Chapter Text
V’lana’s Team
“I’m glad the new polyalloy weave armor breathes well in this heat.” V’lana quipped as she checked her weapons out. “Otherwise, my BO would probably knock out one of those thresher maws.”
“What armor?” Wrex laughed. Then, growling, he groused, “I thought you all had armor and weapons. Even if all we are running into are nothing but varren, you’re dead.”
“We are wearing armor, Wrex.” Liara replied as she deactivated the transparency filter to reveal the skintight weave armor that she was wearing under her clothes. “It’s Romulan. Light and strong. And with a very good personal shield.”
“That’s armor?” The big krogan laughed, “It couldn’t stand up to a kiss from a pyjak.”
“Wanna bet?” V’lana joked back with an impish grin. “A bottle of Romulan ale against the best booze you’ve got that our armor’s tougher than yours.”
“If you were male, I’d say you had a quad on you.” Wrex chortled, “You can’t handle ryncol…”
“He’s right, Subcommander.” Liara interjected, “I don’t think even a Romulan could stomach more than a small taste of that.”
“I’m not going to bet ryncol, but I will wager a bottle of human whiskey that I acquired in my mercenary days.” Wrex countered with a feral grin.
“You’re on.” V’lana responded, extending her hand.
“Looking forward to tasting this Romulan ale.” The big krogan laughed as he turned his attention to the energetic quarian seated next to him. “So, Tali…where’s your shotgun?”
“Got a better one.” The quarian engineer answered back as she showed her old teammate her new weapon. “It’s a plasma assault rifle. Kind of like a shotgun, only it fires plasma. Fires in a conical arc and great at short range. Of course, I made a few modifications to improve the accuracy and range. It puts the old Scimitar I was using to shame.”
“The Romulans and most of the species where they are from primarily use energy weapons.” Liara explained as she checked her own weapon, a phaser auto-rifle.
“Hmm…” The wily krogan looked thoughtful for several seconds before speaking, “I’d like to see how they perform. But for now…” A wicked grin crossed his face as he readied his Claymore shotgun, “I’ll stick with what I know.”
The Romulan subcommander responded with an impish smile of her own, “We’re getting close to the spot our scans pinpointed as the origin point for the verteron particles. Ready to see what’s there?”
Kaidan’s Team
Ignoring the glares of hostility coming from the Urdnot warriors and scouts as he and his team passed them by, Kaidan bantered in a low voice to his turian friend, “I thought you took a bath, Garrus.”
“Heh.” The turian vigilante joked back, “I’m surprised none of them have taken a shot at me or Mordin yet.
“Hostility of krogans regrettable…but understandable.” Mordin replied in a subdued voice while Solana, trailing behind, kept a close watch on the warriors.
“I’d say their fear of what Wrex would do to any of them who did attack us is greater than their desire to provoke a fight.” Solana commented.
“You’re probably right.” Kaidan replied, “I have a feeling if Wrex weren’t in charge we wouldn’t be having as easy a time of it.”
“If Wrex weren’t in charge…” Garrus mused, “…we wouldn’t even have been allowed on the surface.” Taking note of the defensive guns surrounding the perimeter, the turian weapons expert pointed out to his Romulan counterpart, “When I first saw those guns being used on varren and pyjaks, I thought they were wasting ammo, but now, I’m thinking that if these Urdnot warriors can pinpoint small mammals with these guns…”
“They can tear apart an invasion force.” The Romulan security chief finished as they approached the chief scout. “Careful, Commander.” She cautioned as Kaidan took the lead, “He doesn’t look like he’s in a very good mood and I don’t want to explain to the subcommander why you’re coming back missing your arms and legs.”
“I don’t think any of the krogan we’ve seen so far other than Wrex have been in a good mood.” Kaidan joked back before responding in a more serious tone of voice, “I’ll be careful.”
As he drew closer to the scout, the burly krogan growled. “Wrex told me to be polite to you, human. He didn’t say you were going to talk to me. I’m very busy so get to the point.”
“We’re looking for a salarian who was captured by the Blood Pack.” Alenko responded, cutting to the chase. “He was last seen around here.”
“I heard about the salarian.” The head scout replied, “If it’s Blood Pack, then Clan Weyrloc has him. I sent one of my scouts to check it out, but he hasn’t reported back yet. Weyrloc probably got him too. I was told to give you one of the trucks. If you’ve got the quads for it, you can take it and follow the highway to the Weyrloc base.”
“What have your scouts uncovered about the Weyrloc base?” Kaidan inquired as Solana and Garrus both made their way to the maintenance area to pick out a truck.
“Latest reports are that they’re held up in an old hospital.” The scout replied. “I didn’t get close to any Weyrlocs though. If I did, I’d have taken a shot.” The scout frowned at the apparent lack of armor and strange looking weapons of the human and his team, “You better get yourself some proper armor and a big gun or two. You’re going to need them. That base is crawling with Blood Pack.”
“Why are they holed up in a hospital?” Kaidan queried, “That doesn’t seem to be a defensible position.”
“Hospital has to be built to withstand enraged krogan.” Mordin interjected, answering the Staff Commander’s query. “When injury forces krogan to switch over to secondary organs, adrenal glands secrete hormones…higher thought processes don’t always transition properly. Result…blood rage.”
“What the salarian said.” The scout growled, glaring at Mordin as if the scientist were nothing more than a pile of varren dung.
“Why would they go through all that trouble to capture Maelon?” Kaidan mused.
“Don’t know.” The scout shrugged his shoulders. “Probably wanted to bring him back for special treatment. He must have done something to really piss the Blood Pack off for them to bring him back. It would have been simpler to just kill him if they wanted him dead. Either way, I doubt your friend is enjoying himself. It doesn’t matter…no skin off my hump what they do with him. Just means one less alien on Tuchanka.”
“What can we expect from Clan Weyrloc?” Alenko asked as he continued to gather intelligence.
“Tough humps.” The scout replied, “Don’t expect a friendly welcome from them. Weyrloc started the Blood Pack. They’re fanatics and totally devoted to Weyrloc Guld.”
“What about the non-krogan Blood Pack members like the vorcha?”
Laughing, the scout responded, “Vorcha are just like varren except they know how to use guns and don’t crap on the floor as often. The krogan are the only real members of Blood Pack. Anyone else is there just to soak up fire.”
“What’s so special about Guld?” Kaidan asked.
“He’s got two children.” The scout answered back with a touch of envy in his voice, “One of them a girl…maybe fertile. Because of that, some people think he has a destiny.”
“What about you? Do you think he’s destined for something?”
“Yeah.” The scout snorted, “The sole of Wrex’s boot on his neck.” Shaking his head, the scout continued, “I had a cousin who won twenty consecutive games of quasar. He was a lucky bastard, but he didn’t have some sort of great destiny. It’s just luck—that’s all.”
Seeing that Solana and Garrus had already picked out a truck and were waiting, Kaiden ended the conversation. “I better go. My people are waiting.”
“Yeah.” The scout growled, “Get out of here. I’ve got work to do. I don’t care about you and your people but be sure to bring that truck back in one piece.”
“Any problems getting the truck?” Kaidan asked as he approached the other members of his team.
“Not really.” Garrus replied with the turian equivalent of a smirk. “I let Solana do the talking.”
“Had to promise the chief mechanic that we’d look for a salvageable combustion manifold.” The Romulan security chief explained as the team embarked on to the truck, “But otherwise there was no problem in talking him into letting us take this truck. It’s well armored and has a workable gun…more than I can say for the vehicle he wanted to stuff us in.”
“Yeah…that was a pile of vorcha crap.” Garrus quipped as Solana took the driver’s seat. “So…where are we going?”
A wicked grin on his face as he doublechecked his phaser rifle, Kaidan joked back, “We’re going to the hospital.”
Continuing the banter as Solana drove the truck off the lot, Garrus replied, “Yeah…I got a feeling we’re all going to need a hospital by the time this is over.”
V’lana’s Team
“My tricorder’s picking up on what looks like a bunker.” Tali called out, waving the rest of her team over to her. “Eezo…some verteron emissions…but not as much as I thought there’d be.”
“No surprise there.” V’lana explained, “They don’t last long outside subspace. Most of those that we detected in orbit are probably gone by now.”
“What do you think we’ll find?” Liara asked as she and Wrex joined the conversation.
“Could be anything.” V’lana cautioned as a piercing shriek resounded, looking up the subcommander gasped as she pointed in the air at a giant winged creature. “Damn! What the hell is that?”
“Harvester!” Wrex shouted as he readied his shotgun. “Get ready…where there’s a harvester, there’s klixen!”
“There they are!” Liara cried out as she launched a singularity, lifting a pair of the insectoid creatures into the air.
Firing her plasma rifle into the singularity at one of the creatures, V’lana winced slightly at the explosion. “Damn. Didn’t expect that.”
“You can admire yourselves later, girls.” Wrex chuckled as he launched a biotic throw at an oncoming klixen, following it up with a burst from his claymore that caused the creature to explode. “We’ve got these to kill.”
After hitting another rushing klixen with a cryogenic blast, Tali hit it with her plasma rifle, shattering it into pieces. “Like that, Uncle Urdnot?”
“That’s my girl.” The big krogan laughed as he brought down another charging klixen.
“Let’s show them how it’s done, Liara.” V’lana quipped as the asari biotic launched another singularity snaring more klixen into which the Romulan tossed a grenade.
“Shit.” The krogan battlemaster rumbled as the last of the insectoid intruders was killed, “What the hell was that?”
“Photon grenade.” V’lana smirked, “Didn’t want to toss in a plasma one…that would have been even messier.”
“Hmph. Maybe you’re not as weak as I thought.” Wrex snorted as he kicked hard at the already battered door, easily knocking it down. “Whenever you girls are ready.”
“After you. Age before beauty.” V’lana quipped, earning in response a snort of laughter from the big krogan.
Entering the chamber first, the veteran battlemaster cautioned as he sniffed the air, “Something smells…wrong.”
“Shit.” V’lana murmured as her eyes took in the scene: smashed instrument panels, still sparking as electric fires slowly died out, mangled corpses strewn about the room amidst the lingering traces of a foul odor.
“Yeah.” Wrex agreed with a snort, “Along with other smells…death…fire…some I don’t recognize.”
“Liara?” V’lana called out, “Any life signs?”
“The readings aren’t clear… but I am picking up on some.” The asari replied as she scanned with her tricorder. “Mostly native Tuchankan. Varren and what seems to be klixen, but…there’s something else. “I’m picking up traces of mycelial spores…definitely not native to Tuchanka. And also krogan and a few human…but different.”
“How so?” The subcommander inquired as a low, dangerous rumble escaped from Wrex.
“It’s…I’m not sure.” The asari shook her head.
“I’m picking up on the presence of nanites and dark energy.” Tali announced as she also carried out scans with her tricorder. “No…” she shook her head in disbelief, “…that shouldn’t be possible.”
“What are you talking about, Tali…Liara?” Wrex growled as he sniffed the air. “What is that thing that you’re using picking up on?”
“The nanites are Borg.” Tali reported in a hushed voice. “But that shouldn’t be possible. Borg are from…”
“My universe.” V’lana finished. Approaching Liara, she asked, “Can I see those tricorder readings for a moment?”
“Sure.” The asari replied in a soft voice as she handed her tricorder over to the Romulan.
As she carefully went over Liara’s scans a worried frown appeared on the subcommander’s face, several moments passing until Wrex’s deep voice cut through the silence.
“Will someone tell me what the hell is going on here? What are Borg?” He then addressed his next question to the lovely Romulan, “And what the hell are you talking about when you say these ‘Borg’ are from your universe?”
“We don’t have time to get into details now.” V’lana replied in a grim tone of voice, “It would take too long and if what’s happening is what I think is happening, then we’re going to have to move very quickly, because if we don’t, things are going to get very bad on Tuchanka very quickly--and before you ask--yes--it can get a lot worse." Handing the tricorder back to Liara, the subcommander declared, “It’s what I was afraid of. We ran into similar readings when we busted up that Tal’Shiar research lab on Nimbus III. Elachi were there…and they were here too.”
“Elachi and Borg…” Liara shook her head, “This could be worse than Saren…maybe even the Reapers.”
“What if they’re working with the Reapers.” Tali gasped. Then, glancing down at one of the dead humans, wearing white armor with black and gold trim, his armor cracked wide open as if it was an egg, she scowled. “Cerberus.”
Scowling, V’lana muttered, “Cerberus? Figures. That actually makes a weird sort of sense though.” She explained to the confused krogan accompanying them. “In my universe, the Tal’Shiar were messing with Borg implants and indoctrination and the Elachi were also there…” Seeing the irritated frown on the krogan’s face, she quickly apologized, “I’ll explain later, Wrex…I promise.”
“You better.” The battlemaster grumbled. “For now, I don’t care who they are or where they’re from. They’re on my world and they weren’t invited, so I’m going to kick them out or kill them.” His lips turned up in a feral grin, “Or both.”
Kneeling down to get a closer look at the corpse, V’lana gasped, “Shit.”
“What now?” Wrex grumbled as he looked down at the dead body. Seeing the ashen expressionless face and strange implants on the male corpse’s eyes and cheek, the shocked krogan exclaimed, “What the hell? They look almost like damned husks.”
“Tali?” V’lana called out, motioning for the young quarian to join them. “Scan him and then tell me you’re not picking up on your scans what I think you’re going to pick up.”
Scanning with her tricorder, Tali shook her head, “They’re Borg. But…” She added, a note of alarm in her voice, “…there are also traces of Reaper tech.”
“Even worse than I thought.” The subcommander growled, “Cerberus has found some connection with my universe and they’re trying to integrate Borg and Reaper tech.”
“Can they do that?” Liara inquired.
“Not on their own.” V’lana responded, “They have to be getting help from someone else. My guess is the Elachi…and I’ve got a bad feeling that there’s someone even more powerful pulling the Elachi’s strings.”
“What makes you say that?” Tali asked as she carefully took samples from the corpse, making sure that they were safely secured before putting them away.
“Too many coincidences.” The subcommander answered back. “The Tal’Shiar experimenting with Borg tech and indoctrination with Elachi help along with Romulan colonies being attacked in my universe and the same thing happening in yours only it’s Cerberus working with the Elachi and human colonies being attacked.”
“We can talk about all that later.” Wrex growled impatiently. “Let’s get moving.”
“Right.” V’lana nodded her head in agreement, “Let’s go and kick some ass.”
Kaidan’s Team
“Damn!” Solana shook her head, her attention focused both on the road and on the ruins that were once towering buildings and structures as she drove the truck down the highway. “No matter how many times I’ve seen what nukes can do to a planet, it never ceases to amaze me.”
“Krogan once had vibrant culture.” Mordin pointed out, “But could not keep violent nature in check. Led to nuclear war…eventually Krogan Rebellions. Now see need for genophage.”
“Are you saying that the salarians aren’t at least partially responsible?” Kaidan dissented, “Maybe if you hadn’t uplifted them from their primitive state they might have eventually evolved into a more peaceful society.”
“Fair point.” The salarian scientist reluctantly conceded before arguing vehemently, “Uplift however was necessary. Rachni on the verge of wiping out galactic civilization. Had to take action immediately. Uplifting krogan act of desperation.” Mordin finished, his voice now taking on a more somber timber.
“What about afterwards?” Kaidan countered, “Did you even bother to take into account the possible consequences?”
“Wasn’t enough time!” Mordin angrily replied, “Had to act and act now—or all was lost.”
“I can understand desperation.” Solana interjected, “It will make you grasp at anything that will save you—even something that might well kill you later.”
“The scorpion and the frog.” Kaidan muttered as they finally reached their destination, explaining the old fable to Mordin and Garrus, “A scorpion wanted to get across a river, but couldn’t because he would drown, so he asked a frog if he’d let him ride on his back. The frog told him that he didn’t want to because the scorpion would sting him and kill him with its poison. The scorpion promised he wouldn’t do that, so the frog agreed. They got to the middle of the river, then the scorpion stung the frog. The frog gasped as it was dying, ‘Why did you do that? Now, we’re both going to die.’ The scorpion apologized, saying, ‘He couldn’t help it because it was in his nature to do so.’”
As Solana brought the truck to a stop, Garrus spoke up for the first time, “This discussion’s going to have to wait for another time. We’ve got work to do.”
Exiting the vehicle, the team passed through a doorway leading them into the ruins of what was once a large compound. “Damn…this space is huge.” Solana gasped as she gazed at the mixture of cargo containers just recently placed and tangled ruins of walls.
“Has to be.” Garrus replied with a crooked grin, “It was built for krogans.”
“Durable.” Mordin noted, “Built to withstand krogan blood rage. Not hospital proper though. Just outside buildings and grounds. Hospital further up.”
“Let’s take it slow and easy.” Kaidan cautioned as he carried out a quick scan with his tricorder. “I’m picking up on life signs ahead.”
“Klixen!” Garrus cried out as he fired his plasma rifle, causing an explosion as the beam of energy detonated the klixen.
“What are those things?” Solana grimaced as she fired her plasma rifle, setting off two more charging klixen.
“Native to Tuchanka.” Mordin replied as a screeching sound was heard in the distance, “Generally accompanied by harvesters—flying creatures comparable to human tales of dragons. Do not let them close with you. Vicious claws…explode when killed.”
“So I saw.” Solana replied as she hefted her plasma rifle. “Good thing we went with plasma weapons here.”
“Yeah.” Garrus readily agreed, “They should one-shot kill any varren or vorcha and will prevent krogan from regenerating.”
“We’ve still got a lot of ground to cover…” Kaidan commanded, pointing towards the entrance to the hospital, “So…move out.”
“I’ve got point.” Solana volunteered as she took the lead. Moving cautiously from cover to cover, the Romulan security officer, spotting movement amidst the ruins, held up one hand as she tapped her communicator. “Varren. I’ve got them.” A moment later, she murmured into her comm, “I’m seeing more movement behind cover.”
“We’re moving up.” Kaidan replied in a low voice as he gestured for his team to take up positions. Moving up beside the Romulan woman along with the rest of his team, he asked, “Where are they?”
“Over there.” Solana answered back with a jerk of her head in the direction of a low wall. “They’re behind low cover in ambush positions.”
A wicked grin appearing on his face, the Alliance commando prompted as he gestured for Garrus to take up a sniping position while the salarian scientist found cover on the left flank. “Why don’t we give them a taste of their own medicine.”
“I’ll draw their fire.” Solana grinned, “Then you hit them.”
“Watch yourself.” Kaidan warned as the Romulan woman set her plasma rifle to full strength.
“Just be ready when they open up.” Solana responded with a wicked grin as she leaped over the cover and dashed towards the twisted wreckage of a tomkah, one of the giant krogan trucks, zigging and zagging to avoid the fire coming towards her, then diving for cover just in time as a pair of rockets barely missed her head.
Taking advantage of the now exposed vorcha and charging krogan, Kaidan and the rest of the team opened up in unison. The biotic hitting the charging krogan with a warp just as Mordin’s incendiary blast hit, causing the Blood Pack trooper to turn into a pile of ash on the ground. Spotting another krogan in his sights, Garrus fired his plasma sniper rifle, his mandibles flaring in the turian equivalent of a feral grin as the bolt of plasma impacted on the krogan’s skull plate, killing it instantaneously.
“That just leaves the vorcha.” Solana commed as she fired her plasma autorifle, bringing down one of the rocketeers and sending the other vorcha diving for cover.
Launching another warp at an armored vorcha as Mordin sent out an incendiary burst, burning the final vorcha trooper, Kaidan called out, “I think that’s the last of them.”
“I’m not picking up on anything else from here to the hospital.” Solana replied, then smirking, she added as she picked up a piece of machinery, “I think I found the combustion manifold that the Urdnot mechanic wanted.”
“Great.” Kaidan, smiled back “That ought to buy us a little good will—with the mechanics at least.”
“I’ll take anything I can get.” Garrus chuckled as the team made their way to the hospital entrance. Gazing at the imposing structure, the turian vigilante shook his head, “This is going to be a tough nut to crack.”
Taking a deep breath, Kaidan quickly bypassed the door security system. “Then…we better get started.”
“Yes.” Mordin quickly agreed, “Must find Maelon before too late.”