Mass Effect 1
Burnt for Beacons
Chapter 3 – Chasca
"PRIVATE LOG OF DR. GAMORLE
I don't trust this Cerberus group. They may pay us well, but if this gets out before we've developed an antidote... it's just not smart. They won't tell us what they want the samples for or why they wanted them delivered to the Matano system. My records show nothing of interest there."
Wordsworth might have liked this place, Ashley thought. Emily Dickinson wrote something about mountains. Whitman too. But there was a better one by Katharine Lee Bates. Ashley could recite the first stanza, but the rest was hazy.
Our blue sierras shone serene, sublime,
When ghostly shapes came crowding up the air,
Shadowing the landscape with some vast despair
And all was changed…
And all was changed…
Wrex's gravelly voice intruded on Ashley's thoughts. "Remind me what we are doing here, Shepard."
Ashley could see why this planet might be an attractive prospect for colonisers. Blue, mountainous peaks rose above grassy plains. It was beautiful, serene, sublime. But that was just the temperate areas along the terminator. Both night side and day side were uninhabitable.
"You were at the briefing, Wrex. You know why we're here," Shepard replied, tiredly.
The three of them lay in the lush green grass at the top of a rise, looking down over the tiny human settlement. There was no sign of life.
And all was changed… as in weird pantomime,
Transfigured into vague, fantastic form
By that tremendous carnival of storm.
"Sure, you get a tip off that some stupid pro-human group has been sending samples from that stupid human research company out here to the middle of no-where to some stupid human colony and because a bunch of stupid human scientists are worried, you've decided we need to check it out."
"See, I knew you were listening," Shepard smiled across at the giant krogan.
"Well at least you humans are consistent." He eye-balled the commander to see if she'd react to the insult. Shepard quirked an eyebrow but otherwise ignored the jibe. He continued. "Here's the bit I don't get," Wrex continued. "Isn't there someone else that should be doing this?"
Ashley huffed air out of her nose. Wrex was right. On paper, this was not a job for the Normandy, but on the other hand, Ashley couldn't dismiss the prickling sensation on the back of her neck. Something was very, very wrong here. She unclipped her sniper rifle and looked at the three buildings through the scope. There was nothing, nothing but a gentle stirring of the grass. Her mind snagged on something. She had learned to trust that feeling, so she carefully stilled her breathing and did a slow sweep with the rifle again.
This time she saw it. She knew what it was, and what it meant. "Dragon's Teeth," she said.
And goring horns that strove to charge the sky.
Shepard pulled out her own scope and peered down at the settlement. When she'd finished, she passed it over to Wrex. Ashley continued to hold on to hers, if anything, clutching the rifle slightly tighter. They were the same very tall spikes that Ashley had first seen on Eden Prime. She had watched geth load human corpses onto those goring horns. Alliance intel had suggested that they somehow inject nano particles into the body to create a fully automated husk. With sudden roar that made our bravest blanch, came volleying down in fatal avalanche. Zombie soldiers. The scientists were using this out-of-the way settlement as its base for study.
Katharine Lee Bates. Bates was just gone. Was Bates a husk somewhere, transfigured into vague, fantastic form?
Shepard stirred. "Ok. Let's get back into the Mako. Given how quiet it is, we should assume the worst. My guess is we're going to have a colony worth of husks to deal with. I don't see any sign of geth, but we know they are connected somehow. Let's not rule out the fact that we might be dealing with them as well. Don't shoot humans unless they shoot first. I've got questions for any survivors." It was her serious voice. Her mission voice.
Ashley shook herself. The poem had a happy ending. She just couldn't, in that moment, remember it.
It wasn't long before they were easing the Mako down the slope. As the ground levelled out beneath them, they saw the first husk. It lumbered towards them, oblivious to the danger it was in. Shepard unceremoniously eased the massive tyres over the top of the animated corpse and even through the heavy plating and environmental seals, all three of them heard the wet squelch and crunch of the once human body.
Ashley watched Shepard's lip curl in revulsion. This moment was far removed from the heat of battle. She shuddered.
"I'm taking us back to the civilian buildings, first," Shepard called over the rumbling engines. Ashley could easily pick up the concern in her voice through her earpiece. "Those things have gotten out of the research lab. People are in danger." They sped across the flat terrain, knowing it could make all the difference. When they arrived, Shepard drove the Mako around the tiny complex. At last satisfied that there were no vast numbers of husks hiding in the shadows, they climbed out and eyed the door hatch.
Ashley had overseen the upgrade of their armour and installation of combat exoskeletons. She was fairly pleased with the heavy armour that she and Wrex were wearing but Shepard's lighter armour always made her nervous. All three of them were armed with shotguns with extra gear tucked into their webbing. Shepard moved her grenades around for easy reach.
When all was ready, the commander turned to signal the other two, and opened the hatch. They found themselves in a typical prefabricated warehouse-style colony building. Large crates lined the wall, which was made of equally large clip-together white panels. Ashley's mini-combat scanner was showing a lot of traffic in the next room. She looked over at Shepard who was eyeing her own more high-tech scanner with concern. They took cover on either side of the door and on Shepard's signal Wrex barrelled straight in. Husks boiled out at them from all directions, and one got particularly close to Ashley. She could see the blue LED's blinking at her from underneath rotted flesh even as she smashed in its skull with the butt of her shotgun. More kept coming. By the time it was over, the marines were all breathing heavily.
All nature seemed convulsed in some fierce crime. Ashley had not realised she had spoken those words aloud, but the commander looked over at her with concern. Shepard walked towards her.
"You ok?" Shepard asked her, casually flicking a piece of exploded flesh off her pauldron.
She wasn't sure how to answer that question. She tried for a perky, "Sure am!" but before she had a chance to gauge Shepard's reaction, Wrex was back, and impatient to get moving.
There were no survivors at the next civilian building either.
It was time to return to the research facility.
They walked down the brown tiled entrance hall to get to the internal door. There was little hope of survivors here, after what they had seen already, but it was possible that the scientists had known enough to take precautions; it was possible that they'd be able to save someone today. Ashley and Wrex stood to either side of the doorway, taking what shred of cover they could get, while Shepard sheltered behind them fiddling with her combat sensor. After a nod from the commander, Wrex thumped the entry pad and the door slid open. Inside, there was nowhere to take cover, and equally nowhere for enemies to hide, but in the middle of the room stood another three dragon's teeth. The trio did a quick circuit, and when they were sure the area was clear, they moved further into the prefabricated compound. Shepard had them stop in a corridor off to one side and showed them the combat scanner which had identified a large number of potential combatants in the next room. Silently, they crept towards the doorway.
On Shepard's signal they burst through the hatch, immediately swept right, and took up positions of cover. Wrex took point and immediately started throwing around his biotics, which allowed Shepard and Ashley to pick off the flailing husks with their shotguns. The fight was over incredibly quickly.
Shepard busied herself with the main computer. Ashley watched her fingers dance over the console and then over her omni-tool display. It was fascinating to watch this other side of her, to see another of the many things that made Shepard… Shepard. Commander-Tech-Wizard-Paragon-Spectre, Ashley thought with a smile.
Wrex stomped back towards them, just as the commander finished up. Ashley finally remembered the last part:
And then a rainbow, and behold! the sun
Went comforting the harebells one by one;
And all was still save for the vesper chime
From far, faint belfry bathed in creamy light,
And the soft footfalls of the coming night.
"So, we have two questions that need answering." Garrus leaned forward in his chair looking around at the people gathered, as if daring someone to contradict him. "Who is Cerberus, and why are they messing around with reaper technology?"
"We don't even know for sure that this is reaper technology. The council certainly doesn't believe it is. The Alliance is blaming it on "Saren's Geth." Shepard said bitterly. She was wearing her frustrated face, but it changed to a guilty one as she looked to Garrus. Ashley watched the moment that Shepard realised she had taken her frustrations out on a teammate. She continued to watch as Shepard's features rearranged themselves and softened. She gave him an apologetic look before adding, "You're right though, Garrus. Who's Cerberus? Why the tech?" She looked around the room, waiting for anyone to use the moment to speak. When no one did, she continued, "I sent reports to your omni-tools yesterday. I hope you have all had a chance to download and read them. They are the basic Alliance files on Cerberus, and they provide a pretty good overview of the kind of group we are likely to be dealing with."
The meeting continued, salient points were discussed, and questions asked and answered.
"Even with the little we know," Pressley said, "we can guess at their motives. They are funding research into weapons, organic and synthetic, to give humanity the edge over other species. As a secretive agency they are not bound by ethics and are so far managing to successfully evade the law. It could be that they are not linked to Saren or the reapers. They might just be stealing the technology and trying to utilise it."
Ashley thought about the different colonies she had grown up in; Sirona, where she was born. It was too easy to imagine a research facility being invited in, after the promise of money and training for a different skilled set of jobs. It would have been exciting for the smaller colonies, so easy for the company to hide what they were really doing, the risks that they were taking, easier still to exploit the anti-alien sentiment that was rife in the colony worlds. Ashley knew she had fallen prey to that kind of racism. The kind that comes from ignorance. She hadn't even met an alien before she'd found herself on the Citadel. She cringed at the memory of some of the terrible things she'd said, but she'd been raised with the stories of batarian raiders, warmongering turians, mind-stealing asari, and an uncaring Council that ignored the suffering of the human colonies. Ashley had believed, and still did to a lesser degree, that humanity should look after humanity first.
"Our priority remains the same, then. We are trying to locate Saren and the conduit. It is possible, due to our shared interests, that we will encounter Cerberus' agents and if that happens, we will investigate and aim to stop their activities if possible. We will also pass on all our data about them to the Alliance. Garrus, Liara, Wrex, Tali, is this the kind of thing your governments would also be interested in?"
Again, Ashley found herself questioning the merits of handing such information over to alien governments. Aren't these decisions best left to the Alliance? But then she looked over at the four alien crew members and observed the animated discussion taking place. She had grown fond of all of them. She decided once again, to trust Shepard's judgement.
The meeting moved on.
"Did you learn anything new from the mind-meld?" Kaidan asked.
Ashley perked up, eager to learn of any new leads.
"Unfortunately, no," Shepard admitted. "But Liara has been able to piece what information I have together in a way that makes sense.
Liara smiled back.
"Right, that's everything, for now. Tomorrow you'll get the file on Noveria. The rest of the night is yours." Shepard turned to the asari beside her, "Actually Liara, can I see you for a bit?" When Liara nodded nervously, the commander tuned back to the group at large, "Dismissed."
Garrus brushed her shoulder on the way out. "Cards, Williams?"
"After Wrex cleaned me out last time?" she grinned at him. "No thank you."
"Aw, come on, Ashley. We won't gang up on you this time," Kaidan smiled his most winsome smile.
"I'll loan you the sachets, Ash. These Bosh'tets can't count past five. You were just unlucky."
Ashley turned her head to find Shepard was looking towards her from across the room. She was still talking to Liara but staring off into the middle distance. Ashley could not even be sure that Shepard was aware she was doing it. Ashley watched as Liara said something and Shepard pulled her attention back to the asari to comfort her.
Without Shepard's gaze holding her in place, Ashley allowed herself to be led away by her friends.
A/N:
The poem is "A Mountain Storm" by Katharine Lee Bates