Shepard stared at the door to the mines. Obviously due to the lack of a green symbol, the damn thing was locked. She glanced at Aria, who just stared at her expectantly.

"Don't ever body move at once," Lauren muttered.

Shepard looked at the door again, noticing that Lauren was wedging her hand in the gap between the two parts of the door. Shepard stuck her hand in the upper part of the door and pulled, opening her side a few inches.

"Access to the mines should be on the far side." Aria said as she watched them.

"And the reactor is beyond that?" Nyreen asked.

Lauren did the same and they managed to open the door far enough for someone to squeeze in. Aria went first, followed by Nyreen and then Shepard. Lauren managed to wedge herself through and let the door slam shut behind them.

"According to the schematics. I ran Omega, I never worked the mines myself-"

Nyreen interrupted the asari before she could finish. "No, you had indentured servants for that."

"Nyreen," Lauren glared at the turian. "The miners signed legal contracts."

Shepard noticed the hostility in Lauren's voice. Obviously, this turian was more of an annoyance than a help to her.

"Why is she even here?" Lauren looked at Aria. "She's just going to get herself killed."

The human stalked past Nyreen and towards a dead body on the floor.

"Someone's been here." Shepard said as she walked over. There was dried blood all over the floor.

"Spirits..." Nyreen sounded faint.

"Relax," Aria leaned down next to the bodies. "They're all Cerberus."

"They've been ripped to shreds." Shepard looked at their torn armor, which was crusted with blood.

"I don't like this." Nyreen said quietly.

Lauren snorted and walked down the catwalk, pulling out her pistol. "The reactor is this way. We're looking for a control console."

The group followed her and down into a large room. Lauren walked off and left the trio standing in the middle, who were mostly inspecting the serious amount of damage to the room.

"Half these control panels are completely damaged." There was a loud thump as the power in the room came back on.

Aria could finally see the amount of damage a lot clearer. "When this is over there's going to be a lot of repairs to make." She commented glumly.

"I hope you'll focus on the civilian areas first." Nyreen commented.

"You are relentless." Aria looked somewhat annoyed to Shepard.

"That's one thing we have in common."

Lauren's head snapped up from the control console, alarming Shepard with the sudden movement. "Hey Nyreen - why don't you actually do something useful and check the damn doors?"

That's when the window exploded next to Aria.

"SPIRITS-"

Shepard watched in horror as a large creature landed on the floor and let out a shriek from hell. It held up an arm, which Shepard noticed was basically a cannon.

"FUCK - ADJUTANT!" Lauren pulled up her pistol and lit up with biotic energy. "KILL IT."

Both Shepard and Aria pulled out their guns and fired.

"Wake up, Nyreen!" Aria shouted at the turian.

Nyreen shook her head and pulled up her own gun, ducking out of the way of the Adjutants fire.

"What the fuck is that?" Shepard shouted.

"Adjutant!" Aria responded curtly as she dropped into cover across the room from Shepard.

Lauren threw a singularity at the adjutants feet. "Aim for the head and watch out for it's melee attacks!"

"Got it!" Shepard pulled up her gun and fired.

The Adjutant didn't even have a chance against four opponents, but it still went down fighting. When it's body hit the floor, Lauren was the first one to advance on it, firing six shots into the head to ensure it was dead. She'd fought them before and knew that they could get back up if you didn't make sure they were dead.

"That was easy." Shepard commented.

"Usually it's not," Aria replied. "You have to be careful when they're in packs - that's how they get you."

"Those corpses had severed necks." Lauren pointed out. "More than likely the Cerberus forces that retreated from here severed them to make sure they wouldn't turn into more."

"They infect people?" Shepard's stomach churned.

"Yeah. Corpses and living victims they chomp on." Lauren replied quietly. "Come on - we should get to the reactor."

Been ill and working. I will have another chapter up tonight or early tomorrow morning. -I