Chapter 12: Outsourced Revolution

The information Vik had gathered so far was fairly detailed. It helped that he had the resources of the ShadowNet to assist in parsing it, but it was astounding how much one computer worm had given them. A door to a treasure trove of corporate secrets was now open. Once Vik knew where the worm had come from, getting into the system had been easy. It was only a backdoor to some of the middle tier files, but it was enough to give them a decent enough windfall. It wasn't everything, but they had a location to hit now and, from the looks of things, a better idea of what Orukuri's part in Balak's conspiracy was.

The team had gathered in Liara's room once more, where Vik was look over the screens. Coda was assisting of course, as they needed him to keep tabs on all the relevant intel they had acquired. The backdoor they had gotten into revealed, for one, why Orukuri even cared about the Andromeda Initiative.

"According to these records, Orukuri discovered the Andromeda Initiative through some ilicit investment transfers he uncovered concerning an old business rival of his," Vik explained as he typed at commands on the computer, bringing up relevant files. "Apparently, he decided he could put the technology they were developing to better use. So he offered the Covenant a deal behind Balak's back."

"Oooh, Dipshit in the Suit getting underhanded," Nel laughed. "I'd say I was surprised, but Vik would go on a lecture about why I shouldn't be. Also, Orukuri is a fucking dick so it isn't that shocking he's making plans without Balak's consent."

"Mmm, more or less," Vik concurred. "Point is, he asked the Covenant to assault the Andromeda Initiative and cripple their efforts. He would then use the extra time he got with the delay for repairs and the dwindled security measures, to sneak some of his people into the Intiative and make off with whatever they thought they could profit off of. He offered the Covenant a share in the spoils to sweeten the deal."

"I'm guessing that wasn't all he offered though," Wrex presumed.

Vik nodded in response as Coda switched to a new set of records, starcharts and mercenary files.

"Orukuri knew the Covenant were still frustrated with the slow progress on Balak's front concerning those precious relics they're looking for," he clarified. "He offered to help ease things a little. He sent special operations groups to a number of sectors the Batarians haven't risked going to yet for being too close or too deep inside Hanar controlled space."

Liara recalled the summit on Khar'shan they had eavesdropped on.

"Vorsa believes the temple they're looking for is on Kahje, the Hanar Homeworld," she remembered. "Orukuri offered to narrow it down."

"Yeah, but now they've fucked up their end of the bargain," Nel stated. "Orukuri ain't going to accept that sort of thing after stretching his neck out. There's nothing in it for him now."

"Is there?" Liara questioned. "From that same meeting, Orukuri was trying to argue for greater resources from the Covenant for his own plans. Specifically in how they pertained to the Separatists. If he has this information now, he may use it as a way to force the issue in his favor."

"Whether or not he has the bargaining chip is unknown, but it's possible," Vik confirmed. "What's important for our purposes is said plan. Coda and I scoured the records for mention of the bioweapon, we were looking for a target. We didn't find one, but we did find these."

Vik had Coda put up several images on screen. They appeared to be battleplans, disguised as 'war scenarios' for some kind of training regime. The details, however, gave it away. They all pertained to biological warfare, terrorist assaults, most fragile targets in any given attack. It was elaborate, meticulous even.

"This doesn't seem like one single attack," Liara observed. "This sounds like multiple strikes."

"I think whatever they're planning is a set of staged events," Vik explained. "The Bioweapon, our anti-Dextro pesticide? It's just what kicks things into high gear. It seems there's some warmup phases."

"Warmup to what?" Nel asked anxiously. "Where are they hitting?"

"Near as me and Coda can figure it's the core Turian worlds, where it will hurt the most," Vik surmised. "That what everything seems to suggest. Major metropolitian cities, not small colonies, or towns, they want this to be seen."

"That could be anywhere though," Nel groaned, racking her brain as she thought. "It's Unification Day soon, there are a lot of celebrations all over the core worlds in every major city. Any one could be a target."

"I would narrow it down, but the files pertaining to specifics are likely on a private server," Vik explained, glowering at the screen. "All relevant information goes to the records administrative overseer on site directly. We are going to have to bust in if we want it."

"Do we have a floorplan?" Liara asked.

Vik answered by typing some commands and bringing up a large three-dimensional blueprint. The complex was huge, built into the cliffside of an out of the way moon orbiting a gas giant somewhere in the darker reaches of the Terminus. It was more than a records building though, it was a major R&D center. As such, it had some pretty beefy security. A number of drones on site, with well-trained mercenaries armed with state-of-the-art weapons. That said nothing for the automated defenses.

"So how do we get in here?" Wrex asked. "Bash through the front door?"

Saya shook his head and pointed to a blind spot in the outer defenses. A cave of sorts that cut close to the inner sanctum of the complex. The salarian made a fist and exploded it to illustrate his plan of entry.

"We are gonna need a lot of explosives to break through there," Nel noted. "Lucky us, we got plenty."

"It's hardly a stealthy approach, but it's better than breaking through the front," Liara stated.

"It might be worth the risk in any case," Vik cautioned, his voice growing grim. "I was just about to mention the biggest thing we found in the records. There was a transfer of sensitive materials pertaining to biological contaminants. I wouldn't have thought much about it, save for the date of the transfer lines up with the timeline we have so far concerning the raid on the Salarian BioLab."

That was all Liara needed to hear to figure out the rest.

"This could be the place they transfered Strain-S3 to after the Covenant stole it for them," she reasoned.

"And from the sound of it, they've been making progress," Vik told her. "I don't know how far along or what kind of progress per se, but everything here reads as them getting closer cracking the thing. They could already have a working bomb."

"Then this may be our best chance to stop the whole plan before it's put into motion," Liara discerned.

"Sounds like it," Wrex agreed. "Okay, we hit the place fast and hard and save the turians a headache so they can celebrate their little holiday in peace. Heh, heh, sounds like fun and something to lord over Garrus when he gets back. Let's do it!"

Liara agreed, as did the rest of the team.

"We have our best shot at cracking this conspiracy and stopping this attack before it starts," she told them all. "If we play this right, we'll have all we'll need to take VykurCorp out of the equation for good. We'll set course for the Facility now, load and get ready. Time to show Orukuri the price for getting greedy."

The journey to the surface was a nerve-racking one, there was always the concern that someone would spot their descent just by looking up in their direction. A shuttle's stealth drive could only do so much. Vik at least busied himself fixing up the breaching charge they'd use to break through the cave wall to the inner sanctum of the research facility. Nel kept checking her weapons alongside Wrex and Saya. Kayap just rocked back and forth in his seat, sometimes humming to himself. Liara just focused in, blocking out all external stimulus, her mind centered on her own thoughts only.

She considered how many guards would be on them once they broke through the wall. This place had to be well guarded, especially if they had the bioweapon on premises. Orukuri would want to keep that safe no matter what, it was the key to his plan after all, whatever it was. To say nothing of whatever else was in the complex. It was an R&D building, one centered around weapons. She fully expected they'd run into some prototypes, the mercenaries guarding the place would likely grab a few to protect themselves. Liara believed they could handle it of course, but it still raised concerns all the same.

They had a feed from the Lucen keeping an eye on the facility from orbit. There didn't seem to be any activity, no change in pattern. Defenses were on standby, but not active. So they hadn't been spotted, which was good news for them. However, the facility still loomed large and foreboding in all their thoughts. Like some kind of twisted dark castle out of an old story, dug into the side of the rock face, reaching towards the darkened sky above.

"We'll move from the entry point to the main research level and then head to records," Liara explained. "If the bioweapon is still on site, we should secure it first before anything else."

"If they try to get away with it, the Lucen can catch them before they escape the system," Wrex stated. "Nothing they have can outrun it in time."

"That's the hope at least," Liara concured. "But we need to presume they have an extraction plan that has kept us in mind. We've done enough to damage them over a short time and Orukuri is no idiot. If he's expecting any trouble, it involves us."

"We've given his Seppy friends enough of a black eye at this point," Nel agreed in kind. "So he better be taking us seriously. If he ain't now, he will after today."

They landed the shuttle inside one of the caverns on the far end of rock face. It would make getting to the entry point a bit of a walk, but it was safer this way. They could avoid detection from long range sensors and take them by relative surprise. There were some defenses in the caverns of course, but nothing they couldn't avoid, mostly cameras, a few alarm tripwires, sporadic drone patrols, but they were deeper in than the initial insertion point.

The caverns were dark, damp, increasingly claustrophobic. Probably why there was so little security, it was not an ideal entryway into the facility's backdoor. The cramped conditions weren't conducive to most commando units. Luckily for Liara's team, they weren't concerned with ease or comfort. If it took a bit longer to squeeze through a few passageways, fine, they'd still get to the facility in due course.

One of the only other sounds they heard besides their own footprints were a few squeaks of some of the cave dwelling creatures. From what Vik had read up on the planet, they were just small creatures, nothing to concern themselves with. The noises they made still didn't help ease their minds any. The dripping of the water from the ceiling didn't help either, echoing off the walls in the distance somewhere. They kept pressing on all the same, the real terror wasn't in the dark after all. It resided within the facility itself, waiting to be unleashed.

They came across the first few camera positions after close to an hour of walking. Vik pointed them out with his visor's electromagnetic scanner. Saya then knocked them out, carefully avoiding their gaze before slicing them off their mounts with his sword. It was just to keep their cover for a bit longer, at least until they got to the entry point. After they busted in, stealth wouldn't be an option. The alarm lasers were easier to avoid, they didn't cover every pathway as completely as they should've. The one they were forced to walk through they could disable, once Vik located the junction box that served as the power source for it. He managed to shut it down after a few minutes of tampering with it.

Because they raised no alarms, the drones themselves never materialized, so the rest of the trip towards the entry point went quickly and smoothly. They soon reached their destination, the cave wall closest to the inner halls of the facility beyond it. Vik set to work, getting the charges ready while Nel, Wrex and Saya assisted in their own preparations. First they had to drill a bit in specific sections to structurally weaken the rock. Saya also used his sword to spread its explosive gel on the cavern wall, it would make breeching easier.

"How long for the mercs to respond?" Liara asked Vik as he began to set the first charges.

"A few minutes to get to our exact position," he confessed. "Assuming there hasn't been a patrol shift in the schedule Coda and I uncovered. So we don't have too long to get to the research level."

"I've picked an optimal route, but we might not get that lucky," Liara warned. "So in any case, prepare to go in ready to shoot anything that moves."

It was then, as Vik placed the second charge, that things went sideways. They could suddenly hear a faint alarm sound, echoing nearby. Nel placed her head against the cavern wall inquisitively.

"The alarm's gone off!" She shouted.

"What? We didn't trip anything," Wrex snarled. "What happened?"

"Keelah, maybe we missed something," Vik said, turning suddenly. "Maybe... maybe they heard the drilling or something."

Liara wasn't so sure, she was positive they had been careful enough. She activated her omni-tool and called up the Lucen. Something was up and they were the only ones who had eyes on the situation.

"Liara to Lucen, we have a situation," she reported. "I need a visual on the facility, feed it to me!"

"We were just about to call you," one of the ShadowNet techs replied. "You need to see this, ma'am."

The feed came in soon enough and revealed the cause of the alarm. It wasn't their doing at all. The defenses of the complex were ablaze with fire, blasting at shuttles and drop pods that were racing in from orbit. Dropships circled the area, firing on the facility's turrets and troop positions before letting off the soldiers within. VykurCorp was under siege, a full-blown assault right on their front door. While Liara couldn't really make out their soldiers, she could see the insignia emblazing the attackers' ships clearly. Cerberus was here and they were going all out.

The others soon saw what Liara saw on the screen. The presence of their old terrorist friends was not anymore welcome with them as it was the asari. They hadn't seen them since they had seized the Interdimensional Communication Relay from the Covenant. Their arrival here was... untimely to say the least.

"The fuck are they here for?" Nel growled in anger. "Wait, don't tell me. They know about the bioweapon too."

"They were listening in on the same summit meeting we were, remember?" Vik reminded the turian. "Of course they know. How they figured out it was here is beyond me. I thought I double checked everything to make sure they couldn't intercept my hacking frequencies again."

"I don't know how, Vik, but it doesn't matter," Liara informed him. "They're here, they're after the bioweapon, we can't let them have it. Finish getting the charges up, this is a race now and they got a head start."

Vik nodded and returned to his work. Liara, in the meantime, kept watching on the battle raging out the facility on her feed. Cerberus seemed to have some kind of exosuit with them from what she could gather, as a few of their forces seemed larger than standard footsoldiers. They didn't look to be very bulky or well armored, but they apparently had rapid fire machine guns mounted on their wrists from the look of the flashes.

That was as much as she could make out of their regular forces, the Lucen's cameras didn't have a good enough view on everything that was happening down there. It was obvious after a few minutes though that Cerberus had broken through the perimeter and were now inside the facility itself. They were overwhelming the VykurCorp mercenaries, a testament to Cerberus' growing military prowess. A disconcerting bit of news, given how dangerous they were becoming.

Worse yet, this was seemingly just the first wave. According to the Lucen, there was a fleet hovering directly over the facility's position. Only a few ships, but one looked to be a battlecruiser of some sort, probably the flagship of whoever was running this operation.

Liara hit herself mentally, she should've seen this coming. The Illusive Man himself basically assured her that they wouldn't take the loss of the Interdimensional Comm-Relay lying down. They had to have been keeping an eye on their activities. Watching them from afar. As careful as they tried to be, Liara knew it would be impossible to avoid Cerberus forever. They were on a similar path regarding Balak's little conspiracy and the Covenant, even if their motives were far less noble than hers.

The timing just seemed far too coincidental though. Even if they had intercepted Vik's hack of VykurCorp's records, why not attack sooner? Why not wait for them to do all the dirty work like they usually had up until now? Something was weird about this, but they wouldn't figure it out from out here. They needed to get inside, now more than ever.

Vik soon got the charges all set up, they were ready. They headed back away from the wall, getting behind a corner in the caverns. Vik then hit the detonator and rocks exploded outward, crumbling to the floor. They hurried to the newly formed hole in the side of the cave wall, the alarm now blazing loudly in their ears, no longer obstructed by the rock that muffled it before. In a strange bit of unintended luck on their part, the fact Cerberus was attacking the facility now meant their entry had gone somewhat unnoticed. After all, everyone was probably more concerned with the terrorist organization attacking through the front door. They weren't the immediate concern they would've been had Cerberus not arrived.

Another reason Liara was suspicious of their arrival. Why would they show up and not let Liara trip the alarm first, siphoning defenses away from the front gate? It would've given them a better shot at busting through to the facility. It didn't add up and she did not like it. Nothing they could do about it now, of course. They were inside now and they had to find that bioweapon, if it was still here. If not, they at least needed to uncover Orukuri's plans from the record room.

"We move down this corridor," Liara told her people as they stepped into the facility's hallway from the cavern. "Then we take a left towards a series of stairs a level down. Remember, we're no longer the only ones invading this place, so keep your eyes open. Otherwise, nothing has changed. Engage all enemies on sight."

Wrex took point and they followed the krogan through the facility proper, alarm klaxons ringing and red lights blaring in their eyes. They could hear distant shooting and screaming over the sights and sounds. They had expected a fight breaking into this place. Not of this magnitude though. Managing two hostile forces was not going to be easy.

It was not intended, but they soon found themselves moving towards the ongoing fire fight. Cerberus had pushed deeper into the facility than Liara had imagined. How they had not simply swept the VykurCorp mercs aside was a testament to their own abilities. One way or another though, it was clear they'd have to face both at some point.

They soon entered a small lab. Given the hazmat suits, lab equipment and chemical storage crates, Liara could only presume it was a key component in the biological research department. Given that there was no decontamination unit prior to entry, it was likely a low risk area, but it was still a bit disconcerting. At least this suggested they might be close to the weapon itself. Nel started rechecking the seals on her havoc armor once she realized this.

"Don't worry, Nel," Vik tried to calm her. "I don't think they'd leave samples out in the open. We should be safe."

"Easy for you to say, you walk around in a hazmat suit already," the turian told him. "This thing filters out that stuff, but it's not on the same level as yours."

Nel's anxiety was understandable, Vik and her were at the highest risk here. The weapon was designed to kill creatures with their amino-acid gene type. Then again, that was the case for every Turian working here. It was likely they had taken their own precautions.

Speaking of, a few of the said residents of the lab, rushed through the door in the next moment. They had their backs turned to Liara and her people, firing back at some unseen foe. Whether or not they hit the Cerberus soldiers pursuing them remained unclear, but when they pulled back into the lab, it didn't take them long to spot the second group of intruders. Before they could figure out who they were, Wrex fired on them, taking down one of the mercs with a clean blast from his shotgun. The remaining Mercs soon put the pieces together.

"It's the Asari's people! Fire!"

The mercs moved to cover behind the lab counters, firing as they did. Their dug in position was of little consequence to Wrex of course, who barreled over a number of counter tops to stomp down on one of the Vykur Mercs and take position on his squad's direct flank. That forced them to split their fire in two directions.

Saya soon joined Wrex in flanking the enemy, although he opted to go left rather than right. His cloak concealed his path forward, as he got directly behind one of the chief mercenary officers in the squad. A quick swipe of his blade cut through the turian's shields, the electrical current running through the blade shocking the merc with ease. A second merc was close by and was soon aiming his weapon at the Salarian. Saya gracefully turned his blade towards the hostile and used the still electrified sword to shock the weapon out of the turian's talons before slicing him across the neck. Saya then rolled into cover as the other mercs opened fire on him.

Liara attempted to assist the salarian with her biotics, using singularity to lift a few of the mercs out of cover. It gave Kayap a clean line of sight to fire at them with his needler rounds, causing them to explode in a pink mist moments after being fully punctured. Liara also got off a few clean shots on the mercenaries as well, landing a clean head shot on one with her pistol when he tried to take aim at her.

Vik used his shotgun to supress the mercenaries, managing to hit at least one with a decent shot. The blowback caused the turian to slam into the back of an opposing counter, resulting in a large microscope falling onto his body. Nel did her best to assist him in get more kills, and get some use out of her new upgrade. With the cryobeam that had now been installed in her havoc armor, Nel froze one of the mercs solid in seconds and then shifted the beam over to another of the mercs close to him.

"Go! Shoot!" She told the quarian.

Vik took aim and fired two blasts at the frozen mercs. With a shattering crash, their icy bodies broke into pieces under his devastating shots. It was enough to force some of the mercs to start pulling back, away from Liara's team. With the enemy on the run, Liara urged them to press their advantage and close on their position.

It wouldn't be necessary, the doors behind the remaining mercs opened suddenly and blazing fire came through shortly after. The Cerberus soldiers had regrouped and were now pressing to finish what they started. However, as the last of the mercs fell to their fire, one of the Cerberus soldiers spotted Liara's team in their positions. For a moment, Liara thought he'd start shooting as well, but he and his men held their fire, as one of them spoke into his omni-tool.

"General, T'Soni, she's here," he said menacingly. "I repeat, she's in the building. Orders?"

Liara was intrigued by his phrasing, not so surprised by the answer though. She couldn't hear his leader's reply, but the response from the Cerberus soldier was clear. When he began firing on them as well, it was clear Cerberus wasn't interested in sharing the spoils.

"They're expendable, take'em down!" The leader said, firing at them all as he did.

"You first, shit biscuit!" Nel screamed, popping out of cover and throwing a cluster grenade into the mess of Cerberus soldiers.

The blast ripped apart the lead Cerberus soldiers, along with another beside him. The remaining three opened fire like mad, screaming as they did. That was cut short by Saya's blade coming at one of them from behind. Another was rammed by Wrex as he turned to see what had happened. The force of the hit sent him flying into a wall. Liara handled the last of them, using her biotics to pull the terrorist close before punching him square in the face. She fired into his prone body as he lay on the ground.

"What the hell was that?" Nel asked. "Why'd they hold fire?"

"The Illusive Man sees us as a piece on the board of a wider game," Liara explained. "He's obviously left it up to the discretion of his field commanders on whether or not we should be left in play. What's more interesting is the fact he had to ask. I don't think they expected us here."

"So, they didn't hack my feed again?" Vik asked hopefully.

"No, but that just raises further questions," Liara informed him. "Something is very strange about the timing of this whole attack. We need to keep pressing deeper into the facility and find out what that is."

Liara brought up her map again on her omni-tool. She needed to re-orient herself, figure out where they needed to go next. Checking her route, she reiterated their path forward.

"Schematics say we're close to a larger laboratory," she explained. "Weapons testing most likely. There is another room beside it, large vats of some kind, probably for chemical weapons, as well as what we're here for. We'll need to be careful there. We'll head through an assembly area after that, a lot of twists and turns, open spaces, so watch your corners. There are a lot of places we can get jumped from and we're facing two hostile forces."

She turned next to her quarian squadmate.

"Vik, I need you to get into the security system," she told him. "We have to have eyes on what's happening throughout the facility. We cannot be in the dark out there."

"I'll see if I can get in through the wireless signal," he replied. "It will take me some time."

"Whatever it takes just work on it," Liara urged. "And no matter what we stick close together. We are vastly outnumbered in the middle of a war zone. They will pick us off if we're not careful."

"If they're fighting each other though that gives us one advantage," Wrex offered. "We don't have to kill them all. We just have to fight our way past them and let them keep killing each other. Easier than taking every single Cerberus and Vykur Merc on in continuing slugfest."

Liara concurred with a nod, it made the most sense. Why engage all your potential opponents and waste ammo when they were all more than keen on killing one another? Besides, they weren't the mission. They just needed to fight past them all and get to the records room. That was where the real objective lay.

Of course, if they found where the bioweapon was on the way, all the better. Assuming nothing happened to activate it of course. Liara was hoping they could avoid that, if only for the sake of Vik and Nel who were, again, at the most risk. If they could stop Orukuri's plans before they came fruition though, take the bioweapon into their custody, then all of that risk would be worth it. That all depended on them beating Cerberus to the weapon though. Liara was determined that they would. They had stolen one potential asset away from them already with the relay. With any luck, they'd keep up that winning streak.

When they got to the testing area, they finally found the source of all the gunshots they were hearing. Cerberus soldiers and VykurCorps mercenaries were engaging each other with impunity. The mercenaries had the high ground, using an observation level as their main shooting position. It overlooked the testing grounds below, which gave them a wide view of everything coming at them. There were some squads on the lower levels, but they had formed their own barricades and hardpoints. Not to mention they had VykurCorps cutting edge prototype weapons on their side.

Cerberus, however, had seemingly better tools at their disposal. Several of them had shields protecting them from incoming bullets, allowing them to advance further along with their comrades. A number were sharpshooters who fired at the observation level and moved quickly to new cover, disrupting those entrenched a bove. There were also a few of them in exosuits stomping around, taking fire as they proceeded to advance as the vanguard of the attack.

Now that they were up close, Liara was able to get a better look at the exosuits themselves. They were indeed armed with machine guns in their wrists, which they used to rake the observation deck. The suits themselves were little more than walking rollcages with protective shielding over the faces of the pilots. There was also a weapon mounted on their shoulders, something Liara hadn't spotted before. It turned out to be a cannon, as it blasted at a trio of mercs on the ground level. The blast sent them flying, one of them slamming into a wall, leaving a red smear behind.

"Well this is a party I don't mind not being invited to," Nel commented.

"I don't really see a way forward that doesn't involve us getting in middle of it," Liara confessed. "And I mean literally. It seems we've just arrived right in-between No Man's Land at the moment."

"We'll need to weave through them," Wrex said. "And keep out of sight of those exosuits."

"If we can't, I hope someone brought along a really big boomstick," Nel stated. "Because I was not planning on fighting exosuits here. I got armor piercing rounds, should be enough to rip through what they got, but I'd still prefer a rocket or something."

"They're still tech, I can disrupt them," Vik assured them. "And Kayap has us covered for heavy weapons, right?"

The unggoy pulled grenade launcher from his back, resting it in his arms.

"It explodes at least," he said. "Could work on them."

"Only engage if we have to," Liara insisted. "We'll work through the test area. If we don't aggravate either side too much, they'll keep focused on each other and not us. Let's move."

They followed Liara as they kept low and began to slink through the mess of tables, crates and lab equipment. As they started to cross, Liara held her team back as a VykurCorp merc ran out in front of them. He rushed towards a turret that had been left unmanned. Probably because the body of his friend was laying in a pool of blood at the weapon's feet. The merc grabbed the turret and began opening fire like mad on the Cerberus soldiers.

"He'll stay busy for awhile," Liara presumed. "Keep moving."

They rushed to the next barricade for cover, staying low as the bullets flew overhead from both sides. As they were crawling, an explosion erupted on the observation level. One of the exosuit's cannons had scored a direct hit. There was now a small fire raging in the corner of the window.

"High explosive rounds," Nel observed. "Cerberus ain't playing around here, that's for sure."

"Cerberus doesn't do half-heartedly," Liara informed her. "That much I'm certain of."

They started moving to the next barricade, keeping low to the ground. However, before they could reach cover, gun fire started streaking over their heads, hitting their shields. They scrambled to whatever cover they could find among the assorted counters, testing equipment and makeshift barricades, as bullets kept striking at their positions in a wide berth.

"They spotted us!" Nel shouted over the noise, her head low beneath a desk. "I'm sorry if that's a bit obvious, but someone had to say it!"

Vik peered out of cover for a moment to pinpoint the source of the gunfire. He discovered that it was not a conventional source, however. The muzzle flashes were coming from a small mobile turret set up on the main floor.

"A Cerberus Automated Turret," he reported. "It must've picked up our movement!"

"Whatever, we need to shut it up!" Wrex responded over the chatter, as bullets struck his cover. "I think I can see it, I just need an opening!"

Vik hastily activated his omni-tool and locked onto the turret. He fired a sabotage program to infect the gun, causing it to halt firing and short out for a few moments.

"Hit it! Now!" The quarian shouted.

Wrex popped out of cover with his shotgun and fired a carnage blast that rocketed across the room. It struck the turret dead center, causing it to explode in a violent cascade of metal. It was a clean hit, but it had consequences.

While the strike had ended the onslaught of rounds, it also alerted the entire room. Cerberus soldiers soon pointed out the positions of the team and began firing on them. The Mercs stationed around the area and above, also spotted what was going on as a result. VykurCorp now had a new target and their sharpshooters began trying to hit them as well. Nel had to duck into deeper cover to avoid a few longshots aimed her way.

Now they were stuck between two armies and barely halfway across the testing floor. Not a good position to be in at all to say the least. Moving some of the assorted crates and equipment around them in an attempt to keep them covered, Liara and her team returned fire on the opposing factions.

"Nice of them to suddenly agree that they hate us more than each other!" Nel growled.

"They both know why we're here," Liara explained. "Plus we're easier to remove from the equation entirely. The good news is, it distracts them from each other and their main objective, so not everyone is going to be shooting at us at once. Bad news, well, that much is obvious."

"Yeah no need to reiterate the bad news," Nel agreed as a shot cut clean through the edge of one of he crates. "We can't stay here, we need an out, better cover. At least somewhere we can get the damn Mercs off our backs."

"Where?" Kayap asked. "They have the high ground, they can see everything from up there!"

"Then we remove a few eyes," Liara stated. "Saya, target their sharpshooters."

Saya nodded in agreement and began setting up to take out some of the mercs. At the same time, Kayap and Vik returned fire on Cerberus' forces. Kayap used his plasma pistol primarily, locking onto the encroaching terrorists and sending overcharged bolts their way. The first few went down hard from the heated green energy searing at their armor. Then the shield-wielding troops moved up, protecting their comrades as they advanced.

Vik took over from that point, sending his drone out to harass the shield troopers from behind. The Drone's flamethrower function ignited the enemy lines, scorching their advancing soldiers. When a few attacked the drone enough, it soon exploded, taking more of the troopers with it. Vik himself used his pistol fire more accurate shots at the Cerberus troops. They were too far for his shotgun to be of any use in the moment. Thankfully, he had tweaked his HUD's targeting system a bit, granting him more accurate shots. One clean headshot prevented another of Cerberus Engineers from setting up a second turret to harass them just in the nick of time.

His pistol was little use against the exosuits though. As one closed in, his bullets just bounced off the heavy armor to little effect. The pilot then fired his cannon at their position, ripping up the floor and forcing Vik to drop down into cover.

It wasn't much better on the other side of the barricade either, as Nel tried to rake the upper floors of the observation deck alongside Wrex. They were attempting to flush out the mercs from their positions so Liara and Saya would have a better shot, little was working. Despite being hired guns, they were still turians, this was hardly their first action. One of their number returned fire for a brief moment and then ducked back into cover. He knew all too well the dangers of exposure.

It was all Liara needed though to pinpoint him. Using her biotics, she flung a singularity up into the Observation deck. It dragged the soldier out of his cover, forcing him into the ceiling of the deck. Saya quickly targeted him and fired a number of shots into the floating merc before he finally fell to the ground.

"I'll keep trying to drag them out, you keep shooting," Liara told him.

The salarian nodded and went back to trying to pinpoint the other shooters. He searched for potential nest points, areas where snipers could sit and pick off their targets with a relative degree of safety. Most people wouldn't be able to spot them, he would though because he knew what to look for.

There was one barricaded window on the deck, a lot of furniture stacked into it. A perfect cover spot for any sniper honestly, as it would make return fire difficult. Most of the time you wanted to snipe targets whiled backed away from a window. You only did the opposite in vids really or when you didn't care about being spotted. There was too much risk of exposure otherwise. They had given themselves some makeshift cover though, so they thought they were safer there.

Saya searched for an opening and waited to see evidence of someone taking residence in the nest. He soon spotted a glint of something, followed by a trail of smoke and a muzzle flash. The impact against their barricade moments later revealed he was targeting them. Saya quickly pinpointed the likely place where the merc's head would be and fired. No sense going for body shots, he'd be too well armored there. Luckily, the risk of a missed headshot didn't arise, as moments later, Saya saw a body slump into the window.

He moved to the next target, someone who was running from opening to opening, firing and relocating with every shot. A good strategy to confuse most enemy soldiers. Unfortunately, he didn't have many windows to choose from and, worse for him, Saya could tell the turian was falling into a pattern. Some people just did that without thinking, create a routine to their shots. Saya lined up against the next window in the routine and waited. When the turian appeared, he fired and the merc fell back into the observation deck.

Liara, at the same time, had been attempting to pinpoint her own targets. Stationary gunners were a bit easier to find than snipers. A few of the mercs had set up gun emplacements on the observation deck, making them sitting ducks for her biotics. They were smart enough to not keep on the trigger indefinitely though, when they needed to let their weapons cool down or switch thermal clips, they ducked behind cover and waited. Liara needed to be smarter than them as well as quicker. She threw a biotic pull at the gun emplacement, dragging the merc out into the open air. She didn't bother shooting him, when the aura wore off, the merc plummeted to the floor far below him.

Her next target was a pair of mercs who would not stay still for very long. She wanted to try a singularity, but she wasn't sure it would be strong enough to pull them away from their entrenched position. Instead, she opted for a stasis bubble. She flung it at the pair, capturing them both in its field. She then looked to Saya and pointed them out for him. He didn't need much prompting, turning his rifle onto the pair and firing at them both seconds before the stasis gave way and they became vulnerable again. They both were hit and collapsed to the floor.

However, the fact was they were being squeezed from both sides. The longer they stayed here the worse it would get. There was only one solution: Escape. Problem was they had nowhere to really run to. There was no clear opening, no path to take. Just a wall in front of them, blocking their way.

At some point, Nel decided she couldn't tolerate the obstruction.

"Cover me, guys," she said. "I got an idea!"

She powered up her cryo beam once more and took aim at the wall. The surface of the construction froze solid and cracked. Nel then brought out her grenades and tossed them all towards the wall itself. Moments later, the explosions rocked the wall and caused it to shatter to pieces. In the wake of dust left behind, there was now a giant hole.

"We got a way in!" Nel shouted. "Those stupid chemistry classes actually proved useful for something!"

"Where does it lead?" Wrex asked.

"According to my map, a testing ground for weapons," Liara explained. "I'm not sure what scenario they're running at the moment, but it should cover out backsides somewhat as it's not directly in the path of that observation deck the mercs are using."

"Still sounds like we're just going to become live targets on a gun range," Vik stated. "But at this point I'll take anything that gets us out of this crossfire."

Liara agreed and looked to Wrex.

"Help Saya cover us, then pull back slowly," Liara ordered. "Saya, activate your cloak and make a run for it when we're safe."

Both the krogan and salarian nodded, opening fire on both sides of the embattled testing room. Everyone else ran for the opening Nel created, bullets nipping at their shields and heels all the way. They eventually got close enough to dive straight into the hole. Soon after, Wrex joined them, as did Saya, appearing from out of thin air as his cloak dissipated.

They found themselves in a small urban setting with simple targeting stands propped up in various positions across the field. There were a number of stands and tables with assorted weapons on them. It was a very spartan aesthetic, everything was painted white and served in a functional capacity. The plain looking domiciles and environment surrounding could really represent any number of combat scenarios. Apparently, they had been testing them all.

"Think any of these guns are armed or active?" Nel asked, her eyes sparking at the idea of grabbing a cool superweapon no doubt. "I mean I know protocol and everything says they shouldn't be, but they were attacked suddenly so..."

Gunfire from their immediate front interrupted Nel's thought and forced the team to scatter to whatever cover they could find on the range. As Vik had predicted, they had now become live targets. Cerberus forces were encroaching on their position en masse, intent on removing them from the equation entirely if need be.

"Look for an exit," Liara ordered everyone. "We need a way out of here or we'll be overrun."

"Worst case scenario I can just blow open another hole," Nel stated.

"Last resort," Liara told her. "For now, hold off Cerberus and wait for an opening to make a run for it!"

The first few Cerberus soldiers were easy enough to shoot down. One advantage of being down on the gun range was that there a lot of obstacles to hide behind. Cerberus didn't have that luxury, however, that didn't stop them from swarming the area. Vik pulled back into a corner as a furious barrage ripped apart the ceramic target stand right next to him.

Steeling his resolve, he popped back out to fire a clean shotgun blast at two of the terrorists as they rushed his position. He blew the legs right out from under them easily, but his victory was short lived. Bursting through the entrance to the range appeared one of the Cerberus exosuits and it was prepared to tear the place apart. Vik once again ducked into cover as it began unloading with its machine gun.

"We need to kill that thing, fast!" Vik shouted. "Nel, Wrex, if I can get its attention with my drone, can you unload into its back when it turns? The armor might be weaker there?"

"Worth a shot," Nel said, nestled beneath her own cover.

"Go for it, kid," Wrex added.

Vik let loose his combat drone again, which attacked the exosuit rigorously. The flamethrower did little to harm the suit or the pilot inside, but it did try to stamp the little rolling ball out regardless. As a result, he revealed his more vulnerable side to the other members of the squad. Nel let loose with her assault rifle, intent on perforating the armor. Wrex joined in with his own carnage shots, but Exosuit held its ground.

It stamped the drone out and the resulting explosion shook it, but it soon turned on Nel's position and began unloading shots at her. I also fired its cannon at Wrex, who ran for better cover as the blasts ripped the cube he was using apart. It was clear better weapons were needed to break the suit's shell. Thankfully, the distraction Vik had caused with his drone gave Kayap a chance to get into position.

The unggoy popped up along the exosuit's side and launched a barrage of grenades from his launcher. They smashed down around the exosuit, and seemed to damage one of the machine's arms. Sparks flew from the wrist where the fun was situated, as servos whirled and clanged. However, the suit was still functional and the pilot soon spotted the unggoy.

"Run Kay!" Nel shouted. "He's got you zeroed!"

Kayap picked up and ran for it as bullets chased him. He dove as a cannon blast ripped at the ground behind him. Sliding into a prototype stand, the unggoy hit his head on the counter's side. As a resulting of both the cannon's shockwave and his hit, something heavy fell into Kayap's lap. Surprised, he grabbed for it.

It was a strange looking device at first, but the more he looked the more recognizable it became. The large barrel, the port at the back, the heft and shape, it felt familiar somehow. There was a large cable stretching to a power source that was new, but Kayap soon realized what this thing was. A Fuel Rod Cannon that had been heavily modified. To what end he wasn't sure, but he could tell VykurCorp had been trying to improve it.

Deciding not to waste time mulling over what they had done to the weapon, Kayap took it in hand and pulled himself to his feet. He saddled the weapon to his shoulder and took aim at the exosuit proper, which was still closing on him. Finding the trigger, he steeled himself for whatever kick this thing had. He then pressed down and let the weapon unloose itself.

That was probably an understatement, as the weapon in fact fired out a huge beam of green spiraling energy. Kayap could hardly control it, for the recoil was worse than any Fuel Rod Cannon he had ever used before. The beam slashed across the room, hitting the exosuit along its front. The result was that it cut clean through the machine and the pilot inside, causing both to explode. Kayap himself released the trigger as he fell to the ground, unable to keep his stance as the kickback worsened.

When he got up, the exosuit, and an entire squad of Cerberus soldiers, were gone. The weapon itself was smoking and red hot to the touch. Also, there was a huge hole on the other side of the room. Kayap could only smile.

"I found our exit!" He said to the others.

"Great work, Kay!" Liara congratulated.

"Keelah, that was so cool!" Vik chimed in.

The Unggoy's shot had come just in time, for VykurCorp mercs had entered the gun range themselves, this time from the back entrance. They fired on Liara and her team as they advanced towards them. Saya fired back at them in retaliation as the squad made a break for the hole. A single Cerberus soldier who had survived Kayap's blast tried to stop them, only for Wrex to trample the terrorist as he pushed for the hole.

They soon exited the gun range into a larger testing area, filled with equipment and manufacturing tables. It was a maze of stress testers and automatic assembly stations, computer terminals and holographic simulation boards. Liara and her people had barely come to terms with the new environment when the shooting started once more.

Both VykurCorp and Ceberus troopers were among the equipment surrounding them. They furiously raced through the maze, shooting at Liara's team and each other when ever an opportunity arose. There was little that the squad could do strategically to hold them off. They had to make a run for it.

"Get through to the other side of all this!" Liara ordered. "There's an exit on the far end! It will take us to their chemical storage! Move!"

The team raced off into the maze, spreading out so as not to make themselves one giant target, but many individual targets instead. With any luck, their attackers would lose sight of them in the confusion going on around them. They wouldn't lose sight of one another though, as Liara's tracking equipment would be able to determine where everyone was in proximity to her. Not that she had many opportunities to look at it, what with all the bullets flying around them.

As she rounded one aisle of machinery, one of the Cerberus troopers stood in front of her. Reacting quickly, she ducked beneath the nearest desk, rolling beneath the gap as he fired at her. She popped up on the other side and used her biotics to throw the man into large pressure container, cracking the glass on impact. At the same time, a VykurCorp merc appeared behind her. She turned and fired on him, forcing him to duck as she vaulted over another terminal and kept running.

Vik also had to navigate similar encounters. For the most part, he attempted to lead the Mercenaries into confrontations with Cerberus soldiers, and vice vera. The factions would collide, forget about him and begin trying to kill one another instead. It was fairly effective for the most part. One merc and a Cerberus intruder actually came to blows as the turian ran into his shield by accident. The sounds of their struggle ensured Vik's quick escape, however it was only for a short bit.

The quarian soon ran into a Cerberus engineer, who opened fire with a machine pistol. Vik took cover in the corner of aisle as he waited for the human to run out of ammo. When the clicking ping of an ejected thermal clip sounded, Vik leaned out of cover and fired his shotgun at the engineer as he lay on his side. The blast knocked the terrorist to the ground, a gaping hole in his chest. Vik moved over to the body to make sure he was dead, but also noticed his mobile turret had not yet been used.

This was a chance to actually get an up close look at it. From the look of things, it was a bit of a rough piece of work. The casing was small circular object with three pronged legs, currently retracted. From what Vik remembered the gun wasn't all that big and was inside the casing itself. When deployed, an opening would retract and allow the gun to fire. It didn't look like it was high caliber, perhaps Cerberus was trying to make better ones for the future and this was just a prototype.

At that moment, VykurCorp Mercs began to converge on him. With little time, Vik grabbed the turret and made a run for it. He searched for a crossway among the aisles of machines as the Mercs fired at him, bullets ricocheting around him. He finally found his crossway and set down the turret on the middle.

"Come on, come on," he said, fiddling with the device, trying to activate it. "Work with me here you little bosh'tet."

After pressing a few commands on his omni-tool, connecting to the turret wirelessly, as well as one good smack against its top, the turret activated. Its legs sprouted and its gun port opened up with a click. The mercenaries arrived shortly after and the turret instantly opened fire with a blaze of bullets. One of the mercs went down after being hit with several rounds. Others sought cover from the barrage. Vik was long gone, leaving them to deal with the turret while he kept going.

In the meantime, Wrex and Nel had run into each other again in the middle of their escape. They had also run into an ongoing brawl between both Cerberus and VykurCorp, both sides trading blows and bullets in close quarters. Rather than go around though, both opted to go through them instead.

Wrex jumped in first, stampeding through a Cerberus. He sent one flying through the air as he shotgunned another in the face. Nel backed him up, freezing a number of VykurCorp with her cryobeam as she chased after her compatriot. Another of mercs tried to gun her down, but her armor and shields took the hits long enough for her to gut him with her omni-blades and then kick his body into a Cerberus trooper.

In an attempt to stop the rampaging krogan, one of the mercenaries attempted to stab him in the side with bladed shotgun. Let the blade dig itself into underarm, just so he could grab the gun, yank it away from the turian and then smash its stock right back into the merc's skull. He then sent the gun flying towards a Cerberus trooper, where the blade stabbed him in the neck. Another Cerberus soldier attempted to get in front of Wrex and unload his assault rifle into him. That was a mistake, for not only did Wrex's barrier hold up under the barrage, Wrex had a clear shot to land a devastating biotic punch that practically broke the terrorist's helmet wide open on impact before sending him cartwheeling away.

Nel boosted herself forward with her armor's built-in jet pack to catch up to Wrex. As she sped through the enemy lines, she sliced and cut through both sides. However, she got into trouble when one of them produced a shield. The Cerberus Trooper stopped her in her tracks, forcing her to grab onto his shield as they struggled against each other. He brought out his pistol and slowly edged it over the side of the shield gauntlet, his intentions clear. Nel avoided the first shot, ducking her head out of the way just in time. She then used her considerable strength to knock the shield into the trooper's face. As he held it in pain, she slashed at him with her omni-blades, before impaling him on one and tossing him over at a VykurCorp merc who had been lining up a shot.

The ferocity of the pair soon paid off and they managed to get out of the middle of the fire fight. Their way now clear, both Wrex and Nel pressed on, leaving the two factions to continue duking it out. Wrex was nursing his wound for a bit before it healed on its own, but the fact he had been hit at all was a good sign in his mind that this was likely to get harder for them fairly soon.

Liara had her own troubles, as she was facing off against a small squad of Cerberus soldiers blocking her path. One of them had a shield gauntlet, making hitting him somewhat difficult. Eventually, she decided on a different course of action besides firing on him. She used her biotic throw attack to sweep the terrorist's legs. The human was catapulted ass over end into the end, where Liara rushed up and socked him in the head as he floated about upside down.

With him dealt with, she gunned down the other Cerberus soldiers relatively quickly as they ran for better cover. However, more were coming up behind her to take their place. With few options, she grabbed the shield gauntlet on her fallen foe and ripped it off. She held it up to her face, protecting herself as she pulled back. The Cebrerus soldiers fired relentlessly on her, enough rounds to shatter any biotic barrier. The shield held up though. However, she knew it couldn't last forever. She was hunching down to minimize her legs as a target, but that meant she was forced to back up slower than normal. They'd surround her from all sides if she kept this pace up.

When she got far enough away though, she fired back on the terrorists. Just to disorient them a little, break up their attack. Then, she used her biotics to send the shield flying right into them. The metal sheet cut deep into their ranks, smashing the helmet of one soldier, before carrying him along with it into the gut of another. The attack gave Liara her chance to flee nimbly over the machinery around her and make a run for the exit.

It didn't take long for the others to join Liara there, having lost their own pursuers in the melee. Saya had the easiest time because he had his cloak, second only to Kayap, who was small enough to be overlooked among the testing equipment. He had snaked through the machinery while everyone else fought each other. Vik, Nel and Wrex arrived shortly after they did. Leaving a still pitched gun battle behind them.

"How long do you think they're going to be busy with each other?" Wrex asked her.

"Long enough for us to get what we came for and get out of here," Liara hoped aloud. "Come on, according to the layout, Chemical storage connects directly to their bioengineering division. That's where we'll find the strain if its still here."

The exited through the door, the sounds of the firefight fading behind them as they did.

Chemical storage looked even less inviting than it sounded. Large vats were packed close together, with various cranes, tubes and smaller tanks attached to the larger containers. Everything seemed to be bathed in a very sickly green and the ceiling stretched high above them all. So high in fact that they were catwalks above them, between the various vats inside. There were also stairs leading up to said catwalks, along with automated lifts nearby.

"Well this looks inviting," Nel observed. "Also exactly how I pictured it."

"We need to get higher," Liara explained. "The entrance to the labs is up there. We can take one of the lifts."

In that moment though, an explosion rocked the room. Directly to their right side, the team saw one of the storage room walls give way. Pouring through came several Cerberus soldiers, backed by their exosuits and sapper units. At the same time, VykurCorp soldiers up in the catwalks fired down on them. Soon enough, the mercs were doing the same to Liara's squad, forcing them behind the cover of some of the mixing tanks on the ground level.

"Well, they're certainly not slowing down," Wrex observed.

"Knowing Cerberus they're not going to be very careful around these chemical vats," Liara warned. "We need to get up to the catwalks now or we're going to get caught in the slog to follow. Not to mention whatever collateral damage the Illusive Man's thugs cause."

Taking the remark to heart, Nel focused in on the stairwell closest to them, currently occupied by a slew of VykurCorp mercs who were suppressing them. It was their fastest route up out of this mess and towards their real objective. As a result, her mind quickly fixated on how best to dismantle its defenders. As always, she concluded the most effective course of action would involve the most aggressive methods possible.

"Time to get extremely prejudicial on these fuckers," Nel chortled, popping out her dual omni-blades.

"Ugh, she's quoting her vids again," Vik said exasperated.

"No worries, Bucket, this time I got the clear head and badass tools to back that shit up," Nel assured her quarian comrade. "Liara, if you guys can cover me, I can take those stairs and get us to the high ground."

"Are you sure?" The asari asked. "We can probably pick them off slowly from here."

"You said it yourself, we're in a race against Cerberus right now for the bioweapon," she reminded her. "I can clear those stairs faster than anyone, I just needed to get in the middle of them."

Liara was still unsure, Nel had always been a little more reckless than most. Even Wrex would've paused at some situations she routinely ran into screaming for blood. This time was different though, Liara could tell. The turian was speaking from a position of confidence, not bravado. She was asking for the asari's trust and was relying on the team to cover her.

With few options to begin with, Liara just nodded.

"Go, we'll cover you," she told her. "But you better not be getting in over your head."

"Don't worry, my head is perfectly within the zone," Nel assured the asari.

An exhaust blast exploded out of Nel's armor, her internal jetpack firing up. She rocketed out from behind the mixing tanks like a bullet, careening towards the stairs. Long before she even got close to them though, she fired her cryobeam in a wide arch at the mercenary forces. The blast froze a few of them, many more ended up either slowed or stunned by the sudden offensive. That gave Nel her opening.

She crashed down into one of the frozen mercs, shattering him instantly as she skidded to a stop.

"Ice to see you!" She declared as she grabbed a nearby merc by his armor's collar.

Said Merc, broken momentarily from his shocked malaise, just looked back at her, tilting his head.

"Seriously?" He asked, sounding a bit exasperated. "You went with that?"

"Shut up! It's a classic!" Nel screamed back, before butting him in the head and tossing him over the railing.

Nel used her boosters to rocket her into another of the mercs, stabbing deep into his gut. She used his body to shield herself from incoming shots, before using her cryobeam to freeze the closest of her attackers. She tossed the corpse that was her shield into the frozen merc, shattering him, while a shot from one of her comrades killed a second of her assailants in front of her with a clean headshot. Probably came from Saya, that looked like his level of precision.

Another of the mercs tried to attack Nel from behind, but she was able to kick his assault rifle into the railing where it discharged harmlessly. She then slashed her next attack upwards across his neck. A second of the mercs rushed at her, discharging his shotgun. The blast hit her shields, but she reacted quickly before he could take another shot. Using her jets again, she rocketed her should into the merc. She slammed him into one of the metal supports for the stairwell and then stabbed him into face.

Now facing the next set of stairs leading upward, she fired her Cryobeam upwards. It froze a pair of mercenaries as they tried to charge down her. Boosting herself upwards, she smashed through both of the icy assailants and tackled third, stabbing him with her omni-blades as he fell to the floor. She could hear bullets whizzing over her, followed by someone screaming. From the sound of things, he had just been hit by a Biotic pull attack that forced him off the stairway. Fine by her, fewer mercs to deal with on her charge upwards.

A trio of mercs, however, soon appeared on the next set of stairs behind her. With little space to move, Nel rolled off the railing herself and activated her jets. She let the shots from her compatriots supress the attacking mercs as she rocketed past and grabbed onto the next level of the stairwell. Now above her attackers, she rushed over to the stairs, fired her cryobeam down on them and then took out her pistol to shoot them all down in quick succession. They shattered to icy bits under her barrage and Nel continued going.

With her pistol out she began climbing the stairs in quick succession, firing on the mercs in her way or freezing them with her Cryobeam as she moved. They fell one after the other as she raced up the steps, only for one of the mercs to ambush her on the stairs. He kicked at her pistol and then grabbed her the arm with the cryobeam embedded into it, pointing it away from him. In his other hand he held a serrated blade, which he attempted to stab into Nel's neck. She managed to kick him away from her before he could and brought out her omni-blades just in time to block his follow-up strike.

There, the two struggled with one another for a few moments, trying to force the other up or down the stairs, edging their blades towards the other's neck in a deadly game of push and pull. It only ended when the merc took a shot to the brain pan and slumped over. Nel looked to see the shot had come from Liara, who was already running towards the stairs with the rest of the squad. She apparently had cleared away enough of the mercs to allow them to move up. A bit of a shock to her, as she thought she had way more to deal with. Perhaps they had retreated once they realized they had lost the advantage. Liara and the others soon met her up on the stairs, walking over the numerous bodies and shattered bits of ice left in her wake.

"Nice work," she told the turian. "Let's keep moving, we need to get to the top."

"There's going to be a lot more up there," Nel warned. "And chances are they're aware we're coming up this way by now. They'll be waiting."

"Good," Wrex said, cracking his knuckles. "Then they've laid out the welcome mat."

It took a lot more climbing to finally understand what Wrex had meant by that statement. Once they reached the top, he charged up the remaining stairs, his biotics flaring as he did. He pushed the three turians guarding the stairs out of his way with ease and trampled the one unfortunate enough to land on his backside while still in the krogan's path.

Wrex didn't let up on his charge once he was on the cawalks proper. He rammed another squad of mercs, sending some over the railing, crushing others beneath him and blasting another in the face with his claymore. He ended his charge by headbutting one of the Merc Officers hard enough for the Turian to leave a visible dent in the railing of the catwalk.

Then others arrived to find the devastated remains of the mercenaries laying about, Wrex standing proud over them. He only grinned for a little bit longer though, as enemy fire soon resumed. The mercenaries were quick to counter the assault and force the squad to seek what little cover there was on the catwalk. Mostly corners of connection platforms or small crates that were occupying the area. While they now had the high ground, they were forced to share it with less than ideal company. They needed to clear the deck if they wanted to press onward to the labs.

Liara reacted quickly, using her biotics to send two of the mercs falling over the side of the railing and into the open storage vats below. She didn't know exactly what was in the large containers, but given the shrill screams that followed she imagined it was nothing good. However, this was no time for sentiment, they needed to push through these mercs fast. She attacked with her biotics again, launching another of their ilk over the side and into another vat. His compatriots began to back off, firing as they attempted to seek shelter from the asari's attacks.

With a bit of the pressure taken off of them, the team started moving again. They headed left from the next intersection of catwalks, towards the entrance that would lead to the labs. However, they had not shaken all potential hostiles. As they ran across the platform, gunfire erupted from below them nearly hitting Vik in the side. He stumbled in an attempt to avoid the shots, hit the railing hard. Saya moved to assist him.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," he insisted, allowing the salarian to steady him.

The bullets were still flying at them, their origin coming from below them. The floor was full of Cerberus soldiers now and they were shooting at anything that occupied the platforms above them. Thankfully, none of them seemed to have a good line of sight on them, as their shots seemed sporadic in nature. However, the delay they had caused gave a few VykurCorp mercs a chance to cut them off. There were only three of them, but one of them was carrying what looked to be a missile launcher, but with four green injectors on its back. Injectors that were familiar enough to Liara and Kayap at least.

"Down!" Liara ordered.

The team dropped to the floor as a powerful green bolt sailed past them and struck the platform directly behind them. The resulting blast decimated the catwalk, blowing it apart. Now they had no path of retreat. For as powerful as the weapon was though, it seemed to require a bit of recharging, as the shooter moved to safety as his friends provided cover. That did little to stop Saya of course.

The salarian was up before the shockwave of the blast had even dissipated. He charged low to the ground, his hand on his sword. He reached the first of the mercs as he started firing. Saya's shields absorbed the shots long enough for him to cut into him with an upper slash. The merc's rifle went clattering away as he fell, while the STG Operative pulled his pistol out in mid-swing. He fired on the other merc across from them, planting several bullets in the mercenary's head and torso. With both of them dealt with, he turned his attention to the merc with the plasma weapon. He activated the sword's electrical current and threw it at the mercenary. The blade stabbed into the turian's shoulder as he lifted his weapon once more. Instead of firing, several thousand volts electrified his body before Saya managed to rush over and pull the blade out. He then kicked the turian over onto his back and let the weapon fall to the floor.

The squad picked themselves up and looked over the strange weapon now lying before them. It did indeed look like a missile launcher, but the injectors on the back were clearly not a part of the original design. The weapon had been modified to incorporate plasma weapon technology that the Covenant. Specifically, given the appearance of the injectors, from the Mgalekgolo's assault cannon, like the ones Bash and Blast used.

"They're really making inroads on Covie tech," Nel observed. "First that crazy cannon Kayap used to get us out of that gun range, now this."

"You have to wonder how far along they are," Vik commented. "And how much of it they've sent to the Separatists."

Suddenly, bullets shot up along their left flank and an explosion rocked the platform. Cerberus' forces were still trying to dislodge them and they appeared to have no intention of letting up. The barrage continued, one burst of shots cutting into the railing close to Nel, who jumped back at the sound of the ricochet. Infuriated by the continued attacks, Kayap decided to act.

"Worry about the Separatists later," he said, waddling over to the weapon and picking it up. "As far as I'm concerned, it's ours now."

Kayap ran over to the side of the catwalk's railing, even as bullets from below and a few stray cannon shots from the exosuits fired sporadically up at them.

"Kay, what are you doing?" Liara asked cautiously.

"Delaying them," the unggoy said.

He took aim at one of the storage vats and fired a single blast from the weapon. The explosive green bolt slammed into the side of the vat, blowing it wide open. An noxious looking green liquid substance spilled forth from the rupture. Cerberus soldiers on the floor below ran from the tidal wave of corrosive chemicals, not all of them managing to get away in time. Least of all the Exosuits, one of which was engulfed in a wave of chemicals that tipped him over onto his back. The pilot was probably lucky in that the airtight exoskeleton would protect him from serious harm. The Cerberus footsoldiers around him were not so lucky. One could hear their screams echoing about the room as whatever was in the vat began eating away at their armor and burning the skin beneath.

The team looked down on the carnage, wincing a bit. Even Kayap looked a bit put off by the results. The whole storage room floor was now flooded and filled with Cerberus soldiers writhing in agony.

"Well, you wanted to delay them," Nel observed. "That should probably do it."

"It will give us some time to get ahead," Liara stated. "They'll have to go around the storage room or try to climb up here.

"Seriously, what is in those vats?" Vik asked. "Some kind of acid?"

"I suppose we should've realized that Orukuri wouldn't limit his options for attack to just bio-terrorism," Liara presumed. "Remember, the Separatists' drills for bioweapons attacks could also cover chemical warfare. Either way, quick thinking, Kay. Let's not waste more time on Cerberus than we have to."

The unggoy nodded, holding the plasma weapon close.

"I guess I might have gone a little overboard," he confessed.

"Sometimes overkill isn't unwarranted," Liara admitted. "Hold onto that weapon in any case, it might prove useful."

They now continued following Liara's map, heading towards the bio-labs entrance. Cerberus' gunfire did not follow, proving Kayap's tactics, while a bit excessive, had worked. The terrorists were no longer on their heels. However, they proved to be the least of their worries. For when they got close to their point of entry to the labs, they encountered another VykurCorp Mercenary in their path.

He was dressed from head to toe in a hazardous environmental suit, covered in gleaming silver with VykurCorps' emblem emblazoned upon his sleeve's shoulder. Yellow and black stripes accented the legs and arms of the outfit, as did a large "dangerous materials" warning insignia on his front. In his hands he held a M-451 Firestorm, but it appeared to be specially modified with some kind of omni-tool device attached to the front.

"Fuck me," Nel groaned. "Don't you fuckers ever get sick of this shit?"

The mercenary activated his flamethrower, only for Nel to open fire on him. The mercenary quickly pointed his weapon in front of him and, in the blink of an eye, an orange shield appeared. Nel's bullets bounced off the omni-shield harmlessly, but that was hardly the worst of it. The flamethrower's nozzle was sticking out of a port within the shield.

"Scatter!" Liara shouted.

A blast of flame exploded forth, as the team ran for cover. The Hazard Merc stomped forward, spewing for an infernal torrent from his weapon, the omni-shield protecting him from any attempt to return fire. He wasn't stupid either, he turned towards any potential threat, keeping the shield in front of him at all times. The bullets could not penetrate, allowing him a degree of freedom of movement. His cover was mobile and armed. The worst two things you could ever encounter in a firefight situation.

Fire fanned over the crate Liara was using, flames licking at her barriers. The heat was excruciating and all-encompassing. She could barely see past her field of vision, everything looked like fire. She could at least tell her teammates were nearby though, taking cover where they could. She hoped Wrex had found a good place to seek shelter. His regeneration ability would be useless against this incendiary storm.

The Hazard Merc has to be using a pack, no Firestorm flamethrower had this much fuel in one canister. It was the only explanation for why he could be shooting for so long. The problem was that the shield he had prevented any bullets from hitting his pack and he was not turning around either. That would risk exposing his weakness to them all. Stuck in the cone of flames he was firing at her, there was little Liara could do from her position, but she knew others could.

"Vik! Drone!"

Vik, currently huddling behind some sheet metal that was, by now, red hot to the touch, activated his omni-tool. He sent out his drone to speed through the flames and attack the Flametrooper. He also activated his defense drone turret to provide additional fire support. The Mercenary reacted quickly to the assault, turning his shield towards the drone and turret and fiddling with his flamethrower as he huddled behind his defenses. When he stood back up, the flamethrower shot out a fireball that destroyed Vik's drone. The subsequent explosion would have been damaging had it not been for the omni-shield once again protecting the merc.

Liara wasn't surprised, the shield was very likely similar to the one the Shadow Broker had used against her and Shepard. Biotic and Ballistic attacks wouldn't work against, that included explosions. However, it did give her an idea. Physical attacks would work, or as Shepard had said "the old-fashioned way." The problem was getting close enough. The flamethrower would roast anyone alive who got within two feet of it. They needed a way to knock him off his feet without putting themselves in danger.

Nel at least was making an attempt. She drew the Flametrooper's ire by unleashing a barrage of sustained automatic fire on the mercenary. Once again, the VykurCorp minion turtled up behind his shield, advanced slightly forward on catwalk and let loose with his Firestorm. Balls of flame exploded outwards, nearly striking Nel as dove for cover. In the same moment, Kayap tried shooting at him with needles, but the merc turned just in time to have them all embed themselves in his omni-shield instead. They exploded of course, but he remained unharmed.

With a yelp of fear, Kayap ducked back down as flames spread across his cover. That was not good, even if his new tank was better secured and better armored than the one the Covenant had stuck him with, it was still carrying methane. The last thing the Unggoy needed was to be around fire. Thankfully, Saya attempted to help the unggoy. He fired two clean high impact shots from his sniper rifle at the mercenary. The bullet bounced off the omni-shield, but they did cause the merc to stumble backwards a bit from the blow. Enraged, he turned on Saya, blasting a torrent of flame at the salarian. At least he was no longer trying to torch Kayap.

Liara's search for an alternative plane finally bore fruit though. She spotted a large bucket attached to a crane hanging from the ceiling on a hydraulic winching system. It was likely used to collect chemicals from the various vats within storage. The perfect tool to knock this pyromaniac down to size. She just needed Vik's help.

"Vik, can you get that thing to move!" She called out to the quarian.

Vik looked to the crane and back again.

"I need to find the controls!" He explained. "One second!"

He activated his Helmet's scanners and searched about the room, tracing the connected power source from the crane system to a junction box and then a control panel nearby.

"Got it!" He said.

"Wrex, cover him!" Liara ordered.

Wrex roared aloud and fired a carnage blast at the Hazard Merc. The explosion, rocked the platform and forced the mercenary to turtle behind his shield once more. He started shooting fireballs once again, this time at the krogan who had dared wrong him. The shots landed all around Wrex as he tried to get out of his range, firing as he did so.

Vik in the meantime had made a dash for the junction box, prying it open and switching on the power. The control panel lit up seconds later and Vik rush towards it. Taking up the switches in hand, he began moving the crane and its oversized bucket into position. The mechanism creaked and swayed in the air, although not nearly as in wide a berth as Liara would've liked. Probably because, on close inspection, the thing looked like it was overdue for a tune up.

They had no time to oil down the machine though, Liara just needed it in position. Nel, Wrex and Saya kept the Mercenary distracted in any case, his focus solely on stopping them from getting any further into the facility. Now and then, Kayap jumped up to shoot at him, further dividing his attention. His frustration bubbled up to the point he was switching between both functions of his flame thrower at a rapid pace.

Finally, Vik got the crane into position, just close enough to the mercenary for Liara's plan to work. They'd only get one shot at this of course, chances were the Flametrooper would back off once he realized he could potentially expose himself to enemy fire. So Liara intended to make this first hit hurt like hell, enough that he wouldn't recover in time.

She sent a biotic throw flying into the crane's mechanism. It struck it hard enough to force it into a swing. There was a metallic groan as the crane's bucket shifted and swayed in the air, before finally swinging back. The mercenary heard the commotion and saw the bucket heading right at him. He tried to move, managing to miss the bucket's first swing at him. He zeroed in on Liara as the person who had set the wheels in motion. He aimed his flamethrower at her. The Asari readied her biotic barriers to block the incoming attack.

Then, just as the merc pulled the trigger, the bucket swung back, and smashed the tunnel-visioned turian right in the face. The flametrooper spun about, his Firestorm spitting flames everywhere as he did. He ended up pressed against the railing, his back towards Vik and the control panel, his hands grasping at the railing to keep himself from falling over and his weapon hanging by its hose at his side.

"Vik! Shoot!" Liara shouted.

The quarian, somewhat surprised the shot fell to him, fumbled with his shotgun for a moment before firing letting off a blast. The strike hit the pack, and some gas did leak out, but not caught on fire. The Hazard Merc rose up to try and return for on Vik with his flamethrower, only for another round to lodge into his pack. It had been fired by Saya, who had quickly moved into position to attempt his own shot. As the merc stumbled forward from the impact, Vik got another chance to shoot. He unloaded another spread into the pack and this time it caught on fire. Seconds later, as the mercenary tried to rip the ticking time bomb off of him, the flame pack exploded.

The mercenary was now on fire, a literally walking inferno. Liara wasn't sure how, but he wasn't screaming, perhaps the suit was protecting him somewhat from the flames. Even immolated, the turian's sense of duty did not waver. He pulled out a small submachine gun and began blasting like mad. His resolve probably wouldn't last for long, the fire would eventually consume him, but given that he seemed determined to keep fighting that was of little consequence.

Liara did the only thing she could do to stop him for good at this stage. With his shield gone, he was open to biotic attacks at last. She sent another biotic throw at him, striking him dead center. It was enough to send him over the railing and into one of the vats below. Seconds after hitting the liquid, the vat ignited its own inferno, the heat singing at their skin and blinding them all slightly.

Mostly, they were just grateful that the suit the merc was wearing probably muffled his agonized screams.

"Get to the lab!" Liara ordered, not missing a beat. "Go! Now!"

The team ran from the burning vat, running towards the exit as warning sirens blared aloud and fire suppression systems activated. Water poured down from above in a spectacular indoor rainstorm, drenching all within. As they reached the doorway, Saya used his sword to spread explosive gel in key weakpoints in the catwalk. Once they were through the door, he detonated the gel, causing the platform to explode and then collapse.

"Quick thinking, that should keep Cerberus from following us for a bit longer," Liara told him.

"How far until the lab?" Wrex asked the asari.

"Just down the corridor here," she explained. "We get in, find the bioweapon and destroy any research they have. Just in case they have a backup plan, we can at least put a damper on them making a new bomb."

The team headed off to the lab, hoping it was the last stretch before they could finally put an end to this mad scheme of Orukuri's, what it was.

The bio-lab itself was pristine in nature. Various levels of decontamination, huge centrifuges, various closed off mixing chambers that needed robotic arms to operation, a few acid baths, VykurCorp was many things but you could at least say they weren't cheap. At least when it came to biological warfare anyway. No surprise really, when you want to create a weapon that could kill thousands, maybe millions, it was best not to cut corners lest it kill you first before it ever got to its target.

Liara and her team passed through decontamination quickly, cool spray covering them as they hurried through the central tube into the main lab. It was likely this was to prevent contaminants from outside getting into the room and spoiling the samples within. The real danger was of course inside the room proper.

As a precaution, Liara placed a protective breathing mask over her face and the others made sure to seal their own suits before entering the lab directly. If the bioweapon or the anti-dextro strain was inside the room, they couldn't take chances. And even though the strain's nature made it more of a danger to Vik and Nel than anyone else, they couldn't be sure what Orukuri's tests had done to it. Worse still it was possible there were worse biological substances inside that were a danger to everyone else regardless.

However, they were clearly more immediate and obvious dangers. For instance, the room was full of VykurCorp mercenaries, taking up defensive positions within the center of the lab. A threat that became very apparent to everyone once they all started shooting at them. The squad ran for cover behind the counters and lab equipment.

Peering over her cover, Liara spotted what appeared to be their intended target, a large metal box in the center of the room where all the Mercenaries were centered. That was the bomb, or at least what she expected was the bomb. The hazardous material signs dotting the outside more or less confirmed it.

"It's here!" She told the others. "We need to get to it before they extract it!"

"Only one way to do that," Wrex said, reloading a fresh thermal clip into his claymore. "Forward!"

Wrex vaulted over the counter, smashing a microscope with his giant foot. He screamed bloody murder as he charged forward, his roar echoing throughout the room. His first shotgun blast ripped through one of the VykurCorp mercs with ease. When one tried firing back, a biotic shockwave ripped up the ground beneath the turian and sent him hurtling head first into the ceiling.

Wrex's charge precipitated the others following him into the breach. Saya got the furthest in thanks to his cloak, appearing beside one of the mercs who had set up a stationary gun emplacement. The salarian slashed his opponent across the face and torso before kicking the turret's barrel to face one of the other mercenaries. Taking up the controls he unloaded a full burst into the turian before releasing the weapon and stabbing his sword backwards into the gut of a third mercenary sneaking up from behind.

Nel cleared the other end of the room, letting her Cryobeam do the talking. She froze individual mercenaries as they tried to poke out of cover to shoot her. Instead, they became icy statues, easy prey for her to race into and smash with her omni-blades. As mercs near the centrifuges fired back at her, she shifted tactics. She used her assault rifle to strafe the targets, forcing them to back down. She then blasted off into the air before crashing down into their positions, impaling one of their number on her blades. As she stood up, she slashed at the neck of a second merc and then kicked a third into the side of the giant centrifuge. She impaled him on her blade next before tossing the body into another of the mercs. As he struggled to get his friend off of him, Nel ran over to plant two bullets in his brain with her rifle.

Vik covered Kayap as they moved in behind Wrex. The quarian's drone provided additional support as they tried to take another of the turrets that had been set up near the bomb's container. A quick sabotage application attack managed to cause the turret to backfire and explode in the face of its operator. Vik then used his shotgun to gun down the next merc that tried to take up the controls of the weapon.

At the same time, Kayap used his needler gun to seek out outlier mercenaries. The purple spikes sought out and embedded themselves in the turians. Moments later, a hot pink mist was all that remained of the mercenaries unfortunate enough to get pegged. One of the mercs attempted to get the drop on Kayap, sneaking onto Vik and he Unggoy's flank behind a counter. He jumped up, ready to fire, only for Vik to turn suddenly and gun him down with his shotgun, sending his body crashing back down to the floor.

Liara went up the middle, using her biotics to clear the way. She threw mercenaries across the lab, smashing them into glass panes separating different sections. She froze others in place with stasis, leaving them for Wrex to deal with once they became vulnerable. The krogan didn't let her down, he finished them quickly once they crumpled to the floor. She finished off another of the mercenaries by pulling them towards her and using him to block the incoming shots, she then threw his body back into the same merc who had just filled him full of holes.

All the while she never broke her stride, she was done playing games with Orukuri and his little conspiracy. Whatever he was planning was about to fall apart without that bomb. Nothing would stop her from getting it. She marched through the last of the mercenary defenders, firing a singularity at them to lift them into the air before filling them all full of lead from her pistol in quick succession of one another. As their bodies fell to the floor, the singularity giving way, she approached their objective.

The bomb container, at least that's what she assumed. Although the warning labels and various security locks was a good indicator she was right. She waved Vik over to her, pointing to the box's lock. Vik quickly set to work, hacking the keycode pad situated on the side of the container. They needed to be sure it was inside before they could get it out of here. In a few short minutes, Vik had cracked it. The container soon opened with a hiss, cold refrigerated air rushed out, as did a misty fog that had been trapped within. Liara looked inside the container as it cleared.

Nothing.

There was nothing inside the container. It looked like something had been there, but it was gone now. It was... empty.

"What the hell?" Nel shouted as she peered inside herself. "They were guarding an empty box?"

"Maybe this isn't where it's stored," Wrex suggested.

Liara looked to Vik for confirmation.

"Is there someway to find out if it was in here?" She asked.

Vik checked the container's records and serial number of the side.

"This is marked extremely hazardous," he explained. "Its coded as S3 Materials, code for Strain-S3 no doubt. It was in here, but they removed it. Says here the container was opened last night and then closed again. They didn't log that they took the bomb out, they made their people still think it was here."

"Why would they do that?" Kayap asked.

"So they'd still fight to keep it safe," Liara reasoned. "But that still doesn't make sense. Did they know we were coming? That Cerberus was coming?"

"They could've evacuated everyone then," Nel stated. "Why waste good men protecting something that's not on site?"

Liara didn't know, but she didn't like it, not one bit. Something was incredibly wrong here, unfortunately they had no time to figure it out. They had another objective and they couldn't waste time mulling over a lost opportunity.

"We head to the records room," she ordered. "It might have what we need to figure this out anyway. Footage, a shipping manifest, information on the intended target, someway we can track the bomb."

"Let's go then," Wrex said. "We're wasting time here."

Unfortunately, as they turned, the entrance to the lab exploded open. Lurching out of the hole appeared a single Cerberus Exosuit. Somehow, the pilot had managed to drag the thing all the way here, despite every conceivable obstacle in its way. From the scuff marks on the armor and turian blood smeared on the machine's boot, it was clear the pilot had not had the easiest of times.

"You think he'll leave us alone if we tell him the box is empty?" Nel asked.

The exosuit's wrist guns were now pointed at the squad. The pilot inside let loose a blazing burst of death across the lab, for the team to seek shelter wherever they could. They could hear the Cerberus soldier inside the tin can screaming like a madman, barely coherent as he stomped further into the room.

"I think that's a hard no, Nel," Vik replied.

"And thus the diplomatic process breaks down," the turian sighed. "Tragedy really."

"Quit yakking and help me kill it!" Wrex ordered. "I've had it up to here with these damn Cerberus robot suits!"

Wrex popped up to fire a carnage blast that struck the exosuit dead center. That damaged the armor somewhat, but mostly it was just to create a momentary distraction so the krogan could ram right into the suit. Being Wrex it was, of course, head first, cracking the bulletproof glass of the machine somewhat in the process. He then began pummeling it with his fists and his head.

Determined to help, the team sprung into action. Vik had his drone harass the exosuit from behind while Saya moved in as well, keep his sword's electrical current active. Unfortunately, Wrex's proximity made other options difficult.

"I don't have a shot," Kayap said, holding his new plasma weapon up.

"Don't," Liara told him. "That thing is too close to us and we can't risk firing it in here anyway. There could be other contaminants."

The exosuit pilot eventually batted Wrex away from him, only for Saya to dig his sword into his leg. The electrical shot shorted out the machine for a moment, giving the Salarian a chance to destroy the most devastating weapon the suit had. He rushed up along the exosuit's back and sliced off the cannon with one clean swish. As it clattered to the floor though, the metallic hands of the exosuit reached up and grabbed Saya, pulling him off.

As the exosuit began to squeeze the salarian, however, Wrex came back in with a shoulder check. The hit was so powerful, it forced the pilot to drop the STG operative. When the Cerberus soldier steadied his rig again, he found the krogan standing in front of him.

"I'm gonna peel you right out of that can, you little late night holovision dinner!" He screamed, before coming at the exosuit again.

This time, Wrex delivered a biotic punch that threw the exosuit into an opposing support pillar. The machine raised his wrist gun to fire, but it backfired instead. The arm gun was now on fire, at least until suppressant foam activated and put it out. The one responsible for the malfunction, Vik, continued to fire on the machine with his shotgun.

"You like that, bosh'tet?!" He shouted over his shots. "There is no dumb machine you racist warmongers can make that I can't break!"

The exosuit stomped forward, forcing Vik to stumble backwards or risk being crushed. The Cerberus tried again, but the quarian rolled under the metal foot just in time. He popped up behind the machine and fired another blast right into its back, hitting one of its power junction points. At this point Vik retreated, the Exosuit shorting out as he did. The pilot turned to find him, only for Wrex to tackle the machine once more.

"You keep forgetting me, dumbass!" Wrex chortled. "Can't handle so many dance partners at once or something?"

The exosuit kicked Wrex off of him, but the lack of the krogan was only met with Nel opening fire on him instead. She unloaded several rounds of ammunition into the suit before the pilot managed to stand it up. He aimed his only working wrist machine gun once more, firing it at the turian. Nel rolled into cover as the tracers followed her, the bullets ripping at her the counter she was behind.

However, it at least took the pilot's attention off Liara who used a biotic throw to knock the Exosuit off balance, ending the machine's barrage. When the pilot rose to continue firing, Nel was ready for him. She used her cryobeam on the exosuit's arm, freezing it solid.

"You didn't just get the cold shoulder, dipstick! You got the whole arm!" Nel laughed, before quickly adding. "None of you dare judge me! That was fucking funny!"

Wrex ran and grabbed the exosuit's frozen arm and smashed it with his elbow in one quick motion. The arm shattered to pieces, the cryobeam having compromised its integrity completely. As icy bits of metal and wire fell to the floor, Wrex followed up his devastating attack with another krogan charge, this one powered by biotics.

The exosuit was sent hurtling into the wall. Wrex then grabbed the other arm and started pulling hard. He ripped the arm from its socket and then used it to strike the exosuit. As the machine spun around, Wrex grabbed it by the leg and and started firing his claymore into it. Two clean blasts and then a powerful stomp to the knee joint broke the leg off. Wrex then went over to the cockpit and finally smashed the windshield with one final headbutt. The pilot, now exposed tried to fiddle around for his gun holster, but it was already too late. Wrex grabbed him by his collar and pulled him out of the suit entirely.

"Told you I was gonna do it."

The krogan than threw the Cerberus stooge into one of the large centrifuges to the left of the room, smashing his skull on impact. Now, like his machine, he lay on the ground, beaten and broken. Dusting himself off, Wrex turned to his compatriots.

"Well, decent workout," he said. "So, where's the records room?"

"A bit aways, but we can make it," Liara assured him. "Come on."

"Also, that was so cool right there," Nel told Wrex. "Like one of those big monster vids, but downsized and I got to be involved."

"Bask in my glory later," Wrex told her. "Records! Now!"

Nel just saluted and followed Liara and the others. The bomb might have been a bust, but they could still get what they came here for. Proof of where VykurCorp was sending the bomb. Of what Orukuri's ultimate plan was. They could still prevent whatever horrible attack was on the horizon. They just needed to act quickly and decisively.

Saya spread the explosive gel across the crease in the door. Seconds later, he detonated it, opening their way into the records room proper. Servers lined the halls as red carpeting went down the middle. Administrator desks and access terminals were nearby, dotted along the main hall. There were also a number of VykurCorp mercs inside, determined to make their last stand against any and all intruders. Liara knew better than to stretch this out. They had already lost one prize; they weren't going to give them a chance to destroy another.

A biotic throw lashed out and sent several mercs flying. Liara ran in firing her pistol at the flailing forms in the air. Wrex charged in next, a carnage shot to announce his arrival before he leapt up and then crashed down near a few other mercenaries close to the door.

"Take them all down! Now!" Liara ordered, continuing to fire her pistol.

Saya ran forward with his sword, using his cloak to hide his movements. He slashed through one mercenary as he fired wildly and cut through the neck of another as he fell. Pulling out his pistol he continued to fire on other mercs, even as Wrex sent another carnage shot into the enemy ranks.

Kayap charged into as well, using his grenade launcher instead of his new heavy weapon. He held back to provide fire support, blowing the mercenary squads out of their cover with shot after shot. Nel backed him up, blazing a glorious stream of fire against the enemy combatants. She eventually activated her jets and rocketed into the middle of the enemy squads. She landed on one of the mercs with her foot first before using her cryobeam to freeze three more of their numbers in their tracks. She then used her assault rifle to shatter all of them within the span of a few seconds.

Nearby, Vik was running into the fray, shotgun in hand. He blew away one mercenary, but another jumped out from behind and tried to stab him with an omni-blade. Vik used his gun to block the assailants slash and then activated his drone. The ball of energy appeared close enough to deliver a point-blank blast to the turian's face, blinding him. Vik finished him off with a shotgun blast to the gut and continued his attack. He managed to kill two more of the mercs before he ran into cover.

Liara was close behind him, using her biotics to carry her the rest of the way. The mercenaries were closer now, in her face. Biotic punches sent them flying back. She stasised others to deal with later, firing on others as they attempted to stop her. When the stasis field dropped, she turned to fire on the downed mercenaries. She then used a singularity to pull a few more turians out of their cover and allowed Saya to gun them down with his sniper rifle.

Before long the squads guarding the room were trimmed down to a trio of defenders. That trio soon became two when Nel impaled him on her omni-blades as she rocketed into him. Then two became one after Saya threw his sword right into a merc's head. The one fired wildly at Liara as she approached the main console. The Asari simply shot his kneecaps before sending a biotic throw to knock him into a wall.

The whole fight was quick, bloody, close and mad. In the end though, only Liara's team was left standing. They were, however, mentally spent as much as physically. They all converged on the main terminal with Liara, stepping over the bodies of their enemies as they did.

"So, can we get inside now?" Nel asked, panting as she spoke.

Vik hooked the machine up to his omni-tool and began cracking the code. It took some time, the encyrption was rather difficult to bypass. However, once Vik connected Coda wirelessly into the system, the Huragok managed to tear down what was left of the security and opened the entire server to them.

"We're in," the quarian reported. "Coda just keeps coming through for us. We now have full access to everything. I'm searching for all references concerning Strain-S3 and the bioweapon it was used to create."

"Do we know what happened to the bomb?" Liara asked.

Vik hit a few commands and brought up a video file. It showed a number of labcoats carting the bomb out of its container and moving out the backdoor. The bomb itself was hexagonal in shape, black and blocky. At least they knew what it looked like now.

"Alright, so they did take it," Liara grimly confirmed. "Question is where?"

"Still searching on that," Vik reported. "There's... there's a lot in here. Lab reports, toxicology, strain combinations..."

"Combinations?" Nel asked. "They were trying to pair the fucking thing up with something else?"

"S3 is a compound, remember?" Vik reminded her. "It needs to be attached to a biological agent to be effective. A virus, bacteria, parasite, something that can help it spread."

"What did they pair it with?" Wrex asked.

Vik brought up a number of charts, all with varying reports on the effectiveness of various genetic splicing options available to VykurCorp.

"A lot actually," the quarian answered. "Easier to point to a virus they didn't attempt to pair it with."

One of the viruses stood out to Liara, specifically its place of origin as detailed in the reports.

"Omega?" She said, her brow raised. Her eyes turning to the title. "The Omega Plague?"

"I heard about that during my time there," Vik noted. "It was a nasty disease that infected a whole floor of the station. Practically wiped out the local Blue Sun chapter there."

"Yes, I know," Liara acknowledged. "Shepard killed it though."

Worse, she recalled how the plague on Omega was actually Collector in origin. Which meant it was Reaper in origin. Chances were the Reapers provided the plague to the Covenant to give to Orukuri. Another layer to this twisted web of deceit. The Covies got VykurCorp Strain-S3 and the means to weaponize it. They just tried out a bunch of other possible candidates first, probably to make sure they didn't owe the Covenant TOO much. Although, owning too much to the Covenant would explain why Orukuri had offered to assist in their little artifact hunt. That way they'd owe him for a change.

"Well they got their hands on it now," Nel concluded. "Where'd they send the bomb?"

"I'm not sure," Vik confessed. "But I do have some ideas given what I'm looking at here."

He brought the images up onto the screen. They revealed a number of cities, along with scenario projections. Ground Zero, the initial spread, the pattern over the next few days, weeks, months. Of course, it depended on weather patterns, which shifted projections slightly.

The key one though, the target that seemed to be favored in all the notes, stuck out like a sore thumb. The city of Ciptrine, the Capital of the Turian Homeworld, Palaven, that was the attack site most favored. So long as it was on one date in particular... Unification Day.

"Oh fuck no," Nel realized as she looked at the projection image. "They picked Ciptrine... on Unification Day. And from the looks of it they want to set it off in the city center! There's gonna be hundreds of thousands of turians there! Not to mention millions more coming in from all over! Museums, memorials, parks, military cemeteries, they're all gonna be fucking packed!"

"Prime slaughterhouse real estate," Wrex said darkly. "No wonder it became the favorite and why Orukuri was pushing to get everything ready in time for the Holiday."

"Maybe it's not ready," Nel tried to convince herself. "Maybe we still have time!"

"From the looks of things, they're gearing up for the final stage," Vik cautioned.

He brought up a number of message files, as well as detailed maps and battleplans. They laid out a plan of attack for a number of Separatist cells already on Palaven, waiting to make their move. Systematic assaults set for the height of total saturation of the biological attack. They'd sweep through the city, ensuring the death toll would just keep rising.

Nel looked stunned.

"What about the weapon?" Liara asked.

Vik searched a bit and found something. The file read "Test Trial #523" in big bold lettering. He shuddered to think what was on it, but it was the most recent file labelled as a test. He pressed play.

Soon, the vid started running on the holoscreen above them, showing VykurCorp scientists inside the very bio-lab they had just raided. The scientists were fiddling with some technical machinery and there was a large chamber in the back of the room they had set up. Some guards led a turian inside, he looked to be a prisoner of some kind given his jumpsuit. Probably bought from some corporate-run incarceration facility in the Terminus. Less chance of him being traced back to this place.

Everyone suspected what was coming when the prisoner was strapped to a chair and the room sealed off. They wanted to look away, but could. In moments, a sicky green gas poured into the chamber as the labcoats activated a switch. A close-up of the poor doomed turian's face appeared, showing him struggling in vain. There was thankfully no sound on the video, because they could tell he was screaming. His plates started peeling off, layer by layer. Blood poured from his eyes next. Then his nose. His mouth followed next. He kept struggling, screaming, eventually he pulled himself free of the restraints, but it was too late. The prisoner pounded on the glass, but his body started degrade further, his exoskeleton was soon laid completely bare, his skin and flesh melting off in front of everyone. The labcoats all just watched, staring, unflinching.

Finally, mercifully, the turian collapsed to the floor, little more than twitching flesh and a puddle of blood. Strain-S3 had done what it promised, it attacked the turian on a cellular level, destroying him from the inside out. Worse, it was attached to a plague virus known to target aliens, turians especially. The strain seemed to speed up natural symptoms, coughing blood most especially. It was horrifying.

"The fuckers," Nel said in shock. "They're really fucking going through with this shit? They're going to do that to everyone? Are they fucking serious?!"

"Preliminary notes state they started trying to slow the effects over a longer, more agonizing period. That was the basis of the rest of their research," Vik explained, reading from the documents. "They're trying to embed S3 deeper into the genetic code so its stages take longer to fully activate. At the moment, it depends on the level of direct exposure. The further away you are from ground zero, the longer you live... and the more pain you're in until you die essentially."

"So how long does it take to work now from the initial point of origin?" Liara asked.

"A couple of minutes, barely," Vik answered, a cold anger rising in his voice. "According to the bosh'tets, they want to maximize the shock value. Slower deaths create more fear, according to their market research or whatever. Keelah, this is horrible."

"I'm so glad you're taking the time to admire all our hard work."

The voice was familiar, sly, smooth, the consummate business man. Liara remembered it from Khar'Shan, at the summit. Moments after hearing, Orukuri's holographic image appeared on the holoscreen, replacing the information Vik had pulled up. The CEO simply waved at them from above.

"Dr. T'Soni, how good of you to come," He said a grim smile. "You got yourself a preview of how the world is about to change forever."

Nel spoke first before Liara could, her rage boiling over.

"Bastard! How could you do this?" She demanded to know. "You're going to kill so many innocents! So many of our people! And you just sit there looking fucking smug about? You're a fucking monster!"

"No, I'm a patriot," Orukuri claimed. "The last real Turian patriot actually. The one willing to make the hard sacrifice to save us all."

"How is unleashing a biological weapon that will kill millions saving anyone?" Liara demanded to know. "I would really love to know how a so-called 'patriot' justifies any of this!"

"I can see why you're so short-sighted, you don't see the full scope of the plan," Orukuri explained. "Therefore, at the risk of sounding cliché, allow me to elaborate."

Orukuri clicked a few commands on a console on his side of the call. Uploading an image of Xeltravius along with a promo ad for the Unification Day Event on Palaven. Ever the businessman, it was clear what he was doing. He was making a sales pitch for his terror attack.

"In two days time, the notorious Xeltravius of the Colonial Liberation Coalition, will unleash a viral agent into the crowded city square of Ciptrine," Orukuri explained rather pleasantly. "The bomb will go off shortly after a sniper kills Primarch Fedorian, while he's making a speech to the assembled crowd. The resulting death toll, leaderless government and panic in the streets will become only more catastrophic once the CLC get boots on the ground. But... they will not be alone."

He next showed insignia for the Blood Pack, Eclipse Sisterhood and Cerberus.

"Krogan, a few surviving Asari of a criminal gang who assisted the CLC in acquiring biotic boosting drugs and the notorious Human Supremacist group, Cerberus, will be fighting alongside the Separatists," Orukuri declared dramatically. "Past enemies of the Turian Hierarchy working together with racial representatives of our so-called allies. Such a symbolic warning of our complacency, isn't it?"

"But Cerberus doesn't work for you!" Vik shouted aloud, but then his mind clicked things together. "Unless... they're not really Cerberus, are they?"

"No, the Cerberus forces attacking Ciptrine with the CLC will be human freelance mercenaries I have hired to fill out the ranks," Orukuri confirmed. "But, no one will be able to figure that out or even try looking into it. Not when Xeltravius' forces are preoccupying everyone as they destroy the city using advanced alien technology."

"The Covenant weapons you developed and handed over to him," Liara reasoned.

Orukuri just smiled broader.

"You do catch on quick, T'Soni," he complimented.

"So what?" Nel asked, spiting venom in her tone. "You and Xeltravius fucking break up the Hierarchy in the chaos? Bring a return to the fucking dark ages? Make all the colonies starting warring with one another again over bullshit squabbles from ancient times? That's your whole fucking deal, Mr. True Patriot?"

Orukuri frowned at the accusation.

"My intention is not to break the Hierarchy apart, only to reform it," he corrected most defensively. "As the chaos reaches a tipping point, my VykurCorp PMC Forces will step in to return order to the streets. We will hunt down and kill the Separatists and their leaders, Xeltravius included. His allies will have... abandoned him by that point. Well, not the fake Cerberus soldiers anyway, they all have to die of course, tying up loose ends and all that. We'll also have an antidote to cure all those inflicted by the strange killer strain of virus unleashed by the terrorists. By then it'll probably be called 'The Melting Plague' or something. We're working on the title."

Now things became clear, especially to Vik.

"It's a false flag," the quarian declared accusingly. "You use the CLC to launch the attack and take the fall. Then you rush in, save everyone with a convenient vaccine you just happen to have while you kill all the terrorists! And then, I'm assuming, you also discover the origin of the S3 Strain as well."

"I'd add that we'd wait long enough for it to seem reasonable to most people timeline wise for the development of an antidote, but yes," Orukuri confirmed. "Once everything dies down, the truth will be revealed. That Cerberus stole a weapon that was developed by Salarians to kill turians. Worse, they gave that weapon to the CLC. Who then combined their efforts with krogan and asari led criminal gangs. All conspiring to attack our homeworld on our most sacred and hallowed of days. It will be a crushing blow to national pride and any faith turians have left in the so-called Galactic Council."

"Because Strain-S3 is a Salarian invention," Liara said, continuing the line of reasoning. "Stolen by Humans and given to Separatists. Whose biotic fighters will be boosted physically by drugs provided to them by Asari criminals. You're hoping that's enough to make turians start clamoring for a race war?"

"With the government in chaos and my people the only ones maintaining order, it's the natural response," Orukuri claimed, rather sure of his prediction and himself. "Someone has to take the blame for all this, that will be the old Hierarchy leadership. All because they compromised the strength of our people by allying ourselves with the interests of species who's agendas conflict with our own. The Hierarchy was stronger when it stood for Turians alone. We have been forced into a galactic community that has only weakened our proud people. It is time to cut the Council loose and this will be the first blow. Once people see how much stronger we are when we put ourselves first, the rest will follow."

"With you in charge, I'm guessing?" Bel asked, balling her fists.

Orukuri just shrugged.

"Why not? I made it all possible," he stated. "It seems only fair. Who better to guide us into the new dawn?"

"How about your boss?" Wrex asked. "He writes your paycheck. I'm guessing this is his whole idea anyway."

Orukuri just laughed at the notion.

"Oh please, Alkatinian is far too busy with other matters," he claimed rather dismissively. "I love the kid. He's a bright young prospect and he's led the company well over the years. But he doesn't understand like I do, he has too much faith in how things are now. It's sad really to see him so naive. But this operation will open his eyes, as it will open many eyes."

Liara could only shake her head in disbelief. Not at the fact Alkatinian Vykurias, the President of VykurCorp, wasn't involved. She had figured Orukuri was running the main thrust of the Conspiracy at the company for a while now. No, she just couldn't understand the motive.

"I still don't see how you're a patriot," she claimed, glaring at him. "You're going to kill millions of your fellow turians all to trick them into hating the Council. Even if that works, which it won't, why go to these lengths? Why do any of this? These kinds of beliefs don't come out of thin air over night. This plan doesn't just spring forth from the ether at will. Why do this, Orukuri? Why betray your own people like this?"

Orukuri only frowned in anger.

"You dare ask me why?" He growled lowly. "I'd think someone who works for the Shadow Broker would know enough at some point. Do you have any idea what I've been through? What I've lost?"

"We know you lost a son," Liara answered astutely. "But he died with full military honors, a fate every Turian can only wish for. We-"

"Wrong! Lies! All of it!" Orukuri screamed in a rage. "My son's death was not honorable, not glorious, it was not as it should've been. It was a sacrifice that has tainted everything my son and his service was meant to stand for!"

The statement came as a shock to everyone. Orukuri's son had not died in an honorable manner? That contradicted the report entirely. Was it another lie? Like how a lot of Nel's record had been blacked out and classified? It turned out to be more complicated than that though, as Orukuri explained. His smug smile now fully replaced with a pained grimace.

"Zoltriax was my only son, I'm sure you knew that," he began, looking a bit choked up. "When I first heard of how he died I was devastated. But like most parents, I took solace in knowing he died defending our people. He sacrificed so others may live. It should have been a noble end. But then I learned the truth."

"What truth?" Vik asked.

"That my son did not die where they said he died doing what they claimed he was doing," Orukuri growled in anger. "One of his squadmates came to tell me what had happened. What really happened. He felt I deserved to know. That Zoltriax and his team had been hand picked for a Joint Species Taskforce, made up of all four races serving on the Council. They were trying to protect a human colony in the Terminus, not turians, humans. Command wanted to keep the mission quiet, given that the Council isn't allowed to operate out there. My son was killed serving not his people, not the Hierarchy, but the will of the Council."

"But... he still died honorably," Nel stated. "Just because it wasn't for other turians-"

"My son only died because he was sent to protect the interests of a bunch of stupid primates who didn't know better not to step where they didn't belong!" Orukuri screamed in a rage. "He died because the Hierarchy felt it was better to make friends with the damn humans than to serve the needs of its own citizens! He would've lived had they not sent him there! And then they lied to me about what happened! They lied about his service because they knew... they knew how people would react sending turian soldiers to die for fucking aliens!"

Orukuri's pain was evident on his face, the strain in his eyes said he was trying his best not to cry. He was barely succeeding. Liara was not unsympathetic to the man, but that didn't make him in the right.

"Your son's death is a tragedy, but the Council didn't kill him and neither did those human colonists," she tied to inform him. "None of those people who are going to be in the square are responsible either. How does killing them avenge your son?"

"You don't get it, asari," Orukuri spat. "Your kind never have, all your pretentious nonsense about community and togetherness and coexistence. Your people have used our blood to solve your problems since the Krogan Rebellions and criticized us for every action you're too weak to enact yourselves. You need us more than we need you. The Council has done nothing but keep turians under their thumb, forcing us to be their attack dogs. Now they're wasting turian lives to defend humans, their new little pets. And we've accepted it, we've allowed it. I'm stopping that."

He now stood resolute, commanding, assured of his righteousness as his head held itself high.

"Two days from now, we will reaffirm what Unification Day meant for all Turians," he declared, shoving his fist into the air. "Turians united as one against all odds. Palaven and its inner colonies first, turians first, no blood for aliens. We will no longer spend lives on other colonies for races that don't deserve to be out here. Who haven't earned it like we did! We'll annihilate the Separatists, humiliate the human supremacists of Cerberus and expose the Council for the rotting influence it truly is. The Hierarchy will be reborn. We will make it great once again!"

"And all the turian lives you'll kill in the process to make that happen?" Liara asked. "Where does that figure into your scheme? How does that make any sense with your goals?"

"They'll at least die for Palaven and for our people's future," Orukuri stated. "It's what my son was denied. If they must be sacrificed to achieve this end, so be it."

Nel held her chin and nodded her head.

"Oh, now I get it," she said, sounding fairly sardonic in her reply. "You're completely butt-fucking insane. I was worried this shit wouldn't make sense, but now it's all very clear. Fuck, Vik, you can never make fun of the villains in my Vids again. This fucker just won the grand prize in the Major League Certified Whacko Games."

"Call me whatever you like," Orukuri snorted. "It's already too late."

"We have everything we need to expose you and your plan," Liara informed him. "You're done, Orukuri. Once we tell the Hierarchy about this, they'll hunt down the CLC and the bomb and destroy you."

But the CEO looked unphased by the threat. In fact, he smiled sinisterly at Liara in response.

"I don't think they will, T'Soni," he claimed in a sickeningly upbeat tone. "They'll be far too busy going after you."

Liara perched her brow in confusion.

"You really think I'd spill my whole plan to you out of the blue like this just because you asked?" Orukuri chotled aloud. "No, I'm not an idiot. I'm telling you all this because no one is going to believe you. I mean, you did steal the bomb after all."

"What? No we didn't," Kayap said. "Your people took it before we got here!"

"No, no, I'm quite sure you stole the bomb today," Orukuri replied. "Yes, you broke into this facility, Liara T'Soni, known Shadow Net associate, right-hand to the Shadow Broker himself. You were working with Cerberus, assisting them in assaulting this place. And I have the footage to prove it in fact."

Security footage played next to Orukuri. It showed Liara and her team assaulting VykurCorp mercenaries, but only the mercenaries. It had been carefully edited to look like Cerberus was on their side. That they were fighting with the terrorists and not in the middle of the crossfire. All their attacks, the fights, doctored to appear as if they had killed only VykurCorp troops, not Cerberus.

The last image was Liara leading her team into the bio-lab to bust open the container that held the bomb. There were latent images of the ExoSuit they had fought later, but juxtaposed to look like it had assisted them instead of fighting them.

"Yes that is you, T'Soni," Orukuri pointed out. "My, my, you have been a rather naughty girl, haven't you? Giving experimental weaponry to Cerberus of all people, which will soon be found at the site of a CLC attack. How very damning."

"You were prepared for us," Liara presumed.

"When I learned of how the Covenant failed in their assault on the Andromeda Initiative, I knew your clever little quarian would somehow trace things back to me," Orukuri stated plainly. "Balak warned me about the little suit rat's technical skills. He's made quite a name for himself as a nuisance at this point."

Vik snarled beneath his visor at the corporate bosh'tet looming over them.

"I figured I couldn't stop you from attacking the facility and I'd never be able to copy, transfer and delete all the relevant details of the attack in time," Orukuri continued rather briskly. "But I could get the bomb out of there so long as I kept it on the down low. As well as left my mercenaries there to keep guarding it so you wouldn't get suspicious over the lack of security. But then I decided to use the wrinkle as an opportunity, both to cover my tracks and discredit you before you figured out anything concrete to use against me."

That was when everything suddenly made sense to Liara. This whole mess of mission had finally been made clear.

"You called Cerberus," she realized. "You told them where this complex was. You knew they couldn't pass up a chance at it. And you timed it so they'd attack when we did."

"Well I couldn't be sure if you'd both arrive on time, it was a bit of a gamble," Orukuri confessed. "But it paid off, I knew Cerberus and you would be equally determined to strike a blow against me. Even if your interests don't align, your dedication to your mission is more or less the same. Cerberus would attack my facility, I could blame them for stealing my new bio-logical weapons delivery system and I could frame you for helping them. Thus providing me with a perfect alibi for how my technology ended up in their hands. The bonus is, of course, making sure no one in the Hierarchy will believe you when you say otherwise."

"As if anyone is going to believe that footage!" Vik interjected. "I know a dozen people off-hand who could pinpoint the editing abnormalities and clearly doctored sequences in less than a few minutes. All of them amateur vid editing junkies on the extranet. You don't think the Hierarchy doesn't have people who can figure out that you handed them a fake vid you made up?"

"They'll believe it long enough for it to not matter," Orukuri claimed. "Once the attack happens, security and armed forces are going to have a field day just keeping up with the chaos. Figuring out if some vid I've sent them is a forgery will have to wait. By then, it will be too late. I'll be a hero, after all. The turian who saved the Hierarchy. They won't care how I did it by then."

"You are fucking crazy if you believe that crock of shit," Nel spat. "No one is going to remember you as a hero, Orukuri. You've dishonored the oath you took, your people and even your son. Your name is going to be trash from here until doomsday."

"History is written by the victors, young lady," Orukuri replied, a dark reserved tone in his voice. "And I've already won."

"We'll see about that," Liara assured him.

At that moment, an explosion erupted behind them in the hall. It was faint, but they could hear it.

"Oh, it seems your partners in crime are on their way," Orukuri observed. "I better leave, you must have a lot to discuss with your terrorist friends."

"This isn't over, Orukuri," Liara glared. "We will be seeing each other in person very soon."

Orukuri didn't even bother to say anything, he just chuckled under his breath derisively and logged off. Liara turned away, they were done here. They needed to get out while they still had the chance to.

"Vik, have you uploaded everything relevant to the ship?" She asked the quarian.

"Did all of it while he was 'flapping his gums', as the humans would say," Vik reported. "Even if he technically doesn't have any."

"Then pack up and let's go," she ordered. "There's an emergency exit that will take us to the roof. I'm calling in a shuttle now to get us out of here."

They headed out of the records room, leaving it for Cerberus to find. They had done all they could here, they had to go. Time was no longer on their side.

In the chaos and confusion of the assault, Cerberus didn't seem to notice their exfiltration from the facility. They got back to the Lucen safe and sound, but there was no euphoria of victory. Only disgust and anger at everything that had happened.

Liara went to check the newsfeeds and military channels within the Hierarchy. Orukuri had indeed gotten his scapegoat in Cerberus... and her. There was now a secret bulletin handed out to all high-level military commanders within the Hierarchy. She was wanted for questioning about possible information pertaining to an upcoming terrorist attack. Which was basically code for they believed Orukuri's story. She was now the criminal, Palaven's most wanted.

She briefly considered contacting the Hierarchy herself, sharing her side of the story. But because of Orukuri's smokescreen, they'd likely hem and haw over whether or not they could believe her. Worse, they had to have known by now she had prior dealings with Cerberus. Speaking of, her association with Shepard would only make things more volatile. The belief he was still working for the terrorist group had been disseminated among the various intelligence communities within the Council Races for months now. And while it wasn't exactly concrete, it would raise enough doubt about her already tarnished credibility.

Besides, there was no time. They had two days to find the bomb and stop the attack. That was practically no time at all. The longer they wrung their hands trying to go through the proper channels, the more time would slip away from them in the process.

They needed to get to Palaven, find where Xeltravius and his inner circle were congregating at this moment and take them down. If they didn't have the bomb with them, maybe they could at least lessen the severity of the attack and figure out where exactly the CLC was placing the weapon within the square.

She had already laid the course in to the pilot. She just hoped they'd arrive in time.

Cerberus engineers picked apart the Record room console and the data it held within. Meanwhile, the soldiers cleaned up the bodies and searched for T'Soni and her squad. They found nothing, but recovered quite a few interesting bits of tech. The weapons would likely be very useful. They'd probably help in refining their own projects, if they were lucky of course.

As the Cerberus engineers rummaged around in the console though. They found a recording of a previous message that had sent through the quantum entanglement index. It had only been recorded about an hour or so ago, during the final stages of the attack. They were lucky to get it, most everything else had been remotely scrubbed, but their techs had stopped that before it got too far. When they played it back, the information it held was... interesting to say the least. Also a little maddening, as the chief officer in charge attested to.

"We've been played," he growled. He quickly contacted his superior over the radio. "General Petrovsky, the bioweapon was a bust. They moved it before we arrived and that's not all."

He relayed what the message said, how VykurCorp's CEO had used and manipulated them. The General was impressed, but also equally infuriated by the ruse. Not one to take things lying down, he asked the officer if he had more details about the attack Spadivus Orukuri had been so keen to lay out.

"Oh we got a lot, sir," the officer assured him. "Everything about their entire plan of attack in fact."

"Excellent," Petrovsky replied. "Then we have everything we need to turn this little farce into something WE can benefit from."

VykurCorp should've known better. Cerberus was no lapdog for alien schemes. For this little transgression, they were going to do far more damage than Orukuri had planned. And Petrovsky knew just who to contact to get things rolling.

"Send the information to my personal computer," he ordered. "I need to get in touch with Artemis Cell, see if Falco is available for a... little mission."

When VykurCorp's little false flag was unleashed, there would be actual Cerberus soldiers on the ground. Not fake as intended. And they'd make sure every turian knew they weren't here on behalf of the Separatists. Cerberus stood only for humanity, and humanity alone.

Unplugging from the communication socket in the transmitter, the interception call between the officer and the general faded. The Singular stood resolute as he looked over the devastated R&D facility. He couldn't smile, he didn't have the face for it. But he was... euphoric over the whole thing.

He now knew where the perfect weapon for his plans was going. The Asari and her fleshy friends had let it slip away, but he would make sure it fell into the right hands. His of course.

"They always lead me to such very interesting prizes," he chuckled. "I guess leaving them alive was the best call. Of course, once I have that bomb... I suppose they'll be irrelevant."

He gave it some thought over whether or not that was a good situation for him. In the end he decided on.. yes, it was.

"Hmm, I've waited long enough to kill them, I think I've more than earned it," he reasoned. "And I know just who I'll start with."

He brought up an image of Liara's squad that he had pulled from the Facility's security records. He zeroed in on one member, the quarian. He had a genocide to finish after all, might as well start with someone.

OOC: Been a bit hasn't it? Sorry about that. I'm working hard to get back into the swing of things right now and writing up a lot of chapters. Not just with the Wormhole Chronicles either, I'm just eager to write stuff I guess. Get out of my rut and start producing content. I'll see where it leads.

Anywho, we're close to finishing this portion of Liara's quest. I hope you enjoy where we end up with it and what it means for the future. For now, time to head to Palaven and save the day! See you there!