Under Siege:
Kaidan had forgotten just how awful it was, having your body measured, especially when it came to having your armour adjusted to fit you just perfectly.
Seemed like he was not escaping that dark-blue armour he had gotten when he was made Major.
The Council had decided that he needed to look his best for the ceremony and so they had sent Kaidan off to have it armour prepped and ready.
It had taken quite a beating during the encounter on Mars and Kaidan couldn't help but wince when he saw the rather obvious dent at the back of his helmet. It was hard to imagine that his head had been in there and that he had survived the encounter at all.
He didn't exactly hate the armour, it -did- look nice, but he still didn't feel it was very practical. That and he got mixed feelings when looking at it. It made him think about the beating, about Mars and he honestly wasn't sure how he felt about it.
Kaidan himself didn't have to do much, thankfully, when it came to actually getting the measurements done.
A quick scan of his body to get the measurements for the armour, seeing as it had been dented a little here and there, as well as a new under-suit as the doctors had to cut him out of his previous one, and Kaidan was free to go.
Not that he had anywhere he needed to be, but there were things Kaidan wanted to do.
The attempted treaty between the Krogans and the rest of the council were the hottest debate currently going on and Kaidan was eagerly following the discussions that had, unsurprisingly, been dumped into Shepard's lap.
The discussions were a secret though, the Alliance trying their best to keep things as private as they could until Shepard felt comfortable releasing something. News was hard to come by, but Hackett was doing his best to keep Kaidan up to speed.
Outside of that, Kaidan kept himself busy the best he could and with his new rank, he had access to new things.
Officially, Kaidan was not a Spectre yet, but the Council had decided to grant him the accesses needed so he could familiarize himself with the Spectre system, the requisitions he could make and the training simulator.
Since Kaidan couldn't actually -go- anywhere until the ceremony had been completed, not to mention that it wasn't guarantied where Kaidan would even go once he had been officially granted Spectre-status, he had to keep himself occupied via other means, which is were the simulator came into play.
He hadn't spend long in the hospital and thanks to the regular sparring with Thane, Kaidan didn't feel like a complete wreck when it came to his general strength physique, but he still enjoyed the burn, the challenge that came with the simulator.
It was simply good to know that he still knew what to do, that he wasn't afraid of combat. It seemed like with each near-death experience he had, he just became more determined.
That and it was a nice way to pass the time, in-between Kaidan's attempts to keep up with the news and the Council.
As a Spectre, even an unofficial one, he was kept up to date with the news, especially news that was about Shepard, which Kaidan saw as a perk.
He hadn't been able to visit Thane at the hospital since he had left himself, but he had sent Kaidan a message, congratulating him on his new position, which made the biotic smile.
Seemed like nothing escaped Thane's attention either, though considering what he had done as a profession, Kaidan wasn't very surprised.
Of course, after the third day had passed with nothing really happening and the Council seemingly being more interested in bickering with one another, Kaidan was feeling a strain on his normally big patience.
The news of Shepard curing the genophage and securing the help of the Krogans and the Turians alike was the hottest topic within the Alliance, C-Sec and the Council, but in return the members of the Council seemed to disagree with what to do with their newfound assets.
Udina, naturally, wanted everyone to drop everything to help Earth while Councillor Sparatus wanted for the Krogans to help the Turians first, as was the original agreement as far as Kaidan knew, before help could be given to Earth. Councillor Tevos seemed to lean more towards Udina, but she did not openly voice her opinion while Councillor Valern seemed completely disinterested in both the Turians and Krogans.
In Kaidan's opinion, he felt like he was more or less watching a group of children fighting on the playground over a box with toy-soldiers.
He was having half a mind to just demand for them to get their fingers out of their asses and do something, but something else would beat him to it.
In hindsight, he was rather glad that he was required to be near the Council these days or things could really have turned ugly...
It had started out very subtle at first and it had almost been a coincidence that Kaidan had even noticed it.
Udina had happened to call upon him while he was training in the simulator, wanting for him to be an unofficial witness for a discussion between the Councillor members by Councillor Valern.
It wasn't a rare occurrence that they called for someone of rank to be a witness so Kaidan didn't question it. Valern had also told Kaidan that Shepard had been notified and was heading back to Citadel space, but exactly what was going on remained unspoken.
All Kaidan had been told to do for now was to pick Udina up and escort him to the meeting.
As he headed over to the human Councillor's office, he noticed several members of C-Sec looking concerned, talking quietly between themselves. One of them, a Turian, was frantically typing on his omnitool, his mandibles twitching with each rejecting beep the omnitool created.
When he finally reached Udina's office, he gave the human Councillor a quick salute.
"Councillor Udina, I am ready to escort you."
Udina nodded, barely glancing up from his paperwork. "Yes, Major, thank you. Give me a moment; I just need to locate some reports here. Damn the others for calling in meetings on such short notice. Surely talking about the Krogans and Turians can wait."
"Of course," Kaidan responded before glancing behind him, trying to catch a glimpse of the C-Sec officers before the door slid shut behind him.
"Is there an issue going on the Citadel," he asked casually, letting his gaze drift back to Udina.
"None that I have heard," Udina said absentmindedly, not even looking up at Kaidan as he spoke.
"Why do you ask, Major?"
"Nothing of importance, Councillor," Kaidan replied politely, placing his hands behind his back. "Just saw a few members of C-Sec on my way here. They seemed concerned about something."
"Probably some petty squabble somewhere," Udina replied with a sigh, looking over one of his compads before rubbing his forehead. "With all the refugees on the lower floors, minor conflicts are breaking out all the time and there are not enough people to properly handle them all. But it shouldn't be a big concern, especially not for you," he continued, waving his hand dismissively before looking up as the lights in his office started flickering, frowning some. "Oh, for the love of-! What now?"
Kaidan looked up as well before hurrying over to the window to take a look outside. He could see several lights flickering from numerous windows and street-lights below before returning to normal, which made him worry ever so slightly. The last thing they needed was a power-outage, even if it was just lights.
"Probably a power-surge," he suggested, though it was a rarity for the Citadel to experience power-surges without some sort of warning. Of course, no system was perfect and it was possible that errors could happen, especially now.
He tossed one more glance onto the street before pushing himself away, returning his attention back to the Councillor. He was about to ask if he was ready for the meeting before his eyes trailed upwards again as he heard a faint sound from above them, slowly coming closer.
A Keeper? It could be, especially if there was a surge going on and Kaidan knew that the Keepers used the vents to travel around the Citadel.
The lights flickered again, which made Udina let out a disgruntled noise, slamming his compad down hard onto his desk. "Oh, what is going on? How can I work with the lights going out?"
Kaidan didn't even get a chance to respond to the question as the sound above them turned louder.
That's when the shooting outside started.
Despite the very distracting noise coming from outside Udina's office, Kaidan was more interested in the boot that suddenly bashed through the vents, kicking through the metal cover. The biotic would not give him a chance to do much more than that as he yelled for Udina to get to cover, snatching his gun from the belt and firing into the vent.
The assaulter went down with a gurgle, foot hanging loosely from the opening it had created while blood started dripping from the holes Kaidan's gun had created in the ceiling.
Kaidan didn't stop to exanimate the body; there was no time for it. There was still shooting going out on the outside and Kaidan needed to get Udina and the other Councillors to safety.
"Udina, to me!" he ordered, glad that the man didn't protest as he scrambled out from under the desk. At least the man had the good sense to hide when Kaidan had told him to.
"Shit, what is going on?!"
"I don't know," Kaidan said, frowning as he peered out the window in Udina's office. Despite the shooting, it seemed like the battle had not come up to the Councillor's level, probably thanks to the high-level security. That also meant that the other Councillor-members were hopefully still safe.
"Come on, we have to move."
Udina nodded, seemingly happy to let Kaidan take charge as the biotic palmed the door-lock, letting it slide open with a silent hiss.
The sound of shooting and yelling became louder as they stepped outside, though what worried Kaidan the most was the fact that there was seemingly nobody up there with them and the doors to the different offices were open. At least there were no signs of struggle or blood, and there were several panic-rooms for the Councillor members to take shelter inn.
"Udina, where is the closest panic-room?"
"Right this way," Udina breathed, looking around the empty area before pointing a surprisingly steady hand towards a closed off door, leading towards a private elevator for the Councillors.
"Let's go," Kaidan ordered, walking quickly towards the door, though making sure that Udina was close to him. He didn't say anything further to the man, especially since he had no idea what was going on.
The path was clear as the two of them hurried down the hallway, though the fact that there was nobody there made Kaidan more than a little concerned.
He quickly palmed the elevator as soon as they reached, gun at the ready in case of any nasty surprised. "Can you contact C-Sec, Councillor," he asked Udina while they waited, tossing him a quick glance.
"I'm already trying, but my messages are not going through," Udina frowned, his fingers already tapping at his omnitool. "None of the channels are working, not even the private one."
"Great, just what we need," Kaidan grunted, snuffing out the ideas to call for help. All he could do now was actually find a safe location and, preferably, the other Councillors. But without backup, he would have to play it safe and take it one step at a time.
His trains of thoughts were broken by the soft hiss from the elevator stopping, but he was taken aback by the sight inside it when the door slid open.
"Oh God," Udina gasped as he took in the sight of a very dead C-Sec officer, shot in the head. Blood was splattering the walls and covered the floor, but despite the mess, the dead Turian male had a look of surprise on his face.
Kaidan wrinkled his nose some before nodding his head at Udina. "Let's go. He won't get up anytime soon."
Udina clearly looked unhappy by the thought, but eventually nodded and stepped into the elevator, quickly followed by Kaidan.
"Get ready. We don't know what's waiting for us," Kaidan warned. "Which floor?"
"Down, but it takes a code," Udina replied, reaching out towards the elevator's small wall-console and punched in a series of codes. Moments later, the elevator jerked into life and went downwards.
"Do you know how to fire a gun," Kaidan asked, glancing at Udina.
"I am a politician, not a soldier," Udina replied with a huff, making Kaidan frown some.
"Fair enough, but I want to give you a means to protect yourself, should it be needed."
"Then I would suggest to not bring me a gun," Udina replied. "I would shoot myself on accident, I am sure."
"Fair enough," Kaidan replied, not willing to fight the Councillor on this. Besides, the man was probably right. While he was aggressive and probably a good "fighter" in political debates, Kaidan had no idea if the man had even seen a gun up close, let alone held one in his hands.
"Just remain as close as you can to me so I can protect you."
"You don't have to tell me twice," Udina muttered, shying as far away from the dead Turian as he could.
They continued the trip down in silence, though Kaidan remained on alert in case something happened. The fact that it was so eerily quiet was more unsettling than the gunshots near the embassies and it just made him feel jumpy.
As the elevator came to a half on the floor Udina had punched the code for, Kaidan readied his gun, holding his breath as the door slid open.
At first, he couldn't hear anything, but as Kaidan stepped out of the elevator, making sure to cover Udina the best he could, he could hear the faint sounds of fighting in the distance.
"Shit," he cursed, glancing around quickly to see if there was anywhere Udina could hide, but all he could see was four wide open hallways, going in different direction from the circular platform they were standing on.
"I take it the panic-room is in the direction of the noise?"
Kaidan didn't even need to look at Udina to know the answer and merely let out a deep breath of air through his nose instead.
"Stay close, but get ready to leg it I say so," he finally said, looking over at Udina who merely nodded.
Together they walked down the hallway, towards the sounds of fighting. As they walked, Kaidan could see more dead bodies, mostly C-Sec personnel, but as they neared a curve in the hallway, Kaidan saw the first remains of whoever they had been fighting.
He would recognise the damn uniform and logo anywhere by now.
"Cerberus. I should have known," he mumbled to himself as he walked over to one of the bodies, giving it a nudge with his boot to check if the soldier would get back up. Judging by the fact that it seemed like the soldier's head seemed to have been snapped, he doubted it, but he didn't want to risk it.
The sound of fighting was louder now and after checking the hallway behind them, Kaidan looked at Udina. "Stay here."
"What?!"
"There's gunfire around this corner, I don't want you to get hurt," Kaidan hissed, placing a finger over his lips to signal for Udina to keep his voice down. "Keep your eyes behind us, yell if you see anything."
"R-right."
Kaidan nodded at Udina before rounding the corner. He was immediately greeted to what he could only describe as a bloodbath.
There were dead C-sec members and Cerberus soldiers spread across the floor, though it seemed like whoever had been fighting them had done a bang-up job so far.
Only two Cerberus soldiers were up and their attention was completely focused on an open door ahead of them. Either they had pinned whoever it was down, or had already killed them, but for now they had their back to Kaidan, something the biotic took quick advantage off. Before he could alert them of his presence, the biotic took aim and planted two bullets in one of the soldiers head, then shooting the other in the neck as the gunfire alerted him. Neither of they had the chance to react.
As the soldiers slumped over onto the ground, Kaidan kept his eyes and gun directed in the direction the soldiers had fired, not willing to risk a trap. "Come out."
To his surprise, only one person came out from the open door and when Kaidan saw who it was, his mouth dropped open.
"Thane!"