Mass Effect: Salvage

by N00813

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

--

If you’d shared this knowledge with the rest of the galaxy, we wouldn’t be in this mess! – Commander Shepard, 2186 CE

--

Shuttle rides were boring, Sev concluded. They were really just glorified taxis. The only difference was the addition of some armor and the removal of any comforts onboard. He switched on the onboard music player.

As the engine’s hum balanced out into steady tone, Riana reached over and tapped Sev on the shoulder. He didn’t feel it through his armor. But he did see her move. “What?” he growled.

Riana flinched slightly, but regained her composure quickly. She tapped over a message on his omni-tool. It read, ‘What do you think about Levin?’

Sev knew three things instantly. She’d elected to use a message system, which meant that she didn’t want Levin to know of their upcoming exchange. The message was on a private encrypted channel – again, to protect against eavesdropping. Last, there was something very wrong here. Riana and Levin had seemed like good friends earlier – maybe they were – but her asking him told of a hidden secret. Probably Levin’s secret.

Sev replied on the message channel. ‘Idk what you mean.’

‘In the jungle. His shout. Remember?’

Sev thought back to that. He’d forgotten about it thanks to his escape, the standoff and the ensuing diplomatic fiasco that had come up. But now, surrounded by the comforting hum of the shuttle’s engines, he could recall the incident near-perfectly.

Levin had shouted at some civilians, or plainclothes guards. That shout didn’t make any sense – it was just a loud “No!”

Sev typed out a reply. ‘You know him better.’

‘Y. But shout was random. Hoped you’d seen it before.’

Sev had seen it before, but not on any turian he’d ever known. Apparently, it was a flashback thing; his mind had filled in a memory from before. Salarians, humans and asari tended to have those, thanks to the higher prevalence of photographic memory among their races. But what memory Levin had, Sev couldn’t tell.

He typed ‘flashback’.

Riana noted the connections. Civilians, a shout declaring denial, and flashbacks. She also recalled the incident at university. There was some big secret he’d been hiding, and now she knew a bit more about it. He’d sounded ashamed back then – or maybe she was just imprinting that attribute on her memory? Maybe all those incidents were linked. Then again, maybe not.

‘Thanks. You think PTSD?’ she typed out.

Most krogan did not ever suffer from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. They weren’t wired that way. But turians…‘Possible. Ask about military history?’ he tapped out. In hindsight, this looked ridiculous – two people communicating with technology when they could just talk to one another – but those onlookers did not understand the gravity of their messages.

Riana felt her stomach start to climb up to her head, and with that she knew the shuttle had begun to descend. They were to do an air-drop – jumping out of the shuttle in mid-air onto the ground – and she started to wring her hands. The anticipation was killing her. People always said that the wait was the most difficult thing about challenges, but she was beginning to doubt whether those people had ever thrown themselves out of a shifting platform some variable distance onto dirt. If Levin didn’t hold the shuttle steady while the 1-ton Sev jumped, it could slide sideways into a tree. Now that could mean the end of their little expedition.

The shuttle’s doors slid open, exposing the cliff of a forested area. In the distance, the passengers could spot the ruins of some building jutting out of the forest canopy. Crunch time.

Sev motioned for Riana to jump first. She was lighter than him by far, and the shuttle wouldn’t shift as much on her go. Riana walked to the other side of the shuttle and took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. This was it.

She took a running jump and shot out of the shuttle, landing some three feet down, and well clear of the edge of the cliff. Well. They were right. The waiting was the hardest part.

Sev looked down. The shuttle was hovering about three feet of the ground, and there was a two foot distance between the shuttle and the cliff edge. He’d have to jump almost a meter to avoid the soil around the edge of the cliff. It seemed unstable.

Sev stepped back, put a foot on the edge of the shuttle floor, and launched himself out of the shuttle.

The distance seemed to fly past – he’d landed safely, but the soil near the cliff edge disagreed with him and crumbled slightly. That wasn’t a good sign.

Levin jetted off towards the ruins. According to his coms, he was going to find an open spot around the area. Riana had the flamethrower just in case he couldn’t find one.

They heard the whoosh of flapping wings behind them, and the pony carriage slid to a halt in the same spot where the shuttle had been just a few moments prior. Sev left the talking to Riana – he gripped the shotgun in his hands as he examined the surrounding area. There seemed to be no animals nearby, but it never hurt to be sure.

The ponies disembarked from a side door in the carriage, and the carriage left; presumably to follow Levin. Well, they were going to be circling for quite some time.

Riana waved to the ponies. Only one of them waved back – a regular pony at the back. Sev was already ahead, crushing the foliage underfoot as he stomped further into the deep forest.

The ponies didn’t like this forest, Riana observed; they had pulled out weapons, such as spears and swords, and had formed a defensive circle around the purple unicorn – Twilight. She unfolded her own pistol in response. The flamethrower was likely to cause more collateral damage than necessary, and flame was notoriously slow at killing a creature. That was why it was so feared.

Sev spoke suddenly, his voice booming out of the suit speakers. “Heat sig. Ten o’clock.”

Riana was pointing her gun in that direction in an instant. Her suit wasn’t as good as Sev’s; it was a basic light-spec hard-suit manufactured by Elkoss Combine, and as such it didn’t have the extensive upgrades Sev’s own, probably custom built hard-suit did.

“Are your men up there,” Sev asked conversationally. His aim didn’t waver.

Armor shook his head.

The Claymore boomed once, and all the foliage near it bent backwards with the force of the blast. The bushes in a 20 degree wide arc in front of the shotgun muzzle reared back, as if they wanted to avoid the shockwave. They didn't get up. The ponies all jumped at the sound. Some of them shook their heads, clearly hearing a ringing sound in them; others shook their weapons at the forest.

Sev laughed, and everyone turned to look at him. He pumped the shotgun once, ejecting a red hot thermal clip, which he replaced in a compartment on his armor. “They’re dead. Why so worried?” With that, he continued to trek deeper into the forest.

“He’s insane,” Twilight murmured, as they followed him.

They walked in silence after that.

Riana shifted. It was awkward; walking with six pairs of eyes glaring at her back, yet no one said a word. It reminded her of those bars on Illium, where enemies would trade glares rather than bullets. That was the one good thing about Illium – its omnipresent security. She felt like a prisoner. She was a ‘guest’ in theory, but the constant guard presence really spoke of the mistrust between species. Granted, that mistrust was well-placed.

They reached the ruins. The shuttle and the carriage were waiting for them, right outside the ruined castle’s entrance. Riana had to admire the handiwork that had gone into the creation of the former castle. They architecture was human-like; gothic, with towering spires and a looming front. Parts of the ceiling had fallen onto the ground, whereas –

“Alright, why are we here? This is a historic building,” Twilight Sparkle said. She didn’t seem very happy.

“Omni-tool’s picking up high levels of eezo in the soil here. This is it,” Levin said, leaning against the shuttle. “This is the ship.”

Sev remembered his orders not to speak, so he didn’t.

Riana turned to the main group of ponies. “Do any of you know the history behind this place? How it was built, what it was built on?”

Twilight answered instinctively. “This was where we discovered the Elements of Harmony and defeated Nightmare Moon! It was built and occupied by the two Princesses, giving it the name ‘Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters’.”

Sev snorted at that last part, ignoring the glares that the ponies and Riana shot him. Levin was busy scouting out the castle, so he didn’t hear what was so funny.

Riana restrained herself from face-palming. “Thanks for the information. Do you know if…if there are any cave systems underneath the castle?”

Twilight shrugged. Her face was still a bit red, and Riana resolved to try and cheer her up. She’d gone through this before, back at university.

Levin returned. “I found an entrance that leads under the castle,” he said, cradling his Avenger. “Let’s go.”

Sev grunted and followed him. The rest of the ponies and Riana went along as well. Even the pegasus guards unhitched themselves from the carriage to follow the group.

They came across a rectangular entrance, 6 feet tall and 3 feet wide. Sev huffed. “I can’t fit in there.”

He was right. The door was shorter than him by 2 feet, and he couldn’t exactly crouch, since he was barely 3 feet wide shoulder to shoulder. Crawling would only slow the whole team down…

“I’ll stay up here,” Sev volunteered. “Guard the entrance. As for the ponies – well, that’s your call.”

Riana nodded. “Captain Armor, is it? Pick some of your men to enter with us, and some to stay at the entrance if you please.”

“It’s ponies,” Armor growled, “And Trace, Metal, stay with the brute. Everypony else with me.”

The two unicorns saluted; an old style human salute. Yet again, there was a parallel with humanity. Maybe the progenitor theory wasn’t as far-fetched as Sev had thought. It wasn't the first time, after all - the Protheans had meddled with the asari people as they were developing...

Armor, Twilight, Levin, Riana, the pegasi and the regular ponies descended into the bowels of the castle.

Sev watched them go. It felt wrong to abandon them here. His job was to keep them safe – yet they were outnumbered, with only one known entrance out of the whole system. Granted, Riana did have a flamethrower, and both of them were wearing armor…

One of his eyes still had the two unicorns in its sight, and neither of them appeared to be doing anything threatening. Their horns weren’t glowing, for a start. With a sigh, Sev sat to the side of the entrance, pointing his shotgun the directly in front of him. The unicorns were on his right side, and they appeared nonplussed. He was going to be here quite a while, so he prepared his music player.

He wasn’t an idiot. The two unicorns nearby could have been instructed to attack him in a minute or an hour. He kept the volume of the music low, to better hear his surroundings. But right now, there was nothing to hear. Only the sounds of forest life surrounded him.

This was going to be a long wait.

-&-

Levin stooped as he walked down the stone corridor, feet clicking. The Avenger was pointed directly in front, and he and Riana took point. It was supposed to be another sign of trust, according to her. According to military tactics, it was a stupid tactical maneuver – they’d be pinned down by enemies from the front and back if things went sideways – but the weight of the gun in his arms helped to reassure him that everything was going to be all right.

The corridor bottomed out into a large room, apparently used as a hybrid holding-cell and storage area. Cells lined one wall, whilst on the opposite wall was devoid of any features. The place was littered with the skeletons of animals, and in the corner sat a pile of leaves and branches. Remains of food and bedding. Probably a sleeping area for wildlife.

Levin examined the blank wall. The stone was set comparatively unevenly, and the mortar was thicker around the corners of the wall. He nodded. This was their way in.

“Shockwave should do it,” he said.

Riana nodded, and then prepared herself.

Biotic abilities arose from electrical nerve impulses travelling through eezo nodules embedded in the flesh. The ‘shockwave’ technique was comparatively simple – she pushed outwards towards the wall with both arms, firing the nerves necessary – and everyone else saw the flash of blue leap from her skin towards the wall.

It also had next to no effect. The mortar was old and crumbling, but still held strong. Riana sighed, spent. She’d eaten on the ship, but biotics took a massive toll on her energy levels, and she fancied having a nice big steak.

Whilst Riana sat herself down on the floor, Twilight spoke up. “Watch this.”

Her horn started to glow as her face scrunched up in concentration.

A pack of purple started to form in the air – it seemed like a throw projectile, only larger – and it was getting bigger by the second.

The pack suddenly compressed together, into a lethal-looking cone, and shot into the wall.

On impact, the cone burst into a spectacular splash of purple light. What was even more spectacular was the fact that the wall behind it had vanished. In its place was a black hole, which the two of them quickly shone flashlights into, revealing a pile of ancient bricks on top of some metallic material that they knew to be even older, even though it shone brilliantly in the light.

The two unicorns that were with them managed to procure a light with their horns – Bioluminescence? Riana wondered – that weren’t as bright as the omni-tool’s torches, but were omni-directional.

Levin took the first step into the darkness. The walls were a greyish bronze color, spotted with a brownish material that crumbled into dust under the slightest waft of air. His flashlight beam picked up a raised, angular platform at the end of the room, and he walked over to it, boots clicking on the flooring as he did.

The ponies and Riana followed him, spreading out to see the entirety of the room. It appeared to be a work area – the place lacked any personal effects, but the flooring was littered with some sort of synthetic material that was grooved, and sparkled whenever stray beams of light hit it.

Twilight Sparkle’s happy gasps of excitement were drowned out when Levin spoke over the coms. “Riana, look at this.”

The asari walked over to see Levin holding a rectangular piece of clear plastic in his talon. On closer inspection, she could see the small lines engraved into it around the edges, and on one of the shorter edges a black shape had been embedded inside the plastic.

“Looks like electronics,” she said after a moment. “Take it.”

Levin folded a box into shape, and left it on the floor. He’d leave it here, for easier extraction – it was difficult climbing ladders or ropes whilst balancing a box. They would take all that was interesting and put them into their pockets, and then deposit their loot into the box.

They heard the clip-clop of hooves and turned around to see Twilight come up behind them. She seemed happy, judging by the massive smile on her face. “I can’t believe I haven’t ever heard of this place before! How did you know about it?”

Levin raised an eye-plate under his helmet. That was quick of her to warm up to them. They were barely on speaking terms just an hour ago. Maybe it was the local culture.

Riana smiled. This was their best ticket into getting the trust of the natives. After that, they wouldn’t be disturbed. Hopefully. “I read up on it. Many of the galaxy’s civilizations, including yours, I suspect, are built on top of the ruins of older ones. Records recovered through archaeology help us discover more about their lives, and their technologies. Through those records, we discovered this place.”

Twilight grinned in excitement, and Riana felt her heart twist a bit at the sight. She was so innocent, so sure that they were to further the advancement of galactic society, and not line their own pockets. Still, some of the buyers must have run private museums, right?

“There are more civilizations in space? Wow, please please please tell me about them!” Twilight yelped, jumping up and down on the spot.

Levin chuckled, a chirping sound that somewhat sounded like a bird’s call. Twilight looked at him in surprise, but Riana had already gotten used to it. “He’s just amused. Sure, I’ll teach you more about the galaxy. But, you have to teach me about your world.”

Armor and his ponies had also heard the sound, and were glancing at Levin with odd looks – though they weren’t hostile, but guarded, like they knew something more.

Levin ignored them, and walked up to the raised area. There was a hole on the floor in the shape of an octagon, with two opposite edges longer than the others. A straight rod of metal was bonded to the ceiling above the hole. The rod continued through it, into the depths of the ship. The metal rod was odd – a straight cut ran through the middle, so it appeared to be split in two – and the inside of the cut widened into the shape of a T.

Aiming his flashlight down, Levin could see the outline of a shape, which the rod appeared to punch right through. It fit the hole on the floor perfectly, though.

A lift.

Now they only needed a method of traversing the ship. Travelling via the empty lift shaft would be simple, but tiring. There was a ladder on the back wall of the lift shaft, which meant that he’d be restricted to carrying up whatever he could hold in one arm. Judging from the area where the metal met the stonework of the castle, the top deck had probably been sheared off on collision, somehow, and the lower decks would probably be partially crushed as well. That also meant that any eezo locked in secure containers would now be spilling around unhindered on the floor; easy pickings.

Looking downwards, he saw that the area around the lift on the second deck seemed clear. He nodded, and then clambered down the ladder and onto the second deck. Riana followed whilst Twilight did some sort of teleport towards the edge of the lift shaft. She didn’t even leave a spark of blue light in her trail. It was like she had just seemed to phase into existence by their side. Just like those Furies.

“How did you do that?” Riana blinked.

Twilight giggled bashfully. “It’s a teleportation spell. I had to practice quite a lot.”

“A spell? Like magic?”

Armor appeared by their side in a flash of light and nodded. “You seem surprised. You also have magic in you.”

Riana scratched the back of her head. “I suppose so. In my society, we call magic ‘biotics’.” These ponies had called biotics ‘magic’, which suggested they didn’t know the root cause of it, but they did know the applications of the mass effect.

“How do you cast a spell?” she asked, walking towards Levin, who’d by now picked up a capsule of glowing blue out of a half-crushed safe. “Thinking about it?”

Twilight followed, speaking whilst trotting to keep up with the woman’s long legs. “Spells aren’t like thinking, ‘I want to do levitate this’ and have an object levitate. It’s more a way of thinking than a thought. Like a muscle, that had many uses. It’s difficult to describe…”

Riana nodded. The experience was similar to firing neurons, then. “Can all ponies cast spells?”

Twilight shook her head. “Only unicorns. Pegasi have innate magic that lets them manipulate the weather. Earth ponies can speed up the rate of crop growth with their innate magic. Dragons have magic as well, but theirs is less understood.”

One point in that conversation stuck out to Riana. “You said pegasi can influence the weather? In what way?”

“They can shape clouds, make rainbows, redistribute rain, that sort of thing. It takes a lot of energy though.”

Riana nodded in understanding. The ‘inner magic’ described by Twilight probably meant unconscious generation of mass effect fields, which meant eezo nodules embedded in commonly used muscles. The wing muscles, perhaps? That would explain their ability of flight with seemingly small wings.

As for the regular, or Earth, pony, that ability to increase crop production meant that the crops reacted well to mass effect fields. For what reason, she didn’t know; she was not a biologist.

Levin had finished ransacking the busted crate, and several more, coming up with about 3 liters of eezo. He’d distributed the lot in small canisters attached to a bandolier slung around his shoulders. Twilight gaped as he spun the bandolier around and around in a vertical circle, before flinging the whole thing up to hole to the top floor.

“You might damage the – she started.

“That’s a chemical, Twilight,” Riana interjected. “It’s inert, too.” She waited for the unicorn to say something; but the next words were not what she expected.

“That’s horn matter.”

Riana blinked, surprised. The unicorns were able to do magic, and she’d suspected that they had nodules around the body – but judging by Twilight’s words, the horn was the main source of eezo for their biotics.

Twilight cantered over to the opened boxes, peering inside them. “What kind of sick pony grinds up unicorn horns?”

Riana moved to calm her newfound friend down. “I would bet this isn’t from a unicorn’s horn, but mined from a neutron star. Element zero is a material with many uses, but it’s most well known as the material that allows us to travel at faster-than-light speeds.”

Twilight’s face was still etched with disgust, but she trotted back towards Riana, and the two moved to a lower deck. “Faster-than-light? That’s impossible!”

Riana shrugged. “Not for us. It works by passing current through element zero to reduce the mass of an object, such that the object can go at FTL speed. The exact details I’m not aware of, however. Sorry.”

Twilight’s ears drooped, and Riana sighed. “I’ll let you play with my omni-tool. How’s that?”

-&-

Sev rolled his shoulders. The tense boredom had set in an hour ago, and he checked the radiator system on the Claymore for the fifth time. It was fine, as always.

The two unicorn soldiers next to him twitched at the sudden motion. It had been funny the first few times, but after the tenth, Sev had gotten used to it and ignored them.

He set the Claymore down on the ground with a dull clang. The guarding jobs were the most tedious ones. They were also the easiest, but easy didn’t give you an adrenaline rush.

A low growl reverberated off the forest, beyond the entrance where the shuttles were parked. From the sound of it, it was not the ‘manticore’ from before. The pitch was too high. It almost sounded like a dog’s growl.

A creature poked its head around the corner of the entrance. He’d guessed right. It looked superficially like a dog or varren, but there was some sort of camouflage that made it seem that it was constructed from tree branches.

The creature disappeared, and the two unicorn guards next to Sev retreated down the entrance, spears pointed upwards. Cowards. At least they had a sense of tactics – that would be the only thing that could save their sorry hides.

Sev picked up his Claymore again, changing the cooling system into using thermal clips. The clip he’d used in the forest had cooled down, and he slotted it back into the body of the weapon.

Four of the creatures from before appeared around the entrance, and stood facing him. Now that he had a closer look, their camouflage was actually quite realistic. Even their legs and joints appeared to be made from components of vegetation. He doubted that ‘natural armor’ of bark around their bodies could hold up to a shotgun blast, though.

None of them stalked closer – they’d all kept a 3 meter radius around him. Predator sense, then. To know when you become the prey of a superior being, and get the hell out when you can.

Sev was a bit disappointed that they hadn’t attempted to attack him. He could use some fun. Still, they could be sentient, and he didn’t want to antagonize another nation.

He could hear the breaths of the guards in the entranceway. They were rapid and erratic – the classic sign of fear for mammalians. So, these things were enemies of the ponies, then. Maybe he could play them off one another…

No, the boss wouldn’t like that. No matter how amusing it would be to watch.

He pumped the shotgun. That feature wasn’t really a necessity, he remembered; it was merely kept as a tool for intimidation. The metallic clacking had the desired effect, though. Every creature went back a step – including the unicorn guards.

They very well should. The haze of battle could disguise friend as foe.

The dog-like things fanned out, standing in a semicircle in front of him. He was still sitting down next to the entrance door, and as he stood up, preparing for a fight, his shadow fell upon one of the fake-dogs.

That dog raised its hackles, or what passed for them – the leaves and such behind its head fluffed up. It was obvious they felt cornered – why did they not run?

Maybe the animals here are just stupid.

Two dogs, each facing the other, jumped at Sev, who was in the middle. He flung out his left arm, catching one of the dogs in the ribcage, and the dog hurtled backwards; with the other, he swung the shotgun into the creature like a club, and sent it rolling into the entranceway.

The guards started to yell, but their cries were replaced by battle-song pounding away in his ears. The two dogs in front had jumped as well, seeing an opening for his chest; he slammed his head forwards to smash the thing, which fell; but the other one landed on the his left side and he stumbled backwards with the blow. The creature was heavy; only about the mass of a human, he guessed, but that weight was still substantial. It scrabbled for purchase on the smooth armor plating, and attempted to bite into his upper left arm. Luckily, that area was protected by a band of armor, and he quickly hooked his left arm around to grab the dog’s neck.

Sev flung the dog onto the ground, and examined the other combatants. The yelling had stopped from the entranceway, which meant that either the guards or the dog-thing was dead. The one he’d head-butted was picking itself up, flakes of what seemed like tree-bark dropping off its cracked face as it did so; and the one on the far left launched itself at him once more.

Sev didn’t attempt to whack it aside this time. Instead, he hooked two meaty fingers into some orifice of the dog-thing and swung it into the ground. A classic throw. It landed on top of its friend, and both dog things slumped together in a heap.

They were just a foot away from his feet. He grinned, and slammed a foot down into the torso of the top one. That would crush both of them.

The thing crumbled, its chest cavity turned into ground dust by the force of the blow. It stopped moving, instantly. Sev guessed that he’d snapped whatever passed for a spine in those things.

The dog on the bottom wasn’t faring much better. It wheezed, and a cloudy white liquid dripped out from its mouth. Sev stomped him into oblivion.

The last one had just gotten up, and found itself facing the nasty end of a Claymore shotgun. With a twitch of his finger, the krogan mulched the last creature, covering the opposite wall in fluids.

He turned to inspect the entranceway. The last dog-thing was still attacking the two guards, who’d set up a barrier. They were attempting to open it for a moment to lash out with their spears, but the dog had faster reactions, and their attempts were foiled.

Sev watched. He’d singlehandedly taken out three of those things; and those two biotics couldn’t take out one?

“Help,” one of them managed to growl out.

Sev chuckled. If they couldn’t handle it, then they would die. Simple as that. They weren’t strong enough to survive their own world.

But would that be the best choice of action? His employers would want him to make the salvage operations easier. For that, they needed to be on the good side of the natives, to prevent any delays or attacks.

He ejected the clip of the shotgun, letting the red-hot tube clatter to the ground, trailing steam behind it. Perfect. He picked the clip back up, and, holding it in one hand, ambled over to the back of the dog. It noticed him, of course, but by then it was too late. He shoved the clip into the creature, with so much force that the dog’s plating at the point of impact cracked; and the dog howled, twisting to reach the burning clip inside of it.

Trace vomited as he saw flames start to lick across the timber wolf’s body whilst it thrashed around in agony. He thought he’d seen the worst with the manticore, but apparently its killer was determined to prove his assumption wrong. The brute held the wolf down and retrieved an object, still glowing dully with heat, and replaced it in a pocket. That must have what had started the fire in the first place. Trace shuddered as he imagined how it would feel, having that shoved into the flesh on his back. The spread of heat across his skin, the flames licking at his exposed tissue...

Metal hurled as well, and as he lost concentration, the barrier evaporated, letting the scent of smoke and burning flesh waft down to the two ponies. That was the last straw – their primal instincts overtook them, and they bolted down to the relative safety of the dark corridor below them.

Sev laughed. Weaklings.

Comments

[Puck The Faerie]

Lol, traumatizing the guards for shits and giggles.

[DezzarTac]

Sev, my new favorite M.E. character.

[N00813]

1068617

Well, that means I'm doing my job right.

CHANGELOG: Edited first chapter to better reflect character personality.