Chapter 1
A small, nimble craft jumped from faster than light to sub-light velocities smoothly at a moderate distance from a small garden class world. This planet was not named specifically, but it took its name from the star it orbited along with its position: Trin - II. The star Trin was a small yellow star with four satellites. Each of the satellites was within the garden zone where planets were able to develop to sustain life, but only the second planet had developed simple life including primitive plants. All of the planets in the Trin system were in early or pre-garden states and for this reason the four planets were under the protection of the Citadel Conventions baring them from any intrusion of any kind.
The small craft had slowly made its way from the FTL exit point to a distant orbit around Trin - II with a single powerful burst from its sub-light drives. Now the craft was running silent. The pilot had killed the main power as well as the sub-drives and he had only left thruster control and passive sensors operational. Light from the planet's deep blue ocean and its single red and green mega-continent shone into the cockpit of the craft as it approached. The planet's glow now provided a majority of the light in the cockpit bathing the Salarian pilot in a mixture of faint blue, red, and green light. The ship's course corrected and it entered into a very far orbit around the gravity well. The light diminished slowly as the ship angled away from the planet until the cockpit was shrouded in darkness once more.
Salarians were a bi-pedal species, similar to many of the other species of the galaxy. They had long bodies with tall, flat and thin heads which contained very large eyes which were completely devoid of a pupil. The top of their heads were dominated by two horn-like appendages which curled very slightly at the tips toward each other. Many Salarians' skin was within the chromatic range of blue to gray to black, but a few were very brightly colored. The general metabolism of Salarians was extremely fast compared to many of the other races which allowed them to quickly analyze situations, seemingly think compulsively with precise logic, and even operate for more than twenty four hours on only about an hour of sleep.
This particular Salarian would fade into the darkness of the cockpit were it not for his thin armor suit. The armor was a smooth nondescript grey with no markings or symbols that denoted a military branch, planet of origin, or rank of any kind. The ship that this Salarian was piloting was likewise devoid of any identification of any kind. The ship did not even have an on-board transponder to signal other ships with information regarding origin or course.
These built in computers and transmitters were used in very dense traffic areas to allow the ships in the traffic pattern to easily determine where other ships were at all times and prevent collisions during decent and orbit of a planet. Any ship not carrying a traffic transponder was a major Citadel Convention infraction. Penalties for anyone not carrying a transponder ranged from revoking of pilot's license and heavy fines to imprisonment on a Citadel prison colony. In its place this ship contained precision passive sensors that determined ship movements as well as powerful active sensors for combat situations.
The Salarian moved away from the controls, rose from his seat and opened a compartment behind him to his left. Placed behind the thin metal door was a small black box about thirty centimeters on a side. The cube's faces were a solid black until the Salarian touched one causing it to glow with a soft blue light. A keypad of symbols representing numbers of base ten formed from the blue light. The symbol for zero was pressed three times followed by: six four one zero two. The light slowly changed from the blue to a lighter green before fading entirely. The dark black cube seemed to pause a moment before continuing.
"State designation." The box commanded, seemingly from an internal speaker.
"Kil'om." The Salarian said in a clear voice.
"Connecting to onboard ship computer to verify position." The cube droned. After a short pause it continued, "Position verified, orbit of Trin two confirmed. Sealed orders are now available."
The name the Salarian had given to the machine was only a code name, but it served its purpose to identify himself. Kil'om reached forward and touched the box again to signify that he was ready to open his orders. The top of the cube separated from the lower portion from an internal hinge at the rear exposing a small plastic pad. Also contained within the interior of the cube was a small vial of clear liquid. If this vial of extremely strong acid was ruptured resulting from tampering with the cube then the pad contained within would have been destroyed very quickly. Kil'om pulled the pad back towards the cockpit window to read the small text more easily by the light from Trin - II.
The pad contained the following message:
Sealed Orders - Kil'om
The corporation Nalth Systems is illegally operating a large excavation project on this planet, Trin - II, trying to find Prothean relics. Based on recent communications from this site we suspect that Nalth is closing the site down. Since this planet is within Salarian space you are to determine if the team excavating the site has found anything and if they have, acquire it and report to the nearest drop point. Otherwise you are to escape and report your findings. A large cargo ship with supplies is arriving soon, you are to commandeer this ship and use it to gain access to the site. At your current course you will be near the ship as it exits FTL. Leave no trace.
000435
Kil'om scanned the pad twice before replacing it in the cube's central container and closing the lid. He touched a side of the cube again and the familiar number pad reappeared. He touched the symbols for zero three times, followed by four, three, and five. A hissing noise escaped from the interior of the cube as the vial containing the concentrated acid destroyed the plastic pad as well as destroying the speaker and other interior components of the information vault. As the acid continued to do its job the black coloring of the cube began to slowly lighten to a dull gunmetal grey and even further to a pure white. This complete color change signified the complete destruction of the data contained within. Kil'om opened the lid once more to reveal a container that suddenly had a much larger interior compartment. The inside of the box now was lined with glass and contained only a small pile of half dissolved waste. Satisfied with the result Kil'om replaced the top and placed the entire cube back within the cabinet.
As Kil'om sat back down to look over his controls a light on the sensor module caught his attention. A faster than light signal from a traffic transponder was being picked up by the sensor's module. The display said that there was an incoming cargo ship and that it would arrive in about thirty seconds. The FTL exit coordinates were listed below the timer. The navigation display warned that this vessel would be within the danger zone of the FTL exit event. At this range Kil'om's vessel would be undetectable by the cargo ship, but that was exactly the point.
A large blast of light flooded the Salarian ship's cockpit as the ship exited faster than light travel directly above the small craft. The ship appeared suddenly as a massive blue blur due to the blue-shift of its incredible speeds. As it came to a complete halt above the small craft the cargo ship's color changed to its normal grey. The underside of the ship was directly aligned with the top of Kil'om's ship. It fired up its engines to attain orbit, but the smaller craft was already on a direct course for the underside of the front of the ship.
A large Nalth Systems logo was painted on the lower hull. The logo was a large block letter N superimposed on a triangle. The triangle was white and the letter was a bright red. This letter's origin was from Earth, the same as the corporation. Over the course of several years a small group of Asari had purchased the company from its original human owners and using the company's patents along with Asari technology it had begun producing powerful omni-tools and lighting fast miniature computers for armor suits and other devices. Recently Nalth had begun excavating many well known Prothean sites looking for lost computer technology to enhance their products.
Kil'om's small craft drifted silently towards the underside of the cargo ship's most forward deck, its bridge. Kil'om pressed a few buttons on the control panel before him and he extended a modified docking port towards the hull of the cargo ship. The port slowly extended until it was touching the hull of the other ship. A few blasts from the ship's precision thrusters lowered the relative velocity between Kil'om's craft and the Nalth cargo ship to almost nothing. The Salarian pressed a few more buttons and the docking port began to glow bright red as it became superheated. The probe extended until it was in complete contact with the cargo ship and then it began cutting into and through the opposing ship. The probe pierced through the hull quickly and as it broke through the floor of the bridge it emitted a strong neurotoxin killing the pilot within seconds. In a few more seconds the opening was large enough for a person to enter through the tube that connected the two ships.
Kil'om quickly picked up a tool on the floor behind his chair and slung it over his back as he walked toward the port that connected his ship, a special infiltrator frigate, with the large Nalth cargo ship. After a few seconds Kil'om was at the docking port's entrance waiting for his infiltrator's gravity field to align to the other ship. Aligning the gravity fields allowed entrance to the other ship without it feeling like you were being pulled in two directions at once as you crossed from one ship to the other. Kil'om now climbed what was, at least in terms of the current gravity, upwards towards the bridge of the other ship. The docking and infiltration mechanism had by now exhausted the neurotoxin into space and replaced the air with fresh breathable oxygen and nitrogen mix. Kil'om reached the end of the tube the connected the two ships within seconds, pressing the button to open the tube to allow him access to the cargo ship. The door retracted like a mechanical iris for a camera and Kil'om peered into the hole above.
A Salarian dressed in a light blue Nalth Systems jumpsuit lay slumped half in and half out of the pilot's seat. It looked as if he had turned around when he heard the probe cutting through the hull, but before he could even get out of his seat the neurotoxin had taken his life. Kil'om pulled the corpse from the chair and pushed it down through the docking tube where it tumbled down into his ship with a dull thump. He placed the tool near the docking opening and turned it on with the flip of a switch. The device opened up producing an assault rifle and a pistol as well as generating a kinetic barrier or shield over the opening in the floor. This device sent a signal to the infiltrator ship to disconnect from its target. The door on the docking tube slid closed and the tube slowly retracted from the hull of the cargo ship. As the probe drew away from the cargo ship the kinetic barrier generator pushed the barrier further downwards until it was at the initial opening of the hull.
The infiltrator pulled away from the cargo ship and went back to a parking orbit. Here the craft would wait until Kil'om returned to it or after a short time it would burn up as it entered the atmosphere at too steep an angle. This form of self-destruct would completely remove all traces of the craft.
The Salarian moved to the controls and he found the lockout key port and he made a note of the location of navigation, sensors, and other ship systems. A light flashed on the panel for communication and Kil'om pressed a button below the light. The equipment before him produced an uneven mechanical voice.
"Your credentials have been verified. You may continue to the coordinates now being provided to your navigational computer." As the voice finished the navigation panel glowed a pale green. The vessel's engine slowly roared to life, taking the ship out of its orbit and down to land on the planet's surface. Kil'om moved back towards the door out of the cockpit and on his way to the door he picked up the pistol, holstered it, and finally picked up the assault rifle. He pressed a button on the side of the weapon and it extended to its full length, ready to fire. The door to the ship's main corridor silently split apart down the center vertically and the two parts of the door retreated into the wall as the Salarian approached.
Rifle at the ready, the Salarian pushed into the corridor and he quickly went to the first door on the right. The corridor had a door at the far end, furthest from the cockpit, two doors on the right side, and one on the left of the corridor. Kil'om was not sure of the exact layout of this ship, but he expected that this cargo ship was of standard freighter design. The door at the rear would lead to the main cargo areas, the door he was about to enter would lead to the sleeping quarters, the next door on the right lead to service corridors, and the door on the left would lead to an airlock for docking. The service corridors and the air lock would be empty. Kil'om only needed to make sure that the only people on board were part of the unloading crew and that there were no additional pilots on board.
The Salarian stood just to the side the door ready so he could surprise anyone behind it when it opened. He waved his hand in front of the door's sensor and it silently opened, splitting in half just as the previous door. Kil'om moved quickly, storming into the small room with several beds separated by thin plastic walls. From the number of occupied beds it seemed that there were a total of three people on board. One had already been dispatched, the pilot, and there were two remaining. This number seemed reasonable for the unloading crew, they would be in the cargo hold making preparations for landing. If anyone was still in this room they would need to be eliminated. Kil'om needed everyone preoccupied with their job so they would not notice the pilot had left his post to explore the site.
Pleased with this information, Kil'om quickly moved back to the cockpit and he replaced the weapons into his portable shield generator. He turned back to the cockpit door and locked it. He glanced back to the navigation panel and it still glowed with a content green. The ship was now entering the upper atmosphere. The only thing to do now was to wait.