It was a simple mission: enter the scientific base, shut down its operations, and remove all data for Union analysts to examine.
In Nash's experience, the most straightforward missions were the ones most likely to get FUBAR. In this case she was correct.
It began when Engineer Jane Murphy, Nash's newest crewmember, attempted to join the ground crew during their pre-mission brief in the ship's cargo hold/crew lounge.
"This should be a normal mop-up, but remember nobody is leaving that base unless they have on restrainer cuffs or they are in a body bag. Also be ready for anything. I have an instinct things won't go as smoothly as we expect." Nash finished.
"When does it ever, Captain?" Said her First Mate Sidonus. The Turian was past his prime, but his loyalty to Nash and her cause kept him fighting despite his age.
Nash ignored him. "Murphy, are you planning on decorating that wall or do you have something to say?" She waved a hand at her Engineer, who seemed torn between hiding behind a fallen piece of tarp and moving forward.
"Um Captain, ma'am, I am going to accompany you on this mission. Scans suggest the presence of mechs and I am the most qualified to… to…"
"To what? Examine their motor functions?" Nash grimaced. "You'll have to do better than that, Engineer."
"I can take care of myself out there. I'll be an asset."
"If I thought we would face Mindoir toothless varren out there then you would be able to take care of yourself. What we will find is much worse," said the second member of the ground crew, an Asari named Tinea.
Murphy flushed to the roots of her brown hair. Her freckles faded into the blush. "I want to fight."
Nash sighed. She had known this was coming… "Engineer. You are on this ship for one reason: to keep the piece of shit flying. If you get your face shot off on some unnamed world trying to play space adventurer then I would have to hire a new engineer. Here you are an asset. Out there you are a liability. I do not need liabilities in a firefight. Understood?"
"Ma'am. Yes ma'am."
"Better. Sidonus, Tinea - suit up. We're going to take this mission as quickly as we can. Tiny?" She addressed the helmsman through a comm link.
"Yes Captain?"
"Take us down."
Atlas mechs, developed by Cerberus during the war, were all decommissioned in a desert somewhere. They were supposed to be in Arizona, becoming homes for endangered beetles.
They were not supposed to be out here, in an under-the-radar scientific base in the Terminus, bearing down on Nash. What kind of scientists had military grade mechs and weapons, anyway?
She knew the type: mad scientists. She looked to her crew. The Asari was pinned behind cover. Sidonus was several feet behind her, out of the Atlas' line of fire.
"Sidonus! Distract him!" She shouted over the bullets. The ground shook beneath her feet. In a few seconds, she would be fired upon from over her cover.
"What? How?"
"I don't know! Flash some ankle of something!"
His distraction involved a proximity mine instead of an ankle. As the Atlas turned slightly to visualize the threat, Nash leaped out of cover and punched through the bulletproof canopy.
"Ah, the joys of being slightly synthetic!" Said Nash.
"What was that?"
"Nothing. Just things are looking up. Cover me while I finish cleansing this place." She climbed into the vacant Atlas.
Cleaning up was much easier with the proper tools.
The scientists were not in the main laboratory. Their absence made the place feel haunted. The echoes of footsteps on the metal floor sounded like thunder. There were empty holding cells, stained examination tables, banks of instruments, and a Tupari vending machine.
They all stared the out-of-place fixture for a second. "Maybe evil scientists get thirsty a lot…" offered Tinea.
"Well I'm pretty thirsty. Do you think it still works?" Nash started randomly pushing buttons.
"Is that a good idea?"
She walked back over with a canned drink in hand. "Look! They even have tupo-berry." She sipped on it. "Nobody else wants one? No? Then move out."
"Wait a sec, Captain. I think you need to see this."
Sidonus stood in front of a hacked-open cell. The missing scientists were inside, dead from a case of bullet to the head.
"Crap. Looks like they were executed once we began our assault. Whatever they were working on must be big. We have to move to catch who did this…"
They arrived in the hanger just before the shuttle took off. A man dove into the ship headfirst approximately 30 yards in front of the three. None of them had a clear shot, though all three fired.
Nash continued to fire, her revolver's bullets striking against the armored plating of the shuttle uselessly until it was out of sight. She then kicked the empty soda can with her boot.
"He got away. Tiny?"
"No signs of him. Must have one of those fancy cloaking devices."
"Meet us in front of the base in ten."
"I'm sorry, Ma'am. That shot was impossible," said Sidonus.
"Not quite. I tagged him with a fired tracker beacon in the ankle." She smiled. "And his ship. He's lit up like a white trash Christmas on our sensors."
"That was clever," said Tinea.
"A trick I learned from a friend of mine. Still, we failed our mission. Any ideas why?"
"We should have moved faster," Sidonus said. He looked down at the crushed soda can.
"Noted. Also maybe I'm slowing down in my old age."
"But you aren't old, Captain!"
"Human, Tinea. Not Asari. Do you have any mission related comments?"
"No…"
"Ok. Lets head back to that lab, clean out those computers, and pick up a Tupari for the road."