I ache, pretty much all over in fact, and I'm getting seriously hungry. I need to feed, to hunt. It was 3 hours before I even laid a glove on Furti, and all the bitch did was give me an evil grin then take it up a level. It took me another 40 minutes to get my next touch. Each spar, Furti kicked, punched and beat the shit out of me but I kept going, my regeneration keeping me upright most of the time. It's a crash course in close quarters combat on a level I never dreamed existed but being forced to fight at a speed well beyond human levels to try and keep up with the commando breaking your body is definitely one way of learning, just not one I would recommend. I don't really get a choice as Aria is giving the orders at the moment. On our last short break about 90 minutes ago I drained the last of my suit's blood reserves, which had kept me going after I had finished my blood packs earlier but now my hunger is well and truly up.
"Right Stern, that's enough sparring for today". Hoo fucking ray. I'm saved. "Get showered and changed into your suit inner then we'll test your UV reaction." Ah, I take that back.
I limp out of the ring and back to the changing lockers, following the much more mobile Furti, then strip and spend 10 minutes under a hot shower, feeling my body recovering from my last beating. With a groan I crack my spine and stretch then pull on the suit inner, then wander out to find the commando. Spotting her at an armoury bench I walk over.
"How're we doing this Furti?"
"I have a basic torch set up with a UV emitter. I can dial the UV exposure down to about a tenth of Sol's UV level and up to double of Illium's so I'd suggest we just do a patch test on an arm."
"A patch test?"
"Yeah you roll up your sleeve and we expose a small section of skin to the UV on lowest level and then crank it up slowly."
"…" That sounds really…scientific.
"You wanted discretion remember, we could discuss it with Dr T'Vanna?" Oh hell no.
"No this will work."
"Good. Do you have a dominant arm?"
"Don't really know, probably my right I guess."
"Ok, then we use your left, just in case." Funny.
I roll my left sleeve up and after Furti checks the UV source is on its lowest level she moves the 2 inch torch beam over the inside of my fore arm. At first it's okay then after roughly a couple of minutes my skin begins to tingle, then redden. After 5 minutes the patch looks like I have mild sunburn, and it's feeling sore, hot, itchy, sunburnt. Another 5 minutes and my skin is heavily sunburnt and blistering, and it's fucking painful. I wave Furti away with a hiss of pain, and grit my teeth at the burning circle on my arm. 10 minutes total and the patch is well past boiled lobster stage, angrily red and burnt. Well that's just fucking wonderful, that was on a tenth of Sol's UV. I'm bitching at fate mentally when Furti drags my attention back to painful arm, less painful actually. It's healing. I watch as the blisters heal, the cracked angry skin smoothing out and healing, the deep lobster redness fading. 30 seconds later and the pain is gone and I'm back to itchiness, and seconds more and my pale skin is back whole and normal.
"So we know UV has an effect, do you want to try a stronger dose?"
Not really but as I do seem to heal, this probably comes under the heading of things I should know. I nod my assent and Furti adjusts the torch.
"Okay Stern this is Sol equivalent. Still good?"
I grunt a yes and then grit my teeth as the UV beam is drawn across my left arm again. This time the reaction is much more painful and in a minute my flesh has returned to heavily blistered and burnt and I hiss in relief as the pain begins to fade again as I wave the beam away. I watch grimly as the flesh heals again before my eyes.
"Again?" I shake my head at that brilliant idea. Fuck that.
"No. I've found out what I need Furti."
"And what was that Stern?"
"UV is painful but not going to kill me immediately, and I heal from it."
"You were concerned about that being a possibility?"
"Yes…no…no idea really. The legends about vampires on Sol are varied. Most describe sunlight as deadly to vampires, they just differ on the amount of exposure. Some old vids showed vampires bursting into flame and combusting in seconds after being caught in daylight so I guess I'm relieved that's not the case. Now what?"
"You not had enough for today?" Furti grins nastily at me in anticipation and I hurriedly confirm that I have had enough crap kicked out of me for just now. Furti looks mildly amused and waves my protesting away.
"We're done for now Stern. It's now 8:07 local time so I expect you back here by 2pm tomorrow. You've done well this afternoon, better than I expected so we'll crank it up tomorrow. Get dressed then go find a meal."
I guess Furti doesn't need to be particularly perceptive to know I'm going to feed, throughout the evening my vampire has risen closer to the surface, she had seen me drain the last of the suit's reserve and by the end of the session with the addition of the UV tests I'm not quite feral.
"What is there around here?"
"The usual drinking and drug dens plus a dozen gang dens, this is a port anything and everything goes on. When you go hunt use the gear in the last locker, your Colossus suit sticks out too much here. Just remember not to hit on the Eclipse."
That's a problem I hadn't even considered which could have been a big issue, and Furti has just solved it for me.
"Thanks Furti, much appreciated. I hadn't thought that far ahead." I admit gratefully.
"300 years of military experience Stern – I plan ahead. I've sent you the access code so you can return here for your suit, and I will look into getting some more blood packs for you, for now just go and get fed."
With that the Asari throws me a lazy wave and heads off, I swear she isn't even sweating. I head over to the locker she pointed out. In it I find a battered set of non-descript form basic dark brown combat leathers, boots and harness rig, along with a basic omnitool. Pulling them I note that Furti really does plan ahead they fit almost perfectly over my suit inner, and the harness rig includes a shield module – nowhere near cutting edge but hopefully good enough for tonight. I clamp the AR on my back and the Brawler is extended ready to go in the shoulder rig. Furti shouts a good bye as she leaves while I finish sorting myself out as I examine the omnitool.
"Lexi are you able to transfer your functions from the suit to this omnitool?"
"Sorry Stern, it's specification is well below what I would need. The best I can do is stay in contact via data link."
"That's okay I guessed as much. Find me some detailed maps of the area and keep the usual eye on comms traffic please, I'll be back in a few hours." Dammit, can't say I'm keen on not having Lexi watching over me but I don't have a choice – I need to feed.
An easy 15 minutes casual walk towards the river and I'm amongst the area's nightlife. It's kind of what I imagined a 19th century earth port would have been like, with technology added. This is part of Illium the Asari don't boast about. Buildings, dirty streets, loud lighting and louder music fill the night at street level, with the stench of a multitude of aliens, food, alcohol, and drugs laying over blood, sweat and shit. My enhanced senses are going to overload if I spend too long here, and the scents of prey everywhere is bringing my hunger forward more and more. I pause at a street corner to take a moment to fight the hunger down again while I look around. Local workers, getting wasted after a hard day, mixing amongst crews from ships docked at the river port, watched by the local criminals and gang bangers picking their next marks, with dealers, pimps and whores doing the rounds. The only semblance of any control here is provided by the yellow and black of Eclipse guards rather than lllium law enforcement, there's plenty of weaponry evident around but little that is really up to military grades. Thinking about it, it's a lot like a nicer version of Omega, so I guess my appearance in battered combat leathers and being obviously armed should work okay. Drifting amongst the wandering masses are more than a few mercs as well, standing out due to better armor and weaponry, the space the local thugs give them, and the closer watch paid by Eclipse.
I lean against the wall of a shop that's closed for the night and bring up the map Lexi transmitted on the borrowed omnitool, I need somewhere to hunt and quickly. This area is a warren of little lanes and alleys off the main street, and the map is marked with a profusion of all day food, shopping, bars, clubs, brothels and cheap hotels. Somehow or other Lexi has even marked on the few Eclipse check points and known gang haunts- the VI has been digging into the local net. Orientating myself I pick a more isolated destination and head quietly through the crowded street to get away from the main bulk of people and noise, paying attention to the streets and buildings, looking for a suitable ambush point.
After 5 minutes walking along I realise I've picked up a tail or tails from an overheard comment about fucking stupid human bitches walking alone. A glance around as I check out the wall menu of a rough looking almost deserted diner confirms my guess from the voice. What is it about Batarians? Are they just racially obsessed with human women? A race of oversexed bigots? We're nowhere near Batarian space, on an Asari world, not even in the area known locally as Khar'shan Minor, and still a trio of Batarians – basically armed dock thugs not even proper criminals, slavers or mercs want to jump me and get their bones off. Oh well it looks like I have take out being delivered, now I just need somewhere for delivery to be arranged. I take a moment to zoom in the map and check out the local alleys…perfect that will do nicely. I throw another quick glance at the trio, roughly 20m away, then turn and walk slightly quicker, let them think I've seen them and I'm trying to get away without being obvious. A guttural chuckle from behind me makes me think I gave exactly the right impression. Come into my web said the spider to the fly.
A couple more minutes sees me almost at my chosen alleyway. I turn left into it and as soon as I'm out of sight I run forwards to the jink in the alley that will take me out of sight of the main street as I deal with my dining. Behind the jink is the rear of some business brightly lit by harsh arc lighting casting deep shadows from the firm's trio of large waste dumpers. The dumpers are an obvious ambush point, but there isn't any other choice of spot. As I hear the Batarians rapidly approaching I slip into position crouched behind the 2nd dumper, draw my Brawler and click off the safety, and ready my biotics. The trio of thugs charge round the jink and skid and I hear them skid to a halt at the sight of the bins, followed by seconds of cursing before the sound of a weapon being readied.
"Best you come out now Human, the longer you make me chase you, the harder this is going to go."
I don't bother replying, just listen as my meals dart around the first dumper bin, then swing out from my spot sending a wave of biotic energy to launch the trio into the side of the metal dumper bin. I hadn't realised how much being beaten up by an Asari commando makes everything else seem slow by comparison, although that could just by my particular tormentor, but my trio of meals move with glacial slowness. The leading Batarian with the pistol ends up landing on his mates and is just stunned rather than knocked silly but it doesn't do him any good. I smack him just above that god ugly nostril thing right between both pairs of eyes and he's out cold. Guess they're not so tough without armor, or if you punch them with considerably more than Human power. Checking the other two, one is out cold from smacking metal face first, the other is just beginning to come around so I do the same to him as well. 3 Batarians down, pretty quietly as well, and I can't wait any longer. I lunge for the one that doesn't have my fist imprinted in his face, fangs extended, twist his head away and savagely bite into his neck. The shock and pain actually wakes him but he's already too late. I groan in delight as I feed, barely holding off the urge to rip his throat out down and instead clamp a vice like hand over his mouth as he vainly tries to struggle as I drink him dry. Oh gods it's good to get fresh blood, hot, pulsing life energy, filling me, his pulse is getting thready now. It's not as good as Asari blood but Batarians have more life energy than Humans for sure.
I let the corpse drop, that was a messy feed, I have orange blood down my front, and his neck is ravaged. I feel…not sated but getting there, the urgency has faded. I need more food but instinct won't drive the next one. I very briefly consider that this will actually be my first meal that is a fully conscious decision. Strength and energy surges through me from the fresh life and I take my second meal, calmly now, neatly, a clean incision rather than gaping wound. A second surge of life, and I drink but not draining the body dry. I realise that I have started lapping the small wound, and don't know why. Another instinct? The small wounds heal under my attention in seconds. Ohhhh. Useful. The Batarian is alive, comatose, with no evidence of my feeding left. I correct the one problem with that by snapping his neck with a quick wrench. I feel great and I even have a 3rd course left. I'm certainly not going to let the fucker go. 3 minutes later and I feel full, replete and I have 3 bodies to dispose of. I debate throwing the bodies in the dumper and setting them alight, but I don't want to burn the neighbourhood down. Instead I'll just burn my messy meal and vacate the area quickly, I've been here too long as it is. Looking down my front I still have a stream of orange blood down my leathers, stupid I should have taken my top off first. I rip a couple of clean strips of cloth from the body I'm going to torch's top and wipe my face and leathers down. A quick toggle of a mirror function on the omnitool shows I'm clean enough to leg it. Then I flick through its functions looking for incinerate. Nothing. Basic piece of crap.
"Lexi, transfer the incinerate program to this tool please."
"Transferring Nat. 18 seconds…."
"Thanks Lexi." Surprising how long that is when you're just waiting for someone to wander along and find you.
"Complete Nat." And nobody walked around the corner yet. Thank fuck.
"Thanks Lexi."
I toggle incinerate on the omnitool, adjust it for a maximum intensity burn and then let loose on my first meal's torso and head from the far side of the alley. The last time I did this the slavers were armored, and the incinerate did a thorough job of burning the evidence. Against an unarmored body? It's evil. A 45000 degree plasma stream takes literally seconds to consume everything from the Batarian's waist up, before the burn stops. Time to go. Vampire physique don't fail me now. I hop up onto the 3rd dumper bin a few metres further down the alley, press myself against wall then launch myself up and forwards, and wall jump off the opposite side of the alley up to buildings 2nd storey flat roof and pull myself up and over the lip. That was…actually really damn easy! I take off at a quick run after a quick look around, heading deeper into the more deserted area of town first before I will loop around and head back towards my training base.
It takes me all of a rough half hour to work my way back to Furti's facility, there's nobody around in as I let myself in, saying a quiet word of thanks that Furti has indeed keyed me into the building's security correctly. A quick change into the armor, and I spend a couple of minutes cleaning up any last bloody residue on the borrowed leathers before heading for the exit. A quick walk away from the building and I call an air cab.
It's a little after 10:30 when I get to the apartment, there's no sign of Furti inside, but she's been back, there's a cool box in my room with 8 blood packs in it, and a note saying she will see me tomorrow. Time to crash for the night, I don't feel physically tired anymore after my feed, and the Hunger is completely gone, but mentally I'm frazzled, it's been a hell of a day. Nine more to go until we are expected to leave.
ANLWAB
2 days later after another practice session with the good Doctor, I got to the training base where Furti introduced me to my 2 other trainers a pair of Turians wearing heavily customised medium and heavy armor, and each carrying a small arsenal, with facial markings in dark blue and grey.
"Stern, meet Balicus your Combat Ops Instructor, and Edistur, your Weapons and Demo Instructor."
"A Human T'Morra? Why in Palaven's name do you expect me to teach a Human to shoot?" Edistur, the larger of the pair, growled out while Balicus just looks at me blankly after I remove my helm.
Oh wonderful, they're obviously thrilled I'm here, I can just feel the love. Not terribly surprising though I know a lot of Turians still loathe Humans after our First Contact 'incident'. Furti glared at him.
"Firstly you both owe me, second I'm paying. Thirdly, since when did you care who you trained by Athame's tits?"
It was like they flicked a switch, the Turians looked at each other, blatantly shrugged and then Edistur waved me across to a firing range.
"Let's see what you got Stern."
ANLWAB
For the next 7 days the trio put me through the grinder for 8 – 10 hours each afternoon and evening as Furti was determined to make the most of the time we had. All 3 would teach me CQC, and while Furti was still beating the shit out of me regularly, the Turians rapidly learned that while they had technique and the infamous Turian reach and flexibility, I had them beat to shit in terms of strength, endurance and raw hitting power. I quickly earned their respect that I could at least keep up with them physically.
I got taught to shoot properly, and while I'm no Garrus Vakarian I can now use a Sniper competently, and an AR is no longer merely for spray and pray. I still have a lot of practicing to do, but I have the advantages of enhanced reactions and senses to help compensate for my lack of experience and my gunnery has been pronounced as competent.
Edistur had also been quite taken with my use of a mass effect cell as an IED, and had spent quite a bit of time on the tactics and uses of modern explosives, as well as what else could be made to go 'bang' and I rather enjoyed that part of our course.
The majority of our time was spent on small unit tactics, the differences in fighting with and without armor, communications, combat engineering, the difference in how the elite of various species fought, the use of biotics and a dozen other topics. It was extremely intense, compressed and exhausting, and I still have an immense amount to learn but I no longer feel completely out of my element, and with my advantages feel like I could genuinely hold my own, not against the very best but your general soldier should now be survivable. Theoretically.
On the morning of our 10th day on Illium I finished my contracted guinea pig hours for T'Vanna and got paid. 600000 credits and 2 absolute cutting edge biotic amps for Asari. The results of my work with T'Vanna were a bit mixed. T'Vanna had excitedly confirmed that so far my improvement in biotic efficiency is still progressing in a linear fashion, and compared to my initial testing my power output is up over 54%, as my body has continued to optimise the pathways a biotic impulse travels as I perform a technique. This means my Warps, Pulls, Throws and Shields and Singularities are now a damn site more effective. Her comparisons have convinced T'Vanna that the physical optimisation for the individual techniques is well on the way to being completed, and I'm now wasting far less biotic power in the techniques I know. Her theory is that once the optimisation is complete I may begin to see improvements in my stamina, but she was more than a little peeved that I wouldn't extend the stay on Illium longer so she can watch the optimisation process complete and see what happens next. It took a reminder that it was my sponsor setting the schedule to get her to let it go. She also asked me to consider returning to Illium annually to see how I'm developing. I told her I'd think about it but nope can't see that happening.
The downside of the work at the Kynthiari facility is that I have thus far showed no development of other techniques, but as T'Vanna kept pointing out this meant nothing as developing the visualisations necessary can take years and decades for Asari, and even though I am doing something different she never expected me to achieve another technique while I was there. We did look at a while variety of information on various techniques, and I have no doubt Lexi has been pilfering every scrap of data it can.
With the credits added to my secure stick and the amps secured in a small armored case I catch an aircab towards my last session. We are mid flight when Lexi's voice interrupts my gazing out the window.
"Nat I have received a priority marked transmission for you from Mordin Solus."
"Play it." The video message plays on my helmet HUD.
"Stern, hope you receive this message soon. Serah abducted on her way home from work."