Here's the next installment of Feros. I took a few liberties but it sticks to the game pretty well. Please R&R. Enjoy!
The three krogan mercs had not seen him yet which was definitely a good thing. Luke rigged two grenades together and took a deep breath. He was starting to think that leaving the rest of the squad behind while he slipped away to collect the data for Hossle might not have been his best idea. He changed one of the grenades to a disruptor pulse and removed the directional inhibitor from the fragmentation grenade.
With a light toss, he rolled the combined weapons down the hallway until they stopped right in the middle of the three krogan. The disruptor pulse brought down their shields immediately and a split second later the fragmentation grenade erupted send shrapnel in every direction and ripping the three mercenaries apart. Luke rushed forward with his pistol out and put an extra round through the headplate of each just for good measure.
I better hurry, Everyone else probably heard the blast. Luke quickly sat down at the console and inserted the OSD. While the data was downloading, Luke skimmed through a few of the files. His eyes suddenly went wide and he made an additional copy for his omni-tool. Hossle did not know just how valuable his work was. It could be the answer to either enhancing or suppressing Luke's biotic abilities with debilitating side-effects.
He turned quickly slipping the OSD back into his pocket and jogged back toward the entrance to the office, but just as he was stepping over the dead krogan, Claire rounded the corner with the rest of the squad. Luke paused with his foot in midair and looked around.
"Um…don't be mad." Luke said grinning while still balancing on one foot. Claire smiled and shook her head relieving herself of her rifle.
"Mad about you disappearing in the middle of a mission? Mad about you taking on three krogan mercs single handed? Why would that make me mad?" Claire said crossing her arms.
"Luke, what were you thinking?" Ashley asked. The concern in her eyes made Luke's stomach turn. They were not agree that he had gone off one his own, they were made that he put himself in danger without letting them know.
"I just wanted to see what I could find out about the thorian but there was nothing. Wasted trip." Luke lied. Claire raised her eyebrow and studied her brother. She shook her head and turned waving everyone back down the stairs.
"Next time you want to go snooping for company secrets to bust some corporate big wigs, don't do it alone." Claire said as the group moved forward.
"Understood, commander." Luke said patting the OSD in his pocket. He felt like he was betraying her trust not telling her his real purpose, but she would definitely not approve of him freelancing for one of the scientists while on a mission.
000
Luke had rewired the shutters for the bay doors that the geth ship had latched on to the building through. He smirked looking over at Ashley and Wrex.
"What are you waiting for? Drop the sucker." Claire shouted. Luke hit the activation button and the shutter closed so quickly it cut the claw clean off. The tower quaked as the geth ship tried to start up its engines again but it was far too late. The claws could not hold the weight of the entire ship unless they all worked in unison. The ship fell back belly up and crashed to the ground below them.
"Damn, I wish I could have seen the expression on that pilot's face when that thing went down." Ashley said clapping.
"Would have been better if you had let me shoot it with something really big."
Wrex countered. Luke chuckled and closed his omni-tool as the radio channels came back on.
"Normandy to shore party, Normandy to shore party, come on Commander talk to me." Joker's voice came across the channel.
"What's going on Joker?" Claire answered.
"Something happened to the colonists. They just went crazy. They're banging on the doors and trying to claw their way into the hull." Luke looked around at the others. They had all heard the VI tell them that the thorian was living under Zu's Hope and that ExoGeni had been using the colonists as test subjects. Merely the memory of the computer's words made Luke's blood boil.
"It's not their fault Claire." Luke said as his sister turned to look at him.
"I know." She turned back to her omni-tool. "Don't worry about it, Joker. They can't do any real damage to the ship, but we are on our way back. Sit tight."
"Any second we are going to have an army of geth coming at us. We need to move." Garrus said. The group nodded and started racing toward the exit.
As they came to the door that had been blocked by the force field, they saw that it was open and Lizbeth was standing there waiting for them.
"I knew you could do it." She said but her smile faded when she saw the hard looks on everyone's faces, most notably the enraged expression on Luke's.
"We know about the thorian. We know that ExoGeni was using Zu's Hope as a test group and we know you lied to us." Claire said stepping forward calmly. Luke wanted to shoot the girl but he restrained himself. Though he might just get the chance with that Jeong guy.
"I was scared. They said that if I tried to stop it, I would be used next. That is why I stayed behind, to try and contact colonial affairs and tell them what was happening." Luke relaxed a little. He had seen a lot of this kind of thing when he was with C-Sec. Good people forced to do bad things out of fear for their lives, their loved ones' lives, but then turning around and risking everything to make sure that justice was done.
"She's telling the truth." Luke said. Garrus looked over at him curiously as his old partner tapped his temple. The turian had come to learn that Luke's instincts were very good, sometimes even better than a lie detector.
"That does not change the fact that she was involved and we still need to figure out how to reverse the effects without hurting the colonists." Claire said
"I can come with you. I could help undo the mess I helped create." Lizbeth said. Luke looked over at Claire nodding slightly. Claire sighed.
"Alright, we need to hurry, and it's going to get a little crowded in the Mako." Claire said waving everyone forward.
The Mako fought its way through a third wave of geth as they tried to get back to Zu's Hope. Every time the Mako rocked Luke, Ashley, or lizbeth ended up in someone's lap. The back of the Mako was just too small to have three people in it.
"This is fun. Any way I could ride on the roof? I think I'd get hit less." Luke said as Ashley tumbled into his lap landing an elbow in his ribs accidentally.
"Be my guest." Claire responded turning the Mako sharply and sending him tumbling to the floor at Ashley and Lizbeth's feet.
"Okay, next time, I call shotgun." Luke said crossing his arms and refusing to get off the floor.
"Are all military units like this?" Lizbeth asked Ashley.
"We're actually a support team for Commander Shepard up there. The first human spectre. This handsome lump on the floor is her brother." Luke smiled and winked up at Ashley before giving a goofy grin and wave to Lizbeth.
"Luke, I'm getting something on the radio. I just can't tune it in." Garrus said fiddling with the frequency scanner and firing the machine gun at the same time.
Luke scrambled to his feet and adjusted the frequency and boosted the amperage and the signal came in nearly completely clear.
"-of the Fero's colony Zu's Hope. Does anyone read this?" Luke looked over at Claire. It was Juliana's voice on the radio.
"Get away from that radio!" another voice came through. Luke clenched his teeth. That lying bastard Jeong was up to something again.
"That's was my mom's voice! Where's that coming from?" Lizbeth shouted.
"Up ahead, but we have to get back to the colony and take care of that thorian thing." Claire said looking back at Lizbeth.
"Claire, now that we know about the thorian, maybe they can help us deal with it. Most of those folks are major egg heads right?" Luke retorted. Claire glanced at her brother and considered what he said.
"Alright, but we can't delay long. I don't want to leave those colonists under that thing's control any longer than necessary." Claire responded. The Mako stopped and the squad pilled out and headed down the ramp toward the small refuge the ExoGeni survivors had set up.
"You can't do this Jeong!" Juliana screamed. Luke took cover behind a crate as Lizbeth snuck forward.
"Everyone shut up and let me think." Jeong screamed.
"What's going on?" Lizbeth asked. Luke shrugged shaking his head and peeked around the crate.
"I won't let you get away with this." Juliana snapped taking a step toward Jeong.
"Get her out of here!" The man shouted as security officers grabbed Juliana's arms.
Before anyone could stop her, Lizbeth was on her feet charging forward. "Get away from her you son of a bitch!" She screamed. One of the guard tackled her before she could get any closer. The guard pulled Lizbeth to her feet as her mother cried her name struggling to get free.
"Damn it, everyone come out where I can see you." Luke spotted a pistol in Jeong's hand and tapped his weapon for Claire to see. She nodded letting him know she understood that the man was armed. The team stood and advanced into the area. Luke kept his hand on his weapon and a shifting eye on the security personnel.
"Shepard, damn it. I knew it was too much to hope the geth would kill you. I found out some interesting things about you in the ExoGeni database and we don't need any heroics here." Jeong sneered. Luke took several threatening steps forward and started to pull his weapon.
"What exactly do you need? Huh?" Luke snapped. Claire extended her arm to stop her brother.
"Luke, there is no need to kill anyone…" Claire paused and glanced at Jeong. "yet." She finished. Luke looked over at her. Her eyes told him that she was using it as a scare tactic
"Communications are back up and Corporate wants this place purged." Jeong stated.
"This is a human colony Jeong, you can't just repurpose us." Lizbeth protested. Luke's fingers started rapping around his pistol.
"It's not that simple, there are other things here far more important than a few colonist." Jeong argued. Luke had enough.
"There is nothing more important than people. Not even your mind controlling tulip or whatever the hell the Thorian is." Luke said taking a threatening step forward.
"What's a throian?" Juliana asked.
"It's an indigenous life form living under Zu's Hope, it has taken control of the colonists minds. ExoGeni knew all along." Lizbeth pointed an accusing finger at Jeong.
"You won't get away with this." Juliana snapped.
"So you say, but no one is going to miss a few colonists." Luke ripped his pistol from his belt but Claire had her hand out causing him to pause.
"Think of the possibilities this colony has now. If ExoGeni backs the colony and supplies what they need to rebuild, the company can claim that it is supporting a colony and making up for its mistakes, and sooner or later, the colony will turn a profit." Claire stated.
"Turning a bad situation into a good one. But what about the colonists?" Jeong asked.
"Free their minds. Is there a way to reverse the thorian's effects on them?" Claire asked. Lizbeth shook her head.
"I think the only option would be to kill the thorian." She said softly.
"If that is our intention, then we will have to fight our way through the colonists and that might get bloody." Garrus said looking around at the rest of the team.
"There has to be a way to neutralize them without hurting them." Ashley stated glancing back at Luke.
"What about a gas grenade?" Luke suggested.
"It could work but releasing clouds of nerve gas might not be the best idea. We might get caught in it too." Claire said.
"Not if the nerve agent is a weak one." Lizbeth stated. "The colonists immune systems will likely be weak thanks to the thorian spores. Some of the fertilizers that we use for the agricultural units has a small amount of a paralyzing agent. It should not affect anyone but those infected by the thorian."
"I like it. How fast can you wipe some up?" Claire asked.
"Give us a few minutes commander and we should have enough to outfit a few grenades." Juliana said making her way over to a work table.
Luke glanced around and slipped away from the group. Dr. Hossle was looking down at his console trying to look inconspicuous.
"Hey doc, got your data." Luke said placing the OSD on his desk.
"You don't know how grateful I am for this. I'll transfer a fair sum of credits into your account." Luke checked his omni-tool as his personal account balance sky rocketed.
"Wow, doc, look this is way too much." Luke said as the balanced show the doctor had paid him nearly 17,000 credits.
"That is only about two months worth of what I make here. Take a look around. What am I going to spend it on? You can put it to good use." Luke smiled and shook the doctor's hand. "Any time you need a favor, you let me know. I'll do it."
"Thanks doc. See ya around." Luke said. He smirked. He had just made nine months worth of his C-Sec salary in a matter of hours. Once this business with Saren was over, Luke might have to think about using this kind of thing as his new profession.