Walk the talk part I

"I've got to go now, see you soon." I wanted to keep this as short as possible in order not to arouse her in any way and had already opened the door.

"Gray, wait, please wait, don't run away." Her answer was almost begging, so I stopped where I stood. She wrapped her arms around me and pressed her body against mine. "Please promise me to come back, I know you don't care for yourself, but I'm lost without you."

I gently but firmly freed myself of her hug. "I cannot promise what I a cannot keep under all circumstances, but I'll promise to be careful, alright?"

She nodded, her eyes watered and she turned around and closed the door. "And how do you interpret that my friend? We're all just good friends here, right… I should get moving, otherwise the party's getting' started without me."

We met at the ground floor elevator with Sagrin who already awaited us. "Liselle has the information we need, she told us to act quickly, they'll get suspicious if he's missing for too long." He held up his Omni-tool. "I just transferred the encryption, the keywords and some audio files for the voice verification, all are necessary to get in. The suspect was quite willing to help 'cause Liselle convinced him we'd like to install him as his brothers' successor. That son of a bitch will have learned the lesson by now."

"But back to topic: There are lots of cameras on the roof, I guess you can handle that?" He queried Racen.

"If the encryption files work properly and the keys are valid that's a matter of seconds actually." Racen nodded confidently.

"Then let's hope this fool didn't fool us in the end or this' gonna be a short mission." Sha'lea commented.

Sagrin stepped in. "we'll use two shuttles to drop you off and I'm going to take the gunship, take the elevator to the basement, your pilots await you. good luck folks, we're going to need it."

With a nod he left us and we took the elevator to the basement. As I almost had anticipated Jason awaited us there, accompanied by an Asari, maybe one of Aria's or Liselle's intimates as close to no one within the organization should be involved in the operation. "Hi Jason, glad to see you, ready for another rollercoaster ride?"

He grinned back. "They didn't tell me you'd be involved, I'd have resigned if they'd told me. I'll take it we're in a hurry so let's get going."

"Right, let's do the introductions after the job, there should be time for some drinks then."

We boarded the shuttles and left the garage, Sagrin's gunship awaited us outside.

Jason offered me a grin. "This time we've got some real cavalry to cover your poor asses."

"Guess' we're goin' to need it, anyway I'd prefer a smooth ride this time, it'll get rough soon enough once we're inside."

"I'll tell the flight attendants to let you sleep."

He was interrupted as the intercom chimed and Sagrin's voice could be heard. "The diversion attack has started, ETA in two minutes, let me fly in and clean the rooftop a little before you unload our presents, good luck out there, Sagrin out."

"Copy that, waitin' for the clean-up service before we're going in. Jason out."

We remained silent for the rest of the short way, I went through all known mission details again but came to the same conclusion again: This was a journey into the unknown, a wild guess at best.

Jason broke the silence. "We're going down now, prepare for a quick pullout."

"Going down now, looks like some company awaitin' us down there." Sagrin's voice was replaced by the sound of rapid gunfire as he pulled the trigger and then cut off.

The rooftop of the target building drew closer as Sagrin's gunship just finished his cleanup. I prepared myself to jump out of the shuttle and already tried to figure out the nearest cover after the drop-off.

As we reached the rooftop on the far end Jason hit the brakes and brought the vehicle to a standstill roughly a meter above the ground. I nodded in his direction pushed the door open and jumped to the ground, Racen following fragments of a second later. We both surged for the next cover behind some metal crates as gunfire welcomed our visit. The bullets were primarily aimed at the shuttle but couldn't harm the thick front armour plates. Sha'lea and Gatok had disembarked roughly 30 metres away close to the entrance to the lower levels.

"Ok guys, good luck out there, get the shuttles out there, we'll get company, looks like some of these speeders again." Sagrin ordered using the com device.

"Give me a minute here, I'm going to take out those cameras." Racen used the com unit as the leaving shuttles and the gunfire were to loud to speak normally.

I nodded and readied my sniper rifle, cautiously peering out of cover for targets. Our enemy greeted me with poorly aimed assault rifle fire, giving me two seconds to register their hideouts. Switching back to our hiding place I waited a few seconds before activating the cloaking device and emerging from cover in search for targets. One of our opponents fired his weapon on full auto aiming at the corner where Sha'lea had taken cover, suppressing her from taking action. A headshot silenced him finally, and drove the rest of our opponents back into cover.

"I'm ready, was easier than expected, get moving, how many did you count?" Racen stated, his expression calm.

"I counted five, the one I just silenced not within. I'm pretty sure you and Sha' can handle that as long as they don't get help from above."

"Five? that's almost too easy considering the payment, get out of here, by the way a nice new toy you've got there, you should make use of it now."

I nodded, activating it again as it was ready and jumped out of cover surging for Sha's hiding place behind the entrance. Two thirds on my way a stray shot hit my shields and caused the cloak to collapse. Luckily none of our opponents reacted fast enough and I reached the corner of the entrance unharmed. "Gatok, let's move in, before they figure out we're the real threat." Activating my Omni-tool I entered the necessary codes and played the voice verification close to the microphone. "That was almost too easy!" I exclaimed as the door slid open without hesitation.

"Let me go first, little human, you're not bulletproof "Emphasizing his words he shove his bulk into the doorway and led the way down the stairways, his Claymore shotgun drawn and ready.

I readied my Locust SMG and went after him. My Krogan friend surprised me – not for the first time – with his noiseless and smooth movement which betrayed his bulk and awesome appearance. He stopped before another door and activated the panel, surprisingly no additional security measures were needed. Before he could move forward I held him back and whispered. "Let me have a closer look first, maybe we can catch them by surprise".

Not waiting for his approval I slid beside him and activated the cloaking device before lurking around the corner. With the outer wall on the left side I turned right and moved a few metres forward. The long corridor led to a larger and seemingly inhabited room as I could hear faint voices from inside. As time for the cloak ran out I crouched behind a small crate and waited impatiently for the device to reload. As the icon went green I left my hiding place and moved forward now able to make out more details. Shortly before reaching the doorway I activated the cloak again and lurked around the corner. It was a large room and exquisitely furnished with 3 entrances, the one I was standing in, one to the right which was closed and seemingly secured and a third one opposite to me about 25 metres away to the right. This doorway was blocked by a makeshift barricade half the height of the 5 guards surrounding it, all batarian by the looks. One of them had a flamethrower equipped and ready. "They prepared a warm welcome, the diversion attack seems to work better than expected."

Moving back into the corridor where they couldn't see me I activated my com device and whispered. "Move up".

I could see Gatok's shape emerging on the far end of the corridor moving without a noise to my position. "Five batarians in there, one has a flamethrower, let me take this one out using my rifle, the rest is free for all." I instructed him.

He just nodded and indicated me to move forward. I readied my rifle, took a deep breath to concentrate and activated the cloak again. I sneaked around the corner and crouched behind an extensively decorated cabinet made of dark woods standing beside a large couch. On a distance of 20 metres indoors I barely had to aim, released my breath I pulled the trigger. The batarians head exploded in red mist, spraying blood and debris on his companions. They were caught by surprise but reacted like professionals taking cover immediately. Gatok had taken my shot as starting signal for his race to their hideouts, issuing a battle scream on his way. As he rushed past me I had taken cover again and reloaded my rifle. A second later the batarians opened fire on the charging Krogan, his assault had successfully distracted them completely from my presence. A Krogan may seem numb sometimes but they usually see a threat to their live if there is one. The same counted for Gatok and as he threw himself to the floor to bring some obstacles between himself and the enemies fire I emerged again from cover and blew off another head. "Two gone, three left. time to play for my Krogan friend."

This time they had seen me and concentrated their counter-fire on my hiding spot, giving Gatok time to prepare his onslaught. He had used the time to shorten the distance by crawling behind a desk, roughly five metres away from the frantically firing batarians. He looked at me and waited for my sign to charge. "Time for some fireworks my dear."

I activated the cloaking device – which had eventually reloaded – emerged from cover and threw a flashbang grenade. The stream of gunfire didn't miss me although they couldn't see me visibly and a couple of hits collapsed both my cloak and my shields and I had to take cover swiftly. The grenades' explosion was the signal for Gatok to charge again, this time reaching the hideout. His awesome Claymore shotgun issued two shots and literally disintegrated two of the batarians. The last one kept his wits and hit the Krogan with a full magazine of his light SMG before I silenced him with another headshot.

Gatok shrugged of the hits and turned around, small trickles of blood pouring down his upper torso. "You're alright? By the looks your armour needs a new painting." I asked him pointing on the blood running down his torso.

Gatok just grunted. "Nothing that wouldn't heal in one or two days, this little bastard had guts, 'give him that much. Most are on the run if a Krogan is close enough to kick ass."

"Me included." I chuckled. "like my ass as it is, no need to reshape it."

Another grunt was the answer "Little fleshy things you are, anyway lets put a bullet into this poor wretch we're after and be off with it." He pointed at the secured door. "I bet my share of this mission his hideouts' behind that door."

"Right, let's see if the security codes are valid for this one, too." I tried the codes and the voice verification but to no avail, the door stayed sealed. "Would've been all to easy, right? Guess we need Racen down here." I looked around in the now devastated room. "Looks like the party is over for now, check out the roof, I'll contact Racen to come down."

"Alright Gray, hope they left some for me, this' all too easy down here." With that he ran for the corridor to the roof.

I activated the com unit. "Racen, you copy?"

Random noise answered me at first before I got an answer. "Got you, gettin' a little nasty over here, they managed to drop some reinforcements and our air support is pretty much occupied. Are you done down there?"

"No, there's a door I cannot open, I sent Gatok to aid you but I need you down here."

"Shit…ok…on my way, Gatok just arrived, Racen out."