Petroleum Effect
Chapter Seven – Dark Citadel
Presidium, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 15 June 2183
Saren, Shepard, Lawson and Udina walked back from the lift to the Citadel Tower towards the embassy. Udina had a few minor tasks to complete and then they would all head back towards the two docked Terran Dominion ships. The humans had no intention of discussion whilst on the Citadel, but Saren clearly did.
"Well, that went okay. We've got permission to pursue Nihlus. The council were clearly wavering, but he'll sweet talk them in his report. Friendly Geth! The whole thing is messed up."
"Thank you for all you've done, Saren," cooed Miranda and Shepard felt a psionic pulse. Lawson was shamelessly continuing the spectre's indoctrination even as they walked through the Presidium. Not that any of these primitive, ignorant, aliens would notice, Shepard thought.
"Do you mind if we continued this in a debrief on the Normandy?" Miranda asked Saren.
"Not at all – but is it okay if I hit the Wards for a bit on my own? I need a break after the last week or so, and if I am going to be travelling on a Terran Dominion ship for a while I need to get some decent dextro food and other supplies. Can I have them delivered to the ship directly?"
"Sure," smiled Miranda.
"Okay, I'll comm later!"
As Saren moved off to some rest and recreation, Shepard noted a disturbance ahead. A group of beings in colourful robes were arguing with some C-Sec officers.
"Not this again," snarled Udina, "this wretched religious group and their preacher insist on annoying everyone on the Presidium. The Presidium Prophet they call him. The group annoys a lot of people here. I've always kept well away. Looks like we'll have to go through now."
The group ahead was strange. There was a Turian in colourful robes with what looked like valentine hearts, gold stars, rainbows and a deep blue, almost purple background. There were also two similarly dressed Asari and a blue furry creature wearing next to nothing except an ornate bracelet.
Lilith Shepard very definitely liked males – sexual deviance of any kind was not looked upon well in the Dominion, let alone the military, but Shepard was naturally heterosexual. However, the furry creature ... intrigued her. It looked like a nude human female, only completely covered in short blue fur which just about protected its modesty, she supposed. The creature had what would be, on a human, spectacular curves as well as a sexy tail and dreamy pale – what?
Most simple psionics users had negligible ability to sense psionics wielded by others without deliberately using a detection effect. However, Shepard was as advanced a user as she could be without being at least partially Transcendent and she had been trained to recognise and resist psionic attack. She thought she felt … something? Now. Turning her thoughts away from the growing warmth in her underwear she cast two psionic effects. The first was a formal psionic shield. The second was a mental purge. The latter effect had been developed after the Eviloids incident in the Rainbow system. It was intended to expel and undo any psionic influence.
The immediate result of Shepard's effects was a violent pain in her head like a wrench and a palpable sense of expelling something insidious and deeply pervasive. It hurt, but Shepard was free and aware of a pressure against her mental shields.
"Bad dreams!" she said loudly, her voice slurring with the pain and after effects, "Bad dreams!"
"What are you on about now Shepard? Can you keep it professional?" Udina snapped, his attention clearly captivated by the alien female.
Miranda, being partially Transcendent, had a permanent mental shield and she had felt a pressure on it a moment before Shepard yelled the code-phrase for psionic attack. Miranda, with her superhuman cognition, training and experience took in the unexpected threat quickly. Something was attacking psionically and Shepard was following the, 'Bad Dreams' protocol taught to all Terran Dominion operatives.
The protocol was straightforward, on a par with, 'stop, drop and roll'. It had been developed after the Eviloid incident. Any operatives who suspected they or their colleagues were under psionic attack should call out, "Bad dreams!" The code-phrase was used because the existence of psionics was not admitted or referred to openly in front of aliens.
The second step to the protocol was that simple psionics users who knew the relevant effects should immediately raise a mind-shield and purge, if they were able.
The third step was to eliminate the threat as a priority, but Miranda could hardly open fire in the middle of the Presidium. The more immediate concern was that Udina either did not know the protocol or had failed to recognise it. Miranda tried to remind him.
"Udina! I think Shepard might be talking about a protocol. Do you know of any protocol called Bad Dreams?"
Udina was annoyed. He was quite literally rigid for the blue female creature. Rapt and at attention. Fortunately, it would not show inside his environment suit. He did not want distracting. Yes, there was a protocol.
"Udina! Can you hear me!"
Annoyed, and wanting to stop Miranda bugging him so he could get closer to the alien, Udina raised a mental shield and then initiated a psionic purge. A moment later, Udina doubled over clutching his head in agony. It felt almost like he had ripped his brain out through the roots. He passed out.
Miranda reached down urgently to Udina and looked at his face. There was blood inside his helmet. She picked him up, her enhanced strength making it look easy.
"Shepard – Udina is down. We need to withdraw, now!" then to the C-Sec officers, "Coming through! We need to get our friend back to our ships!"
The humans rapidly headed for a transit back to the docks. Looking back, Shepard could see the alien blue furry creature had turned a cold stare on them, and followed the humans with its gaze until it was out of site.
Med-Bay, Terran Dominion Frigate Normandy, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 15 June 2183
"Ow ow ow fuck! My head! Ow!" swore Lieutenant Commander Lilith Shepard as she let Doctor Chakwas prod at her, "My head hurts. Aren't you supposed to give me drugs? Lady Lawson make them give me drugs!"
Miranda looked on, deeply concerned. The Terran Dominion had only once, ever, encountered any alien race that had psionic abilities – that was 50 years ago. No other race in the galaxy had ever exhibited significant psionic powers – perhaps some marginal abilities in professional religious types and mystics – nothing like the abilities the Dominion had.
The incident with the Eviloids had found its way into human training for all military and alien-facing operatives. In the incident on Rainbow-2 the aliens had turned two loyal soldiers, instantly. As a result, there had been doctrine revisions and the development of a simple psionic purge effect. There was training for how to respond to psionic attack.
The Eviloids themselves had been exterminated. Most of the organic material on Rainbow-2 had been harvested and converted into oil then the world's surface had quite literally been bombed into lava using Petroleum Effect bombs that had a higher energy yield than anti-matter conversion. Not even micro-organisms could have survived that. When the planet cooled, it was marked for terraforming, introduction of decent Earth life forms, and eventual colonisation. The wait would be a long one given just how molten they had left the surface.
Clearly, considered Miranda, the new protocols had been effective. The two soldiers in the Rainbow-2 incident had been irreversibly compromised and had to be quietly disposed of, after necessary examinations. Fortunately, Shepard seemed to have done much better - she had shown text-book reactions. Shepard had detected the attack, shielded and purged. The question was, what now?
"Okay …" pronounced Chakwas, "... you seem okay but have … almost inflammation on the brain – a lot like symptoms of psionic exertion. It is milder than some cases I have seen – but that is like saying cancer is a minor illness. This was a dangerous attack."
"Really?" groaned Shepard, "The pain really started when I cast the purge. The shield was okay but then I purged and it felt like – when you pull up a plant and there are lots of root tendrils, like everywhere, like whatever I was purging had pervaded my head. Ow!"
"Hmm ..." said Miranda, "... Udina was clearly under the effect. I had to tell him a couple of times, but he followed the protocols. I felt him raise a shield and something like a purge. He keeled over right after the purge. My shield was up the whole time. Working hypothesis – whatever this attack is works pervasively and quickly. You are okay if you are already shielded but can suffer injury if you have to purge?"
"You know better than me," replied Chakwas, "I need much more data than this – you've tried unshielded personnel – suggest next time have our people pre-warned and shielded from the start? What I will say though is that this attack is serious. I would almost diagnose Shepard here with encephalitis and even a mild case of that would keep her off duty for weeks. Udina has not woken up but he does have quite clear brain swelling and nasal bleeding. I am diagnosing him with mild encephalitis, at least."
"So, I am going to sign off Shepard for the next seven days and formally relieve her of duties until then. I am not even in a position to assess Udina yet. If Shepard is going to confront this alien again, she needs to be fully recovered. If the symptoms were serious encephalitis, risks include permanent brain damage or death."
"There is also the risk of compromise. That is an unknown – my initial view is that Shepard here is uncompromised but you may be able to tell better than I, my lady. Shepard has significant injury and pain but followed protocol and has shown no signs of disloyalty. From your account the position with Udina is … less clear. He's unconscious but I have restrained him so should he wake up he will not be a danger until we've cleared him or … otherwise."
"Thank you doctor. Please do keep Udina restrained until both you and I have completed our assessments of him. Shepard, you are off duty for the next seven days. You are confined to the crew deck, bed, mess, sanitary facilities. However ..." Miranda's voice softened somewhat, "... unlimited vid and extranet privileges and Doctor please do give Shepard whatever painkillers you feel appropriate. Lots of drugs, she said!"
The Intelligence, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 21 June 2183
The Intelligence had been observing the humans closely and so it had seen the incident with the members of the Temple of the Golden Star. Shepard had staggered and Udina had collapsed, then they had clearly retreated to their ship, Lawson carrying the ambassador. There was no physical cause. Nothing, no projectiles, gas, subsonics, electromagnetics, gravity, mass effect. Nothing.
Of necessity the Intelligence was a vast being, with many layers of functioning, processing data from a myriad sources throughout the galaxy including almost all the data that sentients routed through the Citadel in their primitive computing systems. Many items were dealt with at a level well below the main consciousness. One matter that had been gradually filtering upwards was the Temple of the Golden Star and the incident with the humans had brought the new religion immediately to the full attention of the ancient artificial intelligence.
If it was human, the Intelligence would have lamented something along the lines of, "Awww … not this shit again." The Intelligence was created to preserve sentient life from a number of threats. Transcendents could stand alone, and in any case rapidly became beyond harvesting. Lesser races were harvested and used to make more harvesters. So the cycles continued.
The most common threat to lesser organic races was being wiped out by artificial intelligence of their own creation. The Intelligence routinely wiped out new AI races. The Geth may be useful to Nazara now, but once the harvest was underway they would be mercilessly exterminated to the last grain of silicon.
Rogue AI, however, was not the only threat nor the worse threat. There were things in the darkness. Invasion from outside the galaxy by advanced races was an occasional issue, but one not to be confused with exploration or diplomacy. Then, there were threats from Outside, from Beyond.
The universe was, in the vast scheme of reality, a small place – a very small place indeed. The most advanced races in the galaxy were trivial, laughable, ants in the grand scheme of things. The most powerful beings eventually outgrew the galaxy, outgrew even the universe.
Outside were many layers of being, well beyond the comprehension of the Intelligence. Some of the things that lurked beyond could be understood, for practical purposes, as well by using theology or mysticism as by using physics. Fortunately for the younger beings, the greatest of the vast entities beyond had no more interest in the universe and its inhabitants than a human or Asari might have in a drop of water and the micro-organisms living in it.
Some interactions between sentients in the Milky Way and things Outside the normal universe did take place. Those Outside came in differing sizes, levels of power and temperaments, and there were means by which those inside could try to contact them. Some of those means were scientific, others more like ritual magic. Most sentient organics had some minimal psionic presence and so even species with no history of overt psionic power could attempt so-called 'magic' rituals. More rarely, those Outside would initiate contact. Regardless of the means and which side initiated, such things never ended well for the sentients, except for Transcendents, who could sometimes benefit.
The Intelligence had strict orders as regards traffic with those Outside. Unless the interactions were conducted by a Transcendent race or by the creators of the Intelligence itself, it was to terminate everyone and everything involved, to the extent that was possible.
The Intelligence was also required to notify its creators of any incident involving the Outside. One of the many limitations of the Intelligence's multi-faceted being was that several consoles existed, hidden deep in the galaxy, where its activities could be monitored and from which orders could be given. The Intelligence had no knowledge of the parts of itself that reported, whether creators saw the information or what was done with it. It knew only if it received orders. There had been silence for almost 900 million years, although it had sometimes seen evidence of the creators since then. The Intelligence was specifically forbidden to interfere with its creators in any way.
In the absence of orders, the Temple of the Golden Star looked to the Intelligence like a likely incursion. It did not matter which side had initiated contact. There were many factors flagging the Temple as a risk including –
+ it was a religious group
+ it used language on the concept of improving the correctness or validity of the stars for some unspecified purpose
+ it used language comparing 'souls' or other terms for sentient mind or spirit to edibles
+ its adherents used psionic powers or similar in non-Transcendents
Of course such things were not definitive proof. Transcendents and lesser races that had no involvement with the Outside sometimes used such language innocently as part of ordinary religions. Transcendents might set up cults amongst lesser races for their own purposes, with no Outsider involvement. Races that looked like fledgling Transcendents could sometimes turn out to be corrupted by incursions.
The Intelligence was pleased that the humans seemed to be antagonistic to the Temple. Hopefully they were untainted.
A decision was reached. The Citadel could not allow its inhabitants to be subverted by a possible Outsider cult. The Intelligence would use its own indoctrination abilities to counter those of the Temple. The conflict would probably kill or cause permanent brain injury to those hit from both sides, but it should be possible to set up a conflict between the Citadel Council and the Temple.
Conference Room, Terran Dominion Frigate Normandy, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 23 June 2183
Miranda and Shepard sat in the Normandy conference room with Doctor Chakwas and Kaiden Alenko. Shepard had been declared fit for duty the day before, after repeated medical scans by Chakwas and deep psionic scans by Miranda had confirmed no lasting effects. It had been 8 days since the incident with the so-called Presidium Prophet.
Udina was still off-duty. He had woken up several days later in med-bay in some pain but the mild case of encephalitis was going down. Miranda had been able to debrief Udina somewhat. His impressions had been similar to Shepard's. He had seen the alien, become quite literally hard for it, but executed shield and purge effects. He reported similar feelings of pervasive influence being forced out by the purge. Painfully. Miranda found him irritating but tentatively took the view he was uncompromised.
Lawson had decided to return Shepard to duty. It was a serious decision – alien psionics were a strategic level issue so there had been initial discussions amongst the Grey Lords. Demilady Amaoth had taken part. As a general proposition, the Dominion needed a capability to preserve high level assets like Lilith Shepard and Donnel Udina should they be subject to psionic attack. The purge effect, which had not been available during the original Eviloid incident, seemed to have worked.
Shepard and Udina would be watched and Shepard's assessment for partial Transcendence would be extended, by a lot. There had never been a fixed time given, anyway. In the worst case, if either showed signs of lingering alien influence, they could be studied or eliminated. In the best case, their recovery would provide confidence in personnel being able to recover from psionic attack.
Right now, Shepard, Lawson, Alenko and Chakwas were looking at a summary of a report Lawson had drawn up for the Grey Lords whilst Shepard was recovering. Investigating the religious group behind the, 'Presidium Prophet' had become a priority – more so than Nihlus. Saren had balked at the delay pursuing Nihlus but once he had returned to the ship Miranda had easily talked him around and he was currently asleep in his cabin on the Normandy, several days closer to total indoctrination.
"So, the Temple of the Golden Star," began Miranda, "... and this may surprise you … is a fast growing religious movement."
That got a laugh from the others.
"No shit!" exclaimed Shepard, "They've got some heavy duty mind-control powers! Forget Udina, for a moment until I cast purge, even I wanted to do that creepy blue alien!"
Miranda waved her hand theatrically and a hologram formed, projected by the ship at her electronic command – she could link to the ship wirelessly via her augmentations. Crisp images of scenes involving the Temple and its members appeared in the air.
"The Temple of the Golden Star," continued Miranda, "arrived on the Citadel a few months ago, the specific date being vague. The group originated on the planet Delos-3 in Asari space, now officially renamed as Care-a-Lot. That is, incidentally, what the Eviloids called their world."
Two images appeared, side-by-side, of beautiful forest scenes with trees that appeared to have pink candy floss instead of leaves. The pair was replaced by another two scenes and another.
"These scenes are taken from different planets. One is Rainbow-2 before the cleansing. The other is Delos-3. As you can see, they seem to have more-or-less identical species."
Images appeared of the blue, furry female creatures and also of small bear-like creatures.
"These creatures have been seen with members of the Temple. According to official Citadel records we have obtained, the blue females are Asari with atypical development due to environmental issues on the planet Care-a-Lot. The same record states that the bears are a primitive indigenous race that the Asari are uplifting. Obviously, the bears look just like Eviloids to me, in an Eviloid biosphere."
"There are more of those things? I thought they were wiped out?" asked Lieutenant Alenko.
"It is classified, but you need to know, so I can tell you we found signs of terraforming on Rainbow-2. The planet may have been barren up to around two-to-three thousand years ago. There were no raw oil reserves per se but we ground up the biosphere and converted that into crude oil. Unfortunately it seems that at least one other world must have been seeded with Eviloids by whatever put them on Rainbow-2, and now they have their own creepy cult!"
Miranda's voice made her concern about the Temple of the Golden Star plain. The situation was actually quite serious. With Eviloid levels of mind-control they could take over the Citadel, as well as galactic government, very quickly.
The briefing was suddenly interrupted by a loud chime and then the ship's VI spoke, "Lady Lawson to CIC please. Lady Lawson to CIC."
Lawson walked out of the conference room, which was, conveniently, just off CIC. Gunther, a muscular Dominion communication officer from Germany in Europe, called out, "Lady Lawson. Sorry to interrupt but we are receiving reports of significant fighting on the Citadel. Traffic control is warning ships not to disembark personnel until the situation is resolved. The whole station is being locked down. Shall we undock?"
C-Sec Headquarters, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 23 June 2183
Officer Macen Kurdros growled and rubbed his head, his mandibles stirring uneasily. Something was off and he felt an urge to speak. His head ached, and it was only the start of the shift,
"Something seem … just not right, to you?"
Macen's partner, Officer Avitus Sonthus, growled, "Yeah," he said, "I just can't stop thinking about those Temple of the Golden Star worshippers we met yesterday."
After a moment, Avitus went on, "When I saw that blue furry Asari, I wanted nothing more than to, well, hit that. Like, right there. I was going to do anything – I got a card whilst we were policing so I could go to a meeting and meet one of those furry chicks."
"Now I feel, like, angry. Like my head's been messed with."
At that moment the comm chimed. It was dispatch,
"Kurdros and Sonthus, we've got a job for you. Volus complaining of being robbed."
The Volus in question, Barla Von, was in a terrible state. The Volus was a financial advisor in the financial district. Or he had been. The day before, he had donated almost his entire wealth to the Temple of the Golden Star. What little he had remaining was due mostly to his feverish haste at the time, in order to impress one of the furry Asari. He was alleging he had been under some sort of control.
Barla Von was only the first.
As the shift wore on, the station was inundated with calls from people alleging they had been abused by the Temple of the Golden Star. After the tenth complain, the duty Lieutenant, Jrax Omnius, became involved and declared a major incident.
Omnius decided there was no choice but to send an armed squad to visit the premises, a literal temple, in Zakera Ward. All the while, officers were becoming more and more angry. Macen's head would just not stop throbbing. Sergeant Haron led a squad of ten officers, armed and armoured, to the temple, only to find a crowd of at least one-hundred temple supporters barring their path.
Haron ordered the crowd to move. They did not. Someone threw something and then every C-Sec officer present opened fire. They lost control. The world just went red and they hosed down the crowd with kinetic shot.
Macen was barely conscious as they stormed the compound, fighting the temple leaders and their guards. His last memory was collapsing in agony – his head felt like it was being ripped apart.
The failed C-Sec attack on the leadership of the Temple of the Golden Star - at least the portion resident on the Citadel - resulted in almost immediate rioting by over five thousand inhabitants. With the rioters joined by criminals, looters and others, C-Sec were quickly put on the defensive.
CIC, Terran Dominion Frigate Normandy, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 23 June 2183
"What?!" asked Miranda. The uselessness of the Citadel Council never ceased to amaze and appall her.
Communications Officer Friedrich Gunther seemed to share similar views. His teutonic lip curled slightly as he went on, "Reports seem to indicate that C-Sec raided the Temple of the Golden Star, leading to a violent reaction from supporters. C-Sec is overwhelmed. They are calling in troops from the Citadel Defence Fleet – the fighting seems to be on Zakera Ward."
Lilith Shepard was right behind Lawson, "We can't let the Citadel Council fall to those things."
"Agreed," said Lawson, "Now, as far as I am concerned, for your assessment, tell me your thoughts on two possible options. In either one we undock, go outside and cloak. Then we either assault the Temple from above, and try to capture some leaders, or we blow it up."
Shepard replied without hesitation, "Neither. We do need prisoners but I don't think the Normandy is set up for it. These creatures can subvert at least anyone in line of sight. We would have to assault, everyone in the ground force would have to be able to mind-shield. But … if we brought an Eviloid or one of those blue-furred things back we would be putting the crew at risk. We need some sort of isolation chamber."
"Bomb won't help - not enough precision. Possible act of war if we get caught. Best thing to do would be to eliminate the Eviloids and the blue furs. The followers from the council races have no psionics."
"The most likely target for the enemy is the Council. I recommend we start from an area that is still secure as close to the council as we can get, and move from there towards centres of the disturbances, then the Temple itself."
"External assault has huge problems. The Wards are rotating at 253 metres per second to maintain artificial gravity which is about 911 kilometres per hour so matching with that and hovering would require constant precision acceleration."
"Yes, I think that's right Shepard. I think we should do a decapitation strike and we will have to launch it internally."
About twenty minutes later, Shepard, Miranda and Kaiden were gathered in the airlock in full sealed combat armour. The outer door opened and they made their way towards the lift with Shepard in the lead. Shepard and Alenko had active mind-shield effects, whilst Miranda as a partial transcend always had a shield. The access indicator for the lift showed it was still open – the Terran Dominion had a private dock in the VIP area with its own elevator access to the Presidium – all the money the Dominion government had made trading element zero was good for something.
The journey down to the Presidium went easily. The embassy area was quiet. Miranda cloaked the party and they made their way towards the Citadel Tower access. Under the cloak, all of them pulled assault rifles. Tests had confirmed that the superior, Terran Dominion weapons were 50% more efficient than equivalent Council weapons and also more accurate. Terran Armour was similarly superior. Even so these were only element zero devices - Miranda would much prefer some real human weapons and armour. Unfortunately the only thing she had in that range were her augments and psionics.
As the group rounded a corner, Shepard gestured. The three humans flattened themselves against a wall as in front of them they saw a group of C-Sec officers in a frantic firefight with some cultists. Invisibly, the humans strolled up behind the cultists, keeping sufficient distance to avoid friendly fire. Unseen, Shepard shot a blue-furred enemy in the back of the head, before she and the others continued to the Ward access lifts.
The Intelligence and the Terrans, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 23 June 2183
As Lilith Shepard, Miranda Lawson and the male human left the ship their progress was followed by the Intelligence. The activation of a cloak was inconvenient, but not unmanageable. The Intelligence had hidden compound senses throughout the walls, floors and ceiling of the Presidium.
The human cloak was clearly Transcendent, albeit not very high on the scale. It was simultaneously bending light around the three humans – the Intelligence inferred it was letting in enough light for them to see – and doing the same with other electromagnetic radiation. Sounds were being dampened. Even so, the Intelligence could follow the three Terrans easily enough by micro-compressions it sensed in the floor as they walked, air motion and micro-fluctuations in air temperature.
The Citadel itself watched as Shepard shot one of the Daughters of the Golden Star in the back of the head. Good. It had planned for this contingency. The Terrans were smart enough to want stop the Temple taking over the Citadel and galactic government. The Intelligence would open up tentative contact using a keeper. No one actually knew the human language, but the Terrans could speak Asari, Salarian or Turian using their translators.
As the three humans entered a quieter corridor towards the Wards, blast doors dropped behind and ahead. A voice sounded in slow, clear Asari, "Hello Lilith Shepard. Hello Miranda Lawson. Hello Unknown Male Human. You are hostile to the Temple. The keepers are hostile to the Temple. We are sending a keeper to speak to you. Do not shoot."
"What?!" yelled Miranda, dropping the clearly ineffective cloak.
The words repeated, then, one of the maintenance ways used by the keepers opened, and a keeper scuttled out.
"Hello," said the keeper slowly and clearly in Asari – the precise source of its voice unclear, its hands open in an attempt at being non-threatening, "we saw the Daughter of the Golden Star attack you when you left the Council meeting last week and we just saw you shoot one."
The creature paused.
Miranda was intrigued. Keeper minds were strange. Amaoth had spent a lot of her time on the Citadel quietly scanning them. They were intelligent in a way but not a human way nor even analogous like the Citadel races. Their minds were almost silent, meaning that reading their minds gave little information. Their drives, motivation and functioning were bound up with stimulus from their implants.
Miranda scanned the keeper's mind but it felt normal for a keeper. There was no suggestion of Eviloid or other psionic control. "Hello," said Miranda, "yes we did just shoot a blue-furred creature. What can we do for you – you keepers are not normally this talkative, or at all?"
"The keepers maintain the Citadel for the new races. The Temple of the Golden Star may be a threat. We will not permit their takeover until we understand them. We are interfering with their control of beings on this station. If we were not, it would already be over. They would already control the others. Only you Terrans are able to protect yourselves."
In Miranda's Transcendent mind a simple thought formed. Busted! The keepers or whatever was behind them clearly knew about psionics and had detected the attack outside the Council meeting. They also had some form of countermeasure, presumably their own form of indoctrination, even though the Terrans knew that was not psionic … or did not appear to be.
"Do you object to our control?"
"We do not object to the younger races. Their fate is their own. The Temple of the Golden Star and the creatures from Care-a-Lot may not be younger races. We assess there is a risk they are under the control of something older, something from Outside. If the assessment is wrong, we will cease interfering. We assess you as a new race and so we do not intervene. If our assessment changes, we may intervene. Others may intervene."
Ominous.
"What is behind you?"
"That is not relevant. If you intend to fight the Temple, we can assist."
"Those blue furred creatures – is that what they are called? Daughters of the Golden Star?"
"That is what the Temple calls them."
"How do you know?"
"The walls, the ceiling, the floor, the air, the dust at their feet betrays them."
This space station is so messed up, thought Miranda. What sort of grade-A, drooling, capering, imbecile would find an artefact like this and make it their galactic capital?
"Have you seen smaller furred creatures, about yay" - she gestured - "high?"
"Yes."
"How many of the Daughters and the smaller furred creatures are there?"
"There were seven of each, you killed one. That leaves six Daughters we know of, and seven of the others. They smaller ones call themselves Care Bears." [Miranda realised the last word was that for a vaguely similar Asari creature]
"Where are the Daughters and the Care Bears now?"
"A Daughter and a mob of cultists is approaching C-Sec headquarters in the Presidium. Two of the Daughters are in the group approaching C-Sec headquarters in Zakera Ward, with three Care Bears. Three Daughters and four Care Bears are in the Citadel Temple of the Golden Star. If you intend to fight them, we recommend you ignore the Presidium C-Sec. We assess C-Sec will prevail without your help. We suggest you prioritise Zakera Ward C-Sec by eliminating the Daughters and Care Bears."
"Can you help? Will you help? How?" Miranda did not feel the need to beat around the bush. Whatever was behind the keepers was clearly far closer to Transcendence than the Council races.
"The keepers have their own ways through the Citadel. There is no security, no C-Sec, and no cultists. We can get you behind the siege of Zakera Ward C-Sec."
"Why?"
"Mutual interest in defeating the cult. A recognition that your race may have greater possibilities than the council races. A first step."
"How can we contact you?"
"Speak aloud on the Citadel. Anywhere. We may not answer. We will not admit to this conversation, or react to you in front of others."
"What's to stop us telling the others?"
"They will not believe you."
Miranda understood that last remark on many levels. Only the galactic leadership were so curiously blasé about the keepers, because of course the galactic leadership were on the Citadel where they were influenced. There had been many conspiracy theories galaxy wide about the Citadel keepers, allegations, fictional movies in which the keepers were secretly benevolent or malevolent. There were probably Turian movies with special effects more convincing than the real video footage she was capturing now.
"Take us to Zakera Ward then."
"Yes. Follow me. You may use your invisibility. It works on everyone else."
"Thank you. We may as well wait until we leave your tunnels."
Miranda gestured to Shepard, and saw her mouth, "What the fuck?" Miranda shrugged in response. The Citadel was messed up. They had known it for years.
The keeper led the Terrans into a spartan corridor and the hatch sealed itself behind them. The tunnel was barely wide enough for the keeper, but that was more than comfortable for the humans and the ceiling was as high as other Citadel corridors. They passed several unsignposted, identically sized corridors and after a few turnings came to a wider corridor – plainly some sort of keeper thoroughfare. After a few minutes they came to an opaque door which opened to reveal something like a transport carriage.
"Hold onto the hand-holds" instructed the keeper. The vehicle was plainly something like a lift. The door closed and Shepard and the others grabbed onto poles that ran from floor to ceiling. Without any warning they felt a sharp lurch as the room began moving. They stood in silence for a short time, feeling changes in direction, acceleration and deceleration. There were no windows, seats or signs. Eventually the vehicle stopped and the door opened, revealing a corridor almost identical to the one they had left.
The keeper walked out of the transport and the Terrans followed in silence. After a few turns in the unmarked corridors, it came to a hatch.
"This is your destination. We wish you success."
The hatch opened. On the other side was what looked like a dark, dirty Citadel Ward alley. The contrast with the clean, anonymous, well lit keeper corridor was marked. The Terrans stepped through.
"Mind shields and cloaks," said Shepard, softly. In fact, she had maintained a mind-shield the whole time. She was prompting Miranda to cloak. A moment later the hatch closed behind the Terrans, who rippled and vanished.
Zakera Ward, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 23 June 2183
Shepard led the party through the streets of Zakera Ward. There were corpses on the street. Some shot, some not obviously marked. Some were holding their heads, or had hands near their heads, suggesting they had significant pain there when they fell. She winced in sympathy remembering her own pleas for painkillers little more than a week ago. She had been lucky.
As the Terrans closed on C-Sec headquarters for the Ward, the tell-tale flash of weapons fire became visible. C-Sec had a few floors of a larger commercial tower building and the street outside was littered with makeshift cover formed from sky cars, debris, crates and furniture dragged from buildings. Armed cultists crouched behind cover. Other cultists, frenzied, some partially nude, charged the gun fire from the building.
Behind it all, securely in cover and surrounded by guards, were two Daughters and three of the so-called Care Bears.
"Eviloids and Daughters!" snapped Shepard, her voice coming clearly over their armour comm-links, "Let's get into cover and snipe them!"
The three cloaked Terrans gathered behind a pair of metallic crates.
"Okay pick a target and call," ordered Shepard, "I'm taking the Daughter on the left."
"Right Daughter!" replied Alenko.
"Middle Eviloid!" responded Lawson.
"Okay aim ..." began Shepard, "... then on three, fire. One, two, three, fire!"
Kaiden fired first, neatly destroying the head of a Daughter. Shepard fired a moment later, as did Miranda. Miranda drilled an Eviloid in the chest, right through its heart. She was in no doubt about where their vital organs were, she had viewed the vivisection reports from Rainbow-2 in detail. The creature went down instantly into a growing puddle of pinkish fluids.
Shepard's shot missed. It had been perfectly lined up but the Daughter had chosen that exact moment to shift her stance slightly and the shot only grazed its cheek.
Instantly, the remaining Daughter and the two surviving Eviloids scattered, moving with preternatural speed behind cover. Their guards turned, scanning about for the source of the shots.
Miranda felt a sudden mental pressure, then from behind a sky car an Eviloid popped up and fired a beam of colourful light from the symbol on its tummy. The cloak collapsed and for a moment Miranda's mental shields were assaulted. She raised her weapon and fired – the light cut off as the bear creature ducked behind the sky car.
Miranda felt a psionic surge build around Shepard. A few moments later she rolled from behind her crate and accelerated forward at impossible speed, surrounded by a deep, indigo, aura. A 'vanguard charge' Miranda believed it was called. A simple psionic technique. Shepard struck the sky car the Eviloid was using for cover at around 45 metres per second. As she struck the momentum was instantly transferred to the sky car – inertialessly (at least for Shepard). The sky car was knocked back and Miranda saw the Eviloid, an Asari and a Turian sent flying.
A spray of shots from Kaiden made sure the Eviloid was not getting up.
Shepard advanced calmly, vaulting the sky car and shooting the Asari and Turian in the head before they could get up. To his credit, the Turian had partially risen and got off two shots before Shepard took him down.
Something slammed into Miranda, knocking her to the floor. The surviving Daughter was on top of her, attacking with sharp nails that extended into something more like talons. The face was really beautiful in an alien way, mused Miranda for a moment, and the creature had clearly moved with great grace, stealth, speed and strength. Miranda grabbed the Daughter's wrists but it fought her with an alien, malevolent vigour.
Miranda grinned. She was a partial Transcendent and her strength was far more than human. Her bones were enhanced with composite materials, diamond-mesh and alloys, her muscles woven with diamond-composite and nano-metallic fibres that were lined with nano-contraction actuators, her ligaments and tendons strengthened by the same composite and metallic fibres.
Miranda jerked both her hands violently with superhuman force and speed. She simply turned her hands at 90 degrees outward and broke both of the Daughter's forearms. The bone snapped and the end of each of the Daughter's arms turned 90 degrees outward with Miranda's movement. Releasing the creature's now-useless hands Miranda lunged forward and grabbed the creature by the neck, rolling it onto its back.
Most opponents would have been stunned, but the Daughter still struggled violently. Even so without usable hands it was seriously hampered. Her weight on the creature, Miranda got another gauntleted hand on the monster's neck, squeezed and forced her hands apart.
Miranda tore the Daughter's head off, then elegantly directed the resultant arterial spray of blue blood away to avoid soiling her armour.
Without needing, nor allowing herself, a moment's rest, Miranda got up and pressed herself back behind the large metal crate. Turning quickly to check on the others, she could see Shepard back behind cover, Alenko also. They were taking fire from multiple directions from cultists now.
"Got a Daughter!" called Miranda, "I make two dead Daughters, two dead Eviloids – one to kill. How about you?"
"Same!" called Alenko.
"You just got the other Daughter? Sweet!" yelled Shepard. Her glee was short-lived.
A ray of rainbow light arced into the air from behind a nearby sky car. The ray went up then curved gracefully downward and struck the small truck Shepard was sheltering behind. Shepard's cover was a ground vehicle – larger than a sky car – for moving bulky goods around the Ward.
When the light hit the truck the vehicle was violently thrown upward by a heavy psychokinetic blow. It rose into the air, spinning end over end, smashed into a building, breaking several windows and denting the outward structure, then fell back down heavily to the ground, parts breaking off, sending debris flying.
Shepard was left in the open in the street. She stepped back slightly with shock. As she started to move – too slow – the remaining Eviloid emerged from one side of the sky car it had been hiding behind. Again, a beam of light lashed from its tummy, this time bending around the car to strike Shepard. The power of the beam was intense and for a moment her mental shields wavered … but then with a growl and a painful effort of resolve Shepard reinforced her shield. Even so, the attack was powerful and she could barely move.
As Shepard tried to retreat, the Eviloid beam stayed on her. Cultists spotted her in the open and began to fire. Shepards' armour had kinetic barriers, far tougher than Council technology, but they began to weaken rapidly.
As Shepard retreated, holding her mind-shield, with a supreme effort of will she lined up her assault rifle on the Eviloid and fired, but it was already ducking back behind the car.
Shepard lurched forward as the psionic attack ended, falling prone on her front and out of the line of fire. A second later, she rolled sideways. As the cultists re-adjusted their fire, Shepard took a few more hits and her barriers collapsed. She took a few more as she rolled behind the crate next to Miranda, staggering but reaching the safety of cover. Shepard lay down behind the crate, gasping. There were visible marks and slight dents on the back of her armour.
"You okay Shepard?"
"Think so. Armour integrity holding. Waiting for barriers to come back up."
"Good. Just one remaining."
The Terrans were coming under increasing pressure. Cultists were advancing, but were hampered by the need to continue the attack on the building, and to avoid exposing themselves to fire from behind. Even so, there were a lot of cultists.
A small blurry object trailing a rainbow streak of light hurtled around the Sky Car, and sped at unnatural velocity past the Terrans away from Zakera C-Sec headquarters. The final Eviloid had fled.
"It ran!" called Kaiden, cheerfully.
"It did!" called Shepard, raising herself to sit with her back to the crate.
"Miranda, time for us to go. Can you cloak us if Kaiden gets over here?"
"Sure," replied Miranda.
"Kaiden get over here before they start throwing grenades at us!"
Kaiden charged from his cover to the two women's, just as Shepard's kinetic barriers started to rebuild. As he reached the women, Miranda raised her power and once more the Terrans rippled and vanished.
After a moment for Kaiden to catch his breath and Shepard to stand, the three sprinted silently and invisibly away from the siege, following Shepard round a corner into an alley.
"Okay," said Shepard, "their main force is behind us. I suggest we just head for their headquarters."
"Target 1 down! We need a catchphrase – like on Saturday morning cartoons!" replied Kaiden, cheerfully.
Miranda smiled at that.
How about, "It's genocidin' time!" laughed Shepard, joined a moment later by Kaiden and Miranda.
Together, the three Terrans made their way towards the Eviloid temple and the heart of the sinister alien threat.