The diversion had been a success. However, the point of the diversion had certainly not been to provide him with a convenient excuse, and Saren was far from satisfied. His weakness for Nihlus was turning into a serious problem, a problem that could no longer be kept secret from Sovereign. And indeed, just as he thought that, an unnatural feeling of heat soared from his spine, spreading over his entire body through the neural highways of his biotics, lighting up nodule after nodule, and when it reached his groin it felt like he’d wet his undersuit. A desperate attempt of his mind to interpret the alien input. The discomfort was intense, bordering on pain, but not bad enough to be disabling. There was no time for that now. It was just a warning. A reminder that Sovereign was far from satisfied as well.
Continue reading Failure
Nihlus listened to Anderson’s speech with half an ear as the Normandy dived into the dawn on Eden Prime. He checked his suit, counting the seals under his fingers before he finally put the gloves on and sealed them as well. He took off the sniper rifle, extended the barrel, reassembled, put it back. Then the assault rifle, and finally his sidearm. His hands went through the motions. His mind was somewhere else.
Continue reading Eden Prime
Six hours before the attack on Eden Prime.
Saren checked the clock. ETA to Eden Prime, six hours. For the umpteenth time, he inspected the wide pillar of holos with various system updates, projected in the middle of the large, irregular room that they kept calling “the bridge”. It was barely anything more than a glorified information center. A convenient place to store their communication and monitoring gear. Sovereign didn’t need a pilot to navigate it, or a crew to maintain it. It tolerated the presence of organics inside its vast mechanical body only because other arrangements had proven to be impractical.
Continue reading Deflection
One day before the attack on Eden Prime.
Shepard had never been to Earth and a part of her was frustrated at being so near, yet unable to land – again. She watched the attractive blue globe in its halo of space-junk and blinking satellites, and the desolate white moon next to it. She huffed at it. Of course she’d been there, on Luna, for six months of advanced tactical training. With each passing year, the feeling that the fate had allotted her to repeatedly hang just out of reach of the finer things in life, grew stronger and more tangible.
Continue reading Departure
Five days before the attack on Eden Prime.
Tali didn’t think her heart could possibly beat any faster until she opened the viewport on her tiny vessel and saw the thing with her own eyes. The sight stole the breath from her lips and sent freezing shivers down her spine. The ship was definitely there. It was definitely real. And it was definitely designed by the geth.
Continue reading Warning
One year before the attack on Eden Prime.
Liara was cold. She glanced at Mother, and Mother glanced back as if to say, stop fidgeting already. But Liara’s toes were freezing and she was trying to wriggle them inside her inappropriately light boots. The effort must have made her face look funny, for Mother shot her another scolding look.
Continue reading Dinner