0125 Hours, September 10th 2186 (Alliance Calendar)
Voyager Cluster, Gateway
Alliance Forward Operations Base
Javik wondered the base, a feeling of unease having flooded his senses. For the past half hour he had been sensing something terribly wrong, but did not know how to describe it. Even now he could feel it, an itch at the back of his mind. It was the Cosmic Imperative whispering to him in the back of his mind.
It was like something was watching him, moving threw him, but he could not define it.
"Javik, we are…" At the sudden interruption Javik spun around, and drew his Particle Rifle and aimed it straight at the familiar, but now startled, face of Liara T'Soni.
He blinked a few times and returned his weapon to its idle position, "My apologies. I am not sure what came over me."
Liara took a deep breath and nodded, "It's alright. The Commander being out of contact has us all a little on edge."
Javik nodded, but in truth that was not what was wrong. Even now he could sense the wrongness of the air. Something was stirring, "Anyway, what was it you wanted?"
"Rear Admiral Galloway wants us to meet in the Tactical Center. I radioed the other and they should be there. As you were not answering I came to find you," Liara replied.
He simply nodded and began to walk towards the Alien building that was being used as the Tactical Center. It was not like him to completely miss being called.
As he and Liara entered the Tactical Center the sounds of an intense conversation could be heard, obviously being instigated by Lieutenant Commander Williams, "What do you mean the area is too hot for pick up?!"
Some Turian tech officer was holding up his hands, trying to calm everyone down, "It's like I said before. The shuttle took some fire from a Cerberus fighter and has no choice but to return to base for repairs. Currently the Kodiak from the Normandy is the only one with Stealth capabilities that we have."
It only took a moment of listening to this much of the conversation for Javik and Liara to be completely caught up, "Couldn't we just take in the Normandy to Shepard's last know coordinates?"
EDI looked up from the terminal she had been glued to since their arrival, "No. As the Normandy is a larger vessel, it will create a larger Air Wake. Even with Stealth Systems engaged the Normandy would be spotted."
"And it would be intercepted by the Cerberus fleet," Rear Admiral Galloway finished. "Do not worry though, I have no intentions of leaving Commander Shepard behind."
Tali was fumbling with her fingers as she spoke, a nervous habit, "But we can't just sit here and do nothing with Shepard, Garrus, and Vega are trapped behind Cerberus lines."
"I'm not saying we do nothing," Galloway replied, "I'm saying that you just need to be patient. After all, we have no idea where Shepard and her team even are. Shepard is capable, and I am sure that…"
Suddenly all the alien consoles shut off. EDI looked about while Admiral Zen practically shouted in frustration, "What happened?!"
EDI in her always calm voice replied, "It appears to be some sort of lock down Admiral. We have lost all access to this installations systems."
Admiral Zen scoffed and activated her Omni Tool, "Then I will just have to bypass this lock down and- AHH!" she screams as her Omni Tool had an energy feedback run straight into it the moment she tried to interface with the system.
A human Medic ran up and scanned Admiral Xen's hand, "Second degree burns, but your suits integrity is intact."
Tali looked up towards the holographic display, "What is happening?"
The display of the Holographic Display of Gateway was beginning to fluctuate until it was replaced by a floating red symbol that was unfamiliar to all of them.
That was of little interest to Javik, as the itch in his mind suddenly became a scream. Drawing his Particle Rifle he suddenly aimed it towards the center of the room, "MOVE!" he shouted to some fleeing technicians and fired just as an odd rift was forming. The rift immediately faded.
Another rift appeared, but Javik was to slow to stop it. A form materialized into the room. It looked like some sort of machine. Its main body was very insect like, and it stood on two legs but had four arms. Two of the arms were stubby and short, but the other two were longer and equipped with weapons. The machine was fast as it brought its left arm down upon a Technician. That arm was equipped with an energy blade that sliced through the technicians flesh and bone as the man was nothing but air.
The technician fell to the ground in two separate half's. The Marines that had been standing guard opened fired on the thing, but their bullets hit an energy barrier that deflected them. Suddenly it leapt into the air and vanished into a ball of light.
Only half a second later did it reappear behind the two Marine's. It brought its blade down upon one of the marine's heads, but turned its other arms towards a marine who was bringing his weapon to bear. The machine fired a bolt of orange energy that struck the marine on the chest. The Marine screamed as his body vanished in a cloud of orange energy.
Javik fired, his Particle Beam managing to breach the Machines shield. It leapt high into the air and landed upon him, pushing Javik back to the ground and sending his weapon skittering across the floor.
The Machine brought its face down, but its face opened up to reveal a bright orange skull screaming. The Skull looked human. Javik mustard all his Biotic abilities into one blow and brought his hand straight up to the machines chest plate. In that same instant that he fired, his mind was suddenly flooded in a wave of images. Memories and emotions.
As the machine was launched off of Javik and into the air, everyone in the room that was armed began to fire. The Biotic Blast shatter the shields of the thing and the bullets impacted armor until finally the thing suddenly disintegrated, but left behind a cloud of energy.
Liara rushed towards Javik who still was laid upon the ground, his eyes wide, "Javik…. Javik can you hear me?!"
He blinked a few times and looked towards her. The usually so calm and collected Javik looked startled and uncertain.
Liara placed her hand on his shoulder, and took his hand as she helped him to his feet, "Are you alright?"
Javik blinked a few times, then nodded, "Yes… I am fine."
Sometime during the battle the high ranking members of the mission had evacuated the room. Javik looked about at the damage the thing had caused.
Williams moved up behind him and gave Javik a pat on the back, "You are lucky. That robot could have cut your head off."
Javik looked towards her, "It was not a Machine."
EDI approached the energy cloud and activated her Omni Tool to scan it, "Can you please clarify Javik?"
Javik looked towards EDI a moment before focusing on Williams, "That thing was not a Machine. It was one of you."
Ashley blinked a few times at that, not understanding, "What do you mean one of me?"
Javik sighed and looked towards the cloud, "That thing is no Machine. It is… It was human."
Same Time
Voyager Cluster, Gateway
Within Unknown Facility on surface of Gateway
Shepard and her teams were running, no other way to put it. Ever since the creatures first appeared the three have had little time to relax as more always seemed to come out of every nook and cranny of the underground bunker.
At first nothing seemed to work as the creatures took bullet after bullet and still seemed to come. Those that did fall had one of those little bulbous creatures slide into the chest of the fallen, then they got right back up.
Vega's Shotgun seemed to put them down for good, so long as the body was sufficiently destroyed.
Only reason they were still able to fight on was the steady supply of Cerberus Thermal Clips scattered about.
The nearly constant attacks from the creatures had driven them so far into the base that they could no longer figure out how to get back to the surface. Lost and cut off they only had two options. Fight or die, and neither of them were ready to die yet.
At that moment Shepard and Garrus were side by side firing a steady stream of rounds down a narrow corridor they had just passed through. Down the corridor it was wall to wall creatures slowly pressing forward to consume them.
"Vega, hurry it up!" Shepard shouted as Vega worked a console nest to the hatch trying to get the door to close.
"¡Maldita Sea! I'm doing my best here!" Vega shouted. He was in a state of flight or fight, in this case fight. His adrenaline was high and the constant shrieking from the creatures made it hard to think.
Finally the door slide shut, and the light went from blue to red. Each of them took a simultaneous breath.
Garrus leaned himself against a wall, and checked his weapons display, "I thought Manae was bad, but this… This is much worse."
Shepard was having those same thoughts. All this time she and everyone else had been afraid of Reapers. Now she had witnessed this things and saw the true monsters to fear, "We have to find our way back to the surface. We have to warn the Alliance."
Vega nodded, "Damn straight! We need to bring in everything we have and burn this place to the ground with Cerberus with it!"
Garrus nodded, "We cannot let these things get off this station. The Reapers are bad enough and…"
They all grabbed their weapons as the all too familiar sliding noise came from within the massive room they held. They slowly moved forwards, Garrus and Vega covering Shepard's flanks.
As Shepard listened to the noise she realized it was ahead of her, but also upwards. She looked towards the rafters and saw a shape move, "There!" she shouted and fired three shots.
Immediately the shape leapt from the rafters and landed upon the ground. It was obviously one of them, but this one was different. Its body was elongated. Its arms protruded tentacles, but what had once been fingers had now become like the barbs of a whip. At the top of it there was a mass that ended in two thick and long whip like structures that it flailed wildly at them.
One of the whips caught Vega in the chest. His barrier was no good as it impacted and sent him flying backwards.
Shepard's ducked and rolled one way and Garrus another as the creature brought its whips down hard enough to leave deep dents in the metal flooring they had been standing upon.
As the creature brought its body straight again to once again go into whipping actions, Shepard caught sight of the mass that was at the base of the two larger tentacles. It was a face of a Salarian, stuck in the horrified expression he had before being changed.
Garrus began to shoot the creature in the back. The creature bent its back in an unnatural way, bringing its head down and to the side as it whipped Garrus in the abdomen. Garrus was thrown backwards.
Shepard got to her feet, bringing her rifle up to defend herself. Suddenly a bright blue ball came flying in from the side and stuck to the creature. She didn't have to know how the thing worked to not recognize what it was, "GRENADE!"
She turned and jumped to get some distance from the things as the grenade went off in a brilliant blue release of blue plasma.
Shepard rolled upon hitting the ground and settled into a crouched position. In the second after the detonation she caught another noise. Feet against metal rushing towards her. She quickly tried to bring her rifle to bare on the approaching target, but it reached her first. A massive hand pushed the barrel of her weapon away, then its other hand took her by her shoulder and lifted her off the ground.
The helmet she looked into was not like any she had ever seen before. The figure was at least 7 Ft 8 IN. The figure had a long curved neck and looked almost reptilian body structure. It had a "mouth" that was formed by quadruple hinged mandibles that were filled with sharp conical teeth. She tried to bring her weapon to bare, but its grip was powerful. The creature wore a set of smooth armor that was in a dark maroon color.
"Shepard," Garrus shouted as he turned to bring his weapon up to bare on the creature. Before he could get his weapons fully up an armored boot kicked him in the back of the leg hard enough to force him to his knee. A hand grabbed him by the jaw and forced his head back and up as the barrel of a pistol of some sort pressed against his head.
Vega was about to respond but noticed the neat red dot hovering over his heart. He looked ahead and saw a figure wearing black armor with dark red highlights aiming a rifle right at him. The figures face was hidden behind a helmet that had a gold visor. The figure warned in a distinctly Hispanic voice, "Don't even think about it El Pendejo."
Vega slowly raised his hands. The figure aiming the rifle at her gave a nod and five more individuals approached from behind her. Two that wore armor similar to the one aiming the rifle at Vegas, and the one holding Garrus, and three like the creature holding Shepard.
The three was dragged together and put on their knees side by side. Two of their captors stood behind them with two in front. One was the one that had trained a rifle on Vega while the other was the one that had caught Shepard off guard. The rest were keeping watch.
The figure with the female voice knelt down in front of them to get a better look at them, "Now, I'm going to keep this short and sweet." The figure reached up to her helmet and pulled it off. Shepard could almost feel her mouth drop as the figures scarred face was shown to be human of Hispanic decent, "Which of you is in charge and who the hell are you people?"
Shepard was stunned. Out of all the outcomes she had predicted she had never considered that these strangers in strange armor and bearing strange weapons would have humans in their ranks. Whoever they were they were definitely not Cerberus, "That would be. Commander Shepard of the Alliance. Who are you?"
The woman tilted her head slightly and smiled, "Major Lopez of the UNSC, and this ugly lug next to me is Henry."