Chapter 10: Out of the Fire and into the Pan
Logan slowly made his way through the hallways, staying in the shadows and avoiding Aztec's which was hard due to Logan's injuries. Logan's shoulders felt numb and heavy and he was in pain all over and exhausted but since he was now free he wouldn't waste this chance and first things first he needed either medical attention or needed to find a comm channel so he could get some help.
Logan's injuries were bad but not life threatening, he had a broken rib and two broken wrists but it was his knee that was really bothering him, he must of landed on it wrong but since he could still move his knee it wasn't that bad
In a room nearby three Aztec's were waterboarding a woman when they could hear the a knocking or loud bashing on the metal door, stopped what they were doing and one of the Aztec's went to the door to find out who was bashing on the door as soon as the Aztec opened the door everything went black and he saw nothing anymore
Logan had come across another room based on the sounds he was hearing coming from inside the room he could tell that someone else was being tortured inside he kicked the door two times and backed up and waited for the door to open and once it was open Logan ran and jumped using his biotic's to lower his own body weight and propel himself forward with so much speed and sheer force the Aztec was almost decapitated from the force of his attack, surprising the other two Aztec's who let go of their captive to deal with the enraged and battered man, once landing Logan booted one man in the groin before knee him hard in the face with a loud crunch and knocking teeth out before Logan spun around with a roundhouse kick causing Logan's leg to grip the man's neck tight before a sudden twist with his legs caused the man's neck to snap. Standing back up Logan looked over at the only remaining Aztec still alive who was trying to hold his jaw in place and trying not lose more teeth and before he could recover Logan head-butted him breaking his nose and smearing the man's nose across his face and dropping him to the ground once there Logan stomped on the man's neck crushing his windpipe.
Logan winced from the pain in his ribs it was hurting to breathe, he just wanted to sleep
"Can you walk?" Logan asked the woman as he stretched his bad knee and flexed his leg once he was happy that he could continue he slowly stood up
The woman had been stripped naked and was shaken up badly "I…I think so" she said weakly
"Look we need to get out of here" Logan said to her "if those men find us, what we just went through will seem like a vacation" he told her "I can get us out of here but you need to help me" he said "can you do that?" he asked
The woman just nodded "yeah" she said wiping her eyes "what do you need me to do?"
Logan smiled pleased that she was going to help "for now I just need you to be my arms" he said "what's your name?"
"Renee" the woman answered before she thought about what Logan needed her for "your arms?" she said before she noticed Logan's arm's hanging down and the tell-tale signs of his wrists been broken "holy shit, your arms!" she said
Logan only nodded, he felt exhausted even more so now that he had used biotic's "yeah I'm fine" he told her "not much we can do about them now, resetting them will take time and we don't have time for that" he told her "so let's move"
Renee looked worried but nodded "ok I'm ready" she told him
Logan smiled and moved towards the door "if you can find any weapons that would be great at a time like now" he said turning around he could see Renee had put on a pair of pants and was taking the jacket off one of the Aztec's he had killed before she grabbed a pistol and nodded to Logan
"You ever fired one of those before?" Logan asked her
"I spent some time playing that game where you have to shoot the holograms with lasers" she said before shrugging her shoulders "well it must sound pretty stupid to you"
Logan looked at her "time for the real thing Renee" he told her "you aim for the head or the heart, anything else is your ass" he warned
Renee nodded "I'm ready" she said
Once in the hallway, the two of them avoided a few Aztec's who moved past them Renee had wanted to shoot them but Logan had told her not to and to only do what he says
"Listen we can't start a fight with every Aztec we see" he told her "we have to be smart"
Renee looked angry "so we just let them live?" she asked annoyed "after everything they had done?"
Logan shook his head "for now yes" he said "I am only one man" he told her "not a fucking army" he said
Renee frowned "but you're a biotic" she said "can't you just kill them with that?" she asked
Logan shook his head "yes I am a biotic" he said "and I could normally" he said "but with my arms like this I have no way of focusing and aiming my biotic's" he explained
"So what?" she said "I'll take cover and you do your thing"
Logan laughed out loud at that "let me try and explain" he said as they continued making the way though the base "at the moment, I'm like a flame in a windstorm, no direction and everyone gets burned" he said
Renee frowned again "but I saw you use biotic's to kill that guy" she said
Logan nodded "slight difference I was using biotic's on my body not trying to hit anyone else with them" he said as he moved towards another door "ok this is it, just follow my lead"
Renee nodded "let's do this"
Once the door opened and inside the room they could see two Aztec's standing near a control panel that turned as soon the door opened, Renee opened fire hitting one in the chest twice while Logan ran towards the other one and jumped towards him placing a kick to the chest and sending him backwards and into the wall where Renee shot the Aztec in the face before shooting the other man in the face
"So what's this room?" Renee asked
"Control room for the cells on this block" Logan answered her as he sat down to rest
"What do you mean this block?" She asked
"This place is massive and would have at least five blocks" he said "with at least a hundred to two hundred cells on each block" he told her
"Good grief how many people would they have here?" Renee asked
Logan blinked the pain in his arms was intense "hard to say they could have one in every cell or they might have more" he told her "come here" he said "now I need you to open all the cells on this block"
Renee shook her head horrified "bastards" she said before walking over to the console "shouldn't we get more weapons first?" she asked
Logan shook his head "no, the armoury would be heavily defended, we need something to get their attention"
Renee stopped what she was doing "you mean we using them as bait?" she asked
Logan shook his head "no, we are giving them a chance to escape" he told her "something they didn't have before" he explained "besides I get the feeling nobody leaves this place, like a death camp" he said before turning to her "we will help them just not with them" he told her as alarms sounded throughout the base "just do it already" he snarled half from pain half from frustration
Renee did what she was told and opened the cells on this block "now what?" she asked, she didn't seem happy about opening the cells just yet and would of preferred to be able to help them more directly
Logan looked at the dead bodies "I need you to give me one of their headsets so I can listen in" he said as Renee took one off the dead and put it on Logan's head and hooking it into his ear "now let's move" he told her
As they moved out of the room they could hear the sounds of chaos as colonists and other people captured raced to their freedom most were cut down quickly however they were causing a lot of trouble for the Aztec's , grabbing weapons and starting fires and filling the hallways with smoke
Over the headset Logan could hear that familiar voice of the man who tortured him "Damn it what the fuck is going on down there?" he asked "Zorilla answer me" he said "damn it why won't that damn asari answer her comm's?"
"Attention, Attention Zorilla is dead fuckhead" Logan said over the comm "and Sam and those guys from next door are going to be running a little late"
"I am going to rip your fucking spine out" the man said to Logan
Logan laughed "now that is not a voice for radio" Logan mocked "so what's your name anyway? Arsehole, Dickhead, Bitch-tits? " Logan said "I need to know so they can I.D your corpse"
The man almost snarled over the comm "I am going to crave my name into your forehead" he warned
Logan chuckled "well you need to know your name to do that" he mocked
The man went quiet for a moment before "My name is Kurt Silva" he said "and I will be the last person you ever see"
Logan smiled and chuckled over the comm "then come and get me then" as he ended the conversation
Renee and Logan left the control room and made their way through the base, avoiding Aztec's and killing the ones that they couldn't sneak past. The colonists racing for the exits and causing chaos for the Aztec's made it easier to move around and of course Logan and Renee setting off alarms, shutting down defences and opening more cells and releasing even more colonists made things even easier however the dead littered the hallways both from Aztec's and colonists.
Making their way through the base shooting any Aztec's they saw and following the path of least resistance they ended up in a large open area littered with glass tanks, tables and a few cells as Logan moved closer he could see the glass tanks were filled with human body parts there was a couple of other glass tanks that had a small collection of other species organs but for every other tank was filled with human organs on the wall was a large screen with a list of names and dates and then a name of an organ beside that.
Logan could hear Renee throwing up behind him as he walked closer to the screen and began studying the names on the screen "we need to download those names" he said and when he got no answer he turned around and saw Renee wiping her mouth "Renee?" he asked
Renee was very pale but finally answered him "y…yeah ok" she said
Logan nodded before looking around at the room as Renee used a stolen Omni-tool to download the names and anything else she found
Renee started to download the data "what are they doing here anyway?'
Logan looked around before answering "organ black market" he said "take the organs here and sell them" he told her
Renee looked very pale "so what with the torture then?" she asked
Logan was silent for a moment "for business" he said "to find out information they normally wouldn't get" he said "apart from that, for fun" he explained
Renee had just finished downloading the data "but I don't know anything" she said "I was studying for Alliance R&D but I don't know anything yet"
Logan nodded "they wouldn't know that" he said "besides they may have just wanted to hurt you" he told her
Renee turned to Logan "so all that was for nothing?" she asked
Logan looked at her and tried to think of a way to tell her that the Aztec's saw her as nothing but a slab of meat and would of thought nothing of putting her in here with her friends and family well what was left of them "not to them it wasn't" he said
Renee looked confused "then why would they do that?" she asked
Logan moved towards the door "fun" he told her "let's move" he said before she could think of anything more to ask
Squads of Aztec's were now searching room by room for Logan and Renee and shooting anyone that was not a member of the Aztec's however due to the number of colonists running the hallways and running out of the base and into the wastelands of Korlus it was taking far longer than what they expected
Logan looked into the hallway and saw a Aztec with his back turned "kill him" he mouthed the words to Renee who took aim and fired hitting the Aztec in the back dropping him
"My legs!" the Aztec screamed "I can't feel my legs" he screamed from the ground
"Shoot him again" Logan told her
Renee looked at Logan "why?" she asked "he can't move"
Logan sighed before walking over calmly and stomping on the Aztec's neck causing a loud snap to be heard "if I tell you to kill someone I mean kill them not fucking cripple them" he told her "the moment you show these fuckers any mercy is the moment that you wind up in a box" he snarled
Renee looked shaken up "those were my family and friends in that room back there" she said and was about to say something else when Logan cut her off
"And what do you think they will do if they catch us?" he asked "what you went through before will seem like a vacation to what they will do now" he told her before looking down at the dead Aztec "you have killed some of them, that makes you a enemy of the Aztec's now" he told her "now move" he ordered her
Renee followed Logan along slowly making their way to a shuttle bay, barrels of element zero which is used a star ship fuel and is also highly flammable there was also two large tanks filled with element zero as well as a weapons locker and a control panel to release docking clamps and launch shuttles from the bay
Logan moved to the control panel and had a quick look at it "Renee I need you here" he told her and after she had walked over "I need you to grab all the weapons you can carry and change the safety settings on that" he said
"What for?" Renee asked as she ran over to the weapons locker and started grabbing weapons
Logan had moved towards the barrels and was now knocking them over spilling element zero all over the floor "I need you to send that shuttle" he said looking at one shuttle "into that wall" he told her
"We aren't escaping?" Renee asked
Logan shook his head "not yet their AA guns would shoot us out of the sky"
Renee looked around and realized what Logan was up to "you're burning it down?" she asked
Logan nodded "yep" he answered "hopefully the Alliance will see a big ass smoke cloud and come and check it out"
Renee was horrified "but the colonists will be burned alive!" she explained to him
Logan sighed "I know" he said quietly
Renee shook her head before walking over to Logan and punching him hard in the face which Logan just took but had a dangerous look in his eyes
"That one was free, the next one will cost you" he warned "listen, these guys need to be taken care of, you have seen what they are capable of, and they deserve punishment" he said "and the colonists won't all burn only the ones in the deepest parts of the base" he told her "if you want to get out of here alive, I still need your help"
Renee nodded "fine but I want to help as many people as we can" and went back to the control panel and after a few minutes of hacking she managed it "there" she said as she pressed the button
The shuttle launched and exploded into the wall sending fireballs in every direction and soon the whole room was in flames
"Let's get out of here before those tanks blow" Logan told her running out of the room, his whole body felt on fire and if he stopped moving then he would have trouble getting moving again but he kept moving and headed towards an elevator "Renee get in" he told her
Renee got into the elevator and looked at Logan and noticed he was very pale and seemed to be on his last legs "c'mon I need you I can't do this without you" she said to him "this is your plan remember" Renee laughed nervously
Logan nodded and blinked a few times before nodding again "alright I'm good" he said "we can leave on foot now" he said "we head up to the upper levels find a way out" he told her "and you hand out those weapons to anyone that we find" he said
Renee nodded "right" as she checked her shotgun
2 miles south of Aztec base
"We have smoke sir" Melina Chavez told Commander Anderson, Lieutenant Chavez was laying on her belly with her rifle and scope set up watching the distance, if she hadn't spoken you would have been hard pressed to know she was even there. In the distance a large black smoke cloud could be seen rising into the sky
"Good work" Commander Anderson said "I want to get a closer look" he said as the moved
It had been 2 days since they first arrived here and just over a day since the squad got separated Anderson, Chavez and the quiet engineer Jamal Hopkins ended up together and they had no idea what had happened to the others and had fallen back to a safe distance before they would try and move in again quietly
"Think it is one of ours boss?" Hopkins asked
Anderson thought for a moment "I don't know it could be" he answered "I'm sure she is fine" he told the young engineer
Hopkins nodded "I hope so" he said softly
Chavez came down from her vantage point "Corporal Marden is tough and a powerful biotic" she said "she is fine we will see" she said
Anderson nodded and looked at his small squad 'let's move" he said
1 mile north of Aztec base
Op-chief Douglas McKay saw black smoke burst from the base "looks like someone kicked a hornet's nest" he said, since being separated McKay had taken charge of Corporal Rachel Marden and the reckless Service Chief Wesley Callaway and due to the jamming towers had not heard a word from the others since
"I can see people running out" Callaway said who just like Chavez was using a rifle to watch the distance unlike Lieutenant Chavez, Callaway had a scope on a high powered assault rifle "they don't look like Aztec's" he said
Corporal Rachel Marden smiled "maybe it's Jamal?" she asked hopefully
"Only one way to find out" McKay said "let's move"
Inside the Aztec base
Logan could hear people screaming as they were either burned alive or shot by Aztec's, of course Logan had forgotten about one possibility and as soon as he saw them roaming the halls he cursed to himself for forgetting the fact that varren are very popular amongst pirates.
Varren's are kind of like an alien dog, looking a bit like a cross between a dog and a real ugly fish, with bulging eyes and spines coming from their back but what made varren truly dangerous was the three key traits one was their sense of smell as once they got a scent they didn't stop until they found it and the second trait was their powerful and oversized mouth that was filled with teeth that reached a length of nine inches long and of course the third trait that they ate their prey alive made them a bad sight to see if you were injured like Logan was.
Logan and Renee walked past one dead body that looked as if it had been eaten and before they could realize what that meant, two varren could be seen at the end of the hallway blood dripping from their lips they snapped at each other before they both started running towards them
Renee fired and hit one but it wasn't a fatal wound so it kept coming she kept firing while backing up and finally dropping one
Logan was not so lucky, with no weapons he had no chance of fighting this thing so he ran with the varren close behind him and went to get up high away from the alien dog but varren can jump and jump very well too, grabbing Logan by his leg and pulling him down and tearing his leg open and once Logan was on the ground the varren tried for Logan's throat while it ignored Logan's kicks to its face
Just as the Varren was close enough to his face he could smell its breath, a gun shot rang out and the varren's head was torn in half. Logan leaned his head back and saw Callaway standing there with a proud look on his face
Callaway smiled "stay" he said simply
"Hey" Logan called out weakly "give me a hand here" he asked
McKay was closely behind Callaway "Shepard my boy!" he said as he walked over "oh that doesn't look good" he said looking down at Logan shredded leg "just stay still" he said as he applied medi-gel to the wound "rest of the Alliance is coming in now" he told Logan "we have more shuttles landing now mopping up what you started" he said before he stopped and put a finger to his ear "roger that" he said "Commander Anderson is on his way in now and the jamming towers have been taken down" he told Logan
Logan nodded "yeah" he was still lying on his back while McKay worked on his injuries
Marden walked over with Renee "she told me what happened" she said "I can't believe you broke your own arms" she said
Logan smiled weakly he was exhausted and had nothing left "yeah" he answered simply as he slowly closed his eyes