Chapter 21 - Exchange
Torr turned to look back at the body of the fallen pilot and the slowly spreading pool of blood he lay face down in. "I think," he eventually replied after appearing to think it over, "that you can all go back to Aria and tell her that Krovak Torr says to piss off." Torr's submissive tone had kept Lamash off guard and by the time the krogan's words had registered his shotgun was already in his hands, the barrel swinging towards the brash mercenary. The hired killer had enough sense to throw himself backwards as the weapon erupted and the cluster of high-powered fragments stripped him of his shields but left his body intact. The two quarians had been expecting something like this in each and every second of the tension strewn minutes and it was almost a relief to see the encircling ring of Aria's men lit up by a flurry of muzzle flashes. Stray rounds flew out over the abyss behind them as more plinked off the heavy-duty crates that the pair threw themselves behind, their weapons of choice materializing in their hands as they prepared to return fire.
To their left Torr had forced Lamash into a desperate scramble for cover but in turn had been subjected to a withering barrage of suppressing fire from his men. As the krogan's shields fell apart and he dropped behind a particularly large service bench, Ren shouted to him over the din. "Do you enjoy trying to get us killed?"
Torr bellowed a response as Tali stood to squeeze off a spread of shots from her pistol. "You see their weapons, their armour? You don't bring kit like that if you're not expecting a fight; trust me Stiff, they never intended to take us alive. Besides," he added as an afterthought, "I didn't care for that batarian's tone."
Tali dropped down again, her over-taxed pistol and drained shields flaring for her attention. She ignored them both. Ren didn't have time to grace Torr with a response as he stood to let off some rounds of his own, buying Tali the time to cool her overheating sidearm. The krogan joined in with some accurate fire from his own pistol, an addition that Tali had noticed him make just that morning. The engineer risked a quick glance at the enemy positions and was disheartened to see that the mercs were taking full advantage of their superior firepower and wide, open position by shifting from cover to cover with professional efficiency. Up here, stuck on a narrow platform with nowhere to go and a near constant stream of incoming fire, she knew it would be impossible to keep track of the merc's ever-changing positions.
As she drew her head back Tali saw movement at the edges of the hanger and hoped fervently that what she'd glimpsed had been a merely a distorted reflection in her visor. The wish was shattered seconds later when Ren warned "Great, now the bloody security mechs are joining in!"
"We can't stay here much longer," Torr decided, "those mechs aren't programmed with self-preservation, as soon as they start pushing up here we'll have a real fight on our hands."
"We need to fall back to the shuttle!" Ren shouted. "I can fly us out of here if we can just get to the other end of the boarding ramp."
Tali shook her head, glancing at the ten metre patch of open ground. Normally it would have been the work of seconds to sprint the distance but even she knew that attempting it under this kind of suppression was suicidal. "You'll never make that," she replied, "not without a distraction!"
Hitting the final keys on her Omni-Tool Tali sent a batch of tech mines sailing over the lip of her cover. She didn't care who they hit and she knew there was no way the sabotage effect would ensnare anything close to all of the mercs, but the hope was that it would buy her time. Giving the mines a mental count of two before they went off, Tali stood and targeted her Omni-Tool on the nearest mech. A small column of Lokis were starting to push up the ramp and she initially aimed for them but then the lumbering gait of a towering Ymir heavy mech in the background drew her eye. Tali had just enough time to recalibrate and burrow a spike into the mech's systems before the merciless fire drove her back into the small shelter she shared with Ren.
Back on the docking ring the newly hacked Ymir was suddenly unable to differentiate between friend and foe as a result of the IFF spike and promptly began gunning down everything in sight. The first to fall was the small column of Loki mechs whose simple systems couldn't produce an adequate response in time. As shouts of alarm spread throughout the mercs and the steady drone of automatic fire switched directions as they collectively targeted the rouge automaton. As the chaos unfolded Tali heard herself shouting for them to move. No sooner had the words left her lips than a wave of pressure assaulted her body and a dull ringing filled her ears. Glancing about for the source of the explosion she spotted Torr coughing and shaking his head in a cloud of smoke, scorch marks blackening the corners of his cover. The krogan spat blood from his lips and gestured for her to go on. "Grenade launcher!" he explained in short gasps, "no shields, catch you up!"
It was all he had time for and Tali didn't give herself time to protest. Instead she launched herself from cover and darted her way across the open docking ramp with as much speed as she could muster. The quarian vaulted over a power unit and dropped into a crouch behind it as the adrenaline surged through her veins and thundered with every frantic heartbeat. Her heightened senses heard a soft scuffling before Ren appeared beside her, none the worse for their ordeal. Tali hoped that Torr's shields had recovered in time for him to join them but as a dull thump was heard in the distance and the Ymir mech finally exploded under the merc's combined fire, she knew they'd have to come up with another solution.
Ren wasted no time trying the ship's access pad and immediately slammed a hand down on the bulkhead in frustration. "It's locked." He growled, shooting a furious glare back at their fallen pilot.
"Move aside," ordered Tali, "let me see if I can hack through it."
They exchanged positions and Tali set her Omni-Tool to running a slew of code algorithms while Ren began exchanging fire with Aria's men once more. The mercs had swiftly regrouped after the uproar caused by the rampant heavy mech and, minus a few of their number, were now hitting the escapee's positions with tech and biotic attacks. Damping charges and overload modules exploded in violent flares of colour that seared the quarian's retinas and threw off his aim.
A few meters to the front of the ramp Torr's shields had finally recovered and his species' ability to regenerate dead tissue meant that his wounds were slowly sealing themselves up. As the old mechanic leant his back against the workbench and recovered from firing his latest shots he saw a flicker of movement in his peripheral vision. Looking down Torr spotted a small group of four mercenaries moving quietly across the bay's second docking ramp just below his position. The ramp was empty and unused but if he were to guess, Torr would have said they were working their way under to sabotage the human's shuttle from underneath and cut off their escape route. Shuffling to the edge of his platform Torr glanced down to assess the situation, held his pistol out over the rim and dropped a five shot burst into a dormant refuelling tank. The squad barely had time to turn in surprise at the sound of gunfire before the fuel tank ignited and swallowed them all in flame. Torr drew his arm back as the volume of fire on his position suddenly increased and he allowed himself a tight-lipped smile at the faint screams that floated up to him.
The krogan's actions went unnoticed by Tali and Ren, both of whom were caught up in their own endeavours. Evidently the human was a paranoid man as the shuttle's security system was far beyond what Tali had been expecting. Caught off guard at first it had become an uphill battle to stay on top of the ever-shifting parameters and fluctuating code. The drone of gunfire had dulled to a background thrum as Tali attended her work with complete focus, her fingers flying over the keys with absolute surety. To her left Ren was struggling desperately to hold back the mercs who had now stepped things up by employing snipers who threatened to take his head off every time he attempted to return fire. Their commanding officer was no fool either and was using the new problem to move a small team further up the ramp. Ren knew if they were allowed to entrench themselves up here there'd be no way for him to force them back down again.
The Lieutenant risked a quick glance, drawing his head back just before a well-placed sniper shot smacked into the side of the power unit where his head had been mere heartbeats before. The mercs were moving up two abreast, their advance hindered by the ramp's limited breadth and the multitude of docking equipment that lay scattered in their path. At the top of the ramp lay a transporter cart exactly like the one that had nearly ran him over less than half an hour ago. Still connected to the rail system the transporter was almost empty, evidently having been used to move the smuggler's cargo up here. A sudden solution popped into Ren's head and without allowing himself time to think about it the officer popped out from cover, drawing a bead on the cart's control panel. Knowing he had a few precious seconds before the sniper's rifle cooled enough to fire again and simultaneously hoping no one else had a bead on him Ren pulled the trigger and grimly held the sights steady as rounds began to strike his shields and threatened to throw off his aim. The seconds he was exposed seemed to drag indefinitely and no sooner did he see the controls spark than he let go of the trigger and made himself crumple at the knees, not even allowing himself the time to crouch and place his back to the power unit. It proved to be the right choice as he actually saw the sniper round that would have pierced his skull zip harmlessly overhead by just a few inches.
Tali shot him a worried glance at his odd collapse but Ren shook his head as he scrambled back up. "I'm fine." He assured her and the engineer merely nodded, accepting and turning her attention back to her work; she simply did not have the time to discuss it further. Breathing heavily from the adrenaline pumping through him Ren crawled back into place, catching a glimpse of the transporter through a crack in the power cabling. Its control circuits fried the cart's electronic locking systems failed and the brakes that were keeping it place on the inclined rails quietly clicked out of place. With the strut locks disengaged gravity began to pull at the cart and it slowly began to roll its way down the incline.
The first few feet went unnoticed by the approaching mercenaries but as the cart began to pick up speed and rattle against its rails the team's salarian pointman looked up and shouted a warning that came just a little too late. Seeing the danger early probably spared his life as the salarian dove desperately to one side just before the cart whizzed over where he'd been standing and ploughed directly into the band of aliens behind him. The first likely never knew what hit her, the asari's body crumpling just as she turned to face the runaway transporter. A collective scream that was cut violently short erupted from those behind as they too were propelled backwards and sideways in a bone shattering collision that scattered the aliens every which way. The rearmost man, a mottled turian with body armour so pristine it could hardly have been used, was cushioned against the cart's impact by the shattered bodies of those in front who were now pressed against the transporter's body. He was not however cushioned against the jolting as the cart hit the base of the ramp, the high speed impact on a corner turn causing an immediate de-railing and throwing the turian against the far wall where he had just enough time to cry out before the transporter, now sliding across the grimy floors on its flank, ended his life with a definitive slam against the wall that echoed through the entire docking bay.
The salarian who'd managed to avoid the chaos struggled to his feet, his mind frozen by shock, only to collapse again with a gaping hole in his lower back, his bug-like eyes glassy and vacant. Torr lowered the claymore and laughed, a crazed fever dancing in his eyes. It had been many years since the old krogan had felt the blood-lust this strongly. He could scent it in the air, feel it in his veins, see the faces of his every kill in his vision with perfect clarity. As he gazed upon the broken bodies of those crushed under Ren's improvised runaway missile one thought clouded Krovak Torr's mind. It wasn't enough. He needed more.
Back at the shuttle Tali let loose a whoop of joy as she finally cracked the ship's security systems and the cargo doors began to split open with a pressurized hiss. The single-man cockpit also warbled invitingly as the instrument panel lit up and bathed the plasti-glass in a neon glow. "Ren, I got us in!" She shouted over the cacophony of gunfire.
The quarian, both sickened and delighted with what he's just managed to do, lowered his rifle and nodded. When he looked at her Tali could have sworn the reflections of his eyes were brighter than she'd ever seen them. "Nice work Tali! Get yourself in the cargo hold and tell Torr to get his arse up here, I'll get the engines fired up. We need to get out of here before they start bringing in reinforcements!" Without waiting for a response he ran for the nose of the ship and Tali responded by standing to cover him with a spray of pistol rounds before ducking back and opening up a comm line with Torr's Omni-Tool.
"Torr we've got the shuttle unlocked and Ren's prepping for takeoff now, you need to get back here!"
The lack of response from the krogan made Tali risk exposing her head for a quick glance in his direction. Aside from the snipers the range was too great for most of Aria's men to get an accurate shot off and she had enough time to see Torr busily exchanging gunfire with another group of mercenaries who were attempting to make their way up the ramp again, this time supported by a trio of Loki security mechs and being extremely cautious. It seemed Lamash had learned not to underestimate his opponents and Torr was being hard pressed to hold them back.
"Torr!" Tali tried again, "we need to leave, now!"
The krogan finally dropped back behind his battle-scarred workbench and his gravelly voice filled her eardrums a second later.
"No way I'm making it across this platform kid, not with this many sights on me."
Tali felt her heart skip a beat. "I can cover you," she protested, "I saw you run in the warehouse, you can make it!"
There was a weighty sigh. "We both know that's not happening Tali, not even with the two of you. There's at least three experienced snipers out there, all it takes is a pair of them to hit me in the right spot and down goes Krovak Torr."
"They'll down you if you stay!" the quarian protested wildly.
"At least I'll take a few of 'em with me that way, buy you some time."
"Torr..." Tali couldn't think, couldn't breathe. Keelah this is not happening! She glanced at him again and saw that he was looking toward her. His eyes met hers and she saw his lips move as he spoke. "This is the krogan way Tali'Zorah, don't try to deny me it."
Their conversation of just days hence filled Tali's mind and suddenly she saw with stark clarity what he was doing. "You stupid bosh'tet!" The words were out of her mouth before she could stop herself, accompanied by a sudden sob that took her by surprise.
When Torr spoke, his words were soft and tinged with inevitability. "Go Tali'Zorah, you have your own grounds to hunt in now. And when you find the one who's after you, tell him Krovak Torr says hello."
The connection flatlined and half-formed protests froze on Tali's lips. As if in a dream she felt her eyes flicker towards the old krogan one last time as the Omni-Tool on his wrist evaporated and he hefted his mighty shotgun in both hands. Even from this distance Tali could see his once golden eyes burning red. The krogan bloodrage. Their gazes met for a second and Torr gave her a final nod that made her heart sink to the pit of her stomach. Her mind, dulled and deadened by shock, faltered and Tali's instincts took over, her body dragging her over to the shuttle's beckoning cargo hold as the sounds of combat abruptly grew louder and a blood-chilling roar filled her ears. She didn't look as she stepped into the darkened hold, the heavy-duty loading door sealing shut behind her with a hiss.
"Where's Torr?" Ren demanded as the night-vision of her visor activated, his voice filtering through the comm unit of her environment suit.
"He's not coming," Tali replied emptily, "he says we need to go without him."
"What?" Ren echoed the shock she'd already expressed, "what the hell is he playing at?"
"Being krogan." She whispered.