Prologue

Severin wake up to a severe headache. He felt as if he'd been knocked on the head - by a krogan. The thought however, that he barely remembered the last night made him even uneasier. These parties begun to get more and more dangerous. Day by day his employer grew in his eyes: she put up well with the advertising campaign, even though Severin was sure, that some kind of drug was behind her seemingly infinite energy.

It hazely appeared to him, that he'd been talking to somebody at the bar, and that person'd been a woman and a great company. He looked around, then covered his face with his hands when he noticed the lilac clothes lying by the bed. No! – he thought. Not this. You should never sleep with a client! Meanwhile he became aware of the surrounding noises, including those coming from the shower. He took the time to sit up – that wasn't a wise decision – and took a closer look at those clothes.

The tint was the same, but the fabric, the tailoring... These are not the clothes of a turian. He sighed in relief. But whose then?

'Morning cutie!' arms wrapped around his hip and he felt the pleasant touch of wet hair on his shoulders. Soft lips pressed a kiss against his right cheek. Human!?

He looked back. A very pretty young brunette was glaring back at him.

'Hi' the turian gasped heavily. 'What time is it?'

'It's afternoon already.' The woman let the towel slip off her body and started dressing. Severin tactfully turned away.

'What've I been drinking last night?' he asked the rhetorical question. In time he managed to recall some memories of the night. This woman had been the one that he started a conversation with at the bar, after he'd got fed up with the VIP party. 'Lily, right?'

'You remember. Surprising – you didn't seem sober last night.'

'Nevermind. With Kytha... you get tough in no time.'

'That's Kytha Valorian in the next room... !?' – Lily's eyes suddenly lit up, and her jaw dropped when she heard the name.

'And God knows who else.'

'You must have an exciting job! Escorting movie stars all around the places.'

'Dead boring compared to my previous one.'

'You mentioned that you worked as a merc in the Terminus. You don't seem the mercenary type though. 'Lily sat on the corner of the bed, still only in her undies. Suddenly a photo caught her eyes, that was standing on the night table. 'Who're these people?' she asked and before Severin could stop her, she took it from its place to get a closer look at it. 'Oh, I know this guy in the middle' she pointed at the man wearing N7 armor. The man looked a bit uneasy but also determined.

'From where?'

'I placated my room with his photoes when I was a teenager. I used to be his greatest fan 'Lily turned scarlet.

'Of William Drake, the war hero?' Severin could barely hold his laugh. Typical Drake.

'Hey! Not all girls dream about pop stars! I think he's handsome ' she smiled. 'And the others? Who are they?'

'Do you always ask so much?'

'I'm just curious who you've worked with.'

'The asari next to Drake is Mirala. She used to be a Huntress then she became an eclipse merc. She's hard to get on well with, but I liked her nevertheless. Behind them is Adrien Adams, former Alliance soldier. His vocab misses the words: 'respect' and 'discipline' and he takes everything lightly. I've no idea how he got to be a soldier. Aaand that's Shane. We used to talk for hours, we watched movies... When we had some time to spare of course. She was somewhat like a turian. She's very thorough, determined and a workaholic.'

'I see you have a thing for brunettes. Human fetish?' - Lily mocked him playfully, noticing the caring look in the turian's eyes.

'Better than being a turian fetishist...'

'Dream on!' Lily sticked her tongue out. 'Please continue, you cocky turian.'

'That young girl is Sue, the deadliest teenager in the entire galaxy. All in all, she's quite discreet however.

'Did you stumble up on her in some gang?'

'You could say that.' Severin said in a dark tone. That bastard got what he deserved. Slim-faced motherfucker, shame of the turian people. 'That young woman with the cropped hair is Harriet. There's always a cigarette sticking out of her mouth. She used to call me handsome.' Lily must've liked the story, because she was chuckling silently. 'She was our pilot. I'd served eleven years in the military, but even that couldn't prepare me for the manouvers she'd pull out of her hat.'

Severin eyed Lily's face contemplatively. She still didn't show any sign of boredom.

'That black-haired woman is Dr. Andrews. She was always very cold and reserved. She could be trusted, but her secretive ways... Strange person. That's Kelly beside her, the doctor's assistant. She's a bit naive, but a very nice and helpful girl. The qurian at the very end, who is barely visible is Shia'Xen. She's very smart, and astonishingly nice, good-natured and sincere. She liked everyone, even though she was more comfortable with machines I think. The one, who she's hiding behind is Bruce. They were like brother and sister. Bruce's a good guy too, but he's as skilled as a handful of pebbles, if we're not talking about machinery.'

'They must have been a fascinating company. No wonder you feel bored nowadays. But why did you leave that blonde man out?

'He is Conrad. He'd been an ex-merc. One with dignity, that's rare to find' Severin's voice turned more serious and pain took the place of the nostalgic shining on his face. 'He fell, when the Collectors hit Horizon.'

Lily hugged the turian, who'd been drifting away in his memories for a short time.

'Do you miss them?' she asked. 'Silly me, of course you miss them.'

'I think about them every day.'

Lily pressed another soft kiss on his face, then stroked him gently with her hand.

'Then I hope you get to see them soon.'

Severin returned the gesture, he held the girl's face in his hand.

'Sev! Where are you!' the sound of a very upset turian woman found its way into the room.

Kytha and timing... Severin sighed resignedly.

Severin walked out of the bathroom, then as was his custom, he turned the news on. Since he'd gotten back to the civil life, he regularly watched them, even if he felt fifteen years older because of it. Sometimes he paid attention, other times it only served as background noise, so that something was muttering in his ears.

The same old evening news: a couple of murders, the exchange, politics and meaningless filler stories. Just what he expected. While he was looking for his clothes however, he caught a glimpse of Palaven on TV, the central parliment of the Hierarchy more precisely. He fixed his eyes on the screen and put the voice back on the broadcast.

'... because it's already the third turian warship, that'd been attacked while on patrol duty on the periphery of the Terminus, Palaven held out the prospect of punitive sanctions. At the time of our broadcast there is no news whether the Council is for the decision, but according to our experts the patience of the Citadel has come to an end and it's going to back up the Hierarchy's plan on the matter.

Spirits! What else can come?

'... and if neccesary we're going to retaliate. This act is the proof, that peace is not in the interest of some of the political players of the Terminus.'

Damn it!

The next pictures however overwhelmed him entirely. The security cameras of the ship had recorded the first minutes of the attack. On the pictures soldiers wearing uniforms attacked the crew, using sleeping gas. It wasn't the attack that shocked the turian, but the uniforms, that he was so well acquinted with. The mercs under the emblem of a red, open palm had vanished from the Terminus years before. They must have been...

But there is no such thing as ghosts!

Severin put on his clothes quickly, then took his travelling bag out of the closet and started throwing his other stuff into it. While packing, the picture on the nightstand also got into his hands. He nearly threw it after the others, but something stopped him. A pale smile appeared on his face. This situation reminded him on that time, when a retired alliance officer left everything behind to pursue his unclear goals in the shadiest corner of the galaxy. He had no doubt, that his story was very similar to this one. He put the picture back to its place and sighed heavily.

Don't rush into things!

He unpacked his things, then started putting them back neatly in a slow pace. He pulled out a small box from under his bed. He opened it, and removed a worn-out pistol from it. The standard military grade gun was too cumbersome for a bodygurad, so it had not seen use for a long time. Severin held it in his hand and the complex mechanism moved the barrel to it's place. So it's still functional. Common soldiers only used this kind as supplementary weapons, but for him it was more then enough. His biotics could take care of anything that'd been too great to shoot to death. He gently put down the gun on the nightstand, and went on with packing.

Meanwhile he managed to book a seat with his omnitool on the morning plane destined to Illium. He put the things he had to leave behind at the care of a friend, then he messaged all his acquintances that could've been in the near proximity of the happenings. By the time he finished packing up, everything'd been put in order.

There was only one more thing to deal with. More accurately: a nice, attractive human brunette... I'm sorry. There are things, that I have to deal with.