[h3]Day 3 of Shore Leave
A Gym
Somewhere on the Nexus[/h3]

The slender, gray-skinned turian adjusted the speed on his treadmill and pounded his feet a little more, panting a little as he pushed his stamina to his limit, earbuds seated on his head as he drowned out the world around him to focus on his exercise. 

It was day 3 of shore leave, one more day before they were shipped off to Voeld, and Hazan had decided to get some stamina training in before they left. He knew that the planet was going to be extremely cold, a fact which he loathed, and as such he was training himself to better handle the weather. The bitter cold would drain his stamina a lot faster than normal, since his body was also going to try and keep itself warm, so he wanted to make sure he was at tip top shape before the fireteam left.

Tazen made his way into the gym, carrying a bag that held clothes more comfortable for a working routine. The shore leave would end up soon and so the Salarian decided that it was time to do something more prolific with his remaining free time rather than idle it away stargazing or reading a book. He made his way through the few individuals in the gym, his thoughts briefly turning to the fact that he had only managed to get into it after he had provided credentials that he was part of APEX. He didn’t like the decision, even if he understood the reasoning behind it, of barring the civilians to use what few training faculties there were, but before that particular train of thought could go any further he noticed a familiar figure in one of the treadmills. “Volintis?” He asked, incredulity creeping into his voice. He hadn’t seen nor heard of the Turian scout in their three days of shore leave, and so he was surprised to find him in the gym. 

[color=lightblue]”Huh- WOAH!”[/color]

At the sudden mention of his name from the voice he knew as his team leader, Hazan tried to both turn around to acknowledge his superior and keep running at the same time, but his feet tangled themselves up in each other and made him tumble head over heels off the treadmill and onto the floor. With a rather unprofessional yelp of protest, he untangled himself from his earbud wires and stood up, giving Tazen a small salute before a spike of pain entered his right leg, making him hiss a little.

[color=lightblue]”Sir, didn’t expect to see you here. Sorry about the leg, old injury.”[/color]

Tazen let out a little chuckle at Hazan’s tripping accident. “At ease Hazan, when out of duty you don’t need to treat me with any extra respect you don’t think I deserve. Outside of APEX you and I are equals.” The Salarian said, smiling to the Turian. He frowned slightly as Hazan hissed, waving his apology away, “There’s no need to apologize, I understand perfectly.” The ex-STG operative answered. 

Before Hazan could speak again, Tazen bent down and pulled up the hem of the left side of his pant slightly. Immediately Hazan would be able to notice that the Salarian’s left leg was a prosthetic replacement, “As you can see, I know quite a bit about leg injuries myself.” He spoke before letting go of the hem that he had pulled up, “So, Hazan, what brings you here? Trying to get in some extra training before we ship to Voeld?” 

The turian nodded and tried his best to be informal.

[color=lightblue]”Yeah, sir- I mean, um, Tazen. Trying to get my stamina up so the cold won’t bother me as much. Although now...maybe I should take a break, hehe.”[/color]

Hazan moved over to one of the nearby benches and sat down, popping open the top of his water bottle to take a swig, limping a little as he walked.

[color=lightblue]”And what brings you here? Also wanting to get some exercise in before we ship out?”[/color]

“Same as you Hazan, I’ve been taking it easy this past few days, so I thought it wouldn’t hurt to get in some exercise done before we ship out of the Nexus.” Said the Salarian as he sat next to Hazan, “But I also tend to exercise as much as I can when possible since it helps with this as well.” He added, patting his prosthetic leg in indication of what he meant. 

“Must say, I’m surprised to find you here. All this time on the Nexus and I didn’t see or hear about you once. And, well, considering that I’m ex-STG I’d say that’s fairly impressive. What’s your secret Volintis? I won’t go spreading it around, spy’s honour.” The Salarian said with a light chuckle, waiting for the Turian’s reply. 

[color=lightblue]”Well... The Nexus is a big station, and I kinda like to keep to myself. Probably have my navy training to thank for that. But honestly, if you wanted to find someone, you probably could given enough time.”[/color]

The turian chuckled, mostly to himself and took another drink of water, one talon idly massaging his hurt right leg so the pain would go away.

“Any particular reasons for that?” Asked Tazen, his interest piqued. While he wasn’t the most social person, he didn’t understood, or saw the purpose behind, secluding oneself. “Ah, I’m sorry, that’s a bit of a personal question to start asking all of a sudden, huh?” He added once he got over his curiosity and remembered his manners, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

“Hmmm, you did mention your navy training? Any stories worth sharing?” He asked, hoping to divert the attention from his, well, rather question. “If it helps, we can swap stories. I doubt the stuff I did is classified after 600 or so years.” The Salarian added, laughing slightly.

[color=lightblue]”Well, I was with the 132nd Light back in the Navy, we patrolled the rim between Citadel and Terminus space, catching pirates and slavers and smugglers and the like. I did my duty for sixteen years, and I saw the worst side that the galaxy had to offer. Just...can you imagine people of any species, with explosive collars on their necks, crammed into cargo containers to be shipped across Terminus space? Coming in from the mass relays that are in Citadel space? Those men, we sent straight to the Council. They locked those slavers up for life, last I heard pending execution. Well, that was six centuries ago anyway. I left the 132nd after my sixteenth year, went to do mercenary work for a change. I was allowed the leave from the military by then anyway.”[/color]

Hazan shook his head. Six centuries had done nothing to dull the memories of his days as a Navy man, hunting pirates and slavers all across the Terminus sector.

Tazen grimaced slightly at Hazan’s recount. “Sounds like the standard situation in the Terminus-Citadel borders.” He said, not exactly surprised by what Hazan had told him. He had been in many covert operations in the Terminus and the Skyllian Verge and so he knew how bad those place could be, especially the former. “I do know what you mean though, I’ve seen it plenty of times.” The Salarian said, shaking his head to clear his mind of the memories.

“There was this one deep cover assignment I had, me and a group of other STG-operatives were sent to the Skyllian Verge as private security consultants. Pirate and slaver raids were one of the main concerns that those frontier colonies saves, we liberated more than our fair share of captured slaves, though probably not nearly as many as you.” He said with a sigh, smiling sadly. “We were in deep cover after all, so attracting attention beyond what was necessary was strictly forbidden, no matter if we wished to intervene and try and do more than liberating the slaves of those pirate crews that were stupid enough to attack colonies we were advising.”  

[color=lightblue]”That reminds me of my first job with the Riggers. I’m sure you made the connections between me and some of the other members of the fireteam. Our first real mission together was to capture a bunch of slavers for the Alliance. That went kinda well, but that was the mission I got my bum leg from.”[/color] Hazan gestured to his right leg, which had stopped aching a few minutes ago.

[color=lightblue]”I got blindsided by a rocket and fractured it in a few places. You’d think several medi-gel casts, a few years of desk work and six centuries of space travel would’ve healed it.”[/color]

“Hmmm, I see, the Alliance does likes to use mercs every once in a while, especially when it comes to the Terminus. Always had a problem with flaunting that unspoken ‘don’t mess with the Terminus’ rule.” Tazen said with a light chuckle, “Then again, it’s a bit hypocritical on my end to say that. It’s not like STG didn’t flaunt the rules quite often, if not blatantly breaking them sometimes if the situation was bad enough.” He said with a sigh, nodding slightly when Hazan explained how he got his bum leg.

“Hmmm, you got lucky, I lost my leg to a loose shot from a Striker assault rifle. You know, that Krogan-made AR that is basically an automatic grenade launcher. My shields were down after I had taken a beating doing an unsanctioned action while defending a Salarian colony from a bunch of slavers. Mind you, this was back when I was still in the army of the Salarian Union though, surprisingly enough, that little maverick action is what got me into STG.”  He explained, letting out a sigh as he remembered the siege of Na’Kesh.  

[color=lightblue]”I’m surprised you aren’t missing more parts. That weapon is nasty.”[/color]

The turian chuckled softly, reminiscing at all the five years he’d spent with the Riggers, all the odd jobs and contracts up until the crew disbanded. He sighed and took another drink of water.

[color=lightblue]”So how did you end up joining the Initiative? Something about the pull of a new galaxy to explore?”[/color]

“Something like that, yeah, my time in the Traverse awakened in me a desire to explore, to see new stars.” The Salarian explained, smiling slightly “But, I also wanted to get away from the society in the Milky Way. Bloated with corruption and petty politics that ensured the benefit of the few over the many, rotted from the inside out.” He continued on, “The Initiative seemed like, well, the prospect of making something new, something better.” He said, smiling slightly. “I still believe in that dream, even after all that has happened since we got to Heleus. I know it won’t be easy, but I’ll do my best to make sure that what Jien Garson promised us comes to be.” 

[color=lightblue]”The same for me, I guess. But for me it was more of that I wanted to get my family out of the Milky Way. It just didn’t feel safe there any more.”[/color] Hazan shrugged and idly gripped his water bottle in his talons.

[color=lightblue]”My family’s still in cryo. I just hope, one day, they’ll be free and we’ll be together again.”[/color]

“Hmmm, I came alone here, so I can’t say I understand you very well Hazan.” Said Tazen, putting his hand on Hazan’s shoulder. “But with the discovery of the Remnant vault we know that we can make Heleus livable, I’m sure that in no time your family will be out of cryo and ready to join us here in Heleus.” The Salarian said, offering the Turian a smile. 

He let out a sigh of relief and, for the first time in a while, smiled back. Hazan was briefly reminded of Serena’s chat with him the previous day...maybe his family was still on ice, but he still had a family in the Riggers.

[color=lightblue]”Thanks, Tazen. I feel a bit better.”[/color]

“Glad to be of help Hazan.” Tazen said, patting the Turian’s shoulder amicably. “I’m not saying it’ll be easy, but I’m sure that we’ll fix these problems in no time and everyone in cryo will come out. Then, together with the Angara, we’ll be able to build a brighter future for us all.”

[color=lightblue]”I’m sure. Well, in the meantime, I better go clean up and make sure my things are packed. Think my bum leg’s telling me to stop pushing myself too hard. Thanks for checking in on me, sir.”[/color]

Hazan stood and gave Tazen a slightly more informal salute, then wrapped his towel round his neck and walked off to the showers.

Maybe there was something to look forward to in this galaxy after all.