Chapter 11 - Severed

January 24th, 2211, 0118 hours – Aboard the SSV Hippocrates, Deck 12, Main Engine Room

8 hours and 18 minutes after Outbreak

"What do you see?" Camilla asked.

"Linking helmet feed now," I responded. I pressed a small button on the side of my helmet and watched as a small blue camera icon began flashing on my HUD. I quickly tapped it again, then used a small dial beneath it to cycle onto the channel I was currently sharing with Camilla. A bar quickly filled up and flashed once, indicating that Camilla could now see what I saw through her own omni-tool.

I shifted two steps to the left, taking myself directly out of the path of a patrolling Corpser. It growled, seemingly able to sense my presence, a thin line of drool spilling out from its mouth. A more likely explanation could be that it somehow sensed my body heat, as I doubted that it could see me through my tactical cloak.

I ignored it and focused my gaze on the drive core itself. It was massive, it had to be to power a ship the size of the Hippocrates. The core's center, usually a bright, pulsating blue, was black and cold, indicating that it was currently offline.

"Can you turn your gaze roughly thirty degrees to the left?" she asked next. I slowly turned my head as she asked, directing my view towards one of four large cables coming out from the bottom of the drive core and each running to connect to an outlet installed in the massive engine upon which the drive core rested.

"That's great, now turn your gaze about 60 degrees up."

I followed her directions again, this time tilting my head up towards the ceiling. Four pillar-like metal contraptions fed from the ceiling directly into the drive core. While I'd never seen these specific models, I knew that they were likely the Eezo feeders— picture a cathode ray tube encased in metal, but instead of firing electrons it fired tiny Element Zero particles into the drive core itself, giving it the ability to generate the Mass Effect fields that it used for space travel.

"Excellent, thanks Cloud. Cade, can you do the same thing?"

"You got it, beautiful," my friend responded.

I waited for Camilla to diagnose the status of the drive core, careful to keep my view and therefore her view on the piece of technology in question. Cade and I had both stealthed in to perform a reconnaissance on the room and the drive core before we decided to move the whole group in here. It had been a wise decision considering the fact that this place was swarming with Corpsers.

The main engine room itself was highly reminiscent of the data archives. The room was circular and consisted of five levels, with metal catwalks ringing the perimeter of level that were filled with several data servers and consoles. The walls held numerous vents and fans, I could see dozens of coolant cables snaking up and down the walls, feeding directly into the engine. Numerous metal staircases linked each level with the next.

The engine itself sat at the center of the bottom floor. It ran for nearly the whole height of the room. On top of it was the drive core with the four Eezo Feeders above it. Cables, just like the ones Camilla had had me inspect, connected the drive core to the engine itself.

A large catwalk fed from the outer ring into a smaller inner ring around the drive core itself that would allow maintenance technicians access to the sophisticated piece of machinery, kind of like two concentric circles. Cade was currently stealthed on the outer circle while I was stealthed on the inner, the both of us simultaneously feeding Camilla visual data so that she'd have a better idea what we'd be dealing with.

The Corpser had swung back around and was headed my way again, this time accompanied by one of its smaller brethren. The catwalks that Cade and I were on and the catwalk that ringed the drive core was a uniform sixteen feet wide at all points, plenty of room.

"Think you can fix it?" I asked Camilla.

"Hmm… yes. It looks like the feeders have been disconnected, I won't know for sure until I check in person. The engine couplers are what bothers me, the ones on your side seem fine but the ones that Cade showed me seem off. Once again I'll need to be there to give you a more detailed diagnosis," she replied.

"No problem, once we clear the room we'll get you all set up. How long do you think it'll take to fix the feeders?" I asked the technician.

"They don't look damaged, just turned off. Maybe two to three minutes per feeder?" she answered.

"Alright, I'm going to speak to Percival for a second, okay?"

"Sure."

I toggled to the private channel I shared with Cade and Percival and hailed the former marine. "Percival, opposition is kind of thick, but no saboteurs so far."

"Numbers?" he replied.

I glanced around the room and quickly counted what used to be the crew "maybe twenty or thirty of them, spread out across all five levels? There are tons of potential ingress points though, so we can expect more" I answered.

"The catwalk leading up to the drive core itself is relatively narrow and easily defendable. The creatures don't have any sort of long-range capabilities so you could use it as a funnel, but it lacks any sort of cover so you might be exposed if the saboteurs do show up," Cade added.

After a few moments consideration, Percival came on the channel again. "Alright, same deal as before, you two pick your spots and stay stealthed. Let us deal with the resistance in the room and let us deal with covering Camilla. Don't reveal yourselves unless I call for it."

"You got it slaps."

"Roger."

The two Corpsers stood in the inner ring, staring intently at the Drive Core. A part of me wanted so badly to kill them now, maybe throw them off the catwalk with my biotics or put a pair of shots into the base of their skulls from behind.

I shook my head and thought better of it. If I made myself now every single hostile in the room would begin converging onto the top level rather than remain spread out across the room. It would mean that the concentration of enemy forces around our point of interest would instantly skyrocket, making it harder for our team to access the Drive Core.

While Cade and I could theoretically go somewhere else and draw them off, Percival was banking on the fact that the saboteurs still had one more trick up their sleeves, no matter how badly it had seemed that we had beaten them back in the previous room. We wanted our own little trump card handy. It was a shame that we were out of bullets for our sniper rifles, or else the second they showed their faces they'd lose them.

"What spot do you want?" I radioed to my friend.

"See that coolant cabling up to the left? It's thick enough for me to sit on and it'll give me a panoramic view of the entire top level," he replied.

"Damn, that was my first choice."

"Too bad, got a second?"

"Who do you take me for?"

"The poor man's version of me, but with shiny blue powers."

I neglected to respond, instead padding my way softly over to the side of the catwalk that led to the inner ring around the drive core. I knelt down and gripped the edge with one hand before silently slipping off the catwalk, my feet now dangling fifty meters up in the air.

I grabbed the edge with my other hand as quietly as I could and began to move towards the Drive Core, pulling myself along the edge one hand at a time. I made my way to the inner ring and dropped lightly onto the engine itself, in the space that wasn't occupied by the Drive Core that sat atop the engine. This put me about six feet below the catwalks on the upper levels. While it didn't give me as good of a view of the upper level as Cade's perch did, it would give me a better view of the lower levels. There was enough space that I could move around the whole Drive Core, and getting back up wouldn't be too difficult.

"So where are you?" Cade asked.

"I'm on the engine itself. If you're gonna focus on covering the top level I'll focus on covering the lower ones," I replied.

"It's like you can read my mine and I can read yours," he joked.

"God, I hope not. Percival, we're in position, enter when ready."

"Roger."

I watched as the doors on the ground level slid open and Jay and Fly march in. A pair of Corpsers who'd been milling around immediately twisted their heads towards them and bolted straight towards the two marines.

Jay and Fly both put sustained bursts right into the heads, and then the stomachs, of the Corpsers. The misshapen beasts both died and Jay turned to wave in the rest of the group. A cacophony of howling erupted around the room as the rest of the Corpsers reacted to their entry. I watched as Soph and Rake move to the nearest set of stairs and gun down another Corpser at the top of them.

Percival, the turians and the civilian staff came next. Galen and Mardinus fired at a few targets on the upper levels while Percival kept watch for any saboteurs. Accer and Teewin brought up the rear, covering the door they'd came through.

Jay and Fly were the first up the stairs. I watched as they killed another Corpser that had decided to charge at the group. A nearby wall vent burst open and the warped, twisted head of another Corpser appeared, but Private Galen put a burst through its open mouth, causing it to fall back into the vent. Rake and Soph and Mardinus fired on additional targets on the upper levels, sending long bursts through knee joints and legs, forcing their targets to slowly pull themselves towards their intended prey.

"Enjoying the show?" Cade asked.

"I hate delegating," I responded.

Percival blew off the head of another Corpser mid-leap while Rake destroyed the Crawlers it carried. The team began to move up each set of stairs, going from deck to deck in the engine room and gunning down any Corpser that tried to intercept their ascent. Fly, Jay and Soph fell to the rear with Accer and Teewin, directing their rifle fire towards pursuing Corpsers that had also decided to emerge from the vents.

The pair of Corpsers that had been standing near the Drive Core turned towards the approaching group. The first one, what used to be an asari, ran straight at Private Galen. He slipped underneath its slashing claws and with one quick shove pushed it right off the catwalk. I heard it howling furiously on the way down, only for the howls to cease right after I heard a sickeningly wet crunch.

The last Corpser also charged towards the young turian. This one had been a large, burly human and likely outweighed the private by a good 80 lbs even with his armor. Instead of meeting it head on, Galen spun around it and fired twice into the back of its knees, bringing it down, before ripping a Talon from his sheath and slamming it into the back of his head. Mardinus followed behind, firing a long burst into the Crawlers that struggled to pull themselves up.

"That wasn't half bad," Cade told the young turian.

"T-t-thank you, sir," Galen nervously called out.

The two turian marines then took covering positions beside the drive core. Camilla and Jaelen sprinted across first, followed closely by Rentea and Percival. The four marines and the two Alliance Jaegers took up position at the end of the catwalk, guarding the entrance and occasionally gunning down an approaching Corpser.

"Miss Martell, do your stuff," Percival gestured towards the drive core.

Camilla ran to the sophisticated piece of machinery in question and immediately began tightening a number of valves and rings on the first feeder. After about two minutes the feeder turned blue and she moved on to the next one. Jaelen and Rentea stood watch around the inner catwalk, sometimes lobbing an Incineration bolt or a Warp at the monsters below.

"As I suspected, the feeders are only turned off. First one's done, I should have the rest of the feeders turned on in about ten minutes" Camilla reported.

Percival nodded at the drive core technician. "Good, what about the couplers?"

Camilla paused and ran towards the back of the drive core. After a moment she ran back.

"Mierda, it looks like the couplers have been damaged. I'll do my best to repair them with omni-gel but they might take a little bit longer," she reported.

"Keep at it, we'll cover you" Percival nodded. He shouldered his assault rifle and scanned the room, taking position on the catwalk itself leading into the outer ring.

Cade and I watched silently as our team went about their duties, occasionally calling out targets of opportunity but otherwise remaining silent. After a while, Camilla had re-activated all four feeders atop the drive core. The blue light that should have been present flashed brightly and began to flicker back on, signaling that the drive core was once again being supplied with element zero. It began to hum softly and we could feel a slight electric crackle in the air as the subtle mass effect waves began filling the room.

"Feeders are working at 100% capacity! I'm going to take a look at the couplers next, cover me!" Camilla called out.

She dashed to the other side of the inner ring to the opposite end of the Drive Core and began tinkering with one of the massive cables that ran into the engine itself.

A series of heavy thumps drew my attention to the bottom floor. I looked down and spotted not one, but three massive Changers walk into the engine room, the cable-tentacles on their shoulder lashing back and forth, their claws dragging against the ground.

"Percival, we got company!" I yelled into my radio.

I saw Percival look over the edge of the catwalk. "Shit! If they get up here we'll have no room to out maneuver them!" he cursed.

"Want us to engage?" Cade immediately asked.

Percival dashed off the catwalk, past the marine blockade and down the stairs back to the bottom floor.

"No, stay in reserve and cover the scientists, we'll handle this."

I cursed angrily and grunted. As good as Percival was, he'd be hard-pressed to hold off, let alone kill, three of the massive behemoths at once.

"Accer, Teewin, you're on me! We don't need to kill them, we just need to hold them off until Camilla gets the engine fixed!" he shouted to the Alliance Jaegers.

The two black-clad marines yelled in the affirmative and followed the big Spectre back down to the bottom floor. I cursed again and seriously debated my disobeying my friend.

As if he could somehow read my mind and sense my turmoil, Cade came on the channel to reassure me "Cloud, have faith in Percival. They'll need us if the saboteurs show up."

I didn't respond, instead choosing to bite my lip and keep an eye out on the rest of the engine room. Below me I could hear gunfire and grunting as the three marines faced down the three Changers.

Suddenly, a small, metallic orb appeared out of thin air and landed on the catwalk, rolling lazily beneath the feet of the two turian marines. Galen looked down in confusion at the small object, then towards the veteran turian sergeant.

Mardinus's mandible's splayed open in alarm and the sergeant immediately moved towards the orb. Before he could reach it and kick it away, it detonated in a bright, blue sizzling crackle of electricity. Galen and Mardinus both went down as the Arc grenade shorted out their shields and shocked them unconscious. They both went down hard onto the inner ring, thankfully neither of them had been too close to the edge or else they could have possibly fallen.

I watched as a figure clad in black and gold armor suddenly appear amidst Rake and his team. It was the turian who had fought Cade back in the data archives, one of the leaders of the saboteurs.

Jay turned first, his eyes wide with alarm at the sudden appearance of the saboteur not two steps away from him. He reacted, attempting to bring his rifle up.

The turian saboteur shot his left hand out and held down the barrel while his right shot squarely into Jay's throat. The hand Jay had held the barrel of his Lancer with reflexively went up to his throat as he began to choke and cough.

This allowed the turian to rip the Lancer out of Jay's hand and to send the stock crashing into the smaller marine's head, knocking him out cold onto the floor.

Soph turned next but was met with a heavy backhand by the turian saboteur. It crashed into her helmet and sent her reeling down on one knee. The turian sent a heavy kick right into the back of her head and Soph went facedown onto the deck alongside Jay.

Rake and Fly both turned and saw their fellow squadmates unconscious around the feet of the turian. They cursed at the silent figure standing over the bodies of their friends and readied themselves. Being absolutely useless in such extreme close quarters, both marines discarded their rifles as they moved to engage the turian.

Rake aimed a heavy fist right at his head but the turian slipped under it, stepping right into his guard and sent an armored elbow right into the face of the Gunnery Chief, snapping his head back. He then followed up with an armored knee right into the marine's gut that drove the wind from him and sent him to the ground on his knees. A quick chop to the back of the marine's helmet knocked him out.

Fly had whipped out his sidearm and was trying to draw a bead on the turian saboteur. Before he could pull the trigger the turian had cloaked again. Fly panned the pistol left and right, eyes darting back and forth as the corpsman tried to spot the tell-tale shimmer.

The turian uncloaked from behind him and sent a booted foot right into the back of Fly's knee. He then kicked him forward right onto his face, sending the corpsman crashing angrily onto the catwalk. The turian moved over the fallen marine and grabbed his helmet, ramming it into the deck and knocking the last member of my marine team out cold. He had wiped the floor with all four marines in less than fifteen seconds.

A Corpser began to approach Jay's fallen form, scythes clacking against each other and his jaws slavering. A bright red bolt followed by a series of plasma bursts slammed into it, wreathing it in flame and sending it into the deck in a fiery, hissing mess.

"Cloud, I need more time!" Camilla screamed at me. Rentea was crouched over the two unconscious turian security personnel, checking vitals while Jaelen covered her with a Predator pistol taken from one of them. The turian saboteur turned his helmeted head to regard the hapless civilians.

I had already pulled myself up to the catwalk and had begun striding towards the turian saboteur. He stood there among the marines, seemingly unconcerned as I materialized out of nowhere, pistol in hand.

Something else caught the turians attention and he immediately looked off to the side. A bright blue orb—one that I recognized as a sticky grenade— flew towards the fallen marines.

My eyes widened and I immediately raised my hand. Blue fire sprouted from my amp and a wave of blue swept out from my palms, knocking the grenade off course and detonating it harmlessly in the air.

A tall, wrinkled salarian stood on the outer ring of the catwalks, one hand lazily tossing another grenade up and down like a baseball. His skin was crisscrossed with faded pink scars and his black and grey armor had all sorts of grenades attached to them. He smiled wickedly towards me and waved his hand in a mocking wave.

Before I could raise my Predator, an armored form appeared out of nowhere and almost rammed right into him, booster jets flaring. The salarian just barely managed to dodge to the left as Cade slammed right onto the deck in front of him. My friend immediately ripped his Talon from his shoulder sheath and aimed a series of slices towards the torso of the salarian.

Cade was quick but the aged salarian was quicker. He made no attempt to parry, knowing that Cade likely far outstripped him in terms of strength, but instead dodged fluidly around Cade's repeated assault. Seeing that they were both preoccupied I turned my attention back towards the turian saboteur.

He was still standing there, not a single twitch betraying either a hint of nervousness or anticipation at the fight to come. Another Corpser appeared from a vent and began to make its way towards the still unconscious marines but he tore a Carnifex out of his holster and sent a pair of bullets straight into its brainpan.

"Percival, the saboteurs are here. All the marines are incapacitated but Rentea is giving them medical attention. Camilla's almost done," I reported.

More gunfire erupted below, followed by the tell-tale sound of a biotic detonation. "Roger that! The Changers are dead but the little guys are flooding the place! Protect Camilla and the marines from those saboteurs, we'll try and hold them off as long as we can!" My friend shouted over the channel.

I holstered my Predator and called my biotics to life. My fists and feet were immediately enveloped in crackling blue field that I knew would amplify the force that I could put behind my blows. I could put enough power behind them to break bones, even dent armor plating.

The turian saboteur slowly removed his helmet and clipped it behind his back, revealing pale-white scales and the light-blue clan markings along his cheeks and the bridge of his nose that I'd seen back at the data archives. His eyes were a rare, ruby red, a trait found in only a few select populations, such as human and turian albinos and the occasional rare, Krogan battlemaster. The bright red orbs regarded me impassively, almost nonchalantly.

I removed my helmet as well and gently placed it on the ground behind me. It's narrow, navy-blue visor seemed black in the dull lighting of the engine room, its matte-black surface scratched and pitted. The dark-blue trim around the edges had already started to wear off, I'd have to reapply them after I kicked some turian ass.

Without a word I sprinted towards him and leapt into the air. I tried to bring my glowing blue fist crashing down right where the turian was standing but he had already leapt away. I only succeeded in leaving a large dent in the catwalk. He stood a few feet away, hands loosely held at his side and peering curiously at me.

I ran towards him and let out a biotically-assisted kick towards his head but he dodged that too. I sent a pair of powerful hooks but he slipped underneath them as well.

He jumped backwards to avoid another biotic kick rather than attempting to parry it, causing me to nearly lose my balance. He slipped slightly to the side to avoid another right hook and took a light step back to avoid the glowing, blue fist that I'd thrown in an uppercut.

Suspecting that a heavy, hard-hitting tactic would get me nowhere with the skilled saboteur, I immediately turned my biotics off rather than letting their usage prematurely tire me out.

The turian's brow-plates came together in a slight moment of confusion which was all the time I needed to take a quick step towards him and throw two swift jabs at his chin. The first one hit him hard, sending him reeling back a step, but the second he dodged with a quick step backwards. I let out three rapid kicks to the right side of his torso. He successfully parried the first one but my second went crashing into his side. He managed to dodge my third one.

I quickly moved in again and this time tried to grab his mandibles, shifting tactics again to try and engage him in a grappling fight where my superior strength and size would net me the advantage and put him in a position in which he couldn't dodge my biotics if I called upon them again, but the turian deflected my hands with an armored forearm and retaliated with a quick jab to the top of my forehead, snapping my head back.

Before I could recover, he sent a flurry of strikes directly into my armored chestplate, finishing with a heavy-handed palm strike that sent me stumbling a few feet backwards.

Instead of closing in again, I ripped my Predator from its holster and fired a volley of shots at close range.

The turian, having seen my hand move towards the holster, was able to begin immediately dodging and weaving in place, causing my first two bullets to miss and my last two to glance uselessly off of his kinetic barriers. Instead of re-engaging he activated his Tactical Cloak and faded from view.

Snarling, I stealthed as well. I used the moment's reprieve to glance over at Cade. He was still busy fighting the salarian. I could see the saboteurs mouth moving but was unable to pick out what he was saying to the turian Spectre, but judging from my friend's barred teeth it was likely provocative. Cade swiped again and again to no avail, unable to match the salarian's speed and agility but successful in keeping him pre-occupied and from harming the downed marines.

Meanwhile Camilla was still working on the Drive Core couplers and Rentea had slowly started to bring Private Galen around. Jaelen tried to draw a bead on either the salarian or the turian but had unable to do so given our proximity to his targets, instead choosing to remain a passive onlooker and standing guard over the preoccupied Drive Core technician.

A metallic orb appeared out of nowhere and landed a few meters behind me. I rolled away just as it detonated in a sphere of electricity, but it nonetheless managed to short out my tactical cloak for a few vital moments. The turian was trying to find me.

Another one flew directly at my face but I deflected it with a small biotic field. It landed a few meters ahead of me and went off. This time it not only shorted out my tactical cloak but the turian saboteurs too. He appeared in front of me, light static dancing up and down his black and gold armor. He pulled out a Carnifex with one hand while his other produced what I recognized to be a marine combat knife from his lower back.

Just as I was about to move and re-engage him, a number of things happened.

First off, the whispers came back. Loud and relentless.

I immediately screamed in pain as a sudden spike of pressure assailed my forehead, the assault driving me to my knees. The words were louder than they'd ever been, I could hear what seemed like a thousand voices talking to me in a language I could not understand.

The turian saboteur's eyes widened in confusion and he took a step towards me, but a barrage of gunfire suddenly slammed into his side and sent him stumbling away. He rolled off to the side to avoid the withering hail of bullets and stealthed, fading from view.

I opened one eye painfully and saw the large, armored form of Gunnery Chief Seam Teewin emerge from the stairs that led to the lower levels, his M-76 Revenant blazing away at the area where the turian saboteur had just been moments before. He turned his head towards me and made out as if to say something to me, but I couldn't hear him over the voices.

I saw Accer emerge from the stairwell just as another wave of pressure knocked me flat onto my back and forced me to screw my eyes painfully shut. Through the cacophony of voices I heard shrill, maniacal laughter, likely coming from the salarian.

And just like before, the voices began to go away, the pressure began to diminish. I opened my eyes to see Accer standing above me, one arm held out as if to pull me up. His mouth moved but I couldn't hear or make out anything that he was saying. Dumbly, I raised my arm and grabbed his hand.

A familiar blade came out of nowhere and went through the young Jaeger's arm, right where his upper arm met his elbow. The voices disappeared completely, giving way to a pained, agonized scream. My eyes flew wide open as I watched what seemed like a river of blood pump from the biotic's severed arm. Blue fire flickered around the bloody stump as his amp sparked on and off, confused at the sudden loss of connection with a number of element zero nodes that were found throughout a biotic's body.

His forearm fell to the ground and rolled away, its fingers twitching back and forth. I immediately got up and grabbed him as Accer started going into shock. I looked around, trying to spot either Fly or Rentea and get them to help. Some distance away, I saw that a few of the marines had started reawakening. Rake was helping Soph to her feet while Fly was crouched on all fours, shaking his head. Rentea was still trying to resuscitate the unconscious Sergeant Mardinus. Our medical experts were both preoccupied.

A black-armored figure appeared directly to my left. I watched as she pulled off her helmet and drew a wet, pink tongue down her blade, tasting the blood on it.

"No one gets to touch you but me," Olivia pouted. She flashed a smile at me and winked.

The psychotic doctor immediately began slowly backing away, wagging one finger at me. Teewin moved up and slid an arm beneath the screaming biotic Jaeger. He nodded at me and began helping him stumble towards Fly and Rentea, who were currently trying to resuscitate Jay and Sergeant Mardinus.

Olivia grinned again and flipped her hair back. "I'm glad that bitch of a doctor is dead, now it'll be just you and me, like it always should have been," the psychotic saboteur crooned at me.

"Have you given my offer any more thought? Are you ready to join us?" she said huskily.

With a yell I dashed towards her, tearing both of my Talon combat knives out of their sheaths and aiming a pair of vicious slices towards her face.

She took a step back to dodge the first one and parried the second with her blade. Instead of feinting with one hand and attacking with the other, or calling on my biotics, my anger had taken hold of me in a rare lapse of self-control. I aimed another pair of vicious slashes again, only to have her parry both of them almost effortlessly.

I pressed onwards, maintaining my vicious assault on the female saboteur. The smile never left her face, her eyes glimmering with some sort of twisted, perverse ecstasy as I came at her again and again, my anger making me sloppy, rage robbing me of my tactical sense. Her grin widened as I overextended in my latest attack, my knife whistling harmlessly over her head and forcing me to take an additional step forward as I lost my balance.

Her long, pale monomolecular blade shot out and went right across my left cheek, cutting it open and leaving a thin pale rivulet of blood on her blade. The stinging pain took me slightly out of my blood rage, causing me to gasp as I brought a gloved hand up to the wound. I dodged a follow-up strike, and then another, and unwilling to chance it any further I disengaged. The sight of my blood running lazily down the side of her blade sobered me up even further, allowing me to collect myself.

She took a few steps back and sensually licked her blade again, laughing as she finished.

My hand's balled up into fists and I felt the familiar static charge that followed the activation of my biotic amp wash over me. Blue fire encased me entirely as I prepared to attack again.

But before I could take another step that fire morphed into a stinging, burning pain that seemed to relentlessly take hold of every single one of my nerve endings. I recognized the trademark effects of an Overload discharge. I dropped to my knees as my muscles seized up, rendering me unable to move.

The turian saboteur de-cloaked again, this time beside the crazed saboteur and grabbed hold of her arm.

"Olivia, we have to go. The marines are coming around and the other Spectre's almost back. We can't beat all of them, we've failed," the turian said softly.

The psychotic redhead ripped her arm from the turian's grasp and scowled at him. "Maybe if you'd killed them instead of just incapacitating them they wouldn't be a problem. We haven't failed. If he won't join us then we'll kill him. Then his friends will be easy pickings," she argued.

The turian grabbed her arms again and shook her angrily. "We can't win! We should have listened to Locke in the first place and left. Even if we killed him they have a whole platoon of Alliance Jaegers on board, not to mention the other two Spectres. Their deaths aren't necessary to our mission, this is just about you and your insane obsession," he coldly stated.

Olivia sniffed dismissively and coldly regarded her fellow saboteur. "I never took you for a coward, Severus."

The turian abruptly cast her aside and glared at her. "And I never took you for a complete and utter psychopath, only interested in playing her stupid, silly games. Spirits, have you forgotten the mission?"

The turian and Olivia glared at each other. I could hear heavy, booted footsteps that could only belong to Percival coming up the stairs. I tried to move my fingers but still found them unresponsive.

Finally the turian, Severus, looked away. "Whatever, stay here if you'd like. I'm leaving," he said as he moved towards a door. "Zakiah! It's time to leave!" he called out.

I heard a series of detonations erupt behind me and for a second I feared for the safety of my friends. I watched as the scarred salarian materialized beside the turian and look at me with glee.

"Ah! Locke's little Spectre! Why is he still alive?" he cackled.

The turian didn't look back as he continued towards the exit. "Leave him, our mission here is done."

"But he's helpless—"

"Leave him."

"He could find and hunt us down, he'll stop at nothing to halt our transcen—"

"Now, Zakiah. You too, Flanagan," the young turian spat.

With a scowl the salarian turned to follow the young saboteur. They both faded from view as they activated their tactical cloaks. Olivia looked once more back at her retreating comrades, then over my shoulder to where my friends were rapidly approaching.

Before she turned to leave, the psychotic saboteur reached into her belt and tossed a data stick at my feet with a wink. "If you want to dance again, come find me. I'll be waiting, lover."

Blowing one last kiss, she turned and stealthed, fading from view.

I could hear gunfire and shouting. The shock from the Overload finally began to wear off, allowing me to emit a loud, angry roar.

After a few seconds I stopped. I looked down and gently picked up the data stick. It was your average storage device, the kind you could get a dozen of for about five credits. Usually possessing a capacity for no more than a few files or maybe one or two videos, they were used to create cheap copies of all sorts of electronic materials.

I tucked it into my belt and wearily pulled myself to my feet. My muscles ached in protest, my head weary both from the lack of sleep and the voices that had assaulted me. The time on my omni-tool indicated that it was well into the middle of the night and I was both thirsty and starving from all the biotic use.

Cade and Percival ran up to where I wavered unsteadily on my feet, Cade slipping an arm underneath to support me. I turned to regard my friend, noticing that he had accumulated a few more scars on his once immaculate armor, leaving it completely battered and bruised. Otherwise he looked no worse for wear.

Percival was panting heavily. The armor on his upper arm was torn where a Corpser had probably got off a lucky hit and I couldn't see a single spare heatsink attached to his armor. His tech armor flicked slightly but otherwise I was glad to see that my other best friend was still in one piece.

"Hey, you okay?" Percival asked.

I nodded and grunted an affirmative. "Can you walk?" he asked further, prompting me to nod again.

"Good. Jay's got a bad concussion and Mardinus can't walk straight, but everyone else can move. Fly and Rentea managed to stabilize Accer for now, but unless we can get him to the medical wing and start replacing some of the blood he lost he might be in some serious trouble," Percival reported, "You sure you aren't wounded?" my friend asked me one more time.

I slipped out of Cade's support and took a few shaky steps towards the young biotic Jaeger currently on the other side of the catwalks, slung on-top of his fellow Jaeger's back. His right arm ended almost a foot and a half earlier than his left, and it left a steady trail of blood down Teewin's armor and onto the catwalk. Camilla and Rentea supported an unsteady Sergeant Mardinus as he tottered behind them, the weight of the massive turian straining the two slim women. Jaelen was at the rear with Fly, the two of them holding up Jay, while Soph had the rear guard. Galen and Rake were a level down, firing on foes that I could not see.

"I'm fine" I assured him. I unslung the Valkyrie from my back and checked the charge on it. I had maybe half of my ammunition remaining.

I double checked that my kinetic shield generators, my tactical cloak, and my amp hadn't been adversely affected by the Overload charge. I sighed with relief when I found out that all systems were intact, then proceeded to catch up with the rest of the group. I brought up a gloved hand and traced the bloody line that Olivia had cut across my cheek. When I brought my gloves away, I saw that there was still blood on my fingers.

"You two coming?" I called out behind me. Without waiting for a response I marched away.

My friends shared a glance with each other, wordlessly expressing what concerns they had. We had won, but just barely. The drive core glowed blue and the engines were humming loudly. We hadn't lost a single person to the monsters and although the rogue N7 hadn't made an appearance we'd manage to successfully hold them off and cause them to fail in their objective, whatever it had been.

So why did it feel like we had lost?

The turian saboteur was skilled, moreso than Cade and possibly even me. He was young, but quick and fast, prodigiously well-trained and possessing combat skills that far outstripped anything that I'd ever seen. But instead of letting his salarian accomplice kill the unconscious marines he had stepped in to save their lives. If he had wanted to, he could have easily killed not only the marines from the Excalibur but also the turian marines and the scientists if he'd used a lethal grenade.

The salarian saboteur was crazy, but had managed to fight Cade to almost a complete standstill. He had used his species' strengths to his advantage and to the detriment of the turian Spectre, combating a turian's naturally superior strength and reach with speed and agility. Had Cade not been present, he could have easily killed the rest of my team while Percival and I were preoccupied.

And Olivia. From what I'd seen she was the least skilled of the saboteurs, made remarkable use with her blade but only then due to the fact that she had a tactical cloak. Her combat skills aside, her obviously unstable mind and the unpredictability that her psychotic inclinations lent her actions made her considerably more dangerous than we could ignore. It would have been easy for her to simply stab Accer or I or any one of our friends in the back. Instead she had chosen to play with her food, and Accer had only lost an arm instead of his life.

And once again, the rogue N7 had not been there. If he was the leader of the saboteurs and a graduate from that notoriously prestigious training program, he was most definitely a force to be reckoned with. If he had been there maybe things might have gone down differently. For now, I could only be thankful that he hadn't, and I'd have to assume that I'd have to fight him eventually.

But I was starting to get real tired of these headaches and those voices.

They had nearly cost the life of my friend, and frustratingly it seemed that no one else could hear them nor were they affected by them. They were a handicap, and while things had worked out so far I knew that my luck would run out eventually. They were getting worse and worse, and next time there might not be a Cade or an Accer to save my life. I just wish I knew why I was getting them.

Just one more unanswered question.