Mass Effect: Plan for the Galaxy

by bored peasant

I was chosen because I had thought it through and because I knew what pain and suffering was. Now I have the chance to see if my ideas can help Shepard save the galaxy. SI.

41. Chapter 40

A/N

Hi everyone! Feros continues this chapters. I don't have much to say right now. If you want the next five chapters, they are available on my pat-re-on, Bored Peasant's Written Works. Head there for all my early releases. The next chapter of Saiyan Effect will be uploaded in the next few days.

On a side note, this is the sixth most followed story for the Mass Effect fanfics on the site. Thank you all so much for your support in making this as popular as it is.

Special thanks to BuzzGrave, Ezoz, sonic, FallenMetalGod, Ben wanless, Arrimar26, r4p16, Doglore63, Freeman, joshua scruggins, MathTheOriginal, Ranger, Sith Paladin, Paul Fischer, Cesar Montemayor and GoshawkTheBird for their patronage and their support. It helps so much and I truly appreciate all of you!

Anyway, on with the story!

…

CHAPTER 40 – GREEN ALIEN PLANTS ARE THE WORST (FEROS PART 2)

(BROCK POV)

It threw its hands forwards, tossing out a wave of biotic energy that would have thrown me back if Liara hadn't thrown up a biotic barrier in time to block it. Garrus took advantage and pulled a sniper snap-shot off in a hurry that blew away the green asari's head.

"Wrex!" I shouted, pulling my grenade launcher off my back. "Drop Benezia and get ready. This thing set up its defences already. Garrus, help him keep whatever they throw at us off my back. I'll use my launcher to try take care of this."

A heavy thud came from behind me as Wrex dropped the matriarch and pulled his shotgun from his back. "Fine, but you better get me a launcher of my own at the Citadel."

Before anyone else could twitch, I turned and hit Benezia's body with a nerve pulse to make sure she didn't wake up in the middle of our fight and take us by surprise, because I had no idea if the thorian would be able to control her.

"Brock!" Liara objected, sounding scandalised.

"Just a little shock, Sweetie," I called back not really paying attention as I pulled my HIVE rounds and loaded one into the barrel. "I just needed to make sure she wouldn't wake up before she was ready."

A steady groaning noise came all around us as the plant husks started to stand up.

"Be careful!" I called out to the group. "These things can spit acid strong enough to melt your armour in seconds."

"Right," Garrus said sarcastically. "And the bad news?"

I barked a laugh at him. "There are probably hundreds of them. And if this thing can control minds through its spores, we are going to have to be quick or else the colonists might be on their way."

Garrus spat something that the translator didn't have an accurate description for and replaced his sniper rifle with his shotgun. The constant booming from Wrex and Garrus let me know that the two aliens were keeping the husks at bay for now. That would let me take care of the big beasty.

I aimed at the thorian's 'face' and fired. The HIVE round wasn't the most powerful, but it was better at penetrating deeper before exploding, and on something like the thorian, deeper would work better.

The first shot punched through the plant things face and blew, sending green plant flesh in chunks all over the place. The thorian let loose a bone chilling screech and the building shook hard enough to make me stumble slightly.

Still, I loaded another HIVE round and fired a second shot into what remained of the plant alien's face. It exploded, generating another wine and showering my armour in green slime. Luckily for me, it wasn't melting my armour so it wasn't an acid sac or anything. The thorian was still alive but its whole face organ was gone, meaning no more birthing asari or husks to throw at us.

But more importantly, with the face out of the way, I could see the massive support arms that shot off the main body, along with dozens of smaller ones, heading into the different levels of the building.

Loading a third HIVE round, I took aim at the closest one and fired. It damaged the arm but didn't fully break it. I quickly loaded again.

"Brock, whatever you're doing, do it faster!" Garrus called. "There's more of these things coming at us than we'd like."

"Speak for yourself," Wrex barked. "This is great! You guys organise all the fun."

"I concur with Garrus," Liara sounded a little panicked. "The sooner the better, please!"

I fired a fourth round and broke the first leg completely. Loading the fifth round, I shot the second leg."

"Carnage ready."

Oh yeah, that's what I was waiting for.

I skipped over to the third leg and fired the carnage shot. The Thumper bucked in my hands, but the giant red shot flew true, completely destroying the third leg in one go and drawing another screech from the thorian.

"We have two more of those clone asari," Garrus called out behind me. "Spirits, they just keep coming!"

"Liara," Wrex barked. "Place a barrier on that entrance and give us some breathing space. Vakarian, get further back and pull that sniper of yours. Nielson, I'm taking your shotgun for a minute."

"By all means," I said, not looking back at him, loading another round. "Just make sure those alien husks don't melt it."

"Ha!"

I felt him yank the Butcher off my back and heard the others follow his orders as I fired a round at the fourth arm, finishing it off and subsequently running out of HIVE rounds. I pulled a Hi-Ex round, loading it and putting it into the damaged second arm. Another squeal let out as it dropped away, snapped from the impact points.

"Why isn't this damn thing working?" Wrex demanded, unable to get the Butcher to respond to his directions.

"Give me a second and I will be right with you," I said, feeling smug. Now the big krogan knew he wouldn't be able to just steal my gun if he wanted to. "Just use your own one until then."

A final Hi-Ex round blew off the damaged last leg and the thorian dropped with what was probably an outraged shriek, the smaller support lines not sufficiently strong enough to hold the ancient thorian up without one of the larger ones to aid them. The sound of shrieking dropped with it and disappeared into the darkness below.

There was an eerie silence over the area, the groaning of the thorian husks had gone silent. I looked around and saw that the others were all staring at the passageway heading further into the building.

"Are we clear?" I asked.

"… Yeah," Garrus said. "We're clear." He collapsed his sniper rifle and holstered it on his back. "Well, that was something I never would have done on the Citadel."

I let out a chuckle. "See, Garrus," I said. "This is what happens when you live outdoors."

I turned back to the hole that the thorian had disappeared in. "Still," I continued, feeling a little sad despite everything, "I guess in the end, I made the decision that Shepard didn't. I killed what was probably the last of a species that has been around since before the time of the protheans. I just wish that it could have accepted that I was wanting to save it."

I felt my hand be grabbed and looked to see that Liara had come close. "It's not your fault," she said. "You did try to save it. That's more than most people would have done."

I let out a sigh and nodded. "Yeah," I accepted that. "Besides, it was trying to kill us. While it's a shame that it had to die, I would rather it go than me."

"Yeah," Garrus chimed in. "I prefer having you around than that thing."

I chuckled again and turned to look at Wrex. The scarred krogan was still trying to figure out how the Butcher worked.

"Give it back Wrex," I said. "I have it coded so that it won't work for anyone that it isn't keyed to. Right now, the only thing you can use it for is to club things."

"Dammit," he grunted, passing it back reluctantly. "I was really looking forward to using it in battle."

"Life is full of disappointments," I snarked at him. "Come on, let's get back up to the colony. I need to clean my armour of plant guts."

A splashing sound interrupted us and a light thud had us turning around. There was another asari, glistening from amniotic fluids, standing up and looking like it was surprised to be alive.

"Shiala?" Liara gasped.

Huh, I had forgotten about her for a moment.

Nope, not dealing with this right now. I shot a nerve pulse at her, dropping her to the ground.

"Brock!" Liara gasped. "What are you doing?"

I looked over at her with a raised eyebrow, even though she couldn't see my face. "I remember seeing her as one of Benezia's bodyguards," I explained. "I don't know what her mental state is going to be like and I would rather deal with that later and not now."

I strode over to the asari's limp form and slung her over my shoulder in a fireman's carry. "Come on, let's go," I said. "We can sort this whole mess out later, but we are keeping both Benezia and this one sedated until then."

We turned and headed back up the path to the colony, silent except the trudging of our footsteps.

"Uh, Brock," Liara stammered into the silence. "Did you really, uh, call me Sweetie earlier?"

"And were you really going to let me fight with a gun that wouldn't work for me?" Wrex demanded. "Right in the middle of a battle?"

I couldn't help the burst of laughter that came out of me, which I was going to attribute to post-battle adrenaline letdown. Ah, life was an adventure.

…

(SHEPARD POV)

Jane came out from the tunnel into the colony, her Avenger already deployed and at the ready, the rest of her current ground team likewise set up behind her. She was expecting a fight from a lot of mind-controlled colonists and didn't want to be responsible for helping the despicable ExoGeni plan of erasing the colony off the maps.

She halted behind a low wall, not seeing anyone. In fact, the whole place was eerily quiet. Something was clearly not right. She took a quick breath and advanced around the corner, weapon at the ready, gas grenade on hand.

Only to stop in confusion when she saw the colonists walking around normally, some of them patting each other on the back and others rubbing their heads.

This was not what she was expecting. She thought rabid crazies would be the go. It would certainly be the suitably annoying end point of the day. She had done whatever she could for the benefit of the colony, such as getting the water turned on and finding a new food source for them.

She had even found that crazy guy and cleared out the geth and krogan, with the help of her ground team. Hell, she had even retrieved those power cells from the destroyed mako! She was really putting in the hard yards to help the people of Zhu's Hope and hopefully leave a favourable impression of her to the colonists and the company, even if they hadn't asked her too.

You know, even if they had ordered Jeong to destroy the colony. She might need Nielson's help on that one.

She could probably have delegated clearing out the geth to Tali by herself, given the enthusiasm that the quarian girl had towards killing geth. She took to it with as much enthusiasm as Jane had when fighting slavers and batarians. Though, Jane would argue that they amounted to the same thing.

Then dealing with the geth across the skyway and finally at ExoGeni headquarters had been a fun distraction, if she hadn't had to deal with the people at the weigh station. Honestly, a strong part of her had wished that she would have just punched Ethan Jeong in the face, if not shoot him. Not kill him of course. Just in the leg or something. It would have been so much more satisfying than having to deal with him.

Still, the words that Nielson had said to her about the type of Spectre that she wanted to be for the galaxy rebounded through her mind, stopping her from taking a more personally satisfying route and trying to be a solid example of human achievement, but not a floor mat to be walked over. And as much as she did appreciate the Australian for the help he had given her so far in dealing with the image side of being the first human Spectre, she could almost have cursed him for hearing his voice stopping her.

That said, she'd had a lot of satisfaction watching that geth ship falling into the city to be destroyed below. She still wasn't' sure completely how that worked but seeing Tali's reaction to the destruction of the geth corvette was as endearing as it was unnerving. It was almost as if she was hypnotised, before becoming way too cheerful.

Jane should have recorded the reaction and put it on the extranet and would have made a killing. The way that the little bloodthirsty quarian, at least as far as geth went, had reacted to seeing a dead corvette smashing into the ruins below the tower should not have been as cute as it was. Like a puppy tearing out the throat of a lion and licking your face afterwards.

They finally finished and made their way back to the colony, dropping off the daughter scientist on the way, and meeting the guy who had been asking for information from the ExoGeni headquarters that had given her a sketchy vibe. She hadn't given him anything but also hadn't looked into him, trying to get back to the colony with the gas grenades that Doctor Baynham senior had given her so she could save the colonists.

Now she was here, and that whole plan seemed completely unnecessary.

Somehow, she thought she knew who was to blame for that.

"Ah, Spectre!" Nielson called out to her, sounding cheerful. Speak of the devil and he shall appear, she thought to herself wryly. Strangely enough, the man was now forgoing his helmet.

"Nielson," she acknowledged him. "I'd heard that there might have been something of a fuss here that I needed to hurry back for. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

He gave her an innocent smile. "I have no idea what you could possibly mean," he replied coyly. It all lasted for a moment before he broke down and laughed. "Yeah, sorry, your face was priceless." It was? She thought she had just stared at him patiently.

"Tell me what happened here," she ordered, but not too firmly. She wasn't going to risk putting someone as useful, and helpful, as him off side. Not when she still didn't have the Butcher in her possession.

"I took Benezia to meet the big plant alien that I told you about," he said. "The locals called it the thorian." She nodded at that, having heard too much about the alien lifeform since she had arrived on this planet. "I got it to agree to try fix her mind and put it in a sac of some kind. Then it did its thing. It took about five or six hours, which means that we finished about an hour and a half ago. Afterwards, I spoke to it to see if it had a chance of changing locations or planting a seed of itself to get it out of here."

"Why did you do that?" Jane interrupted. She knew Nielson enough at this point that he never did anything without a reason.

"Because I found out that ExoGeni were studying the effects of mind control and were using the people of Zhu's Hope as guinea pigs in their experiment," Nielson explained. "I was wanting to see if we could get it away from here to stop that happening. Also, I heard a rumour that there was a member of Cerberus working here somewhere."

That sent a jolt through her. Cerberus was on a watch list from all Alliance personnel and were classified as a terrorist organisation. If they had someone here, at a place where mind control was being tested and studied… she shuddered to think of what could possibly happen there.

"Yeah, I thought that might be your response to Cerberus," he said, clearly having read her facial expression again. She wasn't sure how she felt about him being able to do that so well. "You know, given your history with them."

That had her frowning. "What history?"

This time it was him frowning for a long moment before his face cleared. "Oh, you didn't know," he muttered softly. He gave a sigh. "Does the name Akuze rings any bells to you?"

She couldn't help tensing as she remembered that false emergency beacon and the thresher maws that had attacked her team there. She had lost so many of her squad over that week. She gave a stiff nod.

"I figured it would," he said. "Cerberus were behind that attack. They planted a false beacon and somehow transported a bunch of thresher maws as part of some sick experiment. I don't know completely what their goals were. Then they just waited for a response team from whoever got there first."

Fury, absolute cold fury formed in a ball in her stomach. "How do you know this?" she hissed in demand. "Are you serious?"

His eyes flickered around the place for a moment, looking out at the colonists still mingling in the area. "I am completely serious," he said in a low voice. "But this really isn't the best place to talk about 'how'. When we get back to the ship, call me somewhere discreet that we can talk and I will tell you what I can."

She didn't like it but knew that was the best that she was going to get at the moment and she knew it. "Fine," she bit out. She was going to get some damned answers out of him if it was the last thing he did. Not the last thing she did. The last thing that he did. Because if she didn't like the answers, she was going to cause some serious pain.

He frowned at her for a moment before continuing on. "Anyway, after the thorian rejected me, it accused me of using it and said that we were the same as Saren and it attacked us. It turns out that it could create plant-based versions of all the races if it had absorbed them. I know that there were some humans from the colony that had been absorbed and it had also had a few asari clones that could even use biotics. It sent waves of human and asari husks after us until I managed to kill it with my grenade launcher.

"After that, one of Benezia's minions came out of a sac thing on the wall and I stunned her and took her with us. We came up here and found out that the colonists were under mind control of the thorian and had been on the way to attack us too when the thorian stopped controlling them, probably when I killed the thing. Since then, we have just been hanging around until you came back, while the two asari of interest are sedated in Med Bay under guard. Doctor Chakwas has been checking everyone down here to make sure they were doing ok."

Distracted as she was by the revelations of Cerberus and Akuze, she wasn't really processing all the things he was telling her about what they had been going through with the colony and thorian. Luckily, even in her righteous anger, she knew how to get that information for later.

"I want everything in a written report," she ordered, not really caring that he wasn't Alliance or if she had the power to order him to do it. "Every detail, no matter how small. When we get out of here but before we hit the Citadel, I want to review everything before I report it to the Council."

He raised an eyebrow but luckily for him didn't argue. As angry as she was right now, she wasn't sure if she could control herself if he decided to fight back against her.

Satisfied that there was nothing else she needed to see at the colony at this very moment, she turned and marched off, heading to the garage, marching at a fast past, with strong purposeful strides. The anger inside her burned and filled her with determination for what she was going to do next.

Jane hadn't told anyone why she was leaving after Nielson had given her the information about the suspicious guy that was hiding out in the safe zone at the bridge weigh station. She hadn't asked anyone to come along either. She had just walked back towards the elevator leading to the skyway and back up to the tank.

The reliable heavy vehicle had seen better days, or even better hours, from how this day had gone so far. The geth had certainly done their level best to stop it at all costs. But it still ran and did so well. It didn't stop her from dumping a large amount of omnigel into the self-repair mechanism and getting the onboard VI to do some quick field repairs. It took a few minutes, but by the time it was ready, several of the warning lights had switched off.

A thunk and a hiss behind her let her know that she had been followed and someone had entered the passenger bay of the tank. A quick look over the shoulder told her it was Alenko and Williams, halting her reaching for her pistol attached to her thigh.

"I didn't tell you to come," she said mildly.

"You didn't have to, Spectre," Williams said, as she and Alenko buckled their harnesses.

Jane couldn't help appreciating the loyalty from her fellow Alliance members. She was a little… dare she say, upset… that none of the others on her ground team came along, though seeing as the only ones that had been with her for this mission were the two in the tank and Tali, they may have thought that they were not required still.

Not that she needed them. She was just going to make one stop, to take care of something really quick. Just a personal side mission. Not a big deal.

With a throaty roar from the engine, she moved the tank back out on to the skyway, heading to the location of where the survivors from the ExoGeni base where likely still camped, waiting to be picked up from the weigh station. They could keep waiting for all she cared. Right now, them being stuck where they were was the most convenient thing in the world for her.

The cab was silent as she drove, not bothering to aim for the obstacles that would make the tank jump. She drove around the collapsing infrastructure and geth armature wreckage. The atmosphere was tense and dangerous as they swerved smoothly around some prothean masonry that had fallen on the skyway. She almost wished Nielson was here to lighten the mood, but she was also happy to let her fury fester.

Finally, after a drive that felt too long, she pulled the tank to a halt at the entrance to the alcove where the group of ExoGeni employees were still waiting for their pickup. Well, ex-ExoGeni employees, seeing as the Board had apparently decided to cut and run from the whole thorian project. Not that Jane was surprised. If there was one thing you could count on from unethical businessmen, it was that they always had more unethical behaviour on hand to hide their unethical behaviour.

"So what's the plan, Skipper?" Williams asked as they climbed down from the tank, gravel crunching underneath their feet.

Jane considered not saying anything for a moment, letting the darkness continue to build, but she put aside her anger for a long moment and looked over at the gunner chief. "I am just correcting a mistake," she said stiffly.

She marched down the ramp towards the group, her mind on the events of Akuze. It had been a long time since she could do anything about that. She'd had the mandatory therapy sessions to deal with the events that had happened on that accursed outpost. But sometimes, there was another type of therapy that a soldier needed, not something that a psych far from the battlefield could comprehend without having lived it.

She led the way past the security guards who let them in without a word. Doctor Juliana Baynham and her daughter moved forwards to greet them, with the bumbling idiot Jeong looking over from a corner apprehensively, but Jane had eyes only for one person. And she spotted him off to the side, working on a portable terminal. She turned and marched straight over to him.

He looked up as she approached and for an instant she could see fear and guilt in his expression before he changed it to confusion. "Shepard?" he asked, sounding uncertain.

She reached out and grabbed his arm, throwing him down and ignoring the cry of "Spectre!" from Doctor Baynham junior behind her. Her fellow soldiers moved to stand between her and the crowd.

"Kaiden, check his terminal," she barked, putting her boot on the man to stop him moving away. "Look for anything that might say Cerberus on it."

The flash of shock on the man's face was enough evidence for her as Alenko obediently went to the terminal.

"It's right here," Alenko said. "He was writing a report to someone and it has Cerberus written all over it."

Excellent. Evidence that the man was at least a terrorist collaborator, if not a willing member. That gave her justification for anything that happened next.

"Well, how about that?" she said, looking down at the man, Gavin Hossle, below her who was looking afraid, but like he was trying to not look afraid. "Caught red handed."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Hossle grunted. "I work for ExoGeni and that's it. I have no idea what you're talking about. All I asked you about earlier is weapons research!"

"The problem you have is that I don't believe you," Jane said with false calm. "I am here as I am concerned for the safety of this mission, and now we have the evidence on the report that you were writing on the terminal that you were standing at. This evidence would show that you are a likely member of the recognised terrorist organisation Cerberus."

She was speaking loud enough that everyone watching was able to hear. The sounds of scandalised whispers came from the gathered witnesses. Enough people had heard about the terrorists that her revealing Hossle's connection to them was at least understood, if not feared.

Hossle struggled underneath her boot to try free himself. She pulled her pistol from her hip and aimed straight between his eyes. She could feel the whole crowd stiffen behind her, including her ground team. That, more than anything, made her stop to question her next step. She had planned on just killing him and calling it a day. But if she did, would she be able to look herself in the eye? Yes, without a doubt.

But to execute him like this in front of witnesses? Without a formal trial? They wouldn't know her past with Cerberus and their actions to her team on Akuze. All they would see was a Spectre killing a civilian. It would make them fear her, but as a merciless killer. As someone like Saren or anyone of the slavers in the galaxy.

Not as a Spectre. But as a murderer.

She closed her eyes for a moment, making sure that Hossle didn't move by pressing down harder on him with her boot as she did. Very slowly she took in a long, deep breath and let it out as a protracted sigh. Finally, she opened her eyes again, her next step clear.

"Lieutenant, copy everything from that terminal to your omnitool and then erase the terminal memory. Chief, I want this man thoroughly searched and restrained. He will come back to the Normandy and we will hand him off with the evidence to the Alliance when we return to the Citadel. He can stand trial." She pressed down with nearly her whole weight on the man's chest, making him wheeze. "If he attempts to resist, or tries to escape, I want you to put a bullet in his head. If you don't, I will. Understood?"

"Yes, Spectre," both Alliance officers saluted, before moving to comply.

Jane got off Hossle as Williams started searching him none too gently. She ignored the crowd and looked into the distance, not really seeing anything. It wasn't what she wanted, not really. But the odds that Hossle had even been part of the group that organised the Akuze ambush was probably pretty low. So as much as putting a bullet in his head would be pretty cathartic, she would have to settle for this for now.

"Let's get back to the colony," she muttered, once Alenko and Williams indicated they were ready. She was ready to have a break at the Citadel.

But Nielson better have some damned good explanations ready before they got there.

…

1 film, 4 reviews

Jaws

Thessian Suns Publication

By Klerea Al'tichi

We asari remember our ancient history and the role that the sea played in our evolution. While they are all extinct now, there are fossils of many predators who inhabited our oceans, whom even today we would hesitate to face without biotics, and most certainly would not do so in the water. This puts this vid in context for me as a 'horror' themed vid in way that probably wouldn't be relevant to other species.

In all, for the technology of the time the effects were well planned and executed which gave the viewer a higher level of stress and connection with it. Well done.

Palaven Daily Call

By Cassius Messua

We turians don't really have a 'horror' genre in our vids. We have comedy, romance and action. Somewhere in those genres we have shows for the kids and if they are not educational, then they mirror those three themes. To see that humans have a whole vid industry that focuses on making themselves terrified, it begs to mind on how different our psyche is and how that affects us culturally.

We also don't have much to do with water. Many turians fear it because our bodies are too dense to swim. This would make nearly any vid based around water a 'horror' vid for us. But this one was done well and provided good entertainment.

Sur'kesh Leaf Script

By Silarn Moduk

Water based monsters have long been a fear for salarians. And while this vid may be antiquated, it certainly did capture the terror aspect of it quite well. An enemy that has the total advantage and you are forced to play its game as it takes you apart, piece by piece, that fits within the salarian mindset and many salarians will empathise with both human and creature. All in all, a most enjoyable conundrum.

The Krogan Word

By Ognut Grax

Nope. Krogans don't fight in water. It slows us down. Hoping to fight a predator = good. Doing it in water = death. If the animal don't kill us, the drowning will.

I still want to punch it in the face though.

…

A/N Please Review and Follow/Favourite as you please.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Shepard is learning about Cerberus and how they have impacted her life so far. I don't think I have read anyone going back to Hossle before, and I only remember one person using him a long time ago, so I thought it was a good little inclusion.

Anyways, the next five chapters are available on pat-re-on. Head there to get the next few updates. Until next time!