Chapter 4! Enjoy!
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Urvat slid the bottle of rum to Nicolas, tired of filling his glass up. The human had been drinking since he'd arrived at the club, early in the morning. Now, Baker sat at the far end of Afterlife's bar, fumbling with the bottle's cap as he served himself yet another helping of rum, spilling some of it on the table. Droopy green eyes looked up to the salarian bartender as he approached the human with a pill in his hand.
"Take this metabolizer. Aria is asking for you," Urvat spoke loudly to make sure he was heard as he tilted his head towards the balcony that overlooked Afterlife's dance floor.
Nicolas looked over his shoulder to see Aria's trusty batarian beckoning him over. Downing the alcohol metabolizing pill with the rest of his rum, he shook his head as he walked towards the VIP stairs, swallowing periodically to keep the threat of vomiting at bay.
"Aria wants to see you, Jerris," the batarian eyed Nicolas as he ascended the stairs.
It jarred Nicolas to hear his fake name, but he was too annoyed that his drunkenness had been interrupted to show it, "Yeah, I'd thought as much," he snapped as he walked up to the balcony where Aria sat at her usual spot.
"Hello, Nathan. How're you today?" Aria smirked as she saw Nicolas' eyes come into focus, the alcohol metabolizing pill taking effect.
"Fine."
Aria frowned, then her expression relaxed to indifference, "I see you're still having trouble with words, so I'll keep it simple. A man owes me money. He refuses to pay me so you're gonna go to his house and give him a good scare. If you do your job right, I won't have to worry so much about whether he'll pay me rather than when, so you have all day to plan this out. Don't rush, because he's got friends. Oh, and before you go. Would you care to follow me?"
Aria got up from her sofa, standing slightly taller than Nicolas as she walked past him. A batarian nudged him to follow, so he obliged. It was hard to keep his eyes off Aria's legs and her gait as she led him into a corridor at the far end of the club's VIP floor. At the end was a door, locked until Aria swiped her onnitool above the lock's hologram. Inside was a claustrophobic and dark room with concrete walls. Beside the door was a hose and in the middle of it a drain. A light flickered on and off in the back, and directly under it was a human, immobilized by hard-plastic cuffs.
Nicolas eyed the man's blonde hair, caked with dry blood. He was wearing armour that had been warped at the thighs, and the plates on his arms had been shattered. It was hard to tell if he had any broken bones since he didn't move or react to the newcomers. Aria stood in front of Nicolas with her back to him. She spoke with a low tone, "Anto, leave us and close the door behind you."
Nicolas was startled when the batarian left and the door slid closed, blocking off almost all of the outside noise. Aria turned around and smirked at Nicolas, her eyes glowing in the flickering light, like those of a cat, "Any idea who this man is, Jerris?"
Nicolas shrugged and Aria looked over her shoulder, "He used to be called John Carver, but for the last month, he's had no name. No origin, no family, no friends, nothing. All his world is right now is the flickering lights, water and raw varren meat. I'm pretty sure this is the first time he's heard words since he entered this room. He can't answer, of course. I had his jaw wired shut and his vocal chords cut. Do you know what he did, Jerris?"
Nicolas shook his head. Aria turned back around to look at the man, "Or rather, what he didn't do. I asked him to kill someone, and he got soft. Said he wouldn't kill women or children. That was the last thing he said. I have no place here for people who don't do what they say they'll do, Jerris. Is that clear?"
"Yeah, Aria, I get it."
"I've got to attend to other matters. Stay here and put him out of his misery. I'll have Anto send you the details of your job," Aria turned once more to Nicolas and slapped his face lightly a couple of times before leaving, "You look hideous with a beard. Be a dear and shave it off, ok?"
The door whooshed open and closed shortly after. Nicolas expanded his handgun and aimed at the human. The trigger was about to reach the firing position when the man looked up, meeting Nicolas' glare. Baker had to do his best and keep tears of empathy from leaving his eyes. The man's mouth had been deformed from the wires that wove in and out of his jaws and through his lips. One of his eyes' sclera's was a deep red, and the other had a permanently dilated retina. A part of his face had been badly burnt at some point, so only the scars of the blisters remained. Nicolas' gun shook as he looked at the man, taking in the details of what could happen if he crossed Aria.
"Are you ready?" Nicolas asked the man. This is for the best.
The man nodded slowly and closed his eyes.
Anto heard a bang come from within the room before the door whooshed open, letting Aria's human puppet out of the room.
…
Nicolas had given Anto the fake ID Hal had made and his contact information. Shortly after, he was sent an address and the face of the man (Anthony Garcia was his name) he was supposed to intimidate. Nicolas was instructed to call Aria when he had taken care of the man's security detail and had the target immobilized.
Baker wanted to sit at the bar for a cigarette before leaving to case the building in which the target was. Urvat nodded at him and walked over when the human had sat down, "Had an unpleasant meeting? Rum could help."
Nicolas nodded absentmindedly as he blew smoke from his nose. The Salarian bartender produced a glass for behind the table top and looked for a bottle when Nicolas stretched his hand out to stop him, "can I just take the bottle with me?"
Urvat gave him a blank stare before handing him the rum container. Nodding his thanks, Nicolas walked out of the club, a cigarette in one hand and the bottle in the other. Hal looked through the extranet for any form of record regarding the address' layout as Nicolas got into a rapid transit sky car.
"Last update on the map was a decade ago. It was a restaurant for human cuisine, at least back then," Hal tapped into the sky car's speakers to talk with Nicolas.
"Oh great, Aria's having me wreck the one place where I can get edible food in this shithole," Nicolas took a swig from the bottle and coughed before opening window slightly to let all the smoke that had accumulated inside the cabin out.
"We could go somewhere else in the Terminus to look for Shepard's remains, Nicolas."
"We're already making progress in getting the Terminus' most powerful person on our side, Hal." Nicolas rested his head against the window as Omega's mismatched architecture whizzed by.
"Maybe somebody else could help…"
"Oh yeah? Who?" Nicolas snapped, throwing his cigarette at the passenger seat, where his hazy mind told him Hal's voice was coming from, "You know as well as I do that Liara disappeared before I left the Citadel. Nobody from the alliance is going to help either. I don't want to bother any of the crew either. They all had their closure, so I won't bore them with my bullshit," Nicolas took a deep breath and leaned over to retrieve the cigarette that was smoking on the sky car's floor, "The last option would be to try to reach the Shadow Broker, but we don't have that kind of money. We need Aria, Hal."
"Well, we're at the place now anyhow, so you'd better leave the bottle here."
Nicolas climbed out of the sky car, flicking his cigarette over the railing behind the rapid transit station. He walked down a corridor Hal was leading him into to find the building he was looking for: Red clay bricks had been pasted on the grimy grey walls that were omnipresent in omega to give it an old fashioned human look to it, and had been grafittied over for the years following the decoration. A neon sign with a white background read in cursive human characters, "Tony's Pizza, Shawarma and Tacos and Noodles"
Hal asked Nicolas, "What kind of human food is all of that?"
Nicolas pursed his lips as he looked through the plexi-glass door into the rather empty restaurant, "Earth food, Hal. Looks like the restaurant isn't doing too good."
"Kind of explains why 'Tony' might owe Aria money."
Nicolas nodded and looked at the restaurant's neighbouring buildings. There was no service alley between them, and the two seemed abandoned. Nicolas began walking towards the end of the corridor as he spoke to Hal, "Is there a way to get behind the restaurant?"
"Yes. Take your first left, then the next left. You'll end up right behind Tony's and the other two buildings."
…
Nicolas peeked out into the small space behind the buildings. There was a dumpster and a single door that lead into one of the abandoned buildings, but no door leading into the restaurant itself. He hummed to himself with curiosity and walked into the service courtyard. A moment later, the door leading into the building swung open, and a human walked out with a handgun raised towards Nicolas. He had dark hair slicked back neatly and squeaky clean black armour. He exclaimed with a high pitched nasal voice, "Aight, buddy, put 'em up."
Nicolas raised his hands, identifying the man as definitely not Anthony, "Hey, man, it's all good, I just got lost."
"Well lemme tell ya, ye ain't got no business 'ere, ahright? Just go and there won't be no problems."
"Alright, alright, I'll go," Nicolas turned around quickly and went the way he'd come from.
Hal spoke into his ear, "That must be part of the security detail."
"Yeah, and they really don't want me snooping around the back. I'm guessing it isn't just a restaurant."
"I wonder what could be so secretive if practically anything is legal in Omega," Hal wondered.
"Anything that goes against the powerful's interests."
…
Garrus paced around his apartment in Tayseri ward. It had been two days since Nicolas had left the Citadel with almost no trace. The human's home terminal had been completely wiped, leaving no clue to his whereabouts apart from that text file. I went to find Shepard.
His position in C-sec didn't give him any luck with the Alliance either. They had been adamant on the confidentiality of the Normandy's location, and he didn't want to pressure any of the crew into telling him either, not like they were available anyway. Joker was grounded and had been taken to the Sol system for a debriefing that was getting a bit too long. Something was terribly off about the whole ordeal.
What made matters worse was the council's response. It was declared that the geth had destroyed the Normandy, and news all over the extranet had started spreading speculations of Sovereign being a geth super-weapon. Garrus shook his head as he sat in front of his own terminal, going through the latest news. It's like they are actively trying to downplay the Reaper threat. Shutting off the holo-screen, he rested his forehead on the keyboard.
"Where did you go, broom head?" he whispered to himself. He reminisced about the mission against Saren, realizing he missed those days more than he cared to admit. The red tape of C-sec justice took very little time to get on his nerves again. He wanted to make a real difference, help the people that actually needed help. At this point, all that the Citadel really needed was repair and reconstruction. Life had become so boring.
Turning the holo-screen back on, he logged into the C-sec database and looked through the most wanted list. Elanos… Tazzik… Okeer… Kasumi… Vido… Zaeed… Nyreen… Aria… Garm… Jaroth… Tarak. The Batarian's face glowed on the holo-screen as Garrus scrolled through his dossier.
He mumbled out the text, "Wanted for kidnapping on multiple occasions… smuggling… slave-trafficking… who is this guy?"
He continued reading through the crimes the batarian had commited, wondering why he hadn't been brought to justice, until his question was answered at the end of the dossier. Current whereabouts – Unknown. Last known location – Omega station, Omega system, Terminus.
Garrus leaned back in his chair, exhaling through his nose. The Terminus systems where far away from C-sec jurisdiction, and Omega was the de facto capital of them all. He tapped his talons on the desk as he thought about what civilian life must be like over there and an idea started forming in his mind. Maybe he could make a change outside C-sec.
…
Nicolas stumbled into the street, almost falling after being kicked out of the human restaurant. He turned to face the door when he regained his footing and shouted, "Your Taco's were shitty anyway! Varren meat is not a substitute for chicken!"
Hal spoke into Nicolas' ear, "Would you keep quiet? Anthony's guards will shoot you if they even see you again!"
Nicolas chuckled as he walked back to the rapid transit station, looking for a liquor store on the way, "I'm counting on that, Hal. I'm counting on it. Could you show me the way to a spot directly above Tony's, on the next level?"
"Sure. Care to tell me why we're going there?"
Nicolas entered a store, smiling at the elderly Salarian at the counter. He whispered to Hal as he browsed through the various bottles lined up on the walls, "We're going to pull off a move that our favourite Spectre once made."
…
Nicolas sat against the wall of an abandoned building, a level above Tony's restaurant. An empty bottle of Pisco was clinking around between his feet as he pushed it from side to side. After drunkenly pointing his gun at anyone who passed by for the previous eight hours, he started to feel drowsy. He activated his omnitool and spoke, addressing Hal, "How much longer is it going to take? I stopped being drunk an hour ago."
"I told you to buy a metabolizing pill, Nicolas. Ask me again in another hour. There is a ton of useless code in Omega's intranet, and I'm having trouble locating Tony's network."
"It's just one level down!" Nicolas kicked the bottle and huffed, "Whatever, I'm going to sleep. Wake me up if anyone approaches."
"Yes, nap it off." Hal replied and stayed quiet as Nicolas grumbled unintelligibly until he fell asleep. Hal had been able to hack into Tony's closed network hours ago, but the human was in no state to raid the place, so he'd spent the time looking through the CCTV cameras. Hal had observed the interactions between the humans and Anthony, whom he'd found in the back of the restaurant's kitchen.
The group was apparently storing a large stash of weapons in the neighbouring building, and their communications revealed how Aria had warned them about paying for the loan she'd given them. They were preparing for Aria's forces to come knock on the door, and were ready for a small-scale war to unravel in their level, hoping to be able to stave off her attacks. It was a foolish endeavour, seeing their relaxed demeanours and how unprepared they were for non-conventional attacks like the one Nicolas was planning. Hal let the hours go by as nobody passed their location. It was nearing 0300 standard galactic time when Hal noticed the people below heading into the neighbouring building to sleep. Giving Nicolas a light shock under the omnitool, the human stirred.
"What time is it, Hal?"
"0300 standard galactic. How are you feeling?"
Nicolas cracked his neck to the sides as he stood up, "Fresh as a pyjak. Were you able to get into Tony's network?"
"Yes. Everyone inside is going to sleep, so it seems like now is a good a time as any to do whatever you plan on doing."
"Great. Where is the biggest concentration of people I have to incapacitate?"
"Five meters to your right," Hal said as Nicolas put his helmet on, "I'll highlight them on your HUD. Remember to not kill Anthony. He'll show up in red."
"Roger that. Could you synthesize det-chord?"
"On it," Hal announced as the omnitool synthesized a string of explosives wrapped in omnigel rubber.
…
"Ain't it weird how dat asari bitch still hasn't tried to beat our door down?" a nasal voice filled the dark room beside Tony's kitchen.
"We all know she ain't got the balls to cross us. All her batarian bodyguards are nothin' but phonies," another voice answered in the dark.
"Hey boys, keep it the hell down, ahright? We don't want Tony wakin' up," a third voice, this one gravely and low piped up.
"Quit bustin' our balls, Mike, you asslicker," the second voice snapped whispering, "anyways, how's about we all just go to sleep?"
"Yeah, goodnight, boys," the nasal voice whispered.
…
Nicolas lit a circle of thermite he'd spread on the floor, waiting for it to weaken the concrete enough for the det-chord to be an effective breach method. He put his helmet on and observed how the visor darkened to dim the blinding light of the combustion. When the thermite was done burning, he cleared the ashes with his boot and layed the chord on the floor. Flash forging a couple of long wires, he backed away a little and thought about the last time he saw someone do this.
It was the mission on Solcrum, where Shepard had gone to clear out the geth from an alliance research facility. The thermite chord had melted through the floor and Jane fell through with Tali, firing at the geth platforms on the lower level. Ashley and Kaidan descended from another direction, catching the geth platforms on two fronts. Every bullet fired by the spectre found its target, and the geth were swiftly shot down.
Nicolas remembered the meal following that mission on Solcrum, how everyone had huddled around the four who'd gone into the research facility. He remembered Garrus gesticulating wildly as he got lost in the narration of Shepard's breaching technique.
Nicolas' heart skipped a beat when Jane's smile came to mind and he stood up, cutting the cables he'd flash forged to the det-chord.
"I can't do it, Hal. I can't do it. Shepard was a fucking N7, and she was accompanied." He paced around the det-chord, his gloves clacking on his helmet.
"What about finding Jane, Nicolas? We need to do this for Aria."
"Let's just run away. I can upload you somewhere and I just jump out an airlock."
Hal stayed silent for a moment, thinking his odds over. It was unlikely Nicolas would get far once Aria knew he hadn't done the job. It was also unlikely he would jump out an airlock… Nicolas was much too cowardly for that. Hal could easily sneak out of Omega and into the extranet, but he knew he could learn more of galactic society by sticking with Nicolas, getting first-hand experience instead of just scouring through data. He decided staying with the human was the most interesting path, and he felt what could only be expressed as annoyance as Nicolas kept pacing around the det-chord. He began synthesizing epinephrine.
"Oh no, Nicolas, you are not bailing on me now," Hal injected the epinephrine discreetly and waited for Baker's heartbeat to rise, "Now you are gonna get in there and do what you came here to do. Then we can go talk to Aria and try to get her to find out something about Shepard."
Nicolas gnashed his teeth as he stopped pacing, breathing heavily. His head shot around to glare at the det-chord. Walking over to it, he checked his shields, 100% capacity.
"They could probably resist." Nicolas talked to himself.
Nicolas' intentions didn't reach Hal, however, and the AI asked, "What could resist what, Nicolas?"
"Just look," Nicolas marched into the circle and covered the det-chord in hardened omnigel, leaving two wires out to connect with his omnitool. He made sure his helmet was secured and soldered the wires to his omni. A moment later, Nicolas jumped into the air and sent a charge of electricity into the explosives.
…
"I'm tellin' ya, I heard some hissin' comin' from the roof."
"Shut the fuck up, Mike, will ya? It ain't hissin' no more so go to slee-"
The voices were interrupted when a clean circular portion of the room's roof shot to the ground, crushing Mike underneath it. Dust filled the room as the other two humans rolled off their beds, covering their bleeding ears as Nicolas fell in, his legs hissing when he touched the ground.
Sheilds at 0% capacity. Nicolas looked around as Hal highlighted two prone figures in his HUD. He got rid of them quickly with his handgun, since they didn't have shields. He thought to himself, "I think I'll have to sleep with my armour on from now on."
Hal spoke into his translator, "Anthony is in the other room, heading for the armoury."
"Can't allow that." Nicolas stalked into the restaurant, the cloud of dust following behind him. He stopped short of where the armoury was and took a deep breath before addressing Hal, "Be ready to help me aim. I'll go for his hands."
The handgun in Nicolas' hands collapsed and extended again as Hal interfaced with it, lending his processing power to the aim assistance system. Nicolas took a couple of steps back from the door to the armoury. He tilted his head down to address Hal as the AI switched his suit's speakers off, "Hal, hit the lights."
Immediately, all the lamps within the restaurant and the adjacent buildings were shut off. The clouds of dust billowing around the inside became indistinguishable from the pitch black of the walls and floor. From beyond the door frame, an orange glow lit up, and Nicolas could hear the anxious breathing of Anthony mixed with alarmed gasps for air. Baker reared and ran for the armoury, jumping at the last second, diving into the room. He raised his gun towards the orange glow of Anthony's omnitool, and Hal did the rest by pinpointing the target's gun. Nicolas' bullet hit the gun's trigger guard, blowing right through it and the user's middle finger. The handgun collapsed as safety measures detected the weapon's integrity damage and Anthony dropped to the ground, holding his hurt hand. Drawing closer, Nicolas rested the barrel of his own gun on the target's forehead. Hal dialled Aria's contact information and the asari answered, her voice filling Nicolas' helmet. He muttered, "I've got Tony here with me."
"Put me on speakers, I need to tell him something," came the voice of the matriarch.
Nicolas' omnitool began to glow as Hal did as Aria asked. The asari's voice crackled out of the omnitool and Anthony stopped whimpering as he let go of his hand and stared at the orange hologram, "Tony, I seem to remember telling you Omega has one rule. You have three days to pay me back what I gave you. I'll be expecting a present on behalf of your lack of punctuality. Ask my darling to come back to me."
The connection was terminated and Anthony looked up at the dark visor of Nicolas' helmet. Baker smiled behind the visor and his voice crackled through his helmet's speakers, "I think that's my cue to leave."
Aaaaaand that was chapter 4! I hope Nicolas' deteriorating state is visible. If you have any form of feedback, don't hesitate letting me know :D
Anyways, until next time!
