…
"Hope is what makes us strong. It is why we are here. It is what we fight with when all else is lost."
(Pandora)
…
The Barn, April 28th, 1:57 PM, 2184
…
"Alright, move it back towards me!" I shouted, motioning with my hands back towards the SDD. "Closer… closer… good!"
The large top ring of the SDD's main emitter system was now firmly in place, where it would focus in the center of the device along with the bottom ring. The size of these rings had been reduced dramatically since the magnetic accelerators now utilized mass effect fields to propel our subatomic particles. The accelerators no longer needed long lengths of magnetic coils to get them up to speed, and it could be done with a fraction of the space as well.
"Alright, we're done with this section for now, Ioe. Feel free to take a break for a few minutes, then meet me back at the workstation." I ordered, looking up at him in the operating cabin as he acknowledged me with a curt nod.
Ioe'Evas was one of the seven marines we inadvertently dragged here with us. He was a private in the Migrant Fleet marines, good kid. Was smart, talented with computers and information systems. He helped with a lot of the technical hurdles regarding the computer simulations.
He and the other six men had been doing their best to help with all the muscle work. It was apparent that Cerberus was not treating them well at all. They were fed very little, berated constantly, and one of them had been beaten after a bad argument a few days ago. Apparently, they're kept in the station's prison block, along with several other species that Cerberus has captured. Why Cerberus was kidnapping other species and keeping them here, I could only imagine.
I made my way back over to said workstation, where Dan and Sira were working on a few flow charts. Dan was doing most of the explaining at this point, since this really wasn't Sira's specialty. She did fine with mass effect fields, especially with how to shape them, but it didn't help too much with theoretical particle physics.
Dan and I used to live and breathe particle physics. This was our mojo.
"Hey, we just got the top ring attached." I informed them both as I walked towards the coffee machine and poured a cup of coffee for myself.
"Good." Dan replied in the monotone that he had adopted while here.
"So the particle accelerators just need to be aligned?" Sira inquired, looking harder at me as I took a gulp of the hot coffee.
"Pretty much." I answered before taking another big swig from my coffee cup. "Where's Jack? I haven't seen him that much today."
"He's one the other side of the l-lab inspecting the newly arrived par…parts with Dimitri." Dan informed, rolling up his last flow chart and chucking it into the pile that had accumulated in the corner of his station.
"Thanks, I'll be back later." I finished, walking back off with the hot mug of Joe firmly held in my right hand.
This iteration of the SDD was much smaller than our original one. While the original took up about as much room as a baseball field, this one was more akin to a gymnasium. We were able to ditch the old gravity centrifuge, replacing that whole system with a mass effect field generator Sira had designed. This meant that we'd have an even more stable wormhole, along with the added benefit of ease of movement.
Our parts were transported here through a large door located in the back of the lab, behind the SDD. I did have to admit, the Director kept his word. Everything we've asked for, we're received without delay. It was actually rather impressive, given our circumstances.
I eventually found Dimitri and Jack all the way in the back, inspecting a box of crystal lenses for imperfections. These lenses were going to be used on the primary emitters, one of the last components we needed to finish before the SDD was fully operational.
"So, how are the lenses looking?" I asked, taking a slightly smaller sip from my mug as they continued to focus on the critical parts.
"They look good… except for one." Dimitri answered, holding out the lens in question, which had a small gash on the edge. "It appears it has been damaged during transport."
"Well, we'll have to get another one. We can't fire up the emitters without flawless lenses, it'll screw up the energy field." I evaluated, shaking my head. "How come it's always the most important components they fuck up in transport? I'll never understand it."
"That puts us at least another day behind schedule." Jack reminded, looking rather annoyed. "This is unacceptable. We can't afford delays this close to the deadline."
"I'll talk to the Director. I won't let us be held responsible for this." I finished, looking harder at Jack. "Here, you look like you need a little pick-me-up."
"Heh, if there's one thing I can say about Cerberus, it's that they don't screw around when it comes to coffee." He smiled, taking the mug from me and taking a sip.
"Right then, I'll leave you two to it." I said, ending the conversation as I walked off.
I let a small smile cross my face before going back to work.
…
The Barn, April 28th, 8:19 PM, 2184
…
After explaining the lens situation to the Director, I was escorted back to my quarters. It was the same deal as always, I was always escorted back by two guards in full combat gear. By this point I was pretty sure them escorting me was considered more of an annoyance than anything else, though they still refused to engage in small talk. Their loss, really.
To put it bluntly, my quarters were a fucking mess. I left it like this intentionally to make it harder to focus on specific things, and to keep track of when someone's been in my quarters. I've gone through the effort of memorizing where every scrap of trash and junk was, that way if they came though I'd know if there were people snooping around.
I was actually quite fortunate, no one has tried investigating my room for the last two weeks. I was beginning to suspect that the Director was actually starting to take a liking to me. I wish I could say the same for him.
I went into my bathroom, taking off the stupid science uniform and hopping in the shower. I let the hot water roll over me, taking a deep sigh before pulling a small plastic capsule out of my mouth.
We had slowly developed a secret message exchange system these last few weeks. They involved using small plastic containers with red tape inside of them to talk about the latest intel we've been able to pick up. We exchange them through our coffee cups, and for the quarians we hide them inside the water canisters they drank from. Sure, it was unsanitary, but it worked marvelously in the end.
We were almost ready to make an honest attempt at escaping this hellhole. The security here was top notch, there was no denying that, but there were some obvious issues we were able to pick up on here and there.
For one thing, we were slowly able to pick up on the fact that the station was monitored by a pseudo-AI known as UDI. While it was capable of handling as many processes as, say, Powell and Lydia, its actual subroutines were very basic and rudimentary due to being created entirely by code. This left it very vulnerable to subterfuge.
Second, there is a noticeable shift in patrol movements between 10:15 and 10:45 PM. I realized after a while that they actually rotate the guards between these times, though the tightness of this window is a wild variable. This means there is a potential 15 to 30 minute gap where there is no one guarding the doors in front of our quarters.
The third, and final major detail was the most important one. Recently, one of our quarian friends discovered that the station recently received a dozen new Kodiak shuttles to replace the older ones. These shuttles are not only FTL capable, but they also came pre-equipped with Cerberus IFFs. They'd allow us to escape without getting instantly shot down.
The biggest problem with any escape plan involved the SDD. No matter what we did, we needed to make sure that it's thoroughly destroyed. We couldn't leave them with anything, not even a scrap of paper could remain from our project work. We decided that the easiest thing to do would be to overload the SDD's beryllium core, replicate what happened to the old one.
Not a very original plan, but we know it'll work.
I opened the capsule, unraveling the red tape to see the latest message.
"We've got a wedge into the system thanks to another talented prisoner in section four. We're ready to go whenever you're ready." The message read as I focused hard on the small print. I then rolled up the message and swallowed it, knowing that it was the safest way to dispose of it.
As I finished the rest of my shower, I pondered whether or not tomorrow would be the day we attempt to do this. This was an extremely risky prospect, trying to escape like this, but if we did it right we'd be home free.
I finally came to the answer, nodding to give myself a little hype.
We make our move tomorrow.
…
The Barn, April 29th, 9:10 PM, 2184
…
All things considered, I felt significantly more alive and full of energy. We did what was expected of us the entire day, mostly troubleshooting while we waited for the new lens to arrive. By most standards, the SDD was ready to go, but without the proper equations and the final lens the device was still useless. Dan and I still didn't know what exact equations would be needed for this, nor did we want to. The less we could give them, the better.
Once everyone had gotten the final message, we called it a day and were sent back to our quarters. It was there we waited patiently for our window to open. Once we did this, there would be no going back.
I stared long and hard at the camera above me, waiting for the record light to shut off. I refused to even blink, knowing that AI was watching me.
The red light blinked off as the aperture closed over the lens.
I immediately jumped out of my bed, grabbing a steel bar from behind my fridge and a small bag of supplies I had accumulated. I ran over to the now unlocked door, taking in a deep breath before opening it. It slid open, revealing that the guard was indeed not here.
I ran down the hallway, making sure there was no one else in sight before moving forward. I had thoroughly memorized the path through here, knowing Dan should have been around here somewhere. Sure enough, I ran into him a few seconds later, wearing the clothes he had worn before our capture just like me.
"Run into any problems?" I asked quickly, keeping my eyes on the hallways in case any guards walked through.
"Nope." He replied, looking quickly at his sharpened piece of metal before smiling. "You ready to do this?"
"I couldn't be more ready even if I tried." I said, cracking my neck with a satisfying pop. "Let's blow the SDD and go home."
We then ran to the main reception for this level, where there was only one guard and receptionist. We were fortunate that the reception desk faced the elevator, away from us. The guards were always armed with a standard stun baton and an M-358 Talon pistol, some specially designed Cerberus hand cannon.
"I don't understand, this has never happened before." I heard the receptionist say as we slowly inched closer. "Since when have we been unable to connect to the mainframe like this?"
"I don't know, maybe it's just a glitch." The night guard theorized, scratching his head as we got closer and closer.
Once we were within melee distance, we both sprang into action. Dan quickly pulled the guard back, stabbing him in the neck with his makeshift knife while I whacked his buddy upside the head with my steel bar. The guard was dead within seconds, and the receptionist wasn't moving at all.
We dragged the bodies into the back room and disposed of them into a few lockers. We exchanged our crude weapons, Dan taking the Talon pistol while I took the stun baton. We then moved into the stairway, electing to avoid the elevator for obvious reasons.
"You sure you can replicate what happened before?" I asked as we ascended the vacant stairway.
"It should be as simple as removing the argon co-connections and setting the system into maximum power mode." He explained as we made it to the main level. "I hope they aren't having any issues with that AI…"
We stacked up on the exit, waiting for the marines to initiate the next step of our escape. It didn't take long for the red emergency lights to activate and for the alarms to sound.
"Warning: Section Four holding cells now open." UDI announced over the station-wide intercom system as a rumble could be felt from an explosion. "Security teams, report immediately."
We waited a few more second before bursting into the next level, where there was no security at all. The diversion had worked. I hoped that they'd all be able to get out of there, it was likely chaos right now.
We ran past the empty security checkpoint, flashing our IDs to open the doors to the X3 lab. Inside, all the lights slowly flickered on as we ran down the ramp to the SDD itself.
"Alright, put this on." Dan ordered, handing me an emergency respirator. "We don't have time to manually disconnect the argon tanks, so I'm just going to blast them open."
"Alright, I'll begin the startup sequence for the beryllium core." I agreed, running back up to the main console and booting it up. It was relatively easy to override the safeties, which there were about a dozen of.
Dan ran to the back of the SDD and began shooting holes into the compressed canisters of argon. Without the argon cooling system, the beryllium core would have nothing to cool it anymore. We were now in a very risky situation, even riskier than before. Not only could the argon suffocate us if our masks slip or fall off, but if we activate the sequence too quickly, there'll be nothing left of us when the device blows.
I couldn't help but feel a little sad about destroying the Spatial Distortion Device again, but it had to be done. There would be no end to all the destruction Cerberus could cause with this, and I wouldn't have any of it. This was for the best.
"OK… you ready?" He asked, looking hard at me as I paused for a moment.
"I'm ready to go on my end!" I shouted as Dan blew open the last argon canister with his Talon.
The moment I pressed the activation button, we began running like bats out of hell to the exit. I knew that the explosion would be large, and neither one of us wanted to risk being anywhere close to it when it blew.
"Seal the door!" I shouted through my mask, as we quickly closed the heavy blast doors behind us.
We got as far as the security checkpoint before the device went critical, throwing us off of our feet as a massive shockwave rocked the entire station. I could see panels get lodged off of walls, windows crack, and pipes burst as the vibrations moved through everything. It felt like my teeth had been knocked around in my own skull.
"Ugh… son of a bitch!" I yelled, instantly having a headache.
"Come on, security will be here soon." Dan urged, helping me back to my feet.
"I hope they've gotten to those shuttles. We're running out of time, and fast." I replied, trying to banish the pained aches from my mind.
We moved quickly through the hallways, deciding to cut through the administration area. Due to it being off hours, there were very few people here. Those who were here had already been evacuated, much to our luck. There were three guards here trying to back up all the consoles, and we needed to get past them.
"What the hell is going on? Are we being attacked?" One of the guards asked, walking over to his buddy while the other focused on the consoles.
"Not sure. There's apparently a riot going on in section four." The other one answered, shaking his head. "I haven't been able to reach anyone on the comms, everything's engaged."
While they spoke, I moved towards the lone guard while Dan moved in closer to the two speaking. As soon as I was close enough, I burst out of cover, jamming my stun baton into the guard's stomach, causing him to vomit before I flipped around and smacked him in the face. Before the other two could react, Dan quickly plugged both of them with the surprisingly powerful pistol.
"Here." Dan said, throwing me a rifle that one of them had been holding. It appeared to be a derivative of the M-96 Mattock. "It shouldn't be too much farther to the shuttle bay."
We eventually made it through the maze-like administration section, almost being caught off guard by a ceiling turret until we destroyed it. The two of us had almost reached the shuttle bay when several more intense explosions could be felt vibrating through the station.
"What's going on now?" I asked out loud as a different siren began to blare.
"Warning: Reactor integrity compromised. Proceed to evacuation zones." UDI announced over the sirens, causing us to look at each other wide eyed.
"The SDD explosion must have damaged more than we thought." I theorized, taking in another deep breath. "We need to get out of here."
At this point, Cerberus technicians and researchers were running around in a panic outside of administration, making it harder to move through the area. It made a great distraction though, helping us remain unnoticed by security.
We finally made it to the shuttle bay, where we looked down to see gunfire being exchanged between our group and a few up armored Cerberus commandos that had made it here. They were trying to stop us and the rest of the escaped prisoners from leaving. It wasn't until now that I realized just how many people Cerberus had actually imprisoned. It was mostly asari and krogan from the looks of it, but race didn't matter here. Everyone was working together to help kill these bastards.
Dan and I decided to use our height and angle advantage, using our respective weapons to thin out their numbers a bit. We ran down the stairway, exchanging more fire until we finally reached Dimitri, Jack, and Sira.
"I'm going to assume explosions are because of you two." Dimitri said quickly, shaking his head. "We've already launched three shuttles filled with prisoners, and they're heading towards rendezvous point."
"We don't have much time, the explosion from X3 damaged the station's reactor." I replied, as the next filled shuttle zoomed out of the bay.
"We're almost ready to head out, we just need a little more time." Sira replied, reluctantly holding a Talon pistol. The poor woman had never even fired a gun before now.
I quickly popped my head out to the side, looking for anything that we could use to thin out their numbers. I did eventually spot a tank of liquid hydrogen suspended from a crane close to where the commandos were streaming in from.
"Everyone aim for that tank!" I yelled out, pointing at is as we all began shooting at the tank. It didn't take much at all to make that thing go up in a massive fireball. The fireball washed over the commandos, setting them ablaze and filling the shuttle bay with the sounds of panicked screams as they burned alive. The heat could be felt all the way over here.
"Go go go!" One of the prisoners yelled as the fifth shuttle's doors sealed shut, leaving just us five, one of the marines, and a volus.
We all ran into the last open shuttle, rounds whizzing past our heads as we ran. All of us had nearly made it in when two shots struck Jack in his back, knocking him straight to the deck outside of the shuttle.
"Jack!" I yelled out loud, jumping out into the open before another shot ricocheted off of the doorway, forcing me back inside.
"Shit… covering fire!" Dan yelled, he and the others popping out and spaying down the shooter's location as me and Ioe picked Jack up and carried him inside. The doors shut just seconds later, as the engines fired and we shot out of the Barn. Dimitri began prying open compartment looking for medical supplies, but was unable to find one.
"Where is it? Why is there no medical kit?!" Dimitri demanded in his imposing voice as the rest of us knelt down next to Jack.
He wasn't in good shape. The two shots that hit him both went directly though him, piercing his stomach and one of his lungs. He was bleeding profusely, and without a med kit, there was no medi-gel to give him. No way to stanch the bleeding.
"Heh… heh…" Jack laughed slightly, letting a weak smile cross his face. "So… this is how… it's going to go…"
"Jack, stay with us!" I urged, waking a clean rag out of my bug-out bag and using it to put pressure on the wound. "Come on man, you'll be ok!"
It wasn't working, he was bleeding too much.
"I think… we both know… that's not going to happen." Jack shot down, coughing up some blood as he forced air into his good lung. "Listen… these last few years… have given me… some… of the best... moments of my life. I wanted… to thank all… of you… for helping give me those… memories."
"Jack…" Sira said before tears began streaming from her eyes.
"You're the best… family… and old man… could ask… for." Jack finished with a smile as his head went limp.
There wasn't a sound that could be heard in those long moments. I stared down at Jack, disbelief filling my heart. It didn't matter how I felt or how anyone else felt, nothing could change what had just happened.
Jack was gone.
…
MFV Nerox, April 30th, 3:44 AM, 2184
…
After modifying the emergency beacons in each of our shuttles to broadcast on a Migrant Fleet frequency, we waited for several hours in an uncharted region of Sigurd's Cradle for rescue. Luckily, we were quickly detected by the MFV Nerox, an old Asari cruiser that had been assigned by the Admiralty to keep watch on the system.
Before then, we used the radios in each shuttle to get sit-reps from everyone. In all six shuttles total, there were 68 people. While I was unsure about certain factors such as the krogans and other prisoners we hadn't had direct contact with, they all banded together surprisingly well and worked together to escape the station.
Once on board the Nerox, everyone was placed on lockdown with the exception of me. As a captain, I was given an envirosuit to wear until I could be properly decontaminated. I was following a few marines to the bridge, where their captain was waiting to speak to me.
Despite everything, there was this deadness inside of me after what had happened to Jack. It was almost unreal seeing him die like that right in front of me… it was hard to accept. I shook my head as I neared the bridge, knowing I had to keep my mind focused until this current situation was resolved.
The inside of the bridge was actually rather large for a ship this size. The captain was looking over a report on his datapad before he turned around to face me. His suit was all red, even his faceplate.
"Captain Michaels, I'm Captain Leel'Nomis vas Nerox." The captain greeted with a handshake, which I happily accepted. "It's good to see you."
"Likewise, Captain." I returned as warmly as I could, nodding my head.
"I just finished reading the report from the security team. Truth be told, I'm still having a hard time believing it." He said, sounding slightly exasperated. "68 people, over five different species, and in Cerberus marked shuttles. What happened out there?"
I stared at him for a few seconds, thinking back to the last month that Cerberus had forced us to work for them.
"It's difficult to explain." I started, taking a deep breath before going on. "Listen, what happened isn't important right now. What I want is to get these people out of their shuttles. They've all been though a lot, and they need some space."
"Hm… you make a good point." Leel agreed, rubbing the underside of his helmet. "I'll seal off the hanger from the rest of the ship and send down some food and supplies. They'll have to stay in there until we can figure out what to do next."
"Thank you." I finished, turning around and exiting the bridge.
About an hour later, the hanger was filled with dozens of cots as people ate, talked, or tried to sleep. It looked like a disaster relief center, but it was likely the most comfortable they had been since Cerberus had taken them.
I was currently talking to Kaknar Vin, this volus computer specialist that had helped Ioe crack UDI's system and cut it off. He was an interesting individual, apparently he had worked for a private security firm before he found some information sensitive to Cerberus and was abducted. His sense of humor was quite dull, but then again not many volus were considered funny.
"It was lucky you and your friends *wheeze* came along when you did." He remarked, shaking his head slightly. "I believe they were about to dispose of me. *wheeze*"
I shook my head at the thought, when another one crossed my mind.
"Any idea why Cerberus abducted all these people?" I inquired, popping another piece of gum into my mouth. "It seems like they went through an awful lot of trouble to acquire this many people."
"*wheeze* Cerberus was abducting people for experiments." He answered rather bluntly, looking up at me. "They were using innocent people *wheeze* to test pathogens, viruses, and cybernetic implants. Nothing was prohibited."
"Wait, viruses and pathogens? We're not being exposed right now, are we?" I asked, slightly surprised by his admission.
"No, test subjects who had been exposed or experimented with were placed in a *wheeze* different ward to keep the other subjects healthy." He corrected, shaking his head. "Trust me, having the station's reactor go critical is the most merciful way *wheeze* we could have let them go."
"But the reactor going critical wasn't part of our original plan." I remarked, getting a little bit angry with him.
"Well, *wheeze* I'd be lying if I didn't admit I was slightly more concerned with my own well-being at the time." He admitted, turning away from me. "*wheeze* Still, it all worked out in the end."
I simply shook my head in disapproval as I turned to look out the hanger bay door window, staring out at the passing stars.
I wondered if Jack was watching me from somewhere out there, silently cheering us on. There would never be any way to tell for sure if there was an afterlife, but if there was, I hoped that he and my parents would get along well.
Life is a strange thing. Some of us grow up, go to school, work the same job for years until they retired and died. Some go on to become heroes in conflict, get their faces on posters and in recruitment vids. Some just live out in the countryside their entire lives, having no idea what the outside world looks like. I sought to make the lives of everyone around me better through scientific innovation.
My grandfather's inspiring words still held up well to this day. He was right.
"Remember Sean, Scientific minds thrive off discovery and problem solving." I remembered him saying to me at my high school graduation party. He had been a science teacher for many years, went to Loyola University MD back in the 60's. His favorite subject was botany, always had plants growing in his backyard.
That old phrase was a mantra to live by, one any true scientist could get behind.
I hope I could continue to bring honor to that old phrase.
…
A/N: I hope everyone enjoys this chapter, I tried to write it as fast as possible without compromising my writing standards. I was originally going to dedicate a whole chapter to the Barn and the team's time spent in it, but I decided to scrap it in exchange for something a little better. Writing a whole chapter where everyone is incredibly depressed didn't sound appealing for either me or my readers.
Speaking of readers, I'd like to personally thank everyone whose fav'd and subscribed to my story. We recently broke 250 follows, and I never expected to get this far. If it wasn't for you guys, I wouldn't have the urge to work on this story.
I'd also like to give special thanks to BJ Hanssen for all the wonderful conversations we've had. Discussing the science behind the scenes has been one of the most fun experiences I've had so far. I recommend you guys go check out his story, Mass Intelligence: Close Call. It's a rather interesting take on Mass Effect's canon, and one of the most entertaining Mass Effect fan fictions I've read in a while.
Sean and the others have escaped from Cerberus once again, this time with far more consequences. What will happen with all the refugees that they rescued? What happens when Sean and the others return home to Mara, Richard, Powell and Lydia? Wait to find out.
I'd love to read any reviews, I'm always up for suggestions or constructive criticism! Stay tuned!