"…Ok, and then you pull the slide back..." Ken said, as he demonstrated the process of loading a pistol to the Yeoman. Kelly followed the instructions in spite of the fact that the gun she held was uncomfortable, and a little too large for her hands. "…and release…"
*ka-chink!*
Kelly watched in amazement as the previously red LEDs switched to blue, and the weapon began to emit a light hum. Ken on the other hand, was slightly put-off by the ever growing smile that suddenly materialized on her face.
Wow… Kelly thought.
I mean. WOW.
Kelly Chambers was armed… Armed and Dangerous. Kelly found herself mesmerized and sorely wishing that she had a mirror right now. With this weapon, it was completely undoubted that she was in fact; bringing sexy back.
"God, is this what it feels like to be Blasto?" she asked enthusiastically. She waved the gun around, and practiced poses that she thought might make her look badass, for when she went out and took down the base; One Collector at a time.
Ken, however, was very distinctly aware of the fact that she was 'practicing' with her finger on the trigger. "O-Okay, lass… let's just get yer finger off the trigger now… that weapon is loaded." Unfortunately for him (and probably for herself), she wasn't listening. Her thoughts were what she was going to say when she finally came face to face with Harbinger. Blasto always had cool one-liners, so Kelly figured that she needed one-liners. Something… dramatic. Simple, yet delivers the message of 'I'm Kelly Chambers, and I'm one tough bitch.'
Kelly scrunched her nose. Something with less swearing. "Hey guys, you know what the difference is between me and the Collectors?" She asked, and Conrad looked up while Ken paused from trying to duck from being in front of the barrel of Kelly's gun.
"I make this look goooood." She said, and struck a pose with the gun.
Conrad burst out into laughter, while Kenneth face-palmed hard enough to make an audible slap. Oh god, lass… that has got to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard." Conrad shook his head in agreement, "Yeah that was pretty corny."
"It is not!" she whined.
"Riiight" the Scotsman said, and began stuffing his pockets with as many Medigel packets, heat-sinks, and filled his omni converter with as much raw omnigel as he could fit. Conrad slumped against the corner and busied himself with trying to get comfortable.
Kelly put the gun into the waistband of her pants, and put on her game face. By now, she'd had some time to put a plan together. The first thing that they needed was some way to get…
"Hey… w-where you going?" she asked, when she turned to find Kenneth working off the grill to one of the Ventilation ducts.
"Lass, I have to go save the others from their pods."
"But" Kelly said, and found herself losing her confidence "but, you haven't heard the plan yet…" Kelly's statement caused the larger man to stop and balk at her like she was a loon. "The plan? Kelly, you have a plan?"
Okay, that kind of hurt, and Kelly tried not to be offended at the condescending way he'd said 'you'. "This place has, like, these huge salvage yards. Lots of stuff and a lot of it still useful, we can go there to find something to use or even a way to call for help. If we keep running around the base like this, we're only going to get ourselves killed." She reasoned. Unfortunately, Ken didn't look so sure.
"Lass, you keep saying 'we', like we're going to go out there together." He said, but couldn't help but notice the way that the Yeoman clenched her jaw. "Look, I'm glad that you want to try and help everyone, but we're a little bit buggered here. No offence here, but maybe you should just bunker down and wait for the Commander to come."
Conrad finally spoke up. "Yea, he's right…" The Yeoman looked at the pretender, and realized that he was against her too. "I mean, not a single one of us know how to fight. I'm gonna do what I should have done in the first place and just let the professionals handle this." Conrad said, and began to pick at the fake N7 insignia "He'll know what to do."
Kelly stopped and looked between the two. She wanted more than anything to just sit here, where nobody would shoot at her, and just wait this whole mess out. However, that just wasn't going to work, they absolutely needed each other. For the first time since she joined this mission, her faith in the Commander was starting to falter. She was starting to get the feeling that he might not come in time to save them all. That maybe they really were on their own this time.
"No." The Yeoman said. "You can't just go running at them head on, there's too many! We have to plan this out, or else we're never going to make it out of this alive."
Kelly looked into her friend's eyes, and his face betrayed the doubts that ran through his mind. She knew them, because they were a reflection of her own. She knew what they were up against, what their odds were. Ken broke eye contact, and looked away. Kelly knew his answer before he even said it, she'd seen it in his eyes; no faith.
"Listen to me lass…" The maintenance man placed a hand on her shoulder "You have to stay here where it's safe. Just me by myself won't draw any attention; Hell, those scunners aren't gonna put that much work into killin one person."
X Several Decks Above X
Admittedly, this was a whole lot of work to kill just one person.
Working in perfect tandem, the Collectors operated like a well-oiled machine. Massive lines, originally intended for the pod feed systems, were redirected and welded into massive funnels into the walls. Together, they were probably going to be done in a matter of minutes. Harbinger scanned the surveillance videos and waited for that little piece of redheaded garbage to dare show her face. Not knowing where she was, the fact that she managed to evade detection so effectively was only fueling the reapers ire of her.
And what the hell was she anyway? She wore a Cerberus uniform, so really, the possibilities were endless. Was she some sort of commando, maybe Special Forces? Considering that she'd set fire to an entire deck and covered her tracks by staging a prison riot, it was more than likely that Harbinger was dealing with an expert of guerilla warfare. Hell, for all Harbinger knew, Cerberus could be plucking these assholes right out of the N7 program.
The immortal starship pulled up one of the few video clips that it had, from when she'd been wandering around the salvage yard by herself. The video showed her poking around, looking at one of the various stripped-down wrecks when she turned around and jumped, having accidentally scared herself with her own shadow.
And for a minute, maybe two, Harbinger considered the possibility that she may just be a bumbling coward, managing to survive on pure dumb luck.
…Unless… that's what she wanted them to think. To make the reaper think that she was harmless, and thus make him lower his guard.
Clever girl… the reaper thought. Not that any of it mattered, as she was about to die.
Harbinger knew, to within a degree of certainty, that the redheaded scum had to be crawling around the vents somewhere. The entire facility had miles of ductwork running throughout the entire facility. Sending in his slaves would take days to flush her out, weeks if she hid herself well. Sending in the seeker swarms might seem like a good idea, but often it was more trouble than it was worth. (He'd be pulling dead bees out of the air condition filters for months) Plus, the Normandy had already proven that it had countermeasures for them.
If she did, then Harbinger would just be giving her more time to… do whatever it was that she was planning.
You see, Harbinger's problem was a problem that was as old as time itself; how does one rid your home of unwanted rats? However, and very unfortunate for that piece of redheaded trash, the solution was just as old and simple as the problem itself: Poison.
For all of the problems that she'd caused, Harbinger wanted to watch her die. To see her face as she truly saw how wrong she was, defying something so much larger than herself. Unfortunately though, such luxuries could not be afforded this day.
The Prothean drone finished welding and the job was complete. Harbinger inspected the work itself, and if such a thing were possible, it would have smiled. The plan was that Harbinger was going to dump a few million gallons of the nanobot gel (what they were using to melt people) into the ventilation ducts, to kill the red headed woman.
I'm going to repeat that again, so that the sheer amount of overkill may properly sink in.
Harbinger is going to dump a few million gallons of nanobot gel, into the ventilation ducts, to kill one person. Admittedly, there was going to be a few repercussions that needed to be considered for such an act. The base would be fine; their Nanobot technology was very sophisticated. Already, it was calibrated to target only organic matter, none of the ducts or electrical systems would be harmed. Hell it might even run a little better because of it, sort of like pouring a little drain-o into a slow moving pipe.
No, the real problem was going to be the smell. Melting a living human being inside of a ventilation system was like trying to hide a bunch of old fish inside of a wall. The entire base was probably going to smell like old pork for well over a month. The Protheans still had working nasal cavities, so Harbinger was going to have to smell this every time the reaper possessed a Collector.
God, and what if one of the other reapers came to visit? That would be an awkward explanation.
Needles inside of their respective gauges started to move, and the Drone signaled that it was ready to pump. And after a few seconds of consideration, Harbinger decided that having a base that smelled of 'aged-ass' was the least of its problems and gave the order to start.
Massive pumps thrummed to life, and within seconds, the black ichor began to flow into the vents.
xx
"Just trust me, lass, just stay put and you'll be just fine. I'll go, and save the crew." Ken said.
She turned to Conrad, hoping for some sort of support, but the man wouldn't meet her eyes. "I… I'm sorry, miss… I appreciate you saving my life and all, but… I'm just a fraud." He said, and picked at the plastic N7 logo on his breast plate. "I should have just stepped aside from the beginning."
Kelly turned back to Ken, and saw that he already climbing back up to the vent and was trying to shimmy his way in. "Ken, wait!" She cried, but only got a muffled 'just stay put' in response. Kelly, normally chipper woman that she was, actually growled at everyone's unwillingness to work together. Ken was being what Gabriella normally referred to as ' a total dumbass', and Conrad was pretty much just shutting down.
Nothing was going like she'd envisioned.
"Ken, use your head for a minute, you don't even know where you're going! I've seen the map, there's like 200 decks, you'll never find them!" She cried, and grabbed a hold of his shoe and pulled as hard as she could. She was rewarded by a loud yelp, and his whole body started sliding out of the vent.
Meanwhile, the Pretender folded his knees to his chest, and shook his head. He'd somehow managed to tune those two out, by focusing on his own self-loathing. This entire day had been one big eye opener. Almost like an epiphany, every wrong move in his life all came back and slapped him in the face. His neglected wife, the friends that eventually stopped returning his calls, and the hundreds of people that had laughed at him, when they'd found out about his obsession with the commander.
He couldn't even save that one lad-
-flop!-
Conrad looked up at the noise. It had sounded like someone had dropped a big glob of jelly on the ground. He looked around, and even in the dim lighting he could tell that it wasn't coming from the junction room. He looked back at the two redheads, but they were too busy squabbling to have noticed anything. He listened for a moment more and then heard it again, this time louder, and in rapid succession.
-flopflopflop FLOP!-
Slowly, The Pretender stood and pinpointed the source of the noise: it was some kind of oily black fluid, and it was coming from the vent that Ken had nearly crawled into.
"Uh… guys." He said as he watched the odd liquid pool, and slowly began to seep into their junction. Whatever it was, it was thick, black, and moving with the consistency of molasses or maybe honey. "Guys..." he said again. He looked over, and saw that they were still fighting.
"Dahm it woman, I don't have time for your silly plans!" He said venomously, and made a choking motion with his hands. It was as if he was trying to rid himself of his redheaded compatriot by utilizing 'the force'. However, be it that Kelly was a Jedi Master and could resist such attacks, or that Ken had no medichloride in his blood, she only shouted right back at him. "Silly plans!? How can they be silly when yours are just plain stupid!?" she screeched, and stamped a foot in frustration "What, are you just going to go meandering around out there, and block bullets with your stupid thick hea-"
"GUYS!" Conrad yelled, and they both turned to him with an angry "what?"
"LOOK!" he said, and pointed to the fluid that was seeping into their little room. Though Conrad wasn't sure as to what it was, but Kelly and Ken very much were. They'd had front row seats when the colonists had been processed.
"Oh shite..."
"Oh god, they know we're in the vents, we gatta get out of here!" Kelly cried, and being that it was a junction they had a lot of options for which direction to take. Ken started frantically looking around when Kelly pointed to one of the covers on the other side. "That one! We gatta go in that one, It leads to one of the closest exits!" The Scotsman looked at her with a look of distrust "Please, Ken, I've seen the map! Its only, like, 200 meters. We've gotta move, or it's going to pool up on us!"
Ken looked back at the vent, and saw that the gel was coming down even faster now. Like a slow motion waterfall it was pouring into their little haven and starting to form a large puddle on the ground. In a matter of seconds, it would reach their feet.
"Fine! In we go!"
XxxX
Hidden below the 'tree line', of impaled husks, The Loudmouth huddled near the ground and stared at something in silent horror.
Husks of all ages, genders, and sizes hung helplessly all around her. Their looks of agony were frozen in time, clearly marking their terrible last moments as they were obviously speared while still alive and conscious. Hell, most of them weren't actually inactive.
Most of the husks with any line of site reach out to her, and moaned ghoulishly. They knew she was there; they just couldn't do anything about it… yet.
So the fact that Kalisah didn't give a single fuck made the scene a little absurd, as she stared at the real source of her horror; The playback footage of her holo-recorder.
"My god…" she said, as she looked at her own ghostly visage, rendered in sickly greens and pale whites, since she was forced to use the night-shot mode. The more she stared at it, the more it looked like a bootleg version of The Blair Witch Project.
And not the crappy one, either, I'm talking about the even shittier Turian remake. (Nothing but Turians monologuing for 5 god-damned-hours in the woods)
And it didn't help that this whole base was lit up like it was supposed to be a crappy haunted house. Low hanging fog, dead bodies everywhere, and really shitty lighting… It's like the owner of this place was trying to compensate for something.
"…aaaAAAGGHhhhh…" one of the husks moaned, and gnashed its teeth at her. The Loudmouth rolled her eyes, and kindly asked it to 'shut the fuck up'. Unsurprisingly, it did no such thing. It seemed that today, life was going to throw her another shit day, and all she could really do was prove that she was tough enough to take it.
And she was…
Life, for Kalisah Bint Sinan Al-Jilani, was something that she battled on a daily basis. Her show, her meager career, and shitty pay, were something that she had to fight for, tooth and nail, every day to maintain.
But ever since she was a little girl, that was just the way that it was; just reaching out, and proving that you deserved something a little more than the other guy. Waiting for the right moment often meant that she walked home empty handed, and often enough, with an empty stomach.
Her story was actually a little unoriginal when it boiled down to it. She grew up poor. She and her mother lived alone up in the 'economic' districts of the wards. Her life was hard, but so was everyone else's. She was all too familiar with the term 'duct rat', and she knew what it was to be hungry. She knew sacrifice, she knew loss, and she knew what it felt like to surrender her dignity in the hopes that she might redeem herself later.
Her childhood was spent watching the people around her fall to their own addictions. She watched so many of them get beaten down by life, and settle on surviving on the scraps that they were handed. Others lashed out, and took what they wanted by force, and others just disappeared. Suspected dead, or possibley worse.
Khalisah was one of the few people that ever dared to reach up...
The sound of heavy footsteps clanked on the other side of the door, and Kalisah perked her head up. It sounded like somebody was coming, and the footsteps were far too heavy to be anything human. Were they here for her?
Kalisah bent down, and picked up the shotgun she'd found while looking for her recorder. God, this thing was old. She thought. She'd be lucky if this gun didn't explode in her hands upon use.
The door slid open, and Kalisah dived into one of the dump sites of garbage that littered the floor. Cradling the weapon, that may or may not work, she watched as a pair of collectors stormed in. Their rifles raised, their guns must have had something like a flashlight built in, because their guns both emitted small beams of light that cut into the darkness. With careful tactics they swept the room.
Kalisah lay perfectly still and listened to their heavy footsteps.
In the one second she had to hide herself, she'd only managed to drape somebodies discarded jacket over herself. Its owner, probably dead and impaled right above her, began to writhe. The Husks! She thought to herself in horror. Most of the husks knew she was here. She hadn't given a shit, because they couldn't do anything more than reach out to her.
But were they capable of communication? She hadn't thought about that, and now she could hear the massive footsteps closing in. Slowly, and almost imperceptibly she'd repositioned her body. Putting her hand on the trigger, she pointed the shotgun 'up' as much as she dared and listened. She'd essentially turned herself into a living landmine. Now all she could do was just wait.
And wait she did. Waited and listened, her heart thundered in her chest as the massive footsteps came closer and closer.
Then nothing happened…
She could hear them chattering. Speaking in their odd language, they were not more than a few feet from her. She forced herself to slow her breathing, and prayed that the sound of her own heart wasn't actually as loud as it sounded in her head. Ten seconds went by, then twenty, and finally a whole minute. She knew, she counted every second out.
Stay calm… She'd told herself. This wasn't the first time that she'd ever been in this situation. Being a journalist meant that she sometimes had to be in places that she wasn't welcome. Stories were often were the danger was, and panicking often meant making noise, and noise would give her a real reason to panic right now.
One of the Collectors shifted its weight, and accidentally brushed against her cover. It took everything in her not to pull the trigger right there.
And nothing happened...
The Loudmouth finally released a slow breath that she didn't that was holding, and she allowed herself to hope. Kalisah could wait this out. Just a little while longer, and they would move on. She could survive this…
Of course, this was when she felt a massive hand roughly grab her cover, and rip it right off of her.
And for a moment, she looked into a set of four lifeless eyes. The Collector towered above her, and she knew that it promised one thing. It promised death.
Kalisah grit her teeth, and pulled the trigger.
XxxX
Harbinger, as an immortal intelligence that surpassed all organic limitations, was simply above such stupid emotions like glee, or petty exuberance. However, this didn't mean that the reaper couldn't be extremely satisfied that its plan was working far better than it had expected.
He'd found her. They were moving through the ducts at breakneck speeds, and thus, were tripping every sensor and proximity alarm that could be tripped. The reaper was tracking them like they were wearing GPS collars on their necks.
The Protheans designed the base in such a way, that the ventilation system also doubled as their maintenance shaft. Every pathway had led to a juncture on every deck, and from there one could go to any sector they wanted, or just move to another deck. That female piece of garbage could have literally gone anywhere she wanted, and as long as she was careful, Harbinger would never have been able to detect her.
The situation had been a tactical nightmare. She essentially had exploited a flaw that Harbinger itself could never have foreseen. It was no wonder that Cerberus had selected her for this mission, her skills of infiltration were probably on par with Shepard's himself.
However, by simply flooding the junctures with the nanobot gel, the reaper was able to control the trickle-down by simply closing and opening the emergency shutters. And now, she was trapped between the Junctures. The one above her was flooded, and the one below her was rapidly filling. Her death was assured… or at least it should be, if she'd stop making all of the correct moves.
Harbinger watched its map and the redhead, the latter of whom was represented as a small blip, moved through a tangled mess of junctures and ducts on a massive 3d map. Just a little closer and it was going to run right into a 'flood zone'…
The blip made a hard right, into one of the lesser used vents and narrowly evaded death again.
Harbinger's eyes flashed in anger. What did she have a map in there, or something? The reaper's irritation began to reach a boiling point, and Harbinger decided that it had had enough. Nobody could possibly maneuver those ducts so expertly, unless they knew where they were going. And in a moment, they were actually going to reach an exit and escape.
Not acceptable.
Fine, if she wouldn't sit still long enough to die, then maybe he could help in that department. If the Nanobot Gel wasn't enough for her, then let's see how she dealt with that and the seeker swarms. Now that Harbinger knew where she was, it'd be able to direct them through the vents. And if she actually makes it to the exit, then they'd follow her right out. Air conditioning filters be damned.
It was going to be a waste though, like, 7 out of 10 of them were going to get themselves caught in the Gel, but it didn't care. Commander Shepard was coming and Harbinger did not have time to be chasing rats.
xXXx
Khalisah Bint Sinan al-Jilani fought like her life depended on it.
The Collector ripped off her hiding spot only to catch a shotgun blast to the gut. It folded over, and Khalisah shot it again for good measure. Nailing it in the chest, near its shoulder, it spun and finally fell to the ground.
One down, and one to go.
Fear, adrenaline, and the will to live, mixed into an odd cocktail that fueled her desperation. She was on her feet faster than she'd ever thought she was capable, and brought her shotgun to bear. The second Collector didn't seemed phased that its partner had just gone down, and made a beeline for her. The Loudmouth aimed for its head and pulled the trigger.
*click!*
Nothing happened, and her shotgun began to angrily beep at her.
If she'd had the time, she would have laughed at her own shit luck. The intercooling system was malfunctioning, and with a non-removable heat sink it would be hours before it could be used again. Not that any of it mattered, because at that second, the weapon was ripped from her hands by an arm that was far stronger than anything she could ever imagine.
The massive insect casually tossed the gun away. Khalisah didn't even see where it landed, all she knew was that it clattered somewhere off in the forest of dragon's teeth. For all the good it would do her now, he might has well jettisoned it right out of an airlock.
Now disarmed, the Collector moved to grab her, but to its complete surprise The Loudmouth took a step toward it.
After getting punched, kicked, and slapped as many times as Khalisah does during interviews, she'd learned the value of taking self-defense classes on the citadel. Nothing too fancy, just the basics on Krav Maga. Originally, she'd been saving it for the day that she'd ever have a third interview with the dickhead supreme; Shepard. Obviously though, this was also a good time as she channeled all of the knowledge, she pulled grabbed the creature by its arm and pulled it forward. Using its own momentum against it, she turned and took a low stance and managed a flip it right over her shoulder where it landed with an extremely satisfying 'thud'.
From the ground, the massive insectoid merely gave her a curious glance.
Khalisah couldn't help but smile at her own success. I can't believe that actually worked! She thought, and tried to make a run for it when a massive hand clamped down on her arm, causing her to cry out in pain. The Loudmouth could only moan in agony as the collector got back to its feet, its grip on her arm so tight she briefly thought that it might break right there.
Suddenly, it swung her around, nearly ripping her arm right out of her socket, it threw her.
And when I say threw, I mean it rag dolled her sorry ass across the room.
Khalisah's entire world switched between the floor, the ceiling, the floor again and finally settled on the ceiling. The air was blasted out of her lungs when she landed and pain lanced up her back. The headache that followed was absolutely crippling, rendering her unable to even string a thought together. The giant stalked forward and grabbed her again, this time by the front of her dress.
Unable to put up much resistance, Khalisah groaned until her mind caught up, and she realized that she was being dragged across the floor. Oddly, her first thought was that this was 1000 credit, Asari spun, pure silk dress. It was the only nice dress that she'd owned, the one she used for her show.
Her vanity instantly died however, when she found the strength to crane her neck and look where she was being dragged to.
"N-No!" she stammered, and terror gripped at her very soul. She began to fight again with everything that her body could muster.
The Collector was dragging her towards the dragon's teeth. One in particular was empty and unlit, its long pole was down, neatly collapsed in on itself, and Kalisah knew exactly what was going to happen to her.
The Loudmouth kicked, screamed, and scratched at her captor like a desperate animal. She'd even managed to sink her teeth into its arm, and it was completely unfazed. The fucking thing was unstoppable; it was like trying to fight off a damned terminator.
Just as Khalisah was about to try and wriggle her way out of her dress, she was lifted again and placed on top of her own grave.
Even at the end, she still fought with desperate fury as the collector held her down with one hand, and began to fiddle with the controls located at the base with the other.
X
"Kelly, where do we go!?" Ken asked desperately as they all came to a stop in front of a 4-way crossroad. With barely enough room to crawl, they all were lined up, single file, with Ken in the back, Conrad in the middle and Kelly leading in the front. Kelly's mind flashed the map in front of her eyes, along with the rest of her life, as she tried to discern a route that would lead her to the nearest exit.
"Hold on. Let me think!"
Kelly did not work well under pressure, and right now she was basically trying to solve a three dimensional maze off of memory alone, while trying to keep everyone ahead of the slow moving wave of Gel that was in hot pursuit. Ken dared to look back, and saw that they'd only had maybe a 15, maybe 20 foot lead from being melted. Their only saving grace was that it was so thick that they were able to outrun it, so long as they kept moving.
Which they currently were not.
"Lass, now would be a good time!"
"For god sakes, man, let the woman think!" Conrad cried. Ken thought about saying something nasty back to him, but decided against it, if it meant that Kelly would hurry. Hell, at this point he'd sacrifice his left nut if it would help. Ken looked back again, and the black ichor was a little over 10 feet away now. "Oh geez." He breathed, and screwed his eyes shut. Don't look at it, don't look at it, don't look at it, He thought. Repeating it in his head like a mantra, he decided that he was absolutely not going to look back again.
Suddenly, he could hear something else now. It was coming from directly behind them, and it sounded like… buzzing.
Furious buzzing… Furious, angry buzzing that could only mean one thing.
Slowly, Ken's neck almost creaked as he broke his vow and turned to look back.
Coming around the last corner they'd turned, hundreds of swarmer's flooded into the duct behind them, and by the sound of it, possibly thousands behind them. Their progress was a little slower that what it normally should have been. With essentially no room to maneuver, most of them were bumping into each other and knocking themselves out of the air. Those that fell were immediately dissolved in the Gel below them, as if a reminder that it was not to be ignored. Only the slower more careful swarmer's were making any real progress towards them.
But even at their cautious speed, they were closing the gap really fucking fast.
"K-Kelly, I dun wanna rush you or anything, but I kinda got AN ASSLOAD OF BEES BEHIND ME NOW!"
"What!?" Kelly said, and looked back herself. "Oh crap on a cracker!" Kelly swore and screwed her eyes shut. Forcing her mental gift into overdrive, she'd grit her teeth and traced an imaginary line through her invisible maze.
And finally, after what felt like an eternity (doubly for ken) her eyes shot back open "RIGHT! We're heading right!" she cried and darted in that direction.
She almost cried tears of relief when she saw what her mental map had promised: the exit!
With renewed vigor, she crawled as fast as her hands and knees would carry her, and in seconds, Kelly came up to their last obstacle; the ventilation grate. "Okay, just gimme a sec, and I'll have this right off-GAAA!" she screamed as Conrad collided into her, shoving her face into the cover. The Yeoman struggled to push him back, but the pressure suddenly doubled as Ken added to the pile up and pushed with all of his might "Sorry, lass, no time!"
The thin metal cover, and Kelly, both groaned and protested under the pressure, and finally the plate snapped off with a loud *PING* as both it and the poor girl were physically ejected.
"WAAAHH!" Kelly screamed as she fell 4 feet from the wall, and face planted right on the ground with the force of a squishy asteroid. Unfortunately, her sudden misfortune wasn't quite over as Conrad quickly followed and landed right on top of her. Had anybody cared to comment, they would have said that Kelly made a sound that resembled a squeaker toy meeting its end in a garbage compactor.
The Pretender shook his head and gathered his bearings, when he heard a muffled and very pathetic voice float up to him. "Just kill me already…" The Pretender rolled off of the much pancaked Yeoman, "Sorry, ma'am!" he apologized.
Ken was the last to follow, however though, The Maintenance Man had made a career of climbing out of these things, so he'd had the foresight of rolling on to his back and gracefully pulling himself out. "Conrad!" he said as soon as he was on his feet. "Help me find the cover, we gatta put it back on before the swarmer's get out!"
Perfectly content on letting those two handle the problem, Kelly just lay there and rested. She didn't even care that she felt like road kill, or that Conrad probably owed her breakfast from where his face had been in the vent, her brain needed rest. Pushing her mental gift like that had left her with a head full of mush. "owwww…" she whined "I wish the ground was all mushy and soft…" she complained, face down.
Realizing that nobody was listening, she slowly began to peel herself off of the ground, and paused when she thought that she'd heard something else. Kelly honed in on what sounded like a struggle, and blinked at what she saw. It looked like a collector was holding down a woman on one of the dragons' teeth. Gears whirred in her head, and you could almost hear the proverbial hamster jump back on its wheel and start running. 2 and 2 finally came together, and it Kelly's eyes went wide. Holy crap! A Collector was holding down a woman on one of the dragons' teeth!
"Guys? Guys! That lady's being attacked! We gatta do something!" She said, and urgently pointed at the assailant. Conrad, who was holding the dented plate in place while Ken tried desperately to reshape it back on its seals, looked down at her. "This isn't really a good moment, ma'am!"
Kelly looked up, and she saw that it really wasn't. The two were only barely holding the vent on, while hundreds of tiny little insect legs wriggled and writhed through the grating. This was accompanied by the occasional stinger as they tried in vain to reach them. Ken was trying to maintain his grip with one hand, and was using his omni-gel dispenser to 'glue' the entire setup right back on the hole.
"w-What do I do!?"
"You've got a bloody gun, lass, you shoot him!"
"Oh, right!" she said, and pulled out the M3 pistol that'd been jammed down the waistband of her pants. Having been given a crash course on operating the weapon, Kelly firmly placed her hand on the touch sensors on the handle. The gun gave a light hum, and readily unfolded in her hand. She pulled back the slide, and heard the oddly satisfying 'cer-chink' of the weapon priming itself.
Oh god, this is it. She thought, and the red LED's switched to blue. Its time go all Blasto the first Hanar specter, on these mofos!
"Hey, Jerk!" Kelly dramatically shouted and stepped out to get a clear shot. Tongue in her teeth, she had the look of furious concentration found usually on children trying to color between the lines. The massive, insect like creature, only had time to whip its head around and give the Yeoman a look of surprise "Enkindle This!"
And with an absolute disregard for gun safety, control, or the fact that her target was right on top of the woman she was trying to save, Kelly began firing as fast as she could pull the trigger.
There's an old adage that said; the most dangerous guns in the world were the ones in the hands of the untrained. And god help us, it was painfully obvious that our hero was amongst them.
To Kelly, each muzzle flash was almost like a flash grenade, disorientating, blinding, and deafening, all at the same time. Her first two rounds went low, striking the ground almost 3 feet in front of her enemy. Kelly's third shot was far to the right, striking an innocent terminal that'd committed no crime, save being built in an unfortunate spot; it exploded in a shower of sparks and smoke.
A combination of recoil, and poor impulse-control made her next two shots by far the worst. Her fourth went high and wild, soaring an easy 15 feet above its head. By this time, the Yeoman had lost her balance from the weapon kicking so hard in her hands; she was already toppling over by the time the fifth shot went off. This one flew at an almost 90 degree angle, and not only missed her target, but also the walls as the round imbedded itself into the ceiling.
The sixth and final shot came when the gun fell out of the Yeoman's hands, and went off when it clattered against the ground. The barrel pointing backwards, the final shot missed Kelly's head by a scant few inches, and drove itself into the wall behind her. Ken yelped at the new scorch mark that was now only a foot away from the scotsman's own head. "Holy shite!"
As quick as it had all started, it was over. Kelly opened her eyes, having had them squeezed shut, she wondered how awesomely heroic she looked right now.
"Woooow…" The woman said, no longer being held down by the distracted Collector, she was able to sit up and peek her head around her captor. She and everyone else were staring at the randomly placed scorch marks that littered the deck with utter amazement. "Holy shit, lady, you suck at this…" the loudmouth said.
"What the hell was that!?" Ken asked, looking up at the pockmark next to his head. "What are you, an imperial Stormtrooper? How did you miss that many times?"
"I-I've never fired a gun before!" she cried, and Conrad couldn't help but shake his head "And did you say 'Enkindle this'? Kelly, that is a terrible one liner. Blasto movies get terrible ratings for a reason..."
Everyone paused, when they all heard an odd grunting sound across from them. They looked over, and saw that the Collector drone trying to get their attention.
Without a mouth, it was unable to speak, but it continued to grunt and pointed at its own weapon. It then started demonstrating proper firing stances, and small wordless tips on how to control recoil. The Yeoman buried her face in shame, as she realized that her marksmanship was so epically bad that it was actually garnering sympathy from the very people trying to kill her.
The Drone had to cut its lesson short, as it realized that it'd forgotten about the woman it was trying to impale. It turned back to the spike, only to see that she was gone. The Collector only stood there for a second and let out a single chitter; which roughly translated to '...fuck.'
Suddenly, there was a tap on its shoulder, and it turned again to find that Khalisah had snuck around behind it. The dark skinned woman gave what could have been an award winning smile, and a friendly wave. "How would you like to be part of tonight's headline?" she asked.
Before the drone had time for any sort of response, she slugged it in the face with a surprisingly vicious right hook, considering her small frame.
By now, pretty much everyone's figured out that trying hurt a collector's chitin armor, with anything less than a bullet, was pretty much a lesson in futility. However, what it did do was catch it entirely off guard. Giving Khalisah the precious second she needed, she dropped low and drove her shoulder into its gut, sending the creature reeling backwards. It tripped on the base of the spike, and fell right on top of the small platform.
"Tonight at 9…" The Loudmouth looked down at the small panel of keys, located at the base, and saw that they were all marked in Prothean. She gave a brief 'fuck it' and delivered a swift kick, effectively pushing all of them at once. The entire setup gave a soft beep, and a massive spike shot straight up and right through the Prothean's chest. The Collector screeched in pain as it was lifted 15 feet into the air. "...Action news reporter, Khalisah al-Jilani kicks ass."
Khalisah looked up at the writhing insect, and gave a victorious sneer. She'd kind of thought about inserting some sort of bug pun, but settled for flipping it off. She'd been a little too close to death, so she needed a minute for the shock of it all to wear off.
She'd just stood there for a minute and just breathed, when she heard footsteps approach her. She turned, and regarded the small redheaded woman that approached her. "Are you alright, miss?" the redhead asked.
"Yea… yea, I'll live, thanks." She breathed, and reached out to Kelly. "Khalisah Bint Sinan al-Jilani, Wusterland News."
"Kelly Chambers. Yeoman of the Normandy." She smiled, and reached out to shake her hand. To her surprise, however, The Loudmouth reached right passed it and plucked Kelly's gun right out of her other hand "Hey!"
"You don't get to have this anymore." She said, and noticed the other two shuffling up to them.
"We did it!" The Scotsman said, "We sealed the vent back up, and if that bugger" he gestured up at the still writhing Collector "is dead, then I think we're safe for the moment." Conrad came shambling in after, and gave the woman a small smile that she couldn't help but return. Stupid bastard managed to survive. was all she could think.
"Holy fuck, I'd thought you would have gotten your dumbass killed by now." She said. Conrad shook his head "Nope… I'm still kicking… though I'm not really sure that a good thing in this place. By the way" He said, as an afterthought "that was pretty cool with what you said when you killed that drone. It was like watching an action vid!"
"Aye. I hate your show, and i think you're a total bitch, but you could teach this one a thing or two about one-lining." Ken said, and jerked a thumb at Kelly. The Yeoman crossed her arms, and huffed with a sour look on her face "wasn't that cool…" she muttered.
Conrad groaned and tried to flex his back. The poor man, in addition to moving around in fake, though surprisingly heavy armor, was also carrying an added 40lbs of weapons on his back and hips.
He and Ken, were still holding their weapons, but Conrad was the only one who had any magnetic holsters attached to him. They didn't want to leave any guns behind, so in their blind panic, they'd strapped as many guns as they could to him before making their escape from the vents. He was basically their walking armory, which sucked because these guns were all heavy as hell. "Would you like a gun? You'd be helping both of us out." He said, and turned around.
Khalisah looked at the selection, and noted how nice his butt looked in armor. After a few seconds, she selected the shotgun. Unlike its unfortunate predecessor, this one was new and clean. She was confident that it would work much better.
"So, is there a plan?" She asked Conrad. She didn't know that he wasn't a soldier, so she assumed that he was in charge. To her surprise, however, it was Ken that spoke up.
"Aye, we got guns now, so we're gonna go shoot our way to the rest of our crew and blow this place."
Kelly groaned, and pinched the bridge of her nose. This again… She appreciated his enthusiasm to save everyone, but Ken was letting the thought of Gabby in danger give him tunnel vision.
"Ken, we can't go for the crew yet," Ken scowled at our hero "Harbinger knows we're out here, we're not going to be able to catch them by surprise anymore. We need to call for help, or at least find something that will give us the upper hand… even then, we still need a proper plan, because they're not gonna just sit there and let us free everyone."
"God dahm it, woman, I'm getting real tired of debating this with ya. Every minute we dillydally, someone could die!"
"You think I don't know that!?" Kelly heatedly said. "I want to save them Ken, I do, so badly, but if we go out there and get ourselves killed, then they all die."
Conrad sheepishly put his hand up and added his own two cents "…well, I still vote that we wait for Commander Shepard to come."
"No… One of the Commander's biggest fears, is failing this mission because of a distracted crew. I think he's going to go tie up loose ends before coming. It's probably why we haven't seen him yet."
"Huh…" Khalisah said, "I'm glad to see that we're all bonding through this experience. I can only predict that this will end well."
"Nobody asked you!" Ken snapping at her."You can't even get through a single interview with Shepard without a concussion, let alone come up with a better plan."
"REALLY!?" she screeched at him, suddenly frothing with fury "In the middle of this fucking hell hole, you're going to bring that up!?" Conrad stepped in front of her, and tried to calm her down. "I-It's oka-"
"No! Either he takes that back, or I'm going to go over there and make haggis out of his face!"
"Bring it on, ya harpy!"
"Get the hell out of my way!" Kalisah said, and started shoving Conrad aside "I need to go over there, and beam my fist into Scotties face!"
ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL
Everyone stopped squabbling when there was a sudden burst of heat and raw power. The Biotic field was so intense, that it actually made their teeth tingle as Harbinger possessed the impaled Collector.
Strung up in the air, like it was, its glowing body bathed the immediate area in a soft orange light, making the forest of dragon's teeth look more hellish than it already did in the dark.
YOU HAVE BECOME AN ANNOYANCE.
Harbinger must have known that it couldn't do anything. It didn't struggle against the spike, and since it was impaled facing up; it had no line of sight to fling biotic attacks. The most it could do was crane its head around and try to look at them.
YOU FUMBLE IN DEFY SOMETHING THAT YOU CANNOT BEGIN TO COMPREHEND. YOU DO NOT KNOW THE FUTILITY OF YOUR ACTIONS.
Ken shook his head at the Reaper terminal. "Ha! Look who's talkin about be'n all futile and shite! You can't even see th-" there was a sound, almost like thunder, as the reaper's body flared brightly for a second. Nobody was positive, but it almost seemed like it was a flash of anger.
SILENCE.
There was a moment, and things finally settle back.
YOU ARE INSIGNIFICANT. YOUR LIFE MEANS NOTHING COMPARED TO THE DESTRUCTION THAT WILL BE WROUGHT BY US. I WILL GRANT YOU ONE CHANCE TO PROLONG THE INEVITABLE. ONE DEAL.
Ken blinked up at the monster, his face betraying his distrust. "A deal? Wh-"
SILENCE. I ONLY OFFER THIS DEAL TO THE REDHEADED SCUM THAT CONTINUES TO DEFY ME.
"But…" Ken blink, there were only two redheads in this group, and he was one of them "but, if you're not talking to me, then who…" Ken paused, and realization slowly dawned on him. "Kelly?" he asked, and jerked a thumb at the woman who was currently hunkered down, and hiding behind Conrad's legs. "Kelly Chambers?" he asked with disbelief.
"Don't tell him my name!" she whispered harshly, and swatted his leg.
KELLY… CHAMBERS… Harbinger said slowly, like it was testing how it would sound.
Oh god, I'm on a first name basis with a reaper! My life is going to suck from now on! She thought, as she gulped and gathered her courage. Kelly was outright terrified, but… a chance to prolong her life? The young woman slowly came out, and addressed the ageless being. "A… deal?" she asked, and cursed herself for sounding so cowardly.
YES.
The last thing in the world that Kelly wanted was to make some dubious deal with the devil. But… then again, what could Harbinger possibly want from her? She didn't own anything of any real value. She doubted that she knew anything, that couldn't be answered with a ten minute search on a web browser.
Maybe it was looking for intel on Cerberus? She hoped not, she was so low on the totem pole, that she'd be lucky if anybody would tell her where the bathroom was if she asked.
"w-what do you want?"
LEAVE.
Kelly had to stop, and replay what it'd said in her head a few times. "…leave? Like…, leave the base?"
YES. YOU WILL BE GRANTED SAFE PASSAGE THROUGH THE RELAY.
Khalisah, who'd been recording the entire ordeal, put down her holo-recorder and scoffed at this. "Yea, okay, and I bet we get a free bottle of snake oil as a consolation priz…" She stopped when Kelly put a hand up to silence her, then turned back to the Reaper.
"If… if I do this… You'll let rest of my friends go to?"
YES. THEY WILL BE ALLOWED TO LEAVE.
"Why? Why are you offering this?"
YOU ARE NOTHING. YOUR EXISTENCE IS IRRELEVANT IN WHAT IS COMING. YOU ARE NOT WORTH CHASING AROUND THIS STATION. LEAVE.
Kelly couldn't help but smile at this. It was… a little bit if an honor to considered a pain in the ass, to an actual Reaper "…And the other crewmembers, do they get to go to?"
NO. THEY BELONG TO ME.
And there it was; the catch. What Harbinger was asking, would pretty much defeat the entire purpose of her staying. Her first instinct was to refuse outright… but…
Was she really just kidding herself, here? She really had to be honest; this mission was going pretty freaking bad so far. They were only barely surviving on pure dumb luck, there was a very real possibility that they were going to walk through the next door, and right into a firing squad… or worse. Seeing all of these impaled husks was a sobering reminder that there really were worse ways to die on this station.
Maybe she should just cut her losses. She'd saved three people, that was enough, right?
Right?
She turned to the others and looked into their eyes. "What do you guys think? Should we take the deal?"
"No, lass" Ken was the first to speak up "there's no way I'm leaving without Gab… the rest of the crew." The Yeoman turned to Khalisah, and she shook her head. "Do what you want, kid, but I'm not going anywhere. This is a once in a lifetime thing." She said, and tapped her recorder "I've gatta be where the story's at."
And finally, she turned to Conrad. The man was had his head down, and was staring at his feet. She immediately expected him to be the voice of dissidence. "Do you want to leave?" she asked gently.
What she saw next surprised her. The Pretender looked up at her with a face that was… hardened. Kelly smiled, and she knew that it was a look of resolved determination. Kelly probably had the same look in the shuttle, when she'd decided to make a stand. "No." he said "I'm a coward, and a fraud… but I'm not a monster. If I didn't help, when I actually had the chance to do something, then I… I wouldn't be able to live with myself."
At that moment, Harbinger flared, and the sound of thunder rumbled throughout the room again.
THEIR OPINIONS ARE IRRELEVANT. THIS CHOICE IS YOURS TO MAKE.
Kelly ran a hand though her hair and tried to be brave. This really was her choice, and one that was obvious. This wasn't some Blasto movie… the smart thing to do was to take the deal, get up, and leave this terrible place...
But then she thought to herself; What if this was a Blasto movie?
(((Renegade Action)))
"Look. Screw you. Screw the ship you flew us in on. Screw those husks. Screw that fliud that melts everyone. Screw your loud-ass stupid sounding voice. Screw them cheap biotic attacks you do. Screw those stupid four eyes. Screw the way you announce yourself. Screw the Collectors. Screw Saren. Screw Sovereign.
Screw the Reapers.
This is Citadel Space. My councilor is black, and my commander is Shepard. Now get the heck out of my face, and if I see you again out there, I'm slapping the crap out of you."
The moment of sheer silence that followed, was matched only by the blown away looks on Kelly's squad. It didn't last long, however, as Harbinger's body began to flare with bright energy. It's ire of the small woman manifesting into an orange corona of biotic hate that made it hard to stare directly at.
SO BE IT. It thundered, and the body went dark. It left behind nothing more than a burnt out corpse. Now that harbinger wasn't watching, Kelly buried her face into her hands.
"Oh my god, I'm going to regret that…" Kelly said. A simple 'NO' would have sufficed for the situation, but the Yeoman had all but issued a challenge, to a Reaper, to come out and whoop her ass. Khalisah came up behind our very screwed hero, and patted a hand on her shoulder. "Yea, you probably are going to regret that, sweetie. But if it's any consolation, I got the whole thing on cam and the whether or not you survive, this is going right on Youtube."
"Ha ha ha!" was all Kelly heard, before she was suddenly scooped off of the ground and twirled in a large hug. Kelly couldn't help giggle as Ken spun her around, and finally plopped her back on the ground. His approval was completely evident, and he gave her a bright grin "Shite, lass, I would have just mooned my ass at that scunner, but that was way more awesome!"
Meanwhile, Conrad was looking out at the forest of dragons' teeth around him. "Uh… guys…"
"Thanks… I just hope I didn't make him too mad…" she said with a worried look, and Ken blinked back at her "Too mad? Lass, you just up and gave that asshole the greatest sodding i've ever seen. Oh, I wish the commander could have seen this, he'd be would have been so proud!"
"G-Guys?" Conrad tried again, only to be ignored.
"So, you said something about a plan?" Khalisah asked, and shifted her new gun so it was a little more comfortable in her hands. "This room's fucking huge, but there's a door somewhere in that general direction.," she said and pointed "and I think we definitely need to get out of here-"
"Guys!?" everyone finally stopped, and looked over at Conrad. Kelly made a mental note to try and be more attentive when he was trying to get their attention. She honestly couldn't help it, the man was just so… ignorable. Maybe she could help him become a little more assertive?
She was about to ask what he wanted, when she noticed that he was pointing at one of the dragon's teeth. She looked to where he was pointing, and suddenly her gut lurched.
"…oh, crackers…" she swore.
Every one of the spikes had a few LEDs that were constantly on. Most would have assumed that it was merely to indicate that it was powered, and on. However, now there were a whole lot more of them on, along with a bunch of Prothean words that scrolled along a little screen. The Yeoman stared at it for a second more, when the screen flashed one last unintelligible word, it gave a soft beep, and began to lower its husk…
And it wasn't just that one, either. It was also the dozens that they were standing next to, the hundreds that they could barely make out in the darkness, and the thousands that they couldn't see. They had maybe seconds before they'd be up to their eyeballs in husks.
"Huh…."The loudmouth said, effectively voicing all of their thoughts as she bent over, and made a small tear at the bottom of her dress. Thousand Credits be damned, she tore a long slit on the side that ran all the way to her upper right thigh, much more favoring the freedom which her legs were going to very much need in a second.
Ken was the last to catch on, as movement caught his attention from... well, everywhere, and situational awareness slowly dawned on the Scotsman. The Maintenance Man numbly turned his head back to Kelly, and he jerked a thumb at the husks that were now beginning to stand up. "…Fucking, really?" he asked, and Kelly could only shrug. "I ain't even mad anymore." She said. Off in the distance, she could see their eyes as they finally began shambling off of their prisons.
"Uh…" Conrad said, and the air was suddenly filled with a low moan that seemed to spread across the air. There was just so many of them, that the sound seemed to penetrate his very soul. "W-We gotta plan?" he asked shakily.
Kelly turned to her compatriots "…Scream and run?" she asked, and they all agreed.
"…sounds good."
"Yea, why not?"
"I could use a good scream and run."
Kelly nodded. "Well… let's get to it, then… AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" she, and the rest of her party started to scream as they all made a mad dash for the exit. In spite of the danger, she couldn't help but think that whatever the hell the Commander was doing, it could not be anywhere near as bad as this.
But you'd be surprised at how wrong she was. For the Shepard as currently dealing with the one thing that was worse than a room full of husks...
Commander Shepard was dealing with politicians.
Xx Meanwhile xX
"…Ah yes, Reapers" Councilor Valern said, while using his three fingers to make air quotes "the immortal race of sentient starships, allegedly waiting in dark space… we have dismissed those claims."
Commander Shepard just stood there, and ground his teeth. His implants glowing as all of his hard work, all of the evidence, and even the fact that a reaper had dropped right on their laps and said 'hello' was swept aside by the Turian Councilor. "Councilor… I swear to god, if you ever make 'air quotes' at me again, I wil-" The commander stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked over, and saw that Anderson was shaking his head "Try not to take it personally, Shepard. He literally does that for anything that he doesn't want to talk about."
"Really?"
"Yup. Hell, it was his catchphrase while running for office."
"…You're kidding me, right?"
Anderson smiled at the look of disbelief on his old friend. "Don't believe me? Watch." He said and turned back to Valern "So, Councilor, I've noticed an odd expenditure on our annual budget. Did you charge 1300 credits on Candi?" The Turian instantly stiffened (in possibly more ways than one).
"Candy?' they commander asked.
"Spelled with an 'I'" He explained, and Shepard nodded with understanding.
"Ah yes, Candi" Councilor Valern said, using his three fingers to make air quotes "The Yoga master Asari stripper, allegedly working in the wards… we have dismissed those claims."
"Huh…" was all Shepard could say.
xXXx
Meanwhile, in Satan's marathon, Kelly's lungs burned, her legs ached, and in spite of the fact that she hadn't eaten in almost a day and a half, she was keeping ahead of the mob of moaning husks. The Yeoman was a woman who preached to her patients that a healthy body would lead to a healthy outlook on life. It was advice that led her to spend an hour on a treadmill, 3 times a week, in the Normandy's exercise room.
And right now, she was thanking every second of it.
One of the husks off to the side made a dive for her, and she'd barely managed to jump in time to avoid it. She landed a little awkwardly, but managed to not fall.
Ken was the lead of their little race-o-death, but only by a small margin. His longer legs gave him an advantage longer strides, along with the PT requirements of the Alliance Military.
Conrad and Khalisah were a very different story, however. Conrad's problem was 3-fold, one of them being the bulky armor that he was wearing. Like actual armor, it was hard to move in. Fixed knee joints, and stiff body plating made him run with the grace of a LOKI mech.
His second problem was that he was carrying an additional 30-ish pounds of weapons strapped to his back. He would have gotten rid of them, but he couldn't afford to put down the gun he was holding, and his other arm was currently occupied with his third problem.
Khalisah.
It was becoming severely evident that the Loudmouth was a smoker. She puffed, wheezed, and hacked as she ran. The husks probably would have caught her by now, if it wasn't for Conrad helping her keep pace. Their only saving grace was that even though she looked like she might pass out at any second, she was still able to operate, and aim her shotgun with great success.
She occasionally had to turn and run backwards for a second, to blast the occasional husk that got too close.
And finally, after god only knows how far they ran, they could see the door. And, just because they didn't have enough problems to deal with, they had to open it, defend it, and close it before a tidal wave of husks came pouring through to the other side. The last part was important, because if they got through then Kelly and her companions would be too tired to fight them off, or run any further.
And that was only IF Harbinger didn't have a firing squad on the other side.
Without being able to spare the oxygen, Kelly couldn't actually tell Ken the plan, so she had to hope that he would pick up and roll with it. Step 1 was going to be the hardest for her.
About 100 feet from the door, a single thought ran through her head: Use the boost to get through!
Using energy that she really couldn't spare, she entered a dead sprint, and made a charge for green button (which thankfully meant that it was unlocked). Surrendering her sense of pacing, she quickly passed her fellow Cerberus crewmember, and all but dived for the goal.
To her credit, she made it, but holy shit it was close. Her vision was greying around the edges when she, for all intents and purposes, fell on the button on the center of the door. The small woman collapsed, the door opening in front of her, she actually felt the breeze that Ken made when he jumped over her. On the other side, he turned and raised his rifle.
Were Kelly a little more coherent, she would have smiled that Ken did exactly what she was hoping he'd do.
She literally did not have the energy to stand, and crawled to the access panel on the other side of the door. Ken's rifle barked as he shot off the husks that threatened to get through. Kelly had sort of a rough idea at how fast these doors would close, so if she timed it right, then she'd be able to have the door close with not a second to spare.
The final two came limping as fast as they could, and when they were about a stone's throw away, she hit the switch.
Conrad watched the doors begin to close, and put everything he had into a final push, all but dragging the woman in his arm, he could taste the end.
And of course, that's when it went to shit.
Conrad didn't even see the husk, he just saw a blue hand and the world flashed white. The next thing he knew, he was on the ground and he was looking up at the doors closing. He looked over, and saw that the woman had at least fallen on the correct side. The husk was about to strike him again, when it ate a three round burst to the chest, from Ken's rifle.
Khalisah and Conrad made eye contact, and a single thought ran through his head. Oh my god, it's happening again!
The two crawled to each other, and reached…
…and they made it!
The Loudmouth managed to get a firm hold on his hand, and pulled with everything she was worth; making a noise that oddly resembled an angry cat. It was also the first time that the Pretender thanked his moderately useless armor. The plastic offered little resistance on the hard ground, and thus allowed him to slide quite readily through the threshold.
The door closed, and the last thing they heard was a heavy 'fwump' as Kelly launched an incendiary attack right into the access panel.
The door lost power, which meant that nobody was going to open it until they'd made the proper repairs.
Finally safe, Ken lowered his rifle and allowed himself to flop onto his back. The four of them just lay there, catching their breaths.
For well over five minutes, they just lay there and stared up at the ceiling. They were exhausted, sticky with sweat, hungry, and they all probably smelled terrible. But none of that mattered, because they were alive.
[[ Achievement Unlocked – The Loudmouth ]]
With the loudmouth, Kelly now has access to a digital holo-recorder. With this, Kelly can now use the emitter to broadcast a temporary holographic decoy, and draw enemy fire away from her. Khalisah's years as a reporter has given a lot of experience working with communication equipment, and dealing with ECM jamming from authorities who do not welcome her. So this also unlocks the mission to acquire tactical gear, such as personal radios and signal jammers.
(((Choice)))
Warning: 1 mission remaining before part two. 2 Choices Available
Recruit the Custodian
Acquire the M-34 [Author Selected]
Acquire Level 2 Assault weapons
Acquire Tactical Gear
Choices remaining: 1