[Dolo Station, Shrike Abyssal] Kai The Liberator

One of the LOKIs exploded outright, another tumbled and fell and started picking itself up. The third stumbled, but didn't halt its advance. The mechs were heading to the door, alternating fire to try and keep Kai pinned down until they could actually enter the office.

The turian's neck was, fortunately for him, armored, but the Narasimha had both effectively incapacitated him and was slowly strangling him.

Unfortunately, the turian's fluctuating lifesigns weren't necessarily a positive. The Transgression's primitive warbeast brain decided that the turian's slow death meant that his 'don't fire the autocannon' orders obviously didn't count anymore. So it leapt on top of one of the slave cages, gave out a mighty roar (Primarily because it loved watching the slaves fear pheremons spike) and began firing its autocannon into the office in destructive bursts.

Fortunately, Kai was out of sight and it was firing relatively blindly.

Less fortunately, his cover was useless here.

The ever so slight twinge of triumph as he made a LOKI explode through the power of his omni-tool alone was short-lived for Kai. He let out a decidedly un-manly scream of fear, curling up into a tight ball as the Transgression outside the office opened fire. Heavy-calibre mass accelerator rounds chewed the office up, jackhammering massive holes in its walls. The quarian escaped instantaneous death simply by virtue of his slim frame, but even then his shields shattered audibly from mere ricochets and glancing shots. To put it simply, he was suppressed. To put it realistically, he was already dead.

So, following its directives, the Narasimha sprang into action. It let go of the turian as quickly as it had sprung, though he didn't exactly get off scott-free as it launched off his body with its heavy metal 'paws'. It charged through the hail of autocannon fire, its shields shattering and armour plating taking heavy, sizzling scores. It barreled clean through one of the surviving LOKI mechs and leaped, launching itself on top of slave cages and into the Transgression like a canine missile.

Normally Kai would have been happy to stay curled up in a ball until the heat death of the universe after something like that, but the sudden absence of his drone was something he literally could not ignore. He looked up, and saw it mid-flight. "No, wait!"

The turian crashed into his computer, wrecking the assembly. He groaned in pain and started to pull himself free, reaching for his fallen shotgun. Fortunately for Kai the man was dazed and disoriented, and wasn't moving particularly quickly.

The auto-cannon fire ripped into and past the Narasimha, decapitating a LOKI. The other two paused, seemingly confused by their target prioritization protocols, and then begin advancing on the office again. Kai would need to act quickly to deal with them.

The Transgression fired until the Narasimha bowled it over, then reverted to more...intuitive means of destruction. It bit and clawed and jabbed at the smaller mech with its tail in an attempt to bring it down before the Narasimha could do too much damage.

The turian completely escaped Kai's notice. His existance had slipped the quarian's mind completely. Even as he reached for his shotgun, his mind was only on the Narasimha and its struggle with the Transgression. Smaller, slighter, outclassed in every single way. Hours and hours of tender, loving work and care being rent asunder by shearing fangs and carving claws. He knew the drone couldn't feel pain, it was just a drone, but he felt it for the both of them.

"No!" he shrieked, thin and reedy and childish. A tiny child seeing their favourite toy being torn apart by a rabid dog. Just like the invasion of the Citadel. Just like that asari husk that reached out to his beloved drone and-

Kai shrieked again, like a banshee crossed with a body-wracking sob. He hurled another bolt of electricity from his omni-tool, the charge stronger with only two targets to chain between. Then, quite in opposition of what had happened only seconds before, he left his cover. He ran out into the room proper, right into the LOKI line of fire, and fired his Paladin wildly at the mechs.

The Narasimha was outclassed. Even as nothing more than a VI, it knew that. Tackling the Transgression one-on-one was akin to a frigate attacking a cruiser solo. What it could do was protect its master, buy Kai the time he sorely needed to survive. It would, with 98.7% probability, be irreparably damaged in this attempt. It knew that with the kind of simple certainty that you know that the sun will rise tomorrow. Instead it continued to wrestle with the Transgression, weathering its body being literally torn apart, having the larger mech's tail plunge through its chassis again and again and again. Somehow it managed to get on top, get its jaws around its 'throat'. Had to hold it in place, had to fulfill directive. Preserve Kai'Fenrer nar Tonbay's life at all costs.

Another LOKI detonated completely, while the other lost its gun arm. It still refused to stop attempting to complete its duty, and marched at Kai, trying to restrain him with its remaining arm.

The turian rose, still dizzy. He grabbed the remains of his desk to steady himself as he limped into the main room behind Kai, slowly raising his shotgun.

The Transgression was pinned, but more or less done with the Narasimha. It began to kick against it, trying to push the dying droid off of it so it could continue the slaughter.

Kai swung his arm in a backfist 'punch', flammable gasses steaming from his omni-tool as a half-contained Incinerate followed the line of his fist. The surviving LOKI's head was blown clean off, leaving nothing but a molten stump as the rest of the mech frame collapsed at his feet. He nearly tripped throwing aside the useless Paladin as a mere three shots had cooked the heatsink.

"Stop it!" he cried, staring up helplessly at the inert Narasimha that lay broken on the Transgression. There was one last surge of energy from the Narasimha, its own little dead man's grip. The mechs tumbled from the top of the slave pens. A miscalculation, not enough strength left in the destroyed frame. The Narasimha landed on the bottom. Crunch. Servos shattered, cracked and torn cermaic plating simply popped free. Wiring fused and popped. The Transgression was alive and well, barely damaged at all from the Narasimha's sacrifice.

Kai stood numb. He pressed 'send' on his omni-tool. Too late. Simply too late. The Transgression froze up as a fatal error crashed its entire system, but this feat of hacking was a blip on Kai's radar. He was all alone again.

And the turian limped out of the office, shotgun levelled and ready to fire.

As Kai stood, shocked to stillness by the loss of his friend, the turian aimed, steadied his gun, and fired.

Kai's failing kinetic barriers detonated, but his armor deflected the worst of the shot and he was merely bowled over. He wasn't as lucky when the turian fired a second time. Metal shards ripped through the suit, peppering his back and abdomen. His environmental seals failed utterly as he bled onto the floor.

The turian waited a moment, looking to see if he'd need a third shot to put down, and then walked over to grab the body.

Up above, [R] finished the preparations for its little show, and idly wondered if Kai was done yet.

Shatter.

Concussive force, making his head ring and rattle in his helmet. He gave a cry of shock and fear as the force of the blast knocked him off his feet, landing in a heap on the floor.

"Wait-"

He screamed. Buckshot ripped right through his suit like it was tissue paper. Metal shards the size of sand grains knocked chips out of his ribs, tore through his chest, his stomach. Warnings blazed all across his visor, the entire torso section of his suit going red as the biometrics confirmed the worst. Environmental seals critically compromised. No possibility of repair.

He would have recovered easily if he were human. If he weren't a weak, frail, pathetic excuse for a quarian. He lay there on the floor in a heap, staring at the hundred red pinpricks in his suit. His stomach tightened and went cold, his blood seemed to freeze in his veins. A single pathetic sob escaped him. Dying.

The turian grabbed him roughly, thinking he was just a corpse already. Or so close to one that it didn't even matter. Kai didn't think he could really argue there. Yet he felt his fingers move on his own, twitching, tapping keys on his omni-tool as the turian dragged him across the room. A warning screen appeared on his visor that he dismissed. One last 'fuck you'.

A bolt of electricity, an Overload charge that completely fried his omni-tool. He could smell the turian's sizzling flesh even through the olfactory filters, could see him twitch and scream as every nerve and muscle was utterly fried. The smoking turian went stiff and slumped, a charred corpse.

Oh Keelah. I'm... I'm dying. I'm dying I'm gonna die I'm gonna die the fever can't be far behind oh Keelah I don't want to die...

No. No m-maybe... maybe [R] can help me, maybe Nitasha... medigel medigel Keelah I need my medigel...

He dumped every last scrap of his reserves. He felt half his body go numb as the antibiotic gel flooded the scant space between his skin and his suit. No pain, at least. No more blood loss. A mere stopgap against what was coming. He struggled to one knee, weak as a newborn, needing to plant a hand on the floor to stop himself simply flopping back down. Focus, need to get the slaves out, they can carry you...

Kai grabbed the turian's wrist, yanking it up and slapping the palm against the slave pen scanner. A heart-stopping moment later it beeped, the light turning green, and the gate slowly slid open.

"I'm here to... to help you..." Keeping the Aral'Karras voice helped, somehow. It made everything seem surreal, made it easier to keep the cold fear at arm's length. "Here with friends just... a minute..." He half-staggered, half-crawled over to the inert combat mechs. The painstakingly repaired Narasimha, torn to ribbons, damaged beyond all repair. The Transgression, its operating system crashed, yet otherwise near pristine. One chance. One slim chance.

Kai popped a panel at the joint on the back of the Narasimha's neck, just below the joint at the head. He reeled out a thin cable, dragging it over to the Transgression, searching for a similar panel. He found it just behind the left side of its 'jaw' and plugged it in. Recognizing the destruction of his omni-tool, the notification went straight to his visor instead. He confirmed the upload.

"Someone h-help... me up..."

[R], blissfully unaware of his subordinates horrible maiming, was busy leisurely strolling through the halls. Kai should be more or less done freeing the slaves by now, which meant it was time for him to properly put the plan into motion.

He keyed an activation key into his omnitool.

Showtime.

Power lines across the station suffered a series of micro-detonations as a series of dozens of went off in sequence. Live wires spilled into hallways across the station, and banks of GARDIAN turrets and defensive cannon went dark as their power supplies were cut.

In the main Dock Control, Embau pushed a last, cooling corpse onto the floor and opened the Cargo Bay doors.

On the DAYAN social network, a notice, an opportunity to Update the Galaxy, went out. And impromptu rescue squads, roughly organized by Reyni, flew towards the station in a variety of freighters, shuttles and glorified space trucks.

And, in the locked slave auction hall, the cage opened. Releasing a very angry, very hungry Fomori. It leaped into the nearest group of slave-buyers and their bodyguards, ripping sapients apart with gusto as the crowd panicked. The crowd attempted to leave through the doors, to escape anywhere, but they were sealed shut. The auction hall swiftly became a charnel house.

Down in the hold an emaciated turian helped Kai rise, wrapping one of his arms around her shoulders. "Where to?" she asked.

And then the message reached the Light of Purgation.

Kai spared a glance back at the destroyed Narasimha connected to the Transgression by a simple fibre optic wire. As much as he ached to stay behind and make sure the transition went smoothly, he simply couldn't. He was probably going to die anyway, but if he stayed he'd certainly die. He bit his lip and squeezed his eyes shut tight as he felt a headache come on from buildup in his sinuses.

"Here," he said weakly, pointing with the arm that hadn't taken some buckshot. He whimpered, leaning even more heavily on the turian woman who was in all likelihood in much worse condition than he was. He pointed again, leading the gaggle of slaves around a corner and down another corridor, hoping desperately that he'd strike it lucky and run into [R]. Fat chance.

I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna die

Farther up the station, [R] called Embau as it lazily dropped a dead guard into a waste disposal pipe. "Embau, how's the evacuation going? Our little quarian boy pull through OK?" it asked.

"Haven't seen him," said Embau, "Or any of the slaves either. Figured they were with you."

There was a pause.

"Well," said [R], "Fuck my life. Get me camera feeds to my helm. Now." It closed the call and began to sprint through the corridors, cursing its luck.

The slaves followed Kai obediently, the turian woman keeping him propped up even as he figured his legs would fail him. They turned one corridor, another, approaching the cargo bay (And escape) far too slowly.

Eighty meters from freedom they turned and came face to face with three armed, armored local guards. To the guards credit, they reacted quickly. Guns and voices were raised, one, a surprisingly thin volus, called out, "On the floor, slaves. Explain. Now."

The short walk felt so much longer for Kai, struggling with every step as if he weren't even a year old. He felt the symptoms setting in, whimpering in misery and pain as they all stacked up on him one after the other with intensity that even the medi-gel couldn't hope to dampen. Hives and eczema running rampant beneath his suit, his eyes red and watering. He had never been in water his entire life, so he had no comparison to the strange full, fit-to-burst feeling he felt in his ears. His nasal passages were becoming so choked with fluids that they were completely blocked. Slowly, surely, his mouth and throat began to betray him too. Fluid filled his lungs, making every breath rattle. His chest tightened, as if his ribcage were compressing, or perhaps the fluid was bloating up his lungs in an attempt to burst free. Every breath became a battle, desperate sips to keep himself alive.

don't wanna die don't wanna die don't wanna die don't wanna die don't wanna die don't wanna die don't wanna die don't wanna die

And then the guards. Not even a full hundred metres away and the consoling thought that maybe he'd made a difference in his life was snatched away. All the strength left Kai's body, his knees giving out and his legs folding completely. He landed in a heap, without the energy to even shiver, his full weight too much for the turian slave despite his slim frame. He choked and retched, suffocating as he tried to breathe and yet only produced thin strands of bile.

don't want to die-

Something moved.

The swish of a tail, of something or somethings sharp slicing the air, the sizzle of molten ceramic. A cluster of omniblades, each no bigger than a shiv, pierced the volus guard's shields and lodged in his suit. A brief moment of blinding panic from him, fearing an explosive fate. His troubles were soon forgotten as the massive, bestial frame of the Transgression mech swooped down upon him in a disturbingly agile spin. Its heavy bladed tail lashed out like the bullwhip from Hell, cleaving the shield-less guard completely in two. An explosion of gas, amonia, pressurized air and gore marked the spot the volus had once occupied, painting the once gleaming silver Transgression crimson.

It didn't stop there, of course. Practically the instant its paws touched the floor it was moving once more. A spin of its body to multiply the centripetal force of its lashing tail, a delaying tactic that knocked the other two guards back. One was left at an angle he couldn't correct, landing hard on his back. The other was the mech's new target. The Transgression coiled itself like a spring, artificial musculature and heady pistons bunching and launching all in one moment with the agility of a panther. The impact alone snapped several ribs and dazed the guard as he was borne to the floor, but that was not the end of it. The Transgression's heavy bladed tail swung once more, tip sliding back as the microfabricator contained within constructed an omniblade the size of a Bowie knife, and plunged it through the man's sternum.

The Transgression turned to face the sole surviving guard, its latest victim still moaning and twitching as he breathed his last. The blood-soaked mech crouched in preparation for its final pounce, burning red optics fixed on the survivor. With a brisk twist, almost mocking if the drone was capable of that, the tail snapped the omni-blade off at the hilt and returned.

"...came back..."

The last guard drops his weapon and scrambles to get away from the transgression. He gibbers, desperately trying to cry out his surrender as he panics.

Then, slightly too late, [R] sprints onto the scene. It vaults over the line of slaves, gun in hand, yelling Kai's name.

And then it sees him. There's a pause. "Fuck," it says, "E, tell N to prep the surgery ward. Kai, can you hear me?" The guard moved, [R] fired a round over his shoulder, stopping him dead. It stalked over, forced the guard onto his knees, placed the gun against his helmet. A practiced motion, something done...too many times to count.

It stopped. Looked at Kai, dying on the floor of bullet wounds. Its fault. Entirely its fault. What was it thinking, some dumb kid, managed to be a hero once. And it killed him.

The guard was praying. Some language the translator didn't parse.

Another few seconds wait, the slaves were just watching, Kai continued to die. Its fault. Utterly its fault. A life traded, not for gain, but because it was sloppy. And it was going to vent it on some poor guard.

Fuck that.

Then it let out a long, long breath, the only indication that it was actually alive that anyone had seen in years, and let the guard up.

"Find a better job," it said, "Kyle, you're in the shuttle? Turn on one of the cryo-pods. Now. I'm bringing Kai." Then it walked over to Kai, hoisted him up over its shoulders. "I've got a cryo pod and the best doctor in the galaxy waiting on you. Let's go," it said, "The rest of you, keep going, you'll reach the cargo bay. The pilots there will take you to freedom and give you a care package. Enjoy." The slaves split one way, [R], the Transgression and Kai the other.

"You're going to be OK," it lied.

Kai tried to respond verbally, but all he got was an incredibly wet, rattling breath that seemed to suck the air out of his lungs. He nodded, more of a vague twitch of his helmet up and down. He could feel the Transgression standing over him, alien blood slowly drooling down from its armour plating, yet it was the only comfort he had left. The Transgression stared [R] down briefly, as if considering ending the reason for its master's suffering in one more strike of its tail.

It moved, in the end. It shuffled to the side, blades retracting into its tail, and Kai was lifted up over [R]'s shoulder like a ragdoll. That mere action sent stabbing aches through his joints, like a hundred invisible knives being thrust into him all at once from a hundred directions. He would have screamed if he could, but that would require lungs that weren't being crushed by their own weight. He just hung there begging for the pain to stop, figuring out quite easily that [R] was lying.

don't wanna die like this

One last desire seized him. In any other situation it would have been insane, but... was there honestly anything left within the realms of possibility to make it worse? No, he answered himself in half a second, there was not. So his aching arms moved up, gloved fingers scraped at the edge of his helmet. Found the emergency release, coded to respond only to him. There was the sharp hiss of escaping air, of the carefully maintained environment in the suit, one of many he had worn without respite for going on nineteen years, was vented all at once into the unfiltered air. A jerk of his arms, wild and ungainly. His helmet landed on the floor and bounced with a hollow thunk, rolling aside and coming to a stop against the wall.

Kai felt air on his face. It was air on a space station, not as 'real' or 'natural' as he would have liked, but it was close enough. The sensation was profoundly alien to him, enough that it even managed to take his mind off the pain and suffering for at least a few precious moments. He felt his own face, felt the texture of his own glove, felt his fingers rake through the sheets of cold sweat rolling down his face. He turned to look at [R], and the mysterious genderless drone got to see a real-life, unfiltered view of a quarian for the first time in three hundred years.

Kai's skin was riddled with eczema and hives, but the original lavender tone showed through. Black lines swirled and arched across his face, like a strange mix of tribal markings and circuit-patterned tattoos. His eyes were crusty and seeping, red and weeping, but still held some of their white glow. His hair was short, practically a military buzz cut maintained by automated systems in his helmet, flattened into tiny sweat-slick spikes by his fever. He coughed, hacking up something thick and wet on the floor.

"don't wanna die..."

[R] sprinted for the shuttle, flying through the station's hallways. It couldn't fail, it didn't fail.

Kai's helmet came loose. It didn't miss a step as it jumped over it, but it stared into its victims eyes anyways. It's-his voice modulator switched off. Honesty for honesty. "You aren't going to die," he said, "You are not going to die."

They entered the shuttle, Kyle scrambled out of the way, gawking at Kai's wounds and his face. He said something, Kai couldn't hear it, [R] didn't care, as [R] stuck Kai in the open cryo-tube. Then he slammed a button, it hissed closed, and everything went cold, then dark.

When he awoke he was on a hospital table, the pain was gone, and he was hooked up to a truly enormous amount of wires and tubes and things. Kyle, the Transgression and two [R] suits were watching from outside, while Nitasha was standing over him, face grim.


"I have grave news," said Nitasha, "There's nothing I can do. You're going to die."

It was comforting, in a way. Hearing [R] speaking, knowing that he was human (if you’ll pardon the wording) under all that armour and mystique. He fought to keep his eyes open, strangely happy that Kyle got to see him without his helmet too. Someone else he’d managed to save. Something else useful he’d done with his life. He passed out all on his own as he was flung into the cryo-tube, and was spared the sting of icy pain as his body was flash-frozen within.

Waking up was… a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it meant that he was still alive, and the pain was gone. The air had that familiar bland taste of a cleanroom, which made sense considering he was still helmet-less yet not dead. He saw Kyle and the Transgression watching through the window. Kyle was practically the first person he’d ever had a normal-person conversation with. And the Transgression… Part of him had thought its rescue had been a dream. Too good to be true. Yet here it was, hastily transferred to an unfamiliar mech frame, but still there for him. The cold, roiling panic in his stomach subsided as he smiled.

His face abruptly fell, however, at Nitasha’s words.

“What!?” he squeaked.

“The allergic reaction is too severe. You’ve got a few hours, we’ll do what we can for the pain, but-” And, entirely without warning, the doctor’s facade of grim seriousness shattered in a storm of decidedly undignified guffaws. She wiped a tear from her face, and tried to pull herself up, “Oh, I am just the worst. That...just.” She starts laughing again, drowning the rest of the sentence, and it’s another minute or two before she speaks.

“Right, uh, seriously though. [R] flash-froze you in time, I can treat what you’ve got. It’s, uh, not going to be pleasant, though. Between the allergies and your immune system, most conventional therapies aren’t going to work. And if I was most doctors you’d be dead.

Lucky you, I’m awesome, so you’ve got a choice!

The first option is a concerted gene therapy and drug regimen, combined with slowly replacing most of your organs to deal with your immune system responses, and modifying, if not replacing, most of your bone marrow. You’ll also need near-immediate surgery to deal with those shrapnel fragments, and you’ll be hospitalized for at least a year, if not more, and in treatment and physical therapy for an order of magnitude longer. It’s cheaper, you can quit or whatever the moment I discharge you, but you’ll be in my little lair a long time.

The second option is Relicae’s process. I excise your brain and brain-stem and relocate you into an artificial body. Civilian model frame, a day or two for the operation, maybe a month to get properly used to your new body. The main issue is going to be debt, but we won’t charge any interest on it. This will be entirely at-cost. It is, obviously, decidedly transapient and effectively irreversible, so if you’re uncomfortable with either of those….take the gene therapy.”

Nitasha slid him a dataslate. “This has all the relevant information, if you want it.”

“THAT WASN’T FUCKING FUNNY!” Kai shrieked like a cat that had just had its tail trodden on. The uncharacteristic burst of anger and enthusiasm left him plum tuckered out, so for most of Nitasha’s explanation he simply lay back and squeezed his eyes shut tight, as if he could wish really really hard and he’d simply wake up to find that it was all a horrible dream. Shame that tactic never worked.

So instead he got a choice.

Spend two or three years in Nitasha’s lair of scalpals and needles struggling to take a single step unassisted, or let her scoop his brain out with a spoon.

He quickly double-checked to make extra sure this wasn’t the worst nightmare in his entire life. But when he looked up, he made eye contact with the Transgression. A simple thing, but it calmed him down enough to get his thoughts together. He dragged the dataslate over, the thin plastic rectangle feeling like it was made of lead to his weak arms, but he managed to grab it and prop it up on his chest. He sat silently for a long time, reading and rereading, absorbing every last scrap of information he could about the biggest decision of his life since ‘pick a new suit son, because you’ll be wearing it forever’.

They both sucked. It was almost funny to feel his emotions wildly seesaw back and forth, like the world’s sickest game of Would You Rather. The prospect of literal years at Nitasha’s mercy with little comfort or independance (not that he’d ever had much of the latter, if he was being honest) was suit-soilingly terrifying, but the alternative was…

Stop and think about this. What would he be going back to? Putting the suit back on, locking himself away from the world again. At first, honestly, he hadn’t hated his suit. Sometimes he’d even liked it. It had kept him safe from sickness, from injury once or twice, had even protected him from exposure all those nights he’d had to sleep curled up in an alleyway. Nitasha’s offer was life without a suit forever. At the cost of his body, but… but he was slowly coming around on that front.

He’d never been much of a transsapient, less out of conscientious objection and more the practical point of being incapable of affording anything or surviving the relevant surgery. The cybernetics that he had, the source of the tattoo-like markings on his face and other areas, had been traumatic enough. The thought was scary, nauseating even, fraught with risk and something he could never turn back from.

But it was something he wanted. A risk he was willing to take. He was never going to put that helmet on ever again.

Kai dropped the dataslate and exhaled slowly, shutting his eyes tight to steel himself. “Relicae’s,” he said hoarsely.

Nitasha smiled, reached over and turned a valve. “Good to know,” she said, “Next time you gain consciousness, the surgery will be over.”

And then everything went black.

~fin~