Chapter One Part Ten

The Hive

Alpha team continued towards the Central Gov Building, pushing past lethargic colonists as they went. As they arrived at the building Commander Vega turned to them.

"Jack, you have our six… Liam, I want you to take point. If we run into resistance I want you to use your Biotics to cause havoc," said the commander.

Liam nodded. His armor began to glow a deep purple as the biotic ripples flowed around him. Liam's armor was the standard black Alliance issue. He hadn't spent much money on armor, but rather the best biotic implants money could buy. Barriers were the name of the game for Liam and he made sure he had the best. Alpha began to move up the large metallic stairs towards the main entrance of the building. The doors were a sliding, bullet proof material similar to the viewing windows of the Gabriel. Commander Vega approached the entrance device. The door was locked.

"Delta to Alpha team, come in, over," Will's voice echoed over the comm.

Commander Vega began hacking the door to the Gov building before he answered Will's call.

"What's going on, Delta, any telling what happened to our wreckage?"

Jack scanned the area behind his team. Colonists continued to move about in their bizarre fashion.

"Sir, we've found evidence of an explosive device. My omnitool has scanned the wreckage and residue of an explosion is all over. It would appear someone or something rigged the ship to explode using standard demolition explosives."

Jack pondered that for a while.

"Where do farmers get demolition explosives from? Agriculturally speaking that wouldn't make any sense," said Jack as he turned to face Vega.

"They had to have obtained the explosives from somewhere…" Commander Vega muttered to himself.

Vega paced around for a moment thinking hard to himself. Jack stood and watched his superior officer go through the critical thinking process. Vega eventually seemed to give up his mental struggle and stopped pacing.

"Alright, make your way back to the shuttle Delta; it doesn't sound like there's much else to read from the ship site. Be ready, though, in case we need a pickup."

Will's ID light glowed green once again.

Vega finally managed to get the door to click open signaling a successful hack by Jack's commander. Commander Vega motioned for Liam to move forward. The commander and Jack followed Liam into the building. Jack kept an eye on the colonists before closing the sliding glass door. The colonists around the building slowly began to disperse. Their numbers had certainly decreased since Alpha team had first approached the building. Jack gripped his rifle a little tighter before reaching to the door console once more and closing it behind his team. The main hallway had a very dark, crimson carpet. Banners of proud looking colonists and ripe produce lined the walls. Several offices branched from the main hallway. Liam led as quickly as he could without creating too much of a disturbance in the room. Commander Vega tried to make sure his footsteps did not give their location away as well. They eventually came to two large doors made of wood. It had been awhile since Jack had seen wooden doors. Technology had mostly done away with wooden architecture. The Cascade Governor Foles' title was etched into the door at a perfect eye level. Commander Vega approached the door and attempted to open it. The door was locked. He then motioned to Liam and pointed at the door. Liam nodded and took up a position at the right of the door. Liam began counting down from three on his fingers. Jack held his breath as each individual finger bent down. Two fingers… one finger. As the last finger dropped Liam exploded through the door in a human-sized missile of biotic wrath. Splinters from what was left of the door exploded outward from the main site of impact with the wood. Jack's shields flickered as sharp specks of wood were stopped by the rapid moving deflectors. James broke into the office after Liam, who had already swept through the round space and found the room to be completely empty. Jack searched under the Governor's desk, but to no avail. Liam looked at Jack, who shrugged.

"Worth a look," said Jack. Liam smirked in response. The room looked as if it had been left completely as it was. There were no signs of a struggle. Everything about the room seemed normal for a Governor's office. Photos which filled the walls and the desk were neatly placed. Files in filing cabinets were not rustled through. The room was perfectly normal, which bugged the hell out of Jack as he flipped through the filing cabinets looking for anything suspicious. Jack kept his rifle in his right hand as he flipped with his left.

"Commander Vega, sir come in." Jack recognized the voice of Sergeant Gonzalez. Gonzalez seemed like one tough soldier to Jack the few times he had encountered her on the Gabriel. Jack had attempted conversation with her at dinner a few times, but she had always made it clear conversation was not something she was interested in.

"I read you, Gonzalez, what's going on."

"Sir, we just heard gunfire coming from the building that Beta team was searching and Mendol hasn't responded over comm communications."

"We're not finished searching the government building yet… head over there and check up on them, but be CAREFUL shoot first ask questions later, Gonzalez."

"Roger that, Commander."

Jack's motion sensors picked up motion behind the commander. Without thinking, Jack's instinctual processes took over his physical body. Jack swiftly brought his rifle to bear, aimed down the sights, and let out a shallow breath as he squeezed off some rounds from his Vindicator. The three round burst soared past Commander Vega's head and into the soft upper body of Governor Foles as the former politician began aiming his own heavy-pistol at the back of Commander Vega's head. The Governor wore a shocked expression as the bullets entered and exited though his chest cavity. At the best the man would need a new lung. At the worst… well, Jack didn't get that far in his internal dialogue because two armed colonists stormed towards the office. Jack could make out the forms of several more colonists further down the hallway. They moved in a frenzied aggressive formation. Liam burst into the closest colonist driving him into the wall and creating a sickening crack as the colonists torso slammed into the metal structures. Jack could literally hear the wind being knocked out of the man's lungs as he impacted with the wall. Jack turned to the other assailant, but Commander Vega had already fired his claymore shotgun at the colonist who quickly flew back out the door from where he had entered. The team quickly took up cover in the office. Jack flipped the desk while Commander Vega and Liam took cover on both sides of the doorway. Jack peered over to where the governor was gasping on the floor, clutching his chest. Jack noticed the governor's eyes had an interesting gleam in them. The man's expression didn't look human. Jack kicked the pistol away and turned to the Governor once more. "Stay there!" he shouted although he wasn't entirely sure the man understood what he was saying. Foles remained in that position, gasping through the wound Jack had caused. The colonists were really pouring into the hallway now. Small arms fire peppered Alpha Team's cover. Jack cautiously peered over the edge of his overturned desk to see the hordes of colonists charging the room. The woman who James had recognized earlier led the charge. Liam threw a shockwave down the hall. Alpha may have been trapped, but all the colonists were funneling themselves into a perfect little row making it easier to dispatch them. As the biotic waves exploded down the hall, some colonists crashed out of the windows or into the walls. The woman whom Commander Vega knew managed to avoid the brunt of the blast by planking flat into the wall. Her eyes locked onto Jack and she began to charge again. She cleared the distance between them with a few large strides. Jack lifted his rifle as she came closer. He aimed at her knees. Commander Vega pushed Jack's gun into the air before he could pull the trigger. "I'll handle her," he shouted over Liam's rifle fire. Jack nodded. Liam briefly turned and nodded like Jack. As the woman came closer a look of pure rage on her face, Commander Vega prepared behind the door. As soon as her feet crossed the threshold of the doorway, James stuck one of his massive forearms into her path. The woman slammed into his armored trunk of an arm and collapsed unconscious onto the floor. James quickly checked to make sure she was still breathing. He looked up at Jack.

"Keep firing!"

Jack had no problem following that order. The colonists continued to funnel into the kill zone and their bodies began to pile up at various locations in the hallway. Jack began to notice his ammo was beginning to run low. Liam began to notice that too.

"Running out of thermal clips, how about you?" Jack asked, having to raise his voice to clear the sound of gunfire.

"Yeah, I have two left…" Liam also shouted while keeping his weapon active on thinning the number of colonists.

Jack turned to see Commander Vega taking life signs of the girl on his omnitool. Bullets were fortunately whizzing above his head as he took the vitals. Jack noticed that she was still out cold from the brutal clothesline. The defensive routine kept on going in pretty much the same way for a few more minutes. It wasn't until Jack instinctively reached for a thermal clip and came up empty that he realized he was completely out of ammo, except for his shotgun. Liam did the same dance of patting his armor pouches for spare rounds. No luck.

"Commander, we're out of rifle ammo up here!" Jack shouted to Vega.

Vega looked up and out the hallway once more. The colonists were readying another charge. He quickly shut off his omnitool and trotted over back to his position at the door. Jack looked over to the Governor once again. The man was still wheezing against the wall, his head looking down at the floor. Time seemed to slow down for Jack. Angry colonists began to charge, but for some reason to Jack… it didn't seem like they were moving that fast. Jack pulled out his AT-12 Raider shotgun and clicked off the safety. Liam, Vega, and Jack opened fire on the attack group. Jack gracefully moved his sights from target to target. In his enhanced state of awareness Jack felt like he was at the firing range again, efficiently neutralizing his enemies. The shotguns had more kick, but a wider range of fire. Each shot would hit up to four separate attackers. The wave of colonists was a lot bigger than the previous ones had been. Something had organized their attack pattern to be more aggressive. Jack noticed that the Governor was trembling a bit against the wall. The man lifted his head enough that Jack could see that the man's eyes now glowed red. Governor Foles began to stand up. His mouth opened and red light began to shine out of his mouth and eyes. Jack could have sworn he heard a noise similar to a Reaper blare come from the clearly possessed man in front of him. Jack quickly pointed the shotgun at the governor and pulled the trigger. The Governor slammed into the wall, this time dead from Jack's Raider slug. The colonists dropped like flies in the hallway, even without being hit by Alpha Team's fire. Liam and Commander Vega were staring at the Governor. They had seen his transformation as well.

Jack pulled the governor up and checked his face. His eyes had some sort of mechanical interface, and his skull seemed to have surgical scarring of some sort. The details were only visible upon close inspection, however. Without an up close view they looked like normal human beings. Commander Vega rushed back to the woman on the ground. She was still breathing at least. The other colonists who had been active when the governor had died remained firmly planted on their backs without any signs of life. Commander Vega cued his comm.

"Delta, we need a medical pickup at the Government building, over."

Will's light glowed green.

Liam walked over to the now deceased former leader of Cascade. He nudged the man with his boot and pointed. "That was not human…"

Commander Vega approached the body as well and shook his head. "That was Reaper tech, plain and simple."

Jack stood over the body for a few more moments, studying it. He had fought husks, and this didn't look anything like them. This was worse, something far more deceivingly dangerous. "Indoctrination," Jack subconsciously muttered. Liam heard him, though.

"Why indoctrinate farmers? What is gained by this?" asked Liam as he stood next to Jack. Jack gave no answer. He had none to give.

Alpha team remained silent for the rest of the time until Delta team arrived and managed to maneuver through the pile of colonists in the hallway. Will approached Commander Vega with his team in tow.

"Looks like we missed the party…"

Commander Vega turned and gave Will a handshake. The force from their grip made Jack jump a bit. The two were absurdly strong.

"I need you to get this woman back to the Gabriel, she needs medical attention. Strap her down, though, we don't know if she's mentally stable yet or not."

Will nodded and threw the woman over his shoulder. Delta left the building and began their journey back to the Gabriel in the shuttle. Alpha team proceeded to gather ammo from the colonists and take a breather after the huge gunfight they had just been a part of. Sergeant Gonzalez broke the reprieve.

"Commander, this is Gonzales… you need to come over here, sir… the building where we lost contact with Beta team. It doesn't exist on the blueprint of the city, sir."

"Roger that, Gonzalez, we'll be there in five."

Liam patted Jack on the shoulder.

"Any tips on handling the indoctrinated, Jack?" Liam asked apprehensively

Jack and Liam began making their way back down the hallway. Jack turned to Liam.

"Expect the unexpected, Sergeant… don't take anything at face value."

Commander Vega brought up the rear of their triangle formation.

"I couldn't have said it better, Lieutenant."