Chapter 7: A Temple Eclipsed
Tracking Varna's shuttle once they were in orbit was not difficult. The IFF signature gave them a pinpoint search area once they locked onto it. The real problem was trying to find a safe landing zone and then trekking all the way through the jungle just to get to the location proper. The forested terrain was fraught with tangled vegetation and trees far too close together. It was a veritable maze of green. One that did not sit at all well with Vik as he kept swatting his hand about at every discernable buzz.
"Not a fan of bugs, Bucket?" Nel asked him.
"Not a fan of disease," he corrected. "Quarian, remember?"
"You're in a suit, remember?" Nel chided back.
"At the current level of gene manipulation and ecological upheaval, I would not be surprised if some kind of suit rupturing super bug has not evolved in some way," he argued. "Probably with a bite strong enough to tear through all kinds of fabric. No doubt developed in a lab and set loose by some bio-weapons corp intent on delivering chemical and toxic agents that even the strongest of hazard suits couldn't keep out."
"Alright, you're not a tropics person," Nel sighed. "Did we really need another paranoid theory?"
"Given what we've learned about the bio-agents the Salarian Union developed, I wouldn't call it that paranoid," Vik countered. "I'd call it at least semi-reasonably probable."
Liara shushed at them both as she pushed on through the trees.
"Quiet," she ordered them. "We're getting close to where the shuttle came down. Just at the crest of this hill, we should be able to see what we're up against."
Liara's assumption was proven accurate once they reached the hilltop. They could see the shuttle clearly, as well as a structure, overgrown with vegetation. It didn't look like something the Forerunner had built, mainly because it looked to be made of stone. However, certain elements of the design, the sculpting of the spires, the archway's configuration, even the markings along the stone matched Forerunner script. Perhaps this was a front, something that made it only look like it was from a less advanced civilization. They'd need to get inside to discover the truth.
That would be complicated though by the small encampment just outside the entrance. There were a series of small buildings surrounded by some guard towers up front and back. Hegemony soldiers patrolled the grounds as civilian archaeologists worked hunched over tables examining artifacts. The batarians had control over the camp, clearly, but Liara knew from experience at this point not to expect they were the only people here. The Covenant were invested in this project, Vorsa, their leader, had made that clear at the summit on Khar'Shan. Chances were they were on site somewhere. They needed to keep that in mind.
"Well they've set themselves up nicely," Nel observed, crouching beside Liara in the brush. "Guards on the towers are the biggest problem. They need to go if we're going to get inside at all."
"Saya will handle that," Liara assured her. "We just have to push to the entrance."
She scanned the area once more, from Varna's shuttle to the temple entrance. She didn't see any other Eclipse Sisters at first. Perhaps they had gone inside already, if there were any left. A few feet close to the entrance she spotted Varna, talking with a Batarian. From the look of his armor and insignia he was a commander, probably the lead officer in charge of this camp. From what she could make out, Varna was arguing with him and he had no patience for her. The mercenary eventually grew fed up and rushed back inside, stomping all the way.
"She's feeling the heat," Wrex said, no doubt spotting the scene himself. "Probably trying to negotiate a way out of the system."
"We need to consider there might be other ways in and out of there," Liara cautioned. "We can't assume she's trapped. So when we move, we move quick enough that she can't get to her exit."
Saya set up his sniper position along the crest, aiming at the nearest tower. He looked to Liara, who only nodded.
"Get to the entrance, don't waste time," she told the others. "When we're in, find Varna. We need her alive, so if you have to, only shoot to disable."
The team moved all at once, rushing down the edge of the hill at a fevered pace. Once they hit the perimeter, Saya fired a single shot. The first guard in the tower went down, falling over the railing and hitting the ground hard. From there, the chaos started. Archaeologists fled their work stations as soldiers moved to intercept Liara's team. As they opened fire, Wrex and Liara joined together at the front of the attack.
"Shockwave on my go," she told him as she ran. "Go!"
Liara let loose a singularity in the middle of Batarians, lifting two up off the ground. Wrex's shockwave came next, rippling across the ground and knocking two more batarians away before hitting the singularity. The resulting biotic detonation sent every nearby hostile flying into the outer walls of nearby buildings or into tables, covered with artifacts. As Forerunner relics went flying, Liara pressed their advantage, firing at the Batarians, forcing them into cover or retreat.
Nel let loose with her assault rifle, engaging the enemy with a blazing stream of incendiary rounds. With her armor's fortfication function activated she was protected from most enemy fire. She still didn't want to get shot at though. To avoid incoming fire from one of the towers, she moved through one of the buildings, racing against his machine gun rounds. When they suddenly stopped, she presumed Saya had taken care of him. She burst out of the building through a window, rolling back into kneeling position as she did.
A pair of batarians were close by, firing on her as she moved. She returned fire in kind, killing one and send the other into cover. As she got up to move, another pair of Batarians came in from her direct flank, trying to navigate the various tables and the artifacts strewn around them. Nel quickly tossed one of her cluster grenades towards them. The resulting series of explosions tore through the tables, creating of plume of dust and fire. With that pair dealt with, Nel turned back to the Batarian still in her path. He was hiding behind a corner of small structure up ahead. She fired at the position, keeping him suppressed. When she turned, she delivered a powerful punch right to his face, forcing him to the floor before he could react.
At the same time, Vik advanced close to Liara and Wrex, keeping them covered with combat and turret drones. The turret laid down covering fire as they moved forward, the combat drone managed the flanks. Vik moved along the outside of the advance, keeping watch on his combat drone's parallel progress. As he moved, a batarian came into view atop a one of the buildings. He fired down at the quarian, forcing him to duck behind an overturned table. With little time to think, as Liara and Wrex were getting away from him, he took one of the table legs in hand. He advanced with it as a shield, protecting himself from further fire. When he the batarian had to switch out his thermal clips, Vik made his move. He moved his shotgun around the table and fired a single blast. The batarian was thrown back by the shot, collapsing onto the roof.
Vik caught up with Liara and Wrex just as a new problem rolled into view. An armored vehicle, six wheels with a machine gun on top, rolled into view. Liara pushed Wrex out of the weapon's sights along with herself, just barely avoiding the incoming fire. Vik ducked into cover as the gun turned on him, racing behind boulder before the shots reached him. They were close to the entrance now, just feet away. An explosion went off next to the vehicle, one of Nel's cluster grenades. It wasn't enough to break through the armor, but it did distract the gunner for a bit.
Nel rushed up to Vik's position to provide further support, splitting the gunner's targets into two distinct zones. Maybe one of them could make an attack run on enemy position, while the other kept them distracted. They wouldn't have to though, if their other team mate just hurried up and made his move already.
"Where's Kay?" Nel asked over the gunfire.
Vik pointed upwards to a building across the way. Kayap was on top of it, Fuel Rod Cannon on his shoulder, moving into firing position. When he got to the ledge of the structure, he took aim at the armored vehicle and fired a single shot. The blast impacted against the side, burning clean through the armor. The gunner was still alive though and he turned his sights onto the unggoy. Now exposed, Kayap darted off the roof of the building, as bullets nearly cut him down. Landing in the dirt with a thud, the unggoy forced himself back up and fired another shot. This time, he hit the gun directly. The Fuel Rod blast tore the gun clean off the vehicle and seconds later a burst of flame erupted from the vehicle's engine.
With the only obstacle to forward progress seemingly gone, they moved forward to the temple entrance together. They kept their weapons trained on the archway as they approached. Sure enough, a pair of batarians moved to confront them. Only for a blade to appear through the sternum of one and then cut through the neck of the other.
Saya stood over the bodies of the two batarians now, seemingly satisfied with his quick work. All four tower guards were dead and he had somehow managed to get here before anyone else. Impressive, but not everyone appreciated how smug he looked about it.
"For a mute frog you do like to gloat," Nel told him. "So you beat us here. You want a fucking medal? We had a few complications... obviously."
She pointed at the wreck of the armored vehicle behind them.
"It doesn't matter," Liara told her. "We need to get inside, Varna is probably already looking for cover somewhere in there. We need to track her down quickly. Saya, keep in stealth, scout ahead. Report back what you find, we'll be right behind you."
The salarian just nodded, activated his cloak and headed inside. Before Liara followed, she turned to the team proper.
"Alright, be ready for anything," she warned. "There's probably more batarians seeking cover in there and who knows what else. Keep your eyes open and remember, we need Varna alive."
As they entered the temple, the darkness became enveloping. Only the lights on their weapons allowed them to find their way in the black. Liara kept watch for hostiles, but her mind was forced back into considering their surroundings all the same. Her interest in archaeology needed to be sated and questions about the temple remained. The walls were still covered with more Forerunner symbols, carved into the stone. Liara still couldn't figure out though, why was the temple stone? Why did it look Forerunner in structure but not material?
Her mind could only come to one solution, something was being hidden here. That the Forerunner did not want this place to stand out. That they wanted to look normal. As normal as a ruined temple could be. The intel had suggested this place hadn't been finished, that it wasn't ready to receive any escaping Forerunners leaving their universe. What if it was something else? Clearly the batarians thought there was more to this place if they were still here.
Varna remained a priority, but figuring out what this temple was had become a secondary objective in her mind. If this place held any clues as to what the Covenant were after, she needed to find them. The long game was stopping their galactic invasion plans. For whatever reason, the Forerunner artifacts they were looking for were crucial to those efforts.
Scanning the walls with their lights, the team soon came across carvings along the walls. They were intricate, detailed, different from the writing and letters. These looked like they depicted symbols or decretive concepts. Liara had encountered a number of them in her own excavations.
"How old do you think this place is?" Wrex asked her.
"I can't give a definitive," she admitted. "Given the growth of the jungle and the level of erosion on the stone though, I'd imagine fairly old. Perhaps even built prior to the Prothean's own civilization. Amazing it's stood around so long in such conditions the way it has. It's in surprisingly decent shape for its age."
Which was probably owed to the Forerunners' success as builders, but it did raise further suspicions from Liara. What did they use to make this place? What was its purpose? And, as she always came back to, why was it stone?
Those questions were shaken from her mind though when a new mystery presented itself. At the back of the hallway, Kayap's flashlight had stumbled onto a far more detailed carving. What looked to be a stone head embedded in the wall. It made him jump somewhat, but he soon regained composure once he realized it was not alive. The others focused their own lights on the carving and soon revealed it to be a larger mural chiseled out of the stone.
"Whoa," Nel said as she took it all in. "What the heck is this about?"
The carving depicted tall figures, cloaked in strange armor and grasping what appeared to be weapons. Behind them was what looked to be a circular flashing light resonating in the sky. Objects were flying out from it, descending upon the land around them. Their appeared to be other beings as well, surrounding the taller figures and looking up to them in reverence. Structures towered across the background, jutting upwards from the earth, towering over others below. Strange creatures occupied the skies as well, descending upon the land as others seemed to look up in amazement at their grandeur. A central figure, similar to the other tall creatures, stood at the forefront, holding what looked to be a swirling mass of stars, cradling it like a mother would a child.
"You're the archaeologist," Wrex reminded Liara. "Any idea what this is all about?"
Liara had some idea. Digging up ancient sites for over a century had honed her relatively unique understanding of their culture and its depictions within art. She had found very little that gave the full scope of the Protheans, but her other fields of study had given her much insight into the subject mural carving was very similar to a lot of those. It was conveying a story, or perhaps more accurately... a plan. Unlike the various writings and symbols along the walls of the temple, this had a clearer purpose and intent. For once the Forerunners were not being very cryptic. A lot of what it meant was probably up for interpretation, but she could gleam the purpose behind the art easily.
"I believe the light in the sky at the top is clearly the Wormhole," she informed her team. "This a detailed account of their travels into this universe from their own. Setting up colonies, encountering locals, securing their borders with those giant flying creatures or... perhaps machines."
She pointed her light to the central figure.
"This one is an apt representation of their ideal, their intention to hold this galaxy in their influence," Liara stated firmly. "The swirling stars are clearly he Milky Way. The gesture of the arms suggests a somewhat nurturing and caring aspect towards it. The idea of holding the galaxy like a child, protecting it, along with everything within it."
"So basically colonization," Vik asked flatly.
"It seems that was the likely goal," Liara admitted. "Curious though. This doesn't seem to depict their reason for leaving and it doesn't seem to suggest they had any fear or doubt. It's not show them fleeing, but coming of their own will, their choice. I'd expect us to see something about their fall, but this isn't really something concerning their past at all. Only their future, their hope."
"So they were trying to expand even before things went to hell back home," Vik observed, sounding rather surly in his analysis. "I guess their universe isn't too different from ours then. They have the same crop of Imperialists over there."
"Had," Nel reminded him. "They're all dead, remember? Their little plan didn't work out how they hoped."
Liara knew, however, that Vik's take was still more or less accurate. Even if the Forerunners didn't see themselves as conquerors, it was hard to deny what the intent of their coming was at first. However, Nel was right, although probably not because the natives fought them off or anything. Liara imagined it was far more likely that they had arrived in force after the destruction of their civilization. As refugees, they were probably still trying to establish themselves when the Reapers came. She doubted they survived that cycle's harvest. Assuming they even got that far. It was equally as possible that they were unable to effectively subjugate the populace, as an equally advanced civilization still in relatively decent shape could've held them in check. Perhaps the Protheans, if the Forerunners arrived during their cycle specifically.
In either case, whatever plans the Forerunners originally had were soon heavily altered. Suggesting this place, this carving, were all older than originally expected. They were at least created prior to the fall of the Forerunner's civilization. Which meant they were here, studying their universe, for far longer than expected previously.
Kayap had wandered up to the mural, shining his light down on the bottom rung of the carving.
"Look, writing," he said, revealing more of Forerunner language, chiseled into the rock below he mural.
Liara crouched down herself to get a better look. Perhaps a title for the piece itself? She could only guess.
"Do you know what this says?" She asked Kayap.
"Coda would," Kay assured her. "Huragok know this stuff backwards and forwards. I can read a bit though. Something about, uh, retaining something. That's all I can get."
It was pretty old script and slightly degraded at that. She didn't blame Kayap for being unable to translate fully. Liara decided to just take a still image of the whole thing with her omni-tool. With any luck, Coda would be able to give her a better understanding of what this was.
As she was crouching she noticed something about the galaxy within the central figure's hands. The center appeared to be raised slightly, as did four smaller stars. She suspected there was some significance, but could not seem to discern as to what it was. She reached to touch the center of the Milky Way, only to find the stone give slightly at her touch.
No, it couldn't be.
Sprawling out her fingers, she touched each of the four stars raised up on the carving. When they all touched, she felt them give slightly. From there, pushing on them was almost automatic. There was a strange grinding noise as light started emanating from the carving itself, igniting the Wormhole and the Galaxy together in a luminescent glow. It was then the central figure lowered itself into the ground, revealing a passage way behind it, a long corridor leading deeper inside.
"Ha, knew we'd find one of these eventually," Nel chuckled.
Nel's enthusiasm for an action film trope made real was not entirely shared by Liara, but nevertheless they had their way forward. Taking point, the asari led her team down the corridor, lit only by blue luminescent lanterns on either side. They did not look at all natural in any form. They were some kind of technology. When they got to the other side of the tunnel, Liara's suspicions were proven correct.
Behind the stone facade, was in fact what Liara had originally expected to find. Advanced material, on par with that of what they had found at the previous dig site. High steel walls, metal flooring, floating machinery and structures. Everything bathed in a blue luminescent glow. The room itself was huge, expansive, reaching high over their heads and deeper into the earth.
"Well this is... kinda crazy," Nel admitted, clearly at a loss for words.
"The Forerunners must not have wanted their true nature discovered," Liara reasoned. "They hid behind a more primitive front in order to mask themselves. Allowing them to conduct their observation of our universe without fear of standing out. The older looking buildings were probably constructed first and the facility within built inside the hollowed out earth."
"Which means this mission might just have gotten harder," Wrex warned. "Bad guys could be anywhere by now. They probably retreated in here for safety."
"Which means Varna is in here too somewhere," Liara stated. "We need to track her down, quickly. I doubt that mural entrance was the only way in or out of this inner sanctum."
They headed down the steps into the open atrium proper. As they moved cautiously, Wrex pointed towards a corridor off to their side. They could hear voices coming from it, very distinct sangheili sounding voices. Liara motioned the others to remain quiet as they closed in on their quarry. As they got closer, they believed they could hear someone else, a more feminine sounding tone.
As they rounded a nearby corner, they saw a wide open hallway, cascaded in blue light with various bits of advanced machinery strewn about. One could only guess at their purpose, but it wasn't the thing that drew their attention. It was the group of Covenant, all of them sangheili, and a small group of asari in Eclipse Merc gear. Varna was at the head of the group, trying to "negotiate" it seemed with the lead sangheili.
"This is not my fault," she claimed. "You're the ones who let the garrison fall to pieces! You fuck up here, how does that look to your Fleetmaster?"
"I will not be lectured by a failure," the sangheili screeched back. "If you truly wish to redeem yourself you will stand and defend this holy site. Not skitter away like a coward."
"You want that data, I can smuggle it out," Varna tried to assure. "Just let me take it to your Fleet. It's my one chance here!"
"Your life is insignificant next to my station," the sangheili claimed. "You will assist us, but glory will not be yours alone."
Liara remained silent, but her interest was now piqued completely. There was data here, important data no doubt referring to the Covenant's long term goals. If they could just get to it first, they finally be a step ahead of them. They'd have to get to Varna though, no easy task when she was currently surrounded by so many sangheili.
"Careful," Kayap warned. "Those are Spec Ops. Tough as they come. If they're here, then this place has something seriously valuable."
"Then we should take it from them, for safe keeping," Nel quipped.
Liara agreed with the sentiment, but needed to be cautious all the same. Chances are there were more of these Spec Ops nearby. She had the team fan out as the argument continued, allowing them to get in position behind a few pillars and machinery in the hall.
"Remember, keep Varna alive," Liara ordered. "We need her if we're going to crack what the Separatists are planning."
They all began to line up their shots, even as Varna tried to pressure the situation further.
"Don't you get it? If we can use what we found in here and sneak it to the damn Seppies, we can both come out of this on top," she tried to state. "It will get us back in the good graces of everyone in our little pact."
"There is no we," the sangheili claimed. "You came here, unannounced and led our enemies to this place. You are the one who is at fault for this disaster, not us. And we will explain that to the Fleetmaster and Balak directly."
"And then I'll explain how you held yourselves back and let the batarians get slaughtered," Varna argued. "How's Balak going to feel about that? What's Vorsa going to do to keep him from going off the deep end over your decision to let the people helping you dig out this place die?"
Sangheili looked like he was thinking for a moment, but then he started peering towards one of the pillars. It was now or never, they were going to get spotted otherwise. Liara looked over to Wrex, who nodded and then tossed out a fragmentation grenade over his cover. The bomb exploded near the Sangheili, causing them to scatter.
"Intruders inside! Kill them all!" The Sangheili ordered.
The Spec Ops and Varna's pair of mercs opened fire. Varna herself ducked into cover as lead and plasma were exchanged between both parties. Varna's mercs raked fire across Liara and Kayap's position behind a pillar to the right. Their fire eventually tracked towards Vik and Nel, taking cover behind some machinery to the far left of Liara's position. They began trying to move towards the back of the room, possibly to escape with Varna. That attempt was cut short, when one of the mercs dropped to the ground dead. The other merc tried to look for the shooter, only for them to get shot as well and plop onto her back.
Liara looked further back behind her position to see Saya covering the team, his sniper rifle out and at the ready. He continued firing on Varna's position, trying to keep her pinned. That would hopefully for her to stay down long enough to allow them to kill the rest of the sangheili. For her part, the merc leader didn't just lay down and take it. She fired back at where she thought the sniper was, both with her pistol and stray biotic barrages. They did little good, Saya knew well enough to not expose himself. He was already relocating before Varna could really get a decent bead on him.
The sangheili were the real danger after all, they were actually trained. They moved up through the machinery strewn throughout the hallway. Their plasma fire filled the air with burning bolts, making it near impossible to really suppress them at the moment. Their shields were also tougher, Wrex's shotgun blast hit one square on, but did little to penetrate it. The Covenant officer soon retreated to cover while a friend took over his position and kept up the base of fire.
They needed to break their defenses or they'd never punch through them all. Liara had an idea, but she'd need Vik's help to get it started. She contacted him over the radio.
"Vik, can your drone get around their flank?" She asked him.
"It can, just keep them off it," he responded. "I'll see if I can set him up to do a number on those shields. Just give me a second with the settings."
"I'll get you a full minute," Nel assured the quarian, switching on her disruptor rounds for her assault rifle. She then stood up form cover and began firing like mad.
Nel's aggressive fire shifted the efforts of the sangheili slightly, returning plasma bolts on her position as her disruptor rounds raked their position. Nel had activated her fortification gear, which was able to deflect some of the plasma bolts for a time, but not forever.
Working feverishly, Vik soon sent the drone off once everything was set, speeding it towards the enemy flank. The drone weaved in and out of the machinery, soon approaching to the direct right of the Spec Ops lines. It fired a few casual shots, just to get their attention off Nel for a hot second. Vik then detonated the drone manually. The explosion sent one sangheili flying back into a metal wall nearby, the others tumbled over each other as the blast enveloped their position.
It would be easy to assume the Covenant soldiers were down for the count, but not so. They all quickly stood up and began opening fire a new. Even the one thrown by the blast was only injured, not dead. However, they were now more scattered about the room, not nearly as cohesive a front as before. Their shields did not fare well against the energy burst Vik had sent their way either. At least a few of their number had lost theirs. This was the opportunity the team needed.
"Wrex," Liara shouted over the fire. "I'm going to pull some out! Get ready!"
"Heh, heh, do it!" The big krogan laughed uproariously, his approval of the plan self-evident,
Liara smiled and began her assault. She spotted one of the sangheili moving to flank and reached out with her biotics. The Covie was lifted from the ground, pulled over one of the Forerunner machines in the hall and out into the open air where he floated. Wrex fired his shotgun twice for goon measure, killing the sangheili with ease. A second vaulted over his own cover to charge the krogan, only for Liara to trip the Covenant warrior up with another Pull attack. The sangheili was soon flipped upside down and the Wrex looked over the edge of his cover to fire a carnage blast that ripped into the hostile alien with ease.
As chunks rained down on the field, however, the sangheili renewed their assault in earnest. They targeted the entire group individually, trying to force them into suppression. Their shields were no doubt recovering, they had to resolve that. Liara was about to ask Vik for another drone strike, but the quarian was already on it.
"Hopefully this chains to enough of them," he shouted over the fire. "Get ready to start shooting!"
Vik activated his omni-tool and activated an overload attack on one of the sangheili's shields. The burst of energy completely wrecked the alien's defenses and did the same to his colleagues who were nearby. Nel didn't give them a chance to recover, she threw one of her cluster grenades among them, forcing the aliens to scatter even more. She picked off one as he attempted to slide to safety. The kill earned her the ire of his friends, however, and soon every sangheili was targeting her once more.
With the assault not letting up, Kayap moved into the line of fire to assist in his own way.
"Shoot who I shoot!" He shouted over the fire.
He overcharged his plasma pistol and fired it at the sangheili. The blast completely annihilated the Covenant's soldier's shields, what little remained of them at least. Nel instantly picked up on the strategy, firing several shots at the sangheili before he could recover from the shock of the overcharge. The Covie was hit in the head and fell to the ground hard. Kayap was able to do this one more time before he was forced back into cover by sangheili's fire. luckily, Saya's sniper skills were able to quickly pick out Kayap's weakened target and finish him off.
Even so, it was clear the sangheili were only damaged, not broken by the attacks so far. They needed to hit them harder. Liara had just the thing. She once again turned to Wrex.
"Singularity and Throw, on my mark!" She shouted over to the krogan.
Wrex merely nodded and allowed the Asari to make her move. She sent a singularity into the lines of the Covenant, right in the middle of them all. A pair of sangheili were swept up by it, but Liara was looking for something bigger than that.
"Now Wrex!"
The krogan flung a throw attack right into the swirling vortex of biotic energy. The subsequent detonation sent both sangheili flying, along with several of their nearby peers. The sangheili lines were now completely shattered and it looked like the battle was nearly over.
However, the tide soon shifted back in the enemy's favor again. As soon as the biotic blast had died down, more Covenant charged forth from behind the enemy position. Their reinforcements had inevitably arrived it seemed. Not all of them were Spec Ops, but it didn't matter, they were just as vicious even if their shields were not as powerful. They moved in with concussion rifles, firing red blasts at Liara's team. They needed another strike.
"Double shockwave!" Liara screamed over to Wrex. "On three!"
"Three!"
Wrex had jumped the gun on the count, but Liara was already moving herself. Together they sent a rippling wave across the floor. The shockwaves struck deep into the lines of reinforcing Covenant, when they connected, the area went up like a blue fireball. Covies went flying everywhere, smashing into walls and machines all about the hallway. Wrex seemed pleased, and began to move towards the center. Vik and Nel followed, Liara taking up the right side of their formation with Kayap.
This was it, they could close in on Varna while the sangheili were disoriented. They'd grab her and then move to fallback positions, maybe lose the Covies in this gigantic facility. That was the plan at least. Until Wrex took a stray hit to his leg from a plasma bolt.
The mighty krogan leader, despite his healing factor, was still vulnerable. Even with a krogan's ability to regenerate from damage, plasma still hurt like hell. Burns were always difficult to recover from. Wrex had managed to fall behind cover and, as always when things went this way, fired back on his opponents blindly. It didn't matter though, not to Liara.
All she could see was Wrex in danger now, her vision focused squarely on how many Covenant were now targeting him. Before she even knew what she was doing, a rage took over. Screaming bloody murder, she rushed ahead into the fray, biotics blazing across her body. She let loose a powerful biotic wave in front of her, knocking several Covenant over in its wake. She activated a powerful singularity next, pulling even more of them in. She fired a succession of shots at the Covenant, floating helpless in the vortex, for a time. Then, she finally sent a shockwave rippling over towards them, causing another biotic detonation that tore through their ranks.
She then rushed over to Wrex's position as the rest of her team crowded around him. She already had her omni-tool out with an application of medi-gel.
"Ugh, come on, it's just a scratch," Wrex said, trying to play things off. "Really, I'm okay."
"You're burnt, that's what you are," Liara told him bluntly. "Nel, base of fire on us. Keep them back. Does anyone have eyes on Varna? Is she running?"
"Uh, no," Kayap informed them. "I think we have other problems though."
Liara hadn't been paying much attention, but she suddenly heard a new sound amongst the encroaching firefight. It was not a Covenant weapon. It sounded more like a very familiar, very hated gun she had come to know over two years prior... a Geth Pulse Rifle.
Looking over her cover, she saw several sangheili gunned down by some unknown assailant in the shadows. It was not Saya, it was too quick for even his sniper rifle. They didn't have to wait long to discover who it was.
Jumping down from the rafters above, was a robotic bipedal being. Its body was a pure platinum sheen, towering and powerful. Clearly a Geth Prime platform, but different, more heavily armored. Stranger yet was the head though, it was more ornate than usual. It was triangular in shape and its singular eyes was replaced with three at each corner, all glowing a vicious shade of red.
"Greetings meatbags, I hope I'm not interrupting anything."
There was no mistaking that voice. It was the Singular, it was back and clearly upgraded. No longer a pile of junk Geth bits, it had uploaded itself into a new body. One that better served its purpose. It activated a barrier in front of it as more Covenant tried to shoot at him.
"Please do not go anywhere, Doctor T'Soni," it requested. "I may still want to kill you all later, once I've dealt with my former captors sufficiently."
The Singular pressed forward on the Covenant, its shields seemingly resisting their various plasma weapon shots. He grabbed one of the sangheili by the neck and lifted him up off the ground with one hand. The alien tried to retaliate, igniting his plasma sword. The Singular merely grabbed his arm and pulled. The ear splitting scream was silenced when the Singular smashed the alien's head into a wall nearby. He then pried the sword from the fingers of the Covie, letting the rest of the limb drop to the floor.
"How nice of him to share," it stated as it ignited the weapon for himself, before looking to the Covenant. "You do have such fascinating toys, I'll give you all that much."
"Synthetic abomination!" One of the sangheili cried out in a rage. "Kill it! Kill it now!"
The Singular charged forward, slashing through the Covenant with ease. Liara did her best pry her eyes away. The Singular was a threat, but he was not their main goal. For the moment he was keeping the Covenant busy, that would not evidently last forever it seemed. She reoriented herself back to her true target, finding Varna slinking away from the fight. As Liara had suspected she would sooner or later.
"I'm going after Varna," she told the others. "We need to get her before she finds a way to escape."
"What about the freakin' killbot?!" Nel asked frantically.
"Don't engage him if you can help it," She ordered. "Fall back if you can and get Wrex to safety until he can heal."
"But Liara-"
"That's an order, Vik," she told the quarian. "We can't afford to let that thing distract us and we have no idea what else he's got in that new platform of his. We can't risk it right now. Slow him down if you can, disable him, but if things look bad, get yourselves out of here fast. We need to stay on mission, do not come after me! No matter what!"
She bolted from the group after Varna. As she did, she saw The Singular grab a Sangheili's head and then electrocute his face off. For some reason, even over the sizzling crack of the electricity and the screaming cries of the Covenant warrior, Liara could've sworn she could hear an electronic chuckling from the Geth Heretic.
Varna wasn't exactly too difficult to track down, even within the winding halls of the inner sanctum. There weren't many doors and Liara imagined she knew where she was going. She wanted the data, it was her only way to make up for everything that had gone wrong. So Liara just needed to find some place that looked like it would hold valuable information.
When she stumbled upon a room that looked filled to the brim with what appeared to be access terminals and large floating ball of light at the back near a very large console of sorts, Liara figured she had found the right place. Varna didn't appear to be in sight, Liara suspected she was nearby though. The console itself looked like it had recently been activated. The blue ball of light was shifting, revealing things on a holographic screen of sorts. The images were going too fast to make anything out though.
She soon realized why upon approaching it. Lodged inside what looked to be a data port was an OSD, no doubt trying to download everything inside this room onto itself. Liara suspected, given all the information speeding by on the screen, that Varna would need a lot more OSDs to get everything. Not that it would matter, she would be taking it for herself when this was over.
First she would have to deal with the head Eclipse Sister though, luckily she didn't make herself too difficult to find once Liara had gotten close to her prize. Hearing a sound from behind her, Liara turned and pointed her pistol back at Varna, who already had her weapon out. The two asari stared each other down, circling each other as they did.
"You really think you've won?" Varna asked. "You think you can mess up my operation and take me down?"
"That was the plan," Liara informed her. "You seemed to be the weak link in Balak's chain of conspirators. You've more than proven my hypothesis right over the past twenty-four hours."
"Shows what you know," Varna laughed. "Once I get my data and get it to the Seppies, I'll be forgiven. Even Balak will let this whole fuck up slide. I'll have proven I'm still valuable."
"You've cost the Separatists a valuable resource when you couldn't defend the biotic enhancing drugs they wanted and led us to this temple," Liara reminded her coldly. "Handing them over some data that they would've gotten anyway had you not complicated things isn't much of a saving grace."
"It is when they still need my smuggling routes for their plans," Varna stated confidently. "It's why I'm still alive to begin with. This is just to prove I can clean up my own mess. And once I kill you, the thorn in everyone's asses, they'll be more than willing to forgive and forget."
"You couldn't even beat me when a mech was doing most of your work," Liara chastised her. "You really think you can take me one on one?"
"You may have run with Commander Shepard, T'Soni, but the streets are the greatest teacher out there," Varna claimed. "It's survive or die out there. And me? I'm a survivor."
Varna went to pull the trigger, but Liara was already two steps ahead. She threw out a biotic attack that bowled Varna over, causing her gun to clatter to the floor. Liara advanced on Varna, but the merc retaliated. She suddenly flew right at Liara, smashing into with a biotic charge. The mercenary then batted Liara's weapon away, leaving both asari with only their fists and their biotics.
"Let's see what a pureblooded slut like you can do against the baddest bitch in Eclipse!"
Varna liked that word, probably thought it got under her skin. But Liara had been called pureblood enough in her life at this point that the word no longer phased her. It just steeled her resolve to beat them down harder, one way or another. She lit up her biotics, just as Varna moved in for another charge. This time, she ran into Liara's barrier, which when dropped a second later exploded and sent Varna flying backwards into a terminal.
Varna leapt up quickly and unleashed a biotic lash from her hand. She swung it at Liara, who only just missed it by inches. She sent a shockwave in response, but Varna leap up and out of the way. As she came back down she aimed a biotic fist at Liara, intending to slam down onto her. Liara side-stepped the direct punch, but the shockwave resulting from the punch hitting the floor caused her to slam into a nearby terminal herself.
Varna charged in once again, aiming a punch at Liara's head. Dodging it by inches, Liara forced the merc away from her with a cascading wave of energy. Varna stumbled backwards, only for Liara to charge into her with her shoulder. Following it up with a solid knee to Varna's stomach, she then flipped the merc over her back and sent her tumbling across the pavement.
Varna punched the floor in anger, forcing herself to stand once more.
"I'm not getting beat by some fucking bookworm!" She declared. "I am THE Eclipse Sister! I have fought harder than any asari out there to get here!"
"Maybe if you spent time reading you would've been able to fight smarter instead," Liara responded, smirking slightly as she did.
Enraged, Varna activated a pair of biotic lashes with both her arms. She flung them at Liara, who took the hit using her barriers to dull the blow. She was thrown back significantly, but Varna kept charging in with her lashes. Liara saw her chance, she rolled forward, ducking under the assaulting lashes and delivered a powerful biotic throw at point blank range that sent Varna flying into the ceiling.
Varna came crashing back down, her fist ignited with biotic power, only for Liara to meet her with the same force. The opposing fists detonated each other. Liara went to ground, but Varna flew off and landed in a heap. It was a hard hit for both of them, Liara had to force herself to crawl to her feet. Varna managed to do the same.
"I'm gonna... break every bone in... your body," the merc growled, near panting.
Liara just took up a fighting stand once more.
"I can go all day, Varna," she claimed.
Varna roared as she activated her charge attack once more, heading at full throttle towards Liara. The problem was she had overextended herself. Liara took a step left the second she saw Varna powering up, allowing her to avoid the attack entirely and deliver a clothesline biotic knuckle duster right into Varna's face.
The Merc was thrown back, but didn't stay thrown back for long. Liara reeled her in with a charged up Pull attack and then punched her again, square in the nose. As Varna fell back, she quickly flung a stasis attack that froze the merc in mid fall. Liara then rushed to grab her pistol, swiping it off the ground.
Just as the stasis wore off, Liara kicked Varna in the stomach and brought her down to the floor. As she lay there clutching at her lower abdomen, Liara pointed her weapon down at the merc.
"Baddest bitch in Eclipse, huh?" She asked. "You may want to rethink that title."
Then, just as expected, the merc held her hands up in a fright.
"Okay, okay, I give," she declared. "Let's... let's make a deal. Can we make a deal?"
Liara had intended to capture Varna alive, she still did, but the prospect of seeing her plea for a bargain was too good to pass up. It meant she could squeeze more out of her than she had originally expected to. Best to milk this for whatever it was worth.
"What exactly can you even offer me?" Liara asked, feigning a lack of interest. "Your organization is more or less in tatters so you can't offer me any resources, your friends in Balak's conspiracy are probably going to be out for your head now so you can't be my spy and, to be honest, I think you're way too low on the totem pole for your information to be of any use."
"I am valuable," Varna claimed. "More than you probably expect actually."
"Why?" Liara asked. "Because of a few smuggling routes?"
"A very intricate crop of smuggling routes, inherited them from my predecessor," Varna said grinning. "When Trox first approached me for a partnership in this conspiracy, that was the whole fucking reason. I had the means to move all kinds of product deep into enemy territory. Specifically, Turian territory."
For the Separatists, so they could get guns and the drugs and anything else they needed. Obvious enough, but not good enough in terms of intel. At least, that's what Liara wanted her to think. No need to play her hand just yet.
"How good can these smuggling lanes be if you're using them?" She asked Varna skeptically. "Why would they need you at all?"
"It's not just to get them their shit, it's to get them around when it's already inside Hierarchy controlled space," Varna stated insistently. "They want to launch a major attack somewhere, something big, biological based if the equipment I kept shuttling them was any indication, but they can't get their people there without a back way in. They needed the shit I know."
"Well now you're not going to be able to show them, so really it seems the easiest way to put an end to that plan..."
Liara's threatening suggestion was enough to unnerve Varna. She frantically tried to re-explain herself.
"I already gave them the internal routes I set up so they could move the shit around more easily, okay," Varna fearfully informed her. "Can't have a war without logistics and shit. Killing me might slow them down, but you'll need my help to pick out what their intended target is."
"They never told you?" Liara asked curiously.
"Need to know, Trox said," Varna clarified. "He said he'd explain if our deal went through."
Deal? What deal? Liara needed to remain cool, not tip off that she needed to know what that was. It couldn't be the smuggling and drugs and weapons, that was already on the books from the sound of it. This was something else.
"Trox has a side deal with you?" Liara mocked. "Please, as if the Blood Pack needs your help with anything. Whatever Trox promised for you was likely a lie. They don't need Eclipse's help, let alone yours."
"Ah, but that's the thing," Varna chuckled. "Blood Pack ain't doing so good these days. Your buddy Shepard saw to that. They're hurting bad, like no one really knows how bad. Trox said he needed my help to strengthen the Pack. Get the other chapters to throw in with him, expand some of the membership a little with some major biotic muscle, like himself. He was gonna help me get the Sisters up the ladder in return. Eclipse and the Pack, together as one big happy merc family."
"Yeah, look how that turned out," Liara snorted.
"He's still going to make a go of it," Varna claimed. "Trox thinks it's the only way to keep the Pack from falling out of step or something."
"Why?" Liara asked. "What's wrong with the Pack?"
"Not enough Krogan," Varna stated plainly. "Too many attack dogs."
"Vorcha?" Liara asked, hoping for clarification.
Varna nodded, tapping the edge of her nose.
"Alright, so where's this get together going down?" Liara asked.
"I can find out," Varna claimed.
"I think I can do that way easier than you at this point actually," Liara stated bluntly. "I'll need more than that. You don't have any specifics, no hard details. Why am I bothering with you if you have nothing concrete?"
"I have the data," Varna said, pointing at the terminals. "I've downloaded half the shit in this place already. If you take me in, I'll get you the rest. Whatever else the Covenant are trying to get their hands on in here. Along with a ton of shit on Separatist outposts, bases of operation, potential attack sites, manifests of their weapons and manpower. It's all on my omni-tool and more. Everything you'd need to shut it down in time. I'll unlock it, if you just take me in alive."
That was all she really needed. They could get more of her out on the ship if they needed to. She had spilled enough that she was doomed otherwise. Liara knew from the start she'd crack easily. She hadn't even needed to try that hard. Varna was a survivor, but that didn't always mean being tougher or smarter or better. Sometimes it just meant selling out your friends to save your own hide. A description that fit Varna to a T and then some.
Liara kept her gun out but motioned Varna to stand.
"I better not regret this," Liara informed her, keeping up the tough act. "Whatever else you have to share is either useful or I'm dumping you somewhere the STG can find you. Better yet, maybe the other members of Eclipse. I'm sure they'd love to know how much of a snitch you are."
"You won't do that," Varna huffed. "You'll just send me to prison. I've been inside before. I can survive. I will survive."
"Depends on how many Eclipse members are in said prison I imagine," Liara told cautioned. "Get the OSD and the rest of the data off these terminals. Then we meet up with my people and get out of here."
They went back to collect the OSD, but they didn't get too far. Before either of them even got close, something appeared in front of, decloaking out of the blue. A tall, platinum and very hostile looking Geth.
"That was an interesting performance," The Singular told Liara rather matter-of-factly. "So many biotic explosions, so much destruction. Fun... for a time. But now I'm bored."
Liara moved to shoot him only for the Singular swat her away with its hand. Varna didn't wait for the same treatment. She ran, right towards the exit door. She didn't get that far. The Singular aimed his rifle and shot her down in seconds. Varna fell to the floor, a dozen shots perforating her torso and one through the back of her head.
Liara lurched up to scream in anger, firing on The Singular, only hitting his hexagon shield buffers instead.
"Oh I'm sorry, did you still need that flesh-sack?" He asked sardonically. "Apologies, but I just can't suffer organics to live. It's a bit of a habit of mine, nervous tic even."
He moved his hand and zapped at Liara, a dampening attack, making her biotic amp burn in her skull. She quickly ducked behind the cover of one of the terminals as the Singular opened fire on her.
"If you think you can hold out until your friends arrive, I'm afraid they're busy with more Covenant soldiers than they can handle," The Singular stated plainly. "Don't bother contacting them either. I only engaged with them long enough to lock onto your radio frequency so I could block it. Now then, stay where you are. I'll be over in a minute to help you join the other blue husk of meat currently on the floor."
Liara tried connecting with her team, but only got static. The machine hadn't been lying. Everything had gone to hell so quickly. Varna was dead and she was cut off from her team, now the Singular had her cornered and was approaching the main console. He pulled the OSD from the port, crushed it in his hand and tossed it aside.
"So inefficient," he mused.
He then plugged himself into the console and began his own download. True to the Geth's processing power, it didn't seem to take him nearly as long. Liara had to react within the few minutes she had. She moved out of cover and opened fire on the Geth, hitting him square in the back a few times. Her pistol wasn't strong enough to take down a Geth Prime platform quickly, but it did at least delay his download for a few brief moments.
The Geth turned and fired on her, prompting Liara to roll into cover behind another terminal. The Singular's shots perforated the computer, damaging it to the point it began to sputter and spark from its various holes.
"Why do you organics always squirm so much harder when you're about to die?" The Singular asked. "I mean, wouldn't it be easier to accept the inevitable? Acknowledge that it's over?"
"I don't quit so easily," Liara informed the synth.
"I imagined so," the Geth shrugged. "At least when my fellow Heretics died they didn't scream and shriek so much, clinging to life. I simply had more initiative. Or WE had, perhaps. I'm not sure what the proper vernacular for a past version of what I once was would be. I guess it doesn't matter."
The Geth unplugged from the console and seemed to sigh in satisfaction.
"There, everything I need," he stated. "I have to thank you, T'Soni. Finding this place was easy, I already knew where to look, but even in this platform, getting past all those guards outside would've been near impossible. Luckily you thinned the herd a little, enough to tip the scales. Now I'm currently debating whether I should leave you alive or kill you. I'm not sure how much more use you could be in the future."
Liara let him talk, her eyes were on Varna and her omni-tool. She could salvage something of this, get some of the data on the Forerunners plus everything else she needed and get out of here before it was too late. The Singular was already tying up loose ends himself, he turned to shoot at the main console, destroying it so no one else could get a hold of its secrets.
"Knowledge is more valuable rare," he stated. "Now then, back to whether or not I should kill you. I mean you specifically, of course. I'm going to kill the quarian no matter what I decide concerning you."
"You're welcome to try," Liara warned as she moved in and out among the terminals within the room. "He's got more than a few tricks to deal with you."
"His kind always has, but it didn't save them three centuries ago now did it?" The Singular asked mockingly as he scanned the room. "You have to understand, it's not because I have to kill him. I just really, REALLY want to. I thought about it long and hard and I realized I just really want to kill him. Kill them all, actually. And I will, there's just a few things I need to do first."
He must've seen something as he began opening fire again on the terminals. Liara ducked as she peered out towards Varna's body and her omni-tool. The Singular seemed to get more frustrated.
"You are dead set on preventing my further evolution, you know," he informed her, sounding almost insulted. "I mean, honestly. That's why it's so difficult to decide. I know you're an impediment, but you're also a useful tool. I'm trying to figure out when I should get rid of you. Back before, I would've just settled on killing quickly. Now... I have more space to imagine and improvise and think. It's an adjustment you see. I'm just trying to find my place in the universe, like all of us. I mean, I partially know it, I know the end result at least, it's the journey that I'm working on. This information from these Forerunners is part of it."
"You really think I care about all this, don't you?" Liara asked, rather annoyed at this point.
"You're going to die, asari," The Singular growled in anger. "It's only a question of when I decide to do it. Right now, highly leaning towards doing it here because you're insulting me and my personal journey of self-discovery like it's nothing. And I'm. Not. Nothing!"
The Singular opened fire on several of the terminals in rapid succession. In the middle of his tantrum of sorts, Liara rolled out into the open. Her biotics were back. She sent a throw attack at the Geth, sending him flying into the back wall. She then quickly rushed over to Varna and disengaged her omni-tool from her arm.
The Singular was up on its feet by the time she was done.
"Okay, killing now," he declared.
Liara fired first before he could though, blasting out one of his three eyes. The Singular stumbled as its sensory mechanics malfunctioned. He sprayed bullets everywhere, but missed Liara by a mile. She ran for the door. once the Singular regained his senses, he was already in hot pursuit
He chased her down the winding halls for a few feet, until he finally caught up with her... and Wrex. The krogan fired a carnage shot at the machine, hitting the synth in the arm. It blew clean off and clattered to the ground. The rest of Liara's team were close behind, their footsteps rushing up to meet with them.
The Singular glared at Liara, an electronic groan of frustration and rage emanating from it as it steeled its robotic gaze.
"Risk of capture or termination is unacceptable," he stated. "You've earned a reprieve, T'Soni. You and your quarian. This time. But my evolution will not be stopped by the likes of you or any meatbag. I swear it."
The platform cloaked suddenly and Liara and Wrex opened fire on the area. Their hail of fire was deafening and soon joined by the other members of the team. After a barrage of bullets and plasma bolts and grenades... nothing materialized. The Geth had gotten away.
"He's wounded we need to-"
Liara's orders went unfinished. They could already hear more Covenant coming down a side passage, more reinforcements. Varna hadn't been kidding when she said the Spec Ops soldier had been holding back troops.
"The guys we were engaging fell back," Nel explained. "They must've went for help."
"We'll be overrun, damn it," Liara growled. "Everyone, get back to the entrance, now. We'll... we'll have to deal with the Singular another day."
"We had him," Vik grunted. "We had him."
"We have vital data on their plans, Vik," Liara said, holding up Varna's Omni-Tool storage device. "We need to get it out of here."
Vik nodded in understanding, but it was clear he didn't like it.
They made a beeline for the exit, retracing their steps. Along the way, Liara called for the shuttle to come pick them and meet them at the entrance. They arrived to find it there and also to see more Covenant dropships coasting in fast on their position. They were still a ways off, but it wouldn't take them long to get here. The Spec Ops must've called for backup.
As they got inside the shuttle, the Covenant behind them caught up. They fired on the craft as it lifted out of the area, Nel blasting out the door with her assault rifle as they took off. She managed to cap one sangheili before they boosted out of the area, leaving the temple behind.
It wasn't a perfect mission, no thanks to an unforeseen complication. But they had what they wanted at least. They had to take the good with the bad here. Liara just hoped there was more good.
"So we got some good stuff on our friends then?" Wrex asked her.
"The names of Pack leaders who Trox is going to approach for his little meeting," Liara began to list off as she sat by her main terminal. "Several locations across Hierarchy space detailing Separatist forward operating bases and outposts, plus their currently acquired armaments so far. Varna's smuggling routes are as intricate as she claimed, reaching deep into Turian territory. Several secret lanes that can get them to any core world they want. I'm just not sure which one is the target. Nothing on the bioweapon's part in the plan, how it is being deployed and where. So unfortunately, a bust there."
Wrex grimaced slightly.
"Will Varna's death slow them down at least?" He asked.
"They'll need a new supplier or Orukuri will have to pick up the slack even more, that puts pressure on him," Liara considered. "Not sure if that's ideal, it might make him push up his time table too. At least they won't get their weapons as quickly and getting Covenant vehicles and aircraft to the Separatists like Orukuri wants will be more difficult. We can forward the information we have to help the Hierarchy hit some of these bases, but I doubt it's the full scope of their operations. Varna was in the dark on a lot of things it seems."
She had her own questions of course, concerning the Pack issue of the equation.
"Blood Pack seems to have a role in this," she stated. "As we suspected. They're poised to strike alongside the Separatists, but they need to be reinforced by other chapters. Trox seems to be using that to justify his own agenda."
"The Blood Pack has been suffering a recruitment issue," Wrex admitted. "More krogan are coming back to Tuchanaka, trying make something of it."
"Due in no small part to you, of course," Liara informed him admiringly.
Wrex shrugged, but didn't feel like bragging it seemed.
"I always figured the Pack would come after me to stop my reforms and boost their recruitment drive by forcing krogan back into the old ways," he explained. "But, combining the chapters is another matter altogether."
"Could the Vorcha conceivably outnumber them if things keep going like this?" Liara questioned, curious as to the weight of such a fear. "Is it that bad?"
"They've always had a ton of Vorcha at their disposal," Wrex answered contemplatively. "Using them as fodder more than anything. But as Kayap has taught us, not everyone is content to stay there. They might not be smart, but if enough of the little bastards get it into their heads that they outnumber their bosses... well. Vorcha are more fragile than krogan, but they have the advantage of being just as vicious and life being way cheaper in their eyes."
"So the Vorcha could take over if the krogan aren't careful then," Liara concluded. "Does that help or hinder us?"
"The Blood Pack is no good to Balak stacked with Vorcha," Wrex argued. "They're far too independent without the krogan pulling their leash. He won't get them to listen. If Trox loses control of them, if they smell blood, it's open civil war within the Pack. We can use that."
A fairly brutal and fatalistic outlook on the matter, but it was hard to argue with the potential results. Trox would lose his main fighting force and Balak would lose his muscle. They'd have to keep tabs on how this Pack get together was going and where it would be held.
"Now, what about the Forerunner data?" Wrex asked. "We get anything good?"
"Only half of what the Singular now has," Liara sighed sadly. "I've gone over it a bit. There's some intriguing pieces inside."
She brought up a few data points. Mostly starcharts and various planets, along with readings and graphs and all sorts of intricate details. The kinda thing you would need to know about a planet you were going to colonize, the risks and the dangers, the resources and the possible building sites. There was more to it than just that, however.
"Everything I've found in here suggests a full blown colonization effort that was upended into a refugee escape plan," Liara stated. "These artifacts and increased landing site possibilities, it was all added later when things went wrong."
"When that parasite thing attacked them," Wrex clarified.
"That's what Shepard says," Liara replied astutely. "An increased military presence was ordered up along with a ton of possible weapon caches and stores. They knew they'd likely have to fight to retain their new home, they wanted easy access to all kinds of weapons for self-defense if worst came to worst."
"So Vik was right, invasion," Wrex observed.
"A passive one," Liara admitted. "They had abandoned the idea of outright expansion for just settling somewhere, anywhere they could find. Rebuilding their civilization would have to wait until they could be established. In preparation, they set up various facilities functioning as military encampments, containing stores of weapons. Possibly even some of our artifacts."
"We got locations?" Wrex asked eagerly.
Liara shook her head.
"Nothing concrete, just possible sites, I can't be sure if any were built," she groaned outwardly. "The Singular probably does though."
Wrex placed a hand on her shoulder.
"We all got jumped," he reminded her. "We weren't prepared to see him again so soon."
"Doesn't make me feel better," she told him bluntly.
"We'll kill him next time, don't worry," Wrex stated just as bluntly. "Focus on what we can do for now. What we got out of this."
Liara brought up another data point, on her screen, showing the text from the mural carving.
"Well, speaking of things we got from this mission, Coda found out what this meant," she stated. "It says 'Ensuring Possession of the Mantle', whatever that means."
"Sounds ominous," Wrex snorted. "Why do we never come across an Ancient Civilization without some doomsayer mentality."
"Near as I can tell it's some sort of concept of responsibility over your territory," Liara suggested, sounding unsure. "It fits with what the mural depicts anyway."
"Well, I guess we don't have to worry either way," Wrex shrugged. "They didn't get that far in their conquest or whatever they viewed it as."
"They got fairly along the way I think," Liara corrected. "I found one last thing in the files. The most interesting of them all."
She brought up a report of some kind, detailing a single planet. A familiar one, Kahje, the Hanar homeworld.
"So Vorsa's suspicions are right," Wrex reasoned quickly. "That world has something to do with all this."
"Possibly," Liara concurred. "According to this report, from what I can decipher, they encountered another race there. First contact actually. A race almost as evolved as they were technologically. The description and the time frame suggest... well... it was close to over fifty thousand years ago."
Wrex instantly caught on, his eyes growing wide.
"Wait, that would mean they met the Protheans."
Liara nodded in agreement.
"Does it say how it went? What happened?" Wrex asked.
"I wish, there's very little information, the file was corrupted in the transfer," Liara growled. "Varna was not a very good data retriever."
"At least this points us closer to Kahje," Wrex stated definitively. "Thinking we should head there next?"
"No, Vorsa hasn't been given the go ahead to attack," Liara reminded him. "We need to stay on mission, find out what Orukuri is doing and then we can worry about everything else on the board."
Wrex seemed to agree.
"Well then, I guess there's not much to do until we get a new lead on things," he said tentatively.
"I've sent the relevant information out to my people," Liara informed him. "I'm hoping they get back to us on something there."
"I'm sure they will," Wrex said confidently. "Till then, best get some sleep. Been a long day."
Wrex moved to leave, but Liara felt anxious. There were things left unsaid, stuff that wasn't pertinent to the mission. She didn't want to let them be ignored. She had to address them, at least partially.
"Wrex," she said suddenly, standing up from her chair and looking towards him. The krogan turned back to meet her gaze. "About what happened back in the temple... when you were shot."
"I'm alright, Liara, I told you," he assured her. "I've been burned before, it's all healed up alright on my end. Relax."
"No, it's... about my reaction," she clarified. "How I... lost some control."
Wrex just laughed.
"Hey, nothing to be ashamed of," he told her. "It was kind of badass. You wrecked those sangheili like they were nothing. Heh, nice to see you let loose for once. You hold back on those biotics of yours too often."
"I do, but it's a measure of restraint," she explained. "Asari have powerful biotic capability, but when we strain our limits..."
"Hard to believe you have limits after that display," Wrex chuckled.
Liara tried not to blush at the compliment, she retained her cool.
"I lost my head in the moment there, that's what happened," she stated humbly. "I... I just saw you go down suddenly and... every enemy went straight for you and... I... I just reacted. I... needed to."
Wrex's smile dimmed, the seriousness in her voice reaching through. Liara then reasoned that she might as well go further.
"Wrex, you're important to me," she explained. "I hope you know that. You've helped me keep this going, even when I doubted myself. You've been here, you've been helping me find my place in this. And... I'm grateful for that."
Wrex remained silent and respectful. Something Liara had come to expect of the krogan, but this was a bit different. He wanted her to continue, so she did.
"When I see you rush into the fire, I worry," she stated at last, up front. "I've... I've lost too many people close to me. I got a few of them back, but... not all. Sometimes I wonder if I even really earned the ones who returned. And now, Shepard is somewhere out there, in another universe, partially because of me and what I led him to. You're out here, with me, because I asked you to come. I pulled you away from your people, from your own mission. I... I feel guilty for that, but grateful that you stayed with me all the same."
"What are friends for, T'Soni, if not sticking by you when you most need them?" Wrex asked.
"Yes... friends," Liara said, unsure if that was what she wanted to call it. "My point is... I know you will always rush off into the fire for any of us. That's just who you are. I... I want you to know that if you ever feel the need to go back or if you need to-"
"Liara," Wrex said rather directly and firmly. "I'm where I want to be. Where my people need me to be. Fighting an enemy that has endangered us all. The fact I get to do it with someone I admire and respect, you, is a bonus. I'm doing my duty, I'm protecting Tuchanka and I'm looking out for a friend."
Liara just beamed at that. How couldn't she? Wrex, for all his potentially brutish behavior, was wiser than most would give a krogan credit for. It was why she felt so privileged to know him.
"Then I want you to know, as long as you stand by my side here, I'll be beside yours," she assured him. "I promise that. I know you can defend yourself, we both can. Just... just know that whatever other things I feel or do... I'm glad you're here. Never forget that."
Wrex just nodded in thanks.
"No better place to be in my opinion," he said jovially.
Wrex left the room, leaving Liara to breath a huge sigh of relief. That was almost unprofessional of her. She didn't care. Her emotions had always been a conflicted, bothersome mess. She needed to confront them, express them, not bury them. It was the only way she could lead on this. The impact to the mission wasn't the concern. It was friendships, he wants, her needs, personal stuff.
She reminded herself that this was as doomed as her own feelings for Shepard. That this would end in tragedy if she tried anything. She couldn't help how she felt though. She couldn't deny what her heart said to her. She cared a great deal for many people, some held a larger place in her heart though. Shepard was one, Wrex was quickly becoming another.
It wasn't fair to him, to either of them. To feel this way and not say anything or address it directly. But how could she? Especially when she feared to lose so much and gain nothing in the end. The thoughts were pointless, she couldn't resolve this so easily or quickly. Her thoughts needed to be elsewhere. A healthy outlet for these feelings would need to be found though. Someway to get this out, to accept what they were, find out what she wanted and what she needed.
It would have to wait for another day, though. When she could do something about them and not fear compromising everything else. For how long though? How long?
It hadn't been a great day, but to Nel at least it sounded like they had something on the Seppies. Not much of something, but something. Her mind was constantly fixated on the horror of that damn anti-Dextro bomb. The very idea that out there, somewhere, fellow turians were making something so monstrous specifically aimed against their own kind.
It was horrible and she had no idea why. She could only hope now that they could stop it somehow. Prevent it from going further than it had likely gotten. It all felt like something out of one of the vids, but worse. Why would Orukuri sanction this? Why was he okay with this at all? Hell, why was Hanilex okay with this?
She still couldn't understand why he had joined. Or perhaps he had always been a Seppy. Questions about her former friend plagued her mind incessantly. She needed answers. Answers that seemed, at the time, more important to her than stopping the damn bioweapon. Varna had turned out to be something of a dead end on both were no closer to tracking down Han and his new friends, nor their killer bioweapon.
Right now, she just wanted to sleep. If she could manage that of course. Somehow forget her people were under threat from a weapon designed to destroy their very DNA down the cellular molecule. However, sleep would have to wait. Her message terminal close to her couch started going off. Walking over, she activated the link. In moments, the face of a female Turian, wearing the same tribal facial markings as her, appeared before her. She was older, her fringe slightly upturned, and some of her plates were of a darker. Nel recognized immediately of course, how couldn't she?
"Mom," she said, somewhat surprised. "I wasn't expecting you to call so soon. I figured you'd wait for-"
"Nel, listen," her mother interrupted her, sounding worried in her tone. "I... I have to tell you something. It's... about your father."
Nel frowned, rolling her eyes in a predisposition of disgust.
"Ugh, what about him?" She asked with a grunt. "Does he finally have something to say to me or whatever?"
Her mom only looked even more saddened.
"Nel," she tried to explain anxiously. "He's... he's gone missing."
Nel's anger and disgust vanished, replaced bewilderment and perhaps a twinge of fear. Whatever else she felt was swept away with a single, as her mood turned deathly serious.
"What happened?" She asked.
As her mother began to explain, Nel's thoughts wheeled and raced. Her glare deepened, her teeth slid and grinded against one another. Before her mother even finished, she knew what she had to do. She needed to talk to Liara, tell her what was going on. Then, she was going to find her father. And may the Spirits help anyone who stood in her way.
AN: This fell by the wayside because I was working harder to get more chapters of the main story out. But I always fully intended to get back to this when I finished a few more chapters, they were a bit more on the personal side though so it took a bit longer to get right. As you can see, we're headed for some emotional territory soon enough. Nel's father, in something akin to our first legit loyalty mission folks. Stay turned for that. As always, do review if you can and we'll see you next time.