A/N
Hi everyone! Hope you had a great Christmas season, or whatever holidays you follow.
So the Ash and MC chat last chapter got a decent reception. As has most of the ideas that have been put to page, so that tells me I am doing something right. Thanks for all your reviews. I really am grateful. And thanks for the writing tip Apollonir. I wasn't aware I did that, but I will keep an eye out for it in the future.
As always, the next four chapters are already up on pat-re-on. Look up Bored Peasant's Written Works. The winner of the monthly poll will be updated in a few days so if you are interested go take a look. Also a few other stories and updates that I have put there that you might enjoy. Take a look. All the support helps me more than you know.
Special thanks goes to Adorjan Csapo, Arrimar26, BuzzGrave, FallenMetalGod, Cesar Montemayor, Doglore63, Ezoz, EdlessWaltz00, liam darrell, MathTheOriginal, Patiflops, r4p16, Ranger and sonic for their support. You are all amazing and I am so grateful for your support.
Anyways, on with the story!
…
CHAPTER 39 – RETURN TO FEROS PART 1
(BEAU POV)
The report came to an end and Beau couldn't help the scowl that came over his face as he stared at the terminal in front of him.
It wasn't often that the raids that their people conducted encountered stronger resistance than expected, but it did happen. They would get wrong information about numbers and find themselves outgunned, or they would come across a smarter or more paranoid group that would expect someone to come after them for some reason or another and would set up decent traps and defences that the ground team couldn't detect with SONAR that would end up causing the ground teams casualties that they normally wouldn't get.
The problem here though, was that for the last three missions against supposedly 'independent' mercenary and slaver groups, the Blue Suns had been a short distance away that from the sites, ready to jump in with overwhelming force and destroy the ground teams before they could either complete their mission or retreat.
It spoke to him of a traitor, but he wasn't sure who yet. He would have to get Hectar and Ely to run the background of each operation, find out everyone that was involved in the planning or execution of them and then see if there were enough links for all three.
Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence and three times is a pattern or enemy action. That was a stable rule for anything that went wrong. And three times in a row that the Blue Suns, one of the largest mercenary groups in the galaxy and also one of the bigger slave transporters, getting involved in anti-slavery actions against Shieldstar… well, one didn't have to look far to smell a rat.
The problem was that this would take time to figure out that he wasn't sure they could afford. Unlike the early days when they had been able to find a traitor because there were only thirty people, now there were several thousand. Granted, many of them were not involved in anti-slavery operations, but there was always a chance that someone along the lines did something.
He looked down at the report again, feeling frustrated at the casualties. From a ground crew of eight, only two had made it out alive. They brought back one of the team and twelve slaves, while the last two alive had set off a plasma charge at the merc base to disintegrate any evidence of their involvement form Blue Suns investigators.
What a mess. So much loss for such little, comparative, gain.
He shook those thoughts out. That sort of negativity would only breed resentment for the newly-freed slaves and they were truly the innocent parties to this whole fiasco. War might be a matter of numbers, simple bloody math as it was referred to, but anti-slavery was a matter of lives gained. And they gained more than they lost.
Still, he needed to sort out this leak before the ground crews could continue going on raids. But if he stopped completely, it could force the leak to go to ground. Damned if he did, damned if he didn't. The curse of knowledge, he had heard Brock call it. If the enemy know that you know their plans, they will change them so you don't know them anymore. The trick is to not let them know you know so that you can do your best to thwart them in the long term. To win the war, sometimes you had to lose the battle.
Beau hated that. And he knew Brock hated it too.
His terminal beeped with an incoming message. Opening it, he saw that Brock was... wanting to pull most of the ground teams to the Citadel because slavers had attacked the orphanage? Huh. That was a ballsy move. So was ordering combat teams onto the Citadel. But the guy was on the Spectre's ship. He must know something that Beau didn't.
He snorted. Of course Brock knew more than he did. He had said so himself years ago. And while Beau was curious, Brock had never said no to any requests for more information. He gave all information that he had freely. It was just that sometimes he forgot things until it was relevant. Which was understandable. Most people did that.
Privately though, Beau thought Brock might do it sometimes just to appear more mysterious to people.
He snorted at the thought, before turning back to the terminal. He could easily pull a half dozen teams that were on standby. With a bit of planning, he could get another half dozen in a couple of weeks. He couldn't pull all of the teams though. If he did, it would alert the source of the leak. But he could delay sending them out again, under the guise of figuring out which teams would be best sent to the Citadel.
It would only gain him a few weeks but he would take what he could get. Ely and Hectar would work their magic and he would find his leak. He was certain of it.
Sighing to himself he set to work, booting up his messages to get Ely and Hectar started on the search. Being Head of Security for an anti-slavery organisation was a demanding job, but he was just happy to be making a real difference. He saw it in the eyes of everyone that they pulled free from their chains. If he didn't need to stop anti-slavery actions entirely, he wanted to keep a few teams out there, doing missions and keeping the success going. It would also serve to keep the leak less aware that they had been discovered, making their capture more likely.
It would all hinge on whether or not they could find a leak. And if there was indeed someone who was giving away information that was leading to their ground teams being ambushed and defeated, well, he would have no problems in following his boss's example in taking action against those who would betray their people to the death, as he had done with that salarian on Omega. Those ground teams were his and he wasn't going to let their deaths go quietly. There will be retribution.
He was going to win this bloody war.
…
(BROCK POV)
Arriving at Zhu's Hope colony was very much like it was in the game. Everything was still grey and there was a feeling of fetid decay in the air from the dilapidated condition of the prothean ruins and the constantly hazy smoke in the sky. It hadn't improved much from the last time that I was here, but that was not unexpected. The Citadel weren't going to be rescinding the licence for exploration and research that they granted to ExoGeni for another ten years and the company itself wasn't likely to expand in an attempt to save money and avoid potential security leaks from contractors.
I had armed and armoured up for this stop, even if I knew I wasn't going to be on Shepard's ground team on this trip. We all had. After all, if things went south, it meant that there would be fighting inside and under the colony. Something to prepare for. Not that everyone else knew about the resident below the colony yet. They just knew that there were geth hanging about, which was reason enough to be worried.
We were met by the same guy from game, whose name I didn't remember and didn't pay attention to now. I was focussing on my SONAR, knowing what was likely to come. I didn't want to be caught off guard like they were in the game. Honestly, I was still just wanting this mission to be over so I could get back to the Citadel and see Klara again. Being stuck out here was starting to feel tedious and I really just wanted to give my little girl a hug to make sure she was alright.
Sure enough, I had a quick moving drone appear on my scope just as the colonist was giving weird trippy vibes like he was high, letting me know that the thorian was probably in full control of everyone. I yanked my Foehammer pistol off my thigh and put two shots into it before it could fire at the colonist, knocking it off course and startling the rest of the ground crew into action. "Incoming!" I shouted.
"Geth!" Shepard shouted back, reaching for her cheap Avenger assault rifle.
My first shot had only made the barrier on the drone collapse, while the second had damaged it. It was smoking but still in the fight before a Warp from Liara finished the job. Damn, she made it look cool. Maybe I should have asked Manuel for biotics.
Shepard pushed her way into the colony, firing at any geth we could see. Luckily, there weren't too many of them, but we took a bit longer, making sure that the geth had been cleared from every possible corner of the colony. There weren't too many in the colony itself, but we did come across a few of the colonists fighting against some shock troopers.
Once we were done, Fai Dan and his loyal rude assistant, whose name I couldn't be bothered remembering, made themselves known. I let Shepard deal with them and made my way around, seeing that things had changed a little since the last time I was there.
Case in point, there was now a shuttle parked on top of the entrance to the thorian's lair.
Shepard finally got back to our group and filled us in on what was happening.
"Listen up," she said sternly, completely in mission mode. "I am going to take Alenko, Williams and Tali. We need to find power cells, food and fix the water, before we head off to the ExoGeni building across the skyway to take out the geth there. The rest of you will be back here protecting the colony. Nielson," she looked at me. "You have until we get back to sort out whatever you had in mind. Let's get to work."
I nodded and watched Shepard lead her group away to complete their little quests and missions. I had no idea how long it would take her to get back, but I hoped that we had at least a few hours, because I had no idea how long it would take to implement my plan. I don't think that Shepard and Tali would be happy with the idea of leaving any of the geth or other enemies behind. Especially if Shepard wants to be admired and not just feared. And Tali was almost fanatic about killing geth still. Something she gained from dear old daddy Rael.
Either way, it was go-time.
"Liara," I said, looking at the young asari. "I need you to do me a favour."
"What is it, Brock?" she asked, turning to face me.
"I think there may be a way to correct the damage done to your mother's brain," I said calmly. "It might take a few hours but if it can be done, then it would be done here."
She looked stunned for a long second, before she reached out and grabbed my hand. "What do we need to do?" she asked desperately.
"Keep her unconscious, but I need her to be brought out here now," I said. "There is a very old creature under the colony that has the ability to alter minds and would potentially be open to doing the job if we can find a way to convince it."
"Are you serious?" Liara asked incredulously. "That sounds incredibly dangerous! What if something goes wrong?"
I considered it. "I don't think there is any actual danger to your mother," I said slowly. "If it doesn't work, I just don't think there will be any difference to how she is now."
Liara's face firmed up. "Very well. If something can be, please let's do it!"
"Uh, not to be negative," Garrus spoke up, "but should we really be taking a wanted terrorist collaborator out of custody and moving them somewhere without the Spectre's say so?"
"Probably not a great idea," I admitted. "Though I did clear it with Shepard first, I didn't exactly specify what I was going to be doing to get this sorted out. I only said that there might be something I could do to fix Benezia's head but it was experimental, even if I knew that there had been at least one successful case I knew of." Said case happened to be a storyline from a video game but no one needed to know that part.
Though I was interested to see if Benezia turns green later like her minion.
"In that case I am surprised that Chakwas didn't insist on coming down to watch," Wrex rumbled thoughtfully.
"She might have, if I had told her," I said pushing the float bed down the tunnel under the shuttle. "But even if she did, because Benezia is a Spectre case and the Normandy is a Spectre ship, Benezia doesn't come under the good doctor's jurisdiction."
"Um… I am not really comfortable with that," Garrus said, his mandibles flexing uncertainly. "It feels like something beyond the bounds of what is acceptable for this mission. Something like this might get me sent back to the Citadel."
I laughed, giving the joke up. "I'm just messing with you," I said. "I did tell the doctor that there was something here and that she was welcome to come, but when I told her that I was going to be using an alien plant form that was able to use its spores to correct faulty brain activity as a method of self-defence, which it was going to do to Benezia but stop short of controlling her mind like it normally would do to other beings, she insisted on staying at the colony to check out the colonists to see if there were long term effects on their brains due to their length of exposure. More importantly, she knows that I got permission to do this from Shepard. She did warn me to be careful though."
I wasn't joking either. I don't think that she believed me completely. But the idea that there were innocent people whose brains were being infected with plant spores and that ExoGeni knew about it and were letting it happen to study its effects on people and their levels of susceptibility and compliance, she had been furious. She did say that normally she would help me out but with there only being one of her and there being hundreds of innocent colonists at Zhu's Hope, she would focus on the innocents and let Shepard deal with me if there were any failures of dealing with Benezia.
In the end she told me that I was the one responsible for this experimental procedure and if Benezia died then I was liable. If she lived and was still adamant about attacking us, then I was liable. If any of another dozen problems occurred, then I would be the one liable. And if by some miracle she lived and was cured, then I would be liable, meaning that there was no real upside here.
Oh well, if I failed, I was only going to get kicked off this mission and that was it. No one could risk making things worse for me. Upside of holding the galaxy to silent ransom.
Still, I wouldn't outright claim that it was 'score one for the good guys'. It felt like a villain thing to do. Does that make me the bad guy? Or another bad guy? An anti-hero? A question for another day.
Liara was hovering over her mother, looking nervous but not arguing. If there was a chance that we could somehow fix whatever had happened in her mind, she was happy to try and do it. Wrex and Garrus had come with me as extra guards in case something went wrong. Even though he couldn't use his biotics, Torrin was playing lone ranger at the entrance to the ship. Well, that was a stretch. Alliance soldiers were up there too but none of them were ground crew. Most of them just had basic training and the armoury was stocked. But it would do just fine against untrained colonists.
We walked for another few long minutes before we came to the open area that the giant plant lived. The entire group froze behind me as I looked around, feeling tense. There were plenty of the thorian-made husk things crouching around the place. Apparently, the giant lump of weeds had decided to improve its security since I had been here last.
"That is… disturbing," Liara uttered.
"This was not covered by my training manuals," Garrus deadpanned.
"I've seen bigger," Wrex said dismissively.
We all stopped and turned to look at him for a moment, before turning back to the target and its waiting green asari clone standing in front of it. I led the way forward, moving more confidently than I felt. I had no idea how the thorian was going to react, seeing as it was attacked by Saren after I had warned it. Still, I had hope that my own positive interaction with it last time would work in my favour.
"Greetings Old Growth," I announced as I stepped forward, stopping as the green asari started to glow slightly. "It has been a few cycles since we last saw each other. Are you well?"
"The Old Growth received insult from the Faithless One with the lifeless arm," the green clone replied fiercely. "It attempted to damage us after a deal had been struck. Those that scurry have proven to be faithless."
"I don't believe that," I said instantly. "The last time we met, we had a successful deal and I even warned you that there would be those that would seek to deal with you in bad faith. Is that not so?"
"One positive deal does not negate the faithlessness of the others," the clone declared.
"And the faithlessness of one should not be held against an innocent party," I rebutted. "I have proven that I was a man of my word. Have the people in the colony sent any of their dead to you? I told them to do so as we agreed."
"We know," the clone declared sullenly after a long pause. "The Old Growth acknowledges your previous good dealings. What is it you want?"
"We have one here whose mind was tainted by the same being that insulted you," I said. "Saren the Faithless. I brought her here because I believe you would be able to remove the taint from her mind, which would return her to her proper function and deny him the satisfaction of knowing that he has succeeded in poisoning her mind and path. I ask you if you would be willing to aid us in this and what price you would seek for this service?"
"The Old One has no need for your trinkets and it is well provisioned with meat for now," she asari clone said. "The larger one there will do, the Old Growth has not seen its type before. It will meld with this tool and share its mind with the Old Growth. That will be sufficient payment, for the Old Growth seeks to deny satisfaction to the Faithless One as well."
The green asari pointed at Wrex who looked dumbfounded then suspicious.
"What?" he grunted, frowning heavily.
"The thorian wants its green asari clone to perform a mind meld with you and then it will try fix Benezia's brain," I informed him. "The thorian has been around for more than fifty thousand years. It collects the dead bodies and absorbs them, gaining abilities from everything it absorbs. It probably hasn't had a krogan to absorb and is interested in using the meld abilities it got from the asari to gain an understanding of the krogan through you."
"I don't wanna," he grunted mulishly, raising his hands in objection.
"Oh, just do it so we can get out of here," I barked at him. "Unless you like being here of course. We have fighting to do and the faster we can get out of here to do it the better."
He rumbled to himself but stepped forward. The green asari didn't hesitate and marched out to meet him. Curiously, it didn't say 'Embrace Eternity' but its eyes turned black for a successful meld. A few seconds later it was all over. Though I have to admit that the extra shaking of his head afterwards told me that I would need to watch out to make sure there weren't any changes.
"You will bring the afflicted one here," the green asari said, leading the way to one of the empty sacs on the wall. Conveniently right next to a full one. If I was right then this would be the one that held Benezia's minion, if that event hadn't changed.
"Is that all we need to do?" Liara asked as the sac closed up on Benezia. She was clearly worried about her mother, in spite of everything that had happened so far.
"There is nothing more that lowly creatures like yourselves can do," the green clone said. "The Old Growth will now perform its part of the deal."
"How long is this gonna take?" Wrex asked bluntly.
The clone turned to face him, and unless I was imagining things, its face turned surlier. Probably using some of its new krogan insight. "It will take as long as it takes, Runt," it grunted, to my surprised amusement. "But worry not. The Old Growth is the best of the best."
Then, to everyone's surprise, the green asari took three great strides and with a wet splat sound, headbutted Wrex hard.
Wrex reeled back, caught off-guard at the attack. Garrus and Liara gaped and started to raise a weapon and glow with biotics but stopped when I burst out laughing. "She… she took to being a krogan better than most krogan!" I wheezed out.
Wrex shook his head out again and looked furious for a moment, before looking up at the giant thorian body and visibly calming himself down. "Huh," he grunted sounding a little amused himself. "I suppose she did."
"So, we just have to sit here and wait until the… uh Old Growth," Garrus mumbled uncertainly, "finishes whatever it does to Benezia. Is that it?"
I shrugged. "Kinda." I looked around at the bleak surrounds. "So… did anyone bring any games with them?"
"I did," Wrex said instantly, making all of us look at him again. "What? I take my pokemon game with me everywhere."
I grinned behind my helmet. "And that's why I am letting you design one."
We sat around sharing stories for the next few hours, just getting to know each other better. Garrus shared stories of his time at CSEC, though from it we could all really tell that he had been chafing under the restrictions that the Citadel police worked with.
Liara shared stories of her childhood and how she used to dream of growing up to hunt pirates one day. It was rather adorable how easy it was to tease the younger asari. She got flustered at the drop of a hat but she was a good sport and could give as good as she got once she was comfortable. Considering that she was the only daughter of a powerful matriarch, she had grown up with a bunch of expectations placed on her that she felt overwhelmed with at times.
When she had chosen to go into archaeology to study the protheans, Benezia had been perfectly fine, until Liara started publishing articles that challenged accepted theories. It turns out the reason behind her separation from her mother had more to do with the fact that Benezia had wanted her to stop publishing 'heretical articles' and Liara had refused to bend from what she could see was the truth, even for her mother.
"Maybe you could give it another go," Garrus suggested. "If we can sort out this whole mess with Saren."
"I hope so," Liara said, her hands clenched slightly. "If she could return to loving, warm mother I knew a couple of decades ago then I would be very happy. But then, who knows what will happen when we get out of here?"
"Hey," I said, cutting off that line of thought. "Don't think like that! You were going to lose your mother. You have a real chance now to make peace with her, regardless of what happens later. That's got to be worth something."
She gave a small, sad but genuine smile. "You are right, Brock," she said. "Had things happened another way on Noveria, I may never have had the chance to reconcile our relationship. I thank you for that chance."
I gave her a smile and nodded.
After a grand total of six hours, the green asari spoke up from its position. "It's done," it announced.
Without warning the sac burst, letting a small flood of some kind of amniotic fluid to come pouring out as a still unconscious asari matriarch was dumped to the floor. Liara ran over to her mother and crouched down, running scans with her omnitool as she did. Wrex trudged over to the blue woman and picked her up, throwing her over his shoulder, interrupting the daughter for a moment, until she resumed scanning while Wrex held her.
"The deal is completed," the green asari mouthpiece said. "The Old Growth has fixed the erratic issues of the meat's mind. The deal has been struck and the old growth has honoured its side. This action fulfils our business together."
"That is true," I responded. "We have now got no more obligations, responsibilities, agreements or contracts with each other. We have both fully completed our agreed upon actions and there is nothing left undone." I gave a pause. "But there is now another problem."
The expressionless face of the green asari didn't twitch, but from the corner of my eye, it looked like the main body of the thorian shivered slightly.
"Explain," the green asari spoke up. "What problem exists?"
I pointed towards the ceiling, indicating the colony above us. "You have the ability to control people through your spores," I said. "This has become known to a lot of people, including people who are planning to use you for your abilities to learn how to control others. That cannot be allowed to happen, as the people in control are known criminals and terrorists. If they could find a way to use your ability to control the minds of people, and they are smart enough to do it, then they will do it with no hesitation. And while you are mainly using it here for your own self-preservation, they are not nearly so noble. This cannot be allowed."
"You are threatened by the Old One's existence," the green asari said, her voice rising with the threat, the thorian rumbling behind her. "We should have known that you would be treacherous."
"All I am asking," I said, trying to calm the ancient plant, "is, do you have a way to transfer your consciousness to something else so that we can transport you out of here? Or put everything you have in a seed that I can take to a different place far away from here? Somewhere that has sunlight but no one will find for a very long time?"
The biotics of the green asari started to flare up, the blue lights forming a halo around her green body. "Your proposal will only delay, not prevent," it declared. "You are decided on the Old Growth's end!"
"I ask you to consider our previous dealings," I shot out quickly, before the asari could attack. "I have been honest and acted in good faith. Even now, I could destroy, but I am asking for a means to save."
"There is no such means," the green asari spat, its body flaring in a blue corona of biotic light. "You are nothing but rats, who scurry and devour. Rodents unworthy of the gifts you have received. The Old Growth will not allow you to end its existence!"
…
1 film, 4 reviews
Mad Max: Fury Road
Thessian Suns Publication
By Klerea Al'tichi
Humans certainly had a bleak outlook of their own future before the discovery of Element Zero. It almost makes me feel justified in my early thoughts that humans would do well to have remained in the Terminus systems instead of being part of the Citadel community. But the film certainly had interesting tones of anti-slavery, as well as beautiful visuals and genuine heart-pumping moments. All in all, a worthy inclusion into vid history.
(*The opinions expressed by the reviewer do not necessarily reflect those of the Thessian Suns Publication or its owners or officers.)
Palaven Daily Call
By Cassius Messua
Another worthy inclusion into the action genre. Plenty of good fighting scenes, good themes of finding oneself in the most challenging of environments and resisting oppression of the unjust. Not the most complicated or multi-layered but certainly watchable. Any turian would be able to enjoy this vid.
Sur'kesh Leaf Script
By Silarn Moduk
Not a vid for deep thinkers. The premise is simple and the subplot is light. But the visuals were stunning, the editing was exemplary and the stunts were perfectly coordinated and well executed. There was enough in there for everyone to enjoy snippets, or switch your analytical brain off and enjoy the whole thing.
On a side note, I heard that the Batarian Ambassador petitioned for this vid to be banned on the premise that the females escaping was tantamount to 'anti-slavery'. Ridiculous argument but I suppose everything in human vids would be.
The Krogan Word
By Ognut Grax
This vid series is the gift that keeps on giving. People killing each other like it was nothing? Entertainment! Also, I took a look at the director because he did something most of them don't, which was use actual stunts and not CGI. Blowing up vehicles in the desert, using lots of fire, killing people just because and hording resources? This guy Miller might have been raised on Tuchanka.
…
A/N Please Review and Follow/Favourite as you like.
Looks like things are not just cruising in the background for Shieldstar. A setup for something later. Sorry for going with a cliffhanger with the thorian. But I hope to keep you all interested enough to come back for more.
If you want to read ahead, as I said at the top, the next four chapters are available on pat-re-on, Bored Peasant's Written Works, if you want to take a look. Plenty of other stuff there too.
Until next time!