Chapter 35- Failure

Shepard leapt to action to take on the Asari husk as Ash and Kaiden kept the Batarian and Turian Husks away.

Midair, Shepard's arms became claws, and she swiped downward, ready to dismember the Asari, only for it to disappear in a biotic flash and reappear as Shepard hit the ground in a crouch. Then the thing released a Banshee like scream as it plunged its hand into Shepard's abdomen.

Slowly it lifted Shepard as it repeated its tortured mantra.

"So sorry. So sorry. So sorry…"

Shepard found herself face to face with the corpse-like face of the Banshee. It opened its mouth impossibly wide as it's free hand grabbed Shepard's head.

During this however, Shepard attempted to consume the hand plunged into her gut, only to notice something off. Something that Shepard found both familiar yet foreign. As her body produced the viral pathogens and sent them into the hand of the Husk, they found something within.

Microscopic nanites working as an immune response system, each one deploying some chemical agent that killed pathogens before they had a chance to attack any cells. However what was most odd was how it was doing this.

Shepard did not realize it until she attempted to consume the first cell she came in contact with.

It was impossible and yet here it was.

Every cell was connected to machinery that was converting the cells in a manner similar to Blacklight, the original Asari cells that remained were similar, but with one key difference.

The cells were mutating to naturally create and deploy substance A-113A, also known as Bloodtox.

Not the chemical Blacklight gave the Citadel, no this was much more potent than what was gifted to them to assure peace amongst the Citadel and Blacklight. This altered compound of Bloodtox was killing Blacklight infected cells faster than even before Alex had his first contact with Bloodtox, which should be impossible since while Blacklight could never outright gain immunity to Bloodtox, they could gain some resistance, but this altered version of Bloodtox was working in a way that Blacklight could not handle.

As Shepard thought of this, another thing happened she did not expect.

The Banshee opened its decomposed mouth wider than should have been physically possible, and released a torrent of Bloodtox in its fluid form all over her.

Shepard screamed as the virucide began to cause fast acting necrosis that practically ate into her infected skin as if it were acid. Her outer cells died faster and faster than even chemical fire would have allowed as it worked its way deeper and deeper into her infested biomass. It was only through the usage of mutations to her deeper tissues to produce a mucus that behaved like a barrier that kept the chemical from getting too deep.

Then the Banshee threw Shepard, but for this she was thankful, for it allowed her to spate the infected cells, and shed them in a neat and clean sheet not unlike that of a snake. She landed with the dissolving cells of what once was her own skin landing only a few meters in front of her and not far beyond that stood the Banshee, who used its arm to re-hinge its own lower jaw.

A slick undetectable membrane of mucus was added to coat Shepard's new skin that would hopefully protect her from the gas form of Bloodtox, it would be useless against Bloodtox in its liquid form however, and that made this whole thing that much more complicated. Kaiden and Ashley who also had grown a protective outer membrane to keep the gas form at bay, were just as internally frightened by this unexpected turn of events.

How, how did the Reapers get access to Bloodtox. They would have had to have gotten it from the Citadel, or someone affiliated with them who was allowed to use it as a weapon, and thus far the only allies of the Reapers were Collectors and Heretic Geth, neither of which had the capabilities to gather Bloodtox in any way.

Beyond that however, what concerned not just Shepard, but each and every mind in the hive even more was just how much the Reapers were able to make Bloodtox much more efficient and potent than any mixture of Bloodtox the Hive had ever seen.

If the old Bloodtox was a campfire, this new one would be the whole forest on fire, and that scared a large majority of the hive.

"DID YOU TRULY THINK YOU WERE THE ONLY ONES PREPARING FOR WAR!"

Shepard blinked as the deep and booming voice of a Reaper came from the feminine Banshee. To hear that voice come from the Banshee, even in its decomposed state, was jarring enough to freeze Shepard in place as crimson light came from its eyes and implants. Indicating that something other had taken control. Something like a Reaper.

"YOU ONCE CALLED US STAGNANT. LOATHE AS WE ARE TO ADMIT IT, WE ARE, BUT IF IT MEANS THE END OF YOUR CANCER, THEN WE WILL EVOLVE, WE WILL CHANGE, AND WE WILL GROW. EVERY TIME YOU FIND A NEW WAY TO COMBAT US, WE FIND A NEW WAY TO FIGHT YOU. YOUR DEFEAT IS INEVITABLE."

The room shook as each and every Husk spoke that last word simultaneously. Ash and Kaiden had taken their place next to Shepard as they looked at the Husks all stare at them. All of them unmoving. Not so much as a twitch.

Then the red of their eyes dimmed and became the familiar blue.

"So sorry. So sorry. So sorry…"

Then the Husks broke their unnatural stillness and continued their attack.

As soon as the Awakened Collectors started to fire, the Geth awakened and were ready. Shisk dived behind the closest cover as two Rachni soldiers skittered into the battle. As he held his rifle and prepared to peak over cover, a Collector took cover right next to him. It took a lot of effort for Shisk not to shoot the Collector. His instincts still told him this was an enemy, but he endured.

Popping over cover, he took a quick glance before he quickly dove down again. Preparing to go, he popped back up and fired at the Closest Geth he saw, and immediately burned through it's armor and downed it after but a moment.

Diving back down as he waited for his Gun to cool, Shisk watched as the Collector next to him flicked it's wrists, seemingly deploying a swarm of Seekers that came from the Collector itself before they flew into the battle.

Shisk idly wondered where the Seekers came from, but ignored it for now.

As he popped back over, Shisk noticed something rather odd. One of the Geth, a very large one was bent down onto the floor and seemed to be messing with something Shisk could not see that was beneath it.

Right before Shisk had to get back into cover, he saw the floor fold in on itself.

Not wasting any time he peaked back over to see the Geth seemingly standing on what seemed to be a lift of some kind that was descending quickly. Right before the floor folded back into place.

Shisk fired at the Nearest Geth as his omni-tool blared to life.

"Warning! Geth attempting to destroy Reaper IFF!"

Shisk snarled as he ducked back into cover.

Shisk looked to his Omni-tool.

"Where dey go!"

"When the Seal opened we detected a signal belonging to an IFF. The route Blacklight Evolved Shepard took believed to be an effort of misdirection. Reaper IFF is located below this current location."

"Shisk Get there now den!"

"Negative! Geth behavior analyzed, the Reaper IFF is currently in the process of being destroyed. Secondary Objective is to deploy the Sphere near the IFF to increase the field in which Blacklight may free the remaining Collectors".

Shisk hissed as he rolled out of Cover near a Rachni that threw a Geth soldier into a swarm of Seekers, who were tearing it apart in a way that made Shisk glad that Geth were not organic.

Several Awakened Collectors took to the skies as they fired downwards into the Heretic Geth. One was fired upon and fell; the other however released Seekers into the main collection of Geth.

Shisk rolled into a spot that was once a Geth Hub to use as cover.

With the IFF now lost to them the whole point of this mission was a failure. It looked like Blacklight wouldn't get past the Omega-4 relay any time soon. Still, Shisk had a job to do, and he intended to do it.

Leaning out of Cover he began to fire at the nearest Geth he saw.

Shepard watched as a Batarian Husk knelt over a dead one and plunge it's arm into the body and shove cybernetic flesh and shove it into its mouth. All the while it apologized to the corpse.

"I'm Sorry." It said as it fed on its innards.

"I'm Sorry." It said as the metallic carapace grew upon it's misshapen body.

"Please forgive me Gretin." It said as it fired from its modified limb.

Shepard felt sick as she extended her whipfist out towards a nearby Turian Husk and attempt to yank it back. Only for spike like anchors to come from its feet to keep it in place. Shepard had no choice but to release it and get out of the way of the shot the Turian fired.

With her hyper sensitive eyes, she could see a faint red color to the projectiles, enough to deduce that not only did these things be altered to produce Bloodtox, but their ammunition had been modified to carry it as well.

The apologetic Batarian Husk she decided to call a Cannibal began to make its way towards her, firing Bloodtox munitions as she ran at speeds capable of avoiding the bullets.

Ashley had shifted her arm to fire the fast growing fungi which thankfully did immobilize the Husks, but their Bloodtox ammunition proved more than capable of destroying the fungi and getting out of it enough to fire.

Seeing this she reacted by radically changing herself into a swarm of fly-like insects to avoid the shots and find some form of cover to get behind.

Kaiden was firing guided bolts of bio-electricity at the Husk in the hope that it would do something to their circuitry, only for them to be completely unaffected due to some kind of insulation that prevented them from taking too much damage.

The Banshee teleported before him and took a swipe at him, but he proved to have sufficient reflexes to avoid it and attempt to slice at the Banshee with a blade.

Of course the Banshee was mostly unaffected due to some subdermal armor that minimized the damage, but at least the Banshee had a large cut on its side, so it wasn't perfect.

Seeing all of their tactics through each others' eyes they adapted their strategies.

They sacrificed mobility by growing armor of strong chitin and began altering their forms to turn the Whistle gun into an improvised flamethrower.

Using Hydrogen gas they fired torrents of flames into the swarm of Husks, all the while they continued to apologize.

"Please, make it stop!"

"Let us end you; you're immortal, you c-can go back to your hive, just let us end the pain! Please!"

"Please let us stop the hurt!"

The flames died down as Shepard fired a standard shot from the Whistle gun. As soon as the projectile made contact, it exploded into shrapnel with enough force to knock many husks off their feet. Soon the Shrapnel altered their cellular structure to become more of the fungi, only this time as they rapidly grew, they produced chemical acids that sprayed into the air.

As expected Husks used Bloodtox to escape, even as the acids partially dissolved their flesh away. Even in that state, the Husks continued to go after Shepard and company. Some of the unarmored Cannibals so dissolved they had to drag their own useless bodies towards them in the single minded goal of killing Blacklight and ending the pain.

Then the Banshee appeared behind Ashley and attempted to impale her.

With the armor, she was unable to escape the swipe, but the Banshee's claws only swiped at her side. As she rolled out of the way Ash idly noted that the scratch mirrored that of the Banshees.

Shepard and Kaiden charged into the cannibals and Turian Husk they took to calling Marauders as Ashley stared at the Banshee who slowly turned to glare at Ashley.

It hissed as it rose to its full height and screamed.

Ashley's biomass squirmed at the tone. Slowly realizing that the scream hid the tone of indoctrination beneath it. As if summoned by that Scream, a familiar skittering sound was heard. Ashley looked up as collectors crawled across the ceiling and walls before leaping down to the battle and immediately began firing with particle rifles that easily incinerated her Biomass.

With so little mass left, she allowed her mass to fall inert into a mound of Blacklight biomatter that was quickly forming many microscopic infested pustules. Her mind leaving her body to return to the hive as Indra were birthed from what remained of her body, ready to bring the storm.

Shepard and Kaiden already were using diminished biomass after Shepard used her own body to bring Ash and Kaiden here, meaning they were slowly losing cohesion. Only able to hold enough Biomass to barely manage a full humanoid form.

What was worse was they knew that the Awakened Collectors and Rachni along with Shisk were dealing with Vorcha and the Reaper IFF was now lost to them. Still, Blacklight would not allow these husks to continue suffering, even if it meant they had to destroy the ship and kill everyone else on it.

This mission was a failure; all that remained now was trying to carve out a pragmatic victory. Still, as they moved around the Husks, even with the aid of the Indra, they couldn't keep this up, not with the sudden appearance of the Collectors; this looked like this would be their first big loss since the Citadel.

Meanwhile, Shisk activated his Blacklight armor to become as unseen as he could as he crawled across the walls to make his way to the lift the large Geth had taken. Clicking his teeth as the lift came into sight she pounced on a Geth, sliced at it with Omni-claws, before immediately firing at any Geth that still moved.

With unparalleled swiftness provided by his suit, Shisk rolled into cover.

From his current location, Shisk could see the hatch that leads to the lift was one he was familiar with, at least mostly. The form was different, but at the very least his time scouring the underbelly of Omega gave Shisk an idea on how to open the hatch. Shisk sniffed as he saw more and more Collectors charge into the Collective of Heretic Geth. Using the advanced camouflaged abilities of his Suit, Shisk moved closer and closer.

Tendrils trailed behind Shisk, each tipped with bone-like blades. Using his superior agility, Shisk leapt on the nearest Geth as the tendrils stretched and pierced the chassis of all Geth within reach as he ran on all fours towards the Hatch.

Unseen to him, the bone-like tips of his tendrils became free moving shields that together formed a shell around him. Shots were fired at him as he pounced on the Geth and tore into it with metallic claws. A Blood rage not too dissimilar from a Krogan's gave power to his blows as he tore the Geth apart, though his eyes never left the hatch he would have to take.

Shisk remembered long ago when he had a member of a Vorcha labor team amongst his pack. Shisk would often watch how that Vorcha operated and worked and had taken it upon himself to learn that which would ensure his continued survival.

It was through that that Shisk was able to understand the workings of the Hatch, even if it was much different from anything he had ever seen on Omega.

Things were in different places, screens and buttons were rearranged in a way Shisk had never seen, but Shisk hoped that it worked in a way not too dissimilar; else this whole thing would be for nothing.

Shisk was breathing heavy as he looked at the scrap that remained of the Geth he tore apart, he ignored it however as his claws danced across the screen and buttons, trying to find something that would work. Whether by luck or skill, the hatch opened . The tendrils and shields were reabsorbed back into Shisk's armor and Shisk dove inside, closing it behind him.

With the door closed there wasn't much room, barely enough to stand, but Shisk had been in far more uncomfortable areas. Turning to the controls of the lift, Shisk was happy to see only a simple design. In fact one of the simplest. Up or down. Shisk pressed down.

Thankfully, while the lift was slow, it was far faster than the elevator he had heard of on the Citadel, one which many a tourist to Omega loved to complain about.

Shisk let go of his thoughts as the lift came to a stop to a very narrow hallway. Particle rifle ready, Shisk took the first step into the unknown.

Puddles of Bloodtox evaporated quickly causing a dense fog of anti-viral chemicals to billow through the open air. It was simple enough for Kaiden and Shepard to create a slick mucus membrane that would keep the worst of Bloodtox effects at bay. Even as lightning rained down upon their enemies very little was working and the Indra were hardly in any swarm large enough to do much more than superficial damage.

It was through the liberal use of their ability to disperse into a swarm of insects that Kaiden and Shepard were able to keep away, though each had lost a majority of Biomass, forcing them to have their evolved bodies be partially hollow.

In hindsight, it was really presumptuous of them not to expect the Reapers to begin adapting anti-Blacklight weaponry into their units, but it was something else entirely to see just how far along they made it in such a short timeframe, not to mention they somehow got a hold of Bloodtox.

'So much for being stagnant.'

Shepard was really starting to hate particle weaponry, at least when enemy Collectors held onto it.

The emerald beams were stopped by biotic barriers easily enough, but it didn't take long for the barriers to falter. Then, a feeling washed over the battlefield.

This was a prison cell in the form of a hallway, or at least Shisk thought so. The dark and narrow corridor was unnaturally narrow, so much so that every few moments, Shisk's shoulders would brush against the walls. Worse was it was twisting and labyrinthine, with ever smaller branching halls on the side after a few hundred feet. Jagged metal shards hung from the ceiling and walls that were neither metal nor stone stood as the only thing holding this place together. Shisk could smell, even though the suit, the stale air that made it so much more uncomfortable to walk through.

This was a place built for the express purpose of ensuring that whoever took this route would be as uncomfortable and immobile as possible, probably to ensure all shots fired hit their mark.

After a few hundred more steps, the walls started to change. Strange organic material covered the walls, like a resin, black in color and rotted, parts of it flaking off to reveal new skin. Some of it seemed to bleed a curious grey fluid.

Finally, after what felt like hours, Shisk made it to an opening. It was a dark room, one so large that Shisk could not see its end. However in the distance, Shisk saw the blue glow of Geth.

They seemed to be standing over something that was flaming. Shisk assumed it to be the IFF.

Before Shisk could do anything, his omni-tool blared to life.

"Location confirmed, this is the center of the ship. Deploy Leviathan Sphere now."

Shisk sniffed as a tendril holding the silver orb came into view, the voice of Shepard in his ear as he placed the Orb on the ground and rolled it towards the Geth. Then Shisk fired.

There weren't many, but he would rather them not be here.

Right after Shisk made his first shot, the orb grew, and a strange but not at all unpleasant feeling fell over him.

This fight was over, all that remained was killing everything that fell outside of the spheres influence, like the Geth.

With a few shots, the Geth were down, and easily picked off. Seeing nothing better to do, Shisk stood and made his way towards the IFF. He took a brief glance at the orb he had thrown, to see that it was now somehow floating in the air, but he ignored it. Instead he walked to the IFF.

There wasn't much left of it, other than a lot of broken machinery and melted slag. Hoping that maybe something remained, he activated his omni-tool and waved it several times over it. It beeped a few times before the familiar voice of the Geth spoke.

"No recoverable data."

He turned off his Omnitool and stared at the device, right before slicing into it with his omni-claws. It wouldn't change anything, but it was cathartic and therapeutic.

Shepard watched as the Collectors either died or were gripping their heads painfully. Interestingly enough, the Husks were being affected by the same thing that was freeing the Collectors, only they weren't calming down.

It started when the Banshee screamed a very human and began tearing itself apart with its own claws. They were free, and they couldn't take it. Some were too far gone and tried to attack anything in reach, hoping to stop the pain that was not going away. Though the Husks had access to advanced weaponry, they did not use it. This was primal, animalistic, and desperate. They used teeth and claws to rip and tear at themselves and anything in reach, all the while they screamed and cried, and when they couldn't scream any more, they just made a hoarse noise that may have once been a scream, but now was just torture.

Shepard couldn't handle it, and helped them end it. She didn't know what was so different from the husks from the Collectors that made them react like this, but she did not like suffering, none of Blacklight did.

As she ended the torment of the Husks, she was still fully aware what Shisk was seeing; he was wearing her after all as armor.

Even as the Husks died, this felt like a very hollow victory. Every secondary objective was accomplished. They took the ship, deployed the Leviathan spheres, and freed the collectors, but they didn't get the IFF, the whole reason they did this in the first place.

She looked to Kaiden who likewise was watching as the Collectors who survived looked around their surroundings in a state of confusion. Many looking at their own hands that were not theirs, but the talons of a stranger.

Shepard thought it must have been traumatizing.

Then, as the last Husk fell, a Collector turned towards her.

Shepard liked the ethereal green glow that came from these awakened slaves made free. It was a calm light, a soothing light. They looked to her and simply nodded.

None knew much of Prothean behaviors, since there weren't any Protheans left, but Shepard was glad they had something in common, and with a smile, Shepard nodded back.

A/N: Before anyone says anything about barriers not being able to stop energy weaponry, the CODEX on Reaper Capabilities say that weaponry specifically designed to damage shields, is only really usable when close enough to a Reaper.

So knowing that, I went on a quick trip to the Spacebattles forums where a few theories on how Kinetic Barriers work helped explain this.

Here is the gist of what I read.

Now you could argue that Reaper Kinetic Barriers are somehow a different kind than the barriers that anyone else uses, but at the end of the day it's still a Kinetic Barrier, so you're still left with the conclusion that Kinetic Barriers can offer a bit of protection against energy weaponry under the right circumstances. Plus Gameplay mechanics show that Barriers do in fact work against the Prothean Particle Rifle. The question is how.

A lot of fanfics use energy weapons as Kinetic Barrier Kryptonite, and sure that may be the case, but it looks like it's not quite as weak as everyone makes it out to be. Maybe it's not as effective, but it seems to work somewhat.

According to the CODEX, Kinetic Barriers are stated to only be useless against temperature extremes, toxins, and radiation. So let's look at how the weaponry in Mass Effect that is commonly used stacks up.

First up is lasers. Lasers are essentially a weapon that concentrates radiation to a very small point, so that checks out since Kinetic Barriers do nothing to stop radiation. Moving on

Geth Plasma Shotguns according to lore do damage through the Temperature Extremes and electrical overload, makes sense since Kinetic barriers use an electrical current to actually create the barrier and Electromagnetic energy is a form of radiation.

Now Plasma weaponry probably deliver the plasma using an electro-magnetic field to contain the plasma. The field disperses, and all that energy is released.

As a side note to something I find annoying in other Mass Effect fanfiction, I may not be as good at physics as I am at biology, but even I know that Plasma is not an energy weapon as many fics may lead you to believe as Plasma is the fourth state of matter. Matter has mass ergo plasma has mass, but as stated before, all that heat can still bleed through the barriers and do a lot of damage. Normally this isn't much of a problem since as long as you are in an environment with air, the heat from a plasma gun can and will kill you. But a lot of fics have spaceships use Plasma cannons, which is very irritating since plasma would be useless in the vacuum of space where there is no air at all because it's SPACE!

Okay, enough of that little rant.

Now Particle Beams fire atomic or sub-atomic particles at near light speed, but they do not fire radiation or heat, those are just a side effect of the particle beam itself.

If Kinetic Barriers do in fact work through a unique interpretation of repulsive mass effect fields (i.e Negative Mass) then a strong field can stop most energy weaponry through gravitational lensing to diffuse energy weapon beams or effects.

My forte is Biology, not physics, so I don't know how well this all stacks up but to me it all sounds like it checks out. Kinetic barriers are very effective against bullets, and significantly less effective (But still partially effective) against energy weaponry depending on what you are using and how much power the barrier has behind it.