The Korgan Professor

By Zeus Parker

Based on a (rejected) concept for a character in a Mass Effect RPG campaign that might not actually happen.

Being a Korgan on the Citadel was uncommon enough. Being a Krogan teacher? Rarer, outside of Tuchanka. A Krogan teacher on the Citadel? That was a novelty, regardless of the topic the Korgan taught. That his topic was architecture was almost an afterthought to some of his students, but Churkan Vugg was more than used to it by now. He was even used to humans accidentally referring to him by his clan name instead of calling him Vugg.

He tapped the desk as he noticed all his students, all humans except for one Turian and one Asari, checking their omni-tools.

"Is there something particularly interesting on the extranet today?" he said. "Or can we get back to the subject at-"

The alarm klaxons ended his sentence for him.

"The Citadel's under attack," the one Turian student in the class said. "Early reports say it's the Geth."

"The Geth?" One of the humans said. "Aren't they the ones who attacked Eden Prime?"

Vugg had heard about that attack of course; news that big tended to get around. He paid it no mind at the time. He'd dismissed it as a human concern. "Their own fault for colonizing that close to the Traverse," he'd said to more than one colleague.

"Well, guess that means class is canceled for the day," Vugg said. "Everyone better get back to their homes and lay low until C-Sec gives the-"

Vugg was interrupted again, this time by the sound of an explosion off in the distance.

"This is a C-Sec alert!" an automated voice said over everyone's omni-tool. "Geth troops have landed on the Citadel. Everyone stay where you are, and barricade yourselves in if possible until a C-Sec team is able to find and escort you to a safe area."

"How'd they get troops here?" a human female said. "Why didn't they close the Citadel arms?"

"Maybe they can't," another human said. "Wasn't a rogue Spectre working with them? He probably gave them his access codes."

"Don't be stupid, Jimmy," the female who'd asked about the arms said. "The Council would've canceled his old codes soon as they sent Shepard after him."

"If you could all keep quiet…" Vugg said, lifting his desk to carry it over to barricade the door. That was no small feat, seeing as the desk was bolted to the floor, but he was still a Krogan so that wasn't going to stop him. He yanked the desk up after only two pulls, suppressed a laugh at how shocked his students seemed at that, and shoved it up against the door.

He heard loud gasps and turned to see a Geth dropship fly right past the windows of his classroom, headed towards the Presidium.

"Get down!" he yelled, and everyone did so as another drop ship flew by. This one moved slower. Vugg risked going up to the window and saw that it had stopped just shy of the campus, and was dropping troops.

"Aw hell," he said. "Stuff like this is why I keep telling the University to let me keep my shotgun on me."

"What are we going to do?" the youngest of the human students, a pubescent math prodigy named Rhys asked. Vugg would of course never say it out loud, since it had been frowned upon by the staff when he'd done it with past classes, but Rhys was his favorite student of the current crop. Vugg looked him right in the eye.

"There's a C-Sec shelter near here set up for emergencies like this. I say we head there. Stay close together, and keep your eyes open. The dropship landed out past the dorms, but the shelter's in the opposite direction so if we're quick we-"

Yet again, Vugg was not able to finish a thought, much to his increasing annoyance. Another explosion, this one much closer. He looked out the window, and sighed.

"What the hell is that?!" one the students stuttered out in fear.

Vugg would've called it a Geth vehicle equivalent to a tank, but considering what he knew about the Geth that probably wouldn't be correct. Whatever it was, it was huge, walked around on four legs, and was starting to move towards the very building Vugg and his students were in.

"Figures," Vugg said. "Alright, we better go now. Try to stay in cover, and if you get killed that's going to affect your final grade. Move!"

Getting past the big Geth turned out to be fairly easy, once the C-Sec cars showed up, and started getting blasted out of the sky for their trouble.

"Shoulda come in low," Vugg muttered to himself. "You risk crashing into one of the buildings, sure, but…"

He was in front of the group, so he was the first to see the pair of Geth troops coming around the corner. There was no good place to hide, so he did what came naturally to him. He rushed them. He felt a sting as one of the Geth managed to get a shot off, but Vugg had it down, and ripped it's flashlight like head off and hurled it at the other one before it could aim properly. He heard panicked yelling from his students but he didn't turn back to look at them, focusing on the other Geth instead, grabbing the barrel of it's rifle and pulling. He knocked the Geth off its balance, and knocked it back with a punch. Vugg managed to turn its own weapon on it and fired, blowing the trooper apart.

"Damn, the recoil on this is crazy," Vugg said. He finally checked on his students, all of whom were huddled together, and all of them seeming ready to cry except for the Turian and the one Asari. He sized them up quickly, a skill his father had taught him, and he picked up the other Geth's rifle and tossed it to the Asari.

"Let's keep going," Vugg said.

Churkan Vugg could honestly say he'd never expected his life to go in this direction, but, apart from knowing how to punch and how to use a shotgun very little about his life had been what one would call typical for a Krogan.

He'd taken it all in stride until now, but as he peaked his head around the corner to check and see if the way to a Citadel Security shelt was clear of any sign of Geth, it finally struck him.

Here I am, he thought, a Krogan architect, teaching classes to aliens on the Citadel, holding a Geth gun in my hands. If I'd told my parents this would be where I ended up by the time I was 300, they'd have thought I was insane and sold me off to the Blood Pack.

That wasn't entirely accurate of course. Learning architecture had been his mother's idea, after he'd been lucky enough to be born in the first place after the Genophage had caused his parents to suffer dozens of still-births that year alone. His parents were optimists, by nature; an uncommon thing even before the genophage, but they'd believed truly that in the long run, the Korgan would not go extinct, and that they'd survive the genophage. And when that happened, the Korgan people would need than just warriors. The goal when Vugg had been sent away to that Asari school was to learn a trade that could be used to help restore Tuchanka to its former greatness, and while there, he'd discovered an aptitude for construction. Everything about the process of making buildings fascinated him, especially how so many buildings on his homeworld still stood, even after all the damage done to them by wars, and by neglect after the end of the Rebellions.

He spent decades perfecting his craft, and had even been invited to Sur'Kesh of all places to take the lead on a construction project there. Sadly, the Salarian who'd hired him had misjudged his peers' willingness to have a Krogan working with them. Vugg didn't hold a grudge though. When he'd been forced out the Salarian boss had doubled his severance pay as an apology.

"I wish I'd known ahead of time how many of my employees were racists," he said to Vugg that day.

After that, Vugg sold his services much as other Krogans did, only as a construction worker instead of a mercenary. One day, on a whim, and since he had the credits, he decided to visit the Citadel. His reputation has preceded him it turned out, as mere hours after landing the Asari dean of one of the Citadel's top schools contacted him, offering him a job teaching architecture.

Good thing I have tenure, he thought. I won't have to worry about getting fired for ripping the desk out of the floor.

"Drop your gun!" A Turian C-Sec officer yelled, and Vugg swore under his breath at not having heard or seen him coming, distracted by his self-reflection.

"Do I look like a Geth to you?" he said to the officer. "Got a bunch of students from the university with me. Had to fight our way past a couple of Geth patrols to get here."

"Damn," the Turian said. "I'd heard reports there were Geth on the campus, but we lost contact with our teams in the area."

"Probably got shot down by the big one," Vugg said.

"The big one?"

Vugg described it in great detail, figuring why let a little thing like it being a threat detract from solid construction.

"A Colossus? Great, just friggin' great," the Turian said. "Well, the shelter's just past me over there. Get the students in there, and keep your head down."

"Sure," Vugg said. "My shotgun's in my apartment, but there's a whole mess of Geth between me and it. I love a good fight, but if I'm gonna die, it's gonna be because the other guy's better, not because I was stupid."

"I can appreciate that," the Turian officer said. "You're going to have to surrender your weapon, though."

Vugg looked down at the Geth assault rifle in his hands, and back at the guard. He was tempted to argue, but while it was a good weapon, it wasn't really his style. He much preferred the shotgun to the assault rifle, so he gave it to the Turian officer without a word, and told his Asari student to do the same. She actually protested at first, but the officer made it clear she wouldn't be allowed in the shelter if she was armed.

"Don't worry," Vugg said to her as they walked past the officer, keeping his voice low. "Once this is over I bet there'll be a bunch of Geth weapons available on the black market. C-Sec won't be able to collect them all."

"Are you sure the Geth can be stopped?" Rhys asked.

"Of course they can," Vugg said. "I killed a bunch of them myself, and I'm a college professor. Imagine what the professionals can do."