Chapter 9
It was a krogan who attacked first. When the cell doors slid open, there was an instant where everyone else froze, unsure of what to do, and while the rest of the guards and prisoners hesitated, the under-fed but still savage krogan in one of the mid-tier cells hurled himself forward, sinking his teeth into the guard standing just outside of his door.
The man screamed as the flesh of his neck was torn away, and then everything seemed to happen at once. The others guards forgot all about Jack and Miranda, whirling on the cells and opening fire on everything that moved, or didn't, while the prisoners rushed forward, realizing that it was now kill or be killed. Several of them were gunned down immediately, a multi-colored spray of blood filling the air above Miranda before it showered down on her, but it wasn't enough. Some of the prisoners were only a few feet away from their captors, too close to be killed before they could engage. These gladiators had been selected precisely because they were deadly in a bare-handed fight, and now they turned those skills to new use, tearing skin and breaking bone with a breathtaking fury.
Nor were they the only ones. With the guards' attention diverted, there was nothing to stop Jack from unleashing her biotics on them. A pair of those who had backed away from the cells rather than just shooting were seized by powerful energy fields and hurled through the air, their bodies smashed against the walls of the ship before Jack folded their spines back onto themselves.
Miranda herself didn't jump in immediately. The bullets hadn't broken her barriers completely, but they had cracked them, and her skin burned at half a dozen impact points, to say nothing of the omni-blade wound she had taken earlier. By the time she managed to pull herself back to her feet, the riot was already in full swing. More guards were pouring in from several of the doors, while some of the prisoners had begun forcing their way out of the cell block, either to try and escape or to free more of their fellows. Several of the guns had fallen into their hands as well, and as the battle spread, no quarter was being asked or given.
As Miranda stared at the carnage, Jack took a break from tossing around Cerberus guards to ask, "You okay there, cheerleader?"
She patted down her sides, doing a quick self-assessment. "Nothing seems to be broken. I'll live."
At least Jack didn't seem unhappy to hear that. "Good," she said with a nod, "Then let's finish kicking these fuckers' asses."
Miranda shook her head, resigning herself to this new situation. The plan had been to slip out of the prison without giving away their presence, but once the alarm had gone off, that was clearly not going to happen. Now there was nothing to do but tear down this monument to inhumanity that Cerberus had constructed and deal with the consequences later.
Pushing aside her pain, she picked out a guard who'd gotten the upper hand over the turian he was grappling with and hurled a ball of biotic energy into his rear. He screamed at the impact, lurching forward into the prisoner, who shoved him over the railing and down to the hard metal floor below. He landed flat on his back, a sickening crack and a final cry of pain the only sounds he made before going still.
"Feel's good, doesn't it?" Jack asked rhetorically. "Cutting loose on these bastards after everything they've done. You can't tell me you're not digging it."
Miranda just nodded. She could tell that Jack's attempt at good cheer was in part an attempt to cover the vulnerability she'd showed after killing Givoni, but the convict wasn't entirely wrong either. Ever since landing on Typhon, they'd been witness to so many horrors they couldn't do anything about that it felt good to extract some small measure of justice.
She got a few more shots in, but the battle for this particular cell block was all but over. The guards were routed or dead, and as the fighting died down, the tall, blue form of Alfina stood out among the the surviving prisoners. Her many victories in the arena made her their natural champion, and she was swiftly moving to take control of the situation. "Make sure all these bastards are really down," she barked as she stalked across the room. "I don't want to get shot it the back."
Miranda lowered her gun as the asari fighter came to a stop before her. "Well shit, I guess you're really not with Cerberus, humans. Thank you for this."
"You want to thank us, then help us clear a path out of here," Jack told her.
"Sorry, no can do. This whole place is filled with people locked up and tortured for far too long and I'll be damned if I'm going to just leave them here to die. I'm not leaving till every cell is this hellhole is opened. Then we'll take the fight to these bastards."
Miranda looked over to Jack as she put pressure on her bleeding stomach. "Fine. That should provide a good enough distraction to cover our escape anyway."
The convict nodded. "Then what the fuck are we waiting for?"
"Hold up!" Alfina called after them as the pair turned to leave. "I'm not about to leave my debt unpaid. I wasn't sure if I could trust you two before, but now I've got a little advice for you."
"Advice?" Miranda asked.
"Cerberus likes to act as if they locked every non-human on this rock up in here but that's not true. There's a resistance camp just outside the city walls. A few months ago, before I got captured, my bondmate and I helped put it together. If I know her, she's still alive and ready to get revenge. The place was filled with refugees who want nothing more than to see these assholes burn for what they've done to us and with the prisoners I can spring, we should be able to raise enough hell to mobilize every non-human on the planet to finally take up arms and settle the score. If you manage to get out of here and you ever need an assist, you can come find me there."
"Where exactly is this camp?" Miranda asked.
"In the south district of the city, just beyond the Cerberus walls there's an old shopping mall. You'll know it when you see the giant Reaper crashed down outside of it." Alfina reached down, grabbing an Avenger off of a dead guard. "Good luck, humans."
"You too," Jack said before the asari turned to address her fellow prisoners.
"Grab whatever weapons you can find and get ready to roll out! We don't leave any of these Cerberus bastards standing!"
Miranda looked to her partner. "I think we just started a revolution, Jack."
"About damn time these sons of bitches got what was coming to them. Let's move, cheerleader."
The only exit Miranda knew of was the way they came in, and so the duo ran for the metal staircase and climbed up to the second level. Miranda spared one last look at the fighting pits below, now stained with Cerberus blood. Her satisfaction was cut short when her head suddenly went dizzy and her legs crumbled underneath her. Before Miranda could hit the ground though, Jack's arms caught her. "Shit. You all right?!"
Miranda regained her footing and looked down to the wound in her stomach that had painted the front of her uniform red. "I'm...fine."
Just potentially bleeding to death.
"The hell you are. Stay behind me, cheerleader. I'll cover your ass."
Miranda swore she could hear genuine concern in the biotic's voice, but there was no time to think about it. When they reached the top of the stairs they were greeted with more carnage. Some of the freed prisoners had run straight for the exit instead of joining Alfina's army and it appeared that several Cerberus guards had had the same idea.
Bodies littered the hallway that lead to the entry processing room they had first passed through to enter the Kennels. Blood of all different colors painted the walls and the state of the corpses Miranda saw was enough to turn her already-queasy stomach. Most of the guards had had their heads caved in by the mob of murderous prisoners while others had been torn apart. The aliens that laid dead were covered in bullet holes, some so thoroughly riddled they were no longer recognizable.
Miranda braced herself against the wall with one hand to keep her feet steady as she navigated around the wreckage. Halfway down the hall, she suddenly jumped back when her foot landed on something that cried out in pain. She and Jack turned and looked to the blood-stained floor to find the battle's lone survivor. The one guard Miranda recognized, a woman who, just a few minutes prior was ready to shoot them both. Miriam was propped up against the wall; one of her hands was a shredded mess of gore and blood, and her stomach had been torn open by what Miranda guessed were turian claws.
"You bitches…" Miriam gasped for air between sentences, spitting up globs of blood instead. "Let me guess, you think you're some kind of heroes...that you did the right thing letting those filthy creatures run free?"
"They weren't responsible for what the Reapers did, just as Cerberus wasn't responsible for defeating them. You had no right to do this," Miranda said coldly.
"No right?" Miriam spat back. "Fuck the Reapers. Once everything started to fall apart around here it was those monsters that you just set free who killed my little girl." A tear ran down the dying woman's cheek. "Shot her dead in the street like it was nothing. Those fucking aliens tore apart innocent humans in that riot just like they did to me. Maybe they brought the Reapers here, maybe they didn't, but they deserved worse than what we gave them here." Miriam coughed up more blood, her chin a red mess now. "There's innocent people on this planet...children...and those alien fucks are gonna slaughter them after this. Those deaths are on you."
"Like hell they are." Miranda spat. "You brought this on yourselves."
"You pieces of shit are about to get what you deserve," Jack added. "I hope they burn this whole city to the ground. We're gonna find the asshole in charge of this hell and when we do, I'm gonna tear Ford apart and kill Cerberus off once and for all."
A grim rattle that might have been a laugh escaped Miriam' throat. "You fucking idiots think you'll get to Ford? As soon as you tripped the alarm every camera in this facility activated. You're now the most wanted women on the planet. Every human on Typhon is gonna know your faces. Ford will destroy you both before you ever even reach the tower. That is...assuming you survive this…"
"Survive what?" Jack asked just as Miranda saw the guard slip an armed grenade out from her belt.
"I hope you burn."
Miranda grabbed Jack's shoulder and the two women sprinted down the hallway. She knew they might not be outside of the blast radius though, and acting on instinct, she threw herself on top of Jack, even as the convict threw up a shield around them. The explosion rocked the hall, charred remains raining down on the two women as Miranda held Jack close.
"Are you alright, Jack?" Miranda asked once the ringing in her ears had settled down.
"I'm good," Jack replied, rolling Miranda off of her.
For a moment, the two of them just lay on the floor, both of them panting heavily. Miranda really wished she didn't have to get up just then. Her side hurt like hell, and the combination of blood loss and exertion were taking a heavy toll. Unfortunately, a bloody deck in the middle of a war zone was no place to take a nap, and Miranda forced herself back to her feet, even as Jack did the same.
"Don't worry, cheerleader," Jack said, noticing the way Miranda winced as she rose, "I'll get you and your bubble butt out of here in one piece."
Miranda only nodded, not willing to spare any more energy than she had to. The pair made their way back through the prisoner intake office without incident and from there to the decontamination chamber. There had been no fighting in those rooms, only open doors and a few trails of blood left behind by injured prisoners showing that anyone had passed through recently.
The exterior of the ship was a different story. When the two women stuck their heads out of the entry hatch, they saw that the Cerberus squad stationed outside of the Kennels was engaged with the first wave of prisoners who had tried to escape. The guards hadn't been positioned to hold off an attack from the rear, but they were still better armed and more disciplined than their enemies, and several alien corpses already littered the ground compared with only one of the Cerberus soldiers. The remainder of the prisoners were huddled in the wreckage of the street's buildings, under heavy fire that they were only intermittently able to return.
"Fuckin' hot heads shoulda gone with the asari," Jack growled, and in spite of her pain, Miranda had to suppress a laugh. She'd lost track long ago of how many times the convict had nearly gotten herself killed by charging in without a clear strategy.
"At least they're giving us that distraction you wanted," Jack added. "Here's the plan. We run and we don't stop until we're clear of these assholes. And don't worry about your barriers; I'll shield you."
"Are you sure?" Miranda asked, surprised by Jack's willingness to put herself on the line for her.
"Yeah. I mean, if you bleed out, who's gonna help me kill Ford?"
Deciding not to question Jack's real motives, Miranda followed the convict the rest of the way out of the ship and into the warzone in front of them. At first, things went smoothly enough. The prisoners were too pinned to worry about new arrivals, while the guards probably figured these humans had to be on their side.
That confusion kept them safe about halfway through the no-man's land. Even as the barricade's exit point grew larger in their view, though, one of the guards yelled out, "Hey, it's them! Those fucking traitorous bitches!" and he swung his rifle around in their direction.
"That's right, you piece of shit," Jack growled. A blue glow enveloped her and before the guard could open fire, a ball of biotic energy slammed into his chest, hurling him to the ground. A couple of his fellows took notice though, and seconds later, a hail of rifle fire was unleashed at the two women.
The glow around Jack expanded as the convict poured everything she had into her shield. The bullet impacts made her wince, but fortunately, the prisoners could recognize an opening when it was presented to them. A few of them emerged from the wreckage, pouring fire into the Cerberus position and drawing off some of their enemy's attentions.
But not all. Several guards were still shooting at them, and Miranda could see the sweat pouring down the back of Jack's neck as she tried to hold back the fire. Her barriers were holding, but they still had too many meters to go. The operative was stumbling by that point, the fatigue and blood loss starting to get to her, but she had to do something. With a pained grunt, she summoned up one more warp, ducking out from behind Jack to hurl it into the nearest guard. It wasn't much of an attack though, and the man only stumbled backwards, even as Miranda fell to her knees from the strain.
Even some of the guards who'd been shooting at the prisoners took note of them now, firing into Jack's barriers. One of the bullets pierced the shield and grazed her arm, but instead of falling, the convict just let out a primal scream of rage. The glow around her brightened and Miranda had to cover her eyes as a massive shockwave built around her. For an instant, everything seemed to hang still and then the power burst forth. Half of the barricade was knocked down, burying the guards who weren't thrown entirely clear of the wreckage.
Jack turned around, her body shaking even as her eyes showed something that might have been concern. "Are you…"
Miranda gritted her teeth, forcing herself back to her feet. "Not dead yet. Now run."
Through the shattered remains of the barricade, Miranda could see the the street they had first entered this hell from, and in spite of the pain every step cost, she felt a surge of hope as they ran through it and away from the battle. They were far from safe, but at least this wasn't where she was going to die.
Once they were safely out on the street, Jack looked around to check for any stray guards, but Miranda wasn't able to help her. Her head was growing unbearably heavy and everything in her field of vision was starting to blur together.
"Looks like we're good for now, but I bet there's more on the way," Jack said, her back to Miranda as she spoke.
The operative pressed a hand to her stomach and winced at the flash of pain the pressure caused. Her shirt was now so thoroughly bloodied that it clung uncomfortably to her body.
Must have been deeper than I realized, she thought before her legs failed her once more. When Jack saw her fall, she whirled around, yelling out, "Shit!"
Miranda kept the pressure on as Jack knelt beside her. It was hard to talk so she just winced. "Dammit, look at me." Jack lightly slapped her face. "If anybody gets to kill you, cheerleader, it's me."
Before Miranda could think of something clever to say back, everything went dark.