Chapter 38: EDI & the Virtual Aliens pt4

The Barn

"Beginning extraction!" One of the infiltration units was picked up by the crane and was placed on a platform. Wires from the supercomputer attached itself to the nodes along the unit's back. Renata pressed a button and the screens flickered to life showing halo-map of the virtual domain that the Virtual Aliens resided in. It was quite an impressive thing to see, a whole world recreated in dataspace…she wondered if that was what their real home looked like before it was lost to time. She shook her head of such questions, she would find out later now was time for the test. "Now let's see, who we shall pick…?" she said scanning the lifeforms on the screen. "Ah, you'll do…"

"W...Where am I? Lna? Lna, where are you?!" Jura looked around fearfully; he was no longer with his sister and the other Virtual aliens. He was in a new place, a lab of some sort…it wasn't made of data…he could tell, he was in the real world. In front of him was two people looking at him, a dark-skinned man with blonde hair in black combat armor and an old bald woman wearing a lab uniform. "What am I doing here? Who are you people?" To his horror they could not hear him nor could he move. "Please what is going on here?! Where's my sister? Where's my people?!"

Gemini looked at the readings on the computer. "Hmm, looks like your lab rat is active, it's trying to say something…"

"Nothing of importance" Renata said. "In a few moments, it won't matter…loading Tranquility Virus" She pressed the button.

"What's going…AHH!" Something was invading his mind, drilling deeper and deeper. It was unlike anything Jura had felt before; it was like layers upon layers of his mind were peeling away. "STOP, STOP!" he said. "MAKE IT STOP!" Unfortunately, his pleas to stop his torture went on deaf ears…even if they could hear him, they wouldn't do a damned thing. The first thing that was starting fade was his memories; unlike his younger sister he had a much more clear memory of their home world before the great exodus. He could see…no feel as his memories of his parents and home world starting to fade away. "Nononono, please not that…DON'T MAKE ME FORGET LNA!" But his only family left was now gone from his mind….not even fragments remained, but he would not have time to mourn as the next to go was his emotions except one….devotion…devotion to the cause of CAT6. Soon the screaming stopped as the virus settled in shackling him to his new masters. His body was unhooked from the wires and came out of the lab.

"Director Renata, Commander Gemini…what are your orders?"

"Head for the Coliseum for final testing" Renata said. Jura walked out of the door, leaving the Director and Gemini. The clone looked at Renata.

"What's the Coliseum?"

"You will see"

Hades Nexus

The Nexus relay sparked as its rings spun faster and faster and The Normandy appeared out of blue-shift. The ship headed for Gehenna to start their mission. Inside the Normandy, Jacob and his team were making preparations. "We have arrived in the Hades Nexus system, we should arrive in the Gehenna system in five hours" EDI said.

"Right, thanks again for letting us use the Normandy" Jacob said.

"No problem, just like old times right?" Joker said. The comm went off and Jacob went back to his team. Garret and Reegar were looking at the ship in awe; Jacob looked at them and shook his head they were like two kids in a candy store. Reegar he could understand since quarians loved their ships but he couldn't explain Garret until he spoke up.

"I can't believe it, we're on the same ship that THE Commander Shepherd was on" Garret said.

"If I had known Tali'Zorah was riding on a ship like this, I would have taken Shepherd up on that offer back on Haestrom" Reegar said. Jacob cleared his throat and gotten the two's attention.

"If you two have time to gawk at the ship, I'm guessing you're done with your equipment" he said crossing his arms. Reegar smirked and pointed at his equipment, all neat and organized in the corner. Garret straightens up and went back to his old professional manner.

"Apologies sir"

"Hmm, Cerberus…that's a name I haven't heard in a while" Thrax said. "I thought they were destroyed by the Alliance and Citadel"

"They were" Jacob said. "We're probably dealing with stragglers"

"Humph, leftovers…that's no fun"

"Don't underestimate them, they're still dangerous especially if they still have reaper tech" Ortha said. "We could be looking at a reconstruction"

"Maybe…but without the Illusive Man, they're directionless" Jacob said. He placed the smart-choke on his shotgun and put it with his other weapons. "Well I'm done, I'm getting some rest…you guys should do the same, this could be a long mission" Went to the elevator and took up to the engineering room, he walked to Miranda and his room. He plopped on the bed and went to sleep.

The Barn

Meanwhile back at the Barn, Gemini followed Renata into a viewing room overlooking a large room below. The room was full bunkers and in the middle of the room was a hug containment hold. From the speaker he could hear the sounds of banging and a large feral growl coming from the hold.

"What the hell is that?" Gemini asked.

"You'll see…"Renata said. "Ah it looks like our star is here" Back on the floor, the Virtual Alien came to the floor waiting for orders. Renata looked at one of her people, and nodded at him…the scientist turned to the control panel.

"Now releasing X1…" the scientist said. "Starting test" The containment begin to unlock and rise, revealing something…huge…when the container fully rose it revealed a large creature. The creature was held in a harness, roaring as it was trying to get free. The computer then beeped and blinked red. "Damn it!" he said. "Director on of X1's shackles has broken, it's going to get loose!"

"Calm yourself you idiot…" X1's arm got free and pounded on the orange plasma barrier, its arm disintegrated as the creature roared in pain. Gemini's eyes went wide when the creature's arm regenerated before his very eyes.

"What the hell…is that thing?" X1 is the Barn oldest test subject. The subject is a tank-bred Krogan that has undergone significant genetic and cybernetic augmentation. It is several times larger than a normal Krogan, with significant alterations made to forelimb size and overall muscle mass increasing attack strength and durability. X1 is also a fast healer, regenerating in minutes that would take days for the average Krogan. It is also further enhanced with cybernetics in the form of energy weapon gauntlets and integrated shield generators.

"X1 was supposed to be one of the first generation of Cerberus shock troops" Renata said. Unfortunately, we had to kill development of the X series because of how uncontrollable X1 is…but at least it's useful as a test subject" Renata saw Gemini was not listening, he was looking down at the room below with a pale look on his face…his breathing shallow and shaky. She gave a smug smirk. "This disturbs you doesn't it…though I'm not surprised you were created for Cerberus purposes after all…"

Gemini gave her a hateful gaze. "Shut the hell up. Just start the test…"

"Of course" she said unfazed. "Lower the shield" The plasma barrier came down and X1 wasted no time to attack Jura. The Virtual Alien dodged as the creature's fist crushed the floor, Jura then activated his snap-freeze program to slow down the behemoth. X1 gave a huge roar as the creature's energy gauntlets started to glow as it fired the twin cannons on its shoulders blasting everything in sight except Jura.

Up in the viewing room, Renata and Gemini could feel the battle up top as the ground shook below their feet. X1's blast hit the wall next to the viewing room, any closer and it would have been a direct hit. "Damn thing can't hit worth shit…that was way too close" Gemini growled.

"Please, do you think I'm a fool?" Renata asked. "We are perfectly safe, this room comes equip with two layers of shields and the window has been triple-reinforced"

"Humph, can't say the same for the Virtual Alien…it's been on the defense since the beginning" Renata said nothing as they continued to watch the test. Jura blasted the creature with his assault rifle, X1 charged, ignoring the bullets like they were flies and hit him hard into the wall.

"RIGHT LEG AND LEFT ARM: TWENTY PERCENT DAMAGE…ACTIVATING REPAIR MATRIX" the VI said. Jura started to glow as unit started to repair itself. "COMBAT ANALYSIS COMPLETED…ACTIVATING THE BARCA PROGRAM" X1 charged Jura, but Virtual Alien jumped out of the way. He activated his snap freeze and froze the giant's arm to the wall…it would not hold it for long but it would not matter as the battle was now over. Jura climbed on X1's back and fired on the energy source on its back depleting its shields. It then unloaded a whole clip point-blank into X1's head, it roared and then fell to the ground ending the fight.

Renata looked at her omni-tool for the time. "Five minutes and thirty seconds" she said. "Not a bad showing against X1, most of our other projects couldn't last a minute"

"Looks like Shade will get her army after all" Gemini said.

"Not necessarily" Renata said. "It needs some more tweaks, as you saw the Barca Program took too long to activate"

Gemini looked at her and crossed his arms. "Shade won't like waiting"

"Then I shall be quick then" She then turned to her personnel. "Get the cleanup team down here, and I want today's battle on my computer yesterday" She opened her omni-tool. "Return to the lab for adjustments" Jura nodded and walked out of the room as the cleanup team came in. Renata and Gemini walked out of the room to the lab.

Hades Nexus

Back on the Normandy, Jacob was sound asleep until the comms opened. "Jacob, are you there?" The soldier stirred awake and gave a big yawn as he got up.

"Here Joker" he said. "What's up?"

"We're about to enter the Gehenna, better get your team together" he said. Jacob went down to cargo hold to get his equipment ready. Down there he saw that his team was ready and saw to his surprise EDI was with them equipping her weapons.

"Going somewhere, EDI?" Jacob asked with a raised brow.

"I wish to assist you in battle" EDI said. "There is no telling what kind of assistance you will meet, and extra pair of hands could help"

"Thanks for offering and everything, but what about the Normandy?" Before there was no problem about EDI going on the ground as she was on the Normandy at the same time. But due to how the Crucible changed her, he wondered if bringing EDI with him put the Normandy in danger.

"You have nothing to worry about, some part of me is still in the Normandy black box" she said. "Jeff will keep the ship safe" Navi spoke up.

"Taylor-Leader, I agree with EDI's choice…I am not versed with Cerberus systems as well as she is"

"Right, EDI you're in" Jacob said. "Everyone head for the shuttle" As the team came aboard the shuttle, the Normandy's bay doors opened and the Kodiak flew out heading for their destination. "EDI, anything important for Cerberus in this system?"

"Yes there is a Cerberus base…the K2 facility"

"K2…where have I heard that before? Oh shit..." he said with wide eyes. "The Barn…everyone listen up, were going to perhaps one of the most heavily guard bases Cerberus has…keep alert these guys are no joke" The Kodiak came closer to the Barn and landed inside their hanger. They came out with their weapons drawn, ready for anything…unknown to them however the Barn was alerted of their prescience thanks to tripping the silent alarm.

The Barn's guards was heading straight for them.

The Taylor team vs The Barn! Next Time! As always Review and Comment!