Chapter 35: Virmire part 2

John and the team jumped down behind a wall and surveyed the area. There were no enemies, for now. For the Shadow team assault, he brought Tali due the Geth being entrenched with the base, Res for Korgans and bigger targets, and Ragan for taking out enemies while in the cover so less enemies to deal with. He brought Wrex because he promised the Krogan the cure when they had gotten to the lab. John opened his comm. "Shadow team in position. Ragan is heading in the docks," he uses the three fingers and counts backwards until no fingers are there so Ragan can get in, "now." Ragan quickly jumps up and climbs up the wall with his kunai and got in the base by removing the vent cover and jump in.

"Understood, we'll start our push. We'll try to make it to the AA gun, but it might be up to you to finish the job," Kirrahe said. "Also there are some satellite uplinks up ahead, if you can take out that would be appreciated."

"Got it," John said. They head forward and in the distance, they could see a watchtower of sorts. Kirrah was not kidding when he said this was big.

"Keelah, how did Saren manage this for so long without anyone knowing," Tali was in awe.

"Deceit, money, and lots of guns," Wrex was shocked at this. They head towards the tower and went to cover, as Geth troopers, rocket troopers, and shock troopers will greet them with a hail of gunfire. Tali hacked the rocket trooper in the front, the rocket trooper turned its attention to the troopers and shock troopers, and the three Geth turned on each other. One of the spared rocket troopers was taken up in the vents and came back down without any head. 'Guess Ragan is good for sneaking instead of front attacks because the others didn't notice him,' Wrex was shocked when another rocket trooper was killed but this time, Ragan jumps up and quickly slams the Geth's head to the floor. Two of the Geth units turn their attention but Ragan was too quick. He went to the second unit that was closest to him and broke the neck then went to the third one and slammed it to the wall. John blasted the shock trooper's head off with his pistol and quickly shoot another Geth when it turned towards Ragan. Wrex went out of cover and rammed the rocket trooper just before its program came back to normal and ripped its head off with his bare hands. The trooper fired at the Krogan, causing Wrex to creat a barrier to protect himself. John overloaded the trooper's shields and Tali sabotaged the Geth weapon cause him to be destroyed.

When the Geth were no more the team moved up the ramp and saw console protected by geth snipers and destroyers. Wrex played deco and charge the nearest Geth, the snipers targets the Krongan but was shot by the now hacked Destroyer and more geth came in as reinforcements, but was thrown by Wrex's throw field. Ragan gets in the vents and starts moving through there and find himself behind some destroyers, which he quickly comes out and busts both of the destroyers' backs with a shotgun blast. Tali sabotaged the troopers wiping out their numbers. "Rookie, you're up." The Quarian nodded and disabled the geth's communications and triangulation frequencies.

"Something's scrambled their targeting systems, we got a shot, Chief Williams, take the heat off Mannovia," one of the Salarians were head over the comm link.

The team went straight northwards at the next junction. Forming a single file, they advanced closely along a cliff, until they meet with a swarm of rocket drones firing at the team. John used singularity and Ragan quickly cloaks and runs behind them. Right when they slammed each other, Ragan quickly grabs two of them and slams them to the floor then uppercuts one of the Geth followed by a kick. The last one was floating but Ragan ended that when he jumped in the air and tore its head off. Tali and Wrex were impressed with that. They moved out of the canyon, and into the next watch tower they encountered more rocket drones and a Geth destroyer that just loved to get it their face mostly John's. To make matters worse they were reinforced by Krogan, who couldn't resist attacking Wrex. The team was separated by their enemies, the Krogans made a swipe at Wrex who dodge and blew them back with a throw field.

Wrex scoffed," Whelps." Meanwhile the destroyer was taking down all the cover it could find and the Spectres was out of cover the Geth would charge and John would dodge, but he couldn't do it forever.

"Rookie, anytime you're ready… you know, no hurry," John said. Tali looked back at him and hacked one of the rocket drones to ram into the destroyer, stunning it while John and Ragan gunned it down. John then smashed the rest of the drones with a throw field.

"They're calling sat-strikes! Jaeto, watch for comm stations," Kirrahe's voice was heard in their earpieces.

"That sounded bad. Really bad," Ragan nodded in agreement with John.

"Combined air and satellite strikes," Tali then looked into the system. "For the geth to get this aggressive… They must be getting worried." Tali looked around the compound and saw a structure on the roof.

"Rookie?" Tali raised her weapon and shot the structure, she walked back the John, Ragan, and Wrex.

"There, Kirrahe and Ash shouldn't have any problems with the satellite strikes. Well come on." They headed up the ramp and headed south. Once on the platform tow Krogans popped up and wasted no time attacking the team. Joining them were geth trooper and a destroyer. Because there was little cover, they had to get them off-balance and gun them down. John used his throw field while Ragan did shadow strike to stop a charging Krogan. Wrex had the other Krogan in a charging match, while Tali dealt with the Geth, she hacked the destroyer who then charged at the Geth closest to it. Wrex tired of the young Krogan, lifted him off the ground.

"John," he yelled. John nodded and rolled out of the way when Wrex went through the Krogan, knocking them both on the ground. Before they could react, John and Wrex mowed them down. The team crossed the bridge and entered the small door leading through the wall and crossed a metal plank leading to the entrance of the central facility building.

"Finally," John exhaustedly said. "We've finally reached this damn building." Tali went to the terminal and called for John. "What's up rookie?"

"I've got access to base security. I can cut the alarms from here, and maybe trigger alarms on the far side of the base," Tali explained. "It'll clear the guards, but they may be too much for the Salarians and Ash."

"Just silence the alarms, we'll handle any guards inside."

Wrex smashed his fists together. "Nice, a fight to the cure. Wouldn't have any other way."

Tali scoffed. "Glad to see you're happy about difficult odds." She typed into the terminal and the doors opened. Ragan quickly finds another vent and enters it.

John nodded. "Good, let's clean this place out." The door opened and the team rushed in, entering a Cargo Bay. Huge crates were positioned inside it and the team advanced from cover to cover, flanking any enemy they encounter. Since most of the enemies in the base were Geth, tech support by Tali was a godsend.

"That's all of them Commander," Wrex said. As they walked through the base they saw many disturbing things, it was more of a prison camp than a base. They heard the screams of torture and the team went downstairs and found the source of those screams. Salarians, Kirrahe's lost men.

"Y-You, you're not Geth and you're not wearing a lab coat either. Who are you," one of the Salarians said.

"Shepard, council Spectre. I'm here with Captain Kirrahe to shut this place down," the Salarians eyes lit up when John said that, the commando must have been through terrible things in this lab, because he offered to help.

"My name is Lt. Ganto Imness, I was captured during recon, I would be happy to help take down this nightmare."

"What do they do here," Tali asked.

"My team was altered, indoctrinated," Imness said. "Captain knew about the breeding facility, but this place holds much darker secrets, indoctrination tests." The Salarian shuttered. "I saw good people reduced to mindless husks, the people who died during the tests, I envy them." John looked at the other Salarian prisoners; they looked like they were in a daze, just lost.

John frowned. "Why should we free you? If they were altered, you could be too."

Imness shook his head. "I was left as a control subject, so I was left with my senses, even though I almost wish I didn't. Saren uses the test to control his people… I… I saw how it turned the others… I… I can't end up like this please let me out." John was getting creepy vibes from the Salarian, his own calm breathing was becoming more and more irregular. Wrex and Tali must have the same vibe too, as they were shaking their heads at letting the Salarian go.

"If I let you out, how will I know you won't attack me? Because something tell me you won't know."

"Please it's obvious I'm not crazed or drooling like the others, let me out and I'll stay out of your way promise," he said frantically. "I need to get out, this room is too small, it keeps talking, I really want get out and get some work done; I need to get out!"

"I-I'm sorry, but it's too risky, I can't take that chance." John faced his team. "Come on, we have a base to destroy…" Wrex and Tali nodded and the team walked away.

"Can't take that chance, no chance… I need to do what it says, I have to… Let me out. Let me out! LET ME OUT!" The Salarian ran to the cell door and banged on the door screaming incoherently. "LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT," He screamed while still banging the door. Tali covered her ears trying to block out the sounds of the Salarian, although John was right to leave the Salarian in his prison, it didn't make it any easier. She looked at John, he looked disturbed at his decision, even the old battlemaster looked concerned. She looked back at the cell.

"Keelah.."

"Don't look back, Rookie. Don't look back…" John sadly said. The team went deeper into the base.


Author's Note: I decided to have Ragan act more sneaky type with his fighting and I though who is the sneakiest person ever and I said Batman would be that. So I did some research and found out that Batman: Arkham Knight had a new takeout system that does up to three takeouts or more (Depending if you are doing a double takeout first or not) and decided to have Ragan do that because it fit well with him. After all, Ragan is an infiltrator with hand to hand combat.