Mass Effect 2 - DLC: The Equestrian Equation

by Loyal2Luna

Part 2: Planetfall

“Jacob’s right; we have no evidence of hostility yet.” Shepard crossed his arms, thinking over what they knew. “And given the nature of the mission, we need to take the academic approach. Mordin, care to join us?”

“Hmmm. Unclear mission objective. Unknown circumstances. Complete lack of intelligence. No place for common scientist. Likely dangerous. Possibly lethal.” The salarian took a deep breath and smiled. “On other hand: Exploration. Mystery. New tech. New research. First dibs. Sounds like fun. If all the same to you, will skip the mission briefing. Have bacteria cultivating. Need to finish experiment before disembarking. Lack of supervision while on mission..." he paused, taking in another deep sniff of the air. "...problematic.”

Shepard nodded, the fast-talking scientist returning the gesture before moving to exit, turning right towards his lab just down the corridor.

Miranda turned to Shepard, clearing her throat softly to get the soldier’s attention.

“I take it that you’ll be taking Miss vas Normandy with you as well?” the genetically-engineered woman asked, her tone rimmed with a bit of disdain.

“Is there a problem?” Shepard responded, his own tone firm.

“Bringing along an alien mechanical genius, whose people have a penchant for salvaging, copying, and otherwise utilizing any tech they come across, access to what could be a game-changing xeno-technology found and rightly belonging to Humanity. No, I can’t imagine why I, or Cerberus for that matter, would have an objection to that,” Miranda stated, a hand on her hip as her tone dripped with sarcasm.

“Good,” Shepard said simply, his tone mockingly pleasant as he moved to the door, heading to the engineering sub-deck. “I would hate to think I was doing something Cerberus would object to.”

“Shepard… Wait,” Miranda started again, her expression softening. ”I trust you, you know that, right?”

The Commander paused at the door.

“Isn’t it about time you started trusting us?”

Without another word, he moved past the threshold, the automatic door closing behind him.

The engineering section that housed the Tantalus drive core, a massive element zero engine more than twice the size usually placed on a ship the size of the Normandy SR-2, was nearly empty now. Engineers Donnelly and Daniels had left their usual post in preparation for the installation of the Identify Friend/Foe transmitter that they had salvaged from the Reaper corpse only days earlier; technology that would (theoretically) allow them safe passage through the Omega-4 Relay.

The only other person that worked there, Tali’Zorah vas Normandy, was standing with her back to Shepard as he entered. A quarian woman snugly encased in a black and purple environmental suit, her three long fingers were flying over a holographic console as she worked to improve the output of Normandy’s engines. Sensing his approach, she turned, revealing her domed face-plate, reflective and obscuring, a hint of glowing white eyes and the edge of a small, human-like nose barely visible through the smoky purple glass.

“Shepard... I mean, um, Commander...” Tali started to wring her three fingered hands slightly, then relaxed, having been caught off guard. “I… um… we... have a mission?”

“It’s alright, Tali… It’s just us here.” Shepard smiled softly. “You sound like you’re doing better, but is everything alright?”

The Commander knew all too well that while the skintight suit she wore was beautiful to look at, it had a practical purpose. As the Quarians had been living for three hundred years in a sterile environment on their flotilla, made up of fifty thousand ships of all makes and models, their immune systems were severely weakened, forcing them to take extreme precautions as the simplest of infections could prove deadly. One such infection had recently given Tali a terrible fever which had kept her out of the field and on the ship for a time after she had left the flotilla to join him.

“Yes, I’ve recovered from the bug I got on the Alerai. But I was worried you might still be… cross... after what happened in the A.I. Core.”

“It was tense…” Shepard agreed, remembering the confrontation between Tali and Legion, a geth unit that had joined their cause. Given the long standing hostility between the Quarians and their A.I. creations, it hadn’t really been a surprise that the two had reached a boiling point. He was just thankful that he managed to defuse the situation. “Just… try not to pull a gun on any of the other crew members for a while, alright?”

“No promises,” Tali shook her head. “Miranda keeps coming down and quoting the Cerberus rulebook at me about 'technical limitations.'" She raised her hands, making small air-quotations. “I get the feeling she doesn’t trust me, and the feeling is mutual. I still don’t think that it’s a good idea working with Cerberus, Shepard. Your own government labels them as dangerous extremists.”

“I know… and I agree. But right now, they’re the only ones willing to help in the fight with the Collectors. And we humans have a saying: ‘When you deal with the Devil, you have to learn to dance around the flames.’”

Confusion didn’t translate very well, given Tali’s limited ability to show expression, but a slight tilt of her head indicated that she didn’t quite follow.

“Never mind…” Shepard shook his head with a smirk of amusement. “Anyway, about why I’m here: We have a new mission.”

Shepard laid out what he little he knew to the quarian, who responded with expected skepticism.

“Oh, I see…” Tali shook her head. “So, the Collectors are still abducting entire colonies at whim; over fifty thousand people at Ferris Fields last I heard... We are a hair away from having the means to go after them… and the Illusive Man is making us look for a battery?”

“I also suggested that finding what was left of the science team was a good idea as well.”

“Sorry, Commander, I think that Cerberus reached the limit of their altruism some time ago. They brought you back and built a new Normandy, sure. But everything since then that they’ve been credited with that has been any good has been your doing, not theirs.”

“Well, if you’d rather not…” Shepard stated, his tone flat before he was cut off.

“Shepard, you spoke on my behalf on the flotilla, saved my father’s reputation, and kept me from being exiled from my home. You don’t need to ask. You know I’m with you to whatever end.”

The Combat Information Center of the Normandy was a buzz of activity like usual as the various black, orange, and white-uniformed crew members of Cerberus’ Lazarus Cell continued on their duties, many nodding in respect towards Commander Shepard as the peerless soldier moved down the narrow corridor that led to the cockpit, where a familiar, snarky pilot was waiting.

“Hey, Commander, take a look. We drop out of FTL speed in a system outside Citadel Space, and for once there isn’t anyone trying to kill us.”

“Disappointed, Joker?” Shepard inquired with a slight smile.

“Oh, hell no, I’m savoring it. Seriously, this is a moment in history that may never happen again.” Jeff "Joker" Moreau turned in his pilot’s chair, the self-proclaimed "best damn pilot in the Alliance" and helmsman of the Normandy grinning slightly as he faced the black and white-armored Commander. “Garrus and I actually started a pool on how long it lasts… I’m betting on about half an hour before bullets start flying. You want in? Pot’s up to about eight hundred credits.”

“Your lack of confidence in my diplomatic abilities is very reassuring, Joker,” Shepard shook his head with some amusement.

“Are you kidding? I’m on the outside. Garrus has you mowing down bad guys at less than ten minutes and Grunt says you’ll be shot at before you even get out of the shuttle. Thane is saying you’ll make it back to the ship without killing anything, but that’s like saying you’re going to the planet of the fluffy space bunnies. Although, you know, I could cut you in for say… fifty percent if you kept the safety on for about twenty-five minutes…”

“Joker…” the Commander admonished curtly.

“Hey, just thought I’d let you know how the odds were stacking up.” Joker’s seat turned about again, his hands moving up to the console as the holographic displays flashed. “Alright, EDI, what do we have?”

“The star system designated 'AR-43281' has never been surveyed by the Systems Alliance. Our only records come from a batarian scout probe that performed a fly-by scan of the system approximately thirty-seven years ago.”

“What did the Batarians find, EDI?” Shepard inquired.

“Nothing of particular value. AR-43281 is a singular orange star system with four planets in orbit. The two closest to the sun are standard pressure cooker worlds in a constant molten state, while its third planet is a gas giant too small and too close to the star to be a suitable discharge point for element zero-driven ships. The fourth planet is terrestrial with a single moon, but well outside the habitable zone of the star. Zero atmosphere and a thin, porous crust unsuitable to sustain even minor structures, much less the weight of a standard starship. Sensors confirm the batarian probe’s findings of no resources of value.”

“Oh, hooooow exciting,” Joker mused. “Not to diss the boss’ tech squad, but maybe they got the transmission’s origin point wrong. I mean, come on… This is about as bland as space gets. What would they expect to find out here?”

“Nothing of particular value, Jeff,” EDI restated.

“See? Even the talking calculator agrees that this is a waste of--”

“Commander…” EDI interrupted Joker, drawing Shepard’s attention. “This system is so completely unremarkable that it’s tripping my logic filters.”

Shepard raised a brow at the curious tone that Normandy’s Enhanced Defense Intelligence had taken.

“Care to elaborate?”

“Sensors show a complete lack of any valuable resource. Not just low levels; a complete and utter lack of substance. No Element Zero, no Iridium, no Platinum, no Palladium, no heavy metals or beneficial gases of any sort. This system’s formation displays characteristics that are perfectly suited to prevent closer inspection. From an astrological standpoint, this is an improbability on the order of one hundred million to the tenth power to one.”

To this, Joker let out a long whistle.

“Man! That’s a LOT of zeroes.”

“There are only two possible explanations for this: Either we have stumbled onto the perfect storm of unrealistic solar system formation by chance; a scenario with a mathematically redundant probability of occurring…”

“Or the sensors are being deliberately fed false information,” Shepard reasoned.

“Scanning for the ‘mystery energy signature'…” Joker started, his tone surprisingly professional as his hand flipped through the screens of data projected in front of him. “And, bingo! Energy reading matched… Fourth planet… Holy… It’s off the charts!”

“How did the initial scans miss it?” Shepard asked, leaning over the helmsman’s chair to look closer at the monitors, himself impressed by the enormous spike in the readings.

“The energy signature is unlike any form of radioactivity encountered by the Citadel Races,” EDI explained. “It would be undetectable to anyone who wasn’t specifically looking for it. Without the energy signature sample we received from the Illusive Man, it would have read as nothing more than inert background radiation.”

With one look, Joker could tell one thing.

Shepard was convinced.

“Alright… Time to take a closer look.”

The Kodiak shuttle, affectionately referred to by Alliance Marines as the "Combat Cockroach" for its durability and snug interior, moved with a slight blue aura surrounding it as it slowly descended down the surface of the planet. A barren bluish-grey landscape dominated the viewports as thrusters maneuvered the shuttle in closer.

Inside, the strike team had donned full vacuum gear, Shepard’s fully-encompassing N7 helmet in place while Mordin was outfitted in a pressurized version of his own suit; a salarian "bubble" faceplate allowing him a full range of vision as Tali, already in her hermetically-sealed environmental suit, piloted the shuttle with expert skill across the kilometers-long approach vector leading to the source of the energy signature.

“Touchdown in three minutes, Shepard,” Tali called to the unit transport over the team’s comm channel.

“Acknowledged,” Shepard nodded, reaching up to his helmet in order to change over to another frequency. “EDI, what do we know?”

“Orbital visual scans of the planet’s surface have confirmed that sensors are no longer reliable. We have detected multiple non-terrestrial obstructions of unknown origin and composition in your immediate vector, contradicting both Normandy and the Kodiak’s detection.”

“I’m still not seeing anything up here, Commander,” Tali indicated.

“Intriguing. Pirates? Slavers? Unlikely. No fortifications. Too far from common trade routes. No ability to refuel," Mordin reasoned, off in his own world as he ran the probabilities. "Crash survivors? Refugees? Doubtful. No means of self-sufficiency. Environment too hostile for immediate adaptation. Ability to obscure vision with fibrous lambic growth inconsistent as well.”

Shepard paused a moment, turning to the salarian.

“Wool over our eyes, Mordin.”

“Pardon?”

“The expression is ‘pulling the wool over our eyes.'”

“That is what I said, is it not, Shepard?” the salarian defended himself offhandedly, pulling his pistol up for a quick inspection.

“Commander! You’d better see this!” Tali called back suddenly.

Pulling himself to his feet in an instant, Shepard rushed to the cockpit behind the seated quarian and immediately realized her sudden worry.

As they passed over a large canyon, the valley floor came into view and revealed something that the experienced Commander had never expected to find.

Laid out in neat, tidy rows were the skeletons of tens of dozens of starships of all shapes and sizes, laying like cold lifeless corpses stripped of their hulls and vital components with the efficiency of Earth army ants stripping flesh from bone.

“EDI, are you seeing this?” Shepard asked, pressing the comm in his helmet yet again.

“*skkksiii* --ing threshold of-- *kkkiisss* --commun-- *kkkkkiissaaass* --reestablish conta-- *sssskkkkkiiiisss*"

“Normandy, do you copy? Joker? EDI?”

“Surface-to-orbit communications jammed. Rules out natural phenomenon. Likelihood of trap increasing exponentially,” Mordin commented.

“Orders, Commander?” Tali asked, her tone even as her helmet obscured any of the growing tension.

“We have our mission… Find Dr. Milligan’s team. Let’s get to it. Set us down as close as you can to the source of the energy signature, Tali.”

The Kodiak dropped in altitude, its forward momentum cut off as thrusters put it into a hovering state to descend into a clearing between two of the larger vessels, each looking to be the size of a heavy cruiser. Ribs of dust-shrouded metal stood mute in the vacuum as the mass effect drive of the Kodiak cut out, dropping the ship the last few inches to the ground.

The troop container's door slid open with Commander Shepard taking the first step out, his standby rifle, a modded M-76 Revenant, still sheathed on its holster along his shoulder as he took in the scene, Tali and Mordin stepping out behind him.

“Keelah…” Tali looked up at the impressive structures; hollowed out frames of once-mighty vessels.

“Vessels captured. Stripped for parts. Impossible to tell if shot down and transported or forced to land in specific area.”

“It doesn’t look like a ship graveyard…” Shepard mentioned, taking a few cautious steps as the soil crunched underfoot. “More like a salvage lot. I don’t recognize any of these designs, though. Tali, what would it take to do all of this?”

“A lot of patience and a precise understanding of the ships' designs,” the quarian said. “Stripping a ship to its bones like this is time consuming. It’s even harder than building the vessel from the ground up. Even my people are not so strained for materials as to remove EVERY piece of armor plating and computer component. It’s easier and more efficient to just refit and repair a damaged ship with salvage than it is to tear one completely apart. Otherwise, planets like Korlus wouldn’t exist because space-faring species would just reuse everything.”

Shepard remembered all too well the polluted, debris-littered landscape of Korlus, the ‘"Scrapyard of the Galaxy." A lawless backwater world on which the only industry was further devastating its own environment by accepting the trash and scrap from every species in the Terminus Systems.

Shepard looked about on the ground, trying to get some grasp of what was going on here as he realized something else that was strange.

The only markings in the soft, crunchy soil were the bootprints belonging to himself and his team. Aside from that, the landscape was completely, unnaturally smooth.

“Stay sharp and be ready for anything,” Commander Shepard indicated, continuing to move with a cautious step, trying to get a feel of the area’s layout as the team moved for several minutes, a heavy tension building as they moved in silence along the row of starship corpses.

“That one looks… batarian,” Tali pointed out, nodding towards a squat, stunted-looking frigate skeleton half the size of the Normandy. “Kusharrd Class… Obsolete civilian exploration. We have a few in the flotilla. The Batarians stopped making them over a century ago.”

“Are you certain?” Mordin asked, drawing a very exaggerated turn and stare from Tali.

“I’m a Quarian,” Tali stated bluntly. “I’m certain.”

“What about the rest of these?” Shepard looked from stripped vessel to another, knowing all too well that the metal nooks and crannies could easily be concealing ambushing snipers or perhaps lucky survivors hiding out.

“They’re no design I’ve ever seen,” Tali admitted, much to her chagrin.

“Age impossible to determine. Could be centuries old. Millenia.”

“Prothean?” Shepard inquired.

“Possibility. Perhaps even older. Consider: Vacuum. Distance from star. Low corrosive nature of soil. Low gravity. Factors could preserve frames indefinitely.”

There was a bit of silence as the team looked about, the quiet far more unnerving to the team than if they were put to a firefight.

As Shepard’s communicator suddenly sprung to life, the trained Commander nearly jumped in shock, having to suppress his initial reaction as he took control and set a finger to the side of his helmet.

“EDI? Is that you? Come in!”

“*sssskkkss* --epard! Normandy is under att-- *kiisssssss* --rom the moon! We’re falling ba-- *kkkiisssss* --ort mission! Abo-- *kkkissss*"

Shepard felt his heart pounding in his pressurized armor as he turned, recognizing the strained, controlled tone as Miranda’s.

“Miranda! What’s going on!?”

Static was all that answered him.

“Back to the shuttle! Double time!” Shepard shouted, turning as he started to sprint, following their footprints back along the edges of the starship skeletons.

Moving at full speed, it was only a moment later that the strike team came into view of the Kodiak shuttle, the trio coming to a sudden halt as a burst of light suddenly brought their attention skyward.

A flash of light that seemed to explode outward as it impacted the planet’s weak magnetosphere, sending out a wave of energy that broke the light spectrum of the distant star, creating a colorful rainbow-like aurora ring that spread out in all directions overhead.

Two seconds later, the burst of prismatic light lanced down to the surface with the force of a precision orbital strike, creating the appearance of a bold, perfectly-formed rainbow impacting the ground.

Or, more precisely, impacting the Kodiak.

The explosion was silent, but the shockwave of the detonating eezo core could be both seen and felt as dust was kicked up, sending the trio back a step as they felt their kinetic barriers absorb the brunt of the impact.

“FALL BACK! FALL BACK! GET UNDER SHELTER!” Shepard cried, turning to rush towards the shelter of one of the larger ship frames, setting his back to a wall.

“So much for our transport!” Tali called out, keeping her calm but obviously concerned.

“Precision orbital strike. Zero fallout. Zero collateral damage,” Mordin commented, his tone also a bit frantic, but maintaining his analytical nature. “Problematic. Visually stunning though. Artistically impressive.”

“Well, I’m glad you admired the colors,” Tali replied flatly.

Shepard watched the sky for a moment as he tried to get some idea of the source of the blast.

Then he saw it, at the surface of the moon that hung large in the sky… A pinpoint of color… growing from a small shimmering twinkle to a dot against the purplish-blue backdrop.

“MOVE!!” Shepard ordered, breaking into a run from the pillars of the large ship frame, his companions following suit without hesitation.

Mere seconds later, the burst of color broke over the magnetosphere again, creating the rippling rainbow pattern that parted around the beam of energy lacing directly into the structure of the cruiser they had taken refuge in. The three barely made it clear in time as the metal frame began to crack and break apart from the shock of a direct impact.

Shepard had to admit, even by his standards, this looked bad.

And he’d already been killed once before.

His comm suddenly crackled to life again, a private channel suddenly activating.

“Miranda? EDI? Come in!” Shepard watched the sky, having to resist the futile urge to pull out his rifle, as it would do nothing in this current situation.

“Commander Shepard.”

The voice was calm… almost cold… and while he did not recognize it, it sounded distinctly female. And if Shepard was any judge… human.

“Who is this? How did you get this frequency?”

“Move to the bunker.”

Shepard looked up and around frantically, unsure it it was the calm tone of the voice or the mystery of who was behind it that worried him more.

“Bunker? What bunker?” he demanded.

“I am uploading the location to your helmet’s guidance system,” the voice said.

No sooner had she finished speaking when a white diamond and distance meter appear on Shepard’s heads up display, directing him towards the valley wall.

“How are you accessing my on-board V.I? Who is this!?” Shepard demanded again.

“A friend,” the voice insisted, although it remained emotionless. “You must hurry. I am stalling the automated targeting, but I cannot keep it occupied for long. Incoming fire on your location.”

Shepard spared a fraction of a second to look skyward again, noting the sparkle of color against the moon’s surface.

“MOVE! THIS WAY!” Shepard cried out, having very little choice at this point than to trust whoever had hacked their communications. Breaking into a sprint, Mordin and Tali followed suit, rushing after him as another impact could be felt behind them, threatening to send the trio rolling off their feet.

It was a frantic rush, hearts pumping as they dodged around the rows of ships wordlessly, while behind them, explosions and impacts could be felt with growing frequency, sending shards of debris to the ground as the ship remains were indiscriminately devastated.

“Bunker doors opening… Hurry, Shepard. I can only override the lockdown for a few moments,” the voice came again over the Commander’s comm system, encouraging him to redouble his efforts as he saw the wall of the valley seem to break open. The rock face slid apart to reveal a hidden passage that had been invisible to both the naked eye and sensors only moments before.

The blasts behind them were growing closer together, indicating a more rapid fire pattern as the prismatic beam chased after the squad while they ducked and vaulted over cover.

It was close, but the Commander slowed his pace as they approached the opening, turning to motion his companions inside while watching another blast impact the ground just short of the entrance before throwing himself past the threshold. The shockwave caught him and threatened to send him rolling to the floor before the stone door snapped shut with a resounding clunk.

The team was plunged into darkness for a few moments before a glowing yellow ambiance set in, revealing a bare stone-walled room. Pulling themselves to their feet, the crew of the Normandy were shocked as they felt a sudden hissing against their respective suits… and the rush of air pressure washing over them from hidden vents.

“It’s an airlock…” Tali stated the obvious, looking about as she caught her breath, Mordin bringing up his omni-tool to take readings.

“Intriguing. Advanced tech blended seamlessly with environment. Oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide atmosphere within acceptable parameters. Pressurization point zero-zero-one degrees off from Citadel standard. No foreign bacteria or microbes detected. Airlock is sterile. Recommend saving zero-atmo air tanks for when needed.” Mordin made his point by reaching up and removing his bubble-mask.

“How did you know this was here, Shepard?” Tali asked, tapping on her own omni-tool as she switched over from her stored oxygen tanks to her primary filter, Shepard doing likewise as he removed his helmet, allowing it to collapse and be set into a side receptacle at his hip.

“Somebody hacked my communicator…” Shepard explained. “Addressing me by name. She said something about stalling the targeting program and gave me directions… She called this place ‘the bunker.'"

“So it could have been whoever was shooting at us,” Tali sighed. “And here I thought we caught a break.”

“Hmm...” Mordin brought his fingers to his lip, clearly thinking. “Unlikely. Targeting too precise. Easier to invite in than attempt to kill. Repeated shots indicate genuine desire for casualties.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Tali nodded. “Or… it could have been one of the Cerberus scientists… Maybe they found this place and have managed control of some of its systems.”

“That’s definitely possible...” Shepard brought his hand up to his ear, pressing the comm. “Hello… Can you read me? This is Commander Shepard. We are inside the bunker. Do you read?”

There was nothing, not even static.

“Hmph. Assist in rescue, then radio silence. Rude. No way to treat rescuers,” Mordin said indignantly.

“So, now what?” Tali asked.

As if to answer the inquiry, a door on the opposite side of the bunker’s entrance opened, introducing a more intense light to the visitors.

“I guess we see if anybody’s home,” Shepard mused, reaching up to pull his Revenant from his shoulder, the collapsible rifle extending as he took point, his posture on the defensive as Tali and Mordin followed suit.

Like the entrance, the corridor was blended well into the natural environment, clearly having been carved out of the natural rock face, although glowing tubes of white light acted as guidelines along the walls.

Pausing for a moment, Tali ran her omni-tool over one of the lights.

“Shepard, this energy signature is a match to Dr. Milligan’s sample,” she told them.

“They use it to keep the lights on?” Shepard asked, genuinely surprised. He had expected that whatever this was, it was some sort of engine or drive, like the eezo cores used on every starship in the galaxy. But every ship also had secondary sources of power (microfusion cells in Humanity's case) to run things such as lights, life support, and non-critical electrical.

“It looks that way. Incredibly versatile. Especially if this was powering whatever was just shooting at us out there.”

“Cerberus’ interest understandable now,” Mordin interrupted, his eyes looking all about for signs of activity. “Sufficient output required to manifest destructive potential on such scale long been science fiction. Impossible to generate for practical use.”

“Tali, can you tell if whatever is running this is active? Or are we looking at some sort of automated system?” Shepard asked.

“No, these lights are strictly secondary energy lines. I can’t tell anything from this. We need to find some sort of interface, then I can get a better idea of what we’re dealing with.”

“Alright, let’s move on. Weapons ready but check your targets. Unless it’s a husk or a Collector, I’d prefer to talk to it first,” Shepard ordered, motioning his friends forward as they moved up the line, Tali keeping a watch behind them as they went.

“I swear, with that mentality we’ll just as soon end up with another Legion on board...” Tali muttered under her breath, Shepard smirking as it read clearly over their communicators.

Reaching the end of the corridor, another rock wall opened up automatically, admitting the three in without any question to a large, open, circular chamber with no obvious exits and several large crystalline structures emitting light.

“Remind me to file a complaint with the architect,” Tali sighed, chattering a bit as she drummed her fingers nervously on her shotgun. “They need to mark the doors better.”

“Defensive position perhaps. Or main foyer,” Mordin commented, moving around as the three started to move in a tight formation back to back towards the center of the room.

As they moved away, the opening leading back the way they came closed suddenly, blending in seamlessly with the stone to the point where it was impossible to tell it had been open moments before.

“I have a bad feeling about this, Commander,” Tali said, her shotgun still at the ready.

Tali's hunch proved accurate, as the gentle white light suddenly started to pulse with a red tint, accompanied by a soft ringing that could have only been an alarm.

“You just had to say it, didn’t you, Tali?” Shepard shook his head.

Without warning, dozens of gleaming mechanical tendrils exploded from the floor like miniaturized thresher maws, each moving independently as they turned and opened with claw-like extensions sprouting from their tips.

As much as he would have liked to believe this was something he could deal with using diplomacy, Shepard had to admit that there was little mistaking their apparent host’s intent with those.

“Weapons free!” Shepard shouted, bringing his rifle to bear as he unleashed a burst of kinetic force from the Revenant, shredding the tendrils in his immediate line of sight as Mordin and Tali followed suit.

As gunfire echoed about the chamber, Shepard fell into a familiar combat zone, his reflexes outpacing his thinking as targets became available. There were the sounds of his compatriots' weapons discharging and the occasional click and hissing indicating a thermal clip had been expended as they held off the prehensile enemies with a steady stream of fire.

He realized almost too late that they were hardly winning as injured tendrils withdrew, only to be replaced by new ones that seemed to sprout from the floor endlessly.

“Hold the line!” Mordin called out, echoing the famous words of the valiant salarian Captain Kirahee, with whom both he and Shepard had worked with in the past.

“Shepard, now would be a good time for a better plan!” Tali threw her hand forward as she activated one of the programs on her omni-tool and sent an overload of energy through a tendril’s metal frame, causing it to spasm before falling over.

“Working on it!” Shepard cried back, keeping the stream of kinetic bullets flying until his thermal clip was exhausted.

In the moment it took him to eject the clip, a motion that was like second nature to him, a tendril launched forward, breaching the ring of fire that had formed around the three sentients and seizing the Commander’s arm. At first believing that it was attempting to snare his weapon, Shepard’s initial reaction was to twist the Revenant around to dislodge his attacker, but quickly the Commander realized that it seemed far less concerned with the rifle than it did with the Commander himself as it pulled him forward.

With a grunt, Shepard was lifted off his feet as two more of the tendrils seized him, pulling him away from his companions.

And much to Tali’s astonishment, the onslaught suddenly relented, tendrils before her retracting into the ground as suddenly as they emerged, giving a few moments of stunned shock before the salarian and quarian realized the situation developing behind them. They turned to see the Commander struggling against a quartet of tendrils that were grappling with his weight as a chute opened up along the base of one wall.

“Commander!” Mordin turned, firing several shots that disabled one of the tendrils with remarkable precision while Tali rushed forward, discarding her shotgun as its spread would prove too dangerous, instead reaching out to try and pull him back.

But all too late as the tendrils managed with some effort to pull the struggling, grunting human towards the chute, where he disappeared into darkness in spite of his valiant struggle.

Diving into a slide to try and catch his hand, Tali was cut off as the chute closed suddenly, seamlessly cutting them off from the Commander of the Normandy.

"SHEPAAAARD!!"

“Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me!” Shepard looked at his reflection a moment longer, bordering on the brink of complete disbelief as a grey-eyed, red-furred equine looked back at him. “Is this some kind of joke!?”

Turning to look back over himself, his eyes confirmed what was in the mirror as he found himself standing on all fours, his back legs turned to haunches as his arms and legs were now all legs, ending in hooves.

“Oh! A joke! I love jokes! Stop me if you’ve heard this one: A manticore, a dragon, and a hydra walk into a bar--” the puffy-haired equine started before being cut off by the purple horned one.

“Not now, Pinkie!” she started, looking with worry to the colt. “Hey, are you okay?”

Shepard was so far away from okay that it was difficult to put into words as he ran over the events in his mind.
Not since waking up at the Lazarus Base to discover that he had been dead for two years and was patched together by an organization he had considered his enemy before his revival had he been so overwhelmed.

He could handle the alien encounter, pastel grass chewers and all. But as it all came back to him: The mission in uncharted space... The orbital bombardment with the rainbow beam... Discovering the bunker and being captured by those tendrils... Thrust into a darkness punctuated by mysterious voices casually discussing his fate... He was finding it difficult to focus on what he should do next.

Shepard shook his head in frustration.

“Tali and Mordin, where are they?” he demanded suddenly, his first thought being of his crew.

The yellow equine and the purple one looked to one another with sincerely confused expression before turning to the red stallion.

“I’m sorry, who?” the purple horse-thing inquired.

“I found you at the edge of the forest... Did you have friends with you? Oh my goodness... I should go see if I can find them!” the winged creature started, placing a hoof against her mouth as if in shock.

Then she did something that Shepard would have thought impossible.

She levitated... her entire body rising off the ground with only a few beats of those two yellow wings along her backside, midway down her spine, as she reared back and prepared to charge forward with a soundless thrust.

Only to have her long pink tail caught by the purple one in her teeth.

The slight jerk pulled the yellow equine to the ground, although Shepard remained in stunned awe that the creature had been airborne at all.

“Hold on, Fluttershy! Just, hold on...”

The purple creature turned back to Shepard, her purple eyes narrowing sternly as she looked him over.

“First things first... My name is Twilight Sparkle. Who are you, where are you from, and what are you doing here?”