"We are on approach," Joker announced over the comm as the team got ready.
Ajax, Miranda and Mordin were prepping themselves for whatever Purgatory had coming at them. As they were doing so, Jane, Sakura, Cyrus and Barbossa were readying for a counter attack. As they made their final preparations, John walked with an annoyed look. Before could ask he spoke up.
"Ajax, we need to change you out with Jane," the engineer said quickly causing the cyborg and adept blinked in confusion. "This is Jane's universe and it's going to look weird if she doesn't go,"
"Ah," Ajax muttered. "Th…that's a good point,"
Jane nodded as well. "Should have thought of that," she agreed. "I suppose we are getting ahead of ourselves,"
"I still fail to see why you need me," Marinda said as she adjusted her bodysuit's webbing. "This is going to be close quarters, so you need heavy hitters. Not biotics like me,"
"That's what makes you perfect for the role," John said as he grabbed his pistol and pulled the slide a couple of times. "We can keep back while you use AOE attacks to take out groups. And it's not like you don't have any single enemy attacks,"
She shook her head as Jane smiled, adjusting her own armour. "We have docking permission and are on approach. Bording party to airlock," EDI spoke up and the group made their way to it.
"Keep an eye out," John muttered to Ajax who nodded.
The Normandy docked with the prison station the airlock cycle took a bit of time to finish off before the door opened allowing the main group to enter the station. They followed the corridor to the main entrance. Where several Blue suns troopers stood. Just like others they had faced, they were mostly made up of turrians, humans and batarians. As the group approached, the guards shifted a bit. It could have been nothing but the group shared glances with each other as they continued forward.
As they approached one of the turrian guards stepped forward. "Welcome to Purgatory Commander. Your package is being prepped and you can claim it shortly. As per regulation we must ask you to hand over your weapons," the Sargent said.
"That's not going to happen," Jane said bluntly making the Blue suns click their safeties off.
The crew of the Normand did the same, but didn't make any other moves.
"Everyone stands down," a turrian ordered as he walked up. "Commander I'm Warden Kuril. As procedure I'm afraid that I have to ask you for your weapons. They'll be returned to you on the way out,"
Jane nodded, but gave him a look telling him that she wasn't budging. "It's my procedure to keep my gun," she replied as she flexed her shoulders and cracking her fingers.
Kuril did his beast to stare her down, but Jane wasn't going to back down. Not like this, never like this. After a moment, the warden flinched.
"Let them proceed, our facility is more than capable to handle three armed guests," as he said that the Sargent moved out of the commander's way. "We're getting Jack out of cryo now, as soon as the funds clear you can be on your way. If you'll please follow me to out possessing for the pickup commander,"
"Let's go." Jane said as she and the other three came up to the Warden and followed him through the door.
"Good job, asari-lover," John shot to which Jane shot him a smug smile.
Miranda rolled her eyes, while Mordin took the station in as the warden began to speak. "Cell block 2, as you can see, we keep tight control over the population," Kuril explained as an arm moved to move one of the cells to another location.
As they walked something about this place didn't seem right with Jane. The stink of fear was everywhere. Looking over to Miranda, she could see the Cerberus agent had a similar look. While she hid it well, she could tell that there was something off about this place.
"Each prisoner's cell is a self-contained modular unit, I've blown a few out the airlocks as an example. The ship is made up of thirty cell blocks identical to this one. We house thousands of criminals." the Warden boasted as they continued walking before turning around and stopping. "We can put the whole place on lockdown on a moment's notice. Nothing goes wrong here," he said facing the commander.
That just made her twitch, but she stood firm. His bare face told her all she needed know about his trustworthiness remembering what Garrus told her about 'bare faces'. Normally, turrians would have some form of facepaint to show loyalty to the Hierarchy or the group that they were with. Those that didn't, at least according to turrian culture, were not to be trusted. Despite a group trying to change that.
Putting that out of her mind, she focused on what she was here for. "What can you tell me about Jack?" she asked.
"Cerberus hasn't told you?" the Warden asked in confusion only to have Jane shook her head and shoot a look to Miranda who shrugged as well. "Jack is the meanest handful of Violence and hate I ever encountered. Jack is crazy but very powerful. We separated her from the other and put Jack in cryo,"
"She's that bad?" Miranda asked, looking at John who didn't move.
The Warden nodded. "Her biotics are some of the most powerful that I have ever seen. I've seen her rip apart one of my mechs like it was nothing," he shook his head. "Dangerous, powerful, crazy, a bad combination,"
"Fascinating," Mordin muttered as they continued.
"You must have had some escape attempts," John commented, trying to ignore the sense of wrongness he felt the last time he was here.
"There's no need," Kuril answered with a hint of arrogance in his voice. "We're in space, they have nowhere to go, and they know it. But these are dangerous scum, so we exercise caution. But we do have many ways into dealing and controlling the population," soon he stopped and pointed down the corridor. "Out-processing is down that way. I'll go to check that the funds from Cerberus have been cleared,"
With that he walked off. As soon as he was out of earshot, Miranda spoke up.
"He's hiding something," she muttered, her hand resting on the pistol. "So are you," she accused John.
"I have no idea what you mean," he said innocently.
"Knock it off you two," Jane said as she walked forward.
Aside from one member of staff Out-processing was practically empty. As the three moved further in, the staff made his way out of the room. John reached down to her pistol and clicked the safety off. The other three noticed what he did and did the same as they walked over to the far end where Jack was meant to wait for them. As they got to the door, John spoke up just as Jane was about to open it.
"Miranda, stand there," John pointed as Jane stopped reaching for the door controls. "Mordin there,"
Despite the looks, the two did as he asked. Jane looked to him with a small nod, which he mirrored. She reached out and hit the controls. The door opened to show an empty cell.
"Sorry Shepard but your more valuable to me as a prisoner than a costumer. Drop your weapons and proceed I to this open cell and you will not be harmed," he said as the team drew their weapons.
By way of an answer Jane turned and shot the camera before she and her team moved into cover.
"ACTIVAE SYSTEMS!" the Warden yelled.
As Security entered Jane and the others opened fire on the Blue sun's and mechs. Two mechs fell as the rest of security moved into cover. John moved closer, using his pistol's bursts to force the security team to keep down. One of them decided to try his luck, but the rounds bounced off John's shields opening him up to have his head popped open my Mordin's aim. Once as the engineer got into cover, the two biotics threw singularities at the security team. The blast forced them out of cover, making them easy targets for the team to take out.
As soon the last one fell, and the group exited the office.
OOOOO
As soon as they got the signal, Ajax and the defence team moved out and took out a group of Blue Suns trying to advance on the ship. After taking out the mercs, the three then set up a mobile barricade and took up defensive positions. As they did so the air began to shudder followed by the flickering that they all recognised. Like a wave, it started from one end before surging forward over them and across the station.
Once it passed them, the defence team Ajax hit his comms. "Assault team, head up, we've got flickering," he said before the station shook.
"What the hell was that?" Jane asked over the radio. "John you were here before,"
"The explosion began after I got Jack out," the engineer shot back as the station shook again.
Flashes outside the station caught Ajax's eye. Moving up to the window and looking outside, he could see several ships outside. From this distance he couldn't make them out too well, but the skull and crossbones on them were hard to ignore.
"Shit, pirates," he muttered before hitting his radio and alerting the others.
OOOOO
Jack looked around as the station shook. While she wasn't too familiar with the different shakes that a ship or station did due to internal or external damage, she did know what this meant. She stood and moved over to the door, opening it ajar and looking out. Prisoners and guards were moving around in a disorganised fashion. Guards either trying to capture or kill prisoners while the latter were fighting back, poorly. Something felt off, but she didn't have time to worry about that right now.
"Ok, move!" she yelled as she charged out the door and slammed into the nearest guard.
She slammed him into the floor and broke his neck with a quick kick to the area. She grabbed his gun and began to cover her students as they moved into more hard cover. Once the last student was in cover, she moved to join them taking the time to take in her surroundings.
"Section 4," she muttered. "We need to get to section 2," After getting into cover, she looked to her students. "Ok, listen up kids. We need to get to section 2. That's where I am, don't ask just move. Grab a weapon and watch each other's back,"
She got confused looks and nods. With a nod of her own, she moved out with her students.
OOOOO
As they then down the corridor, Ajax's alert came out making them stop. Jane looked to John who shrugged with a shake of the head.
"Things didn't blow up until I got Jack out," he explained. "As for the pirates….. not a clue,"
Jane sighed and nodded as Miranda opened the door and the staff member, they saw earlier fired his gun at them. Miranda unloaded a burst round into him killing him. The four then approached the console. They looked through a window overlooking a cryo pod with four heavy mechs in their way.
"That's a lot of mechs," Jane muttered.
"More mechs than when I was here," John added.
Mordin looked down before looking at the terminal. Moving over to it he began to type, looking to see what the problem is.
"Shepard, pirate attack fused the system. Don't have time to bypass. If activated, it will open all cells on this block," he explained.
That made the Cerberus agent growl in annoyance. "But we need Jack." Miranda counted.
Jane looked to John who nodded. "Brace yourselves," he said before she looked to Mordin and nodded.
As soon as he hit the button an alarm sounded as an arm moved over to the cryo pod. The heavy mechs activated as the arm then unlocked the seal on the pod. the mechs readied themselves. The hiss of steam sounded as the mechs were fully turned to face the pod while the arm brought the pod up allowing everyone to see Jack.
Inside was an almost topless woman. She had the orange trousers of the other prisoners, but straps across her torso for a reason that. Tattos covered her, but what got the groups attention was her tiger tail, fur covered forearms and a of tiger ears which sat on her otherwise blad head.
"That's Jack?" Miranda asked eye wide in surprise.
"What the hell?" John muttered as he leaned closer
It was at that moment Jacks eyes opened and broke one of her cuffs off then the other before pulling her neck cuff off. Finally free she fell to her knees before looking up to see four mechs approach her. Her eyes glowed first, then her fur changed from orange to blue as she stood before letting out an ear-piercing roar and charged. The biotic blast she used shook the entire room making the team fall to the floor.
"We have to get down there," Jane yelled with no one disagreeing.