"All clear sir."
"That makes eight floors, totally empty," Talens pointed out.
"Not counting the booby traps you mean." Rigby leaned back against the cool, metal wall. The eight of them had been searching floor after floor trying to find pockets of pirate resistance. With both radar and communications jammed, and the soldiers' nerves on edge, the slow procession had worn them down considerably.
The Engineer sat in the corner of the room inputting commands into her omnitool when her eyes widened. "Lieutenant?"
"What is it Engineer?" Shepard's was the only voice that gave no hint of fatigue.
"Communications signals are back up!"
"What? How?"
"I have no idea. It's like the jammer…just stopped."
Shepard put his hand up to his ear.
"This is Shepard to Alpha Squad. You there Major?" Shepard heard a slight crackle before his headset boomed:
"Lieutenant! Alpha. Am I glad to hear your voice. Is Delta with you?
"What's left of them. We lost Krause and Martin. The other two—
"No worries, they're with us. They told us about the explosion. That's why we sent out the emergency signal. We were working on the door when our counter sniper spotted a Batarian holed up in the hills watching our progress. Managed to send a couple others to pick him up, but by the time we found out the north entrance was rigged your communications had already been jammed. The only thing we could get out to you was that signal."
"We manage to get anything else out of him Major?"
"Nothing we didn't already know." The Major sighed. "We'll have to go back to get Krause and Martin before we leave."
"I'm afraid that's not possible Major."
"How do you mean Lieutenant?"
"The ceiling caved in after the blast. They're buried under what must be two tons of reinforced steel."
There was a brief silence on the radio. "Roger that. What's your current position?"
"We're on the ninth floor sir."
"Head to the thirteenth. We'll rendezvous there."
"Wait up a second," Rigby looked at Shepard. "How the hell did they get down there that fast?"
The Major laughed; Rigby's eyes widened. "Yes, I heard that Rigby. Just be glad I'm the officer in charge and not Shepard. We took the elevator once we made it into the compound but the cables were blown once we got in. Whoever did it botched the job though, and we managed to get out somewhere around the twenty-third; been working our way up hoping to find you ever since. We came across the jammer a few minutes ago. Turns out they had to place it halfway through the complex since the thing only has a 200 ft radius. We're too far down to get anything back to the Liepzig though. Anyways, enough chatter. Start heading down now and keep in radio contact."
"Copy that Major. Heading down now. Bravo out." Shepard turned to the rest of his squad. "Break's over boys and girls. Time to get going." The eight of them headed back towards the stairwell and began their rapid descent.
Shepard and his men worked through the levels of the compound systematically, exiting the stairwell before splitting off into smaller groups to check each room. The soldiers worked silently and efficiently, quickly taking out the few Batarians they did come across - mostly those who had come to the upper floors to set up hand mines, grenade traps, and spring guns. Shepard had already seen two men fall victim to the pirate's sly tactics and was sure not to let it happen again.
As Shepard's squad was about to head down another floor he heard his headset start crackling. "Shepard! Shepard, do you copy?"
"I copy Major," Shepard paused and heard gunfire in the background. "What's going on down there?"
"It was my fault. I had all twelve men in the stairwell when these fuckers threw down a couple of grenades. As if the incendiaries weren't bad enough they went ahead and threw down a couple hundred pounds of red sand! The shit's everywhere –" Shepard heard the Major coughing into his mic. "We're fucking trapped so you need to take the west stairwell to our location, cross the level, and open the door for us before we fucking suffocate or get blown to bits."
"Copy that major."
"And Shepard! Be careful. These bastards must be somewhere between your current location and the nineteenth floor and it doesn't seem like they're ready to go down without a fight!"
Shepard took his hand from his ear and turned to the rest of the squad: "Let's move it!" He sprinted full speed towards the western stairwell, practically ran through the door, and turned quickly to the right, his combat boots very noticeably scraping against the floor. He took the stairs two at a time and made another sharp left once he came to the landing. He started heading down the next flight. At the next landing there was a metal door on which was printed the number 18 in large yellow and black paint. He held his omnitool to the console and watched the doors open.
Level eighteen was a lab. The floor was one large room divided by frosted glass partitions into dozens of cubicles. Each cubicle was filled with either lab equipment or medical setups and had a single sliding door that led to the hallway hugging the walls of the room. Shepard turned around and looked at the two surviving men of Charlie squad:
"Keep this door open and watch the stairwell." Shepard was about to give out the rest of the squad's orders when a red alarm started flashing. Shepard, who had grown accustomed to the near pitch black, squinted before crouching down and moving behind a lab table positioned just inside the room closest to the door.
"Emergency lockdown has been activated. Lab quarantine is in effect. Sterilization will begin in T minus 2 minutes…" Shepard grabbed the table in front of him and ripped it around, trying to slide it under the door before it closed completely. He did but the table was crushed under the weight of the door, which snapped shut in a matter of milliseconds. Shepard was trapped inside. Alone.
Shepard's radio came on: "Hey LT you alright?" Rigby.
"I'm fine. Start heading down to the nineteenth. For now your first priority is saving the Major. Once I get out of the lab I'll meet you there. Until I do, Talens, you're in charge."
"Yes, lieutenant."
Shepard looked around and took a silent breath. He held his rifle out in front of him and called back the layout of the compound. If he remembered correctly, the labs should have a filtration vent for airborne toxins large enough for him to move through. Where was the access though? It had to be in one of the walls. Shepard started moving from his position along the western wall. He moved past the first partition, the metal outer wall on his left and the frosted partition on his right. The room was silent, nothing but the metallic voice counting down and his own heartbeat. The red alarms along the outer walls flashed silently.
Suddenly, the sound of shattering glass tore through that silence. It had come from Shepard's right and when he swung around to see why he saw two Batarians armed with shotguns. Instantly, he ran forward and, lifting the nose of his rifle, quickly dispatched the one on the right. Before the body had even hit the floor Shepard twisted around and hit the other in the face with the butt of his gun. The pirate staggered backwards and Shepard took the opportunity to reach out with his freed right hand, grabbed the Batarian's face (hearing the satisfying squish of his thumb and middle finger digging into his bottom two eye sockets), and pushed him to the ground. He would've attempted to get information out of him had he not heard shouting coming from another part of the lab. He held his rifle, now returned to his right hand, against the Batarians chest where, as his training had taught him, he knew it's heart would have been, and let out two bursts of shots. He pushed himself back up with his left hand and took a moment to collect himself.
Why would they 'sterilize' their own men? Shepard had assumed there would be no one else in the room and was nearly killed because of it. Shepard holstered his rifle and took out his shotgun. His priority was still finding the vent and getting out of here alive, and the fastest way to do that was to move through the outer hallway even if it wasn't the smartest.
He stepped over the broken glass back into the corridor he had been in moments ago. He turned right and headed towards the northwest corner. When he got to the end of the corner cubicle he paused, hearing another group of Batarians coming down the corridor perpendicular to his own. He held the shotgun against the inside of his shoulder and waited….3…2…1…
He quickly turned around the corner and let loose a shot, sending the Batarian who had instantly found himself inches from Shepard's barrel flying backwards. Shepard started running forward, let the nose of his shotgun drop and pulled his pistol from his hip with his left hand. He squeezed off shots one after another towards the other three Batarians further down the corridor – it was no Lancer, but it was the closest option he had to suppressive fire. Still firing the Kessler, Shepard rammed his shotgun into the cubicle on his right, causing the glass to shatter and fall in a cascade of broken shards. He held his left arm above his head and moved through the falling glass curtain. Once he was in the cubicle he fired another shot into the partition in front of him, repeating the process.
Shepard moved through the various cubicles, shooting out whatever partitions he could and kicking over lab tables trying to create enough noise to confuse his own location. He had stopped for a second to let his guns cool down when he heard a soft crunch behind him. He turned around straight into the muzzle of a Judgment III. The Batarian pulled the trigger and Shepard dropped his guns, momentarily stunned by the incredible force. His kinetic barriers managed to take the brunt of the shot but the force was still enough to crack his helmet down the middle. Shepard staggered backwards into an operating table and began groping for something to use against the Batarian. Found it. Just as the Batarian was about to let out another shot, Shepard swatted his right arm away with his left before grabbing onto his shoulder. The shot went straight to the ceiling of the cubicle causing glass to fall down on the struggling pair. The Batarian reached for Shepard's throat with his other hand but Shepard brought the scalpel he had just picked up in his right hand straight into the Batarians wrist. Pulling the Batarian forward by his shoulder, Shepard jerked his head forward until he found contact. His helmet finally split in two and fell from the sides of his head, leaving Shepard able to look at the Batarian straight in the eyes. Shepard used the pirate's disorientation to pull the scalpel back out of his wrist and planted it straight in his jugular. He twisted the small knife violently with his right hand and felt a warm, thick syrup spray onto the right side of his face.
"Sterilization in T minus one minute…"
Shepard watched as the dead alien slid to the floor. Blood and glass were everywhere. Glass? Shepard looked up and saw a metal grill in the ceiling. He had found his way out.
Shepard quickly began moving a nearby shelf under the grill. Once he had finished that, he climbed up and, after the vent cover stubbornly refused to budge under his grip, armed a grenade and slid it between the metal bars. He hopped down, took cover under one of the tables, and triggered the explosion. He leaned out of his cover and, content with his work – the grenade had left a large blacked area on the ceiling and a hole more than big enough for him to fit through, climbed back up and lifted himself into the vent.
"Wait!" Shepard quickly drew his pistol and took a quick glance out the vent. From below him, a Batarian looked up at him desperately.
"Look! I'm unarmed! Please let me up! I don't want to die in here!"
Shepard let his upper body lean out of the vent opening. "What were you and your friends doing in here?"
"Sterilization in thirty seconds…"
"A bunch of use were already on this floor when your friends fell through the elevator shaft! By the time we found out they were coming at us from below – and we already knew you were coming from above – we had nowhere to go! The others on the bottom level must've figured we were dead anyways and quarantined the floor! Please human, let me up!"
"You're a pirate – probably a slaver and a murderer too. People like you don't get second chances," Shepard said flatly.
"Sterilization in ten seconds."
"Then the least you could do is kill me quickly. You know what they mean by sterilization don't you? It means getting showered in acid just before the temperature of the room gets so hot it burns your lungs from the inside."
"Good. I've always felt just shooting people was a bit too merciful. Efficient, but merciful." Shepard saw the Judgment III that had shot him less than a minute ago just behind the Batarian. He blinked and then decided to squeeze of four shots – two to the inside of the Batarians elbows and two to the kneecaps. "Wouldn't want you to get any ideas." Shepard pulled himself back into the vent and began crawling forward. Five seconds later he heard the Batarians still trapped in the lab begin to scream.
A/N: For those of you who enjoyed this please review! If there's enough people who want it, I'd be more than willing to write up possible Akuze or Skyllian Blitz oneshots as well.