*Author's Note: Sorry about the long delay between chapters. I recently got a new job and it has really taken up a lot of my time. I hope to soon finish up this series and continue working on other projects. Thank you for reading so far and I hope you continue to do so. Have a good one.*
One Year Ago
"What the hell was that?!" exclaimed Casey as he frantically worked the holographic controls of his stealth ship. Just as he was heading in for a landing on the Krogan homeworld, Tuchanka, a massive worm-like creature burst from the ground and spit a sort of acid over the small fighter.
"A thresher maw, Sir" sarcastically answered Alfred.
Casey had heard of the enormous aliens and had hoped he could see one up close for himself one day, under different circumstances. He fought to regain controls of the ship, but the acidic substance was eating through most of his guidance and stabilizing modules. As he prepped the ship for an emergency landing, he tried to sift through what was left of his sensors to see where the beast had gone. It troubled him that it was nowhere to be seen.
"Prepare for impact in three…two…one" informed Alfred's voice through the tiny cockpit. The AI had done everything it could to ensure the landing was as safe as possible. The black fighter skidded on the desolate planet's floor before coming to a stop.
Casey let out a sigh and started to check all systems, "Status Alfred?"
"It's not good Sir, could take some time to repair the damage that filthy creature caused."
Then Casey remembered that he had lost sight of the creature that had attacked him and quickly disengaged the canopy, leaping onto the rocky floor. He moved swiftly, checking the environment as he reached his equipment on the side of his ship. As quickly as he could he slipped on his recon hood, black armor and the cape he had acquired from the asari maidens. His HUD display showed all combat systems were set.
Casey then moved to the other side of the fighter and began to go over his weaponry. He always tried to be ready for any situation he would encounter, but a thresher maw was a new one. From what he knew of the aliens, they had thick armored hides and were only slightly vulnerable when they came up from the ground and exposed their head.
He gathered the few explosives he kept in his weapon locker and as many armor piercing shruikens with explosive tips he could hold. Casey then jumped on top of his fighter and scanned in all directions, hoping to see some sort of movement. The terrain was just as he expected: dead. Everything on Tuchanka was a pale shadow of what the planet had been before the discovery of nuclear weapons.
While his oculars scanned ahead of him, Casey felt the ground move behind him. He whipped his head around just in time to see the huge thresher maw burst from the ground about 100 yards ahead of him. The alien tore through the earth and bellowed into the air, before taking sights on Casey. The thresher maw arched backwards readying an attack and then streaked its long body towards Casey, mouth gaping open.
Casey equipped two of the biggest explosive charges to each of his omni-tools and pointed them towards the oncoming creature. When the maw had come over fifty yards, Casey let the two explosives soar with small smokes trails following them.
The maw did not hesitate even slightly as the two rockets streaked towards it. Just before the two rockets were about to detonate in the creature's mouth, the thresher maw turned its head at another incoming attack.
Casey's two rockets hit the side of the maw's head, causing it to flinch slightly, but Casey's rockets were nothing compared to what hit it seconds before. A huge fireball ruptured the other side of the maw, tearing open the natural armor and spewing dark blood into the air.
Casey was surprised that even with such a wound the creature still roared and swayed in the air. He then saw where the surprise attack had come from; a group of krogan leaped over a small ledge, firing their weapons at the wounded maw.
Casey remained in a battle stance as one of the krogan broke off from the group and started to come towards him. He zoomed in on the oncoming Krogan and noted his green tinted head plate. The krogan stopped about twenty feet in front of Casey and pointed his weapon him. Casey took note of the shotgun, a custom modded Graal Spike Thrower, wildly used as a big game hunting weapon. With the short distance between them, he wouldn't stand a chance against the flechette of spikes.
Casey then heard a shot ring as he quickly realized the Krogan shot the spikes at his feet; clearly a message. Casey looked up as the Krogan rested his weapon on his shoulder and looked down at him.
"Hell of a mess you got yourself in here human" grinned the Krogan.
The thresher maw fled from the krogan, probably realizing the overwhelming force it was up against; a pack of relentless Krogan. The apparent leader with the olive colored plate on its head, yelled at the other Krogan as they formed around the motionless Casey.
"You welps couldn't take it down even after I wounded it?" He looked around to the other five Krogan, who all shook their heads. "Maybe you were distracted by this one" the leader motioned towards Casey. The rest of the group was easy to join their leader in blaming him.
Casey knew that trying to convince them of his intentions was futile; Krogan knew only one motivation for fighting, to win. Before any of them could react Casey tossed several flash bangs at the feet of the group. The younger krogan shielded their eyes and started to back away as Casey leaped towards the krogan with the jade plate on its head. Casey made a solid fist and landed an upper cut right under the large krogan's chin.
Casey didn't know much about krogan, besides what everyone else knew. He figured under that striking on the chin would reveal a vulnerability; it did not.
The krogan snatched Casey gauntleted arm after the upper cut and lifted him off the ground. The krogan was a head taller than Casey and effortlessly strung him up by his arm.
In desperation, Casey tried to hit the krogan's eye to force him to let him go, but the brute had anticipated that. The krogan grabbed his other arm and now had him off the ground. Casey's next move was the press his feet into the alien's chest and activate the boosters he had been testing, to fling himself away. Before he had a chance, the krogan brought his massive plated head into Casey's.
The blow was hard, Casey's head started to spin as his vision blurred in and out. The recon hood was designed with an excellent HUD display, which sacrificed armor, a decision Casey now regretted.
The krogan dropped him, causing him to fall on his knees. Casey tried to form thoughts and figured he had at least a concussion from the powerful head-butt. He slowly looked up to the krogan, only to be smashed in the face by the butt of the shotgun. Casey fell hard on his back and blacked out.
"Sir? Sir, are you awake?"
The synthetic voice faded in and out as Casey began to regain consciousness. As he blinked a few times, still shaking his head; he began to assess the situation. He still had on his recon hood, though he discovered he had been bound in what looked like razor wire around his torso.
"Alfred what happened?" Casey coughed, knowing that Alfred continuously monitors what happens around him, even when unconscious.
"After the large Krogan, who one of the others called Uvenk, knocked you out they loaded you into a vehicle. They said that they attempted to raid your fighter, but the security systems locked them out. So instead they just ended up towing it on a flatbed behind their oversized truck."
Casey listened to Alfred as he scanned the area. The krogan had bound him to a large column and left him at the end of a hallway. It matched the rest of the planet; decrepit and broken.
Alfred continued, "They said very little as they drove here to this hub, if that's what you want to call it, and laughed as they bound you here and walked to the end of the corridor."
Casey had already begun wriggling himself and compressing his chest to loosen the wire, a trick he had learned from a Chinese escape artist on Earth all those years ago.
"They say what they wanted with me?" Casey breathed hard as the wire started to loosen as he twisted and contorted his chest.
"No" replied the A.I.
Casey lifted the razor wire over his head and stretched his arms as he got to his feet. He checked all systems in his omni-tools and prepped his equipment.
At the end of the hall the sliding metallic door unlocked, prompting Casey to engage his tactical cloak and blending into the old walls.
Two krogan waddled through the doorway and stopped when they looked at where Casey was supposed to be bound. The krogan looked at each other in confusion.
A shimmer glided past them as explosives detonated on either side of the two krogan along the hall. The two krogan collided due to the blast and before they could recover were hoisted by a foot each to the ceiling. A black cable had wrapped around a foot on both krogan, flipping them over and lifting them to the ceiling. Striking their heads on the way up, the krogan were out cold.
Casey began to sprint through the doorway while disengaging the tactical cloak. On the other side there was a large open area, covered in rubble and debris. Casey spotted the green plated krogan, Uvenk, standing next to his fighter off to the side. Two other krogan were already heading towards Casey after hearing the explosion.
Casey continued to sprint towards the oncoming krogan and activated the experimental boosters on his feet. The tiny but powerful thrusters rocketed him up and over the charging krogan. It had only been something he had thought about, but with the addition of the asari maiden's cape to his arsenal, Casey wanted to make a way he could use it to glide or even fly. "Alfred, activate the shield overload for the fighter" Casey said midair as he had traveled nearly ten feet off the ground.
Alfred did as he was told without replying, causing the fighter's shields to shimmer blue. The krogan were all watching him in the air as the small craft sent out a pulse, shocking all three of the krogan.
With them temporarily stunned, Casey landed on top of his fighter and quickly deactivated the security lock and got inside the cockpit. The krogan had recovered and started shooting at the hull of the craft.
Inside Casey brought all weapon systems online and began to target all the enemies in front of the fighter. The krogan continued shooting, until Casey spoke through an intercom that projected out of the fighter.
"I have each one of you targeted with a ML-77 homing missile"
The krogan looked at each other, "What do you want?" growled the krogan with a green plate.
"I'm looking for Clan Urdnot." The krogan looked at each other again.
"You found it!"
The three Krogan and Casey looked to where the gruff voice had come from, where another doorway had just closed. In front of it stood a large krogan with a bright red plate and scars running down the left side of his face. Casey recognized him immediately from Shepard's team, he had found who he was looking for; this was Urdnot Wrex.
"Shepard was a hell of a warrior" somberly exclaimed Wrex. After finding who he was looking for, Casey surrendered himself to the krogan who let him speak with the clan leader Wrex. After a long discussion on who he was and his experiences with Shepard, Wrex accepted him as a visitor.
"I can't allow this human here!" shouted the green plated krogan Casey had run into before.
Wrex sat on top of a chair made of old stone and rubble in the courtyard of an old demolished building. Casey stood in front of him, wearing his armor minus his recon hood.
"Kane, this is Uvenk, once a rival clan leader but now one of the first clans to join mine" explained Wrex.
"I have allowed your radical ideas to happen because I knew we needed change, but this goes against all of our traditions!"
"Look where those traditions got us!" yelled Wrex as he stood to face Uvenk. The other krogan around the large room now watched as the two leaders faced off.
"If this man is half as good as Shepard was, then he may be just what we need to rally the other clans" growled Wrex to Uvenk's face. Uvenk scowled and glanced at Casey who stood with his arms folded and then simply turned and walked away.
"Don't mind him, he knows how much stronger the clans can be when united, he'll come around" Wrex said to Casey as he faced him. "Now you come here saying you are a friend of Shepard's and that you want to help me…what do you get out of it?"
Casey chose his words carefully, knowing he needed to appease Wrex in order to get any farther in his mission, "I want to learn how to fight krogan."
Wrex stared at Casey for a second and then began to laugh and gave him a hard pat on his back, "Then you are in the right place!"
The first few weeks went by quick, Clan Urdnot had a 'mechanic' on site that helped him repair his fighter relatively quickly. While in the workshop Casey had unloaded some unfinished projects he had been working on, hoping with the right materials he could finally complete them. The mechanic said that it would take him some time to get all the equipment, but would do his best.
In the meantime, Casey started assisting Wrex unite all the wayward clans of Tuchanka under Urdnot. Wrex wanted a single unified clan, to finally organize and help the krogan. No one else was going to, so Wrex took it upon himself to save his people.
At first Wrex had Casey infiltrate numerous clan sites and gather information, before Wrex could make any moves, he needed to know all the facts. Early Wrex had given him an old map of all the ancient clan sites. Casey looked it over and noticed one of the markings had been blacked out.
"What happened to this clan?" asked Casey.
Wrex had been busy cleaning his prized Claymore shotgun when he looked over at the digital map. A look washed over his face that Casey couldn't quite figure out.
"That place is a scar on Tuchanka" Wrex said before turning away back to his gun. Casey figured he would ask again another time.
Two months had gone by and so far all Casey had done was gather intel for Wrex. The other krogan had not necessarily taking a liking to him, at least not like the asari maidens did. But there was a mutual respect amongst warriors. In the downtime, Casey sparred with the large aliens; he had found krogan are always sleeping, eating or fighting.
Wrex started to encourage more of his clansmen to fight with Casey, saying that fights were going to start soon among the clans and he needed to be ready.
Wrex eased him into hand to hand combat with krogan, by starting him out one on one. Casey went into the pit and gave it his all, but to no avail. Hard as he tried, Krogan are born to survive anything. Wrex gave tips and pointers on vulnerabilities, but it really came down to krogan being naturally stronger than humans.
As much as Casey hated to admit weakness, he had anticipated this and so had been working on an old design he picked up from when he still was with the Alliance. The concept was to put eezo-assisted actuators in the joints of a specially designed armor. This would strengthen the user tenfold and allow for stronger movement.
In the Alliance the project was still in testing, not being ready for combat for at least a few decades, but Casey had been working on it for some time. Back in the makeshift workshop, he incorporated the joints into a new combat armor. The bulkier design would sacrifice some mobility for stronger movement.
One of the reasons it had not left testing when he acquired the plans was that it left the user in tremendous pain due to the stress on the joints. Casey had nearly perfected the calculations with the eezo amplifiers, but could not fix the pressure it puts on the joints; a necessary inconvenience.
The first time he activated the actuators he almost passed out because of the pain. Every one of his bendable joints throbbed in pain as he breathed hard. He concentrated on everything he had learned about controlling and redirecting pain. But even with his training, he realized he could only have the actuators on for a matter of minutes before the pain was to unbearable.
He began to spar with krogan two or three at time, taking them on in groups. The limited movement was only another obstacle for him to rise above as he learned to use the new strength to his advantage. He hits now staggered his krogan opponents; his kicks put them to the ground.
Casey was proud of the new weapon; even with Alfred reminding him of the danger it put his body in. The AI was concerned, but Casey knew the actuators were only to be used in emergencies. After successfully mastering the new equipment and being able to fend off krogan in combat, Wrex said that it was time to 'persuade' the remaining clans into joining him.
Most of the fights took place in areas where a meeting was set up and things would go bad. Wrex tried as best he could to talk with some of the clan leaders, but not all listened. The fights were normally very quick, between Casey beating some into submission and Wrex using his impressive biotics to weaken them.
"Just remember most of these clans are cutthroat mercenaries anyway, so don't feel too bad bout messing them up a little" Wrex reminded Casey more than once.
It took a few months, but together Casey and Wrex were able to convince a majority of the clans on Tuchanka that Urdot was a saving grace for the krogan. Wrex said now that they had the numbers, in time they would find a cure for the Genophage and create a better culture for the krogan.
They had been riding back from one of their last skirmishes when Wrex stopped the large truck. Casey was busy reading through some data files from Kane Charity.
"Something wrong?" Wrex didn't reply as he unhitched the door and swung himself out of the vehicle. Casey followed, not knowing what was going on. Outside Wrex stood looking out over one of the large deserts on the planet. Casey followed his gaze and saw nothing but rubble. He studied it and realized it was the location of the 'scar' Wrex had mentioned all those months ago.
Wrex stared at the rubble, "Long time ago, a prominent clan was wiped out overnight. Everyone; males, females even the little ones…gone. We came to find out that it was done by one of their own, the chief's son." Wrex then swung his head to look at Casey, "He said he did it to prove how weak they were."
Wrex started to shake his head, "The other clans chiefs got together and took away his family name and declared him Kin-Bane, slayer of brothers and sisters. He fought back, saying anyone who was not strong deserved to die…he was strong, but not stronger than 50 of us."
Casey listened, guessing that this was something no other human had ever heard.
"We didn't kill him…he was left barely alive to remember what he had done. We left him in the desert, don't know if he died out there or what…but it always stayed with me. I was young then and seeing what one twisted person could do to his own family…well there's a reason it's a scar"
The trip back to Clan Urdnot was quiet. The months had been long and arduous, but Casey felt it was all worth it to learn more about the krogan and to help an old friend's friend. Soon after, the day came that Casey felt he needed to go.
Every place that Casey visited, he gained something, be it skills, experience or tools. His stay on Tuchanka taught him the limitations of humans. Even with his training and precision, there are always powers that are stronger; it just depends on how you overcome them.
"Kane, you are a friend amongst Clan Urdnot" Wrex said proudly as he put his three fingered hand out.
"Thank you," Casey replied shaking the hand, "and good luck here Wrex." Casey loaded up the fighter with supplies and prepped it for take-off. He gave one last nod to his new brethren and hovered into the sky.
As he left Tuchanka's atmosphere, Alfred asked, "So where to now Sir?" Casey sat back in the seat and reflected on the past 20 years. He had made a lot of friends and allies, seen more than most will ever see in one lifetime. He had completed what he set out to do; acquire skills and tools from all over the galaxy into one fighting force.
"I think it's time to go home Alfred," Casey took a deep breath, "now the real work begins."