Vrack was at a loss for what to do. He had thought it would be simple hit, take the owner out and move on to the next job, but he had botched the hit so bad he ended up taking the whole gun shop, including the customers, hostage. The middle-aged krogan ran a hand over his face, unsure of what to do next.
Vrack was a large krogan, his red hide slowly starting to fade to a deep shade of brown with each passing year. Nearly 700 years old, he was starting to consider retirement from being a mercenary. The clanless krogan had once been a proud member of 'Urdnot', though he was exiled after killing another member in a fit of rage. Dishonorably, he was forced to flee Tuchanka seeing as no other clan, now aware of his actions, would even consider letting him join. His violent outbursts, coupled with his age, drove him toward being a mercenary as he got to do what he was best at; killing.
Soon after Vrack had taken everyone in the shop hostage, he took the owner, Rahla, to the back and finished his job, despite the fact that he now had an even worse situation to deal with. Rahla was an older turian, whose past had finally caught up with him. Vrack hadn't taken it easy on the turian either. A simple gunshot to the head was too quick, and now that Vrack had an even worse situation on his hands, he had a lot of anger that he took out on the turian before finishing the job with a shotgun blast to the chest. By the time he was dead, he was completely unrecognizable as a turian. His face was destroyed with bruises, cuts, bashed-in areas of his skull, and chunks of flesh ripped from his face. His mid-section was entirely blown in half, coating the walls with blood and gore. Vrack was one crazy, sick son of a bitch when he was pissed off.
There were five hostages total that Vrack had rounded up inside the emporium. Three were three Salarians, one turian, and one human. The human particularly, with his wanna-be badass attitude, attempted to take on the krogan. It didn't end well for the human, resulting in a broken arm, a shattered kneecap and likely multiple fractures to his skull. The other customers in the store were wisely less defiant to the krogan's demands, obeying quickly and without a word said. He was keeping them in the storage room to the right of his current position, so if anyone did come through the back, they would be unable to see them, instead greeted to the sight of an infuriated, unstable krogan.
Vrack hated humans, and the defiance of the one he'd neutralized only about ten minutes ago reminded him why. As far as he was concerned, all humans were arrogant morons, trying to force their place into the galaxy as a species higher above the others. Turians were no better, with their racist ranks running most of C-Sec, and their "we-know-everything-and-more" mindset only making them come off as idiotic jackasses. Vrack had absolutely no problem letting one stupid turian or human taint his opinion on the species as a whole.
Glancing out one of the windows, Vrack noted that the leader of the C-Sec Squad outside had positioned snipers on top of roofs on buildings opposite the Weapon Emporium. In addition, the two turians that were standing next to him were now nowhere to be found. Growing a bit apprehensive, and suspecting he had sent them to infiltrate the emporium, Vrack clutched his shotgun with a death grip, before turning to face the doorway leading to the back exit, waiting for anyone foolish enough to come charging in, telling him to drop his weapons and surrender.
Garrus and Chellick were now at the back of the Weapon Emporium, pistols at the ready. All that was stopping them from throwing a flash bang in and storming the place was the radio order from Pallin. Chellick was tense, but ready for anything. Garrus, on the other hand, while a bit nervous, was also becoming excited. This was the action he'd longed for, and once the nervousness of 'this is really happening' passed, he was ready.
The two glanced at one another, knowing exactly what the other was thinking. The anticipation was almost unbearable, but the two neglected to think that Pallin could call the infiltration attempt off, making their current thoughts entirely useless. Still, they were mentally aware and ready for anything. The seconds felt long though, but they refused to let their guard down.
"Garrus, Chellick, go! Move in!"
The order was barked over the radio quickly, and it took both Garrus and Chellick a moment to realize they had just been given the go-ahead. But once they were aware they now had their order, their C-Sec training kicked in. Garrus and Chellick took up opposite positions against the wall around the back door. Chellick held up his three fingers, and slowly counted down. Garrus removed one of his flash bang grenades, and as soon as Chellick lowered his last finger, he swiftly turned and kicked the door in. In quick succession, Garrus threw the grenade in. A few moments passed before a flash of white engulfed the back room, and the C-Sec Officers stormed in, guns ready to fire.
The turian duo quickly glanced around at the back room. A few shelves were stocked with boxes of either unused items or new items that were not currently on the shelves or gun racks yet. There was no opposition in this room, but through the open doorway stood a krogan, wearing an agitated expression on his face and wielding a shotgun. Garrus and Chellick quickly ran for the walls opposite the doorway for cover, but the krogan's trigger finger was quicker than their sprint forward. A shotgun blast tore a bit of the wall away, and hit Chellick. Luckily, his shields absorbed most of the impact from the shot, allowing him to safely reach cover.
Vrack growled when he saw the turian still alive, and proceeded to kneel behind the counter, aiming his shotgun above the makeshift cover and firing another blast blindly toward the doorway, tearing off a bit of the wall, this time on Garrus's side. The krogan would repeat this every ten seconds or so to keep the tension up and prevent them from attempting to enter the room.
Chellick stole a glance at Garrus after the krogan fired again. Neither one of them wanted to risk going into the room, but the krogan wouldn't stop until they were dead, or he could find a safe escape route. Garrus quickly gave a nod and pointed to himself, then the doorway. It was safer for him to risk it, Chellick's shields were already dangerously low and Garrus was the better aim of the two.
Chellick pulled out a flash bang grenade, and after a few seconds, tossed it into the main area of the emporium where Vrack was. The grenade moved quickly to the side of the counter opposite the krogan, and after a second of hesitation and silence, detonated. White consumed the room for a split second, and then normal color returned to the room, followed by Garrus charging into the area with his pistol aimed at the spot where Vrack was.
Vrack knew what the turians were doing. Being a mercenary, he could easily distinguish between a military-grade flash bang, and an explosive grenade. When he saw that it was a flash bang, he simply kept his head facing the opposite way, and as soon as he heard the flash bang detonate, took off to the storage room where the hostages were. He moved quickly, and reached the storage room just as Garrus entered the main room.
Garrus moved steadily toward the spot where he was sure the krogan was, but as he rounded the counter corner, he quickly discovered that he was gone. Chellick entered the room, and turned to face the storage entrance, only to see nothing there.
"What the hell-"Chellick started, but just as he had turned away from the storage room entrance, Vrack appeared. One arm held his shotgun, extended and aimed at the turians, the other was clenched around a salarian hostage's neck, using him as a human shield. Both of the turians raised their guns, ready to fire.
"Drop the hostage!" Chellick shouted in a commanding tone, training his aim directly on the krogan's head.
Vrack gave a small chuckle. "You must think I'm a damn fool." He retorted in a sarcastic yet threatening tone.
Garrus remained silent, but kept his gun on the krogan. He wanted to take the shot, he knew he would hit the krogan in the head and kill him, but C-Sec Protocol clearly stated he was forbidden to shoot with a hostage in the way.
"Last chance, krogan! Drop the hostage!" Chellick shouted even louder.
This time Vrack didn't respond, but waited a few seconds and then fired his shotgun directly at Chellick. Chellick fell backwards, the shot completely obliterating what was left of his shields, and then nailing him in the upper right shoulder, sending him flying backwards onto the hard ground. The krogan quickly shoved the salarian forward and took off to the back of the storage room.
"Chellick!" Garrus shouted, quickly moving to the side of his fallen comrade. Chellick coughed, the shot had penetrated his armor, though Garrus couldn't tell how bad it was. Chellick raised his left arm, pointing to the storage room.
"Go!" He mustered, before falling back, unconscious. Garrus sighed, and then picked up his pistol, quickly moving into the storage room, giving chase to the krogan mercenary.
As Garrus entered the storage room, he looked around to see four hostages on the ground, all tied up except for one, a human. He was bruised, bloody, and unconscious. Garrus sighed, before looking up. The back exit to the storage room was open. If he hurried, he might still catch the krogan. He ran towards the back exit, the cries of the hostages densely muffled by the gags in their mouths.
Charging out of the exit, Garrus turned around and quickly surveyed the alley he was now in. At first, he saw nothing. Then, upon a second glance over his right shoulder, he saw the hump of a krogan moving through a crowd of people on a walkway. Garrus wasted no time, and resumed the chase, pistol in hand.
The walkway was unusually packed, but it wasn't without reason. A large celebration of the anniversary of the discovery of the Citadel was currently taking place. Several observers clogged the walkways, staring at the large vid screen that was currently playing a short about how the Citadel was founded
."The perfect way to disappear.!" Thought Vrack, before moving through the wave of observers, sure he was going to lose the C-Sec Officer. Virtually every species was here celebrating, though the asari easily outnumbered the others. Not without good reason as the asari were the first to discover the Citadel.
Garrus attempted to navigate his way through the mass of people, but it was simply too crowded. Swiftly, he managed to maneuver his way to a main aisle where people could move from one side of the celebration area to the other. He jumped aboard a piece of large railing, big enough for him to keep his balance on. He moved steadily, before reaching the end of the railing and scouting the area out. Confused observers remained silent as the turian placed one foot in front of the other, as if he was preparing to jump, his eyes scanning over the crowd of people. Then he saw the krogan.
Vrack was towards the back of the crowd, with nobody around him. Garrus seized the opportunity, and raised his pistol, firing three shots in the general direction of the krogan. However, he did so with one-hundred percent confidence in his aiming ability, certain there was no risk of harming any observers. As such, once he fired, the crowd of observers transformed into a sea of panic as everyone began running, in fear for their lives. Important attendees of the celebration followed, abandoning their seats and taking off running. Garrus saw the krogan panic, and he quickly jumped off the railing to give chase, landing perfectly on his two feet before hurrying after the mercenary.
Now that the sea of people was broken up, though still in a frenzy, he found it a tad easier to navigate through it. Just as he reached the spot where the krogan was, he spotted Vrack, running for his life. Garrus raised his pistol, and was a mere second away from pulling the trigger when he was suddenly tackled to the ground by the celebration's security.
One of the security guards, a turian, pried the pistol from Garrus's clutch. The other two held him firmly on the ground. Garrus somehow managed to shake them off, and he proceeded to stand up, pointing to his uniform in anger.
"I'm C-Sec!" He shouted. How could the guards have not seen the uniform he was wearing? He felt like cursing and insulting them, but managed to hold his turian security guard that had seized his pistol was now aiming it at him, but slowly lowered it. Garrus, now pissed off, snatched it back and turned, but the krogan mercenary was long gone. He sighed, and looked to the ground, placing his hands on his knees and frowning in disappointment.