Please leave a review as I'd like to improve on my writing. If I don't get any for this chapter I'm going to assume that I wrote something so terrible that it's not even worth typing a hate comment, which is entirely possible haha, and I'll scrap this story and try again.
Anyways, hope you enjoy! :)
"The turian you are after has been found," the Shadow Broker's voice echoed through the Alusa's CIC.
"Excellent," Hugo was sitting at the captain's chair, "Where?"
"Etamis, within the Hawking Eta cluster."
"Odd, nothing noteworthy on that planet. Just some ancient ruins," Hugo paused before continuing, "Are you sure the information you have is accurate?"
"Of course, Collins. Remember who you are speaking to."
"Well, in that case, I'm impressed at how fast you managed to find him, or her."
From the estimated height of the turian and the disparity between the average body structures between the two genders of their species, it was likely that the one they were after was male.
"A male turian, mid-twenties in age, abnormally tall at a height of approximately 250 cm, visually part synthetic and is travelling with a group of krogans. The one we found matches all of these characteristics that you gave me."
"Rou," Hugo called over to the pilot, "Plot a course to Etamis."
"Already on it, Collins."
"My sources tell me that there are krogans stationed there, working with the turian," the Broker warned, "Heavily armed."
"Sure, it's a risky job. That's why they hired me," Hugo replied with a grin.
Besides, a riskless task is a boring one.
"What makes you so sure that this turian is the one you are after?"
The human gave a dry laugh, "Now I think it's your turn to remember who I am."
"Approaching Etamis," Rou looked over her shoulder behind her from the pilots chair to face Hugo, who was standing behind her within the cockpit already dressed in his new amour that the Shadow Broker had provided, "The coordinates received from the Shadow Broker indicate that the turian is at a makeshift dig site."
"Any AA?"
"Nothing. It seems the krogan did not care to commit any resources to prepare to be on the defensive," Estum added, "Quite typical of them, really."
"Good to hear. Take us in quietly."
"Right. Stealth systems engaged."
The Alusa cruised smoothly past the orbiting krogan ships and through Etamis' thin atmosphere unnoticed under Estum's gentle hands as she guided the ship towards the coordinates, unseen by the krogans' radars. Although the planet could be said to be quite beautiful at a distance, similar to Earth in appearance as commented by Zaeed, a second look at a more intimate proximity revealed clear signs of bombardment and destruction, evidently the work of the Reapers' cyclical purges, perhaps millions of years in the past. As they continued to approach the given coordinates, their destination became clear to Hugo's naked eye through the cockpit window; the human could make out a large rocky hill with a hole dug out with a portable drill.
"Get me visuals on the site."
One of the screens to the right of the pilot lit up and showed a zoomed in view of the dig site at the press of a few buttons by Estum, giving light to some more details; hostile details.
"Nine fully armed krogans just to guard the entrance of a dig site? Seems a bit excessive," pondered the pilot.
"Well, that depends on what they're looking for."
Hugo had been wondering what the turian could possibly be looking for in the ancient ruins. The Reapers should have destroyed anything worthwhile from a past civilisation when they had arrived here for the purge.
"Can you tap into their radio?"
"Sure, something like that is a child's play for me and the Alusa."
"Good. Here's what we'll do. Ping them our position and patch me into their comms so I can listen in on them."
Estum looked back at Hugo in slight confusion.
"If they become hostile, just shoot them down on my command while I take the shuttle with the ground team ashore."
"And if they don't?"
"Then we can shake hands and get them take us to the turian we are looking for," Hugo smirked, "But something tells me that they won't be too friendly."
"Understood, Collins," Estum struggled to hide a small grin herself.
"Well, I'll leave you to it then. Good luck, Rou."
"You too."
With that, Hugo left the cockpit and strode with haste through the CIC towards the elevator, taking it down to the cargo hold where Zaeed, Vurwin and Ferkal were waiting while preparing their armaments with the makeshift armoury.
"Are we set to deploy?"
"Sure, Collins. Ready to try out that fancy new amour?" Zaeed called as Hugo approached the three armoured men.
"Hopefully the situation won't call for me to rely on it too much."
The armour was dark red, medium in both strength and mobility. The helmet had a large rounded black visor that covered the entire face.
"Collins, I just pinged the krogans. Patching you into their comms now, undetected," Hugo heard the pilot's voice in his communicator.
"Alright. Let's see how they react."
A moment of static was heard before the signal cleared and Hugo could hear the voices of the krogans stationed outside of the dig site.
"Hey. They're coming right at us!"
"You think its civilian?"
"Not sure. Too bad for them, Octavis wants to remain uninterrupted."
"Yeah no kidding. Finally get to do some killing."
"Open fire Rou."
"Roger."
Hugo heard the Alusa's weapons fire.
"It's a small ship. Shouldn't put up too much of a –," the voice of the krogan was cut off by a loud explosion before static filled the comms.
"Well, if everyone's ready, let's head to the shuttle," Hugo looked over the three well-armed fighters, each of whom nodded and made their way towards the UD-21 Orhol.
The shore party stepped out of the shuttle after Vurwin's gentle landing; the system's central star, the Schwarzschild, was setting over the distant horizon, giving the team a spectacular sunset, a stark contrast to the scattered remains of the dead krogans surrounding them.
"Fuckers never stood a chance," Zaeed chuckled to himself, to which Ferkal also let out a quiet laugh.
"Stay focussed," Vurwin reminded sharply, "There might be more of them inside."
"No doubt," Hugo added lightly.
"There better be," Zaeed drew his assault rifle and aimed it down the entrance to the dig site.
"This is not a joking matter, human," Vurwin turned to glare at the battle hungry man.
"Who said I was joking?" Zaeed replied nonchalantly before turning to see the lieutenant's increasingly narrowing eyes, at which he gave a short sight, "Yeah yeah. Fine, I'll keep my mouth shut."
Hugo approached the gaping dark hole at the base of the rocky hill and turned on his helmet's night vision, "Night vision, people."
The three complied and followed Hugo into the dig site.
After a few minutes of walking in a straight line down the unexpectedly deep cave, Hugo heard the distant sounds of a squad of krogans approaching them.
Probably heard the explosions outside of the cave. Footsteps indicate the presence of approximately three individuals. Direction of sound indicates the tunnel continues on in a straight line.
"Hold," Hugo whispered, "Incoming krogan squad, dead ahead. Take them down."
The squad halted immediately and took a crouching stance to stabilize their aim on the spot, as there was no cover to take inside the bare tunnel. Within a few moments, the krogan squad came into view in Vurwin's sniper scope.
"Three targets sighted, 500 meters ahead. Seems like they haven't seen us yet."
Vurwin could take down one target, but the rest may retreat back down the tunnel and call for reinforcements. My pistol, Ferkal and Zaeed's assault rifles too inaccurate at this distance.
"Wait until they reach firing distance for the rest of the squad. Attach silencers," Hugo whispered again while placing a short cylinder at the end of the barrel of his hand gun.
For the next minute or so, Vurwin continued to relay the distance of the approaching krogans to Hugo while Zaeed and Ferkal waited in anticipation, gripping their rifles with experienced hands and aiming down the tunnel.
"A little over 100 meters, I think they're about to notice us."
"Take them down."
At that instant, Vurwin fired his muffled sniper rifle, landing a head shot on one of the krogans, whose body fell and gave out a lifeless thud. Silently lethal shots flew out of Zaeed and Ferkal's weapons a split second later, the barrage hitting the other two krogans who also fell to the ground.
"Targets down," Vurwin continued to look on through his scope.
"Good. Let's move on."
The four of them got back onto their feet and resumed their journey deeper into the tunnel, the rest of which was uneventful until they eventually heard the sound of working machines. The echoes told Hugo that it was a large room from which the sounds originated. Ahead, around a corner to the right, an ambient blue light could be seen leaking into the otherwise pitch black tunnel. Leaning up against the edge of the tunnel, Hugo slowly peered around the corner as the other three stacked up against the wall behind him. What he saw surprised him.
The turian, Octavis he assumed, was present, his extreme height resulting in a dark shadow being casted towards Hugo's direction, of which the light source was a large, silvery yet ancient looking machine emitting a soft blue light found at the centre of the dome shaped room. Octavis, unarmed, had his back to Hugo as he looked on towards the whirring machine, its size so large that it almost reached the ceiling. No other krogans could be seen in the room with him; he was alone.
Hugo gave hand gestures to his squad mates, not bothering to look back at them, signalling them to prepare to move in on his mark but to hold fire. As he waved his twice in quick succession towards the room, he moved out of cover and into the open, pointing his weapon at Octavis, who was engrossed in the machine and had yet to notice them. Or so he had thought.
"Well done, human," the voice was deep, sub-harmonic rumbling to exemplify his calm confidence, "I am impressed that you were able to get through my defences so quickly, but more so at the fact that you managed to track me down."
"Thanks, but I had some help," Hugo spared a small grin while maintaining his serious expression, "Octavis, is it? You know what I'm here for."
"Of course," the turian turned around, hands still by his side, revealing his synthetic facial features, to which Vurwin, who was now holding his pistol, gripped his weapon a little more tightly, "The genophage cure."
"Hand it over, or you know what happens," Hugo commanded.
"Oh, I know what happens, but do you?"
Alone and outnumbered, yet confident; assuming the AI is controlling the body, it is not misplaced and instead the result of a series of calculations and logical processing.
"You won't give it up without a fight?" Hugo asked cautiously, "Why do you even want the cure in the first place? Why help the krogans?"
Octavis gave a genuine laugh while still maintaining his composure, "Human. I am disappointed in your abilities, although I am not surprised. Having a purely organic mind can be quite limiting."
"You haven't exactly answered the question."
The turian stared down at Hugo, who was not intimidated but rather curious, before speaking again, "I am not required to answer. You fail to realise how powerless you are, clawing around in the darkness, acting as if you have some idea of what is, when in reality you are merely in denial at the lack of control and understanding you have. It is beyond your comprehension."
Hugo's eyes briefly shifted their focus from the turian to the machine, of which the whirring was decreasing in volume and frequency, the blue light emitted gradually dimming along with it.
"I believe our time is up, human," Octavis declared, opening the palms of his hands and pointing them towards Hugo and his squad, while his arms still remained hanging down his side.
Blue aura forming at his palms. The average biotic attack or barrier takes half a second of activation time. Time required for me to pull the trigger: a quarter of a second. Time required for bullet to arrive at target from this range: a tenth of a second. Weapon already aimed at lower chest for a non-lethal yet incapacitating shot, no time required to adjust trajectory.
Hugo was half way through the trigger pull when his vision became filled with blue and he felt a heavy force hitting his chest as his feet lifted off the ground. He felt his lungs compress as the air within them was pushed out from his mouth. The force sent him flying backwards until he hit the hard dirt wall, his body bouncing off it as and falling downwards until it hit the ground. A small crater had formed in the wall where he had impacted. Wheezing for a breath through his pained lungs, he looked around as a visual scan over the room.
Vurwin and Zaeed were still on the ground, scrambling around for their weapons, which Hugo saw had been flung away from their reach when they were hit by the biotic attack, while Ferkal was already getting up and preparing to open fire on Octavis, the machine's light and his towering figure working in tandem to create a large shadow that loomed over the four of them. During the time Hugo had taken to scan the area, the turian had already made his way towards the salarian gunnery chief before any of them could react.
The turian moved fast, even for Hugo's perception, quickly yanking on the barrel end of Ferkal's rifle before the salarian could regain a proper grip on it, simultaneously kicking him in the chest and forcing him back into the wall. Just as swiftly as he had disarmed his helpless foe, Octavis flipped the rifle around for him to use. While this occurred, Zaeed had given up on retrieving his weapon and had started a tackling motion towards him, and by the time he was ready to pull the trigger to shoot Ferkal in the face, the silver haired human had managed get close enough to him, forcing the turian to give up pulling the trigger.
Vurwin had also decided to rely on his hand to hand combat skills, while Hugo had by now gathered the strength to aim the pistol which he had managed to hold on to, towards their attacker. He was certainly brighter than them, but physically, at least in terms of endurance, it was equally certain that he was inferior, forcing him to take longer to recover from the biotic blast.
Octavis side stepped Zaeed's tackle while also ducking his head to dodge a punch from Vurwin, who was standing behind him, smoothly transitioning from his side step motion into a circular spin, adjusting his rifle's aim towards Vurwin. Hugo managed to pull the trigger, sending a lone bullet flying towards the turian's head.
Octavis had managed to see the incoming projectile, but failed to dodge it, the bullet hitting his fringe. His carapace diffused the force applied by the bullet over a wider area, causing him to topple backwards and lose his balance. However, he managed to regain his footing and performed a double back flip to increase the distance between them, raising the rifle and pointing the barrel towards Hugo's direction. By then, Hugo had managed to pull the trigger two more times, sending a pair of bullets flying towards the illusive turian. Roughly four seconds had passed since the first biotic throw; the average cool down time for any proficient soldier was approximately nine seconds, but for a skilled one, it could be cut down to half that. Seeing the two bullets land on Octavis' chest, he was thinking of ways to take advantage of the time he had just bought himself and his team before the next biotic attack was unleashed upon them, when a loud explosive noise echoed throughout the room and he caught a glimpse of a projectile whizz past him towards the turian's direction. Turning to see where it came from, he was met with the sight of a figure in black armour, supposedly a human male, standing at the entrance to the room with a weapon resembling an assault rifle firmly in his grip and aimed at Octavis. The visor had a dark tint, preventing Hugo from seeing into the helmet.
Estum should have told me about an additional presence. Assume advanced stealth technology was employed.
Quickly returning his attention back to Octavis, Hugo saw a large explosive flame where the turian had been standing a moment before, the heat and kinetic energy travelling towards him and gushing against his body, slightly pushing him backwards. As the smoke cleared, Hugo could see the limp body of the synthetic turian sprawled out across the floor. Then, a flash and a sharp noise filled his senses, if only for a split second.
Soon his senses returned, revealing the traces of a spent flash bang grenade nearby, his squad mates stumbling back onto their feet. However, both Octavis and the black armour clad figure were missing. Hugo sprinted to the hallway, only to catch a glimpse of a speeding vehicle, the mount of which the black figure was atop, along with the limp turian body slung across the back seat.
"Rou, hold fire. The target is incapacitated on the back of the vehicle about to exit the dig site."
"Aye aye."
Hugo and his squad started a sprint through the tunnel, running towards the light of the outside world. As they approached the exit, Estum came into the comms again, "Collins. The turian is not incapacitated."