Tau Volantis, Coral system
Tundra, perimeter of Church Complex 102
06:01am
Tyr hit the ground rolling, allowing the packed snow to slow his fall and transit into a kneeling stance, ignoring the snow stacking up to his upper thighs. Grapping his assault rifle, he scanned the local snowscape.
Ever since being attacked half an hour earlier by those mutants - or whatever they were - he had been on edge, waiting for more of them to come out of the proverbial woodwork. It was amazing that nothing had tried to jump them while they rappelled down the shorter cliffside than the two unknowns had fallen from.
He knew they weren't Unitologists, as clearly they too had been observing the base. That meant there were others on Tau Volantis with the perhaps same goals as M-6, making them potential friendlies.
If they'd survived the fall, that was.
A few feet to his side, Valkyrie finished her descent as well, immediately turning around, rifle unfolding in her hands. She likely knew, of course, that they weren't under assault, otherwise Tyr would have alerted her to the threat. No, it was training and years of instinct that caused her to snap around, looking for targets that simply weren't there.
"You good?" she asked in a clipped tone, looking at her squad mate,
"Hoorah ma'am, just fine." Tyr replied as he rose up, finger slipping away from the secondary action on his weapon. Thát one would have triggered a concussive shot, the closest one got to a nonlethal grenade-launcher. While they lacked the same explosive force, they would certainly knock a man off his feet if he didn't have kinetic barriers to protect him, and could even kill someone if their armor wasn't strong enough. "How about you?"
"Just fine... Hell of a climb though," she said as she gazed up at the cliff they'd just come down. Admittedly, she had tackled worse heights before, but it had been at least a year since she had been forced to do any real climbing, and for that she was thankful. High altitudes, and the risk of falling from them, just didn't make her day.
"Yes ma'am, fuck me if it wasn't," Tyr replied as he rose up, testing his southern drawl for the reply.
Back in his time, he'd always had a natural accent because of his place of origins, southern Kentucky. But, after months in space, he felt like it had slipped away from him, especially when he was surrounded by so many people from foreign countries, not to mention colonies with their own, unique accents.
To him, these sort of vocal nuances were things that helped everyone keep a bit of individuality in the sterile space station they lived and trained on. Amazing, the things that one could end up pondering while operating on a hostile planet.
That, and how to deal with what'd happened in the cave.
As he looked off into the distance, he could see the hulking silhouette of the enemy base, towering over the local landscape. Fucking Hell it's big…Way bigger than I thought when I wanted to come down here…Oh shit, this is going to bite me in the balls, isn't it?
He hated to think of what laid in wait for them inside. For that matter, he had no idea how they would get to the control panels and deactivate the air defense systems forming that pesky protective circle around the installation. With it in place, there was no getting out of here.
Alex materialized beside him, catching him off guard for a moment as he startled in surprise. The entity hadn't done much to make himself known, instead preferring to hang back and observe, making appearances when he was needed only. It was pretty annoying when he hadn't even warned them of the mutants or the two non-Church soldiers that had fallen down.
Cerberus had done a good job of bugging the rooms he was in, and Tyr couldn't just disable them without raising more red flags than his simple presence. Sure, he may have been employed by the organization for some time, and he was now a fully-fledged member of one of their prized special operations units, but he still felt like they didn't trust him. Not that it bothered him too much, considering it was bloody Cerberus after all.
Trust wasn't really something they were big on.
"Once inside, I will to direct you to their command and control center, where you'll be able to disable their defensive systems. Because of the building's layout, it will be a rather straightforward approach, however it will not be without resistance. There are many, in the words of the Rachni, life-songs present inside. The vast majority are sour tones, yet a few are pure…" The Aspect of War rumbled, never looking at either commando, his gaze fixated on the enemy church.
"Have I ever mentioned how it's real fucking creepy when he does that," Valkyrie muttered as she looked at the two, stepping forward so she could stand beside Tyr. Here, she found shelter from the icy winds next to his large, armored form. Behind her visor, her mismatched orbs were focused on them as they conversed; "Because it is. And I'm mentioning it now, again."
"At least you're useful for something," Tyr quipped with a small smile, ignoring what she had said to him. Surely the Aspect had heard her as well, but he didn't appear to acknowledge her. It would all be so much easier if the damn deity didn't have some sort of aversion to interacting physically with anything even potentially infected. But no, they had to do this thehard way; "Any idea how many hostiles we're looking at?"
Crouched in the deep snow as they were, Tyr felt confident that even active scans would have trouble seeing them. Covered in snow and ice, their thermal signatures should be sufficiently concealed.
"…At least a hundred and fifty of them, however, they are not all trained soldiers by profession. Some are just non-combatant auxiliary staff, manual labors and scientists… Do not simply discount their fanaticism or ferocity because of that, though." Alexander warned them "Converts can be the most dangerous of zealots. And everyone inside is a convert. Underestimation has been the downfall of many of those who I have observed…I would prefer that you purge the area, but that is ultimately your own decision."
Tyr's lips pressed into a tight line at the news. This wasn't anywhere near the good news he'd hoped for. Actually, it was pretty fucking bad, if one was to quote Loki on his swears.
One hundred-and-fifty people was a fair amount to handle, regardless of how good soldiers he and Valkyrie were. They had the ammo, yes, but it would require them to play this smart, or pray that a blitzkrieg would overwhelm whomever was inside. The latter seemed like it was going to have to be the preferred tactic, simply because there didn't appear to be a way to enter the facility stealthily. If they made a move for it, he didn't doubt scans like the ones that had spotted their shuttle would also spot them.
And then they'd be royally fucked.
"We'll just have to manage it as it comes, we can't exactly turn back." Valkyrie said, patting Tyr on the shoulder. Their backs were against the proverbial wall, and a literal cliffside, so if they wanted to get off this frozen rock, they were going to have to fight. Avoiding the bad guys wouldn't help them for long: their supplies had been destroyed in the crash, meaning it was do or die.
And fuck, if that didn't seem to have become the norm these days. Even something as innocent as a shopping-trip ended up as a fight for survival.
"…That we will," Tyr sighed in agreement, gripping his assault rifle as they began to walk forward. In the distance, he could make out a small entrance to the building, probably for maintenance. The aerogel screen was red, the color stark against the white snow and grey metal. The door was locked up tight.
Well then, that was why such a thing as the Omnitool had been invented. Well, that and downloading Shin-Akiba games…
When they arrived at the door, Tyr stacked up against the metal wall next to it, rifle braced and ready to be used at a moment's notice, while Valkyrie got to work hacking the door. While they both had the exact same programs, she had actually done this in combat situations before, while the most experience he had when it came to hacking was with Loki during their regular training exercises. And even then he'd taken minutes to do what the slicer did in seconds.
They silently agreed that now wasn't the time for trial and error. One wrong move, and the door would no doubt trigger an alarm to the entire base.
After not even ten seconds, the aerogel emblem flickered from dark red to a more inviting green, declaring the door unlocked. Valkyrie was quick to rise up onto her feet, aiming her rifle at the still closed door. They both halfway expected for the door to fly open to reveal a team of enemy soldiers waiting for them, or worse, a horde of those mutants ready to rush them. Thankfully, nothing like that happened, as the door remained still. Tense seconds passed in silence until they both felt confident nothing was going to spring its trap at them.
"You ready to breach?" Tyr asked brusquely, looking over his shoulder for a brief moment. His superior was likewise stacked, finger resting on the trigger. Her outline was glowing with a faint purple sheen. Wisps of dark energy danced about her like smoke, impossible to see when stared straight at.
"Ready. Breach in three." Valkyrie replied with a nod, attention focused on the closed passage. She could feel her heart thumping away in her chest now, her honed combat instincts wanting to take over.
Tyr nodded and moved forward, swiping his hand over the door and caused the green reticle to begin spinning. He stepped back, watching it tersely. Another second passed before it slid open, revealing the room waiting on the other side.
"Oh son of a fuck!"
It was well lit, meaning both operatives could perfectly well see what awaited them. Several deployable barriers had been set up, and crouched behind them were armored figures, clad in Church-hardsuits and brandishing assault weapons. As he and Valkyrie dove for cover outside, using the exterior walls, he heard one of them bellow out.
"Open fire! Take them out!"
…
Lazarus Station
Miranda huffed quietly in annoyance as she strode through the halls of the station, her hips swaying and lab-coat waving behind her like the tail of a comet. Tucked under her arm was a datapad that had seen a fair amount of use over recent weeks, and was loaded up with hundreds of notes and files regarding Shepard, whom she was currently tasked with rebuilding.
In a way, at least: She was the head of the reconstruction project, but not actively performing the reconstruction. She and her small team often held meetings till far into the night, debating what they needed to do in order to complete their assignment.
Bring a planet-fallen corpse back to life before the Reapers invade. Not because they were under pressure or anything.
The actual heavy-lifting, such as bringing his body together and implanting what cybernetics they had created in the station's foundry thus far, fell into the hands of specialized surgeons and precise robotic doctors. Of course, she was capable of this kind of work if need be, thanks to her degrees in xenobiology and medicine, but her mind was needed for this kind of work, not her hands.
Security checkpoints were scattered strategically all across the station, each guarding intersections, entrances or choke-points. Union-grade Loki-mechs patrolled the hallways while Cerberus Marines manned the actual checkpoints.
Guarding this one in particular were four soldiers, three assault troopers and one Centurion. In a way, they were a welcome change of scenery. They actually waited 'till after she'd passed to ogle her, unlike those bloody ODST troopers that had manned the post in the past.
"Ma'am." The Centurion greeted in as jovial a tone as one could muster at this hour, stepping up, helmet off and clipped to his hip. He was an older man, probably in his early forties if she cared to read his file, and spoke with a strong southern drawl from the United States. His hair was cut short, hiding the fact that he was going grey for the most part.
"Centurion."
"As annoying as it is, you know the drill. Spread yah arms and step through the scanner," he went on, glancing at the security device behind him.
Miranda nodded and quietly handed over her datapad to the man as she stepped through the machine, observing with disinterest as the lights washed over her. She knew better than to glance over at the screen, knowing just how deep it scanned through her clothing. The assault trooper eyeing the screen was probably getting an eyeful, but she had long since learned not to care about it.
As long as he did his job, and made sure that no one with illegal possessions entered, she could look the other way. Almost as if he had an interest in contradicting himself, the Illusive Man had permitted her to carry whatever weapons she desired into the restricted zones. As far as she knew, she was the only one with this permit, and simply assumed it came with her rank.
Very rarely could one assume much about the head of Cerberus, and even rarer was it to be right.
"…She's clear," the trooper eyeing the screen declared monotony, his face concealed behind the helmet he wore. Looking over at his commanding officer, he nodded; "Alright, scans are done."
"Have a nice day, ma'am." The Centurion said cordially, handing Miranda back her datapad. It was about the most emotion he would show around the woman. Miranda suspected her reputation was wider spread than her actual name, and assumed this was the reason. No one expected smiles or winks from the "Ice Queen" of Cerberus.
"…You too." Miranda muttered as she accepted her electronic device. Absently adjusting her lab-coat, she strode through the security checkpoint and into the medical sector where the proverbial, almost literal magic happened. The only reason she didn't think this was a complete work of fiction was because it was happening before her very eyes, through the powers of modern science. And because formulas and calculations could account for more or less everything the medicinal innovation didn't come up with on the spot.
As far as anyone knew, what they were doing here was a first. Not just for Humanity, but for the galactic society at large. No one had brought back so devastated a corpse as this before, mostly because no one had had enough funds or cause to do so.
Personally, she was still uncertain as to how a single Quarian could warrant it. Aside from boasting the best immune-system of any Quarians she had ever heard of, as well as being one of maybe ten biotics in the Migrant Fleet's three centuries of activity, there was nothing demanding his revival for the good of the galaxy.
Then again, this was the Illusive Man's project. He worked for Humanity, and as such she trusted in his judgement, even if she didn't always agree with the methods some of her colleagues utilized.
A short walk later, Miranda found herself at the hub of the medical sector that the reconstruction project was happening in. It was a hub of activity, with scientists scuttling around and working on various projects, while security guards and mechs passed through during precisely timed intervals.
A team of foundry technicians were gathered off to the side around a large aerogel screen, which had schematics of leg-related cybernetics displayed upon it. It was amazing just to see how much money and man-power Cerberus was devoting to rebuilding one man. An alien even, not even a human. Granted, one very specific and influential alien, but he was still only one person. At the rate of their spending, they could have built or put together a lot of other things, such as new ships or units of new troopers.
Hell, Cerberus could have started constructing Alliance Siege Walkers. Pressurized, walking gun-platforms that could operate on all solid surfaces, planet-side, in space and even on sufficiently large asteroids. Instead, they were rebuilding an alien.
Was there a sense of irony to this, she wondered. That the very alien whose life she had once overseen being taken apart, was now being rebuilt.
As she walked towards her office, only few people cast her glances, all too consumed with their own work to notice or care about her. The first few days, many of them had been skittish around her, or felt the need to be perfect whenever she was around. Given her rank in the organization, it was understandable, but she also wanted them to consider her approachable. Given the timeframe that had been set out when it came to realistically rebuilding the dead alien, they would be working with each other for at least two years, maybe more.
Rebuilding a human may have gone a bit faster given that they were more familiar and adaptable, but since he was a Quarian, they were essentially forced to create everything from scratch. Thus the 'foundry', a specialized workshop possessing equipment supposedly capable of creating whatever the researchers could think up.
As she stepped into her office, a rather large space that was clean and spartan in nature, she spied Jacob perched in a seat in front of her desk. He was dressed in his normal, stark black body-glove that marked him as a member of the security team. Giving her a small smile, he nodded at her as he watched her slide into the seat across from him. "Morning Miranda,"
"Mister Taylor, nice to see you today." She replied in a pleasant tone as she sat down. Reaching up, she tucked a few strands of raven hair behind her ear. He grinned, pearly-white teeth contrasting his mahogany skin. They played the game of professionalism, just as she had begun observing Stevens and Valkyrie do. Cerberus didn't disapprove of relationships – she wondered if either operatives were aware of how glaringly obvious their emotions were displayed – they were fast to blame any kind of delay or slight on it, and did so with a fervor; "What can I help you with?"
"Eh, nothing really. I just thought that you may want to know about the status of the teams we've got deployed investigating church activity." He said, holding up a datapad. With her focus on Shepard at the moment, overseeing the teams' operations had fallen into his hands. He was good at it too, she admitted without regret.
Miranda pondered it for a moment and then nodded. "Of course, how are the teams holding up?" She asked as she leaned back in her seat, stretching out her long legs under the table.God, it was great with a hollow desk like this.
"So far so good, thankfully." Jacob replied with a small grin as he looked down at the datapad. "Loki and Kraken were successful in their operation. With support from their ODST troops, they destroyed the base and collected what information they could. Unfortunately, there wasn't as much as we had hoped. It looked like the Church had only been set up there for a couple of months at most, they were still working out of prefab homes for the most part. Casualties were more than anticipated, apparently they ran into mutants." He said, lips pressing into a thin line.
"Mutants?" She queried curiously, leaning back.
"Ah, yeah, appears so. That part of the report is lacking, apparently they'll deliver a more complete summary of events and what they encountered upon return." He replied with a nod. "Anyways, Blue Tooth and Heimdahl are still in observational status, keeping an eye on their targets. The Church appears to be more heavily involved in their area. We'll see if they deem it necessary to call in reinforcements to eliminate the threat, or leave them be for now."
"And what of Valkyrie and Tyr?" She asked, almost too quickly for her own liking. The whole mission still made her feel uneasy, though she couldn't quite place her finger on it. Maybe that was why, really. An unknown variable that she couldn't identify.
She didn't like those a whole lot. Plus, she had sent them to the most remote location of all the teams, where reinforcements would be hardest to get through. She just hoped her trust in Valkyrie and her experience with the EFEC wasn't misplaced.
"No word from them yet, unfortunately, but that isn't exactly unexpected." Jacob replied, glancing down at his datapad for a moment. He had the teams broken up into three boxes, and the one with the two operatives in question simply had 'Operation in Process' marked on it. "The only thing I'm seeing here is that the beacon of the shuttle they took went offline several hours ago."
Miranda's perfect brows furrowed. "It did? Should we be concerned?"
Jacob shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. Given they were ordered to go deep cover, maybe their pilots decided to deactivate it. Not something I would, personally, recommend... But there are always cold-calls we need to think about." He replied pragmatically. "I'll continue monitoring the situation, just in case. I'm sure they're just fine though."
…
Tau Volantis, Coral system
Church Complex 102
06:42am
"Just die al-fucking-ready!" Tyr shouted as he depressed the trigger, sending a hail of bullets towards the other end of the tight corridor where several church soldiers had hunkered down. Sadly, the most he managed to do was drain the shields of his target, before he was forced back into cover by return fire; "Arsehats won't die, he groused, ejecting his thermal clip and unceremoniously inserted another.
Whomever had decided that Cerberus needed to be on the forefront with disposable heat sinks was definitely not in his good books right now. The Unitologists shooting at them seemed to use the same weapon-system for the heat-dispersal, but with their numbers there was just no pause in the firing.
Frustrating for the two Cerberus commandos, this was how the last forty-five minutes or so had been spent. Resistance had been stiff ever since they'd entered the base, between the heavily equipped security teams, and the auxiliary workers more than willing to take up a weapon for the cause or even just throw themselves at him. The latter weren't the greatest of shots, and their weapons were mostly lesser grade pistols and submachine guns, but the sheer volume of fire they were capable of putting out was enough to force Tyr and Valkyrie back into cover on more than one occasion.
And even by reusing their heat sinks, his guns were starting to run low of actual ammunition. You just couldn't salvage something like that, not with the kind of gear they'd saved from the wreck.
To his left, Valkyrie knelt down next to one of the soldiers they had killed earlier, grabbed the utility-belt from his chest and yanked the pins off the small spheres strapped to it. In one sweeping motion she'd activated six anti-personnel grenades before throwing the entire belt at the entrenched opposition.
A moment later, a loud roar filled the hallway as the weapon went off violently, taking out everything in its vicinity, which happened to be mostly Church members.
"Frag out" Valkyrie muttered, her tone silent as if simply commenting upon the color of the ground. Red, slick with blood and covered in ruined armor-scraps and tungsten-grains; "Let's go."
As the two commandos stormed ahead, they found the floor littered with mangled bodies, blood soaking the floor, coating the walls. The high explosives had done their job well, apparently, and the few who managed to survive the blast were disposed of as Valkyrie put a bullet through their heads, gunning them down without visible emotion. She was executing them, and did so with cold professionalism.
Keenly, Tyr chose not to watch the show, as he moved onto the next door so that he could peer into the next corridor.
As Valkyrie slid into cover beside him a few moments later, he motioned forward. "Next room is marked for command and control, we're almost there." He reported to her, glancing back over his shoulder.
There was a neat hole in every helmet back there. A single hole in the face of any survivor from the initial blast.
"About time," she grunted, leaning against the wall for a moment to catch her breath. Tyr hadn't noticed it till now, but she was breathing heavily from the intense combat, while he barely felt little more than winded. "Here, take these." She said, offering him several thermal clips. As soon as he attached the spares to his belt, she handed him a pair of grenades.
"Mark 8 fragmentation grenades, used them in the Union. We called them 'Staal Baester' because of how much shrapnel these things put out, not to mention the explosion itself. Fifteen meter fatality zone, thirty-five meter injury zone if the baddies catch a break. Use 'em well, they may be old, but they're not even close to obsolete."
Tyr swore he could heard her grinning under her helmet as she spoke. For some reason his translator didn't pick up the name, though, leaving him wondering what the hell 'Staal Baester' meant.
Probably something cool.
Freshly resupplied – thanks to the dead soldiers – the duo pushed forward, Tyr leading the way. He had long since decided that if Valkyrie insisted on taking command of the mission, then he would get to take point in the close-quarter situations, and he doubted that she actually minded. He was larger than she was, in both height and in bulk, and healed at the rate a Krogan would probably envy him for.
Alchera didn't quite count. Fucking Yagh and all that.
Reaching the door, they paused as they examined it. Unlike the ones before it, there was no indication that it had power at all, the usual aerogel sensor nowhere to be found. It meant someone had either cut the power, or that it only opened from the inside. The latter was not something he considered an option, nor did it make sense because of the door's placement.
"Cut the power and switch to thermal. Gonna go loud'n dark for this one," Valkyrie said as she checked her rifle, then gave him an affirmative nod.
"…As if we're not loud already," Tyr replied with a roll of his eyes, reaching down to his utility belt. He grabbed one of the small, yet potent thermite-charges and stuck it to the door. Using his Omnitool he drew the ball of liquid explosive up along the door's frame, then across in an X-shape until the thermite was spent. Low-tech glue didn't care about polarized surfaces, something special ops training had at least covered; "Move back…Alright, blowing a hole in three, two, one, charge."
When detonating the charge from behind cover, Tyr watched with a little bit of fascination as the thermite burned through the steel door like firecrackers through wet paper. It was either sad or hilarious how the door was no doubt secured against hacking and biotic attacks, yet couldn't handle thermite.
Obviously, the Church didn't known much about human history, missing thermite as a threat altogether.
"Goddamn, that shit was stronger than I thought it would be." Tyr groused, getting up from cover. The door was now but a few pieces of metal jutting from the frame, with a large hole in the middle. Screw opening the door, when walking through it was so much more classy; "Went straight through the damn door."
"Got the job done, let's move." Valkyrie ordered, rising up from her cover. Tyr offered her a nod, allowing her to take point. Both had rifles loaded and aimed at the door.
When they reached the scorched doorframe, they were able to peer inside for a moment safely. The room appeared to be rectangular, much like the other rooms in the base were, however this one was significantly larger than the others that they had encountered thus far. The carved pieces of the door had simply fallen off, resting on the ground like the pieces of a broken puzzle.
Oh, and there were Church soldiers as well. More surprised than anything, the Unitologists seemed to be in a daze for all but the second it took the M-6 operatives to glance about the room. Screens decorated the back, each displaying either data-streams or footage of somewhere in the facility. Tyr's eyes were on the Church members, however, as they all started returning fire.
Most were technicians, armored in what could barely be counted as an old-school hardsuit. But they were armed to the teeth, and shared the same, feral expression as the ones Tyr and Valkyrie had already disposed of.
"I'm counting ten hostiles from here, maybe more. Can't look for long enough." Tyr grunted as he looked over at Valkyrie. Leaning out, he fired off a quick burst, striking an unlucky technician in the chest. She went down with a strangled cry, her light shielding proving to be little match for his high-powered rifle and phasic rounds. "Make that nine I can see,"
"I'm going to deploy a singularity, stand by!" Valkyrie called back, then swung about the opening and flung the gravitonic anomaly inside. Instead of the telltale whamp! a singularity caused, they were answered with a dry splash, like a balloon of gel being popped; "Or not. They've got a biotic in there."
"No shit." Tyr retorted, jumping from the doorway as a Warp ate the entire frame, leaving a beach ball-sized hole where he'd been; "I zap, you cap?"
"Roger that." Valkyrie nodded, pumping off shots into the room. Inside, one of the technicians had surrounded himself with a biotic field, swatting aside every slug coming at him. Considering that the man hadn't blue-shifted towards them yet, Tyr guessed the man was most likely a Sentinel, seeing how he'd never known one of those to do that.
Then again, that would mean his current plan wasn't going to work. Fuck, only one way to find out for sure!
"Now." Even as he spoke, Tyr leapt from cover, Omnitool raised and aimed at the biotic before them. As the man drew back his hand, every inch glowing an intense blue, the operative launched his Overload program, cutting through the man's barriers. The nodes in his neck didn't take the electrocution well, and shortened out the biotic's barrier, whereafter Valkyrie exploited the fire being poured at someone not her, swung her sidearm around the doorway and shot the man in the face.
With the biotic dead, the rest of the room was relatively easy to purge. No one surrendered, and as such neither commando asked for it.
"Room clear," Tyr declared when he rose up slowly, stepping into the room. "Got a new paintjob though," he commented grimly as he looked around at the bleak metal walls which were now painted red.
"On your six," the Icelander replied, only a step or two behind Tyr, using his larger form as a human shield. He didn't mind. Peering around the room, she sighed. They had cleared out the Church, for now, but it had not been clean by any means. Between her work as a combat doctor and a soldier, the sights of mangled bodies didn't unnerve her. She was more concerned for Tyr, who seemed to be staring. "You okay?"
Under his helmet Tyr blinked, and then looked over at her slowly to nod. "Yeah, yeah, fine. Just been a while since I've...seen so much blood." He replied in a more quiet tone than he had used earlier; "Medigel usually means the bleedin's stopped, even if the person dies, right?"
Looking over at the nearby terminals of the command and control center, which were lined along the wall like one would expect, he was glad to see that they had gone unharmed for the most part. There was blood splattered on some, but that wouldn't prohibit operation thanks to the aerogel screens. "Come, on, let's see what we can do from here. Hopefully they don't have the ability to lock us out."
Walking over the machines, he and Valkyrie quickly went to work, activating the terminals and hacking them with ease when the need arose. Or, she did. He just found the ones they needed to get through.
"Apparently they weren't expecting anyone to get this deep into their base." Tyr mused as he combed through the data. Slipping in Cerberus' equivalent of a USB drive, he downloaded as much data as he could get his hands on, in case something he missed could be of use later. Drive filled to the proverbial brim with information, he pulled it out and slipped it into an armored pouch. He had barely scratched the surface of what they had stored in their database, but it would have to do; "Lot of these terminals' got shit security."
Next to him, Valkyrie had taken off her helmet so that she could read the screen without interruption. Some of her golden hair had come free from its bun, and fell down the side of her face. Her eyes seemed to glow in the orange light, and a smirk formed on her lips as Tyr looked over at her.
He didn't know if she was Anna or Valkyrie now, and therefore simply kept quiet.
"And Boom. AA defenses have been disabled. Radars are down too… We should be able to call in support now." She blinked for a moment as she looked at the next screen. "Njord's nut-sack...Says they've got someone in a prisoner containment area."
"Think it's those two we saw get pushed off the cliff?" Tyr asked as he looked over her shoulder. It was hard to believe that anyone could survive that fall, but with proper gear, anything could happen. In a way, he was proof of that.
"I'd put some credits on it, yeah. Dunno who else would be out here other than us." She replied as she looked at the screen. The camera seemed to be malfunctioning or something, due to the image being blurry at best. She thought she could see three figures, but she couldn't tell for sure either.
"I vote we check it out, it looks like they shouldn't be too far away." Tyr replied as he eyed the map of the base that Alexander had somehow downloaded onto their omnitools. It never ceased to unnerve him how the Aspect could simultaneously be so versatile and yet useless. Crosschecking with the map displayed on the screen, he nodded in confirmation.
Valkyrie sighed and straightened her back. "Wouldn't hurt, I suppose." Her eyes widened as she trekked over to the other side of the room. "Damn, how did I not notice this?" She asked, eyeing the wall. Along it, weapons of all sorts were lined up neatly, with ammunition stored below. "Looks like a nice armory they've got here…must be a security-checkpoint too."
Tyr walked over to her, eyeing the wall, as she popped up a moment later from her kneeling stance. "Hey, you want this?" She asked, holding up an M-22 Eviscerator. It was the same model he'd lost in the crash, just without the familiar gold and black symbol.
"Hell yeah!" Tyr replied quickly, grinning as he accepted it from her. The weight felt familiar in his hands, yet not quite the same either. There was a curious device on the end, likely the reason it was heavier than his old one.
"Different than your old one, yeah, with a higher caliber barrel and a smart-choke system. Won't do as much shredding, but a bigger area of effect, unless you turn that choke system on for longer range accuracy." She said, noting the mods. Technically, civilians weren't supposed to have these kinds of weapons, much less the modifications, but the Church had found a way around that, apparently. Then again, everything so far suggested the Church was mounting itself up as a paramilitary organization on par with Cerberus. Hopefully without a fleet;
"Plenty ammo too, plus heat sinks. Shame these shits were techies, or they'd have had the guns to hold us for real." Valkyrie noted, kicking one of the corpses with the tip of her boot. No reaction. The dead didn't seem to care.
As Tyr bent down and began to rummage through the clips, he attached them quickly. As his hands brushed against armor though, he froze, eyes widening a bit. There before him, sat three sets of armor that he had never seen before, as well as three powerful looking assault weapons. Despite the grizzly surroundings, he let out an appreciative whistle;
"Check this out," Tyr said as he held up the first assault rifle that he could reach. "M-37 CAR. Never seen one of these before." He commented, blinking as he saw Valkyrie's eyes widen.
"Damn! These guys were packing some serious shit, huh?" she mused, examining the rifle. To Tyr, it looked a lot like someone had pumped a Vindicator full of steroids. That, or compacted the Revenant. Either way promised a powerful gun. Valkyrie's eyes changed when she saw something else resting on one of the racks; "Fucking Helheim! A Mark 5! Gimme!" She said quickly, motioning towards a sniper rifle.
Tyr grinned widely. Whether she meant to or not, she had slipped into Anna mode, if only for a moment. That, and she wasn't tall enough to reach it herself, making her dependent on him
"Here you go," he said as he handed the rifle to her. She grabbed it like a child would a toy, and the gleeful gleam in her eyes wasn't lost on him. It was nice to see her human side, even on this frozen hellhole.
"Fuck the owners, I'm keeping this. Haven't seen one of these since we fucked the separatists in Kaliningrad" she commented, testing the weight and peering through the scope; "Damn, this is some good stuff right here. Military grade materials, not the crap you'd see with mercs."
As she toyed with the rifle, Tyr gripped a knife that was on the pile. It looked normal to him, but as he toyed with it, the weapon began to glow and hum. Startled but still gripping it, he held it away from his body, inadvertently pushing it against the table that some of the armor was sitting on. The furniture stood little chance, as the knife cut through it like a hot knife through butter.
"Careful with that, it's a Vibro-knife." Valkyrie said with an eye roll as she watched Tyr flick off the device. "Toss me that other one, never hurts to have one of these bad boys."
Nodding carefully, Tyr handed her one of the sheathed knives, before slipping the one he was holding back into its holster. After a moment of pondering, he slipped it onto his side next to the other on his hip. "Imagine if we had Loki with us," Tyr mused as he stood up. While Valkyrie had claimed the Mark five sniper rifle, he had snagged one of the M-37's. Another still rested on the racks, sharing the same lack of insignias.
"Are you kidding?" Valkyrie snorted; "He'd jizz himself if he saw this stuff."
"Right…thanks for that image." Tyr sighed, averting his eyes as if that would chase away the mental scar; "Anyway, let's get a move on. I'd rather get out of this tomb before they start mutating."
"Yeah, better not stick around." Valkyrie nodded, carefully no longer touching the bodies; "Let's go see what kind of people they keep locked up here."
…
And boom! Another chapter for my awesome readers, I hope you guys liked it! Feel free to leave a review telling me what you think, or drop me a PM. As always, a shout out to my co-writer 'Roku – Molester of Science' the brains behind this operation, and an awesome dude.
Peace out!