Krazyfan1
Worrying for the future.
- Location
- Australia
Til I Change Your Mind (Mass Effect Krogan SI)
- Thread starter Stratagemini
- Start date
Krell, you're the owner of at least one, and a majority shareholder of several more extremely lucrative interstellar businesses. Several of which are probably older then any current Human government, and probably some of the Terminus ones too. You've probably got more money then freaking TIM, he just has more assets and man power because he didn't start with every spy organization in the galaxy watching him, and Terra Firma are extremely easy marks.
It's time to let go of the bad old days of the Nuclear Winter and the desperate wars, and recognize the only 'expense' you need to care about is the space and transport of your explosives and their opportunity cost. Not their monetary one.
Besides, the galactic economy is certain to tank in the Reaper war. You might as well spend it before it poofs or is appropriated by desperate governments (though, obviously, don't liquidate everything because scientific and industrial assets will be useful in the war, and you might actually survive and not take Shepard's place as a martyr, and thus will need assets for further goals).
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Stratagemini
Totally a Fire Ferret.
- Location
- Central Park
- Pronouns
- He/Him/They/Them
Shepard: I let Tali press the button this time! What more do you want?
Excellent question. I can't tell you without major spoilers for an ME3 arc.
Equitable and just peace is in the interests of all sentients. It probably helps that the True Geth and the Quarians haven't been at war since like, the early 1900s. So it's been over 200 years.
Oh yeah. Garrus actually had a really good dad; he was just a shitty son for a Turian to have. He's the first one to admit that. But the thing is: 90% of the time in Mass effect if there's a parental figure, they are either really terrible or deeply flawed somehow.
He's rich, but he's not anywhere near that rich. Krell is rich enough to comfortably afford an Apartment on the Praesidium, but a lot of his assets are tied up in investments and nonfungible goods (not NFTs, think stuff like land). He's a major Stockholder in Noveria, but he actually traded profit-making potential for Power there. He's a brilliant weapons designer, but all those weapons made him 0 money beyond the standard wage the Salarians paid Krogan soldiers (which was low). The stock market is as much a gamble for him as anyone else because he doesn't know what stocks succeed or not. He got paid a Professor's salary for a long time, and he self-funded his excavations as a Prothean researcher and later on as a Human XenoEthnographer. He's been earning money, but also spending it; he bought a planet and then basically sold it at a huge loss. Krell is "Can do whatever the hell I want for the rest of my potentially infinite life" wealthy. He's not "Singlehandedly fund the creation of a navy" wealthy.
He doesn't even make the list of the top million wealthiest individuals in Citadel space.
Mirriam Grave
The Bemused. The Amused. The Unstable.
- Location
- The edge of a point.
"See? Krogan's are worthless. All Brawn and no Brains. Ancient and yet no Money!"
"Sir, that is because he is using all his funds to constantly try to make the galaxy a better place and save it from the Reapers."
"BAH HUMBUG! Here is some Money, get buy some people, make me a Navy and Super Weapons to kill the Repears."
"Umm... Sir, it doesn't work like that."
"SCREW REALITY! I HAVE MONEY! AND YOU WILL TOO IF YOU DO YOUR JOB!"
"YES SIR!!"
Not_Interesting
The Munchkin of Megastructures
- Location
- In your walls(the walls between realities)
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I do wonder, is the ship named Enterprise in Khelish with full Quarian meaning or is it lierally ENTERPRISE spelled phonetically from English?(and inspired by a certain show, I know that the Quarians would love Scotty, Geordi, Torres and O´Brien)
Also Hundred creds on the ship being Hijacked by the True Geth and Tali´s mom is now chilling on Rannoch. Sipping Oil Margaritas and playing Beach Volleyball with the Geth...or so I would like to believe.
Also Hundred creds on the ship being Hijacked by the True Geth and Tali´s mom is now chilling on Rannoch. Sipping Oil Margaritas and playing Beach Volleyball with the Geth...or so I would like to believe.
A fair number of ships in the Migrant Fleet have alien names, because it was too difficult to scrub the registry and rename it (Admiral Koris ship name is Qwib Qwib), and they might have a policy of not renaming ships gifted to them by outsiders (gifted, not bribed).
Also, if the True Geth did hijack the ship, I don't think this would endear them to the Quarian people. "Oh, so it's not enough you guys exterminated 99.9% of our species, destroyed the Ancestor VIs, sat on our worlds, and attacked with intent to destroy every ship that came into our old space without even a 'get out or else' warning. Now you're kidnapping our people?"
Cave Johnson? How'd you get in mass effect?
- Location
- U.S.
god imagine Krell reviving long dead game series and taking over voice acting for some of the iconic characters? Krell Johnson!
CHAPTER 29: Make You Feel My Love
Stratagemini
Totally a Fire Ferret.
- Location
- Central Park
- Pronouns
- He/Him/They/Them
CHAPTER 29: Make You Feel My Love
2185 CE
We headed back to the Rayya together in a pall of silence. Tali was afraid to ask me what I found. I was afraid to tell her.
The first thing I did when I got back was to confirm that our deal still stood. In gratitude for the return of the Alarei, the warning about the Geth, and the evidence they needed to stop anything like this from happening again, everything on the Alarei would be classified and explained away as a rogue attack by the Heretic Geth, accidentally let in by a careless researcher who died for his mistake. The truth, without all those messy details.
In thanks for my assistance with the Geth, in both martial and diplomatic sense of the word, no charges would be filed against either of Tali's parents. I asked about the shuttle, but apparently its departure wasn't logged. Shuttles are under the jurisdiction of the ship that hosts them. It was noticed leaving, but no one thought to ask why or where until it was gone.
I gave them the evidence and we departed the Migrant Fleet.
__________________________
2185 CE
'But... what about the email? What if he's right?' I hear Tali's mother say as I venture near the engine room. I follow it inside.
'Take the Enterprise. I want you outside the ship when we activate them. If anything goes wrong... Warn Tali. Tell the Fleet. Just... Protect our daughter, please?' Rael begs. Tali is watching him on her omni-tool, staring.
'For you, Rael.' Tali's mother nods. The video ends.
'Are you okay?' I ask.
'No.' Tali sobs.
I sweep her into a hug.
'He knew the risks. You told him the risks. He did it anyway. He doomed his ship to die. He saved his wife over his crew. And she let him...' Tali wailed.
'I'm sorry.' I patted her on the back, softly.
'The worst part is... she didn't even warn the fleet. He told her to and she just... ran. And now, thanks to us, she's going to get away with that and... And I want her to!' Tali confessed.
Tali laughed, hysterically. 'My own mother and father are the worst traitors and war criminals in Quarian history and they're going to get away with it. No one will ever know.'
'Your father paid for it with his life.' I reminded her.
'It's not enough. Not for this.' Tali shook her head.
'I still want him back. I... How does Liara deal with this every day? And she has the help of her mother being indoctrinated to cause this! I don't even have that.'
'But, you know, on the upside, your parents never tried to kill you like hers did.' I tried to point out.
Tali sniffled. 'There is that. Kelah, I need a drink.'
'You have a working emergency induction port?' I asked, surprised.
'Nope! Mine got busted on Haestrom. I need to fix it, but it never seemed the time.' Tali hiccupped.
'I'm sorry Tali. I thought I was making things better.'
'You were. This... this is bad, but... That virus was 7 years ago. I was only 17. You gave me that time with her. You tried to warn my father. You saved my mother's life once more. You did... good. It's not your fault it ended up like this.' Tali reassured me.
'Nor yours.' I countered.
'Chakwas has a sterilizer in the medbay. I'm sure there's a metal straw in the mess that we can render safe for me to use.'
'And the alcohol?' I asked.
'Garrus probably has something?' Tali decided.
'I can't let you do that, Tali.' I decided.
'What can you let me do then?' Tali laughed, mirthlessly.
'You asked how Liara could handle it. So... why don't we watch Up, in the Commander's quarters. Just you, me, and Shepard?'
'Can Garrus come? Don't tell him why just... can he?' Tali asked, her voice sounding small, but hopeful.
'For you? I'm sure he wouldn't miss it for anything in the Galaxy.'
Tali stared at me through her suit.
'Thank you, Krell. For trying.'
I smiled back. 'Don't worry about it. You're a great kid, Tali. You deserve better than this.'
I pulled out my omni-tool and messaged EDI to page Shepard.
We'd get through this; together.
_________________
2185 CE
Dealing with loss is a real problem for Krogan. It wasn't really that much of a concern before the Genophage. We had very very large families and even if your favorite kid died, or your favorite sibling, or cousin, you had a ton of other relatives and friends you liked and disliked to help you through it. You had your krantt, too, which was even closer than your family although the two categories could and often did overlap.
So what then was a newly jobless ex-warlord to do when deposed as a result of the Genophage? What grand problem could I address in the over two thousand years until the Reapers were set to invade again?
I wrote. I wrote mostly to get my feelings out, to set them on a page so that I could examine them and deal with them. I wrote from a deeply personal place. And because that place was deeply personal, I wrote from the position I was in at the time. I was an ex-warlord facing 80 years of war that we were certain to lose, my favorite sister had died, I lacked the support of my clan, most of my kids were dead, and then there was the Genophage...
I wrote 'On Loss' the definitive book of Krogan grieving; part military treatise, part requiem. Reciting passages from 'On Loss' is now very popular at Krogan funerals; when we have them.
The book deals with confronting the inevitable, with addressing foes you can't defeat; death counted foremost among them. It talks about accepting loss and recovering from it.
If you're curious as to what that looks like, I'll share a passage:
And lo, the endless hordes abound he faced the foe with rocky mein,
He could not win the Rachni's ground. He stared at death, his grace serene.
They found him there. He did not flee. His former krantt, their lives he bought
A price paid dear. His gun spit glee; confronting that which can't be fought.
There is no monument for him. There is no grave to mark his name.
His Krantt survived, though duly grim. He fought a foe he could not tame.
I guess the Human equivalent would be a eulogy; or perhaps the mourner's kaddish. I never actually named the passage. I never really intended to publish it. My ex pushed me to do so.
These days it's known as 'He fought a foe.' It helps us confront the inevitability of loss. Of death.
Krogan grief isn't like Asari grief. It isn't like Turian or Quarian grief, nor like Hanar or Elcor. Humans have shades of it, but there are different shades and textures to it.
There aren't seven stages. There's just anger, and confusion.
'He Fought a Foe' has ingrained itself into Krogan culture, somewhat against my will. It helps us turn confusion and rage into something else. It helps us show respect.
Krogan Battlemasters sometimes recite it before pitching their krantt against impossible odds. Krogan parents, bitter with loss at still-born babes draw comfort from it, seeing their children as warriors rather than the victims that they truly are.
I'm very much the foremost Krogan expert on grief in this entire fucking galaxy.
None of that expertise helps Tali.
_______
2185 CE
Shepard talks to her after the movie. I'm not sure what she says to Tali, but it helps.
More than anything else I hate this feeling. Being Krogan means freedom from dread. That's a Human emotion. Evolution, in us, has mostly replaced it with excitement.
There is no excitement to be found here. This isn't a foe I can blast with a shotgun. It isn't an enemy I can overload.
Useless.
I'm useless.
There's nothing I can do to help.
I suppose I could try and find Tali's mother. I could call my favorite granddaughter and she'd find her in a snap. But there's not much I can do with that information other than tell Tali, and that would probably only make things worse.
I pull out my pad and start to type.
Dear kid,
If you haven't heard already, Tali was cleared of all charges. She's in no danger of being exiled, and I managed to make sure that the fallout wouldn't happen to fall on her parents either.
We're going to dock at Omega sometime in the next month or so. One last shore leave before the Omega-4 Relay. I'm sure you'll know when that's happening before I do.
Tali's dad died. Her mom survived, but she seems to have fled the Migrant Fleet instead of warning them; instead of protecting Tali from her parents' crimes. We don't know where she is, and I'm not certain any of us wants to find out the answers.
She could really use a friend right now.
Love,
Gramps.
_____________
2185 CE
Liara called the very same day offering Tali comfort, as well as any information she needed, if she wanted it.
Tali asked Liara to look into her mom's location, and asked her to save her if she was in danger.
Liara agreed, understanding the subtle subtext that if Tali's mother wasn't in fact in danger, Tali didn't want to know.
I'm proud of my granddaughter. It used to be that such subtlety was completely beyond her! Why I remember a time when she was given all the clues she needed to unravel the largest galactic conspiracy in existence and instead spent her time ignoring all the subtext and complaining about academic integrity!
Liara's return email to my praise-filled thank you note was just one line:
'Academic integrity is important, Krell!'
I'm sure she'll admit that I'm right someday, but it definitely won't be any time soon.
________________
Author's Notes: And that's the end of the Tali Arc. You haven't seen the last of Tali's mother, but you have seen the last of her for a while.
The chapter's title is a Bob Dylan song, but the specific version of it is the one sung by Adele. There's a very nice version on the Chimes of Freedom Album. Specifically that album. There's another live version with the same exact title off songs for Japan that's a very different tone to it. Chimes of Freedom is a great album by the way, all the pleasures of Bob-Dylan's song-writing, but performed by people who can actually sing; like Johnny Cash, Ke$ha, Miley Cyrus, Sugarland, and Angélique Kidjo. If you haven't heard the song, give it a listen. It's got a good tone for the chapter as a whole, I think.
One of the fun, but also challenging things about Making Krell an amazing writer in universe is that if I want to give an example of his work he'll only ever be as good a writer as I am at the moment I'm writing the example. that means I need to try and kick everything up a notch for those bits and try and pull out more tricks to increase how well those bits sound and hit. Practically speaking a lot of that usually works through additional editing. Sometimes it comes in doing things like using meter. Sometimes it comes from taking a running joke or two and turning them into dark reprises.
That's every canonical loyalty mission minus Legion's down. Krell's already gotten his Loyalty mission on Illium with Aethyta. We're real close to the end of ME2 now. ME3 is fully plotted out, but I'm still actually writing it and frequently that means that I need to go back and rewrite or reorder things to make them fit together better. I'm currently dealing with two different paths Krell could end up taking and trying to figure out which will be more fun to read and write. So I'm not going to start posting on ME3 until all the basic plot scenes are done. I'm thinking that might end up turning into a hiatus of a week or two, depending on just how big ME3 ends up being.
2185 CE
We headed back to the Rayya together in a pall of silence. Tali was afraid to ask me what I found. I was afraid to tell her.
The first thing I did when I got back was to confirm that our deal still stood. In gratitude for the return of the Alarei, the warning about the Geth, and the evidence they needed to stop anything like this from happening again, everything on the Alarei would be classified and explained away as a rogue attack by the Heretic Geth, accidentally let in by a careless researcher who died for his mistake. The truth, without all those messy details.
In thanks for my assistance with the Geth, in both martial and diplomatic sense of the word, no charges would be filed against either of Tali's parents. I asked about the shuttle, but apparently its departure wasn't logged. Shuttles are under the jurisdiction of the ship that hosts them. It was noticed leaving, but no one thought to ask why or where until it was gone.
I gave them the evidence and we departed the Migrant Fleet.
__________________________
2185 CE
'But... what about the email? What if he's right?' I hear Tali's mother say as I venture near the engine room. I follow it inside.
'Take the Enterprise. I want you outside the ship when we activate them. If anything goes wrong... Warn Tali. Tell the Fleet. Just... Protect our daughter, please?' Rael begs. Tali is watching him on her omni-tool, staring.
'For you, Rael.' Tali's mother nods. The video ends.
'Are you okay?' I ask.
'No.' Tali sobs.
I sweep her into a hug.
'He knew the risks. You told him the risks. He did it anyway. He doomed his ship to die. He saved his wife over his crew. And she let him...' Tali wailed.
'I'm sorry.' I patted her on the back, softly.
'The worst part is... she didn't even warn the fleet. He told her to and she just... ran. And now, thanks to us, she's going to get away with that and... And I want her to!' Tali confessed.
Tali laughed, hysterically. 'My own mother and father are the worst traitors and war criminals in Quarian history and they're going to get away with it. No one will ever know.'
'Your father paid for it with his life.' I reminded her.
'It's not enough. Not for this.' Tali shook her head.
'I still want him back. I... How does Liara deal with this every day? And she has the help of her mother being indoctrinated to cause this! I don't even have that.'
'But, you know, on the upside, your parents never tried to kill you like hers did.' I tried to point out.
Tali sniffled. 'There is that. Kelah, I need a drink.'
'You have a working emergency induction port?' I asked, surprised.
'Nope! Mine got busted on Haestrom. I need to fix it, but it never seemed the time.' Tali hiccupped.
'I'm sorry Tali. I thought I was making things better.'
'You were. This... this is bad, but... That virus was 7 years ago. I was only 17. You gave me that time with her. You tried to warn my father. You saved my mother's life once more. You did... good. It's not your fault it ended up like this.' Tali reassured me.
'Nor yours.' I countered.
'Chakwas has a sterilizer in the medbay. I'm sure there's a metal straw in the mess that we can render safe for me to use.'
'And the alcohol?' I asked.
'Garrus probably has something?' Tali decided.
'I can't let you do that, Tali.' I decided.
'What can you let me do then?' Tali laughed, mirthlessly.
'You asked how Liara could handle it. So... why don't we watch Up, in the Commander's quarters. Just you, me, and Shepard?'
'Can Garrus come? Don't tell him why just... can he?' Tali asked, her voice sounding small, but hopeful.
'For you? I'm sure he wouldn't miss it for anything in the Galaxy.'
Tali stared at me through her suit.
'Thank you, Krell. For trying.'
I smiled back. 'Don't worry about it. You're a great kid, Tali. You deserve better than this.'
I pulled out my omni-tool and messaged EDI to page Shepard.
We'd get through this; together.
_________________
2185 CE
Dealing with loss is a real problem for Krogan. It wasn't really that much of a concern before the Genophage. We had very very large families and even if your favorite kid died, or your favorite sibling, or cousin, you had a ton of other relatives and friends you liked and disliked to help you through it. You had your krantt, too, which was even closer than your family although the two categories could and often did overlap.
So what then was a newly jobless ex-warlord to do when deposed as a result of the Genophage? What grand problem could I address in the over two thousand years until the Reapers were set to invade again?
I wrote. I wrote mostly to get my feelings out, to set them on a page so that I could examine them and deal with them. I wrote from a deeply personal place. And because that place was deeply personal, I wrote from the position I was in at the time. I was an ex-warlord facing 80 years of war that we were certain to lose, my favorite sister had died, I lacked the support of my clan, most of my kids were dead, and then there was the Genophage...
I wrote 'On Loss' the definitive book of Krogan grieving; part military treatise, part requiem. Reciting passages from 'On Loss' is now very popular at Krogan funerals; when we have them.
The book deals with confronting the inevitable, with addressing foes you can't defeat; death counted foremost among them. It talks about accepting loss and recovering from it.
If you're curious as to what that looks like, I'll share a passage:
And lo, the endless hordes abound he faced the foe with rocky mein,
He could not win the Rachni's ground. He stared at death, his grace serene.
They found him there. He did not flee. His former krantt, their lives he bought
A price paid dear. His gun spit glee; confronting that which can't be fought.
There is no monument for him. There is no grave to mark his name.
His Krantt survived, though duly grim. He fought a foe he could not tame.
I guess the Human equivalent would be a eulogy; or perhaps the mourner's kaddish. I never actually named the passage. I never really intended to publish it. My ex pushed me to do so.
These days it's known as 'He fought a foe.' It helps us confront the inevitability of loss. Of death.
Krogan grief isn't like Asari grief. It isn't like Turian or Quarian grief, nor like Hanar or Elcor. Humans have shades of it, but there are different shades and textures to it.
There aren't seven stages. There's just anger, and confusion.
'He Fought a Foe' has ingrained itself into Krogan culture, somewhat against my will. It helps us turn confusion and rage into something else. It helps us show respect.
Krogan Battlemasters sometimes recite it before pitching their krantt against impossible odds. Krogan parents, bitter with loss at still-born babes draw comfort from it, seeing their children as warriors rather than the victims that they truly are.
I'm very much the foremost Krogan expert on grief in this entire fucking galaxy.
None of that expertise helps Tali.
_______
2185 CE
Shepard talks to her after the movie. I'm not sure what she says to Tali, but it helps.
More than anything else I hate this feeling. Being Krogan means freedom from dread. That's a Human emotion. Evolution, in us, has mostly replaced it with excitement.
There is no excitement to be found here. This isn't a foe I can blast with a shotgun. It isn't an enemy I can overload.
Useless.
I'm useless.
There's nothing I can do to help.
I suppose I could try and find Tali's mother. I could call my favorite granddaughter and she'd find her in a snap. But there's not much I can do with that information other than tell Tali, and that would probably only make things worse.
I pull out my pad and start to type.
Dear kid,
If you haven't heard already, Tali was cleared of all charges. She's in no danger of being exiled, and I managed to make sure that the fallout wouldn't happen to fall on her parents either.
We're going to dock at Omega sometime in the next month or so. One last shore leave before the Omega-4 Relay. I'm sure you'll know when that's happening before I do.
Tali's dad died. Her mom survived, but she seems to have fled the Migrant Fleet instead of warning them; instead of protecting Tali from her parents' crimes. We don't know where she is, and I'm not certain any of us wants to find out the answers.
She could really use a friend right now.
Love,
Gramps.
_____________
2185 CE
Liara called the very same day offering Tali comfort, as well as any information she needed, if she wanted it.
Tali asked Liara to look into her mom's location, and asked her to save her if she was in danger.
Liara agreed, understanding the subtle subtext that if Tali's mother wasn't in fact in danger, Tali didn't want to know.
I'm proud of my granddaughter. It used to be that such subtlety was completely beyond her! Why I remember a time when she was given all the clues she needed to unravel the largest galactic conspiracy in existence and instead spent her time ignoring all the subtext and complaining about academic integrity!
Liara's return email to my praise-filled thank you note was just one line:
'Academic integrity is important, Krell!'
I'm sure she'll admit that I'm right someday, but it definitely won't be any time soon.
________________
Author's Notes: And that's the end of the Tali Arc. You haven't seen the last of Tali's mother, but you have seen the last of her for a while.
The chapter's title is a Bob Dylan song, but the specific version of it is the one sung by Adele. There's a very nice version on the Chimes of Freedom Album. Specifically that album. There's another live version with the same exact title off songs for Japan that's a very different tone to it. Chimes of Freedom is a great album by the way, all the pleasures of Bob-Dylan's song-writing, but performed by people who can actually sing; like Johnny Cash, Ke$ha, Miley Cyrus, Sugarland, and Angélique Kidjo. If you haven't heard the song, give it a listen. It's got a good tone for the chapter as a whole, I think.
One of the fun, but also challenging things about Making Krell an amazing writer in universe is that if I want to give an example of his work he'll only ever be as good a writer as I am at the moment I'm writing the example. that means I need to try and kick everything up a notch for those bits and try and pull out more tricks to increase how well those bits sound and hit. Practically speaking a lot of that usually works through additional editing. Sometimes it comes in doing things like using meter. Sometimes it comes from taking a running joke or two and turning them into dark reprises.
That's every canonical loyalty mission minus Legion's down. Krell's already gotten his Loyalty mission on Illium with Aethyta. We're real close to the end of ME2 now. ME3 is fully plotted out, but I'm still actually writing it and frequently that means that I need to go back and rewrite or reorder things to make them fit together better. I'm currently dealing with two different paths Krell could end up taking and trying to figure out which will be more fun to read and write. So I'm not going to start posting on ME3 until all the basic plot scenes are done. I'm thinking that might end up turning into a hiatus of a week or two, depending on just how big ME3 ends up being.
- Location
- USA
Poor Legion. Best Boy getting left for the very end.
Only because Krell isn't taking chances
Huh. I was wondering if Krell's Loyalty Mission would have been confronting his own rose coloured glasses combined with the fog of ages regarding the Krogan Rebellions, like how he remembers Lusia being settled by the Krogan, when according the ME wiki it had been an Asari colony for 1200 years by the time the Krogan Rebellions started. When he says "'Maybe you shouldn't start a genocide if you aren't willing to suffer one yourself", he says it as a warning to others, blocking out how the Krogan were dropping asteroids on inhabited planets and taking slaves en mass to ruminate on the Genophage.
On another topic, so, what Loyalty Power did Shepard get from Krell?
And what would Kaidan's Loyalty Mission/Power be?
Stratagemini
Totally a Fire Ferret.
- Location
- Central Park
- Pronouns
- He/Him/They/Them
Presumably Frag grenades. But I'm not using Loyalty powers as a mechanic in the story I guess Krell would build them for her.
The subjunctive case is not indicated here. You want "Will" not "Would."
Last chapter you mentioned Ekuna.
The funny thing is, it's a bit of a clusterfuck, lore wise.
If you go purely by the games and Codex, with no further details, the Council screwed over the Quarians and that's that. The colony was apparently founded in 2103, just 82 years before canon, and over 200 after the Morning War. They somehow have a population of over 200M in just that time though, which is wierd unless there was some pretty extensive immigration.
If you take details from the books though, Ekuna was already colonized by Elcor 110 years before the Morning War. Because Yorick was born there, and he's 395 years old, so assuming he was born to the first colonists it was established by 1785 at the latest. Which would imply the following timeline:
Quarians find Ekuna, pass it up because it's a high gravity world and (in the Quarians' case) mostly Levo besides. In fact, most species consider this a second tier planet, since you need a mass effect unit just to visit, let alone live there.
Elcor colonize. Cuz, high gravity.
Morning War happens.
Quarians try to counter-colonize the planet they found, including releasing their prisoners and exiles in the Elcor colony, an event the Elcor call the "little invasion". Get kicked off, the planet now officially belongs to the Elcor by Council law.
And it would have to happen in that order because the alternative is worse: that the little invasion happened and then the Quarians tried to colonize it. One way makes the little invasion part of the colony push, the other is just harassing the Elcor at that point.
Anyway.
This does fix the population issue, again unless they had some pretty extensive immigration, but it also flies in the face of the Codex entry. But, generally, a single itemized number is less important than an entire backstory, particularly since the Codex is an in-universe resource and has been wrong before *cough* Geth Dreadnought *cough* human supremecy bullshit "sleeping giants" you have a population of buillions in a galaxy of trillions *cough*. But on the first hand again, the Codex is our canonical "player's guide to Mass Effect".
So. Yeah. A clusterfuck.
... but, then, it wouldn't be the first time this fic has assumed the games are totally true to the setting and ignored outside sources. Not that that's a problem; it honestly cleans up a lot of the ambiguity in the setting when you keep your lore grounded like that. But, like...
I almost choked when Krell said an angry Krogan trumps an Asari Huntress. Cause, for starters and most obviously, not all of them are maidens making stupid decisions, even if that makes up the majority of them. But notably the Devs were on record that Biotics were nerfed to hell and back for the sake of game balance, and Asari are a cut above everyone else in that area. Cora, human freak of nature, ripped an APC apart with just her biotics, which made her qualified for a cross-species military thing with the Asari. Another Asari shielded an entire city block from missile bombardment (and was winded after).
So... yeah. With extended lore, not so sure I'd bet on the Krogan in that matchup, at least not for a career soldier Asari instead of one of their maidens.
But. Games. In the multiplayer? Krogan characters are a hell of a lot tougher than asari ones.
The funny thing is, it's a bit of a clusterfuck, lore wise.
If you go purely by the games and Codex, with no further details, the Council screwed over the Quarians and that's that. The colony was apparently founded in 2103, just 82 years before canon, and over 200 after the Morning War. They somehow have a population of over 200M in just that time though, which is wierd unless there was some pretty extensive immigration.
If you take details from the books though, Ekuna was already colonized by Elcor 110 years before the Morning War. Because Yorick was born there, and he's 395 years old, so assuming he was born to the first colonists it was established by 1785 at the latest. Which would imply the following timeline:
Quarians find Ekuna, pass it up because it's a high gravity world and (in the Quarians' case) mostly Levo besides. In fact, most species consider this a second tier planet, since you need a mass effect unit just to visit, let alone live there.
Elcor colonize. Cuz, high gravity.
Morning War happens.
Quarians try to counter-colonize the planet they found, including releasing their prisoners and exiles in the Elcor colony, an event the Elcor call the "little invasion". Get kicked off, the planet now officially belongs to the Elcor by Council law.
And it would have to happen in that order because the alternative is worse: that the little invasion happened and then the Quarians tried to colonize it. One way makes the little invasion part of the colony push, the other is just harassing the Elcor at that point.
Anyway.
This does fix the population issue, again unless they had some pretty extensive immigration, but it also flies in the face of the Codex entry. But, generally, a single itemized number is less important than an entire backstory, particularly since the Codex is an in-universe resource and has been wrong before *cough* Geth Dreadnought *cough* human supremecy bullshit "sleeping giants" you have a population of buillions in a galaxy of trillions *cough*. But on the first hand again, the Codex is our canonical "player's guide to Mass Effect".
So. Yeah. A clusterfuck.
... but, then, it wouldn't be the first time this fic has assumed the games are totally true to the setting and ignored outside sources. Not that that's a problem; it honestly cleans up a lot of the ambiguity in the setting when you keep your lore grounded like that. But, like...
I almost choked when Krell said an angry Krogan trumps an Asari Huntress. Cause, for starters and most obviously, not all of them are maidens making stupid decisions, even if that makes up the majority of them. But notably the Devs were on record that Biotics were nerfed to hell and back for the sake of game balance, and Asari are a cut above everyone else in that area. Cora, human freak of nature, ripped an APC apart with just her biotics, which made her qualified for a cross-species military thing with the Asari. Another Asari shielded an entire city block from missile bombardment (and was winded after).
So... yeah. With extended lore, not so sure I'd bet on the Krogan in that matchup, at least not for a career soldier Asari instead of one of their maidens.
But. Games. In the multiplayer? Krogan characters are a hell of a lot tougher than asari ones.
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I have been critical of the Council's treatment of the Quarians regarding Ekuna, I wonder why they would settle there. It's a high-gravity world with sub-par resources that can support Elcor life. Even ignoring the high gravity complications, that would suggest that it's a Levo world, not a Dextro world.
Still doesn't justify the Council's threats to bombard the Quarian settlements.
Still doesn't justify the Council's threats to bombard the Quarian settlements.
Quinn Porthos
Multiclass Munchkin
- Location
- Wandering
It occurs to me, that ME has artificial gravity tech. RL physics aside, why the hell does it matter what the natural gravity of a planet is when you can build habitats on it with whatever gravity you want? I mean you can't tell me that Elcor ships or colony habs are set to Earth-Normal gravity. Or that Turians don't have different preferences for their gravity settings than Baterians or Volus.
The Levo/Dextro issues would be much more important for any colony.
The Levo/Dextro issues would be much more important for any colony.
Because then you spend your entire life in a dome or arcology and the spaceship issue just repeats without the spaceship. Leaving the arcologies would require specialized suits just so you can move. This would probably also skyrocket long term energy usage and, even if energy is plentiful with fusion reactors, it's not free.
Aside from the lore and timeline issues, even assuming the worst possible outlook for the Council making that decision, I would like to point out that Ekuna is right beside the Percius Veil. For a species that literally adopted an oath to retake the homeworld for a general exclamation, picking a substandard colony world within ideal invasion launching distance of that homeworld is a little sus. Which is a problem when literally nobody in the galaxy wants the bear-pokers to go poking any bears, lest the bears decide everyone else also looks delicious once awoken.
And, this can't have been their only option. Quarians had colonies and permanent space stations better equipped than the whole migrant fleet before the Morning War. Hell, humans managed multiple colonies in just the couple decades between first leaving Sol and first contact. Even if they were really discriminated against to the point they couldn't set up a normal, no-ulterior-motive colony in peace, there's no real reason the Quarians couldn't have disappeared into the Terminus and started over from scratch. The current species have explored less than 1% of the galaxy so far.
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Quarians do have a disadvantage due to their immune systems, but yeah, if they were planning on colonizing Ekuna, disappearing into the Terminus Systems and setting up camp there on some unclaimed dextro world probably would have been a better idea.
CHAPTER 30: Into The Fire
Stratagemini
Totally a Fire Ferret.
- Location
- Central Park
- Pronouns
- He/Him/They/Them
CHAPTER 30: Into The Fire
2185 CE
With Tali recovered and back in action, more or less, it was time to go after the Reaper IFF.
We headed to Mnemosyne.
'Okay, so the Illusive man wants us to check in on his team that was researching this thing and grab the Reaper's IFF, which will supposedly let us through the Omega 4 Relay.' Shepard began.
She paused.
'Actually, quick question, Krell, is that actually going to work?' Shepard asked.
'Oh, yeah, definitely. It'll even let us come back too! There's a ship's graveyard immediately past the other end of the Relay though. So trying to head there with anyone other than Joker at the helm is just a complicated form of suicide, though.' I explain.
Grunt nodded, as if that was only expected.
'Lucky we have Joker then.' Garrus grinned.
Tali nodded, as did I.
'Now, we have no idea what killed this thing.' Shepard paused, looking at me.
'Yes, Krell? You have a problem with that statement?' Shepard asked, probably in response to the face I was making at her.
'We do know what killed it. It was a really really fast mass accelerator round. It ripped through the Reaper and created the great Klendagon rift. I wrote a paper on it. The speeds it hit aren't anything that we can replicate using modern mass accelerator tech, but if we substitute speed for mass we end up with a very similar amount of force.' I explained.
'How much force?' Shepard asked.
'About an asteroid's worth? A small one, like, four or five kilometers long.' I explained.
'I don't suppose you happen to have a gun that fires asteroids?' Shepard asked, hopefully.
'Like, a man portable one? I designed one, but I never actually built it. It also would have used a ton of eezo just to allow the user to aim it with one hand. It was pretty massive. Not particularly economical, though.' I explained.
'Why would you--!? The calibrations alone would--! How much would it cost to make one?' Garrus asked.
'Assuming you're not factoring in the cost of ammo, surprisingly cheap, you know, for what it was. Only 250,000,000 credits.' I explained.
'Hmmm... a bit out of my price range for now, I think.' Garrus decided.
'New and impractical ways to kill Reapers aside, I was about to say that no one other than Krell here knows what to expect once we're in there. So, what are we expecting here, Krell?' Shepard asks.
'Husks. A lot of husks. All of the different kinds. The blue ones, the explodey ones... the other but different and larger explodey ones--'
'Scions, they're called Scions. You named them, Krell. You gave us a lecture on them.' Miranda interrupted.
'Yeah, those. Whachamacallits. Enough husks to give you a phobia. They appear from underneath the catwalks, climbing up on every side of you. Also, since I know you love to read other people's journals, they're all going to be scientists slowly going insane from indoctrination; you know, for if you wanted to ignore my warnings in the first Normandy meeting room about dead gods still being able to dream. The Geth I mentioned on Tali's pilgrimage should be there too. It'll probably be wearing a piece of the N7 Armor you were blown into space in; so be ready for that. Other than that I can't remember anything else. I think you might be cut off from reinforcements until you actually grab the IFF? Don't remember for sure if that's what happened. Also! The Geth ends up deactivated in the final firefight. You're gonna wanna reactivate him as soon as possible. There's some stuff we need to know before activating the Reaper IFF since it's a bit of a trap? But beyond that nothing else for the dead Reaper. Wait. Maybe Joker ends up in a dog fight? I can't remember if that actually happened or if it was just the nachos I ate last night.' I admit.
'Tenses used strange. As if incident already happened. Curious.' Mordin observed.
'Cut off from reinforcements? Right then. Mordin, Garrus, Krell. You're all our best bets for dealing with husks and abominations. You three are coming with me.' Shepard decided.
'Fine. Just let me free up some space on my vid-recorder. Wrex isn't gonna wanna miss this fight.' I decide.
'You're recording these?' Kaidan asked.
'Aren't you?' I ask back.
'No, I'm typing up all my reports and sending them through you, wouldn't you notice if I had video attached?' Kaidan accused.
'What, you think I'm reading your mail? I have better things to do, Kaidan. I'm trying to save the galaxy.'
'We're all trying to save the galaxy! All of us, Krell. That's why we're here. We all want to save the galaxy.' Kaidan protested.
'Yeah, but I'm actually really good at my job.' I replied.
'You don't know that! How could you possibly know that? The galaxy hasn't ended yet!' Kaidan protested.
'That's how I know I'm good at the job, Kaidan.' I smirked.
'Okay, as amusing as this is, we do need to get that IFF today. So Mordin, Garrus, Krell. I want you suited up and ready in 30. Got it?' Shepard ordered.
'Got it.' I replied. Garrus nodded. Mordin just stared. I guess he assumed Shepard knew he'd be ready?
15 minutes later I was in the equipment bay with Mordin.
Mordin, and a lot of awkward silence.
'Hey, Mordin... I'm... sorry.' I admitted. 'I shouldn't have made you go through that on Tuchanka without telling you about it before hand. It was something I thought you needed to see to understand.'
'Likely right. Still, hurts. Had thought that we were kindred souls. Now I understand. We are both terrible teachers.' Mordin explained.
'In the interests of full disclosure, I have the last remaining copy of the data on what Binary Helix was doing at Peak 15. I cloned all their systems. They were performing all kinds of research on the Rachni there. I got to kill my first Rachni in almost two millennia.'
'Got bit in the ass by one too, to hear Shepard tell it.' Garrus grinned as he strode out of the elevator.
I rolled my eyes.
'Anyway, as a gesture of peace, do you want a copy? I know you've been bored ever since you figured out those seeker swarms.' I offered.
'Thank you, have been bored. Haven't been able to enjoy singing as much without a partner either.' Mordin admitted.
'You two have a song for this mission?' Garrus joked.
'You know, I think I actually do.' I admitted.
'You have a specific song for charging into the belly of a dead mechanical elder god?' Garrus asked.
'You read Lovecraft?' I asked, surprised.
'Wanted to know the genre of the horror story we're in for. Didn't like it. There were some words so racist I had to look up their meaning. Basically had to teach myself an entire college course on ancient human racism just to understand how racist he was.' Garrus explained.
'I warned you.'
'That you did. But you never answered my question. What about the song?' Garrus agreed.
'Right. It's more of a general purpose Captain Kirrahe speech in the form of a song; you know, for general suicide mission purposes.' I admitted.
'Well, now must hear. Cannot refrain from singing after hyping song up like that.' Mordin declared.
I agreed.
'This one comes from the Human musical 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' It's from a pre-FTL humanity. They were doing a revival on Broadway when I was in New York. I had to see it. The song is called 'Into the Fire'.' I explained. Then I opened my mouth to sing.
`David walked into the valley with a stone clutched in his hand. He was only a boy but he knew someone must take a stand. There will always be a valley; always mountains one must scale. There will always be perilous waters which someone must sail. Into valleys, into waters, into jungles, into Hell; let us ride, let us ride home again with a story to tell!
'Into darkness, into danger, into storms that rip the night! Don't give in, don't give up but give thanks for the glorious fight!
'You can tremble, you can fear it but keep your fighting spirit alive, boys! Let the shiver of it sting you. Fling into battle, spring to your feet, boys! Never hold back your step for a moment! Never doubt that your courage will grow!
Hold your head even higher and into the fire we go!
'Are there mountains that surround us? Are there walls that block the way? Knock them down, strip them back, boys and forward and into the fray! Into terror, into valour! Charge ahead, no, never turn! Yes it's into the fire we fly and the devil will burn!
'Someone has to face the valley. Rush in we have to rally and win, boys! When the world is saying not to, by god, you know you've got to march on, boys!
'Never hold back your step for a moment! Never doubt that your courage will grow! Hold your head even higher and into the fire we go!
'Let the lightning strike! Let the flash of it shock you! Choke your fears away! Pull as tight as a wire! Let the fever spike! Let the force of it rock you! We will have our day sailing into the fire!
'Someone has to face the valley; rush in we have to rally and win, boys! When the world is saying not to, you know you've got to march on, boys! Never hold back your step for a moment! Look alive, oh your courage will grow! Yes it's higher and higher and into the fire we go!
'Into fire! Onward ho!`
'Hah! Yes! Hold. the. Line! Kirrahe in a song indeed!' Mordin chortled.
'That was almost Turian in tone. Was it a general inspiring his military?' Garrus asked.
'Much the opposite. A rule-breaking foppish noble vigilante inspiring a crowd of like-minded nobles to invade another country in disguise and rescue the political prisoners which that country was set to execute.' I admit.
'Hah! Kirrahe indeed. How did you find out about that mission?' Mordin asked.
'Never heard of it. Must be a weird coincidence.' I admitted.
Mordin gave me a suspecting look, but ultimately let it slide.
At 30 minutes after the order was given, we were ready to invade the dead, yet still sleeping, mechanical god before us.
____________
2185 CE
There was a patch of rough space as we headed in.
'What's with all the chop, Joker?' Shepard asked as he flew in closer.
'I'm doing the best I can. Wind's gusting at over 500 KPH.'
Joker tried to stabilize us as another gust hit.
'There's a second ship alongside the Reaper. It's not transmitting any IFF, but the lidar paints its silhouette as Geth.' He continued.
'That'll be Legion.' I chimed in.
'Well, that's not an ominous name at all. Bible demons that Jesus had to deal with personally. Not any red flags here. So way, sir!' Joker joked.
All of a sudden we stabilized.
'What just happened?' Shepard asked.
'The Reaper's mass effect fields are still active. We just passed inside their envelope. ... Eye of the hurricane, huh?' Joker quipped.
With that we landed. No sooner had the door opened than Garrus was joking.
'Exploring an abandoned area, expecting something mechanical or nasty to jump out at any moment. Just like old times.'
'Well, at least we're better armed.' I reply.
'You're using the same NK-47 you always do, Krell.' Garrus pointed out.
'Than them. We're better armed than them.' I clarified.
There were two video logs in the airlock area, and a couple corpses and bloodstained walls. This was clearly a research area. There was a sign in giant letters on the far wall. 'Indoctrination Scanning is no longer Mandatory!' The sign was well made, professional, to the point. The 'no longer' was scrawled on using dried blood. I wasn't aware humans contained enough blood to paint the letters, honestly. The fact that the additional words were all in lower case instead of title case also bothered me.
Not the most auspicious start of a fight.
'So... that's clearly the first step of indoctrination, right?' Garrus asked after Shepard played the video logs.
'Current Hypothesis. Either that or infrasound? Both, perhaps. Effects might be synergistic.' Mordin agreed.
Shepard opened the airlock and the entire room rocked.
'Normandy to shore party!' Jeff called out over the radio.
'What just happened?' Shepard asked.
'The Reaper put up kinetic barriers. I don't think we can get through from our side.'
'So we're trapped. Wonderful.' Garrus observed.
'I did warn you this could happen.' I countered.
'Yeah, but I didn't want to believe you.' Garrus agreed.
'We'll have to take down the barrier generators from in here. Any idea where they are?' Shepard asked
EDI's voice came across the line smooth and clear. 'At the moment of activation, I detected a heat spike in what is likely the wreck's mass effect core. Sending the coordinates now. Be advised; this core is also maintaining the Reaper's altitude.'
'You couldn't have warned up about that?' Shepard asked.
'I didn't know. But if it has to do with flying Joker can do it.' I admitted.
'Now, you sound like Grunt... Or Joker." Garrus laughed.
'I can still hear you, you know.' Joker replied over comms.
'So when we take the barriers down to escape, the wreck falls into the planet core.' Shepard stated, trying to distract her pilot.
'And that means everyone dies. yeah, I got it.' Joker stated, irritated.
'If any helmsman can pull us off this thing before it reaches crush depths it's you.' Shepard reassured him.
'Like I said, if it has to do with flying Joker can do it.'
'Was that a compliment? I think that was a compliment, Krell!' Joker teased.
'We'll make a sweep for survivors and recover what data we can. Stand by.' Shepard informed our pilot.
'Aye Aye. Good hunting.' Joker signed off, perhaps intentionally trying to confuse me.
'Fascinating, Require scanners from Normandy. Great deal of data...' Mordin observed as the doors opened into the technological guts of a once organic species, complete with corpse-covered catwalk.
'Even if there are survivors we're shooting any. There's no way this entire research team isn't indoctrinated.' I ordered.
'No problem here.' Garrus agreed.
The next research log was more troubling proof of indoctrination. Two unrelated researchers remembering the same incident with their wife Katy at their brother's marriage.
'Memory alteration. Reaper affecting their minds...' Mordin theorized.
'Humans are easier to control if you give them all the same memories, I guess? Or perhaps the damned thing's just firing aimlessly with no purpose behind it.' I speculated.
'Hard to tell. Not enough data on Indoctrination to say for sure. Shielding techniques still experimental, rudimentary.'
'Well, that's not worrying at all.' Garrus observed, perhaps ironically.
Three seconds later we were fighting husks.
'Whose idea was it to put high pressure tanks next to the explodey husks! Because I'm not sure I approve!' I roared.
'Not 'explodey' enough for you, Krell?' Garrus teased.
'Sure. Let's go with that.' I grumble, finishing the fight.
'I had wondered if the technology for making husks came from the Geth or from Sovereign.' Garrus admitted.
'You could have asked.' I replied.
'Nah, you seemed like you had a lot on your mind.' Garrus admitted.
The next log, after another brief fight, discussed visual hallucinations and the feeling that the ship was still alive. Apparently 'Doctor Chandana' removed the requirement that everyone wear indoctrination sensors constantly after people complained that they were inconvenient and that they felt awkward and uncomfortable wearing them constantly.
'I think I want to punch someone.' I grumbled.
'Many husks. Some non-explosive.' Mordin suggested.
We walked up a ramp only for a sniper to take out two husks.
'Sniper!' Garrus called out.
Shepard waited until it was clear and then grabbed some of the loot she used to finance this privateering semi-official Spectre operation.
'I couldn't see the shooter. A survivor from the science team?' Garrus asked.
'A Geth terminal.' I corrected.
'Well, that's a much less comforting thought.' Garrus decided.
'Huh. My favorite place to fight! A big open room where we can be attacked from all sides and all the chest high cover explodes.' I mutter, annoyed, as we're suddenly attacked once more.
'Tell me that's not actually your favorite place to fight. Big open rooms inside of dead Reapers aren't fun to fight through at all.' Garrus complained as he headshot a Scion, twice.
Shepard of course, ignored all the husks attacking us and ran to be the first to press the button on the terminal, biotic charging an enemy next to the terminal just to get to it faster and deprive everyone else of the possible pleasure of pressing a button.
'Chandana said the ship was dead. We trusted him. He was right. But even a dead god can dream.' Came the ominous voice from the terminal.
'A god -- a real god -- is a verb. Not some old man with magic powers. It's a force. It warps reality just by being there. It doesn't have to want to. It doesn't have to think about it. It just does. That's what Chandana didn't get. Not until it was too late. The god's mind is gone, but it still dreams. He knows now. He's tuned in on our dream. If I close my eyes I can feel him. I can feel every one of us.' The man in the vid terminal log had a face half-spattered in blood that was not his own; a detail noticeable even as I fought a ridiculously large wave of Husks.
'You know, the more I travel with you the less I believe your protests that you can't see the future.' Garrus declares.
'That's ridiculous. That was sound. You can't see sound!' I protested.
'Statement true... for Krogan. Still, implies that Krell can at least hear the future. Wonder if... No. Too dangerous to explore. Better stay away.' Mordin decided.
Once all the husks were gone, we approached a collection of oddly arranged Dragon's teeth, humans still impaled upon them, slowly starting to transform into husks.
'We've seen these before. Dragon's teeth, your people call them. The Geth used them on Eden Prime.' Garrus remarked as we approached.
'See how the room is arranged? They treated this thing like some kind of altar.' Shepard posited.
'It does look like that, but why would they want this to happen?' Garrus asked.
'You heard the logs. They were seeing things. hearing things. They were being indoctrinated despite the precautions they took. We can't help these people, but we won't let the Reapers use their corpses like this.' Shepard decided.
'You think the early stages of indoctrination made them sabotage the Indoctrination screening capabilities.' I realized.
'I do. There's a limit to even Cerberus' stupidity.' Shepard agreed.
'I wouldn't count on that.' Garrus joked. At least he thought he was joking; I wasn't so sure.
We salvaged the data in the room and moved on to the airlock. After it equalized the pressure and announced 5 days without a workplace death, it opened.
'5 Days, huh? Seems long for Cerberus. You think the Indoctrination made them more safety prone?' I asked.
'Could be.' Shepard agreed.
As we walked out onto the unshielded exterior, a Sniper took out a pair of husks sneaking up on Shepard; firing one bullet each on either side of her and getting a headshot each time.
Shepard looked up at the sniper, at the Geth, at Legion.
'Shepard-Commander.' The Geth Infiltrator pronounced before moving out of sight.
'Well damn, Krell, you were right. It talks.' Garrus decided as the thing left.
'Geth never operate alone. Stronger in numbers. Smarter too, as I understand.' Mordin observed.
'There are around 2,000 programs in that platform. It's definitely not operating alone.' I pronounce.
We fought our way through the catwalk, Shepard taking all the data and pressing all the buttons on the way.
'Only remaining task is destruction of mass effect core.' Mordin declares as we reach the final airlock.
We walked in to see a barrier blocking us, Legion interfacing with the terminal, being attacked by Husks. The Geth shot them with a pistol with one handed and took down the barrier with the other, moving to shoot the husks as he did.
He acquitted himself well, until three abominations exploded on him, deactivating him.
That left the rest to us. We shot up the core, and the husks and abominations attacking us in equal measure until it exploded.
I grabbed Legion and the IFF.
'Shame this isn't one of the juggernauts. I could have used their jump packs!' I joked.
The station was sinking and Husks were still climbing up to attack us. We raced our way back through the complex until we finally made it to the airlock. Joker detached as soon as the hatch slid shut, not even waiting for us to signal.
'Open the portside airlock.' Shepard ordered as we made it back to the exterior catwalks.
'Aye Aye!'
Gravity was low and so we all just hurled ourselves, Legion included, into the open airlock as the husks closed in and the Reaper exploded around us.
The door slammed shut and Joker barely waited for it to fully close before we were gone. The dead 'god' sinking into it's tomb behind us.
Fuck, I hate those things.
____________________
Author's Notes:
I honestly don't know if I like this chapter. It was meant to be a break after the Tali arc before we got to something more substantial; something light and humorous. I don't think it quite landed there.
The Scarlet pimpernel is certainly not the first superhero musical to grace the great white way, but it's definitely one of the best. Not that it has all that much competition. Toxic Avenger the Musical's the only other one that comes close, I think. It's definitely a lot better than Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark; though that's a low bar.
2185 CE
With Tali recovered and back in action, more or less, it was time to go after the Reaper IFF.
We headed to Mnemosyne.
'Okay, so the Illusive man wants us to check in on his team that was researching this thing and grab the Reaper's IFF, which will supposedly let us through the Omega 4 Relay.' Shepard began.
She paused.
'Actually, quick question, Krell, is that actually going to work?' Shepard asked.
'Oh, yeah, definitely. It'll even let us come back too! There's a ship's graveyard immediately past the other end of the Relay though. So trying to head there with anyone other than Joker at the helm is just a complicated form of suicide, though.' I explain.
Grunt nodded, as if that was only expected.
'Lucky we have Joker then.' Garrus grinned.
Tali nodded, as did I.
'Now, we have no idea what killed this thing.' Shepard paused, looking at me.
'Yes, Krell? You have a problem with that statement?' Shepard asked, probably in response to the face I was making at her.
'We do know what killed it. It was a really really fast mass accelerator round. It ripped through the Reaper and created the great Klendagon rift. I wrote a paper on it. The speeds it hit aren't anything that we can replicate using modern mass accelerator tech, but if we substitute speed for mass we end up with a very similar amount of force.' I explained.
'How much force?' Shepard asked.
'About an asteroid's worth? A small one, like, four or five kilometers long.' I explained.
'I don't suppose you happen to have a gun that fires asteroids?' Shepard asked, hopefully.
'Like, a man portable one? I designed one, but I never actually built it. It also would have used a ton of eezo just to allow the user to aim it with one hand. It was pretty massive. Not particularly economical, though.' I explained.
'Why would you--!? The calibrations alone would--! How much would it cost to make one?' Garrus asked.
'Assuming you're not factoring in the cost of ammo, surprisingly cheap, you know, for what it was. Only 250,000,000 credits.' I explained.
'Hmmm... a bit out of my price range for now, I think.' Garrus decided.
'New and impractical ways to kill Reapers aside, I was about to say that no one other than Krell here knows what to expect once we're in there. So, what are we expecting here, Krell?' Shepard asks.
'Husks. A lot of husks. All of the different kinds. The blue ones, the explodey ones... the other but different and larger explodey ones--'
'Scions, they're called Scions. You named them, Krell. You gave us a lecture on them.' Miranda interrupted.
'Yeah, those. Whachamacallits. Enough husks to give you a phobia. They appear from underneath the catwalks, climbing up on every side of you. Also, since I know you love to read other people's journals, they're all going to be scientists slowly going insane from indoctrination; you know, for if you wanted to ignore my warnings in the first Normandy meeting room about dead gods still being able to dream. The Geth I mentioned on Tali's pilgrimage should be there too. It'll probably be wearing a piece of the N7 Armor you were blown into space in; so be ready for that. Other than that I can't remember anything else. I think you might be cut off from reinforcements until you actually grab the IFF? Don't remember for sure if that's what happened. Also! The Geth ends up deactivated in the final firefight. You're gonna wanna reactivate him as soon as possible. There's some stuff we need to know before activating the Reaper IFF since it's a bit of a trap? But beyond that nothing else for the dead Reaper. Wait. Maybe Joker ends up in a dog fight? I can't remember if that actually happened or if it was just the nachos I ate last night.' I admit.
'Tenses used strange. As if incident already happened. Curious.' Mordin observed.
'Cut off from reinforcements? Right then. Mordin, Garrus, Krell. You're all our best bets for dealing with husks and abominations. You three are coming with me.' Shepard decided.
'Fine. Just let me free up some space on my vid-recorder. Wrex isn't gonna wanna miss this fight.' I decide.
'You're recording these?' Kaidan asked.
'Aren't you?' I ask back.
'No, I'm typing up all my reports and sending them through you, wouldn't you notice if I had video attached?' Kaidan accused.
'What, you think I'm reading your mail? I have better things to do, Kaidan. I'm trying to save the galaxy.'
'We're all trying to save the galaxy! All of us, Krell. That's why we're here. We all want to save the galaxy.' Kaidan protested.
'Yeah, but I'm actually really good at my job.' I replied.
'You don't know that! How could you possibly know that? The galaxy hasn't ended yet!' Kaidan protested.
'That's how I know I'm good at the job, Kaidan.' I smirked.
'Okay, as amusing as this is, we do need to get that IFF today. So Mordin, Garrus, Krell. I want you suited up and ready in 30. Got it?' Shepard ordered.
'Got it.' I replied. Garrus nodded. Mordin just stared. I guess he assumed Shepard knew he'd be ready?
15 minutes later I was in the equipment bay with Mordin.
Mordin, and a lot of awkward silence.
'Hey, Mordin... I'm... sorry.' I admitted. 'I shouldn't have made you go through that on Tuchanka without telling you about it before hand. It was something I thought you needed to see to understand.'
'Likely right. Still, hurts. Had thought that we were kindred souls. Now I understand. We are both terrible teachers.' Mordin explained.
'In the interests of full disclosure, I have the last remaining copy of the data on what Binary Helix was doing at Peak 15. I cloned all their systems. They were performing all kinds of research on the Rachni there. I got to kill my first Rachni in almost two millennia.'
'Got bit in the ass by one too, to hear Shepard tell it.' Garrus grinned as he strode out of the elevator.
I rolled my eyes.
'Anyway, as a gesture of peace, do you want a copy? I know you've been bored ever since you figured out those seeker swarms.' I offered.
'Thank you, have been bored. Haven't been able to enjoy singing as much without a partner either.' Mordin admitted.
'You two have a song for this mission?' Garrus joked.
'You know, I think I actually do.' I admitted.
'You have a specific song for charging into the belly of a dead mechanical elder god?' Garrus asked.
'You read Lovecraft?' I asked, surprised.
'Wanted to know the genre of the horror story we're in for. Didn't like it. There were some words so racist I had to look up their meaning. Basically had to teach myself an entire college course on ancient human racism just to understand how racist he was.' Garrus explained.
'I warned you.'
'That you did. But you never answered my question. What about the song?' Garrus agreed.
'Right. It's more of a general purpose Captain Kirrahe speech in the form of a song; you know, for general suicide mission purposes.' I admitted.
'Well, now must hear. Cannot refrain from singing after hyping song up like that.' Mordin declared.
I agreed.
'This one comes from the Human musical 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' It's from a pre-FTL humanity. They were doing a revival on Broadway when I was in New York. I had to see it. The song is called 'Into the Fire'.' I explained. Then I opened my mouth to sing.
`David walked into the valley with a stone clutched in his hand. He was only a boy but he knew someone must take a stand. There will always be a valley; always mountains one must scale. There will always be perilous waters which someone must sail. Into valleys, into waters, into jungles, into Hell; let us ride, let us ride home again with a story to tell!
'Into darkness, into danger, into storms that rip the night! Don't give in, don't give up but give thanks for the glorious fight!
'You can tremble, you can fear it but keep your fighting spirit alive, boys! Let the shiver of it sting you. Fling into battle, spring to your feet, boys! Never hold back your step for a moment! Never doubt that your courage will grow!
Hold your head even higher and into the fire we go!
'Are there mountains that surround us? Are there walls that block the way? Knock them down, strip them back, boys and forward and into the fray! Into terror, into valour! Charge ahead, no, never turn! Yes it's into the fire we fly and the devil will burn!
'Someone has to face the valley. Rush in we have to rally and win, boys! When the world is saying not to, by god, you know you've got to march on, boys!
'Never hold back your step for a moment! Never doubt that your courage will grow! Hold your head even higher and into the fire we go!
'Let the lightning strike! Let the flash of it shock you! Choke your fears away! Pull as tight as a wire! Let the fever spike! Let the force of it rock you! We will have our day sailing into the fire!
'Someone has to face the valley; rush in we have to rally and win, boys! When the world is saying not to, you know you've got to march on, boys! Never hold back your step for a moment! Look alive, oh your courage will grow! Yes it's higher and higher and into the fire we go!
'Into fire! Onward ho!`
'Hah! Yes! Hold. the. Line! Kirrahe in a song indeed!' Mordin chortled.
'That was almost Turian in tone. Was it a general inspiring his military?' Garrus asked.
'Much the opposite. A rule-breaking foppish noble vigilante inspiring a crowd of like-minded nobles to invade another country in disguise and rescue the political prisoners which that country was set to execute.' I admit.
'Hah! Kirrahe indeed. How did you find out about that mission?' Mordin asked.
'Never heard of it. Must be a weird coincidence.' I admitted.
Mordin gave me a suspecting look, but ultimately let it slide.
At 30 minutes after the order was given, we were ready to invade the dead, yet still sleeping, mechanical god before us.
____________
2185 CE
There was a patch of rough space as we headed in.
'What's with all the chop, Joker?' Shepard asked as he flew in closer.
'I'm doing the best I can. Wind's gusting at over 500 KPH.'
Joker tried to stabilize us as another gust hit.
'There's a second ship alongside the Reaper. It's not transmitting any IFF, but the lidar paints its silhouette as Geth.' He continued.
'That'll be Legion.' I chimed in.
'Well, that's not an ominous name at all. Bible demons that Jesus had to deal with personally. Not any red flags here. So way, sir!' Joker joked.
All of a sudden we stabilized.
'What just happened?' Shepard asked.
'The Reaper's mass effect fields are still active. We just passed inside their envelope. ... Eye of the hurricane, huh?' Joker quipped.
With that we landed. No sooner had the door opened than Garrus was joking.
'Exploring an abandoned area, expecting something mechanical or nasty to jump out at any moment. Just like old times.'
'Well, at least we're better armed.' I reply.
'You're using the same NK-47 you always do, Krell.' Garrus pointed out.
'Than them. We're better armed than them.' I clarified.
There were two video logs in the airlock area, and a couple corpses and bloodstained walls. This was clearly a research area. There was a sign in giant letters on the far wall. 'Indoctrination Scanning is no longer Mandatory!' The sign was well made, professional, to the point. The 'no longer' was scrawled on using dried blood. I wasn't aware humans contained enough blood to paint the letters, honestly. The fact that the additional words were all in lower case instead of title case also bothered me.
Not the most auspicious start of a fight.
'So... that's clearly the first step of indoctrination, right?' Garrus asked after Shepard played the video logs.
'Current Hypothesis. Either that or infrasound? Both, perhaps. Effects might be synergistic.' Mordin agreed.
Shepard opened the airlock and the entire room rocked.
'Normandy to shore party!' Jeff called out over the radio.
'What just happened?' Shepard asked.
'The Reaper put up kinetic barriers. I don't think we can get through from our side.'
'So we're trapped. Wonderful.' Garrus observed.
'I did warn you this could happen.' I countered.
'Yeah, but I didn't want to believe you.' Garrus agreed.
'We'll have to take down the barrier generators from in here. Any idea where they are?' Shepard asked
EDI's voice came across the line smooth and clear. 'At the moment of activation, I detected a heat spike in what is likely the wreck's mass effect core. Sending the coordinates now. Be advised; this core is also maintaining the Reaper's altitude.'
'You couldn't have warned up about that?' Shepard asked.
'I didn't know. But if it has to do with flying Joker can do it.' I admitted.
'Now, you sound like Grunt... Or Joker." Garrus laughed.
'I can still hear you, you know.' Joker replied over comms.
'So when we take the barriers down to escape, the wreck falls into the planet core.' Shepard stated, trying to distract her pilot.
'And that means everyone dies. yeah, I got it.' Joker stated, irritated.
'If any helmsman can pull us off this thing before it reaches crush depths it's you.' Shepard reassured him.
'Like I said, if it has to do with flying Joker can do it.'
'Was that a compliment? I think that was a compliment, Krell!' Joker teased.
'We'll make a sweep for survivors and recover what data we can. Stand by.' Shepard informed our pilot.
'Aye Aye. Good hunting.' Joker signed off, perhaps intentionally trying to confuse me.
'Fascinating, Require scanners from Normandy. Great deal of data...' Mordin observed as the doors opened into the technological guts of a once organic species, complete with corpse-covered catwalk.
'Even if there are survivors we're shooting any. There's no way this entire research team isn't indoctrinated.' I ordered.
'No problem here.' Garrus agreed.
The next research log was more troubling proof of indoctrination. Two unrelated researchers remembering the same incident with their wife Katy at their brother's marriage.
'Memory alteration. Reaper affecting their minds...' Mordin theorized.
'Humans are easier to control if you give them all the same memories, I guess? Or perhaps the damned thing's just firing aimlessly with no purpose behind it.' I speculated.
'Hard to tell. Not enough data on Indoctrination to say for sure. Shielding techniques still experimental, rudimentary.'
'Well, that's not worrying at all.' Garrus observed, perhaps ironically.
Three seconds later we were fighting husks.
'Whose idea was it to put high pressure tanks next to the explodey husks! Because I'm not sure I approve!' I roared.
'Not 'explodey' enough for you, Krell?' Garrus teased.
'Sure. Let's go with that.' I grumble, finishing the fight.
'I had wondered if the technology for making husks came from the Geth or from Sovereign.' Garrus admitted.
'You could have asked.' I replied.
'Nah, you seemed like you had a lot on your mind.' Garrus admitted.
The next log, after another brief fight, discussed visual hallucinations and the feeling that the ship was still alive. Apparently 'Doctor Chandana' removed the requirement that everyone wear indoctrination sensors constantly after people complained that they were inconvenient and that they felt awkward and uncomfortable wearing them constantly.
'I think I want to punch someone.' I grumbled.
'Many husks. Some non-explosive.' Mordin suggested.
We walked up a ramp only for a sniper to take out two husks.
'Sniper!' Garrus called out.
Shepard waited until it was clear and then grabbed some of the loot she used to finance this privateering semi-official Spectre operation.
'I couldn't see the shooter. A survivor from the science team?' Garrus asked.
'A Geth terminal.' I corrected.
'Well, that's a much less comforting thought.' Garrus decided.
'Huh. My favorite place to fight! A big open room where we can be attacked from all sides and all the chest high cover explodes.' I mutter, annoyed, as we're suddenly attacked once more.
'Tell me that's not actually your favorite place to fight. Big open rooms inside of dead Reapers aren't fun to fight through at all.' Garrus complained as he headshot a Scion, twice.
Shepard of course, ignored all the husks attacking us and ran to be the first to press the button on the terminal, biotic charging an enemy next to the terminal just to get to it faster and deprive everyone else of the possible pleasure of pressing a button.
'Chandana said the ship was dead. We trusted him. He was right. But even a dead god can dream.' Came the ominous voice from the terminal.
'A god -- a real god -- is a verb. Not some old man with magic powers. It's a force. It warps reality just by being there. It doesn't have to want to. It doesn't have to think about it. It just does. That's what Chandana didn't get. Not until it was too late. The god's mind is gone, but it still dreams. He knows now. He's tuned in on our dream. If I close my eyes I can feel him. I can feel every one of us.' The man in the vid terminal log had a face half-spattered in blood that was not his own; a detail noticeable even as I fought a ridiculously large wave of Husks.
'You know, the more I travel with you the less I believe your protests that you can't see the future.' Garrus declares.
'That's ridiculous. That was sound. You can't see sound!' I protested.
'Statement true... for Krogan. Still, implies that Krell can at least hear the future. Wonder if... No. Too dangerous to explore. Better stay away.' Mordin decided.
Once all the husks were gone, we approached a collection of oddly arranged Dragon's teeth, humans still impaled upon them, slowly starting to transform into husks.
'We've seen these before. Dragon's teeth, your people call them. The Geth used them on Eden Prime.' Garrus remarked as we approached.
'See how the room is arranged? They treated this thing like some kind of altar.' Shepard posited.
'It does look like that, but why would they want this to happen?' Garrus asked.
'You heard the logs. They were seeing things. hearing things. They were being indoctrinated despite the precautions they took. We can't help these people, but we won't let the Reapers use their corpses like this.' Shepard decided.
'You think the early stages of indoctrination made them sabotage the Indoctrination screening capabilities.' I realized.
'I do. There's a limit to even Cerberus' stupidity.' Shepard agreed.
'I wouldn't count on that.' Garrus joked. At least he thought he was joking; I wasn't so sure.
We salvaged the data in the room and moved on to the airlock. After it equalized the pressure and announced 5 days without a workplace death, it opened.
'5 Days, huh? Seems long for Cerberus. You think the Indoctrination made them more safety prone?' I asked.
'Could be.' Shepard agreed.
As we walked out onto the unshielded exterior, a Sniper took out a pair of husks sneaking up on Shepard; firing one bullet each on either side of her and getting a headshot each time.
Shepard looked up at the sniper, at the Geth, at Legion.
'Shepard-Commander.' The Geth Infiltrator pronounced before moving out of sight.
'Well damn, Krell, you were right. It talks.' Garrus decided as the thing left.
'Geth never operate alone. Stronger in numbers. Smarter too, as I understand.' Mordin observed.
'There are around 2,000 programs in that platform. It's definitely not operating alone.' I pronounce.
We fought our way through the catwalk, Shepard taking all the data and pressing all the buttons on the way.
'Only remaining task is destruction of mass effect core.' Mordin declares as we reach the final airlock.
We walked in to see a barrier blocking us, Legion interfacing with the terminal, being attacked by Husks. The Geth shot them with a pistol with one handed and took down the barrier with the other, moving to shoot the husks as he did.
He acquitted himself well, until three abominations exploded on him, deactivating him.
That left the rest to us. We shot up the core, and the husks and abominations attacking us in equal measure until it exploded.
I grabbed Legion and the IFF.
'Shame this isn't one of the juggernauts. I could have used their jump packs!' I joked.
The station was sinking and Husks were still climbing up to attack us. We raced our way back through the complex until we finally made it to the airlock. Joker detached as soon as the hatch slid shut, not even waiting for us to signal.
'Open the portside airlock.' Shepard ordered as we made it back to the exterior catwalks.
'Aye Aye!'
Gravity was low and so we all just hurled ourselves, Legion included, into the open airlock as the husks closed in and the Reaper exploded around us.
The door slammed shut and Joker barely waited for it to fully close before we were gone. The dead 'god' sinking into it's tomb behind us.
Fuck, I hate those things.
____________________
Author's Notes:
I honestly don't know if I like this chapter. It was meant to be a break after the Tali arc before we got to something more substantial; something light and humorous. I don't think it quite landed there.
The Scarlet pimpernel is certainly not the first superhero musical to grace the great white way, but it's definitely one of the best. Not that it has all that much competition. Toxic Avenger the Musical's the only other one that comes close, I think. It's definitely a lot better than Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark; though that's a low bar.
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- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Huh, with that title I was expecting the Sabaton song. Didn't know there was one from the Scarlet Pimpernel.