"Gravely. The main controls of the defence shields are here, Captain," Savirx said.
The massive, circular room loomed before me, a promise of the things to come; problems and stress. Computers and holograms hovered in neat half-circles around the room, aiming towards a main set of floor to ceiling high screens at the back of the room. Turians, asari and even a few volus studied the systems with snaps and whines as anger, stress and despair sunk in at different rates around the people. Despite my inability to read many alien expressions, from the tone and body postures alone, the situation was worse than expected. No one had gotten a proper sleep in a while. The tense air hung heavy around me, humidity aside. My lungs worked overtime to control the tension suffocating me. My weight shifted, shoulder brushing Val's chest. The turian stood steady, a solid rock when my foundation faltered.
"Who is in charge, Elder Savirx?" I asked. The massive elcor half turned, eyes skimming past me.
"An asari named Commander Tarria Els'Kera. Worriedly. She has been working the past three weeks to repair the defence systems with little success or rest. The work is taking its toll," Savirx said. My gaze shifted to Mat'al, the salarian's gaze chilling as he understood my meaning. We all knew the feeling well, some more so than others.
"I understand what she is going through, Elder, I know it well. Let's have a word with her and see if we can't ease her burden a little. Maybe we can find something they've missed," I said.
The massive elcor trudged down, his footfalls lighter in the gravity-controlled centre. Yet his steps never ceased their tentative steps, afraid of tipping. The ramp down from the door released us into the carnage of the main floor as people swam from all directions. Savrix's large frame made him an easy marker, people weaved around him. Staying close to him granted me that protection too. My mind wandered to the turian team, wondering what Imperious and his team rushed off to do. Alas, my concerns lay here. As the 'overseers' of the project, we had to deal with the bureaucracy, whether or not we liked it. An asari barked orders from her place behind a console, dark in complexion with snow white markings along her cartilage and around her eyes. She spared us a look as turians sprinted off with their commands. Her eyes fell on me, standing beside the elcor's massive arm. A frown creaked across her drawn face.
"I need no extra hands, Elder Savirx," she said, strain marring her skin and bagging her eyes. Stubbornness and understanding stopped my tongue from speaking my mind. After what had happened in the past, between the indoctrinated STG and Council chasing after us, it left me with little room to wiggle in.
"Gently. I apologise for disturbing you, Tarria, but Captain Shaik is not a simple addition to your work," Savirx answered. Tarria's frowned deepened, highlighting the grooves on her forehead. Her eyes skimmed me up and down.
"I am Captain Endellion Shaik, leader of the RRTF, a Council funded group directed to help prevent sabotage across the galaxy. The elcor are a Citadel species, so the Council has sent me and my team to oversee the operation," I said. The asari rolled her shoulders back.
"Captain?" she echoed, sceptical of the title. My brows dropped, my sympathy fluttering. "And leader of a Council task force? She's but a babe! Even by human terms!" she exclaimed, turning to Savirx. "This can't be right, she must be playing you, Elder!"
"Sternly. Now Tarria, the Council have reassurance me-" Savirx began, a slight change to his monotone voice. My jaw popped, raising my hand to stop the elcor from defending me. His massive head turned, but his expression remained as blank as before.
"Your pardon, Elder Savirx. I have the situation under control," I said, a hand signal forming behind my back.
Sherin sprang into action, striding forward. He passed me in a deliberate act to lead me across the room to the consoles; a communications bank of computers. The three asari at the console glanced to each other, unsure of their commands. At my advance, they shuffled out of the way. A million lights dazzled me in a second, the overwhelming system sinking my heart. This was why Sherin was with me, to operate this damn thing and its trillion lights. His hands danced over the console, connecting the system to the intergalactic communication network. From there, he then secured a direct link to the Citadel. He stepped back from the console, the hidden command to let me plug the number in – a number well versed, no less – area code notwithstanding. The call went through, my hands tapping on each other behind my back while waiting for a response. My feet trailed a slow pace before the dialling screen. My heart settled once it secured and a face appeared on the screen.
The large screen lit up, a peaceful landscape before the team of drained and exhausted engineers. The bright office overlooked the Presidium, gleaming in all her glory. A desk sat in the centre of the image, an asari lifting her eyes as the screen connected. Tevos lifted her head, easing the datapad down onto the table before intertwining her fingers. Her expression remained calm, serenity before chaos. My eyes stayed straight, despite the desire the wander. How many of those behind me guessed this was a set up and not something my team worked with on a regular basis? Tevos leaved back into her chair.
"Captain Shaik, good evening," Tevos said. "We received your message. You arrived on Dekuuna with no incidents I trust. How fares the situation?" A heavy silence burdened the air, pressing my shoulders to the ground. My jaw set, forcing them to rise to a more relaxed position. Eyes burned into my back, the audience sent a shiver through my trembling knees.
"The situation is… not ideal, Councillor. The technicians here are doing what they can but they are struggling to understand how best to fix the situation, let alone who caused it. From what I can understand, none of the preventative work has succeeded and the issues develop faster than the team can respond. Now, whether someone's is breaking the system on purpose or because the code is failing on several fronts, we have not identified yet. I fear the situation may be more complicated than suspected and may require longer than we hoped," I replied. Tevos's shoulders dropped, her brows curling up at the news before her expression settled once more.
"I see. I had hoped that the situation would be close to resolution," she said. Her shoulders picked up once more. "If you require any additional aid, call and we shall do what we can. I trust you will do your utmost to ensure the situation stabilises and we can begin investigations into the suspected perpetrator,"
"Of course, Councillor. I'll inform you of any changes," I said, hand snapping to my forehead. The asari vanished from the screen, freeing me to turn to Tarria. My eyebrow rose. She straightened, jaw set. "Now, what is the situation?" I asked. Tarria glanced to Savirx, assessing the elcor before sighing.
"The entire defence network, both terrestrial and orbital, are malfunctioning to the point they misfire, target each other or even to assault any ship carrying friendly transponders. Some even detonate. We've had to shut down the entire network, which is why we have a large segment of the asari and turian fleet in orbit to compensate. We have failures in every sector, from turrets and ships to shields and scanners. Everything is on the brink of collapse," Tarria explained.
This seemed far too obvious to be a Saboteur. My brows knotted together, considering every option. The Reapers weren't here yet, why would they want the defence systems shut down now? Unless the Reapers were closer than anticipated or another Saboteur in the midst of pushing a plan into action and needed a distraction? Both options sent my heart skittering, although the Reaper approach sent a more crushing sensation through my chest than anything else. With my arms folded across my chest, my eyes scanned the aliens hard at work. The damage to the system was extensive, no amount of work seemed to reverse it. My gaze returned to Tarria.
"You have your hands full, Commander, I do not envy you. My teams will assist in any way possible. Delern, get your team to work," I ordered. Mat'al saluted, before leading all but Val away to a bank of computer desks neat the door, speaking with the turian and asari already there. Tarria shuffled, breathing. After all the work she had done to this system, to allow a 'contractor' to sweep in and mess everything up struck a nerve. Val drifted to my side, eyes scanning the room.
"Thank you, Captain, I'll… I'll try to get your team up to date," she grumbled. A small smile lifted my lips, hoping it didn't look contraindicating.
"I appreciate it, Commander. If you require any further help, I can pester the Council if need be," I said. She managed a strained smile. My gaze returned to Savirx. "Elder Savirx, we'll take it from here. We will do our utmost to get your shields back up and running,"
"Gratefully. Thank you, Captain Shaik. I will do what I can to aid you in any way possible," he said. The elcor turned, the massive frame lumbering up the ramp to leave us in the carnage. My shoulders trembled under the weight of the pressure mounting on them. The fluttering in my stomach flicked my eyes towards Val. Time to give the commander space. With a bow of my head, we escaped the scowling commander's gaze. My massive exhale released a chuckle from Val, enjoying my discomfort. His smile widened when he noticed my glare. But with everything mounting, my strength waned.
"Tell me, Val. How fucked are we?" I asked. Val clicked his mandibles as he scanned the room, grin gone.
"Well, we're not looking good if that's what you mean. I did defence systems during my time in the turian army but this… We have failures straight across the board. Nothing is communicating with each other, someone overhauled all the protocols against us and programmed whole artillery units to work out of normal parameters and target themselves. On top of this, they altered all the shields to use less energy and thus weaken them. If I was in charge of the damn project, I would strip the whole thing out and start again but we don't have the time for that," Val sighed.
"So we'll be here for a while then?" I groaned. Val smirked.
"Oh yes. Get used to the gravity, sunshine," he said, patting my head. My glower failed to phase the man.
"Do that again and I'll order you drop and give me 20 in the 4G gravity," I threatened. Val balked, coughing as he noticed the severe tone. His hands secured behind his back, away from my head.
The whole mission hinged on the Saboteur showing his face, but whether or not that happened depended on me not screwing up. That meant looking busy and acting as nonchalant as possible. Letting me hang around would piss people off in no time. What no one told me, however, was after over 3 Dekuuna days nothing would show up! The days ticked by with little in the way of improvement. That changed when I put the foot down. The true nature of the sabotage reared its ugly head after two Earth days – or most of a Dekuuna day. We made progress with the systems, repairing the faults and forcing the defence systems to speak to each other. However, the following 'morning', everything we did had reverted to a bugged mess or worse. We needed around the clock care of these systems, all 68 hours of Dekuuna days. In the 'days' since, after an initial complaint from Tarria about rearranging crews onto shifts – improvements happened. And they stayed fixed. The shields drew the correct voltages, the guns no longer wanted to shoot each other and the overall system health improved. This no doubt pissed the Saboteur off. In the hours and days after, 23 fire alarms burst through the building. At first, we evacuated as normal. When we returned to continue our work after no one found any sign of a fire anywhere on the compound to see everything was worse again. After the 6th or 7th Earth day, we dismissed the fire alarms and work continued as normal. When it went off, guards scouted the building to ensure the building wasn't on fire. They discovered a few but nothing a fire extinguisher couldn't handle. When the fire alarms failed to tear us from the room, air contamination alarms warned us of greater problems. But all these alarms only worsened the suspicion. Everyone wore respirators and carried gas tanks. The latest failures included gravity failures. Nothing working in grav-suits couldn't fix, even if it made work more cumbersome. Also sorted the whole air pollution thing as well since they also needed respirators.
Someone wanted to sabotage the system and would do anything to make it happen. Paranoia rose among those working on repairing the systems. After so long and failing to fix anything, protecting their work meant everything to them. Their backup systems also dealt with other minor problems the Saboteur threw in our path. Electrical failures shut down computers in an instant. Hours later, everything ran on generators within the room. Communications switched to short-wave radios and relays after communication systems collapsed across the compound. Every problem that reared its head, we found a work around. And because things cleared under my orders, peculiar as they were, my general reception by the repair team improved. From contractor to welcomed colleague, people no longer scowled the instant they saw me or my team. Upon crossing the threshold to begin my shift, salutes flew. Within a single Earth day, my involvement found the problem in the system and it wasn't the system itself. Tarria seemed less tired, her complexion improving with proper sleep, understanding why it had taken 4 Earth weeks before they found the real problem with the system.
It helped boost morale. No one doubted their skills as programmers or trouble-shooters. They knew their failure wasn't because of them. Someone wanted the system to fail and did everything possible to do it. The prideful asari and the stubborn turians were having none of it. They fought to keep their systems safe, improving security around the main servers and control room to make sure no one could pull anything. On the 8th day (Earth time, Day 3 Dekuuna time), the systems were 97% back to normal. My feet scuffed down the halls, the metal boots clanging. All the while, the need to rub my eyes itched but the helmet stopped, the 12 hour shift rotations weren't the problem. On the Starquake, my timetable started at 7am and stopped at 10pm. What bothered my body was the 3 shifts per day. Dekuuna's long days threw every non-elcor's bodies out of sync. My body clock couldn't keep up. In the small hours of the morning, the compound hummed, but few people were up this early before a shift change. Anxiety stopped me from sleeping, that and my screwed up body clock. Most of my crew still fought the lure of their beds, the shift change not for another half-hour at least. Chapped lips wished for the comforting mug of coffee, longed for it. The grav-suit put a swift end to that idea.
The door into the control room parted. My blood froze, feet stalling mid-step. Below my foot, a turian lay flat down on the floor. The foot quivered, easing back down to the ground as blue blood stained the dark metal floor. My throat tightened, lungs stalling as the smell of copper clung to the air. The floor, walls and consoles glinted blue and purple as blood dripped to the floor. Limbs, organs and other body parts littered the room like morbid confetti. One thing stood in the room, one object with a pulse. An elcor dominated the main screen at the base of the room, back to me. Black cables lined with cyan lights slipped from under the skin. They snaked into the console before them. A panel beside me glowed at the edge of my peripheral vision. My feet sidled towards to.
"Advocacy Nyryntha, you are proving to be weaker than the acceptable threshold," the elcor said. Pain spiked in my chest, heart crashed against my ribs as my hand flew out and smashed into the alarm. The alarm blared for 2 high pitches before it died with a quietening wail, lights flickering with it. With the air in my lungs souring, my eyes drifted back to the elcor. The computer screens flashed and flickered as power failed. My hand snapped down to the Paladin clipped to the hip, the gun snapping into place. The tension holding my muscles eased, stepping sideways to get off the ramp.
"Introductions would be nice, Commando," I said. The elcor half turned, the dark brown monster's grey highlights over her back masked by the light from the holograms. The dark crimson shawl poked out from between the black, Reaper plates on her limbs and back.
"You know who I-" she began, a robotic undertone quivering my arm.
"I am not doing that shit again!" I snapped. "Name or I blast your brains out and engrave 'Useless Piece of Shit' on your spine!" The Saboteur blinked once, following my movement back to the doors. The flaps around her mouth lifted.
Warning lights flashed across the room, the gravity loss alarm, before they fizzled as power died. My suit hissed and the lights on my Paladin faded. The suit crashed onto my shoulders, slamming into my unprepared knees. Within seconds, my lungs struggled for air, face to the floor as my body collapsed under weight and gravity. My lungs wheezed, breathing shallow gasps as if asphyxiating. Every breath dragged shadows closer, unconsciousness that bit closer. My suit didn't respond, a limp lump of metal. The Saboteur withdrew the cables from the computer. Her thundering feet muffled by the pounding blood in my ears.
"I am Thapeli, Reaper to the Shell Tamrud In'ste and you, Advocacy, continue to foil the continuation of the cycle. We cannot allow this to occur," Thapeli said, her voice growing with robotic squeals as the facade fell. My attempt to speak ended in a squeal. "You will submit or you will perish. Choose,"
The 4G gravity pinned me to the ground, the massive suit locking every muscle in place. Moving was a lost cause. Breathing, the single most important action for life, fell shallower with every second. Blood pooled in my stomach and chest, away from my brain and back. My heart couldn't pump the blood hard enough to get oxygen around the body. Pins and needles tingled everywhere. Thinking hurt. Colour faded from my vision, a monotone grey seeping in and masking all. Nyryntha rumbled, her thoughts seizing my muffled mind, her snares tightening. My eyes squeezed shut, fighting off her attempted takeover. Even fogged, Nyryntha roared as my struggled persisted. Thapeli towered above my head, a statue of the waiting pain that would end the crashing agony.
"I see. You have made your decision. A pity, you had such potential," Thapeli said. Black spots clouded my vision.
A fizz deafened me, jerking me awake. The weight on my back lifted, my lungs pulling in a fresh, full breath. A coughing fit overtook me, everything aching until it consumed me. Colour returned to my greyed vision, sight clearing enough to see what saved me. A biotic aura dissipated over a metal bar ripped from the ceiling, lodged in the opposite wall. The massive dent and the growling Thapeli explained everything else. Blood struggled to my brain, fighting to gain control to do… to do… something! Arms grabbed me, hauled me up on shaken knees. Blood ran from my head, the whole room spinning like a Van Gogh painting. My eyes swirled in the back of my head.
"Are you alright, Captain?" A steel coloured turian asked. A dark purple toned asari with an aura stood between Thapeli and me, ready to blast the elcor with her biotics again. Biotics… Why was… my brain wanted to join something. Suit failed, gravity crushing, Saboteur… Tech Incapacitation… implants… oh dear God!
"RUN!" I screeched as much as my lungs could muster. The asari and turian jumped, gawking. "Run you stupid bastards, she'll kill you!" My lungs ached from the strain. Thapeli forced herself to her feet, plates and cables extending out to push against the gravity. She stared at the asari before me.
"What the fuck is tha-" the asari began.
She gagged, her muscles freezing, her aura dancing along her skin like a maddened ghost and a scream staggering free. My muscles locked, paralysed by the sight, unable to find the strength to fight to the horror pinning me in place. Her muscles twitched, arms bending in ways that broke bones, her screams pitched louder than any creature should be able to. The biotic aura exploded, limbs flying in all directions, organs liquefied from the churning power. My stomach twisted. Thapeli turned back, focusing on me. The turian at my shoulder jerking me out the door, dragging me down the halls in a blind panic. My legs stumbled beneath me, although my lungs couldn't stop crying.
"What do we do… what do we do!?" the silver turian wept. His longer legs carried him over the ground at pace as we swung around a corner. My own couldn't keep up. The power fluttered once more, sending the turian skittering away. My teeth grit, slamming my shoulder into the taller alien to pin him against the wall. He froze under my narrowed glare while my body gasped for air.
"Listen. Listen well. Find my crew. Tell them I've found a Saboteur, Tech Incap. If you see anyone else, tell them Tamrud In'ste is behind the sabotage. Tell them she can shut down all electronics; guns, suits, implants, everything. She is very, very dangerous. Do I make myself clear?" I pressed. He managed a skittish nod. "Go man, go! Run because your life depends on it!" I snapped, pushing the turian down the hall. He stumbled a few steps before setting a more reasonable walk, thanks to the grav-suit, down the hall. My throat tightened, drying, begging him to escape. To make sure he made it, my path took me down another hall. My footsteps echoed in my ears. The scream never came when my body slammed to the ground, power gone. My lungs squashed to the size of a pea. Heavy footfalls thumped behind me, a forewarning to the beast. My head couldn't turn, couldn't stare at the impending monster hovering over me. My suit was too bulky.
"Advocacy, you were a fool to come here. Palalrian has lost 47 men, elcor and otherwise. Such a fool and yet to live so long," Thapeli growled behind me. A squeak escaped, all my throat could release. "Xanthe failed. Zufiaurre failed. It is unknown how you have bested them. But the end is nigh,"
A loud crash and gunfire roared above my head. My suit re-pressurised again, my lungs fighting for survival as they dragged less air in than they could before. The suit squealed as the systems fought against the gravity holding me on the ground. My hands dragged my aching body up a wall as my breath fled in gasps. As the joints heaved me up, my blurred vision spotted a dozen turian and asari at the other end of the hall, gawking at their useless guns refusing to fire. Thapeli snorted before ignoring them. Her attention fixed back on me, stumbling half on my feet. Then some hotshot asari ran forward, grabbing loose piece of metal plate and ripping it from the wall. My body couldn't muster the scream when her back smashed across the wall. The other 11? They tried numbers. As the coward I was, as fruitless as the fight was, survival kicked in and my flight continued down the hall. Get outside, get away from Thapeli and find something to kill this damn monster. Before she killed us all.
The Saboteur Sheet has been updated for this chapter. Please see profile for link to Archive