A/N: Thank you Dragoness31, MizDirected, tlcinbflo, sheezy, Vorcha Girl and ela11 for your reviews. Vorcha Girl, as always thank you for being my wonderful Beta!
Mass Effect owns ... ah, no: Bioware owns Mass Effect.
Chapter 21. Peak 15
It turned out that the Asari Commandos accompanying Lady Benezia had been carrying sealed crates. And these crates had been packed with geth. Nick failed to be surprised. Annoyed, yes. Surprised? Not really. This whole place was just fucked up.
On the other hand, the security captain Maeko Matsuo had been genuinely surprised when Nick confronted her with the fact that geth had attacked them by pointing at the remains of the geth they had destroyed in the garage. The poor woman had been out of her element as soon as Kaidan dropped the remains of a geth trooper in front of her to emphasize Shepard's statement.
Matsuo had left muttering that she had to inform the Executive board, so there was no investor panic if word about the geth got out, so Nick and her team headed to one of the Makos parked in the garage.
"Liara." Shepard turned to the asari. "Do you have any idea how to use the cannon on this baby?"
"No, I've never used one before."
Shepard nodded slowly. "But you can keep an eye on the instruments, right?"
"Of course. I can do that."
"Good. Alenko will give you a short run-down." Nick turned to Kaidan with another apologetic smile. "You feel up to manning the mass accelerator cannon, Lieutenant?"
He just arched an eyebrow. "Any reason I shouldn't, Commander?"
She wasn't sure if he did it on purpose, but his voice was low and raspy. It shot straight to her core. She swallowed. She was almost sure this was his revenge for her laughing at him after his blundering for something to talk about at the bar. "No, of course not. Right. So, Alenko – weapons, Liara – life support, me – driver's seat. Lieutenant, show Liara the basics, will you?"
Nick quickly scrambled into the Mako, feeling very aware of Kaidan's gaze following her. She heard the other two climb in as well and listened to Kaidan quietly explaining the different instruments to Liara. Liara seemed to understand quickly and Nick turned around in her seat just in time to see Kaidan climb into the slightly elevated seat of the mounted cannon.
As soon as he was settled Shepard drove the vehicle out of the garage. Outside, the ongoing blizzard hit the Mako full-force. Nick swore under her breath at the less-than-good visibility conditions. And it was icy. The Mako slithered and slid around the first corner she took with it, but she had driven in worse conditions.
She could handle this.
She wasn't quite sure though if she meant the driving conditions or her inner turmoil with this.
Shepard accelerated again, driving through the Aleutsk Valley as fast as she could given the circumstances. They managed to get through the valley at a fairly good rate despite some geth resistance. After several tunnels guarded by geth, a geth armature and a number of geth turrets they reached the garage of the Peak 15 research facility and disembarked the Mako.
They had no sooner entered the garage when the HUDs in their helmets lit up like a Christmas trees.
"Liara," Shepard said as her hand hovered over the door panel. "I sure hope you can fight. Because if you just sit there like on Therum we might be in trouble."
"I can fight," Liara reassured her.
Shepard nodded in response. She glanced at Kaidan quickly and then hit the door panel when she saw he had his pistol in his hands already.
They quickly went into cover. Nick whipped out her sniper rifle at the same time that Kaidan readied a tech attack. She cast a quick glance around the corner of the pillar and spotted a Geth Juggernaut. Out of the corner of her eye she perceived a movement and realized Kaidan had tossed the primed tech grenade. Shepard fired her first shot just as Kaidan set off his grenade, Overloading the Juggernaut's shields.
A number of Geth Repair Drones zoomed towards their position, but Liara caught them neatly in a Singularity. Nick ordered Kaidan to change his focus away from the Juggernaut and take out the Drones while she took another shot at the Juggernaut and Liara's biotics were recharging. Luckily his omni-tool had cooled down and was ready to prime the next grenade. Shepard couldn't help but admire the ease with which he cast another Overload in the center of Liara's Singularity, causing a decent-sized explosion. At any rate, the drones were taken care of.
Unfortunately a Geth Destroyer followed in their wake, but the combination of Kaidan's tech attacks, and his and Liara's biotics helped to take it down quickly.
As the smoke from the explosion cleared Nick scoped out the far end of the room. She frowned when she identified the two remaining hostiles as krogan. Well, she thought, Kaidan, Wrex and I took out three on Feros.
Both Kaidan and Liara had moved up, but not far. They were just ahead of her. Nick peered through her scope again and took the shot. There was a reddish flash from Kaidan's position and she knew he had thrown a Neural Shock at the krogan.
Liara glowed in a bright blue as her biotics flared around her, Warping one of the krogan. Unfortunately, they still didn't fall. Quite contrary, the krogan closest to them charged.
"Damn redundant nervous systems." Nick heard Kaidan mutter as he Threw the charging krogan back and fired his pistol repeatedly. She couldn't help but stare at him as blue waves of biotics rippled over his body.
Nick shook herself. This was not the time to get distracted by her lieutenant. She quickly lined up another shot and this time the krogan didn't move anymore.
One to go.
The second krogan had taken cover behind a pillar and showed no intention of leaving that spot. Nick frowned again. There was no way she could get a shot on him. They had to draw him out. She signaled to Kaidan to flank the krogan on the right, she would take the left and Liara could stay where she was. The asari should have him in her sight as soon as the krogan left cover, no matter which side he chose.
Kaidan jumped over the box he had been crouching behind and sprinted off towards the right, skidding to a halt behind another crate. The krogan reacted promptly and began firing at him, but he didn't leave his position.
Damn it.
Nick had hoped the krogan would be drawn out, but he stayed in cover. She moved to the next pillar and then quickly slid behind a box off towards two o'clock, finding herself shoulder to shoulder with Liara. With a slight feeling of trepidation she noticed the flaw in her plan. Sending Kaidan on the right flank had exposed him to the krogan. She bit her lip.
Damnitdamnitdamnit.
All she could do was watch as the lieutenant used every pause in the krogan's actions to retaliate, his omni-tool flashing orange, creating an eerie light combined with the flickering blue of his biotics.
"Liara, move up and help Kaidan," she ordered.
Liara glanced at her quickly before running off to his position. Nick holstered her sniper rifle. It was useless at this point. Instead she pulled her shotgun and left her cover, sprinting towards the staircase leading to a mezzanine. As she ran she saw both Kaidan and Liara glow in a tell-tale blue.
Much to her chagrin another red dot appeared in her HUD on the next level. Nevertheless she ran up the first six steps and fired her shotgun at the krogan from close range. He didn't get up again. Taking a deep breath Nick moved further up the stairway, always staying in cover behind the banisters. When she reached the top she quickly glanced around the corner only to see another krogan. She slunk back a step and felt a tingling sensation as Kaidan moved into position next to her. Liara was next to him.
"There's another krogan ahead," she told them. Neither answered, they only nodded curtly.
Nick watched as Kaidan opened his omni-tool and punched in a command. Then she realized he was fabricating a tech grenade. His omni-tool plinged quietly and he took the grenade out of the small fabrication unit. Nick had never used her omni-tool to actually make anything. Another pling indicated the grenade was primed.
Kaidan looked at her and as soon as she nodded he tossed the tech grenade. Nick swung around the corner, firing as many shots at the krogan as she could. The krogan didn't fire back and she grinned. The lieutenant had Sabotaged his weapons. Liara sent a Warp at the krogan and Kaidan finished him off with a Throw.
Suddenly a VI spoke, "User alert. All Peak 15 facilities have suffered a great deal of damage. Biohazard materials present throughout the facility. Virtual Intelligence user interface offline."
"No more contacts," Kaidan informed them. "And we'll need to get main power back."
They jogged along the balcony towards a door leading to the next section and were surprised to find a turret behind it pointing at another door.
"Why is the turret pointing the wrong way?" Liara asked, sounding confused.
"They're making sure nobody leaves the facility without express permission," Kaidan replied through gritted teeth. "They want to keep their people in as much as they want to keep others out."
"By the Goddess," Liara whispered.
They continued their path and took the elevator to the next level and found themselves engaged with several geth as soon as they passed through the door. Kaidan quickly tossed an Overload towards a two geth which Liara caught in a Singularity. Nick sniped one that struggled to get on its feet again when the blurry figure of a third geth blocked her view. It was too close for her sniper rifle. Way too close.
She swore and began to fall back when the geth was caught in a haze of blue and floated into the air, flailing its arms. Nick swiftly pulled her shotgun and finished it off before moving into the room. She heard the bark of a pistol, unsure if it was Kaidan's or Liara's. Probably Kaidan's. The air smelt of fried circuits, ozone and something else. Something she had smelled before, but couldn't remember where.
Where had she smelled this before?
Kaidan and Liara met her at the foot of a small stairway leading up. The sounds surrounding them were … eerie. To say the least. Cracking, screeching. Scurrying? Nick swallowed. She felt shivers of anticipation crawl down her spine and obviously the other two were just as nervous. Both had their pistols ready although no hostiles showed up on their HUDs.
"What was that?" Liara whispered as they heard another sound.
"Animals?" Kaidan suggested, sounding uncomfortable. "Wind? This place is in bad shape."
The screeching came closer and up on the higher level Nick saw a large shadow. Almost out of the blue they heard the scurrying of many legs. She turned her head only to see the bug-like creatures they had encountered on Binthu rushing at them.
Rachni. Well, if that wasn't fucking perfect. Geth and rachni and somewhere in the facility a rogue asari Matriarch with her Commandos.
Luckily the small Rachni Workers were quickly taken care of and her team moved carefully up the stairs to a walkway. Nick lobbed a grenade at two Rachni Soldiers at the same time as Kaidan and Liara both hit them with a Warp. And yet the rachni advanced on them.
Nick fired her shotgun at the first rachni several times before it finally collapsed and then focused on the second one. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Liara cast another Warp, while Kaidan had his pistol trained on the creature, the blue sheen of his Barrier rippling over him in an undulating light. After a few steps it also crumpled to the floor and remained still.
There were several rooms on the mezzanine and Nick tried her luck hacking the first console as it didn't look too difficult. Quickly her confidence faded into frustration as it locked down. She should have known better. This was one reason she hardly ever used her omni-tool for anything other than sending messages or watching vids.
"Lieutenant? Take a look at this please." Nick pointed at the console as she stepped away from it, trying hard not to blush. Kaidan went to the console, glanced at it and then looked over his shoulder at Nick, his eyes twinkling with amusement.
"Commander, what did you do here?" He opened his omni-tool and Nick watched as he ran a hacking program, or so she assumed.
She shrugged. "It didn't look too hard, so I thought I'd give it a try. I told you I'm no good at tech."
Kaidan snorted and shook his head in disbelief. "Shepard, to mess this up you …" He cleared his throat, obviously reevaluating what he was going to say. She could still hear the amusement in his voice when he continued, "This was pretty hard to get wrong."
The console sprang to life and then he turned around to face her. "I've got it."
"Perfect. Let's move on then."
A sudden sound caught their attention as a Rachni Soldier burst through the vents within melee range of Shepard. Without thinking Nick whipped out her omniblade and slashed at the tentacle closest to her. The rachni let out a piercing screech as the tentacle was severed from its body, dark blood shooting from the wound. The metallic scent of blood mingled with the sour stench of its acidic spit, making Nick's stomach reel.
That was the smell she hadn't been able to place earlier.
A Singularity from Liara lifted it into the air, giving Nick a chance to get out of its range.
Nick sprinted towards Liara, who was furthest away from the creature, pulling her shotgun again on the way. Another flash of blue indicated that Kaidan had used some biotic attack, followed by the sharp sound of his pistol. As soon as she had put enough space between her and the rachni, Nick spun around, ready to shoot, but it was no longer necessary.
"That was a little close for my taste," Nick commented, nudging the dead rachni with her foot.
"Yeah," Kaidan answered, as did Liara.
They went on, even more wary now as they inspected the other rooms. And as they were leaving the last room another Rachni Soldier crashed through the wall. This time they had sufficient range, and Kaidan Lifted it as they used their firearms to finish it off before they took the elevator to the next level.
A swarm of Rachni Workers awaited them there, but a Singularity from Liara and a high-explosive grenade from Shepard took care of a large number. The remaining Workers they picked off with their pistols. In Nick's case with her shotgun.
"This is a backup power system, Commander," Kaidan let her know as he inspected a power junction. "Must be for the station mainframe."
"Can we fix it?" Nick asked, chewing on her bottom lip. "Get this place back online?"
"If you stay away from it," Kaidan teased with a rakish grin. Then his expression turned serious again. "I don't know, Commander."
"Only one way to find out." Nick walked to the power junction and flipped the switch. Immediately afterward they heard the voice of the station's VI.
"Critical start-up error. Virtual Intelligence user interface offline. Manual boot required."
Nick stared at the ceiling with an expression that was near loathing before heading towards the reactor core. As she passed through the door she swallowed at the scene in front of her. She put on a neutral face, which quickly turned into a frown when she saw the actual core. She definitely should not touch anything here.
"Lieutenant, I think this is your call." Nick stepped aside to let Kaidan access memory core. The platform they were standing on lowered itself into the core. She watched as his fingers danced over the display.
"You know," he said quietly, his eyes focused on the display in front of him. "I can teach you a few decrypting and hacking tricks. It's really simple once you get the hang of it."
"Is that so?" Nick leaned against the console in a slinky motion. Kaidan shot a quick glance at her and nodded before concentrating on rebooting the mainframe again, but she could see him blushing. A short time later he straightened his shoulders and gave her his typical lop-sided smile as the platform rose back to the main level.
When they reached the main level the holo of the Station VI greeted them.
"It looks like you're trying to restore this facility. Would you like help?"
"Aw, crap. A pop-up." Nick frowned. "I guess you're the VI that runs this place?"
The VI introduced itself as Mira and after having confirmed Shepard's status as Council Spectre it informed them that Shepard was cleared for Secure Access of all systems, but that Privileged Access was only available to Binary Helix executives. Shepard's first question after Mira confirmed that the system was now ready to process queries was to the whereabouts of Lady Benezia.
"Lady Benezia departed on the passenger tramway to Rift Station subsidary labs," the VI informed them. "User alert! The tramway system is currently inoperable."
"Of course," Nick muttered, annoyed. "What's the situation here?"
"One moment, please. Diagnostics in progress." A short pause followed before Mira continued, "Critical failure: Main reactor shut down in accordance with emergency containment procedures. Manual restart required. Critical failure: Landline connections are disabled. Passenger tram systems are offline. Report complete. Do you have an additional systems status query?"
"Why was the main reactor shut down?" Shepard asked.
"I'm sorry, but I was offline at the time. Shutdown could occur if reactor breach seem likely, or in the case of a catastrophic laboratory containment failure. Emergency guidelines suggest the frigid environment will kill biological contagions. It may also damage mechanical cores."
Kaidan snorted in disbelief. "Turn off the heat and hope the cold puts whatever you've unleashed to sleep. Nice."
Nick nodded to show she agreed with him and then continued inquiring what the landlines were and how to get both landlines and main reactor operational again. Finally she asked Mira what had happened immediately before the VI was shut down.
"Stage 1 alert issued at hot labs. Contaminants released from Laboratory Pod Gamma. Emergency protocols implemented."
"What sort of contaminants?" Nick asked.
"I'm sorry, Commander. Inquiries related to our research require Privilged Access. Only Binary Helix executives have that clearance."
"The rachni we've encountered here, did they come from the lab?" Shepard wondered.
"I'm sorry, Commander. Inquiries related to our research …" the VI began, but Nick interrupted and said they had all the information they needed for now.
Shepard turned to Kaidan and Liara. "Looks like we have to take care of the problems here before we can get to our main objective."
On the roof of the facility they encountered a number of rachni, and it needed all of their skill to keep the upper hand. Nick was more than happy to have taken two biotics along as they helped tremendously with knocking the Rachni Soldiers off their legs, especially when three of the large rachni came rushing at them.
One stayed down permanently after being hit simultaneously by a Warp from Liara, a Neural Shock from Kaidan and several shots from Nick's shotgun. The other two were Thrown back forcefully.
They moved carefully forward. A swarm of Rachni Workers scuttled towards them and Nick pulled a grenade from her belt, signaling the other two to fall back to the entrance. As soon as they had retreated into the hallway Nick threw the grenade at the small rachni and fell back as well.
They fought from the relative shelter the hallway provided, because for some odd reason the Rachi Soldiers did not try to enter it. Maybe it was too confined for their taste. Nick didn't complain. It gave her and her shore party the chance to catch a breath. The two rachni Kaidan had Thrown back struggled back to their feet and attacked them again. Once there was no more resistance Shepard motioned her team to cautiously move out again.
Two more Rachni Soldiers attacked them once they had crossed about half of the roof and once they were down Nick hurried over to a power junction and reconnected it. Directly afterward Mira popped up again. Shepard didn't waste much time talking, instead she led her team down towards the main reactor so they could restore the fuel lines.
On their way to the main reactor they encountered a lone Rachni Soldier, which never stood a chance. When they reached the reactor, however, they ran into old friends. Nick cursed as her radar jammed and she cast a look at Kaidan.
"At least six tangos, Commander," he told her.
"I think it's pretty safe to assume we're dealing with geth here, Lieutenant," Shepard surmised.
"Maybe, Commander. Or just someone with a rather sophisticated jamming device," Kaidan retorted, checking his omni-tool again. "But if you're saying we can be pretty sure they're not rachni, then I agree. We can either go left or right, Shepard. The left side shows more hostile activity, but they may be more … smallish. I mean, smaller."
Nick walked over to him until she stood close in front of him. She took hold of his arm, turning it so she could look closely at the map shown by his omni-tool. She considered shortly.
"We go left. There may be more hostiles on that side, but we always have the possibility of falling back into this room. If we go right I fear we might move out too far and end up being be too exposed with no real cover." She held on to his arm the whole time as she explained her decision, keeping her focus on the map. When she looked up she found herself staring into a beautiful pair of amber eyes. She blinked stupidly.
"Aye-aye, Commander." Kaidan's husky voice reached her suddenly sluggish brain and she drew a deep breath as she tore her eyes away from him. Stay focused.
"Liara?" she asked the asari quietly. "Do you have any trouble with my assessment?"
The young archeologist shook her head. "No, Shepard."
With a nod Shepard went to the door panel and after another quick glance to make sure her team was ready she opened the door. Almost immediately they were attacked by several Geth Stalkers and shortly afterward by a Geth Destroyer. Kaidan Overloaded its shields while Liara caught another Stalker in a Singularity. Nick had quickly swapped her Shredder rounds for Tungsten rounds and fired at the Stalker first, then she joined Kaidan shooting at the Destroyer. She still didn't understand why he only used a pistol. The same went for Liara. Did a larger weapon interfere with the use of their biotics?
They advanced slowly as they moved across the walkway. It went in a U-shape around the main reactor system and the way to the upper level was situated on this side. She signaled Kaidan and Liara that they were going to sweep the main level first and then clear the upper level.
Another Destroyer came their way and Kaidan surprised her by Throwing him back instead of readying a tech attack. Liara was busy with more Stalkers, and Shepard helped her get rid of them quickly before aiding Kaidan against the Destroyer. Although it didn't seem as if he needed much help. He was using a combination of his tech and biotic skills as well as his sidearm, but they had no idea what else was awaiting them and Nick didn't want him to overtax his implant. Nick pulled her sniper rifle after Kaidan Threw the Destroyer back towards the wall and lined up her shot. It dropped.
"We still have hostiles," Kaidan informed her, wiping sweat off his brow.
"Where are they?" Her HUD was still jammed.
"Probably on the upper level, but there might be more down here as well," he answered quietly.
Shepard nodded. "We finish clearing this level before we head up."
"Aye-aye, ma'am." came the automatic reply. She raised her eyebrows slightly and Kaidan quickly corrected himself. "I mean Commander."
They reached the back part of the reactor room and Nick saw the lever to reconnect the helium-3 fuel lines. She jogged to the reactor, pulled the lever and headed back to her team. As they rounded the main fusion reactor a rocket was fired at them from the balcony on the upper level. They engaged the Juggernaut, hitting it with everything they had.
A short while later they had taken care of the last geth resistance in the reactor room and made their way to the tram station.
"User alert! Loose contaminants in the decontamination chamber. Access to passenger tramways unadvisable." The station VI sounded over the loudspeakers.
They approached the tram station and reached the decontamination chamber which was locked down. Through the windows they could see several Rachni Warriors. Nick slowed down and headed into the adjacent office. She was pretty sure the control panel by the window was for the double door system. And it was out of order. Of course.
She was just about to tell Kaidan to override the lock when she decided to try something else. He was her tech expert, after all.
"Alenko, can you fix this?" She turned to him and jabbed her thumb at the defect control panel.
"I have to see it first, Commander," he answered as he walked past her and activated his omni-tool. She watched as he did something. Maybe she should really take up his offer and let him show her some more tech shit? Bonus, she would get to spend more time with him.
Now, if that wasn't something to consider…
"Got it." His low, husky voice startled her out of her reverie.
"Well, Lieutenant, I think you deserved the honor of seeing what happens when you activate that thing."
He winked at her – he actually winked at her! - and activated the panel. They watched as the rachni in the decontamination chamber were incinerated.
"Nice!" Shepard commented. Then she turned to Liara, who was investigating the desk at the far end of the room. "Anything of interest, Liara?"
"No, Shepard." Liara shook her head. "Not really. Just an incomplete message about loose contaminants, advising people to get out while they can."
"Bet that worked really well," Nick muttered as she walked towards the door.
A/N: I don't think this was my best chapter, but I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless. Reviews are always welcome! :)