Author's Note: In which I keep doing side missions because I gave myself too much time for the Countdown and now need to come up with a year and a half worth of in universe content. Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!

Chapter 60: Palaven Part 2

15M 25D 19H Until the Colossus Fires

Times like this should be touted as a historical moment, out of all of the Union races that have made themselves known only the Mero have yet to show themselves beyond the one diplomatic meeting, until now that is, it's a shame that the contents of what is happening here was likely to remain top secret for the foreseeable future. Similar to the Volus researchers who were sharing the facility with them the Mero come from a unique environment, the bottom of their planet's ocean where the pressure is enough to crush most vessels like a tin can. Not only do the Mero face the challenge of needing a high pressure container in order to travel, but being water breathers said containers need to be filled with oxygenated water too. One of those conditions was met inside of this top secret Laboratory, located inside of one of the newly formed Exotic Gas Giants of the Terminus sector, jointly being run by the Volus and the Mero.

Din Von imagined this facility as a paragon of scientific research, observing the formation and smothering of exotic plasma in it's hyper dense atmosphere, watching the movements of the newly rearranged planets outside. Instead he was here conducting experiments that would make the Salarian's genophage look humane. Banishing the doubt from his thoughts Din turned to the Mero scientist they had been working with. A semi-humanoid figure, two arms that led to two vestigial hands and a single tail where legs are supposed to be, completely hairless with a long snout and a single hole in the back of the head which acted as the nose, seated at a console which was being operated presumably the cable going into the side of his head.

"Dr. Adolpho, are we ready to begin the experiment?" The Volus asked looking at the centre of the laboratory suspiciously.

"We are." The scientist spoke with a thick accent despite the barrier imposed by the universal translator, either that or he became fluent in the council's languages entirely on his own. "Bring forth the test subject." A door slid open at the centre of the laboratory from which a containment tube rose dramatically into position, inside was but a single individual, a Warlock crackling with energy as it pressed itself against the inside of the tube. "Begin the experiment." From throughout the facility dozens of Psyker Mero had been strapped to chairs, wires connected to their bodies came to life as psionic energy was drawn out of them and into a single machine located above Adolpho's right shoulder hanging from the ceiling, which now fired at the containment tube. Inside the tube the Warlock seemed to laugh as its body was split apart, multiple limbs forming as it separated into entirely new Warlocks.

"Cease!" The energy beam died down as Adolpho observed their 'victims' crammed into a single containment tube. "Unbidden have exponentially multiplied, presumably a direct consequence of being blasted with concentrated psychic energy. Levels of hostility..." Suddenly the containment tube shattered, the Unbidden inside went in several different directions at once bar one, an Unbidden totting a large energy weapon in the form of disentegrator aimed directly at them. "Remains normal." Adolpho pressed a button, at once several turrets appeared within the middle of the laboratory as the Unbidden were cut off by the realisation that they were all in a larger version of the containment tube that the first one had been trapped inside of, what followed was a slaughter not an experiment. "I want that matter disentegrator." Adolpho calmly instructed as the Unbidden that they had accidentally created were blown apart.

"Well this experiment was a failure." Din Von could only let out a sigh.

They strongly suspected that blasting the Unbidden with the Psionic energy used in a Divine Enforcer would be the equivalent of force feeding them their favourite food, what they had been hoping for is that they could've placed the newborn Unbidden under their control.

"Science has no failures." Adolpho scoffed as if chiding a immature brat.

"Does that mean you know how to place the Unbidden under control now?" Din Von asked like he was snarking at a hyper active Salarian. "I did not say that." The Dolphin like alien stated bluntly. "What we know for certain is that we cannot rely on normal thought manipulation when it comes to these creatures."

Din Von just let out a sigh. It was going to be a long one, longer still if he had to put up with snark from mad men while he worked.

15M 25D 17H Until the Colossus Fires

Liara and Shepard had been going through these ruins for the better part of three days. During that time Liara would continuously log information about the temple as they found it while continuously cross referencing it with the data on ancient Turian Architecture that she had brought up and cross referencing it with the sonar map that they had been creating, fighting off various husked animals along the way in the process.

"This place is a damned maze!" Shepard blasted another group of insects again. "Those bugs are starting to look like good eats too."

"Even if eating husks was a good idea, the allergic reaction those things would give would likely kill even you." Liara explained as one of her omni-tool's produced an impromptu crossbow and skewered a group of them.

"Well we better do something for supplies or we're going to have to return to the surface at this rate." The ruins began shaking. "Liara, what did you do?" Shepard felt distinctly like she had been left out on some very crucial details.

"What did we do love." Liara stated in a correcting tone of voice. "We have successfully cleared out a large enough section of the ruins that we can establish a forward operating base down here." The ruins shook again losing ancient fossilised dust from the ceiling in the process. "Instead of trying to navigate the ruins to surgically strike against the threat down here, we choose to establish a supply line and a forward operating base so that we could prepare for a protracted war against what would appear to be infinitely spawning enemies." Liara and Shepard had already covered the same area a few times according to Liara's mapping VI, despite which the insects corpses had already disappeared, taken away to be consumed and used as raw material to spawn more of the wretched creatures. So Liara made an executive decision and called in back up.

"Does that mean we can retreat now?" Shepard asked as she loosed more rounds into the enemy forces. "I would like to eat something that wasn't made by my suit out of my own waste now."

Shepard's suit was gross but efficient, compared to being sustained from bits of her own cannibalised flesh eating recycled dung was a luxury of the highest order, or for that matter having to subsist on husk flesh, she really wasn't interested in going through that process again, course that's mostly because it did weird things to her body at the time.

"Probably be a good idea." On that note the two of them began a retreating battle, all the way up to a large chamber where Liara's forces had made their base of operations, the hallways cut off by mass effect barriers that briefly flickered to let Shepard and Liara by. The duo had time to eat and refresh themselves while they got a communicae from EDI, the tunnels were too deep for any wireless signal to go through, but the issue was resolved by running a line down there.

"Now that scouting and base building has been taken care of do we have an idea of where exactly these 'Titans' are buried?" Shepard asked while she speared her dinner of rehydrated rations.

"The ground penetrating radar indicates a large solid mass inside of a large empty space." Liara stated looking at the holograms that her tendils had produced.

"Using words that your universal translator would actually understand please?" Shepard asked looking more annoyed than anything else.

"There's a big empty space beneath us with several larger masses inside of it." Liara stated simply.

"And at last count EDI thinks that those things are leaking exotic particles into Palaven?" Shepard asked twirling her fork between her fingers.

"Yes." Liara didn't like where this was going either. "We have no idea what the inside of that chamber is like, or just how bad the leak actually is. The dangerous thing about the Unreal space that those things create is just how much we don't know about it." Right now the only point of reference that they have as to what the shroud does to people are the Lich's and Shepard after they found her on the Collector's Space Hulk. Shepard just let out a sigh as she put her armour back on. "So do you have a plan or are you going to brute force your way through this situation like what you did on Omega?" Liara asked as she let out a sigh.

"The Latter." They didn't have time to waste navigating a maze securing every level as they went down, not when Schrodinager's clock has been ticking for millions of years, not when they didn't know their enemy or what state that they were in, or what would happen when the clock ran out.

"EDI, I need a ME elevator set up." Shepard explained as she got her Claymore shotgun cocked and ready to fire.

"Where?" EDI's voice asked suspiciously.

"The Entrance to the temple." And then Shepard fired into the ceiling punching a hole into it.

Liara just let out a sigh as she looked through the Codex for what Shepard had been talking about. Rather simple device really, a anti-gravity shute designed to pull an individual into a ship, or lower them into the ground. With Repeated fire Shepard had punched a hole into the ceiling, men in technician's uniforms were already tending to the holes installing the equipment to lock a security door into place when not in use. Shepard pulled out her mace and let out a sigh.

"Man I go through a lot of these things." The Dragoon lamented as she saluted her weapon.

"If you're planning on using that to punch a hole into the centre of the planet, don't." Liara stated bluntly. "For all we know the only thing blocking out that mass of crazy down there is the stone walls or whatever this place is made out of."

"Well then. Looks like I got work to do." Shepard stated as she slung her weapon on her shoulder. "EDI, some mining music please." The sound of a drum beat accompanied Shepard as she started smashing her club into the ground like a pic axe.

15M 25D 12H Until the Colossus Fires

EDI's job wasn't just limited to research and development or overseeing Liara's excavation, no first and foremost the Shadow Broker was all about spying on people, and first and foremost she was designed for Surveillance. While her Synthorg body was being poked and prodded EDI was looking at the surveillance footage of the people that were arriving in Turian space. Leo was already skimming through their thoughts for potential hostiles but that didn't mean that his watching would suffer a second glance. Or a third one, considering that a chunk of the security footage that the AI had been reviewing blanked out. There were of course a limited number of items that could do this, the Union intentionally keeps such things off the open markets after all, and EDI knew them all whether it be specialised reflective fabric that blocks the Video feed or fractal coding printed onto the subject somewhere on the body.

It would be a lot easier to figure out who the individual was if EDI wasn't already so swamped in this sector, the AI was already coordinating dozens of battles across the Terminus sector and playing logistics at the same time, if hacking in to Council computers and implanting her own AI clones wouldn't technically be considered a crime under the Foreign relations, and more importantly the risk of Contingency infection so high, she could've delegated this to dozens of sub programs by now.

"It's probably too late to ask Leo if he remembers who it was that he was talking to at this time." EDI swiftly concluded and instead looked at side by side photos of the individuals that had appeared, the ones who immediately preceded and followed the sudden cut of video footage. A polite inquiry sent via email explaining that they are lacking identification of the woman who was in line with them and would like any information that they had on her.

She wasn't someone that either of them knew, the one in front of her reported a human with stark white scaly skin, in other words they had gotten the Thuban Dragon Scale Genesplice that was becoming popular with the Dragon God's followers, and red eyes. The One behind her reported white hair that was tied into a bun threaded through a maintenance worker's hat, which made sense as apparently she was here to work on the DAP Thorian Variant project. A chill was going up EDI's spine at the description, the feeling of something that terrified her to the very core of her being, as if she had the instinctive realisation that if she didn't track who-or-whatever this person was down right at this exact moment: then they were going to have a catastrophe on their hands.

Finding the Albino woman turned out to be as easy as tracking down which of the footage was blanking out, should she feel better that whoever the person was their walking computer hazard was thankfully limited to only one corner of the cafeteria the Turians had set up on their lunar fortress? No, as it implied the opponent had an incredibly high degree of situational awareness of a place the didn't even exist mere weeks ago let alone scouting it in advance. Taking a deep breath EDI put on the coat that came with the new body and went to look for the figure that made her afraid. Walking into the cafeteria EDI looked to the corner where the figure should've been. Immediately EDI felt... something, curiosity, hope, those feelings went away quickly, replaced by rage and sorrow, and she soon realised that what she was feeling had been the telepathic probes of the person that she had been trying to track down. And then that body fell unconscious. Suddenly digital EDI had every surveillance device in the entire facility shut down at the same time. It seems that the person EDI was tracking was making their move.

15M 25D 11H Until the Colossus Fires

Alpha was hopeful when she saw Eva walking around the cafeteria, confused but hopeful. Then she probed her mind to figure what was happening and in the process discovered not Eva but her murderer instead, walking around in her skin like it was a cheap suit. Alpha will worry about getting her sister's body back later, for now she had to keep up her original objective and trying to track down what she had come here for. Thus Alpha was now waiting in line to her reassigned spot in the Turian's garbage excavation project. Then hearing sensitive enough to pick up on a flea jumping picked up on a notice at the security station that was her next stop.

"The intruder that blacked out the security system is a gene altered human female with scaley white skin, white hair and red eyes, be aware that the suspect is believed to be both telepathic and cybernetic." Alpha bit her tongue as she let out a quiet hiss, even worst her turn was next!

"Miss, please remove your hat." The Turian Security officer asked as he looked directly at Alpha, whose hat was blocking his view of her face. Alpha reached up a black hairy hand and removed her hat revealing the face of a black haired flerkin possessing Green eyes. "Sorry for the inconvenience miss." The Turian stamped Alpha's paw and let her on through. Great, she had to use one of the back up identities her sisters had prepared. This day was just getting better and better.

15M 24D 23H Until the Colossus Fires

Shepard and Liara had been working for over twelve hours in shifts. Shepard would smash a hole through the floor, exposing the base camp to the hoard of husked insects below, leading to the Dragoon and the local mercenary contingent to go on the offensive with exotic flamers, before securing the area with the use of turrets, Durasteel reinforced hatches, scouting drones, Mass Effect Fields and Force Shields. After that Shepard would smash another hole through the floor and repeat, or Liara would use Warp Ammo on her particle rifle to punch a hole through the floor. The Archaeologist in Liara was crying at damaging such a precious archaeological site but a far more pragmatic side of her realised the necessity, of the home world for one of the most active factions in the Terminus Sector being threatened by whatever laid at the bottom of this hole that they were digging. That said when this was all over she was going to raid Shepard Liquer cabinet and get plastered, with instructions to the Thorian to not cure her buzz until the morning no matter how bad the hangover will be. The sound of Shepard's 'mining music' wasn't helping things any, she had no idea as to what a 'dwarf' is and why it's digging a hole but Liara was hoping to get to see the ruins of their civilisation when this was all over as compensation.

"We're currently on layer thirty eight." A loud smash echoed out followed by the sound of falling stone. "Thirty Nine. We have found at least seven different pieces of suspected Reaper tech and have scorched at least one swarm nest thanks to the efforts of our scouting drones. Unfortunately said drones are not able to get further away than a nine or ten yard perimeter around the Grav shute before they get overwhelmed."

Though Liara was having people work to fix that with the Turian's stock of semi-portable turrets being emptied out to clog the halls full of slugs. Sadly the enemy husks were equally willing to clog the chambers full of husks, even worst Liara was observing that the insects were absorbing the gory remains of their brethren and use that to enhance themselves, any intact organs were scooped up into bulging sacks with roaring biotic engines inside that turned the little insects into mobile but highly delicate turrets, the gore and splatter on the other hand was used to thicken up the armoured carapace of the insect shells, the resulting combination was rather effective with armoured variants soaking up projectiles and the sack insects spitting them out. Worse still was when the creatures got so big that they retreated, only to come back later with dozens of small ones to replace them. So the little monsters had mastered siege warfare, as much as you can siege a make shift elevator inside of your own base of operations. The insects or their origins besides the point the fact of the matter was that according to Liara's information they were rapidly nearing the burial chamber that belonged to the gods that once ruled Palaven.

"What do you think Liara!?" Shepard stood surrounded by guns, a blooming flower of fire power as the durasteel doors were being fitted over the hole in the floor she had created. "You having fun yet!?" Shepard popped a grenade and threw it into the hole.

"To my surprise: Yes, despite your insistence on breaking the ruins over your knee I am actually enjoying myself." Liara saw no shame in admitting to what she had already confirmed to her partner. "Unfortunately I think that is going to be ending soon. Chances are good that after we break through the latest floor down there we're going to be in the chamber for the Titans." Under stood. Shepard climbed up through the hole that she had made and watched as Liara set up a particle beam on a tri-pod aimed at the next spot for the hole, after applying warp ammo Liara sat over with Shepard as they rested and waited for the particle beam to punch through the next floor.

"How long until we break through?" Shepard asked as she cracked open a beverage can full of water, electrolytes and other things needed to cool off and re-hydrate after a hard evening's work in the mines.

"About as long as it'll take for you to finish that can." Liara replied already getting ready with her own nasty surprise. Of course they're not going to club the Reaper's to death, or shoot them, they were both busy women and had no desire to be here for months chipping away at literal gods. As soon as the last layer had broken through an ear piercing screech was echoed out of the hole, mitigated only by the attempts by the anti-indoctrination devices to cancel it out.

"I thought we weren't supposed to be able to hear ultra sound!?" Liara shouted over the screaming, Shepard couldn't hear her over the noise with her normal hearing, but the telepathy was still going strong it would seem.

"We aren't!" So what the hell is that noise then?

Suddenly sparks started flying out of the various equipment, everything was being fried. When you stop and think about it, the question is raised as to how the ancient Turian's were able to stop the Reapers of yore. After all they were but a relatively primitive pre-FTL civilisation at the time, even with the Reaper's stripped from their cybernetic shells they were still massive giants wielding all the brute strength therein alongside biotics and psionics. Unless of course they discovered a particular weakness of the synthorganic monstrosity and used that to bludgeon them into submission, and then after said bludgeoning was over hooked the device up to the Reapers own infinite power source just to make sure the dead gods stayed buried. Well not that Shepard or Liara had any interest in them.

"Adaptation complete." And then just like that the group felt their insides remaking and shifting around, the Thorian was trying a hundred different configurations a second to try and find a way of blocking out the noise, too soft and they'd turn into jelly, too hard and they'd shatter like glass. So compromise, each fibre inside of their bodies, many of them being rapidly replaced by the Thorian after being damaged by the high intensity sound waves, were drawn tight like the strings on a violin so that they can absorb and disperse the high intensity sound. Of course they couldn't exactly move like this, but it did give them time for other interested parties to work.

15M 21D 01H Until the Colossus Fires

Luckily for Alpha these bugs like biotics so much. Some exotic gas was enough to turn the groups of them she found into ash, it helps that that meat head was making so much noise, it got all the little monsters into a ruckus. Of course perhaps they were hoping that she'd bring this along to the surface. Turns out the much sought after husk beacon was a lot closer to the surface than any one thought it was, odds were good that if construction of that laboratory had continued the stupid Turian's would have tripped over it. The Beacon was tall, taller than Alpha though that wasn't saying much, compared to most adult humans she was a little short. No matter she had accounted for this size before she got here. Taking out a metal sheet Alpha unfolded it and popped out a long rectangular box, into which she lowered the beacon and locked it inside. Of course it attempted to transform her into a husk slave, and was surprised to say the least when it realised she was already full of reaper tech. The box would neutralise the indoctrination signal and the husk wave, now all she had to do was transport it back to the surface and she would be home clear. Instead however Alpha sat down on the box and glared below.

"Those guys definitely aren't going to be able to deal with those things by themselves." Alpha concluded as she let out a sigh. "I should just be happy to bring back this thing and Eva's body." But her cute little sister was dead and someone else was wearing her body, who would be satisfied after having the chance to confront her murderer and not taking it? "Huu. I'm going to regret this."

Luckily they weren't exactly subtle on the way down, the ancient temple/fortress/tomb the Turian's built to bury their gods had a giant hole punched into it leading straight down into the burial chamber after all, it's not like this'll be a long detour.

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