Author's Note: Okay so Last day of some light vacation time. Back to Work tomorrow, so Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!
Chapter 16: Therum Part 2
The Tebrid's entire concept of music was simply awful, if they didn't need the little bastard's so badly he would have bludgeoned them to death already. That said he had admit to feeling a small amount of jealousy, the species wide crowd sourcing that the little monsters had pulled off managed to decode more of the Krogan Genome and unravel more of their bodies on the genetic level than his entire species had in the whole of their history, and most of that was stealing the information from the Salarians. They might not know it but the little monsters were also doing wonders to advance his own side project to-
Okeer's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the feeling of someone tapping relatively lightly on the top of his head. Okeer sighed as he turned around to face Bakara and pulled out his ear plugs, sadly exposing himself to the Tebrid's failed concept of music.
"Pipe down you Slugs!" Okeer snapped prompting several Tebrid's to turn and glare at him. Sadly some people only respond to insults. "Your boss wants a chat!" One of the Tebrid's made a clearly dissatisfied pout as it tapped a claw against their trigger pad to mute the screeching noises. "This had better be good. They get ornery when I make them pause their music."
'Warlord Okeer' amassed his own group of followers with promises to research and cure the Genophage, the first part of that promise he has kept at least and the second he was on his way to doing, or so he claims. These factors makes him the leading expert on Krogan Genetics, that they can trust that is.
"Explain your progress." Bakara instructed bluntly having been told to make it quick and was obliging.
"The Genophage is bacterial." Okeer stated bringing up a microscopic image of a bacterial organism, presumably the Genophage in question. "It's main job is to do some 'creative editing' on Krogan reproductive organs limiting the amount of hormones that go into the embryo in question which is what screws up their neurological development and leads to still birth." Of course some Krogan just produce over massive amounts of the stuff anyway, which is the main reason why there're more Krogan still being born anyway.
"I would presume that our leading expert on the Genophage would know more about the subject than just the bare basics." Bakara stated making her disappointment known.
"I'm making sure you understand the bare basic amount of information you need to in order to realise the implications I'm about to tell you." Okeer tapped on his Keyboard and brought up another Bacteria. The differences were hard to make out at first but several pictures appeared of sections that had been zoomed in even more as well as 3D models of Protein chains as they were unravelled revealing that the number of differences between the samples were in fact pretty vast. "The first sample was taken from some of the volunteers. The second is a sample from my personal Genophage collection." Even if he used the term 'collection' the fact of the matter is that treating the Genophage requires that he has samples to work with, and so has been collecting, cultivating and preserving samples from every world that he could for hundreds of years.
"Tuchanka is radioactive, the radiation could cause mutations." Bakara stated as she mused the implications.
Okeer wanted to counter that the Genophage was engineered specifically to be radiation resistant in order to survive Tuchanka's harsh environment. Instead...
"Yes Radiation could." However that was not the point Okeer was making. "The DNA in the first sample though mysteriously has a great deal in common with Volus gut Bacteria." Bakara visibly recoiled at the implications. "Not only that, but it also has a great deal in common with this sample." A Third Genophage variant, the one difference from the first sample was the planet of origin. "And this one." Fourth identical sample from a wholly different planet than the others. "And this." A fifth. "And this." Five separate planets, some of them radically different in their environments, each of them had the exact same 'mutations.'
"The Salarians." Bakara spat as if she was voicing a long held suspicion.
"I take it you agree with my theory then?" Okeer asked looking at Bakara eye cocked.
"One of my clan sisters, she successfully gave birth to a child, so naturally she attempted to have a second with the same mate, only to end in failure." Bakara explained face twisted into a grimace. "The event coincided with a murder in one of our green houses." A woman who was fertile suddenly wasn't, coinciding with a murder in a highly secure location ideal for dumping Salarian bio-weapons into. "Under no circumstances is this information to leave this room." Bakara stated before she turned her attention to the trio of Tebrid's that were off to the side. "And that goes for all of you!" The Tebrid's chirped several times while nodding their heads.
"That means yes by the way." Okeer understood Bakara's reasoning.
If this became common knowledge around the camp then there would be war. Not only had the Salarian's sneaked into their camp and murdered one of their own, but they were actively working to undo what hundreds of years worth of survival of the fittest had accomplished in restoring Krogan fertility. That needed to be answered for.
"There will be answers had I assure you." Wrex was leaning on the doorway leading into the laboratory, apparently having heard the entire conversation. "But not by us." There was nothing to gain by complaining to the Salarian's about their duplicity, not when anything they had to gain from said duplicity would only leave them open to more Salarian sabotage. But Wrex would tell the Lich, and from what he heard the last time he got good and pissed at the council he blew a hole into the citadel.
The Geth inside of the ruins were eliminated by a series of quick head shots via magnetically charged rounds, which both utterly pulverised said heads and severely damaged if not destroyed the programs inside. Liara didn't maintain a lot of high hopes for the latest group to come to her rescue.
"Doctor T'Soni I presume." Garrus stated while looking up at the doctor who had been awkwardly suspended inside of the bubble.
"Well the ruins don't seem to be hostile to you. And you killed the Geth so you're not related to the last three groups that came in here." Liara stated as she breathed out a sigh. "Unfortunately I don't think that..." And then the security bubble suddenly dropped, Shepard having attached a boot hack that she had gotten from the Lich's to what was left of the computer terminal.
"I have no idea who you are or if you do intend me harm but I do have one request first and foremost, I have been inside of that bubble for goddess knows how long and I have to go relieve myself." Liara explained before she quickly chose a random corner and began to ran off to it.
"Oh you need to use the bathroom? Alright I'll show you where it is." Shepard explained casually prompting Liara to stop dead in her tracks and stared in shock.
"You know where the bathroom is in this place?" Garrus asked his face saying that he didn't believe Shepard one bit.
"The layout shouldn't be any different then what the Lich's programmed for us from the simulation, for all the advances in technology that they make they don't change their layouts very often. This one should still be in use." Shepard, Tali, and Garrus went down a seemingly random hallway.
A few moments later Tali ran back, grabbed Liara, and pulled her along. Well that was an interesting experience, Liara just used a little girl's room older than most civilisations. Garrus let out a loud whistle as he looked at the contents of the room Shepard led them to. Pods. Lots and Lots of Pods. There had to be hundreds of them here.
"Think they're active?" The C-Sec officer asked looking at the pods.
"Not in any way that we can get a living person out of them. Maybe if we brought ol' skull face down here he might be able to do something with them." Shepard explained leaning over one of the pods.
"Excuse me." Liara asked waving her hand a little bit at Shepard. "But... why do you know how to use a Prothean Toilet?"
"It's not too different from what the Lich's introduced to the Flerkin, modified of course to account for their increased bulk." To Shepard's explanation Liara blinked stupidly.
"I have no idea what either of those are." Liara eventually explained prompting a look of surprise on the faces of Garrus and Tali who looked at each other and then back at Liara.
"How long were you in that bubble?" Tali asked incredulousness clear in her body language despite her visor.
"In any case Sovereign and Desolas didn't send an army of mercenaries in here to scoop up some ancient cryo-pods or kill a bunch of Archaeologists." Shepard interrupted while she stood up.
"Let's see if we can find the base's memory crystal." Shepard stated as she led them down another tunnel.
"You have still done nothing to explain how you know the things that you do!" Liara shouted while she followed after them. "Who are you and what species are you!?"
"Jane Shepard and human...ish." Shepard replied back as they walked back the way they came.
"What do you mean 'ish!?'" Liara asked again hands waving in frustration, the way Shepard paused indicated that it wasn't part of the name of her species but rather a qualifier she added after the fact.
"I got a bunch of organs from other aliens in me, Golema and Prethoryn just to name a couple, and some cybernetics on top of that." Shepard explained in simple terms.
"I have no idea what those are!?" Liara was making a pretty good impression of a petulant child at this point.
Garrus shot Liara a pitiful look, before wordlessly bringing up a video on his omni-tool. While Liara was busy having her mind blown out through her ears Shepard had led the group to what appeared to be a empty room. Crouching down Shepard pressed her hand against a section of floor tile and it raised out of the ground, taking with it a large green crystal taller then most of the people here.
"We have the memory Crystal." Shepard stated into her coms. "Clear the are-" Suddenly Shepard was interrupted as an arc of lightning flew out of the crystal and zapped her causing her entire body to spasm before she fell over onto the floor.
"Yeah that's not good." Garrus stated as he accessed his own coms. "Command this is Lieutenant Garrus. Our muscle just got dropped like a sack of rocks, can we have a new one please?"
"New Muscle on its way down, please stand by Lieutenant." Command replied, and then the entire facility shook, dust that's been in place since before the Turian's have existed dislodged and falling on them.
"Command, if that was you then you're polishing my armour when we get back." Garrus statement was punctuated by his spitting out fossilised dust from his mouth.
"Negative Vakarian. You're going to have to clean your own armour." Which was unfortunate but given that the entire facility was shaking he had bigger priorities at the moment.
"We can't just leave her here." Tali stated as she looked down at their half buried companion.
"Agreed. But how do we get her out of here. She must weigh what, like three hundred pounds or something?" Garrus asked while he scratched his head.
As one, Garrus and Tali both turned around to face the Biotic scientist that they just rescued.
Outside of the ruins the mercenaries had taken the brute force method to problem solving. If the Ruins wouldn't let them take what they came for nicely then they would simply destroy the ruins completely. Luckily they had all of this mining equipment around. So taking a drill armed with a vibrating biotic field tip they were in the midst of tearing the place apart.
Sadly the Prothean memory crystal was far too heavy for Tali or Garrus to carry it out working together let alone individually. Even if they could somebody had to shoot at the people coming into the ruins via the holes being torn all over the place.
"Bastards!" Liara screeched as she watched the place get torn apart, collapsing the tunnel they had come from, cutting them off from the room with the memory crystal in the process.
Desolas emerged on the other-side of the room in question, quickly being guided to the location of the crystal he used his Biotics to grab it and rip it out of the ground, and once that was done he grabbed hold of it. Images flashed into Desolas's mind, knowledge, the last desperate scramble of a civilisation on the brink of death and the last act of spite that they would execute in order to destroy their enemies. And unfortunately for the Council, Desolas already had everything he needed to know to make sense of it. Shaking his head Desolas looked at the crystal, took a wad of explosive puddy out of his armour's compartment, with a device attached to it, pressed a few buttons and let the device beep before turning around walking away. A few moments later the crystal was destroyed in an explosion.
The group had gone down the third of the three tunnels, the one that they hadn't gone through yet and were eventually met by a dead end, at first.
"How the hell do we open this door anyway?" Garrus asked as Tali worked to do just that.
The Mercs and Geth were working to try and get through but the shields were not responding to them very well, sadly though the borrowing equipment was making short work of the walls and ceiling. Then the door Tali was trying to open opened, standing on the other side was Kaiden and Ashley, both of them armed with eight barrelled mini-guns pointed their way.
"I'd move if I was you." Ashley stated and at once Garrus and Tali hugged one wall while Liara hugged another, using biotics to pin Shepard next to her.
And from there, the other two Dragoon's opened fire releasing a stream of ammunition being rapidly manufactured against the enemy forces. The slugs were torus or donut shaped, each of them shattering against the targets, released arcs of electricity and flash fried into plasma as they tore apart and melted the enemy hard suits and synthetics. With a few moments bought the three aliens ran onto the shuttle dragging Shepard along via biotics before Ashley and Kaiden followed soon after.
Above the Admiral was looking down on Therum and observed the shuttle carrying her daughter taking off through the air.
"EDI, do you see those ruins full of enemy combatants down there?" Admiral Shepard asked looking down contemptuously on the planet below.
"Yes." The Synthesized voice replied in a monotone. "I don't want to."
"Understood Admiral."
A few moments later a single Tungsten rod was released from the war ship and entered the atmosphere, guided onto the target via a mass of Mass Effect induced super gravity it crashed into the planet with the force of a massive meteorite, completely annihilating the ruins and everyone living inside of them in the process.
"Are you going to be okay Doctor?" Garrus asked while Liara just stared mouth agape at the massive smoking crater she just escaped from.
"Oh sure. I'll just spend another 3 years getting a permit to lead a expedition to another dig site." Liara's voice was dripping with sarcasm.
Turning around Liara observed Shepard for a time and then went to get changed. And maybe catch up on the news, because someone had done something and she wanted to know what. Liara herself had set up the policy that no outside contact was allowed on the digsite, to her regret now, but the alternative was another set of ruins raided and sold off piecemeal right under her nose. Ah well it wasn't like she had a lot to catch up on.
"You have: 1054 new messages." Liara blinked stupidly as she reconnected to the extra net.
The first dozen or so messages Liara thought that some kind of zombie apocalypse movie took the galaxy by storm. The next few messages she learned that not only were the zombies real but were part of a new race to enter the galactic scene. Then she learned that the number of known alien races had effectively doubled, the numbers including at least three species of sapient rocks. The Zombies, the Lich's were now the oldest known active sapient race. The Quarians and Geth had reconciled, the Krogan were regrowing their balls, the economy was in shambles, Omega has fallen, the council was making plans to mine black holes...!
"What the Void is going on!?" Liara felt like the last sane mind in a universe that had gone to insanity.
More historic events had happened in the few weeks of radio silence she put herself through than in the past hundred years. For now Liara was being allowed to rest, partially because she needed time to clean herself and decompress, but mostly because Shepard still hadn't regained consciousness.
"Well?" Amanda was standing next to Skeletor who was doing an examination on Shepard.
"One Prothean unloading their memories onto another is a process that would be strenuous even for their own: and both they and the technology in question are built for it. The only reason Shepard is alive at all by my estimates is because of her high psi rating. And I don't know how long that'll last for." Skeletor explained bluntly. "Even worst, because someone destroyed the entire site we have no idea as to what the contents of the crystal is and the only way to get it is to salvage the contents from Shepard's mind." Letting out a sigh the suited Corpse put his hands together and cracked semi-cybernetic fingers. "We'll have to isolate the contents inside of her mind for now to make sure that she doesn't hurt herself." The Lich put his hands on Shepards head and let the sinister green energy flow from there. "In the mean time I suggest that you figure out which planet you want to raid next."
Desolas has a wormhole drive equipped Reaper, even if they did know that he was there he's since long gone. Time was of the utmost importance and that includes figuring out what is going on at Noveria and on Feros. For now they had a man on the job.
"Thanks for nothing." Saren stated as he walked back into the meeting room. "Noveria is home to a bio-research facility, owned by one Binary Helix." Wrex mentioned them before, a company that ostentatiously attempted to cure the Genophage but failed. "The basic idea is that if anything escapes the facility itself they'll die in the ice and snow." Which led to the question of what precisely they're researching. "The corporate executive told me that 'the most interesting thing we're developing right now is a new species of wine grape.'"
"The Reapers aren't going to take the galaxy with Wine Grapes." Amanda stated while she glared suspiciously and crossed her arms. "And what about Feros?"
"Another corp, Exo-geni. I only got into contact with a VI, I told it I was a spectre, sent my clearance code over, and they put me on hold." Just because Saren's Spectre status means he can bludgeon his way through red tape doesn't mean that he can stop people from blatantly lying through their teeth at him. Course that same clearance means that he can go where he wants and do what he wants when he gets there, especially with the opposition is a bunch of useless pencil necks trying to be as obtrusive as possible.
"Wrex seems to have history with Helix, he could be an asset, and if no one is taking calls on Feros it could mean that there's no one left to take calls." Amanda stated holding her chin.
"Wrex could also be a liability too." Saren stated in no uncertain terms. "But yes. The situation on Feros could be time sensitive."
"If you two are done, I need peace and quiet." Skeletor stated telling the two in no uncertain terms to get while he worked.
Liara hasn't looked up from her omni-tool since she arrived in the ship's in-house bar.
"Hit me again." Nor had Liara stopped downing shots.
On the one hand Liara was celebrating, getting out of that damned bubble surrounded by the blood splatters of her team and the various creatures who invaded her dig site, coupled with the most massive archaeological database she ever saw giving detailed accounts of not only the Protheans but also the various races they lived alongside via the Lich's databanks. On the other hand she was mourning, everything that she ever knew about them was a complete and utter lie, all of her work, the collective work of every archaeologist within the borders of the Citadel that have ever existed or will ever exist, has been completely, comprehensively invalidated. She felt like a cheap tabloid Magazine reporter. The Flerkin manning the bar hasn't had the heart to tell her she's been drinking non alcoholic beer.
Garrus and Tali were sitting in a corner a little ways away from her, looking mighty concerned all things considered.
"This is pathetic." Tali stated bluntly.
"I know. There isn't even any booze in those drinks, how is she still getting drunk?" Garrus asked looking on in stunned amazement.
"Well she's young, I mean she's older than my grandmother but she's still young, she has plenty of time to find a job that doesn't make her depressed." Tali stated while shrugging her shoulders. "Worst case scenario we can bring her along with us when we go raid the corps." Garrus nodded his head in agreement with that. "Feros has ruins on them right?" Tali asked tilting her head.
"I think ancient Prothean ruins are literally the last place she wants to be ever." Garrus replied bluntly.
"Yes, but we can use them to help her transition into a safer line of work. One that won't have her piss herself inside of an ancient Prothean security module again." Tali replied while she inserted a straw into the 'induction port' of her suit to take a sip.
"I think the zombie said it was supposed to be for raising Prothean ships into the air so that people could work on it's under carriage."
Suddenly Liara smacked her head against the bar.
"I can hear you two you know!" Maybe they need to take a new approach. "Since you two seem to be so fascinated by my time in the ruins let me share with you some of my findings!" Liara pressed several buttons on her omni-tool. "This picture came from one of the cryo-pods inside of the ruins you people took so much joy in destroying!" A simulation had played out the head widening, turning a lighter shade of colour, the mushroom like head widened slightly, and four empty sockets that were once filled with eyes. "And here we have a picture of the first group to invade the ruins and murder my team!" Wide mushroom like heads, solid chitenous plating like that of a insect, and four glowing eyes. In layman's terms: A Prothean.
""Oh Snap!"" Both Tali and Garrus stated at the exact same time, this might be relevant information.
Review Section:
RonaldM40196867: True. I think the Developers got confused about what they wanted to do with them between 2 and 3. The whole conflict between the Heretic and Mainline Geth is a matter of 'accept outside help to accelerate their Evolution' or 'Evolve under their own power' and in the end Legion, the biggest proponent we met for the 'evolve under their own power' camp was the one to implement the Reaper Code to grant the Geth true Sapience.
Guest: I agree, the Vorcha do have bull space magic, but if you compared a Omega Vorcha with one from Heshtok then I bet you'd see a significant genetic deviation because Eezo and Biotics.
Paladinsins: You mean the one where people turn entire planets, entire Solar Systems, into space ships? No, I don't have any plans like that.
Clown2107: It would take some work.
