[Mass Effect: New Genesis] Part 5: Prothean Base Thanatos

[post censored by me...plus....I think a short reply works here....]

Corwin stayed perfectly still while Kreiger paced. He felt his blood start to boil as he listened to Kreiger's accusations. The blood of thousands? Rugiar? Corwin walked right in front of Kreiger, stopping him from pacing.

"I wasn't there, you son of a *****," Corwin spit out. "I didn't have any 'involvement.' If you bothered doing any ****ing research, I quit well before that happened. Why don't you tell me what the **** is bugging you before this gets ugly?"

Astila paced her room, half in anger and half in confusion. The past few days had been tiring, exhausting, good and bad. The good is that she enjoyed her lover's intimate company for the first time. The bad, she had to watch her nemesis walk away unscathed as she writhed on the ground in pain. And the pain, oh the pain, of having to read the last rights to Kreiger as he lay in her arms dying. Then watching him come back to life as a wonderful blessing from the goddess. All this weighed on her.

The code was pushed as far back in her mind as it could go right now. She walked up to her window, staring out into space as she placed her delicate hand on the glass in front of her. Her eyes fixated on the stars as the black void sunk into her mind and mirrored in her silver eyes. Astila was angry with herself. For letting Weiara get away, for getting hurt in the first place, for having to rely on teammates.

After a moment of cursing herself, Astila decided to meditate. She slowly pried herself away fro the little glass window that seemed to always watch her. She began to glow with biotics as she sat on the floor of her room, crossing her legs in a meditation position. A wave of blue glowing biotics flared through the cracks in her door as she began to meditate on the events of the past few days.

Nick had mostly kept to himself ever since the Eris' departure from Illium. With Geth, Collectors, and God knows what else seeking to oppose the crew's mission, he was determined to be as prepared as possible. He spent most of his time maintaining and modifying his weapons and armor. He familiarized himself with the ship's layout and capabilities. Currently, he was dismantling and cleaning his firearms, but was slightly distracted by the works of art in his room. It was mostly landscape art, predominately depicting forests, lakes, and countrysides. However, there were also a few sculptures of Prothean origin. He tried to avoid looking at those. They brought up...pleasant memories. Instead, he focused on the landscapes. They reminded him of the ones his grandmother would paint. "I wonder if they still think about me.", he thought, "they" being his family. He quickly halted that train of thought. "Better that they think I'm dead, instead of learning what's really happened to me and what I did."

To forestall dwelling on these thoughts, he decided to get out and socialize a bit, or at least find something to do to get him thinking about something else. He exited his room and went down to the secondary floor, heading for the rec room. However, while he was passing Kreiger's room, he heard raised voices and shouting coming from behind the door. Not one to eavesdrop, Nick didn't try to listen in on the conversation, but he could still tell that tempers were flaring. He decided to throw caution to the wind and leaned up against the hallway's wall, alert for any sounds of violence that might come from the room. He knew that some things were personal and private, but he also knew that if this crew was supposed to work together, they couldn't afford letting conflicts and grudges culminate in violence.

kreiger was offended by the threats being thrown his way, the nerve of corwin made him lash out in anger, shoving him to the floor and standing over the man.
"MY PROBLEM,mr havens, is NOT whether you were there or not...ITS THAT YOU KNEW! YOU knew you little boschtet! and yet you stood by as MY people were butchered...BY ALLIANCE MARINES! not to mention by a project YOU helped safeguard!" his final words were met with extreme anger as he threw a punch directly towards corwins downed figure. Corwin rolled to avoid the hit and kreigers hand connected with the floor.

Meera decided that hanging down in the medical bay would probably be a good idea. It seemed more of the crew was injured than they originally thought, given the appearance of the unnamed quarian. She wanted to tour the ship, but at the moment she was too tired to think, and decided an old fashioned nap at the office. She sat down at the desk, and put her head in her arms. Within moments she was asleep.

Corwin rolled to his right, narrowly avoiding Kreiger's fist as it slammed into the ground. He pushed himself up to his hands and knees, smirking towards Kreiger.

"No," he replied with some spite in his voice. Corwin was't waiting any time. His military training kicked in as launched himself toward the stunned Kreiger. Human elbow met Quarian skull with a thunderous strike. If Quarian physiology was anything like humans, that would have knocked Kreiger out. Unfortunately for Corwin, Kreiger was not human. That blow knocked Kreiger to the ground while Corwin somersaulted away and back to an upright position.

"You're mad because you can't go back home and you're blaming me. So I protected something in the past. Tough ****." He took a defensive posture and continued while Kreiger was getting to his feet. Corwin knew exactly what button to push now. "So show me what you got, Kreiger vas Eris."

[Short by necessity]
Nick heard muffled thuds and louder shouting coming from inside the room. "This can't be good.", he thought. He moved over to the door and tried to open it, only to find it was locked. "Crap."

He pounded on the door a few times with his fist and said, "Hey, everything okay in there?"

"You're mad because you can't go back home and you're blaming me. So I protected something in the past. Tough ****." Corwin took a defensive posture and continued while Kreiger was getting to his feet,holding his jaw. "So show me what you got, Kreiger vas Eris."
"vas Eri....OH you lil!"
there was a thump at the door
"HEY, everything okay in there?"it was nick, the new crewman from Corwins hospital room.
"It will be!" Kreiger turned and faced Corwin once more, pure hatred in his eyes. he let his body flow loosely. he knew tensing up would double the impact of any throws landed by Corwin.
"and you WOULDN'T be pissed if you could never see home again? if your family, DIED before your eyes? you have NO IDEA the hell i endured!" Kreiger dashed forward as Corwin readied for a punch but at the last minute his leg slid forward and swept Corwins shins,throwing him off balance. he swung his arms to steady himself and kreiger took advantage, throwing his left fist up, hitting his jaw and as corwins body responded he threw his right forward and connected with the left of his face.
Kreiger readied himself for either Corwins reaction or his smart mouth.
"you still think, that humans are superior don't you? even after Cerberus, a tiny piece of them remained."

Corwin was unprepared for Kreiger's feign. Corwin blocked high and Kreiger attacked low....hitting Corwin with a fast leg sweep. Corwin could only throw his body weight in the opposite direction to maintain a semblance of balance. Kreiger took advantage of the momentary distraction with a vicious uppercut to Corwin's jaw. Corwin's head snapped back from the blow. Corwin responded with a right hook to the side of Kreiger's head. The blow gave Corwin a little bit of breathing room.

"You still think, that humans are superior don't you?" Kreiger's words dripped with anger. "Even after Cerberus, a tiny piece of them remained."

Corwin re-appraised what he knew about Kreiger. He was a bit more experienced at brawling than Corwin gave him credit for. Rather than have this degrade into a barroom-style fight, Corwin decided to change tactics, just slightly.

"It's got nothing to do with being better than the the Quarians," Corwin growled as he threw a sloppy right jab which Kreiger easily blocked. "I just don't spend my day blaming others for my own failures."

Kreiger came in close and tagged Corwin with a quick secession of punches to his face. Corwin telegraphed left hook which Kreiger bent down to dodge. That was the reaction Corwin was waiting for. Corwin drove his right knee into Kreiger's left eye. He reeled from the force of the blow. This time, Corwin wasn't going to give Kreiger breathing room.

"Whatever I did in the past...I already paid for." Corwin kicked Kreiger's vulnerable solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him. Corwin's words still dripped with anger. "But you. You failed to protect the Migrant Fleet. You couldn't protect your own family. I became a convenient scapegoat for your incompetence."

Corwin smashed Kreiger's temple with a second elbow strike which knocked Kreiger down to his knees. Corwin quickly moved behind Kreiger and locked in a full nelson hold. "I would have died protecting my family. My friends. My team. That's what men do." Corwin started to drag the stunned Kreiger toward the room's mirror.

"Next time you want to blame someone, why don't you blame the person in the mirror?"

[well....I think that'll set up your next move]

Kreiger caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror, blood trickled from his face as busing already started to show. his mind snapped back to that day on the shuttle as he messaged Cerberus deliberately. Corwin was right. it was his fault, but he was wrong on the account that he didn't try and fight back.
Kreiger shifted his weight to his back legs, arching his back as he grabbed corwins arm, lifting him over and throwing him into the mirror, smashing it to pieces.
"yeah, cause tying a man down and shooting him in the back is what men do."
he took a cheap shot at corwins ribs with a stomp as he turned to catch his breath.
"you honestly think that i wanted to pin this all on you? your stupider than you look." kreiger felt woozy. one of his cuts had let a minor infection into his blood stream and an fever began to flare up.
"all i wanted, was answers. for my family, for the fleet.....for myself."
Corwin struggled to his feet, picking glass from his hands as he stood, shrugging his shoulders and cracking his neck
"I know i F***ed up. i live with that EVERY day, the scars on my back remind me, the screams in my sleep REMIND me...All i ever wanted was a why." he let his gaurd down, trying to show Corwin that he was done fighting, that he was done fighting himself. he knew this was far from over though as corwin took a few more jabs.
He ducked but caught one in the ribs. his chest reverberated the pain and he winced sharply, another hit landed his left.
Kreiger lifted a knee with the second blow, catching Corwins rib cage, shunting it upwards.
"and better yet." he added a few more light jabs to his chest, weakening the ribs, ready to break with a sharp kick if need be.
"why do nothing, Corwin? why stand by as the Alliance moves in?"
Kreiger landed a kick to his knee, causing him to buckle
"because you ALWAYS run. you ran from Cerberus, you ran From home, you ran from the Alliance and your. still. Running..."

Corwin landed hard on one knee from Kreiger's vicious assault. A sharp pain shot through his leg, matching his bruised ribs. He spit up a little bit of blood and watched it fall to the floor. It splattered. He could feel the crimson mask flowing from his forehead. That does it.

Corwin pushed off the ground and threw himself forward, toward Kreiger. Corwin put all his body weight into this shot. He tightened his fist and landed an uppercut right on Kreiger's jaw.

CRACK

Kreiger flew backwards from the sheer force of the blow, colliding face-first with the broken remains of the mirror. Corwin walked toward Kreiger with purpose. "Bad things happens all the time in the galaxy." Corwin responded. "I've seen Batarian Slavers slaughter entire colonies for sport. Children's intestines spread around battlefields like party streamers. Their blood three or four inches deep pooling on the cement. Parents staring at me...looking betrayed that I wasn't there to save their kids."

Kreiger spun around and was greeted with a left hook across his face. "Those parents blamed me for what happened. But at least they had the guts to say it to my face. They didn't wait till I was in a hospital bed too weak to defend myself." Kreiger fired back with a shot to Corwin's ribs, probably breaking a couple of them.

Corwin didn't react to Kreiger's blow. Adrenaline was already flooding his system. Corwin responded to Kreiger's shot with a savage kick to Kreiger's ribs. He felt them give and saw Kreiger fall over. "I'll tell you what I told them. There is no why. Bad things happen to good people."

Corwin took a few steps back to give Kreiger some space. He knew he was in as bad of shape as Kreiger was. Corwin wiped some of the blood away from his eyes and flicked it away. He kept talking, but now....there wasn't as much anger in his voice. "I can give you this much, if it'll help you sleep at night. I'm the only reason why Cerberus hasn't destroyed the entire Migrant Fleet."

[Another shorty]
"It will be!", Nick heard Kreiger yell from inside the room. Then he heard an intensified commotion, more shouting, and objects shattering from inside the room. "S*!@, things are getting out of hand."

"Jarvis!", Nick called out to the VI, "Can you unlock this door?"

[MZ and Reece can decide whether Jarvis can do this or not, as it's their bit]

Astila's meditation was broken by the sound of arguing coming from across the hall. She could clearly hear Kreiger and Corwin's voices as they bickered. She was already tense and irritated from stewing in her own anger. "Just let them fight it out, Stella. Let them fight it out ...", She tried to maintain her connection with the meditation force, but her concentration was broken. "Goddess damn it." She stood up, her biotics dying off as she brushed the wrinkles out of her clothes.

Astila opened her door and looked out of the hall to see Nick trying to coax Jarvis into opening the door. She leaned against a wall, crossing her arms, not saying a damn word. She hadn't met this new recruit yet, but there was no use in trying to introduce herself when she could barely hear herself think.

Meera had not slept for long before a loud crash woke her. She sat up straight, instantly awake and aware of her surroundings. She heard quite a bit of commotion down the hall from the med-bay, and peeked out to see what was going on. Nick was banging on Krieger's door, and Astila was standing at her door. Meera walked over to Nick.

"What is going on?" She looked down the hall to catch Astila leaning against the wall. This was worrisome. Everyone seemed to be highly strung out and tired.

Aivar awoke to a sound of a crash. Immediately 'he' was out of bed, in boxers and a white tanktop, on high alert. Had someone boarded their ship? Silently in a crouch 'he' grabbed 'his' sniper rifle and 'his' knife from his desk, and 'he' left the room quietly, homing into the source of the noise. At the top of the stairs, 'he' crouched down into a position where 'he' could roll out and take a shot with 'his' sniper rifle, and then used 'his' knife as a mirror to see what was going on around the corner.

At the end of the hall 'he' saw the familiar shapes of the crew. Signing with relief that the ship was not under attack, 'he' stood up and walked towards them with sniper rifle in hand. "What the hell is going on?" 'he' asked in a irritated voice.

"What is going on?", Meera asked, Astila started to reply when she was interrupted. "What the hell is going on?", Astila looked to see Aivar standing there, looking Irritated. "Kreiger and Corwin are having a little pissing contest.", Astila replied, sounding equally as put off. She put her hands on her hips and leaned out from the doorway, walking over to the rest of the group.

Nick looked back at the others beginning to gather around the door. "Pissing contest is one way of putting it.", he said, "I think it might be getting out of hand though. Someone go grab DeWinter, she might be able to lend a hand. Dr. Lahiri, get ready to treat some injuries, I'm certain they're pretty banged up by now.

"Probably need to be sedated too, if we want any peace on this ship.", he thought.

"Kreiger and Corwin are having a little pissing contest.", Astila replied, sounding equally as put off, and walked over to the group. Nick looked at them. "Pissing contest is one way of putting it.", he said, "I think it might be getting out of hand though. Someone go grab DeWinter, she might be able to lend a hand. Dr. Lahiri, get ready to treat some injuries, I'm certain they're pretty banged up by now."

Aivar couldn't believe 'his' ears. This was way not okay. "What the hell is this crap? Get that fuckin' door open before I blast it open!" 'he' threatened, voice going deep with anger and 'his' face going into a slight snarl. 'He' didn't care what it was, but professionalism must be put before personal affairs. This was certainly not professional by any means.

Kreiger propped himself up with the desk in his room, his back turned to Corwin as he wiped blood from his lip. he clutched his chest, he was finding it hard to breath, this needed to end soon.
"wait, Cerberus wanted us dead too? what have we done to you people?"
it took a moment to sink in, but maybe Corwin had sacrificed more than he had realized.kreigers fists tightened, Corwin caught a glance and took the advantage of having his opponents back. he took a few steps forward, wanting to try and calm kreiger before things got out of hand, but kreiger read it as another attempt at an assault. Kreiger head the first step and immediately turned, 300-claymore in hand, directly in line with Corwins face and mere inches from his nose.Corwin stopped dead in his tracks, staring the quarian down in both a state of shock and anger.
"well if you prevented Cerberus from attacking...guess that makes you the good guy huh? but like you said....bad things happen to good people."
He pulled the trigger, only to be met with the expected hiss of an unloaded gun. the click of the trigger made Corwin flinch slightly.
"get out..." he gestured towards the door before placing the gun back on the table and leaning against it, back to Corwin once more.
"I need to be alone for now."

Corwin stared directly past the gun and into Kreiger's eyes. There was a bizarre condition that all organic life faced with these sorts of weapons. When most species have a gun pointed at them, it paralyzed them as if they were hypnotized. All they were able to think about was what the the weapon would do to them. The problem was....it wasn't the gun that would tell you that. That answer was beyond the barrel. It was in the eyes of the one holding the gun.

"Kreiger," Corwin said a little more calmly. "What are you doing?"

Kreiger's reply confused Corwin. There was hatred there still. But it seemed forced and somehow hollow. "Well if you prevented Cerberus from attacking...guess that makes you the good guy huh? But like you said....bad things happen to good people."

Corwin considered his options for a moment. He could knock the gun out of his hands very easily. But that wouldn't solve the problem. Kreiger's eyes were telling him there was a different problem here. They were angry. But at who?

The sound of the trigger caused Corwin to flinch.

"Get out..." Kreiger wearily muttered as he gestured towards the door with his weapon. "I need to be alone for now."

Corwin silently nodded. He turned toward the door and took one step before pausing. He looked back towards the Quarian on the ground. Corwin reached into his pocket and pulled out a letter. Corwin spoke to him like a concerned friend. "Kreiger. For what it's worth. I'm sorry about your family. Here. Read it when you have the time."

Corwin tossed the letter onto the table next to the gun and headed toward the door. He unlocked it and opened it, only to be met by roughly half the crew. Corwin cocked his eyebrow and smiled calmly as if everything was normal. But the crimson mask flowing down his face sort of said otherwise.

"Can I help you with something?"