Dead Effect

Dead Effect

Chapter Five

Shepard was, for the first time she could recall; grateful she was wearing a helmet. As mouth dropped open at the hulking figure that stomped out of the darkness of the newly destroyed door and glared at them.

It was almost the size of a tank if she were to judge. It's arms appeared to have some form of bone like plating across them, and if she had to guess, they were bullet proof.

A second later Jack fired her shotgun and the rounds simply bounced off the creature, thus confirming her theory. "Okay, any ideas?" Shepard's finally broke through the shock and her head snapped around to focus on Hammond, who offered a helpless shrug.

"Perfect…" Focusing on the creature, Melina shouldered her rifle once again and fired a short burst, its arm was raised in a flash and deflected them. "Quick bastard." That would be a problem.

Before she could try again, it suddenly roared and sprung into motion, rushing towards the trio at an alarming speed.

Jack reacted first, a flash of blue signalling her biotics flaring. Though a moment later she gasped and the field vanished. "Fuck! It's too heavy!"

"Then try something else!" Shepard snapped before leaping to one side to avoid the brutes charge. Rolling back to her feet, she fired again, and was rewarded with a spray of blood and the creature skidding to a halt and whipping around to face her once again.

Melina began to inch backwards slowly, her grip on her rifle growing tighter as the thing began to advance once again, this time at a slower, but still rapid pace. Seeing its blind charge failed, it seemed more cautious this time.

Luckily the others were luckier, as Hammond opened fire as soon as it's back was turend and Jack unleashed another blast of biotic energy. With a loud snarl it whipped around once again, it's arms leaping up to protect itself from the sudden assault.

"Looks like we found a weak point." Jack called out, before hastily jumping back a step as one of the beasts arms lashed out and almost caved her skull in.

Shepard winced at the close call before focusing on the opportunity this distraction provided. If they could flank it and keep it turning, then it would make things a hell of a lot easier.

She shot it again once it was distracted, and unsurprisingly it spun to face her. "Keep it up!" It might have been three times her size, but it was easy to keep distracted, a few more shots and they'd bring it down, or so she hoped anyway.

Jack and Hammond wasted no time taking advantage of its exposed back. The beast shuddered, but didn't turn around this time. Shepard cursed quietly as she fired again, the bullets pinging off it's armoured front. "Not, good." Before she could act, it charged again, and this time she had no time to dodge.

Just before it struck however, a sudden flash of light struck it from behind, and it's movements ground almost to a halt. The commander stumbled back a few steps as she tried to avoid the charge. "What?" It was almost like the creature was suddenly moving in slow motion, its steps ponderously slow as it tried to close the gap.

"Move! It won't last long!" Hammond shouted, before he resumed firing. Shepard didn't need any further encouragement, already its pace was picking up. Moving aside, she watched in fascination as it suddenly picked up speed and, with her out of the way, it simply kept going and slammed into the wall.

Shaking it's head, the brute slowly turned and faced them once again, it's arms moving to protect it's face from any further attack. With a second to spare, she spared a glance towards their new companion. So he was a biotic? But how the hell did he slow it down like that? That was a skill she hadn't encountered before even from an asari.

Pushing the thought aside, she instead focused back on the target as it roared and started to advance once again. Questions later, they had bigger problems.

Jack loosed another blast of biotic energy, and as with before the creature, whatever the hell it was, simply staggered and resumed its advance, the biotic on the other hand was breathing heavily and stumbled back a step, she couldn't keep that up for much longer.

"Save it, were not going to kill it that way." Shepard told her, before she opened fire once again. This thing just wouldn't die would it? A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed Hammond was starting to move to one side, and with a nod Jack began to do the same. Meanwhile Melina started to inch backwards. Their only chance was getting behind it, and that meant one of them would have to hold its attention.

Shepard, naturally kept firing and held it's gaze, though she noted the head shifting slightly as the others moved, clearly picking up on the plan. Damn this thing was smarter then she gave it credit for.

She hesitated for a moment as the thermal clip in her rifle overheated. Her gaze shifted down for only a second as she pressed the eject button and slammed a fresh one into the weapon.

In that split second however she heard Hammond shout a warning, her gaze snapped up just in time to realize the hulking monster was suddenly right in front of her.

Before she could act one of it's plated arms lashed out. A flash of pain was the first thing she felt, followed by another she was slammed into a computer terminal, sparks struck her depleted shields and armour as she hit the ground.

As her vision grew dark she could see the brute advancing on her once again, the heavy thuds of its footsteps growing fainter with each passing second before the darkness fully engulfed her vision.

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Hammond cursed several times as he saw Shepard fall. It was obvious it had either knocked her out cold, or she was dead. Judging by the complete lack of motion, he suspected the latter.

Just what he needed, finally someone that didn't try to gut him, and they get killed two minutes after he runs into them.

A scream of rage filled the air and brought him back to the situation at hand. The other soldier, he didn't know her name, rushed forwards and fired several shotgun rounds into the beasts unprotected back. Before somehow rolling out of the way as it lashed out again and spun to face her.

With it's attention off the commander and away from him, Hammond started firing once again. The shots didn't seem to be affecting it however, and he was fast running out of ammo.

Finally, one of the shots struck a strange spot on its back, the yellow orb suddenly burst, and he heard a howl of, what he assumed was pain as the beast stumbled before turning around.

The other soldier had obviously seen this as she took more care with her next shot and caught it as well. This time though it didn't turn, instead it kept advancing, obviously it had caught up with the fact that this was a common occurrence, and focusing on one at a time would be a smarter option.

It started to rush forwards again, though this time he was ready, his hand extended and unleashed another stasis field, unable to alter it's heading, the creature ran right into the ball of energy and was dragged down to almost a crawl.

Jogging out of it's path, he looped around behind it and started firing once again, thankfully Jack was swiftly at his side and pitching in as well. The combined fire finally proved to much it seemed.

By the time the stasis filed had worn off, the beast had stumbled to a halt, and with a final cry of pain it slumped to the ground and, aside from a few twitches it stopped moving.

Hammond waited for a full minute, rifle never leaving the brute. Once he was sure it wouldn't get up again he slung the weapon over his shoulder and breathed a sigh of relief. "Glad that's over…"

He didn't have time to celebrate however, even as the computer announced the quarantine was over, along with the threat, he was jogging towards the still unmoving body a few feet away.

By the time he'd reached Sheaprd and dropped to one knee to check her condition, the other solider was by his side. "How is she?" She demanded, her hands still clutching her shotgun tightly.

Somehow, Hammond got the feeling if he gave her bad news, the necromorphs would be the least of his worries…

A quick glance didn't help. Normally one could tell a persons condition thanks to the readout along the spine. This rig must have been different somehow, as it lacked the display.

"No idea." He admitted quietly, a few moments later and he finally found the seals on her helmet and carefully eased it off, who knew what kind of condition her neck was in after that.

Setting it down, he shifted a hand to her neck to check for a pulse.

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The tram finally halted at the medical wing, and Isacc and Tali instinctively raised their weapons as the door opened. A moment later the pair crept out onto the platform and, upon finding nothing dangerous, allowed themselves a moment to relax.

Isaac quietly extended one hand and with a slight movement, activated the guide system his rig was equipped with. A blue light swiftly appeared and trailed off down the corridor and to the right.

Satisfied, he shut it down and spared a glance towards Tali, who was eyeing him curiously. "What?"

He saw her shake her head, before mumbling something he couldn't understand and turning away. Shrugging slightly, eh set off in the direction his suit had indicated, the qurian close behind.

He had to admit, it was strange turning his back on, what he assumed was an alien and trusting her not to try shooting him. Hell it was a miracle he hadn't shot her straight off the bat. This place was making him paranoid.

It was a good thing he hadn't however. She was good with a gun, even if her weapons seemed lacking in the firepower area; it was still better then nothing.

He made a mental note to stop by one of the stores along the way. Normally they'd only dispense supplies to the crew. But thanks to his clearance he was able to access the armoury as well.

As good as she was with a shotgun, she really needed a plasma cutter, or a pulse rifle if she was going to survive the next few hours on the Ishimura.

His thoughts were interrupted as they reached the door they were meant to go through, only to discover it was barricaded. "Damn it!" He needed to get past, but it looked sturdy, and they couldn't just move it aside.

"Did the…Creatures, do this?" Isaac spared Tali a brief glance, before shaking his head.

"Doubt it. They don't strike me as the, defensive type." That presented a question then, if they didn't barricade the door, then who did?

"Survivors!" The realization dawned on him, there was still crew alive! He saw the woman next to him spare another glance, obviously confused by his sudden outburst. "I doubt the necromorphs would do this…It's more likely someone would have sealed the door to keep them out. There must be people still alive on the other side."

Tali nodded slightly. "I assume we need to go that way too?" He nodded slightly to confirm her question. "But how exactly do we get past this?"

"Don't know…Explosives maybe, but unless you're carrying some then were out of luck." He almost groaned when she shook her head. "Knew this was too easy."

After a moments thought, Isaac switched on his comm unit and watched the holographic screen flicker to life in front of him. "Hammond, I'm at the medical wing, but we've run into a problem." He caught sight of Tali recoiling slightly at the sudden appearance of the screen, though for now he ignored her, focusing on trying to raise his commanding officer.

"Hammond?" Finally the static gave way to a familiar face, just not the one he was expecting. "Kendra?" He shifted slightly when the screen resolved enough to show her worried expression.

"Issac, thank god one of you is still out there. I haven't heard from Hammond for about twenty minutes," The engineer cringed, he hadn't spoken to the officer for about that time either. "he won't answer, but his rigs still transmitting, he's still alive at least." A sigh escaped him at the news, the last thing they needed was another casualty.

"That's something at least…I've run into a barricaded door, is there any other way into this part of the medical wing?"

He couldn't see her hands, but he could hear the tapping of keys through the comms for a few seconds. "No, but I can unlock the rest of the medical wing, hopefully you can find something useful, explosives maybe."

Issac chuckled at that. "Yeah, I'm sure the doctor keeps a box or two by his desk in case of emergency's" His amusement swiftly ended when Kendra gave him a almost venomous glare through the screen.

"Well unless you have a better idea! I suggest you try to think of something yourself! I haven't got a damned clue how to make explosives."

"Alright, I'll see what I can work out." The screen snapped off a second later, and he turned his gaze to Tali. "She's as cheerful as ever I see."

The alien simply shrugged. "So, I take it you have a plan."

"Not really, but I'm sure with a little, improvisation we can figure something out." He could tell by the sliver lights he'd come to believe were her eyes dancing slightly, that she was rolling her eyes at the news. "Come on, the longer we stay in one place the more likely we are to run into more of those…"

As if on cue, the sound of metal screeching and a loud clang came from the corridor to their left. "Things, finds us…" He finished, before checking the readout on his plasma cutter. "Never a dull moment 'round here."