Mass Effect: The Hunt for Saren

Chapter Six: Lessons from a Thorian

As far as Shepard’s knowledge of Citadel Space went, Feros was the most interesting piece of shit planet in the galaxy. A human colony with over three quarters of the planet covered in Prothean ruins, it was a decidedly unique world. But, the planet was known for its ruins, and as such millions of looters over thousands of years had picked clean nearly everything useful. And, what’s more, the ruins were severely weakened by the millennia of scavengers who’d raided it in the past: most of the Prothean ruins were now too dangerous and structurally unsound to explore. The only notable settlement on the planet was an ExoGeni research outpost that enjoyed the solitude of Feros. Nonetheless, there was no reason for the geth to invade this planet.

But they did. Coming only two weeks after the attack on Eden Prime, Shepard was certain Saren was behind this attack. And what’s worse, the geth seemed to know Shepard was on their trail.

As soon as the Normandy landed, the geth mounted an offensive across the entire civilian colony that lay connected to the ship docks. Shepard and Williams, both wearing newly acquired sets of Phoenix Heavy Armor dispatched a small group of geth that attacked them as soon as they disembarked from their ship. Aiden and Liara followed wearing Phoenix Light Armor, while Garrus and Wrex brought up the rear each wearing Onyx Medium Armor. Sergeant Franco and his squad of Onyx-clad marines also fell into step with the landing party, bringing their numbers to ten.

Beside the docks, what was left of the colony’s defenses were clustered around a crash-landed freighter. Making their way through a group of survivors, Shepard directed his squad to assume a defensive perimeter.

“Alenko, Wrex,” John motioned with his hand as he strode through the colony with his Avenger Assault Rifle drawn. “Guard the approach to the Normandy and the docks. I’ve got a funny feeling that this place isn’t secure...”

“Really?” Wrex muttered sarcastically as he walked away. “We get attacked as soon as we get off the ship and he says it’s not secure. Shepard, your tactical insight is amazing.”

“Can it, Wrex,” Shepard muttered back before continuing to lead the rest of the squad through the colony. “Franco, have your men reinforce the colonists’ defensive barricades. They can obviously use the help.”

Franco nodded, then directed his three subordinates to spread out. Franco then followed Shepard to the final barricade, where the man who appeared to be in charge stood waiting for them.

“Commander Shepard?” the clearly agitated man said meekly. “I’m Fai Dan, leader of the people of Zhu’s Hope. What’s left of them anyway. I can’t tell you how glad I was to hear you were finally responding to our distress call.”

“Yeah, what took you so long?” A grungy, wiry woman beside Fai Dan demanded angrily. “We’ve been waiting for relief for days. You know how many of our people died waiting for you?”

“Shut up, bitch,” Franco snapped. “The Commander sent us off mission to help you people out, so show a little gratitude.”

“He’s right, Arcelia,” Fai Dan chided the woman halfheartedly. “We need to work together now. We need them if we’re going to rid ourselves of the geth.”

“Where are the geth massing their forces, do you know?” John asked.

“Their first target was the ExoGeni facility in one of the few remaining stable Prothean towers,” Fai Dan pointed. “You can take the skyway there, but they’ve got a constant wave of geth coming through the skyway and its tunnels. It won’t be easy.”

“Good,” John nodded as he checked the settings on his Avenger assault rifle. “Team: set rounds for armor piercing. Franco: since you seem to be making friends here, you can reinforce this main barricade with Fai Dan and Arcelia.”

Franco grunted his frustration, but obeyed.

“Williams, Garrus,” John continued. “You two take point. Liara: stay on my ass. You’ve not seen combat, and it’s nothing compared to fighting the geth. You hide every time we shoot, understood?”

“Yes Shepard,” Liara blushed.

“Let’s move out then.”

* * * * *

Fai Dan was right. The skyway and the tunnels leading up to it were crawling with geth. But, with Ashley and Garrus at the front, their constant combined sniper and assault rifle fire kept the geth pinned while Shepard called the Normandy and ordered Joker to drop off the Mako. Once inside the Mako, their progress along the skyway was speedy. Shepard drove while Ashley manned the turret, tearing holes through geth and road blocks as fast as the autoloaders would let her.

“Oh shit,” Ashley muttered as they neared the ExoGeni tower. “Is that a geth ship?”

Ahead, what appeared to be a black claw twice the size of the Normandy clung like a parasite to the side of the tower. Occasional flickers of purple lightning rippled along its armored skin.

“Looks like the geth are really determined to get whatever ExoGeni has,” Shepard said as he accelerated the Mako along its course. The APC was soon entering the tower, several levels below the geth ship.

“I am picking up a signal, Shepard,” Liara’s smooth voice interrupted. “It sounds like another distress beacon, but it is coded.”

“Coded?” Shepard repeated. “Can you pin down it’s location?”

“I already have, one hundred meters ahead, twenty meters to the left.”

“I already have,” Ashley mocked from her gunner’s seat. “What a twit.”

“What was that, Williams?”

“Nothing.”

“Good, because we’re there. Everyone out.”

The crew climbed out of the hatchway quickly and efficiently. Everyone except Liara; she bumped her head getting and would have toppled clumsily onto the ground if Shepard hadn’t caught her. His strong arms wrapped around her thighs and shoulders as he gently cradled her to the ground. Again, Liara blushed feverishly. Shepard also blushed, mumbling some sweet and unintelligible.

“Come on, let’s move,” Williams barked as she and Garrus again took point. “Looks like another group of civilian survivors.”

“Another poorly constructed static defense,” Garrus remarked. “Your people’s colonists should spend more time studying survival tactics.”

“Keep it up, turian,” Ashley murmured, irritated. She was in no mood for jokes or jibes.

“Who’s in charge here?” Shepard demanded as he strode down the shallow ramp into the fallout shelter. Less than a dozen survivors, all wearing ExoGeni uniforms, stood in shock at the team of soldiers that had just entered.

“I am,” a tall, skinny man with a pale elongated face that was scruffily unshaven. “I’m Ethan Jeong, PR Representative for ExoGeni here on Feros.”

“You’ve got a PR weeny in charge of defense?” Williams blurted. Ethan scowled at her but did not respond.

“There are about twenty survivors from Zhu’s Hope, along with a squad of marines, back at the docks,” Shepard said, pointing. “We’d be happy to escort you back there.”

“No,” Ethan said quickly. “We can’t risk crossing the skyway. Besides, we’ll be safe here. Especially if you’re are here to eliminate the geth.”

“That’s the idea.”

“They’re mainly in the levels above us,” Ethan gestured urgently, almost shooing them away. “Just be careful not to tamper with any of the ExoGeni databases up there--we’ve got a lot of money riding in the patents on our secret projects up there. I’ll have your job if you cost us any priceless research.”

“Prick,” Ashley murmured. Louder, to Shepard: “Let’s get out of here.”

“Commander Shepard, one moment, please,“ one of the ExoGeni scientists stepped forward. “My name is Juliana Baynham. My daughter, Lizbeth, was last seen trying to back up some of our research data when the geth attacked. Please find her for me.”

“I’ll do my best, ma’am,” Shepard nodded as they left.

* * * * *

Leaving in a hurry, the team made their way into the interior of the tower, leaving their Mako as close to the tower’s entrance as it would fit.

“Damn, blocked,” Ashley summed up the team’s reaction when they found that the geth had used energy fields to block all the stairs leading up into the base of ExoGeni operations. The power to the facility, including the lifts, had also been cut.

“Joker, this is Shepard,” John called into his comm. “Can you bring the Normandy in to drop us on top of the tower?”

Nothing but static with a bizarre rhythmic subtone.

“That geth ship must be jamming us,” Shepard concluded. “Let’s see how far down their defenses go.”

With a few minutes’ searching, the team found a ruined set of stairs leading down to the basement sections of the tower. The stairwell was a drop of about fifteen feet onto some rubble. John examined their lack of options, then ordered the team to go in.

John led the way out of the ruined corridor, but soon regretted the decision as round tore a chunk of concrete out of the wall beside his head.

“Oh my God, I’m sorry!” a young woman’s panicked voice cried out from his right. “I thought you were a Varen!”

“A Varen?!” Ashley interrupted. “Here’s a hint lady: two legs and more than four feet tall equals not a Varen.”

“You Lizbeth Baynham?” John asks, more than a little frustrated.

“Yes,” Lizbeth says her face lighting up. “Did you get my message?”

“Message? No. Your mother asked us to get you.”

“My mother’s alive?” Lizbeth sobbed. “I thought they were all dead.”

“Not yet,” John pressed, trying to keep Lizbeth talking about useful things. “How can we get back to the skyway from here?”

* * * * *

Three geth kneeled around a holographic projector of some kind, their heads bowed in some form of machine mediation, their bodies perfectly inert. A blue shift of energy encompassed one, throwing him against the wall--which was pierced by one of the geth ship’s massive talons. The other two turned just in time to be shattered by dozens of assault rifle rounds and a few sniper shots from a turian peacekeeper. Once the two were shot down, the third just twitched as the weapons of four people shredded its metal body.

“Good job with that opening distraction, Liara,” John said once the firing had died down. “Having a biotic handy sure is handy.”

“I am not a warrior, Shepard,” Liara said as she tried to calm herself. Even the brief battle had gotten her heart pumping. “But I am not defenseless, either.”

“I’ll say,” John smiled.

“Oh brother,” Ashley sighed. “Let’s trash this geth ship and get the hell out of here.” Ashley called behind her to Lizbeth, who was hiding around the corner. “That’s how it works, right?”

“Yes, these claws are transmitting the power for the geth equipment,” Lizbeth explained. “It was only once the ship had attached itself to the building that the shields went up and communications went down.”

“We don’t have enough firepower to take this out,” John remarked as he walked up to the claw and knocked on it. This single claw alone was half the size of the Mako.

“Perhaps another one of the claws is more exposed,” Liara suggested.

“Good suggestion, doc,” Ashley replied sardonically.

“Thank you, Williams,” Liara nodded, unaware of the intended insult.

“No need,” Garrus said as he stroked the concrete wall around the claw. “Lizbeth, this section of the building was built by ExoGeni, yes?”

“Yes,” Lizbeth nodded. “They didn’t want to risk any structural hazards, so they refortified the building themselves, why?”

“We don’t need to destroy the claws,” Garrus explained. “If we just destroy the wall its holding onto, I’m sure the ship will collapse before its engines can fire.”

“Good idea,” Ashley said, bitterly acknowledging the alien’s wit.

“Do it,” Shepard said as he began placing charges around the corners of the external wall. The others did likewise.

“Shepard, this may not work,” Liara said just before he detonated the twenty grenades they’d placed along the wall.

“If it doesn’t, we’ll find another claw and try something else,” John said, trying to comfort Liara.

“I think I can help ensure it works,” Liara insisted, putting her hand over the detonator. John smiled: with the small detonator in his hand, they were effectively holding hands. “If I put up a mass effect barrier through my biotic abilities, the explosive power of the bombs will be amplified as the force is directed away from us and towards the wall.”

“You sure?” John asked, worry coming over his eyes. Liara nodded. “Then tell me when you are ready.”

Liara held her hands forward, palms facing the claw’s wall. A shimmering mass effect field appeared a few inches out from the wall, flickering like the surface of a pool of water. Liara’s face darkened as she tried to concentrate. The field became a brighter, more slid shade of bright blue.

“Now.”

John hit the detonator. The sound was muffled, but the flash just beyond the mass effect field was blinding. The concrete of the wall disintegrated along its corners, allowing the geth ship to tear free from its mounting. Meanwhile, something inside Liara snapped. The field collapsed abruptly with a rush of air and the roar of the crashing ship and debris, and Liara fell backwards, unconscious, into Shepards arms. Blood trickled from her nose. Unable to panic over her fate, however, John ordered the rest of his team back as the floor beneath them began to shear and fall into the two hundred meter fall in front of them.

The five people managed to scramble into the previous corridor, which stayed securely attached to the rest of the building. From the deafening sounds they heard and the fact that nearest geth energy barrier soon collapsed, the team assumed that the ship had crashed into the ground below.

“Come in, Commander. I repeat this is SSV Normandy, are you there Commander?”

“Go ahead, Joker,” John said, relieved to finally hear back from his ship.

“The colonists of Zhu’s Hope just went crazy, they’re attacking the Normandy.”

“What about Franco and the others? Are they with you?” Confused and panicked, John began to feel panic surge within.

“They took Franco and his squad hostage before we knew what was happening. Wrex wanted to cut through the colonists to get Franco and his men, but Alenko and I talked him into returning to the ship. As far as I know, no one’s been lost yet.”

“Can you hold position, Joker?”

“Yes sir. They don’t have anything big enough to threaten us unless we come out of the Normandy.”

“Hold position, we’re coming back to the colony.” Turning to the rest of the team, John continued. “The rest of the geth up here are going to be scattered and confused. We can deal with them later. Right now, we’ve got to find out what’s wrong with Fai Dan and the other colonists.”

“Don’t bother,” Lizbeth said bitterly.

“You have something to add, Lizbeth?” John asked furiously. He knew she’d been lying to him earlier, just like everyone else on this damn planet. Now he wanted answers.

“They’re completely under the Thorian’s control now.”

“Who are the Thorians?”

“Not who: what,” Lizbeth explained. “The Thorian is an ancient plant native to this planet. It’s spores exhibit a mind-altering ability when they infect people over a sustained period of time. I was researching the effect these spores had on the colonists. That’s why ExoGeni was here on Feros, and I’m pretty sure that’s why the geth came here.”

“You bitch!” Ashley blurted as she leapt forward and nearly strangled Lizbeth. If John wasn’t carrying Liara’s unconscious body, he would’ve done the same. “ExoGeni was using human beings as mind-slaves and Guinea pigs and all you did was watch!”

“No,” Lizbeth struggled against the marine’s grip. “I filed a complaint! I was demoted, and they threatened me. I was trying to send out a message to Earth when the geth cut our power. Honest! Let me help you!”

“Let her go, Ash,” John sighed. Ashley obeyed. “So what now?”

“The Thorian is located under the colony, using the survivor’s to protect itself. At first, the Thorian’s control is merely through pain: obey, or stabbing pain will punish you. But, by now, the control is probably total. The colonists will die to defend the Thorian.”

“Shit,” John cursed. “What about the ExoGeni survivors? Can they be trusted or are they thralls to the Thorian?”

“The ExoGeni base was designed to be out of the Thorian’s reach,” Lizbeth shook her head. “We have to get to them.”

Carefully loading Liara’s body into the Mako, the team made the short drive to the ExoGeni survivors quickly. Just in time to hear a partial distress call from Juliana Baynham.

“That’s my mother!” Lizbeth cried frantically as she sprinted ahead of John and Ashley. and into the makeshift bunker.

“Garrus, stay with Liara,” John ordered as he and Ashley followed Lizbeth.

As they entered the room, Ethan had Juliana in a headlock with one arm while his free hand pointed a pistol at Lizbeth. The other three armed survivors--ExoGeni security guards--pointed their pistols at the newly arrived John and Ashley.

“Ethan,” John said quickly. “I know what you’re doing. I know what ExoGeni was doing here on Feros.”

“Damn, and here I was counting on the geth to kill you for me,” Ethan snarled. “Now I’ll have to do it myself.”

“You can try, Jeong,” John said as he quickly drew his own Brawler pistol and leveled it at the PR man. “If you want to live, back down.”

“ExoGeni is coming,” Ethan said, ignoring John. “They wipe clean everything and start again. Just let us wait for them. You can go, I won’t stop you.”

“Ethan you’re deranged. You’ve been covering up that ExoGeni has been playing with people’s minds with that alien freak under Zhu’s Hope.” Juliana and most of the survivors gasped in disbelief. “I’m a spectre; if you don’t put down the gun, I’ll make you put it down.”

“You don’t scare me!” Ethan yelled.

He probably would have yelled something else, but an armor-piercing round shattered his pistol and the hand holding it. He screamed as Juliana fought free from him. John ran forward and tackled Ethan. Williams, meanwhile, clubbed senseless one of the three guards and threatened the other two with her assault rifle.

“Gyah!” Ethan grunted as he regained his senses. “What are you going to do? Kill me?”

“ExoGeni was trying to reproduce the Thorian’s mind-altering ability weren’t they?” John whispered. “Weren’t they?!”

“Yes,” Ethan whimpered.

“And that’s what the geth wanted? That’s what Saren was hoping to find here?” John whispered, but was furiously shaking the ExoGeni bean counter at the same time. “Did they get it?”

“I don’t know,” Ethan admitted. “Our synthesizers were designed to be based on positive reinforcement. We could inject one of our own people with it, and he could control others within a short radius. But we couldn’t get it to work...”

“Where?”

“Beneath Zhu’s Hope, attached to one of the Thorian’s spore sacks...”

“Commander Shepard?” Juliana interrupted urgently, releasing her daughter from a hug in the process. “You can’t kill the Zhu’s Hope colonists.”

“Why not? I’m told they’re going to try to kill us,” John retorted.

“They’re not under their own control,” Juliana insisted.

“Won’t make me or my team any less dead if they kill us.”

“We did this to them,” Juliana tearfully gestured to her fellow ExoGeni employees. “If you kill them--or if they kill you--we’ll all be murderers.”

“What’s your suggestion?” John sighed.

“You knock them out. I’ve been developing a very specific strain of knockout gas,” the scientist explained with her hands. “Now I know why. It’s designed to knock out any colonists under the Thorian’s control. Use these grenade synthesizers and your disc grenades will be non lethal to the colonists. Maybe then we can see about curing their current state.”

“We’ll see what we can do,” John said darkly as he turned to leave, moving up the ramp to the Mako.

* * * * *

“What the fuck is that?” Ashley cried as they stopped their Mako on the skyway as close to Zhu’s Hope as possible.

A green, vaguely humaniod-shaped creature was charging their vehicle. It’s skin looked to be a mottled mess of rotten plant matter, tissue, and ichor. Its head was featureless to the point of lacking anything one might consider eyes. It let loose a hollow, airy scream and kept it going for half a minute as the thing scratched clawed hands against the Mako. Though the creature could not penetrate the Mako’s armor, John saw a biological hazard alarm sound. he then backed up the Mako and ordered an eager Ashley to blast the thing to pieces.

“Damn thing’s poisonous!” John said. “If we encounter any more of them, drop them before they touch us.”

“Is that...” Ashley murmured, leaning in towards the Mako’s gunner screen. “Is that one of the colonists?”

“Can’t be,” John said, tossing fake confidence into his voice. Damn if he knew... “No way the Thorian could do that to one of the colonists we saw a few hours ago...No way. You see one of these fucking creepers, you can cut it in half. If it looks like one of the people we’ve met in Zhu’s Hope, gas ‘em.”

Climbing out of the Mako, Ashley and John pounded forward into the concrete stairways leading to the colony’s remains. Garrus stayed behind with a still unconscious Liara inside the Mako, its gun turret restlessly rotating as the turian checked for targets. Once the two humans were well inside the concrete maze of ruins and rebar leading to the colony, they stopped and planted their backs against the wall, listening.

“Hear that?” Shepard whispered.

“Damn right,” Williams nodded, snarling. “Sounds like another Thorian bastard.”

“You want the honors?” Shepard asked, gesturing around the corner towards the approaching sound.

“Love to,” Williams smiled, slid her assault rifle into her shoulder and spun around the corner. Shepard did likewise, if only to cover the marine.

Three creepers ran, shoulder-to-shoulder, down the passageway towards them. They were perhaps fifty feet away, and another fifty feet behind them Shepard could see two of the colonists manning the barricade. They were just watching. John cursed; he was hoping the others were wrong. He didn’t want to kill civilians, but he wasn’t looking forward to trying to gas them while they tried to kill him. Meanwhile, Ashley grunted as she fired three bursts into the chest cavities of each of the charging creepers, sending each one sprawling backwards. With each one downed, the marine fired into their prone forms on full-auto, ensuring they were indeed dead.

With the creepers out of the way, the two colonists at the barricade began opening fire on their position. John and Ashley slid back into their cover, micro-rounds tearing chunks out of the concrete that was momentarily protecting them.

“Still want me to hold my fire?” Ashley asked a little testily.

“Um...” John took a moment to think. Then he said, “oh shit,” and stepped into the open, lobbed one of his modified grenades between the two colonists, and let it detonate, knocking them both out.

“You’re lucky the possessed civvies are just as shitty shots as regular civilians, sir,” Ashley said in a congratulatory tone. “They didn’t even come close to hitting you.”

“Yeah, well, let’s be careful all the same,” John shrugged, moving into the open air of the colony.

Another five colonists charged them as soon as they entered the area; they posed little problem. Two more grenades and they were down. A sixth had gotten the jump on them, jumping out from behind some cover, but Ashley beat him senseless before he could make the most of his advantage.

“Thanks,” John nodded appreciatively as he stood up, shaking his head after being clubbed from behind. “There are at least three of them left, and we haven’t found Franco yet, so be alert and hold your fire. So far everyone’s coming out of this alive...”

Rounding the mass of the freighter’s landed hull, John and Ashley spotted their targets. Fai Dan, Arcellia, and two other colonists stood over Franco and his squad. The marines were unconscious--visibly beaten into submission--but the four of them still had weapons pressed against their heads.

“Finally, the off-worlders: lower your weapons,” Fai Dan ordered coldly. “Or you will leave four men behind.”

The two reluctantly complied, lowering their weapons but not dropping or relinquishing them.

“Fai Dan, you’re not well,” John asked trying to put a sympathetic tone into his voice. “Let us help you. We can make the pain go away.”

“I can make you go away!” Fai Dan screamed back, pointing his gun at Shepard. “You’re the one causing all the pain! You and all the off-worlders, disturbing the peace and rest of this planet.” Fai Dan said, suddenly cooling his temper. “But I can wait, wait for you to see our side of things...can you?”

“Fai Dan, you’re not yourself,” John said, taking a step forward.

“I said back off!” Fai Dan screamed, spitting saliva in the process.

A shot rang out, blowing a hole through Franco’s stomach, followed by three more shots and a detonation. The colonists fell, unconscious. Fai Dan, his head split open by a tight, lethal burst of assault rifle rounds, fell dead.

“Williams,” John said, anger ringing in his voice, “watch them, call in help from the Normandy. Attend to Franco’s men, and then watch the colonists. If they start waking up, keep them under guard until I confirm that damn plant is dead. Understood?”

Ashley nodded numbly, her eyes riveted to yet another one of her fellow marines, bleeding in the dirt. John slapped her across the face. She looked up at him, hurt and anger fighting for control of her face.

“I already killed one of the fuckers responsible,” John snarled, pointing at Fai Dan. “Now I’m going to kill the other one. Do your job, while you still can.”

Shepard didn’t wait for Williams to acknowledge his orders. He turned and headed towards the section of the ship’s hull which had obviously been moved. A crane stood beside it; originally, the colonists said they’d moved it with the crane for repairs, but now John knew they’d moved it to cover the entrance to the Thorian’s nest. The crane groaned, displacing the hull, and John strode down into the darkness of the Thorian’s lair.

* * * * *

John was not far inside the Thorian’s lair when he regretted his decision to go alone. The air was choked with the stink of rotten plant matter. Roots that looked more flesh than plant began to twist their way through the ancient substructure as he descended. More of Feros’ bizarre spores began to appear in the air, so that Shepard felt he was literally in danger of asphyxiating on one. He keeps his assault rifle tucked into his shoulder as he slowly makes his way into the tomblike depths of Feros. After descending at least a dozen levels, he finally comes into a large atrium.

“Fuck,” Shepard mumbled as he took a few strides into the large, open room. “I’m going to need a bigger gun...”

The atrium was wide and open, allowing someone standing near the middle to see the sides of at least four more floors above. The middle of the space, however, was dominated by a huge sack of grotesque organs, roots, and membranes that was perhaps fifty feet tall and thirty feet wide. John could only assume it was the central cluster for the Thorian. This theory was confirmed by the sudden, terrifying realization that the floors surrounding the Thorian were filled with dormant Creepers, hunched in their fetus-like states.

Before John could respond, a sickening gurgling sound emitted from the Thorian in front of him. A disgusting cross between plant roots, a vagina, and a mass of thin tendrils, the orifice shuddered and gurgled as it violently ejected a humanoid. Shrugging off the mucous trailing from it to the host, the creature appeared to be an asari. Her skin was a sickly green shade and had some faint tattoos of the asari warrior design. It stood in place for some time, shaking subtly, then spoke to John, a mask of rage cloaking its words.

“Invader!” the asari’s voice intoned without inflection or grace, marking her as distinctly not-asari. “Your every step is a transgression. The Thorian regards you as meat; your only function is to dig or decompose. I speak for the Old Growth, as I did for Saren. You are within and before the Thorian. It commands you to be in awe!”

“You--” Shepard began, then choked down an angry and violent response. Surrounded by enemies, he decided it would be best to try to resolve this without violence. “You gave something to Saren. Something I need.”

“Saren sought knowledge of those who are gone,” the asari middle-woman lectured. “The Old Growth listened to flesh for the first time in long cycles. Trades were made. Then the cold ones began killing the flesh that would tend the next cycle. Flesh fairly given!” The asari clone finally showed emotion, snarling in anger. “The Old Growth sees the air you push as lies! It will listen no more!”

“Give me what I need and I’ll strike back at the one who betrayed you,” John said quickly as he desperately tried to avoid the coming fight.

“No more will the thorian listen to those that scurry. Your lives are short, and have gone on for too long!”

Not expecting the seemingly dysfunctional asari clone to be much use in combat, John immediately fired a medium burst in the nearest Creeper as it began to rise from its dormancy. Another three Creepers were cut in half by a prolonged spray of hyper-kinetic rounds. While looking for more of the Creepers to kill, John was thrown against the wall by a blast of biotic power from the asari. She then equipped a basic shotgun and fired pointblank into his energy shield, almost completely knocking it down.

John aimed his assault rifle at the asari clone to retaliate only to have it blown out of his hand by yet another biotic attack. As the weapon clattered to the floor and John faded out of consciousness, he saw another asari, identical to the first, stride up beside her.

“Oh shit...”