Despite continuous and harsh protesting from both Shepard and Mordin, doctor Halsey, now wearing combat armor and under escort of Blue Team, had taken to accompanying the Commander and Salarian, as well as Tali and Garrus, over to the remnants of the Krogan Hospital in search of one Maelon, Mordin's protege.
Some might've considered Halsey not in a position to comment on the crimes of others, considering her and the UNSC's own minor proclivities, but to draw a comparison between stopping a Civil War and a horrible active, ongoing Genocide via the use of the young, a horrific action in its own, of course, to a genuine, slow Genocide of the Krogan population was an unfair comparison.
Reading the reasons for the Genophage, however, it also kind of irked her that, at the time, it was the correct decision. The risk of a bellicose population that could refill its ranks twice as fast as they could be killed starting a war immediately after facing a similar foe was far too great. Even Mordin's own modifications to the fertility plague, though horrific, seemed somewhat worthwhile while the Krogan were still warlike morons.
Sighing deeply and pinching the bow of her nose at agreeing with an alien risk assessment from a few centuries ago, the woman looked at Mordin and said to him, "And you believe Maelon may be seeking a cure?" while she slid the tablet into her breast pocket and drew her M6G, racking back the bolt. Today, however, with Wrex, a moderate, seemingly sane Krogan at the helm? Unnecessary at best…
Criminal at worst.
"Through brute force, perhaps. Attempt to adapt Krogan immune system and reproductive system to counter Genophage, similar to adaptations prior to modification made by STG," Mordin replied, looking at the doctor. He asked, "Why come with us? Risk great. Militarily speaking, you aren't-" as he looked her over.
"I've fought my way out of plenty of messes, doctor," She replied harshly, then sighed as she saw the surprise in Mordin's eyes. She replied, "Apologies, it's just…" before shaking her head, "I still cannot shake the feeling that we should let him do his work. What if he may be onto something? What if the current assessments are wrong?"
Mordin denied it with a shake of his head, "No. Risk of allowing Krogan to reproduce again, militarize, rebuild while Reapers are at doorstep, too great. Galaxy cannot survive two new wars in the span of a few years… Barely surviving extragalactic contacts like your people, Republic or Colonial Fleet. Fear is high…"
"Have you perhaps considered that they may be of more use alive?" Halsey replied rather mechanically. When Mordin gave her a confused look, she told him, "The Krogan as they are are slowly coming together under the Urdnot banner. Certainly, opposition parties like the Gatatogs exist, but the Clans seem willing to work with Wrex… A surprisingly level-headed moderate in this mess."
"Yes, but risk-" Mordin wanted to reply
She cut him off, "You keep speaking of risk assessments…" then mumbled, "I can appreciate those well enough," and looked at her Spartans. The four members of Blue Team prepped in the rear of the truck, quiet as ever. Her expression softened, then she said, "That does not mean you shouldn't consider your own feelings in the matter… Do you feel wrong for what you've done?"
"No," Mordin replied, though the doctor heard a faint shiver in that voice. He spoke on, "No regrets for what I've done. Krogan, threat to wider Galaxy, perhaps even threat to your own people. Do not realize it yet. Have not seen all reports, all data… Barely stopped the Krogan when we did centuries ago. Yet again during work with STG. Risk Assessments matter."
"If you say so," Halsey mumbled, then looked at Shepard, Garrus and Tali, telling them, "I don't suppose you three would like to throw your hats into this ring? A tertiary, impartial opinion would be a good addition to the matter…"
"I don't think any of us are really impartial to it," Shepard shrugged, "I'm all for removing the Genophage, because it's genuinely been long enough. And as you said, since Wrex is taking control," she motioned broadly at the Urdnot tank-truck they were in, "Why not let them be free again? Hell, with you folks around, it might even be beneficial."
Garrus shrugged, "Wrex is probably the first Krogan I've met, but after seeing the Gatatog Clan and their way of acting… I'm so-and-so," then he looked at Tali while Halsey let out a sigh, Mordin seemingly being happy that at least someone was seeing the practical concerns. If any other Krogan was to take over after Wrex, yes, there would be problems… But…
Tali nodded, "I like Wrex and his people would probably change under him, so…" and she shrugged, "I'd rather he and his people get the chance to live free. Especially considering what happened to us after the Council left us for dead," and she looked at Mordin. She added, "No offense to your Matriarchs, but we're not the only ones
"Shame of these three hundred years never should have been forgotten by any councilors," Mordin replied, "Should've helped when Quarians asked, but, as usual, deadlock. Hence, better to operate under own beliefs. Less likelihood of drawing ire from others…" and he mumbled that last bit to himself. He looked ahead.
Shepard hummed, activated her com and asked, "Wrex. What Clan holds this hospital?"
" Weyrloc. They're using it as their base of operations, as far as we know ," Wrex replied, " Do me a favor, Shepard. We sent a couple of scouts to figure out what the hell they're doing in there, but they haven't returned. If you find them, send them home, " all while Blue Team readied their guns. They'd chosen to leave Grunt behind to learn more about his new clan…
"Roger that. We'll keep an eye open for them," Shepard replied calmly. When the vehicle slowed, then stopped, she stood up and drew her rifle, showing the team to follow. Tali and Garrus stood up first, walking beside her, with Mordin close by and Halsey and the Spartans bringing up the rear as they dismounted. The Commander quipped, "Same guys who formed the Blood Pack… This is gonna be fun…"
"Haven't shot at them in a few months," Garrus quipped as he drew his sniper rifle, checking it over. Linda nodded to him and drew her own gun, moving up to an elevated position via use of a grapple launcher, then scouting the area out with her SRS-99. She'd report contacts she picked up on Thermals to the Commander.
The Krogan 'hospital' ahead was a bombed-out husk, the remains of which now served as a base of operations for the Blood Pack, a horrific and dangerous band of Krogan mercenaries that would always put cash and victory over everything else. The Blues being here was a damn good thing, Shepard thought to herself as she pushed past the ancient wreck of a car.
Tali, meanwhile, moved up to the more recent wreck of a truck similar to the one they'd come in with, an overturned six-wheeler armored vehicle with twin accelerator cannons on top, colored tan to match their surroundings. She knelt in front of the truck, looking over the extensive damage and retrieved one specific part, which she tossed toward their truck.
Garrus, meanwhile, scanned the cracks in the walls for any possible Krogan Snipers. Though the two words were antonymic in nature, weirder things had happened. Like the arrival of three extra-galactic nations and their ships and people, he thought to himself as he knelt beside a supply box, scanning the area ahead.
Chief joined him up front, taking a knee and aiming his rifle at the entrance. Garrus mumbled, "It's too quiet…"
Cortana replied in a mumble over the com, "Please, stop," as if she was also praying a bit. She told Garrus, who was looking at the two of them with some concern, "I wasn't one to believe in Murphy before I and Chief started working together, but here we are…" while she ran calculations. Chief looked at the team's Turian sharpshooter and shrugged.
Fred pushed up with Kelly next, DMR and shotgun respectively at the ready. The distant drone of a pair of turbofan engines filled their ears and they looked at the possible source of the noise, noting Helo's Raptor flying between distant Krogan skyscrapers. He pinged their coms, to which Shepard replied by tapping her microphone twice.
Good thing they'd called him in. Cortana said, "I'll help him," as she powered on her own counter-intrusion and Cyberwarfare suites again. Garrus hummed, shifted a little on his feet and looked at the Chief again, raising a tattooed-on brow at the man. Chief shook his head and showed him to follow.
Fred stopped by Tali as Shepard joined them, then took cover and watched her work on retrieving the few working parts off the truck. She looked at him, let out a short eep, then went back to work a little more frantically. Fred straightened his posture a little, confused, then looked at Shepard, who was grinning ear-to-ear.
They advanced toward the remains of the hospital, Shepard mumbling, "You'd expect Blood Pack to have patrols o-" only to pause as he saw them. On the ground ahead of the main entrance, eviscerated. Claw marks painted the ground with blood, staining the rock and Krogan-standard concrete below.
"... Those marks," Tali spoke in a whisper. They were, indeed, familiar. Familiar enough, in fact, that one of the perpetrators of such visceral strikes was currently a corpse being studied aboard the Normandy. One that Halsey had been asked to take a look at the moment their business on Tuchanka would be concluded…
Shepard sighed and ordered, "Eyes peeled, everyone. Looks like our old friend might've had siblings," before she led the way to the door, noting it was broken open, wide enough to fit a Spartan. She looked at Halsey, then said, "Doctor, with all due respect to you, you shouldn't be here right now. The damn thing we managed to kill via sheer luck when we went to get Tali-"
"I'm aware," Halsey nodded, "I read your and the Spartans' reports about operations, Commander. The alien machine aboard your ship is disconcerting, but nothing I consider grave enough to deprive myself of both understanding doctor Solus and understanding the Krogan," as she looked around at the remnants of the city.
"Alright…" She sighed, then said, "Guess that's your cue to stick as close as possible to her, Chief," to the Spartan and Blue Team. All four of them nodded, before forming up with the woman. Mordin himself hummed and prepared anything that could potentially help them deal with the Stealthed enemy. Shepard stated, "Like I said, people. Eyes open. God only knows we got lucky on Haestrom…"
The group pushed into the building, weapons drawn. Halsey had even prepared her own M6 just in case, while Mordin walked with them downstairs. Cortana herself said to Garrus directly, "Remember what I said about Murphy…?" more as a joke than anything. Garrus let out a short, innocent and slightly worried laugh as they descended down a flight of stairs, deeper into the building.
As they delved down into the deeper underground section of the place, exiting from the stairwell, the group paused upon seeing a human male's corpse. Halsey blanked, raised a brow and looked to Mordin. The Salarian sighed, approaching the corpse and taking a knee beside it, then giving it a scan. He spoke, "Lamentable… Use of live subjects in research contemptible… Not science. Mere barbarism…"
"A human," Shepard observed as the rest of the squad secured the perimeter. She asked, "The hell would Maelon be doing, experimenting on a human?" watching as Mordin pulled up a three-dimensional image of the man's body and the various, grievous injuries, flash-growths and other issues caused by Maelon.
Mordin replied, "Human genome, varied. Incredibly useful for determination of viable counters to various diseases. Your species, incredibly distinct from one-another despite same common ancestors. Different facial features, physical features, abilities of the body, nervous system… Barbaric use, however… Subject severely damaged. Died in pain."
"Seems as though certain growth hormones were administered, alongside steroid enhancements and, obviously, some modified versions of diseases…" Halsey spoke, clinically cold, as she looked at the corpse. She motioned at a few lacerations and pulled out her tablet, asking, "Send me the data from the initial scans, please," as she looked at Mordin. The Salarian tapped a few lines on his Omni-Tool and sent the data.
Cortana asked, "Any particular reason you're keeping it, doc?"
"Safety's sake…" Halsey mumbled as she shut off her tablet. She stood up, drew her pistol again and nodded to the Commander. Shepard sighed, mumbled something, then showed the team to keep moving further on down the many corridors of the place. It was an eerie location to be in. A post-nuclear and Rebellion building that looked nothing like any Hospital they were used to.
Rough edges, steel support beams visible clearly through the walls, the rubble piling high on every corner and the antiquated, rusted-brown doors. The doors, however, clearly worked, going by the fact each had a haptic interface lock connected to them. Almost all, sans one at the end of the corridor, were red.
Chief pied the corner of the L-intersection next to the door, showed the team to move forward and put a hand in front of Linda, stopping her. She switched out to her twin pistols again, to which Chief gave a nod and let her move forward and into the cover of a fallen stone pillar. The rest of the Blues and Tali and Garrus maintained a perimeter.
"Motion tracker picked up something inside," Kelly spoke to Shepard. The door itself was scratched, banged up and filled with recently-made bullet holes, marking that it was, indeed, probably being used by someone to take cover. The Spartans, meanwhile, kept their eyes peeled for any sort of distortion in the air among the massive hallways.
Shepard looked back and said, "What do you guys think?"
"Well, if we open it and there's one of those mechs inside," Tali shrugged, "We can probably take it out. Just a sec," then she activated her Omni-Tool, deploying a pink-and-gold drone into view. She said, "Be ready to go for the eyes, Chatika…" in a whisper, which caused the drone to chirp a little, as if its VI understood.
"No harm in checking. Survivors rare in cases where unknown enemy deployed," Mordin replied, "Admittedly… Luck with commander Shepard… Haestrom, proof of that."
"We always tend to get into bad situations, then get out of them…" Garrus quipped, though he was uneasy as he checked his rifle over, making sure it was set on burst just in case. Shepard looked at him in a deadpan. He smiled awkwardly, garnering a giggle out of Tali, though it, too, was tense. They were in unknown territory with things that ripped a Krogan unit apart.
"Similar to the Master Chief's missions, then," Halsey mumbled, then nodded. She prepared her pistol and said, "Open it at your leisure, Commander…" to which Shepard nodded. She readied her own Mattock, stepped forward, then slid her Omni-Tool across the haptic interface, watching the concentric rings making up the lock system spin into place and disappear.
The door opened and the entire squad aimed their weapons at… A Krogan curled up in a corner. He looked at them, then spoke, "You aren't one of those things…" as he coughed. Shepard noticed wounds on his body, fairly familiar ones at that, but it wasn't as bad as the Krogan outside. She knelt in front of him, to which he spoke, "Humans… A Salarian, a Turian and a Quarian… One hell of a rescue party."
Shepard noticed the Clan Urdnot mark on his shoulder, then spoke, "You're one of Wrex's scouts," before sliding her rifle onto her back. He nodded, to which she said, "Wrex told us about you all on the way here. Where's the rest of your squad?" and she saw a few empty medi-gel capsules on the floor, plus a spent rifle.
"Dead," The alien male replied, "A few died by Weyrloc hands… Others…" and he cast a glance at the bullet holes in the walls, "Something else killed them while they were scouting the perimeter. Weyrloc wounded me, took me prisoner… Told me that they were doing experiments here to cure the Genophage…" before he scratched one of his scars, one on the neck.
"Indeed," Halsey replied as she holstered her pistol.
The Urdnot scout looked at Halsey and asked, "Ain't you a little old to be here…?"
"I appreciate the attempt at humor," Halsey replied as a few chuckles echoed from behind, both from Garrus and from Tali. Shepard cracked a small smile, but it, too, was soured by the tension. She picked up her tablet and Mordin stepped up beside her, activating his Omni-Tool. She inquired, "It may be a bad time, but do you think I could acquire one of those…?"
"Omni-Tools sold at most technology vendors," Mordin nodded, "Easy to buy… Can modify it for you with similar items as mine, if you wish," then he scanned the Krogan, who seemed a bit apprehensive about the Salarian, going by the slight shift of his weight. Halsey nodded in thanks, then looked over the scans.
"Damage is minimal, but it does impair him a bit," She stated, then looked at the Urdnot scout and said, "He could make it back on his own."
"Or take a truck ride with us as soon as we're done here," Shepard suggested.
"I… Don't know…" The Krogan replied, wary, his eyes surprisingly filled with fear as he stared at them. Shepard blinked, looked back at the rest of the team, then almost burst into laughter. The Krogan himself raised his brow, asking, "What…?" as the Commander still stifled her laugh. Shepard was mostly doing it to rile him up.
She looked at him and asked, "Seriously? You know… Only a badass could make it out of here alive after he saw everything. Wrex has been waiting for a report for a while and there might be some sorta reward. Hell, who knows? The females might find said badass a lot more attractive…" only to see his eyes light up.
"I… I can do it…" He seemed motivated now
Shepard grinned. Time to sweeten the deal, she thought. She barked, "You? I said a badass, not some piss-poor scout whining like a Quarian with a tummy ache!" while watching the Krogan try to shift his weight, get up. That seemed to embolden him, though, as he pushed himself hard to his feet. It was kind of funny, really, that that got him up to snuff.
"Hey! I'm right here!" Tali complained.
The Krogan stood up, as did the Commander and Mordin. He then roared at them, with Shepard stating, "Get moving!" with a tilt of her head and a grin. The Krogan rushed past them and out through the way they came, which they'd already cleared. She sighed deeply, then said, "Well, that's one way… Sorry, Tali."
"Eh," The Quarian shrugged, "I suppose it worked…"
The group paused as a noise echoed from up ahead. Drawing their weapons and aiming them, Tali, Shepard and Garrus once more took the lead, while Mordin himself looked over the damage done to the human. Halsey, to her credit, remained relatively quiet, pistol drawn and at the ready just in case they would actually face any kind of threats.
Shepard stayed quiet, taking the hand off the handguard of her rifle, putting her index and middle fingers together and pointing forward. The team advanced, with the Spartans on heavy alert for possible hostile contacts as they descended further into the building. Entering a collapsed section where old boilers and storage tanks resided, the group found yet more signs of battle.
A platoon of dead Krogans, split to pieces by claws and high-powered gunfire, with their leader, a Krogan in white armor, missing half of his head from one of the weapons used by these bastards. Shepard huffed, then pushed on forward, climbing over onto a catwalk with the rest of the team and up to a door.
Halsey had to be helped by Garrus and Chief, while Tali sent Chatika scouting, her heavy shotgun at the ready as she, Shepard, Kelly and Mordin pushed up to the door. Taking cover, the Commander showed everyone to be quiet, then activated the door's lock. She heard the inner motors screech and noticed the door was smeared with Krogan blood, mixed in with five claw marks.
These things must've really loved CQC, Shepard thought as the door barely slid apart, its inner damage causing it to get stuck in the open position. The team moved out one after the other, with the Spartans, Shepard, Garrus and Tali still in the lead, Chatika operating as their early warning system. They exited out into an Atrium of some kind and saw that a corner of the ceiling, broken long ago, was letting Aralakh's sunlight in.
Shepard radioed warily, "Helo… Do you have anything on scopes…? Any coms or…" as she examined all three levels of the Atrium for hostiles, only seeing rubble and more holes drilled by gunfire. She heard her radio crackle with static for a moment, which made the entire team uneasy. As they waited for an answer, they started moving down the levels…
Helo, however, replied just a few seconds later, " I'm getting some slight interference, Commander. Nothing else… " while not hiding the fact that his heart was currently beating in his throat. He sounded even more nervous than them. Understandable, Shepard thought. As they descended down to the bottom floor of the atrium, boots crunching the debris underfoot.
A thump, though muffled, reverberated, reaching all the way to them. Shepard swiveled, aimed her gun toward where the noise had come from, then peered through the scope. Tali ordered Chatika to where Shepard's gun was pointing, then watched the Spartans immediately form a perimeter. Another thump echoed, then another, then three one after the other.
Linda hummed, drew her Sniper, then zeroed in on one of the locations the noise had come from. Shouldering the weapon, she peered down the scope at the first floor above them, scanning each and every part of it for a ripple, a thermal incongruence or something to tell her her instinct was right. Because if she wasn't they were about to be ambushed.
A faint flicker on her scope and a millisecond's mark of red on the crosshair appeared…
She called out, "First floor," Absolutely calm, then snapped off a shot. The 14,5mm round zipped through the air and skimmed the helmet of a biomechanical horror with a blue-shining V-shaped eye. It decloaked, its twisted form hanging onto one of the wall support pillars by means of its strangely slim claws. It was thinner than the one aboard the Normandy, definitely more organic. It almost looked like it had a face …
"One behind us!" Tali called out, then looked back toward Chatika, the small drone gently flying back and zapping something ahead of it. Said something revealed itself as another one of the units. Two of the god-damn things. This one was bulkier, though. It looked like it actually had armor and it was carrying some form of rifle with a scope directly linked to its optical sensor.
Fred huffed, turned left and slammed a fist into nothingness, sending a third machine staggering back as it decloaked, the film of wavy nothingness peeling back to reveal the third of them, an exact copy to the one aboard their Frigate. Halsey pulled up her gun and aimed at it, firing two shots… Only to gasp as the damned thing seemed to disappear in a flash of light, reappearing above.
"What?!" Tali balked as she aimed her shotgun at the one carrying a rifle. It, too, did the same thing, reappearing a couple of levels higher than them and aiming. Linda snapped a shot off at it, causing it to reposition again via the same flash-lightning vanish. The team scattered, taking cover nearby the door and amidst the ruins as the machines started firing on them from above.
The slim unit they'd seen disappeared under its active camouflage, though it was descending in a skitter, like a very jumpy lizard, down the support pillar it was hanging onto. Chief fired a burst from his assault rifle in the direction the strange monster was moving, all while keeping Halsey and Mordin close by.
"These things can fucking teleport now!?" Shepard balked, firing her rifle at the Sniper up above, only to gasp and duck as a shot zipped right over her head and burrowed itself so deep into the wall, it caused hairline spiderweb fractures around the impact point. She fired at the Sniper again, only to watch it disappear and reappear in a flash.
"Incredible! Almost like evolution!" Mordin said, firing his own Carnifex pistol. He paused, activated his drone and sent forth a pyroblast toward where he'd heard a noise, only to watch the slim alien machine be enveloped by the fire as it fast-crawled on all fours toward them. Chief saw this, snapped his gun toward it and opened fire.
The machine used its slim form and enhanced legs to jump away from the bullets just before impact. It expanded its claws and swung toward the Spartan and Mordin. Chief lifted his armored gauntlet up and activated an overshield as Cortana stated, "I think I can crack their mainframes if you give me time! Maybe I'll be able to slow them down a little!"
"Do it!" Chief barked. He watched Kelly sprinting and firing slugs at the Sniper to take its attention away from Shepard. It replied in kind, two shots striking the shields on Kelly's back and causing the sprinter to stagger, only to then watch as the alien crawler ran toward her and jumped. She swiveled about, but couldn't bring the barrel of her gun to bear fast enough.
Instead, she slammed the butt of the shotgun into the machine's face, sending it flying into a wall opposite her position. It recovered quickly, before either she or Fred could get a shot on it, then crawled up the wall and quickly extinguished itself, activating its cloak again. Kelly thought to herself that not even Elite Zealots in full camo were this much trouble.
She ducked under another attack from the jumpy fucker, put her back against the wall and barely moved her head to dodge another shot from the Sniper, whom Linda now fired back at. The third one, the assault unit, charged forward, firing the autocannons in its hands toward Halsey as it decloaked. Both she and Mordin took cover behind Chief, who took the burst and watched his shields go down.
" ... mmander, Blues… picked up FTL jumps INSIDE the building… THE HELL IS GOING ON ?!" Helo demanded, though the radio was being jammed. It wasn't god-damned interference, it was these bastards jamming their coms. The Commander scoffed, running toward the Chief and taking one shot that immediately drained her own shields, before taking cover beside him.
"Bastards are jamming us!" She spoke as she fired from beside the Spartan. Fred, immediately close to them behind one of the support pillars, fired his DMR at the charging assassin unit, to which Shepard charged her Warp and threw it at the monster. She watched the ball dance with it, arc, then slam into its back, causing it to stagger.
Garrus immediately lit it up with bursts from his rifle, while Tali was reloading her shotgun and sending Chatika out again to stun them. The Turian fired enough rounds into the alien machine's side to force it to withdraw behind cover and open fire with its own arm-mounted guns. Its standard sibling teleported beside it and the two concentrated fire on Garrus.
Shepard, Chief and Fred were quick to return fire while Kelly used her speed and mobility to try and outflank the bastards. She threw a grenade toward them, watching it bounce down and explode, staggering the pair of aliens, only to barely duck and roll under another attack by the hunting camouflaged freak herself.
She jumped to her feet, swiveled about and kicked the alien bastard into a wall, aimed her shotgun and raked the bastard with shells. Buckshot rounds tore synthetic skin, internal organs modified by Reaper tech and metal plate apart, spewing a black goo against the pillar she'd slammed it into. She watched it fall, its eye's glow dissipating…
Then, their radio burst with static, then cleared to Helo's voice, the young man calling out, " Commander, Blues ! I've got lock on you guys again ! We're gonna need Cortana to help us deal with whatever the hell is going on right now !" only for Cortana to quickly transmit telemetry about the alien machines.
Despite a moment's pause, Helo stated, " Copy. Working !" with clear worry in his voice. Kelly smiled a little, then gasped as the Standard variant of the enemy machine ran toward her and swung. She blocked the fist with her own, but the impact caused her heels to dig into the stone floor. She felt its claws strike across her chest plate, leaving three distinct, long marks in the Titanium.
She kicked it away and wanted to shoot her shotgun again, but when it clicked empty, she drew her pistol and put several rounds into its reinforced chest plate, staggering it and drilling several holes into said armor. It was still upright, though struggling, so Kelly took a step back and reloaded while Cortana called out, "Got it!"
The Machines' active camouflage systems, which they tried to engage in order to probably reposition without utilizing their teleport abilities, malfunctioned. One of the machines doubled over, staggered and missed its sniper shot toward Halsey by a mere inch. Mordin replied in kind, peppering the target's rifle with carnifex rounds and disabling it.
Linda fired, her rifle ringing loud around them and taking the head off the Sniper. The last unit was then focused down by just about everyone, with Shepard even throwing a warp strike. She, however, caught a full burst of the alien's machine gun hand, her recovering kinetic barrier shattering, while Mordin also caught some strays.
The machine, however, was soon filled with bullet holes. It collapsed, now more lead than synthetic organism, with a wet, meaty thunk , black ooze spilling all over the floor. The teams reloaded their rifles, with Shepard mumbling, "Great…" before sighing and radioing, "Good job, Helo, Cortana. You guys just saved our asses…"
" Commander, what the hell was in there ? They were using our FTL Drives… "
"... What?" Shepard blanked, then looked at the dead machines. Halsey knelt beside one of them and turned it over, or at least struggled to at first. Chief turned it over himself, then let Halsey at it, before Shepard ordered, "Get back to the ship and tell them to bring an away team… Looks like we got three new bodies to inter. And some talks with the Colonial Command about this…"
"Indeed," Halsey spoke, then stood up and looked at Mordin. She stated, "What do you think?"
"... Cylon, perhaps," Mordin murmured, "Heavily modified. Reaper-captured…" Then he paused, thought of a quick hypothetical, but quickly and vocally disproved it to both himself and a thinking Halsey, "Not local. No dust," then he looked around and hummed as the doctor noticed that, yes, they were surprisingly clean. Mordin turned to Shepard and requested, "Should keep moving. Let away team recover bodies for transport," Then looked at Halsey, "Assume you want to study them yourself?"
"Back at the Waystation, as soon as we're done with my mission detail, yes," Halsey replied, staring at the machines. Cylons. Impossible, yet terrifying, she thought to herself. She reloaded her own pistol, slid it onto her armored vest holster, then showed Shepard to lead the way. The team quickly dumped spent magazines and burnt-through thermal clips and walked forward.
"Advise EM shielding while studying… Indoctrination threat from Reaper-infused technology not negligible. Will send frequencies to tablet, or Waystation. Alongside modified Omni-Tool if you wish?" He raised a nonexistent brow at her. Halsey nodded in thanks, though she was still concerned over what they'd find with Maelon. If the Salarian was still alive.
Tali spoke, "And to think one of these things nearly took down an entire Migrant Flotilla Marine platoon," in a whisper. She spoke fondly, "Kal was incredibly lucky that you were there," and looked to Fred. The Spartan nodded, calm, as he looked at the young woman. They kept advancing, past a series of locked rooms, until they made it to another open one, this one full of body bags…
"... God…" Shepard whispered as they walked in.
Mordin knelt beside them and scanned them, then whispered, "Dead females… Krogan…" with solemnity and disappointment in his voice. He scanned the large body bag in front of him again and said, "No signs of resistance. No bruising or accentuated tissue damage beside that from experiments…" before casting a glance back at Halsey, who approached and accessed a computer.
She sighed, took her glasses off and bluntly told Mordin and the others, " Data logs show they volunteered, doctor, " before turning the screen. Shepard read through the women's files, her lips becoming razor thin as she looked at Mordin. Halsey felt a slight pang of her own guilt strike as she gazed upon the Spartans, all of whom looked at the corpses with a certain reverence, while Garrus and Tali simply stared…
Shepard asked, "Did you know?"
"Desperation of dealing with Genophage…?" Mordin sighed, "Surmised… Presumed. Never…" before doing another scan, as if he was praying she had a pulse, so he didn't have to stare down the barrel of this specific gun, this specific memory. He looked at the two women, though not right into their eyes, then said, "Never believed it would reach this level."
"You should've known," Halsey spoke in a whisper, approaching one of the corpses. Though it wasn't a human woman, she could feel it deep down, that kind of desperation. If humanity back home… Or, hell, even humanity here had been treated the same after the First Contact War, the Relay-314 Incident as they called it… There might've been a different issue facing the Citadel Council, or anyone who'd dared to do this to any version of mankind, thanks to the UNSC, Republic and Colonials' arrival.
She sighed, deeply. Standing up and walking to Mordin, she spoke, "There are usually ways of predicting population behaviors. Certainly, they will never be one hundred percent accurate, but, were I an STG member who participated in either its first deployment or its upgrade, I could have told you the sheer desperation any population feels when it's threatened with extinction…" her voice low, like a growl, "And I could've told you the worst options seem tame in comparison."
She cast another glance back at Chief and the Blues, then sighed and said, "I can't say I don't understand what you did. The Krogan might've been brutish, warlike, violent and hungry for a vengeance centuries in the making and this was the best option for Galactic Peace. It doesn't mean I can't look upon the dead and only ponder in silence the sheer physical cost for an entire species."
"The original creators of the Genophage long dead," Mordin replied, though he seemed to be getting a bit peeved, "My choice, my team's choice, to enhance Genophage specifically because of similar desperation. Krogan dangerous, quickly reproducing. Well-armed post-Rachni War. Not so much later… Still threats."
"I understand that," Halsey sighed, "Too well. Let's move and get Maelon."
"Yeah," Shepard spoke in a mumble, readying her rifle. They walked farther down the corridor and found a door leading to their intended target. Opening it and entering the lab, they found the deepest, most secure room in the Hospital and noticed the claw marks on said door moments before it closed. The place was surprisingly undamaged, with one still-living figure in front of a massive hologram console.
"Maelon…" Mordin's voice grew low. The younger Salarian swiveled about, eyes widening the moment he saw Mordin. He was clad in a labcoat, operating the console that stored the data and and controlled several of the benches and operations tables sat on each side of the room. Boxes littered the place, both open and closed, filled with medical equipment…
"Professor Solus…?" Maelon seemed stunned to see him there.
Shepard examined Maelon, but Garrus was first to comment, "He doesn't look like a prisoner to me…" a reference to the fact Mordin had originally thought that Maelon had been captured by Clan Weyrloc and the Blood Pack to cure the Genophage. The sight of him being relatively unharmed, sans what must've been one hell of a scare with the Droids…
"No signs of torture… Don't understand," Mordin breathed, staring.
Maelon scoffed, "For such a smart man, professor, you've always had trouble seeing evidence that disagreed with your preconceptions," then he shrugged, "How long will it take you to realize what your friends already seem to have figured out? That I'm here because I want to be here?" as he stared down an entire platoon of armed individuals.
Shepard spoke, "He didn't need to be rescued. He's here to cure the Genophage. Willingly," and crossed her arms, staring at the young one. Mordin seemed stunned by the revelation as doctor Halsey marched over to a Krogan corpse laying on one of the ops tables. Stripped naked, body torn open. She hummed, lifting a vial from within the table's computer and looking at the milky, pus-like substance inside. She gazed upon the Krogan again and blinked… Familiar…
"Impossible. We all agreed, project necessary!" Mordin snapped.
"How was I supposed to disagree with the great doctor Solus!?" Maelon demanded, confrontational, taking a step forward. The Spartans, Garrus and Tali tensed, the latter deploying Chatika again on stun setting. Maelon continued, "You were my teacher! I looked up to you!" pointing the accusatory finger at Mordin.
"... What about the experiments? Did you teach him that, Mordin?" She looked at him. Halsey looked up, too, stowing the strange vial away in her uniform's pocket, walking to join the woman and Salarian male as they talked to Maelon. It was honestly an unsurprising change, all things considered. Mordin, though he was trying to hide it, had conscience-related issues with the Genophage and he was coping in the wrong way.
Mordin shook his head, "No. Never taught anything like this… Autopsies, torture, executions and murders, your idea!?" and he glared at the young man.
"My hands are already stained with the blood of millions! What's a few more to undo the nightmare we've created here! The genocide we caused?!" Maelon shot back.
Halsey spoke, "There must have been a better option than that ," pointing at the eviscerated Krogan male corpse. She added, "Or the human we found dead at the entrance to this place, killed by whatever modifications you made to his body," with a hint of a lower voice, a small chill running up the spines of just about everyone here who wasn't a Spartan.
"Fixing a mistake like this takes sacrifice," Maelon replied, "You look like someone who understands."
"Don't pretend to know me, boy, " The woman replied with a slight venom in her words, "I've made mistakes and done horrible acts in my life to preserve humanity, yes, but…" she cut herself off. No, she understood Maelon as well. If she could've done anything to give the Spartans a normal life, a do-over without the Covenant or Insurrection, she would have.
"Doctor?" Mordin asked.
"I'm fine…" She sighed, then looked at Shepard.
"What do you wanna do about him, Mordin?" She asked, arms crossed. Mordin thought for a minute while Maelon stared at them. He watched the Spartans secure the perimeter, Garrus and Tali check the corpses and all else. He knew he'd been caught and if professor Solus had come armed, which, going by the pistols on his hip, he had, he was dead…
It was then that Mordin did a surprising thing for everyone. He drew his pistol, charged Maelon and pinned him against the strange containment tank behind the holographic screen he was operating. Mordin replied then, anger behind his words, "Want to kill him. Put an end to this nightmare, to his mistakes… To mine."
"Mordin, wait!" Shepard called out, running to his side and putting a hand on his shoulder, "You're not a murderer! This isn't worth it!" before watching as Mordin processed the information. Halsey hummed, then sighed deeply and approached him, too, putting a hand on the pistol and staring him in the eye.
"The Commander is right, Mordin… Leave him," She told the man, her voice low. Mordin had an option ahead of him:Save what little research Maelon made, regardless of how awful the methods of understanding it were and perhaps right his sin. Something Halsey did not have the choice of doing. So she thought as she gazed at her Spartans.
"... Yes… Not a murderer," Sighed Mordin, taking a step back and lowering his pistol, much to Maelon's (and everyone else's) relief. He told the two women, "Thank you, Shepard, doctor Halsey… Suppose mistakes do happen…" then he glared at Maelon and said, "Get out of here, Maelon. Beasts that killed Weyrloc, no longer here."
"... Where am I going to go?" Maelon asked, "I've got nowhere… If I go to any other Krogan Clan, they'll kill me and if I return to the STG…" and he left it up in the air.
"Don't care. Go to ground, hide, find someplace. Omega could use new clinic," He told Maelon, staring at him with a slowly cooling rage. Maelon didn't dare contradict Mordin, simply running away at the first given chance. The elder Salarian sighed, the scars on his face slightly stretching, then he walked over to the console and started working on checking the data. He mumbled, "Should destroy this data… Damage done by Maelon exhaustive…"
"Was gonna ask if you didn't really wanna take him with us or something, considering he could just go back to doing it," Shepard hummed, then added, "Then, I figured out the moment you let the Special Tasks Group know about this, they'll cut off his access. Figures that you guys would probably still have a chance to touch it."
"Should need arise for other modifications," Mordin murmured, voice low. He looked over the Data again and was an inch short of pressing 'DELETE', but Doctor Halsey grabbed his hand. He looked to the human woman, who stared at him, shook her head. He told her, "Data is dangerous…" with an absent look in his eyes, as if he didn't want to destroy it, but instead sought to keep his convictions…
"So is destroying it… At least completely," Halsey replied, staring at him. She spoke, "A change of parameters must've occurred just now for you. I saw it in your eyes… There is a chance to right something one of your own people saw as wrong," before she pointed at the Data, "And that could be of use in the future, should you choose to do so."
Mordin hummed, scratched chin, then sighed. Shepard told him, "She's right, you know? Who knows? Maybe it'll help get you some peace. Keep it," and then waited to see his reaction. He looked between the two, then at the Spartans, Garrus and Tali. The latter two gave nods, while the Spartans simply kept up their work.
Mordin sighed, then said to Halsey, "Will have to tell me your story… Seems linked to them," to which the Doctor blinked, narrowed her lips, then nodded. She knew his secrets. It was only fair that he knew hers at some point. Mordin then said, "Very well. Saving data," as he typed on the haptic interface keyboard, "Deleting local copy…" and he checked his Omni-Tool. He smiled and said, "All data secure. Get off Tuchanka, preferably, somewhere sunny…"
"Heh. You got it, Mordin. You're on the first shuttle up to the Normandy. We'll leave as soon as I'm done with helping Doc Halsey," Shepard spoke, activating her Omni-Tool. She tapped away, calling the driver as they moved out through the decrepit building. Meanwhile, Halsey checked her gun and sighed. She got genuinely lucky she didn't die when those things struck at them.
Mordin stated, "On second thought…" then looked at Halsey, offering, "Wish to see what you're looking for. Might be interesting. Rare for humans, especially from foreign galaxies, to seek items on worlds like Tuchanka," before smiling at her. Halsey nodded, glad to have an extra pair of eyeballs to examine the Ruin with.
Whatever it was…