"What exactly is the plan?" Niusa asked.
Mordin had understood immediately, unsurprising considering his background, but it seemed their Asari friend needed some clarifications.
"Use the shuttle docks … without a shuttle," Taylor answered.
Niusa blinked a few times. She then tried to say something but stopped herself several times.
"That is … a plan," she finally said, "crazy and dangerous, like something straight out of a holovid." She chuckled. "I knew you two weren't normal but … goddess … that's on another level. The kind of thing Spectres do on a secret mission not … a doctor and an engineer." She shook her head. "I'm coming with you," Niusa added.
It was Taylor's time to get surprised, she hadn't expected that reaction from Niusa. From their recent talks, she had gotten the impression that the Asari wanted to move away from combat due her near-death experience with the Blood Pack.
"What do you mean, you're coming with us?" Taylor asked. "This is going to be, as you said, extremely dangerous."
"Yes, I know. I did one void mission on the Suns and it was terrifying but who's better to watch your back while you hack the life support systems than someone who spent the last decades as a mercenary?"
She made good points. With only Mordin and her things might get hairy even if she deployed her drones and powers. Taylor didn't think they'd fail, she had too many tricks up her sleeves for that, but it might come at a significant cost. Niusa had the training and the will to help. Even if they refused, Taylor suspected that she would find a way to help them anyway. Probably by involving her former mercenary company.
The other question was: Could Taylor trust her with her secret? There was no doubt she would have to use her powers during the mission. From everything she had learned about the Asari during their conversations, she didn't think Niusa would betray her. If anything, Taylor thought it might make her more loyal towards her.
"If you want to join us," Taylor said, "you'll learn some things only a select few know and you'll be expected to keep those secrets."
"Of course," Niusa nodded seriously. "You've given me a second chance at life, I won't let you down Tay'Lor."
"Mordin?" She asked.
"Secrets yours, Taylor," he pointed out. "From me, no objections."
"This is your last chance," Taylor warned. "After this, there is no turning back. You stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes."
Niusa raised an eyebrow at the abridged quote but she shook her head. Taylor engaged the privacy mode on the laboratory. Mordin had given her the access a few days prior, at the same time as the codes for the security mechs.
"Let's start with the biggest thing …" She released the seal on her helmet, much to the horror of the Asari woman, and pulled it off. "I'm not a Quarian."
"An unknown species …" Niusa whispered. "Incredible!"
Taylor gave Niusa an abridged version of the explanation Mordin had received alongside a few demonstrations to fully convince her.
Then, it was time to prepare for their mission. They needed combat armors rated for outer space and weapons for when stealth failed. Mordin had brought a helmet for his already combat-rated armor. For Niusa, since her old Blue Suns armor was out of commission, Taylor took out one of the suits and weapons from the Cerberus cache.
To improve their chances, she also upgraded their weapons with some special additions. Her Carnifex pistol had been modified with several enchantments that made it a force to be reckoned with. The first removed the need to use thermal clips by cooling the weapon internals directly and another multiplied the speed of the outbound projectiles, could imbue them with several elemental effects, and could even act as silencers to make the weapons completely stealthy. She modified two spare M-3 Predator pistols and handed them around. It drained all of her remaining charges for that sub-power but it was worth it.
In the background, her six minds were put to work as well to design drone templates to help with combat and navigate the space outside the station.
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"Nearest dock, three blocks away," Mordin said as he uploaded the map to their omni-tools. The path lit up on her heads-up display and she sent her drones along to check for any signs of life.
"Recon underway," she said. "First leg is clear."
They moved quickly. The clinic was heavily defended but with the three of them away at the same time, it was the perfect time for one of their enemies to make a move. It took them several minutes to navigate the various halls of the station as they took care to remain undetected. There was very little chance that any looter would report to the Suns or the Pack but it was better not to take any risks. Taylor also made sure to blank them out of the security system along the way with liberal use of technopathy.
Once they reached the apartment, she hacked the lock to let them in. It was similar to the one Cerberus had used but without the secret basement. The furniture was also different, smooth organic curves instead of the almost sterile look the Cerberus one had.
In the shuttle dock, they stepped into the airlock and Taylor took direct control of the commands. She summoned three of her drones. They were almond-shaped with an holographic display and a pair of handles on top, and powerful anti-gravity reactionless engines underneath.
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"Grab on," Taylor said through their radio link, "I am cycling the airlock and cutting the gravity."
She forced the air pumps on and pulled most of the air out of the room then, she opened the door that led outside. The small amount of gas remaining disappeared into the vacuum of space. She sent her swarm of drones ahead. They were unbothered by the near lack of gravity. In fact, since their small generators did not need to fight the station's artificial gravity, they were much more nimble.
Mordin quickly grasped the controls of his drone and flew ahead of their formation. Taylor followed behind him and Niusa brought the rear. They hugged the wall of the station as much as possible to avoid detection. The Gozu district occupied an entire third of the level they were on, a massive ring likely several kilometers in diameter. Above them, or below depending on how you looked at it, where the superstructure of the station met the asteroid it was attached to, was a massive ring which lit everything with an ominous red glow. Ships, both big and small, came and went from the several docks arrayed all around Omega.
Their excursion outside went unnoticed, at least as far as they knew, and they reached the maintenance dock for the life support system of the Gozu district. Taylor phased several drones through the walls and sent them ahead to check if anyone was keeping watch.
"They're not as stupid as we thought," Taylor said. "There are three guards in the shuttle bay. If we cycle the airlock normally, we'll get caught for sure."
"You can control the doors remotely, right?" Niusa asked and she nodded to confirm. "Could you seal the room's doors, the one that leads to the station, and open the airlock all at once?"
"Decompression will likely be noticed," Mordin informed them.
"I can spoof the sensors as well," she said. "That's not the problem. The airlock itself has a mechanical interlock that prevents both doors from being open at the same time."
"Alternate solutions?"
"I have an idea," she started thinking. "One of my powers can create a portal through a solid surface. Since the airlock is closed on both sides, we can enter without creating a decompression."
"Sensible plan," Mordin nodded.
She moved closer to the large airlock door, likely meant to accommodate a heavy duty shuttle, and opened a hole through for them. The atmosphere inside the airlock rushed out but it was inevitable. She motioned for her companions to move inside and followed behind them.
Once inside, she started to pump the inside of the airlock with air and opened the second portal. The three guards, one Krogan and two Vorcha, were so busy looking at the sealed door and wondering why their radios were not working that they did not see the three intruders. The modified pistols she had created made short work of all three in a single shot.
"Performance, excellent," Mordin remarked.
The atmosphere sensors had tripped but Taylor had prevented them from raising the alarm. Instead, she used the pump from the airlock to roughly balance the air pressure until they stopped. Once this was done, she unsealed the airlock.
"There are a whole lot of Blood Pack up there," Taylor warned Mordin and Niusa. "at least forty, maybe even fifty. I'll handle the bulk of them, you keep to the sides and pick off any stragglers."
"You can handle it?" Niusa asked, worried.
"Don't worry," she smiled inside her helmet, "I have some drones specifically for this occasion."
Both of her companions nodded. She opened the door and they sprinted forward with Taylor in the lead. A patrol spotted them in the adjacent hallway but their weapons sliced through them like butter. When they reached the atrium, Taylor took flight with her psionic barrier at full power. That, of course, drew fire from most of the defenders.
All four of the heavy machine guns started to fire in her direction. Thanks to her refinements to the barrier, she could defend against sustained fire more or less indefinitely as the energy of the kinetic impacts was turned against them and used to power the barrier. She only had to pay a small energy cost to maintain the construct itself.
Taylor raised her hand and the first machine gun, and its gunner, disappeared into a micro-singularity as she destabilized the small amount of element zero inside, the second one was obliterated by a volley of laser spells, the third was crushed into a misshapen ball by her telekinesis, and the fourth detonated into a blue fireball when she struck the power cell with her gun.
With the heavy firepower taken out of the equation, she brought out her army of combat drones. Waves of nine feet tall arachnoid mechs poured away from her. They opened fire on the Vorcha pouring into the room with their laser batteries and intercepted any of the rockets launched against them with their point-defense system.
Niusa and Mordin expertly maneuvered behind my drones. The Asari made use of her biotics and threw a group of Vorcha in the air that Mordin promptly shot. It was clear that the two had extensive training in small unit tactics and worked together extremely well despite fighting together for the first time. Compared to them, Taylor was a bull in a china shop with her swarm of heavy-duty drones mowing down everything in their vicinity.
"Vorcha turned off life support," Mordin announced through their radio channel. "Likely desperate maneuver."
"We have to turn it back on before we can spread the cure," Taylor stated the obvious. "I'll clear the control panel."
She raised her hand and a large circle of light appeared under her. Then, dozens of smaller ones appeared around and started to rain hell on the Blood Pack barricade around the life support controls. After less than ten seconds, every single one of them was dead. She opened a path for Mordin and he rushed there with Niusa on his heel, firing with one hand at a group of Vorcha on the second level.
"Systems requires full restart," Mordin growled. "Auxiliary systems disabled."
"The consoles in the four adjacent rooms I assume?" She asked. "Split up and take care of it, I'll send some drones with you and hold the console."
She swapped out some of the larger models for ones that could navigate the hallways. She also summoned to support variants capable of projecting force-fields to protect her companions.
"Understood," Mordin said.
"On it," Niusa said.
The Blood Pack had almost run out of soldiers inside the life support rooms themselves, her estimate of fifty had been somewhat low, but there was a veritable army massed outside, probably hundreds between the Krogan, Vorcha, and their attack dogs. She had sealed the doors but it was only a matter of time until they cut through.
Silence fell when her spider-mechs killed the last Blood Pack. Only the muffled sounds of battle from Mordin and Niusa echoed into the cavernous room. The two made good time and turned the auxiliary systems back on before returning.
"There are hundreds of them outside," Taylor said.
Mordin moved to the console and started to type on the computers. After a few seconds, the machinery around the room started to rumble and fresh air started to flow through the district again.
"Anticipated issue," Mordin said. "Created additional short-lived viral agent. Produces heavy sickness on Vorcha only. Will cripple Blood Pack in the district."
Taylor raised an eyebrow, even behind her visor she knew the doctor could see it. They had come here to put an end to a deadly bioweapon, was it really right to spread another at the same time? At the same time, they had to cripple the Blood Back one way or another to prevent them from retaking the life support systems. If Mordin didn't spread his virus, Taylor would likely use more direct methods on the army massed outside.
There was no right answer in the end.
She was used to it.
"Fine," she sighed, "do it. We don't have much choice either way."
Mordin plugged the container of airborne vaccine into a socket on the console and tapped a few keys. The liquid inside slowly disappeared as it was being aerosolized into the air. He did the same with another container. She watched as this one emptied and more of the Vorcha outside got sick. For good measure, they emptied two more containers of cure into the atmosphere.