Jupiter Brains All Over The Wall

The Centurions had her armor and helmet aboard the Heavy Raider when she boarded. They lifted off effortlessly with years of practice and they did not react to her striping off her jumpsuit and boots for the hard carapaces of her armor. The weight and feel of the under suit made her stance change, stiffen, straighten. Her assault rifle on her back and heavy pistol on her hip comforted her. She was armed, she was shielded and she was not alone.

She turned to the Centurions that were going to accompany her aboard. “We need to plan this out. When we get aboard two Centurions will stay and guard the ship. The rest of us will meet up with the Turians and release the hostages. Unless they attack us first do not fire on the Turians we want them to trust us.”

They exited the Heavy Raider, weapons drawn with Layla at point. The Collector ship was hive like, a mix of sleek black metal and glowing yellow honey combs. The light from the multitude of glowing sacks paint a sunny glow on the Centurions and their red optics scanning the corridor for hostiles. Her comm buzzed signaling someone was on her frequency.

“This is Commander Mycius of the Parthian Rage, do you copy?” the flanging voice of a turian asked.

“I copy Commander this is Six.” she answered. It was no point in giving them the name she had adopted from Nef. Just let her be another Six model. Just another Cylon.

“Our ship's ladar puts you on the port side of the ship. We'll go around to the starboard side and meet you near the middle.”

“Copy that. Meet you there.” she replied and came around the bend.

There were pods in groups of twos and threes littering the corridor. They were the same pods used to abduct the Colonists from the vids she saw from the Alliance intel network. Some of them were still steaming from recent use. She continued at a quicker pace, wanting to know where the Colonists were. They came around a corner and off to the side like a garbage heap was a mound of human bodies. It was a mash of grey matter and limbs and torsos, some separate from their sibling limbs.

“Dear God.” she gasped.

“What?” Mycius asked.

“Found a mound of discarded bodies.” she choked.

“All human?” the turian asked.

“Yes.” she bent closer to the pile. All of the separation points were clean cuts, no ripping from joints and some of the torsos had been dissected like a science project. “I think they might have been subjects from some sort of experiment.”

“See any hostages?”

“Not yet.” she stood and waved for the Centurions to keep moving.

One of her Centurion brothers took point letting Layla have a chance to fully investigate their surroundings. Off to in her periphery she saw the point Centurion flip out his guns and she heard a strange clicking sound, like a beetles but fleshier. Her right hand reached behind her for her assault rifle and pulled it off its magnetic holster. It unfolded in her grasp, ready for use. A group of Collectors came around the corner, their rifles ready on them.

“Hostiles!” she cried through her comm and opened fire, kneeling in front of the rest of the Centurions so they wouldn't hit her on accident.

The Collectors were not equipped with mass effect shields like she or the Centurions and were quickly put down. Behind them were a trio of work metal tables with consoles. She activated her omni-tool and waved it down the center consoles screen, linking it in with her and through her the hybrid on the baseship. Information rang back and forth through her like waves colliding, raw data and then the translations coming back for her to understand. They were doing genetic comparisons between them and humans but the reasons why eluded her.

“Come on,” she sighed and her omni-tool disappeared.

One of the Centurions had gone on ahead as a scout and came stomping back pointed farther down the corridor and waving to come along She followed his arm upwards to see. Above them in tunnel like structures were dozens of pods, glowing yellow from the inside. The reassurance from the hybrid telling her that there were 300 humans aboard made her rush over to the wall on the nearest alcove. She could hear a few of the Centurions follow after her. With her gloved hands she tried to find enough of a purchase for her to climb up but the spongy cartilage-like structure wouldn't let her. She growled in frustration and and slammed her fist into the wall.

The corridor lifted to a ramp and she followed it upwards where the distance to the alcove was shorter. Even with her increased strength she could barely grab hold of the edge. One of the Centurions grabbed hold of her knees and helped her lift herself up. Without another glance she went up to the pod and tried to peer in. Inside was a Colonist, male, and he was unconscious.

“Oh my God!” she cried and looked for a lip that would operate as a door edge. “I found the Colonists!”

“What?” Mycius asked in disbelief.

“I found some of them! They're in pods with an amber-like substance as a view port.” she replied quickly and pried the pod open.

The Colonist fell forward but she caught him before he could hit the ground. A vapor escaped the inside of the pod with a hiss. The man in her arms groaned and his eyes fluttered open. She helped him to the ground and leaned him against the pod. He shook his head to get rid of the grogginess and looked up at her.

“Who are you? Where am I?” he asked hoarsely.

“My name is Six and you're aboard the Collector's ship but not for long.” she replied calmly. “We are going to get you out of here.”

The man saw her hopeful smile and he reciprocated with a shoddy brother of it. She had to get the man up and moving though he wouldn't be able to do much.

“What's your name?” she asked.

“Hadley, Jeffrey Hadley.”

“What Colony are you from Jeffrey?”

“Ferris Fields.”

She hid her disappointment. He was not from Horizon and she didn't recall a Ferris Fields on the list of colonies. It must have been hit while they were still scouting for the Collector's ship. He tried to get up and had to lean on the pod for support to stay on his feet.

“Stay here and catch your breath.” she soothed and went to another pod.

“Mycius to Six we have contact with hostiles and we've found more of your colonists. They say they're from Horizon.” the turian replied in her ear.

“Do the pods run up to the ceiling?” she asked opening another pod.

“Up to, over, they're everywhere.” he replied. “There is no way we can get all of these pods open without turning off the gravity.”

“Turning off the gravity will also turn off life support.” another turian replied.

“I'd rather not risk it.” Layla laying the colonist on the ground so that Jeffrey could deal with them. She went back over to the ledge and looked down at the Centurions. “See if you can't find a console and hook it up to hybrid. Kill any Collectors you see. We can't let them get near the Colonists. How long until more ships arrive?”

“Little over an hour. If you don't mind me saying Six I have never seen a ship like yours before. What make is it?”

“It's the only one of its kind and it's a secret.” she snapped and saluted the Centurions that split from the group to find the console.

The rest of the Centurions spread out to take guarding positions around the alcoves. Jeffrey followed Layla as she pried open pods and helped out the Colonists. All of them were groggy from their time spent in the pods. Their ages varied, the Collectors didn't discriminate on who they took. Young, old, man, woman, all of them were in the pods. Behind her she heard the whispered voices of some of the Colonists and some were weeping.

“Where's my son?”

“Is she with the Alliance?”

“What happened?”

“My God! Those monsters!”

“We can't just sit here!”

“Do you see these mechs?”

“Jeffrey? Should we help?”

“What's going to happen to us?”

The Colonists' fear was palpable but underneath it she felt the will to survive. It reminded her of New Caprica and the memory made her hands slip on one of the pods. So much suffering, on her part, on the Collectors'...so much suffering. Her actions started to become a routine. Pry open the pod, lay the human down and move on whether they were alive or not. The tunnel bent upwards and she tried to climb higher to get more of the Colonists. Her boots slipped on a pod and she fell. A pod below her stopped her descent but she struck her head and when she prodded the injury and her finger came back wet with blood.

“Are you alright up there?” Jeffrey asked as he came closer.

“Yeah.” Layla moaned and sat up to stare up at the pods above.

They were so close and yet just out of reach. She sighed and activated her omni-tool so that it could disperse medi-gel onto the wound. She had wished that they had medi-gel during the time in the fleet. It could have saved hundreds of bodies and caused less resurrections. Some thirty Colonists, a tenth of the total number on board, stared up at her as she made her way back down.

“Parthian Rage to ground teams.” her comm buzzed. “We have a ship coming out of FTL. It's the Sojourn.”

“Is it big enough to hold the Colonists?” she asked quickly.

“It's an asari cruiser, almost as big as the Destiny Ascension.” Mycius answered.

Layla muted her comm so that the turians couldn't hear her. “My brothers! We need to get the hell out of here!” she shouted jogging over to the edge. The Centurions standing watch looked up at her and at each other.

“We're patching them into the comm.” Peltrasius replied.

“Parthian Rage this is the Sojourn. We are reading that your mass effect drive is down and you have minimum hull damage.” a female sounding voice replied over the comm.

“Affirmative Sojourn.” Peltrasius replied. “We also have a team aboard the Collector's ship releasing human hostages.”

“Copy that Parthian. Deploying available shuttles for pick up.”

The Colonists cheered and started to hug each other in relief. Hopefully their waking nightmare was about to end.

She deactivated the mute so that she could talk to the Rage's Captain. “Six to Parthian Rage there are Colonists from Ferris Fields on the port side of the ship and more of them are still in the pods.”

“Copy that Six,” the turian replied. “Did you read that Sojourn?”

“Copy that Parthian Rage. There looks to be a large opening at the bow of the Collector ship. We'll bring our shuttles there just stay where you are.”

The Centurions that had gone off to find a console reappeared and through her omni-tool gave her a map to the large opening the Sojourn had spoke of. The hybrid also had their FTL drive spun up and ready as did the Heavy Raider that they came in. Layla turned back to the Colonists and muted her comm again.

“I have to leave you now.” she replied. “The Council or the Alliance cannot get a hold of me or my brothers and my ship. I'm going to destroy the Collectors for what they've done but I have to leave to do that. Please don't think that I don't care about you.”

“You should leave before they come after you ma'am.” Jeffrey replied. “We'll be fine. Good luck.”

Layla nodded and jumped down from the ledge. She grinned up at the Centurions and they started back the way they came and their Heavy Raiders. Some of the Colonists followed them a short way but turned back to their fellows to help open up more of the pods that Layla couldn't reach. The Heavy Raider was practically shaking with repressed energy when they came back to it. The flight was fast and Layla could feel it's movement in the pit of her stomach.

As soon as it entered the hangar the baseship jumped leaving the turian and asari vessel alone with the Collector ship. Layla wanted to be long gone from the system and the people she left behind. She wanted to feel warm hands and soft skin against her's instead of form fitting synthetic fabric and armor.