Liara saw Shepard go down and roll behind cover. She was going to drop back to check on Samantha, but saw the Chief slide in beside her. Since Shepard was being taken care of, T'Soni focused her energies on the person that injured her love. She was furious, and tossed a biotic throw with all her power that launched the sniper like a rocket, throwing him across the entire room and smashing him into the opposite wall. He did not get up. That still left one guard upstairs and one down. Tali's drone was pestering the upstairs guard and had weakened his shields significantly, so Liara finished him off easily with her Shuriken. Tali launched a replacement drone to chase the sole remaining ERCS, who was still downstairs.
Shepard wasn't moving, and Ashley was worried. Shit! She jumped up and crossed the open area, sliding into cover beside the commander, who grunted slightly when Ash bumped to a stop against her side. Thank God, she's alive! Ash leaned out and blasted off a few rounds from her assault rifle and ducked back into cover. She could tell Liara was pissed off, and watched her launch a bolt that made the room echo, practically ripping that sniper in half, then immediately turning and using her SMG to finish off the only upstairs guard still standing. Holy shit! I gotta remember to never make T'Soni mad! All the upper level guards were down and Tali and Liara were handling the remaining guy well enough on their own, so Ash focused on the commander. She released the catches on Shepard's armor and peeled it open. Ashley cussed and pulled out her field med kit. It wasn't a through and through, so the bullet lodged somewhere inside, and Ash had to dig. Ash ripped open a small packet of bleed stop and dumped it in the hole, slowing the flow so Shepard wouldn't bleed too much while Ash worked. Using her omnitool scanner and forceps, she reached in and grabbed the offending bullet and removed it. It had probably dragged back and forth across that rib, tearing Shepard's side oblique muscles with every breath. That had to hurt like a bitch. No wonder she's out. She apologized, "Sorry, Shepard," and dumped in a dose of antiseptic rinse to cleanse the wound.
Shepard screamed herself awake, her hand clamping down on the thigh of the person sitting next to her. "Hey! Ease up there, Skipper! I'm using most of my med kit on you... I won't have anything to fix my leg if you try to rip a chunk off!" Ashley spoke while she started dumping medigel onto the wound and Shepard's grip on her thigh loosened as the pain killing properties started to take effect. Shepard's scream brought Liara and Tali running up the stairs, guns drawn.
As they arrived, Shepard finally opened her eyes and looked around. Everyone knew she was going to be alright when she slapped a forced grin on her face and let out a pained laugh. "Shit. I might as well just go back to the ship and leave the Chief in charge. Y'all did fine without me."
Tali laughed. "Oh no you don't, Shepard! I told you I didn't want the job. You have to stick around to take the fire, because I'm not doing it for you anymore. I'm sure no one else wants to do it either!"
Shepard laid still for a few more minutes, until her breathing smoothed out and the pain meds took full effect. As she was refastening her armor, Liara knelt down at her side to help her stand. Liara didn't say a word, but when Samantha looked at her, the Asari's concern was written all over her face. Shepard spoke softly, "Sorry, Blue. Didn't mean to worry you. Help me up?" Liara didn't trust her voice, so only nodded and offered her support until the commander was firmly standing on her own two feet.
Tali had retrieved Shepard's shotgun, and walked over to return it. "This is what worried me, Shepard. I've never seen you drop a weapon. Ever. Even when that rocket drone blasted you silly."
Shepard laughed softly. "You just haven't been with me long enough yet, Tali. I've been known to drop all kinds of things. You'll see. Ash, see if you can restock your med kit from supplies here in the office; I'll check some of the other storage bins for anything good; Quin owes us that much for this mess. Now, let's get on with it. I'm already tired of this planet."
As they stepped out of the elevator back at the main level, they were met by Parasini. "Commander, there have been reports of noise from the Synthetic Insights' office. Would you know anything about it?"
Shepard still didn't trust Parasini's motives, so responded, "It's probably Anoleis' thugs ripping the place apart."
Parasini came back with "Smart ass, huh? That's fine, I can work with that. Meet me at the hotel for a drink, before you talk to Quin. I'll be waiting." She vanished down the hallway before Shepard could ask any questions. Shepard set a nice slow pace toward the hotel, trying to gently stretch her side and get a feel for her range of motion. She needed to know her limits before the next fight. When they reached the bar, Parasini was waiting. She reintroduced herself as Noverian Internal Affairs, and she had been working undercover for six months. She wanted Quin to testify before the Executive Board to take Anoleis down for corruption. Quin's evidence and testimony was all she needed to close the case. Parasini promised Shepard any access she needed if she could convince Quin to testify, and Shepard took her up on the offer. The next challenge was to convince Quin to do it. Shepard won the debate by telling Quin the Executive Board was the investigative authority, and he would gain the board's favor by helping them out, and it would certainly help Synthetic Insights to have a favorable board opinion toward their company. Parasini was very happy, and provided Shepard with a garage pass and access to a Mako.
When the trio reached the garage, an ERCS guard stopped them, but only momentarily, immediately recognizing the pass issued by Parasini. The team entered the garage, and Shepard almost immediately noticed Geth along the back wall, seeing at least two Destroyers and a Stalker. The commander lit up one of the Destroyers with her SMG, following it up with a warp, while Liara targeted the Stalker with a singularity, followed up with her Shuriken. Tali launched an attack drone, and set to work pulling up an overload to hit the second Destroyer's shields. The first Destroyer went down, and the second charged forward, closing the gap incredibly quickly. Tali and Liara were on the spot, dropping its shields and slamming the charging Destroyer with a warp at close range. From the background, Ashley had been busy covering her teammates with her sniper, helping Liara finish the Stalker and the second Destroyer. She had also taken down a Rocket Trooper before it got off a single shot. With the garage now cleared, they had access to the Mako. It was a standard version, so really only took three personnel. Shepard looked at her team. "I normally have Wrex with me, so I'm sure the four of us can fit. Any objections or a volunteer to stay behind?" She glanced across everyone's face and saw nothing but silent steely glares across the board. "Alright, then. Mount up. We're going to Peak 15..."
When they exited the garage, the team realized just how bad the weather really was. Ash thought there was a reason ground transportation was suspended, Tali said something to Shepard about not getting them killed, and Liara wished Ashley was behind the wheel instead of Samantha. No one appreciated Shepard's apparent inability to drive the Mako well, but the commander surprised them. In poor weather, she actually drove...safely; the team was amazed, and after Tali's initial remark, no one commented during the whole trip. The roads were extremely slick, and the path wove up the side of the mountain, with no guard rails or safety features of any kind. What should have been the safest portions of the trip, where they had to cross bridges or go through tunnels, were deadly choke points, and they faced numerous types of Geth and turrets. Using basically the same types of tactics they used at Feros to cross the Skyway, even with the blizzard, Samantha Shepard delivered them, unharmed, to their destination; they had arrived. They got out of the Mako and stood before the doors of the gigantic facility that had suddenly loomed out of the blizzard in front of them. Shepard looked to Liara, catching her eyes. One last check before plunging into the belly of the beast, Shepard asked her, "Dr T'Soni. You ready?"
A flicker of doubt, so quick Shepard questioned whether she had actually seen it or not, was replaced by a look filled with grim determination before Liara spoke her short answer accompanied with a nod of her head. "Yes, Commander." The brevity of the response did nothing to lessen the tension in the air as they opened the doorway and stepped into the Peak 15 Research Center.
The team entered through a small anteroom that obviously acted as a buffer between the severe exterior conditions and the inside of the facility. Tali piped up, "We have hostiles inside, Shepard. I'm picking up at least three signatures." With a signal from the commander, the team fell into a battle formation with her and Ashley in the front, Liara and Tali as support bringing up the rear.
As they came into the main garage, Shepard started barking orders, "T'Soni, Krogan, left flank! Tali, overload, Juggernaut! Ash, cover fire!" Shepard sprinted into the room to the first pile of crates where she could gain cover, launching a warp as she ran. Tali had already started working up an overload as soon as she had detected enemies, so was able to launch it almost as soon as Shepard called out her target. The Juggernaut's shields dropped immediately, and between the warp and combined weapons fire, it was the first target down.
Directly behind the Juggernaut were a second Krogan and a Geth repair drone. Shepard dropped back and started to roll to the right in a flanking maneuver, when she saw Liara charge up to the cover the commander had just vacated. Shepard shouted out, "Tali, take out that repair drone before we have to kill these damn things twice!" Tali focused her attack to keep the repair drone from working, while Liara threw a warp, dropping the Krogan's shields. Shepard immediately aborted the flanking maneuver and pulled on her biotics to charge the Krogan before he got his shields back up, smashing into him with incredible force and sending him flying.
Ash finished him off and called out, "Shepard, cover! Shock, Destroyer and Krogan inbound!" Shepard dived behind a small crate to gain at least limited cover when the Destroyer opened fire, but nothing even got close because Liara had slid in right behind her and thrown up a barrier. Tali had taken down the repair drone, and initialized a hack on the Shock Troop while Liara and Shepard fired from each side of the small crate they were behind. Liara threw out a biotic lift and suspended the last Krogan, who Shepard then blasted across the room with a warp. With the hacked Shock Trooper's help, the Destroyer went down pretty fast. The team of four finished off the Shock Trooper, and then stopped to take a breather and plan their next move.
A virtual intelligence (VI) automated warning notice spoke in the background, about the facility suffering a great deal of damage, biohazard materials being present throughout the facility and the VI user interface being off-line. Tali piped in about the need to get the power reactors back up if they wanted access to any of the automated systems. Shepard grumbled, "Would be nice if we could at least get a map of the damn place," and they pressed onward. The group passed through a small hallway that had turrets facing in, not out, and Shepard cussed under her breath. "Shit. We've definitely got unfriendlies in here... the turrets are faced to keep something in, not us out!"
Liara answered thoughtfully, "Perhaps it is an automated defense system, preventing escape of Geth that have infiltrated the facility?"
Ashley, who had been pretty quiet to this point other than letting her sniper do the talking, added, "Just hope they don't try to keep us from leaving once we cross the threshold!" The group fell into an uncomfortable silence as they moved on. They came to the end of the hallway and found an elevator; with no other options, they climbed aboard and pressed the button, prepared for whatever the doors revealed at the other end.
When the doors opened, the temperature dropped significantly; this part of the facility had suffered severe damage, the windows were shattered, and snow had blown in and drifted up against the walls. Another door was ahead, and sensors indicated at least five hostiles on the other side. Shepard paused briefly before opening the door, glancing quickly across the squad and got ready indications from them all before she and Ashley launched into the room. Directly ahead was a Geth Trooper with only light shields, and a well placed shot from Ash, combined with Shepard's assault rifle, quickly took it out of the picture. An overload and a warp from Tali and Liara took care of another Geth on the left flank before Shepard even knew what type of platform it was. The room was some type of mess hall, tables and chairs overturned and scattered, with two tall concrete dividers separating the room into sections. The dividers provided great cover...for the Geth. As Shepard rounded the end of the first divider, she came face to face with a Shock Trooper. She immediately dropped and rolled, trying to evade, but not before the Trooper blasted her at close range, completely dropping her shields.
Liara watched in horror, not having a line of sight on the Geth, unable to do anything to help; she ran forward to get better positioned, praying Samantha lived long enough for it to matter. Tali launched an attack drone and knew it would not get there in time. Ashley did the only thing she could; she fired off one shot from her sniper and charged the Geth, spinning her rifle around and slamming the butt of the rifle into the barrel of the Geth assault rifle. It was enough. Throwing off the Geth's aim, it bought critical time for Shepard to come up onto one knee and rip the Trooper's shields down with her assault rifle. The commander felt a charge of static electricity building over her right shoulder before she saw the ball of blue power pick up the Geth and send it careening to the far wall where it crumpled into an immobile heap. Shepard was surprised by a sharp cuff on the rear of her helmet. She glanced back over her shoulder, starting a sentence, "What the..." but her words died when she saw the expression on Liara's face. Fear? Shepard's eyes narrowed in realization, and she gave an acknowledging nod, before facing forward and standing up. She had been careless, and gotten lucky when her team responded quickly enough to save her ass. Can't let that happen again...I have someone counting on me, Samantha, not the commander, being here tomorrow. Shepard's lips quirked up for just an instant at the thought before she refocused and pressed forward.
Head back in the game, Shepard approached the next corner a bit more cautiously, peeking out first, instead of charging recklessly around the corner. She saw two more Troopers, one of which was engaged by Tali's attack drone. Shepard quickly signaled Ash and Tali to finish that one off, then nodded at Liara to follow her to the second partition to flank the last remaining Geth. Liara had put a lot of energy into the last warp she'd thrown, and when Shepard nodded at her, she had seen no blue glow on T'Soni's hands. Not enough time to recharge yet. The commander readied a biotic throw and rolled around the corner. The biotic blast dropped the Geth's shields, and Liara finished it off easily with her Shuriken.
With all the Geth down, the team regrouped in the center of the room in preparation to go upstairs. As they came together, a loud creaking noise and a squeal grabbed their attention, but the sound echoed, and they couldn't tell where it came from. The group all stood together, back to back, checking in all directions; Shepard glanced to the upper deck and saw something that made her blood run cold. Behind a full glass wall, there was a very large creature resembling a brown ant, four feet on the ground, a pair of forward claws, and an upper pair of extendible arms with some sort of pods on the ends. The pods had three petals, and Shepard couldn't tell what they were. Blades? Grapples? As she watched, the creature reared up and squealed again. There was no time to wonder what the hell it was, as Tali yelled out, "I hate spiders!" Shepard's head snapped around just in time to see a green spider-looking thing scuttle across the floor near them, only to be vaporized by Tali's shotgun. There were three or four of them, easily destroyed, apparently more creepy than dangerous, but no one wanted to get bit by one to find out.
Once the immediate threat was eliminated, Shepard called out the creature on the upper deck. There was a chorus of surprised exclamations, Tali with a "Keelah!", Ash with a "What the fuck?", and Liara with her standby "Goddess!" All Shepard could do was think, what the hell are those things? Everyone quickly realized there was more than one, and as the first one cleared the glass hallway into the open, Liara slapped it with a singularity. At the same time, Shepard learned exactly what those pod like appendages were...launchers! As the creature rounded the corner, one of the pods opened and launched green goo, scoring a direct hit on the commander. Her suit toxin alarms immediately started ringing and she tried to warn her teammates of the threat, unsure if any of them heard it above the roar of gunfire. The singularity also captured the second creature as it moved toward the end of the hall, enabling the team to finish off both creatures while they were incapacitated. Shepard shook her head and knelt down, and immediately felt Ash's hand on her shoulder. "Commander, you ok?"
Shepard answered quickly, "Yeah, just feeling a little queasy. Watch that green goo. It went right through my shields like they were nothing and that single shot immediately reduced my toxin filters by twenty percent. Concentrated fire by a couple of them could put us down quick. The scrubbers are working hard to clear it, but my system hasn't recovered yet. Ideas? Anybody?" So much for the idea that if you turn off the heat, everything will die! Whose bright idea was that, anyway?
Liara spoke as the team kept moving, "Xenobiology is not my field; maybe someone in the labs knows." Just then a floor grate exploded upward, and another of the creatures came roaring out of the ducting, once again nailing Shepard with a pile of goo, staggering her on her feet, her system still not recovered from the first shot. The team blasted the creature into nonexistence and everyone glanced warily at the commander.
Shepard looked at the faces in her squad. "Yeah, yeah...ok. Let's hang for a couple until my scrubbers are fully recovered. I really don't want to see my breakfast again. Tali, see if you can hack into that terminal while we wait."
Tali rolled her eyes. "Really, Shepard? See if I can hack it? Don't you really mean to say 'do it' and tell you if there is anything interesting?" Shepard just rolled her eyes at the young Quarian and said nothing; there was no doubt she was a skilled technician, and was in her element. Tali had definitely emerged from her little shy shell and had hacked into the terminal in no time, "It's a personal log, Administrator Tartakovsky, three shipments lost in the Macedon system this month, wishes some transporter named Gregor still carried their stuff. Says no mercs would dare stop him. That's all there is." Shepard nodded, her toxin screener now showing green so she indicated all clear to the team; it was time to move again. They encountered one more of the creatures, easily dispatched, before they finally cleared the mess hall and moved to the next section of the station. An elevator sent them up one more floor into what appeared to be the VI central hub, with hallways going to a tram station on the left, a communications hub straight ahead and the main reactor to the right. There were a few of the little green spider things running around, easily removed, and Shepard looked at Tali, grinning as she said, "Ok, Tali. VI hub. Fix it."
Shepard could see Tali's eyes light up behind her facemask, and could hear the smile in her voice as she said, "yes, ma'am" as she disappeared into the VI core. As Tali returned from the core, the VI, called Mira, came online. After a brief conversation, Shepard ascertained they only needed to get power on and communications up to return the station to fully operational status.
Mira indicated she would be able to provide them a more current and accurate status update after the landlines were repaired, so that became the first task. The landline cables had been automatically ejected when the emergency protocols were implemented. The repair sounded simple enough; they just needed to take the elevator to the roof and plug the lines back in. The team easily accessed the roof via the elevator, and as the external blast door opened, Shepard could readily see the panel that controlled the landline connections. Unfortunately, the minute they cleared the doorway, their sensors lit up with multiple bogeys, at least five of the big creatures and multiple little spider things, more than they could accurately count with all the motion that abruptly exploded around them. The initial onslaught was challenging; with so many dual-barreled assailants, all four team members got slammed by toxic goo. Since Feros, Liara had enhanced her toxin seals and filters, so her contamination was minimal, along with Tali's, due to her standard envirosuit design, so the two of them were back at full force in no time. Shepard and Liara managed to limit the front line assault with a throw and a singularity, while Ashley dropped to a knee and started picking off anything the singularity pulled in. Tali launched an attack drone that found the little spider things easy pickings and then started blasting away with her shotgun. Liara concentrated on maintaining her singularity, while blasting away with her SMG. As the remaining bugs were being eliminated, the last big ant thing got in one more shot on Shepard before she finished it off with a lift and her assault rifle. My toxin filters are definitely getting a workout on this mission! After a quick reconnaissance of the roof to pick up any useful items and to let Shepard and Ashley's systems fully recover, the team retired to the elevator and returned to the central hub.
The team then headed off to the reactor; according to the VI, all they needed to do was reopen the helium-3 fuel lines. Shepard harbored no doubts the mission was not going to be as simple as all that. They ran into one more of the large creatures on the way, but accessed the reactor elevator with minimal difficulty. As they entered the anteroom to the reactor, they got a quick blip on their sensors before jamming blocked the signal. Tali immediately muttered, Geth!" and started programming her omnitool for an overload, swinging into cover at the right-hand side of the door. Liara's hands started to glow with power at the ready and Ash swung to the left and went to one knee, partially behind cover at the side of the door, prepping her sniper. The commander did a quick check on the squad readiness and opened the door. A Destroyer stood on a ramp up to the left, and Tali immediately overloaded its shields and Liara captured it in a singularity; two barks of Ashley's sniper and the Destroyer was history. One of those annoying frog things, a Geth Stalker, dropped onto the path directly in front of the Commander, and Samantha promptly smeared it down the path with a warp.
The ramp doubled back on itself, and as Shepard rounded the corner and started up the second half, gunfire erupted behind her. Spinning, Samantha saw Liara firing at a second Stalker, high up on the wall. Shepard called out "Tali, get a drone on that thing!" as she started blasting away with her assault rifle. Ashley advanced into the room, looking for an opening to no avail. Liara's biotics finally recharged and she trapped it in a singularity, allowing Ash to pick it off. Taking out the second Stalker eliminated the jamming, and the team could once again rely on their sensors to locate the enemy. They were no longer flying blind, and the remaining Geth locations were easily identified. The team circled around and opened one final door...inside was a Geth Juggernaut, fully shielded, primed and waiting. Shepard quickly threw a warp as the Juggernaut launched an extremely powerful distortion rocket. At such close range, Shepard had absolutely no hope of dodging it and took the rocket full in the chest, dropping her shields to only 30 percent and shoving her backward, hard and off balance. Her warp dropped the Geth's shields to fifty percent, but nowhere near enough to keep it from launching a second rocket at the staggered Shepard. As the remaining team members' combined fire on the Juggernaut destroyed the Geth, the second rocket impacted on Shepard, dropping her remaining shields, throwing her back and slamming her to the floor. Shepard's chest felt like it was on fire, she couldn't catch her breath, couldn't focus. Even though every alarm in her suit screamed; all she could hear was her heart hammering erratically in her ears.
After what seemed like an eternity of not being able to breathe, Shepard felt hands releasing the clamps on her armor and lifting a seemingly crushing weight off her chest, silencing the suit alarms. She felt her padding being removed and her compression shirt being rolled upward, followed by the tingling relief of medigel being spread across the entire front of her torso. Ashley cussed; not only was the commander bruised to hell and back, but the impact reopened the gunshot wound, and Ash had to repack it. As the pain receded, Shepard started hearing voices, Ash and Liara, trying to coax her back to responsiveness. The commander finally drew a deep breath, and immediately regretted it, the sudden expansion causing a sharp pain in her chest and making her bark out a painful cough. Too soon, let the medigel take full effect... She let out a soft groan and closed her eyes, hoping to eliminate the nausea and swimming stars in her vision. She focused on controlling her breathing, like she was setting up for a sniper shot. As sensations other than pain started to return to her body, she realized that a hand gripped hers, and she squeezed in return, to confirm to her teammate she was conscious. Even with gloves on, she knew it was Blue when she heard a whispered, "Thank the Goddess."
When Ash heard Liara utter those words, she leaned in and spoke, "Come on, Skipper, quit slacking. Need to see those eyes open."
Everyone knew the commander was back when a raspy voice quietly responded, "Shit, Ash, gimmee a minute... I just barely started breathing again."
The commander, however, did open her eyes, and asked for help to sit up. Ash put a hand on her shoulder and told her to wait just a minute, checked her pupil dilation and asked if she could focus ok. After positive responses, they did help her sit up, leaving her armor backplate lying on the floor. Realizing she still had her assault rifle in her hand, Samantha released the grip and left it on the ground. Hearing a hiss from Liara, Ash looked at the commander's back. She grabbed the tube of medigel and started spreading. "God damn, Skipper! You're gonna be a walking black and blue mark. Chakwas is going to eat you for dinner when we get back." After a brief pause, Ash looked at her teammate, "You got her, Liara?" With a nod from her friend, Ash turned to Shepard's armor. "Jeez. I'll get Tali to help me with an emergency field repair...that second rocket actually bent the front of your chest plate in...No wonder you couldn't breathe!"
Shepard closed her eyes again and rolled her head and shoulders around, stretching her neck and back, letting out the occasional grunt. Liara had released her hand, and Samantha could feel the Asari's light support against her back, just barely making contact, ready to catch her if she started to fall. Shepard drew up her knees and rolled slowly away from Liara, sitting upright, perched on her knees and tips of her toes, her hands resting on her own thighs. She could sense Liara's hands carefully following her, ready to catch her should she go off balance. Shepard smiled gently, and opened her eyes again, to find the Asari staring at her intently, her eyes glassy; Sam could see the concern etched in her face. Shepard spoke softly, "Thanks, Blue. I'll be fine. That hard landing just knocked the wind out of me, and I just couldn't seem to find it again. I think the impact stunned my solar plexus, and it just wouldn't work right for a minute there. Thanks for peeling me out of my armor." Getting no response, Shepard reached out and caressed a cheek. "Ok, how about helping me get up on my feet?" Liara seemed to shake herself, and nodded agreement, still not speaking. Shepard grabbed her rifle and as Liara reached over to steady the commander, Sam felt Liara's shaking grip. Turning to her, Shepard dipped her head a bit to catch Liara's eyes. "You ok?" she asked gently. "Talk to me, Blue."
Liara took a deep, ragged breath and exhaled slowly, speaking very quietly so no one else would hear. "I thought I was scared when you got shot at Synthetic Insights. I didn't know what scared was until every alarm on your suit started going off at the same time!"
Shepard could tell the Asari was on the verge of tears, so tried to diffuse the situation. She shrugged her shoulders gently and focused on keeping her voice perfectly level as she spoke. "Ahh, the suit malfunctioned from the impact, I think. The gunshot was definitely the worse of the two. This one didn't even make me drop my weapon! Life of a Vanguard. It might take a while, but believe me, you'll actually get used to it."
Liara shook her head, answering, "Never. I will never get used to seeing you get hurt!" Shepard's hearty laugh did more to calm the Asari than anything she could have possibly said.
With that infuriating lopsided grin on her face, Shepard clapped the chagrined Asari on the shoulder. "Remember those words, Blue. Remember them when I point them out to you sometime in your not too distant future!"
Tali finally walked up to the group, reporting that while Shepard was taking a break and laying down on the job, she finished repairing the fuel lines, hacked a couple of completely worthless terminals, and cracked the encryption on all the storage lockers in the area, finding some pretty decent mods, and a new Stiletto IV pistol for Liara, assuming she was still looking to replace the one lost on Therum. Liara's eyes lit up with the news, and Shepard laughed. "Go ahead and take it, you look like a kid at Christmas." At Liara's questioning look, Shepard's eyes got wide. "What? You don't know about Christmas?" With the responding shake of the head, an exasperated Shepard said, "Dr T'Soni, you and me? We're gonna have a talk. Don't you dare plan anything when we get back except time to eat."
Shepard walked over to Ash to check on the armor repair. Ash wasn't happy as she handed it back. "Commander, I did the best I can for a field repair. It won't pinch your chest anymore, but I can't reinforce it enough for my liking. It's got a big weak spot now in the center. Don't take any front-on shots. I'm not sure it will hold."
Shepard just shrugged. "It is what it is, Ash. Not like I've got a choice. All I can say is I'll try to be careful." Tali grabbed Shepard's pads, Liara grabbed the backplate and they returned to the elevator, dressing Shepard as they returned to the central hub. Once there, Shepard checked in once more with Mira to get one last situation update before heading to the transportation hub. She learned an existing decontamination process is in place, and while the system was not functional, repairs could be made onsite with a standard omnitool. Piece of cake for Tali...
While in the elevator to the transit hub platform, they listened to the VI rattle through the current user alerts, "loose contaminants in the decontamination chamber, access to passenger tramways inadvisable." Once there, Shepard looked through the window into the decontamination room and saw two of the large creatures and a couple of the smaller spider things. Tali went to work on the Plasma Purge device and had it fixed in no time. Shepard hit the button, and five seconds of an intense, blasting plasma burn later, the decontamination chamber was empty; it was time to press forward. Ashley and Tali hung back at the safety door, Ash with her sniper and Tali launching an attack drone to be ready when the door opened. Liara stood ready to launch a singularity, offset slightly to the left roughly halfway through the decontamination chamber. When everyone was set, Shepard approached the door panel to the right of the doorway, assault rifle at the ready, and punched the open button. The door snapped open to reveal at least four of the spiders already in the hallway, with more entering at the far end. Shepard quickly dispatched the closest two, and Liara stopped any from getting closer by setting a singularity a short distance up the hallway. Tali's attack drone drifted in and promptly eliminated the rest with ease. Once the hall was empty of spiders, the path to the tram station was clear. It was turning into a really long day, and it wasn't over yet. It was time to head to Rift Station and find the Matriarch.