Petroleum Effect
Chapter Ten - Feros
Terran Dominion Frigate Normandy, Feros Orbit, Theseus System, Attican Beta Cluster, 29 June 2183
The Normandy arrived above Feros fully cloaked, to find a Geth attack underway as expected. A signal was sent and a few minutes later a portal opened. The three-kilometre-long shape of the sword ship Image of Violence emerged firing. Only a few Geth ships were in orbit and shortly thereafter the orbital space was clear, occupied only by the human ships and Geth debris.
Onboard the Normandy CIC, Lilith Shepard and Miranda Lawson conferred quietly, whilst Captain David Anderson ran his ship.
"I think we need to go down there," said Miranda, "there are some highly sensitive Dominion research projects going on and they need to be secured."
"Mob-handed?" suggested Shepard, "we could take a company of troops from the Sword Ship?"
"Nope," said Miranda, "I thought of that but -"
Lawson was interrupted by a chime from the battlespace display hologram. Located in the centre of CIC, the versatile hologram display could show navigational data from a galactic to a planetary surface scale. Right now, red indicators and alarms were showing a large ship had appeared without warning and was aligning with the Image of Violence. The display updated. The ship was firing on the Image of Violence. A close-up visual appeared in a magnified box - the attacking vessel was Nihlus' flagship.
Five lines of light lanced out from the tips of the vessel's tendrils, striking the Image of Violence amidships. The vast human vessel's shields flared up ... and held. Four of seven layers of energy shielding collapsed but the stronger inner shields remained up. The human sword ship reacted automatically, spinning out of the line of fire. Moments later a volley of warp bolts hurtled through space in retaliation towards the strange, cuttlefish-like, alien craft. Before the barrage could impact, the alien vessel disappeared into FTL, leaving space clear once more - for real this time.
"Wut!?" exclaimed Miranda.
The comm chimed.
"Incoming message from the Image of Violence," reported Communications Officer Friedrich Gunther.
"Put it on," replied Miranda.
The Image of Violence's commanding officer, Captain Anthony Balsom, joined the conversation.
"Grey Lady Lawson, I think we just got hit by a failed ambush. Sensors indicate that weird-looking alien ship hit us with the most powerful attack from an alien weapon on record. Those blasts would have blown a conventional Dominion dreadnaught apart, or any alien dreadnaught. Four of our shields were knocked down and two of them will need minor repairs."
"Interesting," responded Miranda, "it must have expected a complete kill and fled when your shields weren't even down."
"Something of a shock for them, I'd imagine."
"Indeed," replied Miranda, "let's get all our sensor records of it for analysis. Don't pursue - they may attempt to lead you into a trap and we need you here. Just get patched up, get your shields up and we can after-action it later. We're going down to the planet. Keep us safe. Normandy out."
Captain Anderson remained diplomatically silent. For all intents and purposes, Miranda Lawson was functioning as a commodore and treating his CIC as a flag deck. He knew better than to cross one of the Grey Lords by arguing about protocol.
Miranda turned back to Shepard.
"Okay so as I was saying, there is sensitive stuff on the planet and I am concerned to minimise the number of witnesses. It's just you and me honey. On the plus side, I've got us some goodies. I've assigned us some proper Grey Lord gear from the sword ship - none of that element zero rubbish! Also, some proper weapons!"
Shepard and Miranda hit the lockers. Not long after they were dressed in serious powered armour. The Grey Lord battle armour looked like the kind of medium-heavy protection that might be fielded by the Citadel races. It was not. Dominion troops usually only fielded element zero powered equipment to conceal their technical advantage from the other races and to avoid equipment being captured and reverse engineered (although this would be almost impossible for some items, without the mathematical basis to do so). The sword ship, however, was part of the Dominion's secret elite military. Everything on board was top of the line and made use of the best available technologies including the petroleum effect.
The barriers on the armour were over a hundred times more powerful than the Turian or Asari equivalent. They could also stop lasers and other direct energy weapons, which mass effect barriers could not. Wearing the armour a soldier could walk casually through small-arms fire for short periods like it was rain. The composite materials that made up the physical portion of the armour were also superior to Citadel-make, albeit the difference was much smaller. The armour also came with adaptive, chameleon-like, camouflage and reactionless, silent, flight as standard.
Once Shepard was suited up, Miranda handed her a heavy black left hand gauntlet, intended to go over the armour and to interface with it.
"This is a heavy laser combat gauntlet. It fires 50,000 kilowatt bursts. Enough to melt and partially vaporise most infantry in a very small fraction of a second. Petroleum power source so no practical shot limit, but it will overheat and lock out temporarily if you fire too often. On the wrist and back of the hand is a secondary shield projector, and the surface of the unit will integrate with the armour and copy its camouflage patterns. There's a simple psionic effect to cloak the armour - that's on top of the camouflage, but you have not been trained so I will cloak us both."
After Shepard put on the heavy gauntlet, she tried out the force-field and settings for a moment. The gauntlet projected a circular style shield made of force. This was in addition to the armour's force barriers, which covered her whole body. When camouflage was activated, the surface of the armour rapidly changed colour to match its surroundings.
"There's a power sword in the right thigh sheathe and a combat knife in both boot sheathes," enthused Miranda, "... and Shepard, one last thing. Mind-shield at all times on this planet, please and keep your suit pressure-sealed at all times. There is more than meets the eye here."
The Normandy entered the atmosphere, still invisible. As far as the eye could see, there were the ruins of a Prothean city. Countless enormous skyscraper arcologies rose from the surface, linked by bridges. The Normandy landed on one of the vast, ruined, mega-city skyscrapers. Miranda and Shepard soon dropped to the roof from the side airlock door. The Normandy closed the outer airlock door and waited. Miranda had ordered Captain Anderson to remain cloaked. Shepard could see right through the ship as if it was not there.
Feros, Theseus System, Attican Beta Cluster, 29 June 2183
"I suggest we fly down and override the docking bay doors," said Shepard, "we can approach Zhu's Hope colony discreetly."
"Agreed," replied Lawson.
The docking bay they could have used to arrive openly was not far below the roof of the tower. Miranda and Shepard flew down using their powered armour and approached the docking port. It was a few moments work for Miranda to override the door, without setting off an alarm. They entered a creepy, brownish, dilapidated looking corridor. Everything looked quiet but Shepard's suit HUD showed red dots. Geth, reported a HUD label.
"Sensors on these suits are good," said Miranda softly over the armour vox.
"Let's kill the Geth," replied Shepard.
The women strolled down the corridor, met by a sudden barrage of bullets and what looked like a small missile. They ignored them. Their armour barriers were over one-hundred times the power of equivalent element zero suits. Shepard tried out her laser gauntlet. The beam was invisible, but there was an overlay in her HUD showing it as a gentle blue. Shepard swept her laser from side to side. Wherever the laser touched, things burned, melted or exploded. Soon the Geth welcoming party was no more than molten parts. The Dominion armour barriers had dropped by no more than about 40%, and soon regenerated once the fight was over.
Shepard and Miranda continued through the complex. They encountered Geth stalkers but Miranda used telekinesis to snatch them out of the air and smash them into the ground until they broke.
After a while, Shepard and Miranda found themselves heading up some stairs and out onto another section of roof. This contained a number of prefabricated Dominion colony buildings. It was guarded by humans behind makeshift barricades. Surprised, the grimy, desperate looking figures raised weapons.
Shepard activated her armour speakers. "Dominion military! I'm Lieutenant Commander Lilith Shepard, this is Commander Miranda Lawson. We need to speak to someone in charge!"
A stray bullet struck Shepard's barrier and bounced.
"We're human!" shouted Shepard.
"Sorry!" came a reply.
Weapons were lowered, and the women proceeded into the small colony, following directions. "You'll want the boss, Farley Daniels!" They heard the guards announcing them over a communicator.
A few moments later, Shepard and Lawson stood before a slightly overweight, balding man.
"Oh Commander Lawson!" he gushed. "Thank goodness someone's come to help us!"
The conversation was interrupted by a metallic burst of noise from a tunnel entrance next to him.
"Look out!" screamed Daniels. "We've got Geth in the tower!"
Miranda watched, smirking, as Shepard vanguard-charged into the tunnel using her psionic powers then opened up with her laser gauntlet. A few minutes later, all the Geth had been destroyed. Shepard and Miranda saw a dropship lifting off the roof. They reconvened with Daniels.
"The tower is secure, thanks to you!" he simpered.
"I'm just glad your colony is safe," replied Shepard.
"I appreciate your concern and your help," continued Daniels.
A harsh faced, short-haired woman standing next to Farley Daniels interrupted, slightly hysterical, "They may have been slowed, but they'll be back. They always come back!"
"What do they want?" asked Miranda.
"If you want to know, go ask them yourself!" snapped the woman.
"We don't know what they want. They came, they attacked us, that's all we know," responded Daniels, more politely. He went on, "Their main base seems to be at the ExoGeni Corporation headquarters."
"How do we get there?" asked Shepard.
"The skyway will get you there, but there's an army of Geth between us and the headquarters!" shrieked the short haired woman.
"Before you go," said Daniels, "perhaps you could help us get this place back on its feet?"
"What do you need?" - Shepard projected helpfulness and professionalism. Miranda thought she was being a bit too deferential but it was entertaining to watch.
"We need the Geth wiping out!" Daniels was emphatic. "We also have more mundane problems - food, water and power are all out."
A series of rather tedious conversations ensued. The colonists were short of food. A provisioner had the bright idea of hunting varren for meat but was afraid of a large, alpha male. A female engineer needed power cells to repair the colony generator. Another colonist told them that the Geth had captured the utilities building and turned off the water.
Miranda took Shepard aside.
"Listen, Shepard. I get that you want to help these people, but I'm not sure we'll be letting them live. I suggest we promise to have the Normandy distribute some power cells, food and water rations from stores over the next few days. Then these people will trust us. We can go straight for the Geth headquarters and solve the underlying problems later - if, and only if, they are still problems."
"Sounds good."
Shepard and Miranda mouthed empty platitudes to the colonists then headed down the skyway, cloaked. The skyway was a large road bridge between two towers, high above the surface of the planet below. Unobserved, they encountered no opposition. Near the end of the trip, they detected movement and found a large chamber full of ExoGeni personnel hidden in the substructure of the skyway. Unfriendly personnel, as the two women found when they decloaked.
"Who are you?" raged a male suit.
"Commander Miranda Lawson, Dominion Military," came the icy reply.
"Thank goodness!" responded a somewhat wiser female suit. "We thought we were the only humans left alive on this planet!"
"We're here to eliminate your Geth problem," said Shepard, reassuringly.
"You see, you worry too much!" said the female corporate to her male companion.
"And you trust too easily, Juliana!" snapped the man.
"Who the hell do you think you are!" Lilith Shepard grabbed the man and lifted him easily. Her own considerable strength was augmented by the powered armour. "We're your customer. We're your government. We license what you do. Have some respect for the Most Holy Imperial Terran Dominion!"
That shut both the suits up. Disrespecting the Archlord or the government was a serious crime. Shepard had not - directly - accused them of it, but they had been warned. Shepard silently put the man down.
"Where are the Geth?"
"They're in the ExoGeni headquarters - just a little way longer along the skyway."
"What do the Geth want?"
"We don't know. We've certainly not found anything valuable."
The woman spoke up, "My daughter ... she was in the ExoGeni building. If you are going there anyway, can you see if she is alive?"
"We'll do what we can," replied Shepard, "in the meantime, we'd like you to bunker down here. The best thing you can do now is stay alive and refrain from displaying further treasonous attitudes."
Miranda and Shepard returned to the skyway. The corporates knew better than to irritate them further. Cloaking again, the women continued their journey.
"It's a good job we're cloaked," remarked Shepard to Miranda over the vox. "Otherwise we'd've had to bring a tank along here. The Geth would be all over us."
The skyway soon led the human pair to the adjacent tower and ExoGeni headquarters. Like the tower housing Zhu's Hope, it was mostly titanic spaces full of rubble, as well as decaying stairs and crumbling corridors. They made short work of several Geth troops, before encountering a frightened young human woman cowering in a side tunnel. She was dirty, hysterical and waving a submachine gun.
"Sorry!" she exclaimed, lowering her weapon. "I heard a noise and thought you were Geth, or maybe varren."
"I'm all woman," replied Shepard.
After a certain amount of questioning, and violence, the survivor admitted to being an ExoGeni worker who had been trapped when the Geth attacked. Juliana's daughter. The Geth, apparently, had secured the base with a force field powered from a parked dropship. The young woman did not know what the Geth wanted for certain, but thought it was something called, "the Thorian". She offered Shepard her identity card to open the ExoGeni doors.
Miranda grimaced inside her helmet, "You stay put here honey. We'll escort you back when we've dealt with the Geth."
Shepard led the way as they continued to explore the complex. Much to her surprise, she ran into a krogan trying to interrogate a virtual intelligence. She shot it in the back with a sustained laser pulse from her gauntlet. The krogan exploded like a wet fruit, showering its innards and armour fragments everywhere.
The VI was helpful, believing Shepard to be Elizabeth Baynham, the woman whose identity card she had been given. The krogan had been seeking information on species 37 - "the Thorian".
"The Thorian is a simple plant life-form that exhibits a sentient behaviour uncommon with other flora. Through dispersion and eventual inhalation of spores, it can infect and control other organisms, including humans."
"Where is this, 'Thorian'?"
"The instance of species 37 is located in the substructure of the building containing the Zhu's Hope colony. This has proven to be extremely effective for study. Most recent data is that 85% of the test subjects were infected."
Miranda sighed, heavily. "I was afraid of something like this. The Thorian was recently identified by ExoGeni as a possible alien psionic life-form. The only other life-form we have encountered with psionics is the Eviloids, so the discovery was flagged quickly and disclosed to the government in accordance with their license. It came up on my search of recent intelligence. That's why it's just you and me - and why were are in sealed armour and loaded for bear. I don't think the researchers here were equipped for a hostile psionic entity. They certainly weren't authorised to infect the entire colony!"
Shepard thought for a moment and recalled a simple psionic detection effect. She executed the technique and sensed something. The psionic energy was diffuse but pervasive.
"We should leave and return to the colony," remarked Miranda.
"We'll have to bring down the forcefield. Communications are jammed."
"I'll send the Normandy a message psionically."
About twenty minutes later, there were massive explosions nearby as the Normandy scraped the dropship off the building. Miranda cloaked herself and Lilith and they strolled outside to the skyway. On the way, they retrieved Elizabeth Baynham.
"You've not been entirely candid with us, Elizabeth," remarked Shepard, ominously. "I'm told that over 85% of the colonists have been infected by the Thorian."
"It wasn't me!" exclaimed the woman, desperately. "Corporate decided to run the tests. I had no choice but to comply!"
Miranda sent a thought to Shepard, "Everyone here could be tainted. I would order us to blow these sites from orbit, but we need to see if we can find out what Nihlus wants. I don't want her on the ship. She needs to be disposed of."
"Fair enough," replied Shepard to Elizabeth, whilst flicking back the affirmative to Miranda telepathically, "we can take you out of here. Can you just let me know where the Thorian is? Do you know?"
"It's under the colony. The colonists hid the entrance under a container."
"Thanks Liz. Let me just scan you with this gauntlet device I have here and we'll be on our way."
Elizabeth was quickly and almost painlessly incinerated with a burst from the gauntlet laser at point-blank range. The women strolled outside, cloaked, the Normandy picked them up and they flew back to Zhu's Hope. As they passed through the airlock into their ship, the air was flame purged, sterilising the outside of the two womens' armour. They joined Captain Anderson on the bridge, with the pilot, Flight Lieutenant Rodney 'Killjoy' Yates.
Miranda explained to the captain that the colonists were contaminated by a potentially hostile alien life-form.
"It's a good thing we arrived cloaked and did not dock with the colony. Wouldn't want them getting in here," remarked Killjoy. Killjoy was an average sized man. Average height for a soldier, average weight, brown hair, blue eyes, average looks. He had done well in the Dominion armed forces only because of his humourless adherence to all regulations and his perfect health. He was a by-the-numbers military pilot. No death-defying movie manoeuvres for Killjoy - but he could execute any textbook combat move perfectly.
"We're going out there again," said Shepard. "We need to see what, if anything, Saren was looking for. We'll slip in again unseen and cloaked."
The Normandy landed once more on the roof of the mega-skyscraper housing Zhu's Hope. This time, it was still cloaked but landed quietly almost on top of the colony. Shepard and Miranda flew down and decloaked. They waved in a friendly way.
Almost as one, the colonists turned and silently opened fire. Eerie, grey-skinned humanoid creatures uncurled from the ground and rushed at the two interlopers. Naked, with clawed fingers and black eyes, the creatures moved with unnerving speed. Miranda and Shepard gunned down the colonists and the monsters without hesitation, turning them into burning, charred corpses with sweeps of their laser gauntlets.
Shepard found the crane controls and began to move the cargo containers until a stairwell was revealed. As she did so, there was a noise to the side. Farley Daniels limped out of cover.
"I tried to fight it," he groaned, as Miranda and Shepard raised their gauntlets, "but it gets in your head. You can't imagine the pain. I was supposed to be their leader. These people trusted me." He raised a gun, a pistol. "It wants me to stop you ... but ... I ... won't!"
"I won't!" screamed Daniels, raising a shaking hand to his head as though his body was fighting him and shooting himself in the head.
Shepard and Miranda glanced at the corpse, then proceeded down the stairs and along a short corridor. They found themselves in a vast chamber, facing a gigantic, alien-looking creature.
"That does not look like any plant I've ever seen," said Shepard to Miranda.
The bulbous creature had a central mass, with ropes of flesh, some thicker than a human body, anchoring it to the surrounding structure on all sides and disappearing out of sight. There was a mouth of sorts at the base of the central mass, with five tentacle-like tendrils surrounding it.
The mass pulsated and the mouth vomited forth a torrent of ichor and a fully clothed Asari. She stepped forward without hesitation.
"Invaders!" declaimed the Asari in her own language, "Your every step is a transgression. A thousand feelers appraise you as meat, good only to dig or decompose. I speak for the Old Growth as I did for Nihlus. You are within and before the Thorian. It commands that you be in awe!"
"You gave something to Nihlus. Something we need. What was it?" Shepard remained laser focused on her mission.
"Nihlus sought knowledge of those who are gone. The Old Growth listened to flesh for the first time in the long cycle. Trades were made. Then cold ones began killing the flesh that would tend the next cycle. Flesh that was fairly given. The Old Growth sees the air you push as lies. It will listen no more."
"What if we could replace the flesh?" asked Miranda. "We could probably get you a lot of it, for a trade. We are much more reliable than Nihlus."
"The Old Growth does not trust flesh," the Asari was hesitant. The creature behind it was clearly tempted.
Miranda kept it talking, "What kind of flesh does the Old Growth need? What does it want it for? We have many types of flesh. Perhaps it can choose."
The Asari paused, then replied, with less hostility, "The Old Growth needs flesh to obey, to dig, to decompose and feed the Old Growth and the New Growth. Most importantly it needs flesh that thinks and feels, to feed it and to feed the Mother."
"The Mother? Who is the Mother? Are they here too?"
"The Old Growth hungers not only for flesh but for what it houses and a portion must be given in honour of the Mother. In sacrifice. The Old Growth is a child of [...]" - here the Asari growled something unpronounceable but if the sound had to be rendered in English, Miranda would have said it was, "Shub-Niggurath".
"The Mother is Outside, but when the stars are right she can enter this place and feast on the unworthy. She will reward her worthy children and she will make those who serve her well into her children. Those who are unworthy shall be consumed and their substance remade into new and more pleasing forms."
"If you provide good service. If you provide FLESH" - the Asari pronounced the word, 'flesh' hungrily, lasciviously, leeringly - "you may be rewarded. Remade without the death that is written so deeply into your kind."
"Could work," replied Miranda. "As a token of good faith, we need to know what Nihlus wanted."
The Asari paused again, as though thinking carefully, then spoke, "Cipher. Context. Key to message of thought received without context. Shorn of meaning. Those you call Prothean were not as you are, in mind nor in body." [The Asari word for Prothean was used]
"Did Nihlus tell you what the message was?"
"Of little importance. Warning from Protheans of those who destroy. Those who seek to keep the stars wrong. Reapers."
"I've heard that expression before. Tell me, have you ever heard of someone called, Gold Star?"
"Another child of the Mother. Greater than the Old Growth. Seeder of worlds. Purposeful seeds, not only the joyful. They do not only dance but fight and perish for the Mother. They fight the food that fights and the blasphemies that put their hungers over the hungers of the Mother."
"Okay," said Miranda, "last question then we can think about getting you some FLESH" - Miranda pronounced the word, 'flesh' with similar gusto to the Asari. "Do you know where Nihlus went?"
The Asari was silent for a time. "No, but it matters not. He betrayed the Old Growth and he did not feed the Old Growth nor the Mother. He is made of flesh, simple meat that will perish and decay in an eye-blink. Forget him. Feed the Mother and be rewarded."
"Sounds like a great idea," said Miranda cheerfully. "We'll be right back with some flesh! Cheerio!" As she spoke, Miranda frantically signalled to Shepard with one hand.
Miranda bolted for the way they had come in, followed by Shepard. A massive tendril moved ponderously to stop them, and the Asari clone grabbed, but Miranda batted them out of the way psionically and blasted the Asari to ash with a shot from her gauntlet laser. Shepard and Miranda engaged their armour's reactionless propulsion and literally flew down the corridor, up the stairs and out into the open air. They made a beeline for the Normandy.
"Lift off," called Miranda as soon as the they were in the airlock, before the outer door had even closed behind them. "Lift off now and head for orbit!"
The door closed and the purge began. As the outsides of their suits were purged of contaminants by the flames, they felt a rumbling as the Normandy lifted off and headed for orbit, still cloaked. They left the world of Geth, corrupted colonists and alien life behind.
CIC, Terran Dominion Frigate Normandy, Feros Orbit, Theseus System, Attican Beta Cluster, 29 June 2183
Shepard was pleased to be out of the bulky armour. After passing through decontamination, they had lost no time. Miranda had ordered the Image of Violence to glass the planet. Whilst the two women were showering, petroleum effect bombs had begun to rain down on Feros. The planet's crust was being systematically blasted and within hours the entire surface would be white-hot lava. The Prothean ruins, the colony of Zhu's hope, the colonists, the Geth, the Thorian and its creatures - all would be utterly destroyed. The settings on the Normandy's exterior had been briefly amended - the ship had burned the outside of its hull clean of any particles or contaminants from the planet.
Shepard and Miranda ate some rations whilst they debriefed.
"We're no further forward on Nihlus," said Miranda, "but we do have a greater understanding of the Eviloids."
"Have you ever heard of this Mother, this, Shub-Niggurath, thing?" queried Shepard.
"Can't find anything in the files. Even the classified ones. I've sent a priority report to the Dominion, including the Demilady."
The reminder that as a Grey Lady, Miranda was at the highest levels of the Dominion government hit home hard to Shepard. If she impressed, she would be joining their ranks. Partially Transcendent. Only a step away from the Archlord and the High Lords.
Miranda continued, "We seem to have new orders though. There is this report about something happening on a major Asari colony planet called Lusia."
Outside the City of Monoi, Lusia, Tomaros System, Athena Nebula, 26 June 2183
Matriarch Narva T'Joan stood naked in a field on the Asari colony world of Lusia. It was an old colony with a population of over 2 billion Asari. Around her were many of her followers in the Temple of the Golden Star, maidens, matrons and a handful of matriarchs, all naked. There were other members of the faith too, from other species, though in smaller numbers for this was an Asari world. There were Turians, Salarians, Elcor and even a couple of Hanar and Drell. All nude and awaiting glory.
Today their worship would be rewarded. Today the faithful would meet the Golden Star and be received into glory. It was almost midday, and the sky was a beautiful shade of blue. Not all were joyful. Nearby were chained sacrifices. Unbelievers, restrained and naked. They wept and looked around them in disbelief at the naked cultists.
For a while, Narva simply breathed, enjoying the sun and the breeze on her bare azure skin. Then, she sensed a shift and above, space seemed to unfold until it was there. Hanging above them, the size of a city, perhaps almost a hundred kilometres in diameter. Glorious, golden and glistening. Beautiful. It was Gold Star the object of their faith! She could see it pulse with life and joy and smell its sweet scent.
Narva's experience was somewhat subjective. Others, those who were not initiates of the Temple of the Golden Star and who had not encountered the creatures which called themselves Care Bears, nor the hybrids known as Daughters of the Golden Star, those others would see things very differently. To a disinterested observer space did indeed unfold. A vast creature came forth - crawling - perhaps even furtively. What Narva saw as golden to other eyes would seem a vile, unhealthy leprous yellow. The surface of the creature glistened with repugnant slime. As to its shape, something like a starfish crossed with an octopus, with a myriad, countless, points, a hundred kilometres in diameter. The stench would have most unprotected observers retching and gagging, doubling over and heaving up the contents of their digestive systems.
The creature descended silently, floating down and landing on a lightly populated, heavily forested region, arriving just next to the field containing Narva and her followers without covering it. The pulsing Narva saw was indeed real and vigorous. The surface of the thing writhed with motion. The vast pointed tendrils were covered in orifices and suckers of various sizes. Some round and pulsing, some vertical and vaguely feminine, in which could be glimpsed rows of sharpened teeth. The enormous tendrils were covered in smaller tendrils, some thicker than a human, some as slender as a finger. Those smaller tendrils too, varied. Some had smaller orifices of their own, round or vertical and mouth-like. Some had suckers. Some were vaguely phallic. All of the creature's appendages writhed obscenely.
The sacrifices were wailing, screaming and vomiting in horror and revulsion. The faithful lifted their arms and other appendages in joy and welcome.
The end of a gigantic point unrolled across the field, ten metres wide at its thinnest point. Smaller tendrils whipped out and grasped the sacrifices. Some were drawn to vast mouth-like openings on the creature. Others shuddered and screamed as smaller tendrils burrowed into their bodies, gnawing their flesh.
Matriarch Narva T'Joan did not need to be compelled and neither did most of her followers. Joyous, aroused as though she was about to meld, she advanced and clambered nude onto the surface of Gold Star. She yearned to give up her body and her consciousness. The Matriarch knew that the Golden Star did not just need physical sustenance. It could consume dead rocks and convert it to living flesh. No, the Golden Star needed complexity, consciousness, living and feeling creatures to consume. This relatively small sacrifice could empower it to seed a dozen or more worlds.
As she got onto the body of the Gold Star, Narva saw a smaller tendril with a mouth-like opening on the end and clambered over it. She sat down and welcomed the Golden Star into her. She experienced joyous dissolution of mind and body as smaller tendrils bent towards her, converging on her and she was gnawed from within and without. To a disinterested observer, it looked something like a swarm of lampreys tearing into a lump of meat - so many that the object of their attention could not be seen.
Narva felt supreme, ecstatic pleasure as her mind and consciousness came apart and she felt portions of it dissolve away, sucked into the Golden Star. At times she felt momentary twinges of excruciating agony, but these were swiftly numbed with returning pleasure. Before long, Narva's consciousness faded and she knew nothing as her body and more were torn apart from within and without and devoured.
After a while, the gigantic creature, unmolested by the planet's defence fleet, lifted into the air and vanished as it had arrived, into folding space. Left behind, where there had been lush forest, was a barren patch of poisoned ground nearly a hundred kilometres across, covered in reeking, acidic, poisonous slime.
CIC, Terran Dominion Frigate Normandy, Feros Orbit, Theseus System, Attican Beta Cluster, 29 June 2183
Grey Lady Miranda Lawson and Lieutenant Commander Lilith Shepard watched in horror as the video provided by Dominion intelligence played. They saw the gigantic, horrifying, leprous yellow abomination and they stared in revulsion as its enraptured followers marched joyously into its manifold maws.
Miranda looked down at the report on the data slate in front of her. She spoke, "According to the report, the cultists think that's Gold Star. They can summon it, they believe, if there are enough of them and a good enough offering. The Temple of the Golden Star has taken over several of the individual Asari Republics. However, the warning from the Citadel has done some good. Some of the more powerful Asari had not encountered, or had actively avoided, the Temple. So, it is not yet a clean sweep. There are Asari fighting the cultists. This video will be edited and going out shortly as part of our propaganda package. Despatches also say we've negotiated a treaty with the Citadel to help them eliminate the Eviloids and the Temple."
"Looks pretty bad," replied Shepard.
"We've been recalled to the Temple Ship."
Shepard looked blankly at Miranda, who remembered belatedly that the Temple Ship was a secret.
"It's a very special ... base. A really big ship. It was built by the Archlord and the Demilady is based there. I hereby give you clearance to know it exists. I'll send you a briefing note."
They remained in system for a number of hours whilst the Image of Violence rained its bombs down onto the surface of Feros. Not long afterwards, a portal yawned open and the small human task force exited the Theseus system. Behind them, the molten surface of the planet glowed white hot.