Author's Note: Alright, so a very unproductive, writing wise, wee has lead me to get you guys nearly caught up to where I'm writing. So, sad to say, no twofer TGIF this week.
Enjoy!
Chapter twenty six
"Heave ho, and down you go!" Deunan crows as she swings a dead Geth drone around by its ankles. She lets loose and it crashes into the chest of the last krogan as he comes barreling down on Liara who is on the ground, clutching her bleeding leg. The drone knocks the krogan off balance and he tumbles backwards, getting entangled in the wires and tubes of the drone.
Ashley doesn't waste any time in getting close and emptying a full round of AR ammo into his head.
Shepard rushes to Liara's side, shaking her head at Deunan's audacity. "Liara. Are you alright?"
The asari sits up straighter, removing her hand from the injury. "It is just a graze. I'll be alright."
Shepard applies some medigel and wraps a bandage tight around the wound and her leg. "That should hold it fine. C'mon. Up you go." She grips Liara's forearm as Liara grips her. She tugs her to her feet. "Put some weight on it. See how it feels."
Liara gingerly takes a step. Her right leg shakes a little, some pain radiating from the wound. but it holds her weight just fine. "I'm good. It'll be alright."
"Hey, Commander." Ashley calls out, she is on the gangways above them. "I think I found the way to the rest of the facility. I've got a door here in need of your attention though."
"Alright, we'll be right up." Shepard whistles at Deunan, she had been kneeling over the krogan, looking for anything of use. "C'mon. Ashley's found a way out. Loot bodies another time."
Deunan stands up dusting off, "Righto ma'am." She says with mock seriousness.
The door out of the garage provided little resistance to them. As they step into the hall beyond, running lights on the deck come on, and directional signs light up. Shepard glances up at them. Everything is beaten, scared, scorched, or caked with blood. Some the red of humans, some the blue of turians and asari. More prevalent than any is a black and green slime that scorches the walls, and smells strongly of sulfur and brimstone. Around these smears and piles are large insect types of creatures. Six legs, hard scaly bodies of a sickly green color, and wide mouths with rows of sharp teeth and pincers.
"That is one ugly bug." Deunan complains, holding a hand over her face, "What a stench."
Shepard pokes at one of the creatures with the tip of her boot. It makes a rustle sound, then seems to collapse on itself. Dissolving into more of the black and green sludge. "What ever it is. Let's hope there aren't anymore of them." She sets off down the hall.
Liara lingers behind a moment to collect a sample from one of them and take a quick scan with her omni tool. She then rushes to catch back up with the other women.
The rest of the trip through the station was uneventful. Save for feeling like they were walking through a ghost town. The litter of bodies, the deserted halls, and the lack of life gave the entire station an eerie presence. It was a relief to get aboard the tram that lead to the labs where it seemed all the trouble had begun.
"You're neither Geth nor bugs, so you're clean in my book." The guard captain that greeted them at the top of the elevators from the tram station lowers his gun. His body speaking volumes of his exhaustion.
Shepard signals her squad to lower their weapons as she does hers. "Well, now that we are done exchanging pleasantries. I'm looking for Matriarch Benezia. You seen her?"
"The asari?" The captain blinks at her. "Yeah, she went down to the hot labs hours ago. Hasn't been back since. That place is crawling with those bugs. I say good riddance to her."
Liara's face flushes with barely suppressed fury. "How dare you say that about an Asari Matriarch." She growls at the captain.
He holds his hands up, "Look, I haven't got any problem with you. But all our problems showed up after she arrived with those packages."
"How do we get to the hot labs?" Shepard puts a hand on Liara's shoulder to calm her.
"Down that elevator. It'll take you to bug central. The secure facilities are down there as well. You may find her there, if she's still alive."
Shepard turns away with a grunt of thanks, steering Liara into the lift. Ashley and Deunan follow. Deunan giving the captain the evil eye. "What's the matter with you?"
"He gives me the willies. Something is off about this, and he knows what it is." Deunan shrugs her shoulders, resetting her pack. "What's the plan?"
"If this is bug central as he called it." Ashley muses, "We're going to have to be ready for anything. We have no idea how these things fight or their weakness."
"They are organics, so I might be able to provide some assistance in slowing or killing them with my biotics." Liara's voice is distant, distracted.
Shepard turns to face her. "Are you gonna be alright? Are you with me?"
Liara shakes her head to clear it. "Yes Shepard. I'm with you. It's just that, she's here. We are getting close. I do not know what I could possibly say to her."
"We'll figure it out. First we've got some bug asses to kick."
The elevator doors open, all four of them fall out and take up defensive positions, expecting an onslaught. There's nothing here. The long wide room is completely empty save a man sitting on a stool propped against one of the thick glass walls. Shepard stands up, and cautiously walks over to him. Her eyes on a constant swivel. Deunan and Ashley stay to guard the elevator and Liara follows her up to the man.
His hand is pressed over his right side, black blood dripping between his fingers. His color is pale, breathing shallow. "Oh, help. You're here to help." His voice is weak and ragged.
Shepard can tell this man is going to die very soon, and she needs information. "Who are you? Why are you down here, what happened?"
"It doesn't matter. The rachni, they escaped our control. They became ravenous, mindless animals. We," he stops as coughs interrupt him, "We tried, to destroy them. but too many had gotten away, too many of us dead."
"The rachni?" Shepard hisses, Liara gasps her surprise too. "The rachni have been dead for thousands of years."
"Not all. One ship, a queen survived. drifting in cryo on the fringes of the terminus. We recovered her. brought her here to breed. We failed. the drones couldn't be controlled." A loud clang and a shudder of the glass behind him cause him to pause. Panic weary on his face. "You must hurry. There is no time. The next room, there is a neutron purge that will destroy the nests and the remaining drones. I am dead already. Take this." He fumbles in his pocket with his left hand, holding out an OSD, Shepard takes it from him. "It's got the code, insert it into the-" His words choke off with a gurgle of blood as something slices through his stomach from behind. One of the bugs, the drones, flings him off of its pincer like a piece of trash then charges out of the vent it was in and straight at Shepard. She unloads on him. Her pistol glowing red hot with the speed of her shots. Green black sludge pours from the wounds, missing as it hits the deck burning there. Two more shots and it's down. Its face imploded from her shots. She barely has time to reload and reorient herself when more drones come out of the vent.
"Liara, Deunan, Ash! Hold that vent!" She bolts for the other room off this one. Seeing a console in the middle of the room she skids to a stop. jamming the OSD into the slot.
"Hello." A pleasant VI voice inters. "Thank you for activating my systems. I read that the Neutron Purge has been authorized. Would you care to activate it?"
"Yes!" Shepard barks, impatient with cheery VIs. "Just activate it!"
"Of course. Neutron purge activated. Minimum safe distance is fifty yards. Please evacuate the area, the purge will detonate in, one hundred and twenty, seconds. Thank you, and goodbye." The console goes dark.
"Oh shit." Shepard swears, turning back to the firefight in the anteroom. It is crawling with rachni. Her squad pinned against the door beside the elevator. "Oh shit, oh shit."
Liara looks up past three rachni she's caught in a singularity, seeing Shepard on the far side of the room. She is trying to yell something to them, but over the gunfire from Deunan and Ashley, she can't hear what it is. She turns just slightly and nudges Ashley's elbow with her own. She points out Shepard to Ashley. She nods, then crouches down, shipping her assault rifle then pulls out her sniper. Three shots clear out a line of rachni straight to where Shepard is standing.
Crouching low Shepard rushes down the narrow path before the masses of rachni close in again. As it is, the last ten feet she can feel Ashley's sniper rounds whiz over her shoulders, past her ears, to collide with the rachni closing in. She slides to a stop fetching up against the door. "We've got about forty seconds before that purge goes off. You guys have got to hold them back."
"What are you gonna do?" Deunan growls, "Sit on your pretty little ass all winded?"
Shepard glares at her fiercely. "No, I'm gonna get this door open. With any luck, it'll have blast shielding on it, or there'll be shielded room just outside." Not waiting for an answer she turns back to the door. Bringing herself up to a crouch looking at the holo interface of the lock. She sets to work on it, teeth gritted, and brings her left arm and omni tool up to level with the interface. She begins shifting the various 'pins' and circuits of the lock back and forth, pulling some out, shifting others around.
"Come on Kelly!" Deunan yells, "You're VI buddy is saying twenty seconds."
"I'm working, I'm working!"
"Work faster!"
Suddenly Shepard hears Ashley cry out, red blood sprays across the floor and her left leg, then she is blasted by black sludge tinged green. The indicator for her shields flares bright, then gives a warning beep as they begin to deplete. "Just great." She mutters, not daring to look to see how bad Ashley is hurt. "Acidic blood. because, of course, normal blood would be too simple."
"Shepard!" Liara squeaks, fear in her voice. Shepard can vaguely hear the VI announce ten seconds left.
"C'mon, c'mon." Ashley growls.
"Shepard! Shepard, Shepard." Liara pleads.
"Ha!" Shepard crows triumphantly as the doors swish open. Reaching back she grabs Liara, who is closest, by the waist and dives into the hall beyond. They both crash to the crowd, followed by Ashley and Deunan. She sees Deunan kick the door panel and the doors snap shut just as the VI announces three seconds left. The ground shudders, the door creaks and barely bows with the force of the blast. Shepard twist over, shielding Liara instinctively.
When the ground stops quivering she glances at her HUD, no radiation warnings. She rolls off Liara onto her back, and collapses relieved.
"That was entirely too close." Ashley gasps. "Fuck Shepard, what the hell? Going for dramatics back there?"
Shepard pushes herself to a knee. "Gotta get those style points." She then looks over at Ashley. She has a wide, deep slash across her left side, "What the hell Chief?" she growls, quickly jumping up to her side, pulling out her medkit. "How bad?"
Ashley turns her side towards Shepard, "Not too bad, grazed mostly." Shepard lathers Omni gel over it. The bleeding stops and Ashley's color improves.
"Alright Deunan." Ashley turns to the shorter woman standing by the door, "Your turn. You're the only one of us not injured."
Deunan chuckles and boosts Ashley to her feet, "Probly cause I'm the only one who knows how to duck." She slaps Ashley on the shoulder and watches Shepard turn to help Liara up. The asari stumbles and then tumbles into Shepard's arms. Deunan smiles at the awkward blush that mantles Liara's cheeks and the nervous smile Shepard gives her, helping to steady her. They remain this way for a moment. Shepard's hands holding Liara by the waist, Liara's on Shepard's shoulders and upper arms.
Shepard swallows a nervous lump in her throat as she looks into Liara's wide sapphire eyes. Her stomach does fluttering flip flops. She smiles slightly when Liara continues to hold onto her shoulders. Unaware that Liara is feeling much the same emotions. She hastily steps back out of the hold.
"Well, um. Well then." Shepard awkwardly dusts her gloves off on her thighs. She looks down the hall they are staying in. It leads back in the direction of the research labs upstairs. "Let's head back this way. See if there's a way back up again." She sets off down the hallway. Ashley quickly follows Shepard, casting a dark look back at Liara, having seen the awkward exchange between the two.
Liara remains standing a moment in the hall. Deunan starts to follow, then turns back to the motionless asari "Hey." She touches Liara's arm, "You ok?"
Liara blinks, startled, "Hmm? Oh yes. Yes, I'm fine."
"You look like a girl hit by cupid's arrow."
"Cupid?" Liara is confused, "Arrow?"
"Never mind." Deunan tugs her elbow. "C'mon. I'll explain later. Judging by the stars in your eyes, it isn't hard to guess why."
Liara just shrugs her shoulders and trots to catch up to the Commander and Ashley. Deunan smiles grimly as she follows behind. If Liara is falling for the Commander, she hope that she doesn't hurt herself in the process.
"I'm doomed for no plan to go smoothly." Shepard complains, a growl deep in her throat. She turns and surveys the bodies of both civilians and merc guards. They had found a back door passageway into the research labs above. Only, once they got there, the captain who was so willing to help before had turned on them. Claiming orders from Benezia to kill them. Unfortunately her orders also applied to the civilians as well. It disgusts her to see helpless people slaughtered.
She is looking down at the blankly staring eyes of a young human girl, she couldn't have been more than nineteen, when Liara gently touches her shoulder. "Shepard?"
She looks up into Liara's concerned gaze. "You never get used to dead civilians." She says simply before stepping past them and up to the secured and locked door at the opposite end of the room. Opening the door she steps past into a short hall, her squad behind her.
Stopping at the door, she turns and looks to her squad. The pit of her stomach is in a tight knot. She knows this is the last stop. Benezia is through that door. "Liara, are you alright? Will you be ok in there?"
"I, I can do it." Her voice is very soft. She clears her throat and says, louder, "Yes, I'm here, I can do this. I have to."
Shepard nods satisfactory, then looks to Deunan and Ashley. Both have determined sets to their gaze and eyes. She lets out a deep sigh. "Here we go then." She palms the lock on the door and they step in as the doors swish shut behind them. She's not really surprised when the lock seals shut. Sparks igniting between the seam. No escape.