Author's Note: Hopefully I don't have COVID this time so that when I wake up tomorrow it will be to return to work after being away for what's effectively a week. Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!
Chapter 32: Asari Territory Part 1
Lesuss is one of the oldest Asari colony worlds, and it's most under populated. Everything is described as being just a little off, the gravity just outside of the Asari comfort Zone, the Eezo concentration in the soil just high enough for wide spread crop production to be non-viable, the same concentration too low be mined, it's native animal population too vicious to be tolerated. Over all it was like everything about the planet made it just barely outside the sweet spot for a colony to be founded, and yet despite it all a monastery dedicated to Athame herself thrives on the planet, one that consistently remains off limits to outsiders, ostentatiously because the planet itself has been a dedicated training ground for the Asari Justicar's. This was the official explanation given to the galaxy at large, the reality of the matter was slightly different. The Temple monastery on the planet was dedicated exclusively to the housing of members of Asari who have a very specific problem: Ardat Yakshi.
With the exception of the Asari Justicar's supervising the prisoners/patients on the planet no one comes here, no one until now anyway. The Justicar's still weren't willing to risk actual, flesh and blood people coming down here to potentially get roped in by the influence of the Ardat Yakshi. Instead Custodians were deployed planet side, an area was quickly cleared and research facility/hospital was built, and with a great feeling of reluctance from the Justicar's a Thorian mass was deposited into the planet. The Justicar's are reluctant to have any sort of sapient organism on the same planet as the Ardat Yakshi, let alone one with such a blatant god complex, but the Thorian was the most key piece in the process of reconstructing the parts of the Ardat Yakshi's brain that gave them their condition, so they allowed it. The Asari neural map from the Compliance Needle technology would be key here, through which they knew exactly what needed fixing. The only thing left to do at this point in time was to start bringing down the patients.
Even after isolating them on a planet the Ardat Yakshi had been isolated even further, a mountain side passage accessible only by shuttle was where the monastery was built, a field of fruit bearing vines where the Ardat Yakshi harvest materials in the production of a high class wine. A Justicar ship landed on the usual landing pad, most of the time when this happens it means that the Justicar's have another willing prisoner to drop off, failing that it meant that they were here to make a pick up for one of the regularly scheduled field trips to Thessia, used to reward good behaviour among the Ardat Yakshi. Today however they had been looking for volunteers for an experimental procedure to cure the Ardat Yakshi of their condition.
"Are these the first patients?" Smok had been one of the least active of the Six Dragoon's in Citadel space, alongside Sam, Leo at least tagged along with the High Lord whenever he had business with the council. However Smok had earned the respect of the Justicar's with the revelation that he was the one to convince Thuban to save the Council from Sovereign, and who had got the big lizard to bush whack the Prethoryn in Citadel space. However there was one key factor that made the young warrior monk the ideal choice of guard for the Thorian and Custodian's on the planet.
"Really? Nothing?" One of the Middle ranks of the Ardat Yakshi monks asked looking surprised.
"The Justicar's are so paranoid that we'll go and do it with the animals in the woods that they don't even let us out of the temple." A second volunteer complained letting out a sigh. Smok stared at the two with a dead pan blank expression.
"You're too short, too scrawny and your throat sack too small for me to even consider you in the running." Smok replied as he attempted to return to meditating.
"Throat sack?" The first of the two Matron's asked looking confused. Then Smok's throat swelled up turning bright red in the process causing the two matrons to let out a surprise squeak before running inside.
"Falere, Rila stop bothering the Dragoon." Samara ordered tapping her foot. Samara had a personal stake in seeing to it that the project succeeded, after all her own daughters were among the Ardat Yakshi, in fact they were the first volunteers. There was a third but well... they don't talk about her, it makes the rare moments that they actually talk to each other far more civil. "We are sure that this process is completely safe?" Samara asked looking at the nearest Custodian as they finished setting up the machinery.
"We're melting their brains into goo so that an ego-maniacal fungus can rebuild them from the ground up. 'Safe' is relative." The Custodian in question stated before he drifted off to another part of the room.
"Ignore the machine!" So shouted a nearby machine, one being used to contain a Thorian culture, one that had been fed colour changing Hanar stem cells so that it could communicate via bioluminencessance which was being run through a universal translator. "I've already rebuilt the brain of the Asari Sovereign left behind on Feros. And of the Ardat Yakshi who mated with the Prethoryn." The Thorian snapped making its blatant annoyance clear. "If there are anymore fools who doubt my abilities please raise your hands."
"Our faith in your abilities is entirely the reason why we're even entertaining this project." Samara stated tapping her foot and her voice filled with annoyance. "However given your history of targeting creatures who have been worshipped you are more in doubt." Samara stated tapping her fingers against her arm.
"For now, the procedure is very simple." A custodian brought up a nearby screen where the results of the Compliance Needle technology were being displayed. "Thanks to the Neural Map the Batarian's created-" Samara already had nothing but bad feelings about this. "-we have a detailed understanding of how and why a Ardat Yakshi's abilities cause neural frying that typifies their condition, we insert a normal needle here." The Neural map depicting the Ardat Yakshi brain had a sharp spike puncture the brain. "Induce a controlled aneurysm." From the needle point a red spot grew out covering a distance that looked to be an inch wide. "Remove the needle and let the Thorian work." The needle disappeared and the red spot was over taken by green. "Simple." Falere and Rila were just staring at the screen with a look of horror on their features. "The main issue here is that I don't believe the Ardat Yakshi have imbued themselves of the Thorian yet." One of the Custodian drones drifted over to the Thorian tank, where a Liquified Thorian/water/Protein solution had been prepared and then loaded into small bottles. "For the sake of expediency and comfort we have determined this to be the most effective delivery method." The custodian flipped over the caps of two of the bottles before handing them to the girls. "Simply shove one of these into a single nasal passage before squeezing and snorting at the same time." The two Matron's took the bottle from the Custodian. "Then after a few hours the Thorian should have over taken your cerebral fluids and nestled itself rather nicely in the gap between your brains and skulls, then we can begin the procedure." Ignoring the horrified looks of the two Matrons the Custodian proceeded with its work.
"Has mother and her colleagues fallen in with a bunch of Salarians?" Falere asked eyes wide with horror.
"That would seem to be the case." Rila followed up with eyes equally wide with horror.
Though the Ardat Yakshi are allowed limited contact with family members via online chat they do not get news bulletins so they had no idea of just how wide the galaxy really was. As instructed the two girls snorted the Thorian's spores and proceeded to fall into a daze for a few moments. The Thorian's spores can hit hard especially to people who aren't used to telepaths.
"You didn't tell us that there would be hallucinations." The two Ardat Yakshi looked up dazed and confused as they saw a blue mass with a face and tentacles that was looking down on them from the ceiling, and then a length of something orange that swung through it causing the hallucination to disappear.
"You two behind your mother right now!" Smok shouted reptilian eyes keeping an eye out for the creature that just appeared.
"There!" Samara cast a slam in the direction of the creature again, only for it to vanish once more. The third time the creature appeared a Custodian attempted to skewer it with several of its tentacles at which point it disappeared again. This time it seemed to feel inclined to stay away.
"Did anyone catch the name of that bus?" Smok asked eyes kept peeled on the area, the two Ardat Yakshi moved into the middle of a formation Samara and Smok had formed.
"Perhaps this might clarify things." The nearest Custodian produced a 3D Holographic image of a vaguely ape-like creature that someone attached a squid to in lieu of a head. It was hard to say what it was before, but the glowing blue circuit board-like patterns were something of a dead give away as to what it was now.
"Another of the Reaper's monsters? Never saw a alien that looks like one of those before!" Smok stated in a concerned tone of voice.
"Nor I." Samara stated as she prepared another biotic attack.
Smok quickly established telepathic communication with the ship in orbit, images of what just hit them sent into the mind of one of the Tebrid desk jockey's which was then transmitted down a implant sticking out of the side of their head and sent into the ship's archives. From their thousands of images flew by next to Smok's telepathic message until a result came to light. Occasionally, Reaper's encounter races of aliens that present unto them a opportunity, unique biology that is simply too valuable to lose to the passage of time, Reaper's 'preserve' all races in a fashion, but the Protheans and their ability to absorb information from their environment got special treatment. In the cycle before last the aliens recognised for their utility were the Prothean's direct predecessors as top dogs of the galaxy the Inusannon. Spindly squid-faced alien's who originally evolved in a high gravity environment and then transitioned into low gravity once space travel became a thing, and as demonstrated by the Insunannon's 'descendants' they had the unique and very annoying advantage of short range teleportation. When the fighting started these abominations acted as Adjutants to the Reaper forces spitting commands to their legions of synth-organic slaves and teleporting around whenever anyone spotted them making them very difficult to track or shoot, traits that also makes them very effective scouts, which means they can expect more Reaper abominations down the line on this planet. Lovely.
"So are we working under the presumption that they're here for the hoard of not so mythical sex demons, or are they after something else?" Smok asked as he patrolled the perimeter looking for the one that got away.
"I'm establishing contact with the temple to answer that very question, but I don't believe so." Samara gestured around them. "This was an ambush, they were waiting here for us, if they meant to take the temple they could've done so already, rather I believe that they're after you and the rest of the Union forces sent here." If Sovereign's mocking could be believed then their synthorganic slaves know great swath's of knowledge about Union technology, formations and bases, the latter two can be adjusted, but if they want to test those theories out then bush whacking some Union research ships were a good idea.
"Your 'Demons' are pretty attractive targets too." That said the Temple fit the ideal Reaper Target to a T, High secrecy penal colony full of people no one would really miss if everyone just up and disappeared, the fact that all of them were also abnormally powerful biotics/psionics just created the mental image of a Reaper somewhere drooling at the mouth at the idea of stripping the temple of it's denizens. "We shouldn't discount either possibility."
Samara agreed, which is why a group of Justicars and custodian's were on their way to the temple proper in order to defend it. The Temple itself was a highly defensible location, built on a cliff-side over looking the ocean with no direct path leading to anywhere more interesting than the equivalent to a grape yard and a landing pad for space shuttles, one that usually doesn't have any space shuttles parked on it. The rest of the mountain was free real-estate. The Custodian's started with building a shield generator around the temple proper, wouldn't do a lot of good if a Reaper appeared in orbit and blasted the mountain, which is why the next move was to make use of the mountain itself. Digging into the mountain itself in order to create a bunker to protect against kinetic attacks, reinforced with multiple load bearing reinforcements.
In the mean time efforts were being made to track the Reaper presence across the planet. Reaper Technology produces unique ultrasound frequencies, which in turn kills off parts of the brain and enables psionic tampering, in other words indoctrination. This was one of the Reaper's greatest weapons, you can't even get close enough to them or their forces to shoot them without being subjected to the indoctrination process. Now it was a glaring weakness, a signal actively broadcasting the Reaper's presence whenever they touched down in the atmosphere. Thousands of miniature Custodian drones with built in listening devices were deployed worldwide to isolate the Reaper forces location.
"These Collector buggers really don't do subtle do they?" The Collector ship was built out of a massive asteroid looking mass, chunks of technology shoved throughout it without care for its design. It was understandable in it's own way, Collectors shouldn't have access to any kind of large ship yards, least of all near planets, the Council seems to think that they have their base beyond the Omega Relay, but since Union has taken over no reports have come in about them, so taking whatever they can and shoving it into rocks would be an effective substitute. At the same time though, it was simply bizarre, the Collectors are servants of the Reapers, they should be one of the most technologically advance races in the galaxy: why are they hollowing rocks out for ship parts? That part doesn't matter, the drones reported a large number of different kinds of husks at the site of the Collector ship, preparing to launch their own assault.
Smok could only sigh while he waited for back up to get there he would have to break as much of the enemy infrastructure and reduce their numbers as possible.
This was going to be a long night. The people of the galaxy... confused... or irritated the Thorian, wasn't sure. The Protheans? The Reapers? They were simple to understand. They desired it's destruction, beyond that the Thorian didn't need to care about them only wiping them out first or using them as tools to ensure it's own survival. Opposite of them and the threat the Thorian represented to them the Citadel and the Union have embraced it, spreading it's spores across the galaxy, and more, the Thorian was in their fields, in their bodies, buried deep into their planets in many cases where the likes of the Reaper's will never find them, even on their ships. It had been given the power to communicate across the galaxy, a legion of hive workers, even ships in a manner of speaking. Its hive mind was being shared with three others but even that had come with benefits. And thus the Thorian was confused, failing to understand this preferential treatment, the most negative elements that it had received was a reprimand to stay in line and the threat of Exo-Geni's toxin being mass produced and spread across the galaxy until the Thorian was brought to heel by force. It had been given council in the form of the other parts of the Gestalt, it was time to put them to use.
"Your song is an echo of those who came before, tinted by anger and arrogance, but it has the potential for something new." The Rachni Queen was being useless.
"What does that mean!?" The Prethoryn Queen backed away at my outburst, however the Baol stepped forward to speak in their place.
"You are a copy, you only know how to copy others, whether it is your personality and behaviour the organisms that you create with your spores." The Baol stated simply. "You copied the Protheans, so you demand respect and awe as they believed they commanded and deserved just as they do." The Baol followed up. "Few respected the Protheans, those that did not for the reasons they would prefer. The Protheans were warlords, stuck in eternal battle against enemies that would not yield to them and so resorted to abducting other races from pre-spaceflight civilisations and pressing them into service. You are not as bad as they are, but you are far from likeable."
"Understandable." The Thorian shrugged, but it was still confused. "And yet I am suspicious of this preferential behaviour."
"Then ask them." The Baol shrugged his shoulders. "Or go find a field to grow. The rest of us are focusing on bringing the rest of the Prethoryn to heel and you are distracting us by asking questions that we have no business knowing the answers to."
Useless. There were few among the denizens of the galaxy that the Thorian was actually allowed to talk to, and most of them seemed busy with their own matters, there was one notable exception though who wasn't busy. Ugh. The Thorian could already feel the Alcohol.
"Why do you enjoy torturing me so?" The Thorian asked, shuddering inside of Shepard's skull.
"You mind? I'm trying to enjoy myself." Shepard indicated the half naked Asari woman who was dancing on a table in front of her.
"Your blatant perversion can wait until after I'm done with my line of questioning." Thus the Thorian conveyed its feelings of confusion, hints of its own desires that it did not fully understand and the explanation given to it by the rest of the Gestalt.
"You want respect but you don't know how to get it. Which is understandable, since you haven't done anything to deserve it." Shepard explained bluntly, looking like she wanted to get back to her margarita and the strippers.
"Done nothing!?" Now the Thorian was just plain insulted. "I am immunising the entire galaxy from Reaper indoctrination! Raising the psionic potential of people across the galaxy! Carving off pieces of my own flesh for your medicine! Growing mountains of produce!"
"Spreading yourself. Spreading yourself. Spreading yourself. Spreading yourself further." Shepard stated making her displeasure known raising one finger at a time. "The only thing you have done is exactly what you would've done had Feros not been attacked by Sovereign and you seized control of Exo-geni. You are using the Union and Council alike as tools to spread your influence and hide yourself away from potential threats. Which is fine, don't get me wrong, we're using you both as ways of dealing with Reaper indoctrination, as well as more long term goals like crop yield improvement and medical research, but that's it. We're not allies, we're tools mutually using one another. A hammer does not respect a chisel nor does a chisel respect a hammer, they use each other to fulfil a job. By the sounds of things you want things taken a step further." Shepard downed the contents of her glass as she glared at the imaginary face of her debate partner. "Then you are the one who's going to have to put yourself out there." The Thorian paused as it mused the implications.
Inside of the Lessus monastery various people were going back and forth to get the area battle ready. Custodian's were rapidly assembling barrier and gun embankments, Asari were using their biotics to lift, transport and place the assembled chunks of technology preparing to tear apart the in coming enemy forces. A small group of Ardat Yakshi were resting at the back of the cave with the equipment the Tebrid's had prepared in order to conduct the procedure to cure the Ardat Yakshi condition.
"You there." Rila, who had been on break, looked up to the Thorian inside of its cell. "I believe that I have a method of resolving this situation, but I require a volunteer to assist in the process. A process that will in all likelihood violate every single rule that you have sworn to live by and which those who have sworn themselves as your keepers enforce: You may have to bring your mother into this situation."
Rila brought Samara to speak with the Thorian, the Matriarch looking deeply, thoroughly angered by what she had heard.
"Speak Fungus." Samara wore her anger on her sleeve, if not echoed in her voice.
"We can do the same thing that Takira did with the Prethoryn, utilise a hive mind as a massive source of psionic essence to empower a singular Ardat Yakshi into a top grade psionic to strike down the enemy forces. At the same time, once a sufficient amount of power has been concentrated into a single being I will finish remaking the individual's brain to remove the Ardat Yakshi condition." As the Thorian explained the gathered Ardat Yakshi were only looking increasingly concerned, and the Justicar's increasingly enraged.
"You mean to transform my daughter into an avatar of your power!" Samara snapped angrily.
"A fact I had anticipated that you would say." The Thorian flashed, operating the console it had been attached to, identifying a file.
"Hang on." A Custodian tapped several keys. "The Union is researching separating the Thorian from it's hosts in the event of an emergency." The Thorian is dangerous, and the Union is prepared to separate themselves from it if it does go on a rampage. As it stands. "A Combination of Exo-geni's fungicide to kill the Thorian, and in some cases a very specifically modified variant of Medigel to replace any of the tissues that the Thorian is currently taking the place of. Using these two things together, we should be able to completely divorce the Thorian from the volunteer."
The Custodian explained, and Samara narrowed a glare as she looked at the Thorian, numerous different possibilities going through her mind.
"I will be essentially doing what we agreed upon in the first place, as well as leaving myself vulnerable and unable to act in the care of the other three fourth's of the gestalt and sacrificing a significant portion of my essence to empower someone that I will have nothing to do with by the time this situation has been resolved." The Thorian explained and Samara let out a sigh.
"Why?"
"Because improving my relationships with others requires that I sink in the work, and I wish to see this situation resolved as much as you do." More lights flashed. "Now then, we need to discuss the matter of implants." More shifting colours from the Thorian, more files opened up detailing Union technology, the three L-3's, the Savant X, as well as technology none of them have seen before Psi amplifiers and Dampeners as well as what suspiciously looked like a digital dissection of the Banshee. "If you insist on divorcing me from the miss then she'll need technology to do for her what I would normally do instead. I've observed a number of performance increases the Reaper's nanotechnology have built into the Banshee to augment biotics and psionics when Sovereign remade my clones, we should start by integrating as many of them as possible while we have the miss under the knife as it were without her degenerating into a horrific monster." Like that the operation to take a young woman and turn her into someone who can uproot mountains began. Fingers crossed that it didn't go pear shaped.
Review Section:
Clown2107: Nor do I disagree with your assumption, for the most part, but universally assuming that a race is inherently malevolent is unwise, at least not without evidence to back it up.
RonaldM40196867: They are. In a fight? Wrex. I doubt it.
Gianfranco Cembran: It's more a matter of tying the super human down so that their muscle spasms don't kill Liara.