Taseer slid another crate, grinning broadly in her helmet as the stack grew as each of the crewman on the freighter uncovered more valuable tech. The laser had been removed and was being taken back to the Acheron. She was ready to start having the others from the ship come over and start carting off the rest of the crates. This could very well become one of their best takes ever.<br/><br/><span style="color: navy">"Damn, we are going to party <i>so</i> hard!"</span>She laughed, shoving another crate across the floor.<br/><br/><span style="color: green">We got another laser here!</span>One of the crew yelled, and Taseer looked up and cheered in glee along with the others.<br/><br/><span style="color: navy">"Captain, we are rolling in credits over here!"</span>She yelled.<br/><br/><span style="color: blue">That's great. Keep it together. We're still in potentially hostile territory.</span><br/><br/><br/>***<br/><br/><br/>The final journal entry reads:<br/><br/><br/>"<br/>PHD in Archaeo-Technology and Prothean Studies Andrew Mosalev:<br/>Site 00278:A<br/><br/>The blind have demanded we give them a "status update." Foolishness. Money is of no consequence. Turn by turn we've surrendered ourselves for enlightenment, for ascension. Food has lost its meaning, we are not hungry. Drink does not satisfy, we are not thirsty. More have come to bring us supplies, but we showed them the truth, showed them the light of the machine, the master's design. They were afraid, but we enlightened them.<br/><br/>One had remained upon the ship to guard it after we had taken the rest to show them, but he was not undeserving of enlightenment so we went to him, to bring him back to join us in our wisdom and serenity. We brought the enlightened with us, and by the glory of their design, the toxic world did not burn their lungs. They are immune to the pains of the mundane. We tried to show him, tried to explain to the one left behind, but he was afraid, he ran, hid away... the enlightened knew that we could not allow him to escape, that he would lead a tortured existence without us. I would not condemn any to suffer such... so the enlightened, through their glorious form destroyed that contraption's heart that it could not fly any longer.<br/><br/>We called to him, and we could see him, feel his mind near ours and we whispered to it. We could feel his fear, but we are many, and he but one. He tried to kill those of us that went to collect him, opened all the doors to starve us of air, but the enlightened could not be killed, and we wore the suits. It was panic, oh how he reeled against us... he knew he could not resist us, and so he killed himself... a tragedy that he will never know.<br/><br/>We wait now, ascending in preparation for the master's time is here. They are coming and we must be ready.<br/><br/>They are coming.<br/>"<br/><br/><br/>Sorv slowly rounded the corner and stepped out into the hall, staring at source of the bluish hue. It was a machine of some kind, unlike anything he had ever seen. Like four webbed, hollow hands it rose from its base. The black-blue metal's sleek surface marred only by the seams that composed its skin. Floating just above was an orb emanating the pale blue light, hovering. Though it seemed to be the source of the illumination it did not glow, but rather was a mercurial silver, like a liquid conforming uncomfortably to a geometric shape. Ripples seemed to cross its surface, ripples with no origin. Sorv was struck by the silence of it, and yet consumed insanely at the same time by the noise that pervaded his senses. It made no noise yet he could hear it, like a humming needle in his mind.<br/><br/>It was set in a large chamber, wide and open at the end of the short hall ahead of him. The walls and floor seemed covered in almost fleshy protrusions, lined with metal along which the same blue light seemed to break through in patterns. He could see parts of the alien architecture coming through, like the hallway, but it the elements were all but consumed by those metal and flesh masses.<br/><br/>Sorv could do nothing but stare, his rifle lowering. He tried to conjure a thought, needed to raise some cognitive idea of what he was looking at, but it was like that humming needle had cast a haze over his mind. He stared at the machine until movement caught his eye, stirred a primal reaction within him that shoved the needle out and awakened his suppressed senses. Standing in the short hall between him and the machine, a silhouette moved. how he hadn't seen it before, he didn't know, but it was humanoid, standing with two legs, two arms hanging at its shoulders, and a head above. He could see no details on it, the light beyond making the silhouette little more than a black shape, but like those masses huddled in the chamber along the silhouette blue light shone in patterns along its limbs.<br/><br/>It was a turning motion that had caught his attention, the silhouette was turning to face him, too look behind at him. Sorv's eyes slowly widened as he saw it, its turned face caught momentarily in the light from the machine as its two glowing blue machine eyes looked at him, the veins along its neck now tubes running into the base of its grey, wrinkled fleshy skull, and its lips pulled back to expose its white teeth. Its mouth hung slack and from the back of its throat a blue light glowed from the machine that had replaced its tongue.<br/><br/>He stared in complete shock and horror. It was human.<i>It was human!</i><br/><br/>The husk stared at him for a moment, as it considering him, then its face contorted, its shriveled skin tightening on its face into a profane interpretation of anger. Then it screamed, or what Sorv could only define as a scream. The sound, like some human yell of hate and pain distorted as if through a broken microphone amplified a hundred times until it scratched and reverberated angrily against itself.<br/><br/>The sound seemed to fill the dig site as though it was being echoed from every open crevice and interrupted magma tube leading away into the rock. Ashana stopped and slowly looked up as it invaded her hearing, chilling her blood and making her every muscle tighten. Not knowing what could make such a sound.<br/><br/>Firas too had stopped, looking around suddenly and listening as the scream carried on.<br/><br/>Sorv stared, trapped by the madness he had stumbled into. The husk stopped, seemed to hesitate for a moment then suddenly lurched forward toward him. His shock was overwritten by training, and in a snap his Mantis was up, and he squeezed the trigger. The flesh and machine bent and contorted around the bullet in a single instant, shattering and eviscerating. In a burst of gore and spark upon the husks shoulder's where its head had been not a moment before. The body lurched another step toward him, spasming like it had been overwhelmed by a seizure at the loss of its head, but had not been killed. It lurched and fell shaking madly as it seemed to still be trying to reach him.<br/><br/>The shot echoed through the site, Ashana, hearing something only too familiar was napped out of the daze of ignorance that the scream had caused.<span style="color: DarkOrchid">What was that?</span><br/><br/>Firas, knowing the sound of the Mantis shot began sprinting as fast as he could toward where Sorv had said he would be, pulling his rifle from his shoulder.<br/><br/>Sorv backed away from the seizing corpse creature on the ground, but stopped as suddenly the room with the machine was alive with motion. The fleshy masses weren't masses at all. They were more of those things, curled it, clinging to the floor and wall like they had been praying, now suddenly moving, standing, waking up as they sensed the threat in unison. And then they were all moving, running toward him, crawling across the walls toward him.<br/><br/><span style="color: DarkOrange"><i>Shit</i>!</span>Sorv yelled hammering the thermal clip out of his Mantis and loading another while he backpedaled around the corner. The first husk rounded the corner and he fired, the snap shot punching through its shoulder, ripping off its right arm. Then the next came around he corner, and the next and a dozen more.<br/><br/>Sorv gripped his rifle and turned, sprinting back down the hall at breakneck speed, fueled by adrenaline. He rounded the last corner, seeing the white light of dig site. Skidded, nearly falling as he tried to stop himself, turning and grabbing an edge on the face of the alien door, pushing against it, trying to shove it back closed with all his might. He jammed the butt of his rifle against it, prying it, feeling it give an inch, then another.<br/><br/>Firas charged into view, seeing Sorv struggling against the door.<br/><br/><span style="color: DarkOrange">Firas! The door!</span>He yelled. The Turian didn't hesitate, didn't gawk at the strange design. He just ran, grabbing the opposite door and yanking on it, using his Revenant to pry the door enough to feel it move, then throw his weight against it to push it.<br/><br/><span style="color: blue">What the hell is it!?</span>He yelled as they got the doors closer and closer to closed until only a foot remained. Sorv looked at him when suddenly a grey arm, metal tubes puncturing its surface like a serpent, shoved through the remaining open space in the door. Firas' jaw dropped staring at the appendage.<span style="color: blue">Wha-?</span>He managed to blurt before the arm began flailing, reaching and grabbing for anything it could grasp. Then suddenly more arms came through the crack in the door, a dozen husk bodies all fighting against the doors, their overwhelming mass prying it back open.<br/><br/>Firas let go of the door and aimed his Revenant at the arms, and fired into the grey flesh filled opening. The gun kicked, the might of it fighting to break free of Firas' control, but he held it steady. The rounds tore into the limbs cutting off fingers and hands, ripping into forearms and hitting metal, sparking while bits of repulsive flesh were torn off. Sorv joined him, shouldering his Mantis and lifting the Tempest at his hip, but for every limb that was severed it seemed two more took its place gripping and heaving against the door, shoving it open.<br/><br/>Firas yelled as he fired when suddenly he was moving backwards and falling, something had grabbed him and pulled him back off his feet. He hit the ground and in utter horror saw the husk standing over him, grabbing at him for some weakness in his armor,<span style="color: blue">Where the hell-!?</span>He grabbed at the arms scrambling over his torso to try and pry them off, but, as if in response to his fight the husk lifted him from the ground and heaved him through the doorway into another of the partitioned areas of the sight. connected to the airlock area.<br/><br/>The strength of the husk surprised him and he lost his grip on his weapon which went clattering across the stone floor a few feet away. He scampered to his right himself and grab the Revenant again when the two grey arms wrapped around him. He felt the weight of the husk on his back as it grabbed him, trying to pin him down while it grasped at his armor trying to pry it off him. It lifted one of its arms and brought it hammering down toward the back of his head, the ferocity of the blow triggering Firas' kinetic barriers. The jolt dislodged the husk momentarily and Firas shoved it off, scrambling and grabbing his rifle just as the husk regained itself and charged. The Turian rolled onto his back, aiming his rifle and firing into the husk as it bared down on him, the burst of rounds tore into its torso, ripping fist sized holes in it until he had nearly cut the thing in half. No longer able to support itself, it fell and twitched and writhed on the ground.<br/><br/>He tried to figure out where the thing had come from when, he looked up and realized that they had been all around them the entire time. They were crawling down out of the magma tubes, emerging from walls like spiders and dropping into the site from above, or crawling down the walls.<span style="color: blue">They're coming out of the damn walls!</span>He yelled.<br/><br/>Sorv backed into the room, reloading his Tempest and firing again as the mass of husks began pouring through the doors.<span style="color: DarkOrange">We've gotta go!</span><br/><br/><br/>***<br/><br/><br/>Tasser stopped as the scream echoed through the freighter, echoing down through the maintenance shafts. She blinked when it stopped, looking at the others who had likewise stopped raiding boxes.<span style="color: navy">"What was that...?"</span>She asked, looking at them.<br/><br/><span style="color: Cyan">Holy shit!</span>Mickey exclaimed over the comms,<span style="color: Cyan">The whole fucking site just lit up like a christmas tree!</span><br/><br/>Behind Kala, the sound of something slamming through the maintenance shaft got louder and louder when suddenly a pair of glowing blue eyes looked at her from within the dark, pausing only momentarily before leaping from the shaft at her, arms outstretched as the husk grabbed for her, wrapping a hand around her leg and yanking her under it with incredible strength and grasping at her, while its half human face stared down at her balefully. Its fingers gripped her right arm painfully, while its left hand groped at her for the seams on her suit.<br/><br/>Suddenly the husk on top of her flashed and separated, exploding as Shira ran up and fired into it with her modded Scimitar. She kicked the remains of the husk off Kala and began firing at the maintenance shaft entrance as yet more of the husks began struggling to emerge against one another, two at a time.<span style="color: Indigo">"Go!"</span>she yelled at Kala as she fired.<br/><br/>Taseer stared, across the hold her mind trying to grasp what was happening. She didn't have to time, though, as the husks began emerging from other access ways, pounding on the door deeper into the ship. The crew dropped the crates they were looking to grab their discarded weapons, but for a few it was too late. The husks were on them, dragging them as they fought and screamed. One Turian tried to fend off the husk on him, but the machine lifted its arm and brought it down on the flimsy suit casing of the EVA equipment, The Turian's chest compressed under the hit and he coughed and wheezed before going limp.<br/><br/>Shira kept firing at the maintenance shaft, but there didn't seem to be an end to the husks scrambling to emerge. Suddenly she was moving through the air, being slammed against the cargo hold wall as another husk came around from behind a crate and charged her, pinning her to the wall, and sending her shotgun skidding across the ground.<br/><br/><br/>***<br/><br/><br/>The flurry of gunfire echoing through the site had Ashana's complete attention. She had no idea what was going on, but if  Firas and Sorv were shouting to get a door closed and emptying thermal clips than the question was moot.<br/><br/><span style="color: DarkOrchid">Come on!</span>She yelled at Milenya, ready to head toward the door, but she stopped as something heavy hit the roof of the office, and the scratching of that thing then scrambling across it giving her a moment to stop and wonder again what the hell was going on.<br/><br/>Something charged past the window, humanoid in shape, casting a shadow through the office as it passed. Another of the husks followed, but saw the two Asari in the office and turned, running at them instead. It seemed almost surprised when it hit the window, trying to leap toward Milenya. It stumbled and slammed its grey-flesh machine arm against the transparent material, the force of the hit sending cracks across it.<br/><br/>Ashana looked at the husk completely bewildered, having never in her life seen something like it. It looked like some twisted machine wearing a human's skin. Her thoughts were cut short as a husk ran through the doorway, leaping onto the first thing it saw, her. Ashana went down, the helmet she had been carrying being thrown from her hand as she hit the ground. The husk grabbed at her, pulling her across the floor toward the door. Panic, however, was a trait the Asari had trained out of herself. It didn't matter what the thing was, it was her enemy.<br/><br/>She rolled and twisted under its grasp, putting herself on her back. Sneering in anger, he drove her knee into its chest listing it just far enough back that she could lift her arm, and open her palm, the undulating blue glow covering her hand as she drove it forward, hitting the husk and sending it up into the ceiling with a loud bang before it came back down hitting the ground.<br/><br/>Ashana was already moving, to recover her helmet and put it on as the husk stood back up. At the window, two more husks emerged, pounding the window nearly to its breaking point. It wouldn't be long before the window was broken and the three husks would be on them.<br/><br/><br/>***<br/><br/><br/>Darion and Maethia's position put them in the way of the husks trying to reach Sorv and Firas. After only a few charged by, they were noticed. Then, as if with a single intelligence, other nearby husks turned, doubling back to attack the nearby target. The first husk charged them, while a second appeared from a doorway on the other side of the sleeping quarters, running awkwardly down the aisle toward them, while another emerged behind it, scrambling across the beds.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>