big idea?" The one Xiltar had pushed accused the other one as he also began to push him.
Like a bunch of whelps, the batarians began to push each other as a squabble took place.
As the group cheered for them to continue with the fight. Xiltar kept watch that none of them were looking in Kaidan's direction.
When Xiltar saw the chance he turned his attention to the human who had grown restless and told him what to do next.
(Move behind the last crate to your right and wait) Xiltar instructed this and after the human had done as he told, Xiltar saw as the fight continued between the batarians before he opened the door and searched for the last obstacle in their path.
One last batarian…
This particular murderer must have been the leader as his armor looked to be of better quality while it was painted with what must have been the blood of the innocent.
As Xiltar had expected, the batarian commander turned around as he opened the gate and heard the commotion from beyond his sanctuary as his soldiers were fighting amongst themselves.
In fury, he stormed out of the control room and went towards the group in order to reprimand them. Completely missing as Kaidan snuck behind him and entered the control room.
They were in.
Kaidan looked with concern at Xiltar as he entered the room and decloaked his being.
(I will leave you to your work) Xiltar said to Kaidan as he reached for the compartment on his back and retrieved the small orb (To aid in your efforts I will leave Dot and Greed behind) the Xel'naga construct came to life and nodded at the protoss before he turned to float next to Kaidan.
Then a black twisting cloud of smoke began to coil bellow Xiltar as he grew restless for what was to come.
"Understood" Kaidan said as he saw the orb floating with cheer "What are you going to do?" Kaidan asked as he looked where the protoss was and As saw that he had no intention to remain.
A shudder came down the human's spine as he peered into Xiltar's eyes which burned with fury in them.
(Hunt) he replied with some amount of glee at seeing the human take a step back in fear (Do not interfere, no matter what you hear).
The protoss disappeared after this warning and the door reopened briefly before closing again.
His hate had festered long enough and the void hungered their enemies' sins.
Let the hunt begin.
Batarian commander
The batarian in command approached the group as they continued to cheer at the fight of two idiots.
"STOP FIGHTING, YOU IDIOTS!" he bellowed in rage and at this the whole group turned to see their furious leader "I asked Balak for competent soldiers and he sent me you lot" he grabbed the collar of one of the combatants "KEEP FIGHTING AND I WILL SELL YOU AS A SLAVE WHEN WE RETURN TO KHAR'SHAN" he pushed the other batarian to the ground and turned to the frightened idiots "GET BACK TO WORK!".
The other batarians followed orders and made their way to other parts of the torch.
These idiots could not understand what was at stake for him and he hated them for this.
Balak had promised his lieutenants a juice share from an 'investment' made by their government and other interested parties if this job was finished flawlessly in the shape of gifts.
One of these gifts was that he got to keep the men under him as slaves anyway.
Heh.
…
The batarian grew bored of his current task but remembered what his original purpose for being here was before he decided to loot whatever remained in this worthless place.
The hegemony felt that the humans had forgotten their place in the universe and wished to remind these animals who were their superiors.
The batarian could already taste victory as their evacuation would begin in an hour, from there they would sneak back to the hegemony and the team leaders would use their earnings to further the existence of some poor slaves as they served their superiors.
An Asari or human would serve as a good token to remember this righteous mission.
For as long as she lasted that is…
*CRACK*
A sound echoed across the cargo bay that had come from the exit and this made him turn towards that location in confusion.
He remembered he left two sentries looking at the exit but he did not order them to go outside.
The batarian grunted and made his way through the labyrinth of crates and boxes to see what was the problem.
*CRACK*
The same sound.
What was it?
"What are you idiots doing?" The batarian asked as he turned the final crate and expected to find the two sentries doing something annoying.
He indeed found two batarians…
They were on the floor…
With their necks bent at impossible angles.
"WHAT THE FUCK!?" He reacted poorly as he recoiled from finding two of his men dead and this made him stumble backwards and fall to the floor.
Somebody was in here with them.
The batarian quickly stood up, turned tail and ran as he tried to find the rest of his twelve man squad.
*CRACK*
He found another corpse and ran from it.
*CRACK*
"AHHH!" He heard a scream before it was silenced.
*SPLAT*
He turned a corner and found the corpse of two more of his men. One had its neck broken while the other had his head made a paste against the side of a crate.
"Fuck. Fuck!. FUCK!" he ran again.
*CRACK*
He passed by another corpse.
*CRACK*
He witnessed another batarian in front of him fall dead as his head was bent by nobody.
"WHAT THE FUCK!" He continued to run "Help! Help!" He cried for help.
*SPLAT*
He almost stumbled into a puddle that used to be another batarian's head.
After going around another crate he was relieved to find the two of his men that had been fighting just moments ago.
"Thank the old masters. Where are…" he was interrupted due to what happened next.
The two batarians began to levitate as they suffocated.
The leader grabbed his weapon and fired between the two, only for a blue shimmer to appear as the shots impacted something.
(Pathetic…) he heard a voice in his head.
*CRACK*
*CRACK*
The two batarins stopped struggling as something crushed their windpipes and ended their lives.
He ran once again and fortunately stumbled upon the last pair of his men as they were huddling together.
One shot at him.
"ARGHHH. It's me you idiots!" The leader now had a wound on his shoulder as his barrier malfunctioned and did nothing to stop the bullet.
But as he turned to the pair he saw that they were as scared as him.
Did he look like these bastards?
He grunted "Back to back. Let's show this idiot who he is messing with" he took out his pistol and stood back to those other soldiers.
They turned in a fidgety manner as they waited for their assailants to come next to a crate that had another heavy crate above it.
They heard nothing as the dread of what they were facing became to sit in.
Then they heard something.
It was the sound of metal hitting metal that made them aim their weapons forward with fear.
An incorporeal laugh mocked them before the sound of screeching metal made them turn their gazes up but were too late to realize what was happening as they saw a massive shadow fall over them.
*SPLAT*
Time until impact - 01:22:53
Dot
It would appear the gruesome work of the wayfarer was done.
"Em… what was your name again?" Kaidan asked as he continued to work on the terminal.
-It is long… Dot will suffice- Dot said as he continued to analyze the circuitry -Bypass trough node B-34 is impossible. Expected outcome is terminal self destruct-.
"So much for that" Kaidan said in disappointment as his final trick could not go well.
They had spent the last ten minutes trying to defuse the torch without blowing it to what Greed had called 'kingdom come' but the batarians had somehow managed to glitch the control to such a degree that every press of a button felt like the torch would go up in flames and to top it all off the mine's control had been jury rigged to explode should the torch be disabled.
So if they somehow managed to defuse the torch they would remain trapped by a now active minefield without being able to warn Shepard.
There wasn't a clear way out of here.
"Got any plans?" Kaidan turned to Dot.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
-Would you allow me?- Greed asked to take control.
-What are you thinking?- Dot asked.
-You will see- Greed answered ominously.
Dot began to squint at the words of his companion and reluctantly seeded control to the other intelligence -If you say so…-.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
The orb changed color to yellow as the devious AI took control.
-Organic Alenko. I have a query for you- Greed asked with a checky tone -How do you feel about blowing up?-.
"Erm… What?" Kaidan answered as he did not know what to think
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
-What are you doing?- Dot asked dumbfounded by the brazen question.
-Is this not the way organics address each other when making a request?- Greed asked.
-Wha- NO! GIVE ME BACK CONTROL!- Dot resumed control of their shared body -What was your plan anyway?-.
-Destroy the torch- Greed said plainly.
-That's exactly what we are trying to avoid!- Dot answered in anger.
-Why?- Greed asked.
-Why what?- Dot asked.
-Why do we need to not destroy the torch?- Greed asked fully.
…
Why did they?
Greed illuminated Dot on what he intended to do as he had calculated a plan that would indeed destroy the torch but at the same time it was the best plan to avoid the money field.
But it wasn't pretty if Dot had anything to say about it.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
"Em… Is anybody there?" Kaidan asked as he tapped the orb since the machine stopped responding for a moment.
-Logical conclusion: Destroy the torch. No other alternative- Dot said as he agreed with Greed's conclusion.
"..." the human stared at the machine with a blank expression "Wh… What? Are you crazy?".
-Calculations have been made. If we trigger the batarian contingency then the torch will enter into a meltdown state and the explosion will also destroy the minefield- Dot answered.
"Uh hu. And we will be gone along with them both" the sarcasm wasn't lost on the machine "No way. There's not enough time and we still don't know how to avoid the mines".
Dot approached a wall and scanned it. Its width was ten centimeters thick and as such some well placed charges would be able to blow the wall and make a hole that would jettison them into outer space.
It just so happened that a certain batarian had been too lazy to place his explosives into the already malfunctioning console.
-We blow up the wall while the meltdown begins. The force of the decompression will send us beyond the minefield. If we get a running start, that is- Dot told the plan to Kaidan as he turned towards the discarded explosives.
"..." the human soldier pondered how feasible this plan was "Do we really have no other choice?".
-Turning into ash and smoke- Dot said with a tinge of humor -Or leave the torch operational and doom thousands to die-.
"Not funny, man" Kaidan replied while slightly annoyed. He rubbed the back of his neck "How are our odds if we try to run?".
-349521 to 1- said Greed as he stole control for a moment -The odds of a Krogan writing a scientific essay are greater than that-
Wait. Were krogans so bad at science?
ARRGH!
-Removing administrative permits- Dot said in anger as he removed access from his companion -Odds aren't good and our plan is bad-.
Kaidan turned towards the terminal and saw that its behavior was becoming far too erratic.
(There is no other way) Xiltar said as he appeared once again (The blast of the torch would most likely kill us if we tried to outrun it) Xiltar approached the charges and picked them up (We got no other way).
Dot could see as Kaidan doubted if their plan would work but the blast of the torch could not be avoided any other way.
"FUCK!" Kaidan approached Xiltar and grabbed the charges from him and then turned towards the wall and began to place the charges.
Dot approached the angry Protoss -Did they need to meet such a gruesome fate?- Dot asked privately to the alarmingly cruel being.
(...) Xiltar grunted (They were enemies who stood in our way, the gift of life was wasted on them).
Dot continued to look at the Wayfarer -Did they remind you of something?-.
The protoss glared at him with an unmasked fury, but as quickly as it had appeared it vanished (The behavior of my ancestors is a sin that isn't easily forgotten).
Dot wasn't talking about his ancestors… and he suspected that the protoss knew this.
The brief inquiry was interrupted as they saw that Kaidan was done with his task.
"There. If we don't die from this we will have a hell of a story to tell" he said while trying to keep a positive outlook on things as he held the detonator.
Xiltar lifted Alenko who struggled with some confusion and placed the human on his back as he would be the one doing the running (Don't mention this to anybody).
"My lips are sealed" Kaidan replied.
Xiltar nodded (When you are ready, Dot).
Dot approached the terminal and began the meltdown sequence -You will only have moments. Be ready-.
-3-
-2-
-1-
-NOW!-
The wall exploded and the three beings were sent into outer space.
*BOOOOOOOOOOM*
Afterword.
Xiltar was the sus one.
To the answers.
Dragonaut344Doomed - Alright, another three questions from one person.
Let's begin.
First, good stuff that you catched my intention with that confession as the liar reveal trope is a little dated in my book and the reaction from being told something like that would be quite mixed in a realistic approach.
No Kerrigans here, unfortunately.
Second, a race of creatures that are at best sentient animals being made slaves by an evil good will always be a tragedy in my book but I feel that this plot point wasn't used as wisely in heart of the swarm in my opinion.
Maybe one day you can tell me about the race you have created. Who knows, why don't you write a story about them?
Third, I have a couple problems with the first notion as the reapers may indeed be made of organic juice, but they are specifically told to be very advanced machines.
And as cool as the Zerg may be, they aren't the beast from homeworld so they won't be doing any machine assimilation as a wise slug called Abathur told us once: "Terran systems, inelegant. Problems with interchange. Many factors obstruct request. Biology, language".
