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The Rachni Queen	By : Hyperion Category: +M through R > Mass Effect Views: 49571 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: Mass Effect and all related characters are property of Bioware and EA Games. I do not profit from this in any way.

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Early settlers on Horizon quickly found that life grew in fierce abundance on the planet. A short while later, they also found that it grew so fiercely it was nearly uncontrollable. Crops needed to be harvested much more frequently than normal to stop them from overgrowing fields in a few days. But once nature could be tamed and the problem brought under control, Horizon's potential as a resource-rich world drew the attention of the Systems Alliance. The small colony founded in the Shadow Sea might have even achieved some of the prosperity Eden Prime had enjoyed, were it not for the fact that it was right next door to the Terminus Systems. Nothing drove away tourists and investors like the perpetual threat of attack by pirates and slavers. Unwilling to let Horizon's potential go to waste, the Alliance had dispatched a powerful anti-aircraft defense system to the colony, as well as an armed guard that patroled the borders day and night.

None of that seemed to have helped Horizon. When the Normandy arrived on the planet, there were all the tell-tale signs of a Collector attack --- not fire or debris or the screams of the innocent, but just a deathly silence that enveloped the entire colony. The only sound that could be heard for miles was the constant buzz of the seeker swarms --- they surrounded the Normandy's crew when they entered the colony, but they did not strike, merely hovering in the air around and above them trying to sense their presence.

"Mordin, you're sure these armor upgrades will protect us from the seeker swarms?"

The salarian's voice crackled over the comm link. "Certainty impossible, but in limited numbers, should confuse detection, make you invisible to swarms. In theory."

"In theory?" Garrus muttered under his breath, "That's encouraging......"

"Experimental technology," Mordin admitted, "Field test only available evaluation. Look forward to seeing if you survive!"

"I've heard of a bad bedside manner," Jacob remarked, "but that guy is something else."

"Quiet," Rose hissed, gesturing at the group to find cover. "Hostiles ahead!"

From a vantage point at the top of one dwelling, they could spot the pair of indistinct figures blocking their path into the colony. The two seemed oblivious to the eyes spying on them, aimlessly shambling about as they awaited orders from their superiors.

"Husks," Garrus swore under his breath as he examined them through his rifle's scope.

Shepard was stunned. "You sure?"

"Not really something you forget."

"Drop them. Quick and easy," Rose ordered.

Two muffled whups rang out through the air as Garrus and Zaeed fired a silenced sniper round each, both bullets expertly aimed to inflict the kind of massive cerebral damage that few organics could recover from, no matter how modified they were. The first bullet punctured a husk's skull, its force and velocity reducing the creature's brain to a mushy pulp that was pulled out after it, splattering gray matter all over the walls. The second bullet went through the remaining husk's eye, dismantling bone and flesh as half the husk's face was blown off, killing it instantly.

"Ugly fuckers," Jack muttered, once they were close enough to examine the bodies. "You're telling me these used to be human beings?"

"The geth did the same thing to colonists on Eden Prime," Rose explained, "We speculated they got the technology from Sovereign, but nobody really knew for sure what the geth could or couldn't do on their own."

"If the Collectors have Husks of their own, the Illusive Man was right," Miranda pointed out, "the Reapers are involved."

The roar of distant engines reverberated through the colony. "They're getting ready to take off!" Jacob yelled. "We gotta move, Shepard!"

Rose vaulted over a gate as she took the lead, sprinting toward the sound of the engines with her team following behind her. "Double time, people! They're not taking this colony without a fight!"

They could see the silhouette of the Collectors' massive ship framed against the clouds of Horizon, but the path to the ship itself was blocked by hordes of Collectors dispatched as cannon fodder to stop them from getting to the vessel. The Collectors sent to fight them would be left behind to die; there were always more where they came from. Ducking and weaving through the bullets sent in their path, the Normandy's crew began returning fire, driving the Collectors back.

"Watch your six!"

Rose spun around and fired off a few round to down the Collector that had sneaked up behind her; a few more trailed behind him as the Collectors tried a two-directional assault. Moments later, another batch of Collectors flew in from the west, and the group found themselves surrounded on all sides, with only the architecture for cover.

“They’re everywhere!” Miranda yelled.

Grunt blew off one Collector’s head and bashed in another’s with his shotgun, before grabbing a pair of enemies and smashing their skulls together. “That just means you shoot and can’t miss!” he roared.

Shepard levitated three fire extinguisher tanks with her biotics, hoisting them far up in the air above the battle. “Garrus, you’re up!”

The turian fired a single bullet that ricocheted between the three tanks, denting each container. The slow hiss of compressed gas building up to an untenable pressure emanated for a few seconds as Rose steadied her aim and flung the tanks right at the Collectors, just in time for the insectoid aliens to get caught in the resulting blasts.

“Keep at it!” she yelled. “We’re driving them back!”

“Shepard,” Zaeed said, “Something’s up with that one….”

One of the remaining Collectors was writhing with what seemed like excruciating pain, although there were no signs that it had been hit by gunfire. It could speak only in agonized howls, and as the crew watched in shock, its back arched at an impossible angle, and they heard its spine snap as it began levitating in the air. But the Collector’s ordeal didn’t end there. More bones cracked audibly as its body began to morph before their eyes --- the talons on its hands grew longer and sharper, it grew taller and broader, and the skin hardened into thick plate armor, which cracked along the edges to reveal a burning golden light emanating from beneath its skin. The mutated Collector slowly raised its head and spoke the first words any of them had ever heard from a Collector’s mouth.

“Assuming control of this form.”

It slammed its fist down into the ground, releasing a biotic shockwave that sent them hurtling back.

“We are the harbinger of your destiny. Do not resist the harvest. You can only fail.”

The being calling itself Harbinger began to walk toward them, slowly but deliberately, his skin deflecting every round they could fire at it. Grunt set aside his gun and charged at Harbinger, seeking to crush him underneath his strength, but Harbinger simply raised one hand and blocked Grunt’s charge cold, stopping him in his tracks. He grabbed the krogan by the throat and lifted him off the ground. The shock in Grunt’s eyes was evident; he’d clearly never even considered the possibility of ever encountering someone stronger than he was.

"Krogan; sterilized race, potential wasted."

The Collector effortlessly hurled Grunt away, sending the krogan crashing through thick walls and landing spread-eagle on a nearby staircase. Grunt shakily pulled himself back onto his feet, but it was going to take some time for him to regain his bearings. Meanwhile, Garrus and Miranda had huddled behind one of the strange barriers the Collector troops brought with them, laying down suppressive fire through biotic warps and concussive rounds; but Harbinger calmly deflected their attacks with a barrier of his own, summoned into existence with his biotic abilities. In the blink of an eye, he surged forward until he was only a few feet away, and then destroyed their barrier with one swing of his fist.

"Turian; you are considered....too primitive."

With another swing of his fist, Garrus was thrown back a dozen feet, crashing through a nearby window. Moving so fast they couldn't even see him, Harbinger swiftly caught Miranda by the throat and lifted her up in the air, studying her carefully.

"Human; genetically enhanced, damaged reproductive system." Miranda's face began to grow blue as Harbinger's grip tightened around her neck, slowly suffocating her. "Value lost."

"NO!" Rose screamed, grabbing the rifle Garrus had dropped and urgently firing off a concussive shot. The round smashed through Harbinger's arm, severing his fist from the rest of it. Miranda tumbled to the ground, gasping as she wrested the Collector's fingers off her throat and tossed the severed fist aside. The loss of a limb didn't seem to bother Harbinger much, and the reason for that soon became clear. The Collector's flesh crackled and boiled before their eyes, and through sheer force of will, he grew a new hand right in front of them.

"This flesh is nothing. As you will soon be." And with that ominous declaration, he set his sights on Shepard.

"Human; cybernetically enhanced, suitable for harvest---"

Harbinger's voice trailed off in the middle of his analysis, as he found in Rose something even an ancient entity with the knowledge of millenia could not have foreseen. "Rachni," he snarled, the word inaudible to any of the crew over the cacophony of gunfire. While they blasted away at his form, the Collector leader stood perfectly still, doing nothing but studying Rose Shepard even as she emptied an entire clip into his chest. His assessment was not wrong --- Rose Shepard's DNA was somehow a hybrid of human and the arachnid race that had once threatened to bring the entire galaxy to his knees. How this had happened, he did not know.......but it certainly made Shepard more valuable now instead of merely another organic to harvest.

"Say goodnight!" Jack yelled, lunging forward to smash a biotically charged fist through the foe's skull, but it was at that moment that Harbinger emerged from his reverie and resumed the fight, casually dismissing Jack with a wave of his arm that sent her flying through the air. Three more Collectors landed on the battlefield, ready for Harbinger's command.

"Kill the others. Bring Shepard to me."

With their backs against the wall, it seemed like their first run-in with the Collectors would be their last, but a deafening roar startled everyone involved in the combat, and the crew of the Normandy watched in amazement as Grunt, ready for battle once more, charged straight at the three Collector drones, ignoring every shot they fired at him as he rammed right into the group, his momentum carrying them all through a wall and into one of the abandoned buildings. Rattled by the impact, the Collectors tried to get back on their feet, but the enraged krogan wasn't having it ---- the next sound anyone heard was the butt of his shotgun smashing in one of their skulls, over and over again.

"Tear them apart!" Jack hollered.

"I've got an idea, but it's going to take some work," Zaeed yelled, "I'm gonna need you biotics to soften him up first!"

Immediately, Jack, Rose, Miranda and Jacob let loose on Harbinger, their combined assault battering away at his defenses and visibly damaging his hard exterior. His skin began to peel away in places, with new cracks forming as the biotic onslaught left him unable to do much other than try and defend himself, but he took slow, heavy steps towards them, determined to overcome and destroy his attackers.

"I.....will......prevail...."

At that moment, Zaeed grabbed a grenade off the belt at his waist, switched up the configuration of his rifle, and fired the small bomb right at Harbinger's head. The velocity of the projectile managed to break through the Collector's skin, and pieces of his skull exploded from his face as the grenade went through his eye and landed inside his head. A second later, it detonated, and Harbinger's head ceased to exist.

"Grow that back, you hideous bastard," Zaeed growled, as Harbinger's host body crumbled into broken flesh before them. It seemed thoroughly dead, but he emptied a few more rounds into the carcass just to be sure.

The brief thrill of victory faded quickly as the roar of the engines reached an apex, and they watched helplessly as the Collector ship began lift-off, rising into the clouds and slowly fading from view. "Dammit!" Rose yelled, "They've got half the colony in that ship!"

"Half the colony's better than the entire colony," Jacob replied, "Not much of a consolation, but it's something. We'll go after them, but we're gonna have to help this colony clean up before that."

"No need. I'll handle it from here."

They turned to locate the source of the voice, and Rose's heart jumped into her throat as she came face-to-face with Gunnery Sergeant Ashley Williams. They hadn't seen each other in two years, but Ash looked just like she remembered. Same rigid military stance, same close-cut hair, and the same brand of combat armor she'd worn during their first meeting on Eden Prime, but with one key difference --- the number "212" emblazoned on the shoulder plating; a remembrance, Rose knew, of the squad Ashley had lost to Saren's geth forces during those eventful days. The armor was buffed and dented in several places, suggesting Ashley had just emerged from her own run-in with the Collectors in some other part of the colony. But the look on her old ally's face was something completely alien to Shepard: distrust, betrayal, and perhaps even the tiniest bit of fear.

"So it's true?" Ashley began, skipping pleasantries, "you're working for Cerberus?" Her gaze shifted to the left. "Garrus, too?"

Rose was stung by the cold greeting, but she recovered quickly. "I'm not working for Cerberus, Ash. The Collectors need to be stopped, and if the Alliance won't help me do it, then I'll just have to find someone who will. Nice to see you too, by the way."

Ashley studied her old commander for long seconds, as if unsure of how to proceed. "I haven't heard from you in two years, Shepard. Why didn't you get in contact?"

"I was dead," Rose shot back, "It made correspondence a little difficult. Where's the hostility coming from, Ashley? We're on the same side here."

"Are we?" Ash replied. "The Alliance has been investigating links between Cerberus and the Collectors for months now. It's just coincidence that a Cerberus squad shows up right after the Collectors attack this colony?"

Miranda snorted. "Typical Alliance attitude. Pretend the problem doesn't exist, until it's staring you in the face, and then try and pin it on someone else."

"You've got it all wrong, Ash," Garrus spoke, "We're trying to stop the Collectors, just like you."

"And how do I know that?" Ashley retorted. "2 years ago, neither of you would have thought working with Cerberus was a good idea. You've seen the things they've done!"

"I understand if you can't trust Cerberus," Rose said, "but you can trust me."

There was a loaded silence before Ashley spoke again, her voice tinged with regret and reluctance. "I --- I don't know if I can, Shepard."

"What?"

"I don't know what Cerberus did to you, Commander," Ashley replied, "You've heard the stories of the things they stick in their own people's heads. They rebuilt you from the ground up. What if you've been brainwashed?"

"We didn't do anything to Shepard's head," Jacob said, "That's completely baseless."

"So you say, but your reputation precedes you guys."

"Ash," Rose interjected, "Come with me, then. Come on-board the Normandy and help me stop the Collectors. Then you'll see I'm still the same person I was."

Ashley shook her head slowly. "I can't, Commander. I don't know where your loyalties lie right now, but mine are where they've always been: with the Alliance." She turned and began to walk away. "You need to leave before the Alliance rescue crew gets here. Cerberus isn't welcome on our colonies."

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"Heard you saw Ash down on Horizon, Shepard."

"I did," Rose sighed, stretching her arms in the cockpit as the Normandy left Horizon's atmosphere. "It didn't go too well." The rest of the crew was settling back into their respective quarters. Fortunately, most of them lacked serious injuries. Miranda was in the Med-Bay, being treated for the bruises Harbinger had left on her neck, but with her enhanced physiology she'd be fully healed in a few hours at worst. Grunt had taken a beating from the Collector leader, but he'd decided against going to the Med-Bay, content to lie down and rest in the Port Hold while his robust krogan anatomy took care of his wounds.

"Where are we headed now?"

"Take us to the Citadel, Joker. It's about time I had that conversation with Anderson. Let's see if I can meet the Council too."

"Understood, Commander. EDI, set a course for the Citadel. The flux capacitors need to be realigned, and while you're at it, switch out the old thermal pipe for the GX-12. Then see how the new setup works with the core regulators---"

"Hold on," Rose interrupted, "how much of the work are you saddling on EDI? 90%?"

Joker's chair swiveled around to face Shepard, his face twisted with mock shock. "Commander, that's harsh! She does way more than that."

"There is no need to worry, Shepard," EDI said. "I only forget to recycle the Normandy's oxygen supply when I am truly overburdened." They stared at her in horror until she slowly added, "That was a joke."

"Your humor's got a tumor, EDI."

While they bantered, the rachni skittering around in the vents discharged its tremendous load of mating pheromones around itself. Since the encounter with Gabby, it hadn't bred another female, and the build-up of reproductive material was affecting it adversely. Normally, it could choose when to release its pheromones, usually around a mate, but now it was so backed up it was practically oozing the stuff. It was horny as all hell, desperately in need of something to fertilize, and anything within several feet of its stench would find their minds floating with the haze of sexual desire.

The fans in the vents began to whir faster as EDI began her scheduled recycling of the Normandy's oxygen supply. New, clean air was pumped through the ship while the old air was ejected out into space. As the fierce winds buffeted the rachni through the vents, slamming it against the wall, they gathered plenty of its pheromones with their currents, filling the vents with alien aphrodisiacs even as the terrified rachni was sent on a one-way course out of the ship. Before it knew what was happening, the automated latch clicked, and the poor creature was fired out into space, where it would float for horrified moments until the explosive decompression killed it.

And so the rachni died, without any of the crew even knowing it had lived. But what it left behind was not quite as easy to eliminate. The recycled air swept through the ship's vents, transferring to the air-conditioning, where it was allowed to spread through every habitated inch of the ship, and inhaled by every crew member. The powerful chemicals triggered silent changes within their bodies that they'd never know were happening, as the males were slowly transformed into carriers of the hybrid-rachni DNA, while the females became suitable as bearers of a next generation of rachni. At least one of them already was; Gabby Daniels breathed in the new air, even as the alien child produced by the combined DNA of Jack and the rachni gradually grew within her belly.

The rest of the Normandy's crew, human and alien, would soon find their sexual drives more powerful than usual. They might set it aside at first, but as time passed it would become harder and harder to ignore.

Up in the captain's cabin, Rose popped open a bottle of Serrice Ice Brandy and began drinking straight from it. It had been an incredibly exhausting day, and she desperately needed to get drunk.
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The Rachni Queen