Dead Effect

Dead Effect

Chapter Four

Shepard checked her clock again as the tram slowly ground to a halt at the next station. It had taken fifteen minutes to reach the station from, wherever they started. She'd checked the map during the trip and hadn't found anything of note as to where they'd started.

She'd tried to raise Tali as well during that agonizing time period, and failed miserably. "Something could be jamming our communications." Jack commented once she'd given up, maybe that was it, maybe something aboard the ship was screwing with there comms.

Hell she couldn't even get the rest of the crew anymore. "Either way, we need to get to the bridge. I'm sure if anyone's still alive they'll be there I should wager." And if not they could probably salvage some information on what happened and why such a massive ship was so empty.

The pair didn't make it far, before stumbling across another of the scythe armed creatures. Luckily this one was already dead already. Shepard spared it a worried glance, before lowering her rifle. "Strange…It doesn't look injured, no bullet wounds or the like."

She didn't dwell on the body for long; they had a mission to deal with. And after a moment the commander moved to one side of the corridor and started to inch around it.

As she did so however, the body suddenly let forth a savage cry and sprung back to its feet, one arm lashing out and missing Melina's stomach by inches. Out of instinct she leapt back, though thanks to her current position she simply struck the wall and found herself with nowhere else to go.

Before the creature could strike again however, it's body was enveloped in a shimmering blue force field. As it flailed madly to try and strike Shepard again, it was lifted a few feet off the ground, before suddenly being slammed back into the deck hard enough to break a few bones.

The same blue field surrounded Jack as well, and as it faded she brought her shotgun up and fired a round into the twitching mutant. Melina didn't waste any time bringing her own rifle up and firing as well.

The combined fire from both soon put it down again. Though Shepard knew better this time, and after slamming a fresh thermal clip into her rifle, she fired another burst into the corpse just to be sure.

"Okay…So they don't stay dead forever…" The commander mumbled, before resuming her careful trek around the body, ensuring to give it a nice wide berth just to be safe.

Her companion however was a little less cautions. In fact, Jack made a point of stepping on the creature as she passed, breaking it's neck and somehow severing an arm in the process. Shepard merely cringed and did her best to tune out the loud snapping of bones as she proceeded towards the bridge. "I'm really starting to hate this place…"

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Tali kept quiet for the most part as she followed Isaac through the twisting corridors of the ship. Luckily he seemed to know where he was going, and when she had asked he'd assured her he knew the ship well enough.

They'd only run into a few of the creatures along the way, and luckily the weapon he carried seemed more then capable of ripping them to shreds in seconds. And as she learned, that was the only way to kill them.

"Aim for the limbs, not the body!" He'd shouted midway through the fight with the first, necromorph as he called them. She had obeyed without question, and managed to sever the beast's leg with a well aimed shotgun blast.

"Why the limbs?" The qurian finally summed up the courage to ask minutes later as they wandered the disturbingly empty halls.

"I don't really know. But all the information the crew left behind says so. And aside from that, if it hasn't got arms or legs, it can't hurt you." He'd chuckled at that point, the sound almost as worrying as the monsters due to the suit's audio filter distorting the sound.

It made sense though, even if they couldn't outright kill them, if they couldn't fight back they could escape at least.

'Where exactly are we heading?" She couldn't tell one corridor from the next, and while she put a little faith in the human not leading her astray, she was growing curious about their goal.

"To the tram first of all, then I'm heading down to the medical wing." She could tell he was holding something back, but chose not to push the issue. "I'm not going to make you stick around, but I think it would be better for both of our well beings. After all, there's safety in numbers." Tali couldn't find a reason to argue, after all she didn't know her way around the ship, and she couldn't contact anyone else from the Normandy crew, so he was her only hope of getting out of this alive at the moment.

Somehow, that didn't make her feel better…

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"Guess this is the…Bridge…Whoa." Shepard halted as the doors slid open at her touch and revealed the massive room beyond. It had to be ten times the size of the Normandy's CIC deck alone, and most of it was just open space!

As she advanced further into the room, her gaze fell upon the banks of terminals and various stations the crew would normally work at. Though as she expected, the place was empty." What happened to the crew? Surely someone would have made it through this mess; I mean we've only encountered a few of those things." She commented, her hands gripping her rifle tightly as she scanned the room more thoroughly, this was too easy. It was a massive room and she had the feeling something was just waiting to take a bite out of her neck.

She couldn't see anything save what appeared to be an elevator in the center of the room, sadly it blocked her view of the other side of the bridge and made it difficult to see the area beyond, chances are whatever was waiting for them was hiding behind that.

"Stay low and keep quiet." She whispered into her comm., Jack being the only one who could hear her due to their proximity. Sinking into a crouch, Shepard began to advance slowly.

Nothing at all reacted and after sweeping the bridge she finally stood again and lowered her rifle. "Where the hell is everyone?" Jack called out, causing Melina to wince and briefly shoot a glare towards the biotic.

"Warning: Foreign contaminate detected!" The VI voice called out again, and Shepard groaned as yellow warning lights and alarms kicked in.

"You just HAD to ask didn't you?" Shepard snapped, before shouldering her weapon. The only sound that she could pick up on over the alarms was a dull chiming sound, a sound that was coming from the…

Hell, she spun on her heel and waited as the sound of the elevator approaching grew louder. "Looks like they figured out how to hit a switch." She mumbled, before taking a step back to grant herself another inch of room.

Tense seconds ticked by as the elevator drew closer and Jack scanned the newly sealed bridge for signs of the anything trying to get the drop on them.

Shepard's eyes shifted very slightly to the display next to the lift, level three, two, one. The sound halted, and she held her breath as the doors finally parted, her finger tightened on the trigger so she could act at a moments notice.

Instead of the blood thirsty monster she expected though, she was caught off guard as she was met by a fellow human in what appeared to be very basic body armour stared back at her, assault rifle of his own trained on her. Surprisingly he lacked a helmet, or much armour in general, it looked more like a uniform then anything else. Though that did confirm the ship's air filtration systems still worked.

Shepard hesitated, her finger slowly releasing pressure on the trigger as she examined the person. He looked like a soldier in her mind, the general posture and way he carried his weapon gave that away.

The fact that he hadn't fired first was a good sign, and once she was convined she wasn't about to lose her head, Melina lowered her rifle a fraction as a sign of good will. Surprisingly, the man did the same, though neither lowered their weapons to the point of standing down.

"Who are you?" He finally demanded, his voice carrying a commanding tone that only further confirmed the commanders suspicion that he was a soldier.

"Commander Shepard of the Normandy…You?"

"Chief security officer Hammond, USG Hellion."

Finally, Shepard reluctantly lowered her weapon. She didn't trust him, but she didn't want to shoot the only survivor they'd encountered so far. "Well, it's good to see someone on this death trap is still alive."

Hammond lowered his weapon as well and finally stepped out of the elevator, Jack was still scanning the room, the alert was still active, but she tuned it out for the moment, focusing instead on the security officer.

"There's only two of you?" He asked after a moment, his voice clearly sounding disappointed. "Way things are going we'll need an army to retake the ship."

Melina shrugged slightly. "There's more of us, but we got separated, and now our comms aren't working."

Hammond was about to respond, when a deafening bang drew the trios attention. A moment later a second bang sounded, closely followed by the screech of stressed metal.

All eyes fell upon the door Shepard and Jack had entered the bridge from only a minute or two prior as it began to buckle. Another loud clang sounded as whatever was on the other side struck it again. Each impact slowly pushed the door inward another inch.

"That can't be good." Shepard muttered as she readied her weapon.

"Whatever it is, it must be big to rip through a door that thick." Hammond commented as he checked his own weapon, the display indicating the clip was full.

A second later the doors were struck again, and a louder bang sounded as they struck the deck a good ten feet into the room.

"Holy, shit…" Melina gulped as whatever was on the other side began to advance into the room.