— * —
The storm was peaking. Blasts of lightning explosively flung pillars of shrapnel through the air. Static sparked and lept in waves that dissipated in churning yellow clouds that threatened to ignite the toxic atmosphere. Jason and Vasir pushed forward, half sprinting, half staggering along through the dark. The winding path was near invisible in the constant throw of debris in the freezing wind. The incessant barrage of stones pelted hard enough that the constant onslaught made most physical perception impossible. Visibility was null. Cover was non-existent. Jason led, able to navigate toward the reaching outcrop without Vasir's omnitool. The guiding line was the beacon signal that was stationary in the stirring gloom.
The giant shards of stone hinted at a glimmer of reprieve as they approached. The hailstorm broke in the wake of the outcrop. Stepping through the sheer layer was like two entirely different worlds. The wind borne shrapnel vanished, replaced by clear but hard and steady winds that remained just as cold and unrelenting. The new perspective exposed the first view of the opening. A black cavernous hole that gaped into the stone; shielded by wings of rock that had cracked and fallen in an arch of crystalline spears.
Vasir paused, shaking the dust from her weapon and picking at her omnitool; her wary alertness was otherwise unbroken. Jason knelt and ran a hand over the barren rock, thankful the numbness from the storm had vanished. The wall of maelstrom barely a few meters behind was strange. Stranger still was the steady rising slope ahead that the clear air had swept clean of any debris; leaving nothing but smooth black rock lit by the red and yellow sky.
Vasir signaled to move. Her action was minimal, energy conserving and brisk. Jason could see she was struggling. They both needed recovery before even attempting to get back to the skycar. The outcrop was clearly the only viable refuge.
Jason picked his way forward, keeping an oversight position of the Specter and the entrance. There was no immediate sign of presence until they stopped at a macabre token that lay just outside the cave.
The beacon.
It was leant against the rock by the darkening entrance. Unmissable. The four foot long device's small tripod legs were unfolded but twisted and bent up and out of shape like they had been crushed in a grip. More unnervingly, halfway up the shaft, it was still grasped by a severed hand, frozen in the rent scraps of a red gauntlet and frozen in an immovable grip.
The device was still active. It was left to be found.
Jason reached out to switch it off.
"No." Vasir shook her head to indicate for him to leave it. If they could monitor it then others could too.
The cave was even colder than the air. The grace was that it was out of the wind. Remaining in the basting chill was gambling certain death. It wasn't a choice. They also had to focus on the concern at hand. Jason saw Vasir steel herself. She was determined. This was her problem. She was going to see it through. Apparently he was going to too.
Jason wondered how well she had known the scouting party. He had already found himself doubting the last unaccounted member's survival. If they had wits, gear and some serious gall then max fifteen percent, else four percent, something in his mind concluded. The same part pegged theirs at thirty four. He shook off the thought as they entered in formation.
The dark walls closed around as they made a quiet entry. The storm occasionally silhouetted them against the diminishing trickle of diffuse light. The winding corners eventually enclosed them in a dark labyrinthine maze. Scanners were almost useless, the obsidian carried a scattering of heavy elements that clouded and diffracted the sensors. Almost.
Jason tapped Vasir on the shoulder. "Anomaly ahead."
The hint of a gray hardsuit in the dim secondary light of lightning outlined a body. A figure was slumped half seated against the wall. Vasir hurried over. Jason kept pace to take position slightly ahead and scan further down into the meandering black. He heard the muted mumble of mixed anger and frustration from the Specter.
"She's been there a while." Vasir half whispered.
Jason scowled, not breaking his dissection of the dark. "Is that all three?"
The specter was quiet for a second. "Yes, but only one body accounted for.."
He felt himself let out a long deep breath. No survivors and they weren't alone. In this toxic planet, formerly the homeworld of the dreaded Rachni. He felt the Asari take up a space next to him.
"Don't you dare say it." Vasir commanded under her breath. Her terse tone spoke the same volume and chapters that were running through his own head. "We have to deal with it."
Jason looked half sideways at her. "We don't know what is down there."
"That knowledge didn't stop you coming in."
Jason cursed under his breath. Waiting as the Specter finished her scans and retrieval. He readied the rifle, the unfamiliar weight and carry was eating at him. Nothing prepared him for this. He wasn't a soldier. He just wasn't. These were things and situations that happened to other people.
"For the record." Jason felt a shiver of cold run through him; staying still was letting the cold get into him. He needed to move. "I hate this planet."
"There's always a first." Vasir stood and patted him on the shoulder. "Eyes up. Passive IR only.. or whatever it is you have. We're hunting."
Jason's passive view was a bit better than Vasir's, which put him on point; but there was nothing to make out beyond where the tunnel led.
What felt like an hour of trek had continued its downward meander. The cold slowly gave way to hints of subterranean warmth. It was in the low negative twenties when Vasir motioned to pause. A slight widening of the cavern where he noticed a collapsed branch of the passage had once split away.
"Taking two.." Vasir pulled out a small infrared field lantern.
"-.. ow". Jason protested to the sudden hard glare. The shock of the light was momentarily painful; even if it was on its lowest setting. He shook his head to clear his vision. Maintaining his ready grip on the rifle. "Do you really need that?"
The warmth of the light was immediately attractive. As though the armor thirstily drank in the radiant energy. He checked the continuing path and then found himself edging closer to the small light. "Not that I'm complaining.." He added.
"Goddess.. I can still hardly make you out.", The Asari startled at his sudden proximity.
Jason looked up at the wall to his left. It was strangely translucent. In places the sheer stone had hints of several feet of penetration. He ran a hand over the glassed surface. There was a faint vibration within it. A constant hum that was layered with sharp clicking staccatos over a slow ultra low beat frequency that was suddenly punctuated by a shrill and piercing shock, a scream rippling within the rock itself.
Jason snapped his hand back, whipping it as though to dislodge the unnerving feeling. His weapon almost instantly at the read.
Vasir jumped up and peered down the tunnel. "Did you hear something?"
".. in the rock."
The Specter's helmet cocked questioningly. She ran a gauntleted hand over the surface. Pulling away as the sound echoed. This time just perceivable in the air as well. A scream, vicious and primal; if he was to read into it.
"I don't like it.." Vasir pulled her arm away.
Jason quickly scanned around the small space. Stopping where something in the stone looked closer to the surface. A shape. Vaguely humanoid. Slightly arched forward as though frozen in mid flight.
"Does that look like a person?" Jason asked.
The specter came up to inspect the intrusion. Her intense silence was marked by the bitter complaint of the lack of scanner depth. "Can't tell. It creeps me out. If I were to guess.. Digitigrade. Turian."
"How is it in the rock?"
They both snapped to the curling shrill echo that came up from the descending passage.
"I don't like this." Vasir shut off the lamp. The Specter was on edge.. "We need information, fast. Can you see much further into this.. anything.. I don't care how. We need options, even if it means exposure."
"I-" Jason hesitated.
The specter snapped. "Either we confront whatever is down here or we get out. Neither options are appealing when we're blind."
Jason sighed. His mind raced for a solution. One sprang to mind. He collapsed his lowered rifle and stowed it with a small magnetic click on his back. Vasir was watching him closely as he dropped to a knee and brushed away the thin layer of fine dust on the floor to reveal the same slightly translucent obsidian.
".. sensors are useless.." He needed to talk it through as the processes of plan and act were conflated in the sudden press, "but electromagnetism isn't the only field space available to consider."
He spread his left hand on the surface. Hoping he could be fast enough. The vibration he's felt before was a constant background. "Compression waves worked too.. sometimes better. Shock impulse, like a sonar ping in the rock" He glanced up at the specter, "It'll get a view.. I- I think I could follow it.. But it's literally ringing the largest fucking doorbell for miles; anything, anything, remotely capable of listening will know exactly where we are." He brushed clear under his right hand before he drew his right arm up in a fist. "Last-"
"-Do it.", Vasir barked.
Jason punched down. Hard. And fast. The impulse needed to be sharp. The crack of the wave exploded through the rock in a bubble of sound. He pressed both hands to the rock and closed his eyes, throwing every ounce of perception into the myriad of returning vibrations and echoes. The effort obliterated his immediate sense of self and place. The rock opened up around him, as though he were inside of it. The echos bouncing around through and between the spaces before returning as faint reflections shifted in time, power and phase. Together, the shapes, hollows and surfaces through the rock in all directions became visible in a growing mapped sphere. His mind followed the outline of the tunnel down to where it exploded into a fractal of dimming echoes surrounding a large complex void. The distance returns were the most difficult to see..
"-and?" Vasir prompted. Her cautious impatience grated against Jason's reconstituting sense of presence. He ignored her for the second longer that it took to refind himself.
"There's a cavern, below. It's large, very large. The entry is about a hundred meters down the passage; it opens off-center behind large stalactites; I think. There's a lot in the volume.. mostly crystal or glass. Too complex. Too much noise and not enough time to see more." He shot her a glance that was unnoticed before he continued. "There's a thermal gradient near the far side, it's warm.. above freezing at least." Jason pushed himself up and shook off the numbness in his hand. He'd probably put in a little more than he needed to.
Vasir motioned for them to move out. He pulled out the rifle and sighted it, the focus helping draw his attention away from the shadow in the wall beside him. He nodded ready before they proceeded; his awareness of the encroaching volume only added to his wariness. They really didn't know what they were going into.
The first hint of change came as they rounded a corner bathed in a red glow that carried within the rock. The effect was walking on an eerie flow of crimson and black that pulsed with the variations of its unknown source.
The cavern opened up ahead in a flattened space pierced with towers of slightly translucent crystal that grew from every surface like a hellish city sized geode. The path from the entrance wound between enormous clusters of the dark crystal..
There was still no evidence of anyone, or anything; except for the narrow crush of path leading into and between the pulsing kaleidoscope. Vasir beelined for the distant source of the light. As they proceeded the cold quickly gave way to cool and finally non freezing temperatures; almost tolerable except for the toxic atmosphere.
"What.. is that?" The two were prone on the last rise, scopes scanning the complex near and mid field. The near distance was dominated by a roughly circular mound surrounded by a dozen shuttle-sized shards of stone. The beam of crimson light blazing from its center pierced upward to fan out in a pool of crawling light over the ceiling.
Jason was fixated on the source as Vasir scanned over the surrounding area. She nudged him as she moved out, picking her way forward. Jason pulled himself away from the spiraling core of energy that had also stirred Etho's attention. He felt an unease creep over him that slowly started sinking into his stomach like a deepening pit.
Vasir was half way pushing up as Jason caught her, grabbing her arm. The specter instantly shot him a warning glance. "Vasir. This isn't right. Seriously, something's not right. We should leave."
"Something killed three seasoned Asari Commando's, I'm not-"
"-you don't understand." His hushed voice edged with a sense of urgency. "We must leave."
A sound behind them made both spin around.
A shape was walking through the rough crystal field. Two piercing blue orbs for eyes cut the otherwise dark and ominous crimson light. Its bipedal gait was upright, stiff and nonchalant, arms clasped behind its back as it evenly paced forward. An intense intrigue was pinned in its expression, as though idly watching an intriguing show; dark metallic mandibles slightly spread in the equivalent of knowing grin.
"Bravo. That one. An interesting creature. You.. I know, Asari.." It raised a steel grayed arm that was wound with pin-prick lines of cybernetic trails that blended evenly between metallic skin and what may have been blackened remnants of flesh, reaching to clasp its fringed chin in thought. "You? You're not Asari. Some kind of lost subspecies.. no.. larger. Masculine traits. Too distinct. A new species I wonder. Such a fast integration. You must be an intriguing species for the soft skins to have adopted you so quickly." The distinctive dual tone of a Turian voice chuckled in manically edged laugher.
Vasir had her weapon ready. "Identify yourself-"
She had barely shaped the words before the creature snarled and swiped a hand through the air. A blue biotic shock wave slicing through the air, catching them both and throwing them backward and over into two skidding showers of shattering blackened glass.
"Don't threaten me child. I've sent off far better than you."
Sharp fragments shattered around Jason. The piercing spears made painfully hard jabs against his armor before they shattered.
Jason heard a sickening sound as Vasir gasped and coughed blood. He scrambled to catch a purchase on the slithering stone to try to stop his momentum just before a barbed cluster of vicious rock. He slithered to a stop, rolled and sprinted up. Just catching a racing blur as the creature shot past view to grab the Asari by her neck and lift the flailing form off of a vicious shard that speared through the side of her suit, almost impaling her through her lower abdomen.
Vasir screamed as he lifted her. Jason spotted and sprinted toward his scatter thrown rifle, his mind muted in the numbing ring of panic. The black and silver form snapped to Jason's movement. A clawed hand striking out instantly to direct a second wave of biotic force focused entirely at him.
The wall of force smashed into Jason, hurling him crashing through further walls of glistening stone.
Jason grunted as the slew of shattering impacts through shards, and pillars of the brittle rock. He slammed into a pillar with a cracking thud that spidered out long runs of fracturing cracks behind him. The vaulting pillar that loomed overhead clouded with thousands of crystalline cracks. A small crack followed Jason down as he slid and slumped at its base. Jason gasped. He forced himself to roll over and push up. The painful draw of air into lungs that had had their volume crushed out of them in the first impact burned through him. The creature was biotic, extremely biotic.. the kind that reminded him how little he understood or could gauge how powerfully it could be manifested. He forced himself to a crouch. The only sound he could utter was a groan as every bone in this body ached. Seriously ached. He could feel his armor ache; his senses pierced by a thousand splinters. The comm crackled in his ear at the edge of his able perception. The pained voice of Vasir struggling in a crushing grasp.
"Who-" Vasir gasped over the comm.
"You don't remember. I guess few would." The voice had a slight snarl to it. "Maun. Perhaps that will jog your eezo-addled little brain."
"-you-!"
Jason pushed himself to stand. Turning to trying to find his bearing. His senses were ringing. He focused on the rising beam of crimson light and sprinted.
"Me.. Yes. You do know. Died? No. Oh, I imagine there are many fascinating tales of my demise. I know of the wishful imaginings of my opponents, you Asari witches among them. I should have expected you to poison the minds of my generals when you couldn't reach me. I never thought the brothers would betray me for their own glory. Desolus was a reacher, it was his greatest strength. He truly saw my vision, and I know he secretly coveted it. But not to betrayal.. I didn't see the reach of your kind's poison before he had me abandoned on this forsaken rock. I was right at the cusp of discovery, the herald to usher in the dawn of Turian ascension. And it was taken from me." He snarled, the voice settling from its heightened fervor into a growl. "Oh yes. I've waited, I've cursed, mourned and I have despaired.. but, I never gave up. And I was rewarded for my duty. The gods led me to a greater prize. Gifting me an immortality befitting their true emissary. And with it I will take back the glory of an empire that your kind robbed us of when you made us your galactic pets."
Jason leapt to throw his sprint into a roll, snatching up his rifle and firing off a burst of shots that flared in orange against the creatures barriers. "Drop her. Now."
The Turian's head snapped around to lock onto him. A grin glinting from his metallic teeth. He held Vasir pinned by the neck pressed and had her pressed at arms length against a large crystal.
"And you.. I wouldn't bother.." The creature's arm glowed with a crimson light that leapt from the distant beam. "Their kind has no redemption."
Vasir screamed. Jason rocked briefly in shock as the creatures pushed her into the stone. The glass flaring in a golden shimmer where the struggling Asari contacted and sunk in. Her form freezing in the crystal as he pulled his arm out to lock the Asari within the crystalline rock.
"What the Fuck did you do?" Jason shouted. "Release her out. Now!"
"Language." The figure glared at him with the steely grin, a hint of amusement in his words; like a calculating parent pondering whether to berate a child. "It's not dead. I've plans for their kind."
"You killed the others." Jason slowly moved to circle around for a clearer shot, hesitant to strike the crystal. He hoped the creature wasn't lying about Vasir.. she was in her hard suit, it could handle worse and keep her alive. He hoped.
The Turian didn't move except to track him. Jason could feel the piercing cybernetically blue orbs trying to get readings off of him. He hoped to hell that he was as invisible to this thing's scanners as everything else.
"I simply wanted passage off of this prison. They got troublesome, conspired to inconvenience my request."
"Bullshit.."
"Their craft's destruction was entirely their own doing. I had to act after they killed my soldiers. They are vindictive creatures.. hungry for vengeance if their pitiful wills are slighted. They're manipulative and controlling, ever the peacemakers and always the winners." Jason could feel the harmonics in its voice trying to claw paths onto his mind. It was trying to pacify him somehow; playing for time to test him.
"Soldiers?"
The digitigrade form stalked forward, plunging an arm into another crystal in the evaporating wisp of red. It lifted out a lifeless shape that it held aloft. The blue eyes inspected it closely.
"They served me well. They were loyal."
Jason noticed black flakes drifting from the similarly cybernetically riddled form. The clearly dead figure slowly disintegrated inward from its limp extremities. The creature crushed the last vestiges of the form's head in its hand. The self consuming dust vanished before it reached the ground. Something turned in his gut.
The eyes locked back into him. "We haven't had our introductions yet.. What makes you think I will reveal anything to a subjugated race. If you're fit for the Asari you're too weak for mine."
"We're not a subjugated race. We bested the Turians, I know your kind very well."
"Interesting.." The creature's eyes flared. "I've missed more than I thought. You faced an inferior challenge by a broken leadership. Perhaps we can see how you fight a superior opponent.."
"We're not here to fight. Release the Specter and we can resolve this-"
"Specter?" The orbs flared. Jason instantly cursed his choice of words; this thing was clearly extremely intelligent. "A truly valuable prize. It's a pity it was such a weak specimen.. perhaps it was training you as its successor? It would be most revealing to test that undefinable mettle that the council so preciously lauds." The creature snarled a maniacal laughter. Spurs of red energy leapt from the base of the incandescent beam. Landing to crackle and swirl around the Turian's arms.
It moved in a blur to a location where a dim shadow, that Jason hadn't noticed till the additional light penetrated deeper, lay under the surface. An arm plunged in and it lifted a figure out by the neck. The red and black hard suit instantly writhed. One hand grappling at the arm; the other, Jason noticed, was a hastily sealed stump. It was one of the scouting party. The Asari was still alive. The red cracked, extending out from the Turian's other raised hand. To pool in an orb behind the Asari
Jason locked the rifle on the creature. "Drop her!"
The Turian laughed. The blue eyes not breaking their focus. Jason cursed. The red exploded outward in a piercing beam that plunged through the Asari and spiked out through her core. Jason emptied clip after clip. Rounds merely obscuring the Turian in the cloud of sparks against the creature's nigh impenetrable barrier. It dropped the Asar from its grip. The Asari slumping to the ground on its knees as it writhed in an unknowable agony. Jason kept firing, the weapon shouting an alarm. The Turian merely stared at the Asari, her helmet cast down as she was looking at the burning spear. Jason noticed tendrils of silver spreading out and over her armor. Eating and dissolving the hardshell into her, the figure clawed at the trials as they snaked up and spread down her severed arm. Metal curling and growing out in a viciously clawed limb as the figure flailed helplessly. Then over her helmet, she grasping at her head has the hardsuit melted into her and the last cry of agony pierced into the open as the silvery gray swarmed over and enveloped her completely. The figure collapsed. Flickers sparking over it as intrusions swelled and sparked to life. The Turian turned to face Jason. The gleam of its eyes burning bright in the mix of crimson and shadow. A deepening sound slowly breaking through the thin air, the tempo eventually giving way to the unnerving laugh of the Turian.
The Turian let a curl of the crimson light ball in his hand and launched it toward Jason. "Let the hunt begin.."
A beam of light shot out, landing where Jason had been mere fractions of a second before. The second beam crashing through a large cluster of crystal behind him
Ethos stirred to drop a fragment of information to Jason. The crimson plasma over the Turian was technology, photonic technology.. Artefact technology. Jason's focus shot to the light. He couldn't let it strike him. This was important. Critically important.
Jason jumped to dodge the next missile, skidding to try land in a half crouch.
The Asari twitched, a sound like the wet tearing of flesh accompanying its slow effort to push itself up. The languid head lolling in what Jason thought was.. was.. he didn't know. The form suddenly surged to blazing life, the head locking back mid rise in a howling scream that pierced through the entirety of the dark. Blue fires flared to life in its sunken and hollowed eyes as its mouth stretched and yawned with the cracking of bone into a gaping maw. The Asari's slow gaze scanned across from where he had been. The form cracked with biotic energy, lofting itself to float in a dark energy field as it turned to face him. A prickle ran down his spine with a dread that nothing good was going to come of this. He searched for an escape vector from the shallow cove in the crystal that he had landed in but was faced with few easy options. A scream broke into his thoughts that was accompanied by a biotic shock wave that tore through the space. Jason darted. Diving to escape the worst of the blow. As he recovered and vaulted, kicking off the wall to flip his momentum and land to empty a clip. The discarded heatsink pinging to the floor as he ducked, feeling the passing glow of a red orb pass over him before it smashed through a crystal wall.
Too close. He panted as he landed from a further dodge. The twisted Asari's scream tore through the space once more; he caught the simultaneous blur of speed, instinctively he turned, feeling an adrenaline fueled burst of energy surge through him. Time slowed as the creature was suddenly almost on him. The bladed metallic claw swiping in at an alarming speed despite the dilation. He rammed the rifle up to deflect the blow in an eruption of spawning metallic sparks. He spun to load momentum into a kick that met the creature in its midriff just as time slipped back into its natural flow. The former Aasri's haggard form few back, smashing into a cluster of spear-like crystals. The rip from its grip on his rifle tearing a deep gouge that almost weren't the weapon into two halves. Jason glared briefly at the stricken weapon that sparked. He tore it in half and ripped out the core. In one movement, arming it and throwing it toward the Turian figure. The detonation briefly whiting out the cavern.
The shape of the Turian was unmoved. It was a dark shape against the light of the crimson beam in the near distance behind it. It's hands once again clasped behind its back, as the silver and black form watched from its advantage point. Its eyes dimmed as though to narrow in thought as it seemed to be assessing Jason.
Jason didn't wait for the next curated movement. He wasn't going to play the creature's game. He needed to end it, get Vasir and get out. He jumped through the broken curtain and sprinted. Behind him the clattering sounds of a rising form punctuated the dark. A shrill scream pierced through the air and the stone. Thin spars trembling in the discordant shrieking tone. It was in pursuit. He swore, wondering what the hell the Turian had done.
Jason felt the regular surges of biotic force ripple through the air and crystal as the thing somehow raced through the air on his trail. Each surge launched the creature through distances equivalent to whole seconds of his sprint. Which meant that out running it wasn't an option. There also wasn't ultimately anywhere to run to without circling or getting cornered.
Another shriek echoed. A lot closer. Jason tensed, marking his direction toward one of the towering pillars; he hoped it was the one.
Another surge. It was almost behind him now. The next shriek felt like it was in his head. He wrenched two of the vibrating shards from their nests and skidded to a halt. The crimson light burned ahead. His back to the whited pillar of the otherwise dark crystal. The creature blurred. Jason concentrated his focus into matching the thing's speed. The leading wake of its biotic surge racing ahead of it in its claw primed approach. The bladed strike was already sweeping for his head as the piercing scream still sounded from his gaping maw.
He regretted what he had to do. The Asari had been changed. It was no longer an Asari before him, he had to remember that.
The two crystals vibrated sympathetically in his hands, their four foot lengths formidable except for their extreme fragility. He sprinted forward, seeing the creature slowly begin to adjust its attack even at this insane speed. He leaped forward with the two spears ready in their aims. Feeling time slip back again as the two met moments too early into the creature's strike. Its momentum carried it into him as he drove into it. The shards meeting and driving into their marks. The first into the maw, the second for mercy. The shards snapped off just above his grip, the creature's eyes blinked out as it collapsed. Jason steeled his raging anger; caught between disgust and the primal urge to roar in defiance. He looked down as something clattered by his boots. Dust. He opened his hands, realizing he'd crushed the remnants in his grip. He looked at the figure at his feet. The first wisps of the black edged disintegration ate at its extremities. This was the Turian creature's fault. He needed to remember that.
Jason turned toward the light. Fury beginning to wick at his mind. A ripple of blue caught over the crystal as he ran toward the crimson light that danced toyingly in the near distance.
"Impressive. You are interesting."
The gnawing voice ate at Jason's presence of thought. He felt his anger flow over him.
The creature cocked its head to the side. "I may need to experiment with your kind.."
"You will do no such thing."
The laugh carried in the dark as Jason rounded back to near the crimson spire of light. The frozen shape of Vasir was still set in the rock.
"So defensive. Perhaps just you then?" The Turian locked his mocking gaze again on him. Turning to swipe a biotic shockwave as Jason darted for Vasir's dropped weapon. The rifle scattering off into the distance as the force shattered through the near space. Jason dived into a sprawling forest of crystal, keeping out of direct line of sight of the creature. He desperately needed a plan.
"Your weapons are useless. Shadow." The Turian's laugh echoed in the stone. "I want to know your kind.. and I will. I shall. You would benefit from my guidance, heed it and you might reach your potential. I can see that. But I wouldn't expect a child race to understand the call of duty or the purpose of the cosmic imperative. It is the responsibility of the steadfast hand to lift order out of chaos, I am that hand."
"-you're delusional-"
"That kind of ignorance is easily cured." The malice in the voice was unnerving. "Take your Asari for example.."
Jason just picked out the figure approaching the crystal that held Vasir.
"Weak. Pious. Arrogant. But within.." the voice dropped in tone; almost to a thunderous growl. "Within is the potential to be a glorious weapon." Jason sprinted back, something ominous tearing at his instincts
The Turian stood with his arms open, his claws spread wide, the crimson energy pouring from the source in a whirlwind around the two.
Jason could make out the form of Vasir, her figure suspended in a vaporizing cloud of rock. Still frozen in the crystalline locked pose. He heard the cracks as her hardsuit shell cracked, her helmet shattering first as though exploding outward pulled by unseen forces. The shock of fear set deep in her black eyes. The red swirled behind her head, she screamed. Jason swore and froze as the concentrated orb speared out to pierce her crests.
Jason launched himself through the space. Fear and anger propelling him in a burst of deep time to ram his shoulder into the maleficent creature. He focused all his energy into the impact, light exploded out in a searing sphere as he made the impact. The Turian roared in outrage, the heavy form crashing into a wall of crystalline rock in a cacophony of shattering that rumbled throughout the cavern. The red light flickered.
Jason ran back to pull Vasir from the still open cloud glowing stone. He charged and dived through, grabbing her and rolled to catch himself with the extra weight. She looked okay... he grabbed her emergency field-based helmet from her belt and clipped it around her neck. The barrier wasn't good for combat but it kept the air in.
A storm of glass erupted from the distance in the chamber. The light dimmed further as more long trails were pulled from it to the rising orb of a form wrapped in a vicious biotic sphere of energy. Black edged flames of blue wicked into the dark. The roaring figure tore upward into the air. "You are becoming tiresome."
Jason grabbed Vasir and threw her over his shoulders before sprinting.
"I shall tame your insolent gall." Four searing beams of red sliced through space and rock behind him, showering Jason's retreat with glass shrapnel. "You shall learn the consequences of challenging your betters. Your masters shall not tolerate your defiance. I will break you and will raise your corpses in the glory of servitude to the Turian Empire."
The chamber shuddered as a gigantic pillar collapsed raising a cloud of dust behind a wall of flying spears. Jason crouched. Shielding the Asari as brutal impacts of shard on shard hammered into him. He knew he couldn't take much more of this.
"Or.. like traitors.." The amusement drained from the voice. "..you would desire to usurp my ascendance. Claim for your own what is mine.. my people's right. You rise like thieves in the night to steal the birthright of my kind. The ascendance to godhood is the fate of all Turian, this is our reason and our discipline. We are unmatched. Unrelenting. Unwavering. It is the purpose of our existence.." The voice dropped to a growl. "You will not take that from me. I have heard the voice of the true gods, I will not be robbed of their mission again."
Jason dipped his head as the onslaught of wild destruction fell near them, triggering a massive inbound wall of destruction. He figured that this was it. There wasn't an escape. There wasn't anywhere to hide.
Vasir was stirring, she pulled herself up, a determined fiery focus in her eyes. She dropped to a knee and pushed her hands together and outward. A biotic bubble enveloping Jason and herself just as the first shards of the onslaught shattered down on it.
"Get.. it.. over.. with..", Vasir grunted. "Finish.. It.."
"I don't even know what it is!"
"He's.. dead.. Mallicus." Vasir's eyes narrowed, half rolled in her failing consciousness. "General.."
"I cannot beat that thing..", the hint of panic escaping Jason's voice.
The world whited out in the blaze of impacts, the shield shrinking under the sustained impacts until the surface was barely inches from her hands.
"If you.. can't.. ", The Asari collapsed under the exertion. Jason caught her, shouldering the last blows and quickly lay the unconscious figure down safely.
His heart raced. He glanced up to just catch the distant form quickly making its way back toward the crimson beacon of light.
He wasn't sure what he could do. It needed to end.
He pulled out the pistol, smacking the exposed heatsink to reset it from the impact damage on his back. Zol had dialed it up to twelve, hadn't he? Hopefully it was enough..
Jason sprinted and vaulted over the chaotic field of destruction. Trying to draw on whatever he had left. He could feel the potential building within him, coursing through his veins and blazing through his armor. The figure was standing determinedly atop the rise of the platform that loomed ahead. The formerly enormous light was almost extinguished. Whatever the energy the Turian had been pulling from it for his actions was finite; and there wasn't much left.
A thunderous storm of force surged across toward him, a last massive wall of spears launching out from another wild stroke of biotic rage. Jason shouted in defiance and launched into it, pushing through the rolling field of destruction that followed in the dark energy's wake. Sparks leaping into the air from his shielding arm to ignight and weld into a wall of ice white energy that carried in the air in front of him, vaporizing the crystalline impacts in a trailing arch of falling slag. He landed and swung the dissipating field. The Turians barriers exploded in yellow as it backtracked closer to the light. Jason pulled out the pistol and aimed steadily at the Turian.
"Surrender."
The creature turned its head at his slowed approach. "Weapons are useless, Shadow."
Jason fired. The circle of barrier field that surrounded the Turan and the light source flared faintly. Something else was protecting them. This close Jason could see what the light source was. A monolith. A complete and fully functional monolith. Jason could feel the pulsing radiance of the charged and active device.
The Turian spoke carefully. His words carried an insidious undertone that spoke deep within Jason's mind; he should listen. "It's wise to surrender when you are at such a disadvantage.. There is no honor in fighting once you have already lost." The Turian stepped round to be silhouetted against the remaining crimson flames that swarmed over the artifacts shape. The voice lingered. It was the only truth. The general was right. There was no value in denying the one voice that should be heard.
Jason felt the slithering words slip away; unable to find a grasp on him. The Turian fumed, anger burning at its failing attempts. The General followed the focus of Jason's gaze.
"You can see the source of my sustaining strength. It is beyond you in every way. This is the life of my patron who left me with enough of his will to sustain me in his absence. And yes.. I felt his death. It was his duty and he fulfilled it. But not before he summoned the others. And in his death he left me a warning."
The former general slowly turned, his eyes briefly more real, more living. His gaze distant as though having been looking deep into memory. The moment vanished with the Turian's eyes blackening and hollowing once more. Anger ignited within them as pinpoint flares of boring energy.
"A vision that I was blind to until now. I see it. I understand it.", The Turian continued, distaste eating at his words. "It was your kind. Your kind who killed the Seer. Your kind who slayed a greater being with the mission to preserve an order that is beyond you. Know this creature, your kind's victory is hollow and you do not deserve honor for your crime. I will not allow your kind to steal my ascension. I will prove to those who come that mine is the superior race, the greater soldiers and the mightier power for their will.."
Jason tested the barrier with a shot. It was still active. The last wraps of the free energy curling from the stone that softened and turned to the familiar blue glow. The remaining strands of crimson energy cracked around the Turian.
"I will grant you your capitulation, as is my duty. Death will be quick. And then I will redeem my people from the singular fate in the galaxy that is worse than death. One that is far more befitting of your own.." His eyes flared with a cybernetic glow.
Jason felt his hand tighten on the grip.
The sharp toothed grin caught in the swirling light. "..Irrelevance."
The creature threw a barrage of crimson projectiles toward Jason. The Turian tried to anticipate his path, he dodged and sprinted; aiming the pistol up and unleashing a stream of rounds toward the ceiling in a sustained onslaught in heavy shots that felt like hammer blows down his arm. Jason dived to a stop. Taking cover behind a large broken fragment, The creature was almost depleted.
"You missed", it taunted.
"I wasn't.." Jason panted. "..aiming for you."
Something tinkled to the ground. The general looked up. Then down towards Jason; a rampant anger curling furiously across its face.
"You Dare! You do not know what you are doing!"
Shards began falling. Giant crystal rain drops carrying the gravity driven punch of deadly explosive detonations as they began landing. Showering the stand-off in sprays of lethal shards. The Turian's barriers flared. Jason stood and paced through the stinging barrage on his armor.
"This isn't ended." The Turian launched into the air, surrounded by a biotic sphere as he dodged the first of the larger shards dropped down.
Both of them watched and felt the nearby detonation.
The Turian snarled and fled.
A massive crystal falling to strike the artifact almost directly. The moment slowing to stretch in the pensive inevitability that was about to be unleashed. Jason dived toward cover. The barrier blinked and vanished. The crystal impacted. A blinding flash blew Jason away from the mound in a shockwave that slammed him through a cracked pillar that crumbled and then exploded in the detonation's wake. All around, more of the crystalline pillars shattered and collapsed, setting of a cascading rain of countless more overhead projectiles.
Jason recovered just enough to see the Turian vanish behind the wall that shielded the tunnel before it was clouded in a shattering collapse sealing it from view. Jason sprinted back to Vasir, ignoring the shouts from his body and shoulder that had borne the brunt of the impacts..He barely dodged several crushing impacts that would have left him a smear on the ground. Half collapsing to the quivering ground as he pulled the Asari deeper into a small cove sheltered by a previously felled pillar. A continuous rumble now shook the flood as it felt like the entire chamber was collapsing. The Asari was still, oblivious to the spreading destruction. Jason braced his back against the pillar where a large crack had begun spreading from the overhead bombardment, supporting it however he could.. and waited.
Jason opened his eyes. It was still dark. He hadn't moved for what felt like hours. His back was beyond aching but he was confident that they were alive; safe was slightly too gratuitous a label.
There was the sound of some shuffling and a small lantern that was lit and shifted up into visible light.
Vasir pulled herself into a seated position and looked up at him.
"I think we've been here before."
"No shit.", Jason rolled his eyes, not that the Asari could see. He was tired.
Vasir looked away with a hint of amusement before the expression drained and she raised a hand to her head. Stopping as it met the small bubble field.
Jason grunted. "I don't know what he was doing. But it didn't look good. Get the Doctor to check you over when we get back."
The Asari seemed slightly shaken but then nodded. "We will find out." She then seemed to take notice of Jason's predicament. "Can you get out?"
"Not before you. Unless you can stop what I think is about fourteen and a half tons from shifting."
Vasir looked up. "That is very specific."
"I've had time." Jason snarked. "You've got to find a way out."
Vasir quickly pushed an exit through the loose debris and climbed out. A few seconds later Jason jumped from a crash that crushed in the space they'd occupied, he looked back before crunching over through the shatter-field to where the Asari was standing with her small field lantern held up..
It looked like the entire inner layer of the chamber had collapsed. Leaving, from what he could make out, was a large dome of rock overhead, devoid of any of the complexity or crystalline structure that had entirely enclosed the large chasm.
"Where is the Turian?" She held up the light. "We will need to confirm the identity."
Jason shook his head. "Escaped."
Vasir nodded solemnly.
Jason frowned. "Look.. I'm sorry-"
"You stopped him from killing us. That's acceptable."
"There's no way I could have- wait.. what?"
The Asari slowly picked her way through the glittering rubble. "It's better to walk away from a fight to be able to fight another day than to die trying."
Jason found himself angry at the lack of rebuke. "How the hell do we go from fighting an overpowered and insane former Turian General come cybernetic meta-demon to extolling shitty fortune cookie wisdom? We just had our arses handed to us by one guy who's been in a cave for, what.. Thirty years? You nearly died, I nearly died.. There are three Asari out there who did die. Fuck... I killed one, something that was one. Get a grip Vasir.. I don't see a game here. This is a dire situation, not a fucking teaching opportunity."
The Specter stopped and turned to him. Nothing but seriousness etched in her tired features. "I am being serious and this is not a lesson. There is no pressing threat beyond the immediate which means we need to acknowledge our reality, not obsess over it or how it could have gone. We need to reassess and determine how to get out of here." She went quiet for a moment then quietly asked the question he was most loath to answer, "An Asari.. Who?"
"I.. don't know." Jason made a vague gesture indicating the part of her right arm that had been torn off. "The Turian pulled her out of the floor. He used the Reaper energy from the artifact to.. change her. It was like the artifact vids. Just, worse. I'm sorry, I figured you knew them well. There was nothing I could do. The thing she became.." Jason fell silent, "I don't want to have to do that again."
The back of his mind replayed the vision and sounds that had burned into his mind while he tried to ignore the fact that he would have to deal with that for the rest of his life.
The Specter nodded slowly. "You did what was necessary. That is enough." She looked at him carefully. "Your first?"
"Not by accident or effect.. Yeah. Can we not talk about it please." Jason pointed to where a column had collapsed over the entrance. "The Turian got out before that fell. We'll need to find or make a different way out."
Vasir was quiet, accepting his change in conversation direction. "Is there one?"
Jason stared toward the distant enormous crush before he shook his head. "There wasn't. Everything else is solid rock from here on up except for that passage."
Vasir nodded, "Then let's calmly finish our assessment of the present and then we can worry about what the next steps are." She looked him over then into the cavern "What happened? I feel like I missed something."
Jason swallowed a mirthless chuckle. Then he genuinely worried about what the Specter had experienced. "Your suit-". He started.
Vasir tapped at the rough scarred surface. "Self sealing. Internal micro fabrication matrix and medigel array.. top of the line. I'm beaten up but not broken. The Council doesn't like losing Specters." She hesitated then scowled. "The things that Maun did. I've honestly never seen anything like that before."
"Do you know him?" Jason asked. "If he's been here since the original dig then he certainly doesn't know humans."
Vasir opened her omnitool. There was no link to the extranet here but she opened a secured dossier archive that prompted for her Specter authorisation. A face Jason recognised blinked into the enlarged view, though far more biological; the Turian had a stern bearing, dark slightly-green plates and crests. The eyes, though piercingly dark, held the same calculating glare behind them.
"That's him." Jason nodded.
"General Maun Mallicus. He was a highly controversial figure. A xenophobe and supremacist from the fringe colonies of Turian space. He always argued that Turian representation was not power proportional. That the enduring existence of the council was all by borrowed Turian power and proxy. He was an extremist, but he was also intelligent and persuasive. He held a lot of military sway and political influence outside of the core worlds and, prior to his death, had been actively campaigning on Palaven."
"Sounds dangerous." Jason looked at the mound where the Monolith had stood. "I'm going to guess he was very directly involved with what went on here, he said he was betrayed."
"He was powerful." Vasir shrugged, "That comes with enemies as well as users."
"I get the feeling he was behind the Valluvian temple and the archeological work.."
"Liara did find that the commissioning of the expedition came from high in the Turian Hierarchy." Vasir finished scrolling through the dossier. "It's recorded that he died in a transport accident twenty seven years ago."
"Right before Shanxi?"
Vasir nodded. "Same month. Part of the delay in the Turian stand up to war footing were the contentions in the appointment of his successor. Which was ultimately Desolus."
"So.. he finds the artifact, gets betrayed by the brothers; I'm going to assume the Arterius' because he mentioned Desolus by name. Gets betrayed, ends up stranded here for three decades and is transformed to an almost complete cyborg by the monolith." He stared at the distant fragments. "..gods Vasir. He actually knew the Reaper, probably Sovereign.. Called it the Seer. He must have had some connection to the Reaper through the active monolith. He knew it had been destroyed, killed. He knew someone different had destroyed it.. my kind, humans.. by action, not by name. But.. " a worrying thought crossed his mind. "What happens if he gets off this rock, humans are not exactly a galactic secret. He could-"
"-You're getting ahead. Yes it's a concern. But it deserves its own time. You seemed to have learned a few things about what went on here.. I feel like I missed a lot."
Jason sat down and slowly collected his thoughts. Where did he begin..
They rested for an hour as Jason tried to catch the Asari up on the details of what had happened. She stopped him several times for clarification. The fate of the commando particularly worried her. Then the energy on the monolith.
"-it was something the Reaper left for him. Finite. But.. I'm not sure what it was.. I need Ethos for this- it knows,". Jason grappled with his limits and fragments of memory as Vasir waited . "I think, and I'm going I guess here, that it was the monolith's tech. Arca tech.."
"Not Reaper?" Vasir was staring in some long thought at the broken base of a large crystal.
"No.. or I hope not. If it is, I think we're more screwed than we've the depth of time to actually realize it." Jason picked up a large crystal shard he had been kicking around and held it up to Vasir's lantern that was setup on a stump. "This is just conjecture.. I've not seen or read of anything yet that looks like what he was pulling off. Even Shepherd's report on fighting Sovereign's avatar in the council chamber-"
"That is a classified record, you're no-". Vasir started, she huffed and sat back down. "I wonder at times which side T'Soni is working for."
Jason lowered the crystal. "As I'm starting to see it, there are only two sides of consequence, everything else is an argument. As I was going to say; that record is the closest I can think of."
Vasir shook her head. "No, and I can guarantee you you've not seen the full report, which was redacted in its secure form and then destroyed. The avatar was Saren, the cybernetic remains of him were reanimated by Sovereign after Saren killed himself. Shepherd did not describe anything like this."
Jason stared at the remains of the monolith half buried in the distance. "So maybe not Reaper, not directly.. Maybe a reaper programmed article? It was finite.."
"Hey.." Vasir called after him in surprise as he jogged off toward the former source of the dark chamber's light. Vasir grabbed the light and set off in pursuit.
They shifted to trying to take stock of the state of the chamber before making their way up to the mound. Vasir kicked through some of the thinner rubble.
Jason made straight for the central part of the flattened rise where the monolith had stood. The direct vertical impact had shattered it into several large pieces. The detonation had likely been whatever had been protecting both it and Mallicus. The monolith was definitely shattered but the soft glow from the split stones immediately told him that broken and entirely non-functional were distinct definitions. He mentally marked them to be avoided and pointed them out to Vasir when she arrived.
"Are you looking for something particular?" She eventually asked.
"I don't know."
The Specter nodded and kicked through the rubble in a vague circle. Vasir called. "Is there a platform under that one?"
Jason carefully scratched down. " Yes." He called back.
"There's two more." She pointed to the other slight rise across from where she now stood.
Jason noted the rough 120 degree separation in the vague circle.. "You're thinking there were three monoliths here before?"
"It does look like it." Vasir confirmed.
"What do you think this place was?" He looked around, the broken chamber was barely an echo of what it once was but still was an incredible creation.
"A nexus if I were to give it a name.."
"An Arca nexus?" Jason reused the name that Desolus Arterius had applied to the monolith artifacts.
Vasir shrugged, "That works.. it still means nothing though. Beside the existence of the Arca fragments and the formerly unsubstantiated rumors of the monoliths there is absolutely nothing known about them."
"Other than that they predate most other artifacts and Prothean civilisation by millions of years.." Jason threw in his sole corrective contribution.
"Well. That.. yes."
Then Jason added, "and that the Reapers used the tech to get the monoliths to be what they were on Palaven, and here.. and who knows how many other places.."
"That's on you."
Jason stared into the middle distance of no where. "I don't think they assimilated this tech. I think they subverted it and have reengineered aspects like the dragonteeth as a reproduction using a different technological basis, reaper tech. So while these things are similar in effect, they're not equal."
Jason dug through to the base between the fragments. Sweeping aside the sand-like consistency of the rubble. The low platform beneath the artifacts was undermanned, its consistency more like a metallic stone than everything else around. And if the light just caught it right you could just make out it was intricately carved. No. He looked at it closely. Not carved, inset. Faint lines barely a hair's width in size traced down and out into the greater area. He dug them out at the other two locations then started clearing away between the giant broken forms of the shards that once circumscribed the raised space.
Vasir watched as Jason set about clearing as much of it as he could, carefully slowing down when getting near the broken fragments of the monolith so as not to touch them. His effort eventually revealed the large intricately detailed disk that was the platform base on top of the mound. The little light catching just enough detail on occasion to hint at a spiral that looking worryingly familiar.
Jason turned and picked up Vasir's light and took it to a shallow hole where large bundles of thin inset lines expanded into a catchment bowl. He placed the lantern in it. The light crawled into the stone, curling and tracing through the intricate network that gradually filled and spread with incredible detail through the entire cleared floor beneath their feet. The thin lines stopped trialing as pin pricks of light began filling in, the dimmest to the brightest and finally small strongly glowing circles washed over the pattern.
Vasir let out a long breath. "I've seen this before." She pulled up a small hologram projection of the annotated galactic map. The silverly lit one beneath her feet shaming the crude holographic reproduction.
Jason wasn't paying attention, he was caught between fascination and blind analysis. "That's a lot of points. I still don't know what they mean" He knelt by the one he recognised as where they were, Maxim Xul.. three faint trails dotted out. He paced to follow them to the two empty and, partially empty, third, plinths. He walked back. Crouching by the map where the lines had diverged from. A small distinct pulsing dot occasionally appeared near the origin.
"Are you doing that?"
"No.. what?"
"This one is flashing."
Vasir looked at Jason and then at the floor. "Do you think this is an active map?"
Jason slowly walked the massive map. "It may be how we get out of here."
"I don't see how.."
"Can you watch that pulsing dot?" Jason walked to the monolith fragments, he knelt and waved a hand over a shard of the shattered object. The white glow in the stone concentrated into a brighter smudge of light that climbed to its inner surface and slowly trailed in his hand's wake. All the other fragments had done the same, except the inner illumination simply hovered at the closest possible point to his hand.
"Okay.." Vasir called, "It's stopped blinking, it's steady now. Did you do- Oh. Are you sure you want to do that.. last time you said it was-"
"-disturbing. Yeah.. it also was with an isolated fragment. I'm not so sure here. If there's still a Reaper control fragment in this it's going to be a problem."
"Can you protect yourself?"
"Physically, yes." He held up a fist, the blue glow beneath the hard plates briefly crackling to an almost white intensity. "Mentally.. from what could be in here? After today? I'm not so confident.."
"Could it help us?" Vasir pushed on. "You said these things could communicate."
"Quantum links, I believe." Jason stalled to tap the chin of his helmet in thought. "But there's a dimensionality that I think we're missing."
"Can we use it? And by we I mean you."
He cursed under his breath, sensing his implied task.
Vasir folded her arms. "If you become a monster I promise I'll shoot you before you notice."
"Fine.." He signed and pulled out the rifle and after a moment's hesitation the pistol too and handed them both to the Specter.
"Close range if possible. Here." He concentrated to clear the hard plate from the back of his head.
"You're telling me how to kill you?" Vasir sounded surprised.
Ethos stirred.
Jason turned to look at her, "No, I'm telling you how to kill something else that may look like me."
The specter looked distant for a second then nodded. She unfolded and cocked the pistol, bracing the overpowered weapon with two hands. "Don't die."
Jason hesitated then nodded at the uncomfortable prospect he was about to willingly throw himself into. He closed his eyes as he reached out with two hands toward two large pieces of the object. Ethos unfolded itself in the back of his mind to a form and presence he hadn't sensed in a long time. It reached out, as though with him, the two touching the stone at the same instant. The duality broke the unitary focus of the fragment's depleted custodian, that distraction making the instant where it was burned from existence under the fury of Etho's glare. The flash of light blinded him, overpowering all sense of state, place and awareness. The cave, the site, Suen, the System; vanished.
Vasir blinked.
The weapon wavered in the air behind where Jason had been. Just empty space existed between the pistol and the collection of monolith fragments. She waved the pistol through the space where the crouched form had been; testing if this was some invisibility or cloaking tech the human had suddenly picked up.
The weapon found no resistance.
Vasir looked around the enormous empty and silent space. The glow of the intricate galactic map that was gently shimmering beneath her boots was all that was visible.
A heavy sigh escaped her pursed lips.
"Well.. shit."
— * —
-A/N-
I don't usually do A/N's.. so forgive this rule break at 100k
For notes, chapter blurbs and updates I keep details over on my profile.. which, yeah, I realize could be better in a forum.
But, I just wanted to say a big thanks to all readers.
I hope you're enjoying it.
peace.
/O - out.
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-End:A/N-
