Ok so burning at the stake was not fun XD
Nah got caught up with work and the rest...sorry about the delay have a lot of backed up hand written pages
but the problem is I might get waylayed yet again seeing as I am leaving for California in a few days
As always posted by me Ezeikel77(Ezeikel Shepard)
"Give me more time!" A grey and silver Turian dressed in the blue armor of a C-Sec officer argued with another Turian dressed in the same armor but whose skin and plates were almost black in color.
"No the Council has ordered the investigation into Saren closed. Turn over what evidence you have currently gathered in the course of the investigation and move on to the next case." Irritation could be heard lacing the Turian's flanged speech to the point that even a deaf man could have heard it.
"Just give me a little bit more time! Stall them if you have to!" Pushing on as if he didn't hear the other Turian's irritation the grey Turian informed, "He is hiding something I can feel it!"
"Stall the council? Are you insane? You are done! The investigation is over now get to your next assignment before I have you thrown in the brig for insubordination!" The Turian obviously had more to say but was cut short when he noticed the laser dot dancing across his nose. Looking for the source he saw a small statured human dressed in deep red cloths double over laughing at his expression.
Once Mai was assured that she had his undivided attention she beckoned the C-Sec officer over with a simple wave. "I need to speak with your colleague over there…the one investigating Saren."
"Garrus! This Human wants to speak with you!" With his back turned the Turian missed the violent expression that passed over Mai's face but since she was standing right next to her Ashley saw it and tried to suppress the shiver that had run up her spine to no avail.
Sighing Garus jogged over to where Mai stood and waited patiently for the other Turian to leave. Once he was out of ear shot Garrus turned to Mai. "What do you need?"
"What no snide remark about my race?" When the Turian gave a shake of his head her expression softened if just a little bit. "The way I see it you have two options right now. First one: turn all evidence you have gathered on Saren to me."
"The second?" Garrus leaned back slightly crossing his arms in an attempt to make it look like he had taken the step on purpose.
With a smirk Mai continued, "The second being do as your superior says and let a mass murderer get away…"
"Well when you put it like that…" the Turian sighed as he activated his Omni-tool and prepared to transmit the data only to realize that Mai did not have one activated. "Where is your Omni-tool?"
"Don't have one…" Mai muttered as she started riffling through her pockets looking for something. With a sigh she turned to Ashley. "Um…would you mind being my intel coordinator?"
"Wait…I saw you hack into that Geth…which uses the same tech as an Omni-tool…" Even as she was questioning Mai she downloaded the intel the Turian had gathered.
"Well…that was the only one I ever had…it was built into the armor that the Alliance had given me. Unlike most of the galaxy Wolvendon does not implant the Omni-tool. We prefer to rely on external computers." Mai shrugged as she brought up her wrist up to access her personal-interface, on her wrist computer, after it chimed twice. "Before we continue the investigation we need to make a pit stop over at Flux. An old friend seems to be in town."
"Is it just me or did she sound exited…" Ashley asked as she stared after Mai as she made her way to the nearest elevator that would take her to the section of the stations arms that housed the bar.
"All you humans sound the same to me." With a shake of his head he walked after the swiftly moving figure dressed in crimson.
Mai impatiently tapped her foot as she waited for the rest of her team to enter the elevator. "…is…is that Christmas music? What the hell…" Mai turned to the elevators controls to see if she could change the music they were playing.
"You do realize that breaks about twelve regulations and thirteen different interstellar laws right?" Garrus muttered as he walked into the elevator with Ashley right on his heels. He then proceeded to select the destination and sent the elevator on its way. "So anything we should know about this 'friend' of yours?"
"Yeah…don't let her rope you into a drinking contest…" Mai chuckled as she shook her head remembering a humorous event.
"Why is that?" Ashley had a perplexed look as she studied Mai's reactions to her own statement
"She drank the First Alpha under the table and he wasn't even drinking anything alcoholic…" Mai grinned as she informed Ashley of her friends amazing alcoholic feat.
"Wait your father had a drinking contest with a subordinate and he refused to drink any alcohol?" Ashley had the look of incredulity at this realization.
"Well he has no real tolerance for alcohol and it was his 'subordinate' that suggested the contest as it happened."
Shaking her head Ashley stepped off the elevator and crashed right into a small statured Asari knocking her over sending the poor girl skidding across the floor to come to rest against the far wall seven meters away. "Shit!" Stumbling back into Garrus she failed to notice that the girl had slipped a credit-chit into one of her many hidden pockets.
Stepping off the elevator Mai offered her hand to the young cut-purse. "Next time look before you leap Gunny." Helping the thief to her feet Mai slipped an incredibly small devise into another of her pockets. "Now run along little one…" bringing her voice down to a whisper she leaned in close enough for the young thief to hear, "might want to leave before my friend figures out that her wallet is a few credits light…"
The poor girl practically pissed herself as she ran as fast as her legs could take her. Mai checked her computer and gave a satisfied nod. "Come on people we are burning daylight!" With that Mai set a fast pace up the stairs to the bar only to stop short of the door and jump back with a startled yelp that made her hood fall off her head.
"Spirits! What was that noise?" Garrus ran up the stairs only to come to a stop next to her. "By the Spirits…"
The sight that unfolded before them was that of a warzone. The human across the landing groaned as he tried to get up from where he landed after getting launched across the landing.
"I have a bad feeling that I know who is at the center of this mess." Mai sighed as she weaved her way through the bar room brawl that had spilled out onto the landing by then.
Sure enough sitting at the bar there was a young woman dressed in the uniform of a Wolvendon warrior laughing heartily at the drunken melee. The women had a greyish purple hue to her skin that contrasted greatly with her green hooded duster. Underneath the duster was an artfully painted wolf curled protectively around a nest of eggs. The wolf's fur was the same color as her skin while the eggs had a dulled color scheme that looked like a frozen flame similar to how the legends described phoenix eggs. The woman's face had the look of a girl that had final come into her adult womanly visage. Her hair, which framed her face in just such a way that it kept her ears hidden, was as black as midnight. It almost looked like it pulled in all the light around her head making it appear darker. Her eyes which were filled with tears and unfocused were a silver hued navy blue.
"Spirits…what species is she? I want to say that she is a Quarian but the fact that she is standing outside a clean room without her environment suit says she can't be…" Garrus asked as he stared like a slack jawed idiot. Only when he turned to get an answer from Mai he found that he was alone amidst the melee. He immediately started to search the entire bar in search of her only to find her sliding onto the bar stool next to the strange woman.
Once Mai was close enough she noticed that her friends face was flushed from the over consumption of alcohol.
"Last time I checked you were able to drink and entire platoon under the table and still walk steady enough to pick up your rifle and shoot the hairs off a bee at a hundred paces…" Mai ordered herself a drink while she jokingly accused the woman of over indulging.
"That's a lie! It's with a pistol not a rifle…" the woman swayed as she rotated the stool to face her accuser. "I don't know what you're talking about though… I've only had three drinks…"
"What!? Wait what drink is this and who recommended it to you?" Mai sprayed her own drink over Ashley's face, who she had turned to in order to acknowledge her presence, when she said that.
"The Krogan dressed in red…" She answered as she took another swig of her drink.
"There is no…wait did you say a Krogan recommended this drink to you!?" Mai immediately slapped the drink out of her friends hand. "You know better than to drink anything a Krogan recommends!"
"What? It not like its ryncol…" The woman muttered as she lost her balance and hit the floor with a dull thud.
With a sigh and a glare at the bartender Mai slid to the floor to help her friend to her feet and proceeded to guide her to the door calling over her shoulder, "Hey Gunny can you get the tab?"
"Sure I'll catch up in a sec." Ashley called out as she finished whipping down her face.
"Now that we are safely away from that bar fight…" Mai set her friend down and grabbed her head in a vice grip that was both firm but gentle. "What the hell were you thinking!?"
Trying to recoil away the young woman managed to only slam her forehead into Mai's sobering her up enough, in the process, to realize what was going on around her. With a groan she brought a three fingered hand up to her forehead. "Ok from now on I'm not drinking anything a Krogan recommends…"
"Like the last twelve times you said that?" Mai muttered as she helped the young Quarian to her feet and gently led her to the elevator. "Hey Garrus, Ashley let's go!"
"Hey Lyall I think that Asari picked my pocket!" Ashley rounded the corner as if there was an army chasing her.
"Aye she did." Mai said nonchalantly as she pressed the button for the deck that C-Sec Headquarters was located on. "We'll chase her down later…I need to find this Krogan," Mai checks the dossier on her computer, "…Wrex is his name."
"WREX! You are going to go and try to work with a Krogan!? Let alone Wrex!?" Garrus practically yelled in Mai's ear in the confined space of the elevator.
"Hey don't yell! Especially not in my ear!" Mai glared up at Garrus while trying to cover her ears from further outbursts from her new Turian friend. "Now at a more normal level would you please explain the reasoning behind that outburst?"
"Fine…Wrex is the meanest, ruthless, single minded Krogan Mercenary you will ever meet…Not to mention that he is suspected of a half a dozen hits in on the Citadel alone…" Garrus looked like he wanted to slap some cuffs on him rather than get any intel from him. "What are you grinning about?"
Mai was staring out into the nebula surrounding grinning at a memory. "Oh just thinking that he sounds like a Krogan I want on my team…"
"You can't be serious!" Garrus' mandibles flared out in his outrage.
"Unlike most people…those of us who serve within the Wolvendon forces have greater insight into the Krogan psyche…from what you said I can gather that he is a true Krogan and needs to be treated like one." Mai continued to grin as she adjusted her gauntlets as if anticipating a fist fight. "Also he seems to be more controlled that most Krogan hence why you can't link him to any hits."
"Why do I feel like I just signed onto a suicide squad?" Ashley spoke up from the other side of the elevator for the first time since the whole conversation started.
"Don't worry it's not like I'm going to actually get you involved in it…" Mai said as she finally turned away from the view as the door chimed their arrival. "Now to find a seven foot one tone mass of destruction in biological form…"
"We don't want any trouble Wrex. So pack up and leave." The Human C-Sec officer looked like he would rather be inside a Mako with the cannon pointed at Wrex's reptilian face than standing there with an armored and armed Turian at his back. "Fist is off the table, he dies. You go down for it."
"Good tell Fist that I am coming for him." Wrex looked over the Humans shoulder and saw Mai exiting the elevator and pausing long enough to search for someone. Once her eyes landed on him they lit up and that caught his attention. Shoving his way past the officer he marched right up to Mai. "Well whelp you are obviously looking for me so what do you want?"
The grin that spread across Mai's face sent all the C-Sec officers that saw it scurrying as far away from the source as physically possible in the lobby. "I came to see what all the fuss was about, but now I see it's just hype and nothing real. You bow down to C-Sec and let them dra-mph!"
"Whelp if you know what's good for you, you will not finish that statement. What do you find so funny?" Wrex stopped the rest of his threat short once he saw the sparkle in her eyes.
"Oh nothing, just that you responded a little better than the average Krogan male." Mai grinned as she pried the Krogans three fingered hand from her mouth before she could speak. "Now to see if you truly are as strong as they say."
"What are you talking about whel-" Wrex's question was cut short as a small hand crashed into the underside of his jaw snapping his head back.
"Come on old man show me what you've got!" Mai goaded as she danced around his reflexive grab. "I though you Krogan were bett-omph!"
Mai was sent half way across the lobby by an inhuman strength filled kick. "Whelp you are well on your way to an early grave. So you might want to find a way to repay me for the slight on my honor." Wrex remained eerily calm compared to the rest of his brethren. Most Krogan would have tried to outright killer regardless of where they were.
"I see that Citadel Securities reputation for you is undeserved. By now most Krogan would have shot me with their shotgun and walked away." Mai commented as she got back up and charged him once more.
"Trust me whelp I am sorely tempted." Wrex tried to grab her but only succeeded in giving Mai better footholds and Mai took them scurrying up and over Wrex's front to come to a crouching rest on his hump. "Get down from there and face me like a real man!"
Chuckling softly Mai slid down his hump to land on her feet. "I guess Humans all look the same don't we?" Mai smiled as she turned to face the angry Krogan and removed her hood revealing her face to him.
"Wait you're a woman?" Wrex's expression went through a wide range of emotions from shock and dismay to anger. "What is a woman doing dressed in full armor and not at home handle-"
The look on Mai's face cut him short. "If you finish that train of thought I will make a Krogan blood rage look like a child's temper tantrum…We understood?"
Wrex had the decency to look like he knew he said the wrong thing. "What is it you want then whelp?" Wrex growled out as he looked Mai up and down as if seeing her for the first time.
Mai glared up at the considerably taller Krogan. "Fine if you won't fight I have no reason to giveyou the proposition I have for you that will get C-Sec off your ass…"
Just give it to me now whelp befor I lose my temper over you wasting my time," Wrex growled in return for her glare.
With a grin Mai charged him one last time and manages to perch herself on his hump once more. "Fine so I have a way for you to be able to 'take down' Fist and not get chased all across Citadel Space for it…" To the shock of those there who are not part of Wolvendon or have not served with her extensively before, Mai spoke fluent Tuchankan.
"Hm…" Wrex, taking it all in stride, started to ponder this little creature swathed in crimson currently perched on his hump. "Go on." He intoned.
"Well seeing as they would rather tag you like some wild animal…why not join an organization that would not only let you do your job and roam free but will give you a true purpose and lots of enemies to kill…" Mai intoned in equal measure as Wrex had. All the while sliding forward so that she could hang her head directly in front of his face.
Wrex was still pondering this when he struck out and pulled Mai off his head and hump holding her by the shoulders so that he could look her in the face at eye level "So what? Join your ragtag band of Turians, Humans and Quarians?"
Mai chuckled at the way he said it and looked over her shoulder at her 'ragtag band'. "Haven't given the Turian the offer yet and not necessarily…this is just part of my unit. The offer applies to the organization as a whole."
Setting Mai down the Krogan gave her an appraising look. "So…this organization of yours wouldn't have something to do with fiery immortal birds now, would it?" Wrex asked once he got a good look at her emblem painted on the left side of Mai's breastplate.
"Hm?" Mai had a questioning look on her face till she followed his gaze and saw where it rested. With an almost uncharacteristically girlish yelp she covered herself up as if she was not wearing anything on her torso and kicked him in the groin plate of his armor, rattling its contents.
Wrex managed to contain his anger and pain as he looked at her once more with a grin. "If half the females in your organization respond like you do from a man's stare this could be fun," intoned the grinning Krogan as he watched Mai trying to compose herself while huddled on the metallic floor of the atrium.
With a glare that would have most men running for the nearest airlock Mai stuck out her hand to the Krogan. "And in half the men in the galaxy acted like you the universe would be run by woman…"
Giving the deep chested laugh that only a Krogan can, Wrex accepted her outstretched hand. "This will be interesting whelp."
Mai shook his hand with a scowl. "Are you even going to try and learn my name? Or are you just going to keep calling me whelp?"
"You have to prove yourself before you are worth the effort." Wrex informed her as he greeted each of Mai's companions.
"Alright then…I was informed that you had information that would lead to evidence of Saren's involvement in the attack on Eden Prime." Mai was already looking at Ashley trying to get her to activate he omni-tool without making it obvious.
"Yeah there was this young Quarian trying to sell that information to the Shadow Broker for protection. Her mistake was that she went to Fist seeing as he is a known agent of the Broker…problem is that he turned traitor for Saren. It was the Shadow Broker who put the hit out on him." Wrex droned as he followed Mai into the elevator.
"So, I guess that means we are going to Chora's Den?" Ris'Kais asked as the entered the elevator.
Mai shook her head as she keyed in the deck that the Normandy was docked at. "No we need to outfit everyone with some non-mass effect gear first…last time I checked people like Fist like to employ weapons that puch through C-Sec armor like tissue paper…Al;iance gear is no better…"
"Wait you are just going to give these non-wolves our tech!?" Ris exclaimed as they exited the elevator and walked down the corridor leading to the Normandy's docking cradle.
"Ashley here has already used and been approved for further use. The other two need to be 'baptized in the fires of battle' with our tech if they are going to stay on the team." Mai explained using her head to indicate who she was talking about while slipping into the Wolvendon trooper vernacular briefly to specify what Wrex and Garrus were required to do.
Ris was quiet during the final stretch of corridor, contemplating what she had heard and trying to figure out how the rest of the squad would take the new arrivals. "By the way where is Jinx?" She was taken off guard when she saw Ashley stiffen upon hearing Jinx's name. "What!? What happened!?"