Kroll's story

-10 years previously-

The old cooking stove was on at full blast, with the door left wide open. Undoubtedly the extra expense of running it like that would cause trouble if it was discovered but it was the only means we had of keeping warm at night.

There were three of us huddled around that small source of heat, each of us just praying that the next power cut wouldn't come until the sun rose again and the temperature soared. Myself, the human girl called Maria, and the Drell named Karlakh had formed this unlikely friendship a long time ago, bonding over the mutual suffering we faced at the hands of our master.

Unusually today, all three of us were clutching a mug of home-brewed hooch in our hands. Karlakh doesn't like the taste and Maria has to be careful that the master doesn't smell the liquor on her breath, but today was a special, if somber, occasion. Karlakh's father had died ten days ago in Lord Balak's palladium mines. This was our first opportunity to console him.

"From what he told me, my grandfather died the same way. It took longer that time, dust inhalation is not a quick death, but Balak's mines took them both from me, one way or another," he said morosely.

Not knowing what to say, we both just nodded along with him and then spared surreptitious glances around the room to make sure none of the master's spies were in earshot. Karlakh had always been a firebrand but his father's death was making him even angrier than normal. If he wasn't careful his rashness would wind up seeing him executed, with us along with him if we weren't careful. That said I liked the kid, his inner fire was a small act of rebellion that helped keep all our spirits up. I just wished he would learn to pick his battles more carefully.

"Have they said who's going to be replacing him?" I asked, trying to steer the conversation into less dangerous waters.

"Kimmal suggested I would be a good candidate," he replied, referring to one of Balak's lieutenants. My heart sank at that; everyone knew mine work was dangerous, especially when you had a habit of talking back to the overseers. Karlakh would be much safer staying with the parade guard.

"Nah, there's no chance of that now," said Maria dismissively.

"Not since Kimmal managed to fall out of favor, last week."

"Really? What did he do?"

"He was overheard suggesting that Balak ought to share me with him, as a reward for everything he's done for him," she explained.

Karlakh and I winced. If it had been anyone else caught saying something stupid like that we would've seen their head decorating the palace gates by now. Even for Kimmal, I almost dreaded to think of what would happen to him.

"Think he'll live?"

She shrugged.

"Balak gets very protective of me sometimes. Personally, I can't say I'll miss him leering at me."

Karlakh and I exchanged the same look we always did whenever Maria talked about how 'good' Balak was to her. We never said anything about it though. Tough as it was on her, she deserved the right to tell herself whatever she had to in order to get through each day. But then she got a very worried look on her face as she started to speak again.

"Balak's had another order for battle slaves. Some Terminus Warlord called Vorda or Vorlak or something is requesting ten Batarian fighters to join his army," she looked at me briefly before continuing.

"I saw your name on the list."

I was stunned at first. My duty was to Balak and his family, as decreed in the traditions of the glorious Batarian Empire. Much as I grumbled and complained about my position in the hegemony, I had never truly questioned my role in life. Lord Balak was as honorable a master as I had a right to wish for.

Leaving his service to join the ranks of some Terminus lowlife (who might not even be a Batarian) would be losing the only honor I had to my name. And yet privately I had always dreamt of leaving the home system and seeing the rest of the galaxy. I would have been conflicted, if I had, had any say in the matter at all. As it was, all I could do is give a thin smile to Maria, in thanks for the information and as reassurance that everything would be okay.

- 15 days ago-

I sat in the gloom of a Cerberus prison cell, wondering what my master was up to when he got us captured. I understood him well enough to know that taking out that Salarian hadn't been a mistake. Vorlak could often be a loose cannon but I felt sure that the move had been carefully calculated and intentional. Had he cut some kind of deal with Cerberus for Jack, as I assumed? If that was the case why were we still locked up aboard their ship?

Pointless to speculate so instead I found my thoughts turning to focus on those last few seconds aboard the smuggler ship. She'd called me Nalar for the first time, but right in front of Vorlak. Was it a mistake, or an attempt to get me killed? I didn't think anyone as formidable as her made mistakes like that. Frankly, Lord Balak was the only other person I'd ever met who seemed so in control of their situation at all times.

The pain flared up again, causing me to rub at it automatically, despite the fact I knew it would only make it worse. I realized it was starting to swell up, where the blow had caught me on the upper right eye. Supposedly it would remind me to watch how I addressed a security officer working for Cerberus. Clearly, this man 'Jackson' had no idea how the hegemony enforced discipline if he expected that lesson to stay with me long.

Then to my surprise, the cell door was opened by a Cerberus operative I wasn't familiar with yet. Dark hair, smooth face that some humans seem to find appealing, bearing a smirk that managed to be equally arrogant and condescending. Lightweight, somewhat stylized armor, with some strange painting of an eye next to the Cerberus logo.

"Come with me," he ordered, marching away before I had a chance to question him. With no better options on the table at that moment, I obeyed the command without hesitation and hurried to catch up to him.

"What's going on?" I asked, unsure if I would get any response, but to my surprise, the man indulged me.

"We just have a few questions about the ship you arrived on and her previous owner."

That had me seriously confused.

"What do you care about some random Salarian lowlife?"

"We'll be asking the questions here, Batarian. Starting with this..."

As we went through another door, we came out in one of the ship's main hangar bays, where the Salarian's ship was still docked.

"Your master says you spent some time with the Salarian, learning the ship's systems."

"Only the basics," I protested but he wasn't interested.

"We want the contents of the database, including the flight log. Get to work."

So I climbed aboard the ship and started work, utterly convinced I had no chance of breaking through the decryption alone. Still, it was nicer than being trapped in the cell and I had no other options so I settled into the hopeless task with carefree resignation.

Some hours passed and as usual, I become so engrossed in my tinkering I didn't notice what was going on around me. It wasn't until I heard the sounds of gunfire nearby that I realized something was wrong. I opened the ship's rear cargo ramp and was just heading outside when I saw the Cerberus operative, alongside my master and some of his Vorcha running towards me.

"Get in," the Cerberus man yelled at me as they headed inside. Behind them, more Cerberus soldiers were running into the hanger, firing semi-automatic weapons at the ship. I scrambled up the ramp and retracted it as quickly as possible but that left us surrounded and trapped.

I didn't have long to wonder what we were going to do before I was grabbed by the Cerberus officer and led by the arm, through the ship to the bridge.

"Get us out of here," he snarled, his eyes absolutely furious.

I hesitated to say it but eventually admitted that I hadn't been able to break through the lockdown on the ship's primary systems. For a moment I thought he was going to strike me for a moment but then he nodded curtly to himself and tapped a few controls on his wrist.

"Then I suggest you figure it out soon," he replied calmly before taking a seat and strapping himself in. I was about to ask him where he thought we were going until I noticed that the exterior hanger doors were opening.

"You're insane human, we haven't equalized the interior pressure yet-"

At that moment the Kinetic barriers around the door were released and the pressure did the rest of the work for us. I barely managed to grab hold of a seat before we were hurled out into space. A sudden crash as we exited told me that we had smashed into something on our way out.

"Now then, by my estimation, you have approximately two hours to regain control of this vessel before it makes a crash landing on Korlus."

When he wasn't looking I shook my head. This guy was a complete lunatic. Admittedly he had saved us from imminent death or capture but as always it was left up to the engineers to get us out of the situation he'd landed us in. Trying to hack past the Salarian's encryption would be a waste of time, but maybe I could rig up a manual release on the escape pods. Retrieving my toolbox I set to work, acutely aware that the clock was ticking.

-8 days later-

"Vorlak! It's climbing out the Pit again!"

The call had us moving in seconds, everyone dropping what they were doing and rushing back to the barricades. The 'It' being referred to was an obscene mechanical behemoth. An unholy mix of robotics and body parts that had spent the last few days trying to kill us. Shaped roughly like a colossal spider, but bristling with weapon turrets, it was probably the worst of the monsters we'd been facing since our return to the surface.

The escape pods we'd used to escape our doomed ship in had predictably landed us in the middle of a junkyard (on this planet you had to aim carefully in order to not land in one) that was more than fifty miles outside the capitol. It took us three days to get back there but by the time we did we'd already had a pretty good idea of what to expect. Whatever that Salarian had been trying to warn us about just before we boarded his ship was more than just some ghost story to frighten us. Even before we got to the city we encountered groups of the cyborgs that were now flooding in from the lower city.

Back in the present, a huge metal leg lifted itself above the ridge, and I took up a warning call while doing my best to shelter from the incoming fire. As it levered itself up into full view I got my first truly clear glimpse of its construction. It seemed to be built out of scrap metal and the corpses of its victims, though what purpose their inclusion served I couldn't fathom.

Last time it emerged, the last two of our Krogan, sacrificed themselves by jumping on top of it, sending it tumbling back down into the Pit. I'd fervently hoped that would be the last we would see of it. Clearly,this wasn't my lucky day.

As others began taking up the cry and firing on the behemoth, I realized I needed to get into the fight as well. Grabbing the nearest discarded weapon, without bothering to check what it was, I took cover and began aiming shots at it's exposed undercarriage. The machine started to squeal and hiss like a living thing, but otherwise showed no sign of major damage.

Luckily that's when Vorlak finally decided to weigh in on the battle. Turning the heavy artillery he carried on his back against the monster, he was succeeding in driving it back, inch by inch into the pit. But this time it had a new trick up its sleeve. As it reached the edge of the pit, it hunkered down and lowered a ramp on the underside of its belly. The trapdoor opened to reveal all the horrors it had dragged up here from the Pit.

Converted human Husks and Batarian Munchers (as we called them then, though I later learned the rest of the galaxy knew them as 'Cannibals'), as well as hordes of other creatures not so easily categorized, came pouring out onto the battlefield. We fell back, doing our best to make it a fighting retreat as we scrambled of piles of waste and debris to get out of the way of the horde. But as the mechanical army surged forward the retreat was collapsing into a rout, all of us becoming focused only on getting out of there alive.

All of us I should say, except for two. Vorlak, defiant as ever, remained standing in place, firing barrage after devastating barrage into the ranks of the enemy. Their ranks thinned, destroyed in explosions or lethal streams of incoming fire but the Husks did not hesitate in their charge. They would have soon overwhelmed him if Kolvar had not appeared on the scene.

Launching himself from the window of a nearby office block, he burst onto the stage, his biotics propelling a bunch of frag grenades at the main monster. It retreated again, almost out of view this time. I imagined it clinging to the walls of the Pit, waiting for its army to sweep aside all resistance before it could reemerge.

Certainly, the army was the main threat now. I jumped into cover and started taking potshots at the Munchers, while Kolvar landed near Vorlak's position and started taking on the Husks that were closing on that position. They worked in tandem, Vorlak continuing his crowd control while Kolvar faced down the survivors armed with just a pistol, his biotics and, a sharpened length of metal he scavenged from the debris.

It should have been a hopeless plan, but as I watched them fight, my own efforts growing increasingly redundant, I realized they weren't just winning, they were enjoying themselves. Kolvar gunned down plenty of Husks but seemed to prefer it when they got in close enough to be brought down by vicious stabbing strikes or tossed about like rag dolls. As he killed at close range he roared in anger and rage, revealing in the slaughter.

By contrast, Vorlak was not capable of displaying such emotion. Silently he directed volley after volley into the thickest concentrations of enemy soldiers, pausing only occasionally to stomp flat any Husk that had managed to evade Kolvar.

The rest of our ragtag forces had slowed their flight, once they were no longer the ones being targeted, and turned to watch the fighting on display. Giving little thought to rejoining the battle, they instead cheered their champions on from the sidelines. The more Vorlak and Kolvar killed, the greater their jubilation became, but I couldn't share in their joy. I didn't see heroes, but rather two serial killers fighting back to back. The sight of which sent shivers down my spine.

Then Kolvar with a final roar gathered all the biotic energy he could muster, to pitch the Reaper construct back into the pit, before slumping down, exhausted, onto the nearest pile of rubble.

"You're late," Vorlak intoned with his usual lack of sympathy.

"It took us longer to salvage the wreck than we hoped," he replied with a small genuine smile on his lips.

"But we think it will work, at least well enough to get us back to civilization."

"How long?"

"Two, maybe three days, depending on how long it takes us to scavenge the rest of the parts we need and install them."

"Too long, they have taken three more districts in the lower city. We are running out of time."

Kolvar sighed.

"Yeah, I know. Look I don't know about you, but I don't think we've seen the last of that thing and personally, I don't fancy going another round with it. Trying to bottleneck the Pit was a good idea, but I think it's time to abandon the city. We can move our work onto the plains, should buy us a few more days while they finish off the rest of the population here."

"Agreed. Is there anything else you need to speed up the work?"

"I could use the Batarian if you can spare him. From what I hear he's better with an engine than most of my guys."

Vorlak looked now at the slumped human for several moments coldly, letting the silence drag out. I kept quiet during the exchange. A lifetime's experience of slavery had taught me not to try and make my own opinions known. Besides I wasn't sure which one of them I favored least.

"Agreed. Ensure we are ready to depart in two days."

-3 days later-

We got the ship in the air at long last. One day later than Vorlak demanded, but I hadn't been punished too severely for that failure. As we slowly rose through the lower orbit, I found myself asking what next?

Leaving the ship was obviously my first priority. I had no desire to remain under Vorlak's control any longer. Besides I needed to find Jack, no- Miranda as Kolvar had told us. She had to be warned that we'd successfully escaped Korlus.

And that the Cerberus agent had some idea where to find her and wasn't going to stop looking until he did. He was obsessed with the idea of tracking her down again. Every evening at camp he'd talk about how he was going to find her again and what he was going to do to her to exact revenge. For hour after hour he ranted, driving himself into a frenzy, blaming her for stranding us on this planet while these Reaper things began to swamp over it.

I didn't bother to voice my opinions. Far I was concerned I would have been better off staying aboard the Hades. He'd done far more to drag me into this nightmare than she ever had. That said I did pay attention to his ravings, keen to glean what I could from him.

She was really a member of Cerberus all this time, or rather an ex-member if the way he kept muttering 'traitor' was anything to judge by. She'd been his teacher or mentor or something once upon a time I gathered, but they'd clearly never been close. That much I felt reasonably sure of. From the rest of what he said of her it was impossible to separate out the fact from the slanderous fiction.

The one thing he kept repeating over and over was that she was looking for her sister. Apparently, she'd brought it up while Kolvar had been overseeing her interrogation. 'She must think Cerberus has her, that's why she asked him,' he'd say, never pausing to explain who he meant by 'him'.

But if Cerberus knew where Miranda's sister was Kolvar himself certainly didn't have a clue. He seemed to pour over everything he could remember about the organization, every mission, every operation, every lead she might try to track down. Sometimes he'd smile and add another item to the list he was making, other times he'd scowl and shake his head and write nothing down. He was always in a foul temper when that happened several times in a row.

It didn't seem like the answer was likely to leap out at him any time soon, but as he worried away at it like a dog with a bone, I felt certain he would get there eventually. Which is why I was not on the bridge when we launched from the surface in this stinking garbage scow. Instead, I was in the cargo hold, doing my best to cover my nose from the stench while I picked through the refuse for the final part I needed to make my escape. The hold was filled with a few metric tons of landfill, and resembled a scrapyard held inside a metal cavern. In an enclosed space and with the ventilation system only barely operable the smell really was intolerable.

But I'd been lucky enough to discover another ship sitting in the hold while I'd been making repairs for Kolvar. It was a small scout ship of some kind, small, not much shielding or firepower, but fast. Or at least it would be if someone hadn't removed the FTL couplings. That was what I was looking for now, I was sure I'd seen a set somewhere in the vicinity, but all the piles of junk looked too similar to be sure.

I was concentrating so hard on finding them that I never heard the approach behind me until Kolvar gave a slight cough. Straightening up immediately, I turned round to see him just standing there, gun in hand, but not trained on me yet.

"What brings you all the way down here when you should be on the bridge, Kroll?"

For the first time in a long time, the insulting nickname given to me by Vorlak burned in my ears. How dare this arrogant human mock the traditions of my people? I didn't answer, there really wasn't much of an answer I could give, but to my surprise, I saw the FTL couplings I'd been looking for. They were hanging over the edge of a discarded shuttle door behind the human. I must have walked right past them without noticing.

"Vorlak informs me that he twice ordered you to kill Lawson, and yet on both occasions, you failed to do so."

I shrugged my shoulders.

"Circumstances got in the way. Jac- the woman seems to have more than her fair share of luck. I'm sure you must have noticed."

He nodded curtly for a moment.

"Well then let's get back up to the bridge with the others, shall we. As soon as we get out of the system I have several ideas of where we might begin looking for her."

I hesitated. Glancing back at the FTL couplings and tensing up as I pictured trying to make a run for it. Kolvar noticed immediately. I'm not sure he fully understood, but he had worked out I was up to something down here. A smile played across his lips as my reaction confirmed his suspicions. It was clear from his demeanor that he felt completely in control of the situation. I, of course, could not possibly pose a threat to him.

"Or maybe there was another reason for your failure to eliminate Miranda as ordered. Vorlak was starting to think that the two of you might be colluding against him."

"Vorlak's crazy," I replied bluntly.

He nodded slowly.

"My new... colleague," he said, rolling the last word around in his mouth with hesitation, as if unsure how to refer to the Elcor.

"...is certainly paranoid. In truth when he first brought his concerns to me I told him it was impossible. The idea of a Human and a Batarian working together..."

He trailed off for a moment, shuddering at the thought.

"But I've come to realize just how perceptive he can be. You'd be amazed at the insights he's hiding behind that stony expression."

"I'm pretty sure I don't want to know what goes on inside his head."

Kolvar laughed at this, the first genuine laugh I think I'd ever heard from him.

"Probably wise. As is the fact you've stopped trying to deny the accusation. Now then, I'm going to make this very simple for you. There's no blame attached here, no doubt Miranda manipulated you just as she has been trained to do. All will be forgiven so long as you simply tell me everything that you talked about together."

"We didn't discuss anything. She barely said more than a few words to me," I replied.

Kolvar frowned deeply, clearly that wasn't the answer he had been hoping for, but he forced a fake smile back onto his face.

"Come on now Kroll. We've both been round the block a few times, seen a thing or two. We both know how this is going to go. Just ask yourself if it's really worth it. She left you to die on this planet, same as the rest of us."

"She thought I betrayed her," the response came before I could think better of it. Besides Kolvar was drawing his own conclusions, with or without my input, so what did it matter?

He grinned broadly as I admitted it.

"And who can blame her? Let's face it, that's pretty much what most of the galaxy thinks of someone like you. Why stick your neck out for those who will always view your intentions with suspicion and mistrust?"

"Because I still understand honor, human" came the snarled reply as I dived for cover, leaving behind a little surprise for him as I did so.

Kolvar was taken completely aback by my sudden show of bravado (in truth so was I slightly). As soon as he'd recovered from the shock of being defied by so insignificant an enemy, he rushed to raise his weapon and pursue. Unfortunately for him, it was time he didn't have, already the visibility was diminishing as smog poured from the smoke grenade I had left behind.

As he swung around wildly in the fog, jumping at shadows, I stepped in and made my move. In a fair fight, I knew Kolvar had me beat hands down. I had already seen that he was faster, stronger, and more deadly than I could ever hope to be. But when it comes to vision, four eyes beats two every time. Stepping round behind him, I struck hard, knowing I'd only get one shot at taking him down.

The blow knocked him off his feet, but from the cursing, I knew I hadn't managed to render him unconscious as I'd hoped. Rather than take the risk of continuing to fight him at close quarters, I bugged out, grabbing the couplings as I fled. Kolvar cursed as he heard my fleeing footsteps and tried to shoot me in the back but his aim was well off. As we cleared the fog I tacked through the debris, trying to use the angles to prevent him from getting a clear shot.

I reached the ship only seconds before he did, the exterior door slamming closed behind me to cut him off. I could still see him through the window shouting at me so I flashed him an emotive hand gesture before returning to work. I heard a large bang as he began training his gun on the locking mechanism, but it was already far too late for that. With the press of a few buttons, I ordered the cargo hold to begin depressurizing and he was forced to leave the room before he got sucked out into the cold vacuum of space.

Once I was outside of the larger ship, the planet's anti-ship defenses started targeting me as well (they had been firing on every ship in range of the planet ever since they had become infected with the Reaper virus). The cargo ship's shields had been strong enough to shrug off any incoming fire in the vicinity, but my little scout ship was far more vulnerable. I had speed though, and my best bet was a straight run to the Relay, dodging flak all the way.

The vessel juddered and shook as ordinance exploded around it. One particularly close blast caused power relays to burn out and half the readouts on my control panel to fade and die.

"Hold together, damn you," I muttered as attempted field repairs (hitting it with a hammer). One way or another I was going to find Miranda and warn her. It was my duty.