A/N: thank you for reviewing my last chapter, as it gave me the motivation to write, and I managed to get this written within 24 hours, so I decided to post it early as as thank you.
~ I don't own mass effect, bioware and EA does ~
06.03.0005 PRW
Terminus Systems - The Stop
Commander James Vega
"Well, that's just creepy."
Vega couldn't have agreed more with Minako's statement, it wasn't every day you find 50+ people lying neatly on the floor of an abandoned space station with no heads.
"Keep sharp, there may be IED's hidden on the bodies."
He got a confirmation light from each of them as they slowly circled the room.
Vega nearly jumped when his radio activated, and one of the mission overseers sounded in his helmet, "Commander please advise, there are currently two areas of interest, the command centre on deck 10 and an unknown facility on deck 2."
"Roger that, we'll head head to the command centre first before going into the unknown, Vega out."
Indicating with hand signals, they made their way to the station's stairs, where they started to go from their current floor to the command deck on the 10th level.
"Yul, you scout ahead, me and Minako will follow 10 seconds behind."
Another green light from both as Lt. Yul Banks activated his cloaking device and vanished from sight.
Turning to his other team mate he patted Lt. Minako Nizshia on the shoulder, and they slowly started their assent to the top deck, taking their time to analyse their surroundings and to search for anything hidden, trying to ignore the occasional body of the station's original occupants, if the casual appearance of their clothes was anything to go off.
When they reached deck 9 however, they spotted Yul at the door leading onto the level, "signs of battle" he stated, pointing at the elevator doors, or what was left of them, embedded into the wall opposite the elevator shaft.
Vega whistled, while Minako took a closer look at the shaft, he decided to look at the doors themselves, when he got closer he couldn't help but wince, the doors had crushed 2 people, both had the same armour as the headless bodies five floors down.
Minako called out from where she was examining the edges of the elevator shaft, "biotics, warped the doors and then launched at speed outwards."
Vega returned to his squad and finished his colleagues assessment, "and crushed the two guards standing in front of them, nasty, but effective if you going for shock and awe."
Shaking his head he continued, "alright, let's get to the Command centre and plug EDI in, hopefully she can tell us more and we can make our way down to the unknown facility on the 2nd deck."
They both nodded and Yul cloaked again as they headed for the stairs.
It only took 5 minutes to get to the 10th deck and the door was already breached, it looked like a quick and brutal fire fight had taken place before the defenders were overwhelmed, the bodies of both traffic controllers and the unknown mercs.
Walking up to the main computer console James pulled out a wireless data tap and inserted it into the computers data port, giving EDI access to the entire setup from the Normandy.
The screens flickered on as they powered up and a list of error messages played across them, all highlighted in red and flashing.
"EDI? You OK?" Asked Vega, concerned with the amount of corrupt data and error reports flashing across the screen.
"I am fine, thank you for asking Commander, it appears that the system was wiped around 10 hours ago with a very though virus."
"Origin?"
"Most likely a safe guard installed into the network in case rappid data removal was needed, and most likely activated when the station was attacked."
"Think you could recover any information?"
"Probably, though how much I cannot tell at this time."
"Right, then while you do that, we'll head to the 2nd deck and find out what makes that floor so special."
Turning to face the door he signaled to the rest of the team, "let's go you two, who knows what we will find down there."
Going down, thankfully, was a hell of a lot quicker than going up, and apart from the occasional body for either crew workers, security, or other unknown mercs, it was all expected.
Though when they reached the 2nd deck they reached a problem, as in, 5 inch thick reinforced Titanium blast doors problem.
"Well there's no way in hell we're going to get through that with anything other than the Normandy's Thanix Cannon."
Vega agreed with Yul, those doors were made out of armour a dreadnoaght used, so no explosives they had would cut through it.
Hitting his radio, Vega called the Normandy, "Normandy, this is Vega, we have reached deck 2 but there are blast doors in the way, got any ideas?"
"Commander Vega, this is Normandy, EDI is working on it, standby."
Seconds ticked by as they waited to see if EDI could patch the system together enough to gain access to the door controls.
Finally after ten minutes of standing around, the red light by the edge of the door turned green, a warning sounded out as the large doors slowly slid open.
Vega didn't know what to expect, dead bodies, operating tables, creepy lighting, but instead the lights flickered on and a white standard medical bay was revealed.
Vega, Banks and Nizshia spread out, with Banks going left, Nizshia going right and Vega up the middle, weapons raised and sweeping slowly for target, ready to shoot anything that may be hiding.
Barely five minutes and three "all clears" later and the three of them met back in the middle of the room, gathering around a holographic interface.
"Vega to Normandy, all clear, looks like a med lab of some sort."
"Acknowledged Commander, Spectre Williams will be joining you shortly with the rest of the ground team, Normandy out."
Sighing, Vega turned to their engineer, Minako, and asked, "start looking for info on the computers, they may have missed something in the rush to exit."
05.03.0005 PRW
Terminus Systems - The Stop
Zaire Shepard
"Everyone understands what they need to do?"
The 20 armed mercs all nodded, most had never met each other before, but in order to survive, they were happy to follow someone with a plan.
To the left of them were the 10 surviving security guards who called the station home, also nodded in agreement, happy to get revenge on those who had destroyed their home.
And finally to the right were 10 Asari, all former Commandos, lead by Yano L'voke, who had all abandoned the republic after they refused to enter the War, and now were a PMC group and they were more than happy to help.
The plan was simple, L'voke and her Commandos would accompany Shepard and Liara as they stole a Corvette, infiltrated the Battle Cruiser and shut off life support, killing most of the crew and its security, once done the 48 crew of the now destroyed ships in the docking bay would be escorted by the mercs and remaining security onto the Cruiser where they would take control and escape.
"Right, Yano, your people with me, Miranda, keep us updated, let's get this done people!"
The chorus of "yes ma'am" circulated, even the mercs, after Zaire had revealed herself, the amount of people questioning her authority had dropped to Zero, Liara had smiled at the rather intimidated looks on their faces.
The group split up, with those staying behind heading back to defence positions, and Yano's Commandos falling in behind their leader.
Exiting the vault, weapons raised and heads on swivels, Zaire grunted a laugh when she heard Yano mutter, "just like old times" under her breath.
"Good to have you back, L'voke."
It took 10 minutes to find the exact entry point of one of the Corvettes, killing another 12 of the mercs on the way, and killing three more who were left to guard their ship.
Thankfully the Corvette was undamaged and one of Yano's Commandos knew how to pilot it, which, Shepard realised, could have been a problem for their plan.
The 15 minute ride over to the Cruiser mainly consisted of the Commandos interrogating their leader on why she never told them that she was good friends with a Galactic War Hero, Zaire answering a few more light questions and a rather heart stopping moment halfway through, when the Cruiser asked for identification, which was solved by Zaire when she repeated the name of the Former Alliance Soldier she had tried to interrogate back in the armoury, after deepening her voice, and claimed large amounts of wounded on board in need of medical attention.
The trick worked, and they were allowed to board, and the final minutes were dedicated to loading weapons, silent prayers and checking armour seals.
"30 seconds!" Called the Commando serving as their pilot, and the call was sent down the line, as safeties were switched off.
The Corvette landed with a muted bump, and the Commando shut down the engines before climbing out of the seat to join her sisters in preparation for combat.
"All right!" Called Zaire, "this is a Turian Battle Cruiser, so expect bad cover and automated turrets, your HUD should be updating now with the schematics for you, stay together and watch each others backs, this is going to get interesting."
With that said Shepard hit the emergency release button to the cargo door, which fell to the ground with a thump, and she shot dead the surprised medics standing just outside.
Her gunshots were masked by the loud atmosphere of the bay and Shepard, T'Soni and the Commandos rushed outwards, all heading straight for the closest door into the ship proper.
There were a few shouts of alarm, which were silenced by the the Commandos before they could do anything else, and they hit the door running.
Turian interior Ship design was based on being as difficult as possible for boarders to navigate and to give the best advantage to the defenders, however, if you have memorized the basic layout, and have an up to date map, then the first point was neutralized, the second point was rendered mute due to the fact that the crew didn't know that they were aboard yet, giving Zaire the element of surprise.
Keeping the pace at a fast jog, Zaire was prioritizing speed over stealth, with cameras everywhere it was only a matter of time before someone noticed, and she wanted to be as close to life support as possible when that happened.
Turning left Zaire spotted two crew walking towards her, and only gave them enough time to look surprised before she headshots both of them, the noise obviously disturbed someone, as they poked their head out to see what was going on, only to be shot himself by Liara a second later.
They were almost there before an automatic turret popped out of the ceiling, spraying the hallway with rounds, not slowing down, Liara and the Commandos generated a biotic barrier around the turret, deflecting the rounds back at itself and destroyed by its own fire.
"They know we're here, keep going and watch you corners." Yelled Zaire, switching to her shotgun for more fire power.
Half way down the next corridor, two more mercs in armour appeared at the other end, and immediately started firing at her. The biotic barrier held in place until they were close enough, and Zaire fired twice, knocking out the shields of both troopers, and they were finished off by Yano with her assault rifle.
"Life support should be around the corner!" Called Yano, looking at her Omni-Tool in confirmation.
Zaire turned the corner, and promptly dived back around again as a hail of shotgun, assault rifle and pistol fire peppered the wall behind her.
"2 with shotguns, 3 with assault rifles and the two others with pistols are biotics."
"Anything else?" Asked L'voke, looking irritated by the sudden stop.
"Two auto turrets, and the troopers have armoured cover."
"Great" sighed Liara, "plan?"
"Conventionally? No, but flanking would be best" responded L'voke.
"And how do you flank in a straight hallway?"
"By going through the walls" realised Zaire, pulling out her Omni-Tool to look at the map.
"Here" she pointed, "go straight through this wall and we come out in life support."
Yano nodded in agreement, and gave the signal to retreat. They pulled back towards the last junction, killing two more who were attempting to flank from behind and moved towards a maintenance hatch, going through and entering a small room full of monitoring equipment and offshoot maintenance halls.
Walking up to the far wall Shepard checked her Omni-Tool, before nodding at Yano, who turned and gestured to two of her Commandos who stepped up towards the wall, flaring their biotics in preparation.
Everyone else stepped back and Liara raised a biotic barrier around herself and Zaire, incase of shrapnel.
With a gesture, one of the Commandos created a warp field in the centre of the wall, heating it up as the contradicting mass effect fields fought each other, and the other Commando drew back a fist and thrust forward, launching a strong biotic push at the warp field.
The biotic attacks collided and exploded inwards taking with it most of the wall and creating a large hole where the metal wall was before.
As soon as the biotic fields died the Commandos rushed in, killing two stunned mercs who were on the other side, the 3 other bodies already on the floor indicating that they were too close to the unexpected explosion.
As Zaire and Liara stepped into life support the Commandos rushed up to the main entrance and started firing at the surprised backs of the mercs who had stopped them from coming in through the entrance.
Liara was already over by the controls, bringing up systems and cutting power to the circulatory vents throughout the ship. Zaire, however, was keeping an eye on the hole they had come through, as it was now the biggest hole in their defence.
"Check seals!" Called Liara, turning to face Zaire.
One by one the Commandos confirmed that they were air tight and Liara hit something on the control panel. It was now a matter of time for air to run out, and Zaire knew that most of the crew would be dead in minutes.
The mercs in armour, however, were most likely in space certified armour and would have to be killed the old fashioned way of guns and biotics.
Hitting her radio Zaire called Miranda, who answered a moment later, with gunfire sounding in the background.
"Life support is offline, the crew will be mostly dead in a few minutes, start making your way to the designated airlock, we will meet up after securing the hanger bay."
After getting an acknowledgement from Miranda, Zaire turned to face her lover, and signaled that they were ready for the next part of the plan.
Yano and her Commandos would stay and defend life support, while Zaire and Liara would take the Commando who could pilot and head back to the hanger bay, grab a bigger ship and return to the station to pick up the Cruisers new crew and enough people with guns to clear the ship of unwanted stow-aways.
Walking back to the hole they made they met up with the pilot, who's name was Lin'raha or Lin for short and quietly headed out, hopefully avoiding the mercs trying to retake life support.
It took 10 minutes of slow moving in dark maintenance halls in order to get back to the hanger, where every once in a while they would come across dead bodies of the crew who hadn't had time to find oxygen.
They hanger had been abandoned, probably as soon as the crew realised that oxygen was no longer pumping throughout the ship, and they remained the sole occupants as they located and boarded a docked Frigate.
Due to the bigger engines of the Frigate it only took 8 minutes to arrive at the preplaned airlock, and were met with a war zone when they opened the airlock, as Miranda's forces been forced to defend with little cover and greatly appreciated Zaire and Liara as they helped defend against over 40 of the mercs trying to stop them as the crews and security boarded.
By the time everyone was onboard and the Frigate has gotten away Zaire was exhausted, leaning against the nearest bulkhead with Liara, she watched the crew congratulating itself on surviving and the injured security and mercenaries patch themselves up.
"Told you my plan would work."
"I never said it wouldn't."
Another chapter done, thank you to those who Reviewed, it provides great motivation, case in point this chapter was finished on Friday.
So thank you for reading and until the next chapter,
~ JunkMail