"Wait," Kolyat held up a hand as they approached what looked like vents in a sunken portion of the facility's floor. A strange cloud or vapor seemed to fill the space.

"I see it," Siu answered with a groan, his eyepiece highlighting the unnatural foggy clouds hanging low to the ground, and chirping a warning that the clouds were most certainly hazardous to organic tissue. "Commander—we've got something venting. I don't think we ought to be walking through it. I left my lead underwear in my other pants."

"We're seeing it, too," Sheffler answered. "And it's in the way. Can you do anything about it?"

"Let me look around. No one would be dumb enough to put the controls where possibly radioactive clouds would pool." At least, Siu hoped no one was. Or that no one involved with building this facility was. "Seeing anything, Kolyat?"

"Not yet," Kolyat answered, his head on a swivel, senses alert for anything moving. "But I've got this nasty feeling that whoever—ugh."

Siu grimaced as he saw what had stopped Kolyat's speech—a severed arm and shoulder, or at least, it was down to the wrist. The hand was gone, looking as though it had been gnawed off. The greyish tinge to the blue flesh suggested corruption rather than decay.

"Commander, confirm Reaper presence," Kolyat announced, crouching near the arm to regard it, then picked it up to examine the damage more closely. "I've got a severed arm here, and the skin around bite marks has a greyish tinge."

Siu shivered. It might only be a dead arm, but with Reapers involved, he wouldn't be surprised if a dead arm suddenly started lunging for people's throats or eyes.

"You do know what decomp looks like, right Krios?" Sheffler asked.

"Yes. I've also seen a few Cerberus troopers without their helmets, and the discoloration is similar. I believe you mentioned Cerberus was fooling around with Indoctrination-type research. But the rest of the arm, above the injuries, has a pallor I would call 'normal' for an asari," Kolyat concluded, getting to his feet and wiping his hands on this thighs, ignoring the fact that armor wasn't really good for that.

"Okay. Keep your heads down and don't let them get the drop on you. Do you want me to send McVie to your position?"

Siu and Kolyat exchanged looks. "…I think we'll be alright on our own. If you're causing more chaos and destruction, they'll be more worried about you than us, right?" Siu asked.

"That's the hope."

The two young men looked at each other again. Kolyat finally shook his head.

"No, sir, I think we'll be okay," Siu answered.

"McVie, please go shepherd our wayward children," Sheffler said firmly, with a tone suggesting that, with his team augmented by Capt. Riley's, a smaller team might well be a preferable target, even to something as stupid as husks—

Kolyat and Siu both heard the clank, turning sharply on their heels to look for the source of the sound. "Was that the facility or something else, do you think?" Kolyat asked softly.

"Dude, I have no idea," Siu answered, not seeing any shadows moving around, or anything out of place.

Within minutes, McVie arrived. "Switch to shotgun, Krios," he said without preamble. "Reapers like to swarm, you'll get better results with a shotgun."

Kolyat did as he was told.

Siu knew Kolyat found the shotgun unwieldy, didn't trust the spray from the weapon not to somehow hit one of his teammates.

"There you go," McVie nodded. "Okay, Siu. Let's get talking to this facility. Riley and Sheffler are heading deeper in, but it's like these clouds are in the way of anywhere anyone really wants to go."

Siu nodded, then stopped at a bank of terminals. Within seconds, he had a wireless line into the computers. "Okay," Siu said, then exhaled deeply, ignoring the bloodstains near the workstation. "It looks like one of the techs thought the clouds might cause the Reapers some trouble. This was a manual vent, and well set up."

"Can you reverse it?" Riley asked.

"And do we need our lead underwear?" Sheffler piped up.

"Yes ma'am, no sir," Siu answered. "Your armor should be enough, once the venting procedures cancel…which I'm initiating now. It'll take about half an hour." He wasn't much happier about this than anyone else, but it was better to wait and be sure than to rush into more than a body could handle.

"I hate when this stuff breaks," Riley sighed.

Kolyat, although staying close, seemed to be mentally determining something.

"Kolyat? Everything okay?" McVie asked.

"Fine. I'm plotting escape routes in case we get swarmed," Kolyat answered abstractedly.

"Good," McVie nodded, returning to the slow back and forth path of travel he'd been pacing since Siu began interfacing with the facility.

The waiting played uncomfortably on Siu's nerves. He tried to continue extracting information, but while it was there and easy to access, he had no idea what he wanted to find. All he felt was the uncomfortable closing fist of nerves around his throat. He was sure the Reapers were already closing in…though how they could do that with any stealth, he couldn't begin to fathom.

"Alright, sir, ma'am. You should be clear to move forward, I'll turn on the lights," Siu announced, once the half hour had elapsed, and the computer informed him that the vent protocols had been successfully reversed, and that the facility was now ready to resume normal operations. A moment later, lights overhead obligingly switched on. "I'm sending you the navpoint for the first set of fuel rods. We'll get the other one."

"Will you stay connected to the facility?" Sheffler asked.

"Sure. As long as I don't leave the local network's reach, I'm in, and unless someone kicks me out, I'm staying in," Siu answered. It might come in handy, he thought, beginning to pick his way after Kolyat who, having the navpoint, had begun moving forward cautiously.

-J-

Author's Note: Just to be clear, apart from the Cannibals, the Reapers aren't really eating their victims as this chapter suggests. They just chew on them and leave the parts lying around to psych out the organics, because it's a tactic that works. I'm sure the Reapers know what kinds of things in horror movies freak out the audience and are adept at adapting things that cause fear or unease to their own purposes.