"ETA to the Mass Relay, 15 minutes. Destination: Citadel," An officer aboard the Palaven I spoke out. Nihlus nodded his head in acknowledgement, but his green eyes never left his focus out in space from the window aboard the ship's bridge. Despite his years in the military, he couldn't wait to touch solid ground, even if that meant talking to a bunch of diplomats aboard the Citadel. As much as the Turians wanted to avoid conflict, he was hoping for a little bit of action: Batarian protestors….anything! He spent the past few months on a surveillance mission under his mentor, Saren. He was hoping now as a Spectre, that he would see more battles than he did in the Turian military.
"There's a transmission coming through from the Council. Do you wish to take it, sir?" Another Turian asked out.
Nihlus silently praised the ship's spirit and turned to reply to the officer. Just before he could, Saren spoke out, "Patch it through." Saren was walking up to where Nihlus was standing, his blue eyes looking right at him.
Seconds later, a hologram of the council appeared beside them: A fellow Turian, an Asari and a Salarian. "Saren, Nihlus, we have received a distress transmission from the human colony on Eden Prime. It appears that they are under attack by Krogan," The Salarian said.
"The humans knew the risk when they decide to place colonies in uncharted space." Saren remarked. Just like most Turians still, Saren showed no remorse for the humans after the First Contact War.
"Even so, Saren, with a human ambassador here at the Citadel, we have a duty to assist the humans just like any other species that are represented." The Turian council member spoke up first.
"You need to go to Eden Prime to investigate this. This may be an attack of retaliation by the Krogan for their punishment at the end of the rebellion." The Asari council member added.
Before giving his mentor a chance to argue, because he knew he would, Nihlus replied, "We are on our way, council members."
Saren gave Nihlus a glare, but Nihlus tried not to make eye contact him as he kept his eyes on the council. "Thank you, Nihlus. Give us your report when you are back." The Salarian said and disconnected the transmission.
With no words, Saren turned and walked away from the bridge. Nihlus' gaze followed him. There was hatred between humans and the Turians and now with the humans at the Citadel, it almost made relations worse instead of better. Nihlus, on the other hand, was trying his best to try to keep his mind open, despite his most occurrences with humans who were anti-Turian. "Set course for Eden Prime," Nihlus ordered before he left in the direction that his mentor went.
As the Turian ship made its descent to where the signal came from on Eden Prime, Nihlus and Saren were suiting up. Since the communication with the Council, Saren remained quiet. Finally he broke the silence, "I guess the Krogans didn't learn their lesson the last time." He gave a soft chuckle as he armed his assault rifle.
"Yes and it's up to the Turians once again to take care of the Krogan problem that is plaguing the galaxy." Nihlus added as he reached for his own weapon. He untensed his muscles after hearing Saren, glad that his comrade wasn't going to be mad at him or it would have made the mission difficult.
Moments later, they felt a jolt as the ship momentarily touched down on terra firma, giving them enough time to exit. Then once again the ship lifted off to stay out of any opposition fire that they may encounter. Unlike his time in the military, Nihlus was still getting used to the concept of working with one or alone on his missions as a Spectre; he was used to working in units of 15-20 other Turians.
After their ship disappeared and the sound of its engines died, the area remained silent…..deadly silent. There was no sound of all, no moans of people hurt or the sound of distant gunfire. The Krogan ship was still on the ground about 100 yards away from them. From the style and size of the ship, Nihlus concluded that it had to be a mercenary ship. "Looks like maybe we are dealing with mercs," He motioned to the ship.
"We should split up." Saren said as he looked around, both of them noticed smoke off towards the west. "Nihlus, go in that direction. I'll keep a perimeter around the ship to make sure they don't retreat. Meet back in 30 minutes. I am not staying on this planet very long." Saren muttered the latter.
Nihlus nodded and ran down the dirt path, his eyes keeping on the smoke to get bearings straight, but still keeping his peripheral vision on guard for any ambush attacks. His objective to him was to find any casualties that may be still alive and he knew with his mentor watching the Krogan ship; there was no way the Krogans would be able to sneak off without them knowing. They were going to pay for their attack; there was no doubt about it.
Structures came into his view, a possible encampment. He was getting closer. Suddenly he heard the sound of a young child screaming, like an instinct, he quickened his step.
As he neared the encampment, he heard the grunts of Krogan: One….maybe two. Two was hard enough. The Krogan were no easy adversary. With their thick skin, and body armor, it would take nearly 2-3 magazines to take two down. The assault rifle he was carrying had the capability to hold twice what the normal rifles would hold and he was lucky to have this weapon with him, just for this particular mission.
Up ahead in one of the dwellings, he saw the Krogans inside: there were two of them. Their backs turned, they were sifting through the dwelling, and they had no idea of the attack that was about to be brought onto them. The Turian's body physique made them idle for sneak attacks. They were slender and fast. Nihlus pressed his back against the outside wall of the dwelling as he peered around the corner to see the two Krogan inside the house. He heard the whimpering of the young child inside as well. Clearly the Krogan were aware of the child's presence, but were ignoring it for the time of being; human children were not much threat unlike a Turian child. They were not raised to fight at such a young age.
Taking a deep breath, Nihlus gripped his gun tighter as he started to silently approach the Krogan from behind. He noticed near the entrance, there were 2 slain bodies: one male and one female, probably the child's parents. A quick memory of his own father's death when he was only 16 flashed into his mind, but he suppressed it. He had to stay focus on the mission at hand.
Seeing around the Krogan, he saw the young child, a female, pressed as hard as she could against the wall. She had dark brown hair and deep blue eyes and appeared to be around the age of 5. Tears poured down her face and there were spots of blood on the long white shirt she had on her body. The shirt was long enough to probably be some sort of sleep clothing. In her physical state, she didn't appear to be injured, so Nihlus assumed the blood on her clothing was probably from her parents.
Suddenly the child's blue eyes connected with his own and she gasped. Alerted by this, the Krogan quickly turned around to see Nihlus. Quick to react, Nihlus jumped behind the dwelling's wall again avoiding the barrage of bullets from the Krogans' weapons as they opened fire. Waiting for the barrage to end, Nihlus appeared around the corner and opened fire. His aim was to concentrate on just one Krogan and wound the second. If he didn't focus, he would just wound both of them and the fight would still be unfair. Hearing the slight groan of a Krogan as it fell dead, Nihlus decided not to risk his chance and moved behind the wall again.
"You damn, Turian!!" The other Krogan screamed as he saw his comrade slain beside him. He opened fire once again. Unlike the Turians, the Krogans did have a temper and instead of taking aim, his shooting was becoming sloppy. Nihlus was hoping for this. Pretty soon the Krogan would discharge his weapon and then he would have the advantage.
Hearing the sound of heavy footsteps closing in, Nihlus knew that the Krogan was charging at him. Not wanting to go one on one with the Krogan, Nihlus stepped out and jumped back to keep his distance and opened fire. The Krogan continued to run at him, taking in the shots, soon it too, fell to the ground dead.
Feeling his heartbeat finally slowing down, Nihlus let out a small sigh of relief as he glanced around, then focused his attention back on the girl, who seemed even more scared than she was before. Letting his guard up, he ran up to her. "Are you hurt?" The girl whimpered and cowarded at him for being so close. "Listen, you're safe now. I'm here to help. Are you hurt?" This time, the girl looked up at him and shook her head. "My name's Nihlus, I'm a Spectre. Do you have a name?" He asked, his voice softening. He was hoping to make the girl comfortable in being around him, because at this point, it looked like she may be the only survivor and he needed answers.
"A-Andromeda…" The girl spoke, her voice still trembling.
"Andromeda, how many of these did you see? What happened?" Nihlus asked.
"5….I was outside playing…when their ship arrived. They started to shoot…and mommy and daddy told me to go inside the house…" The girl choked up as she started to cry once again. Her eyes looking across the room at her slain parents.
Nihlus looked over at her parents, then out the house. He knew it wasn't safe to leave her there with 3 more Krogan around. "Listen…I'm taking you with me. We will try to find help for you ok?" Nihlus scooped her up in his arm and walked out of the house. Scanning the area with his eyes, he started to make his way back to the starting point.
"There were 5 Krogan and I killed 3." Saren said to Nihlus as he met up with him at the starting point.
In the back of his mind, Nihlus' conscience was puzzled. He didn't hear any gunfire, but then again Saren was a far better Spectre than himself, he would not question him. "I killed 2 at a dwelling. "
Saren gave an unhappy glance to the child that Nihlus was still holding, but before he could ask him, voices spoke up nearby. The Turians turned their heads to see groups of humans walking around, relieved. They were in hiding all along and must have waited to make sure that the Turians were on their side.
"Thank God that you guys came to rescue us." A male finally spoke out amongst the group.
"Can you tell us what happened here?" Nihlus asked as he placed Andromeda down.
"We were out farming as usual, when the Krogan ship just appeared. They didn't demand anything. As soon as they got out, they started to open fire. Most of us hid…..others didn't make it."
"They were mercenaries…probably a hit from an anti-human group." Nihlus commented as he looked over at Saren, who seemed to not really care what the human was telling them. Going back to the human he asked, "What about your weapons? Were you not armed?"
"Actually…we only have a handful of armed civilians…they were taken out within seconds. A lot of us are just farmers….we do not know how to fire a weapon."
"Well this looks like just a random attack." Saren cut off the conversation. "Nihlus, we should report back to the council." He turned and started to make his way to the pickup location.
Nihlus nodded then turned his head back to the man. "This girl's family was killed by the Krogans. Will there be someone to watch after her?" He motioned down to Andromeda.
"Of course." The man smiled and held out his hand to her.
Instead of going over, Andromeda grasped onto Nihlus' leg and hid behind him. She shook her head feverishly. Nihlus bent down and faced her. "Do not worry. You are safe now and I will come back to visit."
The girl finally replied back, "You better, Nihlus." With that, she hugged him tightly, catching the Turian off guard. Nihlus was never embraced like this, and it almost seemed to melt his heart. She then walked over and took the man's hand, but her eyes never leaving Nihlus.
The man chuckled. "I was wrong about Turians. I was raised since the war that all Turians were just wanting to prey on humans…clearly this girl sees differently like we all should."
"And I am starting to learn that not all humans are bad either," Nihlus replied, and then turned to catch up with Saren. He would never forget the cold look he got from his mentor. Was Saren's hate for humans that bad?