Chapter 4:
Target: Illium Slave Trade
Back on Illium and already wanting to leave.
Ventius sat in his apartment, awaiting orders from the higher ups or the Citadel Council relayed through an operator and handed down to him.
"Control to Spectre Ventius. Assignment is in. Code 108." The operator relayed to him.
"Understood Control. Ventius out."
Slavers. The slave trade may be legal on Illium, but the Citadel Council was secretly working to bring down the slave trading organization. It was sneaky and they were doing things behind the local government, but as long as the job couldn't be traced back to them, the council was ok with the jobs continuing.
Ventius was the embodiment of discreet. Well at least in his own mind he was.
He headed down to the Eternity bar, as that was probably where he would get information about Illium's slave trade.
Many of the slave transactions occurred in the bar, so he might get lucky and catch them before they can even transfer the funds. Or he could wait until after the transaction and bring down both the buyer and the seller.
It wasn't called slavery on Illium. They preferred to use the term "indentured servitude", but it was just a nicer way of saying slavery.
"What can I do for you today?" the bartender asked Ventius as he sat down at the bar.
"Information on the "indentured services" going on around here." Ventius replied shaking his head when the bartender offered him a drink.
"So, you're a Spectre I see. Thought the Council had an arrangement with the Illium government concerning the "trade" here?" The bartender asked him.
"They do. This is off the books." Ventius replied back.
"Oh. I see. Well if you're looking for an "indentured servant", that Volus is the one you want to see." The bartender said motioning a finger towards the volus sitting at one of the back tables.
Ventius nodded to the bartender and left a few credits on the bar as a "thanks for the information".
"Excuse me. I am here to see you about obtaining an indentured servant." Ventius calmly said to the volus.
"So, you wish to acquire an indentured servant. Any certain skills you need them to have?" the volus asked him.
"No." Ventius quickly answered, looking to see if there were any bodyguards or hidden associates of the volus around, just in case things got out of hand.
"Well then. I do have one here on Illium I can sell to you. Well their contract anyways. This isn't slavery you know." The volus was saying.
Yeah, not slavery alright. Be it their contracts or their physical selves, it was all still slavery.
The volus motioned for a Krogan to leave and bring the indentured servant with him.
"Has a skill set you might find desirable. Knowledgeable in AI work and very good with anything mechanical." The volus was saying as the Krogan led a Quarian into the room.
"Introduce yourself." The volus said to the Quarian.
"Lenak vas Moreh." The Quarian introduced himself as.
"Ventius Gallus." He replied to the Quarian.
"Good. Now….." the volus began to say.
"You never introduced yourself." Ventius said, hoping to obtain the volus' name so that when they parted ways, he could track him down and find out where the suppliers of these indentured servants were.
"Dulenaar." The volus replied.
Dulenaar, he had to remember that name for later.
"So, this indenture servant's contract is worth…hmmmm….5000 credits." The volus replied, grinning as he did.
"5000 it is." Ventius said, pulling out the amount.
The volus face turned from a large grin to a look of surprise and dumbfounded.
"Well….I.I.I.I…all right fine. Here is his contract. Now if our business here is done, I have somewhere to be." Dulenaar said as he got up from his seat and left with the Krogan following close behind.
"So what would you have me do?" the Quarian asked him.
Ventius turned to the Quarian, almost forgetting he was there.
"I release you from you contract. Now go." Ventius said as he began to leave the room.
"But…..I…" the Quarian began saying.
"Return to the Migrant Fleet where you belong." Ventius said as he left.
"Control this is Ventius. A Quarian will arrive at the spaceport within a few minutes. Return him to the Migrant Fleet." Ventius said over the comm.
"Understood Spectre Ventius." The operator replied back.
The volus was getting on a shuttle to leave the main hub.
No more on Illium, hmmph! Knew you were lying through your teeth the moment you started speaking.
The shuttle was heading towards a large skyscraper with a large sign saying, Dantius Tower Two.
An asari named Nassana used to own the place and not too long ago, had been assassinated. Rumors said it was a drell who had done it.
That was not what was important right now. It seemed that this was now being used as the central hub for all of the slave trade on Illium.
Follow the volus and he would find who was in charge of the operation.
Ventius exited his own shuttle and began to make his way to the entrance.
"Excuse me, but do you have an appointment with us today?" a young asari woman asked.
She must be the receptionist. The place had been finished a number of months ago, so it wasn't the unfinished pile of mess it was when Nassana had run the place.
"If I were you, I would take what I could and get out of here. Don't want you to get hurt, do we?" He said to the young asari.
She looked into his eyes and knew he was being sincere and that he was telling the truth about something potentially going to happen.
She grabbed what she could and ran to the nearest shuttle out of there, as Ventius took out his sniper rifle and attached a silencer to the barrel.
A guard walked out from one of the side offices on his way to the elevator.
Ventius lifted his sniper rifle and shot the guard, sending him over the railing in the middle of the first floor, down to the lower levels.
An employee was leaving another office as Ventius grabbed him and quietly brought him to the ground.
"Who owns this place?" Ventius asked the employee.
"Umm…umm…." The employee was stuttering.
"Spit it out already!" Ventius shouted at the employee.
"A Krogan named Turag. He is on the top floor. His office is over the large bridge and through the steel doors. Please don't kill me!" the employee was blurting out as a way to save his own skin.
Ventius picked him up and shoved him towards the front entrance.
He then picked up his rifle and moved on, heading into the elevator.
Top floor it is, he thought as he pressed the elevator button.
The elevator began to rise up a number of floors, but began to slow down as it reached the 13th floor.
"Damn!" Ventius said as he lifted himself up towards the elevator ceiling and held himself up.
The elevator doors opened and a number of guards walked in.
Just great. Going to have to find a way to quietly eliminate them all without attracting any attention, he thought to himself as he began trying to formulate a plan of action.
He reached into his belt and found a flash grenade.
He pulled out the pin and dropped it into the middle of the guards.
Before they could react, the grenade went off, blinding and distorting the guards and Ventius in the process.
Ventius eyes were blurred and he could barely see anything, but the same went for the guards. He drew his pistol and fired down at the unsuspecting guards.
The guards quickly fell to the rain of gunfire being fired down at them.
Ventius dropped down from the ceiling when all of the guards were finished off, just as the elevator doors opened to the 19th floor.
Not quite the top floor, but it would have to do.
Ventius stepped out, redrawing his sniper rifle as he crouched down into a sneaking position and began to move out into the 19th floor.
It looked like this was where many of the indentured servants were kept until they were either sold or if they couldn't find a buyer, the person was "sent away" from there, meaning they were most likely killed.
Ventius saw the volus walking in front of the, what were most likely cell doors, looking for the next "indentured servant" he could sell.
Ventius snuck up behind him and hit him in the back of the head with is gun, knocking him unconscious.
He placed handcuffs on him and tossed him into one of the cells.
A guard came around the corner and Ventius quickly put a round in him before moving on.
There was a service elevator at the end of the hall, which most likely led to the top floor where Turag was.
The elevator was being guarded by 5-6 guards and a number of mechs.
"Let's see what we have here." Ventius said as he looked around to see if there was anything he could use to his advantage.
He took note of a loose ceiling panel just above the guards, a fire extinguisher on the wall and a grenade with a loose pin on one of the guard's belts.
Three shots was all he needed.
He fired the first shot which hit the fire extinguisher, blowing it open and disorienting the guards.
He then shot the ceiling panel which fell on the mechs, crushing them under the weight.
He took the final shot, hitting the pin off of the grenade, where the explosion finished off the already disoriented guards.
The service elevator was now clear, as Ventius entered it bringing him to the top floor where he could deal with Turag.
The elevator doors opened and Ventius entered the office where Turag and a number of guards stood with guns drawn.
"Knew you were Spectre the moment you spoke to Dulenaar. He told me about you. The Quarian was lucky you tipped off the Alliance or we would have surely put him down before he could even think about leaving Illium. But no matter. You are here now and I think I would rather have your head hanging on my wall than some nobody Quarian." Turag said as he pulled out a shotgun.
"Are you sure you want to do that?" Ventius asked as he lifted his sniper rifle up from his side and pointed it at Turag.
"Yeah I'm sure." Turag said as he shot a round towards Ventius.
He rolled out of the way and shot a round of his own, striking Turag just below the stomach.
Turag held the wound a collapsed as the guards began firing on Ventius.
Ventius fired off a few rounds, hitting one of the guards, but more reinforcements came out of the service elevator.
"Ventius to control. Need assistance at Dantius Tower Two. Heavy resistance." Ventius shouted over the comm.
"Understood Spectre Ventius. Sending in a gunship now to assist." The operator replied.
Ventius looked out the window behind Turag's desk, seeing an Alliance gunship moving in towards the tower.
It began firing a large arsenal of rounds at the increasing number of guards in Turag's office, bringing them down with ease.
The pilot saluted Ventius and flew away from the wreckage and carnage left behind.
The local authorities were moving in to clean up the scene and investigate.
"Control. Have the local authorities release all prisoners. Minus the cell with the volus Dulenaar inside. Have them transfer him into Alliance custody." Ventius said over the comm.
"Understood Spectre Ventius. Return to your apartment and await further orders." The operator responded as Ventius left the scene.