On the way back up to the Normandy Fluttershy and Garrus got an update from Twilight that a new development had been made on the Genophage front. The two of them were requested to join the commander in the war room to discuss a plan of action.
"Problematic. Shroud is being used to poison atmosphere, process advancing rapidly," Mordin stated with a frown as Fluttershy and Garrus walked into the war room, the hologram in the center of the circular chamber showing a tower of sorts with a new type of reaper standing next to it.
"Shroud?" Fluttershy asked, not having heard about whatever that was before. Mordin turned to her for a brief moment before looking back at the hologram.
"Yes. Device placed on Tuchanka by salarians to repair damage to atmosphere. Want to use it to disperse cure across planet. Reapers had... similar idea," Mordin rapidly stated.
"Something which we cannot allow," Shepard continued. "We need to get the reaper as far away from that building as we can so we can use it ourselves."
"A rather tall task," Garrus stated, leaning on the hologram's console to look over the new reaper form that had taken a position in front of this 'shroud'. "Primarch, do we have areal assets in the area?"
The turian Primarch nodded and shifted the hologram to show a pair of turian cruisers hanging above the planet's surface. "We have several fighter-bomber wings stationed in these two vessels that are within easy striking range."
"My people also have vehicles that can strike from the ground," Wrex pointed out, taking control of the hologram and marking a location on the planet where one of his bases was located.
"Draw reaper away from Shroud, finish synthesizing cure, and destroy Shroud to prevent further abuse," Mordin stated. "Laboratory present at Shroud facility, will finish synthesizing cure there."
"There's going to be more than just that reaper down there, what kind of ground forces are we looking at?" Fluttershy asked as she was sure they were going to go down there in force.
"No scouts have returned from that area, we're completely blind to what the reapers have deployed," Wrex huffed. "It changes nothing, we'll grind through them regardless."
"It'd still be nice to know what to pack," Fluttershy grumbled as she accepted they'd go in blind. There was no room to play it safe in this war.
"We're wasting time here, let's go cure my people!" Wrex roared, bringing a smile to Fluttershy's face as she found the excitement infectious. As everyone left to prepare and gather equipment Shepard had to respond to a call, Fluttershy was mildly interested in the content of what was being said as she spotted the salarian dallatrass on the holographic display but decided not to snoop. I'll ask him what she wanted later.
Soon everyone was ready, ships warned and troops prepared. They'd take the krogan ground transports to the shroud where the smaller team would disembark to synthesize and deploy the cure while the vehicles joined the distraction action against the reaper. As the group that'd go to ground went down with a shuttle Fluttershy noticed Shepard staring ahead while in deep thought.
“Commander, is something wrong?” she pried, guessing it had something to do with the dalatrass.
“Yes. There-”
“Shepard! The reapers are already at the hollows, we need to get there fast before I lose too many clan leaders!” Wrex growled as the shuttled shuddered from sudden ground fire.
“Understood, get ready for a hot drop people!” Shepard stated, getting up and making sure his weapons were ready. The shuttle shook as the reapers had set up flak. Fluttershy similarly got ready to head out guns blazing, though planning to mainly rely on her biotics, assuming this would be a very close-range fight.
"Make sure the female is protected while you escort her to the meeting grounds, Shepard! I will deal with my warchiefs!"
"Give that old krogan a hoof, Shy, we got Eve here covered," Garrus said as he, Shepard, Mordin, and Liara took a defensive formation around the female.
"Got it!" Shy said, taking to the air after the krogan who'd ran off to where the fighting sounded hardest. Shy saw a small group of husks running at him from behind as he dealt with a few of the rougher enemies himself, swooping in and cutting them in half with her wing-mounted omni-blades.
"Good to see you still have it in you!" Wrex laughed as they stormed into an arena of the meeting place. Krogans everywhere fighting a rather disorganized defense against a horde of husks charging them.
"We need them to group up! They're going to get picked off one by one this way!" Fluttershy called out over the gunfire.
"Let me worry about that, you just take some pressure off them so they can actually move!" Wrex called out as he jumped off a ledge right into the center of the mess. Shy wasn't that far behind as she flew a little further before smashing down onto a small group of husks and efficiently dismembering them. Lighting up her biotics immediately after, she then sent a wave of energy at a particularly large mass of husks, their front ranks having their bones snapped like twigs before getting hurled into the back members of their group.
With Fluttershy on crowd control, the krogan were quickly able to organize and with both her and Wrex repeating the process a few more times the reaper assault was repulsed, giving room for the planned meeting to start. "Wrex, we have Eve ready at the meeting point. What's your status?" Shepard asked.
"Just moping up, I'll be right there," Wrex responded, motioning for Shy to follow him there. The two of them having plenty of reaper blood splashed over their armour. Now with the clan chiefs they'd helped out on their tails they walked down the stairs into the central meeting chamber.
"Reaper blood has finally soaked our soil!" Wrex proclaimed to the cheers of all the krogan that had assembled there.
"What's a salarian, a turian, doing here?" one of the chiefs questioned as he saw Mordin and Garrus next to the female.
"They are here to cure the genophage," Shepard stated as he secured his assault rifle onto his back.
"And why should we trust them? They are the reason the genophage was made in the first-!"
The krogan was cut off by Wrex giving him an incredibly vicious headbutt. "Because I do, Wreave," Wrex growled.
"You? A krogan who's forgotten what it means to be one of our kind?! We drown our enemies in their own blood, we don't not invite them into our home!" Wreave replied with a growl. Before further words could be said a load of shotguns were being drawn and pointed at each other as there were clearly factions at play.
"Enough!" Eve thundered, having observed the males of her species bickering. "If you are not going to work with us then you can stay here, let old wounds fester as our kind has always done!" she roared as she pushed aside a few of the shotguns and planted herself smack centre of the group. "...Or, you can choose to fight this enemy as you were borne to. I choose to fight for the future of our children! Who will join me?!"
"I will." Heads turned to Fluttershy as she had jumped up into a hover so she wasn't at knee height for the krogan.
"And so will I!" Shepard followed, Garrus stepping up next to the two of them and slamming his fist into his breastplate in support too.
"And I," Wrex roared as he found a piece of debris to stand above the crowd. "Hold your heads high like a true krogan because we have a reaper to kill!"
Fluttershy was shadowing the convoy of krogan vehicles from above as they made their way to the gigantic tower that was the shroud. She could vaguely see the reaper standing guard in front of it through the dusty atmosphere of Tuchanka. The convoy rumbled below her as the radio crackled to life. "Krogan convoy, this is flight wing Artimec our approach vector is locked we are ten minutes out."
"Copy that, Artimec, we're making up some lost time but we'll be there!" Shepard replied.
"Fluttershy, can you hear me?" Twilight came in over the comms.
"Loud and clear, Twilight, what do you need?" Fluttershy replied as she kept an eye on what she thought was the reaper.
"I got joker to make a pass over where you are now for a scan and matched the topography to known maps of Tuchanka. I think the road is out up ahead." the unicorn informed her friend. "I've plotted an alternative route for the convoy that looks way clearer,"
"Nice work Twilight, send it through to Shepard. I'll fly ahead and check the road just in case," Fluttershy replied as she shot forward to scout ahead a little. It didn't take long for her to find where the road had been shot to bits, clearly work of the reaper.
"Fluttershy, what's the status of the road?" Shepard asked right as she confirmed the damage.
"It's out. No way even those large trucks are going to be able to pass over here," she reported in.
"Damnit," Wrex cursed. "The path your analyst made leads right through what is said to be Kalros' hunting ground!"
"Kalros?" Fluttershy questioned.
"The mother of all thresher maws that supposedly lives in this region," Eve answered, sending a shiver up Fluttershy's spine. How tough does a thresher maw have to be for the krogan to give it a name...
"Regardless, we need to get to the spire else that won't matter much!" Wrex called out as the convoy changed direction onto the dunes. Fluttershy kept her eyes peeled for any danger as they were rapidly closing distance to the shroud, spotting something as they were about halfway there.
"Wrex! Unless the planet suddenly has come to life you have incoming at your ten!" Fluttershy called out as a massive dune of sand was rapidly approaching the convoy. Before a true response could be given the back of what must have been a gigantic thresher maw, cutting the convoy in half and taking a few vehicles out prematurely.
"It's Kalros!" one of the drivers shouted as the majority of the large trucks scattered to avoid getting hit all at once. This also meant none of them were focussed on getting to the shroud anymore.
"Artimec wing, break off your attack, we are being delayed!" Shepard called out as the turian fighter wing soared overhead.
"Negative commander, we're locked and already engaging!" the lead turian pilot responded.
"Damnit! Every vehicle, converge on the Shroud! We do this now or not at all!" Wrex commanded, a portion of the trucks did not turn but most did.
Kalros wasn't done yet though.
One by one the trucks were being picked off by the thresher maw, being dragged into the darkness below. Fluttershy tried throwing biotics at the beast but even then, by the time they got to the structures around the shroud only Wrex's truck was left. Artimec wing had also been forced to break off as the ground support they had needed had never arrived. Fluttershy landed next to the truck as Shepard and the rest of the crew dismounted.
"With that reaper right there we are never going to get close to the shroud," Fluttershy said with a tightened jaw as there was no way they'd get through with the massive machine blocking their path.
"Then we summon Kalros to clear the path," Eve suggested. "The tower is sitting in the middle of an arena devoted to her, she will defend her homeworld."
"Maw hammers," Shepard smirked as he looked over at the ancient structures that surrounded the shroud.
"Hah! Let's show that reaper what real Tuchankan wildlife looks like!" Wrex laughed before hearing activity coming from behind them. Reaper corrupted rachni scuttling forward to their position.
"Laboratory nearby, going to synthesize cure immediately!" Mordin called out as he and eve ran off.
"Go Shepard! I'll keep your back clear!" Wrex roared as he racked his shotgun and charged the reapers. "I AM URDNOT WREX, AND THIS IS MY PLANET!"
Neither Fluttershy nor Shepard wasted any time sprinting in the opposite direction towards the shroud. Their small strike team making good ground while trying to stay mostly out of sight of the reaper.
"Shepard, I took care of the rachni. I'm raising the hammers but you will need to activate them from up there!"
"Copy that, Wrex, we're-" Shepard was cut off as the reaper shot its main cannon at the walkway they were using, taking down parts of the ancient structure. "Damnit, it took notice of us! we're going to have a hard time going further without getting vaporized!"
"Don't worry commander, a distraction is headed your way," Twilight called in over the radio, getting replaced by a second voice moments later.
"This is Artimec wing to ground team, move ahead we'll keep its attention." the leader of the battered fighter wing called out. Everyone knew that at the strength they were it was suicide but it might just give Shepard and Fluttershy enough time to activate the mawhammers.
"Their sacrifice will be honoured," Garrus stated as they started running at the reaper at full sprint. The reaper had ground forces stationed under it but nothing that could stop the small but elite strike team as they tore into them.
"I'll take the right hammer with Garrus!" Fluttershy called out as Liara joined Shepard in activating the other hammer.
"Watch out!" Garrus suddenly shouted as he tackled Shy suddenly, the leg of the reaper coming down right where they had just been.
"T-Thanks!" Shy stuttered as the reaper raised its leg again in the hope for more success the second time. "Move!"
The leg crashed down right behind them as the pair made their way to the activation mechanism and they activated the first hammer. "We got ours!"
"Second one is active too!" Shepard replied over the radio. The hammers shook the ground for miles around as they started slamming down on their anvils. The reaper also stopped moving as it started peering around the wasteland. The ground started trembling as Fluttershy could see the same bulge in the landscape approach them as it had the convoy.
"She's coming!" Fluttershy shouted as Kalros screeched. The reaper fired its beam at the ground to little effect before the thresher shot out of it and latched onto the machine. Fluttershy couldn't believe her eyes as the creature was definitely thrice as large as the reaper itself.
How does it even move that fast underground?!
"Garrus, get back to the truck!" Fluttershy ordered as she took to the air.
"Mordin, do you have the cure ready?!" Shepard called out over the radio.
"On my way!" Mordin replied as the battle between the two titans of machine and flesh duked it out. The reaper smacked the maw against the shroud tower, forcing it to retreat underground for a bit to avoid getting blasted by the laser weapon only to jump out from behind the machine and smacking it into the tower in turn. Fluttershy grimaced as she made her way to the shroud's base, hoping it wasn't getting critically damaged. Mordin was already busy with the consoles at the base of the tower as Fluttershy arrived followed by Shepard.
"Mordin, how far are you?!"
"Almost done, getting ready for dispersal," Mordin replied as he typed at lightning speed. "Procedure traumatic for eve but not lethal! Fortunate, will stabilize future krogan government. Good match for Wrex."
The tower shook as debris in the form of loose panels fell down, the shroud was clearly falling apart from the damage it had taken and probably from reaper sabotage. "The shroud was rigged to prevent this type of dispersal by the salarians, Mordin, the cure won't work if it isn't fixed."
"Hmm, makes sense... No matter, can adjust," Mordin stated as he checked a few settings. "Thank you commander, would have been a pity to see work incomplete. Will take elevator to main control room to counteract sabotage and ensure proper dispersal."
"You're going up there?!" Both Shy and Shepard exclaimed as explosions started rocking the tower.
"Yes, manual override required."
"There has to be another way!" Fluttershy exclaimed as she had gotten to respect the doctor in her time on Omega and later with Shepard. Going up there was certainly a one-way trip. "I can go up there too! I can maybe fly out of there."
"Moment of activation likely to be problematic. Besides, no experience countering STG countermeasures... No, has to be me." The salarian started walking to the elevator that would bring him up to the top of the tower.
"Mordin, no!" Fluttershy stated as both she and Shepard stepped forward towards him.
"Please, have to do this," Mordin stated softly as he held out his hand to stop the two of them. "My project, my work, my cure... my responsebility."
"Mordin..." A tear rolled over Shy's cheek as Mordin closed the elevator's glass door. He smiled a the pair one last time before he would press the button to send himself up.
"Had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong."