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[Bluenose]

Part 17

Uncharted Worlds - The end of the Devil Dogs and there?s a what on the moon?

We leave Binthu with Doctor T?Soni cooing over the prothean artefacts we pulled out of the pyramid. Even the data disc, although since no-one has ever managed to read anything from them that?s not something I?d be particularly interested in. Admittedly, the Doctor seems more interested in the other items we found which included some interlocking stone(?) shapes that archaeologists have identified as children?s toys. They fit together to make all the platonic solids, and this particular set seems to be complete. Which means Doctor T?Soni is busy writing reports, and has lots of recording equipment getting set up in the mess.

Eventually we reach Columbia, and I get my ground team together to assault the Cerberus base. This time the facility is buried, with only a few security guards outside. I don?t even notice them until I?m drawing the Mako up near the entrance, except that one of them reacts too soon and gives his position away. As I manoeuvre to engage her, three others attempt to hit the Mako with anti--tank weapons. If we?d stopped, they would probably have hit. Fortunately for us they messed up the ambush, and we quickly shoot them down.

Inside, this lot do seem to be prepared for us. At least they aren?t a incompetent as every other Cerberus group we?ve met. As we try to enter the main room, they try to keep us pinned down with sniper fire while two groups of commandos try to outflank us. Unfortunately for them, my solution is to retreat a little way down a passage, getting us out of the firing arc of the snipers. The others then attempt a frontal assault, with me as the primary target. Against my heavy armour and shields this isn?t the most effective idea, especially since Liara and Tali prove more than capable at preventing them concentrating their fire by disabling their weaponry and throwing them around biotically. Methodical gunfire drops them one after the other. After these fall, we move out and try our look with three snipers. Their weapons are slow to fire, and they?ve spread out to cover the area which means it?s possible for us to engage them one at a time. None attempt to get away, even when it?s apparent they?re totally outmatched.

Once all the opposition are dead, we move into the back rooms. One of them seems to have been an armoury, and Tali unlocks several cases holding high quality weaponry of every type. In addition, they seem to have been working on modifications here and there?s some very nice weapon mods which we pick up. Cerberus are certainly a well equipped gang of renegades.

The other room seems to have been in use mostly as a barracks. Some people kept their own personal equipment here, which is also of high quality. I also find the facilities mainframe. When we attempt to access it, a program starts to purge the data. We download everything we can into our omnitools, although since it?s encrypted it won?t be readable for some time. Alliance Intelligence will no doubt be interested.

Once we?re back on the Normandy, a signal comes in. There?s no identification with it, but Joker seems to think I should hear it. The man I?m talking too knows that I attacked the Cerberus base, and believes I must be in possession of information gathered from it. He wants it. He also claims that he has a right to it. Admiral Kahoku contacted his organisation in search of information on Cerberus, and obtained it on condition he passed on anything he discovered to them. His view is that this agreement should pass on to me. We argue back and forth a little, with him claiming that if I pass it just to the Alliance they won?t know what to do with it while the group he works for will be able to make use of it to ?inconvenience? Cerberus. In the end, I agree and send the information to him. He thanks me, transfers some funds to my personal bank account, and says that the Shadow Broker will remember this next time I have dealings with him.

As we?re leaving the system to do a little supply replenishment, I get a call from Admiral Hackett. He wants me to head to Sol, where the Virtual Intelligence at an Alliance training base on the moon has stopped obeying instructions. For a moment I?m worried that it?s somehow an actual Artificial Intelligence, but Hackett reassures me this is not the case. When I ask why they need me, he points out that I was made a Spectre for a reason and I?m probably the best available soldier for the job.

On the way to Luna, I study the facility plans. There are three buildings, each with a pair of defensive turrets on the roof. They?re close enough together in an open area that it won?t be possible to deal with them one at a time, so we?ll have to be careful not to expose the Mako too much. The facility has a number of remote drone weapon platforms, some equipped with anti-tank rockets and some with automatic rifles. While normally those would only fire on low power for training exercises, a maintenance team that went in to fix the problem was shot at by full power weaponry. And since it?s technically all one base, Luna Command Training Base 2, the VI controls all the drones and the gas dispensers and force fields throughout all three bases.

Eventually we reach Luna, where I land in the Mako. Driving towards the base, Earth hangs in the sky above us. Liara comments on how pretty it looks, and says she?d like to visit it some day. I attempt to approach the base from the North, where the northernmost base masks us from the southern one. We still take fire from two of the bases, but at least not all three. Although the Mako takes some damage, we?re able to disable all the turrets.

We enter the first base, and work our way towards the main room. A group of drones attempt to attack us, but they don?t have enough firepower to succeed. Tali?s mastery of her Omni-tool proves particularly helpful, since she manages to turn some of them against the others. With the drones smashed, we move through into the back room, where the VI conduits are found. As I start destroying them, the VI floods the room with poison gas. Since we?ve got fully sealable armour suits which we needed to walk on the moon?s surface this is no more than an inconvenience. More annoyingly, when we destroy the last of these conduits the VI put?s up force fields at every doorway throughout the complex. While these aren?t particularly powerful and can be shot down fairly quickly, it?s still inconvenient for rapid manoeuvring.

The second base has the same layout as the first. I go in confidently, but this time the drones include two of the rocket-armed anti-tank systems. Both of them shoot me at once, crushing my shields in an instant. I have to duck behind some crates while my shields replenish, and while that happens Tali and Liara take a heavy beating from the others. We manage to fall back, and when the drones pursue us down a passage they bunch up. This leaves them more vulnerable to grenades and especially to biotic powers, with several being thrown against walls and destroyed. Since my shields have replenished, I?m able to survive another rocket blast and shoot the drone that fired it, while the other was among the drones smashed against a wall. We carry on through the base and destroy the conduits, eliminating the second of the clusters.

The third building is even more dangerous. This time I?m much more confident, but of the nine drones defending this building five are armed with rockets. Fortunately, the damage to the VI seems to have made them less co-ordinated, and they don?t all react at once. We deal with the first group, and have time to recover before the second moves towards us. This time, after we destroy them and move on to the conduits, another group of drones activate in the second conduit room. This isn?t a problem, since they?re stuck behind a force field, until we have to go into it to finish destroying the VI. And since there?s only three of them it turns out to be a rather easy fight. Yes, Admiral Hackett, you can say thank you and well done now.

[Bluenose]

Part 18

Uncharted Worlds - It?s cold on some of these planets

Before we head for Noveria, which I?ve decided should be our next stop on the trail of Saren, I decide to clear up one more loose end. Back on the Citadel I?d had a very interesting discussion with a woman calling herself Helena Blake. She had information on the location of two crime lords, slavers and red sand dealers, and she thought I might want to deal with them. She knew where they were based, because they were former business partners of hers. I had rather cynically suggested she was setting me on them with the intention of taking over their business and killing me afterwards, but she claimed a patriotic streak which wouldn?t allow her to try something against the first human Spectre. Since I had the information, I thought it wouldn?t hurt to take a look.

The two bases are well defended by mercenary standards. One, on Mavigon, is on a mountain top and is defended by several heavy turrets. At one point I try to slide the Mako into cover behind a ridge and end up sliding half way back down the cliff. Eventually we deal with the turrets and break in. Most of the defenders are common mercenaries of the type we?ve fought before, but the guy in charge has better armour and weapons and proves a tough nut to crack. Eventually he makes the mistake of retreating into a corner, where Tali sets off the fuel tank behind him in a rather large explosion. We loot, and leave.

The second base is on Klensal, in a valley swept by snow. It?s actually underground, with limited defences on the surface. We shoot a few snipers and run over a couple of other guards, before going inside. Again, the ordinary guards aren?t up to much but the crime lord is much tougher. And this time, underground, ranges are much shorter so blowing up fuel tanks would be self-defeating. The shorter ranges do have an upside for us as the crime boss discovers when he gets too close, fails to drop me with his shotgun blast, and gets to experience the famous Commander Shepard ?Kick ?em to the floor and beat their heads in? special manoeuvre.

Afterwards, I check the data Helena gave me and find that as she?d promised one the two other crime lords were dead it would give me her location. We take the Normandy there, and I land with my usual ground team. Miss Blake seems very pleased with my activity, and since I?d found clear evidence that she was right about the other two being slavers and drug dealers (and what am I supposed to do with seven teenage human girls and three young asari anyway?) I?m pleased too. Which doesn?t stop me giving her a warning about keeping her nose clean, or as clean as you can be when you smuggle illegal technology and run a protection scheme for poorly armed merchant ships. She?s happy enough to point out that this still provides a perfectly profitable enterprise without attracting hostile lawmen, before politely suggesting my presence makes her guards a little nervous if I wouldn?t mind leaving.

So, having dropped off the teenagers with an Alliance cruiser, we head for Noveria. On approach, I look over Joker?s shoulder wanting to get a first impression of the planets while he hails them ?Noveria Traffic Control, this is SSV Normandy on final approach, awaiting clearance to land and a docking bay.?

There?s a pause, and then a rather unfriendly voice replies. ?Normandy, this is an unscheduled visit. State your business.?

?Official Council business. We have a Council Spectre on board.?

?Very well, Normandy. You are cleared to land in docking bay seventeen. Be advised, we will be checking your credentials and if they are not valid your ship will be impounded.? With that, they sign off. Joker looks at me, and sarcastically comments, ?Friendly place. I think I?ll take my next leave here.? Since outside it?s snowing heavily, I assume he?s a fan of winter sports. Sounds dangerous for someone with brittle bone syndrome.



Once we?ve landed, I take Tali and Liara with me to investigate the planet. According to the Codex entry, it?s a research world owned by a consortium of corporations, where they carry out research that wouldn?t be allowed on worlds that were more formally part of Council space. However, since all the corporations are based in Council territory they shouldn?t present too much physical resistance to a Spectre; lack of cooperation is another matter.

As we move off the docks towards the main facility, there?s a reception committee waiting for us. A small Asian woman, her uniform tag saying Matsuo, a tall angry blonde with Sterling on hers, and two others without name tags wait for us outside the doors. While we?re still a couple of paces away, Miss Matsuo stops us. ?That?s close enough.? After we halt, she continues. ?I need your name and credentials before I let you into this facility.?

?You first.? A successful confrontation with a woman who has to be high up in the security chain should establish my credentials quickly. Of course, an unsuccessful one might me more awkward.

?They?re trouble, ma?am. Let me handle them.? The blonde interrupts.

Matsuo appears to consider her options for a moment, before deciding to tell me. ?I?m Captain Maeko Matsuo, Elanus Risk Control Services. I?m head of security,? as I suspected ?at this facility.?

?Zoe Shepard, Spectre. Doctor Liara T?Soni and Specialist Tali?Zorah, part of my team.?

?Load of horse rap, ma?am. There are no human Spectres. We should arrest them.? Sterling is certainly taking the bad-cop part of bad-cop-good-cop to the limit.

Matsuo looks at Sterling for a moment, but obviously decides not to keep to her procedure. ?Unauthorised personnel are not permitted to carry firearms on Noveria. Sergeant Sterling, secure their weapons.?

Sterling manages one pace towards us, before she halts. My pistol is in my hand, aimed straight at Captain Matsuo?s face. In my peripheral vision, I can see Liara glowing blue with biotic energy, and there was a distinct ?click? from Tali?s direction as she latched her shotgun. The two security guards both have their weapons aimed at us, and Sterling has hers half drawn.

I?ll say this for Captain Matsuo, she?s got a cool temperament. Her voice is like iron as she says, ?You are threatening an officer of Elanus Risk Control Services in the performance of her duties. Lower your weapons or we are authorised to use lethal force. You have a count of three.?

?Three.? I sight down the barrel, intending to shoot her somewhere less lethal than the face.

?Two.? One last breath before the combat starts, and hold.

?O??

?Captain Matsuo, stand down.? The voice over the loudspeaker almost shocks me into firing. The woman addressing us continues. ?We have confirmed our visitor?s identities. Spectres are allowed to carry weapons on Noveria. Let them through.?

I can?t help thinking it?s tasteless to smirk, and Captain Matsuo seems to think so. As I lower my gun and everyone starts to relax, she glares at me. ?Welcome to Noveria, ?Spectre?? I detect a touch of sarcasm in her voice. ?I hope the rest of your stay will be less confrontational.? She and her team withdraw slightly, giving me access to the doors.

Going through, it?s a lot warmer inside than out. There?s a flight of stairs, before an alarm goes off as we move towards a desk. The woman who responds is the same one who interrupted my confrontation outside. ?Weapons sensors, ignore them.? She?s elegantly dressed, and looks efficient in an understated way. She smiles slightly at me. ?You made quite an impression on our security chief, Commander Shepard.?

?I don?t think I made myself her favourite person, no.?

?She takes her duties very seriously.?

?I didn?t say I objected. Can I ask you, when I?m gone, to tell her how impressed I was by her calmness with a gun pointed at her face??

?I will do that, Commander.? She sounds pleased. ?However, we must deal with your business. I?m Gianna Parasini, assistant to Administrator Anoleis. What brings you to Noveria??

?I?m on a mission, though I can?t discuss the details. Has anyone unusual passed through Noveria recently??

?Unusual? Well, an asari matriarch, Lady Benezia, arrived a couple of days ago.?

?Benezia is here?? Liara sounds upset as she interrupts.

?Well, not here specifically. Not any more. She went up to the Peak 15 Research Station.?

?I see.? When Liara doesn?t respond, I continue with a grin. ?I will need to go there. You?ll probably want me there, rather than here stepping on peoples toes and generally stirring up trouble.?

?No doubt, Commander.? Gianna sounds amused. ?Unfortunately, for access you?ll have to speak to Administrator Anoleis in person. His office is downstairs, and keep left after the elevators. If you need to speak to me again I?ll be outside it.? She turns and leaves.

Sounding woebegone, Liara speaks to me. ?I suppose you will want me to tell you everything I can about Benezia now.?

?No.? I search her face, which shows her surprise at my response. ?I trust you, Liara. If there?s anything I need to know I know you?ll tell me when it matters.?

?Thank you, Shepard.? Liara sounds both pleased and a little surprised at my words.

We move on, down the elevator and into the main room of the complex. It?s impressive, with a high ceiling, shops and other buildings around the walls, fountains, benches, and greenery. Though in my opinion the effect is spoiled by the view through the windows, of snow, more snow and even more snow. I prefer to fight on tropical beaches.

[Bluenose]

Part 19

Noveria - Cold, nasty and corrupt; and those are the good bits

As she promised Miss Parasini is outside the Administrator?s office, and she lets us go straight in. Administrator Anoleis is less helpful. This rather arrogant and thoroughly unpleasant Salarian isn?t interested in being helpful. He isn?t impressed that I?m a Spectre, he isn?t interested in my mission, and he insists that he?s the only authority who matters here. Saren is a major investor in a company called Binary Helix, Benezia is his authorised agent, and since companies use Noveria specifically to avoid Council interference I won?t get any cooperation here - apparently he?s warned people about my presence. As a parting shot when I leave, he tells me he?s received a dozen important message while I was wasting his time and he?s considering charging me for it.

Miss Parasini is more helpful. As I leave she calls me over. Her suggestion as that Anoleis is not the only person with a garage pass, and that I won?t be able to bludgeon my way through his bureaucracy After I suggest that I can bludgeon pretty hard, she takes a careful look around. ?Lorik Qui?in. He?s a Turian. You can find him in the hotel bar. He can help you with your problem. I can?t say any more where I can be overheard.?

With that bit of useful information I head over to the hotel, wondering why Miss Parasini is so ready to rat out her boss. Not that I can afford to be fussy about it. On the way, I get some amusement by talking to people, who have been warned not to talk to me and get quite nervous when I approach them.

Lorik Qui?in is a rather depressed Turian, sat drinking on his own table. We talk for a bit, and eventually we get on to the subject of Anoleis. Mister Qui?in remarks how Anoleis has become much wealthier since he took over control of the rents for Port Hanshan. After a little persuasion he informs me that after he gathered information on this, Anoleis had his offices shut down and sent in some paid-off security guards to ransack them and recover the evidence. When I sympathize, he offers to let me deal with the problem, and gives me his office keys and a request not to get too many bloodstains on the carpets.

Overheard in the streets:
Salarian businessman to his communicator: ?Elder brother? Don?t switch off. I?m on Noveria. Its ten credits a second for a real time call from the Traverse. Yes, but I can?t speak to them at the moment. Synthetic Insights local office has been closed. No, that?s the thing. The local manager has been accused of getting his feet muddy. Well, he?s a Turian. Think about it. They?re drilled not to do things that risk the team, ever since boot camp. Why would a Turian take that sort of risk? I think there?s more to it. I need you to find out anything you can about? are you ready for this, ?Rannadril Ghan Swa Fulsoom Karaten Narr Eadi Bel Anoleis?. I think he might be using his position to line his own nest with feathers. No, I can?t do it myself, not here. I can?t trust any local sources, and getting information from off world would be too expensive. Thank you, Elder brother. I will speak to you later.?

For this, I don?t want to involve Tali or Liara in shooting the police. I go back to the Normandy and pick up Wrex and Garrus for this operation. We head back into the facility and over to the elevator to the Synthetic Insights office. Two Elanus security guards intercept us. They tell me I can?t be here, I point out they shouldn?t be either, they say they?ve got authorization, I ask if they intend getting in the way of an armed Spectre, and they claim I?m bluffing. Wrex confirms this, ?You?re right. We won?t be shooting you. She?s going to let me eat you.?

A mutual agreement where we didn?t see them and they didn?t see us is quickly reached, before they leave. We check around the offices and end up in a shootout with a few guards, ending when a sniper on the balcony gets thrown off it by Wrex. Eventually we get to the back rooms with Mister Qui?in?s office, where we find the computer OSD with his evidence.

As we leave, we?re interrupted. Sergeant Sterling and a few more guards are waiting for us. The Sergeant is happy to start a conversation. ?I don?t think you?re supposed to be in here, Shepard.?

Sarcastically, I ask her, ?Do you plan on making me leave??

?Leave? You think I?m going to let you walk out. Uh uh. Anoleis would throw you off world for what you?ve done here. I won?t. You know what we did to cop killers on my world.?

?You?re breaking the law for bribe money.? Wrex interrupts us. ?You know what we did to dirty cops on mine??

?Or what we do to them on the Citadel,? Garrus adds.

?So if you want to try something, bring it on.? I finish for us. The guards, except for Sterling, dash for cover. For reasons that I won?t ever understand Sterling stays in the open in the middle of the room. Which makes her both the first target and an easy one. The others fall rather quickly, though Wrex takes a near miss from a rocket launcher that knocks his shields down and injures him. Krogan are tough, and he?s quickly back in the fight.

As we?re leaving the office, we get interrupted again. Gianna Parasini is waiting for us in the corridor, with a question. ?Commander, there have been reports of noise from the Synthetic Insights offices. Do you know anything about that??

?Probably some of Anoleis? thugs ransacking it.?

?Smart ass, huh. I can work with that. Meet me at the hotel before you speak to Qui?in.? With that, she walks off. I collect Liara and Tali, then head for the hotel. There, I do as she asked. And she surprises me. In a much harder voice than she used before, she says, ?Allow me to re-introduce myself. Gianna Parasini, Noveria Internal Affairs.?

?You want something, Agent Parasini?? I?m fairly sure I know what.

?The Executive Board knows about Anoleis? corruption. I?ve been undercover for six months. I want you to convince Qui?in to testify before the Board. With his evidence, this planet could run profitably again.?

?I thought corruption is the rule on Noveria.?

?The first rule is don?t rock the boat. Corruption is tolerated when it doesn?t interfere with business.?

?I need Qui?in?s garage pass to complete my mission. If I help you, can you get me one??

?You help my investigation, I?ll provide what you need. Favour for a favour.?

?In the long run,? Garrus suggests, ?It?s better to remove the source of the problem.?

?Look, I don?t like this either.? Parasini sounds annoyed. ?You Spectres play fast and loose with the law. That?s bad for business.?

?It would be truer to say we don?t have to acknowledge, the law, Gianna. But I?ll see what I can do to convince Qui?in.?

?Thank you. You know where I work. Come talk to me when you know if he?ll play ball.? Again, she leaves.

I head over to Qui?in, ?Always a pleasure, Spectre. Any news on that matter I asked you to look into.?

?I finished the job. But an Internal Affairs investigator contacted me. She wants you to testify against Anoleis.?

?Now that you have my property, you want to dictate how I use it. I have no interest in a public spectacle.?

?You also don?t have your property back yet.? He looks at me with his mandibles spread wide as I deliver the threat. ?Seriously, you might end up a hero. You?d be the man whose evidence stopped Anoleiss extortion. Other companies can?t be that happy with him.?

?My employers rely on the goodwill of the Executive Board to work here.? He sounds frustrated.

?The executive board is already investigating Anoleis. That?s why an Internal Affairs investigator spoke to us.? Tali points out the logic.

?Very well. I obviously can?t dissuade you. I will testify. Make whatever arrangements you need with your contact, I will wait here.? As Mister Qui?in gives up, I feel some sympathy for him. Though not enough to give him the evidence that will put Anoleis behind bars. I really dislike the Administrator.

I head back to Anoleis? office, and speak to Miss Parasini. She?s relieved that I got Qui?in to testify, since it means a lot of work is ending. Although she would have liked a little warning so she wouldn?t have to make her arrest in a skirt. Still, she drags Anoleis out of his office in cuffs. When he comes out, he demands that I arrest ?this bitch?? As Miss Parasini drags him off, telling him he has the right to remain silent, I tell him I?ve had a dozen urgent messages while he?s been obstructing my mission and he?ll have to wait his turn for help.

Afterwards, we head for the garage. Since flights to Peak 15 are impossible due to a blizzard and the base is out of contact for some reason, only ground transport will get us there. When we get there, we?re attacked. By Geth. Two heavies, that make a serious attempt to close in with us, and some small crawlers that provide support. With my armour being powered for melee, one of the heavies gets knocked to the floor and dispatched with shotgun fire quickly. The other finds itself floating towards the ceiling after Liara uses her biotics to lift it. The crash when she lets go breaks it. My assault rifle deals the crawlers just in time fore security to break in. Captain Matsuo leads them. ?Shepard, what are you doing here? What?s this gunfire about??

?I didn?t attack the Geth, Captain. They attacked me.? My patience for this is limited.

?Geth! But geth? where did they come from? What are they doing here??

?No doubt,? Tali informs her, ?they were in the crates you allowed Matriarch Benezia to bring through customs.?

?They didn?t give any readings when we scanned them,? Captain Matsuo protests.

?Well they?re here now.?

?If all the crates Benezia-sama bought had Geth in them, there could be dozens here.? Captain Matsuo is beginning to sound horrified. ?I?d better inform the Executive Board. If word gets out of Geth on Noveria it might panic our investors.?

With that, Captain Matsuo takes her leave, and we?re left in the garage with a Mako, which we?ll take to Peak 15.

[Bluenose]

Part 20

Noveria - it's still cold

I drive the Mako out of the garage, into a scene of desolation. Or at least snow. The path that leads to Peak 15 is a narrow one, cut into the side of a mountain. It is wide enough for two vehicles to pass, but not much more. I don’t believe even a lunatic driver would try to take the Mako off the road, with a nearly vertical climb covered in snow and ice to the right and a similar drop to the left.

This would be a bad place to engage in combat. Which makes the presence, two bends down the road, of a shot-up vehicle and it’s Salarian driver rather worrying. Two bends later, there’s another wrecked vehicle. This time I can identify what caused it and we have to shoot up four Geth shock-troopers, who have rockets and assault rifles, and of course invincible courage in advancing out of cover when I withdraw slightly. They’re probably not used to things that fire back.

Worse, immediately afterwards the ‘road’ becomes a tunnel. Which also has Geth in, armed with rockets and protected by some of those hexagonal force fields they like. Where before there was a little manoeuvring room, if only by using the jump jets to bounce the Mako over incoming rockets, now there’s hardly any. Instead, we dismount and move forwards along the sides of the tunnel, where recesses in the walls let us avoid rocket fire. Once we get among them, the exceptionally slow rate of fire of their rockets proves insufficient when they have limited protection.

Comments from the back seats:
Liara :“I shall be glad when we leave this Goddess-forsaken wilderness and go somewhere warmer.”
Tali: “I’m wearing a complete environment seat with built in heating and still I feel cold.”

As we come out of the end of the tunnel, another rocket explodes against the nose of the Mako. Apparently the crates Benezia and her party brought up here didn’t just include normal Geth. There’s an armature firing on us. Having taken one on foot, with the Mako it doesn’t present much of a problem. It seems to have been dangerous for other travellers, since there are two crashed vehicles (and three unidentifiable corpses) next to it’s wreckage when we drive by.

We go through another tunnel, this one unguarded. Beyond, I get a view of Peak 15. It’s tall. As in, towering over the mountains, though of course it’s built near the top of one. There are lights on in the structure, but not many. The road sweeps down towards it - before, we’ve been rising - and we have to shoot up a couple of Geth turrets before we can arrive outside. We can’t drive into the garage as there’s a wrecked vehicle blocking the road immediately outside the door, so we have to dismount and go inside on foot.

Inside, it’s a typical large garage with some parked vehicles, maintenance gear, refuelling stations, a fire suppressant system and some Geth and Krogan. The main Geth is a Juggernaut, still humanoid but with a much bigger gun than most others and heavier protection. It’s accompanied by a repair drone whose sole function appears to be keeping the Juggernaut functioning. When we take cover behind some equipment, a krogan on the landing above the garage promptly outflanks us and starts firing, and the juggernaut charges us. Liara manages to use her biotics on the Krogan, lifting it into the air and dropping it off the landing. Tali tries to hack the Geth AI, but it gets close enough to engage her in melee and with it being nine feet tall and broad in proportion this isn’t going well for her. I rather rudely interrupt the beat-down, with a shotgun blast into the Geth’s back and a charge into melee. This let’s Tali get out of the combat, and she switches her attention to the drone. Behind me, the krogan survived it’s fall and tried to charge Liara, who promptly threw it down against the wall with her biotics and started to fire her pistol into it.

The juggernaut starts to get the better of me, until Tali destroys it’s repair drone by overloading it with her Omni-tool. She then joins in the fight against the Geth, alternating shotgun blasts with attempts to override it’s circuits. When Liara joins in, carefully firing her pistol past me, we manage to finish off the hulking creature. Though I have to admit it wasn’t my best fight, since I spent it getting beaten up while the others did most of the work. I suppose that’s teamwork, and it hurts if you’re doing it right.

Two more krogan are in the back of the garage, and they finally take notice of our fight. After the juggernaut, enemies like this are a nice break from the tough. Amusingly, they decide to fight us from behind a workbench, not noticing that they’re right under a fire suppressant system. A couple of shots from my sniper rifle sets it off, dousing them in toxic chemicals. While they reel, I work my way across the garage until I can shoot them without the bench in the way. Even krogan toughness doesn’t help them survive this.

Once all the opposition is dead, we look round the garage for a way into the main building. Eventually, at the end of the landing, we find a door. In the passage beyond two auto-guns aim at the door that people trying to leave the building would have to use. Tali questions this, wondering why they aren’t targeting possible intruders, and Liara suggests that they’re probably as worried about their people getting out as they are about others breaking in. With Binary Helix being known for their biological research, I’m just as likely to imagine they’re worried about ‘things’ getting out.

Past the corridor, we find a security room, now empty of people; and an elevator, which takes us up to the lowest floor of the main building. Something has smashed open a few windows, and there’s snow on the steps and some of the floor. We kill several Geth, which were presumably left here as guards. If I’m right, the exit is up a flight of steps and along a corridor. Through the glass walls of that corridor I can see two large insectile creatures, similar to the one we killed in the Cerberus base. When we’re attacked by a swarm of smaller ones, I start to believe that we’ve found the source of Cerberus’ Rachni - who are obviously less extinct than people believe.

We move up the slope and into a room which gives a good line of fire into the corridor, when part of the wall gives way and a Rachni soldier bursts out right on top of us. Poisonous spit and really big claws at close quarters is deadly, and then the other two notice us. I am for a time fighting them on my own with both Tali and Liara disabled. I manage to throw them all back with an overloaded shotgun blast, and finish them with a grenade. Some hefty application of medigel gets Tali and Liara back on their feet, but that’s another tough fight. At the next opportunity, I’ll be swapping my armour upgrade from one that’s useful when firing on the move to one which helps in melee.

We head along the passage, checking a couple of offices. In one, I find it’s not just biological research Binary Helix are involved in, as a computer holds some data on upgraded space weaponry. In the other, I find a first aid dispenser and replenish my medigel, before another Rachni soldier bursts out of the wall. This time it comes out on top of me, which is a much better situation in most respects. Tali and Liara use their abilities freely while I lay into it with my shotgun, and I’m both better able to take damage than they are and faster to recover from it. One dead Rachni soldier later, we’re in the elevator which takes us up to the computer level of the research station. The elevator’s message tells us, “Welcome to Peak 15 Research Station, run by Binary Helix Corporation, the galaxy’s leading biological research company.” I suppose Rachni are biological.

On the computer level, Tali immediately notices an emergency power supply generator. While she connects it, Liara and I gun down a wave of small Rachni workers that try to rush us. Beyond, the server room lights up, and an artificial voice comes over the speakers announcing that the station’s Virtual Intelligence is off-line. We go into the server room, and Tali re-initialises it. For a moment nothing happens then a female hologram appears, surprising me into the comment, “Gah. A pop-up.”

The hologram introduces herself as the Peak 15 Virtual Intelligence, known as Mira to her users. Once she’s confirmed my identity as Zoe Shepard, Council Spectre and Alliance Commander, she permits any access short of the privileged level granted to shareholders. I ask her about Benezia, and she tells me that Lady Benezia left on the tram system two days ago for the Rift Station to investigate the hot labs. When I ask about research at the hot labs, I’m told that I don’t have sufficient access to be told about this. When I ask about the Rachni, I get the same answer. Which tells me what I need to know.

According to Mira it won’t be possible for me to get to the hot labs anyway. There are several problems at Peak 15. The main reactor is offline, the landlines that handle communication from the Rift Station are offline, and the tram system is unavailable. I ask a few questions about the situation, but Mira isn’t able to tell me much. Apparently an alert started at the hot labs, went to stage II when biological contaminants reached the tram lines, and to stage III when they reached Peak 15. At stage III Mira and the reactor go into automatic shutdown. Unsurprisingly, I don’t have sufficient access to be told the nature of the contamination.

We’ll obviously have to get things working here before we can go after Benezia. The simplest place to start is with the landlines, since access to the roof where they’re broken is right by us. We head up a flight of stairs and along a corridor, before taking a lift to the roof. It turns out that there are biological contaminants loose on the roof, doing a really good impression of Rachni soldiers and workers. We shoot them, throw them around biotically, blast them with electrical discharges, and general make them regret forcing us to go out in the cold. When they’re all dead, we remove the obstructions and Tali reconnects the landlines. This lets Mira tell us, when we get back inside, that contaminants are loose in the Rift Station but that some of the staff are also present, though she notes disapprovingly that some are absent from their designated emergency posts.

Next, we head down to the reactor. This is through a door just outside the server room which was locked when we arrived. The reactor is in a large open area down a lift, with catwalks and monitoring rooms overlooking it. Rather annoyingly, having modified our weapons so they’d be more effective against organic opponents like Rachni, it’s defended by Geth. This time there are two heavy destroyers, backed up by a swarm of the wall/ceiling crawling Geth. I snipe a canister behind the destroyers, detonating it and damaging them seriously, and then we tackle them quite convincingly. The crawlers are rather more awkward, moving around rapidly and sniping at us from positions on and under catwalks, along walls, and sometimes over our heads. Eventually we eliminate all the Geth, working methodically around the catwalks and into every room. With them gone, Tali is easily able to replace the fuel lines and get the reactor working again.

As we’re heading back to the computer room we’re ambushed again by Rachni, this time when a solitary soldier comes out of a section of wall right by us. It gets stuck into me, until Liara throws it off me with her biotics. Shotgun blasts then finish the thing off. Now, we can head for the tram. Again, we take an elevator up to the tram station. There’s a jammed decontamination chamber between us and the tram, which has two Rachni soldiers in it. While Tali is confident she can crack the lock, Mira had informed us there was a way to purge the contents to the decon chamber. We find that in an adjacent room, and although it’s more complicated to activate than the door would have been Tali is able to activate the purge and kill both Rachni. Just in time for another soldier to burst out of the wall and attack us. We settle that fight as well, though in the confined space it isn’t as easy. Now that we can go through it, the decontamination chamber opens and we head up to the tram. We have to kill a few Rachni workers on the way, but we’re soon off to Rift Station, Lady Benezia, and the surviving staff. I take the opportunity of the ride to set my armour upgrades up so I’m better suited for melee combat, and to ensure we all have a range of weapons some of which have anti-personnel upgrades and some suited for shooting synthetics. You have to be ready for anything on Noveria.

Edited by Bluenose, 22 April 2010 - 07:40 AM.

[Bluenose]

Part 21

The Hot Labs ? Another fine mess

The tram journey ends in a tidy waiting area dug out of the ground next to a glacier. It?s unexpectedly quiet, with no rachni, no asari matriarchs, no researchers or security guards. Looking around, one door is an emergency exit only and won?t open from this side ? although if I had explosives that could be changed. The other... leads to another empty area. This one has two elevators, and we take the one going up.

At the top of the elevator, we meet our first inhabitants. Human and tTurian security guards relax behind their improvised barricades as we step out. Their leader, Captain Ventralis, calls us over. He seems pleased that we aren?t ?bugs? which surprises me enough to ask if they can operate the elevators or the tram system. He doesn?t know. He seems to have been recruited specifically for his lack of curiosity, since he knows nothing about the research that was going on here and seems to think it wasn?t any of his business. He is curious enough to ask who I am.

Once it?s established I?m a Spectre, and I?m here looking for Matriarch Benezia, I get some useful information out of him. A few days ago the aliens broke out and overran the hot labs, with the only survivor being a Volus scientist called Han Olar. They then attacked the main section of the station with complete surprise, and it was only with the help of the automatic defences that they held out. Since then, his security guards have held the perimeter without any attempt to break out. The survivors of the science and maintenance teams are in the living quarters beyond this room. Yesterday, Matriarch Benezia arrived with her commando bodyguards and equipment, and promptly headed off to the hot labs. She hasn?t been heard from since.

Before I can ask any more, there?s a chittering sound behind us. The guards come to alert, as two rachni soldiers burst out of the deck plating. They?re easily defeated with the help of fire from the security team and an autogun. Afterwards, Captain Ventralis says he doesn?t understand why animals keep on attacking like this, but that his guards are surviving on inadequate sleep and stimulants. When I suggest that?s the point of the attacks, to wear his men out, he disputes the intelligence of the ?bugs?.

Heading into the station, I find some survivors and a guard in a cafeteria. A rather helpful Elcor is prepared to sell us some of his supplies, ?Sadly: as you are not part of the security team I cannot provide items without charging for them.? I pick up some extra weaponry from him. An Asari geneticist, Alestia, is much less helpful. She seems thoroughly resentful that I?ve interrupted her meditation, and also can?t provide information on the hot labs (she didn?t work there) and claims to know nothing of Benezia, rather snidely suggesting I ask my companion. A Salarian doctor is more helpful, suggesting if I need to get into the hot labs I should speak to Doctor (medical in this case) Cohen, who?s in the infirmary down the stairs.

I go down to see Doctor Cohen, who?s initially taken aback by my presence. He is currently treating a group of sick patients, and when I ask what?s wrong with them he claims the company had him sign a non-disclosure agreement which means he shouldn?t speak about it. The way he says it makes me think he can be persuaded differently, and I suggest, ?But you want to.? It doesn?t take him more than a few seconds to decide the company would value its employee?s lives over the secret, which makes me think he?s rather more of an optimist than me. Apparently the people here were performing research on a poison from a creature discovered on a frontier planet, hoping to adapt it as a bioweapon. Liara is horrified by the concept of bioweapon research, and Doctor Cohen rather defensively points out that governments will do it somewhere and he?d rather it was where people with ethical standards worked on it. The victims here were working on an antidote when Mira went down unexpectedly and they were exposed to that poison. If Mira hadn?t come back online there?d be no hope, but now he thinks it should be possible to finish the work. I point out that I?m not a scientist, but he hopes that I?ll try anyway, and adds that he thinks I, as a fellow warrior, will have more chance of persuading Captain Ventralis to let us into the lab than a scientist would.

I take him up on this, and return to Ventralis. The Captain is reluctant to allow it, since he can?t be certain how contaminated the lab is. We also provide a welcome addition to his firepower in case the bugs attack again. I eventually persuade him to relent, pointing out that if we can make a cure it would increase the possibility of getting out if all the scientists were capable of moving themselves.

The toxin laboratory is down an escalator, and outside we also find Doctor Han Olar, the Volus who survived the hot labs escape. He confirms that we?re dealing with Rachni, which I think we were sure of anyway. Apparently Binary Helix found an egg on a derelict ship in deep space, and brought it here to hatch. It turned out to be a Queen, which to some extent spoilt their plans to clone a group of super-soldiers but allowed them to breed some instead. Unfortunately they lost control of them. Doctor Olar is deeply ashamed to have survived, since he did so by escaping into a transport pod and closing the door in the face of his human friend. He claims to have watched the Rachni crush her skull ?like an egg-shell?, and seems to think he should have died with her rather than escape. When I ask him whether he believes Benezia could be alive, he says it?s possible as the specimens were sensitive to biotics.

The toxin lab has a guard, who allows us in but warns he won?t let us out unless his scanner shows we?re clean. That doesn?t bother me too much, and we go inside. The process of mixing the antidote is tedious, but with computer support not impossible. It?s therefore a surprise as we?re finishing when we get interrupted. The grumpy Asari I spoke to upstairs comes in, along with another unidentified Asari and two Geth. Alestia tells us that when Saren placed her here she didn?t realise she?d be the one to kill me. Before she can say any more I tell my companions, ?She has Geth and a gun, kill the bitch.? As everyone ducks for cover, I hear Alestia remark, ?you?re not as stupid as you look.?
As it happens, I?m a lot less stupid than she expected. At the end of the fight, she?s the one dead on the floor. Investigating, she or her companions had killed the guard. Han Olar tells us the Geth came out of the maintenance area, which is an alternative way into the labs for us if we can get into the tunnels. Only department heads have access, but helpfully Doctor Cohen is a department head. Assuming we can trust the Doctor, who sent us to a lab where we were attacked.

When we return to the medical centre, Doctor Cohen is shocked to learn Alestia attacked us. He admits to not knowing much about her, since her work with genetics and his with biological warfare weaponry didn?t overlap much. But he abhors violence, and would never have wanted a fight to break out. Fortunately we have the cure, so he?s pleased with us. Pleased enough in fact to give us some medigel that he kept hidden from the security team, and to give me his pass into the maintenance area.
With this, I make one more visit to the Elcor and sell him the fairly sizeable quantity of unused weapons and armour mods I?ve picked up on Noveria. In the normal monosyllabic tone of an Elcor translator, he tells us, ?Confidentially: the guards have been on edge since you arrived. I believe they were expecting you.? With that done, we head off to the maintenance area and use Doctor Cohen?s passcard on the door. Beyond, there are some tunnels but out of the rock beneath the glacier, and I remember that one of the reputed advantages of this site is the ability to turn off all life support and let it sink into the glacier, this in theory meaning that most biological agents will cease activity in the cold.

We work our way through the tunnels, killing a single Rachni soldier, and then into a more structured set of corridors. There are no guards here, and we quickly find our way into the main hot lab. There, a raised central platform overlooks a clear case which holds the largest Rachni I have yet seen. On the platform stands an Asari, dressed in a tight dark robe and a strange headgear of straps and buckles. From Liara?s reaction it?s clear. We?ve found Benezia at last.

[Bluenose]

Part 22

Noveria - Two mothers and a marine

“You do not know the privilege of being a mother. There is power in creation. To shape a life. Turn it to happiness or despair.” Benezia is watching the big Rachni, presumably the queen, rather than us. “Her children were to be ours. Raised to hunt and slay Saren’s enemies.” Finally she turns towards us, and her lip curls. “I will not be swayed by sympathy, no matter who you bring to this confrontation.”

“Liara’s here because she chooses to be, not because I commanded her.” I’m not easily intimidated.

“Indeed.” Benezia stares at heer daughter. “What have you told her about me, Liara?”

“What could I say, mother? Could I tell them you’re insane, evil? Should I explain how to kill you? What should I say?” Liara sounds angry and a little frightened.

“Now I realise I should have been stricter with you.“ Benezia looks back towards me. “Have you faced an asari commando unit before? Few humans have.” With a sweep of her hand, we’re momentarily frozen in place. Asari commandos come through one of the doors and head towards us. And then the fight is on.

There are two things memorable about it. One is the lack of activity on the part of Benezia, who remains on the platform in the centre of the room behind her biotic barrier. Holding it up protects her, but it also seems to make her weaker. I’m also reminded during the fight of a conversation between Lieutenant Alenko and Chief Williams. Alenko was saying how impressed he was by asari commandos, and how although they were lightly armoured their grace and speed made up for it. Ashley commented that unless their speed allowed them to outrun bullets, she’d stick with heavy armour and a nasty gun. In this fight, we rake on three waves of Asari commandos and Geth snipers and discovered that Williams was right. Accurate rifles, shotgun and pistol fire, plus the general toughness of a heavily armoured soldier, beats the biotics and mobility of the Asari. Even if I do spend half the fight picking myself up after being thrown to the floor.

When the fight is over, we approach Benezia where she stands on the upper platform. She’s again gazing at the Rachni, but as we approach she speaks. “This is not over. Saren is unstoppable. My mind is filled with his light. Everything is clear. I will not betray him. You will? You?”

She pauses, and then turns towards us with a different expression. “You must listen..” Her voice is both clearer and weaker at the same time, and almost desperate in it’s urgency. “Saren still whispers in my mind. I can fight his compulsions. Briefly. But the Indoctrination is strong.”

“How can Saren control you, when he isn’t even here?” Sceptically, I’m half convinced she’s trying to bluff us into leaving her free.

“People are not themselves around Saren. You come to idolise him. Worship him. You would do anything for him. The key is Sovereign, his flagship. It is a dreadnought of incredible size and its power is extraordinary.”

“That’s the ship that he attacked Eden Prime with. I couldn’t believe a ship that size could land on a planet’s surface.”

“It has a very powerful mass effect drive. But that is not Sovereign’s true power.” Benezia sounds calmer now. “The longer you stay aboard, the more Saren’s will seems correct. You sit at his feet and smile as his words pour into you. It is subtle at first. I thought I was strong enough to resist the effect. Instead, I became a willing tool, eager to serve. Even now I can hear his will whispering in the back of my brain.”

“So, what did Saren want from you?”

“He sent me here to find the location of the Mu relay. It’s position was lost thousands of years ago.”

“How do you ‘lose’ something the size of a relay?” I know I sound sceptical, but this does seem implausible.

“Four thousand years ago, a star nearby went supernova. The shockwave propelled the relay out of it’s system, but did not destroy it. It was never found. In the vastness of space, an object which doesn’t radiate anything is hard to detect. Even more so when it’s within an expanding cloud of hot gas.”

“So, someone on Noveria found it?”

“Two thousand years ago, the Rachni dominated this sector of space. They are highly territorial creatures, driven to find any means by which outsiders could enter their territory. They searched the nebula, patiently, until they found the relay.” Benezia pauses, and continues as if ashamed. “Rachni queens can pass memories down to their offspring. I ripped knowledge of the location from this queen’s mind.” She moves her hand in the direction of the tank. “I was? not gentle.”

“So where is it? And what does Saren want it for?”

“I recorded the location on an OSD. Here, take this copy.” Benezia comes towards me and hands over a data pad. “But I do not know what Saren’s purpose in seeking the relay is. I was only a servant, performing tasks for him while he alone understood their purpose. It must be that he meant to go somewhere, but a relay can link to many places. I do not know which is Saren’s objective.”

The Benezia gives a little gasp. “I cannot hold him off any longer. Saren’s will is overcoming mine again.” She staggers slightly, pressing her back against the tank holding the Rachni.

“No, mother. Don’t leave. Fight him!” I’d almost forgotten Liara’s presence for a moment, but now she reminds me.

“You’ve always made me proud, Liara.” Benezia looks at her daughter, before turning back towards the tank for a second. When she turns back, her face is contorted. “Now die!”

Another group of Asari burst into the room, and this time Benezia fights us too. Still, we’re right on top of her with no cover for her, and the commandos have to come from the entrances or fire past significant amounts of cover. Benezia falls in a hail of bullets, and Liara takes out her anger on the commandos, throwing them around the room recklessly until they’re all down. Still though, Benezia has a few more words. “Now it is up to you. You must stop Saren.”

“I have medigel, we can?” I make the offer more from reflex than thought.

“No. Saren’s commands still hold me. I can still hear his words. Like metal on metal. Squealing and reverberating.” She slips down to the floor, staring at Liara. “Good night, Little Wing. I will see you again with the dawn.” Her eyes stare blindly at something. “No light. They always said there would be a light.” Her last breath fights it’s way out painfully. And then there are no more.

I move towards the Rachni queen who has hardly moved throughout this encounter. I’m staring through the clear plex when suddenly one of her manipulators slams into it right in front of my face. I stagger back in shock, and an even bigger shock is when one of the Asari commandos, who I thought was dead, staggers into my back and over to the tank. And then, in a voice that sounds as if it has a built-in echo, she speaks. “This one. Serves as our Voice. We cannot sing. Not in these low spaces. Your musics are colourless.”

I manage to control my heartbeat enough to ask, “Who am I speaking to?”

“We are the mother. We sing for those left behind. The children you thought silenced.”

“Your children are killing people outside.”

“Yes. These needlemen took them from us before they could grow. They had no one to sing to them when they were alone. A mother can tolerate silence. Children need to hear the songs of their mother for their minds to be sustained.”

“I understand.” Liara has come up behind me. “A child locked in a cupboard for the first ten years of it’s life will not be sane.”

“They must be silenced. They are mindless things, with no songs of their own.”

“I’ll kill them, gladly.” The other Rachni are a dangerous pest, this one might be something else.

“Such discordance bodes ill for what we must compose here.” The Rachni queen sounds almost chiding. “What will you do with us? Are we to be the last survivor of the Singing Planet? Will you silence our song forever?”

“Look,” Tali says, quietly. “Tanks of acid. Strong enough to kill anything, regardless of it’s biology. They wouldn’t have installed those if they weren’t afraid of the consequences of her getting loose.”

“They made a mistake.” Liara is quick to make her point. “They let the Krogan go too far. This is a chance for us to atone. She has done nothing to us.”

“Your companions hear the truth. You have the power to free us, or to return our people to the silence of memory.”

I stare into the tank, at the last survivor of an ancient race the galaxy know only as conquerors. “What will you do if I free you? Start the Rachni wars again?”

“No!” Her vehemence is startling. “We would not do this. We do not hear the song that soured our mothers’ thoughts. The sky is silent. We would seek a place to burrow in peace, to teach our children to hear the songs of others.”

I walk over towards the controls next to the tank, noticing that I could release the acid or open a tunnel to the surface with a few button presses. And then I press the buttons. “I don’t want to wipe out a whole species. You’ll go free.”

As the tank rises slightly, I can hear the Rachni queen’s astonishment in the voice of her Asari puppet. “You will give us the chance to compose anew? We will remember. We will sing of your forgiveness to our children.” Perhaps the only people who will ever sing of my forgiveness!. As the queen carefully turns and scuttles away, her puppet slumps dead to the floor. Part of me wonders if I’ve made a mistake that will doom the galaxy, but I’ve killed enough mothers today.

We make our way out of the laboratory, through some tunnels to an elevator that takes us up to the emergency exit at the tram terminus. For a moment I’m tempted to take the tram, but there’s one more task to complete here today. We head back towards the station, and this time I take the elevator down. I want to finish off the last of the Rachni, and this is where I expect to find them.

Surprisingly there’s a human sat in the middle of the room at the bottom of the elevator. He introduces himself as Yaroslev Tartakovsky, head researcher. He sits, hunched over, as he explains the situation. He can activate a neutron purge that will kill everything in the lower labs, which in his opinion will be a good thing considering the hubris of Binary Helix in working with the Rachni. He’s realised how taking them away from their mother made them less controllable rather than aiding the training. Just as he’s working up the courage to activate the purge there’s the crash of a grate giving way, and a Rachni claw slams through his back and out through the front of his chest. The Rachni soldier tosses his body aside, before dying in a hail of gunfire.

From the body of the researcher, I recover the codes that will activate the neutron purge. In the next room, there’s one of Mira’s terminals. I start her up, and ask about the neutron purge. She explains that the code needs to be input correctly, and the large red button pressed to initiate the countdown. Also she warns us that the purge will be lethal to all living things, and that we should be sure we understand the consequences before staring anything. Liara comments how this is always wise in any situation, to which I reply that I’m familiar with the concept of RTFM. While Tali understands perfectly well what I mean and suggests that all manuals should say, ‘Don’t Press Big Red Buttons’, Liara is confused by the acronym. And even more confused when I tell her it stands for Read The Manual, since there’s an unnecessary letter included.

Anyway, we input the code and I press the button, before we head back to the door. Only to find half a dozen or so Rachni between us and the elevator. And the countdown is below two minutes. And more Rachni are arriving all the time. Solution - a grenade from me, a biotic throw from Liara, a twist of her omnitool from Tali and we run like hell for the elevator, not bothering with the Rachni unless they get right in our way, when a body check forces them aside. We hit the elevator, close the doors, and as we rise I give a sigh of relief. That’s done.

The explosion had better not be channelled into the elevator shaft. That would be annoying.

Edited by Bluenose, 22 April 2010 - 07:41 AM.

[Bluenose]

Part 23

The Normandy ? Debriefing

On the way back I spend some time writing my initial report to the Council. This is possibly the worst part of being a Spectre. At least for me, since my education barely qualified me to join the Alliance military. Writing after action reports wasn?t exactly normal with the gangs I grew up around. I?ve tried since then to become better educated, but that?s more a matter of learning things than writing about them. I?d still half like to submit my initial report, just to see the Turian councillors face. It reads:

Travelled to Port Hanshan, Noveria. Discovered presence of Benezia on planet. Travelled to Peak 15 Labs, killing Geth on way. Activated VI in administration centre, activated power plant, activated communications ? Geth and Rachni encountered and destroyed. Travelled to labs. Dealt with Rachni, Saren?s agent. Encountered Benezia. Talked to Benezia. Her belief that Saren?s ship has mind control powers. Obtained location of Mu Relay. Killed Benezia. Released Rachni queen. Killed other Rachni. Left Noveria.

I think they might want more detail than that.

On the Normandy, debriefing turns into an argument. Wrex is furious with me. ?What were you thinking releasing the Rachni? Do you know what happened last time they were loose? I know humans weren?t around then, but you have to know what the Rachni War means to people. How many Krogan will die this time because you released a queen??

Liara attempts to persuade him that this time will be different, that the Rachni queen didn?t seem interested in another war, but he?s having nothing of it. ?You?re naïve if you believe that. There aren?t enough of us left to fight the Rachni.?

?Wrex.? I try to interrupt, but he?s still talking. ?WREX!? With a parade ground bellow, I get his attention. ?I do know what it means. But I?m not going to talk about it here. Come to my room afterwards, and I?ll explain my reasoning to you. But not here. Understand??

He glares at me, then nods and settles back into his chair.

Immediately afterwards, Ashley asks about the Mu Relay, and whether we should go there immediately. Before I can explain, Liara tells her that without more information it would be pointless as a relay can go to many locations, and that we need to find out more information elsewhere. This starts an argument between Liara and my human crew, who openly ask who put her in charge of the mission. I end up having to squash this, as the disagreement seems to be getting quite personal between Lieutenant Alenko and Doctor T?Soni. I point out that we?re all tired and that perhaps we should end this meeting while I decide where to head next, implicitly suggesting my agreement with Doctor T?Soni without blatantly contradicting other crewmembers.

Joker then calls me over the intercom, telling me the Council wishes to speak to me concerning my Noveria report. I accept their call, and get straight into another disagreement. The Salarian councillor is first to speak, unusually, ?Commander. Did you really find Rachni on Noveria??

?And release the Queen.? The Turian sounds more hostile than usual. ?What possessed you to do that? How many generations till they overrun the galaxy.?

?Four! No, make it three.? There are some things I won?t put up with, and I?m beginning to think the Turian Councillor is one of them. ?I don?t do genocide. Unless of course, ? and I glare at the Turian, ?I really dislike the species involved.?

?Commander.? The Asari manages to sound both chiding and supportive. ?We understand it was a difficult decision. We just want to make sure you are aware of the consequences.?

?I am. And I believe it was justified.?

?That is of course your right, Spectre.? The Salarian appears to accept what I?ve done. ?I?m happy with the rest of your report. You have eliminated one of Saren?s important supporters, and found evidence of his immediate objectives. This is well done.?

?Indeed it is.? The Asari has glared to Turian councillor into silence. ?We also have some information for you.? She glances to her left, towards the Salarian.

?Several Special Tasks Groups have been deployed into the Traverse and adjacent regions, looking for evidence of Saren?s activities. One of those has sent us a message.?

?What does it say?? I?m pleased to hear the Council aren?t relying on just me, and that they have other more covert action in place.

?Unfortunately, we do not know.? He admits this with some reluctance. ?The message was badly affected by communications interference. What we do know is that the unit in question was sent to Virmire, on the fringe of the Traverse. And that the message was sent on a channel reserved for the most critical messages.?

?It sounds like something I need to look into,? I admit.

?We don?t attempt to direct Spectres directly, Councillor.? The Asari Councillor does like to remind me of things I already know. ?But we do like to bring things that matter to their operations to their attention. That?s all, Commander.? With that, the message ends.

Afterwards I head back to my office, where Wrex is pacing a hole in the carpet. He glares at me when I go in. ?All right, Commander. Explain yourself. Why would you release a Rachni queen??

?I thought about it, Wrex.? My voice sounds weary. ?After we ran into a few other Rachni, I wondered where they could have come from, and thought about what I should do if there was a queen involved. And I thought there were three possibilities if there was one and I didn?t kill it. One was that there wouldn?t be any trouble from them. That?s what the queen on Noveria claimed would be the case, and before you say anything I know you doubt that. The second is that there will be another war and we humans, the Turians, the Salarians and who knows who else will all pitch in and win it. Neither of those cases hurt the Krogan more than they?ve already been hurt. But there?s one more possibility. If we end up in a war with the Rachni we might not be able to win it. Someone is going to think of the Krogan, who won the last Rachni War. And then, people will have to start thinking about curing the Genophage.?

Wrex stares at me. Then he stares some more. I stare silently back at him, waiting for his reaction. ?Do you think that?s likely??

?No. I wouldn?t even claim I wanted it, because it means a lot of humans will be dead. But I?m not in favour of wiping out a whole species anyway.?

?All right. It?s not what I?d have done, but I see why you did it.? He nods, with an odd expression on his face. ?Shepard.? His normal goodbye is more subdued than usual as he leaves my cabin, and when he?s gone I let out a sigh of relief.

[Bluenose]

Part 24

The Normandy and elsewhere ? So that?s your side quest, Mister NPC

While we return to the Citadel to pick up some equipment and sell some loot, I wander the ship to talk to my crew. Liara obviously has the top priority, since we just killed her mother. She doesn?t seem as upset about it as I expected, though she explains this by saying her mother had been changed so much by Saren?s manipulation that she could only recognise her when she broke free of it. She?s going to remember her mother as she was rather than what she became, which seems like a sensible attitude. I suggest to her that the best parts of her mother live on in her, with her determination and compassion foremost among those qualities. Liara seems pleased and attempts to compliment me, saying she finds me fascinating, not just because of the Prothean beacon in my mind. And then she corrects herself, saying she thinks it would be fascinating to study me. And gets even more flustered, as it sounds rather clinical, and decides to correct this so I?m an interesting subject for an in-depth study. She?s quite right about her isolation on digs has left her verbally maladroit, and I find it quite adorable to watch. Although it probably isn?t fair of me to tease her about it, so I don?t. Much.

Next, I find Kaiden, whose main haunt is on the same floor as Liara?s cubby hole not far from my cabin. He?s in a talkative mood, telling me about his time at Biotic Acclimation and Training, the girl he was almost in love with, and how groups of bored teenagers behave when they?re away from home for long periods. He hastens to add that he didn?t participate in such activities.

Down on the engineering deck, I find the other members of my ground team. Tali is feeling better than she was; apparently she?s got used to being on a ship where a lack of noise doesn?t mean the air filters have broken down or something equally important has failed. We talk about her father, the admiral, and how being his daughter has had consequences. Sometimes, people would do her favours to curry favour with him, but she also felt pressure to succeed. In particular, people have commented on how they want her to bring something really special back from her Pilgrimage, With look, something will turn up as we fight the Geth, who are the main object of Quarian enmity.

When I talk to Garrus we get onto the subject of his time in C-Sec. He tells me about a particular case which bothers him. At one time, there was an outbreak of organ-legging on the Citadel. This isn?t particularly common, but it?s also not unknown. Normally it?s someone preying on vagrants, either killing them or paying them so they can remove some or all of their internal organs for transplants. Apparently Krogan testicles are particularly valuable despite the Genophage, since many Krogan believe they can replace their testicles to increase the chance of reproducing successfully. They go for 10,000 each or 40,000 for a full set. In this case though they weren?t finding bodies, so it wasn?t a simple murder investigation. Eventually Garrus got a break, when they identified a Turian whose kidney-analogue had been used for one transplant. Except that the Turian in question had never lost a kidney. Checking his medical records, they found his last treatment had been by a Doctor Saleon. The Salarian in question seemed to have an alibi, but Garrus chose to take some of his employees in for questioning. One of them started to bleed during the questioning, not as a result of anything Garrus did, and when he was given a medical scan they found he had several extra internal organs. Apparently Doctor Saleon used his employees as ?incubators? to grow cloned organs inside them. Unfortunately for Garrus, the Doctor had escaped the Citadel in a small merchant ship with some of his patients on board. While both Garrus and I would have shot at the ship, reasoning that he wasn?t likely to release the patients anyway, Garrus was overruled by the head of C-Sec as killing the victims wasn?t regarded as acceptable. While I see the point, in this case I think they?re probably doomed anyway and unless stopped the doctor will get more victims. I offer to check Alliance records, since there?s a chance Doctor Saleon?s ship is operating in our space under a false identity.

I have a talk with Ashley. She talks about her family, particularly her sisters, and tells me how her youngest sister dealt with her boyfriend when the boy wanted to take their relationship further and faster than she did. I make a mental note not to start a fight with Ashley?s little sister unless I want my arm broken. She also tells me about her father, how he?d served twenty years in the military without rising as high as NCO, and how proud he was that Ashley had made it to Chief. Although she still won?t tell me why her family name is a disadvantage in the military.

I also talk to Wrex, who now tells me about his decision to leave Tuchanka. According to him, he was the leader of a small tribe and wanted to stop the constant fighting between Krogan clans. This wasn?t out of a dislike for fighting, but a purely practical consideration that the Krogan birth rate was now too low to make constant warfare practical. His main opponent was another clan leader and eventually that leader called for a Crush, a formal meeting between clans, at a local graveyard. When I suggest it sounded like a trap, Wrex agrees, but adds that when your father calls for a formal meeting with guarantees of peace what should you do? As he tells it, when they couldn?t make a deal his father?s warriors rose up ?like the spirits of our dead ancestors? from the graves they were hidden in and wiped out most of Wrex?s, though not before Wrex buried his knife repeatedly in his father?s chest. That knife being rather longer than my forearm, this made Wrex an orphan. This is why he gave up on the Krogan and left Tuchanka, and the only thing he wants from those days is to recover his grandfather?s armour. The armour is in the hands of a Turian collector, but Wrex has never been able to track him down. This is probably why he now asks me to see if I, with Spectre and human intelligence resources, can do so.

Just before we arrive at the Citadel, a call comes in. An Asari diplomat would like to see me in the embassy lounge, and isn?t willing to explain why except face to face. I take Liara and Garrus with me, thinking she might talk a little more freely in front of another Asari and that Garrus might have some insight into any legal implications. They turn out not to be necessary. Nassana Dantius wants me, specifically because I?m a Spectre and not bound by the rules, to clear up a mess he got herself into. She tells me that her sister was travelling on a ship that was attacked by mercenaries, and Nassana had been asked to pay a ransom. In theory, she should have reported this to Citadel Security as part of their anti-blackmail measures, but instead she?d make the mistake of paying the money. Only, her sister had not been released. She wanted me to find the mercenaries and deal with them, and had been able to locate them by tracking the payment. I agree to hunt them down, even refusing to consider a reward for the task, though I warn her that her sister might be dead already.

After selling off some of the gear we?d recovered on our missions, I check my mission logs for any outstanding tasks. Since there?s nothing to do on the Citadel, I go looking for the pirates first of all. They?re not hard to find, and with Liara and Tali in tow I head down to their base. We destroy the turrets guarding the outside from the Mako, and head into the building. Inside, there?s a rather nasty group of pirates including Humans, Turians, Krogan, and an Asari who fights like the commandoes we encountered on Noveria. We search the base, but there are no Asari prisoners to be found. What we do find is the records of Dahlia Dantius, leader of a band of pirates and slavers. Dahlia is particularly proud of the way she?s blackmailed her sister, a diplomat on the Citadel, into paying her to avoid personal embarrassment and loss of standing. I think I might have been used.

As we?re in the right area and I?ve picked up some information, we also go in search of Garrus? Doctor Saleon. His ship has been identified under the title MSV Fedele, while the Doctor is using the false name Doctor Heart. With Garrus and Liara, I board the ship. Inside the doctor has got a rather sizeable group of insane test subjects, who attempt to attack us in melee or vomit acid onto us if they can?t close enough. In the confined space of a cargo hold full of crates, they often manage to get close. I end up using several doses of medigel to keep everyone upright, and switching my shotgun ammunition from the anti-personnel rounds I was using for extra damage to a hammerhead round that?s much better at knocking targets down. With this, they rarely get close enough to be a problem without being flattened. After they die we search the rest of the ship and find Doctor ?Heart? in a cabin behind the bridge, claiming to have been hiding from the ?monsters?. Garrus recognises him, despite his denials. I admit to being just a little worried about the enjoyment Garrus gets when I allow him to carry out a summary execution. No doubt part of it is due to the satisfaction of ?at last it?s finished?, yet Turians are normally notorious for their discipline. Garrus seems to have a distinct cowboy-cop attitude to him.

[Bluenose]

Part 25

Armstrong Nebula ? Geth neighbours reduce property values

?Commander, you need to get to the Comms room.? Joker calls me over the intercom as I leave the shower. ?I?ve got some brass from Arcturus on hold here.?

?Give me a minute to get something on, and put it through to my cabin.?



?Commander, we?ve got a problem.? And I thought Admiral Hackett might be calling to enquire after my health. ?We?ve had reports for some time of Geth ships being sighted in the Armstrong Nebula. They?re now confirmed. Admiral Kahoku?s scouts have found Geth bases on four planets. We want you to deal with them.?

?Excuse me, Admiral, but I?m got another mission.? I?ve no actual objection to doing the job, but I?m interested to see how far I can push Spectre status with an admiral.

To my delight, Hackett attempts persuasion first. ?I know that, Commander. Saren is your highest priority. But he?s working with Geth, and this involves the Geth. We just aren?t sure what they?re doing. It might be a probe of our defences, an attempt to divert our attention from something else, or simply the start of an expansion into the area.?

?Or it could be the initial stages of an invasion.? I think about it. ?Someone needs to find out.?

?Exactly, Commander.? Hackett sounds pleased that I?m considering it. ?You and your crew have more experience with Geth than everyone else in the Alliance together. This is something you?re much more likely to do right.?

?Very well, Admiral. I?ll get the Normandy out to the Armstrong asap.?

?Very good, Shepard. Sending on the co-ordinates now. Fifth Fleet out.? With that, Hackett signs out. I pass the destination on to Joker, and go looking for some clothes.



The first planet we check out when Normandy arrives on the frontier is Casbin. Planetographers have been arguing over its status since it was found, with the main disagreement concerning whether it?s a Garden or Pre-Garden world. For practical purposes as a marine the thing that matters to me is that the atmosphere is breathable, the terrain is extremely rugged, and the planet is currently passing through the tail of a comet and there?s some really spectacular meteor trails constantly in the sky.

We take the Mako down, and check out a couple of locations where Geth signals are detectable. The one on a plateau is fairly obviously a decoy, since the transmitter is guarded by several Geth combat units and turrets. I use the main cannon to destroy them, and we dismount to destroy the transmitter. The second location is in a valley, and from a ridge overlooking it we shoot up the Geth snipers and rocket troopers that engage us. We have to drive down into the open-air base and dismount to deal with the last, and after we do a Geth dropship turns up and starts landing shock troopers. It seems like their numbers are endless, but after about twenty are destroyed the dropship suddenly withdraws and leaves us to finish off the last few. According to Tali, the Geth records indicate this was a maintenance centre for their activities in the cluster.

We move on next to Maji, a thoroughly unpleasant planet in a binary star system. Two bright suns means the atmosphere is unusually active, with average wind speeds on the surface of 60kph. The atmosphere is breathable, though thin, but contains significant percentages of methane and argon. It also has a high concentration of iron in the soil, so the surface is distinctly red. It?s a favourite stopping point for Batarian slavers who use it to dump troublesome slaves, and also for arena-style fights between slaves and a variety of beasts taken from other planets. Few survive long.

This base is on the top of a mountain, accessible by a long series of switchback turns guarded by weapons turrets. Or, if your Mako is driven by a lunatic, you can find your way onto another hilltop, drive along sharp ridges and jump across canyons with the help of the jump jets to arrive at the same location from a totally unexpected direction. And then, because you?re still a crazy driver, you can shoot up the snipers and rocket troopers before driving your Mako into a Colossus and physically forcing it off a high cliff so that it breaks into pieces at the bottom. Though the second option is only open to people who really should not be allowed to drive anything.

Our third base is located on Antibaar. This is a garden world, or at least that?s what the planetographers would like us to believe. I assume their gardens are covered in snow and have a permanent blizzard blowing. While we?re heading for the canyon that our orbital survey revealed as the Geth base, I notice a wrecked vehicle surrounded by dead humans and Geth. We dismount to investigate. The humans have been killed by weapon fire, while the Geth are partly melted and pitted with acid. I realise what did this just after a Thresher Maw erupts from the ground nearby.

Well, I did promise to fight one on foot. Liara and Tali take cover behind the wreck and open up with their pistols, while I move around the maw, attempting to attract its attention. In this I?m successful, as it spits acid at me repeatedly and unsuccessfully. Weaving and dodging, while I fire intermittently and Tali and Liara keep up a steady stream of bullets, eventually leaves it wavering. At which I charge towards it, drawing my shotgun and letting it have an incendiary round right into the mouth. I have to dodge again as it spits one lost gob of acid before crashing down dead. Thinking of the old photos of great hunters, most of them pose with their foot on the head of their victims. A quick test shows my foot can just about get to mouth level, which won?t look as impressive.

After that little bit of entertainment, we check on the ruin that the previous group of humans were heading towards. Liara is delighted when we find it was Prothean, and even happier to recover some material from it. On the other hand, it?s freezing here and she?s not entirely happy with the idea of staying to do research herself. Instead, we head off towards the Geth base. This one is in a blind canyon, and as I poke the nose of the Mako out into the open multiple Geth open fire on us. Slipping into and out of the cover of the canyon walls, I use the Makos guns to destroy all of them. Before we can relax, another dropship appears and lands a contingent of shock troopers and two Geth Primes, which are their leader-types. They attempt to make use of the cover provided by the structures to engage the Mako, and I retaliate by dismounting and moving through the cover myself. All is going well, with my tactic of closing in and knocking a Geth to the floor so we can shoot it up, when a Prime looms up in front of me. While my blow staggers it, it stays on its feet. And then, while I?m still gaping, it raises its heavy rifle, turns around, and starts shooting at the other Geth. Behind me Tali fiddles innocently with her omnitool.

Our last objective is the Geth base on Rayingri. Rayingri is a small but otherwise earth like planet that?s doomed to suffer a cataclysm in the next five hundred years. Its moon is in a declining orbit, and it will soon be close enough that the two objects will start to tear each other apart through gravitation. Apparently a study showed it would be possible to prevent this if sufficient mass effect drives were emplaced on the moon ? seventy three million would be enough. Since this would bankrupt every government in the galaxy and would require more element zero than exists, it?s not likely to happen. However, Asari tourist firms are selling tickets already, hoping to attract the disaster-watcher element.

Here, the Geth base is on a hilltop in an abandoned research station. Outside are more of the spikes they use to create husks, which the Alliance has christened Dragons Teeth. Some husks attempt to eat the Mako, which isn?t terribly effective as a tactic. They do give me an idea for a possible future career as a hit and run driver. Inside the station we kill some more husks near the entrance, and a last group when they emerge as we near the rooms at the back of the base. That seems like it should be the end, but when we leave the station a group of Geth are waiting outside to ambush us. It?s a powerful group including snipers, rocket troopers, shock troopers, and normal Geth. It?s still not the smartest tactic, since the Mako is parker right outside the building. We board it, and I drive around the field of Dragons Teeth ramming Geth off the plateau with great amusement, including one which was sheltering behind a crate and departed crate and all into the distance. Remarkably, one survives. I get out of the Mako and shoot it with my sniper rifle till it stops twitching.

Subsequently Tali tells me that she?s decrypted the Geth data we found at these bases, and they were receiving their orders from another sire on the moon Solcrum. We head there, finding that the surface of the planet is scorchingly hot in the glare of a blue giant star. Remarkably, it appears at some point someone lived here, as on our way to the Geth base we find an old shelter with some Asari literature inside. The Geth base is a typical prefabricated structure, holding a variety of Geth troops. Rather strangely, as the last one falls they trigger a signal Tali identifies it as a Quarian funeral lament.

We look around the base, downloading a Geth database from some computers in the back of the building. Tali immediately asks me if she can have a copy. Apparently this is exactly the sort of thing that would make a perfect Pilgrimage gift when she returns to the Migrant Fleet. I let her have it, even though I?ll be sad to see her leave. At which she tells me she?s no intention of leaving until our task is done, and even though the only thing she can offer is her help she promises I can have that. My response should probably rot teeth, ?That?s all I ever wanted.? Even if it is true, because I like Tali.

All this happiness makes we want to shoot something. Unfortunately nothing presents itself. I do get some satisfaction when Admiral Hackett calls me to congratulate me after the mission, though when he says that he won't forget what I did I assume it means next time he has a dirty job he knows who he can get to do it. So I take the Normandy off to Terra Nova, the second human colony and first in another star system, intending to pick up some supplies. Just in time for there to be a problem there. Perhaps if I never went anywhere?

[Bluenose]

Part 26

Asteroid X57 - Bringing down the Sky

?Captain to the Bridge. XO to the Bridge.? As I?m talking to Pressley at the time, we head up there together.

?What have you got, Joker?? I?m in a good mood today. It doesn?t last long.

?We?ve got a problem, Captain. There?s an asteroid being moved into orbit, only the burn hasn?t been reversed. On it?s current acceleration the computer has it hitting Terra Nova in just over three hours. And there?s no other ships in position to land before it gets too close to prevent an impact. There?s a shuttle preparing to lift, but it can?t fight past the Batarians.?

?So it?s up to us.? I summarise the problem. ?Call Tali and Liara and have them meet my by the Mako. We?ll drop on the surface. Pressley, keep other ships clear of the area.?

?Will do, Commander.? Joker is casual as usual.

?Understood, Commander.? Meanwhile, Pressley remains formal.


We drop the Mako onto the asteroid surface, close to one of the fusion torches that move it. As we start towards it, a woman?s voice comes over our communicators. ?Hello. I heard your transmission. Can you hear me? They haven?t found me yet, but I can?t talk long. Shut down the fusion torches, or we?re all going to die. God, I hope you?re hearing this.?

There are some weapon turrets outside, which we take out quite easily. Inside, I open the door and two humanoids look up from where they?re playing dice on the floor. Four eyes, carapace skulls, ridged noses, slightly smaller than humans; the disgust in my voice is apparent as I identfiy them. ?Batarians.?

We kill them, and the pet Varren which they set on us. A few more Batarians also get in our way, and they also die. Searching the installation, we find the control station and Tali disables the fusion torch. Immediately afterwards, the woman we heard from previously comes over our communicators again. ?I?m reading one of the torches is offline. Was that you? Can you hear me??

?Who are you? What?s going on??

?My name?s Kate Bowman. I?m an engineer. I was part of the team assigned to bring this asteroid to terra Nova.? She?s talking quietly as she says this, almost whispering. ?We were attacked yesterday by Batarian extremists. I?ve been hiding since they arrived. I think they know the torch went out.?

?Why are they doing this?? I?m no fan of Batarians, but this isn?t normal behaviour for them.

?I?ve no idea, but if this asteroid isn?t slowed millions of people on Terra Nova are going to die. If I find out anything...? There?s a rattle in the background noise of her communicator. ?I?ve got to go. Good Luck.?

As we?re leaving, I notice the door we came through has been closed. I move through it cautiously, only to see a human with a pistol looking away from me. I relax slightly, and call out. ?Hey.?

His shot as he turns hits me on the upper torso, though my shields absorb most of the impact. ?Oh god, I didn?t mean to... Are you hurt??

I?m annoyed. ?You can?t go firing your weapon at everyone that moves. What the hell?s wrong with you??

?Sorry. I thought you were one of them,? he protests.

?Here?s a tip. Two eyes, human. Four eyes, Batarian.?

?Yeah, okay. I?ll remember that.? He sounds abashed.

?I know you?re scared. I?m here to help. Commander Shepard, with the Alliance.?

?Simon. Simon Attwell. I?m the chief engineer on this rock. Listen, we don?t have much time. The Batarians fired up the fusion torches. You?ve got to shut them down before we hit Terra Nova. There are four million people down there. My family. They live in Aronus. Kids, grandkids. A nice community. Good schools. ?

?I don?t have time to do the math in my head.? And probably lack specific knowledge anyway. ?What happens if we don?t stop this rock??

?X57 is twenty-two kilometres long, twice the size of the asteroid that wiped out the Earth?s dinosaurs. It would be like millions of fusion bombs striking at once. A thousand kilometres from the blast clothes will ignite. There?ll be global wildfires. Air shock will flatten everything for hundreds of kilometres. Terra Nova will die. Not just our colony, the planet. There?ll be a climate shift, mass extinctions, the ecosystem won?t recover for thousands of years. And that?s if it hits land. If it hits water, millions of tons of water will be vaporised. Global cloud coverage. The plants could all die, and if they go the whole ecosystem rolls over.?

?I?ve got no love for Batarians, but this isn?t like them. They?re pirates, scavengers, and slavers, not genocidal.?

?I?ve heard all the stories. Slave rings ranching people like animals, pirates burning whole colonies to the ground, but this is... The Citadel Conventions forbid asteroid drops for a reason!?

?The Citadel Conventions only apply to the Council races. The Batarians pulled out when they couldn?t get us squashed.?

?I am sure if they went too far the Council would respond.? Liara sounds positive about that.

?The problem would be pinning it on the Batarian government. They?ll claim these peoples are renegades, and they?re shocked to find such criminals did something like this.? Mr Attwell recognises the position, which I?ve found in frontier skirmishes to be true.

?If they won?t control their own crazies, we?ll do it for them.? I can feel a nasty grin on my face as I think about it. Then I turn to Attwell. ?You were here when they landed. How many of the Batarians are there? Who?s in charge?

?Not sure. They landed at the main facility. I?ve seen some of them heading out to each of the torches. Enough to give you a fight, for sure. And I?ve overheard some of their communications. They spoke of someone called Balak. Not all of them think this is a good idea, but they?re going too scared of him to disobey.?

?Rule by fear. How very Batarian of them.? Disdain drips from my voice, earning me a worried look from Liara and Tali. "Actually, why were you moving the asteroid anyway?"

"It's supposed to go into orbit. We wanted to hollow it out and use it as a spaceport, or at least the highport part of one. That's why we installed the fusion torches and got it moving. If nothing else had happend we'd have slipped into a stable orbit in a day or so. Then the Batarians arrived and started to drive the asteroid forward again. You?ll have to shut down all three torches. And you?ll have to be careful at the nearest one. It?s surrounded by a field of explosives, blasting caps I set up to defend it." I glare at him. "The Batarians walked through on foot, but you'll never get your tank through. And you'll have to be careful not to get too close or you'll set them off anyway.?

?You?d better find a good place to hide. If the Batarians come back and find you...?

?Yeah, I will. One more thing. I had a crew working off base when the Batarians landed. I don?t know what happened to them. If you see any sign?? He doesn?t sound as if he expects them to be alive, but hopes for it.

?If I?ve time.?

?They might be the only humans apart from us alive on this rock.? Apologetically he explains his interest.

?Not so. I?ve been in communication with a woman called Kate Bowman. She claims to be at the main facility. Is she one of yours? Can I trust her reports??

?Katie?s alive?? He perks up. ?That?s good to hear. She?s smart as a whip and bold as they come. If anyone could avoid the Batarians when they rounded us up it would be her. God, I hope she?s careful. I?ve seen Batarians smash the visor of someone working in vacuum and laugh about it.?

?She seems to be being careful. ? I check the time. ?I have to move.?

?I?ll get into hiding. Good luck, Shepard.? With that, he heads out, and starts moving across the asteroid towards a cluster of rocks while we board the Mako.

Heading towards the second base, Tali asks me a question I expected but didn?t want. ?Haven?t you had a fight with Batarians before, Shepard??

?Yes.? The answer is terse, as I try to make it clear that I?d prefer not to talk about it. Unfortunately, Liara is willing to explain further.

?Commander Shepard defeated a large group of Batarians on Torfan, Tali. It is a very famous incident in the history of humanity in the galaxy. There is a great deal of discussion about it on the extranet and elsewhere.?

?The flotilla is rather insular.? Tali sounds embarrassed. ?If it isn?t directly relevant to us, it gets little attention. When I go home after we defeat Saren, more attention will be paid to the Geth data I?m taking back than anything else I do.?

?Wait.? I?m puzzled by what Liara said, and paying less attention to driving than I should be, so I drop the engine to idle. ?You said you found out about Torfan on the extranet. Why??

?I wished to know more about you, Commander. So I looked up your service record, at least what I was allowed to see, and found other information on my own.?

?You could have asked me.? I let my irritation show. ?I would have told you whatever you wanted to know.?

?I am sorry, Commander. I did not wish to pry.? Liara sounds quite upset.

?That?s all right.? I don?t want to stay angry, and it?s not as if there?s a secret involved. ?Why don?t you tell Tali what you found out about Torfan while I drive us the rest of the way. If there?s anything I can add, I will.?

?I can do that.? Suddenly, she?s happy again. ?As I understand it, Torfan was a major Batarian raider base. Raids were launched from there against Alliance planets in the Traverse systems, with a lot of slaves being taken, looting, and deliberate damage. When the Alliance identified the location they sent a force to attack the base. While the fight in space favoured the Alliance strongly, on the ground the Batarians were in an underground base with powerful defences.?

?Couldn?t they have destroyed it with ship weaponry.? Tali sounds interested.

?It held a large number of human slaves, and the human commander wanted to rescue them. So he would not use heavy weaponry for fear of the casualties.?

?Much good that did,? I mutter. Liara shoots me an admonishing look.

?Alliance marines were landed on the planet, and besieged the base. The Batarians tried to demand that they leave, as otherwise their prisoners would be executed. This, the human commander was not willing to do. Instead, he turned to his best soldiers. Who were commanded by Commander,? ?Lieutenant, then,? ?Zoe Shepard. They came up with a plan. While a diversion would be mounted near one entrance, Lieutenant Shepard would take her troops secretly through another one. There, they would reach the prisoners and hold their position while the Batarians tried to take them back. And that is exactly what they did, though their casualties were high. I believe that Commander Shepard was wounded herself.?

?All our survivors were wounded.? When Liara doesn?t continue, I confirm her supposition.

?That, anyway, is the brief story of the Battle of Torfan. Commander Shepard led her soldiers against a greater force of Batarians in a strong position and defeated them. I do not claim to know much of military matters, but when I read about it the comments from commanders of all races were very complimentary. Though some human reports complained about the treatment of the Batarians. I do not understand why.?

?We killed them. All of them. No prisoners at all. The press didn?t want a hero with that much blood on her hands.? I grin bitterly. ?Humans expect their heroes to be good girls, and if you aren?t a good girl then you probably aren?t a hero. In which case, if you?re getting a lot of your own people killed and massacring your enemy, you?re a criminal.? I look at the sensors. ?All right. We?re up. Tali, get on the guns. We?ve got a minefield and turrets to worry about.?

[Bluenose]

Part 27

Asteroid X57 ? Bringing down more sky

Turrets are easy. Minefields are also easy as long as you?ve got decent scanning, which all military issue omnitools have and which I?ve made sure all my crew have available. What?s harder is when you?re picking your way carefully through a minefield and realise there are Batarians coming out of the building you?re approaching. When they start firing on you, that?s when it becomes fun.

The last frantic dash across the minefield is made while anti-tank rockets fly over our heads and Batarian assault rifle fire splatters of my shields. We make it without setting off any explosions, and duck into cover behind some machinery. Unfortunately the Batarians also have cover, and superior numbers, and heavier weapons. They?re also manoeuvring aggressively to try to outflank us, which would be a problem. But it does give us an opportunity as well. While Liara and Tali try to keep up covering fire I make a mad dash across the open ground, reaching the position some of the Batarians were heading for at the same time they do. Two of them try to evict me. I politely point out with my shotgun that this is a human asteroid, and they discover that people who?ve had their face plates shot in can?t breathe too well in vacuum. I duck behind a bit of crate to recover my breath from the dash, when I notice a couple of Batarians flailing away in the air. Liara had attempted to lift them, and in the low gravity of an asteroid it had been much more effective than usual. Of course, that also would have meant their fall would be slower, except that they?re floating towards the exhaust of the fusion torch. The result would be a definite failure of a cookery class, unless blackened Batarian is a desirable flavour. One last Batarian falls, and I disable the minefield at a console near the building entrance.

Inside, this is a much more open building. This helps the Batarian defenders, as they are on a balcony on the far side of it with several armed drones flying around inside. While they Batarians can pop up occasionally to take a shot at us, the drones swoop around persistently trying to get shots at us from directions we have no cover. Swooping is bad, but when things are flying around in confined spaces, the odd biotic push sends more than one into a wall, and Tali also manages to hack the controls of one which she then uses to engage the others. Eventually the game of last drone standing ends with a Batarian one detonating under assault rifle fire.

With their drones destroyed, the batarian engineers have to fight us themselves. There?s an exchange of overloads which disable everyone?s weapons temporarily, and Liara decides the lack of incoming fire is a good opening to lift a Batarian off the landing and drop him to the floor. I take a more direct approach, charging up the stairs and introducing Batarians to the fun of close combat with humans who aren?t slaves and can actually fight back. And then I shoot their corpses.

Once we?ve dealt with the Batarians, we find the controls to the fusion torch in a room at the end of the landing. Tali shuts it down, and Kate Bowman promptly comes over the communicator again, ?Are you there? You?ve got to hurry. You?ve really pissed them off. Their leader is setting charges everywhere. I think he?s going to blow this whole facility.?

Before she can continue or I can respond, a Batarian voice comes over the communicator, ?Get away from there!? Kate calls out, ?Don?t shoot, please!?

After a short scuffle, another Batarian starts to talk. ?Who?s shutting down the torches??

There?s a silence before the Batarian speaks again, more menace in his tone. ?I won?t ask you again.?

Again, there?s a silence. Then a shot rings out. The Batarian tells someone, ?Find this problem and deal with it. Put her with the others.? Kate, it seems, wasn?t alone. Though I wonder if it was her who got shot or someone else.

There?s silence as we return to the Mako. Once we get there, I set a course for the last of the fusion torches. Then Liara asks me a question, in as quiet a voice as I?ve ever heard her use. ?Commander. What is our objective now??

?Stop this asteroid colliding with Terra Nova. We still have to stop Saren, and that?s more important, but it isn?t relevant here.?

?Perhaps I should be more specific. This Batarian, Balak, who is doing this. We know he has hostages. Rescuing them is more important than killing Balak, is it not??

?I don?t know. Balak is trying to kill millions of people by dropping an asteroid onto an inhabited planet. If we let him go he might try again, and next time he might not be stopped. How many lives do we save by killing him?? Tali?s view appears to be heavily influenced by the communal nature of Quarian society. I?m not really surprised that she?s putting the needs of a large group over those of a small one.

?We cannot live our lives on the basis of what might happen.? Liara sounds unusually firm about this. ?Yes, if Balak is allowed to leave he might attempt again to destroy a world. Yet we cannot know what will happen in the future. Even the wisest matriarch would not attempt to do so. Perhaps if he is shown mercy he will start to feel differently about humans. Or perhaps he will not have the opportunity. We have a responsibility to the people he endangers now, rather than to potential victims in the future!?

?I?d really prefer to do both. Whether it?s possible is another matter.? I?ve made a choice already, though neither Liara nor Tali need to know that while I can try for total success.

Driving on towards the last fusion torch, I almost drive the Mako over a human corpse. I suspect it?s one of the engineers we were Mister Attwell wanted to find. He?s been shackled by the ankle to a metal piton, and then used for target practice. The Batarians really aren?t encouraging me to show them mercy. Even less so when we drive by a shack with the door missing. Inside the body of a human woman lies broken against a wall. According to a log she was recording, she could hear Batarians moving around outside. She asks whoever finds it to tell her family she loved them. Then there?s an explosion on the recording. The Batarians used explosives on the door and the overpressure involved killed her. In a hardened suit she might have survived, at least until the Batarians got their hands on her.

We reach the last of the torches, and again destroy a few turrets, which are beginning to be tedious instead of dangerous. Inside, more Batarians attack us. A cry of ?release the Varren? also warns us we?re going to encounter more of these, which leads to a slight withdrawal so we don?t have them on top of us as we round the corner. One Varren gets lifted by Liara?s biotics, and floats over our heads before crashing into a pile of crates. While it?s still confused, I shoot the nearby fire extinguisher releasing toxic chemicals onto it. Then it crashes to the floor. And then Tali shoots it with an incendiary round from her shotgun. It might be having a bad day.

After that little display of animal cruelty is over, we finish off the last Batarians. Upstairs, the controls for the last fusion torch yield to Tali?s hacking, and we shut it down. While it?s not certain that X57 won?t his Terra Nova, it shouldn?t on this orbit. We?ve bought time, and now we can look for Balak.

Downstairs, Batarians are waiting for us. Surprisingly, not in ambush. One of them, in the decorated gear of a leader, adresses me, "Hold it, human. I want to talk to you."

"I'm not sure I need to talk to people who are planning an asteroid drop." All my words drip sarcasm.

"This wasn't my idea!" He sounds frustrated and angry. "I was recruited for a simple slave raid, not this. This has got way out of hand. Balak wants to destroy the planet, and you're the only thing in his way. He told me to kill you."

"So what's stopping you trying?"

"I'm sick of following the crazy bastards orders. But if I don't he'll come after me."

"Do you always want to be the number two? I wouldn't worry about Balak. He's got me to worry about."

"No offence, human, but Balak's tough. I'm not sure you can take him out."

"They didn't think I could take them out on Torfan. And I think you're deliberately wasting my time."

He takes a step back. "You're that human? We're out of here. Balak has the main facility locked down. I'll leave the passcard on the floor. Just, let us leave."

"You can go. If I catch you in human territory again, I won't be as generous." I watch as the group hurriedly makes their way out of the complex, before recovering the passcard and follwing.

[Bluenose]

Part 28

Asteroid X57 ? Heisn?t even stroking a white cat!

Having shut down all three fusion torches and saved Terra Nova, we can now head for the main building to confront Balak and rescue his hostages. As I swing the Mako round a ridge, I notice there?s another of the small shacks the engineers use to monitor the asteroid. It?s possible that the last of the missing engineers will be here so I break our journey to investigate. There?s no engineer present, but he has left a message on the console. Something about strange ships in the sky, heading back to the main centre, and he?s activated the defence drones. Which are now shooting at us.

We deal with them, not without annoyance as they aren?t easy to target from the doorway and there?s no good cover outside the shack from flying enemies. Leaving our litter we pile back into the Mako, and I head off towards our target. On the way, I nearly drive over our missing engineer?s body, and dismount to find he was sniped through the face-plate. Whether the chief engineer will think this good news or not, but at least we?ve found them. It was always our priority in Special Forces not to leave our dead behind if there was any way to get them out. It makes the families a lot happier, or at least less upset, when there?s a body to bury. This makes me think back to Samesh Bhatia, and how I insisted his wife?s body be returned. Though I don?t think we?ve got proper facilities in the Mako.

The main building is larger than the others. After we blast through a few more turrets, including some which were mounted on tracks, we go inside. After the air lock and lobby, the main building is basically one circular room. There?s a landing going all around the room above us, a lower pit in the centre, and the level we?re on with several rooms off it. We?re immediately into a firefight with groups of Batarians, including engineers, ordinary troopers, at least one biotic, some heavy shock troopers, a few of their flying drones, and more Varren. We engage them in a running fight up and down the stairs, along the walkways, and into and out of rooms. In the course of this we actually find the hostages, but the room they?re in has explosives connected to the door. While that doesn?t make it impossible to open, it isn?t going to be a quick job.

Eventually, the last Batarian falls near the rear of the building where he?s lurking inside a packing crate. Immediately afterwards, another turns up.

?You humans.? The Batarian who appears near the top of the stairs is in the red armour of a leader. ?You?re almost more trouble than you?re worth.?

?Surrender and you might live long enough to explain yourself to the Council.? I?m guessing this is Balak.

?The Council has no say over us! Where were they when you humans forced us out of our homes? When you forced us to live on scraps, to become scavengers. When we appealed for their aid they ignored us. We knew you were stronger, and they knew you were stronger, and still they would not help. Of course we had to fight back. This is happening because you deserve it!? His voice rises to a shriek through this oration.

?Millions of innocent people are going to die on Terra Nova. You think they deserve it?? I put as much contempt into my voice as a can.

?How many innocent Batarians did you kill on Torfan, Butcher??

?All of them.? I grin, which seems to infuriate him. ?I mean, I don?t know if any of the Batarians on Torfan were innocent, but they all died. And you?re going to join them.?

?I..? He takes a deep breath, and seems to calm down. ?No. Enough. You refuse to understand. We?re leaving this asteroid, now. You will not try to stop us.?

?That?s an interesting idea. What makes you think that after what?s happened I?ll let you leave??

?This.? Triumphantly, he pulls out a remote control. ?This is connected to some explosives. If I press it, your little helper and her friends will die. So unless you?re willing to kill them I will leave.?

I glare at him, and raise my rifle to firing position. Then Liara puts a hand on my shoulder. ?Shepard. It?s enough.?

?Yes. I suppose it is.? I gesture towards the exit with the muzzle of my rifle. ?Bye bye, Balak. Enjoy the rest of your life. I know who you are now, so there isn?t much of it left.?

?Perhaps.? He and some companions head for the exit. ?But you still haven?t saved anyone, Butcher. The charges are still on a timer.? As he runs off, he sounds definitely triumphant.

Unfortunately chasing after him and beating him to death isn?t a good idea. There are three explosive charges to disarm, and I doubt if he left us much time to do it. I set off towards the nearest, when Balak?s last surprise interrupts us. He?s left more drones to shoot at us.

We have to move around the room dealing with the explosive charges and keeping up some fire on the drones at the same time. The first charge is up the stairs where Balak was standing and a quarter of the way round the room. While Tali disarms it, Liara and I shoot down two of the drones. Then, we make a dash round to the opposite side of the dome into the upper floor of the infirmary, where we?re able to disarm the second charge. With three drones still flying and firing and the timer running down, I move out onto the landing and draw their attention. Tali and Liara move down the stairs into, and Liara stands guard while Tali tries to deal with the last charge. With shields depleted and the last drone still firing, I override the safety on my rifle and let loose a continuous burst of fire that finally finishes the last drone just in time for Tali to get at the timer. And since there isn?t a massive explosion, she must have been in time.

We slump down when I hear footsteps coming towards our position. I climb wearily to my feet and, with my rifle still cooling and unable to fire, draw a pistol and prepare to shoot. It would have served Mr Atwell right if I?d shot him the way he shot me, but I have better fire discipline than that. Instead, I take out my annoyance by yelling, ?What are you doing here? Weren?t you supposed to be avoiding the fighting??

?He?s apologetic, but firm. ?I know this facility better than anyone. I thought I might be able to help.? He looks around. ?Is it safe? Are they gone??

?You?re stood in the open with no-one shooting at you. What do you think??

?So you let them leave to save the hostages??

?Should I have let them die??

?No! No. But will you be in trouble for that? I mean, he could try again.?

?Yeah. He could. But we know who he is now. There?s a lot of people like me in the Alliance, and we?re going to make the rest of his life nasty and short. We?ll hunt him down, some day.?

?And Katie... the hostages. They?re all right??

?They?d better be. If we let them go for nothing Balak?s life expectancy just went even lower.?

?Thank you, Commander. You?ve saved us. Not just us but our families too. I don?t know how to thank you.?

?There?s one other thing, Mister Atwell. You asked me to look for your missing engineers.?

He looks at me hopefully. ?You found them.?

?Their bodies, at least.? His face falls. ?I?m sorry, Mister Atwell.?

?Well, at least we know.? He sounds as upset as I?d expect. ?I?ll pass the information on to their families. But I don?t think I?ll stay around here. Too many ghosts. I?ll go planetside and spend some time with my family. You made that possible. We won?t forget it.?

He moves away, while I take Tali and Liara. We go to the cell and unlock the door. Three of the four people inside thank me and leave, but the last lingers. A pretty woman, she grasps me hand firmly. ?Hello. We spoke earlier. I?m Kate Bowman. We really thought you might sacrifice our lives to kill Balak.?

?He can?t hide forever. I?ll track him down eventually, and he?ll get what he deserves.?

?You remind me of my brother. So fierce, so determined.?

I ponder asking her, then decide I have to. ?Is that who he killed??

?Yes. Aaron. It was his idea we come out here. He said it would be an experience we?d never forget.?

?I?m sorry for your loss.? That never comes out sounding anything more than formal and empty.

?Thank you. I just realised, I don?t even know who you are.?

?Commander Zoe Shepard, with Special Tactics and Reconnaissance.? I think the last might have gone over her head, but the rest didn?t.

?Thank you, Commander Shepard. You aren?t what I expected, but, thank you. For all our lives. If you don?t mind, I think I?d like to be alone for a bit now.?

?Take care, Kate.?

?Keelah Selai.? Tali gives her own, rather formal, goodbye.

?May the Goddess grant you peace.? And so does Liara.

We?re on our way out, when Mister Atwell stops us. ?I?ve just thought of something I have which might help you.? He looks at Tali. ?You know how hard it is to find Quarian armour. Well, we?ve recruited Quarians for space missions before. You really know your stuff. Anyway, one of them left a really expensive armoured suit behind when they left. I think it?s about your size, so I?d like you take it.?

?Thank you, Engineer Atwell.? Tali seems pleased as she takes the package, and we wrestle it out to the Mako for pickup.

As we wait for the Normandy to return, Liara turns to me. ?That was a good thing you did, Commander. There was no need to sacrifice lives for vengeance.?

?Perhaps. Though I?ll know it?s my fault if Balak succeeds somewhere else.?

?It would not be your fault. Killing each other over things someone might do is not sensible. You have to stop it at some point, or you will fight forever.?

?You heard what Balak said. About what humans have done to the Batarians. He isn?t going to stop.? I sigh. ?You?re right, perhaps. But in this case, killing him wasn?t necessary. I?ll pass the information on to the Alliance, and we?ll put a bounty out on him. And we?ll try to make him a laughing stock among Batarians, pointing out how he failed to achieve anything, warning people who might sign up with him how many we killed, pointing out how he scuttled off without a fight when he could have killed me, laughing about how he got no loot. The Alliance has a media budget for just that sort of thing.?

?A media budget. Really?? Tali sounds surprised behind her mask.

?Yes. Perception matters. And Balak not only tried to do something that will horrify people when they hear about it, he also failed. And ran, leaving a lot of dead Batarians behind. None of this makes the Batarians look good. I?d give decent odds that the Batarian government will find him so embarrassing they?ll do something permanent to him. Couldn?t be more deserved.? As the Normandy lands, I lean back, feeling rather smug.

[Bluenose]

Part 29

Back on the Citadel ? I wish I never met you

Once we?re back on the Normandy, I head down to the armoury with Tali and we unpack her new armour. It?s black, with a red face plate, and the manufacturers mark is Kassa Fabrication. Colossus armour. I?d be jealous, but honestly I?m happy that Tali?s safety is being greatly enhanced by this gift. I make sure that there?s a good medical upgrade and another to improve shield regeneration, and can be fairly confident Tali should survive melee with a Krogan without taking much of a beating.

I decide to head back to the Citadel, as we have a lot of funds available after all the missions I?ve completed and it?s the best place to shop. Also, I need to report the results to a couple of people who had tasks for me. I?m sure Nassana Dantius will be delighted to explain why her kidnapped sister was actually leading the band of slavers she had me attack.

As it happens, she is. There doesn?t seem to be the slightest shame as she explains why she lied about the situation to me. Rather than being worried that the authorities would suspend her over her sisters kidnapping and possible blackmail attempts, she knew they would suspend her if it was discovered her sister led a criminal gang. Now that she?s dead that isn?t a problem. I can?t help admiring her nerve, especially when she claims there are trust issues in her family to explain why she didn?t tell me the truth. She offers me money, and when I point out that as a Spectre money isn?t a problem for me she offers to get me a licence to buy restricted Asari weapon mods and biotic amplifiers. Which is a very nice offer that I accept, and we part on reasonable terms.

Elevator conversations:
Liara: I am curious about the helmet you always wear, Tali. Does it contain technical augmentation systems?
Tali: No. Living in the clean environment of the flotilla has weakened our immune systems. The environmental suits protect against diseases.
Liara: I suppose that makes it more likely you will return from your Pilgrimage, then. You are only truly safe on your flotilla.

The other report is sadder. We head up the Citadel tower and find Garoth. There I have to tell him that his brother is dead, having been killed by the privateers who captured his ship. Garoth is obviously distressed, although he claims he was prepared for the worst even if he still clung on to hope. He presses some money on to me, over my protests.

After this conversation, I head down to the markets in the wards to see what?s available at the high end of the price range.

Heard on the street:
Turian merchant: ?Sure, I?ll change that for you.?
Turian customer: ?Thanks. It?s never worked right since I bought it.?
Human customer: ?Hey, are you giving him a refund.?
Turian merchant: ?I?ll put it on your account.?
Human customer: ?You are! You?re giving him a refund.?
Turian customer: ?Thanks.?
Human customer: ?Why are you giving him a refund when you won?t give me one.?
Turian merchant: ?I can?t give you a refund unless you bring me your..?
In unison: ?Proof of purchase.?
Human customer: ?I know.?

As I?m heading down to the lower markets, a familiar voice calls my name. Without looking round, I halt and reply, ?Hello, Conrad.?

He runs up to me, looking excited. ?Commander, I heard you?ve been fighting Geth again.?

?Yes, Conrad. They?re involved with my mission.?

He looks around as if he?s worried someone might be eavesdropping. ?I was thinking.? Somehow this notion almost makes my heart stop. ?You?re the only human in the Spectres, right. But there are a lot of other planets with problems. Why don?t you sign me in as another Spectre?? He looks at me expectantly.

The silence stretches out, until eventually I reply calmly, ?Conrad, I haven?t been shot in the head nearly enough times for that to seem like a good idea.?

?Oh, you can joke, but this is important.? He sounds like he really means it. ?I know all about what you did on Torfan. I can handle that. I know what it takes to get the job done.?

I push him against the wall with my left arm over his chest, and put my pistol in his face. ?Conrad, you have no idea what it takes to get the job done. This is how a gun in your face feels! It happens to me every day. You can't handle this.?

He burst into tears. ?I thought you were a hero! Hero's don't do things like this! I wish I'd never met you.? He runs off through the market, and I stare after him.

?Commander.? Liara pulls my attention back. ?Was that not a little unfair??

?Probably.? I shrug slightly in my armour. ?But I can?t make him a Spectre, and he?s so sincere he?d have found some fight to join simply to prove he could do the job. That has a very good chance of ending with him dead. I might not like him much, but I don?t want him to get killed trying to prove something to me. I don?t think he?ll do that now.?

?Or he?ll be even more determined to prove himself.? Tali interrupts. ?He might want to prove that he?s a proper hero, since you aren?t.?

?You think so?? The idea worries me.

?It is possible, although I do not know human psychology well enough to be sure.? I really hope Liara?s wrong, and that?s the last I?ve seen of Conrad Verner.



After a rather therapeutic shopping experience, we head for the alley near Chora?s den that makes a good shortcut back to C-Sec. We?re just going through a door when a human steps out in front of me, hands spread to show he?s unarmed. ?Well, well. Zoe Shepard, all grown up and dressed as a soldier.? He smirks at me.

?Do I know you?? I certainly don?t remember who he is.

?Probably not.? He doesn?t sound disappointed. ?I?m Finch. You were a few years older than me, but we were in the Tenth Street Reds at the same time.?

?So, do you want something from me?? Something in his manner is ringing all my alarm bells. I can?t see an ambush, but there?s something wrong.

?The Reds want your help. See, you?re this big shot Spectre now, with all the alien friends. One of the Reds, Curt Weisman, got himself arrested by Turian Space Security. We?d like you to have him handed over to you, and then you can give him back to us.?

?What? How the hell did one of the Reds get involved with Turian security? They wouldn?t be on Earth. And what for??

?The Reds aren?t just an earth gang any more, Shepard. We?ve got connections. And Curt wasn?t doing anything much, might have had a little Red Sand on him, stuff like that. Look, you just get him out of there and you?ll never hear from us again. Otherwise, I?m sure there?s plenty of reporters would love to hear all about Commander Shepard and her time with the Reds.?

?All right. Where?s this Turian??

?He?s in Chora?s Den. I?ll be right here waiting.? Again, that smirk that makes me think there?s something extra going on.


In the Den I pick out the Turian in their SSD uniform easily enough, and go over to him. He stands up when I approach, and addresses me. ?Spectre.? There?s a lot of respect in his tone. ?Can I help you with something??

?Have you arrested a human called Curt Weisman??

?The xenophobe? Yes, we?re holding him.?

?What for? Not smuggling.?

?He tried to get Red Sand into some medical supplies meant for one of our colonies. The reaction would have killed anyone who used them.? He looks at me a little warily. ?Why do you want to know??

?Someone approached me about it. They wanted me to use my Spectre status to get him released. Now that hasn?t worked, they might try something more direct.?

?Thank you, Spectre. We?ll increase security on his cell.?

?I knew you couldn?t be trusted.? Finch obviously didn?t wait where he said he would. ?I hope you?re ready for all your alien friends to hear what you?re really like. The Reds will get the story out.?

?Finch. The Reds are a street gang, not a branch of Earth First.?

?Not any more, Shepard. We?re bigger than we used to be. We can make your past sound however we want.?

?My past is a matter of public record.?

?You think your alien friends are going to like hearing about all the things you and other Reds did to them?? There?s a note of triumph in his voice.

?I?m a Spectre. I can legally execute everyone in this bar. No-one cares about my past.?

?When people hear that the great Commander Shepard was part of a racist gang the aliens won?t be so happy with you. We?ve got people who?ll tell the press all about the way you took part in beating and killing aliens.?

?That didn?t happen. But go ahead, tell people. See how much I care.?

The Turian has been an interested spectator. Now he interjects. ?The Spectre overcame a troubled youth to lead an exemplary military career. No Turian would complain about her. And I doubt if the Asari or the Salarians would believe your lies.?

?Fine.? For the first time Finch seems uncertain. ?You aren?t going to help us. I guess you aren?t a Red after all. Maybe, you never were.?

We watch as he walks off, before the Turian turns to me. ?That man is a xenophobe who tried to blackmail a Spectre. You should have shot him.?

?I don?t need target practice right now.? And although I?m not going to say it publicly, Finch will now find his name on all sorts of intelligence databases and people who he contacts will be recorded.

?Perhaps so. I?ll watch, interested to see what the first Human Spectre does with herself in the future. Commander.? The Turian salutes me and moves off.

After a moment, Liara asks me, ?Commander, was there any truth in the things the human said?? She sounds wary of me, which makes me sad. Before I can defend myself, Tali joins in quite vehemently..

?Doctor T?Soni, how could you ask that? You know what Shepard is like. She is not anti-alien.?

?I know she is not now.? Liara sounds a little defensive. ?And I do not think that she ever would have been. Nothing written about her suggests anti-alien violence in her past. But if the Reds do start telling stories about your past,? she looks at me, ?I want to be able to tell the truth about it to other Asari. So if there was any truth in what he said I would like to know.?

?I was in the Tenth Street Reads when I was young. Sometimes we got in fights. But that was against other human gangs who were on our turf. I don?t remember ever seeing an alien ?cept on the vids, and never laying in to one. I?m pretty sure some of us didn?t believe aliens were real, ?cause we never saw any.? I think Liara picks up how upset I am, because her next words are an apology.

?I am sorry, Shepard. It was foolish of me to bring it up. I know what you are like, and you would never have been involved in anything that was suggested.? She looks upset, and I don?t know how to change that, although I?d l really ike to.

[Bluenose]

Part 30

The Normandy ? A piece of armour and many conversations

Leaving the Citadel, I notice that I?ve got a reply to my request for information on Tonn Actus. Apparently he has a base somewhere in the Argos Rho cluster, from which he runs a mercenary group suspected of involvement in piracy. This means I won?t need to negotiate with him to recover Wrex?s armour.

We eventually find the base on the planet Tuntau. It?s not a terribly pleasant place, with an atmosphere of methane and nitrogen, but the surface temperature is reasonable and gravity is close to Earth. In a break from my normal practice I land the Mako with Wrex and Garrus. With Wrex it?s because it?s his armour and he wants to kill the turian who has it, and with Garrus because he?s good with a sniper rifle and I frequently find hostile snipers among pirate crews.

It all goes off well. We hit the base, and find there are a lot of pirates in it. There?s also a lot of cover, and by not staying in one location where they can mass together and rush us as one group we force them to take us on in smaller groups. Although we kill over a dozen pirates, there?s almost no point at which we?re fighting a group of more than three or four. On that basis, our superior skill and equipment makes each individual fight thoroughly one-sided. It?s not until Tonn himself turns up, swearing bloody vengeance, that any of them is individually a problem. He and Wrex exchange words as well as bullets, in an unusually erudite fashion. Eventually we shoot our way through Tonn?s shields and armour. The last pirates go into hiding, and there doesn?t seem much point hunting them down. We search some of the storage rooms, and finally find Wrex?s family armour. It?s hard to tell how pleased he is, since he wonders out loud why his people ever went into battle wearing ?this piece of crap.? On the other hand, he does say he might be starting to like me.

Back on the Normandy, Garrus seems to be pondering something. When I ask him he talks a bit about Saren as a turian traitor, as an enemy of the Council, and how he?s really determined we should track him down. I agree with all this, not quite getting his point, when he asks me another question. ?Are you worried the Council might be protecting Saren? I mean, he was their top agent, and they didn?t seem to want to take action against him before. What if they don?t really want him brought down??

Now he?s planted a horrible seed of suspicion in my head, I have to ask him in turn, ?What do you think we should do about it.?

?I think when we catch up with him we shouldn?t give him a chance to surrender. Who knows how many agents he has or where they?re placed. There might be some wherever we try to imprison him able to help him escape. Or the Council might decide he?s still useful and pardon him. He?d get away with everything he?s done. I think we should make sure there?s no chance of this.?

?You mean execute him on sight.?

?Exactly. It?s the safest solution.?

?I wasn?t intending to leave him alive anyway. Glad to see someone agrees with me.?

?This is why I like working with you, Shepard. You?re not bound by rules like a C-Sec investigator would be. You can see what needs to be done and just do it without worrying about the bureaucrats second guessing you. Leaving C-Sec was the best thing I ever did.?



Ashley catches me in the canteen later on. She asks if I?d be willing to share a drink with her. When I ask what it?s for, she says it?s Armistice Day as if I should know. And then expands, since I suspect may face is rather puzzled. ?The day the First Contact War ended. We always celebrate it in my family.?

I agree, and we sit down at one of the tables for a couple of toasts. I?m still a little puzzled though, so I ask her, ?What?s so special about this particular day for your family??

?You don?t know?? She looks at me incredulously. ?It?s not in my records somewhere.?

?All I?ve seen in your records is a set of excellent technical scores and a list of crap assignments.?

?There?s a reason for those crap assignments, Commander. Do you know who my grandfather was? General Williams commanded the garrison on Shanxi during the First Contact War. ?The only human to surrender to aliens.??

?Didn?t he try to fight a guerrilla campaign till his supplies ran out, though??

?Yeah, he did. They did hit back sometimes, but the Turians were perfectly willing to call in artillery and orbital strikes that levelled city blocks to take out a single fire team. They couldn?t even go into a town to get supplies without that happening. So all the resistance did was make things worse, and eventually he started to run short even of food. So he surrendered the garrison.?

?That took a lot of moral courage. He must have known people would think he should have fought on.?

?Yeah, that?s what happened. Once Second Fleet recovered the system, he was relieved of command. Command never brought any charges against him, but the assignments they gave him were all crappy until he resigned. Ended up doing construction on the frontier. Anyway, that?s why we celebrate Armistice Day. And why you have to be really stupid or really stubborn to join the military when your surname is Williams. No matter what, you?re never regarded as good enough.?

?I?m not having that, Ashley. You?re not going to wipe out your grandfather?s disgrace with your life on my watch. When we?re done with Saren when people think of the Williams name in military circles it?ll be Chief Ashley Williams they think of. And they?ll be competing to have a Williams in their unit. Against me, so they?ll lose.?

?Thanks, skipper. Means a lot to hear you say that. I have to admit, going from garrison duty on Eden Prime to being on the team with humanity?s first Spectre is a hell of a step up.?


Slightly hung over the following morning, I share a breakfast table with Lieutenant Alenko. He?s his normal self, calm, steady and reliable. I actually suspect it is one way he copes with his biotic implants, since a calm temperament is supposed to reduce the side effects. It does make him rather dull. He tells me more about his training, and what it was like being part of the first group of humans to receive biotic training. What surprises me is that the initial training was done by Turian mercenaries. Obviously, with no previous human experience it wasn?t practical to go it alone, but I?m surprised Turians were employed. Alenko explains that it was kept secret because of the recent end of the First Contact War. When I suggest Asari would have been more suitable, he tells me that it was decided that having a large number of Asari in contact with human teenagers might have ?unfortunate consequences? for concentration levels. So they employed Turian mercenaries instead. It appears that he has memories of one particular Turian, who seems to have combined a dislike for humans with an obsession with military-style discipline. This is not the best way to handle teenagers, in my experience. Alenko won?t say any more, but I get a feeling there?s something else to the story.



We?re on our way to Feros, which was a major Prothean world, so I drop in on Doctor T?Soni to see if she knows anything about it. She knows of it, but has never been. Apparently it?s among the best preserved Prothean worlds in the galaxy, with many buildings almost intact. It?s particularly noted for the skyscrapers and the skyway roads that join them. She admits she has made several attempts to persuade her university to start a serious research project, but the size of the task has always prevented it. The other thing she mentions is that the current human colony is only the latest attempt to resettle the world, and all the others have failed for reasons that seem clear at first but later become more confused.

She then gets on to rather more personal questions. She starts by commenting how she doesn?t really know much about humans. She?s always thought humans were rash and hasty, which she put down to our short lifespan and thought a weakness. Now she thinks our short lifespan might be a strength, since it makes us less inclined to put things off rather than get on with them. And then, she asks me a question I wasn?t expecting. ?Are you and Lieutenant Alenko in a relationship??

?Alenko?? I certainly sound surprised. ?No. He?s a friend, yes, but nothing more. At least that?s what I think. Apart from anything else it would tear regulations up.?

?Regulations? You have rules about who officers are allowed to have relationships with??

?Yeah. Basically, you don?t have a relationship with someone who?s above or below you in the same chain of command. It?s a court martial offence for both parties.?

?How strange. Among the Asari, such relationships are, not exactly encouraged, but if a particular relationship makes people happier and more stable it would be regarded as extremely strange to try to prevent it.?

?I don?t know if that would work with humans. It?s too different from what we?re used to.?

?Would I be considered part of your chain of command, Commander?? There?s an odd note in Liara?s voice, which I don?t catch at first.

?No. You?re a civilian, and a valuable part of the crew, but not in the chain of command. Why, do you want to be paid??

?Oh, no, Commander. It is just, I, I am not sure whether I am reading things correctly, but I think there might be some sort of connection between us. You and me. And I wondered if you thought the same thing.?

?I? ? How to answer this. ?I think there might be. I didn?t say anything as I had no idea how you felt.?

?I knew it! I knew we had a connection!? I don?t think I?ve ever seen an adult bouncing up and down in their seat before. Or sobering up so quickly. ?It makes no sense. We have hardly known each other very long, nor do we have much in common. How could something like this have happened??

?When someone finally figures out why people fall in love, or even start to, they?ll bottle it and make the biggest fortune in the galaxy.? Liara stares, then giggles. ?Seriously, how long have people been trying to explain things like this? I still haven?t seen a sensible explanation.?

?I will need to think about this, Commander.? ?Call me Zoe, now.? ?Very well. Zoe. I hope though that you will let me think this through in my own time. I, well I have little experience in this matters.?

?I?m not going anywhere. When you want to talk, I?ll be around.?

[Bluenose]

Part 31

Feros ? Who wants to be shot?

Feros is an old Prothean planet, with about two-thirds of the surface covered by buildings. As Joker brings the Normandy in to land, he?s weaving between the highest skyscrapers above the cloud layer. I note that the landing beacon is not at the main site, so I assume they?ve made an effort to clear the rubble off the roads that would take us there. I?m inclined to wonder what ExoGeni, who mostly are involved in biological research, are doing sponsoring a colony on a planet like this. There would seem to be plenty more suitable ones with more interesting ecologies. Interestingly, they aren?t even working at ground level. The settlement(s) are located on the upper floors of the skyscrapers, with agricultural gardens on the roof.

When we land, at a place called Zhu?s Hope, I take Liara and Tali planetside. There?s a colonist waiting for us near the docking cradle. He sounds pleased to see us, explaining that they didn?t expect help so soon. The colony is under attack by the Geth. I should speak to Fai Dan, their leader, immediately. Before I can ask any more questions, he provides proof that there are Geth here by getting shot from behind by one. We work our way through them and up a flight of stairs where more Geth lurk, including a type of wall-crawling Geth that I haven?t seen before that seems to be able to shut down our weapons for short periods. Which is annoying, but no more than Tali can do, and doesn?t protect it from biotic attacks. When you?re crawling cheerfully along a ceiling and someone drops you down a stairwell, I suspect it?s unpleasant.

On the second landing up, I notice some barricades outside. There are some rather stressed looking humans behind them, presumably local colonists. The woman I take to be in charge seems to relax, and tells the others to put their guns down till the next attack. She doesn?t seem interested in talking to me, telling me I need to speak to Fai Dan.

Wandering through the settlement, I notice there is a Salarian trader here, and a small human spaceship. No-one seems willing to talk to me until I speak to Fai Dan. He turns out to be at the opposite end of the colony when I find my way there. Fai Dan and a woman called Alicia Martinez appear to work as a double act, with her making the unpleasant accusations while he tries to be more reasonable. Before we can get very far into a conversation, the high-pitched beeping that Geth use to communicate comes from the stairs outside. Fai Dan and Alicia start calling out warnings about attacking Geth. While I was expecting colonists to appear to man the barricades, that doesn?t happen. Instead, we deal with them ourselves, and then my team head upstairs towards the landing point. After we fight our way through repeated waves of Geth we reach a landing, and the dropship that was letting more off removes itself. With no more reinforcements, we eliminate the last of this group. I do get a shock at the end, when I look around and see a shock trooper following us like a puppy. I apparently didn?t notice Tali hacking its circuits to temporarily put it under our control. It almost seems a shame to shoot it, but of course once it reverts to normal it will try to kill us.

Back at the settlement, Fai Dan is slightly more talkative. He claims Zhu?s Hope has all sorts of problems, and wants us to deal with them. The most serious is Geth in the levels below the settlement, who periodically attempt an attack in conjunction with reinforcements from outside. He claims that they have a special transmitter down there and that destroying it will make them safer. When I ask why the Geth are attacking, he can?t explain it. Apparently ExoGeni set up the colony with the hope of recovering significant Prothean artefacts, but he isn;t aware of anything being found. He does suggest that perhaps the Geth know more. Miss Martinez, who turns out to be corporate security, seems thoroughly unimpressed. She claims that the Alliance should have sent a whole fleet to deal with the problem rather than just the Normandy and a bunch like us. That doesn?t seem entirely complimentary to me. Fai Dan also suggests we ask around the colony, as he?s got various people working on their other problems such as water, power, and food.

I do as he says, and soon find myself in discussion with a man who?s trying to solve the food problem. He says that they could hunt for Varren meat to supplement their other food, except that there?s a particularly nasty alpha Varren that attacks them when they try. When I ask him about the colony he tells me to speak to Fai Dan.

The other problems are being handled by two women. Apparently I need to find some power cells so one of them can get the generators operational, and the Normandy has ones that are too modern for their old generators. I should talk to Fai Dan about the colony. Water is a problem because the Geth have turned the valves off in the lower levels, and it would be a good thing if I turned them back on and also if I spoke to Fai Dan if I have any questions about the colony.

I also talk to the Salarian. He was trapped here by the Geth attack, although he still has some of his supplies. He never thought he?d settle down, but now he thinks he?ll stay here. And that I might eventually grow to like it too. The human ship that?s landed here is out of action, according to its sole surviving crew member. She is monitoring a console near it, and has to continue doing so. She doesn?t need my help with that, as Fai Dan told her to do it.

As I?m heading out, I suggest to Fai Dan that some of his people are behaving slightly oddly. He claims it?s because they?re not used to all the violence, and says many of them have seen family or friends killed by the Geth. I don?t tell him, but I don?t believe it. They don?t sound upset and they behave perfectly rationally except when I try to ask them anything about the colony.

I head down the stairs, and we have more fights with small groups of Geth. The water valves are easy enough to turn on, and we also find some old-style power cells in a wrecked vehicle on a road where the alpha Varren had its lair. Working our way on, we find a human who?s behaving even more strangely than the ones in Zhu?s Hope. He says a few things, unprompted, about the colony, and this act seems to cause him considerable pain. Which he apparently enjoys, claiming he?s ?invoking the master?s whip?. It?s decidedly unsettling, and he doesn?t seem able to tell me anything through the pain. Neither Liara nor Tali think we can do anything for him, and he won?t leave with us.

We eventually find the Geth transmitter. Interestingly it?s guarded both by Geth and some Krogan mercenaries. Krogan at close quarters like to charge into melee, and in the tunnel close quarters are inevitable. Shotguns with incendiary ammunition leave me fighting two burning Krogan at once, which isn?t the easiest job especially when Liara and Tali are quite sensibly reluctant to shoot into the hand-to-hand combat. I manage to get enough concentration together to throw one Krogan across the room biotically, where the others shoot him. The other succumbs rather easily in melee, which Wrex would remark was disgraceful.

Afterwards, rather than return to the colony I head up the stairs to the terminus of the Skyway road system. While I?m sure that Fai Dan would be delighted we?ve solved his problems, until I know what?s really happening there I?d rather avoid the place. If I can believe him, the Geth are based in the building ExoGeni commandeered as their headquarters. That might hold more information about what their objective is.

The Mako has been unloaded and left for us to use, so we head up the ramp and onto the remnants of the Prothean road system. It?s a good job we have it, as the dropship we saw earlier returns and drops a group of Geth onto the road. Two of the Colossus walking tanks are included, as well as ordinary Geth. While cannon fire is effective, I?ve also found it helpful to ram them off their feet. In this case ramming is even more effective, as it tends to knock them backwards and off the roadway. Since we?re still looking downwards at the clouds, I doubt if they survived.

As we get further along, Liara starts to pick up fragments of communication chatter on our radio. As she can?t isolate it, I have her switch places with Tali who has more skill with electronics. Even she struggles at first, although she eventually isolates a low-powered signal coming from a building that?s between us and the headquarters. Although Tali argues for concentrating on the Geth, Liara believes it?s worth investigating as humans in the area might well have more information than we do.

We reach the building the signals are coming from, and head down a ramp. There are some improvised barricades manned by uniformed security guards, who relax when they see we?re human. Unfortunately for them, their boss is a lot less calm. He demands that we come no closer. A woman standing near him seems thoroughly frustrated.

?Relax, Jeong. They?re obviously not Geth.?

?I?m not taking any chances.? He?s still waving a pistol vaguely in my direction, I notice. ?We don?t know where they?ve come from.?

?Put the gun away unless you?re planning to shoot someone with it.? I easy my rifle into a ready position, but he looks at his hand almost in surprise and lowers the gun.

Looking at the woman, he starts to berate her. ?You?re too trusting, Juliana. We have no idea who they are or why they?re here.?

?They?re not Geth, that?s obvious.? I don?t think these two like each other much, ?Even to an idiot.?

Before anything else can be said, though I?m actually finding it quite amusing as he turns purple, I interrupt. ?I?m Commander Zoe Shepard, with the Alliance. What?s the situation here??

?I?m Juliana Baynham. I work for the colony team here. We were attacked a few days ago by the Geth. They took over the main building in the first rush. We retreated here, and since then they?ve more or less left us alone.?

?So what are they after??

?That?s none of your business, soldier. I don?t know why you?re here, but our headquarters is company property. We?re waiting for a corporate team to deal with the problem.?

?My interest, Mister Jeong, is with the Geth. Not with whatever petty corporate secrets you?re hiding up there.? My temper is starting to rise, and my voice with it.

?You?ll have to forgive Ethan.? Juliana attempts to calm things down. ?His only concern is ?The Company?. The rest of us are glad to see you. We thought we might be the only humans alive on the whole planet.?

?The group at Zhu?s Hope is still there. They have successfully defeated all the Geth attacks.? Liara is quick to point this out. ?They have done very well to defend themselves without support.?

?You might want to head there yourselves.? I?ve checked their numbers and firepower for myself. ?They?ve got a decent position and greater numbers than you. Together you?d have a better chance of holding off the Geth.?

?No!? Jeong sounds? scared? ?It?s too dangerous. We?re better off staying here. Until the security I sent for arrives. We?d be too exposed on the Skyway.?

?Have it your way, Ethan. Juliana sounds weary. ?I assume you?re going to Headquarters, Commander? It?s in a building along the way. Adapted from a Prothean skyscraper, of course.?

?We repurposed it.?

?Shut up, Jeong.? I?ve had enough of his attitude.

?ExoGeni are good at repurposing things.? Juliana appears to agree with me. ?The Geth certainly seem to be based there. We?ve seen that dropship of theirs landing repeatedly, and there?s been movement on the road too.?

?We?ll get through them.? I make myself sound confident, which isn?t hard. I expect success. Turning to Liara and Tali, I gesture to go.

As we?re going up the ramp to the Mako, Juliana runs up behind us with Jeong as a shadow. ?Commander, I don?t know if I can ask you this, but my daughter?s missing.?

?She?s probably dead.?

?Shut up.? As far as I?m concerned Jeong is really asking for a good kicking. At almost the same moment, Juliana also yells at him. ?You don?t know that.?

?The Geth have held the building for days. There?s no way she?s. Ouch!? Somehow Mister Jeong?s chin has collided with my rifle butt. We stare at him for a moment, before Juliana continues.

?She might have found somewhere to avoid them. There are all sorts of little cubicles and it?s a big building. Please, Commander. Look for my daughter. Her name is Lisbeth. I don?t want to lose her.?

?If she?s alive, I?ll bring her back. That?s a promise.?

?Thank you, Commander. Godspeed.?

A few minutes later, I?m driving the Mako up to the doors of the ExoGeni building. More Geth had tried to stop us, but their success rate was no higher than that of all the previous groups. What?s more worrying is the Geth dropship that is holding on to the side of the building like a limpet. It must mean there?s a lot inside. Tali will be pleased. For someone who?s normally so cheerful and such a quintessential tech nerd, she does enjoy slaughtering Geth.

[Bluenose]

Part 32

Feros ? Queuing with shotguns

We creep through the door and find Geth waiting for us. Some of them are snipers, on a ledge above the entrance. There are also some of those really annoying crawler things, leaping around from wall to ceiling to floor and making themselves hard to kill. Tali and I manage to, shooting them down with automatic fire while Liara floats the snipers upwards for target practice.

The obvious way to get from the entrance chamber into the main building is through a doorway at the end of the ledge the Geth snipers were using, but it?s closed off by a force field. Tali scans it, and announces it?s too strong for hand weapons to break down. We?ll have to find another way. Fortunately one presents itself, as damage to the building lets us drop down into a maintenance passage that leads towards the main block. We move along that, into a room that?s flooded. I?m looking for an exit on the far side when there?s movement in of the corner of my eye. A moment later a shot rings out, fortunately poorly aimed. The woman who steps out from an alcove looks absolutely horrified.

?Oh God. I?m sorry. I?m really sorry. I thought you were Geth.?

?Who are you? What are you doing in here?? And why are you shooting at innocent Alliance Special Forces troops?

?It?s my own fault. Everyone else was running, and I stayed to back up data. Next thing I knew, the Geth ship latched on and the power supply went down. I was trapped. I tried to get out but the way was blocked.?

?We can fight our way through the Geth soon enough.?

?It?s not the Geth. It?s the energy field they?ve put up. They don?t want anyone else getting access to the...? She tails off, looking miserably at me.

?I?m here for the Geth. If they?re after something, I need to know about it.?

?I don?t know for sure, but I think they must be here for the Thorian.?

?What?s a Thorian?? Liara just beats Tali to the question.

?It?s an indigenous life form. ExoGeni was studying it.?

?So what it is? Do you know where I can find it??

?I?m not sure what it is. I might be able to tell you how to find it, but not while all these Geth are crawling around. We need to get out of here, past that field.?

?Suggestions? You know the layout.?

?Not exactly. I think the Geth ship is powering it. They?ve been laying power cables everywhere. You could follow those, but there?s Geth all over the place.?

?Not a problem. Stay put until the field is down.?

?Yeah, I?ll do that. Oh, here, take my ID. That might get you past a few locked doors.? She hands over a badge with an ID, then moves back into the hole she was hiding in when we arrived.

After shooting a few scavenging Varren, we head up the stairs. Part way up, we can hear a conversation, or at least one side of it. A very frustrated Krogan says, ?Stupid Machine! Access encrypted files.? As we move closer we hear him again, ?No, I don?t want to review protocol.? A little higher, we can finally see what he?s talking to, and sneak up while his back is to us.

A VI interface tells the Krogan, ?I am unable to comply. Please speak to your supervisor.?

?Damn it. Tell me what I want or I?ll blow your virtual ass to real dust.?

?Please contact your supervisor for a Level 4 security exemption, or make an appointment with...?

?Stupid machine!? I think I know how he feels; I?m not a fan of Vis in most cases.

?If there is nothing else, please step aside. A queue is forming behind you for the use of this console.?

As the Krogan starts to turn, two shotguns and a biotic throw hit him at point blank range. The VI sounds as if it disapproves of the result. ?ExoGeni Corporation reminds all staff that discharge of weapons while on company property is strictly forbidden. Welcome back, Research assistant Lizbeth Baynham.?

?What information was the last user attempting to access?? If I?m a company employee, I may as well make use of the effect.

?Fetching data. The previous user was attempting to access details on the study of Subject Species 37. The Thorian.?

?What did you tell him??

?I was unable to provide the previous user with any relevant data.?

Fortunately for us, the VI can provide me plenty of data. Species 37, The Thorian, is a plant creature that has been found to have clusters covering over a third of Feros? planetary surface. The largest node ExoGeni had found was beneath the control group of Zhu?s Hope. ExoGeni was studying the ability of the Thorian to control minds. Apparently it does so by means of spores that can be accumulated in their victims either through ingestion or inhalation. ExoGeni aren?t sure whether the Thorian is actually intelligent, but its subjects certainly display intelligent behaviour. The current theory is that the Thorian is intelligent but allows its controlled subjects a high degree of autonomy under normal circumstances. It?s regarded as an interesting datum that when the presence of the Thorian was identified beneath Zhu?s Hope it had already affected 54% of the settlements population. One week later, 85% of the population were infected. As I, that is Lizbeth Baynham, had complained about using humans as a test group I was assigned to monitor their health. And been put on probation as a result.

?That explains their strange behaviour.? Liara comments.

?Should we warn the Normandy about them?? Tali has a practical suggestion. Unfortunately when I try to communicate the Geth energy shields interfere with the signal.

The VI isn?t able to provide information on the current situation. It sounds slightly displeased as it informs us that the Geth have destroyed all sensors within the building. It has detected unusual fluctuations in the power supply. As we leave, it goes into stand-by mode.

As we move along the landing, there are some Geth in the room we overlook. They don?t notice us, instead kneeling in front of a structure containing a glowing ball of energy. I?m fairly sure shooting people attending a religious service is some sort of war crime, but I don?t see an alternative. When the tow shock troopers drop, we take a look at the ball. Liara wonders if it is religious in nature, as I did. Tali seems perfectly happy we killed them, but also interested in whether the Geth have developed religious beliefs since they drove the Quarians of their home world. Tali also comments on the Geth landing clamp that has been forced into the side of the building here. She suggests that while we probably don?t have the firepower, if we could find a way to break one of the three legs their ships are equipped with the ship would probably fall away from the side of the building and disable the Geth force fields.

We fight our way through a few more Geth along the corridor, and some Krogan in a dead end passage up a flight of stairs. However, at the bottom of those stairs we?re on the other side of the force field that shut us out of the main building. A different set of stairs takes us past more Geth, and another landing strut. Again, we can?t destroy it with what we have available. However, in the next room a Geth command unit (a Prime) and some other Geth are on guard over the last landing strut. The Prime provides increased firepower and shielding for other Geth units through its advanced technology, which makes it our priority target. Its heavy shielding and armour makes it a tough target for weapons, but biotics are effective and a lift from Liara combined with a high ceiling makes for a very satisfactory crash when it lands. Without the leadership of the Prime, the other Geth units are defeated as methodically as usual.

Once we?ve done so, we examine the landing strut. This one is clamped to the inside of a garage which has a very heavy door. The door has a mechanism that won?t let it close if there?s an obstruction, but Tali goes to work on the console and soon is able to tell us that she thinks she?s overridden this. I nod to her to hit the switch, and she does. As the door starts to close I think for a couple of seconds that it won?t break the strut, but then with a shriek of twisting metal the strut gives way. There are a few moments of silence, then there?s an audible crack and the tower shakes. This repeats a second or so later, and then there?s silence until a massive explosion far below makes the tower vibrate again. ?That?s it for the Geth. The doors will be open now.? Tali sounds delighted. ?And now we can deal with the Thorian,? Liara adds. Before I can reply my communicator beeps.

?Normandy to shore party. Come in shore party. Talk to me, Commander.? Joker sounds quite desperate.

?Shepard. What?s the problem, Joker.?

?We?re in lock down here, commander. Something happened to the colonists. They?re banging on the hull, trying to claw their way inside the ship. They?re freaking out.?

?I?m authorising use of weapons against them, if it looks like they might break in.?

?Uh, yeah, right, Commander.? Joker seems shocked. ?We?ll fire a few warning shots, chase them off.?

?We?re moving out.? I turn to Liara and Tali. ?All right, you know the drill. Let?s finish any Geth that are here.?

As it happens, we get down the stairs without finding any. At the bottom, the force field is gone. Lizbeth Baynham is waiting for us. She sounds pleased to see me. I don?t think she?s as pleased when I point out that she was lying to me earlier when she claimed not to know what the Thorian was. She claims she was threatened with being made into a test subject herself when she complained about the tests and that she stayed behind when the Geth attacked so she could send a message to Colonial Affairs, except the power cut out before she was finished, and she was trapped. She tells me that the Thorian is in the substructure beneath Zhu?s Hope, with the entrance covered by the freighter. When I ask her why Saren or the Geth would be interested in the Thorian, she suggests it?s the unique mind-control powers that they, as well as ExoGeni, are interested in. Although as Saren already has his ship for that, I?m not so certain. When I sat we?re heading back to Zhu?s Hope, she?s determined to come with us to undo the mess she helped create..

As we pile back into the Mako, Joker warns us that Geth communication chatter suggests there are a lot heading our way. Won?t that be a thrill? He?s right, but we?ve dealt with armatures, rockets, and the other Geth plenty of times before and this is no exception. After we shoot them, I?m heading towards the ExoGeni group when our radio picks up a woman asking, ?Is there anybody picking this up?? That?s followed by a man?s voice, I think Jeong?s, shouting, ?Get away from that radio.? Lizbeth asks us, ?What was that all about?? As I?m making some tight turns, I don?t answer for a moment.

Then Juliana comes on the radio again just as we?re outside. ?This is Juliana Baynham of Feros colony. Please, help us.?

Lizbeth immediately reacts. ?That?s my mom. Stop. Stop the rover.?

As I?m doing so, she leaps out and heads down the ramp. We follow, hoping she hasn?t dashed into the middle of a fight. Sensibly, she?s kept to cover and the security people aren?t paying attention to us. Instead they?re watching as Jeong and Juliana argue. I?m not sure what it?s about, but Juliana is protesting about something he wants to do. When Juliana says he won?t get away with this, he snaps at one of the security guards to get her out of here. Lizbeth leaps out, yelling at the guard to leave her mom alone. The guard lets go, while Jeong swears. Then he demands we come out where he can see us, while aiming a pistol towards us.

I do so, and he stares in frustration. ?Shepard. Damn it. I suppose it was too much to hope the Geth would kill you. I found some interesting facts about you in the ExoGeni database. I know what happened on Torfan. This doesn?t have to end in bloodshed.?

?Let them go.? He?s got a gun, I?ve got a gun and armour, and his security guards are desperately trying to stay out of my way. This is a fun negotiation.

?It?s not that easy. Communications are back up. ExoGeni wants this place purged.?

?You can?t purge human colonists, Jeong.? So that?s what Juliana was angry about.

?It?s not just you.? He sounds defensive. ?There?s something here far more valuable than a few colonists.?

?Species 37. Are you going to tell them about the Thorian, or should I?? I let him know that I?m aware of the situation.

?The what?? Juliana is honestly bewildered. Fortunately, her daughter isn?t.

?It?s a plant creature.? She sounds quite ashamed. ?It lives under Zhu?s Hope. It?s taking control of the colonists. They breathe in the spores and it takes over their brains.? She points at Jeong. ?ExoGeni knew all along.?

?You won?t get away with this, Jeong.? Juliana glares at him.

?So you keep saying. But nobody is going to miss a few colonists.?

I wipe the smugness off his face. ?I?m a spectre, Jeong. You?re a bureaucrat. How do you like those odds.?

?Impossible. There are no human Spectres.? He tries to sound confident. ?Are there??

?Do you want to take that chance, Jeong? Commander Shepard certainly defeated the Geth.?

?All right. All right. I wash my hands of it. The company..." Somehow before he can finish his sentence he falls down, with his groin striking my knee on the way. The one guard who reacts as if something is wrong quickly realises that Tali's possession of a shotgun and Liara's ability with biotics mean nothing is wrong.

"All right. I need to get to Zhu's Hope and deal with the Thorian." I'm about to leave, but Lizbeth puts a hand out tentatively.

"The colonists won't want to let you. They're controlled by the Thorian now."

"I'll try to avoid killing them, but I don't now how possible that will be. I don't think there's a practical infiltration route into the area."

"There's got to be some way you can do it." Lizbeth seems to think I can work miracles. "You can't just kill them all."

"Perhaps there is." Juliana is looking thoughtful. "I've been working for the agri division. We've been working on a nerve agent pesticide to destroy the spores of some pest species. It's adaptable to an aerosol grenade, so that might be effective against the colonists."

"You're suggesting releasing nerve gas in confined spaces against civilians is less lethal than shooting them? I don't think so."

"It's not weapons grade." I think I may have offended Juliana. "It's been tested for use as a pesticide, not to kill people. The worst case is that it doesn't affect them at all."

"All right. I'll give it a try." Juliana hands over eight small aerosol canisters, which I carefully stash around my webbing.

As we return to the Mako, Liara asks me a question in a very quiet voice. "Shepard, what will we do if the colonists aren't affected by the grenades?"

"We have to destroy the Thorian." I don't like saying it this way, but it has to be done. "If we have to fight our way through the colonists, I will. I don't want to kill more than I have to, but I will do whatever is necessary. If either of you want to sit this out in the Mako, then you can."

"I'm with you, Commander." Tali surprises me by agreeing immediately. "I think it would be better to kill the colonists than leave them enslaved."

"I... I will come with you, Zoe. But I will not shoot any of the colonists. I do not think I could bear it if I killed people who were forced to fight me." As she climbs into the Mako, Liara looks as if she's about to cry.

I'm not in a good mood as the Mako pulls away, so the rocket that explodes against the front shields is possibly a good thing in getting my concentration back. A group of Geth proves an excellent distraction, and I take the opportunity to practice kncking them off the skyway. The lighter units fly further, but the heavies are much more satisfying as they drop away.

As we're coming up to the garage above Zhu's Hope, we notice a creature crouched by the controls. Dismounting it looks human, but grey skinned and bald. It's Liara's opinion that the Thorian could not have done this to a human that quickly. While I'm not sure, when the creature stands and tries to rush us, I'm not inclined to argue with her. When i hit the control to open the garage there are a dozen more of these space-plant-zombies in the garage, which rise when they see us. We also come under fire from the four Zhu's Hope colonists on guard here.

Rather than fight the zombies on foot, we retreat to the Mako. I don't believe that charging after us is tactically clever, but that's what they do. The cannon, the machine guns, and my old fashioned belief in the power of driving over things repeatedly disposes of them quite handily. The guards are a different problem. I take the Mako into the garage and we dismount behind it, where we're safe from their fire. When I see an opportunity I make a dash for some rubble where I'll have cover and a firing angle into their position. As they cluster up to prevent this, I toss out first aerosol grenade. Three out of the four immediately collapse, but I think the other was out of the radius. However, one person shooting at me is a lot more survivable than four. I rush him, and while my shields are depleted by his fire I get close enough to hit him a couple of times with my shotgun butt. As Liara and Tali approach, I grin at them. "Unconscious is better than dead."

"I am pleased you found a way to deal with them without bloodshed." Liara is beaming. I hope she doesn't expect me to beat everyone we meet unconscious with my shotgun. Some people might be friendly.

[Bluenose]

Part 33

Feros - More pesticide! We need more pesticide!

We work our way down into the colony shooting up the creepy planet zombies as we go, while the humans either get to breathe in nerve gas or suffer being thumped in the head. It all goes quite well, even if I do take a bit of a battering, until we reach the area of the colony where the freighter is parked. It?s swarming with creepers, with only a few humans (and the unfortunate Salarian merchant) still upright. We engage the creepers with rapid fire, and unfortunately in the process one of the colonists wanders into our line of fire. We stop firing so I can go in and hit her with my shotgun, which leaves her unconscious. It also puts me in the middle of the surviving creepers, a problem Liara solves by throwing the whole group off me - literally the whole group. We finish shooting them, and I throw what turns out to be my last aerosol at a pair colonists who are shooting at me from behind a crate.

Liara?s biotics and Tali?s tech abilities are starting to get a bit scary. On the other hand, I?m still standing at the end of fights, keeping the enemies of them, so that makes us a very effective team. I am finding a shotgun, with sledgehammer ammunition to knock people over, a very useful weapon. Enemies on the ground rarely try to get past me and into the more vulnerable members of the party. For longer range work, I?m still using my assault rifle but have started to employ it less in favour, oddly, of a pistol.

As the firing dies down, I move over to the freighter and note that there?s a crane attached to one of the freight modules. I?ve never operated a crane, but Tali has, and she shifts the module away easily from a set of stairs heading downwards. I move towards it when there?s a noise behind us. Fai Dan is stumbling towards us from one of the housing modules, pistol in hand and a pained expression on his face. ?It gets in your head. You try to refuse it, but it just hurts so much. It wants me to stop you. But I won?t? His arm brings his pistol slowly up, fighting all the way, and then he?s past me and has it pointed at his jaw. ?I WON?T.? From somewhere he finds the strength to squeeze the trigger.

We head down two flights of stairs, leading into a room with a central shaft surrounded by balconies. There?s a curtain of vegetation in the shaft. Tali starts outlining our objective. ?All right, we just need to find this creature and determine what it? what it?? Actually, that?s not a curtain of vegetation. ?Keelah, what it that??

The Thorian is a plant. A very big plant. My rangefinder makes the shaft 50 metres across, and the Thorian fills most of it. Vertically it?s at least as tall. And with tendrils descending further down the shaft I can?t guess how much more of it exists. I don?t think I?ve got a gun big enough to do more than scratch the surface. ?Why can?t things ever just be simple?? My shock manifests in a frustrated outburst.

The plant seems to take notice of us. A pod on one of it?s tendrils extends towards us, dripping liquid. It pulses several times, then out the pod drops a creature that looks like a plant version of an Asari - green skin and sap instead of blood. I am going to believe it was vomited up rather than born or anything else. It glares at us, and speaks in a rather commanding tone. ?Invaders! Your every step is a transgression. A thousand feelers appraise you as meat, fit only to dig or decompose. I speak for the Old Growth, as I did for Saren. You are within and before the Thorian. It commands that you be in awe!?

I don?t do awe, particularly not with slavers. ?You enslaved the colonists. You destroyed their minds. I don?t know what Saren wanted with you, but I just want you dead!?

The asari-thing focuses on me. ?The Thorian is a part of this world, extending across the land and back through the ages.? It sounds contemptuous. ?You can no more kill it than cut the sky.? With a biotic push I?m thrown backwards and fall to the ground, but Liara?s biotic throw sends the creature off the edge and into its masters pit. More creepers rush us from a side passage, and I occupy the doorway as best I can while we cut them down. Even with my shotgun knocking them over and my own ability to smash them to the floor at close quarters, there?s such a large rush that I take quite a beating before they all drop. Eventually though they all do.

Tali has her omnitool out, scanning what I assumed to be a branch of the Thorian which extends into this chamber and grasping the wall. Instead, it?s something else. She has identified a large number of ?nerve clusters? in a density that in an animal would indicate something similar to a brain. Her theory is that the Thorian may have a central ?brain? somewhere, but it?s large enough that it needs subsidiary centres to control it?s extremities. And if we destroy those extremities, this part of the Thorian will die.

So I shoot it. Liara observes the reaction of the Thorian, and suggests excitedly that it obviously felt that. I look out of the window and notice there are five more of these large branches anchoring the Thorian in the shaft, and presumably with similar brain clusters within them. Since there are stairs just along the passage and there?s one just up from us, we head that way.

The next four floors are a fairly continuous fight. Some of it is on stairs, and some on landings overlooking a very deep pit. Since both Liara and I have the ability to throw things around biotically, this means several creepers get a chance to practice their flying skills. They turn out to have none. Unfortunately, the pseudo-asari the Thorian vomits up have the same ability. After one nearly unpleasant moment, I decide we need to stay close to the wall away from the edge. It does mean that I don?t get to throw any off physically, but you can?t have fun all the time.

Eventually, we reach the top floor. The last of the creepers falls, and I blast the final nerve cluster with my shotgun. With an ear-splitting roar, all the branches the Thorian is holding the wall with release abruptly. The main body smashes against one wall of the shaft, and drops away down into the central pit. Seconds pass, before there?s a crash below that makes the walls shake. If I had an incendiary grenade available, I?d toss it onto the funeral pyre.

While I watch, a ?seed pod? against the wall of the chamber splits open. This time an Asari steps out who isn?t green and plant-like. Instead she?s a rather fetching light purple shade, dressed in the armour of a commando. She picks herself up off the floor, looking astonished. ?I?m free. I?m free.? Then she looks at us. ?I suppose I should thank you for releasing me.?

?Shiala?? Liara sounds surprised. ?Is that you? Is this some sort of trick??

?This is no trick. The Thorian is dead and I am myself again.?

?You were one of my mother?s servants.? Liara suddenly sounds wary. ?You followed her when she joined Saren. Why are you here??

?I served Matriarch Benezia, yes. I believed in her cause. She foresaw the influence Saren would have, and joined him to guide him down a gentler path. Yet Saren is compelling, and Benezia lost her way. She came to believe in his cause and his goals. As did I. The strength of his influence is troubling.?

?Benezia sought to turn the river, and was swept away.? Liara says it softly, and as if it?s an old saying.

?That is it exactly.? Shiala is looking at Liara as she says this. Meanwhile, I?m thinking about the implications. I manage to put some of my thoughts into words, ?Asari Matriarchs are some of the most intelligent and powerful beings in the galaxy. How does one fall under Saren?s control??

?Saren has a vessel. An enormous warship unlike anything I have ever seen. He calls it Sovereign. It can dominate the minds of his followers. They become indoctrinated to Saren?s will. The process is subtle. It can take days, weeks. But in the end, it is absolute. I was a willing slave when Saren brought me to this world. He needed my biotics to communicate with the Thorian, to learn its secrets. Saren offered me in trade. I was sacrificed to secure an alliance between Saren and the Thorian.?

I snort with contempt. ?Saren?s pretty quick to betray his own people.?

?He was quick to betray the Thorian as well. After he had what he wanted, he ordered his Geth to destroy all trace of its existence.?

?Why?? Liara sounds puzzled. ?What did that gain him??

?Saren knows you,? and Shiala looks directly at me, ?are searching for the Conduit. He knows you are following his steps. He attacked the Thorian so you would not gain access to the Cipher.?

?Okay. What?s the Cipher, what did Saren want with it, and why do I need it??

?The Beacon on Eden Prime gave you visions. But those visions were unclear, confusing. They were meant for a Prothean mind. To truly understand them, you must think like a Prothean. You must understand their culture, their history, their very existence. The Thorean was here long before the Protheans built this city. It watched and studies them, and when they died it consumed them. They became part of it.?

?Just give me a straight answer. Where is the Cipher?? I?ve suddenly realised that destroying the Thorian (if we have) may have been a bad idea.

?The Cipher is the very essence of being a Prothean. It cannot be described or explained. It would be like describing colour to a creature without eyes. To understand, you must have access to endemic ancestral memories. A viewpoint spanning thousands of Prothean generations. I sensed this ancestral memory, the Cipher, when I melded with the Thorian. Our identities merged, our minds intertwined. Such knowledge cannot be taught.?

?You taught Saren. You can teach me.? I think I know why Asari live a thousand years. They need that long to explain everything.

?There is a way.? Shiala agrees. ?I can transfer the knowledge from my mind to yours, as I did with Saren. Try to relax, Commander. Slow, deep breaths. Let go of your physical shell. Reach out to grasp the threads that bind us, one to another.? She steps closer as I try to do what she says. Continuing, she speaks as calmly as I?ve ever heard anyone speak/ ?Every action sends ripples across the galaxy. Every idea must touch another mind to live. Each emotion must mark another?s spirit. We are all connected. Every living being united in a single, glorious existence. Open yourself to the universe, Commander.?

As I stand there, trying to control myself, she leans her head back. I can see biotic energy starting to coil around her. When she looks at me, her eyes are solid black. Then she reaches out. ?Embrace eternity!?

As she touches me, images start to swirl through my head. The vision from Eden Prime is part of it, though now some parts are clearer. There is still the chaos and destruction, but at the end there?s a planet, one I don?t recognise, and one final image of a great metallic spaceship like the one from Eden Prime rotating in space.

When I start to recover, Liara is supporting me while Tali scans me. Shiala watches us solemnly, but then realises I?m conscious of people again. ?I have given you the Cipher, just as it was given to Saren. The ancestral memories of the Protheans are a part of you now.?

?What was that? Shepard, are you all right?? Tali sounds worried, almost panicky.

?I don?t know. It?s as if my mind was stretched out in a different direction. I don?t think there?s anything physically wrong, but I don?t understand the visions properly even now.?

?You have been given a great gift, the experience of an entire people. It will take time for your mind to process this information. I am sorry if you have suffered, but there was no other way. You needed the Cipher. In time, it will help you understand the vision from the Beacon.?

?I think there?s parts of it I understand. There?s a planet somewhere. I think it must be the one which has the Conduit on it. But it isn?t clear where it is.? I look at Shiala. ?You don?t know what the Conduit it, do you??

?No. Saren never said. Only that it was necessary.?

?Hmm. So what am I supposed to do with you now??

Shiala looks at me thoughtfully. ?If you allow it, I would like to stay here with the colonists. They have suffered greatly, and I played a role in their suffering. I would like to make amends.?

?They?ll need all they help they can get. They should be happy to have you. Just don?t tell them how you got here. I doubt they?d like that.?

?I will do as you command, Commander.? Shiala seems quite happy taking orders from a dominant female. As we return to the colony, I talk a little more with her. She seems oddly sad about the death of the Thorian. When I suggest it was an abomination, she doesn?t disagree, but she points out that it was a unique sentient creature, at least 50,000 years old. Nothing like it exists in the known galaxy. Personally I think that?s a good thing, but I can see why others might feel regret at the loss. I felt a little like that about the Rachni Queen, though of course she showed remorse.

Back at the colony, people seem to be recovering. The Baynhams are there, sounding excited. Apparently ExoGeni have decided to increase funding for the Feros colony. It should recover fully in time. I rather suspect ExoGeni intend looking for remnants of the Thorian, and warn Shiala about this. Otherwise, everyone seems to have recovered from the Thorian and it?s mind control, and the ones who I knocked unconscious don?t seem to bear me any ill will. I might even be welcome back.

[Bluenose]

Part 34

Normandy and the Citadel – 戦いの精神を示しなさい, Septimus-san (Ikutsu ka no toshi wo hyoji, Septimus-san)

Debriefing isn’t a long process. We’re not really any closer to finding the location of the Conduit, and we still don’t know Saren’s ultimate goal. We do reach one conclusion I consider significant. We know the Protheans were destroyed by a race of intelligent machines, and that the Geth know these machines as the Reapers. The beacon showed me an image of a Reaper ship that looked very similar to the one we saw on Eden Prime. Saren was on Eden Prime, and he has a spaceship with unique capabilities called Sovereign. The conclusion seems clear; Sovereign is a reaper ship.

Liara then offers to meld with me the way Shiala did. Her hope is that her existing knowledge of the Protheans might let her see some clues that I don’t recognise. I agree at once, since there’s a chance she’s right. Just as happened with Shiala her eyes turn solid black, and she uses the “Embrace Eternity!” line. Again, the images from the Beacon flash through my mind. Liara afterwards is amazed, shocked, enormously impressed by my mental strength, able to recognise a few things but not our destination, and rather drained by the experience. I rather suspect she hasn’t done this before, since Shiala wasn’t tired afterwards. We break up the debriefing, since there isn’t anywhere else to go with it.

Afterwards I contact the Council again, so they can discuss my report. The Salarian councillor seems slightly annoyed that they didn’t know about the Thorian beforehand, and asks me if there was any possibility of capturing it for study. When I suggest anyone studying it would have been its next slave, he accepts the point. When we come to discussing the colony, the Turian suggests that of course I would take whatever measures I needed to for a human colony. As if I wouldn’t do the same for another species. Whatever else I am, no-one ever said I was prejudiced about other species. Batarians excepted. I answer hotly, but just as it looks like a row will break out the Asari manages to calm everything down. They sign off, with the rather vague comment that the mission must always come first, as if I need reminding. Joker manages to sum up the whole mission quite nicely. “Just thinking aloud here, Commander, but next time lets not set the Normandy down in a colony of mutant zombies.”

On the way back to the Citadel to resupply, I have a row with Alenko. We’re talking again about his biotic training, and we get onto the subject of the Turian who was in charge of it. Apparently at some point that Turian broke a girls arm because she reached for the salt with her hand rather than her biotics. Alenko started arguing with him, and ended up flat on his back with the Turian holding a knife against his throat making comments about how the Turians should have bombarded us back to the Stone Age during the war. Alenko lost his temper, and used his biotics to throw the Turian against the ceiling. This turned out to be fatal, especially since the medical staff weren’t exactly rapid in treating him. My opinion, that he got exactly what he deserved, isn’t something Alenko agrees with. He seems to think I’m hostile to aliens, and explains exactly why he isn’t, and that he trusts the Alliance to decide rationally who our enemies our.

Somewhat later, I’m talking to Wrex. He’s got some interesting stories about his time as a mercenary. The latest concerns the time he was recruited as a guard for a Volus diplomat. Apparently, without work from politicians he’d be unemployed most of the time. This Volus wanted to get rid of someone who had knowledge of previous dirty tricks the Volus had used, and paid Wrex to get rid of him. Or in this case, her, because it was an Asari commando mercenary who Wrex knew personally. They had a good laugh about it, and then agreed where they’d fight. Aleena, the Asari, chose a space station in Salarian territory that had been abandoned to mercenaries and smugglers. They spent three days fighting through the station, running out of ammunition and having to kill mercs to get their weapons. Towards the end, the station was wrecked and abandoned, Aleena was holed up in a medical lab trying to heal her injuries, and Wrex thought she was cornered. At which point the station reactor started to overload. He got off safely, and watched in case she did. He didn’t see anything leave before the reactor blew, and afterwards there was no wreckage ‘larger than a Turian’s testicle’. Yet when he headed off to report to the Volus, she contacted him and wished him better look next time. So instead of trying to kill her again, he decided that if she could survive a space station blowing up she should live, and he told the Volus what happened. He got a job for life, as the only person who could keep the Volus safe from Aleena’s vengeance.

Garrus is looking to the future. Once we find Saren, he’s going to apply for the Spectre training he ignored when it was first offered. Even if he doesn’t get it, he won’t be heading back to C-Sec. In the future, he’ll operate by his rules rather than someone else’s.

And when Liara is feeling better, she decides to apologise to me. Apparently melding is part of Asari sex, and it’s a deeply spiritual experience rather just than a physical one, and she’s never done it before, or is not very experienced at it, take your pick. No matter what, Asari are not promiscuous, and she’s not sure what to think of our relationship, except that she wants to think about it, and she wants to wait, and she’s really quite adorable when she starts to babble. I point out that I’m still not going anywhere, and she can take as long as she needs.

When we get back to the Citadel, I decide to visit somewhere I’ve heard a lot about. The Consort is one of the most famous Asari around, and her Chambers are a popular place for people with money to visit. According to Nelyna, who is greeting people today, people visit for help with their problems. Even if they don’t see the Consort herself, she has her acolytes with their own specialties – Nelyna is an expert at massage. Amusingly, the waiting list is three or four months, which might be inconvenient for me since I don’t know where I’ll be then. I’m leaving, when Nelyna’s console chirps, and after a moment she says the Consort has taken notice and wants to see me. So I head upstairs, jumping several months of queue.

Elevator adverts:
Renowned director Francis Kitt announces plans for a new production of Hamlet with an all-Elcor cast. Kitt, most famous for his work on Broadway, claims that he is excited to open dramatic theatre to the Elcor. He adds that he sees this as a great opportunity to give human audiences a chance to judge Hamlet by his deeds rather than his emotions.

The Consort is a tall, pale blue, elegantly dressed Asari with a rich voice and very smart chambers. I’m a little surprised that she knows who I am, but apparently she keeps track of important visitors to the Citadel and had hoped to see me before this. Liara makes a comment that she now is seeing me and should get on with it. Sha’ira, as the Consort introduces herself, has a problem with a retired Turian general. He wanted more from her than she could give, and when she refused him he took to drinking in cheap bars and spreading lies about her. As she strokes my face, and Liara’s teeth grind together behind me, she explains that she’d like me to speak to him and stop his campaign against her. She thinks I can get somewhere with an appeal to military honour, and as she hugs me and Liara starts to turn purple she says that if I succeed she’ll be very grateful.

I’ve never turned down requests from pretty Asari. Admittedly I haven’t had many. In this case I head down to Chora’s Den, where General Septimus is sat with a drink and a circle of admirers listening to him gossip. I sit down, and when he recognises me he realises what I’ve come for. Rather drunkenly he tells me how war is hell, and the only woman who made him feel better turned him down. Him, Septimus Oraka, General of the Turian hegemony! I suggest he’s being a wimp, showing weakness to his enemies. After a short exchange of views on the subject of what makes him happy, he agrees that hanging around in a bar insulting the only woman who makes him happy is conduct that a general shouldn’t engage in. So he’ll head off, take a shower or two, and call Sha’ira to apologise.

He also says that he recruited another person to his anti-Consort slander campaign. An Elcor diplomat whose communications he tapped, and who is now convinced that the information general Septimus leaked came from the Consort. I agree to try to sort this out. He staggers off in one direction, while I head to the Elcor embassy.

There I speak to the diplomat in question. At first he is, “Disbelieving: This information could only have come from the Consort”. When I show him Septimus’ data on him this changes to, “Horrified: If he can discover my secrets they are not safe from anyone.” I eventually calm him down, pointing out that it wasn’t easy even for a Turian general to find out, and get him to, “Relieved: I suppose you are right, human. Startled Realisation: I must apologise to the Consort. She will be most offended by my actions.” I suggest she doesn’t seem the vindictive sort, and he departs in a better mood.

When I return to the Consort, she’s pleased with me. She offers me an affirmation of my ability in the form of words. It seems she knows something about me, and her monologue does make me feel differently about myself. Not necessarily better, since she’s perfectly capable of recognising the difference between the appearance I present to the world and the reality. If I’m as intimidating as she suggests, I’m surprised we have so many enemies willing to fight us. Additionally she presents me with a trinket she obtained long ago. She doesn’t know what it is, but she has a feeling it’s time for it to pass to someone else and she picked me for the honour.

Edited by Bluenose, 05 May 2010 - 07:50 AM.

[Bluenose]

Part 35

The Hawking Eta Cluster ? And I don't even have to shoot him

?Commander, I?ve got a little mission for you.? And good day to you too, Admiral Hackett. We?re heading to the Sentry Omega cluster to the last planet on my list of Saren-sightings, when Hackett interrupts us as we cruise between mass relays.

?There?s a biotic cult we?d like you to investigate. They?re on Presrop, which is not far out of your way.?

?What?s the problem with them, Admiral? There must be some reason you want them investigated.?

?They?ve started a propaganda campaign against the Alliance, blaming us for ?the plight of biotics everywhere?. While not many people are listening, particularly after you rescued Chairman Burns and he started to take the issue seriously, there have been one or two nasty incidents. And they?re also trying to recruit more members, though again not too successfully. The thing is, this is a recent development. They?ve got a new leader, Father Kyle, and the way they talk about him in their letters makes it sound like he?s a messiah-figure.?

?So you want me to talk to him. Tone down the propaganda a bit. Shouldn?t be a problem.? I shrug slightly. It doesn?t sound like this will take long.

?There?s more to it than that, Commander. We?ve already sent a couple of negotiators in. We were trying to get Father Kyle to surrender peacefully. He?s former Alliance military, and we released him a few years ago. He had psychological problems after an engagement. The psych teams evaluated him as unable to command any more, but they didn?t realise quite how unstable he was. He?s got a persecution complex, and it seems to have manifested itself in joining up with another group he thinks is persecuted in biotics. A lot of biotics resent how they?re perceived and he?s playing into that.

?The two officers we sent in haven?t reported back. We don?t want to commit to a full scale assault, there?s too much chance of a massacre. Which is when I thought of you.?

?Why me, Admiral.?

?You know Father Kyle.?

?I do??

?A few years ago he was Major Kyle.? Hackett almost sounds embarrassed. ?He commanded the ground contingent at Torfan. He needs treatment. Simply put, you know him and he knows you. You have more chance of getting him to surrender than anyone else we can send. Otherwise we?ll have to send in the troops.?

?Talk down Major Kyle. I understand, Admiral. Shepard, out.? I wait till the communication icon is clear, and kick the console as hard as I can. ?Joker. Set a new course. We?re visiting an old acquaintance of mine on Presrop.? I don?t even wait for his acknowledgement before heading to the range. I need to shoot something, and target practice will have to do.

When we eventually arrive at Presrop, I hesitate. Who do I want to take with me to a massacre, if that?s what we?re going to have? It?s almost what I?d prefer. Admiral Hackett is right, I do remember Major Kyle. In the end though, Liara and Tali turn up, and Liara in particular makes it plain she intends going with me no matter what I want. Considering how I?ve been behaving since this mission came up, I think they?re a bit worried about me.

Indeed, almost as soon as the Mako lands Tali is onto me with a question. ?Zoe, you don?t seem quite yourself at the moment. Is something wrong??

Liara is also quick to jump in. ?It is not like you to ignore your crew in this way. Nor to spend so much time on your own, or to take your meals in your cabin. Are you particularly worried about this mission??

I sigh. I slide the Mako into a depression with a good field of fire, and slip the engine out of gear. ?I don?t want to see Kyle again. He was at Torfan, and we didn?t exactly part on good terms.?

?What happened between you?? Tali sounds interested, while Liara is looking slightly worried.

?It was after the engagement was over, mostly. I was furious with him, because I?d lost three quarters of my people inside the Batarian base when he wouldn?t send troops in to reinforce us. All he wanted to do was wring his hands and whine about the Batarian casualties. He was going on and on about how bad this looked, about how people would call it a massacre, and how it was all my fault. He?d left us to do all the fighting after we got into the base, and if he?d pushed troops in behind us as he was supposed to we?d have had far less casualties, and it might even have intimidated the Batarians into surrendering, and it?s my fucking fault? I wanted to shoot the gutless little bastard. Of course, I didn?t. He wouldn?t be making trouble now if I had.?

For a moment everyone sits frozen. Then I grin, if in a macabre fashion. ?Right, I?ve got that out of the way. Let?s go bring in a cult leader.?

?You had me worried there for a moment.? Tali sounds amused. ?I thought you might actually be planning to sabotage the negotiations so you had an excuse to shoot people.?

?I don?t kill people over personal grudges any more. Yelling at them until they cry is another matter.? Putting the Mako into gear, I drive over a slight rise and straight into a thresher maw nest. There really should be warning signs put up about these.

After we kill it, I head for the biotic encampment. There are two buildings and a small spaceship parked outside. We dismount, and head for the first. And since it?s locked, I actually knock.

The person who answers seems to be already agitated already. He screams at us through the door. ?Father Kyle cannot speak to you. We want nothing to do with the Alliance. Why won?t you leave us alone??

?Tell him Commander Zoe Shepard is here. He knows me. And I will speak to him.?

?Wait.? For a few minutes there?s silence. Then a different voice, though not Kyle, returns. ?Go to the building at the other end of the compound. Father Kyle will speak to you there.?

I believe that hacking the lock would probably provoke a fight, and I don?t really want to do that. So I do as he asks. This building opens, though there?s no one waiting for us. A few humans who I assume are biotic wander around. As we move through the building, a few mutter comments about the Alliance or their wonderful Father Kyle.

In a room at the back, we find Kyle. He?s shaved his head, although he?s got a moustache that wasn?t there before. As soon as he sees me, he speaks. ?Why has the Butcher of Torfan been sent to our peaceful home? Does the Alliance fear us so much??

?Two Alliance officers were sent here. Where are they??

?I killed them. They spoke blasphemy.? He sounds unusually calm about it.

?What did they do?? Even to my own ears I sound a lot harsher than him.

?They sought to take me away from my children. This could not be allowed. I made their ends gentle.?

?You know the Alliance can?t let you get away with this, Major. I?ve been sent to bring you in.?

?No! My children need me. I must remain here to guide them. You will not take me away.? At this point I?m glad none of the biotics are here as witnesses, as it?s starting to get nasty.

?There?s only one way you can help them now, Kyle. Because I am taking you in. Surrender. Or they?ll all die.?

?You would not harm my children.? He sounds heartbroken. ?But of course that is why they sent you. You would. I will surrender.?

?Good choice. Now come with me.? I hold out a hand to take his arm.

?Wait!? Kyle steps back, and I reach for a gun. ?If they see you taking me away my children will not understand. They will try to resist. Allow me time, one hour, to call them together and explain things. I give you my word that I will surrender after that.?

?One hour. That?s all you get.?

Both Liara and Tali are staring at my back as we leave the building. As we reach the Mako, human men, women and children are heading towards Kyle?s building. Once we?re sat inside, Liara rounds on me. ?Would you really have killed all those people? It seems so unlike the person I have come to know.?

?I?ve got my reputation to think of, Liara. Everyone knows I?m a bloodthirsty maniac. So when I?m negotiating with them and threaten a massacre, they take me seriously.?

?You were bluffing.? Tali sounds satisfied. ?I thought so. But you sounded so convincing, and he was so convinced, I was not sure.?

?Killing isn?t, or shouldn?t be, trivial. For someone like me who does it for a living that?s always a risk.So, yeah, I?m pleased is ended like this. As long as they aren?t in a suicide pact over there.? Our conversation dies down, and gradually turns to other things.

About an hour later Kyle walks out of his building and over to us. ?I am ready to leave.? We take him on board, and I bring the Normandy in for a pickup. A day later, we hand him over to an Alliance cruiser. Hackett has the last word. ?Thank you, Commander. I really thought we?d have a massacre on our hands when this started. I?m glad I was wrong, and you were able to pull it off. Fifth Fleet owes you, Commander. Hackett, out.?

[Bluenose]

Part 36

Virmire ? Where crabthings dare

Virmire is the third planet from the sun in the Hoc system. One of the outer planets is Prescyle, where you can see the galaxy?s largest piece of graffiti in the form of a message carved into the surface by starship lasers. In hundred metre tall Batarian script, you can read a message about the amazing military prowess and legendary virility of Captain Zaysh. There?s an addendum concerning the parentage of humans.

Virmire itself is a lovely planet, with extensive seas and a location near the inner edge of the system?s habitable zone. There?s a very broad zone with a tropical climate, and extensive island chains. It would be ideal as a colony world, or perhaps for a resort planet. Unfortunately it?s close to the Terminus systems with all their political instability. Attempts to negotiate deals with one Terminus group invariably lead to others demanding a share, which makes colonisation too expensive to consider. Occasionally a group from within the Terminus systems attempts something, but with their limited resources these also fail.

As we?re approaching Virmire, Commander Pressley and Joker detect the Salarian group?s location from the signal they?re sending out. They?re operating in an archipelago in the tropical region. They also detect a large number of air defence towers in the vicinity, as well as a complex of buildings nearby. It?s decided that the Normandy can?t safely approach the area without being detected, so Joker will bring the Normandy in under the radar, we?ll land the Mako nearby and eliminate the AA systems from the ground. Once we?ve cleared a path, the Normandy can land near the Salarian team.

That?s what we do. Joker brings the Normandy down and drops the Mako onto a beach from below fifty metres altitude. I?m fairly sure the splash (because the tide is in) must have soaked the belly of the ship. He heads off with my warning not to get careless in his ears, and a cocky ?Don?t worry about it,? in mine.

Driving along the beach is a little awkward; because there are some strange crab-like creatures wandering along it and for some reason I don?t want to drive over them in the Mako. I really can?t explain why, except that seeing them scuttling along on their four legs, with their front manipulators waving around and those odd little top-hat bodies just makes me want to leave them alone. So the Mako does a lot of weaving and jumping, even before we start running into Geth combat units.

There are a lot of Geth around, of course. It?s one thing that convinces me that Saren must have been here. Our initial contacts are with airborne drones, fragile but nasty if they manage to hit with their rockets. As we push on, some of the heavier units appear, including a Colossus which ends up taking a swim in deep water after being muscled over the edge of the reef by the Mako. Something is going to make an interesting piece of coral.

There are three AA positions between us and the Salarians. Both of them block the path where we?re passing between two islands. We have to dismount and enter the structures to open their gates, and inside we face a fight with several Geth. Geth don?t swim very well, as Tali is happy to confirm, and Liara and I have in impromptu contest to see who can throw most Geth into the water. She has superior biotics which certainly helps her, but I?m capable of knocking them around physically and blowing them off at close range with my shotgun. It?s close, but she wins when she catches a group of four in one singularity and then throws them as a group.

After we?ve dealt with more Geth Armatures and Colossuses (Colossi?) and cleared the air defence tower,s Joker calls us up to say he?s bringing the Normandy in to land. A minute or so later it flies low over us, its engines kicking up the surf. I drive the Mako round another corner, and the Normandy is grounded in the surf near a collection of shelters. A group of Salarians are watching us from a dry beach, and some crabthings are already investigating the Normandy for edible status.

When we reach the beach a Salarian officer is arguing with Alenko and Williams. I join them, and he introduces himself as Captain Kirrahe of the 3rd Infiltration Regiment, Salarian STG. He asks me why we?re here. I tell him we?ve been sent to investigate the situation, which seems to annoy him. He lost half his men ?investigating? the situation, and he isn?t happy that we?re all he?s got. He had requested a fleet. I have to explain that the signal the Council received was garbled. According to Kirrahe, we?re stuck here unless we can figure something out.

When I ask what Saren is doing here, Kirrahe tells me. ?This is a research station. Saren is breeding an army of Krogan.? This gets Wrex?s attention.

?How is this possible??

?Apparently Saren has discovered a cure for the Genophage.?

?The Geth are bad enough.? I wince at the thought. ?But with a Krogan army, Saren would be a lot harder to beat.?

?Exactly my thoughts.? Kirrahe nods in agreement. ?We must ensure that that this facility and its secrets are destroyed.?

?Destroyed? I don?t think so.? Wrex looks unhappy, and I don?t blame him. ?Our people are dying. This cure can save them.?

?If that cure leaves this planet the Krogan will become unstoppable.? I think Kirrahe is exaggerating here. ?We can?t make the same mistake again.?

Wrex jabs a thick finger right into Kirrahe?s face. ?We are not a mistake.? He stalks off down the beach towards the sea.

Kirrahe looks after him, before turning to me. ?Is he going to be a problem? We already have enough angry Krogan to deal with.?

?Don?t worry about it, Captain.? I?ll have to talk to Wrex soon. Very soon, as his shotgun booms as he takes aim at some of the local fauna.

?I do worry. That?s why I?m still alive. Why do you go and talk to the Krogan. My men and I need some time to come up with a new plan of attack. In the meantime, if you need any supplies talk to Commander Rentola. He?s in one of the tents nearby.? Kirrahe moves off, leaving me with Alenko and Ashley.

?Things are in a bit of a mess.? Alenko shakes his head at me.

?Yeah.? Ashley looks unhappy. ?I wouldn?t be so worried if it wasn?t for Wrex. He looks like he?s going to blow a gasket.?

?I?ll go talk to him.?

?That can?t hurt. Well,? Ashley grins slightly. ?It might actually. Just do it carefully.? As if in punctuation, another shotgun blast rings out.

I move over to where Wrex is standing. He fires another shotgun blast as I walk up. ?This isn?t right, Shepard. If there?s a cure for the Genophage, we can?t destroy it.?

?Calm down, Wrex. I?m not your enemy. Saren is.?

?Really? Saren created a cure for my people. You want to destroy it. Help me out here Shepard. The lines between friend and foe are getting a bit blurry from where I stand.?
?This isn?t a cure. It?s a weapon. If Saren gets to use it you won?t be around to reap the benefits. None of us will.?

?That?s a chance we should be willing to take. This is the fate of my entire people we?re talking about. I?ve been loyal to you so far. Hell, you?ve done more for me than my own family ever did. But I need to know we?re doing this for the right reasons.? He draws his gun, slowly, giving me time to get mine out too. For a moment we stand frozen, guns aimed at each other at point blank range.

I lower my gun. ?Saren doesn?t care about the Krogan. They?re tools, puppets. He?ll destroy them as soon as they?re no longer useful. Is that what you want for your people??

?No. We were tools for the Council once. To thank us for wiping out the Rachni, they neutered us all. I doubt if Saren will be as generous.? He lowers his gun. ?All right, Shepard. You?ve made your point. I don?t like this, but I trust you enough to follow your lead. Just one thing. When we catch up with Saren, I want his head.?

?Fine by me. But I?m claiming his balls. I need new earrings.?