The Red Moon Collection - 1 - Starside

Chapter 11

Bashnir Wastes, Logasiri

Will tried his best to regulate his breathing and pounding heart as he pushed his back up against the side of the building closest to the foot of the hill. He held his rifle tight against his chest as one by one Kallux, Eleena and Tul all mirrored his position in a line at his side. He closed his eyes briefly and drew in a deep breath as he slowly began side stepping toward the edge of the structure. Will opened his eyes as he reached the corner and slowly peered from the shadow they stood in to the massive building at the center of the complex. As he pulled back and leaned against the wall he gave a look to the trio to his side and nodded.

"I see a door. It looks kind of small." Will's breathing had calmed, thankfully. "Definitely not the main entrance."

"How far away is it?" Kallux held his sidearm in his hand with his cannon still slung on his back.

"Twenty meters or so from here. All open ground," Will stated regrettably. "Good news is I didn't see any guards or cameras."

"Excellent," Tul chimed in. "Hopefully the door's electronic lock isn't terribly sophisticated."

"How about we stop hoping and find out?" Eleena inquired.

Will nodded and poked his head around the corner a second time to settle his nerves and, upon seeing nothing he hadn't the first time, glanced back to the squad. "Everyone on me."

He whipped his rifle up and held the stock firmly against his shoulder as he spun around the edge of the building and began running toward the small door. He pointed his M-15 straight ahead while his eyes darted in all directions looking for the thing that would throw a wrench in their plans. To his surprise he reached the door without interruption and positioned himself to the side so he could continue scanning the surroundings. Eleena arrived second and mirrored his position on the opposite side of the door as Tul stepped up and wasted no time before activating his omnitool and beginning his hack on the door. Kallux stopped a few feet behind the quarian and turned around to stand guard.

"How's it look, Tul?" Will gave him a quick glance.

Before the quarian could answer the small security panel on the center of the door buzzed and changed from a glowing orange to green.

"I'm not being paid by the hour, right?" Tul stepped back and crossed his arms with a chuckle.

"I'll talk to management about a bonus." Will grinned and turned to face the door. "Eleena, give me a gun on whatever's behind this door."

The asari nodded and faced the door with her SMG at the ready. "Do it."

Will held his rifle's grip in his right hand as his left reached for the door and pressed the glowing button in the center to open it. With a soft ping the holographic panel spun as the door opened to reveal a small, silver room that looked like an airlock. At the far side of the room was a second door, just like the first, with another security panel. Eleena held her shot for a few seconds before lowering her SMG and laughing.

Will smirked and looked over to Tul. "Mind working your magic again?"

The quarian let out a joking sigh and sauntered into the room. "If I must."

Will looked to Eleena and motioned her in before tapping Kallux on the shoulder and signaling for him to do the same. After the others had entered Will made one last quick visual sweep then stepped inside and closed the door behind him. Tul hummed softly to himself as he worked on the door at a lightning fast pace. The quarian required even less time for the hack the second time around and after a few seconds the door gave the same buzz. Will moved up with Eleena at his side and raised his rifle once again as he reached for the panel at the center of the door.

The green light at the center of the door blinked and spun to signify that it was unlocking before the two halves of the door slid apart and sent the dim light of the airlock flooding into a unlit hallway. Will immediately activated his flashlight and guided the beam of illumination down the hall to see it end at a T-intersection about ten meters ahead. The cramped tunnel was almost certainly some sort of maintenance shaft or emergency exit that was only wide enough to accommodate a single file line by the squad. Will looked over his shoulder to see the others all slightly hunched and waiting for his command.

"Looks like we're going one at a time." Will stated as he looked back down the passageway. "I want Eleena behind me, then Tul and then Kallux."

Tul'Sorrin stretched his back slightly and gripped the pistol in his hand. "On you, Captain."

Will's fingers tapped at the grip of his Vindicator as he took the first step into he hall without hesitation. To either side of him on the floor were small light strips at periodic intervals that he guessed were turned on from somewhere else inside the facility. He hunched forward slightly to keep a gap between his helmet and the ceiling as he moved to the fork a few meters ahead. Behind him the three others had entered the tunnel and were following close behind their captain.

Kallux let out a grumble. "This place clearly wasn't designed with krogan in mind..."

"Feelin' a little cramped back there?" Eleena teased.

A soft clunk rang out from behind them as one of the numerous heavy pieces of equipment on Kallux collided with the tight walls of the hall.

"Just a little," he replied in an unamused tone.

Will did his best to keep the conversation in the background and focus his attention on leading the group. He came to a stop a few feet from the fork and looked toward either direction before turning and heading down the left passageway. The rest of the squad followed without a word and Will quickly found that they had entered a slightly curved hallway that seemed to follow the same curvature as the building itself. After about a minute of moving down the hall at a moderate pace Will saw a door slowly emerging from beyond the curve of the passage. He pointed the focus of his flashlight on the door and as they grew closer he could see a small picture above the control panel showing a figure inside a box with up and down arrows on either side.

"Looks like we've got an elevator," he announced.

Will reached for the panel and was surprised that with only a tap of his finger the door blinked green in affirmation and pulsated to show it was working. Within a few seconds the door slid apart and Will jerked his rifle up to face the newly arrived elevator car. It was small and dimly light, much like the airlock, but looked like it would fit all of them. As he entered the elevator he spotted the control panel and read down the list of available destinations.

"Surface, Personnel Quarters, Security, Control, Lab1, Lab2, Storage and Maintenance..." Will glanced to the others as they funneled into the cramped space.

"Storage sounds like our best bet," Kallux stated as he bumped his head on the doorway.

Tul nodded. "I agree. I doubt they concentrate their security at the lowest level of the facility."

Will closed the elevator door and tapped the command ordering the car to descend. "Let's hope you're right."

The elevator gave a small jerk as it began zooming down into the depths of the complex only to stop after just a few seconds. The button that read "Storage" on the control panel illuminated and without warning the door swung open to an enormous room filled from floor to ceiling with rows of shelving. Objects of every shape and size covered virtually the entire available space on the shelves while dimly glowing white lights from the ceiling cast their oddly shaped shadows across one another. Will barely had time to take a quick glance around before seeing a figure at the center of the row just a few meters from where the elevator had opened up at. He was batarian dressed in a jumpsuit or some kind of work fatigues standing beside a hovering pushcart laden with parts of machinery.

The batarian seemed not to take notice of the open elevator as he stared down at a holopad. "Need something for a repair?" His voice echoed though the room eerily.

Before they could respond the batarian looked up from his work and made a slight jump back, tossing his datapad aside. He reached to his belt and whipped up a pistol in one fluid motion before taking aim directly at Will. A series of gunshots rang out as Will stood frozen with his rifle still pointed toward the ground. While Will's shields flared slightly the batarian's chest exploded as shots impacted his unshielded an unarmored flesh. Within a second he had collapsed into a heap on the floor and Will jerked his head to the side to see Eleena standing to his right with her SMG pointed at the fallen batarian.

"Fuck," Will let out as he turned his head forward and hurried out of the elevator. "Thanks."

Eleena, Tul and Kallux all filed out in formation with their weapons raised.

"I'd better be getting a bonus that at least matches Tul's," Eleena commented with a grin as she stepped up beside Will.

He let out a small, shocked laugh as he walked up to the corpse of the batarian and looked him over. "He just looks like a warehouse worker."

"An armed warehouse worker," Tul reminded him. "Hopefully he didn't have any coworkers down here."

"If he did it's too late to keep them from hearing us." Kallux holstered his pistol and reached over his shoulder to retrieve his cannon.

Will nodded. "Let's see if we can find a security terminal or something. And keep your eyes open for cameras."

He raised his rifle as he started off down the aisle with his eyes darting in a new direction every second. Will quickly realized that, like the curvature of the building at the surface, the storage facility was also cylindrical. The ceiling was high, around ten meters or so, though the shelves around them were only three or four meters tall. Will slowed down as they approached a perpendicular walkway that looked as though it ran directly down the center of the storage room. He took a few steps toward the shelf behind him and leaned his head out to look up and down the wide aisle theirs had intersected with. Behind him the rest of the squad had pressed themselves flush against cover as well with the exception of Kallux, who stood as close as he could while holding his cannon at his side and in firing position.

"Looks clear," Will reported as he looked down either direction. "Looks like a freight elevator to the right and an office to the left."

"That office might be my ticket into their network," Tul stated.

Will nodded and stepped out from cover. "Let's go."

The four quickly ran into the aisle and toward the small office a few dozen meters away with their weapons drawn and ready to fire. Will looked through the windows to see a few terminals on desks lining the walls as he stopped at the door and pressed his finger to the controls. As the door slid apart Tul'Sorrin darted in with Will and made his way to the nearest computer. He pulled up the office chair nearest the desk and sat himself as he activated the monitor and began his work.

"Kallux, Eleena, keep an eye on the door." Will motioned to the still open door as they followed him in.

"I've got schematics of the building," Tul announced.

Will turned back to the quarian and placed a hand on his chair as he looked to the monitor. "Damn, that was fast."

Tul shrugged. "Not because of me, sadly. This is the maintenance office; it was right on the start-up menu. I'll upload it to our omnitools."

Will raised his wrist and pulled up his omnitool as the map was sent. He opened up the layer by layer dissection of the building and rotated it to put the small security room where they stood closest to him in an attempt to establish a sense of direction. He grumbled slightly after his brief initial overview and let out a sigh.

"Well the good news is that maintenance elevator stops on every level. The bad news is it just leads to more shafts like the one we started out in. The only floor that it actually allows access to is the one we're on now: Storage and Maintenance." Will rotated the map slowly and began investigating the other elevator shafts.

"Sounds like we need another way up," Kallux replied.

The closest elevator Will could find on the map was just through the massive double-wide door at the opposite end of the warehouse-sized room. "Looks like I was right about that double-wide door being a freight elevator."

"Freight elevator, huh?" Eleena glanced over to Will. "I have a feeling they might notice if we use that one."

"My worries exactly," Will lamented as he shook his head. "But it's the only one that connects to this level other than the one we came in on."

"I told you we wouldn't be able to sneak around forever," Kallux added as he readjusted the grip on his weapon.

"You're right. And unless we can find everything we need on this terminal we're going to have to use that thing." Will closed his omnitool and turned back to where Tul worked. "What's the situation?"

The quarian tapped his foot quickly as he typed with one hand and monitored a series of numbers and characters on his omnitool with the other. "It's good and bad. I have access to the security systems for 'maintenance purposes' which means if you say the word I can shut down their cameras and communications. Unfortunately, I only have limited access to another network that runs on the lab and control levels. I have a feeling all the worthwhile data is there."

Will stared blankly as he thought. "Alright. Is is possible for you to yank the security even if you're not here in front of the terminal?"

Tul made a few adjustments on his omnitool and nodded. "Now it is."

"Good. We're gonna head up to the first lab floor and find a terminal there," Will announced as he turned from the computer and walked over to the door where Kallux and Eleena were standing guard. "We'll keep the security blackout in our back pocket until the last possible second."

Eleena looked over her shoulder to Tul. "Hey, does that terminal have any other maintenance functions?"

Tul'Sorrin pulled up another window on the monitor and sat back with. "Eleena, you're a genius," he stated with a verbal smile.

Kallux narrowed his eyes. "How so?"

The quarian made a few more quick commands and raised his omnitool once again. "I was so interested in the network I forgot about local functions. Functions such as... shutting off lights or elevators due to an emergency."

Will tightened his grip on the M-15 in his hands and gave Eleena a sideways grin. "That bonus is just getting bigger and bigger."

The asari rolled her eyes with a smirk. "I'm going to assume that's literal and not a euphemism for something."

Tul drew his pistol and stepped up behind the others as Will adjusted his sights and took the first step back into the storage facility. The squad's pace immediately quickened to a trot as Will led the three others down the large center aisle to the double-wide door a few meters ahead. He slowed as they approached the door and activated his omnitool to look over the map again. The level marked as "Lab-2" appeared to be roughly half the size of the current level and was subdivided into numerous smaller rooms. The map showed that another shaft connected with the lab on the opposite side of where the freight elevator would deliver them. He shut off his omnitool and pressed the button to call the car to them. After a short wait the wide doors parted and the squad hurried inside.

"Looks like we can't get to the control level with this elevator," Will stated as he looked over the control panel. "But the map shows a smaller one that can get us there if needed."

Will ordered the car to ascend to the level marked "Lab-2" and stood back as he readied his weapon. The elevator came to stop after only a few seconds of travel with the entire squad pointing their weapons at the door. As it slid apart they scanned the wide hallway only to find nothing at all to speak of other than a series of doors on either side that stretched on until the hall intersected with another a few dozen meters ahead. Will quickly moved forward into the hallway and led the group past the first pair of doors labeled "Procedure Room 7" and "8" to their left and right. At the center of the intersection with the perpendicular hallway was a sign with arrows pointing to either direction glowing softly with a white back-light.

"Subject Holding or Live Test Lab..." Eleena muttered. "I don't like the sound of either of those."

"Same," Will agreed as he slowed to halt. "Let's try the holding center first. If we find any prisoners maybe they can help us out."

"And we can help them out," Kallux added.

"That too." Will turned to the left and waved for them to follow.

Unlike the first, the new hall was lined with doors every five meters or so with a large window beside each one. Will glanced into each one as they passed by in hopes of finding one of the cells occupied only to be met every time with the same emptiness. He anticipated the same results as they reached the second to last set of doors only to jerk to a stop as he spotted the shape of a humanoid figure laying on its side on the slab that extended out from the cell wall to act as a bed. The rest of the squad spotted the prisoner as well and rushed to the window in an attempt to identify them.

"Tul, help me get the door open," Will ordered. "Kallux, Eleena, go check the last three cells."

The krogan and asari nodded and hurried off as the quarian pulled up his omnitool and went to work on the simple locking program on the door. Will held his rifle in firing position as Tul made quick work of the security and tapped the command to open the door. As the cell door slid apart Will's flashlight illuminated the dimly lit chamber and caused the prisoner to stir from her slumber. The human sat up and turned to them without much surprise and averted her eyes from the intense light.

"I guess it's my time then?" The woman spoke with exhaustion.

Will glanced to Tul for a moment and then back to the prisoner. "What? What do you mean, 'your time?'"

She paused briefly before raising a hand over her eyes to shield them from the glare of his flashlight. "You're not..."

Tul reached to the control panel outside the door and flipped on the cell's lights. Will lowered his weapon and killed the flashlight as the fully illuminated woman stood and he was given his first complete look at the prisoner. She appeared to be in her mid forties and stood with poise in her standard laboratory fatigues. Despite her disheveled appearance her jet-black hair was bound in a tight bun save for a few errant strands that spilled over her eyes. Will stared as a small sense of recognition sparked in the back of his mind.

"Not batarians?" Will finished her statement and shook his head. "No. I'm William Hume, captain of the MSV Hyperion. And it looks like I'll be helping you out of here."

"I'm not sure if I'm just supposed to trust you because you say you're going to free me, but I guess I don't have much say in the matter." The woman extended her hand with a small smile. "Either way, I must express my gratitude and offer my thanks."

Will eyed her curiously. "What's your name?"

"Forgive me," she replied apologetically "My name is Doctor Ana Tokagi. Sadly, I believe I'm the only remaining member of my research team."