"Jesus Christ."
Pasana uttered the very Human phrase as she and Wrex looked at the corpse. She had been staked out naked in the middle of the alley, held spread eagled on her back by what looked like rivets hammered through her wrists and ankles. Whoever had done this to her had gouged out her eyes, blinding her. But that wasn't the worst of it.
By examining the wide, shallow knife wounds covering the Asari's limbs and abdomen and combining them with the flecks of blue in the puddle of vomit she was lying in, it swiftly became apparent that somebody had cut off strips of her skin and force fed them to her.
Ignoring the mixture of blood and vomit, and the more recent Vorcha nibble marks, Wrex examined the body with the dispassionate eyes of somebody who had seen far worse.
"Eclipse merc. Most likely tortured for intel. Dead six hours tops."
Pasana nodded her head.
"Witness said it was an Asari using green biotics and one of those Blood Pack mutts. Our girl."
He chuckled.
"We're close."
###
The door chimed and Garrus barrelled down the stairs, limbs flailing just a tad too haphazardly to be safe. At the age of eleven he had just entered a growth spurt, appearing gangly and thin as his rate of growth outstripped the speed at which his musculature and carapace could bulk him out. Nevertheless he used his newly elongated limbs to power down the stairs three at a time, almost hyperactively excited as he careened into the door control.
The door hummed open to reveal two hooded figures on the doorstep, long garments concealing their features.
"Uhh ... Who are you?"
The smaller hooded figure spoke up.
"It's us, dummy. Can we come in?"
The figures stepped inside and shed their cloaks, revealing themselves to be Ayi and Lizzie.
"Hey Garrus."
He grinned at her and lightly bounced on the balls of his feet.
"Hey Lizzie. Why are you wearing those big cloaks?"
Ayi replied as she biotically floated Lizzie's suitcase in through the door.
"They're radiation cloaks. Stops your sun from barbecuing us squishy Atavira and Humans. No carapaces, see."
She then turned to Lizzie.
"Have you got everything?"
"Yes."
"Toothbrush and soap?"
"Yes."
"Enough changes of underwear?"
"Ayi ..."
"Okay, I'm going. See you in a week. Have fun."
The Atavira pulled on her cloak again and disappeared into the sun, leaving Lizzie standing in the entry hall with her suitcase.
"Mom and Sol will be home in an hour or so. Do you need help with your case?"
She shook her head.
"I've got it. Wow, your house is really cool."
He beamed at her and waved a talon.
"Here, let me show you around."
###
Alan and Gladian wormed their way through the Citadel's densely populated data network, Gladian absorbing code with amazement.
"Wow! There's just so many of us! Hey, that's Mel, hi Mel, and is that a Geth?"
Alan chuckled at Gladian's immediate excitement as they moved through the hub of the now pan galactic AI network. He wondered how long Gladian would stay as a kid in a candy store when he saw the cold code.
###
Zaeed took the proffered Sharp from the Blue Suns sniper and peered down the scope, ignoring the Salarian's exasperated snort as he adjusted the sights slightly. Snipers always got mad when he messed with their scopes.
He inhaled, then slowly blew out the breath as the crosshairs centred on the Vorcha Pyro's back mounted fuel tank. His finger tightened on the trigger as he nudged his aim down a fraction, then squeezed.
The silenced M96S DMR spat out a single tungsten shard, the bullet propelled at hypersonic speeds right into the unfortunate Vorcha's flame tank. The poor bastard detonated, flaming fuel and singed flesh spattering across the street. Zaeed snorted in amusement and passed the gun along to the next member of the group.
"I wonder when the Vorcha are going to figure out we're behind them."
The Turian woman currently holding the Sharp chuckled as she adjusted the scope mount, making the Salarian squawk in dismay.
"Probably when we all stand up waving flags and dancing the Thessia Twist."
Her shot took the head off a Vorcha Boom-squad and she passed the gun along to Jentha, who flicked one of her deep maroon bangs out of her face before shooting a throat out and passing the rifle back along the line to the Salarian marksman.
"Okay. This round, you have to sing a verse of your anthem before you take the shot."
###
The Batarian freighter arrived in orbit around the American colony of Paranus, its cargo hold containing three hundred US citizens and one hundred Batarian slavers in manacles. Too late. The Hegemony had been certain the Americans were bluffing and they had lost their gamble.
Even as the grovelling captain handed over the ex-slaves and the prisoners CIA and KGB agents hidden throughout Hegemony space moved on to the next phase of the plan. Rebellious slaves suddenly found themselves armed with top quality Volus made weapons, armour and communication equipment. Nobody could prove who supplied the weapons and supplies - after all, the Volus would sell to just about anyone - but nevertheless the result was spectacular.
With their navy gone and their army paralysed the Hegemony was finding out exactly what happens when the guy you shat on all your life gets a gun.
What the rebels lacked in training they made up for in equipment, numbers and dedication. With KGB agents rapidly training a core of tactically and strategically savvy rebel commanders, the initial attacks were co-ordinated by the advanced comm system and jammers available to the rebels, allowing them to co-ordinate their attacks on a planetary scale whereas the Hegemony's comm system was compromised by the jammers, allowing the rebels to listen to, block and even edit orders sent by the army's commanders. The Batarian Civil War was now in full swing.
###
The viciously serrated blade swung at his head, forcing him to duck and move right into the path of a savage double-footed kick. He flew across the room, smacking against the wall and sliding down to the ground.
PLAYER 2 WINS
"Oh, come on! I had you on ten per cent health!"
Garrus chuckled as Lizzie scowled at the game controller in disgust.
"It's because the controller is designed for Turians."
"Sure ..." Garrus drew out the word, relishing every letter as he loaded up the next match, selecting the Salarian Shadow Assassin as his character. "Think you can beat me this time?"
She scrolled through the available characters, eventually settling on the Atavira Forest Commando. Convenient then that the next map was a forest.
###
"Dadda! Dadda!"
Rael picked up Tali, who was reaching imperiously up at him, and set her on his shoulders, much to her delight.
"Dadda! Lunch!"
"You had breakfast an hour ago."
"Hungy!"
"You should have eaten your breakfast then."
"Daddaaaaa!"
"Wait for another couple of hours. Maybe tomorrow you'll remember to eat more of your breakfast."
Tali tugged on his ears and pointed out what was, in her three year old mind, a profound injustice.
"Jack has biscuits."
Rael sighed and plucked his daughter off his shoulders. He had already had this discussion with her several times.
"That's because Jack is a biotic. She can't eat the same food as us and she needs to eat more food than us too, so we give her biscuits."
Tali pouted at him.
"She special."
He sighed and stroked her hair.
"Not special. Just different."
She frowned and poked at his arm with a slender finger.
"She special. She play outside no suit."
"Yes, but the Geth doctors say soon everyone will be able to go outside without suits, at least on Rannoch."
"She funny colour and smell funny."
"Don't say mean things like that, Tali."
There was a long pause.
"Sorry Dadda."
###
Garrus turned the music up louder, the martial rattling of the drums not quite managing to drown out the epic shouting match in the house's atrium. On the hammock slung in the corner, Lizzie looked at the door with wide eyes as Garrus shut off the music player, growling in frustration.
"What's going on?"
He glanced over at her and threw himself down on his bed.
"Dad and Sol have really been snapping each other's spurs these past couple of weeks, ever since they found out Sol has a girlfriend."
"What's so bad about that?"
"The girlfriend part. You know, because Sol is also a girl."
Her eyes flicked to the side momentarily, a little nervous habit of hers whenever she was thinking about something.
"So what? Your dad isn't okay with her being gay?"
"It's not that, it's more that the law isn't okay with it."
"What?"
He rolled over and propped himself up on one elbow.
"It's the law that a Turian can only marry another Turian of the opposite gender, and on Turian planets people don't like it when they have gay or xeno couples. That's why all the Turians who lean that way end up on the Citadel. It's all about being a good Turian, producing children and all that."
"That's stupid. People should be able to marry who they love, no matter who they are."
"I think so too. The problem is Dad doesn't see it that way, and he's got a point. I heard gays get bullied really bad in boot camp and in the army but Sol wants really bad to be a combat medic like Mum."
"Um, does she specifically want to be a combat medic in the Turian Army? Because I just had an idea."