The buzz tingled my skin like a bad itch, but it wasn't uncomfortable. Ok, maybe a little. My eye twitched, holding my arm rigid while my eyes focused ahead. Seated in front of me, Cops glowered at any doctor, nurse or scientist who came within reach of me. Under normal circumstances, it would've annoyed me. This wasn't normal. This was the final check, the final hurdle before we could put the plan into action. Everything depended on this… Sassy disappeared this morning, finalising the plan with the tacticians. Cops led me out of the Starquake long before he returned, so who knows when he finished. Once done, they would give their orders to Uncle Julian and get him in place. But everything hinged on whether the RPAT team succeeded with their mission with me. Dr Suquine assessed the readings, scaled face tight with concentration. Kala sat by my feet, the tail twitching with each muscle twitch from me. A painful jolt shuddered through, but my teeth grit hard until it passed. A heaved breath escaped when the release came. Suquine straightened, studying both Cops and me as the buzzing eased. A smile broke out.
"Let's see if the Reapers can keep track of you now," he chuckled, releasing me from the machines. My arm cried in joy. "We've neutralised the threat of them spying on us and we've got a procedure to remove those nanobots after the mission. We've reprogrammed the nanobots with the IFF we took from the Normandy AI, so you'll be hidden from Reaper signals until you get caught. Every passing scan will see you as a husk while inside the Reaper. However, this doesn't mean husks or visual checks won't see you as a threat," he said.
"So he's good to go?" Cops asked. Suquine nodded. Cops drew in a long breath, pushing himself to his feet. "Alright. Mission is go. Shaik, let's move," Kala bound to her feet, waiting for me to slip off the chair and follow. Cops resorted to calling me 'Shaik' to stop himself worrying about me so much. A 'distancing' technique, Kala said. The door parted. The tense air inside the tiny room hummed in the hall like a poked bear. Anticipation ran high. Rear Admiral Releeva M'Kackla pushed herself off a wall, arms folded and eyes tight. "We're go. Rally everyone," Releeva grinned.
"Understood, Captain," she said, raising a finger to her hear. "Attention all crew, attention all crew. Renaissance is go, I repeat, Renaissance is go," The ship vibrated, a rumble filled the ship as the crew rushed to their stations. The air turned electric. "Get into position and get your pilot ready,"
"He's standing by and the ships are ready to go," Cops said. His eyes glanced towards me marching by his side. Kala fretted beside me, high stepping as her emoticon flickered between concern, worry and outright panic. "Run through the plan one more time,"
"When Nyryntha enters the system, wait and see if she lands planetside. If she doesn't, we penetrate in space and pray nothing bad happens to my suit. Lani will fly me and eject me inside her and then track down the memory drive," I said. My eyes narrowed. "It should be near the core but we can't be sure. We have basic maps on the interior of Nyryntha including a path to the core but nothing concrete. I need to stick to the shadows, using jump jets and grappling systems. Nyryntha will know I'm there if the husks catch me and once I pull the memory drive out. If she has cameras then I need to avoid them. I then need to survive until I can escape,"
"And remember, you'll be on your own. Just be careful. If it gets too hot, we'll go to plan B," Cops said. "I'll be too busy with the Starquake to help you beyond keeping Nyryntha's attention. Shepard is here, although he's keeping the Normandy out of the system until we need help. He said he'll cover the flank if Nyryntha looks ready to flee,"
"I'll be careful. Mum depends on this…" I mumbled, stepping into the packed elevator. Cops grunted as he pressed against the crowd to stop them crushing me against the wall. The crush didn't end until we hit the frigate deck.
All frigates were in dock, stocking up and preparing for deployment. Cranes and movers hauled weapons and stocks across the huge deck, the sparse space now packed with people. The cruisers flanked the Constellation, out in force and ready. As far as I knew, Uncle Julian would leave first with a small ground team but only after the deck calmed down, to keep the farce that this wasn't a huge operation. Cops led me back to the Starquake to get ready, away from the bustle of the frigate deck. The crew hummed with anticipation; all flight crew sat on deck, including standbys just in case. Lani was down in the cargo deck, preparing a small fighter borrowed from the Constellation. That was my ride but we still had to lure Nyryntha to us to begin with. That was when Uncle Julian kicked in, whether or not he knew it. Back on the Starquake, the crew bustled, a new energy that brought a smirk to Cops' face. He ushered me down the hall towards the elevator while he took his place on the bridge. My shoulders rattled in the empty elevator, unease twisting my stomach.
This was the first mission where my actions would determine the outcome, there was no one else to help me or blame if something went wrong. If I failed, the mission failed and we might not get another chance. Cops said they had plan B, but he said nothing about what it was. A month after re-joining everyone, the RPAT team found a way to use the Reaper nanobots to mask me from Reaper scanners. The only thing that would give me away would be husks or cameras. Assuming Reapers used cameras… no, don't think about that now! My head shook, the elevator doors parting. The noise hit me like a wave, threatening to blast me into the back wall. People grabbed weapons and armour, saddling up for a helluva ride. Shuttles were prepped and ready to launch, the small fighter crushed against the cargo door and the shuttles. Ducking inside the filled armoury, Diri and Sassy waited. Diri waved while her biotics snapped her boot into place. Sassy fiddled with something on my armour before noticing me approach. His lips pressed into a thin line.
Sassy learned weeks ago that the RPAT team and tacticians wanted to use these nanobots to mask me from Reaper sensors, letting me sneak inside the Reaper while the full team distracted her. Since then, he and Marruns took me out on training missions, putting me through my paces and training me in using stealth and hiding. Sassy gave me Tactical Cloak and drilled into me the proper use of it. Then there was the running away training. They gave me a huge block to cling to my chest while doing it, later revealing to be a stand-in for the memory drive, and threw everything at me. The had swarms of people chasing me, bullets flying in every direction and they even had biotics rattle the ground around me to shake up my sense of balance. They gave me everything to help me out; jump-jets, grappling systems, upgrades to Kala's combat systems, lightweight guns to compliment the Daemon and more anti-Reaper ammo, just in case. My purple uniform top pulled over my head, a hand already reaching for the under-armour. Sassy tested something on the back-plate while Diri helped pull the under armour on, slipping the head cover over my blond hair. The armour clicked in place.
"Attention all crew. Shaik is on the go, I repeat, Shaik is on the go. Pigmy Maw, get ready for deployment," Cops' voice rang through the intercom.
"I am not a pigmy. I'm taller than mum," I rumbled. Sassy chuckled as he snapped the chest plate on. "That better not be my codename,"
"He's just trying to calm you down," Diri giggled. "You'll be on another frequency, so it'll be Shaik for you too,"
"Until we all join in later," Sassy said, snapping a belt around my waist, tightening it until my gut complained. "Then Julian will be Admiral, you'll stay as Shaik," He secured something onto my back. "Don't drain all of this at once. It's for emergency use when the normal cloaking fails and you need a longer mask,"
"Why do tactical cloaks need so much power?" I sighed, shuffling the weight until it centred on my back. The Daemon ruined it, requiring another shuffle.
"How easy do you think it is to make something invisible?" Sassy scolded. "Of course it requires energy. You'll get 10 seconds, 40 with the booster but it will have a 5 minute cooldown if you drain it. Otherwise it'll be between 1-2 minutes," He snapped a second bar next to my shields indicator. A red and white line burst to life. "Red is the recharge, when it's full you'll have the full 40 seconds. White is how much power you've used,"
"Got it," I said. My new helmet slipped over my head. "Kala, sync,"
"Syncing," her voice rang from the earpiece. "Sync complete. Testing systems,"
The visor before me swam with a dazzling array of lights and icons as Kala tested the systems. Her normal visor wouldn't cut it, not with a helmet in the way. The R&D department came up with this instead. Kala had been debugging it for a week now, desperate to make sure that the coders hadn't made a mistake somewhere. While Kala would prefer to come with me with the mech, we had to keep the tech down. EDI's modified version of the Reaper IFF helped recode the nanobots, but it also protected her transmissions from any Reaper scanners. On the ground, well, the team had been working on something, they kept Uncle Julian and I out of the loop. They couldn't risk the Reapers finding out. 90% of the whole mission was a secret from me, which pissed me off, but there was nothing I could do. Mum depended on me acting like an adult. Sassy finalised the suit checks, clucking his tongue as he thought of anything he missed. He sighed as he pushed himself to his feet.
"That's everything. Just be careful, Gid. We can't lose you too," he said.
"I'll be careful," I said. "Worry about keeping Nyryntha off me," Sassy grinned, shoving me away towards the door. The area outside the armoury was nowhere near as bad, but still, people shoved their way through. The cramped cargo hold sent chills up my arms, pressing through the crowd to reach the fighter. Lani sat in the cockpit, warming up the systems. He glanced down as my feet clanged on the ladder.
"You got the green?" Lani asked. My head bobbed while sitting in the rear seat. "Nervous?"
"A little," I said.
"You'll be fine. You said you wanted to go out on the missions," he said.
"I didn't think the missions would be this important," I said, folding my hands together.
"All missions are important. It's just this one has sentimental value," Lani said.
"Prepare for departure. Shaik is planetside," Cops' voice rang. Lani sighed as the Starquake's engines rumbled.
"You'll be back in the pilot's seat soon," I said. Lani sulked.
"Not until you're safe, I'm not," he grumbled. "Una better not screw up my chair,"
"It's Una, she knows how you like it… maybe not as much as Diri but-" I said with a growing smirk. Lani wheeled around, face glowing blue.
"How the hell did you hear about that?!" he barked.
"So that wasn't you sneaking into Diri's room last night then? Or making all those noises…" I said, drawling. Lani flushed, fumbling for words. "Lani and Diri sitting in a tree-"
"The shut the fuck up, you blond twat," Lani grunted between his teeth, in time to the song. Laughter bubbled out. "Here, listen to the groundside radio instead," he muttered as he passed Kala the second frequency codes. My chest tightened, waiting for sound to travel through.
"Over there?" a female asked, salarian from the sounds of things.
"Somewhere, yes," a female krogan responded. "Watch for maws,"
"You know a thing or two about maws, don't you Jorgal?" Uncle Julian said, tone tight. A rumbling growl surfaced from the krogan. "What's in this ruin that can bring my sister back?" he sounded stressed, anxious maybe.
"With respect, Admiral, we can't tell you the details. We found something in there though, Reaper tech maybe. We still have the Captain's body, I think the RPAT team are planning something," a male batarian said. Julian grunted, gritting his teeth.
So Uncle Julian believed he was getting something on Tuchanka to bring mum back. My teeth nibbled on my lip, waiting. All we could do now was wait and pray. We needed Nyryntha concerned enough with what we were doing to come. And with Uncle Julian teetering on the edge, it was a chance no Reaper would miss. He knew mum died, knew this was the last hope. Stopping mum coming back and felling Uncle Julian in the same swing? How could a Reaper say no? My hands squeezed each other. The minutes ticked by. 5 minutes, half an hour, an hour. All the while the crew stood ready and anxious.
"This?" Uncle Julian asked. My heart fluttered. Was this the clutch moment?
"Exactly this. Took us a while to find it, but with the salarians free from Saboteur influence – STG aside – they found a ruined Reaper and dropped it here for us. We'll be able to reverse engineer this. We still have the Captain's body and the Collector Base data. Between these, we can mine the Captain's brain for memories. Nyryntha may have destroyed the neural network, but the memory areas are still intact from what we can see. Nyryntha needed it, she wouldn't destroy it and the Starquake crew rescued her before Nyryntha could finish the job," the salarian said. Dammit, what was it they found there? "Nyryntha just got a whole lot less important,"
"Then let's get out here before trouble turns up. I am not putting my sister in any more danger," Julian grunted. My whole body trembled, waiting. It was no or never. Either Nyryntha believed this was too dangerous to ignore or would call our bluff. My hands squeezed together until the pain blinded me. 10 minutes passed in silence. It grew to half an hour. It kept creeping onwards. My heart faltered.
"Reaper inbound!" Una's voice cried. My ribs ached from my heart thundering against them.
"Alright people, warm up the cannons. Lanster, get the fighter ready for launch. Renaissance is go!" Cops rallied.
She came… she didn't trust us not to succeed. The 5-point belt slipped around me, clicking with a definite snap. My hands grabbed the shoulder straps, clinging on as nerves rattled me. This was it. The Starquake hummed, ready to leap into FTL to enter the Aralakh System. We had to wait to see if Nyryntha would go planetside before revealing ourselves. Otherwise we would need to call in Shepard to stop Nyryntha running from us and destroying everything. The seconds ticked by, a slow, agonising wait as I waited for word from Uncle Julian's team or the secret groundside team.
"Incoming! She's bombing from space!" a cry called. My eyes squeezed shut. Now what?
"Move into Space Combat, we're jumping in! Get Shepard on standby!" Cops ordered. The whole ship quivered before it leapt forward, kicking my in the stomach. Seconds later, the harness held me as the force threw me forward. "Weapons loose!"
The Starquake trembled as main cannon fired. The radio filled with the sound of chatter, Lani switching to the space frequency. With no external view, it was impossible to see what was going on. Soon the Starquake as barrelling to the side. I could imagine fighters, frigates, cruisers and the Constellation launching into battle, swarming the Reaper as it tried to bomb Uncle Julian from the safety of space. Several minutes passed, the ship quivering with each blast from the main gun, my stomach twisting with no visual reference for the rolls or turns. The cargo door fan plate droned as it retracted. Lani prepared the fighter, easing it off the ground. The cargo door opened, the fan splitting to grant us exit. My eyes bulged.
Everything before me was ablaze with brilliant shells. In the distance, Nyryntha curled around, the burning lights of her lasers punching through the darkness. Most shells were herding shells, trying to push her towards the planet or distract her from trying to flee the system. She must know this was a trap now. Could we hold her here? Was Shepard enough to stop her from running? Lani pushed the fighter out and into the carnage. The Starquake tore off to re-join the fight. The fighter kicked forward, pushing around the fighting to creep closer to the Reaper before us. Nyryntha's armour was tough, we didn't have to worry too much about destroying her. Punching the hole to release me into, however, would be problematic. And then we couldn't release me inside the Reaper until we could guarantee she wouldn't flee with me inside. If that happened… well, it wouldn't be pretty for me. Although we didn't want Nyryntha destroyed, we still had to hit her hard enough to keep her here, but she curled around and forced her way through the fleet. My heart stuck in my throat.
Even I heard the Reaper's cry, despite the vacuum, when a huge fleet leapt into the system. Lani heaved a sigh, speeding the fighter towards the Reaper. Looking over the chair before me, the screen highlighted the new ships. Asari, turian, human, salarian, even a batarian ship flagged on the call signs. A turian dreadnaught thundered a blast that sheered the bottom half of a leg off. Nyryntha wheeled around, both fleets closing in. The Destiny Ascension joined the assault, the main cannon driving the Reaper away. The Normandy flashed past us, diving towards the Reaper.
"Is it delivered?" Shepard asked.
"No, not yet," Lani said.
"Then let's get it!" Shepard called, engines pushed to max. Lani chased after the frigate. My hands grabbed the eject bars at the base of the chair, clinging on until Lani was ready to fire.
The Normandy warmed up the main cannon, weaving around Nyryntha's lasers. All I saw was a brilliant flash of light as the frigate swerved away. Lani could only give me a brief warning of brace. A small hole in Nyryntha's hull, still flaming from the Normandy's blast. My eyes squeezed shut, putting my life in Lani's hands as my suit pressurised. This close to the Reaper, the ship vibrated as the protective mass effect shield kept the space around it calm. The chair clicked below me, Lani's section of the cockpit securing itself and ready for separation. My teeth grit as the chair gave a half-second warning; a brief period of uplift. Then a brief bang. The next second, space surrounded me; the brilliant lights silent shoot stars of death, the song of my heavy breaths, the nausea of zero gravity. It only lasted about 5 seconds before the flaming hole whisked past. Boosters on the chair fired, slowing down the speed enough to unclip the seatbelt. My heaving breaths calmed as my body flipped around and the jump jets finished the last of the momentum to land on a wall with a light touch. All thanks to Kala, of course, it happened too fast for my organic reaction times. Kala's helmet burst into life as she scanned the remaining parts of the room she couldn't while flying though at high speed.
A pipe and piece of jutting wall shielded me in shadow, any hidden cameras wouldn't see me. From the vantage point, Kala translated where in relation we were to the core. Not as far as the original entrance was, but I was deep in unknown territory. Before me, an expansive room opened with criss-crossing walkways at various heights above a long descent into darkness below, a powerful reminder not to fall. A quiet chatter filled the air, a chill running down my spine. Hunters. Do not get caught, whatever happens. My throat tightened, poking my head out from behind the pipe to fill in the blind spots. Nothing. Just clambering structures running up and down the length of the Reaper. The hull breach would make it easier to navigate this part of the Reaper, but once out of this room, it would re-pressurise. My throat tightened, raising a finger to my ear. My grip tightened on the rough surface behind me, sucking in a deep breath.
"Mission Renaissance phase 2 is go," I said. The radio flicked off, silence surrounded me. Only Kala kept me sane.
A light kick pushed me off the wall and over the abyss. An arm reached out, grasping a railing before pulling myself over, keeping myself over something hard to land on should gravity somehow return. My arms flung me across, keeping low and watching my limbs while following the walkway towards a door. While travelling a wave rushed over me, every cell leaping as a shock ran from head to toe. My lungs couldn't even produce sound it hit so hard. My lungs stalled, shuddering under the force. It took a moment to catch myself and grapple a hold of the railing. Dots flashed before my eyes, everything quivered as they recovered from the shock. When everything returned to normal, silence surrounded me. Ok, the Reaper IFF wave kicked your teeth in. My head shook, hands pulling me back towards the door. It lay ajar, but a small pressurisation room waited. Once inside, the mag-boots secured me to the floor. My hand delved inside the gap between the two door plates, yanking on the lever to close it. It creaked closed, the air pressurising and gravity returning. Alright, time to hunt. The mag-boots snapped off and my finger hovered over the tactical cloak.
Kala couldn't communicate beyond a text based system to keep transmission levels down. What she could translate she kept in short, factual messages. Her fretting would distract me, she knew, so she provided what information she could. She kept track of where I went, fleshing out her map of Nyryntha's interior. Inside one room, a tall, narrow room similar to the one before, was about 20 floors higher than where Sassy and the rescue team ran along. With that knowledge, Kala triangulated escape routes. Not only that, she looked at grappling sites and doors. She wanted every opportunity for me to escape. And what she told me now make my stomach quiver. A large swarm of husks waited along the corridors, judging from the sounds. Near one door, even I heard the chatter from the other side. My hands grabbed hold of a ridged wall beside it, coaxing my way upwards to the next walkway. The door on this level didn't sound like it had husks, but there was no way to be certain. The tactical cloak flicked on, the door parting. A Scion disappeared around a corner. My heart thundered, unwilling to risk being caught at this stage. But there was no way to ensure that there weren't others. The tactical cloak wore off, the bars on my arm ticking back up to full.
I crept down the hall, ready to turn invisible at the slightest hint of trouble. Sassy taught me how to walk when being stealthy, it didn't help the nerves though. Just before the junction, the cloak flicked on. My head poked around the corner, looking down both halls. The Scion was on patrol, lumbering down to a door to turn around and walk back up. Another was already further up the hall, coming towards me. My finger pressed down on the extended cloak, slinking across the gap towards the other door opposite me. The cloak's charge dropped as the seconds passed. I reached the door, but the second Scion reached the junction. My breath held, desperate eyes on the timer. It stood there, swaying. It swung around and lumbered back down the hall. The door before me parted and my body slipped through, begging it to close before the first Scion returned to the junction. It shut and my cloak faded, 3 seconds to spare from drained. A tense breath escaped, scanning the room around me. This room had a floor but no ceiling, but a railing separated it from a larger room similar to what others traversed below. No husks, but another wave came. This time, my body was more prepared, but it didn't stop how depilating it was. It took just as long to recover from this one as the last. Shit, now I had to be so careful when sneaking. If one of these happened while cloaked, it would drain everything and there was nothing I could do. Kala kept a timer, to see if there was any pattern to these waves. If there was, then I'd be ok. Back on my feet, my hand reached for the door, the smaller space freaking me out.
The door opened, however 3 steps over the threshold into another transition zone, the door slammed shut and the whole Reaper shuddered. A cold stone punched down on my stomach. Then the most terrifying part; the temperature rose. My suit could deal with certain temperature thresholds, but even the suit rang out warnings. Kala's feed stopped, leaving me alone as everything around me burned. My heart stopped, wondering if this was the end. My eyes squeezed shut, crouching on the roasting ground as everything trembled around me. Was I going to see mum, just not how I expected to? What was she going to say? Was she going to flip her shit? Was she going to beat Cops or Uncle Julian when she met them? Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit!
A beep dragged me back. My eyes flew open, finding a flashing number on the visor. The temperature was dropping. A shaken breath escaped. The shaking eased away, the suit warnings faded. As the seconds ticked by, everything settled back down. Kala's feed flickered back. A second later, questions flashed like a bombardment, assessing the suit readings. A heaved sigh escaped. One message came through, Nyryntha was going planetside. So the temperature increase was her ionising through the atmosphere. Well, that made more sense. And also made me realise how close death snuck behind me had I stayed in the hull breach room. My head shook, refocusing. The door opened, revealing my next challenge. The walkway stepped down towards a wider, grated platform, high above a solid series of horizontal bars a city block thick. Lights danced over them, the ezzo rich room tickling my skin. The problem wasn't the room, it was the husks. And I didn't recognise one of them. The tall, lanky creature covered in scales and metal plates. A scope replaced an eye and a sniper that put the Daemon to shame on the right arm. It was so long it scraped along the floor. A sniper husk, and judging from the exaggerated frills and the brilliant lights from the fleshy flabs on the face, it was a drell. This… this was a problem. That scope might have night vision, it could see me… if it saw me then everything would go to shit. Dammit, what do I do?!
My answer was a narrow ledge high above the husks. No one looked up, right? But if a wave came when I was sidling along… no, bunker down and coax my way across after the next wave hits. There was a hidden cubby hole below a series of horizontal pipes, a makeshift ladder up to the narrow ledge on the wall. 10 minutes passed, during which Nyryntha shuddered as she landed on the ground, before the next wave came. My heart thundered, gritting through the pain. Once it was over, my hands pulled me up, careful to keep the sound down. Once up there, however, the groundside team decided it was time to put their plan into action. Nyryntha lurched, making any attempt across the narrow ledge impossible. They must've had ground-based cannons, it was the only thing powerful enough to throw a Reaper. The good news was that being groundside, the husks bustled towards the exit. Looks like Nyryntha was rallying the husks to deal with the ground forces. The tactical cloak whisked on, hiding my exposed ass dangling above their heads as the room emptied. 28 seconds later, the room was clear and I could coax my way back down. Every corner was dangerous. It took just one husk. But the room cleared. The cloak was back on when the next door opened, a long, empty corridor with stairs creeping upwards.
The mag-boots were the only reason I stayed upright, Nyryntha's roars deafened me as she expressed her annoyance. Whatever the ground crew were doing was giving her hell, the space fleet making escape impossible. Kala's map blinked, I was near the core, lower than where the core was, but close enough to send my heart skittering. Just above my head, mum had… My eyes narrowed. She had died, but it would be what brought her back. But something caught my eye. A trail of light along the wall. This close to the core, it would make sense to see activity that wasn't just husks. Something pulled me down the hall, like a hand grabbing my hand and tugging me. Stairs curled down, only 10 steps, but a bright room waited for me around a corner. My heart burst. It was time for Phase 3.
The Memory Drive room. It looked similar to how Sassy described, only this one was a series of circles separated from each other, like a star with circles at each point and the 'flower' in the middle. Every muscle tightened, scanning the room for anything that could stop me. Nothing. I stepped into the room, moving straight for the centrepiece. At the base, the jump jets launched me until my hands grabbed the rim. My arms pulled me up, staring down inside. The memory drive stared up at me. At least the running away with the block made sense now. My jaw tightened, reaching inside to grab the drive. It slipped out without resistance. Kala prepared, ready to link me back to the rest of the crew, back into the carnage. The drive pressed against my chest, my hand on the connector. Sassy said we only needed the drive, we didn't need any connectors, not here and not in the core. One last calming breath, my hand yanked the connector free. The whole Reaper trembled, Kala activated the nanobot disabler to keep any Reaper 'waves' from pinning me, my earpiece screamed with activity. A wave rushed past, but it didn't pin me. It only burned parts of my body where the nanobots were.
"SPAWN!" Nyryntha screeched. Well, there goes my eardrums.
"Phase 3! We're in Phase 3!" I screamed into the mic, leaping off the metal structure and back to the floor. The hall whizzed past as my thundering feet crashed down the metal hall. The screams of thousands of husks loomed in the air, a faint warning of what was to come.
"Renaissance is in Phase 3. Admiral, get to ground zero! I repeat, move to Ground Zero!" Releeva cried.
"What the hell is going?" Uncle Julian snapped. As I ran past a junction, the cry of a Praetorian screeched up the hall. My heart thumped.
"Gideon is in the Reaper! He has the memory drive!" was her response.
The door before me twitched, Nyryntha looking to seal any exits. One arm held the drive to my chest, the other reached down to my hip. Mum's Paladin straightened in my grip. The bullets glowed green. One bullet flew towards the door, sticking between the doors. Two seconds later, an explosion threatened to floor me without a quick mag-boots activation from Kala. The door lay in pieces, letting me sprint through into a maze of walkways. Kala's map highlighted an escape route, updating it as obstacles ran before me. A hoard of Husks rushed towards me, clambering up the walkways to reach me. The jump jets launched me upwards, over the railing and onto a walkway above my head. The husks screeched, the chatter of Hunters whispered. My teeth grit, the Paladin shooting towards another door further down the way. When the smoke cleared, a Scion waited for me. Instinct took over, jumping up on the railing and pushing myself up to another walkway as a biotic quake shattered the walkway. A new door opened, and after a quick armour explosive bullet, the doorway was empty. The narrow room had a few walkways high above my head, the room hummed and shuddered. Hunters rushed towards me.
The grappling system fired, securing a hold on a walkway above my head. Leaping off the edge, my eyes focused on a walkway lower down. A bang flew my eyes up, spotting one of the drell Husks above my head. The grappling line snapped, a direct hit from a bullet. My jaw tightened, ejecting the old hook and let a new backup hook snap in place. The new hook fired, pulling me towards a new walkway before releasing and letting the jump jets finish the landing. Three running steps and the walkway trembled, another bullet from the new husk. The Paladin blasted through the door. The jump jets pushed me through as the walkway collapsed. It was back to sprinting. The new room was huge, towering in all directions. Large, metal platforms with twisting walkways between them spanned the length of the room. The large, bulking husks Sassy ran into when rescuing mum appeared, lumbering towards me. My heart thundered, breath rasping.
A scream ripped my throat as a huge metal spike punched through the wall, not 20m away from me. The husks turned and roared, but the massive structure smashed into the platform they stood on, crushing the platform to dust. The sides of the spike flung out with a deafening clang, revealing to be a massive hook a city block in size. A metal screeching filled the air as it dragged along what remains of the pillar before pinning itself against the massive hole it made. There was enough space between the hooks for me to slip out… More monstrous husks rumbled towards me, not put off by the destroyed platform. My teeth grit before sprinting across another walkway, working my way towards the hook in the wall. Sunlight poured into the interior, burning away some of the mist clinging to the abyss. A blue haze descended from above; Wraiths had arrived. The jump jets heaved me across the abyss to another walkway, sprinting along towards the hook. A Hunter screeched as it leapt from the wall. The Paladin roared in my hand, the Hunter tumbled away before exploding in a shower of green blood. The jump jets launched me up and over the abyss, the grappling hook firing until it grabbed the giant hook. It wheeled me in, the armour tightening as it took the strain. My feet slammed into the area around the hook, the jump sets resetting to push me up, the hook releasing to pull me up onto a narrow ridge about 1m wide. Sunlight struck my armour, warming me before slipping through the gap.
The wasteland of Tuchanka glared up from the midday sun. A huge chain swung out before me, originating from a huge metal tower in the distance. Other chains hung from various other locations, tightening and loosening to destabilise the Reaper. Nyryntha's roars rang high through the air, my mag-boots snagging me to the metal skin of the Reaper and walking upwards. A long 1km drop waited for me below. Through gaps in the hook, the scythes of Hunters punched through. My heart thumped as the first crawled free, spinning to leap at me. It crashed against the skin, smashed in the back with a well place sniper. My head swam, the visor highlighting one of many sniper squads in the distance. Red lasers danced in the area around me. My teeth grit, trying to reach a lip in the Reaper skin to stand on while she swayed and thundered.
"Shaik is out! Halfway up the central fin, he's in sight of Sniper Team Echo! Get the fighters in!" A voice called.
"It's too hot to send the fighters in! We don't have enough chains in it!" a male turian snapped.
"Then get those lasers taken care of!" a salarian ordered.
Nyryntha shuddered as another chain crashed into her from behind. My precarious sense of balance wobbled, Kala adjusting my position with the jump jets and mag-boots. Fighters swerved wide around the Reaper, but her red lasers still punched through the air. Husks swarmed the ground, rushing against fortifications protecting the ground forces. She swung around, raising a laser towards one of the chain towers. It pulled hard, the other chains wrapping around her body as she turned and shook, trying to free herself. The snipers took out any husks that leaked through the hole, but I couldn't stay here. My hold was too fragile and if I dropped the drive… My arms tightened around the block. This was mum, this metal brick was mum… What to do? Nyryntha teetered, another chain crashing into the top of her crown. As it tightened, her legs snagged in a chain holding her near the base. My stomach rose to my throat as she started the slow tumble to the ground. My heart crashed against my rips, watching the ground rush towards us. Blessedly, she was falling backwards, not forward. She wouldn't crush me. But the g-forces of the fall… Kala warmed the jump jets. My eyes shut, putting my life in her hands, putting mum's life in her hands. The lower half of Nyryntha crashed, everything trembling. Seconds before smashing into the ground, the mag-boots released and the jump jets fired. Nyryntha fell the rest of the 3m to the ground. My feet clanged on the metal skin.
"Shaik!" A female asari called.
"I'm fine!" I called, wincing as a dull pain ached from my feet from the hard landing. "There's too much shit here! I'm going on foot! Keep her and the husks distracted!"
My hail echoed around the frequencies as everyone caught up to date. The husks on the ground swarmed either the front lines or backtracked to get me. With the Reaper on her back, ground-based cannons fired at her legs until the bottom struts had sheared off, ending the threat of too many lasers destroying what infrastructure here. Nyryntha's current position also opened the line of sight for the rest of the sniper teams. The husks clambering up all sides of Nyryntha, bodies pilling up and sliding off the sloped sides. My feet skidded to a stop, eyes flying all around me. Ok, going on foot was not going to work. There were far too many husks. Gods, how many did she have?! A high pitched squeal grabbed me, but I couldn't spin fast enough. Hands grabbed me, my feet hoisted off the ground and the distance between Reaper and I grew. The helmet restricted my vision, but I caught just enough to see blue, white and grey Serrice armour and the flank of a Constellation shuttle. More hands reached down and hauled me up. Nyryntha let loose a horrific roar, the shuttle trembling in the air. My arms refused to relinquish the drive, sitting on shaking knees as my dry throat recovered. I didn't recognise anyone in the shuttle, apart from one.
"I've got Shaik," Uncle Julian said. "Now what the fuck is going on?"
"We're saving mum," I rasped. Uncle Julian frowned through the helmet. "We've got all the pieces, I think. S-Sassy should… should be able to confirm," The shuttle swung wide, sending my flying. Uncle Julian grabbed me, bracing himself against the side of the shuttle to stop us flying into something. The air rumbled as something flew past the shuttle. Through a window, a small streak of light flew past.
"What the hell was that?" someone called.
"Must've been from the new husk," I wheezed. "A drell sniper,"
"Great," Uncle Julian grunted, the shuttle disappearing behind a pillar of rock, mountains and crags surrounding the south side of the chosen area. My shoulders relaxed, my heart settling. Safe… my part of the mission was over. Over and everyone was ok. Maybe. My eyes caught sight of something in the shuttle. My heart thundered once more.
"…Ray?" I said. The yellow crested krogan narrowed her eyes, the scars hidden by the helmet. She wore blue, grey and white armour, the shoulders decked in stripes of the same rank as me. My eyes flew to Uncle Julian. "Why… why is Ray here?"
"Seemed like a waste to let her rot in prison when we could have her out here shooting things," Uncle Julian said. My throat worked overtime.
"Just… keep here away from Cops and the Starquake crew," I said. Uncle Julian snorted as the shuttle landed. The door popped open, exposing us to the sun and heat once more. The drive came with me as we got fresh air. Uncle Julian folded back his helmet, listening to the air rattle and rumble as the fight continued with Nyryntha. My body quivered, looking around the maze-like rock pillars giving us some form of protection.
"Phase 3 complete. Shaik is with Admiral," a vanilla salarian said. "Waiting for pickup,"
"Roger that. Sending down a fighter to pick up Shaik," Cops said, relief in his voice. Uncle Julian studied the memory drive in my arms.
"What's that?" he asked. My throat tightened, swallowing hard.
"A Memory Drive," I said. Uncle Julian's brow furrowed.
A screech echoed between the rocks. The guns snapped free. My throat tightened, shuffling closer to Uncle Julian as he stared down the sight of his Mattock. A hum pulled my gaze upwards. Lani's fighter swooped between the towering rocks, sliding to a halt nearby. Uncle Julian's weight shoved me towards the fighter, walking backwards as he covered my 6. Lani popped the canopy, a new chair in the rear. But the cockpit was so high up. Uncle Julian knelt down, grabbing my ankle. Surprise, it jerked up, letting him grab underside of my foot. Understanding dawned. My weight shuffled, balancing myself. He pushed me up, Lani bending down to grab me and haul me inside. I could've used the jump jets, but I didn't trust myself not to bang my head or something. Once inside, Lani pulled the straps in place, keeping the memory drive against my chest. He smiled as the hatch closed and Uncle Julian moved away with the rest of the team. Lani's eyes scanned the team, catching sight of Raisha. His gaze narrowed as the fighter hovered off the ground.
"Let's get you both home," Lani said, returning his focus to flying. My heart fluttered, holding the drive. As the fighter took towards space, my eyes glanced downwards.
The anchors pinned Nyryntha in place. Spare claw chains smashed through the legs, disabling her main way of attacking. There was still the cannon near the base of the legs, but the ground-based cannons already shattering those. The smaller legs on the tall head wriggled as she tried to squirm free, but even she had to know it was too little too late. My teeth nipped my lip. The Saboteurs would know now, knew what we were planning and knew Nyryntha failed. We didn't have much time before they moved into action. The fighter escaped the planet, meandering around a sea of ships. Fire licked up the sides of the Constellation frigates as they dived towards the planets. The cruisers stayed with the Constellation in space. The huge fleet Shepard brought along moved into positions, awaiting orders to either retreat or to return to their original systems. In front of it all, the Starquake floated next to the Normandy, waiting. The cargo hold of the Normandy opened, the fighter slipping through. Lani hovered into place, Shepard jogging down from the elevator. Lani parked up and opened the hatch. An Alliance soldier pulled metal stairs towards us, letting us free ourselves and step down onto the floor. Shepard looked me over, expression taut. He heaved a sigh in relief.
"I am so glad your mother has so many friends," he said with a lopsided grin. "We got her?" he asked. My head nodded, grip tightening on the drive. "Then let's get her upstairs and let the AI's get to work,"
"What's the next step?" I asked.
"First step is to make sure the memory drive is secure, then you're going straight back to the Constellation to get those nanobots removed. After that, then we can tell you everything," Lani said with a grin. "By that point, we should have the area around Nyryntha secured and we can move the frigates down and park them there,"
Lani stayed in the cargo hold while the memory drive slid into a safe in the former XO's office, the safe number created by me. Only I could open the safe, but Shepard, Cops and Sassy would get a copy of it, just in case. After that, he shuttled me back across to the Constellation where Dr Suquine waited. A tremble rattled down my spine. How were they going to remove the nanobots?
The Fact Sheet, Timeline, Galaxy Map and Reaper Forces have been updated for this chapter. Please see profile for link to Archive.
A/N: Sorry for the delay to this. I tried to upload it yesterday but FF decided it didn't want to cooperate. I was also waiting until I finished the next chapter to see if I could combine them. I doubt, however, people want to read 14'000 word monster however!