Chapter 8: First Infiltration

AN: Hope you guys enjoy the chapter!

Tayseri Wards, The Auxua Academy of Arts, 2176 A.D

1 Week, 2 Days After The Skyllian Blitz

"Romer?"

"Present!"

"Sedequa?"

"Here."

"Shepard?"

No response.

The teacher frowned. "Shepard?" she called out, looking over the classroom. Seeing no sign of the silver haired teenager, the teacher shrugged, marking him as absent on her datapad.

"Swindil?"

Later that Night

Citadel, Lower Wards

Whitley, with his hair now colored black and wearing a C-Sec uniform for the upcoming mission, stood in front of Wrex and Michelle, pouring over the limited schematics Michelle had been able to pull up with her contacts.

"Here's the plan. We know the Batarians are on the Citadel, but the Citadel is far too large for us to pour through. So, to further hone in where they are, we'll need to piggyback off of C-Sec's own radio tower. Under normal circumstances, this would be bad enough. However, the recent explosion in the Lower Wards had raised security significantly. If we're going to do this without dying, we'll need a plan. Michelle?"

Michelle nodded, pulling up a hologram.

"There's a small break in the tower's security, right here." A red circle highlighted the weak spot."It only lasts for a minute, but it's enough of a timeframe for us to slip into the tower security. It won't be there forever. My contacts have told me that C-Sec plans on upgrading their entire security grid, starting with the tower. If we wait any longer, our opportunity will vanish. From the blind spot, we access the tower, and we'll use Whitley's decrypter to pinpoint the slaver's location. Once that's done, we'll head back from where we came and slip out. Questions?"

"I have one. What do you need me for? I'm a Krogan, not a Salarian. Sneaking around isn't something I'm good at."

Whitley took out a device from his jean pocket. "That's where this little beauty comes in. Wrex, hold out your Omni tool for a moment."

Wrex bought up the Omni tool. A crimson glow emitted from it.

Whitley smirked. "All the outdated tech you carry, and you still bought a Silverhand? I'm flattered."

Wrex huffed. "Don't let it get to your head, kid. Any decent merc needs a good omni tool, and yours just happened to be the best option."

Whitley chuckled, before inserting the device into the omni tool. A progress bar showed up on the omni tool.

"I've cooked up this little device that'll allow you to come with us. Hard light hologram. It won't last long, an hour at most, but it'll allow you to walk around without compromising your identity. As long as no one comes close enough to hit your head plates, you'll be able to pass off as being a rather large human."

The progress bar full, Whitley pressed a few buttons on the Omni tool. The visage of the scarred krogan disappeared, replaced by the visage of a 7' 4" human with red eyes and a large amount of facial scarring, wearing the blue and black armor of C-Sec.

Wrex looked at his hands, wriggling his fingers experimentally.

"This feels weird."

Whitley shrugged. "I'd be surprised if it didn't." Pressing a button on the omni tool, the disguise disappeared. "Like I said, it won't last long, so only start using it once we get close to the tower."

"You made a holographic disguise for Wrex, but not for us?" Michelle asked. Whitley shook his head.

"If I had more time, I would have." Whitley replied. "So, now that the biggest obstacle in our infiltration is taken care of, what's our fake identities?"

Three images of a Citadel ID popped up from the hologram terminal, showing a small badge in the corner that symbolized that they were part of C-Sec. Whitley looked over his ID with a critical eye.

"William...Seras?" he asked, confused. Michelle smirked.

"It's easier to remember your fake identity when it's similar to your original name."

Whitley shrugged. "I'll take your word for it, then."

"Sarkans? The hell does that mean?" Wrex asked, looking at his ID.

"It's Latvian, for red." Michelle replied.

"Red the Krogan. Wonderful."

As the trio got into the skycar, Whitley turned to Wrex.

"Remember, the disguise won't change your voice. Try not to respond to anything anyone asks."

"Hnn" Wrex grumbled. Whitley, taking it as a confirmation that Wrex understood, turned back to see the skyline of the Citadel.

Soon, the tower began to approach. The skycar swooped down and hovered next to a rectangular opening, with a small red light illuminating the area.

"Ladies first." Michelle stated, activating a few buttons on the skycar before jumping out of the driver's seat and landing in the opening.

Whitley was next. He was about to jump, before noticing how far up they were.

"So that's why they tell you not to look down." Whitley thought, freezing in fear.

Wrex shook his head. "Don't worry, kid. Lowry's a biotic. She'll catch you if you mess up your jump."

Whitley nodded weakly. Taking a deep breath, he jumped…

And missed his mark by about two feet.

As he was falling down, a blue glow surrounded him, before lifting him up to Michelle's location.

"Thanks." Whitley gasped.

"You're welcome." Michelle replied, looking the tiniest bit exasperated. "I'm surprised you didn't start screaming."

"I'm a bit surprised, too."

Wrex jumped out last, his disguise on. With all three of them out of the skycar, the skycar's self-driving feature activated, flying away from the crew. The crew walked away from the small room towards a door.

"Remember, from this point onwards, we're all C-Sec officers. Act like you belong here." Michelle said, before opening the door. Seeing that the hallway was guarded by a Turian who was nodding off to sleep, the crew quietly walked in.

Michelle cleared her throat, rousing the officer awake.

"H-Wha- Oh! Hello. Haven't seen you around here before."

"We were recently bought in, due to the attack a few days ago." Michelle replied, showing their ID's on the omni tool.

The Turian rubbed his jaw. "Yeah. Nasty business, that. Who knew such a small explosion could create such a ruckus this week? I guess it's probably because it happened in the aftermath of that slaver attack on the humans…" the Turian trailed off. "Sorry. My mind usually gets ahead of me sometimes."

Michelle smiled. "It's alright, no harm done. My friends and I are a bit lost. Our patrol route is supposed to take us through communications, but…"

The Turian chuckled. "Say no more. Patrolling communications for this tower's always been a pain in the ass, considering how many signals get bounced around in there. Look, just go across the hallways over there, then take a left and you should find communications."

"Thank you." Michelle replied.

"No problem." The Turian took a look at the rest of the crew, particularly Wrex. "Wow. I've never seen such a big human before."

"Hrrn" Wrex grumbled. Michelle waved her hands dismissively.

"His parents did significant gene therapy before he was born. Sarkans doesn't like to talk much, but he can do his job without issue. Just don't ask him to read out his reports."

"Hrrg." Wrex replied, a grumble that almost sounded like a confirmation. The Turian nodded, before turning to Whitley.

"Huh. You look a little bit young for an officer, if you don't mind me saying."

Whitley shrugged. "No offense taken. I've always been told I look far younger than I appear. I just hope that trend will continue once I hit my thirties."

The Turian chuckled. "I hope I keep that way too. Spirits knows how badly I'll hurt my chances with the ladies if I start looking like my old man."

The Turian then opened the doors. "Alright. You're clear to go."

Michelle and Whitley thanked the Turian, before the crew walked into the tower. Inside, a bustling crowd of officers could be seen patrolling the area.

Whitley whistled "You said that they had upped security, but this seems almost ridiculous."

"We deal with the cards that have been given to us. Let's go."

The crew walked into the communications office, before turning back to each other.

"Alright, we've done well so far. Just keep your cool, and we should be able to access the main catwalk of the tower."

Whitley nodded, looking over the room. "If we're going to get to the catwalks without raising the alarm, then we'll need to temporarily deactivate them. I'll see if I can find something to help with that."

Whitley walked around the room, glancing at his omni tool as he discreetly scanned the walls for anything he could find.

A few moments later, his omni tool showed him a circuit that connected the door to the catwalks. The circuit led downstairs. Whitley turned to his crew.

"There's something I can use downstairs. I'll run down and take care of it."

"We'll wait here and keep watch. Be careful, Seras." Michelle called out. Whitley nodded before running downstairs. Reaching the location, Whitley found a circuit board.

"All too easy." Whitley remarked. Just then, his omni tool beeped, a message from Michelle popping up.

A janitor is coming up to your location. Hide!

Oh bloody hell.

Whitley quickly glanced around, realizing that there was no good place to hide in the room. Thinking on his feet, Whitley quickly knelt, looking over the floor.

The janitor walked in, a young Asari woman with bags under her eyes. Her eyes seemed to widen a fraction when she saw Whitley on one knee.

"What're you doing here?" the Asari asked. Whitley looked at her.

"I thought I saw an intruder somewhere around this area. I was checking the room."

"An intruder? Are you sure?"

"I'm not, but it doesn't hurt to check, right? Especially now, with that explosion that happened a few days ago."

The asari nodded. "You're right. Now really wouldn't be the time to be lax on security. Is this area...safe? It's the last spot I have to clean before I'm done for the day."

Whitley nodded. "It's safe. I'm fairly certain that no one besides us is here. Finish up here and I'll check again, just to be sure."

The asari began walking in, the equipment trailing behind her. As she began her work, Whitley couldn't help but ask.

"Forgive me if this question is too personal, but why is an Asari working here as a janitor?"

The asari sighed. "Because we newbies have to be 'toughened up', no matter what race you are. Some get traffic, others get paperwork. And then there's me. Cleaning up the dust and grime. Can't wait until I make it into the big leagues, like you."

Whitley winced in sympathy. "That sounds...hard." Tapping impatiently on his uniform, Whitley stood up. "Hey, you want some help on this?"

The asari looked at him, confused. "You're helping me? Why?"

Because I want you to get out of here so I can hack the bloody circuit.

"Because I'm pretty much done for the day, and I'm not really in the mood to go home yet." Whitley replied.

Ten minutes later, the room was made even more spotless than before.

The asari breathed a sigh of relief. "This place would usually take me half an hour to clean. Thanks!"

"No problem. Happy to help a fellow officer."

The Asari looked downwards, her cheeks flushing strangely.

"I'm not an officer, though."

Whitley shrugged. "Not yet, but you will, one day."

The asari chuckled. "Yep. One day." She shook her head, holding her face in her hand. "Shit, your name. I haven't even asked your name, I've been so…"

"It's Seras. William Seras. Yours?"

"Nyrelia Dajah."

Nyrelia turned to Whitley, before shaking her head and taking out a notepad. She wrote a few things down on it. Tearing off the paper, Nyrelia neatly folded it into Whitley's front pocket.

"What's this?" Whitley asked.

"My number. Don't be a stranger, Officer Seras." Nyrelia replied, a smile on her face. As she walked away, Whitley was left confused.

What is it with women and numbers? Why do I always keep getting those at Auxua? Maybe I should ask Mom or Sis about this.

With the janitor now gone, Whitley was free to hack the circuit. With the alarm deactivated for the next thirty minutes, Whitley ran back up the stairs, meeting his crew.

"It's done. Let's go."

Opening a door in a secluded part of the tower, Whitley was greeted to the sight of several large dish arrays on the railings. Walking up to the main dish, Whitley pulled out the decrypter.

"Time to work my magic." Whitley remarked. Attaching the decrypter to the dish, Whitley pulled up his omni tool and began tracing the communications of the slavers. The data was...messy, to say the least, but Whitley was able to begin filtering the data, using the communications of the man that attacked him as the base fragment. Whitley began to fine tune his search.

A few minutes after he began fiddling with the data, his omni tool pinged, showing off three locations that the signal had bounced off of, all of which were located in the Lower Wards.

Whitley closed his omni tool and picked up the decrypter. "We've got what we came for!" Whitley shouted. Michelle and Wrex nodded, before turning around and going back from where they came. Suddenly, out of nowhere, two Batarians walked out and bumped into Wrex.

The Batarians, shocked at the sudden appearance of the C-Sec officers, tried to pull out their weapons. They barely had any time to pull out their pistols before Wrex headbutt one, while Michelle crushed the throat of the other with her biotics.

"How the hell did the Batarians get here?!" Michelle exclaimed in disbelief. Whitley, shaking himself out of his stupor, knelt down and began examining the Batarian's omni tools. He quickly pried them off the dead men, before putting the omni tools in his pocket.

"They aren't Silverhand models, so hacking them is gonna take a bit more time. Time which I'd rather spend in your apartment rather than this place."

Michelle nodded. "Agreed. We've stayed here long enough. Wrex's disguise won't last much longer."

Whitley looked over at the two Batarians. "What do we do with them? Won't someone notice?"

Wrex shrugged, before picking both the Batarians up and tossing them over the side of the railing.

"There. No more Batarians."

As the crew walked back to where they had gotten in, they noticed something rather concerning by the door close to the rectangular opening they'd entered.

"Is that...blood?" Whitley asked, seeing the blue blood decorating the floor. His mind quickly connected the dots.

Michelle shook her head. "The Batarians must've lured the guard there and killed him."

The crew opened the door, seeing a trail of blue blood dragged, before ending by the rectangular opening.

"Well, guess we know how they were able to hide the body." Wrex stated, as Michelle called her skycar on her omni tool.

Michelle suddenly froze, before tackling Whitley to the ground. A deafening BANG echoed, and a small hole appeared on the wall where Whitley was previously located.

"And where their other partner is!" Michelle shouted. Their skycar descended, and the crew piled into the skycar just as the tower alarm started to blare. In the distance, several skycars of C-Sec design began to take off.

"Gentlemen, fasten your seatbelts. This is going to get ugly, fast."

AN: Whitley about to discover why fast skycar chases aren't nearly as fun as they are in action movies.

Next chapter features a skycar chase, and a few secrets revealed.