29

Her eyes opened heavily. She could feel an unimaginable fatigue and pain... in the ribs? Yes, she could swear her ribs were throbbing in pain. Another second later, she realized she was pressed by some kind of iron beam that she couldn't even budge. Focusing all four of her eyes, she saw her commander, missing half of his armor, the skin underneath was charred. The air was thick with the smell of smoke, and the room was in utter ruin. Suddenly, a door opened right in front of her eyes and three soldiers ran out. More precisely, two soldiers and a general clad in black armor.

"Hey, there's a survivor here!" one of them shouted. Two soldiers ran up to her and lifted the beam, then helped her get up.

"Who are you? Name. Rank." the general asked curtly and businesslike.

"Private Kali Hraaa-ai..." Trying to stand at attention, she felt a searing pain in her ribs and almost fell, but one of the soldiers managed to catch her. By their scent, she could tell that both soldiers found her very attractive, and due to fear and adrenaline, they couldn't hide it. "Hrasl. Kali Hrasl. Militia."

"Understood. Here." With these words, the general handed her a tube, 10 cm in length and 2 in diameter. At one end was a small needle, and at the other, a red button. Seeing the markings, Kali was surprised.

"Super-adrenaline?"

"Yes." the general said, and then one of the doors on the other side opened. The general and both soldiers pointed their guns at the door, but a lone soldier appeared. "Hold fire. Friendlies."

"General! Finally, some kind of officer. Private Xsan Ishtard. Fifth cohort of light infantry."

"Where are the rest of your unit?" the general asked.

"They're all dead. Half were impaled on some kind of spikes, then they started killing everyone bare-handed." the private began babbling. He was in shock, and due to his inexperience, his nervous scent was noticeable to everyone.

"Understood."

"General! What are these creatures? What the hell is happening?!" the private started again, on the verge of breaking down.

"I don't know. We've lost contact with command, but these creatures were mentioned in messages from the Citadel. We've lost contact with it too. But we have other problems. Refugees are heading to Kalit, and we've lost contact. The planet is lost, that's clear, and the refugees could walk into a trap. We need to get to the beacon and send a message so they don't come here. We need to get there at all costs."

"NO! You... you won't make it! No one will!" Xsan suddenly began to shout, much to the general's surprise.

"What are you talking about?"

"You... We... Will die... No-no-NO! They... They want... Delay... Lure... Betray... Can't..." The private pulled out a gun and started to raise it slowly, as if someone was holding him back, with a trembling hand.

"Lower your weapon, private!" the general barked, but Xsan wasn't listening.

"Can't... Betray... Empire..." However, the private didn't aim at the general. Instead, he pressed the gun to his head. "I'm sorry..." he whispered, and then he pulled the trigger. His blood and pieces of brain instantly splattered on the wall, and his body fell to the floor, catching the startled glances of everyone. Even the general smelled of surprise at the sight.

"Alright. Everyone move to the beacon. Khal, you go left. Jahil, you go right. I go through the middle. Kali, you cover the rear. Inject yourselves with adrenaline. We've got nothing else anyway." She could tell that the general felt sorry for her. His scent gave it away. Just a week ago she was studying at the Medical Academy, and now she was about to die in a militia during a war. She knew they were all going to die. Today. All of them.

Without saying a word, she stuck the needle in her neck and pressed the button. Immediately, she could smell EVERYTHING, absolutely everything in the room. She could sense the general's sadness and a slight fear of the unknown. The more intense fear of the two privates, judging by their badges, and their desire to be close to her. The animal, wild fear of Private Xsan, and also his hysteria raging within. There was even the scent of a frightened bug that was crawling in a corner, trying to hide from the large, walking unknowns. Not to mention the smell of her commander, the smell of pain from burns and blood loss, from which he died, the smell of regret about something, the smell of despair because of his helplessness... Kali had already forgotten about her own pain, she didn't feel it anymore, and when she opened her eyes, she saw herself glowing green with biotic light, the general and the two privates watching her expectantly.

"Let's go." the general said, and the four of them exited through the door that Private Xsan had entered through.

At first, they didn't encounter anyone, and during that time, she felt an incredible strength within her. But she also felt a desire... for intimacy. She'd been told in the courses that this was a side effect of super-adrenaline, but now that thought was overshadowed by the thought of the two privates' strong bodies... Great Kharti, what was she thinking about!?

Suddenly, a wild roar sounded from behind the group, indicating that they were being followed.

"Sir..."

"I hear you. Khal, Jahil, watch our front." The general commanded and turned around. Three creatures... she didn't know what to call them, but they seemed to be her own kind, came around the corner. She understood that these were her people, but she also knew these "kin" were now about to rip her apart with their claws. And that's what they tried to do. The three of them lunged towards them at incredible speed. The general started shooting at them, while she, unable to contain her accumulated energy, released her biotics on these monsters. A greenish wall, blocking the corridor, hit them and then repelled, slamming them into the wall with such force that their heads and bodies exploded, releasing something black.

"Enemy in sight!" one of them shouted, and she saw a crowd had spotted them.

"Fire." they all started shooting. The enemies fell, but more kept coming. She was tearing the ones at the back with her biotics. Right now, she felt an irresistible desire to crush everything in her path. She felt the energy inside her burning, for it had no way to escape her. Hence, these creatures with glowing eyes and dark-brown chitin could not even get close to her. They were blasted apart by continuous waves of energy. Even the walls and ceiling began to crumble, and as they ran up the stairs, her biotics brought down several floors. However, they crawled out from other corridors and it all started over again.

"BEACON! Get to it faster!" the general yelled, and they all immediately ran down the corridor, ignoring those chasing them. They just had to touch the beacon and send two words. But as they rushed into the room where the beacon was located, a powerful explosion went off and she lost consciousness.

Opening her eyes, she saw that everyone was dead. Not just the privates. There were many corpses in the room, both her tribesmen and these creatures that were essentially them. Only the general tried to get up, but a creature ran up to him, stabbed its claws into his back, ignoring the armor. The general quietly wheezed "For the Empire.." then a grenade exploded in his hand, tearing him and the creature apart. She understood she needed to reach the beacon. It was just five meters away, but she had no strength left. Yet, she started to crawl anyway. The order was not canceled. Arm forward, then push off with a leg. She doesn't have a second arm, push off with the other leg. She closed her eyes and saw that it was only morning now.

She opened her eyes and crawled forward. The wound had stopped bleeding, but the pain was still there. So was the fatigue. And the order. The order was not canceled. Arm. Leg. Leg. Arm. Leg. Leg. Three more times and she fell asleep again. It was sunset outside.

She opened her eyes again to see that it was already night. The beacon was dimly lit, and she could see it was just a meter away. Just a meter. Hand. Then foot, then foot again. She reached out and touched the beacon. She saw a map of the Galaxy, hundreds of points on it where the message was sent. "Kalit has fallen!" She no longer had the strength to stop the message or control its content. She was already sending all her memories. Suddenly she saw four glowing points looking at her. They quickly approached her, and a second later she felt three long claws sink into her stomach. Weakness was unbearable, as was the desire to sleep. She did not resist it. Just closed her eyes and... died.

"Shepard! Shepard, get up! Goddess... Jane, please, open your eyes..." - a familiar voice of her beloved began to bring Shepard back to consciousness. "Mmmmmmmm..." - Jane moaned, trying to recover or at least open her eyes. The latter worked out better. "Jane? Jane!!! Hey, she's waking up!" - Liara rejoiced, who, as it seemed to the captain, was on the verge of hysteria. "Liara, please... don't shout..." - the captain begged, whose head was already hurting. "Where are you going!?" - suddenly Rex yelled, followed by a shotgun blast. "What... What happened?" - Shepard asked when she could sit up, with Liara's help, and saw the massacre that had taken place. The bodies of colonists, krogan, asari, geth, and some gray-green creatures that looked like rotten corpses were strewn everywhere. Some of the cars were on fire, and nearby Jane saw a geth flamethrower. "Thorian happened." - Rex growled. "What?" - Shepard didn't understand. "Hey, you... explain to the captain that crap you were carrying recently." - Rex growled, peering into a strange doorway that wasn't there before. "Who are you?" - Shepard asked, looking suspiciously at the girl who stood up and approached the captain. "I'm Elizabeth Baynham. I'm with ExoGeni. I was hiding in the company's headquarters when the geth attacked, but then they left and I came here through the Skyway." "And we, meanwhile, recycled all those geth here. It was cool." - Rex interjected, grinning, and Shepard realized she missed something cool if even Rex was smiling and pleased with the fight. "Yeah, especially the dropships." - Ashley snarked, holding her ribs. - "And singularity." "Got it. So, what were you saying about 'Thorian'?" - Jane pronounced slowly, trying to get it right. "Thorian, or Species 37. A plant-based life form with telepathic abilities. It lives beneath Zhu's Hope." "Greaaaaaat..." - the captain couldn't stand it, - "Just what we needed, telepathic plants. What's next? A Volus SPECTRE? Eh, okay, what else? No wait. More precisely... Why the hell didn't you kill it?"

- "ExoGeni" was studying the Thorian and its ability to control minds. Zhu's Hope was established precisely for this purpose.

- WHAT!? - Shepard didn't quite understand what this girl was talking about at first, but then it dawned on her. - You established a colony to let its inhabitants be torn apart by this plant!?

- I didn't know about this myself. I thought all the test subjects were infected accidentally, but then I found out that they were brought to the colony knowing what would happen to them. When the geth attack began, I infiltrated the headquarters and tried to contact the Earth Colonial Crimes Service, but the connection was cut off. Then, when the geth left, I ran here via the Skyway. Luckily, your team had already dealt with the geth by then.

- And the colonists. - Rex grumbled discontentedly.

- Yes. Most likely, the Thorian made them kill you.

- That explains where the krogan and dropships came from. They were probably infected with spores as well. - Ashley started explaining.

- Spores? - the captain didn't understand.

- The Thorian spreads spores and thereby controls those who inhale them. - Elizabeth explained.

- Wait. So we... It controls us too? - Shepard didn't like that at all. It was the last thing she needed.

- Most likely, it's responsible for you losing consciousness. However, this has never happened before.

- Okay. What happened when we passed out?

- We woke up tied up, with the colonists guarding us. - Rex started, - Then we saw a bunch of geth and Saren enter over there. - Rex pointed to the entrance over which was an entire cargo ship block. - They didn't notice us; we were in one of the wagons. Then we freed ourselves, shot the colonists. Then it started... - The krogan rolled his eyes, remembering the past battle.

- Geth poured in such numbers that we couldn't kill them fast enough. And then there were the dropships and krogan. Then these... creatures came pouring out of there, where Saren had gone. All in all, it wasn't boring. - Ashley explained.

- I see. And now... Hey, - Jane asked, shaking her head from side to side, - Where's Tali?