Taylor followed the ramps until she arrived inside a large room. It looked like some sort of futuristic parking garage. The wall at the back was dominated by a door, or perhaps a bulkhead would be more appropriate. A window gave her a view of the sky.
At first, she thought it was night time but, as she got closer, that notion was quickly put to rest. It wasn't night for one simple reason, she wasn't on a planet's surface but on a space station. Millions of stars glittered outside, clearer than she had ever seen them, like an ocean of diamonds. In the distance, she saw a massive brown planet in orbit around the system's primary sun.
Harder to see against the stars was a large structure in the shape of a tuning fork.
Another station?
Any idea of where we are?
Very lost is where she was.
Hopefully, the locals had some maps she could borrow.
Taylor tore her eyes from the stunning view and ventured deeper into the structure. The garage was connected to a small flat. She found no signs of recent habitation, the thin layer of dust on every piece of furniture was evidence of that. She opened some of the drawers and cupboards but they were empty. It didn't look like the previous occupants had left in a hurry so why was the place abandoned?
After looking around for some time, she finally found the front door. A tap on the panel and it slid open to reveal a wide hallway basked in soft lights. Several holographic banners along the walls flashed an angry red and gave the scene an ominous glow.
QUARANTINE IN EFFECT
Where in the hell had she landed herself? At least it explained the absence of occupants.
"Good thing I have a sealed suit," Taylor chuckled.
Though if the station was filled with undead space monsters, like that game Alec had played, a sealed suit alone wouldn't be enough. She brushed her fingers against the grip of the pistol stuck to her hip. If anyone, zombie or not, wanted a piece of her …
She stepped into the hallway and summoned a swarm of silver beetles. Twelve of her spots were taken by her power necklace but the remaining eighteen materialized in the air around her. It wasn't the millions of insects she was used to but the quality made up for the quantity. Packed with sensors, each drone could see so much more. Each was equipped with the [Null] power that gave them the ability to stay out of phase with reality and [Barrier] for protection if needed.
Following her orders, the small beetles spread out.
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Taylor walked for what felt like hours through the empty and lifeless hallways of the space station. Over time, she started to get a feel for how it was laid out. Each block of houses had a larger open area with benches and planters and what looked to be an area dedicated to shops. Then the hallways spread out in a web-like fashion to dozens of small habitations. Sometimes, the plaza even connected two levels of the area.
Each of those blocks was separated by bulkheads. The doors still worked and opened automatically when she approached. She guessed they served a primary role similar to the ones on ships.
With her beetles' ability to move through walls, she discovered that not all of the flats had been evacuated as cleanly as the one she had started in. It looked like a lot of people hadn't expected for the quarantine to last as long as it did. Fridges were full of spoiled food and closets full of clothes.
There were also the telltale signs of fighting. Bullet impacts in the walls and scorch marks made by explosives. She knew the guns didn't eject any casings, she had tested them on discarded crates, as they didn't use conventional ammunition. Instead, they fired small metal shavings accelerated to insane speeds by some physics bullshittery that even her Tinker power was perplexed by. What she found a lot of, however, were discarded thermal clips on the ground. Particularly behind cover.
However, there was a surprising lack of corpses. The various fire pits in the area gave her a hint that a lot of them had been burned. Likely to prevent the spread of the disease.
While she explored the station, Taylor explored her own powers as well.
First, she wanted to expand her use of Athena. The power presented itself as a massive honeycomb grid in her mind's eye which formed one giant modular computational network. She could group the nodes of the grid into either programmable modules, like she had done for her note-taking, or Thinker powers.
She missed her ability to multitask. She had some degree of it with her minions but it was much more limited than before. Instead, she created six clusters of nodes connected to a central exchange. Each was able to host a full copy of her mind and coordinate with the others through the hub. She also made it possible for each of her forks, as well as herself, to multitask. It wasn't the billions she had been capable of previously but her hundreds of threads had more processing power than any insect's brain.
To support her new increase in processing power, she tasked on of her forks to expand her note-taking module into something better, one was charged with configuring Eidolon and Aliena with useful powers, another one was assigned to minion management and tactical oversight, and the remaining three were assigned to figure out the rest of her powers.
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The first sign of life she found was, obviously, a fight. One of her drones spotted a group of aliens in blue armor fighting a much larger group with red armors. She repositioned some of her forces to get a better look.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
The red side only had two kinds of aliens, massive hulking brutes in armor nearly eight feet tall and some ugly insect-like ones that seemed to form the bulk of the force. They had some kind of dogs with them as well that acted as shock troops. All of them fought like crazy berserkers with very little regard for their own lives.
On the blue side, the aliens were much more uniform and organized. The bulk of the force was composed of the same four eyed aliens she had killed. Alongside them were a few bird-like aliens with spindly limbs as well as two women with blue skin and tentacle hair. Despite their smaller number their coordination, discipline, and defensible position gave them the advantage.
What caught her attention was one of the blue women. She was surrounded by a haze of blue energy. With a flick of her arm, it coalesced into a projectile which flung one of the brutes it hit into the air with contemptible ease.
Was it some kind of parahuman power? She swapped out the shield power on a drone for [Power Sight] but the woman didn't appear to have any. At least not one that her passenger could detect. Something else then?
She didn't want to involve herself in the conflict without knowledge of who was who. One of her forks started to plan where she could go to walk around the fight. The layout looked maze-like at first glance but it definitely had patterns, she was just missing the higher order ones to get a complete picture.
Before she could decide on a route, one of her drones spotted someone hunkering down behind a pile of crates. And it was, to her surprise, a human. He had a white and gray clothes similar to the ones she had found in the crates. He looked positively terrified, as would anyone without a weapon or armor in proximity of a firefight, and hugged a bag close to his chest.
Even though she didn't want to take a side in the firefight, it felt decidedly unheroic to her to leave this poor man there. She had wanted to do better after all. Her forks kicked into full gear to devise a solution. To get to her target, the shortest path was through plaza and to skirt the edges of the fight. Without going through walls, that is.
And her fork had locked onto a combination of powers to do exactly that. One that allowed her to see in a small sphere around her, including through walls, and another that opened a portal through a wall. One of her drones went ahead of her to scout the way. Once she knew it was clear, she approached the wall and used the power on the wall.
An oval portal around her size opened on the wall. Its edges had a small purple haze, combined with the pitch black edges of the tunnel between each opening, it gave the power an ominous look. She stepped through and jogged to the next wall. The presence of red armored aliens had increased and some of them had come dangerously close to the human.
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She stepped out of the final wall just a corner away from the man. Three of her drones were to her side, each piloted by a dedicated fork for maximum combat effectiveness. She rounded the corner and made her way to the man. The sound of her steps was covered by the much louder noises from the firefight. The man's attention was elsewhere, instead of looking at the hallway she had just come from, he was looking through a slit between the crates at the one ahead of them.
She tapped his shoulder. She saw his body jump up and she put her hand on his mouth before he could scream in fright.
"Quiet or they'll hear us," Taylor whispered. The speakers in her suit gave her voice a slight metallic undertone.
The man looked at her with wide eyes who flicked between her and the drones that hovered protectively around her.
"Calm down, I'm not here to hurt you. Can I remove my hand?"
He nodded. She pulled her hand back and the man worked his jaw.
"Who-" He cut himself off and continued in a whisper. "Who are you?"
"Not really important," she said, "I have a way to get away from the fight but we need to be quick."
"Where? This leads further into Blood Pack territory."
The ones in red are the Blood Pack? Good to know.
"I have my tricks," Taylor said. "A group is coming we need to move!"
She grabbed his arm and pulled him to his feet. She applied a speed boost to him with White Mage and dragged the both of them into a side corridor. He stumbled for the first few steps but kept up with her nonetheless. Her drones had already found a way to retreat through more conventional means. She took a few turns and entered through the employee door of a shop. The lock had already been hacked by one of her drones through the use of a Technopathy power.
"What's your name?" She asked the man.
"I'm Daniel," he answered. "Doctor Solus' assistant at the clinic."
There was a clinic? Maybe this doctor Solus was studying the plague? There were still people in the area after all, even after the quarantine was put in place.
"I'll escort you there," she said, "my drones found a path to avoid the fight."
"Thank you," he sighed.
She didn’t know where the clinic was quite yet but she hoped to find it before they had finished going around.
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The half hour it took them was plenty of time. There were even holographic signs that pointed the way once she got close enough. Daniel was quiet for the most part. It was fine by her, the less conversation the less chances she had to blow her cover. Though how long it would hold was debatable. She had no information on how she was supposed to behave after all.
The clinic was guarded by an army of mechs outfitted with rifles and automated turrets. A receptionist was hidden behind a pane of thick bulletproof glass. Taylor smiled inside of her helmet. It looked like this doctor Solus liked his clinic free of trouble.
"Daniel, you're back," said the receptionist. "The professor was starting to worry."
"Got caught near a firefight between the pack and the suns," he said. "Got rescued by this Quarian."
So she was a Quarian.
"Any weapons on those drones?" The receptionist asked her.
"Defensive only," she said curtly.
He chuckled. "Same rule as everyone. Don't make any trouble or the mechs will deal with you, or the professor will if you're unlucky."
"I'll keep that in mind," she nodded.
Taylor made a small motion with her hand and the drones at her side flew down and attached themselves to her belt. She made it look like they were deactivated.
She followed Daniel inside. As far as hospitals went, she rated this one slightly above the medical tent at an Endbringer fight. There were a dozen or so patients on improvised beds, with a dozen more on various chairs or against the walls. Most of them were the four-eyed aliens, no humans in sight anywhere. When someone's gaze landed on her, the reactions were universally unpleasant. At best they looked at her as if she was some kind of intruder. Or even with open hostility in rare cases. They looked away when she tapped the handle of her gun that was stuck to her hip.
Near the back of the clinic was the doctor's office. Or was it the professor? It seemed to change depending on who spoke. Daniel went in first and she waited outside. She didn't want to intrude on any kind of doctor-patient confidentiality, even in an improvised clinic.
The single glance she got of the doctor in question was striking. Compared to most of the aliens she had encountered, his body was thin and spindly with an arched chest shape. He had two large black eyes on an elongated face that had two horn-like protrusions at the top.
After a few minutes, Daniel came out.
She headed in and found herself face to face with the professor.
His two black eyes were focused on her.
"Disguise impressive," he said in a clipped voice. "Not many can wear Quarian suits. Body shape, unusual. Assistant, easy to trick. Former STG member, harder to fool. Who are you really?"
Inside her helmet, Taylor raised an eyebrow. Was her disguise that bad? Or was this guy that good?
Either way, she was busted.