The shuttle plummets on a dead stick to avoid detection as the Normandy veers away and takes a swarm of darts with her. She disappears behind a wall of flak and into the night as the sky turns blue with day. The floor heats up beneath their feet and Garrus turns to Commander Sheppard.
GARRUS: Joker dropped us a little high.
COMMANDER: You going to be alright?
JOHN: Compared to my trip through the gate
this is going to be a piece of cake.
Just at the end of their freefall before hitting the ground the pilot re-engages the thrusters to soften the landing, but they still create something of a shallow crater. It is dark within the cab, but then the side doors open and the desert sun floods in.
Colonel Shepard shields his eyes with his hands in front of the visor. He has been gifted with a light power suit, which responds well to his movements, but the internal padding is disorienting as it makes him feel submerged in water while still being fully able to breathe. It is one thing to float in space and quite another to stand on the surface and feel sensationless.
The Commander reaches over and presses
a button on the side of the Colonel's
helmet to dim the visor.
JOHN: Thanks.
COMMANDER: You still having trouble?
JOHN: This takes a lot of getting used to.
COMMANDER: I know. It's like trying to
walk and never leaving space. You have
to learn how all over again.
GARRUS: I don't think we can function like this.
GRUNT: He's not looking any better than when
we were on the Normandy.
JOHN: Thanks for the vote of confidence everybody.
You saying I should ditch the suit?
COMMANDER: That's not a good idea.
You'd be safer if you stayed in the shuttle.
JOHN: The shuttle will get painted before you ever
reach the gate. I can fight the Wraith with my own gear.
GARRUS: You're ancestors would do anything
to stay in a fight, Sheppard.
COMMANDER: Let's let the Wraith know
we aren't taking substitutes for the Reapers.
COMMANDER: Let's let the Wraith know
we aren't taking substitutes for the Reapers.
The strike team crests the top of the crater and
look down on where the hive lies mostly buried.
The colonel removes a pair of binoculars.
JOHN: They might have bugged out.
I only see a couple of sentries.
GRUNT: We'll make quick work of them.
JOHN: No, no. Wait!
Grunt is already running down the hill.
Commander Sheppard nods to Garrus
who proceeds to draw up his rifle and
snipes both Wraith. Grunt glances back
at them, annoyed.
JOHN: So he's your Chewy. Got it.
COMMANDER: Let's go.
Grunt waits for them at the mouth of the hive.
GRUNT: We going in, Sheppard?
You owe me for those two.
COMMANDER: They'll be plenty of time for that.
We stay undetected for as long as possible and
plant some charges. Then we'll go on to
secure the Stargate.
JOHN: I have this.
He presents the Atlantean scanner.
GARRUS: It almost doesn't seem fair.
I like it.
Colonel Shepard forges ahead with the hand scanner.
Their lights probe the corridors. The walls are long
dead and rot. They fester and the colonel covers his nose.
COMMANDER: What is it?
GRUNT: I smell it too.
The death has staled,
but not recently.
GARRUS: It shouldn't still smell.
JOHN: Yeah, well it does.
COMMANDER: Maybe blowing this place up
is a waste of ordnance.
They turn the corner to an
intersection strewn with Wraith.
COMMANDER: What's it say?
Are they dead?
JOHN: Well that's the problem with this thing.
If any of them are hibernating it won't
detect them. But then I think they
need a stasis chamber for that.
COMMANDER: We follow the power.
Garrus casts an orange glow from his
omni tool onto Colonel Shepard.
JOHN: What is that?
GARRUS: Scanning for the strongest power
source I can find. I think life sign detecting
is too subtle for it. You keep a lookout.
They begin to mince through the Wraith.
GRUNT: Shoot.
He states matter-of-factly and proceeds to
blast one of the Wraith and causes
everyone else to turn on their heels.
GRUNT: What? I said shoot.
He said we couldn't
trust they were dead.
COMMANDER: I think they're dead, Grunt.
He contemplates the Wraith he shot.
GRUNT: Ok.
GARRUS: This way, please.
Garrus takes the lead with the commander close behind while John and Grunt take up the rear. The colonel abruptly stops at a closed door. He raises the scanner to the door and then attempts to apply the controls to open it. The organic material doesn't budge and he takes to trying to pry it open.
GRUNT: What is it?
JOHN: Hey, listen. Don't shoot whatever this is
unless it lunges at us, alright?
GRUNT: I can wait.
Commander Sheppard and Garrus double back.
COMMANDER: What did you find?
JOHN: One life sign.
Someone's still here.
COMMANDER: Grunt, the door.
JOHN: Gee, thanks. If you can
just grab this right here.
Garrus is already pushing him to the side before
he can finish and Grunt raises his blaster to burst
through to the other side. The commander forges
ahead in first. Grunt pauses to speak near John's ear.
GRUNT: Work smarter, not harder.
JOHN: (at a loss for words)
Right on.
Right on.
Inside, the queen's former advisor barely breathes.
John is distantly conscious of being in the throne
room and focuses on the Wraith that he now stands
over who he just saw only a few hours ago.
JOHN: What happened?
WRAITH: She waits for you, the
destroyer of us all.
He breathes his last.
COMMANDER: What was that about?
GARRUS: Shepard... I mean, Colonel.
Are these marks the sign of feeding?
Garrus is kneeling over one of the drones.
JOHN: Yeah. She's feeding on
her own kind now.
COMMANDER: What can we expect?
JOHN: That she'll be relentless.
The Normandy glides through the solar system on its way to a gas giant that will prove a strong propellent to slingshot from. The darts have long fallen behind, fooled by the incremental increase in speed established by EDI. She continues to check her calculations against the maneuver around the gas giant in order to maintain momentum.
EDI: I'm sending you the necessary coordinates
where will be the exact moment we need
to go to FTL if this is going to work.
JOKER: Don't worry about it.
We got this, no problem.
A shadow looms from around the planet ahead of them.
JOKER: Problem.
EDI: We can't alter course.
I won't be able to correct.
JOKER: Maybe they won't see us.
EDI: You would say that.
They draw nearer into view and in passing
the other side is illuminated to confirm
their worst fears come true.
EDI: Reaper.
JOKER: Oh, you've got to be
kidding me right now!
EDI: One minute to jump coordinates.
JOKER: It won't take them that
long to see us.
EDI: Hold your course.
JOKER: They just need to get one shot
off at us. We don't stand a chance
staying in a straight line.
EDI: We're not. We're following the
curve of the planet and they don't
appear to have detected us
through the stealth mode.
Drone swarms zip from the Reaper.
JOKER: New contacts!
EDI: 30 seconds to jump coordinates.
At current course and speed
I think we'll outrun them.
JOKER: You think?
The drones fire and miss by a wide margin.
EDI: Don't let them scare you.
JOKER: This is the thinnest needle
I ever threaded and now the Reapers
are still resurrected.
EDI: It's just the one so far.
15 seconds to jump coordinates.
JOKER: (dismissive) Just the one. Right.
Say goodbye to your cousin, EDI.
EDI: My cousin?
The Normandy jumps to FTL.
The Wraith queen smells the air. The wind whistles and gently blows wisps of sand across the rocky surface and threatens the inner workings of the DHD. Behind her is the crew programming the Stargate. She turns to a drone who activates his gauntlet to be shown a crude map and blinking light.
QUEEN: Bring him to me.
A new signal appears on Garrus' omni tool.
GARRUS: Wait a minute. There's something...
something right here.
COMMANDER: It's the Colonel.
GARRUS: Something you would like to tell us?
JOHN: I didn't think it was important when I thought
the queen was dead. But they tagged me before
I left the hive. They used invasive surgery
to put in a tracker. Wraith have runners,
humans they use for sport.
COMMANDER: You described a planetary operation
that the Wraith were engaged in. Why screw around
with sending you through the Stargate?
JOHN: This queen has taken out a personal
vendetta against me for waking them up
too early. In my time, the Wraith were
turning on one another for lack of food.
GRUNT: Then a glorious battle is before us.
GARRUS: That's a pretty lousy handicap to have
them know exactly where we are.
COMMANDER: They're only tracking the Colonel.
I think we might be able to use this.
Wraith crest the hill that overlooks the hive. Mute as they are, the drones coordinate amongst themselves in their minds several who will go around the hive continuing to walk along the top of the dune and the rest forge down into the crater to be the first to confront the intruders of their long dilapidated hive.
Colonel Shepard takes in a deep breath and lets it out and marches from the entrance of the hive.
He does not raise his weapon, but rather just stands there. One of the Wraith looks down and points and they all flood across the ground as bipedal locus. Shepards retreats beneath a hail of blue energy that is their unmistakable stunner fire.
Once up the neck of the first hallway, the colonel spins on his heels and blazes the pursuing Wraith with his P-90. The bullets are spent all too quickly and only three drones felled. He sets to running again and keeps pace to make it all the way to the gaping chasm where the darts would be housed.
Shepard is nearly too spent to make it across the intended foot bridge before him, but is driven on by resuming stunner fire. He is part way across at a limp and one wraith raises their stunner while another rests a hand to push it back down. The unspoken understanding: if Shepard falls here there will be no proof to bring back to the queen. The Wraith begin to pursue across the bridge.
Overhead, Commander Sheppard rests a thumb on a remote. His HUD flashes an imaginary line once the colonel has crossed it and he presses the button. The bridge explodes at both ends and the doomed Wraith fall out of sight into the depths.
There remains about a dozen Wraith who had pursued this far into the hive and hadn't yet stepped out on the bridge. Grunt appears from behind at a steady march and proceeds to blast away with shotgun type rounds. The stunner blasts disperse ineffectually across his armor. Garrus picks off the last of them while standing near the Commander.
GARRUS: Seem like we should
have gotten more of them.
Garrus is shot in the back and
though unharmed turns in surprise.
COMMANDER: You were saying?
Colonel Shepard looks up to see the blue and yellow flashes on the platform above. He still has a long way to be able to reach them. Grunt sees across the way that he is about to run.
GRUNT: Stop.
Grunt looks up.
GRUNT: Commander Sheppard,
we'll never reach you in time.
GARRUS: Agreed. Plan B.
Trade me, Commander.
Garrus takes the M-8 Avenger in exchange for his sniper rifle, which the commander takes riding a cable down to meet Grunt and the colonel. Meanwhile, Garrus blazes away at the Wraith and waits for them to start getting picked off with the sniper rifle. He then retreats the same way under Commander Sheppard's covering fire.
COMMANDER: Now for the gate.
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