“So he couldn’t just leave it the fuck alone?” Shepard cursed as she went over the last transmission from the Illusive Man.

“Shepard?”

“Apparently Timmy thought we were taking too long recovering from his ‘calculated risk’ with the Collectors. He sent a science team after the Reaper derelict and now they’ve lost contact.”

That got several looks from the crew members blatantly not doing their jobs to listen in on her and Miranda’s conversation.

“We were already on route. Why would he send another team in?” Her XO questioned.

“Because this isn’t recent.” Shepard replied. “He sent the team in when they found the thing, but only recently did they stop reporting back. And now we’re racing the clock.”

“What do you mean?”

“We assume that the Reaper is dead because it hasn’t been repaired. But it clearly still has some power based on the reports. If the systems responsible for Indoctrination are still active…”

“Then the entire science crew might have been compromised.” Miranda nodded as understanding dawned.

“And Cerberus just handed the wreck a potential workforce to start getting itself repaired.” Shepard added gravely.

“You think the Reaper is still alive?”

The Commander shrugged. “Dunno about that, but I do know I’m not going to take any chances. We’re two days out from our destination, how’s everyone looking?”

Miranda consulted a datapad. “Mostly fully recovered. Only Grunt is displaying lingering signs of injury, although he is getting increasingly irritable. He chased off one of the techs nearby last night.”

“Yeah, I know.” Shepard groaned. “I talked to him after but we have no idea what’s causing it. I even set Mordin on him but there is no sign of what is suddenly causing the issue. If it keeps up or gets to the point he starts ignoring orders, I’m going to have to pull him off missions.”

“Dr. Solus had no idea what’s wrong?”

“He has five different theories about what it could be.” She admitted. “But we might need to find an actual Krogan doctor to be sure. Mordin isn’t exactly a GP.”

“I’ll make a note to expect us heading to the Aralakh System after this mission then.”

Shepard smiled at her 2IC. “Took the words right out of my mouth. Thanks Miranda.”

-o-

Shepard was used to being tossed around while landing in a Kodiak. She was used to being thrown around while driving a Mako. Hell she was even used to the occasional rocking on a planetary transport.

She was decidedly less used to something the size of the Normandy shaking her around like a loose rock in someone’s boot during basic. But that was what happened when dealing with five hundred KPH winds, or at least that was Joker’s answer to her whining about the choppiness of the ride.

Oddly, she didn’t feel any better when the wind suddenly died off like it was never there.

“Talk to me, Joker. What just happened?”

“The Reaper’s mass effect fields are still active. We just passed inside their envelope.” The pilot said distractedly as his eyes danced over the displays. “Head’s up, Commander. I’ve got a scan of another ship alongside the Reaper. It’s not broadcasting any IFF, but ladar paints it’s silhouette as Geth.”

“Great, just what we needed.” Shepard cursed.

-o-

The moment the ground teams entered the wreck through once of the Cerberus installed airlocks Shepard knew this wasn’t going to be a clean mission.

The desiccated corpse of one of the members of the science team laid out on the ground next to a wall covered in blood stains made that pretty clear. But what really set her on edge was the fact Revan took two steps out of the airlock and then stopped.

So far no matter how heavy the resistance or big the obstacle, the Sith had advanced confidently where everyone else had at least taken a second to examine what was up ahead.

For her to stop now…

“Something up, Raven?” She all but demanded, one small part of her mind hoping it was just her overreacting.

“...This place. It has an active presence in the Force.” The Sith said slowly, swiftly snuffing out that small bit of hope. “...but not like the structures I’m used to. It’s almost like…”

“Like?” Garrus prompted when she trailed off.

Revan didn’t answer immediately. Instead she turned towards Shepard and the Commander could feel the seriousness the elven woman was projecting through her visor. “Shepard, back in my universe there were areas so heavily touched by the Force it could affect anything around it.

Places of peacefulness and healing, places of animalistic rage and aggression, and in some cases, places so dyed in death and suffering that it would drive the most pacifistic monks to murderous madness. We called them Force Nexuses, and while they could influence anyone around them it was always…undirected…passive. It was up to the individual to actually act on the feelings they were affected by.

This…this is different. I can feel this ship actively trying to subvert my defenses. Poking at different spots trying to bend me to its will.”

“That doesn’t sound good.” Tali said, shifting her grip on her new blaster shotgun and looking around.

“Should we be worried?” Shepard was half a second from ordering everyone back to the Normandy.

The thought of an Indoctrinated Revan? She had greater nightmare fuel, but that one was up there.

“No, it’s active…but weak. So incredibly weak. Especially for the presence I’m sensing. Unless we plan on staying here for a few weeks we shouldn’t be affected too much.” Revan assured her. “That isn’t the problem however. Shepard, this mental attack doesn’t feel like a Force Nexus, it feels like a force user.”

“I’m guessing that’s bad?”

“Try impossible. Yes, machines can affect the force with the right techniques or materials but I have never heard of one that feels like a force user.” Revan looked at the body of the Cerberus scientist. “There is something wrong about this ship, and I do not say that lightly. We should get what we came for and leave. Immediately.”

As if in reaction to her words the entire wreck seemed to shudder, throwing the members of the Normandy around as they scrambled to recover their footing.

“What just happened?!” Shepard yelled into her radio.

“The Reaper put up kinetic barriers. I don’t think we can get through from our side.” Joker’s voice was a bit stressed. Then the actual meaning fully hit.

“So we’re stuck inside the Reaper. Fantastic.” Miranda commented dryly.

“Right after we confirmed it's still messing with our heads.” Tali commiserated.

Shepard barely registered the snarky comments and was trying to come up with a plan.

“We could try and take down the barrier generators from in here. Any idea where they are?”

“At the moment of activation, I detected a heat spike in what is likely the wreck’s mass effect core. Sending the coordinates now.” EDI cut in. Almost immediately there was a ping on everyone’s omnitool as the data was downloaded onto them. “Be advised: this core is also maintaining the Reaper’s altitude.”

“So when we take the barriers down to escape, the wreck falls into the planet’s core.” Fantastic.

“And that means everyone dies. Yeah, I got it.” Joker snarked.

“Any chance we can bring them down without destroying the core?”

“Not even the entire Citadel fleet could take down those barriers. Hate to say it, Commander, but we aren’t shooting our way out.”

Worth a shot, anyway.

“Well if there’s any helmsman that could get us out before we hit crush depth it’s you.” She said supportively. “We’ll make a sweep for survivors and recover what data we can. Stand by.” with that she closed the call.

“Any survivors we find are surely indoctrinated by now.” Miranda warned.

“Yeah, but we can’t just leave them.” Shepard declared. “Besides, Revan might be able to help them.” She had managed to rid the asari on Korlus of any trace of indoctrination…and crushed her personality at the same time, but hopefully going slower would mean they could save some people.

“We might not have room.” Her XO warned. “The science team deployed here was over four thousand people. It would be hard to accommodate a fraction of them if they were perfectly behaved. No telling how they will act now…”

No one had much to say to that. So they continued further into the wreck, hacking any terminal they came across. Each one shed some light on what happened to the members of the science team…and painted a grim picture about their fate.

Several recordings showed people slowly losing their minds as things ‘popped right out of the wall’ or whispered things to them. Some of them seemed to have their memories start to overlap, and one person snapped and went full on religious about how even a dead god can still dream.

Shepard was starting to agree with Miranda that there simply might not be anyone left to save.

“Heads up, more bodies up ahead.” Garrus warned as they exited another hatch. And sure enough, there were several corpses scattered on the walkway. Still no sign of what killed them though.

“No gunshot wounds.” Samara commented as she investigated them. “Looks like they were torn apart by something. What do you think could have done it? The geth?”

“Probably those things, if I had to guess.” Revan said calmly and pointed further down the walkway.

While the others had been distracted by the bodies, several dozen Husks had appeared from behind crates, climbed up from the sides of the walkway, or just seemed to appear from the shadows.

The techno-zombies had been shuffling towards them quietly but once they realized they had been discovered, they screamed and surged forward.

The teams immediately opened fire.

The new weaponry provided by Revan was devastating. The contained plasma bolts chewed through the cybernetically augmented flesh and either slagged it beyond use or simply blew it off in chunks. But even then, the army of Husks barely slowed down. They grew closer and closer, simply trampling over the fallen forms of the ones that were shot until Samara and Revan simply knocked over the front ranks with their powers.

That left the five of them free to blast the Husks while they struggled to get up or bypass the roadblock in front of them while the Sith cut down the lucky one or two fast enough to make it past the others or new ones that had come up over the sides.

“And there goes the last of them.” Garrus remarked as the final Husk fell with only a stump where its head used to be.

“For now. We should move ahead before more show up.” Samara suggested.

They barely moved a hundred feet before several sharp cracks echoed out and a couple Husks fell out into the hallway.

“Sniper!” Shepard called out a little redundantly, but training trumped logic here.

The real question was who could possibly be shooting. At this point she really doubted any of the science team could have survived long enough for them to arrive. Between the obvious Indoctrination symptoms the teams saw in the recordings and the Husks, it was highly unlikely anyone would still be sane or alive.

“Could it be the Geth?” Miranda asked. “We haven’t seen any sign of them so far.”

“Impossible. The Geth serve the Reapers.” Tali immediately denied.

“This one was destroyed millions of years ago. Maybe it doesn’t know it isn’t supposed to be hostile?”

“Well, we’re about to find out.” Shepard interrupted. “Keep your eyes open.” She started to move forward, but was stopped by Revan placing a hand on her shoulder.

“I’ll be going first.” The Sith said calmly, moving to the front of the group. “I’m better prepared to defend myself against this sniper if they are hostile.”

They all followed after Revan into a large cavernous opening where they could see the walkways added by Cerberus end abruptly in front of several spiked outcroppings, but Shepard and the others didn’t get to look around freely for long. There was no sign of their mysterious sniper, but more Husks started swarming over the edges.

Once again the Ground Teams opened fire and began swiftly cutting down the numbers but this time it wasn’t just Husks. A trio of Scions shambled out into the open and unleashed a barrage of shockwaves towards the fire teams.

Samara saw that and instantly stopped firing at the incoming husks in order to face them. Glowing with biotic energy, the Asari Justicar slammed her hands outward and created a glowing wall of biotic barrier that absorbed all three incoming attacks. The barrier flickered dangerously, but managed to hold.

Garrus shifted fire to target the three Scions. Which left only Shepard, Miranda, and Tali to fire into the oncoming hordes. Normally this might have been enough to overwhelm them if they needed to keep an eye on all flanks. But Revan was currently doing a very convincing performance of a localized tornado filled with razor blades and lightning. She was managing to cover half of the flanks by herself leaving the others free to focus on the dwindling number of Husks in front of them.

That didn’t mean everything was sunshine and rainbows.

One of the Husks got close enough that even after Tali blew it in half with her shotgun, it was still able to grab her leg and pull her to the ground before it finally died, where two others dogpiled her. Thankfully, Miranda was able to quickly shoot one and grab the other in a biotic field and hurl it into a few others before they managed to get close.

That didn’t mean she could stop all of them though. Several more swarmed the gaps in the fields of fire and Shepard wasn’t enough to cover for the momentary breach. Miranda was forced to abandon using her blaster for a moment in favor of her biotics.

Miranda wasn’t the most powerful biotic Shepard had ever come across, but she was easily one of the most skilled, and her multitasking was insane.

Five separate Lift fields eached grabbed a husk in roughly a straight line–

“Shepard!”

“I see it.”

–making them a perfect target for a well-timed Shockwave to set them all off like a line of grenades as the fields explosively destabilized.

Not only did it buy the Ground Teams some breathing room, it also gave Miranda a chance to help Tali up from underneath the Husk that had fallen on her.

While those two were busy, Shepard took a second to get a feel for the overall situation.

Garrus had finished with the Scions, so both he and Samara were free to turn their attention back to the rest of the Husks. Revan had cut through so many that she was actually creating small walls out of the bodies to direct the last ones towards her. And the Husks themselves were finally starting to thin out as they depleted whatever reinforcements they had in the area.

A couple minutes later, Shepard put three rounds into the chest of the final Husk and let out a breath of relief. The Blasters were shot for shot more powerful than most guns she had worked with, but after several minutes of nonstop firing their accuracy had taken a serious dive. Maybe Revan had a solution for it, considering these probably weren’t the best designs she had, or maybe the Alliance might be able to do something if she could get a blaster back to them.

That was for later though. First they had to survive their current situation.

“Status report, everyone okay?”

Everyone reported green with the only issue being a twisted ankle on Tali’s end that was fixed up with a little medi-gel.

After everyone was confirmed okay, Shepard couldn’t help but wander around the area a bit. So many Husks had just shown up out of nowhere. She was a little curious to see if there were more walkways below them that they climbed up from or some other method so they wouldn’t be taken by surprise next time.

She didn’t see anything resembling a transport system so it looked like the Husks simply climbed up from the bottom of the chasm in front of them. And Shepard saw the reason there were so many in the first place.

Dragon’s Teeth.

The spiked outcroppings she noticed on the way in greatly resembled the devices the Geth used on Eden Prime and elsewhere to turn people into Husks.

Even now she could see a few bodies impaled on the spikes, slowly going through the transformation process. And there was nothing she could do for them.

Her dark thoughts were interrupted by Revan walking closer.

“Do you see the way the room is arranged?” She asked the Sith. “They treated this thing like some kind of altar.”

“And when their god demanded a sacrifice, they were all too happy to provide.”

Shepard scowled. “Is this how it's going to look when the Reapers arrive? People just being conditioned into unthinking weapons? You saw those logs. Everyone here, they were seeing things, hearing things. They were being Indoctrinated and this thing isn’t even alive anymore.”

“You’re worried even if you kill the Reapers the Indoctrination will finish off the survivors?” Revan questioned. “I wouldn’t worry too much. Now we know it is caused by the Force presence of a Reaper and not just their technology, somehow, we can begin developing a defense against it.”

“And if we can’t?”

“Then we simply quarantine the remains of the Reapers until they can be safely destroyed.”

“Let’s just find that IFF and get out of here.” She whispered to her fellow squad leader. Revan made it sound so easy.

But she was right. Standing here brooding wouldn’t stop the Collectors. It wouldn’t stop the Reapers. She still had a job to do and ‘what ifs’ could wait until it was finished.

“Okay,” She said louder and more confidently, “let’s keep going.”