"The radio is still down?" Paul asked as he led Bravo Team through a small corridor which only allowed them to go single file. Alisa responded by pulling up an orange-glowing hand, checking her Omni-Tool.
"Still no sign of Alpha Team, but I'm getting a garbled transmission from the Poltergeist."
She played the message, an almost unrecognizable tangle of static, noise and cut-off words. When it ended, Emmerding spoke up.
"Am I the only one or did someone else hear 'center of the station'?" he asked in his usual, half-bored half-condescending tone.
"I heard it too." Alisa agreed, switching off the Tool on her hand. "What's in the center of the station?"
"Intel showed the main mess hall. Maybe the Reapers are having lunch?" Paul offered, opening a door to his left and stepping through. "Scanners are picking up activity in that area as well. Could be hostiles. Could be Alpha. Either way, it's worth checking out before we head for the console."
"If you say so …" Alisa hesitated.
She didn't like the darkness. Every nook was a possible hiding spot for those disgusting reaper-shells, every corner a gamble that there wasn't a monster, waiting for them. It reminded her of the ghost stories her mother used to tell her, back on Thessia. From the looks of it, the Reapers might as well have come out of a bed-time story.
Paul opened another door, revealing a larger corridor. He let the rest of the team catch up, checked his Omni-Tool, and addressed them.
"Alright, from here on out its only 100 meters to the mess hall. Eyes open, mouths closed, everyone. Look for signs of hostiles, friendlies or anything that looks like a jammer. Let's go!"
With that, the team accelerated their walk to a quicker pace, speeding down the widening, dark corridor. When they reached the locked door, the Omni-Tools of them beeped in unison, warning of possible contacts beyond.
"Alisa, you and I breach! Emmerding, Ostan, you two cover us. On my mark!" Paul barked in a hushed voice. "Mark!"
The door was kicked open violently. Paul and Alisa stormed inside, their guns ready to meet any opposing force. Moments after they entered, Kel and Emmerding followed.
The mess hall was eerily quiet. In difference to the rest of the station, it was obvious that a fight had taken place here. Tables and benches lay turned over, weapons fire had scarred and blackened the walls. Dark smears covered the floor and some of the walls, leading to a far corner on the other side of the room. A metallic smell was in the air, heavy and penetrating.
"Still think there's nothing here?" Paul asked Emmerding as they advanced carefully. He didn't reply, his mind under too much pressure.
In the middle of the room, between some overturned tables, stood a metallic structure. Tubes and wires led out and into it, looking suspiciously like veins. The whole thing seemed to vibrate, almost breathe, and gave away a deep, soft humming sound.
Emmerding pulled up his Omni-Tool, but to no use: It flickered, trying to open properly, but failing at doing so. Other attempts to scan the device led to similar results. The nearer they got, the more their electronics started to fail.
"Yup, that's a jammer alright." Emmerding said, his nervousness clearly showing. "But why would they leave it unguard…"
A high-pitched, whizzing noise sounded, followed by a thud. He fell to his knees, still clutching his shoulder, before toppling over face first.
"AMBUSH!" Alisa cried, turning around and bolting into cover. The corrupted Batarians had already started to flood into the cafeteria, firing their twisted guns that replaced their arms.
Paul crashed into cover hard, grunting from the impact, projectiles hissing overhead. He saw Ostan jump behind a pillar, just in time to avoid getting mowed down. Alisa had ducked behind a table, already returning fire. Emmerding still laid face first in front of the object, a puddle of blood forming beneath him.
"We need backup! We need Alpha Team!" Alisa shouted over the gunfire.
"Like hell we do!" Paul replied angrily. As if he needed the help of some Cerberus-traitor. He popped out of cover, sprayed the nearest reaper-shell with bullets and duck back to the floor before the rest could retaliate. He struck the side of his rifle, forcing the spent clip to eject. It spun around itself mid- air, still red-hot, before dropping to the ground.
Ostan flung a grenade past his life-saving pillar. It erupted into a blue burst, taking out the left side of the attackers, but still more pressed on into the room. The smell of burning flesh and hot metal filled the room.
Paul turned around, looking behind them. Emmerding still lay before the jammer, not moving. The red puddle was growing in size, and the engineer would bleed out soon if they didn't do something. If he was still alive, that is. He took in his surroundings, forming a mental image of the scene from his hunkered-down-position. The drell was nearest to Emmerding, but with the constant fire, nobody could get to him.
"Ostan, when I give the signal, you run to Emmerding and drag him with you to Alisa. We'll give you suppressive fire. Got it?" He barked over the noise.
"Understood!" Kel acknowledged, still pressed hard against his pillar.
"Now!" Paul shouted as he leapt to his feet, firing an Incineration-Program from one hand while firing his rifle with the other. Alisa too got to her feet, spraying the lines of enemies with gunfire.
The fireball smashed into a husk, searing and charring. The humane figure toppled and fell to the ground as the bullet storm of the human and the asari reached the line of the reapers. For a moment, their attack staggered, a basic instinct left in them forcing the shells to take cover.
Kel bolted away from the bullet-hole ridden pillar, reaching Emmerding in moments. He reached under the human's shoulders, dragging him to the toppled table where Alisa was still firing. When the two reached them, they seemingly changed roles, and Kel started firing as Alisa tended to the limp form of the engineer.
"He's still alive!" Alisa declared after a quick check. "Barely! He's lost a lot of blood and only the medi-gel is holding him together!" She continued while injecting a fine syringe into the armor of the other soldier, flooding him with her own medi-gel. "What do we do now?!"
Paul's mind raced. Their position wasn't all that bad – the enemy was bottlenecked by the main door. If they had a few guns more, they might have been able to win this. But their cover was miserable and they were outnumbered so badly it made him clench his teeth.
He opened his mouth to bark a command - something, anything, just to say something and not give into panic, when the door on the far side of the room was being crashed against from the other side.
He watched in horror as the door was being slammed into repeatedly, so hard, the dust from the ceiling crumbled down. If hostiles broke through from there, they were screwed. More than screwed, they were dead with their pants down if the enemy came through that door.
He opened his mouth again to warn his team, but only a curse escaped his lips. The door broke open with a tortured crash and Paul cursed again.