Chapter Text
Shepard barely had enough time to gasp as Miranda's claws left her throat, before something else latched onto her shoulders and started to drag her backwards away from the fighting.
Before she could summon the strength to fight however, she was quickly dropped again, and Mordin appeared by her side. "Shepard, are you injured?" He asked quickly, his head snapping around as a gunshot rang through the corridors, turning back, his Omni-tool lit up as he lightly hovered it over the injured commander.
"No worse then usual." She managed to say, a strained smile forming as she weakly lifted her head, Mordin seemed unfazed by the attempt at humour, his expression remaining perfectly neutral as he studied the readouts.
"Injuries, not life threatening, will do what I can once were…safe." His gaze shifted back to the opposite end of the hallway as another brilliant flash of blue light lit up the area, the loud crash of something striking the wall swiftly following, a moment later, an unnerving silence took hold.
After a moment Mordin stood and offered a hand to Shepard, who quickly gripped it and pulled herself back up onto her feet, hissing and wincing at each ache and pain in her chest and ribs in the process.
"What happened?" She demanded upon standing and realizing that the small team was scattered about the hallway, Hammond was laying, slumped against one wall, breathing heavily and bleeding from a gash in his forehead. Garrus was still on his feet, weapon in hand and glaring back the way they'd come, the shattered remains of the door giving way to an empty hallway. Jacob was in the process of hauling himself back to his feet, his left arm held close to his chest.
"Miranda…that thing, bolted," Garrus said after a moment, finally lowering his weapon. "She tore through us and just ran," he shook his head. "No idea why, it's not like those creatures to back down even when out numbered."
Mordin quickly darted away to check on the rest of the squad, while Shepard retrieved her discarded rifle. "Given how easily she beat us, I think its best we take what blessings we get." She responded slowly, idly checking over the weapon to ensure there were no serious damages.
"Agreed," Garrus nodded, tearing his eyes away from the corridor and focusing back on the squad. "I think its time for some answers though…" His voice dipped into a low growl as his gaze settled on Mordin and Hammond, the last two people to be seen with Miranda before her transformation.
"Ambushed on medical deck, fought hard…Miranda didn't make it." Mordin said quickly as he bowed his head, hands clenching into fists. "Did all I could, wound were fatal…or so I thought."
"I don't think that, thing is your squad member anymore." Hammond pitched in, shakily pulling himself back to his feet with the salarian's help.
Shepard frowned, though quickly shook her head. "She seemed to recognize me when I said her name; I think that was the only thing that stopped her killing us." One hand moved to lightly rub her neck, with the gauntlet in the way she couldn't directly feel any damages, but as her hand retreated, the fingertips were stained with fresh blood.
"Regardless, I think its best we shoot first if it, she comes back." Hammond responded, most of the squad nodded reluctantly, save the commander.
"If she comes back, I'll deal with her personally…" She paused, eyeing her boots again. "She's my responsibility." The squad hesitated, exchanging nervous glances, before Jacob responded.
"Whatever you say commander."
"Regardless, I don't think it's wise to stay here and wait for her to come back." Garrus suggested, again the group nodded, and one by one they started to file out of the corridor until only the turian and the commander remained.
"Commander?"
Shepard stirred slightly, her eyes finally shifting away from her boots and moved to the sniper. "You okay?"
The pair stared at each other for a long moment, silence reigning. Before the commander pushed off from the wall and walked away, head hung. Garrus's mandibles twitched as he watched her go, before he quickly fell into step behind her.
The journey back to Food Storage was a slow one from that point on. Shepard and Hammond were slowed by their injuries, while the others simply slowed down to keep close and cover them during the trek.
Thankfully it seemed Miranda was giving them space for the time being, and in turn the other necromorphs seemed to have fallen back, leaving the group in an uneasy silence, a quiet that had dragged on for the past several minutes.
Finally, after what felt like an hour of blood stained and darkened corridors, they reached the food storage chamber, the massive door looming ahead of them as they filed into the main room, a sizeable bank of computer monitors and terminals lay in between, the majority of the interfaces either locked or flashing various warnings about the contents of the tank and the outside pollution that was still dissipating.
"This terminal interfaces with the storage chamber…we should be able to inject the poison from here." Hammond informed them, waving a hand towards the computers before hastily stepping aside as Mordin withdrew the (thankfully undamaged) capsule from a pouch on his belt and approached the computer.
"Are you sure this will work?" Garrus asked, as the group shuffled closer to the terminal and waited, Mordin quickly set to work reactivating the terminals and preparing the system for the poison injection. "And can we be sure this won't wind up killing us?"
"Cannot say for certain, likelihood of toxin affecting us, minimum, Toxin will be localized to storage chambers, unless we enter it shouldn't harm us." Mordin said, his voice as rapid fire as his typing as he finished preperations. "Didn't have much to work with, results, uncertain." He paused, wringing his hands together as he glanced about briefly, Shepard simply nodded when he glanced her way.
"We've dealt with everything else so far." She said, shrugging slightly and wincing as her ribs twinged in protest.
Mordin nodded as well, before tapping the confirmation button.
Everyone waited as the computer screen flickered, then a box flashed up confirming the process was complete.
Another minute ticked by, before a loud, ear splitting shriek tore through the corridor, The squad swiftly clutched at their ears and cried out in shock and pain at the sudden sound. A loud banging revbeated through the ship as the creature inside struggled and fought against the poison.
After several agonizing moments, the sounds died away, leaving the deck in an uncomfortable silence.
Shepard was the first to risk removing her hands from her ears. "It worked?" She hissed, slowly the others followed her lead, listening for the slightest sound.
They risked breathing a collective sigh of relief, right before a loud resonating bang sounded against the food storage door, closely followed by another. They all instictively brought their weapons to bare as another terrific screech filled the air.
"...I hate karma."
At last, Isaac, Tali and the small squad of marines found the access ladder path leading back into the ship proper, the very same that would deposit them very close to the hydroponics deck, and the rest of the Normandy crew.
"Should be just through here," Isaac said, examining his map a final time before nodding towards the door they'd clustered around. One of the marines stepped up to the panel and tapped the icon to open it.
As it opened, the team all raised their weapons, waiting, tensed and ready to fire if anything was beyond. Only the dark, empty hallway met their unwavering flashlights. "Looks clear, come on." Jackson whispered, he and the two surviving marines quickly crept forwards, each picking a direction and training their weapons that way while Jackson swept the ceiling for any vent covers.
"Clear." Reported the marine watching the left, closely copied by Jackson and the soldier watching to the right, Tali soon followed them into the corridor as well, her weapon still at the ready.
Isaac moved to follow, however he was pulled up short as a faint sound pulled his attention back to the maintenance passage behind them. He halted, straining his ears for the slightest sound.
Just as he was about to give up, it came again, a faint whisper that rang in his ears as though they were whispering right next to his ear, though still faint enough to seem, distant and hard to focus on.
"Isaac," the voice came again, sound desperate now. The engineer frowned as he raised his plasma cutter, idly scanning the corridor they'd just cleared. "Isaac, help!"
"Isaac, what's wrong?" A different voice asked, drawing his attention back to the squad, all four of his companions were watching him now, waiting for him to catch up.
"Nothing thought I heard something." He mumbled quickly, before following them through the door, Tali was quick to shut and lock it behind them to ensure they weren't followed.
"Were, almost there,' Isaac said quickly, pulling up his map once again to double check their path. He briefly paused, glancing left and right along the corridor, "This way." He nodded towards the right path, before setting off, the map clicking off in the process. The squad easily fell into step behind him, their weapons still held at the ready.
The ship was, for once, quiet. No creaking, no distant howls of necromorphs, nothing.
"So quiet…" Tali mused, eyes darting about uneasily. Isaac noted the marines were shifting about uneasily as well, likely finding the quiet worse then having to deal with the nightmares the ship constantly threw at them.
"Come on," Isaac urged, before moving once again, the rest of the squad began to move as well, their eyes casting about in every direction. The corridor was largely empty, save the odd patch of dried blood or cracked and dented bulkhead. Several places were scorched and blackened.
"Looks like a hell of a fight went through here." Isaac observed, pausing to examine a patch of blood on the floor, the red liquid glistened brightly in the light of his cutter's torch. "Recently too…"
"Think Shepard's team went through here?" Tali asked as she joined the engineer.
"No idea could be survivors from the Valor as well." Isaac suggested with a slight shrug, before carefully stepping over the pool of blood and moving on, the others quickly following. "Maybe we'll get lucky and find them, still in one piece."
They didn't have to go far apparently, as they rounded another corner and halted. The hallway, much like the last three or four, was stained with fresh blood, though this time a trio of corpses littered the room, all wore the same armour as Jackson and his squadmates. One was dismembered horribly, a second propped up against the wall, still clutching a line rifle tightly with a deep gash in his chest plate that looked to be down to the bone and leaking blood at a steady rate,
The third was dangling from a loose vent in the ceiling, his legs swaying lazily back and forth. "My, god…" One of the marines muttered, twisting his head away from the grim sight, Isaac cringed behind his visor, but pressed on, advancing slowly, his light playing across the blood and remains.
"I'm glad the filters still work." Tali mumbled, Isaac chuckled, indeed, the smell was probably terrible, the sight alone was turning his stomach, thankfully the filters in his rig were keeping out the worst of it.
"Doesn't look like we can do anything for them." Jackson said, sighing heavily as he studied the corpse dangling from the vent above. Suddenly he leapt back a few steps as the body abruptly moved, his rifle snapped upwards as the remains abruptly lurched upwards and were pulled into the darkness by an unseen creature.
The squad waited, but no further movement or sound followed. Slowly, they lowered their weapons and began to inch away. Eventually they risked turning away and resuming their trek. "How many men were aboard the Valor, Jackson?" Isaac asked after a long moment of silence.
"…Dozens, hundreds. It certainly didn't have the kind of crew the Ishimura did, but." He trailed off, his helmet dropping towards the ground. The engineer didn't press him for any more details.
It hardly mattered, right now Isaac was only worried about how many of those fallen soldiers, were now stalking them through the ship…
His train of thought was abruptly derailed when an ear splitting screech tore through the ship, it ended quickly, but the deafening echo persisted for several long moments afterwards, as did the loud ringing in his ears, judging by the rest of the squad clutching at their helmets and groaning, he wasn't alone in that regard.
"What, was, that?" Tali asked, shaking her head to clear the disorientation.
"No idea, but it sounds pissed." Jackson said, glancing back and forth along the hallway. "I really don't fancy meeting…whatever that was head on."
"Agreed," Isaac nodded. "Come on, let's get out of here."
"Get ready you two; we'll be docking any second." Joker called over his shoulder as the Normandy steadily drifted closer to the hulking form of the Ishimura. Much like their first 'landing' it took a while to find a suitable place to dock, the ship being designed much differently to anything Joker was familiar with.
Luckily the ship was still largely in one piece, a miracle given the amount of abuse it had undergone so far. As a result it didn't take long to find the same airlock they'd used to transfer the first ground team.
Waiting by the airlock doors, Grunt eagerly smacked his fists together, preparing himself for what was no doubt going to be a glorious battle. If these, creatures could give Shepard and the others a run for their money, then it should be a interesting (if easy) fight for him.
Samara simply stood to one side, expression neutral and body completely motionless as she waited for them to dock, unlike her more, bloodthirsty companion; she was calm and collected, already set for the fight ahead without hesitation.
Only two of them, it would be a hard fight to find the ground team. Given the size of the vessel and the lack of communications so far, plus their brief tussle with the necromorphs proved the enemy wasn't a simple mercenary group looking for a few credits or valuable cargo.
No matter what they were up against, it was a lot of ground to cover for just two soldiers.
A faint clanking sound drew their attention, both squad members pausing in their preparations to glance back towards the CIC.
A familiar metallic figure with a sizeable hole in its chest rapidly drew nearer and halted, an assault rifle clutched loosely in its hands. "I thought you got scrapped in the cargo bay?" Grunt said, eyeing the geth. Its arm looked shiny and new, and several plates along its head and torso were also lacking the scars and scrapes the rest of its body, but that aside it looked normal.
"Damages sustained were not irreparable. This platform simply needed time to replace damaged components." Legion responded in its usual monotone, its head flaps shifting slightly in a vague 'expression'.
"How is miss Goto?" Samara piped in, her expression and tone betraying no emotion, much like their synthetic companion.
"Recovering, humans cannot replace damaged parts as easily as geth. It will take longer before she is combat ready again." It responded, its head turning slightly and its 'eye' seemingly settling on a spot slightly to one side, before twisting back to focus on the justicar.
"Alright, docking now, get ready!" Joker called over his shoulder, cutting their conversation short.
"About time!" Grunt chuckled, drawing and cocking his shotgun. Samara copied his movements with a heavy pistol while Legion simply hefted its assault rifle with one hand and turned to face the airlock.
A dull clang signalled they'd docked, and a moment later the airlock opened with a sharp hiss. "Good luck out there. Bring me back a something nice!" The pilot shouted as the doors clanged shut behind them. A moment later the dull hiss of the cycle beginning filled the chamber.
After an agonizingly long wait, the door finally opened, revealing the first hallway.
It was more or less how they left it, right down to the mess of bullet holes and scarring along the walls, and the stack of necromorph bodies that was piled up by the door.
Upon entering the ship proper, the krogan paused long enough to activate his radio. "Shepard, this is Grunt, we've boarded the ship, where are you?" Only static greeted his rather clipped message, he tried twice more, but fared no better.
Grunt simply pushed forwards, shoving corpses aside as he cleared a path for the trio. They quickly filed through the airlock and set off into the depths of the ship. Their first stop, the bridge, where Garrus' last transmission had originated, it was as good a place as any to start.