"Dear passengers, this is the Captain speaking." The speakers crackled as the Captain spoke over the intercom. "You will be pleased to know, we will shortly be docking with the Citadel Space Station."
I was slumped in my seat, looking out the window expecting to see the vast blackness of space, It was pointless having window's on space craft, there was nothing to see! Or so I thought. I was starring out in disbelief at the pink clouds I was seeing instead of the deep dark blackness of space. I had heard about the view outside the citadel but, those things didn't really interest me, killing Batarian's did.
I turned to look at the other people on the transport shuttle craft around me, they were all craning their necks to sneak a peek of the Citadel and the pink clouds the Serpent Nebular was producing.
"The station time is 1734 hours and the lighting levels are dark in the Presidium." The Captain continued cheerfully down the intercom speakers. "May I remind passengers the Citadel runs on a twenty hour day, so please reset your time pieces."
I had never been to the station before, it was basically, from what I could tell, another large bicycle wheel that had five platforms attached to it. Apparently, if the station ever came under attack, the platforms could close and lock together to form some sort cylinder. Sounds simple but the size of the thing was immense, the Citadel had over 13 million people living on it. The population was very diverse with alien races from all over Citadel space living and working together.
"We have now docked in the lower wards of the Citadel passengers," the Captain said joy fully as I felt my body got heavier slightly from the gravitational pull of the Citadel. He'd switched off the ships inertial dampeners. "Just to let you know we now operate express routes non stop to Eden Prime from the Citadel."
I hated flying with commercial space craft, every two minutes was a chance to advertise some crap!
"Thank you for flying Arcturus Connect and we hope to see you soon!"
I finally got off the ship and made my way to the customs area. Normally I wouldn't need to go through customs but dressed as a civilian didn't give me the perks of just passing right through into the Citadel as an Alliance marine.
"Um, permit documents ready please." I heard one of the guards say beckoning me over to him. He looked very young in his twenties or maybe late teens, but he was old enough to fight. Unfortunately for him, he decided to be a police man for the Citadel Council.
A station as densely populated as this needed policing, the force that did it was C-Sec. The young guard in front of me worked for C-Sec, which was a waste, he would have been better serving the Alliance as a marine.
"Um, is this your first time on the Citadel sir?" the young guard asked me politely, I wasn't sure if he was happy with his job, my guess was that he wasn't. I'm sure he joined thinking he was going to be playing detective down in the high crime rated wards.
As I uploaded my permits to his console from my omni-tool, I also uploaded a hidden program to search for my target. He was studying his console for some time before he finally looked back up at me,
"Yeah um, enjoy your stay at the Citadel sir." he said showing me through the customs gate.
I was hit by the dazzling lights of the metropolis in the Tayseri ward, the smells of exotic alien spices and foods, even the smells of the people flooded my senses. I could hear multiples of the different languages the aliens where speaking. My ear piece was working well to translate all the languages back into standard English.
It was quite a difference from what I had grown up with on my home planet of Demeter, aliens frequently visited our trading port when I was young but I had never seen so many different races all in one place. Millions of people congregating together on a tin can held together by forcefields! I don't think it occurred to the general population that the walls of the Citadel were most likely only 50mm thick and that the other side of the outer wall was the dark cold vacuum of space. If the shields failed and the outer wall had a micro fracture, then it would be game over for the large population of the station.
Normally I wouldn't be bothered about such things as I would be protected by my trusted Aldrin Lab's combat armor, the M Onyx X. For this mission however, I wasn't permitted to wear it as I had to act as a civilian. My only protection was the shields that my Omni-tool provided.
I didn't even have my gun!
My omni-tool beeped to confirm it had found my targets location. I needed to get to a bar on one of the wards, but looking for a way to do that seemed trouble some. I didn't know what ward the bar was on and couldn't find any directions or even one of those annoying Virtual Intelligent tour guides. I had been walking around for nearly ten minutes looking for the V.I. guide and I was growing inpatient, I started to get frustrated, wondering why I was on this stupid child minding mission and thinking that my services were better served out on high risk missions behind enemy lines.
When I returned from my last mission on Thesaca, I had to see the staff nurse so she could work out if I was fit for duty. She decided that I needed some time off from high risk missions and stated that I needed time to heal from the events I had witnessed. She also mentioned that, if I were to be put back on high risk covert missions, I could become a danger to myself.
What a load of horse shit!
The only people I would be a danger to, were the Batarian's. She didn't quite seem to understand that, I guess she could never understand that as she had never been in the field. What gave her the right to pass judgement on people when she had no experience of her own?
I saw a Salarian male idly walking by, maybe he could point me in the right direction. I walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Excuse me sir?" I asked in the most timid and politest manner I could muster. The Salarian turned around to face me, waiting for my question.
"Could you tell me how to get a bar please?"
The Salarians eyes lit up, wild and opportunistic,
"There are loads of bar's here on the Citadel Human! Stop wasting my time!" He stormed off as quickly as he spoke.
So maybe his eyes weren't wild and opportunistic as I thought! Judging facial and emotional expressions was going to be another problem I would face here on the Citadel.
The Salarians were tall and slim, they had long head and dark eyes and it was very hard to see their iris's. The Salarian life span was very short compared to us, and every thing about them is about speed! Apparently a Salarian adult only needs sixty minutes of sleep a day and they are very hyperactive and restless and impatient as I had just discovered.
One race that were easier to read were the Asari. The Beautiful Blue Women as my old friend John Shepherd called them.
The Asari looked very similar to us Humans but they were mono gendered that looked female. Instead of hair on their heads they had sculpted skin folded back on top of their scalps.
I noticed two girls walking out of a shop, they were Human girls, in fact I was confident they were travelling on the same transport shuttle as me to get here. I walked up them to see if they could get me to this bar called Flux.
"Excuse me please?" I started again as got within speaking distance. They stopped walking and turned around to see who was calling out to them. They looked very similar these girls, the same skin complexion and almost identical facial structures. They were sisters, or at least I thought.
"How can we help you?" one of them said, she was smiling at me, I wasn't going to make them mistake again and read a civilians body language all wrong.
" Could you help me find a bar please?" I repeated my query hoping I wasn't about to get a slap in the face by a catamenial woman!
"Yes of course!" she said polite fully, still smiling. "Which bar do you want to go to? If I don't know where it is, then my sister will."
So I was right, they were sisters, I don't think they were identical sisters though.
"I'm trying to get to Flux's bar, I hear its quite nice." I said "They have a diner, a dance floor and a gambling area too." The girl was nodding still smiling waiting for me to finish talking. "I hear its owned by a Volus and the music is pretty good!"
"Hmm, I'm sold!" she giggled "I'll not only tell you how to get there, but you can take me out on a date there too!"
I was speechless.
"Jenna!" Her sister piped in. "Stop teasing the poor bloke".
I was still speechless.
"My name is Rita," the sister said offering her hand. "Me and Jenna are heading up to Flux's now, we start our new jobs there next week so were going to have a few drinks. Your welcome to come with us if you need to get there anyway?"
"Thank you!" I took Rita's hand and started shaking it. "That will be great if your sure you don't mind me tagging along of course?"
"It's not a problem," Jenna said. She held out her hand for me to take it. "Sorry about before, I was just playing around with you."
"None taken Jenna," I said with a half smile, I was a bit embarrassed by her directness earlier. I went over the conversation in my head again of her asking me out on a date, then it occurred to me I hadn't introduced myself to them. "Sorry, I haven't introduced myself, my name is Inir Tobin." I lied to them. I was giving this name as a cover for this mission.
I couldn't give them my real name, Blake Gogova, as anyone may link it back to the Alliance especially the prime target.
Apparently I was a business man/ entrepreneur visiting the Citadel who wanted to build luxury high profile interplanetary small space vehicles. "I'm a business man," I continued "am here hoping to expand my company into the Citadel Council"
"So your here on business?" Rita asked as we walked.
She was leading us to a group of vehicles I had briefly read about on the transport shuttle to the citadel. I didn't know much about them, only that the ships I supposedly built, looked similar to these. They were all identical models, each holding a maximum of four seats, the only difference where the colours of them. They were everywhere too, parked on the various platforms around and also flying through the air. They didn't have much for defence either, I couldn't make out any shield emitters but I wasn't sure what material was used for the outer shell of the vehicles so maybe they could take a beating under fire.
Rita casually walked up to one, keyed in a few commands into her omni tool and the car doors opened gracefully.
"Is this vehicle yours?" I asked her puzzled. She couldn't own the vehicle, she just arrived here on the Citadel. Also, the question was also an attempt avert me from answering her question. Jenna burst out laughing. I looked at her bemused.
"You sound like a police man," she giggled. "Is this vehicle yours?" she repeated mockingly. "I bet your a spy working for C-Sec!"
The back of my neck started to itch and I had an uncontrollable desire to scratch it. I started laughing nervously.
"Huh!" I had to think fast, I knew Jenna was joking, but I didn't want to say something stupid and blow my cover. "You figured me out! I'm going to have to arrest you now." I replied jokingly.
"I can see you two are going to get along!" Rita sighed getting into the vehicle and playing around with the controls. "Its not mine, no." She answered "This group of shuttles belong to the Citadel, but are available for public use as rapid transport throughout the station."
I simply nodded my head to acknowledge Rita's explanation and sat down in the back seat behind the two sisters. The shuttle took off smoothly out of the parking platform ascending into the air traffic quickly and easily. I wasn't sure if the vehicle was operated manually or automatically, if it was manually then Rita was a dam fine pilot and the Alliance could use her.
I looked out of the window and there was another of the vehicles besides ours travelling slightly faster than we were. It occupied three Salarians, two adults in the front seats and a child in the back. The child was staring out the window straight at me. I couldn't tell if the child was male or female and I wasn't going to ask the sisters, I didn't want to fall victim to one of Jenna's so called jokes. It seemed as though the Salarian adults were deep in conversation, paying no attention to the child. The child knew this too, and took the opportunity to stick its disgustingly long tongue out at me!
Without hesitation, I pulled out my pistol, aimed it between the child's big beady black eyes, and pulled the trigger. The impact of the round blew the child's head clean from its shoulders, its body slump back into the seat, green blood was still erupting from where its tiny head should have been. I could just make out behind the blood staining the shuttles window that the adult Salarian's were panicking and were not concentrating on piloting the vehicle. It lost control and crashed into the shuttle in front and they both blew up into a massive fire ball. Both Jenna and Rita started screaming reacting to the fire ball and to the fact they were alone in a flying car, high above the ground with a man that killed Salarian children.
"So what does your company do then Inir?" Rita said snapping me out of my fantasy. I looked out of the window, the child was still sticking it's wicked tongue out at me, it had it's palms pressed against the window and its eyes closed enjoying the moment. Then it was abruptly disrupted when it was slapped around the back of its boney head by one of the adults who had reached round to teach it some manners. I smirked satisfyingly.
"I build luxury speeders on my home world on Demeter," I responded as I started waving at the child that was now crying looking back at me. "My speeders are one of the best sellers on human colonies, so the Alliance gave me and a few of my competitors incentives to expand our business's into the rest of Council space." I explained, lying again. "I'm here for a few meetings, attend a few exhibitions and to make contacts."
"Its great your trying to expand your business into the rest of Council space," Rita said keying more controls into the shuttle's computer. "It'll be hard to compete against these X3M vehicles though." We were starting to descend to hopefully near the ward markets so we could get to Flux's. "They are an established brand being used everywhere, even out in the lawless Terminus Systems."
Rita guided the shuttle with ease into a tiny parking space between two stationary shuttles and the doors flung open. Jenna sprung out first followed by her sister, the doors to the shuttle closed as soon as I stepped off and it flew back up to rejoin the traffic. I stood looking upward watching the traffic, marvelling at all those speeders, shuttles and cargo carriers flying in organised rows. I was surprised that there actually wasn't an accident. Maybe somebody really did need to get shot in the head for a crash to occur.
"Come on Inir," heard Jenna whisper nervously. I didn't know her well or long, but it didn't seem like her to whisper or get nervous. I brought my gaze from the flowing traffic to see what had made Jenna so nervous, only to be confronted by three large Krogan, dress in what looked like military uniforms.
"I don't like the way you look Inir!" one of them bellowed. His voice was deep and made the ground tremble. The reptilian Krogan race were tough, hard skinned, hard to kill son's of bitches. They had large humps on their backs that apparently stored fluids and nutrients meaning they could survive for long periods of time without food and drink. And they loved to fight.
I stared up at the 7 foot tall hulk of mass glaring down at me with his red fiery eyes. There was no way I could defeat him and his two friends without my armour and shields, so I stayed quiet. His friends were just staring at me smiling, posing with their arms crossed high on their chest!
"You'd better watch yourself and stay out of my way Human!" he warned pushing me out of the way. I fell on the floor by the sheer force of the Krogan's strength.
Jenna and Rita knelt down beside me, trying pick me up from the ground as the three Krogan walked off laughing.
"You have to be careful where you step Inir." Rita warned "Your not on your small world of Demeter now you know."
"Thanks for the advice," I was up on my feet again dusting my self off. "It seems like I still have plenty to learn about the Citadel. People here are not very friendly are they?" Jenna shrugged her shoulders.
"Forget about it," she pointed to some steps. "Come on, I think we all need a drink, Flux's is right up them stairs." She had a hold of my hand when she helped me back on my feet, as we walked up the stairs towards the club. As the adrenaline from my Krogan encounter drained away, I looked down to notice Jenna was still holding my hand. I looked up to see her smiling back at me.
Chapter 2
I wasn't sure what to expect when I walked up the steps into the night club. I wasn't even sure that is was a night club, the last night club I went to was on Elyium. John Shepherd and me had visited there once on a shore leave from our N7 training program. This, 'entertainment hub', had tables where people where eating their meals with an amazing view of the Station and the ward arms. Behind that, was the unspectacular Serpent Nebula, or the purple cloud as I like to call it.
Since when did clubs have windows? This window, replaced the whole back wall of the club and beyond the glass was the obvious harsh void of space.
I studied the people at the tables closest to the large bay window, they were all having a good time, eating, drinking, laughing and joking. They were all foolish to believe that the glass was strong enough to keep them from being sucked out of the window. An overload in one of the transformers that powered the forcefield protecting the glass from space, would cause the glass to suddenly breach and suck the idiots sat on the tables close to window out into space before the back up emergency power kicked in.
I chuckled to my self at that eventuality.
The dance floor was near the club entrance and there were a few people making good use of the space available. It was a strange sight to see a Turian guy grinding with an Asari.
"Wow" Jenna said excitedly pointing, "Look at them two guys!" I strained my eyes to see what had caught her attention to see two guys break dancing in the middle of the dance floor. A circle had began to form around them and the crowd started to clap hoping they would continue. Jenna had hold of my hand and together we made our way on to the dance floor to get a closer look at these dancers.
The music, if you can call it that, had intensified. I started looking around for the speakers or whatever the apparatus they were using to provide the sounds, but I couldn't see anything.
We made our way to the front and I was surprised to see who the break dancers were. Jenna starting laughing.
"No way!" she was jumping up and down and clapping "Can you believe it?"
I had made an error before believing that there were only two break dancers, there were in fact three and they were all Krogan. They were the three Krogan who were pushing me around outside the club. They weren't in the army, they were in some kind of dancing cult. I never though a Krogan could be so agile and move with such grace. I hated thinking it, but they were actually pretty good.
"OK guys," Rita had joined us on the dance floor, but from her facial expressions, it didn't seem as though she was impressed with the break dancing Krogan's "Come on, I found us a table upstairs." She led us away from the three large, but agile Krogan dancers. We followed her up some steps that over looked the actual bar and I was surprised to find yet people dinning at tables and beyond them, were a group of crazy people playing on gambling amusement machines. Observing them all was a Volus man flicking a credit coin around between his fingers. We sat down at an empty table with four chairs around it. I sat facing the club entrance, it was a tactical position, I could see who was leaving the club and also more importantly, who was entering.
"I take it that guys the owner?" I said to Rita nodding over in the little man's direction. He was very round and short, no taller than a six year old child. All Volus wore environmental suits, as they are unable to survive the atmospheric conditions that we, Humans, and most other Alien races, lived in.
Rita trained her eyes to the direction I nodded in and smiled.
"Yes," she confimed, still smiling. "He's called Flux." She looked over at Jenna who was still staring at the break dancers downstairs in disbelief. "We start working for him tomorrow Jenna."
That got Jenna's attention, she span around quickly, leaving the freaky Krogan dancers to do there thing. I didn't think she liked the idea of being put straight to work, she seemed furious!
"What do you mean? Tomorrow? We are supposed to start work next week! I thought we were booked to go on tour guides and get to walk around the Destiny Ascension?" Jenna barked out at Rita, I was right, she was furious!
Rita started to explain why the sudden change of plan and that Flux had requested they start early. I was going to jump in to the argument, most likely take Jenna's side but then I spotted my target walk through the door and straight to the bar.
He looked like a confident man wearing an expensive suit from what appeared to be one of the new fashion labels based on Mars. I was surprised that he didn't have a girl or an Asari swinging on his arm, after all, he was on the payroll of the Systems Alliance. He ordered a drink, an expensive cocktail by the looks of it. It was pink and bubbling, with vapour coming from the surface of the liquid. He lashed it all down the back of his neck in one swallow, then ordered a second and repeated the same exercise he had performed with the first. Then a third. When he got to his fourth drink, he took a sip and turned around to face the window and the depth of space beyond it.
Rita and Jenna were still arguing, and now there were not aware of my presence.
The young Human took several sips more sips from his glass when I decided it was time to unleash phase two of my childish infiltration mission. The program I uploaded earlier had already embedded itself into the Citadel computers. Now I wanted the program expose itself to C-Sec by imprinting the target's omni tool when he next purchased a drink. C-Sec would think it was actually he who had initially hacked the Citadel computers at the port, and was doing it again at the bar. All I needed now was for the fool to use his omni tool again to buy another drink.
"Screw you Rita! You always think about yourself and have no care about what I think, you do this every time!" Jenna protested. The sisters where still arguing and neither of them where prepared to back down on this. They had completely forgotten about me now, not that that was a bad thing.
The target had just drained his fourth cocktail and turned back to the bar to buy a fifth drink. The Salarian bar man completed his transaction and it was just a matter of time before the C-Sec officers traced the virus back to the target.
"I've heard enough of you!" Jenna shouted standing up. Rita's hands were shaking, she was fuelled on adrenaline.
"Inir?" Jenna said looking down at me. "Would like to join me on the dance floor?"
I looked across at Rita then back up the Jenna, who was waiting for my answer. I just met them so I didn't care who I sided with I just need to buy some time as I waited for C-Sec to come in.
"I erm," I started, acting all nervous and shy.
Then, right on cue, six C-Sec officers came running into the club and headed straight for the target.
"Hey, look down there!" I shouted pointing to the C-Sec Officers looking at both Jenna and Rita hoping to get a reaction out of them that would help them forget about what they were arguing about.
The two lead Officers were Turian and they both ran up to the target and tackled him to the ground before he knew what was going on. There was a bit of a wrestle and the target began screaming and kicking his legs about. Another three Officers, a Human and two Salarians formed a perimeter around the wrestling on the floor. Everyone who was eating, dancing, laughing and enjoying themselves, had now stooped to watch the commotion in front of the bar.
"Did you think we wouldn't find you?" The sixth Officer said walking calmly into the perimeter wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Think you can upload viruses and get away with it?" He was Human, broad shoulders, mid forties maybe, with receding hair line. He dropped his assault rifle to the ground and knelt down besides the target. "Think you can come on to this station and screw around? Do you?" Without warning he hit out at the target hard with a clenched fist. "Not on my watch!" He hit out at him again, striking him in the face, "You hear me?"
One of the Turian officers restraining the target down put an arm on the aggressive Officer's shoulder,
"He's had enough Harken! Lets just take him in!" But Harkin didn't want to listen.
"I'll decide when he's had enough!" he shouted back raising an arm at the Turain who questioned him. The target was still on the floor protesting his innocence, Harkin got up and put a foot on the targets throat putting pressure down blocking him from breathing. "Your in a lot of trouble, I'm going to have pleasure interrogating you boy!"
Both Rita and Jenna, as well as bar population, were looking over at C-Sec Officers with disgust, it was the perfect moment to erase all the data and evidence from the Citadel computers from my Omni-tool and save the target from what looked like being a brutal interrogation.
"This has gone on long enough," I said standing up. "I'm going to put a stop to this right now." I started walking down toward the intimidating group of C-Sec Officers and Jenna grabbed my fore arm trying to stop me.
"Don't do it Inir!" she gasped "They'll arrest you too!
"Someone has to do something." I wanted to smile but instead I put on a nervous brave face as I left her at the top of the stairs and walked over to the Officers guarding Harkin as he continued beating the target up.
"Get back to your drinks Human!" one of the Salarians warned "There is nothing for you here!"
I took a deep breath and took another step forward, this time the Salarian raised his Assault Rifle shouting me to step back.
"I am a citizen of Earth and this act of brutality is illegal!" I proclaimed at the top of my voice.
Harkin stopped strangling the target with his foot and started walking over to me but not before downing the almost full drink the target had just ordered. Some of the drink didn't quite make it into his mouth and splashed his face. He wiped it and was now face to face with me
"You want to be on the floor like this criminal here?" Harkin said spitting in my face as he said 'floor'. It was clear that the drink he just had wasn't the only alcoholic beverage Harkin had today, his breath stunk.
"No matter what he has done," I started "Nobody should be treated with such brutality!" I defended myself well. I was however starting to get a little bit frustrated, all I really wanted to do was twist his neck giving him an instant death but, it wasn't what Harkin deserved.
"I don't know who you think you are," Harkin retorted "But I'm going to arrest you too for being a pain in the arse!"
A seventh C-Sec Officer walked in and grabbed Harkin and took him to one side, the target was still on the floor pinned down by the first two C-Sec Turian Officers. Harkin and the newly arrived Officer were exchanging words and were being quite aggressive with each other too, it was impossible to work out what the disagreement was about but it was over quite quickly. Harkin made some signals to the other five officers and they all walked out. The target was still on the floor cradled up moaning and groaning, the seventh officer Harkin had been conversing with shook his head in disgust and walked out.
"Mistaken identity Mr Bell," Harkin said picking the target up. "Im really sorry about all that sir," Harkin was being sarcastic. "It appears our computers had mistaken you for another terrorist criminal. Five thousand credits have been wired to your account as compensation!" Harkin was being sarcastic. "You might want to get that eye seeing to!" he pointed out laughing. Harking made eye contact with me as he walked passed, "I'll be watching you Earthling!"
"Let's party!" I heard one of the breakdancing Krogan growl. I turned to look around and the majority of the the bars occupants were already back to normal, enjoying themselves, I could just make out Jenna and Rita in the corner of my eye coming down the stairs to meet me.
"I don't know who you are, but thank you for trying to rescue me". Mr Bell said shaking my hand. "Not a lot of people would have done what you just did," Jenna and Rita were with us now and they were complementing me on my actions. "Let me buy you and your associates a drink".
We'd been drinking at the bar for a few hours getting to know each other. I was sure that he was more interested in the girls company more than my own. I was grateful that I had met them, it made the next part of my mission easier. Technically my mission should have ended when I came in to contact with Mr Bell, but I decided that was too easy and not challenging enough. The Human Systems Alliance wanted him arrested and returned to answer for his crimes.
After getting to know him a little better, I want to know more, why did he run from the Alliance? Why did he steal the military secrets and did he have a buyer? These things I wanted to know before I handed him back to the Alliance.
"Hey Inir," Mr Bell said starting a new subject of conversation. "You build vehicles right? Space vehicles?" I must admit, arresting Mr Bell would have been a whole lot easier, I had told him three times already that I was on the Citadel trying to expand my business throughout the council space. Jenna could see that I wad growing tired of giving the same answer, or maybe she was tired to hear the same question?
"He's already told you that!" she giggled, "Your starting to get boring now! Let's talk about something else!" She crained her neck closer to the table we were sat on and motioned us to do the same, she wanted to tell us something that only we would hear. "You guys ever tried snorting red sand?"
"Oh Jenna!" Rita sighed. "Its time to leave those old habits alone!"
"Thanks Jenna," I chuckled. The girl was clearly drunk. "I want to start looking for business opportunities in the morning. I don't think Red Sand will help, I'll need a clear head when I wake up."
"Look, I know I keep asking but I had to know if I could trust you guys!" Bell suddenly blurted out.
"Do you mean that you want to do a line?" Jenna asked genuinely.
"A line?" Bell asked "No, I don't want a line, I want to share something with you." He was looking straight at me as he spoke.
I was sure that he was going to reveal to me what his real intentions on the station were.
"Imagine you building and selling ships to customers that were fitted with parts that no order ship in the galaxy had." Bell began. "You came to the Citadel looking to expand your business in Citadel space." He took a sip of his drink and made a quick glance around the bar to see if he could spot anyone spying on him. "I could make you wealthy here in council space and could turn you into a king in the Terminus Systems!"
The three of us listened with intent as Bell continued his proposal. Although it was just for me and my made up business, Bell was directing his sales pitch at Jenna and Rita too. Jenna was stirring the ice cubes left in her empty glass with her straw.
"So how will you make us all rich and make us live like Kings and Queens?" she asked looking at me for a response. I looked at her surprised for a second. What did she mean "us"? I don't recall her being part of my made up company. "Well your going to need some help here on the Citadel," she continued answering the question written on my surprised face. "You'll need an office, an assistant, a financial adviser and me and Rita are looking for work! It's perfect!"
I couldn't argue with her, if I really was a business man called Inir and I wanted to expand into Citadel Space I would gladly take her up on her offer. Maybe things could happen between us too? Who knew? She was a fascinating woman and I had grown attracted to her.
But my name wasn't Inir, I wasn't looking to expand my business into Citadel Space, it was all a cover up. I had to keep telling myself that this was all just a job. As soon as this mission was over, Bell would be court marshalled and end up in a penitentiary, the chances that i'd meet these two gorgeous women again was slim to none and I would return to my passion, killing the four eyed scum, the Batarians!
"Imagine a weapon that never over heated." Bell started explaining. "Think about all our brave men and women, the heroes of the Alliance on a random planet fighting the good fight and they have to wait for their gun to cool down before they can return fire!" Bell was getting excited as his revelation of the military secrets he stole began seeping out.
"Using the same technology, and your ship building expertise Inir," he looked straight at me to make sure he had my attention. "We can build ships that can fly anywhere in the galaxy," he paused again take another sip of his drink. "Undetectable to any sensor in operation today! I call it, heat sink technology!"
"If you can do all this," Rita piped in. "Why haven't you done it already? Why do you need Inir's help?" I could tell Rita didn't believe anything Bell was telling her, she remained skeptical. Bell nodded his head in understanding.
"I was betrayed by my original associates, they wanted to share my life's work with a Turian organisation without telling me." His face dropped with utter disappointment as he revealed details of his past.
So if what he was saying was true, the Alliance were building stealth ships of some kind for the Turians? It was hard to believe but that wasn't my concern. I needed to know if he had a potential buyer here on the station. I needed to find out if any body else knew of the Alliance Military's secrets in advanced technologies.
"The son' of bitches!" I offered trying to coax more out of the man. He was looking hard into his glass, the dark blue liquor chilled with a party of ice cubes. Bell seemed to be slipping away into his own thoughts. I put my arm on his shoulder sympathetically, hoping to cheer him up and wake him his day dream.
"I hate cooperations and all the political crap that comes with it!" I said to him, trying to drill a point through and then reassure him. "I suppose, that's why I'm here on the Citadel, to get away from Earth, the Alliance and the shit storm they are always brewing. I'm glad though," I continued. "I'm glad I've had the opportunity to meet a potential partner with advance technology!"
"I'm glad I met you too Inir." Bell replied.
"Aww!" Jenna piped in. "Look at these two, male bonding!" Rita started laughing, while Jenna continued teasing us.
Fantastic and beautiful women that they were, they really didn't know when was the right time to shut up! Bell gave Jenna a look that shut her up immediately, then turned his attention back to me. He folded his arms on the table and glanced around the room again.
"Hope you understand, but I don't want to share my whole technical line up with you. I learnt a valuable lesson from last experience, so I'm meeting a potential buyer's rep for the offensive part of the technology, the over heating weapons. I'll happily work with you designing stealth space craft."
I took a sip of my drink, it was the same dangerous concoction that Bell had been drinking. I had to think about how I wanted to play my next move. He had confirmed that he had an interested buyer in the technology, some how, I had to be there in that meeting with the buyer's representative.
"So this partnership of ours, how much do you want?" I asked him, putting my glass back on the table. I didn't think Mr Bell was expecting me to be so blunt and straight up. He sat back in his chair as he realised that I was very interested in making a deal with him. He leaned back into the table to join the group again.
"I want seventy five percent of your annual sales in shared technologies." Bell stated leaning back again in his chair, pleased that he had set a high bench mark. I nodded simply to him, licked my lips and emptied the last remnants of the blue liquor down my throat, slamming my glass hard on the table. The noise it made shook both Jenna and Rita, the smug look on Bell's face suddenly vanished.
"Mr Bell," I started. "I will offer you ninety percent of the sales in shared technologies as I am certain that my sales on current vehicles are enough to sustain me. Plus with my expansion out side the Sol system, I have calculated that I will be making a substantial profit." I could see the greed filter into Bells eyes just I hoped it would.
"However," I continued. "My offer is only valid if I get the weapons contract too, both exclusive. So you would take the ninth percent share on both technologies." I started rolling the glass around in my hands waiting for his response. Bell started scratching his face lightly, thinking about my crazy proposal.
"The representatives have already paid a massive deposit to guarantee the contract," he sighed. "Im meeting them in the morning in one of the wards somewhere. The deals already in progress Inir, I'm sorry."
I wasn't giving up that easily, I could tell that Bell wanted to do business with me. Why wouldn't he? I was offering a large payout every year, I didn't know what he agreed with the other buyers but I could see in his eyes that my offer was the more financially rewarding one. I still needed to know who the buyers were and find out what exactly they knew about the Heat Sink technology. I leaned further forward in my chair.
"I'll tell you what, let's go down there tomorrow morning, we'll give your other buyer double their money back and I'll throw in a JV5 speeder too and apologise for wasting their time." I didn't know if a JV5 speeder even existed, I just made it up to sweeten the deal. Either way, I was going to that meeting tomorrow, either as a business partner of Bell's, or I'd follow him, track him, and eliminate every one he met with.
I didn't really care how this job got done.
"Yes!" Bell said suddenly "That might work, let's do that!" he stood up to shake my hand sealing our new agreement. I mimicked him and shook his hand.
"Its a pleasure doing business with you Mr Bell!" I said smiling happily in the knowledge that I could wrap this mission up by the morning.
"Okay!" Jenna shouted out. "Enough business talk already. Let's enjoy the rest of the night!" her sister a Rita was already heading to the bar to get another round of drinks in.
I relaxed a lot more now that I could see the end in sight and started to enjoy myself as more drinks were ordered by Jenna.
The bar we were in, Flux, turned out to be a very good place to be in. We spent all the evening in there, drinking, eating and dancing. I even spent a lot of the Alliance's credits on the gambling stations called quazar's. Strange games at first but highly addictive. I didn't win anything back. I could see Bell was happy being around the three of us, we must' ve turn into his new close circle of friends, his new family. We all said our goodnights and farewells for the night and went to our separate apartments.
Jenna stayed with me that night.
It was early morning when the chronograph woke me up. It was a good job I set the alarm on it before I started drinking heavily, but now I felt terrible. I was suffering from a hang over and I had a woman in my bed without a clear understanding of how she got there. It took me a moment to remember that I had brought Jenna back to my apartment after the party last night. That might not have been a good idea, but these things are sometimes unavoidable. I was due to meet Bell in 30 minutes in the court yard of his apartment, It wasn't far away so I shouldn't be late, but how I felt would be the deciding factor of how punctual I would be in meeting Bell.
I got out of the sonic shower surprised to see Jenna awake, having breakfast and looking more conscious than I felt I did.
"Good morning Inir." Jenna chimed. She definitely was more awake than I was. "Here have some breakfast while I get in the shower. I left some Videlicet for you, so take a small dose of that then we'll be ready for the meeting!" As she strolled into the bathroom, I was left feeling a little confused. How was she up, wide and awake as though we hadn't partied? What did she mean 'we'll be ready for the meeting'? Surely she didn't think she was coming with Bell and me? Finally, what the hell was Videlicet?
"Jenna?" I tried to shout out to her, but my shout was a whimper, I was tired. She heard me though and replied with a 'yes hun?'
"What the hell is Videlicet?" I asked while I munched down on what I guess was breakfast, whatever it was, it was tasty.
"Its a stimulant Inir," Jenna shouted. "It will wake you up, sort out your hang over, clear your head and stay focused!" She came out of the bathroom all dressed and ready to go. So she did think she was coming to the meeting with Bell and me. Actually, I wasn't in the mood to argue and disagree with her, I was sure she would come up with some reason why it was important for her to be there, and with that in mind, we set off to meet Bell.
Bell hadn't really spoken much when we met up in the court yard, he didn't seem hung over but more nervous about our meeting with these buyers. We'd been flying around in our hover car thing for about 20 minutes, Bell was sat in the pilot's seat with me in the passenger seat, Jenna was sat in the back seat and still, we hadn't spoken much to each other. Tension was rising in car and it was making me feel uncomfortable, it must have made Jenna feel uncomfortable too.
"I'm nervous about this meeting," she started saying, trying to start a conversation. "Just think after this meeting we will all be business partners! I just hope your buyers accept Inir's generous proposal!"
"Yeah that's what's bothering me!" Bell grunted. We must have been close to our meeting point as we descended from the busy sky lane traffic. We were still carrying a decent amount of speed and Bell was gliding the craft between the skyscrapers very well. "These buyers have a formidable reputation," Bell continued. He must have taken that stimulant drug too as he was able to concentrate on his high speed manoveurs and talk to us at the same time. I know for a fact he had drunken a lot more than me too. "I wouldn't been dealing with these guys knowing who they are, but they pay really well."
Within moments we had landed our craft in a district that was very neglected. As soon as we stepped out the vehicle our senses were filled the revolting smells of sewage and bio waste. Children were running around, hardly dressed, playing in humps of wastes left on the pavements.
There was no trees here, no waterfalls or the glitz and glamour of the Presidium and the Market Wards I had seen yesterday. The buildings looked run down, untreated, unloved, neglected.
"Oh no! Look up there!" Jenna said pointing at a skyscraper. I followed her gaze up the many storeys of the building to see a burnt out E3M hover car was sticking out of the building. It must have been about 20 floors up from the ground, any moment it was going to come crashing down smashing into dust here in front of us. The horrific thing was that we could just make out some Salarian children playing in the vehicle, jumping up and down without a care in the world.
"What happened here?" I said still gazing up at the children having fun. I wasn't really directing my question at anyone, I was more thinking out aloud. I was in shock, The Citadel was the capital of galactic civilisation but yet down here in one of the ward arms, poverty still remained and it seemed as though the powers that be, didn't really want to associate itself with the community here.
"I heard the guys that used to live here kicked up a fuss about something the Citadel Council had done or something it hadn't done." Bell was explaining the situation answering my question. He started walking down one of the narrow alleyways as he spoke, making sure we followed him. I could feel the situation becoming more and more threatening. Why would a possible business associate have a meeting here in the derelict waste lands of the wards and not in the posh and glamourous Presidium?
"There was a big riot here between them and C-sec," Bell continued. "I hear it lasted for weeks! Very messy, bloody. Everything got torched!"
He lead us into a room, from the looks of it, it used to be a club of some type. There was bar, what I think was a stage with a pole, probably for the exotic dancers and some chairs and tables.
"Lets wait here for them." Bell said nervously. His voice was trembling as he spoke and he sat down, smiling trying to make us feel comfortable. "Don't worry!" he laughed.
I didn't like it. I didn't like where we were on the Citadel and that we were now sat in a dark abandoned room waiting for business partners. I wanted to trust Bell, that he knew what he was doing but at the same time my military instincts kicked in.
"Well," I sighed nervously. "While we wait, I may as well pull up my sales pitch and contract we talked about last night." I lied while operating my Omni Tool. I performed a quick sensor sweep of the surrounding area and picked up five life forms heading towards us, they were wearing armor and carrying weapons. I couldn't perform a detailed scan to find out what the lifeforms were without blowing my cover, so instead I activated my personal shields. To cover up for split second visual effect of the shields surrounding my body, I programmed the Omni Tool to give of a spark so that Bell and Jenna wouldn't notice. They noticed the spark though and that gave Jenna a fright.
"Dam omni tool!" I cursed. "I need a new one, this one is going to electrocute me one day!"
"Inir!" Jenna sighed. "You scared me!"
"Theres no need to be frightened here, woman!" a foreign voice said. We all looked toward the entrance to see the four life forms come inside to meet us. They were all wearing identical emblems on their armor and it wasn't anything I recognised. They had their helmets on too so it was impossible to see who or what they were, however the last of the four was a Salarian. That much was obvious due to the unique shape of the chest plate on the armor and his strange shaped helmet to fit the Salarian's equally strange shaped head.
Bell stood up to greet them with open arms.
"Gentlemen," he said going to shake there hands. "I thought you weren't going to show?"
"And miss gaining our hands on this advanced technology?" the first armored man said. "Never!" he bellowed. "With this, we will become the strongest power in the galaxy! Everyone will fear us!"
The rest of the people he was with cheered as he finished his speech. Bell looked over at me, he shrugged his shoulders as he was powerless to do anything, powerless to tell them no. So I stuck my hand up and coughed loudly to interrupt their plans to take over the galaxy.
"Actually," I said clasping my hands together. "That won't be possible anymore. We three have gone into partnership. I offered him a deal he simply couldn't refuse and in doing so Mr Bell won't be working with you anymore." Bell stood up to interrupt me.
"But if you want to out bid Inir," he said nervously. He was almost close to tears. I could now tell that Bell wasn't the confrontational type of person. He was a greedy and opportunistic little bitch and that greed led him down here into the slums of the Citadel wards. "I would be happy to renegotiate the terms of our agreement?" he added an equally nervous laugh that was followed by silence then an uproar of laughter that startled Jenna again. She moved closer to me for comfort and whispered in my ear.
"We shouldn't have come here Inir," her voice was also trembling in fear. "Lets leave Bell and get out of here."
The first armored person stopped laughing and began unfastening the bolts and locks to his helmet.
"You fool!" he shouted at us. "What makes you think I was going to buy technology from you anyway Human? Huh?" the others behind him carried on laughing.
"Once you give me the advanced technology, I will kill you!" he said pointing at Bell. He glanced over at me for a moment the focused his attention on Jenna. "And you!" He swang his hand over to point to Jenna. "I won't kill you woman. You will be my recreational toy that I will use." The three behind him were getting excited by his last announcement. "Im going to share you with all my friends!" He turned around to face his friends, the three behind him, and they all slapped him on the chest and shoulders applauding his comments. "Then finally, there's you." He turned his attention to me. "I'll use you for target practice. Blow off a few limbs then sell you to some slaver mates of mine. Ha ha ha ha ha!" He turned again to face his comrades while removing his helmet.
"I will kill myself before you lay a finger on me you disgusting savage!" Jenna screamed. Both Bell and me knew Jenna well enough now that she didn't know when to be quiet! Bell was quick to put his hand around her mouth to stop her screaming even more insults.
Suddenly, my emotions took over me, I was filled with destructive tendencies, darkness, anger and hatred. I was brought back to the images of Commander Keyes on that moon, turned into some type of mechanical zombie. Nothing else mattered, I had an overwhelming urge to kill.
"Baby are you okay?" Jenna asked me prying herself free from Bells hands. He was now in tears fearing death. Jenna was angry and up for a fight, I could see that in her eyes. "Baby?"
I could hear her talking but I turned my attention back to the armed men. The one who had taken his helmet off hadn't fully turned around to face us yet, but he didn't need to for me to recognise which species he was. Those boney ridges protruding from his hard browny greyish skin and those fucking four eyes! Two eyes above each other. They were Batarian. Scum here on the Citadel, and they had to die without question.
I had no weapon but I had to act fast before they killed Bell. Again, I could see an image of Commander Keyes' mangled body on the surface of that moon, flash before me. I tried to shake the image from head and stay focus.
My omni tool was beyond state of the art so it was possible to shock all four of them by inflicting temporary damage to each of their nervous system. It would need time to set up so I needed a distraction.
"Guys!" I said smiling. "Look I know our two people haven't quite got along properly but that don't mean we have to continue our bickering does it?" I opened up my omni tool and walked toward them to show them schematics of space craft I supposedly built. "Look I have plenty more schematics of war craft's that I could share with you." The other two Batarians and the Salarian had each taken their helmets off and were now googling over the drawings whistle unbeknown to them, my omni tool was actually preparing the neural shock.
"Maybe there is use for you yet human!" The lead Batarian said smiling through those pin pointed dirty browny yellow teeth. "We have a moon base of operations and a factory were you can build our ships!" His three companions growled in agreement like the dogs they were. "Stealth technology and powerful ships at our disposal, ahhh..." the Batarian squealed in pain holding the temples on either side of his head as he fell to the ground, the goons followed him to the ground like synchronised swimmers. My omni tool had successfully carried out the neural shock on them.
Without hesitation, I prised the the lead Batarians assault rifle from his unconscious grip. It felt good to hold a weapon again after so long. I sighed a sigh of relief, of appreciation and smiled a small smile to myself. Then I aimed the rifle at the three Batarians on the ground and opened fire on their heads. The force of the ballistics smashed their skulls to pieces just as the Salarian woke up from the neural shock. I jumped on top of him unsleeving a knife he had holstered to his leg and held it against the reptile's jugular.
"No! Please, human," the Salarian pleaded planting for breath. "I just work for them! It's just a job! C'mon!" I had straddled him so he couldn't move his arms to reach for his side pistol but I could feel him trying to wriggle free. So I head butted him.
"Dont get cute Salarian." I warned him. "Were going to play a game." I said slicing the air with the knife.
"Inir!" Bell shouted in protest. "Im not sure how you did it, but you killed the competition. We can do business without worrying about any reprisals! Let's get out of here now!" he started making his way out of the derelict club. Even though they were dead, I was still angry with the Batarians. I was even more angry that Bell wanted to do Business with those scum bags knowing they were Batarians. He must have known that the Batarians would use the advanced technology against human colonies out in the traverse. It's a shame that my mission parameters stated that they wanted him alive. "What are you doing? C'mon let's go!" Bell was getting agitated. More importantly he was pissing me off!
"If you don't shut the the fuck up, you'll be joining the dead on the floor!" I said as cooly and calmly as I could be. I was staring up at him waiting for him to start screaming. "Your pissing me off! Stay there!" Bell obediently nodded his head.
I looked over at Jenna to see what her reactions were to the fiasco going on around her, she was still sat calmly on the table, but she was smiling down at me. I turned back to concentrate on the trembling Salarian lying underneath me.
"I don't know anything Human!" he squealed. "Listen to your friend and get out of here before the rest of my group come looking for me and my friends!" I was waving a knife around in his face and he was still brave enough to threaten me? I need drastic action if I was going to get anything from this reptile.
Salarians had two short antennae type things protruding from their heads, I decided that this one didn't need two to live.
So I sliced one of them off.
He starting screaming wildly, trying to wriggle his way free from underneath me using what I'm sure was pure adrenaline. I felt him breaking free from my grip so I punched him repeatedly in face, synchronised with each symbol as I spoke to him.
"Stop talk-ing shit! Stop lie-ing to me!" I kneed him hard where I thought his kidneys should be. He growled in pain confirming I'd hurt him. "Where is your pirate base Salarian? Where is the weapons factory?" I shouted banging his head into the hard metal floor.
"I can't tell you that Human, they will kill me!" he screamed. The Salarian was in plenty of agony, but he was still resisting in telling me what I need to know.
"Look Salarian." I said sympathetically. "I need something, and you need something." I started bargaining with him. "You need the pain to stop, I need the location of your base. Give me what I need and I will end your suffering. Deal?"
The Salarian considered my word carefully while his sliced antennae violently spat out his green blood. Tears started forming in his eyes, and his lips were trembling as he tried to signal me closer to him to reveal the secret location of the base.
"Fu Fu fuck you! Human!" he managed to stutter out before spitting in my face with all the saliva he had built up in his mouth. "Go find it yourself!"
I wiped my face clean from the Salarians saliva, then lost control. I was trying to be nice by asking him and trying to get him to cooperate, but instead I got spat on full in the face. Without a moments hesitation I slashed his throat wide open with the knife. More of the dying Salarians green blood sprayed out from his throat as he gargled to death. Silly bastard should have taken my offer!
"Who the hell are you?" Bell shouted freaking out, I almost forgot that they were in the room with me. "Why do you need to know where their base is? They were just pirates!"
I picked myself up from the very dead Salarian and looked over at the three Batarian corpses next to him, I smirked with satisfaction that I was able to do what I did best, kill Batarians. I looked over at Bell and aimed the rifle at him, it freaked him out and he starting screaming, covering his face and raising his knee in a vague attempt to shield himself.
"Mr Bell," I said calmly, still smirking. "You are under arrest for attempting to sell confidential Systems Alliance data to known enemy sources." At last, I was able to reveal my cover and stop playing this business man crap. "It would be in your interest sir if you surrendered yourself into the custody of the Alliance Marines. If not, I will have no choice but to bring you before an Alliance tribunal in by any means necessary. Do you understand?" I was still looking at him through the scope on the rifle, which was still aimed at his head.
Within my peripheral vision I could see Jenna getting up from the table she was sat at.
"Jenna please remain seated for your own safety." I warned and she sank back down into her chair.
"Come on Inir," Bell pleaded. "I was just trying to make a quick buck on the side! Surely you can understand that? We can can still do it!" He offered his hand out wanting me to shake it. "What do you say, partner? Let's forget this and make some money!"
"You knew you were selling to the Batarians, the main enemy for the Alliance and that didn't stop you. The Alliance will decide your fate Bell, not me." I had had enough of playing business friend to this traitor. I keyed in a few commands on my omni tool to signal the an Alliance squad to my location with a brief of my mission. It was only a matter of time before they arrived to arrest the traitor.
"What are you going to do with me Inir?" I wasn't sure if that was fear I could detect in Jenna's voice or one of genuine concern. I wasn't a big headed ladies man, I was an Alliance Marine, a deadly killer, but I knew Jenna had grown fond of me. I must admit, I did like her too, I knew that when I met her yesterday at the docking gates. I had to be honest with her now, that was the very least I could do.
"Maybe we should discuss this in private," I suggested turning back to look at Bell. "And not in front of the traitor." He was now sat on the floor sulking, holding his head in his hands.
"I'm not the traitor!" Bell screamed out. He startled me with his sudden outburst. His eyes were filled with tears. "Your the traitor Inir! It's you! Your a traitor to me! Your supposed to be my business partner Inir! I trusted you!"
Just as Bell was having his tantrum, three human men charged into the room, all three of them where wearing stylish designer suits, a quick observation told me the suits and my suit were designed by the same fashion guru on Arcturrus Station. They were Alliance Security. A little discomforting was the fact they had trained their assault rifles at me, I suppose from their point of view they had no choice as I was holding a weapon with four dead bodies on the floor.
"N7 marine," one of the stylish suit wearing men stated looking at all three of us. " Code in please!"
That basically meant they wanted to identify who was friendly and who the traitor was that they came to arrest. Bell was, or used to be part of the Alliance too, so he knew the 'code in' process.
"MBE erm, N7, erm dash 4781?" Bell rambled out in a vain attempt to save himself. The security guys knew exactly who he was, or more who he wasn't and they pounced on him, wrestling his face into the neglected floor.
"No!" Bell was crying, kicking and screaming. "I didn't do anything! Please! No!" The security guys had him cuffed and were picking him up from the ground. He was looking at me crying without any shame. "Inir?" he pleaded. "Tell them I never did anything! Inir please!"
Two of the security men carried him out as the third man saluted.
"Be safe lieutenant! We will make sure C-Sec never hear of this and will take care of the bodies." He turned to the door before turning back to warn me. "I recommend you both leave this district as soon as possible. The majority of the Batarians on the Citadel hate humans. Riots break out every day sir with buildings getting damaged."
"Why are they rioting?" Jenna had stood up next to me with her hand resting on my shoulder.
"Were kicking their arse in the traverse ma'am and they don't like it. If you'll excuse me." the security man saluted again then disappeared out of the building.
"So my boy friend is an Alliance spy?" Jenna had a big grin on her face. "You really are my knight in shining armor aren't you Inir?"
I thought about this seriously before answering her. I thought about a future with her in it. Me settling down here on the Citadel, or anywhere, moving from colony to colony like my parents had done. I would be happy, I think I would be happy, only time would tell.
I already was involved and committed to the Alliance however and I wasn't sure if there was room for Jenna in my life. In fact I knew there wasn't space for her in my life. As long as the Systems Alliance had enemies, humanity was at war, and I would still have a job to do.
"I can't be who you want me to be Jenna." The words flowing from my mouth in an emotionless monotone voice. "I'm sorry, but this is for the best."
I looked down at the dead Batarians and Salarian slumped on top of each other. It was quite a fight I had to over power them and for a civilian, Jenna handled herself well instead of panicking running around frantically. She could be useful to the local law enforcement here on the Citadel, she certainly had a strong demeanour about herself.
I leaned down next to the Salarian corpse and waved my omni-tool over his torso hoping to scan for the computer in his hard suit. It beeped once to confirm it had located the computer and it immediately started hacking it's firewalls to download all the data it had stored. Hopefully it would reveal the location of the pirates base and the war factory.
Moments later it beeped again to confirm all data had been downloaded and the hard suit computer had been purged, it had completed the task a lot faster than I thought it would, but then again, it wasn't an ordinary omni-tool. I wasn't sure where the late Commander Keyes got this apparatus from or who even manufactured it but it was the best kit I had used.
"I knew it was too good to be true." she smiled shyly as she spoke. "I knew there was something different about you when I first noticed you on the shuttle."
My onmi-tool beeped again, it had collated known Alliance military intel and the data from the hard suit and found the location a major pirate community some where in the Terminus Systems. Jenna was still talking about when we first met, I could hear her, her voice was very distant as I concentrated on the information the omni-tool had found.
"Jenna, I'm sorry, but I have to go." I rudely interrupted her emotional speech. I knew it was rude but I had an opportunity to destroy a large pirate camp and I wasn't going to waste the chance. Jenna was a beautiful woman, but she was also a civilian, I don't think she would understand the life of a military person, especially an N7 marine such as myself. Walking outside, I left her in the room with the dead bodies, to see the Alliance Security force still outside. I assumed they were waiting for me to finish talking with Jenna so they could remove the bodies.
"I'm done." I declared walking toward them. "Make sure the civilian is safe and she is protected for the near future until the mission is finished." They had a few of those X3M taxi things dotted around the area and I used one to take me the closet docking port.
Once I was there I used my omni-tool to break into one of the ships, I was particularly keen on finding a Batarian model, it would help me on the next part of my mission. Once I received flight clearance from the traffic controllers of the Citadel Station and had made the first mass relay jump, I connected to the closet comm buoy and uploaded my mission report to Alliance Command.
Five minutes had barely passed when I received an incoming call.
"Excellent work on bringing in the traitor lieutenant." he praised by way of introduction. He looked familiar, and I remembered him being at the graduation ceremony.
It was Major Kyle. I snapped off a quick salute.
"Thank you Major." I offered as a reply. "I'm heading toward the pirate base now and will attempt to infiltrate their operations."
"Do what you can lieutenant, do as much damage as you can. I will mobilise my battalion and we shall crush the bastards! How much much time do you need Gogova?"
It felt good to hear someone call me by my real name and not that stupid name I had to use as my cover. My thoughts suddenly went back to Jenna and the last image of her stood in the abandoned disused club. Guilt started to work its way into my head. I could have tried to make something work with her I suppose. I should write her a message, at least, to ease my guilty conscious.
"Well lieutenant? How much time?" the major was getting annoyed. A quick infiltration of a large base could probably take four hours, but I wanted to learn a much as I could about the pirates.
"I will need ten days to learn as much as possible about the enemy sir."
Major Kyle' eyes widened at my estimate, I could tell he wasn't expecting ten days as my answer.
"You have five days lieutenant!" the major's face vanished from the screen as he ended the call. I couldn't be bothered to stress about the length of time the Alliance brass had given me to complete my infiltration mission.
All I wanted to do now was relax and sleep, I'd need it for the next mission. I set the ships destination to a moon called Torfan, then headed to the back of the ship to rest in the single cabin.