It was no surprise that breathing was hard to do, considering it was Mars. Oxygen flow was only at fifty-seven percent thanks to a valve on the back of his helmet that took damage during the collapse of a rusted floor which dropped him into the basement of the facility. Still, to be alive and barely breathing was better than those who had already died from suffocation, exposure, laser fire, and/or being swept away in the most random of dust storms. Whatever the Alliance thought they had found out here on this barren planet better be worth the lives of an entire squad, with the exception of one. Then again, Kyo had always been lucky.
The crimson-red paint job on his repurposed N7 armor was already fading. It had been through waves of Husks, Cannibals, Cerberus troops, and even stared down a Reaper or two. Even without the threat of the end of the galaxy anymore, it didn't mean that the sun had come out with rainbows and tweeting birds. Earth had sustained heavy losses and with the slow repair of the Mass Relays and everyone was in need of supplies. A reported secret Cerberus base on Mars was said to have some tech in it that may not have been massively damaged by the Crucible's giant EMP blast. A signal which originated from the base was strong enough to make it to space and shook up the curiosity of several top ranking military officials. Whatever, or whomever, created that distress beacon was still somewhere in this underground facility.
Oxygen levels at fifty percent.
The message had appeared in text from inside of the helmet as it splashed across the glass visor.
Well, shit.
The flashlight at the end of the N7 Paladin heavy pistol had exposed nothing down here but corpses; Human remains in both lab coats and medical gowns. Some were still strapped to their tables, most likely died when the building lost power and had effectively cut off their life support. Others may have died from whatever experiments they were a part of, willingly or not. The entanglement of tubes from various bodies connected to jars of fluid, some of which were broken and puddled in gelatinous blue and green designs on the tiled floor. The rank smell of embalming fluid and other chemicals even managed to pierce through the helmet's vents, making Kyo's face tighten up just before his omni-tool lit up on his wrist. The signal was stronger now, indicating how he was close, but that was just another way of saying that it was getting more dangerous. With a quick motion, he cocked the gun and forced a hot thermal clip to ping loudly off the floor.
The omni-tool rolled down the numbers in meters as Kyo walked blindly towards his target. Twenty meters, fifteen, ten, five - zero. There, in front of the soldier, was a large holding vat made of glass filled with a light-blue liquid where small bubbles were still being circulated. Despite the power being long gone from this place, this container still had dimly-lit lights and a steady stream of airflow. The glass was fogged over, which prompted Kyo to wipe away the film out of curiosity. There he saw it; a light brown-skinned face with closed eyelids topped off with a large mass of swirling white hair. After wiping more of the condensation away, he then managed to see the rest of the floating body. It was thin, male, and in its late-teens to early twenties from the looks of it. It was a bit too blurry from behind the glass to make out any major details, but the unnatural white hair was unsettling enough. Was this even a human being?
With a hand on the container, the arm's omni-tool began to static uncontrollably. Kyo put the arm to his helmet as he clumsily tapped away at the screen as lines of code began to scroll on their own. There was another noise , causing Kyo to jump with attention and aim the gun directly behind where he was standing. Carefully, he moved forward until he found that it was just a console activating itself. A VI maybe, he thought as he tried to navigate to some sort of access menu. Perhaps there was an automatic trigger rigged in case anyone entered this room during an emergency?
Holding his arm out, the omni-tool seemed to work by itself and completed a hack the solider couldn't muster on his best day. There was the sound of steam being released from the vat as the hack had apparently finished. The surrounding glass slid up as the pressurized locks released with a flood of chemicals draining out into pre-cut vents imbedded on the floor. "Hey wait!" Kyo shouted as he ran to catch the nude and slippery body as it fell from its holding cell.
He actually managed to get there just in time, but the weight caused them to both to hit the floor anyway. Wonderful. Now he was stuck with a naked, wet, and unconscious science project who was going to die anyway in a building without any…oxygen?
Systems back online.
The announcement came from overhead speakers as the lights flickered before turning back on completely while the sounds of random doors as they opened and closed themselves surrounded him. It wasn't until there was fog on Kyo's visor did he even notice how the air had been cut back on as well. Taking off the helmet, the young fighter took a deep breath of slightly stale, but welcomed recycled oxygen. His short cut, but rather messy black hair stuck to his forehead from the heat as his dark eyes looked down at what he just caught.
Was this the signal?
He took a moment to remember how an entire team had been sacrificed for this lifeless body. How could a single person be worth all of those lives, even his own? With time to spare now, Kyo gave the body in his lap a good once over and noticed the many scars with an extreme amount of exposed implants he couldn't recognize. Not that he was an expert in such things, but these definitely weren't L2's or L3's. Perhaps they were L4's or maybe even Reaper tech was his best guess. Cerberus was in bed with the likes of the evil machines who tried to exterminate all life, weren't they? These implants trailed down the male's back, across the ribs, down the arms, and were even on the inside of his palms. While running a few gloved fingers through the white hair, Kyo also felt metal attachments on both the skull and down the back of the neck as well. The fingers then forced the closed eyelids open with the expectation to see false metal eyeballs, but they were instead a highly organic in a pleasant shade of light-green.
Still, despite all of the touching and probing, the body didn't respond at all, but at least it seemed to be breathing on its own. After letting out a sigh, Kyo hoisted the young man onto his shoulder so that he could start walking through the blood-stained building in order to look for some extra armor, even if it meant cutting a body out of it first. This was a priority since exposing a human body to barren Mars would kill them almost instantly. It didn't care how many implants they had installed. "Suit…suit…aha. Well, we just met and I've already seen you naked. Guess it's not a big deal if I dress you either. I'm Kyo, by the way, former popstar, Alliance workforce of…carrying around naked guys. What's your name?" Of course, Kyo was just talking to himself considering. It was his way of staying sane. "Right, you don't have a name. Well, you have freaky white hair, so I'll call you Shiro. Any complaints?" If silence was the answer that Kyo was looking for, he received it in spades. "Didn't think so. Ah, here we go. This has Cerberus written all over it, but beggars can't be picky." It took a few minutes to pull the suit on Shiro, but he had managed. He then hung the helmet on the suit's belt, just like he did to his own, and continued to follow the lit-up emergency exit signs on the walls.
"Ah, great." The hallway had been sealed off from an attack with the door tightly locked. "Alright, Shiro. Magic hour time." Placing the body back down, Kyo put on their helmets before holding up his omni-tool to the door. It lit up and spun as Kyo made his best attempt to hack the security lock on his own. "Failed…failed…shit, I'm not an engineer! Come on! Hey, Shiro! Help me out here!" There was a laugh from Kyo, who knew he was only talking to thin air, but the tool lit up again. After a few seconds of running smoothly through lines of code, the red lock suddenly turned green. "….Huh. Weird." The door opened and the sands of Mars rushed through the opening as Kyo found himself, once again, exposed to the dry air of the red planet. "Well, we're outside again. Shuttle shouldn't be too far from here. I hope." After tapping at the screen on the tool, there was a steady beep indicating where their ride was. "Bingo. Alright, Shiro. Here we go."
The body was lifted again and was moved to rest against Kyo's back. With that, the awkward pair began to walk their way through the fiery sand dunes as they headed towards the ship.