Hello again, everyone, and welcome back to my Gears of War/Mass Effect crossover.
Thank you for your wonderful support and feedback. I deeply appreciate it.
As always, leave a review, and enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Gears of War or Mass Effect franchises. They are the respective properties and trademarks of BioWare, Electronic Arts, Microsoft Studios, Epic Games, The Coalition, etc. Any material original to the franchises belongs to their respective developers and publishers. Any material not original to the franchises is of my own invention. I do not own any music listed in each chapter. Any music listed belongs to it's original composers and/or artists.
Noveria
Peak 15
February 27th, 2183
The moment Wrex shouted his warning, all hell broke loose. Spotting movement on the motion tracker, Marcus turned hard to the right to see smaller, green colored bugs coming after him. Firing his rifle, he neutralized each one, only to watch them explode, splattering a sickly yellow-green material onto surrounding objects. "Watch it!" he shouted as the gory remains of one began to eat through a nearby table, chemically burning through the material that made up the table. "The fuckers are acidic! Don't let them get close!"
"Got it!" Shepard shouted as he fired on more of the tiny insects. Spotting that this initial attack had failed, the larger Rachni creature moved towards them, it's tentacles firing acid that ate through the transparent metal forming part of the hallway. While this allowed it to engage the team at range, it worked both ways, as the team now had a clear shot.
Marcus, being closer, opened fire with his M-25, the rifle roaring loudly as he let loose with the weapon. Some of the HESH rounds smacked into the transparent metal, cracking it while causing spalling. The rest, however, hammered into the larger Rachni behind the material. The creature screeched, blood erupting from it's mouth as the HESH rounds tore it's internals apart, with the chitinous plates splintering. Within seconds, the creature fell through the hole it had made and to the ground below, it's internal organs liquefied by the pressure waves each round produced on detonation.
Once more, silence reigned as the team collected their breaths, with Baird being the first to speak. "What… the fucking hell… was that thing?! It looked like something straight out of a nightmare!"
"That," Wrex explained, "was a Rachni." Walking over to the dead insectoid, he examined it. With an angry roar, he kicked at the corpse, cracking the already compromised carapace further.
"Wrex!" Shepard shouted.
"Damnit, Shepard!" Wrex roared, anger clearly evident in his voice. "This thing here is why my people were uplifted! We made certain that the Rachni would never threaten the galaxy again! Now, all thanks to your stupid corporations, the Rachni are running lose, again!"
"Hey, don't blame us!" Baird growled. "We're not the ones at fault; it's the people in this place that decided to fuck up and cause this kind of trouble. Besides, they haven't gotten out of the facility, which means that we still have a chance. OK?"
While he was angry, Wrex wasn't dumb, as a moment later, he clamed down and said, "You're right, Baird. Things would be much worse if they were running around outside." Backing up from the corpse, he said, "Either way, we can't let these things escape, Shepard. If they do -"
"You don't need to tell me about it," Shepard interrupted. "I'm perfectly capable of imagining what the Rachni are fully capable of. Right now, what I want to know is what we're facing in terms of enemy strength and variety."
"Well, you're looking at one of their Soldiers," Wrex replied. "The little green ones with the acidic blood are the Workers. There are also Brood Warriors, but I don't think they've had enough time to establish a hive yet, something we ought to be grateful for. There's one thing we have to remember though."
"Let me guess: there's a Queen Rachni around here somewhere."
"Good guess, Shepard. We've gotta find the Queen and kill it."
"I'll determine if that's what we need to do. Given their size, and their body shape, I think they might be able to fit inside of the vents. We'll have to watch those vents carefully."
"Just perfect," Baird snarked. Turning to Cole, he asked, "You OK?"
"Nah," Cole replied. "I'm not, but I ain't gonna let that stop me. I guess I'll have to introduce these Rachni to the Cole Train."
"Good to know."
"Yeah," Marcus nodded. Reaching towards his back, he pulled out the one weapon that he hadn't used yet. Time to see how effective this is. Reaching towards a button, he depressed it, with a quiet pop meeting his ears. Looking towards the tip, he could now see a small flame that glowed blue-white in color.
With that the team moved out. Now that they knew what they were facing, they were proceeding much more cautiously, though no so much that their movement had slowed to a crawl. Moving into one of the rooms, Shepard was about to examine a nearby computer when two more Rachni popped up from the floor vents in the room. He was about to scramble back and fire when Marcus beat him to the punch. Shouldering the new weapon's stock, he pulled the trigger.
There was a loud FWOOSH as the weapon belched blue-white fire out of the muzzle. The heat was so intense that Shepard felt it, despite wearing excellent armor, while Marcus, courtesy of his suit having higher quality climate control systems, didn't feel a thing. The same couldn't be said of the Rachni, however. Both Rachni screeched in unadulterated agony as the flames licked and consumed their flesh. Both began to roll around in a desperate attempt to put the flames out; said attempts were futile, though, as the fire continue to eat at them. Within a few second, both Rachni were dead, though the flames continued to consume their flesh.
As the flames began to die down, Shepard looked at the weapon that Marcus had in his hands. A flamethrower, he realized a moment later. He brought along a flamethrower.
Cole, who had entered just after the Rachni were dead, sniffed the air. "Damn," he noted. "I was wonderin' what that smell was. Heh, we've got ourselves some Rachni barbecue!"
Wrex, hearing that as he came in, began to chuckle, then he saw the dead Rachni. Noting the flamethower, he said, "Not bad, Human. I used to use something like that quite often. What's that?"
"I can explain," Baird butted in. "That's the M500 Scorcher Flamethrower. From what I recall, it uses a liquid based fuel, rather than the powder based fuel that the original design used. Burns at around a thousand, six hundred and forty eight degrees Celsius."
"That's hot," Shepard commented.
"Definitely," Wrex agreed. "That's more than hot enough to kill a Rachni, and definitely hot enough to kill a Krogan. That will definitely be useful against the Rachni. How much fuel have you got for that thing?"
"Not much," Marcus replied. "Just enough to last us for two minutes of continuous use. I'd rather not waste, and this was just a test to see if it was working as advertised."
"Good idea," Shepard nodded. "We might need it further down the road. Let's get out of here now. I don't want to stick around."
"You got it." Once they left that room, they began to proceed down the hallway. Here, the lack of vents meant that they were able to move faster, as they didn't have to worry about the Rachni coming to cause any problems. Moving to the door on the other side, they found themselves entering an elevator that led upwards into the facility.
Upon reaching the exit, they moved down a long hallway. Exiting it, they found themselves in a large room. The room was split into two sections, with the first section being rectangular in shape, while the second half was shaped like a circle. Doors on either side led to different areas of the place, while large power junctions were present.
Baird also spotted what looked like small burn marks. "Workers," he growled, pulling out his shotgun. "Shepard, we've got this." Nodding, Shepard allowed the Gears to move to the front. All of them aside from Marcus, pulled out their short range weapons.
Right on cue, several Rachni Workers came out of the woodwork, making a beeline for the team. Firing his shotgun, Baird blasted one Rachni Soldier out of existence, splattering alien blood and gore onto the floor and walls. Cole, having equipped his M-35 Fusilier, fired the hand cannon rapidly, blasting apart that Rachni. Marcus, spotting one further ahead, fired his M-25, killing the creature. Soon, all of the Rachni in the room were dead, though Marcus had a gut feeling that more might be coming along.
"Looks like we're at a power junction," Liara noted. "It's likely a backup power supply for the station mainframe."
"Sounds like it," Shepard nodded. "Liara, stick with me. Wrex, Garrus, cover Baird and TAli as they move up. They're the tech experts here." Both soldiers agreed, while Baird and Tali made sure the interior wasn't damaged by acid, before turning the power junction on. Once that was done, they proceeded to the mainframe.
Circling around the servers and computers, weapon in hand, Baird cleared one side, while Wrex cleared the other. Reaching the rear, he found himself looking at a small interior cubbyhole. I wonder what this is, he thought to himself. Stepping inside, he pressed what looked like an elevator switch.
Moments later, he found out that it was an elevator switch, as the floor he was standing on descended downwards into another chamber. Here, he found himself surrounded by computer memory banks and other things required for what he realized was an advanced VI. Looking at one of the sections, he noticed that it was damaged. Leaning in closer, he examined the damage.
Looks like someone intentionally sabotaged this memory bank, he thought, examining the damage. A moment later, he realized that there were backups to the damaged components, though when he looked at them, he frowned. Looks like a Tower of Hanoi puzzle, he noted. OK… We've got three pieces, so if I do the math correctly, we have a minimum of seven moves. Good thing I did puzzles like this during grade school.
For the next half-minute, Baird began fiddling around with the puzzle. While difficult, it wasn't long before he had the the backup storage drives in the proper slots. The moment he had them in the right positions, and securely locked in, he heard a dramatic chime, before the lift moved upwards on it's own. Moments later, the hologram of a woman appeared out of thin air. "It looks like you're trying to restore this facility. Would you like help?" the woman asked.
"I take it you're the station VI?" Baird asked.
"The system is monitored to respond to the name 'Mira.' May I ask your name?"
"Damon Baird. I'm working with Spectre John Shepard." As he said this, Shepard came into view.
"Retrieving data… "One moment, please," Mira replied. Seconds later, the VI, which had also spotted Shepard, said, "Identity of users recongized. You are entitled to Secure Access of all systems. Please note that any and all inquiries relating to corporate secrets required Privileged Access. Privileged Access is only available to Binary Helix executives. This system is ready to process queries. You can access me at any holographic interface within Peak 15."
"That''s convenient," Baird remarked. "At least we don't have to run all the way back here to find out what's wrong."
"Agreed," Shepard nodded. "VI, did a person identifying themselves as Lady Benezia come through here?"
"Lady Benezia departed on the passenger tramway to the Rift Station subsidiary labs. User Alert! The Tramway System is current inoperable."
"Give me a diagnostic. We need to know how to restore the Tramway System."
"One moment, please. Diagnostics in progress. Critical Failure: Main reactor shut down in accordance with emergency containment procedures. Manual restart required. Critical Failure: Landline connections are disabled. Passenger Trams are offline. Report complete. Do you have any additional quires?"
"Negative."
"Very well. Logging you out." With that, the VI went silent.
"That explains why the place doesn't have power," Marcus noted. "The reactor needs to be reactivated and the landline connections need to be fixed." Looking at Shepard, he asked, "Any ideas?"
"Yeah," Shepard nodded. "Tali, you'll come with me, Marcus and Liara. We'll get the reactor online again. Cole, Baird, you two, along with Garrus and Wrex, will get the landline connections repaired. Understood?"
"You got it," Cole nodded.
As they left, Marcus came over to Liara. "Are you OK?" he asked. "You look a little pale."
"I'll be fine," Liara nodded. "I'm just nervous as to what'll happen when we get to my mother."
"Whatever happens, we'll be right beside you." With that, they split up into their respective fireteams.
Moving towards a door that had the image of a satellite dish on it, Baird looked at Cole. "Get a frag ready. We might need it." Cole, complying with the order, pulled out a frag grenade, with Baird opening the door moments later. Moving into the elevator, he hit the up switch, with the elevator coming to a stop seconds later. Moving to that door, he opened it up.
As soon as he opened the door, the cold air of Noveria blew inside. Thanks to their armor being fully on, helmet included, the team didn't feel a thing, though Cole did spot a few Rachni up ahead. Activating the grenade, he threw it before racing behind cover. There was a loud BOOM as the grenade detonated, killing two Rachni Soldiers, while sending shrapnel sailing through a few Workers.
Wrex, once he was in cover, hurled a biotic lift towards a pair of Rachni, lifting them into the air. "HAHA!" Cole shouted. "I got some bug spray right here for you!" Spotting a few Rachni circling around, he fired at them. "Nuh-uh! The Cole Train ain't gonna let anyone sneak up on 'im. WHOOO!"
Garrus and Baird were working in synchronicity all the while. Firing off his sniper rifle, Garrus eliminated the long range targets, while Baird killed anything that got too close. Between the four man squad, it wasn't long before all of the Rachni were dead. "All clear!" Garrus shouted. "Time to fix up the landline connections."
Moving towards a control panel, Baird frowned when he saw holes in the panel cover. Opening it, he breathed a sigh of relief. Looks like the shrapnel didn't damage any of the critical components inside, he thought. Fixing the damaged ones should be simple. Reaching inside, he used some omni-gel, along with parts fabricated from his omni-tool, to repair any damage.
Repairs complete, he thought after a few minutes of hard work. And we have a solid connection. Returning to the mainframe room.
. . .
Once they got back to the mainframe room, they found Shepard and his team there as well. "Everything go nicely?" Baird asked.
"Yep," Shepard nodded. "Some Geth were there, but nothing we couldn't handle. You?"
"Same here, except there was only Rachni. We handled them easily enough."
"Good," Shepard nodded. "We'll head to the trams now. Should be easier now that we've gotten rid of the problems preventing it's use." With that, they moved out towards the trams.
As they moved through the hallways, they entered yet another elevator. This time, Mira said over the PA "User Alert! Loose contaminants in the decontamination chamber. Access to passenger tramways inadvisable."
"Sounds like Rachni might be in the decon chamber," Wrex remarked. When they exited the elevator, and entered the room itself, Wrex's statement was correct, as they spotted Rachni in the decon chamber.
"Hey, there's a decontamination unit here," Baird noted. "Busted though. Typical corporate bullshit: always by the least durable and least expensive thing." As he began working on it, he muttered, "Definitely will be different in my case."
While they were inside of the room, Marcus noticed the corpse of a Salarian on the floor. Apparently, the alien had committed suicide, as there was a pistol in it's hand, with a bullet hole on the right side of it's head. Spotting it's omni-tool, he activated an audio file he found on it. Moments later, the voice of a Salarian spoke up. "… Control gro - … Loose in the… they're trying… can't escape… up in the tunnels now. We're sorry. The leads couldn't get to… - struct …out while you can…"
"Looks like he committed suicide because he was part of what happened here," Wrex remarked as he looked at the corpse.
"He must've felt that there was no hope of escape at all," Liara frowned. "The poor man."
Marcus nodded. "I've seen suicides like this before. Some of the folks we found were so scared of the Locust that they decided to die rather than be taken. They were the lucky ones; the ones that didn't…" He shook his head at the memories.
"Fixed it!" Baird announced. "Ready for the fireworks?"
"Go ahead," Shepard nodded. With that, Baird turned on the decontamination protocols. As soon as he pressed the button, gouts of plasma erupted into the chamber, blocking out the view. The Rachni inside screeched loudly as plasma incinerated their bodies, before burning away even the ashes. Seconds later, the plasma dissipated, leaving the somewhat carbon scored interior of the decontamination chamber.
"Hah!" Cole beamed. "Burn, bitches!"
"Now it works," Garrus nodded as they moved towards the door.
. . .
Fortunately, the trams to Rift Station were fully intact, with each enclosed tram having enough room to house everyone on Rift Station if necessary. Walking inside, Shepard sat down on one of the chairs as they waited to get to the station. While the others joined him, Marcus and the other Gears remained standing. "You OK?" Shepard asked.
"Just keeping watch," Marcus replied. "Never know when you might get into another firefight."
"Fair point."
Within a few minutes, they reached the end of the tram line itself. Getting out onto the platforms, they found that the door leading straight ahead was locked, while the door to the left wasn't locked. Moving through that, they found that the left hand door, identified as 'Hot Labs Access', was locked, though the right hand one wasn't.
"Might be where the survivors are," Shepard assumed.
"Possibly," Baird remarked. Once everyone was inside, Shepard hit the button, with the elevator ascending. When it stopped, they came out into a room that had a single hallway leading forwards.
Said hallway was barricaded, with armed personnel standing guard. The guards had raised their weapons, but one of them, a bald man with brown eyes and white armor, said, "Stand down, men. Those aren't Rachni." Turning to Shepard, he said, "Sorry about that. We couldn't be sure what was on the tram."
"You really think those things could operate a tram's controls?" Shepard asked.
"Hell if I know," the man replied, looking at the team. "At this point, I'm not assuming any-motherfucking-thing. Look, you three are human, and the others two are aliens that I recognize, and that's enough that I won't shoot, but I'd like to know who you are."
"I'm a Spectre," Shepard replied. "Commander Shepard."
"Huh," the man remarked. "Well, I won't look a heavily armed gift horse in the mouth. Name's Captain Ventralis. The aliens overran the hot labs last week. Only Han Olar got out, and he ain't all there anymore. The first thing we knew, the bastards were clawing into my command post. We lost a lot of men."
"You were taken by surprise and had civilians to protect. You did a good job, Captain."
"Yeah? Certainly doesn't feel like it."
"Most of the time, it doesn't," Marcus replied.
"Personal experience?" Ventralis asked.
"Yeah."
"Damn. I'd better get used to it, then." Clearing his throat, Ventralis said, "The Board sent an Asari to clean up the mess. She entered the hot labs yesterday, and she hasn't reported back since."
"I take it this was Matriarch Benezia?" Shepard asked.
"Yes," Ventralis replied. "How'd you know?"
"We're investigating her on charges of treason and conspiracy. She's a wanted fugitive in connection with an individual named Saren Arterius. Do you have a way into the hot labs? We'll need to check that area out as well."
"I see," Ventralis noted. "Sure," Ventralis replied. "All I can do is hold out here and protect the civilians, but you can get to where we can't go." Handing Shepard a keycard, he said, "Here, this will get you to the hot labs. If you can spare some people to help us, though, that would be appreciated."
"Alright," Shepard nodded. "We'll speak with the survivors, then check out the hot labs." As they moved past Ventralis' men, he waited until they were in an adjoining room that was up a flight of stairs. Closing the door, he said, "Something tells me that he's dirty. Ideas anyone?"
It was Baird who came up with an idea. "My gut instinct says that we should see if we can help the locals and get a few favors. Who knows? We might find a way to get to Benezia without having to cause a ruckus."
"Oh, yeah. I second that!" Cole nodded.
"Thirded," Shepard nodded.
"Same here," Garrus added, along with Wrex, Tali and Liara.
"Carried, unanimously," Marcus agreed.
. . .
While Shepard talked with some of the survivors, Marcus and the others began looking around. It's not looking good, Marcus frowned as he looked around the rectangular room. Looks like they're running low on food and water, and their soldiers look like they're about to drop dead from sleep deprivation.
As they walked along, he noticed an Asari that was meditating. As soon as he saw her, though, the hairs stood up on his neck, even with the body glove on. Something's off about her, he thought to himself. I don't know what, but something is. He got more chilling vibes when the Asari in question opened her eyes and looked at him. Her eyes were empty of all but a focus that was reminiscent of that of a predator, something that put him on edge. Looking at her, he asked, "Did I interrupt something?"
"Yes," the Asari replied. "I was practicing a calming technique, something that you interrupted."
"My apologies, then. What's your name?"
"Alestia."
"What do you do here, if I may ask?"
"I am very good at tracking inherited variations in genetic sequences. I'm sure you would find it dull."
"You got that right. Good day to you." As he turned to leave, a guard approached him. "What is it?" he asked.
"You here to help?" the guard asked.
"Yes."
"Talk to Dr. Cohen. He could really use the help."
"Thank you," Marcus replied. "Where is he at?"
"Through the door on your immediate left."
"Thanks." Turning to Baird, he said, "Baird, this is your area of expertise. I'll stay here with the others. Got it?"
"Got it," Baird nodded. "Oh, and Marcus? Take care of yourself."
Patting Baird on the shoulder, he said. "I will, Baird. Thanks."
"Anytime." With that, Baird proceeded through the door and down a flight of stairs into another room. Inside of this room, he found Dr. Cohen, a bald, middle aged man with dark brown eyes. Currently, the man was tending to a patient, who was moaning weakly.
"Hang on," he reassured the man. "I'll do everything in my power to help you." Hearing someone behind him, he turned, jumping slightly when he saw Baird. "What?" he asked, surprised. "What do you want?"
"Calm down," Baird replied. "I'm not here to cause trouble. Marcus, a friend of mine, was told by a guard that you needed help with something." Looking at the patients, he asked, "What's wrong with them?"
"You did nothing wrong," Cohen replied. "I'm just distracted right now. As for what's wrong with them, I – I have a nondisclosure agreement. I shouldn't discuss it with anyone outside of the company."
"Is working for a company that does this kind of shit really worth keeping a secret or two?"
There were a few moments where Cohen was thinking, then he said, "Well… I'd like to think that the company values our lives more than their secrets. You know Mira? The VI for Peak 15? She handles the quarantine protocols for our experiments."
"I fixed her on the way here."
"That was you?"
"Yeah, duh."
"Then you have my gratitude, sir. Until she came online, the automated equipment wouldn't work. As for why I was asking, we were in the middle of an experiment when we lost the connection to Mira and the quarantine failed. These three were exposed to a toxin, something we were working on."
"What kind of toxin?" Baird asked. Already, he was starting to get some bad vibes.
"It's a bioweapon," Cohen explained. "Based on an exotic lifeform out in the frontier. They wanted something that could kill the creature, but there was no profit in something that kills only one species in the frontier. We kept working on it, expanded it to affect other species. Thoros-B is highly infectious, but it can't pass from one person to the next. Like a biowar attack without a pandemic spread."
"Really? I'm not sure that I believe that."
"Militaries, governments – they'll get this kind of weapon one way or another. We're trying to limit the damage. I know you can't see it like that."
"I don't, but I'm not here for some bullshit reason." A moment later, he asked, "Anything else that you guys found?"
"Yes," Dr. Cohen nodded. "We found some kind of strange substance: a yellowish liquid that glowed gold in color. We didn't know what it was, so we treated it as if it was an extremely dangerous substance. Apparently, it's a form of semi-liquid parasitic slime mold with a very high energy content. The company felt it was too dangerous, so they sent in an entire HAZMAT team to clean the stuff up and put it into a biohazard storage area. Why do you ask?"
Baird felt his gut tighten a moment later. "I know what it is. It came from a colony that I came from. We called it 'Imulsion,' and your company was right to treat it as dangerous. Any organism infected by it turns into a husk made of living Imulsion. We called them the 'Lambent.'"
At that, Dr. Cohen paled. "Impossible!" he gasped. When Baird's expression didn't change, he sighed and said, "I-I apologize. I've never heard of a slime mold capable of such things. Are you certain?"
"Yep."
"Then it's a good thing the company decided to clean it up. They also mentioned a space-time distortion present where the Imulsion, as you call it, was at. I don't know much else beyond that. My specialty lies in medicine and biological engineering, not theoretical physics."
"That's fine. At least they made an effort to clean it up," Baird noted. "Still, with these Rachni running about, I wouldn't put it past them to eat the stuff. Since that's likely the case, we'll have to deal with Lambent Rachni as well. Still, let's avoid talking about ultimate problems right now. Let's focus on getting these people back onto their feet."
"You're right. We can worry about that later. What we must do is help these people as much as we can. Our notes and equipment are locked in the quarantine labs. Captain Ventralis doesn't want to risk any more contamination."
"Is he justified in doing so?"
"No! The toxin has a brief period of viability. After that, it breaks down into simple protein chains. But he won't listen to me."
"I'll handle that," Baird nodded. "Just do what you can for these people and I'll get you that cure."
"Be careful, please," Cohen replied. "I don't want more sick people on my conscience."
"You won't."
. . .
Once he had returned to the others, Baird motioned for Marcus and the others to come over. "What is it?" Marcus asked.
"Some bad news," Baird frowned. "Turns out, they found Imulsion here as well."
"Shit. How'd it get here?"
"My guess, a Worstein-Roken Bridge, the same kind we found in that COG facility. That would explain how it got here. They did clean it up quite nicely, though."
"Anything else?"
"Can't discuss it until we get to the lab that his team was working at. They got affected by a lab accident, and we need to make a cure for what happened to them."
"Alright," Marcus nodded. "Cole, Wrex, you guys and I will help Baird out." Turning to Baird, he said, "Lead the way."
Getting to the labs in question wasn't hard at all, as it was just down a certain hallway. Moving down the hallway, they found themselves in another part of the station, this place being a lab. Baird also noticed a hallway leading off somewhere, though he decided not to question it for now. There were only a few people inside, notably a Volus, some scientists, and a Turian guarding one of the doors.
As he walked over, the Turian said to him, "You're not part of the crew."
"Oh, just figured that out now?" Baird asked. Noting that the sarcasm was lost on the Turian he sighed and said, "We're here to make a cure for what happened to the doctor."
"Access inside is restricted," the Turian replied. "You can't go in."
"I figured as much," Baird nodded. In a flash of movement, he smashed his fist into the Turian's head with a right hook. The alien promptly crumpled to the ground like a sack of potatoes, his eyes rolling up into his head, while his tongue lolled out of his mouth.
"Not bad," Marcus noted.
"Yeah," Baird nodded. "Most. Boring. Conversation. Ever. Now let's get inside and get that cure made." As they moved inside, Cole, on a gut instinct, took out the last frag grenade he had and used his omni-tool to send a command to the computer inside. A series of magnetic barbs deployed on the grenade's surface, before he hammered the explosive into the wall just behind a support strut.
"Just in case we have a hostile," he explained. "It won't blow up until I tell it to do so."
"A remote mine," Wrex noted. "Not bad."
"I've used a few myself," Garrus nodded.
As they looked around, Marcus noticed that the room had a table in the back, along with doors that led to rooms set just below the main room's floor. Walking over to the desk, he found a chemical mixer, some vials, as well as a controller for the mixer. Seeing notes nearby, he began to read them. "Baird?" he asked.
"Coming." Walking over, Baird looked at the notes. "Looks like the formula's simple enough. Good thing chemistry was one of my favorite classes in school. This won't take long." Sitting down, he worked out the complicated math, before he put the required liquids into the vials, put them into the synthesizer and got to work. The moment the computer told him that the cure had been successfully synthesized, he pulled the stuff out. "There we go," he beamed. "What would you do without me?"
"Not much," Marcus admitted. "Oh, and we've got company."
Turning around, Baird spotted the Asari from earlier, as well as some Geth. "Your mission ends here, Marcus," she growled.
"I knew she was odd," Wrex remarked.
"So you say," Marcus said to the Asari. "I think your mission ends here as well, though not in the way you know it." A moment later, it happened.
As soon as he spotted the Asari, Cole had his omni-tool activated behind his back. Sending a command to the grenade he implanted, he could hear it beep, before it detonated. Before the Asari could reply, there was a concussive BOOM as the grenade detonated, sending shrapnel flying towards the opposite wall. The Asari, and the Geth with her, were instantly shredded by the explosion, with the blast wave downing their barriers, while the shrapnel shredded their bodies. The Geth attempted to get up, only for Wrex to fire his shotgun, destroying them instantly.
"Nice one," Wrex beamed. "You Gears really do good work."
"Yep," Baird nodded. "Time to go." As they exited, he noted that the guard he knocked out was alive, though soundly asleep. That'll save him some of the trouble he's in for, he noted as he saw the bruise from his punch forming.
. . .
Dr. Cohen was more than happy to see Baird, with the vial in hand. "This that the cure?" he asked, a hopeful look on his face as O'Connor walked inside. "You did it?"
"It wasn't too hard at all," Baird replied. "Oh, just so you know, that Asari bitch we met earlier. She tried to kill us."
"Alestia?!" Cohen gasped, shocked. "That's unbeli -" When he saw Baird's expression, he stopped before he said, "I – I don't know too much about her. She arrived a month ago. One of the shareholders pulled strings to get here here."
"Let me guess. Saren Arterius?"
"Yes," Cohen nodded. "I think that was the name. I don't pay much attention to the other research teams. Look, just so you know, the guards. They're more on edge now that you and the others are here. I think they were expecting you."
"Yeah," Baird nodded. "I kinda figured that. I also noticed another area where I was at. What was that?"
"The maintenance corridors," Cohen explained. "I've got clearance there, but there are areas even the guards won't let me into. I don't know what you'll find back there."
"You'd be surprised. Here's the vial by the way."
Taking the vial, Cohen studied it. "An extension of Dr. Phill's work? I thought he was on the right track." Looking at Baird, he said, "Here, as a reward. Take my pass to the maintenance area. That should get you to where you want to go, wherever that is."
"Thanks," Baird nodded. With that, he walked up the stairs, eager to get back to the others. We're one step closer now.
(Author's Q&A)
Just a Crazy-Man: Thank you.
hellion117: Well, the hint in this chapter should be enough for you. Let's see what happens next.
edboy4926: Yep, and the Gears are the hunters.
Guest since ch1: Possibly. Might have that show up in a side mission, just to give it extra oomph.
Guest #1: That's alright. I'm curious to see what will happen myself.
Chronus1326: Thank you.
Chris Redfield-General Chaos: Thanks for pointing that out. I'll have him come along in future missions more often.
Guest #2: Thank you. I was also kinda bothered about the lack of realism there myself. As for the One-Shot, there's a reason why it's the way it is. If you look it up on the official wiki for Gears of War, you should find out why I don't think a machine gun version would be viable.