Lost Saviors
Chapter 4:
Garrus' POV 2 hours ago
"What the fuck was that?" asked Jack
No one answered; they just stood still and trained their weapons on the door. The door had almost been shattered to pieces; Garrus wondered why they would stop when they were so close.
He shrugged and asked, "Does anyone here have any idea how to get out?"
No one said a word; Garrus leaned on the rail and rubbed his head, trying to think how to get out of this mess until he noticed a vent at the bottom of the room.
He smirked realizing that they would be able to leave while probably not running into the enemy.
"Guys look down there; I see a vent that we can use to get out of this room."
"Garrus; those things usually attack from the vent, if we go in there we are going to get swarmed." Responded Tali
Garrus paused for several seconds, he was about to speak again when there was a loud scream.
"We can confirm that no known species could have made that noise." Noted Legion
Then without warning something started to bang on the door again, and it was going to buckle in a minute.
"We don't have a choice; we either go through the vent or get killed by whatever the hell that thing is!"
Everyone started hoping over the rail, all making a run for their one chance. Tali made it to the vent first so she was busy using her omni tool to burn the edges of the grating. She was done in thirty seconds flat, and Garrus kicked in and checked for hostiles. There were none, at least for now.
Garrus motioned everyone to go through, and as soon as Thane managed to limb through he crawled in as well. Garrus waited until everyone had gotten a good distance away from him, then he primed a grenade that John had given him. Garrus started crawling as fast as he could as he knew the next part wasn't very pleasant.
There was a loud crack, and when Garrus looked back he smirked when he noticed that the vent had collapsed behind him, which was going to buy them a lot of time.
"Garrus what happened back there are you alright?" asked Tali
"I'm fine I was just buying us some time." Replied Garrus
"What did you do?"
"I set off one of the grenades John gave me."
Tali looked rather surprised but didn't say anything. It was a long story anyway about how he got it, as John really didn't like to share his equipment. As Garrus started crawling he realized why, it was a hell of a lot better than any of theirs.
The team just crawled on and on, it seemed that there was no way out. This went on for about an hour or so when out of nowhere however he got this throbbing in his head and his right arm felt like it was broken.
Garrus ended up bumping into Tali because he was so focused on his sudden pain, he immediately replied, "Sorry Tali, why did we stop?"
Tali didn't even respond; she just sat still, not saying anything. Garrus then started feeling something weighing him down, he realized he was on the floor unable to get up.
Garrus was able to look up at Tali however; he noticed that Tali seemed to be uttering a death rattle, in fact when Garrus took a closer look he saw some sort of liquid coming out of her suit.
Garrus ignored the pain in his body and asked, "Tali what's wrong?"
Tali didn't say anything, but she collapsed and revealed why she was she making a death rattle, on the other side of her was a creature feasting on some sort of long tube, and behind it was everyone else; Jack, Legion, and Thane in a crumpled heap.
Garrus realized with horror that thing killed everyone, and it was feeding on some sort of organ from Tali. Garrus started to back up trying to try and get room to pull out his rifle. But he ran into the wall and made a big thump. The thing that was feeding on Tali now noticed him and charged at him. Before Garrus could stop it the creature had pinned him against the wall and was about to take a bite out of him. Garrus closed his eyes and responded by head butting it.
Garrus opened his eyes to see Jack holding her head in her hands while Thane, Tali and Legion tried to hold him down.
Garrus looked around him and stopped thrashing, and the three let go of him. Garrus was still looking around while Tali went to help Jack. Jack nodded that she was ok and walked over to Garrus.
"What the fuck was that for I was trying to help you!" yelled an understandably upset Jack
"I'm sorry Jack, one minute I was up in the vent and a second later I was down here, I freaked out, I'm sorry." Responded Garrus
Jack didn't say anything, she just slapped him across the face, but it was obviously a sign of forgiveness as she didn't hit him very hard.
"What happene-" Garrus almost yelled as he tried to get up, his right arm felt like it was on fire.
Tali waved her omni tool over his arm and the pain abruptly stopped.
Garrus put all his weight on to his left arm and looked at Tali for answers.
"We were just crawling looking for a vent to get out when all of a sudden we heard a crash behind us; it turns out that part of the vent collapsed. You had actually fallen in the worst place to fall; you fell head first onto a rail and snagged your arm around that rail, and some more vent fell on top of you." Tali said
Garrus nodded and asked, "Are we good to move out?"
Tali scanned him again, and after looking at the results for a minute she replied, "We can but I'm not sure it's a great idea. Your arm is broken so firing your weapon is going to impossible."
Garrus forgot about that but he knew that they needed to get to the bridge, as he had said earlier all other concerns were secondary.
Garrus asked, "Does anyone know where we are?"
Jack was looking at the map they had used on the flight deck, and called out, "We're on the Medical deck; I think I found a tram boarding station that we can use to get to the bridge."
"Good, it's time to get what we came for." Replied Garrus
Garrus managed to get up, and thanks to the medi-gel Garrus was able to get up without feeling anything from his arm.
Garrus took a look at the map; it appeared they were in some sort of imaging diagnostic room. All they had to do was take a sort walk to the security station, then walk down the hallway and get a ride at the tram station.
Garrus lead the group toward some sort of service elevator.
"Well it looks like we are going to have to do this one at a time." Remarked an irritated Jack
"I'll go down and clear the room, follow me down when I say the all clear." Remarked Garrus as he walked towards the elevator.
Tali stood in front of the elevator and said, "No I'll go down, you won't be able to fire your gun if anymore of those things are down there."
Garrus was going to argue but the way Tali's eyes looked at him through the visor stopped him in his tracks. Tali hopped on and gave the switch a quick rundown; thankfully she didn't have to hack it, as it worked with just the touch of a button.
The elevator started its climb down and Garrus couldn't help watch over the side to make sure Tali was safe, after all Tali was one of the closet friends he had. However the sound of a breaking vent behind him occupied his attention. Everybody on the upper platform was looking frantically for whatever had just dropped in with them. There was nothing, and then it hit Garrus. Tali said that these things acted like animals, why would animals attack a large group when one of them was alone. Garrus almost hurled himself over the edge to find Tali.
She was waiting below, she seemed about to call the rest of them down when Garrus noticed a pair of orange eyes in a dark corner.
Garrus yelled "Tali look out!"
Tali turned around as fast as possible, she brought her shotgun about halfway up before the thing pounced on her. It knocked the two of them under the upper floor, so Garrus couldn't see what was happening. He looked over to the elevator, but he realized that would take too long, so he leapt over the rail, and landed to find that Tali was panting, and the creature that attacked her was on the floor, missing its head.
"Are you ok Tali?" asked Garrus
Tali's POV Present Time
"Tali look out!"
Tali snapped around to see a black creature pounce on her. It pushed her into a nearby wall, stabbed her in her abdomen and started to chew on her neck. The worst part was the fact that it already breached her suit, and there was no telling what kind of bacteria was on its teeth or blade. Her adrenaline kicked in, and she was able to push it back far enough so she could strike at its head. She used all of her strength that she had to hit creature in the head with her gun. She was surprised, and a little disgusted, when its head actually snapped off.
Tali put her hands on wound to stop the bleeding and started to pant. Thanks to a mixture of pain, stress, exhaustion, and an infection thanks to that thing she couldn't even stand up straight.
Tali heard a loud thump, looking up slightly she saw Garrus looking at her, obviously trying to figure out if she was okay.
"Are you ok Tali?" asked Garrus
She looked up and replied "No, that thing managed to breach my suit, it auto sealed itself but I think I have a fever."
Garrus muttered something under his breath and called the rest of the team down.
"Okay everyone, we need o get off this deck, at this rate the team will probably be dead in an hour. Jack which way to the tram station?"
"It looks like we have to go through that door." Replied Jack
Everyone looked to where Jack had pointed. The door was a little banged up, it was also half open. From where they were it appeared that there was no light beyond the door, which was the last thing they needed.
Tali asked, "Are you sure that there isn't another way?"
Jack gave the thing another look, and then shook her head.
"Bosh'tet!"
Garrus joined the conversation and said, "It looks like we don't have a choice. Let's go."
They walked for about five minutes, or really crawled for five minutes. Tali realized that she was slowing everyone down, but she couldn't do anything about that. She looked forward to see everyone with their guns drawn, even Garrus. Damn it, he shouldn't be using that; it will screw his arm up even more.
Tali started to limp faster in an attempt to catch up; there might have been something she could do, even in the terrible condition she was in. However they opened the door to find that several creatures were doing something to a pile of corpses. This wasn't the same kind of creature that had managed to bite her though, they were bat like creatures, except much bigger.
"What the fuck are they doing?" asked Jack
Before anyone could voice their opinions one of the creatures stabbed a corpse in the head, and that's when things really got interesting. The corpses started to decay, then started burning almost, Tali saw some sort of boiling liquid coming out of the body. It got worse by the second, it then turned into a thing that everyone recognized; it was the type of creature that had been attacking them.
Everyone started making a glance towards the door that read tram station over it, but the creatures were right next to it.
Garrus looked straight ahead towards an open door on the other side of the room and ordered, "Everyone through that open door. Now!"
Everyone started running, and this made Tali panic, there was no way she would be able to make it time. Tali suddenly felt weightless, and Tali looked up to see Jack pulling her across the room with her biotics.
Surprisingly Jack's idea worked, Tali was able to make it to the other side before the creature even got up.
After Tali landed in the room Legion activated some sort of emergency lockdown, it sealed the door behind them.
"We are ready to proceed." Commented Legion
Tali took a look around, they were in a dark hallway, but thankfully it was short.
"Did anyone else notice that there was some sort of barricade around the door we came through?" Commented Thane
"Yeah I saw, it seems that somebody didn't want people getting in, or out." Replied Garrus
As they turned the corner Garrus remarked, "I think the barricade was trying to keep people in."
"Why do you say that?" asked Tali, who was still trying to keep up.
"This is the Clinic, any injured personal would have come here, and we saw what those things did to the bodies." Replied Garrus
Garrus turned around to ask Tali if she needed a thermal clip, but he didn't say anything when he noticed that she was limping.
"Tali how bad is it?"
Tali didn't respond. She didn't want anyone to be worrying about right now.
"Tali how bad are your injures?"
This time Tali did respond, "I get got stabbed by that thing, but we don't have time to worry about that."
"Damn it Tali, why didn't you tell me." Garrus rushed over to her while he said that. He scanned her with his omni tool, then said, "Well it looks like it barely nicked you, and you don't have any internal bleeding so you should be fine."
Tali started to move past him when Garrus put his arm on her shoulder, but Tali brushed him off and kept going.
"Jack is there any other way off this deck?" asked Garrus
Jack looked over the map for about a minute until she saw something, "Yeah I think I see a secondary tram station."
Jack took the lead, when the door to the med clinic opened she backed up, which gave Tali a scare. Jack hadn't been that afraid of the creatures they had fought so far, what made her flinch.
Tali took a look inside, and instantly regretted it; there were bodies everywhere, and a rather large amount of blood on the floor and walls. Tali looked back towards Jack and asked "Are you sure that there is no other way?"
Jack was nodded, and Tali swore under her breath.
Suddenly Thane whispered, "Does anyone hear that?"
Everyone was quiet, nothing made a sound.
Garrus replied, "I don't hear anything?"
Thane started scanning the room and said, "That's the problem, they are always silent right before they attack."
Everyone pulled out their guns and started scanning the room; eventually something was heard crawling through the vents, but it was going in the direction away from them.
Garrus asked, "Strange, I never thought that those things would back away from a fight, thoughts?"
Jack jokingly speculated, "Yeah, they know we would kick their asses."
Legion seemed t have noticed something, he walked away from the group and said, "We believe we know why hostiles left the area."
Everyone walked to him, expecting to see something horrible. But in reality it wasn't that bad, it was a corpse, actually Tali noticed that it was one of those creatures, minus its arms of course.
Thane was the first to catch on, he explained, "There must be a survivor, probably a group of them. It appears that the creatures are going after them to finish them off."
Tali looked around the room, and was ecstatic to find that there seemed to be only one other door in the room, and it was open.
"Guys look; there is an open door over there. If we are fast we can find that group of survivors."
Garrus replied, "Good catch Tali, let's go."
Everyone started to run towards the door, and the Medi-Gel Tali's suit was administering finally managed to block the pain from her injuries. She started in a run behind them, knowing that as soon as the Medi-Gel wore off she would be in even more pain.
They ran for five minutes, thankfully it appeared that there was only one way to go that entire time. They finally reached an elevator, Garrus hit the button to call when Jack said, "This elevator goes to the morgue."
Tali thought to herself "These things are made from human corpses, now we are going to a morgue."
The elevator opened, and they all crammed in.
It wasn't a long ride, but it wasn't a comfortable one either. But everyone forgot that when the elevator stopped, as there was screaming and gunshots from the other side.
Garrus opened the door, and when it opened everyone's jaw dropped.
There was a person in the room who had one of the bat things under its feet. It grabbed the things tentacle; then pulled until the creature was ribbed in half.
"I like his style." Commented Jack
Tali couldn't help but smirk, and then the person turned around to see all of them staring at him.
Tali took a chance to examine the armor further, it was very strange. It didn't have a clear visor to see out of, it was instead replaced by a blue material of some kind.
It walked over to one of the dead creatures; it grabbed something from the creatures back. Then it walked over to the group.
He took a look at Garrus, Thane, and Legion, and seemed to be a bit more nervous. It said, "Um... what the hell happened to you three?"
Garrus responded, "What, you never seen or heard of aliens?"
He folded his arms across his chest and responded, "No, but as you traveling with two humans here I would guess that this isn't so strange for you."
"Two?"
"Yeah the girl with all the tattoos and, oh… sorry I didn't notice your weren't a human, I apologize."
Tali didn't say anything but she nodded to show her forgiveness.
The strange human held out his hand to Garrus and said, "I'm Isaac"
Garrus shook his and introduced the whole squad.
"Where is your next stop Isaac?" asked Garrus
"I'm heading to the bridge."
Garrus asked, "Do you know the way there, we have been trying to get there for what feels like hours."
Isaac nodded, then used his hand to generate some sort of line on the floor of the ship, then replied, "This way"
Isaac led the team all the way the way to the tram, and Tali became relived that the creatures outside the tramway had left.
When they arrived on the tramway Isaac looked around and gazed at the floor.
Tali looked around to see if anyone else noticed Isaac and was disappointed to find she was the only one.
She walked over to Isaac and asked, "Are you alright?"
He looked at her and responded, "My girlfriend is somewhere on this ship, and she worked on this deck."
Tali responded, "I'm sorry, but I'm sure she made it out alright"
"Thanks, I hope your right."
Tali noticed a bench inside a glassed area; she decided that for her body's sake it would be best to sit down.
She took a seat, and put her head in her hands, she was trying to rap her head around everything that had happened. Tali heard a growling sound and immediately looked up. When she took around everyone was just where she had last seen them. Tali just sat up, realizing that if she kept sitting like that she would fall asleep, and that was the last thing she wanted.
After fifteen minutes the tram found its way to the medical deck.
Everyone had their weapons pointed at the door, but thankfully they didn't have to use them, as the tram was empty.
"How long have you worked on this ship?" asked Garrus who wanted to clear the air.
"I wasn't on board when this happened; I was on a repair ship, the USG Kellion, it crashed landed when we tried to dock."
The whole team exchanged glances, and Isaac caught this so he asked, "What is wrong with that?"
"Nothing it's just that we detected your transmission, and we detected the ship's crash." Answered Tali
"You were in the system, why didn't you contact us?"
"We couldn't, we were still at FTL when we picked it up." Replied Garrus
Isaac didn't say anything but Tali could tell by his body language that something bothered him about what Garrus said.
The tram finally arrived at the bridge, and Isaac was the first off. Everyone else followed him knowing that without Isaac they would probably end up going in the wrong direction.
Isaac opened the door off the Tramway, everyone started to follow except Garrus, and Tali knew something was bothering him so she decided to talk to him about it.
"Garrus what is wrong?"
Garrus waited until Isaac had turned the corner and said, "Something is really wrong, first aliens that use corpses to make soldiers. What race do we know of who has done that?"
"The Reapers" muttered Tali
"Exactly, and also what human hasn't seen or heard of Turians. Every human should know of us since of the relay 314 incident."
"Yeah I do find that a bit odd."
"Yeah so until we figure out what is going on I'm going to be watching our new friend here."
Garrus started to walk towards the bridge, Tali was going to stop him and tell him to trust Isaac, but she realized that Garrus had a point.
Tali quickly ran to catch up to the group before Isaac got suspicious. Thankfully Isaac seemed to be preoccupied trying to open the door.
Isaac said, "Looks like the door generator is shot, I need to go make a few adjustments."
Tali asked, "Each door has its own generator?"
"Only this one, the bridge needs to be accessible at all times, so they took the precaution of adding one just in case of wide spread power loss."
It only took Isaac a minute to open the door and Garrus was the first to go through.
As Tali walked towards the now open door she heard Garrus say, "Well isn't this a surprise, it looks like the whole gang is here."
"Garrus, great to see you're still alive." Replied Shepard, and when Tali heard Shepard speak she almost fell over, she wasn't dead.
She walked into the bridge and said, "We also managed to find a survivor when we tried to get up here."
Isaac just happened to walk through the door as soon as she said that.
"Isaac, you made it, thank god!" yelled a very excited human
"Wait do you have the override codes for the executive lockdown?" Asked Kasumi
"Yeah I have them, but they almost weren't worth what we had to go through to get them." Isaac mumbled
"What the hell happened?" asked a curious Hammond
"It's a long story." Replied Garrus
"Well we have some time." Commented Shepard
"Ok, but we might want to find a place to sit and hide." Remarked Garrus
Hammond signaled everyone to follow him, and then he led the whole group to some sort of control room below the bridge.
"Garrus I think you owe us that story now." Commented Shepard
Everyone got comfortable as Garrus went on about the adventures they had starting from where they meet up with Tali and Thane.
After Garrus was done Shepard jokingly remarked, "Bullshit"
Everyone chuckled a bit; it was nice to see that they could still remember how to laugh at this point.
A siren started to go off; ruining the somewhat happy mood they were in.
"What the hell was that?" Asked Jack
Hey guys sorry it took so long to update, but better late than never right. The last time I updated the story I accidentally uploaded chapter 2 again, thank you sim for bringing this to my attention. If this happens again please let me know as soon as possible. Again I apologize for this, but thank you for reading anyway. I hope you enjoy this chapter, again feel free to send me a message for any ideas for what you think should happen in the story.