…
"If I have seen further than others, it is because I stood on the shoulders of giants."
(Isaac Newton)
…
"Overlord" Facility, January 30th, 2:23 PM, 2135
…
Tali walked close to me as we followed our new "friend" with a large degree of caution, not knowing if, but when he'd likely try something to get away from us. He had led us out of the cafeteria into a linking hallway, though this path led away from Section E.
He was a large man, but was still shorter in stature than Dimitri. He armor was polished to a shine, proudly displaying the Cerberus emblem on the chestplate and shoulder pads. His rifle looked to be some kind of heavily re-designed Mattock, incorporating what appeared to be an underbarrel grenade launcher and some kind of unique sight.
I would have complimented him on it if it weren't for a few, obvious factors.
"Up here… should be the maintenance corridor." He grumbled through his mask filter, opening his omni-tool to look at a facility schematic. "Right here."
He holstered his rifle, grasping the ends of one of the wall panels and pulling with all his strength, popping the panel off without a sound. Behind it was indeed what appeared to be the door to a maintenance passage.
"So where's this lead?" I questioned, getting a faceless side glance from him as he shook his head and opened his omni-tool again, letting me look at the map.
"Waste processing is cut off due an explosion in the fuel purification system. We need to use this corridor to bypass it." He explained, pointing out the section we had originally planned on going through. "Once through, we'll move through power generation and the storage units linked to R&D."
I silently nodded, looking back at Tali as he pulled the heavy lever next to the door, releasing the door locks and letting out a sharp puff of air. The inside of the corridor was dark, barely lit and lined with plenty of electrical junctions. It was a sharp contrast to the clean, bright-white uniform walls in the hallway.
He stepped into the corridor, with me following behind as Tali covered the rear. She closed the door, immediately cutting off about sixty percent of our light.
"Watch your step." Randall warned, climbing over a small electrical junction that haphazardly crossed the floor.
As we walked through the near pitch black tunnel, a rumble could be felt through the floor. It was noticeably mechanical, not explosive in nature.
"What the hell is that?" I asked, cocking my eyebrows as Randall turned around to face me.
"Remember when I told you I'd need your help?" He questioned, looking back to the front as he continued walking. "There's something wrong with the facility's reactor. I don't know if it was damaged in the fighting or if the project affected it, but its venting excess heat faster and faster."
"Why would we bother fixing it?" Tali questioned as she and I failed to see the point of not letting it go.
"If the reactor goes, it's going to turn us and this entire region into a fireball." He stated in a grim tone, shaking his head.
"That doesn't make any sense, fusion reactors can't explode." Tali interjected, pointing out the obvious inconsistency.
"They can if the magnetic fields fail while the thing is in full operation." He specified, sounding even more annoyed. "We don't have time to argue. I don't know how to fix it, and I'm guessing you value your life as much as I do."
Tali and I looked at each other, fully aware of what the other was thinking. This seemed sketchy, but we'd keep going with it for now.
We reached the end of the long tunnel, popping the hatch revealing a much more grimy interior than the previous one. Heat flowed over us, easily feeling like it was over one-hundred degrees fahrenheit even through the suit. It was obvious this place had seen some wear and tear. We all climbed out and sealed the hatch again, making sure not to make too much noise.
Down the hallway, we had a perfect view of some kind of reactor I had never seen before. It seemed to be reminiscent of one of Dan and I's older reactor prototype designs, one of the purely fusion-based ones we had batted around back on Aldrin Station. Our only path to the reactor itself was a long catwalk with little cover.
Unfortunately, we were not alone. The reactor room was host to at least seven more Geth platforms, one of which was a Prime, and another was a type I hadn't seen before, black-clad and with an additional "eye" on the left side of its head.
"Well, this looks interesting." I snarked, not liking what I was seeing here as sweat could be felt rolling down my back. "Any ideas?"
"We could use those pipes down there as cover." Tali pointed out, noting the cluster of metal pipes that led down towards the reactor floor. "It might get us too close to the reactor."
"Too risky, those pipes are pumping coolant and other shit to the reactor. They get damaged, we might lose control over it." Randall denied, shaking his head. "We're already in a good position here… If I move out and distract them, we might be able to get them away from the reactor."
I thought over his idea, knowing both Tali and I didn't want to risk anything with this man. That being said, he was right. The risk of damage to the reactor and components around it was too great.
"Fine, but we have our eyes on you." I reluctantly agreed, gesturing towards the open space with the barrel of my gun.
Without hesitation, he gave himself a running start out into the open, diving over the railing onto the reactor floor below. One of the platforms spotted him doing this, alerting the rest to what was going on.
"He's a showoff." Tali scoffed, hefting her shotgun as we waited for the Geth to move away from the reactor. "Wait… where did the one go?"
"What do you mean?" I questioned, peeking over our cover to see the odd-looking platform from before was missing. "Um… it couldn't have run off that quickly. Its gone."
Out of sheer curiosity, I switched on my thermals to check for any cloaking devices. I had trouble seeing anything due to the high heat of the room, but knew something was out there. Just as I turned my head to peek again, I spotted a large, blurred signature rushing towards us at frightening speeds.
"Shit!" I yelled in sudden panic, raising my rifle and firing at the cloaked platform three times in quick succession. It fell over, re-appearing as one of the rounds tore into its chest, hitting something vital. It smashed into the ground in front of me, coming to a stop just as the other platforms started firing at me.
"Watch out!" She warned, waving me out of the way as she fired another overcharged blast from her shotgun, tearing into the platform furthest from the reactor.
"Where'd you learn how to do that with a shotgun?" I questioned, finding myself surprised every time I saw her do it.
"I have this crazy, Krogan uncle who decided to teach me a few tricks on the old Normandy." She replied casually, taking cover next to me. "What's that bosh'tet doing down there?"
Her question was answered a few seconds later as booming gunfire erupted from the other side of the reactor hall. Randall opened up with his heavy rifle from a position where he had the perfect spot to fire on them without risking damage to the reactor.
Seeing this, Tali and I popped back out of cover, suppressing the Geth platforms closest to us with another burst of gunfire and managing to knock one out. Looking back over our cover, I noticed our approach was looking clear
"Come on!" I yelled, running out of cover towards the gunfire on the other side of the reactor hall. With Tali following closely behind, we finally got an angle on the remaining Geth that didn't risk the reactor. As Randall shot the last two smaller platforms, Tali and I focused our combined power on the large Prime.
As we ripped through its kinetic barriers, we managed to nail it directly in the photoreceptor, seemingly blinding it. It flailed around wildly for a few moments, trying to hit us with inaccurate fire before Randall put a hole through its chest with a biotic blast, killing it.
I could feel the sweat pouring down my face as my heart pounded against my chest plate. Unfortunately, I knew I didn't have time to dwell on it. The reactor visibly rumbled as it attempted to vent more excess heat, a clearly visible haze emanating from it.
Without a moment to lose, I ran over to the main reactor console near the edge of the reactor, kept inside its own little "shack" overlooking the entire reactor floor. The body of a Cerberus technician, donned in full hazard gear was slumped over the center control station. Luckily, the console was still active.
"Alright, let's see what the problem is." I said to myself, bringing the terminal to full operation and pulling up the latest automated status report. What I saw was not pretty.
It appeared one of the superconducting magnets had been damaged at some point during this whole incident, causing the magnetic field to be knocked out of alignment by a few inches. This was enough of a difference to cause instability in the closed system. Worse yet, the controls for alignment were unresponsive.
"Well, what we have here is an… interesting situation." I remarked with a sudden sense of nervousness, pulling at the material around my neck to try and alleviate the heat I was feeling. This was bad.
"What do you mean by "interesting"?" Tali questioned, likely having noticed the tone of my voice changing.
"Oh god, we're all going to die?" I stammered out, the heat really starting to get to me. "Uh, the short explanation is that the magnetic field is failing because the superconducting magnets are warping from heat. We can't cool the magnets without shutting off the reactor, but if we shut it off, the plasma will breach the coils and quench the entire system."
"The hell does that mean?" Randall asked, walking up and looking at the screen in an attempt to understand the gravity of the situation.
"It means all that heat will be dumped into the magnets, wires, and cooling systems, causing them to fail and eject the fuel into the atmosphere." I explained, doing my best to explain and think of possible solutions at the same time. "If the containment system doesn't completely fail and incinerate us all, we'll be exposed to high levels of tritium and… um, die of radiation poisoning."
Silence filled the small shack for a few moments as we all came to feel the pressure. I wasn't sure how to remedy this situation at all given I've had no experience with this reactor design at all before, but I knew if I didn't do something we'd all be dead.
"Wait a second, I have an idea." Tali broke the silence, nudging me out of the way to look at the reactor readouts on the screens. "Can't we realign the magnet to restore the field?"
"I already tried that, the controls are unresponsive." I shook my head, looking back at her.
"OK, then what if we redirect the contents of the outer cryogen tank into the inner tanks where the magnets are? That could cool the magnets enough to restore their integrity." She suggested, putting her hands on her hips.
"It could work, but if any parts of the reactor fail due to the sudden temperature change, there'll be nothing to protect us from a quench." I remarked, rubbing the underside of my chin. "But maybe… Randall, how good are your biotics?"
"Why?" He said, crossing his arms across his chest.
"If we can just realign this magnet here by a few inches left, we'll be able to restore synergy to the reactor's magnetic field." I explained, pointing at the portion with the red light sticking off the outside of the reactor vessel. "Think you can pull it off?"
He let out a deep sigh, looking up at the ceiling before focusing back on me.
"It's do or die at this point. Can't hurt to try, I suppose." He reluctantly agreed, rubbing his hands together as he vaulted over the railing, running towards the misaligned magnet.
Taking position, he charged his biotics to their full strength, glowing with a bluish aura as the energy could be seen building up in the palms of his hands. He took hold of the magnet, holding his hands into the air and clenching them as if squeezing a ball in his hands. An alarm began blaring in the background as he did this, causing my ears to ring.
"More...more!" I yelled as loud as possible, warning messages and errors popping up on the screen. Tali bounced on one of her legs out of what I could only assume to be nerves, watching him as we all clenched our teeth.
Finally, a loud clanking noise rang out through the reactor hall as the magnet snapped back into place. The alarm shut off as the readings on the field integrity began to level off to what I assumed were safe levels. Randall's arms went limp seconds later, looking completely exhausted.
Before I could say anything to Tali or Randall however, the screeching, electronic "voice" from before rng out again, but this time with more clarity. It sounded like it had said "make it stop".
"Keelah… that time I heard it!" She exclaimed with surprise, seemingly looking back at me, but over my shoulder. "What is that?"
"What is…" I began to say, looking back to see what looked like a series of green, tinted squares making a face of some kind on the console screen. "Um… I don't know..."
It then let out another electronic screech, disappearing less than a second later.
"What the hell is that?" Randall called out to us with a considerable amount of weakness in his voice.
"I think your Cerberus project is angry with us." I remarked with a sneer, finally feeling the heat around me beginning to dissipate. "We might want to move on, there could be more Geth on the way."
"Agreed." He nodded, picking his rifle back up and rolling his shoulders. "Let's get moving."
With that, we ran to the other side of the reactor hall, stacking up on the door that led to the storage areas near the lab. Kicking open the door, Randall immediately leveled his rifle, checking for any hostiles. Luckily, there was nothing there, and we moved on.
The storage areas here were dark, cramped, and eerily quiet. It was filled to the brim with large cargo containers of various sizes, and occasionally we ran across one that was open. The inside of each container was the same, appearing to have some kind of racks lined up in neat rows. What puzzled me was how some of the "slots" on these racks were twisted and bent outwards, almost as if something had forced its way out of them.
"Any idea what they were storing here?" I asked out of genuine curiosity, shining my headlamp into one of the containers.
He stopped, turning around to peer into the container alongside me.
"No, but my best guess is that there were Geth here." He shrugged before locking eyes with me through his polarized visor. "Does it really matter?"
I looked at Tali for a moment, unsure exactly how to respond before giving him my own shrug.
"I suppose not." I admitted as he turned around, walking away as Tali quickly paced up to me.
"How much longer are we going to follow this bosh'tet around?" She whispered, leaning towards me. "It's only a matter of time before he does something."
"The moment he opens up the way to the research labs we'll try to subdue him." I promised, making sure to keep my voice down. "If he proves too much trouble, we'll eliminate him."
Tali nodded as we moved back into formation, doing our best to keep our wits about ourselves in this dark space. Eventually we came across what looked like a heavy lift that appeared as if it stretched upwards infinitely due to the dark. It was enough to fit three of these heavy containers on.
"This lift will take us to the security station." He explained, looking back at us before walking to the nearby console. "Once there, I can call off the lockdown and we'll have full access to the labs."
Suddenly, there was a loud sound near the back of the room where we came from, sounding like something falling over. We all whipped around to aim our weapons at the source of the noise, a small step ladder that had been knocked over. We couldn't see anything.
"Hello? Anyone there?" I asked out loud, taking a few cautious steps forward as I switched on my thermals, suspecting another one of those cloaked Geth or maybe even a survivor if we were lucky.
Oddly enough, I found neither as I moved through into the darkness, unable to shake a sudden, uneasy feeling in my stomach. There was no way the ladder could have fallen over by itself, it was on all four legs and still. Someone or something had knocked it over.
Before I could say anything else, I heard another sound near me, this time some kind of dull thud against metal. It was almost as if someone had thrown themselves against one of the wall panels.
"I've got a bad feeling about this…" I shook my head, hearing the thud again, but this time to my right. "You two see anything?"
"It's too dark, I can't make anything out." Tali yelled out as I peered towards the source of the sound, managing to spot the blur of something moving fast before disappearing behind one of the crates.
"There's something in the room with us." Randall said in a terse voice as I began to slowly move backwards towards the center of the room. I could have sworn I felt a set of eyes on me as I did so, another one of those "thumps" ringing out, this time much closer.
Suddenly, the blur I had spotted before appeared, sticking its head past the edge of one of the containers and looking at me. It looked vaguely like a Geth head, but lacking any of the armor plating. We both made eye contact for a moment before some kind of blast shot out from below its eye socket, nailing me straight in the chest, knocking me to the floor and shorting my kinetic barriers.
"Oh fu-...son of a bitch!" I grunted out in severe pain before fruitlessly firing a quick burst at the creature as it ducked away. "We've got a hostile! Something fast!"
I scurried across the floor, taking cover inside one of the open containers as I fought to keep the pain at bay. Whatever the thing had fired at me hadn't caused me any dangerous damage, but it completely blew out the kinetic barriers, forcing the armor plating to take the brunt of the impact. A small hole could be seen in my chestplate where the ablative materials had absorbed the impact.
I didn't have to time to inspect the damage further, however. I heard Tali fire her shotgun in my direction, sending small fragments of metal into the air as she attempted to hit whatever we were fighting.
"I saw it! It's small, moving fast!" She announced as I got back on my feet, hefting my Mattock. "I think it's a Hopper!"
"A Hopper?!" I questioned out loud, having no clue what she was talking about.
"Just use incendiary ammunition!" She replied with some frustration in her voice as I heeded her advice, switching the Mattock over to incendiary mode. "They move fast, keep an eye on the ceilings and any corners!"
I peered out from the relative safety of the cargo container, visually scanning each corner as I kept my eyes open for the Hopper that shot me. Slowly moving out of the container as my kinetic barriers went back up, I switched off my thermals and kept my eyes on the ceilings and walls around me. It was near pitch-dark in this part of the room, and I knew its flashlight head might give it away.
Turning the corner, I spotted it down one of the passages between the containers, firing two rounds at it. One of the rounds managed to make contact, sending up a small flash before it leapt away again. I could hear it let out an electronic shriek as it did so, my round likely having caused some damage.
"It's near the southwest corner, moving fast!" I shouted out, hearing Tali and Randall firing their weapons.
I moved up, attempting to pursue the platform deeper into storage. Nearing the next corner, I was shocked to see the Hopper leap directly towards me, leaving me no time to react. It knocked me to the ground, attempting to grab me by the throat as I tucked my chin down and punched it in the photoreceptor. It's grip was incredibly strong, and I could hear a faint whining sound as something charged, likely whatever it had shot at me before.
"Get off of me, you bag of bolts!" I yelled in frustration, attempting to keep it from looking at me with that head-mounted weapon. Spotting the scorched hole from where I had shot it, I jammed my hand inside, attempting to cause it some kind of pain or yank on something important.
It screeched in simulated pain, grabbing at my hand in an attempt to stop me. Seizing the opportunity, I quickly drew my Carnifex, landing three shots in its torso, center mass. It jumped backwards, writhing around on the floor for a few moments before going still, twitching as its photoreceptor went dark.
I panted heavily, handgun still aimed at the platform's corpse as I attempted to steady myself.
"Why am I the one who always gets into these kinds of fights…" I asked out loud, holstering the gun and picking my Mattock back up. "Are we clear? Any more of them?"
"We're clear, hurry your ass up." Randall exclaimed, getting me to roll my eyes.
Back in the middle, I inspected my left hand in the light of the elevator, seeing it was covered in that conductive fluid of theirs. I wiped in on my spare rag as the elevator began its ascent, shrouding us once again in darkness.
"What happened to you?" Tali quipped, leaning over towards me.
"I got jumped." I shook my head, putting the rag back into my pocket as we neared the next floor, labeled "SECURITY" in big, red letters.
"Stack up." Randall ordered, with the two of us reluctantly obeying as he opened the doors, revealing a longer hallway with one larger blast door on the left side. The architecture here matched what we had seen previously, meaning we must have been going in the right direction.
Slowly we moved down the hallway, keeping an eye on both doors as Randall made a beeline for the blast door on the left. He opened it, revealing a smaller security station that overlooked what looked to be some kind of server rooms below, separated by thick, frosted panes of glass.
"Alright, here we go… be prepared for anything. There's no telling what could be in those labs." He warned, accessing his omni-tool and connecting it directly to the console.
Just as we turned around to guard the doorway behind us, the electronic voice from before screeched out loud, forcing me to instinctually cover my ears. That wasn't the only thing screaming, however. Randall yelled at the top of his lungs, nearly doubling over as he grasped at his helmet, pulling on it before it snapped off at the collar, revealing his face.
He was an older man, looking to be in his fifties or sixties with gray hair. The shocking thing about him was his face, which appeared to be traced with bluish cybernetic implants, including his eyes. He grit his teeth, looking at both of us as his eyes lit up, turning a sickly shade of green as the implants on his face did the same. "Overlord" must have done something to him.
Tali raised her shotgun defensively as he staggered forward, omni-tool still active as his movements lessened, looking forward as if staring out into the distance. Tali continued to aim her shotgun directly at his head as he began wandering towards the hallway, seeming oblivious to our presence.
Before we could follow him, the doors suddenly slammed shut, locking both of us in.
"What the-... hey!" I shouted, banging my fists fruitlessly against the door before turning back towards Tali. "What the hell is going on?"
"That bosh'tet set us up!" She exclaimed in anger, looking around for the door controls. "I knew we shouldn't have followed him here!"
"I'm not sure, but I don't think that was him we saw just now." I suggested, not wanting our situation to become more heated than it needed to be.
"We've got to get this door open!" Tali remarked, accessing the panel next to the door to no avail. "These controls are locked, something's disabled them."
"It's a magnetically sealed blast door. There's no way we're getting through there with brute force." I talked down, sitting on a nearby chair.
Tali's shoulders slumped as she realized the gravity of our situation. We were completely trapped here.
"So, what? We're just going to sit here?" She said, holding her hands up as she looked at me in what I could only guess was disbelief. "We have to do somethin-"
Suddenly, as if a prayer had just been answered, a burst of static could be heard over our omni-tools, followed by Miranda's voice.
"Sean, Tali, do you read me, over?" I heard as Tali and I looked at each other in minor shock.
"Roger, we read you Miri." I answered with renewed energy, standing up and pacing as I spoke.
"Pistis and I have… disabled the communications array. We've made sure this frequency is clear of any interference." She explained, sounding nearly as exhausted as me. "What's your location? We're taking a lift from the surface down towards the labs."
"Tali and I are stuck inside a security station between Storage and Research and Development. We can't leave without outside assistance." I exhaled, rubbing the back of my neck.
"That security station is on the other side of the facility. How did you and Creator Zorah come to be there?" Pistis questioned, getting me to instinctually press my hands against the side of my head.
"It's a long story… let's just say we're not the only ones here." I answered, feeling sweat building up on my forehead again. "That might be the same lift next to us. If you two go down father and see "SECURITY" printed in bold, red letters, you should be right by us."
"Understood, we're on our way." Miranda finished, cutting the line and leaving us with silence once more.
"Keelah, that's a stroke of pure luck." Tali shook her head, crossing her arms.
"After everything we've been through already, it's about time something went our way for a change." I deadpanned, walking up to the door and pacing in front of it. "We'll need to move quickly once we're out of here, there's no telling what he could be doing in those labs."
Tali nodded as we waited in silence for a few more moments, anticipating the arrival of our compatriots any time now.
A few minutes later, the doors groaned to life, sliding open again revealing Miranda and Pistis looking no worse for wear aside from a few scuff marks and ashes.
"Man, aren't you guys a sight for sore eyes." I smiled, taking my rifle back out as we all moved towards the labs.
"So, who else is running around here?" Miranda questioned, looking worried through her depolarized faceplate.
"One of your old Cerberus friends, Randall Ezno." I answered, focusing on her for a few moments as we stacked up on the door. "He's here to retrieve the data from the experiment and destroy the entire facility. We think that this "Project Overlord" of theirs has taken control of him using his cybernetic implants."
"Well, in that case we'd better be on full alert." Miranda nodded, opening the door to reveal absolute carnage. Several Geth platforms had been smashed to pieces around us by biotics, and there was evidence of even more fighting further down the hall.
It was clear to all of us that this was fresh.
The hallway, following a circular curve, led to several smaller lab spaces which appeared to have seen similar levels of destruction.
"Doctor-Michaels, we detect several explosions in the level below." Pistis warned, getting us to move faster. Reaching the end of the hallway, we found another, smaller lift.
Piling on, it lowered us down into what appeared to be some sort of large chamber. I could see Randall standing there, completely unaware of our presence as he stared at something I couldn't quite make out. It was only after we walked closer that I discovered what he was gazing at.
There was a man, bare naked, suspended in the air by several braces, with tubes and contact points sticking out of nearly every part of his arms, legs, and body. What looked to be some sort of computer uplink was wired around his head, giving the impression along with his raised arms that he had been crucified. His eyes darted around the room, unable to blink due to there being clips keeping his eyelids open.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was one of the cruelest things I had ever laid eyes upon.
"This… is the end result of Project Overlord." Randall said slowly, turning to face me with a calm, but deeply saddened look on his face. His implants had returned to their normal, cool blue shade. "He… showed me what they had done to him, what they put him through."
"What do you mean?" I asked, walking over and standing directly next to him.
"I saw the world through his eyes… and felt it all." He remarked, turning back to face the man. "David Archer, a mathematical savant, younger brother of Gavin Archer, project lead of Overlord. His own brother forced him into this… to become this."
In that moment, I finally understood what had happened here. He was trying to make them stop, to protect himself from Cerberus and his brother. De-orbiting the station, the Geth everywhere, attempting to overload the reactor, it was all him.
"But, for what purpose?" I pressed further, wanting to know why something so awful had been done to this man.
"Apparently Gavin believed that by creating an intelligence to rival the Geth, he could get them to follow Cerberus like they had followed Saren." He went on, the sunken look on his face somehow becoming even more grim.
"That is highly illogical. Geth seek our own future, those who followed Saren are a small sect of Geth." Pistis quipped, walking closer. "It appears David Archer possesses significant understanding of Geth source code and language, enough to hijack platforms connected to a central network, in addition to standard computer and communication systems."
"They put him through all of this… for nothing. Nothing at all." I shook my head, feeling more anger in my chest. "Pistis, any chance he can he be disconnected from all of that without killing him?"
"It is, none of his vital organs appear to be connected." He nodded in his usual, exaggerated manner.
"What about you, then? Aren't you going to threaten to kill him and run off like you did last time?" I said, focusing all my attention on Randall.
"No... I'm done with the Illusive Man and his damned organization." He answered, shaking his head slowly as he threw his handgun to the side, letting it clack down one of the server shafts. "That being said, I don't intend to stay here and be taken into Alliance custody."
I stared long and hard at him, not exactly sure what to do with him. His cybernetic eyes were still sunken in their sockets, but he had already proven aggressive before and I believed he'd try to fight back if we tried to take him in. We may have had him outnumbered, but that didn't make him any less lethal.
I decided to take the diplomatic route and offer him a choice.
"Tell you what… if you give us the location of your cell, I'll forget we ever saw you." I offered in a softer voice, holstering my Mattock and crossing my arms. "Does that sound like a good deal?"
He looked between me and my squad mates for a few moments before nodding slightly, opening up a small compartment on his armor's right gauntlet and pulling out an OSD.
"This should be more than enough intel for you and your friends." He said with reassurance as I popped it into my omni-tool, seeing the display explode into a giant list of Cerberus shipping routes, facility coordinates, and everything else under the sun. I was shocked. "Satisfied?"
"You're free to go." I nodded in agreed, offering him a handshake which he accepted firmly without hesitation. "There's an FTL-capable Cerberus shuttle about two kilometers northwest between the spires. Take it and get out of here."
With that, I watched the man walk away, leaving us with David Archer. We'd have to take him to a proper medical facility soon, but for now we just needed to get him out of this machine and stabilized. I let out a deep sigh, opening up my omni-tool to contact the Normandy.
After this facility was dust, we'd be going home one last time before the real hunt began.
…
A/N: Once again, I'd like to apologize for these chapters taking so long to get out there. I've just finished college for the semester, so hopefully I'll be able to get more writing done during the holidays. There was a bit of a lull in my writing due to me forcing myself through my last few assignments, but now it's over!
As always, I'd love to read any reviews, and I'm always up for suggestions and constructive criticism! Stay tuned!