Chapter 160

Liara's odd thought about her mother's reaction to Harry's dragon form aside, Shepard still needed to know the whole scope of the situation with the tram system "What's the situation here?".

Mira immediately responded "One moment, please, diagnostic in progress...

Critical failure, the main reactor shut down in accordance with emergency containment procedures, manual restart required.

Critical failure, landlines connections are disabled, passenger tram systems offline... report complete, do you have additional systems status query?".

Liara frowned and looked down "So the main reactor is shut down, not a big problem since we can manually restart it, but the landline connections could be a problem, I doubt any of us know how to fix them".

Everyone shared a look and then turned towards Harry, the dragon god shrugged "Well, I can always just use magic or my powers over reality if necessary".

Everyone nodded and then Shepard continued to ask questions "Do you know why the reactor was shut down?".

Mira once again wasted no time to answer Shepard's question "I'm sorry, I was offline at the time, a shutdown could occur if a reactor breach seems likely, or in the case of catastrophic laboratory containment failure.

Emergency guidelines suggest the frigid environment will kill biological contagions, it may also damage mechanical ones".

Liara nodded "Turn off the heat, and hope the cold puts, whatever you have unleashed to sleep".

Kunou tilted her head "Those creatures that attacked us, they're the ones they turned off the heat for, though the cold didn't seem to affect them".

Ashley nodded "Yeah, whatever those things are, they were rather active in the cold".

Shepard agreed with both Ashley and Kunou about those creatures, but right now he had to get some answers, so he asked Mira for more information "What do I need to do to get the power on?"

Mira, as always answered Shepard's question right away "The valve to the helium-3 fuel line must be opened, this can be done at the controls in the reactor assembly proper".

That seemed easy enough like Liara said, so he next asked about the landlines "What are the landlines, and why are they disabled?".

Mira responded right away "The landlines connect my mainframe here at Central Station to the various sub-facilities of Peak 15.

This allows the crew to remotely access my databases from the comfort and security of their labs.

When emergency protocols were implemented within the hot labs, the cabling was automatically ejected".

Harry hummed "I see, without those landlines, Mira is disconnected from the rest of the labs and such".

Shepard nodded and then asked Mira another question "How do I reconnect the landlines?".

Mira paused for about a second but then answered Shepard's question "The landlines are designed for easy reconnection, the router for the landlines is on the roof of the Operations, simply activate the controls, and the hardware will reconnect and reboot automatically".

Ashley sighed "Oh, thank god it's that easy to reconnect the landlines, I was dreading having to do something overcomplicated to fix the problem".

Everyone nodded in agreement, the group certainly felt at ease that the landline problem wasn't as difficult as they thought.

Shepard then continued asking for more information "Tell me what happened here?".

Now that was the real question, just what happened here, to leave Peak 15 in such dire condition, however, Mira paused again and then said "I'm sorry, but I need a more specific query".

Shepard frowned "I guess that was too much of a broad question... alright, then tell me what occurred immediately before you shut down".

Mira immediately answered the question this time "Stage 1 alert issued at hot labs, contaminants released from laboratory pod gamma, emergency protocols implemented.

Stage 2 alert issued at hot labs, isolation tube breached, trams shut down, landline to hot labs disconnected.

Stage 3 alert issued locally, contaminants in tram tunnels, station shutdown and evacuation initiated, Code Omega sent".

Shepard, immediately realized that the contaminants were the strange creatures, that attacked the group a while ago, but he needed confirmation to be sure "The creatures we've encountered here, did they come from the labs?".

Mira however, couldn't answer that question "I'm sorry, Commander, inquiries related to our research require privileged access, only executives of Binary Helix have that level of clearance".

Ashley frowned "Damn, that sucks, but that's pretty much a confirmation".

Shepard nodded, if Mira couldn't speak about it then more than likely those creatures were created here, and they must have escaped causing this whole mess.

But that still left more questions, and all that Shepard could do is shake his head "Just what the hell is Saren doing here?".

Harry sighed "Nothing good Shepard, nothing good".

Shepard knew Harry was right, but he wasn't happy about it, he still had questions so he went back to asking Mira "Why were you taken offline?".

Mira answered the question immediately, "In the event Peak 15 must be sterilized for security purposes, my program and data must be purged".

Harry frowned at that "They kill you if something goes wrong?

Mira paused for a bit and then said, "My systems are permanently disabled, to be 'killed' I would need to be alive, I am merely a database program".

Harry, stared at Mira in silence for a few seconds "... So your not fully awake then, a shame".

Everyone looked at Harry in surprise, but he just shook his head letting them know that, it wasn't important, Shepard trusted Harry so he decided to get a move on "That will be all for now".

Mira's holographic image nodded "Very well Commander, logging you out".

Shepard stepped out of the main core and then nodded to the group "Alright we should get going, we have quite a lot to do".

The group gave Shepard a nod and then they moved back to the prior room, there they found that one of the doors to the side had been unlocked, Shepard knowing that this was Mira's way of letting them know where to go, immediately walked up to one of the doors.

It automatically opened for him and revealed a long tube-like hallway, everyone quickly moved down the long hallway, turned at the corner at the end of it, and walked through another automatic door.

They quickly moved down the hallway past the automatic door and then found another elevator, they quickly got on and rode it down to the floor below the one with the Main Core.

A short hallway was waiting for the group and they quickly walked over to the door at the end of it, once inside, they found themselves in a room with some kind of terminal in the middle and two rooms on each side, though it seemed like both doors led to the same place.

Shepard quickly chose one and everyone else followed him, a very long tube metal-like platform awaited them on the other side of the door Shepard chose to use, along with a big and high room.

However, a geth destroyer appeared on the other end of the long tube-like tunnel, Shepard, Ashley, and Liara turned it into scrap in a second with their Hary-made pistols.

They didn't even stop and kept going, suddenly two geth stalkers dropped from somewhere above, Harry noticed them right away despite being camouflaged and jumped to intercept them.

He spun kicked one to pieces and quickly blasted the other one with a small ki wave, the geth stalker was sent flying back and crashing against a wall very hard, it exploded on contact with the wall.

A geth sniper suddenly shot Shepard in the head with its geth sniper rifle, usually, a hit like that would not only shatter his shields instantly but would have caused him a concussion.

Luckily for Shepard, his armor's shield took the hit and stayed strong, though it did cause Shepard to freeze out of reflex, the geth sniper tried to shoot Shepard in the head again, but Kunou appeared beside it in a flash of golden light, and cut it into pieces in a blur of movement.

Liara and Ashley were worried for Shepard, but the Commander shook his head "I'm fine! Watch the walls and anything they can use to stand on! Cover Liara from any snipers!".

Both Liara and Ashley immediately obey Shepard's orders and began to pay attention to the walls, more geth stalkers began to jump from wall to wall like frogs making it hard to hit them.

Shepard frowned and then suddenly yelled "Ammo swap! Lighting rounds!".

Shepard's pistol made a whirring sound and shifted a bit, it suddenly began to glow purple and give off a few sparks of electricity, Shepard aimed his pistol and shot.

The lighting rounds are pure energy-based ammunition, they don't have friction and spin at high velocity before being shot, this makes for rapid shots and Shepard was going to take advantage of that.

A geth stalker was hit before it could jump off the wall and was fried by thousands of volts of electricity, a second later it disintegrated as it fell, Liara and Ashley saw this and immediately swap ammo as well.

Shepard grinned as he continued to take advantage of the high-velocity lighting rounds, with all the data Harry and the girls had collected from his use of his pistol, they were able to add the Ammo Swap Enchantment and the Charge Shot Enchantment together in all the pistols and even made them work together as well.

Which Shepard was going to try right now, he pulled on the trigger and held it as his pistol began to make a loud humming sound, he took aim towards a group of geth stalkers that bunched up together to gun him down.

He smiled and then released the trigger, a ball of purple plasma fired from his pistol and traveled through the air at high speed, the geth stalkers didn't even have time to twitch, before the ball of plasma crashed against one and then exploded into a lighting storm.

The geth stalkers were fried by the lighting storm and disintegrated a second later, Ashley and Liara who had seen Shepard use the charge shot function gaped at the sheer destruction it caused, the wall where the geth stalkers were hanging on, now had a big melted hole on it.

Ashley shook her head "Damn! Commander, that was amazing!".

Shepard nodded "Yeah! I can't wait to try that with all of the types of ammo in the pistols!".

Liara lifted her pistol and stared at it, she suddenly said "Ammo Swap, Flame rounds!" the pistol suddenly shifted and glowed red, it then released a little bit of steam.

Having read the instructions Harry gave everyone, Liara knew what function did what, but now she was curious as well, so she pulled on the trigger and held it as the pistol charged a shot.

She noticed Harry and Kunou jumping from wall to wall and destroying geth stalkers, but then she saw another geth sniper on a very high platform and she immediately took aim.

She then let go of the trigger and watched as a small red orb of energy shot from the barrel of the pistol and flew through the air and high speed, not the same as the lighting ammunition but still fast enough.

The geth saw the red ball energy come his way and tried to move out of the way, but then the energy ball still hit it on its shoulders and exploded into a big ball of flames.

The group then watched as the geth sniper melted on the spot until it became a hot red and black sludge, Liara watched that happen with rapt attention for a few seconds and then said "Oh my... I enjoyed that".

Harry landed behind everyone and chuckled "Well! Welcome to the club Liara".

Liara blushed and looked down, while everyone shared a laugh at her expense, but putting aside Liara's new pyromaniac tendencies, Shepard was really happy right now "I think I'm in love with my pistol".

Harry grinned at Shepard "Am I good or what?".

Everyone nodded to Harry, Shepard then decided to keep going now that the place was cleared, so the commander then walked towards the fuel line system in the room.

He quickly fixed it by simply pulling a few levers, with that done, everyone then went back to the previous room and then back to the elevator and rode it back up.

It didn't take long for the elevator to go up and for the group to walk back to the main core room, as soon as they stepped inside, another one of those strange creatures suddenly popped out from the vent on the floor and attacked the group, Shepard quickly shot it with his pistol.

The lighting ammunition paralyzed the creature on impact, making it screech in pain, Liara then shot it in the head with her pistol, the flame ammunition hit it and then turned its head into ash on impact.

The group watched the creature drop on the ground dead, Harry walked up to its body and then looked towards the vent, it used to get to the main core room "Hm... that vent is a pretty tight place, these things are like cockroaches it seems".

Shepard raised an eyebrow "What do you mean?".

Harry pointed the the dead creature "It can actually use a tight vent to move around, cockroaches can do that and are hard to kill as well... we're going to watch out for any vents or openings, these things might try to sneak up on us like that".

Everyone nodded to Harry, Kunou then suddenly piped in "It's kinda hard to detect them too, it's like their energy and life force is muted? Small? I'm not sure how to describe it really".

Harry nodded "Yeah, I noticed that too, I can sense them when they're close enough, but their whole presence is off, it's like... it's not really all there if it makes any sense".

Shepard frowned "What do you think that is".

Harry shook his head "I'm not sure, but I know for a fact that we will eventually find out and something tells me I'm not going to like what we find".

Shepard stared at Harry, in hindsight, it was a big probability that Saren and Benezia had been working on something big that resulted in these creatures, and that also gave him a bad feeling it seems, which he shared with Harry.

But for now, they had to keep moving, so Shepard told the group to keep going, everyone did so and moved back to the main core, once they found the door in front of Mira's console unlocked.

This told them, that Mira was telling them that this door was next, so Shepard walked up to it, the door automatically opened for them and everyone stepped through.

A set of stairs and a small hallway awaited everyone on the other side of the door, at the end of the hallway was an elevator, everyone got inside and Shepard activated it.

The elevator took everyone up, once it stopped everyone got off the elevator and followed the small hallway outside, to another automatic door.

Behind the door, they found themselves on the rooftop of the facility, however, once on the rooftop, a hoard of those strange creatures immediately attacked the group.

There were different sizes of the creatures now, small ones, the size of a foot, and the big ones that the group had fought before, Shepard used his lighting ammunition and killed the small ones.

While Liara fought the big one with her flame ammunition, Ashley just stood in front of her to shield her while she fired back.

Kunou and Harry spread out to the sides and made sure none of the creatures reached the group's side, there were quite a lot of creatures this time, but thanks to everyone's effort and battle positions they were able to defeat the wave of enemies quickly enough.

Suddenly a very big one appeared and jumped at the group, Shepard, Liara, and Ashley rolled away to the side to avoid being trampled, Harry then appeared in a flash of light and darkness at its side.

The dragon god attacked the large creature with a keyblade combo that ended with a spin attack, his keyblades infused with mana, struck the large creature and sent it flying through the air and away from the group.

The creature landed on the ground dead and then burst into a puddle of green liquid, once the creature was dead, the room was cleared and everyone was able to relax.

Shepard, knowing that Mira guided them to this location for a reason, decided to look around, he found some kind of terminal that was off, so he quickly switched it on.

With that done, the group then decided to walk back to the main core room, it didn't take them long to arrive.

They then walked around Mira's console and then headed to the other room, once there, they saw that another door had become unlocked, letting the group know that their next destination is behind that door.

But before they could walk over, they heard some noises coming from the vents, knowing what it was, the group got ready and soon enough, another one of those creatures popped out of the vents.

Only to be met with a barrage of bullets and get turned into green sludge, with that one creature dead, the group then walked over to the newly unlocked door and opened it.

On the other side of the room, they found another long tube-like hallway and at the end another elevator, the group didn't wait for a second to get inside and ride it up.

Turns out the elevator, took them to the tram station, however, it seems that the tramway was infested by a bunch of creatures of all sizes, making it dangerous to use the tram.

The group paused to assess the situation, Shepard hummed as he looked around "Looks like the doors to the tramway are locked because of the creatures".

Kunou suddenly walked over to a door and this one opened for her "This one is open".

Everyone walked over and took a look inside, Ashley smiled as she saw a terminal inside the room "That looks like a plasma purge system, we can use that to clear the tracks".

Everyone nodded and Shepard walked over to the terminal, it seems like it was locked in so he quickly used the terminal to unlock it and use it.

Once Shepard activated the terminal, the tramway was immediately cleared with fire, killing all the creatures that had made their way in there, this allowed the group to finally reach the tram and use it.

Everyone smiled and were ready to get moving, but as they turned around to leave they noticed a dead Salarian in the room, it surprised everyone to find it there, since they didn't even notice it until now.

Shepard walked over to inspect the body and found a computer on close by, he quickly went over to check it out for any useful information and found an audio long.

Looking for clues and answers, Shepard played the audio log, it was from the dead Salarian, but it was badly damaged and hard to understand, but the group got the gist of the audio log.

The Salarian felt guilty for what he and the other scientists did in these labs and killed himself after the creatures escaped and began to overrun Peak 15.

The group could only shake their head at the loss of life, suddenly, Mira's Hologram, appeared from a console in the room "Connections restored, processing new data, user alert! Unable to connect to hot lab facilities".

Shepard nodded to Mira "Thank you for letting me know, that will be all for now".

Mira immediately responded to Shepard "Very well Commander, logging you out!".

Mira's Hologram soon vanished and the group then got a move on, they left the room and then headed to the other side, the previously locked door, was now open and everyone immediately walked up to it.

The door opened for them, a small hallway awaited them on the other side of the room, and at the end, another door, the group walked over and Shepard open the door, a small creature pounced at Shepard the moment the door opened.

The small creature bounced off Shepard's shields and he immediately stomped on it, killing the creature, a few more of the small kind of creatures launched themselves at the group.

Harry waved his hand and released a small wave of flames, the creatures were incinerated on the spot and the group walked over their charred bodies to keep going.

The group walked over a very long tube-like hallway and at the end, they finally reached the tram station, everyone sighed and then quickly boarded the tram.

The tram automatically took off as soon as everyone was inside, while Mira's voice echoed through the tram "Departing Central Station... destination - Rift Station".

Harry huffed "Did that feel tedious to anyone else?".

Everyone nodded, and Shepard crossed his arms "I must admit, getting the tram ready, had us running around all over the place, luckily we were still able to use the tram".

Ashley shrugged "It's too bad, I kinda wanted to see Benezia's face when she saw Harry's dragon form".

Liara sweatdropped "I think mother would have had a heart attack at that...".

-----

Everyone shared a small laugh, a few minutes later, the tram finally arrived, and Mira's voice once again echoed through the tram "Now arriving at Rift Station, Binary Helix research facility".

Shepard immediately spoke to everyone "Alright, let's proceed with caution, there's a big chance that there might be more of those creatures in here".

Everyone agreed with Shepard, and the group then moved on and left the tram station, eventually, they reached an elevator and they quickly got on.

The elevator then took them up a few floors, until it stopped, the elevator then opened its door and the group walked out, only to find someone in the middle of the room they arrived in, along with a few people aiming firearms at them.

The person in the middle raised a hand and then said to everyone aiming at the group "Stand down".

His people nodded and lower their weapons, the group then walked over to the person, it turned out to be a human and as soon as the group got close he spoke to them "I'm Captain Ventralis, I'm sorry, but we couldn't be sure what was in the tram".

Shepard nodded "I'd only be upset if they had fired".

Ventralis huffed "Even hoped up on stims, my people know the rule, two legs good, four legs bad.

Look, your human, and that's enough that I won't shoot, but I'd like to know who you are".

Shepard nodded and immediately introduced himself "My name's Shepard, I'm a Spectre".

Ventralis raised an eyebrow "Huh, well I won't look a heavily armed horse in the mouth, the aliens overran the hot labs last week, only Han Olar got out, and he ain't all there anymore.

The first thing we knew, the bastards were clawing into my command post, we had a lot more staff then".

Shepard sighed and nodded "You were taken by surprise and had civilians to protect, you did a good job, Captain".

Ventralis just shook his head "Yeah? Sure as hell doesn't feel like it... the board sent an asari to clean up the mess, she went to the hot labs yesterday, and we haven't heard from her since".

Harry shared a look with Shepard "That had to be Benezia".

Shepard nodded and then turned his head towards Ventralis "I'm not going to let any of your people die".

Ventralis looked down "All I can do is hold here and protect the civilians... there's an emergency elevator out by the trams, this card will let you activate it, it can take you down to the hot labs, oh if you need any first aid, Dr. Cohen's downstairs in the Med Bay".

Shepard nodded and took the card Ventralis handed to him, he then decided to ask a few questions "Tell me about Rift Station".

Ventralis tilted his head "I can't talk about everything, what do you need to know?".

Shepard actually had a few questions and he started with "Tell me about the defenses here".

Ventralis laughed a bit "Secure enough that you shouldn't poke in corners".

Shepard just shrugged "I was just impressed with your operation, being able to weather a week of assaults is no mean feat".

Ventralis nodded and seemed to appreciate the praise "Only the best get assigned to high-security facilities like this, what impressed me most is the turrets, alarms, and cameras, they're all routed through a central location, out by the quarantine labs.

One guy can lock down the whole facility, the security hubs are the last logical fallback, and we'd have cover from the turrets all the way.

Ventralis ended up giving the group plenty of information, and things to watch for, and all because Shepard stroke his ego a bit, Shepard then decided to ask about the research done here "What kind of research is done here?".

Ventralis just shrugged "Beats me, I'm not supposed to know, so long as people don't start dying, it's not my problem".

Harry frowned at that answer, these people certainly seemed so uncaring of everything going on in these labs, he really started to dislike Noveria and the people who live on this planet.

Shepard felt the same way but for now, he just huffed "Alright, then what can you tell me about the aliens?".

Ventralis shook his head "Ask Dr. Olar, he's the only one who made it out of the hot labs, he's the only volus left in here".

Shepard made a note to try and speak with Dr. Olar, he then decided to ask about the labs "I need to know more about the situation in the hot labs".

This time Ventralis answered the question right away "The facility's off the network, the only way to find out would be to send scouts down the elevator, I won't send my people to their death".

Everyone in the group agreed with Ventralis about his decision, at least he cares enough about his men, Shepard then asked, "Did the aliens come from inside the facility, or did they attack from outside?".

Ventralis looked away from Shepard for about three seconds, he seemed to be pondering something, but then turned his head back to Shepard and then said "You want my personal opinion? Labs like that exist to do stupid crap that gets people killed".

Everyone understood what Ventralis was trying to tell them, between the lines, the strange creatures definitely came from the labs, more than likely they were a product of some kind of research that went out of control.

Shepard then asked more about the hot labs, since the group will be heading down there "What can you tell me about the structure of the hot labs?".

Ventralis answered this question immediately "It's built into one of the glaciers further down the mountain, a real old, thick, stable one, something goes wrong? They heat it up and sink it into the ice.

Normally the crew gets to the labs using the tram from the central station, we've got an elevator that connects directly, but it's for emergency use only".

Ventralis suddenly looked around and then leaned forward to whisper to Shepard "Uh, listen, I'm not sending my people down there, it's too dangerous, I hope you understand".

Shepard nodded, he certainly wouldn't want to risk anyone's life down there, besides, he and his group can handle anything down there, still, Shepard decided to ask about Benezia "Are you certain the matriarch is still in the hot labs?".

Ventralis nodded "She hasn't come back here, you came through Central Station, so she ain't there".

Shepard nodded, Harry suddenly decided to ask a question "How is everyone holding up?".

Ventralis turned his head towards Harry and answered the question "We weren't expecting the initial wave, they made it inside, we lost some good people, those of us left are shorthanded, we've kept order by long shifts and stims, I don't like it but I don't see an alternative".

Harry looked down and seemed to be deciding something, but before he could say anything, a gunshot, and screeches began to echo around the area.

Ventralis jumped and immediately yelled at his men "Hell! Man the perimeter!".

Everyone, including the group, immediately got ready, while Ventralis took off running towards where the sounds of fighting were coming from, the group quickly tried to follow him into battle.

However, before they could follow Ventralis out of the room, creatures began to pop out of the vents in high numbers and attack.

Liara quickly used a biotic stasis and froze the creatures mid-pounce, Shepard and Ashley then shot them down, and Harry and Kunou immediately began to zip around the room killing any small creature that began to crawl into the room through the vents.

In a few seconds they killed every creature that made it into the room, Harry and Kunou then used ice magic to seal the vents to prevent more creatures from coming inside.

With the room now cleared, they were about to go help Ventralis, but he then came back and sighed, he saw the group and the green blood all over the walls of the room.

Knowing what had happened, he smiled and nodded to the group "Thanks for the help, every few hours, a group comes up the tram tunnel, it's actually better since we locked the elevator".

Ventralis seemed a bit out of breath, but he looked fine, it seems that he and his men were successfully able to kill the few creatures that made it into whatever area he went to.

Shepard smiled and nodded "Happy to help any way I can".

Ventralis nodded and then exhaled as he recovered from being out of breath "I don't know why they keep throwing themselves against our defenses, even animals should learn not to stick their noses where it hurts".

That was a good point and one that made the group think about the creatures, it seems that Harry was right about them not being all there, their behavior just doesn't make sense.

But, they didn't have time to ponder about the creatures, they still had a mission to finish, so the group then decided to make their way behind Ventralis.

They found a door, which opened automatically for them, after walking through some tube-like hallways and another door, they made it to a big room, and in that room, they found the survivors and civilians.

They all seemed stressed and tired but physically okay, as the group walked into the room, they noticed an asari standing by herself and just staring into a wall, she seemed so out of place that Shepard decided to approach her.

The asari noticed Shepard and frowned at him "What?".

Shepard ignored her attitude and asked her a question "You're a member of the science teams?".

The asari nodded "Recently transferred, yes".

Shepard nodded "Then what do you do here?".

The asari sighed and answered Shepard's question "Molecular genetics, I specialize in biotic-enhanced allele-specific hybridization".

Shepard and Ashley sweatdrop at everything the asari just said "Er that's a bit technical for me".

The asari rolled her eyes and tried to explain again, this time as simply as she could "I'm very good at tracking inherited variations in genetic sequences, I am sure you would find it quite dull".

Shepard sighed, he had to admit that he walked right into that backhanded comment, so he chose to ignore it for now, instead, he decided to make a comment "You seem less upset at this situation than the others".

The asari just narrowed her eyes at Shepard "That is one of the virtues of the meditation you interrupted".

Harry suddenly piped in "Ah, sorry, we didn't know that was what you were doing, I was wondering why you were staring at the wall seemed intentional, you were staring at it like it insulted your mother or something".

The asari frowned at Harry, but didn't say anything, Shepard sighed and then he decided to apologize as well "Look I'm sorry about interrupting you while you're meditating, but I wanted to get a feel about the situation here".

The asari sighed but nodded "Fine, ask your questions".

Shepard smiled and then decided to ask about something else "How about you tell me a bit about yourself".

The asari blinked a bit and looked a bit perplexed, she then began to wonder if she should really say anything to this strange human in front of her.