Chapter Seven

Muck-Covered Fan

Tyler sat at the desk in his apartment. Only things resting atop it was a portable terminal that he had purchased and his Blue Suns helmet. It had been three weeks since bumping into that oddly familiar girl and, as he sat with his forehead on the cool surface of the desk, he realized how far he was from discovering who she was. In the immediate days following the sighting of her, Tyler had called in a favor from some Intel guys he had helped out. Asking them to keep an eye out for her, giving them a description, they agreed to try to find her. After three weeks, however, they still had nothing to report for the search.

He would have dismissed it as a figment of his imagination but found that he couldn't since both Harold and Balvius had seen her as well. Which meant that unless they were having the same hallucinations, which was highly unlikely, Tyler had in-fact run into her. The teen sighed impatiently as he remained in the uncomfortable position. Finally, the interior of his helmet beeped, informing him of someone trying to reach him via comm. Slipping on the helmet, he opened the comm channel but before he could speak, the other person beat him to it.

"Tyler, this is Garin, get down to Dock Seven ASAP. An unexpected cargo vessel just finished docking and command wants our squad to investigate."

"Isn't our shift over? What happened to the other team?" Tyler asked. Nevertheless, the young human stood and collected his weapons from the small table near the kitchen appliances. With his weapons holstered, he exited his apartment, locked it, and began on his way to Dock Seven.

"They're scanning another ship already, too busy. I'm guessing your already on your way?" he asked knowingly. Tyler smirked,

You know me well Garin.

"Yeah, I'll be there momentarily. Out."

With the conversation over, Tyler begun to jog through the corridors. He passed many of the different beings that lived within the district. Some gave Tyler a curt nod or a short wave as he passed while most of them ignored him, doing just enough to stay out of his way. Still a few gave him hate-filled glares.

Rounding another corner, Tyler spotted Balvius stepping out of his own apartment. The Turian's apartment was about the same size as Tyler's but it lacked a view of space, something that Tyler enjoyed having as he would simply stare out into space before jotting down his experiences in the mercenary group since joining onto his terminal.

"Hey Balvius," Tyler began, coming to a stop next to the Turian, "you ready?"

Balvius nodded his head, "Ready."

Tyler begun to jog once more, Balvius taking up the spot beside him. They made their way through the corridors easily. Some of the citizens had to be... prompted into getting out of their way but they were still making good time. The duo had to pass through a market, causing them to slow to a fast paced walk due to the cluster of people in the area.

After getting through the mass of people and exiting the market, the duo continued their jogging. Passing an intersection of corridors, Tyler spotted Harold coming around the turn, joining their small formation as they jogged through the corridors.

"Ready Harold?" Balvius questioned, beating Tyler to the punch. The other human answered with a loud yawn,

"Wish I was still sleeping but yeah, I'm ready," Harold replied as he shook his head gently. Tyler smirked, Harold was always sleeping, drinking, or trying to pick up some woman or another on his time off.

One mercenary jogging through the corridors was considered normal on Omega, considering who ran the districts. Two mercenaries jogging was relatively normal as well, though it still earned a few worried glances from tourists. Three fully armed and armored mercenaries, however... that was a different story. The citizens of the district hugged the walls of the corridors as the three jogged past and Tyler could hear the whispering amongst them and the worried looks. Three or more mercenaries in a hurry meant that there was likely trouble afoot.

Finally reaching the Dock Seven entrance, the three slowed to a walk before entering. Upon entering, they saw Talik and Garin standing next to a crate, discussing the vessel hanging from the airlock umbilical outside the windows. The vessel was blocky in shape, much like that of a freighter, but had a few non-standard weapons mounted along it's hull.

"Alright squad, listen up," Began Garin as the four squad members made a semi-circle in front of him, "We're mixing up the detail. As this is an unknown vessel, Balvius and I will take bridge duty while Talik will take Harold and Tyler into the Cargo Hold the cargo. From there we will run a scan of the rest of the ship. Questions?"

"Any idea on who's inside?" Tyler asked, tilting his head in curiosity.

Garin shook his head while looking at the ground, "None. For all we know, Alliance Marines could be aboard, ready to take us out. That's why we're going in guns out and ready. Do not fire unless fired upon or if I order you to do so. Any other questions?"

None came,

"Let's move than," Garin ordered as he began to approach the umbilical. Tyler drew out his Mattock, letting it expand in his hands, as the rest of the squad pulled out their own weapon. Garin hefted his Revenant LMG, Balvius expertly handled a Firestorm IV shotgun, Harold examined his Lancer III Assault Rifle, and, lastly, Talik affectionately patted his M-451 Firestorm flamethrower. The team was ready for anything.

When they stepped through the airlock, however, what they saw confused them them. All of the lights in the vessel were turned off but the terminals were still on, lighting the room in an eerie orange glow. The team activated the flashlights on their guns and let them dance around the room. Harold's stopped abruptly as it illuminated three human corpses laying in the middle of the bridge, bullet holes visible on either sides of their heads and a single pistol laying on the deck in the pool of blood.

"What the fuck?" Harold asked as he walked up to the three corpses as the rest of the squad slowly examined the bridge. Once it was deemed clear, they joined Harold by the corpses.

"Looks like suicide," Balvius theorized.

"But why?" Talik countered, glancing at the Turian before looking back at the bodies. They looked as if they were standing in a small triangle as they did this, one after the other.

"Alright," Garin began, snapping the team out of their individual thoughts, "there's obviously nothing here. We'll all move to the cargo hold and search the vessel before clean-up can come aboard. Let's move."

The team turned away from the grim sight of the corpses and moved to the only other door in the room besides the airlock. Stacking up on either side of the door, the team readied themselves to breach. Nodding his head, Garin opened the door and stepped inside, sticking to the left of the hallway while Talik came in from the right and stuck to the right side of the hallway. Balvius and Tyler followed them while Harold brought up the rear, walking backwards to cover their six. The white beams of their flashlights danced along the metal walls and floor of the darkened freighter as they moved down.

Encountering a set of doors, the team stepped when they reached them with Garin and Talik a step past the doors. Balvius and Tyler opened their respective doors and entered, rifles first. When Tyler entered his room, he immediately recognized it as the crew's quarters. Tyler moved through the room like a fish through water, his flashlight examining every nook and crevice along the way. Reaching the back of the room, Tyler let his flashlight dance along the back wall but froze at what he saw. In the back of the room sat a round table with four chairs around it. Sitting in one of the chairs was another human, his head resting on the table as if he was sleeping. Blood had pooled around his head, however, from a glistening hole where his temple was supposed to be. The steady dripping sound of the blood falling to the floor reached Tyler's ears.

"Found another crewmember," Tyler stated, in a hushed tone, into the comm as he lowered his weapon, "dead. Suicide."

There was a brief silence before Balvius came over the comm in the same hushed tone as Tyler, "Nothing here."

"Alright, regroup."

The two made their way out of their respective rooms and back into the formation. Again, they began to move down the corridor. Except for the sound of their boots hitting the deck and of the ship's Life Support, it was quieter than a graveyard. Tyler found the darkness and lack of life unsettling to say the least. Something was definitely going on. Four crewmembers don't just sporadically commit suicide, especially when they had just docked with a station.

After checking a few more rooms along the way, and finding nothing, the team made it to a door at the end of the hallway with radiant white letters that informed the team that it indeed led to the Cargo Bay. Stacking up on the door, Garin held up the three talons on his free hand and counted down. When he hit one, he opened the door. Talik was the first in, followed by Garin, Balvius, Tyler, and finally Harold. The five quickly scanned the area they entered into. Unlike the rest of the ship, the Cargo Bay had at least some lighting that helped the squad see. The bay had a good amount of crates stacked in it in an orderly fashion where it created 'aisles' between the crate stacks.

As the other four went off to begin examining the crates, Tyler hung back as their were only four rows of stacks to be scanned and he decided to just examine the room a bit more. It wasn't all that big, being about half the size of the SR1 Bay. What drew his attention more was a golden gleam that reflected light from it's point on the wall. Moving over to it, Tyler looked real closely to see what looked a vertically elongated hexagon with a 'barrier' on either side of it. At first, Tyler couldn't think of who it was but it than hit him like a brick wall.

Cerberus

"Hey guys, I got something. Something extremely volatile," Harold reported from his row. Tyler turned to see him standing next to a lone crate with none other stacked upon it. As the other three moved towards him, Tyler hung back. He didn't like this, not one bit.

When the other three reached Harold, Tyler saw Harold holster his rifle before reaching out and grasping the crate's lid. Lifting it up, he muttered, "Oh shit."

Time seemed to slow as a 'click' echoed through the room. With a flash of angelic light, the crate exploded, sending shrapnel shooting out in every direction. The four mercenaries' barriers held for but a second before as the hyper-velocity shrapnel ripped apart their armor, reaching the flesh underneath. The shockwave from whatever explosive device in the container than picked up the four mercenaries, who were far past dead as chunks of armor and flesh were missing, and tossed them across the bay. When the shockwave reached Tyler, it picked him up and tossed him backwards. With his back hitting the wall, Tyler's vision exploded into stars as his armored head whacked into the metal. He was barely able to comprehend that if it hadn't been for the helmet, he would have been a dead man.

"Cargo door opening," the ship's VI reported calmly.

Wait, what?

The large ramp in the back of the room slowly began to lower. With what sounded like a hurricane, the air began to vent into space, taking with it every object in the room. First were the corpses, as they traveled at faster velocities and could fit easier in the smaller gaps. As the first handful of crates began to get ejected, Tyler felt himself being dragged to the door and the empty void beyond.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit," Tyler cursed repeatedly, his voice getting louder and louder with each curse as he found himself flipped onto his stomach, still being dragged to the door by the rushing air. Scrambling, the young mercenary fought for a handhold but, as with all ships in this universe, the floor was too smooth and provided no leverage. Finally, he felt himself being picked up from the ground as he was finally tossed out of the cargo bay and into the emptiness of space.

He had an oxygen reserve in his helmet, but he had never exactly been trained for Zero-G operations. Tyler faintly noticed that he had beat some of the crates in leaving the ship. Slowly looking around, he noticed that he was within an asteroid field of crates. Tyler would have just drifted lazily until he got picked up but the shit-covered fan of this inspection became more covered.

Without any warning, the ship's core exploded in a brilliant, blue flash. The ship sized shrapnel and shockwave flew out in all directions, tearing apart anything in it's path. The most instant destruction was of the dock where it was berthed, ripping it apart piece by piece as if it was the construction sequence in reverse. Pieces of the ship flew off a ways before slamming into other docks of the same district. Luckily, the other team's vessel had been parked on the other side of the district or else there may have been two exploding vessels which would have obliterated the district.

It was just than that Tyler noticed what was going to happen as he saw the spherical curtain of debris reaching out across space. It was going to pass by him, and carrying the debris was a massive shockwave.

As the shockwave reached the crates that were behind Tyler, it began to carry them at the same speed as the shrapnel.

Well, fuck. Tyler thought to himself as he helplessly watched the sphere of destruction reaching out to grab hold of him. He didn't have to wait long as a small crate was flung ahead of the shockwave and struck Tyler with the force of a charging Krogan. As coinciding with Newton's Laws, the momentum from the crate was transferred to Tyler's lazily drifting form and vice verse. So, as the crate drifted lazily to be picked up by the shockwave once more, Tyler was sent soaring through the empty vastness of space. The black blanket of unconsciousness began to creep it's way onto the mercenary's drifting form.

With a ringing in his ears from the smack of the crate, Tyler barely heard the crashing of a window, or the pain associated with being propelled through one. As the emergency shutter sealed the corridor from venting, the station's artificial gravity stomped the mercenary to deck. Tyler continued to slide across the floor before friction began to slow him. When he was slowed enough, his barely conscious form not truly hearing the screaming or gasps of people around him, his armor caught on a small crack, causing him to roll a few time before coming to a rest on his back.

As the darkness threatened to overcome him, Tyler rolled his head to the side to see a group of people rushing towards him. Some looked angry while others just looked concerned. Each time he blinked, the darkness continued to cover his vision until, finally, he closed his eyes and let himself fall into the eternal bliss of unconsciousness.

A/N: Hope y'all enjoyed this chapter as much as the others. As for the title, I didn't think it would be right to put profanity in a Chapter Title.

Expect updates to be a bit slower as I'm expecting MW3 to arrive any the mail sometime soon and will be glued to that until I beat it at least once... maybe twice.

Still, it won't be as long a break as the one I'm gonna take when ME3 comes out. XD

Anyways, (even through the gap) I hope you all stay tuned for the next update and please leave a review. Reviews make me happy.

Next Installment:

Chapter Eight

To Be Determined