A demonstration was being held. The demonstration, thankfully taking time from the war, was about the physiology of Vampires. Gruesome and a shuddering reminder to the populace, Alliance and Turian, that the creatures were demonstrably human, but necessary. Lukas and Theadra watched, both of them bearing grim expressions. Currently, the video was focused on the mouth of the creatures.
Unlike Vampires that found themselves quite popular in fantasy novels and art on Earth, these creatures didn't have humanesque teeth. They barely had a recognizably human mouth. Angular, sharp and strong. The lips were flappy but flexible, almost prehnsile, and lined with little barblets like the teeth of a lamprey's mouth. The teeth, long and sharp nosferatu-esque incisors with the teeth underneath curved wickedly like those of a snake.
The fangs, it was revealed, were also something like those of a snake in they had channels for a sort of venom to be injected through. A finger pressing in the tranquilized wretch's mouth revealed the sickly yellow liquid to drip through. A paralytic agent that kept the victim conscious and lucid, but unable to retaliate.
"Why?" Theadra whispered to Lukas as she watched.
"Why what?" He asked.
"Why are they..the way they are? Paralytic venom? Malicious?"
"We call them Homo Malus for a reason, Theadra." Lukas shrugged "Malicious Man."
"How did they come to be?" She asked, shuddering as the Blackwatch operative showed the wicked talons of the Vampire which were hooked and razor sharp. They, too, seemed to have barbles or snake-like cuts in the talons to resist struggling and cause more pain to those that tried to causing a reflex to stop the pain.
"We don't know," Lukas frowned "Some say cannibalism, some say they spawn in areas the veil's thinnest. Others say they just spawn. No one's really sure where they come from or why."
Theadra shook her head, the membranous wings held stretched open.
"If the Hierarchy knew these things were here we'd of been more prepared."
"If your people had come a few weeks later you'd of never known them to exist, Theadra. Let alone been prepared for them." Lukas gave a sidelong glance at her, the demonstration slowly coming to a close on the physiology of the Vampire hunter.
Theadra silenced, a sense of shame coming over her. With the demonstration over, Lukas began walking off. Theadra followed. Her armored boots cuffed against the concrete floor of the plaza they were in, some trees charred and broken by the war, while buildings bore the tell-tale damage of gunshots. She wore her armor, still, a light suit of ceramic with an undersuit.
"We didn't want to go to war," Theadra stated keeping pace with the still exosuited soldier "We had no choice."
"You always had a choice." Lukas said resisting a snort.
"No. We didn't." She replied with a somber tone "We didn't have a choice."
Dispensing a coin into a standing machine with a clear plastic cover, which was cold to the touch, showed different bottles of varying colors of liquid. Lukas pressed a couple buttons, a mechanical arm reaching down and pulling out one bottle and then another one. Both were slid into a tray.
Pulling the tray out and retrieving the bottles, Lukas handed one to Theadra who took the bottle a bit numbly.
He motioned for her to follow, which she did. She noticed he wore a sad expression to his face.
They went and sat on a bench, Lukas popping the cap off of his purple wrapped Vita-Pop causing it to hiss before he took a drink.
"We never had a choice." Theadra popped hers off and, with some difficulty, drank from her bottle tasting an assortment of what she assumed to be berries carbonated and sweet. Surprisingly, she enjoyed it. Thankful Turians before her had drank Human beverages with no problem, Theadra took another. "You do what the Hierarchy demands and that's it. If you're a soldier, anyway. Otherwise my people enjoy fair freedoms." Theadra fiddled with her bottle as Lukas listened.
"We invaded you because the Hierarchy ordered it. You broke Council law, admittedly you didn't know it," She gave a sidelong glance at Lukas "But law is law. The Hierarchy thought your people'd be easy to subjugate, make a client race, limit your military to suit our needs." Theadra shook her head "That doesn't mean we wanted the war." She turned her head to him "We had no choice in the matter." Lukas nodded, taking a drink.
"I get it."
"Do you?" Theadra asked, narrowing eyes suspiciously.
"Yeah, I get it. I admit I've been unfair. But with the deaths of Sasha, Berdicci, Amir and many many others I've yet to fully accept that your people are anything but unfair invaders." Lukas turned his bottle in his hand "But that's an easy trap to fall into. It's easier to kill your enemy when you don't see them as people but a collective mass that needs to be shot down." He turned his head to her with a smile "Not so easy when you buy 'em a drink and call 'em by name rather than Bird." Theadra took a drink, never taking her eyes off Lukas almost suspicious.
"We didn't want this war either, you know," Lukas began "Captain Logan, commander of Mercy, launched a probe at your captain in hopes that he'd accept it and try to be peaceful." Theadra nodded at this.
"You told me that back in your base," Theadra remembered the shock she felt "That Captain Viterius ignored it and attacked, causing his death and those of his crew." Lukas nodded in response.
"That's right. He attacked, was going for the science ship Athena, which housed civilians. So Logan did what he thought best and launched assault pods. Evidently, it was enough." Lukas took a long drink.
"There are no civilians in the Hierarchy," Theadra began startling Lukas "Only combatants. To the Hierarchy, all alien personnel on this planet were possible opponents. So the ends justified the means." She said hollowly. "Orbital bombardment, mass execution, you name it. If it brought Humanity under control." She lowered her head sadly "We didn't want that." She was surprised to feel
Lukas' arm wrap around her shoulders and squeeze her armored form lightly.
"I don't understand the Hierarchy's way of thinking. But I know a person from an organization. I get ya." He smiled "Don't feel sorry. I can't forgive you, or any other, for what you've done to my people," He said seriously "But I can't in good consciounce make you suffer for what you had no choice in." He released her and smiled slightly when her head tilted up to look at him "So how's about we try and start over?" He held his bottle in his right hand and held out his left "Lukas." She smiled wide and held out her right "Theadra." They grapsed hands and shook.
Later, the two of them were finally out of their armor. Lukas wore his olive drab shirt and khaki pants, a revolver strapped to his left hip and Theadra wore dark blue civvies with a shirt fit for a Turian. As in, fitting to her carapace as opposed to sitting ontop of it like a human shirt would. Admittedly, female Turian carapaces were less extreme than males, but still.
"So..what do we do?" Theadra asked, feeling like the proverbial fish out of water on a colony just recently she was invading. Her wounds were handled quickly, all the lead pulled out and the wounds stitched up by Mechanoid nurses, their mechanical nature kept their hands from shaking and allowed them incredible precision.
"Not terribly sure," Lukas shrugged "I've been given leave for awhile, thankfully. If you're staying, which I assume you are since you defected," Theadra nodded "You could try to learn more about life Civvies in the Alliance experience." Theadra smiled.
"I'd like that."
Theadra had learned that after The Omen War, the Terrans had no choice but to rely on sheer muscle and force of determination to help rebuild. The machines were diesel powered, mostly, and belched out black smoke like the maws of dragons as they hauled loads back and forth, hauled great machines and hunks of wreckage to rebuild what was nearly lost.
The Omen she learned, a dreadful menace of twisted flesh and machine, fought without fear and pain, sheer constructs of malice forged by the incredible outpouring of blood and hate that all sides directed at one another. This worked like a genetic memory in the minds of all Terrans, who still felt the pain of The Omen in their hearts even in the present day. Most humans wanted machine and man removed from one another, despite the obvious fact that man and machine were so dearly intertwined and that cyborgs were rather common.
This, ontop of the great mechanization of industry and Human life, resolved to create a sort of Luddite mentality in Humanity. While Technology, Mechanics and such were huge parts of their lives if they couldn't fix it with their own hands or solve it themselves they tended to dislike it or outright reject it and kept to simpler systems. Such was the case with much of the Alliance militaries vehicles. While Neurohelmets were an obvious departure from the Neo-Luddite rule, Theadra wondered if maybe the Terrans wouldn't be on their way to further intermingling.
Theadra watched interested as mechanics, Human and Mechanoid, worked on various cars in a multi-port garage. A 'Hot Rod' Lukas had called one of them. Sparkly purple, metal tubes flaring out from holes by the engine, a large engine with air intake unguarded from the elements. The size of it, and noise if she deduced right from Alliance military vehicles, threw her for a loop in comparison to the gentle hum of council vehicles back home.
"Why don't you switch to electric engines?" Theadra asked confusedly to a curious Lukas "They're quieter, have to be cleaner." Lukas shook his head "We like the noise. Not cleaner, by much anyway. We use Biodiesel. Almost no harmful emissions, same if not more efficiency, same loved noise. Plus, we can grow the crops used for it on other colonies. No point in fixing what ain't broken ya know?"
Theadra shrugged as she watched the Mechanics work.
"Just seems noisy." Was her reply.
"That's the point." Was his.
Her confused expression made him laugh.
When the owner of the car came and got his vehicle, starting it up while the mechanics, and Lukas and Theadra, watched, Theadra seemed converted when she heard the engine roar to life and, with a few rumbles and purs, was driven down the street as flames kicked out of its flaring pipes.
Her mouth hung wide and mandibles splayed out, Lukas couldn't help but grin.
"What do you think?"
"I don't like the quiet."