Chapter 26: chapter 26
The tram ride was uneventful, if you counted the fact that Jane had all but skipped around the interior of the tram while Jason did some final adjustments and tweaks to a super-sized version of a Spitfire that had some kind of mag drum slung underneath it.
Then Jane tried to pick it up.
With absolutely no success.
"What the Hell?" Jane looked upset as she tried using both hands and her back to lift the weapon off the floor and it didn't even budge, "I thought you said I could fire this thing?"
"Fire, yes," Jackson explained as he walked over and lifted the weapon up off the ground with a single hand and rested it against his hip, "carry it? Not unless you can bench press six hundred pounds Boss Lady."
(It took the remainder of the trip to coax Jane out of her depressed funk when she realized that she couldn't use said weapon, which was damn heavy and completely unheard of in the first installment.)
"Clear," John said after the tram slid to a halt and the doors opened allowing them to see if anything was waiting for them, "move out."
Jackson with his new toy lead the way as Jason fell in step with his twin as Liara and then Tali followed Jane after him, John bringing up the rear with his rifle out and ready for anything to show itself.
Blast a couple Rachni with Jackson's new toy (Jane clearly pouting on being left out of the fun) and walk through another door to reveal the beleaguered defenders still alive as Jane interrogated the man in charge for all he was worth, during that time Jason wandered over to see how well the weapon was functioning.
Because it was an early model Geth Spitfire that operated on disposable heat sinks which meant that once it ran out of heat sinks it was nothing more than a really heavy paperweight, although it had roughly two hundred twenty-eight sinks left in the extended drum mag slung under the weapon. Doing the math in his head while he was busy tweaking a few things, Jason figured that each heat sink allowed somewhere in the ballpark of fifty shots apiece before the heat sink was ejected and another was used, giving Jackson somewhere around eleven thousand rounds. The gun could burn through three heat sinks a second, with about twenty meters of accurate fire, anything beyond thirty was going to get saturated and another thing that irked him to no end was that he couldn't implement an ammo mod.
Even though the Geth currently had the edge when it came to advanced firepower, each shot coming out of this gun was bigger than even Master X weapons, so Jason could only smile at the thought of what he could do with such a weapon in a few short years.
"If it wasn't for the fact that you're smiling at a time like this, I would say that you lack even the most basic of emotions," Jackson broke him out of his mental brainstorm with a jib, "though it is kind of creepy when you do that."
"Shut up."
From there, after dealing with the minor skirmish from the ambushing Rachni that was over before Jackson could even fire, the weapon requiring four seconds to spin up, another setback when it came to fast reaction with such a weapon, everyone simply blasted the offending Rachni without so much hesitating.
The overworked survivors were twitchy, but gratified that it had bought them some time as the team moved on to the larger atrium where more survivors were located as Jane went on her question everyone for everything while John opted to go talk to the doctor downstairs as Jason walked over the elcor vendor to sell some stuff he had gathered on this mission so far.
Liara was standing off to the side fidgeting and looking around every so often before Jason gave his twin a look and motioned his head towards Liara.
Jackson got the message and walked over to talk to her in quiet tones as he turned back to argue with a rather shrewd elcor over the selling price of several low grade sidearms, assault rifles and some worthless upgrade mods in exchange for all the omni-gel and hand grenades in stock before he spotted something in the inventory menu.
"What is this?" Jason pointed to what he was asking about as the vendor nodded his head.
"Surprised: That would be a prototype decontamination unit built some time ago by a Salarian with Quarians in mind, unpopular due to the fact the intended buyers do not frequent Noveria." The answered satisfied him as he selected said item after he saw who the patent belonged to.
Immunization Industries, Prof. Solus, Mordin Prototype XR73-LA5
It took about fifteen seconds for Jason to haggle over the price (he paid in full because he spotted John coming back with Tali on his heels) and stashed the item in question into his backpack for later, not that he would ever doubt anything Mordin would have ever built, seemed like his idea of helping different amino acid couples had been in effect years before they would ever have the privilege of meeting the man.
Well Salarian, but that was beside the point.
XXX
"Damn it Bossman, I'm solider not a biochemist!" Jackson yelled as he found himself as the only one operating the lab equipment to concoct a serum for a Rachni related disease while they were under fire from ten Geth Shock Troopers and an Asari commando as the whole team was inside the same room ducking behind something for cover and firing back.
"Shut up and follow the instructions!" Jane shouted back as the Singularity she had been unfortunately caught in as the opening shot when the door opened dissipated, John making it his personal mission to ignore the Geth and plug said offending Asari between the eyes with an Overcharge shot.
Jason and Liara were crouched behind the same piece of cover firing at the incoming Geth before a familiar drone materialized in the center of the room.
"Go get them Chatika!" Said drone simply chirped in response before it let loose with a single rocket and a burst of gunfire as the operator tossed in a salvo of Carnage rounds.
"Had to be the first man in the room and touch the shiny button," Jackson was heard grumbling in the background as he remained hunched over the console hitting the command prompts in order, "next time I won't touch the shiny buttons."
Jason ignored his twin in the middle of a monologue and dashed out from cover and launched a series of Warps and erected a Barrier around himself as he slid rock star style into the next portion of cover firing his assault rifle from the shoulder, he hoped someone got that on video because it had been epic.
In another five seconds, the last Geth were taken out as Jackson performed a victory dance once the desired chemicals were created as the team moved back to the main atrium in order to deliver the antidote in order to get clearance so they could enter the hot labs, a real pain in the ass that would result in the security aspect to open fire on them if they just waltzed past the security checkpoint, something that would prove to be an even bigger problem.
"We'll run this back to the doctor," Jane motioned for Jason and Tali to follow her as she spoke with her husband, "we'll meet you at the security checkpoint to save time."
Once said doctor got his cure and was satisfied with the obvious results (it worked) the trio made their way to the hot labs entrance to meet up with the other squad.
"I need more grenades," Jane sounded irritated after she finished patting down her pouches and turned to face the other two, "anyone got a couple spares?"
Jason was the one who handed over four extra high explosive grenades while Tali handed over a single EMP, not that it would do much good against Rachni, but there were still Geth roaming around.
"Thanks," Jane happily accepted the grenades, "so what did you buy from the vendor?"
Alarms were ringing in his head as Jason thought up a response, "More omni-gel and explosives considering we used up a majority of what we brought along, sold most of the crap I picked up."
"Uh huh," Jane had that look on her face that said she wanted to press more for answers but wouldn't, for now, "how much you get?"
"A hundred units of omni-gel and enough low quality mining explosives to make at least three bombs." Jason replied without skipping a beat.
It was about then that he realized his blunder, said items had been stowed away in a handy pouch before he had made his final purchase and how he had failed to notice Jane Shepard of all people was beyond him.
Tali chose that exact moment to save his lying ass before Jane could lay on the heat, "I might need some omni-gel to repair Chatika when we get the time."
"No problem," Jason clutched onto this new distraction like a lifeline in order to avoid the awkward discussion that was no doubt coming up, "how did she handle earlier?"
"Fine, though there seemed to be some minor issue with the stabilizing algorithms whenever it fires," Tali brought up her omni-tool and projected a detailed schematic of Chatika vas Pus into the air, "I can't seem to correctly configure it."
"Apply less processing power to horizontal thrusters and reroute some programming from the anti-cyber ware installation you've installed," Jason responded after looking at the schematic for all of five seconds, "I'll see if I can lower the rate of fire for better accuracy later once we get back to the Normandy."
"That would be most helpful," Tali chirped, "the subroutines have been slowed down significantly while it recovers and that slows down proficiency."
"How long have you guys been in this elevator?" The sudden question came from none other than Jackson as both Jason and Tali looked over to reveal that not only had they forgotten Jane (which Jason was thankful for) and discovered that John, Liara and Jackson were standing outside the open doors watching them.
Tali did her usual squirming nervously routine while Jason simply shrugged, "About four minutes."
"They were just getting started too," Jane tacked on as they exited the elevator, "they really get into it."
Jackson suddenly chuckled as he glanced between Jason and Tali with a smirk on his face, "Oh really?"
He will die a most painful death.
XXX
"I liked them better when they were extinct," Jackson sighed after the last screeching Rachni dropped to the floor in a pile of soggy bits, "they sure can soak up some punishment though."
"Biotics on the other hand seemed to be effective," John said as he scowled at the shotgun clutched in his hands, "I hate shotguns."
"I know," Jane replied as she took point, "but your rifle isn't much good here."
The door leading to the Queen's Chamber was fast approaching as Jason mentally went over his list of equipment, weapons and possible options.
No matter what way they looked at it, an Asari related to Liara was going to be dying in a few minutes and a possible terror unleashed on the galaxy (though from the way Jane literally shrieked at the sight of said bugs it was a safe bet that she didn't like creepy crawlies) with a nasty fight on their hands.
Liara looked like she was in the middle of thought, no doubt trying to figure out where her mother decided it was alright to go off the deep end and help a known fugitive start a genocide, though Jason prayed she wouldn't be distracted while trying to talk some sense into her mother.
Before having to kill her.
The entire squad was moving through the underground cavern section of the lab now, Jackson now stuck in the rear with a majority of the pillaged hardware and that massive gun while John kept the rear covered due to the fact his sniper rifle was all but useless in this situation and he had expressed his apparent dislike of shotguns. Jane seemed to be focused on keeping Liara on track as Jason found himself taking point again with Tali behind him, feeling somewhat better knowing that he had a shotgun expert covering him.
Three doors, several crates, weapons lockers and assorted caches looted for supplies and a maze of abandoned catwalks later brought them to a massive room dominated by a huge containment cell housing the Rachni Queen and standing on the top of the stairs was Matriarch Benezia herself.
"You do not know the privilege of being a mother," she spoke out loud even though she was facing the Rachni Queen as everyone fanned out, keeping an eye on her as she continued to speak, "there is power in creation, to shape a life, turn it towards happiness or despair."
She looked over her shoulder towards them, that gaudy looking headdress and revealing dress for all to see, "Her children were to be ours, to hunt and slay Saren's enemies, I will not be moved by sympathy no matter who you bring into this confrontation."
John was the first to speak, "Doesn't matter then."
"Indeed," Benezia replied softly as she stepped forward, "have you ever faced an Asari commando squad before? Few humans have."
Well short and to the point, Jason kept his inner monologue to himself as he erected a biotic barrier to cancel out the surprise stasis attack Benezia had tried to launch at them as everyone dove for cover because a dozen of the meanest looking Asari commandos made up the first wave.
And they weren't pushover either.
"Left side!" Jane called out as she tossed a grenade and dodged a biotic attack sent her way, John opting to use his sniper rifle in such confined spaces.
Maximus made an appearance after Tali unleashed the unstoppable Chatika vas Pus and Jackson sent his drone out to buy him some time so he could bring his new toy into play.
"Suck it you tentacle head freaks!"
Several of the attacking asari seemed to have taken offense to that statement as they turned to fire upon Jackson, who was fully exposed as the mini gun spooled up and began firing, Jason wondered if his twin's chances with Liara were shot down with that particular taunt, but it appeared she was too busy fighting to pay much attention.
By now the first wave of commandos were taken as a more traditional assault force of Geth Shock Troopers, Snipers, Hoppers and a handful of rocket troopers decided it was time to crash the party while John, Jane and Liara were duking it out with Benezia, leaving himself, Jackson and Tali to take care of the rest.
The Geth never stood a chance.
In about three minutes it was all over, purple blood and white fluids covered the catwalks around the Queen's cell and it seemed that Matriarch Benezia was wounded, talking to Liara as Jason kept his distance, knowing it wasn't his place to interfere as Jackson seemed to have the same idea.
"Goodbye Little Wing," with that, she died as Liara wept, everyone kind of watched on feeling horrible about what had occurred before John noticed something out of the corner of his eye and wheeled around in time to blast the zombie Asari in the face, snapping everyone out of their funk.
"Now about that thing," John was very clear to what he was referring to as he stepped over to the console next to the Queen's cell, "let's kill the damn thing and get out of here."
Jason was shocked that they missed the whole Rachni Queen segment, but he honestly didn't care, nobody on the team seemed inclined to care either due to the fact that they had literally walked through the aftermath of a Rachni outbreak as John worked away on the console as Liara did something near her own mother's corpse.
She simply folded both of her hands over her mother's face and bowed her head, an Asari funeral rite it seemed, Jason entertained the notion about offering to carry her mother out of here for a proper burial, but he kept to himself.
"Guess we'll have to do this the old fashioned way then," John said after he gave the console a good kick, "the acid tanks are empty."
"It looks kind of pissed off Bossman," Jackson warned as the Queen decided to let out a screech and slammed into the side of her cell, "want us to shoot it?"
"Jason," John barked as he turned around, "got any more explosives?"
"Funny you should ask commander."
XXX
"I don't think they liked it when we killed their queen," Jackson shouted over the roar of gunfire, Rachni screeches and grenade explosions, "just a guess though!"
Rather than simply melt the Queen with acid and set off the purge to take care of the rest of the Rachni like canon depicted they should, Jason had placed a jerry-rigged explosive device comprised of ten demo charges carefully arranged for staggered detonations to first blast through the floor and glass walls of the containment cell before detonating the secondary charges that were lashed a Geth power core, half a dozen fuel canister that hadn't been shot in the earlier firefight and a massive brick of explosives directly underneath the Queen's cell with a five minute timer.
Said explosion went off two minutes ago, no doubt blasting the roof off the complex, sending pieces of Rachni Queen into the subzero temperatures outside the facility after being pulverized, incinerated and thoroughly decimated to ensure that nothing could survive the blast. Since then Rachni were coming out of the woodwork with a vengeance, whipped into a frenzied state due to the death of the Queen no doubt as they were coming after the ones responsible for that fact.
"We need an exit strategy!" Jane cursed as another blob of acid splashed against the wall next to her head before blasting the offending Rachni in what counted as the face.
"Seventy meters to the elevator Shepard," Tali called out after she checked her omni-tool, Chatika already battered and heavily damaged as it was, "we'll never make it at this rate!"
"Oh yes we will," that was all the warning Jason got before his twin picked him up by the scruff of the neck and tossed him over the impromptu barricade they were hiding behind into the middle of the hallway, "Charge!"
A little too much Finding Nemo it seems.
Without skipping a beat, Jason launched himself in what had to be his strongest biotic Charge to date right though a small horde of pissed off Rachni with no real direction in mind other than straight ahead towards the awaiting elevator. This charge was different, rather than just a fast maneuver to flank someone, he erected a powerful biotic barrier around himself and literally tore through the Rachni like they were made of rice paper, leaving behind a gory mess of mangled corpses that were either bisected in half or flattened pancakes in the middle of the hallway.
"Holy shit!" Jane and Liara appeared to be dumbfounded at the sudden display as Jason skidded to a halt three feet in front of the elevator and calmly pushed the call button before turning back around to pick off any stragglers.
John wasn't one to let such an opportunity to slip past him, "Move it people! We got a small window so get moving or stay here to die!"
That got everyone in the right frame of mind to stop rubbernecking and start running before the momentary lull in the fight caused them to be trapped in the middle of a killzone without any cover whatsoever.
Jackson was the first to reach the elevator even with the massive gun dangling off his hip and all the stuff he was carrying, next came Liara and then Jane before her husband slid into the elevator on his side with all the grace of a stuntman to avoid the Rachni tearing through the wall to his left.
Which left Tali trapped between a really angry Rachni and a horde of even angrier Rachni right behind her.
"Tali Duck!" Jackson warned as the massive mini gun spooled up and began firing point blank range, the Quarian having the sense to drop to the floor and cover her head as shredded bits of Rachni soared past her head.
"Cover me, I'm going!" Jason shouted as he executed another biotic charge, sliding next to Tali while keeping his head because there were a lot of Rachni coming.
So many in fact it reminded Jason of that scene from the final Matrix movie, where all of those robots came pouring through the hole into the underground city and were held back momentarily by the combined firepower of every single person, it was kind of like that.
Except the Rachni were not even stopping.
Jason simply scooped Tali up and charged again, just making it through the doors of the elevator as roughly a dozen grenades, two biotic attacks, some kind of tech attack, three different knives and a lot of gunfire zipped past him as the doors slid shut with a soft ding.
Everyone held their breath as the muffled explosions, cries of the angry Rachni and repeated thumping of various bodies against doors fell away to silence as the elevator began moving.
"Remind me to call the Council and order a nuke dropped on this place." John sighed as he lowered the muzzle of his purloined shotgun to the floor and slumped against the back wall of the elevator.
"The planet," Jane added on as she rested her head against his shoulder, "then we take the longest shower in history and go to bed for a week."
"I second that notion," Jackson said before smirking, "you know Jason you could probably set her down now."
Jason didn't care as he carefully adjusted Tali in his arms, "She sprained her foot so I doubt that is a good idea."
"How did you..?" Tali sounded surprised as well in a slight amount of pain.
"She did?" Jane sounded worried.
"Yes, I noticed it while carrying her back to the elevator," Jason replied as both Tali and Jackson looked at him for a moment before he turned to glance over at Liara, "are you alright?"
"I….I….," Liara appeared lost and confused as she buried her face into her hands, "I don't know what to do."
Jackson didn't even need a hint before he gently reached over and pulled Liara into an awkward one handed hug so she could cry silently on his chest plate due to the fact his shoulder was easily a foot above her head.
Tali squirmed for a few seconds, "How were you able to tell?"
Rather than confess he may have taken the liberty of hacking her suits' medical interface, along with everyone else in the squad, to notify him of an injury immediately, he simply gave her a deadpanned look, "Medic remember?"
"Oh right," Tali hissed as she wiggled her ankle experimentally, "that hurts."
"Dr. Chakwas will have to reset it once we get back to the Normandy," Jason said as the elevator came to a stop and opened to reveal an abandoned hallway, "all we have to do is get there."
"Warning! Facility Self-Detonation Protocols Activated! Six Minutes Until Neuron Purge!"
"You just had to open your mouth huh?" Jackson quipped as Jason leveled a dirty look at his twin.
"Shut up and run."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone