Wow already I have a few follows and comments. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. Thank you to all my story stalkers that make me feel important. And the comments are great guys. On a side note to Jane Hood about spell check. To begin my spelling is beyond terrible so I do rely heavily on spell check but since I am typing on a tablet too I have the wonderful Auto correct. So I will double check my story for spelling errors as well as auto correct fails. But I can't promise I will get every single one. So please bare with me. Also a side note, I was very tempted to put a shrub in Nihlus's room. It made me smile quite a bit.
I know I said at least once a week but if I have free bonus days like today I will work on a chapter and you might get more than one a week. Besides I don't really count the last chapter as a whole chapter, just a lead in. Alright so enough pointless babel, on with the show.
Disclaimer:Mass Effect and its characters are not mine no matter how much I want them...
"Scratch another one..." Garrus thought to himself as the heat sink popped out of his rife and he began to load another, the thunder over head slowly dyeing away. He couldn't have asked for a better sniping set up.
This was his third week into Spectre training and so far it was about as exciting as he had expected. They would receive a mission, fly to the destination, do what needs to be done, report back to the Council and receive their next mission, then be off once again. There was never really any down time for them so far. But that was alright with Garrus. Action was far better than the boredom that would assault him if they didn't have missions. He had spent his whole life always doing something that he didn't know if he was even capable of doing nothing.
A yellow helmet moved in the middle of his cross-hairs bringing his mind back to his job at hand. This mission was different than the ones that the Council had been shoving onto them as of late. Which meant to Garrus that they were wanting to see him under different situations now, which was a good sign. Since his first mission to take out the slavers all the missions since had been along the same line. Find the bad guys, stop the bad guys. No need for style. No need for any talent other than shooting a lot of people. But now they were on a mission of retrieval.
They found themselves on a small planet that seemed to feature a none stop lightening storm. The sky was a constant dance of of flashes with the occasional rolling of thunder. The base they were currently at was a large player in black market weapons trade. But they were not the largest player. Finding the top dogs was their mission objective. So the current moment found Nihlus deep inside the base searching and copying all the files he could onto his Omni-tool. Garrus was posed on a small ridge a far way back from Nihlus's exit, making sure that no enemies lingered around the escape route.
The yellow helmeted figure turned in a small circle as it looked for its fellow guards. Garrus had to admit that there was some joy in using incendiary rounds in a mission like this. Nothing was left of the guards comrades besides ash and that had long since blown away with the storms winds. He was quite glad that the storm did not come along with rain, that would make hiding the ash and smell all the more harder. But not impossible.
As the helmet finally seemed to catch on and bring up his wrist to radio the rest of the group, Garrus took in a large breath. As he slowly began to exhale he lined up his shot and let his finger twitch in the hair trigger of his rifle. Thunder clapped above once more to hide the sound of the rifle fire, which at first felt like luck was ow simply a constant given. Garrus watched through the scope as the helmet was hit and slowly began to disintegrate the figure. It was not as satisfying as watching his head blow into nothingness but it was still something.
Another figure appeared in his scope, this one a helmeted turian wearing black and red armor. The figure looked up towards him and gave him a small nod. Garrus nodded in return though he didn't think Nihlus could see him properly from this distance. As Nihlus made his way back towards the ship Garrus made one last sweep with his rifle, making sure no one noticed the exiting turian or the lack of guards. With luck the base wouldn't be able to figure out what happened. Nihlus was to not leave a trace of him being there or of what he did. So it should simple look as though a few guards disappeared for no reason. Once Nihlus was clear Garrus slid down the ridge a bit before he feel back to the ship that waited for them a few miles back.
As Garrus entered the ship Nihlus was already out of his helmet and in the pilot seat. His green orbs moved to Garrus for only a second before he offered another nod and turned back towards the controls. The door shut tight behind him as he slipped into the co pilot seat, pulling off his cobalt helmet. "We are still under the radar. They are none the wiser. Did you get everything?"
Nihlus gave him a turian smirk as he gave a small nod. "Everything and then some. These guys are very very busy and lucky for us they like to keep everything on file and in detail. Luna is going over it all now. Once she makes since of all of it we will have a new destination." His mandibles flared in a wide grin. "We are going to meet the top guy and take him out."
Garrus shared his grin as he stood with a nod. "It will be good to take this guy down. I have seen those crates before, the ones the weapons shipped in. I ran into quite a few of them in my C-Sec days. Because of them a lot of innocent people were killed..." It was another moment in Garrus's life that clearly showed just how much of a difference he could make as a Spectre instead of a C-Sec officer. The red tape of C-Sec left him simple cleaning up the mess and putting a few of the underlings behind bars for a short while. As a Spectre, even one in training, they were gong after the big guys, the one at the top. He was going to make it so some poor C-Sec officer wouldn't have to do clean up from these weapons anymore.
Nihlus only offered him an understanding nod before he turned back to the console. Garrus left him like that as he moved towards the mess area. Moving to one of the small tables that he had converted into his own little work bench. Setting down his rifle he began his after mission routine. He started by dismantling the rifle very carefully. After that he began to clean each piece, checking it over as he did so for any damage or need for upgrade. Once each piece felt as close to perfect as he could make it he began to resemble his rifle. It was when he was fitting the last piece into place that a very familiar voice echoed in the small area he was in.
"Welcome back, Mr. Vakarian. Sorry for the delay I was assisting Nihlus. I take it you enjoyed your mission?" Luna's voice was calm and even as it was most of the time.
Garrus couldn't help but chuckle slightly as he looked up towards the door across for him. It was the door that he was not aloud to enter. It only took the first few days for him to figure out that from the humming coming from the room and the fact that he wasn't aloud in that that was where Luna's program was found. And he had begun to simple call her a program since Nihlus would not give him any more detail as to what she was. She was far to advanced to be VI but it was clear that she was not AI, not with what Nihlus said about her.
"You know you don't have to great me every time I come back.." He raised a hand to place on his shoulder as he rolled it getting it to loosen up once again after being hunch over his rifle. "And the mission was quite entertaining. There are only a few better ways to remove some stress than blasting bad guys into dust..." Standing up he moved his rifle over towards its case and began to put it away. "Luna, did I not ask that you stop calling me that. Makes me think my father is lurking around somewhere. Call me Garrus."
It took a moment for her to respond, she must have been logging it so some other computer thing. When she did speak it almost seemed as though she were amused. "Alright then Garrus. Nihlus wants me to inform you that we are taking off."
Garrus nodded as he latched the last clasp of his case. Standing he gave a small salute wave to the camera in the corner that linked to Luna. "Copy that Luna. I'm on my way."
As he entered the cockpit Nihlus was simple waiting for him, proof that Luna had relayed that he was on his way. When he took his seat Nihlus gave a nod as he turned to his controls. "Alright Luna. Takes us up and out in stealth mood. Go as quite as you can deary. We don't want them knowing we were here."
"Of course, Nihlus. Moving out now. Once we are at a safe distance I will set a course to our destination." Garrus raised a brow plate slightly. 'Our destination?' Just where were they going that Luna didn't simple say it. Nihlus seemed to notice Garrus's unease.
"I need to meet a contact before we go after our guy. We usually meet rather close to the war zone. It will be a quick trip. One that I will go on alone." Garrus watched his mentor with slightly narrowed eyes. After minute he gave a small nod and tuned away. It was common for Spectres to have contacts. It was also common for them to not trust anyone other than the Spectre. He was still new to the game. He really shouldn't expect Nihlus to tell him all of his secrets and contacts when he hasn't even been with him a year. Nihlus was trusting but not stupid trusting.
The flight to the 'destination' was a quite one, besides for a few words exchanged ever once in a while or when it was required. As they neared the planet Garrus tried not to identify it at all. It wasn't his business after all.
Nihlus rose from his chair as he looked out the window. "Alright Luna. You know where to land. I'm going to get ready, go ahead and send the data to the data pads in my room."
He gave Garrus a small look before he turned and moved down the hallway as the ship began to descend to the ground. Garrus tried to busy himself with some task but nothing seemed to derail his train of thought. An unknown planet near human space where a lone turian was to meet with an unknown contact. There was to much there to be uncomfortable able. It didn't help when Nihlus returned exchanging his dark armor for casual clothing. He must really trust this contact. In his hand he held two data pads. The look on his face was clearly that of being puzzled.
"Luna, there are only two data pads... Is that really all you have right now?" He didn't seem angry. To Garrus the older turian sound worried, almost a little sad. After a few seconds Luna's voice filtered around them.
"That is all the information that I can supply at the moment. It will be more than enough for him."
Garrus looked to Nihlus who gave a small nod and moved towards the hatch. Green meet blue as Nihlus looked back to him. "She's all yours until I get back. Should be just a few hours." With that he was gone and the hatch door shut.
I was only a few minutes after he left that Garrus started to grow very bored. A sigh left him as he stood and stretched. It did not take long for Luna to notice. It must have been part of program to view vitals or something like that.
"So Mr. Garrus it seems that we have the ship to ourselves. Is there anything that you request to do? We could play a game. Or watch a vids."
Garrus bit back a laugh as he looked up towards where he believed the program watched him. "I was not aware that you were interested in vids..." Turning he began to walk towards the mess area. If he had some down time he might as well get something to drink. What would be better than some Turian ale. As he walked Luna continued their conversation. Best thing about talking to a computer that was integrated into the ship, you could walk away and not feel rude.
"Vids are a very informative source of data on the customs and habits of races that I am not privy to. I do not have data on social aspects of most races. Almost all of my data revolves around the ship and ship related events such as fire fights. Since Nihlus acquired me I have start to develop an interest in learning about other races. Vids seem to be a good source of this information."
By now Garrus was at the mess and looting himself a glass. He had to hand it to Nihlus, he always got the good stuff. Although what Luna said made perfect since it was far to close to AI talk for his comfort. A program that wanted to learn more than what it already was programmed to know. It was things like this that made him question Nihlus. Had his mentor lied to him? And if he did what was the reason? There shouldn't be a problem with Spectre's having an AI. Even if they were against Council space laws there many other things that Nihlus had, such as mods and weapons, that were just as illegal. Why would an AI be any different?
He shook his head to clear his thoughts slightly. There was no reason to ponder on things he couldn't change. And it didn't seem like he would get the truth out of Nihlus anytime soon. Of course he could always sneak into Luna's room and run a diagnostics but he knew that Luna would tell Nihlus and that would be more conflict then he cared to deal with.
Moving back towards the cockpit with his drink in one hand and the bottle in the other hand he spoke to the computer. "Alright then Luna, a vid would be just fine. Do you have a favorite?"
When she spoke there seemed to be amusement in her voice. "That is quite hard to say, since I do not have favorites." He should have known. Programs did not know the meaning of favorites. Even an AI did not have that emotion. It was an organic feeling and even some organics couldn't pick favorites but that is mostly from liking to many items.
"But," Luna continued as he sat down in the pilot seat now that Nihlus was out. "I find the idea of a gun wielding Hanar quite interesting."
Garrus just about lost the liquid he placed in his mouth coughing slightly. It took him a few seconds to regain himself. "Gun wielding hanar? Do you mean Blasto?" He chuckled as he shook his head. "I have to say that that vid would not be an informative one. You won't learn many facts from that story."
He chuckled as he leaned back in the chair taking another sip of his drink. After a moment he began to wonder if Luna was still interested in a vid. When she spoke again he sat back up at her question.
"What would you recommend, Garrus?"
It was really the question that cause him the ponder. It was the way that she said it. The voice almost held caution to it, like she was afraid to ask the question. He turned towards her camera and gave a turian smile. "There are quite a few, but one of my favorites is 'Fleet and Flotilla.' It has a great selection of music."
He waited for her to reply. There was so much that she could have said if she were an organic. Had she been a turian female she probably would have laughed him out the airlock. But since she was only a program he was alright sharing his small little secret. Yes Garrus Vakarian, Spectre candidate and all around tough guy liked a romance movie because of the music.
Instead of more questions or even a comment from the Luna program, a window opened on the screen in front of him. Music that he knew all to well began to play as the opening credits began. He couldn't help but sit back and smile as he watched 'Fleet and Flotilla' with the ships program sipping his turian ale. For the first time in a long time he didn't find himself bored in his down time.