*** Bar Fight ***
Fist had watched the firefight outside the club with remote cameras for several seconds before realizing Shepard was part of it.
No wonder Saren wants this guy dead.
He started to panic, called Saren, but got a Refused message in reply. He tried again; same answer.
"Hey, those amateurs you sent down here are both dead! If you want this Shepard guy taken out, you'd better send in some real professionals right now! VI, deliver this message immediately, this is life or death!" Two jabs at the Spectre's turian pride of professionalism should get a reply.
Then he turned and opened a closet, dragged out a pair of automated sentry turrets and began setting them up.
# # #
Officer Vakarian led the way across the plaza, past the stairs they had come up, and along the far edge of a dedicated viewing area lit in cool whites and cyan. A volus was bragging to an asari about the tour he'd taken of Destiny Ascension when a youngish girl in a Perret-Swissari gown backed out from behind a pillar without looking and crashed into Shepard, who had been doing more eavesdropping than watching where he was going.
Massing well over twice what the girl did, Shepard was only slightly deflected from his course, but the girl was bounced against the pillar, and then to the floor.
Shepard skidded to a halt, turned to help her up. "I'm terribly sorry," he said, "Are you okay?"
"Shepard! We have to go!" Vakarian pointed toward a door ahead, "Lives are at stake!"
"Thank you…uh…" The girl took his hand, climbed to her feet; wide-eyed, she glanced at her omnitool, and then back at him. "Stephen Shepard? Commander Shepard of the Blitz?"
He cringed inwardly. DisplaiD was a helpful app for dealing with authority figures, identifying oneself as an authority figure, buying or selling things, and most social introductions, but it had started to become a nuisance with his minor celebrity status; people recognized his name and wanted to tell him all about their troubles or ask for his help.
"Uh…yes…but I can't stay to talk. I'm sorry." He stepped to his right, "Glad you're okay, though."
"No, wait! I don't want to slow you down, I just need to talk to you while you walk." The girl adjusted her outfit slightly, jumped to his side and paced him as he followed the turian. "I promise I'll leave as soon as you get to where you're going if I haven't already finished."
She paused to inhale – which in her mind would have given him the opportunity to ask her to leave if he really didn't want her there – and continued quickly, "I'm Emily Wong, I'm an investigative journalist working here on the Citadel for the Washington Post. I've been hunting for evidence of corruption and organized crime on the Citadel, but there are places I can't go—"
"And this is one of those places," Shepard interrupted. As they stepped through a door, DisplaiD told him that what she was saying was true, but he held up a palm toward her without slowing. "I'm expecting a firefight; it may start at anytime. Without shields or armor, you really need to stay right here for now." He pointed at the public transit station as they passed. "Stay here…just email me, and I'll see what I can do."
Undeterred, she pressed her case as they passed a row of market stalls, "I was hoping you might share anything you find during your own investigation…"
Detective Vakarian stopped at the top of a set of stairs. "We're almost there," he said, "Ma'am, as a C-Sec officer, I have to ask you to stay here."
Shepard looked at the reporter. "Investigation? What makes you think I'm investigating anything?"
She smiled broadly, "We all saw you in the Council meeting. You did Earth proud! Hold their feet to the fire! Get transparency!" She smacked a fist into an open palm. "If anyone is going to uncover corruption here, it's you, hot on the trail of the evil Spectre!"
Out of the corner of his eye, Shepard saw a light-haired man coming up the stairs stop suddenly and turn to face them with an expression of disbelief.
Shepard held up both hands toward the girl, "Please stay here. I don't want anyone, especially a civilian, to get injured or killed. You don't want to be the blood on my reputation, do you?"
Tugging at the clingy garment, she look surprised and hurt.
He continued, "Look, no promises, but if I find anything that I think can help you, it's yours. We're all in this together, right?"
She smiled at him. "Thanks, Commander. I'll make it worth your while. And I'll wait for you in the observation lounge." She pointed back toward where they had first met. "I'll also leave you a tag on DisplaiD."
"Thanks," he said, "And take care."
As Emily turned and started away, Shepard felt a hand briefly on his shoulder just before he was pushed. "Aw, you ol' softie. Can't turn away a pretty face?"
He turned; Ash was grinning at him.
He shook his head, turned and started down the stairs. "I was at fault there: I crashed into her. I didn't want to be rude. I have heaps of respect for the fourth estate, but she was going to get shot." He looked back at the turian. "Come on. Is this where we're going?"
"Yeah, let's go!" Officer Vakarian, pistol still out, leapt down the stairs two at a time.
As Ash followed, Shepard noticed that the man he'd seen a moment ago was still staring at them…at him.
There wasn't time to think more about it as they reached the bottom of the stairs, made a right turn and ran through a crowded marketplace. Officer Vakarian, in his official capacity, was noticed and avoided as he ran with his sidearm out, but the two Alliance soldiers trailing him – and bristling with weapons – were drawing gaping stares, and even a pointed hand or two.
As they stepped through another door, Shepard's ARO reminded him where he was. "This is the taxi stand!" He looked around for evidence of the firefight and saw none. "Shouldn't there be investigation teams crawling all over the place?"
Officer Vakarian put his back to the wall by the door. "No, that's low-tech," he said quickly, "Records have been collected and verified and stored in at least three and possibly eleven different places; block-chain integrity." He seemed annoyed, "C-Sec's job isn't just to protect and serve, it's to keep this sort of thing out of people's way. There are lives to get on with…and appearances to keep up." Leaning around the corner, he glanced quickly at the entrance to Chora's Den. "Never mind. We have a problem. It looks like Chora's Den is shut down."
"Fist knows we're coming," Ash said.
"Or he thinks the krogan is," Shepard answered with a scowl. "We're not here to kill him."
Vakarian wasn't sure if the humans understood sarcasm, but he couldn't resist asking, "Do you want to tell him that? Or should I?"
"Umm…you tell him," Shepard checked his weapon's status, replaced it on his SmartPak.
Vakarian squinted. Now he wasn't sure if the humans really didn't understand sarcasm…or if they really really did. "Sorry…uh…that was meant to be a joke."
"I know. We'll sort it out later." Shepard said, "Holster your weapons, but shields at max…let me see if I can get in there without anyone dying." He replaced the Avenger-V on his SmartPak.
Ash looked down at her shotgun but did not secure it. "Should the Detective and I wait here so we don't seem like an expeditionary force?"
Shepard nodded. "Excellent idea." He stepped around the corner as his shields flashed indication of full recharge. He spoke over his shoulder, "Watch my back. Keep an eye out for that krogan, too."
Walking to his left along the aircar passage, he could see the door to the club was open, but the inside was dark. "Hello," he called, "I'm Commander Shepard of the Alliance vessel Normandy, conducting an official investigation about the attack on Eden Prime. Is anyone here who can answer a few questions for me?"
"We're closed, mister," said a male human voice. He sounded uncertain.
Putting his left hand on the doorframe, Shepard stopped just outside. His ARO switched to Combat mode, enhancing his vision, outlining and tagging threats.
Looks like about eight guys, he thought. He triple-tapped his ID badge, displaying the hologram. "Well if you really mean it, you ought to close the door, so people don't think you're open. But that's okay, I didn't expect to get service, I just need to talk to someone named Fist. Is he here? Or can you get a message to him? It's time-sensitive and really important."
"Uh…he's not here now. But—"
"We're closed, human!" bellowed a krogan voice. "Go away!" The sound of a shotgun erupted, but the weapon had been aimed at the ceiling.
"Hope you had fun with that," growled a turian voice. Detective Vakarian was suddenly behind Shepard, his voice amplified by his C-Sec armor's taking over the station's local PA system. "Attention, this is Officer Garrus Vakarian of Citadel Security. This is an official C-Sec investigation, and I'm ordering everyone within the sound of my voice to throw down any weap—"
"No! Go away!" The shotgun fired again.
"…or I will be authorized to use deadly force. I repeat, this is Officer Garrus Vakarian of Citadel Security…"
As the turian continued, Kaidan and Richard ran up behind them. Kaidan asked, "Sounds like it isn't going well. Did the krogan beat us here?"
"No," said Ash.
"So what are these guys about?" Rich asked.
"They're about to get their asses kicked." Heavy footsteps sounded behind them; the krogan that Ash, Kaidan, and Richard had encountered earlier was lumbering their way quickly. "Mind if I join in? I love a good fight." Massive shotgun in one hand, and a highly customized assault carbine/grenade launcher in the other, Wrex shouldered past Officer Vakarian and looked quickly around the club.
"Hey, that's not C-Sec!" came a cry from one of the other krogan, "That's Urdnot Wrex, the merc who was in here before!"
"Time to repaint the place, boys; get 'em!"
Shepard and Vakarian had just enough time to get back in cover before shrapnel erupted from the doorway and Wrex's armor.
"Now you're talkin' my language!" Wrex brought up the carbine and thoomped grenades over the barricades; two humans and two batarians were thrown from cover. The carbine chattered heavily as Wrex charged into the club, followed by Shepard ("What are you doing?!") and Vakarian ("Stop! Hold your fire!")
The krogan slid into cover just inside the entrance, fired the carbine up at the ceiling and over the projector housing. The sniper hiding behind it seemed to jump up with a spray of blood, falling several meters to the floor.
Officer Vakarian, just outside the door, held the control on his suit so the PA system would continue to amplify his voice, "Urdnot Wrex! Stand down! C-Sec is on scene! You have not been authorized to use deadly force!" He made a break for the next available cover, counterclockwise around the room. Having thus interposed himself between the opposing forces, he shouted, "All combatants, hold your fire and put down your weapons!"
Shepard turned in time to see Wrex dive after the turian, tackling a thug who'd been hiding behind the cover and about to shoot Vakarian in the back. He had the thug's head locked in one arm; a sickening crunch followed.
Shepard sprinted across to where the turian had stopped, sliding into cover behind a barrier that seemed to have been put up near the passage to the restrooms and back office. C-Sec Officer under fire, noted his ARO, Backup is inbound. ETA: Four minutes. "I doubt we can just wait for four minutes," he said toward Officer Vakarian.
Having received the same notification, the turian made a sort of grinding sound. "It's a joke. It'll be more like ten minutes," he answered. "With that damned krogan here blasting everything in sight, everyone will be dead by the time they get here."
Shepard checked his ARO's tactical display, a circle in the lower right corner showing him where people were and identifying as many of them as it could. Alenko, Jenkins and Williams had made it to the armored side of the barricade to their left; Williams and Jenkins were firing into the short hallway. They stopped suddenly, and Alenko tossed a Lift field into the confined space, stopping the hostile fire coming from it. Richard ran forward, weapon out.
Meanwhile, Wrex continued his rampage around the circular room. He had gotten ahead of Shepard and Vakarian, and was using his shotgun as a club on the krogan charging at him. The smaller krogan took the hit with his armored skull, rolled away from the hit and out of club range, raised his own shotgun and rapidly fired the semi-auto shotgun into Wrex's torso.
Having fought in close quarters for centuries, Wrex had his move choreographed: he knew his enemy's face wasn't externally armored. Shields and barrier protected him against the incoming fire; his armor blazed with hot shrapnel as he brought his own shotgun – still in motion after impact – around to complete a circle and snapped the trigger.
Being a short-range weapon, the shotgun's 80cm-long barrel was actually a truncated cone, its wide end at the muzzle, and the chunky mass of technology at the other end was a ring-array of 38 linear accelerators. As each linac launched a fragment of C60, the resulting circular pattern blew an 8-centimeter hole through the krogan's head and armor that also expanded with distance from the barrel. Krogan blood splattered across the room as if fired from the shotgun itself.
Simultaneously plastered with krogan entrails and skidding on blood, Richard stumbled and fell, crashing into a table and chairs. The young soldier coughed and spluttered as he struggled to his feet, trying to get the metallic, acrid taste out of his mouth. Looking at his own hands in surprise, he backed against the wall, shaking. "Help!" he looked to his right, back towards his squadmates, "I'm hit!"
Shepard noticed the younger krogan was still fighting, even managing to pick itself up and preparing to charge Wrex, but likely not nearly strong enough to actually do any damage.
As he fitted the rifle to his shoulder, Shepard's ARO automatically switched to the scope view for his right eye, leaving his left to see the general scene. The weapon's VI tagged and tracked the vulnerable points of the krogan unfortunate enough to be in the crosshairs.
The shot deflected the krogan sideways, and called attention to Shepard. The smaller, younger krogan changed directions, thumping Wrex on the back as he passed, heading for the human.
Shepard adjusted his aim to the damaged head and face, snapped the trigger. The direct hit slowed the krogan briefly, but increased the focus of his anger.
At 4x, Shepard had time to check his tactical display as he snapped the trigger again. As Shepard's rifle linac launched its payload of C60, Vakarian noticed the exchange and sprayed the krogan with his assault rifle. True to its name, the weapon's overpowered linac thundered as the krogan was covered with bullet holes; he seemed to finally stop thrashing only when he collapsed.
Shepard's VI had identified that the turian was using a Haliat weapon – very powerful, but available only on the black market – before he realized the other team had subdued the three remaining humans in the corridor that probably led to Fist's office. Two of them – a human and a salarian – were immobilized in POWlocks, the third was collapsed against the wall, an explosion of blood and brains above him.
Richard, however, was still trembling. His expression was one Shepard had seen before and recognized.
The corporal's pistol was on the floor near the body, and he seemed to have been pointing at it a moment ago, but his hand was lowered, index finger still extended. "He…he was just a kid…like me! And I shot him! His ear blew off the other side and I watched it pull his brains with it!" He recoiled, seemed to recover, "I…I can't do this. Sir, I'm…I have to go home. I'm going home. Send me home."
"Use your omnitool to control your suit," Ash said. "Boost your Focus and—"
Richard shook his head and waved his arms almost as if shivering. "No no no no. I can't…I can't do this. I'm not…I don't…I…" He looked at the youngish man on the floor with the profusely-bleeding eyebrow and inhaled loudly. He shouted at the body, "I'm sorry!"
Ash quickly put an arm across Richard's shoulders and turned him away and out of the corridor. "Come on," she said, "Let's get you out of here." Her omnitool lit as she took over control of his suit's medical interface, modulated his neurochemistry to calm him down.
From across the room, Shepard spoke toward Ash's back, "Call me when you get back to the ship."
"Can I just take him to the Clinic? I can be right back here."
"Sierra Hotel, Williams. Let me know when you're on your way back here." Shepard nodded, turned and looked at Kaidan and then Wrex.
The krogan was still looking after the departing humans. "Well, that was weird. What's with him?"
"Apparently he didn't know he was a conscientious objector when he signed up," Kaidan said.
"A what?"
"Doesn't want to kill people."
Wrex shook his head. "Never would have guessed. He was ready to take me on, down at C-Sec."
"But he wasn't supposed to kill you."
The krogan shrugged. "Well where's the fun in that?"
Does he think that's funny? Shepard glanced down at the two prisoners, shaking his head. "These guys aren't professionals. They're civvies."
Wrex looked up. "So what? They shot at us," he said, casually raising his shotgun to indicate the nearer.
Shepard's right hand shot out and shoved the muzzle of the shotgun aside. "We don't kill unarmed prisoners," he snapped.
"And they're under arrest for aggravated assault with intent," Officer Vakarian sounded angry. "If my car weren't still parked near the clinic, I'd take 'em in and book 'em myself."
Wrex, unfazed at having his shotgun pushed asided, had not fired. He looked oddly at the human and shrugged. "Suit yourself."
Shepard turned to the door, toggled its holographic key. The holo flashed red, indicating the door was locked. He scowled and spoke as if to the lock, "I'm not in the mood," and made a fist with his left hand, then pointed with his fingers extended. The lock connected itself to his omnitool with an arc of blue-white electricity, and noisily emitted a puff of gray smoke.
"Hm," Wrex said idly, "I'll bet locks everywhere live in abject fear of you."
# # #
Benezia noticed the display indicating a relentless VI attempting to leave a message. She touched it.
Fist: Hey, those amateurs you sent down here are both dead! If you want this Shepard guy taken out, you'd better send in some real professionals right now!
She tapped it to accept the call, but the VI switched to video mute blue. She looked up from the display. "Saren. Shepard has killed Temmer and Eldil. Fist left a message but isn't answering."
"What?" The augmented turian pulled a display down from the cockpit's low ceiling, tapped its side and read what Benezia has just seen. "That idiot!"
"Fist didn't fail you. Temmer and Eldil did. If you still mean to kill Shepard on the Citadel, you must act quickly and send help to Fist."
Saren tapped his collar, activating his comm. "Jarrik! Falus! Answer immediately!"
Benezia turned slowly and watched the Spectre glance around at the displays as if looking for something.
Saren tapped his collar toggle again. "Temmer! Eldil! Answer me!"
Benezia gestured for her VVR interface, summoning records of all their Citadel resources, and sending instructions for them to get to Chora's Den as fast as possible. First to kill Commander Shepard will be awarded 1.4 million credits and be placed on 4000 GCr/month retainer.
Saren turned to the asari. "Get someone down there now!"
"I have. But the Citadel is a large place; they may not be able to arrive in force. They certainly won't be coordinated. But I've put a bounty that should get them motivated. We will have to wait and see." She leaned back in her seat, folded her arms, and watched the display as responses began to come in.
# # #
In Tali's mind, stepping from the balcony to the wall was a simple as getting down on all fours, it just happened to be perpendicular to the floor she had been standing on. She put her right leg over the railing and secured it to the wall. The grips on her palms and toes activated, calibrating for the material.
Traversing to her right, she looked back at Fist, who was watching with what her suit VI was telling her was genuine concern.
She nodded toward him. "See? It's easy. Don't worry, I'll be fine."
The thick human formed a ring with two phalanges of one hand. One of her suit VIs identified it as an affirmation. "Good," he said. And then he was gone.
Tali looked to her right, into the Widow Nebula. A room with a view, she thought. Though her lifelog cameras snapped stills as the controlling VI found interesting compositions, she still found herself thinking, I should try to bring Keenah back here, this is really a great scene.
She continued to her right, careful to choose hand- and footholds recommended by one of her VIs. With all the techno-rubble that covered the outer surface of the station, it required both the skill of a rock-climber and the ability to see around corners. Still trying to enjoy the view as she crawled, her progress was slow, moving one appendage at a time, verifying contact lock before moving another. The faint, hellish glow of the distant Maw kept her mindful: Slow but steady keeps you alive.
Extending her hand to the right, she felt a transition, as if she'd reached out of a pool of water. She pulled her hand back, reached out again experimentally. The transition was distinctive.
Keelah, she thought, the Kiggs field boundary intersects the hull of the station here! It was extraordinarily dangerous; the boundary of air and vacuum would impart different vectors on different parts of her body as she crossed it; without a tether, and even with an enviro-suit, losing her grip here could mean death if no one came to rescue her before her air supply and rebreather ran out.
Unless she fell into that Maw.
One of her hypervisors automatically tasked a couple of VIs with detecting and displaying the approximate boundary as a 3D wireframe on her faceplate HUD, making it easier for her to cross the boundary safely. Calibrated to the location of her eyes, it was extremely helpful, even if not wholly convincing.
Her next obstacle was not the node, but the surface of the station changing direction…and she would have to move sideways around a corner, as if crawling around a right-angled cliff.
Looking quickly from one side to the other required pulling her head back to avoid grinding her faceplate against the corner. Fist being nervous made more sense now, but she was getting worried about being able to reach the meeting point in time.
Firmly secured to the wall again, she looked to her right, and saw the PLN node…on the other side of two more Kiggs field transitions. No wonder Fist doesn't care about his easy access…this is dangerous!
A glance "up" along the curve of the Presidium was only slightly helpful when she realized the station might have enough mass to attract her back to it if she wasn't actually pushed away from it. A second thought made her scowl. Releasing her right hand, she picked a flake of damaged material off her suit's left shoulder, held it out at arm's length, and let it loose with as little motion as possible. The fragment slid almost immediately towards the Maw, accelerating at about 0.15m/s.
Tali sighed. That sure explains why the Citadel looks so shiny. Gravity-fed debris collection. She shivered, looked toward the blackness, glowing faintly in the infrared.
No, she thought. I am not dying here because of something stupid and preventable. Reaching into a pouch on her left leg, she withdrew a thick, meter-long cable that wiggled and spun crazily even in the gravitational field pulling toward her feet.
She flicked her wrist several times in a whiplike motion, stretching the cable out to five meters' length. She could feel her left foot had come loose, and took a moment to secure it again. By doing so, the now-sticky cable had managed to get tangled and stuck to the wall and her suit.
Holding one end of the cable in place with a finger of her left hand, she twisted it, returning the cable to its short, unsticky state. Securing her left hand again, she whipped the cable to its maximum extension, and then flicked it toward the pylon holding the PLN node in place. The end coiled around the pylon three complete times before it ran out of length.
Tying a one-handed bowline, Tali secured the cable to the integrated harness of her suit and continued her translation to the right, feeling much safer with a tether.
# # #
The door opened, revealing what looked at first like an empty room. Two humans peeked around a crate and aimed pistols at them.
"Stop where you are," said the first, "Don't come any closer."
"Warehouse workers," Kaidan read from DisplaiD. "All the real guards must be dead."
"Stay back or we'll shoot," the other added.
Shepard made eye contact with the one who had just spoken, then looked deliberately at the two men in POWlocks, then at Wrex, and the krogan's shotgun. Finally, he looked at the man and his tiny pistol. He waved a thumb over his shoulder into the corridor. "I'll bet those two guys behind me would really appreciate it if you took them out of here and the bunch of you all find someplace else to work."
The two men looked at their fellows, bound hand and foot with three interconnected rods, then back at the krogan, and then at each other.
"Yeah…yeah, right," the first agreed, tossing his pistol toward the door at the other end of the room. "That's a good idea."
"Yeah…I never liked Fist anyway," the other agreed. He started to pocket his pistol, until he noticed Kaidan shaking his head and looking toward the far door. Reluctantly, he threw his weapon after the first.
"Detective, can you get these guys out of here?" Shepard waved a thumb at the salarian and human who had survived their assault on the club. "Grab the bar between their hands and it'll relax the bar at their feet into a flexible mode."
"It would make my boss happy…that I didn't leave civilians in here." The turian looked uncertainly at him. "You sure you can handle Fist yourself?"
Shepard raised an eyebrow. "I'm not handling Fist by myself."
The turian flared his fringe. "You know what I mean. But point taken. Backup should be here in a moment, so I'll be right back."
It was by design that each of the warehouse workers had to continuously hold the bar to keep the foot restraint in its flexible mode; it kept them out of mischief, too. Kaidan lingered at the opposite end of the short corridor, watching them; Shepard and Wrex turned and went back through the ready room.
Wrex explained patiently, "It would have been quicker to just kill them."
"Shooting people isn't always the answer," Kaidan answered.
"Not always," the krogan agreed. "Sometimes you have to blow them up."
"You're incorrigible," Kaidan shook his head. He tried to change the subject, "There's nobody else here. I wonder where the dancers went?"
Shepard stopped at the door, picking up the pair of Kessler-IIs. He handed one to Kaidan and started feeding the other into his disassembler. He turned to Wrex as he did. "I thought this might be a problem. Maybe you're kidding, but I'm here to find a quarian. I don't want you killing my leads before I find her and get the info I need."
Wrex leaned his head close to Shepard's and growled, "Then as one warrior to another, I'll give you fair warning. I will kill Fist."
Shepard was not going to be intimidated. He looked the krogan in his nearer eye and leaned closer. "Not until I say. If you're not okay with that, then you'd better leave now."
There was an uncomfortable pause. Shepard could smell the krogan's breath; it reminded him of battery acid.
Wrex snorted, shook his head. "You going to say after we find this quarian of yours?"
"Assuming she's not dead or seriously injured, or missing her omnitool, or...whatever. In which case I need him alive to help me get as much evidence against Saren as possible."
"Saren?" The krogan leaned slightly away as he stood fully upright again. "You're hunting Saren Arterius the Spectre?" He turned to Kaidan and nodded. "So you were serious," he said with a nod. He turned back to Shepard. "Okay human, we have a deal." His mood seemed to lighten; he turned to Kaidan, "Smell that? Fresh blood mixed with stale booze."
"Okay, this looks like the last door," Shepard said. "Light 'em up." He flattened himself against the wall, spiked the lock. The door opened haltingly; Wrex stepped into the doorway and shoved the doors apart. Another set of doors was only a couple of meters beyond.
Shepard checked the corners and walls for panels that concealed weapons; his combat Thru-View showed no threats. Okay…then maybe this looks like the last door, he thought. He casually spiked the door lock and stepped back, gesturing to Wrex and then the door.
# # #
Fist had been watching the team advance on his office, and cursing his staff, his luck, and his deity.
Finally, the 8cm "security" doors protested with a metallic squeal as the krogan shoved the inner doors apart. "Why do I have to do everything myself," Fist muttered. Activating the sentry turrets, he flipped the armored desk forward and dove behind it.
The two automated weapons chattered only a few rounds before exploding in brilliant sparks. Thinking they had malfunctioned, he jumped to one, saw its display was not only dark, but looked as though it had been fried. Raising his assault rifle, he fired a continuous stream of bullets over the desk as he sprang across the room to the other turret; its fate had been the same: Overloaded.
He looked up in time to see the red-armored krogan aim an assault carbine at each of the turrets and launch grenades. Though his shields kept him from being instantly killed, the explosion threw him at the desk; he hit it at waist-level, and flipped over it, knocking the wind out of him as he landed on his back.
Fist tried to sit up, found himself facing the two humans and a krogan, all with weapons trained on him. He scrambled back to the desk. "Wait! Don't kill me; I surrender!"
Shepard left the safety on his pistol as he raised it, but the ultracapacitor array whined menacingly. "You got a deal, pal. I only need to know one thing. Where's the quarian?"
Fist kept his hands up, his head turned away in a cringe. "She's not here, I don't know where she is…and that's the truth!"
Still two meters away, Shepard aimed carefully at the man's ear. Technically, that probably is true, but deliberately misleading, he realized.
"He's lying," Wrex said instantly.
Shepard knew he had the upper hand; bravado would probably do the trick. "You'd better start explaining before I lose my temper."
"The quarian isn't here. Said she'd only meet with the Shadow Broker personally."
"I thought the Shadow Broker only worked through agents," Kaidan said.
Wrex answered without taking his eyes off Fist. "Far as I know. I got my link device from a courier." He inclined his head slightly toward the PET device on his belt.
Shepard took a step back, lowered his sidearm, gestured for Fist to get up.
The man balked.
"Get up," Shepard said. "This isn't an execution."
"Well, at least not yet," Wrex grinned.
Shepard glanced at the krogan warily.
As Fist stood, he looked quickly at the markings on the humans' uniforms. "You're…rogue? Former Alliance?"
"Not a chance," Shepard said. "I'm Commander Stephen Shepard, Executive Officer of the Alliance SSV Normandy, conducting an investigation for my Captain, David Anderson. But there's a Spectre named Saren who we think may have gone rogue, and I'm trying to find evidence he led an attack on a human colony, Eden Prime. A few of your men were in the Medical clinic, roughing up the doctor. She had treated a quarian who may have the evidence we're looking for." He took a step closer. "And you sent this quarian to the Shadow Broker?"
Fist shook his head quickly. "Nobody meets the Shadow Broker. Ever. Even I don't know his true identity, let alone his location. But she didn't know that. So I arranged a meeting." Fist realized he was probably being recorded, and adjusted his story, "When she shows up, it'll be…Saren's men waiting for her."
Shepard stepped closer to the dark-haired man, their eyes locked. "Give me the location. Now."
Fist pointed to his left. "Here on the wards, the service corridor by the markets."
"The one by the…taxi stand?"
Fist nodded, "Right. She's supposed to meet them right now. You can make it if you hurry."
"Am I just supposed to forget your part in all this?"
"Hey, I came clean about the quarian, didn't I? I have my own problems now. The Shadow Broker wants me dead! I have to disappear. Forget about me. I'm a ghost."
"You're not my concern…" Shepard started.
"Don't worry, you'll never see me again."
"Glad to oblige," Wrex pulled his shotgun off his back, started to bring it around to where he could use it.
"Wait!" Shepard extended a hand in front of the krogan. "We don't have the quarian yet."
"You better hurry if you want to get there before them." Fist pointed out the door to his right. "Go now!"
"We can't really take him with us," Kaidan looked at Fist, then at Shepard.
Wrex leaned closer to Shepard, hands in a shrug as if pleading. "This is one of those times when you just kill him, see?"
"Commander, I'm on my way back," Williams' voice was in Shepard's "radio ears." "Are you still at that club?"
Shepard grinned to himself. "We are, and your timing couldn't be better, Williams. Double-time it over here."
"On my way, sir."
Shepard turned to Kaidan, pointed at Fist. "You stay here with him. Don't let him leave."
"I'll start packing," Fist said, activating another DCE terminal near the wall.
Shepard raised his weapon. "No, I'd rather you not. Why don't you just sit down and relax until we get back. Then we'll talk about what you're going to pack."
Fist put his hands up to his shoulders and stepped back from the terminal, made his way to the chair without taking his eyes off Shepard.
"And whatever you pack, you can't take it with you," Wrex added.
Shepard touched his thumb to the middle finger tip for RTM. Alenko, see what you can get off his computer about the organization he was running, he subvocalized.
The Lieutenant's eyes moved as he read the message on his ARO, looked at Shepard and nodded once.
Shepard turned to the krogan. "Come on. You and I need to get the alley to save the quarian."
"You at least gonna let me kill Saren's guys?"
"I'm not your commanding officer, but I'll bet they'd appreciate it if you didn't. Hopefully we'll connect with Williams." He started through the ready room, looking backwards and waving toward himself. "Come on, time's short." As he walked through the ready room, he put two fingers to his ear, "Williams, this is Shepard. Do you remember where that alley was? The one that Detective Vakarian took us past on the way here?"
There was a pause. "Sorry, sir; say again?"
"Do you remember where the alleyway was? By the taxi stand?"
"Uh…no, sir. I'm in the markets now. Want me to stop at the taxi stand?"
"Excellent, Chief. We'll be—" As he stepped out of the corridor and into the club proper, he was cut off as a shot hit his shields and overpowered them. The tungsten round that remained shattered the outer layer of his helmet, vaporizing on contact with the "brilliantized" metamaterial, but still imparting a significant vector.
As his head started to snap back, the intelligent armor slowed the hyperextension of his neck to a stop before it could do serious damage, and signaled his neurotronics to release appropriate antigens.
This didn't prevent him being thrown to his back and into cover.
"Commander?" Ash started running. "Shepard? Come in! Alenko, can you see the XO?"
*** Glossary ***
DisplaiD: a social application that displays the ID of the user to any device that requests it. Used for commerce as well.
PLN: Power and Logic Network, the de facto standard for civil power and data transmission and storage. PLN nodes provide wired/wireless transmission, storage, and re-transmission of data and power.
VVR: Visual Virtual Reality: an interface that uses only optics, gaze tracking, and retina imaging.
