Disclaimer: BioWare owns Mass Effect. 20th Century Fox owns the Alien franchise. EA owns Dark Space.
Hades Nexus Cluster, February 22, 2177
A/N: Once again, I am ripping off George R.R. Martin, this time with 'A Storm of Swords'. In case you were wondering, the 'S' word will be used. A lot.
"Shit!"
1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard swore outloud as she looked at the dead end in front of her, the ventilation shaft she had been crawling in ending with no junction to turn to, and no vent to kick her way out. She consulted the schematics of the Ishimura on her Omnitool, looking at the outline of the airshafts that she had taken to escape SHODAN's trap, the murderous AI playing with her. According to the schematic, the shaft should have had her dropping to the hallway, at least free of rooms and automated systems that the AI could spring upon her. Unfortunately, the shaft ended with metal walls. Shit!
Okay, now what? Shepard thought to herself for a moment, chewing on her bottom lip as she thought it through. Hell, you're an engineer! You went to school for shit like this! Schematics always have little flaws and mistakes, but the plan should be right about this; I should be right over a corridor! So what do I do?
Shepard's response was to pull a grenade from her equipment belt, and to key on the incendiary effect on the M67 Disk Grenade and toss it on the floor of the dead end. She backed away from the shaft's end, giving herself some space by crawling hand and knee through the ventilation shaft, her Specter Gear HMWP Mark X Pistol still in her left hand when the grenade ignited several seconds later, smoldering and burning through the alumnisteel flooring of the air duct as powdered oxidized metal and shaved aluminum were ignited together at 800 degrees, causing a chemical reaction that would melt through almost any known substance. The alumnisteel quickly melted into slag as it burned its way through the air shaft. The acidic smoke made by the melting made Shepard cough harshly as the smoke burned her throat and lungs. Shit, teaches me to do this in an enclosed area. Shepard thought to herself as she waited for the grenade to finish burning, edging her way towards the hole she created. It was large enough for her to fit through, armor and all, and a quick look down into the hole showed her that the thermite had stopped with the iridium-reinforced steel plating of the floor. Incendiary burned out, she slipped through the hole and landed on her feet in the corridor of the Ishimura somewhere of a different wing of the Hydroponics Lab. According to the schematic, walking forward should head her to the next maintenance corridor that would take her down to the next level. Hopefully.
There were still seven contacts on her Kuwashii Visor.
Why aren't they coming after me? Shepard wondered, looking at her HUD with her Mark X Pistol in her hand. The contacts were thirty meters away… and staying put, somewhere in front of her and to her left, probably down another corridor or in a room. The most logical conclusion was that the Xenomorphs didn't know she was there, which didn't seem likely after she had detonated a thermite grenade. The only other possibility was that they were cut off from the Queen, unable to sniff out instructions. That meant that while Shepard was trapped in that section of the Hydroponics Lab with them, the bugs were simply drones. Did SHODAN realize what she had figured out back on Hadley's Hope, that the aliens were merely controlled extensions of the Queen? Probably. If I could figure it out, then SHODAN can, too. It's like matching wits with a chessmaster. Shepard thought glumly, her pistol in both hands as she began stalking down the corridor towards the seven contacts. It was better to put the bugs down before they realized that she was there, where she was, and before SHODAN could open a door and have the feral drones turn into intelligent warriors. She switched her pistol's mods to that of armor-piercing, incendiary effect as she tactically moved towards a corridor that branched off to her left, ignoring the one to the right for a moment. The Human Specter peered around the corner of the corridor, seeing that it only went about ten meters, and pied the corner, circling around the corner so that she could cover the hallway without being jumped from a close enemy. Clearing the hallway, she turned to clear the hallway behind her, and saw that it ended with a locked door. Shepard wasn't going trying to unlock it, knowing full well that SHODAN was the gatekeeper of the Ishimura. If she wanted off this level, she was going to have to find an alternate form of access, and the nearest one on the schematics was where the bugs were.
Decision made, the Specter went down the hall that would lead her towards the Xenomorphs.
Shit, please don't let this be a trap. Shepard thought to herself as she walked down the short hallway, her pistol aiming down its lengths as she walked as quickly and as quietly as she could, not wanting to set off the drone's natural instinct to attack any threat present. If she wanted to take on seven, she needed to have the advantage of surprise and first strike. The HUD showed her that contacts still hadn't moved, and as she pied the next corridor corner, she saw that the hallway branched in three directions; straight, left, and right. The dots on her HUD made it look like the bugs were somewhere forward and to her right, but it was hard to tell if it was a room in front of her, or off to the right side corridor.
Shit, this wasn't going according to plan.
They've got to be in a room with no vent, thus no interface with the Queen. Shepard guessed, switching out her pistol for her Specter Gear HMWAR Mark VII Assault Rifle, shouldering it stock quickly. Go to them, or have them come to me? Both had advantages and disadvantages. Going to them would be springing their trap while as having them come to her would have the bugs entering her own trap. Besides, no one was shying she had to stay in that exact spot anyhow. Taking a grenade and switching it to proximity, she put it at abdomen level on one of the walls, hoping that the direction of the blast would do better an striking several as she backed up as far to the wall of the corridor as possible as she pulled out her Mark X Pistol in her left hand, keeping her Assault Rifle in her right as she switched her pistol's firing mode to standard round, five-shot burst.
Shepard fired.
The contacts on her HUD immediately began to scurry and move as Shepard turned right and ran down the corridor she had come from slipping her pistol back on her left thigh as she ran down the ten meter corridor, turning about to face whatever might come down towards her. Her Kuwashii Visor showed her the seven contacts streaming in a line towards a point and making what appeared to be a left turn; they must have been in a room, Shepard thought as the contacts moved to the twenty-five meter range and traveled perpendicular to her position, down a hallway that didn't head right towards hers. Another turn, and they were moving closer, right towards where she had placed the grenade…
BOOM!
Three contacts erased. Four more to go.
And then Shepard's HUD began to populate with contacts all over, as if her Visor had contracted the chicken pox.
"Shit!" The Specter swore, raising her rifle as the first of four remaining bugs appeared, and she quickly took it down, blasting out the back of its head with a single shot, aided by the Aiming Assistant Software in her Mark VII Assault Rifle and Kuwashii Visor. The next three guns went down just as quickly, their bodies crumpled in a heap with their heads shot through, acidic smoke rising from where their caustic blood hit the metallic grating of the floor. Shepard looked at her HUD's readout, seeing the counter of contacts reading forty-two in an one-hundred and eighty degree arc, clumped in several places with some individuals. Some were within fifteen meters of her position, while others were at the radars' maximum range of fifty meters.
Shit, she was practically surrounded as the contacts began to converge on Shepard.
The Specter wasted no time turning back down the corridor she had come down, leaving a proximity grenade on the ground as she ran down the corridor, passing the hole in the ceiling she had made earlier. The sound of screeching and the clattering of nails on metal began to catch up with her as Shepard turned around to face the intersection, seeing three bugs heading towards the grenade she left behind. Raising her rifle, Humanity's First Specter shot them down quickly as more began to come, a tide of bugs running down the corridor. The grenade went off, sending several to their demise as the rest simple poured over their dead in a head-long rush towards the only enemy present. Shepard continued to fire, bringing down the first ten before turning and running back down the corridor, heading towards the door that would lead her back to the Hydroponics Lab where her team was. She didn't like the thought of leading the enemy to them, but there were thirty-odd armed people who could shift the tide of battle as her HUD's enemy counter reached its limit of 99, more contacts heading towards her. Shit, we've killed something like four hundred of them! Shepard thought as she ran another fifteen meters, turning around and firing ten times, killing ten more Xenomorphs, the counter never dropping once. Are they not going to give up and realized they're outmatched? Or is the population estimate off? Did they have more than eleven hundred to start with? She didn't have time to contemplate that thought as she retreated again, getting close to the door. The Marine Lieutenant knew that SHODAN would never open the door for her, so she was going to have to make her own entrance.
"Brynhildr! Overcharge pistol, explosive shot, maximum force and power, single shot!" Shepard called out as she turned and fired at the bugs once more, flipping her rifle to full auto, sending fifty rounds quickly through the corridor where the teeming mass of Xenomorphs were bounding down the hallway on the floors, crawling on the ceilings and walls. She could see some of them popping out of the vents as well as she shot at the closest bugs twenty meters away, splattering their bodies with armor-piercing, incendiary rounds that would go through the first target, usually killing the one behind it, and possibly even the one after that. Her fifty rounds did dip the enemy counter on her HUD, a mass zone of white dots like a river flooding towards her, reaching eighty-four, but it shot right back up to ninety-nine in two seconds as Shepard turned towards the locked door thirty meters away, running towards it as she pulled out her Mark X Pistol and fired its shot.
It was a dangerous thing she was doing, an overcharged shot. A normal mass effect weapon fired a small shaved piece of metal through a generated mass effect field, sending it through a barrel with a electromagnetic current running through it for accuracy and velocity. Because of this, heat was generated with the process, due to endothermic properties, sent to the weapons' heat sink to keep the weapon operating a peak performance without causing damage to the internal components, to prevent rapid expansion of metal from the heat, to prevent cracking or warping of the internal components. In Specter School, Shepard learned that one could override the heat sink, to funnel all its potential energy into one devastating shot, at a significant chance that said weapon might be too damaged to operate again, even the possibility of it blowing up in the users' hands.
The shot hit the door, and blasted out a hole just big enough for the Specter to crawl through.
Shepard ran towards the door at a full sprint, barely pausing long enough to get her feet throw the hole in the middle of the closed door. It took her a couple of seconds to wedge her way through the opening, sliding through and finding herself in the main room of the Hydroponics lab, where she had been just an hour before. Wasting no time, she turned to the hole, seeing the Xenomorphs bounding towards the door as she stuck the muzzle of her Specter Gear Assault Rifle into the opening and began to fire indiscriminately through it, firing full auto down the corridor and into the teeming mass of bugs. Squeals of death and rage emanated from the other side of the door as hyperaccelerated pieces of shaved metal impacted against chitlineous alien flesh, the spray of acid and the thumping of bodies dropping to the deck accompanying their cries. Shepard fired her gun hot, filling her Mark VII's heat sink to full capacity as the bugs kept coming, sending Xenomorphs to their deaths as they continued to charge her. When her HMWAR's overheat alarm rang off, Shepard slapped the weapon on her chest one-handed, pulling the bolt cover back to expose the heat sink while drawing her HMWP with her left hand, sticking the pistol into the hole and pulled the trigger.
It clicked, and nothing happened.
"Warning! Internal damage to weapon system prevents user from using equipment." Brynhildr's VI told her, immediately diagnosing the problem.
"SHIT!" Shepard cursed as she jammed the now-useless pistol on her left thigh, pulling out a grenade and chucking it through the hole she made in the door before turning and sprinting away from the breach she had created in the door. The grenade exploded a few seconds later as aliens reached the door, one already trying to clammer its way through as Humanity's First Specter turned about, pulling at her Specter Assault Rifle, and plugged the first bug in the hole with a single, armor-piercing shot with incendiary effect. The alien died, its body falling through the hole and into the main Hydroponic Lab's floor as another tried to get through, getting killed as well. Shepard killed the next four this way as she saw the door being beaten on, dents appearing in the metal as other places began to smolder, touched by high concentrated acid.
Shepard recalled all too easily how Naor the Bull died, and thought it a matter of time as a part of the door melted through and several bugs broke through.
She was methodical in her firing, keeping her round count down as she put single rounds into each bug that came, the HUD absolutely glowing with contacts in the hallway as the Human Marine kept firing her assault rifle, killing bugs as the came through the holes in the door. More were beginning to pour through than she could contain, and Shepard began to walk backwards as she fired, killing a bug every second, not fast enough to stop them from breaching the Hydroponics Lab.
Shit, where is everyone! Shepard thought to herself as she took out another six bugs, only three of them at the door, the other three having broken free and bullrushed their way towards her. What was disconcerting was that some of the escapees were clambering up the walls, escaping the possibility of death by rifle as Shepard was forced to concentrate on the door, where the main force now. They… they must have gotten out. Shepard thought of her friends and team members, having left the Hydroponics Lab, probably in some maintenance shaft, working their way towards the Betty. They'll survive, and you're buying them time. Shepard continued to fire her rifle, pegging one of the climbing bugs, sending it falling to its death as she shot another that was lopping towards her on the ground. Two more followed it to bug hell as she shot another that was clambering on the wall, trying to flank her. The Human Specter continued to walk backwards in a futile attempt to put more distance between herself and the encroaching Xenomorphs as an even dozen ran straight towards her as several more pushed their way through the door, some hitting the ground running while others began climbing up and around the walls.
Shepard continued to back up as she put single rounds into the bugs, now getting as close to her as ten meters, most still bottlenecked at the blown out door forty meters away. The Assault Rifle continued to punch itself in her shoulder from the recoil every time she pulled the trigger, bringing a Xenomorph down with every shot she took. No longer was she concerned with precision firing, taking to much time to ensure a direct chest shot on the aliens as they made their way towards her. Now Shepard was merely firing in the general vicinity, scoring hits that were usually lethal, but sometimes only crippling or staggering, wounding the bugs and slowing them down as she continued to tactically move backwards while firing. No longer could she see her HUD's readout of the bugs beyond the door she had shot out, pushing their way through the holes made in the metal door. The readout only counted the ones through the door, spreading out to each side as most came at her like an arrow, some twenty-five coming right at her, as close as ten meters away. She no longer fired at the door, the distance of the aliens having her more concerned with her immediate survival as oppose to the next minute or so as she continued to put distance away from the door that lead to the Hydroponics Lab as a dozen bugs flanked to the left and to the right, too far of an arc for her to track and obtain them with the immediate threat in front of her.
Shepard knew she was going to die when her back hit against a wall.
The Human Specter continued to fire, switching to a three round burst, each pulling of the trigger slicing through chitlineous flesh, the triple barrage of rounds ensuring a greater chance of a kill as Shepard continued to kill as many of the bugs in front of her as she could, her Kuwashii Visor reporting back that more were still coming at her, more taking the wall route as well as the flanking attack came at her from either side, now within twenty-five meters. Even if she held back the runners, the ones from the sides would soon get to her. She briefly thought of Naor the Bull's demise, trying to kill too many bugs at once, unable to contain them all. Now the same thing was happening to her, and Shepard let off a scream of fury and defiance as she pushed off from the wall and moved forward towards the stream of bugs that ran towards her, pulling the trigger of her HMWAR as fast as she reasonably could while still bringing down her foes, moving towards the threat in an assault. It was suicide, of course; she knew she wasn't going to win. But if she were going to die, Shepard wasn't about to go out with her back against a wall with nowhere else to go. She was going to look death straight in its face and give it as good as she got. Bug after bug fell to her Mark VII as the weapon's overheat indicator reached 85%, only a few more burst until the weapon went useless from its overheated heat sink as Humanity's First Specter pulled the trigger again and again, bringing down a trio of bugs as they reached 5 meters from her. 3 meters from her. 1 meter from her…
…And stopped.
Shepard pointed her overheated rifle at the bug that stood in front of her, the alarm going off in her Visor's earpiece as the several bugs that were in front of her and the four that were behind her stopped in their tracks and looked off into one direction, to some wall that led towards the bow of the Ishimura. Seventy or so bugs populated the Hydroponics Lab main room as they all let off an ear-piercing shriek, looking to the wall… and began to retreat. Shepard's eyes widened as her weapon slowly cooled off through its fluted barrel, unable to force herself to lock back the heat sink's cover to expel the trapped internal heat quicker as Xenomorphs turned towards the ruined door she had shot through and made their way back towards the corridors she had just escaped, Humanity's First Specter forgotten as the HUD readout on her Kuwashii Visor's eyepiece read to her that all contacts were moving towards the corridor, the population count decreasing rapidly as the distance increased between herself and the aliens. Within a few short moments, Lieutenant Shepard found herself alone in the Hydroponics Lab without another soul, alien or otherwise. Her Mark VII rifle had finally cooled off on its own as Shepard looked upon the hole she had made in an attempt to escape the bugs, only to be overrun herself. Yet she was alive. She should be grateful.
There was only one reason why the Xenomorphs would pull back; Big Momma was in danger.
"Priority message, Royce, Stacy, Cavius, and Tela." Shepard cued up her red Omnitool, bringing up the message function and got ready the talk-to-text function. "Overran by bugs in Hydroponics, but bugs pulled back at last second. Queen is in danger. I repeat, Queen is in danger." Shepard paused for a moment, giving her chance to think. She hadn't been separated long enough from the group for them to make their way back to the Medical Wing to force the Queens' hand. If it wasn't her Specter Class and her remaining human platoon who had threatened the Queen, who was left?
Only one other group knew of the aliens on the Ishimura. Where they coming to see what happened to their prize? Or were they coming to collect?
"Continue message; continue to Betty." Shepard continued her message as she began to move toward the breached door, avoiding the acid-scarred floor in case it caved with her weight, the acidic blood of the Xenomorphs having already burned itself out. "Possible outside interference has made their way to Queen, possible extraction or capture possible. I'm going to prevent them from doing just that. End message and send." Shepard reached the broken, burned out door as she stepped through the very same hole she made earlier, squeezing her way through as she found the corridors empty of movement.
"Shit. Now how did they get back to Medical?" Shepard wondered to herself as she looked down the empty corridor.
Tracking the bugs proved easier than expected.
1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard ran down the maintenance corridor that the Xenomorphs had gone down, a different corridor than what Issac Clark and Jacob Temple had led the team of Specters and humans down. Shepard had figured out how to track the bugs by turning her Kuwashii Visor's view to pick up molecules of acidic residue in the air, picking up a trail of several bugs who were undoubtedly still bleeding from their earlier engagement. The Human Specter had been surprised to have found the corridor, an access hatch that she missed earlier, and certainly didn't look like the ones that Issac and Jacob had been. The corridor itself was a little small for a human, and she was having to run at a slight crouch, the corridor only about five feet tall for her 5' 7". It wasn't fun running like that, but it beat crawling.
Priority message received, Captain Mason, R. Her Omnitool chirped, bringing up the message on her Visor's eyepiece. Most of crew of Betty, Ishimura, and Kellion split, trapped us in corridor. Still trying to get ourselves in main level of Cargo Hold. Betty probably taken. Still got Call, Wheels, and Clark. Don't get yourself hurt.
"Shit." Shepard swore, not surprised that the Sons of Anarchy split on them, but some of the crew from the Ishimura and the Kellion surprised her. Captain Hammond was a former Marine, and the Hydroponic Technician Larry Purvis didn't seem brave or bold enough to betray them. What she found herself more angry about was Doctor Terrence Kyne splitting. He had evidence of CEC's tampering with the Xenomorphs, and possibly even more. The next time she saw him, she would be seeing him in an IsoCube if she were in a good mood. But the loss of the possibility of getting out of the deathtrap that was the Ishimura… that stung. The worst part was that she really couldn't blame the escaping humans for their thought process. They had been holed up in the Medical Wing for over a week, and they got pulled out from a bad situation. Most people would probably take the selfish route. With the SOA, it didn't surprise her at all. What could you expect from ice pirates and bikers, anyhow? Yet Captain Zachary Hammond was a former Marine, he should have known better. Sergeant Vincent DiStephano seemed like the type, though. Shepard grumbled at the though as she continued through the corridor at a run, continuing her way towards the Medical Wing.
"Sh-Sh-Shepard."
Shit.
"Not now, you homicidal bitch." The Specter told SHODAN, refusing to be baited as she ran through the maintenance corridor, hearing the murderous AI's voice over the intercoms. "I'm a little fucking busy."
"Your re-re-reinforcements have (have) ariveeeeeeed."
"Reinforcements?" That had Shepard stopping in her tracks. Reinforcements didn't sound good. "Not that I like having conversations with you, you silicon fuck, but what reinforcements?"
"Two-two-two ships have docked (ocked) with the IshiMURA." The AI informed her, and Shepard considered if SHODAN was lying to her. "One vessel (essel) is a human-man vessel carrying six solDIERs. The o-o-other is a vessel of unknown make (make) and origin, and is-is not reg-gestered. It has sevvvvvveral occupants of varying species." Specters, Shepard wondered, wondering if Captain Belltamus of the CDF Spirit of Vengeance had called for help. Shepard immediately tossed that idea out; Executor Kryus Contenus had told her they were short on Specters, and several sounded like it was more than the Office of Special Tactics could afford. Yet who else would get a group of several species working together?
Oh. Oh shit. Unregistered vessel, unknown make and origin? Shepard had a likely culprit.
The Shadow Broker had arrived.
A/N: Thermite - 75% rusted metal, 25% shaved aluminum, and a flare will make you a chemical reaction that will melt through iron, steel, concrete, rock, and just about anything else, practically unstoppable. While not an aficionado of the Anarchists' Cookbook, thermite will slag just about anything. WARNING: While not flammable, once it gets going, it will consume anything it touches, and neither water nor the lack of oxygen will quench it until it has burned away its fill of rust and aluminum… including flesh. In the military, we use a low-grade version of it, called 'incendiary' to melt weapons and caches.