Chapter 3
The Killers: Glamorous Indie Rock and Roll
A/N: Hey. So, there's going to be another time jump this chapter, six months into the future. This is just so we can get to what makes Garrus finally decide to leave…the story is supposed to be set on Omega, after all, and we've still got stuff to deal with before then. Just if you're wondering about where all the time at C-Sec has gone.
Also, in this first section…if there's parts where you don't understand what Ian and Garrus are talking about, that's the point.
Chapter, go!
#######
October 16th, 2185
8:27pm, Omega time
Archangel's hideout
"You know," I say, leaning back against the balcony wall as there's a lull in the shooting. "I think Tali leaving might be the reason I ended up here. I know I was reluctant to come at first, but…with nothing to anchor me onto the Citadel, I didn't really have anything to lose."
"You're here because you didn't have anything to lose?" Garrus chuckles, raising his brow plates as he slumps down next to me, slowly reloading his rifle. "I'm flattered. And here I was thinking it was loyalty or something."
Sitting down is making my eyes feel kinda heavy, actually…shit, this is not a good time to be feeling tired. I shake my head quickly to clear my head, fully aware we're out of stims. I hate the damn things, anyway. Great for a temporary boost, but the comedown after is terrible. "Loyalty might have played a role," I shrug. "But it's not like C-Sec was something for me to hold onto, was it?"
"No," he nods. "Honestly, I'm surprised you didn't come here when I did. Not sure why you stayed on for that extra month."
"Because I wasn't sure what I was doing," I reply, drawing my pistol and checking its heat sink. Can't be too careful… "I thought maybe C-Sec was supposed to be my place." I glance around the house, and into the expanse of Omega over the balcony. "That turned out great, didn't it?"
"At least we didn't have to worry about paperwork here," Garrus points out. "It was getting in the way of us saving lives back on the Citadel." He's right…the six months we spent back at C-Sec were nothing like those first two years we'd had. I mean, not only was a lot of the Citadel a total wreck, but security measures had been hopped up to the extreme in case of geth infiltration. I'd thought the paperwork was bad before…but there was form to fill out for every little thing we did. Taking risks was outright forbidden, rather than frowned upon…which kinda leads into how Garrus left.
"I've said it before, and I'll say it again," I mutter. "At least paperwork wasn't trying to kill me. There were rules on the Citadel…we're probably in this situation because they don't exist here."
Garrus shakes his head slightly. "You know exactly why we're in this situation." Ah, I don't think he's completely over it just yet…but at least he understands what I had to do. I'll take a bit of resentment over full-blown relationship meltdown…
"Yeah, true," I nod slowly. "I'm sorry about it, Garrus. Seriously. I didn't mean for things to go like this. I couldn't have known-"
"I know," he sighs. "Forget about it." There's a sudden sound of shouts from across the bridge, and I look over at Garrus, raising an eyebrow.
"Showtime?"
"Looks like it," he grunts, heaving himself up onto one knee and raising his rifle, leaning it on the balcony rail, as I grab mine and follow suit. It's almost ironic, talking about C-Sec, and both of us being in this position, ready to take a shot. Exactly like on the day Garrus finally decided to leave for this hell-hole…
I was expecting it to be something related to a case we were on, or Pallin pushing him over the line…but you can never fully guess what fate has in store for you. A random event one day, something you never saw coming, and bam. Your life's been changed for ever.
##########
April 16th, 2184
5:38pm, Citadel time
C-Sec Headquarters
Oh, bloody hell, that's a lot of ticky boxes. Far, far too many. Changing form 17b for field investigation was always going to be controversial, but now it's actually here…I'm clueless. Quite what was wrong with the old 17b is beyond me, except for the fact it was an inherent waste of time, but now this new one makes an already irritating task downright anger inducing. Every single time Garrus and I go out of the office to track down a lead, we have to fill one of these out.
It starts of simple, filling in name and rank…then asking questions like the purpose of our visit. Are we 'making an arrest', 'discharging a firearm', 'conducting an interrogation', 'conducting a premises search'… I mean, what idiot wrote this? Most of the time on this job, you don't know what's going to happen until it actually does! Am I supposed to just take a random guess, or tick every box just to be safe? Then again, if I tick every box, it makes it look like I'll be kicking someone's door down, start simultaneously searching them and their home/place of work, whilst firing my gun randomly into the air and yelling questions at them. Which could call my professional conduct into question. Jesus Christ…
"Garrus!" I shout over to his desk, and the turian's head pops up from behind the mountain of Tupari sports drink on his desk, stacked next to a total mess of forms. "Are you finding this as hard as I am?"
"That would depend on whether or not you can answer this question," he says, taking a mock-thoughtful pose and looking at me. "Is this visit of importance to an ongoing investigation?"
"No, I just like bothering people during my work hours for shits and giggles," I shoot back sarcastically, making Garrus chuckle slightly. "Is that a serious question? If we're making an inquiry, of course it's going to be bloody important!"
The turian shakes his head slightly, grabbing one of the bottles that hasn't been emptied and taking a quick swig. "You shouldn't mock these, Ian. This kind of questioning is our frontline of defence against geth infiltration."
"That would be funny if it wasn't true," I groan, deciding to just tick the boxes about asking questions and searching the premises. I mean, if the guy we're asking gives us the wrong answers to whatever we ask him, the first thing is going to lead to the other. I doubt I'll be shooting anyone today anyway, except whoever wrote this piece of crap. "Well, it's been half an hour, and I finally think I'm happy with all my answers. How about yourself?"
"Just let me copy what you've written," Garrus sighs, as I step over and hand him my form. As he starts scribbling stuff down, I lean against the side of his desk, and glance around the office.
CID was never exactly spotless, but most detectives used to have fairly clean desks, some manner of filing system, and you actually see the surface of their desk underneath all the work we had. Of course, this was before the Battle of the Citadel. Back then, having ten detectives in the office at once would have been unheard of.
Unfortunately, things have changed a wee bit.
There's datapads strewn all over the place, along with paper, precariously balanced coffee mugs, and detectives at their desks, talking on phones and typing away on terminals. If destroying half the Citadel wasn't enough, Sovereign's managed to screw us over from the dead by ensuring an onslaught of red tape.
It's bad. I mean, really bad. Everything we do has to be justified in writing somewhere, and there's an almost zero tolerance approach on people who skip paperwork or don't fill it out seriously, which the vast majority of the office learned the hard way when the whole scheme was launched, Garrus and I included. I don't think Pallin is personally that bothered…but there's obviously pressure on him from higher up, because he's made it perfectly clear that paperwork and bureaucracy is serious business. Of course, it's the Council's fault, the bastards.
At least the media attention on us has died, though, like Pallin predicted. They held onto the story for about three weeks, asking their questions and generally being a pain, but Garrus and I hung about in the apartment most of the time and didn't co-operate with whatever questions they asked when we had to go out. Eventually, they must have worked out they weren't getting anywhere with us, and the story was starting to get old, so the number of reporters stationed outside the apartment building got smaller and smaller until they disappeared all together.
After that, it was back to C-Sec. It's not been a terrible few months working here…we've done the usual, smuggling prevention, generally making sure the black market keeps on their toes. The necessary research has also been carried out to switch from overheating to heat sinks, which suits me perfectly fine. Now I can fire my pistol as fast as I want, and not wait for ages for it to cool down. Some people moan about it...but I can eject and put a new sink into my pistol in about a second. The only downside; reloading a pistol in each hand is a pain in the ass, though I'm only allowed the one handgun at C-Sec, so that's not a huge issue.
But the bureaucratic crap is definitely getting to Garrus. He didn't like it before the Battle of the Citadel, and the level it's at now is seriously pissing him off. Not enough to send him off to Omega yet, though. It's got to be drawing close, mind. He stayed on at C-Sec for a few months before leaving in game…but it's been a few months, and still nothing. Whatever it is, then, I imagine it'll be coming soon. Maybe Pallin will make him flip out, or the bureaucracy will just make him snap, get up and leave. I don't know.
I know I'm not going with him. After everything Tali said before she left…about me not thinking straight, about not interfering…I dunno, maybe she was right. I'm still a little bit pissed she left, to be honest, but Omega is something that moulds Garrus's character greatly. Getting involved in that could be…unwise. Operating on the right side of the law probably suits me better, anyway. Even with this bullshit paperwork.
"We don't need to take a cruiser, do we?" Garrus suddenly says, eyes widening slightly. Oh God, he's got a point…taking a cruiser now requires another form, that's going to take a good fifteen minutes to fill out. Previously, the cruiser was really useful…but with the time it takes to actually get one these days, it's becoming quicker to walk a lot of the time.
"It's about a twenty minute journey to the weapon vendor," I mutter, running through the directions in my mind. "Nah, we'll just walk it. Quicker in the long run." Garrus breathes a slight sigh of relief, finishing up his form and handing mine back to me. Finally, we can actually do real police work and stuff! Just gotta post these on the way out.
Garrus and I simultaneously walk through the CID double doors, and I give a Morgan Patterson a quick nod on the way out. There's been a bit of weapons smuggling going on that Garrus and I are looking into…and hopefully this guy we're going to see is gonna be able to help us out. Given Garrus's mood, I sure as hell hope for his sake he can.
##########
"Look, it's blatantly obvious you're involved in illegal weapons," I sigh to the human male, as I survey what I can see of his stock room from behind the shop counter. "If you give us information on where you got them from, and turn over your illegal stock to C-Sec, we might not come down so harsh on you. If you don't co-operate, I'll arrest your ass, take you back, find out the information anyway, take the guns and throw you in jail. I'll let you mull that decision over."
Man, this bloke is a total amateur. Garrus and I have seen hundreds like him on the Citadel, but criminals never cease to amaze me. The guy immediately freaks out upon seeing C-Sec, denies everything before we even ask about illegal weapons. He also must be a lawyer in his spare time, since he's rattled off a list of things we apparently can't do, like searching his stock and stuff like that. He's completely wrong, of course, we can absolutely do that, but it's funny letting him rant.
"I dunno what you're talkin' about," he says stubbornly, giving me and Garrus a scowl. "I ain't involved in no illegal weapons or shit." He gives Garrus a pointed glare. "You fuckin' turians are racist, always blaming the humans around here!"
I roll my eyes. This guy is a class act, I'll give him that much. "Mate, I'm human, and I'm blaming you too. Look," I say, pointing back into the store room at a shotgun sticking out from a pile of boxes. "You're not licensed to sell that. No store on the Citadel is. It's a Batarian State Arms weapon, which is obviously illegal in Council space. I can tell just by looking at it, you moron."
"Batarian weapons are illegal in Council space?" the man asks, doing his best to look surprised. God, how fucking stupid is he?
"BSA weapons are produced by a nationalised batarian institution, infamous for waste and corruption," Garrus says coldly. "Its weapons and their production are unethical, and as such the Council has made their weapons illegal to import or sell. Which means…"
"You're in the shit," I finish for him, smiling sarcastically at the vendor. "So, like I said, you can come with me down to the station and I'll see how long we can get you behind bars for, or you let us take the weapons now and give us what we want. Where'd you get them?" I seriously hope he doesn't make us arrest him…because I didn't tick that box on the form, so it's gonna look bad if we come back with a criminal in tow. Bloody hell…
The merchant looks between Garrus and I, then sighs. "Fuck," he mutters. "Fine, you win. My supplier was a batarian, met him in the lower wards a while back. Said he had some weapons he wanted to get off his hands, said he could do it cheap. And this stuff…" the merchant mimes hefting a shotgun, then firing with enormous recoil, "would stop a krogan in his tracks."
I shake my head disdainfully. "As interesting as that is, who was this batarian?"
"I dunno," the human shrugs. Really? Really? "Didn't gimme a name. Just had the weapons, I bought 'em, done deal. He was wearing blue armour."
"Brilliant," I say sardonically. "That really narrows it down. Next you'll be telling me he had four eyes as well."
The man's eyes widen slightly. "That's true!" Oh my God…
"If he's telling the truth, that batarian is going to be long gone by now," Garrus mutters in my ear. "We'll call uniform in, get them to take the stock."
"Alright," I nod. "Right, we'll be taking any stock you have, and your license to sell firearms. Selling BSA stuff…you'll be looking at a good ban there. You might even have your license revoked all together."
The man just gawps at me. "Eh? I thought you said you weren't gonna arrest me!"
"You're right, sir, I'm not," I grin, giving him a pat on the arm. "Can't speak for him, though." I point over at Garrus. "You wanna cuff him?"
"It'd be my pleasure," Garrus chuckles. I give him a quick nod, then step towards the front of the store to call some regular officers in to clear up here. Presumably Garrus has started to handcuff him, because of the torrent of swear words I hear from behind me…
Right, let's see if anyone's at dispatch. It takes a few seconds for the connection to be made, then a friendly female voice greets me. "C-Sec dispatch."
"Hey, it's Detective Shaw, badge number…" I glance down at my warrant badge. You'd think I'd have remembered it by now, but there you go. "2941337. Need some uniform down here, to pick up illegal stock and one suspect. Have you got a fix on my location?"
There's a slight pause on the end of the line, then the voice flares up again. "Roger that, officers are en-route. ETA five minutes."
"Cheers," I smile slightly. Well, at least that went quite smooth…dispatch can fill out the paperwork rather than me. Though, since I called them in, I'm probably gonna have to sign off on it. Ah well. "Have a nice day."
"You too, detective," the voice replies, then the line goes dead. Well, at least she was nice. Friendly staff are always good.
"Garrus!" I shout across, "their ETA's five minutes!" I walk along to the counter and vault over it, heading into the store-room. Garrus had handcuffed the merchant to one of the shelves, picking through the stock he's got. I've never really seen BSA weapons, actually. Apparently you could only get them in Mass Effect 1 through console hacks…but I've seen the record that company has. If it had been in game, buying BSA goods should have got you a shit ton of Renegade points.
"I can't believe how dumb this guy was," Garrus says incredulously. "This stuff is serious contraband, and he's just got it on the shelves…"
"I'm sitting right here, ya know!" the guy complains, but we both ignore him.
"Well, we're never gonna find that batarian with this kind of lead," I mutter. "He must keep doing this, popping back and forwards onto the Citadel, selling before we can get a fix on his location. Still, at least we got something." I nod over at the weapons. "It's not a bad haul, that's for su-"
There's a sudden frantic beeping from both our omni-tools, and I glance over at Garrus. We have different tones set for different types of messages…and both are playing the 'urgent' tone. Which only comes in from Pallin, or serious crimes dispatch. Ah, shit…I accept the call, and a frantic voice blares into my ear.
"We've got a hostage situation in the Wards!" What the fuck? I see Garrus curse under his breath across from me. Where the hell did this come from? "Shop selling medical supplies, around twenty customers still in it. Biotic entered the shop, locked down the entrances, and he's threatening to detonate himself. Repeat, a medical supplies store in the Wards, location is being sent to omni-tools now. Any nearby units, please respond!"
Garrus is on the mic before I can say anything, and I glance down at the location. It's only a few minutes away if we run, and we'll definitely be doing that… "Roger that, dispatch. We're on our way." Both of us terminate the call, and the turian looks over at me. "Shit. We need to move."
"You don't need to tell me," I nod, then glance over at the merchant. "Stay here. Someone will come and pick you up eventually."
"It's not like I'm going anywhere," he mutters, jangling the handcuffs for effect as Garrus and I sprint out of the room, and through the main doors of the shop, hurtling towards the hostage location.
This can't be good.
##########
"C-Sec!" I yell, hurtling around a corner and entering the long street which the medical store is located on. Too bad the whole thing's about two hundred metres long…and it's full of people, some passing by, some standing around the C-Sec cordon and trying to peek in. Obnoxious bastards…it's not a damn show! My shout sends people moving to the side of the street, Garrus running level with me, warrant badge held in an outstretched talon. It's been a good four minute dash…and my breath is ragged as I catch sight of a C-Sec officer outside the shop, trying to make the spectators move on. At least there's not been a detonation yet…
I slide to a halt in front of the crowd, pulling out my own badge and pushing towards the police line as Garrus follows suit. Hostage situation…I'm half-expecting to see Shepard barge into here and take charge of the situation. This is her kind of thing, not mine…
"Detectives!" one of the officers says, a turian, walking over to us as we move through the holographic police line and in front of the shop. Garrus quickly shakes his outstretched talon, and I do the same. Presumably this is the guy in charge… "Raiku Ternam."
"I'm Garrus, that's Ian," Garrus says, immediately taking charge of the situation. Good man. "What's going on, Raiku?"
"I don't know all the details myself," the turian replies grimly. "From what we've been able to put together ourselves, biotic, human male, walked into the store about…fifteen, twenty minutes ago. Locked all the customers inside, holding one as a human shield with a pistol to her head, and he's threatening to detonate if we try and get in or anyone tries to leave."
Shit. "Have we got a motive?" I ask. "He's gotta have a reason, right?"
"We've got negotiators talking to him through the store's comm. line," Raiku explains. "He's an L2 biotic, and they've…well, been getting screwed over recently. There's been a big political debate about whether or not they should be given reparations because of the damage the implants can do, and a vote's going to be taken on it soon, but it looks like it's not going to turn out in their favour."
"Are you serious?" Garrus gawps. "Doing something like this isn't going to win them support! People will think biotics are terrorists!"
"I'm not saying he's sane," Raiku shakes his head. "Far from it. But that's his motive, anyway. The negotiators are having a hard time, and he's not backing down."
Bollocks. If he's not going to back down, then we're just counting down the minutes until he finally decides to blow up. Actually, there's something bothering me there… "Everyone keeps saying he's going to detonate," I say. "I mean, how did he get a bomb here? Security measures are insanely tight!"
"No, he's going to literally detonate himself," Raiku replies. Eh? "Release element zero from himself in an explosion. It'll kill him, but the blast will take out anyone in that shop, too. As well as the roof." I never realised biotics could do that, Jesus…then again, why would they want to?
"We need to try and find a way to pacify him," Garrus mutters, looking at the exterior of the shop. I can practically see the tactical gears in his mind whirring away…then his eyes suddenly light up. "This store has a glass roof."
"Yeah, but if he sees anyone climb up top, he'll blow this place sky fucking high," Raiku says. "We can hardly scale the building!"
Garrus shakes his head, looking impatient now. "I didn't say that. But there's maintenance catwalks up there," he says, pointing towards the roof. And, of course, he's right. Just like Thane's loyalty mission… "We can get up there, find an angle, and take him down with a sniper shot. You've got assault weapons here, right?" There's some fully armed C-Sec officers standing around, in case for some reason we decided to breach in or something…which means there'll be sniper rifles going spare.
"Sure…" the other turian mutters, sounding a little unsure. "Is this such a good idea? If he sees someone with a gun up there, he'll blow."
"We don't have a choice," I point out. "He's crazy, and we've got nothing to negotiate with. He isn't trying to work out a deal now, he's just trying to pluck up the courage to do it. We need to stop him before then." I'm getting a really bad feeling about this…but there's not anything else we can really do here. I've shot a krogan's eye about before, so at least I've got that as something of a comfort.
Raiku looks torn for a few seconds, then finally nods his head slowly. "Alright. Get your weapons, and get up there. No shooting unless you're absolutely certain you have a shot, and I still need to clear this with the Executor. But take preliminary positions, and keep hidden."
"Will do," I nod. I've been keeping practice up in the shooting range these past few months, as has Garrus…but I haven't shot at a live target for a while. And not under this kind of pressure. But my accuracy hasn't waned any, so I should be able to do this. If I can get an angle. Garrus and I both jog over to the weapons stack brought along, picking out two sniper rifles, each of us slamming a heat sink into our weapon. They replaced overheating with heat sinks now…honestly, I prefer reloading, so it works quite well for me. Not that we'll be taking more than one shot here.
"There's two entrances from this street to the catwalks," Garrus says, nudging me on the shoulder and bringing my attention from the sniper rifle onto his omni-tool, showing a map of the immediate area. You take the one in the east, I'll take the north one, see if you can get a line of sight. Keep low, alright?"
"Got it." I heft the rifle, slinging the stock over the crook of my right arm, and glance over at Garrus. Here goes nothing…and I thought it was going to be a regular day. Just my fucking luck. "Good hunting." Garrus gives me a nod, then we split, jogging towards our relevant access points.
I can hear my heartbeat faintly as I run, taking the steps up onto the metal walkway two at a time, anxiety and heightened adrenaline amplifying the sound of my feet on the surface. I surface a good fifty metres or so from the store…with no angle whatsoever. Shit, need to get closer.
I duck down, balancing lightly on the balls of my feet, and creep forward, keeping to the shadows as best I can. L2 biotic…I do feel for their cause, wanting the reparations (especially through knowing Kaidan), but this is going to be a serious blow to their cause regardless of how this turns out. Godammit…one man running years of effort.
It's not about the politics, though. He's got a store full of civilians there, and whatever his political views, he needs to be stopped. A hostage situation like this…I've been through some crazy shit at C-Sec, sure, but it's mostly been Garrus and I in danger. Not this. With everything hanging by a thread.
About twenty metres from the shop now. Fuck, this side of the walkway isn't going to get me anywhere. I can see the guy, but he's got the human shield at the perfect fucking angle to block my shot. I go prone, glancing around to see if I can catch sight of Garrus. It's down to him now…and then I catch sight of the turian, dark blue and black armour blending in almost perfectly, long barrel of the sniper resting on the catwalk railing. Does that mean-
"I think I've got a shot," I hear him breathe quietly through my earpiece. My heart rate spikes suddenly when he says that, previously faint noise becoming a dramatic thumping as I glance over at him, then back at the shop. He's got an angle there…but it's facing the front of the biotic, so the human shield is still an issue. Fucking hell…
"Garrus, are you absolutely positive here?" I ask, barely even daring to breath as I watch him, crouched stock still like a hawk, mandibles fluttering slightly as he breathes in and out, the controlled breaths of a sniper.
"I'm sure," comes the cold, emotionless reply. We're speaking on an open C-Sec channel, so I know what he's going to ask next… "Repeat, I have a shot. Permission to engage?" I bring my scope up to my eyes and look inside the shop…I can see the biotic talking, but he's got his eyes shut, and he's grimacing slightly. I think he's trying to build up the willpower to go through with it…
Fifteen seconds. Still no reply. "C-Sec, do you read me?" Garrus asks, beginning to sound like he's losing his cool. I know I am… "Permission to engage?" Another five seconds. "C-Sec, if you do not respond, I'm taking-"
"Wait, Vakarian," a voice finally replies. An all too familiar one. Raiku must have finally contacted Pallin… "You do not have permission."
"What?" I can't see Garrus's expression, but the tone of voice lets me imagine it. Eyes widened, mandibles stretched out, general fury across his face. "I can end this here, Pallin! Let me take the damn shot!"
"We can't risk it," the Executor replies stubbornly. "There's too much at stake. We're negotiating with him, maybe we can talk him dow-"
I can see Garrus's talons tightening on the rifle as he shoots back his reply. "The negotiations aren't going to work! He's crazy!"
"I'm giving you a direct order here, Vakarian!" Pallin shouts down the mic. "We need to talk to people on the ground, come to a decision about whether or not this is the best course of action!"
"This is the only course of action!" Garrus hisses back. "Damn it Pallin, we don't have time for bureaucracy!"
"And I'm not going to let twenty hostages get killed on the whim of some headstrong detective!"
"If we don't act now, they'll die anyway!"
"Do NOT open fire, Vakarian!"
I lift up my scope again, heart in my mouth as I look through. The biotic has his eyes open now…it looks like he's yelling something! There's a furious look on his face…I glance down through the catwalk, and the sight that hits me makes my stomach lurch in panic.
The C-Sec officers outside the building are physically shoving the civilians out the way, and I can see the negotiators running back. No no no! I bring the scope up to my eye again…and see the biotic flared up blue, the aura around him getting progressively larger and deeper coloured.
SHIT.
"Garrus!" I yell, throwing all subtlety to the wind in panic. "Shoot him! He's gonna deto-"
I never get to finish the sentence, as an enormous blue pulse erupts from the building, blasting the glass outwards and tearing the building apart, debris and rubble hurtling into the air to a chorus of screams from everyone assembled below, the whole world around us shaking. The blast knocks the wind out of me, and I'm hurled into the railing with a gasp of pain, the support beams groaning as it rocks unsteadily beneath my winded form.
I struggle for a few seconds, then manage to get in shallow breaths, shuddering in shock. He detonated.
No. That can't have happened…I mean, there were twenty people in there. They couldn't have all just been blown up like that…
As the air rushes back into my lungs, the world suddenly becomes clearer, and I hear the wail of sirens from the distance, the screams of people below, the rubble tumbling to the floor as the previously intact building lies completely and utterly destroyed. And the reality hits.
We didn't stop him. I just saw twenty people's lives snuffed out in front of my eyes, and I couldn't do anything about it.
Then, the radio flares up again.
"Oh my God…are there any survivors? Someone, do a thermal scan!"
"We've got injuries in the crowd…"
"There's an officer down over here!"
"Shit, get Executor Pallin on the line!"
"Spirits, no…"
"The thermal scan is blank. No-one could have survived that..."
All I can do is just stare at the wreckage, then at the gun next to me, lying there useless, before I drop my head and start to sob gently.
A/N: I'm aware Ian has been getting it really, really shit these past few chapters…this is the last one, I swear.
So, no prizes for guessing what this is going to lead to. The good news is, we'll be getting to Omega very, very shortly…and things are gonna start getting good. This is probably going to be more like the typical chapter length, too. The first two were fluke, honestly, hahaha.
Whaaaaa? 81 reviews in two chapters? Thank you. Really, that means a hell of a lot to me. Can we get to 100 by Chapter 3? Here's hoping…
Thanks for reading! See you next time!