Mass Effect - A Hero Rises Ch. 11

Book 1, Chapter 11 -- Little Wing (Noveria)

*****

The Mako I was driving took the lead, Garrus at the turret of the cannon, Tali looking after shields and engineering, Wrex simply a passenger for now. Alenko was following in our wheel tracks, Garrus turning the turret of the cannon every couple of minutes to check on him.

The weather was awful. Practically a blizzard, which mean seeing anything after a few feet was near impossible. The lights on the Mako were on the highest beam possible but we were still crawling along. Despite the heat of the engine, and the heating we could switch on inside the Mako, it was still freezing. I had a feeling the drive could take all day, and what made it worse was the fact geth were on Noveria.

"Commander, halt!" Garrus called. Bringing the Mako to a stop, I could hear Garrus swinging the turret. "Contacts, Commander!"

Cannon fire immediately erupted in addition to the machine gun. It only lasted a few seconds before he gave the all clear. "Can't see shit in this weather," I muttered.

"Doubt the geth can see us in return, Commander."

"I'll keep the pace low. Long as we get there alive."

"Or maybe the blizzard will piss off," Tali murmured to herself.

I could help chuckle. "That was almost a curse, Tali. By the time you head back to the Fleet, you'll be calling geth pieces of shit, fucking cunts, and all manner of other curses." That made her giggle at least.

We drove along in silence for a little while, Garrus calling out for me to stop occasionally, immediately opening for, before he called for me to start driving again. It was unbelievably tense as we simply had no idea what lay ahead, always waiting for the impact of a rocket or two. Even Wrex was quiet in the back, at least for a little while, before he started to tease me about my evening with Gianna. I just returned the favour, teasing him about Alenko.

"Yeah, might have to nip that in the bud, Shepard. He's getting attached."

"What, in love?"

That made him laugh. "No, not that. But this is obviously just a fling and I'm left thinking he's going to want it to continue once we deal with Saren. I've already made it clear that I'm here until we do that, then I'll find my own way."

"You told him this?"

The krogan remained silent. "Well, not yet. I am enjoying the physical side, at least."

The blizzard was relentless, the snowfall blinding, the temperature remained constant, in that it was freezing. I would have liked to put my foot down, but I knew the road we were following followed the side of a cliff. If I got it wrong even slightly, we'd go flying over the edge.

"You okay back there, Alenko?"

"Can't see shit, Commander. Following your brake lights."

"Any geth?"

"No. Think you're dealing with them first."

"Probably another few hours until we reach Peak 15 from the map I have."

"No worries, Commander. Long as we get there alive."

We made it to Peak 15 alive. It was impossible to know if was day or night unless we checked the time, not surprised to see the drive had taken us hours. It was more mental than physical exhaustion, the stress and tension as we simply couldn't see the geth almost overwhelming, just waiting for that first rocket to hit. Garrus handled them quickly more often than not, and I'm sure we actually ran over more than one geth unit that had frozen in place due to the weather.

Wrex had to clamber out to open the garage door for us, Alenko and I parking the vehicles side by side before climbing out as the door shut, Wrex moaning about the weather. Apparently it was always far warmer on Tuchanka. After a quick stock of weapons and armour, we headed into Peak 15 and immediately into more geth. Whether they knew we were coming all night, I didn't know, but one of the geth was a massive bastard.

"Heard about those things before!" Tali yelled over the gunfire, "We call them Juggernauts!"

It took plenty of tech attacks to whittle down its shields, managing to overload its weapon more often, before we could finally focus on simply filling it with bullets. The rest of the geth were simple to wipe out, but that Juggernaut too far too long. By the time we put it onto the ground, I may have walked across and given it a firm kick before calling it a few names.

The sudden silence was fill by what I assumed was the VI of the facility, and what it reported didn't sound good. Biohazard materials were present throughout the facility, so that meant helmets would stay on for the time being. The reactors were offline. The VI itself was barely walking, the reports of damage seeming to be on a loop and only an emergency broadcast.

Exiting the garage into the facility, I wasn't the only one to notice the gun turrets were facing towards anything leaving rather than entering the facility. It was now obvious that someone wanted to stop someone else, or something, from escaping. The fact no-one was in the guard room was a concern, and as we boarded the elevator, conversation started in regards to what we would fine.

We all assumed Benezia would still be alive. But as for any rescue mission, we had a feeling that had either gone wrong or... We'd passed their bodies on the way to the facility. The blizzard has been so blinding, we'd barely seen a thing except the geth, and that was only because they were firing at us. All we could do was investigate and find out.

Crowding onto an elevator, we headed up what seemed to be numerous levels exiting out to find windows blown out, the wind howling and snow already piling in. And the geth were waiting, Liara and Shiala firing their biotics to give us time to find cover and return fire. If there had been any doubt about Benezia bringing geth with her, they had long since disappeared. I shared the occasional glance with Liara whenever there was a moment of quiet. She didn't meet my nor anyone else's eyes. I didn't really blame her, in all honesty.

The geth dead, we spread out and that's when we heard a noise that we simply didn't recognise. Looking up, we saw what I could only describe as a monster, yet it was eerily familiar at the same time. Wrex sniffed the air. "It's wrong, Shepard!" he growled.

"Easy, Wrex. All we need to do is kill it."

"Bad feeling, Shepard. Really bad feeling. And when a krogan has a bad feeling, that means things are seriously fucked up."

God, they were ugly. And they moved fast as well. They soaked up bullets that made my jaw drop. But they were susceptible to biotics. I didn't even have to order anyone with the ability to start using them, the two asari, Alenko and even Wrex starting to shimmer blue, the rest of us following up their attacks with bullets.

When all the monsters were dead, we gathered around a pile of them, Wrex leaning down to sniff the blood. He growled apparently without thinking, and I noticed the look in his eye. It verged on murderous. "What are you thinking, Wrex?"

"I don't know, Shepard. And that's what scares me. If a krogan is scared, something is seriously fucking wrong."

"I'll protect you, big guy," Garrus joked.

"Long as you know where to point that rifle of yours, turian."

"Aww, look at us, getting along," Tali added.

Wrex gave her a look before returning a toothy grin. "Play your cards right, little one..."

Even my eyes widened at that one. Tali was immediately embarrassed as a few of us shared a look. "Oh, do tell, Wrex," I suggested, knowing what he was referring to.

"No, it's not my place to say, Shepard."

"I got a good look at his cock," Tali blurted out, to the amusement of nearly everyone else, "Keelah, it was enormous! And I watched him fuck Alenko!"

The whole room exploded into laughter, which defused some of the tension we were feeling. "Bloody hell, what a time to share that!" I stated, feeling my body shake with laughter.

Tali just shrugged her shoulders. "Look, I might come across as the innocent quarian but I'm cooped up in this suit and..."

I noticed Wrex lay a soft hand on her shoulder. "Easy, my little friend. I think they all understand why. Nothing to be embarrassed about."

"I'm not embarrassed. I am a quarian and we are curious about everything."

"Tali, there is nothing wrong with being curious regarding the opposite sex. Men and women often do show and tell when they are younger," Ashley added.

I cleared my throat. "Okay, I think we should move on."

Heading up even further, we exited into what looked like a room holding the mainframe, full of little creatures that exploded when shot, making sure each bullet I fired hit one, as when they exploded, there was no doubt they were full of acid, or at least their blood was acidic.

Heading to the central core, noticing it was called 'MIRA', I had tech knowledge but nothing compared to some of my colleagues. I gestured for Tali to join me as we descended into the bowels of the VI. I stood to the side and let her get to work as she attempted to manually override the system. I don't what the hell she did, but within a couple of minutes, there was the sound of the system restarting, the floor we were standing on automatically ascending. I couldn't help pull her in for a hug. "Well bloody done," I stated.

I felt her arms wrap around me tightly. "Thank you," she replied quietly. She looked up and I met her eyes behind the mask. I wasn't dumb. I knew what she thought of me.

Once we had re-joined the others, a hologram of the system VI appeared in front of us. As soon as I mentioned I was a Spectre, the VI was rather helpful, going into great detail about the problems we faced and how we could solve them. After I asked for a damage report, the VI was full of bad news. Reactor failure. Tramway offline. Landline connections around Peak 15 itself had been cut off. The biohazard issue had yet to be contained. Basically, it was a fucking debacle and we still had a lot of work to do yet.

Asking what happened just before the VI shut down was even worse news. Stages one, two and three alerts and something called a Code Omega. That just sounded like bad news. Probably explained the monsters we'd fought earlier. Of course, when I asked about those, the VI stated that I could not access that data as only Binary Helix employees could. Figured...

With so many things to solve, I would have split the team up, but considering the reactor was offline, nothing else was working without getting that started up. So we headed down there first, as I knew something would be waiting for us down there.

Geth, of course.

After blasting them away, my tech experts managed to get the reactor back online, and we immediately headed up to fix the landline connection, so we could use the tram. More geth and monsters were waiting for us, now so used to dealing with them, they were more of a nuisance than a danger. Might sound arrogant, but when we managed to deal with the enemy with barely a shield failure, it's bound to increase confidence.

Heading back down to the tram station, we could see more of those monsters waiting in what looked like a waiting chamber. Connecting to Mira, we asked how we could solve the issue. The VI suggested we released a five-thousand-degree Kelvin blast. That would wipe them out.

"Do it," I ordered.

Once it was over, there was nothing left of them. Not even an atom. Opening the door, I thought there might have been a smell of cooked flesh, but they had been literally vaporised into nothing. Following a long corridor, we ended up in the tram station. It was empty and very quiet. Rather unnerving to be honest. But power had been restored, and upon boarding the tram, once we were all ready, it departed automatically.

"Think we'll find anyone alive, Commander?" Alenko asked.

"No idea, LT. Possibly Benezia. No idea about anyone else."

"Benezia isn't dead," Liara added confidently, "Though I'm left wondering just what she's been up to here."

"You and I both, Liara," I stated.

There was little discussion otherwise during the journey, people simply checking weapons and armour, otherwise sitting back and enjoying a short rest before we leapt into the fire once again. Greeted by another empty, quiet station, I'm sure I wasn't the only one wondering where everyone was. Following signs for the residential level, we ascended once again, left thinking Peak 15 was a maze, probably a deliberate design feature.

The door opened and the first thing I noticed were the trio of weapons being aimed at us, though once they recognised humans and asari, the weapons were quickly lowered. One of the humans stepped forward, introducing himself as Captain Ventralis, interested to know who I was, as well as my colleagues.

"Commander Shepard, Alliance Navy, Council Spectre. These are my colleagues."

After introductions, he gave me a rundown of the situation. Just like at central station, this area was just as bad. Apparently those monsters had overrun the Hot Labs, whatever they were. From what the captain added, it sounded like a lot of people had already died.

Then he added a bit of information that I knew related to Benezia. An asari had recently arrived and headed into the Hot Labs and hadn't been seen since. I don't think that meant she was dead, but there was no doubt he meant Benezia. I didn't ask of her name, nor did Liara. But the captain was rather co-operative, giving me a card that would take us to the Hot Labs.

As soon as I pocketed the card, more of those monsters appeared from the pipes below us. Our biotic friends dealt with them quickly, lifting or throwing them away, giving the rest of us time to take out weapons and start blasting. Ventralis and his men helped out, making sort work of the monsters, but it was clear he and his men were now at their wits end, appearing to jump at their own shadows, in definite need of a break. All the more reason to finish this as quickly as possible.

Heading back the way we'd entered, we found ourselves in another elevator, this time descending deep into the bowels of the mountain. We must have descended for a couple of minutes before the elevator dinged, all of us piling out, entering an empty room. There was a lone man sitting on a bench by himself, appearing to be in a daze, probably in shock. His eyes met mine and he didn't appear surprised at our appearance. "Are you here to secure the situation?" he wondered.

"If by 'secure' you mean 'shoot every monster I see', sure, I'm here just for that."

"I am certain you have strong feelings about what happened here, and it is our fault. You understand?"

"Has an asari been through here late?"

"No, I have not seen one. But that is not the important issue. You must listen so you can understand. Binary Helix found an egg. It was on a derelict ship, thousands of years drifting. This was a rachni ship. Inside they found many eggs in cryogenic suspension."

"What?" Wrex roared, and I'm fairly sure most of my colleagues restrained him.

"Whoa, back up a second there. Rachni? His kind," gesturing towards the rather angry krogan, "Wiped them out a thousand years ago."

The man nodded. "That is so. Billions of lives lost in that war, on both sides."

"So... A thousand-year-old egg managed to hatch?"

"Yes, very tough to be so long frozen. That it survived for a millennium is simply miraculous. But there is more. Binary Helix plan to clone rachni. Mass produce them. Create an army."

"Over my dead body," Wrex grumbled, and I think he was getting ready to start shooting.

"That is not all. There is still more to know, to understand. The egg that found? It is not any common rachni. It is a queen. After she lays eggs, they move her here to Rift Station. They are thinking that without her, they can raise the babies to be obedient."

"Sounds like we have something else to take care of then."

"Shepard, you can't be..." Liara started to say.

"No! Listen, you still need to understand the rachni. They are an intelligent species. They achieved star travel. They are not animals."

"No, they more dangerous than that," Wrex warned.

The man nodded. "That is true. I am thinking that without a queen, rachni do not develop properly. Her mind is shaping theirs. These rachni are uncontrollable."

"So... Do we bring the queen here?"

The man shook his head. "These rachni are beyond saving. They must be euthanized. I am thinking that the neutron purge must be set off."

Before he could tell us anymore, rachni burst forth from below us. I'm not sure how many there were, but before I could even grab the man, the rachni were after him, one of them slamming one of their... tentacles, I guess you could call it, straight through his chest. I stumbled backwards, taking out my assault rifle and opening fire. I'm not sure how many we killed, but I think we all kept firing long after they were all dead.

Checking the man's body, we found something that might help us, codes for the neutron purge he had mentioned. Heading to the opposite side to which we entered, we found the terminal with Mira again helping us out. "Once you activate the purge, you will have only seconds to exit before it is fired," Mira warned.

"You guys, head back to the elevator and watch my back."

"Vents will be opened. Contaniments will be released."

"Definitely head back, guys. I'm going to enter the code then sprint for the elevator."

"Are you sure, Commander?"

"I'm sure, LT. Go now."

I waited until they'd all left before I gave Mira the authorisation code. Once I confirmed the order, I packed away my assault rifle, turned around and ran. Should have known the rachni would be waiting. I heard gunfire and the thump of biotics as I weaved my way through the monsters, Mira counting down the ten seconds. "Bloody stupid having only ten seconds!" I shouted, "Get on the fucking elevator!"

My shields failed as I ran. My armour was definitely scarred as well. By some miracle, though, I made it to the elevator, the door slamming shut and starting to ascend. We'd barely started when the elevator started to shake, hearing the explosion. "Hope we don't crash and burn," Wrex joked, earning groans of disapproval.

Exiting and eventually heading to where we'd first met Ventralis, there was no sign of him, so we simply moved on, though all of us remained arm. We might have killed the rachni below us but it was obvious they infested the entire place. Little wonder it had been completely cut off.

Finding Ventralis in another large room, with bedrooms and other facilities off to either side, he opened fire immediately, as did the few guards that remained alive. Even some of those dressed in civilian clothes were warmed and firing. Spreading out into cover, Ventralis figured he'd get everything off his chest, admitting he worked for Benezia and everyone had been working to clone the rachni. So I gave one order.

"Kill them all."

Ventralis ended up sitting back against a container, blood dripping out of his mouth. Taking a knee beside him, I asked, "Where is Benezia?"

"Restricted area. Reckon she knows you're coming too."

"Anyone else around?"

"Few more guards. Plenty of commandos. You won't win, Commander."

"We'll see," I retorted, putting the barrel to the side of his head and blowing his brains out.

He wasn't lying about guards, at least. They were dug in and it took quite a bit to flush them out, generally relying on those with biotics gifts to drag them out before we riddled them with bullets. A few assault drones might have been a problem, but Alenko and Tali took care of those, causing them to either overheat and explode, or simply fall to the ground, no longer functional.

If I wasn't so pissed off about everything, I would have offered the guards a chance of simply walking away, despite the fact they were working for Benezia. They were not important, but I doubt they would have listened. They fought hard, I'll give them that, but we stepped over their bodies, just like we had with all their colleagues.