Chapter 4

Revelations

They spent the day fleeing the Capital, stopping at a small town some three-hundred miles away. The only room the town would give them was small, barely large enough for one person, let alone two. The small twin-size bed took up most of the living space, forcing them to share. Luckily enough, they were able to get back into their former room and grab their clothes before fleeing. The bulky armor would have made sleeping impossible.

They had hoped the distance they traveled would give them time to think over their predicament and a reprieve.

Velpia scooted herself into the wall and wrapped herself in the blankets. There wasn't a lot of space left, so they were forced to get close to each other. Martin closed his eyes; as awkward as this was for him, he wanted this day to end. Although he would never admit to the awkwardness. Velpia, on the other hand, immensely enjoyed having him close. She didn't understand it completely; before she had met him, she had been alone for a long time, too long.

The following morning, Martin woke early to shake off the awkward sleep. The sun hadn't yet risen as he stretched his stiff muscles. He sat in the chair in the room's cramped corner beside the bed, trying to piece everything together. The red sand, the gang, Sören and Dallas, the Spectre, and the dead VIPs. He could connect a few dots, but not everything seemed connected. These thoughts overtook his mind until his concentration faded, and he stared off to the other side of the room. The silence was peaceful, and he let his body relax. It wasn't often that he was given these moments of rest. Back on Earth, he used to meditate as often as he could as he had gotten older, and during the war, those moments were few and growing fewer still.

Everything was so different back then. He wasn't sure if his past self would even recognize him. Martin felt he had abandoned or lost much of what he was. He stopped praying to his Gods, stopped devoting time to meditation and prayer, and stopped hoping for a better tomorrow.

"Am I that horrible to sleep with?" Velpia complained, still groggy from her sleep. Her tired eyes passed over him, and attempted to focus. Martin smiled from his dark corner while shaking his head.

"Just trying to wrap my head around everything. Nothing seems to make any sense." He slouched in his chair to rest his head on the wall.

"When has that ever happened?" She replied. "Ever since I've met you, we have been chased by the Blue Suns, Cerberus, and now a Spectre; and involved in whatever you'd call this whole mess." Martin laughed quietly, "Yeah, it's been fun."

"You're insane." She chuckled back. The room grew quiet as the room was beginning to be lit by a soft blue light from outside. The sun was slowly rising, as the two were hesitant to move.

"So, you come up with any bright ideas?" She asked while sitting up in bed. She wrapped herself in the comforter to trap the warmth she had created while sleeping. Only her head could be seen from the top of this mountain-shaped pile of cloth.

"Other than wandering around aimlessly, hoping we run into something, no." He replied, slouching down in the chair further.

"Why don't we make a call to the constable? Maybe he's got something for us?" She suggested. Martin stood, stretched his arms out over his head, and arched his back. Velpia watched this display, eyes fixated on his movements.

"Beats the hell out of my idea." He brought his arms down and straightened his body. Velpia watched him head to the small bathroom to prepare for the day.

The two donned their armor and left the room. They climbed into their buggy and headed back toward the city's outskirts. They figured they had to return to the city anyway, so why not get a head start.

Martin pulled up his Omni-tool to make his call. After a few minutes, the constable picked up.

"Martin, what the hell have you two been doing out there? You were supposed to keep your shenanigans out of the city, and I'm getting reports of gun fights and a bar fight in Illyria?"

"Well, two bar fights, but who's counting at this point? But ah, listen, we need your help; we ran into a roadblock; have there been any major activities in the city lately?"

The constable paused momentarily as Martin was bounced around in the buggy.

"The Chief has been blabbing about the Council Spectre showing up almost non-stop. He seems pretty upset about the dead Turian, but we were forced to turn over the investigation to him, and the detectives were absolutely livid. They are petitioning the embassy on the citadel over it."

Velpia quickly looked over at Martin while driving. "We should see what they know." Martin nodded in agreement. "Constable, where can I find these detectives?"

On their way to the city, they were passed by several military convoys. Nearly running them off the road. These convoys and air patrols became more frequent as they got closer. There seemed to be an awful lot of military movement.

"What the hell is going on?" She yelled over the noise.

"I guess we are about to find out." He replied while pointing to the roadblock ahead. The area had several armored vehicles and hastily erected sandbag fortifications. They were stopped at the checkpoint as a few soldiers quickly circled around the back of their buggy.

Martin noticed they weren't checking for weapons or explosives; everything they had was out in the open, and none reacted to the sight of their items.

"Looking for anything, in particular, soldier? Martin asked while looking at the young soldier on his right.

Do you have any Geth in the vehicle? The soldier joked. Martin looked confused and just blankly stared at the soldier.

Velpia leaned forward to make eye contact with the soldier, "Geth?"

"You know, the robots with flashlights on their heads." The soldier joked again.

"You think we are carrying Geth?" Velpia asked.

"Ah, no, ma'am. The Geth attacked one of our other colonies yesterday. We've been ordered to inspect any vehicles coming through just in case." The soldier rubbed the back of his neck, clearly a bit embarrassed.

"This vehicle is clear. Move along." Said another soldier.

Velpia sat back in her seat as they were waved through. "What the hell is a Geth?" Martin asked.

"Sentient synthetics, they usually keep to themselves. Someone must have pissed them off."

"Synthetics? So living robots?" Martin asked. He genuinely thought this would have been bigger news to him. Velpia let out an annoyed sigh. "Yes, robots with flashlights on their heads."

A few hours later, they arrived at the precinct. They left most of their firearms in the locked cargo hold on their buggy and walked into the building and to the front desk. They asked to see Detective Jones; he was the lead Detective running the case. They were allowed through and were flagged over by one of the humans behind a desk.

The man stood up and shook Martin's hand, and sat down. Velpia looked at Martin through her helmet. She sighed as they took their seats; she was growing tired of being ignored.

"Detective Jones, I hear you were investigating a few murders downtown?" The detectives' smile quickly turned sour.

"Was." He sharply replied.

Martin deeply breathed, "I need whatever information you have." Jones began to laugh.

"That's a good one, kid." He shook his head. "Why would I discuss the details of an active investigation with two random punks off the street?"

Martin darted his eye over to Velpia and looked back at the detective.

"Well, rumor has it a certain Spectre pushed you guys out. I'm working on a case myself; however, ours might be linked-"

The detective butted in, "-aaannd?"

"And, do you want that asshole taking the credit for this case? We are private investigators, and we've been authorized by the Colonial Affairs Administration to exercise its authority on the planet. With your help, we can show up this Spectre and get him off your planet."

Velpia looked over at Martin, genuinely impressed with his con.

The detective didn't seem wholly convinced and asked to speak alone with Martin. Martin looked over at her and signaled her to leave. He could tell the detective really didn't trust aliens.

"Is there a reason you travel around with that? The detective asked disgustedly. Martin contained his anger but figured he could use it to his advantage to gain his trust.

"Yeah, she's smart and scares the hell out of people." The detective laughed,

"Fair enough," The Detective looked around before continuing, "I want these… things off this planet. If you think you can do that, by all means."

Martin sat closer in his seat as the detective did the same.

"The dead Turian's name is Octaso Aetscus, an investigator from Palaven. From what I gathered, he was being stonewalled by the Alliance looking into the disappearance of some Turian General's kid." The detective stopped to look around. "The General called the Spectre to force the issue."

"Spectres can just do that?" Martin asked.

"They can pretty much go anywhere and do anything in Council space, but to be called in for this is unusual."

"So where's the kid? Is he in trouble? I mean, if they sending a Spectre to retrieve him."

"Don't know, the Spectre pulled the case before we got too much further." Jones sat back up and looked around again, noticing someone in the distance. "I'm passing you along with everything else I have. A favor between humans."

Martin nodded and took a quick glance at his Omni-tool. "Now I need you to leave; if my boss hears, I won't hear the end of this."

He thanked the Detective and exited the precinct. Velpia was impatiently waiting in the buggy. She had her arms folded and angrily waited on Martin to return. She knew they couldn't do anything about the detective, but it didn't make her feel better. He exited the doors to the precinct and headed toward the buggy.

"How many racist assholes are on this planet?" She said in utter disgust. Martin climbed in. "Let's not find out."

They started driving while Martin sifted through the files. They were also hungry, so they stopped at a different bar on the other side of the city. The thought of returning to their original bar made them a little uncomfortable. They arrived within a few minutes and took their seats in the back. Velpia was disappointed that the bar didn't have anything she could eat. Then again, a Human world and minimal contact with aliens. Luckily she brought her own rations, although she couldn't wait to be done with this planet so she could enjoy some actual food.

Martin had his face glued to his Omni-tool, sifting through the cliff notes of the files, only eating between his thoughts. "So, you were right; the bodies were planted in that office building."

"I could have told you that." She quipped as she bit into her dry food. Martin ignored her remark and continued. "They found an undetonated bomb in the building, it looks like you spooked them when you showed up, and they traced a few of the mercs to Eclipse."

Velpia looked at him, confused. "If they were Eclipse mercs, why only humans?"

"To avoid attention, you don't want to parade a bunch of aliens this deep in human space," he replied while taking a bite of his sandwich.

"Yeah, the colony would have revolted by now." She added. Velpia stopped eating, tired of the dry rations she had brought, and began reviewing the data with him.

"How do we know the dead investigator is even linked with our problem?" Martin didn't break eye contact with his Omni tool.

"Elementary, my dear Velpia; the investigator stumbled into New Dawn's involvement with the Eclipse. Or at least there's a suggestion of it here." She looked at him, confused by both his statement and his discovery.

"How did you access that file? That was just encrypted a second ago!"

"I don't know, I just clicked on it," Martin shrugged. She quickly scanned over the file. This was all the information the investigator had on him.

"Looks like the General's son is being held ransom by Eclipse," Velpia paused as she was reading, "oh, man, looks like dear old dad has been bailing him out for a while."

"Three counts simple assault, two counts Aggravated Assault, Possession of a Controlled Substance-" Velpia butted in, "-His military career didn't last long either. Striking a commanding officer, striking an MP; if this was anyone else, he would have ended up locked up for a long time."

"Yeah," Martin looked closer at the file; the investigator had a section on the Spectre running heavily on his background. He noted that the Spectre acted suspiciously and refused to help him several times.

"Wait, what did you do?" Velpia asked in a panic. Martin was kicked out of the Investigator's file, and all the files quickly disappeared in front of their eyes.

"This was a shared folder on a server! Download as much as you can!" The two tried downloading everything, file by file, but it took too long, and the files quickly disappeared. Before long, everything was gone.

"Damnit! Now what?" Velpia slammed her hand into the table, forcing everything to bounce around. Martin wiped his face with his hand, trying to process the information he saw. His Omni-tool turned off, and he put his hands out to signal her to calm down.

"Okay, we need two things; We need to find the General's son, Pricus Horalin. Then we need to deal with the Spectre."

Velpia shook her head. "Deal? What do you mean, deal?" Martin looked at her, "I have a feeling the Spectre has his own objective in this."

"What do you mean?" She leaned forward toward Martin.

"I think the Spectre knows where Pricus is. We have to talk with him and get that information. We find Pricus. He can tell us what we know on Soren and New Dawn."

Velpia got lower on the table and began to whisper. "Are you insane? He won't give up that kind of information!"

Martin began nodding his head and looked into her panicked eyes. "Yeah," he paused for a moment. "We are probably gonna have to pry the information from him."

Velpia just stared at him, astonished he would even suggest attacking a Spectre. Sure, this wasn't the first harebrained, but it was still pretty stupid. "What even makes you think the Spectre knows where Pricus is?"

"I don't think he was here looking for him. I think he was here for the investigator."