Nexus Effect

Ch.74

“Kriff!” Penny shrieked in fury as even with the anti-ship batteries and the Normandy SR-2 hammering it with her railgun, the Collector Cruiser fled at full escape velocity with an untold number of people aboard. Hopefully the railgun shots managed to spare some of the folks their fate of being melted alive into the core Harbinger was constructing. Better dead than forever trapped inside an unfeeling monster. “We were so close!”

“You can’t save everyone, Commander.” Grunt sighed as he scratched at the wound he got from the Praetorian. It punched through his armor and into his shoulder, but the tank-bred krogan seemed only irritated rather than hindered.

“No! That ship! It has maybe a third of the colony on it!” The Engineer they’d saved, Delan, shouted in despair as it escaped. “Can’t you do something?!”

“The railgun on the Normandy barely dented it past it’s shield. We can’t do anything now.” Tali morosely informed the distraught man.

“Don’t worry, Shepard. Even if they got away this time, they know better than to assume they can just steamroll people again.” Garrus assured Penny as he put his hand on her shoulder.

“Wait, Shepard? I know that name. Aren’t you some big Alliance hero like that saboteur Williams? What are you doing out here? You here to spy on us too?” Delan demanded and got an angry krogan’s shotgun aimed at his face for his insolence.

“Grunt! Stand down! As for you, I don’t care for your tone. I came here to try and stop the Collectors and save Horizon and I failed. Now, where is Williams? Was she taken with the others?” Penny demanded as she kept her voice neutral, but her heart was pounding in fear.

“I’m right here, Penny. They sure tried, but I didn’t let them.” Ashely said when she rounded a building, looking hurt as she staggered closer to hug and kiss her cheek. “I’m so glad to see you. Even if you’re working with Cerberus now.” Ashley parted far too soon for Penny’s liking.

“I don’t have much of a choice. They have me by the back of the neck. Besides, once I’ve finished stopping the Collectors and hopefully the Reapers by then, I’m running off with their fancy ship and leaving them with the bill.” Penny declared and Ashley snorted with a shake of her head.

“Always so bold when you can get away with it. So, do you have room on that ship for one more? I’m sick of these ungrateful assholes.” Ashley said with a heated glare at Delan who just shook his head and stormed off. Prick. No wonder the core systems of the Alliance hate colonist yokels so much if they’re so paranoid and standoffish.

“I have room for as many people as I can get on my side. Welcome back, Ash.” Penny smiled and hugged her friend and lover. “Oh, uh, just to make sure...are we still…?”

“Good? Yeah, after you give me the full story of why you’re pretending to be Cerberus’ lap dog.” Ashley then pursed her lip. “Also after you help me compile my report to the Alliance. I’m a Warrant Officer and I have more responsibility to follow regulations.”

“Great! Just as a heads up, Nora and Yola are already on board and we recently brought in this rough bitch named Jack.” Tali declared and Ashley was already following along as Penny called for pickup and an update on Nora’s group.

[1001100 01101001 01101110 01100101]

I was laying in my bunk, wanting some time alone. I hate the feeling of failure. I haven’t felt it in a good long while. It’s still too soon. At the debriefing, Penny told us that she was basically told to make sure we were all at our best, because we’ve basically been assigned to a sucide mission. I knew that was the deal when Hermais snapped me out of my domestic mindset and tossed my ass back into the fire.

But the fact that the Reapers believe our efforts aren’t enough? That because their damned Cycle was due, that it was too late for potential Synthesis to spread among the stars? Idiots! Not everyone should be the same! Variety is the spice of life, damn it!

“Hey.” I looked at the door to see Ashley entering my room. “You okay?” She asked before she got on her knees next to the bed and clasped my closer hand, rubbing my knuckles and wrist in the way she learned was soothing to quarians and quarian-like Geth or Reapers. “You were unusually upset back there.”

“Just a synthetic issue. Nothing you have to worry about, Ash.” I muttered as I reciprocated her gentle touches, her attention on my hand and wrist calming me down.

“It upsets you, it worries me.” Ashley rebutted and she leaned down to kiss me gently. Just the lips, but the pressure and the warmth made me hum before we parted. “What’s the matter, babe?”

“I just...have I done enough? Haven’t I done enough? I basically am the entire reason LI exist. I have had thousands of children, dozens of them have found love and had their own kids. Each will be a perfect blend of organic and synthetic. Synthesis. Yet the Reapers claim that I’m not enough? That everything I’ve done and want to do are meaningless? I don’t care what they think, they’re idiots, but it still hurts.” I closed my eyes and took a cleansing breath.

“Because despite all your hard work, it feels like it was for nothing.” Ashley commiserated and kissed my knuckles. “I know that feeling more than most people.”

“What do you mean, Ash?” I asked as I looked into her glassy, sorrowful eyes.

“What I mean is after all my hard work, after everything I’ve accomplished, after being part of the team that was responsible for saving the galaxy, I got a single promotion and given milk run jobs. Horizon was just the latest in a long string of insults. Sure, they were important tasks, but they could’ve put any pencil-pusher in charge and gotten the same results. I got more fulfillment with you and the others in one month than I have in the past several years of serving the Alliance military.” Ashley admitted and closed her eyes, clearly trying not to cry.

“Then just leave. Who cares about your family history if they’re going to be biased against you and any of your kids who want to join up. Fuck them. Move to Rannoch where that shit doesn’t matter.” I implored my girlfriend, who sighed.

“I’m heavily considering it, Nora. For now though, Penny needs me and I’m the only official member of the Alliance on this ship, so I’m stuck being a liason. The Alliance can’t claim Shepard as theirs until they can confirm her in person. So, Spectre or not they need me to help verify her activities since Cerberus is involved.” Ashley informed me with a shake of her head.

“Oh, great. Well, how’s my favorite pet doing?” I sighed before sitting up to kiss Ashley and she groaned into my lips.

“Not now. I won’t be able to wear my armor, which is my only set of clothes right now, if my tits puff up in arousal because you get me going. It was difficult enough to convince them to cover the charge of making armor for my considerable bust size. Then there were the damn swimsuit model shoots I had to do for them to agree.” Ashley rolled her eyes and I smirked.

“Do you have a copy of that calendar?” I asked and she laughed as she slapped my bicep.

[1001100 01101001 01101110 01100101]

“Well, what do we need now?” Jacob asked as Miranda blankly looked over reports.

“We know they have to go through the Omega 4 relay. Data from the ship confirms that.” EDI explained. Said data was what little could be understood of my wild flailing within their system. Their organic-based firmware caused much to be unintelligible.

“But nobody has come back from that Relay. We need to know why that is first.” Miranda said shakily. Knowing her, she probably didn’t consider herself expendable, like everyone on this ship has essentially been declared by the Illusive Man.

“Reaper IFF most likely, which means...Nora, don’t you have one?” Penny asked.

“Nope. I have their code, but not an IFF.” I sighed, I had already tried that a while back with a back-up body after Discord upgraded my ability to project myself and I was happy I didn’t personally go there. The briefest moments of seeing that graveyard was horrifying.

“So either we take it from the ship if we can down it or find a Reaper corpse. Ashely, would the Alliance allow us to take one from Sovereign?” Penny asked, since it was the Alliance who was trusted to follow protocols instated by Chrys and maintain safe distance from Sovereign’s corpse, which was by now barely half of the main hull with the rest having been melted down for recycling when it was discovered Indoctrination couldn’t work beyond a certain point.

“They wouldn’t even let you get within five systems. The Council is paranoid about that ship as it is. With this Normandy flying Cerberus colors, we’d be sooner shot down than talked to. You’re lucky I recognized you guys on the ground or I would have turned the AA on you. We constantly have to screen for Cerberus operatives and those who got Indoctrinated. We don’t need a whole wet work group on that ship.” Ashley said firmly and everyone nodded in agreement.

Nobody wants to mess with Sovereign after all. People still think it could somehow revive.

“Shit, so the best course then is to grow our team more until TIM can give us a lead.” Penny sighed. “Any suggestions on who, Miranda?”

“I would suggest we focus on the team we already have, Commander. Although, if you feel we could use more, feel free to choose from the dossiers.” Miranda transferred them and then went back to her omni, her ears open and waiting for further input.

“Miranda.” At Penny’s prompt the next-to-perfect human woman looked at her. “If there’s anything troubling you, you know you can say something.”

“I have nothing to talk about right now, Commander. I need a bit of time.” Miranda deflected and Penny shook her head.

“Alright then team, any suggestions? Anyone have any business they want to get done before we even consider going through the Omega 4 Relay?” Penny asked around and Jacob shifted on his feet.

“Actually...Commander. I have a request.” Jacob broached as he looked Penny in the eyes. “I would like to get some closure about what happened to my father. I need to know if he’s still alive somewhere.”

“Nora, get data mining on that, anyone else?” Penny asked as she visually used her omni to mark down the request as a mission.

“I need to go to Tuchanka to perform the rite. I’m still technically a welp until that is done and Urdnot Chief Wrex would like to be the one to accept me from what he said before you picked me up.” Grunt brought up and Penny tallied it as I finished compiling the data Jacob asked for and was already transferring it to him much to his surprise.

“Since the Blue Suns are crumbling, I want a shot at my old ‘friend’ Vido Santiago. Repay him for his betrayal.” Zaeed declared and Penny nodded before looking at Garrus.

“I need to visit the Citadel and talk to my friend, Sidonis. I want to let him know I don’t blame him for the deaths of my team since he was tortured into giving us up.” Garrus announced and Penny turned to Ashley.

“I’m good. I have my regrets coming along with me and back on Rannoch...actually, if I could see some of my kids on Rannoch before we go, I’d be thankful.” Ashley brought up and I raised my hand along with Yola.

“Same for us. We want to see our kids.” We declared in unison.

“I want to go back to the place Cerberus fucked me up in, torch it to the ground, maybe get answers.” Jack said with a glare at the floor, considering everybody here treated her well, she probably didn’t want to vent her constant wrath on them.

“I’m good.” Kasumi said...from Ivara’s mouth. Wait, when did she-she’s gone again. Ugh, she’s best friends with Ivara now isn’t she? Those two together is a nightmare come true.

“I need to see my sister.” Miranda said, making everyone look at her.

“I would like to check in on things on Tuchanka.” Mordin brought up to draw attention.

“Okay, so I have all of those marked down, we’ll get to them when we can. First I want to recruit this assassin, Thane Krios, then the Justicar Samara. Both of their experiences will be welcomed. So, Miranda, you’re going to see your sister first and we’ll help Jacob on the way to Tuchanka.” Penny declared, but I stood up and approached her. “Yes Nora?”

“What about you? What about our children?” I asked her and she winced.

“I’m getting to that. I figured I would see them at the same time you, Yola and Ash went to visit.” Penny sighed. “We cover Jack after a visit to Rannoch since the world we’re looking for is close and then Zaeed will be next after that. If Thane or Samara have requests, we’ll cover them as we go.”

“Commander?” Hunter called out and Penny looked at him.

“Yes Hunter? You’re not obligated to come with us beyond the Omega 4 Relay, I wasn’t going to just assume you were sticking with us.” Penny said to the tall asian/native american with a nod towards him and his siblings, who had remained respectfully quiet in their corner of the room.

“Actually, We are going with you to Omega 4.” Hunter rebutted which surprised us all.

“We need to come with you. Before that ship left, we picked up a massive Argent energy signature beyond it. The Reapers are abducting Cerberus’ Cyberdemons. That always means bad shit is on the horizon.” Berserker informed us with nods from his siblings.

“After the Illusive Man basically declared all of you expendable, I wanted to head out and start scouting for some of his ‘Black Site’ facilities as payback for that remark. If suitable, I’ll relay some back to you for missions. Most of them we’ll handle since our troops are already warring against Cerberus.” Hunter said a pointed look at Miranda.

“Normally I’d report this, but considering how my loyalty has been betrayed; I’ll even give you some leads.” Miranda declared with a sneer. Oh~ betray this bitch and she’s gonna betray the betrayer like Lillith backstabbing Jedah in-oh~ my head~! Why did I suddenly have Darkstalkers knowledge for a moment?!

“Thank you. If I find anything ‘unpleasant’ with the knowledge of IM being in on it, I’ll let you know.” With that, Hunter left the room to board the Shadow Dagger while his siblings stayed behind.

“He won’t be taking the Shadow Dagger, he’s leaving it behind.” Runner told us which left us confused.

“If he’s not taking that, then what?” I questioned since there wasn’t a sign of another ship.

“His personal starfighter in the Shadow Dagger’s hanger bay. Hunter’s gonna solo it. If that’s all, who wants a tour of our ship?” The sexy blond babe offered with the others nodding their heads.

“Wait, hold up. Your freighter, has a hangar? How is that physically-right. Magic.” I sighed with a rub of my temples. I’m an engineer, magic is ass-backwards to me.

[1001100 01101001 01101110 01100101]

“Horizons was attacked.” The recently appointed Councillor Anderson said when he entered the council chamber. This was rare since he usually remotely attended from his office so he could keep working on other things while fulfilling his Council duties.

“Nice of you to join us.” Valern said with a look of annoyance. “I know you prefer doing these meetings over call, but you barely contribute to decision making.”

“Well, unlike your governments, mine is still having to create interstellar infrastructure. We don’t have the experience like the Empire, nor the time like the rest of this Council and its members to devote to many ventures. I’ve been working my ass off trying to get everyone in my government to play nice and let you all help us.” Anderson reminded everyone as he stood next to Laiel, since the Alliance and the Hierarchy had grown fairly friendly over the years in their shared military collaborations despite the violent and rocky start.

“We know. It would seem Ambassador Udina left you with quite the mess to clean up.” Laiel commented with understanding. He’s had to suffer the betrayal of soldiers before, much to his people’s shame, traitors are still an issue.

“Finding out he was a Cerberus operative from Meldua was a hit to all in the Alliance. Even if he was just an informant, the blocks and sabotage that he caused to make the other governments appear in a bad light is troubling.” Anderson declared as he looked at the other councilors. “That said, back to the topic of why I called this meeting. Horizon was attacked, a third of the colonists have been abducted by the Collectors. The only reason they didn’t make off with everyone is because Spectre Shepard intervened.”

“With a Cerberus ship, manned by Cerberus operatives, likely ordered to do so by Cerberus. If Spectre Shepard’s discontent with her current situation wasn’t known, we’d consider her to be a traitor.” Avetora replied and Anderson sighed.

“Trust me. It’s been hard to get people to understand that Shepard isn’t working with Cerberus willingly. I’m just surprised and thankful that Warrant Officer Williams was able to look past that and join Shepard aboard the Normandy SR-2 so she can validate Shepard’s operations. Of course, she can’t report on Cerberus’ other operations, but it’s still something.” Anderson then brought up screens that showed recordings from what must be Horizon.

“Organic drones. Reaper technology. This proves it, the Collectors are allied with the Reapers.” Laiel excitedly declared as his mandibles clacked. “We can amass for an invasion force at the Omega 4 Relay immediately.”

“I request that you not.” Anderson then brought up a document. “Omega is officially an independent territory. You would spark a war with them. We need to convince them to ally with us and help us storm the Collector homeworld.”

“Not only that, but the Empire is already amassing a fleet at the station to aid them in their Military build up.” Medulla explained, bringing up her own Omni to show a fleet of the Empire’s Star Destroyers patrolling around the system. “We can at least watch the Relay, prevent anyone from traveling through it and try to stop any ships that come out. They should still be stuck using the Relays since it is unlikely the Reapers have M.E.H, Hyperdrive or Conduit technology.”

“Then what do we do? Sit on our hands? What have we spent the past two years of military advancement for? Should we focus on things less overt, like Cerberus or the former Dalatrass’ splinter cell of the STG?” Laiel demanded and Valern gave that smile he learned meant a salarian was genuinely pleased.

“Yes. Hunting down our respective rogue wetworks organizations would be quite beneficial to us all in the long run.” Valern declared in support and Laiel was happy they’d be doing something.

“Should we call Spectre Saren? He is still on duty in the Attican Traverse. If he is nearly finished with his work, we could request he look into either group.” Avetora suggested and Medulla held up her hand.

“Actually, ONI’s most senior operatives are ready to start dismantling Cerberus alongside the Argentines as we speak. Send Saren after the dethroned salarian queen and we’ll help the Alliance clean up their dirty laundry.” Medulla purred as she looked at Anderson for approval.

“The help would be appreciated.” Anderson replied with a smile. He liked the Empire, they tended not to let politics get in the way of action. Half the action was politics.