Chapter 6: Profile
Aboard the Normandy
Yang
Shepard and some of her crew went one way while Yang was directed to follow Liara towards the med bay. She did complain about not needing to be checked up since she felt fine, but Shepard insisted. Yang was on her ship and would continue to follow orders, and after surviving a direct blast from a Geth Armature Shepard wanted to know if there was any unseen damage. So Yang reluctantly followed Liara down to the med bay getting strange looks from many other members of the crew. Her long golden locks were wild and obviously not to military standards from what she'd seen.
"I'll come back after our debriefing. My quarters are back there if Doctor Chakwas is finished with you before I return," Liara pointed out, leaving Yang to attend to her own duties.
"You must be the one Lieutenant Maulden was going on about. Come in, dear, Shepard said she needs you checked out." This woman of greater years than Yang, waited patiently for the blonde to move. Her eyes were focused on the damaged heavy armour Yang wore and yet again had her hair short, and grey.
"He's an ass, I can't imagine he had anything nice to say," Yang responded, moving closer. Getting checked up on wasn't anything new for her, General Ironwood had her entire team checked over when they first arrived.
"He's been through a lot. Perhaps over time you'll learn about his accomplishments. I'm Doctor Chakwas by the way, and you are?" The doctor stood near some form of terminal and as Yang gave her full name the doctor input the information.
"You won't find anything. I'm not from around these parts," Yang told her with a smile.
Yang went on to explain where she came from, her family and some small parts about herself. This Doctor Chakwas had a lot of questions like Liara. No wonder Liara lives in the back room. These two must get along like Ruby and weapons. It was a happy thought, though one she didn't dwell on for long.
"I'll need you to strip down for me, Yang. Then lie down on one of those tables so the machines can do their work," Chakwas instructed.
"How far down?"
"You can keep your underwear on if you like. But this is strictly doctor patient confidentiality. The door will be sealed and cameras disabled. Common…"
"... requests made by medical staff. I get it." Yang rolled her eyes and began to take the armour off first. She got the doctor to help her out and before long was standing in nothing but her undergarments.
"Oh my word, look at that piece," Chakwas said and moved it towards Yang's right arm. "All the way up past your elbow, what a shame someone so young had to lose a limb." She lifted the prosthetic painted in yellow, black, and purple to have a closer look. Yang allowed the doctor to look, wondering if it was really that impressive since these people already had access to space flight and no one of Remnant to her knowledge had been to the stars before.
Yang's body was toned from the constant training and fighting against Salem's forces. Huntresses needed to be in peak condition to fight Grimm after all, but since the Fall, Yang had been focusing on human on human combat. Chakwas scanned Yang with her eyes, her fingertips covered with a glove traced over many of her scars. Bite and tear scars on her outer and rear left thigh, a stab wound near the same spot Blake had hers, but hers also had an exit wound on the small of her back. There was also some deep scarring on her left upper arm over her deltoid, a hard fought fight with The Hound left its mark. The Hound itself had taken more than herself to kill the beast, Nora, Ren, Weiss, and Ilia had all been there fighting with her.
"What have you been through yourself, dear? Your body looks like it's already been through some strenuous experiences. Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, all injuries were healed by my friend Jaune. He's actually come into his own lately," she said smiling, thankful Jaune was around after and during a lot of their battles.
"Not physically, are you alright mentally?" That question had Yang pondering for a moment, though she didn't get to answer, she couldn't answer as she was still processing a lot. She was alone in a place she knew little to nothing about, without friends or allies to support her and talk to about her worries. New species, planets, who was friend or foe, the warning she was given before being given this second chance. Doctor Chakwas directed Yang to lie on one of the medical tables. "Stay still now," she said as the machine started to move. The arm above with its lights and laser scanners began to move, travelling up and down Yang's body, left to right, mapping out what it found and sending the information to the doctor's terminal where she was looking over what appeared.
Sounds of deliberation in the form of hums and other curious noises popped up from time to time as Yang eventually shut her eyes as the laser started to scan over her head. Military spaceship, aliens, biotics. I'm going to need some books to read. Blake and Weiss would be so surprised to hear that. She began to smile until a beeping went off.
"Hold still Yang, you're going to feel a final prick. We just need a blood sample to test for other things that a simple scan cannot pick up." Yang growled at this and soon enough felt the prick in arm. It wasn't more than a few seconds before the needle was gone and something was put over the tiny hole.
"That will heal the prick within minutes and prevent any chance of infection." Chakwas said as she took the small vial of blood and started to distribute it into smaller testing vials.
Yang watched closely, still in nothing but her undergarments. She didn't trust this place, couldn't trust it. But she was wise enough to know not to rock the boat when she was in over her head with nowhere else to go and no one she could rely on. For now she could go along with Shepard and the crew of the Normandy as she learned the ship was called, at least until she decided to stay or found somewhere better to go. She knew no one, had no idea if she was working with good or bad people. But given what she'd seen Shepard go through, taking fire while ordering her team to disable the Thorian controlled colonists with gas instead of just shooting had her leaning towards thinking they were good..
The vials were put into yet another machine and sealed away. "The results will come out in a while. For now you should get dressed."
"Not back into that armour, or that jumpsuit. Have anything that will fit around here?" Yang asked as she got to her feet.
"The scans gave your measurements, someone should be stopping by with the request I sent to deliver a… I hope you don't mind wearing a military uniform. I'm afraid that's all we have." Chakwas smiled at her.
"What about my clothes?" Yang argued.
"Being sterilised and then cleaned. You can get them back once they're ready. But for now…" There was a knock on the door and the doctor got up. It was a quick exchange as the door opened up, a soldier standing with his back to the door and holding a pile of clothing behind him. Chakwas took them and thanked the soldier before the door closed and locked once more. "Here you are, feel free to put those on, undergarments included."
Yang narrowed her eyes at the doctor who chuckled and turned her back. Yang speed changed, swearing at the discomfort of the bra but was soon dressed in the Alliance blues. She looked herself over and sighed.
"This doesn't go well with my arm at all," she complained.
"Well, you can purchase yourself some other clothing once we dock next," Chakwas told her.
"I'd need money for that doctor. Hey, you guys all get paid right? Military service and what not, technically I'm a mercenary so…" Chakwas looked with a soft smile as she answered.
"You'd have to speak with the Commander about that, but given that you claim not to be of this galaxy, or at least from a part we haven't heard of, I expect she could at least provide some clothing."
Yang took a seat feeling a little less worried about her financial position, at least for now, and removed her prosthetic and began looking it over for any signs of damage. Thankfully it seemed to be in fine condition and fully capable and her inspection of her replacement limb was finished as the doors to the med bay opened. She looked up from her seat and stood along with Doctor Chakwas who approached the pair of Liara and Shepard. Liara looks tired, why so suddenly?
"Commander. You'll be glad to hear that the medical check up of Miss Yang Xiao Long has been completed. I'm just going through all the results now and checking for any and all abnormalities." Chakwas sounded rather formal, not what Yang was used to from the doctor with her limited experience.
"Thank you Dr Chakwas, I've many questions to…" Shepard trailed off as she was drawn to Yang's form, more so the now lack of her right arm. "Did she…"
"No," Yang interrupted. "I lost it on Remnant. I caught you looking at my hand earlier, now you know it was more than just my hand, happy?"
Liara too had begun to look at the lack of an arm, something that was a little off putting to Yang. Surely they must have seen more, Shepard is a soldier and Liara is… over a hundred years old. Yang still wasn't sure if she should believe that, but she only knew about humans and Faunus. Recalling Liara telling her that she was actually a scientist that had grown accustomed to handling herself since she was on her own, surely she too would have seen missing limbs either by her own hand or during her already long lifespan.
"Give it to me doc, what's her file going to read once I send it through to the Alliance?" Shepard asked as Liara stepped forward.
Her blue fingers moved towards the stump as her similarly blue eyes found Yang's lilac. Giving Liara permission with a nod, the Asari touched her right arm. Pushing the rolled up sleeve up further she'd be able to see the connection point for Yang's prosthetic. She didn't say a word as she inspected it, but the room was filled with the doctor's voice.
"Yang Xiao Long. Human age of nineteen. Parents of Taiyang Xiao Long and Summer Rose, both licensed hunters. Sister by the name of Ruby Rose, uncle by the name of Qrow Branwen." There was a pause where Chakwas and Yang shared a look. "Biological mother by the name of Raven Branwen. Studied at Signal Academy and then Beacon Academy. Homeworld is Remnant, location unknown. Served with the Atlas Military."
Shepard wasn't a fool, their glance hadn't gone unnoticed. "Sounds like there might be a story behind your little confused family. But that's not really a concern of mine. What is a concern however is your mental and physical wellbeing." She turned to and picked up the prosthetic at which point Yang stepped forwards.
"Hand it over." She and Shepard stared at one another for several moments as they gauged one another, before Shepard handed it over.
The reconnection was combined with a series of small clicks and thunks before Yang moved it like it was a natural thing, because it was to her, mostly. Shepard just turned to Chakwas again and asked for the medical diagnosis.
"Physically she is fit to go out into the field, even with the prosthetic. In fact she seems to be more durable than you or I."
"Durable, in what way?" Shepard asked.
"Take me on another mission and I can show you," Yang chimed in with a smile. Shepard remained unimpressed with Yang's bravado and turned back to Chakwas.
"From what I've seen, her body is in peak condition. But for whatever reason, be it evolution, alteration, enhancement, the scans show that her muscles don't need to be as large to output as much power. The same goes for her bones which…"
"Never broke a bone," Yang added.
"...yes, but as evidence, still susceptible to slashing weapons." Chakwas finished with a little reminder, one that Yang didn't appreciate.
"So you're saying that she, and possibly the others from Remnant have both better muscle and bone efficiency?" Shepard asked.
"Putting it simply, yes. However their people have evolved, whatever they've had to do to adapt as a people has changed their biology to be, in the physical sense, more effective than our own." Chakwas answered. Shepard turned her attention to Yang who put her weight back on one foot and crossed her arms.
"Mental state?" The commander inquired.
"Brain activity is normal. Though for a psychological check up you'll need to go elsewhere. I'm afraid I cannot give her the correct evaluation. I put people back together, just not upstairs." Chawks smiled and returned to her terminal while Shepard turned to Liara.
"Go and get some rest, Liara. I'll come speak with you later. Yang," her eyes flicked to the blonde, "follow me. I'll show you where you're bunking down."
"Yay, my own locker." Yang's exasperation was thick.
Shepard showed her to the crew quarters and told her to find an empty footlocker and claim a bed, her clothing would be delivered soon enough. So Yang did so, claiming both and getting onto the bed, top just like at Beacon and Atlas. Girls… where the hell am I? She fell asleep after pondering for some time, only waking up when someone wiggled her foot.
Food was being served and since Yang was in uniform, she was fetched. She took her meal and returned to what was going to be her room. Not knowing how long it would be was fine since she'd lived in a familiar space during her time in Atlas. Once she'd eaten and felt a bit better, she moved from the room where some were now mulling about and talking. Rumours of who she was floated about, but rumours were something Yang was familiar with. A bimbo, a rebel, how well she was in bed, not that anyone at Beacon knew.
She found herself looking at the elevator and the lack of options it provided. Guess I'll explore the ship. Not like there's anything I can hit in here. And so she took the short ride down, the doors hissing slightly before she saw into the cargo hold. The mako she quickly recognised, along with Garrus who was standing there working on something. Then there appeared to be another soldier to the far right. But what really made her gawk was the massive, hulking figure of a creature she'd never seen before.
It was clad in maroon or burgundy armour, bulky and far heavier looking than the armour she had found herself in that very day, or did she sleep through the night? She approached the creature, her eyes flicking from one part of it to another. Its wide set eyes that she could make out had narrow pupils, this one had red eyes as she found out when it looked right at her. She didn't flinch or step back, but continued forwards, slowly.
It had this armoured like plate on the top of its head too, scars running across it with one appearing quite deep. It regarded her in return, eyes snapping to the prosthetic as Yang was almost used to happening by now. As it waved she noticed that it too, like Garrus only had three digits. She stopped and looked up at it, craning her head back a little. Oum that's a big one. "Like an ursa," she accidentally voiced.
"Hmmm, what's an ursa?" The creature asked, its gruff voice sending a chill through Yang for a moment.
"Ah… monster, creature of Grimm. Big hulking bear-like creature from where I'm from." The creature scoffed at that.
"I'm no bear, bears have nothing on a Krogan." Yang tried to think back to when Liara was telling her about the species in this galaxy, or under the Citadel's baner anyway. "You must be that strange human Maulden was barking about. Can't say I'm impressed, Shepard has a habit of bringing in strays."
"Yang, name's Yang," she said happily, her mood having shifted from protective and unsure to excited and curious with this new creature that called himself a Krogan.
"Wrex," is all he said. Yang waited, expecting him to say something more.
"Nice to meet you." She extended her left hand and waited. Wrex smiled down at her, his wide mouth showing a lot of teeth. He took her hand and shook it tightly. Yang tried to give a squeeze in return but her hand was simply too small.
"Didn't flinch? Surprising." He sounded almost impressed at that.
"Flinch? You didn't squeeze that hard, I barely noticed it," she lied. It was more about the consuming nature of the handshake she was focused on, not the force of which he applied. "So ah, what do you do?" She watched his move off her to look past her before refocusing.
"Fight, kill things, repeat." Wrex's answer wasn't exactly informative to her so she tried something else.
"Ok, what about you? What is a Krogan, how strong and fast are you?"
"Go look at that stuff on the extranet." He waved a hand at her dismissively. "I have no time to educate you."
"Not very friendly are you." He stared at her until Yang sighed and moved away.
Wrex, Krogans, extranet. Looks like I've got some more homework to do. A thought that used to annoy her to a great extent. She enjoyed fighting, pitting herself against other able bodies or destroying the creatures of Grimm. But here in this galaxy, Yang wasn't sure about a lot of things. She had more questions and no answers, almost nothing to her name, no one she could truly trust, and nowhere to go if she was on her own.
Pulling out her scroll Yang checked to see if anything had changed since arriving on Feros. Nora, Ren, and Winter had no signal by their names and their aura level was zeroed because of this reason. Pocketing it again she walked on a slight decline she heard a humming sound that faded before hearing it start again several seconds later and vanish. This noise continued to repeat itself as she made her way into a large room with a massive open space.
"Wow." She voiced as she saw a tangle of lights that was emitting a blue tint of light in an area around its centre. She couldn't see much but with the people monitoring it she figured it was important. Weiss would love this, Penny would have, too. The humming was ever constant, but as she admired what she knew was some sort of core, the humming might as well not have existed.
"Admiring the ship?" Amale's voice came from in front of her and just to her right. She looked at him and nodded. "Cutting edge technology, one hell of a ship. Though if I might say, that arm looks pretty fine itself. Which company made that for you?"
"Not a company, a man. Pietro," Yang answered and moved her prosthetic hand before her face. "Are replacement limbs not as common here?"
"Cybernetics isn't my area of expertise, but off the top of my head I'd say you're the only one with a piece of hardware like that. Lieutenant Adams, Chief Engineer here on the Normandy."
"Yang Xiao Long, Huntress," she responded happily. He asked what a Huntress was like Liara and Shepard had so Yang explained it, again. The look he gave her was a puzzled one mixed with doubt, something Yang had encountered with most of what she'd said to people of this galaxy. Still, he seemed welcoming enough and just told her not to touch any of the terminals.
There was apparently nothing else here save for what Adams shared was the drive core of the Normandy. A prototype that was supposed to be the most advanced stealth system in Citadel space. A marvel of technology that was well over Yang's level of knowledge for sure, but something she could understand in simple terms.
She was about to leave when someone else caught her eye, though she couldn't see this person's eyes as they were hidden behind a visor of some kind. They turned away quickly and Yang smirked, another crew member that was curious about her, an outsider from nowhere anyone had knowledge of. But as she turned away again, she had to double take. This wasn't a human that had been looking at her.
Taking a few steps towards this alien, Yang could make out a couple of physical differences. Three digits on its hands, like Garrus and that Wrex, then there were the lower legs that were bowed backwards significantly compared to Yan'g own and other humans. She wondered if it added to her stability but would have to ask later. "Excuse me," she said politely and the individual turned. Yang smiled and looked the person over, figuring it was a female because of the wider hips and breasts. "I'm new here. Name's Yang." She offered to shake the woman's hand with her prosthetic.
Tubes connecting to the lower part of her rather unique looking helmet disappeared into the hood of purple with a swirling pattern and around the back of her neck from what Yang could see. That same colour and pattern Yang realised was fitted in other places too. Her chest had a single curved band that looked to be locked in place by some sort of buckles, and the two others below that probably helped to keep it from falling. The other large portion of the material was around her hips and thighs, contrasting against the darker greys and almost midnight blues of her jumpsuit. But the individual eventually took her hand.
"Tali'Zorah, but just call me Tali." Her voice was strange, not staticy but a little mechanical. And a purple light lit up where a human's mouth would be behind the mask, then faded between words. Yang found this individual very interesting and was glad this alien was friendlier than the Krogan, or was it that she was just being too curious or indelicate that Wrex had refused to speak to her further. Still, Adams was friendly enough to speak with her and now this other alien seemed interested in her too. It was clear to Yang that this was a human ship, with a few different species onboard. Turian, Asari, Krogan… and whatever Tali is. She smiled, hoping to make another friend in this alien as she had done so with Liara.