Unknown Location
"The humans make haste, brother…"
"As does the lion into the trap."
"I believe it is time to intervene. Contact Jul."
"Is this wise? The correct course?"
"It is our only course. I shall go… Prepare your ship, brother."
Sanctuary, Horizon, 2186 Citadel Calendar, 08:23
September 6th
Steeper and steeper. Darker and darker. No light. The Commander could barely see his teammates on his NVGs. They may have traveled a klick. The rumbles, earthquakes, continued, growing louder as they approached what Shepard hoped would be the epicenter. The further they traveled, the more frequent and intense they grew. This wasn't any UNSC-styled MAC gun. Yet at the very least they were protected from the ashes and holocaust up above.
The floors and wall were black onyx tiled. Shepard decided it was safe enough to activate moonbeams. The light came out from right under the barrel of his rifle. The onyx reflected a perfect clarity photo back.
Shepard looked like shit.
"You look like shit," Wrex said. "Humans don't handle stress well."
"Thanks," Shepard replied. "I needed that confidence booster."
"Anytime, Commander."
After another one-hundred meters as the black luminous hall grew to a sixty-degree angle, Shepard could see bright red signal lights that ran along the walls. It left blue shadows along with its surroundings.
"Joker?" Shepard said… They were too deep underground. Nothing but static and maybe jargled words. Commander wasn't sure if it was just his imagination. "Damnnit."
"Want to send a runner?" Liara asked.
Shepard looked back into the black hall. He couldn't see the light from the cathedral above.
"We'll stick together. Radio the Normandy when we can."
The teams finally reached what looked like even ground. They were in a large rectangular room shrouded in darkness and encased in black one-way mirrors. Directly up ahead was a row of computer terminals. No bodies. Empty. No signs of conflict..
Tali approached first. She opened up her Omni-tool, inputted some sort of code from Miranda's acquired files. She slowly waved it over the terminals.
"They've been wiped," Tali reported. "I'll see if there's any residual data or leftovers of input commands."
Room secured. There were no other areas of ingress. For a moment, Shepard lowered his rifle and relaxed. And images came flooding into his head. Not of the horror above, but….something else.
That forest.
The black ash and shadowy figures...and, something else. Something deep in the heart of the petrified wood and decayed leaves. Located in and without dark grey, splotchy mist.
He heard screaming, animalistic screaming. No one else reacted. It was in his head.
"Bosh'et!" Tali yelled. "Okay, I think I got something. Stand by…."
Slowly, past the black mirror, lights activated one by one. Outside was a massive hollow structure, built similarly to an O'Neill Cylinder. The total cylinder was maybe a klick in diameter and a dozen klicks in length. Except instead of a continuous surface that went around the entirety of the walls, the actual floor was made of numerous pipe systems, and along the actual walls were…
"My God…" Shepard said as he and his team stared in shock. "They recreated a near-perfect replica of a Collector ship."
The cylinder walls were created entirely of what had to be tens upon tens of thousands of cryo-pods, each housing a single individual. At least, they once housed individuals. Now, most pods were opened or large sections scathed in fire. These ones were destroyed and left blackened and dead. Near the opposite base of the cylinder was a bright pale orange light, leading to destinations unknown.
But what it was held in its center, far before the infinite light was the most interesting. And it's size seemed small in the cylinder...
A ship.
A UNSC ship.
Bulky and scrapped together to form a single blocky organism. Armor and guns defending an undercarriage of modules, components, and hangers. They stared at the front of the ship, directly into its main MAC cannon.
"The screen says… Spirit of Fire," Tali reported. "Isn't this one of your files, Miranda?"
"Yes, it is…."
Shepard noticed more and more hangers and supply modules. Along the armored edges of the ship, the Commander saw lines of ships. At least on the port side edge. Similar ships attached to the Infinity. Those ones that dropped off module bases. The starboard edge however looked like it was ripped off by something.
"Is this ugly enough for your liking, Tali?" Wrex asked.
"It's getting there," Tali said. She looked back down at the computer. "Acquisition: November… Ah, of course, that's wiped. Let's see… Declared lost with all hands… That's interesting. It uses UNSC military calendar. 2534."
"2534?" Liara thought. "Twenty-six years ago. Plenty enough time to develop the technology."
"Can you get any more recent dates, Tali?" Shepard asked.
"Trrrrying… Chikita!" She yelled at her VI. "Here… Take a look at this."
She moved a screen pad. It was a security feed… Dated nearly a week ago.
The camera showed the same scene, except filled with freshly dead Cerberus officers. Four figures entered the room off-camera…
"Goddess…" Liara said. "Spartans."
Spartans. UNSC Spartans dressed in a variety of colors, red, black, green, so on. Among them was a woman wearing modified Spartan-III armor with a thick white jacket acting as an undersuit. She had dark shaggy brunette hair that reached where her neck met her shoulders. Wielding a suppressed pistol, she supervised the Spartans as they worked.
"Do you recognize any of the…?" Shepard asked.
"Yes…" Liara said. "That Spartan team… The same one that tried to corner Kasumi and Thane aboard the Citadel…"
"ONI…" Shepard said.
"ONI sabotaged Cerberus…?" Liara began. "Why?"
"The Illusive Man can have…" Miranda spoke, "a strong personality."
"Well…" Tali looked up. "What the…? GET DOWN!"
Something crashed against the control box, destroying the windows into chunks of plastic. Shrapnel flew across the room. Bits of onyx glass rained in the control room. Electric fires burst as computer screens cracked, wiring panels, and bits of Eezo rained on Shepard's armor. The smell of carbonite and lead-filled his nose, cutting his sinuses. The rest of the team cramped into cover, limbs tangled up and heads ducked deep into cover.
And it was the catalyst of a plethora of small arms fire. Utter encryption of lead, eezo, plasma, and needles in every direction. In the wall opposite of shore party, blamite needles pierced the metal wall. Burning bright pinkish-purple, they slowly cooled off into a dull violet. More shards of glass rained down.
"Can you get eyes!" Shepard yelled on team comms.
"Not without getting our heads blown off!" Wrex yelled. "We're pinned."
And besides the way they came in, which was locked down by what seemed like consistent fire, there were no other egress points. Now it bit them in the ass.
Tali activated Chikita and threw him over the firing line. A burning ball of orange light. Hopefully, he was in range to hunt down targets.
"How long would a biotic shield last against those weapons?" Shepard asked.
"For solid matter like the blamaite crystals, we should be fine, but against plasma?" Liara said. Something smashed against their cover. Burning hot white entities hit the ground in front of them. "I haven't studied the effects. It could be highly volatile."
Only if they're desperate essentially.
There has to be another point of ingress. Someway to access the outer O'Neill cylinder from this control room.
"Wrex, check the other side of the room for an access point!" The Commander ordered. Luckily, the row of computers and hardened desks lined up against the walls of the control room.
Shepard began to crawl over his teammates, one by one.
"Commander, buy me a drink first…" Miranda commented.
Shepard didn't respond as another round of blamite hit the wall. He crawled through glass shards, reaching portside of the room. He looked around, trying to find a door or something.
And he heard something. Static. Gargled static and voice. It was coming underneath the computers. Shepard saw it. A camouflage green radio with a black naval styled eagle painted on the side.
"This is Battle two-one, in contact with company-sized element at FOB Anaheim. Requesting immediate fire support-"
"We have no armored or air support. All line companies standby for orders-"
"-send traffic. I have one heavy weapons team, callsign Raven."
UNSC forces?
He grabbed the comm. They weren't supposed to be here. That's the whole point of why they were here. Was it ONI?
"Raven, you're cleared hot. Prosecute targets at-"
Shepard tried holding down the link button. Nothing. It's busted. Still, underneath one of the consoles was a button. Fuck.
Was it ONI survivors?
Whatever. In any event, looks like they'll have to go for biotics. Wrex can reinforce her, if-
...Something, a hand reached over the control panels and lifted itself up into view.
A morbid shadow of a Sangheili, each mandible replaced by a tentacle appendage. Its remaining face was mangled, scarred skin covered by reinforced metallic armor and eyes replaced with bright blue lights. It had a lower slouch, caused by visible vertebrae along its spine covered in black and red cybernetics. Its left arm had been replaced by a pure metal sword. It amalgamated dead, necrotic skin covered with the shards of Reaper tech where the end of the sword met the elbow. Its right hand was replaced with a weapon, a more sleek, streamlined version of a Cannibal's primary firearm.
It's body…. Whoever the Sangheili was, looked like he had been starving for weeks. The flesh had been eaten away, leaving large gaps to display dead organs outfitted with more cybernetics.
Hunkered and far smaller than a normal Sangheili, in ways it looked very similar to…
A Promethean.
"Holy shit," Wrex said.
"MOVE!" Shepard yelled.
The team jumped out of the way just as the being smashed its sword right into the control panel. Metal was crushed and sliced in half. Whoever was shooting at them now turned on the Reaper Sangheili. Blamite shards pierced bio-mechanical matter.
And Shepard knew stopping power was the way to go. He grabbed the assault rifle and cocked a round into the chamber. Without a scope, it was designed for CQC.
He fired. Kept his finger on the trigger as sixty rounds blasted right into the oversized Reaper. The clip emptied fast. Chunks of dead flesh ripped away and the Reaper kneeled down.
More disfigured Sangheili emerged, and something grabbed Shepard's right arm. The tentacle dragged him back. He dropped the rifle and radio and activated his Omni-tool. Sword. Here we go.
He twisted his body and smashed the blade onto the tentacle. It immediately came off and went limp around the Commander's wrist. And reacting, the Commander turned over and kneeled, raising his blade just in time to meet the Reaper's.
He looked into the face of horror and it screamed. Loud enough where the noise dampers in his helmet activated. He saw in its mouth intricacies replaced by mechanical parts and blue signal lights. Along the edges of its mandibles, razor-sharp teeth lined the top and bottom.
The Commander activated his Carnifex weapons block and proceeded to fire into the gaping wound. Heavy-duty micro-rounds tore into the stomach lining (what was once stomach lining) and a red slush-like substance began to pour onto the onyx black floor. Bits of internal eezo sprayed onto Shepard's armor. The black substance, viscosity like oil, dripped down his armor or pooled in gaps along the metal pads.
This thing isn't going fucking down.
"MAYDAY!" Shepard yelled.
"We're a little busy!" Wrex yelled back.
Self-aid, buddy-aid. The Commander's thermal clip ran out. He ducked down, underneath the Sangheili Its sword slipped off Shepard's, and the Reaper's momentum pushed it forward. Shepard buried the sword of light right through the Reaper. The tip ripped through to the other side.
A black and blue shadow of pure force pushed the Reaper over the edge. Shepard noticed it hadn't transformed into ash.
"You're welcome!" Miranda yelled.
The blamite crystals were now purely assaulting the Reapers, providing hyper-accurate fire discipline. The shards pierced the metal armor of the dead Sangheili, and (hopefully) dug into the flesh.
Wrex pushed one away and unloaded his Claymore. Two rounds directly into the face of the Sangheili. Tentacles were ripped apart and its mouth was an unrecognizable mesh of burnt red.
The Reaper screamed. Mechanical and filled with rage, swinging blindly at the Krogan. He easily ducked out of the way and loaded a new thermal clip.
"I never seen anything survive a blast in the face from Bessy before," Wrex commented.
"You really call it that?" Shepard wasn't sure who asked that before another tentacle from behind the edge of the control room.
It looked like more Sangheili Reapers were climbing up to breach the control room. A plethora of tentacles tried to grip Shepard's extremities. His Omni-sword kept most of the chaos at bay.
"Form a firing square!" Shepard ordered.
The team tried to reform, keeping the tentacles off of them and staying low to avoid direct conflict. It seemed their design was to take on heavy-weight enemies, not something small. Not them. At least, everyone but Wrex
The space was getting crowded. They needed to fall-
Holy shit. Shepard saw it. The big button is right under the console. He pushed it and right next to the entrance door passageway opened. Again, into blackness,, but…
"MOVE!" Shepard ordered. "Get to the entrance."
Ducking and fighting, the crew pushed through with a combination of biotics and Chakita. It kept the swarth of tentacles and blunt swords at bay. One tentacle grabbed at Liara's foot. She fell to the floor, her helmet smacking against the black onyx. Shards of blamite crystals rained down on her body. Wrex moved in, stepping right on the tentacle, doding a swing from the sword, and firing off whatever shotgun rounds he had left. Miranda rolled out of the way of a sword swing from another Reaper, whose sword was stuck in the control panel wall. Still, it grabbed her with one of its tentacles and began to crush the metal overlays over her armor. Tali ignited an overload shock right in the Reaper's face. Some of it hit Miranda, but the thing let go of her. She scrambled to the door.
Wrex grabbed Miranda from the ground and threw her through the door. Liara ran in. Tali ducked through the hail of blamite and dragged Shepard by his pull collar. The Reapers were closing in. Wrex ran over and sped up the process. Shepard pulled out his carnifex and fired at the incoming dead Elites.
"We're through. SHUT THE DOOR!" Wrex yelled.
Miranda hit something on her Omni-tool, and the doors began to shut. The Reapers realized this, charging with all abandoned. The fired bursts of eezo fire that hit the team's collective kinetic shields. The doors hit shut before the Reapers could make it. Shepard could hear pounding on the door along with numerous small arms reports. Something else intermixed with the noise. A steady tapping.
"UNSC machine gun," Shepard reported.
"Here?" Wrex asked.
"By the Goddess…" Liara said through pained breaths.
"Yeah…" Wrex replied. "Looks like the mission got-"
"No, just no."
"Let's not."
"Just….no." Miranda finished.
Shepard looked around as if just noticing the absolute pitch black. The small arms fire created an echoey chorus that bounced through the air.
"Go to moonbeams," Shepard ordered as he turned on his Mattock's flashlight. The others did the same. It was a similar sight. A clustered hallway with black onyx walls and control panels. This time, however, the seal of Cerberus painted each panel.
"Come on," Shepard said, proceeding forward. "We have to keep moving."
The team was shaky. Unknown how much ammo they utilized, but until they get somewhere truly secured they'll have to do the supply and ammo count later. There was a crash. Shepard turned to find Miranda had tripped, no, collapsed on the floor with a groan.
"What's wrong?" Shepard asked as he got out the medi-gel.
"Got hit," Miranda said as she readjusted herself and looked at her leg. A trail of bright red blood ran down the black metal and overlay. Without hesitation, she began to strip off the blocking armor and readied up a tourniquet.
"You didn't think to report it?" Shepard yelled. "Are you fit to-"
"Yes. I'm fine," Miranda asked as she applied her own medi-gel. The wound, located in her mid-thigh immediately closed up. She ripped out some gauze and disinfected sterilizer. She filled in the kinetic wound with a powdery liquid substance, then shoved in gauze. Proceeded to bandager herself up and tightened the tourniquet. She put the armor back on and got back up. "I don't think we have a choice."
All Shepard could do was sigh. Liara put a hand on his side and nodded.
"Let's hope those poor fuckers aren't Cerberus' creations," Wrex said.
"We already know they're capable," Liara replied.
There was a door up ahead painted with another Cerberus symbol. A few dozen meters ahead. Miranda was limping, but quiet as her combat boot made a loud thud on the floor.
Tali and Wrex stared at Miranda. She sighed, "no, I don't know."
"Just checking…" Tali muttered.
They approached the door, and Shepard noticed the dead infantry bodies. Cerberus standard. Blood splatters on their armor. Bullet holes everywhere. Electric sparks from damaged panels.
"Large, superficial puncture wounds," Liara said as she kneeled over one. "Blunt trauma from the impacts… UNSC weapons most likely."
"How old?" Shepard asked.
"Compared to the others….Maybe about a day ago," she said. She and the rest of the team began to stack up, ready to breach.
"How are we gonna take on those Elite Reapers?" Tali asked.
"Unnecessary violence?" Wrex replied. "Either way I got nothing on scanners."
Tali held her breath, opened up her omni-tool and prepared to breach. Shepard readied a grenade and incineration on his omni-tool. Everyone else stacked up behind Wrex.
"Ya know, guys, I think I'm being paid less than I'm appreciated for," he said.
"You're getting paid?" Tali asked. She opened the doors and the team stormed in. Nothing. Nothing but white light.
Light. And weapons.
"Keelah…" Tali said.
"Enough to arm an army," Wrex said.
I think that's the point, Shepard wanted to say as he looked at the massive, empty lab divided into subsections and stations. Well, not necessarily empty. Dead, mutilated scientists and lab techs laid everywhere. Scorch marks, bullet holes, all other major signs of battle. But among these labs and tech stations was the most impressive sight: weapons stations. Micro-armories. Rows upon rows of weapon racks. Repair stations, mod benches, work areas, and a few dozen firing ranges.
They were at an observation deck, only a flight of stairs above the lab. Shepard saw weapons of various sorts. Standard Citadel and Alliance weapons, ranging from Black Widows to Mattocks to Avenger rifles, and so on. Among them, however, was the more strange and exotic sort.
The team carefully and slowly walked down the stairs. Tali shut the doors behind them. When they hit the main floor, they were already surrounded by Cerberus-colored secured weapons racks and a weapons repair station.
"...Keelah…" Tali said as she approached one of the racks. She activated her omni-tool and began to hack through, "do you know what this is?"
"It just looks like a standard avenger rifle," Shepard commented as he approached.
"No," Tali replied. "It's an older rifle model… Before the mass thermal clip modification. This is the older generation, where it cooled down with internal systems."
"Meaning you don't need ammunition," Shepard realized. Tali sighed, got out her shotgun and smashed the lock on the weapons rack. The doors spilled open. "I always thought the thermal clip sweep was stupid."
"You and me both," Tali replied. "Been years since I've seen one of these weapons types."
She handed the rifle over to Shepard. It felt heavier, old… And Shepard suddenly had flashbacks to the beaches of Virmire, the snows of Noveria… and so on.
"Damn, check this out!" Wrex said as he approached another sectioned off area of the lab.
Tali collected more weapons. Shepard headed over and saw a near pile of unsecured weapons.
"Sixty rounds each," Wrex said. "I've seen these assault rifles on UNSC marines. Most rounds they carry are thirty-two.
The piles was surrounded by a circle of dead technicians. Shepard picked up one of the rifles and inspected it. It did look different from the assault rifles he'd seen so far. More bulky and bland silver, with near little detail concerning the nomenclature. He turned it over, inspecting it.
"A stamp," Shepard said as he looked at the butt of the rifle, "serial number, manufacturing company… and UNSC Spirit of Fire."
"That same ship we saw back there…" Miranda said. "Captain Lasky said it was lost with all hands. Declared lost at least… Christ, this is how they accessed UNSC tech. They raided armories, improved and developed upon it."
"That ship looked huge," Tali said. "How much do you think they have?"
"Once they got the processors and manufacturing and supplies ready to replicate it," Miranda thought for a moment, "enough to supply their four-million man army."
Shepard put the rifle back, "so I assume then these rifles are older models?"
"Thirty-ish years older," Tali replied.
The Commander looked around and spotted a rack and workbench of Alliance shotguns. He approached and inspected it. Same as the avenger model. Older, internal heating systems.
"You won't find advanced weapons with internal heating systems," Tali said. "Claymores, Black widows, all part of that new generation… But, I guess Cerberus must've thought it would've been more tactically sound to have no need to carry all those thermal clips."
Maybe. Shepard spoke, "gather what you want, what you need. We need to keep moving, find any evidence of Blue Team."
The team nodded. Before they headed off into the section, Wrex looked at a weapons rack of shotguns. He grabbed one. Again, it looked plain with little detail. Silver and black, it was much larger than his claymore.
"'M90 close assault weapons system.' Hmm," Wrex utilized the swing and swung it over his back. "Don't mind if I do."
"You know, size doesn't matter," Liara said.
"I'm sure you say that to Shepard a lot."
Most of this section was filled with weapons racks. All of it old UNSC and Citadel weapons models. They reached a small barrier wall with a broken door.
Shepard peaked through, and this time saw more advanced eezo complexes and repair stations. The racks in there were purple and pink under the surface. Covenant plasma weaponry. A lot of it.
The team approached Shepard. He saw they scavenged a few items, a few extra weapons blocks. They probably felt a lot more comfortable knowing it was okay to run out of thermal clips.
"You know Wrex," Shepard said as he continued to peek through the door, "I'll remember that next time I have to save your ass."
"Heh. Heh."
Shepard stepped in, and just like the last room, technicians littered the floor with a variety of weapon wounds. However, a few Cerberus troops laid among them.
The team was right on Shepard's back. He looked around at the rows of Covenant carbines, plasma rifles, and various needle-based weapons. A large part of the room was encased in heavy-duty thick plastic glass maybe a few inches in depth. On the other side, a weapons testing station was covered in black soot and blood. A single rifle stood upright on various vices. Painted black, it looked far different than any Covenant models Shepard had seen before.
"Strange…" Miranda said. "None of these areas have been ransacked."
True. Shepard looked at the racks. Plasma rifles of differing sizes and models were held behind metal bars and shields. Grenades, explosives, and plasma fuel rod cannons were held behind another rack.
"I don't know if I trust these weapons. From everything I have seen, they seem...volatile," Shepard commented.
"What makes you say that?" Liara asked.
"I saw a rifle used as a grenade."
Liara grunted as she looked over a row of plasma pistols. Somehow Tali had already gotten into the test room. She and Wrex were observing the black rifle. Wrex, of course, pulled the trigger, and a burst of hyper plasma light hit the wall. Inside of the usual splatter, it seemed to pierce the wall right through.
"Eezo's effect on plasma...as a substance. Why not weaponize it?" Liara mumbled. "Speaking of volatility, maybe tell Wrex this isn't a scavenger hunt?"
"...Are you okay?"
"Just...scared…" Liara said. "I think it was Miranda who mentioned that Cerberus funded all this through selling it off to the Black Market, the Terminus Systems, yet I have never seen any of this until a couple months ago…"
"Maybe Cerberus had a different way," Shepard replied.
"Maybe… I'm just worried what we'll find down here."
"Yeah… Especially with ONI down here."
Wrex and Tali returned with the experimental weapon on the Quarian's hip. The weapons block looked bulky, and much larger than usual.
"You pretty much have a bottle of liquid sun in your pocket, do you know that?" Miranda asked.
"We're just at the tip of the iceberg," Shepard whispered. "Keep it lightweight, team."
Shore party proceeded forward. It took a minute for Shepard to realize the dead bodies didn't even bother them. At least, not these ones.
...
The complexes grew darker, and the bodies more frequent. The bright white Cerberus surgical lights were replaced with soft blue lights. It wasn't until they reached the epicenter that they realized what these people most likely died to defend.
Sterile, clean and quiet. Row upon row of circular platforms, each surrounded by an array of tech and medical tables and robotic arms. Yellow warning rails surrounded each platform. Some of them had pieces of armor attached to some of the arms.
"Woah…" Tali said as the team stepped forward. Shepard saw something. One of the upper arms had an object attached. A helmet. Pitch black with a dark blue visor. A Spartan helmet.
"This is where they were armed…" Shepard said.
Wrex approached the helmet. He ripped it off the arm, and nearly dropped. "Fuck me, this shit is heavier than it looks!"
"Come on, let's keep moving." Shepard ordered.
The hall was maybe two hundred yards long with a reinforced door at the end. It was already beaten open, maybe having a foot of access way. Wrex, being the initiative type, unsheathed the UNSC shotgun and peaked into the door.
"Dead," Wrex reported.
"Literal or figurative?" Miranda asked.
"Yeah…" Wrex forced one of the doors open. "Plus this…"
Behind the broken door was a pod. A cryo pod with an individual inside.
"Vital-scans… Been dead a long, long time," Tali reported.
A classification was printed at the bottom of the pod.
Jorge-052.