Kapitel 10: chapter 10
What in the name of Sam Hell is that?" Jackson coughed after he wiped his lower lip, Alenko having just become the latest victim of a spit take as he point at the weapon Jason was holding before he noticed Tali standing next to his brother, "And that?"
Everyone cramped around the airlock turned to notice the assault rifle Jason was holding that was a lot bulkier than a typical rifle and the shotgun Tali was holding looked a lot more menacing with twin barrels.
"Late night project that paid off," Jason smiled as he glanced around, "I see you all have the weapons I stashed in your lockers."
Garrus glanced down at his rifle before looking back up, "What did you do to it?"
"Increased the size of the internal heat sinks and tightened up the trigger for easier firing," Jason reeled off before pointing at the pistol Jane was inspecting, "enlarged heat sinks for faster cooldown cycling, installed a scram rail for improved accuracy and a laser sight for ease of operation."
John arched an eyebrow at the sight of his wife dropping to her knees and hugging herself while tears of joy rolled down her face for several seconds, making a mental note to give Jason more materials to build a few more so he could hold onto them for later.
"We have Geth com chatter as well as the colony beacon on the scope," Joker said as he masterfully controlled the Normandy into a landing approach, "looks like the place is empty of anything organic or android."
Jackson scowled as he peered through the viewport in front of him before draining the last of his coffee, "I don't like it, no welcoming committee or hostiles to be seen, it could be an ambush."
"Good thing we have guns," Wrex grumbled as he adjusted his shotgun and scowled at the door, "could we hurry things along?"
"Be patient," Joker chided as the Normandy came to a halt, "docking procedure complete, waiting on you guys to move it."
"Everyone on me," John said as he lead the way with Garrus and Wrex flanking him, Jane taking up behind them as Jason joined Tali in the airlock as it ran through the impossibly long and downright annoying decontamination sequence.
Jason noticed that Tali was fidgeting again as he checked his new weapon over, knowing that if it crapped out he still a Mantis sniper rifle and a pistol to defend himself or until he snagged another weapon from the abundance of mind controlled vendors, crates and random nooks and crannies they would no doubt find as the airlock opened, both squads stepping out.
The air was humid and had a certain heaviness to it that reminded him of the Thorian, he hated that thing, but first they had all the Geth to go through, some of those Krogan and whatnot as he noticed that the random colony worker was standing there talking to John and Jane in that same monotone that practically screamed I am not in control of my own body, help!
"Fai Dan is up the stairs past the freighter," Jason discreetly looked off to the side where a rocket would be coming as he noticed movement on his HUD, "you'll need to speak with him for more…"
"GET DOWN!" Jason yelled as he brought up his rifle and pulled the trigger, happy to see that the rifle functioned perfectly as the Geth trooper he just shot dropped before a stray rocket whizzed over their heads and exploded against the wall somewhere behind them.
Everyone else in the squad simply opened fire as the worker took refugee behind a nearby crate to wait out the fire fight.
Once the last trooper went down courtesy of a Carnage blast from the attachment on the bottom of his rifle, Jason smiled as he took point, stepping past the mangled piles of parts before reaching the stairs, silently waving for everyone else to follow him.
The Hopper had a couple of friends waiting for them this time, upon discovering what a biotic armed with a very dangerous weapon could do, but it turned out that Tali got four to his two with her new shotgun. That and she was standing about ten feet behind him, so she wasn't the target that had unknowingly walked into an ambush, so she had the time to plot where the damn things would land next, what Hoppers really needed was some creativity from where they would launch themselves off from, clearing up the motion detector once the last one went down.
"Nice job you two," Jane laughed as the rest of them caught up, "anymore up ahead?"
"Hold on," Tali said as she raised her arm and did something before a familiar combat drone appeared, "go get them Chatika!"
An electronic chirp later and the glowing drone flew off ahead of them with everyone right behind it as it floated up past the stairs and around the next corner where it discovered a trio of Geth troopers and a single Geth sniper engaged with a handful of colonists as everyone exploded into action.
"Go for the optics Chatika!" Rang out a familiar battle cry that Jason found funny even though he charged into the midst of the Geth and selected his shotgun feature without the Carnage option enabled and fired.
The sniper went down to the combined fire from John and Garrus, both deciding to call it tie because they had fired exactly the same time as Wrex blasted a trooper at point blank range before Jane launched some kind of sabotage attack that fried a second one.
"Excellent teamwork everyone," Jane said as she delivered the final coup de grace execution style before they relieved the colonists that looked roughed up, tired and spacey on top of everything else.
"Find Fai Dan," they said, "our leader will have the answers you seek," most of them looked stoned as Hell, "he'll tell you what you need to know," it was slowly becoming a mantra inside his head, "Fai Dan knows what to do."
"You Fai Dan?" Jason about wept tears of joy at the sight of the familiar NPC who was actually a living being, so saving his ass would have to come later as Jane and John went into full Commander Shepard mode.
"We've got Geth in the tower!" Random colonist number one yelled as the electronic warble heralded their appearance, they should really stop doing that to give themselves away.
Wrex was the one to lead to the assault on the tower, blasting the first seven troopers, two snipers and one Hopper before a rocket nearly took his head off, by then they had moved up stairs into that room with the hole in the ceiling as a dropship arrived with reinforcements.
Jason kept his cool as he laid down covering fire and added his own Carnage blasts to whittle down the defenses of that Prime stomping its way towards them as everyone just unloaded on the damn thing, a couple of grenades joining the fray before it toppled over, headless.
"Take them down!" John yelled as he ducked behind cover in time to avoid a hail of gunfire from across the room as about a dozen troopers appeared from thin air and started marching towards them.
"Scoped and dropped!"
"Sabotage out!"
"Weaklings!"
"Left side!"
"GRENADE OUT!"
The clash of gunfire, explosions, digital death throes and organic yells finally tapered off once the last Geth was wiped out as the dropship wisely bugged out, Jason heading to the far end of the room where he found plenty of things to hack into as Tali joined him, followed by Jane.
Stashing the entire collection of free weapons, armor and credits back on the Normandy would have to wait until later as they all trooped back to where Fai Dan was still standing to grill him for all he was worth.
XXX
"So we get stuck with the job of turning off the Geth transmitter, finding some power cells and finding some Varren to eat?" Jason sighed as he remembered all the times he had ignored these particular side quests in favor of heading straight for the Thorian proper and obtaining the Cipher.
John and his squad would wait up by the freighter in the event more Geth decided to show up while the other squad, Jane, Jason and Tali respectively, were down in the tunnels running errands for the beleaguered colonists, who were at the end of their ropes as well as being controlled by a millennia old plant with a thing for mind control, yah.
"Yes, figured we can finally test out this Shocker ammo you managed to cook up as well as those guns you two built," Jane smiled as the others from the Normandy arrived in full armor and armed to the teeth, "the rest of them will be providing protection for the colony as well as being on call for us."
"Something feels off about the colonists," Jason said as they set out for the lower tunnels, Jane taking point this time as Tali brought up the rear, "are they acting kind of strange to you?"
"What makes you say that?" Tali chirped as they reached the first water valve without incident and waited as Jason got it open, "Every single one of them is exhausted, hungry and thirsty, and that takes a toll on people."
Jason rolled his eyes as he yanked the valve handle hard enough to open it, but nothing happened, "Must be another valve up ahead." Jane commented as she opened fire at an approaching Geth trooper that had been wandering around minding its own business.
"Not one person expressed how thankful they were to see us," Jason answered after a brief firefight cleared out the nearby Geth as Tali worked on the second valve, "it was like they all had the same thing on their minds and that was to direct us to Fai Dan."
"These people are colonists, not trained soldiers or used to combat," Jane calmly explained even as she pitched a grenade at an approaching Prime, how one of those managed to fit inside these tunnels was beyond him as he sent a Carnage blast towards it, "it takes a lot out of people."
Rather than arguing that point with them anymore, Jason watched as Tali used her tandem Carnage shot for the first time as a massive bolt of superheated mass accelerator fire zipped down the tunnel and slammed into the towering Prime like a runaway train, completely demolishing the Geth unit. The recoil on the other hand was a bit much for the slight Quarian as it drove her backwards a couple of steps as Jason stepped into her path, quickly intercepting her before she fell and he ducked behind cover with her in tow.
"Ouch," Tali groaned as she shook her arms to get rid of the tingle she no doubt feeling because the recoil would've made his arms go numb, "that was a little more than expected."
Jane took one look at Tali cushioned by one arm as Jason promptly tossed a grenade before taking his arm back and firing a short burst over the top of that rock they were hiding behind, thinking to herself if she and John acted like that sometimes in the middle of a mission.
Turned out that the Shocker ammo was a success in her book, not only did it effectively whittle away the shielding, but it also sent any Geth struck directly into a sort of electronic seizure that looked like it was trying to dance, an amusing sight as Jane made sure her HUD tactical vid recorder caught the few times it happened on camera for later as they reached the third valve.
"I'll take this one," Jane said as she applied the proper amount of force onto the sensitive valve system in a direct manner, failing to notice the other two standing behind her sweat dropping at the sight of her kicking it repeatedly until it finally worked, "got the water going, now onto our next job."
"What the heck is that guy doing down here?" Jason asked as he pointed towards the only other person this far in the tunnels, that crazy wigged out guy fighting the Thorian.
XXX
"You know I think knocking that guy out was just a tad bit harsh," Jane said as the three of them were sneaking through a shorter hallway, towards the transmitter Jason figured as he was taking point, "we could've taken him back to the colony to get help."
"Something was seriously wrong with that guy Commander," Jason explained as he carefully crept closer to the door that would open to reveal a whole fuck ton of Geth in less than a minute, "call me crazy but I think he was fighting against something in his own head."
"Like a mental basket case?" Jane snorted as Tali summoned her drone again just in time for the door to open with a whoosh and dump out a handful of Geth, but they weren't the problem.
It was the trio of Krogan armed with nasty looking shotguns behind them that were the real problem as they charged.
"Holy shit!" Jason swore as he unleashed as many biotic Throws as he could, knocking the larger reptiles back, along with hitting a few of the Geth before he tossed a couple grenades and opened fire.
Jane and Tali hadn't been idle during that time either, Chatika zoomed over to zap an unsuspecting Geth trooper in the face as Jane launched her own biotic attack on another Geth that allowed her to kill it before the Krogan started getting back up.
And boy were they pissed.
"Really wish that we brought some heavy muscles along with us," Jane shouted as they found themselves forced out for cover and back outside the narrow corridor before they ended up getting shredded under the combined fire, "at least Wrex or Juggernaut."
(Elsewhere Jackson scratched the side of his head before turning to Wrex, "Did you hear something?")
Jason rolled his eyes before taking something out of a pouch on his belt and priming it before he bowled it towards the angry Krogan underhand as he reached over and pulled both women down behind something abruptly.
A simple flick of his wrist triggered the detonator in his omni-tool which in turn set off the bomb he had just thrown down the crowded hallway, the explosion was deafening and did a wonderful job of clearing out the hostiles in one fell swoop as he poked his head to see for himself if the coast was clear.
Damn, note to self, build some smaller bombs next time for just taking out soft targets, though the walls had just gotten a free coat of paint, so much better than the usual dark and creepy atmosphere around as Jason stepped through the bits and pieces that didn't get blown to smithereens.
"Woah," Jane was in awe as she was looking around, "what do you make those things out of because I need to get me some of those."
"When did you have the time to make bombs?" Tali asked as she sent a questioning look his way.
"I get bored," Jason shrugged as they rounded the corner to reveal the Geth transmitter just sitting there, having been protected from the explosion as Tali quickly got to work running scans over it as well as removing panel coverings while Jane stood off to the side pouting because she had been denied her right to toss a grenade at it.
"Long range signal boosting transmitter," Tali rattled off as she began pulling cables and such out of the guts of it while Jason decided to help by removing the panels on the other side, making damn sure his camera was running in order to collect as much evidence about this thing before blowing it up, "capable of transmitting at least ten kilometers, interesting."
Jason made his own 'discovery' as well from his side, "Found an actual connection port, synching it up with my omni-tool now for a data mine."
Jane opted to stand back and watch before Tali suddenly jumped backwards as sparks began flying out of it, "The Geth realized that their network was compromised! They've initiated a remote overload!"
"Finally!" Jane cried happily as she tossed the grenade into the guts of the transmitter after Jason stepped back, using a biotic Barrier to protect himself from arching electricity.
KA-BOOM!
"Bosh'tet," Tali grumbled as she waved a hand in front of her face to clear away the smoke before she turned toward Jason, "did you get anything?"
"Some, at least six terabytes," Jason sighed as he noticed how sluggish his omni-tool was responding as well, "seems that I've nearly overloaded this thing as well."
"Any signs of remote takeover? Automated system purge? Firewall corruption?" Tali asked as she stepped forward to peer over his shoulder to watch the streams of data on his omni-tool before she let out that adorable squeal, "It's all intact! Perfectly contained!"
Jane sighed as she watched her Quarian tech all but tackle her overpowered biotic guru in semblance of a victory dance, it was just too cute to ignore as she made sure her tactical vid recorder got that juicy tidbit on video.
Jason noticed this fact as he patted Tali on the shoulder, "Tali, focus, we'll decrypt it after we get back to the Normandy, but for now I can't launch any tech attacks."
"Oh, sorry," Tali jumped back as though he'd been on fire, if Jane didn't know any better she'd venture a guess that Tali was blushing, "I got carried away."
"Don't worry Jason," Jane smiled now that she finally had the attention of her squad, one looking guilty and the other just indifferent, "I'm sure Tali will make sure nothing happens to you, won't you Tali?"
Tali appeared to be confused for a second, "Of course Commander, I was just relieved that we managed to download sufficient data from the Geth, we could learn so much about them now that we have it."
Jason checked his assault rifle before tapping Tali on the shoulder and beckoning her to follow him as Jane took off in the lead, doubling back towards the door that lead to where the Varren were holed up in the same room as the power cells.
"Hold up Commander," Jason said just as they reached the door, "I'm picking up movement on the other side."
"Same, could be Geth, Tali prep your drone to go in once I open the doors."
Chatika flickered to life again as Jane hit the control switch to open the doors as the brave little drone (that could!) zoomed in as fast as it could go, Jason discreetly palming a grenade while lighting up with biotic aura, knowing full well what was on the other side of the door.
"Varren!" The cry came about four seconds ahead of the first reptile while Jane backpedaled furiously to put some distance between herself and an angry predator, "Go loud!"
Jason was already tossing both his grenade and his biotic attack before utilizing the shotgun attachment to take of the first two while Tali put her own shotgun to good use, both of them standing shoulder to shoulder firing as Jane stood off to the side firing her own sidearm and sending out a series of biotic attacks to keep most of the Varren at bay. In a very short while, nine dead Varren were scattered around in front of them, Chatika having zapped another one before it get eaten between a set of jaws that could easily chew through body armor as Jane motioned for Jason to take point.
There was still that Alpha Varren somewhere as he carefully inched forward, checking over by the derelict vehicles that held the power cells before glancing to his left, where was that damn thing at?
His motion tracker pinged from the one place he didn't look as time slowed down.
"LOOK OUT!"
XXX
Tali knew something was wrong the second she watched Jason spin around and look up, her natural instincts screaming at her to move, but it was too late as something slammed into her back hard enough to send her to the ground, momentarily stunned.
Alarms were blaring at her, no suit breeches though as she shakily tried to get up once that crushing weight vanished after she hit the ground, something slamming into the side of her helmet hard enough to make her vision falter for a few seconds. Ancestors it hurt, Tali gasped for breath as she felt someone pull her upright again, the sudden movement causing a bout of nausea to sweep through her as she turned to look up Commander Shepard's worried face.
Unable to speak, Tali nodded her head while clutching at her chest, her onboard medical computer detected three minor rib fractures so it caused her a lot of pain to try and breathe just now as she hurriedly looked around, wondering what hit her before her vision cleared up enough for her to see the sight in front of her.
Animalistic snarls, growls, grunts and screeching could be heard as she found herself staring at a rather bizarre sight as she felt Shepard pull her backwards by looping an arm around her midsection and walking backwards, just as a hind leg topped with razor sharp claws ripped through the soft ground where she had just been sitting a second earlier as Tali attempted to comprehend what she was seeing.
Jason was wrestling with a Varren?
He actually had the Varren by the jaws, one hand holding the bottom while the other held the top portion of the jaw open as the much larger and clearly stronger Varren was attempting to knock him over by pushing forward, but Jason was holding his ground. In fact, the biotic energy swirling around his body became a much sharper contrast before Tali witnessed something she would have never believed if she hadn't seen it with her own two eyes.
"Keelah," Tali whispered as she struggled to get to her feet with the assistance from Shepard.
The Alpha Varren was several hundred pounds heavier and covered in old scars from past battles, but it appeared as though it was violently thrashing its head and pulling away from the human holding its mouth open, but Jason was having none of that before he did something that stunned her.
"FUCKING DIE!"
With a quick jerking motion, Jason pulled the jaws apart as hard as he could with spectacular results, the sound of breaking bones could be felt from where she was standing as the Alpha Varren let out an agonized yelp that turned into a wet gurgling sound after Jason flipped it onto its back and plunged a long knife into the soft underbelly in one fluid motion before a mass of biotic energy coursed through him and into the wounded Varren.
Tali had to turn her head in time to avoid the deluge of guts and Varren blood that went flying after the biotic attack literally ripped it apart.
Did Jason just kill a Varren with his bare hands? Tali mused as she rolled back over and managed to climb to her feet as Shepard stepped forward.
She would have to tank him later, but for now she need some medi-gel.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein