A/N: It's me, sorry for the delay. As said in the previous chapter, this is Virox's 'loyalty mission' and it will be split into two separate chapters. I tried to write this one in a more 'horror style' than the others, given the setting, but it was not without its troubles. Sorry if it will not be on par with the other chapters, but I promise that the next one will likely return back to my more standard style.
Nemean Abyss, The Great Wound System
Normandy SR-2, Deck 5, Kodiak Shuttle
0021 Local Time, June 26th, 2185 Gregorian Calendar
Being chosen to participate in a mission to a potentially derelict and damaged space station located in between several black holes was not something Tali was expecting to do in her life. Then again, she didn't expect her pilgrimage to take her all over the galaxy in pursuit of a rogue Council Spectre, so it was fair to assume that her standards were slightly skewed. That said, actually flying so close to the massive, all-consuming spheres of darkness, and feeling the inertial dampeners struggle against the overwhelming forces of gravity pulling the tiny Kodiak into different directions, all of it was just another level of unnerving.
At the very least she wasn't alone in the feeling though, as both Shepard and Virox kept glancing at the internal screen of the shuttle that displayed the environment outside, completely silent but betraying concern through their occasional shivers, restless shoulders, and tight grips on weapons. Virox in particular seemed restless, an unusual change from his cold and ruthless demeanor. He kept jolting with every turbulence, scratching his back, even though it was covered in armor. His tail stood slightly up, not swaying around like normal, instead being completely stiff, like that of an animal staring down the jaws of a larger predator.
Shepard must have noticed, since, even though she herself seemed restless, she gave Virox a reassuring look "We're fine. EDI said there's a sort of safe zone in between the black holes where their gravity mostly cancels out. Once we're close to the station, there shouldn't be any more turbulences."
"I'm fine, Co-... Shepard." Virox muttered, though even under the pressurized helmet, Tali could see that his jaws barely moved. "It's just... my people have come up with superstitions regarding black holes."
"Really? Like what?" Commander asked, preempting Tali, who was about to ask the same question.
"Our people worship the stars. According toio the most widespread religion, all carvins came from the stars, and if one lived a good life, they may be allowed to return to the night sky." Virox replied after a few seconds, all the while glancing at the display screen on his side. "Some believe that black holes are the embodiment of the astral punishment. Those who lived sinful lives were fated to be consumed by darkness, never to shine and doomed to be forgotten."
Tali was surprised to see such spirituality from the carvins. Through her limited experience with Virox, they struck her as ruthless and absolutely rational, even to a fault. It was comforting that underneath all those implants they retained some of that organic mentality. But that raised a question regarding Virox. "And you? Do you believe?"
"No. I left my faith behind long ago." He quietly answered, his entire back shivering after another turbulence shook the shuttle. "The only faith I have left, if you can call it that, is in the Empire."
He scratched a spot on his back that Tali realized was a sizeable bump, one that could have been mistaken for armor or a small storage container (like a rucksack), but the complex machinery that comprised it indicated that it was something else entirely.
Shepard too must have noticed that strange behavior. "You okay there?"
"Yes, it's just... my wings are tensed up. It's a pain to get the feeling to go away." Virox said.
"Your... wings?" Tali asked in surprise, as she didn't know the carvins had them.
"Correct. If you're so curious, I'll show them AFTER we come back." Virox grunted in annoyance. A touchy subject. "Now, can we focus on the mission please?"
The rest of the journey passed in silence, interrupted occasionally by turbulence caused by the overlapping gravity fields of the black holes they passed. When the damaged facility finally came into view of the Kodiak's camera, Tali realized, with mixed feelings, that there was no place for their shuttle to dock. The Normandy was deliberately kept far away from the black holes, since she was too large to effectively maneuver.
But because there was no hangar space on the station, and the fact that the docking bays couldn't be activated remotely, the only possible way for them to get inside was by jumping out of the shuttle, through the vacuum of space, and entering through an airlock that they needed to manually open. An absolutely charming prospect, though in all fairness, all three of them had pressurized suits, so they at least had that going for them.
"Alright, we're almost at the airlock. We'll be jumping out one by one, and once all of us are safely attached to the station, Tali will get us in." Shepard summarized the plan, earning nods of acknowledgement in return.
"I'll jump first. My hands can be magnetized too, and I can stretch my arms farther than you, so it'll be easier to catch someone in case they fly off course." Virox offered, and Commander agreed.
Shortly after, the side door of the Kodiak slid open with a dull hiss, felt only through the floor they were standing on, since the vacuum did not carry sound. The door revealed a fairly large and robust space station, about a dozen meters away. There were no immediate signs of damage, outside of the fact that there was no power. Directly in front of them was their target - the airlock.
Virox's chest puffed up as he drew breath from his air recyclers, backed off a few steps, then jumped out first. He flew for several seconds, before hitting the metallic surface of the station, visibly unharmed.
"Clear here, you can jump." He reported.
Tali glanced at the Commander, who promptly gave up the space in front of the door for her. "After you."
"Gee, thanks." She half-heartedly replied, and followed into Virox's footsteps.
The feeling of weightlessness experienced in the vacuum was not alien to her. Many times, even before her Pilgrimage, she was forced to perform maintenance on the ship's outer hull back in the Migrant Fleet. Compared to that, what she was doing now was light years away in terms of stress. Thankfully she managed to land safely next to the airlock, grabbing onto one of the four small railings located around it, probably meant for clip hooks.
Shepard was the last one to jump, and, to nobody's surprise, her flight was the most graceful. She used her biotics to give herself more speed, before softly coming down and attaching her mag boots to the station.
"The shuttle will await your return, Shepard. We will continue to look for any signs of destroyed carvin vessels." EDI informed them on a common channel, though her voice was slightly distorted by static. Unsurprising really, considering where they were.
"Alright, let's do this. Tali, you're up." Shepard ordered, making some space at what was an outer control panel for the airlock. Tali gave a silent nod and carefully approached the contraption, trying to get a sense of what she was dealing with.
It didn't take too long for her to understand the mechanism. Normally it wouldn't be possible to even attempt to open this airlock from the outside, as there were security locks in place to prevent this from happening without a confirmation by another node, likely one coming from the inside. However, since the power was cut, she quickly managed to find a way to override the emergency lockdown that was in place. She worked quickly and efficiently, with years of experience in fixing, hacking, and technical equipment manipulation making her moves almost automatic.
With the final press of a button, she sent a small electric jolt through the mechanism, and after a moment something clicked within the hull. They waited for a couple of seconds, but nothing else changed. Whatever happened inside must not have been enough to open the airlock.
"Bosh'tet..." She cursed silently, wondering what exactly did she do wrong.
"What happened?" Shepard asked. Her polarized visor blocked her eyes, but she was clearly concerned.
"I don't get it. It should be openable now." Tali answered, studying the control panel for any more potential solutions.
Virox, however, acted quicker. He pulled himself up to the central part of the airlock, attached himself to it with his left hand, while forming a narrow wedge with the fingers of his right, before slamming it into the thin gap where the reinforced sheets of metal met. Tali felt a dull *clank* with the impact, but surprisingly the carvin managed to jam his fingers deep enough to slowly start opening the airlock forcefully.
"Want some help?" Shepard offered some help, but Virox shook his head.
"It's... fine... Just let me..." He grunted, as he struggled with the mechanism.
Suddenly, as if something within the airlock's servos clicked, and the large reinforced plates of metal gave in. The airlock opened so abruptly that it caused Virox to be flung to the side due to the fact that he was still magnetically attached to it. Thankfully he recovered quickly.
"Well... guess you really did make it openable. It only took some force." He remarked, his breath heavy from the effort he exerted on the device.
"Let's get inside." Shepard said, and all three of them slowly pulled themselves inside.
There they faced the second bulkhead, but since the first one was still left open, Tali got to work on closing it. Thankfully there was another control panel, and this time it had much more options. She quickly figured out the way to make the first bulkhead close, but given the lack of power, she had to improvise.
Letting out a sigh of annoyance, she summoned Chatika, her combat drone. The glowing sphere emerged quickly, and with heavy heart she ordered it to transfer its power to the control panel. "Sorry, Chatika. This'll take a moment."
The VI drone wasn't sentient, and thus could not really feel or complain, but Tali still felt bad for doing this. If nothing else, she would have to do maintenance on it after the mission, and Chatika could get a bit quirky sometimes.
Thankfully the modest boost of energy was enough to get the bulkhead to close, and with that they were now covered in almost total darkness, save for the drone and the faintly glowing diodes on the control panel.
"Normandy, this is Shepard. We're inside the station. Is the interior depressurized?" Shepard asked.
"The station bears no signs of combat, and other airlocks remain closed." EDI's soft voice came through their helmets. "Detailed scans do not provide reliable data, since, alongside the natural protection given by the surrounding black holes, the station possesses several passive and active measures that interfere with reconnaissance equipment, likely a deliberate design choice. I recommend making your way to the main reactor and restoring power, before investigating the facility's command center and accessing its logs to find information on what happened. However, once you restore power, it is likely that the now dormant active jamming systems will be brought back online, reducing the Normandy's ability to maintain communication. You will be on your own."
"Understood." Commander replied, and turned back towards her squadmates. "Let's get this open."
Using Chatika's energy again, Tali got the bulkhead open. The steel rumbled slowly, and a high-pitched hiss filled the room, as the air from inside the station squeezed itself into the vacuum. They were in it deep now.
Nemean Abyss, The Great Wound System
Carvin Black Site, Level -1, Hallway D-57
0033 Local Time, June 26th, 2185 Gregorian Calendar
Silence...
Silence was the most eerie thing Shepard felt when they entered the station proper. There was no gravity, the artificial generators must have gone offline alongside the rest of the electronics, so they still had to do with mag boots (or 'mag legs' in Virox's case). The parallels with their mission to the Collector Ship were palpable, though she had not expected that the carvins were just as devious and manipulative as the Illusive Man.
No signs of combat. It was as if the facility was never manned. Except, of course, it certainly was. The fact that it was built in such a deliberate spot, with such care and precision, was proof enough that this wasn't any sort of Potemkin station, meant to lure them in to kill them. Still, the silence was affecting not just her, but her companions as well. Virox in particular did not calm down as much as she expected. He walked in the front, carrying his rifle high, as if he was expecting an ambush at every corner. At the very least he could read the now dead and dark direction signs, leading them slowly through the silent hallways of the facility.
"How much further?" Shepard asked after they passed another corner.
"I don't know, Shepard. I haven't served on a secret deep space black site before." Virox replied half-sarcastically.
She went silent for a brief moment, before changing the topic. "What do you think they were studying here? The commodore mentioned something about active and passive study of alien life."
"I didn't think about this as much, he wasn't exactly generous in details for me." Virox said, this time fully genuinely. "But when you put it like that, then maybe abductions? Interrogations? Live experiments?"
"You think they'd be capable of that?"
Virox shrugged, seemingly not bothered by the morality of such actions. "After our first contact with sentient alien life? Most defin-"
He stopped mid word and his body stiffened, his eyes began to shoot around, visibly looking for something. Shepard instinctively did the same, but no matter how she tried, she could neither see nor hear the thing that startled Virox so much.
"What is it?" She quietly asked, realizing that her own senses would not be enough.
Virox looked at her. With his head and eyes completely covered by the pressure suit, he looked like a soulless machine. "You mean you didn't hear it?"
"No..." Shepard answered, now even more disturbed. "Tali, did you get anything?"
"Nope. Not a thing." The quarian replied. "Not even on my motion tracker."
The carvin growled in frustration, though under the suit it was hard to discern any tangible emotion other than hostility. "I am NOT losing my mind."
They walked for the next two minutes or so in complete silence, letting only the dull sound of their footsteps bounce off the narrow hallways. Quietly Shepard was also trying to catch the sound of whatever Virox thought he heard, but alas her own ears did not catch anything.
What her eyes did catch however was a sight that gave her, Virox, and Tali, an immediate pause.
"That's... not good, is it?" The latter commented.
"No, it is not..." Virox nodded, slowly approaching the source of their surprise.
Before them, next to a disabled elevator shaft with doors forced open, was a dead carvin. Well... dead was a bit of an understatement. The implants were either mangled or slashed at uneven points, and the main torso was thoroughly gutted by several deep slashes, leaving parts of the innards spilling out of the body in a gruesome display. The head itself was so horribly disfigured that only the three characteristic outer jaws made it absolutely certain that what lay before them was an actual carvin. A wide area around the corpse was turned blue from the blood, with strings of the sticky liquid adorning the wall next to the elevator. Whatever has done the kill was a vicious creature of great strength.
"Shit..." Virox angrily muttered, before carefully kneeling down next to the corpse. "Omni-tool is dead, no cybernetic eye... not that it would help in the matter... nothing we could use to see what killed the poor bastard."
"Your people use omni-tools?" Shepard asked, surprised at the speed with which carvins integrate the Council space innovations.
"Not all of us. High ranking officials, military, the sort. Civvies are on the bottom of the food chain." Virox answered, looking away from the body and towards the forced-open doors leading to the elevator shaft. "Regardless, we need to be careful down there. Whatever did this may still be around."
He stood up and peeked into the elevator shaft, looking both up and down. If he saw anything of note, he did not show it, and instead he slowly and carefully walked inside, using the magnetic locks on his feet to change his orientation by 90 degrees downwards. Now he was facing the bottom of the shaft.
"Look's clear. Let's go, the reactor area is two levels down." He urged them.
Shepard and Tali quickly joined him, and after an initial disorientation caused by the sudden shift in orientation, they began their slow and careful descent. Surprisingly there was no sign of combat. No scratches on the walls, no signs of either laser or gun fire, nothing. One would think that whatever dangerous creature gutted the carvin back at the entrance would have left some track. It was eerie and unnerving.
"Shepard. We have found signs of presence of carvin vessels that have been sent into the area before we arrived." EDI spoke out of nowhere, so unexpectedly that Shepard jolted in surprise, almost losing balance mid-step.
Having recovered from the initial surprise, she pressed the button on the side of her helmet and replied. "Go ahead."
"I have picked up traces of high-energy antiproton fuel exhaust at the edge of the accretion disk of one of the black holes. No civilian or mercenary military operating within the Terminus Systems is known to possess such a potent fuel mixture, indicating that the remains are likely what is left of the ships commodore Xol-Irix mentioned." The AI elaborated. "The debris must have been consumed by the black hole itself. It appears that whoever was responsible for their destruction had an interest in eliminating all evidence of their actions."
"Keep us posted. We've run into a dead carvin here. Something big and vicious messed him up. We're trying to find what killed him, maybe shed some light on what happened." Shepard said, as she carefully walked around a gap created by the open doors to one of the lower decks. Unlike the previous set, this one did not bear any signs of being forced open, but it was still unusual that it wasn't closed.
Finally, having made their way onto the proper deck, they finally reoriented themselves to a position that did not make Shepard's head spin. She felt relief when her feet touched the actual floor. The new area they were in had more identity. It felt more utilitarian, scientific, almost like this was the laboratory section.
"We'll make our way through one of the science wings. If I read the directions correctly, the main reactor area should be not far behind it." Virox said, seemingly reading her mind. "That and we may finally find out what the hell they were doing in this place."
"Amen to that." Shepard nodded, but based on the carvin's confused reaction quickly realized that he was not familiar with the expression.
The 'science wing' that Virox was talking about looked more than anything else like a mad scientist's setup, if the mad scientist had a steady income of several million credits per year. Operating tables, small reinforced glass containers for samples, and other exotic machinery that Shepard could only wonder the purpose of littered the room. A row of test tanks located on the right, not too dissimilar in principle to the one she freed Grunt from, were each accompanied by a corresponding status monitor, all of which were dead and dark. The tanks were empty, but a brief scan with her omni-tool revealed traces of organic DNA, matching several known sentient species, including batarians, turians, salarians, and especially asari. Why the carvins had such a great interest in asari remained a mystery to her.
"There's eezo samples in some of those boxes. It looks like they've been running experiments on it, though I can't really tell what sort of test these were." Tali said, observing the lab equipment as they passed by.
"I've seen what Shepard can do with her biotics, I wouldn't be surprised if my people wanted to harness this power." Virox concluded, before suddenly raising his fist, prompting them to stop. He then started moving his jaws, biting the air, as if trying to catch an invisible fly. "I smell blood. Much... much more blood ahead."
Right, I forgot that's how he smells things. Shepard chastised herself mentally for being presumptuous. "Is it carvin blood?"
"Yes, but there's something else, something different. I'm not sure what it is..." Virox said, still sniffing around. "It's right outside the room, be ready."
Shepard joined the carvin on both sides of the exit, with Tali covering the rear. They readied themselves for a breach, before Shepard blasted the door open with a controlled biotic shockwave. In a swift and perfectly coordinated move, they dashed through the narrow doorway, ready to face any potential enemy they encountered. However there was no enemy... only yet another gruesome sight.
"Oh keelah..." Tali gasped, watching her every step in order to not step into a puddle of flesh. With great difficulty, she stifled a retch, but honestly Shepard did not blame her at all.
What they saw in front of them made the unfortunate guy near the elevator seem like a scratch by comparison. This time an entire hallway was layered with corpses so horribly mangled and disfigured, the stench of decomposing flesh made it to Shepard's helmet through her air filters. Walls were painted blue from all the blood, and it left no doubt that this was caused by the same perpetrator from the upper level.
"The hell happened here?" Shepard struggled to not smell the stench, as she knelt by one of the bodies.
"Looks like this time they resisted. Look, they have weapons, and there are impact marks on the walls." Virox inspected another corpse, and when he pulled something off of it, his face twisted in a grimace visible even with the helmet on. "That's an Assault badge. Those guards were not pushovers, they're proper Assaulters. What the fuck managed to do this to them?"
"Uh, Virox? I... think you should see this." Tali shyly spoke up. She passed ahead of them and was now looking at something much further away.
Virox stood up with an impetus that surprised even Shepard, and promptly joined the quarian. She stood next to a large reinforced bulkhead, one that likely led to the main reactor room. But that was not the reason she stood there. No, it was the... thing... the creature that lay in front of it that was so disturbing.
"What is... that?"
The creature was purple, or at least it looked so, given that it too was heavily brutalized. If it was alive, it would have likely stood at almost 9 feet tall, but even at this state it made a striking impression. It had four long and thick insectoid legs, like a spider, and two 'arms'. But instead of hands or any sort of grippers, the forearms gradually transformed into two scythe-like metal blades, each about twenty or thirty centimeters long. Numerous large and sharp spikes protruded from the beast's back, though many were either broken or missing entirely. All of its body was clad in some sort of armor and laced with cybernetics. At first glance, Shepard would've sworn that those upgrades were almost Reaper-esque, but it just did not feel right, this was something else.
The most disturbing part was the head - a mouth akin to that of a worm, only upscaled, and laced with rows of teeth. Above it was a singular cybernetic 'eye', which in the darkness gave off a faint violet tinge.
"I've never seen something like this before. The closest thing really is the fully Reaper-ified Saren, but he was just bones and wires by then. This thing looks... almost organic." Shepard said and glanced at Virox, hoping that he knew anything about the creature. Instead she was met with more surprise. "Uh, Virox?"
Virox did not answer. In fact he did not even flinch. His rifle that he held so tightly before, ready to shoot at any potential enemy that may reveal themselves, now weighed down his limp right arm. He stared at the beast with his mouth slightly agape.
For the first time since they met, Shepard saw Virox genuinely terrified.
Nemean Abyss, The Great Wound System
Carvin Black Site, Level -3, Hallway K-14
0046 Local Time, June 26th, 2185 Gregorian Calendar
They were supposed to be gone. Defeated.
He was there when they drove them out of their system, boarding the flagship on a practically suicidal mission to upload the virus into their network.
He saw them and their drones writhe and squirm in agony, fall down onto the ground and die. He saw their ships explode or go dark and drift lifelessly through space or burn down on uncontrolled reentry in the Carvistorn's atmosphere.
And yet despite all of this, here, right before him was a Grox drone in the flesh. Not just any drone - an Insectorox.
It's mere sight brought back haunting memories of battles he fought on Carvistorn during The Grox War, and the destruction these creatures wrought, especially when they moved in packs and were supported by the weaker ranged drones from afar. Even trained and well-equipped brutes struggled to hold their own against these monstrosities, and those Insectorox that he fought in the past were smaller than the one he saw now. Now it all made sense - the bodies with horrid yet clean slashes and stabs, the smell, all of it.
"Virox? Hey, Virox!" Shepard suddenly shook him gently yet sternly, and he realized that she was calling to him for a while now.
"I.. I'm okay." He stuttered, much to his own surprise. Mentally he cursed himself for losing so much composure. Shepard however looked unconvinced.
"You say that about the fourth or fifth time during this mission alone, and yet your behavior continued to act erratically and unfocused." She scolded him with a surprising level of anger.
"This... it brings back unpleasant memories." Virox said, trying his best to remain vague. Shepard had no clearance to see or hear about his involvement during The Grox War, but he also felt that remaining silent would have damaged the still fragile trust he managed to build with her.
"So you know what these are?" She asked, though it was more of a statement than a question.
"Yes, though the ones I've seen before were smaller." Virox answered, trying to think of a way to change topics. "But that's less relevant now than what the hell killed it."
Taking the opportunity to leave the uncomfortable topic behind, he inspected the Insectorox's corpse and immediately noticed an oddity. Most wounds on the other corpses were lacerations and stabs, which made sense considering that it was the Insectorox itself with its scythe-like hands that did the killing. Yet the wounds of the beast itself were different. The flesh and skin was more torn than slashed, even the parts that were visibly cut looked uneven, sloppy, as if done with a blunt or low quality toothed knife. Not to mention that some of the spikes on its back were ripped out.
"There's still a bigger beast around here. Look at the flesh. Completely different than those of the other bodies." He said, pointing at the damaged areas.
"I guess you're right..." Shepard still did not look too reassured by his blatant evasion of the topic, but relented nonetheless. "Any idea what it might be?"
"None... but I guess once we access the station logs, we'll know for sure." He truthfully answered. "Which means getting that reactor back onl-"
He was interrupted by a banging metallic sound somewhere above him, the same one he heard before, only this time it was louder. For a brief moment he questioned if the noise was real, since he received confused looks from Shepard and Tali before. But when they too flinched and looked at the ceiling, a faint feeling of relief washed over him.
"You heard that?" Commander almost whispered, as she tightened her grip on her weapon.
"Yeah." Tali answered equally quietly. "It came from somewhere above and towards..."
"-the reactor area." Virox finished, the adrenaline in his body having sharpened his senses by now. "Our prey either resides there, or it hopefully left some tracks for us to find."
After a short while they reached their objective - a large reinforced bulkhead that, according to what he could make out from the signs, would lead them into the main reactor chamber, allowing them to turn the power back on. And hopefully provide them some answers about what the hell happened in this place.
"Help me out here, Shepard." He called out while trying to force the seal on the bulkhead to give in, slightly surprising himself with how quickly he started to get used to calling her like that.
Shepard extended her palm and made a peculiar gesture with it, causing her body to glow purple along with the bulkhead itself. Virox immediately felt the resistance weaken. With that assistance, he once again opened the path ahead, just enough for the three of them to squeeze through the gap and into the next room - their original target.
At first glance the reactor room looked standard... well, however standard it could look in an almost total darkness. A central sphere where the energy creation took place, with several pipes and steel reinforcements leading into it, holding the machinery in place and moving fuel and energy in and out of the reactor chamber respectively. At the base of the massive sphere was a control console, separated from the reactor itself by a small, yet steep gap. All in all, nothing out of the ordinary.
That is of course if one ignored the blood on the platform leading up to the console, and the several floating purple corpses which were the source of that blood. Virox immediately recognized the silhouettes - more Grox drones, only this time these were simple grunts. They, like the Insectorox before, had the rough and uneven wounds, without any marks of either gun or laser fire, suggesting that they were killed by the very same thing.
"More of these purple creatures. Though they look different than the previous ones." Tali quietly remarked.
"Dronox. They're naturally smaller and easier to kill." Virox elaborated, but seeing the hints of confusion in both the quarian's and Shepard's body language, he quickly realized that something was lost in translation. "They're creatures made by the Grox, the civilization that attacked us. We called them 'Dronox'." He made sure to say the word slowly. "Comes from 'drone' and 'Grox' merged together."
It was this explanation that finally made their translation software recognize what he was trying to say, though the confusion did not vanish completely.
"You know a lot more than you let on, Virox." Shepard said, with a hint of suspicion barely audible in her voice. "When you passed the transmission from the commodore to me, you said you had no clearance for more info on this mission."
"Correct." He answered slowly.
"Then explain this to me. Why do you recognize these creatures? Why are you so on edge when you see them? That war with the 'Grox' ended almost two thousand years ago." Shepard did not relent. "I thought you were coming back to normal after Tuchanka. What changed?"
"That is not relevant, we have a job to do. I'll tell you what I can once we're done!" Virox said, raising his voice perhaps too much.
"It is relevant to me." Shepard said, and when he tried to turn away, she grabbed his arm and pulled. "Look at me! You're dodging the question again! Don't make us repeat the standoff in the main battery!"
"This is the last thing I want, Commander." He replied, subconsciously falling back to using her rank instead of her surname as she asked.
"Uh, Shepard? I don't think this is the right moment..." Tali interjected. Her mask prevented her expression from being seen, but she was still visibly nervous.
"I WANT to trust you, Virox! I really do!" Shepard ignored her, continuing instead her accusatory stare. "But I can't. Not when you act like this. So either come clean, or we'll part ways after this mission!"
Feeling the stinging of these words, mostly because he said something so similar to her in the past, his resistance collapsed as he screamed. "I SERVED IN THE GROX WAR!"
He poured his pain, anger, and pain he felt from the paradoxical feelings he had about his assignment. Somewhere along the way he learned to trust Shepard, and put his life in danger, believing that she would make the right choice. He had grown attached to the Normandy in a way he never did since The War. The feeling of being bound by these emotions was so infuriating. Like an invisible swamp they stopped his movements and made it hard to breathe.
And yet when he looked at both Shepard and Tali now, he couldn't bring himself to lash out. No Rage was building up. Nothing. Not because of some orders, but because those people were some of the first individuals in a long time he started to genuinely care about.
"I served in The Grox War. 50000 soldiers were frozen after the war ended, then awakened about a 150 years ago. I'm one of them." He repeated, this time slowly and as calmly as his rapidly beating hearts allowed him to. "I saw my planet ravaged by these creatures when they invaded, walked the cities they turned into ruins. I've been fighting since I was 2 years old!"
Shepard and Tali recoiled at his outburst, the latter instinctively pointing her weapon at him for a brief moment, but he did not blame her. Just a week ago her caution would probably have been vindicated.
"I'll tell you everything once we're done with the mission." He sighed, knowing full well that he couldn't keep his promise without killing his future career and more, but in the heat of the moment he did not care. "Let's turn on that reactor and be done with it."
It took them a moment to recover from the shock, but they loosened up eventually, though as they passed next to him and towards the console, he could see Tali putting just a bit more distance between them. Not that he could blame her. Shepard was right, he wasn't really giving off vibes of someone predictable and trustworthy.
Electing to not bother her more than he already was with his presence, he stepped away from her and Shepard, and after taking a deep breath to help himself calm down, he took a better look at the room. Having adjusted his helmet's display slightly, he wondered how did the reactor go dark in the first place, given that the the crew was already dead. If the Grox were here, why did they leave and did not simply throw the station into the black hole when they were done, leaving it for them to discover and board? Either they were simply negligent (an extremely unlikely behavior from the meticulous and perfectionist cyborgs he had grown to hate), or something had gone terribly wrong for them too.
As he was standing there and analyzing the possibilities, something peculiar caught his eye. On the upper part of the reactor core, above where Tali was now working, there was a strange bump in the metal structure of the sphere. Made up of a different color of metal, and more similar to the one used by the Grox, it looked like a blister, with wires and pipes shoddily connected to the main core. Only the blister was 'popped', as whatever used to be its filling was now gone, leaving an empty shell of darkness, some more wires and tubes, and little else besides.
Did they use that to siphon off the energy from the reactor and shut it down? Virox thought in disbelief. But why? Wouldn't an EMP do the job much better? What were they after? It doesn't make any sense.
Just as he was about to look away and once again focus on Tali's work, he saw a faint shimmer above the dark metal blister. At first he assumed that it was a reflection of the glowing parts of his armor, until said 'reflection' moved slightly. He zoomed in at the source of the light with his visor and found out that it was not a single glow, but three smaller lights arranged in a triangle.
And then they blinked, and a dark metal hand emerged from darkness, as the unknown assailant poised themselves to strike.
Virox's instincts kicked in. That thing was right above Tali, and if it could potentially gut an Insectorox, the lone quarian was as good as dead. Against his better judgement, he deactivated the magnetic lock in his legs and launched himself towards her while yelling "Watch out!"
Shepard reacted first, instinctively powering up her biotics to face him, but she was too slow, and he was not trying to hurt them anyway. She stopped herself just milliseconds before Virox swung at Tali with an open palm, and when his hand connected, she flew away to the side, levitating in the air thanks to the lack of gravity. All the while the unknown dark shape collapsed upon him.
*BANG*
*WHACK*
*WHACK*
He felt the powerful punches impact his shields even before he had a good look at who exactly did the swinging, but whoever it was, they were vicious. Smashing and slamming wildly with great strength. After yet another punch Virox's shields broke down with an alarming beep. Knowing that the next strike might be fatal, he made a gamble and swiped widely in the general direction of the unknown enemy. His arm let out a metallic *clank* as it collided with that of the attacker.
And Virox now stared directly into the eyes of... another carvin. Or something that looked vaguely similar.
"HIIIIIYYYYYYYEEEEEEE!" It let out a wild screech and grabbed hold of Virox's arm, trying to rip it out.
But before it did, the shields of the 'carvin' lit up from the metal slugs that have been fired from almost point blank range by Shepard, who stood right next to them. Virox used the window of opportunity to reach for his pistol and pressed the barrel directly to the feral carvin's body, so as to bypass its shields. The moment he pulled the trigger, it shrieked viciously and stumbled away, allowing him to roll from underneath it and stand on his own feet.
"What the hell is that!?" Shepard screamed, and Virox heard a faint bit of fear in her voice. It was a good question though, one that Virox had no answer for.
What stood before them was definitely a carvin in the past, but its body was so disfigured that it made him wonder what horrible event brought one of his kin into that state. The three lights that he had seen before came from one of the carvin's eyes, as the organic eyeball was replaced with a cybernetic one of unknown origin. One of its cybernetic hands was replaced by some sort of drill-like appendage, while the other remained relatively intact, but had several unnatural attachments to it, one of which looked like a bonesaw.
The worst part was the torso - a set of torn and damaged clothes lab clothes revealed extensive cybernetic augmentations, beyond what even the Imperial Special Forces would have considered dangerous and unsafe. Virox vaguely recognized this machinery. It bore similarities to those present on Grox drones of various types.
His blood boiled in anger. These cyborg bastards turned a scientist from this station into... this.
The feral husk roared once again and bounced itself off the reactor control console, straight at him, but this time Virox was ready for it. He fired a couple of shots with his pistol, and when his foe was close enough, he braced for impact and blocked the incoming strike.
"Go and help Tali!" He shouted at Shepard, who was taking pot shots at the husk from the side, carefully aiming so as to not risk friendly fire.
She did not object and floated away to rescue the quarian who was still suspended in the air. This allowed Virox to focus solely on his enemy.
"Die, you piece of shit!" He tried to bite off one of its jaws, but the feral was quicker, pulling back its head. Deciding to change his tactics, he therefore delivered a powerful punch into its gut, so as to put more distance between them. "Let's see how you like buckshot!"
Using the window of opportunity, he grabbed his Ravager, aimed at the center of mass, and fired. The weapon kicked back, spewing razor sharp pellets that shattered on the cyborg's shields. Then again, and again. With every shot he got closer to his enemy, who screamed and coiled from the impacts. But after the fourth pull of the trigger that finally shattered the feral's shields and splattered blood, scales and flesh into the air, Virox's luck ran out.
Capitalizing on the shorter distance, the savage, seemingly enraged by the wounds it sustained, lunged at him and swung its tail with such a strength and speed, that Virox had no time to magnetically lock himself to the floor. His already battered shields couldn't take it, and so he was launched into the air, with the cyborg following him suit.
They locked themselves in a brutal aerial melee, as neither of them could gain the upper hand. Virox tried to take a shot with his shotgun, but the savage knocked the weapon out of his hands and slammed him into the outer wall of the room. It was about to pierce his head with its drill hand, when another shot hit it in the arm.
"Grab a hold of something, Virox!" He heard Shepard shout from down the platform, and after a quick glance saw her and Tali at the control console, the latter frantically running her fingers across the buttons of the device.
Realizing what they were about to do, Virox slammed his palm onto the wall and activated the magnetic lock, while using his free arm to block the relentless attacks by the cyborg. He did so just in time, as the lights started to turn back on, revealing the rest of the room.
Undeterred, or perhaps encouraged by this turn of events, the cyborg unleashed yet another wild flurry of attacks. Virox tried to kick it off, but no matter what he did, his enemy always found a way to pull himself back towards him and continue his onslaught.
After a particularly heavy swing, Virox's arm got knocked away, leaving him defenseless. He stared down the soulless and furious eyes of his once kinsman, and braced himself for pain.
But then, as all the lights finally turned on and the reactor started to hum again, the savage got suddenly pulled away from him by the newly returned force of gravity and went crashing down onto the platform. With a loud clank, it fell onto its head with yet another pained screech. Before it could properly stand up, Shepard quickly ran up to it and pumped two shotgun blasts into its head at point blank range. The loud echo of the blasts bounced off the walls of the room for a good few seconds before dying down, but they were safe now.
"You okay, Virox?" Shepard asked, having inspected the corpse and making sure it was indeed a corpse.
"Hanging in there..." Virox replied, before realizing the unintentional word play. "Give me a moment, I'll be down in a second."
He connected his second hand to the wall and began his slow descent, realizing just how high the cyborg monstrosity launched them both. But even stranger still was yet another metal 'blister' right next to him, only this one was closed. The entire reactor room, he just realized with mixed feelings, was filled with these strange attachments, which were visibly drawing on the power from the core itself. There was well over a dozen of them, all closed with the exception of that singular one above the console.
"What are those? They look like cysts." Commander asked, having also noticed them.
"No idea. Though the tech somewhat resembles that of the Grox." Virox truthfully answered, as his feet returned to stable ground. There was no point in hiding anything right now. His ass was already in deep.
"Shepard! I think... yes, someone left a message in the system!" Tali suddenly called out.
This was the best news since they set foot on this damn station. Perhaps this would explain what the hell happened here and why the Grox targeted this facility. Both Virox and Shepard promptly joined the quarian at the console, awaiting the message with anticipation.
"It's an audio file, at least from what I can tell. It was copied and sent to all parts of the station's systems, but all the files are partially damaged. Someone must have tried to delete them, although unsuccessfully." Tali said, before pressing something on her omni-tool. "Here it is."
At first there was some static and white noise, but shortly afterwards Virox could make out words spoken in traditional xaltari.
"-if any imperial personnel discover this message, you mus-*static*-troy or purge this facility! The Hi-*static*-Council must know! The Grox have returned, and they are-"
The voice was then interrupted by guttural bellow of what Virox instantly recognized as an Insectorox followed by the sounds of slashing, stabbing and screaming. Shortly afterwards the recording ended. This left the three of them with no answers and even more questions. Why was the station offline? What did the Grox do to its crew, and more importantly why?
"That was... disappointing." Virox said to nobody in particular after the recording ended. "We're not much better off than when we started."
Shepard stared at the console, visibly in deep thought, but what she was thinking about, Virox could not tell. He already had most of his preconceptions about humans gradually shattered by the Commander herself or the people she encountered and surrounded herself with. Maybe she was still angry at him?
Whatever she was thinking, she clearly set those thoughts aside for later, as she rallied them around. "Looks like we won't find anything more around here. Let's stick to the plan and head towards the command center for the station logs."
"Sounds good." Tali approved.
"No issue here." Virox joined in. "With the power back on, we may even be able to use the elevators to-"
He was interrupted by a loud hissing coming from the reactor, followed by the sound of metal rubbing against metal. All three of them immediately drew their weapons and began looking for what created the noise, only to realize that there was no singular source, but multiple. The sounds seemed to be coming from all over the room.
And then Virox noticed that one of the metal 'blisters' began to move. He quickly aimed his weapon at it, prompting his teammates to do the same. They carefully observed the movement, until a cybernetic hand punched a hole in the metal, and the rest of the body began to slowly force its way out of the shell. The metal whined under the pressure, and when it finally broke, what came into sight was a vaguely carvin silhouette, bearing striking resemblance to the mad savage they killed just minutes before.
It was at this moment that Virox realized the horrifying truth.
Those blisters were more than draining energy from the reactor.
They were chrysalids.