The Normandy flew into system where the collector ship was. According to The Illusive Man, a turrian patrol had damaged it to the ship causing it to drift in space. But Zeena wasn't so sure. What she managed to understand about Collector tech, it should have been harder to disable a ship like this. Something felt wrong, very, very wrong.
"We have a visual on the Collector ship, Commander," Joker said.
"Very low emissions. Passive infra-red temperatures that suggest most ship systems are offline. Thrusters are cold," EDI added.
"That thing is massive! How the hell did the Turians take it out?" Joker asked.
"Quit mind reading me," Zenna muttered.
Joker was about to say something, but held his tongue. He knew that look Zenna had, no time for jokes. Or pissing her off
"LADAR scans do not detect any hull breaches on the side facing us, I detect no Mass effect field distortions. It appeared the drive core is offline." EDI said as she finished up her scan.
"Rendezvous in 30 seconds commander, good luck," Joker said.
As the ship moved in closer Zenna walked away from the cockpit and headed to the cargo by where Miranda and Garrus were preparing to board. The group checked their weapons and fitted their helmets on as the Normandy flew in close and activated a spotlight as they tried to find an entrance. After a few moments they found it and they deployed the Kodiak with the team inside.
The Kodiak flew into an opening in the ship. It landed after a few moments before opening the door and the three exited with weapons out. They felt a little weird looking at the place. A wrongness to it.
"Interesting," Garrus muttered.
"Looks like a giant insect hive," Miranda quipped.
"Penetrating scans have detected an access node that connects up to the collector databanks," EDI said over the comm. "Marking the location to your hardsuit computer,"
"Well let's go, and avoid large eggs," Zenna said. "I'd rather not have aliens bursting out of chests," that got a snort from Miranda and a chuckle from Joker.
"Aliens bursting from chests?" Garrus asked confused.
"I'll explain later," Joker added
Archangel nodded as the three followed the corridor round. As they moved Zenna moved up to one of the organic looking walls and rubbed her hand on it. It was hard and oozed out something. It was probably for protection against the vacuum elements. Shrugging she took a sample before moving along. As they did all three of them noticed egg like objects on the ceiling. The Golem and Turrian looked to Shepard with unimpressed looks, until they got an all clear from their scans.
They weren't eggs with parasites waiting to jump on their faces. All they were was bioluminescent substance inside creating the glow. As they began to move on, EDI chimed in."Shepard. I have compared the ship's EM signature to known Collector profiles. It is the vessel you encountered on Horizon," she said making all three of them feel even more nervous.
"Maybe the defence towers softened it for the Turians?" Garrus said but his voice betrayed how much he knew how that might not be true.
"The colonists might still be here," Zenna muttered with a nod.
"Possibility, 90%" Miranda added. "But advise caution, we do not know if there are other ships or stations,"
Zenna nodded at they as they moved round a corner to see two pods both of them opened. Carefully the three walked up to them unsure on what was inside. Looking at the others, the minotaur kicked the pod before backing up with a sigh as nothing came out.
"Looks like the pods from Horizon, these are empty," Miranda said as she and Zenna leaned in for a look.
The inside looked quite cozy and had a few pipes inside. Both didn't know what to make of it other than it must have been some kind of life support unit.
"Horrible, trapped at the mercy of these beasts," Garrus said in a sad tone.
"Nothing else to do other than keep moving," Zenna said with the other two nodding.
Moving up further the passageway they came to a chamber filled with bodies. Near the edge was a body pile, out of a mixture of disgust and interest Zenna walked over to it.
"Why would the collectors just leave body's lying around?" Miranda asked in the same emotional mixture as the minotaur.
"Must have been used for testing, my guess is that these one's didn't have what the Collectors were looking for," the commander said as she began to pull bodies away from the pile and check their faces.
"What are you doing?" Garrus asked as he shared a questioning look with Miranda.
"There's something I want to…" she trailed off as she found what she was looking for and pulled the body away from the pile. "Find," she sighed and shook her head.
Before them lay a mermaid Chimera. Cat ears sat on his head, serpent scales decorated the side of his head and his ears were replaced with those of a reptile. But what most interested Zenna where the marks across his body.
"Shit," she muttered before hitting her comm. "Chackwas, you read me?"
"I hear you loud and clear," the Lamia said.
"I'm tagging a body for collection, when you get it, I want you to run tests. See what they were tying to do," Garrus and Miranda's eyes widened at the commander as she took a tag out of her webbing and placed it on the dead demi-human.
"Undersssssood Commander. I'll ssssend Jacob, Grunt and Kassssumi to get it," the doctor called back.
"Thanks," Zenna said before standing and turning off her comm. "Shit,"
"Shepard?" Garrus asked.
"Let's get moving," the minotaur said as she moved onwards with the other two following behind her.
Miranda and Garrus just shared a look as the three made their way through a nearby corridor to what looked like a testing room. A Collector was already on one of the best making Miranda interested as Zenna opened up her omni-tool to access the terminal.
"That's a Collector, were they experimenting on one of their own?" Miranda asked.
"Sure, looks like it," Garrus said as he looked around keeping guard.
"EDI, I'm uploading data from this terminal. See if you can figure out what they were up to. Then send the information to my computer I want to check it out later," Shepard said.
"Data received, analysing," EDI said over the comm. "The collectors were running a baseline comparison between their species and humanity, but they had difficulty due to the demi-human virus,"
"Not surprising, that caused trouble for us as well," the minotaur's brows furrowed as a thought entered her mind. "Are they looking for similarity's because that would make the most sense," the Commander said with an interest.
"I have no hypothesis of their motivations all I have is preliminaries. I have found something remarkable. A quad strand genetic structure to traces collected from ancient ruins. Only one race is known to have this structure: the Protheans,"
Eyes looked to each other in surprise and fear as Zenna backed up. "Oh my god the Reapers didn't wipe out the Protheans,"
"These are no longer Prothean's Shepard. Their genes show extensive genetic rewrite. The Reapers have re-purposed them to suit their needs,"
"We are not going to be changed like the Collectors," Miranda said with determination.
Zenna nodded as she readied her assault rifle. "Well let's get what we can before the Collectors come and salvage this vessel,"
As they began to move deeper into the feeling of wrongness increased. Something felt off, her animal senses screamed it in her mind. This smelt like a trap, felt like one too. The three move along to a ramp before looking up to see more pods dangling from the ceiling.
"More of those strange pods," Garrus noted.
"There must be hundreds, how many do you think are full?" Miranda asked.
"Too many," Zenna muttered before EDI chimed in.
"I detect no signs of life in the pod Shepard. It its probable that the people inside died when the ship lost primary power," the AI
Zenna silently agreed but the three continued up the ramp to a platform and continued following the passage way. Something was up and they could all feel it. Miranda and Zenna most of all, but they said nothing. As they moved up another ramp Joker chimed in.
"Commander you gotta hear this. On a hunch, I asked EDI to run an analysis on this ship," Joker said before EDI chimed in.
"I ran an EM profile against data recovered by the Original Normandy two years ago. They are an exact match," she said and the group looked to each other again.
"The same ship dogging me for two years? Not a coincidence," the minotaur said shaking her head.
"It may support my theory that the collectors only have one ship," Miranda said.
"Something doesn't add up commander. Watch your back," Joker said.
The three followed the path up to a large entrance as they entered Zenna nearly dropped her rifle in surprise at what she saw. Miranda did however drop her pistol and Garrus just looked on seemingly surprised by this. They stood looking at a big hole in the ship which was covered in pods all along the walls and given how many they saw on the way. This ship was way beyond huge in scale.
"Sprits..." Garrus tried to say but words failed him.
"They could take every human in the Terminus and not have enough to fill these pods," Miranda said as she picked up her pistol.
"They're going to target Earth," Garrus said.
"Not if we stop them," Zenna said as she turned to the path and followed it with the other two close behind her.
As they walked along the path a platform came into view.
"There, on the platform looks like some kind of control panel," Garrus pointed.
"Where are the bodies of the Collector crew?" Miranda finally asked.
"I've been asking that all day," the commander said as they walked up to the terminal and brought up her omni-tool. "EDI I'm setting up a bridge between you and the collector ship. See if you can get anything useful from the ship's data banks,"
"Data mine in progress Zenna," EDI said as she received the information.
"Uh... that can't be good," Joker then said over making the three in the ship worry.
"Jo…" Shepard tried to say, but console closed down and the machinery began to activate.
All three of the took a defensive position. Just as suddenly it all calmed down. But each member of the team knew it wasn't over, yet.
"Joker to ground team, you, ok?" the pilot called.
"We're ok joker, what just happened?" Shepard asked.
"Major power surge, went dark for a second but we're back up now," Joker replied.
"I managed to divert the Majority of the overload to non-critical systems. Shepard it was not a malfunction. It was a trap," EDI said, but as soon as she said those words the platform shifted and rose up spinning as it did so
"We need a little help here, EDI," Shepard said while she and the other two tried to keep their footing.
"I am having trouble maintaining connection," EDI replied. "There is someone else in the system,"
The platform suddenly stopped rising and spinning. This caused Miranda to fall down and Shepard and Garrus to stumble. At the height they were at, they could get a good view of the area. Zenna went over to Miranda and gave her a hand getting to her feet. The sound of an unknown mechanical device filled the area. A platform appeared from behind a stalagmite and flew towards them.
"Connection re-established," EDI said. "I need to finish the download before I can override any systems,"
"Then you better get it done fast, EDI," Miranda said as She and the squad took cover from the barrage of fire from the Collectors on the platform on the right.
"I AM ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL," One of the Collectors glowed bright yellow as the possession took place.
Garrus fired at a loose metal plate under Scion in the distance causing it to stumbled and fall off of the still moving platform. Miranda used a shockwave to rid of the regular drones on the next to them. Zenna used her assault rifle in short controlled bursts to cover the others. Once the last of the cannon fodder was down, the three then refocused their attention on Harbinger.
"YOUR TIME FOR ASCENSION HAS ARRIVED, HUMAN," it declared as it approached.
Its barriers weakened from the onslaught mix of pistol, rifle and assault rifle fire. Harbinger launched a warp ball at their position only to be dodged. Harbinger hopped over their cover and was right next to them. Shepard quickly grabbed hold of Harbinger by the scruff of the neck and lifted him up a good foot off the ground.
"YOU ARE ONLY DELAYING THE INEVITABLE, SHEPARD,"
"Do you ever shut up!" she asked before throwing him over the edge and into the abyss.
"I have completed the download, Commander," EDI said. "Please reconnect me to the terminal,"
Shepard walked to the terminal and activated her omni-tool allowing EDI to connect to the terminal.
As she did so, EDI's hologram appeared over the terminal. "I have regained control of the platform, Shepard,"
"I knew you wouldn't let us down," Shepard praised.
"I always work at optimal capacity," the AI said as the Golem scoffed.
The platform started to move. "Did you get what we needed?" Shepard asked over the comm.
"I have found data that could help us successfully navigate the Omega 4 relay. I have also found the Turian distress call that served as the lure for this trap. The Collectors were the source. It is unusual," a trace of confusion entered her tone.
The platform landed next to a tunnel entranced and connected to the edge. "It makes sense that the Collectors would send the distress signal as bait," Miranda said rubbing her neck.
"No, it's unusual, because Turian emergency channels use secondary encryption. It is present, but corrupted in the message. It is not possible that the Illusive Man would believe that the distress signal was genuine," the AI answered.
"Why are you so sure?" Zenna asked brow raised.
"I found the anomaly with Cerberus detection protocols. He wrote them," that made everyone listening in turn to her.
"He knew it was a trap?" Joker chirped in on the comm. "Why would he send us into a trap?"
Anger went through Shepard when she heard this news. She slammed his fist into the console nearly breaking it and roared, "That son of a bitch sent us right into Collector hands!"
"N-No," Miranda said. "T-There has to be another explanation. The Illusive Man wouldn't do this. He... he just wouldn't!" emotion filling her.
Shepard walked up to Miranda and said, "You want an explanation? Here it is. You're not an operative. You're not a valuable employee. You are nothing more than an asset. One that will be thrown away when your usefulness is gone. This is nothing more than typical Cerberus behaviour," the two then glanced at the tunnel, their senses tingling. "We don't have time for this,"
"Commander, the Collector Ship is starting to power up," Joker said over the line. "You need to get out of there before their weapons come online. I'm not losing another Normandy!"
"I do not have full control of their systems," EDI said. "I will do what I can. Sending coordinates for shuttle extraction,"
"Let's get moving," Zenna said.
OOOOO
Tim tapped his cigarette on his ashtray as he read the information EDI had sent him. Maybe he should have warned them, maybe he shouldn't. Either way it was too late now. By his own calculations, they should be finishing up now. Leaving the Collector ship and escaping. He mentally prepared himself for the upcoming argument. Minotaurs were frightening when they were angry, even more so when they didn't like you to the point of wanting to rip your arms off.
He gulped some whisky as a chime sounded and he turned to she Zenna Shepard's holographic form before him. Her arms crossed, her eyes narrowed and dark focused on him.
"We…." he was about to say, but the minotaur growled silencing him.
"If you ever pull a stunt like that again," she said calmly but not letting a venom from her words go. "Our 'partnership' is over. You were on thin ice with be before, now? Now your head is just above the water,"
"We're at war Shepard, what I did was a calculated risk, you surviving just showed I was right and got the information we needed," he said but the look on her face told him that she didn't buy it. Miranda probably tried to justify his actions. "Without that information, we don't reach the Collector homeworld. And you and every human may as well be dead. I admit it was a trap, but I was confident in your abilities. And let's not forget EDI. The Collectors didn't anticipate her,"
"Get to the goddamn point," Zenna growled, even more deeply this time.
"EDI confirmed one of the suspicions I had," he took a puff on his cigarette. "Both the Collectors and Reapers used an IFF to get though the Omega-4 relay. All we need is to get that info,"
"And how, pray tell, do we do that?" Shepard asked.
"We have a science team working on a derelict Reaper right now," that broke the minotaur out of her anger as she stared at him with wide eyes.
"You have a team on a Reaper?" she asked, a mix of emotions entering her voice. "That…" she struggled to find the right word. "I doubt this will be a simple 'swing by and pick up',"
"We lost contact with Dr Chandana's team shortly after they arrived. Initial reconnaissance revealed no clues, and it was too risky to commit too many resources. But now, we need that IFF,"
"Send me the intel. Don't forget my warning," Zenna said before leaving.
"She is starting to be more trouble," he muttered as he turned to face the dying sun. "Maybe it's time to invest in other people,"