Chapter 11: Peak 15
The ground team wear travelling in the Mako on their way to Peak 15. Nihlus stared at Shepard as she was driving the Mako. Ashley and Kaiden were silently waiting to reach their destination. Shepard felt the eyes of the Specter burrowing into the back of her head.
"Anything you wish to ask of me?" Shepard asked.
"Why did you help the internal affairs officer instead of just giving the evidence to Qui'in?" He asked.
"It's a bit of just incase I need a favor in the future." Shepard answered.
Nihlus motioned for her to continue. "Parasini is an agent that answers directly to the board and if Noveria is anything like the rumors suggest and Specters need to turn up then it will be necessary to have a friendly business relationship with someone close to the board."
Nihlus hums. "Good thinking many Specters own shares in the companies and that helps them get an easier time while on an assignment."
Shepard made a turn towards the Peak 15 facility and noticed two rockets were fired right at them. Shepard survived dodging before firing her turrets and rockets at the facilities defenses. After destroying the defenses, the mako was parked at the entrance. The ground team exited the Mako.
"Okay are the defense tower supposed to fire at us?" Williams asked in alarm.
"Normally no." Nihlus answered. "Companies have agreements in their contracts for Specters and the planets security services can come to the facilities to investigate."
"Then why did their defenses fire at us?"
"They are probably desperate to keep their secrets." Shepard guessed. "This is all the more reason to go in now because the more we wait the more evidence they destroy."
The other three nodded before entering the facility. The four snuck and then hid behind cover when they heard two muffled voices talking with themselves. "Did you hear anything outside?"
"Yeah, the defenses activated, and I will check outside." The other voice said getting closer to the ground team's position.
The four waited for the unknown enemy to walk by them. When he went passed them Alenko used his biotics to lift him up into the air. Williams shot him while in the air. This brought attention from the other enemy but was taken down before he realized what was going on by Nihlus and Shepard.
The four took a look at the enemies they defeated. They went over their uniforms taking in the details. The enemies were gray and resembled that of 20th century but the helmet had four lights that seemed to mark the eyes. Thoughts they could be Batarians were shattered when Nihlus removed a face plate and saw a human face.
"I found something that you should see." Nihlus directed to the enemy soldier.
They see the human face in concealed surprise. "You would think with the four red eyes that they would be Batarian." Williams stated.
"I don't recognize the symbol on their sleave." Kaiden said.
"I don't either." Nihlus said pulling out a communication device from the fallen soldier.
The four gathered around it. "The containments are out and we need to remove all evidence of Cerberus involvement before the Alliance or the Citadel Council arrives." An Australian accented voice came from the device giving orders.
The four looked at each other. "What's Cerberus?" Nihlus asked.
"I don't know, but whoever they are they are bad news." Shepared answered. "We need to get to wherever they are before they do something that can put the galaxy at risk."
"Agreed." Nihlus said as the four started moving.
They made their way to a hallway and saw that a turret was infront of them but facing the other way. They slowly approached the turret and noticed that it never turned back towards them. The four moved forward confused wondering why it was facing the wrong way. The exited the hallway to see three more. Cerberus soldiers standing guard and noticed a Turian and a male human corpse by their feet.
"Was that necessary?" One of them asked.
"You heard the boss lady we take care of any possible leaks."
"Besides what's wrong with killing a bird anyway."
Nihlus slightly tightened his grip on his rifle. He looked at Shepard who pulled out a grenade. She tossed it at the two guards the explosion killing them nearly instantly. The four walked over to the bodies and noticed one of them still breathing Nihlus pointed his assault riffle at him. Before he could fire however, Shepard pushed his gun down. She knelt down to his level and the wounded soldier looked up at her.
"Shit!" He painfully exclaimed seeing the N7 logo. "Should have figured the Councel's lap dog would be sent."
"Lap dog?" Nihlus asked confused.
"The Alliance putting the whims of the council before humanity." The wounded soldier tried to lecture.
"How does whatever you are doing help humanity?" Shepard asked.
Silence was the response to her question. But before she could interrogate him further, she jumped back just before she would have been hit by a green blob. She turned and saw a large insect like creature with two tentacle like appendages on the rear of its back with three teeth like objects at the end. The four fired on the insect.
"Everyone alright?" Shepard asked.
"I'm alright commander." Williams answered.
"Fine hear." Alenko verified.
Nihlus grunted in response. The four turned to injured soldier but before they could ask him anything else the green slim had gone through his suit and start to slowly kill him. Before medi gel could be deployed he died in agony. The four turned toward each other.
"Damn it, we couldn't get anymore information form him." Williams said.
"I don't know he seems like the person who would refuse to talk." Nihlus pointed out.
"Regardless the Rachni are out and who knows what kind of damage could be done if they get out of this facility." Shepard stated.
"Right lead the way." Alenko said ready for the commander's order.
The four went to the elevator went up to the generator room. They went to the door to the elevator to the monorail, only for to be inactive. The turn to see an inactive console. They approach it and suddenly get lowered down.
"The issue seems repairable commander we just have to carefully move these blocks…" Kaiden started to explain.
Before he could explain however, Shepard applied a large amount of omni-gel and it fixed the current problem. "…Or you can just slap on omni-gel." Williams said with a large amount of sass.
The platform went back up and were met with a human looking VI. "Greating welcome to Peak 15, I'm Mira how may I help you today."
"What can you tell us about what's going on?" Shepard inquired.
"I require credentials before I can divulge any information."
Nihlus stepped forward. "Nihlus Kryik, Councel Specter."
"Credentials accepted welcome Specter the facilities were cut offline when contaminants got out of their containment area."
"What can you tell me about the contaminants?"
"I'm sorry but only high level executives are allowed access to that information."
Nihlus grumbled. "Okay how do we get the elevator back online?"
"My sensors indicate that the landlines on the roof need to be reconnected and the reactor core needs to be repaired." The VI directs them.
"Alright, as we won't get anything more from the VI we need to get everything back online so that we can take that elevator." Shepard started giving orders. "Lt. you and Nihlus go to the roof to reconnect the landlines, Chief you and I will fix the reactor core."
"Yes mam."
The two groups headed for their respected areas. On the roof Nihlus and Kaiden encountered mor rachni. They easily defeated them and fixed the landline.
While the Specter and the lieutenant were fighting on the roof, Shepard and Williams were in the basement fighting more of the Cerberus soldiers. They noticed one of the soldiers had a shield in front of him blocking any bullets that would hit him. Shepard noticed a small weakness however.
"Williams sniper to the mail slot." Shepard ordered and Williams grinned.
Shepart fired at the shield to keep him focused on herself. The soldier with the shield was so focused on the commander that he didn't notice the Chief taking aim at his head through the hole of the shield. When she got the shot she fired getting him in the head killing him instantly. The two quickly took care of the rest of the troops and fixed the reactor core. The two went back to the main floor and met up with Nihlus and Kaiden.
"The elevator should be active now." Nihlus observed.
"Right lets move." Shepard commanded as the four entered the elevator.
The four then got out of the elevator and headed down a hallway only for another rachni to pop out of the vent and was about to attack them when Kaien used his biotics to lift it up to become easy target. The four encountered a locked door and an open door. In the room they saw a dead salarian and a rachni behind glass at the entrance of the locked dooer. They approached the body and saw it near a consol. They approached the console and played the recording.
"Private security come in and suddenly the Rachni are released and killing everyone…what was that… wait no no no."
The screen went static. Before they could search the room further they heard rumbling in the vents. They heard a vent open up and turned to see another rachni pop out. Kaiden acted quickly and biotically lifted it off the ground. With it off the ground the four fired at it killing it. The four then went over to the Mira console and turned the VI on.
"Welcome how may I help you today?"
"Why is the door to the monorail closed?" Shepard asked.
"Our systems locked the door to prevent more of the containments from leaving the facility, the only way to reactivate the door is to override my programing or to activate the neutron purge."
"I see that it needs to be repaired one second." Nihlus said fixing the programing. "Alright activate the neutron purge."
"Activating neutron purge."
Screams of rachni could be heard through out the area as flames came out and killing all the rachni. The four looked at each other. Kaiden was visibly shaken, Ashley's eyes have hard look in her eyes but one that looked like it could break, and Nihlus did not blink in eye. Once the Neutron purge was completed the four made their way to the monorail and headed for the main facility.
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