No one is special, no one is better. Everyone is different, but no one is special! - turian military (myetel)
This fanfiction may coincide with some of the events of myetel's "Spirit of _" fanfictions. It is up to the reviewers how far the story will go; it may not make it as far as those events… so review, feedback is appreciated!
The main character is born on Joab, a human colony planet with eezo deposits.
Character has slight Hispanic accent from childhood, but speaks galactic, English, and turian low-tongue smoothly.
I did do research, but correct me if I make mistakes on the history etc.
Cameo appearances by some of myetel's characters might occur in future chapters.
Alonzo, Joab, August 3 2184
There was little work for Alonzo in his field, as his transgression had travelled back to Illium and its mining corporations. Regardless of his skills, nobody wanted a biotic. He returned to his home in New Jericho, Joab's capital city, and tried to find work there. His father was disappointed that he got fired from the mining job, and told him that any day they met at the apartment. On the fifth day of his stay at the apartment, he got fed up with being pestered by his father.
His father started off as always: "Why the hell would they fire you? You're the best! Did you do something illegal?"
"I told you before; it was an internal issue with the company."
"Well, you have to find some way to get yourself some money, because I'm not giving you any."
"I've had my eye on the military ever since the geth attacked the Citadel; I thought I'd go and apply there." Alonzo motioned off in the distance.
"And how do you plan on getting there? Last I remember you only had 5000 credits left from your severance."
"That's enough to get me to Omega and get me some rent… I can find some short-term work there until I have enough for passage the rest of the way. I also plan on leaving tomorrow."
"Well then." Alonzo's father looked a little happy at that. "I'll say bye now so I don't miss work tomorrow. You know, because I have work to go to."
"Thanks, dad," Alonzo said, then murmured, "for nothing."
He didn't even wait for the next morning. Alonzo put everything he thought he needed in his security satchel and was on the first possible shuttle for the Omega system.
Kenn, Omega, August 5 2184
Kenn had started his salvage shop when somebody managed to get into his apartment and steal what was left from his pilgrimage funds, along with whatever else they thought was valuable. He cursed himself for not having a better lock setup in the first place, and then had to ask Harrot for permission to start a shop to try and get off this hellhole of a station. Harrot was merciless, and made him charge extortionate prices on the goods he got, so Kenn made just enough to keep rent and food going for himself.
Kenn always came out of his shop when people came off the shuttles. He was looking for anyone who might be able to help him at his shop so he could get more product in and sell it faster. On this particular day he found what he was looking for, in a small, off the beaten path landing pad (the main ones, he found early, only contained rich people or mercs, and neither were inclined to even look at him). A short, young-looking human in a dirty engineer's jumpsuit – probably from his last job – was getting out of a shuttle from Joab and looking around in wonder.
Kenn motioned from the side of the docking bay to the human to come to him. "Hey, you there… human. Don't just stand there, you'll get pickpocketed. You looking for work?"
"Wow! Great, I get off the shuttle and find work? Maybe Omega's not as bad as everyone says… My name's Alonzo." He reached his hand out to greet the quarian.
"You can call me Kenn." After a hesitant look at the outstretched hand, he reached out and took it. "And Omega's not as bad as they say, it's worse. Come on. Let's go sort out your new job." And with that, Kenn had a salvage crew.
Alonzo, Omega, August 6 2184
Alonzo met this friendly quarian right out of the hatch of the shuttle, and was very polite to him. He had to restrain his amazement at being on a space station though, or he'd look like a tourist and get robbed right away – Kenn told him of this, as they were sneaking through the back alleys towards the shop that Kenn said he owned. Then they got to the business side of things.
"How good are you with repairs and salvage? From the look of you I'd say you're at least decent at it."
"I was in school for engineering before I went to work as a robo-miner on Helyme. I can reprogram circuits pretty easy, and I'm good at welding. I could lift heavier things that most think I can, as well." Alonzo held off on telling Kenn that he was a biotic for now.
"That's great, because I need someone to go scout in the scrapyards for old tech to salvage and repair. You'll be looking around merc hotspots, recycling plants, and the like, for anything I can sell."
"Do I get a gun to protect myself? It is Omega after all, the people here don't look like they'd take kindly to me poking around." He gave a wide berth to a vorcha which had just hissed at him and Kenn while they walked by, and it was gnawing on something… fleshy.
"Oh sure, I've got stuff back at my apartment. It's not the best quality, but if we get enough sales going, there might be extra after what I need to get better parts." So Kenn changed direction, now apparently going towards his home. Their path brought them near the industrial district, which they apparently needed to pass through to get to Kenn's place. There was a lot of yelling and metal-on-metal sounds coming from the warehouses they passed.
"How many of these places are salvage operations anyway? They seem to all be related to something with scrap…" Alonzo glanced into a few and saw vorcha and batarians all working hard, cutting into what looked like pieces of ships, mechs and aircars while vorcha crowded around trying to get a hold of anything themselves. "It doesn't look organized, or even legal."
"Most of these warehouses are covers for the merc groups to make extra creds on the side," Kenn commented as he stepped over the corpse of a nude asari with bullet holes in the torso. Alonzo tasted bile at the sight. "They don't even clean the dead up? What kind of place is this?"
"The mercs don't really like pedestrian traffic through here so we should probably hurry up. I've seen a few of the grislier krogan turning to look at us through the windows…" They both stepped up their pace at that. "Here we are, through here and we'll be on the main route to the apartment block I stay at."
He pulled a rusty door off a hole in the fencing at the edge of one warehouse, and beckoned Alonzo to head through first. The first thing Alonzo saw was the sheer multitude of bodies milling about in the 'street'. There were so many types of aliens so close together, and he stopped and stared for a couple seconds before Kenn tapped him on the arm and gestured to follow him again. They pushed through the throng of bodies, and Alonzo almost lost sight of Kenn once or twice.
Eventually, they reached a run-down looking apartment building (but which buildings here didn't look run-down) and Kenn pushed open the main door. "I found this place after Harrot let me start up near him. He said they'd let me stay here even though not many like having quarians around them." Kenn made a rude noise behind his helmet. "They still say we're bad, but the vorcha are ruthless scavengers to a degree not even one of us would dream of." Kenn headed for the stairs (elevators were too expensive for this sector).
"I noticed there was one we passed eating… something… What do they do here? They don't seem very useful as workers, and they look like they only steal from others."
"They clean up the gutters. The dead asari in the warehouses? She'll be gone in," Kenn paused and looked, "about an hour. The vorcha packs down in the waste reclamation sector take the bodies down there and eat them."
"That's horrible!"
"Would you rather the station pile up with the dead? Or that the bodies get spaced? This is the best option for Aria to have." The two were on the tenth floor and still climbing.
"Who's Aria?" Alonzo looked around at the stains on each floor and was lucky they had dried, mostly.
"She's the 'boss, CEO, queen of Omega, if you will'. She runs the station from the Afterlife club at the center of the hub near my stall. She's an asari with a lot of power and doesn't like to be annoyed. I heard she's killed people for making a ruckus in the club…"
"Then why is your store around the corner from the place?" It seemed counter-intuitive to be this close to Aria's 'stronghold'.
"Better business here than down in the back alleys. The richies see more of the shops up front even though I have to pay Harrot and Aria for protection…" Kenn sighed at that, as they reached the door to his apartment.
"I know about the quarians' Pilgrimage from cultural study classes, and what it means to them. So that makes me wonder; why did you come here, to Omega, in the first place?" Alonzo had been wondering this for since he learned why Kenn was here.
Kenn, who had just unlocked the door to the room, whipped his head around with (probably) an incredulous look on his face. His eyes looked pretty wide. "They taught you that in school? Nobody really knows much about us; why would they care now?"
"I looked it up on my own actually. The whole 'go find something valuable' thing is pretty smart. Wish humans did that; it would make everybody a little more humble…"
"It would make everyone more humble. It certainly makes me, and I haven't finished mine yet. I'm stuck here wasting time while all the people I left with are probably returning with amazing things for the Fleet. Lia'Vael talked about finding a used ship on the Citadel, and I should've gone there too! Even getting looked down at all day is better than trying not to die here!" There was definitely anger in Kenn's voice now. Alonzo didn't want to make a scene, so he tried to change the subject and get them into the apartment.
"Who's Lia'Vael? It sounds like you knew each other in the Fleet. Come on, you can tell me inside." Alonzo put a hand on Kenn's shoulder and softly pushed him through the door.