Year 2184, Illium - Precise Location Unknown
I once fought for what is right. Or atleast what I then thought was right. I gave the best 15 years of my life in service of humanity's interests. I cared about the Alliance and I thought it cared about me.
How naive of me.
Once I had outlived my usefulness I was thrown away like a used rag. A discharge and a pat on the back was what I got for giving my life and my damn legs to them. And on that day, lying on the hospital bed, for the first time in my life I felt completely hopeless. My life had crashed and burned around me. I had nothing left.
I didn't learn that nobody could give a damn about me in this godforsaken galaxy. I didn't want to.
And so for four more years I fought for someone else's goals, someone else's war. I found that meaning I was looking so hard for again, and something... more. Until it happened again. Shit got tough and we, the disposable ones were left behind. Acceptable casualties to accomplish the mission is what we were. I alone managed to crawl my way out of that living hell they left us in. After that I swore to myself I would never again fight for someone else. Only for my own reasons.
Enough of the reminiscing, I have people to kill.
The elevator ding signalled my arrival to the top floor of one of the thousands of skyscrapers dotting the skyline of Illium. What's special about this one you ask? Nothing really. What is special is what allegedly lives on the inside. A certain Mr. Barnett. A certain Mr. Barnett whom I also happen to have business of the exceptionally violent variety with. But I'm getting ahead of myself here.
The gleaming hallways and dignified use of colours radiated the opulence these people lived in. A stark contrast to the lower levels dull greys and blinding neon lights. But whilst the literal shit stayed firmly in the lower city, the figurative ones floated their way up here so the atmosphere didn't really change that much. As familiarly oppressive as ever.
After a minute of walking, I found the door I was looking for. Apartment 711 in the 71st floor of the building. Soon enough I'll see whether my source was full of crap or not. Only thing stopping me now is the quite reinforced door in front of me. One of those sliding ones. Couldn't kick it in even if I wanted to. And believe me I do. Hacking's right out of the window aswell. The day I can hack a high security door like this, hell freezes over. So that leaves us with one option which also happens to be my favourite one.
Explosives.
I dug out the breaching charge from under my long coat and carefully attached it to the right places on the door, listening to my surrounding at the same time for anyone coming to interrupt me. After getting the charge in place I took my loyal Carnifex pistol from a holster hidden under my jacket. Haven't met a thing with a heartbeat that this thing couldn't kill yet, and I very much doubt that Mr. Barnett will prove me otherwise.
I tried to get a heat signature through the walls with my omni-tool to see what I was up against, but it proved futile as the walls seemed to be insulated too well. Figures in a fancy place like this.
With nothing else left to do I settled leaning into the wall next to the door as I counted slowly down from three.
A deafening boom came from the charge as it blew, violently forcing the sliding metal door to open. I immediately rushed in through the smoke with the Carnifex at the ready to shoot at any threats that may appear on the other side. Glass object were shattered all across the hallway and paintings on the wall had ripped from the strength of the blast. Might have overshot the amount of explosives in the charge. Other than the destruction, the hallway was empty. As the charge blew, I had heard a scream coming from inside so atleast someone was home but unless my target had a habit of screaming like a woman, it was not him. But he could still be in.
Nearing a door, I remembered from my research of this place to lead into a bedroom, I heard quiet crying and someone shussing the crier. At least two people. I lined up with the door and kicked it in, bursting into the room pointing at the the occupants with my pistol. In the room were two very provocatively dressed asari, whores most likely, and a single human male holding a pistol towards me with shaking hands and a terrible form.
"Bingo." I said under my breath as I scanned him over. A middle aged man with graying dark hair and eyeglasses. That's my guy alright.
"Stop right there thug or I'll shoot!" Mr. Barnett yelled, making a gesture with his gun that I suppose was meant to be threatening. It was clear from how he held the gun that, A, he had little to no training with the weapon and B, he was about to shit himself with fright if I took a step more in his direction.
'This'll be easy', I though as I shot the Carnifex so that the bullet hit his right arm, that was holding the gun, at the elbow. Barnett dropped the gun screaming almost in tune with his paid company, as his right elbow exploded with the power of the high caliber hand gun, sending splatters of blood all over the room. I quickly advanced to him now that he was unarmed and kicked him hard in the right knee. The knee made a sickening crunch and buckled backwards, making its owner fall to the ground on his wounded right arm that was only hanging on by flesh. These tin-can legs are good for something atleast.
I moved my gaze from the crying heap of a man on the floor to the sobbing asari duo clinging to each other in the corner, holding onto each other like you would hold onto a escape pod in the middle of getting spaced.
"Hey!" I yelled to get their attention. The darker skinned one's eyes snapped to mine, the other one just kept looking down.
"Scram." I said and jerked my head towards the door. The darker asari took no time in dragging her still sobbing friend up and towards the door. They wouldn't go and talk to the cops, no harm in letting them go. As they were leaving I turned my attention back to Barnett who was still crying on the floor. I grabbed a hold of his shirt and dragged him roughly into a sitting position against the wall, as he screamed in pain from the sudden movement.
"Last year, you were a middleman in hiring a merc outfit to get an artefact from a batarian colony of Camala. On who's orders? Talk." I said in a unnaturally calm tone for the situation.
"Why do you wanna know?" Barnett replied miserably from his place, leaning against the wall. Instead dignifying him with a answer, I took my gun and shot him in his good knee's kneecap, making it explode in bone and blood.
"Talk." I said again as he was howling in pain. After few moments of him recovering and catching his breath from all the yelling in pain, he spat through clenched teeth: "Why would I tell you? You're gonna kill me anyways." On the inside I quite was surprised at how long he was holding out. Maybe I was wrong about him? Unlikely, I did my research. This sudden bout of resistance should pass soon enough. On the outside of me you couldn't see any sign of the 'conversation' going on in my head. To him, I just looked at him with a uninterested look.
After a few moments of tense silence on his end and waiting on mine, he buckled. "A-All right! All right. I was hired by this turian who said he was working for a spectre." He explained with a wavering voice.
"Who?" I asked, moving my gun to point at his groin. This was the best part of the interrogation, the untrained ones would open up like a book.
And Barnett didn't disappoint.
"S-Saren! It was Saren, OK? The guy said he was working for Saren. That's all I know I fucking swear to you!"
"Saren! The fucking dead traitor spectre? You expect me to believe that you lying sack of shit?!" I suddenly yelled at his face in rage, a complete u-turn from my previously composed voice, good cop, bad cop works surprisingly well alone too I've noticed. I slammed my pistols barrel down, so that it was touching his dick. I half pulled the trigger to receive a small electric whining noise, signalling it's readiness to castrate my target.
"I'm not lying I swear to you! P-please d-don't kill me!" He cried as loud as he could in panic and tried to squirm away from under my gun.
Satisfied enough that he was not lying I stored the info to be processed later. He would not lie about something less significant now. So I asked about the other turian. "What about the one you were in contact with? Name. Now." Back to my calm and collected act.
"I-I never got a name! But he looked like some common terminus thug, armor and all. W-white face paint. That's all I know! Now p-please let me go, I-" His sentence was cut short as I blew the back of his head clean off, painting the wall behind him beautiful crimson shade. The body flopped limply to the ground as I stood up and started walking to the door. Better be out of the scene when the police show up. Someone slammed their door shut just as I stepped out of the apartment. Some neighbour too nosy for their own good no doubt. Atleast they had the brains to stay out of my way.
My boots clanged on the elevators metal floor as I stepped back in. My surprisingly slow way down for a hotel of this price range begun after pressing the ground floor button. A silhouette of a finger was left painted on blood where I had pressed. Looking up at myself on the elevators mirror, I noticed I had gotten more bloody than I had noticed. Luckily my dark clothes didn't reveal much of the splatters unless one was looking very closely, so I didn't look like a damn axe murderer walking out of here. I cleaned the blood from my face on the sleeve of the jacket, and managing to get rid of most of it.
After I had made myself look somewhat non-suspicious my thoughts turned to the information I had managed to gleam from my target.
Saren the traitorous ex-spectre, dead as of now, was at the very least involved. I couldn't exactly interrogate him anymore, so alternative route it is. Commander Shepard and her crew. They famously hunted him. If anyone knows about his unlawful doings and the reasons for them, it's them.
Ding went the elevator again bringing me back to Earth, well Illium.
The lobby of the building was seemingly calm. In a way the wind is before the storm. I speed-walked towards the exit, when two police cruisers stopped in front of the building. I slipped behind a pillar next to the door, peeking from behind it. Three police officers, two asari and a turian, came in and ran past me to the elevator. They took it up without seeing me. Seems like lady luck was on my side this time. I eased away from the pillar and left through the door. I managed two whole steps outside when I heard the distinctive noise of a gun being pulled from my left. Or maybe lady luck was not.
"Stop right there! Hands in the air and on your knees!" Shouted a young female voice.
Well shit. They left someone to keep watch of the door. Without any sudden movements, I lowered myself on my knees and put my hands on top of my head. I saw from the corner of my eye, as the young asari officer, apparently satisfied with my surrender, approached me gun first whilst taking her radio out to contact her colleagues. "This is Officer L'Sania in front of the building. I have apprehended a human male attempting to leave the prem-AGH!"
While she was concentrating on reporting my arrest, I took full advantage of her distraction and jumped her. I twisted her gun arm with both of my arms, so that the barrel was pointed at her head whilst bringing my left leg to block her right one from behind, so she couldn't retreat. It happened in a blink of an eye, and she only managed to look at me in surprise, before I pulled the trigger and ended her life.
She fell dead on the street under her, colouring it purple with her blood. "Shame." I said before leaving the scene towards on of the nearby alleyways, where I stashed my airbike. Next to the asari's cooling body, her radio shouted in alarm as her colleagues tried to reach her.
The entry to the alleyway was in a darkzone of the cameras and I slipped in and found my bike under a dirty tarp.
I sat on the bike's saddle and put on my jet black helmet. Before leaving, I stopped to think for a few seconds about my next move. I'd have to find a Commander Shepard's former crewmember, who was willing to talk, or one that could be persuaded to. They'd have the next clue.
I blew air out of my nose in amusement. A real fucking puzzle this one, allright. Thousand pieces and all.
My thought's turned serious again as I prepared to leave, making sure I'd leave nothing behind.
At least now I fought for a good reason.
Revenge.
With that thought, I turned the bike on and sped towards my safehouse in the lower levels.
I had a lot to do.