2172 CE :: Eagle Nebula - Tasale - Illium
She took aim and fired. A smirk graced her lips as the claw found its mark, embedding itself into the wall. She gave it a terse tug and nodded to herself, satisfied with the results. Fastening the other end of the metal cord, she tested its tautness before hopping onto the wire skillfully. Three deep breaths and she began placing one foot in front of the other, just as she had practiced.
She reminded herself not to look down, though she knew that the five-storey drop would simply give her a fracture and medigel could fix that in an instant. But a dent in her Hahne-Kedar Shadow Works suit however… The midnight blue custom fabric armor had set her back more credits than she cared to admit, the repairs would undoubtedly cost more. She just wanted to make sure all damages were worthily sustained and not due the aftermath of her carelessness.
She wobbled and inwardly chastised herself for not paying attention. She was now in the middle of the chasm between the neutral territory and the Dark headquarters, literally walking the fine line between the two drastically different parts of the bustling hub.
On the left was part of the planet no one liked speaking of: the dark, gloomy, unlit streets of the Illium slum were not commonly known. The low-rise huts reminded her of the old India vids she borrowed from the library - cramped and overcrowded. Broken people wandered the roads, scrimping and gathering to feed families.
To her right was the tourist shot of Illium in every extranet site: the impeccable skyline of skyscrapers, carefully designed to create the impression of a large wave; the obedient lines of skycars dotting the horizon, passing in and out of buildings; the large, glaring screens displaying advertisements of all sorts.
For a moment, she wondered if all the electricity had been siphoned from the neutral zone to feed the Dark territory. If she was not so caught up in the moment, she would have appreciated the faint orange hue blanketing the busy city of Illium, both sides of it.
The momentary peacefulness only broken by the soft snores of the Underfae dobermans that laid fast asleep below her, blissfully unaware of their new visitor. An involuntary gulp escaped her lips, suddenly fearing for her life. Setting her sights on the building, she moved faster, determined to not be on the menu for tonight.
She breathed a sigh of relief as she felt the solid bannister beneath her feet. Leaping off the wire in one fluid motion, she tapped her Kuwashii visor twice, the blueprint of the compound appeared, the white lines overlaying the structure. Her eyes scanned for structural and technical weaknesses but found none. Good news for her escape route - the tightrope would be secure - but bad news for her since her lock-picking sorely needed working on.
As she jiggled the tumblers of the tinted glass door, she cursed the Dark fae's penchant for all things old-fashioned and gnarly. It was 2172 CE for crying out loud! A soft click and a softer gleeful cheer later, the handle was depressed and darkness greeted her.
A dim light surrounded her as her visor detected no light source when she closed the door behind her, shutting out the rest of the setting sun. She could hear the telltale whine of the LOKI droids patrolling downstairs. Moving quietly to the side of the door, she was about to check-in with her team.
"I see you're in," Staff Lieutenant Tamsin Sigrún immediately popped up, taking up half of the single-lens visor. She could not help but be surprised both visually and aurally by the blonde. "And I saw that flinch."
"It's a perfectly human reaction, LT," she countered. "Just be thankful my parasympathetic nervous system is still functional after all the training. I know many servicemen who are starting to develop a lack of response to th- Wait, were you tracking me?"
The blonde chuckled at the rebuttal from her apprentice, "Well, this is your final ICT mission, Lauren."
"So…?"
"So hell if I'm not going to sit back and watch you either kick ass or get your ass kicked. Look, I even brought popcorn!"
Lauren huffed in slight annoyance at her mentor as her fingers danced across her omnitool, closing the video link and retrieving the old data stored on their servers. She checked her pistol as the combined data and blueprint overlay displayed where she needed to go. What she was after was two floors down in a vault, and time was of the essence. Another deep breath for good luck before she got moving. The doors opened with a pneumatic hiss as a long hallway presented itself.
"Just keep that mic on mute unless you've got some advice to give," Lauren said as she heard the crunch of the mentioned popcorn.
"Yes, ma'am," her mentor teased, appearing on her visor a final time to throw up a mock salute before disappearing from her screen.
Rolling her eyes, Lauren padded softly across the catwalk, sticking to the shadows. The LOKI droids marched in twos while the FENRIS droids seemed to be allowed free reign of the place, zig-zagging their way through desks and shelves. She turned a corner to reveal a large, dimly lit room.
"Oh goddesses," she breathed.
Lauren made the mistake of glancing over the handrails, the sight both intrigued and horrified her. What she thought were workstations turned out to be bodies lain across steel slabs, pinned down with tubes and straps like a twisted collection of insects on display. Though light was sparse, the eerie green glow from the machines provided enough for her to notice that many more filled the room. Her curiosity was piqued.
"Lewis?" Tamsin's voice crackled over the communicator, clearly panicked at the sudden exclamation. "Lewis, sitrep."
"LOKI and FENRIS droids patrolling the area below the second-floor landing. There seems to be some sort of experiment going on in here, not sure if they are fae or human. I'm going to get a closer look."
"That's not part of your orders, Corporal. Your orders are to penetrate and retrieve."
Lauren hated this side of her mentor. On good days, the older blonde allowed her the freedom to explore and investigate, treating her no different than her other fae buddies. But on days like these, she fluctuated between being friends and colleagues so fast, she was getting whiplash. But today was the last official test of her life before she could join up with any ship she wanted. She even had a recommendation from the LT awaiting postage back in her bunk and several offers from various outposts.
"Aye, aye, ma'am," she grumbled.
As much as she wanted to follow orders, she battled with what she had been taught: to always obey because disobedience cost lives. Conflicted but still extremely curious, her nature overwhelmed nurture as she leapt off the catwalk and onto the first floor. A little look would not change anything. Just as she had expected, the bodies were not corpses but actual, breathing humanoids - or at least the machines showed. The monitors showed the basic information to the bodies they were connected to, as well as other weird machines she had never seen.
What she did not anticipate was the overpowering odour of rotting flesh. Immediately, she understood why as she held back her gasp: their skin - every inch of each body - had been expertly removed yet none of them were bleeding. Some of them had been cut open and left to rot while being artificially sustained by the AI, others had appendages missing. Upon closer inspection, Lauren realized the raw, red flesh had been poked and prodded with several needles. Anaesthetics and muscle relaxants, she guessed, looking at the colour of the fluid flowing intravenously into flesh. Most, if not all, of the bodies had their eyes open, as though intently watching a movie played on the ceiling.
Gritting her teeth, Lauren held her breath as she walked between the rows. She took note of their names, a potent reminder of how fragile life was. She made a silent promise to release them from this inhumane torture, the Dark had no right to keep anyone from ascending to Valhalla. She moved around slowly, taking in everything. Suddenly something became clear to her, hand moving to mouth in a quick motion as an attempt to stop herself from crying out loud: they were all humans, or some variation of. While there were markers for fae blood and DNA, they were more or less humans or an odd hybrid.
Using the long panel of consoles and chemicals that separated the room for support, Lauren's head reeled at the thought that someone was experimenting on her species. She knew that the fae may have been more lax with their laws. Despite the many social advances throughout the years, they still treated humans as second-class citizens. This should not have surprised her, but it did. Fingers quickly deactivating the security on the locked computers as her eyes quickly scanned through the data. Her brows furrowed as she felt herself becoming more confused as she read about Project Heka, an apparent miracle drug to be manufactured and sold. Most of the data was redacted or corrupt, making more than half of it illegible and unintelligible. But one thing did catch her eye as well as the breath in her throat: her mentor's service records.
"Everything okay, Lewis?"
Was Tamsin in danger? Or was there a more sinister explanation? Not knowing what to do with the information, she filed it away at the back of her head for further examination later. Now was not the time to have a discussion either.
"Yes, LT," Lauren lied. "Moving to the vault."
Deftly maneuvering past two droids, Lauren made her way to the hidden stairwell on the northern end of the room. Out of habit, she checked her pistol again before peeking around the corner to find a small hall and a guard stationed at the end of it. Using her omnitool she shorted out the fluorescent tube, using it as a distraction to creep past the perplexed guard.
"You know you're going to have to kill someone eventually," her mentor suddenly chipped in.
"Stop spying on me."
An amused hum was the only reply that came from the lieutenant. Lauren disregarded it and slipped behind another set of doors, making progress towards the underground vault. A glance at her wrist showed her that she was cutting a little close when she realized she had less than an hour left to disable the in-vault security system, hack the vault door, grab the case and slip back outside before the Morrigan, Ambassador Evony Marquis, returned.
Quickening her pace, she made a beeline for the vault, avoiding as many security checkpoints as she possibly could. She allowed herself a little smile, noting that everything was going according to plan so far. Though she might be slightly off schedule, her curiosity begged her to slow down and look through the systems. Balancing the urgent need get to the vault as well as her inherent inquisitiveness, she plugged in a backdoor hack so she could revisit the network after her test. Satisfied with herself and the almost-untouched state in which she left things, she made for her target.
Several turns and ridiculously high catwalks later, she arrived somewhere near the vault. Looking around for the main console, she had to move with precision due to the many lasers now dancing in her vicinity, determined to not let her grab the case sitting in the middle of the room. A confident smirk crossed her features as she brought her omnitool up, expertly weaving in and out of the programs sent to block her progress. After a few seconds of frantic typing, the security system deactivated with a slow whine. Her smirk widened as she stood and cracked her neck before striding right up to her prize.
Lauren realized her glaring mistake as soon she lifted the case. Had she been less smug, the thin glass plate would have been obvious. Despite the fact that it was hidden, she chastised herself for her carelessness; it was such an old trick! In that split second, klaxons blared as droids began dropping from the vent. She cursed and jumped backward, using the shadows as cover as she half-crawled towards the only exit in the room.
"Corporal, what in Odin's name is going on? Several hostiles have shown up on the radar."
"Pressure plates under the case," Lauren stated simply, conserving her breath for the foreseeable future. "Reaching the LZ in ten, requesting for transport."
"I'll arrange for pick-up."
Lauren muttered her thanks. She had reached the outer sanctum and was back in the experiment room again. Sending a disruption wave to the nearest droid, she watched the effect chain throughout the room, disabling every electronic machine. It finally hit one of the consoles, triggering a small EMP burst as the life-sustaining equipment began to shut down. She flinched when she saw the bodies begin to shake violently but knew that this new pain would be brief compared to the drawn-out suffering they were planned to endure.
"Sorry," she whispered as she moved past them.
Reaching the second floor, she opened the side door to find that night had descended upon the city, the orange hues now replaced by a deep purple. From her pocket, she drew two straps and attached them to the case. The magnetic straps clung on without any difficulty, allowing her to use the rest of it to loop around her body. Wearing the case now like a backpack, she stabilized herself as she climbed onto the rope. Her body was forced to swiftly get used to the new weight as the adrenaline rush propelled her forward towards freedom.
As she approached the landing zone, a dark X3M hovered over it, the Systems Alliance seal on the vehicles' sides. The stress slowly dissolving, turning into a beaming grin as she hopped into the shuttle.
"You got it?"
"What, no 'are you okay?' or 'good job'?" Lauren joked but tapped the metal case on her back anyway. "What did the Alliance want with this? What's inside it anyway?"
Tamsin stared straight ahead as she drove them away from the Dark compound, threading through the rush hour traffic, lights flying past them in a colourful blur.
"What's inside it, Tam?" Lauren shifted to place the case on her lap.
Her mentor glanced twice at her before starting, "I'm sorry, it's just that it's - "
"Above my paygrade?" Lauren offered when Tamsin shot her a look of pity. "Well, I guess I could just open it."
"And risk getting court-marshalled? Didn't think you'd be that stupid, Lewis. Anyway, time to celebrate! Odin knows I need my booze. The rest are at the Dál waiting to buy you a drink."
"This isn't over, Tam."
"Yeah, yeah," the older blonde rolled her eyes.
2172 CE :: Serpent Nebula - Citadel - The Dál Riata
"Three cheers for the Doc!"
After the third wave of resounding yells and whistles, glasses were filled and the Dál settled back down into a slightly less noisy version. The soft chatter and an upbeat song continued to fill the quaint little bar.
While Tamsin had no love for the place, or its proprietor, this was the only place on the massive space station that served decent swill. Lauren, on the other hand, loved the excessive use of wood. The dim lighting added to the old charms of Earth the pub exuded. Rumour had it that Fitzpatrick McCorrigan, the owner, had shipped it to the Citadel piece by piece.
"What can I get for you ladies?" the bartender slid up to the pair.
"Two shots of Ryncol to kick off the celebrations!" Tamsin replied, a tad overenthusiastic.
Lauren could only giggle at her friend. The relationship they had bordered on dysfunctional at times, but if the past five years had taught her anything, it was that love comes in many forms, the snarky blonde was one of them.
They had grown up together: Lauren, the quiet little tag-along and Tamsin, the rambunctious valkyrie who was too curious for her own good. They were separated when one family had to move to some backwater planet, only to meet again when Lauren enlisted. By then, Tamsin already had two years on her due to the extra year Lauren spent studying medicine. They had rekindled the friendship, even got to sharing one of the lofty apartments on the prestigious Bachjret Ward with their measly pay.
Now they were both finally a part of the N7 family, all ready to set out and start showing the galaxy what planet Earth could do.
"Oh? What are you celebrating?" the bartender asked as he poured the bright green liquid into shot glasses.
"Well, my best friend here finally managed to complete her last mission in ICT," Tamsin declared, full of pride. "And she's gonna join her best friend to save the galaxy and kick ass."
Lauren's eyes widened at the news, "Wait, what?"
Tamsin waited until the bartender had left them alone before whispering. "You aren't supposed to know until tomorrow, but I got to excited. Bennet is leaving the Trafalgar to me!"
"Oh goddess, Tam! Really? I'm so happy for you!"
"Yeah! And I want you as my Gunnery Chief!"
All Lauren could do was raise her glass and drink to the unforeseeable but extremely exciting future. The shot of Ryncol warmed her instantly, the burning could still be felt seconds after downing the alcohol. She was scared, sure, but this was an opportunity of a lifetime, damn if she did not take it. Maybe it was the alcohol, or maybe her sudden bravado upon learning that she had just graduated from the most grueling training the Systems Alliance offered, she was all ready to agree to it. All that was left was to actually say it.
"Tamsin, I just wan - "
Before Lauren could finish her sentence, the older blonde's lips crashed into hers, earning a loud cheer from the rest of the bar's patrons. Old habits die hard, she thought to herself as she realized she was deepening the kiss, allowing Tamsin better access. The sudden jolt to the apex of her thighs as their tongues, teeth, and lips fought for dominance.
Tamsin pulled back, her breath ragged and her green eyes twinkling. Lauren was unable to focus, only able to see the beautiful blonde in front of her.
"I take it you're saying yes to my proposition?" Tamsin smirked.
"Which one?" Lauren wriggled her eyebrows suggestively.
"Take me home and I'll show you," Tamsin's grin widened and Lauren's centre throbbed harder.
To: Corporal Lauren Lewis
Re: N7 Training Completion
Dear Recruit,
Congratulations. It has come to our attention that your final mission in your Interplanetary Combatives Training (ICT) has been completed.
You are hereby given N7 status. Your new armour and weapons will be delivered to your cabin. A debriefing in the main hall at 0700 hours will inform you of your post.
Please direct any questions to Captain Jeffrey Hughs, found on the second floor of the Presidium. Attached is a map of the Citadel for your perusal.
Once again, congratulations. Welcome to the family.