#AsteroidMine – April 5, 2014

Renala takes a few steps towards the door, raising her Punisher.

PanickedMan can be heard sobbing uncontrollably on the other side of the door.

Jason enters through the doorway and steps to the side of the door in order to afford Renala the room to enter. He keeps his weapon lowered. "It's alright. We're gonna get you out of here, but we can't sit around."

PanickedMan looks up at Jason with terror in his eyes, pressing against the wall.

Renala waits for a few seconds and enters the room. Hearing no gunshots before entering, she has her weapon lowered. She looks around the room.

PanickedMan stares at Jason and suddenly blurts out. "I DON'T WANT TO BE A MONSTER!" He swiftly puts the barrel of his gun against his chin and fires a round. His lifeless arms fall to the floor and the ceiling is stained with his brains.

Alex looks over the gashes on her left arm and right leg, "I.. I think so.. Are you okay?" She frowns, looking at his arm. "That doesn't look too good."

Steve glances down at his arm and takes a deep breath. "Think it's broken..." he groans, "Not much we can do about it right now." He takes a couple steps towards one of the writhing creatures and fires two rounds into it. "I think-... I think they got Maria..."

Renala snaps her gaze towards him as he shouts, but is left with too little time to react before he kills himself. "Fuck," she says. "Is nothing gonna work in our favor on this job?"

Jason tries to take a step towards the man to attempt to stop him, but it's too late. He winces as the round is fired. "We-... We just gotta keep moving." he says, staring at the lifeless corpse.

Vaden enters the room and goes wide-eyed as he sees the body. "Why would he do that? We're here to help..."

Jason turns and looks at the salarian, holding out his hand expectantly for his knife. "Did you see what all his friends and co-workers became?" he glances back over his shoulder at the body, "He chose the painless way out..."

Jenya 's voice can be heard from down the corridor. "We... may have a problem. I think the gunshot stirred the ones in the storage..."

Vaden remains in place, mumbling: "We're here to help..."

Renala nods to Jason and looks at the other asari. "Oh... shit," she says in a lowered voice. "Let's get back and close the door."

Alex inhales shakily, and begins applying medi-gel to her wounds. "Dammit."

Jason cringes as he hears Jenya. "Fuck... We don't have time to deal with this." He nods to Renala and gives the salarian a nudge. "Back the way we came." he announces. He yanks his blade free from the salarian's hand and resheathes it before replacing his Phalanx with his Revenant once again.

Steve stands in place, looking around for any sign of Maria, or movement from the creatures strewn about. "Don't let your guard down yet... Who knows how many more of 'em are around."

Vaden takes a while to react, but spins around to look at the corridor. "Have to seal the door behind us when we leave!"

Jasper is mumbling to himself as he struggles to piece things together under the stressful circumstances. "What the fuck is going on out there!?" he shouts in the wake of the explosion.

Steve slowly makes his way towards the movement, gripping his SMG in front of him tightly with one hand.

Renala takes a step back, looking terrified. "No," she mutters as she raises her weapon towards the other corridor. However, as she's the furthest back in the group, she holds her fire.

Alex rubs her nose, realizing that it's broken. "Ow." She begins rubbing her temples, and walks towards the shuttle, "What's going on in here? Is the shuttle ready yet?"

Maria is lying on the floor of the hangar, her hardsuit badly damaged and her right side looks badly charred. There is nothing left of her right arm and her face is a mess. "H-... uk... hel...p..." She goes into a coughing fit.

Jason nearly skids to a stop as he realizes how far the hostiles have already made it. He cusses softly under his breath and shoulders his Revenant as he exits the corridor into the central crane control room, firing a volley of 12 shots towards the lead husk as he does.

Steve slowly lowers his weapon as he spots Maria on the ground. His eyes grow wide behind his helmet. "You're fine..." he says, taking a knee beside her, "We're gonna get you out of here."

Jasper gives a frustrated sigh. "A fix like this takes time! Be patient! What's the situation out there?" he calls back to Alex.

Alex pokes her arm, out of curiosity, and winces "Uh, it's pretty bad. Do you need any help?"

Maria focuses her visible eye on Steve - the other is obscured by shattered and melted pieces of helmet. She nods a few times. "H-... gh... f... how... bad...?"

Jasper shakes his head to himself. "You keep helpin' by makin' damn sure those things don't get ahold of me." he says.

Steve looks over Maria's damage. He contemplates lying, but ultimately simply sighs and answers honestly, "Pretty bad..."

Renala builds up biotic energy as she passes the salarian and lets go of a throw, making sure not to hit any of her team on its path to the protected husk.

Jason , being out of the corridor, simply continues to sidestep back in the direction of the northern door to escape the path of the warp. "They never did that before!" he shouts, readying to unleash another volley of rounds should the husk make it into view.

Maria makes a series of noises that never amount to any proper words, but she's quite clearly still conscious.

Alex begins looking around the hangar for any other signs of threats, and maybe something that could help the situation.

Jenya disappears in a puff of biotic smoke, reappering behind the creature that attacked Renala, stabbing her sword through its chest and cutting it in half while pulling it out. She is immediately attacked from behind by another of them that grabs her sword arm with a claw.

Renala turns around an starts running at the sight of the orb, trying to get back to the room she was it. However, she fails and is swept up by the singularity, floating around aimlessly. She manages to not lose her submachine gun, though.

Vaden lets out a confused "Wha-" before floating up as well and bumping against Renala. He tries his best to aim his omni-tool while in the air, and only manages to set the chair in the crane control room on fire.

Jason lets out a loud, pained grunt as he's thrusted into the wall, causing him to drop his rifle. He slumps to the ground and places a hand against the wall as he tries to recover.

Steve continues to look towards Maria. He glances down at his SMG. "Maria... When I say 'pretty bad'... I mean-..." he sighs once again, "I mean pretty bad. I can-... I can just-..." he trails off, lifting his SMG slightly.

Leah approaches the pair. "Oh god..." she gasps, lifting a hand to her mouth. "You can't be serious..." she says as she hears Steve.

Maria starts coughing again. She doesn't seem capable of responding. Her gaze moves to Leah as she comes withing view.

Alex sighs and runs a hand through her hair, not having the heart to join the rest of the group.

Leah kneels down beside Steve and sets her Mattock aside. She removes her medi-gel cannister and looks over Maria. She gives a panicked groan, knowing damn well it's probably pointless, but she begins applying medi-gel to Maria's nub anyways, hoping to clot the blood loss.

Steve gives a short humorless chuckle with a shake of his head. "There ain't enough medi-gel in the world to fix her up..." he says, "You're better off saving it for if, and when, the rest of us need it..."

Renala grunts as she's bumped into by the salarian, losing her grip on her weapon which joins the two of them in the floaty fun time. She looks extremely worried as she sees the creature take the other asari.

Jason swats at the creature's hand, still somewhat dazed from crashing into the wall. He's flung aside like a rag doll and begins struggling to unholster his Phalanx.

Leah scowls at Steve. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Right now, she needs it." she says, unwavering from her decision even if it is hopeless. She continues to apply medi-gel to Maria.

Vaden falls to the floor with a loud thump as the singularity fades away. He scrambles to get to his feet, as he's caught the attention of the proto-adjutant that tossed Jason.

Jenya lets out a frustrated yell as biotic energy envelops her and then shoots out in all directions, tossing back her attacker and the ones behind it. She stands in place and catches her breath for a bit.

Renala follows the salarian, and lands unceremoniously on her back, the springy nature of her crests saving her from a hit to the head. The submachine gun hits the floor with a clatter half a meter to her left. She reaches towards her gun and picks it up as she slowly gets to her feet.

Alex begins doodling with her omni-tool again, attempting to get her mind off of the situation.

Steve shakes his head at Leah. "Do what you gotta do..." he mutters in frustration and leaves Maria's side.

Maria is mostly just blinking and moving her head faintly as the medi-gel is applied.

Jason pulls his Phalanx free and empties the remainder of his clip into the back of the adjutant that has turned its attention to Vaden.

Jasper begins running his diagnostics program, attempting to decipher just how much damage is left to repair.

Steve walks over towards Alex, giving a glance back towards Maria and Leah. He activates his comms and glares out over the fiery destruction. "We're good for now, but Maria took quite a beating." he says, "I don't think she's going to make it. Think my arms broken, so I'd just hold you back if I came back your way..."

Jenya turns around and backs towards the other with her sword in hand, keeping an eye on the enemies that are starting to move through the corridor once more.

Renala sees the creature targeting Vaden, and charges her biotics. While terribly afraid of it, she cared for the young salarian. Two seconds later, she sends off a single-target stasis field at the salarian's assailant.

Alex casually closes her omni-tool, and looks over to Maria, sadly.

Vaden looks up at the creature, terrified. It takes him a while to notice that it has stopped moving. He doesn't do anything - either from fear or being pinned down.

Jason doesn't bother wasting the time to reload his Phalanx since he's no longer being targeted. Nor does he respond to comms, although the report of Maria weighs on him greatly. He uses the break in being brutalized to scramble back to his Revenant. He quickly reholsters his Phalanx and shoulders the large weapon as he comes to Jenya's side in the corridor and begins laying down a hail of gunfire, unleashing 15 shots towards the encroaching enemies.

Renala quickly crouches down, and grips the creature by the throat and while prying it back. If successful, she pushes the gun against the side of its head and fires a three-shot burst.

Steve leans against the shuttle and groans loudly. He looks towards Alex, "You know anything about setting a break?" he asks apprehensively.

Jenya sheaths her sword and draws her Tempest, helping Jason hold the creatures back. "We have to fall back and seal the door!" she yells over the gunfire.

Jason holds his fire for a moment to shout back to the others. "Hurry the fuck up!" he shouts, "We need to get this door closed!" before unleashing his remaining 10 rounds into the crowd.

Renala pries the limp creature off the salarian and gets back to her feet, offering him a hand to help him up.

Vaden remains on the floor as if he's barely registered that his attacker is dealt with. His gaze eventually moves to Renala. "Th-Th-... Th-... Thank you..." His armor has a few holes and loose plates, and he is bleeding from his left arm. He takes her hand and gets up, clearly still shaken.

Alex shrugs, "Uh, no..." She shudders. "I don't think that's a good idea."

Steve sighs and slams a fist down on the side of the shuttle out of frustration. "I'm not much use like this. If another group of those fuckers comes this way I-..." he reaches up instinctively and places a hand against his helmet as a sharp pain shoots through his head.

Jasper continues working without any pause as Steve hits the shuttle. "The hell is goin' on out there!?" he shouts.

Renala pats his shoulder. "We're all getting out of here," she says. "Now, get the door ready to close." She turns away from him and approaches the other corridor, raising her Punisher as she looks for the enemies' locations and numbers, as well as lines of fire.

Alex flinches when his fist makes contact with the shuttle. "I don't think you'd be anymore useful if you tried to fix it on your own." She rubs her arm lightly, "I think.."

Jason reaches back and grabs a thermal clip. He begins to backpedal as he pops it in and lays down another dozen rounds. "Get ready to shut the fucking door, Vaden!" he orders.

Vaden takes a while to get moving, but eventually nods repeatedly and moves over to the panel, waiting for the others to back into the room.

Steve reaches up and quickly works on removing his helmet. "What?" he growls, "You think what?" He drops his helmet to the ground and winces as another sharp pain shoots through his forehead. He grabs his head tightly with a gauntleted hand.

Renala nods and keeps her weapon trained on the corridor, though has no clear line of sight. "The salarian's ready," she reports to the others.

Jason continues backing up. Once he backs up far enough to reach Renala, he fires another six rounds into the crowd and steps around the asari, hoping she'll pick up where he left off as he quickly returns to the doorway and prepares to lay down more fire once the corridor is clear.

Jenya tosses a throw down the corridor, causing the proto-adjutants to be pushed back into each other, slowing them down considerably as she backs out of the corridor.

Alex frowns, "I think you need to sit down." She says and touches his shoulder lightly, "Please?"

Vaden immediately closes the door and moves over in front of it, moving his omni-tool to the top of it and starting to weld the door shut.

Renala fires off a 5-shot bursts at the creatures, making sure not to hit Jenya; the last shot gets through half a second before the door closes.

Steve stares at Alex for a moment, breathing deeply. He slowly takes a seat on the floor beside his helmet and rests his good elbow on his knee as his other arm hangs uncomfortably at his side. He holds his head in his hand and closes his eyes as the throbbing in his head continues.

Jason 's breathing is ragged as he moves towards the door to the north. "Same thing!" he shouts, "That's not going to hold them for long, get this door closed!"

Vaden is about halfway through welding the door shut when the adjutants start clawing and banging on the door from the other side. The fear in the salarian is obvious as he kneels down to weld the bottom part of the door.

Alex stays standing, deciding she would keep watch for anything while he was resting.

Leah sighs and returns the medi-gel cannister to a compartment. She lowers from her knees and takes a seat on the ground, placing a hand on Maria's shoulder. She looks towards Alex, "How you holding up?" she asks.

Maria doesn't show any sign of aknowledging Leah anymore, just staring at the ceiling.

Renala quickly moves back to the room north of where they are, looking over that room once she's inside it.

Alex smiles at Leah, "Pretty good I guess." She laughs a bit. "What about you?"

Jason finally responds to the comms transmission. "Take care of her and keep her stable. We're doing our best to find those generators, but those fucking things are everywhere. Just-... Hold on." He raises his Revenant as he joined Renala and gives the room a sweep. It's quite obvious that the events are wearing on him.

Vaden finishes the welding and wastes no time backing away from the door and to the others.

Jenya eyes the door a few times as if pondering how long it will hold before joining them.

Leah cracks a smile at the younger woman's enthusiasm. Her hand remains on Maria's shoulder in an attempt at offering comfort. "I don't know... What-..." she looks towards one of the corpses, "...are they?" she asks distantly.

Jason sets up at the door to the north and glances back at Vaden. "Lock that one down, too. We need all the time we can get." he says.

Vaden nods way too many times and gets to work on the door, closing it easily and then starting to weld.

Renala takes a step back, keeping her weapon at the ready, but not aiminag at the door. Her breating is starting to slow down, but is still rather rapid.

Jenya looks at the closed door for a while before breaking the silence. "These... things. They are the miners we are here to save."

Jason continues watching the door to the north. "Yes. They are." he says plainly.

Alex sits down with her knees brought up to her chest, "I don't know either." She frowns, "I was hoping you would know.."

Jenya observes the salarian as he seals the door. "It would appear we have failed our mission."

Steve begins fishing through the compartment on his hardsuit. He removes a small pill bottle and dumps a few pills into the palm of his hand. "I've never seen anything like that..." he says before tossing the pills into his mouth, "They just kept coming." he adds with a mouth full of pills before swallowing hard.

Renala frowns. "There's no succeeding this mission," she says. "It's... too late of them."

Vaden finishes the welding and stands up, making an effort to muster some courage. "What about the people here? Might be survivors..."

Jason doesn't respond right away, instead staring out into the next room for a few moments. "Let's get that power back on. We'll worry about the rest when we have to..."

Jenya nods in agreement. "We should move."

Alex sets her head down, and sighs. "How much longer do you think we have?"

Renala walks over to the doorway, glancing into the room beyond; eager to be as far away as possible from the recently welded-shut door.

Jason steps through the door, Revenant raised, and gives a quick sweep. If clear, he moves 'over to the door leading back to the east room and takes a defensive position.

Steve shakes his head. "I don't know, Alex." he says as he rubs at his temples, "Who knows how many more of those things are in here... For all we know, that little battle could've alerted the whole damn place."

Leah frowns at Steve before looking at Alex, "Who knows? Perhaps that was all of them."

Alex nods, keeping her head down. "Maybe." She looks up at Leah, "You don't have to sugar coat stuff. I'm not a baby." Alex smiles.

Leah returns the woman's smile, "Who says I'm sugar coating anything? Can't hurt to have a little optimism, can it?"

Vaden nods and starts welding the this door as well.

Alex chuckles, "I guess not. We could use a lot of it right now, anyways."

Jenya totally wasn't welded in the room to die a horrible death.

Renala wasn't either. She makes her way over to the door leading back to the hall that leads to the hangar and stairs-room. She raises her weapons as she looks through that doorway.

Jenya follows Renala to help make sure the path is clear, which it appears to be.

Vaden finishes welding the door and stands up.

Renala makes her way out to the room, looking it over ceiling to floor with her omni-tool's flashlight following her gaze. She glances into the hangar.

Leah looks at Alex as she hears the transmission. She looks as though she's about to object, but forces a smile. "Good luck, Alex. Stay safe."

Jason glances back at Vaden to check on the door. Realizing he's done, Jason steps through the door behind Renala and shadows her movement, sweeping around the room with his helm-lamp.

Alex stands and smiles back at her sincerely, "I will." Alex turns her back to the group and starts jogging to where Renala's light is.

Renala gasps as she sees the creature, but is on the floor before she can react, her weapon clattering on the ground beside her. She tries to grab its arms to push it off her.

Jenya stabs her sword through the head of Renala's attacker and then kicks the corpse off her, giving the fellow asari a quick nod before scanning the room for more.

Jason swings around as he hears the commotion beside him and levels his Revenant at the creature. Before he can even react, Jenya has dealt with it.

Steve watches as Alex jogs off. He glances towards Leah grimly before lowering his gaze back towards the floor.

Renala lays on the floor still as the creature falls off her, breathing rapidly with a terrified expression. The damage is limited to cuts on her armor where it dug its claws in, but there's no blood visible.

Alex frowns and offers her hand to help Renala up. "Uh, you okay?" Alex asks awkwardly.

Jason swings his Revenant towards Alex as she steps through the door as paranoia is beginning to take hold of him. "Shit!" he exclaims as he realizes it's just her.

Renala slowly reaches out a shaking hand at Alex and lets herself be helped up to her feet. "Fuck, I'm never gonna get used to that," she mutters.

Alex puts her hands up in defense from Jason, after helping Renala. "I thought we were on the same side.." She frowns.

Jason lowers his weapon and glances towards the door his group just exited from. He gives the salarian a nod.

Alex looks away from Jason. "I think Leah stopped the bleeding, so I guess she's okay."

Renala pats Alex' shoulder with a shaky hand, her breathing slowly relaxing. She keeps quiet, though, and instead glances around for her weapon.

Vaden only now notices that he is bleeding, and grabs a medi-gel canister from an armor compartment, applying it to the wound.

Alex nods, and pats Renala's shoulder as well. "Okay, should we get going then?"

Renala picks up her Punisher and looks over at the salarian with a frown. "Would you like some help with that?"

Vaden shakes his head. "Just a scratch. Have to focus on mission."

Jason gives Alex a nod. "Vaden, as soon as you're set, get that door locked down." he says, referring to the door they just returned from. He takes a position just outside of the bloody corridor they're about to enter and raises his Revenant while shining his light back and forth.

Vaden nods and stashes the medi-gel away before getting to work on the door.

Renala nods at the salarian and waits for orders. She glances towards the doorway to the stairs room.

Jenya takes up position in the middle of the doorway Jason is at, with her sword drawn.

Jenya moves down the hallway and stops at the two side doors. The one to the left is like the others they have encountered so far, but the one to the right is a smaller, hatchlike door with a physical handle.

Alex follows Jenya down the hallway, and stops a few steps behind her.

Jason starts down the hallway and stops past the doors. He keeps his weapon trained down the hall. "Get it open." he says, pointing back at the hatch-like door.

Renala walks up to the doorway Jenya went through and looks into it nervously before following after them.

Jenya nods and grabs the handle, yanking the door open. It reveals a maintenance corridor with a metal net floor and various pipes and wires running along the walls and ceiling. It is pitch black and goes off a fair distance ahead.

Steve looks between Leah and Maria as he gets up and steps into the shuttle. "You need to work faster." he says, stepping into the cockpit.

Jasper glances at Steve, holding his gaze on the man's arm dangling limply. "That doesn't look too fun." he says as he returns to working on the console, "I'm doing what I can here. Like I said, it just takes time."

Steve glances over at the datapad and lifts it off the console. "Where's this from?" he asks as he begins to study the screen.

Jasper gives a nod to the body curled up on the ground. "Our friend here was holdin' it when I found him."

Renala glances at the door they opened, and nods. "Makes sense that they'd have a door like that leading to the generator."

Jason glances back towards the door, but is unable to see much from his angle. "I'll take your word on it." he says.

Alex glances down the corridor then starts walking down it, staying near the right hand wall. Alex keeps her pistol up in order to look around the corridor.

Steve snorts and looks down at the corpse. "Poor bastard was in here for days, apparently." he says, taking a seat in the co-pilot's seat, "Looks like his cowardice didn't get him very far..."

Vaden finishes welding and joins the others in the corridor.