If there was one thing that Russell was good at, it would probably have to be making pizzas. Unfortunately, pizza making skills don't particularly help you when you are running for your life in the slums of Omega, with Batarians trying to kill you around every corner.
"Die scum!" Speak of the devil and he shall appear. Russell dodged behind some crates as bullets tore through where his head had been a second ago.
"I swear I didn't do it!" The young human shouted as he stood on the other side of the crates and booked it towards the next alleyway. He had been running all day, and it all started back in the market- or rather, what worked for a market in the slums on Omega. He was selling a bunch of scrap tech to some shady looking Hanar.
While he was in the process of doing business, an Elcor merchant had approached, gotten into some argument with the Hanar, and before Russell knew it, there were Batarians everywhere shooting everything up. The young man had no idea why it started, but he was starting to think that coming to this side of Omega was a bad choice.
Russell ran up to a closed door, and when it wouldn't open up immediately, he used his omni tool to hack the lock and rushed inside just before a group of Batarians rounded the corner of the alleyway he had ran up.
"Well well well, what do we have here?" Came a gruff sounding voice. Russell turned around slowly from the door, finding himself in the presence of an imposing and heavily armed Krogan with two Varren that were watching him with wary eyes.
Russell froze; he didn't want to jump from the pan into the fire, and aggravating a Krogan warrior was certainly not a fire that he wanted to jump into.
"Varren got your tongue kid? Tell me your name, before I sick Grim and Reaper here on you."
"My name's Russell Nox, and I'm running from some Batarians who want to kill me for some reason." He said to the older Alien. "I was just seeking some safety from them and I accidentally stumble-"
"A group of Batarians trying to kill you and you run away? Ha, if you couldn't fight a troop of Batarians, you shouldn't be in the most dangerous part of town, Human."
Russell wasn't necessarily ashamed of himself. He knew that he had little to no experience fighting people; hell, all he had on him was a knife given to him by a friend back on Earth. That was hardly something that he could use to reliably fight a group of people trying to kill him, right?
"Hmmm. Here's a gun." The Krogan said, standing up and pulling out a pistol. He handed it over to the young man, who stared at the gun, and then at the Krogan in slight confusion.
"I've been wanting a good fight recently, and I noticed you don't have anything to kill with, so I'm going to help you out human."
Wow, that was rather unexpected. "Thanks," Russell started, but the Krogan interrupted with, "Don't thank me yet, I haven't even done anything yet."
And with that, the Huge alien maneuvered to the door, and kicking it down, said, "Come on kid, looks like you need a little bloody hands," before he charged out of the room. Russell timidly followed him out, just in time to see the Krogan pull out the giant Warhammer that had been strapped to his back and slam it down on two armed Batarians.
The two Varren that had been with the Krogan burst out of the room as well and started ripping to shreds the backup that came when they heard their friend's screams. Russell watched the fighting- no, the slaughter in front of him. The Krogan was fast- quite possibly the fastest Krogan that Russell had ever seen. He appeared to be blinking from one target to the next, either body slamming them point blank range into a wall, or slamming his hammer into their skulls, their hip bones, anything that it touched got crushed instantly, and his Varren pets jumped on any stragglers and ripped out their throats.
Russell was in shock, which might be why he got flanked by a Batarian, who held a gun up to his head before the young human knew what was going on. Russell froze for a moment before a gunshot rang out, and suddenly the Batarian was clutching his hand as it steamed; someone had shot the gun out of his hand. Russell snapped out of his reverie and turned towards the still imposing Batarian and shot him with the pistol that the Krogan had lent him, hitting him in the shoulder. The young man pulled the trigger over and over, pouring bullets into the Batarian thug, until all that was left of him was a quivering husk.
"Haha! Good kill kid!" The Krogan called out as he pulled his Hammer clean from a fresh corpse. There weren't any more living Batarians in the area. "And nice shot Andrew, that gun went flying!" A Salarian came from out of the shadows, a hundred or so meters away, and slung his sniper rifle behind his back before rubbing the back of his head.
"CJ, you get yourself into fights too easily, and I've been monitoring the situation for an hour. As soon as I saw the human here enter your door and the Batarians following him; I knew that you'd be out soon and I figured I'd follow up with coverage, not that you need it against petty thugs like these."
"Haha, still though, good followup; that's why I keep you around!" The Krogan exclaimed, laughing heartily, confusing Russell a little bit. A Salarian and a Krogan working together, and friends with each other? It seemed highly unlikely, but here it was in front of him.
"Ah, I have not introduced myself yet. My name is Andrew Lanor, and this here is Crutarok Jayak, or CJ for short."
"Hey, why don't I get to introduce myself?" CJ asked, sounding quite indignant.
"Because you introduced us both last time, it was my turn to introduce us." Said the Salarian, before turning his attention back to Russell, extending a hand. "Nice to meet you…"
"Russell. Russell Nox." Russell took the Salarian's hand and shook it firmly, taking stock of the two. As previously noticed, the Salarian had a sniper rifle slung on a belt around his shirt. He wore no specific armor except for a pair of leather pauldrons that covered his shoulders, equipped with what look to be small shield generators attached to them.
The Krogan, CJ, was wearing an armored plate chest piece, and scaled chain leggings. His feet were bare, and he had what looked to be bandages covering his bare arms. On his back was his gigantic Krogan Warhammer, inlaid with rubies and sapphires, with golden spikes all along the sides of it's length.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Russell Nox. My companion and I were here to take down a group of bandits that were harassing the people in the slums her on Omega. We finished a few days ago and met with a doctor here to patch up our wounds, one Dr. Solus, I believe his name was. We were just resting up a bit before heading out on our next mission."
CJ grunted. "Yeah, just tell him our life's story while you're at it Andrew. It isn't like this pipsqueak could help us or anything, so we might as well just move on. We already had a good fight here, so let's go."
The Krogan began walking away before stopping slightly and turned to the side to look back at the two of them. "Oh, and keep the pistol, kid, I've got plenty of them and you sure looked like you could use it."
He turned away once more and headed in the direction that he had previously been walking in. The Salarian gave him a look of apology before heading off to catch up to the Krogan.
Russell looked after the two retreating figures. What adventures would they have without him? What kinds of things has he been missing out on? He looked at the pistol in his hands. He had killed someone else, somebody who had been trying to kill him. He looked at the two people who had helped him out. Who would be around to help him out the next time he got into trouble? He didn't exactly have any friends, as sad as that sounds.
But at least there were a couple of people, those two in front of him, people who could and might watch his back if he joined them. People who would go on adventures that Russell could never dream of having by himself.
He took a step forwards before hesitating for a second. The Krogan was right, he didn't know how to fight, he would simply be a liability in the case of an actual life or death situation. But, he could get better. Stronger. More skilled. He could become a worthy ally for the two of those aliens that had helped him out.
"Wait a minute, let me join you!" Russell called out as he chased after them.
"You knew this was going to happen, didn't you?" Andrew asked his friend.
"He was either a spineless fool with no future, or someone who had never been given a chance to succeed. I gave him a choice that would show which he was, and he made the decision himself," chuckled the Krogan as they both turned around to the human who was now approaching them.
"We'll let you join us on two conditions. One, don't get in my way. And Two, Andrew is our tactician, run all ideas by him before you act or you risk getting one of us or yourself killed." CJ paused, giving the human time to catch up to the pair. "If you can accept and follow those rules, you can join us."
Andrew looked at the human in front of him as Russell nodded. "It looks like we've got a new member to our little gang of mercenaries. Welcome to the club, Russell Nox."
Russell looked between the two of them, and gave a wide smile. "Glad to be a part of it, now let's get going to that next mission that you guys mentioned."
"Haha!" I like this kid already, he's got guts for such a weakling!" CJ announced, clapping a hand on the human's back. "We're on our way to the Pylos Nebula next, heard some talk of a group of Pirates that have been stealing cargo from the Quarians. I'm sure if we put a stop to it, we'll have quite a welcoming party at the Flotilla."
Russell looked forwards as they walked and talked about their plans. He had quite the adventure ahead of him.