Disclaimer: I don't own anything here. I don't know why I keep posting a disclaimer anymore really...
And thanks to DN7 as always for betaing this chapter.
CryNet Phantom Operative Wraith
Current assignment: SSV Normandy SR1. Aide to Lt. Com. Shepard, Spectre
Current Location: On approach to Peak 15, Noveria.
Current Time: January 28th 23:32
A slight shimmer accompanied by a low hum was the only thing that could be noticed of the CTA-23 Wisp, CryNet's ground based Stealth Infiltration Vehicle. Equipped with an entire suite of stealth technology, the Wisp is invisible to most sensors and able to covertly transport an entire squad to wherever they wanted.
I sat at the controls, only one of two people still awake. Shepard, the other one awake, sat in the commander's seat keeping an eye on the sensors for any one who might have detected us leaving Port Hanshan. The rest of the team sat in the back, catching a few hours sleep before they arrived at Peak 15. Day had slowly turned into night over the past few hours, giving us even better cover in the dark.
"We'll be arriving within half an hour." I broke the silence that had invaded the driving compartment for the last fifteen minutes.
"Understood. I'll wake the squad." She said reaching for the intercom. "Alright everyone, the time on the Normandy is now 23:32. I hope that you had a good couple hours sleep, because you'll be needing to be on your toes now. We expect to be arriving at Peak 15 within half an hour. Please make sure that you do not leave any of your belongings in the vehicle after you leave. I ask that all omni-tools and any other electronic devices you have be switched to non-invasive mode for arrival. Please stay in your seats until the vehicle has come to a full and complete stop."
I smirked as Shepard gave the standard shuttle service announcement that you got before landing.
"The weather forecast is blizzard with chance of geth so make sure to pack your shields. We thank you for traveling with CryNet infiltrations, we hope that you come again."
"You know Shep, it seems you have a knack for promoting CryNet. I really should fire our marketing team and just hire you instead."
"A desk job? Hell no, I'd go crazy within a week."
I shrugged. "Well I suppose we could also get you in as an Inquisitor."
Shepard turned to give me an incredulous look, "Seriously? Just an Inquisitor? Hell no. Phantom on the other hand..."
I regarded her speculatively. "Hmmm. I suppose you might be good enough."
We both gave amused laughs as we turned our attention back to our respective terminals.
"Huh, that's strange."
"What is?" I asked, glancing over at Vanyali.
"I'm getting some strange energy readings on the facility." She said, manipulating her monitor. "Strange. I've never seen anything like this before. Really strange. I can't get any better scans with these sensors though."
"Huh. Well whatever it is, we'll find out what's causing it. In the meantime, can you find a place for us park the Wisp that's suitably hidden?"
"Yeah, quarter of a click from the entrance is a small cave that should do."
"Perfect." I muttered, hitting the accelerator. I turned the Wisp off of the main road and into an ice cave a few minutes later.
"Alright everyone. We've arrived. Suit up, seal your environmental systems and let's get going." Shepard ordered over the intercom, slipping her helmet over her head as I deactivated the stealth systems and shut off the engine.
Putting on my helmet, it sealed shut with a soft hiss and I turned to give Shepard a nod. Receiving one in return I turned and opened the door to the outside. The cold air rushed in, accompanied by the howling noise of the blizzard outside of the cave. As I stepped out into the snow, my visor displayed the temperature at negative ten degrees Celsius. A crunching sound signaled Shepard stepping out to stand next to me. The sound of a ramp lowering drew my attention to the back of the sleek, aerodynamic vehicle where a ramp was lowering, Wrex standing at the top of the ramp.
"Finally. I've been cooped up in there for far too long." the krogan grumbled as he stomped down the ramp.
"Yeah, you can say that again. Not exactly the most comfortable place to try and sleep." Ashley said as she exited.
Shepard and I gave each other amused looks through our visors.
"I don't know what you're talking about. It was like being in bed." Kaidan said sarcastically.
Shepard stepped forward towards the cave entrance. "Alright, guys and girls lets get this party started!"
I turned and followed her out into the dark blizzard, "Right with you."
"Visibility is down to zero. Switch to ghost-vision!" Shepard called out over comms.
In response I enabled my Nanovision, while the squad activated the GHOST armors special optical mode, unofficially dubbed 'ghost-vision' by CryNet inquisitors. This ghost-vision was not quite as good as nanovision, but it got the job done. Our optic suites activated, we could now see more than five feet in front of us, allowing us to make our way up the last stretch of snow covered road to the entrance to Peak 15.
"Now remember. Primary objectives are to find Titan team and Matriarch Benezia." Shepard reminded us as we trudged along in the snow. "Everything else is secondary."
"What are we expecting to find in there?" Liara asked.
"Asari commandos and almost certainly geth. However it's unlikely that Inquisitor team Ttitan would go dark for six days just because of geth that were brought in by Benezia. Therefore I believe that there is something else going on here. So keep your eyes peeled and stay sharp." Shepard ordered.
I stopped as I noticed a heat signature out of place in the surrounding grey environment up ahead. My eyes widened the moment I recognized it. "GET DOWN!" I shouted throwing myself to the side as a streak of flame burst from the barrel of the turret in the distance.
"Maximum Armor."
The rocket exploded in our midst, the shock wave dissipating over the armored scales that had been formed by my suit while the sound of the explosion was filtered out by the audio receptors. I rolled into a crouch a moment later, taking in rest of the squad who were all getting to their feet, all spread out. My visor indicated that no one had been injured by the rocket and I spun around to face the turret that had fired at us. Without a word, I broke off into a dead sprint towards the turret, switching my suit into power mode to give me that extra speed and reaction time. I ignored Shepard's shouts for me to stop, focusing only on the turret that was already turning to track me. Another gout of flame signaled the launch of the next rocket that sped towards me. Leaping to the side let me avoid the blast as I continued to charge the turret. Reaching into a pouch I pulled out an explosive charge. Another burst of fire followed instantly by an explosion hitting right in front of me was the only greeting that the turret gave me as I closed in on it. The moment the explosion cleared I jumped, my momentum sending me flying clear over the turret as it attempted to track my movement. I released the explosive as I reached the proper point in my jump over the turret. Landing on the other side of the turret, I sank into a crouch, stabilizing myself with my fist and without a second thought I triggered the explosive. The detonation sent shrapnel flying every-which way, some of it even thudding into my now armored form, completely draining my energy reserves.
When the shrapnel finished falling I slowly stood up and turned to face the burning wreckage of the turret, smoke billowing out of its destroyed shell. "Turret destroyed." I said simply over the comms as I took a good look around me. The fire from the turret lit up everything nearby, giving a stark contrast to the normal dark gray of night, my nanovision was however easily able to adjust to this new light source, so that it wouldn't blind me as was wont to happen with standard night vision. I noticed something that caught my attention, but before I could mention it an irate woman stormed up to me. "What the hell were you thinking?" I saw her hand rise suddenly and my own hand snapped up to grab her hand before she could continue through with the backhanded slap.
"Threat detected."
I ignored SECOND and gave Shepard's trapped hand a glance. "I saw an opportunity and I took it."
"'You saw an opportunity and you took it'". She quoted me disbelievingly pulling her hand free of my grasp. "You didn't think it might have been worth while to tell us about your plan, so that we could tell you how idiotic the plan was? Or so that we wouldn't accidentally shoot you?"
I shrugged again unconcerned. "I wasn't worried about getting shot by the squad. Our squad link is engaged, therefore everyone would be notified of my whereabouts, meaning that no accidental friendly fire could take place. As for telling you about my plan, that would have been detrimental. Any discussion about the plan would mean that it would have taken longer, which would have lead to the turret firing at the squad again, only this time with possible casualties. My actions resulted in the turret focusing on attacking me, as I was the biggest threat to it, therefore putting the squad out of danger. The nanosuit gave me the best chances of getting up to the turret quickly and with acceptably low risk of getting hit."
"Damnit Wraith." She swore quietly "You sound like a fucking VI. Don't you put any thought towards your own safety? There would have been other ways we could have dealt with that turret, without as much risk!"
"How?" I challenged "We don't have any long range anti-armor weapons. We only have explosive charges, and in order to use those we would have had to get close as well, which would have given us less and less time to react to the turret. Eventually we wouldn't be able to react in time. GHOST armor is good, it won't protect you from a direct high-explosive rocket hit. My plan meant, that the turret had less chances of firing, and it was firing against me, and my suit grants me increased reaction time and speed. Therefore I was the best choice for taking it out. Unless you have a Nanosuit hiding nearby?" When Shepard remained silent I continued. "No? I thought not. Now if you are done, we should get on with the mission." I said, stomping my way towards the facility entrance that I had noticed earlier.
"Fine. But we are going to be talking about this later." Shepard hissed, brushing past me towards the Peak 15 entrance.
I gave an exasperated sigh as I followed her to the side door, next to the main garage door of Peak 15. I stood back as Shepard motioned for Tali to hack open the door, not daring to risk Shepard's ire even more by mentioning that SECOND could probably hack it open faster. As such I was rather surprised when I saw Tali open the door, almost as fast as SECOND would have. Motioning for us to group up on her, Shepard led the way into what seemed to be a small side chamber, beside the main garage. Shepard was already standing in front of the next door, that would presumably lead straight into the garage. When the last person, Kaidan, had entered the room Shepard gave out some basic orders.
"Alright, everyone keep your eyes peeled, we don't know much about the situation here. What we do know is the facility stopped reporting in over two and a half solar days ago. That's about six earth days for reference. We also know that an Inquisitor team sent by CryNet to investigate Matriarch Benezia's presence here also went dark at that time. Benezia is here with a sizable commando and most likely geth escort. Finally, it is Noveria's policy to destroy any facility that goes dark after the third day using anti-matter bombs, dropped from their orbital battle gives us twelve hours to get in, find everything we need and get out. So no messing around here. Standard formation for clearing out mid- to large sized rooms will be as follows unless I say otherwise. Wrex and I in front. Ashley, Kaidan you take the flanks. Liara, Tali in between Ash and Kaidan. Garrus and Wraith take up the rear. Understood?"
"Yeah, come on Shepard! Stop talking and let's get started!" Wrex said impatiently shotgun drawn.
"Alright." Shepard gave me a stern look as she turned towards the door. "Let's roll and rock and load and lock!"
The door slid open and Shepard immediately rushed through, Wrex right behind her. Various red triangles appeared on my HUD showing enemy locations thanks to the squad's linked systems. "Contact!" Gunshots accompanied Shepard's shout as she engaged the targets that had been highlighted by her VI. Ashley rushed through the door followed closely by Tali, Liara and Kaidan. When it was finally my turn I charged through the door, glancing around I ran towards a pile of crates in the middle of the room and jumped up on top, using the uneven pile to my advantage by using a crate in front of me as cover. I raised my SCARE and aimed at a geth trooper that was firing at Liara who was crouching behind a chest high wall. Pulling the trigger, my energy levels dropped slightly as I let my suit completely remove the recoil allowing me to take an instant second shot. The trooper fell to the floor, missing its head from my second shot as I turned my aim towards a drone that was flying around, trying to repair the other geth units. It was however brought down from a single shot from my SCARE.
Blue fire flared in my peripheral vision as Liara pulled a geth trooper out of its cover only for its head to be blasted off by Garrus. A loud report signaled the firing of Shepard's Marshall as she engaged a shock trooper that tried to get close to her. Excited roaring accompanied a thudding sound as Wrex headbutted a trooper with enough force to send white oil spewing everywhere. A show of sparks signaled the death of another geth, courtesy of Tali's overload as two orbs of biotic energy yanked out two geth from behind their cover where Ashley quickly gunned down the geth that Kaidan had exposed.
My suit letting me register all that in the background, I gunned down another geth trooper that had made the mistake of exposing itself to me as it tried to shoot Garrus. I turned my rifle at the last target when a loud crack sounded as the geth fell to the ground, accompanied by a loud voice, "Scoped and dropped!"
I sighed in aggravation, my finger hovering just off the trigger as I turned my head to glare at Garrus whose rifle barrel had a trail leading straight to where the geth used to stand. He turned towards me, no doubt a shit-eating grin behind his helmet. Rolling my eyes, I jumped down from my perch and walked over to join Shepard and the rest of the squad who were carefully making their way on through the garage towards a catwalk on the left of the room.
Just as I joined up with the rest of the squad a female VI spoke up, "User alert. All Peak 15 facilities have taken catastrophic damage. Bio-hazard materials present throughout the facility. Virtual intelligence user interface offline. Main reactors shut down."
I exchanged glances with Shepard. "Bio-hazards?" Liara asked looking around nervously.
"You should be safe from any airborne bio-hazards in your armor, as long as it's fully sealed." I assured her.
"Yeah, and I think that you would have noticed if it wasn't fully sealed by now, after walking through the blizzard outside." Kaidan said.
"I'm not picking up any hazardous materials in the air just yet, it's probably further in." I told everyone after glancing at my Visor's air filter sensor monitor.
"Definitely looks like Binary Helix was messing with things that they shouldn't have." Garrus muttered as we reached the door at the end of the catwalk.
"Ready?" Shepard asked glancing back at us. When we all nodded she gave Tali who was standing at the door controls the signal to open the door. The door slid open to reveal a short hallway ending in another door and two turrets pointing the opposite direction.
"Why are the turrets facing the wrong way?" Tali asked puzzled as she noticed the turrets.
"They have something that they want to keep inside." Wrex commented as he stomped passed the turrets.
"I wonder what." Ashley said, staring pensively at the turrets.
"We'll probably find out." I muttered as Shepard opened the next door, which lead to two more hallways, leading to the left and right.
She took a quick glance around both corners before turning to the right and disappearing around the corner. A flicker of movement to my right drew my attention to the windows to the side of the corridor I was in where I saw Shepard inside a room of some kind overlooking the turrets.
"Anything?" I asked her over our comm.
"Nothing. Just a security room." She replied shaking her head. "There's an elevator over there. Map says that it will take us on deeper into the facility."
"It's not very big though commander. We will have to take two trips." Garrus piped up as I went to join him at the elevator.
"Understood. Wraith, Wrex, Ashley and I will go on first. Once we've arrived, the rest of you join us." Shepard said, appearing around the corner from the security room.
I nodded and walked into the elevator. I raised an eyebrow when Wrex joined me as I noticed that he had upgraded his firepower by ripping the gun off of one of the turrets.
Wrex must have noticed my looks because he shrugged at me "What? Not really worth leaving a big gun lying around like that."
I gave a small chuckle as Shepard and Ashley joined us, both also expressing some surprise at Wrex's new gun. The doors slid closed behind us and the elevator began ascending. After a few moments of steadily rising the elevator slowed to a halt and the doors in front of us opened revealing an iced up hallway with curved windows to the left giving us a gorgeous view of the ice outside. The moment Ashley stepped out of the elevator Shepard called the rest of the squad up to join us. We waited for them in silence and when the elevator opened up again we all continued along the hallway until we reached another door. We paused as we heard the sound of geth gunfire and some strange screeches coming from the other side.
"Get ready." Shepard said raising her SCAR to her shoulder as I did the same. Seeing that we were all ready she gave us a nod and opened the door. The doors slid open to reveal a single geth trooper right in front of us but before any of us could react, a glob of green liquid hit the geth splashing all over it. The geth released one of its signature geth garbles as I noticed that the liquid was eating through the geth. Shepard didn't hesitate, she immediately ran out into the room and over to another wall where she took cover from whatever it was that had fired the acid at the geth. Wrex ran out next and charged around the corner with a loud battle cry, his new HMG opening fire on whatever he saw there. Cloaking I ran out next, looking to my right as I ran I saw a strange bug like creature at the far end of the room with Wrex charging straight at it.
"Threat identified. Rachni."
I did a quick double take in surprise upon hearing that. "What the fuck? Rachni?" I mumbled as I noticed a geth shock trooper pop up around a corner in front of me. Reacting instinctively I let loose a long burst from my SCAR that brought down the geth as I shimmered into existence. I stepped around a corner to see another geth and a bunch of tiny green bugs. The bugs skittered rapidly across the floor at the geth which was doing its best to kill them before they got to it. One of the small rachni, as I guessed they were, made it through to the geth and exploded in a shower of acid right next to it.
I frowned as I triggered my SCARAB and opened fire on the suicidal rachni. The superior fire-rate of the SCARAB allowed me to quickly mow down the bugs before they could get close to me, all of them dying in a small splash of acid. A red warning arrow appeared on my visor, pointing to my left informing me of a threat in that direction. Twisting to my left I spotted three geth troopers with their rifle aimed directly at me. They opened fire as I triggered my armor causing the phasic slugs to impact harmlessly on my suit. However my energy levels began dropping rapidly as all three geth kept their rifles trained directly on me. I raised my SCARAB and began returning fire as I quickly backed away towards the rest of the squad.
Just as my energy was about to be depleted and when I was about to make a desperate run around a corner, a small sphere of dark energy burst into life right between the three geth, the resulting unstable gravitational field of the singularity pulled all three geth into the air where they chattered at each other. A second later a shower of sparks covered one of the geth, causing its flashlight head to dim in death. A loud crack accompanied a trail of vapor that lead straight past me caused another geth to lose its head and finally a figure sped past me, leaving a biotic trail behind as it slammed into the final remaining geth sending it flying into a wall with extreme force.
"Appreciate the help." I said looking back at where Liara, Tali and Garrus were standing.
"It looked like you needed it." Shepard said from where she had blasted the geth away with her charge.
I gave a wry chuckle, "Yeah, they caught me by surprise while I was gunning down those suicide rachni bugs."
"So those are rachni?" Liara asked hesitantly.
I nodded "Suit scans match up to old council records. They most definitely are rachni."
Garrus shook his head disbelievingly "That can't be. The rachni are extinct! Have been foralmost two thousand years."
"Those were rachni turian. They match the stories told by my people." Wrex grumbled as he came walking back from the corpse of the rachni.
"But if those are rachni, how are they here?" Tali asked puzzled.
"It means, that somehow Binary Helix brought themback." I said grimly. "The rachni are probably the biohazard that that VI was talking about."
"But why would anyone want to bring back the rachni?" Ashley asked.
"Saren might. He might have wanted to use them to fight for him. It did take the uplifting of the krogan to put them down." Shepard answered.
"Is there a possibility this is what Titan ran into that caused them to go dark?" Kaidan turned to look at me.
I shook my head. "No. While I'm sure they did encounter the rachni, I don't think that they are the reason for Titan going dark. Their communications were being jammed and I don't think that the rachni are the cause of that. That is probably the geth, and since Titan hasn't been able to get rid of the jamming, I'd say that there are a lot of geth with the rachni complicating things."
"Well, rachni are dangerous so stay frosty. Let's move on." Shepard ordered leading us on towards a door labeled 'Offices'.
The door lead to a long hallway with offices on either side in various states of destruction. Some offices had doors that looked like they had been forcefully pulled apart while others had shattered windows. Others still looked to be completely intact from the outside, yet the furniture inside these had been completely trashed. As we began making our way along the corridor my suit proximity sensors suddenly sounded. Immediately we snapped up our weapons and quickly turned to cover various points around us so that we had full 360 coverage. "Where are they?" Tali asked nervously as the proximity alert began sounding more and more frequently.
"No idea, but they are coming fast. Let's see what they got for us." Shepard said, her assault rifle steady as she covered the corridor in front of her.
It was then I heard it, my suit's enhanced auditory receptors kicking in for me to hear the sounds of skittering feet along the ground. After a few seconds the sounds grew loud enough for the others to hear. "Where are they?" Ashley asked from behind me.
I narrowed my eyes in thought when I was able to pinpoint the location of the sounds. "They're in the vents..." I muttered. Immediately the squad shifted their aim to the grates inside the offices.
The sounds continued until it became clear that they were passing by us, heading further out of the facility. "I don't get it. Why are they ignoring us?" Garrus's confusion was mirrored in most of the squad.
"No idea, but I don't like it." Shepard muttered as the sounds slowly began fading away.
"Why is that Shepard?" Liara asked.
"Either they don't consider us a threat, or they are running from something else. I'd prefer to know that they are the biggest threat here, but if they are running from something else..." Shepard trailed off.
We stayed still for a minute, waiting to see if the rachni would come back, but when they didn't we concluded that they definitely had left. Moving on, we passed past more offices until we finally left the offices area and entered another corridor with curved windows with an open cavern on the other side. Only this time, the glass had been shattered providing a large entrance into the cavern.
"Woah, do you think rachnidid that?" Garrus asked upon seeing the destroyed glass wall.
"I hope so." Shepard muttered.
"You really think that there is something worse than rachni in here commander?" Kaidan asked turning to face her.
Any answer Shepard may have had for Kaidan was cut off when SECOND urgently spoke up.
"Warning, airborne spore detected."
"What kind of airborne spore?" Shepard turned to face me intently.
I shrugged. "I dunno. It might be a rachni weapon. Shouldn't bother us though.
The environmental seals on our armors will protect us."
"Warning, spore infestation detected. Attempting to contain infestation." My blood chilled as soon as SECOND finished.
"What the fuck." I muttered as I brought up the diagnostics on my visor. "No, they couldn't have been that stupid." I shook my head in disbelief.
"What is it Wraith?" Shepard asked me sharply.
"Infestation contained. Alert, GHOST armor insufficient defense against spore. Probability of Sable squad infection. . . 99.37%"
I swallowed before turning to look up at Shepard. "You were right about there being something worse than rachni here. What's here is much, much worse. This spore? This is a bio-weapon, created by-" Before I could finish my sentence something burst through the wall behind us with a loud crash.
It had a large head, with streaks of blue and white lights located around it. Six mechanical tentacles trailed behind the head, making it look like a big metal squid. The crash had sent all of us flying backward, into the cavern and before we could react the ceph flew toward me and grabbed me with one of its tentacles and took off, dragging me away from the squad. The last thing I heard before the ceph took me away was Vanyali frantically screaming my name.
"MARTIN!"
Dun, Dun DUN!
Cliffhanger! Now are you starting to see exactly how I've changed Noveria? The ceph are there, and they have Wraith while Shepard and the squad are probably infected with the ceph Spore, (The Manhattan virus in C2, however it's not gonna be called that here.)
So now Shepard has to deal with Benezia, the rachni AND the ceph.
And now Happy new year, I'm gonna try and finish NE1 this year and hopefully start NE2 as well.
Anyway if you have questions and/or feedback please review!
~LEGION