Sorry this took so long to put up. Working 70 hour weeks right now. Anyway, here is the next installment. I'm going to be skipping through some parts of the mission but we will have the general idea. R&R please. Enjoy!
Claire smashed the front of the Mako into a rocket trooper sending it over the side of the skyway. Wrex fired the main cannon nailing an armature in the firing chamber causing a massive explosion as Garrus finished afew troopers with the machine gun.
"I can see the entry way for the ExoGeni HQ ahead. Maybe there are some survivors?" Ashley said bringing up her screen for everyone to see.
"Looks clear from here on. Let's gun it." Claire said. The Mako raced forward and into the massive ruined tower.
"Stop!" Luke shouted running a frequency scan with his omni-tool and listening through his ear piece.
"What's wrong?" Claire asked turning and looking at Luke in shock.
"There's a transmission. I'll play it back." Luke ran the frequency back and played it.
"There is a vehicle approaching, not one of the geth." A female voice spoke.
"They have a visual on us. They have to be survivors from the ExoGeni facility." Garrus said examining the channel. Luke looked over at his sister and started to move for the back door.
"Ashley, stay with Luke and scout ahead. Garrus, you're with me. Wrex, man the weapons on the Mako. If any geth try to sneak up on us, shred 'em." Wrex grinned and took his seat.
Luke's feet barely touched the ground before his weapon came out. He had a feeling creeping up his spine. The kind he got back in C-Sec when one of his targets had figured out who he was and what he was doing. There was something very wrong about this place. Not just the tower, but the whole planet.
"What is it?" Ashley asked pulling her rifle.
"What do you get when you cross an elephant and a rhino?" Luke said looking around slowly.
"What?" Ashley looked over at Luke confused. Luke looked back at her with a smirk.
"A hell-if-I-know."
"Oh geez, that is aweful. You need your own line of greeting cards." Ashley said as Luke lowered his weapon. She smiled seeing the usual joking Luke back.
"There's a ramp leading down to a lower level. If I were a survivor of a geth attack I would find some place that had only one entrance or exit. Something that I could secure easily and hide in." Luke said pointing to the opening in the floor. Ashley glanced in that direction and nodded moving forward.
As the two descended into the tunnel, they could hear arguing between a man and woman. A very heated argument. The man seemed to want to stay hidden until rescue arrived while the woman wanted to venture out to find someone.
"Nothing to hostile down here, skipper." Ashley reported. "Just some scared people."
Luke looked down at the defenses. The perimeter was manned by a small security force. A few were watching the tunnel but not very attentively while the others watched the two people argue.
"Claire, there are some nervous trigger fingers down here. I suggest a straight approach with no weapons out and announcing out presence. There is a little cover to on the left if they become hostile." Luke stated.
"Alright, on our way down. Form up on us when we pass you." Claire ordered.
Luke looked over at Ashley shrugged. Ashley smiled and shrugged back. The team reassembled and passed through the perimeter easily enough, but once inside the man in the argument panicked.
"What are you doing? Don't let anyone in here!"
"Calm down Jeong. They are obviously not geth." The woman scolded him.
"And you trust to easily Juliana." The man hissed back. The man made Luke's skin crawl, he knew the type. Egotistical, loyal to his employers, and corrupt to his very core.
"I'm just happy to see a friendly face. We've tapped here for a couple days now. We thought we were the only ones left." Juliana said offering a friendly and grateful smile to the team.
"Fai Dan and some of the colonists at Zu's Hope are still alive." Claire stated. Luke could see the fear swell in Jeong's eyes. The man was a criminal, there was no doubt in Luke's mind about it.
"You said they were dead." Juliana said looking over at Jeong.
"I said they were probably dead. Who would have thought they could stand up against the geth and live?"
"Obviously not you." Luke snapped before breaking formation and starting to look around the area. Before he was out of ear shot he heard Claire mention that she was heading for the headquarters. Luke knew Jeong would pitch a fit and demand that the geth be killed and nothing else bothered.
"Excuse me soldier, are you headed into the headquarters?" A man asked.
"Probably, that's where the geth are." Luke stated.
"I was hoping that you could do me a favor. I have some information and data on my console in my office. If you would retrieve it for me I would be grateful." The man said rubbing his fingers together.
"A bribe to retrieve what kind of data?" Luke asked crossing his arms.
"My life's work on dark energy and increasing the biotic potential in humans as a species. Please, I have been working on it for nearly ten years." Luke nodded and smiled.
"I'll see what I can do, but in the future if someone asks you for a favor on Shepard's behalf, you do it. By the way, I didn't catch your name." Luke said extending his hand.
"Dr. Gavin Hossel." The man answered.
"Luke Shepard." The man shook hands and Luke accepted an OSD with the security protocols to retrieve that data. He slipped it into a pocket on the thigh of his armor and looked back over at the group.
"Those headquarters are private property soldier. Remove the geth and nothing else." Jeong was scolding. Luke stormed over and ripped his pistol from his side jamming the barrel under the man's jaw.
"Do you realize who you are talking to? That is Commander Claire Shepard, the first human spectre and the soldier in the Alliance, and honestly the only person that is standing between you and certain death at the hands of the geth. How about you show her a little respect before I make you eat those pearly whites." Luke snapped. He immediately hurled the man to the floor and holstered his pistol.
"Sorry, about that. My brother gets a little protective. Look, we have no interest in your companies secrets. What we are going to do is get in kill or drive the geth off, restore communcication for the colony and make the colony safe once again."
"Commander, if I may, would you keep an eye out for my daughter, Lizbeth? She is still in there."
"If she's in there, we'll find her and get her back to you Juliana." Claire stated as the team started back toward the Mako. Luke glanced back at all the scared scientist as Jeong watched them go. Luke wanted to find every secret he could in those headquarters and expose the company for baring whatever corruption left Jeong so terrified of exposure. As much as he enjoyed the work with Claire and the freedom to do what needed to be done with worrying about the red tape, he missed the exhilaration that came with being a C-Sec officer and making a big bust. The a similar feeling was achieved when Claire and the rest of the crew had a debrief of the mission or he read some of the mission reports that were filed after a successful mission, but it was not the same as watching a target that he had been hunting and building a case against get led away in handcuffs wondering just how a human had fooled him into making the mistake that sent him to prison.
"Luke, you coming?" Ashley asked.
"Yeah, let's go kill these blinky bastards." Luke responded. Ashley laughed and jogged to catch up with to Claire and Garrus with Luke on her heels.
A shot ran out that ricocheted off the wall behind them. The team ripped their weapons from the belts and backs aiming them in the direction of the shot. A scared woman stepped out of the shadows with a pistol in hand. Her uniform was tattered and dirty and she looked like she had not slept for days.
"I'm sorry. I thought you were a geth or one of those varen." She apologized pointing a dead creature in front of them.
"Who are you?" Luke asked keeping his weapon on the woman.
"My name is Lizbeth Bayham. I'm a researcher here with ExoGeni." The woman said.
"Do you have any idea why the geth are here? Or what Saren might want here?" Claire asked.
"It might be the Thorian. It's a indigenous life form. It has some unique mind control capabilities that ExoGeni was researching." She paused. "I don't know much about it though."
"What about the forcefield the geth have put up? Do you know where it is coming from?" Ashley asked.
"I've seen some wires around. I'm sure that if you follow them they will lead to whatever is keeping that field up."
"Alright, get somewhere safe and hide. When the field comes down, there is a tank outside that door over there. Get to it and wait for us." Claire said placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Here, take my pass and id card. It should get you through the security for the facility." Lizbeth said handing the cards over. Claire accepted them and slipped them into her pocket. She them waved for everyone to move, but caught Luke by the arm as the others got out of earshot.
"I've got a bad feeling about this." Claire said.
"Way to sound all doom and gloom there Obi won." Luke sighed as Claire scoffed at his joke. "Claire, I get it. I've got the feeling to. There is something major that we are missing. Maybe it has to do with that thorian thing, but whatever it is, all we have to do is grab hold kick its ass and keep moving, right?"
Claire nodded with a smile. "Thanks. You may be an annoying brat sometimes, but you always make me feel a bit better." Luke patted his sister on the shoulder and followed the rest of the squad.
As Claire watched him go, she sighed. There was a difference in her brother. He had an air of peace about him, but she knew that under that guise there was a tempest of anger and wrath chomping at the bit to get out. She knew that simply because he was her brother and even though they had been apart for nearly thirteen years, they still had a way of knowing each other's thoughts and feelings, even when they did not want them to.