Chapter 8 – Time Out

January 23rd, 2211, 2227 hours – Aboard the SSV Hippocrates, Deck 7, Bridge

5 hours and 27 minutes after Outbreak

I had my back casually up against the edge of a console as I chewed absentmindedly on one of Percival's ration bars, watching the ongoing clusterfuck that was the impromptu war council between Percival, Captain Murgen, Lieutenant-Commander Barthilus, and Farragut with mild interest.

To my left sat Cade and Camilla, silently lounging in a pair of chairs, their eyes also observing the ongoing debate between the divided officers. Like me, they both decided to use the downtime to refuel. Cade delicately picking dried strips of cured meat out of a ration bag while Camilla took tentative bites out of a piece of my ration bar that I had given her.

I never understood why Percival always packed strawberry-flavored bars. I had never seen him eat one or even take a bite from one in the history of ever, not in the dozens of missions and half a decade that we'd ran together. As tempting as it was to assume that he deliberately chose to pack the shittiest flavor just out of spite, given the fact that I routinely borrowed his ration bars when we were out in the field, the truth was he probably relegated himself to the crappier flavors so that I could have more of the better ones.

I sighed and stuffed the rest of it in my mouth, grimacing at the taste. On my right stood Rake and the rest of his team, lined up with their backs straight and likewise intently observing the drama unfold. For the last twenty minutes, Percival and Barthilus were wearily insisting that recoupling the drive core should be our primary objective, while Farragut was vehemently arguing against it, instead insisting that we should call for reinforcements and secure the ship.

To top it all off, a new issue that had cropped up during our diagnostic sweep of the ship. A biohazard had been detected in one of the biology labs, causing the SSV Hippocrates to enter a state of lock-down, rendering the ship's lifeboats and hangar doors completely inoperable. We'd have to investigate and solve the problem before we could even think about evacuating.

Acting as the unofficial DMZ between the two factions was Captain Elias Murgen and First Lieutenant Jonathan Bradford, commanding officer and second-in-command of the Alliance Jaegers from the Excalibur respectively. Murgen acted as an arbiter to both sides, pushing for either party to bring to board considerations and hidden factors that might strengthen each side's case, despite the fact that he likely supported Percival and Barthilus.

Rake, or Gunnery Chief Rakiharu Kinzo, leaned in and whispered in my ear. "What do you think will happen, sir?" he asked.

I finished chewing my mouthful, quickly swallowed the rest of the bar and making a face at the taste as I did so before turning to answer his question.

"One team is going to hit the engine room and then the biology lab. Then we're going to blow this fucking ship and kill every last one of these creatures, Gunnery Chief." I answered simply. Systems Alliance captain, commanding officer of the SSV Hippocrates, Farragut could be the Primarch of Palaven for all I cared. He could kiss my ass, right after he kissed his ship goodbye.

"Both the main engine room and the biology lab in question are up on deck 12, about halfway through the ship. It makes sense that we'd hit the engine room first before moving to biology, either way we need to fix both issues before we can get off this ship. But regardless of their locations we can't in good conscience lift the locks on all the lifeboats and hangar doors without securing the destruction of the ship first. We can't run the risk of having these things get out before we secure a way to destroy them." Soph explained to him.

Jay scratched behind his ear. "Why would the saboteurs even bother unhooking the drive core in the first place? And what's with the bio-hazard? Wouldn't that also trap them on the ship with the hazard and these creatures?"

Fly nudged Jay "Probably because they're bat-shit crazy, brother, when you're just a grunt sometimes it's best to leave all the 'why's' to your CO"

"I think it all ties back into the fact that whoever these saboteurs are, they don't want any of the crew escaping" Soph answered him.

I quietly agreed with the technical specialist, although a myriad of questions still nagged me. First and foremost being what the saboteurs stood to gain from unleashing these monsters aboard the ship. The fact that they had sabotaged our air, our communications, even our engines all seemed to point to the fact that the saboteurs really did not want any survivors on this ship. Did they release these things in an attempt to wipe out the crew and take the ship for themselves? Did they have some sort of fail-safe or any protective measures in place that would protect them from these creatures or the failing ship systems?

Finally, my mind went back to my encounter in the data archives. The rogue N7 had been quite insistent on not letting the crazed salarian kill me. If they wanted to eliminate the ships' crew, why would he balk at the death of a few Spectres? None of it made any sense to me. I couldn't even begin to guess at their true overall objective.

A loud bang jolted our attention back to the war council. "This ship is the headquarters of the Systems Alliance Research and Development Division and is the exclusive property of the Systems Alliance!" Captain Farragut loudly complained, his hand slapping the holo-table in anger. "I cannot allow you to destroy this ship! We should stay here, call for reinforcements to destroy these creatures!"

Percival rubbed the bridge of his nose and replied much more calmly. "Captain Farragut, we absolutely cannot allow a single one of these creatures to leave this ship. If we call for reinforcements we stand to increase the risk of exposure and increase the number of potential infection vectors available to these creatures. If the Hippocrates were to be suddenly docked with a dozen relief craft, that's a dozen more ways that one or more of these things might find a way off. If even a single one of these things manage to find their way off this ship, we could be seeing these things spread throughout our galaxy in a matter of months."

Farragut brushed off Percival's explanation without so much as a second moment of consideration, "The imperative word being "may". Need I remind you that this ship contains some of the most cutting-edge Systems Alliance technology and conducts numerous experiments and projects of vital import? If we destroy the ship the Systems Alliance will lose years if not decades of research! We'd be vulnerable to all sorts of extraterrestrial threats" he yelled frantically at him.

Percival snapped his teeth shut and clenched his jaws tightly, causing the masseter muscles in his face to ripple—the closest I ever saw him get to being truly, truly angry. Barthilus twitched his mandibles in irritation and moved to address his commanding officer.

"Captain, with all due respect, the Spectre is right. We need to destroy this ship. Look how fast the situation has deteriorated since these things first appeared. If they find a way off the ship it could put the lives of millions—if not billions—in danger" Barthilus pleaded with the obstinate Captain.

Captain Murgen and the rest of the Jaegers stared at Farragut with a look that was just absolutely hemorrhaging more and more respect as the conversation went on. Although both Captain Murgen and Farragut both technically held the same rank within the Systems Alliance Navy, I knew that Murgen thought along the same lines as Percival, and had most likely already chosen to defer to the expertise of the Council Spectre. He narrowed his eyes dangerously at the wide-eyed, frantic visage of his fellow Captain.

Rake took off his helmet, scratched his head and sighed. "We don't have the firepower or the manpower to both guard the survivors on the Bridge and to simultaneously target both objectives, so chances are we're going to take a small team that will hit the engine room, then the biology wing?" he half-asked me.

"We'll probably also need to take two technicians, one to recouple the drive core and one to act as back-up, and at least one scientist for the contaminant, which will probably be Dr. Jaelen Veers" Soph gestured at the salarian biology scientist currently standing a few meters behind Farragut. I had met him and the asari, Dr. Rentea T'lana, all the way back at Containment Airlock One, right after the start of the outbreak. They had both survived, having successfully made their way with Percival and a group of other survivors to our location.

"After that," Jay continued, "We'll probably take five or six shooters and leave the rest of them here to guard the survivors. We fix up the engine, the contaminant, the surviving bridge crew here will set the self-destruct and everyone will make their way to one of the hangars, where the SSV Excalibur will hopefully pick us up or we hitch a ride on one of the shuttles, easy peasy"

I sighed and scratched my head. If only it was that simple. Firstly we didn't know the extent of the hostile presence at either of those two locations. It could potentially be a lot more than a small fireteam were equipped to handle, especially if we had to escort civilian specialists. Secondly, we had no idea how many surviving saboteurs they were, or what their current objective was. I assumed that they had been responsible for releasing the contaminant, although for what reason I could not guess.

Lastly, there was this feeling I had deep down that we were somehow missing something, something important, something that we had failed to consider. I racked my brain, trying to figure out what we could have missed, what we could have overlooked, but came up empty-handed. I sighed, hoping that it would hit me sooner or later. Even before I'd been made a Council Spectre I had learned to listen to my feelings. They had saved me more than once.

Farragut started up again, seeing the sudden silence of his opposition as a sign of his inevitable victory. "As the ranking Alliance officer, I order you to go call your ship for reinf—"

I was jolted from my thoughts as Farragut's words were abruptly cut off. My hand flew to my Predator and my amp sparked on as my eyes saw Farragut suddenly slump onto the holo-table and immediately began scanning the room for any sign of a cloaked saboteur who might have decided to target the Systems Alliance officer.

My brow furrowed in confusion as I saw that no one else looked remotely concerned, Percival had a bemused expression on his face while Cade chortled loudly beside me. Standing behind the unconscious form of Captain Farragut was Dr. Jaelen Veers. In his hand he had a large, hypodermic needle while his other had a finger to the carotid artery of the unconscious Captain.

"Pardon me, scans indicated Captain Farragut exhibited a worryingly elevated heart rate and abnormally high blood pressure, decided to administer propofol to help—ahem—calm the Captain down. Doctor's orders, will try to make sure that he is given a proper prescription regimen once he wakes up." Dr. Veers smiled.

Cade's chortling died down to the turian equivalent of snickering and he and I quickly shared a glance. Dr. Jaelen Veers was now our boy.

"Please, don't mind me, will ensure that the Captain is resting comfortably. Continue on." Jaelen bowed politely to the rest of the war council. With a grunt he and Dr. T'lana each hooked an arm under the unconscious Captain Farragut and dragged him away, depositing him unceremoniously into a nearby chair. Cade wiped a tear from his eye and Camilla muttered an angry "serves him right" beneath her breath. The marines beside me were wide-eyed and slack-jawed at the gross misconduct that they had just bore witness to.

"I think I like that guy" both Jay and Fly said simultaneously.

"Anyways," Percival started to say, "I propose we send a team of civilian specialists to first recouple the drive core and then address the issue in the biology labs, escorted by a team of shooters—"

Dr. Jaelen Veers dropped Captain Farragut unceremoniously onto the deck and quickly shot his hand into the air. "Permission to be the biology lab specialist?" he piped up.

Percival turned to look appraisingly at the grey-skinned salarian. "Permission granted" he said. To be fair, of the fifty or so individuals still on the Bridge, he was the only scientist from the Biology Research Division still standing.

Camilla rose from the seat beside Cade. "I want to go as well, you're not going to find a better drive core technician on this ship" she said resolutely. Cade opened his mouth, looking like he was about to protest, but a furious glare from Camilla shut my friend down before he could voice a single word of complaint.

Percival nodded to her as well. "Cloud, Cade and I will lead Gunnery Sergeant Hinzo and his team, as well as Sergeant Mardinus and his men"

I stepped off from the console I had been leaning against and interrupted my friend. "Percival, I think that between you, Cade and I we can more than adequately protect the civilians. We should leave Rake's team and Sergeant Mardinus here to protect the survivors."

Percival shook his head. "Negative, we don't know how many saboteurs or these creatures stand between us and our two objectives. Also, I want to leave behind a team at the drive core, just in case the saboteurs double back and try to undo our work."

Captain Murgen raised an eyebrow and gestured at the Alliance Jaegers at his back. "Then take Second Lieutenant Burton and Gunnery Chief Teewin as well, two of my best, that way both the drive core defenders and the biology team will have a biotic specialist attached to them. Half my Jaegers are packing omega-enkaphalin rounds anyways, in case any biotic saboteurs decide to try their luck here". Accer and the massive Alliance Jaeger with the M-76 Revenant strapped to his back saluted smartly and moved to form up beside the Captain.

This seemed to be sufficient to Percival, who gave his consent without a word of debate. I nodded as well, giving my assent, although in my opinion it left the Bridge survivors rather devoid of specialized support. The asari medical specialist, Dr. Rentea T'lana, also voiced her immutable decision to accompany Dr. Jaelen Veers and quickly found herself on the team as well. That would mean that the group currently numbered at around 20, which was much too large in my opinion. Although the extra numbers might help in the large, almost cavernous engine room, that many people would only gum up the corridors and increase the incidence of friendly fire.

Sergeant Vidanor Mardinus strode up and saluted Percival. Beside him, almost cowering in the shadow of the larger turian, slouched a young, dark-grey turian with bright, green eyes and simple red clan markings. Like the two doctors, they had also survived the events at Containment Airlock One that had wiped out the rest of their security team. Their armor was battered and scarred and a large gash ran across the chest-plate of the veteran turian sergeant, testimony to the desperate fight for survival that the two had endured on the journey here.

"Spectre Percival, if I may, I would suggest leaving the rest of my men here to guard the survivors. Too many shooters will only increase the chance of friendly fire and decrease our maneuverability in the cramped corridors of the ship. Private Galen Verus and I request that we be the only ones to accompany you, the rest of the ships surviving security personnel should stay here under the command of Lieutenant-Commander Barthilus." Mardinus respectfully suggested.

I silently agreed with the turian sergeant's opinion, although it seemed that Percival did too because he agreed to the sergeant's suggestion without voicing any dissent. The turian sergeant nodded and walked over to where the marines and I were standing. The young turian trailed behind him, eyes downcast and swallowing nervously. Strangely, although Mardinus nodded to me with what amounted to respect, his eyes seemed to narrow at the sight of Cade. I looked over at my friend and saw that he was deliberately avoiding the hostile gaze of the veteran sergeant, his eyes glued onto Percival still standing at the holo table at the center of the room.

"Sergeant Mardinus, good to know you're still alive" I greeted him.

The sergeant's bent mandible flapped meekly as he grinned back at me. "Been a hell of a day, Spectre, have to say I'm looking forward to spending all that hazard pay."

"Can't argue with that" I chuckled.

Rake meandered over and punched the turian sergeant's shoulder in a friendly show of camaraderie. "Sergeant Mardinus saved our asses at least a dozen times on our way to the bridge" he piped up. "He's a damn good marine"

Sergeant Mardinus shrugged as if to say that it was no big deal, then gestured to the turian rookie standing beside him. "This here is Private Galen Verus, you also met him back at Containment Airlock One but I don't think you two were properly introduced".

The private looked up meekly and found himself caught in my appraising gaze. My icy-blue stare battered down his light green one. After a few seconds he shuffled nervously and coughed before looking away. He seemed a bit wet behind the ears, but if he'd made it this far it then it couldn't have been all thanks to luck.

"You okay, kid?" I asked him. To his credit he managed to maintain eye contact, even if he looked like he was about to piss himself.

He nodded. "Yes, sir" he responded nervously.

Mardinus clapped a heavy hand on the young turian's armored shoulder, causing Private Verus to buckle slightly at the knees and cry out in surprise. "It's the kid's first tour as a naval marine, green as grass but I think he's got some promise. Saved our asses more than once on the way here, and it was him who found the maintenance technicians hiding in that lounge", Mardinus vouched for the young marine.

"T-t-thank y-you, sir" he replied shakily. He broke eye contact with me and began worrying at a dent on his armored forearm. All turians started mandatory basic training at the age of 15 and it lasted roughly half a galactic year. From what Cade told me, after basic training all turians were given another six months of specialized vocational training depending on their military occupational specialty, so if this was roughly eight months into young turian's first tour he couldn't have been older than 18. I shared a knowing smile with the turian sergeant and he winked at me in return. Mardinus then turned to Cade, who still sat beside me but had spent the entire exchange uncharacteristically silent and quietly fixated on the ground beneath his feet.

"Spectre Kitiarian. Pleasure to finally meet you in person" the sergeant said icily.

Cade rose to his feet and uncoiled himself to his full height. Standing at about six feet two, which was about the same as me, Cade was tall compared to many humans and even to most turians, Lieutenant-Commander Barthilus included. But unfortunately for my silver-plated friend, the grizzled turian sergeant was almost a foot taller and considerably bulkier than him. Cade came up to roughly the turian's collarbone but the mass difference only accentuated the dichotomy between the two turians now glaring coldly at each other.

"Good to have you on board as well, sergeant. My fellow Spectre spoke highly of you, he commented favorably on your dedication to duty." Cade responded professionally.

Mardinus nodded. "I merely follow the orders of my commanding officers, like any good soldier would. I served with your sister, she was a credit to the Turian Hierarchy, I was sorry to hear of her passing. She was a true turian" he said in an almost imperceptibly mocking tone. Even I couldn't miss the subtle insinuation that Cade somehow fell short as a proper turian. My friend's face darkened and Camilla and the marines were taken back by the turian sergeant's inflammatory words.

It didn't seem as if Cade was rising to the bait, "Thank you for your kind words, sergeant, my sister did the Blackwatch proud. The Hierarchy was made weaker for her loss." He responded perfunctorily in a clipped, measured tone. Both turians glared at each other ruthlessly, their subvocals quietly engaging in a silent argument that we humans couldn't hope to follow. Cade's hands were balled into tight fists while Mardinus had his claws clasped bone-tight behind his armored back, both were standing with board-like stiffness with their heads tilted in a fraction of an angle upwards and their mandibles slightly splayed in what I recognized to be species-specific subconscious displays of dominance.

"Indeed" the turian sergeant finally assented, "Now if you will excuse me, Spectres, there are a few things I must relay to my men before I leave them in the care of Lieutenant-Commander Barthilus. Die for the cause, Cade."

"Die for the cause" my friend responded.

Mardinus then turned back to look at me, warmth and friendliness returning to his stony, grey eyes. "Keep an eye on Galen here for me, will you?"

I nodded and he saluted smartly, turning on his heels and heading over to where the remainder of the ship's surviving security personnel currently licked their wounds.

Private Galen glanced up nervously at my friend Cade, who seemed to be lost in thought at the turian sergeant's words. Beside him Camilla looked both concerned and confused at the loss of my friend's usually vibrant and upbeat demeanor. Understandable, given that she didn't know much about my friend's history or the background that he came from.

"Excuse me, did the sergeant say that your name was Cade?" he asked hesitatingly.

The younger turian's question seemed to snap Cade out of his trance. He shook his head to clear his mind and then turned to regard the rookie.

"Huh? Yeah, Cade with a C" he answered.

"Cade, as in Cade Kitiarian, hero of the Palaven Rebellions? You killed that secessionist Blackwatch commander and saved the Primarch's life?" Galen gushed.

"Yeah, that's me" he nodded grimly. Cade tensed up, causing his inky black neck tattoo to strain against the collar of his armor. Camilla, sensing that this was apparently an emotional subject for my friend, stood up and slid a hand around my friend's arm, refraining from engaging in the usual back-and-forth pattern of mindless bickering that they had quickly fallen into. I quickly placed a hand on Galen's shoulder and gently steered him away.

"Hey private, I know you don't know better, but I wouldn't bring up the Palaven Rebellions around Cade. It wasn't a good time for him." I whispered confidentially.

Galen's green eyes widened and his mandibles flapped seemingly with embarrassment. "I-I'm so sorry, I didn't know—"

"It's okay, we didn't expect you to, and I know Cade won't hold it against you. He lost his sister and his father during the Rebellion, so it's always been a touchy subject" I explained.

The young private looked at me apologetically, "I'm sorry, I should have realized. Every young turian on Palaven grew up reading about the Kitiarians in the history books, they've basically led the Blackwatch since the Krogan Rebellions. I should have known better."

I gently placed a hand on the young Private's shoulders. "Don't blame yourself," I told him. "Like you I only read what the Turian Hierarchy published after the Rebellion ended. It was years before Cade trusted me enough to tell me what happened."

"Still, it shouldn't have happened. Do you mind telling him that I'm sorry?" he asked earnestly.

"Sure, no problem kid" I promised him.

"Thank you, and Spectre Cloud?"

"Yeah?"

"I just wanted to say that it is an honor to serve alongside you, Kitiarian and Percival. The three of you are practically legends to the younger turian recruits. They show us boarding footage you recorded during your anti-slaver exploits in the Terminus Systems, and our SERE training was based on your mission to Invictus." He gushed. The young turians taloned hands flew up to rub the not yet developed scalloped plates that covered the back of his neck in embarrassment.

I smiled. "The honor is mine. Stay safe out there"

"Will do, sir"

With one last nod, Private Galen Verus moved to join his sergeant and the rest of the surviving security personnel of the SSV Hippocrates. The rag-tag bunch barely formed a half platoon —less than two-score ragged, shell-shocked survivors among what had originally been a full company 120 marines strong. Of the survivors, only Sergeant Mardinus and the young private seemed the least bit combat effective. The rest had tell-tale, thousand-yard stares, nursed bloody appendages or sat silently as they awaited orders. I had no doubt that they would give their lives to defend the bridge should the need arise, but Sergeant Gradinus had been right. If we had taken them with us they would have been massacred.

I realized then that as much as Cade, Percival and I had endured throughout the last few hours, it had been ten times worse for the ship's crew. Our elite fighting skills aside, we hadn't been forced to watch our friends mutate horribly into homicidal abominations, forced to kill them or be killed. We hadn't had to watch the people we had known for months—even years—slowly die one by one, horribly and in pain, only to rise up as mechanical savages hell-bent on perpetuating the grisly cycle of rebirth.

That was why Camilla had snapped so savagely at the Captain earlier when she had discovered that he had kept survivors out of the safe haven that the Bridge provided, why Dr. Veers had so willingly incapacitated the Captain. They had seen too much, and they were on the brink. I silently vowed to do my best to ensure that as many people survived as possible. My hand went to my belt where a certain photo was stored safely in a utility pouch. Everyone that died on this ship wouldn't be forgotten. I'd honor them somehow.

Percival walked over and discreetly gestured to Cade and I. We moved off to the side and huddled up, out of earshot of the rest of the survivors.

"We move out in twenty. How's your ammunition doing" Percival inquired.

Cade gestured at the large, black rifle that hung on his back. "I'm out of rounds for Meera. Vindicator's got maybe half an ammunition block left but I should be able to scrounge a spare one from one of the Jaegers. My Carnifex is fine and I've still got almost a full loadout of Arc and Homing Grenades" he reported.

I spoke up next. "Snakebite's dry, and I doubt that the Alliance Jaegers are carrying spare sniper-compatible ammunition blocks anyways —at least, I don't see any of them with snipers. I've got a spare block for my Predator, and three sticky grenades left. Amp is green and ready to go."

Percival nodded at the both of us. "Alright, I borrowed spare ammunition blocks for both my Katana and my Lancer and I've still got a few inferno grenades. I haven't had to fire my Phalanx yet so its ammunition block should almost be at full capacity. Cloud, I want you to talk to the Jaegers, see if one of them is willing to part with one of their Vindicators. The marines and the two turians all have automatic rifles but the engine room is pretty large so I want at least the both of you with some semblance of long-range capabilities" he said thoughtfully.

"Roger that, boss" Cade saluted.

I silently nodded and gave Percival a light punch on the arm. His blue eyes suddenly went dead serious as he continued.

"We've got three civilian specialists coming with us. I know the engineer can fight, and Dr. Veers and T'lana both demonstrated themselves to be somewhat capable on our way to the bridge, but we're still their best shot at survival. That means we'll be the first to engage each and every hostile. The marines and the Jaegers can focus on guarding the specialists." Percival ordered the pair of us.

Cade's eyes glinted mischievously. "Camilla can most definitely fight, among other things" he chuckled.

I rolled my eyes at my friend and threw Percival another nod of assurance. "Wouldn't have it any other way" I said confidently.

Percival's serious demeanor suddenly shifted, he shot us a broad smile and clapped us both on the shoulder. Before we could protest he pulled the both of us in a massive hug, causing Cade and I to groan in annoyance and the rest of the bridge crew to look at us with confusion. I wasn't exactly a slim guy and Cade was definitely no slouch in the muscle department but the two of us were rendered completely immobile in the arms of the large, blond Spectre. I tried to bring a hand up to rub my jaw as Cade's bony mandible went crashing into it. Cade's scaled forehead rammed hard into Percival's chin, causing the turian to give an exclamation of pain.

"Ow! Let go, slaps" Cade complained.

"That's Sir Lancelot Arthur Percival to you, turian. And don't you god damn forget it." Percival admonished as he brought up a gloved hand to ruffle Cade's fringe.

He let us go after a moment and Cade and I nearly fell to the ground with a sigh of relief, both of us breathing deeply after having spent the last twenty seconds in the bone-crushing embrace of the former Alliance soldier. Camilla peeked out from behind Percival's massive bulk shot and shot Cade an amused, deer-eyed look, mouthing the words "so cute" to the disheveled turian. Cade's mandibles flapped in embarrassment and he looked away, scratching distractedly at a piece of carbon on his chest plate.

The wide, friendly smile on Percival's face slowly disintegrated as the moment passed. The fact that we were on a ship loaded with what had been the former crew, now turned into fearsome, synthetic, killing machines slowly reasserted itself into the forefront of our minds. And did I mention that we also had to deal with saboteurs, limited ammunition, and no way off? Fun.

Dr. Jaelen Veer's suddenly appeared out of nowhere from behind us with Dr. T'lana close behind him, prompting Cade to let out a yelp of surprise.

"Spectres, if you could do me the favor of following me to the briefing room, there's something that I think you should see" the salarian scientist said in a hushed tone. His grey skin looked a few shades paler and his dark eyes were wide. Behind him Dr. T'lana swallowed nervously.

What the fuck now.

January 23rd, 2211, 2246 hours – Aboard the SSV Hippocrates, Deck 7, Bridge – Briefing Room 16-A

5 hours and 46 minutes after Outbreak

It felt like a dozen lifetimes had passed since I had last been in this briefing room. The last time was when we had first came aboard the ship. The heads of the Prometheus research division were briefing us on the state of Earth, the alarming spread of the phenomenon, and the fact that it had somehow jumped the barrier from fauna to intelligent life forms.

In my mind's eye I could still see Doctors Messner, Landry and Singh all pointing out various aspects of the phenomenon as per their research specialties. I could still see Sarah, a serious look on her face, her hands tightly clasped with her husbands as she listened to her fellow researchers wax on about the potential catastrophe that the phenomenon could evolve into.

I sighed and crossed my arms tightly across my chest. Beside me Percival had a grim look on his face, his lips tightly drawn into a thin, tense line. Cade had both hands pressed against the table, his talons carving slight gouges into its metal surface and betraying just how unsettled he currently was.

Lying splayed out on the briefing table was the body of what used to be a human Corpser. Belts went around each limb and were anchored securely to the bottom of the table in the event that it somehow reanimated. His thoracic cage was surgically split and pinned open, as was his cranial vault, leaving its brain and innards open and exposed. Its ribs were half metal, half bone, with thin cabling weaving in and out between them. His skin was grey and rotting, and where large patches of it were missing I could see a metallic carapace underneath it. Its metal eyes were dead and cold and it appeared to have died from a shot to the spinal column, leaving most of its body intact.

Most disturbing of all was its mouth. It was as if someone had ripped it open, removed half of its teeth and replaced them with metal fangs. The skin on its cheeks were ripped and had gaping tears in them. I glanced at the nametag on what was left of its uniform. The tag read D. Vargas and labelled him as a hydroponics technician. Lieutenant-Commander Barthilus cleared his throat and gestured to the corpse.

"Spectres, this was one of the creatures that attacked the bridge earlier. While most of the creatures were either destroyed by your biotic explosion or the Jaegers' grenades, I noticed that this one was relatively physically intact, and asked Dr. Veers and Dr. T'lana if they could maybe perform an autopsy, so that we have a better idea of what we're up against" the turian officer explained. Dr. Jaelen Veers nodded at the turian doctor and moved to stand beside the body.

"Spectres, I want to turn your attention to the creature's innards" he began. In one hand Jaelen held a long, metal stick that looked to be some sort of antenna pulled from one of the consoles and pointed at the creatures guts. The three of us stepped closer inspected the insides more carefully. I recognized what had been the left and right lobes of the creature's lungs. They were shriveled and almost completely deflated, indicating that perhaps the creatures did not require oxygen.

What might have been its stomach looked distended, with a large tear in it from which I presumed the Crawlers had emerged from. The creature's heart was covered in small metal plates that coated it like scales, but otherwise looked to be the proper shape and size. Weird, the state of its lungs indicated that it didn't seem to need oxygen, and yet the heart still seemed relatively intact. I noted the intact ventricles and atria, the intact aorta, and wondered if somehow the creature's heart still beated while it was operational.

After a moment I realized that there was something incredibly wrong with these organs, something that brought a shiver up my spine and caused me to shudder deeply.

"The organs, they're all tinged silver. Just like the asari and human autopsy photos that Dr. Messner and Landry showed us" I said.

Jaelen and Barthilus both shared a quick glance with each other. "You're correct, Spectre. As you know I work within the Biology Research Division here aboard the Hippocrates" Jaelen explained. "Before Doctor Landry was assigned to the Prometheus project, he was actually the head of the Biology Research Division."

"We worked closely, even after he was transferred to Project Prometheus" Jaelen continued. "He showed me the cadaver reports and the autopsy photos some time ago, asked me for my professional opinion on the manner of the phenomenon founds on Earth and Thessia. On a hunch, I opened up one of these creatures and found that their internal organs exhibited the same kind of silver tinge that the bodies in those photos exhibited"

Percival cursed and Cade ground his teeth and both of them immediately took a step back from the body. I held my ground and turned to the salarian doctor. "Could there be a chance that these creatures could reappear on Thessia or Earth, even after we've destroyed the ship? Could there be a link between the phenomenon on Earth and these creatures?" I asked.

"That was Dr. Veers first concern, but we're not 100% sure yet" Barthilus assured me.

"Yes, silver tinge in both the autopsy reports and this creature are likely related, although whether or not they are both symptoms of the same process that transformed this poor crewmember into this creature is still unknown, although it feels prudent to point out that none of these things have been popping up on any of the major planets where the phenomenon has manifested" Dr. Veers spoke with rapid precision.

Dr. Rentea T'lana spoke up for the first time since we had entered the briefing room. "We don't know exactly what causes them to transform into these creatures just yet, we just know that the internal similarities between these creatures and the autopsy photos can't be mere coincidence. It's possible that the silver tinge in both these creatures and the cadavers are completely unrelated to either the phenomenon or the infection process. Either way, there's still too much that we don't know, and we mean to find out." she said airily.

Jaelen nodded excitedly. "Exactly, which is why I request that after we stop the contaminant down in the Biology labs that we take a moment to use the equipment located there to run a quick sequencing analysis of this creature's DNA. There is a 2308 Illumina Technologies DNA Sequencer in one of the labs, it is state-of-the-art, capable of running a full, accurate genome sequence in minutes. If we—"

Cade finally decided to speak up, cutting off the enthusiastic salarian before he could say another word. "I concede that this is definitely related to the phenomenon, but why would we run a DNA scan for what seems to be the work of a pathologic organism or an infection of sort?"

"Because we need to establish what might explain the physical and physiological differences between these creatures and the cadavers from the autopsy report, and also the Reaper soldiers created during the Reaper War" I explained to him.

Jaelen almost bounced with excitement, nodding appreciatively towards me. "Ah, that is exactly right! Observe the metal teeth, the synthetic cabling, and the metal spines and claws that this creature possesses! They appear too rapidly, too suddenly, too soon after the alleged moment of infection."

He waved his omni-tool towards one of the deactivated displays behind him. It flickered on and several images appeared. I recognized them as pictures of the various Reaper soldier subtypes. I could see Marauders, Brutes, Banshees, Cannibals, Husks, even Ravagers.

"Back during the Reaper War, recovered footage of actual Reaper Husking procedures done on captured civilians and military personnel demonstrated that the process took on average almost 27 minutes to complete." Jaelen started. He flipped to another image, this one of three dead Marauders lying side by side, all of them virtually identical.

"Even then most victims simply had their physical features reverted to synthetic ones, and even if they created new appendages or features they were all uniform within the subspecies created —no diversity whatsoever, no trace of the individual used to create them, every Reaper troop virtually indistinguishable from each other. Turians were turned into Marauders, humans into husks, batarians into Cannibals, but look at the creatures we've encountered thus far."

Another smattering of images came up, all of them I recognized to have been taken from aboard the ship. They were all images of relatively intact Corpsers.

"Some of them have metal plates, some claws longer than others, metal spines of different sizes and shapes, some with cabling and some without, and once again, most importantly the difference in reproduction."

My head reeled as I tried to assimilate everything the doctor was telling me. So many words, so typically salarian. Basically he was saying that this infection was too dissimilar to the process that the Reapers used, and he wanted to get to the bottom of it to better understand the phenomenon, now that there was evidence that the infection and the phenomenon may be linked.

He gestured to the asari doctor. She brought up one of the holo-screens and pressed a button on her omni-tool. Immediately a video started playing, it was a video of the first infection that we had witnessed of a security officer back when we first encountered the creatures at Containment Airlock One, the infection that I had recorded on my omni-tool for intelligence purposes. Evidently so had Jaelen.

We watched as the Corpser climbed on top of the unfortunate marine and the Crawlers entered his mouth. I watched again as he died, only to reanimate a few moments later, metal spines erupting furiously from his back, jagged metal claws tearing their way out of his arms and his eyes snapping open to emit an angry red light.

Dr. T'lana shut off the video. Both Percival and Cade looked queasy at the footage, neither of them having been there when it had occurred.

"We need more information on this infection and whether or not it ties back to the phenomenon. With the loss of the Project data at the Data Archives, this might be the only clue we have as to what we're dealing with, might be all that that crew died for" Jaelen begged. "We need more information in case these things spread. I implore you to let me run a full DNA analysis on these specimens once we get to the Biology lab"

Jaelen held out his hand and Dr. T'lana came for with a secured medical container. She unclipped the top, unsealing it. Inside were a number of specimen containers ranging in a variety of different sizes. The largest one held what I saw to be an intact Crawler specimen while the smallest contained bits of unrecognizable lumps likely taken from the post-mortem biopsy. Several test tubes filled with blood and the odd, blue fluid that the seemed to ooze from the creatures were also placed on a rack mounted on the side of the container.

Percival cleared his throat and "Have no worries, Doctor Veers. We agree with your assessment and concur that one of our main priorities should be to recover as much useable information as possible to bring back to the Council. I'm sure my colleagues have been recording as much footage as possible regarding the reproductive and combat methods that these creatures employ."

Cade and I both nodded. "I've recorded multiple infection processes, not only from the Crawlers but also from the larger ones, the ones we call Changers" I added helpfully. "We intend to bring back as much tactical data as possible, just in case these things start appearing on Thessia or Earth. Also with regards to the Project data, it isn't destroyed, but rather currently in the hands of the saboteurs. If the opportunity presents itself we're going to try and get it back."

Jaelen and Rentea both looked at each other and then back to us, nodding gratefully. The asari rubbed the salarian's shoulders reassuringly and shot us another look of thanks. Lieutenant-Commander Barthilus eyes darted back and forth between the two doctors and the three of us. The stalwart turian naval officer was somewhat out of his depth when it came to the realm of science, but he had been smart enough to recognize that an opportunity to learn about our foe had presented itself to us and had taken the initiative to ensure that we had a chance to do so.

"That is all, Spectres. I just wanted to share the good doctor's findings with you before you set out to achieve our objectives. Have no fear, the survivors will be in good hands while you are gone" Barthilus promised.

Cade gave the turian officer a respectful salute, prompting Barthilus to rub his fringe in embarrassment. "You're a credit to the Turian Hierarchy, Lieutenant-Commander Syriah Barthilus. I sincerely wish that you were the officer-in-charge rather than Captain Farragut—spirits damn him". Cade held out a hand, which Barthilus grabbed and shook firmly.

"Thank you, never thought I'd get to be praised by, much less shake hands, with Cade Kitiarian himself" Barthilus chuckled.

"The honor is most definitely all mine" Cade responded simply.

Barthilus rubbed the back of his fringe again in embarrassment. "Listen, about the Captain…" he started awkwardly, "He's under a lot of pressure. I've served with him the last three years and as much of an ass he can be, he's generally competent at his job—no worse than some of the other officers I served under back when I was with the 21st Marine Division. We've never experienced anything like this before, I don't wholly blame him for the way that he is reacting."

Leave it to the turian to attempt to defend an officer that most soldiers from any other military in the galaxy would have fragged. That unflinching loyalty to their duty and their commitment to following military protocol was what made the turians the most effective military force in the galaxy, perhaps with the exception of the Alliance Jaegers.

Most turian soldiers followed the orders of their commanding officers like it was the word of God. Disobedience and dereliction of duty were almost unheard of. In contrast, I'd heard of Krogan officers in the Federation literally being torn limb from limb by their soldiers for what were viewed as cowardly or inept orders.

It was a shame to see such dedication and loyalty wasted on a piece of trash like Farragut. Granted, the turian military had its share of incompetent officers, but usually they would be quickly identified and removed of their position before they could do any actual harm and cost the lives of good men.

I recalled an assassination mission I had participated in a few years back that involved killing an incompetent turian general in charge of a pacification operation on a planet besieged by raiders. He had been a bad general, but his troops were too loyal, too deeply committed to the orders of their commanding officer, to go against him.

Eventually the general was found to be in the process of committing a grave error that would have likely cost the lives of an entire Legion of hierarchy soldiers. I had been sent in. I staged the assassination to look like it had been perpetrated by a raider terrorist cell, then had ensured that the next officer in the line of command was a level-headed, competent Captain much admired by his men. I had not only given the Legion an excellent commanding officer, I had also given them a martyr to rally behind. The Captain ended up crushing the raiders, thousands of turian lives were saved, and I removed a liability to the Turian Hierarchy, all with one bullet.

I clapped Barthilus on the shoulder, conveying my gratitude towards his competency and reliability with a quick look. "Keep them safe, Lieutenant-Commander Barthilus"

The brown-plated turian met my gaze and nodded resolutely.

"Of course, sir. Die for the cause" he promised.