《Fleet and Home》 Birds and Pyjaks Dexivea Vicril did not have this in mind when she wished to be apart of first contact, at only eighteen she had completed her medical training as a combat medic and was in the process of getting her doctorate in xeno biology. So while other turians were learning how to shoot she was learning how to stop turians and aliens from bleeding to death, the Hierarchy of course focused her training on turians and volus however other races were covered as well. The Hierarchy was supporting her xeno biology training of course, not many would try and learn xeno biology while already being a talented combat medic She grew up watching vids about turian first contact and had become obsessed with learning all she could about life in all its forms. Her last thesis was about the Rachni and how first contact, under any circumstances was doomed to fail due to the biology and communication of a hive mind insect race, let alone one capable of space flight. So here she was serving as a combat medic for the Hierarchy on some alien planet, finding out about a new race the worst way possible, though war, so far she had yet to see the aliens but they had kept her busy with the traps they had set up. She found that this race seemed to focus on maiming the enemy, at first the turians thought they had a problem with killing but as more and more reports came in it became clear that this was not the case. The aliens were creative in their traps and designed them to maim instead of kill as maiming would take down at least two soldiers instead of one, the one wounded and the one helping them back for help. Dexivea never had so much work to do before and when the aliens started using a sticky flammable gel like substance, the burns that gel would leave behind was horrific on top of the sight of turians being left in the open as bait, screaming in agony will haunt her for as long as she lives. Urban warfare is never easy and this species seemed to excel at it and the forests outside of the city limits and closer to farmlands were a lot worse From snipers, explosive traps, swinging logs, spring loaded spikes, spike pits and in the city they even used the sewer systems to move around. She had lost count how many legs she had to amputate due them being crushed or impaled, some patients she had to get Telio''s help to either dig them out or in one case defuse the live explosives waiting for someone like her to try and help. One alien Dexivea had come across was a furry varren that while didn''t have the same bite force as a varren did but made up for it by being fiercely loyal and intelligent enough to follow simple commands. The wounds those animals inflicted were not as severe as a varren''s would be but we''re painful enough to require treatment, so far she had yet to get a sample, well one that hadn''t been blown to pieces anyway. Dexivea had been assigned to a engineer team to help disarm the traps, many of which would still have a turian trapped in it. Dexivea looked at one trap a turian had gotten stuck in, according to Telio Mactus the engineer in charge the trap was triggered by a trip wire and fired a steel bolt, much like a crossbow would, the only difference is this one would try and retract after firing. Dexivea felt the screams from the older turian soldier could be heard by the fleet in orbit. The bolt had impaled the turians stomach and pinned him to a tree, the bolt trying to retract just meant it was causing even more pain then was intended. Once Telio had dismantled the trap and while he complained about sadistic aliens Dexivea went to work. It took two other turians to carry him, while he was fading in and out of consciousness. They had ended up on a riverfront with businesses lined up overlooking the water, cafes they looked like to Dexivea. "CONTACT!" one of her squad screamed. An alien burst from the near by river, grabbed ahold of the injuried turian before dragging him into the water and under, one turian fell into the water with him and was now panicking trying to get out of the water again before the kynost came back The whole attack took less than a few seconds, the squad fired into the water while dragging the only turian in the water still alive but no sign of it the injuried turian and due to their inability to swim this attack terrified the survivors. The aliens even attacked like kynost do, the most feared ampibous predator on Palaven. It watched from the water, before it would ambush it''s prey and pulled them into the water to drown. Dexivea looked at the river and tried to think what she knew about this new species, she knew that a name the soldiers had been calling the aliens evolved Pyjaks. Her mind burying itself in her work to hide her fear, while they had a similar body structure to asari or batarians they lacked the flexibility and biotics of asari and the raw strength of batarians they made up for it with endurance and creativity. The way they fought was attrition, slowing the battle down and wearing down their enemies, with a grim respect she knew that they likely hunted prey the same way. The squad said a few words for their lost squadmate but all of them wanted to keep moving. As they moved away from the riverfront buildings, they could hear a sound, quiet but it was there. Dexivea''s eyes went wide as she realized it was two alien''s talking, using her sub harmonics to let her squad know she heard something. As one they slowly pin pointed the sound and moved into position but before they could move, a small alien puer ran and despite its size it moved quickly. Moving quickly the squad chased after the puer and soon cornered it in an alleyway. Dexivea finally got her first look at the alien, it stood at the same height as a volus, hands like an asari but pale skin and short fur on its head. A smell reached her nose and when she saw the puddle of liquid near the feet of the alien, she knew the alien was terrified. Dexivea tried her best to look as unthreatening as possible and slowly moved forward talking to the alien as if she would a wild creature, knowing it wouldn''t understand her anyway she focused on her tone. The rest of her squad at first where unsure of what she was doing but even her commander followed her lead, no one wanted to fire on a puer and this one was young based on the reports of the height of the adults. "Pslaee t''dno uhtr em" the small alien said to them in its strange guttural language. As Dexivea got closer it started throwing trash at her, mostly bottles, the puer had quite the aim when throwing bottles, it kept repeating the same thing over again before Dexivea got close enough to grab the alien. Dexivea held the alien close and stroked it''s head, she had held it in a way that it couldn''t escape but that hopefully it would be enough to calm it down. "Looks like you got a pet Pyjak" Telio laughed the others joined in. Dexivea shot him a look before she continued to calm the puer. "Opts!" another alien voice rang out. The squad turned and saw a older alien this one holding a gun, it looked similar to the younger alien but was wearing armour. A soldier. The squad had their rifles aimed at the alien in less than a heartbeat. "E''sh ym horbtr, plsaee t''dno uhtr ihm. I lilw urernrdes sujt t''dno uhtr ihm" the older alien said in that strange language of theirs. The older alien was pointing to the puer and kept saying "Plsaee elt ihm og" Dexivea looked at the puer before looking back at the older alien "I think they are related" she said before she noticed the new aliens actions. "It thinks we are holding the puer hostage" Dexivea said disgusted at the realisation as she placed the young alien down. Her squad paid more attention to the older alien as the alien lowered it''s rifle and slowly raised it''s hands above it''s head and lowered itself to it''s knees. "T''dno unr!" it told the puer. At once the puer slowed from a run to a walk, when they were closer they spoke to each other before the puer raised its tiny arms and kneeled. Telio paused for a moment "They are surrending just like that?" When they searched the bigger alien they found tools, a shovel, cable and steel bolts. This alien had set the crossbow trap from before, or one just like it anyway.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Telio immediately removed his pistol and went to shoot the alien when it was on its knees. Dexivea had only just managed to stop him before the gun fired. "My orders have are clear, I must learn all I can about them and assess them for the Hierarchy" she explained. Telio looked at the alien, still with his pistol to its head and before he could say anything the puer tried to shield the older alien, who was now trying to get the puer to move out of the way. "If you shoot it, the puer will likely never say a word to us and you will have to explain why we had a great chance at knowing the locations of traps and landmines" she explained to Telio "can you kill a puer sir?" Telio paused before putting his pistol away "I don''t like this, why surrender?" Dexivea looked at the two of them as the squad moved forward and secured their weapons "It''s because of the puer, it must think this is the best way to keep them safe" Telio turned to her "What makes you so sure? This is a new race after all" Dexivea sighed "Logic mostly. The older one did not show themselves until the puer was caught" she said as she scanned them for biological threats and found none. "They have similar facial structure and fur colouring, as well as eye colour" she explained matter of factly "and so far as the only xeno biologist in the field at this time, these two are now in my custody" Telio paused and looked at her with disbelief, he was technically in charge of the squad, however Dexivea was allowed to take prisoners if it was thought it was needed and since no one had caught a soldier yet, the value of these two could not be ignored. "Fine, but I expect the two of them in the decontamination showers as soon we reach base camp" he ordered. Dexivea snapped a salute before looking at the two aliens. Base Camp Base camp appeared to be some office for law enforcement, so it suited the needs of the turian invaders. Dexivea was walking behind the two aliens and watching them, feeling more confident in her earlier assessment of the two being related. The older one, if she was accurate would be young but old enough to be given a weapon, his posture and the way he was looking around however told her that he was a trained killer and based on what Telio had told her was an combat engineer. It stood just tall enough to reach her lower mandibles and had a wide body while the puer stood just under her waist and had a skinny body. As expected the two aliens, even in cuffs got plenty of stares and while the puer was scared of the attention, the older one was staring back much like a caged varren would. When they came to the decontamination showers they stopped. Dexivea took a deep breath, this could go so many ways of course it didn''t help that other turians were now watching them, mostly for curiosity sake as many of them had never seen one up close never mind without armour on. Dexivea pointed to them and then to the showers, the puer seemed to be shy and covered itself up as much as possible. The older one tried to ignore the stares, it''s earlier bravado now gone and appeared to understand what the shower was for and seemingly was trying to calm the puer. External genitals, inital indictation both subjects are male, older one has more fur or hair than the young one. Aliens appear to indeed to have evolved from a primate species although highly unlikely from pyjaks. After Dexivea had quickly typed in her observations, the next part was a check up and to make sure they were not hiding anything. This was where the older male really fought, every time Dexivea went to get closer to the puer he would stand in front the younger male and shake his head before tapping his chest. "Oyu anc od yanihgtn ot em, utb tno ot ihm" the older male would say. Dexivea looked at them and tried to work out what it was trying to tell her, so she held up a empty needle and said "Blood test" The older male frowned at her and shook his head "Otn ihm" he said as he stepped forward. Dexivea stepped closer, the guard detail tensed and readied their rifles, Dexivea dismissed them he was still in cuffs after all and she suspected he wouldn''t do anything to risk his pahir or fraten whoever it was to him. She didn''t need to find a vein so it only took a moment, once she was done she showed him the blood and what she was doing with it. "Blood test" she said slowly and as she suspected it confirmed that he was a Levo based species. He nodded his head and allowed Dexivea to take a blood sample from the puer and after that as long as she did it to him first he was okay with her examinations even if he did become tense when she had to be more hands on with her examinations. Skin is soft to touch, subject appears to excrete a fluid from skin during heat, stress and/or possibly fear, fluid does have a unique scent, possible uses for tracking, fluid likely helps regulates body temperature. In this case subject appeared to become stressed during examinations of vitals and genitals, likely due to fear of turian talons which subject''s skin would offer no protection against. Dexivea viewed herself as a professional and would treat these aliens the same way as any other race or even turian, they were in her care and despite whatever was going on around them they were her patients. Dexivea made sure her two patients had a change of clothes, sadly they only had clothes for the Council races but they looked like they would fit Turian patrol fleets often dealt with slavers, pirates and other criminal elements and often civilians would be rescued. Due to this all ships had limited supplies, clothes for other species, toys and games for puer. Dexivea offered the puer a change of clothes, despite her best efforts the alien avoided all asari clothing no matter how well it would have fitted and instead wore salarian clothes instead. The puer looked up at her and while she could tell it was still terrified but likely didn''t know what she wanted from him. Dexivea tried to relax the child, so despite the protests that Telio would offer if he saw this, Dexivea placed all the toys and games on the floor and she sat down, she also made sure the older alien could clearly see what she was doing. The puer looked at her before looking back at the toys, taking a chance Dexivea reached forward and grabbed a model ship she noticed he was looking at and offered it to him. The puer looked at the ship before looking at her before back at the model again and slowly reached out to grab the ship from her, to her surprise when he did take it he stayed where he was and just looked at the ship. Subject appears trusting if given reason to be, no indication of fear or stress as before, appears curious at surroundings. "Khtan uyo" the puer said looking at her before he pointed to a dyitan cube "Ahws''t htta?" it asked. Dexivea looked at the puzzle box, now this will be an interesting test. A dyitan cube was a small cube designed for turian pueriti, salarians called it a simple puzzle box which just seemed wrong somehow. Surpisingly the puer could not solve the dyitan cube for the same reason why some other races couldn''t. Their eyes couldn''t detect the colour changes meaning their eyes were not as good at detecting certain colours likely seeing in a different spectrum to that of turians. Standing back up she left the toys with the alien and left, these aliens could prove to be a fine client race if that''s what the Hierarchy wished. Dexivea walked over to the older alien''s cell and after talking to the guards about letting her in, she entered. This was not a puer she was dealing with now, this alien had killed before and would again if given a chance. Dexivea looked at the cuffs and ordered them removed "Don''t do anything stupid, I am the only one keeping you and the puer safe" The alien rubbed his wrists and looked at her"Atne" he said while pointing to himself. Dexivea paused and copied the alien who shook his head and pointed to himself again and said the same thing again but slowly "Nate" he said. Dexivea pointed to him and said "Nate?" The alien smiled and pointed to her and Dexivea did the same thing but with her own name "Dexivea" she said pointing to herself. Nate paused and tried to copy her name "Edxeviae?" Dexivea shook her head and repeated her name again. Nate tried to say her name again "Dexivea?" Dexivea nodded and said her name again before pointing at him and saying Nate again. Nate smiled again and pointed to the puer and said slowly "Kurt" Dexivea was pleased with herself, she now knew the two aliens names before translations were completed. Nate pointed to himself and then to the puer again and slowly said "Hoo-man" Dexivea paused again and pointed to the two aliens "Hoo-man?" Nate made a face, made a small noise and said it again "Human" Dexivea couldn''t believe this, she now knew what these aliens were called "Human?" Nate nodded confirming that is what he was trying to tell her. He then pointed to her and then the other turians he could see from his small cell. "Turian" Dexivea said pointing to herself and the other turians. Nate looked at her and said "turian" he was quiet for a moment before he said something else "Hyw ohsot?" Dexivea was confused now so she repeated him and he slowly said it again but this time he made his hand look like a gun and he pretended to fire it "Turian ohsot?" he seemed to ask Dexivea was slowly getting the idea "Why did we shoot?" she asked, knowing he wouldn''t understand anything she said but she tried anyway "Human broke law" she said simply. Nate frowned before something caught his attention, a turian general approaching the cells. Dexivea immediately left the cell and saluted the general, this one Dexivea did not know "Sir, the prisoners have been decontaminated and I have started making progess in translations" The general seemed pleased "What can you tell me?" Dexivea stood a little straighter "I have written reports but I can tell you that they are called ''humans'' and the bigger one is called ''Nate'' and the puer is called ''Kurt'' and surrendered after we had caught him. An effort to protect the puer" The general pondered this for a moment "So they are loyal to their families?" Dexivea made a sub harmonic sound meant confusion "These two are at least" The general looked at her "You have done a great job, these two will be moved to a more secure position. I will be sure to recommend you get a promotion for this" Dexivea stood up straighter "With respect sir, I would like to stay with them. The older one I feel will be in danger without me here and they know me, I might be able to build a dialogue with them, like I already have" The general looked at the older and much bigger alien known as Nate "Why do you say that doctor?" Dexivea paused "He was caught with tools used to make those traps, many turians have seen the worst of those traps" The general pondered that "Fine, the two prisoners are yours but I will be sending experts to assist you but since the prisoners have already started talking to you, I see no reason to stop that" Dexivea could barely hide her excitement while she saluted him "Thank you sir" The general saluted her back "You have done a good job here Medic Vicril" he said clearly knowing who she was. Two days later. Dexivea had be given a small office near the cells, so she could watch her prisoners while still operating on any wounded that came in. Nate appeared to make a mark on the wall of his cell for every turian that Dexivea couldn''t save. Dexivea knew what he was doing, mind games with the enemy, he couldn''t do anything else so he counted her failures, she tried not to let it bother her. He was her prisoner after all. Besides while Nate might have been trying to annoy her, Kurt on the other hand was always trying to show her drawings he had done or getting her to play with him and even would run to her and away from other turians. Dexivea tried to be emotionally distant from the alien puer but when she did, Kurt would be depressed and refuse to eat. Like now, they were being moved and while Kurt was happy to be standing near Dexivea, Nate however would stand facing the bars of his cell and just wait. His guard detail using law enforcement shields they had found in the building and to her surprise, Nate did not back down instead seemed to be waving them towards him and when the cell doors opened the guard detail rushed in and Nate ran towards them. A minute later the guards dragged his unconscious body from the cell, Dexivea kept Kurt from seeing that. Nate woke up later on a shuttle, heading back to the fleet. "I know you don''t understand me but they are moving the two of you. They want to see you at the Citadel and maybe we can convince your species to give up" Dexivea explained. Nate''s face was swollen and one eye was a shade of purple that was close to an asari skin tone and his nose was dripping blood. Puer = Child. Kynost = Palaven predator hunts like a crocodile. Dyitan cube = Small turian puzzle box for infants, turians see in a different spectrum to to other races, used a way to test other species eye sight. Pueriti = Infant under 1 Pahir = Son Monsters among us. Dexivea was once again back on a ship, this time a science ship called The Inquisitor, while small in size, the ship made up for it by being filled with the best minds the Hierarchy had to offer. The Hierarchy while known for its strength in military matters also had quite the impressive science and research teams who had never had this much new material to work with. Dexivea was in charge of treating the two humans since there was a level of trust there in fact even Nate wouldn''t attack her on sight anymore, the only turian that could be in a cell with him without him being restrained and not be attacked. Kurt had impressed the crew by walking calmly with Dexivea as if there was nothing strange about it at all, he was still scared around other turians though and would often hide behind Dexivea legs. Of course Nate was still dangerous and Dexivea would have to count everything she took into his cell, he would try and steal anything he could get his hands on.
Nate was cooperating for now but Dexivea knew that he was just biding his time, he had been placed in a cell with his hands cuffed behind his back.
Dexivea had surprised him by throwing a human first aid kit that had been found, of course the medical gel humans were known to use had been removed from the kit for study.
Dexivea got him released from his cuffs and pointed to the first aid kit and then to his face "Being an soldier, you should know how to use this"
Nate looked at the first aid kit, that infernal whistling from his nose was getting annoying and after a moment and to Dexivea''s relief he reached for the first aid kit. The turians outside of his cell were watching him of course, they were surprised when he grabbed his nose and placed a thin stick up one side and with a twist and a sickening crunch his nose stopped whistling. He then after blinking the tears from his eyes used the mirror to look at his purple and red eye which was quite colourful now before he moved onto a small cut he had on his head. Dexivea knew right away what he was trying to do, asari and salarian stitching wounds was similar after all, Dexivea did not offer to help him though. If Nate wanted her help, he would have to ask for it and after two painful attempts at stitching his head wound closed, which with one eye swollen he found it harder to stitch close than it normally would be. With a sigh he looked at Dexivea and sighed "Please?" he asked. Dexivea had started to understand what certain human words meant, even if she couldn''t say some of them but she learnt most of the human language by playing with Kurt and being the sweet polite boy he is, please and thank you were among the first words she learnt. Dexivea nodded "That was difficult for you wasn''t it?" she asked with a laugh. The other turians were in awe at how well this young medic was dealing with this alien. Dexivea sat in front of him and begun to stitch the cut on his head closed, his bright red blood staining her talons. Nate sat in silence before he quietly said "Thank you" Dexivea was in shock, that was the nicest Nate had ever been, he asked for help and then thanked her for it. "There might be hope for you yet" Dexivea told him with a laugh, before she looked at the kit and held her hand out. Nate didn''t move for a moment before he handed over a small scapel. "That''s better" Dexivea said with a chuckle. Once she left, Kurt said something to Nate and the two started to fight again, the two humans also were arguing almost daily, Nate seemed to have a problem with Kurt spending so much time around Dexivea. Dexivea stayed out of sight but just listened, Kurt kept saying her name, he sounded happy when she heard Nate yell something back. "Dexi si tno oyur ufckngi efdnri! Alien sundretnad? Oyur a ept nda ew ened ot cpeaes" Nate told him. Kurt''s only reaction was to cry uncontrollably before she could hear a sigh and Nate trying to calm him down again. Dexivea really wished she could understand what was being said and if she was honest with herself the sound of Kurt crying upset her. Kurt despite the fight he had with Nate was back to wanting to spend every day with her and since Dexivea had other duties sometimes it would be quite awhile before she could see him. "Dexi!" he would call as soon as he saw her, he was the only one she allowed to call her that as he couldn''t say her full name anyway. Despite herself Dexivea had come to enjoy being around the puer, he found her sub harmonics funny and would try to copy them, he would fail of course but it did help him win over the scientists. Nate would often just stare at them, Dexivea could play mind games too, so Dexivea went out of her way to spend even more time with Kurt and would allow him to walk around outside of his cell, supervised of course. Dexivea was also gaining quite the understanding of human language from her interaction with Kurt, as the puer was showing any other turian as well as the linguistics officer different words and letters. While showing Kurt around the ship, Dexivea took him to a star map and showed him the galaxy, she used other races homeworlds but not Palaven just in case. Kurt had his eyes wide open and looked up at her "ehrew is Earth?" he asked. Dexivea paused, this while was her goal she was hoping he would know but he didn''t instead she asked him "Earth is your homeworld?" Kurt just stared at her with confusion so with a sigh she continued her tour. Human homeworld possibly called Earth, unknown location. They made their way to the engine room which Kurt was excited for, he didn''t touch anything but he was looking around with his eyes wide. "Nate ltles me, I oclud ivle on a ishp ikle isht" he said excitedly "sujt ikle mum did......." Kurt went quiet suddenly. Dexivea didn''t understand everything he said of course but she did understand he was talking about the ship before he said something else, he sounded upset. Dexivea looked down at the small human wondered what the Hierarchy would do if humans didn''t surrender, Kurt was such a sweet boy that it was hard to believe that he would one day be capable of all the horrifying ways that his people cripple and kill. With a heavy heart she realized that Nate was likely the only family the puer had left. From blood tests, Dexivea knew they were fraten which would explain the protective behavior of Nate and would explain the fighting between the two. Dexivea tried to put herself in Nate''s position, as difficult as that was. If she was looking after a younger fraten and aliens attacked she had to admit she would likely act the same. She couldn''t imagine the stress of that, not knowing what the aliens wanted and Dexivea also realized that while turians were honorable for the most part, Nate and Kurt had no reason to believe that. The battle for Shanxi had now reached a fever pitch, the fleet above Shannxi had started to bomb entire city blocks from orbit. The xeno psychologist suggested getting Nate''s reaction to it, his response was not what they were hoping for and it bothered Dexivea. "Human hurt turian now" he slowly said sadly. A few days later his words came true, when humans retaliated by using chlorine to gas a turian base camp, killing over two hundred turians. One Week Later They had finally reached the Citadel and by now the Council was well aware of this new race that was fighting to the death over some irrelevant planet. The Citadel was a massive ancient space station that was originally found by the asari before the salarians came much later and while there was many races in Council space only three species made up the Council. The asari who were the diplomatic and had the most advanced but lacked the physical size and strength to fight on front lines and instead focused on commando teams who had hundreds of years experience and powerful biotics which every asari was capable of. The salarians who also lacked the size and strength of other races but made up for it with intelligence and used espionage and the most complex intelligence network out of any other species. And finally the turians who had the most powerful military in the galaxy. From fleet numbers and ground troops, only the krogan rebellions had given them any form of challenge. Until now. What surprised all of them though was the humans were now using any thing available that would injure, cripple or kill turians, including their own bodily fluids to cause infections. For the first time in galactic history, feces was used as a chemical weapon against another species by using the cities plumbing against the invading turians. They turned their already sadistic traps and made them even worse and had now learnt enough about turians to use tactics and weapons designed for turian biology. From high frequency sounds that deafened turians, to lights that was like looking into the sun, blinding any turian unlucky enough to be caught in it. Turians were reporting that some humans were trying to fight them with whatever weapons they could find, from farming equipment, to in one case a human using nothing but turian equipment stolen from the dead. There was also reports of a human, skinning turians of their carapace and wearing it, like a suit. This had two effects, recon equipment showed only human or turian not if a human was wearing a turian. The other effect was this scared the turians on the ground to the point of calling them the vastator, this one human had caused so much chaos and death that there was a blackwatch unit hunting a sole human.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. There was also the unconfirmed reports of a ''forest of the dead'' where turian and even some humans corpses hung from the trees The Hierarchy had never faced a foe like this, they fought like impatient salarians who liked using asari commando like tactics and fighting on the front lines like turians. The Hierarchy was struggling to understand this new race. These "humans" used anything at all that worked and tactics that had never been seen before. Nate didn''t resist getting out if his cell when they came to get him, he came quietly, after all he had no where to go and he knew it. C-Sec had a team put together to escort the two humans and due to the nature of the event of first contact being made, C-Sec couldn''t keep it quiet. The docks were flooded with reporters and civilians all trying to get a look at the newcomers and a collective gasp came from the crowds when they saw the asari looking aliens. Kurt was not restrained as such, instead he was being carried by Dexivea and would even hide his face into her neck. Nate on the other hand, had his hands cuffed in front of him and was staring back at the floating camera''s and flashing lights and of course more aliens than he had been around so far. "Keri T''Vessa, Citadel news can I ask you some questions?" one reporter yelled out to Dexivea who ignored the question and moved past the reporters and civilians all trying to get a look. They were led into C-Sec holding cells but this time Kurt didn''t want to let go, in fact he had such a grip on her she was worried she would hurt him dislodging him. "Dexi t''dno go please!" Kurt begged he kept looking at the other aliens watching him and was getting more and more upset. "Let me try with the little one" came a warm voice. Dexivea turned and saw a delegation of asari being led by Matriarch Benezia herself. A well known asari leader who close to eight hundred years old didn''t look a day over a hundred. She was known for being extremely powerful and influential. "He is very scared and doesn''t want me to leave" Dexivea explained as she stroked his head and ignored his tears wetting her neck. Benezia smiled warmly "It would be very frightening" she said as she walked around behind Dexivea and looked into Kurt''s eyes. Dexivea looked over at Nate "Please Matriarch, his fraten is very protective and I fear this might damage the trust I have gained" Nate at this point was going berserk, thrashing so hard and screaming, Dexivea knew enough of human language to know that he was threatening all of them if they hurt Kurt. Benezia smiled again "I understand" she said and patted Kurt''s head gently before she moved towards Nate "can he be reasoned with?" she asked. Dexivea looked at Nate while still holding Kurt "Yes but I think he will attack anyone who goes into that cell now" Benezia nodded, her earlier warm expression was gone and was now replaced with a determined look "Just how dangerous is he?" Dexivea paused for a moment as Kurt was being loud near her ear "No biotics to speak of, strength greater than an asari and just as fast moving and agile, they fight with a ferocity as well" Dexivea looked at the Matriarch "he will break bones if he catches you" Benezia nodded "I believe I can understand his distress. I wish to speak with him" she said calmly "please remove his restraints" Dexivea paused for a moment, she had seen first hand how fast Nate could move but she never questioned those orders and opened the door. Benezia stepped inside and stood with her hands behind her back, looking as regal as only a matriarch could and with a click the cuffs came off. Immediately Nate rushed Benezia with a roar of rage, he had gotten halfway accross the cell before he was lifted up by biotics, this shocked him but he was still being defiant. "I only wish to speak with you" Benezia said as she stepped closer to him "I can understand your distress, but we mean you or your fraten no harm" she said calmly as she placed a hand on his cheek "embrace eternity" Dexivea watched as the mind meld happened, he went limb for a moment before he opened his eyes again and he was lowered to the ground. Benezia smiled warmly at him before she started talking in that human language and it seemed like there was a debate before Benezia sighed. "I think Nate here needs to talk to a volus for a start" she said rubbing her forehead as she left the cell "I only know the language, I did not force more information out of his mind. I am not a viloatli" Dexivea was now very confused, even more so based on how Nate was acting which was calm but staring at them still "Why would he need to talk to a volus?" she asked. Benezia had now walked in front of Kurt and was talking to him like he was her own pahir and just like that Kurt let go and followed Benezia into the cell. "He thinks turians are slavers and that''s why the turians attacked and why you wanted Kurt" Benezia replied as she waved goodbye to the tiny human. To say that Dexivea was insulted was an understatement "What? Why would they think that?" Benezia smiled sadly "Because of the orbit bombardments. They see themselves as minding their own business before being attacked by an alien race that is now trying to bomb them into surrender" Dexivea thought about that "We just want the fighting to stop" Benezia smiled warmly "My dear, the Hierarchy started this fight" Dexivea couldn''t believe this "I don''t understand, they were trying to open a relay, that is against Council law" Benezia shook her head "They had no way of knowing the laws and my dear you wouldn''t shoot a ''puer'' if it reached for a gun" Dexivea sighed "So they won''t surrender?" Benezia smiled "Of course they will. They just need to know of the wider galactic community first" Dexivea couldn''t believe this, of course the asari would take that view "The Hierarchy wants them as a client race" she admitted quietly. Benezia laughed "My dear, the humans are too individualistic, some may join the Hierarchy, others will not. They are not the volus, they are quite capable of defending themselves and you have not defeated their main fleet" That news shocked Dexivea "How.....?" Benezia smiled sadly again "Nate thinks help is on the way, when I told him their fleet was already defeated he replied with laughter" Dexivea didn''t like the sound of that "If that''s the case why haven''t we seen their reinforcements yet?" Benezia shook her head "That I do not know" Dexivea looked over at Kurt "Why was he so scared?" Benezia looked down at her feet "He thinks your going to either sell him or get rid of him" Dexivea could feel herself getting angry "Why would he think that?" Benezia looked Dexivea in the eyes "Nate has been trying to get Kurt not to be so attached to you. He told him that you are not his friend and that crying you heard from Kurt, was him asking you why he can''t be your friend" Dexivea was stunned and felt a rage building at Nate, Dexivea had been nothing but professional and kind to both of them. Benezia placed a hand on her shoulder "Some thoughts can not remain hidden, his fear for his brother is one of them, Nate is terrified he has been the sole guardian of Kurt for three years and he is only nineteen raising a six year old now thinks he failed his brother and that both of them are going to die" Dexivea looked at her feet "So there is nothing I can do?" she couldn''t understand why she hated them looking at her like that. Benezia smiled warmly "Just keep doing what your doing Nate will learn the truth in time" After Benezia left, Dexivea found herself sitting at a bar drinking alone. The thought of little Kurt being so scared of losing her when he had already lost so much bothered her, she remembers when she first saw him terrified throwing bottles at her and now he was so scared of losing her he didn''t want to let her go. She was still thinking about the little noises he made trying to copy her sub harmonics when she got a call. C-Sec had been broken into and Kurt was gone. Dexivea ran as fast as her legs would carry her, she never should have left for a break. She knew they were safer around her and now Kurt was missing. "What happened?" she asked. "Worried about your pet pyjak?" a younger turian said. Dexivea snarled loudly with her sub harmonics before looking away from that turian who backed away after that display. Dexivea had become quite agitated by the term pyjak when referring to humans. It seemed like such a harsh racial insult to her as humans were evolved primates and calling them a pyjak diminished them in her eyes. "A batarian broke in here and messed with the controls, both cells opened and the smaller alien was taken, the bigger one had batarian blood on it''s hands" another C-Sec guard explained. Dexivea looked at the cells and saw a spot of red blood in Kurt''s cell, Dexivea made a vow then and there that this batarian would feel her talons. "Nate would not have gone down without a fight" Dexivea explained. "The bigger one? Yeah that''s why we know what happened in here" the asari C-Sec guard said pointing to Nate''s cell "he managed to get the fire alarms sounded, before he was knocked out. He is going to be like a enraged krogan when he wakes up" Dexivea looked down at Logan whose face was now black and blue "I will find him, I swear it" Dexivea had a few favors in C-Sec and other elements around the Citadel, she was on the right track, after she blackmailed a hacker she knew, her silence for his aid in tracking down Kurt. C-Sec was in a full panic, this was a diplomatic relations worst case scenario so every C-Sec agent was now looking for the batarian and the human child. Batarians were sometimes seen as criminals and raiders who were always looking for new slaves, preferably from other species. The hacker had found them in the wards, the batarian had struggling and lost his grip on Kurt who ran as fast as he could screaming for Dexivea, failing that he ran straight to the most familiar what he thought was a dinosaur was in fact a massive krogan. The krogan stood over seven foot tall and weighed over six hundred pounds of solid muscle and could survive almost anything thrown at him, while not invincible they could regenerate from wounds that would kill other species in seconds. The krogan looked down at the whelp before looking back up at the batarian "I don''t think the pup wants to go anywhere with you" The batarian snarled at the krogan "Not your fight krogan" The old krogan stood up from the bench he was sitting on and gently pushed Kurt behind him "It is now" he said simply. The batarian didn''t know when to quit and reached for his gun "I am Drethar Ramkoros and you are just some Council mistake" The krogan snarled "And I am Urdnot Wrex and the pup is going nowhere with you. Council calls krogan monsters but still let''s scum like you stay here" Kurt saw Dexivea running towards them and screaming "Dexi!" Drethar had enough time to turn his head and saw something that made his blood run cold, a enraged turian running towards him, mandibles open and leaning forward as the enraged female turian ran accross the docks. Wrex gently picked up Kurt and turned his face away from the carnage that was about to unfold "You don''t need to see this pup" With a roar Dexivea tackled the batarian into the water fountain, landing on top of him and while she screeched like a madwoman she tore into the batarian with her somewhat blunted talons. It took five C-Sec agents to drag her from the batarians body, Dexivea and the shallow water in the fountain was filled with batarian blood. Dexivea was panting and snarling like a wild animal, still staring at the corpse as if daring it to move again when she felt tiny arms wrap around her leg, looking down she saw Kurt, unbothered by the blood covering her. Kurt was now hugging Dexivea as hard as he could "Dexi, glyu alien reitd to akte me ywaa" he said crying loudly. Dexivea lifted him up and rested her forehead against Kurt''s before she used her sub harmonics to soothe him and while he couldn''t understand what she was saying but the rumbling sound in his chest relaxed him and would often even put him to sleep. "Dino asvde me" he said pointing to Wrex and looking at him. Dexivea looked over at Wrex "He says thank you" "Your welcome pup" Wrex said before seeing C-Sec rushing towards them "I better go, a krogan around a corpse raises more questions than I care to answer right now" Dexivea thanked him again herself and carried Kurt back to C-Sec who were now securing the area. Dexivea was glad she was able to find him and when Nate saw Kurt he ran to the edge of his cell. Dexivea placed Kurt into Nate''s cell, which was against the rules but she knew they needed it. The two fraten hugged each other while Nate checked Kurt for injuries. "Thank you Dexivea" Nate said and held out his hand before he must of realized that Dexivea probably wouldn''t know what it meant so he grabbed her hand and shook it "human rgetegin" he explained. Few days later. Dexivea was sitting in Nate''s cell just chatting with him, the two had gained a respect for each other and by now due to the work of Benezia and other asari with other human prisoners, translators now could translate english although humans on Shanxi just used a different dialect to stop spies. Nate was going to see a volus later in the day, Dexivea had organized that since he needed a clearer picture of the Hierarchy. It was then, the news came in that General Williams had surrendered and Dexivea looked over at Nate "You think this will end the fighting?" Nate was in shock and he shook his head "Better to die on your feet than live on your knees" Dexivea paused before she asked her next question "What would make humans accept the Hierarchy?" Nate looked back at her "What would it take for my species to be what? Slaves? Pets for some alien empire? Second class citizens at best" Dexivea slammed her fist into the table "We are not slavers" Nate sighed softly and looked at her "I can''t think of any reason why turians would be kind to humans even if we were to join, we would be at best second class citizens" Dexivea was puzzled "Why do you think turians would mistreat your kind if you were to join the Hierarchy?" Nate laughed out loud at that "Because we have been kicking your ass for weeks now and when the fleet gets here from Earth is when the real show begins" Dexivea wanted to argue but find she couldn''t find the energy to debate that point. The fighting did slow down with only pockets of resistance although the resistance was now far more savage and ruthless than before. Turian news shows with so called experts were now claiming humans on Shanxi were now joining the Hierarchy and that with time humans would be a excellent client race after training of course and they even had some ceremony welcoming those who did join. Dexivea was watching the ceremony with Nate who looked disgusted with the humans "Traitors every one of them" Nate had told her more than once. While Nate no longer viewed turians as slavers he claimed the Hierarchy reminds him of ancient Rome, Dexivea was not able to get an answer to that has the vid screen with the so called experts claiming victory over humanity. "Human fleet has been spotted at the human colony of Shanxi, the reports indicate the turian fleet in orbit has..... been killed in action" the reporter was in shock, his panel of guests who were just moments ago claiming victory. "Reports indicate the humans used a large fleet with ships that have never been seen before" the reporter was at a loss for words "this is a dark day for the Hierarchy" Nate however was jumping for joy and laughing "Guess these pyjaks still have some things to teach you huh?" Last Man on the Citadel
Last Man on the Citadel
Dexivea could hardly believe that even Nate was now chatting to her about a variety of subjects and made her examinations much easier even if some of the examinations were uncomfortable for him, he made sure that he took all of it and not Kurt. Indictation of human prisoners becoming close to those in charge. Possible motivation could be social, humans appear to be very sociable beings, if unable to socialize with others, human may begin to talk to themselves and mental instability can soon follow. Recommend socializion as soon as possible, majority of infomation I, Dr Vicril have gathered has been given willingingly.
Other possible motivation may in fact be a way to avoid corrective measures, patient was very resistant to all scans and tests after capture and now patient accepts all tests without complaint despite in some cases extreme discomfort.
It should be noted that the subject known as Nate has volunteered for all tests and examinations in exchange for his fraten not being subjected to the same tests.
Recommend small probes for throat, patient can be forced to empty their stomach''s if to much force is used, lubrication is highly recommended for any genital or rectal examinations to avoid pain or discomfort to patient.
See attached files on scans obtained.
Other possible motives could in fact even be a form of bonding or even sexual interest. As humans are social creatures and the most interaction the two subjects have with other life is in fact with myself, their social desire to bond and communicate may extend to those outside their race.
Sexual interest should also be concidered, although humans like turians have strong concepts of consent, also like turians they believe consent can not be given from a prisoner to those in charge of them.
Humans have a unique scent depending on hormonal changes and mood, a turian who is well prepared and trained for these scents could use them to their advantage, including deception awareness as well as short range tracking.
As for other scents, their rage can be overpowering, fear and anxiety can be unpleasant and arousal is not an unpleasant scent at all. I expect human turian relationships will one day be common, no matter the outcome of this war.
Long term relationships or genuine affection maybe possible in time, for the time being all interactions would either be one of prisoner and captor or one of enemies.
To force action is seen in much the same way turians see it, as a violation. The word they use for this crime is Rape, thankfully according to subject, humans are against it and has stated that it is seen as a war crime.
War crimes include targeting ''non combatants'' which is interesting in itself. According to subject due to turian culture and society, all turians of age are concidered ''enemy combatants'' while other races would be seen as ''non combatants'' although that can change if need for self defense arises.
Humans have the capacity to be great allies or fearsome enemies. The human spirit is one of stubborn determination, while the human race maybe conquered, the human spirit would never be.
They will resist, they will never accept Hierarchy rule as a whole, there would be resistence that would last generations. In time they may accept Hierarchy aid and support, there is much they can learn from us and the galaxy could benefit from their presence greatly if they are guided from a distance but free to hunt on their own. Nate had been in a far better mood since the news that humans had retaken the colony, he was asking questions about the Citadel and in particular how aliens live along side each other.
"Wait so asari can mate outside of their species?" Nate asked his mouth hanging open. Dexivea chuckled "Yes although they don''t like that term, but yes they can" she answered taking another drink of water "and there is of course other inter species relationships"
Nate raised an eyebrow "So aliens date other aliens?" Dexivea chuckled "Yes, it''s part of the reason why there was so many asari at the hospital as well as other races today, they all wanted to see you" Nate turned bright red and stammered for an answer "This is embarrassing....." Dexivea shook her head "Why? From what I know of your species, you are in good condition, are still able to become erect and besides you have nothing to be ashamed of" Nate turned an even brighter shade of red "They were fear boners" Dexivea paused for a moment "Yes I remember how you reacted to my talons during the first examinations I gave you" Nate laughed "I just don''t like those talons of yours, I don''t know if humans could have get over those" he said looking at her hands, he shivered. Dexivea looked at her talons, which she had blunted even more so after she killed that batarian who tried kidnapping Kurt, the news channels were still showing footage and even movie companies were trying to get the rights to her story. "Turians have had relationships with many soft skinned aliens, humans are no different in that regard" Dexivea explained as she saw how blunt she had already made them "Are mine too sharp again?" Nate shook his head "No I guess I am just being scared over nothing" Dexivea with her sub harmonics scoffed at that "You are perhaps the bravest I have ever met, so I doubt it''s fear" Nate nodded and looked at his feet "I''ve been a prisoner for almost the entire length of the war. Many would say that I wasn''t brave at all" Dexivea leaned forward "Your sacrifice here could save countless human lives later on as well as allow a greater understanding of your kind" Nate was looking back at her as she continued, his pale eyes seemed to be watering. "You have spared your brother every uncomfortable or unpleasant test and examination. You sacrificed everything so that he would not suffer though it" Dexivea said, the two of them stared at each other in silence for a few moments before they awkwardly moved back away from each other. Nate cleared his throat and changed the subject and to how turians would be treated in the prisoner camps. Dexivea asked him what the conditions would be like being a turian prisoner of war. "That depends, I''d imagine it''s the same for me really" he said as he drank some of the asari tea he had been given, he was exhausted after being taken to the Citadel Hospital had countless tests all on his his bodily fluids. "If I wasn''t just some fresh out of boot camp engineer, I would think you guys would be really pressing me for infomation" he explained, he wasn''t looking as pale as he once did. "The turians captured now should be getting treated fairly well, since translators would be getting around my side by now although that depends on how much individual prisoners know" Nate explained before he leaned back "finding your homeworld would be the goal" Dexivea was not pleased to hear that, she dreaded the idea of humans being on offensive and not on defence, truth was Dexivea thought the Hierarchy was underestimating these humans. "Of course the real issue is lack of food for turians and any turian ship entering that system would be attacked" Nate explained "If I was you guys I would send an asari ship, armed of course it is a war zone after all" he said before he added "salarian might be interesting though" he said with chuckle. Dexivea made her sub harmonics for confusion and of course Nate just frowned at her and rubbed his chest "I don''t understand you when you do that you know?" Dexivea laughed and apologized "Why would a salarian be interesting?" Nate leaned forward, by now he knew more about the Council races than any human alive and even the politics of the Citadel as he was able to watch Citadel news since translators were working for him as well, at least select programs anyway. Nate sighed "Well it could be nothing but over a hundred years ago maybe more, we had reports of UFOs abducting people and doing exams and that sort of thing....." Dexivea''s eyes went wide "Your people have proof of this" Nate made a noise "Meh not really, somewhat outdated footage and witness reports of now long dead people. They described an aliens that looked like a salarian enough though, strange coincidence I have to admit" Possible salarian prior knowledge of humans, can not confirm. Dexivea made a note of that and she asked him something else "What about these capital ships you humans use? No main gun, instead has large numbers of fighters" Nate didn''t flinch at all "Must be new." When subject was asked about the human ship fighter platform, subject lied about the design being new. Expect to see more of those ships, subject is calm and relaxed but lying, likely subject views these ships as an advantage for his kind. Dexivea sighed "Why do you lie to me?" Nate raised an eyebrow "Where is Palaven? And can I borrow that fancy gadget you all take off before you come in here?" Dexivea held out her hands, she knew that he wouldn''t tell her anything of value "Why would you tell me all this anyway?" Nate sighed "I don''t want turians to starve to death? Besides it''s in my best interest to aid you without compromising human efforts" Dexivea again was confused "Without compromising human efforts? What exactly does that mean?" Nate shrugged "Basically it means that I help your guy''s talk to my guys, besides now the fighting is over.... " Prisoners are allowed to organise communication to negotiate their release, prisoners can only speak on their own behalf and not on behalf of their government however, if communcation is desired recommend asking prisoners. Dexivea didn''t look at him when he said that, she knew for a fact the Hierarchy was preparing for full scale war against humans and that earth''s location was no longer a secert. Nate swallowed hard "You.... You guys aren''t done yet?" he seemed to be in shock "but there is no point anymore, I mean we took our planet back, all we have done at this point is defend ourselves" he said before he noticed Dexivea had cocked her head towards Kurt asleep in his cell, who had just stirred in his sleep. Dexivea looked back at Nate "Do not wake him" she warned, her voice had a slight growl to it she didn''t notice herself doing it, but Nate sure did and raised his eyebrows at her before he shook his head and started pacing. It had started taking far longer than before to get Kurt to go to sleep due to him now being able to talk to Dexivea about anything. Nate sat back down and looked down "I thought turians didn''t want this fight to keep going? But now your people are going to commit to a war that won''t end any time soon all for nothing than pride" Dexivea held up her hands "They are just worried, first contact in over hundreds of years and your kind has managed to do what many thought to be impossible. You held out and even retook your planet" Nate was clearly struggling to keep his voice down so he wouldn''t wake Kurt "So because of that we should be conquered? I know you turians are tough but if you attack earth or any other human world, it will end badly for everyone" Dexivea paused "What are you saying here?" Nate sighed "Come on Dexi, you know us well enough by now to know what will happen if you attack not some new colony but our fucking homeworld? Shanxi will look like a bar fight in comparsion" Dexivea grumbled "I''m just a medic, I can''t......" Nate dismissed her concerns "You are for all intents and purposes one of, if not the foremost experts on human''s, so that has to count for something" Dexivea sighed "And say what exactly?" Nate paused for a moment before he answered "Cost, how much would it cost the Hierarchy? Shanxi didn''t have anything close to the defences to what earth has. Dexi, this would weaken the Hierarchy for the batarians or the krogan" Dexivea went to say something but Nate continued "We will get desperate and trust me there is nothing more dangerous than a desperate human" Dexivea leaned forward and grabbed his head "Relax, you have my word I will do all I can to get them to see reason but you have to help us organize negotiations" Nate''s pale blue eyes stared back at her bright yellow eyes "I will not betray my kind Dexi" he told her. Dexivea nodded "I don''t expect you to" she said letting go of his head, the two of them stood in silence for a moment when they both heard the sound of people walking towards them. Nate looked at her and smiled sadly "I think this is the part where your bosses want to ask me a few questions" Dexivea looked out of the cell and saw a squad moving towards her, thinking quickly she quickly went to take the cup but found it wasn''t where she had left it. She glanced at Nate and realized she didn''t have time to get the cup back off him so she grabbed her medical bag and took out a needle and gave him a shot, just in time for a turian to walk into view. Out of all the turians who could walk in it had to be him. Kaeso Nyx, Hierarchy Intelligence and well known to every doctor for his cruel and bordering on criminal actions towards prisoners but nothing could ever be proven. "Medic Vicril" Kaeso stated as soon as he saw her, ignoring the fact she is a trained doctor not just some medic. Dexivea looked over at him "It''s doctor actually and is there a reason you are interrupting my time with my patients?" she asked, her orders had been passed down by the Primarch himself so she didn''t let him intimidate her. Kaeso stared at Nate with hatred in his eyes "New orders" he said as he used his omni-tool to transfer her new orders. Dexivea looked down at her orders and her heart sank. Effective immediately all prisoners of war are now classed as withholding vital information. All infomation gathering is to take highest priority, all fleet numbers and troop numbers are to be reported immediately. Kaeso leaned forward and spoke almost entirely with sub harmonics "Leave now and I may let you keep the puer as a pet" he offered. With a disgusted feeling, Dexivea knew that Kaeso was not mocking her, in his mind he was being kind, offering her Kurt to adopt. A common practice with war orphans, a puer should not suffer because of a war they did not fight in.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Dexivea swallowed the disgust and bowed "Thank you sir" Kaeso ordered his squad to wait outside, less witnesses Dexivea realized. Dexivea looked at Nate and tried to think of a way to tell him anything but she couldn''t think of anything so she nodded as she stared into his eyes that showed nothing but betrayal. "Dex? What''s going on?" Nate asked as he looked towards Kaeso who was now staring at Kurt with malice "Dexivea? Please talk to me? Doc?" Nate was almost begging. Dexivea looked back at him and could barely keep her face from showing emotion "I need a drink, watching these aliens all day gets tiring" she said with a chuckle, she did not think she sounded convincing. Kaeso laughed sounding as if he believed her "Rest easy doctor, I''ll take it from here" Dexivea looked over at Kaeso and noticed he was not taking his omni-tool off, that was a strict rule of hers and one backed up by all current orders. Nate being an engineer had already proved he is quick enough to steal from those near him. Dexivea had reported it would only take a few minutes for Nate to learn how to use an omni-tool and with it he would have access to turian fleet movements. Dexivea didn''t say anything to Kaeso and instead looked at Nate who was now glaring at her as she betrayed him and made a show of putting her omni-tool back on and flicking her eyes over to Kaeso. If Nate could tell what she was trying to say he didn''t react. "Now human, I understand Nate is a shortened version of your full name. Please state your full name" Kaeso ordered. Nate sat up as straight as he could "Nathaniel Boone, Private First Class 5749863 sir" Kaeso narrowed his eyes "What can you tell me about these ships you humans use?" Nate sighed "You got me, we call them canoes. First you take a log, then you hollow it out so you can sit in it.... " Kaeso backhanded Nate so hard he fell from his bunk "I would not play games if I was you human" Nate slowly stood back up, his mouth was bleeding and after he smiled a bloody grin he spat the glob of blood directly into the face of Kaeso "You hit like a bitch, no wonder you birds crying so hard" Dexivea knew she should go before Kaeso noticed that she was disturbed by watching this, if reports of what Kaeso did to prisoners was true then she needed to think before this got a lot worse. "These fighter platforms how many does your kind have?" Kaeso asked as he kicked Nate in the stomach and sent him back into the wall. Dexivea needed to think, Kaeso maybe a monster but he still outranked her and she was unlikely to find any turian who outranked him that would agree with her, unless Nate and Kurt were not under turian authority.... Dexivea quickly left as she could hear the sound of Nate answering back with "Billions" the sound of defiant human laughter was stopped by the sound of another hit and a body hitting the ground. "That the best you got? If that''s the best you can do, one day your daughters will screaming for joy on human cock" Nate laughed before he screamed in pain again. Dexivea ran as fast as she could, she knew that every second Nate and Kurt were left alone with Kaeso was a second of pain and suffering. Dexivea ran straight into the asari councillor office, ignoring all the protests she could hear coming from Tevos support staff. "Councillor forgive the intrusion but the two human prisoners are no longer safe under turian guard" she warned, Dexivea started to pace back and forth. Tevos had only just taken over as the asari councillor and already she had to deal with turians greeting a new species by way of a gun. Tevos had made her disapproval at the Hierarchy very well known every chance she got and was even pushing for both the Primarch and the turian councillors to resign over the incident as well as being currently the biggest name driving for negotiations with humanity. Tevos snapped her head up "What exactly is going on?" Dexivea sighed "Kaeso Nyx is ''questioning'' them now. Councillor, Nyx is vicious and cruel even more so to prisoners of war who currently have no rights on the Citadel" Tevos stood up while rubbing the bridge of her nose "So you want the Republics to take custody of these human''s? I hope you have thought of a reason for me to do this" Dexivea sighed "Anything. There is a number of things the republics would be interested in, including the possibility of a common ancestor as well a human myth of salarians appearing on earth over a hundred years ago" Tevos coughed before she raised her eyebrow "You can''t be serious?" she asked before sighing again "So research purposes? I could work with that, this could help negotiations as well" she said as paced back and forth "I will make some calls" The vid screen interrupted them, a breaking news update. Nate was out of his cell and currently running around the Citadel. Dexivea raced back to C-Sec cells and found Nate''s cell with human blood splatted around the room, including a human ear laying on the floor. Kurt was awake, crying uncontrollably and bleeding out of one ear, he was hysterical claiming a turian tried to shoot him. The security footage was recovered, new camera''s had been placed inside since Kurt was kidnapped. Something Kaeso Nyx would not have known about. The footage from the cell showed Nate being tortured, his face being cut up by turian talons and even a ear being cut off. Despite what was done to him, Nate remained defiant and it was only when Kurt was dragged into Nate''s cell that Nate turned serious. Kaeso then committed yet another war crime, he took out his pistol and aimed it at Kurt and if Nate had not tackled Kaeso at that moment Kurt would have been shot. With a desperate rage, like the namesake all humans had earned Nate attacked like a crazed pyjak, slamming him against a wall from behind, Nate then hit Kaeso with that delicate asari tea cup that couldn''t have hurt but when Nate used the broken piece to stab Kaeso in the eye and around his face, that''s when Kaeso screamed. Nate reached around and rammed his fingers into Kaeso''s other eye socket and used the hold he had on Kaeso''s skull to slam his head into the wall over and over. Nate was now covered in turian blood, his open wounds would also mean he would soon be getting an infection. Nate picked up Kurt, who was unconscious and cried over what he must have thought was his fraten''s corpse, with a scream of pain and rage he stood up and stripped Kaeso of everything of value before locking Kaeso in Nate''s cell. Nate could then be seen strapping explosives to his chest, Nate had warned how dangerous a desperate human was and now he was showing her first hand. Human''s have many phases and some can be very telling. A particular favorite of mine is "There is nothing more dangerous than a man with nothing left to lose" Subject tells me that human''s can sometimes become very irrational and unpredictable if stressed, scared, enraged or by grief. Human''s will also sometimes kill themselves with explosives in the hope of killing the enemy. If a human is seen wearing explosives, treat the threat as genuine. Tevos looked at Dexivea "Where would he go?" Dexivea paused for a moment "Spirits. He is going to message the human fleet" Tevos frowned "What for though? To bring them here? " Dexivea started to run towards where she knew Nate was "Palaven''s location" she explained "the war is still happening for him and now it''s on the Citadel" Keri T''Vessa was currently reporting the story of her lifetime, she had been outside C-Sec when the human had came running out holding a turian pistol and had improvised explosives strapped to his chest The human had walked out of the cells covered in turian blood and dripping his own red blood from his face, leaving purple but mostly red and blue stains on the floor. He had caused quite a few to run away screaming from him, he looked around lost before he walked right into a group of C-Sec guards, including the squad Kaeso had sent outside. "Let''s have a quiz birdies?" the human asked, his voice was breaking from the stress and he was holding a detonator while his other arm pointed a pistol at them "escaped human prisoner loose on the Citadel, with enough explosives strapped to his chest to put a hole in galactic government" The human looked around and started moving towards a stair case while C-Sec aimed their rifles at him and called in bomb squad. "I drop this and they will pick us all up with a sponge" he explained "turians talk of honor and duty but it''s all lies" he said as he walked backwards towards the stairs "Back the fuck up!" he screamed at one turian who was trying to flank him. Keri by dumb luck ended up near the human, she could be the first to interview a new species, the Hierarchy had refused to answer anything about humans other than pre-approved talking points, so much the reason behind the conflict was kept secret. The human had locked eyes with the press that had gathered around to get an updates on the war with the humans, Keri didn''t run unlike the rest of the reporters. The human moved towards her and asked "Give me a tour would you?" he said as he grabbed her arm "long range communication where would that be?" Keri pointed upwards "Up, but there would be no way you could get there" The human laughed a manic sounding laugh "Then I''ll make something up" What surprised her was he insisted the camera stayed on at all times. "What exactly do you want?" Keri asked him as the human dragged her into one office. "I want my fucking life back" The human answered with tears in his eyes "that''s not happening so next best thing is for me to relay the location of Palaven to the human fleets" Keri was in shock but hid it well "Are you going to kill me?" The human shook his head "Your not a hostage, your helping me get my side of the story out. I have no reason to kill you or even hurt you, if you don''t want to talk just walk out that door" he said looking into the camera, while pointing to the door. Keri took a deep breath "You say that with a bomb attached to your chest" The human sighed "No one would have let me take two steps out of my cage if I didn''t have this on, you know that. I just want to make a call" "Okay so I''m not in danger but are any civilians on the Citadel?" Keri asked, her camera zoomed in on C-Sec following him from a distance but still close enough to shoot him. The man sighed "Turians under fourteen are non combatants same with every other race.... " Keri looked at the human "Are you saying every other turian is classed as a combatant? Your preparing to fight every turian here?" The human shrugged "They all serve in the military from fifteen and all of them can be recalled to serve if for example, a new species homeworld is invaded" he explained. "Besides what choice do I have, they will either shoot me on sight or they will torture me to death" the human said as he wiped blood away from his eyes. "There is no torture on the Citadel, it''s illegal" Keri told him. The human laughed and looked into the camera, his face covered with blood made him look dangerous "Take a look at me and say that again" he challenged her. Keri noticed the human had wounds over his face and on one side of his head, he seemed to be missing one of those flaps of skin humans seem to have on the sides of their heads. "How did you get those injuries?" Keri asked as she watched Nate barricade them inside the building, before he started to take apart grenades that he must have stolen from some turian along the way. "Turian cut my ear off trying to get me to talk" Nate explained as he checked another frenquency. Keri looked into the camera "Torture on the Citadel? Do you know the turians name?" The man looked at her like she was an idiot "You know I didn''t think to ask" The man was now searching channels on a long range communications headset "Nathaniel Boone, Private First Class 5749863 reporting please come in" he almost screamed into the headset. Keri''s camera zoomed in on the man''s face "Admiral Dresher speaking, what''s your situation Private?" a female voice came though the speakers after a moment''s pause. Nathaniel smiled but started to cry again "Captured ma''am, birds got me and my brother and took us to some place they call the Citadel" "We have heard of it" The Admiral admitted. "I''m sending you star charts they have here. There is so many other aliens out here ma''am" Nathaniel said as he wiped away tears "The Citadel, you should see it ma''am, it''s beautiful but the birds don''t want us here and they are planning to attack earth" "You did good son, what''s going on there? How did you get access to a radio?" The human Admiral asked. "That''s the thing ma''am, I was cooperating since they had my brother. I never answered anything that would hurt us ma''am but they did tests and exams on me" Nathaniel said audibly crying now "they did all of them to me instead of my brother, that was the deal but they..... They shot him ma''am, six years old and they shot him, right in the head" Keri gasped as her own headset was going insane from her news station, telling her to ask certain questions but Keri knew to keep quiet for now and just record whatever happened next. "I made quite a mess things here ma''am. When I escaped.... I strapped explosives to myself with a improvised trigger, I''m on the news here, locked in some police station of some kind with an alien reporter" Nathaniel explained "I..... Don''t know what to do now ma''am?" Keri stood up at that point and walked closer to the human "We are live right now, you can tell the Citadel and the Council anything you want" The human Admiral had asked to speak with the Council immediately and then asked Nate to surrender once communication with the Council had been made. Dexivea was watching the news as she tried to get closer to the office Nate had locked himself in. After getting authorized to be allowed onto the scene, Dexivea had managed to get to the door and talk to Nate. "Fuck off Dex, you betrayed me and now he''s dead. He''s fucking dead and it''s because of you and your fucking kind" Nate screamed though the door at her. Dexivea had nothing to prepare her for this, Nate always acted to protect his fraten and everything she knew about him and humans was based around that simple understanding. She had no idea of how he would react to anything. "That''s where your wrong, Kurt is alive, hurt but he is alive" Dexivea explained "please let me in so we can talk" she asked. Nate paused for a moment before he opened the door. When Dexivea saw Nate up close she could see the individual talon scars that covered his face and the blood loss from his missing ear was making him pale in skin colour again, like how he was after they took all those blood tests. Nate looked outside, his eyes were red and swollen, his nose was dripping and his facial wounds looked irritated. Infections from turian talons. Despite his wounds, Nate had a manic energy to him, pacing back and forth as the voice of a human Admiral was ordering him to stand down. Dexivea took all this in before Nate placed the pistol in her face "This is for Kurt" he snarled shaking with rage, the scent of his grief and rage was so thick she could almost taste it. She quickly held up her hands, what she knew as a sign of surrender for humans "I can prove it" she told him and held up her omni-tool. Kurt could be seen laying down as doctors crowded around him and tried their best to repair the damage done to his inner ear. "We need your help Nate" She pleaded "he has the best doctors we have but they don''t know human anatomy that well" Dexivea told him. Nate paused for a moment before he shook his head "Lies, that''s all you turians do. I trusted you! You swore on your honor that Kurt would be safe, that all those exams and tests would show the Hierarchy we were not a threat and now Kurt is dead because of you" Dexivea looked him in the eyes "I failed! I am trying to save you and Kurt here but you have to surrender. He is alive" Nate looked outside and could see a large crowd gathered. Dexivea followed his gaze "They are here for you. Public didn''t know anything about humans or what happened..." "What happened is we were attacked for exploring, you kept attacking us because we fought back. Turian honor is an illusion, as soon as it''s convenient you will drop it like a bad habit" Nate snarled back at her, he shook his head, his eyes looked unfocused. Dexivea looked at Nate "I know. But I had no part in that, my shame is that I could not keep my patients safe but I am here now and I need your help, just surrender please" Nate laughed a manic laughter at that "So I can go back to being a lab rat? So I can be used a turian scratching post? LOOK AT ME!" he screamed as the bright red human blood dripped off his face. Keri had stayed silent until now "Surrender to someone else then? They need you alive" Keri said as she walked to the window. "My station is being flooded with support, all for you, there is even a volus laywer outside willing to fight the Hierarchy on your behalf. Do you know what a big deal that is? Volus almost never say anything against the Hierarchy but there is one there now" Keri explained. Nate rubbed his eyes, and stumbled a bit but when Dexivea moved forward to catch him he pointed the gun at her again "I....... I just need to think" Dexivea nodded as she backed away "Blood loss and dextro infection would make it hard to think clearly" she explained calmly "I am telling the truth though, Kurt is alive" Dexivea''s heart was pounding, she could tell Nate was ready to die and that bothered her. Nate looked at Keri "I''ll surrender once I know the Admiral is talking to your side" Nate said as he staggered again, he left a red hand print on the wall when he used it to balance himself. Dexivea turned her head to the sound of the human Admiral''s voice "Admiral, I am Dr Vicril, while I will happily pass on your message. The other races would be furious with the Hierarchy if they were to attack you now, all I ask is assistance now in healing a young human" Dexivea looked at Nate and added "two humans, I should say" "Keep this channel open if you can, I will get our medical staff on the line to assist" The Admiral said before she added "I trust you know we know where all your homeworlds are now? We will make it hurt if this is a trap" she warned. Dexivea told the Admiral that she did and after she relyed the message to both Tevos and the soon to be sworn in new turian councillor and inital talks were under way. Nate stood up and that was when the aliens noticed he didn''t do anything to the vest he was wearing, he simply dropped the detonator and took the explosives off and gently placed them on the ground. "It was a fake? You lied to me?" Dexivea looked down at the device and she still thought it was real. Nate shook his head "Bomb is real but not connected to the detonator. I didn''t have the parts or the skill to do that" Nate looked at Dexivea and added "I didn''t lie, you just assumed they were armed" Keri made sure she zoomed in on the device "A lie, C-Sec outsmarted by a human" she said into the camera. Nate slowly walked out with Keri and Dexivea holding him up on both sides, he was unarmed again and looking around at the cheering crowd. Some of which were chanting "Justice for Kurt" as well anti Hierarchy chants. Two years later. Dexivea drummed her extremely blunted talons again on the table, she had spent over three hours just to decide what to wear and her nerves were almost gone now. "Will you calm down? Humans are everywhere now. I don''t understand why these ones are so different" the turian clerk said. Dexivea sighed, the clerk just didn''t get it. These two humans had not left human space for two years and had only come out recently because of a movie based on what happened with Kurt, Dexivea and Nate as well as others. The movie had a female turian and two human males as the leads but was made into a romance movie as inaccurate as it was, it never seemed to matter, even Nate with a fake bomb on his chest had been added to the movie as well. The result was a smash hit, turian teenagers would later rebel against their parents and go out of their way to watch the movie while humans appeared on turian worlds far sooner than any experts had predicted. Nate had tried to avoid being in the spotlight but Kurt had insisted on wanting to meet the actress playing the ''version'' of Dexivea, the actress had been eager to meet him at opening night. That was last night and they were still on the Citadel, so Dexivea had sent the Allaince a message saying she would like to meet them again. After exchanging contact details and being told to meet them here and to say Dexivea was nervous was a understatement, she felt she had never looked better but the last time she saw Nate was when the human fleet had arrived to negotiate with the Council. He and Kurt had been placed under heavy asari guard and no one other than the highest ranking asari were allowed to see them before they had been released into Allaince care. Dexivea hoped they wouldn''t hate her, she had felt nothing but guilt over Kurt and Nate''s torture at the hands of Kaeso Nyx. A familar scent reached her nostrils and she looked up and saw a small human puer with messy brown hair walking next to a scared older human who had scars near one ear. Dexivea stood up and smiled at Kurt pointing at Dexivea "Dexivea Vicril" Kurt had said loudly, he struggled with her name but had managed to say it for the first time. Dexivea lowered herself so she could look into his eyes "Hello Kurt Boone, nice to see you again" she said as Kurt wiped away tears of joy from his eyes Nate stepped forward and just looked at Dexivea "Hi" he said awkwardly. Dexivea stood up and looked at the human, now in Allaince dress blues, he had a sole medal on his chest and his brownish black hair was cut short on the sides with a strip of hair that ran down the middle of his head. "Hi" she said nervously unconsciously smoothing out her outfit and fidgeting with her blunt talons. Nate appeared to look her up and down "You look nice" he said after a moment. Dexivea gestured to the table "Thank you. You look nice as well" Kurt rolled his eyes "I''m going to go play with those other kids" he said getting up. "Stay where I can see you" Nate called out before they both sat in silence just looking at each other. Dexivea sat down with Nate and after a moment of awkward silence Nate said something she never thought he would say. "This is awkward. How about we just start over?" Nate asked clearing his throat before he reached over and held his hand out for her to shake "My name''s Nate good to meet you" Dexivea paused for a moment before she shook his hand "Dexivea but you can call me Dexi or Dex" she said with a smile. Nate smiled back at her "Would you like to have lunch with me Dexi? I would like to get to know you better" he asked. Dexivea started to calm down now "I would love that. If you don''t mind me asking you about earth? I have only heard stories it sounds beautiful" Nate smiled and Dexivea could detect a pleasing scent from Nate the longer they spent around each other.