Bab 30: 30
- Here. As we agreed. And now I need the Cipher. - A deep, low voice with a hint of hoarseness was heard.
- The Old Root must consume. - A female voice replied, more like the voice of an asari, but rougher and prouder.
- This is what Tali heard as she came to. Her occiput hurt mercilessly, and Tali herself didn't understand what was happening. Barely opening her eyes, she started to get up somehow.
- Ooooh, my head... - Tali couldn't resist complaining about how she felt. Sitting on her knees, she was able to fully open her eyes. And immediately regretted it. Before her stood Saren. He stared at her with the piercing gaze of his blue eyes, which expressed no emotion. There were also geth around. About ten, maybe fifteen. Tali couldn't even say anything. She simply didn't know how to behave in such a situation. And suddenly, something long and cold touched her leg, and it began to wrap around her leg like a tentacle. Tali reflexively turned around and now lost the ability to think. In front of her was some... creature, which was so frightening and disgusting that it caused fear and disgust in the quarian. The creature itself was spherical, with a plate on the front that looked like a face. There were several holes on this plate that looked like eyes, and it had tentacles hanging from below. And one of these tentacles was now wrapping around her leg. And others were just creeping up. This made Tali sober up and try to activate her omni-blade, only it wasn't there. At all. - Hey, what the... What the hell!!! What the heck is this! What's happening! - Tali started panicking. Two more tentacles started wrapping around the other leg, and a fourth one - the first. After a couple of seconds, the tentacles completely enveloped her legs and were already crawling up her stomach. Then these very tentacles started pulling the girl towards this creature. - No-no-no-NO!!! HELP! PLEASE! HELP ME!!! DON'T! PLEASE! - Tali flipped over and tried to grab onto something with her hands. But her palms only stroked the concrete surface, scattering dust and stumbling upon small concrete pebbles. - No! NO! NOOOOO!!! - Eventually, Tali hung upside down over a huge abyss, and a second later, she was swallowed by this creature.
Inside it was dark. Too dark. Tali found herself in some sort of round sack, which was filled with some kind of slime. Fortunately, the filter automatically closed if there was no access to oxygen, so Tali had an hour to figure out the situation. The only thing was, Tali didn't know what to do. She had nothing with her except her suit. She couldn't see anything, was swimming in some kind of slime, and the tentacles had already tied her hands and were now wrapping her completely. In the end, no matter how hard Tali tried, she panicked.
In reality, she could already feel her heart, her pulse at her neck, and near her wrists. She even felt her veins pulsating on her legs. Cramps began to contract her muscles, and tears flowed from her eyes. Tali knew this was the end. There were no chances that anyone would come and save her. After about half a minute, the tentacles removed her mask, and Tali felt a cold slime on her face. Then she felt cold, slimy tentacles crawling into her suit and spreading all over her body, touching her skin that was unprotected, and suddenly something adhered to her face. It resembled a jelly mask that covered her whole face. To her surprise, the Quarian could breathe, but at the first breath, she smelled a cold sweet scent, followed by an irresistible desire to sleep. At her second breath, Tali succumbed and fell asleep.
"Our agreement," Saren said with no small measure of disgust toward the Turian. At these words, the green clone of Shiala, who served for conversations, rolled her eyes and fell. The Turian stirred, which meant his racial convulsions, and a few seconds later, an Asari with the same green skin appeared. Rising from the concrete floor, the Asari looked at the Turian. "The agreement is accepted." After that, the pseudo-Shiala approached Saren, touched his head with both hands, and began transmitting the Cipher.
Meanwhile...
Having attached the explosive to the concrete wall, I retreated to a safe distance. We could not reach the Thorian by the safe path, as in the game, as there was already Shepard's team, which had begun the genocide of the colony in the literal sense of the word. We also saw that a bunch of Geths were going along the aerodrome, so it was deadly to stick there. But we found another way. Almost at the base of the skyscraper, under the clouds, we found an entrance, and then walked there for an hour along the stairs and corridors. And now we were already hearing someone's scream. It must be some Asari. Alright, time to start.
The plan was as follows. We clear everything here. Then "Rilik" arrives, we tie the Turian with ropes, drag him into the hangar, and fly off to "Kila's Light". He will most likely be sending crawlers, but they are easy to deal with, especially when you have 10 Primes and 20 drones. So, as soon as I moved away from the line of explosion, the explosion occurred, and immediately we, under the cover of dust, rushed in there. The radar immediately noticed 15 Geths and two organics. I immediately sent a signal to the organics not to shoot, but I ordered to get rid of the Geths. I myself raised a Geth assault rifle, loaded with armor-piercing bullets, and started shooting. I hit the first Geth in the head, killing him on the spot. Then I laid two more Geths with a long burst. Then I hit another Geth in the reactor, causing him to shut down. The rest of the Geths were taken down by my guys. And coming out of the dust cloud, I freaked out to the depths of the reactor. In front of me were Saren and a green Asari. She lit up with biotics, but I immediately killed her with a precise shot to the head. She fell next to an identical green Asari.
"What the hell?" asked Saren, who was unarmed.
"Didn't expect to see me? You seemed so keen..." I replied, and then it hit him.
"You... Well, this is a surprise. Quite a gift indeed," he began with his deep voice.
"Why would I be a gift? You think I came here to surrender?" I wondered.
"No. I wanted to talk," he said unexpectedly. Fine, let's listen.
"About what?"
"About you. I've been watching you for a long time. I saw what you did to the Batarians and that... Quarian. I saw what you did on Rannoch. I saw what you did on Terra Nova. And it... amazes me. You're a geth. A machine. A computer. Yet you experience real emotions. Feelings. Sympathy, anger, sadness... A unique case." While we were chatting, my geth were already tying up the Turian with ropes. Saren watched this with astonishment. Meanwhile, I listened to the cannonade coming from the colony. There was a real battle going on there. The colonists were probably all dead, as were the drop troopers and Krogans, since now there were only geth messages, which kept coming and coming. Ah, and Krogan and human swearing. Ashley, as it turned out, had a rich vocabulary.
"Are you jealous or something?"
"What do I have to be jealous of? Yes, you're unique, but that's all. You let emotions control you and you make mistakes. I, on the other hand, am ruled by logic, just like the Reapers."
"Yes. But I have free will."
Probably that was too much. From my words, Saren was burning with anger... and biotics. He threw a strong wave at me with a flick of his hand. I managed to jump up to the ceiling, and while in the air, I shot him with a homemade under-barrel grenade launcher I found in a trophy jeep. The explosion broke Saren's barrier, and I landed with a roll and ran straight at him. I knew I couldn't kill him, but no one said I couldn't beat him up. From the explosion, Saren grabbed his face and stepped back, and it gave me a few seconds to run up to him and hit him in the face with all my might, then wrapped my arm around his throat from behind, and pointed a pistol at his head with the other hand. The pistol was from Rakhana, so he wouldn't survive a lead bullet in his brain.
"Just flinch, you bitch, and I'll add a few grams to your head, got it?" Before he could answer, I heard steps from behind. Hundreds of steps and growling. I started guessing who it was, so I stepped back 5 meters to avoid getting hit. And suddenly, the Thorian's creepers started pouring out of the corridor. They ran in a crowd, pushing each other and growling at the top of their lungs, but they didn't pay attention to us. They all ran into the colony. A few seconds later, I heard the wild screams of Liara, the swearing of Rex and Ashley, and the firing from four barrels. In general, both I and Saren were surprised.
"Are they with you?" I asked Saren, but he didn't even know what to say.
- I don't know. - A strange answer, but I had more pressing matters. With a biotic push, he flung me nearly to the edge of the platform, then charged at me. I began shooting at his knee, but after nine shots, the magazine was empty. This slowed Saren down and I managed to get away from him, reload my pistol and start shooting at his other knee. But it seemed Saren no longer cared. He threw biotic blasts at me with fury in his eyes, but I managed to dodge them all.
- You don't understand. But you must understand! The Reapers can't be stopped. We need to join them. Join them and we will be invincible! - Saren started to rant as I dodged the second singularity.
- You are just a puppet of the Sovereign. He controls you. This is indoctrination. This is what you're researching on Virmire, right? - Saren was genuinely surprised by my knowledge. Most likely, even Gor hadn't found anything yet, and here I am, showing off. While Saren pondered this, I reloaded the grenade launcher behind my back. Handy thing to stun a biotic enemy. Why don't they use this kind of thing here?
- How... Ah, it doesn't matter! You don't understand! Sovereign is making me stronger, because he needs me. This symbiosis is mutually beneficial! I'm helping him find the Conduit, and he gives me a chance to survive. But for this to work, you need... to sacrifice something.
- Like, freedom! - Hmm, he really doesn't like this topic. Interesting, is it the Sovereign making him aggressive or is it just Saren?
- Shut up! - Saren shouted. But by that time, I had already loaded the grenade launcher, so while he was charging at me with his biotic-lit fist, I grabbed the rifle and shot him in the face. The explosion threw him back, and I immediately ran up to him. He tried to hit me with his biotic fist, but I easily dodged it and punched him hard in the stomach, sending him flying back two meters. I ran up to him, and he immediately tried to hit me with his geth left hand, but it met my block, then he tried to hit with his other hand, without the biotics, but my block worked again. He immediately tried to hit again with his left, but this time I grabbed it, twisted it so that Saren turned his back to me and then broke his metal hand with all my strength, then tore it off completely and threw it into the abyss. But Saren didn't want to give up, so he again charged at me with biotics and we once again parted.
You can't stop this. The Reapers are omnipotent. And they will come again to continue the Cycle.
- If you're saying that the Reapers are all-powerful and follow logic, then answer me one question. Why would they leave a pathetic organic alive after completing the Cycle, when they have all their power? What can you possibly oppose them with when they no longer see any use for you and refuse to protect you?
- Yes, Saren, think about it. It will serve you well. I won't kill you, but since you initiated this conversation, let's continue. It will be easy to overpower you with logic. No wonder I pondered all of this when I replayed the game over and over again.
- I am needed by the Sovereign. - Saren's voice sounded... broken. As if his entire life and the meaning behind it shattered into pieces, and now he was desperately holding onto those fragments, trying not to fall into despair.
- Nobody needs you. You're just a pitiful organic pawn in the hands of the Reapers, and a traitor at that. - That finally broke him. He started glowing intensely with biotics, then growled something wild, and leaped into the abyss with a running start. At first, I thought it was the end for him, so I quickly ran to the edge, but it turned out he had just escaped. Using biotics, he descended to one of the lower levels and ran away. Run, Saren, run. We will meet again.
Meanwhile, my geth had already managed to secure Torian with the ropes so he wouldn't fall. All that was left was to detach the knots from the walls and attach the rope ends to the "Rilik." But suddenly, Torian started making strange guttural sounds, and his "face" began twitching as if he was about to be sick. And indeed, after 5 seconds, a figure emerged from his tendrils. Only when it stood up to its full height did I realize who it was.
- Tali? - That's all I managed to say. Tali didn't respond. She simply stared at me with two glowing dots in her mask, but then, suddenly, it started glowing with a blue light, and clusters of blue energy ignited in her hands. - What the hell!?
Tali pointed her hand at me, and a projectile shot out. I managed to react and started evading, but the projectile still grazed me, slamming me into the wall. However, my shields held up. Then came another projectile, but this time, I managed to dodge it, and it crashed into the wall, shattering it into small pieces. I got up and started dodging her throws. And as I ran back and forth, I asked myself, "What the hell is happening here!?" The answer came in the form of a singularity, which I managed to dodge. And everyone, including the other geth to whom I ordered not to open fire, was watching. The last thing I needed was for one of my favorite characters to die.
- Comrade Legate, do you copy? - the pilot of the "Light of Kylar" asked me. With the light communication, I could hold debates on philosophy while making a single jump, so I could afford it.
- Nazara is targeting orbital artillery at your location. - That was the last thing I needed.
- Charge the main weapon and fire at Nazara. Immediately!
- Understood.
Now it seems like Tali was furious. Charging her hands with biotics, she ran at me for a hand-to-hand fight. Stepping back two paces and waiting for her to approach, I dodged and her fist hit the wall, leaving a significant dent. Then she attempted to strike with her other hand, which I intercepted and started twisting. Tali struck with her second hand, but this time without biotics. It didn't faze me, and I grabbed her hand, then locked both of Tali's hands above her head, pressing her against the wall.
- Tali, what the hell!? - I didn't know what else to ask, nor did I know what her response would be. But she answered.
- Save. - The voice was undoubtedly hers, but somehow... deep. As if someone else was speaking through her vocal cords, using her voice.
- Save whom? - It was crucial. I understood that Tali's body was being controlled, but I didn't know who exactly was speaking.
- Old Root.
A kick to my abdomen sent me flying three meters back. Then, biotically propelled, Tali jumped up to the ceiling and attempted to strike me with a biotic punch to the head. I narrowly dodged it, and her punch created a dent in the floor, pulverizing the concrete. With all my strength, I struck Tali in the solar plexus, sending her flying a meter away. It was painful, but better than death. I understood one thing - this wasn't Tali; she was deep inside somewhere. Therefore, I couldn't kill her, even if she believed otherwise about me.
- Main weapon charge at 50%. - the pilot's voice sounded.
- Continue charging. - I replied, evading a strike from Tali's left. I managed to dodge it, but she immediately struck me with her left shoulder, followed by a right biotic punch. The impact sent me flying into the wall with such force that my legs momentarily went numb. I dodged Tali's strike, which shattered a corner of the wall, and then intercepted her second strike, grabbing her fist in my palm. I also intercepted her second fist, then stood up and began pushing the quarian further away from the edge of the abyss.
- Save. - Tali said again.
- Save whom?
- Nazara. - So, Torian asks me to save him from NAZARA, but he himself tries to kill me? That's complete idiocy, unless...
Tali ignited with biotics, but I forcefully twisted one of her arms behind her back, causing her to emit a pained growl. I also intercepted her attempt to strike me with her elbow and twisted her other arm. Both of Tali's arms were twisted, touching her neck.
- Let her go. Now! - a familiar voice of Shepard sounded. Tali and I turned our heads and saw Shepard, Rex, Liara, and Ashley, all aiming their weapons at me. Except for Liara, who was glowing with biotics.
- Just don't kill her. - I said, pushing the quarian away from me, then raising my hands up. I didn't particularly want to be killed or have Torian harmed.
- What the hell is going on here? - Rex asked, not looking at me, but at the plant.
- This is Torianin, or Species 37. - I explained, although it looked even more bizarre now, with the plant already entangled with ropes that were already connected to the Rilik, and with five geth troopers attached to Torianin, comfortably positioned on the soft sphere.
- Tali, what's happening? - Instead of responding, the quarian ignited with biotics, clasping her hands together to gather a large biotic mass, and a few seconds later, she launched the sphere towards Shepard. The captain managed to dodge, but the sphere hit Rex. The krogan crashed into the wall with such force that he nearly lost consciousness. Tali mercilessly attacked anyone she could with her biotics, but she seemed to forget about me. Jumping onto Torianin, I contacted the Light kila.
- Light kila, fire at the Sovereign. I repeat, open fire. Immediately. - There was no response, but after five seconds, Tali ceased her barrage. She simply stood there, clutching her head, and then let out a truly insane scream. Falling to the ground, she began convulsing, continuing to scream and even calling out for her mother. Meanwhile, I gave the signal to lift us up. Several explosions occurred, detaching Torianin from the building, and it hung from the ropes. Within seconds, we were being rapidly lifted onto the Rilik. Shepard and the rest of the team tried to help Tali, who was still screaming as if she were being torn apart, paying no attention to us. In a minute, we found ourselves in the Rilik's hangar, and five seconds later, the frigate soared upward, leaving Feros and the destroyed colony behind. The mission was accomplished.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone