"You okay?" a female voice sounded, resonating against the walls of the chamber.
"Yeah, I'm fine." A male voice replied. "Looks like Peter came through. If he didn't this is one disappointing afterlife …"
Kajira had to laugh. Her voice filled the room, her sub-harmonics giving it a strange but warm edge. Somehow, the pressure fell off her shoulders as she realized that they weren't dead. She opened a channel.
"Good work, Freeway. I don't know what you did, but it is working."
Through the static, the voice of the red-haired man came like a life line: "Glad you guys are okay. I cranked up the power-intake of the chamber as high as possible. Overloaded the whole system, and now it's dark again."
"We can restart the generator once we're not inside a giant death trap." Dvorak said while searching through the darkness. Which way was the exit?
"Any ideas on how to get us out of here?" she asked.
"I'm trying to activate an emergency release hatch. It should be located in the middle of the chamber, but I'll need some time to open it."
"Keep working on it. Gash, cover him while he does. Stay safe and keep me posted!" Kajira resumed her role as squad leader. "Yes, boss." Freeway said, signing out. "You got it, chief." Gash replied, the sound of a safety-switch being flipped in the background.
As the radio died again, Dvorak and Kajira found themselves alone for the first time since the incident in the lounge.
"Hey…" Dvorak began, breaking the silence between them. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about my past. Truth is I want to forget it as badly as the next guy." He clenched his fists. "It's like a stain in your history. A mistake you're constantly reminded of, and …" He didn't finish the sentence.
"It's okay." Kaj replied after a moment. "I wasn't angry because you were with Cerberus. I just …"
She hesitated.
"I just hate to be lied to. It … happened before." She took a step towards him. Then, another.
"You know, I think we really connected the first time we met, back on the Citadel. And not just because you head-butted me."
They chuckled as she continued.
"I really like you, Dvorak." She took another step. "And you hiding your past felt kinda like a slap in the face."
"I'm sorry. I really, really am. Will you accept my apology?" he asked, smirking under his helmet.
"How could I say no to these eyes?" she smirked as well, revealing her teeth, as she knocked against his visor with a taloned finger.
A strange moment passed as they both stood in front of the other.
Dvorak hadn't realized it until now, but Kajira had a beautiful face. For a turian. And yet, he was strangely fascinated by her. It was framed by her mandibles, as well as her face-paint, a hue of deep green that accommodated the green color of her eyes.
Kaj thought similar thoughts: Although he was a human, she was strangely drawn to the man. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something about him fascinated her. He didn't have a fringe or a faceplate and had a strange skin color, just like all the other humans she'd met, but he was easy on the eyes, too, in a weird, alien way.
A strange sensation gathered in Dvorak's stomach. Kajira's mandibles twitched in a way he'd never seen before.
A 'click' sounded from under them. Then, the floor gave away beneath them, spewing them on a broad catwalk.
Dvorak landed hard on his feet and was forced to his knees, shielding his face with his hands. Then Kaj landed on him and both kept on lying there for a minute.
"Ouch …" Dvorak groaned in pain.
"What was that?" Kajira asked, rubbing the back of her head.
"Good news, guys, I managed to open the hatch!" Peter sounded excited through the radio.
"We noticed." Dvorak groaned.
"Good work, Freeway." Kajira forced herself to her feet. "We're a level below you. Form up on me and we'll proceed as planned." She offered her hand to Dvorak, grabbing him as he took it and pulling him up on his feet.
A metallic object fell to the ground outside of their field of view, followed by a wheezing sound. Two red-glowing orbs appeared in the shadows in front of them.
"Contact!" Kajira screamed as the brute roared and charged, pushing Dvorak in one direction and darting herself into another. The monster passed them in a storm of flesh, muscles and iron.
Getting up, Kajira grabbed her gun and fired a volley of rounds into the back of the beast. Dvorak got to one foot, formed an orb of blue energy in his palm and threw it against the brute.
The thing simply shrugged of their attacks as it turned around, roaring again.
"This isn't doing anything!" Kajira bellowed. "Follow me!"
She bolted away from the brute, down some sort of ramp and into an area filled with crates and equipment to move them. The stomp of the beast behind them rang hard against the metal of the catwalk. It hopped down a small edge and charged them.
Kajira was able to dive out of the way, but Dvorak was smacked against a crate behind him as the brute charged past him.
"Dvorak!" Kajira shouted, darting in his direction but getting cut off by the beast.
"I'm okay." He coughed, blood splattering the inside of his helmet. He ripped it off his head and tossed it aside as the brute charged past Kajira, who managed to get out of the way just in time.
"What are we going to do?!" he shouted.
"I have an idea! Distract it! I need to get on top of one of these crates!" she replied, already fumbling on her Omni-Tool and scaling a few smaller crates.
"Distract it? Great, I always get the awesome jobs …" he grumbled while letting two whips of energy sprout from his palms. He snapped the first against the head of the beast, taunting it.
"Hey! Big guy! I'm over here! Come get me!"
The brute roared in anger, rushing him. Dvorak bolted to the side, avoiding being sliced in half by the big claw of the beast.
He turned towards it, taunting again: "I bet your momma is so fat even Harbinger couldn't indoctrinate her!"
The brute moved quickly. Too quickly. It closed the gap between them, smashing him against a crate and pinning him there with its claw.
"What's the matter; did I hit a nerve there?" Dvorak taunted again, the brute screaming directly in his face. The pressure from the claw intensified.
Kajira leapt from her crate, grasping her rifle in both hands like a spear. On its end, the orange glow of an Omni-Blade shimmered. When she impacted on the brute, she pushed the blade deep inside the head of the monster, using the force of her jump. As she pierced the head of the brute, the few flesh seared and blackened. The red orbs that were the eyes of the thing stiffened, the claw releasing its grasp around Dvorak.
With a thud the heavy body of the brute collapsed onto the floor, black, sludgy blood forming a pool around its head.
"Holy shit, Kaj …" Dvorak whispered, catching his breath.
Kajira stood over the dead body of the beast, breathing heavily, her mandibles twitching in tension. She ripped on the rifle, dislodging the blade from the skull. It was broken, destroyed by the impact, and absolutely splattered with black sludge. She dropped it beside the body, and descended the mountain of flesh.
"Are you alright?" she asked, catching her breath.
"Am I alright? Are you alright? You just impaled a giant monster and stroll around like it's nothing!"
He hugged her. It was almost a reflex, out of joy of their survival, the primal fact that they killed the thing that was trying to kill them. Kajira stood there, surprised the say the least, but when she recognized the gesture, she returned it.
Strange scents filled her nostrils. There was the stench of the brute, the metallic scent of blood - his and hers, and the familiar scent of sweat. But there was something different. It smelled good, she could tell as much, but she couldn't say why. The alien things called 'hair' on his head felt soft against her faceplate.
A door was broken open, and Gash stomped in followed by Peter, both guns ready. Dvorak and Kaj stopped their hug and turned towards them.
"You guys okay? We heard gunshots and met some husks on the way. There's definitely Reapers on the station!" Gash asked them, descending a small staircase.
"We had our own problems." Dvorak stated pointing behind him with his thumb where the body of the brute lay.
Peter whistled in respect while Gash grumbled. "I never get the good ones …"
"The link to the ship is still down?" Kajira asked, wiping some blood off her chest.
"Yeah, no luck there." Peter replied frustrated. "What's next, boss?"
"We meet up with Bravo Team. Maybe their link is still functional. In any case would it be nice to know what's going on. What's their last known location?"
"The generator room, 15 minutes that way." Gash pointed to a door on the far side of the hall.
"Alright." Kaj said resolved, grasping a small pistol to replace her broken rifle. "Let's move out."