Druss Jorkakt
Explorer
Name: Druss Jorkakt
Race: Volus
Occupation: Security guard - Cision Motors
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Post by Druss Jorkakt on Dec 22, 2015 4:35:37 GMT
"*hssk* A reaper?!" Keeping her voice to a reasonable level, Druss instinctively stepped back, not wanting to get any closer to the familiar spikes. "*hssk* Just tell me those aren't active." Now this was where real worry had set in. From war experience she knew the panic husk attacks would cause, and Clemency's grenade launcher down here could easily cause a cave-in if it hit the wrong thing. Added with nobody knowing the four were here, and it was reason for a second thought. Still, priorities were priorities. "*hssk* Six percent cut for lying to me at the briefing. *hssk* Any more secrets I need to know, spit them out or I go higher . . . *hssk* Just tell me we're not in a harvester reaper."
[Paragon] Agree to the six percent cut
[Neutral] Keep it at five percent
[Renegade] Lower it to four percent
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Post by Eclipse Illium on Dec 22, 2015 5:12:44 GMT
“We’re in a harvester Reaper,” Naarada answered blandly. “Shut up. I told you you were being hired for EOD of whatever we find, no combat required. You signed the contract - that’s binding. Once you’re under my command I can lie any time I feel like it. Of course they’re dead, this whole thing’s dead - if it was ever alive to begin with, it’s not one of the big dreadnoughts, just a factory. If there was anything working in here, the big ones would’ve taken it with them when they left, like all the rest of their tech.” She pointed her rifle spotlight ahead, the light vanishing into a walkway between the rows of husks. “Now, are you going to do your job and take your five per cent, or do you want to wait here - alone - and we'll let Lorta handle the... well, whatever there is in here we don’t want to trigger. He’s actually pretty good, I just figured your work-wanted ad was there, second set of eyes couldn’t hurt...”
“And keep your voice down,” Clemency added, having silently moved closer. “They’re dreaming. We don’t want to wake them.”
“Weren’t you peeing your pants a second ago?” Naarada asked, sounding incongruously like a mildly exasperated mother. “Quit joking and keep watch.”
“I just got startled is all,” the young asari grumbled, moving away.
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Druss Jorkakt
Explorer
Name: Druss Jorkakt
Race: Volus
Occupation: Security guard - Cision Motors
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Post by Druss Jorkakt on Dec 22, 2015 5:22:24 GMT
Shutting up and heading down the walkway, Druss checked over her rifle, flicking a light on it. Quietly checking her surroundings as she moved up, thoughts crossed her mind over how to spend the pile of credits she'd be making from this job. After all if the base was unoccupied, they should be out by tonight, and she could pay a visit to the fancier areas of the city by this time tomorrow. Still, something was bugging her about this, something feeling off. Ignoring it for the promise of credits, and excusing it as just bad war memories fading back into memory, she pressed onward.
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Post by Eclipse Illium on Dec 22, 2015 6:24:03 GMT
The husk chamber eventually ended, and Lorta directed Druss to lead the way, scanning all the while, down a narrow space between rows of pylons, so densely packed on either side that they were virtually solid. Here and there the spotlight beams found a crack, shining on slivers of spaces beyond - chemical vats, something like fabricators with sharp-edged manipulator arms, meshed gears and grinders. Their footsteps, and a slow, distant drip of water, were the only sounds. It seemed little consolation that the interior continued to reveal no traps - as if whatever had designed it had never imagined anyone willingly entering.
With Lorta indicating the way at a handful of junctions, the small group eventually reached another open space, this one empty. Naarada generated a simple light drone and let it go to hover near the ceiling, illuminating a gleaming floor inlaid with patterns like bones and serrated edges, curved walls broken up by some kind of hydraulic rams, and near the space they had entered from a huge transparent bowl set into the wall and ceiling, for all the world like an aquarium, filled with a viscous purple liquid.
“This is the source, Captain,” Lorta muttered while they watched Druss checking the room.
“About time. Done? Alright, stand over by that fishbowl or whatever and don’t touch anything. Clemency, watch our backs. Anything moves that isn’t us, I want it dead before I have time to give the order.”
“Best job ever,” the girl chuckled, switching back to her rifle and checking its ammunition settings - with her standing nearby, Druss got a glimpse of radiation and toxin capsules.
Naarada and Lorta busied themselves in the centre of the chamber, crouching down with their omni-tools open, prying back slivers of the floor and studying whatever was beneath it. Clemency kept her spotlight sweeping back and forth over their heads, but clearly found the task boring, as after a few minutes she began to hum to herself.
“Focus,” Naarada snapped after a moment, without looking at her. “We’re just about ready to power up here...”
As Clemency huffed and looked down her barrel, something thudded, softly, on the glass behind Druss - a volus, suitless, naked, struggling in the liquid. His hand hit the inside of the glass once more, skin bursting as his blood expanded, then mechanical tendrils whipped around his limbs and dragged him, soundlessly screaming, into the gloomy depths, out of sight.
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Druss Jorkakt
Explorer
Name: Druss Jorkakt
Race: Volus
Occupation: Security guard - Cision Motors
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Post by Druss Jorkakt on Dec 22, 2015 19:07:59 GMT
Fumbling with her rifle, Druss jumped back away from the glass as she turned around to see what the noise was. Pausing briefly in horror, the volus soon recovered from the mental shock, looking to Clemency. Just as she was about to speak, the money came back to mind along with Needas' comment on Druss keeping her from wanting to doubt the asari again, thinking to herself that it had to be some sort of hallucination.
Given the suit's bulky nature and total concealment of the face, it would be difficult to see the rising fear in the volus, who would for most appearances seem to be fine, simply checking over her rifle, the only thing standing out being very frequent looks over her shoulder, along with the familiar wheezing noise before speaking, though not followed by a comment from the volus.
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Post by Eclipse Illium on Dec 22, 2015 22:27:46 GMT
Clemency glanced at Druss’s sudden movement, but didn’t turn around herself, just chuckled under her breath.
A sound echoed through the chamber, startling after the silence - a long, groaning tone, like a bell slowed down. Lorta backed up a few paces from where he had been working, but Naarada stayed put, looking up at the walls.
“This is it,” she whispered.
The rams built into the walls were moving - pulling free as if the metal of the walls was mud, leaving trails and ripples, until something breached the surface in their wake. Seven coffin-like modules slowly revealed themselves, sliding down to clang against the floor and meld with it, while faint strings of light flowed from where the pair had been working. Thin filaments all over the modules, like spider legs, writhed and drew back, pulling open the viscous membranes covering them. Operating tables.
“They're dreaming,” Clemency whispered, somehow right behind Druss’s shoulder in the moment of distraction.
Three were empty, their altar-like tops vacant but for blood-like stains. Two more bore decayed corpses, barely identifiable as asari. Another, bizarrely, seemed perfectly preserved, naked and unmarred, eyes closed - but for her perfect stillness she might have been sleeping.
The last was a banshee.
Naarada snapped her rifle up to bear on the motionless creature, but at the same time she was slowly advancing on it, as if awestruck. She held the gun in one hand and removed her helmet with the other, leaning over the table. After a gulp she turned and looked at Clemency and Druss.
“Volus,” she said in a hoarse whisper. “C’mere. I want... this, disarmed. Safe to examine. Don’t damage it.”
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Druss Jorkakt
Explorer
Name: Druss Jorkakt
Race: Volus
Occupation: Security guard - Cision Motors
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Post by Druss Jorkakt on Dec 23, 2015 0:27:11 GMT
Taking a deep breath and walking up to the twisted body of what used to be an asari, Druss stood next to the operating table, her brain screaming at her to run from the familiar creature. Too afraid to ask, she assumed Needas had meant the banshee was to be disarmed. Reaching out to the neck, her hands shaking, Druss took another moment to calm herself down before continuing, seeing what she was working with. Having been familiar enough with bits and pieces of reaper tech from the war, Druus figured she had enough information after examining the banshee to know what she was doing to start disarming the auto-destruct function of it.
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Post by Eclipse Illium on Dec 23, 2015 1:19:43 GMT
“Good,” Naarada breathed. “Don’t damage the... throat, voice. Whatever lets these things scream. We need that. Goddess. I knew it was here.” She looked over the dead banshee at Druss. “You ever see these things fight? They tore through everything. Commandos, battlemasters...” She laughed low in her throat. “Bet you’re glad you took percentage over flat rate now? Imagine what Eclipse’ll pay for this tech. Imagine what we’ll do when we’ve upgraded...” She shook her head in wonder. “Cerberus tried it, but their hardware came from human husks. Dumbasses. Those things were just cannon fodder. Mind you I guess if all you’ve got is a bunch of humans, anything’s an improvement, right?”
“These were asari too,” Lorta noted, passing his omni-tool over the bloodstains on the empty tables. “You were right, this is where they made the banshees.”
“Uh-huh,” Naarada nodded distractedly.
“Captain,” the salarian added, surprised, “I’m getting a genetic match on these readings.”
“What?” the asari’s head snapped up. “Athame’s tits, you’re not linked into the city database are you?”
“Of course not,” Lorta replied, sounding offended. “No outgoing signals - it’s on my internal drive. She was one of ours.”
“Eclipse huh?” Naarada shrugged, relaxing. “Anyone we know?”
“Resolving sample.”
“Captain, I can hear something,” Clemency piped up, sounding agitated.
“Lorta?”
“Negative on sensors, we’re alone here.”
“Whispering...”
“You’re imagining it,” Naarada insisted. “Don’t let your mind wander - you remember what happened on Winterkiss? Just focus on the job. If you really have to sing, okay.” The young asari nodded, still glancing over her shoulder every once in a while.
“Hey Druss,” Naarada went on, ignoring Clemency, “just out of curiosity, were there ever volus husks? Husk-clan? What would they even do,” she muttered to herself, “would they have, like, Reapertech pressure suits? Or would they just jump out and explode at people?”
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Druss Jorkakt
Explorer
Name: Druss Jorkakt
Race: Volus
Occupation: Security guard - Cision Motors
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Post by Druss Jorkakt on Dec 23, 2015 1:32:51 GMT
Druss continued with the work, starting on the side of the head, cutting loose wires occasionally. Closing her eyes as she heard Clemency's comment, Druss opened them and went back to work almost right after. Hearing it was one of their own was at best an unnerving sign, still the volus kept her composure as best she could, just about finished. "*hssk* I don't know, I was on Irune the whole war. But yes, we had our own husks." Her tone was curt and dismissive of the question, her mind focused only on the mix of surgery, autopsy, and defusal before her. Putting the tools back in her suits pockets, she looked over the creature. "*hssk* Done, won't turn to ash now . . . Probably."
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Post by Eclipse Illium on Dec 23, 2015 2:09:42 GMT
“Nice work,” Naarada said, smiling, while in the background Clemency began to whisper the lyrics to a pop song to herself.
“Identified,” Lorta said, walking over. “Illium branch - no surprise - enforcer, lieutenant Vaun.” Naarada whirled around, almost knocking Druss over.
“What? Bullshit!” she barked, disconcertingly loud. “Run it again, that’s wrong!”
“I know how to run a gene match, Captain,” the salarian said defensively.
“Vaun’s dead!”
“Obviously...”
“Decades ago! I killed her! Check it again!”
“As you say, Captain,” Lorta sighed. “Double-screening for contaminants... hm.”
“Hm what?”
“The other remains are a match,” the salarian muttered, puzzled. “Same ID.”
“Your omni-tool’s screwed up,” Naarada snapped. Lorta ignored her and pointed the tool toward the banshee.
“Genetic match,” he murmured. “Impossible. Reapers don’t clone. How-”
He and Naarada both jumped back as the banshee made a sound - a dry, rattling croak, making its otherwise immobile body tremble.
“It’s trying to scream,” Naarada whispered in horror.
“Captain, I suggest we burn everything and leave,” Lorta said flatly.
“No! This is worth a fortune! Druss, shut that down, but don’t damage the mechanism!”
“Captain, I suggest we leave now.”
“No!”
On her shout the light suddenly vanished - the ceiling drone lost power and fell to the floor with a sputter of electricity, and the spotlights on all their suits simultaneously shut down on their own. The banshee sound stopped, leaving Clemency’s whispered singing the only thing breaking the silence... until the echo of slow, shambling footsteps drifted through the air.
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Druss Jorkakt
Explorer
Name: Druss Jorkakt
Race: Volus
Occupation: Security guard - Cision Motors
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Post by Druss Jorkakt on Dec 23, 2015 3:00:56 GMT
Ducking down behind one of the operating tables, Druss checked if her night vision gear was now working, checking the thermal vision as the former failed, the latter having the same result. Shuffling in the direction of what she hoped was the exit, Druss silently prayed her armour would be able to hold up to whatever was making the noise. After what felt like at least a minute of slow progress, but could have been only seconds, the volus bumped into something . . .
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Post by Eclipse Illium on Dec 23, 2015 14:10:34 GMT
“What the shrell?” Lorta cursed as Druss bumped into him. “Volus?”
“Lorta?” Naarada called. “Clemency, report! Sensors, what-”
“Contact!” Clemency yelled, opening fire. The Mattock’s muzzle flashes strobed through the chamber, giving glimpses of the girl blazing away through the opening they had arrived from, Naarada still standing by the banshee table, Lorta frantically searching for something in his equipment pack.
“Report! What’s-”
“They’re everywhere!” Clemency shrieked, backing away, firing left and right, striking sparks off the walls. Naarada finally moved, rushing over to join her, just as she stowed her rifle and pulled out her shotgun instead, letting loose reverberating crashes of fire. A hiss sounded from beside Druss, and light fell on the scene - Lorta had found a chemical flare and struck it, bathing the chamber in a sickly yellow glow.
“What are you firing at!” Naarada yelled. Clemency spun around, almost shooting her by mistake, but the older asari batted the barrel of her weapon away before it could come to bear on her.
“They’re everywhere!” she insisted again. Naarada’s reply was drowned out as the strange bell-sound rang again, and for a moment everyone was silent - even the distant sounds of motion had stopped.
“Where’s the banshee,” Lorta said tonelessly. All seven operating tables were empty.
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Druss Jorkakt
Explorer
Name: Druss Jorkakt
Race: Volus
Occupation: Security guard - Cision Motors
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Post by Druss Jorkakt on Dec 23, 2015 20:37:32 GMT
Looking over to the tables to see them empty, Druss knew just what that meant. Scanning the room with her rifle, but only able to see the edges of the flare's light, she looked over to Naarada, trying to read the asari's expression to see just how big of a problem this might be. Sticking close to Lorta, she glanced over in the direction of the exit after checking on Naarada, not keen on staying in the room. "*hssk* I'm not seeing anything- and what the fuck was that noise? . . . *hssk* Captain, what's the plan? Leave?"
Training had kicked in by now, the volus remaining coherent, under a facade of being calm, her body language showing what was likely a common feeling in the room right now, fear. Fiddling with the flashlight on the rifle, Druss tried to get it working again, to no avail.
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Post by Eclipse Illium on Dec 28, 2015 14:43:24 GMT
“We’re not-” Naarada began, jabbing a finger at Druss, but was drowned out by the bell sound once more. Clemency visibly winced at it, looking like she was ready to turn and run given any means of escape, and Lorta flinched, frantically working his omni-tool.
“Power in the cortex,” he was muttering fiercely, “synapse patterns, chemical systems active...”
“Varren shit, we cut those links, there’s no way-”
“Contact!” Clemency shrilled, raising her shotgun again.
“Captain!” Lorta called, stilling Naarada in the act of grabbing for Clemency’s gun to stop her. “She’s right - tracking incoming, all vectors!” On the heels of his words a metallic groaning ran through the chamber, as walls slid away on all sides - all the revealed corridors packed with shambling forms, lit by glowing implants.
“Weapons free!” Naarada yelled, opening fire along with the others as the husks started to spill into the room. “Clemency, can you- Clemency!”
Behind the young asari a cloud of biotic energy was emerging from the shadows, intensifying until it lit the banshee within it, reaching around Clemency’s slim body. She shrieked as she spun around, unloading the shotgun at point blank range - the creature barely staggered - and almost fell backwards trying to get out of its reach until Lorta grabbed her and, with surprising strength, hauled her, armour and all, across the floor.
“Brace!” Naarada shouted, firing into the liquid tank. Spiderwebs of cracks formed around the bullet holes, then the whole surface gave way, letting a torrent of thick fluid crash out over the squad. “Come on!” the asari yelled, pulling Lorta’s shoulder to move him against the current - the flow was slackening, and uninviting as the dank, fetid channel was, it was empty of husks.
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Druss Jorkakt
Explorer
Name: Druss Jorkakt
Race: Volus
Occupation: Security guard - Cision Motors
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Post by Druss Jorkakt on Dec 28, 2015 19:36:57 GMT
Trying not to topple over with the current, Druss' lower center of gravity worked to her advantage for about a second before she slipped. Gripping onto any piece of structure to keep from sliding away, she raised her rifle with her other hand, spraying a wide volley of shots towards the husks before them.
Mentally debating whether to stay or try running for it, she kept thinking how Needas would recover control of the situation. Standing back up, she shuffled around to try to get an angle on the banshee, raising the rifle to take a shot at it . . .
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