As it turned out, both Aralakh and Shepard's group were close enough that they were able to group up with only minimal interference from the Rachni.
Not because they had eradicated the insects, but because they had pulled back once it became clear they had secured a path into the central chamber where they couldn't be ambushed further.
No doubt the bugs would be gathering in other tunnels, ready to overwhelm them from other directions once they entered the chamber. But for the moment they had some breathing room to recover.
Or let most of them recover.
This close to the central chamber Revan could no longer ignore the long uninterrupted scream echoing in the Force. It battered on her mental barriers like a constant windstorm, intensifying or falling off but never silencing.
Revan had tried to reach out to the voice several times during the journey through the tunnels, but either the owner was simply too preoccupied with whatever was causing it to scream in the first place to notice or respond…
… Or the mind had simply fractured under whatever was causing its agony and could now only scream.
"Revan, how are you holding up?" Her thoughts were interrupted as Shepard made her way over.
"We're ready to move out at any time." Revan replied. "Though I did want to ask, what is the priority now? We've confirmed both the Rachni and Reaper involvement and discovered what happened to the scouts. Are we attempting to sabotage the central chamber or just looking for a way back to the surface to call for reinforcements?"
Shepard apparently did not even need to think about it. "Sabotage if at all possible. The Rachni reproduce too quickly to leave them under the Reapers' control. There were probably millions of them already shipped out of this system before Wrex's scouts first checked here. We need to slow them down at least."
Revan nodded. She had a superficial understanding of the Rachni wars from some casual investigation into the history of this galaxy, but she didn't have the time to study them in detail. As an N7, Shepard had obviously spent much more time than her studying past conflicts and their impacts.
"Then you should know we are getting close to what I suspect is the Rachni queen. If we can kill or wound it heavily enough, we might be able to stop any new eggs from being laid."
"You can sense her from here?"
Revan felt her rising interest. "Yes, but do not get excited. Whatever the Reapers have done to it has left the queen unresponsive. At this point killing it might be the more merciful thing to do."
Shepard obviously did not like that idea but both of them knew not only did they not have time to debate it – it was entirely possible they wouldn't have a choice anyway.
"Right. Well, we'll do what we can." Shepard eventually said. "Aralakh will stay behind to cover our six. Let's get ready to move."
-o-
"Dammit, we're cut off! Everyone spread out and set up overlapping fields of fire!" Shepard shouted as the two teams moved into the central chamber.
Almost immediately after the Reapers made their move.
Shepard had been expecting hordes of Rachni and Husks. She hadn't been expecting Reaper-material walls springing out of the ground and locking them in a kill box.
"Shepard, over there! More of those power nodes!" Garrus called out, pointing at another glowing node in the distance.
"Take James and EDI and take it down, we'll cover you!"
"Shep, two more Ravagers setting up up top!" Kasumi shouted while spraying down an incoming Husk with her SMG.
Damn, and Shepard just retasked her sniper.
"Lymrase – pull them down." Revan's calm order rang out over the sound of her sabers slicing through chitin and cybernetics with impunity.
"Yes, Master!" Shepard briefly paused to watch as the Asari deactivated her own lightsaber to raise her hands at the two Ravagers. It was a bit disorienting to see the two Rachni float into the air without the telltale glow that normally came with Biotic use from someone other than Revan. But when it removed two heavy cannon platforms from getting a line on them from above, she wouldn't complain.
She watched as the two insects plummeted to the horde below and were immediately trampled by the other uncaring Husks coming to attack them.
"Another power node in the distance, Commander." Javik reported, drawing her attention.
"I see it. Let's go take it out. Liara, on me!" Shepard called and prepared to move–
SCREEEEEEEEEE!!
–only to pause as every Husk seemed to stumble and pull back slightly.
"Revan! What was that?!" She shouted, figuring out of all of them – the space wizard would have the best idea of what just happened.
"Garrus just destroyed the power node and whatever the Reapers were doing to the queen just weakened!" The Sith called back. "I can feel it trying to call the smaller Rachni away!"
Revan could feel it, which meant it was a Force ability. The small part of her that had always wondered how the Rachni had been able to detect the Reaper's indoctrination finally had an answer. The entire species had to be Force Sensitive.
"Can you help her?!"
"Not while fighting at the same time." Came the response. "We need to destroy the other node!"
"Got it– oh, damn! Liara!"
While the two of them had been talking, Liara had started repositioning to help. The only issue was that a hidden swarmer lunged out of a crevice in the rock she was standing on and latched onto her ankle, fouling the asari's balance and tripping her to the ground where the Spectre saw her barrier flare up before shattering.
Shepard's own rifle snapped up and killed the small insect in a single shot, but the bigger issue was she could see more Rachni turning to aim at her fallen teammate.
With no cover, no shields, and no time to move - any hit could be fatal. Shepard didn't even think before moving to throw herself over Liara and braced for the first hit.
Only to flinch at a massive slab of rock tearing itself from the ground and forming a temporary wall between them and the Rachni.
"Get moving, Shepard!"
The Spectre startled slightly when she realised for the first time she could actually hear the strain in Revan's voice. Moving a multiton boulder that quickly had cost her.
She nodded at the other squad leader and pulled Liara to her feet.
The two of them said nothing else as they joined up with Javik and the three of them fought their way towards the other node.
Once there, Shepard pulled one of her last remaining grenades and shoved it as deep into the machinery as she could and set a timer.
SCREEEEEEEEEE!
Once again, the moment the node was destroyed – the Rachni flinched and pulled back. But this time instead of resuming the attack, they kept fleeing almost as if the Normandy's ground team was no longer in the room with them. No further attacks, no attempts to take one more shot even when they were in position.
Freaky didn't even begin to describe it.
"Shepard, whatever you did just caused all the Rachni to back off." Grunt called in over the comms. "But whatever spooked them won't last. Finish the job."
"Copy that. Be ready to move." She said back.
And once everyone had regrouped, they all pushed past the final wall and came face to face with the massive form of the Rachni Queen once again.
And in a word? She looked like hell.
Massive lesions where restraints had held her down slowly weeped various liquids and she was covered with a combination of Reapertech shackles and the same webbing they had encountered in the tunnels keeping her immobilized.
"Si… lence…"
Several guns whipped around to point at what looked like a disemboweled krogan corpse covered in webbing.
"The… maddening sour note has ceased." Another nearby corpse continued.
"Dammit, not this again." Garrus groaned. Clearly having a flashback to the last time they had 'talked' to the Rachni Queen on Novaria. There it had at least only been through a single dead Asari huntress.
"Agreed." Liara said simply.
"Did we ever figure out how the queen did that in the first place?" Tali asked rhetorically.
That didn't stop Revan from offering an answer.
"It– She– is using the Force to manipulate the krogans' bodies. Weaving hundreds of threads all at once to imitate their function in life."
"You… can hear the song?" The giant Rachni fixed the Sith Empress with an intense look. "You can sing… as we do?"
"Yes, I can." Revan's words reverberated unnaturally before returning to normal. "But the others cannot."
"Then we will continue to sing like this."
"You're the same queen we released from Noveria, right?" Shepard interjected herself back into the conversation. "You promised to disappear."
"We remember. We kept our promise, retreated back through the relay." The queen turned to her. "We started a new home. Beautiful children. Harmony."
"But… the machines came. They heard our song. Their shriek of sour notes drowned us out."
Another chill went down Shepard's spine. "Revan, can you…?"
"The Queen hasn't been Indoctrinated." Revan replied. "Amazingly, she held them off despite their attempts."
"We hear the machines," The Queen agreed, "but they cannot control us. Remove this last shackle and we are free." She gestured towards a final power node that had been placed nearby.
And with the queen free, the source of new Rachni eggs for the Reapers to Indoctrinate would be removed.
"Shepard, we're getting a lot of movement out here. Finish up whatever you're doing. Fast." Grunt suddenly said.
"The children return. They will destroy us all. Release us!" The Queen demanded.
No time to think it over, but Shepard had one last thing to confirm.
"Are you capable of fighting the Reapers?" She asked in return.
"We hate the machines. We will fight for our unborn children. Release us!"
"She's badly wounded. She'll need time to escape." Garrus whispered, just as Grunt yelled over the comms again.
"Shepard, we're out of time! We stay here, Aralakh Company dies! Is that clear?"
So save the Rachni Queen or save Aralakh, Shepard froze at the sudden turn of events while her mind raced to think of a way out of the situation while simultaneously trying to predict the outcomes of both situations.
Only to realize there was a third solution as she looked towards Revan, who simply nodded her head.
Crunch!
The power node suddenly crumpled as Revan raised her hand and squeezed it into a fist. "Grunt, take Aralakh and fall back to our position. Staggered retreat while the Ranchi Queen escapes. We'll buy her some time." Shepard ordered. "Revan's headed your way as reinforcement. Once the Queen is clear we all head for the surface." She paused. "Good luck."
"I don't need luck. I have ammo." Grunt growled in response.
Behind them the Queen broke free from the last of her restraints and began making her escape. Minutes later the remains of Aralakh Company ran out of one of the tunnels and quickly joined the Normandy team behind cover while Revan and Grunt brought up the rear holding off what seemed like an unending tide of Husks.
The sight of it made Shepard wonder for a moment if by trying to save both groups, she got too greedy and was about to get them all killed.
Then Revan reached the mouth of the tunnel and stopped.
"What is that tipa loca doing?!" James yelled somewhere to Shepard's left. "Get out of there!"
If Revan heard him, she didn't show it.
She just raised her hands in the air and acted like she was clawing at the air. And whatever she was doing, scared the absolute shit out of Lymrase.
"Everyone, get to cover and brace!" The apprentice screamed out just as the tunnels around them seemed to groan and tremble. Dust and rocks shook themselves free from the ceiling as cracks resounded throughout the cavern from whatever Revan was doing. The Rachni seemed to realize that as well and turned to target the exposed Sith even while the rest of the ground team did their best to provide covering fire, but even the few enemy shots that made it through seemed to slam into some sort of shimmery barrier.
Not the integrated shields in Revan's armor, from what Shepard could tell. So it was probably another Force technique. One with some sort of drawback if Revan hadn't used it until now.
The rumbling increased as the Sith began to lower her arms, hands trembling from the effort she was putting into concentrating. At least until a massive crack resounded through the cavern as the rock began to give way. All of the sudden, Revan's arms pulled downwards and the tunnel ceiling followed.
The Husks and Rachni were buried under hundreds of tons of rock as part of the caves collapsed.
Shepard wasn't worried about that once she confirmed that they were separated by the now fallen rubble. Instead she rushed forward to grab Revan before the space elf managed to fall on her face – completely spent from bringing the roof down on their enemies.
But there was no time to waste.
Throwing Revan's arm over her own shoulder, Shepard quickly turned and identified an uncollapsed tunnel on the other side of the cavern and waved the others towards it. "Let's go, people! Grunt, get us to the surface!" And began practically dragging her fellow team leader along until Lymrase rushed over to grab her other arm.
-o-
"Okay Cortez, that's everyone. Take us back to the Normandy." Shepard said as the last of them piled into the shuttle, helping the still clearly exhausted Revan into the seat next to her.
Aralakh for the most part had split off now that the mission was complete. Off to recover and rebuild since even though the Company made it out, they had taken some heavy losses.
Grunt, however, had decided to temporarily join them since Wrex needed to be briefed on what happened and in his own words, 'didn't need to waste time writing a report when the leader of Clan Urdnot was right in orbit.'
"Copy that, Commander. Lifting off."
The shuttle jostled as the thrusters kicked in and all around her, Shepard's squadmates began to relax as it became clear the mission was now truly over and small conversations breaking out among those with the energy for it.
"Gotta say, bringing down the roof wasn't something I was expecting from you Tipa Loca." James said to Revan. "That something special, or can those Jedi do the same thing?"
"..." Revan said nothing.
"Revan?"
Slightly worried, Shepard reached out towards her, only for the shuttle to pass through some turbulence. The Sith Empress wobbled bonelessly for a bit before falling sideways into her so that her head was being supported by Shepard's shoulder.
"She's alright." EDI announced before Shepard could panic at the development. "Her armor systems are reporting moderate exhaustion but no injuries. She is currently unconscious."
"And using the Commander as a pillow." James smiled. "Someone want to get a picture of this? Prime blackmail material for our resident Iron Lady."
"I'll be sure to tell her you said that when she wakes up." Shepard commented, giving the lieutenant a glare without shifting her torso too much.
"On second thought, let's not. Or at least blame Joker for it."
That got several chuckles from the surrounding group, but no more comments.
The inside of the shuttle moved into a comfortable silence and Shepard decided that Revan had the right of it. Leaning back and closing her eyes for a moment while they all traveled back to their ship.
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