Hi everyone, as always I do not own Mass Effect.
Still, for this chapter I used other perspective and more vivid describtions. To be honest I prefere to write that way and believe that it will be more used by me in the future. Narrator is also not so Tali-centric. Please enjoy.
They moved forward through a wide, dimly lit corridor, covering each other from every possible side. They were surrounded by semi-darkness caused by the light action of lights built into the wall, which did not seem to shine at full power. Apparently the facility was running on a backup system. Moving on, they efficiently checked rooms full of non-working equipment, overturned furniture full of bullet holes and burnt walls with visible remnants of the use of geth plasma rifles. There was blood everywhere, even huge amounts of it, which, apart from making Tali slightly weak, surprised them for one simple reason. There were no bodies anywhere. From time to time they found traces of dragging the remains of the unfortunates, mostly Turians and Salarians, as evidenced by the color of the dried blood smeared along the corridor. What do the geth need the bodies of these unfortunates? Had they been Krogan or Vorcha it would have been clear the bodies would have been eaten or displayed as trophies, an unsatisfying option that would still explain their absence, but in this case there was nothing to explain their disappearance, the machines neither eat nor seem to need to torment their victims. They went on in more and more grave moods, stepping on denser traces of bodies and the massacre that had been prepared here, the facility was some kind of laboratory, so it had to be assumed that most of the employees were scientists without weapons.
Suddenly Wrex gave the signal to stop the procession. he pointed to the room in front of him, and he and Shepard burst into it from both sides. Behind them came Tali and Ashley, who saw an extremely disgusting sight. Turlania's corpse, there would be nothing particularly interesting about them if it wasn't for the fact that they were partially melted. A congealed dark blue goo resembling remnants of skin mixed with rivulets of blood and other oddly sticky substances seemed to ooze from his many wounds, which looked like burnt holes in the plastic material. The image was completed by the face of the unfortunate, frozen in a scream of horror, as if before his death he had looked into the depths of hell, forcing him to scream, which could be expected from this unimaginable horror. The Krogan standing next to the poor man's body bent over it and, using the datapad stylus on the ground, began poking at the gaping hole in the body. At this point, not only Tali but also Ash had to look away so as not to stain the insides of their helmets with the remnants of their previous meal. However, it turned out to be extremely difficult, because the munching sound made by the turian's molten innards, in which the old warrior was unceremoniously rummaging, could lead to real disgust.
"Strange," said the krogan, "It's not a plasma hit wound, only an extremely strong acid can penetrate that internally," he stated.
"Acid?" Shepard asked. "Are you sure? There are few weapons in this galaxy that use such inhumane means of killing. The last I heard of were blowouts produced by one system in the terminus." he stated.
"Maybe it's a gangster rally? Is the owner in arrears or hiding?" Ash proposed a solution.
"Or they wanted to steal the technology they were working on here, Wrex would you please stop poking around in it? We'll be sick here soon!" Tali said.
The giant, after a moment of further examination, pulled out a larger lump of some yellowish substance from the body, which he looked at for a moment, until he suddenly stood up, throwing away the stylus and, turning to the rest of the team, began to speak.
"Raid for material reasons we can reject, blowguns are used more as a tool of torture or intimidation, never in actual combat. They are neither accurate nor particularly loud. We can also reject torture, contrary to appearances, the boy died quickly after the burning substance reached the heart" he said, unhooking the shotgun from the hook and starting to walk towards the door. But he didn't stop talking.
"I've seen it before somewhere, but I can't remember where." he thought.
"Sclerosis doesn't hurt huh?" Ash joked
"I wonder how your memory will be after almost 1500 years." replied.
Tali almost tripped, fifteen hundred years! The quarians haven't been flying the stars for so long, and here before her is this turtle-like giant that predates the modern history of her civilization. From that moment on, the young girl began to look at this seemingly brutal man in a completely different light.
They went back to the corridor and began to move deeper into the facility, observing significant damage to the walls and rooms, you can see here the actual resistance of the employees of this place began. They reached the double doors, where they took their seats in preparation to force them, just as the krogan had done before with the young quarian on the left while the two men on the right side of the entrance. Moments later, they moved ahead, entering the open room with their weapons raised, and before everyone could register what exactly was going on, the Commander and Wrex started shooting. It turned out that there were six machine walkers standing outside the door, who seemed so surprised by the appearance of the team that it took them a while to turn their rifles towards the attackers. However, that was enough for Tali and Ash to join the cacophony of shots, efficiently eliminating those who were not cut off by the first volleys of Shepard and the krogan.
After a firefight that lasted a few seconds, the team moved forward taking more convenient positions behind what looked like a quick barricade as Tali started jumping between the scrap metal lying on the ground, downloading as much data as she could. While the quarian was busy gathering information, the rest began to look around the area with increasing concern.
"Something is very wrong here," said the mercenary
"I agree with you, they weren't just waiting for us to see what's next, look?" Shepard said, pointing to the geth lying on the ground.
"He stood aiming towards the depths of the facility, as if waiting for an attack"
"Maybe someone is still defending themselves there?" Ash asked
"Maybe, though…"
"Silence!" the krogan said, his voice raised. Everyone obediently refrained from commenting, and Tali interrupted the cacophony of clicks and curses as she broke into the next geth core. Everyone started listening, trying to recognize among the sound of lamps, still sparking torn cables and murmurs of ventilation anything that could indicate the approaching danger. Slowly, initially muffled, turning into an increasingly audible clatter, a sound could be heard, as if tens of stilts rushing ahead in a great, uncoordinated mass.
Everyone froze, until suddenly Wrex let out an unimaginable roar, which the quarian considered the beginning of signs of madness, but the krogan ordered those present to immediately rush to the cover and draw their shotguns and aim them at the hole from which, like from the gates of hell, the clatter was getting louder and louder.
"What the hell is this!" shouted the commander
"Damn all who had a hand in this, may they burn in the fires of Alak'har! I knew, I knew I knew this substance from somewhere!" utterances of the Krogan could be heard, who, ignoring the companions around him, began to talk to himself
"Wrex!" Tali shouted "What is this?"
He suddenly stopped his monologue, looked at the companions hidden next to him and with a cold, hateful voice said one word that could make even the toughest of Tuchanka's people fearful.
"Rachni."
Then, from the depths of the tunnel, you could hear the bone-piercing screech of dozens of inhuman throats calling defiantly at the enemies hidden behind cover.
"Listen to me!" the krogan said commandingly. "Everyone aim your gun at the center of the entrance hole, on my signal you fire until the barrels melt in your hands, then switch to your backup weapon, okay?"
Everyone acknowledged the order and, aiming their weapons as instructed, waited for the giant's signal. The latter, unmoved, stared into the darkness, listening to the ever louder mixture of terrifying, hellish sounds heralding the impending doom.
"Now!" he shouted then began firing shot after shot which was soon joined by the cacophony of the other three different caliber barrels, causing a lethal mix of death around.
The shelling had already lasted for a few endless seconds, when suddenly in the entrance one could notice the first creature, macabrely riddled with yellow goo, resembling a giant spider, which, falling from its wounds, revealed two more equally shredded, monstrous cephalopods.
The sight of these terrifying spiders aroused in Tali incredible fear mixed with disgust, after which the young quarian, uttering a cry of despair, grabbed a spare pistol in her other hand and with unbridled fury began to shoot without restraint.
This went on for another few infinities, until the last monster fell lifeless to the floor. Wrex, acting as the commander at that moment, ordered the firing to stop, which Tali did not want to comply with, still pushing forward, series after series, until the commander's intervention pulled her out of the battle frenzy. There was silence.
She didn't know what got into her, she apologized with all her heart for her reprehensible behavior, explaining the feeling of stupefying murder mixed with disgust and hatred for these monstrous creatures that overwhelmed her during the battle.
"Are you sure you don't have krogan ancestry?" the mercenary asked. "From what you're saying, you might think you're in a blood rage. Now it's worth checking if you don't grow a hump on your neck" he finished with a smile, wanting to distract the young girl from the shock she had just experienced.
"From what I can gather, you seem to be suffering from arachnophobia," Shepard replied, ignoring the krogan's previous words.
Tali looked at him questioningly, not understanding what he meant by that.
"It is a kind of disease manifested by a great aversion to all kinds of spiders and the like. Sufferers go berserk at the sight of these creatures, which would explain your behavior. It's strange that you have this condition. When you return, you must speak to Dr. Chakwas." he said.
"Do you have a similar spider on Maya?" asked Ash, "That would explain why you're so scared."
The quarian shook her head.
"It was the first time I saw something so horrible, I wanted to kill it even if it was the last thing in my life."
"Which brings us to perhaps the most important question." The commander quickly changed the subject, shifting his gaze to the krogan. "Wrex, how did you know it was Rachni and how to fight it"
"I don't know what they teach you humans, but almost two thousand years ago, the old Citadel council waged war against these creatures for hundreds of years, until finally finding our race helped them win the war. I fought in the last years of the extermination campaign, helping to destroy the last nest of these creatures. As you can see, a few managed to survive." he began to talk thoughtfully, as if reminiscing about those terrible but glorious moments.
"They can only be fought from a distance." he continued after a moment, "At close quarters, they'll tear you apart with their mandibles and claws, but luckily for us, their acid has a fairly limited range and Terran armor should be able to withstand their already diffuse beam. It doesn't change the fact that it's better not to get helmets on your head, butts for cover, and shoot only at the narrowest points of the corridor. There are few of us, so we have to make up for it with the concentration of fire." finished his speech.
Everyone unanimously confirmed receiving instructions regarding future possible confrontations, after which Shepard, to Tali's great horror, ordered to form the previous formation and move deeper into the facility. The answers to what exactly happened here must be further on the main servers after the takeover of which they will determine what's next. So they started walking, even more carefully than before, slowly passing the bloodier and bloodier remnants of the carnage that befell the people working here. Blood mixed with dissolved pieces of flesh was almost everywhere despite the apparent absence of bodies.
"They took them deeper into the nest," he said into the ether as if reading the thoughts and questions of the others.
"What for?" asked the youngest of the team, regretting her curiosity after a moment.
"To eat them." he said with complete indifference, which unfortunately led to a sudden attack of long suppressed panic in the young quarian.
She was quickly grabbed by Ash, who, holding her with all her strength, tried to calm the trembling girl. But it didn't do anything.
"I promised to go into the fire with you," the krogan's bass voice suddenly spoke, "No matter what, I won't let you die here."
These words acted on her like a bucket of cold water, making Tali regain her balance with the help of the sergeant holding her and thanking Ash and Wrex for their support, she checked her weapon to be sure and then took her designated place in the formation. If only she could look through the commander's built-in helmet, she would see a huge smile full of respect and approval for her newfound strength.
The journey lasted an additional ten minutes during which they came across a small group of creatures twice more, which fortunately they managed to get around without any major problems. They reached the main server room where, for some reason, there was not a drop of blood spilled or even a sign of struggle, as if everyone had fled the place as soon as the trouble started. After securing the room and making sure there was only one access point, Tali immediately sat down at the computer keyboard.
"Weird, no one blocked it. There is no password or standard file security," she said with obvious surprise.
"What does it mean?" the commander asked.
"That either the people working here were completely incompetent or they didn't think anyone else could get in here. Makes sense, the internal network is completely cut off."
She started working again on the panel in front of her, sometimes supporting herself with the Omnitool on her wrist, after a while accelerating the pace and significantly leaning over the console, as if in silent surprise.
"Keelah," she said.
"What happened?" the commander asked.
"Someone set the entire system to self-destruct, whatever happened here, the employees wanted to burn out everything alive in this base. Beneath us is a massive nuclear reactor, which in half a minute would increase its power by a factor of 100, causing an explosion that would destroy absolutely everything. I don't know why but they failed to get it to work"
Everyone looked at each other as if trying to read the movement of the body of the companions, whether any of them had an idea to solve this puzzle. After a while, however, when no one spoke, Shepard ordered Tali to redirect the self-destruct system to his omnitool in case they had to blow it up.
"You know why they brought those worms to life?" Ash asked, prompting the young quarian to start searching the data files for answers.
"From what they write here," she began, "That's where they got the queen's egg and planned to study the rachni to see if they could somehow use it for combat purposes, control or at least modify it. Almost all tests came back negative except for one…" She trailed off as she typed more commands into the keyboard on the counter.
"Okay, it looks like they somehow managed to get an intact tissue sample of this stuff from the 2,000-year-old war and compared it to what they grew from that egg. DNA varies greatly." she said with slight surprise.
"Not possible," Wrex objected. "I was there, thousands of years ago, and I remember very well what those beasts looked like. They are rachni!"
"Yes, yes, of course it's the same species, but its DNA is different in many places, like here. The system responsible for what can be considered as the instinct of self-preservation was completely removed during the wars. The same with the nervous system responsible for the perception of taste. The report says that compared to those present here, those spiders were more machines than sentient beings."
This startled Wrex, he stood there thoughtfully for a moment, reminiscing about the final days of the war, where he remembered hordes of these monsters fighting to the last worm despite the Asari's pleas for an end to the carnage and the efforts of the Salarian scientists to convey the surrender request via a machine supposedly constructed to communicate with them. He remembered how he and Grosh and Darkk had almost cut the last queen in half with their launchers, who had also killed Markin and his younger littermate, Warn, in a fit of desperate rage.
"I can't." he whispered, gaining the attention of the others. "I can't believe that all the blood spilled to bring peace was for nothing. We tried talking to them, really. Even the Krogan aren't that cruel. If we had known, we would have simply burned all their planets in nuclear storms." he barked through his teeth.
Shepard, not wanting to let his companion drown in sorrows and memories, decided to change the subject and, turning to Tali, asked what purpose they would be used for.
"First wave, cheap and easy to replace cannon fodder. However, it turned out that they could not control them in any way, so they wanted to multiply them as much as possible, either simply to drop them on the target planets as elders or to cause panic before the actual invasion."
Invasion, the keyword whose appearance automatically raises the next question.
"Tali," the commander began slowly. "Who does this facility belong to?"
She typed a few commands into the console, then began to read what was displayed.
"The results of all research were sent to a turian in the Maene Sector named Saren Arterius."
"Deer?" Wrex asked, to which he received an affirmative nod from the quarian, "I know the type. Currently, he is perhaps the most powerful of the turian warlords. Some extranet newspapers reported that it had a quarter of the remaining fleet of the former Turian Hierarchy under its arms. From what I've been hearing lately, he was planning to attack all dexo-food producing planets to subdue the rest of the old colonies. People say he's on their hit list." he finished, turning meaningfully to the commander. He cleared his throat in order to gain a few more seconds to think about the most evasive answer and then said that he himself did not know the name of such an attack and that he knew nothing about this type of attack.
The extremely unconvincing answer did not diminish the curiosity of the listening comrades, but understanding that it was most likely a top-secret matter, no one continued the subject.
Finally, he turned to Tali and ordered her to download the contents of the database to a portable disk and open the bulkhead into the complex where the queen was. This last statement caused quite a stir.
"Are you crazy?" asked Wrex, "We have a slight advantage over the buggers due to the size of the tunnels in this complex, but the queen is in a whole different league! Lately I needed a damn tank to do anything to her and we're even out of grenades!" the krogan concluded.
"Don't worry, I have a plan. If the danger is too great, Tali will self-destruct again, but please make sure we have about 15 minutes to escape." he said to the young Quarian, who set about entering the correct commands without question. This answer, however, did not please Wrex, who inquired further.
"Why do you even want to go in there, Rachni is non-negotiable, it will kill you as soon as you get close, believe me, we tried it at the end of the war when the worms had the last planet left."
Shepard didn't answer for a long time, staring thoughtfully ahead as if weighing he's next statement.
"I can't Wrex. I can't just condemn an entire species to death without trying to at least exchange two words, whatever they may be. It's not about orders or laws, it just can't be done. I will go there alone and see if this holocaust can be avoided, at least I will have a clear conscience, Tali!" he exclaimed.
"Change of plans, plug a self-destruct counter into my vital signs, if they kill me you'll have some time to get out of here. Alenka should be waiting for you outside the entrance, Wrex! Take them out from here." he ended up waiting for the orders given to be fulfilled.
All as if it had stopped, no one said anything, they just stared at him with a mixture of horror and, in Tali's case, admiration.
Suddenly, Wrex stretched haughtily, tilting his head to one side, followed by the crackle of bones being adjusted. He grabbed the shotgun in both hands and started moving toward the massive door on the other side of the room.
"Queen is behind this door, increase the penetrating power of your weapons because these big bastards are covered in thick armor." he said checking the gun.
"I gave you orders, take the sergeant and Tali and get out of here," answered the Commander.
"And I ignored him. You just earned my respect human, don't waste it."
At that moment, as if on cue, Tali felt a great pride and desire rise in herproving value, so she quickly finished pairing the console with her omnitool, grabbed her shotgun, and ran towards the giant. Ashley stay for a whileshe hesitated glancing between her immediate superior and the retreating krogan, she finally saluted Shepard, uttered the battle cry of the marines, and ran to take her place by the hatch. If at that moment anyone was able to look into the head of their commander, they would discover immense satisfaction from a well-made decision to accept these three into the crew.
"Just so that I don't have to resent you when something eats you."
The door burst open and a group of heavily armed figures rushed in, vigorously checking their sectors of action. After a while, the confirmation of the soldiers about the safe area ahead could be heard. On cue, the four started slowlyfuck through a huge hall filled with all sorts of things, devices and computers, one big laboratory at the end of which was a huge glass tube. They couldn't see what was inside because it was covered from the inside with a shesteel-like shutter material,incoming one on top of the other, not allowing a peek inside.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Ash said
"Shouldn't have gone," replied the krogan.
"I will not be defeated by an overgrown turtle" she replied with a smile on her face causing the same reactions at companion.
They approached the one opposite panel tube control on which the main display in the holographic was information about the shielding of the specimen.
"Okay," Shepard began, "I'm going to lower the cover inside, but to be sure, I will not turn off the shielding"
"How can you be sure these are two different things?" Wrex asked
„Because they are two different buttons. Attention, I'm starting," he announced and then pressed the button responsible for the cover, causing the cover to slowly lower.
From behind it emerged a huge creature standing on four legs, from whose back tentacles ended with thickening came out and on a huge, flattened head there were glowing eyes. Monster,turned towards them and started slowly approaching the glass.
"Yeah, that's the queen," Wrex said, then raised the shotgun in his hands.
The veil fell completely, and a shape appeared to all eyes kneeling turian whose body was covered with a strange, hardened substance. The woman's arms were bent unnaturally and strangely gnarled the expression on her face and her closed eyes indicated a lack of life.
Suddenly, the figure opened its eyes and let out an incredibly disgusting squawk that made the terrified Quarian raise the shotgun to her eyes and Ash, standing next to her, pulled the last hoarded grenade from her belt. Shepard and Wrexthey stopped only slightly apart, ready to open fire immediately.
"Do you bring death or salvation?" said the turian with a forced, inhuman voice.
"That depends," replied Shepard, "Depends whether you wish us death or prosperity."
Behind the turian, the Queen gave a strange creek, and then the woman spoke.
"The great warrior killed and burned. He destroyed and murdered. Born and unborn children. Those lost and those worth saving. did you come to finish work, or to find a little forgiveness?"
"Heh," laughed Wrex, "I'm not in danger of being forgiven, I've done so much wrong in my life that if there is an afterlife, I'll be defending myself against revengeful souls for millennia."
"Death awaits us all, the worthy and the lost, we wanted to give our children a new life, but wherever we go, there is only death and destruction. Terror."
"We didn't start this war," continued the krogan, "I remember vividly seeing cities razed to the ground and half-decayed, sometimes still alive beings. Don't teach me a peace that they don't have you wanted to offer!" finished with a scream.
"Queens didn't start, our children did not want to die in it, our stomachs did not want your flesh, our unity wanted to live and mature, grow and discover. Never die."
"Tell that to millions of my brothers and sisters who lost their lives in the trenches on Martal. Tell that to the Asari colony on Laynia'h that you've eaten to the last pup. Tell that to my sons and daughters whose litters perished under a sea of acid! Go ahead!repeat how much YOUR children did not want to die!" he started screaming and then, before anyone could stop him, he shot three times at the glass pane. As it turned out, it was the material from which windows on warships were made, so shotgun bullets did not even scratch it.
"Wrex!" shouted the commander, "Control yourself, we can't do anything with anger here. And you..." he turned to the queen behind the glass, "...from where you know what happened so long ago? You're hatched from a found egg, you can't talk about the time in which you did not live."
"The song of Mothers speaks through me, each of us hears the song of generations before piercing sung indefinitely. I was sung a story, a tragedy, a command. Don't break through, don't come alive until the plague is gone, until the pain is over, until the steel doesn't leave our song.I obeyed, I fell asleep and was awakened, pain and death. Suffering and silence. My children! Hear my song! Hear your mother's cry! Kids! Kids!..."
She began to scream and chant the immobile turian while the queen shrieked and screeched as if in great pain at loss. They looked at her with concern and consternation, and suddenly Tali was inspired by something. She walked over to the console, paired it with her omnitool, and began tapping commands until she found what she was looking for.
"Commander, there's a shielding field around her cage to make sure she doesn't communicate with her…. children." she said to Shepard who thought for a moment.
"That would explain why they haven't come running here yet, they're probably running around like headless chickens being cut off from the Queen." he concluded
"Let us out! Let us become one again! Let me hear from my children! Please! Grace! Let us out or kill us, we can't stand this loneliness anymore!" she started screamBy turian with a tone full of imploring desperation.
"Why did you attack those thousands of years ago? We know that those creatures were genetically different from you, what has changed? Why should I let you live?" asked a question
"Disease, pestilence, steel. Steel has poisoned our song!mothers they sang about the planet, about shining steel that made you fly. Seek, find, kill. Steel has poisoned us. The queens fought but could not win, last egg, the last hope, they would die, they knew it. That's why they chose me, the last pure one. They gave all the knowledge, they gave their song so that I could sing it when their did not. O mother, you who are a twinkle among the evening stars, why have you gone? Why was it written for us? Why couldn't we sing until the end of existence? Oh mommy, I'm lonely. So lonely." suddenly something unexpected happened. The queen fell to the ground, spreading her stabilizer legs, she laid her head down gently and began whimpering softly. Everyone stood spellbound, not knowing how to act or even what to say. Here before their eyes, the Queen of Rachni, the bloodiest, deprived scruples and hated species in the galaxy, lay before them crying for her mother.
"It wasn't her." the krogan said suddenly. "She didn't kill my brothers, and she didn't murder my children. The enemy I fought, whom I hated, would not weep over the fate of their parents. I don't know what those creatures were, but I do know that if we had met her, that war would never have happened." he concluded.
"How can you be sure she's not trying to trick us into letting her go?" Ash asked consciously.
"Eyes. I've killed tens of thousands of them, and they've all had the same blank blank stare. Her eyes are full of emotion, they tell the truth. I don't know what caused this plague or what it did to her species, but I do know for a fact that if they're real rachni, we're not enemies."
At this point, the commander stepped forward and walked over to the console, then stared at it as if trying to understand what it was for or make a final decision.
"What will you do when you regain your freedom? Will you take revenge?"
"Revenge? Yes. I'll get revenge. My song will burn among the stars and my children will carry it to infinity. I will find the steel that infected us, warped us, killed us. I will find the steel and its master and take my revenge cruelly!" she exclaimed.
"Good," he nodded and pressed a button on the console. The window lit up and then went out, simultaneously lowering itself to the floor. At the same time, the queen made a sound. It was not a squeak or a croak, but a momentous, soothing note that sounded in the air spreading itself throughout the facility.
"Thank you!" she screamed "Finally! My children! My treasures! I'm with you. End of loneliness! End of emptiness! Thank you. Say what I have to do? How can I repay you?"
The commander stretched out his forearm and showed a hologram of the galaxy z coming forward marked coordinates.
"Here are the coordinates of an uninhabited, mineral-filled planetary system that you can safely colonize. I'll let my superiors know so they can help you if needed. Can you get there by yourself?" he asked, still holding the hologram in front of him.
"Yes. Thank you. Yes. I'll take the children and set off into the void of the night. We will create a ship, we will breed engines, we will leave this accursed place. Thank you. what can i do for you offer for this grace?"
"Information. What did Saren need about you? What did the scientists want? They just wanted cannon fodder?" He asked
„Steel Hands came and asked. He promised freedom and help, just like you. He promised life instead for information unlike you. You give life, you ask for information. better people,steel hands he wanted a relay of the ancients, the One who was lost after the star was born they knew because they found him, he asked and he promised so i told him. He betrayed us, ordered us killed! Failed experiment. Experiment!I was waiting I grabbed the beast, screamed, the children attacked, but the monsters trapped me. I couldn't summon the kids or set myself free. I waited. You come, you give freedom. So I answer. Truthfully. Show compass." she said, then moved the tentacle to the map of the galaxy and ordered it closer in the designated place until a system with a white dwarf appeared.
"Here. Here you will find your doom"
Shepard stood in front of the Queen exchanging information and locations about relays and systems while the other three secured the area listening to their conversation. Suddenly, the door to the hall opened and one by one, Rachni warriors slowly began to march in, to which the three guarding their commander reacted by raising their weapons ready to fire.
"Stop!" cried the queen in the voice of a turian, "My children sing with us! You don't have to be afraid of them. They sing along with me."
With this assurance, they lowered their weapons and watched as these terrifying creatures approached their mother one by one, rubbing against her, emitting strange, pleasant grunts.
"They are happy, they are grateful, they are full of joy. We're finally singing together!" she screamed, and with her, the creatures standing around squealed. Tali, looking at this scene, could not deny that she was moved. Here at last, after so many years and hardships, the queen was reunited with her young, happy and full of life.
Unfortunately, the joy did not last long, it was interrupted by a call for an answer from the Union's main communication channel. It was Lieutenant Alenko who tried to contact them.
"This is Shepard," the commander answered the call.
"Commander, you must get out of there immediately! I just got a message from Normandy, a Turian fleet has entered the planet's orbit, demanding the surrender of Noveria or they will launch an orbital bombardment."
"Do we know what faction this fleet belongs to?"
"Silver Talons."
Shepard looked at Wrex, who immediately had the same thought.
"Saren"
As always please comment and advise.