Prologue

My most earnest thoughts at the moment centered on why Batarians had four eyes.

Not that any answers were forthcoming from my latest guest. Dressed in a sharply cut Tuxedo and the smell of faint perfume contrased sharply with the rest of him. The Tuxedo had been spoiled by a massive splash of blood on right side, for one thing. I'll take full responsibility for that...His bodyguard's face had exploded like a balloon. Terribly messy, since he wasn't wearing a helmet.

What I didn't take responsibility for was the captive's swollen upper left eye. That was a mouthful, why couldn't Batarians have two like everyone else? The idiot had come at me fists swinging. I'd introduced him to reality. Although at least he still had three good eyes to go by, right? Haha, good joke. He'd be needing none soon enough.

He was bound hand to foot, of course. I leaned forward and removed his gag, shielding my face against the inevitable. Sure enough, he spat at me.

"They didn't buy you a set of manners with that suit, kid?" I said, wiping my hand with distaste. "Good thing I know a spitter these days."

The Batarian looked around warily. "Wha-Where am I going?"

"Oh, I thought you'd never ask." I grinned. "A very dear friend of yours booked an amusement park ride for you...and I'll be your guide."

"What the fuck are you talking about, human?"

"Well, look around. This is your limo, obviously. Some heavy bling on this one." I rubbed my chin in thought. "How many children did you sell into slavery to afford that?"

"What? I don't trade in Slaves!" He even managed to look indignant.

"You don't...your father does, Kellar Reshnat. He's a pretty big noise in that business, and obviously your pious campaign against your father's business doesn't exclude you from driving expensive rides bought with slave money..."

He had no response to that.

"But hey, this was supposed to be a fun ride." I affected a smile again. "Basically, we're taking your limo to a very nice place. Better than Afterlife. It'll take about half an hour to get there, and my beautiful self will keep you entertained..."

My smile vanished. "Once there, I'll finalize your appointment with the grim reaper, set your limo to crash and burn and walk away several grand richer. A great deal for all of us, yeah?"

My guest had gone pale. "A h-hit...? Who did this? Was it my father?"

"Hell if I know. All I can say is that you aren't worth very much, rich boy."

"Please...whatever he's paying, I can double it. Just...stop."

"There's a few problems with that, kid. Firstly...you don't have any money of your own. And even if your dad suddenly found love for you, I don't break contracts. Kind of bad for business, you know."

"You don't understand...I want the slave trade gone. It's what we've been working towards, and they already fear us," He was gambling at this point.

"Commendable, but not really. You are an annoyance that the establishment wants removed. Your small social club of friends, drinking Illium Tequila with money earned on the backs of slave labor and preaching towards ending it...?"

I leaned in close, two good eyes staring into four terrified ones.

"I don't know about you, but that sounds mighty hypocritical to me. Trust me, I'm an expert on the subject."

That much was true, at least. I'd been a hypocrite so long I'd forgotten what it was to be anything else.

"Change starts small, human. You're helping to end what could've been the salvation of the batarian people."

I shrugged. "That's pretty heavy, to be honest. But when you go to Batarian hell, do have a talk with some of your insurrectionists. Figure out how to lead a real coup. You'll have it figured in a few reincarnations, I'm sure."

The batarian sighed, looking away into the orange expanse of cars and lights passing us by in a blur. Omega almost looked...well, alright as long as you were moving at two hundred miles an hour on autopilot.

"Who the hell are you, Human?"

I laughed. "You're more polite than the last one, at least. He just sat around and glared at me for the entire trip. Not very sociable."

I reached into my short jacket and pulled two two M4-Predators, putting them in front of me. They were the tools of my work, as well as my pride and joy. Custom-made, with various modifications between which I could switch at will. I even had names for them. Geri and Freki. Not names that were common anymore, but their meaning struck home. The greedy ones. The Batarian stared at them in slack-jawed terror.

"Name's Zachary Dunn. I live here on this shit hole, organizing amusement park rides for kids like yourself." I smiled faintly.

I spun Freki around so it was pointing at my guest. He flinched visibly, even though any idiot could see that the safety was still on. It always surprised me what simple gestures could do to people. My friend looked just about ready to faint. It was wonderfully delightful, and I wanted to keep this moment alive.

"Or to put it bluntly, I'm a mercenary. With a capital M."

He continued to stare. "Y-you killed Herat like it was nothing."

I snorted. "It was nothing. I am sure Herat was more than adequate to keep you safe against the filth that lives here. But I am no ordinary piece of trash. I've won Mercenary of the Month twice, kid."

I paused briefly. "At least, I would if they had that kind of thing. I guess they just rank us by who lives the longest."

It annoyed me that my jokes were not making any impact on this fool. It's something I always tried to grant people, that they would at least have a laugh as one of their final memories. Although I rarely succeeded. It was not my loss, but the stupidity of that fact irked me. And annoyance was not good, it made me want to finish the job quickly, rather than neatly. So I shook my head and began preparations. I had everything I needed. My prisoner watched me work in silence, only breaking it with an occasional mumble, as if he wanted to speak but couldn't pick up the courage to. He was probably convinced he was with a madman.

He wouldn't be wrong.

But my labors ended too soon, and it was time to end this job. "Right, friend…this ride is over. Godspeed." He began to speak, but I was done with him. Freki finished the job with efficiency, leaving the rich interior of the limo relatively free of blood and brain bits. It wouldn't matter though. And soon enough, my stop arrived in the form of a decrepit abandoned building, forgotten during Omega's many phases of construction and destruction. It had probably served as an execution ground for many warlords, but now it was my playground. Getting off, I activated the explosive charges I'd planted and set the Limo free. It would follow it's programmed instructions and crash into a bulwark, the explosives making sure nothing in the form of evidence remained.

For a brief moment, as I watched the very expensive ride set off on it's final journey I wondered at how I'd become this way. Why the promise of a greater galaxy with endless opportunity had still managed to produce broken people. These thoughts always crossed my mind fresh off a kill.

But as the Limo passed out of view, those thoughts were forgotten.

A/N: G'day all. This is a concept chapter for a new character I've been thinking to write about. While this is a one-shot, I'm looking for feedback on this and see whether a longer story involving him would be good. Leave your feedback in the form of a review or a PM, thank you.