Author's Note: Sorry for the shortness of this chapter, but RL has been an epic clusterf*** the last two weeks, giving me barely enough time to write. But this story is winding towards the wild conclusion, so stay tuned over the next month as we finish this out!
The only light in the tunnel came from the gate behind them, and in only a few steps was blocked by their bodies. While the Normandy crew turned on the lights built into their armor, the two conduits merely wreathed their arms in electricity, sending blue-tinged shadows cavorting across the walls. With only a few steps, the walls changed from the smooth plastic of the station into grooved, pitted metal. Even the floor beneath them had to be carefully negotiated as it rose and fell in gentle swells.
Cole strode at the head of the group, occasionally staring at the walls as it hoping he could see through them. They walked for half an hour before the terrain suddenly changed. The walls and ceiling suddenly lifted away, keeping the same texture as it opened into a large room. The light from Shepard's pistol was just barely enough to illuminate the ceiling, studded with dark spots. "What the hell," she muttered.
"Commander, there's three other tunnels exiting over here," Miranda said, staring along the wall behind them.
"Another here," Mordin said, having followed the wall around the right of the room around Shepard while she stared upward.
Kessler's hands raised towards the walls, lightning concentrating on his hands. "It's a pity there's no signs.
"There's another exit over here," Tali said from the left, her shotgun pointed down that tunnel. "Now what?"
"We can't split up for every exit, and we don't have enough time to backtrack," Garrus said. Bending down, he studied the pitted metal floor. "But there's no tracks or anything. No sign anyone has ever walked here."
"It's not going to be these three," Miranda said after a moment. "The surge protector has to plug in to an outlet, so those three are going to be the other outlets."
"But what do they go to?" Kessler asked. "Games unconnected to the station? Token machines?"
"Doesn't matter, we can rule it out," Shepard said. "The question is, can we tell which direction to go to reach the power box?"
Everyone fell silent for a moment, staring around in the gloom. Both Kessler and Cole closed their eyes, focusing on their electrical powers. "That way," Kessler finally said, pointing towards the right wall. "Electricity is flowing this direction and into the station from there. Conveniently, the ski-ball machines are also in that direction."
Cole remained there with his eyes closed for several more moments, hands spread open towards the floor. "I think he's right, but there's one way I can check." Bracing his feet, he extended his hands towards the ceiling, and pulled with his power. Electricity crackled down from the ceiling, mostly from the direction of the tunnel where Mordin stood, and flowed into his hands. The crackling power lit up the room with sharp-edged shadows.
Which perfectly showed the numerous dark shapes on the ceiling suddenly converging in one spot, nearly above Cole's head, before dropping to the floor. It reformed as a humanoid blob of rust and corrosion, its edges slightly fuzzy.
Naturally, everyone promptly opened fire on it. Bullets just sailed right through the creature with barely a puff to mark their passage, and it ignored them as it chased Cole. He frantically spammed lightning bolts at it, which only seemed to encourage the monster.
As it ran in circles following the conduit, Shepard and Mordin both hurled plasma charges from their omni-tools. This attack got its attention, burning holes through its torso. Bullets ricocheted off the melted portions as it struggled to reform. For the first time, it made noise beyond the thud of its feet, a piercing, whistling noise that left everyone flinching. "Hit it again!" Shepard yelled, frantically tapping her own omni-tool.
A second pair of plasma bursts detonated against its arms as the monster shielded its head. Kessler's trio of floating robots lobbed bombs at it as everyone else retreated towards the tunnel towards their destination. Tali's drone joined in the fun, lobbing a rocket at the beast's foot. Each explosion took a little more out of it, scattering particles across the floor and walls behind it.
"I think we've got it now!" Shepard crowed. A moment later she stopped, shining her light past it towards the far tunnel, where more of the creatures were emerging. "Shit! Watch our front! This thing has friends!"
In the lead, Miranda lowered her gun as one of the creatures began to form, hitting it with a warp and watching as it ripped itself to pieces in seconds. "We might want to get out of here, Commander!" she yelled, blasting another warp towards a second forming monster.
"That's what we're doing!" she yelled back, finally succeeding on setting the original's head ablaze with her plasma blast. Mordin's had less effect, as the monster didn't have the conventional humanoid weak point between the legs, but she'd give him credit for the effort later. Assuming they all survived.
Their running fight lasted another ten minutes. Fewer and fewer monsters formed ahead of them, and once put down the corrosion creatures stayed down. If they had to return this way, Shepard might have worried about them reforming, but once they killed the power, everything would be done with.
Half an hour later, they stopped as the tunnel opened up into another chamber. Almost on tiptoes, they stepped out into the cave-like opening in the power line, watching the ceiling especially carefully. "No stupid lightning tricks this time," she ordered Cole, even though he probably wasn't stupid enough to do that again. But this ceiling looked significantly cleaner than the last, and they stared around for a moment.
"The layout looks to be the same," Kessler said, raising one eyebrow as Tali, Miranda, and Shepard all hissed at him to be quiet. "They didn't react to us talking last time, I don't think anything will happen here. So long as we don't run power through them."
"So the real question is, are the ski-ball machines two outlets away, or three?" Garrus asked.
"Indeed." Kessler glanced to his side, where Thane had bowed his head in prayer. "I don't think your gods are going to stop and give us directions, sadly."
"We need to know now, or the arcade owner will show up," Miranda said. "He should be walking in the door any minute."
"What difference does it make? Whatever's down there, I start overloading it, they keep any monsters off my back. If we can, we run back here and try the next one," Cole said. "Right?"
"Right," Tali said, obviously wishing she could wring her hands together without having to put away her shotgun.
"Alright. Wishing you guys luck, and we're off. Kessler, you've got the lead," Shepard announced. "With luck, all of us will forget that any of this ever happened."
"Yippie," Cole said. Taking a deep breath, he strode down the first tunnel towards the outlet, Thane and Tali follow silently behind him. Kessler walked into his own tunnel, his four companions loosely following him as well.