After getting the geth ship off the tower and reconnecting with the Normandy, Shepard and her team discovered that the Thorian activated its mind control abilities. With that, and getting Lizabeth onto the Mako they had planned to get back to the Normandy, but with geth ship shot off Lizabeth's mother tried to get a message out but was stopped by someone. That lead to Shepard stopping the Mako, shooting a corporate thug and getting an electric frequency that would allow her and her team to take out the colonists without killing them.
With that Zenna walked into a locked herself into a workshop and began to tinker with the grenades she, Ashley and Garrus had. They had been waiting an hour making the turian quite impatient.
"Can't we just get her out?" he asked earning looks of pity.
"If you don't want a minotaur to rip your arms off…" Lizabeth said. "…don't interrupt them when they are working," that made the turian fall silent as he looked at the human.
Lizabeth just surged with a smile before the workshop door opened up and Shepard walked out carrying three grenade bandoleers. Walking up to her team she handed two of them to Garrus and Ashley before strapping her own over her shoulder. The two followed suits.
"So, what's the plan?" Garrus asked.
"We go in, naturalise the colonists and take out the Thorian," Zenna said. "Simple, easy quick. But nothing ever is simple," she added as she walked over to the Mako. "Let's move!"
"Good luck," Lizabeth called as Ashley and Garrus followed their commander and climbed into the tank bracing themselves for the minotaurs bad driving.
The ride back to the main tower was uneventful until they reached the main gates and something banged on the Mako. Opening the door Ashley was the fist out only to be attacked by a humanoid form. She backed up quickly fearing it was one of the colonists, but when she sniffed the air, they smelled all wrong. As soon as she backed up and got a good look at the creatures that were attacking the Mako.
They had a greenish colour and looked like that they were made from vines. One spotted her and advanced quickly, but the hu-hound was faster and unloaded a few rounds into it. It did little forcing Ash to get her assault rifle and unloaded a full clip into it. That killed it, but now the others were on her and began to advance. As they did Zenna and Garrus exited the Mako and fired at the creatures. They fell down dead allowing the three to get a good look at them. Ashley squatted down and picked one of the arms up.
"Looks like some kind of vine," she muttered as Zenna followed what she did.
"Looks like something a spider would have spun," Shepard added as she looked at the whole body. "It's like an organic drone," she said as she and Ash stood. "Either way, we have a battle on our hands,"
With that she, Ashley and Garrus moved up to the door and opened it. No one was inside, but as a precaution Ash and Garrus got their helmets on to try and prevent infection. With her DNA Zenna was immune, or least she was according to the VI. Given that she was immune to most diseases and viruses anyway, it wasn't that far-fetched. Readying their weapons and grenades, the team advanced slowly towards the lift. Given that they were facing demi-humans this time that meant there was a number of places where they could spring from.
The lift opened up and the team moved in. As they did Garrus began to think about the first contact war and how the Turians lost the ground war. The demi-humans managed to outmanoeuvre the turian forces and wondered if they were going to have the same problems. Looking towards the two demi-humans and his mind was set at ease. Humans had been on their world for thousands of years, demi-humans maybe less so but that still meant that they had a lot of time to refine their tactics against them. Ashley and Zenna most likely had more experience with anti-demi-human tactics. Best to follow them.
The lift door opened and gunfire hit around the sides but thanks to their shields they managed to get out and into cover fast. At least Ash and Zenna did, the latter of which grabbed Garrus and pulled him into cover with her. Blinking rapidly, he soon registered the colonists firing at him. The speed Shepard pulled him with made him have after images and a bit of a headache.
"Shoot to wound," Shepard ordered as she threw a grenade.
It detonated between two fire teams and the electric discharge from it shocked their nervous systems making them faint. Once they fell the team moved up into the main colony compound, but got supressed as one of the security members had brought out a mobile turret. Ashley looked around and jumped onto a ledge. She may have not been a nekomata, but she was a hu-hound and the two shared similar qualities to each other. Both are hunters, both are predators but one was a pack animal while the other was close to being an apex predator. She moved to higher ground as the colonists tracked her. But that allowed Garrus and Zenna to throw the grenades into the colonists knocking them out.
As she moved high Ashley managed to noticed several of those vine-like beings running toward her team. Getting her pistol out, she opened fired as she moved. The rounds hit the vine-like beings but didn't fully take them down but enough to slow them down and allow for the rest of the team to take them down and use their grenades to knock out the colonists. As the last of the colonists fell Fai-Dan soon emerged holding a pistol. He aimed it at Zenna who aimed her own at him.
"It wants me to stop you but I cannot," he said as he approached. "But I won't!" he turned the gun on himself. "I WON'T!" pulling the trigger the round exited the gun and went through his head killing him instantly.
Sighing Shepard slid her pistol back onto her mag-lock and looked around before a moan met her ears. Turing she then saw the minotaur captain being carried by Pharah. She ran up to help and brought the captain to a makeshift medical bed. As she did, she noticed that both were wounded. They must have put up a bit of a fight to try and stop the others.
"Shepard?" he asked as he was helped onto the bed. "What happened?"
"The Thorian was releasing spores in the colony. We are unaffected because it cannot cope with a chemical imbalance in our systems," Zenna answered. "I need to know where it is,"
"What's a Thorian?" Pharah asked.
"I'll explain later," the captain said before his looked turned back to Shepard. "Below here," he said as he pointed towards a panel on one of the pre-fab units. "That will unlock the door,"
"Thanks," Zenna said before she ran over to it and hit the panel.
A section of the floor rose up and a passage was opened up. Upon regrouping the team made their way down. After descending down three levels the final floor lead into a large chamber.
"Ok we need to find this plant and put a few rounds into…" Ashley was saying as they moved into the chamber but as soon as they entered her eyes fell onto a large fleshy creature hanging from the ruins. "What the hell is that?" she asked looked up before noticing its 'mouth'. "T…tentacles?"
"This is going to be problematic," Zenna muttered as she cocked her weapon.
As they approached the thing began to retch. It spluttered something out of its mouth then a green skinned asari emerged from the mouth, something that made Ash just stare in horror. Once out, the asari stood and looked towards Shepard and her team. The asari was naked, but appeared to lack the genitalia of the asari. She looked like a life-sized green doll.
"Invaders!" she declared. "Your ever step is a transgression. A thousand feelers apprise you as meat, good only to dig or decompose. I speak for the old growth, as I did for Saren. You are within and before the Thorian. It commands you to be in awe," that last part made Zenna scoff, she had seen more impressive toy ships.
"You gave something to Saren," she said "Something I need. I'm willing to make a deal,"
"Saren sought knowledge from those who are gone," the 'Thorian' replied. "The old growth listened to the flesh for the first time in the long cycle. Trades were made. Then the cold ones began to killing the flesh that would tend the next cycle. Flesh fairly given! The old growth sees the air you push as lies! It will listen no more!"
"Do you think I'm going to let you do as you will?" Zenna said as she cracked her neck.
"No more will the Thorian listen to that scurry," the asari said. "Your lives are short, but have gone on too long!"
Tentacles then emerged from the back of the asari and shot at the team. She grabbed all three of them by the waists and necks planning to coke the life out of them. But a loud snap sounded and the asari screamed in horror. Zenna then landed on the floor with a thud before she tackled the asari to the floor and snapped her neck killing it. The rest of the team fell to the floor as the Thorian began to retch again.
"It's producing another one," Ashely yelled.
"Look up," Zenna yelled pointing to where the Thorian had planted itself. "Take those out and it will fall! You to get those hard points, I'll deal with the asari,"
The two nodded and ran to the side and upwards as Zenna grabbed a tentacle aimed at her. She looked to the newly formed asari with a smile.
"Unnatural abomination," the 'Thorian' said as the minotaur snapped the tentacle.
"That's hurtful," Shepard said in a mocking tone as she unclipped her shoulder pads and the armour on her arms.
Both fell to the floor with an audible thud. The asari just looked at Zenna with an unimpressed look as the minotaur flexed her muscles.
"Bring it," she smiled.
The asari did nothing but the tentacles she had begun to try and impale the minotaur. But the minotaur moved with a speed unnatural to normal minotaurs. In no time at all, the tentacles were snapped and made useless by the minotaurs hands. The asari looked down at her damaged tentacles before looking up. Her mouth split open as she screamed and charged at Zenna. As she moved in the minotaur grabbed her head and crushed it with her bare hands. These Asari, were not normal. They may have had speed and these tentacles on their side, but they were weaker and had no clear biotic abilities. Something was wrong. But she didn't have to think about this as the Thorian retched and produced two more asari. Both of them looked very deformed as one had blades instead of arms while the other lacked arms and legs but has spider like legs instead.
Whatever these things were, it was clear that the Thorian wanted to kill her. But she wouldn't give it the satisfaction. Cracking her knuckles and neck she readied herself for a fight. As she did this Garrus and Ashley moved up to the first of the nodes that held the Thorian in place. The vine like creature tried to stop them but they were easy to kill. Once the last one fell, Ashley moved up and placed a charge on the node, setting it to detonate she backed up and it blew. The Thorian cried out in pain as the vine began to buckle from the wight of holding it.
They then advanced to the next level but as they did Garrus looked down as Zenna ripped the spine and skull from one of the mutated asari. His eyes then widened as she then used it like a club and smashed it on another clone sending it off down into the abyss.
"That doesn't seem physically possible," he said.
"Well we need to move otherwise we'll become plant fertilizer," she said with Garrus nodding and moved.
Zenna misjudged one of the attacks and an asari with blades instead of arms managed to cut her cheek and side. The cuts weren't deep but they did make her back up and go on the defensive as a few more mutated asari came out. Shepard looked around counting 5 of them as they advanced. Gritting her teeth, she then went for one of her guns but there was nothing on her maglocks. Looking to her side, her gun was gone as well as the ones on her back. She was so engrossed in the fight that she didn't notice her weapons get removed. Cursing this turned into a battle of attrition now.
Loosening herself up, she readied herself once again and took a fighting stance as another explosion and cry of pain echoed in her ears. One of the asari then charged in with blades ready to cut Zenna limb from limb. Unlike the last time, she moved to the side and grabbed the 'leg' of the asari and threw her into another one. The two got knocked off the edge and fell. The creepy part was that there was no scream as they fell. As she recovered two of the asari with tentacles managed to get her in their tentacles and held her tightly. She tried to struggle, but the way the tentacles had gotten her managed to hold her down.
As she struggled, one of the bladed asari walked up to her and was about to remove her head when another explosion sounded. This time all the asari cried out as the Thorian was being dislodged due to the lack of its vines holding it in place. The asari let her go as they clasped their heads while screaming. Zenna looked up as the Thorian fell into the pit below it and into the abyss. A few moments later, the asari died and decayed into dust. But as the minotaur looked around, she noticed a pod on the wall open up and an asari fell out of it unconscious.
"Finally some answers," she said