Mass Effect: The Hunt for Saren

Chapter Four: Therum and Theorems



[Finally, another long-awaited chapter to my Mass Effect fan fic. Please read and respond, and thanks for the positive feedback so far. The story is really going to head in a different direction from the game now, and I’d like as much input/suggestions/comments as possible. Also, at this point the action scenes will encompass everyone, because i would have had a team of ten on these missions if i could. It’s not accurate to the game’s three-man parties, but I think it’s a minor difference.]







The Normandy set out for Therum immediately. The crew, which now consisted of a few alien informants and newfound allies found on the Citadel--a krogan named Urdnot Wrex and a turian named Garrus Vakarian. A young quarian also to join them, but Shepard couldn’t bring himself to involve someone so young on such a dangerous mission. That, and Gunnery Sergeant Ashley Williams was adamant that he stop allowing aliens to join their crew.



“This is a chance for our people to prove themselves, Shepard,” Ashley whispered passionately to her commanding officer as they entered Normandy’s airlock. “If we do this, the entire galaxy will be watching.”



“That’s the idea,” John said turning to face Williams. She was close: their noses were only a few inches from touching as he turned and took an awkward step back. “We need all the help we can get in order to ensure humanity’s place in the galaxy. We need to stop Saren, whatever the cost.”



“But if there’s a picture of you, a krogan, and a quarian on the cover holos of the news broadcasts,” Ashley continued, a sly smirk on her face as she took a step closer towards John. “You can bet humanity will look like the outcasts the Council has us pinned down as.”



“I already turned down the quarian’s request to join us, Williams,” John said, regretting the sound of denying the quarian girl’s tearful-sounding pleas.



“And that’s good, sir.”



“I’m glad I have your approval, Gunnery Sergeant,” John retorted with a slight edge to his voice.



“Sir, I’ll follow you no matter what,” Ashley said softly. “I just want to remind you that we--humanity-- are capable of becoming a major force in the galaxy, and you have a lot of influence to that end.”



“That and you don’t want anymore alien crew, right?” John laughed jovially.



“That’s correct sir,” Ashley blushed, allowing her olive-toned cheeks to linger near Shepard’s scarred-but-ruggedly-handsome face.



A loud hiss sent both Shepard and Williams jumping inside their skin as the Normandy’s airlock doors slid open.



“Welcome back Commander,” Joker’s casual tone transmitted over the communicator. “You good?”



“What?” John blushed as Williams scurried towards the aft of the ship, and he allowed himself to admire her retreat even as he was embarrassed by it.



“We good to go?” Joker added testily. “Let’s get this turian bastard. My engines are hot and ready to fire.”



“I know how you feel,” John muttered. “Take us out, Joker. Head for Therum.”



* * * * *



“Incoming!” Shepard cried hoarsely. A geth armature’s main cannon sizzled into a mining supply cart as he dove behind it. The residual EMF caused his shields to sizzle with activity.



With him, turian Garrus drew a sniper rifle from his kit harness, giving it a moment to unfold as he craned his birdlike head around the far side of the crate.



“An armature, two hoppers, and at least a dozen troopers,” Garrus’ tinny voice reported as he fired off a couple of quick shots at the geth. “Maybe fifty yards away, and advancing.”



John nodded and glanced to his left, past the open space where they’d been ambushed. Ashley Williams and Kaiden Alenko were running up a slight slope to get some cover behind another crate. They had farther to run, but the position would offer a better field of fire once they got there. In the middle of the mining outpost’s entrance, however, standing in the open, was the four hundred year-old krogan battlemaster Wrex. Behind him, a frightened marine--Corporal Rangun, Shepard struggled to recall--took a knee and tried to line up a sniper shot on the armature opposite them.



“Wrex! Rangun! Get the hell out of there!” John screamed as he flung his body around the corner of his own cover and lobbed a disc-grenade at the armature. “Get into some cover!”



The disc grenade detonated, shaking the shale-covered earth at John’s feet from over seventy yards away, but failed to cause significant damage to the armature. The armature’s eerie geth-eye glowered on its long stalk, angled at its target and fire another cannon blast. Whether Corporal Rangun had heard his orders or not, John would never know. The blast landed between the human marine and the krogan Battlemaster. The corporal fell flatly on his back, landing in a pink mist of flash-boiled blood. Wrex stumbled forward, grabbed his shotgun, and charged the geth heavy unit.



“Fuck!” John shouted into the comm., not caring about sounding like a good commander. “Williams, Alenko, give that damn krogan some covering fire!” The two obeyed quickly, firing their weapons at full capacity--Alenko using his biotics to stun the armature for a few seconds.



“Sergeant Franco!” John continued his tirade of orders, calling back to the four man squad he’d left as rearguard. “Move your team forward and give us some covering fire. Garrus!” John shouted into his comm., though the turian was shoulder to shoulder with him. “We’ve got to push back these geth on the left and flank that armature.”



His flurry of orders cast into the wind of combat, John and Garrus charged down the gauntlet of the outpost’s flank. The left side of the mining station was a heavy-alloy network of beams and scaffolding, providing cover against the armature, but also forming an alley of attack for the geth troops.



John noted as soon as he charged down the alley that Garrus had already killed a geth trooper--its strange body flopped lifeless onto the ground. Another pleasant realization came when John saw that the two hoppers and four of the troopers were distracted by the beserk krogan and the two humans firing wildly from the hill. He fired his assault rifle hot-barelled into the nearest geth, who sputtered and spasmed under the hypervelocity rounds before joining its twin in death. Garrus switched to his side arm, firing his snub-nosed pistol’s heavy rounds into another geth.



Suddenly, John saw a streak of gunmetal move towards the underside of the scaffold over him. He realized only too late that one of the hoppers and returned to cover the left flank, feeling a red haze overcome his shield as the sniper’s beam knocked him down. John saw blood, but was unwilling to investigate where his wound was. He struggled to get to his knees and line up a burst of shots on the hopper. It was gone before John’s attack could find its way through its shields.



Garrus continued firing, stepping in front of Shepard as his suit’s shields absorbed some stray rounds intended for the team’s leader. To his right, an energy burst and Wrex’s wild roars confirmed that the armature was active again, and that Wrex still had some fight left in him.



John’s assault rifle sent a few more geth to their makers, while Wrex’s suicidal assault eventually shredded the towering armature’s underside. The geth, however, had killed Corporal Rangun, and a private under Franco’s command. And John, the adrenaline vacating his system, slumped onto his back as blood seeped out a tiny breach in his suit’s side.



“John!” Williams rushed to his side. She quickly and carefully administered some medi-gel to his wound, dismantling the armor plates blocking the wound in a moment, and sealing the fount of blood the next moment. After the Gunnery Sergeant spent some time administering other chemicals through his suit’s filters, John felt sensation return along with a slight euphoria due to the pain meds.



“I didn’t know you had healing hands, Williams,” he grunted as he sat up.



“There’s a lot my hands can do you don’t know about, sir,” Ashley replied, a choke of tears in her voice. “Now let’s get you back to the Normandy...”



“No,” John said firmly. “If the geth are here, either Liara is working with them and needs to be taken out, or they’re after her and we have to hurry to rescue her.”



Ashley helped John to his feet.



“You,” John pointed an angry finger at Wrex, whose wounds were recovering quickly due to his krogan biology and suit technology. “You better obey my orders from now on, or I’ll put you down myself.”



“I like you Shepard,” Wrex croaked, looking down from his reptilian height of over seven feet to meet John’s angry gaze. “But if you keep talking like that, you’re going to get hurt.”



“Corporal Rangun is dead!”



“I know, he should’ve gotten some cover.”



“He was covering you!” John spat in fury. “You should’ve obeyed me!”



“I’ve been killing aliens since before your people’s first space ships were made, John,” Wrex growled. “I don’t need battle advice from you.”



“I killed your mark, you pussy,” John said softly.



Wrex blinked.



“I’ll try to take your suggestions more seriously from now on, Shepard,” Wrex said in a penitent tone.



“Let’s find this Liara T’Soni...” Shepard sighed as he stood and hefted his assault rifle.



* * * * *



Once inside the main complex, Shepard had Franco guard the exit to the mining station while he and his squad searched the interior. They happened across a few geth, but they were stragglers or searchers, and were dispatched easily. The fact that the geth were so spread out encouraged them, and the team moved quickly to try to find Liara and escape.



“Is someone there? I need help,” a soft voice, touched by panic, echoed off the walls of the mining complex towards Shepard and his team.



“Sounds like our damsel in distress, sir,” Alenko commented.



“Could be a trap,” Ashley replied quickly.



“Doesn’t sound too fearsome to me,” Wrex grunted.



“Cut the chatter,” John interrupted the squad’s banter. “Garrus, Alenko: head back up towards the surface so you can relay our comms to let Franco know we’ve found someone. Be on the alert, and let us know if any geth come our way.”



Garrus and Alenko nodded and trotted back towards the network of caves, tunnels, and lifts they’d taken to get to the underground labs they now graced. Ashley, John, and Wrex, meanwhile, continued further into the remnants of the excavated Prothean ruins, closer to the distant sounds of distress.



At the bottom of the network, the team found an asari woman just lying there. Well, not lying there, exactly. She was upright, floating, her limbs outstretched in all directions, her back to the Specter and his team. A blue field enveloped her, probably holding her in place. John immediately noticed that this asari was dressed in their standard scientist’s uniform. He also noticed that she had the body of a twenty-two year-old woman--nubile yet soft and well rounded by maturity.



“I’m Commander John Shepard of the Systems Alliance,” John introduced himself. “Who are you?”



“My name is Liara T’Soni,” the blue alien said, angling her head over her shoulders, but apparently unable to turn around. “I’m a scientist studying these Prothean ruins. Please help me get out of here.”



“My team and I are here to escort you back to our ship,” John said in a reassuring voice. “We have reason to believe the geth are trying to reach you--”



“Or you may have been trying to reach them,” Ashley interjected with an accusatory tone.



“Me?! Why would I try to contact THEM?” Liara reacted defensively, while John instructed Wrex to find the power and disconnect it. “When I heard them fighting their way down here, killing the miners, I decided to try to seal myself off in these Prothean ruins I’d been studying. I, um...seem to have miscalculated their effect, however...”



“No duh you dumb bitch,” Ashley retorted viciously.



“Gunnery Sergeant!” John snapped angrily. “Stow it.”



Not too far away, an explosion signaled that Wrex had cut the power to the energy field. Liara fell to her knees, apparently stiff from her self-imposed incarceration. John rushed forward and gently helped her to her feet.



“Thank you John Shepard,” the serene alien said, unmussed by her graceless fall or Ashley’s gibes. “So what is your pla--”



Liara’s words were cut off by a massive, abrupt rumble. Loose rocks cascaded down from the shaft above.



“Shepard, joker says the mine’s been sabotaged,” Alenko’s voice reported over the comm., slightly panicked. “He says from up there it looks like they blew up a lava vent. The whole mining station is going to be destroyed.”



“We’ve got Liara,” John responded over his communicator. “You and Franco’s squad get out of here, we’ll be right behind you. Now move.” Then, turning to Liara: “Is there a quicker way to the surface?”



“Yes,” Liara nodded. “The main service lift is over this way. It will allow us direct access to the surface.”



“Wrex, Ash, let’s get out of here,” John ordered, following Liara’s lead.



The asari led them to the lift in moments, but unfortunately a krogan Battlemaster and four geth shock troops were waiting for them.



“Surrender, or don’t. That’d be more fun,” the krogan chuckled.



“I vote we don’t surrender,” murmured Wrex.



“We don’t have time for this,” John muttered, then pointed at the krogan. “Kill this dumbass.”



Wrex’s shotgun was barking blasts at the enemy krogan before John had finished the word ‘kill’, and Ashley dove to the right while firing her assault rifle into one of the geth shock troops. John hugged Liara close to himself, shielding her from fire as he hustled her behind a column.



“Run if you get a chance to escape,” John instructed her as he drew his pistol.



“John Shepard!” Liara exclaimed, throwing her hand over his shoulder.



John turned just in time to see a shock trooper do a back flip from a biotic blast from Liara. John took the opportunity to put a dozen holes in the machine before it had a chance to stand up. To his left, Wrex and the krogan Battlemaster were literally slugging it out, alternating punches with shotgun blasts. To his right, Ashley was being flanked by two geth shock troopers. One fired a few rounds into the marine, taking down her shields while the other closed in from behind. John lunged forward, tackling the flanking geth. He then planted his gun muzzle against the geth’s eye, exploding the machine’s head in a flurry of hyper-slugs. John and Ashley then both finished off the remaining troop and watched Wrex roar out his victory over his adversary before taking the lift up to the Normandy and to safety.



* * * * *



“My research into Prothean relics coincided well with the human mining efforts on Therum,” Liara explained, seated in the Normandy’s communications room. “It is--I mean, was--one of the largest intact Prothean settlements in the known galaxy. And what I found appeared to support my theories about the Prothean extinction as well.”



“And that would be?” Ashley replied testily. “What were you up to there? What were you doing that got that entire mining station killed by the geth?”



“I--I’m sorry,” Liara shuddered to a halt, casting her gaze down to her knees in shame.



“Dr. T’Soni,” John said, standing up and stepping in between Ashley and Liara. “We don’t intend to lay any blame on you. But the geth were after you. And we believe Matriarch Benezia--your mother--was working with the geth, maybe even sent them after you. Why? What is your theory about the protheans?”



“My theory,” Liara sighed. “My theory is that the Protheans aren’t the precursor race we thought them to be. They didn’t develop their technology, they found it just like we did, ages ago. And then, fifty thousand years ago, something wiped them out, but not their technology. I think the Protheans are part of an extinction cycle that has used the same technology over the eons.”



“Reapers...” John murmured, absently, and then proceeded to tell Liara about his contact with the Prothean beacon. She was impressed, to say the least.



“Commander Shepard,” Liara sighed whimsically. “You were marked by the Prothean beacon on Eden Prime--touched by Prothean technology. Merged with it, even. You are a living artifact of the Prothean legacy. And you are a heroic man, risking your life for me when I have done nothing for you or your people...”



“It’s getting a little thick in here for a debrief, sir,” Ashley complained loudly.



“Yes,” John cleared his throat. “We’ll adjourn this debrief now.” Softer, to Liara, he said: “We’ll discuss this more in depth later.”