Shisk clicked his teeth as he processed everything Shepard had just finished saying. Really, he didn't know what to think.
"You take Chakwas away?"
Shepard shrugged.
"Not quite. Dr. Chakwas is more interested in medical processes, useful on your homeworld, and she is more than capable of acting in combat situations, but it isn't her interest. Me on the other hand, I like combat. Simply put, when we're going to put you on the Collector Ship, you and your Vorcha Labor Team will be switched out with a more combat focused Blacklight individual. I'm to be your partner. You will still be able to speak with Chakwas through me, though."
Shisk clicked his teeth as he thought on it. It was at this point Chakwas made herself known.
'It was an eventuality. I'm not as interested in fighting as Shepard here, never was. I'm a thinker and a healer, not a fighter. It helped on your home world as combat there would be best suited to how Vorcha normally act, but Shepard can do a much better job than I can as your partner for this specific task.'
Shisk sniffed loudly before clicking his teeth.
"Fine."
"You can keep Chakwas until the Collectors get back, and like I said you will still be able to speak to her through me. Anyway, once the Collectors return they will go through the Omega-4 relay. We will keep you in suspended animation on that relay itself. Once the ship returns we'll get you on it."
Shisk tilted his head as he clicked his teeth together.
"I keep Chakwas till time, but... Shisk thought we go through red relay?"
"I can understand the confusion, but we have other plans, plus we want to know where the Collectors go when in known space. At least on this end we can act. On that end however, well we can't follow, not yet anyway.", said Shepard.
Shisk sniffed as he stood up.
"Shisk ready. Labor pack ready. We go now to relay to wait."
"Not just yet, we're waiting for the Collectors. They should arrive today, but before that, I need you to see something. Follow me."
The Bioship containing the minds of Miranda and Jack looked outward to the stars. It was not difficult figuring out where they were in relation to the galaxy, it was only a matter of looking at the stars. Calculations were made and the nearest relay they knew of was unfortunately several hundred light years away, worse still it was near a Salarian planet.
Sneaking past the Salarians would be no easy task, but with the amount of Biomass available, there were options. Lots and lots of options. So long as they returned to the main hive, and didn't do anything too drastic, it would be fine.
Shisk looked around the room. Biofilm covered the walls and waving red vines or tendrils snaked around the room. In this area were a lot of Blacklight Evolved, all partially fused to the walls, but seemingly fully aware. A few moved their heads to look at Shisk directly before turning back to a large table-like metal podium at the center of the room. Mechanical parts attached to the center displayed a hologram of what looked to be the Collector Ship.
"The gang's all here."
"Acknowledged."
Shisk clicked his teeth as he looked around the room.
"Wat dat?"
"Shisk, Vorcha Warboss. Greetings, We are Geth."
Shisk looked to Shepard who said nothing. It was instead a familiar voice that spoke to him.
'We have been very busy.' spoke Chakwas. 'The Geth have been a great help to our plans.'
"So now that everyone is here, we can get this little infiltration mission started and everyone up to speed.", spoke one of the Evolved seemingly fused to the walls.
The Hologram became just a bit larger as everyone looked to it.
"Collector Cruiser is a hybrid of organic protrusions with a metallic superstructure. Most of the ship is not shielded against scanning methods used by Geth. The scans available show an interior which consists of cave-like hallways, and vast open areas. All Geth probes were quickly found and destroyed before a full scan. Only 17.87% of the interior structure is known."
Parts of the hologram seemed to change. Shisk watched everything with a curious gaze. Eventually the Hologram seemed to zoom into a portion of the ship, one that seemed to not be fully mapped out.
"This section is one area shielded against all possible scans. Consensus among Geth was drawn. We believe this to be the location of the IFF needed to pass Relay designated Omega-4."
Shepard nodded before turning to Shisk.
"That area is where we need you to get to. Once there, the Geth can do the rest."
"Geth do rest? Wat you mean?"
Before Shepard could speak, the Hologram disappeared and the Geth spoke once more.
"Each Vorcha laborer will carry 587 Geth Programs on each of their Omnitools. Once you infiltrate the section believed to contain the IFF, Geth programs will enter the Cruiser and begin collecting data to be sent to back to Geth and shared with Blacklight."
Shisk sniffed before turning back to Shepard.
"Den what?"
"Then you and your squad will covertly move through the ship to areas the Geth tell you. Now, initially we planned on staging an ambush and taking the whole ship for ourselves, then pilot it with Geth and Rachni, but that recently changed.", said Shepard as he pointed back to the Hologram projector, which now displayed what Shisk thought looked like a fat, green, and very ugly Hanar.
"This, is our ace in the hole. You see recently, we came across a rather unique species. They call themselves Leviathans.", said Shepard as he looked to Shisk who was watching the image and clicking his teeth.
"You see, these guys here are the creators of the Reapers. They are very sorry for it to, so out of the kindness of their thirty six hearts they have decided to help us. Now I'm sure all of you know what Reaper Indoctrination is. In actuality this ability is not unique to the Reapers. Leviathans can do something very similar, there are a few differences, but nothing substantial. The Leviathans call their version Enthrallment."
The Hologram of the Leviathan flickered out of view before Shepard continued.
"Once the Geth are in the Collector Cruiser, they will be able to fully map out the ship. Shisk, this is where you come in. Vorcha Labor teams will be able to move around with ease, and we're going to set up a surprise for the Collectors.", said Shepard.
Shisk watched as A long tentacle came from one of the Blacklight Evolved attached to the wall. It lowered something onto the Table. It wasn't until the tentacle moved that Shisk was able to see four silver orbs.
Salarian space was a place filled with more fast talkers than an auctioneer family reunion, or at least Jack thought so. Standing next to Jack was Miranda, both disguised as Salarian females. Arms crossed, they examined the area around them. Salarians, Salarians everywhere, all of them in a damn fine hurry to get to somewhere.
"You know what this reminds me of?", asked Jack.
"Get busy living or get busy dying.", said Miranda.
"You're God Damn right.", said Jack.
They both smirked at what they thought was clever before looking out a far off window that displayed the black void of space.
'Any idea on what kind of ship the rest of our biomass needs to get on?'
'A cargo ship would be best, more places to hide it until we can get back to the collective. It would be nice if the varren minds could develop faster.'
Jack shrugged.
'I like them when they are stupid. Why didn't we bring them with us? We could say we are exotic pet salesmen.'
'Brilliant, we'll just use those cages we don't have and stuff a dozen or so varren in there.'
'Alright alright I get it, let's just find a ship.'
Miranda sighed as she looked to the Viral Scanner that lead to the official ships for tourist transport.
'Looks like we're going to need to find some of the more unofficial transports.'
'Great. We're on a planet of nerds and we need to find a criminal who won't ask questions and will bring us close enough to Blacklight to actually get our knowlede back to the hive. That won't be difficult.'
Once again, Miranda sighed.
A horrid hive of organic and mechanical components drifted through the void as it adjusted its orbit around the Relay. Only minutes after it entered the system, the Collector craft was preparing to enter the Omega-4 relay to uncharted space. On Omega itself stood Shepard, watching the distant relay as the ship entered the field of influence of the relay, and left through the esoteric red glow of that very unique relay.
Once the ship was gone, Shepard nodded, and moved away from the docks to meet with his new partner. After a brisk walk, Shepard found himself standing next to Shisk, who seemed to be fiddling with his omnitool. Shepard watched intently, and was somewhat intrigued to see Shisk was watching footage from Shanxi, when the Turians landed and were consumed by microbes in the very air. Shepard crossed his arms as Shisk turned off the screen.
"The Collector ship just passed the relay. You ready to get everything set up?", asked Shepard.
Shisk clicked his teeth as he stood up, but otherwise said nothing. Shepard watched as the Vorcha seemed to contemplate something. What that was Shepard didn't know, but he had a feeling he would find out in a moment.
"Shisk wan talk to Chakwas first."
Shepard blinked before nodding. It didn't really matter, he would know whatever Shisk told Chakwas, but it was more for the Vorcha's benefit than anything else. Once Shepard was gone Shisk looked to the seemingly normal clothing he wore.
"Shisk wan to know somethin?"
'Ask away.", said Chakwas cheerfully.
"Why you help Vorcha? Yes, Vorcha help Blacklight, but Krogan better. Live longer too."
'What brought this on?'
"Don know. Shisk not used to others help. Dey look at Vorcha, see pest. Can't blame them, Vorcha get angry easy. Shisk once bit Elcor when Shisk thought it try take food. Shisk wrong, Elcor called guards. Shisk ran and hid. Shisk learn not to bite unless sure."
'I see... Well, I won't lie to you Shisk. Us helping you furthers our goals in the long run, but even if that weren't the case, we would still help you. Its the right thing to do.'
"Why?"
'You would be surprised what a few billion conjoined minds would do for a collective's fundamental morals and philosophies. As a whole, Blacklight's main belief can be summed up as there is no meaning, no fate, save what we choose, so why not be good?'
Shisk couldn't think of a reason not to be good, but he was curious, so he asked a simple follow up question.
"Why not be bad?"
'Because it hurts others. It fosters in others a desire to hurt us. That's all the reason we need not to be bad,' said Chakwas simply.
"Shisk don get it."
'It's just a conscious choice on our part.'
"Why? Why make that choice."
'That is a complicated question with a complicated answer, you sure you want to hear it?'
"Yes."
'We live in a vast universe, existing on a few planets in a few solar systems in one comparatively small galaxy among hundreds of billions of other galaxies. Life, from what we've seen, does all it can to carve meaning out of the vast world around them, when life may very well be meaningless. When confronted with that, we bumble around for meaning. Many species have their own interpretations. They may all be wrong, and probably are.'
Shisk blinked, that was a callous and empty way to view the universe, he... Well he didn't like it.
'Our interpretation is this: We are insignificant, the universe is indifferent to the hopes and desires of anything within it. Values and meaning is arbitrary, our existence is arbitrary, and we exist as we do because of cosmic happenstance. As such it's meaningless.', said Chakwas.
"However...", said Shepard who made himself known."...That doesn't mean you have to be a dick about it or complain to an uncaring universe over the unfairness of it all. We exist, so lets go do stuff, fun stuff, interesting stuff. If you want meaning, well then go make your own meaning. If it is valid to you, or makes you feel better, then it DOES have meaning. Simple as that."
'So why hurt anyone when all that does is cause a big mess? It's much more pragmatic and ethical to do the right thing, works much better in the long run. That, and those people are just as lost as we are, no need to make things more difficult.'
"Some people when confronted with their own insignificance go bat shit insane, we just laugh at it. Stupid people say ignorance is bliss, we say insignificance is bliss."
Shisk clicked his teeth before giving a simple loud sniff, then he nodded.
"Shisk can accept that. Shisk ready."
Shepard smiled as he made his way back to Shisk.
"Shall we go?"
Shisk sniffed loudly, and followed Shepard to the Docks.
(Bonus Scene)
Fucking with Aria
Aria watched the feeds. Blacklight with Vorcha, Blacklight buying sabotage equipment for the Vorcha, Blacklight examining the Omega-4 relay. They were up to something and she really wanted to know what it was.
"What are you up to," said Aria with a glare.
It wasn't a question so much as a declaration of curiosity. It was obviously something related to the Collectors, the question was why the sudden interest. Then something stupid entered her auditory canal.
"You could ask them.", said the Batarian next to her.
Aria's eye twitched a bit as her mind came up with the logical conclusion of how that would go.
'Hey Blacklight, what have you been up to?' asked imaginary Aria with a sweet and innocent childlike smile.
'Sorry, we can't tell you or we eats ya.', thought Aria in what she imagined as a rather good imitation of a Blacklight's voice.
'Awww! But I really wanted to know, pretty please!'
'Om nom nom!'
"That is without a doubt the dumbest thing you have ever said in all your life… I have no idea how you even function. Just stand there and look intimidating," said Aria as she crossed her arms.
"No one is here but you, me, and that guy. It's not like there is anyone around to intimidate.", said the Batarian as he pointed to her other guard, a Turian who seemed to get the memo of just standing around and looking intimidating.
"You do know the only reason I don't kill you right now is because I think doing so would count as a hate crime against the mentally disabled?", asked Aria as she glared at the guard.
"Shutting up now."
"Smartest thing you have ever said."
"Ma'am, maybe they are going after the Collectors."
Aria turned to the Turian who had chosen only now to speak. She raised a brow and just stared at him, waiting to see if he would continue. He did not, mostly because his eyes were damn near glued forward and he was standing up so straight that Aria could swear that if he so much as twitched, then that stick up his ass would fly out of his ass at a sufficient velocity to break through the walls and kill a Thresher Maw half a galaxy away.
"Holy fucking shit, you must be a fucking wizard of infinite wisdom, I couldn't have ever figured that out for myself. After all the Collectors are the only damn thing that comes and goes through that stupid fucking relay, it just seems so fucking obvious that I can't believe I didn't think of it. Truly you are the wisest of us all. Please, enlighten us for we are as amoeba to you.", said Aria mockingly.
She sighed as he offered no response at all. It kind of pissed her off, damn Turian military training.
"Fucking dumbass, here is a better question fuck head: What exactly do they even fucking want with the Collectors?"
"Unknown at this time ma'am."
"Wow! That is really fucking useful.", said Aria lazily.
The guard remained silent.
"Yeah, thought so."
Aria looked back to the screens before she sighed.
"Just keep an eye on them, this shit screams hostile takeover. If that is the case, I want to know why, and if possible, find a way to profit from it. And be stealthy about it, I don't want Blacklight knowing we're watching them."
"Aria is watching us.", said Shepard as he looked to the sixth person identified as one of Aria's guards passed by doing his damnedest to look like he wasn't watching them.
"You would think a Batarian wouldn't have trouble being inconspicuous about watching someone, they do have four eyes," said Ashley as she tapped on her now string-less guitar bored out of her minds.
"Is that racist? It sounds racist.", said Shepard.
"I don't know... Maybe?", said Ashley bored.
"Technically.", said Kaiden as he idly fiddled with some guitar strings. "Species-ist would be the correct term, that or xenophobic."
"Can I have those strings back now?", asked Ashley.
"Nope."
Ashley's head hit the table as she groaned.
"What do you mean they know we are watching them and they just don't care?", asked Aria.
"Just that. That one who you first talked to when Blacklight arrived, he, she, it, Whatever, said out loud 'Aria is Watching us', then something about strings, " said the Batarian.
"...Just ...Just get out of here."
"Okay."
Aria sighed as she massaged her head. She opened her eyes and looked to the stick-up-his-ass Turian.
"You, go find one of Blacklight and ask them to come here."
"Yes Ma'am."
Aria nodded as she crossed her arms. Today was a very frustrating day.
Shepard smiled as she looked at Aria, who was doing her best to shoot lasers out of her face. At least that's what Shepard assumed she was trying to do, what with that look of complete concentration and consternation.
"Hello again Aria."
Aria somewhat recognized the Individual, though the evolved was a bit different now.
"Weren't you male last time you were here or do you just switch between the two for shits and giggles?"
"Yes."
"...Moving on, what is going on with Blacklight and the Fucking Collectors?"
"Is that all? You know all you had to do was ask."
Aria looked to her Batarian guard who had a smile on his face. Her eye twitched.
"I'm asking now."
Shepard nodded.
"Well... Giant Robot Squid Gods from beyond the stars are coming to kill us all, but ESPECIALLY Blacklight, unleashing pain, insanity, death, and genocide across the cosmos because of an artificial intelligence invented by Giant Not-Robot Squid Gods that thinks the best way to save life is to kill it and turn it into a Giant Robot Squid God."
"...Ok, now the truth this time."
"We want to find the Collectors so we can harvest their souls and give their skulls to the Chaos God Khorne to help improve his throne's lumbar support. Apparently Collector heads agree with the non-euclidean geometry of his ethereal spine. Then, we will use Collector blood to write a book dedicated to Slaanesh. The book will be an erotic dramatic horror comedy romance about a secret zero-gravity bondage relationship between the Citadel Councilor Tevos and an old and tortured but ultimately sensitive Krogan named Fisty. We're thinking of calling it Blue and Black in the Back. We're hoping it will rival Fifty Shades of Cancerous Viral Mass… I mean Grey."
There was a long period of silence between everyone in the room.
"Do you remember the first rule of Omega?", asked Aria with a glare.
"We don't talk about Omega?", asked Shepard with a smile.
"DON'T FUCK WITH ARIA!"
"I'm not, and though I must admit I'm flattered that you'd think I am, I'm asexual. Plus Blacklight tends to forgo 'Equipment', If you know what I mean. Dangly bits tend to get in the way. Really we only break them out for raves. They make the dancing more expressive."
Aria then proceeded to pull out a pistol and aim it at Shepard, who looked at it and smiled. Aria glared at Shepard as she rose from her couch.
"Fuck with me one more FUCKING TIME... And I swear I will shoot you until you stop moving, then I will keep shooting you until the block of metal in this gun is GONE. I don't even care if it wouldn't work, one way or another, I'll make you a fucking SMEAR ON THE GROUND.", said Aria.
"Cute.", said Shepard as she examined the gun.
Aria took in a deep breath and lowered the pistol. Shepard shook her head before her expression shifted.
"WE ARE THE GODS WHO ROAM AMONGST THE STARS. WE ARE THE BRINGERS OF THE END. WE ARE THE WILL OF THE HARVEST. COUNTLESS OTHERS HAVE FALLEN TO US. THE CYCLE CAN NOT AND WILL NOT BE BROKEN. THOUGH YOUR PRESENCE HAS CHANGED THE CYCLE, IT REMAINS FUNDAMENTALLY THE SAME. TENS OF THOUSANDS OF CIVILIZATIONS HAVE CRUMBLED TO DUST IN OUR WAKE, AND COUNTLESS MORE WILL FOLLOW LONG AFTER YOU ARE GONE. WHAT ARE YOU BEFORE US."
Aria froze at the alien voice that came from Shepard's lips. She was no longer smiling.
"What the Fuck was that?"
"When we first met, I showed you a representation of a ship you said exited the Omega-4 rely, and we told you acceptance was our goal, and it is still our goal. However, something threatens that."
Shepard raised her hand as she looked to Aria.
"We can show you, Asari genetic material has given us the ability to meld much like you. We can limit our mind so we can show you them, we can show you the Reapers. What they plan on doing, what they are, and why we are interested in the collectors. Would you rather we tell you, or show you?"
Aria stared at the outreached hand for only a moment before looking to her guards.
"If it looks like a trap, shoot me in the head."
The guard looked to Aria with wide eyes.
"M-ma'am."
"You can't kill blacklight with guns, I would much rather die as myself than be eaten and converted.", said Aria.
He took a step forward.
"We would never do that, you have OUR word."
Aria stood before Shepard as she placed her palm on Arias head.
"Embrace Eternity."
"Don't push it."
"Then hold on tight."
That was the last words Aria heard, before all she knew was ceaseless death.