I don't own Mass Effect...duh! Part 2 of the Noveria plot is here for your reading pleasure.
Chapter 8:
Out Cold Part 2
Joker crouched behind the crate; his hands were shaking as he gripped his new pistol. Wait, haven't I been here before? Joker hated to admit it, but Wren's simulation program was actually helping the newly walking pilot. However, this time around, Joker was not inside the Normandy, but rather the garage of Port Hanshan. Also, Joker was not facing a lone geth stalker, but a host of geth with Laura and Liara taking cover with him.
"Joker, cover Liara!" roared Laura over the random shots of the geth.
Joker nodded and steadied his pistol over his trusty cover and opened fire. Laura sprinted to the right from her cover to another hiding place. With the geth divided on whom to shoot, Liara stood and released her biotic warp. The synthetics quickly fell from the coordinated attack that overpowered the element of surprised the A.I.'s formerly had. The three relaxed as the adrenaline slowed in their veins and the security team crept in, looking extremely frightened.
The flight lieutenant was barely listening as Laura smoothed over the security team. He and Liara were busy prepping a Mako that was left in the garage. Within minutes, Laura was walking towards the two of them with a frown on her face. "If Benezia left geth in here, there are sure to be more guarding the approach to Peak 15. Let's go, and Joker?"
"Yes ma'am?"
"No backseat driving."
"Wouldn't think of it."
With Shepard driving, Joker manned the turret. The machine gun took care of any routine geth troopers, but occasionally the cannon had to be used to eliminate the turret guns, armatures, and colossuses. The geth were not the only hazards that the three faced on their way to the facility. High winds and blinding snow threatened to push even the heavy Mako off of the ridge if Laura did not errantly steer them off herself.
"Commander!" shouted Joker over the roaring winds. "I'm seriously considering going back to the Normandy. And staying there permanently I might add."
"Relax flyboy, we're here."
Everybody disembarked from the Mako, and sprinted inside to escape the biting sting of the cold. The large room echoed with the ensuing gunshots from the awaiting geth troopers and krogan warlord. Joker had never faced a krogan that had biotics. Wrex doesn't really count in this scenario. While he expected the various biotic powers, the pilot was overwhelmed by the massive creature's speed. Before Joker could even find cover, Laura was thrown across the room against a very solid wall, and Liara was put in a stasis field and then backhanded to the ground.
"Shit," cursed Joker.
The krogan cackled, "Scared human? Only a three-person crew for a facility like this? I'd be insulted if I wasn't enjoying crushing all of you."
Joker was glad that the alligator looking alien was busy with his monologue because it gave him the opportunity to grab an assault rifle from one of the many fallen geth. The pilot peeked out from his hiding spot of crates to spot the krogan to his left. Joker steadied the rifle over the crates and squeezed the trigger. The projectiles tore through the krogan's kinetic barrier before he even turned to face the threat. Before any further damage could be done, the alien fired his shotgun at the crate that Joker was behind.
The bullets tore into the crate and ripped through all of Joker's protection from the short range. Joker's head exploded from the pain and stars danced in front of his eyes as he fell to the floor. The krogan smirked as he stood over the fallen pilot and lowered his shotgun. Joker thought it was the end when Shepard flew in from outside of his vision with a shoulder block. The two went sprawling to the ground and their guns clattered to the grounds. Laura began punching the krogan in effort to gain the advantage over her adversary.
Under excruciating pain, Joker slowly clambered to his feet clutching his pistol. The pilot raised his pistol in his right hand, as his left clutched his bleeding torso. Where the hell is Liara? Finally, getting a target, Joker squeezed off a shot that pierced the skull of the unlucky krogan as he started to punch Shepard back. Hands off. With the battle high gone, the pilot collapsed only to be caught by Laura.
"Hey there Joker," smirked Laura.
"Hey there Commander, normally I would enjoy being in your arms, but there seems to be a problem," said Joker groggily.
"Oh?" queried the commander withdrawing a medigel syringe.
"I appear to be bleeding…a lot."
"Nothing a little medigel can't fix," she encouraged plunging the needle into the wounds, at which point Liara came over massaging her jaw.
After recovering from the battle, the trio continued deeper into the facility. "Why are the turrets facing in?" Liara asked.
"They want to keep the secrets in as much as they want to keep spies out," Joker noted.
"Encouraging," said Laura flatly. "Come on, let's get this VI back online."
"If it will make it shut up, jeez."
The next part of the facility led outside much to the dismay of the shore party. No sooner had they found a way back inside when large insect-like creature swarmed all around them. "What the hell are these things?" asked Joker as he began to fire.
"I recognize these things, they're rachni!" shouted Liara.
"Didn't the krogan wipe them out like two thousand years ago?" queried Laura unleashing her assault rifle.
"Apparently not," replied Joker as the last one succumbed to the onslaught.
Joker fell into a battle haze. The events of reactivating the VI Mira were a blur to the pilot. He was not sure if it was from the injury he received from the krogan or if this was how Shepard felt all thee time. Before he knew it, they were already at Rift Station. The trio disembarked from the tramcar, and entered the only unlocked door to find a very twitchy security team.
"Who are you?" asked their leader stepping out from cover.
"Commander Shepard, Spectre. And you?"
"Captain Ventralis, my men and I are guarding the perimeter here for the scientists," he replied.
"How are they?" asked a concerned Liara.
"They're keeping it together, but my men are exhausted, and taking stims to stay alert." The captain did not get to continue because several more rachni burst from the vents. Both the captain's men, and the Shepard's team quickly mowed down the insects. "I don't understand why they keep coming here, its such a natural kill zone," explained Ventralis.
After explaining that they were looking for Matriarch Benezia, the captain gave them a pass to the hot labs where she was located. The trio headed to the appropriate leevator relieved that they did not have to jump through hoops to get things done. Well that was easy, thought Joker as the elevator slowed to a stop. Maybe too easy. "Hey Commander?" asked Joker nervously.
"Too easy?" queried Laura, drawing her assault rifle. The vents around her rattled and hundreds of rachni swarmed in response to her question.
"That would be a yes!"
The party desperately opened fire in the hopes of quelling the infestation of the insectoid aliens. There was no end to the rachni warriors as their tentacles got closer and closer. "Back to the elevator!" roared Laura over the din of weapon retorts and rachni screeching. Joker nodded and elbowed the button behind him and backed quickly into the elevator while still shooting. Liara was next into the elevator, throwing up barriers and throwing the rachni away with her biotics. Joker waited anxiously for Laura to enter the elevator so they could escape, but Shepard was still firing. Instead of waiting for orders, Joker grabbed the commander by the collar of her armor and threw her into the elevator while slamming the button.
"I am so shooting that Ventralis guy when we get back," stated Laura as he breathed heavily.
With the elevator back up, Commander Shepard made a b-line for Ventralis's post. When they found the perimeter abandoned, Laura was even more vexed and stomped in the direction of the signs pointing to the barracks. The door opened, and the captain was clearly shocked to see the team alive.
"Commander Shepard…I uh…crap,"
"Let me guess," Joker began. "You were under orders from Benezia, and you were hoping the rachni would kill us?"
The captain nodded, "I apologize for lying, but I'm also sorry for this." Without another word, the captain and his team opened fire. However, the ragtag and stimmed crew were no match for the team.
"Sooo, now what?" asked Joker.
"I vote for finding another way," stated Laura.
"Perhaps the scientists know another way," suggested Dr. T'Soni.
After asking around, a volus pointed to a door that circled around the outside and led to the hot labs. See? Eggheads can be your friends. The trip outside was quick and painless with only a lone rachni warrior in the way. Entering the hot labs, the trio saw Matriarch Benezia standing over a console.
"Did you think that bringing my daughter would change anything?" queried the asari as she turned to face the three.
"I came of my own accord," stated Liara. "I don't want to hurt you, but I will defeat you if I must."
"Have you ever faced an asari commando Shepard? They are a force to be reckoned with," stated Benezia as she readied herself. Geth and the said commandos came streaming from the many doors in the hot labs. Biotic powers and projectiles crisscrossed through the room as the team alternately fired and looked for cover. The geth were dispatched with ease, but the asari were a different story. Not only did they have impressive biotic powers, but they were extremely proficient with their assault rifles. With the help of grenades, the commandos were quieted and Benezia stopped firing.
"Listen closely Shepard. We found the Mu Relay from this rachni queen's genetic memory. This mass relay leads to the Conduit. Take these coordinates, I've already transmitted them to Saren so you must hurry. Beware of Saren's ship, Sovereign. It is like a whisper in the back of my head. I can feel it-I-I…DIE!"
"Shit," cursed Joker as the team was blindsided by more geth and commandos. Instead of firing on the new threats, the pilot chose instead to fire at Benezia. The asari cackled and hurled a ball of dark matter that sent him sprawling across the floor. By the time he got back up, the geth and commandos were once again defeated and the entire team pressed the attack against the matriarch.
Finally, the great asari fell and died. What came next would haunt Joker for many days. Laura was squinting into the chamber that held the Rachni Queen when one of the asari commando corpses was dragged to the wall that held the large insect. From the broken and eerie conversation, Joker came to the realization that the Queen was truly sorry for the Rachni Wars and that if set free, would stay well away from Council space. And she wants us to wipe out her young? How motherly.
"Commander," whispered Joker. "Can we really trust this thing? It's a giant insect for crying out loud."
The asari puppet twitched, "Do you not remember the bias towards your own being? We can hear your song: sad and full of mourning in the start, with people staring as they whisper. Towards the end, we hear hope and love. Will you give us that same song?"
The Queen's eloquent speech struck a chord within the pilot, and he nodded. Laura smiled and raised the platform, allowing the incredibly large queen t go free. "Where will she go?" asked Joker. "She's a big freakin' bug, I think she's stuck here."
Laura shrugged and led the team to an elevator that brought them back to the tram level. From there, they entered another door that gave way to a scientist who was visibly shaken. After spilling his story, the man was about to give them the code that would disinfect the labs when his blood spattered on everybody's faces. "Jesus Christ!" exclaimed Joker as the rachni warrior was instantly killed. The three rushed to the fallen man's side to find that his life was lost. The code in his breast pocket outlined the steps for the purge.
"Neutron purge activated," stated Mira as the code was entered. "Lab will be purged in two minutes."
"Time to go," said Joker quickly as he turned to leave. The room before the elevator flooded with hostiles as rachni warriors came from every possible crevice and crack in the room.
"No time to shoot them all," said Shepard as Joker began to draw his pistol. "Just set your shields and get to the elevator."
The team agreed and began sprinting towards their salvation. As several rachni closed in, Joker kneed one in the face as Liara sent out a wave of biotics to further clear their path. Once inside, the elevator doors thankfully slid shut and began ascending. As they neared the top, the shaft rocked and shook violently as the purge sanitized the labs.
"From geth, a Rachni Queen, oh and of course the lovely 'business' people we meet." said Joker. "You just gotta love the places we go Commander."
I hope you enjoyed this chapter and sorry it took so long to update! So Read, Review, write messages!