Kapitel 28: Chapter 28 – Payoff
Morinth sprinted down the hall as her mind made the world seem slow, unknowingly processing the world around her. Without even realizing it her mind began recalling information, seeing through the geometry of the world, the workings of things. She recalled the distance between her hotel and the building next to it.
Without actually realizing it, she ran forward directly towards a window. As she began to process what was going on, she was running head first into a window, a biotic corona emanating from her body as she zipped forward into a biotic charge, shattering the glass as her biotic barrier drained away. She found herself midair heading upwards and forwards toward the adjacent building's roof. Instinctively she brought her knees into her chest and her hands up as her mind calculated her landing. The balls of her feet hit first as she began to bend her knees, crouch and lean forward. She pushed off with her feet and propelled herself forward as she tucked her head in and pushed forwards rolling on her shoulder and quickly finding herself in a crouch, then regained her momentum and sprinted forward.
Half way she began to stop, and she looked behind herself to see the broken window nearly 20 feet above her with her mother standing and staring right at her. Morinth did not look for long and continued her run, still not quite sure how she pulled off that move so flawlessly.
As she tried to process it, something else started to happen. Her body flared with biotic energy and her mass reached zero. The minute this occurred she seemingly disappeared into a biotic flash as she zipped at FTL speeds across the roofs. A split second later Morinth found herself standing straight on a completely different building. She looked behind her to see a biotic trail quickly disappearing and the original building she was on was nowhere in sight.
Morinth had heard of ancient Asari warriors who were such powerful biotics that they could seemingly teleport in bursts of FTL speed, but she had assumed such tales to be just tales. Now she was starting to realize they might have had truth to them, however much more importantly, she now fully realized what Blacklight had done to her, and while at first it seemed like a boon, she could not help but feel a shiver up her spine as she thought more and more on the possibilities. Without saying a word she took off, leaving her thoughts to simmer in her head.
Floating around the empty docks of Eden Prime were what appeared to be Gas Bags, indigenous non hostile life that floats around the landscape. These however were not normal Gas Bags. They were Blacklight constructs. The Batarians on the ground inspecting the area barely registered the creatures as they harmlessly floated on by.
Two Batarians moved towards a damaged storage container. The door had been ripped off its hinges and bent in such a way as to suggest it was pulled off rather than blown apart.
"What the hell happened here?"
The other Batarian turned on his gun's flashlight as he looked inside the container. Initially it appeared as if nothing happened inside, but as he stepped inside, small holes could be seen across the inside of the walls.
"Whoever was stuck in here, they were armed.", said the Batarian as he looked around the room.
"What could do this? That door was ripped off. A Krogan couldn't do that."
"Mech maybe, a big one. That or a Yahg.", said the other Batarian.
"Or maybe Blacklight?", said the first.
"Maybe, but I doubt it. Whatever did this, was in and out fast. Really fast, probably an hour or two. Blacklight could do it, but why do that when we give them the samples they want? If this was Blacklight, I would expect one survivor, one who would happen to be Blacklight shifted to look like a survivor. That's what I would do anyway."
The Gas Bags on the outside of the storage container floated away, looking around at the damage itself. The pristine nature of the area, minus a few scattered areas where a fight broke out was more than odd, suspect even. Blacklight knew it did not do this, and only knew individuals of the Batarian species were missing.
A wayward Gas Bag flew near the door, running hair thin tendrils across its surface. Microscopic analysis found an alloy that did not match with the composition of the door. The alloy would have been scratched off as soon as whatever it was ripped the door off its hinges. However, there was trace organic components, similar to the materials found in the cybernetic collectors that had attacked Shanxi.
The Gas Bag flew away as another was looking around the surrounding. There were footprints in the ground outside the city. However they were faint, thus lighter than the footprint suggested. It was a near perfect match to the foot of a Geth Prime, probably one whose hardware was constructed of light materials.
Heretic Geth that the Prime Geth mentioned were here. Collectors as well, Blacklight fought the Collectors once, but knew so little of what they were fully capable of. The emissions detected above were inconsistent with Reapers, but were similar in a few regards, namely efficiency.
According to myth the Collectors existed beyond the Omega-4 relay. If they were the cause then that would be the best place to start. The only issue was how to cross the uncrossable Relay.
On Shanxi, Legion stood next to the Geth Tower as it watched to see a Blacklight tentacle rise from the ground. The long tentacle terminated in the upper body of one Elizabeth Greene.
"It appears that the Heretic Geth and Collectors have joined forces and have attacked a Batarian Colony world, one that seems to have possessed a Prothean Beacon.", said Elizabeth.
"Acknowledged, Information sent to Rannoch."
Elizabeth nodded.
"We know that the Collectors come from beyond the Omega-4 Relay. Is there a way to get through?", asked Elizabeth.
Legion remained silent for a moment.
"Unknown. We sent probes beyond the relay, none reported back. Our hypothesis is that relay is near a Black Hole. Due to standard Relay transit protocols, ships passing through experience a drift of several thousand kilometers from the exit point. This would be fatal around a Black Hole. It is believed a signal can trigger an advanced safety protocol to ensure this drift is lessened."
"The Collectors must have this signal then?", asked Elizabeth.
"Assuming our hypothesis is correct, then yes."
"Then we will take theirs."
Shisk stood over the growing village. Giant thorn vines stretched all across the village, all hollowed out to form homes for other Vorcha. Most of the ground was sand, the rest black glass with a rough reflective texture. Hundreds of Vorcha were separated in groups, and the atmosphere was thick with tension. Shisk had never seen this many Vorcha in one area not fighting each other, and the fact that only isolated fights broke out was a miracle in and of itself.
Shisk leapt down and joined his kin as he moved through the crowd. None moved back as he walked among them, though many clicked their teeth as he walked by.
'You are doing well. There is peace, tense peace, but peace nonetheless.' spoke Chakwas.
Shisk said nothing as he leapt upwards to a thorned vine and crawled to overlook the groups of Vorcha. As he did a Vorcha landed next to him, covered in the Blacklight armor. As Shisk watched, he felt a strange sensation coming from Chakwas.
"Wat dat?"
'It appears as if our enemy had made its move.'
Shisk had known of the Reapers for quite some time, after Chakwas mentioned the attacks by one on the Blacklight planet. They did not tell him much, but enough to know that Blacklight was planning something to attack them.
'I think we could use your help.'
"How?"
'You once told me of Vorcha Labor Teams, are any of those around?'
A small Bioship floated aimlessly through space. Two recently developed minds within it looked at the stars as they attempted to pinpoint their location in the galaxy. It didn't take long before they found a possible route to get to Blacklight territory and rejoin the collective.
During the trip, Miranda and Jack had come to odds. Each it seemed had personality not fully clouded by billions of others, leading to each becoming rather distinct. Jack had taken to the name Jennifer, with Jack as a nickname. To Miranda's ever growing frustration, Jack had been a bit vocal.
'Fuck Saleon.'
Miranda mentally sighed at the now much more outspoken Jack.
'You do know I was there right?'
'I felt it deserved to be said.'
Miranda had taken to focusing on the task at hand as Jack took to thinking over applications to certain biotic abilities. Miranda continued to focus on actually getting to where they needed to go. Miranda decided it was going to be a long trip.
Deep beneath a far off ocean on a barely livable planet swarmed with infected life, extractor lungs grew over geothermal vents as massive chimera-like beasts swam through the ocean, examining the deepest points. Jellyfish-like creatures looked into the trench at a newly unearth artifact. It was another Leviathan Orb, this one much larger than the last.
A newly constructed Brain Hive, whose outer shell resembled coral, grew nerve fibers that slowly drifted towards the Orb.
With a flash, three phantoms stood before a realm of the mind appearing as ever shifting humans. They looked before them at a small child who stared down at the expanding void that existed in all directions. The child looked up with a face bereft of any distinct features and still as death. The child stared unblinking at the three phantoms conjured before them.
"Hello.", spoke the child with an unnaturally dead tone.
The three phantoms walked towards the boy and examined him like a mild curiosity. Form the child grew a more detailed environment resembling a large cell. Bare of anything other than a bed. Though this was a realm of the mind, a bio-film seemed to surround the child with small tendrils swaying in an unseen breeze. The boy only stared, unblinking at the three before them.
"What is this?"
From seemingly nowhere two others walked forward. Alex Mercer wearing a glare and Elizabeth Greene with a small smile as she made her way to the child. She reached down and picked up the boy, who did little else but accept the action.
"That is the worst thing we have ever done.", said Alex.
The phantoms shifted through various forms as they looked to the child.
"PARIAH."
Alex only nodded.
"You now know our darkest moment in history."
The mechanical boom of a Reaper vibrated the very air, as the cell like room dissolved into a black void where a facsimile of the reaper Nazara floated above.
"Now lets discuss yours.", said Alex.
The phantoms looked up at this facsimile of a Reaper. They looked at it with narrowed eyes before turning back to Alex.
"A result of a regrettable creation, one that worked much too well."
"A mistake. You programmed a mistake.", said Alex.
"Our creation did exactly as we wished, it merely took it to a level we did not foresee."
"You're a prideful race. Pride comes before the fall. Now you are aloof, ignoring the cries of the galaxy as your mistake roams the stars. Slaughtering them like common cattle."
"They are not our mistake."
"They are a mistake, your mistake. Your problem is that you just can't take responsibility for your actions.", said Alex.
"They are not our mistake."
"...Then what are they?", asked Alex curious.
"They are not ours."
Alex remained silent at that as he observe the phantoms before him.
"We did not create the Reapers. We created an intelligence, one that would become the architect and creator of the Reapers. It was created to analyze the synthetic organisms who felled their organic creators. It was built to oversee relations between organic and synthetic life."
"Oversee relations?"
"We did not believe synthetics to be unneeded, they were as good a thrall as any other. The Intelligence was to be a mediator, while attempting to fix the issue. It was programmed to ensure the continued existence of life in the galaxy, by any means necessary. It collected physical data from thralls throughout the cosmos. Studied the development of civilizations for hundreds of thousands of years, until it found a solution."
"And that solution was the Reapers?"
"The Intelligence determined that organics create synthetics to improve their own existence, but improvements have limits. To exceed those limits synthetics must be allowed to evolve. They must, by definition, exceed their creators. The result is inevitably destruction and chaos. The Intelligence chose to resolve the problem by implementing a system which would prevent civilizations of reaching such a point. This solution took the form of the Reapers. Our species was slaughtered and processed to become the first Reaper, Harbinger, crafted in our image. It used our memories to preserve us, and created a gestalt consciousness which included the Intelligence itself."
"In other words, slaughter life before it can construct synthetics, and use them to construct another synthetic to perpetuate the cycle? Do you not see the circular logic there."
"The Reapers are not our mistake, we did not create them."
"By proxy, you did."
"Why do you seek us out?"
"You will repair the damage you have done. You will help us put an end to the Reapers."
"The affairs of thralls are not of our concern. We consider you to be an Apex Race like us. We would shelter you if you wished, but we will not fight. We are too few."
Alex stared silent at the Leviathans before he smiled.
"Do you know what consumption is? When Blacklight Consumes something, it's not just absorbing them, it's much worse than that. In the span of a few seconds, microscopic tendrils find openings in the skin, any that's there. Cuts, piercings, pores, anything the small tendrils can sneak in, if none can be found we make them. These tendrils bore deep into the body, bypassing the multiple layers of ectodermal tissues to reach the more important internal structures. Then multiple strains of the Blacklight virus are injected into the bloodstream causing the cells to mutate violently through specially crafted viral vectors. For a split second you will feed extreme pain as these tendrils attach to the nervous system so we can see your thoughts as you are broken down into base materials."
Within the mental realm, the Leviathans watched as mental constructs underwent a slowed down version of Blacklight Consumption. Alex continued.
"Temporarily the cells that survive infection will mutate to attack healthy cells. They ignore infected cells completely. These mutant cells are programmed to recognize healthy cells as food and attack them by wrapping its cell membrane around healthy cells. Effectively your own body starts to cannibalize itself on a cellular level. It's very unpleasant. Mitochondria in your infected cells are given a major overhaul to efficiently produce the energy needed for your cells to replicate very quickly. We can halt or even reverse cellular aging with ease."
Giant visual constructs of D.N.A changes was seen as malformed cells literally ate any other healthy cell they could reach. Alex continued.
"Next your whole body is enveloped by Blacklight biomass as you are broken down at a consistent rate. By this point the nervous system is fully under our control and we make our way to the brain, where everything that makes you YOU is processed, examined, studied, and appraised by billions of minds. Then that part of yourself is subjected to our collective memory. Thus far, any individuals consumed have always without fail willingly joined us once their personality is turned into a new individual within our collective. All the while your body is gone and turned into resources we can use."
The constructs ended and Alex looked to the Leviathans with a face bereft of emotion. There was no compassion or empathy, only a barely contained Hunger in his eyes. The Leviathans' avatars took a step back.
"Thieves take your possessions, murderers take your life. We take you, all of you. Everything you are becomes a part of us. Your uniqueness becomes our uniqueness. Your everything becomes ours.", spoke Alex unblinking as he examined the ever shifting forms of the Leviathans. Alex took a deep calming breath.
"We are not giving you a choice. You have by proxy brought more death to the galaxy than any natural disaster, any would be genocidal tyrant, any mass war. You have two options, you atone and help us, or we seek you out and consume you, achieving the same result. The end will remain the same, the difference is whether you are remembered as a race who helped stop something meant to destroy us all, or as a component of us, another facet of our vast hive mind and another set of genes in our library of traits."
"You do not control us."
"But we could make you us. This is not a request, this is not a negotiation, this is a demand you will not escape from. We have to consume but one of you to know all that individual knows, including the location of the others. We accidentally committed genocide against all life on our planet, do you wish to see what happens we we do so intentionally?"
The looks of both anger and concern could be seen on the faces of these phantoms as they shifted into various forms. Alex recognized the form of the three council members, Jobol, Sparatus, and Tevos. The Phantoms moved forward, observing but not speaking.
Elizabeth was wary before looking to Alex, an unheard message passed between the two and she lowered PARIAH to the ground. The young child, whose face was still as blank as death stood straight, before walking to the phantom appearing as Jobol. He stared into the false Salarian before turning to Sparatus. Once again PARIAH stared before turning to the Tevos Phantom.
He stared at her the longest before he moved back to Elizabeth, who picked up the boy as she smiled. The Phantoms changed again. Mordin, Morinth, and Wrex. They looked to each other, silently discussing among themselves, before the Mordin phantom stepped forward.
"We agree to help."
Arms with hands intact hung from it, tendons bound the jutting bones of various types. Legs with elongated feet still attached dragged its mass across the floor. Cracks in its hide showed smaller limbs growing within this thing. Organs could be seen working through paper-thin skin as a deformed twisted head moved to look around it's cage. Wheezing breaths struggled to take air in. A tongue ending in a lamprey like mouth hung limply and dripping black ooze. Vestigial organs uselessly exposed themselves through the near translucent skin Eyes dotted its surface as it moved closer and closer to the window. If one looked closely, you could almost see the Salarian this monster used to be.
"Another failure."
Streams of fire incinerated the abomination as it screamed a sound so loud the glass rattled and shook. Standing near the glass, looking into the room was a truly massive varren, so large in fact that an adult Krogan would be only just reach the creatures shoulder, with a cybernetic visor grafted around it's eyes and ceramic armor plates covering it's skin. Its saber-like metal fangs dripped with digestive juices as the glass holding the abomination at bay slid into the floor. The varren looked to its master.
"Go on Nel, eat your fill."
The varren turned to the burnt abomination and opened its mouth much too wide as green fluid sprayed onto the creature before it vomited its own stomach to cover the creature and slowly envelop it.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein