MASS EFFECT: ENTANGLED SERIES

CHAPTER 30

Sweat rolled down Krysta's back as the muscles in her arms stung from the relentless strikes at the swinging punching bag in the holding bay. She lost count of just how long she was down there and how many impacts the bag took. Perspiration soaked her face and blonde hair as her brown eyes glared at the lifeless object in front of her. All she could see in her line of sight were the faces of Kai Leng and the Illusive Man mocking her. The screams of the damned filled her head. There was no salvation for the souls on Thessia from the reaper hit. They were so close to finalizing Project Crucible and Cerberus stole the remaining piece right from underneath her! The asari selfishly hid a prothean beacon from the rest of the galaxy and used the technology to uplift them far beyond the rest of the galaxy. Their deceit seemed to have cost them the lives of thousands not millions beyond Thessia. "Fucking bastard! What the fuck were the asari thinking?!" Shepard snarled in between breaths as she delivered powerful cross jabs and uppercuts. Her entire black tank was drenched, and her combat boots struck the metal flooring causing echoes in the shuttle bay as she danced along. Her dog tags were stuck to the hot sticky skin on her chest. "I was so fucking close!"

James and Cortez stood back by the armory terminals to watch; neither daring to interfere. The look in Krysta's eyes when she first came down was so frightening that James gladly moved aside to give her full access to his prized bag. He had seen that look before, in his own eyes. The pain he experienced after losing the colonists on Fehl Prime never left his heart or head. Vega finally took the risk to whisper to his friend, "She's been going at it for a long time…think I should step in?"

"You want to replace that bag, Mr. Vega?" Cortez reacted as he kept his arms crossed.

"Hell no. I just don't want my baby to be destroyed. At least, she withheld the biotics. Mierda."

The two stood more alert and piped up when they noticed Krysta suddenly stopping and wiping the sweat off her face with her towel nearby. Her heavy breathing slowed down as she steadied the bag. Wrapping the towel around her neck, she acknowledged the two with a raise of her chin as she passed by. "Thanks."

"Anytime," Vega looked on and then eyed Steve carefully who in return shrugged.

When Shepard reached her cabin, she paused at her room's private shower and turned it on. As she began to disrobe, Traynor's voice came over the comm. "Commander, there's a call coming in from the Krogan Clan Chief."

"Wrex…" The familiarity made her smile softly. She longed for the days when she was going after Saren. Turning off the shower, she finally answered the woman, "Put him through here."

Seconds later, the krogan's brash voice came over the system, "Am I not important enough? I have to be placed now on hold to get to you?"

Krysta smirked as she plopped down on the edge of her bed. "Just came in from a workout. What's going on?"

"Did you kill anything?"

"Only James' punching bag."

He balked at this, "That's not killing. If you're pissed, you need to kill something. Hell, be a krogan, Shepard."

"I take it that you heard the news?"

"Yeah, I figured you need Urdnot Wrex's pep talk."

Shepard laughed dimly at his remark. "Which is?"

"Suck it up. Are you brooding?"

"No," She partially lied. "Heading to track down the bastard, Kai Leng, now. He went to Horizon…heh, I thought I was done with that colony."

"Good. I wish I was going with you. I'm no diplomat, Shepard. Too much talking and not enough killing."

"Well, come on, then. You know I have room for you on the Normandy."

"Yeah, the cargo bay?"

"I'm sure Garrus wouldn't mind splitting at the forward battery…," She teased.

"No way am I sharing a place with a turian...that's not heard of," Wrex scoffed at her suggestion.

She chuckled again. She missed the old days. Her almond eyes flickered over to her desk to where the data pad was that Traynor gave her earlier. It was a very enigmatic message from Kai Leng. "Wrex?"

"Shepard?"

"Kai Leng transmitted a message to me just after I left Thessia. It said, 'Lost something?' I figured he was boasting about their win on Thessia…though…I got a gut feeling he's referring to something else. I fucking hate Cerberus."

"I hate them too. What else do you think it would be?"

She shrugged. "I have no idea…just something doesn't sound right about it. Leng is an asshole, but is he that big of an asshole?"

"Probably. You're worrying too much, Shepard," The krogan muttered, then he perked up, "Oh, Bakara is pregnant."

Krysta grinned as she heard this. "Really? That's awesome, Wrex! Congrats!"

"Yeah," He chuckled. "I don't have any names yet."

"Shepard sounds good."

Alivia and Rhodes dutifully saluted the holo image of Admiral Hackett before them in the communications room of their mobile command center. As non-Alliance officers, Ulana and Torsk remained at rest. "I read your report from Sanctum. It was imperative that the facility went offline from the work they were doing. What you put in here is very alarming. I have notified the families of the fallen soldiers and communications have been sent to the other embassies. We'll make sure to follow up on it."

"The technology was unidentifiable per the scans. Any intel on what it could be?" Ulana inquired.

"We ran into this before..." Hackett gently divulged. "When Commander Shepard went to the Mars archives, she came across Cerberus soldiers with the same implants. She described them as having the resemblance as the husks that she encountered on Eden Prime."

"Wait a minute…so Cerberus and the Reapers are working together?" Rhodes questioned.

"Sounds more like Cerberus is dabbling in technology they shouldn't," Ulana murmured.

"I know your squad just arrived back, but an urgent situation has come up and I need all available nearby teams to assist."

There was a brief pause in his words and Alivia wasn't too sure if she should ask or wait for her CO, Ulana, to take over. The turian jumped in, "What's the situation, Admiral?"

"Thessia is falling to the Reapers. The asari's numbers are deteriorating rapidly. Their government has asked for aid to help with the evacuations. Your team will be going in a very hostile environment."

"The Reapers?" Torsk asked with a bellow in delight. "Finally, a worthy adversary! Bonus to save the soft asari." Rhodes nearly choked in holding back his laughter.

"Your contact there will be, Captain Jenniza. Your orders are to evacuate who you can and then get the hell out of there. Is that clear?"

"Admiral, you can count on us. We will deploy right away," Ulana replied.

"Good. Hackett out."

Once the holo image dissipated, Alivia felt tense about the diabolic scene they were about to walk into. Would this be it?

Thessia,

"Captain Jenniza?" Ulana's voice strained over the disturbance of gunfire exchange, explosions, screams, and reaper horns. The rest of the team followed her over to the group of asari that were huddled near a row of shuttles. A Destroyer class reaper landed near towering infrastructures to the east and its imminent attack shook the entire area as hundreds were instantly slaughtered.

Alivia's eyes widened as large as they could as she witnessed the horrific scene before them. Her hands anxiously clutched her rifle. The hope of them making it back from this mess was slim and she closed her eyes to take a slow deep private breath to maintain her poise. "Thane…stay with me."

The purple-pigmented asari with aquamarine facial stripes that extended from the edge of the face and back turned from her unit to address them. She was donning a grey medium-grade armor and held an Acolyte in her right hand. "You must be the team that Hackett sent over." She extended her hand to Ulana.

"We are for civilian evac," The turian shook hands.

"Plans changed. This location is fortified, and we have two squads moving civilians towards here for evacuation. We have identified a nearby processing center. The Reapers transported many non-combative to it. We have groups ready to draw out the ground troops away from the facility and I will accompany your team to infiltrate and retrieve who we can."

"Search and rescue?" Rhodes asked in uncertainty. "With all due respect, mam, processing centers are the last place anyone wants to go into."

"He's right," Ulana looked his way in agreement. "They are replenishing their forces. We need to focus on those we can still save."

Jenniza shook her head fervently. "No. The modification from indoctrinated subservient to full husk is not instantaneous. We still have a window to save those recently taken."

"I'm not becoming a husk," Torsk snorted.

"If we go in, how do we not know we won't be indoctrinated as well?" Alivia asked.

"Good point," Rhodes nodded.

"Look," Jenniza was becoming frustrated with their disagreement and was near tears. "My bondmate was recently taken! I must save her…" She took a breath to remain stable before pressing on. "There are families in there…waiting for us to get to them!"

Ulana glanced over at her squad with her avian eyes. "This is crazy, but we do have a job to accomplish. If the reapers guarding the area are drawn away, then we will have ample time to pull this off. Nobody has done this before so we have no idea what we will come across inside. I can't ask you to come, but I'll go with the captain."

"You expect me to be bested by a turian?" Torsk huffed. "Forget it. I would be clanless. I'm coming along."

"I'm game," Rhodes gave a thumbs up.

"Me too," Alivia smiled weakly.

Jenniza returned the smile in gratitude. "I appreciate the assist. I'll get the teams mobilized while we set up. We have to stay back so the ground troops don't catch on." She signaled the rest of her group nearby. "Proceed with evac! We are heading out!"

The asari captain led them through the rubble of once exquisite towering buildings. The sounds of death were thick in the air. The smell of charred remains and rotting corpses made Alivia almost choke. Body retrieval was out of the question as hordes of husks flooded every street corner of the once marvelous cities of the homeworld. How could the reapers inflict so much catastrophic damage in so little time? It was unfathomable!

Large gaping holes filled the terrain from the steps of a reaper. The chunks of buildings and casualties on both sides made it clear that an intense deadly battle took place there before their arrival. The fighting led to other positions as the asari most likely took a fast retreat to regroup. Their comms lit up as an inbound call from their western flank crackled through, "This is Lieutenant T'Pfezor! A Sovereign class reaper just landed nearby! I must pull our troops back!"

"Negative!" Jenniza protested. "We are inbound to the facility. Give us ten minutes."

"Yes, mam! Ten minutes is all that I can give!" The comm erupted with the deafening thunderous horn blast of the reaper as Ulana's team picked up the terrifying red hue lighting up the night sky from the synthetic's weapon.

"Goddess!" The captain gasped as she pumped her legs harder. "We have to make it!"

Alivia followed her around the corner of the next street, and she saw a strange structure up ahead. "I think I see it!"

"Keep your eyes peeled! This could be an ambush!" Ulana ordered as she dashed ahead to stay near Jenniza's side. "Diamond formation!" Torsk and Rhodes fell back to take either side while Alivia slowed her pace to watch their rear.

The asari bit her lip as her eyes darted all over to check for any signs of reapers. The place was dreadfully still. How was it not protected? "I think we lucked out," She flashed a beam of relief to them.

Their comms cracked to life again. "This is Captain Dami! We have banshees! Goddess! There are too many of them! We can't hold- "The line came to a sickening silence. As if on cue, they could hear wails of the banshees coming from the eastern side while the reaper was tearing up the terrain to their west.

Jenniza tapped her comm frantically. "Lieutenant T'Pfezor! We lost our west!" There was no response. "Lieutenant T'Pfezor! Please respond! Can you hold your side?" She skidded to a stop in her tracks as full panic struck her. Did they lose both flanks?

"Shit…." Rhodes hastily glanced around. "We gotta bug out of here!"

"No!" Jenniza burst out as desperation consumed her. "We are close! She's here! I'm going in!"

"Captain, I highly advise that we get the hell out of here!" Ulana grabbed her arm to stop her. "We go in and we are all dead!" The reaper blared its horn loudly as it directed its troops to fall back to the processing center; now the squad was fully detected.

"Buy me time!" The asari shrugged her arm away roughly. She darted towards the entrance of the facility.

"Two minutes!" Ulana yelled after her, then turned to the others. "Then we are leaving. Is that clear?!" The others exchanged looks before nodding their heads in agreement.

Rhodes and Alivia switched on their incendiary rounds modification. "We get a ride out of here, right?" Rhodes asked no one in particular.

"I hope so," Alivia activated her biotic implant. She tried to think of something witty to lighten up the mood, but their situation was so grim that she dared not to think about what would happen. Two minutes was going to feel like an eternity! None of them could withstand a direct reaper weapon blast more or less a swarm of nightmarish banshees. She had no intentions of going into the processing center like the others.

The team looked on as Jenniza neared the facility then the unexpected happened! Several ordinary-looking asari simply walked out. They were accompanied by a few children. All stared at the squad through hollow eyes. They stood as if held by an unknown force. Jenniza flagged them to hurry her way. "Did you manage to escape?! Come on! We need to get the others and move out of here! Reapers are inbound!"

Alivia watched on with dread. "Rhodes…."

"Something is not right…why are they looking at us like that?" The man was just as stunned and frightened as she was.

"They are with them," Ulana stated the obvious. "Captain! I ill advise going any further. We need to leave!"

"No! They are civilians!" The captain refused. "My bondmate is still in there! She must be alive if they are!"

To join in on the calamity, the screech of an incoming banshee sent a chill of urgency into the air. "Captain! We are leaving!" Ulana motioned the rest as she began to back-peddle.

The group of civilians darted toward them with demonic hisses. The captain was too close and stunned by the sudden approach that she didn't have time to react. The asari prisoners gripped her arms and waist and began to drag her towards the facility. Jenniza squirmed as she used her biotics to push several of the adults away, but the children raged at her like wild beasts and bit into her arms. Jenniza screamed as tears poured down her face. "Goddess! I'm not hurting you! Let me go! Snap out of it!" She began to lose her footing as she was being towed.

"Captain!" Alivia created a wave of biotic aurora around her body as she prepared herself to do an offensive attack. However, her silver eyes squared upon the asari children. She felt her body trembling and hesitating.

Just then, more indoctrinated souls poured out of the facility and finished whisking the captain away into the hell inside. Her protests and screams were silenced shortly after. "Move!" Ulana ushered the others. They darted the way they came, daring not to look back. It felt as if the reaper and banshees were breathing on their backs. They lingered too long, and the ground troops were much closer than anticipated! Ulana whirled around to use a cryo blast on one husk that managed to get ahead of the others.

Torsk breathed heavily. "Damnit! Krogan don't run like this!"

Rhodes looked his way. "I can't carry you!"

Once they reached the drop-off point, they found that several shuttles were already gone, and the group was still ushering the rest of the civilians in three others. Their Alliance shuttle was ready for them. Ulana waved to the remaining asari officers. "Get them on the transports! Move it!"

Alivia and Rhodes darted over to assist in getting the civilians in. One of the asari militants looked at them in confusion. "Where's Captain Jenniza?"

"She got taken captive. If we don't move our asses, then we are next! There are banshees inbound!"

"There are more civilians in the next wave!" One of the officers argued. "We have to get them!"

The turian shoved the officer inside a shuttle with the others. "No time! Go now!"

Rhodes and Alivia joined Torsk and their commanding officer in their transport before the remaining vessels lifted off. The squad inside remained still until the pilot confirmed they cleared the homeworld's atmosphere and away from any looming hazard.

Alivia finally dropped down into her seat, stunned at what she had just witnessed. The horrific images of indoctrinated ordinary citizens including children haunted her mind. "How…how can we fight something like that?"

Rhodes sighed hard as he removed his visor. "I have no idea. That's a new one…"

"The asari was too weak. She let them take her prisoner," The krogan bluntly commented.

"What if it was krogan younglings?" Ulana asked him, playing devil's advocate.

Torsk glanced her way, unmoved. "Never would happen. We are trained to fight at birth."

"Spirits…I know many families were taken captive on Palaven when the reapers struck. I never saw this…is this what we are going to face now? Striking down our children?" Ulana was beside herself as she mulled over the new war tactic.

Alivia had no idea what the solution was. "If we do that, what hope will the future generations have?"

"Simple," Rhodes interjected. "There won't be any."