I want to investigate, Sir. There might be hints. 82%
“Professor, how much resistance can we expect at the control center?” Shepard inquired as he ran over all the options in his head.
“Heavy. Suggest quick raid to lock down main center before reinforcements can arrive.”
“Commander, I know you might need my help in the control center, but there might be hints to where she is at the professor’s location,” Dash urged. It didn’t feel right to be leaving Shepard and the others to assault the environmental control center alone, but this might be the only opportunity to get information on Fluttershy left on Omega. Shepard remained silent for a moment as he went over his options.
“Go, but avoid any hostiles at any cost. We'll keep in contact over comms.” Shepard's tone of voice made it clear that this was non-negotiable.
“Yes sir!” Dash saluted and turned to Mordin to get precise directions. What she did not expect was for the Salarian to grab a tool from a drawer, approach her, and press one end of it into one of the two ports on her foreleg's armor. Rainbow was so stunned by the action that she hadn't moved her leg an inch as the doctor drove the needle into the second port. Dash could feel something start crawling under her skin, finally pulling out of her stunned trance Dash yanked back her hoof and flew into the air. “W-what the buck did you do to me?!”
Mordin just looked at her in slight confusion, “Need omni-tool for complex navigation. Assumed reason one wasn't available was due to lack of equipment and software. Wrong assessment?” Dash just stared at the professor with an emotional mix of anger and fear. The crawling under her skin was making her incredibly nauseous.
“I-I… W-what's happening?!” Dash held out her leg in front of her as if pulling it close would infect the rest of her body as well.
“Device currently connecting to your nervous system. Will be done…” the orange hologram blinked to life around Dash's foreleg at the same time as the crawling stopped, “…Right about now.”
By this point, Rainbow had pressed herself into a corner of the room still looking at the omni-tool as if it were a new limb attached to her body. Slowly but surely she brought the leg closer, as fear was replaced by curiosity. Dash gulped. “S-so how do I use it?”
Mordin brought up his own omni-tool, transferring something to Dash's. “Mental commands. Will take time to get accustomed to. Suggest locking in navigation for time being.”
“Professor, I'd prefer for you to warn us before you do something like that in the future,” Shepard calmly but clearly stated and slowly turned to Dash. “Rainbow you need to focus now. Follow that navigation marker and find Fluttershy's hideout.”
“Y-yes sir!” Dash said with a little waver in her voice but her confidence was quickly returning. A glance to the small hologram now hovering above her foreleg was showing a map with a route plotted. “We've been wasting enough time. We're on the clock after all!”
“That's the spirit!” Shepard smiled as Dash's attitude was back. “Miranda, Jacob, on me.” With the time pressure on, they headed out the other side of the clinic. Mordin stayed behind to keep the protection of the clinic up while Dash split off from the main group to head to her own coordinates. Whereas she'd previously just used the regular walkways, this time she was led into all kind of vents and hidden passages. It was clear to her now why Mordin wanted her to take a look. Some of the passages were quite simply impassable to any creature that wasn't a pegasus. If Fluttershy wanted to sneak around unseen or get away from pursuing mercs, these tunnels would be the easiest way to do so.
“I wonder where…” Dash stopped as she approached another pit, darkness and smoke obscuring sight of the bottom. Mordin's final waypoint for the first of two locations he had given was here. After this point the salarian always lost her before she reappeared further along the route… but this wasn't why Dash had stopped. On the wall was an expertly drawn image of three very familiar butterflies, a line of text written below it in Equestrian.
'down into the depths'
Dash looked into the pit again before sighing and muttering, “Here goes nothing.” Jumping off the edge, Dash slowly hovered down. The lights of her armor gave her just enough vision to avoid hitting the walls, the stench of smoke filling her nostrils as the vorcha in the district were doing their hardest to burn everything to the ground. About halfway down the shaft there was a grate barring a passage, another butterfly drawn beside it barely visible in the dim lighting. Giving the grate a push, Dash found it swung inwards without even the least amount of effort and crawled into what was supposedly a ventilation shaft. Only for lights to blink on as Dash fell face first into a little chamber.
“Buck! Stupi-… Whoa…” Rainbow stared in awe at where she'd ended up. It was indeed a small room but packed with boxes and more drawings on the wall. Five cutie marks on one of them, four surrounding a central starburst, only her own lacking as if she was no longer part of the group. Tears formed in Dash's eyes as she carefully touched the painting of her own mark, looking at the words written below.
'The friends who I've loved dearly but may never see again.'
Swallowing the lump in her throat, Dash turned her gaze to the rest of the small room, a small desk propped against the wall and a small terminal beside it along with a safe. Six folded papers lay on the table, they were slightly shuffled around as if the last time they were touched Shy had been in a hurry. The one laying in the middle of the table was unmarked but the other five were each marked with cutie marks. Dash eyed the one with her own but opened the unmarked one first, scared of what the one meant for her would contain as she allowed the omni-tool to translate the letter into speech.
Dear David,
I’m sorry that I haven’t been in contact over the last months. It’s been hard. Garrus and I are not in a good place. I… we’ve done terrible things. Things that make my skin crawl even to think about. We’ve still managed to make life better for a lot of people here though, and I think that’s the only thing that’s keeping me going. Lately though, things have been…
I just want to have all my bases covered, just in case the worst happens. I’m attaching the five other letters to this one, each for one of my friends if they ever were to come through the relay. Please, give it to them and keep them safe.If I never see you again, thank you for being a friend to me. Without you and the Normandy’s crew, I would never have made it as far as I have.
Thank you.
Yours truly,
Fluttershy
Dash swallowed at the sight of the five other letters as she realized what they were.
No! I will not read those until I find out that she’s dead and not a moment sooner!
With a defiant stomp, Dash scooped up all the letters and stashed them in a compartment of her armor and moved on to the terminal. The safe didn’t have a button panel so Dash assumed that it could be opened by proxy of the terminal too. Only before she could tinker with it, smoke started pouring through the vents in the roof and the temperature started to rise drastically. To make matters worse Shepard came in over the radio.
“Doctor, we’ve run into heavy resistance here. We need an alternative way into the control center!” Shepard shouted over the loud gunfire.
“No other routes into control center.” Mordin replied swiftly, an answer that Shepard would not like in the slightest.
“Damnit. Dash, Status!” Dash immediately activated her own radio to give the commander an update.
“I’ve found a small hideout at the first marker but it’s getting awfully hot here.” She replied, more smoke leaking into the room.
“Understood, head to the second waypoint and then double back to our position. Shepard out!” This didn’t sit well with Rainbow in the slightest, because the commander obviously needed help. Maybe there was… She opened a direct channel to Mordin.
“Professor, how do the Vorcha refuel their flamethrowers?”
“Large fuel tank, center of district. Suggest not heading there. Fuel unstable.” Mordin replied without hesitation.
“Thank you, Professor.” Rainbow closed the line again before he could ask any further questions. Looking between the exit and the terminal Dash tried to decide what to do…
1. [Buck going to that second waypoint. They need me at the control center now!]
2. Try opening the terminal and vault. They might have more recent information than these obviously old letters.
3. [Assault the fuel tank. It should serve as a good distraction to draw the vorcha away from Shepard.]