A/N:

Hey guys! Sorry for the late update, again, another bad case of writer's block. So, I've been having a hard time lately thinking as to what path Rodriguez and the guys should take, so I made a poll on my profile for you guys to decide. Anyway, I give you this really short chapter. :)

January 26th 2185 C.E.

Ferris Fields

Staff Lieutenant Sergei Romanoff was in a really big dilemma—scratch that, he was pretty much in a very, very big clusterfuck. Not only did he still not know the reason why the colonists here had mysteriously vanished, but he just had about three days left until the politicians back at the Citadel pulled the plug on this investigation, fearing that their continued presence here would upset all the local governors in the Terminus Systems. The Alliance officer mentally sighed. What a bunch of ass-kissing pussies…

Grabbing a single cigarette out of his shirt pocket, he lighted it with a cheap butane lighter and took one long drag of it. The exhaustion from forty-eight hours of non-stop investigative work was finally taking a huge toll on him. As of right now, they hadn't discovered a single clue as to who did this and why. No bodies, no blood, no DNA, nothing! It's as if they all got up and left this damn settlement without leaving a forwarding address.

With all the current findings so far, and even though he absolutely hated to admit it, he couldn't help but be impressed. Whoever these bastards were, they were really thorough. The only thing they could find here were a couple of impacts from mass accelerator rounds, explosive residue from grenades, and a couple of other things the people here haven't finished in time; like half-eaten dinners, partially washed dishes, and some other typical household stuff that only supported his conclusion of everyone leaving this place in a big damn hurry. Truth be told, he hadn't seen anything like this in all of his years as an investigator in the Alliance, and he'd actually thought he'd already seen them all. Guess I haven't. He thought to himself, taking another drag off his cigarette.

News of the colonists' disappearance here in Ferris Fields had spread like wildfire throughout the entire known galaxy, with the entirety of humanity crying out blood for however did this. At the Citadel, majority of the Council had just dismissed this as another random slaver raid, but representatives from the System Alliance had somehow managed to convince the Big Three (the turian, asari and salarian councilors) to sanction an investigation, with the objective of ascertaining the cause of the settlers' mysterious departure. They didn't agree to it easily, of course (they never do when it came to human affairs), but the human councilor really gave them one hell of an argument to make them go his way. Now, fast forward a few hours later, and here he was, assigned with a team of investigators who were hurriedly sent here to find some answers.

Taking one last drag on his cigarette, he dropped it on the ground and crushed it with his boot while exhaling blue smoke. Even though he still didn't have any concrete proof, he knew it in his gut that this wasn't just another slaver raid; the batarians were never really this systematic in their operations, and it was usually more gruesome and obvious. But this, however, was a complete unknown. And he still had absolutely no idea yet as to what had occurred here. This fucking blows…

"Sir," Looking over his shoulder, he spotted his adjutant; a second lieutenant named Henderson, slowly approaching him. "we got some news about the colonial mainframe."

"What is it?" Romanoff asked brusquely, his bloodshot eyes staring intensely at the younger man, who just gulped audibly and proceeded with his findings.

"According to one of our specialists, there's nothing left there that's going to help us in finding out what happened here, sir." The Russian-born officer just sighed frustratingly while massaging the bridge of his nose.

"Govno," the staff lieutenant cursed in Russian, "please tell me you're kidding."

"Afraid not, sir." Henderson replied, handing him a datapad. "Here, take a look." Grabbing it, Romanoff couldn't help but curse in his native tongue once again. The kid was right; everything had been completely wiped clean: the daily sensor logs, atmospheric data, even the LADAR readings from their new transmitters were gone. The only thing left inside the damn thing was non-relevant data.

"Was the mainframe tampered with?"

"Unknown, sir. But Jason did say it was a strong possibility."

"Alright then," handing the datapad back, the staff lieutenant made his way towards their makeshift HQ, which used to be the colony's head office, with his subordinate in tow. "do we have any preliminary results as to who did this?"

"Well sir," the young officer began explaining, "you see, based on what we've got so far—"

"Do you guys have any or not?" Romanoff rudely cut in, his fatigue now completely taking over. He hadn't meant to snap on the poor kid, but the staff lieutenant was extremely tired, hungry, and under a lot of pressure from the higher-ups lately that he just couldn't think straight. Besides, those idiots at that damned giant space station still couldn't find their heads so far up their goddamn asses that he could just take his service pistol and—let's just take a deep breath and relax. He thought to himself as he exhaled unsteadily, realizing that being grumpy about it wasn't helping matters.

"No sir," Henderson said to him solemnly, his head bowed down in embarrassment. "with all the things that we've got so far, it's still not conclusive enough to base on any known profiles we have."

Accepting the news as best as he could, Romanoff just gave his adjutant a tired smile while waving his hand off to dismiss him; they only had about three days left until this assignment was going to be shut down by the Council, and they were nowhere near close on solving this enigmatic shitstorm.

What the hell happened here? Arriving on the building, he quickly went to the second floor, heading his way to the office he had commandeered from one Patrick Knowles, who is—was—the head of the colony. He sure as hell won't be needing this space anymore. He sadly thought to himself as he took a seat, turning on the terminal his team had installed for him, and started typing a quick report that going to be sent to his superiors on his team's latest findings. Which wasn't really that much to begin with.

God be with those poor bastards, wherever they are…

Don't forget to review, thanks.

-Rookie571