19 - Stage Four: Depression

The mood in the briefing room was rather chilly – the story of the Teltin facility was still fresh on everyone's minds despite it being a few days ago. Shepard decided to make a quick stop to resupply, especially to pick up a new 'big boom', before they would head for the IFF. And now they were heading into another Cerberus facility, with barely any information.

"So" Shepard began, "As you know TIM has given us a location where we should get the IFF we need to navigate the Omega Four Relay. Joy of joys, it's an actual Reaper. Should be dead though."

"Well, the Collector ship was supposed to be derelict too" Garrus reminded.

"Exactly" the commander nodded before her team could get into it again. Right now they were really anti-Cerberus, and rehashing that wasn't productive in the least. "So all of us are going, even if it's just a pick up. Funny thing, the original Normandy's very first mission was supposed to be just a pick up too and we all know how that turned out. So plan accordingly."

"How do we even get the IFF off the reaper? Like enter him? You said Sovereign was a ship" Trevelyan asked.

Shepard nodded again "Yes. Plus Cerberus has had it for some time so I'd guess there will be a base inside."

"What about indoctrination?" Tali spoke up.

"I don't know" the Spectre sighed, "Cerberus is banking on it being dead ergo harmless. I'm not that sure. Best if we just get the IFF as quickly as possible. In and out, not staying for tea."

Jacob frowned "You think our personnel might be indoctrinated? Surely there must be some measures we can take against it."

"If TIM knows, he isn't sharing" Shepard shrugged.

Everybody as one turned towards the XO, as always when Cerberus was discussed. Miranda didn't snap like she usually did and merely shrugged.

"We should be fine" Garrus hummed, "Benezia said it took a while. And if the Cerberus scientists are done for, we can take them."

Jack grinned widely "I'm in!"

"Shocking" Samara said dryly, making everybody chuckle.

Since that comment lifted up the spirits a smidgen, Shepard decided to end the meeting on a high note "Alright, dismissed. Suit up, don't forget the heavies and grenades, we aren't taking any chances. Grab a snack or a nap, whatever, but be prepared in roughly three hours."

After that, all that was left was waiting.

Three hours later on the dot, the Normandy was in viewing distance of Mnemosyne, a brown giant that made for a fantastic spectacle. The floating reaper at which they arrived shortly was in turn creepy and had something of a malevolent aura. Or so Joker claimed.

Another thing of note was that there was another ship docked onto the base, one of peculiar origin, possibly even geth, plus the silence they got on the radio when EDI tried to hail the Cerberus personnel onboard.

When literally the first thing they saw once they docked was a dead body in Cerberus uniform, Shepard sighed in resignation "Aaaand it's fishy again. Why can't we have one, one!, mission that goes exactly like planned."

"We'd be jumpy as hell, trying to figure out what was wrong" Garrus shrugged.

"True" the commander admitted freely. Then she turned to Miranda "Could you find us some logs, I'd like to know what happened if at all possible."

"Yes, commander" the XO nodded and approached the nearest terminal.

There were indeed logs, plenty of them, painting a scenario like out of one of Hitchcock movies. It only lacked a soundtrack. Or, it was actually creepier without the accompanying music. The team watched the slow descent into insanity of the resident scientist team with morbid fascination.

"Ok, that's enough" Shepard commanded, "Download it all, is could be useful in trying to prove indoctrination is real. Listening to samples, geez, they really got screwed over with this assignment."

"'Dead gods still dream' is dramatic, but apt" Thane hummed.

"Yeah, this fucker might be dead, but can still trap you in a nightmare" Jack looked around uncomfortably.

"All the more reason to hurry up," Shepard agreed, "In and out, try not to touch anything."

As soon as they passed another air-lock and into the reaper itself, they all heard a strange hum and the entire structure shook a little. EDI hailed them a second later "The reaper has put on its kinetic barriers. They will prevent us from extracting you."

"I say the reaper heard you and didn't agree with the 'out' part" Garrus couldn't help himself.

Miranda shot him an unamused glare "We need to take out the barrier generator. EDI, can you tell us where to go?"

"Sending the coordinates now. Unfortunately it is where I estimate the mass effect core to be as well"

"That core is the only thing that is maintaining the wreck's altitude" Tali frowned under her helmet, "We snuff it and the reaper tumbles into the planet's core."

"It's not like we have another option" Jacob remarked.

The quarian shrugged "Just saying. We do this right, great! We don't, and we fall to the sweet oblivion of death."

"That's disturbing," Zaeed spoke up, "Not the dying part, that one I'm used to, but calling it that, that's some weird shit."

Tali huffed "It was poetic."

"Aaaand on that note let's get the goods and get those barriers down" Sheppard started moving.

"It was poetic" Tali insisted.

"Sure thing, sweetie" Kasumi patted the quarian's helmet and sped along.

"It was" the engineer huffed one last time and then jogged up to catch up with Shepard only to slip up slightly on the blood on the floor.

Grunt caught her and then frowned "This blood smells wrong."

"Wrong how?" Thane asked.

"Just wrong"

"Helpful"

Trev ignored the byplay to take a look at the enormous cavernous space before her "Wow, look at this place."

"Don't see that everyday"

"Fascinating" Mordin hummed.

"Just don't take any 'speaking' samples" Kasumi grimaced.

"Hm. Will not"

The interior of the reaper was dark, all the installed light just diluting the darkness, further strengthening the horror movie impression. Cerberus evidently didn't do much outside that docking bay and adjourning labs – just installed the ramps and brought in some equipment, still kept mostly in crates.

Soon the team fell silent, the ominous atmosphere getting to them. It was because of that they all heard a tink sound from below, followed by a sound of something dragging.

"What was that?" Jacob just had to voice.

"Nothing good" Zaeed rasped.

tink

drag

drag

tink

"Can't it just hurry up" Shepard sighed.

Jack rolled her eyes and walked towards the edge of the ramp to take a look. She peered down and squinted. Then she let out a very girly shriek, one she would deny till she died, and cast a shockwave into the darkness.

If she hit something it didn't really matter as several humanoid figures crawled up from below and tried to jump the convict.

Shepard arrived in a charge, managing to get the husks off her teammate who she dragged back. The she brought up her shotgun "Regroup at the center, don't go near the ledge! There are tons of them. Oh and try doing all that while proceeding forward."

That plan worked for a little while but soon the ground team was being overrun – the husks just kept coming and coming and coming, not caring about their injuries short of a kill shot. The swarming tactic was proving to be quite effective until the grumbling squad switched to melee and/or biotics and tech. Mordin's cryo application was proving to be a huge help, affecting many husks both by slowing them and making them very brittle. Grunt and Trev, equipped with her sword and shield again, took full advantage of that.

The overwhelming numbers dwindled, finally, as the team was getting rather tired, unused to this particular kind of fight. With what was estimated, and hoped, to be one last wave, a surprise came – several husks that seemed to glow dimly but quite obviously in the near darkness.

"Grunt, no!" Shepard shouted, wary of these new husks.

The krogan ignored her and charged. The husk deviated from its path and ran straight against Grunt who was once again chuckling his typical "heh, heh, heh" as carnage was imminent. This time though, the collision resulted in a fairly large explosion.

"Grunt, are you ok?" Shepard ran to check.

"More of them!" Jacob yelled, interrupting any possible reply. True to his word, more regulars and three more glowy husks sought to swarm them.

The team dispatched them at distance. Then silence reigned. Garrus was first to break it "You think that was all of them?"

"Maybe in this part of the ship, I bet we will find more down the road" Tali hummed.

Shepard just shrugged and turned her gaze back to their krogan, who was once more standing and grinning. The red-head looked him over and asked again "Grunt, are you ok?"

"Never better"

"He took out your entire barrier and singed your armor"

"So?"

Shepard sighed loudly "New orders, no charging the glowy ones. Don't let them come close. You hear me Grunt?"

"Yeah"

"Trev?"

"Yes, Shepard?"

"You too"

"I heard you fine the first time"

"You just get really happy when you can go close" the red-head shrugged unrepentantly.

"Sure, but I am not reckless"

"One word: yagh"

"That was a special occasion" Trev huffed.

"As you wish" Shepard winked and then turned back, "Ok people, let's go. We still need this done quickly."

After this small break the team proceeded forwards, this time in an uncharacteristic silence – all of them listening for any more signs of husks crawling underneath them.

They were attacked twice more, but the numbers were fewer, although it was compensated by the reappearance of the kamikaze husks. Once Samara even had to shield them all with a big dome when they were just too many to handle safely.

When the team arrived to the end of the ramp, Shepard took a peak to the left, the only way forward "Oh for fucks sake."

"What is it" Miranda frowned.

"Huge space ahead, nice and wide and bare. Ideal for a husk stampede" the commander complained.

Everybody stuck their heads from behind the pillar to confirm. Kasumi was the only one that hadn't and instead inspected the dead end "Medigel! There is a crate of it here. We could stock up some."

"As much as we can carry – that shit's expensive" Shepard grinned at the thief's find.

"Commander?" Thane interrupted the red-head's glee, "Have you noticed the dead husks over there?"

"Yeah, why?"

"They were shot. In the forehead, very precise" the drell explained.

Jacob perked up "A survivor of the scientist team?"

"If that was the case, they'd be a paranoid wreck – you have seen the videos" Tali commented.

While further discussing indoctrination, the team stocked up on medigel and stuffed the extra in the appropriate slots and pockets of their armors. It they had them, that is. Finally Shepard sighed and led them into the huge room.

Just as predicted, they all could hear the sound of the husks climbing towards them. Then at them. Fist one by one, but soon too many to snipe off and the situation degenerated once more into a brawl.

"How do you think they find us? Smell? Echolocation?" Mordin began muttering as he fiddled with his omnitool to freeze the oncoming zombies.

"Do not know. All I can tell you that they're not practicing blood magic" Trev huffed as she completed the combo by shattering the frozen husks. Usually she wouldn't comment but she was getting increasingly cranky – this whole situation reminded her too much of the Blight. That wasn't a fun memory. And now that she thought about it, this was exactly how she imagined the Deep Roads to look like.

"Mordin! What did I tell you about taking samples!" Shepard called over her own pile of bodies.

"Was merely thinking out loud"

"Kamikaze on the right!" Garrus warned, slowing it down with an overload.

"Geez, just how many are there!" Kasumi complained.

"At least this proofs husks are reaper tech, not geth" Miranda said mostly to herself.

"Thank the ancestors" Tali nodded and sent her re-formed drone into the fray.

"Yaaay" Jack commented dryly. The convict wasn't a happy camper – during a fight she usually counted one her speed and her ability to practically one-shot everybody, but that wasn't helpful here at all. While her crowd-control abilities were superb, the sheer number of husks was overwhelming and they were starting to get some scrapes in since she once more had foregone donning her armor.

"You've got to be kidding me" Garrus whined.

"What?"

"Scion coming in"

"Shit!" Shepard cursed, "We need to back up and get into cover. Keep the small ones off me, I'm getting the rocket launcher. Garrus, get your sniper back up."

"Oh good, I was worried I wouldn't get to use my precious" the turian smiled.

"Great, get your precious and behind that pillar"

It was a bit difficult, but once the team has managed to leave the room for the corridor it became more manageable even if the scion took a while.

Finally there was quiet once more.

Cautiously the squad made its way towards the end of the room where there could be seen several giant spikes that had been dubbed Dragon Teeth by the Alliance. Very mythological. Better than husk-making machine though.

"Download all you can" Shepard ordered and nodded towards the two terminals nearby.

"I could take a breather" Kasumi nodded and sat down on one crate nearby while Tali and Miranda went to execute the commander's order.

Thane took the opportunity to offer medigel to Jack who squinted at him for a good long while but then allowed him to put it on her gashes and scrapes. Shepard beamed at them like a proud owner of a dog who just made an incredible trick.

Jacob in turn was using the water from his canteen to wash his face, growling about his lack of helmet. The rest was simply reloading and relaxing.

Shepard allowed it for a while but then reluctantly got to her feet and started walking towards the doors that EDI marked as their way forwards. The rest of the team sighed in unison and followed suit. Still, they had to park before the big pressurized door, waiting for Tali to hack them.

Once inside they had to wait once more for the second door of the set. In the meantime they had to listen to an overly cheerful recording "Please stand by. Equalizing pressure with exterior conditions. Remember, safety is everyone's concern. We have gone five days without a workplace death."

Garrus turned to Shepard for a second. Then they both let out a "Pfffff" and burst into laughter. Somehow the rest followed suit, more or less. Even Samara and Miranda seemed to found it funny and ironic.

"We are horrible people" Shepard grinned.

"Could be worse" Kasumi chuckled.

"The announcement was absurd," Trev shook her head, laughter still on her lips, "Is it normal?"

"It's not unheard of. Usually it's workplace accident though" Thane explained.

"Cerberus put a nice spin on it, a very telling one too" Garrus smirked.

"Remember, safety first" Jack went heavy on the sarcasm.

The second door opened and let them into another area. This new space was better lit and much more lived-in than the one before. Although nothing seemed to justify the pressurized door – but maybe there was just something they weren't seeing. Perhaps Cerberus tried doing something to prevent possible indoctrination that couldn't be seen. Not that it helped in the least.

Or that it helped keep the husks out.

This time though, they had unexpected help. The few husks that sought to jump the team were quickly put down by an unseen sniper.

Well, previously unseen. A geth unit stood up from its perch, greeted "Shepard-Commander" in a pleasant synthetic voice, reloaded and left.

…

"Did that geth just talk?" Jacob gaped.

"I heard it" Garrus nodded.

"Oh good, I'm not going insane"

Shepard had a different reaction – she kicked the sniped husk and muttered "Glowing bug men, exploding zombies, talking geth… Fuck it all, I'm joining a convent!"

"A fighting nun!" Garrus explained excitedly "That's a vid I would watch!"

"I think Shep was more after the peace and quiet of it" Kasumi smirked.

"But that would be no fun"

Several heads turned to Trevelyan who huffed "Not a nun! Or a priest! Stop doing that."

"Trev banged a nun, so maybe there could be fun after all" Jack smirked.

"A fighting stripper nun! Would definitely watch that" Garrus exclaimed again.

"Heh, heh, heh" Grunt nodded happily.

Miranda shook her head "Men and their porn."

"And I didn't 'bang', as you put it, a nun. A lay sister, perfectly acceptable. Plus she was a spy-master more than anything" Trevelyan defended her honor.

"Role-playing!"

"Fuck off, Garrus"

"Aren't we forgetting the talking geth?" Thane reminded mildly.

Shepard sighed heavily "No, but it's gone now and we don't have time to search for him. We'll look into it later."

The team resumed their journey. The change in scenery meant much more climbing and descending of stairs, since the layout demanded it, but that came in handy when the inevitable husk attack came. With the high ground they could hold them off a bit longer than previously, and when another scion made an appearance, they could take better cover as well.

It actually became a bit monotone after a while – the reaper was rather long – just up the stairs, shoot husks, sometimes scion, down stairs, hack terminal. Up the stairs… One good thing was that Jacob had noticed several crates near one of the stations that contained ammunition. There were several other goodies – like eezo or other valuable materials, but the squad didn't have where to put them and had to leave it behind. Kasumi was heartbroken.

Finally they arrived to another air-lock, which had been guarded by several scions just to make things interesting. Fortunately for the team, the room also has barrels of fuel or some other flammable liquid which had served them well. Although Grunt was a bit singed, again, and Zaeed was missing his eyebrows. And Trev had to put out a fire on her templar skirt. Eeeh, uniform.

While they were waiting for Tali to hack the door, Kasumi rolled her eyes at the Marcher who was eyeing the rather large hole in her ensemble "Stop pouting, Jacob will make you a new one."

Trev directed her gaze at the operative in question, put on her most hopeful expression and fluttered her eyelashes. Jacob melted "Of course I will."

Miranda snorted, trying to contain her chuckle. Trevelyan ignored her and beamed at the corsair "Thank you!"

"We're in!" Tali announced.

As they filed in, Kasumi elbowed Trev and winked "Well, look at you. Using your feminine wiles."

"Hm?" Trev feigned confusion. The thief laughed.

Another hack later and Shepard was in possession of their elusive IFF. The terminal that contained it had the same security as the rest and wasn't particularly hard to find. It looked like at least this part of the plan went without a hitch. Next up though, was shutting down the barrier.

The team entered the room that housed the mass effect core but they weren't alone – the geth from before was there, diligently working at the lone terminal before the core. It didn't spare them a glance. It did shot several husks until it got overrun.

"Take them out!" Shepard shouted and began shooting at the husks, leaving the geth be for now.

The team dispatched of the husks as quickly as they could, most of them curious to learn something about the mysterious geth sniper. Tali looked it over but then focused more on what it had been doing at the console.

"It was trying to do the same as us – shut down the barrier" the quarian analyzed.

"Great, finish it. I think we're about to have some more company. The undead kind" Shepard ordered.

The commander wasn't wrong – they had to defeat waves upon waves of husks before Tali finished what she was doing. Still they had to first dispatch of their enemies before even daring to shoot at the core that was maintaining the kinetic barriers – once they did that, they'd have to run. Fast.

When the husk lay dead, or well, dead-er, Shepard hailed the Normandy "We are at the barrier controls, do you see a route for extraction?"

"Sending you coordinates now" EDI replied, "Recommending haste once the mass effect core is deactivated."

"No shit" Jack chuckled from beside the surprisingly undamaged geth.

Shepard looked in their direction "We'll take the geth with us."

"Cerberus has a lucrative bounty for any intact geth" Jacob nodded.

The commander's eyes narrowed "We'll see. I want to talk to him first."

"What? You want to reactivate him aboard the ship?" Miranda exclaimed in disbelief.

"Yeah, not a good idea" Tali surprisingly agreed with the brunette, "Remember the Alarei?"

"Perhaps we could take this argument elsewhere?" Trev proposed.

Shepard nodded "Yeah. Garrus, can you take him?"

The turian sighed and picked up the deactivated synthetic, slinging him over his shoulder He huffed at the weight "I see you have confidence in my running skills."

"Didn't you say you have reach?" the red-head smiled wickedly.

Garrus coughed "Never should've told you that story."

Shepard smirked. Then she looked over the rest of her squad "Everybody set? 'Cause once we punch the core, we're legging it."

"We're ready" Miranda answered as everybody nodded.

"Ok, EDI? We're doing it. Tell Joker he better be at the coordinates or I'm changing airlines"

"Acknowledged"

AN: 100 follows! Yay! *fireworks sounds*