Dead Effect

Yeah i got lazy with the updates here. Been posting them over at FF.net but kept forgetting to upload here >.< Sorry for the delay if anyone was waiting on this. But here we are, better late then never right? :D

Dead Effect

Chapter Eight

The environment around them was a blur as Isaac and Tali moved as fast as they could through the corridors, the tank bred nightmare always just a few steps behind them.

Tali slowed very slightly as she whipped around and blindly fired several rounds from her cutter, whether by luck or skill, she managed to sever one of the monsters legs before breaking into a sprint once again. Her arm was aching from the constant abuse the weapons recoil afforded, but she didn't have any other choice, of course the damned thing would just get up and keep moving, it's limbs somehow regenerating every time. But that didn't mean she was just going to run away until it gave up.

If the thing gave up, she corrected herself, already she could hear the thudding of its heavy footsteps behind them.

She was vaguely aware that they'd passed through the operating theatre again, but by the time she'd noted this, they'd already passed through it and were on there way down another corridor. "We can't keep…Running like this." Tali panted as another door came into view.

Once they were through, she stopped and activated her Omni-tool. IF she could just seal the door…

She felt Isaac grab her shoulder and try to pull her away, but she swiftly shrugged the human off and kept working. "Where are we going to run?" She snapped as she madly tried to override the door controls. "Sooner or later we'll hit a dead end, and that'll be the end of us! Just give me a few-"

She was interrupted by the necromorph storming around the corner and charging towards them. Isaac, knowing he couldn't get her away from her task, opened fire and did his best t slow it down.

Just as it reached the doorway, it slammed shut, easily cutting one of its arms off –not that it would help in the long run – and giving them a solid steel barrier for protection. "That was close…Nice work." Isaac said after a moment, before finally lowering his weapon, had Tali been watching, she'd have noticed his hands shaking very slightly. That thing had been less then a second away from bisecting him after all.

Nodding slightly, she spared the door a glance as a loud bang was heard on the other side, before moving back a step. "Thanks, but somehow I don't think that'll keep it out for long."

"Let's just hope there isn't another way out of that part of the medical wing."

"I'm telling you, I heard something in the vent!"

"And I'm telling you, you're bloody paranoid! I didn't hear anything…"

"No, nothing at all. Maybe imagination. Dark corridors and flickering lights affecting mind. Making you think you hear things that isn't there."

Jacob barely resisted continuing the argument; he knew what he'd heard. And it hadn't been his imagination. He was probably just the only one actually listening for any sign of danger. Instead of pressing the issue though, he simply shrugged and kept moving. "Whatever, keep you're eyes open, who knows what's lurking in the dark."

By some miracle, they'd managed to avoid the creatures infesting the ship, though at the same time had wondered aimlessly through the ship and failed to find much of anything.

The best they'd been able to discover was they were on the engineering deck. Though beyond that they were just searching for anyone still alive. "I doubt mercs did this. If it was though, then their sick bastards." Zaeed muttered as they carefully picked their way around another corpse, this one missing his legs and by the looks most of his internal organs.

"Fascinating." Jacob spared a glance towards Mordin, who was rapidly typing away at his Omni-tool while examining the body intently.

"Uh huh…Well, call it what you will, it's still a horrible way to go." The Cerberus soldier commented as he looked away from the corpse. "Jeeze, this place is a mess. Hard to think well find anyone still alive."

Mordin finished his examination and nodded slightly. "Of course. Maybe others had better luck. Maybe incident is confined to engineering. Or maybe other parts of the ship are better equipped for whatever is happening. Hard to say without further inspection."

Jacob paused for a moment, before shaking his head and deciding not to respond. He always had a hard time following the salarian's rapid fire speech.

"Well, if were not going to find any survivors, what's the point of still being here?" Zaeed asked as he swept the corridor ahead, his eyes narrowed slightly as he did his best to see through the flickering lights.

"It's not like we have anywhere else to go, we've been searching this deck for an hour now, give or take, and still haven't found an elevator or even stairs." Jacob replied calmly, his eyes darting to his Omni-tool for a moment before focusing back on the mercenary. "I've been doing my best to build a map of the ship, but it's not easy, all these damn corridors look the same!"

"Don't waste you're time mate. It'd be easier to carve it into the damn walls…Least that way we'd have a point of reference if we got turned around though." Zaeed offered a clearly fake smile at this point. Mordin however was rambling something about finding tools strong enough to cut through steel, bullets after all were precious and couldn't be wasted.

"Hello?" The squad halted as an unfamiliar voice suddenly spoke over their comms. "Hello is anyone hearing this?" It was a woman's voice, that much was certain. They exchanged a confused glance, before Jacob moved a hand to his ear to respond.

"Yeah we hear you…Who are you, and how exactly did you pick up on this channel?"

"It wasn't easy, I've been trying to get a hold of you for about twenty minutes now…The names Kendra, Kendra Daniels…" The soldier glanced about the corridor, chances are they'd need to find her, but he had no idea where they were.

"A survivor? About bloody time!" Zaeed commented as he joined the conversation.

"I suppose that's one way of putting it. Our ship was destroyed shortly after docking; I'm stuck here, as I presume you are at this point." Kendra responded, Jacob was only slightly surprised by the fact that she sounded so calm and collected, considering what they'd seen so far, it was a miracle hearing a survivor that wasn't hysterical.

"The Normandy is still docked and in one piece, last time I heard anyway." Jacob responded. A moment later he arched an eyebrow when he heard a relieved sigh from the other end of the channel. "Wait a minute, you said *our* ship…There's more survivors on board?"

"Yes, at least two others, though I haven't had contact with Hammond for a while now. I think the important thing right now is trying to get the hell off this nightmare, before we end up dead, or worse."

"Alright, we need to find a couple of our squad. Afterwards we can get out of here." Jacob said as he started moving again, his free hand straying to his pistol as they started moving once again.

"I'm afraid it's not going to be that simple. The Ishimura's orbit is beginning to decay. If we don't stabilize it first, then you're ship will just get pulled in along with it." Kendra sighed again, and Jacob was able to just pick up on her tapping away at a keyboard. "Luckily I've been able to pinpoint you're location. I can tell you where to go, but I'll need you're help."

"Were not engineer's girl. We can't fix the damned engines." Zaeed commented, a faint hint of anger lacing his words.

"You don't need to be!" Kendra responded before he could say anything more. "The important thing is the engines are out of fuel. I can handle the rest of the details. But I'll need you to get the fuel supply flowing again." The squad shared another glance, before Jacob responded.

"Alright, where do we go?"

"Think you can use this?" Isaac asked as he held up a small box labelled *thermite*

"Umm…Maybe, what is it?" The engineer tilted his head slightly at the question, before giving a brief rundown of its properties and uses. Luckily she seemed to pick up on something he didn't, as the quarian nodded eagerly after a few moments. "Yeah, I should be able to make use of it to cut through the barricade." With a nod Isaac passed her the box before nodding towards the door of the supply closet they'd ended up in.

"Come on, lets keep moving. If that…Thing made it out of the labs, I'd rather stick around to see it." He said quietly, before lifting his plasma cutter and moving to the door. He wasn't about to open the door without taking proper precautions.

The corridor beyond was empty, thankfully, and they set off once again. 'Now then, do we need anything else? Or will you be able to work with that?" Tali shook her head.

"No, I can use this. With a little work it should be a powerful enough explosive." Isaac nodded slightly to confirm he heard her, before leading the way back through the twisting corridors. Luckily he had a good enough sense of direction not to lead them to astray, not to mention his guide system was still active and pointed them straight if they got lost.

A few minutes later, the pair were halted by a door, one they'd passed through only a short while ago. Tali's wrist lit up as she activated her computer, and Isaac simply stood back to let her work, she was faster then him on getting these things done.

Not this time though. After a few moments she mumbled a curse and stepped back, the glow vanishing. "The door controls aren't responding. It must have been locked down from elsewhere!"

"Damn it!" Isaac paused for a moment, before sparing a glance over his shoulder. "We'll have to find another way back." He paused for a second longer, before activating the holographic system on his rig. As the map flickered into life, he noted that, once again Tali jumped back a step, before inching forwards, seemingly focused more on the holographic systems, then the map itself.

Scanning the page, he indicated another path. "We can cut through this lab, and get back to the main entrance," He slowly traced a finger along the map as he studied the path. "Hell…"

'What?" Tali's attention shifted to the map as well, though he cut it off before she could see the problem.

"Nothing. Nothing at all…" Isaac lied, they would have to cut through another lab to get out, a lab he really didn't want to see. Not considering what they'd seen so far…

"Keelah! What, is this place?" Tali asked a few minutes later as they passed through another lab, she had a feeling this is what Isaac had been worried about. Instead of the tables like she'd seen before, all this room contained was strange tanks inset into the walls.

Closer inspection revealed what appeared to be, humans, tiny humans if she were to hazard a guess they were. "Children." Isaac said, confirming her thoughts. "This is another part of the labs…Cloning tanks I think." He finished, painfully aware of the horrified way the quarian was staring at him.

"So many of them…This is…Wrong." She stumbled back a pace from the tanks. "Why would you lock them up like this? Some kind of cruel experiement?"

"If I find a scientist, I'll be sure to ask what exactly their doing here. Like I said, cloning possibly, it IS a research vessel after all." He shook his head slightly; he wasn't too fond of this place either. The engineer had passed through it briefly before running into Tali.

"And this one is…Empty for a reason I assume?" Before she could blink Isaac was on her shoulder and staring at the strangely empty tank as well.

"It wasn't when I was here a while ago…" He trailed off as the soft padding of footsteps drew their gaze to the still open door.

The sound stopped after a few moments, and luckily nothing came through it. The pair glanced towards each other, then back to the door as Isaac took a slow step forwards, his cutter slowly lifting as he approached.

The engineer stepped forwards and peered out into the corridor, a second later he stepped back and shrugged. "Nothing out here. Maybe it ra-" Tali almost yelped as he lifted his cutter again and aimed it at her.

"What the-" She didn't have time to protest as the first shot rang out and she instinctively closed her eyes. The pain she anticipated didn't come however. Instead she heard a loud squeal of pain and spun around, her eyes snapping open as she moved.

Clinging to the wall behind her was, what appeared to be one of the children in the tank, though its skin was sickly green, and it's back had been ripped open as a trio of tentacle like appendages flailed about, likely from the attempt to dig into her neck. A second shot ran out and one of the tentacles was ripped in half, the creature cried out again, before dropping off the wall and hitting the ground with a loud thud.

Before Tali could act, it leapt towards her. Just in time for a third shot to strike it in the side and knock it off course to slam into the wall instead.

Finally, it struck the deck once again, and stopped moving. Isaac put another plasma round into it for good measure before replacing the power pack. "Okay…So now we know where the kid went…"