March 2nd
2166
9:53 PM
Illium Trading District

Tarya was walking home from her stupid job, at that stupid building, with the stupid business. The trading district always felt like one of those old Earth bazaars, with people hawking everything from guns and armor to random bits of scrap technology.

The food kiosks filled the air around the district with the scent of delicate asari food, salty human food, and even spicy salarian food. The glowing neon of the vendor signs provided the only light on a cold, moonless night.

"Miss! Excuse me, miss! Would you be interested in a new gun here? Only 40 credits!" A salarian came up to Tarya and said.

"Ah, no, no thanks-" Tarya stammered.

"No no miss, I insist! Please, take it!" The salarian said, shoving the machine pistol into her hands.

"Uh, alright then, I guess." Tarya took out two 20 credit chits and handed it to the salarian. The salarian slunk away into the shadows.

What the hell am I going to do with this? Tarya thought, eyeing her new gun. Glancing around her, she ducked into a dark alleyway.

She found some empty Kaffee bottles in a dumpster and lined them up on the rim. She inspected the gun in her hands, flipped some buttons, and figured out how it works. She set down her briefcase, lined up her sights, flipped off the safety, and fired at a bottle.

A stream of bullets came out of the gun, hitting pretty much everything around the bottle. An Earth cat nearby growled and hissed, then ran off, startled. Tarya sighed and put the pistol in her pocket. She walked quickly out of the alley, as a businesswoman coming out of a dark, dank alleyway can really only implicate bad things. Tarya noticed a fight up ahead. Normally, there were all sorts of people yelling at vendors, but this seemed different. Angrier, somehow.

"Dammit Kristopher, you told me two hundred thousand credits for the sand! Now you're asking for fifty?" A krogan yelled at a human.

"I-I know Kral, but the bossman said your shipment was late and damaged. He told me to tell you that you were only getting 25%, and this was going to be your last job. I'm sorry! I tried to tell him that you were still good, but he wouldn't hear it!" The human, presumably Kristopher, said. Tarya inched closer, afraid yet intrigued at the same time.

"Raaargh! You tell your boss man that if I don't get my full payment, I'll-I'll," Kral paused. He lunged at the asari businesswoman a few feet away from him, grabbing her by the shoulders and pulling her towards him close.

Tarya yelled and tried to get to her pocket, to get to her new gun, but the krogan held tight.

"I'll take this asari hostage! Give me my money!" Kral raged.

"Oh my God, Kral, what are you doing? I don't even have two hundred thousand on me! I can't do anythi-" Kristopher was cut off by a single gunshot. He fell to the floor of the trading district, chest spurting blood.

Tarya tried screaming for help again, but the krogan, presumably Kral, put his large, beefy hand over her mouth.

"Now listen here, asari, here's the deal. I'm going to take you to my ship, we're going to blast off with the shipment of red sand that I earned, and eventually I'll sell you off to slavers, or get a ransom for you from someone or something. Point is, you do what I say and you won't end up like that guy over there." Kral gestured to the dead human a few feet away from them. Tarya squeaked out something to the positive. "Good. Now let's go, the docks are this way."

Kral figured out the hard way that dragging a screaming asari businesswoman towards the docks tends to get people looking, and screaming, and calling the police. By the time Kral made it to his dry docked then stolen Alliance corvette, he had entire Illium SWAT teams converging on him. He pistol whipped a turian in SWAT armor, strong enough to cave him his exo-skeleton. He got to the ship, taking potshots at the police forces. He smashed a button on the outside with his pistol hand, opening the hanger doors. Kral threw Tarya into the ship, took a few more shots at the police, and jumped in.

Once the hanger doors were closed, Kral sprinted up to the cockpit and started up the engines. Tarya, still sprawled out in the hanger, got up warily. She fell onto her face as the ship lurched forward, already entering Illian low orbit. Feeling the ship stabilize, she got up and crouched into a corner, pistol drawn.

Kral set the ship on course to the mass relay, then sauntered down slowly to the hanger to look over his new prize. He swore loudly when he didn't see her right away, realizing that he would have to look for her and it would just be annoying.

Tarya saw the krogan enter the hanger again. She readied her pistol and tried to start up her biotics. She saw the krogan sneak by one of the crates, and fired her machine pistol instinctively.

"Ow! Fuck, you stupid bitch, that hurts!" Kral said, walking towards Tarya. Her pistol overheated, and she inwardly cursed as she realized that she didn't actually have any spare thermal clips. Kral grabbed her by her throat and lifted her.

"So... what's your name?" Kral said, awkwardly. Tarya made some strangling noises. "Oh... right. I'm choking you. Heheh. Sorry." Kral dropped her and she fell to the floor, gasping for air.

"You... lumbering fat son of a bitch... I don't even... why did you kidnap me?" Tarya said between gasps.

"Eh, mostly business. You know how it goes, right?" Tarya just glared at him.

"Tarya... my name is Tarya Dalian."

"Thorak Kral, pleased to meet you." Tarya whispered every curse in every language she knew under her breath.

"Well," Kral said, "You can make yourself at home in here. I have some business to attend to elsewhere."

Woaaaaah man! That doesn't seem like a good start to a fire team. Anyway, sorry for the late-ish chapter, I went to a musical earlier and didn't have time to post it beforehand. There'll be 3 chapters in this little section, and then afterwards we'll get to the real meat of the story: the battles. Anyway, blah blah blah, reviewing keeps my blood pressure low, so review.