FSE

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formerly SoFurry search engine

With only two weeks left until the fundraiser gig, the Sole Calibrators took their time to relax in their own individual ways, praying that no other missions would come before then. As much as they knew they had every right to refuse a mission, Arutulelan had a way of convincing them otherwise. And none of them wanted to go through his "negotiations" again. Lirem and Norem practiced their guitar duets together, correcting each other on their form and pacing. Jax and Leiah ended up bonding over a few rounds of Medal of Duty in the game room. James ended up masturbating in his room after Jax informed him of an alien erotic magazine called Fornax, catering to both genders and all species especially. And not a quick session either, but the kind where one would drag out the slow stroking of one's length with each new piece of incredible visuals from the magazine. Species he had never even considered with an ounce of erotica before. Turians with fine-sculpted rears, Asari with curvaceous hips, Humans with impressive lengths and Krogans with the beefiest bulks that made him quiver at the knees. It was halfway through this long session, grabbing his half-sheathed cock pulsating harder than ever, that he realised how long it had been since he had a good release. And that after all he had been through, he deserved some private time when he had the chance. Of course this brought his mind back to Koopin whenever love was concerned, or lust definitely, his pre slickening up his cock to shine bright within the room's lights, biting his lip as memories weaved into new fantasies. Seeing one particular krogan hunk, with a large muscular body that made him want to beg to feel his huge girth, his mind started to twist and blend ideas together, forming one of his personal favourite fantasies. His hips started to buck against the air as he sat up, imagining Koopin's warm tight rump that he knew so well, that small flickering yellow tail that would make him smile every time as he started to thrust. His mind started remembering how sweet he would moan, especially with a mouthful of cock that he'd suck tenderly always. Never greedy, never sloppy, but just tenderly savouring every inch of the hot length. His recent imaginings soon swirled as he could see a large shadow opposite him. A beastly krogan stud feeding his thick length inside his lover's throat. It was too thick to take in more than just the head, but the large three-clawed hand pressed firmly on the koopa's head to keep him obedient in sucking, bringing hot blushes to his cheeks.

Beastly grunts on either side of the koopa interlaced with young moans, whimpers of bliss coming from the raptor as he mentally shared his boyfriend with another creature, of another world, of another existence even. It was the first time he had ever imagined such a thing, and to James it almost felt like the most sacrilegious of fantasies. He had always wanted a threesome, to share his dear between two studly men and fill him with hot love to the very brim. But of course he was never able to bring it up for fear of insulting Koopin's adherence to faithfulness, to monogamy. He would never dare hurt his feelings over such an idea, never consider the very thought of taking another like he had with Koopin. But his lust-driven mind ignored this the moment he started cumming on himself, spurting his thick seed with such force that it shot up to his neck, stuttering hot drops onto his scaled flesh. "Hhhhaah, Koopin, hoh, god Koopin! OH! ...hhhhh...hhhhoh god...hhhuh...ohhhhh..." Lying back against the headrest, he sighed happily at the mess he made, chuckling breathlessly at the pent-up semen he had been harbouring for quite a few months. It eased him greatly, relaxing him as he smiled with happiness that his mind decided to focus on Koopin for the climactic ending. Much as he had many other ideas, it seemed much more right to have him in his thoughts in some context or other when he finished, wanting to honour him. A slight wave of sadness came as his body relaxed, noting that he was still alone on a starship in a completely different galaxy. He fished out the photo of him with his clean hand and softly kissed Koopin's image, smiling. "I'll be back soon...don't worry." Putting back the photo, he wiped off his chest with some paper towels and decided a shower would do him good, finding it unoccupied and being rather thankful that even in this future people still used paper towels. The hot shower washing over his naked body was incredibly refreshing, bringing back his energy after the tremendous climax that had left him rather winded mentally. Sweat and fluids were replaced by glistening hot water, his scales slick like an oil puddle after cleaning off all he could. He also had to remind himself to buy some shower gel that would be safe for his body. After getting dressed again, he walked back towards his room while passing Areh's door, hearing the quarian speaking to another voice that surprised him. A voice with a rather chilling feel like an icy mist, recognising it to be Arutulelan's. He pressed himself near without thinking, curious for what the two spoke of in private. "Did you find anything about that group we faced sir?" "Not as of yet," said Tulan. "There are many groups with turian-based allegiances that, without any further discrepancies to note, this one will find more challenging to solve their origins." "This was what you meant by the place getting exciting?" "Perhaps...this one was uncertain whether to follow it or not, but now its suspicions have been confirmed that they are perhaps of a larger operation." "Norem said that the driver in the mako said something about them being brothers from the homeland. The driver was directing it at them specifically meaning that they might be from Taetrus." "Hmmm...and yet you have no recordings of their operations? No visuals or such?" "I arrived at the end of it, I didn't even see the driver let alone anyone who escaped. I should have asked the guys down planetside to record something." "Hm. Very well, this one might have a possible lead to follow up with concerning Taetrus. It will inform you when this one's observations are complete." "Alright." "Have you found anything concerning the crystal shards from Makhaira?" "Nope, nothing. The crystals don't seem to react to anything, and they're not like ancient or anything." "Interesting...and the numbers?" "I've tried a lot of combinations, but none of them make sense. What about you?" "The same result, not a single code nor account it appears to be." While James was not able to see what numbers they were, he would still find himself being puzzled over what they were as Tulan said: "This last number is puzzling. Why is it individually separate from the rest of the three-set numbers?" "I wish I knew," said Areh, "it just makes no sense! Maybe they really were just crazy after all." "Nevertheless, it was very observant of you to note the numbers for a future record. This one will try to find out more concerning it, but it seems unlikely to be more than just inane gibberish from deluded spacers. This one will notify you again in the near future. Take care, Areh." "You too...sir." The moment when James turned and left, he bumped straight into Jax and Leiah coming up from the hallway behind him as he stopped short of the krogan. He almost jumped out of his scales and struggled not to squeak, flicking his tail hard in panic as the krogan growled: "Whut are you doing?" "Uh-nothing, just walking." "...you spyin' on my little buddy?" "What, no! What do I care what he does?" "...alright. Sorry, see ya round Leiah." He walked to his own room as Leiah walked up to James, the raptor heading back towards to put further distance between him and Areh's room while murmuring: "Don't say anything." "I wasn't gonna," said Leiah, "were you really spying on him?" "...yeah." "Why?" "He was...he was talking with that blooper dude about something." "Hanar." "Right, sorry, dammit, just-whatever, him and Areh were talking." "Oh?" "Yeah like...real casually even, like he wasn't so much a boss as he was to the others, a lot nicer even." "What were they talking about?" "Just they were trying to figure out who those turians were back down on that mine planet, and also the weird code those people scrawled on their bodies over at the research station." "The one on Makhaira?" "Yeah, that, I can't remember any of the planet names." "Heehee, it's okay. Well, that doesn't SOUND unusual, why'd you lie to Jax then?" "Have you seen that guy? If he thought I was doing anything towards Areh he'd fucking rip me in half!" "He DOES seem rather protective of him," said Leiah, "I have to wonder what the deal is with those two...they seem such odd friends, a lot closer than with the Hallahers." "Yeah...so how was Medal of Duty?" "Great, Jax is such a killer with a shotgun even in a videogame! But I managed to get pretty sneaky with some grenades...and maybe a sniper rifle or two, hehehee! Still not as fun as the Combat Simulator though." "Yeah, aw man that was a blast. How long ago was that?" "Almost two months now?" "Wow time flies in this galaxy." "When you're on ships half the time flying between systems over a couple of weeks, it sure does." "Yeah I guess so...how's your family?" "Great, you have to say hi to them sometime, next call we get I'm bringing you in." "Haha, okay then."

The next day however would bring a whole new surprise to the Sole Calibrators, when Areh called all of his friends together with some disturbing news in the cockpit. "I picked up a distress signal, coming from a ship out somewhere halfway to Illium." "What kind of signal?" asked Lirem. "It's a beacon, wasn't a message sent out or anything it's just calling out for people to come and help them." "Well we are gonna help them right?" "Well I want to." "Shouldn't we contact our boss first?" asked Krungut Jax. "I tried but he's not replying! I don't wanna leave those people out there..." "I'll go with you," said FG. "It wouldn't be right to not help them." "Well hold on," said Lirem, "let's actually check out the ship first, then we'll see." "Right." Within a few hours the Centurion Eagle was hovering over the suspect vessel, a small cargo ship barely any larger than their own, except for the rather sumptuous cargo hold judging from the look of its design. It was extremely well-curved, circular in its design like a white boomerang but with a long jutting point between where the two outward limbs met, creating a small three-point circle. It was also rather damaged, not enough that there was any hull breakage but enough to show that it was drifting lifelessly among the stars. "What IS that?" "Some kind of cargo vessel," said Norem, "looks Asari in origin, tiny though, can't be holding more than thirty." "How come we never see any MASSIVE ships?" asked FG. "Like, full-on hundreds-of-people kind of ships." "Um, because we don't bother with those?" said Areh awkwardly. "Ah...right okay um...so, how we gonna do this?" "It looks really damaged for one thing, notice the way it's drifting? Maybe it had some kind of massive failure in its drive core and they're just holding up with life support." "Can you raise anyone?" asked Lirem. "...no. I can't really scan from this distance either to tell what's wrong." "No signs of attack either, no pirates or anything. Send out a basic peace signal, hopefully their comms aren't too bad that they receive it." "Okay."

Sending out a standard communication signal that was a sign of peace and assistance, they waited for a reply from the seemingly-stranded Asari vessel. Minutes passed by into eternity until they were about to dock with the ship themselves, regardless of whether received a signal or not. But then one did, a weak signal of acceptance hailing them over close range, scrambling through their comms with: "H- - -hello?!" "We caught your distress signal!" said Areh. "This is the Centurion Eagle, registration Wolf Three-Nine-Five, are you hurt?! Do you require assistance?!" "Ju- - -try to- - - -disa- - -engi- - -neer proble- - -" "Are you having problems in engineering?! Do you have the life support on, just tell us and we'll come help! We've got some experts here who can handle ship repair!" "NO- - -engi- - - -shut dow- - -sable, I ca- - - -thing in transport tha- - - -eave!" "Sorry, can you repeat that?!" "YOU NEED TO- - - - -NO- - - -bell?!" "Did you get that?" asked Jax. "Nope," said Areh, "all I heard was 'engine shut down, moving in transport' I think. I'm going down there to see what I can do." "Woah woah woah you ain't going nowhere inside that ship." "Jax, I'm the one that talked to them, I know how to fix ships, I'm the quarian, okay?" "I'm coming with you!" blurted James. "I mean, in case you need any help." "And me!" said Leiah. "I mean, I AM a quarian too so I know about ship repairing too." "W-what?! Um...well...alright then. I guess two quarians are better than one hehe...but Jax, you stay here." "Whut?!" said the krogan. "These guys sounded really scared and lost inside their ship, we don't know what damage is down there and I don't wanna scare them with a krogan walking around the place." "Who cares if they shit themselves, I'm coming with you!" "No, James'll come with me and make sure of any problems." "I don't care if we all go, I am NOT letting you go without me!" "Bu-" "NO!" Jax stared down at his quarian friend with piercing eyes, snarling with a fierce devotion. "I...am NOT...leaving you." "...I can handle myself-" "I know...but if anything happened to you on board that ship, or anywhere without me I...I just couldn't-" "Okay okaaaay fiiiine. I guess it'll just be me, James, Leiah and Jax then, if that's okay with you guys?" "Fine by us," said Norem. "It's your distress signal after all." "I don't mind," said Leiah, "we always need some extra backup." "Especially a big guy like Jax," said FG, "after saving my ass with those bug thingies, I trust him." "Alright then," said Areh. "We'll get to docking and try to find out what's wrong with this asari ship." "I have to ask something though. Why is it on all these past missions you only send out three people?" "Well normally," said Lirem, "we only got four of us here, and we need at least one person to hang back on the ship in case of emergencies. But...now there's six of us, I guess...that's not really much of a problem now huh?" "Right...so it's no problem if four of us go in. Alright then, I'll get ready."

James headed off to his room to prep for his armour, as well as Leiah and Jax doing the same in their own separate rooms whilst Areh began docking the ship. The Centurion locked in place, docking at the airlock entrance to the ship. The two quarians stepped up first, slowly opening the door as the compression equalised between airlocks, balancing out for them. Areh confirmed that the ship's life support was on after checking at closer proximity, meaning they did not require helmets as they walked in. The first thing they noticed were the two dead asari bodies lying in a dark steel narrow hallway, the lights now dim which only further made shadows grow beyond. The hall was a tinted grey, latticed floors showing the underveins of the ship channelling power throughout the place. Areh brought up a power scanner from the toolbelt he brought with him, the scanner resembling a handheld radio with one single screen showing a digital readout and directional power sources. "Power's still on for the most part," said the quarian, "least for half of these cables. Just not sure for what yet." "Well life support definitely," said Leiah, "and lights, obviously." "They seem to be on low power, probably trying to conserve energy. Jax, what about these two?" The krogan walked over to the two bodies on the floor, purple-skinned females wearing civilian clothing as he assessed how they were killed by turning them over, resting on his knees in doing so. "Not poisoned, that's good. Sum water round the eyes too, not a happy end since both of 'em were crying." "I can tell from here," said FG, "trust me I'll know if they've been poisoned." "Hmmm...only one of 'em has a pistol. ...they're cold so they been dead fer more than a day...but they both been shot, one in the head an' one in the throat." "Only one shot for each?" "Yeah...that's some professionalism right there...wait. The one in the head's been shot up close, look at the burn field around the wound." "But that's the one holding the gun!" added Leiah. "How did she let someone get up that close?" "No idea...ammo's still in the gun too. Lemme open 'em up a bit." Jax slowly undid their clothes in order to expose their midriffs, touching upon the bellies softly as he noted something off. "Bit o' slight discoloration...not much though, musta been dead fer three days at least." "How the hell can you guess that?" asked James. "When you die, yer abdomen starts to bloat up with gas until it's got nowhere to go. That's when it pops up an' yer whole body deflates about two weeks later once the internal pressure reaches maximum. If she'd been dead longer they'd be showing their veins better." "Are you...some kind of doctor?" "Close, hehe...I worked as a mortician back a hundred year ago, I'm not really good at healin' people but I can tell when someone's dead." "Seriously? Why?" "My dad knew a guy, got me a job, assisting him, I was cool with dead bodies. Every krogan is." "Didn't see you bust that out back during the bug lab mission." "Didn't need to, we know whut happened then. Still, useful fer situations like this...got to wear a sweet lab coat back then too." "I still can't believe they had one your size," said Areh. "They got a size fer everyone...that includes coffins, heheh." "So she's been dead for three days?" asked Leiah swiftly. "Yeah," said Jax, "but as fer who or whut killed 'em, I'd have to go look further in. Lead the way Areh."

The male quarian nodded as he walked further in, using his power scanner to trace for which parts of the ship were still working. The main corridor that ran throughout the ship was darker than the entrance, both ends of the hall fading away into the black void as they tried to make sense of which way. Areh scanned along the cables, seeing that there was more power towards the east side of the ship. Following the live power cable, they passed through room after room, empty and occupied but none of which had any life in them. The remaining crew members were found in various places, slumped up in chairs at the dining hall, peacefully dead in their own rooms or just simply lying before them in the tight corridors. Jax investigated each and every one, finding not all of them had been shot. Some had found other ways to die, one death in particular that rather fascinated him. A crew member hanging from the cables with a noose made around her neck. "Woah...that's sum dark shit." "How the hell did that happen?!" asked James. "Well there's a box nearby, pretty tall too so she had plenty of room to choke...but it wasn't instant." "Aw christ." "See the eyes buggin' out? Not instantaneous with a snapped neck, she suffered long and hard-" "OKAY WE GET IT!" shouted Leiah. "Keelah, I don't need ALL the details when I can see she's...h-h-hung herself..." "What?" asked James. "You're not good with this sorta thing?" "Who is?! I just...this place is freaking me out okay?!" "It's freaking all of us out." "How are you guys so calm then?!" "I'm used to it," said Jax. "I seen worse." "I just learn to stop caring," said Areh. "Like Jax said," said FG, "I've seen worse." "Well I haven't," said Leiah, "I'm sorry that I'm not used to death like you three are." "Okay okay sorry..." "If...you wanna leave you can," said Areh, "I mean, only if you want to." "What-no!" said Leiah. "I'm not leaving at the first sight of dead people like some wuss! I'm not a coward!" "O-okay okay I didn't mean that I...sorry...let's keep going." Feeling out of sorts, Areh walked on before leading his group towards the source of the main power cable, the bridge of the ship that headed further up a flight of double stairs. Surprisingly it was empty, not a single chair occupied amongst the curved inwards design of five panelled seats, a circular-looking room of more pleasing dark rose colours. James walked towards each and every one of them feeling the seat itself, wondering over Leiah's reaction to the hung woman previously. All the time he knew she had been surprisingly capable of handling death and violence. Eventually he found one seat to be slightly warm. "This one was sat in recently...must have been whoever was calling us." "So where did they all go?" asked Leiah. "Why leave the bridge?" "No idea...other than if someone...or something, was chasing you throughout the ship."

An uncomfortable silence hung heavy over them, as Areh investigated the communications panel and tried to send a signal back to their own ship. First he used his own comms to inform them via omni-tool. "Guys, you there?" "Loud and clear," said Norem, "what's the sitch?" "We got a situation here I think, some dead asari crew and an abandoned bridge. I'm gonna try to send you guys a signal from the ship's own comms so get ready to receive." "Alright." The quarian opened the comm channel of the ship towards the Centurion Eagle, seeing Norem pop up on the screen with Lirem behind him. "Can you see and hear me?" "Like you were there beside me," said Norem. "Huh...that's weird, because it wasn't working before." "Maybe they got it fixed before leaving the bridge." "And why would you abandon a perfectly good communication system WITHOUT calling for help?" "...I dunno." "Hmmm...can you run a scan of the ship from here?" "I can try...scanning now.......huh." "What's up?" "There's a disturbance happening somewhere around the cargo bay, some kind of transmission signal but...it's all scrambled and real faint." "A survivor?" asked James. "Maybe," said Areh. "We'll go down there and investigate, just keep the drive core running." "Areh wait," said Lirem. "Isn't there like a record of the last transmission they made before this?" "OH, yeah good idea, I'll try and put it up now." Accessing further into the comm panel, he found a recording that had been automatically logged into the ship's black box, the last transmission made before the distress signal that had been sent to them. Somehow it was just as badly scrambled as the distress signal, the crew of five in their seats as the captain desperately tried to command them. "What happen- -" "Somebo- - - -set- - - -us- - - -bomb!" "We ha - - - - -signal!" "Main scr- - - - -urn on!" " How- - - -you- - - - - - - -all- - -base- - - - - -belong- - - -to us." "What'd you- - -NO, GET BACK, S-STO- - - -" The recording cut off immediately after the captain's cry of distress, the static overwhelming into a shrieking crescendo of white noise, as James struggled to comprehend what had just occurred. "...uhhh...can someone repeat what they just said there?" "I heard them say a bomb," said Jax, "wuz there a bomb on this ship?" "No idea," replied Areh. "What was that voice at the end?" asked Leiah. "It sounded so deep and...they got a signal from something then it all turned to chaos!" "I don't even know what to think, this whole place just feels like it suddenly fucked itself in within a day." "But...there's something else. I feel...like that voice is familiar somehow. But I can't quite think-" "Yeah you too? I feel like I've heard it somewhere as well." "Not me," said Jax. "Same here," said FG. "I dunno what the hell that could be, but Norem said there was someone down at the cargo bay right?" "Yup. Best get there soon as possible in case any survivors are left." "We need to reroute the power," said Areh, "we have to send some of it down from here towards the cargo bay area so we'll not have to deal with any closed doors...anyone good with security panels?" "Let me try!"

Leiah budged up towards the security terminal and tried to access it through her omni-tool. A few minutes of silence came once again, but this time of a more pensive silence than any fearful one they had before, taking the time to sit and relax whilst Leiah kept on working, James asking: "You a hacker too Leiah?" "No, I just know security panels really well...I kind of liked to mess with these back on the Guuha, just for fun." "You hacked panels back home?!" said Areh. "That's crazy, why would you do that?!" "I got bored! I always liked going into things and taking it apart and finding out what makes it tick...panels are really fun because I made all the doors close in one room and I got trapped inside when I was fourteen...hehehehee! Dad got soooo mad at me for that, he grounded me for a month AND made me fix ventilation shafts for two." "Sound like a natural born rebel," said FG, "got a bit of a destructive streak have you?" "Maybe...I like to see what happens when I take things apart, watch it all unravel like, boop." With that, the lights suddenly went off in the bridge but the hallway behind had lit up more reasonably so, directing them towards the cargo bay with almost every other door open along the way. Leiah smiled and clapped her hands happily, sauntering down the hallway briefly for her small success as they followed her. Heading down towards the cargo bay area, which lied at the very bottom of the ship, the Sole Calibrators' investigators saw less of the crew's unfortunate bodies, but nevertheless found them in bizarre states of death. One such body made them all stop dead in their tracks. An asari engineer lying on the floor, her legs somehow crushed underneath the very floor despite her body itself being above it. Jax tried to examine the body, but found that not only was the body stuck in place, but the floor was irremoveable, or had been sealed in some way. They had no words to explain or even interpret the oddity and decided to keep moving on, until Jax noted something in particular whilst nearing the living quarters once again. "I just noticed something weird." "What's that?" asked Areh. "...all of these people, they got tears down their cheeks, like crying. Every single one of 'em wuz crying before the end." "Well if you knew you were going to die, wouldn't you cry?" "Sure but at least ONE of 'em had to have not known it wuz coming. All of 'em knew though...so whoever killed 'em made sure to let them know." "...keelah...who could do that?" "I dunno...but this place is gettin' creepier by the minu-AUGH!" A large shadow flew past his vision as he fired his shotgun right into the darkness, hitting nothing but making sure his allies pulled back behind him, panicking as they pulled out their pistols all at once. "JESUS FUCK WHAT WAS THAT!?" cried FG. "I-I DUNNO!" cried Jax. "Something just flew past me, I don-...w-wait...that body wuzn't there before." An asari's body had been upended against the wall, broken-necked with limbs just as crippled looking all the world like a broken marionette doll. The way her limbs had been broken up in two separate places on each arm and leg, was all the more disturbing to them as they slowly made their way inside the living quarters. Jax did not bother even checking the body, already rather freaked out moreso by its sudden appearance. The interior living quarters were of a brighter comparison, a more relaxed living space where not a single drop of blood stained its composition. Beds laid around them, separate rooms with tables covered in magazines and PDAs left behind by the crew. One of them was still blinking, glinting towards them as if begging them to look. Leiah cautiously activated what appeared to be a diary from one of the senior members of the crew.

Erosa log M4-530215. We were asked by a small scientific group approximately two weeks ago to transport some machine parts to Illium. Apparently they found some priceless relics of the Arthenni, and they wanted them to be taken back to Nos Astra for safekeeping at their institute. It seemed simple, like any other mission and we have a good reputation for safe transport so...yeah. The only request we had was not to tamper with any of the parts inside, obviously. But, then things started getting weird. It happened the first week after, people just...started not listening or paying attention even. Arma just stopped talking for an entire week, then all of a sudden she just starts crying about this great despair washing over us before killing herself right in front of us, shot right in her own face! I mean...why!? Why did she even do such a thing, it was awful! She never had any problems before then, why did it happen?! She would never do that...and she wasn't the first. I've been recording this ever since the first three got killed, and not by anyone else but by themselves. Tamia hung herself down in engineering with wires, Lorn just beat her own head in with a wrench and the navigator Arlem just...I don't even know how she managed to break all her limbs on her own. I just...I'm terrified of what's happening here. I discharged from the army to get away from this shit, after all that happened on the Citadel invasion. Goddess...why are you punishing me with such horrors that I'll never escape from? Never...escape...all of us are just...trapped in sorrow, all of us start crying in despair of something before we...before we end up dead somehow. I don't even think some of us committed suicide, it's impossible but...but I can't escape all of this. I just...can't...escape ever again. Please...someone help me...I don't want to cry ever again.

"...so that's it," murmured Jax. "That one with the headshot wound at the entrance...she shot herself." "They killed themselves?" asked James. "But...why?" "She mentioned something about sorrow," said Leiah, "that everyone was crying in despair right before the end of...but...what could have happened to them?" They all simply shrugged with no answer before leaving towards the cargo bay area. There were less dead bodies as they made their way further down, but still just as uncomfortable to look at than any other body remaining here. As they soon neared the second-last turning hall towards the bottom of the ship, James could not help but say: "Any of you get the feeling that this cargo thing is cursed?" "Yes," said all of them. "Good so I'm not crazy yet." "Maybe some kind of prolonged exposure?" asked Leiah. "Maybe the cargo was tainted with some kind of fungus, or maybe a poisonous residue like lead or mercury." "Wouldn't they have picked up on that?" replied Areh. "I mean they have to check this stuff before letting it on board, right?" "I guess...but what else could it be?" "I dunno, but why would you ask a small cargo ship like this to transport priceless Arthenni relics?" "Dodge the VAT?" replied FG. "...what's VAT?" "Uh...never mind I'm being dumb." But things took a rather strange turn for them the moment they opened the cargo bay doors. The cargo bay was a scene of chaos trapped within utter stillness. The widest room in the entire place, resonating with sharp steel blue on its floors and walls simply illuminated the madness within. Crates stood balancing upon the very tips of their corners, guns remained buried into various surfaces halfway through, literally impossible to remove. The bodies were just the same, half-sunken into the floor, the wide open bay looking all the world like a giant pit of silver quicksand. Arms splayed up from underneath, frozen still in death. The bodies of those attached were either completely buried within the steel floor, or simply just peeking above with an eye or forehead to be seen. The floor was as hard as anywhere else, yet the remaining crew were clearly dead by other means. Occasionally the hands seemed to have placed themselves on the actual floor itself, pressed down as if struggling to break free. Jax couldn't even begin to guess the cause of death, but he did notice one thing. Tears from their eyes. Every single one that he could see. "...whut in the name of Vaul is this shit?" "I...I have no idea," said Areh, "but...I...h-how did...anything even, wha....who could DO this?!" "Not even a crazed biotic can do this kinda thing," said Leiah cautiously. "I mean...this is insane, it's like...like-" "A modern art project gone horribly wrong," said FG. "That's like the second time you brought modern art into a metaphor, what's up with that?" "I really hate modern art, what other excuse is there?" "Fair enough...um, wasn't there meant to be a signal here or something?" "Scanning now."

Areh brought up his omni-tool and began scanning for radio frequencies. Making a sweep across the entire cargo bay, nothing came up as he tried to walk further in, scanning always around him. He tried not to get too close to the actual bodies, already feeling rather creeped out by the whole mission even if it was his idea to come down here. The cargo bay was rather dark, even with the power running to it since the lights did not illuminate the ceiling up above, more focusing down on the actual crates themselves. Eventually, Areh gave up saying: "I can't find a signal here, there's nothing here!" "Maybe it wuz a mistake," said Jax, "this place is fuckin' weird enough as it is so let's just call the cops at Illium an' tell 'em to just drag the ship back there." "No, Norem said he found a weak signal here, there HAS to be someone." "Areh." "I don't wanna have to come here just for nothing, there has to be one person who survived!" "Areh!" "WHAT!?" "...look." The krogan pointed out towards a small row of bluish lights which appeared along the cargo bay wall. At first the quarian was rather confused by this ordinary sight until one of them started to drop. Slowly descending to the floor, they soon heard the sound of something landing hard as the light faded out. Then it rose back up, staring towards them deathly still. Both quarians understood perfectly what it was as the light began to rise up and approach, coming closer with each step of darkness. "It...i-i-is that-" "Geth," said Leiah. "...it has to be a geth, no mistake. I...wh-what...what's it-" "What's it doing here?!" "I DUNNO! Wh-wh-what do we do?!" "Shoot it!" said FG. "NO, you don't know what it can do!" "But we killed like dozens of them in the combat simulator!" "That was pretend combat, this thing is REAL!" "What difference does it makes, it's just a robot still!" "WAIT!" Areh stopped them from arguing as the creature stepped into the light. Indeed, it was a geth. A cold steel creature of muscular cable and a body somewhat resembling a quarian, minus the head itself which was its own feature. The one single eye glared piercing towards them, its body a strange texture of a dark fading purple. Its omni-tool tried to scan them in turn, which revealed odd little spots of amber all over its body, before it somehow began to speak. A clipped whirring chirp that soon uttered: "One...zero-zero-zero...one...zero-zero-one." "The fuck is that binary?" said FG. "Yeah," said Areh, "but...that doesn't make sense." "Why not?" "Well...normally Geth don't speak it in like actual words, they'd just send out the numbers between each other...it's like he's trying tell US the numbers." "Why would he want us to know what he's saying?" asked Leiah. "Why not speak our language?" "I don't know...this is making me feel something really bad's about to-" "LOOK OUT!"

Jax rushed from behind to grab all three of his smaller allies before pulling them to one side, right before a crate came hurtling down towards them, crushing itself onto one pointed corner perfectly. Right onto the spot where they once stood without a single falter in its balance. All four of them looked at each other with panic at the mysterious geth, who simply stood before them. It didn't even have a rifle, simply staring at them. "Is this thing...the cause of all this?" asked Leiah. "I dunno," replied Jax, "but that fucker's gonna PAY!" The krogan charged forwards with shotgun out and ready, firing hard towards the geth who simply dodged backwards in a glimmer of static, disappearing and reappearing only a few feet from Jax's side. Before he could turn fast enough, the geth suddenly drove its leg upwards with a mighty kick, slamming straight into the krogan's cheek with such force that he stumbled hard. But in retaliation he swung hard back with the shotgun like a club, cracking the geth on the shoulder before it slightly stepped back from the blow. But it didn't seem to be badly hurt. Instead it simply went in for a brutal punch, one so strong that Jax cried out from a thickening bruise that now formed beneath his left eye as he blindly fired his shotgun, hitting the geth somewhat with the spread. But the krogan was now turning furious, as his rage built up and he began charging like a bull. The geth in response ducked low as if ready to pounce, before shoving its head underneath the krogan's lumbering torso and suddenly hurled him to one side by the sheer force of momentum, its shoulder slamming upwards to further throw Jax against the boxes. "JAX!" Areh tried to rush over, but the geth however had other plans, pulling a rifle lodged in one of the crates and smoothly pulling it out of solid matter, as if it was made of water. James swiftly hurried to Areh's side and brought up his tetra shield, the hail of shots that came firing down from the geth now deflected in a half-dozen different directions. Jax got up slowly, groaning as he tried to charge again. Areh tried to reconfigure his omni-tool with a sabotaging signal, trying to disrupt the synthetic AI's pathways with a sudden electronic interference. Normally this would work perfectly fine on one of the geth. This one however, simply twitched and dodged the krogan once more before firing up another unusual attack. Both of its hands started to glow, along with the light of its head which soon radiated with energy, creating a short triangular blast of energy that hurled itself towards Areh. He didn't even realise what hit him by the time he fell over, suddenly unable to move as he hit his head hard on the ground like a stiff board. "A-AAAAAAGH! JAAAAX HELP MEEEE!" "AREH, YOU ALRIGHT?!" "I CAN'T...MOVE! PARALYSED! HELP ME!" "...THASSIT, NOBODY TOUCHES MY LITTLE BUDDY, FUCKHEAD!"

The krogan was unrelenting in its charging strength, slamming successfully into the geth who got knocked back to the point of almost stumbling fully onto its back. But the creature soon dodged away with the momentum of its fall by gripping the floor and pushing itself away into a semi-backflip, before hurling another two crates towards the krogan's allies. James grabbed Leiah and pulled her out of the way, the female quarian using this opportunity to fire hard upon the geth before throwing an arc grenade towards it. The grenade managed to prove somewhat successful in disabling the geth temporarily, forcing it to buckle slightly but not enough to deter it. "Wh-what is this thing?!" cried Leiah. "Areh can't sabotage it and my grenade's done barely anything!" "How the fuck did it paralyse Areh?!" said FG. "I dunno, but this thing is not a normal geth!" "I can tell already, the way it's able to knock through a fucking krogan!" "The fact that it's even TRYING to fight hand-to-hand makes no sense, why doesn't it keep away at long-range?! Geth never fight in close quarters! Not unless they have to!" "Whatever it is we're gonna fuck it up...JAX BE CAREFUL!" But the krogan was not listening, more incensed by fury as he took several shots to the front of his armour from the geth's assault rifle before batting it away hard with one hand. His other hand grabbed for the geth's throat, not able to choke him but desperately wanting to crush the spine between head and torso just to feel it pop. He didn't get the chance to crush it for long, as the geth soon flipped its legs upwards onto the krogan's shoulders, trying to throw him down with a judo-style move that Jax resisted falling for. Instead he simply threw the machine hard across the floor, hearing it slam only once in its roll before it somehow rolled back onto its feet. Then it suddenly jumped up onto a crate high above Jax before launching a sky-high attack, crashing down onto the krogan with such surprising strength that he rolled across the floor. Areh cried out from his paralysed position, unable to lift a single finger whilst looking around him all the more with fear. The numbness was not helping. "JAX, H-HELP ME!" "UNGH...f-ffuuh..." "JAAAX!" "HANG ON!"

James rushed to his aid whilst Leiah rushed over towards Jax to try and defend him from his vulnerable position on the floor. The raptor carefully moved Areh out of the way of danger, putting his stiffened body in a safer area out of the way while avoiding the dead swamp of limbs that laid all around them. Leiah hurled another grenade, firing all the while as the electro-blast managed to stun it somewhat, before the geth was ready to kill. In that time the krogan got up, earning his second wind as he snarled towards the geth. He readied his shotgun for some furious carnage, charging its phosphorous chamber before firing off a magnificent blast. The hot red explosion clouded itself around the geth, searing through its steel carapace like a desert storm. The firing blast was powerful enough to almost feel solid as the geth fell back, grabbing another rifle somehow wedged into the containers' solid steel before pulling it out effortlessly. Not a single trace or hole remained even in the crate's side before it started firing down both Jax and Leiah. Picking up Leiah he ran, dodging behind some crates for cover until one above them started to move. Forced to run in order to avoid the crushing weight, they darted away in time before almost tripping up on the stiffened limbs of the crew members all around them, the krogan dropping the female quarian by accident as she stumbled into a roll. Seeing the geth suddenly come running, she threw her last arc grenade straight towards it, firing at its eye to keep it distracted from the rolling charge. It exploded right underneath its feet, the most shocking force it had ever been given. Seeing it had slowed down, but not by nearly enough, the geth was suddenly assaulted from its side by a blur of brown, the raptor tackling it to the ground and punching it hard with his pistol. Jax ran towards Areh's position, whilst the raptor began beating his foe into the floor. The pistol slammed down upon its light again and again, before he was hurled off of its body by the powerful legs from underneath. He did not relent however, as he found himself on the floor instead, his gun staring straight up towards the geth and fired his entire clip right into its circular light. The creature fell back from the raptor's furious barrage, looking rather uncertain as to whether it should fight or run until the raptor got up and went charging. His claws ignited with firey trails, as flames burst from his nanos like small blue pops of air before he scarred across the geth's face. It didn't do any lasting damage at all, or even get underneath its metallic skin. But it felt good for James to get at least one more punch in. But the geth did not move, nor did it even try to attack again as James looked at it with suspicion, his eyes glaring with pure green.

Soon however it spoke once again, repeating its odd message in spoken binary. "One...zero-zero-zero...one...zero-zero-one." "What...what are you saying? You...you responsible for all this? All these people, did you kill them?" "One...zero-zero-zero...one...zero-zero-one." "For fuck's sake tell me what's going on!" "One, zero-zero-" The raptor fired once into its head, forcing it to stop while stuttering in surprise. "SHUT. Up. I don't know what the fuck you're talking about, and I don't care, did you kill all these people!? Did you make all...THIS around you?!" "This...is but existence." "What?!" "Sorrow...is but pain leaving the body. Do you desire those around you to feel pain forever?" "What...the hell are you talking about?" "Pain...shall drive you forward. Sorrow...will know your name." The geth simply stepped back and slammed its fist into the ground, radiating a thick purple barrier from around itself that twitched and shuddered into odd bright spots. The crates from around it suddenly flew away, and crashed haphazardly into all corners of the bay. The creature soon disappearing within one tremendous blasting zone that headed straight towards the airlock. The large cargo door didn't even open as it faded through the thick steel, lost forever to the infinity of space. James could only watch with confusion at what just happened, with Leiah saying: "What...what was it talking about?" "I don't know...what the fuck's with these robots?" "No...that wasn't a geth, it can't be." "Why do you say that?" "The geth would never do anything like what he did. Never, you remember how we fought them in the simulator don't you?" "Course I do." "Well...ever see any of them do THAT?" "N-no...but why was it even on this ship in the first place?" "Who cares," said Jax, "let's get the hell outta here, there's no survivors an' Areh's all stiff with something so let's leave this damn place!" The krogan picked up his paralysed friend and walked out of the ship, heading back towards the entrance as James and Leiah soon followed. All of them could not help but feel rather shaken by this strange encounter. Areh had his own thoughts ticking away whilst trying to ignore the unusual stiffness throughout his body. Thankfully it seemed to wear off by the time they reached their own ship, the quarian able to walk slightly on his own back to his room looking none the worse for wear, no matter how much Jax insisted to look after him. The cargo ship was left behind as the Sole Calibrators made their way back to Illium. Not only did they have to report on the ship's location to the proper authorities to recover it, but they also had more important things to concern about. They still had one other job left in their backlog to deal with in the upcoming week.