Chapter 3.
Let me know what you think and please enjoy.
As always the Mass Effect series is owned by Bioware.
It is going to get bumpy
The following day Matt was kept cramped up in the med bay and Chakwas was great, really, but bedside manor only lasted so long before the biotic started to get bored. It was not like he could really get up and move around though, he knew that every time he shifted on the bed and frustrated set his head back down. Some of the crew had come through to see him, everyone that really knew him he guessed, and he was glad for that because it cut through the time like a knife. Jane had come by a handful of times to keep him company when she could and to pass on through to the lab on the end of the hall to talk to their newest resident. Evidently there had been a meeting he had missed while out cold about the mission and it had been decided that at least for now she was going to be hanging around while they were on this mission. From what little small talk the Asari had attempted she just figured that she would be of best help to the team inside a lab, and Matt quickly realized that she had very little in the way of social skills in dealing with Humans.
On the second day when he woke up he had a lot more movement in his extremities and he wanted to be set loose right there. The doc had other plans though and kept him bedridden throughout. So he was stuck again for another excruciating day of boredom. Less people stopped by to check in on him this time, but Jane dropped off two of the books he picked up on the citadel on their last stop so at least he had more to do. That afternoon he heard they were in route to another planet, one of the leads Jane had been given, and they would arrive sometime in the morning. If his sister was talking about taking him on the ground team no one had said anything to him yet. It looked like he was sitting this one out. Fine with him, last one he almost got turned into a pancake. At some point he must have fallen asleep because when he opened his eyes again the ships lights were dimed and it was near silent save that dull hum of the engine. This was his chance with the doc out resting, Matt escaped the med bay.
"Exc…use me," a small female voice said from somewhere above him, "Is that you Mr. Shepard?"
Matt squirmed his was back out of the maintenance hatch that led out into main engendering. For the better part of the last half hour his lower half had been sticking out of the crawlspace while he worked on a wiring issue. There had been a sound on the ship since the day he stepped aboard and he finally had some time to figure out just what it was. When he had asked main engineer Adams about it he was told that nothing was wrong, but he was more than welcome to go digging around as long as he did so carefully.
Grime had collected from his time in the space and it was all smudged up on his face, the front of his duty shirt, but he looked to be feeling better now that he was out of the med bay.
"Ah Doctor T'soni what can I do you for?" Matt asked while reaching for a pair of wire cutters that were sitting by a small bag of tools at her feet only to disappear into the hole again.
Confused at the way he was handling the conversation Liara looked puzzled and had to ask, "What exactly are you doing down here at this hour?"
It was late, well past lights out and Matt was working by the emergency lighting he had switched on in the crawlspace. From within the network he was still simi inside of he called back.
"Just tinkering a bit is all Doc," he said working with the wire cutters until he could come back out and set them aside. Seeing that she was not going to move off after a bit of small talk he set himself to sit back against the bulkhead and looked up at her.
Liara was still wearing her field scientist's uniform, but it looked like she had a chance to use the showers since she had been aboard. When he had first seen her some of the color must have been drained from her face because now she almost glowed blue here on the engineering deck. Then there were those eyes, Matt had to be careful to avoid them.
Reaching over he dug into his bag and got out what looked like some sort of electrical tape and asked her, "is something bothering you Liara?"
If she was offended by him not looking her in the eye she didn't seem to show it, in fact she seemed pleased with him just talking to her. It surprised him when she turned and sat down on the floor against the bulkhead like he was, although on the other side of his tool pack with her knees pulled up so that she could wrap her arms around them like a child might, but she didn't look it. From the way she sat Matt could tell she did this a lot, maybe she sat like this when she wanted to think something out?
"Jane tells me that you are not open to the concept of a meld with me to try and figure out what the beacon on Eden Prime was all about," she said looking up at the large drive core that glowed faintly in the light of the dim red emergency lamps, "Is it because you do not trust me?"
Matt set his head back against the bulkhead and sighed, if only it was that simple.
"What did my sister say about trusting you?"
Liara frowned not understanding why he would ask that in response to her question, but answered truthfully, "She said that she trusted me. That the crew might take some time to come around, but that I was a welcome member of the team as long as I wished to be."
Closing his eyes Matt grinned to himself, "Sounds just like her. If she said that then it's good enough for me and I trust you as well, but it's another matter completely to have someone digging around within the confines of my mind." The biotic tilted his head over so that when he opened his eyes he could see the look she was giving him. What he saw was confusion, but also worry and that surprised him. What was she so worried about? "It's not you."
"You have melded with someone before then?" She asked hopeful that she might be able to work out why he was so against it, "It shouldn't have been painful."
Matt lowered his gaze down to his hands and said softly remembering, he could never forget, "It was plenty painful."
Quickly Liara leaned forward upon hearing this and shook her head trying to understand why this was, "It shouldn't have been like that! What happened maybe I can walk you through it? Maybe I can show you what it really feels like? Perhaps…" She trailed off when she saw his eyes; the way they looked off at nothing in particular saddened her. It was not a good memory.
"Not tonight T'Soni," he said leaning back again so that he could flash a forced smile her way, "Met the whole crew yet?"
He was changing the subject and mercifully Liara let him.
Lifting a hand up she pressed a finger to her chin trying to remember everyone, "Sadly I am not the best with names, but Joker is impossible to forget and Tali nearly talked my ear to pieces over this thing," she said pointing up about the drive core, "She in an interesting woman, never had the chance to speak to many Quarians."
The soldier laughed and the scientist looked like she couldn't quite figure out why.
"That is not exactly how you say it. Its, she talked my ear OFF. That's how you say it Doc," he offered with something of a true smile now. It was cute, she was cute, he couldn't think about that.
Liara looked embarrassed and the top of her nose started to flush along with the freckles of her cheeks, "I am sorry, human sayings elude me. As I told your sister I have not interacted with anyone very much since I became an archaeologist let alone Humans. Truthfully I am not very good at," she paused long enough to motion a gloved hand between the two of them, "This. Socializing has never been my thing. I have always been more interested in digging through stacks of books and dirt then going out to parties."
"Plus you don't have ears," Matt said almost questioningly.
To her credit she looked less confused this time and said tilting her head slightly, "I assure you our kind hear in much the same way. Asari just do not have the extruding cartilage humans do."
Matt shook his head and broke off a piece of the black electrical tape, she missed the joke. "Are you settling in otherwise alright then?"
Her knees rose just slightly and she hugged onto them again like she was thinking over the past two days after coming aboard, "Everyone has been kind to me. I am just not used to so many people around is all? Saying things like this you must think me silly, but I miss my dig site." She did perk up slightly and look over his way with those sky blue eyes, ones he didn't meet, "Jane did promise to try and teach me to shoot my pistol. Truthfully I have very little practice with the gun. Oh…and sorry about threatening to kill you with it."
Shepard smiled then took the three pieces of tape he had broken off and reached for her hand, "Don't worry about it," he said while putting one on three of her fingers so they each dangled off for safe keeping while she looked on with some interest, "You would be surprised how often that happens. Really I would have been offended if you didn't at this point it's so common."
Liara sat there wondering why she now had tape on the tips of her fingers and blurted out, "Surely people are not threatening to kill you every time they meet you?!"
The part time mechanic leaned into the crawlspace and used the first bit of tape from her fingers on the wire there in the exposed panel, "Of course not Doc, it was only a joke."
Calming somewhat she let out a breath, "Goddess…of course, sorry." She looked so innocent with much to learn about the galaxy other than what could be found in books. Somewhere inside Matt worried that staying with them for too long would corrupt that innocence.
Matt ducked his head out just long enough to grab the second piece of black tape before heading back in, "We will have to work on your sense of humor. Or at least how to pick up on sarcasm or Joker is going to tear you apart and you will never even notice."
She curled her finger that had the last piece of tape on it thinking silently to herself just as he came out again to take it. His bare fingers hesitated on her gloved palm, but she didn't notice it only smiling helpfully when he reached for it. The last bit of tape on and the cover to that section shoved back into place Matt squirmed his way out completely from the crawlspace and rubbed the back of his hand across his damp dusty forehead.
"You need a shower Lieutenant," Liara said smiling at his messy appearance.
Matt tossed the few tools he had left out into the bag then closed it up, "Afraid it's just Matt now. Or Snackbox, but only the guys in boot called me that on account of me having to eat constantly to keep up my stamina for biotics."
"Snackbox?" she said as if trying out the nickname, "Somehow I don't see that as fitting for you."
He stood up all the way with the small tool bag in hand extending the other to help her up, "Yeah that's what I always said."
Liara took the offer and got to her feet, taking a moment to dust out her outfit before speaking to him again, "Will you are least think over the meld more please Matt? I have been studying Protheans my entire professional career and have never come across a working beacon like that. The things trapped within the vision could unlock thousands of years of history."
"I can almost promise that all it gave me was a headache, that and some bad dreams," he tried to get her to understand while looking off away from her towards where Tali was stretched out on a cot on the far side of main engineering silently sleeping. It was a small ship, people had to grab shut eye where they could if they didn't want to use the hot pods.
The meld still scared him, all he wanted to do was to forget that day, but because of the last meld he had that was never going to happen, "I will…think it over T'Soni." She seemed to brighten at the prospect, but he held up a hand between them, "Please don't get your hopes up though. No promises, right now I would rather track down this Saren without digging through my head."
Instantly she deflated looking down at her hands, "Thank you for reconsidering it."
"Oh no, I should be thanking you for what you did," he said with a warm smile and truth to his voice that showed in his eyes.
Confused she searched his emerald hues that were actually meeting hers for the first time after very few glances during their conversation, "I don't understand. You were the one that kept us from being crushed down at the site. The only one who should be thanked here is you Shepard."
His wide shoulders shrugged and he moved to head out of the main engineering room, maybe to get something to eat up in the mess, but as he passed her he gave her another quick look out of the corner of his eye, "That may be, but I remember who pulled me out from under it at the last second."
The drive core once again was the only sound softly buzzing in the room and perhaps the ship, but at least for now an estranged scientist there in the faint glow radiating off of it felt a bit more welcome.
"If you can learn one trick the most important thing to do is to try and stay calm," Jane said warmly while watching the Asari, "In a fight the person that stays calm always has the advantage."
It was fairly early morning and the Normandy was still a couple hours out from their destination so Jane was taking some time to try and improve the scientists aim. Or at least attempt to boost her confidence a bit, they were going to need her. Since it was a smaller ship the only place you could do something like this was down in the cargo hold with electric targets and blanks. The shots might be harmless, but the gun still sounded and recoiled the way it should in live fire. When they came down Garrus had been more than happy to help the two of them clear out enough space so that they could shoot from near the elevator back towards the cargo bay door, they had their little range. Most everyone that was usually in the bay had left them alone to grab some chow, but for Garrus working on the Mako for the next mission what had to be the sixth systems check and Matt sitting off to the other side of the bay reading one of his books while practicing his biotic control with his other hand quietly.
"When you say it like that you make it sound so easy, but the last time I thought I was going to have to defend myself I was shaking like a tree Shepard," Liara said inspecting the gun she had been given to replace the one she had. It was a Kessler model made by a human company back on earth, but it was a much better fit for her smaller frame. The kick was not nearly as strong and the weapon was lighter than that cannon she had been carrying around.
"Just Jane Liara, can get kind of confusing because of my brother," she said smiling at how Liara was trying to be so formal, this was a military ship, people saluted, but this was like old world manors.
Quickly the Asari looked past her instructor and noticed Matt sitting reading with the blue biotic orb bouncing around his hand in a familiar way, "Right, of course Jane. Shall we try again?"
Jane nodded and stepped up to her using her hands to adjust her form. When they started she explained the proper stance and where to hold her arms, but every time she set to shoot the more experienced woman was still helping her find the right pose with gentle urges. That morning when Jane got up and came to find Liara she found her already up in the mess hall sitting at a table looking over a data pad. It was early, even early for her and Jane always got up before most of the ship, and it had surprised her. When she asked what was on the pad Liara had said that it was information on humans and she had blushed profusely trying to explain how she knew very little about their customs. Ever the scientist Jane had said.
After she made sure she was right where she needed to be Jane moved just out of her space and watched, "Alright…remember to squeeze the trigger. Go ahead."
Liara had her brows scrunched together in her focus, wanting to get this right so she didn't disappointed the Commander who was taking the time to try and teach her. When she felt like she was ready she slowly pulled back on the trigger and the gun went off loudly in the near silent cargo bay. She looked disappointed, it had hit the target, but registered a bit off to the right of the intended mark enough to be a miss.
"Hey, you think I did it right the first time?" Jane said trying to cheer her up glancing down at the target then back to her. That whole morning she had been surprised how closely she had been listened to and how eager Liara had been to show results. It felt like the woman felt she had something to prove jane.
"Anymore tips?" Liara asked her instructor hopefully trying to not look to disappointed at her progress.
Behind them Matt said without looking up from his book or his practice," Aim a little more towards the left."
It was so level and near serious sounding that the Asari didn't catch on at first. "Matt is just messing with you Liara and being…" Jane said while moving around so that she could stand just behind her student," Very unhelpful just ignore him." This time she had another idea and started to reach her arms in around the other woman's form from behind only hesitating a moment, "May I?"
Glancing over her shoulder those blue eyes met those of Janes and she smiled, "Of course."
The Commander pressed herself close to the back of the smaller Asari and wrapped her arms around her so that she could mimic the needed stance and aim. Extending out her left hand she set it so that the two Liara had wrapped around the butt of the gun could rest comfortably in her palm as a sort of rest. Jane's head was right beside the woman's looking down the barrel of the gun along with her to the target.
When she had the two of them where she thought they needed to be Jane said softly as to try and calm the girl, "Alright…nice and …slow."
When Liara took aim and started to pull the trigger on the gun Jane felt it and halted her advance.
"Slower than that," she offered
"But how am I going to shoot in combat if I go this slowly?" Liara said unable to keep the frustrated feeling from her voice.
Lips parted Jane laughed a bit at this and nodded brushing her hair against the skin of the woman's neck because of their proximity, "Small steps first. Once you get the motion down the repetition makes doing it quickly very easy. Trust me Liara."
She could feel the girl swallow her unease and smile though Jane could not see it, "I do."
"Alright, again, this time slower and keep your eyes on the target."
The bay fell into near silence while the Asari considered her shot for much longer this time, but unlike the last time when the sound of the gun going off deafened the small space for a fraction of a second it registered a hit just off center. A near perfect shot. Specter and scientist looked pleased. One more than the other, Liara was smiling brightly pointing at the target almost instantly after pulling away from Jane.
"I did it!" she shouted in triumph like she had just won some sort of prize.
Red hair was pushed back over an ear and Jane just smiled, "Congratulations," She had to at least let her have that, it was not like enemies were going to sit still or wait for you to get a shot off in live combat. Baby steps.
After they had gotten back from Therum Jane had reported back to the Council on the mission. They had worried that T'Soni might be some sort of plant to get information on their side and suggested that she be brought into C-Sec immediately. Jane at the time had given it some thought, but had decided against it at the time. Now that she had the time to get to know Liara a bit more she was angry at herself for ever considering it. She might not be military like the rest of them on the ship, but she could be trusted. Whether that was because she was to ignorant of the real world or not Jane couldn't be sure, but a little innocence is just what this mission needed.
"Well you better get back to practicing Liara we will be at our next dock in a couple of hours and you are going to be coming with," Jane said pressing her hands into the N7 leather jacket she was wearing, a usual clothing option to find her in when not in regulation uniform.
She looked shocked at that revelation, "But..i.."
Jane just held up a hand and smiled, "Not to worry Liara I am not expecting you to fight or anything, but I want you along in case we come across any more Prothean artifacts. I know I wouldn't know how to deal with any of them."
"As long as you are sure," Liara said still sounding plenty unsure herself.
She just needed a nudge. Jane reached out and set a hand on the woman's shoulder and smiled trying to project some of her own confidence that would be enough for the both of them, "Trust me T'Soni, we can look out for you if it gets tough. Besides we are taking Williams, she is one of the better shots I know as well as Wrex and Wrex, well he is a Krogan."
They both laughed at that and Liara shook her head, "I suppose that is as best protection as I could get."
Shepard checked her Omni for the current time and status of the ship and sighed, "I have to see to some pre-mission things. You keep practicing and by the time we hit the ground I am sure you will be able to at least cover the three of us a bit if it comes to that." Jane said with a smile pointing at her then the targets, "That's an order T'Soni."
Liara nodded and smiled a playful one that tugged at the corner of her lips while Jane walked off leaving her there. Not long after she raised the gun and went back to practice, she didn't want to let anyone down.
Feros, a long dead world left behind the Protheans covered almost completely with their decrepit buildings hardly seemed like the place for a human colony, but a company had seen some reason to come here so they dug in. From what the reports had said and what Jane had seen back at the main colony they had been through rough times with many more to follow. The place was in a sorry state of disrepair with equipment breaking down here and there. After getting permission by the leader of the establishment the Commander had asked Garrus and Tali to come off ship and look into repairing some of the broken tech. At first the colonist had looked hesitant to having strangers poking around, aliens especially, but after Tali had fixed one of their generators in under five minutes they were leading the little Quarian around excitedly while Garrus looked out for her. Jane had been pleased to see that, many Quarians were treated like second class citizens across the galaxy.
For her squad though it was another bumpy ride in a Mako to try and find the home base of the Geth that had been harassing the colonists. The leader had said they seemed to be trying to get in and get something within the colony, but as to what he couldn't be sure. Prothean's settled here over fifty thousand years ago and even though the construction of the massive skyways like the one they were driving in the Mako on right now were impressive they were crumbling all around them. On more than one occasion they had to use the booster jets on the bottom of the tank to help clear a small gap. It was a full load out mission so that meant weapons and armor around for the lot of them, even Liara, who ended up having to wear one of Williams since she didn't have one of her own.
"Heads up there is something attached to the side of the building up here Commander," Ash called from the driver's seat up front of the tank, the team had insisted that she drive, "Looks Geth."
Jane had to get around Wrex who was manning the gun taking out straggling Geth while they drove to get to the front of the tank. Sure enough looking through the front windscreen there were a couple of their smaller ships latched right onto the side of the building they had been directed to. That didn't looked good.
"Any ideas Commander?"
"Nobody had seen the Geth for over a hundred years before Eden Prime, who knows what they are up to now helping Saren," Jane said glancing down that the navigation map that showed there was an underground garage they could get into the building from up ahead. "Take that next right and park it. We are going the rest of the way off foot. Keep helmets on, we don't know what these guys are carrying."
Ash turned the wheel and the tank swerved at the command darting with a bit of a skid from the back towers to the right down into the black of the garage. At direction she brought the tank over to the far side where there were what looked like some stairs and brought the hulking piece of metal to a stop. With the engine off the tank was quiet, that was until Wrex unloaded a mass shell into a nearby Geth with a hearty laugh.
"Stupid machines," he said happily.
"Alright everyone out," Jane ordered checking her weapon then opening the side hatch so that she could hop down to the pavement. She swept her weapon left, right, center then called behind her over the helmet coms to the rest of the, "Alright clear."
One at a time the three of them came crawling out of the cramped tank. Ash, Liara, then Wrex all sporting their weapons of choice quickly taking a look around then waiting for the call from jane.
"Ok," Jane said looking off towards the stairs, "I have point; Ash will come up second followed by Liara. Wrex you got the back and I want you to stick close to our resident scientist."
The Krogan reached back and undid the clasp on his large shot gun and brought it around so it could extend into full size ready to be brought to bear, "Safer here than in her own home Shepard."
The four person squad headed for the stairs with Jane in the lead and started to make their way up. From what they had seen on the outside whatever the Geth were doing was several stories up so they had some flights to climb. Fifteen stories later Jane checked the hallway, like she had done for the last five, but this time instead of just heading for the next flight she called for the other three to stop. Geth were everywhere, at least six of them scattered about looking at stations like what Jane and Matt had found Liara researching back on Therum. They seemed to be looking for something, lucky for them that something looked it had not been found yet.
"Ash back me up, Liara and Wrex stay in cover," Jane said without looking back at them priming a grenade in her offhand.
Chunking the grenade at the farthest Geth Jane broke cover taking down the nearest with a well places three round burst right into his optic port before anyone of them could react. Dropping to her knees just after the shots she rolled across the room coming up behind a chunk of the upper floor that had fallen down from decay and waited for the grenade to go off.
"One….two…," she counted to herself just before it exploded on the other side of the room.
Jane popped up from behind her cover unleashing a carnage blast from her shotgun she had worked free while under cover sending a Geth flying across the room in many more pieces then when he started dispatching a second at nearly the same time as the well trained solider dropped back down behind cover. Four down.
"Now Ash," Jane said calmly over the com.
From the doorway Williams ducked her head outside of the stairway door and unleashed her own rifle at the nearest Geth catching him by surprise and riddling him with bullets. The remaining Geth turned and returned fire, but by that time Ash had already ducked back into the cover of the concrete walled stairway and didn't even have to worry about the bullets meeting her shields.
Jane stood up and unleashed one more carnage blast right into the back of the turned Geth then headed back over to the doorway, "Clear come on out. Liara see if you can figure out what they were looking for, Wrex stay with her. Ash lets go to the next floor and see if there is anything on the next floor."
Wrex didn't looked too pleased with babysitting, but didn't say anything allowed just following the little Asari he was guarding into the space helping her pick the dormant Geth off of the stations that they had been scattered atop of.
Williams and Shepard headed for the next floor adrenaline now rushing through them from the short firefight. The next floor was not as destroyed as the last. Many of the walls were still up which was unfortunate because it meant that they were going to be forced to go room to room clearing it. Making that known with the needed hand signals the both of them started the process. One goes in while the other hangs by the door to cover the hall. They switched off each time until they rounded the corner at the far side of the building and Jane almost ran over Ashley not expecting her to stop so suddenly.
"Found it," Ashley said over the com coming to a crouch at the corner quickly darting her head back from around the corner, "Large group of them crouched down over there almost looked like they might be praying if I thought they believed in that sort of thing," she said while checking her gun and loading up anti synthetic rounds, "Which I don't."
Yeah that would be odd, Jane though from where she stood over Ash that was crouched. Taking one look around the corner told her that they probably shouldn't go in without the other two here. Unlike downstairs there were a couple of the larger ones, those were known for charging, and she counted three with rocket launchers.
"Ash switch to your sniper rifle and be ready to take down the big one on the left," Jane said while darting across the hallway until she was on the opposing corner with both of them looking down the hallway at the enemy. At least they had to come straight at them, it would funnel them down the hall.
Without questioning why Williams switched over and loaded the riffle just like she had done a second ago to her assault variant that she carried most of the time. She was not the best shot with this type of rifle, but hitting something that big from this distance would be a cake walk.
Jane held her hand up to the side of the helmet and switched channels so that she could speak to the two below, "Wrex, Liara get up here we have a larger group to deal with."
"Aye Commander," The heavy Krogan answered and Jane was sure that he sounded excited.
Down the hall one of the shock troopers got up from its crouched position and looked right down the hall at Ashley. If they were wondering if they had been spotted they didn't have to wait long to fight out when shots rang out in their direction from the unit.
"Weapons free!" Jane shouted unleashing her assault rifle down the hallway as well as a grenade that stuck to the floor about halfway between them and the target to keep them back.
The rest of the units mimicked the first crackling with energy then coming to life extending to full hight only to turn and start firing at the two soldiers. Just like Jane had wanted Ash waited till the biggest one of the left stood up all the way then picked out something important and removed it with the help of her rifle leaving it in a heap back where it had been crouching.
"Three down Commander they are moving down the hallway," Ash said while reloading her rifle.
Jane ducked back behind her corner after several Geth turned and fired at her having to retreat to safety. Upon hearing the word from Ash though she switched back to her shotgun and unleashed a blind carnage down the hallway, but was unable to see if it hit anything. They were getting closer.
Urgently Jane held her hand back up to her helmet and shouted, "Where are you two!?"
That was when the hallway exploded, not because of the grenade she threw from before, it didn't have the force to break the concrete walls so completely. Krogan mass barreled right into the side of the other large Geth and slammed it up against the far wall with a satisfying crunch. There they were. Liara slid in behind Ashley with her pistol in hand, but at least it wasn't shaking.
"About time I get to fight something Shepard!" Wrex shouted down from the much wider hall, but one glance around the corner she saw the remaining handful of Geth turn and start firing at the exposed Krogan. Even with his impressive endurance and barriers he wouldn't last long.
"Break cover!" she shouted over the gunfire and rounded the wall and stood up in the open. With how Wrex made his entrance the hallway was now just a large room.
Jane couldn't know if the two were behind her when she past Wrex who was dropping the large Geth so that she could fire her shotgun near point blank on a trooper that had advanced on their large ally rocking the synthetic back to the cold floor. Wrex saw the Geth go down, but was already focused on one behind a half wall and ran right over it to grapple with it. That left just three, one rocket trooper among them that worried Jane. Instead of waiting on her overheated shotgun she dropped it and drew her sidearm bringing it to bare just before the trooper got his shot off taking him in the shoulder that was holding the weapon. Down the barrel of the gun she was about to dispatch the remaining three when they were suddenly illuminated in a bright blue light and taken off of their feet tumbling around in the air helplessly. Only making her falter for a second Jane fired three more times, each right through the central processing unit on each of them causing the "life" to go out of them.
"All down," She said looking over a Wrex who looking like he might be considering what piece to take as a souvenir, "Careful they might be set to self-destruct if tampered with." The large battle master just grunted and took the hand-off of the synthetic, luckily it didn't explode.
Ashley and Liara were still down at the end of the hall with their weapons raised when Jane finished collecting her shotgun and met up with them. The soldier's training already had her checking her equipment and grenades in case there was a counter attack. It was good habit and Jane was happy to see it, Mat and her were N7, as to Ash's training she couldn't have known how good it was. If something like this was ingrained into her it couldn't be that bad. Jane could count on her. Liara stowed her pistol when the Specter came back over and was trying to look past toward the carnage of what was left in the room.
"Are you alright Liara?" Jane asked bringing up her Omni tool to scan the surrounding area for more activity.
Liara nodded sounding out of breath from sprinting up the stairs to meet them as well as the ensuing fight, "Yes Commander I trust you are as well?"
"Mhm, I am guessing those biotic's were yours?"
"Yes did I do something wrong? You looked like you might need the extra help," she said with a bit of worry in her voice that she might have done something wrong.
Jane looked up from her Omni tool and smiled behind the faceplate of her helmet shaking her head, "Not at all, just was not expecting it is all. My brother can't do a singularity. He doesn't have the control yet, but he has been practicing, could come in very handy nice work."
She left the two of them to collect themselves and headed back into the room where the ship was latched onto the side of the building with the Geth bodies strewn about. There were markings etched into the side of the ship like some sort of writing, only she had never seen anything like it before she doubted anyone else on the team would be able to make anything of it. Off to the side of the claws was what looked like a workstation still powered up attached to the ship with what was previously being worked on.
"Liara come see what you can make of it," Jane shouted back down the hallway to where she had left the scientist.
Wrex was up and checking each and every Geth for signs of life, shooting here and there when he thought he saw something move. Liara gave him a wide berth when she came over to see what the Commander had found. Jane just stepped aside and let her work watching her lean over the workstation and starts to type away. It didn't look like she found something right away, but after a few moments she had something for sure.
"It says here that they were looking for some sort of plant," she said while tracing a finger over the information on the screen in a language Jane couldn't hope to understand, "Saren had them come here because it has some sort of capacity to control people."
Jane frowned and looked back the way they came checking on Ash who was now watching their exit, "Terrific, did they know where it was?"
After a couple of seconds and a few more keystrokes Liara looked up from the screen, "It's called the Thorian and its located under a colony," she said with a sense of dread in her voice. "The one we just left."
"Shit! The one that's an hour and a half drive back the way we came," Jane growled reaching for the com on her Omni tool that would let her talk with the Normandy back in dock near the colony, "Joker come in we have a problem with the colony."
She didn't have to wait long for the helmsmen to answer, "Roger that Commander they have been pounding at the airlock for the better part of the last ten minutes. After you left the colony was fine, but in the last twenty minutes Garrus said that it all went to hell like the colonist just started attacking the two of them and destroying everything."
That didn't sound good; if the Thorian could throw a switch like that she worried how long it would take to affect her on people. Who did she have back there? Tali and Garrus were already at the site, but only Matt was mission certified to help them and he was still recovering. Just then she got her answer.
"Jane its Matt, Garrus and Tali are holed up in some storage building to keep the colonist from getting to them," he said between what sounded like putting his gear on, "I am going to go and support them. It's just the colonist without weapons. Shouldn't be a problem."
Considering her options it was the only thing that made sense, but there was one problem, "The colonist are being controlled by some sort of alien plant called the Thorian Matt, don't kill them. We can probably bring them back around after we take the thing out. My team is heading out now," Jane said while motioning everyone towards the stairwell, "Just have to get rid of a couple Geth ships then we are an hour out in the Mako if we punch it, I will drive."
Over the com Matt chuckled and answered, "Roger that, concussion rounds only. May god have mercy on your squad," he said tauntingly over the com.
Jane smacked the button on her Omni to cut the com off just after getting the last word in, "I drive fine!"