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| - It was a joyless, disheartening return to the Aetherius, for Taylor at least, who sat alone in the armory, forearms dropped woefully to his knees as he stared at the ground. The rest of the security team, his team, though most weren’t on the mission, they had already heard the news about Nidel’s death, and they likely heard it from Saelian. It was still fresh on Taylor’s mind, wondering if it was indeed his fault, he’d occasionally look up at the others passing him, but they didn’t even look at him. Nidel was, the only one on the team who had been even friendly towards him, Rhoen wasn’t hostile by any means, but he seemed to keep his distance. He thought to himself, sticking his tongue in cheek before Rhoen walked by, the big giant giving him a light pat on the shoulder. “Keep your head up kid.” He stated plainly. Taylor was relieved at least someone said something to him, it wasn’t much, but anything helped. However, things seemed they would take a turn for the worse as he glanced up to see Saelian enter the room. The Turian stopped for a moment, his piercing eyes stabbing right into Taylor, as he turned for his locker, tossing his equipment down. “Well well.” He pretentiously muttered out as he slammed his locker shut, “It’s a shame, we lost the good one now we’re stuck with you.” No longer able to turn a blind eye to Saelian’s hostility Taylor shot up and walked over to the Turian, facing off with as they stared eachother down. “I’ve just about had it with you, I don’t need your condescending ass berating me, I am not in the mood for this shit, you think I WANTED THAT TO HAPPEN?!” His voiced turned into a yell as he finished the sentence. ‘ Saelian gave him a light shove away before sticking his own chest out, sizing Taylor up, but the human stepped right back to him. “I’m not so sure, seems like bad luck follows you anywhere you go.” Taylor glared into his eyes and combatively stated in a calm voice, “Say it, I dare you, say it. The Turians mandibles shifted as he stared right back, “Just like in the Alliance huh? Your teammates just die around you it seems like.” Just like the Taylor went off in a rage, bursting off his legs and shooting for a double leg takedown on the Turian, wrapping his arms around his legs and heaving him downward, simultaneously the Turian shifted his legs as he hit the ground, pressing them against Taylor’s abdomen and pushing him back. All the while the entire team in the armory jumped up, Erinn, Eliae, both came running to see the commotion as everyone absorbed in the moment, choosing not to jump in. Saelian’s leg press push shot Taylor back into the center console of the armory, and the Turian, back on his feet launched at him, shoulder out intent on spearing Taylor, who took the brunt of the hit, pressing and pounding into his chest, but he wrapped his arms around Saelian, and heaved him upward, the momentum and waiting sending the two of them tumbling over the center table. They rolled on the ground for several grueling seconds, Saelian throwing sharp short punches, all missing except one, grazing Taylor’s cheek as the Turian’s jagged exoskeleton just barely cutting through his skin. Feeling no pain, no nerves, nothing, the anger just pumped through Taylor’s veins as he reversed the Turian with all his strength, rolling into top position, he began to rain down shots on Saelian. Unlike the Turians his were long, wild and powerful, but Saelian seem to evade major damage with quick head movement. However one bombs sliced through, smacking Turian square on the chin, it felt like punching through a cinderblock, but Taylor ripped his arm back for another. Saelian reached out, grasping Taylor by the collar, and throwing a straight jab right into Taylor’s already split cheek. He felt that one as the sting consumed the whole bottom right side of his face. In all the chaos, neither man noticed the Captain and Lance rushing to them. Suddenly Taylor felt a powerful force yank the back of his collar and toss him aside. There stood Kasper, a look of pure storm on his face as he pulled the two apart, shoving Taylor aside and into the arms of Iyra, as she wrapped around his torso and held him back from charging back him, he jolted forward, only to stop upon realizing the Asari had a hold of him. “Taylor stop!” she cried out, patting his chest as he caught his breath and calmed down, “It’s okay. It’s okay.” Saelian attempted to box back in, back Lance shoved him back to Rhoen, the big Krogan’s massive hand holding the turian back. “That A-FUCKING NOUGH!” Kasper screamed, his voice felt like it could break through walls, “Stop it! Before I kill both of you! This is my damn ship!” “Hey he came at me first!” Saelian shouted in an attempted to defend himself. Kasper glared at him, so intense that it seemed to shake the Turian, “I don’t give it shit if he came at or in your mother first! You don’t fight your own team on here! You don’t disrespect me like that! So enough! Or I will throw both of your sorry asses out of the fucking airlock! You got it!” The Captain’s veins were bursting from his arms and forehead as he threatened the two. He looked to the two for an answer, “Okay?! You got it?!” “Aye aye” they both muttered over each other. The tension was still there, though everything seemed to simmer, as the Captain mugged two, “Lance, my quarters. Now.” He demanded as he left the room, Lance shooting a look to both Saelian and Taylor of angry disappointment, they’d be hearing from him later. The room seemed to empty slowly, Eliae and Erinn both looked taken aback by the situation and the fumbled out of the room, Saelian was marched off by Rhoen and soon it was just Taylor, and Iyra, who had finally let go of the former. She watched, patiently as Taylor reacted, just seeking to calm him down. Taylor wiped the sweat from his forehead, his heartbeat was still racing as he took a deep breath through his nose, and the thought of everything that had just happened sent a fire through his arm and he railed a shot into a locker, denting it. He let out a grunt, and wiped the blood from the cut on his cheek, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” he muttered as he dropped down, finally cooling off. Iyra dropped to the floor next to him, “It’s okay Taylor, it’s fine, that guy is an asshole, he kind of had it coming.” She looked to the cuts on his cheek, they weren’t deep, but they wouldn’t stop bleeding as he continued to press it, “Are you okay?” He looked at the blood on his hands and rubbed it off on his hardsuit, “I’ve had worse.” He had, but it didn’t mean this cut didn’t sting either. He couldn’t help but think he had lowered Iyra’s view of him, “I’m sorry you had to see me like that, it’s not me I promise.” “You don’t have to defend yourself Taylor.” She stated with a light smile, “Believe me, I’ve been pushed to those limits by plenty of people, I’m not judging you.” “I just feel like an idiot.” He admitted, shaking his head, and scraping his hands through his hair, leaving it a frizzy mess. “He was right, shit like this always happens around me, did in the Alliance, it is here.” Iyra shook off his attempts to blame himself, “Taylor, you couldn’t of save Nidel, it’s not your fault, and your past shouldn’t matter, not to you, not anyone. It certainly doesn’t to me.” An alleviating sentiment for Taylor to no Iyra wasn’t concerned of what Saelian said about Taylor’s Alliance history. “You don’t care about that? Even if I had done something horrible?” He asked, though his past situation wasn’t horrible, more unfortunate. “Well, it depends on how horrible, but if it was that bad you wouldn’t be here, so no, I don’t care.” She answered, still smiling, it did help comfort Taylor, making him more relaxed as his nerves continued to dissipate. “We’ve all got past, from everything I can tell, you’re a pretty good person.” She stood up, looking down at him with a hopeful expression. Taylor nodded, Iyra really did have a way with helping him, maybe it was the attraction he had too, but regardless, she made him feel more valuable than he did. “Thanks, I really appreciate it.” “Any time Taylor.” She declared, “If you need anything, my doors always open.” Seeing a chance to flirt with her Taylor thought for a split second, you don’t get anywhere if you don’t take risk, “Just how late is that door open?” he amorously asked, with slanted eyebrows and his best seductive look. Iyra let out a humorous scoff from her nose, still grinning but looking more amused now by Taylor’s attempts to flirt, “Don’t press your luck cowboy.” She shot him down coyfully, but added a little wink as she stepped out of the room. A confusing sequence for Taylor, but he took as positive nonetheless, as he comically grinned. That smile deleted itself though as he quickly realized Lance would be showing up to hammer him soon. Just like that Lance marched in, but not a completely ireful look on his face, it was slightly apologetic in some ways. With a quick movement from is hand he motioned Taylor to stand, “Up.” He stated calmly. Taylor hoisted himself up against the locker, being sure to lock a sorry expression on, “I’m sorry Lance.” He came right at Taylor immediately, “You should be! I told you early to knock that shit off, you can’t be doing all this fighting on here, you’re not just making yourself look bad, you’re making me look bad.” His voice was more subdued, as if he was pleading with Taylor rather than scolding him. “Just, take it down a notch man.” Lance was right, and Taylor just quietly nodded his head in agreement, “Alright, I’ll stop. It’s just, that asshole called me out, on what happened in the Alliance, how did even find that out?” “It doesn’t matter Taylor, who cares what Saelian thinks.” Lance drilled back sternly, “You don’t have to be his friend, you just have to work around him.” Unable to stop himself from feeling like maybe Saelian was right, Taylor was second guessing his CO, “I don’t know Lance, what if he’s right about me? You probably shouldn’t of brought me along, trouble flocks to me.” Lance shook his head, he looked more disappointed in that moment than during the fight, “See that’s you problem Taylor.” He dished out as he glared at his friend, “You’re too busy worrying about who others think you are than who you really are. You’re a good guy, that’s why I brought you, I knew this would be good for you and you didn’t deserve to be languishing on Earth anymore. Ten out of ten times I’m still going to bring you along, so do me, and do yourself a favor, stop doubting yourself because of others. Just prove them wrong instead.” With that he turned to head out of the door, but Taylor stopped him, “Thanks Lance. I mean it.” He announced, and he did mean it, Lance was right. Lance simply gave a short nod before adding one last commander-esq line, “You’re welcome. But if you ever do any of this shit again, I’ll leave you on some backwater planet.” But he added a short grin before leaving the room. The Captain, though his demeanor was beginning to cool, the aggravation from the earlier incident still had him in a bit of an agitated state, as he chaffed through the halls of the Aetherius, entering the research quarters to see it, slightly calmer than before. He approached, Roy, planted at his desk. Roy seemed to instantly notice the Captain’s semi foul mood, “Captain, why so glum?” He asked. “This crew, they need to get a hold of themselves.” He sat down across from Roy. “Well, Kasper, things did get a little choppy on the ground.” Roy was slightly pleading on the part of the team, “Losing one of your own is never easy.” Kasper remained incensed in his expression, “I don’t need them fighting each other, and I’d prefer not to speak of it anymore Doctor, just tell me what you found down there.” Not wanting to push the issue anymore, Roy apologized, he was only trying to explain what had happened, “Of course, Captain, my apologies. But yes, we made some, interesting discoveries...to say the least.” He declared, with a bit of uncertainty in his voice as he looked to the back of the room, where Olassia sat, being rescanned and checked by Quell, a look of worry across her face. “We are absolutely on the right track, that much is confirmed.” It was clear to Kasper the doctor had more to say, “But?” “But, things go complicated.” Being a man of detail, the doctor had to explain most of what had happened. “This outpost was no mere prothean bunker, it housed 25,000 cryo pods.” Kasper was alarmed by the news, “With Protheans in them? Still active?” “No no no.” Roy shot that idea down immediately, “It turns out the Reapers had indoctrinated the Prothean director of the outpost, he sealed himself inside and prevented the bunker’s use. However, more significant than that, we confirmed that Vey’Kosa was in fact real, and waged war with the Protheans, but he, and his heart, what the Protheans call the Dark Heart, were lost, on Numia.” The Captain had heard of Numia, it was, by all known knowledge, untouched, and lingering on the edge of the galaxy. “Numia? All the way out there?” “Indeed. Now apparently, this Dark Heart was something of immense technological power, so much so, hundreds of years later when the Reapers arrived, the Protheans sought to excavate, hoping to use it against their invaders. The Reapers, countered them there, and battled them off the planet, so this bunker, was then established, in hopes of awakening the Protheans within, releasing them after the invasion, and harnessing the power of the Heart to use against the Reapers in the next cycle.” Kasper put the pieces together himself, between the Reaper’s countering the Protheans on Numia, and sabotaging their cryo initiative, they clearly didn’t want the Protheans to find this Heart. “And you think it’s a good idea to pursue something that even the Reapers feared.” Roy had already planned to subdue this argument, “Captain, the Reapers are gone, and more than likely, they did not fear what ever this Heart is. The Reapers, as with our cycle, sought to eliminate any advantage their victims had, in order to make their harvesting as simple as possible. They sabotaged the Protheans over the Heart, just for the convenience.” He pondered to himself for a moment, thinking of how to explain Olassia’s situation. “Now, something else happened. The Protheans had concealed something called the Key within this vault, it was described as being the powersource to the Heart, retrieved during the final battle with Vey’Kosa. It’s how they defeated him. We found it, and Olassia, removed the device, but it disassembled itself, liquidating and her body absorbed it…” Kasper looked into the other room, at the disgruntled Olassia, and then back to Roy, “She’s okay though?” “Yes, it would appear so. But the Key, has from all of our observations, become one with her.” He tried to think of a less dramatic way to phrase it but couldn’t, “She has become the Key.” The Captain puckered his lips and raised his eyebrows, that wasn’t something he had expected. “This certainly has become strange. But nonetheless Doctor, we’ll set course for Numia. We’re making one more stop however, Altakiril.” Altakiril was a world that stood as a monument to the Reaper War, decimated by planetary bombardment, the entire population was nearly wiped out. But after the war, it rebuilt, though remained a war zone between various Terminus Systems factions that invaded the troubled planet. In recent decades it has remained under the control of a pirate faction known as the Wumara Gang. Roy wasn’t entirely excited about the idea of visiting a pirate planet, “I hope we won’t be there long…” As Kasper headed for the door he looked back and smirked, “Don’t worry Doctor, we’ll keep it short. And besides, I’ve heard quite noble things about the Wumara, as of late.” Back down in his cabin, Saelian sat, quietly, eyes focused on his feet as he massaged his mandible with his hand. Perks of having an exoskeleton, no one could tell when you’re bruising, Taylor through quite a haymaker, and Saelian certainly could feel it. Rhoen walked in, with a strong, scolding look on his face, “So is this it? Are you done?” Saelian remained quiet for a moment, he was embarrassed, thinking that a situation like that actually happened, he let out a deep sigh and brought his hand back down. “I don’t even want to talk about man. I don’t know what happened.” “You fucking brawled. In front of the whole crew. Both of you looked like assholes.” Rhoen had warned Saelian about his attitude the entire journey so far, it was time to lay into him. The Turian wiped his eyes, he was crashing, becoming tired as the adrenaline slipped away, “I’m surprised Kasper didn’t throw me off of the ship right there. I deserved it.” Rhoen was in agreement, “Yeah, I sure as Hell would of. But Saelian, you had no reason to go at that kid like that, you owe him an apology.” “Like Hell I do!” Saelian snapped back, even though he second guessed himself on the inside, he couldn’t help feel a bit childish, but his pride was too great. “Stop blaming other people when there’s no one to blame.” Rhoen demanded, in reference to Nidel’s death. “Taylor didn’t want that to happen, and you’re just picking a fight if you say otherwise.” Saelian sat up, and leaned his back against the wall, staring into the ceiling. He hadn’t been a pleasant individual, not for some time at least, since the Korro. He was jaded, anti-social, hated most people, everything he saw in combat, the friends he lost had made him the way he was. Particularly, he lost comrades due to the carelessness of others he worked with, the root of his attitude towards Taylor. “The guy isn’t cut out for this.” Rhoen scoffed and shook his head, “He killed that beast by himself, he survived nonetheless as well.” He countered, Rhoen had no disdain for the human, young and willing to try, it’s all that mattered, “And here’s an old Krogan saying for you Saelian, not every Krogan can be the strongest warrior, but each must inspire his peers to battle at his side. The way I see this, we’re a team, and if what happened down there is any indication of what’s to come, we all need to motivate each other. You and the human included.” The thought of that sank in his head for a moment, but he wouldn’t admit it, instead, Saelian sought only to change the subject, as he looked towards his backpack, opened with several empty boxes of the dextro food Turians needed to eat. “Did… did you eat my snacks.” Rhoen smirked, unashamed, “Yeah I ran out so I got a bit hungry.” He felt his stomach shift as an uneasy expression shot across his face. “It just gave me the runs though. Uhh, I’ll see you later!” he yelled as he quickly hustled from the room, and ran towards the bathrooms. “Out of my way I gotta pyjack coming out my ass!” his yell echoed down the hallway back into the room, it shot a short grin across Saelian’s face. The lumbering Krogan stumbled by the hallway leading to engineering and the med bay, catching both Iyra and Abigail by surprise. Abigail, from the krogan’s body language alone knew what he was experiencing. “Okaayy, well neither of us should use the bathroom anytime soon. That’s a fact.” “Eh” Iyra muttered out with a nauseous expression. “Noted” “So what the Hell has happened? On the ship and down there on the planet?” Abigail asked,as she looked back to a body, Nidel’s, under a cover on stretcher, “Because this guy obviously isn’t saying a word to me.” Iyra shot a look of concern at her friend, making jokes about a man who just died, “Abi!” she scorned, before cracking a smile and letting out a little, “Okay that was kind of funny. But seriously!” she snapped back to scolding, “Don’t make jokes. We got attacked, the rest of us were all trapped in a stasis, besides Nidel over there and Taylor.” “Uhoh” Abigail remarked, another bit of ribbing inbound, “Your boyfriend huh? I don’t see him in here so I’m guessing he’s okay.” Rolling her eyes, Iyra answered back, mocking a laugh, “Hurhur, leave the guy alone, he’s nice. And yeah, he’s okay, I think. Killed the thing, felt really bad over what happened to Nidel. But when we got back here, him and that asshole Turian got into a brawl.” “Christ, and what did Kasper do?” “Broke it up.” Iyra took a sip of her coffee, stirring it, not enough caffeine she thought to herself, “That guy was such an asshole though, I honestly don’t blame Taylor for doing what he did.” Abigail was cleaning her stations and smiled, “Hmmph, taking sides huh?” “Ugggh” Iyra bemoaned, “Can you not turn everything I say into that? For me Please? Let’s talk about you, how are you doing Abigail?” The typical high energy, high press, Abigail seemed to dull down upon being asked that question, “Uhhh, you know, lots of this” she explained motioning to all the equipment in her room, “A little bit of that.” pointing to Nidel’s dead body, and once again receiving another look from Iyra. As Abigail thought about the issues that were really on her mind she bore an expression of distress. “Moms still sick, not getting any better. She ask about Mikey all of the time...I have to keep telling her he’s just too busy to talk.” Mikey was Abigail’s brother, who served on the Aetherius for sometime, but left out of the blue one day, and hasn’t been heard from since. Her mother on the other hand, had been ill for sometime, Abigail and her brother joined the Aetherius, primarily with the intent to use the money to help pay for her treatments. Seeing Abigail was becoming flush in the face and teary eyed, Iyra knew her friend wasn’t adept at talking about these sorts of things, so she sought to bounce her back to her comfort zone, “Uhhh, do you want to go back to harassing me about stuff?” Abigail gave a quick nod of her, trying to smile through the discomfort, “You need to bang him. And you need to bang him good!” she commanded, regaining her composure Iyra laughed, at the very least Abigail always cracked her up, even if it wasn’t a bit obnoxious at times, but she was glad to have her, even if at times it was at the expense of her own humiliation. She started to zone out as Abigail proceeded to vulgarly suggest outlandish ideas to Iyra, and though it wasn’t any of those concepts that were manifesting in her brain, she was starting to believe, maybe she did have a little crush on Taylor, something always appealed to her about people she thought could help, just like her father…
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