Kill-Steal

I was having a bad day. Not only did the target I was hired to kill detect me and start to run, but he was running towards a safe room where I knew I couldn't get in. Of course the target couldn't hide in there forever, but I didn't really want to wait several days before I could get my kill. So with that in mind i upped my pace and sprinted down the hall after my target.

Now if you've never seen a running krogan, it is a scary sight. People moved out of the way by themselves, to not be run over. Still, I could see that I wasn't fast enough and just as I was cursing my bad luck in my head, I saw the target freeze up in the doorway, and pointed his weapon at something or someone. Still, it only lasted for a couple of seconds, before the man ran to the door of the safe room, and probably tried closing it.

'God damn it' I thought. For a second it looked like I might catch him.

As the disappointment of failing again set in, I saw a human run from somewhere in the room towards my target, and hit him with something that might be a pipe. Even over the sound of myself running, I could hear the crack from the impact and knew from experience that he was at least unconscious.

As I finally arrived I looked at my target and cursed again 'Shit, he's definitely dead.'

I looked up from the corpse of the man I had just killed, and I just felt sick. The only thing going through my head was 'I just killed that man' and 'what the fuck do you say to a 200 kg krogan'

The krogan was just staring at me, until a few moments later, when it made a noise that sounded very similar to a sigh.

"Well shit, you couldn't just have knocked him out, you just had to kill him?" the krogan asked.

I was stunned for a moment, and the absurdity of being scolded for killing someone by a krogan, combined with all the other stress I was going through made me give an involuntary laugh.

The krogan just looked at me, and I slowly got myself under control again by doing some breathing exercises. 'Breath in 1. 2. 3. breath out 1. 2. 3.' and so on. After a moment I could think clearly again, or at least as close as I knew I would come to it right now.

"I didn't exactly mean to kill him, he just threatened me with a gun and I didn't know what to do and then I thought I had to at least defend myself and then I just thought 'why not' and charged him." I began to explain

"He seemed distracted by you and I didn't know if I should just wait for you to come and deal with him, but then I thought what if you can't deal with him, then I am stuck with him and he might kill me. Sorry I'm rambling." I said, slightly faster than I meant to.

"Well, you've got a good arm I'll give you that human, but you've taken my kill from me" he said

I gulped. If there was one thing I knew about krogans (that still sounds insane by the way) it was that you shouldn't get between a krogan and his target. Bad things happened to people who tried.

"Look, I didn't mean to 'take your kill' but I was just defending my self. If you had been here I would have let you handle him." I said, hoping I could talk my way out of this. Being turned in to whatever he would do to me was not really something I was looking forward to.

"Are you saying I am slow?" the krogan asked slowly and warningly.

I quickly backpedaled and got really nervous. "No!" I said "of course not. He was just clearly very fast and you weren't… as fast" I finished lamely, expecting a hail of krogan fist to start raining down upon me within the next second.

As I stood, waiting for my imminent death, the krogan started laughing.

"Ha, that's the first time a human has dared insult me in a long time. You got a quad human, what's you're name?"

I stood with my mouth agape, and was completely flabbergasted. First I stole a kill from a krogan, then I apparently accidentally insult him, and now he is laughing and asking for my name.

How am I not dead yet?

As his question finally sunk in, I was about to reply with my real name, but then something stopped me. If (and that is a big if) I am in the Mass Effect universe then that means that I am in the future. If I am in the future then I can't use my real name, as that would raise questions if someone dug into my past and found records of me from over a hundred years ago (depending on what time period of the Mass Effect universe I landed in).

So with that in mind I made a decision and answered him.

"You can call me Tibokas"

"Tibokas huh, never heard that name before. Is that your only name?" he asked

I nodded and said "It is the only one I need."

"Well then Tibokas. Since you got the kill, I suppose it's only fair that you got the reward. Do you have an omnitool I can send It too?"

Two things clicked for me then. I am definitely in the Mass Effect universe, and I don't have anything except the clothes on my back. Not exactly the best situation.

And not only that, but I didn't have any way to make any money. I didn't know anything about the technology in this world or how to fight. I was as defenseless as a baby.

But then a thought hit me. In the Mass Effect universe from the game, there were plenty of ways to make money if only you knew how to fight. Now as I said, I don't know how to fight but if there was anyone who could teach me, it would definitely be a krogan.

With that in mind I started laying plans. If I could learn how to fight, I could become a bounty hunter, working in the terminus system. There were plenty of criminals with enemies who would pay good money to have someone take them down. Plus, how awesome would it be to introduce myself as 'Tibokas, bounty hunter'. Pretty awesome.

So first step. Get the krogan to train me.

With that in mind I said. "How much was the reward?"

"50.000 credits he answered"

I looked at him for a second and said "how much would it cost me to hire you to train me?"

He looked for a second and smiled at me "why human, that would be 50.000 credits"

I smiled and gave him my hand to shake "Well what is your name then?"

He took my hand and shook it and said "Wrex, my name is Urdnot Wrex"