"The colony gates are closed."
Chifuyu Orimura stopped the Mako right in front of the gates, which showed no intention of opening when the required code was transmitted to them.
"Is the code being accepted?"
"Yes, but they aren't opening..."
She answered Tali's question.
"I'll hack it now... hm..."
She clearly activated her Omni-tool, though I couldn't see it, followed by long minutes of waiting.
"So, they physically disconnected the power to the mechanism responsible for opening the gates. So we can't get inside just like that."
"And what are we supposed to do? I don't really want to blow up the colony gates, because we'll leave, and civilians will stay here and need to ensure their own safety somehow."
Jane was clearly unhappy with the situation, as was I. However, I had a different opinion on the situation.
"Blow them up."
"But..."
"Jane, you understand that the longer the colonists stay in the state Joker reported, the worse the consequences might be for them."
"Tch... blow them up then."
Jane had no choice but to agree that it was better to blow up the gates. And after she gave the order, Chifuyu left the Mako and began laying explosives, and ten minutes later—during which Tali was still trying to hack the gates and do at least something—we drove away from the gates, then pressed the red button.
The explosion, coupled with the Pull I used on the gates, caused them to collapse outward, so not a single resident of the colony waiting for us inside the large garage was hurt. And these colonists immediately opened fire on us with quite lethal weapons.
"Tch... fire!"
A short command and we opened fire on the colonists—well, "fire" meant we pelted them with sleep gas grenades, and laid a couple out in hand-to-hand combat, but it required absolutely no effort, as the colonists, though acting excessively in sync, gained no advantage against professional soldiers.
However, these weren't all the enemies waiting for us, as many colonists remained in its center, and this wasn't a game where only about twenty people made up the whole colony; no, there were a lot of them here.
"Captain..."
Rebecca Lee contacted me just as we were thinking of going in hand-to-hand.
"You're a bit poorly timed..."
"Yes, I'm just about the locals. Dr. Chakwas created a lot of sleeping gas from her reagents. We can leave the ship and help you."
"Act on command..."
Jane oriented herself a couple of seconds faster than me.
"...we'll attract as many colonists as possible, let them gather in one or two places, and then you pelt them with sleeping gas grenades or whatever you have there..."
"Waiting for the order."
Rebecca stayed on the line with us, and Jane was already quickly scanning the terrain.
"That's a good place to hunker down..."
I pointed to one of the spots Jane immediately looked at.
"...it'll feel like if they swarm us from three sides, they can overwhelm us with numbers."
"Hm... Let's do it."
My plan was approved, and our whole group moved to one of the residential modules, in front of which we hunkered down, and the colonists indeed began to converge on us. And this was great, as it meant our plan was working. And working more than well.
"Move out in three minutes."
Jane gave the order, and we continued to hold the defense. More precisely, Liara and I held the defense, as if showing that we didn't want to harm the colonists. And so they went on the assault, banging their heads against the barriers, but could do nothing. There were a lot of them, of course, and perhaps after a day of such pressure, they could have broken through to us, or finally started shooting at the barrier with weapons again, but... they didn't. They stopped shooting back entirely from the moment we stopped shooting at them.
"Grenades!"
Rebecca's voice sounded only for us, as she used internal comms to warn us of her actions, and soon sleeping gas grenades began exploding around us. Not just grenades, though; beakers were also flying into the crowd, smashing against the ground, after which clouds of gas rose up.
Less than five minutes passed before the crowd, which hadn't even had time to react to the new circumstances, fell into a slumber.
"You're just in time..."
"It's all thanks to Karin..."
Rebecca said this with clear embarrassment.
"...she was very worried when the ship started being attacked that you wouldn't have enough gas to put everyone to sleep, so she got busy. And we did our best..."
"I'll give Karin special thanks, and also replenish the supply of drugs and various vials you used."
"She'll be glad."
Urdnot Wrex was clearly grinning mockingly as he said this.
"Alright, Tali, find me exactly where the way down is here..."
"Of course."
The girl nodded and immediately launched into extremely frantic activity, which led to a result three hours later. A passage was found, as well as a method to open it—and no, you didn't have to lift a residential module with a crane; you just had to enter a special code in one of the modules that had been turned into a warehouse, after which its floor opened and a ladder leading down appeared.
"So?"
"Everyone checked their weapons?"
"Yes, sir!"
They answered me almost in unison.
"Excellent, but don't engage first."
"Yes, sir!"
One flight, second, third... in the end, we descended almost ten meters underground until we were in more spacious, clearly man-made caves that had a network of extremely branching tunnels. However, we didn't have to wander, as there were already signs in human language here. So we just followed these signs and very soon came out to a very large chasm in the ground, where about ten meters below, a huge plant could be seen hanging in the air on massive roots that branched out in an extensive network.
"Goddammit... and they were experimenting on this?"
Jane said this in a slightly shocked voice.
"Most likely, they were allowed to think so. I highly doubt such a creature even felt it when a piece was cut off from it, even if that piece was the size of a human head."
Liara T'Soni shook her head.
"And it seems to me that this isn't even the main part of this creature..."
"I think so too."
I nodded in agreement.
"Keep moving."
Jane cut off our conversation, which only made me smirk, after which we followed lower and lower until we finally were at a level where some kind of cocoons were spread along the walls.
One cocoon slowly exhaled—or so it might have seemed, but in fact, some gas just came out of it, after which it opened and a green Asari stepped out.
"I will speak on behalf of the Old Root."
"Alright, let's talk."
"Old Root wants to know, why have you come?"
"We came to stop the one who came before."
"Old Root understands. You speak of the avian-faced one who called himself Saren Arterius. He was respectful and left gifts, which Old Root gladly accepted. Have you brought gifts too? There are fewer of them than the avian-faced one had."
I took a slow breath.
"I haven't brought gifts, as it seems to me Old Root itself is interested in the avian-faced one losing."
"It seems to you... Old Root is interested in neither your nor his success; it is interested only in its own survival. No more, no less."
"All the more strange, since Old Root is so interested in survival, that it made contact with Saren Arterius. After all, he serves those who once destroyed the Protheans."
"Old Root survived the Protheans; it will survive the current short-lived ones as well."
"Old Root, allow me to ask a question?"
My voice was calm, though I was starting to realize that we would most likely have to kill this sentient being. At least this part of it. And perhaps move the people to a separate station and subject the planet to exterminatus.
"Ask."
"Tell me, in past cycles, did you communicate with representatives of those who are supposed to destroy sentient life?"
"No... I did not. And if you think Old Root will be killed now, you are mistaken. Old Root will not die; it will simply fall asleep."
"I see... And do you know that the Protheans had a real empire?"
"Old Root does not understand why you ask these questions. Old Root contacted those you call Protheans. And it, of course, knows they had an empire."
"And does Old Root know what remains of that empire?"
"That never interested Old Root."
"Well, then I'll tell you, though you could have learned this from the memory of those sacrificed to you. So, almost nothing remains of the Prothean empire. From a huge empire, a few ruins, a few warnings remain, and that's it..."
"Old Root understands what you are getting at, but it does not think anything threatens it."
"Oh, without a doubt, I don't doubt that a creature that has lived so long can be so stupid as to demonstrate to us what it cannot survive without. I'm sure that if this... whatever it is, is destroyed, you will continue to live in the depths of the planet, and if I, a miserable short-lived sentient, understand this, then those who were able to scrub the entire Prothean empire of almost any mention of it will understand it too."
The Asari closed her eyes.
"Before, your advantage was that they didn't know about you. That's why they didn't set a goal to find and destroy you. However, now... now they know about you and will destroy you, even if they have to burn the entire planet, leaving one lifeless piece of who-knows-what. And I highly doubt you'll survive in that case."
"Old Root does not believe your words... Saren Arterius's gifts are sure their actions save their race; they are sure their actions will preserve their species. Old Root is one; it will not be destroyed, as it helped. It can be useful in future cycles, so..."
"So... you've made your choice?"
Instead of an answer, the girl glowed with biotics, while air began to be released from the other cocoons as well.
"You are in the way, therefore you must be destroyed!"
"Protect me... I'll need a little time to destroy this... whatever it is."
A biotic shield immediately appeared around us after my words, while the other team members opened fire on the Asari, who, ignoring their own protection, threw themselves into a frontal attack. And the fact that they didn't protect themselves was understandable and logical for the root, as they were just material; besides, they clearly became more resilient than they were before becoming part of it. However, they were still too fragile. And Jane's large-caliber guns, as well as support from Chifuyu and Tali, dealt with these... nuisances.
A few minutes passed, and I sharply threw my hand toward this thing, and a very compressed Singularity tore from it, opening exactly over the top point of this thing, while another barrier covered us.
"A-a-a-a-a-a-a!"
A synchronized howl from the Asari who were still alive was the response to my actions. They grabbed their heads and fell to their knees, while meanwhile, the Singularity began to pull in this thing, as well as the bodies that were already just lying on the ground. Those Asari who were relatively intact slid on their knees toward the Singularity.
However, barriers began to appear around many of them, created by Liara. Yes, they were significantly weaker than the barrier I had covered us with; yes, they were even weaker than ordinary barriers, all because she had to apply many barriers at a distance from each other.
"S-s-s-s-s-s-s-serb!"
With exactly that sound, the Singularity swallowed this crap, after which I directed a biotic technique into it that destabilized it, causing an explosion. And while we still remained in our places, those Asari Liara was protecting were still affected by this explosion, as the barriers simply couldn't withstand it. They had barely withstood the effect of the Singularity, and after such a sharp change in the type of impact, they simply couldn't stand.
"And what do we do now?"
Jane looked at me.
"What do we do?"
I watched as some of the green Asari simply fell unconscious to the floor, while others slowly rose and with sh...
out of the box, they began to look around.
"We just have to keep working."
"But the information... we need to understand what this Conduit is... what exactly Saren is looking for..."
"I... can help you with that..."
Holding her temples, a green Asari, the one closest to us, addressed us.
***
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