Nexus Effect

Ch.43

The return to Zhu’s Hope was even more tense than the arrival. The people, now known to be enthralled and fighting against their will, were assaulting them again. This time however, Shepard and her team couldn’t just kill them with the knowledge that they were being forced to. Thankfully, Shepard had packed the Mako’s storage with blasters and the BX droid commanding the forces at the Exogeni tower along with the few HK droids supporting it.

These blasters have a stun option! When Martra informed them of it, Shepard grabbed one of the heavy E-5 blasters eagerly in place of her assault rifle. The stun bolts had a shorter distance to them, but the blue bolts knocked out the civilians without killing them, allowing the team to restrain the victims and move on.

This didn’t change the fact that negotiations with the Thorian had broken down fast when it spoke through a plant-based clone of an asari biotic named Shiara, who was in the process of being subsumed by the Thorian. It considered all organic life that wasn’t it to be little more than food and tools. Still, the crew had it at an impasse. They could kill it here and now with blasters set to kill and it couldn’t do anything with the ‘cure’ which basically just cut the spores off from the Thorian being dispersed through the atmospheric aerosol system.

“We need to kill it. It’s a threat to this planet and all worlds it’s spores spread to.” Ashley declared, which was reasonable considering the sociopathic monster cared nothing for the lives of others.

“Guys?” Yola said as the group debated.

“I agree, it’s too dangerous.” Kaidan nodded and looked over at the defenseless giant plant with a leer of contempt, the plant-clone of Shiara looked worried and backed up against the Thorian’s main body.

“Guys.” Yola raised her voice a bit.

“It isn’t too different from an entity by the name Sovereign back on Equus, save that it is much more callous.” Martra’s comment felt incredibly ironic somehow to Shepard for some reason.

“Guys!” Yola yelped, drawing everyone’s attention.

“What is it Yola-duh…” Shepard was immediately thrown into the gutter of arousal at the sight of Yola hefting basketball-sized boobs that had stretched her dark red suit tight enough to outline her nipples.

“Uh, what’s going on?” Ashely asked while everyone save Martra openly gawked at Yola’s still swelling tits.

“Unf, just help me open my suit before-!” Yola’s grabbing at her zipper was in vain and her breasts burst free of her suit to send her sprawling against her beach-ball sized pale lavender chest that was leaking green fluid. “Oh~ my chassis is rapidly absorbing the spores in the air, a pre-prepared mutagen compound is being dispensed. I don’t know what’s going on. It must be another hidden feature Star Swirl snuck in.”

“Star Swirl?! That madpony?!” Martra hurriedly scrambled away from Yola, grabbing Kaidan and tugging him along since he was the closest. “What kind of mutagen?!”

“W-what a-are y-you d-do-?” The Shiara clone stammered before she fell over, rapidly rotting away. Rumbling shook everything as vines twisted free of the knot that was the core of the Thorian and formed openings on the ends before they dove onto Yola’s nipples, the Geth wailing in pleasure as they began milking her.

“W-what the hell?” Kaidan demanded with shock as Yola screamed and writhed with pleasure while she was drained and molested by plant tentacles that tore off her suit to ravish her. “Sh-shouldn’t we stop this?”

“Fuck no.” Penny panted as she restrained herself from masturbating at the sight of one of her girlfriends getting tentacle-fucked and milked like some exotic porno out of the Empire.

“Shepard, shouldn’t your mind be out of the gutter?” Ashley asked with flushed cheeks that hinted at her disapproval being mostly out of her belief in military professionalism rather than disgust at the sight happening in front of them.

“My girlfriend is getting absolutely wrecked by a tentacle monster. Hell no.” Penny panted as the Thorian slowed down and let Yola go once her breasts were back to normal and she was left a gasping mess lying in a puddle of green goo, mud and her own feminine slime. “You ok, Yola?”

“Fuck yeah…” Yola managed to gasp out before the Thorian suddenly...bloomed.

“This is…” A clone of Shiara, or perhaps Shiara herself, said as she descended the stairs made of vines from the green-blue-purple flower that the Thorian had turned into while she looked at her blue-green hands in awe. “I...I am...one with the Thorian. It is me. I am it, but it is no longer a senseless apathetic creature with me given the reins.”

“Shiara? Is it really you speaking, or is it Thorian?” Shepard asked, getting over her heady arousal for the moment. She was banging Yola and Nora so hard tonight.

“Both. I...have no way to describe it.” Shiara said as she examined her body, looking typical for an asari, though the green pigmentation was unique.

“Is it like you’re both you, yet thousands of you are also being you?” Yola asked after she staggered to her feet with Ashley and Shepard helping her up. Martra was still holding Kaidan protectively and unwilling to approach something Star Swirl had created.

“That is actually rather apt, yes.” Shiara replied before her body sprouted ‘clothes’ that looked like something out of a dryadic fetish story with leaves and flowers covering her naughty bits.

“Welcome to the joy of being a gestalt entity. We have jackets.” Yola huffed and rubbed her D-cup breasts.

“The Geth are the same as this?” Shiara questioned as she nervously approached the team, who lowered their weapons as the woman neared.

“Not quite, but close enough. What are you going to do now?” Yola asked as she picked up her ruined suit and sighed before she fished in her cleavage to retrieve a spare.

“Now? I’m going to tell you everything I know. Then I’m going to go outside, apologize to everyone, submit myself to the rule of law and pray that I am not terminated.” Shiara closed her eyes solemnly and Shepard looked the woman over.

“I’ll try my best to ensure that doesn’t happen if you do cooperate.” The fact she was hot had nothing to do with it. Also, if this meant a new species was being born, Shepard wasn’t going to deny it the chance to flourish.

[1001100 01101001 01101110 01100101]

“So, let me get this straight. Star Swirl had something in our systems ready to mutate the Thorian into a singular entity rather than the soulless monstrosity it was?” I queasily asked the ground team who was back aboard the Normandy after their harrowing mission.

“Yes, it also turned everyone infected with the spores into plant hybrids linked to a hivemind that will need Imperial investigation to see if a changeling could help them cope with their new lives.” Martra announced. The beautiful and sexy tiger-taur had come aboard to join the crew and I was quite pleased with this. Marrow still talked about how hot the hermaphroditic cat-taur folk were. She was wearing more casual clothes now that she wasn’t in combat, which meant she wore a shirt and nothing else, letting her fluffy tigric body breathe.

“We also now have a cat!” Shepard squealed as she nuzzled the huge Cat-Kut’s oblique as she hugged the woman’s humanoid torso.

“If my people didn’t enjoy being fawned over, I’d almost call that racist.” Martra purred with a deep rumble as she patted Penny’s head. “But yes, I’ve been given permission to join you. I don’t mind being a mascot either, so feel free to let me come with you or provide moral support with fluffy snuggles.” Martra winked and everyone chuckled as her pheromones, which smelled amazing by the way, blanketed the room and set everyone at ease.

“Commander, show some restraint…” Ashley muttered and clearly was struggling not to hug and pet the enormous tiger woman too.

“Nope! Kitty!” Penny declared and sighed before patting Martra’s back and the big cat mewled in disappointment when Shepard stopped snuggling. “Anyway, we’re still going to have to report this to the Brass with my recommendation that Zhu’s Hope be quarantined for observation while the colonists adjust to their situation.”

“There’s also the news that Shiara gave us. She was sacrificed to the Thorian because she betrayed Matriarch Benezia. She Melded-.” Kaidan was interrupted by Liara gasping and covering her mouth in shock.

“M-Melded with the Thorian? From the data you sent to our omni-tools, that creature literally covered the whole of Feros in it’s vines, which are all one continuous nervous system. How did she survive such a thing?” Liara asked in horrified fascination and Ashley wrinkled her brow.

“Why would that matter?” Ashley questioned and I sighed at the bitch of course remaining ignorant of the biology of the aliens she works and lives with.

“Because when we asari Meld, we’re interlinking our nervous system with another living creature, becoming one with it. That she did it with such a massive entity and didn’t die or go mad is both incredible and impossible, yet it seems the impossible tends to be a matter of perspective these days.” Liara informed everyone and those ignorant of how intimate Melding is for asari, which was most everyone, just nodded along and I rolled my eyes.

“Okay, so what happened after the asari was forced to have nerve sex with a planet-sized plant?” Wrex gruffly questioned, causing several of those out of the loop to turn a bit green.

“She provided Tela Vasir, the asari Spectre we’re also looking for, something she called the Cipher. It is some sort of genetic memory code with data from the Protheans. It would supposedly allow Vasir to understand the visions provided by a Prothean Beacon.” Kaidan looked meaningfully at Penny, who closed her eyes and let out a steadying breath from her nose.

“Which hurt in a way I cannot describe. It’s like trying to describe colour to someone who never had eyes.” Shepard took a deep breath and let out a long sigh as she leaned on Martra and the fluffy tigress gently side-hugged her.

“So why did you have to go to Exogeni tower? Why did Avitus attack there while Tela got what they needed from the Thorian? I know the colonists at Zue’s Hope had repelled an attack on the colony itself, but they let the tower get overrun.” Garrus pointed out and everyone seemed fairly confused.

“Look, it’s obvious. Avitus went to the place where the people researching the Thorian had their data to see if they had anything that could deal with it while Tela offered up the sacrifice to get what they were after. Apparently they weren’t anticipating the Thorian to have already enslaved the colonists, so they probably retreated and left that poor krogan lackey and a battalion of droids to whittle the place down. Droids are expendable and so are dumb grunts.” I offered up and everyone nodded in agreement. “Well then, where to next, Commander?”

“We’re going to do some minor missions to help out the alliance while we wait for a lead.” Shepard explained and then looked at her omni. “Then head back to the Citadel. You’ve been a busy beaver Nora. Adams is practically singing praises for you in this report.”

“I know, aren’t I amazing?” I puffed out my chest and everyone chuckled. “Oh, you’ll also want to speak to Chakwas. It’s rather urgent. It involves my essential health checkup.” I stressed and Penny’s gentle gaze turned cold before she nodded and stormed away, likely to give the doctor hell.

“Are you okay, Nora?” Yola was instantly at my side, leaning against me where I’d been sitting on one of the circular couches of the meeting room.

“I’m fine. Just disappointed.” Chakwas agreed to remain silent and even work with samples to discover how to replicate the medicine and mods, but I was incredibly disappointed in the woman. She was such a pragmatic person in the games, willing to put aside bias in favor of getting her work done. She even bonded quite well with Mordin and was one of the people the hardest hit with his death. Hopefully that can change, hopefully my girlfriend doesn’t go too far and demand she resign from her post.

[1001100 01101001 01101110 01100101]

“I don’t know who to fear more. You or the Commander.” Chakwas grumbled as she took blood samples from Martra, who patiently followed all of the doctor’s requests as she examined the alien woman and even had to consult a veterinarian book to know what to look for in her tauric half.

“Definitely Penny. She’s not as forgiving as I am.” I commented from where I was watching Chakwas like a hawk. I wasn’t going to leave the precious kitty alone with the brusque woman. Not after yesterday.

“At least she didn’t threaten to space me out of an airlock.” Chakwas grumbled while scanning Martra’s hindquarters. “Do you have both female and male reproductive organs?”

“Cat-Kut are hermaphrodites as a means of survival after generations of intensive gene therapy and having to deal with high mortality rates on our world after our ancestors blew it up.” Martra shrugged at the fact she was both genders.

“Why was the mortality rate so high?” I asked for clarification.

“Well, think of Tunkunka, but covered in multiple species crafted for war. Think beasts the size of buildings and we’re their mice. I'm part of the Fifth generation, but the differences between generations are vast.” Martra answered while her tail flicked about.

“So you’re not the original species of your homeworld?” Chakaws asked with her medical curiosity winning out as she continued to examine the woman.

“We’ve mostly forgotten what we originally looked like. The appearance we have now is the result of necessity. It was cold, so we got thick fur. The beasts were too fast, so we got more legs. Still too fast, so more legs. Et cetera.” Martra rolled onto her back when directed and cooed as Chakwas ran her omni-tool over the woman’s body from collar to undercarriage.

“Do you know how it started out?” I asked with similar curiosity.

“We know the First Cat-Kut were pets we had made smarter, able to talk to us and hold conversations. They’re called Kuns and are still around. The Second were believed to look more like our old selves, bipedal and only lightly furred, but we left them dumb so we could use them as labor. They seem to have died out. The Third were similar to what I am now; a tuar with an animal head.” Martra rambled on, as if she was trying to remember.

“The Fourth came about during the Revolts. It's believed the Second and Third revolted and we responded violently. With the Third being just as smart as we were, they started modding themselves while both sides bombed each other. The Fourth were either heavily modded Threes or brand new breeds that towered over the landscape with cybernetic weapons sewn into them. Cities became deserts, deserts glass and eventually mother nature started taking its course. Much of this became legends that are loosely true and we sometimes find proof of it.”

“Eventually we found ourselves as we are; tribals on a planet covered in radiation that forced us to adapt with predatory beasts so hostile they attacked on sight and we had to tune ourselves to counter them too. The winters were so cold we couldn’t live without fur. We are a result of the planet we made. We’re no longer what we were, nor can we truly claim to be. There’s a well-accepted theory that we’re just another warbeast. We don’t know if that’s true, but we know for sure we were made and that most of our changes were by our hands.”

“You know an awful lot for a soldier from a tribal society.” Doctor Chakwas pointed out.

“There’s a lot more to it. We’re taught it in school and we have it well documented. While we were tribal, we had imprinted needs to use computers we found and fix them, write on them, document. I don’t know why that would be, but the words of Kuts such as Wishfly Kut have saved us from predators and such.” Martra said as she opened her wrist mounted computer.

“Didn’t one of you say you only called yourselves Kut for introductions?” I asked.

“Yeah, they never called themselves Wishfly Kut, it's just what we label them so we can sort out what they invented or modded into our DNA. Titles come to Kut after death, normally.” Marta said as she showed us images of labs, offices, computers, all covered in dust and with less hairy creatures covered in tribal clothes poking about them. “We were an advanced society before we fell and could program instructions into DNA. We think whatever happened, we ended up with gene instructions on how to use our own tech and mod our bodies to adapt.”

“You programmed yourselves to march out of the muck you made.” Chakwas said in a mix of awe and fear. “This is exactly why the Council has laws against this…”

“It’s also why we won’t make the mistake again.” Martra rebutted and held up a still image of a news article titled: Empire Denounces Salarian Union on Genophage Hypocrisy. “Unlike your people.”

“Oh no, what are they protesting now?” I mewled unhappily. The Empire was too used to getting things their way. When coming into contact with a society of different beliefs than yours, you’re supposed to use diplomacy, not call them idiots over admittedly backwards thinking. I also thought they were already working on helping the krogan if they were scouting Wrex to lead.

“According to this article, that despite the Council’s agreement with the Empire to help the krogan reorganize themselves, that the Salarian Union is disbarring all assistance in regards to the Genophage or anything to do with the krogan at all.” Martra growled torso-deep, the rumbling thrummed through me and I could only imagine what it did to Chakwas since she reflexively jumped away from the massive predator she’d been giving a belly rub.

“Sounds about right. Shifty geckos. Command has us on orders not to speak to anyone who might be STG and it’s hard to tell with them.” Chakwas muttered something about them wasting their talents with espionage and murder instead of healing as she sent us on our way.