Author's Note: So still behind, Such is my lot in life. Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!
Chapter 52: The Terminus System Part 5
Time Until the Colossus Fires 17M 23D 01H
Tuchanka was in chaos. The local Krogan had managed to be spared the worst of the Reaper's invasion, and Wrex's quick thinking managed to deal with the aftermath. He flooded Thorian fungicide into the bunker's air regulation system, killing off the insanity inducing spores leaving people unconscious for a while as the Union medical implants picked up the slack together with Natural Krogan regeneration. The worst hit were the Tank Bred Krogan immortals but even they were only out of it for a few hours. No the real problems were only just beginning. The Majority of Tuchanka's new plant life was based on Chozon's, the highly radioactive home-world of the Chozo, so that the post nuclear environment of Tuchanka would not slow down their terraforming efforts. It also meant that the Gestalt controlled about nine tenths of Tuchanka.
The Krogan's problems only spiralled from there, the old enemy made a reappearance, the Rachni, but they were also being accompanied by other monstrosities too. Four armed Goliath's like a cross between Elcor and Krogan charging around and body checking with brute force. Shriekers flew through the sky raining down explosive dung. Entire packs of Varren roamed the fields were the Krogan had their crops, plagued by Klixen, entire settlements swallowed by Thresher Maws casualties avoided only by virtue of people having already been evacuated undergroun in anticipation of falling Reapers. Most impressive of all an ancient beast from Tuchanka's past, a Kalikiosaur, a giant armoured monster built like a Tomkah that the ancient pre-nuclear tribes of Tuchanka used to ride on.
The forests were fearsome too, Giant trees spitting lightning and inducing psionic effects, vines big and strong enough to crush a Tomkah, the air was changing within their radius too, the trees were producing exotic gasses and releasing them into the air, the people who breathed it in reported a feeling of euphoria and wild hallucinations, if that gas wasn't so annoying it would be a huge boon. The Gestalt was not the only threat. When the psi-wave hit Tuchanka all the Custodians went the way of the rest of the synths in the Terminus system and went on a rampage against all organic life on the planet. The Krogan wiped them out of course, but more of the contingency had since arrived at the planet.
"We don't know what they're after." Wrex stated bluntly hands folded over each other. "The Tebrid's think it has to do with the materials they use to make Custodians." On cue one of the Tebrid's floated over on a hover platform.
"The Main component of our Custodian's is a rubberised material that we make using a particular species of tree from our home world." The Tebrid explained in simple terms.
"A species that has been cultivated on Tuchanka?" Wrex asked looking at the Tebrid suspiciously. "A specialised radiation resistant hybrid. But Yes. That is the case."
"You're excused." Wrex waved his chief engineer off who in floated back to the corner. "Regardless of what the Contingency is here to do, we should take advantage." The Contingency is an enemy, the Gestalt is also an enemy, thus they should pit the two enemies against each other. Cowardly? Not at all. Just because the enemy is fighting one another does not mean that they will not also be fighting them, it only means that the enemy won't pull a move as cowardly as teaming up against them. Towards that end... "Scout master. Have you been able to confirm our suspicions?" Wrex turned his attention to the leader of the so-called 'Blood Fangs' unit, a young pup by the name of Urdnot Dagg. The Young Krogan smacked his hand into his chest as he stepped forward.
"The other clans have confirmed our suspicions. Every Gestalt attack has been preceded by a swarm of Klixen, we thought that they were using them as advance scouts, now we know for sure." A datapad was handed over to Wrex containing an autopsy report on Gestalt monsters. Each of the Gestalt have mutated glands in their nasal cavity that are capable of picking up pheromones released by the Klixen. According to Doctor Solas, who was too busy in the medical ward to be here, the Klixen can release one of three types of pheromones, Trail used to indicate where food is, Enemy used to mark a target to be destroyed, and Distress released by the Queen when the hive is in danger.
"And he thinks we can use this to mark the Contingency as the Gestalt's enemy?" Wrex asked looking at the information doubtfully.
"And us as targets to be protected." There isn't a overriding consciousness to the Gestalt at the moment, only madness, so the creatures created by it, although designed to be able to work together, aren't under it's complete control, so everything's acting on instinct, and instinct can be manipulated.
"You are proposing we hide behind our walls and wait out the enemy!?" Gatalog Uvenk was a fool that Wrex only barely tolerated for his ties to other clans, that said if he doesn't learn how to shut his trap and listen then one of these days Wrex was going to have to arrange a 'accident' for him.
"He's proposing that we domesticate them." Wrex stated as he let out a tired sigh. "We already kept Varren, and Kalikiosaurs once upon a time, this will be no different, you miserable pyjak!" With the usual insults out of the way Wrex had a decision he needed to make. "Aralahk company master." Grunt stepped forward and at attention. "Our engineers are busy manufacturing the chemical sprayers necessary to deploy the pheromones. Your assignment is to get what our scientists need in order to manufacture the pheromones."
Which meant killing Klixen in the very specific way as to not damage their scent glands and then cut said glands out, put them into a canister and transport that canister back to HQ, preferably without getting eaten by bugs in the process. Grunt's response was to nod his head and do his duty. Shepard drilled into Grunt the importance of tactics and such force multipliers, if the damned monsters were stupid enough to fall for obvious tactics then that was their problem. Sides the Gestalt wasn't the only one he'd be going after before the night was done.
Time Until the Colossus Fires 17M 20D 20H
Rannoch was part of the secondary lines for the ongoing fight against the Contingency forces. The Turian's were soaking up the majority of the proverbial bullets against the Contingency. The Geth spent centuries carefully cultivating and breeding Quarian crops to improve upon their nutritional value and growth rate, the Union introduced bio-printing technology to convert plant matter directly into meat, Rannoch was close to the front lines meaning that the amount of people that could be sent out with high morale had increased with Rannoch delivering food almost directly to the front lines. The new Kwuwu class warship with its excessive fire power was a major asset in destroying Contingency ships by the dozens, but the real cincher in strategy was its suite of cyber warfare tech. Suicide VI programs, anti virus programs and most notable of all: a Ion pulsar designed to fry the electronics of entire ships.
Usually the Contingency would attempt to bomb planets to wipe out all life on the planet in question, which is why the planet side defences made a effort to destroy the ships before they could unleash their havoc. The Union did too good of a job building their ships that the contingency was now using, the Turian's would usually only end up managing to shoot them down to crash into the planet in question, at which point in time the plethora of ground side forces inside of the wreck would be unleashed. Fenrir's and Hugin, Geth Leapers and Primes, Custodian Engineer's and Drones all swarmed from the wreckage in question and charged the nearest settlements, Ion pulses would be used to fry their electronics, or failing that Gungnir rods dropped from orbit with the intention of utterly annihilating ground side forces.
The Turian's were proving to be very adept at sweeping aside the Contingency, they were getting plenty of practice after all, and there lies the problem. A meeting room on the surface of Rannoch. Before the Morning war it was a embassy, relatively common across most Citadel worlds, not that the Quarians were part of the Citadel anymore, appropriate then that this was now being used as a war room.
"The key stone of the enemy is this." Admiral Korris brought up a hologram of the Contingencies Not so secret weapon, a mega-structure they had cobbled together from dismantling their own fleets and were since working to make it proper: A Matter Decompressor. "Because of this thing those tin can's have been able to pull literal mountains of materials out of their arses in order to speed build their ships. Even then not even them being machines makes sense with this crazy level of output." The Machines can work 24 hours a day? So can most factory lines, they're already producing tech with VI assistance, and their population was large enough that they could work in shifts. Better coordination? Again VI's. Even worse though is that the Mega Structure isn't even the biggest secret that the Contingency is keeping.
"That we know of." General Victus crossed his synthetic legs as his head leaned into a fist, one too many cups of Kaffa in his system. "There's an area of space that's gotten... weird."
"Weird?" Admiral Zorah asked sounding deeply concerned. Weird could mean more of physics stop working, like in the area where the Collector's base used to be. "Admiral Xen?" At Victus's prodding Xen stepped forward.
In recent Month's Xen had received vilification, before her research into AI had been seen in quite in poor taste, even if the majority of that research had been dedicated to taking AI apart. Then came the Union who didn't have the Council's usual restrictions on AI but instead had explicitly told her to stop her exact line of research, which had been fine with her as she liked the idea behind the Geth's creation, and was arrogant enough to think she could prevent a second Morning War. Now though? Now the red light turned green and Xen could bathe in a smug glow of 'I told you so'. But she wasn't here for that. No she was here in her capacity as part of the Union's scientific fleet.
"Our sensors cannot penetrate very deeply into part of Contingency controlled space." Xen stated bluntly while she brought up a holographic diagram of a ship sending out a scanning signal against an orb that was acting as a stand-in. The Ship's censors were then pushed away by something produced by the orb. "The main idea is that something or several somethings are producing a strong anti Grav field which is deflecting our sensory output. The main problem with this theory is that there were no major deflector units that would be used to do this type of thing in the area where the event phenomena is occurring. It is possible that the contingency ships are utilising some kind of deflector technology, in which case we would be picking up multiple shifting bounces indicating where the ships are located and where they are going." Thus came to Xen's much more out there theory. "The more likely explanation of the two is unfortunately infinitely more terrifying!" Said the grown woman sounding like she was about to win the grand prize for trivia night at her high-school. "Neu Eezo."
"That stuff that almost tore apart that planet that Sparatus was running the research sight out of?" Admiral Ran had what you call doubts. "Keep listening." Victus on the other hand was treating the situation with the Gravitas that it deserves. "The Gravity of a black hole is so strong that it's able to warp time around it. We understand this, the Union understands this, and the Contingency understands this. But what if you instead manage to pull a reverse, and instead of super gravity you create a field of super anti-gravity?" A new diagram came up showing Xen's theory. "What if instead of time slowing down in and around a black hole it instead dramatically speeds up?" That had... implications. The Salarian's tried flinging a probe into orbit around a Black hole to get data on it once, didn't get it back for 600 years but according to the probe's internal clock and battery Not even five minutes had passed. If that pattern is being thrown into reverse... "The Good news is that I don't think they're maintaining this huge time dilation constantly." Xen followed up with more of her sensor data displayed holographically, showing periods where they could get nothing, then periods of massive quantities of distorted data, then back to nothing again.
"If the source of this... time dialation field is some kind of..." Admiral Zorah still struggled with the implications of what was happening. "White Hole, then everything caught in range is being pushed away from them."
"Correct. Receiving deliveries is likely impossible while in this state, then there's the strain that must be being put on their equipment to not be torn apart." Xen on the other hand was happy to have someone who grasped the implications of what she was telling them for once, and for the free term to describe her new discovery, 'Anti Gravity Time Dialation field Generator' doesn't quite roll off the tongue. "The main issue here is that we don't know what they're doing, aside from throwing ships at us that is." Most of them are largely intact too, just that their electronics are fried so they have to be gutted and remade from the inside out before they can be considered useful, but that was their doing. Probably for the best, eliminate any possible nasty surprises that are waiting for them. Either way. "Near as I can tell the 'White Hole' operates on a schedule, if we can get a ship inside using that window of opportunity then we can attack them from there."
"That could be why they keep sending ships at us." Admiral Zorah stated while he held his chin in his hand. "The White Hole pushes things away from it right? They have no problem sending disposable ships at us to keep our own forces occupied while they work on their pet project."
"All the more reason why we need to get people in there and figure out a way of getting information out." Admiral Victus snapped making his opinion known.
"Getting people in is going to be the easy part." Admiral Xen on the other hand saw no point in sending probes out to get data that they were never going to get back. "It's getting out that's the problem. The time Dialation event could last hundreds of years. Anyone we send inside could live hundreds to thousands of years before the event shuts off. This as far as we know is a good thing. Our agents will literally be in and out in moments. But we have to assume that if this White Hole functions in the same way as a Black Hole then any ship caught in the even horizon will be Spaghettified!" Xen explained while she was slightly excited, but even then the others were just confused.
"Spaghettified?" Admiral Zoryah asked looking confused. "It's the term used by the Union to describe an object getting stretched really thin by a black hole." Xen stated before she back tracked. "It's not important."
"Agreed. We need to take those ships apart and figure out how they managed to get through the gravity ripples." Admiral Victus stated bluntly. "We can't just keep sitting here letting those bastards send ships out to attack us." The War Council nodded their heads and scattered to tend to their own duties.
Time Until the Colossus Fires 17M 18D 03H
Aria glared at the screen in front of her depicting the newest hell to enter her corner of the galaxy. The Baseline Unbidden, called 'Warlocks' were bad enough, their power to conjure things out of thin air and siphoned psychic energy gave them the power to manifest parts of their ships into existence and unleashed matter disentegrators to fight, or slapped together lesser versions of themselves, Familiars or Wyrms as people were calling them, to swarm encampments with sheer numbers. As if that wasn't bad enough the energy freaks had been experimenting with psionic techniques, bastardisations of those used by the Union against them, a cocktail of psi-energy and exotic plasma being wielded by the oh so imaginatively dubbed 'Clerics' who for some reason were tinted red. Some of the monsters had come into contact with Thorian spores, mostly from the people they killed, and adapted to them mixing them in with their own physical form, turning green in the process, and giving them the power to manipulate the forces of nature, the humans had dubbed these variants 'Druids.' Some of the energy monsters had instead got into Eezo and turned purple/black, manipulating the flow of gravity around them with huge offensive power, eventually dubbed 'Wizards.' Aria wiped away all of the images on the screen and made a loud harrumph.
"Sales in Council space?" At the moment Aria was enjoying one of the few moments that she didn't spend stuffed into a Fenrir suit while every fibre of her being was on the receiving end of the Fenrir's stimulation. She at least had some clothing on still, nothing that would get in the way of the plug suit she'd be stuffing herself back into in the hours to come and redeploy, which is more than could be said about the two at her side. A turian woman and a female Krogan of all people, the latter sitting off to the side while smoking. Aria has a taste for absurdly powerful women after all.
"The Drug trade is being cracked down on hard. Surprisingly though, they're confiscating anything with Zro in it, they aren't even doing that with Gas." The Turian stated as she passed through the contents of a datapad.
Omega's denizens were masters of the Drug trade, once upon a time. Aside from Eezo, narcotics of all kinds were the main export of Omega, Red Sand, a mixture of Powdered Eezo and other stimulants, was their flag ship product, capable of granting even a non-biotic Mass manipulating abilities for a short period of time, with added boons of intense euphoria. Most of the Drug cooks were gone now, executed by the Union, killed by other prisoners in one of their usual dust ups, or eaten by one of the countless horrors to plague the galaxy in the past few months. Aria had used up valuable Merit earned by killing monsters to bring as many of them back together as possible, and even better had managed to pool a few Union cooks too. Aside from a wider range of more common materials to work into blends they also had people who could work with more exotic materials too such as Exotic gas and Zro. The end result?
"Here's an update from the cute little one." A button was pushed and they were directly connected to the lab, though video of the Tebrid in charge of the drug lab was playing it didn't go two ways so that Aria's privacy, such as it is, remained untouched. "Alright you little monster!" Nyreen could call this thing cute because she wasn't here when they remade Omega. "What have you got for us!"
"This was the premium combat drug stimulant." A familiar molecular structure appeared on screen, a combination of Eezo and some organic chemicals. "Minagen X3, a potent biotic enhancing drug, highly addictive, and it's potency is in direct proportion to intake but when you exceed a certain margin, death. A common occurrence among mind-altering chemicals really, it's always a matter of avoiding the fatal overdose and staying in the goldilocks zone." The Molecule was broken apart, new elements added in or replaced. "Organic components sythesized from Thorian spores increasing survivability of the user. Introduction of Zro enhances potency of biotics and Thorian which introducing aggressive thought patterns, Exotic Gas based drug improves upon mental prowess increasing perception, reflexes and feelings of euphoria." It took a moment to figure out what the little monster was saying.
"So this drug turns who ever takes it into a psychotic killing machine and makes them like it?" Aria summarised the gist of the conversation for the sake of her convenience if nothing else.
"With a huge predisposition towards moving heavy objects with their minds." The Tebrid followed up. "If this was being done legally, this would be the part where I recommend clinical trials."
Aria does clinical trials: some of the best products she's spat out managed to kill dozens of junkies before she managed to get the perfect High.
"Mass produce it and I can load this stuff into every hard suit within three systems by the end of the month." The Krogan stated taking her smoke out of her mouth.
"Decent supply chains would help, everything's getting eaten by the Gestalt or intercepted by the Contingency." Aria stated making her annoyance with the situation quite clear.
"About that. I conducted an autopsy on some of the Gestalt monsters we met already, aside from the expected Thorian Spores their body fat also contains a high concentration of exotic gas." Aria smirked at that.
"So this new combat stim can be made from the corpses of the thing's trying to kill us?" Aria stood up.
"The New Drug is called Monster." Aria started doing stretches, much as she would like to go another round with her business partners they were going to go do some hunting. "Made from the worst of the worst that the Terminus System has to offer. Catchy wouldn't you say?" Her two associates smirked at that.
"Council's trying to buy off our extra supply of Zro." Nyreen followed up. "Didn't help us when they were still buying Eezo from us did they? No we need to increase our power base if we want to avoid having the Union sweep in on us again." Aria would like to avoid having Omega taken from her again thank you very much.
"Zro can be used to build Psi amplifiers." The resident mad doctor followed up, and with the budding talents stemming from deep diving into the Thorian that was becoming a big part of the local market.
"Get to work on that, steal or download, or whatever you do to get new tech." Aria stated as she prepared her plug suit.
A full body skin suit, several holes lined with metal rings that would allow the suit to connect to her internal implants. The suit itself protected her modesty, and facilitated the Durasteel hard suit that would be protecting her, Dragon Scale was notoriously hard to get ones hands on these days, almost as if the Union was deliberately hoarding it. Technically making use of her biotics Aria could theoretically hold up a neutron matter lined suit, for about 3 seconds before her brains and blood started squirting out of her nose. So Durasteel it was. Her companions made similar equally pragmatic choices.
"Start with test subjects for Monster, 10 non DAP races with ten 'volunteers' each: half in live combat and half in laboratory conditions." The Krogan nodded. "Nyreen. Get experts on killing Gestalt together, the Union were apparently throwing people at the Prethoryn before this whole mess started by the ship full." Nyreen nodded in agreement alread she could see where this situation was going. "I can think of worst activities for date night than going on a hunt!"
Review Section:
RonaldM40196867: It's like having lightning in your brain. Mass Effect has plenty of aliens, it's that butcher's field Andromeda that needs more aliens.
Guest: To answer the third question first: They are an ancient faction of machines from Stellaris and one of the three Crisis's alongside the Prethoryn and the Extradimensionals and their objective is the extinction of all organic life. To answer the first two questions at once, why are you asking for what you know are spoilers?