24: The Attack
'He came to me about three months ago.' Rachel stifled a sob then, sniffling instead. She pulled a tissue from the box upon the tabletop before her and used it to wipe her nose, taking a moment to compose herself before she continued. 'He paid well for information.'
'And you gave it to him?' Alvarez sounded aghast. Booker, who stood at the other side of the table from the man, simply watched Rachel Shaw with a firm but non-judgmental gaze. The three of them had gone into the conference room close to the operations centre, and upon entering Booker had closed all the blinds at the windows around them as to shut out any prying eyes from the other SOTIG staff.
Rachel nodded her head slowly. She looked up to Alvarez, eyes streaming.
'You have to understand, I owe so much money. To my lawyers, to my ex-husband…' She trailed off slowly, aware that her sob story was not likely to stand up well under the scrutiny of this pair. 'I was desperate.'
'You could have come to us,' Alvarez stated.
'And ask for what? A pay rise? You and I both know that as a consultant, I'm already getting paid enough. And that's just it: it still isn't enough. And now Marelix has my daughter.' She added this last part with another choking sound, and she swallowed again as to try and contain the emotions that threatened to spill out of her. 'Oh god, he has my daughter. He's at my apartment right now with her.'
'That's good.' Booker's latest statement fetched him a startled look from the woman. He was quick to elaborate: 'That means we know where he is. We take him alive and bleed him for information. Chances are he's working for someone else. I doubt a lowly turian Captain organized the attack on the facility. Sounds to me he was simply an intermediary, using you to get information about us whilst he brought Vok on board.'
'James, this whole place is compromised.' Alvarez looked to Booker. His brow was creased with worry. He had a point, of course: SOTIG only operated as effectively as it did because of its secrecy. If it got out that a subbranch of Alliance Intelligence was operating on Anhur, there could be diplomatic fallout. And the last thing the Human Systems Alliance needed was more of that. There would be censure from the Council, the batarians would be clamouring for blood and the other major Council races would once again have reason to distrust humanity altogether. And yet, at the same time Booker knew that the likes of the turians and the salarians had intelligence assets in place across the Terminus Systems, be they here on Anhur or elsewhere. Everybody was playing the same kind of game, and everyone would eagerly jump onto any player who blew their cover.
'We can't be sure of that. This Marelix may have kept this office's existence to himself. He wants to know our movements and compromising us would deny him our resources as provided through Rachel here. If we were compromised, I suspect something would have happened to suggest as much by now. Rachel may have been assisting the turian for the past three months, but so far no one's attacked this place or exposed us. That means Marelix is working a long game here.'
'Who does he work for, though?' Alvarez turned again to Rachel. 'Has he told you who he works for?'
Rachel shook her head. Booker was not surprised by the response.
'Of course he wouldn't tell her too much,' he stated. Before he could speak further, there sounded a knock on the door. Booker and the others turned to it, and the door slid open to reveal Lena Rogers standing in the doorway. She carried a data pad, and she stepped in and handed it to Booker.
'That's everything we know about Captain Marelix,' she told him. She glanced to Rachel, who kept her eyes downcast. Lena's expression noticeably soured. 'We should be vetting our consultants a bit better than we are.'
'Don't start on that now, Lena.' Booker frowned as he skimmed through the information on the data pad's display. 'Looks like Captain Lassius Marelix is a good little soldier. Stayed on after his initial mandatory years of service. His genetic condition impacted his eyesight, necessitating ocular implants. It even looks like he used to get bullied an awful lot when he was young because of his condition. No wonder he's worked so hard. There are more commendations on here than you'd find on most Generals.' He narrowed his eyes as he came to the end of the file. The information was fairly basic stuff, with little in the way of detail considering so much of what Marelix had done was likely in the covert ops divisions of the turian military. The images on file made it apparent that the turian was almost as pale as a blanket, a symptom of the rare condition he had been born with. Turian albinism, if one wanted to boil it down. A lack of certain naturally occurring metals in his muscles and plates made him especially susceptible to the weak magnetic field of the turian home world, so it was no wonder most of his deployments had been elsewhere.
'His most recent position was as an aide to Colonel Calen Venarus,' Lena added, and Booker nodded when he saw that listing on the file. He turned to Rachel, bringing up the on-file mugshot of the turian Captain. He held it out to her, and from the way her eyes widened it was apparent that this was the same turian she had become embroiled with.
'That is him, isn't it?' He asked her. He had to be sure, as with anything in this line of work.
'That's him.' She swallowed, all the more uneasy now.
'What kind of relationship do you two have?' It was Alvarez who asked this. From the way Rachel looked at him, both fear and trepidation evident in her moistened eyes, Booker did not need to think too hard on this matter.
'We became close.' Rachel appeared reluctant to provide further explanation. Alvarez however, leaned over the table, eyes narrowing.
'How close, Rachel?'
'Carlos, take it easy…' Booker began, but he trailed off when Rachel spoke again.
'Intimate.' Rachel buried her face in her hands and began to weep again. Lena looked a little bemused at the news, whereas Alvarez slowly shook his head.
'What's our next move?' It was Lena who asked this, turning to Booker.
'We get Marelix. We bring him in and we learn everything we can from him.' Of course, this was easier said than done. There was something about Anhur, in the sense that somehow this place almost always made even the simplest of tasks more complicated. 'We go to her apartment and we snatch him. He does have a hostage, though.'
'Rachel's daughter,' Alvarez said, nodding slowly in understanding. Having children involved in any way almost always complicated matters. Putting innocents in harm's way was sometimes unavoidable, but for those innocents to be children? That would give even the most veteran strike team pause.
'We have additional help, however,' Booker said. From the way Lena frowned, it appeared the woman was anything but keen on this subject.
'The Cerberus operative?' She shook her head. 'No way. You can't trust her. You do realise she knocked out one of our own guards and shot a suspect in the kneecap?'
Booker might have smiled then, were it not for Lena's withering glare.
'All the more reason to like her,' he remarked. 'You can't argue with her results. Same goes for Agent Vasiya. Besides, Lena, you can see how short staffed we are on the best of days. We need the help, and we need it from people who know Anhur. Raine, Vasiya and even the quarian have all been here longer than we have.'
'Fine.' Lena threw her hands up in the air, resigned to his decision. 'You do what you want, James. When it all goes wrong, I'll be sure to say "I told you so".'
'And I'll be happy to listen.' Booker made his way for the door nearby. With a tap on the panel next to it, the door slid open, revealing the operations centre outside. There were maybe two dozen staff at most out here, manning their workstations or milling about the main floor on their assigned duties.
'Carlos, stay with Rachel and see if there's anything else she can tell us.'
'All right.' Alvarez turned to the weeping woman seated at the end of the conference room table, face in her hands, sobs quiet and pitiful.
Booker was about to add something further, when a staffer came striding up to him. It was one of the technicians, a young man in a grey uniform, and he appeared worried.
'Sir, we've lost contact with the basement security checkpoint.'
'Could be a fault in the system. You check the cameras?' Booker had been in this line of work long enough to know that it was not often "faults" that caused these problems, but it was always a possibility.
'Just did that, sir. The cameras are out down there as well.'
Booker did not need to be told twice. His face hardened and he looked back to Lena.
'Lena, get a security team together and head downstairs and check this out. After everything that's happened today, this kind of thing can't just be a coincidence.'
'Understood.' Lena hurried off to do as instructed. Booker considered his own options, and settled his gaze on the technician once again:
'See if you can't get access to those cameras in the meantime. We can't rule anything out.'
The technician nodded in acknowledgment, before he turned and walked away. Booker, meanwhile, moved at a brisk pace as he passed the conference room and started up the stairs that led to the upper level whereupon his office was located. Stepping inside, he moved over to a locker in the corner, and there he punched in the access code upon the keypad lock that saw it open. There were various items within, least of all a padded armour vest that he promptly slipped on under his jacket. And then there was the N7 Defender model shotgun, a bulky and heavy slug thrower that was both very expensive to attain and difficult to use outside of the properly trained hands. Whatever the problem downstairs, Booker would not be taking any chances.
'So, is this where they keep the misfits?'
Lyssa leaned back in the chair within the lunchroom, a space adorned in much the same way as the rest of this office with brown-toned panelled walls and dry, fluorescent lighting. The lack of any windows in this place made it feel as if it was late at night and not the midday hour she knew it to be outside.
As she leaned back in the chair, it audibly squeaked. The quarian, Kanen, was loitering at the other end whilst the woman, Natasha, was seated near him with a cup of hot coffee in one hand. Neither seemed pleased to have Lyssa in the room with them, but Booker had told them to remain in here for the time being. So far, that had been about twenty minutes, and Lyssa was already beginning to feel bored.
'Hey, bubble boy.' She directed this to Kanen, who had since been doing his best attempt to ignore her. Nonetheless, the epithet made him turn his head her way. 'Yeah, you, that's right. You tried to kill me earlier today. I'd like an apology.'
'An apology?' Kanen's electronically edged voice was filled with disbelief. 'You tried to kill me.'
'Yeah, but that was self-defence.' Lyssa spun back and forth on the swivel chair. She had snacked on some of the biscuits she had found in the cupboards nearby, but otherwise it had been some time since she had last eaten a proper meal. 'Had I known the Alliance goon squad was after Vok, I might have offered to help.'
'You're with Cerberus.' It was Natasha who said this, her voice laced with contempt. Lyssa directed her attention towards the slightly younger woman, one eyebrow quirked as she awaited what she expected to be further explanation of why she held such dislike for the organisation. 'You can't be trusted. Kanen should have put a bullet in you back at the Governor's place.'
'Well, unfortunately for you he didn't.' For Lyssa, the only entertainment she had on hand was to be found in riling these two up. 'You know, Vasiya, ever since we first met out in the lobby you've been eyeing me weirdly. Like, you know something about me that I don't. What's with that?'
'What do you mean?' Natasha's voice tightened, something that Lyssa noticed immediately.
'You don't like Cerberus, I get that. I don't like them much either. Some sort of internal conflict's seen me set up to take a fall. My own people want me dead, so I'm not technically working for them anymore. We're on the same side here.'
'I doubt that.' Natasha locked eyes with her, clearly unconvinced.
'Yeah, well, I don't really give a shit whether you believe me or not. Thing is, I feel like you and I have met somewhere before. That's the feeling I'm getting. So, enlighten me, Vasiya: where have you seen me before?'
There was no answer. Natasha instead cast her eyes down at her coffee, and she slowly raised it to her lips to take another sip. Lyssa sighed, unsurprised that straight answers were not forthcoming. The past few days had seen her encounter her fair share of stubborn individuals, with Natasha apparently the latest in a continuing tradition.
'Why don't you like Cerberus?' Lyssa asked her. 'I mean, aside from the obvious talk about "terrorism" and "xenophobia". What you have against the organization is personal, isn't it?'
'Keep your mouth shut, Raine.' It was Kanen who barked this at her, and Lyssa simply shot him a much meaner glare than whatever one he was giving her underneath that mask of his. For a moment there, neither of them said anything. An uneasy silence fell upon the room, one that was finally brought to an end by Natasha's speaking up.
'I have my reasons,' she said, her tone firm. To Lyssa, it appeared that she was attempting to keep a lid on a deep-seated anger. 'Every time something bad happens these days, Cerberus nearly always seems to be involved. I made it my mission to shut that organization down, and I sure as shit don't trust anyone who worked for them, no matter how much they claim to no longer be part of that group.'
'Sounds to me you have some trust issues, then,' Lyssa remarked. 'No use taking it out on me. I was employed to do a job and I did it, and for a while there I thought I did it well enough. Now my own boss wants me dead. Still a little confused about all that, to be honest.' It was obvious Director Rickard had been working his own angle, but Lyssa was still perplexed as to what that angle was.
'You didn't do it well enough.' Natasha's voice had lowered, but Lyssa still heard this statement loud and clear. She leaned forwards in her chair then, her previously relaxed demeanour dissipating immediately.
'Excuse me?' She fixed her gaze firmly upon Natasha, who had since returned her attention to her half-filled mug of coffee. No reply was forthcoming, so Lyssa stood up slowly and offered the younger woman a more piercing look. 'We know each other, don't we? Somehow, somewhere, we've met before.'
'You were the Chief of Security at that facility.' Natasha looked her way again. A smug smile formed at her mouth. 'You sure didn't do a very good job of actually securing the place, did you?'
'Natasha, leave it alone.' The quarian's voice was taut. Lyssa peered at Natasha, trying to figure it all out.
'Is there something you want to tell me, Vasiya?' She asked her. 'Or do I have to come over there and beat it out of you?'
Natasha rose from her seat then, never one to back down from a challenge. She put her coffee aside and met Lyssa's threatening stare with a somewhat smugger one of her own.
'We have met, Lyssa Raine. I just happened to be invisible at the time.'
It took Lyssa only a few seconds to realise what the woman meant. The person who had jumped her in the mainframe, the one who had put her out of action when the facility had been attacked…It could not have been her, surely? And yet, here was all the confirmation she needed coming straight from the horse's mouth, so-to-speak.
'You bitch,' she said, before she threw her chair aside and bolted for Natasha. This apparently caught her off-guard, as Natasha's eyes visibly widened. She turned to meet Lyssa's lunge front on, and the pair of them went tumbling to the floor in a tangle of limbs, knocking aside Natasha's chair as they went. Lyssa was on top of her then, and she did not hesitate to punch her hard across the face, drawing blood from her nose before she hit her again, this time tenderising her jaw. Blood trickled from her nostrils and from the cut that had opened on the inside of her lower lip.
The quarian was on Lyssa within seconds, grabbing her by the arms and pulling her off of the other woman with surprising ease. At least, it was easy for him when he had initially caught her off-guard; Lyssa was quick to spin on her heels to face him as soon as she was back on her feet, and she delivered a sharp and potent jab to the neck, where his armour's undersuit was partially exposed. This blow was enough to make him stumble backwards a few steps, granting Lyssa the reprieve she needed to get clear of him.
Natasha was getting to her feet behind her, but before she could make a move or even before Lyssa could turn to face her, there sounded a muffled yet loud thump from somewhere below them. It was enough to cause the walls to vibrate around them, the floor shaking underfoot. Whatever amped-up emotions the trio were feeling then were suddenly thrown to the wayside, and they all exchanged bemused, if increasingly worried looks upon hearing the noise. It had been an explosion, that much was obvious. And as soon as that thought came to mind, an alarm sounded throughout the office.
'Security personnel to basement entrance. Intruders detected in garage.' Booker's voice sounded clear through the building's PA system. 'All non-combat personnel proceed to evacuation areas.'
'We're under attack?' Kanen sounded surprised. He rubbed at his neck, and through his faceplate Lyssa thought she detected some anger directed towards her. Nonetheless, his feelings regarding her would have to wait, as they now had much more pressing concerns.
Lyssa went to move for the door, but it slid open before she could get halfway to it. A security guard was in the doorway, and he looked across the trio and noted, with a small frown, the obviously bloodied features of Natasha. Not to mention the fact that some of that blood was visible on the knuckles of Lyssa's right hand.
Whatever questions he had would have to wait. The guard motioned for the three of them to follow.
'I've been instructed to escort the three of you to the landing pad upstairs,' he told them. 'Please come with me.'
'Can we get some guns?' Another explosion sounded from below as soon as Lyssa asked this. The guard shook his head, and subsequently backed out into the corridor.
'You're not cleared for those.' Lyssa rolled her eyes as soon as she heard this, although she supposed that it was to be expected. She had been a prisoner here until the last half hour, so asking for a gun was probably a bit much.
Sevarn had made his way down the tunnel and through another door, this one having been blown open in the last few minutes. Twisted and scorched metal lay scattered around it on the inside, along with the mangled and burned body of the guard who had been unfortunate enough to be standing too close to the door, flesh still sizzling from whatever incendiary charge had laid waste to the secure metal door. This at least explained the explosion Sevarn had heard as he had made his way here.
Stepping through it had brought him into an underground parking garage of considerable size. It was occupied by a scattered dozen or so cars of varying makes, with two armoured personnel carriers parked in the far corner behind a wire fence partition. Looking towards what he took to be the main pair of elevators for the building above, he caught sight of the tail end of the Cerberus strike team. They were being led by someone he recognized.
It was that female Cerberus operative again, the same one who had attacked him and Lyssa at the farm days before. She was outfitted in the expectedly black and orange armour favoured by those in the organization, her black hair cut short and neat, her eyes glowing an unnaturally light blue and her face baring several veinlike glowing lines that bore a similar luminescent shade. She stopped before the stairwell doors, pausing to turn around and direct the dozen troopers behind her.
Sevarn ducked behind the nearest parked car, peering around it towards the enemies at the far opposite side and pondering his options. He could open fire, certainly, but in so doing he would bring down the entire strike team on his head. That would be counterproductive where he was concerned, and his pause to ponder this option ensured that about half of that strike team filed on into the main stairwell. The other half split up across the two elevators. Their leader, the woman, followed the main group into the stairs. That left at least four more, who started to make their way further along the parking lot.
Surely the people inside the building above had been alerted by the noise. At this point, it seemed the Cerberus strike team had eschewed stealth in favour of simple brute force. Had Sevarn been leading that team, he would have had multiple groups attack from different entrance points. With this in mind, he had to assume there were more Cerberus thugs breaking in elsewhere.
'Chas, are you seeing this?' He wondered if the drell might be of any help. The radio silence he got in return caused the turian to crease his brow, and he spoke again: 'Chas, are you getting this?'
No response. The line was quiet. Sevarn had to assume that the Cerberus teams were jamming signals across the board within the vicinity of the building. That, or the drell had finally bailed on him. It hardly mattered now.
He leaned about the side of the car again, keeping an eye on the four soldiers as they made their way down the length of the parking garage, headed for a second stairwell and elevator.
They would move fast and use overwhelming force, or so that was what Sevarn would do if he had been in charge of the operation. They had little other choice, for if this SOTIG organization was indeed part of Alliance Intelligence then they would be well-equipped. Taking them by surprise and taking them out fast would ensure they would have no chance to regroup and organize a proper defence, or even potentially call for help from other Alliance assets in the sector.
Sevarn kept low as he stepped out from behind the car, sticking to the shadows as best he could. The presence of numerous lights up in the ceiling made a stealthy approach impractical, and in all honesty he was much more interested in a simple straight-up fight. He took position by one concrete column, raised his weapon towards in the direction of the rearmost Cerberus soldier and squeezed the trigger.
He cut the trooper down with a well-placed volley, the noise of the shots clamouring about the parking garage, reverberating from every wall around and thereby making it sound as if multiple guns were firing at once. The noise was a little too much for Sevarn's ears, enough to make him wince slightly and grit his teeth before he shifted his aim to the second of the troopers. This one spun around as soon as his compatriot went down, letting fly with a shot from his submachine gun that shattered a side window on the car by Sevarn's left. Nonetheless, this trooper fell under Sevarn's accurate fire, multiple bloodied holes opening across his torso as the rounds from the turian's Vindicator assault rifle shredded through his armour.
The one at the front of the group, equipped in bulkier armour complete with a chunky backpack, spun about and started hammering Sevarn's position with fire from an equally chunky looking assault rifle. Sevarn ducked as bullets pounded into the car by his left, one tire hissing with escaping air as it was torn to shreds, the remaining side window shattering as did the windshield in turn. Sevarn returned fire, sending this soldier darting behind a column, with his follower diving behind the parked car closest to him.
Sevarn dived to one side as both Cerberus troopers let fly with a hail of bullets, the shots cracking through the air around him, punching further holes into the nearby car and blowing away chunks of the concrete wall behind him. Welling up all the biotic energy he could muster, Sevarn flicked out with his left arm and sent the ball of shimmering blue energy he had formed zipping across the parking lot. It struck the Cerberus trooper with enough force to lift him off of his feet and send him slamming into the wall at his back, the sheer force behind the biotic throw and the subsequent impact enough to break bones and rupture organs. The soldier slumped into a groaning, half-dead heap at the wall's base.
Sevarn was then aware of quiet clink-clink noise, and he turned his head in time to see the grenade thrown by the Cerberus trooper in the bulkier armour come to a steady roll after its initial bounce. It was slowly but surely rolling its way in his direction.
His eyes widened and he was on his feet faster than he would have even expected of himself. He threw himself behind the car close by as the grenade detonated, the thump of the explosion filling his ears with a thunderous roar. He felt the concussive shockwave hit him partway through his dive, sending him flying hard into the wall behind him. Shrapnel pinged off of the concrete wall and every other window still left in the shot-up car shattered, showering him with shards of glass. Smoke filled his vision and concrete dust filled his throat and mouth.
He rolled over, taking a few seconds to figure out if he was actually hurt or not. Nothing stung, just the odd ache from his tumble and a pain in his chest from where he had been partially winded after hitting the wall. As for the soldier who had thrown the grenade, he was nowhere to be seen. Sevarn rose to his feet, his armour covered in concrete dust. It stung at his eyes, and he took a moment more to try and blink and rub it away.
The attack was likely well underway by now. He looked to the stairwell door ahead, and then took another few seconds to look down at his battered armour and make sure that yes, all of his parts were where they should be. He was still in one piece, thank the spirits, but now he was well behind the enemy and there was no telling what kind of damage they would be doing upstairs. He readied his rifle once more and hurried across the parking garage for the stairwell entrance, unable to help but feel an increasing worry for Lyssa. Despite everything that had happened, he found that he had come to care for the woman, and once again it appeared she needed his help. And he would gladly give it to her, even if it meant throwing himself into the fire to do so.
Lyssa had followed the security guard out into the corridor, aware of numerous shouts coming from nearby as the non-combat personnel hurried for the exits. Natasha, holding a tissue to her bleeding nose, followed a few paces behind with Kanen at her side. Neither of them said anything, and neither of them even offered Lyssa a second glance. Not that she much cared, they could hate her as much as they wanted. Their personal feelings could wait until after this latest crisis, one that only escalated as soon as the group was even partway down the corridor.
A door at the opposite end flung open, revealing the first of the Cerberus troopers who had broken into the building. This one, as well as another who came barging in after him, wasted no time in opening fire. The security guard was cut down in seconds, twitching and convulsing as the bullets tore through him. He collapsed into a heap on the corridor floor, and behind him Lyssa jumped back as the pair of Cerberus troopers raked their fire in her direction.
Parts of the wall about her were torn to pieces. She ducked, and behind her both Natasha and Kanen backed into the nearest doorway. Lyssa sighted the pistol still in the holster at the security guard's waist, intent on seizing it as soon as the opportunity presented itself.
The two Cerberus troopers started pounding forwards, rifles raised. Lyssa, remaining low, reached out and grabbed the dead guard's arm. She dragged the bloodied corpse, remaining just inside the doorway of the room behind her. She winced as the troopers started shooting again, sending more rounds tearing into the guard's body. Blood spattered and some of it ended up on her hands and sleeves, but she was nonetheless able to pull the body all the way into the room. As soon as it was out of the open, she snatched the pistol from the dead man's waist.
She turned to Kanen and Natasha, wondering if either of them might try to make a move against her out of some misguided belief that she was still with Cerberus. Neither of them did, and she motioned for them to stand back, her gaze returning to the corridor outside as she leaned partway around the doorway and opened fire. It was a standard Predator model pistol, and as such it did not hit quite as hard as she would have preferred. Nonetheless, it was enough to fell one of the troopers, and his compatriot ducked into a nearby doorway before he crouched down and returned fire. The bark of the automatic rifle echoed down the corridor, and several bullets blew chunks out of the doorway by Lyssa. She stumbled back into the room, looking for another way out, well aware that the soldier and any who followed him could simply hurl a grenade in here to take care of the three of them.
'They clearly don't like you much,' Natasha remarked.
'Yeah, well, I don't like them much either.' Lyssa sighted the fire extinguisher on the wall nearby. She strode over to it, pulled it from its housing upon the wall and then hurled it through the doorway. It clanked loudly upon the polished concrete floor, and Lyssa raised her gun and fired a single round. This connected with the fire extinguisher and ruptured the pressurised container with a thump, white smoke billowing forth, filling the corridor. An unconventional smokescreen, and more than enough for her to get an edge over the trooper outside.
'Come on.' She looked back to Kanen and Natasha, motioning for them to follow. Lyssa herself wasted no time in heading out into the corridor, stepping into the noxious white smoke. She fired some shots down the corridor's length, although she could not see the enemy through the cloud. In return, the soldier fired a volley that cut through the cloud of smoke alarmingly close. Lyssa turned and ran back down the other way, Kanen and Natasha following closely.
Her first thought was to find an exit. However, there was something else she considered then, a loose end of sorts. It was the kind of detour that might get her killed, but she would not rest easy until she put an end to it entirely. After all, Salak Vok was still alive and somewhere in the building. The chaos brought on by this Cerberus attack made for the best opportunity to deliver what that batarian had coming to him, at least in Lyssa's view.
There was not just a Cerberus team coming up from the basement. There was one now storming the main entrance, all attempts at covert action having been thrown out the window. Booker could see it playing out on the surveillance monitors within the security office on the building's ground floor. What few guards were on duty at the front lobby were cut down quickly, and the non-combat personnel who had been heading there as a means of escape also met similar fates as the Cerberus soldiers marched on into the building's corridors.
Most of the surveillance feeds cut out at that point. Their attackers had likely compromised the system in some way, and this would also explain why their communications were down. This attack was very well organized, and Booker did not need to guess twice as to the identity of those who attacked them. The Cerberus logo was clear as day on the armour these thugs wore. Booker was more concerned with the "why" of the whole ordeal, as what would Cerberus gain from attacking this building and the organization that resided within?
It had to be something to do with Vok, or perhaps Natasha. Both had connections to the Cerberus presence on Anhur. It could even have been both. As a precaution, he had snatched up the OSD containing the encrypted Cerberus data that Natasha had stolen from the facility, the very one he had confiscated from her when she had been arrested. That would be his for safekeeping, and somehow, he suspected that it might have been the very reason this attack was occurring.
Booker briefly mulled over these options, although he had little chance to do any deeper thought as a new commotion erupted out in the main operations room. He looked up through the windows about the security room, past the workstations outside and towards the central elevator. There, the doors had slid open, revealing another half dozen Cerberus troopers, except this group was headed by a woman in a sleeker set of Cerberus armour. Even from this distance, Booker could see the unnatural glow of her eyes, a brilliant blue. The soldiers behind her charged out of the elevator past her flanks, spreading out and opening fire about the operations centre at the guards scattered around.
A cacophony of gunfire erupted about the operations centre, shouts mingled in with the raucous rattle of automatic weapons. Windows shattered and computers sparked and smoke as bullets tore into them. A security guard just outside was cut down, and Booker ducked as the window behind him shattered, sending forth a hail of broken glass into the room about him.
The woman squad leader moved forwards amidst the hail of bullets, covered by her compatriots. As she moved, she did so with a finesse and agility that Booker might have likened to that of a cat, weaving between obstacles and cartwheeling from cover to cover. As she moved, she pulled a sword from her back, and the clearly cybernetic hand she had fitted at her left arm glowed with a blazing blue energy. There was some form of gun within, and Booker watched with his features set into a grim countenance as that gun fired, sending one of the guards outside falling with most of his head gone. What remained was little more than ragged, charred flesh.
Booker had two objectives in mind: secure Salak Vok and secure Natasha Vasiya. Another glance at the monitors revealed that of the few still running, at least one showed Lyssa charging down a corridor elsewhere, already on her way to the infirmary. That put the first of those objectives in some jeopardy, even if Booker was fairly certain that Vok was of no further use to anyone here at SOTIG. Another glance into the operations centre revealed that the woman Cerberus trooper with the sword had disappeared, and Booker only just managed to catch a glance of her as she darted down a corridor some distance away.
As he watched, one of the Cerberus troopers stepped in front of the now shattered window that served as the front of the security office. He remained oblivious to Booker's presence, at least for that initial few seconds, and as he turned around to check the office at his right-hand side Booker had raised his N7 Crusader.
The gun fired with a loud thump. The noise the weapon made was more akin to some giant metal hole puncher going through some form of thick sheet metal. The Cerberus trooper was flung off of his feet, the potent round having torn through his chest armour whereupon it reduced much of his heart and lungs to jelly from sheer concussive force alone. The trooper's body landed hard against a desk outside, knocking aside the computer and other gadgets left upon it. The whole thing tumbled with him then, spilling data pads and gadgetry across the floor.
Booker worked the pump on his shotgun as he strode out of the security office. Another guard ahead was cut down, and Cerberus troops were pouring into the operations centre from all sides. Three of them opened fire from the far end, bullets tearing up the rows of desks just ahead of him. Booker ducked, weapon to his shoulder again. He fired, and this time the shot resulted in the head of one of the troopers simply exploding in a mess of blood and pulped flesh and shards of bone, mingled with whatever remained of the trooper's helmet. The headless corpse crumpled to the floor, splattering more blood as it landed.
Booker dived to the floor as the hail of bullets continued. Landing prone, he rolled just past the desk in front of him. As he emerged into the open, he fired again. This time, the round took off the lower left leg of one of the trooper's further ahead, and the man let out a pained cry as he stumbled and fell, his voice tinged with a rough electronic edge from the helmet he wore. Booker finished this trooper off with another shot that hit him square in the chest, silencing him. The trooper's body ended up spread-eagled on the floor, chest armour adorned with blood.
By now, most of the non-combat personnel had fled. There were still some guards scattered around, but they were fighting a losing battle. Booker kept low as he crossed the operations centre, headed for one of the main corridors in the wake of the female trooper and her escort. Even if he could not get to Vok or Natasha, he could at the very least put a stop to as many of these Cerberus types as he possibly could. All he really did now was fight for those still trying to get out, and for those who had already fallen.
As he moved, he checked some of the bodies of the SOTIG personnel scattered around. Most of those he found were dead, but further along and nestled over in one corner was a woman who still had some life left in her. He sighted a trail of blood travelling from several paces behind her, and it appeared that Rachel Shaw had crawled her way for cover after taking a hit. She was sitting against a wall somewhat out of the way of everything else, and Booker hurried towards her.
'Shaw?' He stopped before her, kneeling down. Her eyes were wide, her breathing heavy and laboured. Blood was thick across her stomach, and the hands she held there in an effort to stem the flow were sticky with it. She looked to him with widened eyes, yet there was something distant to them, as if she was not entirely all there.
'Please…' Her voice came out as a croak, and she reached out with one hand towards him. 'I can't…I can't breathe…'
'I'll get you help.' Regardless of any wrongdoing on her part, Booker would save everyone he could. He could stabilise her at the very least, yet from the sounds of the gunfire throughout the building there was every likelihood a Cerberus goon would find her and finish her off. Nonetheless, he went to ready a fix of medi-gel for her, only to realise that the woman had fallen limp where she sat. The hand she had reached out fell upon his forearm, fingers slack and smearing blood along his sleeve. Her eyes remained wide open yet appeared glassy, empty even.
'I'm sorry,' he muttered, and he reached up and closed her eyes with one hand. Cerberus was going to pay for what had happened here, he would make damn sure of that.
The infirmary was mostly deserted, the doctors and nurses having fled as soon as the attack had started. There was only one patient present, and it was the very one Lyssa had expected to find here. It was no wonder he had been left to fend for himself, something that would have been somewhat tricky in his wounded state.
The infirmary was like so much of this place, partly concrete walls and fronted with glass doors and windows. Lyssa paid little attention to the quarian and Natasha, both of whom were still tagging along. They had encountered no other Cerberus attackers on the way here, although given the gunfire that rattled from elsewhere in the building this was likely to change and quickly.
Lyssa wasted no time barging into the infirmary. Vok lay on one of four beds, sitting somewhat upright, his wounded leg laid flat before him with bandages wrapped about the knee. A medical computer was hooked up to him, beeping quietly as it kept track of his vitals. He was awake, although the somewhat glassy look to his four dark eyes suggested that he was dosed up on some potent painkillers. He was certainly aware of the attack, and his expression noticeably soured as soon as he saw Lyssa approach.
'Come to finish me, have you?' Vok's voice sounded feeble, and Lyssa stopped by the bedside. There, she raised the gun and pressed it hard against the side of his head. Looking him in the eyes, her finger floated over the trigger for a moment, before it came to rest lightly upon it. Not hard enough to pull it, but in such a position that the lightest press would see the gun fire.
'You waste your time,' Vok stated. He sounded resigned, broken even. 'That gunfire suggests some old friends are here to tie up loose ends. Are they turian, or human?'
'What's Marelix doing? What's his game?' It was a bit late for an in-depth interrogation, but Natasha had to know. Vok locked eyes with hers, and for a few seconds there he seemed about ready to answer her question.
'Someone's coming.' It was Natasha who said this, and Lyssa spun around. Both Natasha and Kanen cleared the way, darting for cover as a pair of Cerberus troopers appeared at the other side of the infirmary doors. Lyssa wasted no time in opening fire, glass shattering as she sent several rounds into both troopers, her fingers working the trigger on the pistol quickly, so quickly it almost sounded as if it had been set on full automatic. Both soldiers fell and the pistol in Lyssa's hand was practically left smoking from the heat build-up.
'We need to find an exit,' Natasha shouted, from far off to Lyssa's left. She was right, of course. Vok was unlikely to know much more than he had already told them. Rather, the batarian was just a pawn, his insurgents having proved useful to the ones behind the attack and Lyssa's falling out with Cerberus.
She was about to reply, when someone moved past the shattered glass windows and automatic doors. They moved quickly, cartwheeling past the bodies of the downed Cerberus troopers. There was a glint of something metallic, but the figure was gone before Lyssa could get a proper focus on it. She followed the path of the figure with her gun, even though it was apparent that the weapon was in need of a new heat sink. A few more shots and it would likely be spent, but she could hardly reload now, not when there was someone else nearby…
Cloaked. That was it. She saw it now, that familiar shimmer in the air, almost electric in the way energy rippled in places as the individual wielding the cloak moved. And they moved quickly, charging into the infirmary, the cloak dissipating as they closed in on Lyssa's left flank. Natasha shouted in warning, but Lyssa hardly needed it now: she turned to face the Cerberus operative head-on. The woman was visible now and strikingly familiar, complete with a new cybernetic hand to replace the one Lyssa had shot off.
Lyssa's augmented reflexes saved her here, as the sword the operative wielded came slashing towards her. She sidestepped the blow, leaning her head back such that the end of the blade came within an inch of her neck. She had little chance to counter the attack, as the blade came around again, this time in a backhanded motion that saw the hilt connect with her chest. The blow made her stumble, some of the air escaping her lungs, and she tried to bring her pistol in close but instead it was simply swatted aside by a sudden kick from her opponent that took her off-guard completely. The weapon clattered some distance across the room, so much so that Lyssa lost track of it as she instead locked her attention upon her opponent.
Another sword swing forced her backwards, and she rolled over the vacant bed behind her. The sword came down, cutting through the mattress, severing it in half before the blade cut into the metal frame underneath and cleaved through it with alarming ease. Lyssa was backpedalling again, ducking underneath another swing. Her opponent brought up their hand cannon then, and a shot of blue energy darted out, narrowly missing Lyssa before hitting the wall behind her. A large chunk was blasted out of the concrete, fragments spraying about the room, a large cloud of grey dust pluming forth.
At the other end of the room, Natasha had dived for the dropped gun. One hand went to its hilt, and she came up firing at the Cerberus operative. Lyssa ducked as the first of the shots struck the operative's kinetic barrier, for Natasha had opened fire with little to no concern as to where Lyssa was standing in relation to her aim. The Cerberus operative spun about, unflinching under the incoming fire. She raised her hand, and another shot of blue energy zipped from the embedded weapon, a faint blue vapour trial being left in its wake. The blast caught Natasha in the chest, and she stumbled, her finger squeezing a further few shots from her pistol as she went down.
One of these errant rounds struck Salak Vok, blowing a sizeable and bloody hole through his chest. The batarian looked little other than surprised when he took the hit, and his eyes lowered somewhat in order to regard the wound and the blood that was now staining the bedsheets over his torso. His strength left him quickly then, and his head lulled before he fell still, eyes closed and extremities limp.
Lyssa seized her chance whilst the operative was distracted, grabbing a trolley nearby that she pushed hard their way. It hit the operative's waist, stumbling her, and as she stumbled Lyssa lunged forwards. She jumped off of her feet, swinging her legs up in an extreme fly kick that hit the operative square in the chest. Now that operative was falling backwards, balance lost, the sword escaping her grasp whereupon it clattered to the floor nearby.
Lyssa landed on her back, and from there she sprang back upon her feet within seconds. The operative was just regaining her composure then, and she locked her unnaturally bright blue eyes firmly upon Lyssa's face. Those eyes were brimming with fury, and she kicked the medical trolley aside with the manner of one whose patience had evaporated completely.
Lyssa threw herself to her right then, somersaulting with one hand finding its way about the hilt of the dropped sword. The Cerberus operative lunged forwards, hand cannon raised. It fired again, and this time the shot brushed by Lyssa's side, so close that she could feel the heat of the energy blast. The shot slammed into the far wall, another large chunk exploding from the concrete there.
Lyssa spun about with the sword in hand, slashing it towards her opponent. Her strike landed true, and it cleaved partway up the left forearm of the Cerberus operative. Blood gushed from the stump as soon as the sword was through, the cybernetic hand and the adjoining and somewhat more organic short length of arm after it making an unceremonious plop when they hit the polished concrete floor underfoot. The operative, her face contorting with pain, uttered no sound. Instead, she cradled the stump, clenching her jaw as blood gushed from it.
Lyssa let out a yell, one driven partly by anger, partly by frustration and partly by a bloodlust that had come upon her in that moment. She drove the sword forwards, plunging it into the operative's chest, driving it through where it cut bone almost as easily as it sliced into flesh. And still she pushed, forcing the operative back against the wall. Her opponent was clutching at the embedded sword with her one remaining hand now, all while blood began to ooze from around the blade and down the front of her sleek, black and orange armour.
The sword blade, protruding from her back, cut into the concrete wall. It was there that Lyssa left her pinned, her opponent's hands scrabbling at the intruding blade, their other arm hanging limp and bloody by their side. The light in the woman's eyes had dimmed slightly, and as Lyssa looked on the Cerberus operative set those eyes upon her once more. For the first time, Lyssa heard her speak, or at least attempt to. Instead, a gargle escaped her throat that put a halt to any words forming, and a stream of blood spilled from her mouth. And then, with nary another sound, the woman fell limp around the sword, head down and eyes closed.
'Stick around,' Lyssa remarked. Her heart was thumping, her breathing rapid, and yet in that instant she felt an overwhelming sense of relief.
She turned to where Natasha lay then, Kanen already down by her side. He had clasped one of her hands in his own. Blood was thick across Natasha's front, and her eyes were wide as she gasped and choked for air. The hole that had been shot into her was large and bloody and ragged, and the sheer amount of blood gushing out of it made it clear that this was not something one could walk off.
'Natasha.' Kanen's voice was laced with dismay. He held her head in his lap. Natasha's eyes were unfocussed, staring straight ahead, and she seemed only partially aware that she was not alone.
'Get me some medi gel,' Kanen said, and it took Lyssa a moment to realise that he was talking to her. He turned his head then, and she thought she could see his glowing eyes narrow into a hard frown through that mask of his. ' Get me some medi gel, now!'
'Damn it bubble boy, she's already dead.' Lyssa stepped forwards, feeling the urge to kick the quarian. For now, she quelled it, and instead she looked down at Natasha's writhing, if weakening form.
'Kanen…' As the woman spoke, her mouth frothed with blood.
'I'm here.' The quarian ran a gloved hand over her forehead, trying to comfort her. 'What is it?'
'Key…' She let out a choking cough, more blood mingled with spittle spraying forth. Lyssa looked on, but otherwise did not intervene. Every few seconds, her attention darted to the infirmary entrance, a means to ensure that no further hostiles were about to intrude.
'The key…' Again, Natasha coughed. 'Decryption…'
'Take it easy, Natasha. We'll get you help.'
Suddenly, the woman raised a hand and she placed it firmly against the quarian's upper arm. As if mustering her last reserves of strength, Natasha brought her head up somewhat, looking the quarian firmly in the faceplate. It occurred to Lyssa that the woman was trying to reach for his mask, and Kanen took the hint and used his free hand to find the release at the base of the faceplate. Air hissed as it popped lose, and Lyssa found her gaze drawn to the rare sight of an unmasked quarian. Kanen's features were young, pale, his eyes gentle if carrying within them an intensity that was no doubt brought on by the woman dying in his arms.
'Kaless Station.' Natasha struggled to form the words now, and her breathing had become slower, more laboured. 'Locker two-four-seven…'
'Natasha, please.' Kanen's voice was low, feeble even. If Natasha had anything further to say, it would go unheard for she had fallen limp in his arms. Her eyes closed and her breathing slowed further, until a moment later it had ceased altogether.
'Come on,' Lyssa urged the quarian. Even so, part of her was content to leave him behind. After all, she hardly knew the man, nor the woman for that matter.
Kanen said nothing, he simply lowered Natasha to the floor gently. His gauntleted hands were smeared with her blood. In an attempt to make her look somewhat more dignified, he straightened up her head where she lay and placed her own hands across her stomach. Slowly, he stood up again, and here he fixed his helmet's faceplate back into place.
'We can't stay here,' Lyssa said. The quarian said nothing, he simply turned to look at her. There was something in that gaze, Lyssa could not be sure what given that his face was once again concealed underneath its mask. It was then she saw that he had picked up the gun that had been dropped, and as soon as she saw it Kanen had it raised and pointed towards her.
'You don't actually blame me for what happened, do you?' She asked him. There was no response. Lyssa sighed, eyeing the gun and the man behind it. She half-expected the quarian to shoot her, but at the same time there was something in his demeanour that suggested he was not fully committed to that course of action. Another thought occurred to her, and even with the gun pointed her way she had to ask:
'Decryption key?' Natasha's dying words echoed in her mind. 'That's what she meant, isn't it? She's the one who stole the data from the Cerberus mainframe?'
Again, no answer. Lyssa's expression soured. She chanced a step towards him. He did not pull the trigger, but from the way he seemed to tense up she would not have been surprised if he shot her by accident.
'Put it down,' she told him, her voice firm. 'Few people who point a gun my way live to tell about it.'
'You're with them,' Kanen stated. He sounded hollow, his grief at Natasha's loss contained for now but no doubt roiling under the surface. 'You brought them here.'
'Why the hell would I do that? They're trying to kill me as well, in case you haven't noticed.' She motioned to the two dead troopers at the infirmary entrance, and then nodded in the direction of the operative still pinned to the nearby wall.
'What kind of "decryption key"?' Lyssa asked him. Kanen sighed, before he lowered the gun and shook his head.
'She took data from the Cerberus facility.'
'Yeah, that I know. I was there when she did it.'
'Well, the data was encrypted.' Kanen glanced down at Natasha, his stance that of a defeated man. 'You need the decryption key. I didn't think she had it, but…' He trailed off, and the implication was clear. Natasha's dying words had been the key's location. Kaless Station was one of the larger transit hubs in the city of New Thebes. Had Cerberus come here to retrieve the stolen data? That was the one possibility Lyssa had settled on being the most likely.
'There's still the matter of Captain Marelix,' she told the quarian. 'We know where he is, but that can change quickly. The decryption key will be safe where it is, if it is where she said it was.' Lyssa turned her back on the quarian then, thinking he was calmed down enough to not simply shoot her out of hand. She went for the infirmary entrance, peering into the corridor beyond. The sounds of gunfire had become more sporadic, hinting that the fight was winding down. The first order of business, at least where she was concerned, was getting armed again. Kanen could keep the pistol; she was hoping to get a hold of something a bit bigger.
'Come on, it's clear.' She motioned for the quarian to follow. He did so, albeit with obvious trepidation. He paused partway to the infirmary exit, turning his head to take one last look at where Natasha lay. With something solemn to his demeanour, he started on ahead again, following Lyssa into the corridor.
