Nexus Effect

Ch.41

“Piece of junk!” Martra yowled and did a bucking kick with her hind legs against the side of the Mako after they’d driven halfway across the bridge with her precariously perched atop. Not even having six legs, two arms and a tail was enough to keep her from falling off twice during evasive maneuvers when assaulted by AAT-Armatures, which she helped deal with by pouncing on them and distracting them so Yola could snipe their pulse cannons.

“I swear, the sooner these atrocities are erased from the galaxy, the better.” Ashley grumbled with a green pallor to her skin and Kaidan belched as he recovered from having to use a barf bag someone had the foresight to put underneath the seat.

“What was the Brass thinking when they approved this thing? Did they even bother to have someone give a test-drive or did they look at the specs and just give it a pass?” Shepard bemoaned as she joined her squad out of the deathtrap and approached the SOS signal they picked up from halfway across the bridge. Jamming is in place, contact with the Normandy is currently dead, so that would explain why the SOS ping was such a short distance.

“I blame penny-pinchers who saw the Mako as a cheaper alternative to the Hammerhead. I read the Hammerhead only had a dozen prototypes released while the Mako had an approval for a pre-production fleet already. Hopefully whoever approved that gets canned or the wasted funds docked from their pay.” Kaidan huffed as the group approached the location of the SOS and a human guard sprang from behind cover to point a pistol at them.

“Halt! Who are you?! You’re not with that Turian are you?!” The man demanded in a panic which went into overdrive when he looked at the towering predator at the back of the group.

“A turian? It was a turian leading these droids?” Shepard demanded of the frightened security guard, who was shaking in his boots.

“Yeah, big one. Easily as tall as that big cat there.” He pointed at Martra who nodded in acknowledgment of her superiority. “He stormed into the tower, slaughtered anyone in his way, and his droid flunkies cleaned up. I managed to grab a couple of the scientists and hide them out here.”

“Why did he do that? Besides following the profile of Eden Prime.” Kaidan questioned and Shepard scrunched her eyebrows.

“Avitus Rix wasn’t known for his subtlety or his patience. He’s a Spectre mostly because of his skill rather than his personality. There’s something here he wants, so he came to get it. If smashing through everything is the fastest way, he’ll do it.” Shepard replied before focusing back on the guard. “Listen, we need to know as much as possible about this place before we go storming in.”

[1001100 01101001 01101110 01100101]

“So, Battle Maiden.” I groaned at Wrex’s nickname and rolled out from under the Nomad, which was almost looking like an actual vehicle by this point rather than just a frame.

“What is it, Wrex?” I huffed in exasperation. I don’t dislike the krogan, in fact I rather enjoy his company, but he was much rougher around the edges than Wrekrov and knowing krogan as much as I do, they’re often much worse than Wrex.

“When were you going to tell me about the Priest’s plots?” Wrex grumbled when he crossed his arms and I blinked in bemusement.

“What are you going on about? Priest-oh! Wrekrov? What’s going on?” I haven’t seen him for even longer than Marrow. He didn’t manage to visit, but at least he was able to call me and let Yola and I know he was back in the Milky Way, preaching the good word of Urta. I haven’t been keeping tabs on him, sadly. I hope he’ll still give me belly oils for the next time I’m-.

“You don’t know? Heh, I thought you knew everything, the little spy that you are.” Wrex shook his head and looked around the Normandy’s small hangar. “Those tin cans can keep a secret right?”

“Uh, sure? Dee, Daw, Grease. Go take a break, recharge or, whatever you do in your downtime.” I upgraded them with small Mass Effect reactor cores like mine, so they could go much longer between charges.

“Sweet! I call player 2!” Dee cheered as they sprinted to the door leading towards the common room.

“You always get Luigi!” Daw whined before they left.

“Ook, ah!” The parasite shrieked as it followed it’s masters.

“AI. They’re so...dumb though. Not the nightmares the Council keeps preaching about.” Wrex huffed and then turned his focus back to me. “Are you getting up? It feels weird to talk to you while you’re down there on a creeper.”

“Alright then.” I stood up and stretched to make sure I wasn’t getting kinked up. “Okay, so what is it Wrex?” At my question, the burly old krogan in red armor began pacing.

“So. The Priest has told the Council that I of all krogan am the one best suited to leading my people to a prosperous future.” Wrex grumbled and shook his head as he glared at the floor.

“I can see it. You’re a lot more tempered, cynical, you see more than the easiest way through things. Though that's still not by much. I can see it though. I’ve also been keeping tabs on you when I could. Your service record as a merc is exemplary, showing you have smarts.” I replied, withholding the fact that I know why he’s suited, why of all the krogan he would be the best. Besides Eve of course, but I can’t hedge my hopes on her surviving.

“Bah! I tried before, my own father tried to kill me over it! At the Hallows, the most sacred of places my people have! The place of our ancestors, a place of neutral grounds where fighting is forbidden! He called a moot to talk about my ideas and tried to kill me over them! After that I gave up. Why should I try again?” Wrex snarled as he looked at me...and I realized he was asking me seriously, not rhetorically.

“Because Wrex, you still can’t bear to have given up. You can’t stand that you failed. So what if some brainless idiots tried to stop you, you are the one who let them win even after you killed them! Now, you have a chance to grab this opportunity by the quad and you’re bitching about it?” I demanded as I stormed up to him and put my visor in his face.

“...I swear, how many of the females on this ship are secretly krogan?” Wrex sighed and I shoved his chest, making him stagger.

“If that’s what it’ll take to get your oversized crest out of your cloaca, then why don’t we go to Tuchanka, find a strong-willed female, tell her the situation and have her ride herd on your ass to get it done?” I growled as I grabbed his collar and shook him, the act clearly surprising him.

“Gah and what about this mission? I can’t give up this fight if I’m going to lead! The Clans would see me leaving as a disgrace and these two Spectres are a threat to my kind too!” Wrex reasoned as he struggled to pull my hands off of his collar, but stopped when he likely realized he’d tear his armor before dislodging me.

“I’m not saying that. I’m saying, at some point, we are going to Tuchanka. It’s almost an inevitability. When we go there, we are going to the Cathedral of Urta, you are going to pray like a good, pious little war-beast and get help from your people’s matron goddess! If you failed before after doing so well without her blessing, now with the Empire here and her able to properly hear your prayer? You want to unify the krogan? It’s going to take blood! Not just politics, but blood! I’m sure Urta can appreciate that.” I let him go and looked at my hands. I’d gripped him so tightly my endoframe broke through my flesh and my ‘blood’ was everywhere.

“...Okay. I’ll do that. Anything to help. If I’m going to succeed, I’m going to need it.” Wrex muttered, nodded at me in respect and then left me alone with my torn open fingers that were already repairing thanks to my nanites.

[1001100 01101001 01101110 01100101]

“So, one guy wants us clearing out the droids, one wants us to find his research, which might be illegal since the director doesn’t want us looking into their research. Lastly, the woman wants us to find her daughter?” Ashely recapped for us all.

“So, which one should we look into first? Perhaps something we can get done quickly?” Yola suggested as the group neared the Mako with hesitation.

“Let's find miss Baynham’s daughter first, confirm if she’s alive or dead.” Shepard suggested as they all piled into the uncomfortable Mako for the last leg of the bridge and Martra pranced antsily in place before jumping onto the roof. That act made Shepard want to go daw~ and hug her, but this was a combat zone.

“I hope the girl is okay. The last thing a parent should suffer is the death of their child.” Kaidan said as the Mako got moving.

“That sounds like it was from personal experience.” Ashley gently commented and Kaidan shook his head.

“No, but I lost my niece. She was only a few months old, but it still hurt. The pain my family felt was so much I couldn’t help but share it.” Kaidan shared with melancholy.

“A few months? I thought infant mortality was still going down.” Yola sadly intoned.

“That’s just it, going down, not gone. She was born with a brain defect, one the doctors didn’t know what it was at the time. Nowadays, we know it’s similar to how asari are natural biotics without implants. My sister spent too much time around an active Core Drive in her early gestation because she didn’t know she was pregnant.” Kaidan explained and Yola nodded.

“Oh, yes. That’d do it, but they could’ve stabilized her if they’d known. People with a biotic trait aren’t unheard of because of heavy exposure to Eezo, not just asari, but non-asari born on Illium have displayed it.” Yola replied and Kaidan nodded.

“Exactly. When my sister found out, she was devastated again to realize her daughter could’ve been saved. That’s why I hope we find Miss Baynham’s daughter. We’ve given her hope, if we fail, she’ll suffer despair again.” Kaidan said with grim determination.

“I don’t like Ethan Jeong. He’s the Director of Exogeni for the local branch, but he’s always treated Zhu’s Hope differently from their other sites. Like they’re test subjects.” Martra growled through the comms as she held onto the roof of the Mako for dear life.

“That’s the guy who didn’t want us snooping, right? The one demanding we get rid of the Droids?” Yola asked for clarification as she looked at her omni.

“That’s the one. I wish he hadn’t made it out, but of course he would.” Martra grumbled and then she yelped when the Mako did a hard and fast turn that almost toppled it like the mobile bounce castle it was, but Martra leaned enough into the turn to keep it from rolling over like an overeager dog with no legs at the top of a hill.

After the turn, the bridge suddenly ended in a ramp and everyone screamed moments before landing in the garage of the second tower. This also resulted in the Mako crushing a bunch of droids, tossing Martra off to crush more droids, rolling over even more droids and then crashing into the far wall, of course, crushing even more droids.

Did we mention there were a lot of droids?

“Firm Command: Kill them!” Yelled an HK-50 as those roller droids with Energy Shields that Nora had briefed the crew on being known as Droidekas rolled up, unfolded and started targeting us with those high-power blaster cannons on their arms!

“Everyone. Prepare your stomachs.” Shepard grimly warned as she flipped several switches and the Mako began whining. “I know I’m going to regret this…”

“Get off me you damned greasy-my ears~!” Martra wailed and clutched at her ears as the Mako began to fucking dance on all six wheels through the droids firing at the heavily armored spastic vehicle of doom.

None survived.

Well, save the poor unfortunates who vomited all over the interior of the abomination and the traumatized tiger-taur who curled up in a whimpering ball in the corner of the garage.

[1001100 01101001 01101110 01100101]

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t have you detained.” Doctor Chakwas demanded.

“Because the Commander knows and trusts me?” I sheepishly replied from where I was sitting on the examination table, finally forced to take the mandatory medical check-up all Alliance ships have established, even for non-human crew.

“...Fine, you have a good reason.” Dr. Chackwas huffed as she looked over the data she got from scanning me.

“To be fair, this is exactly why I don’t just tell everyone.” I snarked and she shoved a breast-milk harvester pump into my hand. The kind doctors use to sample a mother’s colostrum.

“Shut up and give me those medicine samples. You’re using unknown medical substances on my commanding officer and another crewmate. I need to know what they are if I’m going to have any conscience or reason not to report you to high command.” Dr. Chakwas declared as she went to another table and began preparing lab equipment.

“Okay, okay.” I sighed and unzipped my suit to put the small hand milker to my right nipple and pumped it to get the pressure to pull my milk into the small vial. “I knew you were a hard-ass Chakwas, but this is a bit excessive.”

“Excessive? You’ve potentially poisoned my commanding officer, masqueraded as another species when you’re an AI and you call my reaction excessive?” Dr. Chakwas sneered and I glared back.

“Considering A: I don’t generate poison, B: I am what I am, even if not what I appear to be and C: I’m a Living Intelligence you bosh’tet. That’s practically a racial slur.” I detached the filled vial and pump and nearly tossed it at her. “There! Take your sample. Can I go now, since I can’t exactly leave the ship anyway?”

“It’s not like I could stop you.” Dr. Chakwas grumbled and began examining my milk as I stormed out of the med bay.

Right into Garrus’ chest. “Oof! Whoa Nora, where’s the hurry?” Garrus questioned and grabbed my suit and zipped-oh. “There, now you’re presentable. Good thing it wasn’t someone not in the know who caught you.”

“Garrus, do you like my ass?” I demanded irritably and he blanched, his mandibles flaring.

“H-huh? Well, I said yes already-.” Before the turian could continue, I grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the sleeping quarters.

“Good. I need to blow off some steam, you just volunteered. You have reach, I have flexibility, let’s work out some stress.” I growled and behind me I heard the turian’s mandibles click open as he started stuttering about regulations, about how fornication is restricted during active operations, et cetera. Gods does he have a stick up his ass. I’d better do my best to surgically remove it.

[1001100 01101001 01101110 01100101]

“I feel incredible annoyance at Nora for some reason.” Yola suddenly commented where she was ducking behind Martra, who with help from Shepard and Kaidan, had become a moving barricade to push against the barrage of blaster bolts they had to advance against. “Damn it, she’s sexing someone right now. I can’t cant to her right now, but I can feel it somehow.”

“Whoever it is, I hope they’re ready for the sex-machine or I might have to explain to a distraught family how their son or daughter died from sexual activity.” Shepard replied through grit teeth, more at being in the middle of a firefight than because her girlfriend was getting frisky with someone. The past few days she’d come to understand Nora was insatiable and too much for a single person, let alone a couple to handle. At least Yola took the brunt of it.

“This Nora sounds like an Imperial courtesan the way you describe her.” Martra grunted before she took another bolt to the chest. She yowled and hissed as she continued to push forward while Shepard and Kaidan struggled to hold their shields.

“Are you okay, Martra?!” Kaidan grunted through his teeth as sweat dumped down his face. As the strongest biotic on the Normandy, he was taking the majority of the strain from this action while Shepard gave as much support as possible, but they were all riding on Martra’s back as the tiger-taur advanced.

“Fractured...ribs…” Martra reported as she continued to advance. “Primary lungs in...larger torso unbothered...secondary lungs bruised…”

“You’ve done good Martra! Get us into that room just ahead!” Shepard urged and the tiger-taur Cat-Kut managed it, getting them out of the hail of red death the B1s had been laying down the corridor they’d needed to get down. Yola had told them before taking such a risk that the reason the B1s were so coordinated was because they had a BX droid commanding them. They were often used in surgical strike teams, but they had the processing power to seize whole squads of B1s and coordinate them.

Shepard felt a twinge of worry of encountering more of them in the future, yet also wondered how pleased Nora would be if she managed to secure one mostly intact...

“Stupid machine!” Yelled a guttural voice that was the signature of a male krogan on the floor above them.

“Damaging this unit will not allow you access. Please step away, a query is forming.” A VI replied and the ground crew nodded at each other while using furniture to blockade the doorway from the corridor. It wouldn’t stop the droids for long, but anything was better than nothing.

Besides, they had their escape route.

“You will yield to these security protocols you waste of steel! Avitus demands it!” The krogan shouted while the crew handed their grenades to Yola, who prepared an ad-hoc shaped charge and stuck it to the ceiling.

“Access Den-.” Yola set off the charge and a krogan fell through the floor in pieces, the blast had shredded him from the legs up to his chest. “Access Granted, welcome Unit Yola.”