Post by Nord Ronnoc on Mar 24, 2017 1:03:17 GMT 1
Synopsis: In a remote research facility on the planet Acabar, something not of this universe attacked the science crew. In an act of desperation, they called out to anyone for help. Help came from Commander Shepard, the first human Spectre. With her and her crew to the rescue, they would have to fight through the horrors before the creatures picked them all off, one by one.
Year: 2183
Location: SSV Normandy SR-1
“Looks like we’ve got yet another distress signal, Commander. Someone's reaching out from that weird-ass planet below,” Joker said through the intercom.
“Any idea who?” Commander Madison Shepard asked.
“Yeah. ExoGeni. Bet that'll bring up some fun memories, huh?”
Shepard raised an eyebrow. The last few times she encountered ExoGeni, she had to clean up their mess on Feros and Nodacrux. As much as she wanted to sock some ExoGeni goon like Ethan Jeong in the face, she had to face the fact that there could be innocents in danger.
“Yeah,” she deadpanned. “Good times.”
"Want me to patch it through?”
“Do it.”
A beep sounded, followed by some buzzing. It seemed like there was some interference. Whenever ExoGeni did some nefarious research, they tended to cripple their facilities' communications in hopes that it wouldn't leak anything out. Either that or it was caused by the planet's dense atmosphere below.
Eventually, the transmission came through. “...it worked. Hello? Is anyone out there? This is Dr. Layla Harland, head researcher. ExoGeni.” The woman on the other end sounded desperate and out of breath.
The Commander leaned against the railing, her skin basking in the light of the holographic miniature galaxy. “This is Commander Shepard. What's your status?”
Dr. Harland gasped. “Commander Shepard?! The first human Spectre? Oh, thank God! Listen, we need help. Bad. We're barely holding out at the research facility on Acabar. It's a miracle this came through.”
“Are you and your people in a safe location, Dr. Harland?” Shepard asked.
“Yes.” The scientist paused for a seemingly long time. “We’re well-fortified and closed up in the storage at the moment, but I’m not sure how long we’re gonna last.”
“Can you tell me what happened?”
“No. I can’t discuss this,” the scientist answered, softly and somberly. “Not here.”
Shepard scoffed. She knew, somewhat, where this was going. “Let me guess: one of your experiments went wrong, and I have to swoop in to clean up your mess. Is that right?”
“That does seem to be a pattern, yes,” Dr. Harland admitted with a nervous laugh. “I’m sending you the coordinates. I’ll explain as much as I can when you get here. But please…” The panic in her voice was palpable. “Please don’t leave us.”
Another beep ended the transmission.
“Sounds like she’s in a tight spot, Commander.” It was obvious that Joker was not, well, joking. “I can send you in with the Mako and get them outta here. Your call, though.”
Shepard let go of the railing and stood straight, finding herself in deep deliberation.
She was assigned to root out any remaining geth resistance on this side of the galaxy after the geth and the Reaper Sovereign attacked the Citadel. She could let the Alliance take care of whatever was going on that planet, but she had a feeling they wouldn’t do as well as she could.
During her mission to find and stop Saren, Hackett tasked her on several assignments, including shutting down an AI on the Moon. Shepard did delay her mission to shut down Cerberus operations, scanned the keepers on the Citadel for research, and gave advice to a grieving widow and her brother. If she could make the time for those, then she could make the time for that. After all, she couldn’t bring herself to ignore any cry for help.
“We’re going in. Joker, set a course for the Huron system,” Shepard commanded.
“Aye aye, Commander,” said Joker.
Shepard sighed. It was like a heavy burden went off her shoulders. “We’re going to get you out of there,” she mused, fully knowing Dr. Harland couldn’t hear her.
Planet: Acabar
System: Huron
Cluster: Styx Theta
Type: Rock
Orbital Distance: 18.9 AU
Orbital Period: 619 Earth Years
Keplerian Ratio: 0.6
Radius: 5,000 km
Day Length: 8 Earth Hours
Atmospheric Pressure: .7 atm
Surface Temperature: 35° C
Surface Gravity: 0.71 g
Mass: .87 Earth Mass
Satellites: n/a
The Normandy swooped into Acabar’s atmosphere, low enough for the Mako to drop off the frigate’s tail end at a safe height. Midway through its fall, Shepard activated the six-wheeled rover’s thrusters to soften the impact upon landing on a flat, solid surface with a thud.
Inside the rover were three people. Shepard was at the wheel, much to the dismay of her two companions. Not being the best driver in the galaxy would have been an understatement. Of course, Shepard would blame it on the Mako’s clumsiness, especially when it came to mountains and steep hills.
One of the two passengers was Garrus Vakarian, a turian clad in blue-and-black armor with a rounded collar around his neck. His C-Sec training kicked in, prompting him to bring his head between his legs.
“Not again…” Garrus complained quietly.
The other was Liara T’Soni, an asari archaeologist and the daughter of Benezia. Her padded combat suit was a dull dark gray, nearly matching in color as compared to Shepard’s heavier armor save for a red stripe running down her right arm. Liara held onto her seat tightly, her teeth clenched with fear.
“Commander, how far is the facility?” Liara asked. “I’m not looking forward to more of your driving.”
“Normandy’s scanner says it’s about five kilometers to the northwest,” Shepard answered, looking at a nearby monitor. “Which is… past the mountains and the valley.”
“Well, that’ll be fun,” Garrus said sardonically.
Shepard sighed in response as she peered out the window.
It was nighttime outside the Mako, darker than the furthest reaches of space. Not even the nearest star in the system could shine through the planet’s dense atmosphere to soften the barren and jagged landscape with gleaming light. Judging by how the obsidian had formed, they were in the middle of a canyon, near the edge of a cliff.
The path ahead would be a smooth one. Barring incidents, it should lead them directly to the research facility. And with that knowledge, Shepard drove the Mako forward.
No one spoke since then, leaving the Commander alone in her thoughts as she kept her eyes forward. She couldn’t help but wonder: why this planet? Even for ExoGeni, a company specializing in colonization and exploration, this was rather odd. Acabar lacked a breathable atmosphere for most sentient beings, as it had high amounts of carbon dioxide and methane. There were no valuable resources nor were there any indigenous life forms. There was nothing there. This planet was nothing more than a toxic ball of rock.
“Do we know anything else?” Liara asked.
“Just that Dr. Harland needs our help,” Shepard answered. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we had to clean up another one of their messes.”
“Or try to bribe us to sweep their mistakes under the rug,” Garrus added.
“That too,” said Shepard. “Dr. Harland was cagey in the transmission, but it’s clear she’s in a pretty tight spot. I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.”
Garrus nodded, understanding Shepard’s reasoning. “Your call, Shepard. We’ll follow your lead.”
“Appreciate it, Garrus,” Shepard smiled.
The Mako went through a series of twists and turns. Thankfully, it only climbed over small hilltops. Some time had passed, they found a building that stuck out like a sore thumb, surrounded by cliffs and mountains.
At a glance, it resembled every other pre-made hub. At the front, ExoGeni's logo glowed a hollow green arrow going left between two white lines. The facility had multiple buildings, all large and roughly square-shaped with curved corners. Each of them was connected via tubes. A few antennas were planted on the roof. However, one of them snapped in half, the other twisted around like clay. There were a couple of vehicles at the side, and from the dust building up on their hulls, they hadn’t been used in weeks.
“We’re here. That’s the facility,” said Liara.
A chill ran down Shepard’s spine as she spied a dark figure standing on top of a mountain. Were they being watched? And by whom? She barely had time to register what happened before she parked the Mako right next to the facility’s entrance.
They put their helmets on before they stepped out of the Mako. Outside, the storms above greeted them with a loud howl. The Normandy’s scanners warned them of the planet’s weather, but at least they got there before the storm could get worse. On the downside, because of the clouds blanketing the sky, Shepard wouldn’t be able to contact Joker for a pickup. Not for a while, at least.
“What happened here?” Garrus asked. He scanned his surroundings, an anxious look hiding behind his helmet.
“No idea,” Shepard answered. “That’s what we’re here to find out.”
“I got a bad feeling about this,” Liara remarked, sharing Garrus’s anxiety.
“Same,” Garrus replied.
The squad went up to the entrance of the main building, which was the largest one among the three other buildings. There was a red light on the door. Locked, no doubt. Were they trying to keep something in or out?
“Hello? Anybody here?” Shepard called out to an intercom nearby. No answer. Were they too late?
“Garrus?” she asked, turning to the turian.
Garrus nodded. “On it, Shepard.” He activated his omni-tool on his left forearm. Surrounding the orange light were a series of command codes and blinking colorful lights, fighting against the facility’s security system. The former C-Sec officer tapped on each of the lights in a pattern.
After a minute, Garrus cracked the security, and the door’s light turned green. They entered the airlock and waited for the pressure to equalize. The air hissed as a white wall of light swept over the squad. Another minute later and the process finished.
Stepping into another room, they took their helmets off.
It was a narrow hallway, highlighted by the flickering lights above them. Several doors ahead were held shut, each flashing a red light.
The three realized things might get ugly from here on out. What looked like multicolored metal blocks strapped to their backs turned into guns of various shapes as they pulled out their weapons. Because they would be in tight spaces, Garrus opted for an HMWA Advanced assault rifle instead of his usual sniper rifle. Shepard’s HMWSG Master shotgun was also triangular, similar to Garrus’s gun. Liara’s HMWP Master pistol was compact, designed to fit comfortably in the hands of most species.
There was no other option but to move forward.
“Great. Guess we’re walking straight into a horror movie,” Shepard remarked while marching cautiously down the hallway.
“It would be best if we don’t split up,” Liara replied.
“Well, we already did from the Normandy,” Garrus responded with his mandibles twitching slightly.
“Alright, enough chit-chat, smart asses. We have a job to do,” Shepard ordered. She almost stopped herself. It dawned on her this would also apply to her. She chuckled at her hypocrisy.
They moved to a larger area of the building. There was little light there, supported only in momentary flashes by the sparks coming out of exposed wires on the walls and columns. As soon as Shepard turned on her shotgun’s flashlight, the three were met with an unpleasant sight.
Corpses lay strewn about the room. Two of them had multiple holes, making them look like little more than loose pieces of meat. A few others were ripped in half at the waistline, organs trailing from their bodies. One of them lay face down on the floor, next to a series of scientific contraptions. Shepard went over to investigate. She knelt and turned the body around, only to gasp in shock.
Two identical faces mashed together on one head would have been the most accurate description she could think up. Another mouth formed out of the man’s left cheek. A third eye had almost merged with the other, the golden-brown irises almost touching each other. His pale skin was drained of all color, and his dark hair had turned greasy. There was a look of terror on his face. His body looked intact, but his blue-and-white armor told a different story. It looked like his breastplate had cracked open from the inside.
“What the hell happened here?” Shepard could barely contain the anger in her voice.
“By the Goddess!” Liara cried. She almost wanted to vomit. “What…?”
Garrus said nothing, his attention focused on a door opening to their right.
As the door slid open, it showed another dark hallway, and with it, another person stumbled in. At first, they thought it was someone injured, judging by the pained moans and groans. But when they shone their flashlights on said person, it was revealed to be a woman, suffering the same fate as the man on the floor but alive.
Her mouth was too wide, with straps of flesh keeping her jaw together, twisting and turning in unnatural directions. It was a facade of a smile. Her dark eyes had merged into one giant eyeball, bulging out and darting in all directions. Despite the eyeball bleeding profusely and seemingly on the verge of breaking apart, it was somehow intact. Her prominent chin had split in two, and it doesn’t look like it would be stopping anytime soon. Unlike the man on the floor, her armor was intact. Blood came pouring out of her nose like a waterfall.
What sounded like moans and groans before was insane laughter.
“Wh-whom do I hate?!” the disfigured woman asked. “Can’t tell which…”
The eyeball shifted its direction directly at the squad. Liara found herself too shocked to move, let alone bring her pistol up. Shepard prepped her stance, aiming her gun at the disfigured woman.
“Answer me… please…” the woman pleaded. She cried out in pain as she clung to her head with her free left hand. Her elongated left hand. “Splitting.”
What she said happened in a literal sense. Her head split, starting from the top until it reached past her lips. Instead of exposing organs like her brain, it was like two layers of skin had peeled off from one another. Her dark hair dangled at each ‘side.’
“Ah, that’s…” the left half of her head spoke.
“…better,” the right half of her head finished. Both halves smiled, making her already wide mouth even wider. “Now where…
“…were we?”
As the thing raised a pistol in her right hand, Shepard fired from her shotgun. The impact collided as Liara’s body glowed blue, her combat instincts kicking in, and the asari stretched her arm out. A biotic projectile appeared and zipped across, hitting the heavily disfigured thing in the head. The blast and the biotic projectile had sent the thing flying backward into the darkness. The thing screamed, trailing off as it was ended by a sickening yet satisfying splat.
Shepard sighed, relieved that she could let her guard down for a moment. She dropped her shoulders, relaxing her stance as she lowered her gun.
“You two okay?” she asked, turning toward Liara and Garrus.
Liara nodded nervously, her lips trembling while she let out heavy breaths. “Goddess. I have never seen anything like this.”
“You and me both,” Garrus replied. “I would say something’s not right here, but I suppose that… made it clear.”
Shepard nodded and eyed the dead, deformed man on the floor. She fired her shotgun enough times to turn the corpse into bloody Swiss cheese.
Garrus’s mandibles twitched again as he chuckled. “Overkill much, Shepard?”
“I had to be sure. I don’t want any surprises,” Shepard replied.
She looked around the room, only to find two doors: the one they came through and the other the malformed woman opened. With not much else to do, the squad entered through the second door.
It was dark here as well. The only sources of light were the ones emitting from their weapons in their hands. Looking around, they were in a wide, half-sterile and half-ruined hallway with multiple doors on both sides. Some were locked but the rest had been busted, as if caved in from the outside, as far as their flashlights have revealed. As they went further down, Shepard glanced toward a window to a caved-in window to her right. She stopped as she glanced at that window again.
“What the hell?” she muttered in shock.
She thought she saw a man taking her reflection’s place, wearing her armor. His skin was about as pale as her’s, lacking any freckles but sported a five-o’clock shadow. Unlike her shoulder-length red hair, he had a shaved head. When she focused her light on the window, it only revealed her reflection, green eyes staring back at her.
“Did you see something, Shepard?” Garrus asked.
Before Shepard could answer, loud moans and bellows echoed. She looked around, following the source of the noises to a nearby locked door behind her, Garrus, and Liara. It suddenly turned green.
Shepard signaled to the squad. Garrus and Liara went to each end of the door and planted their backs against the wall. Shepard was upfront, bracing the shotgun against her right shoulder. Cold sweat took hold of her as she eyed the green light. It called out to her, telling her to open the door.
She had a feeling that opening the door would lead to trouble.
The door opened, and Shepard flashed her light on two dozen of the deformed people rushing out. Most of them bore similarities to the previous two they encountered. There was one that was as wide as two people managed to keep up with the rest. Worse yet, many of them had guns, even as they were hell-bent on using their hands to tear the squad apart.
The noises never stopped as the constant hail of gunfire rapidly drained their shields.
“Shit!” Shepard grunted as she waved her arm, creating a blue aura surrounding her body to strengthen her shields. She leaped out of the way to escape the gunfire.
Garrus firmly held his position, using his omni-tool to launch a small disk at the hoard. The disk detonated, sending out a green pulse that lingered on most of the malformed things. It should disable whatever power systems those things were still holding.
Despite her troubled state, Liara threw a ball of dark energy at the horde in question. Suspended in the air, it became a singularity, pulling anyone nearby toward it and had them fly around the singularity like strings attached to a ceiling.
Shepard recovered and capitalized on this moment. She fired her shotgun enough times to take out a couple of them. The blasts tore the few apart with nothing to show. Then somehow, the bodies started to regenerate and regrow their missing parts, multiplying in the process. Shepard threw a biotic warp and watched as its subatomic forces pulled that thing’s body apart.
There was little time to act as the singularity disappeared. What remained of the hoard—about a dozen and a half—landed on the floor with a dull thud.
“Fire in the hole!” somebody bellowed out.
Before anyone knew what happened, there was a giant, blinding explosion that covered the whole room. The squad managed to take cover as the blast engulfed the entire hoard. It was only less than a minute before the ringing in Shepard’s ears subsided.
The squad peered into the room and found it to be nothing but a full scorch mark with debris lying about, with the smell of burnt and melted flesh lingering in the air. The framework was still intact, and nothing remained of the deformed horde.
At the far end of the room, on top of a set of stairs, was a man clad in blue-and-white armor from head to toe. His visor only showed his brown eyes.
“You can thank me later, folks,” the man said. “What are you three standing around here for? Get your asses over here, now!”
The squad didn’t waste any time getting up the stairs, doing their best to ignore the foul smell.
“Well, I’ll be damned. Commander Shepard in the flesh,” the man remarked with awe. “Arthur Newton. I’m the new security chief. The last one, Thornton, died, so… yeah.”
“Thanks for the assist,” Shepard replied. “Can you tell me what the hell is going on here?”
Arthur sighed and fell silent for a moment. “To be honest… I have no fucking idea. It feels like everything happened all at once. Hell, with the way things are going, I’m sure glad that you got here in the nick of time.” He let out a small yet dark chuckle. “Bet Harland will be happy to see you.”
“She’s here, then?”
“Yeah. If you want answers on these… Merged, she’ll tell you.”
“Wait, what are the Merged?” Garrus asked, confused.
The security guard shrugged as he faced toward the exit. “The freaky things you just fought.” He squirmed a little as he shook his head. “I have no idea how to explain it to you. A lot of quantum mechanics just flew over my head. I’m just paid to guard things and shoot other things. Explaining the science stuff ain’t my fortee.”
“I believe it’s forte,” Liara corrected him.
“Whatever.”
“Where’s Harland, then? Are there any others with her?” Shepard asked.
“We’re holding out in the armory in the northern facility,” Arthur responded. “There are six of us, me and Dr. Harland included. You coming or what?”
The human Spectre nodded. The three followed the guard as they all left the burnt-out room behind and navigated down a narrow and round corridor. This hallway was much brighter, likely relying on emergency power systems. Shepard’s mind was filled with questions. She couldn't ignore that urge to ask.
“So how did you find us?” Shepard asked. “Security seems to be compromised as it is.”
“The entire facility is on lockdown. No one gets in or out,” Arthur explained, carrying an Avenger assault rifle in his hands. “I had Witt, our tech expert, manually control the doors here. Wasn’t easy, let me tell ya.” He whipped out a cylinder-like, metal object with a button on top. It was the size of his hand. “He also made those thermite grenades. Clears out an entire room. Turns out mass effect fields and burning those things takes them out easily.”
“I noticed when Shepard and I used our biotics,” Liara remarked. “For example, a warp field disintegrated one of those things in an instant.” She rubbed her chin in contemplation. “They’re more… receptive to being knocked about by kinetic forces. If I were to guess, they could be similar to a husk or even a creeper made by the Thorian back on Feros.”
Arthur almost tripped over his feet, like he couldn’t believe what he heard. “The hell’s a Thorian?”
“It’s a long story,” Garrus explained. “Don’t tell me you’re reacting to that.”
“I dunno. Feels like every day is a surprise. Man, ExoGeni never fills me in on this stuff,” the guard complained.
They came to a halt when Arthur stopped in front of a door. Unlike the many other doors Shepard and her friends found in their journey, this one had a speaker next to it. The flat orange screen contrasted heavily with the rest of the light-gray, sterile hallway.
“Please say the passphrase,” the VI requested when Arthur pressed a green button.
Arthur rubbed the back of his neck. “Uh… how does this go again? Twinkle twinkle… little star… how I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky. Twinkle twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are.” He almost broke into song a couple of times.
“Voice matched. That is the correct passphrase.” The VI seemed more chipper after his response.
A beep and the door slid open in the middle as the rest of the squad looked on in disbelief.
“Really?” Shepard asked incredulously.
Arthur shrugged defensively. “Wasn’t my idea. Besides, it doesn’t recognize those Merged’s voices. If you call their moans that.” He stepped inside. Shepard and her squad followed suit.
There were few weapons stacked on the stalls in the armory if they hadn’t been reorganized already. Instead, the armory had made room for other contraptions. Judging by the amount of litter on the floor, discarded datapads on the tables, and used medical accessories laid about, the occupants had been here for a while. The stench of antiseptic was strong here.
Out of the five aside from Arthur, two of them were security personnel. One of them wore similar armor to Arthur’s save for a helmet, showing off her red-brown, rounded face. The other guard only had his undergarments. The pale, bald man groaned in his sleep, thrashing about on a stretcher as the doctor watched him with an omni-tool shaking in his hand.
The doctor was tall and lanky, his skin a tawny yet pale tone. His short, dark-brown hair was greasy with sweat. It was obvious he didn’t get much sleep, going by the dark rings around his beady eyes.
Another man hunched over a terminal on the floor, pale and wide-eyed as if in a permanent state of shock. His cheeks were sunken in, and his black t-shirt and tan cargo pants were too baggy for his current shape.
“Dr. Harland, we got guests here,” Arthur announced. “In fact, we got Shepard herself, in the flesh.”
A woman with bronze skin and dark hair that reached down to her neck turned around. Her green-sleeved uniform signaled to Shepard that she was a scientist, probably the leader of this group. She let out a heavy sigh, her hand resting on her chest. “Oh, thank god! Maybe we’ll have a chance to get out of this after all.”
“You’re Dr. Layla Harland?” Shepard and her squad attached their weapons to their backs, turning them back into blocks.
“Yes, that’s right,” Dr. Harland answered with a small smile. “If you haven’t come here…”
“Not a problem. Looks like all of you have seen better days.”
“That’s a fucking understatement, y’know,” the man on the floor commented, his eyes still glued to the orange screen. “Name’s Witt. Hi there.” He waved his hand lazily.
“Neil, how’s he doin’?” the female guard asked, referring to the man on the stretcher.
The doctor, Neil, tapped a command on the datapad, showing off a picture of a body with a nervous system. “Dave has a bad dream, it looks like. As someone who’s not into Freud, I… don’t think he’s doing well. I’m sorry, Chelsey.”
“What happened here?” Liara asked, looking around.
The scientist sighed. She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Well, this is a lot to explain.”
“We’ve seen a lot of weird things in the galaxy, doctor,” the commander replied.
It took a moment for the scientist to collect her thoughts. “All right. We made Point 37 to find out if this planet was viable for mining resources. Everything went according to plan for a while.”
“Until that damn orb showed up in the western facility weeks ago,” Witt finished, bitter.
Shepard cocked an eyebrow. “What orb? Where did it come from?”
Dr. Harland nodded toward Witt, who popped up a paused video on his terminal. Showing it to Shepard as he stood up, it depicted a transparent orb with a perfectly smooth surface. It crowned over a plain pillar in the middle of a dark room highlighted by spotlights. It gleamed like a star deep in the void. Shepard couldn’t help but find it beautiful.
“Is that Prothean? Is it responsible for these… Merged?” Shepard asked.
“Does it look Prothean to you, lady?” Witt asked incredulously. “It showed up with crazy energy readings! It was, like, way off the charts!”
“So you studied it, then,” said Garrus. “Does it ever occur to you that it should be contained?”
Dr. Harland nodded. “We didn’t take it that seriously. It was just a side project at first. However, a colleague of mine found similar readings coming from the Citadel a year prior.”
“Wait, you said the Citadel? What happened there?” Shepard asked, taken aback.
Harland shrugged. “Other than putting two and two together that it’s connected to this orb, we have no idea. That was when we needed to put our full focus on the orb.”
“When we started to contain it, that’s when everything went straight to hell,” Chelsey explained. “There were dozens of us. Scientists, tech specialists, security, you name it. We’re down to six now.”
“But what the hell happened!?” Shepard demanded.
With that, Witt unpaused the video. It began with two scientists in hazmat suits slowly approaching the orb. As they set up a device nearby, the orb vibrated and lit up the entire area with a bright blue light, which casted great shadows behind them.
The scientists stepped back and exchanged confused looks. Without warning, the light engulfed everything in sight. The sudden brightness lasted for several seconds before dissipating. Next thing anyone knew, the scientists were knocked on the ground, unconsciousness. Several guards and doctors dashed in to recover the scientists.
And that was when one of the affected scientists cried out in pain, violently twitching as her right arm grew an extra hand. Frantic voices filled the audio as the scientists tore a hapless doctor in half like a hot knife through butter. Witt abruptly stopped the video, a pained and panicked expression on his face.
“That was the first of what I called the Merged,” Dr. Harland explained.
“Why call them the Merged?” Shepard asked.
Everyone in the room except for Liara and Garrus stared at Shepard. Dr. Harland let out a deep sigh before speaking. “Are you familiar with the multiverse theory? It’s because they were two alternate selves that merged, hence the name. One alive and one dead, for example.”
Liara’s eyes widened in shock. “Parallel realities? But that’s impossible.”
“Apparently not,” Dr. Harland responded. “Perhaps not every reality follows the laws of physics as ours do. Maybe it came from a dimension of chaos.” She trailed off before a realization dawned on her. “If we could find an orb that wouldn’t spawn these abominations, we could use it to our advantage.”
Shepard dropped her jaw. She couldn’t believe what she just heard. “You’re kidding me. And here I thought you were reasonable.”
“Think about it, Commander. Unlimited energy and resources, instantaneous travel at any point in the universe. What more could anyone ask for?”
Shepard could only step back and glare at every conscious staff member in the room. She was not having it. Not today. “Did IQs just drop sharply before we got here?”
“Pardon me?” Dr. Harland’s voice slowly turned hostile as her eyes narrowed.
“Hey, whoa whoa whoa whoa! Hold on!” Witt shot straight up with his hands in front of him. “Why are you bringing me into this fuckup? What’d I do?”
“You heard me,” Shepard shot back. “Are you willing to back her up on this?”
Witt opened his mouth, but no words came out. Instead, he stuttered for a moment before gathering his thoughts. “Well, yeah. I guess,” he shrugged. “If we could contain that orb or somethin’, I don’t see th’ harm.”
Arthur stomped toward the others, ignoring the protests of Garrus and Liara. “Whatever you’re thinking of, doc, it better be fucking worth the lives of my men!”
A flabbergasted Dr. Harland shot Arthur a look of absolute seriousness. “Of course it will be worth it! The lives lost were unforeseen, I admit. I assure you we’ll be able to prevent more incidents like this with the orb in our hands!”
Neil could only groan, burying his face in his hands. “By all that’s holy, is this the time to argue when our lives are at stake?!”
Chelsey nodded, agreeing with the medical doctor, and stepped back. “Not touching this one with a ten-foot pole.”
Shepard shook her head. She looked directly at the head scientist with hard-edged determination and annoyance. “Dr. Harland, I’m aware your intentions are good. You made that absolutely clear.”
Dr. Harland nodded along. “And?”
Shepard’s voice shook, rising and falling. “If you think that excuses for what happened here, don’t bother. You’re lucky I said I would get you out of here. Otherwise, I would’ve kicked your ass the moment I walked into the room and had you arrested. I mean, you didn’t find it odd that it appeared out of nowhere? The moment you found something was off, you went into studying it without containing it until it was too late. You sure do give science a bad rep.” Harland pouted and folded her arms across her chest before Shepard continued. “Feels great, doesn’t it? Being a mad scientist.”
“Now that’s just—”
“And you’re arguing if this damn thing would make a profit.”
Before the scientist could say another word, Dave twitched and thrashed, this time violently. Blood and spit spewed out of his mouth like a volcano as the monitor connected to his arm nearby began beeping loudly.
“Shit, Dave needs help!” Chelsey cried out. “Got any sedatives left, Neil?”
Neil grunted as he began to pin Dave with one arm and pulled up the restraints with the other. Chelsey rushed in to help the doctor. “No idea! Witt, see if you could find a sedative in a cache somewhere! If not… I think you know what to do.” Witt hesitated for a moment before nodding. He zipped across the room to another door.
However, Dave’s head twitched and turned at an unnatural speed. “Tellmetellmetellmetellmetellme!” he wailed. His voice doesn’t sound human anymore.
Shepard and the others came in, but Dave ripped off the restraints and yanked a yelping, panicking Neil by the neck in one go. His hands had split in two as he snapped Neil’s neck at a sharp angle and tossed the body aside like a ragdoll, crashing into a stall with a sickening splat. With another pair of arms, he swiped Chelsey off her feet. She flew and slammed into the wall, stunning her.
“See me!” the creature formerly known as Dave bellowed out, taking on a feral stance. He zipped a gaping maw of a two-faced head around and gazed at Dr. Harland. This was all before anyone could pull their weapons out.
The scientist couldn’t move, frozen in place as her legs shook. The Dave creature leaped from the stretcher, mere inches away from her before a warp field enveloped his body. A biotic projectile from Liara made it just in time, disintegrating the creature in midair.
Everyone looked at a now glowing Arthur, who balled his hands tightly. He let out a relieved sigh and relaxed his stance, the dark-blue light waning from his body.
The scientist knelt, tears welling up in her eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry…” Her voice broke down into incomprehensible sobs.
The lead security guard couldn’t help but look at her with pity. “Pretty sure you didn’t mean it,” he said before correcting himself. “I hope you didn’t mean it.”
After Chelsey recovered and helped him bring Dr. Harland to a stretcher for her to rest, Arthur turned to Shepard. “How the hell did this happen? I mean, Dave seemed fine one moment, and now he’s…” He shook his head in disbelief. “I dunno. He kinda looked way off compared to the other Merged. What are we gonna do?” The panic in his voice was palpable.
“Guess we’re past time to smash that orb into pieces.” Shepard couldn’t help but smirk at her answer. “We’ll need to split into two teams. Garrus, Liara, you go with Witt to the comm relay. We need to re-establish communications with the Normandy. We’re here on a rescue mission, and that’s what we’re doing.”
“Aye aye, Commander,” Garrus nodded. The asari nodded as well.
“Arthur, you’re with me.”
Witt returned to the group with a yellow, cylinder-shaped flamethrower. It had a can full of napalm latched onto the top. “Hey, I found a Firestorm!” The smile on his face disappeared when he looked at the body of Neil. The body wasn’t a bloody mess. Rather, it was as the body was attached to the wall and floor. His head spun around, nausea overwhelming him. “Oh Allah, be right back.” He ran up to Shepard with the flamethrower before running off with full cheeks.
A minute full of Witt throwing up had passed, and he returned. “Oh, man. I am getting a therapist after this.” The way everyone looked at him gave way to a dawning realization that he was needed for something. Something dangerous, no doubt.
“Well, shit.”
Mass Foundations: Little Star
Chapter One: Worst Case Scenario
Chapter One: Worst Case Scenario
Year: 2183
Location: SSV Normandy SR-1
“Looks like we’ve got yet another distress signal, Commander. Someone's reaching out from that weird-ass planet below,” Joker said through the intercom.
“Any idea who?” Commander Madison Shepard asked.
“Yeah. ExoGeni. Bet that'll bring up some fun memories, huh?”
Shepard raised an eyebrow. The last few times she encountered ExoGeni, she had to clean up their mess on Feros and Nodacrux. As much as she wanted to sock some ExoGeni goon like Ethan Jeong in the face, she had to face the fact that there could be innocents in danger.
“Yeah,” she deadpanned. “Good times.”
"Want me to patch it through?”
“Do it.”
A beep sounded, followed by some buzzing. It seemed like there was some interference. Whenever ExoGeni did some nefarious research, they tended to cripple their facilities' communications in hopes that it wouldn't leak anything out. Either that or it was caused by the planet's dense atmosphere below.
Eventually, the transmission came through. “...it worked. Hello? Is anyone out there? This is Dr. Layla Harland, head researcher. ExoGeni.” The woman on the other end sounded desperate and out of breath.
The Commander leaned against the railing, her skin basking in the light of the holographic miniature galaxy. “This is Commander Shepard. What's your status?”
Dr. Harland gasped. “Commander Shepard?! The first human Spectre? Oh, thank God! Listen, we need help. Bad. We're barely holding out at the research facility on Acabar. It's a miracle this came through.”
“Are you and your people in a safe location, Dr. Harland?” Shepard asked.
“Yes.” The scientist paused for a seemingly long time. “We’re well-fortified and closed up in the storage at the moment, but I’m not sure how long we’re gonna last.”
“Can you tell me what happened?”
“No. I can’t discuss this,” the scientist answered, softly and somberly. “Not here.”
Shepard scoffed. She knew, somewhat, where this was going. “Let me guess: one of your experiments went wrong, and I have to swoop in to clean up your mess. Is that right?”
“That does seem to be a pattern, yes,” Dr. Harland admitted with a nervous laugh. “I’m sending you the coordinates. I’ll explain as much as I can when you get here. But please…” The panic in her voice was palpable. “Please don’t leave us.”
Another beep ended the transmission.
“Sounds like she’s in a tight spot, Commander.” It was obvious that Joker was not, well, joking. “I can send you in with the Mako and get them outta here. Your call, though.”
Shepard let go of the railing and stood straight, finding herself in deep deliberation.
She was assigned to root out any remaining geth resistance on this side of the galaxy after the geth and the Reaper Sovereign attacked the Citadel. She could let the Alliance take care of whatever was going on that planet, but she had a feeling they wouldn’t do as well as she could.
During her mission to find and stop Saren, Hackett tasked her on several assignments, including shutting down an AI on the Moon. Shepard did delay her mission to shut down Cerberus operations, scanned the keepers on the Citadel for research, and gave advice to a grieving widow and her brother. If she could make the time for those, then she could make the time for that. After all, she couldn’t bring herself to ignore any cry for help.
“We’re going in. Joker, set a course for the Huron system,” Shepard commanded.
“Aye aye, Commander,” said Joker.
Shepard sighed. It was like a heavy burden went off her shoulders. “We’re going to get you out of there,” she mused, fully knowing Dr. Harland couldn’t hear her.
Planet: Acabar
System: Huron
Cluster: Styx Theta
Type: Rock
Orbital Distance: 18.9 AU
Orbital Period: 619 Earth Years
Keplerian Ratio: 0.6
Radius: 5,000 km
Day Length: 8 Earth Hours
Atmospheric Pressure: .7 atm
Surface Temperature: 35° C
Surface Gravity: 0.71 g
Mass: .87 Earth Mass
Satellites: n/a
The Normandy swooped into Acabar’s atmosphere, low enough for the Mako to drop off the frigate’s tail end at a safe height. Midway through its fall, Shepard activated the six-wheeled rover’s thrusters to soften the impact upon landing on a flat, solid surface with a thud.
Inside the rover were three people. Shepard was at the wheel, much to the dismay of her two companions. Not being the best driver in the galaxy would have been an understatement. Of course, Shepard would blame it on the Mako’s clumsiness, especially when it came to mountains and steep hills.
One of the two passengers was Garrus Vakarian, a turian clad in blue-and-black armor with a rounded collar around his neck. His C-Sec training kicked in, prompting him to bring his head between his legs.
“Not again…” Garrus complained quietly.
The other was Liara T’Soni, an asari archaeologist and the daughter of Benezia. Her padded combat suit was a dull dark gray, nearly matching in color as compared to Shepard’s heavier armor save for a red stripe running down her right arm. Liara held onto her seat tightly, her teeth clenched with fear.
“Commander, how far is the facility?” Liara asked. “I’m not looking forward to more of your driving.”
“Normandy’s scanner says it’s about five kilometers to the northwest,” Shepard answered, looking at a nearby monitor. “Which is… past the mountains and the valley.”
“Well, that’ll be fun,” Garrus said sardonically.
Shepard sighed in response as she peered out the window.
It was nighttime outside the Mako, darker than the furthest reaches of space. Not even the nearest star in the system could shine through the planet’s dense atmosphere to soften the barren and jagged landscape with gleaming light. Judging by how the obsidian had formed, they were in the middle of a canyon, near the edge of a cliff.
The path ahead would be a smooth one. Barring incidents, it should lead them directly to the research facility. And with that knowledge, Shepard drove the Mako forward.
No one spoke since then, leaving the Commander alone in her thoughts as she kept her eyes forward. She couldn’t help but wonder: why this planet? Even for ExoGeni, a company specializing in colonization and exploration, this was rather odd. Acabar lacked a breathable atmosphere for most sentient beings, as it had high amounts of carbon dioxide and methane. There were no valuable resources nor were there any indigenous life forms. There was nothing there. This planet was nothing more than a toxic ball of rock.
“Do we know anything else?” Liara asked.
“Just that Dr. Harland needs our help,” Shepard answered. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we had to clean up another one of their messes.”
“Or try to bribe us to sweep their mistakes under the rug,” Garrus added.
“That too,” said Shepard. “Dr. Harland was cagey in the transmission, but it’s clear she’s in a pretty tight spot. I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.”
Garrus nodded, understanding Shepard’s reasoning. “Your call, Shepard. We’ll follow your lead.”
“Appreciate it, Garrus,” Shepard smiled.
The Mako went through a series of twists and turns. Thankfully, it only climbed over small hilltops. Some time had passed, they found a building that stuck out like a sore thumb, surrounded by cliffs and mountains.
At a glance, it resembled every other pre-made hub. At the front, ExoGeni's logo glowed a hollow green arrow going left between two white lines. The facility had multiple buildings, all large and roughly square-shaped with curved corners. Each of them was connected via tubes. A few antennas were planted on the roof. However, one of them snapped in half, the other twisted around like clay. There were a couple of vehicles at the side, and from the dust building up on their hulls, they hadn’t been used in weeks.
“We’re here. That’s the facility,” said Liara.
A chill ran down Shepard’s spine as she spied a dark figure standing on top of a mountain. Were they being watched? And by whom? She barely had time to register what happened before she parked the Mako right next to the facility’s entrance.
They put their helmets on before they stepped out of the Mako. Outside, the storms above greeted them with a loud howl. The Normandy’s scanners warned them of the planet’s weather, but at least they got there before the storm could get worse. On the downside, because of the clouds blanketing the sky, Shepard wouldn’t be able to contact Joker for a pickup. Not for a while, at least.
“What happened here?” Garrus asked. He scanned his surroundings, an anxious look hiding behind his helmet.
“No idea,” Shepard answered. “That’s what we’re here to find out.”
“I got a bad feeling about this,” Liara remarked, sharing Garrus’s anxiety.
“Same,” Garrus replied.
The squad went up to the entrance of the main building, which was the largest one among the three other buildings. There was a red light on the door. Locked, no doubt. Were they trying to keep something in or out?
“Hello? Anybody here?” Shepard called out to an intercom nearby. No answer. Were they too late?
“Garrus?” she asked, turning to the turian.
Garrus nodded. “On it, Shepard.” He activated his omni-tool on his left forearm. Surrounding the orange light were a series of command codes and blinking colorful lights, fighting against the facility’s security system. The former C-Sec officer tapped on each of the lights in a pattern.
After a minute, Garrus cracked the security, and the door’s light turned green. They entered the airlock and waited for the pressure to equalize. The air hissed as a white wall of light swept over the squad. Another minute later and the process finished.
Stepping into another room, they took their helmets off.
It was a narrow hallway, highlighted by the flickering lights above them. Several doors ahead were held shut, each flashing a red light.
The three realized things might get ugly from here on out. What looked like multicolored metal blocks strapped to their backs turned into guns of various shapes as they pulled out their weapons. Because they would be in tight spaces, Garrus opted for an HMWA Advanced assault rifle instead of his usual sniper rifle. Shepard’s HMWSG Master shotgun was also triangular, similar to Garrus’s gun. Liara’s HMWP Master pistol was compact, designed to fit comfortably in the hands of most species.
There was no other option but to move forward.
“Great. Guess we’re walking straight into a horror movie,” Shepard remarked while marching cautiously down the hallway.
“It would be best if we don’t split up,” Liara replied.
“Well, we already did from the Normandy,” Garrus responded with his mandibles twitching slightly.
“Alright, enough chit-chat, smart asses. We have a job to do,” Shepard ordered. She almost stopped herself. It dawned on her this would also apply to her. She chuckled at her hypocrisy.
They moved to a larger area of the building. There was little light there, supported only in momentary flashes by the sparks coming out of exposed wires on the walls and columns. As soon as Shepard turned on her shotgun’s flashlight, the three were met with an unpleasant sight.
Corpses lay strewn about the room. Two of them had multiple holes, making them look like little more than loose pieces of meat. A few others were ripped in half at the waistline, organs trailing from their bodies. One of them lay face down on the floor, next to a series of scientific contraptions. Shepard went over to investigate. She knelt and turned the body around, only to gasp in shock.
Two identical faces mashed together on one head would have been the most accurate description she could think up. Another mouth formed out of the man’s left cheek. A third eye had almost merged with the other, the golden-brown irises almost touching each other. His pale skin was drained of all color, and his dark hair had turned greasy. There was a look of terror on his face. His body looked intact, but his blue-and-white armor told a different story. It looked like his breastplate had cracked open from the inside.
“What the hell happened here?” Shepard could barely contain the anger in her voice.
“By the Goddess!” Liara cried. She almost wanted to vomit. “What…?”
Garrus said nothing, his attention focused on a door opening to their right.
As the door slid open, it showed another dark hallway, and with it, another person stumbled in. At first, they thought it was someone injured, judging by the pained moans and groans. But when they shone their flashlights on said person, it was revealed to be a woman, suffering the same fate as the man on the floor but alive.
Her mouth was too wide, with straps of flesh keeping her jaw together, twisting and turning in unnatural directions. It was a facade of a smile. Her dark eyes had merged into one giant eyeball, bulging out and darting in all directions. Despite the eyeball bleeding profusely and seemingly on the verge of breaking apart, it was somehow intact. Her prominent chin had split in two, and it doesn’t look like it would be stopping anytime soon. Unlike the man on the floor, her armor was intact. Blood came pouring out of her nose like a waterfall.
What sounded like moans and groans before was insane laughter.
“Wh-whom do I hate?!” the disfigured woman asked. “Can’t tell which…”
The eyeball shifted its direction directly at the squad. Liara found herself too shocked to move, let alone bring her pistol up. Shepard prepped her stance, aiming her gun at the disfigured woman.
“Answer me… please…” the woman pleaded. She cried out in pain as she clung to her head with her free left hand. Her elongated left hand. “Splitting.”
What she said happened in a literal sense. Her head split, starting from the top until it reached past her lips. Instead of exposing organs like her brain, it was like two layers of skin had peeled off from one another. Her dark hair dangled at each ‘side.’
“Ah, that’s…” the left half of her head spoke.
“…better,” the right half of her head finished. Both halves smiled, making her already wide mouth even wider. “Now where…
“…were we?”
As the thing raised a pistol in her right hand, Shepard fired from her shotgun. The impact collided as Liara’s body glowed blue, her combat instincts kicking in, and the asari stretched her arm out. A biotic projectile appeared and zipped across, hitting the heavily disfigured thing in the head. The blast and the biotic projectile had sent the thing flying backward into the darkness. The thing screamed, trailing off as it was ended by a sickening yet satisfying splat.
Shepard sighed, relieved that she could let her guard down for a moment. She dropped her shoulders, relaxing her stance as she lowered her gun.
“You two okay?” she asked, turning toward Liara and Garrus.
Liara nodded nervously, her lips trembling while she let out heavy breaths. “Goddess. I have never seen anything like this.”
“You and me both,” Garrus replied. “I would say something’s not right here, but I suppose that… made it clear.”
Shepard nodded and eyed the dead, deformed man on the floor. She fired her shotgun enough times to turn the corpse into bloody Swiss cheese.
Garrus’s mandibles twitched again as he chuckled. “Overkill much, Shepard?”
“I had to be sure. I don’t want any surprises,” Shepard replied.
She looked around the room, only to find two doors: the one they came through and the other the malformed woman opened. With not much else to do, the squad entered through the second door.
It was dark here as well. The only sources of light were the ones emitting from their weapons in their hands. Looking around, they were in a wide, half-sterile and half-ruined hallway with multiple doors on both sides. Some were locked but the rest had been busted, as if caved in from the outside, as far as their flashlights have revealed. As they went further down, Shepard glanced toward a window to a caved-in window to her right. She stopped as she glanced at that window again.
“What the hell?” she muttered in shock.
She thought she saw a man taking her reflection’s place, wearing her armor. His skin was about as pale as her’s, lacking any freckles but sported a five-o’clock shadow. Unlike her shoulder-length red hair, he had a shaved head. When she focused her light on the window, it only revealed her reflection, green eyes staring back at her.
“Did you see something, Shepard?” Garrus asked.
Before Shepard could answer, loud moans and bellows echoed. She looked around, following the source of the noises to a nearby locked door behind her, Garrus, and Liara. It suddenly turned green.
Shepard signaled to the squad. Garrus and Liara went to each end of the door and planted their backs against the wall. Shepard was upfront, bracing the shotgun against her right shoulder. Cold sweat took hold of her as she eyed the green light. It called out to her, telling her to open the door.
She had a feeling that opening the door would lead to trouble.
The door opened, and Shepard flashed her light on two dozen of the deformed people rushing out. Most of them bore similarities to the previous two they encountered. There was one that was as wide as two people managed to keep up with the rest. Worse yet, many of them had guns, even as they were hell-bent on using their hands to tear the squad apart.
The noises never stopped as the constant hail of gunfire rapidly drained their shields.
“Shit!” Shepard grunted as she waved her arm, creating a blue aura surrounding her body to strengthen her shields. She leaped out of the way to escape the gunfire.
Garrus firmly held his position, using his omni-tool to launch a small disk at the hoard. The disk detonated, sending out a green pulse that lingered on most of the malformed things. It should disable whatever power systems those things were still holding.
Despite her troubled state, Liara threw a ball of dark energy at the horde in question. Suspended in the air, it became a singularity, pulling anyone nearby toward it and had them fly around the singularity like strings attached to a ceiling.
Shepard recovered and capitalized on this moment. She fired her shotgun enough times to take out a couple of them. The blasts tore the few apart with nothing to show. Then somehow, the bodies started to regenerate and regrow their missing parts, multiplying in the process. Shepard threw a biotic warp and watched as its subatomic forces pulled that thing’s body apart.
There was little time to act as the singularity disappeared. What remained of the hoard—about a dozen and a half—landed on the floor with a dull thud.
“Fire in the hole!” somebody bellowed out.
Before anyone knew what happened, there was a giant, blinding explosion that covered the whole room. The squad managed to take cover as the blast engulfed the entire hoard. It was only less than a minute before the ringing in Shepard’s ears subsided.
The squad peered into the room and found it to be nothing but a full scorch mark with debris lying about, with the smell of burnt and melted flesh lingering in the air. The framework was still intact, and nothing remained of the deformed horde.
At the far end of the room, on top of a set of stairs, was a man clad in blue-and-white armor from head to toe. His visor only showed his brown eyes.
“You can thank me later, folks,” the man said. “What are you three standing around here for? Get your asses over here, now!”
The squad didn’t waste any time getting up the stairs, doing their best to ignore the foul smell.
“Well, I’ll be damned. Commander Shepard in the flesh,” the man remarked with awe. “Arthur Newton. I’m the new security chief. The last one, Thornton, died, so… yeah.”
“Thanks for the assist,” Shepard replied. “Can you tell me what the hell is going on here?”
Arthur sighed and fell silent for a moment. “To be honest… I have no fucking idea. It feels like everything happened all at once. Hell, with the way things are going, I’m sure glad that you got here in the nick of time.” He let out a small yet dark chuckle. “Bet Harland will be happy to see you.”
“She’s here, then?”
“Yeah. If you want answers on these… Merged, she’ll tell you.”
“Wait, what are the Merged?” Garrus asked, confused.
The security guard shrugged as he faced toward the exit. “The freaky things you just fought.” He squirmed a little as he shook his head. “I have no idea how to explain it to you. A lot of quantum mechanics just flew over my head. I’m just paid to guard things and shoot other things. Explaining the science stuff ain’t my fortee.”
“I believe it’s forte,” Liara corrected him.
“Whatever.”
“Where’s Harland, then? Are there any others with her?” Shepard asked.
“We’re holding out in the armory in the northern facility,” Arthur responded. “There are six of us, me and Dr. Harland included. You coming or what?”
The human Spectre nodded. The three followed the guard as they all left the burnt-out room behind and navigated down a narrow and round corridor. This hallway was much brighter, likely relying on emergency power systems. Shepard’s mind was filled with questions. She couldn't ignore that urge to ask.
“So how did you find us?” Shepard asked. “Security seems to be compromised as it is.”
“The entire facility is on lockdown. No one gets in or out,” Arthur explained, carrying an Avenger assault rifle in his hands. “I had Witt, our tech expert, manually control the doors here. Wasn’t easy, let me tell ya.” He whipped out a cylinder-like, metal object with a button on top. It was the size of his hand. “He also made those thermite grenades. Clears out an entire room. Turns out mass effect fields and burning those things takes them out easily.”
“I noticed when Shepard and I used our biotics,” Liara remarked. “For example, a warp field disintegrated one of those things in an instant.” She rubbed her chin in contemplation. “They’re more… receptive to being knocked about by kinetic forces. If I were to guess, they could be similar to a husk or even a creeper made by the Thorian back on Feros.”
Arthur almost tripped over his feet, like he couldn’t believe what he heard. “The hell’s a Thorian?”
“It’s a long story,” Garrus explained. “Don’t tell me you’re reacting to that.”
“I dunno. Feels like every day is a surprise. Man, ExoGeni never fills me in on this stuff,” the guard complained.
They came to a halt when Arthur stopped in front of a door. Unlike the many other doors Shepard and her friends found in their journey, this one had a speaker next to it. The flat orange screen contrasted heavily with the rest of the light-gray, sterile hallway.
“Please say the passphrase,” the VI requested when Arthur pressed a green button.
Arthur rubbed the back of his neck. “Uh… how does this go again? Twinkle twinkle… little star… how I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky. Twinkle twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are.” He almost broke into song a couple of times.
“Voice matched. That is the correct passphrase.” The VI seemed more chipper after his response.
A beep and the door slid open in the middle as the rest of the squad looked on in disbelief.
“Really?” Shepard asked incredulously.
Arthur shrugged defensively. “Wasn’t my idea. Besides, it doesn’t recognize those Merged’s voices. If you call their moans that.” He stepped inside. Shepard and her squad followed suit.
There were few weapons stacked on the stalls in the armory if they hadn’t been reorganized already. Instead, the armory had made room for other contraptions. Judging by the amount of litter on the floor, discarded datapads on the tables, and used medical accessories laid about, the occupants had been here for a while. The stench of antiseptic was strong here.
Out of the five aside from Arthur, two of them were security personnel. One of them wore similar armor to Arthur’s save for a helmet, showing off her red-brown, rounded face. The other guard only had his undergarments. The pale, bald man groaned in his sleep, thrashing about on a stretcher as the doctor watched him with an omni-tool shaking in his hand.
The doctor was tall and lanky, his skin a tawny yet pale tone. His short, dark-brown hair was greasy with sweat. It was obvious he didn’t get much sleep, going by the dark rings around his beady eyes.
Another man hunched over a terminal on the floor, pale and wide-eyed as if in a permanent state of shock. His cheeks were sunken in, and his black t-shirt and tan cargo pants were too baggy for his current shape.
“Dr. Harland, we got guests here,” Arthur announced. “In fact, we got Shepard herself, in the flesh.”
A woman with bronze skin and dark hair that reached down to her neck turned around. Her green-sleeved uniform signaled to Shepard that she was a scientist, probably the leader of this group. She let out a heavy sigh, her hand resting on her chest. “Oh, thank god! Maybe we’ll have a chance to get out of this after all.”
“You’re Dr. Layla Harland?” Shepard and her squad attached their weapons to their backs, turning them back into blocks.
“Yes, that’s right,” Dr. Harland answered with a small smile. “If you haven’t come here…”
“Not a problem. Looks like all of you have seen better days.”
“That’s a fucking understatement, y’know,” the man on the floor commented, his eyes still glued to the orange screen. “Name’s Witt. Hi there.” He waved his hand lazily.
“Neil, how’s he doin’?” the female guard asked, referring to the man on the stretcher.
The doctor, Neil, tapped a command on the datapad, showing off a picture of a body with a nervous system. “Dave has a bad dream, it looks like. As someone who’s not into Freud, I… don’t think he’s doing well. I’m sorry, Chelsey.”
“What happened here?” Liara asked, looking around.
The scientist sighed. She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Well, this is a lot to explain.”
“We’ve seen a lot of weird things in the galaxy, doctor,” the commander replied.
It took a moment for the scientist to collect her thoughts. “All right. We made Point 37 to find out if this planet was viable for mining resources. Everything went according to plan for a while.”
“Until that damn orb showed up in the western facility weeks ago,” Witt finished, bitter.
Shepard cocked an eyebrow. “What orb? Where did it come from?”
Dr. Harland nodded toward Witt, who popped up a paused video on his terminal. Showing it to Shepard as he stood up, it depicted a transparent orb with a perfectly smooth surface. It crowned over a plain pillar in the middle of a dark room highlighted by spotlights. It gleamed like a star deep in the void. Shepard couldn’t help but find it beautiful.
“Is that Prothean? Is it responsible for these… Merged?” Shepard asked.
“Does it look Prothean to you, lady?” Witt asked incredulously. “It showed up with crazy energy readings! It was, like, way off the charts!”
“So you studied it, then,” said Garrus. “Does it ever occur to you that it should be contained?”
Dr. Harland nodded. “We didn’t take it that seriously. It was just a side project at first. However, a colleague of mine found similar readings coming from the Citadel a year prior.”
“Wait, you said the Citadel? What happened there?” Shepard asked, taken aback.
Harland shrugged. “Other than putting two and two together that it’s connected to this orb, we have no idea. That was when we needed to put our full focus on the orb.”
“When we started to contain it, that’s when everything went straight to hell,” Chelsey explained. “There were dozens of us. Scientists, tech specialists, security, you name it. We’re down to six now.”
“But what the hell happened!?” Shepard demanded.
With that, Witt unpaused the video. It began with two scientists in hazmat suits slowly approaching the orb. As they set up a device nearby, the orb vibrated and lit up the entire area with a bright blue light, which casted great shadows behind them.
The scientists stepped back and exchanged confused looks. Without warning, the light engulfed everything in sight. The sudden brightness lasted for several seconds before dissipating. Next thing anyone knew, the scientists were knocked on the ground, unconsciousness. Several guards and doctors dashed in to recover the scientists.
And that was when one of the affected scientists cried out in pain, violently twitching as her right arm grew an extra hand. Frantic voices filled the audio as the scientists tore a hapless doctor in half like a hot knife through butter. Witt abruptly stopped the video, a pained and panicked expression on his face.
“That was the first of what I called the Merged,” Dr. Harland explained.
“Why call them the Merged?” Shepard asked.
Everyone in the room except for Liara and Garrus stared at Shepard. Dr. Harland let out a deep sigh before speaking. “Are you familiar with the multiverse theory? It’s because they were two alternate selves that merged, hence the name. One alive and one dead, for example.”
Liara’s eyes widened in shock. “Parallel realities? But that’s impossible.”
“Apparently not,” Dr. Harland responded. “Perhaps not every reality follows the laws of physics as ours do. Maybe it came from a dimension of chaos.” She trailed off before a realization dawned on her. “If we could find an orb that wouldn’t spawn these abominations, we could use it to our advantage.”
Shepard dropped her jaw. She couldn’t believe what she just heard. “You’re kidding me. And here I thought you were reasonable.”
“Think about it, Commander. Unlimited energy and resources, instantaneous travel at any point in the universe. What more could anyone ask for?”
Shepard could only step back and glare at every conscious staff member in the room. She was not having it. Not today. “Did IQs just drop sharply before we got here?”
“Pardon me?” Dr. Harland’s voice slowly turned hostile as her eyes narrowed.
“Hey, whoa whoa whoa whoa! Hold on!” Witt shot straight up with his hands in front of him. “Why are you bringing me into this fuckup? What’d I do?”
“You heard me,” Shepard shot back. “Are you willing to back her up on this?”
Witt opened his mouth, but no words came out. Instead, he stuttered for a moment before gathering his thoughts. “Well, yeah. I guess,” he shrugged. “If we could contain that orb or somethin’, I don’t see th’ harm.”
Arthur stomped toward the others, ignoring the protests of Garrus and Liara. “Whatever you’re thinking of, doc, it better be fucking worth the lives of my men!”
A flabbergasted Dr. Harland shot Arthur a look of absolute seriousness. “Of course it will be worth it! The lives lost were unforeseen, I admit. I assure you we’ll be able to prevent more incidents like this with the orb in our hands!”
Neil could only groan, burying his face in his hands. “By all that’s holy, is this the time to argue when our lives are at stake?!”
Chelsey nodded, agreeing with the medical doctor, and stepped back. “Not touching this one with a ten-foot pole.”
Shepard shook her head. She looked directly at the head scientist with hard-edged determination and annoyance. “Dr. Harland, I’m aware your intentions are good. You made that absolutely clear.”
Dr. Harland nodded along. “And?”
Shepard’s voice shook, rising and falling. “If you think that excuses for what happened here, don’t bother. You’re lucky I said I would get you out of here. Otherwise, I would’ve kicked your ass the moment I walked into the room and had you arrested. I mean, you didn’t find it odd that it appeared out of nowhere? The moment you found something was off, you went into studying it without containing it until it was too late. You sure do give science a bad rep.” Harland pouted and folded her arms across her chest before Shepard continued. “Feels great, doesn’t it? Being a mad scientist.”
“Now that’s just—”
“And you’re arguing if this damn thing would make a profit.”
Before the scientist could say another word, Dave twitched and thrashed, this time violently. Blood and spit spewed out of his mouth like a volcano as the monitor connected to his arm nearby began beeping loudly.
“Shit, Dave needs help!” Chelsey cried out. “Got any sedatives left, Neil?”
Neil grunted as he began to pin Dave with one arm and pulled up the restraints with the other. Chelsey rushed in to help the doctor. “No idea! Witt, see if you could find a sedative in a cache somewhere! If not… I think you know what to do.” Witt hesitated for a moment before nodding. He zipped across the room to another door.
However, Dave’s head twitched and turned at an unnatural speed. “Tellmetellmetellmetellmetellme!” he wailed. His voice doesn’t sound human anymore.
Shepard and the others came in, but Dave ripped off the restraints and yanked a yelping, panicking Neil by the neck in one go. His hands had split in two as he snapped Neil’s neck at a sharp angle and tossed the body aside like a ragdoll, crashing into a stall with a sickening splat. With another pair of arms, he swiped Chelsey off her feet. She flew and slammed into the wall, stunning her.
“See me!” the creature formerly known as Dave bellowed out, taking on a feral stance. He zipped a gaping maw of a two-faced head around and gazed at Dr. Harland. This was all before anyone could pull their weapons out.
The scientist couldn’t move, frozen in place as her legs shook. The Dave creature leaped from the stretcher, mere inches away from her before a warp field enveloped his body. A biotic projectile from Liara made it just in time, disintegrating the creature in midair.
Everyone looked at a now glowing Arthur, who balled his hands tightly. He let out a relieved sigh and relaxed his stance, the dark-blue light waning from his body.
The scientist knelt, tears welling up in her eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry…” Her voice broke down into incomprehensible sobs.
The lead security guard couldn’t help but look at her with pity. “Pretty sure you didn’t mean it,” he said before correcting himself. “I hope you didn’t mean it.”
After Chelsey recovered and helped him bring Dr. Harland to a stretcher for her to rest, Arthur turned to Shepard. “How the hell did this happen? I mean, Dave seemed fine one moment, and now he’s…” He shook his head in disbelief. “I dunno. He kinda looked way off compared to the other Merged. What are we gonna do?” The panic in his voice was palpable.
“Guess we’re past time to smash that orb into pieces.” Shepard couldn’t help but smirk at her answer. “We’ll need to split into two teams. Garrus, Liara, you go with Witt to the comm relay. We need to re-establish communications with the Normandy. We’re here on a rescue mission, and that’s what we’re doing.”
“Aye aye, Commander,” Garrus nodded. The asari nodded as well.
“Arthur, you’re with me.”
Witt returned to the group with a yellow, cylinder-shaped flamethrower. It had a can full of napalm latched onto the top. “Hey, I found a Firestorm!” The smile on his face disappeared when he looked at the body of Neil. The body wasn’t a bloody mess. Rather, it was as the body was attached to the wall and floor. His head spun around, nausea overwhelming him. “Oh Allah, be right back.” He ran up to Shepard with the flamethrower before running off with full cheeks.
A minute full of Witt throwing up had passed, and he returned. “Oh, man. I am getting a therapist after this.” The way everyone looked at him gave way to a dawning realization that he was needed for something. Something dangerous, no doubt.
“Well, shit.”