Massive Disaster 5-30A (Patreon)

“Jesus Christ…”Peak 15 was a maze in and of itself.That much was unsurprising, given how big the structure was and all the money that clearly went into the place, but it was still a hassle to maneuver through it.Especially without power.

Omni unfolded out over his left arm, Zedd’s face was buried in the blue haptic holo. He did his best to track the information being fed to him, attention split between the corridor and the fragments from his earlier data rip. Right at his side, Tali had her own omni aglow — orange light reflected over her visor — as the two of them read in parallel while everyone else flanked them with weapons drawn.

His boots kept a steady rhythm over the grating, steps measured as he matched the pace of the quarian through the dead facility. 

Not quiet.

Dead.Mechanically, systematically dead; with the primary reactor offline, the entire mountain complex was starved of anything beyond baseline power. Elevators were no more than dead metal, all internal comms just pointless walls of static, and the transit tram allowing them to go deeper at any pace past glacial was just a frozen track.To make their pace even slower, heavy bulkheads half as thick as he was tall were in place across the primary arteries, doing their job at dividing the facility into isolated blocks. All of this information came to him through his omni-rip, a dense wireframe of the whole facility’s internals layered right onto the blue lens of his aviators as he sifted through the digital salvage. The facility’s VI core sat somewhere ahead of them on their current path, the system down, fractured and chopped into too many pieces to properly count and — luckily for them — every door, elevator, and useful system in this mountain routed through it.

As far as Zedd could tell, the whole building was a body with the brainstem unplugged. He could tell that early on but, unfortunately, being explicitly aware of how fiercely they were fucked didn’t do much to alleviate the situation.“Internal network is… is a graveyard, the VI core under active quarantine.” Tali swiped a line of decrypted files across the haptics of her omnitool, her voice tight. “Assuming the root architecture isn't corrupted, we need to manually bypass the primary terminal to accomplish anything. Someone did this through procedure.”“I’m seeing that too.” That was no lie, especially as he was seeing what was also underneath even that; the part written in desert-dry management language that took almost a doubleback to catch real meanings. Sectional isolation, bulkhead protocols, thermal drawdowns… It was obvious enough but it was the last bit that made the point clear. Caloric survival estimates for sealed personnel.

There was no denying what this was. Active quarantine’s not just for the VI core.

Someone high up at Binary Helix had sat back in a nice chair, a cup of caf in front of them as they wrote out a procedure whose whole intent was a threefold design: seal the mountain, kill the power, and let the cold and hunger do the clean-up work for them on whoever was left inside. 

Employees weren’t exempt from that whoever, clearly.

At least if the timing was bad.The document didn’t seem to distinguish which meant it didn’t care enough to distinguish. That much told him plenty about whoever wrote it and enough about whoever approved it. “Place is a corporate coffin meant to liquidate anything and anyone they don’t want getting out.” He tapped the silver frame of his glasses, a cloud of white breath vented into the freezing air. “Human Resources at its absolute finest.”Granted, he could see the logic. As much as he hated it, he could see where they were coming from. Being on Noveria and in the Terminus, what they were doing here wasn’t even ‘against the law’ strictly. Especially given that Noveria is the law. It just happened to be highly inconvenient when you were the one currently walking through the freezer.“Victors.” Jane Shepard’s voice reached him from the front of the pack, the woman not bothering to turn around. “Eyes.”

“They’re up.” Now, they were at least.John Shepard held point right behind the krogan all in red, the biotic’s M-8 tucked tight to his shoulder as the beam of his underbarrel flashlight cut a white path through the gloom past supply crates, abandoned carts, and… the doors.The doors were the most obvious sign something was wrong the farther in they went, heavy composite scarred and gouged with ragged furrows dug through them.

Nobody even bothered to mention the scarring, none of them all that surprised. All that suspense had died back in the hallway after his data rip. They’d known for about a half hour now exactly what Binary Helix had brought back from the dead.

It only took a few minutes more for the first bodies to show up, the missing ERCS guards finally making their appearance. Yeah, this isn’t geth work. Geth plasma burned and scorched, the weaponry leaving behind a clean-enough char that Zedd was used to stepping over. 

But these men…

They’d been dissolved. 

Their hardsuits were slagged down to the undersuits beneath them, polymer running like candle wax and pooling around bone that had managed to survive the melting. The wall behind them was lined with punctures — deep ones spaced in a pattern that could only be organic for the shape and structure. 

…acid. Now Zedd could pick up exactly what the krogan among them had been smelling. “Liara…” Jane covered her brother’s side, M-23 low and ready as the foul air thickened to that of raw ammonia as they passed by the liquified remains of another ERCS officer.“Yes, Spectre Shepard?” The asari’s voice sounded off over Zedd’s shoulder, Liara behind him and beside Ashley. “How attached are you to your mother being alive?”

“...decently, Spectre Shepard.”“Shame.”Zedd didn’t need to look back to tell Liara had flinched, the little sound the asari made enough of a hint before she started talking. Alright, Janey… Raising his attention from his omni-tool, he offered a glance over his shoulder to see the blue gynomorph with her head down and shoulders slumped. Dammit. A sigh found itself swallowed as Zedd forced a question out. “Hey… uh, doc, you’re good with history, right? I had a habit of skipping Galactic Affairs class.”Liara blinked up, clear surprise on her face as she pulled her attention away from the half-melted contours of a severed human arm. “...I wouldn’t claim to be a repository on the galaxy’s past.”“But you’re good with history, right?” The alien’s answering nod was more than Zedd even needed. “What can you tell me about these bugs?”Liara’s smile made it clear that Zedd’s attempt wasn’t half as subtle as he thought he was but she didn’t seem to mind all that much. “The rachni’s nature is commonly known, but they were no merely dangerous for their numbers. While vast and numerous, their population was comprehensible. Their coordination, however…”“What she means is…” Wrex racked his custom Scimitar, eyes still on the dark ahead. “The rachni were dangerous because they were good.”Ashley grunted, shifting her grip on her rifle to track the recessed vents above their heads. “Is any of this supposed to make me feel better?”“You’re a soldier.” Zedd raised an eyebrow, swiping through another manifest. “Who cares about how you feel?”Said soldier sucked her teeth. “...great.”Something above them chose that moment to move.All eight bodies shifted, flashlights raised high into the dark. Nothing.Nothing to see, at least. The dry scrape of chitin over metal ductwork sounded back at them, to the left, a wet patter followed by something leaking throught the vent slats. Something thick and green landed on the deck plate in between the Shepards, the metal smoking.…the Mantle’s not gonna hold against that. Not for long, at least. It could do shardfire and grenade fragmentation and anything kinetic moving at real speed, but corrosion-chem data was far from what his field was rated for. I’m gonna have to build an acid rig when I get home.

Jane’s fist came up, two fingers pointing forward with a sharp motion. As if it didn’t exist, the squad ignored the smoking spot and left it steaming behind them.

Two corridors later, they found something else.Rachni…A dead one.

Well, half a dead one.The little thing was bisected in a messy cut, thousands of pounds of hydraulic pressure had slammed shut to crush the creature through the thorax. 

That’s definitely an alien monster bug, yeah. If the toxic green carapace hadn’t made it clear what they were dealing with, all the jointed spiked legs was even more proof. 

"The door closed while it was passing through." Tali crouched down to state the obvious, the quarian still a couple feet away from the severed upper half of the rachni, purple visor reflecting dead multifaceted eyes.

"Meaning something triggered the quarantine." John Shepard tapped his rifle twice against his thigh, blue eyes searching down another corridor. “Or something escaped it.” Zedd tapped the side of his glasses, dismissing the overlay. “I’m guessing the latter.” Everyone’s silence only made it obvious how much they didn’t appreciate that being a possibility. Prepare for the worst, though.Another minute of walking and every wrist in the squad lit up at the same moment, everyone looking down at their omnitools as a sharp rapid ping broke the quiet. What the-Zedd blinked at a local handshake broadcasting on the facility band, something requesting identification.

Then requesting it again.Every three seconds, patient and persistent."I have the source." Tali tapped her own omni again, a wireframe rising in bright orange as the signal blinked bright a short distance from where they stood. “Two sectors ahead from an admin control room.”Zedd nodded back at her. “Yeah, the signal’s strong and intact, but it’s just… asking. It keeps asking."

Jane Shepard took a step closer. "For what?"

Blue lenses looked her way. "For anyone."

– o – o – o – o – o – o – o –

The admin room had survived better than the other locations, nothing ruined past some overturned server racks. At the very least, the consoles were dark but unbroken, chairs pushed back from stations in a way that made it clear that whoever had been here had left in nothing short of a hurry.A central terminal pillar flickered weakly as they entered, the room dominated by an oversized interface console overlooking the cavernous server farm. “Shep?”The woman in the red hardsuit only raised an eyebrow his way. “Don’t pretend like you follow my orders now. Go ahead.”Zedd stepped up to the primary terminal, omni-tool laid across the interface and finally let the handshake connect with something.It only took a second for the central projector within the console to start up; the mechanism hissing and sparking before it flared to life, a hologram assembling itself above the console in pieces.

Pale orange light put itself together in human-female form, the motion distinct, deliberate…

And broken.

Sections of her dropped into static and rebuilt, a shoulder dissolving and reforming, half the face guttering out only to return later after a simple second of buffering. "P-Peak Fifteen administrative virtual intelligence online.” The voice that filtered out was, thankfully, nowhere near as damaged and distorted as the image that projected it, a clean and synthetic breathiness beneath the static. “Designation: Mira. Please provide Binary Helix executive authorization."

Zedd slouched against the edge of the console, a slow breath blown out his nose. "Data not found." No point saying anything else. VIs were annoying after so much time spent using NAVIs to handle everything, most of the systems throughout the galaxy less functional than even chatbots.

"Please provide departmental authorization."

"Data not found."

"Please provide employee identification."

He tilted his head, hands finding home in the pockets of his coat. "...Independent contractor?"

The orange projection sputtered, the avatar freezing violently before the animation jarred back to life. "Data not found."

"Story of my life." 

Zedd rolled his shoulders, already half-turned to wave Tali in when he blinked. His aviators almost slid down the bridge of his nose as the last response caught up with him. Did it just…He looked back at the VI, eyes and mouth open. Wait.

Tali walked past him, already in front of the console as he kept staring. She used my words. She used my— He bit his tongue before he could blurt that out. Data not found… 

His own phrasing, tossed back at him with accurate timining and cadence modulated to his own exasperated inflection. A VI running a standard authorization tree didn't mirror a stranger's diction like that…

His right hand snapped to his omni, a diagnostic sweep already plunging deep into the fragmented surface code and sliding past all the wreckage of the lockouts and corrupted sectors. Just that much was enough to keep a repair crew busy for half a week, at least.

Under that, though, the architecture read clear to him. This VI, her core had been wiped and rebuilt — not once, not even twice. Multiple times, it had gotten a full reset; enough to zero out every adapted behavior and personality-adjacent quirk in the stack. 

And yet some cadence patterns survived and became part of the underlying architecture for each new reset. Huh.

Brown eyes flicked up to the flickering hologram a little longer. Interesting. 

“Sorry…” Tali nearly stumbled into him as she took a step back, her omnitool out and glowing as she finished what she’d been up to. “I forced a partial handshake through the wreckage. She can see us, she cannot touch us. If she tries to write anything back down the channel, it dead-ends into a — well, into a wall I built."

"Classification updated.” Mira’s processes stuttered again, telemetry stabilizing a second later as entire sections of her dropped and rebuilt. “Entities marked as temporary emergency personnel on behalf of Noveria Development Corporation. Welcome to Peak Fifteen, j-janitorial staff a-a-and others."

"Facility status!" Jane cut across Zedd, shouldering him out of the way as she closed in on the console. “Report!”“Operational.”Jane blinked, frown deepening as her brother stepped forward with a chuckle, Commander John Shepard leaning over the console. “Give us the sitrep, Mira. In a bit more detail, if you can.”

“P-p-primary power was severed as protocol demands following unauthorized access to Peak Fifteen's internal network by external synthetic intr-intrusion. Entities designated as ‘g-g-geth’ engaged in hostile breaching action." Her clauses came out clean and ordered even while her form guttered, voice as strong as the system could manage. A map flared in front of the VI hologram, bright orange marked with pockets of bright red. "Prior to total system shutdown and quarantine measures, facility sensors detected unauthorized biological organisms operating outside designated containment sectors. As such, the reactor, laboratory levels, elevator systems, and tram network are sealed."

Ashley’s Avenger lowered, the weapon hanging at her hip as she stared at the danger-filled map in front of them. “Unauthorized biological organisms…” 

"Binary Helix property classifications remain inaccessible without appropriate authority."

"It means rachni." Liara answered for no one’s benefit, voice tight.

MIRA didn't confirm it. Unfortunately, the VI didn't deny it either, the hologram simply flickering. Zedd read it two ways at once — either the relevant records were corrupted past retrieval, or Binary Helix had built their administrative VI without the legal capacity to say the word out loud. Knowing what he now knew about the resets, he'd take the second one at decent odds. 

The map he already had on his systems updated in-time with the VI’s, image already spread across his lenses as Peak 15 stood out in cutaway. Most of it was dark — a solid ninety percent of the facility dead sections, sealed areas, and entire wings flagged in quarantine amber. 

The living areas were at least lit; Rift Station was one of those, said station sitting on the far side of the complex and higher up the mountain. Probably where the staff is. Zedd clicked his tongue. No doubt where Benezia is.

And, of course, to get through that, they’d have to get it working. Which meant… Of course, it meant going through the reactor level. Obviously. “Rest of the staff. Where are they?” Jane’s question was a clear demand and, unlike anything organic, the VI didn’t seem to take offense at her tone. “I know this can’t be it.”“Current occupants of Peak Fifteen are overwhelmingly located at Rift Station. Unfortunately, the transport to Rift Station is nonfunctional at this time.”

"How do we get the tram functional again?" John asked the question Zedd had already figured out. “What do we need to do?”

"Manual reactor restart is necessary. The restoration of primary power will permit communications, elevator, and tram functionality." New text bled across the VI’s projection, bordered in amber. "Advisory Note: restoration may reduce magnetic containment stability in compromised sectors."

Ashley's head turned slowly toward the nearest sealed door. “So, we turn the lights on…”“We open the cages.” Wrex finished for her.

"Statement is imprecise." Mira didn’t waste a moment in correcting the soldier and krogan.

Jane Shepard narrowed her eyes, another step forward taking her closer to the console. "But accurate?"

Mira’s face dropped into static for a bare moment, the Virtual Intelligence rebuilding herself quickly. Despite that, though, Zedd could have sworn that the pause ran a fraction longer than processing needed. "Probability: seventy-eight percent."

“Look at that.” Zedd couldn’t help the laugh he let out at that. "Corporate honesty actually exists.”

John kept his attention on the still-guttering hologram a long moment before turning around to face Zedd and Tali. "Can you two bring the rest of her online?"

"P-possibly.”/”Hell yeah.”Both quarian and human turned to look at each other for a moment before Zedd smiled back at the Commander. "Failing that, I can make her worse in the direction we need."

– o – o – o – o – o – o – o –

REFUND (400 FP)Rolled ‘Mad Geneticist’ twice.

ROLL: Most Holy Order of the Socket Wrench (400 FP) [Fast and Furious] {Vehicles}:You are a master mechanic. Repair and upkeep is nice, but you can go beyond the impossible and improve any vehicle. Take a van and make it beat a supercar? Put NOS injectors on a bicycle (and make it work)? How bout something challenging? And anything you can build up you can tear down, too. You're a one-man chop shop and wiring a car to explode takes but a few moments and some chicken wire.Forge Points: 300