• Published 27th Mar 2019
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Mass Effect: Element of Kindness - CommanderApplejack



[CYOA] While exploring an old ruin an unfortunate accident sends Fluttershy halfway across the galaxy, how will the shy pegasus cope with being stuck away from her friends?

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Experiments

Chapter 36

Experiments

"Garrus take out that geth sniper," Shepard ordered as they approached the first building—a geth network tower. There was also a regular trooper and a geth destroyer, but neither of those two would be able to hit them at range.

"Understood, taking the shot," Garrus replied as he rested his rifle on a rock and took a breath, lining up his shot in the meantime. The rifle let out an ear-deafening thunderclap as its round flew off and punched through the geth sniper's torso. "Sniper eliminated," the turian said, the other machines now aware of their presence.

The geth destroyer, after seeing one of his allies get downed, charged down the structure’s ramp towards where the squad had taken cover. Wrex allowed the machine to approach into his weapon’s effective range before exposing himself and firing his shotgun. His modified rounds broke the machine’s charge and made it stagger back, though its shields remained functional. Not that that was the case for long as Garrus fired one of his disruption rounds at it which tore through the remaining shielding and in turn allowed Shepard to finish it off with fire from his assault rifle.

Fluttershy in the meantime had moved slightly further forward and lit one wing with a biotic aura. She had seen the geth regular take cover behind one of the large rocks ahead which gave a good view of the others. After making an approximate assumption of where the geth was, Fluttershy lobbed a ball of biotic energy that was supposed to apply the lift effect to anything it hit over the rock.

The pegasus held her breath as she waited to see if her move had any effect, something she got an answer to as a flailing geth rose into the air. Quickly pulling the heavy pistol she had gotten from Garrus, she put a round into the machine and took it out. Since her apprehensiveness about killing live beings did not apply to the machines which seemed to be created with the sole purpose of killing, taking the cruel automatons out of this world wasn’t something Fluttershy would lose sleep over.

“Nice one, Fluttershy,” Shepard said as he passed the pegasus and moved up to the structure where a geth console stood. The commander pushed a couple of buttons on its display and then fired a few shots into it, destroying it and making sure it couldn’t be activated again. “That should scramble the geth network and give the assault teams a better chance.”

A couple of seconds later the radio came to life and explained that the geth had momentarily lost coordination which allowed the assault teams to push them further back, just like Shepard had predicted. The group continued further, destroying geth and their equipment along the way as they made their way towards the back of Saren’s facility. This is where Fluttershy encountered the thing she had been most afraid of on the mission, a krogan.

Does Fluttershy open fire on the krogan? No

No matter what she did she couldn’t form a justification in her head for killing the living creature. The pegasus jumped into cover and while the others focussed on the krogan, Fluttershy used her biotics on the pair of geth that accompanied it, never firing at the krogan itself. The two geth dropped down as neither could really withstand the biotic barrage Fluttershy was throwing at them while the krogan, though tough, also fell to the combined fire from the krogan, turian, and human trio. Wrex, in particular, looked disgusted at the krogan corpse, not due to the fact that it had just attacked him but that it did so without any will of its own.

“Let’s continue. Saren must pay for this debacle,” Wrex growled as they made their way through the first door into the facility proper. Garrus connected his omni-tool to the first console he found.

“Commander, I can access the base’s security system from here. Should I disable the alarms or set them off on the far side of the facility. One will give us more resistance and the other the salarians,” Garrus told Shepard who didn’t even seem to think about which to choose.

“Just disable the alarms. We can handle whatever is behind those doors. The salarians already have a tough enough job as it is,” Shepard ordered.

"Understood, Commander," Garrus said as he tapped a few commands into his omni-tool to disable the alarms and unlock the doors into the base. Before the four of them made any progress into the building they were attacked by salarians, and Fluttershy froze as she recognized the armor as the same type as the STG unit's.

W-what? Why would they attack us?!

Before Fluttershy could theorize any further, the other three reflexively shot the seemingly crazed salarians while simultaneously a group of geth appeared. Fluttershy felt her heart skip a beat as one of them fired a rocket at the group. None of them had gotten the time to take cover, so the resulting explosion would be devastating.

Unacceptable.

In a panic, Fluttershy lit her wings up in a biotic aura and flung a blob of energy at the incoming projectile. The moment it got hit, the rocket was flung upwards and impacted the ceiling instead of in the middle of the group. This only got them a short respite as the geth simply continued their advance.

Garrus tackled Fluttershy into cover while Shepard and Wrex found boxes to hide behind themselves and returned fire to the machines. “Nice job with the rocket, Shy,” he complimented while immediately returning fire to the geth platforms. The machines didn’t last long against the concentrated fire from the now well-protected soldiers and soon were nothing more than piles of metal. After taking out a few more of the machines in their area they moved on through the facility.

They moved through room after room until they came across what seemed to be a prison complex that still housed one of the STG soldiers. Fluttershy immediately went up to the cell to see if he was alright. “Hello, are you ok?” she asked, and the salarian jolted up in surprise.

“Yes, I’m Lieutenant Ganto Imness of the third infiltration regiment. I guess the fleet was sent in to destroy the base?” he answered as he approached the glass barrier.

“Fleet’s not coming. The transmission wasn’t clear,” Shepard answered as he stepped next to Fluttershy.

“Hmm, I see. Then you must be the infiltration team. I know the captain, he will want the facility destroyed,” the lieutenant replied before his voice took a darker tone. “My team was altered, indoctrinated. Some died in the experiments, I envy them. The krogan breeding grounds are one threat but it pales in comparison with indoctrination.”

“What kind of experiments?” Shepard carefully asked, and the salarian visibly started breathing more rapidly.

“Symptoms and side-effects of the indoctrination, Saren uses it to control his subordinates but I don’t think he truly understands it. Please, the others were turned into mindless husks! You have to let me out!” He panicked.

“I’m letting you out, but after that, you’re on your own.” Shepard touched the control panel next to the cell which made its door slide open.

“I guess that’s better odds than I had before. Thank you, Commander.” The salarian said before quickly taking off. In the cell next to his there was another group of salarians only they didn’t even acknowledge the presence of the outside group.

“They look docile, as if their minds are gone,” Garrus stated as he studied the blank looking salarians. Fluttershy looked horrified at the victims of the indoctrination.

“Commander, permission to use the stare to see if there’s anything left of their minds?” Fluttershy said without taking her gaze off the salarians. Shepard looked down at the pegasus and thought for a moment, coming to the conclusion that if their minds were damaged beyond repair it wouldn’t matter anyway.

“Go ahead.”

Fluttershy took a deep breath and closed her eyes while the others took a step back from the pegasus. When Fluttershy opened her eyes again she projected her stare at the group of salarians, a nauseating feeling coming over the pegasus as she felt something clinging to their minds. The best way she could describe it was that it was as if a tar-like substance had attached itself to the mental functions of the aliens and inhibited them.

The pegasus tried to prod deeper, but by doing so she probably hit something she wasn’t supposed to as whatever was in the minds of the salarians started attacking them further. The group that was previously docile suddenly lunged forward and started to hit the glass barrier while letting out animalistic screams. Fluttershy scrambled back as she looked at the group in horror.

“NO, I-I didn’t mean to!” Fluttershy blurted out as the salarians suddenly stopped beating the window and dropped to the floor. Most likely they were all dead. Tears flowed from the pegasus’ eyes as Garrus picked her up and shielded her from the sight.

“You couldn’t have predicted that, Fluttershy. You did the one thing you thought that could help and it didn’t work. No-one will blame you for that,” Garrus comforted the mare.

“Garrus is right. The only thing we can do now is blow up this base so it doesn’t happen to anyone else,” Shepard added as the turian put Shy back on the ground. The pegasus didn’t dare look back at the cell as they left to continue their way through the facility, eventually finding an elevator that would take them to the upper levels.

As they stepped out of the elevator they found themselves in a laboratory. Beds lined the room and husks were put into stasis fields for study.

Is this where those salarians were taken for their ‘experiments’? Are these monsters responsible for what happened to them?!

Fluttershy saw red with rage as she studied the medical equipment, “HOW DARE YOU, MONSTERS!” she shouted as she lit her wings up and released a biotic wave, not caring about the amount of energy she used in that single attack. The closest two beds were flung clear across the room while everything and everyone else in front of her was knocked over.

A salarian doctor who had been standing close to the pegasus was launched with the beds and hit the wall at a tremendous speed, a crack indicating that it broke something, and dropped to the ground. The other living being that was present had been a krogan. Since he had been standing farther away from the blast, he was only knocked over.

“NO! Stay back. This is the glorious salvation of my species!” he shouted as he tried getting up but was stopped by Wrex who planted a boot on the other krogan.

“You’re reducing us to a set of slaves. If our species is to find salvation, it is by other means than this,” he coldly stated, blasting a shotgun slug into the krogan doctor’s head before he could respond. Fluttershy meanwhile looked at the corpse of the salarian scientist. Though disgusted with herself, she couldn’t help but think about the horribly cruel things the salarian had done.

“You okay, Fluttershy?” Shepard asked as he looked at the pegasus who was staring at the corpse in front of her.

“Yes, I’m okay,” Fluttershy lied. She still felt horrible about what she had done but would suppress it for the moment as they still had a mission.

“Good, we should move on. I don’t know if the salarian assault teams can take much more,” the Commander said as he motioned for the others to follow him.

Author's Note:

No vote on this one since the next chapter should be up in a bit as well :twilightsheepish:

Hope you enjoyed! :twilightsmile:

[Paragon] or a [Renegade] Are colored when available, though normal options might also contribute to one or the other. As for the shippers under us [Romance] is now also a thing.
When an option is not available due to various reasons it will be colored [Grey]

No vote this chapter :twilightsheepish:

Now edited by gerandakis and lordelliot

Remember that comments are like authors' food, we gain energy from them. Constructive criticism is welcome.

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