Chapter 11 - Pursuit
The ancient krogan and the quarian pilgrim emerged cautiously into a much busier district, filled with bustling factories as far as the eye could see. Compared to the silence of the warehouses they had just left the hissing and grinding of machinery that emanated from each and every structure was deafening. The high pitched whines as unidentifiable metals were cut down to size by high powered rotary saws seemed to assault the ears and Tali wasted no time filtering out the background noise in her suit. Torr wasn't so lucky, though the krogan uttered no complaints. "I don't see the turian." He remarked darkly, scanning the three directions they were presented with.
Busy main 'streets' through the factories lay directly ahead, swarming with workers and haulage vehicles from half a dozen rival companies whilst crudely fenced off back alleys led away to the left and right of the door. Torr was correct, they had no idea which way the turian might have gone. "Neither do I. Where do you think he'd go?"
Torr shrugged tensely, clearly annoyed by this new delay. "If I were him, I'd go for crowds, try and blend in. That said, he could be expecting us to assume that and going by him being wounded, my gut says he's wanting to avoid crowds as much as we do.
"So alleys then?"
Torr nodded. "That's my guess."
"But which one?" wondered Tali, glancing left and right at the poorly lit, heavily littered routes.
"That," rumbled Torr, "would be the problem."
His companion snapped her fingers. "If he's wounded, won't he leave a blood trail?"
"Good luck finding it in this mess." The krogan indicated the small heaps of trash lying nearby, black with dirt, mould and sticky fluids. He had a point, finding any particular liquids, no matter how fresh, would be extremely difficult amidst all the filth, not to mention time consuming.
"I've got an idea." Said Tali as a thought struck her and quick as a flash her Omni-Tool reappeared. Flicking effortlessly through menus until she found the program she wanted, the engineer held the indispensable device at arm's length. As far as Torr could tell nothing happened and he said as much, but Tali held up a hand to silence him. The normally bare glass on the interior of her visor flared with faint orange light and a matrix of hazy lines began to cover the faceplate. Everything she could see lit up brighter, not enough to be painful, but enough that she could see much more clearly. Edges of buildings and objects were highlighted in thicker, more solid lines of orange, allowing her to move without fear of walking face first into a wall; in addition, a small group of orange spots began to glow amidst the floor grime just a few feet away.
From the outside Torr still couldn't make out what was going on and he was becoming increasingly agitated at the chance of their prey getting away after everything he'd done to help these two quarians to catch him. "Tali..."
The quarian was crouching, running her fingers through what appeared to be the completely normal, if disgusting, slime that coated so much of the asteroid's floor. "I've connected the Omni-Tool to the suit's VI," she informed him, "it's made a virtual HUD on the inside of my visor; I've set it to scan for traces of fresh turian DNA in the immediate area." She stood and gestured to the indistinguishable spot of filth on the ground. "That's his blood, the Omni-Tool will keep scanning for corresponding matches and any it finds will show up on my visor display."
Torr bent down, ignoring the stiffness in his knees, and with his nose inches from the supposed "blood", inhaled deeply. Krogans being predatory creatures, Torr's well developed sense of smell quickly confirmed her readings. He stood again and gave her an appreciative look. "Smart thinking."
Her head dipped slightly in what he interpreted as being a bashful smile. "It looks like he headed east," Tali gestured down the corresponding alley, "there's another DNA match down there."
"Let's get going then," replied Torr, gesturing for her to take the lead, "we've given this guy enough of a head start as it is."
The two trackers had been dogging the turian's movements for the past five minutes with no visual sign of him when they rounded a corner and found themselves presented with a new challenge. Ahead lay a hive of bustling workers and haulage mechs. Foremen yelled orders over the constant whine of machinery as workers ran parts from one section of the district to another whilst dodging the towering mechs that ambled along with heavy duty metal crates clenched between their thick grasping claws.
"How are we going to get through that unnoticed?" Tali wondered aloud. "Better yet, how did he?"
Torr examined the obstacle ahead with haggard eyes. "The same way we're going to, by walking right on through."
Tali tilted her helmet questioningly. "That can't be all you've got in mind."
"Krogans aren't known for their complexity." Replied her friend. "Don't worry, it's simple enough in principle, though" he added after a moment's thought, "principle is a fine thing when it works."
"And how often is that?"
"Better you don't ask." The old mechanic replied, chuckling despite the situation. "Look, you've got the Omni-Tool on so you're going to have to act like you're leading. Shouldn't be too hard, I'll keep out of the way, you just concentrate on following this guy's steps."
"Won't anyone question what we're doing?"
Torr shook his head. "You'd be surprised how many people will ignore you when you look like you know where you're going. Think about it, our little turian friend made it through without alerting anyone, presumably, and he was bleeding the whole time; for us it'll be easier than wrestling a varren."
Tali shook her head at his not so reassuring metaphor and tried to banish the difficulty of such an act from her thoughts. "So act like I know what I'm doing..." She blew out a long breath that threatened to steam up the inside of her visor. "Alright."
"You ok with this Tali?"
Wandering around like I own the place? Sure, why not, I've already shot people tonight, what's this in comparison? Tali closed her eyes for a second, cursing the hyperactively wisecracking part of her mind and biting the inside of her mouth as very clear images of the shootout assaulted her. This isn't the time to start thinking about that, go into a panic attack now and all of that, the shooting, the killing, everything...it'll all be for nothing. Instead, the young quarian double-checked her Omni-Tool and stepped out into the open with a confidence she didn't feel. "I guess we'll find out."
The duo moved as quickly as they dared, Tali's eyes constantly scanning the ground ahead for more telltale indications of the turian's presence. Having the display from her Omni-Tool linked to her visor helped and every so often a glowing spot would be highlighted in the sludge that squelched uncomfortably underfoot, the device would then calculate how close of a match the new record was to the DNA sample they'd recovered; so far it had yet to drop below 80%. A sudden shout broke Tali's concentration and she looked toward the source of the disturbance to see the lined orange outline of a balding, pot bellied human in stained overalls hailing them. She tried to ignore him, and quickly attempted to appear as though she was in deep conversation with Torr, but the alien wasn't dissuaded easily.
"Hey there! What're we doing with a krogan on the premises?"
He was only metres away now and it was clear he wouldn't be leaving without an answer. Tali turned to face him, thinking fast and trying to ignore the strong urge to swallow loudly. Act like you know where you're going.
"Just uh, just showing this krogan around the place, recruitment hired him, f-for labour duties." It was hard to keep the quiver of fear from her voice.
To her surprise he smiled appreciatively. "'bout time they did, we've been telling 'em and telling 'em we need extra muscle for weeks now." The grubby human stuck out an oily hand. "Foreman Rivera, look forward to having you on the team big feller."
"Gorgas." Torr offered, taking great care not to crush the worker's hand when he shook it.
The human delayed for a second, staring into the krogan's eyes just long enough to make Tali start to sweat, and then nodded to himself as though satisfied with something. "Well, I'll be seein' ya Gorgas, enjoy the tour." Rivera tipped his worn protective helmet at him, completely ignored Tali, and marched off back to his post to much whooping and groaning from his workmates. Tali, despite her instinct to get out of there, spared them a glance. Judging by the money that was exchanging hands, it looked as though they'd been taking bets as to whether Rivera dared attempt to shake hands with her oversized krogan companion.
"Too close." Torr muttered as the duo retreated as fast as they dared, the young quarian having to fight back the urge to break into a run.
"Too close." Tali agreed, trying and failing to keep her thin fingers from shaking as she fired up the tracker once again. "How did he not see our guns?"
Torr offered a shrug. "Personal sidearms aren't uncommon here, even in the workplace; using them doesn't go down well with the contractors of course so they're mostly for show."
The pair disappeared into anonymity once again, blending into the shadows as best they could while Torr's intimidating glares drove off any further enquiries from overly nosey workers. They sidestepped to dodge a particularly obnoxious freight mech and immediately found themselves forced into an alcove by the sudden appearance of a small transport cart, the swarthy driver of which hollered for them to clear the way with much arm waving and obscene gesturing.
Torr merely glowered at the offensive alien while beside him, Tali frantically worked her Omni-Tool as glowing sparks of industrial machinery lit up the factory entrance beside her.
"Torr…I think I'm losing the trace."
The krogan eyes narrowed as he bent his head to examine her Omni-Tool. "What do you mean?"
"The last match was only 61%," she explained, indicating on the display, "and this latest one's dropped to 48%."
"Likely he patched himself up," Torr decided after a moment's thought, "and if he has, it'll have taken him time; he can't be far ahead."
"Bosh-Tet." Tali muttered under her breath, stabbing with frustration at the poor device on her left forearm. "How are we going to follow him now?" she asked as the now useless orange lines of the tracking HUD faded from her visor.
"Guess its back to natural means." he replied, tapping his wide snout with a single thick finger.
"You can smell it?"
Torr nodded, looking around and inhaling heavily for a moment before ambling slowly to the east.
"Then why didn't we do that from the start?" questioned the quarian curiously, falling into step behind him. Fortunately this part of the district was much quieter than the rest and the krogan's sudden lead went unnoticed.
"It takes a hell of a lot longer than what you were doing with that new fangled Omni-Tool of yours," he replied absently, "especially with the fact that there's only traces of blood in the air now, nothing solid." A chuckle escaped the krogan's lips. "Besides, it's a lot more suspicious when a krogan is wandering through crowds of people sniffing and snuffling like he's got a cold."
Tali suppressed a smile at the vision of a krogan afflicted with a cold and, despite the severity of the situation, had to bite back a giggle when her thoughts continued on to krogan sneezing.
Torr led them some way further into the dark shadows of the factories, pausing in a nest of supply sheds. "He's here," the old alien muttered, "close."
Tali felt hackles rise on the back of her neck and she pre-emptively drew her shotgun out, feeling its comforting weight in her hands as she scanned the darkness with Torr. In such close quarters the weapon would be devastating against their prey, shielding or no. The duo slowly, without either being fully aware of it, turned back to back, a small gap between the krogan's armoured hump and the quarian's lithe backbone. There was a sudden scuffling and Tali whirled, weapon pointed at the source of the noise. A small creature, fur matted with dark patches of greasy muck, scuttled from the safety of a small metal box to the shelter of an old, discarded rotary saw blade, squeaking furious protest at the two intruders all the while. She tracked it threateningly before realising the creature was harmless and a mixture of relief and annoyance ran through her. The animal's long pink tail wiggled at her as it burrowed into a box of scrap metal and she found herself wondering what it was called, she'd never seen anything like it before.
"Rats," Torr offered softly, somehow detecting her curiosity through the faceless suit, "vermin the humans didn't bother to exterminate before they decided to develop space flight."
Tali shook her head at his widespread knowledge and stepped away, turning her attention back to the hunt for their elusive target. As her foot hit the ground a soft whine sounded, so quiet she wasn't sure she'd heard it. She looked down to locate the source of the disturbance, only for a massive wall of krogan to bowl into her side without warning and send her clattering amongst the scrap as the world abruptly exploded in a violent flash of brilliant white.
Tali awoke with a start, eyes flickering open to a blurry haze. Her ears rang soundly like a chorus of tiny bells in her head, the noise far more prevalent and painful than the last explosion she'd witnessed back in the warehouse. A vein behind her eye throbbed painfully and her head swam as her dazed mind scrambled to regain clarity.
She wondered how much time had passed. Minutes? Hours? Her eyes flickered over where she'd been standing before Torr had rammed her aside. Dimly she realised thin tendrils of smoke were still curling into the air, lightly blackened shards of metal scattered across the floor. She couldn't have been out for more than a few seconds then, which meant their attacker, the turian she reminded herself, was still nearby. She heard a muted groan off to her left and looked, seeing the monstrous form of Torr slowly hauling himself to his feet. He looked none the worse for wear, though his movements were slower than normal; I should have expected that, she chided herself, the last few hours have to be taking their toll on him, krogan or no.
The turian, the machinist reminded herself as her brain started to recover again, priorities Tali. Her shotgun lay just out of reach so she moved to activate her Omni-Tool instead, blinking back a flash of irritation as the orange light hit her still recovering eyes. Her limbs were stiff, slow to respond and she felt like it was a fight just to get them to obey even as she began to key the device to scan the immediate area for life signs. As her deafened ears began to recuperate a faint scratching sound began to make itself known on the edge of her hearing. At first Tali tuned it out but it steadily grew louder until she couldn't concentrate on the Omni-Tool commands and instead reached up to check her suit's audio filters. As she raised her head she suddenly noticed frantic movement on the fringes of her vision and turned her head to see something she vaguely recognized as the distinctive angular torso of a turian.
Tali cursed her flash burnt vision and screwed up her eyes, trying to focus through a spotty haze; her efforts were rewarded as the turian's silhouette became clearer, the dark form scrambling over and through humps of debris in his attempt to escape in the wake of the explosion. He was going to get away, she realised, and neither me or Torr are going to recover in time to stop him. A thought struck her, penetrating the chorus of bells like a ferrous slug. Before she'd fully processed it her dextrous hand was already keying her multi-purpose Omni-Tool, calibrating it to emit just the right frequency. As the turian tossed aside a final sheet of corrugated metal and began to run, the engineer raised her arm and activated the neural shock. The turian let out a yell of pain as the Omni-Tool emitted an overwhelmingly loud shriek, produced at exactly the right pitch so only his species could hear it.
The shriek was so painfully blinding that the turian's run became a staggering collapse. His hands clamped over the sides of his head and he staggered for a few yards, trying desperately to regain his balance, before his foot caught a nondescript power flux coil. He twisted and fell sideways with a cry, landing on the door of one of the supply sheds and promptly crashing straight through, almost tearing the rusted thing from its hinges in his wake. Tali watched the whole scene with surprise. She'd only received a basic understanding of the neural shock in pre-Pilgrimage training and, having a better affinity for machines than organics, hadn't really bothered to pay too much attention to it. The fact that she'd even recalled the right calibrations for it to affect a turian, especially considering her current condition, astounded her.
A shadow fell over her and the she looked up, hand reaching to take hold of Torr's before her brain had caught up with the action. The old krogan hauled her to her feet roughly and after quickly looking her up and down to check for injuries, shook his head. "I really hate wiseasses who think a tech mine is gonna stop a krogan."
Despite it all, Tali managed a weak smile, though as usual the gesture went unnoticed. Still, it felt good to still be able to find humour in these situations.
"Nice work with the turian by the way, now how about we go finish the job?"
Tali snatched up her fallen Storm III and nodded agreement. "Right behind you."
He led the way unhurried and moving with an almost casual sense of purpose; the turian now had absolutely nowhere to go. As they moved closer Tali became aware of an ache that hadn't been there before coursing through her limbs. It was fatigue, she decided, and it made sense. She'd been using muscles she'd forgotten about ever since her training and while the ache was light, it was also enough to provoke the engineer into making a silent promise to herself to work those muscles more. Especially if I'm going to be hanging around with you she decided, glancing at Torr.
As they neared the shed he motioned for her to get behind him and this time she didn't argue. Standing well away from the entrance, Torr stretched out his arm and threw open the half-broken door, yanking the limb back as the battered metal swung limply on one hinge. Almost immediately the door erupted in a barrage of panicked gunfire, the rounds tearing glowing holes in the flimsy material. The shots were wild, both ineffective and inaccurate and after a few seconds they stopped coming, the faint beeping of an overheated weapon just audible. "My turn." Whispered Torr and before Tali could respond, spun around the corner and unleashed a single blast from his devastating claymore at chest height. The mass propelled shards tore straight through the corrugated metal of the back wall and embedded themselves in the wall opposite, the furious bellow of the weapon causing Tali to glance nervously to one side, terrified that someone would come running. Fortunately it seemed the sounds of the heavy factory machinery had swallowed up the disturbance. To her surprise she heard a yelp from the inside of the supply shed, followed by a cry as Torr stormed in and something crashed against the sides of the tiny structure with a resounding clang.
She entered the shed to find the turian cowering against the far wall, his pistol lying discarded on the floor where Torr had thrown it and a brutally bent assault rifle soon followed it. The krogan may have had the slippery alien well in hand but Tali kept him in her sights all the same.
"Wh-what do you want?" demanded the turian, eyes darting from one to the other. She noticed his mandibles seemed to be drooping and his head crest lay flat. Signs of his neural disorientation perhaps?
"I wanna know why you're trying to kill my friend here." Replied Torr, jerking his head to indicate Tali.
The turian tracked to her and Tali watched him carefully, marking every aspect of his face and body language. Nothing showed. No recognition, no guilt, nothing. "Never seen her before in my life." He declared.
Torr edged the shotgun closer. "I think you're talking bull, and Krovak Torr doesn't like being lied to."
"Torr, I think he's telling the truth." Tali spoke hesitantly, not wanting to undermine the interrogation but not wanting to see the turian suffer unjustly, despite what he'd done. Wouldn't it be justified if he did? She asked herself. Perhaps. Her thoughts strayed back to the innocent pilgrims that had perished so violently aboard the Tarmeena. No. I promised to live my life the best I can for those who died, how can I honour that by going against everything our people stand for?
Torr glanced questioningly at her, his left eye finding her while his right remained trained on their captive. She could only back up her words with a nod which thankfully, her friend seemed to accept, albeit somewhat unwillingly.
"What about the Tarmeena then," Torr tried, "what do you know about that?"
Though the turian remained silent his eyes widened slightly and his jaw mandibles flickered almost imperceptibly. Tali almost missed it but incredibly, Torr caught it too.
"Ah, now that he knows."
"Chakkar!" The turian snarled and spat at the krogan's feet. "You'll get nothing from me."
Torr inhaled deeply. "So, that's how you wanna play it."
Before either Tali or the turian had time to process what he meant the behemoth krogan had brought his foot crashing down on the turian's shin which gave way with a horrifying 'crack'.
The turian's resolve crumbled and a blood curdling scream escaped him; Tali turned her head and winced reflexively. Turians had a notoriously strong skeletal structure and Torr had just made it look as brittle as one of the Rayya's coolant coils. "You got anything to say to me now, scum?" the krogan demanded. To Tali's amazement he offered nothing, his entire body rigid with pain. "I…I can't," he managed, sharp breaths accompanying every word, "they'll know, and they'll kill me."
"What makes you think I won't?" Torr growled.
"I…I can't." The turian seemed to shrink slightly, constricting himself into the corner as much as he could. "I just, I just can't."
Torr blew a hot sigh from his nostrils and slowly stepped back, rolling his thick shoulder muscles.
Tali glanced up at him, suddenly very perturbed by the dangerous gleam in his eyes. Breaking his leg wasn't enough? "Torr?"
"Enough screwing around." Declared the old krogan. His oversize paw darted forward before anyone had a chance to react and before the turian knew what was happening he found himself hoisted aloft by the back of his carapace armour. He screeched with pain and rage, alternately cursing and begging to be let loose. Torr paid him absolutely no heed and instead ripped open the tattered door to the turian's makeshift hidey hole, dragging the struggling alien out behind him.
Tali followed after them hesitantly, shotgun dangling forgotten from her hand. "Torr!" What is he thinking? Everyone in this district is going t-oh Keelah.
Torr threw open the door to the nearest factory and dragged the squirming turian behind him by the scruff of the neck, all discreetness completely gone. Tali chased after him, burying an urge to run the other way. Whatever Torr was doing might be insane, but she had no choice but to trust him after everything he'd done for her. Outraged and fearful cries erupted all around them as the krogan barged inside, hauled his captive onto a small catwalk infested with control machinery and threw him down against the harsh metal like a discarded plaything. The turian let loose a shriek of pain as his leg bashed against the floor and he clutched at the fracture with his good arm, looking up with pained eyes to see Tali stood over him, shotgun barrel covering his every move. Her finger rested lightly on the trigger and she didn't dare look at the nearby factory workers, no matter how much they yelled and screamed. Broken leg or no he'd gotten away once, she wasn't about to let it happen again.
Behind her, Torr was embroiled in a heated argument with the local foreman.
"Who do you think you are? You can't just barge in he-"
"Get the hell out."
The batarian blanched. "What?"
Torr stepped closer, leant right into the alien's face and grabbed him by the collar.
"I said," he responded, dragging his words as though they'd make more sense that way, "get out."
The batarian stared at him for a second, taking in the krogan's massive size, vicious shotgun and above all, the resolute you-really-don't-want-to-be-here look in his eyes. Finally the four eyed alien nodded and as Torr released him, edged for the exit, nervously ordering what remained of the staff to do the same. "I'm calling security," he warned Torr as he left, "they'll be here in minutes."
Torr simply stood atop the catwalk and glowered at him, utterly unperturbed. "So call 'em." He replied dismissively, his words marred by machinery that whirred and whined obstinately in the background. By the time Torr turned around the foreman had fled, the large rolling freight door already sliding shut behind him. Back on the catwalk, the turian had cautiously braced his back against the rusted yellow railing, an uncertain Tali'Zorah hovering above him.
"Tali, you think you can work those controls?"
Tali glanced toward the console, her encyclopaedic knowledge of engineering devices quickly analysing the various levers and switches. "Yes, I think so."
Torr nodded approvingly, never taking his eyes from the turian's. "Go fire up those laser cutters on the conveyor would you?"
The quarian's silver eyes flickered to the high powered and frighteningly deadly laser emitters. Used to finely shave edges from near complete items, be they walls, gems or mining minerals, the lasers were normally hidden behind specially designed cases of shielded glass and metal, though these ones had no such thing. Tali could only assume that being Omega, usual safety standards were happily ignored. At Torr's behest she moved toward the console, though with some reluctance; she had a good idea of what her krogan friend was thinking and it was not something she wanted to even witness, much less partake in. Her suspicions were confirmed a moment later when Torr gestured out to the emitters, though the motion was scarcely needed, the turian's eyes already fixed on the deadly construction tools.
"You see those?" Torr's voice was casual, so cool in fact that he could easily have been discussing the current condition of the weather. "You know what they do?"
The turian's expression as he looked skyward was answer enough.
"You don't tell me what I want to know, you and those emitters will be getting real friendly, real fast."
His captive didn't reply, perhaps couldn't. He simply closed his eyes, head tilted toward the dull grey of the ceiling as if he wanted it to collapse on him.
Torr waited for a moment then looked to Tali. "Fire 'em up kid."
Tali reached for the lever obediently and as her hand closed around the hard plastic grip she prepared to pull it down, then hesitated.
"Torr...I don't think I can do this. This is wrong." Watching Torr breaking the turian's leg had been terrible enough and there had been nothing she could have done about it but this…this she couldn't have on her conscience.
"Pull the lever Tali!" Torr's voice was filled with a rage that petrified the young engineer but to her own amazement, she found herself stepping away from the console, hands upraised in a gesture of surrender.
"I won't do this, I can't do this." She continued to step back, shaking her head slowly.
Torr snarled in frustration and expended some of it by driving a fist into the turian's wounded shoulder. The turian came out of his horrified revere with a gasp and fell back onto the cold floor as Torr left him, storming across the warehouse to activate the controls himself. He glared at Tali as he threw the switch, claymore trained on the writhing turian with his free hand. "I'm doing this for you." he growled as he passed her, grabbing hold of their prisoner once more and dragging him roughly to one of the industrial grade laser cutters that had just sprung to life. "You've had two chances so far," he informed the terrified turian, "most krogans don't give firsts never mind thirds. If Krovak Torr doesn't find out what he wants to know this time, we'll see how hot that metallic carapace of yours can get when it's superheated to 5,000 degrees."
The turian flinched as Torr pressed him up against the suddenly very fragile looking catwalk railing. "Please, please I…"
"Yes?" Torr prompted expectantly.
"I CAN'T!" the turian yelled again, eyes wild with terror.
"Wrong answer." His captive barely had time to yelp before Torr slung him over the railing with frightening ease, the turian letting loose a howl as he hit the conveyor. A second later the entire belt shook as Torr crashed down beside him, crouching slightly to maintain his balance. The turian tried to scramble away but his wounds hampered him and the krogan, leaving deep indents in the wake of each step, pulled the smaller alien closer to the deadly laser cutters. The turian was screeching, pleading but his cries fell on deaf ears. Still standing on the conveyor, Tali turned her back and dampened her sound filters pre-emptively as bile rose in her throat. This is all wrong. So very wrong. And I'm a part of it, I'm as guilty as Torr is. Would dad have stood by and let this happen? Should I? She glanced back and immediately regretted it as she glimpsed Torr forcing their captive's hand into the high powered laser; the turian's mouth opened wider than she would have thought possible in a silent, eerie scream. Torr bellowed something, but her muted filters caught nothing.
What am I supposed to do? She felt helpless, a bystander forced to witness something she had no control over while conflicting thoughts and emotions assaulted her from every direction in a matter of seconds. She couldn't order a ten foot krogan around, either physically or morally. Torr had done too much for her to repay him like that and besides, this turian was responsible for the deaths of her people wasn't he? Does that make it right? No. But again, what do I do?
Torr was right, she realised, this place corrupts you.
Behind the conflicted quarian, the turian, now minus one of the two fingers of his right hand, was begging, screaming even, for mercy. Torr was snarling, close to succumbing to a krogan blood rage and tearing the little runt limb from limb. "You play games with me again and these," he banged his fist against the 'fins' atop the turian's head for emphasis, "are the next thing to get fried!"
"Alright!" screeched the captive, sounding so broken and pitiful that Tali felt even worse for ignoring him, "Alright!" The turian's breath came in short, desperate gasps and he didn't dare look away from Torr's ferocious reptilian eyes. "Look I'm just a middle man ok? A go-between. I got hired to contact the volus, arrange the weapons shipment and collect, that's all I swear!"
Torr stared at him for a second as though debating before abruptly dragging his captive's arm toward the laser cutter again. "I don't believe you."
The krogan stopped just as suddenly when a hesitant voice raised itself above the whining machinery.
"What about the attack on the Tarmeena? Did you order that?"
The turian looked up at Tali like he'd forgotten she was even there and glanced nervously at Torr who gestured for him to go on with a snarl, the mutilated hand inches away from the cutter. "I got ordered to set it up, yes." He admitted. "I hired Nid to find the missile but they contracted the batarian fighters, all I did was re-program the in-flight systems."
"What do you mean, re-program them?" Tali asked, confused.
The turian winced as Torr leant a little too heavily on his wrist. "We needed to make sure they'd do their jobs, and I don't think anyone told the batarians they were going after a cruiser. I…modified the flight control system to make sure they did what we contracted them to do, regardless of what they might have thought when they saw the cruiser."
"You doomed them to a suicide mission." Growled Torr.
"And they had no idea." Whispered Tali, mortified.
"Basically, yeah." The callous remark was punctuated by a whimper as Torr squeezed the cauterized stub of the turian's severed forefinger between his hand and the floor.
"You're a monster," she hissed, "do you know how many innocent people were on that freighter?"
"This is Omega," the turian spat angrily, a sudden burst of fury rising in him, "it doesn't matter what you do here, so long as you survive."
Torr met Tali's eyes knowingly, that same hint of sadness present for just a second before it disappeared, buried beneath a hardened, purposeful glare. "Who hired you turian?" Torr pronounced the name like a curse.
"I don't know," he moaned, managing to sound both pained and bored, "they kept the whole thing wrapped up tighter than a nathakk in winter."
"I find it hard to believe you have no idea who's paying your wages." Torr's voice carried a deadly edge.
"Look the most I can tell you is that it was a guy, could've been a human, young maybe but…mature."
"No names?"
The turian shook his head. "Most of our communication was through the extranet, we only ever spoke once, that was after the cruiser run was complete." He glanced ruefully at Tali. "Wish he'd have told me you survived that, might have been a bit more careful with Nid."
"Anything else you wanna share?" asked Torr.
The turian opened his mouth, appeared to think better of it, and finally sighted reluctantly. "Hell, I'm a dead man now anyway, may as well tell you."
"Tell me what?"
"I…wasn't too comfortable with working for a nameless guy so I asked one of my associates to do some searching. He came up with a company name, but he thinks it's a dead end, a front. I haven't looked into it yet, not sure if I want to now, but it's all I got."
"What's the name?"
"Korlus Shipping. They operate here, on one of the lower levels. Supposedly." The turian shrugged as best he could under the krogan's powerful grip. "That's all I got man, I swear."
Tali hovered about cautiously as Torr slowly released his grip on the prisoner, who drew his injured hand to his chest the moment it was free. "I ever see you on this rock again and you die turian. No questions, no warnings."
The captive laughed bitterly, grimacing against the pain as his broken leg flared in pain from the slight movements. "I should be so lucky. You doomed me the instant you forced me to open my mouth krogan. They'll know, and they won't think twice about making sure I never speak again."
The speed of the turian's change from being frightened to being resigned surprised Tali. Maybe his kind adapt quicker. Or maybe he knew this could happen all along and he prepared himself for it.
Torr didn't so much as glance back at him, it was almost like he'd never existed now the krogan had what he wanted.
"If you're going back to the warehouse you might want to be careful, there'll be an army of batarian mercenaries swarming around the place by now." The turian's parting shot almost proved fatal as Torr abruptly spun on his heel and stormed the few feet to the captive, shotgun clicking and clacking as it extended into the alien's throat. "WHAT batarians?"
"The ones I called in before I took out the wall," the turian managed, his words short and raspy as he struggled to speak around the barrel of the weapon, "I hired them in case things went wrong." His casual resignation had switched back to fear almost as soon as Torr's weapon re-produced itself. "To be honest I'm a little surprised they haven't followed you, might have to take it out of their fee."
He chuckled nervously, small dark eyes darting about Torr's weathered face. The krogan lowered the weapon and as the turian began to breathe a sigh of relief, slammed the stock straight into his metallic carapace. Even from halfway across the catwalk, Tali heard ribs shatter rather than snap as the turian collapsed in a fit of pained coughs, dark indigo blood spewing from his mouth.
"For your sake, you better hope they never showed." Replied Torr darkly.
The turian spat a small gob of blood on the old mechanic's middle toe. "It doesn't matter to me krogan, I'm dead anyway. You kill me now, you do me a favour."
Torr glowered down at him and for a second, seemed to think about levelling a final kick in the wretched creature's abdomen. As Tali watched, mind filled with dreadful images of heavily armoured batarians gunning down an overwhelmed Ren and the Blue Suns mercenaries, Torr's discipline seemed to get the better of him and he turned to join her again, slipping the claymore onto his back.
"Let's go kid."
She needed no further encouragement and fairly ran for the door, opening it only to find a small squad of the foreman's promised security officers coming their way. "Uh, Torr? We've got issues."
He leant around her to see what she was getting at and snorted in disgust. "We don't have time for this."
"But what do y-"
He cut her off by fully opening the door and barging through, having to duck to get his hump under the lintel of the frame. Tali wasn't surprised to find herself scooting after him, after everything today, she was beginning to get used to following the old man's lead.
Torr didn't even slow down once they were outside, his steps leading his straight to the security guards. Tali noticed the sudden hesitance they adopted at the sight of him, she might not know much about reading faces and expressions but she could definitely spot the subtle shift in weight as they collectively lent back, their walk becoming ever so slightly slower as each of the aliens tried to make sure someone else reached the angry krogan first.
Torr lifted his weighty shotgun into the air with one hand and pulled the trigger with a casual ease, the action not even breaking his stride. There were gasps and screams all around as flak filled the air, chaos erupted as those nearby dove for cover instinctively and the security force broke and scattered, self preservation very suddenly becoming their main priority. Torr strode a path straight through the middle of it all, the wide barrel of the Claymore persuading the more foolish security guards from making a move. Tali echoed his movements, Omni-Tool aglow with a tech mine primed to temporarily disable a plethora of standard weapon frequencies should anyone so much as fire a shot. Fortunately in all the chaos caused by the gunshot and the subsequent casing aside of heavy duty supplies, materials and equipment most of the employees were too busy struggling to regain control of their plant to pay them much attention.
"C'mon Tali," urged Torr as the pair made it safely to the end of the street, a very subdued looking security force watching them leave, "we need to double time it back to Ren and Nid."
"I just hope we're not too late." replied Tali worriedly as they began to make their way back through the back alleys.
Author Notes
Finally eh? This chapter has been a nightmare to write for various reasons; I've actually wound up writing quite a bit for the end of the story too, which is hopefully a good thing. Fortunately the next chapter should be much simpler to write, that said, it is going to be another combat one and I'm not going to have access to a computer for a while so I'm giving myself at least three weeks to finish it. Also, while I am aware that Tali does not actually have access to the Medicine talent in ME1, and thus not Neural Shock, the fact that it is an Engineer talent has convinced me it is feasible for her to at least be able to use it when unbound from game mechanics and specifications.