Mass Effect 2: Interstitial Spaces

By: bsmart

Disclaimer: Rated R (or M depending on the site) for the good stuff, you've been warned. Currently its cursing and violence, we'll see where it goes from there. Mass Effect is owned by whoever owns Mass Effect and I do not begrudge them it at all.

V-V

Chapter 7: Caffeine

V-V

The two turians who had been guarding the door sighed in relief as the doors closed behind Alyssa and her companions but that was the moment that Alyssa exploded at them.

"DAMN IT! Does everything you people touch turn to shit? Am I about to find out that I've got cancer or something because of what you did?"

Jacob backed away but Miranda stood her ground. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Bad enough the council and the alliance both got to see that little recruitment vid you put me in but now it's gotten picked up! I've got worthless pieces of filth like the Reds cheering me on! I've got that bitch of a reporter doing her best to smear me as a member of Cerberus!"

"I'm sure the Illusive Man never meant for that vid...,"

"Bullshit!" Alyssa raged, bringing her face inches from Miranda. "That's bullshit and you know it! The only reason he put it out was so that everyone, EVERYONE could see me with you!"

"Shepard, the only thing Cerberus stands for is protecting humanity and our interests," Miranda stated again coldly. "I don't see what the problem is."

"Because you're fucking monsters," she snarled. "I've seen what you do and 'protecting humanity' sure does seem to leave a lot of dead human bodies in your wake."

"Accidents happen, mistakes are made, and sometimes cells go rogue," Miranda said back.

"When a responsible researcher makes a mistake it doesn't kill everyone in his lab!"

"We're pushing the bounds of science, it's not always safe."

"To what end? What could you have accomplished with the ridiculous shit you do?"

Miranda's face was impassive as she deadpanned, "We brought you back."

Alyssa's left cheek twitched ash her jaw clenched.

Jacob drew a little closer when Miranda stopped her roll. "Shepard, please. Keep an open mind. You've got people working with you that believe in you, that are only interested in stopping the collectors and protecting innocent lives. You've got control, and we mean it. Miranda's not wrong, the rogue cells you ran into, that's not Cerberus."

"I've got an asari partner. I want to have an asari wife. Some of my best friends were turian, quarian, and krogan. Do you know what it feels like to know they're going to see that report or something like it? To know they'll see groups like the Reds or Earth First crowing about how I'm working with you? Do you know what it's like to know that the people you worked with in the Alliance are going to see that? People I care about are going to be thinking I'm a traitor and you know what? I'm not sure they're wrong. So take your rogue cells, your protecting humanity garbage, and blow them out your ass Mr. Taylor."

After that Alyssa drifted to one side of the elevator and Miranda and Jacob to the other, neither side saying much of anything to the other for the remainder of the trip. Which wasn't very long as despite Omega's overall appearance someone evidently took care of the elevators. The display over the door announced that they had arrived at their destination.

If the upper portions of Omega were a refuse bin for sapient species then brown sector was hell. The first impression any of them got of it was the smell. The noxious odor of burning flesh came rolling in as soon as the doors were cracked open. It was a smell that Alyssa was used to, but not in this quantity.

Outside the elevator was a courtyard, but makeshift barriers had been constructed out of everything someone could get their hands on. Tables, shipping crates, even an old aircar, had been piled into a barricade that armed mercs in blue armor patrolled. Every one of them had a full hard suit and their helmets on.

"Blue Suns," Jacob confirmed.

A turian with an elaborate rank insignia was heading towards them already, attracted by the opening elevator. "I don't know what the hell you're on," he started, "but I hope it's worth it because you are not going back up."

"What's going on here?" Miranda asked.

"Quarantine, of which you are now part," the Turian said.

"Looks a little heavily armed for a quarantine," Alyssa said as her eyes scanned the barricades.

"People get desperate when there's a plague going around. Anything less and we'd be over run and they'd be carrying this topside. Again, you aren't going back."

Jacob frowned. "I thought humans were immune?"

"Doesn't mean you can't carry it."

"What's the situation?" Alyssa asked.

"Ugly, the virus has already killed about twenty five percent of the population down here. Most of the rest are quarantining themselves, trying not to get infected. Who knows how many of them are still alive. If you see anyone out on the streets they're probably a looter, or a human. Same thing at this point."

"What's the catch?"

The turian's shook his head. "The Blood Pack. Thought they could use this to help oust us outta Brown Sector and take over. The whole virus thing went right over their heads. If it was up to me I'd let them have it, but then we'd have bored krogan and vorcha in charge of maintaining the quarantine."

"I don't think that would turn out well," Miranda sneered.

"Not likely, but it hasn't kept them from trying. The problem is with the place on lockdown they've got no one to extort, can't move easily to regroup with one another, and have settled on just causing as much trouble as they can, and a bunch of vorcha and enraged krogans can do a lot."

"We're looking for Dr. Solus' clinic, where can we find it?"

"Same place it's always been," the turian replied. "That way," he said with a finger pointed behind him. "That's also where the blood pack is, the looters are, and the worst of the outbreak is. Have fun." The turian turned to the barricade, "Let'em through." And a section of the barricade was slid to the side. "Oh," he said as they turned to leave. "Looters are still shot on sight."

"Understood," Miranda replied as they exited the barricade and were confronted by the reality of life in brown sector. The corridor-cum-street was lined with large planters, probably someones attempt to bring a little life, a little greenery to the place. Someone a bit more practical had turned the large ferro-crete planters into funeral pyres. Bodies were piled up five and six deep in them and set ablaze. All three of them unlimbered submachine guns as they began to move out.

"Plague control right out of the middle ages," Miranda commented as they walked past.

"Yeah, but what about the slob who had to carry them there?" Jacob asked.

"What do you think happened," Alyssa scoffed.

Near the barrier things didn't look all that bad. Run down, unkempt, and more or less abandoned, but aside from the burning bodies it wasn't that different from when the Suns won the championship back home, or the Lakers if you added in the bodies. However the farther they walked the worse it got. Businesses and residences were no longer just closed, they were boarded up, trending towards barricaded. They even started to see some with written warnings across them, most of them some variation on, "Plague inside, keep out." A few were even welded shut, though whether to keep the sick in or others out she mercifully didn't know.

Funeral pyres gave way to dead bodies rotting in the streets. The residents too scared for their own lives to come out and dispose of them in even the most basic of ways. Evidence of looting started to mount, display windows smashed in, doors ripped from their hinges. There was even scattered indications of weapons fire. Alyssa fervently hoped it was evidence of the victimized fighting back and not their victimizers just having a fun. For twenty minutes they moved through the streets and corridors of a ghost town. A few times Alyssa thought she spotted movement but whoever had been there, if there had been anyone at all, had vanished.

"We're getting close to a courtyard," Miranda said as she consulted her omni-tool.

"Good place for an ambush," Alyssa observed. They all pulled up short behind a divider wall that projected out into the street. Ahead they could see the courtyard where it opened up. Another corridor faux-street intersected here and they'd widened the intersection with benches and meeting areas around a central, well she assumed it was sculpture. It might have been a half decent place at one point but now all the shops around it were shuttered and litter and a few bodies were strewn around. Two of the bodies were in blue armor and whatever had killed them had first blown a series of ragged holes in their chest plates.

Alyssa returned her submachine gun to her thigh holster as she unlimbered her rifle. She looked around until she spotted a storefront that had been smashed in. Using hand signals she pointed it out and all three of them moved out from behind the planter and as quickly and quietly as they could. Inside the store was still mostly shuttered but a set of stairs led up and they took them, staying low when they reached the top but moving towards the open windows that overlooked the courtyard. The shop's upper area extended out over the street below sitting them right over street that intersected the one that had just been on.

As Alyssa and Miranda peered over the wall Jacob took stock of their surroundings. "Does anyone else hear that?"

"Hear what?" Miranda asked.

It was at this moment that a rocket screeched by underneath them and exploded against the statue in the middle of the intersection. As if it was some kind of signal the far side of the intersection exploded in gunfire from the wreck store fronts and from behind planters and anything remotely solid, all of it directed down the street they were directly perched over.

"So much for checking for an ambush," Alyssa groused as she took cover behind the shop's wall.

It was obvious though that the ambushers were firing blind and wildly with little real aim. Many stray shots were chipping the ferrocrete off the wall they were hiding behind as their firer's shots went hopelessly awry. In contrast the fire being returned towards them was measure, aimed, almost professional.

A wave of rockets followed the first lone one and blanketed the area. They had no real hope of dislodging the ambushers but that had never been the point. The horde of rockets was only meant to keep their heads down and it worked beautifully. Fire from the ambushers slackened to almost nothing while the rocketeer's faction's fire increased exponentially.

Alyssa glanced down quickly and saw blue armor moving up below them. "Someone tried to ambush the Blue Suns."

"Vorcha," Jacob added. "Lots of'em, starting to move."

"Blood Pack then," Alyssa answered.

The Blue Suns advanced with some skill, taking up positions in the street and trying to catch the Blood Pack in a cross fire and appeared to be succeeding, initially. Even as the return fire on the Suns was slackening and they were getting ready for another hard move on their ambushers there was a bellowing roar from a side street. A hulking form encased in armor the color of dried blood thundered out into the street. The krogan roared something unintelligible and dozens of vorcha began to swarm around him and pour into the street.

The Blue Suns were caught in the open, moving between positions when the vorcha rushed out. A few managed to dive for cover but a quarter of them were caught flat footed between cover and while individually the vorcha's aim was worse than a butter bars lieutenant's fresh out of the academy, when there were this many of them firing in the same direction the laws of probability started to work against you. Half the exposed mercenaries went down and stayed there, permanently, while the other half got out of the killing zone, but Alyssa didn't see a single one make it without taking a lot of fire.

The vorcha's weapons were a hodge podge of whatever they appeared to have found laying around. Old model assault rifles and shotguns, a few light missile launchers and even a couple of flame throwers. What they lacked for in skill the vorcha made up in enthusiasm, charging forward with little regard for danger. The Blue Suns were able to exploit this, downing quite a few of them but it wasn't enough. The vorcha swarmed forward, driving the Suns out of cover with a mixture of grenades, knives, and even a few flamethrowers who's operators seemed to care little for their fellow vorcha's well being as they gleefully hosed the area down with burning hydrocarbons.

In a matter of seconds the Suns had gone from assured of victory to a full on rout. The back ranks tried to give the front runners cover but the vorcha continued to happily ignore the incoming fire to fall upon the Blue Suns trooper closest to them. Crude knives flashed between mass driver rounds as the unfortunate troopers found themselves being hacked apart. The krogan was joined by another and both of them directed the vorcha and added to the carnage with their own weapons as the Blood Pack drove the Blue Suns back and out of sight.

"How pointless can you get, a turf war over a plague zone," Miranda groused.

"If they were smart they wouldn't be mercs," Alyssa answered back. The sounds of the battle started to diminish as the vorcha and their krogan masters chased what remained of the platoon of Blue Suns off. "This is our chance, lets get by them while they're distracted."

The sounds of the rout continued to diminish as they descended back down out of the building and moved quickly through the street, stepping over the bodies as they went. There were more vorcha than Blue Suns by a wide margin but that was the point of cannon fodder, clog the enemy's guns with your dead. They had just turned the corner out of the square to be on their way when they ran head on into a second wave of vorcha led by a krogan. "Oh hell," Alyssa muttered as she and her companions came to a screeching halt.

The krogan and the vorcha had their ire up and weren't being picky about their targets. Alyssa, Miranda, and Jacob were armed and in the right place so the vorcha were already bringing up their weapons before their krogan master ever bellowed out his orders. Alyssa was quicker though and her heavy machine gun was up and thundering out mass driver rounds first. There was little need to aim, the vorcha were close and bunched together so she settled for spraying their front ranks with fire even as she, Jacob, and Miranda all bolted for a side street.

The vorcha at the front of their pack went to pieces as Alyssa's fire started to hit them. Slender bodies with no armor could do little to stop mass driver rounds meant to kill armored soldiers with kinetic barriers and they paid a heavy price as purplish red ichor splattered the walls.

"Move!" Alyssa yelled as they sprinted down the side street. The shock of her opening volley had worn off and the vorcha were starting to open fire, the horrible deaths of their comrades hardly phasing them at all. Alyssa exchanged her rifle for her submachine guns so she could keep moving as they ran through the narrow corridor/street and ducked through back alleys. The vorcha were hot on their heels and the skittering of claws on metal kept getting louder as they started to reel the humans in.

She risked a glance back over her shoulder and saw that the vorcha were even closer than she gave them credit for, only ten or fifteen meters behind her. When she turned back she almost ran into Miranda as both her and Jacob had stopped dead in the street.

"Down Shepard," Miranda called as her hands glowed blue with swirling biotic energy.

Alyssa didn't question them and dove headfirst towards the deck as she felt the familiar tug of a biotic field on the world around her. She rolled onto her back as Miranda and Jacob both sent biotic blasts down the narrow alley that bowled the vorcha over. Jacob offered his hand to Alyssa and helped her stand before they all took off again in the claustrophobic bowels of Omega with Miranda and her omni-tool leading the way. The Blood Pack was not so easily dissuaded though, dogging their progress at every turn, never letting them rest for even a moment. If there was any bright spot to their situation though it was that with everyone barricaded in their homes it left the streets blessedly clear and their progress was swift.

"Only a few more bulkhead's," Miranda informed them as they jogged up a set of stairs. They had been moving so quickly and worried about the Blood Pack that Alyssa was caught off guard by the announcement. She made one more quick scan of the area behind them just as a pair of security mechs stepped out into their path and leveled submachine guns at them.

"Halt."

Alyssa grimaced. Flat footed and with her back to them there wasn't much she could do that wouldn't begin with her taking several rounds to the back at shorter range than she was comfortable with.

"Wait, wait," an older balding man in a nurse's uniform appeared around the corner. "They're not Blood Pack and I don't think they're Blue Suns either."

Alyssa turned slowly around keeping her guns pointed at the floor. "No, we're not."

"Then who are you and why are you here?" He asked. Neither of the bots had moved though but neither was aiming their weapons at Shepard and her group anymore, tradeoffs.

Alyssa shouldered past Miranda and Jacob to stand at the top of the stairs right in front of the nurse. "Commander Shepard, Council Spectre. I need to speak with Dr. Solus."

"The Doctor is busy," the nurse said curtly. "But we'll see if he's got time. Put the guns away though. If you cause trouble the Doctor may take care of you himself."

That comment made the group look at each other skeptically but they did as they were told and followed the nurse in after the mechs stepped aside. The side street that led to the clinic was devoid of many more doors but as they passed Alyssa could see more security mechs stashed in various small recesses in the walls or hidden behind low walls. Her military mind noted the slightly winding way the path was laid out that limited lines of sight, and how substantial most of the dividing walls were to prevent ground vehicles from being able to advance. Even the stairs up to the alleyway ensured that no air cars could just bypass it all.

The interior of the clinic was dim and the entrance was claustrophobic at only a meter wide. It opened up a bit where the wall had been cut away between the entrance way and another room leaving only a waist high counter but on the other side were half a dozen security mechs and their handler. "You take security seriously here."

"We have to," the nurse answered. "When this was just a clinic the Suns wanted protection money. When they found out who the Doctor was they tried to force him to work for them. It only got worse when the plague started because they wanted him to synthesize a cure and then give it to them so they could sell it. Now in the last few days the Blood Pack is starting to sniff around. If the Doctor didn't take it seriously we'd be turned into a triage center for wounded mercs and be forced to make a cure for them so they could profiteer off it."

"If they even waited for an actual cure or just started selling anything they could so long as it looked legitimate," Miranda observed.

"Exactly," the nurse confirmed as they turned another corner and came out into a waiting room with a more conventional reception desk. "We're here to help people, not help the mercs help themselves. They're half the reason for the misery down here when we DON'T have a plague going around."

The waiting room itself was full of people, turians, batarians, salarians, a few asari, and oddly enough two quarians. Most were just staring off into space, a few were sweating, many were moaning in pain, and a few had passed out.

"Is everyone here...," Alyssa started to ask.

"Everyone," the nurse confirmed.

Miranda shook her head. "How is that even possible? It's crossing racial lines?"

"Like they're not even there," the nurse said as he lead them into a room full of storage crates and several lab benches. "We've even got quarians who are sick and between their suits and sterilization procedures for their food..." He shook his head mournfully. "I have no idea how to stop this thing, but it's not even slowing the doctor down. I'll check on him, you wait here." He turned to leave then turned back, "But don't touch anything. Some of the stuff in this lab you can contract."

After he left Miranda turned to Alyssa and Jacob. "I have no idea how that's even possible. Some of the simplest and most basic viruses can cross the species lines between humans and asari but only the most basic. You can't even transmit a virus between either of those species and a salarian, forget having something that will infect dextro species as well, you can't even do that with a bacterium."

"Someone figured it out," Jacob said.

"But who?"

"A deadly virus capable of jumping species and killing just about every alien race but that doesn't infect humans," Alyssa stared right at Miranda. "I know who's on my short list."

Miranda's fashion model face was screwing up in a rage but before she could unload the nurse returned. "He can see you."

Alyssa let Miranda stew as she brushed past her and followed the nurse. She could hear faint but rapid mumbling coming from the room he was leading them too.

A salarian with one broken horn was working in a treatment room with multiple beds. He was looking over the readout's of a batarian's bed, stroking his chin as he muttered and mumbled medical jargon to quickly for Alyssa to follow. The general gist appeared to be looking for a cure that would work for all species without killing one or more of them. The particulars were utterly beyond her though.

"Professor Mordin Solus?" She asked.

The salarian looked up from his readouts and came towards her, saying nothing but lighting up his omni tool and scanning Alyssa and the others so quickly her hand had barely wrapped around the grip of her pistol before he was already consulting the results.

"Hmm, don't recognize you from the area. Too-well armed to be refugees. No mercenary uniform. Quarantine still in effect." He turned his back on them, muttering to himself and completely ignoring them. "Here for something else? Vorcha? Crew to clean them out? Unlikely. Vorcha a symptom not a cause."

He turned on his heels and considered Alyssa and her companions with a detached clinical eye, speaking about them as if they weren't in the room with him and able to hear everything. Her eye started to twitch.

"The plague? Investigating possible use as bio-weapon? No. Too many guns, not enough data equipment. Soldiers, not scientists." He grabbed a nearby data terminal and continued. "Yes, yes. Hired guns, maybe? Looking for someone? Yes! But who? Someone important? Valuable. Someone with secrets. Someone like me?"

Alyssa stepped forward, "Breathe damn it, before you pass out! I'm Commander Shepard and I came here to find you. We need you to help with a critical mission."

"Mission? What mission? No. Too busy. Clinic understaffed. Plague spreading too fast. Who sent you?" he asked as he bent down to retrieve some bit of medical gadgetry.

"It's a uhh, covert and privately funded human organization," she replied immediately regretting adding the bit about humans. There were passing few human organizations with a positive outlook on human/alien relations.

The salarian stood up quickly. "Related to plague? Plague doesn't affect humans. Human centric interests. Few human groups would know me. Equipment suggests military origin. Not alliance standard. Spectres, not human. Terra Firma too unstable,'" he prattled on as he moved about his lab. "Only one option." He stood and faced them. "Cerberus sent you. Unexpected."

The grimace on Alyssa's face said it all. "You're very well informed. How'd a salarin scientist on the ass end of the galaxy hear about Cerberus?"

"Crossed paths on occasion. Thought they only worked with humans."

"They usually do. Circumstances have changed. The collectors are attacking human colonies."

Mordin stroked his chin. "Collectors? Interesting. Plague hitting these slums is engineered. Collectors one of few groups with technology to do it. Our goals may be similar. But, must stop plague first. Have a cure. Must distribute from environmental control center." He started to type out something on a work station. "Vorcha guarding it. Need to kill them."

"I'll get in and deal with the Vorcha."

It was that moment that the ever present whine of the ventilation ducts ceased with a loud grind and the end of the hiss.

"That wasn't a good noise," Jacob observed.

"Shut down environmental systems," Mordin said. "Trying to kill everyone. Need to get power back on before district suffocates. Here, take my cure. One more thing. Daniel, my assistant. Went into vorcha territory. Looking for victims. hasn't come back."

"If we see him we'll do what we can."

"Thank you. Told him not to go. Bright future. I hope."

V-V

"Just once, once in my life I would love for someone to tell me, 'Sure, I'll help. Let's go. Right now. No strings attached," Alyssa groused as they left the clinic.

Her companions ignored her complaining. "Alright, so we get the ventilation working and distribute the cure. Seems easy enough," Miranda said.

"It's never that easy," Alyssa muttered. "They've got help on the inside and whoever is helping won't take kindly to us undoing their virus."

"Then they'll just have to have their feelings hurt," Jacob said confidently.

Alyssa stared at him for a moment before nodding and standing up herself. They left through the back door of the clinic, which led them into a more residential area. Apartment buildings or blocks rose up on all sides of the streets. Most were boarded up, closed, or vacant just as they had been before the clinic but evidence of another presence was starting to mount. Kicked in doors, smashed windows, the contents of apartments or the few small shops about strewn on the street. The farther they went the worse the damage became and they could see no evidence of anyone still being here. Then again given the damage it wasn't likely anyone was crazy enough to stay or if they had, well it's easier to loot when the former owner isn't alive to dispute your claim.

As they passed by an apartment block Alyssa heard something she hadn't expected though, the faint sound of voices. Very angry and very agitated voices. "Someone's still here," Alyssa said as she ducked to the side of the street and through a set of doors that had been pried open. She stowed her rifle and unlimbered her shotgun as she peeked in the broken doors.

"Fresh bootprints," Jacob said as he knelt down. "No dust or soot in them yet."

Alyssa nodded as she made her way into the apartment building. The shouting could now clearly be heard coming from upstairs and the three slowly and carefully climbed the stairs keeping their weapons up and ready. It wasn't clear what was being said though as the doors and walls were muffling the words but the tone was very agitated and very angry and they could just hear another, quieter voice of someone in distress.

Alyssa stowed her rifle and unlimbered her heavy pistol. She kept her footfalls light as she moved up the stairway towards an open door where the sounds were originating from. To her surprise when she stopped just beside the door and held her hand up to signal them to stop and stack up behind her both her companions did without saying a word.

"It's a cure. Why would I be here trying to infect anyone? This place is deserted!"

"Humans are immune," a second voice answered in the gruff bass tinged with high pitched reverberation that Alyssa associated with batarians. Long vocal cords and a long narrow nasal cavity did odd things to your voice. "You're not here looting but you've got this? We've caught you redhanded!"

"Just kill the bastard," another batarian voice snarled.

Alyssa's hand snapped forward and she turned the corner into the room, sweeping it with her eyes and her pistol. It was a simply studio apartment, living area and bed to the right, kitchen and dining area to the left. A long, middle aged, slightly balding man in a white lab tech's scrubs stood to the right with his hands up, his eyes widening at the sight of Alyssa and to the left were three batarians, all of them armed but none of them with their weapons up. Their dress didn't suggest military or mercs but they were armed and threatening to kill this man, who she supposed was Mordin's wayward assistant. Given that he wasn't armed she wasn't feeling particularly forgiving and when one of the batarians started to raise his shotgun she fired.

The pistol boomed six times, deafening in the small space as Jacob and Miranda entered and tried to assess the situation. "Clear," Alyssa said as the last batarian slumped to the floor. She walked towards them, looking them over as she heard the man start to stutter.

"You killed them. You just... you killed them."

"Yeah, so?" Alyssa asked as she nudged the batarian's pistols and shotguns away from their dead bodies. She frowned at her own shot placement. In spite of her best efforts neither of the rounds she fired at each of them had hit where she'd meant them too. The saving grace was they all still hit their heads or upper torso and with a pistol as large as her customized paladin that was close enough.

"They were just scared and it was a misunderstanding!" he stammered. "You didn't even give them a chance you just killed them in cold blood!"

Alyssa turned back towards him with a raised eyebrow. "Why would I give them a chance?"

Before things could escalate farther Miranda slipped between him and Alyssa. "David I presume?"

"Yes," he said as his eyes left Shepard for Miranda and then looked her up and down.

"We're working with Dr. Solus, he's concerned about you."

"I was trying to distribute the cure," he explained. "I just ducked in here to rest for a minute and then these batarians came in and assumed the worst..."

"We understand," Miranda said.

Alyssa wondered over to the counter and picked up one of the vials that was sticking out of the top of David's case. "We can take it from here," she said. "The route back to the clinic is clear."

"Of course," David said.

Alyssa went back to the batarians and pried the pistol out of one of their hands before offering it butt first to David. "You might wanna take this with you, just in case."

David looked down at the gun laconicly, still stunned from what had happened before he realized what he was being offered and recoiled. "I'm a doctor, a healer," he snapped. "I don't kill people, I help them." He glared daggers at Alyssa before turning on his heels and leaving.

"He's gonna wind up dead," Alyssa muttered.

Jacob glanced at her. "He's a doctor Shepard."

"Ok, he'll be a dead doctor," she replied as she stripped the rails from the batarian's weapons and dropped them in a pouch at her side. As Jacob collected the vials of cure David had left. None of them said much as they continued on deeper into the bowels of Omega. Along the way Alyssa dumped the rails off on the side of the street.

A few blocks later they encountered their first resistance, groups of vorcha who opened fire without asking a question or making a demand. Shotguns and assault rifles bellowed and roared but for such an impressive weight of fire the vorcha put out they were few results. Their aim was horrible and their lack of real armor or shielding almost made Alyssa pity them as the three of them worked together to mow the vorcha down, almost.

The steady fire fight and push towards the atmospheric controls energized Alyssa. As vorcha poured from every crack and crevice in the terrain around them the doubts and frustrations that Alyssa had felt piling up on her started to melt away. Combat was familiar, it was simple. It reduced the world to targets and friendlies and it was something she could deal with. Her aim was still horrible by her standards but the thump of her rifle against her shoulder was an old friend.

Even when they started to reactivate the fans and the vorcha started to pelt them with rocket fire it didn't hamper her steadily rising mood. Moving from cover to cover she'd flank the vorcha when they stayed still too long, slip away from their clumsy encirclements, and take out their rocketeers one at a time. Even Jacob and Miranda ceased to be Cerberus to her for a time, instead becoming simply friendlies that aided her.

When in desperation the vorcha brought out the flame throwers she just grinned as she pumped rounds into the pressurized tanks of flammables the spindly little goblins wore making them explode in satisfying fireballs. This was her element, it was what she was born to do and the adrenaline and endorphin rush of feeling in control again got to her head so when they approached the door to the second control room and the vorcha's krogan leader came charging out she stood her ground instead of giving of, her old rifle slamming out it's oversize rounds as the two legged dinosaur rushed her.

It was when the Krogan was only a meter from the end of her rifle she realized she had made a huge mistake. She cast her rifle aside and was drawing her pistol as the big lizard ran right into her.

V-V

"Shepard!" Miranda screamed as the running krogan bowled into the woman she's spent two years and billions of other people's money to bring back from the dead. Shepard wasn't a small woman by any means once the krogan hit her she disappeared behind a wall of blood red armor. There was a struggle, gun shots including the krogan's shotgun until the big beast tripped and fell flat on the floor, on top of Alyssa.

As Jacob finished off the last of the vorcha Miranda sprinted towards the heap of unmoving krogan and his human target. Dark viscous blood was already pooling under the bodies and the barrel of the korgan's shotgun was smoking off to the side of it's body. Jacob came running up behind her. "Jesus, Shepard...," he muttered.

"Get this fucking lizard off me!" came the muffled reply from under the krogan.

Miranda and Jacob both pushed and after a lot of straining managed to roll the krogan to the side enough so that Alyssa could slither out, using her free arm to help them roll the krogan completely over. "That was a stupid fucking thing to do," Alyssa muttered as she scooted back against a column and sat up.

Miranda could see several fresh holes in the krogan's armor over his gut and one of Shepard's knives was buried in the side of the krogan's neck. The twenty centimeter gash she'd ripped in his hide was the source of the blood that was pooling on the floor plating and positively covering the commander's chest. The left side of her face had a flash burn on it, likely evidence of the krogan's final shot.

"Are you hurt?" Miranda asked.

"I had a krogan fall on me, everything hurts," she said as she holstered her pistol and started working the knife out of the krogan's neck.

"She means anything broken, shot..." Jacob clarified.

Alyssa looked at him and then back at Miranda. "Where did you find this guy?"

V-V

Author's Notes

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1) Sue me, I cut out the gaming equivalent of 30 minutes of random encounters and shooting space goblins. It doesn't fucking matter.