Nekros felt a sudden rush of heat under his helmet, which disappeared as abruptly as it had come. His ears rang with Shema's scream. He lumbered to her side, his own heart beating from surprise.
"Shema, you alright?"
Shema shook her head, trying to shake off the panic. She said something, but it was buried under the howling wind. He turned off the outer noise using his helmet, then asked again.
"I'm alright. I think. Just surprised." Shema replied.
"Sorry! I should have told you." Davies spoke through the radio. "This place is filled with hydrogen. Any contact with oxygen will set it on fire. But it's only temporary and your shields should protect you, so please don't scream into the radio."
Liam jumped down from the ship, his armour clamping onto the ground with a heavy metallic clang (Nekros couldn't hear it, but it was real enough to imagine). Nekros got up to follow, but felt Shema's hand on his arm, tugging him back. He turned towards her.
"You know this is a very bad time to be in panic."
Shema just nodded, her eyes wide with fear. After a brief pause, she pulled herself together and stood up. Nekros helped her jump off, both of them staggering briefly from the relentless wind.
"Hurry." Liam said, already many metres ahead of them. The visibility was poor due to thick grey fog, and Nekros could only see a partial outline of an exoskeleton. A shadow of a building loomed behind Liam, and Nekros guessed that the entrance was close by. He looked back across his shoulder to watch Davies pull out of the foggy landing pad.
"We only have to move a little, Shema."
Shema nodded, taking the opportunity to hold his arm firmly. They walked timidly forward, armour ploughing slowly through the air. The shadow loomed closer; a large doorway was just visible.
"Shema! I come here."
Nekros hated Liam's indifference towards Shema's fear. She was trying so hard to overcome her phobia, yet Liam acted as if he didn't realise it. It was also possible that he couldn't understand Shema's terror.
"Yes… sir."
Shema let go of his arm, then walked forward faster. Nekros followed closely behind, squinting to see through the fog. The shadow of the building now filled his view with Liam standing right next to a door panel.
"Door's dead. Can you fix it?"
Shema audibly took a deep breath to calm herself. Moving quickly, she professionally checked the various parts of the door, reading this, poking that.
"Yes. It's just out of power. I can fix it."
With great difficulty and caution, Shema pulled out her secondary suit battery from her exoskeleton. She activated her omni-tool, but it came up with shards of broken energy. She tried several times, but it still didn't form properly. She thought for a moment before creating a ball of biotic barrier around her hand. The omni-tool formed perfectly within, and she got to work. Few tense minutes passed as Shema worked to power up the door, her exoskeleton moving actively as she pushed it to its flexibility limits. Nekros smiled, realising that Shema had completely forgotten about the wind.
Finally, a red light appeared above the door. With a push of a button, Shema opened it. They were greeted by a yet another burst of flame.
"Nice work." Nekros praised as they stepped into the airlock. Shema nodded, her tense body relaxing as the heavy door dragged shut. Nekros turned on the external sound again, listening to the sigh of the air as it was extracted from the airlock.
"The battery I've wired should power all the doors on the station for some time. But it won't last long…"
The sigh was replaced by a hiss as the airlock filled with breathable air. Nekros turned off the oxygen tank and removed his helmet. He found it difficult to breathe without his helmet on; the air was too 'heavy' to be natural.
"Keep the helmet on. We don't know what's happened here, or what will happen." Liam ordered. Nekros didn't quite understand the omniscient comment, but he was planning to use his helmet anyway.
The light above the inner door turned blue, indicating the equal pressure. He reached for the 'open' button, but Liam held out his hand to block him.
"Somebody's behind the door. Draw weapons."
They all drew out their pistols, raising it at human head height. Nekros reached for the 'open' button again.
…
He heard a beep.
He stirred, then lifted his head. Dizziness overwhelmed him, so he lowered his head back onto his chest. He had to save energy… survive till rescue came. He could not afford to succumb to hallucinations. He felt cold. So cold… he wasn't sure if he could survive much longer.
They had ran out of food – there really was none to begin with. They were cold. Too cold. Timidly checking their failing oxygen levels… He laughed, only on the inside, at how they fell so low… how they fell so low… From a proud research station to a sudden, cold tomb.
It too three days to figure out a way to send a message. He had never known how much power the radios needed to punch through the atmosphere. Losing the omni-tools, missing their familiar warm glow… coldness gripped him deeper.
He heard another beep. Clearly this time. It came from the door.
His heart skipped a beat, coldness oozing out of his core. His head jerked up, jarring his senses. He stood up, undaunted by the weakness of his limbs, his blanket falling from his shoulders. This was no hallucination. He glanced up at the door light, which was on.
"Everyone! The rescue's here!" He croaked.
A heavy grind of metal and an echo of waking people. He saw three large shapes reveal themselves, figures barely humanoid. They all held a gun, but he saw the Alliance logo on them.
"Drop guards! Civilians." the one clad in black armour shouted.
He felt the tension drain out of him, and he felt light. They were saved!
He collapsed forward into the smallest figure's arms.
…
The scene was appalling. In the wing of the bomb facility, nine scientists had been trapped for five days without food, surviving on minimal water and oxygen. One of them suffered from a broken bone, and another from a concussion and a cut. Heating was also gone, but the temperatures had stayed thankfully above the freezing point. With all instruments stripped for resources, cupboards emptied and MediGel used up, they had been on the verge of death. Scared, starved, dehydrated and oxygen-deprived, the soldiers had come not a moment too soon.
The armoured trio (Jackson insisted that they keep their armour and exoskeletons on) immediately got to work, treating the dying scientists and fixing up the key systems of the base. They did not ask questions until everyone had at least a cup of water and a mouthful of high-protein bars (neither Shema nor Nekros were able to help when it came to food, so they offered their oxygen supplies and water bottles to the humans). Jackson, who decided to put his shadow to sleep, interrogated the scientists in the nicest way possible.
Firstly, what happened? The scientist who had fallen into Shema's arms answered:
"I…We… They… attacked us. Just pushed us here… Douglas and Terrence tried to fight, but… they were hurt. Cut the power and took all of our supplies. Locked us out… Left us here to die!"
Who's they?
"The other scientists. My scientists… Fifty of them… if they're all alive. They're… in the main section of the base."
Why?
The scientist replied with a blank, scared expression.
Shema intervened at this point, asking if there was any way of restoring full power to the base. Using all of their batteries, she had managed to get the heating and life-support powered up, but it would require a lot more to send a message to the Horizon.
One of the youngest scientists got up, telling the trio to follow him.
…
The young human introduced himself as Oscar (the past five days had thinned him terribly, but the eagerness of a teenager was still there) and explained in detail exactly what happened to their base. For the past couple of weeks, some scientists had started to behave irregularly, not doing their work properly yet inquiring about other systems of the base. Their lead scientist, Doctor Kiripitge (who happened to be the one who fainted in front of them), had refused them of the information and security access, angering the scientists. Oscar had been acutely aware that something wasn't quite right, but he had not known how wrong everything was turning out. He only found out when he found himself on the lobby floor after being mugged in the hallway.
The weirdly-behaving scientists had mutinied, shoving everyone who wasn't part of them into the left wing of the base (the base was shaped like a giant dumbbell, divided as "left" and "ring" wing. The left wing held the administration and communications rooms while the right wing held the research and living quarters). The other scientists had also disabled the generators from the outside. Without proper safety equipment, the scientists trapped in the small administration wing couldn't repair them safely.
They had survived creatively, reusing water and breaking down carbon dioxide with complex chemistry. One of the scientists rigged up their omni-tools together to generate electricity; and they voted to send an emergency message using that. They had ran out of thing to try after a few days... One by one, they sat down waiting for rescue or death.
"But then you guys came, praise Lord. I think everyone's alive, too."
Oscar stopped dead in his tracks, suddenly realising that he was in a high-security laboratory.
"I… am… really not in the position to demand anything, but…. Who are you? How did you find out about us?"
"We're from Admiral Han." Jackson answered.
An expression of understanding flashed across Oscar's face. It was soon replaced by a gleeful smile.
"Ooh goody. I knew the Admiral was worried about us."
They reached a room at the end of a corridor. With two security cameras and a large red sign plastered across the metal, it was pretty clear that it was an important off-the-limits room. Oscar walked up and let a machine scan his eye. The blast door separated slowly, revealing a darkly-lit monitor-filled room.
"Alrighty – we're here. This is the main control room of the Left Wing. One of you can oversee the repairs from here, giving all the security access necessary. I'll help with that… though we'll need more power first. Reactor one is at the end of the passage there… Generator one is down two more levels."
…
Nekros hunched over the blurry image, his eyes following Shema's precarious passage to Generator 1. Liam hung back near the airlock, giving her moral support and prepping various pieces of equipment that Shema may or may not use.
Reactor 1, located two levels beneath the landing pad where they came from, was repaired easily, giving them enough power to activate the security systems and the high-power station shields (they decided this was the top priority since they knew that a plasma storm was hitting them soon). Nekros had rerouted those new shields to create a protected walkway to Generator 1, which was a turbine positioned at the bottom of the facility. Its blades were spinning wildly, but no electricity was coming out of it – Shema was trying to see if there was anything wrong with the wires.
Suddenly, Liam shouted through the radio: "Shema! Get back here! Storm's coming!"
Nekros immediately gave a sideways glance at the radar, surprised at Liam's sudden claim. Nothing showed up on the radar yet.
Nekros tried to inform him of the truth; "Liam. There's nothi-"
"There is! Reroute the shields to protect the facility! Shema, return here now!" Liam barked.
Nekros saw Shema pause for a moment, then turn back towards the airlock. Although she was trying her best, she had come too far out, and the armour's slow movement hampered her further. Nekros wasn't exactly sure what was happening.
"Oskar, check the weather on the long-range radar."
The boy nodded, contemplating the machines and the monitors.
"Nekros, reroute!" Liam shouted at him. Nekros was too bewildered to do anything.
"Jesus Christ! There's a freak offshoot approaching us! Fast! Thirty seconds left!" Oskar almost squealed in terror, rather fitting his youthful complexion.
Nekros nodded and brought up the rerouting program. His armoured hand moved fast across the screen, then suddenly stilled.
If I reroute now, Shema will die.
"Reroute! That is an order!" Liam shouted again.
Nekros remembered Shema's unique air of semi-seriousness. He remembered her helpfulness in every possible situation. He remembered her composed determination in battle. He remembered the time when he saved her life, and she immediately returned the favour. He remembered her companionship… He remembered too much about the female Quarian… about his friend.
No. There has to be another way.
"Lieutenant Aigus!"
Nekros realised too late that there was no other way. He felt a jarring sense of shock as the air around him faded to black.