N7 Rejects: 001 – Scars
Chapter 01 – Hamsters have it easy
[Date: 2186 - March]
[Location: Omega Nebula - Sahrabarik - Space Station Omega]
[Mission Brief: Intercept possible new weapon]
'Get out of here,' were the words that constantly rattled in her mind. His voice replayed over and over as she ran.
The clanging of heavy boots on steel echoed throughout the dark hallway. The running footsteps then slowed to a walk before turning off through an open doorway…
The clearly panicked female human, wearing a dirt-stained yellow and black variation of the standard Alliance engineer body armour, crouched low behind a large shipping container. After a moment of listening, she sat down and rested her back against it.
Wisps of warm vapour vacated her mouth as she breathed heavily within the cool metallic room of one of Omega's dingier cargo holds.
Her gloved right hand made a move and came in contact with the bluish transparent visor covering the top half of her face. There was a low squeak of frustration for wasting those few precious seconds as she then quickly removed the helmet and placed it on the floor.
Carefully setting her thin-framed glasses on her lap, she rapidly wiped her matted copper hair and the beads of sweat from her forehead. This caused her to briefly reminisce about how her pet hamster would do similar to clean itself. That lucky, oblivious to the universe, hamster…
The dull throbbing pain of a recently acquired bruise brought her back to reality and she looked down at her armour, checking for damage. Some dark scorch marks left by a flamethrower, the odd blood spatter that she knew wasn't hers, and the distinct grazes of gun fire scattered across the outer-plating. She was surprised at her lack of major injuries considering the recent tragedy, but the fate of her teammates replaying in the back of her mind wouldn't allow her to relax or feel any sort of relief.
All the emotions that were bubbling to the surface had to be repressed again, this wasn't over.
The twenty-nine-year-old took a deep breath, looking forlornly at the far wall for two seconds before scolding herself; "Get it together Rebecca."
Her tired green eyes squinted tightly, but her naturally blurred vision didn't improve until she returned the spectacles against her freckled cheeks.
Keeping her repose brief, she also replaced her helmet and then glanced around the statistics presented on the Heads-Up-Display within the visor.
Skimming over her own vitals and looking at her squad's stats, she swallowed hard, tapping at the omni-tool on her left arm to hide some redundant data. Newton and Woodall's bio-readings were greyed out and leaving them there was just causing distress.
Removed…
Rebecca hadn't known them long before they were viciously killed but that didn't stop the tears welling up in her eyes. Real deaths on the battlefield were still a fresh experience for her, but she was smart enough to know not to allow it to distract her in the middle of a mission. Freezing up had nearly got her killed just a month ago and she refused to allow it to happen again.
Her only comfort at this moment was that she wasn't the lone survivor of the four-person squad sent to Omega. From the look of the small blue and red bars below his surname on the HUD, Scott Lawton was still alive.
Rebecca turned her head to the left and a small blue circle on her visor representing her combat drone slid into view. Although there were several walls in between, she could tell from the distance and direction that it hadn't moved from the room where she had placed it.
She was about to quietly comment to herself at how well it was doing before the blue circle suddenly turned a purple colour, and then a red, before it vanished from her HUD completely. There was no doubt that it had taken heavy fire and had been destroyed.
"Scott," whispered Rebecca to the built-in microphone on the collar of her suit, "are you OK? Fido's down."
There was silence in return but it didn't faze her, she knew he would be mute until he was in a safe position to reply. History had taught her that in similar situations he would come to her or make contact first, she just wanted him to at least know that her drone was destroyed in case he wasn't aware.
The silence continued for a few moments more, before a faint shuffling sound could be heard from down the hallway.
Rebecca clumsily stood up with a slight wobble and instinctively rested her left arm against her stomach, her omni-tool still active across her armour.
The scuffing sound was closer now, near the entrance were she came in. Whatever or whoever it was, it was entering the same cargo hold she was in.
She bit her bottom lip, her back firmly against the large container, her right hand hovering over the M-5 Phalanx heavy pistol at her waist.
Her eyes flicked left then right before something made them focus straight ahead, causing her heartbeat to rapidly increase and her hand to twitch. The air two metres in front seemed to be distorted as if bending around the shape of a human figure. She instantly relaxed and gave a small smile a split second before the audible crackle of a tactical cloak powering down sounded out.
There stood Scott Lawton in his dark grey body armour.
Despite the lightly blue tinted transparent visor covering the top half of his face, his features were very familiar to her, but something seemed strange.
The sandy-blond goatee leading up to the identically coloured short spiky hair under his helmet seemed normal enough, but his deep-blue eyes were oddly crossed and he was puffing out his cheeks.
Rebecca's left eyebrow rose, giving a quizzical look as their eyes met.
At that point Scott loudly let out his breath; "Blaaaaahhhhhh! I thought I was gonna die!"
Rebecca pointed her right index finger directly at him; "Why were you holding your breath?! You were trying to scare me again weren't you?!"
Scott broke eye contact, looking up at the high ceiling; "Noooo, of course not. Come on Bex, last time I tried that I got an overload right in the face."
"Well, well, you deserved it," pouted Rebecca remembering how her reaction last week instantly shattered his shield and scared him ten times more than the surprise he gave her.
"Maybe I was just trying to be super-sneaky-quiet in my daring escape," he added with a hint of smugness.
The initial distraction wore off and the engineer looked over to the wall on her left; "I… I'm glad you're safe."
Scott's mischievous grin faded substantially; "Glad you are too, it's a shame about…"
He tailed off, not sure how to finish the sentence.
Rebecca nodded; "They were good guys… it was brutal, but quick, I'm glad for that at least."
Scott nodded and then drew his M-23 Katana shotgun from the magnetic hold on his back; "With your drone's help I got three of the vorcha easy, only two of them left, but that krogan was shrugging off my shots like I was spraying him with water. I'm gonna need your help to take him down so we can finish this."
Rebecca's eyes seemed vacant even though she was facing him.
Scott knew what was running through her mind, it was natural, but due to experience from previous missions, he knew she'd be able to handle it this time.
He followed up his statement to bring her back from her deep thought; "You with me?"
The engineer's expression changed to one of determination; "I'm with you. Let's do this and get back to base."
"That's my girl," grinned Scott.
Rebecca took a deep breath as she followed him back out into the hallway.
The two reached a familiar corner and the air seemed to intensify. Scott held up his hand to silently stop before carefully peering around the corner.
He pulled back again, turning to his teammate and speaking in a hushed-tone; "There's no guard so we're ok for now, they're either not expecting us back or can't spare the man-power since they lost three."
He then pointed with his thumb over his shoulder; "For the element of surprise though, I want you to get us into that door."
Rebecca peered over his shoulder then back down to the mini map layout on her omni-tool; "The schematics say it doesn't lead into A-113."
"I know," replied Scott, "we want 114. Just before I left to re-join you, I saw the krogan moving the package in that direction. Considering the size and way these rooms connect, they can't have gone much further, probably heading to a dock to shift the gear."
Rebecca walked up to the control panel on the left side of the door and raised her left arm so that her omni-tool's pop-up display was aligned with the screen on the wall.
"I already know which encryption is used so I'll be done in a jiffy," she beamed whiled rapidly tapping away at the keyboard-style interface on her arm.
With her vast systems knowledge and her own personal touches to the 'conference program', she made hacking the locked door look like a basic mini-game.
Scott didn't have to wait long standing guard before the wall panel gave a happy series of beeps, the display turning from a dark orange colour to a bright green.
He turned from looking down the corridor as the heavy door 'swooshed' open and winked to his partner who quietly smiled and raised a 'victory' sign with two fingers.
The pair walked through the door into a storage room and the infiltrator began to search various unsecure boxes that were stacked haphazardly.
Scott took a few universal thermal clips and attached them to his ammo belt; "How handy… you need any?"
Rebecca was looking at her mini map again after noticing the adjoining door wasn't instantly visible; "I'm fine thanks, during that ambush I… didn't even get the chance to use my pistol… the door to A-114 should be to the side, behind this shelving."
"Blood," pointed out Scott, weapon still in hand.
The copper-like smell was suddenly apparent and Rebecca's eyes broke away from her omni-tool to the pool of blood on the floor, seemingly seeping from behind the shelving.
Turning the corner, they were forced to stand in the large red puddle, confronted with three dead bodies.
Rebecca put a hand to her mouth, relieved in a small way that her recently killed teammates weren't among the number, but still shocked all the same.
Scott took a small pace forward; "Thought as much. The two humans will have been the original couriers, the volus must have been the buyer. Come on…"
Carefully stepping over the corpses, they reached and quickly hacked the door, opening the way to A-114. Upon stepping through, both made use of cover to begin their stealth advance. Scott activated his tactical cloak to scout out ahead before signalling to Rebecca to follow…
***