Tuchanka

[pattersongs]

Mordin's spent most of the time the Normandy's been in the krogan DMZ hard at work in his shipboard lab. Today, though... today is different. Today it's time to deal with the message he got earlier. The chickens, as the human would say, have come home to roost; the krogan have hold of one of his students, one who worked on altering the genophage with him, and absolutely no reason to treat him well...

There was some talking earlier, back at the Clan Urdnot camp. Mordin let Shepard do it. It was safer. They got a massively built krogan armored truck to take them out towards Clan Weyrloc territory, where Maelon was last seen. They went, rumbling through landscape distressingly like so much else of Tuchanka: blasted, broken, torn apart by a race only the toughest of planets could produce.

And now they're here at one of the few reasonably intact buildings they've passed so far. "Repurposed krogan hospital," Mordin comments as they make their way into the relative safety of the inner halls. "Sturdy. Built to withstand punishment."

Comments

[paragonsoldier.livejournal.com]

Shepard briefly touches a support pillar. "Because it might have been an artillery target?" she asks. Until recently krogan really didn't go for the whole "don't hit civilian targets" thing.

[pattersongs]

"Krogan anatomy highly redundant," says Mordin. "Switching from primary to secondary organs perfectly natural, but not exactly simple process. Krogan patients tend to get extra violent when it happens."

There's a motion to one side, a brief flash of red; the justicar, Samara, has caught sight of something. Wordlessly she indicates a form slumped at the foot of the stairs.

Mordin's breath catches. "That body. Human. Need to take a look."

[paragonsoldier.livejournal.com]

Shepard motions for Zaeed and Samara to watch the corridor while she kneels down beside the body, opposite Mordin.

[pattersongs]

Mordin's omnitool flickers briefly orange as he holds his arm out over the corpse. A holographic human figure appears, blue-lit, with various places marked out in red as he sweeps his tool from head to foot. Mordin notes, almost absently, "Sores, tumors, ligatures showing restraint at wrists and ankles. Track marks for repeated injection sites. Test subject. Victim of experimentation."

[paragonsoldier.livejournal.com]

Shepard lets out a slow breath. "I don't suppose there's a way to tell who this poor bastard was?"

[pattersongs]

Mordin shakes his head. "No tattoos or ID. Maybe slave or prisoner. Maybe merc or pirate. Irrelevant now," he says, his tone lower and more subdued than usual. "Clearly part of krogan tests to cure genophage."

A human might glance up briefly to see if Shepard were following. Mordin's well-used to assessing the silences of others by now, though; he recognizes what he's not hearing, and adds a flat, "Humans useful as test subjects. Genetically diverse. Enables exploration of treatment modalities."

[paragonsoldier.livejournal.com]

Shepard (barely) manages to keep her lashing out at Mordin verbal rather than physical. "Experimenting on humans? That kind of crap is what makes Cerberus start to seem like a good idea!"

[pattersongs]

Mordin's eyes narrow; he nods. "Never used humans myself. Disgusting, unethical, sloppy," he mutters. "Used by brute-force researchers, not thinkers. No place in proper science. Krogan use of humans unsurprising."

Shepard's probably heard Mordin's opinion of krogan science in general before this. This is just confirmation.

[paragonsoldier.livejournal.com]

Shepard calms down a little. But not much. "I imagine you had to do some live subject testing while developing the new genophage."

[pattersongs]

"No, unnecessary" Mordin answers, as much for Zaeed and Samara's benefit as for Shepard's. "Limited tests to simulations, corpses, cloned tissue samples. High level tests on varren. No tests on species with members capable of calculus. Simple rule, never broke it."

[paragonsoldier.livejournal.com]

Shepard frowns at Mordin. "Are you joking about the calculus? No, never mind." She considers what he said about varren. "Wouldn't varren have worked better for this? They're native to Tuchanka."

[pattersongs]

"Wouldn't joke about this," says Mordin. And then: "Not at first. Human experiments strictly high level, concept testing. Native Tuchanka fauna likely used later, in development stages. Wise to delay use of varren until necessary. Powerful bite."

[paragonsoldier.livejournal.com]

"What did you mean about humans being more genetically diverse?"

[pattersongs]

Mordin does glance up at that, looking briefly from Zaeed to Samara before looking back to Shephard. "More variable than other sentient speices. Peaks and valleys, mutations, adaptations. Far beyond other life. Makes humans useful test subjects. Larger reactions to smaller stimuli."

[paragonsoldier.livejournal.com]

There's something in that, something about why the Reapers are stealing humans. Shepard can almost...

No, no time for that now. "What can you tell about their experiments from looking at the body?"

[pattersongs]

Back to the hologram. Mordin indicates the glowing red circles. "Position of tumors suggests deliberate mutation of adrenal, pineal glands. Modifying hormone levels. Counterattack on glands hit by genophage." Almost grudgingly he adds, "Clever."

[paragonsoldier.livejournal.com]

'Clever' is not the word Shepard would have used. "Do you think they're close to curing the genophage?"

[pattersongs]

Mordin doesn't have to like what he sees to acknowledge it.

"Can't say. Need more data." He's forced to admit, "Conceptually sound, though. Genophage alters hormone levels. Could repair damage with hormonal counterattack."

[paragonsoldier.livejournal.com]

"Now we've got two reasons to shut this place down," Shepard says. She has moral issues with the original introduction of the genophage, but she knows what would happen if it were suddenly cured. It would be bad.

[pattersongs]

"Focus on Maelon," Mordin says, coming to his feet and switching his omnitool off. "Too late to help the dead."

[paragonsoldier.livejournal.com]

Shepard nods grimly, getting to her feet. "Let's go, people," she says.

There's fighting, of course Clan Weyrloc has both krogan and vorcha warriors waiting for them in the hospital atrium. And lots of varren. But between them they have enough biotics (mostly Samara's) and firepower to push through.

Upon exiting the atrium, they come into a large two-story chamber: there's a balcony above and to the left of them. Shepard and her team don't notice the krogan standing on it until one of them steps forward and addresses them.

"I am the speaker for Clan Weyrloc, offworlders," he thundered. "You have spilled our blood. By rights, you should be dead already. But Weyrloc Guld, the Chief of Chiefs, has ordered that you be given leave to flee and spread the message of our coming."

Shepard doesn't put her weapon away: she tries to keep an eye on all the krogan at once. "Krogan don't generally let people go," she observes. "What does Clan Weyrloc have planned?"

"If you walk away now, you can tell your children that you saw Clan Weyrloc before our Blood Pack conquered the stars," the Speaker gloats. "You think the Urdnot are impressive? They are pitiful. Weyrloc Guld will destroy them! The salarian will cure the genophage and Clan Weyrloc will spread across the galaxy in a sea of blood!"

[pattersongs]

That was not something Mordin wanted to hear, but there's nothing to be done about that now. "Appears they discovered Maelon's work," he murmurs. "Unfortunate."

[paragonsoldier.livejournal.com]

"It doesn't have to happen like this!" Shepard insists. "I can understand wanting to cure the genophage..."

"No, human, you understand nothing!" the Weyrloc Speaker roars. "You have not seen the piles of children that never lived!" the Speaker continues, pacing back and forth.
The krogan were wronged! and then we will have our revenge!"

"If you care about the future of Clan Weyrloc, you'll hand over Maelon. Now," Shepard says. She doesn't anticipate that her request will be met.

"When we cure the genophage, Weyrloc Guld will rule all krogan!" the Speaker bellows. "The Krogan Rebellions will become the Krogan Empire! The surviving races will frighten their children with tales of..."

Tucked just beneath the balcony he's standing on, Shepard notices, is a cylindrical tank stamped with a stylized flame graphic. It looks newer than the rest of the hospital, so maybe...

Shepard fires, opening a small hole in the tank.

The Speaker is initially startled, then amused. "Look at this! The human cannot even hit a simple target!" he crows. Despite his confidence, his companions step back from the edge of the balcony.

"You talk too much," Shepard says, and pulls the trigger again.

The boom isn't as loud as she expected, and there's not much in the way of concussive waves - at least, not from where she's standing - but the fireball is very big.

[pattersongs]

Frankly, after some of that ranting, Mordin finds the ensuing firefight (of course there's a firefight, krogan are too tough to kill that easily) positively therapeutic. Having a right to his rage doesn't make the Speaker's words any easier to have heard.

Besides, the Weyrloc had vorcha with them. That's never a good sign.

[paragonsoldier.livejournal.com]

When it appears to be all over, Shepard surveys the room just to make sure. All the bad guys are dead, and her people are all still alive. Not too bad.

"Everyone all right?" she asks.

"Yeah," says Zaeed.

"Fine," says Samara.

"Good," Shepard says. "Let's keep moving."

They leave the chamber, continuing down more of those twisty, darkened corridors that make Shepard especially nervous.