Deus Ex Human Revolution is the property of Eidos/Square Enix
Mass Effect is the property of Bioware and Electronic Arts
Mass Effect: Human Revolution
Chapter 18: The Durendal
or
Meet the Crew
or
The breather episode before things go wrong again.
~[h+]~
For all intents and purposes, Tali'Zorah should have been happy. After an... interesting first encounter with Hein (which involved him barging in the Normandy's sickbay while she was changing her into her suit inside a cold plasma field), she had found out that one of the men who had saved her - Adam Jensen, that is - had suggested to the strange human that he hire Tali to repair and operate an unknown Geth weapon. Hein had also challenged her to resolve a 'hypothetical' situation involving a fractured element zero core. "How would you maintain a Warp field in a sun's gravity well?" he had asked her. Her long-winded and complicated but nevertheless brilliant answer had eventually gotten her an at will employment contract as the chief engineer aboard his ship, with a standard wage that was more than Tali ever dreamed of receiving from an alien.
At first, she was reluctant to accept, concerned that some of her people were still stuck in that slum (the riot had died down, but it was still an unfriendly place to be) and considered going after them. She had shared his with Hein, and after a moment of pondering he sweetened the deal by offering to have them rescued.
"I have four of the finest soldiers in Sol armed to teeth. You've got a patched up bodysuit and a starter shotgun. Trust me, if you really care about your people's safety, you'll take my deal." And so she did.
She had expected betrayal, she had to admit. Too many a Quarian Pilgrim had fallen prey to people that offered deals far too good to be true. But Hein had kept his word: Veetor and Fyodor were saved, along with two others, who introduced themselves as Zev and Lelia. Hein even offered the other three Pilgrims similar contracts to Tali's. Veetor and Zev accepted without too many questions, seeing as they had no other prospects. Only Lelia protested, saying that she was a traveling minstrel and that her skill lay in merriment, not engineering. Tali thought that extremely odd: Every Quarian in the Flotilla was skilled in engineering. There were various degrees of competence, of course, but no Quarian has ever been considered useless in an engine room.
"Can you cook?" Hein had asked.
"Yes," she had answered simply in her funny accent.
"Fantastic! You're our new chef!"
And just like that, the Durendal now had a proper engineering team AND a cook. It occurred to Tali then that Hein did not exactly rescue them out of the kindness of his own heart. He was on the lookout for talent, and more opportunistic than altruistic. Still, Tali could live with that. In fact, she should have been very happy that she and several other Quarians had been saved and been given jobs. Why then, did she feel so down? Maybe it was because of what lead her here. That discovery on Noveria, the death of Keenah, the riot, her near death at the hands of disease, Turian clones, and a commando of Asari Huntresses...
...The face of that boy as Tali loosed a bolt point blank into his head, haunting her thoughts as she tried to sleep...
She shook her head, trying to focus on the Core room's primary console and on her work. Keeping a not so theoretical fractured Element Zero core stable while the ship flew at FTL speeds required quite a bit of work: She had yet to come up with the necessary VI subroutines that would do this automatically.
"Would you like me to take over?" asked Zev. "You look like you could use some rest."
"Hm? Oh, no no no I still have to-" Tali yawned. "I still have to figure out those subroutines."
"Well, you won't be doing that when you're struggling with sleep deprivation."
Before she could reply, Doctor Ross' voice came through on the ship's intercom. "Tali? I've got some mechanical trouble I need you to look at. Could you please come over to Med-Sci?"
Tali considered refusing, seeing as she was still busy with the core, but it occurred to her that Dr. Ross might be able to give her something to fight her weariness. Might as well drop in and take care of whatever mechanical trouble she encountered. "I'll be right there." she answered, "Zev, take over for me, will you?"
"As you wish, Lady Zorah." Zev took a gallant bow.
"...Please stop calling me that." she said as she left the Core room. Part of the appeal of going on a Pilgrimage was escaping the reverence symptomatic of being Rael'Zorah's daughter.
Thinking about her father suddenly made her think about her future: Provided Hein kept her employed for a couple of years, she would have enough Credits to purchase a suitable gift for the captain of the Neema, not to mention that she would have plenty of experience working on and solving the many issues of a human prototype space vessel. Who knows? She might even gain new insights in spaceship engineering and come up with a new type of drive, or power plant, or... something. Something fantastic. Something worthy of the Zorah name.
...
"We can trace our lineage back to kings, Tali. Kings! To be worthy of that ancestry, a Zorah must be a cut above the rest: stronger, smarter and better than the common Quarian! Your gift must reflect this. Do not return to us with a common gift... for I will see to it destroyed, and send you away in shame."
...
The bitter memory of her father's voice taunted her as she made her way to MedSci. Would anything ever be good enough? He had not provided her with a criterion for "better". Good gifts could be so varied, in either quantity of quality. Some could be practical, others could be so abstract. What would satisfy father? What would disappoint the captain? She had no idea, but she did understand that a mountain of credits wouldn't do the trick. The thought depressed her; would she ever be done with her Pilgrimage?
Tali opened the door to the infirmary, and her heart skipped a beat. Sitting on the bed wearing nothing but snug gray boxer briefs was Adam Jensen, the man who had rescued her from the Huntresses. At first she was glad, as she had wanted to personally thank him for saving her life. She decided against it, believing that he was far too busy with keeping the Citadel safe from criminals to have any time to spare. When her eyes drifted from his face down to his legs and arms, they widened in horror. They were completely artificial. Tali had read on the extranet that Jensen was a cyborg, but she had assumed he was implanted with similar circuitry to hers, meant to interface directly with her suit and Omni-Tool. But this? This was... disgustingly overindulgent.
Now, she didn't quite know how to feel about Jensen. One thing was certain: She didn't feel tired anymore.
"Ms. Zorah," Jensen said politely with a slight nod in her direction.
"...wha?" Tali replied lamely. Jensen quirked his eyebrow at this.
Aki, who had been intently scanning Jensen chest and head with her Omni-Tool, turned to Tali and smiled.
"Hi Tali! Mister Jensen here has got a sticky knee actuator on his left leg. Since I'm more of a doctor than an engineer, I figured you could help me in fixing it?"
"Well, that is, I'm kind of busy with the core and uh..." Tali muttered.
"It's actually not that much of a problem," Jensen protested a bit. "The actuator's just a backup in case the myomer bundles snap."
"Oh hush, you! Hein asked me to make sure you're in top form and that's exactly what I'll do." She tapped the bed. "Now lie down, this shouldn't hurt a bit. Tali, come on over and work your magic."
~[h+]~
Edward Grey was not a happy man. In the last few days, Hein had dragged him all the way to the Citadel in some gambit to get the major governments of Earth more involved in galactic affairs. It seemed to have worked, but the idea of having a galaxy's worth of responsibility heaped on his shoulders had been a great source of stress. That little skirmish in the sewers had kind of come as a welcome change of pace, but while Grey had thought he had done a fairly good job of eliminating several hostiles with maximum efficiency and had successfully saved and extracted four civies, Hein didn't seem all that pleased.
...
"Why did you shoot first?" asked Hein as he reviewed the Deep Eyes' helmet recordings, his face neutral.
"The civies were under attack." replied Grey. "I had to act quickly."
"You could have suppressed them, parleyed, gotten them to surrender."
"Permission to speak freely, sir?"
"You always have my permission."
"We were kitted out with lethal gear. If you wanted no fatalities, you should have given us the right gear for it.'
"You all have Omni-Tools. You could have used them."
"You didn't give us any directives beyond finding and saving those Alien civies, sir."
"Yes... and look what you've done with that freedom." Hein smirked. "You killed seventeen men and women - Why, one of them a teenager, looks like! - without so much as a second thought. I see your conditioning is holding fast."
"They were armed hostiles intent on killing civilians! Any soldier would have done what I did, conditioned or not!"
"Of course. You were absolutely justified in using lethal force as a soldier. But would C-Sec have seen it that way, I wonder? I suppose we're all fortunate the firefight took place somewhere out of the way: Can you imagine the kind of hell you'd have raised if there had been witnesses? No, I don't think you'll be suited for what I have in mind. Fortunately, I know someone who does." Hein closed and set down a green book titled 'Project Galahad' on his desk, as if for emphasis.
"So that's it, then? You're letting us go?"
"Oh, no no no. I suspect I will have need of killers before long. You're dismissed, Captain."
...
What Hein had in mind, apparently, was somehow manipulate events to rope in Adam Jensen onto the Durendal just as they were about to leave. Adam Jensen. The Monster, as the Order liked to call him. The Abomination, he had heard some Templars call him. Usually, Grey would not give either kind of fanatic the time of day, but after Mars... Some part of him wondered if they were right, that grafting machines onto one's body really did make someone evil, or at the very least violently insane, and that he shouldn't just shoot Jensen in the back at the first opportunity. Or maybe he wouldn't give him much of a choice but to kill him. He'd cross that bridge when he came across it.
What really made Grey angry at the moment, however, was that Hein suddenly expected him to work with a Turian. Hein came down to the cargo bay with this Garrus Vakarian as Gray ran his daily maintenance routine on his gear. The Turian saluted and stood at attention like a good soldier. Hein then proceeded to list Vakarian's accomplishments as written in his electronic dog tags (a memento from his days in the military. apparently), not to mention his accomplishments with C-Sec. He would be taking Neil's place on the Caleston mission, Neil would keep the engines warm, and Jane would be accompanying Jensen. Gray did not like the sound of that at all.
"Permission to speak freely, sir?"
Hein rolled his eyes. "Here we go..."
"I already have a designated marksman. Neil is competent and needs no replacing."
"And you'll still have him when the mission is over. But we both know Neil isn't the best marksman in the world, and Mr Vakarian here is even more accurate and precise with an iron-sighted heavy pistol than Neil is with a fully kitted out DMR... Any other objections?"
"Yes, I don't work with Kittybirds, sir."
"Well," said Vakarian, as he relaxed his stance, "fuck you too, pal. I'm not exactly looking forward to working with any of you, either."
"Tsk tsk tsk. Play nice, children," Hein scolded both soldiers. "Is there a particular reason you don't like Turians, Grey?"
"Shanxi, sir. Hundreds of thousands of civilians, bombarded from orbit? Children being shot to death? Does that ring any bells?"
"As I recall," Garrus began to argue. "Yan Lo made the Shanxi occupiers pay dearly for that. As for the kids... As for the kids, they had no business picking up Gauss rifles."
"They picked those Gauss rifles up after General Arterius started executing their parents!" Grey countered.
"And their parents had no business fighting after Williams surrendered!" Vakarian shot back.
"GENTLEMEN. Let me stop this right now. Grey, how old were you during the First Contact war? Nine? Ten? You weren't there, and every so called fact you got about Shanxi was fed to you by livestreams on OZ. As for me? I was right there for the retaking, and let me tell you, we made the Turians suffer. Boy howdy, did we ever! But hey! That was twenty-six years ago, and I'm more than willing to forgive if not forget. As far as I'm concerned, the price of blood and pain has been paid, and that's the last I want to hear about it. I get enough of this crap from Saracino... Is that understood, Captain?
Grey calmed himself down. "... Yes, sir."
"And as for you, mister Vakarian, if you ever try to justify Arterius' actions in my presence ever again..." He gave Vakarian a cold, withering stare. "I. will. end. you. Is that understood?"
Garrus found himself staring at the ground. "... I didn't mean to defend him I just... I understand."
Hein face went from that of a frightening killer to a friendly uncle in the blink of an eye. "Fantastic! Edward, see to it that Garrus gets outfitted with some proper weapons. That Mongoose is impressive, but it won't do much past seventy-five meters. If you'll excuse me, I'll be busy unpacking the 108."
Grey's eyes widened. "The 108? I thought that thing's software couldn't calibrate itself to a human body. Who are y- Oh, no... You're going to give it to Jensen, aren't you?"
"Yep!" said Hein as he walked away towards a coffin made of smooth obsidian, propped upright against another crate.
"Are you insane?!"
"Oh, most certainly!"
Neither Vakarian nor Grey said anything as Hein took off his longcoat and got to work adjusting the power armor. Vakarian broke the silence first.
"Say, do you happen to have a spare Serpent? With a digital scope? I'd just love to use one of those..."
Grey sighed as he opened the weapons locker. "All you'll be getting is a Steiner-Bisley Greatsword M3." said Grey as he handed the weapon to the Turian. "The firepower's good enough..."
"...But the recoil compensators are crap." finished Vakarian as he checked the bolt-action rifle's empty chamber.
"Is that so? Well, you're a big guy, you can handle the kickback."
"Oh, most certainly. Not sure why an elite squad of Terran marines is doing using gunpowder weapons, though. Fallen on hard times?"
"I'm not the one wearing an Agent mark 1."
"Touché. Beggars can't be choosers... Hm, yeah, I can handle the Greatsword, no problem. I've had to use one in a pinch to disable a drug lord's escape vehicle."
Grey crossed his arms. "Oh really? Well, I hope you understand why I'm not just going to take your word for it, Turian. We're going to go over every single part of that weapon and review its user's manual, and once we're done with that we'll see just how good you are at taking down VR targets. If you're going to be watching our backs, I'm going to make sure you're ready."
"Fair enough. Just don't cry when I blow your high score out of the water."
~[h+]~
"Off with the glasses, now." Aki ordered Jensen. He complied by retracting his eye shades back into their plastic clips, and Aki did the classic 'shine a light in the eyes and take note of the reaction' test. To Aki's surprise, Jensen's artificial irises clamped nearly shut almost instantly, and dilated just as quickly when she switched off the light. Impressive reaction time.
Aki had to admit, she was pretty stoked. It wasn't every day that a girl like her got to examine a human being so extensively modified with cybernetics. She wasn't all that interested in the prostheses: it was Jensen's sub-dermal and internal implants that intrigued her the most. A lot of these implants, she noted, could improve the quality of life for a lot of people that reacted poorly to modern gene therapy.
It was a shame they were all technically illegal. More shameful was how humanity had turned its mastery of biotech away from improving the human body. They could create terraforming microbes and build an entire ecosystem, animals and all, from scratch. Why then, couldn't they cure things like Vrolik's Syndrome? Or even Down's Syndrome? Most gene therapies only focused on keeping people healthy and fit, and while that was fine, humanity could do so much more. Biotics drove up the need for human bio-modification research, but once that frontier was conquered, it was likely interest in the technology would grind to a halt. Such a waste...
Jensen's set of brain implants proved to be the most intriguing, and she wondered just how they interacted with his brain, if they boosted his intelligence. It occurred to her that they might interfere with the Dream Catcher... Then again, it's not like they did his dreaming for him.
"Tali, could you have a look at this?" she asked the engineer. Tali looked up from her work reattaching Jensen's shin. Aki showed her a readout from her Omni-Tool. "Can you give me an estimate on the performance of this chipset?"
Tali squinted at it. "Is that... Is that his brain?" she asked in bewilderment as her eyes scanned the hologram of the electronics and the hair-thin conduits that irrigated Jensen's brain. "I'm... not sure. I'd say the processing power is equivalent to a Nexus mark Five, but since I have no idea how the chips interact with his brain, it might be more."
"Huh. Interesting, I didn't know we had such advanced electronics back in the 2020's."
"What's that... tiny cloud on the side of the brain hologram, there?" asked Tali as she pointed at the hologram.
"Neural scarring from a .357 bullet that was lodged into my skull," said Jensen, matter-of-factly.
Aki's eyes widened. "Oh, my! And... you survived that?"
"Well, evidently." quipped Jensen. Aki caught him glancing over where the bed where the artificial woman lay unconscious, with transparent tubes of artificial white blood sticking out of her arm and into a dialysis machine. This 'Aya Brea' was another oddity entirely: according to Hein she was a completely synthetic human being, a soft machine, nearly indistinguishable from an actual human being save for some odd mutated organelles in her cells... and a very bad reaction to blood transfusions, apparently. Aki could tell Jensen was concerned about her well-being, although how deeply she wasn't sure.
"She'll be fine," she said reassuringly. "I flushed out the contaminated blood and replaced it with a synthetic substitute. I know she looks pale, but that's white blood for you."
"Will her blood turn back to normal?"
"Not a for a while. Her haematopoiesis seems to have temporarily stopped. I'll keep her hooked up to the dialysis machine until she can replenish her red blood cells on her own, and by then she should be conscious again." Of course, this was assuming there wouldn't be any more quirks to her biology. Aki had to admit, she didn't quite know how to repair a... homunculus? Was that even the proper term, here? "Once she's awake I'm hoping she'll be able to share with me her medical history... and maybe explain the scarring on her bones."
"Scars? I've seen her regenerate from a dozen cuts from glass shards, and she didn't have any scars."
"Is that so? Interesting... As far as I can tell, it seems that her limbs had been amputated. If what you say is true and that she has regenerative abilities so potent they don't leave scars, then..."
...
"No!..." protested Brea, weak and delirious. "He'll...he'll cut me apart. They always cut me apart...I'll be good...I promise...ah..."
...
"...then someone must have amputated her limbs repeatedly, causing the scarring to build up." Aki finished. Jensen just stared at Brea's still body, perhaps wondering what kind of person would do that to another person, artificial or no. Aki certainly did. None of them said anything for a while as Tali finished putting Jensen's knee back together and Aki continued her scans. Jensen, for his part, kept looking over at Brea as the two women worked.
"...Is she your wife?" asked Tali, finally. The question must have been burning on the tip of her tongue.
Jensen scowled, a bit embarrassed. "What? No! What gave you that idea?"
"You just seem so concerned for her, so I thought-"
"I... can't really help being concerned. A lot of people died at my hands so that she might live. Granted, most of them were scumbags but..." he shook his head. "I can't bear the thought that it would have been all for nothing." He turned to the doctor. "Look, are we done here?"
"Tali? Done with the knee?"
"All done!" said the Quarian girl a little too gingerly. Adam got out of the bed and flexed his left leg. Satisfied that the actuator functioned properly, he proceeded to put his clothes back on. Despite herself, Aki couldn't help but follow the cog-rail shaped plastic strip that protected Jensen's spine with her eyes and glanced down at his posterior. It was plastic and carbon, of course: there wasn't much point in augmenting someone's legs unless you replaced every leg muscle, glutes included. Still, it was a nicely molded piece of plastic and carbon, and from the quick embarrassed glances Tali tried to not to take at it, Aki could tell she agreed, too.
"Well, that's that for your physical, then." Aki said. "There is some metal fatigue in your arms, though... Have you been repeatedly punching at a concrete wall or something?"
"Something like that," answered Jensen as he buttoned up his shirt.
"Well, it's taken its toll on your endo-structure. You're not in any risk of your arms snapping any time soon, but we should really consider getting you an overhaul. I don't think we have the materials or the equipment for that, though."
"Or the time. I'll just refrain from punching out walls from here on in."
"As for those telltale signs of mild sleep deprivation, we'll be taking care of that in about...three hours? Your melatonin levels should peak by then. In the meantime, how about a tour of ship?"
"Don't you need time to set up this... Dream Catching machine of yours?"
"Oh no, the thing's fully integrated in the bed you were using. All I need to do is press this button right here..." Aki pressed a switch on the side of bed, and several rings and scanners made out of programmable materials shaped themselves into place, creating a halo of sensors where Jensen's head had been laying. "It'll be ready to go when you are."
"Well, might as well kill some time before I go into the lotus-eater machine."
"It's... not meant to be some kind of VR fantasy land, Jensen. The Dream Catcher is a psychotherapeutic tool, and when used in conjunction with the Dream Walker, I can dive in and help someone deal with their psychological issues. It's used by the UNAS military as a way to deal with PTSD, and it's had great success in allowing mentally scarred veterans go on with their lives... Of course, I can't deny that the device opens up some huge possibilities for the entertainment industry. Do you have any recurring nightmares? If you like I can dive in and make your dreams more pleasant."
Jensen quirked his eyebrow at this. "Um... it's not that I'm not flattered, but-"
"Oh!" Aki laughed good-naturedly. "No, I didn't mean it like that, I mean that I can subtly alter the dream scape to pull you out of your nightmare and into more pleasant thoughts and memories. Alternatively, I can go into the Dream Catcher and pull you into a dream scape of my creation... Or, I could have you replay one of my own dream recordings."
"That's sounds lovely..." Tali said wistfully as she tried and failed to suppress a yawn. "I haven't had a good night's sleep in...well, two days, but still..."
"Bad dreams?" asked Aki.
"Yes..."
"I can relate." said Jensen empathetically.
"I understand." Aki nodded and set up one of the beds for Tali and took a Dream Walker device out of a secured locker.
"Oh no, I didn't mean... I still have some work to do in engineering and I was hoping you'd have a stimulant for me, instead."
"I don't have any meds for Quarians, Tali. And a stim would just make things worse in the end. Trust me, nothing does more good to the body like a good night's sleep." She held the device, a white plastic headset, above Tali's head. Take off your hood, please?" she asked the Quarian girl. Tali complied, and Aki set the device right on her helmet.
"Won't my helmet interfere with the connection?" asked Tali.
"No, I just need to boost the gain aaand... there. All done." Aki guided Tali by the hand to the bed and set her down on it, making sure she was completely comfortable. "Now, the device will be set to calibration mode as it gets a handle on your neural structure. By the time you're asleep, the dream should be streamed into your mind once you reach REM sleep. Speaking of which, which would you prefer? A walk on a sandy beach made out of stardust during a multicolored sunset or... flying an airship to the moon?"
"I... think I'll try the former, please."
"As you wish." Aki inserted the proper data drive into a small computer and set up a connection between it and the Dream Walker headset. "Now, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and relax..."
Aki slowly dimmed the lights, and quietly left the infirmary, taking Jensen by the arm and putting a finger over her mouth. She closed the door behind them both, making sure that they could not disturb her.
"Poor thing likes to throw herself into her work." said Aki. It's commendable, but she's going to burn herself up if she keeps it up."
"... Yeah, I knew someone like that once," said Jensen, with a hint of sadness. Aki picked up on it immediately, but decided not to pry... Even though she wanted to: Jensen fascinated her on a scientific and personal level. The scientific (particularly the odd tissue that formed around his PEDOT electrodes), she could figure through scans and the occasional exam. The personal, the facts behind the stories, she'd have at least seven days to figure out, although Jensen seemed like the strong silent type, the kind of man that preferred to keep most of his past to himself most of the time. Aki wanted to respect that silent wish for privacy, but her curiosity kept prodding her to keep on...well, prodding.
"Well then, I do believe you still have some time to kill, and I promised you a tour. Shall we begin?"
~[h+]~
"Hey there, little man."
In the cargo bay, right by where the Copperhead was housed, Ryan Whitaker squatted next to Fyodor, the little mute Quarian boy. Aki had put together a makeshift set of watercolors and pencils for him to draw with, as Lelia recommended. The Quarian minstrel, clad in dark purple leather and red bands of cloth, was siting on a crate keeping one eye on the boy and the other on her instrument, some kind of small harp made out of glass. It needed some maintenance and tuning, apparently. Ryan looked forward to hearing her play. She nodded at him, as if to say "soon."
As for Fyodor, the boy was keeping himself busy sketching and coloring. A mess of drawings lay on the floor, with Fyodor at the center of it. Ryan spotted a few portraits, most notably one of himself, smiling a big, heartfelt smile. Ryan had to admit, the boy could draw beautifully, although his knowledge of anatomy could use some work. Then again, he was still a kid.
"Hey, is that supposed to be me?" said Ryan, smiling. Fyodor looked up at him and nodded at him excitedly, and pointed at several other drawings. It was the rest of the Deep Eyes: Edward, Jane and Neil. Even Hein and Aki had their portraits, although they seemed a bit more like caricatures. Aki looked like an angel dressed in a gown of flowing silk, her arms spread open like a mother welcoming her child home. Hein was drawn as an evil grinning hooded sorcerer, wringing his hands and plotting some sort of dastardly plot. Ryan chuckled at that: it summed up how he felt about Hein most of time very nicely. As for Aki, well... It was pretty much right on the money, too. She could be so worried about everyone she came across.
Fyodor got back to painting his current project, a huge, ethereal black dog with white fur at his throat (a German shepherd, by the looks of things), biting into the back of the neck of a sword wielding woman in a white mask. There were three other drawings like this, one of them had the giant dog throw a woman onto another, no doubt killing them both. It was... fairly disturbing.
"I think he's trying to process what's been happening to him - all of us," said Lelia in her lovely voice. His translator seemed to think she was french, for some reason, and she had an accent to match. "Our first rescuer had been... brutal when he defeated the mercenaries that planned to kill us."
"Adam Jensen." said Ryan, nodding. The man DID have a reputation to be kind to his friends, but a real terror to his enemies. Ryan's eyes turned to another drawing, that of three knights in full helm, their eyes aglow with blue flames, charging into a group of savages with weapons that spewed a blazing inferno. It seems Adam Jensen wasn't the only one out there being too brutal.
"I'm sorry you had to see that, son." Ryan said sadly. No kid should have to see that kind of violence: it simply wasn't good for the soul.
He knew this all too well.
"I wish there had been another way, but..." There were other ways, but Grey had tagged all the hostiles and shouted 'open fire' before any other option could be suggested or even considered. After Akuze, Grey had become just that much more merciless. Akuze had broken him, and when they put him back together they made sure to take out any hesitation, any doubt in the face of combat.
Ryan didn't want to dwell on this, and looked at some other drawings. One was, strangely enough, a picture of a tanned man with pointy ears clad in green leather, wielding two knives, and a redheaded woman standing over him clad in dark purple leather wielding a bow. They were both engaging some unseen enemy. Probably a dragon, thought Ryan. It occurred to him then that their colors matched those of Zev and Lelia, and he remembered that Zev was wielding two pistols and Lelia was no stranger to carrying a DMR when the Deep Eyes had found them. Fyodor had drawn them both as humans... how very odd.
Another drawing: an incomplete sketch of Grey, dressed like a knight in shining armor with his hands resting on the pommel of a sword. Despite his regal and proud bearing, he looked so very... sad. There was also a drawing of Neil, dressed like some early twentieth century aviator outfit (complete with goggles) flying a mechanical contraption worthy of the Wrights brothers, with a grin plastered all over his face. Jane was, interestingly enough, drawn just standing there, her arms crossed, dressed like a native American wielding a tomahawk in one hand and a knife in the other. Her favorite melee loadout.
"Now how did you know that Jane was part native American, hm?" it then occurred to Ryan there was also no way some alien boy could know what a German shepherd could look like, either. Or a 20th century aviator, for that matter. Or even a medieval knight...
His eyes widened when he saw a drawing of himself, bearing a kite shield, clad neck to toe in armor... With a big red cross painted across his chest.
"How did you...?"
"Well, now, what do we have here?" said Grey cheerfully as he knelt down besides Fyodor. Fyodor seemed excited to see him, pointed a finger at him like a pistol and made explosive noises with his breath.
Grey smiled, put both hands in front of his face and parted them. "Voop! Laser shield!... Huh, seems Fyodor's quite the artist, isn't he?"
"That he is," answered Ryan as he stood up. "Need me for something, sir?"
"Yeah," he said as he pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. "Ryan, meet Garrus Vakarian. Vakarian, meet Gunnery Sergeant Ryan Whitaker. He's in charge of maintaining the Deep Eyes' personal armors, and he acts as our Sentinel on the ground."
Ryan, being courteous as always, shook the Turian's hand and nodded in acknowledgment. Garrus seemed a bit confused, and asked: "I thought the UNAS didn't use Biotics?"
"Hm? Oh, I'm not an Alliance Sentinel, we US Marines use a different set of terms for combat roles. My job as a Sentinel is to get the enemy's attention and soak in the bullets."
"Ah. You'll have to bring me up to speed on Marine terminology, then."
"Later," answered Grey impatiently. "Hein wants him to temporarily act as our Designated Marksman for the Caleston mission... He's skilled, no doubt about it, but..."
Garrus did the turian equivalent of a chuckle, and Grey tried to hide his annoyance.
"...but, he's no use to me if some gangbanger can one-shot him with a pea shooter. Can you see if you can upgrade his armor?"
Ryan looked at the Turian from head to toe and scratched his chin. "Yeah, I think I can cannibalize a spare Mechanized IPS. Shouldn't have too much trouble mounting the chest plate and the shields on that Agent mk I. I can also bolt on some spare armor plates on the legs and arms. It's not going to be a power armor, but-"
Fyodor interrupted Ryan by tugging at his pants. He held up another drawing, this one of a knight clad in an impressive if loose fitting blue armor with wings made out of metal and light, wielding a greatsword. Fyodor then pointed at Garrus, and Ryan deduced that he wanted him to make an armor just like that for Vakarian.
"Want me to make him into Archangel Gabriel himself, eh?" Ryan laughed a little bit. "Sorry little man, I haven't got the materials for that, maybe some other time?"
"Ah... Ah!..." Fyodor moaned in frustration and impatience, like any child denied a dream, and kept shaking the drawing in front of him. Ryan was patient and tried to calm the boy down, but Lelia soon intervened.
"Come now, Fyodor," she said. "Let the men work and come with me... It's time for you to go to bed, in any case." Fyodor obeyed after a bit of a sulk, and the three soldiers were now free to talk shop.
"Hm, poor kid. As I was saying," continued Ryan. "it'll keep Vakarian alive." He turned to Vakarian. "So how'd you get stuck in an Agent mk 1? I thought C-Sec had better gear than that."
"I used to have a Medium Partisan IV, but some thugs thought it would get in the way of the nice little 'greasy acupuncture' they had planned for me."
Ryan whistled. "Damn, Greasel Venom's no joke... They didn't actually do it, did they? Seeing as you're still standing and all..."
"Got a few scars to prove they did do it, if you'd like to see." said Vakarian casually. Anyone hard enough to handle a greased up blade and get back up ready to fight was worthy of plenty of respect, and Ryan's respect for Vakarian rose accordingly.
"Well, as much as I'd love to hear more of your exploits, Vakarian, I've got a maintenance check to run on our weapons. Ryan, take care of this ASAP. We've got at least two days before we reach Caleston, so don't overdo it. I don't want his suit to fall apart on me and have to fight next to a naked Turian."
Garrus' mandibles parted, and he squinted like a naughty boy up to no good. "Well, it certainly wouldn't be the first time! Reminds me of the time me and Jensen-"
"-I said: I DON'T want to hear it. Ryan, Vakarian, get to work." And with that, Grey left the two soldiers to their business. When he was out of earshot, Vakarian couldn't help but quip:
"I think he's starting to like me."
~[h+]~
Doctor Ross made Jensen uncomfortable. Maybe it was because she was gorgeous: standing at an average one meter seventy, her slender frame was covered in a gray US Navy jumpsuit, her pale, unpainted oval face framed by two long waterfalls of unkempt, wavy black hair. She was the complete opposite of Brea, who seemed like the type of woman that wouldn't dare go out in public without at least a layer of foundation on.
Maybe it was because she was a Doctor. Truth is, Jensen never liked being poked and prodded by them, especially after getting augmented.
Or maybe it was because she reminded him so much of Megan. There was that glint in her eye, a brilliance, and an utter fascination with his implants as she scanned him with her Omni-Tool. He could tell she was fantasizing about the applications of the technology, no doubt thinking about how they could improve lives. That was what Megan liked to say, too.
Megan was never in it to improve lives. She did what she did because it could be done.
Ross led him around the Medicine and Science Labs (or MedSci for short), the area she was most familiar with. For some reason, the mess hall and galley was also part of MedSci. and when Jensen pointed that out, Ross simply shrugged, smiled and said "Hey, cooking is science, too!"
Up next on the tour: the Hydroponics Bay. It was abuzz with activity, with several mechanical arms, painted orange, planting seeds evenly on foam oases. Robots carried trays in their arms, moving them from the seeding area to the racks. A transparent tank of green goo (which, thankfully, didn't glow) dripped into the supply of water, which was fed into dozens of metal racks and arrays of shallow pools in which the oases floated. Multi-spectral lamps were everywhere, ensuring that the plants would have plenty of nourishing light. Jensen was thankful for the shades: It was really bright in there.
"That's the concentrated nutrient gel tank," said Ross, pointing at the transparent green gunk. "Without it the plants can't thrive in the water. The first harvest should be due next week, and I'm hoping Lelia will have brushed up on human cuisine to make something good."
"Lelia?"
"...Oh, that's right, you haven't met her! Hein had the Deep Eyes rescue a few Quarian Pilgrims in Upper Zakera on Tali's request, and Lelia is one of them. Hein convinced them to serve on the Durendal as contractors, and Lelia volunteered her services as a cook. I don't know how well Quarians can cook, but if Lelia's cooking is as any good as her singing, then we're in for a treat."
"Is this the only source of food the ship has?"
"Of course not! We've got a supply of protein blocks and water rations stored in the cargo bay. The hydroponics is just to ensure the crew doesn't suffer from malnutrition... Or mutinies after eating nothing but protein blocks for months. Of course, since both the Hydroponics and Cargo bays can be breached by gunfire, there's an emergency supply locker in every room of the ship."
"Smart."
"Over-centralize and you invite disaster, that's one of the lessons the Collapse taught us."
"Couldn't you eat the Bio-Gel in a pinch?"
"Sure!... But the stuff tastes like crap. Mostly because it's literally made out of crap."
"What... kind of crap?" Jensen asked, although he wasn't sure if he wanted to know the answer to that one.
"I meant all sorts of broken down biological waste. The Durendal wastes nothing, Jensen."
It suddenly dawned on Adam exactly what she meant. "Oh. OH, okay, Yeah. I think I won't be eating any of THAT, then. How long will your supplies hold out?"
"Since it's just going to be me, Hein, and the four Deep Eyes for the foreseeable future, our supplies will hold out for a year. We bought some food for the Quarians, and those should last them at least a month. Longer, once I can get the Dextro Plants to grow here. You and Garrus won't put such a big dent in our food consumption. If you both turn out to be gluttons, well, we should be able to resupply at Caleston.
Ross led Jensen to the cabins, passing by Special Projects along the way. According to her, the Durendal could house one hundred and sixty crewmen fairly comfortably. Connected to the cabin section was a Recreation room, a shower room, and a small gym.
"With just the handful of us on board, we can all have our own individual cabins."
"Will I be staying here?"
"Well, tonight you'll be spending your night in the infirmary while my computer monitors your brain as you sleep in the Dream Catcher. Provided you won't need to go in there again, I suppose I should temporarily assign you a cabin. Garrus already has one, before you ask."
"Good to know. You said it's just you and the Deep Eyes? This is an awfully big ship, don't you need a crew of a thousand to run it?"
"Automation has come a long way since the twenty-first century, Jensen. A ship this large needs only a few hundred crewmen for it to run efficiently. Of course, since I'm the only Navy officer here, the VI and its robots pretty much run the ship."
"Why are you the only Navy officer here? Shouldn't the Navy have provided a crew?"
"Hein pulled some strings to save the Durendal from the plasma torches and use it to haul sensitive cargo, but since it was the Navy that paid the the ship's construction bill, they felt that they should have a presence on it even as Hein takes it on a joyride across the galaxy. On the other hand, they also pretty much lost faith in the Durendal's concept, so they didn't want to waste an entire crew on it either. So, here I am. Well, that's it for this level."
"...Are you sure? It seems to me we only visited a third of this level."
"The forward half of the ship is dedicated to the ship's main gun. Since it's an active DARPA project, only Hein has the clearance to get in there. There are also several empty rooms, and there's nothing to see in there until someone finds some use for them."
"I see."
"Well, You've already had a look at the cargo level. I could show you the two torpedo rooms that flank it, if you like."
"I think I'll pass. Not much interest in rows and rows of ordnance."
"Well, let's be off to the command level, then."
On their way to the elevator, Ross decided to make some small talk.
"So, Jensen. That's Scandinavian, correct?"
"So I've been told." Jensen answered casually. Truth of the matter was that he had no clue as to his origins. Definitely European, so there was a good chance his parents - his real parents - were from Sweden or Denmark anyways. Then again, he wasn't sure if his adopted father, Arthur, had any Scandinavian blood to speak of. "I, uh, haven't really traced my roots all that well. I may as well be Irish, for all I know."
"Oh, well that's a shame." she said as she pressed the elevator call button.
"... What about you? Aki - That's Japanese, correct?" Jensen wisely didn't mention that 'Ross' was German for 'steed'. Some bits of trivia could be taken the wrong way.
"Yes, it is, but before you ask my parents were a Russian sailor and a Hong Kong waitress. They emigrated to the States shortly before I was born."
"How'd you get named 'Aki', then?"
"My actual first name is Angela. Aki's my middle name, after my godmother. Friends and acquaintances call me Aki because it's shorter."
"Angela isn't that much of a tongue twister."
"What can I say?" Ross shrugged and smiled. "People are lazy. Feel free to call me Angela if you like."
The elevator arrived, and Jensen and Ross stepped in.
...
"Did he destroy that vase yet?" asked Jensen, half jokingly.
"I moved it." answered Megan, smiling. "And I fenced in the yard - like you always said you were going to."
"Yeah... I never got around to that. ...Sorry."
"Me too. About a lot of things... Adam, I... There's something I-"
"Jensen?" asked Ross, worried.
...
"Jensen, are you alright?" said Ross, putting a hand on Jensen's shoulder. He gasped in surprise, then looked around, double checking his surroundings. For a brief second he was back in 2027, just before the incident... "I'm fine, I guess I just zoned out for a minute there."
Ross looked at Jensen for a moment, trying to figure if he was lying to her. After a moment, she simply said: "Yeesh, the elevator isn't THAT slow... Shall we continue?"
"Yeah. Yeah, lead on."
~[h+]~
In the CIC, Jane and Neil were in the middle of a conversation while Veetor checked the Helm. Neil sat in the helmsman seat, leaning back with his hands behind his head, while Jane stood with with arms crossed.
"So, um, how about the new passengers, eh?" asked Neil nonchalantly.
Jane rolled her eyes. She knew what he really wanted to talk about. "Let's just skip to the part where you want to talk about that robot girl's tits."
"Hoo boy! And what a pair they are. I mean, Lockheart's were bigger but -"
"DON'T talk about Lockheart."
"Awww, shit. Sorry, I - I didn't mean to remind you about her."
"Little late for that."
"Hey, I miss her too, you know."
"Hmph. You miss her tits." Jane said bitterly.
"Well, okay, yes that's true but so do you, along with the rest of her. She was a sweet girl. A bit too enthusiastic about punching stuff, but sweet."
Jane didn't like to think about Tiffany. She had been caught off-guard by a gang of Red Tribals back on Mars. She was the perfect prize for them...
"Look, can we just go back to the part where you're a shameless perv?"
"Okay, just for you. Where was I? Oh yes: I was saying that those breasts weren't the biggest I had ever seen, but damn! That shape, that all-natural, perfect shape. Boner inducing, let me tell you."
Jane smirked. "You do realize she's sick and unconscious, right?"
"Heh, don't you mean sleep mode? Well, I do plan on introducing myself once she's out of it. Bring her flowers and everything. Robot chicks still dig flowers, right?"
"Forget it, she's out of your league."
"But she's a love-bot! The whole point of these things is to be accessible!"
"And once she turns down your lame attempts at romance you'll have reached a brand new personal low."
"Not so! My man Vee here can set me up with the right dialogue options - maybe even some cheat codes? What do you think, Vee? Think you can help a poor boy out?"
Veetor was laying on his back, trying to repair a few bad connections under the Helm's console. "I, uh... I think I might be able to help... What model of sex-bot are we talking about here? A Pris N6? A Lenore mk 3?"
Neil blinked a couple of times. "...Whoa whoa whoa wait are you actually serious? I was just kidding around but... wait, you know sexbots?"
Veetor sounded a bit embarrassed. "Well, there's this guy in Upper Zakera who couldn't afford real girls for this love hotel, and his sexbots kept breaking down... mostly from overuse, but they'd develop these glitches sometimes."
"I think I'm gonna regret asking this but... what kind of glitches?"
"...Well, certain bits started contracting too tightly when they shouldn't."
"...Eep."
"You sure you still want to have a go at her, Neil?" commented Jane.
Neil ignored her. "Well, are you familiar with any models with the name Aya Brea?"
"... No," answered Veetor. "But if she's got a data jack for software maintenance I think i can still grant you full permissions."
"You are my new best friend."
"Don't think she has a port." said Jane. "I had a pretty good look when Aki had me and Ryan hold her down while she gave her a sedative."
"Aw, bummer... Hey, wait a minute! How come I didn't get called on to help with that?"
...
"Hold her down!" shouted Aki. Jane and Ryan tried to obey, but this Brea was incredibly strong, and was completely panicked. Jane didn't know where she had suddenly found this burst of energy. Just seconds ago she was almost DEAD.
"We're trying, goddammit!" Jane shouted back. It's not that she was mad, but Brea had one hell of a pair of lungs and just wouldn't stop screaming.
"WHOA!" exclaimed Ryan as he flew off and crashed into the bed on the other side of the infirmary. Jane saw Hein just standing there, watching, while nonchalantly eating from a bag of instant popcorn. What a prick, she thought.
Jensen rushed to Brea and had only slightly better luck holding her down, before Aki finally saw her chance and pressed the injection gun against Brea's neck. It took ten whole minutes for the damned meds to kick in.
Now, it was Jane's turn to fly.
"Aw, shi-"
...
"Trust me, you would have been absolutely no help. Besides, Aki needed people she was sure wouldn't cop a feel."
Neil was indignant. "Hey! I'm a perfect gentleman!... Most of the time. When I'm sober."
"Except you're actually considering making her your love slave. ...What do you think her boyfriend will think of that?"
"Oh I'm sure we'll be able to work out a trade. Think he likes space sims?"
"Yeah, I'm thinking he's just gonna punch you through a wall. You have heard about him, right?"
"Aw, come on, I don't believe everything I read on OZ. Sure, Jensen's kinda scary looking but deep down? He's a total pussycat."
"Meow," deadpanned a guttural voice behind Neil. The Deep Eyes' pilot's eyes widened and he froze in fear. Jane 'helpfully' spun the pilot's seat around, and Neil was now being stared down at by Adam Jensen. Aki was at his side, palming her face.
Neil chuckled nervously. "...Hi?" Neil tried to put on a smile to hide his terror, but Jensen just kept glaring at him.
"Jensen," said Aki after a long, disappointed sigh, "meet Neil Fleming. He's the Deep Eye's pilot and the Durendal's helmsman. Don't get up, Neil! It's not rude, at all."
Realizing that he was quite rudely just sitting there, Neil promptly got up and shook Jensen's mechanical hand... Which turned out to have a vice like grip.
Aki continued: "And...the Quarian working down there is... Veetor? Come on out and introduce yourself, please."
"Oh! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" said Veetor as he hurriedly rose to his feet. "I was just a bit too focused on the - I mean, Hello! My name is Veetor'Nara nar Qwib Qwib and... wait, I remember you!"
"Yeah, I remember you too, you're one of the pilgrims I saved from execution."
"Yes!" Veetor shook Jensen's hand furiously. "I had hoped to see you again and tell you how grateful I am for saving our lives!"
"Well, I didn't do that great a job of it, evidently, since I'm told you needed rescuing a second time... I'm sorry."
"That's... actually kind of our fault. We had a golden opportunity to leave, but Zev and Lelia needed the tools of their trade, since begging on the street wouldn't have kept us fed or healthy. A gang caught sight of us and we were forced to escape down in the sewers, but without a map and Greasels at our heels, we were trapped, then surrounded. As far as I'm concerned, we're still in your debt, doubly so for squandering the chance you gave us."
"How about we just call it even, okay?"
Veetor nodded, and Aki completed the introductions with Jane. "And you've met Jane Proudfoot in the infirmary, already."
Jane held out her hand, and after a moment's hesitation, Jensen shook it. Jane thought she'd have trouble dealing with a cyborg on board, that looking at Jensen would cause her to flashback to Mars, but there she was, shaking a cyborg's hand. Maybe it was because Jensen's prostheses looked nothing like the Red Tribals'. Jensen's augs (those that she could see, anyways) were smooth, sleek, and painted black with a glossy finish. They were almost beautiful, in comparison to the pieced together scrap the Tribals put on their bodies.
"We met some time before that, actually," said Jane. "You stopped that Allie from throwing her life away." Jane smiled: she always approved whenever Alliance Marines bit off more than they could chew and choked on it. She would have preferred to settle the fight herself, of course.
"I was just doing my job." replied Jensen, "keeping the peace. Don't think for a minute that she wouldn't have put up a fight."
Jane was confident enough in her skill with a knife to know that it wouldn't have been a fight: It would have been an execution. "Hmph, whatever you say."
Sensing her meaning, Jensen crossed his arms and began lecturing her. "Okay, then. Let's assume I didn't stop that punch and you killed her easily - And you were ready to kill her, I could tell - Then I would have had to arrest you for manslaughter. Things could have easily escalated from there. Worst case scenarios? I kill you because you resist and force my hand, or you kill me and C-Sec flags you as a cop killer, signing your death warrant... all because you went for a knife to deal with a punch you invited through verbal abuse. I was doing both you and Williams a favor, make no mistake about it."
And just like that, Jensen had killed the goodwill he had bought with Jane. An uncomfortable silence fell on the group, as Jane processed what Jensen had just said. Aki broke the silence before things got any more awkward. "So! This is the CIC! Standard Octagon configuration with a Strategic holographic pit in the center, surrounded by thirty stations. The helm faces the bow -naturally- and can be configured in a multitude of haptic setups and avionics. Past that door is Drone Control, but I can't take you through there. Classified tech, and all that."
"Should he really be in the CIC?" asked Jane. "This is a pretty sensitive area for a civilian to visit."
"Technically," answered Aki, "I'm the only one that has any business here, since I'm a sailor and you two are leathernecks. I think I'm allowed to show a civilian around a ship the Navy doesn't really want, as long as he doesn't touch anything."
"Hein to Jenseeeeen!" Hein's sing-song voice came through the ship's intercom. "I have something to shooooow yo- Hey, wait a second - what are you doing in the CIC?"
"Do... do I just reply out loud," Jensen quietly muttered to Aki, "like in Star Trek?"
"Pretty much." replied Aki. "Colonel? I was just showing Jensen around the ship to pass the time until he's ready to head into the Dream Catcher."
"Ah, Doctor Ross! I don't suppose Tali is with you, as well?"
"Ah, no. She's asleep, running a dream through the Dream Walker."
"Oh really? Hm, I'll just have to leave post-it on her helmet, then. Jensen? Can you even hear me?"
"Yeah, yeah, I can hear you."
"The 108 is assembled! Come on down to the Cargo bay and have a look."
"Wait, the 108's unpacked?" exclaimed Neil. "Oh, man! This I have to see! Jane, you coming?"
"... Sure, why not?"
~[h+]~
"Ah, I see that I've got a bigger audience than expected." said Hein as the Deep Eyes, Jensen, Aki and Garrus gathered around him and the black obelisk. The storage 'coffin' was almost completely covered in polished obsidian, save for a few large metallic screws that kept the box sealed. On the face of the obsidian monolith was the Shinkawa Heavy Industries logo, a Bāguà trigram (the Zhèn, or Thunder, as Jensen and Aki recognized it), and under the logo was some centered text: the name, model, and serial number of the product within the man-sized black box.
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN." exclaimed Hein, his arms wide. "You may have been wondering what has been languishing in that black box that's been gathering dust in that corner of the cargo bay. Well, today is the day we shed light on the mystery! Everyone! Feast your eyes on the Shinkawa Model 108 Augmented Performance Suit!"
Hein put his hand on the side of the monolith, and the screws rotated and hissed out in sequence, each time with a loud clank. Steam hissed out of them, and the seemingly featureless smooth surface split in the middle, revealing the prototype power suit. Its outer shell was made of thick segmented ceramic plates bolted over a layer gold-bronze colored alloy. The helmet was mostly featureless save for two sensors on the left and right, and the faceplate was sculpted in three faces that formed a Y-shaped edge. The arms seemed a bit bare in comparison, covered in a flexible glossy plastic dotted with bronze gold studs.
Neil whistled. "Now that is impressive."
Jane crossed her arms, her expression doubtful. "It LOOKS impressive, but what can it do?"
"What can it do? What CAN'T it do?" replied Hein excitedly, a grin on his face. "The 108 is designed to render any type of soldier into a super soldier! It doesn't matter if you're a Commando, a Ravager, a Medic, a Saboteur, a Synergist, a Sentinel or any combination thereof: This suit has everything you need to succeed -and excel!- in any of those roles. The basic inner suit is a half centimeter thick layer of CNT muscle fibers that pack the raw physical power of a Wanzer into every limb, sandwiched between an insulating layer of Bio-Gel that regulates the health of the wearer, and an outer skin of ballistic-resistant plastic. The segmented middle plating maximizes protection and flexibility-"
"Couldn't stop a heat knife," commented Jane.
"Details, details!" dismissed Hein. "Where was I? Ah yes! And the outer plates are a ceramic composite designed to absorb kinetic and energy weapon fire. The integrated mini-frame has over three times the processing power of the best military grade Omni-Tools, and its linked to eight Omni-Gel emitters and twenty-four, individually cored shield emitters."
"So it's basically one big Omni-Tool?" asked Ryan, his hand raised.
"Yes! Yes, exactly!"
Ryan rose his hand again: "Can it make an Omni-Shield?"
"It can make Omni-Armor!" Hein typed a few commands in his Omni-Tool, and the 108 responded by opening its central gold-bronze chest plate. A mist of Omni-Gel sprayed out from the uncovered emitter, and molded itself into a solid shape, creating a glowing, transparent plate of armor that floated over the chest. Ryan approved of this: this could raise his chances of survival considerably, since being a USMC Sentinel was dangerous work... Too bad the suit wasn't his size.
Jensen approached the suit, examining it. "Armor's a bit bare on the arms."
Hein nodded. "The modular design of the armor is basically the same idea behind the ease of modification of Wanzers. See the sockets on the arms? A variety of different armlets can be mounted for a variety of mission roles, ditto for the legs. There's blade armlets, gun armlets, missile armlets... There's rocket boots, roller-skate boots..."
"I don't see any of that in the box... except maybe for that blade and..." Jensen pointed at some kind of hexagonal plate (which looked more like a triangle with its points cut off). "What is that?"
"That's the Pelta EM shield system and the the Fandango Blade. The other cool stuff... " Hein winced. "Tsk! Well, I couldn't save everything from the Phased Plasma torches when Tokugawa Heavy Industries grabbed every piece of Shinkawa hardware that I couldn't. Bastards wasted good tech. Don't worry, I'll have a couple of armlets machined first thing in the morning. Speaking of which..." He clapped his hands. "Everyone! Time to get some shut eye! I want everyone well rested! Tomorrow we put the 108 through its first paces, first thing after eggs and bakey at oh six hundred hours ship time. Dismissed!"
The Deep Eyes scattered, getting back to some unfinished business before bed time. Jensen just stood there, looking at the armor that he would be wearing for the next few days, familiarizing himself with its potential weaknesses. Aki and Garrus joined him as Hein excused himself, as he had some research to do in his quarters.
"What Hein failed to mention..." said Aki. "Is that Shinkawa went through a dozen testers trying to get this thing to work at its full potential. The scandal and the resulting lawsuits bankrupted the company."
"Those testers weren't Jensen." said Garrus as he patted his partner on the back. "His bones are metal!"
"Most of them, anyways." said Jensen.
"Still," continued Aki. "I'll talk to Hein and see if we can begin testing the 108 at low output. Knowing Hein, he'll want to get the best results as soon as possible. The CNT muscle fibers could potentially mangle even Jensen."
"Sounds reasonable. Jensen, what do you think?"
Jensen rose his finger, silently telling Garrus to be quiet for a moment, and let out a long yawn. "I think I'm ready to go to bed. It's been a long day, between Biotic AIA agents, death squads, and blackmailing DARPA chiefs..."
Aki smiled. "Very well, let's get you set up in the sick bay, shall we?"
~[h+]~
"Alright, straps or no straps?" Ross asked Jensen as he lay on the bed.
"Excuse me?"
"I think," said Garrus coyly, "that the good Doctor is asking if you're a dom or a sub."
"No, I'm asking If Jensen would prefer to be strapped down on the bed or not. You'll be getting eight hours of REM sleep, and that increases the likelihood of nightmares. It can cause a lot of involuntary movements, and since you've got superpowered limbs..."
"...You're worried that I'll break something," completed Jensen. "Fine, strap me down, if it'll make you feel better."
Aki put some flexible straps over Jensen's arms and legs and tied him down to the bed. They weren't exactly tight, but he would still need to put a conscious effort to free himself from them.
"So Doctor," asked Garrus. "What is this Dream Catcher going to do to Jensen's brain?"
"It's just going to have a look into it, and record his dreams. Hein will be reviewing them, as far as I understand the specifics of your deal with him."
"Hmph."
"Don't worry, I've done this before! The Dream Catcher is one of the safest pieces of psycho-cybernetic technology in Sol."
"Well I'm a little worried he won't be able to tie his own shoelaces when its through with him."
"You want vegetables? Try the Order's so called 'Soul Scanners'!" Ross made air quotes for emphasis as the Dream Catcher set itself up around Jensen's head. "Those things are almost guaranteed to fry braincells."
Ross loaded up an injector gun with a sleeping aid, and pressed it against Jensen's neck. A hiss, and Jensen started feeling groggy already.
"Garrus?" asked Jensen. "Do me a favor?"
"Sure."
"If I wake up and start going off about what a swell guy Hein is, shoot me in the head."
"Will do!"
"Thanks, you're... you're a pal..."
And just like that, Jensen fell asleep.
~[h+]~
It was such a thrilling experience for Tali, to walk barefooted on silver sands as the wind gently caressed her bare legs and arms. A pale yellow sundress hovered her skin, and as Tali looked down she realized that this wasn't her body. The skin was a shade of pale brown - or was it pink? - and her hands... they had five fingers. Five! Tali tested them, and smiled. How very weird!
Tali pulled her gaze away from her avatar, and marveled at the blue sky above her. The pale outline of a moon and round white clouds floated in a canvas of what was the strongest, deepest shade of Azure Tali had ever laid eyes on. The sound of the waves gently crashing on the shore set a rhythm that Tali lost herself to, and before long, dusk came.
As promised, the sunset was indeed multicolored, although the streams of hues never strayed far from oranges and yellows. Tali wasn't disappointed in the least, as the calm sunset proved to be a feast for the senses.
She felt something - no, someone - walk beside her, and with a slight start she turned to face a tall figure, robed in tan cloths that reminded Tali of the ancient Quarian priests of old. It turned its face to her, and she noted that its face was covered in a helmet, its eyes shone in a bright yellow-green light that contrasted beautifully with the ambient oranges and reds that the sunset cast on the world. Specks of green and blue light streamed across its face, chest and arms in a circuit of seams cut into its smooth, metallic plating. There was something about the stranger's presence that was both emotionally entrancing and yet mentally unbearable, as if his mere presence was an idea so complex Tali's mind strained to understand it.
It spoke in a voice that seemed so young, and yet infused with unparalleled wisdom, kindness... and sorrow.
"Don't be afraid."
But as he spoke, the sky began to shatter, the sand began to melt, and the water began to turn into mist. Tali was surprised at her own calm at the sight of what seemed like the end of all things... right up until her human skin ripped apart, making way for the plastic and leather of her enviro-suit... and she found herself crying.
"No, please! Don't put me back in this... in this cage!"
But it was too late, the dream had collapsed.
~[h+]~
Tali gasped, and opened her eyes. She found herself staring at... a piece of yellow paper stuck on her visor. She pulled it off, and noticed something was written on it. It took a moment before her eyes focused on her translator's AR text. It read:
Tali plz report to the Cargo bay 6:00 ship time Need help with suit adjustments -Edgar
PS: Hope you had sweet dreams ;)
PPS: Don't wake Jensen up
Tali flipped the piece of paper, and on the back it said:
PPPS: Srsly don't do it.
Tali heard someone groan to her right: It was Jensen, strapped down to the Dream Catcher, trying to toss and turn while his dreams persecuted him. Tali simply... stared at him, unsure as to what to do. On the one hand, there was her saviour, in obvious pain as an uncaring machine peered inside his mind while he endured what seemed to be a nightmare. On the other hand, his prostheses kept reminding her of pictures of the ancient Geth she saw on every school day during her childhood. They were always shown to her with this litany, repeated three times to carve a terrible lesson in the minds of quarian children:
Know the face of your enemy. Know the visage those who exiled us from our rightful homeworld. Know the shape of those who nearly drove us to extinction. Know the form of what you must kill, lest you be killed by it.
It was hard to separate her undying... gratitude? Yes, gratitude, from almost two decades of ingrained, generational hatred. There were now fused together, as Jensen's robotic arms were grafted on his flesh. She had tried to separate those conflicting feelings the whole time she was repairing that knee actuator, and she had almost succeeded until she saw the electronics that practically perforated Jensen's brain. How much of his thoughts were his and not a computer's? Was there still a soul in there or did that bullet that scarred his brain kill it? Amidst these thoughts, the one that haunted her the most was that she had been saved by, of all things, a machine, not a person. Was his suffering real? Or some simulation designed to prey on her feelings? Tali just stared and stared, conflicted, hoping that watching Jensen would somehow tell the truth of the matter.
"Megan..." Jensen muttered. That name, he said it with so much sorrow and regret. It cut through her doubts, and she rose from her bed, intent on freeing Adam from the Dream Catcher's grasp. She had barely made it to the foot of his bed when someone spoke:
"I wouldn't do that if I were you. I mean, I left you that Post-It for a reason."
Tali nearly leapt out of her suit in fright, and turned behind her at the source of the voice. Sitting casually at Dr Ross' desk was Hein, staring at streams of undecipherable data as he leaned back against the desk chair with his feet up on the desk. He had taken a puff out of a cigarette - a real one - and promptly put it in a metallic cylinder, which he then pocketed.
"Between the horrible flashback and the meds, attempting to physically wake him might cause him to react violently. Keep in mind, Jensen can outpunch a Krogan, so..."
Tali backed away, afraid. She had seen what an angry Krogan could do. The memory of a Batarian's brains splattered on a wall was not a pleasant one, and the thought of that happening to her...
"Smart girl." Hein smiled and beckoned her to come closer.
"Colonel Hein, what are you doing?" Tali asked, almost accusingly as she saw the data streams. Try as she might, she couldn't decipher it mentally: the symbols used were so... alien.
"Please, let's not stand on formality. After all, I've seen you naked."
"Yes..." Tali gritted her teeth, annoyed. "You did. Mister Hein..."
"Call me Edgar! Or Ed!" Hein smiled. "As for what I'm doing, I'm taking a sneak peak at Jensen's dreams while the Dream Catcher compiles them into a real time audio video file."
"You can read this?"
"Oh, I can make out a few things here and there." He pointed at the screen. "Here we have a Brunette... and here we have glass, and here we have horrible physical pain... Here we have fire... Oh, let me take compile a short preview vid for you."
With a few keystrokes, Hein conjured up a short, one second video of a harsh looking human with a black shirt and red arms aiming a gun at the 'camera'. He fired it, and the video looped, over and over again.
"Ouch," quipped Hein, "that will wake you in the morning... Or, um, put you to sleep for good."
"Why are you doing this? Why are you forcing him to sit through this nightmare?"
"Hey now! The Dream Catcher isn't influencing his dreams at all! it's simply recording them. This nightmare is of his own making. Don't worry so much! After all he's only got two more hours of this to go bef-"
The holographic screen went from standard red-orange to yellow-green, and a mess of even more complex data surged out of the screen.
"Ah, there you are again you little bastard!" Hein put his legs down and began to type commands in furiously at speeds Tali could only envy. Humans certainly could make full use of all five of their fingers, especially when keyboards were involved.
Hein continued to work like this for ten whole minutes. Tali politely cleared her throat, trying to get his attention, but the man was completely focused. Just as she was about to leave, Hein began to relax back into the chair.
"There, done. Where was I? Ah yes, in answer to your question, I'm putting Jensen through the Dream Catcher because, well, quite frankly, he stole something from me, and now I'm getting it back."
"What did he steal from you?"
"The contents of a Prothean Beacon." Hein disconnected a data drive from Dr Ross' computer and opened it, revealing a hexagonal chip. "Do you remember this?"
"That's the chip you wanted me to have a look at. I'm sorry I couldn't fix it."
"Oh, don't you worry about that. The thing about this chip is that it served as a backup memory device for none other than Lieutenant Commander Shepard, who-"
"-came in contact with a Beacon on Eden Prime. I know."
"Exactly. But instead of getting a bad case of Beacon Contact Syndrome, Shepard managed to mentally shunt the unimaginable amount of data into this chip. Sadly, it nearly completely erased the memories backed up into it, and the Prothean data was completely scrambled. Jensen, in a misguided attempt to find and apprehend Shepard's killer, snuck onboard Durendal and interfaced with the chip, and the contents were uploaded directly into his brain."
"Does that mean he's going to go insane?"
"Oh, no no no! I mean, I thought so too at first, and I managed to rope him into sleeping here to pull out as much as the data as possible before he went completely bonkers. But here's the thing, despite a few... lingering issues here and there, Jensen isn't even at Stage 1 of BCS. In fact, his brain seems to be perfectly stable despite having soaked in an entire Prothean library.
Tali was shocked: any spacefaring race knew the dangers of interfacing with a Prothean beacon too long. "How is that possible?"
"I have no idea! Maybe his brain implants are keeping him stable? Maybe he's some kind of genius? Or maybe he's really secretly the last of the Protheans?" Hein snickered.
"Leave them alone..." Jensen muttered. "It's me you want..."
"Can't you make the process less... painful for him?" asked Tali. "Please, there's no way you can pull everything you want in just one session anyways. Hasn't he had enough for tonight?"
"He wouldn't be in this thing if he hadn't foolishly plugged into hardware with no real idea with what was inside. If anything, he's practically punishing himself."
Jensen groaned, mournfully. "I'm sorry..."
"See? He's sorry! Who am I to stop his own self-flagellation?"
"Fahl... I'm so sorry..."
Tali pleaded with her eyes, and Hein folded. "Gah! Just, argh! Enough with the you-kicked-my-puppy eyes! I can stimulate the areas of his brain where the pleasant memories lie. He should start dreaming about that instead." Hein typed a few commands in the computer as he sulked. "There we go, we just have to wait while the DC scans Jensen's mind and, hm, there's something promising here."
Two images appeared on the console. One was that of a sky colored Asari woman with the most beautiful blue in blue eyes Tali had ever seen. Glossy black, mechanical hands cradled her face and wiped a tear of joy away. Another image showed a little human girl with silver hair, laughing as she was held up high by Jensen.
"Memories of happier days gone by, earned in blood," commented Hein mysteriously, "and drowned in flames. Let's stimulate that bit and... There. Instant sweet dreams."
Jensen's groaning, tossing and turning stopped. Tali breathed a sigh of relief.
"So, how do you feel about our mysterious passenger?" Hein asked. "I'm curious, since you spent at least ten whole minutes just staring at him after you woke up."
"You - you saw that?"
"I see everything."
"Why do you care what I think about him?" Tali said, shaking her head.
"Well, he'll no doubt need your expert hands again in the future, and I just want to make sure you don't suddenly go 'kill all the robots'. You know, because of that whole Geth/Quarian thing a few centuries back?"
"I... I don't know how to feel about him. He saved me from Saren's clutches, but I don't know if I can respect the kind of man willing to sacrifice his own flesh for the sake of power. I mean, look at him! At which point did he decide that enough was enough? Did he decide at all? What is he willing to do to get more?"
Hein took a deep, patient breath, and sighed it out like a disappointed parent. "I know... exactly, what you mean. Zorah. But you don't need to worry about that with him: according to my research, Jensen's extensive augmentations were not of his choosing." Hein pulled a green book out of his coat, with the words 'Project Galahad' written on it with a black marker. "It's all here, but let me sum it up for you: bad shit happened, he was torn up, and his boss decided to cram every piece of cutting edge technology at his disposal to turn him into his own personal attack dog."
"...What kind of sick monster would do that to someone?"
"Someone that wanted answers? Justice? Revenge? Doesn't matter. But I believe that David Sarif, the man that did this, understood a simple truth: Those that crave power cannot hope to control it. They inevitably become consumed by a thirst for more. This is the great irony of the human - no, the sentient condition. The only people you can trust with power... are those that do not want it. Those that never ask for it. Sarif saw that in Jensen, saw in him the perfect agent, one that could use the strength and abilities granted to him with both restraint and wisdom."
"What if you're wrong? What if this Sarif just wanted a killing machine, and that's exactly what he got?"
"Am I now? Let's be honest here: anyone this heavily augmented would thrive as a warlord in the Terminus, where might makes right. Jensen? He tried his hands at being a farmer on Elysium. While many ran and cowered in their bunkers during the Blitz, Jensen took up arms to defend a people that did nothing but view him with suspicion and scorn. Over ten thousand people owe him their lives, and while all of them proved grateful in the end, The Alliance decided that this would not do, and had their buddies in the Templars burn his home. He then spent the next six to seven years righting wrongs and capturing dangerous criminals, making the Citadel a safer place and earning the respect of his co-workers in C-Sec. His reward for that?" Hein rose from his seat, coming face to face with Tali. "The Alliance plots to capture him and sell him out to the Order for making vanilla humans look bad. His reward for saving the life of a Quarian Pilgrim, exposing a corrupt Spectre in the process? The Council doesn't even give him so much as a pat on the head, and the pilgrim can't get past his mechanical parts and views him with suspicion and fear."
Tali found herself staring at her feet, and Hein raised her chin with his finger, then put his hands on her shoulders, staring into her eyes. "And you know what else? You could spit on his face and curse his name, and he'd still come to your help. That's pretty much how Brea treated him, and look at what he did: He killed twelve heavily armed men to save her life! What does his actions say about him, hm? I dare say it vindicates my estimation of him. And that's why I'm giving him the 108. I'm going to turn Jensen into the most powerful human being in the Galaxy. I'm going to make the rest of mankind turn green with envy and stew in their jealousy as Jensen comes to their rescue, again and again and again, and go mad when he fails to turn into the monster they all expect him to be."
"Rescue humanity? You mean from Saren?"
"Saren?!" Hein cackled. "Yes, Saren, of course... Him and-" Hein pulled Tali close and whispered in her ear. "-the monsters that hide under your bed, and sleep in the dark."
~[h+]~
CODEX ENTRY: EARTH: PLANETARY NETWORKS: OZ
OZ is the primary (indeed, the only) planetary network service provider on planet Earth. During the decades of reconstruction after the dark times brought upon by the Collapse, one of the main priorities in rebuilding earth's civilizations was the reestablishment of telecommunications, particularly the global network called the 'Internet'. While each country was having moderate success in restoring it, it was the World Trade Organization that stepped in and coordinated all these efforts, uniting hundreds of disparate national electronic networks into a single entity. Through clever deals and the occasional buy outs, the WTO effectively took control of nearly all telecommunications on Earth, and has been criticized by various extranet hacker groups for its monopoly.
Accessing OZ is a lot like playing a simple massive-multiplayer computer game with an easy-to-use social networking system. A user controls an avatar within a virtual city made up of shops, malls and restaurants which serve as representatives of real, actual brands. Government agencies also maintain virtual offices in OZ, and a user can pay his or her taxes or file documents through them.
Seventy-five percent of the content on OZ can be viewed on a free account from any terminal or computer in the world. In order to access the other twenty-five percent (such as games, movies and music), the user must pay with OZ's own digital currency (the OZ point) and must have a valid embedded RFID chip for adult content. Submitting user-created content requires a Silver Premium account and the submission process can take days while it is inspected for malware. A Gold Premium user can have his content up live within hours.
~[h+]~
Author's notes: Again, apologies to biologists if I got anything wrong. Fyodor's art style is reminiscent of Yoshitaka Amano and Akihiko Yoshida's. OZ is basically facebook/google combined with a free to play mmo, reigning supreme over the internet.
I illustrated the Shinkawa 108 power suit and posted the image on my deviantArt gallery. Look up my author's name on DevArt if you wanna check it out.
Special thanks to Setokaiva for spellchecking this chapter.