"That rug is going Lana!" Caius growled as he stomped out of his room and into the mess hall. Lana took a sip of her dextro coffee before looking up from the datapad in her hand towards him.
"No it's not" Lana answered cooly and Caius's mandibles flared out in anger.
"Yes it is! I tripped over the damn thing just now and that's the fifth time since we got it!"
"Did you trim your talons?"
"Yes I did! Twice!"
"You probably didn't do it properly."
"What?" Lana shrugged.
"You can't trim them the same way that you do with your fingers. You have to sand them down and everything." Caius stared at her for what seemed like an eternity before he turned to go back to his room.
"What are you doing?" Lana asked as she stood and Caius answered back.
"Getting rid of the stupid rug."
"Don't you dare touch my rug Caius!" Lana growled as she stomped off to the room.
"Sir this is for you, from a female turian" An asari waitress said as she placed a drink in front of him. Caius rolled his eyes and didn't even look at who the asari was gesturing at while the guys snickered around him. After having an argument that started with the rug with Lana and the stresses of the mission he wanted to go out and clear his head so Wrex, Joker, Barbar, Trey, and his father joined him for a guys night out.
"It's your lucky day Trey here's another one for you" Caius hummed as he slid the drink over to him. Trey shook his head.
"No I'm alright, I've already had three of them so Garrus you could have this one."
"Thanks" Garrus smiled before happily sipping the bright blue drink. Joker then coughed.
"She's coming" Caius groaned and took a large sip of his beer when he felt the presence of the female turian.
"It was hard to miss that fringe so I was wondering-"
"Not interested" Caius cut her off immediately so she got the message. He glanced at her, sure she was pretty but he didn't feel the need to chase after her like he usually would before he met Lana. The female frowned.
"But-"
"I have a girlfriend"
"I'm sure-"
"It's not going to happen so move on" Caius sighed and the female growled before walking away. Turning to look back at the guys he saw their shoulders shake with contained laughter.
"Why did I even agree to bring you guys?" Caius grumbled and Garrus hummed.
"Because we're the best company ever."
"If you're the best company then I'm obviously lacking the social part of my life" Caius drawled before he chugged the rest of his beer. His mind had begun to feel fuzzy then and the last thing he wanted was to be fully drunk. Especially since he had to stock up the ship and more reports so he decided it would be best to get some fresh air to sober up a bit.
"I'll be back in a few so try not to get kicked out. By that I mean you Wrex" Caius hummed and Wrex snorted.
"Smartass" Caius stuck his tongue out at him and dodged the lazy swipe of Wrex's fist before making his way out the door. His mind went to the mission and the immense pressure that went with it. Knowing that if they didn't catch this organization soon it become another galactic war. However, instead of fighting together against a single threat it would be with each other. The galaxy was not ready for it, even after twenty years since the Reapers the galaxy was still recovering. Billions of lives were lost in that war and to be in another galactic war would bring every species to its knees. Caius shook his head with a sigh and leaned against a wall. Right now it was quite deserted but Caius didn't think much of it. He just closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. The cool air helped clear his head so he turned to walk back to the bar. Only to get the air knocked out of him with a hard punch to the chest from an armored turian. Caius collapsed onto his knees, trying to catch his breath until he felt a pinch in his neck. He cursed when he saw the turian skull symbol on the armored turian before he blacked out.
Caius opened his eyes to notice that he was just in his undersuit, groaning at a pounding headache as he looked around. He was in a dark room, hands and feet cuffed to a chair. Great so slicing his way out was out of the question. The door opened and he looked up to see the last turian he expected to see.
"Tibetus, you're uglier than the last time I saw you" Caius commented quietly and Tibetus sneered.
"Still a smartass huh? If I was in your position I would shut my mouth." Caius snorted.
"We use our mouths other than eating so that's not possible, guess that's why you failed science class." Tibetus punched Caius in the face and he could taste his blood from the impact.
"You've been a headache to me over the years but that won't be an issue soon enough"
"Oh so you're going to kill me"
"Of course but not like this, you're the icon for halfbreeds so I'm to broadcast your death all over the galaxy." Caius frowned.
"You do realize you need special kind of equipment for that right?"
"Of course I do, you have an hour left to live," Tibetushummws before left the room with the rest of his men. Caius smirked as he looked around.
"Should've not left me alone, there was a reason why someone always had to stay with me when I was a toddler." He muttered to himself as he tested the cuffs. He definitely needed to pick the lock for these but he needed to find a pin. Looking around carefully he clicked in annoyance, there wasn't going to be a pin here. He needed to think of something and fast or else his brains would get blown out. Caius then heard a scraping sound coming from the vents. Frowning he looked up and saw something the resembled a pin hang over the edge as if waiting. Conveniently it was right above where his hands were and once he cupped his hands the pin went over the edge and right into his waiting grasp.
"Thanks Kanus, still saving my ass" Caius smiled as he quickly got to work on unlocking the cuffs, it wasn't long before he heard the triumphant click from his wrists and reached down to free his feet. Hearing the click again he hummed but he hadn't taken off the cuffs yet. If he had any chance of surviving this he needed to fool them into thinking he was still bound. Despite how annoying it was, Caius rearranged the cuffs so he still looked tied but still able to move when the time called for it.
Just as Tibetus promised they came back an hour later. A rather large-looking camera in tow and they set it right in front of him.
"So are you the leader of this new organization?" Caius hummed and Tibetus gave him a glare.
"Of course I am"
"Huh, so what's it called?"
"Palavi"
"Wow no creativity there" Caius tsked and Tibetus growled.
"This isn't art school so I could care less about creativity."
"So why are you joined up with other species?"
"Because we share the same goal."
"And that is?" Tibetus scoffed.
"To wipe out the asari of course, they've been on their pedestal for too long. It's disgusting the halfbreeds they create, just because they have a turian "father" does not give them the right to walk around here like they're one of us, and you're the icon for them. That's why killing you will not able state a bold message but put fear into their hearts for once that they will not be the top species any longer." Caius shook his head.
"And how do you plan on doing that?"
"I've done my research, they have an artifact that will destroy them. I just have to find it" Tibetus hummed.
"Why are you freely telling me all this?"
"Because you're going to die anyway and it's fun to gloat. Are we ready?" An armored turian nodded as he handed Tibetus a pistol that cleaned up and shiny for the show.
"Yes sir"
"Turn it on." Caius saw the red light on the camera blink on and he quickly but discreetly scanned the room. One, two...four. There were four of goons in the room and by the way they were holding their guns they didn't look very experienced with them. Obviously there for show, didn't matter to him since it would make his escape easier. While he had been scoping out the room Tibetus had already started with his speech.
"-We have the asari to thank for all the halfbreeds in the galaxy that think their one of us. No more! As an example of how serious we are I present you will the ultimate half-breed Spectre Caius Vakarian." Crap he needed to pay attention, the timing needed to be just right. A second too soon and it would give them time to recover from the shock and have an easier chance to kill him. A second too late and blue would be all over the wall.
"Would you like to say by to your parents?" Tibetus smirked and Caius sighed dramatically.
"I would be we have a special handshake and everything so it wouldn't feel the same-"
"Just shut up!" Tibetus growled as he aimed the pistol at the side of his head. Wait for it Caius, patience it not your strongest quality but this will have to be an exception.
"Say goodbye to your son Jane Shepard and Garrus Vakarian." Just before he pulled the trigger Caius's hand shot up and grabbed his wrist. Quickly aiming it away from his head and to one of the turians which caused him to collapse from the shot to the chest. Caius followed by a hard punch to Tibetus chest, taking the gun away from him while he was wheezing on the floor. Caius managed to shoot two of the armored turians before the last one tackled him to the ground with a good punch to the nose. Growling Caius knocked him out with the butt of the pistol before getting up. Tibetus was nowhere to be found as he looked around while blue trickled done his nose.
"Always the damn nose" Noticing the camera was still on he wiped his nose before rushing out in front of it with his best carefree smile. "Uh due to some technical difficulties we are going to have to stop this little interruption so please go on with your daily lives so...peace!" he stuck out his long blue tongue and held up two fingers before shutting off the camera. Probably wasn't appropriate in this situation but hopefully it will take out any fear that people had and it was a message to his parents that he was fine. He searched for any previous important video files but finding none he destroyed the camera.
"I think they finally broke my nose Kanus because this hurts like hell" he huffed when he heard the echo of a snicker.
"Shut up and just keep a look out please. The bastards took out my omni tool implant so I need to borrow one…" Caius hummed as he grabbed one of the turians wrists and used his talon to make an incision of where the omni tool should be. He let a triumphed chirp when he took out the omni tool, as much as he wanted to use it right now he needed to clean it first before-
A scraping sound stopped his thoughts and he took that as a cue to move his ass. Standing up Caius grabbed the chair and placed it under the vent before hopping onto it. He punched out the vent which caused his hands to bleed but that was the last thing on his mind right now. Thanks to the fact that he was just in his undersuit he was able to slip inside the vent without too much trouble, stopping to shoot the legs of the chair before placing the vent back in place. Now he needed to find a lab or a medbay to put his omni tool implant in so he could communicate with his parents to take him off whatever planet he was on. Caius growled when his fringe got caught the third time and really wished that it was shorter for the momment.
"I'm going to kill Tibetus for putting me through all this crap" He grumbled just as his hand went through over the vent he was crawling over. Letting out a trill as he tumbled head first into a medbay. Caius groaned in pain when his nose made contact with the floor, standing up he was relieved that he was in the medbay and quickly disinfected the implant.
"This is gonna hurt" he sighed as he grabbed a needle and surgical suture. Caius went through the tedious task of getting the needle ready before he slipped the implant into the slit of his wrist. He took a deep breath before he began to sow the slit, holding his madablies tight against his face to try not to make any noise but Spirits was it painful. Since the slit was small it only took a couple minutes to sew it up. Finishing it up he cut the string with his talon and in seconds he was able to open up the omni tool, typing away to video call his mother.
"Come on, answer it mom…" Caius said as he tapped his foot impatiently for several seconds before the screen blinked and his mother's face filled the screen.
"Caius! Are you alright?!" Caius gave her a weak reassuring smile since he was still in a lot of pain.
"Yes I'm fine, are you able to locate me with this on?"
"Y-yes I should be able to;" Lana said with her voice wavering. He could tell by her subvocals that she was pretty shaken up from the whole attempt at his execution. Actually, they all looked shaken up, especially his parents but he couldn't dwell on that right now.
"Good, how long should I have this on?"
"Um, a few minutes and you need to stay in the same spot to be accurate." Caius nodded.
"Alright, good thing I'm not-" Caius turned his head to the door when he heard it hiss open and cursed before ducking to cover as shots rang out from a group of armored turians.
"Caius?!" He heard his father's anxious voice call him and he glanced at the screen.
"I'm fine just hurry up with the locating thing!" He hissed as he fired out a string of bullets towards the turians. Taking a couple of them out before ducking for cover again. This back and forth went on for several minutes and he would have killed more but the pistol that he got from Tibetus was definitely for show. The shooting then stopped and Caius could hear them scurry out of the room.
"Um Caius you need to get out of there now;" Lana said in an anxious tone and he frowned.
"What's the hurry?"
"There's a bomb that is going to go off in five minutes."
"What?! How the hell do you know that?!" Caius trilled as he immediately got out of cover, of course, he wasn't too surprised to see the red lock on the door, vents again.
"I was scanning the building and I saw a bomb within the building just as the activated it. Luckily I was able to find out how much time you have, not a lot by the way."
"Thanks for the confidence" Caius grunted as hopped onto a table that he pushed under the opening to climb through the vents again.
"I'll guide you to the nearest exit using the vents so listen carefully." Caius rolled his eyes before sighing.
"Alright go"
"You're going to reach a cross path in a few seconds so when you get there go left." Caius nodded before he cursed when he bumped his head just as he moved to go left. Lana continued to give him directions until he was jumping down the vent and making a beeline for the exit door.
Just as he reached the door, however, the lock turned red and he growled in frustration before he fingers flew over it to try to unlock it.
"Caius you have to-" Lana's voice suddenly cut out, the video also went static which made him curse. Of course, they would cut off the communications at the most important moment.
"20, 19, 18" The robotic female voice echoed throughout the whole building. Caius looked around for an alternative escape and noticed a window big enough for him to go through. With that in mind, he turned to run back far enough to give him the running start he needed to go through the window.
"10, 9, 8" Caius ran full speed towards the window, praying to the Spirits that it wasn't bulletproof. Not only would he have one hell of a headache but he wouldn't live long to feel it.
"5, 4-" Caius burst through the window and landed head first onto the ground before he began to tumble down a steep hill. Soon the ground shook and debris was flying in all different directions. Luckily he was far enough not to get engulfed in the explosion but close enough for a few of them to smack into him at painful high speeds. He continued to tumble down the hill in what felt like forever before he came to a stop at the bottom. Flat on his face.
Caius groaned and laid there for a few minutes to catch his breath. Dirt was in his mouth and his whole body hurt, his nose was bleeding again and he was exhausted. Spirits did he just want to lay there and let the animals eat him but he couldn't. He needed to survive because he had a big job to do and he promised Kanus that he would take care of Kania, and then there was Lana and his family. How was he supposed to enjoy having a first girlfriend and take care of Kania dead? Despite his body's protests he forced himself up on his feet before checking his omni tool. Communications were still down, the only option left was to wait for them as long as he could. The first thing he needed now was food and water which shouldn't be too hard to find since this planet was abundant in plant-
Caius turned his head when he heard a very alien roar in the distance, he sighed.
"Let's just hope they come here soon."