Chapter 11! Enjoy!
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Baker was unsure whether his vision was blurring or his visor was too damaged. The corridor seemed to stretch on forever as he headed for Korvos' store. He took a turn into another long path, then another, then another, until he wasn't sure of where he was anymore. He tried to bring up his omnitool but his right arm was too weak to lift up – it was falling asleep. As his breath drew shallower, he leaned against a wall, his shoulder aching at the pressure so he slid down, leaving trails of blood smeared on the grimy metallic grate.
You'll feel much better after a nap.
Propping his right arm on his knee, he opened his omnitool and opened a map of Omega's commercial district. It turned out he went the wrong way, and was now near the docks. Korvos' store was two floors down, just a five minute walk.
Let's go after a nap.
Baker shook his head, drunkenly disagreeing with the gravelly voice in his mind. He looked at the clock on his arm… it had only been ten minutes since his last dose of adrenaline. Another one would greatly increase the risk of cardiac arrest, and he didn't want that. He was losing blood as well, but he could no longer focus his eyes on the holographic display, making taking care of himself impossible. His lips were dry as he tried to talk to the VI in his omnitool but the words couldn't make their way out of his mouth.
The cold he felt in his chest eased into warmth as he closed his eyes and went to sleep.
…
Two humans lead a third walking out of Omega's docks towards the commercial district. The residents couldn't help but ogle at the white jumpsuit one of the women was wearing. Word had spread quickly that a Cerberus vessel had come to Omega, but their intentions were still a mystery to the residents.
The woman tailing the group pressed her gauntleted fingers against her eyes, trying to supress a throbbing headache. Scars glowing orange outlined her cheekbones, jaw and forehead and her red hair seemed to sway behind her like heavy smoke. She let go of her eyes to make sure she was still following the other two humans closely when she saw a figure in black armour slumped against a wall.
"Is that a human?" she asked, surprised at how the other two had completely ignored the body.
"Yes, but most certainly dead. Look, there's a hole in his head and the wall behind him is all bloodied up," one of the other humans, a dark skinned man, answered. He barely moved his head to acknowledge the dead human as he walked by and the other woman completely ignored it.
With a thick, earthborn accent, the woman that was leading the group spoke up, "Omega is littered with dead bodies like that one, Shepard. By the time we're back, the vorcha will have probably taken him away. We should focus on retrieving doctor Solus instead."
…
Hal watched as Garrus took aim from his balcony. He had tuned the turian's shields to focus the mass effect fields only in front of him and from his chest up, making him impervious to at least five bullets before he would have to take cover for a recharge. The turian's scope came to rest on a batarian that was attempting to cross the bridge into Garrus' headquarters.
"He's got shields at 70%. Don't miss, Garrus," pleaded Hal as the turian's rifle whirred loading a heavier slug into the mass effect chamber while the small regular chip of tungsten in the chamber was expelled.
"When have I ever missed, Hal?" came the turian's reply as he squeezed the trigger.
The heavy tungsten round flattened against the batarian's shield as it overloaded and let the projectile power through. The flattened blob impacted the flesh and bone, making it explode into shredded meat and a cloud of blood.
Garrus took his eye off the scope and got down to let his shields charge, "After seeing that, I'm sure the mercs will take a little while to start coming again."
Hal was about to answer when an alarm went off in his consciousness. In miliseconds, he evaluated Garrus' situation and spoke, "Garrus, I have to go away for a little."
"Where are you going to go?" the turian asked, alarmed at losing the last thing he could talk to.
"It doesn't matter, I have to go now! I'll be gone three minutes tops!" and with that, Garrus' translator crackled for a second before going silent.
…
As he lay against a grimy wall near the docks, the headphones in Baker's helmet came to life, "Oh no you don't!"
An omnigel structure tied around the human's ribcage contracted, squeezing Baker's still heart. The structure stretched out and contracted again and again, going at a quick rhythm. Baker's eyelids fluttered, but he was still not back.
"Come on, Nicolas! Give me a pulse!"
Baker fell to the ground from his slumped position as his ribcage contracted and stretched. Noises of wheezing and choking filled the corridor as the dead body convulsed on the floor with its own ribcage performing CPR on itself.
"There we go!" Hal exclaimed as an uneven pulse started. He activated the suit's speakers as he charged the defibrillator on the omnigel structure, "Stand back. Stand back. Stand back."
The static charge raced through Nicolas' body and the compressions began again. Hal checked the omnitool's log, "Oh this stupid fuck used adrenaline twelve minutes ago! Let's synthesize isotonic anticoagulant, then."
The compressions continued as a group of Vorcha watched in awe at the human that was dead and alive at the same time. Hal lifted the visor as far as the damaged mechanism permitted to let out the foam that was escaping Nicolas' mouth, thanking his luck that he hadn't thrown up. Hal noted that a minute and a half had passed and Garrus was probably wondering where he'd gone. If the human didn't wake up in a minute, he would have to give up on him and return to the turian.
Finally, Nicolas' lungs fought against the compressions and his eyes shot open as he arched his back, trying to make space for his lungs to take in as much air as they could. Hal shouted into his headphones to help the human come back to his senses, "Nicolas! Nicolas, answer me!"
"I'm up! Holy shit, I'm up! Hal, is that you?"
"It's me, but that doesn't matter, you have to go to Korvos ASAP," Hal said as he got ready to leave again. If Nicolas couldn't make it by himself, there was nothing the AI could do.
Baker used his prosthetic hand to push himself up before clutching the wall to his side, "Ok. Where do I go?"
It's past those Vorcha to the left, then down two levels and straight ahead for a block. You can't miss it, but I can't wake you up again. Just remember to not stop moving."
Nicolas nodded as his headphones crackled and went silent. He took deep breaths all the way to the weapons store he was so familiar with.
…
Baker's ribcage ached as he reached Korvos' store. He could feel two spots on his chest were wet with what he could only guess was blood. That or something had burned through his suit without damaging it, searing his skin. It was hard to know at that point whether Hal's apparition had been an illusion, but one thing was certain: he didn't wake up by himself.
The vorcha's store was open, so Nicolas limped in. Everything was as it always was, but this time the vorcha was talking to a customer. Nicolas hesitated before interrupting. Korvos would surely listen but the patron was a Batarian, and he wouldn't take kindly to a human butting in while he was doing business. It also didn't help that Nicolas was in a terrible state, clearly unfit to fight.
The batarian looked around the store absent-mindedly as Korvos processed his order. Nicolas thought there was something about him that seemed familiar, and then it dawned on him when he noticed the colours of his armour and the tone of his skin. It was Anto.
The batarian's eyes finally came to rest on the armoured human and his four eyes went wide. His hand dashed for the handgun attached to his thigh, but he froze when the cold metallic barrel of a gun came to rest on the back of his own head. Korvos looked past Anto at Nicolas and pulled the trigger.
Anto's head exploded and the metal pellet flattened against the inner wall of the Batarian's shields before the limp corpse collapsed to the floor. Red blood and flesh sprayed out towards the human, coating the front of his armour in bodily goo.
"Korvos could not allow his favourite human to be killed by Aria's ravenous varren," grumbled the vorcha as he holstered his handgun.
"Holy shit, Korvos! Aria's people are gonna come for you now!" Nicolas quickly removed his helmet to be able to see before gagging at the smell of batarian brains, "Why would you do that?"
The vorcha walked around the counter so the human could see him. A tumor stuck out from the alien's stomach and it bobbed a little when Korvos stopped moving. He pointed a clawed finger at it, "Korvos has little to live. Cancerous cells are growing and cannot be removed. Korvos will die from organ failure in days. The human can take what it wants, no matter what Aria wants. The asari is Queen of Omega, but not of this dead Vorcha."
"I'm also dying, Korvos. I have no one else to turn to. I need a doctor."
The vorcha shook its head before walking back around the counter, "Korvos is not a doctor."
Nicolas stumbled closer to the counter, making sure not to trip on Anto, "But you can read manuals real good."
Korvos had been looking down at his tumor, but his eyes shot up to stare into Nicolas', "That, I can do."
…
Korvos set up a workbench in front of Nicolas so the human could work on his own legs as the Vorcha extracted pieces of shrapnel from the human's chest and coated the two burn marks in medigel. He coughed blood to the side to avoid contaminating Baker's wounds as he made a mental note to stop eating, as his stomach seemed to not be able to receive any more food. As the medigel sealed the wounds, Korvos plugged the holes in the human's armour with omnigel and set the manufacturer to print out a couple of plates that had been destroyed beyond repair while Nicolas covered the hole on his visor with omnigel epoxy.
After fixing the circuitry inside the helmet, the human inspected his face on the newly fixed visor. The scar on his cheek had blackened, and parts of the bruise on the side of his head seemed like they weren't temporary. His lips were chapped and scarred or otherwise actively bleeding, but there was nothing that could be done at the time other than applying medigel. He left them as they were since he didn't want to put up with the artificial taste with everything else that was going on.
Korvos had been done for some time and he sat beside the medical bed as the human put on his second fixed leg. A noise from outside caught his attention. It was the jingle that sounded whenever someone came into the store, but this time it came five times: Aria's people had come. Nudging the human, he tilted his head towards the door that would lead to the sales desk. Nicolas seemed to understand, and nodded at the vorcha, unholstering his handgun. With a shake of his head, Korvos eyed the human as it holstered its weapon before pointing to a box near the backdoor that would lead outside into a side-alley. The human walked over silently and came back with the closed box. With one of his long nails, Korvos ripped the box open and took out two blocks of C4. With his omnitool, he flash produced two wires connecting it to the explosives and he set up a detonator program.
Nicolas looked at Korvos create the makeshift bomb before staring at the Vorcha, looking for confirmation that it was what the alien wanted to do. The two made eye contact, and Korvos nodded slowly. His yellow hand with black sharp nails waved the human away towards the back door, and Korvos stood up from his chair, cracking his neck to the sides before walking out into the store, the explosives held behind his back.
…
Nicolas adjusted his helmet, shaking it to check if there was still a loose piece inside. Satisfied with his armour's condition, he regarded the entrance to the sewers he had been standing in front of for the previous fifteen minutes. Hal had sent him a message as soon as he had left Korvos' store saying that Archangel needed help. Instructions for reaching the hideout were attached to the message, detailing the route by which Nicolas could go through the sewers from Gozu district straight to one of the escape routes within Archangel's hideout in the Kima district.
"The suit's airtight, you'll be good down there," he soothed himself as he gripped the metal disc that covered the entrance, pulling it up. Rust clouds puffed up as the disc creaked and snapped out of the position it had been in for the last ten or so years. Running water could be heard from the darkness within, and Nicolas disappeared into the sewers that would lead him to his old friend.
…
He trudged around in the running water, glad that the artificial gravity was oriented in such a way that he could walk normally down the length of Omega's districts, towards the lowest levels where Garrus' hideout was. The trek was uneventful, something Nicolas was grateful for and he stopped to listen when the distant sound of gunshots rang through the metal tunnels. Baker opened his omnitool and checked that he was going in the right direction when he saw the green glow of a jar of bioluminescent goo. As he approached, he made out a shower head jutting out from the wall, and a small handle sticking out at waist height.
"Bingo," Nicolas smiled as he walked up to the shower head to rinse his armour off. As soon as he was done, he twisted the handle and opened the seamless door, exiting the sewers into a dimly lit corridor. The sound of gunfire was clear and loud now, yet still slightly distant. Water vapour wafted from pipes overhead, coating the corridor leading towards the gunfire in a thick mist. Nicolas activated the infrared scope setting on his assault rifle when a message came to his omnitool.
Nicolas, you'll run into a tight corridor going down the one you're in. There is a sizeable presence of Blood Pack fighting a small team of Cerberus operatives. Cerberus is an ally for the time being, so once you've established contact with them, do as they say. Archangel needs all the help he can get.
Hal.
The human's eye twitched when he read the signature, and a knot formed in his throat remembering when the AI had left him. Raising the scope of his rifle up to his visor, he disappeared into the misty corridor.
…
"Shepard!" Jacob Taylor, a Cerberus operative yelled into his suit's microphone as he walked backwards, stretching his arm out in a motion used to trigger his biotic abilities. His body glowed blue as his teeth chattered and a singularity formed ten meters away from him, lifting a ravenous varren off the ground, "If the Blood Pack keeps sending these little shits out, we'll be overwhelmed."
The helmeted commander fired her hand cannon at the floating animal, blowing its head clean off before taking aim at the flamethrower equipped Vorcha that were charging towards them, "Goddamnit Jacob, if I had known you were gonna chicken out at some varren, I would've brought Solus."
Their helmet's headphones came to life as a salarian voice crackled through, "Human biotics lack range. Cerberus operative would've been useless up here."
Shepard shook her head, she needed to keep her temperament in check, or Jacob would lose morale. The distraction was enough for a krogan to get a head start charging at the human, and when Jane had trained her handcannon on the alien, it was too late. Her weapon was batted away, and the blunt impact of the krogan's head on her chest plate was enough to send her flying. She crashed against a waist-high barrier and toppled over the edge, cracking her helmet on the floor underneath her. Coloured spots filled her vision as Jacob raised a barrier over himself before he started unloading his pistol on the krogan. The krogan, with a flick of its wrist, sent a biotic shockwave towards Jacob, flinging him against a wall as the alien climbed onto the barrier, towering over Shepard. Shepard looked at the krogan as he slowly raised his shotgun to point at her head. Her vision cleared up enough to see the HUD displaying the krogan's shield levels before she closed her eyes tight: 15%.
A dull and slow tut-tut-tut came from behind the krogan, and Shepard opened her eyes to see the alien's shields failing and then its head plate exploding into miniscule shards, followed by a river of blood that pooled on the floor as the alien fell to its knees, staying there immobile for a moment and then toppling forward, missing Shepard by a hair as she rolled to the side.
A distorted voice came through Shepard's headphones as she wiped the blood off her visor, "Who the fuck are you and why are you wearing this armour?"
She frowned when she recognized the supposedly dead human from the docks, "So you're the backup Archangel told us would come?" She raised a hand grumpily for the human to help her up, instead she got the barrel of his assault rifle pointed at her face.
"You didn't answer my question, Cerberus," that last word was drawn out, thick with suspicion. Nicolas' eyes twitched behind the visor as the woman's voice seemed eerily familiar. The mental image of a crate full of exotic chocolates flashed through his mind.
Baker's head was tilted to the side when the tip of a handgun made impact on his helmet, "Put down your gun, man. We're on the same team and there's more Blood Pack coming," Jacob's voice climbed steadily as his eyes left the unidentified human to assess the new hostiles turning the corridor's corner.
Nicolas looked over his shoulder without moving his assault rifle before the emergency shutters he had activated screeched closed, cutting a vorcha in half as it went down. The shutters rattled as bullets hit it from the other side, but no dents were forming. It would take them a good amount of time to get through. He let his shoulders relax and he turned his head to look at Jacob, his handgun's barrel still resting on the human's cracked visor. There was an awkward silence as Jacob didn't know what to do now that the immediate threat had been shut off.
Jane broke the silence as she grunted and started to get up, ignoring Nicolas' rifle, "I'm Commander Jane Shepard, by the way. This is Jacob Tay-"
Shepard was pinned to the ground as Nicolas' assault rifle was butted into her chest, making her lose her footing. Jacob pressed his handgun against Nicolas' head as he started to glow blue and Jane did as well.
She's lying. The fucking bitch is lying. Shepard is dead. We're here to save Garrus' ass, remember that.
"You're fucking lying, you Cerberus piece of shit! Shepard is dead," the distortion applied to Nicolas' voice masked how many times it cracked through that sentence, but Shepard stopped glowing when she noticed how much the assault rifle's barrel was shaking.
She squinted at the human as she raised her hands slowly towards her helmet, disengaging its magnetic seams. Nicolas' head was pushed further to the side as Jacob's gun pressed against his helmet but he didn't notice anything around him as he recognized the chin, then the mouth, then the nose and finally the eyes, oh, the eyes of Jane. He felt cold beads of sweat form all over his back and arm and his breath hitched as he took a step back. He dropped his rifle and let himself fall on his ass on the dead krogan as Shepard stood up, eyeing Nicolas with curiosity and suspicion.
"And who are you?" she asked as she reached over to Nicolas' helmet putting her index finger under his chin to disengage the helmet. With the help of her other hand, she pulled the helmet up and let out a startled laugh, then another as her eyes immediately welled up with tears. She dropped the helmet to the ground as she started to reach for him before hesitating and instead choosing to whisk away the tears that had escaped her eyes. Miranda had told her that it would surely shock her old acquaintances to see her, so she limited herself to saying, "it's you."
Nicolas' face was blank as he looked at Shepard from his makeshift seat. Jacob had lowered his pistol and murmured, "We have to go help Arch-"
"Shut the fuck up," Nicolas interrupted flatly without breaking eye contact with Shepard. He studied every detail on her face. Everything was as he remembered, except for the scars. His mind was racing between the vid-calls with her, Aria's voice-logs, the memory of her touch, and his medical reports. After a moment, he wordlessly commanded his omnitool to administer a dose of adrenaline and picked up his helmet, putting it on swiftly. The distorted voice crackled through his suit's speakers once more, "Like your sidekick said, we have to go help Archangel."
Don't trust her. She can't be real. A clone, an android, I don't know what, but she can't be real. Help the turian and then we find out what the fuck is going on.
For the first time, Nicolas completely agreed with the voice.
Hope you enjoyed it!
If you have any comments, feel free to PM me or leave a review!
Finally, the second part of the story is close to ending. There will be a bit more that has to happen before I can close it off though.
