Disclaimer: I do no own Mass Effect, I do not claim to own Mass Effect, I am only doing this for fun.
Author Notes: Real life continues to hammer me, and then I got writer's block, of the sort where I just could not concentrate on it long enough to produce something I'd want someone to actually read. This is like my last year in university all over again. But enough about me, please try to enjoy!
Episode 77: Die Another Day [Part III]
Shepard took a deep breath, let it saturate her lungs, and shifted Sin to disruptor mode. As she blew that breath, she turned to look back at the others. "Legion, watch the rear and be ready in case someone tries to pull the same trick as last time." She figured they would know which last time she was referring to.
"Affirmative, we are prepared for that possibility."
Shepard nodded for Legion's benefit. Then her gaze drifted onward. "Nihlus, my side. Javik, Saren-"
The white-clad Spectre turned to look at her, but did not say anything.
Shepard got a distinct impression that he was daring her to order him. That or she missed something sub-vocal. "In the middle," she finished.
"I should take the lead, Commander," Javik stated, as if he was constituting fact.
"Not this time." She replied, then switching languages on the fly, "Of all the individuals here, you are the only one with whom I've yet to work with in the field. Bluntly put, I don't know what you're capable of, so I cannot… factor you into the mental math." That entirely logical explanation ought to eliminate some of the blow-back. "Besides, you're a biotic, staying in the mid-range shouldn't be an issue for you. I only ever met one for whom it is, and even he found a way around it."
Javik remained silent and rooted in place.
Shepard suspected he was staring at her, though the helmet prevented her from seeing it. She stared back, not to give him a metaphorical step back. While she was still not a hundred percent certain where the boundaries of his psychometric ability lay, but if he could read fresh thoughts, she wanted him to know that she was not budging on this.
"That one you met, for whom range is an issue… he is weak," Javik stated at her back.
Shepard bit back her chuckle. It seemed like that was his admission of defeat, even if he did not want her to have the last word. "I'll tell him that you said that. He'll be happy to prove you otherwise. I guarantee that'll be both educational and entertaining."
Javik snorted in a blatantly dismissive manner, but remained otherwise silent.
"Enjoying yourself, Shepard?" Nihlus asked as he stepped up to her right side.
"Not particularly. Just stating facts. He's making the sort of lapse of judgment that Leif thrives on," She replied.
"Yes, he would be the type for that," Nihlus murmured.
Shepard turned back toward the door and raised her pistol into the ready position. "Enough about that, let's do this. Nihlus, you ready?"
"I am always ready," he replied, cocky as ever.
Shepard nodded, took a deep breath, and flicked the fingers of her free hand even as she passed through the door.
Nihlus followed without another word.
Shepard crossed the space on the other side and pressed her back right up against the opposite wall.
Nihlus was at her side instantly, back pressed to the wall, assault rifle cradled in his arms. "This space is too narrow for any sort of formation."
Shepard hummed her assent. The area behind the vault door was supremely narrow and no more lit than the other parts of the ruins. She could stretch out her arms and touch the walls on both sides, and the the ceiling was no more than three meters above the floor. From what she could see, they were inside an inner corridor that ringed the facility's core block. It felt claustrophobic to her, and she was not prone to that discomfort.
She turned her head one-eighty degrees to check her other side, only to see even more endless darkness. "Yes… I didn't expect this." This corridor would not allow two people to walk side-by-side, so whoever took point, would take the brunt of any ambush. "But this place would have been built to withstand the entire building collapsing on it, no wonder it's cramped."
"Correct," Javik confirmed.
It was not the first time that the material science behind Prothean construction impressed her, but she would not linger on that. She glanced at her HUD readings. The air was absolutely still, with the temperature and the pressure both equal with the outside. This was total pressure and thermodynamic equilibrium, which kept the rate of gas exchange low, despite the open door. It made the unique gas mixture stand out, there was much less oxygen and more carbon dioxide down here.
Shepard knew that the most likely cause of this discrepancy, given the situation. If the place was designed to keep machinery safe, then it would have been hermetically sealed, with no ventilation system. That thought, along with the idea that anyone living would have taken shelter here made her skin crawl. They would have survived the nukes, fires, and artificial quakes, only to succumb to some combination of thirst, hunger, and asphyxiation. She sincerely hoped that she was just seeing the worst possibilities, but if she was right, then Javik would know for sure and he could very well become even surlier, not that she would blame him for that.
"Legion, are you detecting anything?" Nihlus asked.
Shepard glanced toward Legion over Saren's shoulder. The geth had switched to their infrared vision, dimming their sensor suite light almost to nothing even as their temple-level lights twinkled in the gloom.
They remained silent for a few seconds, but then their emotive plates gave a single twitch. "We are detecting a faint standby signal from the signal relay device the Heretics used to transmit out of this facility."
"That's a trap as surely as the sky on Earth is blue," Shepard said.
"Affirmative."
"What direction?"
"It is coming from a location immediately in front of our current position. Addendum, due to obstacles we are unable to provide a range estimation."
Shepard hummed, "No need. They're somewhere in the center of this vault."
"This corridor probably circles a single, large core space, and that is where the device is," Nihlus stated.
"Yes, and our enemy will be expecting and waiting for us," Shepard muttered. With the radiation reading being as low as it was down here, they could afford to proceed a little slower and with more caution. That said, the Heretics really would not be caught by surprise easily. Not with their ability to see in the infrared. She would have to take point, and be ready with the flash-bangs if they were to have any hope of getting the drop on them. It would be risky, but it was the only realistic option they had. "We'll go around on my left."
"You favor your left," Saren stated. "If they noticed the pattern, they could be anticipating it."
"Yes, but did they notice the pattern? I've observed that having a preferred side is strictly human, and for the record, the vast majority of my species favors their right." Shepard replied. She was not going to tell Saren that she was not actually left-handed, but mixed-dominant with a preference for her left, which made her particularly rare.
She turned away, intending to do as she had always done, but before she could start walking, a flicker of green from the corner of her eye caught her attention. Javik moved past her with surprising grace considering how narrow the corridor was.
"I will take point, Commander. I am… better suited for this than you." He stated, without so much as looking her way.
Shepard raised an eyebrow, certainly she would not argue that fact, but she could remind him not to get ahead of himself. "If you get shot, I'm going to remind you of those words every time it's opportune."
"Operative term being if I get shot," Javik replied bluntly. Then, without waiting for any of them to say a word edgewise, he started on his way down the corridor.
Shepard lowered her pistol long enough to draw a flash-bang and slip her right thumb into the ring at the end of its safety pin. "Just so everyone knows, I plan to flash-bang the Heretics. They'll be using their infrared sensors, and these flash-bangs produce a lot of infrared along with the flash and bang." With that said, she started after Javik.
"Warning acknowledged," Legion stated from the back.
"Will that work?" Saren asked.
"It should give us a few seconds of not being shot at, while they adjust," Shepard knew that was hardly a proper reply, but it was a sound theory. She was gambling on there being no infrared sensor in existence that would not be swamped by the thermal emissions of an old-fashioned chemical-based flash-bang.
"A few seconds will suffice," Saren stated.
Shepard did not say anything, not even to make a comment about his confidence. In some manner she actually envied it. She knew the situation could still go south very quick. She could only try not to focus on that in excess.
That ended the conversation allowing her to focus on what was right in front of her. Due to the metal-cladding on the walls, ceiling, and floor, she could easily hear the familiar scuffle of turian boots following her. A glance down showed a halo of blue-tinged light on the floor, broken up by two shadows. Legion was behind Nihlus and Saren, and they had switched back to their visual light sensors.
As they continued, she cast her helmet lights from wall to wall. The corridor did indeed appear to ring a central block. From time to time they passed a closed and sealed door on the left, but so far there had not been one on the right. All the doors were little more than metal panels, each with a sign that denoted its number.
At the first of the hexagon's bends Shepard noticed that Javik's biotics flickered brighter than before. She began to wonder if this was involuntary, a response to tension, or perhaps, something he was picking up. Not that now was the time or place to ask.
"We are approaching our destination," Legion stated.
Shepard snapped out of her musings and reached out to tap Javik's shoulder with the bottom of the flash-bang's can, figuring that it would be enough insulation against him reading anything. She felt his shoulders snap up in surprise, but he stopped and did not lash out. Shepard turned back to the others. "If we count the side where the door was as side one, we are now on side two, and approaching the bend to side three. That's halfway around the hexagon. It makes sense that the most secure space would have the only access on the opposite side from the main entry. I want everyone ready."
"Remember our agreement, Shepard," Saren stated.
Shepard looked Saren right in the eyes, "I have two nigh infallible skills, Spectre Arterius. My aim, and my memory." She replied with a due amount of blandness. Then she shifted around Javik, pressed her back to the hexagon's inner-side wall, and crab-stepped toward the bend.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Javik follow her, though he stood right in the middle of the passage, as if the thought of getting shot did not bother him in the slightest. "Javik," she began switching languages. "I appreciate that you are confident with your biotics, but-" Were it not for the fact that he did not take orders, she would have barked at him to stop being stupid. "I've yet to see something stop a bullet from one of the anti-materiel rifles the Heretics have been known to wield."
"There is a first time for everything, Commander."
Sure, but she doubted this was it for that. She poked her head out around the bend, just enough to see around it, but before she could notice anything there was a loud crack. She threw herself away from the corner but nonetheless her shield flared and collapsed.
"Shepard!" Nihlus called.
"It only got my shield," she replied, unable to prevent her shock from seeping into her tone. For all the flak she wanted to give Javik, she should have really remembered how much Harbinger loved to focus on her. This was going to be fun.
"How many?" Javik demanded.
Shepard paused, how many lights had she seen? "One, a big one." She had not even had the time to make sure of that, but she took an educated guess. Had there been more, and were they all as trigger-happy, she would have been in much deeper trouble.
"Just one?" Javik asked with an almost mocking tone.
Shepard opened her mouth to tell him off, but it died in her throat. Javik's whole body flared green as his biotic barrier materialized, fully formed, and dense enough that the details on his armor began to ripple, as if she was looking at it through water. A moment later his hand shot out, and she felt the flash-bang canister fly out of her grip, leaving her with the safety pin. Less than a second later Javik disappeared in a streak of green and with a resounding crack.
The canister's safety lever hit the floor with a ping.
Shepard's heart lodged in her throat, and then kicked back in, pounding triple time against her breast bone. Javik had just charged the Heretic holding a live grenade with a five-second fuse! She whirled around the bend, whipping up Sin as she went. Her eyes landed on the Heretic standing right in the middle of the corridor, partly illuminated by a wan light coming from the doorway on its left.
Javik came out of his dash right in front of the platform, just short of actually hitting it.
She raised Sin straight on the heretic's sensor suite light, intending on distracting the heretic.
The synthetic did not seem to notice her as it swung its rifle across, to bludgeon the prothean with its butt end.
Javik side-stepped, accidentally moving into her line of fire even as he raised his free hand. His biotic aura flared, bright enough for the bare metal around him to catch the glow, and then emitted a loud whomp as the energy snapped onto the synthetic, arresting its movement mid-swing.
Shepard felt her heart practically hammering against her sternum. There were around three second left on the fuse. She knew it would take too long to shout at him to get out of the way, or call out a warning.
"Inferior," Javik growled as he raised his right hand and slammed the flash-bang into the space between the heretic's chest armor and neck cabling.
Shepard blinked, stunned.
Suddenly the prothean disappeared, emitting another a resounding whomp, and a green streak rushed around and behind the heretic.
The her brain finally caught up to what was happening and it was as if time resumed its normal cadence. "It's going to blow! Avert your eyes!" She shouted even as she snapped her free hand to her helmet controls, to dim her face-shield, turned away, and covered her face with her raised forearm.
The flash-bang exploded barely a split of a second later, flooding the corridor with luminescence brighter than noon-time in a desert and emitting a concussive bang that reverberated down the walls like they were bells.
When the light died, Shepard slapped at her helmet controls to remove the dimming and turned back, whipping Sin up into firing position as she went. But it was apparent that she did not need to do anything more. Javik stood further in the back, behind the heretic, still rippling with green-tinged energy, as fine as could be.
The platform was hardly as lucky. It was still on its feet, but its light was gone. What remained of its sensor suite sparked and leaked coolants down its front. A moment later the heretic emitted a burst of chatter and toppled over sideways, hitting first the wall, and then the floor with cloud cluttering.
Shepard lowered Sin and slipped it into its holster. "Well… that's not quite how I wanted to test the efficacy of flash-bangs in these circumstances."
The prothean uttered a harrumph in the back of his throat, "I knew that thing would do that the instant you touched me with it."
"Of course you would." Shepard murmured under her breath. So he could read pertinent information about an object when he touches it? That was good to know.
A hand settled on her shoulder, "Are you alright?" A low, rumbling voice asked.
Shepard glanced over her shoulder. Nihlus was there, a step behind her, as always.
She would not say it, but in some way maybe this was better. If she had been wrong and the heretics could adjust to being flash-banged quicker than they could act, they would have been in trouble. She could have done without Javik showing off, though telling him that, right then and there, would not be helpful. She would have to lecture him on operational safety later.
Shepard raised her hand, ostensibly to push Nihlus' off, but she squeezed his fingers for a split of a second before that, even as she looked past him. That would have have to do by way of reply. "Legion, what are you detecting now?"
"We are detecting…" they paused there, their multiple temple-level lights twinkling for a long moment, "One more active platform in our vicinity. It is consistent with the proxy units used by the Old Machine."
"Thought so," Shepard murmured. It was also very likely that Legion was only detecting it now because it allowed itself to be detected. It had lost the last of its serfs, so it would have to know it had no chance of coming out of the building functional. It would be announcing itself to use the opportunity to gloat while acting as if it had won, as usual.
"The signal emanating from the relay device is unchanged," Legion finished.
"Well then, let's get this over with, we're still on the clock," Shepard muttered as she rounded the corner and started on the way toward the island of light spilling from the open doorway. It was not a particularly bright light, but its existence was instantly a source of some concern. Was it possible that this basement level had an independent power supply that survived the intervening fifty thousand years? Or did the Heretics bring in their own equipment?
Halfway to the door Saren stepped into her peripheral vision. She automatically took a step to her right to avoid brushing up against him, but he did not even look in her direction. She followed him as close as the corridor allowed and reached down for Sin.
Saren did not wait for her when he reached the doorway either, he simply went in.
Shepard followed him inside mutely, raising Sin into a ready position as she scanned the space around her. The first thing she saw was the number of free-standing lighting fixtures, clearly foreign to this structure, and thus something that the Heretics must have brought in. Their power cables snaked over the floor in a tangled web that vanished out of sight. The room itself was enormous and filled almost to the brim with massive server blocks, reaching almost right to the ceiling. All of them looked relatively pristine, as if the passage of time had not registered down here at all.
As she reached up to turn off her helmet lights, Shepard could only arrive at two conclusions. First being that this vault had indeed been fully sealed and isolated from the outside world. Second, that the mad machines had made good use of their head-start on Ilos. There could be more surprises in store, though much of the hard, manual labor would be done for them.
Saren continued deeper into the room, scanning his surroundings as he went.
Shepard swept the space as well, trying her best not to blink too often, lest she miss some faint sign of movement. There was a proxy in here, somewhere, and it was being unusually sneaky. When she took a chance to glance back, she saw that her other three teammates had followed them inside. Nihlus was visibly stiff, with his rifle up, sweeping from side to side, his finger as close to the trigger as possible while still being on the guard. Legion's emotive plates were drawn inward, giving them the appearance of a scowl as they cradled their assault rifle in their arms. Javik likewise had his rifle at a ready and the flickering of his biotics was positively flame-like. It made him look like a wrathful spirit stalking the plain of the living to get his revenge.
Saren suddenly stopped.
Shepard stopped and stuck up her hand, a silent command for the others to stop as well. A half-step to her right allowed her to see around the veteran Spectre, and she instantly saw what brought him to a halt.
There, off to his left, standing next to the largest computer banks near the center of the chamber, was a large device. The antennae protrusions from its top and sides exposed it for what it was. They had found the signal relay. But then her gaze drifted further left, drawn by other twinkling status lights. Standing a few meters away was a closet-sized server cabinet that evidently had power. A thick cluster of cabling ran from it to the relay device and a second passed out of sight toward whatever was providing it with power.
Saren's armor creaked as he took a heavy half-step back.
Shepard turned her head just in time to see a proxy materialize from the shadows like a malicious poltergeist. But the split-second of instinctual alarm on recognition retreated as quickly as it came. This proxy had actual hands instead of mass accelerator cannons, and its weapon was still behind its back. The red sensor suite light also revealed which of the two mad synthetics they were dealing with.
"Saren… and Shepard, and both still alive," it spoke in a deep, rumbling voice.
Its tone instantly made her skin crawl. Despite being outmatched, outgunned, and with no hope of walking out of there, the thing still spoke with malice, as if it had the upper hand.
"Nazara," Saren said, his tone dripping unmasked contempt.
"I will have to tell the other one that I was right. So much for its vaunted calculations." It went on.
"I wouldn't sound so happy with yourself, Nazzy." Shepard stepped in, before Saren could utter a single word. Nazara had no right to sound smug right then. "Let's cut to the chase. I'm not in the mood to listen to anyone's gloating. Especially not yours." There had to be a reason why Harbinger was not here, but even without a confirmation, she knew enough to use an educated guess and stick it to Nazara where it hopefully hurt. "After all, you're just a grunt, doing the sort of work Harby can't be bothered, or won't risk its circuits, to do. And before you argue, it did send you to risk yourself against the Normandy… technically twice now." She paused there, for dramatic effect. "By the way, how did you like that little graze?" She would not pretend that she was not getting perverse pleasure out of it either.
"Shepard you know nothing of what you speak of!" the machine growled.
"Don't I?" Shepard asked. That was definitely a flash of something that bordered on anger. It took the hook! The game was officially on. "Or maybe I do… I'd wager I know it better than you at least. Sure, it knows you can retrieve whatever it is that's in this vault- but a dog can be trained to retrieve things too. And I'd bet that Harby is off doing something more complicated. Something it thinks you're incapable of."
"You cannot help yourself, can you?" Saren asked, but his words lacked their usual bite.
Shepard glanced up at Saren, but with helmets in the way all she could use was his tone, which right then hinted that he was more amused than irritated. She could use that too, to dig the wedge in deeper. After all, Nazara had spent a long while forced to help Saren, it would not have enjoyed it. To be the butt of jokes by the both of them? "Just pointing out the truth, Spectre Arterius." Now it was time for the coup de grace. If Nazara was as loose a cannon as she thought it was, she knew how to incense it. "Poor Nazzy, thinks Harby trusts it." She shook her head, but then turned to the AI. "I'll let you in on a little secret, because I pity you. If this is a game of chess, you're nothing more than a pawn, not a player."
The machine positively bristled even as it reached for the weapon behind its back.
Shepard put Sin in disruptor mode and shifted her weight to her back foot. This was a calculated play, she doubted the thing would survive long enough to do any real harm to her. Not with Legion present. To say nothing of Nihlus.
Right on cue she heard Nihlus' footfalls draw nearer and then a burst of chatter from Legion.
The proxy pulled its weapon free and it began to unfold.
Nihlus' hand landed on her shoulder, and then he pulled her back even as he brought his automatic around her to point it at the proxy. "Think about it and I will offline you!" He hissed.
The proxy brought the rifle up into firing position.
"Nihlus, stop! It is mine!" Saren announced as he raised his hand and his form erupted in a familiar periwinkle glow.
The proxy's gun snapped to the veteran Spectre, seemingly by instinct.
Saren closed his fist simultaneously. His biotic energy snapped over to the proxy's rifle with a resounding whomp, and then he began to turn his wrist.
The proxy squeezed the trigger even as cracks and fissures began to spread over the rifle. The weapon fired a brief staccato burst but it was too late, the rails shorted and the magnetic field propelling the rounds collapsed.
Saren's shields flared to arrest the bullets, but the veteran Spectre did not even twitch. He opened his hand and allowed the warp to dissipate.
The proxy emitted a rumbling, almost growl-like sound. "Never thought you would protect her." It stated as fragments of its weapon's outer housing rained to the floor.
"Hardly. I am protecting the computers from your ineptitude," Saren replied blandly.
Rude as that would have sounded to anyone else, Shepard could appreciate the technical truth there. Yet before she could utter a word she saw Saren's whole body light up with a periwinkle corona. She took a step back, pushing Nihlus back with her, lest they be caught in the forthcoming attack.
The proxy's sensor suite iris opened widely, making it look positively like a deer caught in the headlights.
"I do not forgive betrayal, Nazara. Consider this a preview."
Shepard smirked, Saren was livid, and the best part? Nazara knew what was coming. "Bye, bye! Do send my regards to the other one."
Saren's biotics gave another thunder-loud whomp as the energy snapped over to the proxy. Simultaneously he started to turn his wrist.
The effect was immediate. The rifle dropped from its grip and cluttered to the floor, and it was as if the proxy had been put into a slow trash compactor. Its sensor suite imploded with a loud snap. The armor followed, starting at the edges and spreading inward, bowing and cracking with loud snaps that sounded like breaking bones, even though the synthetic muscle in the proxy's limbs remained unaffected.
Nazara tried to say something, but the sound came out as a warbled mess.
Then, as suddenly as the energy manifested, it dissipated, and Saren lowered his arm.
The proxy dropped to the floor like cut timber and began to leak coolants from the largest cracks in its chassis.
Shepard tilted her head to look at Saren. Long dealings with him had given her some understanding of his body language. Normally he was as rigid as a pillar and purposeful in every movement. At that moment he was actually slouching. It was not particularly obvious, but the slight deviation still showed in the shape of his shadow. She knew better than to draw attention to it by asking, but she suspected he had exerted himself. She would keep an eye on him.
When Shepard glanced down at the proxy, it had not moved a millimeter. She slipped Sin into its holster and turned to look past Saren's shoulder. "Legion, do you detect anyone else?"
"Negative."
"Good." They could relax, however briefly.
"Have your geth find out what was transmitted out. That device should keep a log." Saren stated coolly.
"They have a name," Shepard replied bluntly, but then turned to the geth, "Legion, please look into what was transmitted out." She was being intentionally overly-polite here, just to spite Saren.
"Acknowledged," the geth replied as they folded their weapon.
Shepard knew she was being petty, and some might even accuse her of treating the geth as a child, but she did not care. She made a show of stepping over the fallen proxy as she moved toward the operational computer.
When she got closer, it became obvious that this bit of hardware had a user terminal built in. When she raised her hands to it, the haptic keyboard and the holographic screen both materialized without resistance. Shepard paused there, her hands above the keyboard. It took her a few seconds to understand that she was looking at the search interface for the document archives stored on the hardware. "They accessed the archives, but… finding exactly what they looked up is going to take a while."
"Let me see," Javik demanded as he appeared from her right side.
Shepard stepped aside, but almost not fast enough with how eagerly Javik wanted to get his hands on that console. She watched mutely as he began to input commands. The screen changed too quickly for her sluggish ability to read Prothean to keep up with.
Half a minute of that, Javik stopped, "They accessed the communication logs starting on the morning of the attack," he announced without so much as looking away from the screen.
"How many logs are there to go through?" Shepard asked.
"According to the time-stamps, there are three days worth. The signal exchange abruptly ceased after that," Javik replied.
Shepard hummed. Three days of undoubtedly non-stop messages. The logs would be kilometers long. The abrupt cessation was also vaguely curious, but she doubted that Javik would enjoy being ordered to indulge her curiosity in that regard. "That just about confirms my theory. Someone survived in this building. They were down here after the attack, so the oxygen here was depleted."
"An obvious conclusion to draw," Javik replied as he continued to read the messages.
Shepard chose to ignore the acerbic bite in his tone. It was not like Javik would grow manners if she lectured him enough. "Perhaps, but… it is the good starting point for establishing the chain of events. I'm thinking that if there is an ark on this planet, when the attack began, I imagine its designated residents would have been ordered to report to it, by whatever means they had."
"Yes," Javik replied blandly.
"What are you thinking, Shepard?" Nihlus asked.
Shepard looked away from the screen and noticed that Nihlus now stood behind her, his arms crossed over his chest. Saren was few steps behind him, watching Javik work. However, Legion had moved over to stand by the relay device. They had a hand raised to it, and their emotive plates were furrowed. They were fast at work trying to access the device's logs or database. "Normally that sort of thing is regulated through some central administrative body. This seems like it could be the place."
"No. That would have been inefficient. If our colony was to come under surprise attack, the residents of the facility would have been automatically alerted to report within a certain time frame. The authority to initiate full lock-down passed automatically to the facility's leadership," Javik replied.
Shepard had to concede that, if without saying so. As callous as it might be, she could see the logic of that method of doing things. After all, an attack would have caused a lot of chaos. It would have been difficult to organize gathering the facility's residents without being spotted. Delegating the final authority to the facility's staff would have cut out certain delays and further increased the security. The arks were not just any emergency shelter for short-term stay.
"I found something," Javik announced suddenly as he shifted his weight from foot to foot.
Shepard turned back to the screen and read the message displayed on the screen. However, it was only when she got to the end of it that she realized exactly what had drawn the prothean's attention.
"What is it?" Saren asked.
Shepard hummed, how to best summarize it? "It's from the commanding officer of a spaceport, timed about six hours after the city was hit with the bombs. He asked what to do with the influx of civilians coming to the base. Supposedly they got over five thousand in less than five hours. Some were injured and other exposed to radiation. A number badly enough that they passed away. Obviously they did not have enough supplies." Suffice to say it was the first message sent and received between these two locations. "The final line seems to be the most important-"
"He asked for authorization to send send some of the healthy civilians to the shelter facility. He knew about the ark," Javik cut in, his tone flashed with annoyance again.
"That confirms its existence!" Shepard stated.
"Check for other messages, maybe he got-" Nihlus began.
"The authorization request would have been denied," Javik replied blandly as he glanced over his shoulder.
Shepard crossed her arms as certainty crystallized around the implication of that question. "Turn your attention to the fact that the port's commanding officer only asked for permission to send civilians there. He did not ask for the location. It seems he already knew where it was!"
"Yes. But he would not have gotten the permission, as that would have compromised the facility," Javik stated again, this time with a clear flash of irritation in his tone.
"I understand that," Shepard replied. she hated the fact that she understood it. There would have been no way to keep panicking civilians under control if they thought that anyone was keeping them from safety, or worse, arbitrarily deciding who was allowed in and who got left behind. If such a mass movement happened, then it risked exposing the facility's very existence to the enemy. No, as cold and callous as it was, the only logical option was to tell the commander to keep the civilians sheltered in place and probably promise them additional supplies out of some reserve.
Then, quite suddenly a chill raced down her spine with the force of one final, singular realization. She slowly turned to Javik, "Javik… please tell me we're not talking about the same spaceport that we saw from orbit, the one that was attacked."
The prothean turned seemingly to look her in the eye. Silence hung for a few long seconds between them.
Shepard could only take that as a confirmation that she had once again read the writing on the metaphorical wall. "It was that port… and it was hit once the civilians were already there."
The prothean nodded slowly.
Shepard hated being right sometimes. The spaceport was a military target after all, it made sense that the Oravores would hit it eventually, especially if they had seen mass movement toward it. What else would be expected from genocidal monsters? "It's a good thing they're all dead, because if they were not- well, the Batarians would have competition for top spots on my hit list." She mumbled under her breath.
"If the Oravores had survived into this era, you would not exist to have… a hit list. None of you would." Javik stated as he turned back to the archives.
Shepard wanted to tell him not to make the whole situation even less pleasant than it already was, but knew there was nothing to gain in crossing him over this. Right then he had every reason to be angry, and doubly so because he would never get his revenge. Going after Harbinger and Nazara for the death of the colonies would not be enough. The mad machines were not the Oravores.
"So, what now?" Nihlus asked.
"That message, was it transmitted out of this place?" Saren asked. "If so, then we know where Nazara will be heading next."
Shepard blinked, momentarily surprised by the decisiveness in his tone. She turned to look at Legion. The geth was still at the relay device. "Legion?" She asked.
The geth moved slowly turned their head. "Shepard-Commander, at this time, over one thousand of our runtimes are occupied. We are attempting to access this signal relay's internal memory. Completing this task is taking longer than initially estimated."
Shepard was not exactly thrilled, but there was nothing she could do to help it, and she knew that Legion was doing their best. "As you can see… they're working at it," she said to Saren. "But if we work from the assumption that Nazara saw that message, connected the dots, and then sent it to Harby, then yes, the spaceport is our next destination. Given that the commander likely knew where the ark was, he might have left something on its local computer systems -assuming they survived- to point us in the right direction."
Saren nodded in the slightest of movements as he could muster.
Shepard took that as him not having anything he could nitpick on.
"Commander, it is more likely that he left the information encoded in a medium that only a true Prothean could access," Javik added, switching languages again.
"I was not going to say that out loud, but I thought of it." Shepard replied. Leaving the ark's location encoded on some object made too much sense for a species that routinely held the ability to do that over everyone else. "Harby and Nazzy would, of course, be out of luck in that regard."
"So would you, we're it not for me," Javik replied.
"Lucky me," Shepard rolled her eyes. She could not say he was wrong, only wish that he would not take the opportunity to be rude in the process. Either way, that seemed to end the discussion as Javik went back to the messages. It was the only logical think to do while they were waiting for that all important confirmation from Legion.
"How are you holding up, Shepard?" Nihlus asked after a long moment of silence.
Shepard shook her head. "I'm fine. I'm not the one you should be asking that. I wasn't the one exerting myself here, not-"
"Shepard, your concern is unwelcome," Saren stated blandly.
"Is there something I do that isn't?" She asked automatically. It was not like she expected to receive his gratitude any time soon.
"That is… actually a good question," Nihlus stated, his tone practically ringing with his thinly-veiled amusement.
Saren turned to look at Nihlus, but with the helmets in the way there was no way to interpret his exact reaction.
Shepard smiled privately. Maybe saying it like that was poking a sleeping bear with a stick, but truthfully the words kind of slipped out before she could give them a second thought. As insane as that was. Because Saren certainly did not have enough of a sense of humor not to hold that retort against her. He could very well make those words come back to bite her.
Suddenly Legion emitted a burst of chatter.
The sound caused Shepard to jump. She whirled toward the geth in time to see them step away from the relay device, their emotive plates undulating for a second before resetting. "You got it, Legion?" She asked.
"Affirmative. We have access."
Shepard wanted to turn to Saren and ask the obvious question on her tongue, but then decided not to poke the bear any further.
Legion stared at the relay device for a good five seconds before they turned to face her, "Shepard-Commander, your estimation was correct. The Old Machine known as Nazara has accessed, viewed, and transmitted the entirety of the message exchange between the the military spaceport and this facility. The probability that the Old Machine you refer to as Harbinger has seen the messages is one hundred percent."
"Thank you, Legion," Shepard replied. Just this once she would have liked to have been told that she was wrong, and that Nazara was blindingly incompetent. She took a deep breath and let is saturate her lungs as she weighed the multitude of different options that could be pursued now.
"Now we know where we are going next, what about what is here?" Nihlus asked.
"The Council will be very interested in the data stored on these computers," Saren stated.
"Your… Council are like opportunistic birds. They stay at a distance, watching and waiting for someone to obtain a meal, and then they swoop down to steal it," Javik muttered without bothering to disguise his annoyance, or looking away from the computers.
Shepard smirked, she rather liked that comparison, though she would not be caught dead admitting it aloud in front of Saren.
"I would have thought someone like you would approve of such… efficiency," Saren replied.
Javik turned to look Saren in the eye, but did not reply.
Shepard had the distinct impression that Javik indeed did not mind such a thing, when he was the one doing it. However, now was not the time for arguments, especially ones instigated by Saren of all people. "If the Council is so interested, they'll have to do their own moving. We will not be able to pack them up and take them with us." She stepped in, choosing her words carefully, to cool any argument before it could get going in earnest.
"You… have a point," Saren replied.
Shepard glanced toward Javik. "The best we can do is ensure that all the doors we passed will close properly. What do we need to do for that?"
"The lock-down protocol is still active. The doors will lock as soon as they are physically closed," Javik replied.
"Excellent," Shepard nodded.
"It is. The Council will want to ensure that the contents of this vault do not degrade," Nihlus offered.
Shepard nodded and momentarily glanced at Javik's back. He was still looking over things, seemingly choosing to stay out of the conversation. If she was at all honest, there was one more question on her mind, just how did Nazara access this facility? None of the doors they had encountered had been damaged. Normally the Heretics had no qualms about going through obstacles, and they had the time to cut through as well. But they had not done so. The only explanation that made sense was that even Harbinger might want some way to keep this place safe. Which was a rather concerning thought, really.
She hummed to herself, "The Council ought to be absolutely thrilled with this one. Ilos is a straight pileup of problems and issues to overcome if they want anything from it." She would not be surprised if they struggled to find scientists who would volunteer for this one, not unless the Council was willing to give them security details worthy of some head of state. "For now though, there is one important question. Javik," she turned, "is there a governing AI down here?"
"No," he replied almost before she had finished speaking.
That caught her by surprise. The administrative structure here did not use an AI for coordination purposes? "Are you sure?" She asked.
"I am certain."
The bite in his words told Shepard enough, he would not proceed down that avenue of questioning further.
"You are still convinced that the machine is looking for others of its kind?" Saren asked.
Shepard sighed, "So far, I've seen it go for computers and communication tech, and it mentioned wanting to end the interregnum. If it's not looking for others of its kind, then it has to be information. That is still the only interpretation of the evidence that fits."
"Yes, that has not changed," Saren muttered under his breath, though still loudly enough for her translator to pick up on it.
"We can exclude two things though, it won't be a map of the relay system, as it knew about Ilos before we did, and it won't be the Thanix system, as it got that from Nazzy," Shepard added.
Saren turned his head to stare her down, but did not say another word.
Javik hummed in the background, but also remained quiet.
Shepard took a deep breath, let it saturate her lungs, and then let it out slowly. Then she realized something, after articulating things in so many words, it was as if she saw a chunk of the puzzle from a new perspective. Once again, she was looking at the realization that Harbinger has an inexplicable knowledge of things. It knew about Ilos, and the information could not have come from Nazara. It would not have made sense for the AIs in all the arks to know the location of the others, as that sort of thing could compromise security. Just where had Harbinger come from? Legion knew the answer, but she had not been able to devise the right hook to pry it out of them, all the while, missing that information was becoming problematic.
"So, what now?" Nihlus wondered, breaking the momentary silence that had settled in that space.
Shepard glanced at Javik. He was still going over the records on the computer, but now that she was looking, she could see tension in his body. She did not need to be a psychometric to know that whatever he was looking at was not pleasant. "What is it, Javik?" She asked, intentionally switching to Prothean and ignoring Nihlus' question. It was not like she could rip the Prothean away from the computers. They would have to wait for him to finish with whatever it was that he was doing.
"I am looking for information that might prove useful."
"And I'd say you've found... none," Shepard replied.
"There might be something, but the majority cannot be accessed. These computers are not fully powered up."
"I see. I assume there are things on here that you wouldn't want the Council to have access to." What else was buried in those databases? She knew not to ask, but she could take a guess. Some of it would also have to be highly sensitive. No, Javik would not be eager to surrender such information to those he did not know or trust.
"No. And I suggest you… exaggerate the amount of danger to be found in launching an expedition here."
Shepard was none too surprised that he had the idea of making Ilos look particularly unpalatable to the Council. She was almost tempted to try it, just to see if she could get away with it. She would very much enjoy denying Sparatus eating the metaphorical cake he had sent her to retrieve. "Wouldn't be much of an exaggeration, all considering. How big are the databases?"
"If all the computers will turn on? These should contain the entire administrative archive for this colony."
The historians would be besides themselves for this, even if it did not serve much purpose for anyone else. "What should I tell the others?" They had no reason to stick around. Not with the knowledge of where Harbinger and Nazara would head off to next.
"I know you will tell them what you deem fit, and I cannot stop you from doing so."
Shepard bit back her chuckle, well he was not wrong in that regard. He could not do anything to stop her from doing things her way. "Keep that in mind and we'll get along splendidly." It was mostly a joke, she could only hope he would stop being so damn abrasive half the time. She turned to the others, "Javik is just looking over whats on these systems, but not all the computers are powered up. Some might be damaged."
"That entire exchange for that? Do not take me for a fool, Shepard," Saren stated.
"I would be the bigger fool to take you for one, Spectre Arterius, but that is all there is to it," Shepard replied, this was the only way she could think of to nip a pointless argument in the bud.
Saren stared down at her.
Shepard angled her head up to look him in the eye. She could not actually see his eyes, but right then he had to be glowering at her.
"You are both fools to me," Javik stated bluntly.
Shepard rolled her eyes, because reacting to that comment would get them nowhere. She suspected that he had learned quite a bit from the computers, and the knowledge was making him extra cranky. When she glanced back, she saw the computers power down. A moment later the Prothean stepped back.
"We need to disconnect whatever the machines used to power these systems before we leave," Javik stated.
"Alright then. Legion, can you do that?" Shepard asked, she did not want to waste more of their time by fumbling about with that machinery.
"Affirmative." Having said that, the geth moved turned and moved to follow the tangle of cables, quickly vanishing among the server cases.
"Commander, the traitorous machines and more of those mindless automatons will be waiting for us at the spaceport," Javik replied.
"They'll be waiting to get their dues," Shepard replied. Just how many more frames could Harbinger and Nazara have on Ilos? There was no point asking Legion for an estimate, because there was no way it would be accurate, and even less of a chance that Legion would even give one. Still, the losses would have mounted quite a bit. She would relish in a chance to salt Harbinger's metaphorical wounds after this one. Turnabout was fair play, as that machine loved grandstanding.
That brought her to a pause. No, she really should not be thinking that way. There was nothing to win there, and she really could not afford to waste time on such nonsense. She took a deep breath and let it saturate her lungs before letting it out slowly. Right then doing that took far more effort than it should, and it did less than it should to ground her.
The air pressure down here was no less than it was on the surface, and while waiting for Legion to finish with the generator or battery, there was nothing to distract her from beginning to feel its effects in earnest. Fact remained that at eleven times the atmospheric pressure of Earth, the gasses on Ilos were almost viscous, and they definitely had a perceptible mass. Even if she managed to avoid radiation sickness and with her suit modulating her breathing mixture, she would still be sore from the external pressure.
Suddenly the foreign work-lights turned off simultaneously, plunging the space into total darkness. This effectively brought Shepard out of her moment of unproductive self-pitying. She reached up to turn on her helmet-mounted lights. Nihlus, Saren, and Javik likewise turned on their weapon lights. A moment later Shepard saw the familiar cool blue glow coming from Legion's sensor suite come around from behind two large computer cases.
"Shepard-Commander, the external power source is now offline."
"Kind of obvious… but, thank you." she could not help but smile at her own quasi-joke. "Now we proceed to the Spaceport. Hopefully it won't be as irradiated as the city." She was officially over the whole irradiated wasteland thing. She turned and started on her way toward the door they had come through.
A moment later she heard a set of heavy footfalls about a step or two behind her, Saren had followed her.
"Unless I am mistaken, you have slightly over half of your operational time remaining." He stated with all the blandness of statements about the weather. "I want to know how far in advance you plan, given our circumstances."
There was a suggestion in there, and it was as obvious as the writing on the wall. "Far enough. Should I become indisposed… Nihlus is more than capable of taking over for me." If he thought he would get free rein, he better think again. Nihlus was also the only one there from whom Legion and Javik would take orders. Though knowing Nihlus, she would have to fight him over whether Legion remained with her or not. She could not count on Legion protesting that order either. "Oh and thank you for caring, Spectre Arterius."
"You know I do not," he replied.
"The good sir protests too much," Shepard fired back, enjoying every moment of it. She knew he would not be even vaguely familiar with Shakespeare, but stumping him in this manner was probably the best way to end this conversation, as there was no point in it. Not when they had multiple staircases to climb.
With no enemies left to slow them down, getting back to the stairwell took a whole lot less time. They walked the entire way in a silence, with the rasp of her breathing apparatus and footfalls there to prevent it from becoming oppressive. Shepard was glad that Saren's polite reminder of her vulnerability had not triggered Nihlus to get protective. Dealing with that would have wasted even more time.
She was alright, mostly. Sure the exhaustion and soreness were starting to creep in, but so far there was no signs of anything that could be a precursor to radiation sickness. Thought that could very well be a false lull. Shepard knew full well that she would still be somewhat sick when all was said and done. But for now, she was all too happy to help Legion close the vault's outermost door as a demonstration that she was unaffected. It would do nothing for her increasingly leaden limbs, but she had a mirage to maintain.
The stairs themselves presented the same challenge, but in reverse. So they had to take them up in single-file, and with care so as to avoid a potential structural failure. About two levels up Shepard noticed a faint rasp coming across their synchronized comm link, and it took her a way too long to realize that it could not be Nihlus or Javik. It had to be Saren, which meant he was actually having to put in the effort. Just how much energy did he put into that stunt with Nazara's proxy? Were she at all petty, she would have said something, perhaps even asked if he was alright, which would have drawn attention to it, but she decided to show him some mercy.
Her foot just touched the landing on the level below the ground floor when she heard a quiet crackling hiss across her comm. It momentarily cut across her comm signal, drowning out the rasps of stressed breathing from the others. The fact that it fuzzed over the comm signal meant it was nothing coming from one of their suits, nor was it feedback across a failing microphone. It was more akin to when an old radio lost signal momentarily. It also vanished as quickly as it appeared, and before Shepard could fully categorize it.
She paused for a split of a second and glanced at her HUD's status indicators. They showed a strong short-range suit-link signal and no error warnings. It was not her suit malfunctioning. So took a quick deep inhale, metaphorically shrugging the aberration off before resuming across the landing.
She had ascended the next flight of steps when she heard it again, and clearer. The hiss spiked and then faded away in less than a second. Another glance at her HUD confirmed no signal loss, it was definitely not her suit malfunctioning.
"Did anyone other than me hear that hiss?" Nihlus asked.
Shepard stopped midway across the landing and turned, "I think that was the second. I heard another just on the previous landing."
Saren stopped on the landing as well and turned to look back.
"Then it was not just my suit," Nihlus replied.
"Not just mine either," Shepard agreed.
Saren hummed, "It is not an equipment malfunction if all three of us heard it."
"Four," Javik added from the back.
"So what is it? Another signal on our frequency?" Nihlus asked.
"Sounded like interference to me," Shepard said.
"From what?" Nihlus asked.
Shepard hummed. "That's... the question." There should not be anything in this city that could generate interference. Even less would actually cut through the signal cleanup subroutines in military-grade suits. Was it possible that there were still heretics somewhere nearby? Then, if it was intentional interference, it was awfully weak.
"Legion, are you detecting anything?" Shepard asked.
"We are not detecting any Heretic activity within our immediate vicinity. Should we expand our range?"
"No, that's fine…" She would not want Legion to risk a cybernetic attack just for that. If it was something with malicious intent, it was failing to do its job. "The signal is weak, I barely heard it both times. We continue on. If it keeps coming back and grows stronger we can better pin-point its source on the surface."
"Legion, you should be able to triangulate it then, no?" Nihlus asked.
"Affirmative. Once we are on the surface we can attempt to isolate and ascertain the signal's source."
"Carefully, Legion. I don't want you taking a risk like on Eden Prime," Shepard stated.
"Acknowledged."
Shepard crossed the landing and began to climb the next staircase. Halfway up she heard the hiss again, a bit louder this time. Once again it peaked and then faded away to nothing all within the span of a second.
"There it is again," Saren noted.
"Whatever it is, its timing is random," Shepard said. "It can't be a jammer scanning for active comm frequencies."
With the mystery pressing and making her vaguely uncomfortable, Shepard pressed on up the stairs a little bit faster than before. By the time she reached the final flight to the building's main corridor there were two more bursts. The spacing between them remained random and quite elongated, but the hissing grew louder the closer she got to the surface. Repeated exposure allowed her to pick up the as well. It remained a sudden, sharp hiss that tapered away to nothing in less than a second, but she noticed a slight whine on the tail end. It made her think of a shorting electrical motor that got a jolt of power, just enough to get it spinning, only to wind back down on its own.
As she finally stepped out of the confines of the stairwell and into the administrative building's inner ringing corridor, Shepard's HUD wind indicator ratcheted up, indicating that there was a breeze wafting through the building, a breeze that had not been there before.
"Shepard-" Nihlus stated.
"It's windy. Inside." Suspicion began to form in the back of her mind.
Suddenly a flash of wan grey-blue-green light shone through an opening that had once been an office door and her comm link gave another louder hiss. Shepard froze instantly as she realized what the hiss was. She opened her mouth just as the air around them rumbled, low, prolonged, and rolling like a bowling ball down a lane. "It's lightning!" She breathed. Then, heedless of the potential danger, Shepard ran toward that open office door.
"Shepard!" Nihlus shouted after her.
She ignored him as she ran through the door, across the gutted office, and toward the gaping hole that had once been its outer wall of windows. At the edge, the wind practically howled right in her face, but worse yet, her HUD flashed a warning that the ambient radiation level had spiked five percent above the previous levels. However, she could not fully process what that meant because the sight of the sky instantly turned her blood ice cold.
A dense and entirely opaque mass of green-tinged grey clouds had drifted into the city. The structure's center lower reaches dipped somewhat lower than the rest, and writhed just over the tops of the broken towers. The main formation over this dip extended right up into the sky, driven into a kilometers-wide and tall column shape ending with a tell-tale anvil-shaped top.
Shepard opened her mouth, but before she could utter a word, there was a flash of grey-green-blue light and her comm link hissed louder yet. Her radiation sensor clicked, indicating a momentary spike as a jagged fork of lightning arced right through the center of the cloud and down toward the ruins. It hit the closest jagged tip of one of the towers, instantly making the point of impact glow. Thunder followed barely three seconds later, rolling low and long.
That sound was as good as a warning and a promise of death and destruction. Shepard turned away. She had not even heard the others come into the office. "Massive supercell thunderstorm incoming! It's still a couple kilometers away, but they can cross that distance in minutes. The wind is also stirring up the sand and the radioactive residuals. We need to get back to the Kodiak, now. Waiting it out here is out of the question!"
"We can save time by going along the outside of the building, not through it," Nihlus stated.
Shepard nodded briskly, "Agreed. Now move! That thing is waiting for no one!" She whirled and hurried over what had remained of the administrative building's facade. Once outside, she took a single deep inhale and started toward the steps leading down to the square, accelerating into a jog as she did.
The wind instantly swamped out her external microphone to the point that the noise cancellation could not keep up, whipping the sand around her, adding resistance on top. She could not hear the others follow. But she saw their shadows dance within the halo of Legion's swaying light on the polycrete.
Shepard glanced toward the storm and tried not to panic. It seemed like its front had swallowed another row of ruined buildings during their brief discussion. It was moving faster than she had estimated. It was time to reach deep inside and pull out the endurance reserves. The situation on Ilos found a way to go from merely bad to unexpectedly worse.
Author Notes: I may have gone a little too descriptive with that storm. It's another environmental homage to Fallout. Those who have played the games will know what I'm talking about. I may have also had fun writing Shepard dealing with both Saren and Javik at the same time.
General Notes:
None this time...
Chapter Notes:
Protest Accusation - This is of course a twist on "The lady doth protest too much" from Hamlet, which has entered common speech as a way of doubting the sincerity of someone's protests at anything.