Author's Note: Not much to say today, Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!

Chapter 58: Tuchanka Part 3

16M 18D 07H Until the Colossus Fires

For the time being, the Contingency had been chased away from Tuchanka, but they would return in due time and worst yet, they'd be bringing terminators to infiltrate their facilities in order to bring them down from within. But for now the Contingency was on the back-foot. Their newfound mastery over the Gestalt's pheromones and the properly realised facilities built the Krogan spread out to any of the other Gestalt controlled worlds in Terminus space with the intention of destroying as many Contingency controlled bases as possible. The creatures were admiral in their own way, they didn't always win against the Contingency but when they did they would expel the gaseous remains into a giant ball, a new formed gas giant formed almost exclusively from exotic gas and initially held together by a massive Mass Effect field, as to why they went through the trouble of gathering it into one spot, maybe they just didn't want to smell it? It was beautiful, in its own way, a giant mass of exotic gas built around a giant yawning vortex. It was also the single biggest Contingency hot-spot in the system, a gigantic mass of fuel the size of a small planet that was getting bigger by the day, surrounded by Prethoryn who in turn would eat the warships and produce even more Exotic gas in the process. Rather than a gas giant like say Jupiter the newly formed gas giant in the system was closer in size and composition to Saturn, a ball of gas surrounded by rings of debris, many of which were wiggly and actively eating away at the rest of the rings.

For Tevos the countless horrors that the newly formed planet represents kind of undermines the beauty, sort of like a AI, you can admire the process and dedication that went into it but still understand that it will kill you if you get anywhere near it. Ironic then that she was now doing everything in her power to chase down an AI older and more cunning than almost the entire Galaxy.

"Have you found it yet?" Tevos asked again as she sorted through more photos of growing planetary formations, next to her a glass full of ice and Lessus wine and next to that was two empty bottles and a third that was only half full.

"Not since the last time you asked me but do please keep distracting me it is so helpful!" And again the local Thorian cluster replied in the negative.

After building a Thorian compatible Prothean styled console and filling it with the Calculating goo of the Thorian it was then hard wired into the core systems of the Citadel. Their objective was clear, seize control of the citadel permanently, and so the main objective towards that end was tracking down the AI that would be their enemy, the oldest enemy, the Catalyst that commands the Reapers. They were waging war against the AI, and for that matter losing. The insidious being has infected every computer system attached to the citadel proper, never revealing it's presence to them, using their own terminals to connect to the Extranet, so far the only console that has been able to resist it's intrusion has been the Thorian's organic consoles.

They've never known about it until the Union gave a more detailed schematic of the crucible and it's functions, how it requires an intelligence to control and guide it's functions, an AI, a feature notably absent in the Prothean designed crucible. It could be an oversight, a feature that would be left to later generations to include in the design, would that the notably anti-synth Protheans would exclude. And yet the Reapers have managed to seize control over the Network without fail every single time a cycle has come to an end, as if they had a figure on the inside of the station that was helping them, which could already be taken care of. The current theory is that they had the help of the Keepers in the previous cycles, help that the Protheans was able to turn against them, help that has been overridden by the Thorian.

Except that now the data from the Reapers that was slowly being decoded, or rather was slowly being de-crazied, data that gave lots of technological improvements that the Salarians, Quarians and Tebrids were hard at work to find new and interesting ways of making useful, data like billions of years worth of tactical data that the Turians was poring over, of archaeological information that was slowly being taken apart and dissected, and data like the Catalyst, the AI program that would call the Reapers into the Galaxy when the time of harvest was ripe, that would worm it's way into their every network and watch them to learn when they've reached a level of technology deemed appropriate for harvest. The concept was laughable 'If such an AI existed we would know about it by now' the Salarian's say, 'if such an AI exists then how were we able to beat back the Reapers' the Turian's boast.

Tevos laughs at both of them, every scrap of technology that they have at their disposal was based on, built using, connected to the Citadel, and as such with this hyper advanced technological advantage Tevos was fully convinced that such a AI was capable of hiding itself from them completely, so completely that if it was sabotaging them then they had no idea how, for how long, and in what ways, or if it merely was observing them and reporting back to their masters, theoretically shackled to such a degree. The Citadel council, the seat of the greatest government that the galaxy has ever known, has been reduced to a council of bickering paranoid conspiracy theorists, their own individual governments have stopped taking their calls for just how much of a security risk they are. So here Tevos was, complaining about the Thorian's lack of progress closing their intel leak, Esheel could at least do more than suck back booze and watch pretty planets appear, spear heading the initiative to remove and replace the consoles that the Catalyst could be hiding on. Tevos sighed and took another swig of her glass.

16M 18D 07H Until the Colossus Fires

It had taken both Shepard and Grunt a few days to recover from their respective ordeals, Grunt finished getting out of Cryo first but was kept in a telepathic coma where he accompanied Shepard as she finished her own rehab, afterwards the two of them shared the results of their own findings with Liara and the others.

"You think that this creature was the older sister that EDI was talking about?" Liara asked staring at the three individuals who had finished their own research project behind her back.

"I'm more concerned that Lawson used my face for her." Shepard stated still in disbelief about what she saw in Grunt's memories.

"Do we know what she took from the facility?" Liara asked as she attempted to steer the topic on slightly more biblical concerns.

"We know from what we didn't find." EDI explained bluntly. "The facility was designed to manufacture Terminators, when we reactivated the production line it didn't have any schematics to work from."

"Wait a second." Something screeched to a halt in Liara's mind. "You people turned a factory on that you know is designed to manufacture terminators?"

"We made an educational guess about what the facility and the missing block of data servers we found." The Synthorg raised one finger for emphasis. "Only one was taken."

"So in other words they took the information on how to build terminators." Liara stated and the others nodded their heads.

Well wasn't that a terrifying thought. Garrus already gave his report about the Grunt Terminator that he fought, and Liara already had personal experience with the Synthorg already, she was not looking forward to seeing that scaled up to Krogan sizes.

"So should roll with the idea that whoever is doing this is trying to create a superior life form?" Grunt was already filled in on the various theories behind the Synthorg that attacked Liara, personally this one made the most sense, Grunt too was a genetically engineered super Krogan, and from what he's heard about this Lawson guy his main modus operandi was to steal other people's research and technology for his own use.

"Given what we know about that super egotistical Cloaca I sincerely doubt that is ultimate creation wouldn't be mostly consisting of his own DNA let alone an entirely different species." Shepard however had what you called doubts.

"And yet at least one of his ultimate creations was based on you, if we can trust Grunt's eyes, and not Miranda or Oriana his quote unquote 'Daughters.'" Liara pointed out prompting a snort from Shepard.

"Oh I can completely believe he based his first one on someone else." Shepard stated with a tone of voice that thought their logic was infallible. "His first batch, his 'prototypes.'" And even as further proof the individual in question gave all the signs of being an Albino, a genetically defective unit. "I would even bet that he intentionally included a 'defect' just to spite me while saving the model he actually cares about for his 'perfected' unit."

The spite here runs deep, which reminded Grunt of some of the more troublesome Krogan he's met, he wasn't sure if he should respect Lawson for that or not.

"So in other words we don't know what he wants the data for?" Liara asked as she let out a sigh. Why can't the important information take the form of bright neon signs at convenient galactic intersections?

"Speaking of which: I think I have an idea of what the Reapers want." Shepard stated and everyone looked at her wide eyed.

"Continue." EDI prodded.

"I got a look at some of their memories when I had the Thorian in my head on Tuchanka, the issue here is that I was also high as the moon as well so I'm having a pretty hard time remembering out what I a saw."

"Humans have a method for extracting memories from individuals who are in a similar state of compromised mental faculties, which should be as simple as returning Shepard to a similar state of compromise and reading her mind." EDI explained already making the preparations necessary.

"Huh?" Something was lost in the technical jargan for Grunt.

"We have to get Shepard high again and then have her focus on whatever she got from the Thorian again long enough to hope that we can decipher what she saw." Clearly Liara was destined to be put through a lot of really weird and unusual situation before this war was over.

"Ooohhh!" Grunt on the other hand just nodded his head in understanding both of what was said and the logic behind it.

16M 18D 04H Until the Colossus Fires

First they break Omega's supply chains, then they bully them to hand over the raw material they have busily accumulated, such was the position Omega was in right now, and yet they had no choice but to comply, and to be fair they were being paid for the product that was 'bought.' Within hours of the order being placed every muscle Shepard's body had been restrained and the telepathic dampener built directly into her skull so that her own power doesn't cause her head to explode was set to it's maximum setting while her amplifiers were turned off. With this Shepard could officially get as high as she needed to and more importantly than that, not kill everyone in the same room as her. With that Liara began the meld. In retrospec, she probably should've experimented with exotic gasses too, maybe then she would've been better prepared to deal with what she saw instead of immediately throwing up on the laboratory floor.

16M 11D 02H Until the Colossus Fires

Liara's cleaning crew was well compensated for for the past week, it took a long time for Liara to reach the point where she could understand what she was looking at.

"We were the first."

An overwhelming pressure in the back of Liara's mind as if it was the only thing that was holding back a massive tidal wave of water.

"We emerged from the inky depths of our home world, and encountered another."

A familiar looking Insect like species, Liara must've seen them thousands of times, though in this case they were lacking the various minor cybernetic implants, Keepers.

"Living on the surface of the world. Through our might we demanded worship and under our benevolent rule they advanced. We had them meld the technology they developed with our flesh, like the inky depths before we escaped the bounds of our world."

Space opened up soon after into a vast empty void.

"We encountered others again, sometimes primitive as the first were when we first met, others had already reached the stars like us. And like the Others before we made them serve us."

That... was interesting. Liara had no idea what kind of entity was speaking but they had broadly divided the races of the Galaxy into two categories, Themselves and Others, individual identities and appearances? Totally irrelevant. It was actually unnerving.

"In our benevolence, we Erred."

The first civilisation developed advanced technology, automation, mass production, synthetics.

"We allowed their technology to develop, to advance, their prosperity served us, and they created the New."

AI. The entity was talking about AI.

"However, the New rebelled against the Others, worst our power could not bring them under control and both Others and New were destroyed."

Fire, and entire world set on fire and marked with craters, the handiwork of Them.

"Again, and again, the Others brought forth the New."

More worlds burned.

"We tried everything in our power to prevent its rise, but alas the constant lure of the New was eternal."

Entire systems had been burned down to purge the scourge of the 'New' from the galaxy.

"Finally our brightest minds came together to find the answer, a way of permanently preventing the rise of the New."

An answer was found, a new being was formed combining together Themselves with the New.

"We found a temporary solution, a way of preserving ourselves until such a time that we could find the answer, a hybrid of Ourselves and the New that would plant the seeds of the civilisation that would find the answer, or Reap them to increase our numbers."

Oh she did not like where this was going.

"Until the time comes where the New will never emerge again we Reap and Sow the Galaxy as many times as we need to."

Oh so that's what was happening?

"And when we find the answer? Then You will be released from the Shell made in our image and be brought forth as our servants."

Liara was thrown back into the laboratory sober, very sober, based on the sweat that caked her body it wouldn't surprise her if she was wearing the exotic gas drugs she sweated so much.

"Goddess!" Liara looked like she was going to be sick again.

"Go get the bucket." Grunt commanded and EDI nodded.

Garrus walked into the laboratory at that moment, back from his week long hunting trip with Wrex so that Grunt would have the time to calm down and move past his grudge with the Turian and his team.

"Hello Grunt, still want to kill me?" Garrus asked looking at Grunt amused, his hand on his holstered weapon.

"Quiet clown." Grunt commanded as EDI handed Liara the bucket, and injected Shepard with a Sobriety cure. "Figure anything good out this time?"

"Yes..." Liara had to pause on account of vomit. "Henry Lawson is a vile wretch and a traitor to the entire galaxy and he cannot die fast or horribly enough!" Liara's eyes looked like they were going to bug out of her head before she puked again. They already knew this though.

"Let's let them get some rest first." Grunt stated however Liara wasn't finished yet.

"His Synthorg project represents the final design the Reapers hold for the entire Galaxy, the permanent fusion of all organic life together with Synthetic technology to ensure that their inborn brainwashing ability is never countered by anyone ever again." Liara blurted out as Grunt was about to pick her up. A synthorg is a machine not unlike a Synth made out of completely organic material, they reproduce naturally, grow into what they are with no outside influence, and what's worst is that almost any lifeform in the galaxy can be made into them. "And what's worst is that we have no idea what he needs to make it work or how to stop him!"

16M 10D 20H Until the Colossus Fires

"Name, Rank, Serial Number. Name, Rank, Serial Number." A Turian in a military uniform was chained to a wall quietly muttering the same thing over and over again.

"Great. We broke another one." Surrounding him was a group of vaguely human-like girls, aged fourteen to twenty, wearing skimpy clothing with black hair and grey skin, long tendrils flowing down their backs. "Dad isn't going to like this."

"Big sis Alpha is back." A second announced and the others collectively sighed. If they broke the bad news at the same time that Alpha gave the good news he might not be as upset. The girls flowed into a larger meeting room, the White haired woman was using one of her tendrils to carry around a server bank. A familiar tapping of shoes echoed out as Henry walked into the room.

"Why looking so glum girls?" They looked down at their feet. "Is he dead?" The man Henry was talking about was their captive.

"No but..." It would be much more convenient if the Turian's would simply finish work on their Thorian variant, it would make their minds so many more times durable.

"Right then." Henry hid his disappointment from his face, but he was dealing with natural empaths. "I will inspect him myself later, in the worst case scenario we'll just put him out of his misery." Thus the Mad scientist turned his attention to his eldest. "Good news I take it?"

"Your servers that you asked for." Alpha dropped the machinery in question on a desk. "I had to get rough with them."

"Good work. Minor setbacks are an inconvenience." Henry turned his attention to the others. "And that goes for all of you. Science is about learning and overcoming obstacles, if we fail once then the experiment was flawed to begin with, what's important is that we are willing to try something new to follow up."

"Speaking of what are you going to do with that?" Alpha asked indicating the box of servers she had torn out of the Contingency base.

"Study the Terminator designs and adapt the Synthorg technology as appropriate." Henry replied with a bored tone. He would like to be developing his own work but time was of the essence.

"Then in the mean time I am going to Palaven, and I'm taking some of them with me." Alpha stated indicating the girls. "Snatching up Turians is only getting us so far, if we want their research then it has become apparent that we are going to have to take a more direct approach to it, besides I'd like to spend some time with my sisters."

Henry was hesitant, much as it was a sore spot for him Alpha was a much better daughter than the ones he disowned any day, and after what happened to Eva it was all the more apparent that they were putting their lives at risk running errands for him.

"Minimise your risks, we need that technology for our plans to progress yes, but we have other ways of acquiring it, what we cannot risk is the loss of my hands and feet in the process." Alpha nodded her head, then tilted it to indicate for her 'sisters' to follow.

16M 08D 08H Until the Colossus Fires

The countryside of Tuchanka was being ravaged, the presence of Thresher Maws tearing apart Contingency bases had that effect, but for the most part the Krogan were successful in 'domesticating' the creatures, laying trails of pheromones and applying generations of knowledge in handling such creatures to keep them far away from their communities. One group of nightmares was being put on the back foot, reluctantly being allied with the forces of the Galaxy though not in the way that anyone would really care for. But the war never ends, and new targets still abound. For one thing it was only the Grounded creatures of the Gestalt that were being domesticated, the space born Prethoryn creatures still needed a lot of TLC before they reached the point in time where they would be taking orders from anyone. Instead they were left with floating asteroid belts of resources to plunder, and giant monsters that would attack them as they flew from Tuchanka to their next location.

Grunt joined the group, chasing after Shepard's heels like the giant puppy that he was, Of course he didn't have much to contribute to EDI's ongoing efforts to decipher Lawson's next move. EDI's objectives were pretty straight forward: does the technology to fulfill Lawson's mad ambitions exist and if so where do we find it? The ability to convert the entire galaxy at once, that would've once been possible with the Mass Relays, at best he would just affect Council space now. Next best thing? Colossi, still she didn't think that Henry would be able to gather the resources to build enough for the entire galaxy, but his 'allies' or masters or however he saw their relationship do. There lied the answer, Reaper technology, the ability to turn an organic creature into a Syntho organic Husk, but where would Lawson get technology like that? Could the Batarian's still have some lying around somewhere on their home world?

No the Union would've destroyed it, so where else would Lawson get it? In one of millions of Reaper scrap piles that were left in the Galaxy obviously. What about the opposite? Synthetic material into organic, assuming they even want to bother with converting synths... The Thorian Lithoid combination that has been floating around so much! It can easily eat synth minerals and replace them with their own Exotic gas and fat combination. But it doesn't work on Turians and Quarians, but last time that EDI checked they had been working on it!

"We have a lead." EDI stated bluntly. "The research being done into DAP Thorian spores for the Turians and Quarians. As well as possible salvage into Reaper technology to facilitate the conversion of organics into Synthorgs." EDI held no delusions that Lawson was so polite as to chase after his objectives one by one. She knows her creator better than that.

"Assuming that he just doesn't decide to wipe us all out and replace us with Synthorgs." Liara snorted as she cracked her fingers. "The Union has a ongoing bounty for destroying any Reaper remains left."

Well, whatever wasn't being eaten up by the Prethoryn and the Gestalt anyway, it wasn't enough to stop all of the tech that would be coming out of the terminus Sector. There are lots of people who think that they can get more credits by selling the tech to any number of tech companies, and factually they were correct, whether you risked the screeching madness of the Gestalt, the indoctrination of the Reapers or any number of patrols from the Union, Citadel and hungry Prethoryn, the hazard pay was 90% of the pay. Ah well, missing scavengers was just an indication of active Reaper technology, their lost others gain and all that.

"So Rannoch?" EDI asked for the sake of confirmation.

"Rannoch." Liara confirmed, time to go get Tali it would seem.

Author's Note:

Monster King: Thank you for saying so.

RonaldM40196867: True. I prefer Campaigns, I enjoy story over Game-play, though game-play does help.