Mass Effect: Dark Horizon

[The Sentinel]

The sleek efficient form of the Crimson Son completed its jump into the Serpent Nebula, the system's sun glinted across the its gunmetal paint. Technically it was a civilian freighter, however the owner had outfitted it with a few weapons due to both the nature of his work, and the part of the galaxy he was assigned to. The ship banked and made a heading for Citadel station, however it never asked for docking permission, instead it was running dark, and it parked well away from the Citadel, and it's Mass Relay.

The Pilot sat at the helm, the only occupant on the vessel. His VI, Cipher, worked to maintain several systems while he patiently waited for his contact. It was all very odd, this meeting. He had already reported to his handler three months ago and wasn't due to check in for another week.

He stood up and went into his quarters just to the left of the cockpit entrance, and prepared himself for violence with his Vindicator IV battle rifle, Carnifex heavy pistol, and his custom Cerberus "Mamba" Armor. Outfitted for battle, he returned to the cockpit to find his VI had made contact with his handler and the two ships would soon dock.

Daniel Gunn had gone through at least hundreds of these meetings, but this was absolutely the most strange, he steeled himself, and left Cipher to its work. He waited in the cargo area and it wasn't long until until the airlock started to pressurize, it opened revealing exactly what Daniel had expected.

Being only 5'11" and evenly stacked with taut muscle, Daniel would describe his counterpart as tall and wiry. An older gentleman, about 6'3", who was best described as thin with grey streaked hair and a clean shave entered the Crimson Son with a confidant stride and a friendly enough smile and he was dressed in Cerberus fatigues, needless*to say Danny boy felt like a dolt, but instead he simply smiled and sat at the cheap sitting area he'd set up for this meeting, he kicked out the chair opposite him, inviting the older gentleman to sit.

They sat there for a time, Daniel didn't have to ask the question, instead his handler simply lit a cigarette, and took an extra moment for a long drag. He dug into a pocket while his cigarette hung limply from his mouth, and produced a small chip. He set it on the table, then he took up his cigarette and tapped the ashes into the tray Daniel had provided. Daniel took it up almost immediately and held it up to examine it. It was new tech, Cerberus made. He'd only used one other one before; a device would take the chip and transmit the data to his omni-tool and then it would dissolve into a fine powder somehow, he was never briefed on it.

Daniel's emerald colored eyes sparkled in recognition as he lowered it and looked at his contact,

"What's the Op?"

The man took a long drag, and then blew the smoke into Daniel's face. He didn't flinch,

"You know those weird reports all over the galaxy? Missing ships, and the like?"

Daniel nodded, he looked into his handler's ice berg colored eyes and frowned,

"Yeah that stuff was uh... 'Officially' labeled as some kind of elusive pirate coalition, Why?"

His contact took another drag and finally snubbed the cigarette.

"We've been intercepting reports again, this time it's mostly centered in the Traverse. We've been releasing the less... Alarming ones. But really, even those are getting worse." He dug around in his pocket again and took out a device rectangular in shape and a little bit bigger than the chip. It had a single button on it which he pressed before setting it on the table.

Daniel immediately took it and slipped the chip into it. His omni-tool responded after nearly a millisecond and downloaded the data. After that the whole thing heated and dissolved leaving a fine grey powder, and a little black smudge on the cheap table.

His omni-tool beeped and Daniel smirked, "We done here?"

"Read the file, contact the Illusive man when you complete the Op."

"Wait the Illusive Man?"

"Yup, this comes from the top," with that
the handler stood and rapped a knuckle on the plastic table, "Thanks for getting a table, and the ash tray," he chuckled quietly and strode back to his ship.

It wasn't long before his handler was gone and Daniel had read the data, and erased it. Ships were disappearing all over the traverse, mass relays would malfunction and end up frying an entire ship's crew alive, and the "Hyper"-Electromagnetic Pulses had also made a comeback. Most recently Eden Prime was troubled. He didn't know how cold the trail was but the Illusive Man himself had hands on this. He probably wasn't the only operative on this but he didn't want to disappoint.

He kicked his ass into gear and plotted his first jump, he'd have to keep a low profile while on the the agrarian world, as Cerberus had attacked it during the Reaper Invasion and still was not overly popular with the locals because of it. Luckily ,partially thanks to the new Illusive man, redevelopment went mostly unimpeded. Currently about 80% of the damage world wide was repaired and it's capital, Constant, has seen extensive renewal along with the massive monorail system. He looked forward to seeing his homeworld, and to finding out what the hell was going on.

 

[Endling vas Precious]

"One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star."

- 13 Hours Ago -​

The day was cold--unusually so for the season--there was hardly a breath of air stirring. Large white masses of cloud profusely distributed about the peach blue sky. She could feel a cold sting on her lids, she wondered when the Holiday snow would begin. The flakes swirled around, getting caught in her hair and the dark fabric of her heavy coat. It was snowing in St. Petersburg. The small bundle in her arms was warm and silent, and she smiled. It had been a long time since she was genuinely happy. The feeling was foreign. It was Christmas morning, and she had just been released from the hospital. She could see him, however. He was leaning against the door, watching her with those cold steel eyes.

Dare stirred. She felt absolutely awful, as if she had been dumped into a trash compactor. It wasn't the recurring dream that had startled her, but more-so the fact she was in a stasis pod.

Eyes wide, she frantically tried pawing at the glass, but she was out of her suit. Her limbs remained atrophied by her side, motionless. Panic set in like wild fire. Her breath became laboured, heart raced, and if it wasn't for the fact she was in some sort of Eezo fluid, she would most likely be covered in sweat. There were various tubes sticking in her legs and arms, pumping oxygen into her blood. Sensors were attached to her chest and temples, the thin wires connecting to the mainframe of the pod. Where the f--k was she?

Calming herself enough to think straight, she managed to make out the familiar steel walls of the SS Versugisa. Well, it had to be the Versugisa, it was the only ship that came to mind. Where the hell was Cren? The ship was eerily silent. Only the auxiliary lights flickered in the dim room.

Move, she thought. Move dammit!

When her arm would not move, Dare furrowed her brows. She could move before, when out of her suit, albeit with some difficulty. How long had she been in stasis?

A few hours had passed before she could muster the strength to push the emergency evacuation button on the pods control panel. The clear substance that had been suspending her flooded into intake grates. She closed her eyes, waiting for her body to crash into the ground. When the impact didn't arrive, she opened one fawn-like eye. She was still floating. The Artifical Gravity had been turned off, or had failed. Well, this would make things a bit easier for her.

She looked at the blood on her hands, and in a part of her she tried very hard to keep under lock and key she knew war, death, all of it would never be as satisfying as taking another person's life.

She mentally chided herself for letting that memory come to mind. She was weightless, effortless, as she tentatively pushed the door open with a clammy hand.

The Versugisa was a ghost, empty and unyielding. She had trouble navigating The Ship's interior with so little light. Where was her suit? Dare pulled herself along, grabbing onto anything she could to propel her forwards. The Eezo fluid was still on her skin, coating it in a fine film, and thus making it hard to keep warm. Without her Omni, it would be impossible to communicate if she ran into a crew member.

"Cren? Lhoc? Zdes' yest' kto-nibud'?"

No one answered.

"Harriet?"

Silence.

After finding her suit in The Armoury, and after much trouble getting herself into the damn thing, Dare did a more thorough search now that she was back to full capacity.

The Bridge was completely empty. The large chair where Captain Lhoc'Riigh vas Versugisa sat was empty. Aikhme Fenn's--the Drell ace pilot--chair was empty as well. Harriet's room was deserted besides a few girly magazines and a bottle of nail polish, affectionately branded 'Hanar Pink'. The last room she check was Cren'Olt's. She wasn't surprised when it was empty as well. Dare growled and punched the wall. What was going on?

She had passed the cryo pods on her way back towards the shuttle bay, and it was there she saw a piece of white paper floating beside the now vacated pod. How had she missed it? It must have got knocked down when she opened the door.

The words were in what she guessed to be Quarian.

Emilie, I'm so sorry, but you were captured by Cerberus and put into stasis. I managed to rescue your pod when it was going through transport in Port Hanshan, but I wasn't able to wake you up. If the rest of the pods are empty, we've vacated the ship. The shuttle will be missing. I've put a distress beacon on The Versugisa, hopefully it will hail a ship to come rescue you, granted it's not Mercs or Pirates. Stay safe.

Cren'Olt nar Quoram.

As she finished reading, her brows were knit with confusion and hurt. Why would Cren leave her behind? Why couldn't he wake her up? She had more questions than answers at this point.

Navigating her way back to The Bridge, she checked the Flight Console.

It was dead.

Although the ship was still running on what little reserve power it had left, Cren had most likely re-routed all of the ship's power to keep her alive. The thought of her slowly dying of starvation, left alone on a desolate ship, made her insides churn.

She nearly jumped when she heard her SUI whir to life.

"Sorry ma'am, I was just performing some upgrades. Connecting to Comm Buoy Krogan DMZ, it looks like a salvage team is currently on route."

---

- Present Time -​

Omega. The asteroid was a glimmer of crime-riddled hope in the distance. The Salvage Team had agreed to bring her to Omega, it was only a few jumps away. The Pilot, a rather aloof Salarian, glanced her way.

"What exactly where you doing on that ship?"

When she didn't say anything, he merely shrugged and continued to drive the shuttle into the docking bay.

It seemed different. How could it change so quickly? Dare, almost instinctively, knew where to go. She didn't even have to think about it, her feet merely did the walking for her. The short trip to Kenn's Salvage was an arduous one, her limbs were still sore. To her relief, despite Omega some-how mysteriously changing in her absence, Kenn's Salvage was still there.

"Kenn?"

When no one answered, she called again, but it was a different Quarian who came up to the store front.

"I'm not Kenn, but his son, can I help you?"

Dare tried her best to remain calm. His son? Since when did Kenn have a son?

"Hey, I know who you are. Dad always talked about you, in fact there's a picture of you with him in the back room." The Quarian slapped his wrench down on the table, leaned into his elbows, and chuckled. "You playing some sort of prank on me? There's no way the real Dare is alive."

She blinked.

"What is the date."

"2261."

Dare said nothing as she walked outside.

She found herself in a hallway silhouetted by overhead light. Alone.

She removed her helmet. Pain blossomed in her head, more mental than physical. Heat prickled her cheeks, and Dare pressed her forehead against the nearest wall, her breaths suddenly jagged. Her stomach churned. It didn’t help. She had been sobbing for a good fifteen minutes now.

She pushed herself from the wall and dragged her fingers down the sides of her face, her claws catching on every nick and groove. She stumbled forward. Light and shape blinked in and out of focus. The sides of her vision blurred, moving with the machine-like jolt of her stride. Her ribs grated against each other, constricting ever tighter.

The next garbage can she found was instantly filled with her vomit. She grasped the sides, bile dribbling out from her mouth, making a mess on the floor.

She screamed and punched a hole in the wall. Metal and shrapnel exploded around her, reminding her of various battles she had witnessed before. Removing her armored fist, she found her helmet and replaced it on her head.

They're all dead.

Dare sauntered to Afterlife, where she drank enough Ryncol to make her brave enough to get into a fist fight with a Krogan Warlord. Then again, she was in the suit. The Elcor bouncer gave her a fleeting glance, obviously not wanting to engage her. Stepping over the Krogan spread-eagle on the floor, she focussed her attention on news reports. Just what exactly was going on?

It looked like Eden Prime would be the best place to start.

 

[Phil]

Shots rang out in the alley, everyone was hit as he made his way towards his apartment he was using. Clutching the Phalanx pistol in his right hand, he used his free hand to open the door as he went in, closing and locking the door behind him. Cringing some at the pain he was in, he waited a minute to see if he was followed only to be relieved that he was not when no one came to his door. He walked inwards to his apartment, holstering his pistol as he suddenly collapsed onto the sofa. Slumping his head down some, he tilted it up to see he was no longer in his apartment.

------

He let loose his pistol on the three Cerberus agents, disgusted for their crimes. He ignored himself being shot some as he did all he could to muster the strength to remain standing. He took several in the abdomen, one in the shoulder and one that crazed the right side of his forehead. Once he was sure they were all dead, he collapsed onto the ground and into his own blood that had formed.

------

"Get your ass up, I know you better then this!"

Someone told him. He recognized it as his Turrian partner and friend Barrus Denton as he felt himself lifted off the sofa and onto the kitchen table. He realized now, that everyone in the alley was hit, including himself. He was bleeding badly, and he had not restocked on medi-gel, leaving himself in the hands of Barrus, someone who did not have much medical experience. As he worried what his friend would do to try and help him, his consciousness slipped once more.

------

He closed the door with his own foot, ensuring they would not be interrupted. The woman that he had saved, who in turn had saved him, was in his arms as he approached the bed. He laid Zeta down on it, the two of them removing the gear that obscured their faces as they looked into each other's eyes. They both knew the risks of their relationship and had taken the extra precautions prescribed for them. They kissed each other for several minutes, but before either of them could make the first move, their moment was interrupted by horror when Zeta started to cough and shake violently. It was one of the few times that he had ever panicked, and frantically did what he could to help her before she went unconscious with little breathing. He knew of her weakened immune system, but she wanted this rather then wait like he had wanted.

He yelled her name, hoping she would wake up. He eventually cried for her to wake up...

------

Everything was black, but he was in terrible pain as he felt his wounds were being tended too, rather clumsily as he felt blood gush from his wound. What felt like needles sticking into him before his patches were tended, he once more felt himself slipping away. Barrus was such a terrible medic that it even a Krogan Doctor seemed like a great idea.

------

He awoke by her side, and was relieved to see that she had not died, but instead smiling at him. They said nothing to each other, the smiles they gave each other was all they needed to tell each other that everything was alright. She had adapted to him, and would eventually no longer suffer these bouts of sickness. He reached out to touch her so that

------

Rick woke up, still on the table as he bent upwards. His gear was sitting on the ground as he was in some standard slacks, his patches covering his wounds surprisingly well built and the blood was gone. He looked around, seeing Barrus with his back to Rick as he was watching a screen with the local news. He grabbed his Umbra Visor, a force of habit, and strapped it to his head as it turned on. The Turian turned his head some, hearing the human approaching.

"You know how fortunate one of your neighbors is a doctor?" Barrus asked.

"I can imagine. What are you doing here, Barrus?" Rick replied.

"You're welcome, by the way. You weren't the only one hired for this job, though it looks like you took on more then you could chew."

"Right... thanks."

"Save it. Have you seen these reports?"

"I don't watch the news much." Rick responded, arms crossed. He never liked the media, for many reasons some would call him ignorant for.

"Well, if these are true, then you may want to rethink on where you are traveling. For all of us."

 

[Crim]

The Binary Helix colony on Europa had certainly grown over the last few decades...

A popular vacation spot, the ice moon of Europa was home to the city of Poseidon, funded by Binary Helix after their first settlement was destroyed in the Reaper Wars. Situated around a massive hole drilled into Europa's surface, parts of the colony, mainly the richer areas, extended underneath the European ice sheet. The colony was protected by the radioactivity of Jupiter's magnetic field by a mass effect field. A hologram was projected onto the shield to make it seem as if the colony had an Earth-like sky. The air was warmed to a comfortable 60 degrees inside most buildings while the hole it was built around maintained a temperature at freezing point to prevent the ice around the colony from melting too much. Most of the city burrowed into the ice. Air was regulated by arcologies all over the city. Air farming was a popular and necessary occupation on Europa. Starports, walkways, homes, businesses, and hotels were all burrowed into the massive hole. Underneath the ice sheet, it was an inverted city; like Omega, the tops of the towers extended deeper into Europa's seemingly endless oceans. Somewhere in the abyss, along with confirmed life and the refuse thrown away daily by Poseidon, was the ruins of the original Binary Helix colony, Nautilus... and a dead Reaper. During the Reaper Wars, a Reaper was stationed above Nautilus. When the Reapers were destroyed, the massive Reaper fell through the surface of Europa, taking out most of the colony.

To prevent mid-air collisions in Poseidon, air traffic was regulated in lanes that circumnavigated the hole rather than cross to the other side. Being caught in an air car outside of these lanes could result in a hefty punishment. Inside one of the docking bays of Poseidon, the SSV Dynasty was idle. Its crew was on a brief shore leave. Its captain, Commander Chen, was in the Systems Alliance training facility. It wasn't equipped with the same climate controls as Poseidon was; the soldiers in the special climate areas relied on the weak gravity of Europa to keep them on the ground. Chen practiced in a room with training mechs. She pushed off the floor with her feet and launched herself at the Mechs. She was practicing a martial art developed for low-gravity environments called Kallah Yakshi. It involved momentum, speed, and biotics if applicable. The Asari developed the technique long ago, though humans developed all sorts of hybrids. 'Tae Yakshi' was a very popular mixture of Tae Kwondo and Kallah Yakshi, though the name was developed by English speaking Alliance members.

Chen utilized her biotic abilities to aid her in moving herself about, delivering powerful kicks and blows to the mech. Suddenly, the intercom in the room sounded. "Commander Chen, we need to see you in the briefing room," it said, interrupting her training session. She sighed and pushed herself to the door and took a deep breath. She walked out of the zero-grav training room and her vision spun for a minute. The transition from low-grav to high-grav was disorienting to many people. Standard procedure was to slowly transition, but that took minutes. Doing this could make people sick, but Chen had an iron stomach... or at least a synthetic one after her destruction of a bio weapon. She stumbled through the halls for a minute before regaining balance and making her way to the briefing room. As she entered the room, her superiors were all being transmitted in a holographic display. She bowed politely to her superiors.

"Commander Chen, thank you for taking the time to hear us out. We're still very impressed with your work against the bioweapon," a male admiral said. Chen opened her mouth to thank them, but was cut off by the female AIA officer, who said, "However, we have recieved disturbing reports of the bioweapon being on other planets. While the motives of these terrorists is not known, we know who started the bioweapon. Originally a Krogan initiative started long before the genophage was cured, their original goal was to develop a genophage against the galaxy. The Batarians were in charge of creating the bioweapon. The Krogan, of course, did not have any scientists. It is thought that the batarians had developed small concentrations of a genophage ready for use on humans, turians, and salarians. The problem, however, was that the bioweapon was fatal rather than a sterility plague. The labs that created it were reportedly destroyed in the Reaper War and the population of the Batarians have never recovered from the war. It would seem some survived. They have little-to-no contact with the galaxy at large, resulting in secrecy. Their numbers have grown in the last 75 years. From what we can gather, the group is calling itself the Knights."

Chen nodded in understanding. She knew how serious the matter was and how trustworthy the AIA officer was. The Alliance Intelligence Agency had been gathering information on the galaxy and its various groups for some time. "Ships similar to the plague carrier you took down were spotted on Eden Prime. We need you to investigate it further. If it proves to be a bioweapon, we need you to take the ship and its crew down. Try to keep the crew alive and try to get as much intel as you can on the group and its bioweapon. Commander Chen nodded. "I will ready the Dynasty for launch at once," she said. The other people in the meeting nodded and said, "Good luck, Commander." Chen nodded again as the feed was cut short. She turned around and left the breifing room. As she walked, she tapped her personal communicator and called her crew. "This is Commander Chen. Show time, everybody. Report to the Dynasty ASAP. Wake up, sober up, and Jeb, get off the Asari. I'll brief you all when you get to the ship. Chen out," she said. She trusted everyone would be on the ship within two hours. She went through a few corridors before opening the large doors to the Alliance training facility. She took a deep breath and sighed. The cold, dry air filled her lungs. If not for the arcologies, the air would smell like recycled air. Instead, it almost smelled of pine. Chen enjoyed Europa. As she walked along a large balcony carved into Europa's massive ice sheet, she kept an eye out for the entrance to the Alliance hangar.

Finally finding it, she entered the hangar. The Dynasty was in the N Level. Luckily, that only required a trip on an elevator. As she hailed an elevator, Lieutenant Okumura walked next to Chen. The two had been close friends for some time. Chen, of course, was Chinese while Okumura was Japanese. Chen and Okumura had been working on teaching each other their languages. Chen nodded and said, "Kon'nichiwa." Okumura nodded and said "Nǐ hao." Chen smirked and corrected, "'Nǐ hǎo'" Okumura made a dumb face and said in a mocking voice, "Oh, Nǐ hǎo." Chen looked at him, about to say something to mock him, but she noticed how disheveled he looked. She frowned and said, "What's with...?" motioning to her face. "Saké," he said. Chen scoffed and rolled her eyes. There was silence for a second or two before Okumura said, "It was good saké, don't worry." "Oh, okay. I understand," Chen said. As the elevator doors opened, she said, "I hope you're not too hungover to shoot." The two stepped in, Okumura groaning a little. Chen pushed 'N' and the elevator began travelling to the Nth floor. As they waited in silence, they tried striking up a conversation. The awkwardness of the silence made the incredibly long elevator ride take even longer.

As they stepped out, Okumura said, "You'd think they'd improve on that technology." Chen rolled her eyes as the two proceeded to the hangar where the Dynasty was waiting. Before long, they found the hangar and entered. There, waiting for them, was Chen's ship. A few members were already in the lounge. The hangars on the N level were reserved for Commanders in the Alliance Military. Each hangar was for one specific Commander and his ship. The previous owner of Chen's hangar had installed a little lounge. It included chairs, tables, a bar and some pine trees. As Commander Chen walked to the lounge, she said, "How long have you all been h-" pausing when she saw the pine tree. It was decorated with lights and ornaments. Christmas wasn't as big of an ordeal in China as it was in other countries, so Chen frequently forgot when Christmas was coming. She frowned for a minute at the tree before saying, "Oh, right." There was a collective sigh of relief as one serviceman with a German accent said, "We thought you were going to make us take it down." Chen shook her head and said, "If I allowed the tree in the ship, I don't see a reason to make you take this one down." She walked to the bar and looked for something to drink. It was going to be a while before everyone was at the ship, so she might as well do something while she waited. She rummaged through the cabinets and said, "Okay, I had a case of Tsingtao in here and it's gone. Did Jeb drink my last beers?" The servicemen nodded as Chen searched for something else to drink. "Why do we have so much hot chocolate?" she asked. Okumura said, "This is an ice planet. You have to have hot chocolate on an ice planet." Chen scoffed and looked in the fridge, stealing from a case of beer clearly marked 'JEB'S! DO NOT TOUCH!"

Chen opened the beer and sat down. She looked at the tree and said, "Aren't there supposed to be presents under there?" Just then, a British crewmember left the ship with an armful of presents. The crewmember was dressed like Father Christmas. Chen stared at him as he handed out presents. He felt eyes on him and looked at Chen. "What? It's Father Christmas!" he said. "But Santa gives presents," she said, very confused. "No, no. Father Christmas gives presents," he said. "Then who's Santa?" she asked. This was a very confusing holiday for her. As more of the crew entered the hangar and Father Christmas handed out presents. Poseidon was huge and getting to the hangar would take a very long time, even if they weren't screwing around. Once the crew was ready and onboard, Chen briefed them for the mission, getting the ground team ready for combat ruining the general air of levity from Christmas for everybody on the ship.

---

The Dynasty's engines activated as the ship left the hangar. It moved to the middle of Poseidon and began pointing itself at the 'sky' of Europa. The ship sped up before reaching the top of the massive hole drilled into Europa. It passed harmlessly through the mass effect field as the false sky gave way to the pitch black of space. The ship sped up even more as it shot away from Europa. Jupiter dominated the horizon. The stealth frigate sped up even more before orbiting the massive gas giant for a minute to give it more momentum. The gas planet acted as a slingshot as the Dynasty sped towards the mass relay beyond Neptune. As Jupiter quickly fleeted from view, the long distance between Jupiter and the mass relay was being covered in an incredibly short amount of time.

As the Dynasty cruised through the Sol system, Chen was standing behind the pilot, an Indian human named Cabhatt flew the ship. The human, not even 20, flew the ship with expertise and precision. He was a rather skinny boy with a thick accent and a knowledge of mathematics and astrophysics that would intimidate a Salarian. He spoke to Jeb, the communications officer on the bridge, in Alliance English. "Hey, Jeb, turn on the FM radio," he said. Jeb, an older caucasian male, perhaps one of the only American people on the ship, looked at Cabhatt. "What exactly do you expect to pick up?" he asked. Cabhatt smiled and said, "I used to do this in flight school. Turn it on an just see what you pick up. It's like a little history lesson." Jeb rolled his eyes and said, "And you expect to find decipherable music in spa-"

Jeb was interrupted by What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong. Cabhatt smiled as Jeb rolled his eyes. The arrogant communications officer would never admit he was wrong. The music only lasted for a few seconds before cutting to static. "Ha!" Jeb said. Cabhatt replied with, "We're passing into the Kuiper Belt." It was more of an announcement, but it also implied that the signal wouldn't last long. A pulsating blue flash appeared on the viewscreen as the ship neared the mass relay. Jeb cleared them for launch before the relay became more and more visible. The Dynasty flew near the relay before being shot at its target, Eden Prime, at an incredible speed.

 

[Lavi]

... NETWORK.ESTABLISHED SUBJECT.organicsmissing search.solution CONSENSUS.required building.data CONFIRMATION.required OPTIONS.displaytrue ...​

The input of over a thousand voices echoed in the Geth's processor; each voice weighed as equally as the next. Although the issue regarding the missing organics is officially labeled as the work of an elite pirate coalition, Prophet was able to discern that such a possibility was unlikely. Using information regarding the status of recovered vessels suspected to be assailed by these "pirates" and cross-referencing them with known pirate incidents, the millions of tests regarding the probability of the affected ships being attacked or stopped by said pirates is close to 5.4%. Taking into account technology that the galaxy at large would probably not be aware of, such "pirate" incidents would be only twice that figure at best.

Prophet was not entirely sure why the cover up was needed, but exposing it would not serve a good purpose either. It was comparable to the incident of the Geth fore-bearers who planted a false report on the extranet about a constellation that resembled a Salarian goddess. The resulting activities provided vast amounts of research as to how organics behaved; they can be erratic and illogical. Misinformation can complicate issues if the populace becomes aware of the deception. Unveiling misinformation will also complicate efforts to re-establish ties between the Geth and the galactic community when pretending to not know anything would keep relations safe.

Once vision returned in its photoreceptor, Prophet disconnected itself from the Citadel archives as well as the Geth Network. Patrons in the archives frequently gave Prophet looks as they passed by, quickly looking away to mind their own businesses when the Geth unit looks in their direction. Although organics were everywhere, the Geth did not feel connected to the galactic network, like a quarantined program. Prophet pondered the sense of longing, recognizing errors in rationalizing it.

It reminded the Geth of an old recording of the conversation that sparked the Morning War: does this unit have a soul?

 

[Neo Shark]

The first rule. Blend into the shadows.. Hold your breath.. And wait for your target to let down his guard!

Keeping the first rule of a Ninja firmly in his mind, Gurdo kept himself hidden in the shadows. He was currently hiding in the ceiling of a hangar bay. His target was below him, bellowing and making a general racket. Hardly a worthy opponent, but marks were scarce recently.

"DAMNIT GURDO! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?! YOU BETTER HAVE FINISHED THOSE REPAIRS!"

He wasn't quite sure what the fellow was on about, but he was about to find out. He made his way along the beams until he was over the person and then dropped the 100 or so feet to the floor. Activating the repulsors in his boots before impact insured he wouldn't hurt himself and his target would hear nothing.

The third rule. Strike your target down before he is aware of your existence!

Taking a moment to review the third rule he prepared to vanquish this unworthy opponent.

"Of course I finished the repairs boss. Have I ever let you down?"

Letting a startled oath Steve turned around quickly. "DAMNIT! I told you to stop doing that! Why can't you just act normal like everyone else? That ninja bullshit is annoying." Gurdo simply shrugs. "Whatever, we have a ship coming in that needs some repairs, and I want you to see to any electrical problems. Bob is sick, so he won't be supervising you this time. DON'T let me down! I've put up with your shenanigans so don't screw me over on this."

"Sure boss! Thanks! I won't let you down. You can trust me."

Steve just shakes his head and walks off.

 

[Radiwalker]

"What have I done wrong? Where is my mistake? Each of these values is correct and I have taken into account krogan genes, their adaptability, the environment on their planet, everything and still the equation is not correct, I can see it, but I can not fix it. This is disturbing, I need a rest, but that would only be a waste of time and now I am losing focus..." Ishal stumbled back into a chair that was next to her research table. Her eyes closed for a moment and then reopened. She looked around the all too familiar room, examining every detail, as if she was greatly intrigued. It was a small room, with bright lights lighting it up. There was a research table in the middle, covered with logs, lab materials and other research equipment, but most of it had not yet been used, as this latest research that the salarian had engaged in was still on the drawing board and she was already encountering difficulties.

Then again that was expected as she was trying to recreate the work of many great minds, which, even her mentor, used the help of several assistants when modifying it, even though he had access to all the data and formulas for the genophage, while all of that was currently classified to the highest level, meaning that only council members and specters had access to that information. Unfortunately, Ishal was neither of those, and despite her honorable intentions, the council did not allow her access to any of that data. So, she had taken up the task to reinvent the genophage herself and then modify it, to complete her own research. That was quite dangerous, of course, given the fact that she might be caught and sent to jail, proclaimed to be criminal, or worse, the formula for the genophage might fall into the wrong hands. That is way, the salarian had taken the precaution to write everything in a code only she understood, so nobody would know what she was working on and once she was done, she could erase the formulas concerning the genophage and only present her own research.

One might wonder what kind of research that would do good would have anything to do with the genophage. The thing was that there was a good side to every bad research, or so Ishal believed. The genophage tampered with the genes of the krogan, thus killing the mother and the child, that is if such an early state of a fetus could be called a child. But, if the formula was changed, then it could be used to sustain the life of an otherwise doomed mother, or child, furthermore, Ishal believed that she would be able to find a way to cure, or rather prevent anomalies without changing the genes of the child, thus solving the problem that the alliance encountered when they first began to cure anomalies - that such modifications might lead to the human biodiversity being lost.

Ishal had regained her motivation and concentration, she had even begun singing the salarian scientist song, while trying to find her mistake, when her private terminal rang. She moved through the small lab and entered the cockpit of her ship. It was a small ship, but it served her well, for it was maneuverable and despite not being heavily armed, it served it's purpose well. The message she had received was from the salarian councilor. It consisted of an apology for not providing the aid she had requested, as well as an alternative for the continuation of her research, the councilor proposed that Ishal should join the ranks of the specters and as such she would have access to all the information she had requested.

The girl was well aware that the councilor had wanted her among the specters for some time now, but this is the first time she was approached on the matter. Before this moment she might have refused, believing that she would be of more use to the galaxy if she were independent, but he desire to complete her research drove her to accept the offer, which of course, had a condition to it. She was to go to Eden Prime and investigate some strange occurrences. The councilor failed to mention whether that mission would be regarded as her evaluation for the specters or not, but the girl was well aware that if she wanted to become a specter, she had to play by the councilor's rules. Furthermore, the information she had been provided with enthralled her, for she found the arising situation both intriguing and dangerous, a mixture that would attract the eye of any adventurous type and Ishal liked to think of herself as such.

She wasted no time. She erased all of her work, because she didn't want for it to fall into the wrong hands, which would be bad, despite her precautions. Furthermore, the research was in such an early stage that she could memorize everything she had written down and reproduce it later. Once the salarian was done with covering her work, she returned to her cockpit and requested leave of the citadel docking bay, setting coarse for the mass relay and from there for Eden Prime.

 

[Tribunal Power]

The Constant Agricultural Depot was bustling, just finishing up its high-traffic harvest orders in the early evening. Eden Prime was known for its farming, and the Constant Agricultural Depot saw more than half of the planet's off-world shipments as they passed through inspections for customs compliance. For most small-business farmers, shipping off-world was a complicated and expensive affair; the CAD helped alleviate that by offering inspections and customs compliance services at one location, rather than having to file for the license with the Eden Prime Board of Agriculture and the Eden Prime Interplanetary Customs Department. It was simpler and more cost-effective, although the process took nearly three times as long as it would were the farmer already licensed; the trade-off was worth it to the smaller businesses of the harvest world.

A large deisel truck was parked in the dock of the facility, the unmarked steel carriage gleaming in the setting sunlight. The doors opened, and two Batarian men stepped out from the driver and passenger side. The bay door of the truck slid open and two more men hopped out, both gruff-looking humans. The four men met together at the rear of the truck, talking for a moment.

"Looks like the intel was good," Koda thought as she observed. "What the hell is Grobar Marmel doing on Eden Prime?" Her HUD zoomed in on the Batarian driver's face, snapping several shots and committing them to internal memory as she watched from her perch. The four men looked like they were going to disperse into the facility; they were parked at the in-dock, so once they took their shipment in, it would be a game of following the trail through a government building. Koda wasn't about to play-- she needed to win, and it needed to be now. She activated the cloaking function of her suit, and she fizzled into nothingness, slowly slinking down from her hiding place atop an oversized freight truck parked nearby.

"Alright, break's over," Grobar announced. "Get your asses moving."

"You gonna help me unload the rest of this sh|t, or do I gotta hulk it myself?" the human asked, turning toward the back of the truck.

One of the batarians laughed. "Oh, what's wrong? You seemed to think the last one was easy, and now it's too hard to do by yourself?"

"Shut it," the Grobar remarked. "Get this sh|t inside, now. We don't have a big window here."

The other three nodded and turned back toward the truck. Grobar moved toward the driver's seat, opening the door and climbing in to reach for his clipboard. He paused when he noticed the passenger door was open too, hesitating. If he noticed something was amiss, he didn't make a noise; instead, he gasped as something sharp pressed into his chest. He never took another break.

"Hey Gro, you want us to--" the human began, as he came around the passenger side of the truck. When he saw the body in the front seat, he gasped and drew a weapon from his pants. "Sh|t! Tass, get out here!"

Just as a batarian came around the edge of the truck, a cloud of smoke flashed onto the ground around them. The human coughed and swore, until his voice cut to silence with a gurgle. The batarian backed up out of the smoke, but a shape flashed into view bursting from the smoke like a wraith in a nightmare, and he pulled the trigger as many times as his finger would allow. When no shots were fired, he looked at his weapon to see it had been cut in two; it was the last thing he ever saw.

The last man standing, the final batarian spun around the end of the truck and ran to the driver's seat, yanking Grobar's corpse from it and leaping into it. He started the truck to life and began to try to pull out, but was yanked from the seat by an individual wearing a gun-metal grey suit. He clattered to the ground, and rose up with a whirling fist; by the time the punch came to its target, the individual was gone. A blade burst through his chest before he realized he'd been stabbed in the back, and he quivered helplessly as he reclined into the arms of the individual.

Koda hurriedly lifted the body, reaching down to grab Grobar by the ankle, dragging both of them to the back of the truck. She heaved the bodies into it, and moved around to grab the other two as well. Once all four bodies were stowed in the rear of the truck, Koda hopped in and pulled the overhead door down, the light on her helm coming on to illuminate the inside.

She snapped a few shots of Grobar Marmel with his new breathing hole, and sent them off to her employer; that was one less infamous criminal mercenary in the galaxy to worry about. She caught her breath, and as she did, she glanced to the goods in the truck; large white containers, full of who knows what. She was about to dismiss it when she noticed the vents along the side of the containment unit, which piqued her curiosity. Stepping toward it, she ran a hand along the top, and leaned down for a closer look.

The vents were closed, metal slats folded flat behind them. It almost looked like an animal cage, one designed for storage on an interplanetary craft; they were often outfitted with closeable slats like these that would close when loss of atmosphere was detected, then pressurize and airate to protect the animal within. But this definitely wasn't an animal crate.

Koda began taking snapshots of the crate when she realized what they might be dealing with. Taking a step back, she thought a moment; if someone wanted to sent something all the way to customs in the CAD, they would need to disguise it as some type of crop or stock. So why make it look like an animal crate? Because it's the only farm-related crate with an aerosol delivery system.

After a moment of allowing her suit to run a toxin diagnostic, her suspicion was confirmed.

Yanking the truck's bay door open in a rush, Koda leapt from the truck and spun around the edge to the door of the facility. She burst in, glancing around; the containers they mentioned having already unloaded into the facility were gone, probably being processed by now. Koda needed to get everyone out of the building.

A few shocked and confused employees watched as a the woman in gunmetal Cerberus armor leapt over a conveyor and reached the wall, smashing the glass to a fire alarm and yanking on it. The alarm blared, and employees began shuffling together to exit the facility. Koda didn't exit, though-- she took off toward Customs Inspection to try to find the missing containers. If the containers released whatever toxin they contained, it could contaminate all the food in the facility-- was that the plan? To infect all the food as it went off-world?

"Priority message to Lt. Erkan, forward to all Cerberus and Alliance commanding officers in the system," she said into a private comm channel as she rushed through the emptying facility, "There's going to be an gas-based terrorist attack on the Constant Agricultural Depot on Eden Prime-- it could happen any minute."

 

[Bee-Den Iosis]

"Talus! Just tell your boss to give me some more.." Thats all the Batarian said before he was pushed out the window and into the city below. Talus loved murdering people, especially on Omega, must have been something in the air. "Jakar is down, send me my next target". Talus reloaded his submachine gun and went towards the market. Its been awhile since he's been back to Omega, He's still waiting to find his adventure but till then he can stand putting holes into some punks skull.

 

[Ender]

Words cannot express the apathy in which the Huntress feels. The Huntress is a broken being living only to exist, existing only to live. There is no joy in her life, no sorrow. No want or desires. No wishes or regrets. The Huntress simply exists to serve others. And that is what she was doing on Omega.

The atmosphere was electrifying, deep, rhythmic music reverberated deep inside her. Transportation vehicles screamed above her, and she took careful aim. "Talus Pax located." Artemis reported, as she peered through her scope, finger resting on the trigger. Pax swiftly took out a batarian, which he seemed to relish. As the music in the nightlub tore at her eardrums, reverberating inside her again and again. Bum, bum, bum.

May the Goddess have mercy on you.

Bum,bum, bum

A slight twitch of the finger would send Talus Pax into oblivion. She took in a slow breath, exhaled, another slow breath, exhale...Slow breath.

Bum, bum, bum

Crack!

 

[The Sentinel]

Daniel sat in his seat, in a dingy bar that served cheap booze. He'd spent the past three weeks scouring Constant and it's closest ports for evidence of what happened. So far all he had were stories and speculations. A Turian across the way kept turning his head towards him and then talking to his friends. Daniel hoped it wouldn't lead to anything troublesome.

He picked his hand up and waved over the young waitress, and ordered their cheap home-brewed ale. It was a little on the sour side but it wasn't like some of the piss he usually drank. She returned promptly with his drink, her eyes lingering on his face as he thanked her and payed, being sure to tip well. He quirked his eyebrow at her but she simply shrugged and smiled as she left his table. There was a vid screen over the bar currently tuned to a human news service. He drank and half listened to it as he thought over the past weeks. He'd probably listened to nearly 3 dozen stories about space pirates or ghosts or even reaper remnants. He doubted about 99% of what he'd heard but a few stories in particular seemed to have some kind of credibility. All the stories had most of the same elements, some spacer finds an abandoned ship or sees something fleeing the scene, but most of what they see is indescribable, or was scrapped along with the ship, or escaped them.

Three stories however seemed too similar and too... Unique to be coincidence. Granted they were on separate occasions, the first came from a smuggler; The smuggler, a male, had been sitting on a drop point when his VI had registered live fire rather close to his location. Being a rather greedy person he investigated after his contact dropped the cargo and left several hours later. What he'd described to Daniel seemed to really terrify him. He'd said that as he approached, a ship nearly two sizes larger than the freighter it had attacked fled in the blink of an eye. It was there, and then it was just gone, he said. The ship was dead in the water, but it's atmo was still working. He tried hailing it to no avail and eventually had his VI dock with the ship. He could barely describe to Daniel what he'd seen on there. The crew was just... Gone, but the whole place was covered in some sickening yellow-red sticky slime. The electronics were fried, and the ship's drive core was missing, it was running on auxiliary power. When he finally left he noted the damage to the exterior was nearly non existent, where there was damage it was also covered in the same slime as the interior. When he'd gone back a few days later the whole ship was gone. And it never turned up on the news.

The other two stories were pretty much the same, fleeing culprit, missing crew, slime, missing core, nearly no damage, and then the ship disappears a few days later. Other stories didn't share these similarities as closely as this. Daniel took another sip of his drink and turned his attention to the clock on the news station, it was the equivalent of 6'o clock in the evening. He thought about his next move when the voice of the female news anchor broke through his thoughts.

"In other news, reports of another derelict vessel near the Exodus Mass Relay has raised the suspicions of Alliance Officials. A privately owned Krogan frigate was found floating without it's crew close to 13 hours ago, we are still waiting for more details. In other news...."

Her voice faded out as Daniel's little hamster started running, the cogs were turning. 13 hours was more than enough time for him to be notified by Cerberus about the ship. That was a little odd, but he had other things to worry about. He stood up and gathered his coat, it was pretty cold out thanks to Eden Prime's winter season. The snow crunched under his boot as he left the dingy shack, and walked to the nearby spaceport. He'd noticed the Turian was gone when he left, and he kept his eyes and ears open, ducking into several alleyways along the way, eventually it paid off and he found himself blocked on both ends. Three human males blocked his front exit, and as he turned around the Turian, and a Krogan blocked the back exit.

Daniel sighed and unbuttoned his coat so he could move better, all he was dressed is were some standard fatigues, ofcourse he always had his biotics. Steam escaped his mouth as he frowned and spoke, "Well, let's get this over with I guess."

 

[Bee-Den Iosis]

The beam of light ran through the turian's arm. "Ahhh!!" Talus fell down in agony, knocking over a couple guests in the market place. He quickly slid behind a stand, while pulling out his gun. "You wanna play?" He fired a couple rounds to where he believed the firing came from. He soon realized he'd be picked off soon, and ran into a bar. Everyone around him looked at Talus, in question, wondering what was going on. Talus caught his breath and slid in a booth. A waitress came by, but he waved her off. He sat looking at the door, waiting.

 

[Crim]

The Dynasty dropped into the system, rapidly decelerating. Utopia gleamed in the distance as the stealth frigate raced through the system at near FTL speeds. "We will be reaching Eden Prime in ten minutes," Cabhatt said over the comm. Chen had been drinking a cup of green tea. She held the warm cup with both hands as she looked at the intercom. Tilting her head back, she gulped down the rest of the tea and walked to the armory to get ready. This mission was likely to take the team into a biohazardous environment. "Okumura, Lester, I need you in the armory. Suit up."

By the time the two had arrived, she had just put on her N7 Slayer bodysuit and was preparing to put on the armor to the suit. "Guys, we're likely going to be encountering a Class 5 biohazard. I'd prepare for that," she warned her team. As they suited up, Cabhatt said over the intercom, "Eden Prime is in range. Prepare for drop in T-Minus five minutes." As the group suited up in N7 Slaver outfits, Chen prepped her emergency guns for combat, making sure she had thermal clips. She checked herself for her gear before confirming that she wasn't missing anything.

Once everyone was ready, Chen nodded to them and put on her Slayer helmet and walked through the door to the hangar. The dropshuttle was ready for the group. They boarded the stealth shuttle and waited for the drop point before the hangar doors opened and the shuttle flew out, racing for the rendezvous point; the predicted locations of the plague carriers. Before long, the ships were in sight. They looked like zeppelin rigid structures racing for the surface of Eden Prime. The idea was that Okumura would jump out of the shuttle to manually take control of one ship while Lester took care of the other ship. Chen's job was to secure the main ship. Once these plague ships were neutralized, the engines could be stopped and the Alliance could secure the dangerous ships and dispose of their contents properly.

Okumura's drop was the first. The shuttle doors opened and the man jumped to the plague ship. "I made it," he called on his personal communicator. Chen was next. She jumped for the central ship, landing on its top. She radioed in to confirm her survival. As she righted herself, she looked at the third ship to see Lester jumping to the ship and radio in to announce his survival. "Let's get to work. Try to maintain radio silence for now unless absolutely necessary," Chen said into her comm. She took the P8 Katana on her belt and extended it before raising it and slicing through the hull of the ship. After three more similar strikes, a panel flew out and Chen was able to jump into the ship. It wasn't a very well-protected ship. If anything, it was meant to be shot down. Shooting the ship down would allow for the ship to fall to the ground and spread the deadly toxins. She knew she hadn't hit the plague holders because no red smoke was rising from the hole she had cut.

The inside was a frame of various flimsy scaffolding and catwalks. Chen hung onto a rail on the ceiling, shimmying along it until she was under a catwalk. She dropped to the catwalk, her feet touching down on the catwalk quietly. She readied her sword and made her way to the flight control unit in the center of the ship. Remembering her last encounter with these ships, she knew the ship flew via barometric pressure readings and altitude sensors. There was no traditional cockpit with windows; the ship was literally flying blind. A living area in the center meant that the ship could take lots of fire before the flight control deck was hit and the ship flew out of controls. Even with the engines out, the ship could still steer. This also meant that the ships couldn't see what was going on around it. Chen's team was operating through absolute secrecy.

As Chen walked, she noticed numerous containers with a biohazard warning label stuck on the front. These containers seemed to run the length of the ship. They contained the virus. It made Chen move that much more quickly. A misplaced shot could have disastrous consequences. As she continued to walk, she recognized the central structure. It had no uniform shape; it looked like a jumble of rooms all mooshed together. Chen reached a door to the structure and listened. There was nothing in the room in front of her. She sliced the door open and entered, preparing for a fight.

What she did see, however, was far more shocking than a simple room filled with armed guards. Inside the room, dead men littered the floor. It was a mass of dead humans, turians, salarians, even a few quarians. They seemed to have been killed by the plague. Their skin was pale and their major veins were more pronounced. Their eyes were bloodshot, with hemorrhaged blood pouring from their eyes like tears. Chen examined the corpses for a few seconds before moving onto the next room, a comm room with basic communications devices. It was the same sight; lots of bodies of various races. It didn't seem like they had put up much of a fight.

The comm room led to the flight control room. Chen held her breath for a minute before bursting in. "GET AWAY FROM THE CONSOLE!" she commanded. Only after she had finished her sentence did she notice that there was nobody at the console. Chen walked to the console and took the controls before a message popped up next to her. It displayed a silhouette that talked in a disguised voice. "Alliance. Female. By now, you have infiltrated my ships in an attempt to save Eden Prime. Ask yourself: what exactly are you saving?" it said.
"You know damn well what I'm saving!" Chen yelled at it.
"You think you're saving the people of Eden Prime. Of the galaxy. But the galaxy is a chaotic place. Even in the unity following the Reaper War, races squabble over petty things."
"What are you saying?"
"We represent true unity. The next evolution of the races. The end of war, famine, sickness, greed. Death."
"Don't justify the destruction of a population!"
"The end of a species is inevitable. Members of a species who cannot survive rapid change will perish."
The comm feed cut off. Chen went back to attempting to stop the ship as it continued to plummet to Eden Prime when she heard clawing at the door. She turned around to look before going back to stopping the ship. There was a sudden bump in turbulence and she ship's descent began to stop and the thrusters began to come online. She turned around again to see one of the corpses, originally in the comm room behind her, behind her. The reanimated body, originally a human, had grown sharp claws and teeth. Chen ducked as it swiped at her. As she moved, she readied her sword and swung at the reanimated corpse, striking it in the chest. The attack only seemed to have slowed it down.

The corpse attacked with its claws, forcing her to strike at the thing's hands, slicing them off and dodging the attack before attacking again, burying her sword in the corpse's head. The corpse fell to the ground, motionless. As she pulled the sword out of its head, she realized someone was calling her. "Commander Chen," she answered.
"Commander, this is Okumura. I just ****ing got attacked by corpses!"
"I just had to fight those off too! I think the plague was upgraded."
"I don't know of anything that could make a dead body do that aside from husk technology. But these things were... they were organic!"
"Did you stop the ship?"
"Yeah, the turbulence kicked in and the ship should stop soon."
"I got mine stopped too. The shuttle should come around to pick us up soon. Be ready and try to contact Lector. Be on the lookout for these things."
"Aye aye, ma'am!"

Chen readied her second sword and burst into the communications room. Two reanimated humans attacked her, swiping and lunging at her. She ran one's head through with her right sword before slashing the other corpse's head open with her left sword. She unleashed a biotic pull on a third human. Suddenly, a formerly dead turian attacked her, forcing her to the ground. The turian had almost chitinous organic armor. It attempted to bite her as Chen struggled to grab her swords. Finally, her left hand wrapped around a sword and ran the reanimated turian's head through. The shoved the motionless corpse off and walked for the the next room.

She immediately unleashed a series of biotic attacks on the corpses, sweeping them off of their feet with a powerful nova wave. She then ran through the other door, coming to the rigid framework of the zeppelin-like ship. She continued to run, switching from her swords to her pistol. She fired behind her before coming to the hole in the ship she had made, jumping with a biotic boost. She landed out of the exterior. The first ship had stopped, as had hers. The shuttle had already picked Okumura up and was heading for Chen. She looked for the third ship as she waited for the shuttle. When the shuttle arrived, she stepped onto the shuttle. The shuttle flew away, heading to the ground. Lester's ship was much closer to the ground.

It was much closer to the ground than they thought it had been.

The shuttle was heading right for the ship before the ship slammed into the ground. The exterior paneling buckled before flying apart. The plague containers burst in the crash. A red fog immediately began to spread on the ground. A hail of distress calls came in as the Agricultural District began to drown in this crimson, toxic cloud...

 

[Endling vas Precious]

"I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way.
Whoever brought me here will have to take me home."​

-Omega-​

She floated in the shallows of consciousness. A sun the colour of limes shone above, rays heating the waters and numbing her senses. Awareness lapped at her mind. Something revolved with an abrasive whirring. The sun passed over her, bands of yellow-green focusing on her stomach, then on her arms. The smell of something herbal, spicy. Hands caressed her throat. Warm, gloved fingers. She didn't have the strength to push them away.

Tinkling links of a chain, a dainty weight lifted.

Her cross. Someone was taking it.

"No!" She grabbed with hands that wouldn't rise. Tried to sit up with a body that wouldn't move. Her eyes opened to the sun in all its verdant glory. The hazy figure of a Quarian hovered above her, frozen, her cross swinging between his index finger and thumb. It was Kenn's son.

He was kneeling over her, and she realized she was out of her suit.

"That Ryncol took its toll on you, took me a good hour to get you back here and get you out of the suit. Good thing Dad left a few notes on how to get you out, seems like this was a common occurrence back when he was still around." The Quarian chuckled. "I'm Lenn'Shal, by the way. And you must be Emilie."

He slid from sight like a reflection from water, leaving her wondering if he had been there at all.

Something retracted from her. Her surroundings went dark. She blinked the bright splotches away and tried to make sense of where she was. The raised sides of her bed flared in elegant ripples around her, blocking the rest of the room from view. She lay on something...gelatinous. The temperature of the substance matched her body, giving that eerie feeling of suspension. Slight sensations of fluid oozing around her toes. No feeling from her other extremities. Nothing obeyed her commands to move, to flee.

It was the hydraulic fluid of her suit.

Movement above her. She stared with stunned stupidity, details filtering in so fast her brain couldn't keep up. Folds of fleshy coils the colour of aged ivory. Black eyes of the Quarians glowered from slanted ridges between the coils. Tawny light shimmered inside them, then flared bright as the sun in her dream. They descended from the coiled maw and became a bridge that passed over her multiple times, rims around the eyes spinning clockwise and counterclockwise. She squinted at them - then at her bare breasts quivering along with her thready breaths. The pain medication was making her hallucinate. She didn't like this.

"LENN!"

He appeared on command, startling her. The scanners created a nimbus of glinting light around his head. Paler than normal, his eyes bright, almost feverish.

"Tone of voice indicates panic. I wish you hadn't woken so soon, Emilie. Now I must explain, comfort, and reassure. We don't have time for that."

"You make time! Tell me what happened, where's my suit?"

"Don't be embarrassed." She flushed. "You're still stabilizing, it's kind of funny how similar you are to a Quarian, once you're out of your suit you're like a fish out of water."

He was gone again. She strained to see him past the scalloped rims of her wet prison. He abandoned all pretense of appearing cordial, using his reflexes and agility to full potential. Like an agitated bird, he darted from console to console, pecking at symbols with his hands and craning his neck at holograms of her body. Gloom obscured the rest of the room. Ridges and sheet metal of the architecture shone a deep grey where the hololight reached. She dropped her head, her neck muscles twitching with fatigue. The eyes and coils above blurred into each other, and shadows crept along her vision. Her stomach began to ache.

Lenn shimmered in her vision like a mirage, his head angled and luminescent eyes hooded behind his mask.

"I need to get to Eden Prime."

A birdlike tic of his head and his eyes snapped to hers.

"That will have to wait for a few more hours, you're still stabilizing."

"At least cover me."

He chuckled once more.

"I enjoy the view."

Her face became inflamed with heat at his remark. How could this be Kenn's son? Kenn was gentle, and nervous, and wouldn't dream of speaking to her like that.

"That said, the biologic scan is ready now. I'll begin the initial sequence."

"NO!" The pain in her arms seethed and roiled.

She bleated when he clamped his hands on her arms, quailed when he snarled in her face. "Stop being afraid! Stop it! Don't you understand how uncomfortable it is to look at you? Your expression contorting, your body shaking, tears and mucus running down your face?"

Again that tic of his head, his entire body a rigid wire. He closed his eyes, breath heaving, his voice trembling. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, please. What am I saying? Of course you're afraid. This is an alien ship with alien technology that is strange and frightening. Please add my insensitive outburst to your list of grievances."

But he fled from her to unknown parts of the room. More buttons fluted in disharmony, a purring sound, then the elevator sensation of rising. "Patient ready for first phase," he said over the trilling roll of machinery. "Administering medi-gel."

Something jabbed the back of her neck. Instant headiness. Her tongue swelled in her mouth, kept her from crying out. Her arms tingled instead of throbbed. The black eyes pulled into the coils and the coils unwound themselves. Folds of flesh, transparent and soft white. The insides of an oyster.

Her world became black as inky spots clouded her vision.

She walked barefoot in a desert of lavender sand. Her sleeveless white dress flowed to her calves, tamed at the waist by a corded beige sash. The sky belonged to someone else. A giant white moon tried to smother a smaller, purpler, version of itself. Galaxies twinkled beyond the moons, hinting new life and death.

A city lay in ruins around her, magnificent even in its decay. Spun glass of red and gold glittered on her path. Accents of topaz and once ornate carvings on domes and keyhole gates. Bones half-buried in sand guarded opened doorways and collapsed buildings of marbled brown stone. Almost human, but with strange sloped heads, wide eye sockets. And smaller ones. Children.

Beyond a sculpted archway of the same marbled stone, statues four heads higher than hers held their hands to the sky. Five fingers. Five toes. Native garb of feathers and beads. Jewelry, headdresses. Webs without spiders draped between the statue bases, sand their only prisoners.

Someone took her flopping hand, turned her over and thumped her back one time - hard. She gagged, then vomited a stream of amber fluid.

She took a deep, gurgling breath, and then retched again. Brown sludge clouded the fluid, a mesh-covered drain sucking it down like mud. The surface beneath her had the velvety-grip texture of a bath mat. A hand plucked the tendrils of hair sticking to her cheek and stroked her back as if she were a cat.

"The scan picked up an infection, you were purged. It will pass," Lenn cooed in her ear. He laid her on her side, his fingers slick from the layer of fluid coating her body. She concentrated on one breath at a time, astonished that she breathed at all. Alive and whole and nothing hurt. Weakness, hunger, and thirst. "Let's get you cleaned up, shall we? Can't have you going back into the suit covered in grime."

A low musical chime and water hit her. Nothing in heaven could compare to that sensation, to that temperate and perfect pressure of something else besides body fluids and alien goop smacking her skin. He coaxed her onto her hands and knees, and she shivered in that position like a newborn fawn. He doused her scalp, lifting sections of her hair, running his fingers through it until no slime remained. Everywhere the water went, his hands followed.

He emanated no titillation or pleasure from his task, but there was an intensity to his movements, a sort of predatory reverence that made her stay very still. She was suddenly glad she couldn't see his expression.

-Exodus Cluster-​

Her thoughts cast themselves adrift. The thrum of the alien ship changed to a sighing wind. Two moons battled for dominion over the sky, but their war faded in the light of three small suns.

Her eyes snapped back into focus, her day dream becoming distant. A holographic orrery slowly spun in the middle of the ship, entrancing her.

You are an abomination born of arrogance and greed. You are darkness. You are chaos.

Dare snarled under her breath.

She was the only occupant on the ship besides a small cluster of researchers probably coming from Noveria or Earth. The pilot was a disgruntled Turian, his talons scratching the side of his leg every time one of the researchers laughed.

Eden Prime slowly grew on the horizon, the inside of the ship aflame with the atmosphere burning around them. And then snow.

A memory stirred, the day was cold--unusually so for the season--there was hardly a breath of air stirring, she blinked it away. The ship whirred and groaned as they descended. Constant was covered with a thick blanket of snow.

The researchers quickly bundled themselves and shuffled off towards their destination. She, however, simply stood there, red lenses of her helmet affixed to the sky. She outstretched a massive hand, watching with slight bemusement as the flakes landed in her palm.

She was here, what now?

Perhaps the best place to start would be inside. Despite her suit's interior climate, it was starting to get cold. She found what looked like to be a cafe, and seated herself down, ignoring the waitress.