Disclaimer: I do no own Mass Effect, I do not claim to own Mass Effect, I am only doing this for fun.
Author Notes: I have no excuse, I was just not in the mood for writing for three weeks. This arc is still fighting me in the details, and that fueled a lot of frustration.
Episode 44: Persepolis [Part II]
It took ten minutes to have a conference aboard the Kodiak and decide how to go about their next objective, the infiltration of the other tower. Soon after Shepard was in the cockpit with Nihlus as he raised the Kodiak into the air, using its mass effect fields and a bare minimum of thrust, to maintain stealth, that way the Heretics would not have a clear heat signature to lock onto. While the Heretics could not fire disruptor torpedoes with all their launchers facing up into the sky, no one wanted to give them an opportunity to get a target lock with their broadside point-defense system. It was best not to push their luck.
As soon as they cleared over the arcology rooftop retaining wall and past the mass effect field dome, the situation on the roadway between the two towers became patently clear. There were a good ten enemy units milling around the tower's entry. What more, now the Kodiak was exposed to the blustering winds again. Nihlus' fingers never stilled as he worked the thrust differential to keep the shuttle from being swept along. "They have really… dug in," Shepard mused. There was no other way to describe the situation.
"This Kodiak is armed, Shepard. We show them what that means," Nihlus replied.
"Let's look before we leap for a moment. First, the MAC rails will heat up. That might be enough for the ship to lock on to us." Shepard replied blandly.
Nihlus hummed thoughtfully.
Shepard turned to the sensor controls, but it quickly became apparent that it was pointless. The building was too dense for the Kodiak's IR imaging to tell them much about what was going on inside, and nothing beyond what EDI had not told them already.
"It really is either that door, or the rooftop pad." Nihlus stated after a long moment.
The rooftop pad was also the most obvious entryway. Shepard would not be surprised if that was the entryway the Heretics took. Making entry from there meant a high likelihood of ending up pinched between the heretics already in the tower, and reinforcements from the ship. For that reason the rooftop entryway was out of the question.
Their other option, the opening in question, looked to be the maw of a roadway tunnel built through the arcology. Given that the road was only about one fifth the width of the tower itself, Shepard would not be surprised if there was a garage inside that part of the building.
"You really are overthinking it. The tunnel is likely the exit the workers inside would have wanted to use. If any are still loose… they will have found hiding spots as close to it as possible." Nihlus went on.
Shepard sighed, Nihlus was right of course. "Then we need to secure this door so we can get them out." Shepard did not want to think about it, but she did. They had to get the civilians out simply because the ship might just damage the tower, make it unstable. Using explosives on the claws could go as well as cutting a tree branch while sitting on it. It would have been better if the Heretics decided to fly off, right into the Normandy's crosshairs. Yes the Heretics had data on Alliance torpedoes movement patterns, but as the Impera demonstrated, they had nothing against the Thanix, and Harbinger did not know she had it. "Alright, guess we have no other options." She had no choice but to concede here, no matter how much she did not like it.
"So who gets the gun controls?" Nihlus asked, mirth in his tone.
Shepard barely restrained her urge to roll her eyes. Of course he would ask that. "Who is piloting this thing in cross-wind conditions?" She asked.
Nihlus turned to look at her, though she could not see the look in his eyes due to his face-shield. Shepard would bet he was giving her stink-eye right then. She grinned back, daring him to deny the obvious. When the denial did not come for ten seconds, she turned back to the console in front of her. "That said, you're about to see me shoot like a greenhorn. I've never been much of a ship's gunner," she prefaced as her fingers danced over the controls. "Shields are up. Alright, now move us a bit closer. I want the widest angle you can give me. I am going to program the MACs to target heat signatures. The heretics are producing just enough to be visible against this cold air."
"Alright." Nihlus replied as he began to manipulate the controls.
The Kodiak dipped lower and slid sideways until it floated right over the roadway. The heretics predictably looked up and began to reach for their firearms. She tapped at the comm controls to open a link to the back, "Alright people. We're about to do some, shall we say… insertion maneuvers. Right past the heretics on the roadway. They're about to find out that this shuttle does pack a nasty sting. Buckle up, things might get bumpy." She knew that she sounded like a morbid version of an airline stewardess right then.
She finished keying in the instructions for the MACs. Nihlus must have been watching her hands as he tapped his set of controls a few more times and the shuttle dipped even lower. Simultaneously the heretics raised their rifles and opened fire, and the Kodiak's shields flared to life. Shepard glanced at the status readout, to confirm that the kinetic envelope was holding, and would hold for a while. Not that she worried particularly. The Kodiak's shields were designed to stop a larger caliber than infantry weapons. She tapped the last key and the shuttle's MACs whirred as the computer executed instructions and adjusted their trajectories. A moment later it opened fire. Each shot was a low-pitched whine followed by a pop, cycling at three rounds per second from each gun.
The Kodiak's MACs were quite literally a one tenth reduction and reengineering of a typical cruiser's broadside auto-canons. The cruiser's guns were meant to batter frigate-sized enemies, while the Kodiak's for fighter-sized foes. Comparatively slow and small as they are, at a hundred grams each, travelling at three kilometers per second, these slugs were still gross overkill against soft targets. Nihlus' job was to maintain the shuttle's heading as to keep the nose pointed in the right general direction, so that the computer had less to adjust for.
Shepard watched as one by one the heretics fell, their shields failing with one shot, and their frames riddled by fist-sized holes. The rounds did not mushroom, they went right through, hitting the roadway, kicking up pulverized dust. Shepard had to manually toggle the guns on to the next target after they had punched through a heretic, so as to avoid battering a hole into the roadway. It was an inelegant massacre, with the heretics getting a taste of their own medicine. Normally Shepard would have enjoyed the irony.
However a single thought rained out her parade, this was just the opening round of what would surely be a long and trying mission. Then she thought of Legion, that these was their people, estranged or not, and then she had to shake off a mounting feeling of guilt. It was a peculiar feeling, brought on by her seeing a slight technicality. She never felt guilty about putting down the Facinus rebels on Taetrus, no matter what affections she had for Nihlus. Legion though was different. Those on Taetrus made their bed and had to lay in it. The Heretics may or may not have been misled, brainwashed, or just taken advantage of. The Geth were almost child-like in how they viewed the world around them.
When the last heretic platform went down Shepard brought the guns offline and turned to the sensory readings instead. This would be the perfect moment for the Heretic ship to detect the little bit of heat from the shuttle's MACs, lock on, and commence firing with its point-defenses. But as ten seconds ticked away, she saw no energy emissions, no heat build-up, nothing that would indicate the guns were coming online.
Once she was satisfied that the Heretics were in no hurry to take the ready opening, she glanced at Nihlus and nodded. He started manipulating the controls, slowly bringing them lower over the roadway, and then along toward the opening in the side of the arcology.
Shepard tapped the key to open the link to the aft compartment again, "We've handled the Heretics on the roadway, and Nihlus is flying us inside the arcology. This is it, final weapon and armor checks. I want everyone ready when we touch down."
It was a bit of a feat to slip the swaying shuttle into the opening. Though the door was certainly wide enough, the vertical dimension proved to be a bit of a problem. The shuttle ought not to have been flying that low over any surface, and doubly so when it was being tussled about by tornado-force blasts of wind. Landing on the roadway had never been an option. Shepard would not allow anyone to disembark on foot in that wind.
Her running theory was that the Protheans must have used mass effect containment fields to allow wheeled vehicles to use these elevated roadways. Fields that were either no longer operational, or intentionally kept off. She would not be surprised at the latter, as they required a lot of power to maintain. All in all, it created a very real hazard on the road. The fleeing colonists would have had to use a vehicle just to avoid being blown off. Walking across was highly dangerous even before the added joy of requiring pressure-reducing breathing masks.
She was jolted out of her thoughts when the shuttle's bottom finally made contact with something solid. The space inside was dimly lit, and the gloom was compounded by walls that had long ago been bleached a drab concrete-grey, with running rust stains here and there. There was dust and loose chunks of masonry everywhere.
The road cut right through the tower. On either side of the roadway there was a small space where vehicles could pull over to drop off or pick up passengers. What surprised her was how much these little alcoves reminded her of bus stops, there were empty planter boxes and stone benches. At the very back were two alcoves that might have at one time contained automated ticket machines, or public access terminals. Connected to both stops were what looked like elevators, which would take people up or down into the tower proper. The road itself wound away deeper into the tower as well. On her left it led past a sealed metal grate door. On her right, it branched onto a ramp that descended a level into pitch darkness.
It was almost bizarre to think wheeled vehicles were this common for a species that was supposedly far more advanced than anyone living today. In this day and age wheeled vehicles were only used for specific reasons, like the factory trucks she had seen on Taetrus. No one would build arcologies connected with elevated roadways like this.
Since she was already looking in that direction, Shepard caught a shadow flit through the gloom. There was someone hiding at the top of the ramp leading to the lower parking garage. And the absence of a light for a face told her that it was not a heretic. "The survivors have a scout. They know we're here," Shepard said.
"Lucky for us," Nihlus replied.
Shepard nodded, unbuckled, got to her feet, and moved to the aft compartment. She was utterly unsurprised to see the others already up on their feet. "I saw a glimpse of one of staff trapped in the tower," she announced. "We know our first step. They know the tower best, and we want as much information as we can get." With that said, Shepard turned and keyed the sequence for the door to open. To avoid sickness, the shuttle was still at Feros pressure, the door just opened.
"Commander, what are we to do with our… special supplies?" Garrus asked.
Shepard glanced back at him and then at the crate at his feet. "Leave it in the Kodiak, for now. No use toting it about until we know where to go." It was not ideal, but she did not want the crate slowing them down more than it had to. Also, the last thing she needed was for the crate to become damaged.
"Got it." Garrus replied.
Shepard stepped off the shuttle first, eyes back across the space where she had seen that flicker of movement. Whoever it had been, they were gone now, or had pulled back into the shadows. Shepard would have very much liked if they had stuck to the shadows entirely. The Heretics now knew someone had arrived. The platforms on the bridge would have had enough time to upload runtimes, meaning the information on what had destroyed their bodies would have been relayed to the whole collective up in the ship. That said, if this was a trap for her specifically, Harbinger would have no way of knowing whom exactly had been on that shuttle. Maybe it would want confirmation? Splitting hairs, but it might slow the monster down. She would not pretend to understand the finer workings of Harbinger's madness. She began to make her way across the roadway, toward the ramp.
"Wait for me, Shepard." Nihlus called over the comm.
"I'm not going far," Shepard replied casually.
"And we're right behind her," Ashley added.
Shepard could hear the jingling of multiple metal rings on armor and slings, affirming that the marines had indeed followed her. Some part of her still could not help but marvel at just how well something fifty thousand years old managed to survive. Nothing this old existed on Earth, and even the oldest things, the ancient Mesopotamian cities, were nowhere near this well preserved. Then again, none of them were built of concrete, let alone its modern polymer variations.
She paused at the top of the ramp, part to wait for Nihlus, part to inspect the surroundings. She spotted an emergency nutrient bar wrapper stuffed into a crack in the wall. Nearby was a large chunk of masonry that had been moved into position for use as a seat, leaving chalky drag-marks on the floor. A lookout spent a lot of time sitting at this post.
There were no lights or sound coming up the ramp, nothing to indicate any sort of activity. The ramp itself was very long, no more than twenty degrees of elevation. Shepard felt her respect ratcheting a step up, the act was damn good for civilians. Someone among them had rudimentary tactical sense and enough presence to enforce the needed measures. The act was not flawless though, because if she spotted him, a heretic would have spotted him effortlessly.
Shepard heard approaching footsteps behind her, and a moment later a finger tapped her shoulder. She did not need to look to know who it was, as there was only one individual who would do that. She began to make her way down the ramp. At the bottom the darkness was absolute, but as she turned ninety degrees and stepped around the ramp's side-wall, she saw a sliver of dim light seeping around a doorway in the distance.
Shepard made no more than three steps toward it when there was a whisper in the dark. Then quite suddenly a pair of free-standing work floodlights lit up, blasting their halogen beams practically into her face. Shepard recoiled in surprise as her night-vision went to hell in an instant.
"Ow… are they trying to blind us?" Jenkins all but whined.
By the explosion of shuffling behind her, Shepard knew she was not the only one who just took that completely unprepared. Some part of her was a little impressed, this tactic would have worked quite well on anyone organic. She would now be seeing spots for half an hour. The heretics would have simply narrowed the iris of their sensor hubs to compensate.
The worst of the shock passed in a second or so, and Shepard dared to open her eyes a millimeter. Her suit's VI had reacted automatically, and was already in the process of tinting her face-shield against the glare. She could see two figures moving in the glare.
"A geth!" someone gasped.
Shepard heard the distinct whine of guns powering up. "Hold you fire!" she barked, putting all her authority in to it. "This geth is friendly!" She called even as she sidestepped, putting herself in between Legion and where she assumed the shooters were, though she could not be sure. The movement alone ought to be a sign enough for them.
"What is the meaning of this?" Someone asked.
Shepard allowed herself to exhale calmly, "I am Commander Shepard, an Alliance officer. This is my team. Yes they are not all Alliance. And yes, that is a Geth. Lower your weapons, before you make a major mistake." She announced.
A figure wearing a hardsuit, and wielding an automatic rifle had stepped forward, into the halo of the work-lights. His body blocked one entirely, which cut the glare in half. "You best keep that thing back. We've had enough of robotic monstrosities."
Shepard chose not to rise up to the occasion by snapping at the use of the term 'monstrosity' here. It would not help anyone, and she needed these people to cooperate with her as much as possible. She glanced back and caught Legion's gaze, though she doubted the term was entirely appropriate. The geth stared back at her for a long moment before willingly backing up.
"Commander, follow me. I will take you to the administrator." The man did not sound at all pleased right then.
Shepard glanced at Nihlus and nodded. The Spectre fell in step with her as they moved past the floodlights toward light at the back of the room. As predicted, in the absence of much external light to overpower it, she could see the halogen burn-in of her retinas as bright flashes of light in weird shapes. Her pupils had narrowed down so much that she could only see the swaying status lights on the gruff man's armor. There was no other choice but to follow him in single-file, lest she wanted to trip on something. "Who do I have the pleasure of talking to?" she asked.
"Brendan O'Rafferty, head of security." The man replied curtly. "By what I understand, we were supposed to be getting Alliance marines, not… well… you." he stopped there.
Shepard had to tell herself that he was probably too stressed to bother with manners at the moment, no fault of his.
"What is the situation here?" Nihlus asked.
"Pardon my sarcasm, what do you think it is? A picnic?" O'Rafferty replied bluntly. "Two thirds of my team is dead, and the remainder are half shell-shocked, because those tin cans are that vicious. Half the administrative staff are dead too, and I have injured that can't move. Were it not for the emergency rations, a functional sink, and our asari guest having damn commandos for bodyguards, we'd be well and truly fucked."
Nihlus hummed, but did not comment.
"Here we are," O'Rafferty pushed aside a door, revealing what must have been some sort of utility space. It was no more than thirty meters square, and lit with anemic lights powered by a small battery block. What more, it was packed like a sardine can with people and supply crates.
Shepard realized that the space was much too small for her whole team. She glanced back as she tapped at her helmet control to turn on the external-to-comm relay, that way they could hear the conversation to follow. "Most of you, stay here. Nihlus, with me."
"Sure," Nihlus replied.
Shepard stepped inside and all eyes instantly turned to her. She counted at least ten people, with the majority seated on the crates. However two individuals near the back wall were lying on palettes thrown together from whatever soft material on hand. There was blood on their ripped and cut open clothing, with rudimentary bandages sticking out from underneath. The majority were clearly civilians dressed in comfortable work suits and coveralls. The two men in hard suits must have been from the security team. Both looked at her with a dead-eyed stare, as if they could not be sure if they were not hallucinating. O'Rafferty had been right about the shell-shock.
Then her gaze landed on the three asari on the right side of the room. The cornflower blue asari seated in the middle wore a white jumpsuit smeared with dirt. Her curiosity was right there in her soft blue eyes. The other two contrasted with her like day and night, clad in dark form-fitting body suits, combat boots, matching jackets, and their hands in the vicinity of their pistols. One had a wicked-looking straight dagger, or perhaps short-sword at her lower back. There was no mistaking them for anything other than asari commandos.
"So the Alliance finally show up," someone said.
Shepard turned and inspected the speaker. It was a middle-aged Asian man wearing most parts of a grey suit, seated on top of one of the crates in the middle of the room. His dark hair was full of dust, and despite his dismissive tone, his eyes searched her face-shield with suspicion.
"Stop it, Jeong. Travel times are a thing. You stalled sending a message anyways." A woman sitting with one of the injured men at the back called back. She was about the same age as the man in question, wearing a jumpsuit smudged with dirt. Her cuffs were noticeably smeared with dried blood.
"We came as soon as we heard," Shepard said plainly, perfectly aware that she was kind of rubbing it in. "And we're not Alliance per se," Shepard replied. "I'm Commander Shepard, but I'm also a Spectre in training."
"Nihlus Kryik, Council Spectre. So yes, not Alliance… but better."
Shepard noted the wave of reactions that introduction received. The young asari visibly drooped with relief, and the commandos let their hands fall away from their pistols. However, most curiously, Jeong's hands momentarily balled the fabric of his suit pants, his lips drew into a thin line, and his shoulders rose ever so slightly. The woman spared Jeong her own brand of a tell, the sort of side-long look that people give others when they are wary of what was to come.
"Heh… figured something was up. You've got quite a rag-tag team, Commander." O'Rafferty said, "But I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth. Well… now I'm not needed… I am going back on watch. Would be bloody perfect for those geth to attack now." With that said the security ducked out of the small room.
Shepard turned and watched him retreat into the gloom.
"Alright, turn those off!" O'Rafferty shouted into the gloom.
Just like that the space beyond the door was plunged into absolute darkness.
Shepard turned back to the small room. This was what she had wanted, an opportunity to pick people's brains, and pick them she would. "We have a plan for how we are going to handle this situation, but I need information."
"What kind of information?" Jeong jumped in, suspicion right there in his lowering tone.
Shepard could not believe he thought he could intimidate her. She could not be the only one who realized that metaphorically speaking he was screaming he was hiding something off the rooftop with a bullhorn. Still, he was a corporate type. Given the precarious nature of the colony and the danger their investment was in, it could very well be nothing more than some stupid fear about the bottom line. This would scare some investors into pulling out. If enough of them did so, ExoGeni's whole house of cards could come tumbling down.
"Relax, Jeong. They're here to help." The woman tried to cajole him, only to get a glare in return.
"You trust too easily, Juliana," he replied.
There was clearly tension between these two as well, the 'gritting their teeth to work together' sort. "The information I need is… about the tower, about who else might still be in it. Whether there are other rooms like this. Perhaps someone here knows exactly where the ship anchored." Shepard listed off.
"We do not have a map of the building for you," Juliana offered. "All I can offer is that the claws were somewhere above our work spaces. The geth came from above. Everything is marked with signs, so if you follow those, you should not get lost. As for who else might still be up there… there's probably one other group. I hope there is one other group. My daughter, 'Lizbeth is missing. She still has to be up there."
"She probably isn't, Juliana. You've seen what those things can do." Jeong stated coldly, "The Spectres shouldn't waste time combing the floors, much too dangerous."
Shepard noted the way he practically hissed their title. This man did not have a subtle bone in his body.
Juliana whipped around, turning a vicious glare on him. "That is my daughter you are talking about! She's still alive, I know it!" the woman snapped.
Shepard was beginning to see the source of the animosity between them. There was only one thing to do here, "We'll look for her, we have to secure the floors anyways… to make sure we get every single geth." Using the term 'geth' felt dirty, considering Shepard had become way too used to calling them Heretics, like they were an entirely different species. However, it was unavoidable here, these people would not care for the distinction.
"Thank you, Commander." Juliana brightened. "My daughter was at her work station when the attack began, and if she could not make it down here, she might have taken shelter in one of offices, or maybe the… server vault. The walls are thickest there, and it has a sizable door."
A server vault? Now that sounded interesting. Judging from the low-pitched hum Shepard heard coming from Nihlus, he thought so too. Still, if the girl was there, she unknowingly went right for the worst hiding place. Any place that could be called a server vault might be what the heretics were after to begin with. Shepard hoped they were after that, because the alternative would be that they had come here to call her out. For obvious reasons she would have preferred it if they were there for the computers, why mess with a good pattern?
"Well then, guess we know what we're here for." Shepard said as she looked up at Nihlus. "In the meantime, if the geth are not so eager as to come down here, I think it would be best if you stay here, maintain low presence."
"Sure," Jeong grumbled.
Shepard chose to ignore just how ungrateful he sounded. She suspected the major part of his increasingly rotten attitude was that he wanted them there about as much as anyone wanted a Spectre anywhere. ExoGeni had signed a contract with Council stipulations built in. Now Nihlus had the ability to act as the Council's inspection agent. What sort of corporate would like that?
"The others are going to love this," Nihlus murmured.
"At least there is… quite a bit less pressure," Shepard stated as she turned back around to exit the space.
"Point." Nihlus conceded as he fell in step.
Stepping out of the lit utility space into pure darkness again meant that Shepard was once again blind. She navigated toward the team by walking toward Legion's light, which the geth had narrowed down to a pinprick.
"That guy got some attitude," Ashley broke the silence.
"Yes, and he's not getting an Oscar for it. If he thought he could make us not poke around like that…" Shepard agreed. "I think it is safe to assume that ExoGeni is up to something they do not want getting out. He went tense like a bowstring the moment he knew he was dealing with Spectres." She added as she began to make her way back toward the ramp.
"The lack of a map will complicate things," Kaidan mused.
"Yes, and we can't split up to attach the charges. But I can't help but be curious about this… server vault. It's a new factor in play." Shepard replied. "Harbinger will definitely want access to it." She had just covered about a quarter of the ramp when she heard three sets of footsteps that did not belong to anyone on her team. She stopped and turned, only to see the three asari at the bottom.
"Commander Shepard. Please wait a moment!" the youngest called.
"Is something wrong?" Shepard asked. At that point she would not be surprised if she was asked to retrieve someone's research materials as well. Because that would just be the final nail in this operation's coffin, making it much too complicated for her liking.
"I… am Liara T'Soni, archeologist. These are my aides and… bodyguards. Shiala and Myrix." At that, Liara indicated her assistants in turn, "I've been working here for about a month, and… I can help you."
Shepard blinked, surprised, but the feeling lasted only a split of a second. There was no way she would let her do that. "I'm sorry, and please do not take this wrong, but this will be tricky enough. I do not want a civilian getting hurt on my watch." She would have perhaps accepted the aid of the huntresses, but not their young charge.
"I know where the ship attached into," Liara argued.
"And we are not civilians, Commander," Shiala added coolly.
She was taller than the young asari, of a more lavender shade, but with similar blue eyes frozen in a cold, hard look that was definitely not that of a civilian. Myrix was more of an azure color with blue-green eyes that never left the ramp, maintaining a vigil.
Shepard dithered, did they want to take the risk? Yes, someone with that knowledge would be very useful, and having two commandos would not hurt either, but did they want to risk the life of a civilian?
"Commander, I can handle myself…. I can form a singularity strong enough to lift three geth off the floor, and I have a very powerful barrier." Liara continued, her voice melodious and soft.
Shepard turned back to the asari and stared her right in the eyes, wishing her blank face would convey that power was not the issue here. As far as she was concerned, even if Liara could bend a steel girder into a pretzel and twist the ends together it would not make her something more than a civilian.
"I am sure your biotic training is adequate. However, you are not a huntress, so your fighting experience is undoubtedly limited. Shepard is concerned for your safety." Nihlus said in his usual flippant tone.
Shepard was perfectly happy to let Nihlus be the tactless one here. He had the position privilege for it, while she had to be more diplomatic and restrained. Yet as the seconds ticked away, she noticed that Liara stared up into Nihlus' face-shield without so much as twitching. The look in her eyes was all determination, strong enough that she was willing to stare a Spectre down.
"I appreciate your concerns, Spectre, Commander. Normally I would not refute your assertions. I am indeed not particularly experienced in combat. My expertise is academic. I am an expert on Prothean culture, specifically the last imperial period and the collapse. None of that makes me qualified to fight geth. However…" Liara paused here for a long moment. Then she turned to Shepard, "I am sure you have noticed that something is not quite right here." Here her voice dipped into a whisper, to prevent the guards from hearing anything. "Have none of you wondered why the administrative staff never attempted to regroup with the civilians on the other tower? You should know that we were outright discouraged to go there."
Shepard blinked, certainly it was not something that she had ignored, but she had written it off due to circumstances. The little bit about the outside researchers not being allowed at the other tower was interesting too. Whom was ExoGeni trying to fool when they made rules like that?
"The way they talk about the others… well, the way the administrator talked to you… something just isn't right here. I am willing to protect their lives, but I am not willing to let them get away with whatever it is." Liara finished.
Shepard glanced up at Nihlus again, though there was no intrinsic purpose to it. Ultimately the call was hers to make. Ultimately she had to consider her squad, whether they could take this on with everything else. She thought Liara's excuse was positively flimsy, and she would not need her help to get to the bottom of things. Was there more to the whole thing? Was Liara's interest in the matter something else she was not telling her? The asari was also being pushy, against her own interests at that. Shepard would have very much loved to flat out tell her no, but she had a feeling that Liara would not take it, and then she might do something even more foolish. Shepard would be worried about that even more than if the asari was following them around.
"Alright," Shepard could only concede, and hope she did not live to regret it. "We can look into things, and if you so insist, you can tag along. But let's address a single important thing first. I will not compromise how I run an operation on my end. I am in charge, and that's that. I expect you to fall in line and take orders without questioning them, and without hesitation. The ones you refer to as geth… will not grace you with time to think. It's do or die. Understood?" It was best to get that out in the clear right then and there.
"Yes, Commander." Liara replied, a quiver in her tone.
Shepard knew she had intimidated her, but it had to happen. She could not hope to pull the same on the commandos, but they would follow their charge's orders, so she would get at them through her. With luck they would not end up putting too many wrenches into the workings of her plans. "Good." With that said, she turned and continued up the ramp.
Nihlus fell in step on her right, but when Liara followed on her left, that caught her by some surprise. She would have thought the asari would stick to the protective circle created by her bodyguards.
"Commander, if I may ask…" Liara breached quietly. "You have… a geth on your team?"
"Affirmative, Doctor-T'Soni, we are Legion, a terminal of the Geth." Legion replied before Shepard could even open her mouth.
"There you have it," Shepard slipped in.
"I am sorry, I did not meant to… offend."
"An apology is unnecessary. We are asked that question with a ninety-five percent certainty."
"Legion is not exaggerating there. Oh, and Legion, at that rate, you need to start charging the askers a credit per runtime. You'd be a millionaire in no time at all," Shepard said.
The geth emitted a chattering sound. "Incorrect, Shepard-Commander. At the stated rate the question would have to be asked eight-hundred-forty-six times for us to amass one million credits. Even with the certainty of the question being asked, we estimate it would take considerably more than… no time at all."
"It's a hyperbole. I doubt you could get even one person to pay up." Shepard replied.
"Acknowledged." Legion replied bluntly. "We concur. The probability of receiving due payment is estimated at under one percent."
Shepard smiled, was Legion trying to be witty? It was adorable, in a mathematical way. Not really funny, but they were trying, she would give them that. By then she had reached the top of the ramp, but she did not stop, and moved toward their Kodiak. She wanted to be well out of ear-shot of anyone below, and where she could see someone coming up.
"Vakarian, we need to get the crate." Nihlus said.
Shepard stopped and turned, "Hold on, you two. I am thinking a slight alteration to the plan is in order. We now know that this facility has what has be referred to as a server vault. I think we know what Harbinger wants here."
"Harbinger?" Liara asked.
"The Commander's name for the leader of these geth." Garrus explained.
"Someone leads these geth?"
Shepard could hear the mounting confusion in Liara's tone. "I guess I best catch you up with what we know, before we start talking plans."
"Yes, we would appreciate that." Myrix spoke for the first time, her voice a little bit deeper than Shiala's, and raspy, almost as if her vocal cords could not vibrate properly.
"Well…" Shepard opened, and launched into the story, starting with Eden Prime, and up to Solcrum. By the time she had finished, she managed to do what she hitherto thought impossible, she made an asari turn pale. "So that's the gist. These geth are not… Geth, not the majority faction. They are what the Geth call Heretics, a term I've adopted due to lack of anything better. I'm pretty sure if you were to ask them, they would call themselves Geth as well. The crucial difference is that they do Harbinger's bidding, like the servants of a king. Legion is from the majority who are still cloistered in the Perseus Veil. They are… dare I say, more democratic." Shepard finished.
"I see." Liara echoed.
"I know it is a lot to swallow, I don't expect anyone to believe me off-hand." Shepard figured a little bit of diplomacy would not hurt here.
"I am interested in this… Prothean Artificial Intelligence… I've never seen any evidence of the Protheans employing AI. VI, yes, sophisticated ones at that, but never AI." Liara continued.
"That's what Harbinger claims it is, and due to an absence of evidence to the contrary I cannot refute the claim," Shepard replied. There was plenty of evidence for it, except all of it came from the Geth. Would people believe them? It seemed to her that everyone was dead-set on seeing the Geth as untrustworthy, or worse, inherently incapable of true thinking. As if thoughts originating from a computer were inherently inferior to those from brain cells, the bias in favor of proteins over circuitry.
"Commander, please understand the significance of this. Looking at the physical archeological evidence on its own, I would say that the Protheans did not use AI. Yet if this Harbinger is indeed a Prothean AI… this is a big discovery, Commander!"
"I wouldn't dispute that," Shepard really had nothing to dispute it with. Liara was the academic there, not her. "Still, before we start wrangling whose name goes on the published paper… we need to survive this."
"Ah yes. My apologies."
"What is the new plan, Shepard?" Nihlus asked.
Shepard was glad that he took the blatantly obvious opening there.
"The initial plan, of planting the shaped charges on the ship's mooring claws is still a possibility. But for obvious reasons, right now that may not be the best, only, or smartest option. Now that we know there is something called a server vault here, we know what Harbinger probably wants. It left Daiwi when it realized it would not get anything. We may be able to… encourage it to go. The Normandy can handle it from there." She paused there, ostensibly to take a breath, but really to wonder what the odds on that were. If Harbinger was here for her, then it would not go quietly and without a fight. "We also need to check the place for further survivors, and maybe poke around the closets, see what… metaphorical skeletons ExoGeni hid in them." Shepard explained.
She got a lot of nodding heads, but no one seemed keen to add their own input, Shepard took it as her sign to continue on with her train of thought. She turned and looked Liara in the eye, "For this part, I could use your help, Doctor T'Soni. We are strangers here, you know more about the layout of the facilities. Where is that server vault?"
"Ah yes." Liara looked startled for all of a split moment, but then the determination was blazing in her eyes again. "ExoGeni's administrative center is a few levels above us. I think it was formed around the vault. I am conjecturing a little, but there is one section up there that they kept strictly off-limits to everyone not ExoGeni. My guess is that it's the vault."
"A good guess as any. So we sweep up, floor by floor, and see what we can do to secure the cleared sections, and make our way to that vault." Shepard would bet on Liara's academic background making her a keen observer, albeit with a civilian lens. She could use that, in lieu of a lack of combat experience. In some ways, they were no different, except Shepard looked for different things and she had the combat skills and experience. She was going to let herself feel cautiously optimistic here, this whole thing might just work out.
"We best not use the elevators, if any are still functional." Nihlus said.
"There are some, but… they are on circuits that have to be enabled manually. This building's grid is barely functional and patched over in a haphazard manner. Keeping the elevator motors off it reduces the load." Liara said.
Shepard hummed. They would have to walk up to the ExoGeni place to enable to elevator, which would literally defeat the elevator's whole purpose. "So, that leaves stairs. What are our options?"
"Immediately above us is what used to be a food and shopping area. There are multiple ways accessing the rest of the tower through there." Liara said.
"Good. Alright, Nihlus, Garrus… the crate."
The turians nodded and made their way toward the shuttle.
Liara ended up leading them over the back stairway to what had been the employee area of the food court. Then they emerged onto the food court, now an enormous empty space filled with long-ago shuttered eateries. The lighting was pale here, making the bare grey, stained walls look like something straight out of a horror movie. The comparison seemed even more apt because there was very real threat of something trying and kill them.
Still, it was clear that ExoGeni had tried to put the space to use. One of the eateries had been opened, cleaned up, and supplied with simple cooking equipment. New tables had been set up right in front of it. There was no hint of food anywhere, so had the heretics caught the staff between meals? There were no bodies either, though Shepard suspected this was going to change. The air hung with an eerie, absolute silence, and as Shepard moved, her own footsteps echoed ever so slightly.
"ExoGeni uses this levels as guest accommodation and habitation. They turned some of the former stores into living quarters." Liara explained. "The offices we want are right above, and the secure area I suspect to be the server vault is on level two of the offices. As for the claws… the lowest will be a few levels above that." Liara explained.
Shepard hummed in assent, mostly to herself than to Liara. There were quite a few stairways in their future. "How do we get to the offices?"
"There is really only one way up there… the front door. It is on the other side of the shopping area. Either one of the passages will work, they form a bisected square."
"Alright, I guess we cross the mall." Shepard replied and turned toward the closest end.
The passage out of the food court took a ninety degree turn to their right. Shepard could see that indeed some considerable work had been put into making the area feel hospitable. The mall took up the whole arcology level. The food court was along one wall, and there were two exits on either end that led onto passages lined on both sides by shuttered stores. One look down the passage and Shepard realized what Liara meant by bisected square. The central block of stores was much too large, so the builders had cut an alley right through, which allowed for more stores in the center.
The main ceiling lighting was not operational, but ExoGeni had mounted their own lighting along the walls, without bothering to hide the wiring. Running the whole length was what might have been a fountain, or perhaps a reflecting pool, ringed with stone through planters and regularly spaced out stone benches. Some had been cleaned, revealing the high gloss of igneous stone. The floor was rough stone cut into large slabs, making it look like a shopping street.
The stores had all been shuttered at one point, but now many had their metal panels cut or ripped out, allowing entry inside. Shepard doubted it was ExoGeni's doing, as they were not the first people here. It was highly likely that the stores had been looted a long time ago. Now their empty shells formed sleeping rooms, with simple number signs tied on with wire to whatever would hold them.
"Swanky," Shepard murmured.
"Oh, this is standard, Commander." Liara stepped in. "This is standard for the late imperial period, the height of power and prosperity. While much of the decorative elements have been stripped and the decay is quite pronounced, you can still see hints of what once was. These walls should be white, decorated with polished metal detailing. The reflection pool had perpetually moving water, and the boxes contained scented flowering plants. We assume that this was a cultural aesthetic, a preference for indoor gardens."
"Typical ostentatious rich guys," Shepard mused, as they approached the other end of the passage and a ninety degree turn. The stores on this side were larger, and set amidst them was their clear destination. The place was fronted by what looked like the decorative façade of a building. The grates over its panel windows had been cut out, and the glass smashed long ago. The lobby beyond was pitch dark, which did not make sense. Was this what Liara called the front door? One would think they would install lighting in there as well. Or had they, and the Heretics took it out?
Then, quite suddenly she saw a single, faint white-blue pinprick of light blink online in the gloom. Shepard threw up her right hand, signaling the group to stop. "Legion, straight ahead… You see that pin-prick of light?" She asked.
Legion emitted a brief burst of the chatter, and then quite suddenly they stepped around her. Shepard felt the hair at the back of her neck rise as the geth's powerful kinetic barrier flared online. "Affirmative, Shepard-Commander. We detect multiple Heretic units ahead."
"Thought so." Shepard could not help but dead-pan. They had gotten pretty far without seeing any, their luck was bound to run out eventually. "Ready your weapons!" she ordered as she reached down to power up Sin and Dex and ducked behind nearest large planter box. "Doctor T'Soni, please take cover. Leave this to us." She added hastily. The boxes were made of glossy, hard, igneous stone, and full of dirt, they would likely stop bullets, even from an overpowered rifle.
The squad broke up into twos and threes as they could. The marines stuck together, forming their unit as they ducked into the doorway of the nearest store on her right. Nihlus and Garrus moved to doorway of the store behind them, carrying the crate between them. Tali ducked behind either a bench or a planter somewhere behind her. Shepard heard the whine of the quarian girl's shotgun powering up. Legion remained where they stood, unbothered by the whole situation. Liara ducked into a store on her left along with the commandos, though both drew their weapons to have them ready.
When Shepard peered around the box, she saw the single pin-prick of light become two, then four, and finally eight. The Heretic units were done hiding in the shadows. Fortunately she did not see any hints of yellow in their midst, none of Harbinger's proxies, yet. "Keep your heads down! Standard precaution against sharpshooters. Garrus, Legion, Ashley, we'll take them out from here. No one is stepping in there with them." She ordered as she reached behind her back for Nike.
"Acknowledged," Legion drew their sniper rifle as well.
Garrus and Ashley followed her orders without acknowledgement. Shepard peered over the planter box. There were still only eight lights, "Tali, bring up your drone's wide angle infrared. I want to know if there are any other… conspicuously warm spots in that lobby."
"On it, Commander." The quarian girl replied.
Shepard powered up Nike and brought the barrel over the edge of the planter. Legion followed her cue, raising their rifle with practiced ease. The Heretics began to emerge from the lobby doorway, assault rifles glowing, and their sensor suite irises ratcheted open. She closed her right eye and peered down Nike's scope and aimed at the leading unit. It seemed to sense it, as it turned its rifle at her. It was out of luck, she was out of mercy. "Terminate them!" she ordered and a deep breath.
She had just begun to exhale when Garrus' rifle cracked, followed by Legion's, the latter swallowing the former, reverberating through the air. The heretic on the left of where she was aiming was hit in the head, and it disintegrated in a rain of shrapnel, sparks, and a splatter of cooling fluid. The one on the far right suffered a similar, though less violent fate, its face-light merely shattered, sending a spray of white liquid into the air as it collapsed. Then her own rifle kicked. Nike's bullet ripped through the leading geth's face-lamp, and it too went down.
The remaining heretics raised their weapons and opened fire. Shepard ducked back down. Then there was a fourth crack, Ashley's rifle. One of the heretic rifles cut out. When the bullets did not hit her hiding space, Shepard dared to look up. Legion had once again stepped into the bullet line, their shields rippling, yet the geth did not seem to care. Their rifle rose in a fluid motion, long barrel honing on the next heretic, and there was another thunderous blast. One more heretic went down in a spray of shrapnel, sparks, and cooling liquid.
"Garrus, Ashley, now! Before Legion's shields go down!" She called as she raised Nike back into firing position. Legion fired again, effortlessly bring down another heretic. Shepard aligned her crosshairs and squeezed the trigger. Her shot was echoed in rapid succession by two other rifles, and just like that the remaining three heretics went down. As Shepard lowered her rifle Legion turned to look back at her, their head tipped slightly to the side. Shepard figured it was their way of saying thank you.
"You bosh'tet!" Tali called. "Are you trying to get yourself offlined?"
"Negative, Creator-Zorah. We calculated our odds of success to be eighty percent. Addendum, we acknowledge your concern." Legion replied.
"What concern? Do you think any of us want to have to drag you around if you run down your batteries?" Tali asked, blunt as a hammer, with a tone to match.
Legion's emotive plates rose, but then settled right back down, "Our apology, Creator-Zorah, we will add that to our future calculations." They said, smoothly, and calmly.
Shepard blinked, surprised. That was an exchange she never would have thought she would live to hear. For all of Tali's protests, her initial outcry could only be taken as concern. She chose to cover it up affected annoyance. Legion was clearly on to her, so they did not take it as an insult. Still, it would be best to pull Tali's attention away from the whole thing. She looked back "Tali, how's that infrared coming?"
"Sorry, Commander. I was waiting for the geth to be gone. I didn't want Chatika taking a bullet." Tali explained. As if to punctuate the explanation Chatika floated up into the air and turned toward the dark lobby. Tali's eyes remained glued to the feed on her omni-tool for a long ten seconds before the girl hummed. "I am not seeing anything that could be a heretic, or a person for that matter."
"Guess that was it for the first wave," Ashley said.
"If you count the units on the bridge, then this was the second wave. Ten units there, eight units here… I get the feeling that we're looking at quite the numbers up there," Shepard said. Harbinger was not kidding around this time, was he? She slipped her rifle behind her back and rose to her feet.
Liara and the commandoes emerged from their hiding place, Shepard could see the way the youngest asari was looking at her. Shepard did not particularly care for that look. It was too amazed for her tastes, as if the asari had never seen a professional sharp-shooter at work. Shepard turned away, "Tali, still nothing?" she asked.
"Nothing, we're clear as on this level. As far as I can tell." The quarian tapped a few commands into her omni-tool.
"Alright, we keep going." Shepard did not like the thought of going into the darkened lobby, or over darkened stairs, but there was nothing else to it. The elevator would have been an ever worse idea. "Legion, I want you a bit forward with me. Alert me the moment you pick up heretic units."
"Acknowledged." The geth replied calmly.
Shepard turned and began to walk, and the geth instantly and smoothly fell in step on her left.
It did not take long to enter the darkened lobby. When she stepped into the gloom, Shepard was happy to see that the color flashes from the earlier near-blinding had faded, her night vision would work. Then she became aware of familiar, but unwanted scent of decay wafting through the room. She recognized the scent immediately. There was a body somewhere nearby, and it had been there long enough to start decomposing. It was a small blessing then that the lobby was too impossibly dark to see anything. There was no unseeing it, and even she could not say the sight did not bother her.
"Is that smell what I think it is?" Jenkins muttered from the back.
"Unfortunately," Ashley replied.
This was the inglorious part of the job, and Shepard knew it was coming. "Close your helmets if you need to." She would not hold it against anyone doing that. She reached up to activate her helmet-mounted lights, as there would be no way to navigate these dark spaces without them. The ghostly beams cut through the gloom. She could tell that ExoGeni had tried to clean the place up, the floor had been passed over with a bucket and a mop. The walls were in just the same state of decay as the rest of the tower. Here too were more planter boxes and two square features that had likely been reflecting pools. Most gruesomely was the body, clad in a hard-suit, draped over the lip of one. Shepard did not look for very long, she did not need to check for life signs, not with the smell wafting through the air.
At the back of the lobby were three sets of metal doors. The finish was glossy to a certain point, but the scarring and scratching indicated that someone had went to a great length to extract the inlaid metals that had once decorated the door, forming a complex geometric design.
"Doctor T'Soni, those are the elevators, yes?" Shepard asked.
"Oh… Yes, those are the elevators. The stairs you want are on the left." The asari replied.
Shepard thought Liara sounded a little breathless. She would not be surprised if the sight and smell were turning the archeologist's stomach right then. The first time anyone saw combat causalities inevitably left an impression. Even soldiers sometimes struggled with that. It was one of those things one could never be entirely ready for.
Shepard turned, and her lights hit another, smaller door on the left. ExoGeni apparently did indeed label everything, as there was a sign with the universal pictograph for stairs stuck to the wall next to it. "Alright, guess we know where we're going. Legion, you're with me. We'll take point. Kaidan, Ashley, second file. Jenkins, Tali, middle. Nihlus, Garrus, after that. You'll be slowest because of the crate. Doctor T'Soni, I want you, Shiala, and Myrix as our rear-guard." It went without saying that Shepard did not expect an attack from that side. If things went right, they would never have an enemy come at them from the back. She could afford keeping the civilian and the huntresses back there.
"Aye, Aye ma'am." Kaidan replied calmly.
It was not an ideal arrangement, but it was the best she could come up with. With that said she began to walk toward the stairs. She was mildly surprised neither Nihlus, nor Garrus raised a protest to that arrangement. They were both too overprotective when the mood hit them right. Then again, maybe it was because it was Legion, the one being who had literally stepped in to take bullets for her in the past. Not that she wanted Legion to ever do that again.
When Shepard reached the doorway she moved to the side and pressed her back to the doorjamb, even as she drew Sin. She would not do that stupid thing, and walk into that doorway without a plan. "Legion, can you see past the door with your infrared vision?" She asked.
"Affirmative, Shepard-Commander."
"Anything?" Shepard asked.
"Negative. We detect no heretic heat signatures, nor electronic signals. It is safe to proceed."
That was that, Shepard slapped a hand onto the control panel. The door obediently parted and slid open. A moment later she ducked into the stairwell and swept the closest corners with her lights and gun. She spotted another body, another of the security staff, lying on his back at the base of the stairs. The front of his armor was perforated in multiple places. The smell was even stronger in the tighter space. Shepard was beginning to wonder if following her own advice might not be a bad idea. Even she had a limit of how much she could take.
With nothing but silence to greet them, she glanced toward Legion and then began to climb the stairs. The stairs were as dark as the lobby, the epitome of an unsafe situation. On the next floor, the door leading out of the stairwell had been pried open violently. Its two halves had been pulled off the rails, at the bottom, effectively jammed open. It opened onto a weakly-lit likely-square corridor lined with offices. Of the ones she could see, many no longer had a door at all. Given the clean removal of the doors, Shepard doubted it had been done by the heretics.
"This level is mostly underused. ExoGeni does not have the staff to occupy every office. They chose a few of the bigger ones to work from." Liara explained.
"We still need to make sure there are no Heretics here." Shepard replied. "Doctor T'Soni, this level's floorplan is also a bisected square, yes?"
"Yes. That's the general layout of all the levels. The level above, where the vault is, is not bisected at all. That is why I think that the central space is the vault."
"Alright, well that means we can probably split up a little." Shepard sincerely hoped that the heretics would not be moving in groups as large as the one they faced in the lobby below. Splitting up would be dangerous if they did. Perhaps they were patrolling the corridors in twos and threes? That was an oddly universal patrol pattern. She would have to balance out the teams too.
"Alright. Kaidan, take Bravo to the right."
"Yes, Ma'am." Kaidan replied calmly.
Shepard nodded, but turned to the others. "Legion, Tali, Doctor T'Soni, you will come with me to the left."
"Acknowledged." Legion replied.
Tali nodded, even as her grip on her shotgun tightened.
Liara nodded, but much more hesitantly, something that Shepard did not miss. Well, she would give the doctor some consideration. "Now for our esteemed huntresses, I really would like one of you to stay here with Nihlus, Garrus, and the crate. You'll be our watch on the stairs. Wouldn't do for the heretics to come at us from the rear. If they do come, no heroics. We regroup and take them out."
"Yes, Commander." Garrus replied.
"Shepard, I do not like this." Nihlus protested.
Shepard knew that he would say it, but he would also follow her orders. She also knew why he did not like this idea, this was one of the super rare times when she did not allow him to trail her like a shadow.
"Myrix, go with Liara. I will stay here." Shiala said.
The quiet commando hummed her quiet assent.
Shepard figured the arrangement made sense. That way each group had firepower and a biotic, just in case. She knew better than to split the huntresses away from Liara entirely. They likely would not have it. "Keep close radio contact. That goes double for our rear guard. Sweep every room, sure it might take a while, but we want to be thorough. Now go."
Kaidan wordlessly turned down the right side of the corridor, and Ashley and Jenkins followed. Shepard watched them for a long moment, but then turned to the left walked. "Run me down the highlights of what's actually on this floor, Doctor. Whose offices and what they're into." If they were going to find the dirt on anyone, she needed to have a better idea of what was out there before she started digging.
Author Notes: Here's Liara! The first core character introduced since Legion. For the longest time, I did not know how to introduce her into the plot, or what to do with her after that. It was mostly because she does not have a ready reason to associate with Shepard in this canon. Sometimes such a little thing can put the brakes on everything. I try not to hand-wave details of that sort.
General Notes:
Headcanons – Many of my musings here, namely about the Protheans. I was really seeing the Hanging Gardens for my inspiration for that water feature in the mall. Same reasons for being there, one part symbol of mastery over nature, one part display of power. Liara gets to be our fountain of information, she's the archeologist, and I want to use that.
Chapter Notes:
Nothing in particular…