Shepard glanced over at his team, seeing Tali tightly gripping her shotgun and Jack with a pistol in one hand and her other hand a closed fist glowing with biotic power. "Okay we go in with a standard coverage pattern, Tali head left and concentrate on any mechs, Jack to the right and support me while I draw their fire. We hit them hard and fast."
Both girls nodded as the lift slowed to a halt and gave off a soft chime. The doors opened and everyone leapt into action, Tali dived out to her left, hitting the ground behind some crates and Jack shot out of the lift to her right. Shepard took two paces forwards and knelt with his finger on the trigger, eyes scanning the room for both threats and available cover. There was plenty of the latter with crates, tables, chairs and heavy equipment piled everywhere but there was no sign of the former. No threats. Nothing.
"What the hell?" said Jack as she unclenched her fist, letting her biotic flare fade away.
"Commander?" added Tali, looking over at him from behind her cover.
Shepard stood slowly, keeping his rifle raised to his shoulder, and looked around the room. It appeared to be an assembly area, there were crates stacked all around, some partially assembled machinery that looked uncomfortably like mech parts and some sort of medical lab and been setup in the middle of the room, but there were no guards or doors or windows or lifts other than the one they came up in. In fact there appeared to be no other way in or out of the room at all. "Move up." he ordered, not willing to believe or risk that the room was as empty as it appeared.
Spaced out in a line across the cavernous room the 3 assailants moved slowly forward, nerves on a knife edge as they searched for the threat. When he reached the lab setup in the middle of the room Shepard stopped and waved the other two forward, covering their progress towards the back of the room. As they approached the far wall Tali turned to him, "Nothing Commander, this room is empty."
Jack spun around, frantically scanning the empty room with a mixture of desperation and fear in her eyes, "No! Where the fuck is he Shepard? He has to be here. He must!"
Shepard holstered his rifle and shook his head, "I don't know Jack. But he didn't just disappear, if he is not here then there must be an exit somewhere. Relax, we'll find it." Shepard looked over to Tali and asked her to scan the room for anything unusual as he contacted EDI up on the Normandy. "EDI?"
"Yes Commander?"
"Can you get hold of the plans of this tower? We've come to a dead end."
"Retrieving them now Commander."
"Tali will upload her room scans to you, see what you can find." Sitting down on a desk nearby Tali nodded at him and started typing away on her omnitool.
"Receiving it now Commander. I'll begin comparing the scans to the building plans immediately." said EDI. "Commander, there is something else you need to know, a shuttle is heading your way and my analysis shows a high probability that it is coming in response to the communications sent earlier. Projected estimates place it arriving at your location in 58 minutes."
"Understood EDI," replied the Commander, "Joker? Can you intercept it and persuade it not to make planet fall?"
"Negative Commander, the Normandy's shuttle is on its way up with casualties from the explosion. Miranda is sending them here as we are better equipped than the nearby hospitals to handle the sort of injuries they experienced, apparently." replied Joker.
"Understood. Stay where you are and do what you can for the injured. EDI, contact me as soon as you find anything. Shepard out."
"Understood. Logging you out Commander".
Shepard looked around the room again which was to all appearances a dirty, grimy warehouse which appeared to take up the entire floor of the tower and more importantly all of the equipment that he could see looked like it was small enough to have been bought up via the lift, so where the hell their target had gotten to was a mystery. Jack was pacing along the outside wall presumably looking for a hidden door, or so he hoped, and Tali was standing in front of a data terminal hacking through the firewalls. The terminal's screen suddenly flared to life in a wash of pale orange and Tali looked up at Jack before turning to him and beckoning him over with a wave of her hand.
"Commander, you need to see this,' she said quietly.
Looking down at the screen Shepard felt a shiver run through him as he stared at the logo on the screen. Cerberus. Here? That makes no sense he thought. "Tali go through this and see if you can find out what is going on," he asked and looked up towards Jack, "and do it quietly."
Shepard walked over to the nearest table, the equipment on it clearly medical in nature, very advanced by the looks of it and vaguely familiar. He couldn't figure out where he had come across such equipment before or why it was familiar but something itched at the back of his head, like a dream that you cannot quiet remember after waking. He moved over and looked at the next piece of equipment which looked surgical in its purpose and his sense of dread deepened. And there was something else, not only was the equipment familiar but their location in relation to each other was familiar too, he had seen a set up like this before somewhere else. Slowly he turned around, looking at the rest of the equipment. All of the equipment on the tables was medical in nature and all of it familiar too him in a hazy manner. Beyond them was a mix of heavy industrial equipment, assembly machinery and fabrication units, but none of that seemed to cause the same level of discomfort and familiarity to him.
"Commander?" interrupted EDI.
"Go ahead EDI." said Shepard, bringing his hand up to his ear.
"According to the scans Tali sent up the room you are in is 2 metres too small. Based on the location of the lift I would suggest that the north wall is either false, or unnecessarily thick."
"Hold on EDI." instructed Shepard who looked over to Jack, "Jack. The north wall is fake, there must be an exit there somewhere. Look at the floor. Look for anything that seems out of place, too much dirt, wheel marks, anything like that." Jack waved in reply and headed over to the north wall at a jog, eyes scanning the ground.
"Continue EDI."
"I have discovered some further anomalies associated with this building Commander. According to the main frame I am looking at the building's power consumption is off the chart, far beyond anything a building that size should be able to consume. Also it appears to have no registered owner. The main frame's database simple does not contain any data that links this building back to an owner." reported EDI.
"Drug lab, just saying..." muttered Joker in the background.
"Good work EDI, let me know if you find anything else, Shepard out."
"Logging you out Commander."
Shepard looked over the nearby equipment again, shaking his head at the nagging itch that the equipment provoked. Moving over to Tali he watched as she appeared to struggle with the data terminal. "Bosh'tet!" she swore in frustration, "Sorry Commander, there is a secondary encryption layer here that I can't get past. Someone wanted this data well protected."
"Can you dump the data and send it to EDI to decrypt?" asked Shepard. "We have a time limit here with an inbound shuttle."
Tali nodded, "On it Commander. It will only take a moment."
Shepard patted her shoulder in acknowledgement as he walked past her and headed over to Jack. "Anything?"
"Yeah, there is a door somewhere. You were right, the floor is too dirty here to be anything other than a doorway. But I can't find a way to open it."
Inch by inch the two of them started going over the wall on either side looking for any way to open the door with Jack swearing frequently and her anger becoming more and more pronounced until, "Fuck! Yes!" exclaimed Jack as she levered open a small panel about 2 feet away. Activating the control behind the panel caused a section of the wall to slide open revealing a wide but unlit staircase angling up to the left.
"Tali, we need to move out!" called Shepard as he unholstered his rifle and stepped into the stairwell.
Tali came running up behind him with her shotgun in her hands and reported to Shepard that the data had been uploaded to EDI. Shepard nodded and cast one more glance around the room before they left, looking once again over the medical equipment arranged in the middle of the room. Medical equipment. Cerberus. Medical. Shit, he though as the itch in the back of his skull suddenly flared into a memory.
"Shit," he said again, this time out loud, "that equipment, I know where I have seen it before. That medical stuff is almost exactly the same set up I remember seeing when they were reviving me during Project Lazarus. What the hell is going on here?"
"Cerberus!" exclaimed Jack, "It was Cerberus at the restaurant?"
"So it seems. Something is going on but for now let's just find our target." replied Shepard. "And kill him." Jack spat back verbally.
They ascended the stairwell and Shepard waved Tali over to break the encrypted lock. Tali worked quickly and the lock interface flickered over to green almost immediately. Shepard looked at them both, "Same approach as before, standard coverage pattern. Ready?"
The girls nodded and he touched the control to open the door. Shepard ran forward and knelt as Tali moved quickly to the left looking for cover, Jack doing the same on the right.
That the room was not empty was Shepard's first thought. "Mech!" he shouted as he flung himself forward to duck down behind a solid looking crate, "Tali!"
"There are mercs behind it!" yelled out Jack as she spun into cover behind what looked like old mech parts.
"I'm on it Commander" called out Tali, furiously tapping away on her omnitool. Shepard switched his rifle for his rocket launcher and glanced down quickly as the weapon powered up and saw that he had 3 rockets left in the magazine to bring down the mech before things got problematic.
"Jack, flank to the right and target those mercs, I'll keep the mech off Tali." ordered Shepard over the noise of the merc's ineffectual firing. Then he stood and fired a rocket right into the head of the Mech. That will get its attention he thought as he ran behind Tali to the far left of the room, planning to give Jack as much space as he could. Predictably the Mech turned to follow Shepard but unpredictably it didn't bring up its guns. Shepard slid into cover on the far side of the room, bracing for the familiar sound of cannon shells hammering into the cover he was behind but there was nothing, at least not from the mech.
Peering around the edge of his cover he saw Jack advancing down the other side of the room and he watched her throw a huge shockwave into the group of mercs behind the mech. Five of the seven mercs flew backwards landing heavily, one of which never got the chance to recover as Jack followed up the shockwave with burst after lethal burst of pistol fire. A quick glance over to Tali showed she was pinned down hard by two mercs who were using the Mech as cover while they peppered her location with rifle and shotgun fire. Something is wrong, why isn't it firing thought Shepard as he looked back at the mech. It was then that he realised that it wasn't a standard YMIR. Instead it looked like an YMIR with its left arm missing. What the hell is going on thought Shepard.
"Commander, help!" called out Tali as she hid behind her rapidly disintegrating cover. Shepard leaned out from his cover and fired off another rocket. 1 left he thought as the rocket screamed through the air and detonated against the mech's shields, the explosion causing the mercs behind it to pull back. Tali took advantage of the lull and ran over to Shepard, ducking down beside him.
Shepard looked around the corner of the cover again and counted six remaining mercs and watched as Jack dispatched her second before she ducked behind cover. He and Tali stood and ran further along the outside of the room with a barrage of shells from the 5 remaining mercs following them. As they pulled up behind cover Shepard let go of the rocket launcher and drew his rifle, sending a deadly burst into the closest merc, dropping him to the ground.
"Why isn't it shooting Commander?" shouted Tali as she readied her attack.
Damn good question thought Shepard as he sent two more bursts of rifle fire into the remaining mercs. An YMIR Mech is a major headache in a confined space like this, it would rip their cover to pieces in seconds. "Just drop the shields Tali, we are out of room!"
Shepard finished speaking and stood, emptying his rifle clip at the mercs, keeping them suppressed behind the cover they had found. As soon as the mercs had their heads down Shepard took a hard look at the mech, a sense of disquiet growing. What is going on here he thought, but before he could find an answer the mech suddenly reared up on its two legs and threw out a biotic shockwave which slammed Shepard, Tali and the crate they were behind hard against the wall.
"Fuck! That bastard is not an YMIR!" Jack yelled across the room as she stood up and sprayed a series of shots at the mercs position, forcing them to continue to keep their heads down, "Shepard?"
Shepard stood and shoved a still groggy Tali back behind the remaining cover, staggering as a few shells from one of the merc's rifle found their target and smacked into his armour. Throwing himself behind Tali he swore loudly, "What the hell was that?". Tali shook her head as she tried to clear her senses, "Mechs can't do biotics, it is just not possible." she stated.
Jack slid in feet first behind them after having run around the outside of the room, drawing a fusillade of gun fire from the mercs, "We are in trouble Shepard!"
"Tali, I need those shields down! Jack, suppressive fire on 3, ready? 1, 2, 3". Shepard and Jack stood and lay down a withering barrage of gun fire across the width of the room, scattering the mercs and dropping 2 more of them. Just then Tali stood and launched her tech against the Mech which thankfully, like last time, caused the shields to flare and fade away to nothing.
"Yes!" shouted Jack. "Move!" relied Shepard as the mech reared up again in response. Jack and Tali dived to the right and Shepard rolled to the left as another shockwave came barreling through and destroyed their cover. Shepard holstered his rifle and reached over his shoulder for his rocket launcher, which wasn't there. Remembering that he had dropped it earlier he looked around frantically and saw it 3 metres away laying out in the open between him and the new mech. He quickly switched tactics and reached for his shotgun instead, pumping 3 shots into the mech and noticing the mercs starting to come out from cover. "Jack, Tali, the mercs!" he called out.
Jack stood and threw another shockwave down the room, rocking the Mech back a couple of steps and throwing the remaining 2 mercs back through the air. Tali complimented Jack's biotic attack with her shotgun, pumping shot after shot into the Mech while Jack successfully targeted the mercs, managing to kill one and forcing the last one to scramble back behind cover.
The mech began to turn, seeking out its latest assailant and Shepard sprinted out from behind his cover and dove at the rocket launcher, rolling over it and coming up into a kneeling position less than a metre away from the side of the Mech that was towering over him, with the launcher primed and ready. The mech reared up again as it faced Tali and Jack and without hesitation he fired.
The explosion threw Shepard a good 10 metres backwards and the mech toppled over onto the ground in the opposite direct, silent and now nothing more than twisted metal. Jack used her biotics to raise up the last merc as he appeared from behind his cover and Tali sent him crumpling into the wall with a single blast from her shotgun.
In the aftermath of the battle the room was soaked in a deafening silence as Shepard lay still on the floor wondering which bit of him hurt the most. In his opinion it was a photo finish between his right shoulder and left elbow and slowly he began to turn over onto his back. The explosion had left him a bit shaky and he smacked his left elbow onto the hard metal floor in the process, "Oh we have a winner." he groaned as he collapsed onto his back, looking up to the roof and waiting for the swirling lights to fade from in front of his eyes.
"Um... pardon Commander?" He turned his head slightly and the swirling lights began to fade and he found himself looking up into the purple mask of his favourite Quarian, "Commander, are you okay?"
He nodded slowly and with Tali's support he managed to make it up onto his feet, feeling battered and bruised but no more the worse for wear then that.
"Didn't anyone ever tell you that a rocket launcher was not a close support weapon you dumb fuck." said Jack as she approached, handing to him his launcher while smiling.
Shepard smiled back, "Yeah well, I got its attention didn't I? Speaking of which, what the hell was that? Tali?"
Tali let go of Shepard and approached the smouldering pile of metal that used to be the mech and activated her omnitool to scan it. It looked very similar to an YMIR Mech, with the same basic 2 legged structure, the same size and its right arm still contained the standard mass accelerator cannons. However its left arm, where the rocket launcher arm normally existed appeared to have been replaced at the shoulder with a large white 2 foot by 2 foot by 2 foot cube.
"Oh Keelah" said Tali suddenly, backing away from the wreckage, "Keelah," she repeated quietly.
Jack and Shepard both looked at her. "Tali, what is wrong?" ask Shepard.
Tali shook her head in response, bringing her hands up to her mask slowly as she continued to back away from the destroyed mech.
Shepard felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up and moved back, putting some space between him and it. Jack moved over to Tali and grabbed her by the shoulders, "What is it? What's the matter? Tell us!" she asked.
"It… I mean that it is… I mean it is not a... Oh Keelah! What have they done?" said a stunned Tali. Jack responded by shaking her shoulders "Snap out of it quarian! Talk to us."
"That's enough Jack, stop it. Can't you see she is terrified?" said Shepard, who decided he wasn't feeling very secure himself at this point and he drew his rifle, pointing it at the twisted pile of metal.
"Well, she is bloody terrifying me," commented Jack, still gripping Tali by the shoulders.
Tali finally lowered her hands and shook her head again, "That wasn't a mech Commander," she said, "it was..."
"Commander." EDI's voice cut in over their comms link, causing all of them to jump.
"What?" replied Shepard a little more harshly then he meant.
"I have decrypted the data logs you found in the tower and I must inform you that you are in grave danger. This is a Cerberus operation and they are attempting to fuse biotic power into mechs. According to the notes they had some success with a single working model. Be careful."
"Good timing." muttered Jack.
"We already found it EDI, its scrap."
"Way to go Commander!" interrupted Joker over the comms, "See EDI, I told you they would be okay."
"Does it say how they did it EDI?" asked Shepard.
Tali spoke up before EDI could reply "Commander. I... I know..." Shepard walked over to her as she took a deep breath to steady herself. "It wasn't a mech, I mean, the basic shell was an YMIR mech..." she continued.
"But mechs don't have biotics." stated Jack.
Tali shook her head, "No. It wasn't the mech that had the biotics..."
"But that thing threw biotics at us, you saw it." protested Jack.
"It wasn't the mech," persisted Tali, "there... there was something alive inside the mech that was capable of biotics. The entire mech was just a life support and biotic amplifier for whatever was inside."
"What!" said a disbelieving Jack, looking at the mech, "That? But there's no room... what could fit... Oh my god!"
"Commander, Tali is right" reported EDI, "The reports show that all attempts to fuse biotics with mech technology failed so they begun experimenting on Asari by fusing them permanently to huge biotic amps and when that proved to be of a limited success they adapted the amplifiers into the YMIR mech design you just fought."
A look of horror slowly descended over Shepard's face as he spoke, "But the mech isn't big enough to fit an Asari inside…"
"Correct Commander, the lab notes I have here indicate that the researchers discovered that with powerful enough amplifiers only a small amount of organic material was required, provided a consciousness still existed."
"You mean..." began Jack.
"They discovered," continued EDI, "that only the brain, spine and upper part of the central nervous system of an Asari was all that was required to maintain a biotic capability when augmented by amplifiers and life support."
"EDI is correct Commander," commented Tali shakily, "that cube attached to its shoulder is a combination life support system and biotic amplifier and it would appear that the rocket launcher's magazine storage and power supplies were removed to make room for the machinery necessary to contain the... the..."
"The Asari?" supplied Shepard, to which Tali nodded.
"He dies Shepard, for this if nothing else, he dies," growled Jack, "Try to stop me and you will die to. End of discussion."
Shepard stood very still, mentally struggling to control a rage that was welling up from deep down inside. He couldn't be certain, he decided, that he would even attempt to stop Jack when they caught up with their target. In fact he wasn't all that certain that he wouldn't kill the target himself for this, and that discovery revolted him almost as much as the dead monstrosity in front of him did. Damn, damn and double damn Cerberus.
"How many EDI?" Shepard asked quietly.
"I am sorry Commander, I do not understand the question."
"How may Asari died?"
"The notes contain references to 38 separate instances of what they referred to as organic mech supplements. We can assume that the true number is somewhere upwards of that figure."
"Shepard out," he growled and turned to his squad, "There is a shuttle inbound so we move out, now."
The 3 of them checked their weapons and moved over to the far wall to where the bodies of what they now knew to be dead Cerberus soldiers had fallen during the fight. Behind the corpses there was another lift which opened as they approached. Stepping inside revealed a control panel with only one button, labelled 'Top'.
"I guess we know where we are going then." commented Shepard as he pressed the control.
"Yeah, into hell" said Jack.