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The following story is badly written and contains possible icky things but you've seen worse in movies but you've been warned.
Another day and another temptation to push the large red button to purge the holding cells of all living matter. The salarian tech sighed and even traced the part of the panel that had to be unlocked by a command from the director unless the base VI saw there was imminent danger to the facility which meant that he would likely already be splattered on the wall by whatever horrors the scientists here had come up with. Not that that was going to happen today with only two of the cells currently occupied by two of the tamest things in years: a modified krogan and some extinct reptile reborn because it was big. Well big and some human had wanted one as a pet so had paid a freighter load of credits for. Nobody would know this customer had provided them with the genes to graft onto other things at will nor they could now breed them to be sold all across the galaxy.
This reject krogan was one of those with these added genes, a thick tail rippling with huge muscles because a creature who weighs a ton, has triple redundant organs, bad attitudes, and live until they are killed need another weapon. “Yes, let’s make it three meters tall and introduce eezo to give it biotics too,” The salarian thought while rolling his eyes at the sheer stupidity of his superiors for making a killing machine more kill capable but trying to tinker with his head to try and make the species more level headed. Because krogan we not crazy to start with.. He would never say such things out loud, salarians knew they were always being listened to by someone and most tried not to think such things because you never knew who knew.
He looked longingly at the red panel again, there was something alluring about the ability to end the life of something that would likely outlive 60 generations of his people. Perhaps this one wouldn't live that long as there were rumors the extra strain from the large tail on the subjects hearts might set a lifespan that isn't 1500 years or more but this tech didn't believe it for a second. Looking at the monitors he could see the blue plated monster chained in his cell with its facemask secure and keeping it pumped well full with drugs to keep it passive, or as close as a krogan could get. Another soft sigh escapes the technician that almost sounded like a normal exhale to anyone spying on him he taps a few commands onto the computer in front of him, he allows himself a small smile. With a stab of a finger jets of water shoot from the walls of the cell surprising the lone occupant but while chained it could only glare with deep blue eyes at its tormentor. That drew a laugh that echoed in the small security area as he watched the jets wash away some of the filth from the small room. Today was a big day and the display model needed to look good.
----
A groan and a cough, this day starts like few others and a break in the routine makes the krogan nervous. The powerful jets pound his plated body from all directions while he tries to shield his face with bound three fingered hands. Scalding water burns his leathery hide as it removes the stink and grime built up from weeks without any such treatment. Such a treat meant only one of two things: someone was going to come into the tank because he broke something or others were coming to stare at him. There was little doubt that he was going to be shown off to people since he hadn’t broken anything lately. He both hated and loved these rare chances to interact with something, the fact that they wanted to prod or hurt or do some other awful things to him that were sure to embarrass him but it was the only time he got to see other living things. The only time he knew there even were such a thing as other people which had come as quite a shock many years ago. For his early life he thought he was the only being that existed having been fed, educated, tended to by the room he had never left. He could sometimes hear voices from outside coming from directly across from his small world and eventually realized that those that controlled his life likely were there but he had never laid eyes on them. The two way mirror made sure he only saw a distorted reflection of himself.
Before long the spray of water stopped once the VI computed it was enough for the occupant to be the predetermined level of clean. Warm air blasted the krogan and cleaned up the room to ready it for inspection. The VI noted the approach of the clients shuttle and set the base on alert so that sensitive projects could be locked down.
---
The salarian director watched the group of customers disembark the shuttle with a practiced eyes, his quick mind better at solving problems and ending up with a large margins which was why he was here at the near the very top of the companies food chain. He did sneer as a small krogan slinked its way out of the craft last but he sneered at most things so his VI assistant took little notice. Without looking away from the group from high above the director cleared his throat, “This group is going to need some extra security. See to it.”
The hologram shimmered for a second before replying, “Reinforcements have been requested to secure project Cobalt. All available personnel have been sent to help lock down the level, difficulties are being reported, sir.” Having no feelings to hurt always helped with an owner that was prone to lash out but that meant something different with salarians for which, if the VI was self aware, it would be grateful. “The clients interested in genetics may be best served by avoiding that entire level. On the view screen the nervous looking krogan was zoomed in on with data scrolling next to her, “As noted in this one's file, interest in reviving extinct animals may not override her dislike for our methodology.”
The director's eye twitched, a physical sign of his advancing age since in his youth he had been a master at concealing his emotions, “Send my personal guard to escort them through the facility. Darken the wall of the test subject, we shall leave out the part of our krogan being modified to this group.” Best not aggravate a situation when another was there was already one brewing and it was always a risk to show outsiders what this company did in the greyer areas of the law. Yet the rich and corrupt always needed something so they usually kept quiet. Besides, the ones that didn't made great subjects for testing themselves.
---
Back at the tour the handful of customers were greeted by their guide who was flanked by a squad of security droids looking fairly serious with black armor and large rifles. The salarian guide was dressed to impress and smiled at his guests after the more boring parts were concluded, “Before we continue we shall take a short break before we continue into the final portion of the tour.” The bots spun on their heels as the guide beckoned all to follow, “It goes without saying that you are quite the lucky group. This part of the tour is quite restricted and even though you have signed a mountain of paperwork I shall repeat something that is quite important.” They passed into a small well lit hallway before stopping before a door next to a large curtain while the droids flanked at all four corners.
The small krogan Tabruh stood among these well dressed members of other races feeling quite out of place. Surrounded by elites with more money than she knew existed, the group was clearly giving her a wide berth even though she was wearing her best purple dress armor. The foundation she worked for had scraped together enough credits to get her on the ship to look for potential investors among the crowd that was going to be touring the facility and she was also authorized to offer samples of Tuchankan wildlife in exchange for help setting its ecology back on any track, let alone the right track. Privately she thought that this was likely a mistake since few people would talk to krogan about helping their planet but they needed help thus she was willing to try.
“In this portion of our facility we push the boundaries of what is and sometimes that makes people uncomfortable. Everything you see or hear is off the record. Any “discoveries” we make for you are to be “your” discoveries. Any talk, recording, invisible AIs, or discussion with any outside parties will be seen as a breach of contract.” Standing behind a little podium the guide pressed a button that opened the door, “We do not use lawyers, we use vorcha. Now please enjoy yourselves for a few minutes and as a reminder: no food items are to be taken on the tour. We will be splitting into two groups: those interested in biological take the right door while those customers looking for inorganics, the left please.”
The room had food and drink from all over the galaxy and proper restrooms which several of the group made for with some speed. The tour guides omnitool beeped shortly before he made an announcement, “My apologies. Everyone is here to see the Biological so we shall be sticking together.” Hopefully the tiny glitch in his script program was the only thing that would go wrong today.
---
Meanwhile in the krogans cell the clear wall had just gone back to its normal foggy white opaque. This rare change was apparently for ‘dramatics’ he had been informed, his captors would reveal him to gasps of mixed emotions from the group.“I can't see out anymore,” his bass voice rumbling mostly just to make some noise and comfort himself at the fact his world had just shrunk back to his small room. The thick hands slid over the seamless wall but never finding any weakness that his mind told him should be there. He didn't pound or attack it anymore, nothing produced a mark no matter what he had done when younger and he had been punished for trying. Sometimes anger felt like it was his only other friend but the mask he wore seemed to sense it and would cause terrible pains for such briefly liberating thoughts.
He wished to be free of this place. His room had seemed like the entire world but then the first group of people came to look at him through this very wall. The sight of other living things had frightened him to the point where he had tripped over his tail and fallen over backwards which made them laugh quite hard. They joked and offered him insult but one he remembered that had made it through the glass that muted their voices, some creature he later learned was called an elcor that had quipped “With Scorn: What is this?” Apparently the ‘scorn’ had stuck and before long the name had been written on his tank. In the years that followed they would still laugh and point out the sign to others who could not help but laugh in turn. Their laughter seemed to boil his blood, images of others fearing him was proper and his blood demanded their fear. Some ancient krogan part of his brain seemed to come alive and fill him with rage, Scorn remembered all these years later. With the best roar he could muster he rose and charged the clear wall. The face mask he always wore buzzed with power shortly before his swift punishment was administered directly into his brain. It felt like every bone is his body was melting which turned his roar of defiance into one of a wounded hellbeast. He snarled but took another step before getting another shock dumped a near lethal amount of energy into its host. His mind ‘shocked’ by the sheer amount of pain it was receiving, simply shut off. The krogan had been reduced to an unconscious mass of plate, bone and muscles impacted the wall thanks only to inertia before sprawling on the ground in a near lifeless heap.
---
The salarian guide frowns condescendingly at the small krogan “The robots are here for everyone's protection, not just yours. Our facility prides itself on safety and no accidents,” He turns around having already planning terrible things to do to the purple krogan who seemed to be asking the top tier annoying questions. Other members of the group chuckle with sidelong glances but are sure to keep their distance from this troublemaker now that they notice more than a few of the bots are staring at her exclusively. After a few moments pause the half dozen customers file out of the room following one of the mechs leading the group farther into the facility.
Tab smiles nervously and falls in behind the others but notices a guard pop its rifle’s heat sink when she walks past. The krogan clears her throat and moves to keep up while the door closes behind them the lights flicker suddenly and the floor gives a large jolt. The four droids instantly spin to face away from the group weapons drawn while the guide barely seems to react. His omnitool lights up but is darkened with a gesture, “Sounds like the weapons lab is testing something for our Elcor contract.” Slowly lowering their weapons to a more relaxed position the mechs in front resume the pace while the two in the rear continue with their weapons in ready to fire.
---
In another part of the facility buried deeper into the rock all hell was starting to break loose. What had started as a simple lockdown for the incoming visitors had spiraled and was continuing to spiral faster than anyone liked to think. The experiment to make a ‘safer’ krogan was a failure as many had said it would but the company wouldn’t settle for having learned nothing from the costly project. If they wouldn’t be able to sell the galaxy a safer species then perhaps they could sell a few governments a more dangerous one. Genes had been pulled from several dozen species and a monster had been made in virtual space but several attempts to actually produce it didn’t work. A redesign using the base of the original krogan as a base with the titanoboa genes with all the others mixed in seemed to work far better, the huge serpents own body seeming to heal through its creators crude attempts to create life thanks to krogan healing and sheer anger.
The project's official name was something like NF-627 but everyone simply called this monster Cobalt for the dangerously blue it was. Four arms connected to a thick trunk of a body that seemed to go on forever, fangs filled with the deadliest venom science had thus found, mixed with an attitude that most krogan psychologists would simply shrug and try to smother with the nearest blunt object. This subject had slowly stopped being able to be sedated and had taken to burning through the walls of his cage with his venom which meant that someone had to go in and try to clean up. Coincidentally it was also turning out to mean those were the times he was fed having grown thicker than any of the staff and almost as smart. With this group coming to visit the staff was using a chemical batch to try and pacify Cobalt by gassing him with it. Normally such a mixture was horribly corrosive and caused unbearable pain in a subject causing it to simply pass out from shock if not die outright since the staff had exhausted all other methods of sedating this project.
Today however it seems that not only was this latest chemical cocktail not working but as the blue serpent disappeared into the fog that filled the innermost chamber the creature hissed loudly in pain and spat his venom at the nearest sprayer. The base VI would later make note of the surprising large combustion that the two compounds caused when mixed. A perfect storm seemed to be brewing when that grey-green fog turned into a fireball that exploded outward blowing the four walls of the innermost cell outward in a hail of shrapnel that the entire base felt. With the second of the three security cells breached by the pieces of the smallest cell but the creature unable to be seen through the smoke and the infrared blinded by the intense heat of the blast, the VI hesitated to vent the entire section to space as was protocol. If the experiment itself had breached through two of the three containment zones, the last section was likely to follow quickly. It sent an urgent request to the head of security for instructions and send the “serious threat” notification to the administrator as well as the tour guide with instructions to evacuate the VIPs.
With the second level of quarantine damaged a mixture of armed bots and personnel now had weapons trained on the reinforced third level airlock in case the monster used this chance to try escape. Both the head of security and the administrator were on their way to the trouble leading the last of the stations troops affectionately referred to as the ‘clean up’ crew. This platoon was made up of vorcha who would deal with issues mostly that required heavy weapons and evidence destroyed, this group enjoyed high job satisfaction since it kept them well fed.
---
The tour guide was trying not to seem bothered by this notification of all troops being deployed and ushered his charges from the hallway they had been in to one of the final stops on the tour; thus the vorcha troops rushing out of their barracks located nearby couldn’t be seen and only barely heard. A smug grin turned up the salarians small mouth at what he considered a well executed deception, he gestured at the nearest cell containing the krogan. “This is a long term project,” his amber eyes flicking to the purple krogan before him before continuing, “An alternative to the genophage. Attempting to find a way to solve the krogan problem more naturally instead of causing billions of stillbirths. This example of our abilities to splice genes onto a basic form can be replicated to your specifications.”
A flourish with one of the salarians hand caused the glass to become clear once more allowing the restrained krogan to be seen by the small crowd but the expected gasps or screams of terror go unsaid. In fact after a few moments of being able to look a bit closer at the tank the mood of the room seemed to sour. The krogan held within was indeed larger than normal and appeared to have a full tail instead of the traditional nub but several were quick to voice their displeasure, “This is it? You made them bigger? How is that going to help,” said one.
“Some breakthrough. You chained up a deformed thing and call it science,” said another in the amused condescension perfected by asari talking down to others to dared to try for something beyond their station. She stood up straighter and turned away from the tank, “Explain why you are showing us this quickly or I will be taking my credits elsewhere.”
The salarian chuckled as he tapped a few commands on the wrist mounted computer which was now actively demanding attention in his earpiece to look at the myriad of caution and warning lights. A small gesture silenced the various alarms and to buy himself time to think he answered the asari’s question: “This krogan was made larger to be easier to test on, the tail was an experiment to see if his cardiovascular system could be taxed to a point of failure. Those genes came from a Terran reptile extinct for millions of years, with a full model on display later in the tour. His mind has been altered to be less aggressive with traits of calmer species,” he seemed to be distracted while trying to list things to appease his audience before he waves with one hand, “there are even hanar bits in there, feel free to take a closer look.”
Most of the group seemed to blink in surprise since the krogan didn’t really need closer inspection but Tab did move forward to put a claw on the tank. She was surprised that these people weren’t upset by the fact that there was a sentient creature in a tank being experimented on but then again others treated her species as if they were worthless anyway. She looked up and saw bright blue eyes looking back at her filled with fear but the tip of his tail thumped against the floor. She opened her mouth to ask a scathing question but noticed when she turned that the normally tan colored salarian had gone completely white as he stared into his omnitool. A few of the others had noticed which silenced the small bit of chatter the swiftly bored group had started.
“What it is it,” she started to ask when the floor gave another lurch sideways which was followed by a bass rumble that seemed to cause the entire station to shudder in pain. Tab reached out towards the salarian in a half stumble as she tried to remain on her feet but another loud bang mixed with a flash caused that hand to be pulled back in a cry of pain. She cradled it and saw that her shiny gauntlet which she had spent hours cleaning in preparation of this meeting was damaged. She had been shot by one of the guard robots that still held its rifle aimed at her which gave rise to a low growl in her throat.
“Stop! Stupid machine,” the salarian yelled, “She didn’t cause…” His words trailed off as he looked up into the tank and saw the test subject acting odd. In this case odd was being surrounded by a blue mass effect aura and pulling against the bonds that held its hands, the building roar now coming through that mask caused the guide to start going pale once more. With a practiced few strokes on his arm the tanks glass went opaque once more, “A-all right everyone, it appears that the testing has gotten a bit out of hand so if you will all follow me we can return to a safer area.” He glanced at the growling purple krogan, “And we can get that looked at I suppose. If the blue one so much as blinks, put it down.”
---
It was the first time he had seen something that looked like him, never before had something so beautiful come to visit and when the whole world shuddered in pain it was obvious that something was very wrong. Scorn was already pulling on the manacles around his wrists as strongly as he could without triggering punishment when the purple beauty appeared to be hurt by one of the metal beings. The world seemed to stop as he heard the muffled cry of pain and when time started to flow again there was only rage flowing in great torrents from deep inside his mind. Someone had hurt a female, she wasn’t his female but she might be if he protected her, said a tiny voice in his mind which settled the matter entirely. Without even noticing his body seemed to be moving itself, his arms yanking apart causing sparks to explode from the cables that had bound him for decades. One arm pulled back to punch the glass when the first punishment hit in a storm of agony but in this rage it was barely felt. His fist pounded against the formerly opaque wall that blinked clear, then dark for a second before turning to clear which surprised the krogan briefly mixing with the shock of being able to see strangers close. For a whole two seconds he simply blinked in surprise that he had actually hurt the wall that he had failed to so much as scratch in decades. His blood thundered through his veins demanding to fight and kill and maim the threat to the only thing like him he had ever seen.Fortunately his bloody fist was up the task of thinking for him and pulled back for another go at this wall.
Unfortunately in that two seconds the Salarian had tapped a simple command into his omnitool and with a twisting motion of his hand commanded the station VI to pacify its “guest” in the most painful way possible. Instead of pounding the glass as he intended, both hands went to his headplate a full second before he even felt the pain. The station VI was quite busy elsewhere and didn’t have the spare processing power to agonise over appropriate actions for this relatively minor issue so it decided to use failsafe methods to ensure this subject wouldn’t be bothering anyone.
To the surprise of everyone in the group who turned to look at the noise the krogan was making attempting to get free the beast stopped pounding on the walls of its cage suddenly and grabbed at his head with a low growl of pain. Tab’s hearts sank at the noise of the wounded krogan but she gasped when the krogan slowly tips forward against the fractured wall with his azure blood painting the cracks almost artistically.
“It is okay everyone, there are micro charges in his body that will keep him from getting out,” the high pitched voice of the salarian was saying as he tried to regain control of the group, “A-another safeguard that we can add as insurance on anything we engineer for you. Of course not many species need to have their bones blown apart to slow them down.”
Tabruh had reached the end of her patience. Her hand wasn’t badly hurt thanks to her armor both natural and worn but the idea of letting these frogs torture this krogan was going to end. She moved to the control panel in front of the tank and began tapping away at the controls unnoticed by anyone else. She took one last look at the bleeding krogan leaning heavily on the broken wall while her hand waited above the emergency unlock button before smashing so hard it snapped the panel entirely. Leaping up to the tank she ignored the surprised shout of indignation that came from the others, seeing the krogan inside was backing away her as best he could, “Hi there, I’m Tabruh and this is my favorite escape on the Citadel,” and headbutt the glass.
---
Meanwhile in the secured area around the same time the krogan was being pacified another roar of pain seemed to rattle the foundation of the station. The troopers looked sideways at each other, nobody had fired and the bosses seemed surprised as well; nobody had shot the monster so what was hurting it? With only a few moments to ponder this someone tried making a joke but was interrupted by a second explosion that ripped their very world apart.
The stations VI decided that it would need to change its daily report title to something a bit less cheery as the second explosion it calculated would nearly take it offline. This test subject had never shown any biotic ability previously, as if to spite all the element zero they had bathed it with early in development, yet this creature was now causing a station shattering detonation of pure biotic energy. In the fractions of a second during the explosion the VI took an almost proud look at the rippling energy expanding towards the doomed organics who hadn't had the time to realize the danger let alone even change their expression yet. It calculated that the damage to the station would be minimal albeit catastrophic to the staff and more importantly the creature would breach its prison. The VI triggered the emergency purge airlocks on the level as the first line of defenders was being vaporized by the shock wave of rippling energy and waited patiently how only computers could, to see if this sacrifice of one levels worth of personnel would be worth it.
Several airlocks exploded open to remove all the pressure from the section to either kill or at the least contain loose specimens until reinforcements could arrive. Instantly all of the loose objects and personnel began to ‘evacuate’ from the sealed experimental lab. An unforeseen issue that prevented the fail safe from working as intended was thanks to the still in progress explosion warping the very foundation of the lab,that the lab wasn't a sealed lab anymore. Several adjacent sections of the station were also breached by the explosion. The stations reactor was not damaged nor plunging into hard vacuum so safety field barriers were popping up to try and stop the cascading loss of pressure of various sections.
The VI would have sighed if it had been alive as one of the few remaining staff panicked from the loud alerts and flashing warnings hit the emergency reactor shutdown, which as the VI reviewed policies, was what was supposed to be done for some reason. Switching itself to backup power as it executed the command to scram the main reactor, the life saving barriers that had sprung into existence to cheers of many, promptly died throughout the station allowing explosive decompression to ravage more of the dying facility. The Company was not kind, even the emotionless virtual intelligence knew that, but it alone knew the backup reactors was designed to only save the experiments not the staff. Barriers activated around all occupied cells to save the expensive projects and once again the VI waited for instructions from offsite as the final fail safe protocols took their grisly effects.
Being “spaced” was an occupational hazard when working near airlocks but so rarely was a thing that few organics ever thought about it after a while. A thousand years ago on some forgotten planet a group of old wise men from many species got together to create the worst sound in existence. They delegated and debated and talked and tweaked for what seemed like months (it was exactly forty-seven minutes) before they were ready to spread this most horrible and frightening sound creation. Adopted universally as the Pressure Equalization Exception or the Final alarm, many liked to tease new cadets about not PEEing themselves to death. In reality however all creatures in space feared this noise on instinct even if they did not know it's true meaning. The wail of this alarm was not designed for prevention or for escape, the harsh noise was a notice that death was seconds away and for you to make peace with your particular higher power. Air, as it turns out, escapes into space carrying whatever is loose inside at around the speed of sound which unfortunately for most organics is quite fatal. <bonus points if you read this chapter in Stephen Fry’s voice>
The roar, explosion and main power going off took in total about seven seconds to complete. In this time Tab had stood and shook her head as she stepped into the enclosure only to have the salarian guide leaping after her to try pulling her from the enclosure. He got a hand around her arm when the breach alarm sounded and the lights died. The whole world seemed to vibrate with the very sound of Death itself which caused the salarian to let go of her. Barriers snapped on around the enclosure covering the broken cell wall with a blue haze a few seconds before another roar of decompression deafened the small party before going silent.
The guide’s omnitool projected a tiny projection of the station VI as it overrode his silence status. “Alert. Catastrophic loss of pressure. Alert. Catastrophic loss of personnel. Alert. Project NF-627 confirmed loose and seems unaffected by vacuum. Critical damage to reactor and power systems.” It chirped for all to hear and in what might have been an ironic tone it added, “Base failsafes have failed to respond to detonation commands, manual core overload detonation required by any and all staff.” He blinked at this outrage and was about to herd his remaining guests to safety when the Final alarm went off. Looking around in desperation for some means of escape the doomed tour disappeared through an open door with all the remaining air in the room which is quite rude if you think about it. The two krogans blinked at each other both at a loss of what to do next but happy to be temporarily safe.
Art via:
Kiryu
Tabruh (in purple):
noivurn
Scorn is mine
A side note: I cut some of the content out of the story that had to do with other characters such as my titanoboa character since they were not pictured and I thought it might confuse. Nobody cares but the titanoboa King was in a nearby cell and they because buddies since it was them vs the world. Noivurn also helped with the story and my many thanks to her for that and the rescue!
Another day and another temptation to push the large red button to purge the holding cells of all living matter. The salarian tech sighed and even traced the part of the panel that had to be unlocked by a command from the director unless the base VI saw there was imminent danger to the facility which meant that he would likely already be splattered on the wall by whatever horrors the scientists here had come up with. Not that that was going to happen today with only two of the cells currently occupied by two of the tamest things in years: a modified krogan and some extinct reptile reborn because it was big. Well big and some human had wanted one as a pet so had paid a freighter load of credits for. Nobody would know this customer had provided them with the genes to graft onto other things at will nor they could now breed them to be sold all across the galaxy.
This reject krogan was one of those with these added genes, a thick tail rippling with huge muscles because a creature who weighs a ton, has triple redundant organs, bad attitudes, and live until they are killed need another weapon. “Yes, let’s make it three meters tall and introduce eezo to give it biotics too,” The salarian thought while rolling his eyes at the sheer stupidity of his superiors for making a killing machine more kill capable but trying to tinker with his head to try and make the species more level headed. Because krogan we not crazy to start with.. He would never say such things out loud, salarians knew they were always being listened to by someone and most tried not to think such things because you never knew who knew.
He looked longingly at the red panel again, there was something alluring about the ability to end the life of something that would likely outlive 60 generations of his people. Perhaps this one wouldn't live that long as there were rumors the extra strain from the large tail on the subjects hearts might set a lifespan that isn't 1500 years or more but this tech didn't believe it for a second. Looking at the monitors he could see the blue plated monster chained in his cell with its facemask secure and keeping it pumped well full with drugs to keep it passive, or as close as a krogan could get. Another soft sigh escapes the technician that almost sounded like a normal exhale to anyone spying on him he taps a few commands onto the computer in front of him, he allows himself a small smile. With a stab of a finger jets of water shoot from the walls of the cell surprising the lone occupant but while chained it could only glare with deep blue eyes at its tormentor. That drew a laugh that echoed in the small security area as he watched the jets wash away some of the filth from the small room. Today was a big day and the display model needed to look good.
----
A groan and a cough, this day starts like few others and a break in the routine makes the krogan nervous. The powerful jets pound his plated body from all directions while he tries to shield his face with bound three fingered hands. Scalding water burns his leathery hide as it removes the stink and grime built up from weeks without any such treatment. Such a treat meant only one of two things: someone was going to come into the tank because he broke something or others were coming to stare at him. There was little doubt that he was going to be shown off to people since he hadn’t broken anything lately. He both hated and loved these rare chances to interact with something, the fact that they wanted to prod or hurt or do some other awful things to him that were sure to embarrass him but it was the only time he got to see other living things. The only time he knew there even were such a thing as other people which had come as quite a shock many years ago. For his early life he thought he was the only being that existed having been fed, educated, tended to by the room he had never left. He could sometimes hear voices from outside coming from directly across from his small world and eventually realized that those that controlled his life likely were there but he had never laid eyes on them. The two way mirror made sure he only saw a distorted reflection of himself.
Before long the spray of water stopped once the VI computed it was enough for the occupant to be the predetermined level of clean. Warm air blasted the krogan and cleaned up the room to ready it for inspection. The VI noted the approach of the clients shuttle and set the base on alert so that sensitive projects could be locked down.
---
The salarian director watched the group of customers disembark the shuttle with a practiced eyes, his quick mind better at solving problems and ending up with a large margins which was why he was here at the near the very top of the companies food chain. He did sneer as a small krogan slinked its way out of the craft last but he sneered at most things so his VI assistant took little notice. Without looking away from the group from high above the director cleared his throat, “This group is going to need some extra security. See to it.”
The hologram shimmered for a second before replying, “Reinforcements have been requested to secure project Cobalt. All available personnel have been sent to help lock down the level, difficulties are being reported, sir.” Having no feelings to hurt always helped with an owner that was prone to lash out but that meant something different with salarians for which, if the VI was self aware, it would be grateful. “The clients interested in genetics may be best served by avoiding that entire level. On the view screen the nervous looking krogan was zoomed in on with data scrolling next to her, “As noted in this one's file, interest in reviving extinct animals may not override her dislike for our methodology.”
The director's eye twitched, a physical sign of his advancing age since in his youth he had been a master at concealing his emotions, “Send my personal guard to escort them through the facility. Darken the wall of the test subject, we shall leave out the part of our krogan being modified to this group.” Best not aggravate a situation when another was there was already one brewing and it was always a risk to show outsiders what this company did in the greyer areas of the law. Yet the rich and corrupt always needed something so they usually kept quiet. Besides, the ones that didn't made great subjects for testing themselves.
---
Back at the tour the handful of customers were greeted by their guide who was flanked by a squad of security droids looking fairly serious with black armor and large rifles. The salarian guide was dressed to impress and smiled at his guests after the more boring parts were concluded, “Before we continue we shall take a short break before we continue into the final portion of the tour.” The bots spun on their heels as the guide beckoned all to follow, “It goes without saying that you are quite the lucky group. This part of the tour is quite restricted and even though you have signed a mountain of paperwork I shall repeat something that is quite important.” They passed into a small well lit hallway before stopping before a door next to a large curtain while the droids flanked at all four corners.
The small krogan Tabruh stood among these well dressed members of other races feeling quite out of place. Surrounded by elites with more money than she knew existed, the group was clearly giving her a wide berth even though she was wearing her best purple dress armor. The foundation she worked for had scraped together enough credits to get her on the ship to look for potential investors among the crowd that was going to be touring the facility and she was also authorized to offer samples of Tuchankan wildlife in exchange for help setting its ecology back on any track, let alone the right track. Privately she thought that this was likely a mistake since few people would talk to krogan about helping their planet but they needed help thus she was willing to try.
“In this portion of our facility we push the boundaries of what is and sometimes that makes people uncomfortable. Everything you see or hear is off the record. Any “discoveries” we make for you are to be “your” discoveries. Any talk, recording, invisible AIs, or discussion with any outside parties will be seen as a breach of contract.” Standing behind a little podium the guide pressed a button that opened the door, “We do not use lawyers, we use vorcha. Now please enjoy yourselves for a few minutes and as a reminder: no food items are to be taken on the tour. We will be splitting into two groups: those interested in biological take the right door while those customers looking for inorganics, the left please.”
The room had food and drink from all over the galaxy and proper restrooms which several of the group made for with some speed. The tour guides omnitool beeped shortly before he made an announcement, “My apologies. Everyone is here to see the Biological so we shall be sticking together.” Hopefully the tiny glitch in his script program was the only thing that would go wrong today.
---
Meanwhile in the krogans cell the clear wall had just gone back to its normal foggy white opaque. This rare change was apparently for ‘dramatics’ he had been informed, his captors would reveal him to gasps of mixed emotions from the group.“I can't see out anymore,” his bass voice rumbling mostly just to make some noise and comfort himself at the fact his world had just shrunk back to his small room. The thick hands slid over the seamless wall but never finding any weakness that his mind told him should be there. He didn't pound or attack it anymore, nothing produced a mark no matter what he had done when younger and he had been punished for trying. Sometimes anger felt like it was his only other friend but the mask he wore seemed to sense it and would cause terrible pains for such briefly liberating thoughts.
He wished to be free of this place. His room had seemed like the entire world but then the first group of people came to look at him through this very wall. The sight of other living things had frightened him to the point where he had tripped over his tail and fallen over backwards which made them laugh quite hard. They joked and offered him insult but one he remembered that had made it through the glass that muted their voices, some creature he later learned was called an elcor that had quipped “With Scorn: What is this?” Apparently the ‘scorn’ had stuck and before long the name had been written on his tank. In the years that followed they would still laugh and point out the sign to others who could not help but laugh in turn. Their laughter seemed to boil his blood, images of others fearing him was proper and his blood demanded their fear. Some ancient krogan part of his brain seemed to come alive and fill him with rage, Scorn remembered all these years later. With the best roar he could muster he rose and charged the clear wall. The face mask he always wore buzzed with power shortly before his swift punishment was administered directly into his brain. It felt like every bone is his body was melting which turned his roar of defiance into one of a wounded hellbeast. He snarled but took another step before getting another shock dumped a near lethal amount of energy into its host. His mind ‘shocked’ by the sheer amount of pain it was receiving, simply shut off. The krogan had been reduced to an unconscious mass of plate, bone and muscles impacted the wall thanks only to inertia before sprawling on the ground in a near lifeless heap.
---
The salarian guide frowns condescendingly at the small krogan “The robots are here for everyone's protection, not just yours. Our facility prides itself on safety and no accidents,” He turns around having already planning terrible things to do to the purple krogan who seemed to be asking the top tier annoying questions. Other members of the group chuckle with sidelong glances but are sure to keep their distance from this troublemaker now that they notice more than a few of the bots are staring at her exclusively. After a few moments pause the half dozen customers file out of the room following one of the mechs leading the group farther into the facility.
Tab smiles nervously and falls in behind the others but notices a guard pop its rifle’s heat sink when she walks past. The krogan clears her throat and moves to keep up while the door closes behind them the lights flicker suddenly and the floor gives a large jolt. The four droids instantly spin to face away from the group weapons drawn while the guide barely seems to react. His omnitool lights up but is darkened with a gesture, “Sounds like the weapons lab is testing something for our Elcor contract.” Slowly lowering their weapons to a more relaxed position the mechs in front resume the pace while the two in the rear continue with their weapons in ready to fire.
---
In another part of the facility buried deeper into the rock all hell was starting to break loose. What had started as a simple lockdown for the incoming visitors had spiraled and was continuing to spiral faster than anyone liked to think. The experiment to make a ‘safer’ krogan was a failure as many had said it would but the company wouldn’t settle for having learned nothing from the costly project. If they wouldn’t be able to sell the galaxy a safer species then perhaps they could sell a few governments a more dangerous one. Genes had been pulled from several dozen species and a monster had been made in virtual space but several attempts to actually produce it didn’t work. A redesign using the base of the original krogan as a base with the titanoboa genes with all the others mixed in seemed to work far better, the huge serpents own body seeming to heal through its creators crude attempts to create life thanks to krogan healing and sheer anger.
The project's official name was something like NF-627 but everyone simply called this monster Cobalt for the dangerously blue it was. Four arms connected to a thick trunk of a body that seemed to go on forever, fangs filled with the deadliest venom science had thus found, mixed with an attitude that most krogan psychologists would simply shrug and try to smother with the nearest blunt object. This subject had slowly stopped being able to be sedated and had taken to burning through the walls of his cage with his venom which meant that someone had to go in and try to clean up. Coincidentally it was also turning out to mean those were the times he was fed having grown thicker than any of the staff and almost as smart. With this group coming to visit the staff was using a chemical batch to try and pacify Cobalt by gassing him with it. Normally such a mixture was horribly corrosive and caused unbearable pain in a subject causing it to simply pass out from shock if not die outright since the staff had exhausted all other methods of sedating this project.
Today however it seems that not only was this latest chemical cocktail not working but as the blue serpent disappeared into the fog that filled the innermost chamber the creature hissed loudly in pain and spat his venom at the nearest sprayer. The base VI would later make note of the surprising large combustion that the two compounds caused when mixed. A perfect storm seemed to be brewing when that grey-green fog turned into a fireball that exploded outward blowing the four walls of the innermost cell outward in a hail of shrapnel that the entire base felt. With the second of the three security cells breached by the pieces of the smallest cell but the creature unable to be seen through the smoke and the infrared blinded by the intense heat of the blast, the VI hesitated to vent the entire section to space as was protocol. If the experiment itself had breached through two of the three containment zones, the last section was likely to follow quickly. It sent an urgent request to the head of security for instructions and send the “serious threat” notification to the administrator as well as the tour guide with instructions to evacuate the VIPs.
With the second level of quarantine damaged a mixture of armed bots and personnel now had weapons trained on the reinforced third level airlock in case the monster used this chance to try escape. Both the head of security and the administrator were on their way to the trouble leading the last of the stations troops affectionately referred to as the ‘clean up’ crew. This platoon was made up of vorcha who would deal with issues mostly that required heavy weapons and evidence destroyed, this group enjoyed high job satisfaction since it kept them well fed.
---
The tour guide was trying not to seem bothered by this notification of all troops being deployed and ushered his charges from the hallway they had been in to one of the final stops on the tour; thus the vorcha troops rushing out of their barracks located nearby couldn’t be seen and only barely heard. A smug grin turned up the salarians small mouth at what he considered a well executed deception, he gestured at the nearest cell containing the krogan. “This is a long term project,” his amber eyes flicking to the purple krogan before him before continuing, “An alternative to the genophage. Attempting to find a way to solve the krogan problem more naturally instead of causing billions of stillbirths. This example of our abilities to splice genes onto a basic form can be replicated to your specifications.”
A flourish with one of the salarians hand caused the glass to become clear once more allowing the restrained krogan to be seen by the small crowd but the expected gasps or screams of terror go unsaid. In fact after a few moments of being able to look a bit closer at the tank the mood of the room seemed to sour. The krogan held within was indeed larger than normal and appeared to have a full tail instead of the traditional nub but several were quick to voice their displeasure, “This is it? You made them bigger? How is that going to help,” said one.
“Some breakthrough. You chained up a deformed thing and call it science,” said another in the amused condescension perfected by asari talking down to others to dared to try for something beyond their station. She stood up straighter and turned away from the tank, “Explain why you are showing us this quickly or I will be taking my credits elsewhere.”
The salarian chuckled as he tapped a few commands on the wrist mounted computer which was now actively demanding attention in his earpiece to look at the myriad of caution and warning lights. A small gesture silenced the various alarms and to buy himself time to think he answered the asari’s question: “This krogan was made larger to be easier to test on, the tail was an experiment to see if his cardiovascular system could be taxed to a point of failure. Those genes came from a Terran reptile extinct for millions of years, with a full model on display later in the tour. His mind has been altered to be less aggressive with traits of calmer species,” he seemed to be distracted while trying to list things to appease his audience before he waves with one hand, “there are even hanar bits in there, feel free to take a closer look.”
Most of the group seemed to blink in surprise since the krogan didn’t really need closer inspection but Tab did move forward to put a claw on the tank. She was surprised that these people weren’t upset by the fact that there was a sentient creature in a tank being experimented on but then again others treated her species as if they were worthless anyway. She looked up and saw bright blue eyes looking back at her filled with fear but the tip of his tail thumped against the floor. She opened her mouth to ask a scathing question but noticed when she turned that the normally tan colored salarian had gone completely white as he stared into his omnitool. A few of the others had noticed which silenced the small bit of chatter the swiftly bored group had started.
“What it is it,” she started to ask when the floor gave another lurch sideways which was followed by a bass rumble that seemed to cause the entire station to shudder in pain. Tab reached out towards the salarian in a half stumble as she tried to remain on her feet but another loud bang mixed with a flash caused that hand to be pulled back in a cry of pain. She cradled it and saw that her shiny gauntlet which she had spent hours cleaning in preparation of this meeting was damaged. She had been shot by one of the guard robots that still held its rifle aimed at her which gave rise to a low growl in her throat.
“Stop! Stupid machine,” the salarian yelled, “She didn’t cause…” His words trailed off as he looked up into the tank and saw the test subject acting odd. In this case odd was being surrounded by a blue mass effect aura and pulling against the bonds that held its hands, the building roar now coming through that mask caused the guide to start going pale once more. With a practiced few strokes on his arm the tanks glass went opaque once more, “A-all right everyone, it appears that the testing has gotten a bit out of hand so if you will all follow me we can return to a safer area.” He glanced at the growling purple krogan, “And we can get that looked at I suppose. If the blue one so much as blinks, put it down.”
---
It was the first time he had seen something that looked like him, never before had something so beautiful come to visit and when the whole world shuddered in pain it was obvious that something was very wrong. Scorn was already pulling on the manacles around his wrists as strongly as he could without triggering punishment when the purple beauty appeared to be hurt by one of the metal beings. The world seemed to stop as he heard the muffled cry of pain and when time started to flow again there was only rage flowing in great torrents from deep inside his mind. Someone had hurt a female, she wasn’t his female but she might be if he protected her, said a tiny voice in his mind which settled the matter entirely. Without even noticing his body seemed to be moving itself, his arms yanking apart causing sparks to explode from the cables that had bound him for decades. One arm pulled back to punch the glass when the first punishment hit in a storm of agony but in this rage it was barely felt. His fist pounded against the formerly opaque wall that blinked clear, then dark for a second before turning to clear which surprised the krogan briefly mixing with the shock of being able to see strangers close. For a whole two seconds he simply blinked in surprise that he had actually hurt the wall that he had failed to so much as scratch in decades. His blood thundered through his veins demanding to fight and kill and maim the threat to the only thing like him he had ever seen.Fortunately his bloody fist was up the task of thinking for him and pulled back for another go at this wall.
Unfortunately in that two seconds the Salarian had tapped a simple command into his omnitool and with a twisting motion of his hand commanded the station VI to pacify its “guest” in the most painful way possible. Instead of pounding the glass as he intended, both hands went to his headplate a full second before he even felt the pain. The station VI was quite busy elsewhere and didn’t have the spare processing power to agonise over appropriate actions for this relatively minor issue so it decided to use failsafe methods to ensure this subject wouldn’t be bothering anyone.
To the surprise of everyone in the group who turned to look at the noise the krogan was making attempting to get free the beast stopped pounding on the walls of its cage suddenly and grabbed at his head with a low growl of pain. Tab’s hearts sank at the noise of the wounded krogan but she gasped when the krogan slowly tips forward against the fractured wall with his azure blood painting the cracks almost artistically.
“It is okay everyone, there are micro charges in his body that will keep him from getting out,” the high pitched voice of the salarian was saying as he tried to regain control of the group, “A-another safeguard that we can add as insurance on anything we engineer for you. Of course not many species need to have their bones blown apart to slow them down.”
Tabruh had reached the end of her patience. Her hand wasn’t badly hurt thanks to her armor both natural and worn but the idea of letting these frogs torture this krogan was going to end. She moved to the control panel in front of the tank and began tapping away at the controls unnoticed by anyone else. She took one last look at the bleeding krogan leaning heavily on the broken wall while her hand waited above the emergency unlock button before smashing so hard it snapped the panel entirely. Leaping up to the tank she ignored the surprised shout of indignation that came from the others, seeing the krogan inside was backing away her as best he could, “Hi there, I’m Tabruh and this is my favorite escape on the Citadel,” and headbutt the glass.
---
Meanwhile in the secured area around the same time the krogan was being pacified another roar of pain seemed to rattle the foundation of the station. The troopers looked sideways at each other, nobody had fired and the bosses seemed surprised as well; nobody had shot the monster so what was hurting it? With only a few moments to ponder this someone tried making a joke but was interrupted by a second explosion that ripped their very world apart.
The stations VI decided that it would need to change its daily report title to something a bit less cheery as the second explosion it calculated would nearly take it offline. This test subject had never shown any biotic ability previously, as if to spite all the element zero they had bathed it with early in development, yet this creature was now causing a station shattering detonation of pure biotic energy. In the fractions of a second during the explosion the VI took an almost proud look at the rippling energy expanding towards the doomed organics who hadn't had the time to realize the danger let alone even change their expression yet. It calculated that the damage to the station would be minimal albeit catastrophic to the staff and more importantly the creature would breach its prison. The VI triggered the emergency purge airlocks on the level as the first line of defenders was being vaporized by the shock wave of rippling energy and waited patiently how only computers could, to see if this sacrifice of one levels worth of personnel would be worth it.
Several airlocks exploded open to remove all the pressure from the section to either kill or at the least contain loose specimens until reinforcements could arrive. Instantly all of the loose objects and personnel began to ‘evacuate’ from the sealed experimental lab. An unforeseen issue that prevented the fail safe from working as intended was thanks to the still in progress explosion warping the very foundation of the lab,that the lab wasn't a sealed lab anymore. Several adjacent sections of the station were also breached by the explosion. The stations reactor was not damaged nor plunging into hard vacuum so safety field barriers were popping up to try and stop the cascading loss of pressure of various sections.
The VI would have sighed if it had been alive as one of the few remaining staff panicked from the loud alerts and flashing warnings hit the emergency reactor shutdown, which as the VI reviewed policies, was what was supposed to be done for some reason. Switching itself to backup power as it executed the command to scram the main reactor, the life saving barriers that had sprung into existence to cheers of many, promptly died throughout the station allowing explosive decompression to ravage more of the dying facility. The Company was not kind, even the emotionless virtual intelligence knew that, but it alone knew the backup reactors was designed to only save the experiments not the staff. Barriers activated around all occupied cells to save the expensive projects and once again the VI waited for instructions from offsite as the final fail safe protocols took their grisly effects.
Being “spaced” was an occupational hazard when working near airlocks but so rarely was a thing that few organics ever thought about it after a while. A thousand years ago on some forgotten planet a group of old wise men from many species got together to create the worst sound in existence. They delegated and debated and talked and tweaked for what seemed like months (it was exactly forty-seven minutes) before they were ready to spread this most horrible and frightening sound creation. Adopted universally as the Pressure Equalization Exception or the Final alarm, many liked to tease new cadets about not PEEing themselves to death. In reality however all creatures in space feared this noise on instinct even if they did not know it's true meaning. The wail of this alarm was not designed for prevention or for escape, the harsh noise was a notice that death was seconds away and for you to make peace with your particular higher power. Air, as it turns out, escapes into space carrying whatever is loose inside at around the speed of sound which unfortunately for most organics is quite fatal. <bonus points if you read this chapter in Stephen Fry’s voice>
The roar, explosion and main power going off took in total about seven seconds to complete. In this time Tab had stood and shook her head as she stepped into the enclosure only to have the salarian guide leaping after her to try pulling her from the enclosure. He got a hand around her arm when the breach alarm sounded and the lights died. The whole world seemed to vibrate with the very sound of Death itself which caused the salarian to let go of her. Barriers snapped on around the enclosure covering the broken cell wall with a blue haze a few seconds before another roar of decompression deafened the small party before going silent.
The guide’s omnitool projected a tiny projection of the station VI as it overrode his silence status. “Alert. Catastrophic loss of pressure. Alert. Catastrophic loss of personnel. Alert. Project NF-627 confirmed loose and seems unaffected by vacuum. Critical damage to reactor and power systems.” It chirped for all to hear and in what might have been an ironic tone it added, “Base failsafes have failed to respond to detonation commands, manual core overload detonation required by any and all staff.” He blinked at this outrage and was about to herd his remaining guests to safety when the Final alarm went off. Looking around in desperation for some means of escape the doomed tour disappeared through an open door with all the remaining air in the room which is quite rude if you think about it. The two krogans blinked at each other both at a loss of what to do next but happy to be temporarily safe.
Art via:
KiryuTabruh (in purple):
noivurnScorn is mine
A side note: I cut some of the content out of the story that had to do with other characters such as my titanoboa character since they were not pictured and I thought it might confuse. Nobody cares but the titanoboa King was in a nearby cell and they because buddies since it was them vs the world. Noivurn also helped with the story and my many thanks to her for that and the rescue!
Category Artwork (Digital) / Miscellaneous
Species Alien (Other)
Size 960 x 1280px
File Size 343 kB
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