The continued tale of the crew of the Normandy SR2, as they transpire AFTER the events of Mass Effect 2. For those who haven't played it - SPOILERS will ensure. You have been WARNED!
--------------------
The core was holding together, barely. The fluctuations in field density had abated somewhat, but the the ship wasn't out of danger yet. There were damaged systems everywhere, the diagnostics flooding across the displays were showing dozens of faulty sections in the life support alone. Fires were breaking out everywhere, systems weren't responding to commands, three of the blast doors were non-functional, both long and short ranged communications were down, the FTL drive was offline, engines were running at 4% above safe recommended operational levels.
There was a hull breach in the shuttle bay - although thankfully the magnetic containment field generated by the mass effect core was holding, so the bay was not open to hard vacuum, but if the core destabilised any further, that couldn't be counted on to remain that way. To top it all off there were reports of another explosion in the shuttle bay, that had just occurred not moments before.
At least Tali'Zorah knew what the quaking of the deck had been caused by. She shook her head, in awe of the damage to the ship, her ship. Whatever had hit them had crippled them, and it was all she could do to keep the ship core from passing the point of no return, the zero threshold - so named because if the core dipped below it, there was zero chance of survival for anyone on board.
Donnelly and Daniels were hurrying around somewhere behind her, rapidly working to keep the rest of the ship alive for as long as they could. Tali had taken sole responsibility for the state of the mass effect core, for it was hers, her 'child', her 'baby'. It it were to die, she would be the one to usher it painlessly into the next world, before it dragged all of them violently after it.
She stopped typing for a moment and stretched, her enviro-suit tickling her flesh as it was stretched along with her. Standing stooped over the consoles was hell on her lower back, her posture about as uncomfortable as it could possibly be. Taking a step backwards she leant forwards, resting the faceplate of her helmet against the safety railings running along the back of the console. She sighed wearily, before straightening up once more.
Deciding that the core could wait for a moment, she synced her omni tool with the diagnostics console, so she could work on the move, and turned away from the core. She set off toward her normal station, hoping to check the stock listings for spare parts Cerberus had provided when outfitting the engineering deck, stopping dead in her tracks as she noticed Donnelly quickly avert his gaze at her approach. He'd been watching her again. She couldn't understand what fascinated him so much about her, but it seemed a subject of much heated debate between him and his human colleague.
Shaking her head she continued to her station, pulling up the necessary files and scanning over the inventory. She immediately spotted several items of use, and flagged them for requisition on her omni tool. She didn't see nearly enough parts for what she had to do to stabilise the core.
She had already re-routed power from the FTL drive, engines, and internal lighting systems in none essential areas, and pushed them all into strengthening the external impact shielding. The Normandy shook repeatedly from impacts of starship weapons, so Tali knew at least that there was some shooting going on but no one seemed to be at an advantage, as damage reports stated merely cosmetic damage to the ships hull.
"Move it, Donnelly!" Tali said, annoyance creeping into her voice. "Those FBA couplings will not replace themselves. We need some good news right now; so how about giving me a chance to repair some of the damaged systems. I can't do it without functional couplings!"
"Aye lassie, don' get your knickers in a knot." Donnelly said, and turned toward the exit, heading for the direction of parts storage.
He never made it. The door before him opened, revealing three enemy soldiers who burst into the room and raised their rifles to cover the three engineers. Donnelly lunged at the nearest one, a wrench clasped in his hands. The enemy was quicker, and stuck the barrel of his rifle into the scotsman's throat, a dark look etched upon his features.
"Try it princess." He said, jabbing the weapon into Donnelly's chest and pushing him back before forcing him down onto his station's seat. "Just give me a reason, chuckles."
Whilst the initial man had Donnelly covered, Daniels was being man-handled to one side by another, and the third - the most dangerous one by the looks of things, was striding across the deck toward her, a heavy pistol clasped in his hand and a look of sheer hatred on his grizzled features.
This could go very wrong, indeed.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment