This logfile is imported from aitelogs2 and may contain errors or wrong timestamps.
#AsteroidMine – April 12, 2014
Jason stares at the body for a moment. "Jasper said there were only three of them..." he says, "Even if all three of them were infected, they wouldn't be able to bring down an entire crew..." he continues, sounding more like he's trying to convince himself than anyone else. He moves on to the next door and waits for Renala.
Jason reaches out and taps the green panel. Using the doorframe for cover, he raises his Revenant as the door slides open.
Beyond the door is a ladder leading upwards as well as a handwritten sign that says "Engineering - Fuck off and let me work"
Jason steps into the room and moves towards the ladder. "Vaden, Briggs... Keep the hall clear." he instructs.
Renala enters the ladder room a few seconds after Jason, glancing towards the sign, which evokes a short chuckle. She takes a step towards the ladder and waits for Jason to climb it or ask her to.
Jason gives Renala a nod. "If something's up there, you'll have an easier time getting to that-..." he nods towards her SMG, "I'll be right behind you."
Jason places his Revenant on his back and starts up behind the asari once she's far enough up the ladder.
Once Renala reaches the top of the ladder, she would find a small engine room with a low ceiling. The far wall has a hatch with a small window that leads to the eezo core. A middle-aged woman wearing an worn Londinium Galactic overall is sitting leaned back in a folding chair with her eyes closed. A vid of the 2178 Tuchanka orbital racing championship is playing on a small screen.
Renala looks around before climbing the last few rungs. "Hello?" she says, taking a step towards the woman so that Jason can climb the remainder of it.
Jason quickly draws his Phalanx as he pulls himself up off the ladder. He keeps it aimed at the ground as he watches the woman, waiting for her to react to Renala.
There is no response. All that is heard is the hum of the engine and the vid. "...takes the lead at the 8th beacon, showing that the former grand champion is not out for..."
Renala takes another two steps towards her. "Hello?" she repeats. She then looks her over for any injuries.
The woman has no visible injuries. She doesn't respond. "...a spectacular comeback by Garg, aka the Krogan Komet. Those thruster upgrades are really..."
Renala stops just infront of her and crouches down. "Hey," she says in a loud whisper as she pats her shoulder with a gauntleted hand.
Engineer mumbles something under her breath and jerks up into a more upright position. "Huh? Wha? I'm working!"
Jason eases up somewhat as the woman speaks. "Did you... Sleep through the attack...?" he asks, sounding almost impressed.
Engineer takes a moment to focus her gaze on Jason as she tries to clear her head. "Attack? The fuck you on about?"
Jason sighs and reaches up with his free hand to grasp his helmet as he realizes the engineer won't be able to provide them with any answers. "Nobody is answering comms and we've got bodies laying around out there." he glances back towards the ladder, "Do you have any kind of protocol regarding attacks? Where would the crew be moved to?"
Jason groans, "Didn't you hear what I just said?" he asks, growing increasingly impatient, "Nobody is answering comms. We just got back. We have a shuttle in the hangar with armed guards. You'll be safe there, but I need you to tell me where the crew would relocate to in the event of an attack."
Engineer is clearly troubled by the news of the attack, but she responds quickly. "We don't have a fucking protocol. There's only 12 people on this boat."
Jason lets out a heavy breath and his shoulders slump somewhat. "...Get to the shuttle." he sighs, "Like I said... You'll be safe there." He glances towards Renala, "We've got one last room to check before we hit the stairs..." he says, his tone giving away his increased anxiety.
Renala frowns. "Let's get going, then," she says before making her way over to the ladders, starting her descent.
Jason looks at the engineer and nods towards the ladder. "We're sending a crew member back your way, Leah." he announces over comms.
Leah is still a bit shook up over having to kill a miner. "...Yeah..." she acknowledges, "Understood."
Engineer reaches the hallway and starts moving towards the shuttle bay right away, keeping her gaze away from the unexplored part of the corridor.
Steve gives Renala a nod. "Haven't so much as heard anything... Maybe the crew managed to get ahold of the situation and were just too busy dealing with things to answer their comms."
Jason follows the others into the hall. "Hopefully..." he says as he moves over to the final door. "Let's give this last room a sweep and move on to the stairs."
Renala nods. "Yeah," she says as she makes her way over to the door, as well, taking cover by the other side of it. "Ready when you are."
Jason stands in the door way and sweeps his Revenant back and forth. He nods to himself and moves on towards the stairs, passing Steve on his way.
Renala falls into step behind Jason, unholstering her submachine gun in case there's anything awaiting them on the second floor.
Jason had... Uhh... Already unholstered his Revenant... Of course... He begins ascending the stair case with his weapon raised in front of him as he watches towards the top of the stairs.
Steve follows behind Renala. The pain in his leg is beginning to get worse as time passes, causing him to favor it a bit.
Jason calls out, "Clear!" as he scans the hall and quickly stacks up on the first door on their right.
Leah approaches the engineer as she enters the hangar. "Just stay calm, we're handling this as best as we can." she says, trying to sound reassuring, "Should all be over soon."
Engineer closes her eyes and shakes her head as a hand moves to cover her face. "I-... damn it... I can't believe this is happening..."
Steve steps to the other side of the hall to keep clear of Jason and Renala. He watches down the hall towards the door at the end.
Jason reaches out and taps the panel before swinging part way into the door way with his Revenant raised once the door opens.
Leah stares at the woman for a moment, unsure of what to say. "...It's gonna be okay..." she finally manages.
The door opens up to reveal a room full of bodies - both infected crew and the both armored humans. A mess of blood and blue goo stains the floor, and even part of the ceiling and walls. The round dining table is toppled to the side, as are most of the chairs. Vasquez sits propped up against the far wall, her uniform bloody and torn. Her hair has fallen out of the ponytail, obscuring her face and she has an Avenger in her lap. Several spent thermal clips lie to her right side.
Renala leans into the room, and her eyes widen at the sight. "Oh... Goddess," she mutters. "Hello?" Renala then calls out.
Jason sweeps his Revenant back and forth frantically as he enters the room until he spots Vasquez against the wall. "Shit... Linda!" he calls out, bounding across the room towards her. As he reaches her side, he drops to one knee and tosses his weapon to the side carelessly, silently hoping she's alright. He places a hand on her shoulder as tears well up in his eyes.
Vasquez stirs to life, raising her Avenger with a frantic stare barely visible through her hair. She seems about to fire the rest of her clip at Jason when she realizes who it is. She stares at him in silence for a few seconds before blurting out. "You're alive..."
Jason works at his helmet to pull it off before discarding it alongside his Revenant. "Of course I'm alive..." he says as tears begin rolling down his cheeks, "I told you I'd be back, didn't I?" He wraps her up in a tight, most likely somewhat painful, hug.
Renala remains by the door after entering, letting the two talk. She does look around the room in case they're not alone in there.
Vasquez still seems stunned, but suddenly drops the Avenger and wraps her arms around Jason as well, closing her eyes. "I thought... there was no one left."
Renala lingers only for a few seconds more before returning to the hallway. "Maybe we should check the other rooms," she suggests.
Vaden joins Steve in looking through the door. "Unpleasant." He states, shaking his head and leaning back out.
Steve glances through the door once more before nodding to Renala. "She gonna be alright?" he asks, "What if one of those things jabbed her? She could be infected..."
Jason shakes his head. "We lost some people, but we made it... Barely. But-... These things..." he releases the hug and wipes at his face as he gives a quick glance towards the bodies in the room, "It's just like the Evening Star... Do you think ExoGeni had something to do with this...?"
Renala glances back inside and nods slowly. "I don't think she is," she says, keeping her voice low. "It happened... very fast with Jenya." She takes a deep breath, as mentioning the other asari brought back the guilt and sorrow she felt after it happened.
Vasquez ' gaze moves to the messy room. She doesn't say anything but her face takes on a distant expression.
Steve chews his lower lip for a moment, "Guess we'll find out..." he mutters as he moves towards the door across the hall from the one Jason and Vasquez are in.
Jason sighs and looks towards the ground, "The base was overrun by the time we arrived. We managed to get a shuttle full of people out, but most were already turned..."
Vasquez speaks rather quietly. "It's happening again..." She grabs the rifle and stands up, still looking at the bodies. As she stands a some blood drips from her right arm. "The crew is dead."
Renala looks at him expectantly for a second before a tiny sheepish smile forms, and she hits the panel.
Jason helps Vasquez to her feet. "We came across the engineer." he says, "She's down with the others by the shuttle. Are you saying everyone else is dead?" he asks.
The room beyond is a small room with two chairs and a lot of computer terminals that appear to display the status of the ship's weapons, shielding and such. It is empty.
Steve lowers his SMG once he sees that the room is clear and leans against the door frame. He bites down hard as a sharp pain shoots through his forehead.
Renala glances into the room and deems it clear. "It seems clear," she says before making her way down the hall, stopping at the furthest side of the door on her left.
Steve follows close behind Renala and stands on the opposite side of the door. He raises his SMG and gives her a nod to indicate he's ready.
Vasquez takes a while to respond, just looking at the carnage. "Yes." She says, and starts moving out of the room.
Jason puts a hand on her shoulder as he spots the blood. "Linda, wait... You're hurt." he begins fishing through his hardsuit for his medi-gel, "At least let me patch you up..."
Jason holds Vasquez by the wrist and pulls away at her uniform to get a better look at the wound. "What happened?" he asks tentatively, "How did they cause so much damage this fast?"
Renala glances inside, and shakes her head. "Clear," she says before moving on to the door just across.
Vasquez has a row of scratches along her forearm that have bled over it. She doesn't respond to Jason, her gaze having locked onto the corpses on the floor once more.
Steve keeps his weapon trained on the open door and gives the room a glance of his own before following Renala across to the next door. He repeats the process, taking a position across from Renala and raising his weapon at the door. "This whole mission was fucked, Ren." he says, giving a shake of his head, "Guess this is one of those 'careful what you wish for' situations, huh? Been asking to be put in the field... Lucky me."
Jason sighs and begins spraying the gel over Vasquez' wounds. "We tried to get word back to you guys after our shuttle had been hijacked, but the bases comms were offline..." he says, feeling guilty as he looks over all the bodies, "...I'm sorry."
Renala sighs. "Yeah," she agrees. "I hoped for simple security gigs when I signed up, not to star in a fucking horror vid... so to speak." She then taps on the door's interface.
Steve glances around the room. "Empty..." he says as he lowers his SMG, "I've never seen anything like this." he admits with a shake of his head as he approaches the final door at the end of the hall, "Gotta be some kind of new species or something. Bet one of those corpses would pull in some nice creds if we offloaded it to some salarian researcher or something."
Jason pats Vasquez on the back. "Should be good..." he says, staring at her with a worried expression on his face. After a few moments pass, he returns to the wall and collects his gear. "What's our next move?" he asks as he replaces his helmet and reorients his Revenant, "Think Jasper can figure out how to pilot this thing?"
Vasquez eventually breaks her gaze away from the bodies and looks at Jason again. "As good a plan as any..." she says without any real conviction.
Engineer wasn't forgotten about, and is now sitting against the side of the shuttle, staring at the floor in silence.
Renala shakes her head. "No," she says. "Any chance this nightmare spreads to a populated world... no amount of credits is worth that risk." She walks over to the end of the corridor, stacking up on the side of the door.
Steve raises his SMG at the door and indicates that he's ready. "Shit... You're right. Hadn't even thought about that." he admits, sounding slightly saddened by the thought of all those lost credits.
Jason returns to Vasquez' side. "Hey... It's gonna be fine. We've been through worse, right?" he says, attempting to keep his composure for her sake. He activates his comms, "Jasper. We need you upstairs. We've cleared the way, but the crew... They weren't so lucky. We're gonna need you to get up here and figure out how to get us home. Bring the engineer along with you."
Renala nods. "It could be safe, though," she says, "depending if that thing has to be alive to transmit... whatever it is." She then hits the door panel.
Jasper climbs out of the pilots seat. "We can't seem to catch a break, can we?" he asks, directing it at nobody in particular, "I'll be there in ASAP." he reports back. He climbs out of the shuttle and looks towards the unfamiliar woman sitting against it. "You the ship's engineer?" he asks.
Jasper tilts his head to the side and gives her an empathetic shake of his head. "I'm sorry... Sounds like things didn't go to well for the rest of the crew." he says softly. He pauses for a few moments to give the woman time to process that bit of information before adding, "They need us to try and get the ship home. You have any experience piloting?"
Engineer 's gaze falls to the floor. After a while she shakes her head. "I just keep the thing together. John does-..." she falls silent for a moment. "...did... the piloting."
The final door opens to reveal a cockpit with two chairs, a control panel and viewports of the stars outside. It is empty.
Jasper tentatively places a hand on the woman's shoulder. "I'm sorry..." he says. "My names Jasper. Now, I'm no John, but I figure between the two of us, we can come up with a way to get this thing home. You with me?"
Engineer takes a while to respond, but eventual nods and stands up. "Let's go." She says with an uneven voice.
Renala follows into the room, stepping aside, and nods. "The cockpit is clear," she reports over the comms.
Jason responds to Renala over comms, "Sounds like the ship is clear. Leah, have the doc escort the others into one of the rooms. She can start looking people over properly and give them the attention they need." As he hears Vasquez' question, he lowers his gaze. "We lost Jenya, Maria, O'Clery, and Dasgupta..." he says sadly, "We managed to get 13 employees out."
Leah looks towards the doctor. "Ship is clear. We need to start moving everyone into the ship so you can start checking everyone over."
Vasquez ' face fills with rage as she swings around, punching the wall with her left hand. "Fuck!" She yells out.
Halisi looks out from the shuttle and nods. The miners seem energized by the news. She steps out of the shuttle. "Are there any living quarters or something like that? A lot of these people could use a chance to lie down and rest without their lives being threatened."
Jasper arrives at the top of the stairs just in time to see Vasquez' outburst. "Hey, you just relax." he says, having no clear indication of what exactly she's upset about, "I'm gonna get us all home."
Jasper gets a view of the room beyond Vasquez and Jason, and his expression turns grim. He places himself in the doorway in an attempt at blocking the sight from the engineer. He forces a smile at the woman and nods down the hall, "Go on... I'll be there in a minute."
Renala stops near Jason and the others, and enables her comms. "There are two bunk rooms upstairs, on each side before the end of the hall."
Engineer moves down the hall towards the cockpit, not thinking to look through the doorway that Jasper blocks.
Leah looks towards the doctor and relays the information. "Two bunk rooms upstairs. She says they're at the end of the hall on each side."
Vasquez turns to Jason with a furious look in her face. "And guess what? It wasn't ENOUGH! It never is! You can't even do your FUCKING JOB!" She throws the Avenger in her hand at the floor in front of Jason.
Jason furrows his brow. "My job!? Wait, wait, wait. Back it the fuck up. How the fuck is any of this on me!?"
Halisi nods and motions for the miners to follow her. "Come on everyone, with me." She starts moving towards the hallway with the rest in tow.
Vasquez glares at Jason with the full weight of her misplaced anger. "Your job was to protect people! And you're useless at it! You can't do a FUCKING THING RIGHT! You're just a piece of shit past his prime." She promptly turns around and moves down the corridor towards the hangar, plowing through the miners as they come up the stairs.
Jason makes no attempt at even responding. He just stares as she walks away and lowers his gaze to the ground. After a few moments, he slumps against the wall and takes a seat on the floor.
Jasper sighs and pats Jason on the shoulder. "She's just upset, Jay. She doesn't mean it." he offers before proceeding towards the cockpit, shaking his head as he goes.
Steve looks rather uncomfortable. He's looking around at nothing in particular, attempting to pretend like he's not paying attention to the train wreck in front of him.
Renala just stands there, staring at the woman headed downstairs for a moment before she catches herself. She steps over to the doorway as she sees the miners walking upstairs, blocking the view to the scene in the cafeteria.
Halisi and the miners seem briefly puzzled by the yelling and Vasquez moving through them, but they continue past the group and into one of the rooms with beds.
Steve looks between Renala and Jason. "I'm gonna... Just go get out of this armor." he says uncomfortably, "You know where to find me if you need me." He gives Renala a nod and starts down the stairs.
Jasper takes a seat in the cockpit. "That 'psycho' is my boss." he says, "She's not so bad... This has just been one helluva job. We all got a bit more than we bargained for."
Engineer seems skeptical, but doesn't push it further. She takes the co-pilot seat and the door closes behind her.
Leah sighs at the confrontation, but otherwise continues on with her job and begins helping everyone get situated in the bunk room.
Jason slowly removes his helmet once again and sets it on the ground beside him. His eyes are red, and he looks quite exhausted. He removes his gauntlets and runs a hand through his hair before leaning his head against the wall and staring distantly up towards the ceiling.
Steve reaches the bottom of the stairs. "The fuck was all that about?" he asks before entering their quarters.
Halisi helps Alex down on one of the beds, making sure she stays on it instead of getting up as she seems to prefer.
Vasquez enters the hangar and moves through it, dodging the shuttle door and moving rather close to the forcefield before slowly sliding down the back wall of one of the shuttles until she's sitting on the floor, staring into space.
Renala frowns. "I have no idea," she says, entering the quarters and making her way over to her bed. "It's been one hell of a day... for all of us." She sits down.
Steve gives a nod and begins peeling away at the armor plates of his armor with much difficulty due to the broken arm. "That's the understatement of the year."
Jason rubs at his eyes and takes a long deep breath before collecting his things and heading down the stairs.
Renala starts by removing her armored gauntlets. "I can't believe it's over, though," she says. "And... it's..." Renala moves an the back of her finger to wipe some moisture building up under her eyes. "I don't think I can forgive myself for Jenya. If only...," she says in a sad murmur before breathing deeply.
Vaden has been standing around awkwardly since Vasquez' outburst. He now moves into the room with the miners to have a word with the doctor.
Steve pauses and sighs. "We just weren't equipped to deal with that, Ren. Could've just as easily been you or me that didn't come back." he says. He shifts awkwardly in an attempt at bringing his good arm closer to his hand in the sling so he can begin removing the armor plating off his remaining arm, "It's a stroke of luck that any of us made it, really."
Renala looks down at the ground. "If I had just listened to her," she says, "the thing wouldn't have snuck up on her." She shakes her head. "But I didn't."
Steve manages to remove the plates on his arm with a bit of pain. "Whaddya mean?" he asks, not quite understanding the situation. He removes his helmet and tosses it on his bed.
The controls of the corvette shouldn't be too hard for Jasper to grasp due to the small ship having a fairly similar cockpit to a shuttle.
Vasquez leans her head back against the shuttle and closes her eyes, letting out a loud sigh as she tries to collect herself.
Jasper activates the ships speaker system, "Uhh-... Hey everyone." he begins, "Think we've got a handle on how this thing works. Put your worries aside, we'll be home in no time."
Renala sighs. "When we believed Vaden was... dead," she says, keeping her voice lowered, "I... was mad at the creatures. Me and Jason started firing on every creature down there. Jenya," she breathes deeply, "she wanted us to move on, conserve our clips. I... refused to, and one of these things struck her while she was trying to convince me." She makes no response to the comms message.
Steve looks up arbitrarily as he hears the comms and closes his eyes tightly for a quick moment, finding ease-of-mind in the statement. "You can't carry that around with ya, Ren... There's no way to prepare for something like we just went through. No way of knowing how things are gonna play out. You handled the situation the best you could, and I think Jenya would understant that."
Jason steps through the door to the quarters as Steve speaks and underhands his helmet across the room towards his bed, but it misses and hits the ground loudly. "Jenya was on me." he states plainly as he paces towards his bunk, "Vasquez is right. It's no coincidence that people have a tendency to die around me. This is all on me."
Renala nods, closing her eyes for a moment. "We let anger get the better of us," she says. "We dropped our guard, and Jenya paid the price."
Vaden exits into the hallway and starts making his way to the lower-level living quarters at a rather slow pace. His arm has been patched up better than before and he's been given a lot of pain meds.
Leah is seated on one of the beds in the room with the doctor. Her helmet sits beside her as she watches the doctor work.
Halisi has checked up on all the miners, and is currently administering some medication to Alex. She doesn't seem as tired as the other survivors.
Steve continues stripping down, careful to work around his arm. "There wasn't a whole lot we could've done differently, Wolfe. Hell, during a normal job in this line of work it's life-and-death... And this was anything but normal. We did what we could, and what we had to do."
Renala continues taking off her armor. "Hey, she wasn't there, Wolfe," she says. "You did everything as well as you possibly could. Had you listened to me.... Well, a lot of people would have been left behind."
Jason removes his chestplate and begins to remove the plating on his arms. "Yeah... Did everything as well as I possibly could." he agrees, "And 'it wasn't enough'..." he says, repeating Vasquez.
Steve shakes his head. "I don't know. You did a whole lot more than I would've." he admits, "Shit, the second I saw those fuckers comin' at me? Well, let's just say had I been in charge, we all would've gotten the hell out of dodge right that second. But you stuck it out."
Renala frowns. "Vasquez wasn't there," she says. "Expecting anything more than we did... is just unreasonable. I thought the kind of crap we just went through was only in horror vids... until today."
Steve nods a few times, agreeing with Renala. "Like I said, man... This is a part of the job, right? People die out there. We all know that. But I'm still here, and Ren is still here. So I've got no beef with how you handled things. Would I have liked to get the fuck out of there earlier?" he asks, tilting his head to the side, "Sure. But you made a different choice, and it paid off for you. We came out with more than we went in with."
Vaden enters the room that the others are in. He doesn't interrupt the conversation and instead just moves to the nearest empty bed and sits down.
Jason shakes his head as he peels down his undersuit. "We came out with 13 people. Do you have any idea how many people worked there? It was a big facility... And Maria... And Jenya... O'Clery... Dasgupta..." he trails off.
Renala shakes her head. "Most of that was decided before we even set foot in there," she says. "And we went in blind, there's no fucking way we could have prepared for this."
Jason pulls on a plain white tanktop and starts working on the plating on his legs. A few straps later and they come tumbling to the ground. "...I appreciate it." he says as he removes his boots and pulls his undersuit the rest of the way off, "But it doesn't change the facts. I made some bad calls and a lot of people died because of it." He pulls on some black fatigues from his locker and puts his normal boots on, "If I had posted guards at the shuttle, the crew wouldn't be dead right now. If-..." he shakes his head, "All that matters is: I fucked up." he starts towards the door, "But you were both great out there." he says with a sigh before disappearing through the door.
Vaden looks at Jason with some concern and then proceed to lie down in his bed without bothering to do anything about his armor - the salarian is clearly quite exhausted (and drugged).
Leah raises an eyebrow at the young woman. "The... Whole thing. Those creatures..." she shakes her head, "Not an experience I hope to repeat."
Alex nods slowly, seeming a little out of it, "Oh... Yeah. That was pretty interesting." She stares up at the ceiling.
Renala nods. "Yeah, but he was in charge," she says. "And on a job like this... I don't think anyone would envy that position." She starts removing the armor pieces on her arms.
Steve looks back towards the door to make sure Jason is gone. "And he ain't exactly wrong..." he says, his voice barely above a whisper, "I mean... It was a rough situation. But it was lose/lose from the moment we got there. Gotta start worrying about your own when the shit hits the fan like that. If we would've boarded up and extracted when we realized how bad it was? Jenya would still be here." he says. He lowers his gaze suspiciously for a moment, "Maria would still be here."
Jason walks down the hall, opening each door as he goes and looking inside. Unable to find Vasquez in any of them, he finally makes his way towards the hangar. He folds his arms across his chest and paces around the hangar for any sign of her. When he finally spots her, he quietly approaches the shuttle and leans up against it beside her.
Vasquez is staring into space as Jason arrives. She doesn't say anything, or aknowledge him. The only sound is the humming of the forcefield.
Leah leans back on the bed, propping herself up with her elbows. "Interesting? Not exactly the word I'd use to describe it..." she mutters.
Halisi glances at Alex with a gaze that clearly says "What is wrong with you?" before returning to inventoring her medicine.
Renala nods. "We were trying to get a message out to the ship," she says, "because we feared something like this would happen."
Jason | "Thought I might find you here. Uhh... Especially after I couldn't find you anywhere else." he says before taking a deep breath, "Remember the view we had from the balcony back on Illium?" he shrugs, attempting to cut through the silence, "Wasn't this nice, but-... But it wasn't bad."
Steve finishes removing the last of his armor and begins getting dressed. "Hindsight is 20/20, I guess. I don't know... I'm not looking to point any fingers or aim any blame, I just want to put this whole fucked up ordeal behind me."
Vasquez doesn't show any sign of having heard him at first, but eventually a quiet "Yeah..." slips out.
Alex rubs her nose, and sniffles, "Yeah, I know most people wouldn't use that word, but..." Alex shrugs and rests her hands on her stomach, "Is it weird that I wouldn't change going there at all?"
Jason slowly lowers to the floor and takes a seat beside Vasquez. "You're right, you know?" he sighs, "I fucked up... I know I did...."
Vasquez shakes her head. "I didn't-... you did all you could. It's my fault. I wasn't talking about you. I couldn't protect anyone before and I couldn't do it now. I can't do shit now." Her gaze moves to the wall of the hangar, looking just past Jason.
Alex covers her face with her hands, "Because that was my first slice of... reality. I know this is going to sound weird, but I had never experienced stuff like that so it was eye-opening. I felt alive! I mean I.. I got carried away with it," She moves her hands back down to her stomach, "But hell it was great, better than what I thought life was like."
Some of the miners are getting visibly agitated by Alex' insensitive words. The doctor looks briefly angered but doesn't say anything.
Renala sighs. "I don't think it's gonna be easy," she says. "Vasquez might be the one who have to break the news to Londinium... and they won't be happy about this, I'm guessing." She finishes with the pieces on her arm, and starts removing the last ones.
Leah sighs. "Reality? That wasn't reality, Alex... I'm not even sure what that was. But... A lot of people died. That's never a good thing."
Steve takes a seat on the bed and swings his legs up. "Not our fault that their security team couldn't keep their shit together and handle three assholes." he groans, "Who were those guys, anyways? Had to be employees, right? Why the fuck would they take off with our ride like that?"
Jason shakes his head and wraps an arm around Vasquez' shoulder. "That's on me, Linda... You never should've had to protect them. It's my fault they got ahold of our shuttle..."
Renala frowns. "I don't know," she says. "Some of them had the... blue crap on them. Maybe they... turned?"
Vasquez shrugs Jason's arm away. "Bullshit. I should've been there on the mission. Not sending you off to fight while I sit back here. That's why things went wrong."
Leah tilts her head to the side. "It will be. A few days from now, we'll be home and this will all just be a memory..." she says hopefully.
Jason raises an eyebrow. "So... You're saying this all went wrong because I was leading the team rather than you?" he sighs, "You think I'm incompetent..."
Vasquez looks at Jason. "Wha-... Jason, that's not-... shit... I just don't-... I thought you were all dead. I thought you were dead. Because I wasn't there to protect you."
Turned in a different way? I guess... But you saw those things. Could barely open a door, I can't see one of 'em piloting a shuttle...
Jason shakes his head before leaning it against the shuttle. "It doesn't work that way, Linda, and you know it... You being out there with me isn't going to change things. Sometimes things just go wrong and... Things don't always happen the way you want them to."
Vasquez lets out a sigh and slowly starts to lean against Jason until her head is on his shoulder. "I guess it doesn't matter now..." After a while, almost as an afterthought, but clearly sincerely, she adds "...I'm glad you came back."
Renala opens her storage locker. "That's just a wild guess," she says, "but there's definitely more to all this, so I wouldn't discount the chance." She begins putting the armor pieces in there as she's removed all except the 'squish-skin' undersuit.
Steve nods and puts his hands behind his head. "That's for sure. They said they found a ship inside of that asteroid. Sounds like the disease-... Or whatever the fuck it was, started there. Crazy shit." he says with a shake of his head.
Jason stares out through the forcefield and gives a short nod. "That makes two of us..." he says. After a short period of silence, he asks, "What do you think they are...?"
Renala nods. "Exactly," she says. "Jenya mentioned some 'Revelator', and the receptionist started mentioned a 'Father Mar...chal' as well." She lays down on the side, still facing Steve. "I don't think I even want to understand what that was about...."
Vasquez closes her eyes as she speaks. "I don't know... I don't want to know. I just never want to see another one for the rest of my life."
Steve rolls onto his side to face the asari, "That's some creepy shit right there." he says, "Wonder what it means..."
Jason continues to stare out distantly. "It's a big galaxy... And somehow we manage to run into those... things, twice. How does something like that happen?" he finally breaks his trance and glances down at Vasquez.