Nurin Dekkorin ran his right hand slowly along the carapace on his face. It had been a long day. Trying to maintain order in the newly assembled refugee camps of the Citadel was no small feat, although he was happy that he could contribute in his own small way. Before all this he had been a low level C-Sec officer, rarely leaving his desk dealing with the paperwork that the higher-level officers had neither the time nor the patience for. Now he was behind another desk, but this time it felt like making a difference. His was one of several kiosks to which the refugees brought queries and concerns, he could rarely help them as fully as they wanted but any peace of mind that he could provide was welcome. It was a sorry sight to see in one place so many who had lost so much; family, homes and even their homeworlds. He himself had no family left of which to speak, both of his parents had died before he was fully grown, so he himself had lost little. Although this was why he had been so drawn to help the girl. A young human she had approached him in the midst of a usual busy morning of in-vain requests for messages from family, pleas for supplies and petty squabbles. She had asked if her parents had arrived to the station yet.
"They told me to wait for them here" she said. He knew then and there how this story was likely to end. When his mother had been very sick and, although he had been too young to realise this himself at the time, on her deathbed she had asked that his father take him to stay with relatives promising him that she would be there soon. He recognised the final act of a parent sparing their child a painful goodbye, although he knew that to hear it from him here would destroy the poor girl so he kept his tone optimistic. Days passed and the girl came back again and again and with still no good news he began to see her hope begin to waver. On his way to his apartment, before leaving the camp he checked in with her to ensure she was ok and the next day she was right back at his desk looking for good news.
Further days passed, little changed in the refugee camps except that they gradually grew more crowded as the war spread. Some of the refugees spoke in hushed tones of seeing Commander Shepard passing through on errands but he didn't believe the stories, he would have heard if the first human Spectre was in his area. But the girl stopped coming. The first day he didn't see her he thought perhaps something good had happened after all, and he talked himself out of checking her bed to make sure she was ok in case of how it might look to the girl's parents if a turian came calling. In the following days his concern grew until he finally didn't care what anyone might think and made the short journey to where the girl slept. He found her alone and with a much greyer skin tone than humans in his experience had ever exhibited. His stomachs twisted in concern as he stepped toward her but the girl coughed weakly to show that she was still alive. She weakly explained that some of the others in her camp zone had been taking her food and water rations for themselves. Anger grew inside him but he knew that he would be outnumbered and that he would be no help to the girl injured or worse.
That evening he had gone straight to his superiors and asked that she be released from the camps and into his care. He did not truly know himself why he had felt so strongly about the issue but he had long since learned to trust his instincts. Something his father had taught him. His father had been his sole carer after the death of his mother, it was he who had told him of the Citadel and the honorable C-Sec officers who protected its citizens. It had been his father who had hid him when the slavers came, who gave his own life rather than allow his only son to be taken. It was in his memory that he had come here to C-Sec, and he knew his father would approve of his actions now. His superior had questioned the decision but had better things to do than to argue with Nurin and so made the necessary authorisations.
That had been several days ago now and things had not improved. The camps continued to grow and panic had begun to set in in those who lived there. He was just glad that Casey, as the girl had revealed her name to be, wasn't in among it. He quickly threw together a small meal for himself to go with the human food he had picked up for the girl on his way home doubting that she would find the Hierax Stew he made for himself at all palatable.
The first night she had been here she had told him a great deal about her home, a small mostly agricultural colony where she had lived with her parents. The conversation soon upset her, however, and she had retired to the cramped guest room he had prepared for her. Most nights since then they had said little of the past, merely eating together and discussing the holovids for the latest presentations. He had thought that they might go to see the Blasto 6 movie they had laughed about the day before after they had eaten.
Then everything went to hell. Alarms sounding from all sides, everything was a blur. He and Casey ran from the table and he opened the door to the apartment. People were running by, he tried to question several of them as they passed but none would stop. He could only make out one word, Reapers. He turned to go back inside but before he could he felt a sharp crack to the back of his head. He was unconscious before he hit the ground.
Nurin opened his eyes and found himself looking at the metal sheen of the ceiling of his apartment. Sitting up slowly he shook his head, hoping it would somehow clear his vision.
"Are you okay?" a voice asked from his left and he turned to face its source. Casey sat on the floor her arms clasped around her knees.
"I will be." He replied shakily. "What happened?" he continued now noting the universal expression of horror etched into the girl's face.
"R...Reapers. I think at least. They attacked. Lots of people are dead and I...I pulled you back inside after a bit of the roof outside fell. The door is kinda blocked but I can hear them outside. Moving and shooting. It sounds like they're capturing people or...or killing them." she spat out quickly, barely breathing between sentences.
"How long was I knocked out for?" he asked, unsure of how things could go so wrong so quickly.
"Maybe an hour? I don't know. I've been too scared to even think."
Now Nurin himself heard the noises from beyond the door, scuttling and grunting. Rising slowly to his feet he turned to Casey.
"We need to get out of here. We aren't safe."
"But they're outside, and they haven't come in yet." she pleaded desperately.
"The roof collapse only slowed them down. They'll get in soon enough." he said darkly, causing the girl to begin to cry. Looking across at her he realised the effect his words had had and he attempted to place optimism in place of despair by adding "We'll get out of here. There's a vent in the bathroom, we'll go through that just like in the vids, right?" He attempted to summon a smile to accompany the words, but wasn't sure if he had managed it until the girl's tears slowed and stopped. Walking to the cabinet in the corner he retrieved a single C-Sec issue pistol from within, moving larger weapons aside. He noticed Casey's quizzical expression as she watched him pass up a rifle for the smaller weapon.
"We aren't going to fight our way out of here. This is just in case." he said holding the weapon up. "I'll keep you safe. Come on."
Using the commode as a pedestal he opened the vent cover and climbed inside. He had scarcely enough room to turn to help Casey into the vent behind him, but he managed it before continuing on.
"Where are we going?" Casey asked, her fearful voice echoing around the tight metal chamber. Nurin paused.
"We need to get to C-Sec, that's where we'll be safest. But we need to be quiet, if they hear us..." He let the sentence drift off, his meaning clear.
They continued on in silence. Nurin occasionally checked his Omni-tool to make sure they were headed in the right direction. Casey remained quiet, in truth he was more worried for her than he was for himself. Ahead he could see light streaming up through a grating, and could hear voices.
"Are those voices?" Casey offered in the faintest of whispers.
"Yes, but we better stay quiet just in case." he replied after a brief pause for thought. Moving forward he could now see through the grating. A few civilians, all human save for one salarian, stood in a circle in what looked like a storage room.
"What are we going to do? We need to get out of here or we're dead!" one of the humans blurted out, his panic evident.
"We need to stay calm or we'll just get ourselves killed for nothing." the salarian interjected.
"We should go down and help." Casey offered, still keeping her voice to a minimum. Nurin mulled the possibility.
"No...no...no. NO!" the panicking man went from a whisper to a near-scream. He ran toward the door and opened it before any of the others could react.
"I SURRENDER. I SURR-" was all the man could manage before a husk came into view and cast him aside with a powerful strike. The Salarian shot the husk, but Nurin knew it was too late. More husks entered the room and before the fight could even begin it was over and the civilians lay dead.
"What's happening?" Casey said almost inaudibly.
"Don't look." Nurin replied softly, and continued to move forward.
As they drew nearer to C-Sec Nurin began to worry about what they might find when they got there. If things were as bad there...
From behind them suddenly came a piercing shriek. Still far away but echoing through the metal walls around them. Had they got into the apartment and found the vent cover torn aside. Having to pry the vent open as he did meant that there was no way to cover their trail properly, he had been counting on husks having low intelligence and it would seem that he had been wrong. Quickening his pace he hoped that Casey could only keep up. He knew that sooner or later they would have to exit the vents, he had felt safer here until the screams which he could now swear were getting closer. Taking a turn to the right his Omni-tool said would bring them to a service elevator he saw with horror that the vent ended with torn metal and a long drop into darkness. The shaft for the elevator they needed to get to...they were trapped. He was able to bring himself to the edge of the vent and look down at the darkness. He moved to one side of the vent to let Casey alongside him and raised himself up onto his knees, hunched over with his skull touching the vent above. Then the shrieking came again, much closer than before and accompanied by frenzied banging.
"What can we do?" Casey asked aloud, urgently. Nurin thought for a moment before adjusting his position so he sat on the edge with his legs dangling over the side of the drop. By the light of his Omnitool ahead he could see the continuation of the vent, where they needed to be but cruelly out of reach. He retrieved a thermal clip for his pistol from a pocket and dropped it into the chasm below. It was more than ten seconds before a metallic thud suggested that it had reached the bottom. Their situation was hopeless. Nurin thought of his father, "Go, child. Go and don't look back. We'll see each other again soon." he had said.
The frenzied banging came closer now. Nurin turned to see a single husk in the direction they had come moving toward them quickly. He fired a single shot from his pistol and stopped it dead, but before he could react three more came into view. He looked at Casey, her eyes filled with tears and now clasping his hands.
"I don't want to end up like them." she said crying.
"You won't. You'll see your family again soon." he said pulling her close to him.
"We'll see each other again soon" the words of his father rang through Nurin's head.
Beyond the banging and streaming a single shot rang out. In the darkness of the Citadel's infrastructure, two figures fell into the black, to rejoin those left behind.