The Airlock

Falling into the cargo bay knocked the wind out of him. Matt struck the deck, rolled and gasped as the world spun. Fire sprinklers sprayed gushing water everywhere. When the world stopped spinning he saw the wide, shocked eyes of an escaped asari prisoner looking straight down at him.

Oh hell!

Matt scrambled to his left and reactivated his cloak as the panicked asari fumbled for the trigger and riddled frantic gunfire all over the floor where he lay moments before. He gasped air as he crawled on his elbows and knees, staying low as rifle rounds crisscrossed the air inches above him. From the sounds he heard, there must have been a dozen or more Cerberus soldiers and Orcus mechs trying to kill the prisoners. He glanced to his left and saw a gaping, charred smoky hole in a side wall. Two asari lay dead nearby in a pool of purple blood, their bodies shredded by fragments and bullets. He watched as stray rounds hit a crate marked with the friendly words, "DANGER – SUPERACID INSIDE – MAY CAUSE SERIOUS INJURY OR DEATH." It leaked a clear, bubbly, sour-smelling fluid that melted a small hole in the floor within seconds.

The smell made Matt nauseous watching the acid eat its way through the deck. Who the hell used a "super" freaking acid? He retreated away from the crate as he heard Jordan's voice in his headset. "Matt, are you all right? Have they seen you? I'm out of the tunnel. I'm cloaked and on the ground."

Matt remembered the asari's terrified eyes. He tried to force her eyes out of his mind, but couldn't. He flinched as rifle rounds flew above him. "One asari saw me. She was scared to death and I got away from her though. I'm cloaked near the blast hole that the troops used. The asari aren't using biotics, so I guess Cerberus drugged them or something."

"Right. It looks like we're on opposite sides of the cargo bay."

"Just let these guys fight each other. If you see a security camera, shoot it. After the troops are done, maybe the Director will send them someplace else. Keep using your cloak and stay the hell out of sight."

Matt ducked as stray rifle rounds struck the crates near him. Another gas tank blew up, sending three Orcus mechs into the air. A krogan roared, charged forward and sent more mechs flying. Biotics or not, these prisoners weren't exactly pinned down. Matt fired his rifle at a security camera, destroying it in a shower of sparks. Then he shot another. His gunfire were lost in the mayhem.

A new voice hissed from behind him. "Matt!"

Matt whipped around and raised his pistol. In his HUD, he saw the blue outline of a cloaked soldier with his hands up. "Don't shoot! It's me! Evan!"

Matt's heart pounded in his chest. I'm aiming my sidearm at my teammate's head. Please God no. "I heard you, Evan. You want to kill us. You're with them."

"Matt, you've gotta listen to me. Something's wrong with me. I surrendered to these guys after I got separated from Samantha. I sure as hell don't trust any of them, and I think I'm losing my mind."

Matt steadied his grip on his pistol. "Why should I trust you?"

"Why? Because I snuck up behind your sorry ass and said 'Matt' instead of shooting you. Dumbass."

"Okay, okay. I guess that's a good freaking point." Matt took a relieved breath and lowered his weapon. "Let me guess - you've got headaches and a weird psycho feeling. You have creepy 'kill Randall Ezno' thoughts that keep popping in. Right?"

"Holy jeez. Are you serious? Yeah, that's been happening." An explosion all but drowned out his voice. "I wanted to grab one of those maces that you play with and then bury it in Randall's head. I thought I must be ready for the psych ward. It's happened to you too?"

"Me and Jordan both. Inali made a VI to help us, and she…oh, hell, forget it. I'll explain later. First things first – change the identify-friend-or-foe frequency on your stealth mode. Jordan and I want to track you, but we don't want the Director's guys to track you."

As Evan entered new commands into his omni-tool, Matt toggled his com. "Jordan, I've got Evan and he's on our side."

A fireball of red and orange flame from the other side of the cargo bay drowned out Jordan's answer in heavy static. Burning chunks of chemical cylinders and fragments of crates went flying through the air. A new round of gunfire erupted along with the hissing sound of biotic attacks, including the booming sound of a biotic storm bubble. Matt and Evan sprinted from their cover and ran, cloaked, toward the sound of the fighting.

A moment later they saw Jordan, uncloaked, with her right side burning with flickers of fire. She rolled on the ground and pounded out the remaining flames with her arms. Orcus mechs stood impassively as they were engulfed in the inferno, and the burning robot soldiers fired their weapons at Jordan and the prisoners until they collapsed. Burning Cerberus soldiers staggered away from the shooting as others tried to extinguish the flames off their armor. Some of the remaining mechs and Cerberus soldiers riddled Jordan's cover with bullets. The rest ruthlessly killed the remaining prisoners. A krogan charged forward, crushing two combat mechs and killing three soldiers before it fell.

For too many precious seconds, the flames on Jordan's burning combat armor compromised her tactical cloak. Inali's VI declared, "Cerberus troops now reporting to Ares Station Control that Jordan Jensen has been sighted in Cargo Bay Twelve." After a moment, the VI spoke again. "Ares Station Director authorizing additional troops and mechs to Cargo Bay Twelve."

"We have to help her, come on!" Matt and Evan rushed forward into the fray. To their stunned enemy, their cloaked attacks seemed to come from nowhere. Evan threw a biotic storm bubble that consumed two mechs, wheeled and threw a spread of biotic missiles that descended and killed the Cerberus Centurion commanding the troops.

Matt riddled an Orcus mech and a soldier that was firing from a walkway overlooking the cargo bay. Then he biotically lifted and hurled a thousand pound crate against the mechs guarding the blast hole. Jordan re-engaged her cloak and sprinted unseen toward a group of three mechs. She drove a fist through the first, shot the second one point-blank in the head, and biotically threw the last mech upward into the ceiling. Instead of falling to the ground, the mech remained lodged there.

Evan said, "Well there's something you don't see every day."

Just that quickly, only the sounds of the burning debris, fire alarms and sprinklers remained.

Evan and Jordan decloaked while Matt scanned their surroundings. "It looks like that's all of them, but it won't be for long. We've got to get out of here. Inali, lock all access doors to Cargo Bay Twelve. Show me the security feeds for all corridors leading here, including the decks above and below us."

Jordan said, "Let's use our biotic leashes to move the heavy crates and barricade those doors. The heavier, the better."

Evan didn't move. He only stared blankly at the carnage and wrecked room around them.

Matt stepped forward. "Evan…buddy…they'll be coming. We need to slow them down. We need to move."

Jordan's eyes went to Matt's, then she turned to Evan. "Listen, Evan. Matt's right. We need to move. I don't know what's happening, but if the Director ever thought we might surrender, he doesn't believe that now. Come on." She raised a hand and biotically lifted a pair of crates weighting five hundred pounds, then piled them up against the debris at the blast hole.

Evan gaped at the sight of the dead soldiers. "Matt…Jordan…yesterday, we would've fought right alongside these guys. We would've watched each other's backs."

Matt took his squadmate by the shoulder. "Evan, listen. They're not our friends anymore. Inali tried to send us all a message before they took her. She found out that Cerberus wants to use our biotic implants to control us. Like puppets. That's why they arrested her. That's why they want Randall dead, and why they want to get rid of us. We have to get out of here and we don't have much time." He turned and biotically threw another crate toward an access door as Jordan did the same.

Jordan looked back toward their teammate. "Dude, he's telling the truth. And we need you."

Evan's eyes regained their focus and his actions spoke next. After a moment, he biotically lifted a pair of wrecked Orcus mechs and threw them toward one of the cargo bay's access doors.

In the three soldiers' helmets, an all-too-familiar voice spoke into their earpieces. "This is the Director of Ares Station, contacting Jordan Jensen any other rogue infiltrators who are with her. Give yourselves up. You're surrounded on all sides, and it's only a matter of time before my soldiers and mechs break into Cargo Bay Twelve. If you surrender, you will be treated fairly."

"Treated fairly...sure, right." Matt's blood ran cold as he scanned the security feeds in his HUD. "Guys, I'm looking at the security feeds now. He's sending everything but the kitchen sink at us. It's like he told every mech and soldier on this side of the station to drop what they're doing and go after us. I'm seeing dozens of bad guys."

Jordan said, "Inali, show me the security feeds." After a moment she said, "It's worse. I think they're also bringing a couple of big Ogre mechs…nevermind, all of the security feeds just went dark. Just great."

Evan biotically lifted a pair of cylinders with volatile chemicals and lowered them to one of the barricades. "How bad is it, Matt?"

"How bad? It's starting to look like the last scene of 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.' That bad."

The Director's smug voice interrupted them all. "By the way, all of you. One last thing. Don't dare to test my resolve. If you don't surrender, I will gladly pull the switch that throws each of you out an airlock. You can decide who goes first. This is your last warning."

Matt lowered one last crate and stood silently. Turning around toward Jordan and Evan, his eyes lit up. "Now that…just might be crazy enough to work." He toggled his com. "Inali, can you access Ares Station's main hangar doors, and do you have remote flight control access to the shuttle that our team used yesterday on its last mission?"

Inali's VI spoke with a voice that was calm, even reassuring. "Yes, Matt. I have access to the Ares hangar doors and flight control of shuttle 17."

Jordan's face contorted with confusion. "What good is that going to do us now? We're nowhere near the hangar. They probably have guys placing explosives at the walls now. They're going to blast their way in."

Matt raised his hand and his heart pounded with tension. "Inali, open the Ares hangar doors, cloak that shuttle and fly it out, and have it hold station at twenty yards from the airlock for Cargo Bay Twelve. Line up the center of the shuttle's side hatch with the center of Cargo Bay Twelve's airlock, then open the shuttle's hatch."

Jordan's face flushed white as she turned and looked over her shoulder. Evan turned too. At the back of the cargo bay, a reinforced airlock door stood. Jordan's jaw dropped as she said, "Matt, with all due respect…are you SHITTING me?"

Matt kept his breathing steady as he tried to stay calm, and focused as turned toward them. He finished giving his order to the Inali VI. "Inali, at twenty seconds after the shuttle arrives, I want you to blow the airlock for Cargo Bay Twelve. Provide audio countdown."

Evan looked around, as though he might see some new person standing nearby with a better idea. "Matt, that's crazy. I might as well cut my way through the floor and go it alone. Jordan, you can contact that VI too, right? Tell it to cancel the order. Tell it to stop. Cancel it."

Jordan stood rooted to the ground as she looked at Matt. "That plan is freaking insane Matt, but insanity's our only option."

Evan stepped toward them. "What about Samantha? What about Randall and Inali?"

Matt looked at them both. "Guys, listen. I'm not making you come with me. If you want to go, grab your cutting torches and go. But I'm not staying here. We're cornered. The Director's probably going to blast every inch of this cargo bay to kill us."

Evan took out his cutting torch and looked at Jordan. "Jordan?"

Matt flexed his jaw and made a fist. He prayed to God that he'd made the right decision. If he made the wrong one, well, then he'd be dead soon and he'd sure give God a piece of his mind.

Jordan took a breath and nodded toward Matt. "I'm with Matt. I'm ready to take a giant leap for mankind."

"Bloody hell," mumbled Evan as he put his torch away. He tossed his other hand into the air and shook his head. "I'm not going it alone. The last ride is the best ride, so I'm with you two."

The Director's last attack began a moment later with twin explosions blasting through opposite sides of the cargo bay. All of the room's lights went dark as the three former Cerberus infiltrators rushed for the nearest cover. Matt toggled his com as his HUD automatically switched to night vision.

"Inali, where is that shuttle?" The VI did not respond. "Inali, talk to me," he shouted. Adrenalin flooded him as he switched his rifle to full automatic and sprayed the nearest blast hole with rifle rounds. "All right. We have to hold for a few seconds more. Just a few seconds." They engaged their cloaks and sent a flood of biotic missiles, storm bubbles, and rifle rounds at the blast holes. The flashes of gunfire and streams of blue biotic energy were like a lightning storm at midnight.

Orcus mechs stepped into the breaches and then fell under the infiltrators' withering fire. New mechs tried to force their way through and then the infiltrators threw gas tanks that exploded and reduced them to scrap iron. New explosions widened the breaches, and heavy footfalls shook the entire deck. A pair of massive killing machines, Ogre mechs, kicked obstacles aside and crushed debris beneath their feet. The two-armed mechanical giants each started blasting away with a Gatling gun and a beam weapon that disintegrated everything in front of it. Each Ogre mech scanned the room with a single artificial eye that glowed with a malevolent crimson light. Soldiers and Orcus mechs advanced into the cargo bay and used the Ogre mechs as cover.

"Oh, hell no," grunted Evan as he ducked from rifle rounds and burning debris. "We should've saved the gas tanks." He concentrated his rifle fire on the Ogre mech to his right, blowing off its Gatling gun.

At least a dozen Orcus mechs and soldiers had joined the two Ogres. Already their combined firepower saturated the area where the infiltrators hid and crates and pieces of equipment blew apart around them. Matt drew his sniper rifle and aimed at the left Ogre's artificial eye. His aim was true and he blew it apart.

Matt grinned with satisfaction from ear to ear. "Lights out, Cyclops." Then his grin vanished as his target seemed to go berserk. The Ogre on the left side stormed blindly through the cargo bay and fired its weapons wildly, sweeping them everywhere as it ran. Cerberus soldiers ran for cover, and some of them redirected their fire to the berserk, blinded Ogre. The Orcus mechs stubbornly marched forward anyway. Some of the robot soldiers had their arms and legs blown off by stray rounds from the blinded Ogre as the cargo bay became a wasp nest of heavy weapons fire.

Matt ducked away from the crossfire. "Well at least some of them are shooting at each other." He toggled his com. "Inali, how much longer? Now would be a good freaking time." Ricochets struck the floor alongside and behind them.

Inali's VI finally spoke to Matt and Jordan. "Shuttle 17 on station. Emergency airlock detonation in twenty seconds. Nineteen. Eighteen."

Rifle rounds and plasma energy splintered their cover and struck Evan and Jordan. Their kinetic shields saved their lives, but the impacts knocked them to the ground. Evan was hit again as Matt pulled him to cover, then Matt staggered as fragments and stray rounds struck him too. He toggled his com as an Ogre's beam incinerated the cover above him. He shouted, "Inali, blow the airlock now or we're all gonna die!"

A red strobe flashed above the airlock and a klaxon blared as an emergency bulkhead descended from the ceiling. After a confused moment, the sight of the descending bulkhead galvanized the Cerberus Centurion leading the attackers. She waved her arms and shouted, "Fall back! Everybody fall back to me! They're blowing this place out!" Her soldiers needed no prompting and scrambled for safety behind the bulkhead as the Orcus and Ogre mechs stood their ground and laid waste to everything in sight. Matt, Jordan and Evan wheeled away from their enemies and charged toward the airlock as explosive bolts blew the door free. It felt for a moment like running down the throat of a monster about to swallow them.

The door's explosion stunned and knocked them backward. A gale force wind then blew them from behind and sent them hurtling toward space. Matt felt as though Satan had grabbed his chest and pulled him forward to the blackness. His eyes widened as decompression grabbed them like an invisible rope and hurled them into the void.

Nearly everything went black. Matt struck a glancing blow against the ejected airlock door and Jordan tumbled into him from behind. They careened forward, crashing against a wall.

A wall?

It's the shuttle. We're inside the shuttle. Jordan leaped into the cockpit as Matt scrambled to his feet. Looking around, he scrambled to the hatch as more pieces of debris flew past him. "Jordan, wait - Evan's not here."

"What? Where the hell is he?"

Matt looked outside and saw Evan helplessly swing his arms and stretch toward the shuttle as he floated back toward the cargo bay.

He must have hit the shuttle and bounced backward or something. More debris bounced off the shuttle as Matt biotically seized Evan and yanked toward the shuttle, grabbing his arm and pulling him inside.

"I've got Evan. Close the hatch and get us the hell out of here." A flying broken slab from a cargo crate struck his shield and knocked him off balance.

Evan regained his bearings and then pointed behind Matt. "Look out!"

An Orcus mech hurtled feet-first through the shuttle's hatch and crashed into Matt and Evan. The three lay strewn on the shuttle's deck until Matt scrambled to his feet and held the mech down with his forearm against its neck. Sparks flew from the mech as Evan stomped his foot through its chest and Matt pummeled its mechanical face.

The hatch closed, and the shuttle cabin pressurized with a hissing sound. Jordan looked over her shoulder and cocked her head. "What was that?"

Matt removed his helmet and caught his breath for a few seconds as his adrenalin faded. "That was just a stowaway. An Orcus mech. You know, a little help would've been nice." On the shuttle's monitors, he saw the station passing by them in a blur. Even at that speed, the viewscreens showed areas of the station glowing orange and red from fires raging inside it.

Jordan waved Matt off. "You guys didn't need help. We're hauling ass away from the Barn. It looks like our shuttle's cloak still works, because nobody's shooting at us. I'll go FTL in a minute." Within moments, Ares station was behind them and the shuttle disappeared into space.

All was quiet as Evan removed his own helmet and dropped into the nearest seat, kicking away the wrecked pieces of the mech. "I can't believe we're here. Off the station. Alive."

Matt sat down in the co-pilot's seat as he removed his gloves and wiped his face. "You're not kidding, Evan. Seriously." After catching his breath, he said, "We need to disappear. All of us."

Jordan turned to Matt and Evan. She brushed at her sandy blond hair. "My older brother Jake has some friends in very low places. He's an outlaw, and he's wanted for piracy in ten systems. I was the one who took the 'respectable' job and joined Cerberus. Anyway, Jake's got a lot of aliases and fake identities. He likes to call himself Captain Hook, Captain Blood, Captain America, he's got a whole bunch of nicknames. He can help us disappear, and I know where we can find him."

"Should we stick together?" asked Evan.

They all looked at each other. Matt started to remove his body armor. "I don't know. We can play paper-rock-scissors for who gets to keep the shuttle. Or probably Jake can sell it to some government, mafia or a non-human terrorist group to help pay for our new identities. I'll bet all of those groups would love to get their hands on Cerberus tech.

Jordan looked around the inside of the shuttle. "I don't even want to think about the paint job Jake will give this thing if he decides to keep it. A pirate with top of the line stealth capability? He'll never want to give up this toy."

Evan noticed something on the shuttle's instrument panel. "Guys, look."

Matt's heart sank. "Oh, man. Someone's still here with us."

Jordan looked, and her eyes saddened. A small image of Inali's VI was displayed on the panel. "Of course," she sighed. "Inali's VI flew this shuttle to the cargo bay. I guess it's still online."

Evan stood up and stepped over to the cockpit. As he saw Inali's face, his lips formed a tight line. "Inali. None of us would be here if it wasn't for her. She saved us all. I wish we could thank her."

Matt said, "We need to stay alive, guys. For Inali."

The Inali VI's face was calm and serene as a backdrop of static began to envelop it. Within seconds the image of their friend's face faded from sight. A black background with the stark white letters SIGNAL LOST appeared in its place.

The three shared a look, and you could hear a pin drop inside the shuttle.