The noise of the snowstorm was distant here, a ghostly moaning that floated in and out of the dark, overwhelmed by the sound of her own breathing. The light from her omni-tool cut back the black, reflecting the dull gray walls of the vent as she crawled her way forward.
"Just like old times," she whispered, her voice echoing around her like bats in the dark. The space was so narrow she was reduced to simply pulling herself along with her arms for the most part, more or less just dragging her legs behind.
The temperature had risen. Not enough to be uncomfortable but the metal around her was noticeably warm, the moving air an uncomfortable heated breath on her face.
The subway ventilation tunnels she'd lived in had been much the same…hot, humid, at times stifling but insurance against freezing to death out in the bitter New York winter. As she moved along now, she kept expecting to hear the distant rumble of the underground trains, to smell smoke and steam and refuse wafting through in a miasma of human waste.
Home sweet home.
After about a dozen yards she paused and listened. The echoes had changed a little. Shifting she pointed her omni-beam straight down the vent. About six yards further on she could see a grate. A few feet in front of that, was a hole where the horizontal vent she was in intersected with a vertical one.
{Commander,} Tali's voice suddenly filled her ear. {We have gathered the weapons pack and your armor and moved up the tunnel, away from the entrance. Thanks to the fire it is warmer here.}
"Any sign of more geth?"
{Negative. All has been quiet.}
"Good. I can see a grate up ahead…I think it opens to the outside on the opposite end of the ridge. There's a vertical drop as well. I'm going to check it out."
She continued to move forward, and shone her light down the shaft as she reached it. It was just as wide as the one she was in, and she could barely see the sheen of metal at its base, easily thirty feet below. "The shaft descends quite a bit. The grate is directly ahead of me now…definitely opens on the outside. I can feel the cold air coming through it. I'm going to descend the vertical shaft and see where it leads."
{Be careful, Commander,} Liara urged.
"You know me," Shepard grinned.
{That is why I am worried.}
Shepard shook her head as she continued to examine the vertical drop. No handholds, smooth sides. Ah, well, that had never stopped her before.
Moving forward she pulled her body over the opening, half-entering the short dead-end shaft that held the grate. Cold air pinched her cheeks, stirring her hair as she did so. As soon as her knees were clear she lowered herself feet-first into the shaft, expertly bracing herself on the sides and moving downward.
Halfway down, moving steadily, she suddenly paused, listening. There was a faint noise, slowly growing louder…a strange kind of humming and rustling sound. Something was moving below her, steadily getting closer to the vertical shaft she was braced in.
Because of her position she was unable to look down. She could do nothing but listen and wait, holding her breath so as not to give her position away via sound.
As the…whatever it was…moved directly beneath her a smell wafted up the shaft. Not an unpleasant odor per se, but a distinct one that was a mix of old leather and rich earth. It did not seem inclined to climb the shaft and continued on its way, the rustling sounds slowly growing fainter. After a few moments she let out her breath, and slowly continued to inch her way down.
The unknown intruder had come from the east and gone west. As Shepard reached the bottom of the shaft she slid her feet east, edging her head and torso into the western shaft. At least this way she'd be facing it if it decided to come back her direction. The walls of the vent here bore distinct marks of something pushing its way along. Shining her light ahead she could not see the mysterious invader, but rather a juncture.
Moving forward once again, as stealth as she was able, she reached the juncture and examined it. The markings continued to the north. To the south, the dust was undisturbed. Risking it, she touched her ear-bud.
"This is Shepard. I'm at a north-south juncture, plain in both directions. I'm heading north. Everything still secure?"
{Understood Commander,} Tali answered. {Yes, everything is five-by. The fire is slowly starting to die down but there have been no more signs of the geth.}
"Good. Shepard out."
Shifting north she followed the marks on the walls, and after only a few more yards the air began to cool and freshen…not in a way that spoke of an opening onto the outside, but more likely an end into an environmentally controlled room. Fixing her light ahead she grimaced. A vent was nearby but was not intact. It had been wrenched off its hinges, showing darkness beyond. Inching up to it, she saw a strange viscous substance clinging to the bent metal.
Wrinkling her nose she shaded her light, and carefully peered out of the broken vent.
It was a room, a small one by the look. Some kind of monitoring station. An empty chair sat at a dimly lit console, and dirty windows lined two of the walls. On the third, a door stood half open.
There was no sign of life.
Edging out of the vent she crouched on the floor a moment, before peeking around the open door. A much wider, darker room was beyond. Carefully easing the door shut she touched the button on the console to shift the windows, make them opaque. That done she waited a minute or two before touching her ear-bud, attempting to access the console to determine where she was. The HI interface was dead.
"Shepard here. I'm in. Can't determine where, looks like the computer is down. Garage or hanger has to be near here, I'm pretty close to the outside wall. I'm going to have to take a look around."
{Ten-four.}
Drawing her pistol she moved back to the door, edged it open. Holding it in such a way that her omni-light directed exactly where her shots would go, she carefully swept the room beyond. Silent and empty of life, she grinned as her light passed over several dusty shapes.
She was exactly where she wanted to be; the facility's private garage. Moving down to the maintenance floor she looked over the vehicles before selecting a CAT. Smaller than the one they'd had to destroy, it had no turret and would only barely fit the three of them. Still, it was quiet and unobtrusive, and they didn't have far to go.
She did have a problem, however. With the computers down the garage door would not open. Hunting carefully for an access box so she could override it manually, she heard that sound again. Immediately she sheltered behind one of the snow-bikes, switched off her omni-light and waited.
Whatever it was sounded sizable…larger than would have fit in that vent. Faint wafts of that same leather, earthy smell floated to her and she kept silent. It was on the far side of the room, and thanks to the darkness and the silent shapes of the other vehicles she could not see what it was. After a short time the sounds and smell both faded, and instinct once again told her she was alone.
She was about to reignite her omni-tool when one of the inner doors swung brazenly open. This time, she recognized the sounds…high-pitched chittering and humming that was distinctive to the geth.
Seeing a light crawl across a wall she risked a peek around the bike's bumper. It was a single unit, a trooper…no doubt a routine patrol.
This is a corporate research facility, there should be dozens if not hundreds of people here. If the geth are patrolling so openly…
The unit didn't seem alarmed, but he was getting closer. Shepard had her pistol but couldn't risk firing on him. The sound might alert others if they were nearby, and unless she got off a perfect shot, he might have time to alert the others via shortwave. No, the gun wasn't an option. She had to take him out quickly and quietly.
Silently she reached down, easing the blade from the inside of her boot. Gauging the unit's progress she eased around the bike just as its light passed over where she had been hidden. Creeping around until she was directly behind it, her eyes fell on the juncture of the neck, just above its shoulders.
Gripping the knife firmly in one hand, the palm of the other braced on its butt, she rammed the blade firmly in the juncture. It took far more force than it would have to pierce an organics' neck, but expecting that she had thrown all her strength into the blow.
The trooper gave a single whine, a spit of sparks brushing heat across her face for a breath before the synthetic sagged to the ground. Ripping the knife out she tucked it away, then quickly picked up the geth's weapon. Staying silent for a few minutes she reassured herself no other units had been alerted, then slung the rifle she'd taken on her back. She had to hurry. There was no telling when another patrol would come through, or if the other geth would send a search party out to see why this one didn't make its next checkpoint in time.
Dragging the trooper out of sight behind the bike, she wondered at how light it was. Heavier, of course, than an organic of its same size but much lighter than she was expecting. Secreting it away, she quickly located the access box and rigged it to open the garage doors via her omni-tool.
Glad to see the mini-CAT was also climate controlled and she was in no danger of freezing to death on the way back, as Liara had feared, Shepard was soon out in the blizzard once again, heading back along the thin road toward the tunnel.
Though the fire had died somewhat, the tunnel was comfortably warm, at least here where they were sitting. Every few moments Tali did a full sweep with her omni-tool, looking for any sign that more geth would be appearing. Liara alternated between peering nervously toward the distant vent opening, and watching the slowly dying flames.
"Tali," Liara said after a long stretch of silence, glancing over at the quarian. "May I ask you a question?"
"Of course," the quarian replied, finishing her scan and settling back a little.
"What…do you think of the commander?"
"Shepard?" Tali asked, more out of surprise than clarification. "Well, she saved my life. And I don't think I would like getting on her bad side, if you know what I mean."
"Yes," Liara agreed. "Some of the things she does…are frightening. She has a very distinct point of view and when she has made a decision, there is no question in her mind. She goes forward without hesitation, without fear, even if it means she might be killed."
"Well, I don't know if she does it without fear," Tali replied thoughtfully. "She's not synthetic, after all."
"No, she is not," Liara murmured. Tali inclined her head.
"Why are you asking? Just out of curiosity."
"Oh…n-no reason…"
Tali smirked, though it was hidden behind her helmet. "Shepard is right, you are a terrible liar," she stated with amusement. "I know you are older in years than I am but I have done the math…given the length of our life-spans and the rate at which our people mature, we are more or less the exact same age. So if you're afraid I won't understand or something-"
"It is not that," Liara mumbled. "I…do not make friends easily. I have always been comfortable in my own company. Even as a child, I kept to myself rather than play with the other children. I preferred to have my nose in a book than anything else. Truth be told I am not sure how to articulate what I mean to myself, let alone to another."
"Well, let me help then," Tali replied. "Let's see. You have been spending an awful lot of time in her company. I know you're helping her with those visions she's had from the beacon. Of the entire crew you probably know her the best. She saved your life just like she saved mine…I'd be silly if I said I didn't have some small measure of hero-worship just because of that, so you probably do to. And since you've been helping her…it would be natural to have a bit of ban-chi as well."
"Ban…chi?" Liara asked, puzzled. The translator didn't seem to know what to make of that word.
"Ban-chi…it is a term among quarians. It is…we've noticed that sometimes, medics and doctors develop attachments to their patients. There is an old saying 'you cannot hate something if you've fought to save its life.' This is kind of along those lines, but more than just 'not hating'…an affection develops. Ban-chi. She saved your life so you have some hero-worship, and you have been helping her sort out that alien information in her brain, so…ban-chi."
"I see."
"Being as you're not used to having friends, to feeling this kind of affection, you're confused because of it. Makes sense to me."
"So…you are saying that…that this strange attachment I feel for the commander is nothing more than my gratitude for her saving my life, and sympathetic affection for the help that I am providing to her? That…this is what it feels like to have a friend?"
"Sure," Tali replied. "Like I said, you know her better than anyone else on the crew, right?"
"Goddess," Liara put her hand to her forehead. "I am more confused than before."
Tali laughed. "Sorry, I am not much help. Like I said, we're about the same age, and I'm hardly experienced in these kinds of things. My advice? Don't overanalyze. One thing I've noticed about you, Liara, is that you think too much. Sometimes it's ok to just…let things fall where they may. Shepard is your friend. It's all right to say it, to have one. Go ahead. Say it."
"Shepard…is my friend."
"See? No bruises, no spontaneous bleeding."
Liara grinned a little. "No."
"There you are then. Shepard is your friend."
"Shepard is my friend," Liara stated with a bit more authority.
"There's hope for you yet," Tali giggled. Suddenly a voice filled both women's ears.
{This is Shepard. I have left the facility and am heading toward the tunnel. ETA about five minutes.}
"Roger that, Shepard," Liara replied with some relief. Tali reached over and pat her knee, before she got to her feet.
"C'mon. That's our signal that our rest break is over. Time to earn our paycheck again."
Snow had drifted into the garage through the open door, hissing along the concrete in thin sheets of white, brushing unnoticed past the feet of the geth. Half a dozen had gathered in the garage, lights crawling through the darkness. They had been drawn by their mysteriously missing compatriot…the oddly open garage door.
A growling roar drew the lights toward the open door, and like a beast pouncing out of the night, the mini-CAT roared in at full speed. It slammed into one trooper, knocking its feet out from under it and grinding it under its treads. Crushed electronics spit fire as it died, white coolant spurting out across the gray floor.
As the CAT skidded in, dancing to the left, it swept up another trooper, slamming it against the wall as it crashed to a halt.
The trooper, pinned from the waist down, had dropped its weapon. Squealing wildly, it was attempting to extricate its half-crushed form from between vehicle and concrete as the door to the mini-CAT popped open. Shepard emerged, pistol already out. With a single pop, the trapped geth's head exploded and it sagged, limp.
"T'Soni!"
The air seemed to ripple in a shockwave, blue light flaring in a wall between the remaining synthetics and the mini-CAT as the geth opened fire. Flashes of blue lightning sparked as the bullets struck the energy and dissolved. Climbing fully from the CAT, Liara thrust her uplifted hands forward, and the wall rushed toward the geth, slamming them back into the vehicles behind them.
As they collapsed or struggled to keep their balance, Tali and Shepard opened fire and took them out for good.
"Nice work," Shepard told her two companions as silence once again filled the garage. "Computer's down and this part of the facility at least seems to be running on minimal emergency power only. There's no telling where the staff is, but my bet is either dead, holed up somewhere, or being held prisoner. Keep your wits sharp and let's take this one step at a time."
Weapons ready, the trio approached the door into the facility proper, clearing the hallway beyond before proceeding. A security door lay at the end, locked open. Its twin lay a dozen feet further on, also locked open. Between the two, a wicked looking pair of E35 security turrets were pointed firmly at the inner door, away from the garage.
"That's…strange," Liara said, eyeing the dead turrets in confusion. "Are they not pointed in the wrong direction?"
Shepard nodded grimly. "Looks like they're trying to keep their people in, more than keep others out."
A small security room lay just beyond but they had no more luck with the computer there than she'd had in the garage. With no choice but to continue on, Shepard was a bit surprised to note they had come across no more geth. She'd expected the whole facility to be crawling.
Not daring to let her guard down just for a moment, she kept at point, edging down each hallway and turn with decided caution, clearing every corner and doorway as she proceeded. Most of the doors were locked down. Those that were open showed only empty, hastily evacuated rooms.
It wasn't until they reached the cafeteria that the trouble really began. The door was half open as they approached it, and frigid gusts of wind seeped through the gap. Shepard gestured at Tali, who forced the door the rest of the way while Shepard kept her covered, weapon fixed on the room beyond.
A set of grand windows spanned the entire western wall, and it seemed most had been broken. Snow had drifted into the room, eager to claim the space as its own. Tables were overturned, chairs scattered, scorches and holes in the wall telling of some fire-fight…but there were no bodies that could be seen.
As Shepard stepped in she heard the tell-tale whining chitter of geth, and quickly gestured at the others. As a pair of troopers entered at the lower level the three women opened fire.
These two did not go down as easily as the first set in the garage. They seemed more savvy, quickly finding cover behind the large concrete pillars that centered the room. Shepard ordered the other two into cover and then found some of her own, stowing her pistol in favor of her small sniper.
"Liara, the one on the left. There's a table directly behind it," she barked as she focused her scope on the one on the right. It was doing well at staying hidden, and she couldn't get a bead. There was the distinctive pulse of biotics and the first geth was crushed as Liara sent the table slamming into it, forcing it into the wall.
"Tali, cover me!"
Shepard darted forward just as the geth leaned out to fire. Tali's shot skipped off its chest-plate, damaging it but not penetrating enough to put it down. The impact was enough to make it duck backward again without letting off a shot, and by the time it recovered it was too late. Shepard's shot exploded the side of its neck and shoulders and as it fell, she pinned it down with a foot and fired into its head.
Stepping back away from the still sparking ruin, she looked over as Tali and Liara ran up.
"Five by?" she asked, looking over the pair.
"Fine," Tali panted.
"No injuries, commander," Liara agreed. "I do think I am getting the hang of-"
There was the faint squeal of metal, and a strange rustling sound. Immediately all three weapons were up, the trio instinctively putting their backs to each other as they scanned over the room.
"What was that?" Tali whispered.
"Animals maybe?" Liara shook her head. "With the windows open who knows what wildlife has sought refuge in here from the blizzard."
With her helmet now on, Shepard couldn't tell if the smell was back, but that sound was more than familiar.
"When I was in the vent, something passed nearby," she said to the other two. "I didn't see it but it sounded just like that."
"One of those leaping sniper geth?" Tali asked. "Maybe it was clearing the vents."
"Maybe, but there was a smell to it too…something distinctly organic."
Something fairly heavy crashed. All three weapons snapped around that direction. Just above a short set of stairs, she saw something move.
"Steady," she whispered, a breath before she heard Liara suck in a startled breath.
A shape loomed over the staircase. The dim light shimmered off a dark brown carapace, glimmered off tiny black eyes. Claws and mandibles clicked eagerly as a pair of deadly looking appendages rose into the air, pointing toward the women as if targeting them.
For a single beat, the three women and the gigantic bug regarded one another, those appendages dancing like cobras ready to strike. Then the thing hissed, claws and jaws flying open as it rushed down the stairs toward them with remarkable speed.
Tali and Liara needed no urging. All three guns ignited at the same moment, as if on cue. The hard carapace cracked and split open, spilling black ichor on the ground as the creature let out an ear-piercing shriek. One of the appendages darted forward, whipping a set of deadly spines not three feet away from where they stood.
Still moving as one, Shepard, Liara, and Tali took a single step backward. Liara's hand lifted, wreathed in blue, and the bug thing reeled up off its legs, half-lifting from the ground. Tali and Shepard focused their fire on its underbelly and it exploded open, spilling ichor and viscera in a thick jelly on the ground. As Liara let it drop, the creature incredibly tried to get up again, spurting thin shots of ichor from its mandibles before it finally fell still. Warily approaching it, never taking her weapon off of it, Shepard nudged it with a foot.
"What is this thing?" Tali asked.
"Biggest damn cockroach I ever saw," Shepard growled.
"I do not think this is native to Noveria, at least not this region," Liara noted, crouching and reaching out a hand to touch the broken carapace.
"Tianlán, be careful," Shepard snapped.
"How do you know it's not native?" Tali wanted to know.
"It is not built for this climate or this altitude," Liara noted. "It shares a distinct evolutionary similarity to ancient verso crabs from Thessia, or the klexin from Tuchanka. It is better suited for a far more temperate, arid location."
"So someone brought it here then. Fantastic," Shepard shook her head. "As if the geth weren't enough to worry about. All right, we have to keep moving. These things were moving through the vents so chances are they're going to be everywhere. This may have been the only one but I'm not banking on it. One surefire assumption with bugs…if you see one there's a thousand you don't see."
"This is fascinating, Shepard." Liara was still crouched, examining the dead insect. "I wish I had proper time to dissect and compare with the known fossil records of-"
"Focus, or we're going to become part of the fossil record. We have to keep moving."
"I…of course. I'm sorry," Liara straightened, readying her weapon again.
Leaving the broken corpse behind they continued on.
"Who are you again?" Ventralis was tired and irritated, and in no mood for this bullshit. Leaning over the console he glared at the image of the woman there.
"Gellian Osco," she replied. "I am entering atmosphere. I need you to open docking bay 211."
"Are you insane? That's a class nine blizzard out there. You're in a phase four shuttle. Lady, you are going to end up smeared over the side of the mountain if you even try to dock here."
"That's my concern, not yours."
"It becomes my concern if the matriarch finds out," he retorted. "She said you might show up. Said you might even be crazy enough to try and land. She was very specific in her request that I keep you out."
"Ventralis, you're a busy man so I'm only going to say this once more. Open 211. If you don't, I'm going to be significantly more pissed with you when I land than I am already."
He blinked. She couldn't be serious? From what he understood, this Osco was a geneticist. He was a trained soldier with an entire platoon at his heels, in a secure base she couldn't hope to access unless he opened the doors for her. Even if he met her face to face on some distant day, what was she going to do…slap him? He was a bit more worried about Benezia stripping off his skin with some biotic blast-wave than he ever would be of this haughty little bitch.
"Yeah, good luck with that. Be a smart girl and go back to orbit before you hurt yourself. Ventralis out."
He snapped off the communication with a grunt of irritation. He half-hoped she tried to land anyway, she'd make a nice new crater in the side of the mountain. Even if by some miracle she did make it down without killing herself, she'd never-
His thought was interrupted by one of his privates trotting up, tossing off a quick salute. "Captain, we've got action on the computer core in the primary facility. Someone is trying to get MIRI back on line."
"What? There shouldn't be anyone alive in that facility. Who?"
"Unknown sir, but the geth patrols in that sector have gone silent."
"Shit. It's that Spectre, Shepard…has to be. Somehow she got through to the primary facility. Report this to Benezia. See what she wants me to do if Shepard gets this far."
"Aye, sir."
Tali's hand reached out of the core access. Shepard quickly crouched and caught hold of it, helping the quarian up and out. "Any luck?"
"I managed to access the main computer core," Tali reported, slightly out of breath. "I could not pull much with most of the systems still off-line, but it seems there was some kind of disaster at the lab facility. The entire place went on lockdown and then power and communications were cut as a safety measure."
"Well, whatever is in that lab facility is what Saren and the geth are after," Shepard said. "Could you get a map of the terrain?"
"Yes, I managed to access blue-prints. There is a tram that connects this facility with the labs. I was able to get enough power diverted that way to run it, so we should be able to reach the labs fairly quickly."
"All right, excellent job Tali."
Tali pulled up the blue-prints and projected them via her omni-tool. Shepard regarded the 3D image hanging in the air in front of her, then pointed. "Looks like this is the most direct way to the tram from here. Let's get moving."
Liara swallowed back her nerves as they moved on. Truth be told, she was not all that fond of bugs. Not that she would shriek or run away from them…one did not become an archaeologist if one was utterly terrified of insects or invertebrates, as most digs were crawling with both…but they were not her most favorite creatures. Imagining them moving through the ductwork, ready to pop out and attack at any moment was putting her on edge.
The nearing confrontation with her mother, as well, was not helping.
For all you know, your mother may already be dead. There was some sort of disaster, after all. She could have been caught up in it. Or she could already be off-world.
"Oh, Keelah…" Tali's groan brought her attention back to reality. They had reached the contamination lock between the facility and the tram. Through a nearby observation window it was plain to see several of those giant 'cockroaches,' as Shepard had called them, moving about the chamber…a chamber they had to pass through to reach their destination.
"Well, that's interesting," Shepard said dryly, then leaned closer to the glass, peering in at the things. One, seeing or sensing her there, displayed aggressively. Thanks to the airtight chamber they could hear no sound, but Liara could imagine its angry hissing shriek easily enough.
"How do we get through?" Liara asked. "The doors won't open so long as they are in there."
"Most decontamination chambers are equipped with elimination measures, to prevent contaminated individuals from entering a sterile location," Tali told her.
"I guess if anyone knows anything about decontamination it's you," Shepard nodded.
"Indeed. We just need to find the control panel and activate the fail-safes."
She was already off, quickly finding the small control room and wiring its computer in to the renewed power grid. The HI flickered slowly to life, then brightened. "Ah, yes, indeed. I can initiate a burn of nearly five thousand degrees within the chamber. They will be completely incinerated, and the doors should unlock."
"Do it," Shepard ordered, watching through the window implacably as flames suddenly jetted into the chamber, consuming the insects. Liara, despite disliking bugs in general and knowing that such an action was more than necessary, couldn't help a little grimace of distaste, averting her eyes.
"You ok?" Shepard asked.
"I know it is necessary, but watching living creatures die like that…it is one thing when they can fight back. It is another to watch them helpless and trapped."
"You got a good heart, T'Soni. Don't ever lose it."
Liara looked at Shepard, brows wrinkling as she took in her expression. "You…do not think that you have a good heart?" she asked.
Shepard shrugged. "Seen too much death. You look in that chamber and you feel sorry for them because they're trapped. I look in there and I just think 'better them than me.'"
The jets of fire slowed, and then stopped. They had burned so hot that only ash remained behind…ash the air purification filters quickly sucked in and eliminated. With a beep, the chamber door green-lighted.
Liara followed silently as Shepard opened the door and proceeded onward, Tali falling in behind her. She did not buy what the commander had just said. Yes, Shepard had seen much death in her life…yes, perhaps her thoughts were 'better them than me'… but Liara did believe she had a good heart. She put her life on the line to protect her crew. Time and again Liara had seen her stand up for those who could not do so for themselves. Williams had told her how Shepard had helped a human man on the Citadel, when the Alliance had attempted to hold his wife's body rather than return it. That was not the action of someone truly cruel and cold inside.
She has learned to be cruel and cold when she needs to, to distance herself from what is happening, but that is not who she is. I know it is not.
The tram would take fifteen minutes to reach the labs. Once the car was clear and activated, Shepard sat down on the cushioned bench, unfastening her helmet and drawing it off. Liara also pulled hers off, grateful for the momentary reprieve of its weight. Setting it on the bench nearby, she sat down as well. Tali remained toward the front, fiddling with the tram controls.
"Being a soldier…it is exhausting," Liara murmured, suddenly feeling the weight of weariness behind her eyes. How long had it been since they had stepped off the Normandy? Hours, easily. It felt like weeks.
Shepard chuckled a little. "Welcome to the downside of adrenaline, Tianlán. Eventually it wears off."
"I wanted to thank you again. For bringing me along, I mean, for not sending me back to the ship when you found out Benezia was here."
"You deserve the chance to talk to her," Shepard shrugged. "Get answers. Get closure, maybe. Not everyone is that lucky."
"I do not know if I would quantify it as 'luck'," Liara said softly. "I am dreading seeing her, very much. I am dreading it even more that she may leave us no choice but to…take permanent measures."
"Trust me, Liara. No matter what someone does, if you care about them and you don't get that chance to-…well, let's just say regret is a tenacious companion."
Liara frowned a little. Sha'ira had said much the same thing, about regret.
"You are talking about that boy, aren't you?" Liara murmured softly. "Your friend."
"Yeah," Shepard said, and then shook her head. "Let's not talk about that right now. This is hardly the best place."
"Yes, of course. We must keep our minds on recreation."
"We…what?" Shepard asked, blinking at her in confusion.
"K-keep our minds on recreation," Liara said tentatively. "I…thought I heard that human term before, about how one must stay focused on one's objective."
Shepard's lopsided grin made an appearance. "I think you mean, 'keep our heads in the game'," she said, catching on.
"Oh, yes…yes, that was it. How silly of me."
As she looked down at her hands in her lap, she could feel her cheeks heating again.
"You know, you blush a lot, T'Soni," Shepard teased lightly, leaning over just far enough to bump her shoulder against the asari's.
"I did not used to until recently," Liara explained. "This…awkwardness with others is unfortunate. I did not think being…social…was important as a child or even until recently. It was naïve of me."
"Don't be so hard on yourself. You're getting it. And you're not nearly as silly as you think you are."
"Perhaps not. Nevertheless, I feel very silly arou…at times. I suppose I just have not finished adjusting."
"Just remember, you're smarter than half the crew combined. You got nothing to apologize to them or anyone else about."
"We are approaching the lab facility," Tali interrupted. Shepard nodded and got to her feet, picking up her helmet.
"C'mon, T'Soni. I get the feeling we're in for more adrenaline."
"Lower those weapons!" Ventralis barked at his men, as he strode through the lounge. Not that it resembled a lounge much anymore. The chairs and low sofas had been unbolted from the floor and turned over, stacked to form barricades. Vending machines, raided and emptied of their wares, had also been wrenched from the walls to further reinforce them.
Dozens of guns were focused from behind those barricades onto the trio of women that cautiously entered, their own weapons lifted. On Ventralis's bark, his men relaxed, turning their guns away.
"You always greet people this way?" the woman in the lead asked. Though he could not see her face, Ventralis knew this was Shepard. He would have known even if she wasn't wearing an Alliance hard suit emblazoned with N7 on the shoulders.
The other two, one most likely an asari, the other unmistakably a quarian, were clearly not true soldiers. Though their stances told they were capable of defending themselves, they were not the postures of trained professionals.
Shepard is the one to worry about, he thought, before inclining his head toward the three.
"People, no. Sorry about that, we're never sure these days what's going to stick its ugly mug in here. Geth, bugs…though we were banking on geth this time. If those bugs learn to hack an elevator we're in serious shit."
With guns no longer pointed in her direction, Shepard lowered her pistol, then removed her helmet. She was younger than he was expecting, her dark hair plastered to her temples and cheeks with sweat and dust. Her brown eyes were almost black, watchful…the eyes of someone who did not trust easily, someone dangerous.
"You wanna tell me what's going on?" she asked. "What happened to the labs?"
"Not entirely sure," he said, stepping up and offering his hand. She took it but only after a microscopic pause, her eyes never leaving his. It was almost disconcerting. "Captain Ventralis. My team is the security force for Peak 15. Few days ago something broke loose from one of the hot labs. These bug things…no idea what they are, and by the time we realized what had happened, they'd slaughtered most of the civilians. Next thing we know, power and the computer's gone and we're fighting for our lives."
He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. "We got the surviving civilians holed up in the common area outside the infirmary, and we've been trying to keep this position secure. Every time we try and contact the outside we get a goddamn 'please stand by' message. Until that matriarch showed up we thought we were on our own…not that she's been much help."
"Benezia," Shepard stated matter-of-factly.
"Yeah. One of the major stockholders, Saren Arterius, sent her to help contain the problem. She breezed through, headed toward the hot labs without so much as a word, and next thing I know we got geth coming out of every crack in the wall right along with the bugs."
"We've taken out everything behind us, back to the other facility. You have no idea what these bugs are? Where they came from?"
Ventralis shook his head. "Probably some genetic experiment. The corporations here are so hard-set on their secrets, they don't tell us grunts anything. And there's no real sanctions or regulations here as to what they can research…which is why they come to Noveria to begin with. Who knows what's in those hot labs? We can't get in and ain't no one come out since the bugs showed up…not even that matriarch. She's been down there for days."
"I need to get into those labs."
"You're suicidal," he said, voice both astonished and exhausted at the same time. "We've seen hundreds of these bug-things. There's probably a thousand more down there, along with who knows what else."
"Benezia went down there, and I need to find her. I need access to those labs."
He glowered, then shrugged. "No skin off my nose, you wanna get yourself killed. It's going to take me a bit to get you access. The locks have a dozen damn fail-safes that all need to be manually overridden. As soon as we let the matriarch down we locked it up again. We'll do the same after you, just so you know. If you wanna come back through, you're gonna have to clear the lockdown from the inside. Shouldn't be too hard but unless you clear the lockdown no one's letting you out. Just so we're clear."
"Crystal," she answered. "How long until you can let us in?"
"Twenty, maybe thirty minutes. I'll have my boys start on it right now. In the mean time, the civvies are back that way. There's a little food, some medics. Might as well regroup before you head into hell, right?"
The reflection in the mirror glared grimly back at Shepard as she regarded it. Leaning over the sink of the lavatory, she watched the tiny beads of water she'd splashed over her face gather and roll down her cheeks. Her hair was still dusty from the tunnels.
Taking up another handful of water she splashed her face again, finger combing her hair back and spreading some damp on the back of her neck.
Ventralis hadn't been lying when he said the group of civvies was small. Only a dozen remained out of the hundred or more who had worked at Peak 15. Most were shell-shocked, sitting and staring into space. A few were wounded, being treated by the single doctor on hand. All had that thousand yard stare of a mind too overloaded with exhaustion and stress to function.
Food was indeed scarce, and the civvies being far more in need of it than they were, the three from the Normandy had only indulged in water and some energy pills from the doc. He offered them stims as well, but it'd be a cold day for certain before Shepard ever took any of that shit.
Cold day, hmm? There is a blizzard outside, you know.
She smirked wryly at her reflection.
Liara and Tali were both still out with the civvies. Liara had seemed to latch on to a volus who seemed even more traumatized than the others. He told the asari how he had seen one of his co-workers slaughtered by a bug, because he had closed the tram door on her. She'd been torn apart because he had not let her in…but of course, they both would have been killed if he had.
Liara, forever empathetic, remained at the volus's side, listening to him and murmuring softly in return.
Tali, unable to sit still and a techie to the core, busied herself by fiddling with the small medi-comp, trying to get it back online. The doctor had run out of the small emergency packets of medi-gel. If she could get the computer running again, he could produce more, and more properly diagnose the wounded.
"You know, I was expecting someone taller."
Shepard's eyes shifted to the asari as she entered the small bathroom, two human men on her heels. She had seen the asari when they'd first come in, sitting off by herself, apparently meditating. The human men had been against the wall nearby, looking as haggard and shocked as the rest of them. They did not look even remotely traumatized now.
Shepard did not need her instincts to know a serious mess was about to go down. It was more than obvious in the way the asari smiled at her in the mirror, eyes as intent as a snake about to strike. As soon as the last man entered he turned and locked the door, sealing it with his omni-tool.
Shepard didn't turn around, still leaning on the sink with her eyes locked to the other woman's reflection.
"You'd be surprised how often I hear that," she said calmly. "I'm really not short. Five foot seven is a fairly common height among human females."
"It's your vids," the asari woman replied. "They always show you from such grandiose angles. Media hype, I suppose."
"I have vids?" Shepard asked.
"Do you not keep in touch with the extranet? Earth media? The first human Spectre, you're something of a celebrity on your home world, Commander. You did not know?"
"Been kind of busy," she said with a shrug.
"Understandable. Would you mind turning around? I would prefer not to shoot you in the back."
"Honestly, I would prefer not being shot at all, back or front," Shepard replied, making no move to turn. "Walk out that door, or I'm going to have to kill you."
"You took off your weapon pack, and most of your hard suit, left them out with your friends," the asari pointed out with amusement. "You have no guns, no armor, no shields. We have all three, not to mention my biotics. It's actually kind of surprising. An Alliance marine and a Spectre leaving herself so vulnerable and unarmed."
"All right then. I warned you." Shepard sighed faintly. "You couldn't let me goddamn relax for half an hour?"
With a dart, she suddenly leapt away from the sink toward the nearest open toilet stall. Instantly the three assassins opened fire, the sink denting under the barrage. Tile crumbled as the bullets chewed threw it, the mirror shattering in a low boom of glass. The deadly rain trailed after her, narrowly missing her as she dove into the stall, immediately sliding under the partition into the second one and then the third as the first was swiss-cheesed.
The asari was smart. In a breath she crouched, sweeping her shot underneath the stall doors just as Shepard ripped off a toilet seat, leaping up onto the edge of the bowl and away from the line of fire. Pipes exploded and began to rain water as she kicked the stall door, slamming it into the first human man and sending him backward.
Holding the horse-shoe shaped toilet seat by the ends, Shepard whipped it over the head of the second man, yanking him backward into the stall and then twisting it. There was a horrible crunch as his neck broke, and she planted a boot in his chest, shoving him back out toward the open room. The asari fired at him instinctively, then cursed, turning her weapon toward the stall again.
Something else flew out of it as she began to depress the trigger, smacking her in the forehead. It had moved much too slowly to ignite her shields, and the impact with her head was soft and barely noticeable save to startle her. Blinking in shock at the roll of paper that thumped to the ground and began to unravel, her face darkened.
"You threw the bog roll at me?"
Shepard's laugh echoed through the room and the asari bore her teeth, raking the entire row of toilet stalls with a sweep of her machine rifle. Metal bent and tore, tile shattered, more pipes erupted, sending plumes of water high into the air.
Reaching the end of the stalls with no sign of the human marine, she lifted a hand wreathed in blue fire. Pushing forward and then pulling back, two of the stalls warped and pulled apart, the abused doors flying across the room before crashing to the ground.
No Shepard.
Reaching out to clear the other two stalls she jolted in shock as an arm whipped around from behind, hooking her gun arm and wrenching it back.
How did she get behind me?
As she twisted to aim a biotic punch at the human woman Shepard wrenched again, twisting her arm at the elbow where the armor joint was weaker. Though the bone did not break it made her howl in pain. She lost her balance, started to fall forward only to be propelled faster with a hand on the back of her head. Her face met a knee, her nose exploding in a white hot aura of agony. She vaguely felt her gun wrench away as she collapsed onto the cold tile floor, struggling to breathe through the wash of blood filling her sinuses and throat.
Shepard straddled the dazed asari, one hand plastering over her bleeding face and hauling her head back as the other drew the knife from her boot. With a swift motion she cut the assassin's throat, then let her head drop.
"Marines never go unarmed, you stupid bitch," she grumped down at the woman as she straightened. A lake of blue was spreading out beneath her, threading through the tiles.
Suddenly Shepard became aware of the thumping on the door, the muffled shouts from outside. Wiping her knife off on her hip she put it back in her boot, pulling out the dead woman's pistol before stepping over her.
The human merc she'd slammed with the stall door was moving weakly, barely conscious. She shot him in the head as she passed by, then tossed the pistol disdainfully to the ground.
She turned toward the door just as Tali opened the jammed lock. It had barely slid open than Liara was bursting through, glowing blue with biotics, the quarian on her heels with weapon drawn.
Seeing Shepard standing there, dead bodies scattered at her feet, the women halted and stared.
"What…what happened?" Tali gasped.
Had it been a bar fight, had the three forms scattered on the floor only been unconscious, bruised and battered, Shepard might have tossed off some smart-ass quip as she strode out. Something like, They didn't wash their hands. I hate that.
But it wasn't a bar fight, and they weren't unconscious, and she was pissed as hell that she couldn't even get five damn minutes to decompress without someone trying to take her head off. So her reply was less than amused.
"It seems Benezia has taken a great deal of exception to us being here," she grumped.
"They…Benezia sent them?" Liara whispered, breathless with shock.
"Well, I didn't exactly stop and ask them the specifics," Shepard told her. "But I think it's a safe bet, don't you?"
Striding off between the two, past the one or two civvies still together enough to have been drawn by the ruckus, she reached her weapon pack and the rest of her hard-suit, and began to pull them back on.
"Shepard, you're not hurt?" Tali asked, trotting over to her.
"I'm fine."
"You're bleeding," the quarian said, pointing at her face. Shepard lifted a hand, felt a faint sting as she touched her cheek. A shard of one of the shattering tiles or the mirror had grazed her.
"It's just a scratch, it's nothing. Did you get the medi-comp back online?"
"Y-yes, I think so. It just needs some adjustments-"
"Then adjust it. Ventralis should have the hot labs unlocked in the next few minutes, and we'll be moving out."
"Yeah, o-okay…yes, ma'am…" Tali turned and headed back to the medi-comp. As she did Shepard looked back toward the lavatory.
Liara stood near the door, arms folded around herself and looking toward the volus who was slumped in one corner. Shepard snapped on the last of her hard suit and walked over. Without looking at her, Liara spoke in a low, trembling voice.
"I am sorry that Benezia-"
"Stop that," Shepard replied, her voice just as low. "Benezia did it, not you. As you so vehemently pointed out when we first met, you are not your mother."
Liara's eyes finally shifted and Shepard could see the simmering anger deep inside their blue. It seemed so out of place there.
"I do not understand her, Shepard. I do not understand what she has become. I hate-…I hate what she has become, what she is doing. How could she have changed so much? We did not agree but she was not…she did not even raise her voice to me when I was a child, let alone send assassins to kill my friends!"
Reaching out, Shepard put her hand on Liara's shoulder. "We'll find out, Tianlán."
She could see the tears standing in the asari's eyes, the fury and grief mirrored in their depths. Lowering her head, Liara suddenly stepped forward and hugged Shepard. After a half-breath pause out of startlement, Shepard wound her arms around the asari and hugged her back.
A moment passed, then Liara wordlessly stepped back, wiping a finger discreetly under her eye as she sniffed faintly.
"Thank you," she murmured, and then moved off toward the bench again. Shepard watched her go, then noticed Tali was looking at her from over by the computer. Seeing the commander notice her, she turned her head and started to work again.
{Shepard, this is Ventralis. We've got the hot-labs just about open. Might want to start heading back here.}
Touching her ear-bud Shepard said only, "Understood," before she headed over to the quarian.
"How's it coming?"
"Just finishing up," Tali replied. Shepard nodded.
"Good. And, Tali…I'm sorry that I snapped at you. You didn't deserve it."
"It's all right Commander. Anger is a normal response after a fight. I understand."
"Anger is generally my normal response to most everything," Shepard said dryly. "Doesn't mean you deserved to be on the receiving end of it. If you're finished they've got the lockdown about cleared. We should head that way."
"Understood Commander. Is…Liara ok?"
"Her mother just tried to kill me, and we're probably going to have to kill her mother. Would you be ok?"
"Not even remotely," Tali responded honestly. Shepard nodded.
"There you have it. Finish up, Tali. We're heading out."
Ventralis told them he wouldn't authorize the final unlock until they were at the elevator for the hot labs itself, and that as soon as they were off the lift he was going to reinitialize the lockdown.
Directing them to the elevator he said, "Coming back shouldn't be too hard. At the elevator panel just put in 'lockdown clear authorization 277' and it should let you back upstairs. Remember, ain't a single soul on this end going to clear it for you."
Following his directions they reached the lift, Shepard touching her ear. "We're in position Ventralis. Activate the elevator."
{Ten four. Opening now. Good luck, Commander.}
The power light for the lift suddenly flared, and the doors parted. As they stepped inside, Shepard checked her helmet, then looked at the other two.
"We five-by?"
"Good, Commander," Tali replied with a nod.
"Ready, Commander," Liara's response was softer but did not hesitate.
"Weapons up and on that door. There's no telling what we'll be facing the second they open. Be ready for anything."
Guns lifted and primed, focusing on the closed door as the lift slowly dropped downward. A gentle bump and a pleasant toned bell signaled they had reached ground-level. Narrowing her eyes, muscles tensing, Shepard's gloved finger rested lightly on the trigger of her rifle.
The doors slid open.
Tali blinked, straightening a little. "Um…"
"Wasn't expecting that," Shepard murmured, staring into the empty room. Empty, that was, save for powered down computer consoles and a single human man sitting against one wall. His face was pale and haggard underneath disheveled iron gray hair, and he looked up at the three guns pointed at him dispassionately.
"Oh, hello," he murmured dully.
"Clear the room," Shepard ordered, and the two others stepped out, sweeping the room with their weapons. Not that there was much to sweep…a small child could not have hidden themselves in there.
Shepard herself moved forward to the man, gun never leaving its site on his forehead. He merely looked at her, his glazed eyes lost in dark hollows. He did not seem even remotely well. His lips were cracked, his skin sallow.
"You hurt?" she asked.
He chuckled weakly, grimacing a bit as he gingerly moved his hand. She could see the wound on his side beneath it. He'd tried to dress it but it had bled through, and judging by the stains surrounding the black of the caked on blood, it had gotten badly infected.
"You could say that," he replied weakly.
"We'll get you out of here, there's a doctor upstairs."
"I think I'm beyond that. I have been down here for days…no food, barely any water…with this wound festering. I can't even stand up and I'm not entirely sure that you're even real."
Shepard crouched, pointing her weapon to the side and toward the floor. Reaching out she touched his knee. "We're real," she said gently. "And we're going to help you. We will get you to the doctor, get you treated."
"They won't let you," he mumbled, eyes half-lidded.
"Who won't?"
"The Rachni," he replied.
"Rachni?" Liara blurted, overhearing as she and Tali drew to a halt behind Shepard. "Is that what those bugs are?"
"I thought the Rachni were extinct," Shepard responded.
"We found a ship, drifting…old, abandoned…inside, there was an egg in some kind of stasis…hibernation. It was brought here. They wanted to see if it would hatch."
"Even if they found a single Rachni egg and managed to hatch it, that doesn't explain all these bugs."
"The egg, it was a queen. She matured fast, started to lay. They thought they could control her…control her and her drones but…they made a mistake, I think. They separated her from the young ones, hoping they would be able to imprint them on those they wanted, rather than the queen. But it didn't work. The young ones went insane. They broke out, killed everyone…"
His glassy eyes started to unfocus as his head tilted forward, regarding his putrid wound. "Killed me…"
"Hey, stay with me," Shepard urged, touching his shoulder. "Do you know where Benezia is? Where the queen is?"
"I…do not know a 'Benezia'," he answered, blinking stupidly at her. "The queen…she is kept on the other side of this facility, only the drones were kept here. Look…the window, over there. That was the breeding chamber where they moved the eggs and young ones. Look."
Shepard looked up at Tali, who nodded and paced over to the viewing window he had indicated. Touching the control to fade it from opaque back into transparency, she gasped. "Oh…oh, Keelah…"
Rising, Shepard went to her side, and looked through.
The 'breeding' chamber as he had called it, was massive…half the size of the Normandy. At one point it had no doubt been organized, sterile, pristine. Now it was nothing but a writhing mass of those bugs, some the size of small horses. Broken vents, cracks in the concrete walls, showed how the smaller ones were escaping into the facility.
There looked to be thousands of them.
"That is going to be a problem…" Shepard whispered as she took in the sight.
"Please, you must listen…"
The man's weak voice drew her attention back. Turning she saw Liara had taken his hand, crouched beside him. Her tired blue eyes turned to Shepard as the commander returned, crouching as well. As she did, the man grasped at her arm.
"There is no hope for me, but the Rachni cannot be allowed to escape. They do not like the cold but they will soon brave it anyway, as soon as the blizzard ends. They will spread all over Noveria, all over the galaxy…and do what they did here. But there is a chance, now, to stop that."
"How? Tell me how."
"There is a small computer connection, linked to MIRI," he gestured to the right. "The power is back on now, so you can access her. Tell her to initiate the neutron purge. It is a failsafe they installed into the breeding room just in case this happened. Activate the purge and everything in that room will be incinerated in seconds with neutron radiation."
"Commander," Tali said, turning from the window. "I can see the neutron chargers in the room, but there is a problem. This room, and probably this whole level, is not shielded. If we set off those chargers anything in here will also die in seconds."
The man shook his head frantically, not releasing Shepard's arm. "The purge is on a countdown, if you activate it you will have a few minutes to get to the elevator and to safety. Please, you must do this. Just activate the computer and insert the code. Here…I have it here…"
As he reached for his shirt pocket something suddenly burst out of his chest, spattering blood over her and Liara's faces. Recoiling instinctively, Shepard barely missed the swiping spines that swept at her, attached to the appendage now waving from the man's torso.
Grabbing Liara Shepard darted backward, pulling out her pistol as the Rachni shoved the now dead civvie out of the way, flinging him across the room. He had, apparently, been sitting against one of the air vents which had been hidden by his body…probably trying to keep warm in his shock. Now the Rachni was forcing its way out of it, hissing furiously at them as it did so.
Gunfire filled the room, and the thing shrieked, its own black ichor bursting outward. Tenacious, it managed to pull most of its body out of the vent , claws waving weakly in their direction, before it collapsed.
"Oh, Goddess…" Liara breathed.
"Liara, block that vent," Shepard ordered, and darted for the civvie's broken body, now slumped near the elevator. His chest was almost completely gone, and she could see the torn remains of his stomach and intestines amid shattered daggers of bone. Not pausing, Shepard dug into the pocket he'd been reaching for, pulling out a small data drive.
Immediately turning she headed for the computer console. "Tali, I'm going to activate this purge. Get that elevator unlocked and ready."
The quarian ran for the elevator control as Shepard activated MIRI, the VI for the facility's computer. Programmed to appear as a human female, the shimmering yellow hologram hovered over her head.
"How may I help you?" It queried pleasantly.
A loud scraping turned Shepard's head a moment, as Liara pulled one of the heavy console banks over to block the vent, having dragged the dead Rachni out of the way. Looking back at the VI Shepard ordered, "Activate the neutron purge."
"Please enter command authorization code."
Shepard dropped the data drive into the slot, swiftly pulling up the proper code and inputting it.
"Command authorization code accepted," MIRI chirped. "Neutron purge will initiate in five minutes."
"Commander!"
Tali's voice was alarmed. Abandoning MIRI Shepard ran toward her.
"What is it?"
"I cannot override the lockdown. The authorization that Ventralis gave us is no good!"
"What? Are you sure you input it correctly?"
"I am positive," she replied quickly, still working frantically. "Given the schematic design the lockdown cannot be overridden anywhere but outside this lab!"
"He lied to us," Shepard growled, furious. "Tali, please tell me you can hack it before that purge hits."
"I'm trying!"
Darting back toward MIRI Shepard ordered the VI, "Cancel the purge!"
"I am sorry, but once activated the neutron purge cannot be cancelled," she replied coolly. "T-minus four minutes and twenty seconds."
"Goddamn bastard!" Shepard barked, slamming her fist down on the console.
"I am sorry, that command is not recognized."
"Shepard, I need your help," Liara panted, still trying to muscle the console over. Running to her side, Shepard grabbed hold of the other end and helped her to shove it into place. Just as it reached the wall it suddenly shoved back toward them violently, and with unexpected force. Both women stumbled and fell, and as she hit the ground Shepard could see one of those barbed appendages snaking around the console, heard the eager shriek.
The Rachni were coming.