Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or the various X-COM games. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not written for profit. It is not for sale or rent.
Chapter 8: Fallout
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Part 3
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17 June 2177 CE
Phoenix Research Center
Insight Cyber-Solutions facility
Shanxi
There were very few things that could rattle Kai Leng. What he could sense during the approach to the objective, was one of them. The only thing he could compare the sensations emanating from the gleaming complex built on the side of a mountain was Fairfield. However, if anything, this place felt worse. Wrong.
The X-Com operative wasn't the only one to feel unease. The three other Psionic agents stuck in the transport with him radiated tension you could practically cut. Only the regular troopers appeared unperturbed, the lucky bastards. It was probably the Psionic screens built into their armors.
"Assassin 1-1, Oversight Actual. We're detecting no movement, and no one is answering our hails. Thermal is unreliable. We've got multiple heat sources active on-site, primary machinery."
A holographic image came to life in the middle of the transport, showing the official plans of the research center overlaid with active scan results. Three sectors glowed red.
"These are shielded areas, and thus of high interest. Raider and Lancer will sweep the bulk of the facility and detain anyone on site. Assassin, you're to breach the shielded areas and retrieve any useful intelligence." Mission Control went over the plan one final time while six X-Com assault transports and their fighter escorts flew straight at their target. They used the terrain to mask their approach. Their ship was in orbit, ready to provide additional support if necessary.
"Drones on point, I'm next. Vega, Martinez, you're behind me. Lydia and Miko, you're covering us along with the SHIV." Leng ordered when they began the final approach."Rookie, you're in the middle of the formation. If you panic and shoot me in the ass, I'll shoot you myself."
Shepard's mind blazed with barely contained fury at those words. At least, one of his Psionic operatives was no longer feeling as uneasy as he was, Leng thought with a hint of amusement.
Whatever external defenses the complex had, and this far from out from Earth, fixed emplacements were a given they failed to activate. The transports swarmed over the facility, with two landings at the front door. Another pair went for the landing pad on the roof, and the rest hovered over the sides so their troopers could make their entry points.
Leng's unit entered from the roof. It offered the nearest entrance to the closest shielded area. A drone controlled by Lydia hacked the door, and she sent several recon units inside. Meanwhile, Leng took a moment to look around. A squad from Raider was busy hacking the hangar doors. They had prudently stacked away from the entrance while keeping their SHIV on point. He could see familiar domes hiding weapon emplacements, which remained sealed and under the close watch of the Dragon fighters above. The two transports on the roof had landed in such a way that they could cover most weapon emplacements with their weaponry just in case.
No greeting committee, friendly or otherwise, came to meet the operative. From this close, the place gave the cold-blooded killer the creeps. It was like something slimy and dead kept crawling up and down his spine.
"No sign of active VI or AI. Local data-net is down…" Lydia rattled out. Her drones showed empty corridors lit up by emergency lighting. There was no trace of fighting or from the researchers.
"We're going in. Stay sharp." Leng ordered.
"Lancer 1-1 to all elements. The lobby is clear. No trace of the locals. We've got a lot of security mechs in standby mode here. Turrets, barriers, the works. I've got a tech specialist in the security room trying to get us some answers…"
"Lancer 1-1, Oversight Actual. Rig the defenses for demolition just in case."
"Oversight Actual, Lancer 1-1. 1-3 and 1-5 are on it, and the SHIVs have them covered as well. It looks like the security just got up and left, leaving everything at standby mode. VI is down. If they had an active defense AI, there would be no trace of it. The local wireless network is down. Hardwire connection is up, no active presence…"
Seeing the closest corridors were empty, Leng gave the order to advance. Behind him, the Raider squad had the hangar doors open and began sweeping in. Before going inside the complex, Sergeant Leng saw the forms of two large civilian transports carefully nested within the hangars. That only made his unease grow. The presence of those transports pointed at the locals being here as well.
All they found after breaching the facility pointed at something being out of place. They walked by multiple lit up work terminals with screens displaying automatic logouts due to inactivity. Here and there, the operatives passed by the odd cup of coffee or tea dropped on the ground. Other cups laid forgotten on various metal or plastic desks. Those alongside various articles of upper clothing left on the backs of chairs reinforce the impression that everyone simply stood up and left in a more or less orderly fashion.
Shanxi's government had no records of the person they knew of working at the facility here leaving through one of their ports. Neither did they detect one of them coming to one of the settlements on the planet to try and hide. While that wasn't saying much, both Lancer and Raider sent reports pointing at the same thing. The place was a ghost town.
Leng's unit reached their first objective in short order. They faced a thick armored door covered by all kinds of warning signs you could expect at the entrance of a laboratory.
"Lydia, try to hack the door. Miko, get your charges ready if we need to make our way in." Leng ordered.
"I'm getting the feeling that the Sarge doesn't like us much…" Vega muttered to himself.
"The Sergeant knows for a fact that Thompson and Tyson know what the fuck they're doing, and are unlikely to get me killed. I can't say the same for the rest of you yet." Leng grumbled aloud, then stiffened. This place was getting to him because otherwise, he would have kept the sentiment to himself. While he was a right bastard, X-Com had to deal with people like him down to an art. He knew better than to utter statements that might be bad for morale or unit cohesion in the middle of a bloody mission. "Check up on your Mind Shields." He rumbled and concentrated on his mental defenses.
Leng could feel the minds of his Psionic operatives, while the rest of the squad were a grey haze even standing beside him. Their implants and Psionic Shielding was working as advertised. Shepard and Miko's minds respectively burned with controlled anger and felt as uneasy as the Sergeant did.
There was something cold beyond that door. Something that didn't belong here.
"Oversight Actual, Assassin 1-1. This place is giving my Psionic personnel and me the creeps. There is something wrong here, and I believe we're about to make contact when we breach the restricted area." Leng reported.
"Assassin 1-1, Oversight Actual, affirmative. Describe what you're experiencing. We've got reinforcements on standby just in case, including local QRF ready to establish a secure perimeter if necessary."
Leng explained while Lydia finished hacking the door. Without an AI opposing her, it took time, but it was more than doable. The massive doors hissed when their airtight seal broke, and they began opening slowly.
The first thing Leng saw was the dull orange glow of more emergency lighting illuminating an empty decontamination chamber. Its far end was stuck open, and as the doors unfolded, he could hear a repeating message.
"Warning, Decontamination Chamber compromised. Contact security immediately…" The same emotionless recording kept repeating itself.
"Lydia, send your drones and the SHIV in. Miko, I want this place rigged to blow as a firebreak just in case." Leng pointed at the decontamination chamber.
The autonomous weapon platform flew past the chamber. It took a sentry position past it's stuck inner door while a spread of reconnaissance drones swarmed over the laboratory. Miko pulled several charges out of her backpack and began setting them up while the rest of the unit covered her.
A low, barely audible moan came from deep within the laboratory. If it wasn't for the sensors built into their armors, no one would have heard it over the constantly repeating warnings and the quiet buzz of still active equipment inside.
"Sarge, did that sound like a zombie? There were no traces of Chrysalids, right?" Vega asked warily and switched his plasma cannon on automatic mode.
"Assassin 1-1 to all units. We have possible zombies here and potential Chrysalid infestation." Leng reported.
"Whatever did this, was no Chrysalid. You've got to see this, Sarge." Lydia hissed and sent a drone feed straight to Leng's HUD.
A glowing humanoid form knelt in front of a desk. It might have been human at one point, however now it resembled a cyber zombie from a horror movie. Just looking at it over a camera feed, made Leng wince. He was dead sure this was the source of what he has been feeling ever since they began to approach the facility. When he concentrated his Gift on the direction that thing was, all he could feel was a cold, slimy presence. There were death and worse waiting there.
"Oh, fuck." Lydia's words came out in a low ominous tone. She switched the feed to that of another drone. This one showed ten people kneeling in front of another desk, which had a black, spiky artifact placed on it. Half of them were more cyber zombies, though at least a few of those had the remains of lab coats partially covering them. The rest were from the facility's security detail, and they were different. They were transformed by those dark and glowing cybernetics as well. However, the implants, or whatever the fuck they were, had grown through and over their civilian grade armor. It looked like they had fused to it and the weapons the guards wore.
"Oversight Actual, Assassin 1-1, we've got a situation here. I'm sending you drone footage." Leng began.
At that moment, all the zombies twitched and turned their heads towards the drones observing them. That revealed their faces had been significantly transformed – blue lines glowed from under shivered skin, tubes came out of their mouths and went through their necks to disappear within grey flesh. Their eyes were gone, replaced by blue glowing optics.
For long seconds, the zombies stared straight at the drones then they pounced at them. The little devices were quick and nimble enough to avoid the husks jumping at them. However, they had no chance when those things released energy pulses strong enough to fry the drones in range.
"The hell was that?" Vega exclaimed.
"Don't let them get close to you." Leng snapped. "Miko, get that charge set and out of the line of fire." He ordered.
By now, they all could hear approaching moaning and naked feet walking upon the metal floor of the facility, along with the distinct sound of armored boots.
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Part 4
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17 June 2177 CE
Phoenix Research Center
Insight Cyber-Solutions facility
Shanxi
Moaning cyber-zombies ran at the X-COM squad, moving much faster than any undead created by the Ethereals the organization had faced before. Green plasma shredded them as soon as they came within sight of the decontamination chamber. The high-powered weaponry tore the zombies to pieces, which promptly ignited and burned with black flames until little more than ash remained.
A handful of cybernetically altered guards ran behind the small horde using it for cover. They opened fire with modern laser weapons, scoring hits upon the heavy armored chassis of the SHIV at the front. Return fire cut them practically in two. Whatever enhancement their glowing cybernetics provided, were no match for the plasma.
"Send more drones." Leng ordered after no more hostiles came at them for nearly a minute. "Oversight Actual, Assassin 1-1. We'll need a proper recovery unit down here." The operative looked critically at his team's handiwork. There was nothing left from the cyber-zombies but ash and a few larger, melted lumps. However, the guards didn't burn down the same way so there might be something useful for X-COM's science division to find there.
"Assassin 1-1, Oversight Actual. Reinforcements and a recovery unit will be enroute to your position ASAP. Secure the facility and do not approach the unindentified alien technology those things were worshiping."
Leng confirmed receiving the orders and got his people to secure the laboratory. They entered cautiously, following recon drones, which buzzed in front of them searching for more nasty surprises.
Soon, similar reports came all over the combat net from the units breaching the other shielded spaces. More of those cyber-zombies. At one point there were just enough of them to successfully rush the breaching team and release their energy pulses, injuring the point man and damaging the SHIV he took cover behind. Other than that, securing the facility went smoothly.
"… mainframe secure. Commencing data recovery…"
"...medical evaquation. Those are some pretty nasty burns…"
"…charges. We can wreck all heavy defenses with the press of a button."
Leng kept an ear to the combat net, while watching the spiky alien artifact that might be to blame for everything that happened at this facility. He was at hopefully safe distance from the thing, observing it through a drone feed. That thing gave him the creeps and that was saying something.
Meanwhile, his unit was divided between keeping the entrance to the labs secure and data-mining the varios workstations in the lab. From that point on, the operations should have been a routine exercise.
In reality, it was anything but. Leng froze, alongside every Psionicaly active operative on site. Powerful, unfamiliar spikes of power lit up all over the place. Shepard's eyes widened at that point. She had sensed something like that back on the cat-peoples' planet.
"Psionic portals!" She managed to shout just as multiple purple spheres materialized all over the facility. Tendrils of Psionic energy whipped around them like veils of cloth carried by wind and the sheer magnitude of the unleashed power caused painful headache to everybody sensitive nearby.
"Defensive positions, now!" Leng snapped. "Overseer Actual, Assassin1-1, we need reiforcements and heavy fire support right now!"
Multiple deafening thunderclaps shook the facility and drowned out Oversight's answer despite the audio filters built in Leng's helmet. A blinding purple flash followed and the Psionic spheres vanished. In their places stood alien squads. Heavy armored Muttons and long sinuous serpentine forms coiled upon themselves wasted no time and ran or slid towards the nearest cover. Barring that, they charged the closest X-COM unit.
"Contact! Ethereal forces on the ground!" Vega screamed and opened fire at a huge Mutton running straight at him. A red pulse washed over the alien and a barrier formed around it just in time to intercept a burst of heavy plasma courtesy of the SHIV.
Two plasma bolts splashed over the shield before it shattered like glass and three more struck the berserker in the chest. It's armor's outer layers ablated, more of it melted and the brute screamed in pain and anger. However, it didn't stop, much less slow down. It plowed into the floating SHIV and brought it to the ground. Its huge arms grappled with the weapon platform and it tried to tear off its primary weapon.
"Fucking die!" Vega screamed and hosed the alien with plasma.
He managed a single burst that half-melted the thing's helmet before poison green beams forced him to seek cover. Something that looked like a huge armored cobra shot and hissed angrily at him. To top it all, Vega got a glimpse of a humanoid in silver armor. If he didn't know better, he would have concluded that it was a human!
At that point, Shepard threw a grenade into the decontamination chamber and pumped a shot from her shard cannon into the Mutton before more of those beams forced her back behind cover. Green light and heat flashed into the lab followed by the sound of thunder.
"That got it surely…" Shepard mumbled.
The SHIV backed into the lab, dragging the charred upper torso of the Mutton that still clung to it in a death grip. Two green beams slammed into its front and blasted through the armor. The weapon platform let out a piteous whine and collapsed to the floor, forming a small barricade.
"What are we dealing with?" Leng demanded as soon as he got near the entrance.
"Two huge snakr-like things, at least one humanoid, it might be one of those hybrid things…" Véga reported.
More angry hissing confirmed his words.
"We hold until reínforced…" Léng trailed off when the now familiar sensation of more portals opening fell upon them all. At least one was behind them within the lab. "Shepard, with me. The rest of you, hold this position!" He barked and ran back deeper within the lab. "Ready grenades!"
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