A Krogan misplaced: Chapter 10 Terrence Lawson memorial stadium - Canberra - Two weeks after landing
As the sun rose upon the seats of the Terrence Lawson memorial stadium, the rays of light illuminated not the usual stillness and peace of the sporting ground. Instead, the light was shone upon a buzz of activity more akin to a jostled hive of ants, for the stadium was filled to the brim with peoples of all descriptions and jobs setting up for the single most important event yet to grace the massive structures history.
And if Adeline Lambiere was honest, she was but one mere ant in the scheme of things, but an ant with a significant role. For she had been selected as one of a small group of reporters to be at the event, officially it was the "Extraterrestrial Information Conference", but to Adeline it was just "the event". Her network had been contacted by the U.N, apparently the Alien which had arrived was willing to address the world, with some set questions of course, and Adeline could remember vividly which ones she was supposed to ask, the U.N guy had been quite clear on that.
"The Alien", "Urdnot Wrex", "Turtlehead Mc'ninjaface". Whatever you called him, the face of the first...well...probably the first, alien to ever step foot on planet Earth was recognised by anyone with even the most basic of access to the web or television, which in modern times was almost everyone. The image that had been posted across a thousand media sites, of an almost lizard like being with eyes on the side of its head, staring up at humanity with red eyes and what could only be described as a scowl on its face.
The talking had begun within hours, and after it had been confirmed, it had grown exponentially. At work, on the bus, at events relevant and irrelevant. All anyone could seem to talk about was the arrival of the alien, and what it meant for humanity. Some panicked, some didn't, some bought survival equipment and food, others sought solace in faith.
Then, but a few days later, the Secretary General had said that the alien, whose name was Urdnot Wrex, had come in peace.
Everything before that point had been as a ripple before a wave, governments hadn't publicly acknowledged anything, which caused many to doubt, and many people were wondering if it wasn't just some hoax or something weird...hell maybe some government was just doing some weird experiment with lizard people. Then the U.N General Secretary along with the head of every single government on the planet...including the Korean Empire and Vanuatu, had essentially said "Yep, aliens. But they come in peace."
The collective gasp at the confirmation that humanity wasn't alone in the universe? As a reporter, Adeline had to admit that was something to behold. Alien conspiracy theorist were relishing at the first attention they'd gotten in years, Adeline's friend in NASA reported that everyone was collectively cowering at the enormity of the task that was to approach them, the damn Pope had called a great council of all christendom, and even the church of Latter day saints and Peoples Catholic Church of China had agreed to attend. Whilst similar situations were occurring with Islam and Judaism in the middle east.
And the cause of all that, the being known as Urdnot Wrex, had agreed to give a basic T.V interview so as to answer questions the world had, and Adeline had been invited. She was so going to tweet about the entire event later.
As Adeline glanced behind her, she could spy the cameraman through the throng of entering guests, some of whom must have paid thousands for the seats, and raised her hand in the "is everything okay?" signal. As Ahmed gave a thumbs up in reply, Adeline turned to face the set up stage where the Alien would be appearing, mentally running through the questions she had been given to ask.
Once she was satisfied, Adeline turned to face the camera, flashing her brightest smile at the no doubt enormous audience which was tuned in, and waited.
Fifteen minutes later, after double checking and triple checking that everything was working correctly, and just having finished a conversation with one of the other reporters who wanted her spot (she wasn't giving it up though), the crowd abruptly silenced, and Adeline got the first view of the alien, walking up to the stage.
The being she saw was far greater in stature than any human could be, nearly three metres in height and looking wider than most doorways, Urdnot Wrex sure knew how to make an impression. Adeline was high enough that she could see the reaction of the crowd as he passed them. Many in the higher rungs possessed binoculars and were using them to get better views, some gawking and pointing, others looking like kids with candy. Each reaction was unique, and yet in some way they were all the same.
When the tall being finally reach the top of the stage, he sat down in what looked to be a...beanbag chair? Some kind of chair which absorbed wight at any rate, as the massive alien sunk a fair way into the chair, his hump keeping him upright and straight. Adeline looked back to Ahmed, to check if anything was wrong one final time, as he gave a nod, Adeline flashed a smile and turned towards the stage, ready to ask her assigned questions.
If Urdnot Wrex was honest with himself, all humans looked the same. Oh there were easy ways to distinguish some, the colour of their skin, the shapes of their...hair. Amongst other things, but if two humans with similar enough appearances walked into the room he'd have to use his nose to tell the difference. Not that it would help him here, seeing as how the crowd of humans was easily a fifty thousand strong.
Nevertheless, Wrex consoled himself with the fact that he only had to ask questions of the specific group of humans with the primitive cameras, which was easy enough given the size of the things. Wrex was kinda glad that they weren't the flying types though, the things a decent drone operated camera could catch were reason liaisons on the top levels of skyscrapers had stopped being a common occurrence, much to the disappointment of asari galaxy wide.
But by the far the most important thing to happen to Wrex in the previous two days had been the food situation. After much trying, scanning with omni-tools and taking of small bites, Wrex had been pleased to discover that he could eat human food. After trying something called "peanut butter" which was quite admittedly disgusting, he'd found some acceptable substitutes to cover his rations and make them...technically edible. "Vegemite" actually went quite well with "Haddan's canned algal supplement".
Much more importantly than that though, humans were also fans of alcohol, and that meant he finally had a use for his brothers homemade ryncol recipe. He'd need to find cyanide somewhere, and distilling the alcohol would take well over a human year, but the prospect of having actual ryncol, and not just the stuff aliens tried to pass off as ryncol, was an exciting one.
As Wrex gazed around the...arena? That he was in, he took in the massive crowd once more, giving a small sigh, and a prayer to Kalros the everliving that if he pulled off what he was hoping to pull off he'd give proper offerings, he tapped the table he was sitting at three times, and waited for the humans to quiet down. This was a chance for an entire species to view his people as allies and potential friends, he wouldn't, no, couldn't mess this one up. He wasn't going to be his grandsire if he could avoid it.
It took a few minutes for the excitable humans to finally stop talking, and when the buzz of the gathered mass died down to little more than a whisper, he lowered his head to the microphone in front of him, deliberately facing the hoard of cameras. Time to put those rhetoric skills that his father drilled into him to work.
"Greetings humans, my name is Urdnot Wrex. It is my honour to be here in this solar cycle and meet your species, for after the crash landing which unfortunately caused the deaths of all other passengers aboard the ship I was traveling on, and assisting me in burying those unfortunates with all the proper rites. I must also thank your United Nations has allowed me to stay upon this planet until such time as your species itself achieves viable interstellar flight."
The audience remained silent, seemingly enamoured. Hopefully he didn't sound as ridiculous to the humans as they did to him, with high voices and odd intonations on what little korogorish he'd taught the linguistics expert Dr Al-Saud. After waiting for a moment to let his words sink in, Wrex continued, trying to keep his voice as level as possible.
"You are not alone in this galaxy, there are other species beyond my own and many worlds which you could potentially settle. In thanks for sheltering me until I can return to the wider galaxy, I will assist your species in advancing itself how I can, and hopefully, one day, your kind may walk the stars as equals."
Clasping his claws together in the traditional manner to end a speech, Wrex gave the human equivalent of a smile, showing his teeth a little but not to much, and raising the ends of his lips.
"Any questions?"
The roar that sounded was deafening, even the humans on a lower platform clasping their ears as a torrent of noise impacted them and their ears adjusted. Wrex had heard worse, that sonic grenade he'd taken to the ear when fighting Aleema that one time coming forefront to his mind. Raising his claw to quiet the noise at least to a degree, he pointed to one of the reporters, the human being most easily distinguished from the others by the strange headers it wore, and the long beard. Also he had a sword at his side which was something Wrex could appreciate.
"Yes, you have a question?"
The human visibly straightened as he answered Wrex, the white robes he wore accentuating his difference amongst the crows of similarly dressed media personal.
"Manuel Singh mr Urdnot, may I ask you what the name of your own species is, and the name of your home planet?"
For a moment Wrex paused, before inwardly cursing. He knew he'd forgotten something.
"My people are known to the galaxy as the krogan, we originated on Tuchanka, in the Arlakh system."
Wrex had a feeling he was going to be answering a lot more stupid questions as the day went on.
Shadow Broker Vessel-Halagaz-
The once mighty command chamber of the Shadow Broker was a wrecked and warp-blasted ruin. It didn't actually matter as far as actual systems went, haptic screens could survive most things that an organic could, and quite a few things an organic couldn't. Nevertheless, the shattered and ashen furniture which had once dominated the room was most certainly damaged beyond repair, not that the previous owner would be doing anything about it, seeing as how they were...very much deceased.
The titanic corpse of the elcor once addressed as Shadow Broker was a terrifying thing indeed, the bulk of his body was bubbled and half melted from warpfire, while those parts which weren't were covered in enough holes to effectively use a substitute for a strainer. None of those factors caused the death of the mighty elcor, for his cybernetic ally enhanced body and systems, while possibly being pushed to the limits by such damage, may well have continued on.
The warp-sword which was embedded into his skull on the other hand, was most definitively not survivable.
Standing to the side of the fallen giant was an asari fiddling with her omnitool. If one didnt know better, it could be assumed that she was perhaps a veteran commando, perhaps a particularly effective mercenary. Those who knew better though, they'd recognise the signature all black armour, the scabbards for two seperate warp-swords, and the unfortunate silhouette of the "Spear of Athame" rifle, and typically back away.
To trifle unprepared with a Black Blade after all, was either suicide or desperation. As the mercenaries and oddities guarding the Shadow Brokers ship had learnt the hard way.
The asari in question, after a bout of cursing, and a third swig from the Brokers private supply of liquor, finally entered in the comm code she had been searching for. Grinning, the asari leaned against the still cooling corpse before speaking, her dry tone colouring the otherwise normal conversation.
"Hey Nezzy...no I know you're at a meeting, but I finally did that job i'd been talking to you about."
The grin turned into a slight frown as the asari on the other end raised her voice.
"What no its not like th-...Okay so its like that, but thats not the point!"
The frown shifted into a wry smile as the familiarity of an age old argument distracted the black armoured asari from the world around her.
"Oh look on the bright side Nezzy, I just got us a new place to live in, you'll love it."
Switching off the comm system, Matriarch Aethyta whistled the tune of her dad's favourite war song. Tomorrow was going to be fun after all.
AUTHORS NOTES:
Wrex isn't just a normal Krogan! He's a former politician!...and a pretty bad one...*Shivers*
But yeah, this is...well nearly a week in the making.