(Alright, so it's been years since I've done anything on this site, but I think I want to try and start getting back into it. This'll be the first mass effect themed thing I've done on , and I'll be using all my own characters for this, although the main Batarian in this was inspired by something I read about on some DLC in-game about a human-raised batarian.
ps: also, I try and get some facts straight, but I'm going for complete sci-fi here, and winging it. Anything wrong with the physics in this, or with my interpretation of cryogenics, it's... this is just meant to be fun, go with it :3 This story is set before ME3
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It was almost 5 years since he'd seen his parents and sister, five years since he's even seen Earth and yet his first glimpse of it through the viewport in his temporary living space was as beautiful as it had been when he'd been flying away from it.
Well he had permission to be back now, and this time he was going back. He only needed permission at all, despite being a legal citizen there, because of what he was. It was blatant specieism on the human's behalf but it was understood. In these days especially. So he had just decided to suck it up and go with it.
The ship docked just outside Boston, an incredibly old city that had been here when the humans were still fighting over their own territory. His family lived smack dead in the center. He turned and payed his ride using a chit card, grabbed the only bag he'd brought with him, and with a bounce in his step began walking away from the port.
It was then that he noticed the excavation team just off to his right. Boston had always been busy, even in this far advanced year but as long as he could remember that vacant tangle of weeds and grass-choked debris had always been there, remnants of a building long-abandoned. According to his father the owner of the property had been tangled in red tape so long no one could legally do anything with it. Apparently they had, because there was a large team of people, mostly humans, some Turian, who had dug it all out.
He stopped his walking to watch them, curiously walking towards the site. There were earth movers for removing the trees and large vehicles meant for transporting what looked like laboratory specimens. As he stepped closer, just behind the rope they tied the scene off with he saw himself looking down into what had once been the inside of whatever building had once been there.
No one payed him much mind because his expression was open and curious, and he was dressed as a civilian human in a t-shirt of sorts and long pants. A Batarian in a Nike t-shirt couldn't be up to no good.
What he saw when he looked down was dirty white tiles, large tanks that took up floor to ceiling space and turned over furniture. He wasn't close enough to smell anything pungeant but he bet it didn't smell so great. The scientists below were carefully digging out clipboards and ancient-looking documents, small bones and other detrius. Others were tending to the large tanks. They were connected to even larger tanks elsewhere and he wasn't standing anywhere near the place. He could feel the chill baking off of those cables.
If he didn't know any better those looked like old fashioned cryogenic tanks from way back, in old movies his parents liked to watch growing up. Something about Walt Disney floated across the back of his mind. Memory fragment. Yes they looked like old cryogen tanks.
"Sir, do you have clearance to be here?" demanded a voice suddenly.
He looked to see a slim older human woman with tired blue eyes and straw-colored hair. She wore a labcoat and no-nonsense slacks, gloves and a hard-hat of sorts.
"Ah, not exactly ma'am," he answered respectfully enough. He had a deep voice.
"Well I'll have to ask you to leave, this is an unstable site", she replied.
He was about to protest, voice his interest, when the people down in the pit started yelling, catching the woman's attention.
She decided the yelling was more important than telling off a strangely dressed Batarian and jumped down in time for the entire site to be engulfed in clouds of icy vapor. Instinctively Durtha threw up his hand to shield his eyes (all four of them) and backed away a couple of steps. What was happening?!
He blinked tears and frost away and risked another glance in to see that one of the tanks was opening...
Oh he HAD to see this.
Rope be damned, procedure and rules be damned, he shouldered his duffel and hopped over the line, dropping the eight feet into the pit. He landed hard, but no one noticed. The entire room was huge but these tanks on the wall were the main thing of interest inside. It smelled dank and wet and mildewy and his boots skittered on the slickened tiles.
He finally got his bearings and looked to the tank that had started opening, but it was stuck. There was so much debris on the floors that it was stuck, and something inside was struggling, banging, ... no one seemed to want to do anything, they were still so distracted from the hissing of whatever was in the tanks. Well, he wasn't a scientist, he was just an average guy.
The door was still stuck despite whatever was inside but now they began to scream.