บท 159: Chapter 157

Within Saren's lab, they found another Prothean Beacon, similar to the one on Eden Prime. Axel walked up to the Beacon as the rest of the team secured the area and searched the lab for anything of importance.

Approaching the beacon, he reached his hand out which caused it to activate. The process was not as painful as he originally thought it would be and instead, a stream of images and memories began to flood his mind. He saw flashes of ancient civilizations, long-forgotten wars, and the relentless march of the Reapers through the galaxy. Each image was a piece of a puzzle, showing him the cyclical nature of this threat.

As Axel absorbed the information, Shepard watched him closely, aware that the contents of a Prothean Beacon could be overwhelming even for someone as composed as Axel. When he finally stepped back from the beacon, his face didn't show any discomfort at all.

"Are you okay, Sir" asked Shepard.

"I'm fine Commander" replied Axel as a red light image appeared in front, in the form of what he knew was a reaper itself.

The red light coalesced into a form that was distinctly Reaper-like, hovering ominously before Axel and the team. It was a holographic projection of Sovereign, its voice resonating through the lab with an eerie, metallic timbre.

"You are not unlike the others who have stood before me," Sovereign intoned. "You believe yourself different, unique. I am beyond your comprehension. I am Sovereign."

Axel studied the hologram intently, his mind racing with the information from the beacon still fresh in his thoughts. "I am here not to bow before you but to stop you," Axel replied.

"Irrelevant. You are different from the others, but you are fated to fail like so many others before you. You are within my grasp and will serve as all others have before you, tools in our grand design. We have been monitoring you and this Ascendency and have come to the conclusion that you are an anomaly that must be purged."

Axel's eyes narrowed slightly, "An anomaly I may be," he conceded, "but also the one who will end your cycle of destruction. Your monitoring has failed to grasp the essence of what we are."

Sovereign's holographic form seemed to pulsate, the red light intensifying, casting an ominous glow across the laboratory. "Your confidence is misplaced," it declared. "The pattern has repeated itself more times than you can fathom. You, like those before you, will try, and you will fail."

A small smiled appeared on Axel's face as no matter how powerful the Reapers were, the outcome of the battle would be the same. "Perhaps," he acknowledged, with a tone that hinted at a deeper strategy, "but we shall see whose pattern holds. Whether it be my continuous streak of victories, or your success in harvesting every cycle that you fight."

He knew that this encounter was just the surface layer of a much deeper conundrum involving the Reapers and their relentless cycles. Already he had a few ideas and plans formulated from both the newly acquired Prothean insights and his pre-existing knowledge.

"Secure everything," he instructed Shepard and the others. "Every piece of data we can extract from this facility could be crucial."

As he said this, the entire lab had started to shake and outside Axel saw Sovereign rising ominously above the facility, its vast form dwarfing the structures around it. Its arms had opened and in the next few seconds a red beam was fired, targeting the very foundations of the facility they were in. The ground trembled violently, throwing everyone off balance.

"Evacuate! Now!" Axel commanded, his voice presiding over the chaos. The team scrambled towards the exit as debris began to fall around them, racing against time to escape the lab.

Outside, the sky was lit with the glow of energy discharges and explosions. A squad of MCUs were engaging Sovereign, their weapons lighting up the sky as they attempted to cause some damage to the Reaper. Despite their efforts, it was clear that the Reaper was much more powerful than they anticipated.

From orbit, Axel's ship which had followed the Normandy to the planet had activated it's slipspace drive and appeared on the surface of the planet within range of the Reaper ship. Its weapons systems powered up, unleashing a barrage of energy projectiles toward Sovereign who now turned its attention to the ship.

Axel and his team reached the exterior just as the structure behind them began to collapse under Sovereign's assault. Axel turned his gaze to Shepard, who was surveying the chaos with a grim determination. "Commander, we need to get out of here, call the Normandy."

Shepard nodded, "Joker, we need an immediate pickup at these coordinates," he yelled into his comms. The static-filled voice of Joker, crackled back affirmatively over the comm.

Axel's flagship was unleashing a barrage of energy projectiles towards Sovereign managing to damage one of its arms causing it to fall to the ground. Sovereign retaliated and fired it's beam at the flagship which didn't penetrate it's shields entirely but had caused the shields to drop to 60% and damaged a few internal systems from the beam.

Fighters were already scrambled and swarming the Reaper damaging parts of its Hull from the overwhelming firepower of the fighters and the flagship.

Joker's voice came through the comms, announcing the imminent arrival of the Normandy. Meanwhile Axel's eyes focused on the battle above them, observing how his ships weapons effected the Reaper. "We'll need to enhance our offensive capabilities," he said thoughtfully. "This encounter has provided us with valuable data about Sovereign's defenses."

Shepard nodded and thought the same thing, they were actually seeing a Reaper in battle which would provide so much data on how they could develop weapons to beat them.

Sovereign who saw how outmatched he was, had decided to flee the battle, leaving the surface of the planet and heading for the nearby Mass Relay. Saren was off on another mission somewhere, so nothing was lost with the destruction of the facility. They would just have to start somewhere else or find another way.

Shepard and his team had boarded the Normandy while Axel was picked up by a transport ship from his flagship. This encounter had shown them a small glimpse of how powerful a single Reaper was. Once onboard, he had remained on the planet to investigate what remaining information that they could find, and to finish evacuating the Krogan female and children.

The Normandy already had its next mission which was the recently discovered location of where Saren was last seen. Their mission was to capture him and bring him in for interrogation if they could.