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Espacole and Spork

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"It's the interference." Tali said from her seat in the cockpit, riding co-pilot while Joker sat at the front so she could support him on the technical end. "EDI, you're sure your algorithms can't cut through it?"

"Negative, Tali." The AI answered, "Not without an electronic assault which would endanger ship systems. Which, due to my hardware blocks, is non-viable so long as we do not know where the surviving Cerberus crew are located."

"Right, right..." As the resident Quarian, she couldn't help but approve of how short a leash Cerberus kept the AI on. But, right now, all it was doing was hamstringing them, forcing Tali herself to work on bypassing remote access into each ship to find which one was jamming them. "What even are these algorithms? I've never run up against something like it…"

"It that bad?"

"Mhm." She nodded, "Better than the firewalls Legion gave me to give the Migrant Fleet, even."

"Wait, some random Batarian chain shakers have better firewalls than the damn Geth?" Joker snorted, "What the hell did we fly into?"

"There's no guarantee Legion gave me his actual firewalls…"

"Hey, you forgetting who you're with?" Joker shot back at her, orienting their ship to face one of the Batarian cruisers and then reclining, scratching at his chin. "I was there when you crazies fought the tin men. You never had this kind of trouble with their tech-walls."

"True, but…" Tali shrugged, "These aren't those Geth, apparently."

"No?"

"No. Legion says those Geth split away from the 'True' Geth. Whatever that means. So… Maybe their firewalls were worse?" She nodded, talking absently as she fired up another code-series bent on establishing user authority over the lighting system - a stupid sounding but surprisingly useful and unprotected in-road to other nearby technical systems. When the access attempt was rebuffed hard enough her Omni-Tool actually seized for a moment, she hissed, "Noo-ra, bosh'et!"

"That sounded bad…"

"EDI, make sure we're not getting hit back." Tali instructed quietly, "I think something is trying to piggy-back through those cruisers and get at my Omni-Tool. If it does, it could-"

"Tali?" Joker's chair spun and she looked up, blinking confusedly at his furrowed brows. "Something is trying to… What? You cut off."

"What? No I…." Slowly, she turned, looking down at her Omni-Tool and her eyes widened.

Suddenly, her suit's breathing system sealed up with a quiet 'click' and she clutched at the front of her mask, gasping as the air suddenly thinned out. Staggering up, she nearly fell against a bulkhead as a pair of service-people in the monitoring suites just past the cockpit shot up, clambering up to catch her as suit-seals all along her randomly locked up, running isolation protocols like she'd been breached. She tumbled to the decking as safety measures unlocked her and other seals siezed up instead while she struggled against them.

She was trapped in her own suit…

"Her suit breathing apparatus has been sealed." EDI announced for them as the crewmembers loomed over her and tried to help her lay straighter, "Retrieve an oxygen mask. Joker, I am incapable of offering advisements that could lead directly to firing on Cerberus personnel. However, I can note that the only source of signal I am aware of are those Batarian ships."

"So I should blast 'em?"

"There is a block in my data systems." EDI answered quietly, "Crewman Alexander, please sterilize the nozzle. Crewman T'Ula, please sterilise yourself and prepare to breach Tali's mask at the breathing point. Apologies for the risk, Specialist, but we must intervene."

Sucking in the last bit of her air, she nodded, one hand clutching at the grated floor as the crewmen leaned over her, one using a screwdriver, of all things, to undo the front of her oxygen-intake. It took a few more rushed seconds of them working before she heard a muted 'click' and fresh, cold, clearly non-sterile air rushed into her mask and she sucked in a breath, laying on the floor and gasping as her eyes watered and her legs kicked, pure instinct to fight rushing through her.

The two helped her up and she gasped, "Med-Bay. Need to sterilize, before infection-"

"Go." Joker snapped back, "Purge your 'Tool, too. Whatever that is-"

"Already on it." She answered, inputting the command and sighing as all her hard-made program packages went up in smoke and the Omni-Tool shut down, rebooting in its default mode. For safety, as they walked, she did it thrice more, moaning, "Oh, this is going to suck…"

She was somewhat comforted when the entire ship seemed to 'thrum' a bit as the Thanix fired and her suit-seals finally stopped locking and unlocking randomly - the invasive programs apparently deleted along with everything else..

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The maintenance section was a mess, once they were past the small emergency-access tunnel. Blood splattered the walls in bright red splashes, the lack of air preventing the oxidising effect that would normally brown it, and little shards of bone that Kasumi tried to ignore drifted around them lazily, lit up in emergency-light red like something right out of the horror-vids she watched every Saturday. Vids she somehow doubted she'd be able to stomach after this experience…

The access-pathways were narrow enough they had to proceed single-file, sometimes clambering over thick stretches of blue-grey wires that stretched between the walls. Wires that felt warm to the touch even through her gloves. And smeared in… Something she couldn't identify, but was more than happy to wipe off on the walls as they went. And to sterilize after, when Mordin started handing out squirts of some silver little something he called his 'sterile cure-all'.

Finally, they reached a door at the end of the hall and she knelt, popping open a section of wall to get at the wires inside. The bypass worked like a charm, and with a simple Cerberus code-command, the door blinked green and slid open- Before it caught and stuck halfway, so narrowly even she would struggle to get through..

"Of course." She sighed, turning her head, "Door's stuck."

"Door's fuckin stuck?"

"Yup.." She nodded, turning back to Zaeed and frowning, "I'll slide through and try and get it unblocked."

"We could simply breach it." Solus offered, holding up a little shaped charge in a hand. "Simple matter."

"Might cause damage, though." Kasumi sighed, turning to look at the door. "Maintenance-central should be through there. We can't risk breaking anything without a damn good reason. Right?"

"Keepin' your scrawny ass alive is a pretty damn good reason, if you ask me." Massani growled, "Solus?"

"I concur."

"First, my ass is not 'scrawny'." She tried to chuckle at her weak joke, and then sighed."Second… I appreciate it, but this is the job, isn't it? It should be abandoned, anyway. The rest of the maintenance way has been, at least."

"That proves precious little…"

"Just be safe, okay?" Massani sighed, leaning against the wall and raising his rifle meaningfully. "You see the slightest hint of somethin' nasty, you come on back. We pop the door and take it from there. Clear?"

"Y-Yeah."

"Uh-uh." Massani growled, "I want firmer 'n that. Cus you break your word and so help me, I will bend you over my goddamn knee."

"Excuse me?!"

"There's some real energy in you." He chuckled meeting her gaze through his helmet. "I mean it, though. I'll kick your ass if you don't get back here. We clear?"

"Yeah." She nodded, sighing, "Crystal, Grandpa."

"Fuckin' scrawny ass…"

She ignored his mutterings, sucking in a breath and pressing into the gap between the door and its seal. It barely gave, and she had to suck her breath in and squeeze painfully against it to get her breasts through, but she managed it. If only just. Staggering free, she turned to say something-

And watched the door slam shut suddenly, her companions only visible through the tiny, square window at the top of the door. They were worried, pressing against the door to peer through it, and she did it, too. Her visor was wider, more open, so she leaned back so they could see her smile and then flashed them a thumbs up, which seemed to calm them down enough to wave her off.

"-oin' br-" She heard Massani crackle, short-wave comms struggling strangely to pierce even the thin door. "-ry up."

Wary of the poor comm-line, she flashed an 'OK' and turned, drawing her Locust as she looked around the room.

It was maintenance-central, she could tell that much, but only just.

Its walls were lined, floor to ceiling, in monitoring suites. Consoles for control at range, power displays - all in the red, she noted - beside them and above them terminals showing more broad information. Air-pressure to sections of the station and even on into the Reaper - also red, for the most part, which was fun - temperature, general status, power weight capability and more. All of which had been smeared by the same gooey something as the wires in the maintenance access path. Looking at it, it almost looked like Omni-Gel, somehow, but more viscous and darker.

In the middle of the room was what was left of a pair of semi-cricle desks, with openings at either side to let workers in and out facing the access-way they'd come from and another door on the other side, which let further into the facility. Most of the desk was broken, though splattered by the weird Omni-Gel and blood alike, with little droplets floating through the air, in between dozens of long, pale-white and spiny cables that hung down from the ceiling alongside thicker, blue cables. But, just through the wall of wires and cables, she could make out the all-important main console.

And it already had its prompt up - 'Power Off/On', with a little button blinking beside it.

"Huh." She blinked, "That's convenient."

Reaching out with a hand, she pushed on one of the cables, but it was stuff and heavy and didn't budged. So she paced around it, looking for a way in. She found it in the form of a horizontal gap about as wide as she was tall, and just tall enough for her to get through if she bent over and shimmied through sideways. It was a tight fit but the odd goop actually helped her a bit, letting her slip through and tumble onto the messy floor inside the wall with a quiet 'oof'.

Standing, she shook her hands to get rid of as much of the goop as she could and paced over to the console. The button 'clicked' as she pressed it down and the prompt changed to 'Lift Power Lockdown - Y/N'. When she reached to push the button on the screen, though…

One of the bony-white cables shifted in frot of her, spiny and…

Spiney…

She blinked and had to bite back the bile that rose in her throat as she backpedalled into the far wall, staring at the hanging white things she suddenly recognized as actual spines. Human, Batarian, it didn't matter now - they were white and glistening and reflected the light, and she wanted to hurl. But they needed the power on - for the rest of the teams and for her own, stuck behind the powerless, sealed door she'd come through.

So she forced herself to take a breath and pushed off the wall-

And jerked as her arm refused to budge. Turning, she watched, wide-eyed, as one of the cables snaked around her wrist slowly, but powerfully. Then, she screamed, turning and yanking against it as more of the thick cables snapped in like a trap sprung, wrapping around her arm and trying to catch her before her hand slipped through the little hold holding it and she stumbled back, into the wall of cables and ruined desk beside the console.

No sooner did her back meet it did the cables move, wrapping around her hips and in between them and then as more joined, around her thighs and calves. She struggled against them, hand coming back to hit it, and another snapped out and caught her by the wrist. More wrapped around her chest and stomach, squeezing painfully around her, forcing the wind out of her in a gasp as another wound around her throat and together they lifted her up, pulling her towards the roof as her other hand tugged at the uselessly.

"Fuck!" She gasped, until her eyes fell on something familiar up there and she flinched. Turning, she flicked on her cybers and met the still gaze of an emaciated young woman, a cable stuck down her mouth and skin greying, with the long stretches of bony spines buried across her front like meat hooks, bleeding her out.

And, from the wide-eyed look on her face, while she'd been alive-

Which, she realized, was whatever the fuck the thing was' plan for her, too.

"Fuck!" She screamed, free hand coming around and yanking her Locust up. Mass accelerator fire ripped through the cable and the emergency lights behind them, showering it all in sparks. The cables held even as her clip died and she ejected it, trading the spent clip out for a new one and leveling it on the mass again. "Let me the fuck go!"

Finally, she seemed to hit something, the cables around her chest and arm going slack and leaving her hanging upside down, right over the console. The angle was odd, and the cables tightened around her hip and thighs until she thought her bones would break, until her eyes watered, but she stretched for the 'Y' on the screen. Stretched, and grunted, and stretched, until she reached out with the tip of her Locust to smack it. It took three tries until it worked, the lights flashing on so suddenly it hurt her night-set cybers and left her blind and reeling-

But, as her vision returned, it was to see splashes of tech fury and mass accelerator fire ripping apart the tendrils in splashes of white and black coolant and oil, and the spinal things with sprays of bone and blood. Mordin's hands snapped out, blue tingling across her, and threw her behind them as they worked, destroying every inch of the macabre mechanism they dared with it entangled with the main control.

Which, as it turned out, was a lot.

"Fuck was that?!" Zaeed snarled, turning and kneeling in front of her as she curled up, knees pressed against her chest. Heedless of where his hands touched, he brushed the slimy good off every inch of her, snarling all the while, "Fuckin' Reaper bullshit tentacles, what in the good Goddamn-"

"Are you okay, Miss Goto?"

"Just peachy." She murmured, shaking her head, "I-I think it was trying to… Husk me?"

"I concur." Solus murmured, standing behind Zaeed and looking up, "Several bodies. Based on data, appear… Mid Husk processing. But, attached. Not separate. Curious. Monstrous."

"Fuck were they making?"

"Who can know?" Solus murmured, shaking his head. "Regardless, objective complete. Need to exfiltrate and signal for pick-up."

"Space walk." Massani grunted, "Ain't far, and I ain't stayin' in this fuckin' hole with all that."

"I concur." Solus said again, "Miss Goto?"

"Anywhere that's out of here." She said, watching the vents open as air started hissing in, pressurising it all. Chuckling, she said, "Hey look, air. Who wants to take their helmets off?"

"Yeah, at least you can make jokes." Zaeed sighed, "Fuckin' scrawny ass smartass…"

She rolled her eyes and let him help her up, and tried to ignore the weirdness as the two patted down her back and slathered the sterilizing agent all over her, more than a little afraid of whatever the goo would do to her if it got to her. For her part, she was more than happy to be manhandled if it meant getting every bit of it off her, happily checking all the nooks and crannies along her front and scrubbing herself with the streilizer. Paranoid? Probably.

She didn't care, though.

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A bit shorter than normal, but I wanted to properly pace out both scenes. Hope I managed it - horror of any kind isn't my first forte, lmao. Next chap will focus on Garrus' team and Shepard's.

Also is funny to me that no one caught certain… Implications during the infiltration/first encounter sections last chap, lmao. Or at least, didn't comment. XD

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Chimp Thrown Out a plane :

*sus*

Genshin 21 :

Your interpretation is, I think, a good one!

Spirit Song :

Oh it got worse! Lmoa. Kasumi almost got Husk-tentacled into SOMETHING awful, and Tali had her suit straight up hacked. Imagine being trapped in your suit like that!

Knightwolf :

XD

Wynnt'r :

Paragade is the model I used, yeah.

Joe Cola :

Ye. Research and then designing encounters. Some combat, some not. Variety! Lmao.