Kajira gestured her team to speed up. The source of the explosion they had heard was down the hallway they were running through and beyond a solid steel-door. The sound of gunfire was audible as well.
"Get that door open!" she barked, and Peter hastily got to work, only to stop immediately.
"No use, the system is fried. We have to pry it open." he said.
"Already ahead of you." Gash grinned, as he crashed a shoulder against the hard door.
"You're gonna alert the whole station!" Peter gasped, perplex.
Dvorak channeled biotic energy and threw them against the door. "Chances are they already know we're here. We might as well help out whoever fights them on the other side."
"Do it!" Kajira said after a moment of pause. Peter stood motionless, but then got to work on forcing their way through as well.
The door broke open with a tortured creak, falling over into the dirt and taking a good part of the frame with it. Before Alpha Team, a mess hall of some sort revealed. On the far side at least a dozen, if not more, reaper shells flooded through a door, firing their weapons, howling and – Kajira had to force herself not to gag – eating their fallen comrades.
The target of their aggression was hunkered down in the middle of the cafeteria. Sheltered by some tables were two figures, trying to avoid the deadly hail. A third body lay between them, tended to by them.
She spotted Paul, lying on his back, chest upright, leaning on a pile of rubble, his gun raised and pointed – to her surprise – towards her. The figures turned around, the eyes of the asari wide open in horror.
"Friendlies!" Alisa screamed. "Covering fire!"
Kel and the asari straightened up and fired over the barricade, allowing Alpha Team to reach them. When the last one slammed into cover, Kajira turned to Paul.
"What's the situation?" she had to shout over the resuming noise of the fight. He didn't answer, still looking towards the door they'd come through.
His armor shook. A deep, raspy laughter mixed with the gunfire.
"Hot damn, you guys took your sweet time." He finally spoke up, turning around and hurling another fireball into the mass of Cannibals. "Emmerding took a bullet. He's still alive, but he's gonna bleed out if we don't do something about it. That aesthetically-pleasing thing behind us is the jammer that's been blocking communications. Once we're finished here, we'll have to blow it up."
"Buisness first!" Peter shouted over the noise. The flow of Husks and Cannibals had stopped, but still many remained inside the cafeteria.
"Okay, let's clean out this mess hall first." Kajira offered. Paul nodded, addressing all operatives.
"Alright, People, listen up. Once I give the signal, Kaj and I will give you covering fire, giving you the chance to get in close and do what you do best!" Gash raised his fist in approval. "Alisa, stay with Emmerding. Now!"
The two team leaders got up, firing. Gash leapt over the barricade, dashed the short distance to the nearest Husk and head-butted it, splattering the floor with black sludge. Paul stormed out as well, smashing the butt of his rifle into the face of another reaper-shell.
Dvorak formed his whip again, engulfing a husk in it and crashing it against the ceiling and floor. His blood pumped and sweat ran down his neck as he cracked his whip. A Cannibal swung its mix of gun and arm at him, forcing him to twist away, evading the blow. Gash knocked the thing to the ground, firing into it point-blank.
When the last reaper-shell had died, black sludge oozing from its wounds, Paul lifted his helmet, took it off and ran his fingers through his sweat-soaked hair.
"Well done, people." He said. He glanced at Dvorak, who was just turning over the body of a husk to make sure it was dead. He clenched his teeth, but ignored the feeling and continued.
"Alisa, how's our little lamb doing?"
"I've stabilized him as best as I could. Still, we need to get him to the Poltergeist's med-bay."
"That will be difficult if we can't even tell them where we are. What do we do with the jammer?" Dvorak asked.
Paul clenched his teeth again, and replied annoyed: "What do you mean 'what do we do with it'? We blow it up, of course, what else?"
"I'm just saying maybe the Alliance would be interested in the technology behind this."
Anger flashed in Paul's eyes, but before he could reply, Peter spoke up.
"How about a compromise? I think I might be able to stop the jammer from working for a minute or so. Then, we can call the boss and ask what to do."
"I think that would be best. Get to work." Kajira agreed. Paul rolled his eyes and sat down near a pile of rubble, rubbing his temple. "Fine. Let's set up shop here while Freeway works his magic. Kel, Gash, you're on guard duty.
The group spread out, starting their assigned tasks. Alisa still tended to the unconscious Emmerding, Kajira joined Peter as he got to work on the jammer, and Gash and Kel covered the two doors leading into the room. That only left Dvorak without something to do. After a moment of indecision, he joined Gash by the door.
After a while, Paul got up and walked the short distance to Alisa and Emmerding.
"How's he doing?" he asked again as he sat down beside her.
"He's alive. Not much more I can say. I'm not a medic, and humans have a weird physiology, anyway."
She glanced at Paul, who raised an eyebrow.
"Eh, sorry. You know what I mean. Point is we better get out of here, fast."
"I hear ya. We would be on our way if we'd just strapped some explosive to that thing and be done with it." He pointed his thumb over his shoulder to the jammer where Peter was kneeling whilst working, Kajira standing beside him with crossed arms. "Besides, I wanted to ask you something."
"What is it?"
"Keep an eye on our 'friend' back there when I'm not around." He glanced at Dvorak who was talking to Gash on the far side of the room.
"You still think he's … you know? He did save our asses a few minutes ago."
"Will you do it or not?" The words came out harsher that he wanted, but his anger started flaring up again.
"Yeah, yeah, sure. I'll keep an eye on him." She agreed hastily, a faint sound of fear in her voice. A moment of silence passed. "Are you okay, Paul?" she asked him.
He got up. "Yeah, I'm fine." As he turned around to leave, something crackled and died, and the room exploded in chatter.
"Guys, I've got a signal!" The voice of the red-haired engineer sounded gleefully.