Chapter 28
Lorius lines his sight up from their position to the target. He cannot get a fix on the ex-officer, but he can see Harkin within view every few seconds, but only for the briefest of seconds. This does not seem too strange to him, but the lack of cover between their current position and the target does bother him.
"It looks like an ambush," he reports as he climbs down from the perch. "I only see a small handful of targets and I can't figure out what Harkin is doing but he does not seem concerned."
"Not much cover either." T'Gegos adds. "I think Specialist Anoin can set up his sentry turret here and cover just about all possible targets."
"I agree." At their approval, Anoin hangs back and builds a turret, happy to be out of the line of fire.
Lorius and T'Gegos move forward, sticking to the little cover on the near side of the warehouse. They find only a small handful of FENRIS patrolling the stacks. They have a decent line of sight to Harkin's bunker, but not clear enough of a view to get a shot lined up. They get to the clearing just before the bunker and they still have only had to take down six FENRIS.
"Anoin, what is going on?" T'Gegos goes into the com-link. "There should be more than this."
"Heat sensors show three bodies. Two human, one unconscious, and the third is some sort of robot." Anoin explains. "Robot is heavily armed. Possibly similar to a Geth trooper but smaller."
"Shall I lure him out or will you take the honors?" Lorius asks T'Gegos.
"You should at least try." The Asari says after an eyeroll.
The Turian smirks and shoots the window. Harkin comes completely in view for just a moment before ducking back. Seconds later a robot shaped like a human, with half torn off synthetic face, steps out into the open. He immediately starts shooting an overpowered shotgun.
"Anoin, watch the side window. Harkin is going to make a run for it." Lorius orders as he switches to an assault rifle.
"Roger. Sending combat drone for support."
"You're the best Specialist." T'Gegos inputs as she sends a singularity orb towards the android. The android is not lifted off the ground by the attack, despite its usual effectivity. "Shit."
The android then warps towards T'Gegos, arriving inches away from her face, using the extra force to push her back into the wall. She falls to the ground and immediately takes a Medi-gel to get back into the battle.
"You good?" Lorius asks as he empties clip after clip on the one target whose shields are still up.
"Ten seconds."
"You have five." He says.
"Anoin overload the hell out of his shields." T'Gegos orders after giving Lorius an eyeroll.
"Whatever you need." The Salarian says from his safe distance away.
The android warps again, this time towards Lorius. Lorius manages to escape the brunt of the blow but is still knocked off balance by the shockwave. He shoots almost blindly but manages to lodge a few rounds in the android. Lyzia tries a focused force pull, but it barely does any damage due to his size. The only thing in their favor is the shield damage that Anoin is activating from nearly the opposite side of the room.
Lorius switches to his small stash of disruptor ammo. T'Gegos stands behind him as he empties the clip to prep her handgun; she may be rusty with it, but her biotics are useless against the android. As soon as she runs out of cover, Lorius throws a grenade to the position that he assumes that he is warping to next. It explodes and does enough damage to take out his shields.
Anoin switches to sending forward a sentry drone to simply predict where the android will warp to next. T'Gegos sends a shockwave his way; with the shields down the force fields may be able to do some damage. Slowly but surely, they register his attacks getting more desperate. The turret deactivates partially through.
The sentry drone darts to its next position, this time next to Anoin. As soon as Lorius notices, he sprints over to his position from his position twenty feet away. He doubts that he can there in time, but he does. He gets to Anoin's position just in time to push him out of the way and take the brunt of the force himself.
Lorius is pushed into the nearest crate with enough force to knock the wind out of him, but he still manages to empty his clip from his assault rifle and makes the android self-destruct. He takes the brunt of that too. Immediately after, he uses the Medi-Gel to get back onto his feet.
He exhales once and turns towards Anoin; "Are you okay Specialist?"
"Fine. Thank you." The Salarian says as he tosses a loose rag towards him. He takes it to wipe the debris off his face.
"It's what we do." He tries to grab another clip, but finds he has none left. "We're going to go make the arrest. Do you have any rounds?"
"Here." Anoin activates his heat sensor to check the bunker. "Harkin is in there with another human, but whoever it is they aren't moving. Not dead, but high fever and not moving despite all the noise."
"Okay." He waves T'Gegos over.
She comes over and he now speaks as quietly as he can. "He has a hostage. Anoin thinks whoever it is injured."
"Incapacitated. No sign of open wound. Minimal blood loss."
"Sorry. T'Gegos, how do you want to do the arrest?"
She looks over. Harkin has a gun, but despite his clear line of sight is not shooting. "I'll take the door. You take the window. If he tries to hurt the hostage, shoot him. I don't think he will fight much though—it seems like he wants to get caught."
"Okay. Anoin, can you get all you can on that thing?" He gestures at the remains of the android.
"You didn't even have to ask. But you should know that there are increased patrols in the area and someone is heading here—it seems like they are sprinting over." Anoin reveals.
"Then we have to get moving."
Lorius and T'Gegos take position. T'Gegos opens the door as soon as she is sure that Lorius is in position. "Freeze—put your hands on your head!" She orders Harkin.
He obeys with a smirk, even going down to his knees. T'Gegos approaches with her weapon still drawn and lists off his rights as she locks down the cuffs. She then looks around for the hostage to find a red head with blue paint tossed onto a heap against the back wall.
She scans the hostage and almost immediately recognizes it as Commander Shepard-Vakarian. She then notices blood high on her thighs. The commander is still conscious, but only stares at the Asari, unable to react. She just stares with a desperate, pleading look in her eyes.
"Ephentos…." T'Gegos slips out.
The Turian stares in confusion at the use of his first name at work. "What is it Lyzia?"
"The hostage is Commander Shepard-Vakarian."
His eyes widen. Harkin starts laughing, but still does not fight the arrest.
"The Colonel is our incoming. He will be in sight in less than thirty seconds." Anoin alert them through the coms.
Lorius jumps in through the window, kneeling down beside the commander. She does not move, but he swears he can hear a sob choking up from her. He does not see a single injury, but her clothes are disheveled. "It'll be okay—I'm just going to fix your skirt." She does not respond, but he moves so that he can get her more covered up without actually touching her.
"Knock him out." Lorius orders. T'Gegos hits him in the head with the butt of her weapon while Lorius discreetly shoots the overhead sprinkler head, forcing water to flood into the small bunker. "Weapons away."
Almost immediately after their weapons are holstered, the Colonel rushes in completely flustered. His paint gets smeared in the heavy flow of water. Hers is already completely gone, only remaining as puddle of blue around her.
"Is she alright?" Garrus asks with a shake to his voice.
"No apparent injuries. She appears to be paralyzed—I don't see any spinal injury though."
Garrus pauses enough to collect himself. "She was poisoned with a new neurotoxin known as PDAT. Lieutenant T'Gegos and Lieutenant Lorius—you take Harkin. Have Anoin call the Normandy to get Doctor Chakwas and you three all go back go headquarters for complete debriefing."
T'Gegos tries to update him on her additional trauma, but instead Lorius nudges her and speaks; "yes sir, just worry about her."
