To Hell and Back, Chapter 1

Chapter 1- The Night Shift

Nick tossed and turned in his bed. There was a piercing ringing sound that wouldn't stop. He tried to stay asleep, to ignore it. He groaned, finally opening his eyes. An alarm on his omni-tool was ringing. He flicked the device on, blinking his eyes at the sudden bright light.

"Ughh, damn it..." he rubbed his eyes.

"You coming?" a turian voice spoke, only a couple of feet away from his cot.

"Yeah, yeah..." Nick mumbled, sitting up. He read the holographic text as he fumbled for his boots. "Why do they always call right as I fall asleep?"

"The galaxy must hate you." Vox said, checking his equipment. He made sure the seal on his helmet was airtight, and that the filtration system was working. Catching he plague that was ravaging parts of Omega could be avoided if one took the necessary precautions. He hated wearing the claustrophobic clothing all the time, but if it kept him from coughing up blood, he could deal. The turian was already in full gear, ready to go.

"Yeah... I'm sure it does." Nick pulled on his boots, stuffing his laces into his socks without tying them.  He flung on his jacket, picked up his medkit, and started towards the exit, Vox following closely behind.  

"Where we going?" Vox asked.

"Afterlife... Again." Nick mumbled, looking at his onmi-tool again. "If it's just another drunk, I'm going to kill someone."

"Now that would just make your job harder." Vox laughed as they passed through the security checkpoint of the clinic.

"Not really... It's much simpler to do CPR than deal with a drunkard."

"What if it's a krogan?" Vox thought he was being smart.

"That is pretty fun actually, I've done it before..." The two passed through another doorway, pushing people out of the way as they went. "I had to stand on their chest and jump up and down."

"Did it work?"

"No.... But it was fun." Nick clarified, his voice still a bit groggy. Vox laughed. The two rounded a corner, continuing to simply shove others out of the way. They pushed their way into an elevator, letting the doors close before anyone else could join them. Nick smacked the controls with the corner of his medkit, selecting their desired floor. He stood awkwardly as the elevator slowly began to move, letting his eyes wander across the rusted walls. He shifted his weight onto his left leg, cringing when a jolt of pain shot up the limb. He chuckled, shifting his weight back onto his right side. The gunshot wound was mostly healed now, but got sore every once in a while.

"What's so funny?" Vox prodded.

"I was just wondering why I chose you, of all people, to run security for me." Nick mused. "You've shot me."

Vox looked up from his rifle. "That was only once, and it was a minor wound."

"Only once? Once is still more times than anyone else in this galaxy has shot me." Nick glanced over his shoulder, narrowing his eyes.

"Listen, I'm not going to explain this again-"

"Then don't." Nick cut him off, just as the doors of the elevator creaked open. They resumed their quick purposeful walk, soon arriving at Afterlife. The bouncer at the entrance of the club gave the pair a casual nod. Nick and Vox were frequent patrons, both when they were working and in their free time.

"What have we got?" Nick questioned another bouncer inside the bar, this one a turian.

"Eh, another drunk. Got into a fight, he's messed up pretty bad." The bouncer led Nick and Vox to deeper into the club, heads turning to watch them as they passed.

"I figured as much. What's so special about this guy that you bothered calling us?" Nick groused.

"Aria told us to call you, I don't know much more than that." The turian bouncer looked around, before continuing in a hushed voice. "He's some wealthy trader, and she needs info outta him. I think her plan was to get him liquored up so he'd talk, but he ran his mouth and got into a fight instead... Only, you didn't hear it from me." He leaned in closer as they continued to the back of the bar.

"Hear what?" Nick shot back, pulling a pair of medical gloves from a pocket, and putting them on.

The bouncer laughed as they came to a stop. "He's right over there... Have fun."

"Oh, I will. You know what the rules are, keep your people back, let my security work. Vox, do your thing." Nick turned and headed to a nearby bar counter. Vox flipped the safety off his rifle, holding it low, continuously scanning the crowd for any signs of danger.

Nick took a few steps toward the bar, his patient coming into view. It was a batarian, bloodied, battered, and half conscious. He sat on the floor, moaning incoherently. Someone had done a serious number on his face; it was swollen with bits of glass lodged in the skin.

"Hey..." Nick tried to get the batarian's attention. "My name's Nick, I'm a medic from Dr. Solus' clinic." He introduced himself in an unnaturally soft tone. He received a sobbing moan in response. "Anyone see what happened?"

"Yeah," one of the Asari dancers answered. "He got blind drunk and picked a fight with two turians and a krogan. They broke a chair over his back and then smashed a bottle over his head."

"Thanks..." Nick sighed, turning back to his patient.

"I can't see.... I can't see!" The batarian sobbed, blood trickling down his face.

"That's 'cause you got hit with a bottle, my friend." The medic grabbed a piece of gauze, wiping away some of the blood, before administering a dose of medigel to stop the bleeding and help with the pain.

"My... My eyes! Are they okay? I can't see!" the batarian was starting to sound panicked.

"Hold on..." Nick was starting to lose his patience. "The two on your left look okay..." He held open the eyes with his gloved fingers, shining a light in. "One on the bottom right is good, too..." Nick cringed when he got to the last one. There was a good sized piece of glass imbedded in the eye. It would have to come out sooner or later, but that kind of procedure was beyond the medic's capabilities. "Top right isn't looking so good, I'll be honest." He covered the eye with a bandage, securing it in place. There was a commotion growing among the crowd in the club. Nick started to worry, occasionally glancing over his shoulder. "You hurting anywhere else?" he asked, doing a quick scan with his omni-tool. Other than having a dangerous amount of alcohol in his blood, and the obvious damage to his face, the batarian wasn't in that bad of shape.

"How's he doing?"

Nick looked up. One of Aria's personal guards was nearby, a human.

"He's not going to the clinic, his injuries are non-life threatening." While the clinic had the right people and equipment, it wasn't worth wasting the resources. There were sicker people that needed them. "He will need to get the eye fixed, but he's not gonna die." Nick continued, peeling the soiled gloves off of his hands as he stood to his feet. "Keep giving him medigel in the meantime. Vox!" he called out with a wave of his hand. "We're outta here."

The turian snapped his head around, giving Nick a nod of acknowledgment. The human medic gathered his supplies, flashing a casual wave at the bouncers as he past. Vox joined him, stowing his rifle.

"So, it was another drunk. What was it you said about killing someone?" they passed back out through the entrance, the artificial flames still dancing on the walls.   

"That I'd kill someone if it was just another drunk." Nick replied flatly, too tired to want to partake in any small talk.

"Well, no one is dead."

"Not yet." He shot a wide eyed glance at Vox.

The turian laughed. "I'd like to see you try."

Nick shook his head, continuing his walk back to the clinic. They took a slower pace this time, no need to be in a rush. The medic hadn't had a solid eight hours of sleep in longer than he could remember, and it was catching up to him.

"Come on.... Piece of shit....." Nick growled, repeatedly smacking the elevator call button. There was an awful groaning sound as the doors opened halfway. The elevator car itself was missing, leaving Nick staring down the seemingly bottomless shaft.

"Looks like we're taking the stairs." Vox started walking, checking to see if the human was following.
"Woulda stayed at the damned pub if I knew....." Nick didn't like taking the long way back to the clinic. The slums along the way had gotten increasingly worse over the past few weeks. Different factions constantly warring against each other, and the plague was getting worse all of the time. Some had taken to burning the bodies in the streets in an effort to stop the spread, but it was futile. He was grateful it didn't affect humans—it was a nasty disease. But there were no free rides in this galaxy; every race that wasn't human now blamed humans for engineering and releasing the disease. And that made it very dangerous to be human in this part of Omega.

"Lovely neighborhood." Vox armed himself at the sight of a dead salarian. The body was lying at the bottom of the first set of stairs. "This one's not a plague victim."

"Yeah, I can tell..." Nick drew his own pistol from under his jacket. The body was riddled with bullet holes, lying face down in a large pool of dark green blood. The two became very quiet, moving slowly down the hall to the next stairway. Vox held his Avenger rifle up at his shoulder, while Nick made sure no one would sneak up from behind.

"You hear that?" Vox froze, listening intently. There was faint screaming coming from around the next doorway, mixed with a loud clanging sound.

Nick nodded.

"Ready?" Vox clicked the safety off.

Another nod.

The turian unlatched the door, before giving it a powerful kick. It swung open, bouncing off of the wall with a loud bang.

"I can't see shit..." Nick peered into the room, squinting his eyes.

"Because you're not prepared.." Vox tilted his head, a soft green glow coming from the visor of his helmet. He could see the entire room, all bathed in the green hue of night vision. There were bodies scattered all about, the obvious aftermath of an intense battle. He took a few steps into the room, Nick following close behind.

"The hell are you talking about? I'm always prepared..." Nick activated the flashlight on his omni-tool, shining it into the darkness.

"Hey! Turn that off-" the turian hissed, but was interrupted by an explosion of gunfire. They both dove for cover, firing blindly at their attacker. The gunshots from both sides lasted an intense few seconds, before coming to an abrupt stop.

"Stay down, I got this." Vox ordered, smacking a new thermal clip into his weapon. He popped out of cover, doing a quick scan of the room. He walked forward, a lone figure doubled over on the ground on the other side of the room. "Get your hands out!" he bellowed, taking a few more steps forward. No response. "I said show me your hands!" he was almost standing over the figure now, identifying it as a human male. He poked the man with his boot.

"Nick! Got one down over here, don't know if he was a shooter."
The medic jogged over, tossing his kit down next to the unknown man. "Did the rest of 'em clear out?" Nick asked, searching his pockets for a pair of gloves.

"Looks like it... Damned vorcha. They love doing ambushes like this... They think it's fun."

"But this guy isn't vorcha, how do you know he's not one of the shooters?"

"Look at his armor." Vox pointed out. "There's too much blood. He started bleeding long before we showed up."

"Right..." Nick grabbed the unconscious human's shoulder, getting ready to roll the man onto his back. "Hey, see if you can find a light switch somewh-" There was a dull clunk, and the room was bathed in a bright orange light. "That was quick." He glanced around, searching for the turian. Before he could see where Vox had gone, he felt something that made his stomach churn. The cold steel of a pistol being pushed into his neck.

"Don't....move" A voice growled. Nick turned his head back to the supposedly injured man who had been lying on the ground.

"Nice trick."

"Shut it." The human sat up, keeping the pistol pushed against Nick's skin. It was now obvious that the man's wounds had been faked; he hadn't really been bleeding at all.

"This a mugging? Here, you can have my credit chit-" Nick reached inside of his jacket, putting a hand on his own pistol. He paused for a second, pretending he was mumbling for something in his jacket,  then pushed the gun away from his neck as hard as he could with his free arm. He fell onto his back with a thud, landing a few powerful kicks on the mugger. He drew his pistol as he stood, aiming it back down at the mugger.

"Vox! Get over here and help me with this." The turian didn't respond. "Vox! Get the hell over here!" Nick turned his head, doing a double take when he saw what was behind. A crowd of about ten Blue Suns stood with their weapons trained on Nick. Vox was frozen in biotic stasis, unable to do anything to stop the mercenaries.  

"Drop it." One of the Suns ordered, this one a turian officer.

Nick considered all of his options, his mind working on overdrive to try and figure out the best one. Any attempt to run or fight would be met with certain death, there was simply too many of them to take on. Surrender... Well, there was a pretty good chance of the same outcome. He closed his eyes for a moment, having made up his mind. He made a sudden dash for one of the closest doorways, thinking that he could make it through before the shooting started. He was wrong.