Hugo peered outside through a window of the shuttle and saw that they were almost arriving at their destination, the STG headquarters. STG operatives had picked him up off of Illium, transporting him on a first class private stealth ship to the salarian home world, Sur'Kesh. They had not answered any of Hugo's questions on the way and disabled his omnitool, keeping him in the dark as much as they could.
As the shuttle hovered to a gentle stop over the landing pad, Hugo could see the STG base's advanced and efficient architecture, the technology developed here being decades ahead of what the other races had available to them. He also saw three salarians approaching the shuttle door in a triangular formation, the trio wearing standard STG armour and eyes of caution.
Opening the door, the most forward salarian was the first to speak, "Collins, glad to have you here. We will be escorting you today. Please, follow closely."
And with that, the salarian officer turned a half revolution on his heels and headed back towards the base at a brisk pace, Hugo walking right behind him. The two other officers waited until Hugo was ahead of them before following, so that they could surround him as they moved through the base. Hugo wasn't known as a dangerous criminal, but he wasn't exactly a law abiding citizen. He was somewhere in between, which seemed to be a commonality he shared with STG itself and other individuals the organization frequently did business with. As such, they were used to dealing with grey area types and new how to handle them. Hugo and the three officers surrounding him, still maintaining their triangular formation, moved through the base quickly, passing by different cells and divisions as he saw them developing several different new technologies, ranging from new armours to miniature communicators. After a brisk three minute walk through the base, they had arrived at a door, where the most forward salarian was once again the one to open it.
As they walked through the door, Hugo saw a small but well lit room. No windows, only some terminals and an office desk at which sat a hooded salarian, most probably a female, who seemed to be anticipating his arrival.
"Good day, Collins," the hooded salarian spoke, her voice confirming Hugo's assumption about her sex, "I am Admiral Luxa Paesin. It is a pleasure to meet you."
"The pleasure is mine, admiral."
"Your journey was sufficiently comfortable, I hope?"
"It was indeed, almost too comfortable, even for a non-military civilian like me. Enough for you to get on my good side, which I assume was your intention," Hugo replied, cracking a forced smile of false sincerity.
"Ah, I'm glad to have you Hugo. Well, I hope to not lose you any time soon, so let us move onto business. I wouldn't want you to become disinterested from all of these dull pleasantries," Paesin progressed the conversation, matching Hugo's smile with one of her own, although hers looked more authentic and friendly than the human's, no doubt honed through years of putting on the same expression when trying to make new allies.
"Of course. I hope to not be disappointed. These are turbulent times, which have given rise to many interesting situations I could be attending to right now."
"Well, Collins, as you are most probably aware, the quarians had been resettling on Rannoch for a few years now, relying on a supercomputer to provide them with an optimised and efficient lifestyle."
"Yes, I am aware. I'd been surprised upon hearing of the supercomputer initially, but it really only made sense. Integration of technology within a society's infrastructure is inevitable if they are to continue advancing and evolving past a certain point."
"As it turns out, it is also as inevitable for a krogan to strike in blind rage."
"Debateable," Hugo cut in, before letting Paesin continue.
"The quarians on Rannoch were recently attacked by the remaining krogan forces. It wasn't all of the krogan army, but it was more than enough to decimate the quarians. There are no survivors on record, rendering the quarians practically extinct," the hooded salarian finished grimly.
"A most unfortunate conclusion, admiral. Perhaps the krogans have been underestimated. Even neutered, they are a force to be reckoned with. Although there wouldn't really be much benefit from saving the quarians, when news of the racial genocide reaches the public, there will naturally be a stir of chaos, something that the higher ups must surely want to avoid," Hugo paused for a moment before continuing, "However, the quarians weren't given any military aid, I assume, since you would have told me if they had. The military costs of helping the quarians were high enough that you let them be wiped out. Risky play, admiral."
"We couldn't afford to send any aid," Paesin touted calmly, but Hugo noticed a slight defensiveness in her tone.
"I didn't realise that the salarian military was that ruined. Although I did have an idea since you were asking for my help, of all people, and you even went through all that trouble to get it."
"Yes, Collins, you're right," Paesin gave a short sigh and lowered her eyes, "We do need your help."
The hooded salarian raised her gaze to match his before continuing, "Several of our scientists went rogue, developing a cure for the genophage on their own. They insisted that the Second Krogan Rebellion wouldn't have occurred if we'd given them a chance at their own destiny. The rest of us thought that presenting a cure now would only worsen the situation regardless, and tried to wrap the project up with red tape. Unfortunately, they ran off and recently actually succeeded."
"What timing. Have you found the location of their lab?"
"We did, but by the time we'd arrived, the facilities had been raided. The scientists were found dead and the data was gone, along with the cure."
"So you want me to track down the cure?"
"Exactly. It could have been some batarian raiders who stumbled across some fancy looking research facility and decided to plunder it. The raiders might have decided to destroy the data after failing to decrypt it, just as an act of vandalism. However, one of our officers had managed to crack into the rogue facility's terminals and it turns out they'd finished developing the cure a mere day before they were raided. Could be coincidence, but I doubt the galaxy is being that boring. It never is."
Hugo watched Paesin grimace for a few moments, as he himself did the same as he thought about how dull the world would be if the galaxy really were that boring.
"So, do you accept this job? We will be paying you appropriately."
It was never about the money for Hugo, but at times it helped to have a substantial reserve. In his line of 'work', there were officials to bribe, spies to hire.
"Well, I don't have much of a choice, do I?" Hugo asked nonchalantly, glancing over at the three fully armed STG operatives still standing behind him. The matter of the genophage cure had to be handled carefully and subtly, with the utmost secrecy for as long as possible, and releasing someone not on their side after telling them about it was something that could not be done. Bribery and threats would be too risky. Execution would be the only reliable and permanent solution to preventing a potentially catastrophic information leak.
"Choice," the hooded salarian gave a genuine but weak laugh in reminiscence and broke her formal expression to reveal a faint tiredness, "From what I've learned, Collins, when it comes to some choices, the ones that really matter, we don't really have any options at all except one. Those more powerful than us dictate what that one option is."
Paesin's expression returned to that of a military professional, looking stern with eyes wide open, placing her gaze upon Hugo for a moment as he considered what she had just told him.
Of course he was going to take the damn job, this was getting very interesting. No need to show me who has more power here, inside this base. Hugo thought to himself before opening his mouth, "Some STG veteran wisdom?"
"Something like that, yes."
They were now on an STG ship on their way to the rogue salarian research station. The ship was small, with just enough space to hold ten people at maximum capacity. Sitting on the captain's chair located at the centre of the CIC, Hugo was going through the data he had been given on his omnitool. He wasn't a soldier and he definitely wasn't a captain, but the STG had put him in charge, with great reluctance. Being in charge of the crew and the mission was the condition that Hugo gave to Paesin, one the salarian admiral could have easily denied, but she knew that he would work better not having to take orders. A captain to keep Hugo tamed would only hinder his abilities.
Paesin had assigned three STG members to Hugo's crew, one of which was First Lieutenant Vurwin Els, a male STG officer with enough years of experience to be recognised as a seasoned soldier by his superiors.
The second was Flight Lieutenant Estum Rou, a female pilot, who looked timid at first glance. However, as soon as she was at the cockpit and in her pilot's chair, she naturally radiated confidence in her abilities, a trait she seemed to share with many other military pilots. She also acted as the medical officer.
The last of the assigned soldiers was Gunnery Chief Ferkal Tix, who, upon first sight, Hugo could tell was a very dangerous individual. Ferkal had light brown skin and damaged horns; the similar way in which both seemed to be burned off suggested they were damaged from the same incident. He could see Ferkal's eyes had fierce focus with a glint of lethal aggression. The battered and worn face and hands of the salarian indicated a long military career so far; longer than Vurwin, who was a higher rank than Ferkal, which Hugo found strange.
Two days passed while in transit to the research facility, Hugo in near constant thought about the various probable scenarios which could have occurred. In between his thoughts he managed to slip in a few hours of sleep. Hugo never needed much sleep; he could function at full capacity on a mere one hour of rest every night. The STG soldiers were astonished when they first found out about Hugo's sleep routine as they had never met a human who could function while maintaining a schedule on par with that of a salarian in terms of time dedicated to rest.
The ship Hugo had been given was the Alusa, one of a sleek and streamlined design with white plating. Vurwin had given the human a tour of the ship, which had two floors; the top floor was the CIC with the cockpit at the front. The captain's chair at the centre of the CIC looked more like a throne, existing on a raised platform with two square armrests on either side of the chair which had terminals and other integrated tools for quick access while one was seated. The chair had a metallic finish, like the rest of the ship interior, but the inside and the armrests were covered with high quality leather. The cockpit contained only one chair, the pilot's, which was surrounded by many different terminals that Estum effortlessly used to fly them safely and comfortably through the dark void for long hours.
The lower floor contained the cargo hold with crew quarters that could be found around it. The cargo hold could be used as other facilities when needed through the use of foldable walls and hidden storage. Although the Alusa was a small ship and therefore could dock and land directly at most areas, a shuttle was also kept in the cargo hold. The UD-21 Orhol was a state of the art shuttle fitted with various useful features and tools, with white plating similar to that of the Alusa itself.
They were about to arrive at the raided research facility and Hugo gathered Vurwin and Ferkal, the shore party, at the cargo hold. Hugo wasn't military, so there was no official briefing, but he still wanted to make sure that every member of the team was on the same page.
"So, we all know what's going to happen?" Hugo asked the two salarians.
"Get in, investigate the facilities to see what happened and evaluate our options," Vurwin, the sharp and useful lieutenant, replied quickly.
"Sounds a bit boring, honestly," Ferkal muttered under his breath, sounding a little disappointed.
"How so?" the human asked, genuinely curious as to how the gunnery chief could possibly find a search for a missing genophage cure boring.
"Not much for me to do, not yet anyways."
"You are allowed to conduct your own observations, Ferkal," Hugo informed, referring to the salarian by his first name. Ferkal had insisted that they called each other using their given names; apparently it was his 'thing' to do so.
"That's not what I mean, Hugo," the short salarian replied, shaking his head, "It's fine, forget it."
"Remember, Ferkal, it's always better for us to face less combat scenarios, not more. Perhaps you've forgotten the STG philosophy?" Vurwin questioned testily.
Hugo was aware of what Vurwin was talking about; the STG and the salarian military in general valued maximising results from minimal input. They would get as much out of every single resource as possible. Efficiency was celebrated, meaningless and avoidable combat was shunned.
"I said forget it, Vurwin," Ferkal barked aggressively without any real malice.
"Remember what Paesin told you. Control. Your. Self," Vurwin emphasised the last three words, pausing briefly in between.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. I heard you."
Vurwin was giving a playful smirk, knowing this was as much of a resignation he was going to get out of Ferkal.
As the exchange between the two salarians finished, Hugo tapped his omnitool to convert the cargo hold into an armoury. A bench and two weapon racks appeared and rose from the ground, as markings indicated they would, around the three men. Each racked contained various different weapons, ranging from small handguns to advanced grenade launchers.
"I take it you know how to handle a weapon?" inquired Vurwin.
"I do," Hugo gave a short answer and added nothing more. He felt that telling Vurwin that he had no official training and that everything he knew had been learned during his adolescent years spent on Omega would not end well.
Hugo picked up an M-6 Carnifex pistol from one of the weapons racks and loaded it with a fresh new thermal clip, taking some spares just in case they got caught up in some trouble.
Hugo and the STG officers were walking through the research facility, a large metallic structure floating in space, at a brisk pace; it had not been interfered with since it was raided, as requested by Admiral Paesin, other than confirming that the genophage cure data, contained in an encrypted drive, was taken. One shuttle of STG officers guarded the abandoned facility as they orbited around the structure, which Estum joined with the Alusa.
The lab was stoic and lifeless; the only sounds which could be heard were that of the three conducting their investigation. The interior was still well lit and no structural damage seemed to have been inflicted by the raiders. Eventually they arrived at a room containing the four corpses of the rogue researchers, which had at this point decomposed a fair amount; although there was not much visible change from afar, Hugo could notice the smell and tactile softness of rotting flesh. However, none of this fazed any of them. Hugo was intrigued as he observed each dead body and the soldiers had been used to death at that point in their military careers.
"Only one gunshot wound to the head in each corpse," Hugo muttered, remembering what Helia had told him about the need to communicate, "This makes batarian pirates an unlikely suspect. They're famous for their overkill."
He was part of a team now. In fact, it was his team. It made him feel a strange sense of duty he had never felt before.
"I agree, Collins. If this were their work, there would also be significant structural damage," added Vurwin.
"Highly inefficient. A more subtle method of infiltration was considered to be more favourable," the human paused for a moment, "The researchers were armed and ready for anything, characteristic for STG, but their weapons are still holstered, which means they were killed before they could react. If the intruders were able to bypass security of this level and enter the facilities unnoticed, it suggests they were capable in that field and that the encryption on the data drive may be cracked sooner than expected. Only one shot to the head for each kill, no unnecessary damage and the bypass of advanced security systems; indicative of a very efficiency minded nature."
Hugo approached one of the four terminals in the square shaped room, one terminal for each side.
"Hopefully there is still some sort of a trace left behind," the human said under his breath while activating the terminal.
After a few moments, Hugo had found that data had been copied from the terminal, "This terminal wasn't cleaned properly; there are still traces of a copy command being used, at the estimated time of the raid, on all of the data contained within. Surprisingly sloppy for a group capable of getting past this facility's security."
"Nerves, maybe? Could've been a bunch of spineless new guys who'd never seen any real fighting before," suggested Ferkal.
"The precision headshots suggest otherwise. Perhaps there was infighting or a disagreement within the group; the kills had occurred before the researchers could react, so there wouldn't have been time to discuss if murdering them was necessary."
Hugo moved through the other three terminals in a counter clockwise direction around the room, repeating the same process and finding that the data had been copied from those terminals as well.
"The recorded times that the copy command was issued for each terminal are at intervals of around 30 seconds between each of the four. From the amount of data and the high grade technology of each terminal, I'd say that the copy process would take approximately 20 seconds. If they were a group, it suggests that they waited for the copy process on one of the terminals to finish before starting the process on another; a stark contrast to the efficiency at which the other actions during the raid had been handled. It may have been done randomly but the consistent time intervals between each copy command suggest otherwise."
"Maybe there was only one tech expert in the group?" suggested Vurwin.
Hugo shook his head, "These are standard terminals. Even if there was only one tech expert in the group, if they were capable of bypassing the security systems, it would have been very easy to use a program which copied and extracted data, pre-written before the raid, for every member of the team to use simultaneously on each terminal."
Hugo turned to look at Vurwin and Ferkal, who were also coming to the same realisation as the human explained his thinking.
"So you're saying that it's just one badass son of a bitch who did all this?" Ferkal asked rhetorically in disbelief, "One person killed four trained STG officers alone before they could even get their weapons out?" However, upon consideration, he could probably do it as well; except he'd have blown a whole through the wall instead of bothering to deal with all of that tech stuff.
"Yes, most likely a turian."
Vurwin crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes, which Hugo could see through the salarian's clear visor, "Why?"
"The way the bodies landed after being shot and the entry and exit wounds suggest that the killer was standing inside the room when shooting at the researchers. Since they didn't have time to react, it's safe to assume that the killer shot them all from the same position," Hugo strode over and stood in front of the door, "Here."
As Vurwin looked around the room again, he noticed something new; the four corpses were all lying on the ground with their feet pointed towards where Hugo was currently standing.
"The entry and exit wounds suggest that the killer was quite tall and that the firearm was powerful enough for a shot to the head to knock the entire body in the projectile's direction of travel," Hugo paused as he watched Vurwin move over to one of the corpses to make his own observations before continuing, "Salarians, krogans and turians are the three tallest races. However, the average salarian height is quite a bit lesser than my estimation of the killer's height. As you two are probably aware, salarian genetic variation is very limited in terms of physique; it is incredibly rare, on the magnitude of one in several billion, for a salarian to physically vary this much from average values, which makes it incredibly unlikely that the killer is of that race. Furthermore, from my experience, krogans would always choose the loud, gaudy kills over the quieter methods, especially if they are oversized, ruling them out as a race that the killer could belong to. Which makes a tall turian the most likely suspect; although I do not completely rule out a giant stealthy krogan, as that assumption is merely based on my experience and I haven't encountered enough members of the race to completely rule out the possibility."
As Hugo finished, Vurwin was moving from corpse to corpse, observing the wounds, while processing and making sense of Hugo's thinking that he had just heard. Even for Vurwin, a seasoned STG officer often commended by his superiors for his swift and clear thinking, Hugo was on another level; it was a humbling experience for the salarian lieutenant.
"You're too smart, Hugo, even for us," muttered Ferkal, "You're probably the most intelligent human in the galaxy."
Hugo turned to face Ferkal, a grin spreading across his face, "Flattering, but I know for sure that is not the case. Although I base that off of my own experience as well, this I know as a certainty."
"It couldn't have been an order given out from the turian military. No one would risk galactic instability with a move like this during these times, not even them," Vurwin thought aloud.
"Indeed. If they did found out about this station, they would have taken a more diplomatic route and worked with salarians, instead of this," Hugo voiced his agreement, "The next question is; where is the killer now?"
The three of them were standing in silent thought, the two salarians almost waiting in anticipation for the genius human to open up access to his wellspring of thought once again, when Vurwin straightened up and placed a finger at the side of this head, where the communications implant had been placed. His expression turned extremely sour.
"Prepare for combat but do not fire without-," the salarian's command for a hold fire was cut off by an explosive noise that echoed across the facility.
Hugo felt a surge of heat radiate across the room along with the deafening sound, the wall across him showing signs of strain. Recognising it as the signs of an incoming burst of explosive energy, Hugo started to raise his arms from his sides and crouch; although he was wearing a shield under his suit, his face was uncovered and it would be beneficial to minimise the surface area against the oncoming explosion and any shrapnel. Raising his arms from his sides to the front of his face would take approximately a quarter of a second while crouching would take approximately half a second. Upon seeing that the wall was breaking apart and that pieces of it were starting to fly towards him, he estimated that the full force of the explosion would reach him in approximately a little over a half a second. Meanwhile, the two salarians seemed to just be registering and processing the sound they were hearing, still oblivious to the breaking wall; they had not yet made any efforts to minimize damage.
The human could see sharp pieces of the wall, acting as shrapnel, flying at him as he raised his shielded arms up in front of his face and continued to bend his knees. The explosive force was now almost arriving at his position, the lowering motion almost complete to form a crouch. The explosive force full of bursting heat collided against his arms and then his chest. He felt the force act against that which was being exerted by his leg muscles as they were overcome, as it lifted the human off of the floor. As he lost his footing, Hugo felt himself being flung backwards towards the opposite wall, managing to catch a glimpse of the salarians being pushed back very harshly.
Going from his estimation of the room size as he entered it, he estimated that it would take another quarter of a second for him to reach the wall he was being pushed towards. It would approximately take a fifth of a second for him to move his arms from in front of his face to the back of the head and neck. As he continued to move his arm past his face and towards the top of his head, he noticed shrapnel fly over him, that which would have hit him if he had not managed to crouch. Considering it a small victory in itself, but realising that it was too early to celebrate when he noticed that the wall was still fast approaching, Hugo continued to move his arms past the top of the head to the back, where he stopped one arm and placed the other to cover the neck. He felt the heat sear against his skin, but it was a sacrifice he was willing to make in order to prevent a significantly more severe injury.
As the human hit the opposite wall, he felt most of the impact being absorbed by the shields in his arm, while the heat of the explosion and kinetic impacts from the shrapnel had been absorbed by those in his chest. The shields broke as Hugo crashed onto the floor, hearing the sound of nearby salarian bodies experiencing the same force from a standing position. If it were not for their full body armour, which included a helmet, the damage would have been catastrophic, but Hugo assumed that they were fine. The human quickly assessed his own injuries; bruised left forearm, slight burns on face, blurred vision and muscle strain in right leg. He heard a screaming voice.
"A krogan cruiser open fired at us!" Vurwin's voice echoed through the room over the sound of more explosions occurring all over the research facility.
The three soldiers slowly rose to their feet as the room shook and trembled under the fire power of the attacking ship.
"Shore party, come in," Hugo heard the Alusa's pilot over his communicator, the anxiety in her voice quite discernible.
"Estum, requesting extraction!" Ferkal howled, "Docking bay 2!"
"Roger. ETA less than a minute."
"Let's move!" Vurwin shouted as he lead the party out of the room, the other two closely following suit.
As they left the room, Hugo noticed a box of a full set of male human armour being blown out of the armoury lying on the ground, the original purpose of which puzzled him. The amour was blue, with an Alliance logo on the chest and showed heavy signs of wear, making the situation slightly more complicated, Hugo noted. However, that did not matter in his current predicament.
Stopping to kneel down and open the box, he raised his head to look at the two salarians who had noticed his abrupt halt.
"Wearing a suit won't help you if you're stuck here!" Ferkal yelled as Hugo was already putting on pieces of the armour as they latched onto the magnetic nodes on his shield system after going through in head the most optimal method of going about the task and working with blindingly fast efficiency.
"I'll need it! Go! I'll be right behind you!"
"Collins, I won't-," Vurwin shouted back, but he was interrupted.
"Yes, you will!"
The human and the salarian looked into each other's eyes, analysing each other for a moment, before Vurwin gave Hugo a nod of acknowledgement. The lieutenant started to run again as he convinced the gunnery chief to do the same, who swore under his breath before complying.
The salarian duo was frantically running across the facility towards the nearest exit as the entire structure was failing, walls blowing apart and ripped live wires dancing around dangerously, when they heard their pilot's voice over the comms again.
"A little problem, lieutenant."
"What?" questioned Vurwin, continuing to lead the sprint towards the docking bay as the airlock came into vision when he turned a corner.
He also saw the answer to his question through a nearby window; the now completely obliterated bay, blown off of the main body of the structure, floating away into the distance.
"The platform, it's-," the pilot sounded desparate.
"No time! Get in as close as you can!"
"Roger!"
They were almost at the airlock when Vurwin tapped his omnitool a few times, opening both doors simultaneously. The two salarians managed to jump towards the ship before being sucked out into the void, their momentum towards the ship sufficient to get them across to it. As they landed at the Alusa's open airlock, Ferkal saw Hugo being flung towards them in the Alliance amour he had successfully equipped.
For a split second which felt to be a much longer time for Hugo, he looked towards the stars and the vast expanses between them, admiring the galaxy in all of its intrinsic beauty; both full and empty, eternal and limited, caring and harsh. No matter what happened, the laws of the universe would continue to work as it always had; the cosmos indifferent to the squabbles amongst its inhabitants. This line of thinking, which had always kept Hugo calm and grounded, was also the reason his boredom made him restless; his nihilistic perspective of the universe made him free to do whatever he wanted, but it also meant that nothing stopped him from ending his own life when he was bored, something he had once seriously considered before moving to Omega, which opened his eyes to the many ways boredom could be dealt with.
As Hugo landed in the airlock where the two salarians waited, the door to open space closed behind him and the decontamination and pressure normalisation process was initiated. The door to the ship interior opened once the standard procedures were completed, Hugo being the first to step out of the airlock.
"Strap in people, this one might be rough," Estum called back from the cockpit, voice raised but full of confidence.
The three headed to their respective seats; Hugo walked up the platform towards the captain's chair as Vurwin and Ferkal walked to the port and starboard sides respectively, where chairs awaited each of them. As Hugo took his seat, a press of the button on his left armrest caused straps to appear from the top of the chair on both sides of his head to come down and automatically secure him in place, latching on at the bottom of the seat at the opposite side, the two straps forming a cross across the human's chest.
Under the trained hands of Estum Rou, one of the finest pilots in STG, the Alusa swerved and dodged around the flying debris while avoiding oncoming fire from the krogan cruiser, gaining distance against its far less nimble attacker. The safety straps kept the three other crewmembers safely in their seats as they watched on from the CIC. Hugo could see Ferkal flinching and looking quite uncomfortable, more so than Vurwin and himself. Once they had cleared the debris field, Estum punched in coordinates and FTL jumped out of the cruiser's range.
As they entered the calm of FTL travel, tension slowly eased from the room.
"Good work, flight lieutenant," Hugo commended, using the buttons on his armchair to release the safety straps.
"Thank you, Collins," Estum replied shyly while continuing to make minor adjustments on the terminals.
"Well that took me by surprise; couldn't do much with these," Ferkal muttered while pointing to the assault rifle holstered on his back; he was sitting in his seat a little rigidly with the safety straps still keeping him in place.
"Lucky for you that human armour was left behind for some reason, Collins," Vurwin said after giving a short sigh of relief.
"You would've had a hard time getting back to the ship, otherwise," Ferkal added.
"Very lucky indeed," Hugo concurred, absent-mindedly. The human was already deep in his thoughts; why were the krogans there, why was there a full set of used Alliance armour inside of a rogue STG facility, who was the Turian and how were they related? The genius thought about all of the different possibilities, casting aside the easy and cheap answer of coincidence. He truly did agree with Admiral Paesin; the galaxy was hardly ever that boring.
