Chapter 7 – The Cauldron
"Oh crud," panicked Rebecca, finally taking her eyes off her omni-tool and noticing her helmet HUD, "how long have Slater and Leon's health bars been turned off?"
"Keelah se'lai," whimpered Teela'Shal, "that can't be a coincidence, I can't believe it but… what… what if something terrible has happened? It's my fault, I-"
"Teela stop! It's not your fault, it's that stupid device. Did you tell Grogg?"
The quarian shook her head, trying to compose herself; "He wasn't answering, but I left a message. I've done the same for your squad too."
.***
Tessia took cover and examined the gash on her left arm that she had recently received. It ached and stung, but the matted purple blood over her now ripped armour made it look worse than she believed it to actually be.
Her right hand fumbled with a medi-gel pack while she peered out.
The monster clunking around the cafeteria was designated with the name 'brute'. It's half-robotic half-turian head scanned the area as it's mutated and over-sized krogan body stomped through the room, causing tremors with every step.
Most beings in the galaxy would find this amalgamation of krogan, turian and reaper tech as a dreadful and terrifying nightmare, a true horror story. Grogg and Tessia however, saw it as an enjoyable challenge.
"It's time for some carnage!" bellowed Grogg stepping out in front of the brute with his shotgun raised.
An explosive blast from the krogan's shotgun tore through some of the brute's armour, but otherwise it didn't seem to have much effect bar aggravating the beast.
The brute swung an over-sized claw arm towards it's annoyance, who quickly stepped back just out of range to only feel the air pressure from the swing blast by.
Grogg's M-300 Claymore shotgun was powerful, but it had one major drawback. For most species, it was the extreme kickback the weapon delivered, but that wasn't an issue for the krogan, the main problem was the clip size. After each shot, Grogg had to reload, which left him wide open to attacks if he couldn't find cover.
It didn't escape the krogan's notice, that with each reload, his asari teammate distracted the brute's attention and this time was no exception.
With her arm now patched up, Tessia rose from behind an upturned table and fired three shots into the only vulnerable spot she could see, calling out her attack; "Shot it in the ass cheeks!"
"Bwhaha! Good work!" laughed the krogan solider as he loaded in heat sink.
The brute turned towards Tessia and then began beating at it's own chest while letting out a blood-rage induced roar.
"Stop whining!" jeered Grogg, firing his weapon again, this time into the monster's back.
With surprising speed, the brute turned again and then lurched forward, swinging with his large claw and connecting with Grogg's mid-section.
The krogan was launched backwards and onto the floor, his gun sent skittering across the surface, far from reach.
Not one to stay down, Grogg quickly got back onto his feet to see the brute scraping it's right foot on the floor, it's stance leaning forward.
"Oh, it's like that is it? Challenge accepted, heehaha," grinned the excited krogan, also lowering his head.
The brute started it's powerful charge forward, not even noticing a biotic blast thrown from Tessia impacting against it's shoulder.
Unknowingly taking Leon's designated role of sound-advice provider, Tessia yelled out; "Grogg don't! Keep at a distance like we planned!"
The warning was either ignored or unheard as Grogg charged forward; "This big bastard's going down!"
Due to the brute's large size and superior momentum, Grogg's charge was akin to a rugby player tackling a runaway train.
The krogan was carried across the room until his back connected against the far wall with a loud crunch. Grogg roared in pain, spitting blood into the brute's face before following up with a flurry of fierce punches to the monster's face.
Unable to get a decent wind-up due to being trapped against the now damaged wall and the body of the hulking reaper solider, Grogg started punching and headbutting at the scorched flesh between the shredded metal plating that he damaged earlier with his carnage attack.
An exhausted Tessia continued shooting from behind but noticed no reaction from her target; "Get off him you big oaf!"
Grogg was lost in his own blood-rage just as much as the brute, both roaring at each other and trading close but powerful blows.
Changing tact, the brute pushed forward with it's over-sized claw, squashing the krogan against the wall, more excruciating pressure added with every second.
"No!" yelled Tessia running towards them from the side now, only to be swatted away by the brute's free arm.
In that moment, Grogg glanced down and reached for his belt, knowing his time was up.
Tessia shook the dizziness off and got back up onto her feet just in time to see a grinning glance from Grogg; "It's been fun."
The krogan used the last of his strength to thrust his final inferno grenade into the brute's damaged chest and bellow out the words; "For Tuchanka!"
"Grogg! Don't-" started Tessia before she was forced to hold her arm up, shielding her eyes from the bright flaming explosion.
A few moments passed as the flames died down, leaving the asari to silently stare at the two burnt corpses before her.
Tessia had instinctively readied a medi-gel pack, but slowly put it away as the sadness she felt for her new friend morphed into anger.
Yelling out in frustration, the echoing cry notified some nearby husks that automatically began to rush towards the asari's location.
The expression on Tessia's face darkened further as she heard movement and she turned to run towards the advancing enemy.
.***
"Leon's reading is back on!" exclaimed Teela'Shal swiftly leading the way through various identical-looking corridors, "We have to get to him fast, he hasn't got long."
Rebecca studied the weak health bar as she followed; "If we can even believe this readout, with Slater's location still hidden, it's likely a trap."
"I know, I know," replied the quarian with great concern in her voice, "but if he can be saved, we have to try."
After navigating some stairs and a few more maze-like corners, the two engineers spotted Leon laid on his back beyond a small entrance.
Teela'Shal shifted her weight to her right foot in preparation to dash towards him just before Rebecca called out; "Ping on the motion radar!"
"Rob?!" called the quarian, only to be met with a raspy groaning sound.
Rebecca yelped as two husks broke out into a run towards them, her hand already instinctively reaching for her omni-tool.
Fido materialised just behind the attackers, distracting one with a jolt of electricity. It was enough to gain the upper hand, both creatures swiftly destroyed moments later under a hail of pistol and submachine gun fire. When it was clear there were no more threats, the two ran to Leon.
"Leon! Leon!" cried Teela'Shal, kneeling down next to him.
The salarian slowly opened his eyes but it was clear from the pool of blood and the lack of colour in his face that he was on the verge of death.
Pulling a medi-gel dispenser from her belt, Teela'Shal began to shake; "This will… help…"
Leon closed his eyes for a moment, solemnly moving his head left and right, signalling it was too late.
"No…" whimpered his old teammate, "No…"
Rebecca remained standing, allowing them to have a final moment together. Still very wary that another threat could emerge, she looked back at the entrance.
Her drone was still acting like a guard dog just outside, so that door was covered, but there were two others entrances that were wide open.
Teela'Shal already knew, but had to ask all the same to be completely certain; "Was it Rob? Did he do this to you?"
Leon grimaced in pain, only able to nod and sadly return a glance before he could no longer hold on.
Rebecca woefully inspected the scene as the quarian cried over the body and tried her best not to tear-up as well.
Her strong sense of empathy was abruptly over-written with a cold shiver up her spine and a feeling of dread.
The human had noticed the trailing blood smears on the floor, evidence that Leon had been dragged into the small room from the door opposite the one that they came through.
"Teela!" cried out the human.
Although lost in mourning, the shriek was so loud and urgent that Teela'Shal felt compelled to look to the source. Her head snapped back again after seeing Rebecca shaking and pointing at the opposite door.
There, just outside, stood the fully armoured frame of Robert Slater, still and silent, just watching them.
"Rob?" whimpered the quarian, surprisingly meek.
The N7 destroyer's head slightly moved and then paused for a second before his hand slowly reached to one side, pressing a button on the wall outside.
There were three loud shunts as all the entrances to the room slammed down shut, locking the two engineers in.
"Slater!" yelled Teela'Shal in a much angrier voice as she ran at the door, glaring at the motionless helmet on the other side via a thick window built into the door.
A loud buzzing echoed around the room, accompanied by a red light causing Rebecca to look up for the source.
Upon seeing what looked like red plasma being vented from the ceiling, the human did a double-take; "This isn't, wait. Are we in a reactor?! We're in a foiting reactor! How the hell did we fall for that?!"
Rebecca then ran up to Teela'Shal who was still facing Slater through the glass, looking for some sort of emotional response.
Pushing her to one side, Rebecca firmly pressed a gloved finger against the glass and yelled; "Only a complete dick traps their teammates in a reactor! Let us out right now!"
Slater didn't react for a moment and then simply turned around and walked away.
This time Teela'Shal pushed Rebecca to one side, yelling as much as she could through the glass; "Don't you walk away! Get back here! This isn't you! Fight it!"
After losing sight of the man, the quarian slammed a fist against the glass; "Bosh'te!"
"Priorities," called Rebecca, now rapidly looking around the interior of their death-trap, "escape now, kick his ass after."
"We can't," slumped Teela'Shal, "this room can contain an immense amount of energy, we can't blast our way out and there are no panels to hack on the inside."
"Soooo," thought Rebecca, clicking her fingers together several times to try and quicken her thinking process, "we need someone on the outside."
Quickly activating her team comms, she called out over the increasingly loud noise building up inside; "Scott! Tullius! Tess! Help! We're trapped in a reactor!"
Teela'Shal also attempted to reach Grogg, but both were met with the crackling sound of interference.
The plasma above their heads grew bigger and intensified, threating to flood the entire room in one big burst.
The engineers pressed their backs against the nearest wall.
"It's hopeless!" screamed Teela'Shal as the noise increased in volume another level.
Rebecca started rapidly slapping her own helmet; "Come-on-come-on-think!"
"We're going to get vaporized!"
"No wait, I got it!" exclaimed the human, suddenly dashing to the door they originally came through, "Oh-my-god-I'm-so-dense!"
"What is it?!"
Rebecca had her head pressed against the glass, looking out while she tapped away on her omni-tool; "My drone's still out there! I can't believe I forgot!"
Hope finally entered her teammate's mind and she ran to join her at the door; "You left it on guard mode? Genius!"
"There he is!" squeed Rebecca, tapping her foot rapidly while entering commands on the orange glowing display along her arm, "Fido! Here boy!"
The spherical drone slowly floated towards the door, getting stuck on the corner of a staircase for a moment before continuing it's relaxed journey.
An even louder noise filled the room, causing Rebecca to lose her patience; "We're gonna die here! COME ON YOU STUPID MUTT!"
Teela'Shal held her breath as Fido finally approached the door, slowly aligning itself against the control panel outside.
"Go-go-go-do-it-do-it-do-it!" panicked Rebecca typing in her final command.
Fido's sensors panned across the procedure progress bar for the reactor that had left the green and orange phase and was now nearly at the top of the red level.
Finally targeting the door controls, Fido's VI connected to the interface and, within a second, was denied two-hundred-and-fifty-six times from trying to override the doors.
At that point, the drone ran Rebecca's personal 'stuff-it' routine and sent a large electric shock directly into the system.
Both engineers yelped in surprise, fully believing it was the end, until the loud noise inside the chamber began to wind-down to a low hum.
Still pressed against the door, they both quickly looked back and towards the ceiling to see that the plasma was at a stable level, before proceeding to fall to the floor as the door suddenly jolted open.
Teela'Shal dusted herself off as she stood up, apprehensively laughing at her near-death experience.
Rebecca got up on her knees, threw her helmet off, place her hands on either side of her drone, and proceeded to shower it with several kisses; "Mwah! Oh Fido I love you! Mwah! You wonderful, wonderful life-saving set of zeroes and ones!"
The drone barked happily in reply before timing-out and dissipating, causing the human to fall forward, only just saving her face from smacking the floor by keeping her hands out.
After being helped to her feet, the two engineers shared a handshake before sombrely turning back to Leon's corpse.
.***
Twenty minutes later, Rebecca and Teela'Shal had been able to contact two of their teammates and had set-up a meet-point at a work station.
Rebecca was sat cuddling her newly re-summoned drone and smiled with relief under her helmet as she saw Scott and Tullius approaching.
"So," started Scott as he walked up to Rebecca and patted her shoulder; "Geth were shooting at us, reapers are trying to nobble us, and now you say we have IronMan trying to kill us too? This is turning into quite the special day, and by special, I mean shit."
"I'm so glad you guys are alright," said the human engineer, "maybe we should switch our comm-chan back to full open, having to wait ages because you're in combat before you reply is giving me the mad anxiety."
Tullius narrowed his eyes at Scott; "As long as a certain person doesn't keep using it as his personal karaoke channel again, I would agree."
"Unsure why you ever blocked my dulcet tones in the first place," shrugged Scott, "but I'll agree to this horrid ban of pure talent under the circumstances."
Tullius tweaked a setting on his omni-tool that the two humans accepted on theirs and then turned to the quarian; "I'm sorry to hear about what's happened."
Teela'Shal looked up from a monitor she was trying to distract herself with and nodded, weakly following up with; "Did either of you come across Grogg or…"
"Tess," finished Tullius, knowing the quarian had likely forgotten the asari's name or hadn't cared to remember it in the first place, "both of them are still unaccounted for, left another message for them."
Trying to be the voice of hope, Rebecca added; "They might just be running silent so Slater can't track them, or their readout system just got damaged…"
Teela'Shal lowered her head; "Or Rob got to them and purposely turned them off like he did with Leon to cover his actions."
"They're tough," replied Tullius, "I doubt even an N7 Destroyer could take those two out."
Scott sat on a ventilation system; "Can't believe I looked up to that guy, he was playing us from the start."
"You know how powerful reaper brainwashing can be," defended Rebecca after a quick glance to Teela'Shal.
Scott punched the palm of his left hand; "Yeah, well, it's no excuse, he was legit N7. Next time I see him I'm gonna-"
The other three members suddenly readied their guns and pointed them towards Scott who instinctively held his hands up in surrender.
For a moment Scott thought he had done something extremely insulting, or all three of his teammates were now indoctrinated and bent on killing him.
He then noticed his squad leader's line of sight and grimaced under his helmet; "He's behind me isn't he?"
After spotting Rebecca nod, Scott rolled forward and spun around on his knee, aiming his assault rifle along with his team; "Seriously, is it me? Do I summon trouble with my words? Am I some sort of chaos god?"
"I 'have' been telling you," replied Rebecca.
"Conversation for another time," muttered Tullius.
Slater was stood clearly behind the vents that Scott was sat on a moment ago, but he was unmoving and his weapon was still holstered.
"Rob… talk to me," tried Teela'Shal, her M-4 Shuriken stilled trained on him.
"I… I didn't want to kill him… you have to believe me…" said the seemingly emotionless voice under the helmet.
Tullius decided to ask a decisive question; "How about you take the backpack off, leave the device here, and we'll go home together."
"None of us are going home, I've released… them…"
"Them?" worried Rebecca, "More geth or reapers?"
"Drop the pack man," ordered Scott, "it's making you crazy and extremely creepy."
"I… I can't do that, it needs to stay with me, it's important, don't try to take it" muttered Slater as he reached for his Cerberus Harrier.
"Don't do it!" yelled Scott, ready to return fire.
"It's better this way, you'll suffer less…"
Just as Slater began to raise his rifle, he was suddenly slammed into the metallic wall to his right by a biotic blast. His helmeted head bounced off the solid surface and he stumbled forward over the vent, only just keeping himself on his feet.
Tessia revealed herself from around the corner, clearly looking very tattered and angry; "I'll tell you who will be suffering…"
"Go Tess!" cheered Scott.
"Sic'em boy!" called Rebecca to her drone, which hovered over to Slater's staggered body and sent several volts into his leg, causing him to leap forward towards the group.
Tullius dashed forward, a step past Slater; "I'm relieving you of command."
With what Scott thought was a greatly delivered 'action hero' line, the turian swung the butt of his sniper rifle into the back of the Destroyer's head, causing the man to fall unconscious to the floor.
Teela'Shal ran to Slater's still body, quickly uncoupling the objective container off his back and placing it a few metres away before returning to him.
"Will he be OK?" asked Rebecca.
The quarian slowly looked up to the others; "We weren't in the best condition when you first found us. Being exposed to the device for this long and trying to fight it has left him mentally fatigued, it's the only reason he's on the floor right now and we're not dead. I hope with some rest and our doctor's help… I, I don't know."
Tullius brought up his omni-tool, placing a map marker on the nearest exit for everyone; "I suggest we destroy the device and get out of here."
"Ballsy move boss," replied Scott giving a thumbs-up and moving, "can I do it? I'm already doing it."
The turian watched as Scott swiftly attached a sticky grenade to the backpack and nodded; "I'll handle command if they complain about their precious research needs. Without proper shielding, we can't guarantee we can get that thing out of here without being affected like Commander Slater was. Further more, I'm going to request the tactical destruction of this facility, it's clear it has become a reaper production factory. It must be destroyed."
Scott launched the backpack over into a mostly empty side-office to help control the following explosion, destroying the reaper technology.
Rebecca raised a finger, a little proud of herself, but choosing her words carefully; "While we… tended to Leon's body, I took a look at the OS for the reactivated reactor that Slater tried to crisp us in. In a splurge of forward thinking, I've already set-up a badly written routine that I can activate remotely once we escape."
"You have a 'nuclear melt down' button?!" asked Scott excitedly.
"Yes, although not exactly a nuclear melt down. Thankfully it won't wipe out the surrounding area or cause radiation due to how this place is set-up, but it's certainly going to level the building."
"Please let me be the one that presses your button!"
Rebecca nearly choked in surprise as her mind wandered elsewhere for a second.
Tullius began to help Teela'Shal pull Slater's unconscious body up from the floor; "Excellent work, Tess, where's Grogg?"
Before the asari could reply, Teela'Shal answered, placing one of Slater's arms over her own shoulder; "He's dead… there's no way he'd not be here right now."
Tessia slowly walked up to her; "It was a brute… it dealt him a fatal blow, but he damn well made sure the bastard paid for it. I didn't know Grogg for long, but I was proud to be at his side."
"Thank you…"
"Are you ok?"
The quarian took a step forward, and with Tullius' help, began to carry Slater on their journey to the exit; "Right now, yes, I'm stronger than you think. Let's get out of here."
With Scott, Tessia and Rebecca acting as an armed escort, straggling husks and cannibals that tried to attack were swiftly routed with little effort.
Although moving slowly due to carrying Slater, the team didn't stop until what sounded like a tortured woman's scream echoed loudly throughout the complex.
"Wha-what was that? Is someone else here?" asked Rebecca with a jump.
"Oh shit," panicked Scott remembering recent N7 operation briefings, "banshee."
The team turned to look back the way they came as another wail echoed.
Scott scanned the area, trying to spot the source; "They can teleport right? Is it messing with us or is there more than one?"
"No," whimpered the worn-out and clearly distressed Tessia, "no, no, no, no…"
Rebecca canted her head, very concerned that someone in the party seemed more scared than she was right now; "Tess? Are you ok sweetie?"
Tessia took-in a sharp breath, her pupils rapidly shaking now, before a third banshee howl made the team look around again for a moment, still unable to see anything.
"Huh?" blinked Rebecca as she turned back around, "Where'd Tess go?"
"Whoa, she moves fast, didn't even see or hear her," said Scott.
"Teeessssssss!" called out Rebecca.
"Tess," tried Tullius on the comms, "come in."
There was no reply.
Scott and Rebecca were both stunned, never knowing the asari to ever run from any battle, in fact, she often ran towards them, the stronger the challenge, the better.
Teela'Shal signalled to Tullius so that they could slowly lower Slater into a seated position against a wall; "They will have spotted us, that's when they scream, we won't be able to out-run them, it'll be better to stand and fight."
"We have to focus," stated Tullius, "I know Tessia is our teammate and friend, but she's running silent and we need to deal with the threat at hand together before searching for her. Hopefully she'll get out or at least find somewhere to hide."
"Shit!" called out Scott, levelling his assault rifle down the hall.
The others turned to see nothing but kept their weapons ready.
Scott's entire body was shaking with adrenaline; "I saw it, it was right down there."
For a split second, five metres closer than where Scott had originally seen the threat, a blue and white warp field flickered into existence and a grossly genetically-altered asari suddenly appeared.
The tall banshee slowly started to walk towards the squad, a biotic field shimmering around it's gruesome body.
"Spread out and concentrate fire," ordered Tullius, "if you can, switch to warp rounds to bypass it's barrier."
Teela'Shal stayed near Slater's slumped body and quickly switched ammo-types; "Firing!"
Her attack was quickly followed up by the rest of the team, but the biotic barrier seemed to absorb nearly all the damage.
The monster was still unflinching even when Tullius experimented with an overload attack.
Rebecca charged her arc pistol and fired a direct headshot to little effect before the banshee vanished.
With an audible draft of biotic spatial distortion, the banshee re-appeared closer within the corridor.
"Whoa!" said Scott before his surprise turned into disgust from being able to see the target more clearly, "How can one of the most attractive races in the galaxy produce one of the most hideous and terrifying reapers?"
The banshee teleported closer again, it's jump bypassing Tullius who had to turn to fire at it from behind.
Scott mixed up his attacks with a cryoblast, which spurred Rebecca on to follow up with an incinerate, causing it's barrier to visibly fade.
Rebecca was too scared to even think about celebrating this small victory, even more so when the banshee warped again, appearing directly in front of her.
The ex-asari's rotting skull-like face looked down at the petrified engineer before opening it's mouth and screaming directly at it's prey.
Rebecca froze in complete fear, unable to move or call out. She wasn't even able to feel embarrassed when she could feel a wet and rapidly warming sensation between her legs as she involuntary did something that she hadn't done since she was five years old.
As the ringing faded from Rebecca's hearing, she could recognize gun fire and then Scott's voice calling out; "Becky! Sticky nade! Get out of there!"
The human engineer's senses came back to her as the top half of the banshee's body turned to focus on the three that were attacking it from behind, revealing the flashing sticky grenade that was attached to it's shoulder.
Rebecca squealed in alarm as she turned 180 to run away and dive over a large metallic container.
The explosion sent bits of the banshee everywhere across the room, before the nano-machines within it's blood quickly dissolved the evidence.
There was silence for a moment before Scott called out; "Ya OK Bex? Sorry, I panicked. Wanted it dead before it got you."
Rebecca slowly peered over the slightly scorched container and held a hand up; "Oh god, I think I peed myself."
Scott laughed, believing it to just be a figure of speech; "Think we all nearly did more than that."
Realising that she hadn't really wanted to admit to the fact, and believing the thicker fabric of her current underwear would allow her to mask the incident, Rebecca laughed back; "For my first encounter with a banshee, I think that went quite well."
"Don't relax yet," grumbled Tullius, turning at a scraping sound.
Two more banshees appeared in the distance, one back down the same hallway, another up in the scaffolding above.
"This is really not my day," sighed Scott, "what I wouldn't give for an elcor with mounted cannons right now."
.***