Mass Effect 1

Burnt for Beacons

Chapter 5 – Noveria II

The turrets were pointing the wrong way. Ashley felt her stomach drop. Something terrible had happened here. The sticky snow clung to her combat boots and every step felt much heavier than it should have, as they made their way up to the entry hatch, all three on high alert, all three tense and listening. The storm made it impossible to hear anything inside, but as they got closer their combat sensors told them that they would be walking into heavy fire. Geth were everywhere. They slammed through the door in an attempt to surprise the androids. How do you even begin to surprise an advanced artificial intelligence? Ashley wondered. You just have to be faster, keep moving and keep adapting. She moved quickly along the perimeter, never letting herself get pinned down, taking out one robot after the other. She kept a careful eye on Liara. She seemed to be holding her own nicely, relying heavily on her biotics, and working in tandem with Shepard.

There was something, some things, on the upper level. Ashley ducked down beneath some cover and pulled out her rifle to peer through the scope. Cockroaches. Massive cockroaches. She didn't spend a lot of time questioning it, instead, pulling the trigger again and again. This is why Benezia had brought the geth, and why the turrets were pointing towards the base. They were trying to contain these monsters. Her rifle boomed a final time, and all was still. She checked her helmet's HUD and saw that they had all survived unscathed. Ashley climbed to her feet, slipping her rifle back over her shoulder and pulling out her pistol. She joined the others as they slowly walked towards one of the giant arachnids. The sound of the ice crunching beneath each footstep echoed loudly in her ears. A green liquid splattered out from the creature's head. Some sort of acid. It had eaten away at some of the nearby metal surfaces. She pointed it out to the others and Shepard nodded. She'd already known.

Their search took them up in an elevator. It was a relief to be away from the cold and snow. Ashley stomped her boots to free them. Shepard checked and stowed her weapons and Liara flexed her fingers, but no one said a word. Eventually, the doors opened. Ashley's finger stroked the trigger on her pistol as they walked through yet another doorway. This room contained a series of servers and terminals that Ashley couldn't even begin to understand, the many entrances and exits made her nervous. She hadn't even begun to get her bearings before she became aware of a frightening scuttling noise. Green bugs, the size of chickens, were rushing towards them. All three of them began firing wildly, picking them off one at a time, but Ashley who had taken point was hit by a spray of acid when one got too close. She could hear the hiss as it began to eat through the ceramic plating above her knee, so she quickly knelt to remove the plate, her shaking fingers fumbling against the clasps. It was through to her underarmour and she could feel her skin burning with a sudden fire. She yelped and felt herself drop to the ground still scrabbling uselessly at the plates. Shepard was there. She had removed her helmet so Ashley could see her eyes were wide with concern, but she couldn't hear what Shepard was saying. It was as if her ears were filled with the roaring of waves. She felt her hands being roughly pushed away, and the plates removed from her leg, then felt cool relief and knew medi-gel had been applied to her open wound. She sucked in a breath and brought her panic under control. Ashley watched as the cloth and padding was cut away to reveal a perfectly manageable flesh wound.

Shepard's hair had fallen across her face in a way that Ashley found quite distracting. No longer in pain, she found herself very aware of Shepard's movements, how close she was, how fast and competant. Ashley sat up higher, and reached out to help apply pressure as Shepard applied the bandage. Their gaunleted fingers clacked together and then Shepard's brown eyes were looking directly into her own. Ashley saw a heady mix of concern and relief, a gaze that lasted an eternity. Shepard's eyes flicked lower; they focussed on Ashley's lips, and held there. Another eternity. Ashley could hear her pulse thudding loudly in her ears but a sudden movement, and Shepard was standing, motioning Liara over to help. She felt dizzy and disorientated in a way that had nothing to do with her leg. Shepard pulled her into a standing position and then took a measured step away. She cocked her head and motioned Ashley to walk a few paces so she could assess the injury. The medi-gel had worked its magic and Ashley felt quite comfortable.

Shepard left them. She was going to attempt to get the station's critical systems back on line. Looking around Ashley couldn't help but feel awed at the quality of the building and infrastructure. A lot of money had been spent on this barely habitable wasteland. She had to remember to ask Garrus about Noveria Development Coorperation on their return to the ship. Lighting panels lit the space in a way that was both useful and asthetically pleasing, the grey walls contrasted with the bright orange signs and it reminded her a little bit of the administration building on Sirona (the colony where she was born). Most of the colony planets where she'd lived blurred together a little bit, but Sirona had always stood out. Some of her most powerful childhood memories happened there. She turned to look over at Liara. She wanted to see how her friend was doing without, once again, asking that same question.

"Why would my mother have come here?" Liara asked, appearing to read her mind.

"You might get a chance to ask her." Goddam foot in mouth. Why make it sound inevitable that things would go badly?

Liara stood still for a moment.

"I have watched you watching Shepard. She watches you in the same way. I do not yet have a full understanding of human body language but from what I have observed there seem to be subtle differences in the way that you observe each other compared with the way you each observe the rest of the crew." That was one hell of a subject change. Her words were clipped and careful. But that didn't stop it from taking Ashley right back to high school. Or her sister's message about Kaiden for that matter.

Ashley swallowed while she tried to gather her thoughts. Did she look at Shepard differently? She remembered the way Shepard had leaned over her, just minutes ago. The way her hair fell, and the smell of her shampoo. She felt her chest constrict. Oh shit. Ashley felt the heat rise in her cheeks. But how do you begin to explain power imbalances and alliance regulations to an asari?

"I have upset you." The blue woman was looking at her, concerned.

"I—" Oh thank God. Shepard was back. Ashley did not have to work out how to finish the sentence. She felt unbalanced and fidgety. And suddenly found she didn't know where to look. She was also very aware that she could not remember how she would normally look at people. She pretended to scan for encroaching enemies. She felt, rather than saw, Shepard eyeing them strangely.

"I've reactivated the core. Ready to keep going?"

Liara and Ashley looked at each other, each trying to read the other's expressions and both finding it impossible.

Ashley was bone tired. She knelt over the body of a young man, not much more than a boy, really. He had taken his own life, alone, rather than come face to face with the monsters that had been waiting for him. Just some salarian kid, working on a science station and light years from home. Somewhere out there was probably a mother who loved him, some brothers and sisters, a father. It had been an excruciating mission and they were nowhere near where they needed to be yet. They had made repairs to the Peak 15 station, fought geth of all shapes and sizes, and killed countless numbers of bugs, big and small. Though admittedly, when fighting bugs like this, size becomes relative.

They left the boy and walked carefully to the tram. All three had guns raised; Ashley's shotgun felt heavy in her arms. She assessed the state of the tram's interior and finding it clear, called the other two inside. With the tram doors shut, they could relax for a bit. Ashley slumped into a chair and pulled out a ration pack. She was suddenly ravenous. She threw a bar each to the other two and ate hers in silence, her eyes closed, and she leaned back comfortably. It would be some time before they arrived at Rift Station. She felt the durable plastic bench shift as someone sat beside her, but she didn't open her eyes or move herself to make more room. She could hear her companions close by, settling themselves. They had the whole carriage to spread out in but during a battle it was natural to want to stay close together. Her leg was throbbing.

She woke when the tram stopped.

Liara was leaning forward on the bench facing hers. She and Shepard had stayed awake and had been talking in hushed tones. Shepard smiled down at her and Ashley braced herself for the traditional military jibe about dribbling, snoring, or sleep talking. But no joke was forthcoming. Instead, Shepard helped her to her feet, and they all worked together to gather their weapons and don helmets. Climbing off the tram was uneventful, the way was clear. Rather than head straight to the Hot Labs, Shepard made the decision to track down survivors. Following a map, they headed towards what looked to be the most likely area of the station. It was tricky walking into what was potentially a combat zone, without any way of communicating your intentions to the people you were there to help.

Shepard went for a direct approach. She walked towards the doors and called out, "My name is Commander Shepard. I'm here to help."

It proved to be an effective tactic. At least at first.

Ashley heard the sounds of a lot of weapons being lowered. A Captain Ventralis greeted them. Shepard went straight to work, soothing his ego and gaining as much information as she could about the labs, Benezia, and the situation in general. Shepard knew exactly how to use her charm and good looks to ease people into oversharing. It was a skill Ashley had never mastered. She and Liara separated themselves to watch the perimeter. Ashley could hear strange noises in the vents, but in this unfamiliar place she didn't know what noises she should be worried about, and which were part of the normal ambiance of the place. She looked at the tired soldiers and civilians around her. They looked dirty, and harried. It was obvious none of them had slept in a long time. Too many of the soldiers looked wild. It was the look you get after too many days and nights on stims. Stims are great for keeping you awake if you need to for a bit longer than normal but take too many for too long and you start to go crazy. These people looked like that: right on the edge of crazy. Ashley's grip tightened on her pistol. She heard a noise, like a fork scraping on a porcelain plate. The soldiers moved in startled unison. Civilians pressed themselves into corners. A grate burst open, and a monstrous bug climbed into the room. Ashley didn't hesitate, she began shooting as a second cockroach followed it up. Biotics flared beside her, then all was quiet once again.

They worked their way through the station, helping where they could, trying to ally themselves with someone who would lead them to the matriarch, but everyone was tense and suspicious. Even clearing the Hot Labs of murder bugs did nothing to ease the tension. The most open and honest person was a volus called Han Olar. He didn't seem to care anymore about the non-disclosure agreement he must have signed, and he gave them a name for the bugs: rachni. Nightmare creatures from campfire stories. His account was hard to listen to. He was in the midst of his grief, and he retold the events in graphic detail. His voice was calm and slow; almost hypnotic. His company had found an egg, hatched it, bought the queen of the rachni back from the dead, and she had built them an army, but one they couldn't control. One that was running lose on Noveria. In contrast to this relative honesty, the only asari on the base was aggressively tight-lipped. Ashley found the way she was just loitering and watching to be deeply suspicious. In the end, Shepard decided that a direct approach wasn't going to work and might lead them into more trouble. Han Olar directed them to a maintenance shaft; the hope was that it would take them straight to the area where Benezia was known to have been working. They decided against alerting anyone else at Rift Station of their plans, they didn't want to walk into an ambush. That's what it felt like here. Instead of gratitude, they were getting suspicious questions and angry stares. It was time to make their own way.

The maintenance shaft was exposed to the elements and filled with snow drifts. Their boots crunched once again, and Ashley's thigh began to scream in protest. Icicles hung from the ceiling and the sound of dripping water filled the cavernous walkway. Liara was in front and keeping a brutal pace. No doubt keen to be the first to confront her mother, to protect her from the two marines who followed her. Ashley would take Shepard's lead. Whatever happened. When the asari's biotics created a purple corona around the woman, Ashley knew something was wrong. A rachni was scuttling towards them. It was making that same awful noise, and in that quiet space it felt as if the sound was physically penetrating Ashley's skull. The three soldiers unleashed their weapons as one, and the rachni crumpled into a heap, its acidic spit landing harmlessly in the snow at their feet. The sound of icicles melting filled the silence once more.

Benezia stood on an elevated platform. She was dressed in black and wore a strange headdress that reminded Ashley, uncharitably, of the rachni's antenna. Liara stepped forward into the light so that her mother might recognise her more easily, but the matriarch barely acknowledged her.

"You do not know the privilege of being a mother. There is power in creation. To shape a life towards happiness or despair. Her children were to be ours, raised to hunt and slay Saren's enemies. I won't be moved by sympathy no matter who you bring into this confrontation."

Liara flinched.

It was an odd speech, and things quickly descended into madness.

"Have you faced an asari commando unit before? Few humans have."

"I can't believe you'd kill your own daughter," Shepard answered, looking to Liara to gauge her readiness for the fight to come.

Ashley inched behind some cover in the corner. She wanted to protect her unshielded leg and give herself a place to prop her sniper rifle. This corner looked as good as any place to begin the battle, but before she could ready her sights, she found herself trapped in an impossibly strong, invisible grip. It was terrifying. She watched as asari commandos moved confidently into positions around her squad. They were powerless to do anything. Shepard and Liara were still as well, caught in the same field. Ashley felt her arms move at the same time as the asari around her started to use their biotics, Liara managed to sweep a couple of them into the air and Shepard picked them off. Ashley took careful aim at Benezia. She whispered a silent prayer that Liara would forgive her; and fired. The space around the matriarch rippled but her shield held. Ashley fired twice more before she accepted that the asari was too powerful. She turned her attention to a new wave of attackers.

Geth came pouring in from an entrance in the opposite corner as did more asari commandos, Shepard gave the signal and the squad spread out, it would be all too easy to get pinned down or find yourself attacked from two sides. Ashley realised that the matriarch wasn't attacking, instead most of her energy seemed to be going into maintaining her biotic shields. Ashley crept up the stairs and began slowly picking off attackers from her elevated position, keeping a crate between herself and the matriarch just in case the woman's tactics changed. They didn't even have control of the battle before yet more reinforcements came bursting in. More geth. A destroyer, five troopers, a shock trooper and a sniper all joined the fray. Ashley's HUD warned her that her shields were dangerously low, so she adjusted her position to ready herself. She'd need to find better cover, fast. She signalled Shepard to explain her intentions and was immediately given cover fire. She ran. Bullets pinged off her shields and she felt an impact shove her leg out from underneath her, she was thrown forward so used her momentum to get herself the rest of the way into cover. Damned robots must have noticed the gap in her armour. They'd shot her in the leg. Her armour pinged her squad, so they would know what had happened. It was their job to keep the geth away long enough so that she could tend to the damage herself. She ripped open a dose of medi-gel and poured it liberally into the wound. Once she was sure of her patch job, she re-joined the fight.

It felt like an age, but from there the entire battle only lasted a few minutes. Liara was able to freeze a frog-like geth sniper, which Ashley picked off, while Shepard took out the final trooper. There was only Benezia left. Shepard was in the mood to let her talk, so Ashley leant herself against some machinery to rest her leg. The more she listened, the more Ashley found herself pitying the woman. She appeared to be under some sort of mind control, that or she was just mad. She'd be coherent and loving toward Liara one moment and spouting incoherent ramblings the next. She was twitchy and didn't seem entirely in control of her body's movements. Tears streamed unabashedly down Liara's face. Ashley realised she did not want to kill this woman. As she talked, she became calmer, and as she described her indoctrination, Ashley found herself leaning forward to listen. She described her mission to find the Mu relay; finding out about, and using, the rachni queen for her knowledge, and the army she'd spawned; transcribing her findings to OSD; her longing to bring an end to Saren but being powerless to fight him. She explained everything. Then handed Shepard that same OSD. Ashley was transfixed. Until she noticed that Benezia was starting to twitch again. She reluctantly lifted her pistol and shifted her weight to manage the recoil. Benezia continued to struggle against her mental bonds. The asari matriarch had time to say her last words to her distraught daughter, before she drew herself up, tall, proud, and powerful.

"Die," she said in a deep voice, completely free of colour and expression.

Ashley didn't hesitate. She popped off a few rounds before flinging herself towards Liara. Her asari friend hadn't yet moved. Shepard was left to take the brunt of the attack.

"Liara," Ashley spoke to her through gritted teeth, but trying to sound reassuring and gentle, "Can you manage to put up a shield?" Shepard was being hit hard, but Ashley didn't want to ask Liara to try to take out her own mother.

Liara nodded.

Ashley stepped carefully in front of Liara to protect her from what would come next. Benezia, already wounded as she was, wouldn't last long. Together, Shepard and Ashley launched their attack on their friend's mother. Benezia stopped fighting and dropped her barrier in surrender. Shepard lunged forward to catch her as she fell and said the kinds of words that soldiers say to other soldiers when they know the situation is hopeless. Liara crashed her way forward, hurling off her helmet. She knelt to cradle the older woman's body, sobbing hopelessly.

"Good night, Little Wing. I will see you again with the dawn."

"No!" Liara screamed; the sound was dreadful. It echoed harshly, bouncing off the walls and then repeated in Ashley's own mind. No! No! No!

Ashley removed her own helmet and joined Liara on the ground. Liara cried into her hair when Ashley took her into an awkward embrace. She let Liara sit with her grief, oblivious to everything else.

Slowly, Liara's breathing steadied. Ashley became aware of other noises. Voices. She felt for her pistol. Liara too, seemed to become aware of the danger. They leapt to their feet, and Ashley nearly fell when her leg failed to take her weight.

The tableau before them was impossible to understand. Shepard was leaning against a huge glass tank, looking in at the biggest rachni Ash had seen today. It was colossal. Behind Shepard, an asari commando, one of the ones that Ashley had presumed dead was standing, and talking in a strange, deep, and accented voice. The asari wasn't looking at Shepard, and Shepard wasn't looking at the dead asari, but they were talking to each other. Liara looked at Ashley with an expression of bewilderment, as if she thought Ash would make sense of it all. They walked closer to listen. Like the plant on Feros, the rachni was using the asari's mind-meld abilities to communicate and it was clear that this rachni wanted to live. Much to Ashley's horror, Shepard seemed perfectly happy with that idea. Liara too, having just watched the awful death of her mother, seemed unhappy to kill another sentient being today. Shepard walked around to join them, and to face the asari who spoke with the rachni queen's voice.

"…I don't know what happened in the war," the voice said. "We only heard discordance. Songs the colour of oily shadows." Ashley listened to the poetry in the words and stopped seeing a monster. "…without a mother, the children are lost to silence. You should not sing of them in grey and violet. We would have stilled them ourselves."

"I won't destroy your entire race. You'll go free."

"You—," the asari in front of them twitched, a grotesque marionette. "You will give us a chance to sing our song anew? We will remember. We will sing of your forgiveness to our children."

Shepard took some time looking over the control panel. Then she confidently typed in a code. The whole case moved, and a vent opened freeing the queen into the sky outside. Ashley had time to marvel at the wonder of it all before her leg collapsed completely and she fell to the ground.