Hey everybody and welcome to chapter 2! I was amazed with the response I got from you guys, so I'm hoping to set this up right and get regular updates for you guys! Ok so the first chapter took me about 2 months to write... yeah...I know...that's a long time...but I hope to be better! Though I will admit that some weeks I didn't write anything at all and others? I wrote loads... anyway I'm sure you're all curious as to how this story is going to go and to tell you the truth...I don't either? This story started off as one idea, I don't know who's going to be in it and I don't know how long it'll be either but I'm going to try my best! So, there may be characters you wouldn't expect, I mean heck the story might go somewhere I never expected, but it'll be good(hopefully) and entertaining (also hopefully) so sit back, relax and hope to God that I stop rambling on and get on with the story! Criticism is always welcome, and I hope to get a chapter out either every 2 weeks or months! If I've been unusually quiet just badger me until I do something, in the mean time I really have to stop rambling and get on with this...is it always this hard? So, with the blanket statement I own nothing and have nothing to do with Bioware the creators of Mass Effect or Irrational the creators of Bioshock, with nothing left to mention I say onwards and let's get this story moving!

Chapter 2

Strange noises echoed within the submersible, the disjointed music combined with the echoing sounds of whale calls caused a unique if creepy musical backdrop to the ocean view and rapidly approaching underwater city, though as creepy as it was it was also hauntingly beautiful, to see the sea life swimming through the middle of the city, to see whales swimming faintly in the distance, faded like a ghost haunting its grave. Mordin wasted no time and was coming up with theories about why the city was there and how it had been maintained these presumed 200 years.

"Interesting, amount of effort required to build a city of such size, incredible, thousands no, tens of thousands of hours required regularly to maintain it, resource requirement alone, staggering. Technology of time primitive, resource intense project of this scale infeasible, no singular government aside from Hanar, would consider it. Not government sanctioned, no record of it exists, private city? No hidden city! Makes more sense, perhaps social experiment? Isolating a city from the rest of the world? No no no, requirement unneeded unless such an event was expected, perhaps testing habitat designs for future planet colonisation? No, again size and resource intensive, much too large for simple test, perhaps..." Mordin began to mutter to himself, making notes on his omni-tool, this was Shepard thought, going to be an interesting day to say the least.

He watched as the submersible glided closer to one building in particular, a nondescript building that seemed to have been designed in mind as a transport hub, connected to much of the city, though several of the connecting tunnels seemed to be damaged in some way, though one rather obviously had what appeared to be part of a plane embedded into it, flooding the tunnel. If the rest of the city is like this how are we supposed to find the distress signal? He thought, it could be anywhere, it could be a building that's completely flooded, this day keeps getting better and better. He turned and looked at Garrus who was completely agog, his sight fixed on the city.

"Garrus? Hey Garrus buddy you alright?"

"Yeah, Shepard I'm fine...I'm ah... lost in the moment..." Garrus scratched at his still healing wound. "Is... Is this normal Shepard? I'm mean I was expecting to see the remains of a space craft... and instead we find a city...under the ocean..."

"The whole being underwater thing getting to you right?" Shepard placed his hand on the Turian's shoulder. "It'll be fine, though the mission objective has changed now... we can still get it done, find the signal, find out what happened, get anything useful, get back to the ship, get pizza. Done."

"It's not that Shepard." Garrus looked around submersible, noting every now and then the creaking noises of metal staining from the high pressure mere inches away from the occupants. "Ok so maybe it's a bit about going underwater, Turian's don't swim well but I mean look at this Shepard, there is a whole city out there, built in secret, maintained in secret, plus the only way down is in a submersible with no Mass Effect drive and not even a hint of safety protocols anywhere... even Omega had handrails to prevent people getting hurt by accident." Garrus shrugged and looked around the submersible they were in. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I felt safer on Omega, with all the mercs after me."

"It's the lack of control, on Omega you knew what you could do, you knew where you could go, and you knew your escape routes. Here? We have no idea what to expect, no idea what or where is safe and the only escape route is our only way back. I'm not surprised you felt safer on Omega, it was." Shepard grimaced, he didn't feel especially at ease either. Far too many things could go wrong and all it would take is one to take out the whole team.

The quiet muttering stopped. "Hmm Shepard, maybe able to re-establish communication with the Normandy, STG training, will leave drone in submersible, will then act as a relay to the Kodiak and through the Kodiak the Normandy." Mordin turned around, his muttering turned into humming noises as he started to adjust the settings on his drone, optimising it for use as a communications relay.

"Was there anything STG training didn't cover Mordin?" Garrus looked at the humming scientist as he bobbed around his drone as it steadily changed shape to suit its new purpose, Mordin moved it against a wall and affixed it in position, it would stay here until Mordin gave it new orders.

"Singing skills, surprisingly useful, once held off several heavily armed attackers, believed me to be drunk but were amazed at my singing prowess, they didn't live to regret, their mistake." Mordin continued to hum as he finished typing in the final commands for his drone on his Omni-tool. "Should be working now Commander, suggest attempting contact the Normandy." Mordin returned his attention to the viewport as the submersible approached what they thought was a transport hub.

"Shore party to Normandy, come in Normandy." If this works thought Shepard then finding the beacon will be a damn sight easier, the main problem will be navigating these buildings. With the Normandy's help we'll know which direction to travel and will have support from EDI over the comms.

"This is Normandy, we're hearing you loud and clear Commander, though your signals a little buggy Commander, EDI can't pin point your exact position, it seems to be jumping all over the sea floor." Hearing Jokers voice over the comm was a relief for all the occupants of the submersible, with the comm up they had access to a lot more technical expertise and having EDI around was always helpful. Plus, in the event something went wrong... there was someone listening.

"Good to hear you Joker, Mordin's turned his drone into a relay so we can get a signal to you, so it might be what's causing the problems, anyway I'm uploading footage from our suit cameras now, EDI what do you make of it?" A few taps on his Omni-tool and the data was away. Shepard would have loved to see the look on Jokers face when he saw the footage.

A miniature EDI popped up on Shepard's Omni-tool. "Commander, preliminary analysis indicates that this is "Rapture", more information required for further analysis." EDI's pop up shrunk down and vanished from the Omni-tool, leaving behind a very large data packet. "Commander I have taken the liberty of downloading any information considered viable to the mission in the event case that communication is lost."

Shepard began checking through the information EDI had downloaded, most of it he had already heard or been told but there was new information that he hadn't heard, a report indicated that an individual by the name of Mark Meltzer was investigating the kidnappings when his daughter was also kidnapped by something that came from the sea, he pursued but he couldn't save her, according to the other reports here he travelled to various places chasing clues to hers and the other girls kidnaping, eventually he vanished and it's not known what happened to him.

"This one's for you Mark, it might be late but let's see if we can find out what happened on your behalf." Shepard closed the file and looked through some others, nothing else especially jumped out but he made sure to read up any eye witness reports. Some were wildly different from one another but each time the events were located near the sea, but what stuck out most was that each time it was young girls who were kidnapped, not young boys or adults or anything, young girls... each and every time.

"Shepard." Garrus nudged the Commander, breaking him away from his thoughts. "Looks like we're about to pass under whatever building that's supposed to be." Shepard looked out the porthole to see that the building they had been approaching earlier had gotten much bigger, and that they were passing under it. Odd, I was sure we would be docking with that building, though I am surprised Shepard mused, the guidance systems work remarkably well considering this this thing is probably as old as the city... BANG. Everyone jumped as the sound echoed inside the submersible, each of them hastily checking their suit seals. Ok... maybe I should be more worried about this.

"Guys, what's our status? Did we hit something?" Mordin was running scans with his Omni-tool all over the inside of their once considered 'safe' submersible, Garrus was peering through the viewport, trying to identify what they had hit and how bad the damage was. Garrus got back to him first.

"Nothing to see Commander, we're in the shadow of that building which isn't helping, we are still moving though, and we're ascending now so I'm not sure if that's a good thing... but I can't see any obvious damage, nor what we hit."

"Mordin, what do your scans indicate?"

"Scans indicate air pressure is stable, no gases are leaking, and all systems appear fully functional." There was a collective sigh from everyone, no one wanted to be 2000 meters underwater in a damaged submersible. "Ah, suspect noise related to docking procedures, engines are no longer operating yet we are ascending, possibly a docking clamp?" Mordin aimed his Omni-tool to the ceiling and began scanning again. After a few tense moments he smiled. "Yes. Can confirm, some sort of docking clamp is drawing us up into the structure we just dived under."

"Normandy to shore party, come in. You ok down there? EDI detected a spike in your bio signs, specifically adrenaline." A voice emerged from the drone attached to the wall, Jokers voice.

"We're okay Joker, just had a surprise panic moment, turns out the big scary noise was just the docking procedure." Shepard radioed back to Joker giving him an update of the situation.

"Understood Commander, just be careful down there, EDI's tried but she still can't get a clear pinpoint on your location, that's making us all a little worried up here. Especially since we can't launch a rescue mission to find you if things go south."

"We'll keep you posted Joker, I think that this is our stop." The viewport, that had been in shadow from the building they had gone under, was finally clear for the first time in several minutes, they were just starting to rise above the water. Mordin, Garrus and Shepard watched as the water ran off the viewport, dripping down into the water below them.

"CLANG" The door opened, signalling their arrival. Their arrival point, shrouded in darkness, lit with nothing more than a few sporadic lights.

"Gentlemen, I believe we have arrived." Shepard looked at his friends and smiled. "Who wants to go first?"

In the end they took their time and decided who was first out the door using a long time military tradition... Rock, Paper, Scissors. Garrus lost in the first round and was disqualified while Mordin and Shepard took 10 attempts to determine who went first and second, Mordin initially matched with several draws against Shepard until he began cheating through blatant use of his adrenaline rush to give himself the advantage, Shepard won on the 10th attempt. Annoyed Joker and Dr Chakwas to no end when his suit sensors continually announced a spike in adrenaline for the commander.

"Uh Commander I've just had a message through from Dr Chakwas, she says if you keep messing around with your adrenaline like this she's going to add adrenaline junky to your medical history, just under ex-human illegal experiment subject for Cerberus, you know... just for future reference."

"It's all good Joker, we know how we're working this now. Have you received any news from alliance Command on how they're going to keep us under surveillance down here yet?" Shepard did one last weapons check and made sure to load shredder rounds, always good to be sure your gun is fully functional and that you have the best advantage you can... and considering how much glass there appeared to be in the city he didn't want to inadvertently flood the room or building they were in, so... that meant armour piercing rounds were out of the window (forgive the pun) until they knew what damage they could do.

"Nothing yet Commander, though Admiral Hackett has requested suit cam footage to be added to the mission report, he's interested in what has been hiding under the sea all this time."

"Well we're about to find out Joker, all right guys, let's get out there and make it happen. Mordin if you see anything interesting scan it, Garrus if it looks dangerous keep it in your scopes, if its hostile - take it out. We'll scout out our initial area and move from there. Any questions?" Garrus just smiled and pulled out his Mattock while Mordin simply activated his Omni-tool, they were as prepared as they could be, all that was left was for them to find the distress signal and find out what occurred here. "All right, follow me."

Shepard stepped out of the submersible... and into Rapture.

Shepard scanned the room, exits, entrances, hostiles and anything that stuck out, those were the priorities. While there were no clear signs of hostiles and there was only one exit, there was evidence that something unusual stuck out. The room was shrouded in darkness along with a corridor just beyond it, the few working lights were sporadic at best and the way the lights left large swathes of the room in darkness set Shepard's teeth on edge. Various shapes could be seen in the darkness and the flickering lights only distorted them further, making it harder to see what was in the room.

"Garrus, Mordin, let's move up, Mordin can you deploy another drone? We'll need the light." As soon as Shepard mentioned it a drone sprang in existence and began hovering around the ceiling, a few seconds past and the drone began to emit light, low at first to avoid blinding the squad but gradually getting brighter until it illuminated the room, it was then Shepard saw what those unusual shapes in the darkness were... it was luggage, some spilled open, the contents strewn over the floor in heaps. The remains of clothing lumped together, nothing more than a pile of mould now. In other areas there were different items, gold watches, jewellery, photo frames and several old-style cameras... someone has been searching for valuables it seemed.

"Shepard take a look at this." Garrus had knelt down, examining several of the items. "See these?" Garrus held up several photo albums. "People who are forced to relocate don't always get chance to grab photos very often, but there is a lot of photo frames and albums here, the likelihood is that these people came willingly, but looking at the way their belongings are spread around? Looks like someone had other intentions in mind." Garrus gestured around them, at the large quantity of luggage was stored in the room, many of which were open.

Mordin chimed in, his Omni-tool scanning back and forth. "No traces of blood, luggage is spread throughout this room though no traces of any biological contaminants, blood and some bodily fluids will age over 200 years, but traces will remain, nothing here. Nothing happened to the owners, at least in this room." He scanned a camera, seeking a manufacture date. "Technology is reminiscent of 1950s however."

"Seems these people weren't forced here but they were given reason enough to leave their belongings without bloodshed, perhaps some emergency forced them to find shelter, a flood in the wrong place will bring the entire building down. Either way, let's get moving, this city is huge, and we only have supplies for three days. Let's find the source of the distress call and find out what happened here." Shepard looked around the room, it unnerved him, the flickering lights didn't help matters but there was something else, something that was setting his senses off. The next room they walked into set his senses screaming.

They passed through a bulkhead into the next room, a long corridor stretched out in front of them and all that protected the squad from the thousands of tons worth of water outside the building was a sheet of curved glass. It was a beautiful sight, seeing the city from another point other than the submersible, from this angle they could see several neon signs, still lit from where ever this place drew power. The sight was marred however by the steady stream of water spouting from the frame of the window, and the hulking figure of a deep-sea scuba diver on the other side of the glass that was watching them.

"CONTACT!" Garrus had his gun out and was already aiming to fire at the hulking figure when Shepard managed to stop him.

"HOLD FIRE!" Shepard grabbed Garrus's gun and forcibly lowered it. "Hold fire, Garrus it's on the other side of the glass, you fire, and we get crushed by water pressure."

"Shepard!"

"Easy Garrus it can't..."

"Shepard!" It was Mordin this time who called out to Shepard, agitation clear in his voice. "Its armed!"

Shepard looked out of the window at the hulking figure, with its glowing faceplate and industrial drill it was a terrifying sight, but what concerned the Commander most was the large weapon that looked like a plumber's nightmare. The weapon that happened to be pointing at the glass window separating them.

"Alright guys, let's just start backing away... nice and slowly." As trio had begun to back away the Diver continued to watch them through the window, with its weapon forgotten it was seemingly curious about who was wondering the halls. The squad kept their guns pointed at the hulking figure - though fingers were off triggers, no one wanted to find themselves suddenly swimming at this depth. "Garrus you're on point, we get through the bulkhead, we seal it down and hopefully we get to avoid swimming today." They had almost reached the next room and subsequent bulkhead when the Diver lost interest in them, pointed the now designated 'Plumbers Nightmare' at the window frame and pulled the trigger. "THUNK."

"MOVE! Now!" Shepard shouted expecting the window to cave in the moment it was fired upon. The trio had begun to run the moment they heard the 'THUNK' of the weapon going off, needing no more motivation than the expected wall of water no doubt to be following them soon. They raced down the corridor to the bulkhead whilst maintaining their formation, Garrus in front, ready to take down any hostiles in the way of their exit, Mordin next ready to provide support and Shepard bringing up the rear, they were 10ft from the bulkhead when they heard the second "THUNK" and the bulkhead was closing when they heard the third.

"Mordin! Will that door hold?" Shepard panted the words out, the distance they had run wasn't far but the threat of death by 'crushed with water pressure' wasn't pleasant, they had definitely broken several running records to get to safety.

"Checking now." Mordin began running scans on the bulkhead doing what he could to reinforce it using Omni-gel while Garrus checked on the Diver through the window next to the bulkhead, so Shepard began to survey and secure the room they had run into.

The room they had run into didn't have power unlike the last one, though thankfully the bulkhead appeared to still be getting power from somewhere. Shepard activated his suit lights and observed the room they were in, it had practically been stripped bare, metal panelling was missing from the walls in various places, showing off busted pipes and bare wires, the décor that must been removed at some point too as it was evident that some pictures had hung from the walls at some point, though now all that was left were slightly cleaner squares dotted around the intact sections of the wall. thought what stuck out from all of this was the body in the corner of the room furthest from them, stood against the wall, skeletal fingers still wrapped around the remains of a briefcase handle, the briefcase itself long gone. The only reason the corpse stood was evident when Shepard noticed the 2ft long spear sticking out of its chest.

"Shepard. Come and look at this guy..." Garrus motioned Shepard over, his eyes still watching the Diver who was now leaving, his work apparently finished. "Take a look at him Shepard, he didn't damage the glass and now he's just walking off... like nothing happened, what was the point of that? There was no military gain in what he just did, I'd understand it if he flooded the tunnel to kill us or even waited until the bulkhead had closed before flooding it, that would have cut off our escape, but... but he just walked off, we still have an exit and we're alive. It makes no sense." The frustration was evident in Garrus's voice, they had been forced out of the corridor but then been given the freedom to return at any time, it didn't make sense to Shepard either.

Mordin on the other hand had an idea about the incident. "Shepard, the corridor hasn't flooded, I suspect I know why the 'Diver' left. Need to check corridor to be sure."

"Alright, Garrus stay here, I want you ready to slam this bulkhead closed if we come through it in a hurry. We'll be right back." Shepard and Mordin began to scan the length of the corridor, until they came to where the 'Diver' had fired upon the glass frame. "Anything of interest Mordin?"

"Yes! Several new theories about city, about Rapture! See here?" Mordin motioned to several shiny new metal rivets in the frame of the window. "This was the point where water was leaking inside. The 'Diver' repaired the frame, making it water tight again, it's the 'Diver' that's keeping this city standing. Must be several hundred of them, no way one can maintain city, think of them like the Citadels keepers, always repairing damage and keeping systems operational." Mordin stopped speaking suddenly freezing up as new thoughts and theories spawned in his mind. "However, implications not good, "Diver" is human, those who abandoned luggage perhaps, maybe... though more humans would be required, possibly needed a slave work force to maintain city? No, not efficient, plus hard to control whilst in deep sea dive suit... perhaps... alien research base? Maybe, though they couldn't have brought enough materials with them, mined from ocean floor? Plausible, however water pollution would be immense, far higher than now, perhaps indoctrinated subjects to buy from surface ..." Mordin began to mumble, his mind racing ahead faster than his words could follow... so Shepard left him to it, the corridor was safe, and no one was in the room where the submersible docked, unless someone got past Shepard and Garrus then Mordin was free to let his mind roam around the various ideas and theories he had. He re-joined Garrus, updated him on the situation and they decided to search what little was left of the room they had found themselves in...

"Garrus give me a hand with the corpse, let's see what we can find out about it." Shepard motioned Garrus over and they managed to pull the body off the spear leaving it embedded in the wall still and laid the body on the floor. "The spear isn't coming out anytime soon is it?" Shepard questioned himself as he gave the spear an experimental tug. "SNAP." An 'experimental tug' that snapped the spear in half, leaving the other half still embedded in the wall.

"You know Shepard your starting to do that quite a bit, maybe lay of the protein shakes and work outs for a while yeah?" Joked Garrus as he began rifling through the pockets on the body. Who knows. Thought Garrus Maybe someone left something behind, whoever killed this guy seemed more interested in the briefcase he once held... ah ha! Garrus triumphantly held up his spoils, an audio diary. "Shepard! I found something!"

Shepard dropped the remains of the spear and turned his attention to the audio diary Garrus had found, it... looked like it had seen better days... the casing was cracked in a dozen places, several buttons were missing and the recording media inside the case had snapped, in short... it was junk, completely unusable and unrepairable... unless you had an Omni-tool that is.

"Let's see what secrets you hide." Shepard murmured as he ran his Omni-tool scanner over the devise, there was nothing he could find, though Mordin might have more luck. "Mordin!" He called, the scientist would want to hear whatever was on this tape and would probably be able to get more information out of it than he could anyway.

"Here Shepard, what have you found? An audio recording device? Primitive technology again, nothing new, everything appears to be 200 years or older, recording media is beyond repair however..." Mordin began scanning the audio diary, his Omni-tool was personally calibrated for more scientific endeavours and could pick up far greater amounts of information than either Shepard or Garrus's. With the scan complete the audio diary recording began to play.

"It seems the old man was right about this place! It's really here! So, I suppose I should record this properly shouldn't I really? Maybe they'll make a movie one day... the grand explorer they'll call me... HA! Anyway, the names Jones and that's all you need to know about me! Now I followed what the old bugger said, and I found the Bathysphere right where he said it would be. Under the light house he said, Ha I thought the old man was mad, almost wet myself when the glass cracked but now that I'm here I can make a fortune! All I have to do is find a bit of Adam, one of those plasmid things and bang buck I'm rich! Just avoid the Big Daddies with their glowing faceplate, don't approach the Little Sisters and hope to god I don't meet a damn splicer! I'm dead if that happens but with a bit of luck I'll..."

"I'll what?" A new female voice was picked up by the audio diary, Shepard could already see what was about to happen in his mind's eye.

"SHIT! I... I meant nothing by what I said! Splicers are great in my books! Y-yup! Right at the top! Love em I do!

"Oh, you do, do you? Well then turn around and look me in the eyes and say it!" The females voice had anger in it... a lot of it.

"O-Oh god, y-your face? What happened to you?"

"Something that you won't get the chance to understand." "THUD"

"...ow...hel...p "

"Let's see what you have in your little briefcase then... damn it... let go! Fine I don't need the handle... though for a dead man you have a surprisingly good grip, like my lover you know... he's... he's gone now... just like you I'm afraid... couldn't stand what I had become... had to stop him becoming like this too... ah well... oh? Why... it's an audio dairy? Well I'll just leave you right here, I'm sure whoever finds you will be truly fascinated by our most wonderful city... though its dying now you know? It rains in rapture... oh how I wish to see the sun again... to feel it's heat... they won't except me up there now anyway... not looking like this... in that case then, let this be a warning to whoever finds this recording, Rapture is a dying city... leave while you still can... hum? I'm oddly talkative today, aren't I? Oh yes, the briefcase ha-ha... I'd lose my head if it wasn't on straight...hum ...hum...huh...hum..."

The humming sounds continued for several minutes before fading to silence, just like the silence that had fallen on the trio that had been listening to the recording. They looked at each other... stunned by what they had heard and by its implications to the mission.

"Mordin, keep a record of that for the mission report, it will... put things in prospective for Admiral Hackett... and the Illusive man."

Mordin simply nodded and input new commands into his Omni-tool, ensuring it was backed up and encrypted in several locations, always good to be safe with all information after all.

"Alright, from here on I want everyone to be mapping their surroundings and plotting our route through this place, it's a big city and none of us want to get lost on the way back, especially if that... Bathysphere? is our only way out." The duo nodded, this wasn't a city any of them wanted to stay in, let alone become a permanent resident of. "Ok, recap. We seem to have 'Splicers', 'Big Daddies' and "Little Sister's' to worry about while we're down here, our encounter with the Diver? He seems to be one of those Big Daddies the audio diary mentioned so we know what they look like. All that's left is the 'Splicers' and the 'Little Sisters', Mordin what's your take on them?"

Mordin listened to the audio clip once more before he answered, humming all the while as he analysed the information in the audio clip. "Interesting, the name Splicers likely an indication of what they have become, to splice indicates gene therapy of some description and plural in the name indicates more than a few select individuals are known by this term, more likely several hundred or thousand individuals. Also, notice the casualness of how "Jones" mentioned the name indicates it is a commonly used name, at least in rapture, possibly accepted part of life here, his voice also contained fear once he saw her face, possible disfigurement from uncontrolled 'Splicing'? However uncontrolled splicing incredibly dangerous to the body, growing an extra heart would be the least of problems caused by gene splicing. Certain to be mental effects in patient too may indicate why 'Splicer' act as she did, however biggest point!" Mordin paused to make his next point even more important. "Technology not available during estimated timeframe of audio recording, the recording media is over 200 years old, technology wasn't available, but also humanity had only just discovered DNA. Not enough time to unravel it. Something must have been found to accelerate the scientific understanding of DNA." Mordin paused to take a breath, he had become breathless in his excitement, he really did love genetics.

Shepard nodded at the Salarian scientist who was taking a breather, he paused as he considered the implication of what Mordin had said. "You said uncontrolled splicing, could it make them dangerous?"

Mordin considered the matter then nodded and shook his head. "Yes and no, gene therapy like this could make a person mentally unstable, prone to emotional instability, mood swings, suicidal tendencies or even casual disregard for life. Yes, they could be dangerous, however gene splicing uncontrollably would lead to heavily damaged genes, likely causing sterility and infertility, after 200 years?" He paused again, his mood low as he considered the implications. "Unlikely to be any survivors, if they didn't kill one another then death by old age." Mordin went silent.

Shepard just nodded, it might be callous but that's one less threat to be weary of. "Garrus? What do you think?"

Garrus motioned to the previously leaking window frame beyond the bulkhead. "That tool the Big Daddy used to repair the window frame, it can work under the immense water pressure outside, if it was used in city without having to operate under that much pressure it could probably be used as a projectile, very powerful one, but you notice it used rivets to seal the frame instead of wielding it? Could be a bit of a problem in a fight, rivets have a great deal more mass than standard block shavings fired by our standard weapons, they'll wear away at our shields a damn site faster. Could overwhelm shields rapidly or even bypass them if they fired at a low enough velocity. What worries me more however is the suit he was wearing, must be incredibly tough to withstand the water pressure outside." Mordin nodded at his remark and began running calculations on his Omni-tool.

"Current depth is estimated 2000m, run calculations and external water pressure would be equivalent to... 200 times earth's atmosphere..." Again, silence fell on the trio, that figure was more than three times that of the Volus home world 'Irene'. Mordin cleared his throat. "If theory about gene modification is true, may allow Big Daddies operate in high pressure without issues, Krogan can with stand incredibly high environmental pressures as can the Volus, correct gene therapy could allow Big Daddies to be resistant to high pressure environments, would make them extremely durable. Must exercise caution if a confrontation is unavoidable..." The tension in the room was steadily rising, too many unknowns and a single slip could spell the end for them.

Shepard shook his head, dismayed at what they had found. "This day keeps getting better than ever..." He muttered, their problems increasing rapidly, they had only been inside the city for an hour and already they were woefully unprepared for the possible threats in the city. Still, He thought, we can prepare from here on at least. He was about to suggest they get moving when he caught Garrus smiling. "Garrus?"

Garrus began chuckling to himself before finally bursting out into full blown laughter, confusing both Shepard and Mordin. "You said it yourself Shepard." he gasped between bellows of laughter. "You... you said it yourself 'What could possibly go wrong', you had to say it!" Shepard finally realised what the Turian was laughing at and it wasn't long before he was laughing too. Mordin smiled as he too realised the absurdness of what was going on, a life or death situation with countless unknowns and no guarantee of success, sounds like a regular mission. The tension that had been slowly building vanished as if it hadn't been there, it took a few minutes for Garrus and Shepard to calm down and stop laughing and by the end of it they were supporting one another to prevent either of them collapsing.

"Err Normandy to Shore pa... you know they're not even at shore, can we call them underwater party or something? It makes more sense you know? Ah right! Normandy to underwater party... you know forget it, Shepard you ok down there? Your bio-readings keep jumping around, you're not breathing fumes down there are you?

"Normandy this is Shepard... we're ... we're ok down here, just found something funny. Alright... let me get my breath back." Shepard and Garrus huffed a few times before finally breathing steady again. "Alright here's the new plan, we head straight for the signal, we collect any information we find, shoot anything trying to kill us find the distress beacon or systems and get back to the Normandy. Sound good?" Garrus and Mordin nodded. "Alright let's get moving."

Alright guys this is it for this chapter! Sorry it took so long for it to come out! I got distracted and it took a hell of a lot longer to write this than I anticipated... so I'm thinking of monthly releases, that gives me time to write good sized chapters full of the good stuff...words! Anyway, it'll be another month before you hear from me again, so until then I bid you good day! And hopefully see you soon! Also, one last this before I do go, this might be a really long series or a really short one, I haven't planned any of this and while I do have milestones as such (kind of like plot stones but yeah) so there will be some structure to this, and again depending on how this goes it might go in a completely different direction to the original series... I don't know yet... we'll find out in a few months! See you then!