Mass Effect - A Hero Rises Ch. 45

Book 2, Chapter 26 -- Reaper

*****

Even approaching the derelict Reaper, I still thought we were being led into a trap. My trust of and in the Illusive Man, which had never been high to begin with, was now zero. But he was the only one feeding me information, so unfortunately, I had to rely on it. Standing by Joker as we exited the final relay, he flicked his way through various screens until we could just about see it in the distance.

"You know, even after what happened on the Citadel, just seeing one of these things again freaks me out a little bit," my pilot stated.

"You and me both."

"Yet you're still getting on the thing?"

"Have to, Joker. Without the IFF, all of our work so far is for nothing. But, as I've told the others, we get on, grab the IFF, and get the fuck out of there. We are not messing around while on a Reaper."

We both grew quiet as the Reaper loomed ever larger ahead of us. Whatever had shot it had done a far amount of damage, though considering how old this Reaper was, whatever civilisation had killed it was long ago dead. Perhaps a last climactic event before they'd been wiped out. We'd already managed to kill one Reaper, and that had taken all the power of a single fleet. Taking on an armada of these things didn't bear thinking about.

The Normandy started to shake and rattle on our approach, my grip on the back of Joker's chair tightening as it grew steadily worse. Soon enough, I was nearly being shaken from my feet, using both hands to hold onto Joker. He was seated securely, of course, I should have been, like everyone else, but I wanted to watch.

"No idea, Commander. The wind's gusting up to 500 k/ph. I'm doing my best to hold the old girl steady but even my talents are being stretched."

"Just get us there in one piece, Joker."

"Aye, Commander."

"Shepard, I have detected a second ship currently sitting alongside the Reaper. Its signature suggests it is a geth ship."

"Fantastic, EDI. Just what we need."

The shaking got so bad, I really thought my ship was going to disintegrate into a thousand pieces and I'd be thrown to my death again. And I didn't think I'd be brought back to life a second time. Fairly sure Cerberus wouldn't want to spend another four billion bringing me back.

But as bad as it got, the ship then suddenly calmed completely and cheers quickly erupted from behind me as I stepped forward, looking at Joker. "Hmm. You may not like this one, Commander."

"What?" I asked, completely deadpan.

"The Reaper's mass effect fields are still active. We just passed inside the envelope."

"Still active? I thought this thing was meant to be, you know, dead?"

Joker could only shrug in reply. "You're asking the wrong man about that one, Commander."

"Shit." We gazed out front as the Reaper was now dead in front of us. It was enormous, I think even bigger than Sovereign, though I had never seen that ship up close. Joker whistled, and if he was impressed, then it must have been large. "Thirty-seven million years old, and it's still in good condition, or so it seems," I muttered, "Guess nothing dies in space. But I don't like the idea that's mass effect field is still operative. Surely that must mean it's still somehow alive?" Joker just looked up at me and shrugged. "Yeah, that's what I thought. EDI?"

"Yes, Shepard?"

"Have the team meet me down by the shuttle. We'll have to transport ourselves that way. Joker, once we're on board, pull back to the edge of the mass effect envelope. If we need to bug out, come in, collect, then we go. Hopefully, though, it all should go... well, I won't say smoothly but..."

"No jinxing it, Commander."

I'd already grabbed all my gear, so I headed back to the elevator. I did stop for thirty seconds as Kelly looked desperate to give me a hug. She didn't say too much, I guess not to jinx it again, simply giving me a soft kiss on my cheek and wished me good luck before letting me go. I returned a grin and a wink just before the doors shut.

The team I'd selected was waiting down by the shuttle. This time, I went for pure firepower. Zaeed, Grunt, Garrus, Jack, Samara and myself. Miranda would remain on the ship in the event something terrible went wrong and she could report to the Illusive Man. Everyone else still popped down to wish us luck. I hadn't been shy in giving my opinion, but they were also confident I'd drag them through hell if I could guarantee them victory and survival.

The shuttle ride barely took five minutes, watching the screens on either side, one looking at the Reaper, the other at the Normandy immediately retreating to a safe distance. The shuttle pilot would drop us and return to the ship as well. I didn't want anyone exposed for any longer than necessary, concerned enough that we would probably spend too long on the derelict Reaper.

Once on board, the shuttle took off and that left the six of us to deal with whatever we found. The Illusive Man hadn't been hopeful about finding the research team. Neither was I. They were either dead or had been turned crazy by being on board the ancient ship. Within a couple of minutes, the silence was deafening. No sign of life whatsoever. The word I thought was creepy, like the start of a horror movie, just waiting for the first jump scare. That feelings which crawls up your back, ready to give you one hell of a fright.

Cerberus had come prepared as we found numerous mobile laboratories, filled with half-finished experiments, research terminals, workstations that came with audio and video recordings. I opened my comm link back to the ship, thankful that we could still communicate, at least. "Miranda, you heard of or worked with a Doctor Chandana?"

"Not worked, Shepard, but the name is familiar. Respected scientist within the organisation and a real fascination with anything to do with the Reapers. Explains his selection to lead the taskforce sent in by the Illusive Man."

"He's probably dead."

"They're all dead, Shepard. I don't think anyone expects survivors. Not even the Illusive Man. Just get the IFF so we can get out of here. Just being this far away from the ship gives me the creeps."

"Try being on it!" I retorted with humour before switching off the link.

We moved on, and it was obvious that Cerberus had spent plenty of time, money and manpower on setting up everything, walking along a series of corridors, everything well lit, almost like being back on Lazarus Station rather than inside a millions year old Reaper. But I'm sure I wasn't the only one seriously creeped out by now. Then there was a large bang followed by the Reaper being shaken by god only knows what. I looked around to be greeted by more than one pair of eyes now fully alert. "Weapons ready," I ordered, before opening the comm link again, "Normandy, report."

"The Reaper just put up its kinetic barriers."

"Isn't this thing supposed to be dead?" Garrus asked.

"Maybe there will soon be big monsters to kill!" Grunt stated enthusiastically. No real surprise there.

"Shepard, there is bound to be a core to the Reaper that powers the barriers. If you can get to the core and shut it down, the barriers will go with it."

"Yay, let's all walk to the middle of a derelict Reaper." I paused for a moment before sighing. "Have the shuttle pilot on standby, Miranda. This isn't going to be easy." Switching off the link again, I turned to the other five. "Weapons free and hot. We shoot anything that moves which isn't a human. And, before you ask, I doubt Cerberus has asari or turians working here. Full human crew." I paused, then thought of a rather important question. "EDI, where is the core?"

"At the moment of activation, I detected a heat spike in what is likely the wreck's mass effect core. Sending the co-ordinates to you all now. A warning, Shepard."

"What is it, EDI?"

"The core powers the barriers while also maintaining the Reapers altitude within the proximity of the planet."

"So this fucking thing is alive?" Jack asked, trying to keep the fear out of her tone.

I could only shrug before replying, "It's dead in the sense that it won't kill us all. But it clearly still has power and no doubt it's indoctrinated everyone in here. So, as I said, we get this done quickly."

We moved on and now there was noise as weapons were pointed everywhere. Any noise caused a swinging of all weapons, or hearing the noise of biotics being powered up and readied to fling. We did eventually find a pile of bodies, dried blood and bullet holes lining the wall behind them. Could only guess they'd been shot by a fellow scientist. We didn't bother checking if anyone was alive.

Deeper into the Reaper we walked, feeling as if we were in the very centre. It was truly cavernous, like something none of us had ever seen before. Then we heard a noise and, when the noise turned into a growl, I knew what was coming.

"Husks!" I cried, immediately summoning biotics, ready to move. As soon as the first few appeared, I charged, hearing Grunt's shotgun blasting away. Silence was replaced by a cacophony of noise, the thump of biotics and firing of weapons as I lost count of the number of husks I sent flying or blasted away with my trusty shotgun. I barely had a chance to look to see Grunt seemingly covered in husks, flinging them away, stamping into the head of one while blasting two away at once with his shotgun. The rest of my team assisted, husks falling at their feet.

It was a short, sharp battle, but clearly a sign of things to come. And it was now obvious as to what happened to the research team. Walking into another laboratory a couple of minutes later, we found further evidence they'd been indoctrinated, complaining about headaches, visions and nightmares as they sleep, clear evidence the Reaper, while 'dead', could still effect people.

"If any of you start suffering even a minor headache, tell me immediately," I ordered, meeting every set of eyes and making sure they nodded.

Far in the distance, we could see spikes upon which bodies had been places. Clearly not to become husks, these looked like sacrifices. Jack would normally celebrate seeing dead Cerberus people, but not even she could find joy in it.

Now that our presence was known, we ran into more enemies. Husks continued to flood forward, but more Reaper monsters approached us. Those big Scion things we'd named came forward, and they were a bitch to take down, having to rely on my assault rifle instead of biotics. Get too close and I'd be mincemeat. Grunt got in close, of course, and paid for it with blood, though he was usually lucky to keep all four limbs.

Meeting the occasional group of husks and other monsters, we kept moving on. At least it was no longer silent, so that stopped the fear from overcoming us. I always found having monsters to kill a good distraction. We found another workstation nearby and that had a video log. None of us would have recognised the face that greeted us, but the blood spatter on his face spoke volumes in addition to what he had to say.

"Chandana said the ship was dead. We trusted him. He was right. But even a dead god can dream. A god -- a real god -- is a verb. Not some old man with magic powers. It's a force. It warps reality just by being there. It doesn't have to want to. It doesn't have to think about it. It just does. That's what Chandana didn't get. Not until it was too late. The god's mind is gone but it still dreams. He knows now. He's tuned in on our dreams. If I close my eyes I can feel him. I can feel every one of us."

"You know, fuck you, Shepard, for bringing me onto this fucking Reaper," Jack shouted. I glanced her way, and there was no anger at all. Only fear. Garrus shuffled uncomfortably. The only one who looked serene as always was Samara, though she hid her feelings well.

Through the next door and the chamber was just full of Reaper monsters wanting to kill us. I charged left, right, front, back, blasting away, going so far as to use the butt of my shotgun when I'd run out of bullets before reloading. Still plenty of husks but other monsters the Reapers seemed to like using, more evidence the Collectors were their agents. Each battle never lasted longer than a few minutes at most, leaving the monsters did, and the six of us covered in sweat, blood, Reaper... blood, I guess, and also small wounds we could either ignore, or slightly larger wounds which needed medi-gel.

Busy checking my omni-tool to see where we should head next, I heard the crack of a rifle, immediately looking up at its origin, assault rifle from my back in a second, eye to the scope. "Geth!"

I would have opened fire normally, but it... held up a hand. As if in greeting. My finger, which had been on the trigger, moved away as I lowered my assault rifle. "Take the shot, Shepard?" Garrus asked.

"Shepard-Commander," the geth stated.

"Okay, you all just heard it, right?" I asked. Before I could say anything else, or anyone else could open fire, the geth turned and disappeared from sight. "What the fuck was that about?"

"Why are the geth here?" Zaeed asked. It was unusual he'd ask such a question. If he asked, then it must be bloody interesting indeed.

"No fucking idea, but it explains the geth ship outside," I replied, "The geth were allied with the Reapers and Saren originally. Haven't seen any other geth so maybe it's... fuck, I don't know. Let's just move on."

We moved on, and though the Reaper may not have technically been alive, it still managed to send hordes of monsters to stop our progress. We were all taking minor wounds by now, shields and armour can only do so much, particularly if you're someone like Grunt or myself, in the thick of the action. Husks were not a problem. It was anything else that could lop an arm, leg or even head off if even a tiny mistake is made. It didn't make Grunt take any care, but with the numbers we were facing, I eventually linked up with Jack and Samara, combining our biotic talents to cause no end of destruction.

No matter what, we pushed on, though I was starting to feel the strain, feeling my body just bathed in sweat. Glancing at Jack, she was in the same condition. She might have had biotic ability coming out her arse, but she was still human. Samara was the complete opposite, serene as always. Enough to make someone else just a little bit jealous.

Cerberus had obviously taken over nearly the entire Reaper. At the moment, we had no classification of different Reapers. We had no idea if there were different sizes. Sovereign had been enormous but this Reaper felt, on the surface, even larger. We'd been walking and fighting for what felt like hours by now. EDI kept us up to date with our progress, letting us know how close we were to the core every couple of hundred metres.

We fought every inch of the way until EDI informed us the core lay ahead through the next door. The six of us took a moment to check weapons, fill ammo, slap medi-gel on any wounds, or just took the chance to take a deep breath, wipe the brow of sweat, and ready oneself for whatever lay on the other side of the door.

I don't think any of us expected the chamber to be empty, the enormous mass effect core of the Reaper shining rather brightly in the distance. And standing around a hundred metres away at a console was the geth we'd seen earlier. Or, at least, I think it was. Geth all looked the same to me. Before any of us could react, at least a dozen husks converged on it. We'd crossed half of the chamber when all hell broke loose, Reaper monsters flooding in from all sides.

There were no tactics. I charged and blasted... continuously. I heard the thump of biotics from Jack and Samara, and the blast of a second shotgun, but I was far too busy just charging about myself. The dead Reaper must have known what we were up to, or everything sent our way was automation, or there were still indoctrinated people we hadn't found. Grunt eventually went down under the sheet weight of enemies he was fighting, so I had to charge, knock at least half a dozen off him, and then we stood back and back and blasted. Garrus and Zaeed joined us, turning us into a three-sixty wheel of death. I'm sure it looked rather amusing.

"This is fuckin' insane," Zaeed yelled over the gunfire.

"Just kill the fucking things!"

"This is what I get for leaving Omega, Shepard," Garrus muttered.

Jack was now just sending shockwave after shockwave, sending husks, scions and any other creature flying, with Samara pulling, throwing and warping anything that wasn't part of our team. Slowly but surely, we gained the upper hand, bodies just piling up around us. I ordered us to move towards the IFF, EDI stating it was near where the geth was now lying on the ground. Whether it was dead or not, I couldn't be sure.

Grabbing the IFF, we turned and mowed down the remaining Reaper monsters, and when the last one finally died, I think we all just about slumped the floor exhausted. "Okay, what about the geth?" Garrus asked.

"What about it?"

"Well, it seemed... friendly, or at least an ally. Aren't you wondering why it's here?"

I met his eyes and shrugged. "Honestly, not really. It's a geth. I usually shoot the bastards."

"This one had an opportunity to shoot you but didn't. Maybe it's here for a reason?"

It was a sound argument. "Okay, Grunt, I'll set this core to blow up. Grab the geth and then we'll get out of here. Normandy?"

"Reading you, Commander."

"Head towards the Reaper. Open the hangar bay so we can just climb on board. I want us away by the time the core explodes."

"Heading your way now, Commander."

Grunt picked up the geth unit as I set about causing an explosion I'd love to see but I wanted to be sure we were well out of the way by the time it did. "Ready to move, people?" Receiving positive replies, I set the core to explode in five minutes. Grunt had the geth unit and we jogged quickly back the way we'd come. Thankfully all the doors were open, and all we had to do was make sure we didn't tumble over the piles of bodies we'd left in our wake.

The Normandy was exactly where I asked it to meet us, making sure the crew was on board first before I climbed aboard, yelling out to Joker to depart straight away. I felt the ship move, glancing back to see the door raise into position. Never heard nor saw the explosion, though I'm sure it would have looked spectacular.

Thanking the crew for their assistance, I had Grunt take the geth unit upstairs. Unsure where to leave it, I had it placed in the AI core with EDI, though she made sure it was shielded and couldn't hack into our ship. I also had Tali head up from engineering, and she was ready to have a fit before realising it was dead, or at least not working. "Why did you bring it?" she asked.

"Garrus was under the impression it was trying to communicate with us. While I don't trust geth, he did make a good point. Might be worth trying to talk to it. Can you wake it up?"

"I should be able to get it running. Do you want me present otherwise?"

"Up to you, Tali."

"I'll see. Not doing it now?"

"No. First thing EDI is doing is running a test on this IFF. Well, more than one. EDI, I want this thing checked thoroughly before we install it. I don't want to be caught with my pants down again."

"Of course, Shepard. I will notify you once I'm assured the IFF will pose no danger to the ship or crew."

"Thanks, EDI."

Satisfied that neither the geth nor the IFF would post an immediate threat, though I still posted guards by the AI core, and asked Chakwas to remain vigilant with whatever lay behind her, I headed up to the CIC to check for any messages before heading up to the cabin. I really needed a shower as I was probably covered in a film of dried sweat. Dumping my armour on the floor, I found the hot water refreshing, leaning forward against the wall as the exhaustion just hit me like a tonne of bricks.