The Citadel, a melting pot for the diverse and exotic species from the slimly explored galaxy and bursting with merchants, academics and soldiers from Thessia to Tuchanka.
As of two weeks ago C-Sec Detectives Gadon and Agoriun had been in part responsible for maintaining the peace there until the latter's retirement. With the perfect memory afforded to all drell he remembered well the sweet scent of traditional turian sweet-cakes and the recorded sound of his favourite band ringing in his ear-nubs, not his type of music but an oddity he could afford.
The party had been one of celebration and in the traditional turian way, personal commendations were put into his old unit's chronicles, he passed on his side arm to his eldest child and other such things, rigid and formal, so like the rest of their traditions.
Despite his years working with and sometimes against turians he had never felt more out of place in his life.
Ever since he had joined C-Sec fresh from the academy the already experienced Agoriun had been his mentor, and after the death of his father somewhat more of a parental figure, though they never spoke of it but it was quite clear they both knew it.
He would miss long stakeouts and having him for cover fire. Though at the same time he knew well that Agoriun was happy with his little apartment on the Kithoi Wards with his wife and children.
Today however was the day Gadon received his knew partner. Awaiting the moment he sat at his sparse desk in the Zakera ward, with memory such as his photos and mementos were largely a waste of resources and he had similarly little use of notes unlike those that dotted his co-workers' desks. Aside from the single cup of Thessian tea that sat steaming on his desk it was almost plain as if it had only just been inhabited.
Theirs was a quiet work place, away from the main customs desk staffed by Commander Bailey their haggard leader. Theirs was a place of contrast, often quiet and calm yet with an atmosphere of adrenaline due to the constant struggle to maintain a grip on the wards. Numerous posters hung on the wall and various bits of stationary were stored tidily in the spotless room granting the illusion of a perfectly average office.
Sat across from him at their paired desks were Detectives Sadria and Feltrianus both from the Asari Commandos and proud of it by the medals on their desks, none the less he was quite an able mach in deduction if not combat.
Scratching at the striped scales of his stone blue skin he watched patiently at the small chronometer in the corner of his display. It was nine thirty five and he was told to expect Agoriun's 'replacement' at nine twenty.
As a punctual being he found such lateness rather annoying especially in others, a trait often mistaken for impatience. He waited a few more minutes as he typed up 'paperwork.' He was anxious to be on the streets though, last night he had gotten his newest assignment, investigating a murder on the docks.
And then the hatch retreated into the walls and ceiling presenting a pair of humans. It was strange to think that he perfectly remembered the day he was walking out of the Kithoi Institute from a lecture to see large displays reporting the rather fleeting conquest of Shanxi, and then to think that in a mere thirty years the hairless primates had gotten spectres and council members in Shepard and Udina respectively whereas his people were still just clients and refugees to an under appreciated race themselves.
He had read her file, a biotic from the Edinburgh Special Weapons and Tactics division and pushed through by Admiral Anderson, born lucky it would seem. All across the alliance military and law enforcement officials were prepared to lure in biotics with various pay benefits and the same happened in many citadel races. It irked him to no end that just because they had starship fuel in their brains they got fast tracked and promoted whilst the baseliners of the galaxy were passed over.
"Detective Gadon, meet your new partner." Bailey said in his grizzled and gravelly voice that reminded him a tad of his mother's, not that he was keen to say. "This is Detective Addison Sandoval, from the lower Bachjret precinct." He said as he walked in slowly and with confidence, as he did most things.
He stood and crossed the room to the humans with barely the noise of his synth-leather boots to give him away, barely audible in the silent room.
"Hi Gadon." she said in a strange accent he recognised from his time on one of the human colonies as Scottish. "You can call me Addie." she said politely as she stuck out a hand.
He remembered fondly his time on a human colony, following his parents' footsteps as a private security contractor before returning home to the citadel some eighteen years ago. The work had been well paying, with an experience of alien life and a compatible biology to humans he and many drell were naturally one of the better candidates for long term security. More than that they were quite culturally compatible, compared to the sterile and cultureless corporate cosmopolitan of the citadel he found the rich and diverse traditions of the various human nations as rather refreshing.
Gadon returned the gesture, his rough scales grating against her soft tan skin, vastly more malleable than the hard, plated scales, though he kept it short remembering the hallucinogenic reaction certain species experienced from prolonged contact.
"Hello Addie, pleased to meet you." He responded as politely as etiquette dictated and not a modicum more. He neglected to state his rather embarrassing first-name.
"Gadon will be getting you acquainted with Zakera." Bailey interjected.
"Speaking of we're already late." Gadon stated as he went over to the small, compartmentalised weapons lockers by the door and checked out his side arm, an M-6 Carnifex designed to take down even a charging krogan, as he had before.
Checking his utility belt for his equipment before setting out to the nearby parking bay, shifting through swirling crowds, from wealthy volus to elcor to krogan 'visitors' who cast him suspicious looks, no doubt as a result of his walking out of the C-Sec offices with his badge visible on his belt.
"Is he always like that?" Addison asked to his blue-skinned co-workers, as yet introduced only by the small name-bars on their desks.
"It's been a rough year for him." Sadria said in a soft, pleasant voice that seemed somewhat dissonant of her military prowess.
Following swiftly after him she kept track of his distinctive form, drell were rare and despite the literally colourful crowd of blue and violet asari, the greyish salarians and the dull beiges of turians along with her fellow humans.
None however were his exact shade of dull blue nor were they dressed as distinctively. The Detective's pointed tailcoats were fluttering and flapping against his jackbooted calves in the small breeze he generated from his movement. It was a beautiful coat though, rust red and panelled with silver whilst the interior was lined with intricate curls of Thessian silk.
She quickly hopped the barrier between the deck plated street and onto the parking bays.
He was already sat in the pilots seat of an X4M aero shuttle which exchanged space and passenger seats for a larger engine and a more compact size, perfect for any hot pursuits they might encounter.
She got in via the passenger side door witch swung in after her.
"So, what's Zakera Ward like?" she asked perkily as Gadon tapped diligently at the controls of the shuttle.
"I don't live here, what does that tell you." Gadon replied in deadpan. "But no, most of these are good people and you can go far from here." He added in a more tender intonation of guttural croak of a voice.
"So, what do you expect." She asked as she watched the whipping traffic out of the window.
"This is probably local mob work, they won't risk coming out in force unless they think we're getting too close." He replied.
"Would you mind taking over I need to attend to something he said as he activated the co-pilot's console.
As Addison handled the fairly simple practice of traffic navigation she could see Gadon out of the corner of his vision.
He had yanked off his left boot revealing the synthetic leg beneath, made of black synthetic muscle under a carbon fibre shell. He then proceeded to roll up the leg of his piped trousers which matched his red-brown coat up to his thigh, revealing the scared, stone blue flesh of his leg witch gave way to the permanently implanted bio-cybernetic interface that allowed him to control it. After flicking a few tabs he twisted it at an unnatural angle and then detached it.
He proceeded to scan it with his omni tool in one hand and the limb in the other whilst tutting at the readings. "Just what I thought, I must've forgotten to recalibrate this after I got out the shower." He said more to himself than his new partner.
"Oh, I didn't know you were missing a leg." Addison said as she caught a quick peek between her pilot's duties.
"It was the case before last, my old partner and I were breaking up an animal smuggling operation, a varren snuck up on me." He said with a slightly shaken tone in his voice.
"Isn't the rehab for those things more like a year." She asked in an enquiring tone as she turned back to face the traffic.
"I wasn't about to miss his last case, besides it's just a leg." He responded as he slotted the corrected limb back into place and pulled his boot back on.
"Still it must be hard, I mean always having to remember it." She responded with a note of empathy.
"My father used to say everyone has to face their past." He responded.
For a moment Addison picked up on his accent, more importantly he had one at all, clipped and short even with syllables meant to be stretched, reminding her ever so slightly of the English she had once shared a landmass with before finding work amongst the stars.
"Are you speaking English?" she asked a moment of quaint surprise as she realised what it must mean.
"After I graduated from university I became a private security contractor on one of your colonies, picked up the language." He responded.
"We're at the address." she said a moment later as she pulled them in to land.
In the shadows of turian frigates, human cruisers and freighters from across the known galaxy was a fairly classy restaurant/bar called the Dawn-Star Pinnacle, a quarian run establishment of all things and to the best of his knowledge a perfectly upstanding one.
They parked at a small landing bay at the stalk of the long wide walkway leading up to the bar where an old docking cradle used to sit, though after damage from the geth assault they had sold off a lot of the more damaged areas to help generate funds.
Standing out front was Sergeant Karick, a turian beat officer he'd worked with once or twice before though there were around forty thousand C-sec members across his ward alone leading to significant shuffling, to his flawless count he had been around five hundred and twelve as of today.
"Detectives." He said with a friendly intonation of his flanged voice as he caught sight of them.
"Anything we should know." Gadon asked as he looked around. The scene had been well looked after, the 'do not cross' lines had been set up around the small squat building. A small crowd of regulars and passers by were stood around chatting amongst themselves.
"Not much, the bartender found the body when he opened up, I interviewed him and sent him home." He responded proudly "been busy keeping these guys from contaminating anything since." Karick said as he gestured with his talonned hand to the crowd, made up mostly of turians and quarians though a few humans also dotted the crowd.
"Good man, keep the crowd at bay we'll take it from here." Gadon replied to the taller avian.
A single quarian, oddly tall and distinctly husky compared to his kin forced his way through the crowd with what looked to be a nervous body language showing through his thickened enviro-suit, devoid of the usual robes that usually hung over his species, replaced by a long blue coat that reached down to his birdlike calves.
"Officers I came as soon as I could, what do you need me for." he asked as he looked over their shoulders to see his bar, built from a refurbished docking control centre, seemed unscathed despite the ruckus.
"Well mister…" Gadon gestured for a name.
"Rell'Terrin nar Blotter" He replied politely. Addison wrote down the name whilst Gadon made no such effort confident in his memory.
"We need you to come with us and identify the victim, if you can." Gadon said as he walked through the holographic barriers gesturing for the accumulated party to follow.
As he walked he was busy thinking, quickly the owner had arrived in a luxury sky-car and seemed to have tailored clothing yet the bar couldn't be turning nearly enough profit for that ergo the quarian would have had to own multiple venues. If that was the case then at best Terrin would be able to identify the body but most likely would not have been on premises at the time ruling him out as a witness or a perpetrator.
The door opened with a pneumatic hiss. The scene was still but it told of energy, booths were shredded by gunfire, originating from the victim's position, there was a large amount of it suggesting automatic weapons fire and spread out over a large area, suggesting either an inexperienced shooter or multiple perpetrators.
A few tables were overturned supporting that hypothesis, a few shots had definitely penetrated, the lack of bodies or blood suggested high grade armour or effective clean up, though given that the body was still here that was unlikely.
The body itself was interesting, an asari, matron stage and resting on a table, obviously there had been some sort of struggle. She didn't have any badge, symbol or uniform on her modest and practical office clothing suggesting she was a civilian.
The cause of death was obvious and intriguing. There was a thick bruise on the neck suggesting she had been choked or grabbed at the neck and a Tarsechi-9 combat knife favoured by mercenaries of many species was hilt-deep and gory wound in between her breasts. Based on the blade length and the woman's dimensions he realised the knife had gone all the way in and stuck into the table slightly, piercing her heart, her wind pipe and several major arteries along with her spinal cord, died quickly but most likely quite painfully.
"Keelah." Terrin gasped as he saw the state of the bar, it had been his first venue since leaving the flotilla after years working as a mechanic and though he could rebuild he could never replace, somehow the bar would always be tarnished by such a memory of the poor woman's death.
"Do you recognise her?" Gadon asked simply to the shocked proprietor as he scanned the body for further information.
"Yeah, Nyatta T'Quin she was a regular before I diversified." he responded somewhat wistfully, the mother of two had been a low level journalist at the Galaxy News Network and his first customer, and something of a crush those long years ago that had been just the blink of an eye for her.
"Very well then, thank you for your cooperation we'll be wanting a number and an address before you go." Gadon stated in a professionally detached manner.
"Of course Detectives." He said as he handed them each a small call card with the relevant details.
"Sergeant, send the crowd home and call the morgue." Gadon asked over the auto translating comns chip embedded in his ear fringe.
"Gadon, I ran a search for her, according to her Extra-Book account she quit from the Galaxy News Network."
"Good, once we're done here we'll go talk to her old colleagues."
He went to the blue 'woman' and began searching her, he gently undid her bloodstained jacket and searched the pockets, coming up with nothing more than a used tissue he'd rather he hadn't found until he searched a little deeper into the small pocket.
A piece of paper with "See me in my office" written on it followed by the numbers eight seven nine four and two.
"Well it would seem we're getting orders from beyond the grave." Gadon commented dryly as he let her take a look at it.
"We should also be interviewing her employer whilst the corpse-jockeys look her over." Addison advised as she opened the hatch again.
"Indeed, let's be going then." he said as he pocketed the note.
They made the quick walk past the appreciatively larger crowd, gathered now by the distinctive orange ambulance parked outside.
Though with keen eyes he picked out a small group of asari and turians their dark and practical clothes were plain, almost strangely so and they stood in a slightly too regular formation with stiff and sturdy postures, definitively military or at least paramilitary. He turned a way as they craned their heads towards him.
"Addison." Gadon whispered as nonchalantly as he could muster.
"Yes." she returned in kind.
"We're being watched."