Chapter 4 – Teaming Up

"Why do geth have holding cells?" asked Tessia as she looked into the empty cubicles around the room.

Rebecca was tapping away on her omni-tool and at the console in front of her; "I can only get limited information. This seems to be some sort of prison-ship that has held a variety of races. Asari, batarian, human, turian, krogan and a few others have all been detained here at some point. Hundreds of them."

"That's concerning," mumbled Scott, "didn't think the lamp-heads took prisoners. They holding court sessions and executions now? Maybe trading hostages for oil and wax supplies?"

"Any cells occupied?" asked Tullius.

Rebecca scanned through the stream of data and found a small live map; "Four cells next door have their barriers powered up. Could be our guys."

"Let's go," ordered Tullius, "stay vigilant."

A minute later, the squad came across the first of the four small active cells, a light blue transparent type of shielding covering the entrance.

Tessia was the first to approach the barrier and could clearly see a male salarian, wearing white and cyan STG armour, pacing back and forth. Upon catching a glimpse of her in his peripheral vision, he stopped moving and stood silently, studying her presence.

The salarian blinked his large eyes upwards a few times and then canted his head for a moment as if in disbelief; "A side-effect from the frequent knock-out gas the cells disperse? Thought it strange we hadn't received our next dose, or maybe we did, perhaps I'm still unconscious."

"Hello?" ventured Tessia.

"It speaks," exclaimed the prisoner in surprise, "how curious."

"Huh?"

The rest of the salarian's following out-spoken train of thought was rapidly worded again, a common trait of his species; "But why an asari? I thought if I was going insane I would imagine another salarian, perhaps a tap-dancing hanar. Unsure the shoes would make sense, the cane and top hat would be a nice touch."

Scott stepped into view next to Tessia; "We're the real deal."

"A human now?" frowned the prisoner, "Can't see the face, perhaps my mind can't decide on a convincing construct. Disappointing, thought my subconscious would be more creative."

Tullius stepped up next to try and speed things along; "We're N7 operations, sent by the Systems Alliance to extract you."

Upon seeing the team leader, the salarian took a step forward to get a closer look; "Tullius Nazario. I know of you, extremely skilled and highly extolled, heard you had enlisted with the humans since the invasion. Perhaps you aren't a figment of my imagination."

The turian nodded; "Are you part of the Retrieval Squad?"

"Yes, my alias is Leon, won't bother you with my full title, the other members of the team should also be held nearby."

Rebecca appeared from behind Tullius, pointing her thumb over her shoulder; "How do we get you out of here? Is it the panel over here?"

Leon brightened with a smile; "Correct, good eye. Ahh yes, freeing me will be definitive proof you're not fictional. I know the unlock code, good memory, watched geth input when locking us in, still curious as to why security was touch button rather than geth-only interface, but doesn't matter. Three-one-two-five-six-zero-nine."

Rebecca quietly repeated the number to herself and then quickly tapped it on the touch-screen panel opposite the cell. The energy barrier then powered down and vanished, allowing Leon to step over the threshold.

He smiled again, placing a hand on his chest and then taking a quick bow; "Thank you for rescuing me, quickly now, we must release the others."

As Rebecca entered the same code opposite the next cell, Leon slowly but firmly prodded a finger against Tullius's shoulder. The turian allowed himself to be swayed slightly but shot him a quizzical look.

"Final check," explained the salarian.

A deafening roar was heard causing everyone to turn towards the source of the sound; "GETH SCUM! I'LL RIP YOU APART!"

Rebecca had her back to the wall, her hands held up in defence; "I'm not geth, I'm human! I'm just in armour!"

"This better not be a trick!" warned a large krogan, now out of his cell and taking a firm step towards the yellow and black armoured engineer.

Leon, gently lowered Tullius and Scott's aimed weapons while speaking to the krogan; "Grogg, they're on our side, they've come to free us. Please try to stay calm."

"Huh?" grunted Grogg, "well then… ha! Thanks for the break-out."

With that, the krogan slapped Rebecca on the shoulder in thanks, nearly knocking her off her feet.

"No-no problem," replied the shaken human.

"Apologies once again," said Leon, "it's understandable, Grogg isn't the most patience of our team and we've been held here for almost two cycles now. Nearly seventy hours, that's a long time to be sat doing nothing."

"Well," said Scott, "I can understand that better than anyone, I was once trapped in a room that was locked with that bloody Towers of Hanoi program. I was mighty frustrated after just three hours of that."

"Three hours?" whispered Rebecca in disbelief, knowing she could have solved it in less than two minutes.

Scott continued; "What I don't get though, is why the big scary krogan is wearing the brightest neon pink battle armour that the galaxy has ever seen."

Grogg grinned with delight and replied in his naturally deep gravelly voice; "It is the colour of my ancestors, a mighty, proud and powerful warrior clan. This colour alone is enough to make the eyes of our enemies bleed over the battlefield, all who see it know to run or be slaughtered, hahaha."

"I completely get the eye-bleeding thing," nodded Scott squinting.

"Not covert in the slightest," added Leon, "but has been great for distraction and scare tactics. I'll open the remaining cells."

"I think that'd be best," agreed Rebecca nervously edging away from Grogg.

Moments later, a female quarian stepped out, clad in her race's typical enviro-suit, her individualism only displayed via the colourisation of her cloak.

Scott looked between Rebecca's armour and the quarian's yellow stripe-lined black cloak before whispering to Tullius; "I know she's got more black, and Becky's got more yellow, but is it a 'thing' these days for engineers to dress like hazard signs?"

The turian shrugged; "Probably just a coincidence."

The quarian also seemed to notice the similarities, her masked face turning away from Rebecca as if completely disinterested in her.

"Eh?" squeaked Rebecca, trying to figure out why she was feeling like she had just been snubbed.

Scott missed this exchange as he looked to his team leader; "Did you chose the rusty orange plating to compliment your tech armour and facial markings?"

"No," replied Tullius without a second thought.

The quarian spoke, her mask giving her voice the filtered effect well known to many who had met the species before; "My thanks Leon, it was horrible being cooped up in there."

Leon was already working on the panel for the fourth cell, idly replying; "My pleasure, if it wasn't for Nazario's team we may have been trapped forever, likely experimented on, lucky they came by."

"I suppose I should thank you," stated the quarian without actually offering any appreciations.

"Well we did fight through, like, a hundred geth," mentioned Scott.

"Only a hundred?" queried the quarian in an unimpressed tone, idly caressing her hood between two long covered fingers.

Tessia rested her right elbow on Scott's shoulder, also fishing for some gratitude; "Well, it was a shame we ran out of geth, but alas, we killed them all to save you and your team."

An unfamiliar male human's voice spoke out; "On behalf of the entire Retrieval Squad, we thank you, we were most certainly done for, if not for your rescue."

The voice belonged to the final freed prisoner as he made his appearance.

Scott quickly pointed to the man who looked to be in his mid-thirties, gasping with true excitement upon seeing his armour; "Ohhhhhhh-maaaaiiiii-gwwwaaaddd, you're a N7 destroyer!"

Recognized as a highly skilled solider who would have been trained at the Alliance combat academy in Rio de Janeiro, Scott was in awe. He instantly saw the man as the embodiment of his own original goals, the one man army and saviour of the galaxy that he could one day become himself.

Helmetless, but standing tall in the rest of his red and white-striped black T5-V battle-suit, the true N7 operative nodded with a remarkably charming smile; "That's right, my name is Robert Slater, commander and squad leader to these fine soldiers."

"My name is Teela'Shal vas Itnar," proudly announced the quarian, "but I'm sure you already knew this from your mission brief."

"Correct," replied Tullius, "my name is Tullius Nazario, this is Scott Lawton, Rebecca Watkins, and Tessia T'Loki. We were tasked with rescuing you and retrieving the artefact you discovered."

Slater seemed to look concerned for a moment but then flashed his smile again; "I believe it will be an important asset to the Alliance. The geth claimed it when they captured us, but I'm sure we should easily be able to get it back before our escape."

His line of sight then lingered in Rebecca's direction before glancing to the others. It was doubtful there was any intent in the look, but had she not been wearing a helmet, Rebecca would have been firmly looking at her own feet in this situation. This man's face was surprisingly handsome in her concealed opinion and although his armour hid his true body, it was likely he was well-built.

Turning slightly, Rebecca noticed Tessia was also staring at the man with interest before looking in her direction and revealing a cheeky grin. That grin no doubt signified the coming of a "girly-chat" after the mission, something Rebecca had to admit she missed since Takako left for Earth after Connor's death.

Scott peered in from behind Rebecca and Tessia, snapping them both out of their traces; "So where do we start?"

Leon waved a hand and rapidly spoke; "We should move quickly, likely geth remnants are on their way. Our equipment was taken this way when we were first captured, perhaps artefact is still with our weapons."

The Retrieval Squad led the way and, after a few uneventful room searches, they came across a locked door.

"I'll have this open in a jiffy," said Rebecca booting up her omni-tool.

"Which is still too long," snapped Teela'Shal, "out of the way, I'll do it."

Rebecca automatically squeaked and stepped to the side; "Ah, um, after you."

"There," announced the quarian, hacking the door with great speed and revealing the stash of their equipment.

Scott quietly leaned in towards the stunned Rebecca; "Must be a rival engineer thing?"

The human engineer simply shrugged and shook her head, trying not to feel upset while wondering what she did to cause such animosity.

Slater walked in first and recovered the helmet for his T5-V battle-suit, quickly completing his armour set before reclaiming his heavy assault rifle, a Cerberus Harrier, from a scattered pile on the floor.

"Awww," sighed Tessia quietly, "he's put his helmet on… does look badass though."

As the rest of the Retrieval Squad collected their weapons, Slater crouched over the large backpack near the corner of the room and peered inside.

A few seconds later, he slammed his metallic gloved fist against the nearby wall, lightly denting it in frustration; "Dammit! They took the artefact!"

"Had a feeling it wasn't going to be that easy," stated Grogg.

Leon looked puzzled for a moment and then raised a finger; "Perhaps they've hidden it in one of the other rooms?"

"No," said Slater, his voice still clear but sounding slightly muffled under the helmet, "I know exactly where they will have taken it. The reactor, they'll be using the power supply there to re-charge the artefact."

Rebecca overheard from outside the room and looked to Tullius; "I thought you said that place was decommissioned."

Teela'Shal lightly chuckled as she stepped back out of the doorway; "Looks like your recon isn't up-to-date. Upon landing here, we detected unusually high amounts of energy coming from it. The geth are most certainly up to something in there."

As everyone readied their weapons, Slater placed the pack on the back of his battle-suit, using similar technology to how standard armour 'magnetically' held weapons.

Grogg looked over; "Want me to carry the pack this time? You looked like you were struggling with it a few hours before we got caught."

Slater shook his head; "I was just tired, but now I'm fully rested. Even when we get the object back, it won't add much weight, but thanks for the concern."

Scott recognized the model of the backpack from the straight angles and glowing antenna; "Oh jeez, is that the standard objective container? That, which has the tendency to fall off your back upon breaking into even a light jog?"

Grogg laughed; "Slater doesn't run, in that suit he STOMPS! Like a Krogan! Bawhaha!"

Tullius looked concerned; "If the reactor is operational, we may face strong resistance."

"True," said his opposite team leader, "but our original objective was to obtain that device and I plan to fulfil it. I'll understand if you want to return back to base now you've freed us. The four of us will be able to complete the mission ourselves."

Rebecca instantly got 'yeah, we don't need you' vibes from Teela'Shal's 'hands-on-hips' body language towards her.

Tullius was quiet for a moment before Scott jumped in; "We're not gonna leave are we boss? With eight of us we'll decimate the lamp-heads and get the McGuffin before breakfast."

The turian rolled his eyes and looked at the infiltrator; "I wasn't going to abandon them."

"Yeeessssss," cheered Scott, raising his fist in the air.

"We'll accompany you," stated Tullius, "our side objective matches yours so we'll support your team and follow your lead."

Leon smiled; "Our large number will make it difficult to be covert, but being able to cover more ground and the additional firepower is most appreciated."

Slater turned to Leon for a moment, his expression hidden by the helmet but his voice taking a positive tone; "It's decided then, let's make our way to-"

The first order from the leader of the eight-person team was cut short as a large rumble shook through the entire ship.

"The engines," gasped Rebecca.

"You don't say," snapped Teela'Shal as she steadied herself.

Slater looked down the corridor; "The helm is this way, we can't let this ship take us away from the reactor."

Leon seemed panicked; "But even if we fight and gain the bridge, it may take hours to hack and learn the controls."

Scott rotated his shoulders then pulled out two grenades from his ammo belt; "Well then, time for us rejects to show you what we do best."

The infiltrator broke into a run down the corridor before anyone could say anything.

Rebecca's omni-tool flared into life as she began to run after him, turning to call to the others; "It would be the quickest solution."

Grogg, the very pleased looking krogan, cracked his knuckles; "I'll help with that!"

Tessia raced after them in a blue blur of biotic energy, also clearly quiet excited.

Tullius slowly turned to the remaining three, slightly embarrassed that his subordinates didn't wait for Slater's decision or command; "Well, they are enthusiastic..."

"Rejects?" asked Teela'Shal, picking up on what Scott said and wanting an explanation.

.***

The geth ship had crashed in spectacular fashion. Various internal explosions and some tapering with the guidance systems had caused the large craft to loop around and bounce across the landscape until it landed barely half a mile from where it had originally lifted off from. Now it lay motionless next to the crash-site of the Cerberus ship.

A door squealed open with a spark and an excessive amount of smoke poured out of the starboard entrance.

Scott was the first to emerge, jumping down from the tilted ship and surveying the scene.

Upon seeing the reactor not far away in the distance, he held up both of his hands and loudly exclaimed; "Nailed it!"

"Bosh'tet!" cursed Teela'Shal, dropping down and pointing angrily at the human, "you nearly got us all killed!"

"Eh? Narh, it all went to plan, no probs. It was fine wasn't it Becky?"

Grogg jumped down from the doorway with a dazed Rebecca clung onto his back; "I'll tell you when the world stops spinning… tha-thanks Grogg."

The krogan allowed the female human to gently dismount from the 'piggyback' before he laughed loudly and clapped his hands together; "My favourite part was when I smashed the heads of those two geth together."

Scott laughed, remembering the scene as the rest of the squad surfaced; "It was like you were playing the cymbals for an orchestra. Though I think my highlight was Becky uploading 6 zettabytes of cute cat videos into the mainframe."

Tullius rotated his neck; "My least favourite part was Scott using the team comms to sing."

"Going dooooowwwnnnn, in a blaze of glooooory," started Scott, the encore being instantly stopped by a few guns being raised in his direction.

Tessia giggled; "I enjoyed all the sweet explosions, we made some truly beautiful ones."

"Are you people insane?!" growled Teela'Shal, "No wonder you're called rejects, you-"

"Teela," interrupted Slater who was making sure his backpack was undamaged before returning it to his back, "although unorthodox, they did get us back to the reactor in the quickest way possible and while taking-out a further chunk of the geth force."

The quarian crossed her arms and muttered under her breath.

Leon pawed at the recently obtained scratch across his face during the geth-related scuffles; "Lucky we landed back where we started. Shall we move on? Slater?"

Teela turned to see Slater's helmeted head dipped down before rising again, her voice changing to one of genuine concern; "Rob, are you ok?"

The N7 Destroyer grunted and lightly shook his helmeted head; "Must be getting old, can't take a battering without getting a headache anymore."

Rebecca held her stomach; "Kinda wish all I had was a headache… I think I'm gonna throw up. All that tumbling…"

Scott raised a finger; "Sage-like advice - be sure to take your helmet off first."

"I'm gonna focus on decrypting that black box we found, it'll keep my mind off it while we walk."

As the eight-person squad headed towards the reactor, Teela'Shal became increasingly interested in Rebecca's side project, but bar glancing over to her now and then, she kept her curiosity secret.

Leon was also rapidly tapping away at his omni-tool, more out of boredom than anything.

Seeing that Tessia was curious, Grogg decided to fill her in; "He's always like that, needs to keep busy, high metabolism or some crap, barely sleeping, always working away, always… urgh… talking."

The salarian looked up from his tool for a moment; "I had already taken the liberty of downloading the schematics of the reactor for just this scenario. I've now sent requests to all your devices."

After the map was shared amongst the other seven, Tullius pointed towards the entrance to the reactor; "Looks like we'll have two guards to deal with."

Ahead were two modified geth soldiers with yellow armour-plating and unique fuel canisters on their backs.

"Pyros, and they've spotted us," informed Tessia, "they're slow but they'll be on us in less than a minute."

"May I?" asked Tullius, already tuning his sniper rifle for incendiary ammo.

"Be my guest," nodded Slater.

Scott watched on with excitement; "Extra points if you waste them both before they get in range to use their flamethrowers."

Tullius re-holstered his weapon for a moment before inputting a command on his omni-tool and then holding his arm out; "I'll accept that challenge."

Everyone watched as both pryos lost their shields in an arcing chain-overload, but no one was fast enough to look back and see the turian quick-draw his sniper rifle and line up for his follow-up attack.

The first shot from the M-92 Mantis rang out…

"You missed?" asked Scott, expecting one of the geth to have lost a head.

"Not exactly," replied Tullius, quickly reloading and lining up his next shot.

Everyone then noticed that the fuel canister on the nearest pyro's back was now engulfed in flames before his second shot pierced the tank on the back of the furthest pyro.

"Huh?" pondered Scott as everyone watched Tullius slowly walking off in an arc to the left so that he was now side-on to the unflinching enemy units.

"Ah," said Leon in comprehension, "Nazario has arranged the conditions and is now attempting a dual elimination of the hostiles utilising a single projectile, upon observation, assessment, and subsequent prediction of target movement."

"Come again?" asked Tessia.

"A trick-shot," simplified the salarian.

Lining up both geth, Tullius took a deep breath before pulling the trigger for a third time.

A shard of flaming metal ripped straight through the two fuel canisters causing both pyros to instantly and violently explode.

"Holy frikking crap!" exclaimed Rebecca, eyes wide under her helmet, "That was amazing!"

Scott burst out laughing and then pointed at his team leader; "Tullius confirmed OP, please nerf!"

The leader of the Retrieval Squad clapped his hands; "Most impressive, we are most certainly in safe hands with you backing us up."

Tullius simply closed his eyes and slightly bowed his head in thanks for the praise.

"Ho, ho, hooo," grinned Scott rubbing his hands together, "we are gonna kick so much ass. I hope there's like, a million geth in there."

"SCOTT!" yelled out Rebecca and Tullius at the same time, fearful of another jinx.

"I'm with him," chuckled the large krogan, "can't wait to scrap some more metal, hahaha!"

Rebecca gazed at the sky for a moment, knowing she wouldn't see it again for a while; "I have a bad feeling about this."

.***