Nexus Effect

Ch.13

After about a week of FTL travel where I had to shoot down only two more pirates foolish enough to try their luck between jumps, we reached the Han System and were overlooking the rocky iceball that was the planet Mavigon. Why are we here?! Who is our client?! Krarek and Paretia obstinately informed us that remaining ignorant was for the best, but we’re here to deliver the shipment of Eezo to a person by the name Forsan Trakra.

“They’re not on the planet, thankfully. It’s too cold down there for most anything. This place is known as a bit of a notorious research station where unpopular scientists are sent to rethink their lives.” Krarek commented as he fiddled with the console to scan for other ships or space stations. C’mon old man! Just ask Alexa to do it!

“That and a drug manufacturing plant. The only way to the complex is surplus military gear to survive the cold and even then it's best not to leave your vehicle until you’re at the front door.” Wrekrov commented.

“Who would run that?” Marrow asked curiously as he looked at the ball of ice worriedly.

“Some very smart syndicates. No one would look for them down there with the near constant blizzards. It doesn’t help that the atmosphere is thin and ammonia-slash-methane based. On top of that, the two most abundant mineral resources are potassium and tin. Also, the near constant storms ward off potential colonists. Only Volus would consider it due to the atmosphere, but it’s too cold and blustery for them.” Paretia replied as she piloted the White-Out closer to the ironically White-Out cold planet.

“Ah, found it! It’s fairly well positioned in upper orbit and is a neutral white-gray color, so the scanners were having difficulty picking it out of the backdrop of the planet.” Krarek informed us as he fiddled with the console some more. C’mon~! Use Alexa already~! “Hail, this is Captain Krarek of the White-Out. I have a shipment of Eezo for Forsan Trakra.”

“Roger that Captain. Pinging a beacon for your ship to follow to our docking bay.” Came a clinical and nasal tone synonymous with Salarians.

“Roger, we’ll be coming in for a landing asap, over and out.” Krarek hung up the line and Paretia began flying for the nearly impossible to see...dreadnought. It is definitely a Turian dreadnought. However, it’s clearly seen better days and appears to be casually holding a position in upper orbit around the planet. Now that we’re closer, my systems, utilizing the ship’s scanners, could tell that a lot of the guns that would normally be on a Exactor class were outright gone and had more hull instead.

She must’ve suffered catastrophic damage and the Turian Hierarchy mothballed her for resale. Poor girl. At least she’s getting use, even if it’s as a shifty makeshift small space station for dubious sorts.

“Okay, we’re coming up on the ship. Docking permissions granted. She may be a dreadnought, but there’s no space for a frigate, so we’re going to have to connect via umbilical and transfer the goods via shuttle to their hangar.” Paretia declared as she pulled us alongside the decommissioned giant to maintain position next to an extending docking arm. It was a tense couple of minutes as the arm got a good latch on us with it’s magnets and pulled us flush to it for the umbilical hatch next to the ramp to connect. “Ugh, that is so nerve wracking.”

“Umbilical docking is always risky and tense Paretia, good work. Marrow, Nora, with me. Wrekrov, load the Eezo on the shuttle for Paretia to start transferring over.” Krarek ordered as he stood up, cracked his back and his neck, then deployed his helmet, which the rest of us mirrored.

“Got it.” Wrekrov said as he got up and followed Paretia left out of the bridge while our group went right towards the umbilical hatch. Once there, I brought the auto-turrets online and watched Krarek open the hatch and then jump head-first in, to float towards the other end of the circular accordion-like tube. Marrow copied and I did too.

Whoa is it disorienting to go from artificial gravity to zero-g in an instant. I’m not even organic! When we had gathered at the other end of the umbilical hall, the hatch opened with an imposing Krogan guard casually tapping a finger against his shotgun’s finger/claw guard.

“So, our mutually beneficial friend sent ya?” The hulking alien questioned casually with a wrinkle of his face. “I may like the stench of death as much as any other Krogan, but do you bathe in corpses or something?”

Ugh! I’ve been trying damn it! “Sorry. Our ship’s previous crew didn’t exactly want to give it up.” Krarek shrugged, unbothered that he still stunk of death. “But yeah, they sent us. The Eezo is being loaded into our shuttle to transfer in bulk through the hangar. Even so, we’ll be making several trips to get it all here.”

“Good. That’ll speed up some of the things the wide-eyes have been working on and get them off my hide about it. I’ll send confirmation of delivery to our friend the moment we’re done here. Before that though, I actually have a bit of a job offer for you.” The krogan, who may well be Trakra, shiftily deflected. Um, I know I’m not handling that, but what about our pay?

“We don’t have anything pending right now. What would we be doing?” Krarek questioned cordially while Marrow, who was using the Asari mindfuck thing instead of fully transforming, looked curiously at the lizard.

“I’m sure you’ve noticed, but the planet the Dymaita is drifting over is a total ice box and nobody likes going down there. I don’t like it especially. One of the planetside research facilities has gone dark and everybody is worried, but none of our ships capable of landing down there are back from their milk runs. You’re here right now, so I’m requesting if you could go and find out if it’s just their comm system freezing over, or if everyone is dead.” Trakra grunted in displeasure over the last bit. It wouldn’t be good to lose anyone on a research team I bet.

“You sure it's not the Criminals that are also down there?” Marrow questioned and Trakra huffed.

“The thought crossed my mind, though they don’t normally mess with us due to the risk of drawing too much attention. They use Mavigon as their hideaway. They leave us be and we don’t call for Syndicate PMCs or mercs to get rid of ‘em. If it is them though, I’ll personally front some of the credits for you to dispose of them.” Trakra snarled angrily at the idea, of the crooks breaking this unofficial deal or the paying out of pocket bit, I’m not sure.

“Alright.” Krarek said with a smile and tilt of his head. “Sounds up our alley. Just add the pay for this to the pay our mutual friend will be sending.” Krarek then held out a fist and Trakra huffed before fist-bumping it firmly and the hulking reptilian alien lumbered away while we returned to the White-Out through the umbilical hall.

“He’s hoping we die and he doesn’t have to pay us anything, you know this.” Marrow pointed out in bemusement to our nominated captain. Yes, we voted.

“It’s all part of the trade Marrow. He’ll be up front with us if we don’t die, trust that. Besides, with Tiny here we can do repairs and other technical work if it’s needed. Hopefully it’s just their comm systems going down.” Krarek sagely replied-hey! Stop calling me Tiny! Why has this caught on~?!

“Yeah.” Marrow sighed in resignation as he rubbed my butt and I perked up with Geth also enjoying the physical contact with our boyfriend.

‘Uh, did I just think he was our boyfriend?’ I Queried, then realized I didn’t even speak a word back there, or even need to. Huh. so this is what it’s like to be a crew member and not relied on in a situation. I swear, if these guys didn’t have me, this ship would be even worse off. At least I programmed one of the drones into a glorified roomba. If a roomba had arms and legs.

Unit Nexus considers us part of this relationship?

‘Of course I do! I just didn’t think I was sharing him since we’re in the same body!’ Which is a bit of a hypocritical thought. I mean, I’m sharing this body with Geth.

...We don’t know what to compute, or how to compute, that We are in a relationship. With an organic no less.

“What are you thinking? That’s a tasty cocktail.” Marrow purred into my ear and I shivered as his hand on my booty groped my bubble butt’s right cheek.

“You two go work off that sexual tension you’re building. It’ll take at least a couple of hours for Paretia and Wrekrov to transfer over all of the Eezo.” Krarek casually waved us off and headed for the bridge.

I wasn’t about to say no, Geth was 716 unanimous approvals and Marrow was already leading me by the hand towards the bedrooms anyway~!

[01001100 01101001 01101110 01100101]

That was fun, if disappointing. Marrow didn’t stuff me full, instead having a ‘dry orgasm’ since we didn’t know if there was enough time for cleanup. It was kinda hot that he could get off without gushing that purple gooey goodness that oddly tastes like boysenberries, but all the same I’d rather get messy. Hot fuck, I think I may have a fetish for getting creamed.

Anyway, after that quickie, we both used the sonic showers to clean up and then mustered on the bridge minutes before Paretia and Wrekrov did. “So, we’re going down to that ice ball?” Paretia uneasily questioned with a hint of a whine to her flanged tone.

“What about the pay again? He’s gonna hold it until we do this and increase the pay?” Wrekrov questioned with a disapproving grunt.

“He’s not holding it, but to be fair this is as much a mercy mission as it is a quick credit job. We do something that adheres to our sensibilities as sapient creatures and get paid a bonus. I have the coordinates loaded onto the system, Paretia, so you should be able to get us in as close as possible to land the White-Out, then we take the shuttle to the complex.” Krarek briefed and Paretia held up her hands.

“Yeah, I’m not leaving the White-Out on that ball of death. I don’t have proper thermal shielding and I’ll frost over fast.” Paretia declared firmly. “Besides, someone should stay on the ship and ensure it doesn’t get it’s struts frozen to the ground.”

“I may be able to shapeshift into something convenient, but I’m not a fan of the cold either.” Marrow sheepishly opted out and I pouted at my boyfriend. Oh well, it looks like we’re doing the three-man squad deal this time around.

“Alright then. I’ll fly the shuttle, Wrekrov will growl at anything dangerous and Tiny will fix whatever is up with the research station’s comm system.” Krarek-I’m not tiny damn it!

“Got it, c’mon Tiny.” Wrekrov dragged me away and I inwardly screamed in fury at being called small! I’m not small! If I get tits the size of basketballs will you shut up about it?!

[01001100 01101001 01101110 01100101]

The flight through the blizzard from the nearby landing site of the White-Out to the research station was brief, yet miserable. We could barely see through the viewport and Krarek had to resort to sensor-assisted flight. Aka: flying nearly blind. He could see the ground with it, trace a path, but that was it.

Either way you shake it however, we reached the research station quick enough and pulled into the shielded hangar bay clearly meant for gunboats and smaller, so it was easy to find a space in the shuttle with the place completely empty. “No ships, rovers, nothing.” I commented uneasily. This is spooky now. It doesn’t help that this storm has blocked our ability to call the White-Out, but they could transmit to us.

“If they had ships, they would’ve gone up to the Dymaita instead of sitting in this frozen box.” Krarek muttered through his helmet as he got out of the shuttle with Wrekrov and I following his example. We readied our weapons and moved to the door leading inside the facility.

Krarek and I got on either side as Wrekrov fearlessly opened the door. The lights were still on. That’s good. Wrekrov took point with me in the middle to cover him and Krarek in back to watch our rear.

“Not hearing anything. No voices, no machines, footsteps.” Wrekrov worriedly reported, since his Krogan hearing was much more acute than most species. “Not smelling any of the scents of death, though that may be me going nose-blind by this point.” Wrekrov commented with irritation and I huffed in agreement. Who knew butchering 50 people and not immediately vitrifying afterward would lead to such a lingering stench?

“Trakra’s memo says there should be a team of 20 scientists accompanied by 10 varied personnel. I am suddenly getting a bad feeling. Even if it’s the night cycle for this place, I doubt everyone would be asleep all at once.” Krarek grimly intoned and I gulped nervously, remembering why Mavigon had a crisis that needed a Spectre in the first game.

“Whats up Tiny? You’re twitching.” Wrekrov asked as he tried the keypad to a door, only for it to not respond, so he kicked the seam and manually wrenched it open with his hands.

“Just wondering. What could they possibly be researching here? You don’t have such an isolated research bunker for drug or medical research.” I commented with a hope that I was wrong. This isn’t even Novera, yet I’m getting the same vibes here. Hopefully there isn’t an even earlier Rachni Resurgence.

“What, you think some monstrosity they created got loose and-holy Urta!” Wrekrov declared with a hint of genuine fear in his guttural tone as he opened fire, whatever he was shooting Screeched as it was torn to shreds. Krarek and I couldn’t see what it was because Wrekrov was blocking the room. He then threw in a grenade for good measure. “We need to leave! Now!”

“What was that?!” Krarek yelled in concern as he approached Wrekrov and shoved against his back. “We need to find out what happened! We can’t-what in the Void was that?”

I followed the two horrified males into the room and suddenly it was like existence was trying to be sucked through a tiny tube. Splattered against the wall in chitinous green fleshy chunks and blood was unmistakably a fucking Xenomorph! “Oh gosh. Oh no. We need to leave now! We need to get back to the White-Out and blast this place with railgun fire!” I grabbed Krarek’s arm, yet despite my superior mechanical strength, he shrugged his arm out of my grip.

“What the fuck is this and how do you know about it?” Wrekrov asked as he shot the corpse in the head and what used to be it’s chest to make sure it was dead.

“It’s a Xenomorph! An adaptive endoparasitic predator species that breeds legions of monsters to overrun ecosystems!” I informed them fearfully and tugged on Krarek’s shoulder. “Now let’s go! If we’re lucky, this strain won’t have developed immunity to intense cold and we can destroy this place!”

“Sounds like a good plan, but now I’m wondering where the Council found it, since this is their version of Noveria and that place has corporations running around their laws!” Krarek growled before moving to a computer and plugging his Omni-tool into it. “Bah, basic encryption. Lazy hacks. Got it, let’s move.”

“Did you just pull the system files off that console and back them up on your Omni-tool? How do you have the data storage for that?” I questioned, since I could understand it if I had done that, I have storage to spare. He just has an Omni-tool.

“I’ve modified my Omni-tool to have three times the storage space and always have removable drives ready for a hefty download like that. We can review the data back on the White-Out.” Krarek replied as we rushed back to the small hanger.

“I’m not exactly opposed to fleeing overwhelming odds, but shouldn’t we at least check for survivors?” Wrekrov questioned, reminding me that in this universe, the Krogan are much more developed beyond combat obsession.

“Nope! No chance! Even if there are, they’re likely living incubators for the next broods. We’ll die if we try to look and the instant death we’ll be granting will be a mercy.” I sternly insisted as we made it back to the hangar. “Oh fuck!”

A few of the black endoparasites were crawling over our shuttle and shrieked at us before charging. We rained hell on the beasts, but the creatures were intelligent enough to try to dodge. Thankfully the flight speed of our projectiles was too fast for their current permutations to handle. Soon enough there was a green pool of blood welling up on the floor and we hurried past them at the slightly-damaged shuttle that had taken a few hits from us.

“Oh you have got to be kriffing kidding!” Krarek snarled as he tried to turn on the shuttle, but it didn’t even respond. “Those things sabotaged the shuttle!”

“Move!” I demanded, shoving Krarek between the seats and getting into the pilot seat. “I don’t need some damn console!” I stabbed my left hand into the dashboard and grabbed the wires, forcibly hotwiring myself to it and I screamed as an energy surge coursed up my arm, but the shuttle hummed to life and I hurriedly began piloting us out, only for a Xenomorph to leap onto the viewport. “Ah~!”

“Get off!” Wrekrov screamed and unloaded his assault rifle on the window, shattering the material meant for high pressures, but not for impacts from inside. The beast swung at me and I screamed when it’s claws dug into my shoulder, but Krarek’s SMG joined in and severed the beast at the arm before it fell away. “Tiny! Shit! Tiny hold on!”

“I-I’m...fine…” I grunted, my chassis blaring alarms. My endoskeleton at my collar bone has snapped. Responsiveness of my right arm is down to 30%. I’m leaking...liquid Eezo. Oh. Fuck! “Guys...Guys you need to leave me.” I winced out as I managed to get us out of the hanger and into the blistering cold. The rapid temperature change would have normally caused something as volatile as Eezo to react violently, but whatever is different about this Eezo Star Swirl put in me, it flash-froze instead.

“Not a chance! Just hold still!” Krarek hissed as he deployed some weird foam over my wound and put his hand on the steering gimbal. Whatever that stuff is, it’s fully sealed the breach in my suit and chassis. Several alarms have gone quiet and I weakly slumped into the pilot seat. “Stay awake girl! Stay awake!”

“I’m not organic…” I weakly replied, then a notice of emergency reboot flashed over my HUD and began counting down. “I’m just entering Sleep Mode…” I closed my eyes and welcomed the disconnect from the pain receptors.

We will all be okay Nora.