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Korlus
Another shotgun blast hit the low wall, taking out a good chunk of concrete but protecting the blue-armoured Batarian. The Krogan roared in frustration at its weapon's ineffectiveness at range, stomping around in a childlike tantrum.
"Let it get angry!" shouted the Batarian. "It's going to walk into our line of fire eventually. This is the last one for our squad today, drinks on me when we get back to base. You guys have done well today."
He looked at the creature hiding in its make-shift fort assembled out of the planet's ever-present debris. It was screwed with just its shotgun, and soon enough it would charge right into their grenades and a hail of bullets. They always did in the end.
Suddenly, his attention was drawn further, where a glint of black armour crushed his dreams of a quiet end to the day. "Mendoza," he barked, pointing in the direction he had seen something move, "check out that movement over there!"
The human's head exploded before he could even acknowledge the order, his blood and brains scattering as the body slumped to the floor. Before the Batarian commander could react, he saw the rest of his squad thrown off the wall to their doom by a biotic blast of such power that it dislodged their concrete cover. He screamed obscenities as he fired his assault rifle in the general direction of where the attack had come from, but there was nothing. Nothing, until his shields suddenly overloaded and a red-haired woman flew towards him in a blue blur, her determined face the last thing he saw before both her fists hit him in the chest and launched him in the air.
Astounded, the massive red-and-white-armoured Krogan lowered his shotgun and stared as Commander Shepard finished off her opponent with a fiery shotgun blast in mid-air. He had been fighting this squad for several hours and had managed to kill only one, whilst these small fleshy things had ended the battle in seconds. Okeer had been right: he really was a failed Krogan. Perhaps these tiny creatures could tell him? They were different. They had helped him kill those who sought to end his short life. Though one of the fleshy things aimed a pistol at him, he was relaxed. They meant him no harm.
"Don't move a fucking muscle, Dino, or your ass will be grass!" threatened the naked fleshy thing.
"You. You don't smell like this world," he spoke softly, feeling his vocal chords form his life's first complete sentence. "Seven night cycles and I have felt only the need to kill. But... you... something makes me speak."
He felt a surge of realisation as he remembered something the voice in the water had told him. Instinct. He was sure he had a good instinct.
"He's only a week old?" asked a fleshy thing he recognised as his race's enemy. It wore dark blue armour. Why don't I feel anger towards him? He tried to exterminate us. Wait... without him I would not exist. Turians are not my enemy, they are the enemy of Okeer.
"They must breed them at full size ready to kill," answered the small battlemaster. "Not much of an improvement over regular mercs if they need training."
The Krogan shook his head as he heard the words. They were wrong. There was a surge of anger that he managed to control. It had just been ignorance. How could they know? He had to make a considerable effort to speak, his tongue almost cramping up under the new stress.
"Bred... to kill. No. I kill because my blood and bone tell me to, but it's not why I was flushed from Glass Mother. Survival is what I hear in my head, against the enemy that threatens all my kind - but I failed even before waking. That is what the voice in the water said. That is why I wait here."
He was referring to the genophage and to the care even the weak received because there were already so few young Krogan. Like this, there was no natural selection, no survival of the fittest. The only criteria now was being able to resist the disease The voice in the water had told him he was a failure, that he would not survive. But he thought otherwise. He would show his strength, prove that his life was not worthless by killing all the fleshy things with blue armour. Apart from the one that served the powerful flying fleshy-thing.
"Can you show me the laboratory? I need to speak with Okeer," said the battlemaster.
Laboratory. The word made images flash up in his mind. They were not his images; they were imprints brought by the Scratch of Glass Mother. Glass Mother had been a laboratory.
The Krogan pointed towards the large structure. "The... Glass Mother... she's up, past the broken parts, behind many of you fleshy things. I will show you."
Cracking his neck and dusting off his three-fingered hands, the beast walked to a large steel panel he had placed there earlier to block the path and picked it up with only a little effort, then tossed it aside. He looked at the three fleshy things, wondering if he should go with them. If they ask me to, I'll follow, he decided. The battlemaster had shown impressive fighting skills during the battle, most notably flying across the debris field in a blur and throwing her opponent off a bridge with a shotgun blast. She would bring me enemies that would prove me worthy of existence. And she could teach me how to fly.
"Impressive," the naked female fleshy thing said, flashing him the hint of a smile. It was the first he had ever seen. "And dangerous. Come on Shepard, let's go," she then added.
The three walked away, disappointment burning inside him. Why had they just left him there to die? The fleshy things normally had a hard time squeezing through such obstacles, he had moved it effortlessly. They had called him "dangerous." Dangerous and impressive? Is that all I am? The voice in the water said I was made out of the strongest Krogan warriors in existence.
There were no more mercenaries that day, or the day after, and so eventually out of boredom and hunger the Krogan decided to go up and see what had happened. At first he'd had concerns about knowing the way, but those fears were quickly alleviated when he saw the trail of destruction Shepard had left in her wake. First, he'd seen his dead brethren strewn about, but as time went on more and more of the bodies had been smaller, fleshy things. How did three of them kill so many? I am not called by Okeer anymore. I am called by the Shepard.
When he reached Glass Mother, he wasn't surprised to see Okeer was dead too. His final message was playing on repeat.
"Shepard," said the dark, raspy voice. "If I knew why the Collectors wanted humans, I would tell you, but everything is in my prototype. My legacy is pure. This... one soldier, this grunt. Perfect."
I am not perfect, the krogan reminded himself. I will never be good enough to serve Shepard, or the Krogan as a whole. I am nothing. I am a son of Glass Mother, not of nature. Where do I go now? There is no escape from this planet for me. Okeer wasted me. Nobody wants me.
The krogan roared, wallowing in self-pity, anger and confusion.
He was interrupted by the familiar click of a grenade-launcher being loaded. He turned and saw a familiar-looking asari aiming one at him.
"You," he started. "I know you. Who are you?"
She smirked in recognition. "Ha! I knew it was worth coming back here to check things out. I am Rana Thanoptis, and you must be the reason I was even allowed to help Okeer conduct his experiments. Take that helmet off, I want to see your face."
The krogan tilted his head to the side in confusion. "No."
Her face betrayed a hint of surprise at his refusal but she quickly showed her anger. "Do as I say, krogan! I made you! You were my experiment! You don't even know who you are!"
She caught the krogan off-guard with what she was saying, but she was wrong in every way. I am Okeer's failed experiment, and my name is... what did the naked fleshy-thing call me?
"I am Dino," he said, crossing his arms. "And with Okeer dead, I belong to no clan."
Surprisingly, Rana laughed, lowering her grenade-launcher. "Dino? Who told you that? No, you are more than some ancient creature. I filled you with eezo when you were just a foetus in your tank. You will be a great biotic battlemaster, and you're worth a lot of credits."
Dino was immediately reminded of his saviour just a few days prior. "Will I be as strong as the Shepard?" he asked. "I want to be able to do what I saw her do."
It was Rana's turn to be surprised. "You saw Shepard? Hm. Never mind, you're alive and that's all that matters. Yes, you can be stronger than her. The Blood Pack will train you to be the most powerful fighter there ever was!"
Dino was less than two weeks old and couldn't know he was being manipulated. Stronger even than the Shepard.
"Come on, Dino," said Rana, walking off and motioning him to follow with her hand. "I've got a shuttle outside ready to take us somewhere nice!"
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Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did writing it. Next time, we'll introduce another character! You have the choice between a volus, a quarian and a human next – leave your preference in the comments.
