chapter 12

Argh stupid machine! Access encrypted files!" Jackson silently crept forward as John nodded his head and moved off to the side so he had a clear line of sight on the Krogan arguing with a VI, which was a either a feat in sheer restraint to not simply smash it or a lesson in humility as the damn VI droned on about how it couldn't allow unauthorized users access to classified documents as he slowly inched closer.

Jason seemed to be slowing down, due to all that fancy biotic work earlier and the fact he had also lost the contest, which meant that Jackson got first dibs and he wanted to take this Krogan down without bringing a dozen equally large angry reptilian cousins on top of them when they heard gunfire, so it was now officially Plan B.

"Please move aside, there is a queue forming up behind you," the VI rattled off as everyone froze, including the Krogan that had just enough brain cells working in tandem to turn around to see who was standing behind, "have a pleasant day."

Jackson was less than six feet away with his larger knife drawn as John could be seen at the end of the hallway leveling a sniper rifle, Jane and Alenko brandishing pistols, Jason with that awesome assault rifle the Krogan made a note of stealing after killing them all and Tali in the middle of summoning her combat drone into existence, so Plan B was a go, good old fashioned standby.

"BANZAI!"

Jackson launched himself towards the Krogan before it could pull out a shotgun, instead roaring a challenge and lurching towards him, challenge accepted.

It was over before it even started, as soon as Jackson latched onto the Krogan and reared his head back, it was now his bitch as the Krogan smiled at the sight of a puny human head-butting him as he tossed his head back and decided to crush this weak pyjack where he stood.

CRACK!

Only to discover that Jackson was made of much tougher stuff, bowling the Krogan over with a head-butt that was just short of atomic powered to the much larger and more suited for alien when it came to cracking his head plate against something, much to the shock of those watching, Jackson was winning the pseudo grappling contest as he reared his head back again for another strike.

CRACK!

CRACK!

That did it, several spider web like cracks could be seen in the toughened head plate to those watching on before Jackson inserted his knife under the edge of the weaken plate, smashing the butt of his knife with the palm of his free hand for added power before performing a shoulder throw.

With a Krogan. With spectacular results.

"HHHUUUUUHHRRRGGHHH!" Said Krogan was having himself a really bad day now that he looked up to see that cursed human standing over him holding a bloody knife and his crest plate in either hand after being slammed into the ground.

"Say goodnight." Jackson chimed before plunging the crest plate he had just removed via prying it off the old fashioned way, pointy edge first into the soft tissue where it used to sit seconds ago like a guillotine one handed before performing the palm slamming technique from earlier to drive the crest plate in much deeper.

Needless to say, the Krogan wasn't getting up again, like ever.

"Holy shit Juggernaut," Jane gasped as she stepped up to run a scan over the dead Krogan (more importantly to take a picture actually) before turning to give him a shocked look, "why didn't you just shoot him?"

Jackson shrugged while sliding his knife back into the sheath on his shoulder, "Got to keep my skills sharp Boss Lady, no pun intended."

Jason sighed as he glanced from the body before back to his twin, "Did you really have to scalp the poor bastard? Could've just shot him in the back of the head and been done with it."

"I've got skills," Jackson shot back while crossing his arms, "deal with it."

John was busy arguing with the VI once it registered that he was a researcher that was uncannily named after the one they had ran into earlier, turned out she had passed off her ID before they left, so he was grilling it for all it was worth as Jason wandered off to hack something.

"Okay bad news," Jackson looked up from his work of installing a new ammo mod into his rifle as everyone crowded around John, "turns out ExoGeni has a dirty secret, something called a Thorian…"

XXX

"Okay, no more horror movies for you," Jason said as he watched his twin try to wipe the excess Krogan blood and guts off himself with little success.

"What? They had it coming if I say so myself," Jackson replied as he motioned towards the glowing orb of light they had stumbled upon after taking out the last Geth, which appeared to be worshipping it or something, "any idea what that thing is?"

Jane harrumphed as she hopped down from the high ledge and landed in a crouch, "Some kind of alter maybe?"

"I don't know," John said as he nudged it with the barrel of his rifle, "looks important."

"Could be some kind of high beta wave signal transmitter," Tali said as she struggled to get down carefully from the ledge as Jason took three steps back and held up his arms, mentally counting down in his own head as everyone watched, "must be able for the Geth to interface-whoa!"

With that, the Quarian engineer came tumbling down, frantically waving her arms toward the ledge she was falling from as Jason caught her easily, holding her bridal style as he could feel the power of her blush when he turned to face the rest of the squad.

"I always wanted to witness a shotgun wedding," Jackson laughed as he nudged Alenko in the ribs, "are you a minister so they can get hitched?"

Jane covered her mouth to smother her giggles before she got an evil idea, "I thought you would treat her better, now you have to take responsibility Jason."

"Yeah," John had caught on to what his wife was thinking and he had no qualms when it came to egging her on when she got caught up in it, "wait till the rest of the crew hears about this."

Alenko, the sly bastard, decided to chime in with his two cents, "As we are gathered here today to witness the holy matrimony…"

Tali was squirming in his arms as Jason gently set her down and kicked a small rock laying on the ground directly at the would be preacher at speeds possible below Mach 3, making a loud ding followed by a soft thud that was Alenko hitting the ground clutching his stomach because he had gotten the wind knocked out of him and a dented chest plate for his troubles as he attempted to breathe.

"Are you all finished?" No one said a word as he turned to face Tali, "looks like the Geth dropship is latched onto the side of the building, want to see what we can learn from it while the comedy club tries out their next rendition of acting the fool?"

Once everyone mumbled a half-assed apology and Alenko was back upright, Jason carefully crawled among the assorted cables and attachment claws until he found what he was looking for on the underside of the dropship, a hatch.

"I'll be back in five minutes," Jason said after he easily pried the door open and crawled inside with only his biotics and a pistol for protection, "I'll plant the explosives and grab what I can."

"Be careful," Tali said just before he disappeared from view, the light from his helmet and omni-tool the only sign of him, "I hope he is okay."

Jackson sighed as he patted the top of her helmet, "He hasn't even been gone five seconds and you already miss him? Got to say Ms. Brody that your marriage might will be interesting."

"I HEARD THAT!" The shout from inside the dropship was followed by the sounds of something breaking while Tali tried to remember how to breathe as Jane decided to be the only decent person and calm her down.

"He was just joking Tali," a glare sent at the towering behemoth got her point across, "he'll be fixing the Mako by himself before we leave."

"What!?" Jackson pouted as a miniature rain cloud appeared over his head, "You're so mean Boss Lady."

"That's what's you get for picking on her," Jane smirked as she patted Tali on the shoulder again, "though I think you two would've made a lovely couple."

"SERIOUSLY? I'M RIGHT HERE YOU KNOW!"

"Find anything interesting in there?" John decided to defuse the situation by getting back on track before his wife began talking about wedding dates and dresses, once she started, there would be an actual wedding taking place.

Tali was too busy trying to get her heart rate back under control before her suit administered sleeping supplements while paying attention to something to get her focused on something else before a large rectangular object came soaring out of the hatch, hitting Jackson in the leg, followed by a few smaller objects, some strands of cabling and what looked like another weapon, but she had never seen it before as Jason came crawling out.

She stifled a laugh at the sight of him covered in filth and looking cross with something as he untangled himself from other cables and stood up, cursing once he realized how dirty his visor was.

"I think I found the black box," Tali tilted her head in thought, trying to puzzle out what he meant before he explained, "or at least what looked like a flight data recorder before I planted the explosives around the miniature drive core and set the timer for ten minutes, along with whatever that thing is."

Tali turned to look at what he was pointing at, already holding a few pieces of what had to be some kind of Geth data processor that could potentially be the flight data recorder, it looked like a really big sniper rifle as Jackson hefted it before placing it on his back, "Where'd you find it?"

"On a wall inside attached to a magnetic strip," Jason shrugged before grabbed the remaining pieces and stored them in his pouches while Tali did the same, itching to tear them apart and learn what she could from them, but for now she had to wait until they returned to the ship, "it looked important, so I grabbed it."

"Nice," Jane said as she took point, "now all we'll have to do is clear out the rest of the Geth and then we'll head back to the colony to see whatever this Thorian creature is."

Jason rolled his eyes after his twin let out a groan, though he wasn't the only one at the thought of her driving as they booked it for the stairs. Along the way, no Geth yet until they reached the room with the door controls, then again he was pretty sure placing a set of explosive charges directly on top of the drive core and the nerve cluster of the dropship would be sufficient enough to destroy it, it still made sense to go clear out the rest of the Geth.

"I love the ammo mod," Jane said after plunging seven shots into a trooper they stumbled across, where as it would have taken her ten or more to even take down its shields, "you have to look into a patent."

Way ahead of you Shepard, Jason shrugged as they finally reached the big room with a huge claw sticking through the wall, a couple Geth terminals and a whole shit load of…

"GETH!" Tali shrieked as a Hopper was either ballsy enough or stupid enough to land less than three feet in front of her.

Hopper went bye-bye.

From it resorted into a free-for-all shooting spree in the general direction of the Geth as everyone dove for whatever cover they could find before they got turned into a sieve.

"Prime moving up on the stairs!" John called out in warning.

Jackson grinned as he pulled that Geth weapon, easily identifiable as an early model Widow, but it looked strange for some reason, "On it!"

ZZUUAAAPPP!

Jason glanced over at the obliterated Prime, the smoldering crater in the wall behind it and the massive shit eating grin plastered across Jackson's face and took it all in stride before lobbing a grenade towards a pocket of shock troopers coming their way.

"What kind of rifle is that?" Alenko asked before ducking to avoid having his head taken off by a burst of gunfire.

"Hehehehehehe, its mine now!" Jackson gloated before rising up to fire another shot, the cooldown period was twice as long as any other weapon, for good reason it seemed, because the recoil alone was able to slam Jackson backwards a couple steps.

John gave the rifle a longing look after watching it mow down four shock troopers standing in a line with only one shot before looking down at his own rifle, "I have got to get me one of those."

"Get in line," Jason shouted back as he launched a rather weak Throw in order to knock over a trooper that had a rocket launcher, "I still have to run diagnostics on it first."

Jackson twirled around so fast he nearly whapped Alenko in the head with the long barrel with a pleading look on his face, "What?"

"Looks like the big guy feels a little attached to it," Jane commented before her Overload caused another trooper to short out, "when is that dropship about to…"

KKKAAAA-BBBBOOOOOMMMMMIISSSKKKK!

"Never mind."

"How many programs do you think were inside that dropship," Jason asked Tali as they watched the last Prime get taken down with a single shot from Jackson's new rifle, "rough estimate?"

Tali stowed her shotgun and did some kind of mental calculation in her head, tapping the chin of her helmet while her toes tapped in unison with her finger before she shrugged, "I'd have to guess at least two million separate programs, maybe three?"

Jason smiled as he walked over to an unmolested terminal and began hacking it with ease while Tali attacked another with her omni-tool at the ready as Jane took the last one, leaving John, Alenko and Jackson to cover them, even though that had been the last of the Geth. Alenko helped by grabbing a few parts off each Prime while John seemed to be searching for his own rifle among the remains, finding a Geth sniper still intact, but the rifle was much smaller, so he kept it anyway.

"Come in…Shepard…colonists…..need assistance…." Joker's voice could be heard over the com now that the dropship was somewhere in a crater smoldering as John decided to answer it immediately.

"Think you can clean this up?" Jane nodded as did some magic on her omni-tool just as Jason finished with his data mine, having cleaned the terminal out for all it was worth, a damn good thing he had found multiple omni-tools along the way because this was the third one he had filled up with lots of data.

"Normandy to ground team, come in," Joker sounded frantic as the rest of the static was dealt with, "we have a huge problem here, please answer me."

"This is the ground team, go ahead Normandy."

"Commander? Oh thank God, listen all of the colonists went nuts a little while ago, clawing and attacking the ship," there were brief glances exchanged between everyone, "the rest of the team are inside now after they couldn't subdue them, what are your orders?"

"It has to be the Thorian influencing them," Jane said before John nodded and keyed his mike, "Tell the crew to sit tight and wait, we'll be on our way."

"No hurry Commander," Joker shot back, "it's just that they are scratching my baby so could you please do something about it?"

"Copy that Normandy, ground team out," John twirled his hand while heading in the direction of the stairs, "double time people, back to the Mako!"

XXX

"Ugh," Jackson groaned as he all but dropped onto the ground with a thud, "next time, I drive."

"We were in a hurry," Jane said as she jumped out, "I told you that we would make that last jump."

"Life….flashing….eyes," Alenko hiccupped that sounded like he was trying to keep whatever he had left down, even though most of it was all over the inside of the Mako, "go on without…"

"Man up soldier," John snapped as he lifted the man to his feet and gave him a thorough shake, not something to be advised when the individual shaking looks close to throwing up, "we have a job to do."

Tali landed on top of Jackson after she missed the safety handles and simply laid there with a groan, "I almost threw up."

"Commander, I don't think driving the Mako off the top of an unstable building two hundred feet down onto a roadway was such a good idea," Jason said as he carefully climbed out and helped Tali and Jackson to their feet before giving Jane a glare that would terrify lesser mortals, "making the jump by less than six meters mind you."

"It's a good thing we got those grenade upgrade mods," Jane continued on without as so much as acknowledging the fact he had been right, "hopefully we can avoid killing the colonists."

Jason sighed deeply before following the others over to the door before Jackson stopped and walked over to a familiar looking lump on the ground.

All was going great until it stood up, fanged mouth, elongated claws, sunken face and the sickly green color summed up as what could only be a Thorian Creeper and hissed as Jackson, who simply cocked a fist back and punched it as hard as he could.

Instead of simply breaking its neck and sending it sailing through the air from the force of his punch alone, much to his horror and disgust, his armored hand went through the soft tissue like a hot knife through butter, leaving him with a disgusting ornament hanging off his forearm because his arm had taken its chin off before going through the shoulder.

"Eeeeww," Jackson whined as he shook his arm off before kicking it away, "that was so gross."

"Was that a colonist?" Jane looked as close as one could get to blanching without throwing up as Jason elected himself to walk over and scan the darn thing, after he put a couple rounds in what was left of its head, last thing he wanted it getting back up on him.

His omni-tool beeped after a minute of scanning was done on it, "Nope, this thing is comprised of entirely, and I hope this thing isn't wrong, plant matter."

"Plant?" John asked as he walked over and kicked it over so he could get a good look at it, "so we got walking weeds coming after us?"

Jason shrugged as he stood up, "No idea Commander, odds are we'll find more of them inside."

Jackson took his assault rifle and removed the current ammo mod he had had installed before going for something more suited for taking down soft targets, which he had brought along just for this reason, "I don't think that fancy shock mod will work on these things bro."

"Everyone, switch your weapons over to organic based ammo mods," John ordered as he began doing the same.

"Shoot these things, but hit the colonists with a modified grenade," Jane tacked on, "last thing we need is too kill innocent people trying to save them."

Once everyone was ready, Jason walked over to the door control and raised his fist, watching as Jackson climbed inside the Mako out of the corner of his eye while the rest of the ground team formed up, facing the door as he hit the switch and began backpedaling.

There were dozens of them in that curled up form, a lot more than had ever been in the game as Jackson let it rip with the main gun as they all starting standing up with a chorus of hisses and snarls before turning to face them.

"This is going to be fun."