Again, sorry for the late update. My holidays have come to an end, so I can't guarantee frequent updates, but I will keep working on this in my spare moments. Believe me, this wretched franchise occupies the vast majority of my thoughts and I doubt I'd be able to dislodge it even if I wanted to, which I don't. So however long it is, understand that I haven't forgotten it. On with the story.
Private Investigations
"I didn't kill your comrade." Shepard sighed, stepping out from behind his cover now that the malcontents' violent tendencies, if not their suspicions, had been quieted. "Why would I? I'm here to complete a mutually beneficial transaction and be on my way. Why would I complicate the issue?"
His accuser began to reply, but was forestalled by Katarn's intervention. "The human is right! He had no reason to kill any of us-and the point is irrelevant; he was with me, reviewing the data during the power cut." Faced with this, the batarian gaped briefly, before regaining control of his faculties and ducking his head in embarrassment.
Shepard forced himself not to react to Katarn's deception any more than to incline his head towards him in a grave gesture of acknowledgement. Why had he lied? From his perspective, it wasn't impossible that Shepard was responsible for his follower's murder, and there had not yet been any real investigation which would throw doubt on Thaddaeus' guilt. It was possible that as far as Katarn was concerned, it didn't matter whether Shepard was responsible or not; the deal with the Alliance was too important to be threatened by this incident, which was insignificant by comparison.
Then again, it was possible that Katarn had testified as to Shepard's innocence as he himself was the guilty party, and by defending the human he also gave himself an alibi. But why kill his own man? That made no sense with the information Shepard had at that moment in time; and in any case, it would be safer to frame Shepard with the guilt and close the case than to give himself a mere alibi and leave the investigation open. No, it was far more likely to be one of the other malcontents. Or another party entirely...
"If you want to know who the culprit was, we're going to need more information. Blind hypotheses will get us nowhere, and blind us to other possibilities with preconceived bias. Show me the corpse."
"The one who found it will take us to it and tell us what they saw," Katarn asserted. "The rest of you will return to your posts." Grudgingly, they complied, until they were left with a batarian who had been left at the back of the crowd, isolated, leaning against the wall almost casually. Thinking back, Shepard had seen him positioned similarly during Katarn's earlier address. He pushed himself into a standing position, then jerked his head towards one of the corridors branching off of the communal room before leading the way.
Rachak had been an irritating, prejudiced and narrow-minded specimen, judging by Shepard's observations of him, so he was disappointed to see that the batarian had been fortunate enough to be given an easy death. A long slash grinned beneath his jaw, opening key blood vessels as well as his airway. Given the lack of any evidence of a struggle, it was a safe assumption that he'd been taken by surprise in the dark, and the cut had been a quick one, leading to an equally swift demise.
Shepard stood over the corpse, memorising details and cataloguing what data he could without interfering with the evidence. Analysing it with the aid of the thermal filters in his hood, he found that the body still held a measurably higher temperature than that of its surroundings, which was significant given the difference between a live batarian's temperature and that of the interior of the base; a corpse would not remain noticeably warm for long. Shepard judged the time of death to be around the middle of the blackout; unless someone had been remarkably fortunate in their timing, the purpose of the event was to facilitate the killing.
The attack had likely been premeditated; instigating a power cut would take some planning in a paramilitary base, even one of this calibre, unless the perpetrator was someone with real talent. Satisfied that he had exhausted the potential use of sight alone, Shepard squatted down by the corpse to begin the next phase of data collection. Rigor mortis had obviously not yet set in; despite the differences between human and batarian anatomy, without modern chemical interference it would take hours for it to begin.
There was nothing on the body that could indicate the identity of the killer, which didn't really mean much. In a strike where the antagonist had the element of surprise, they wouldn't have to be a professional to leave little in the way of evidence. Shepard sighed, frustration flickering across his face beneath the hood before he straightened to regard the victim's commander. "Possible motives?" he asked laconically.
Katarn shook his head, the batarian equivalent of vexation on his face as he looked at the corpse of his subordinate. "Aside from the obvious..." he muttered, just loud enough for Shepard to hear but beyond the range of their sole witness. Shepard understood what he meant: a traitor in their midst. It didn't require much thought to understand the timing, either; Shepard's arrival and the prospect of a deal that armed the dissidents with guns and the Alliance with information posed a clear threat to the Hegemony. The key question, if that was indeed the case, was whether they had already contacted their superiors with news of the human's presence. If so, Shepard might have failed already.
"And you found him exactly like this?" He demanded intently of the other batarian, who had been standing back behind his leader. He looked to Katarn, who nodded at him impatiently, whilst Shepard's face soured beneath his headgear.
I wonder if they'd be more compliant if I actually started killing them?
"Yes. I reactivated the base's power and was returning to my post at the long range sensors when I found him here. Then, without touching the corpse, I raised the alarm and made my way to the assembly point." He swallowed, though not without difficulty. "I can see why I'd be a suspect, but I'd never act to jeopardise our chances against the Hegemony. They killed my family." Shepard looked to Katarn for confirmation of the story. He nodded uncertainly.
"You," The human gestured at the more likely suspect "will stay with Katarn, who will keep you out of mischief. We still need more data," he said, now addressing the ex-SIU, who nodded in agreement, although he didn't seem pleased at having his authority usurped by what his culture still invariably viewed as an inferior species, and at best a necessary evil.
They spread out, the two batarians moving together in the opposite direction to Shepard, sweeping the environment for anything that could be used as evidence. Shepard frequently flicked back and forth between infra-red and visible light to ensure he didn't miss anything. Despite his truly meticulous examination of his surroundings, internally, his mind was racing, devising possible scenarios and assessing their likelihood.
Then, one of them gave him pause. It didn't necessarily have to be the case that there was only one culprit, obviously, or that if there was only one they were without allies. There could even be a schism between two rival factions amongst the dissidents; pro and anti human. And right now, he didn't have his eyes on any of the batarians, who were spread around the base and potentially unmonitored. He wasn't even watching the two nearest him, and there was nothing to prevent them collaborating, or one of them from killing the other-
And once again, the power to the base died. Shepard swore aloud, now certain that it wasn't a coincidence, and simultaneously drew a Karpov whilst activating the infra-red filters on his recon hood. A shout forestalled a fresh analysis of his surroundings, prompting him instead to rush back towards the two batarians searching the area behind him. He found Katarn alone, scrambling to his feet.
"What happened?" Shepard demanded tersely, covering the apparently blind batarian with his sidearm, just in case.
"We were looking for evidence. As soon as the lights died, he got the jump on me, managed to steal my flashlight before he ran off. He must have had his eyes shut to adjust before it happened, or he would have been at the same disadvantage as me."
"We have a winner." Shepard muttered, just loud enough for Katarn to hear. As far as Shepard could tell, the batarian didn't react in the slightest to his conclusion. "Which way did he go?"
Katarn shook his head. "I didn't see; he couldn't have gotten past you, but there are two routes he still could have taken, and each of them forks quite quickly."
Shepard took a calculated risk, and drew his other Karpov, before switching on its LED flashlight attachment, and pressing it into Katarn's hand. "You take that route," he said, gesticulating, "and I'll follow the other one. See if you can get in touch with your people and get the power back on, then get them looking for him, too. I'd prefer him alive if at all possible, so we can ascertain the extent of the damage he's done." Katarn took the weapon and nodded.
Shepard stood his ground, unwilling to turn his back on the batarian now that he was armed, regardless of the fact that he was the closest thing the N7 had to an ally in this debacle. The ex-SIU seemed no more inclined to trust the human. Shepard was aware that every second that slipped by was another few metres between them and their quarry, their real adversary, or so it appeared.
Exhaling swiftly in frustration, he took a couple of steps back away from the batarian leader, and was somewhat relieved to see him mirror the movement, before turning away to run off along his assigned route. Shepard turned his own back and put a wall between himself and the batarian as quickly as was feasibly possible, before switching his attention to the enemy in front rather than the enemy of an enemy behind.
Karpov held in an unwavering two-handed grip, Shepard sped silently through the base's corridors, ensuring that he made no noise that could either reveal him to his prey or drown out evidence of his quarry's flight.
There. A quiet scraping, intermingled with soft, drawn-out thuds, the sort of noise made by an amateur trying to move quickly but quietly. Shepard thought for a moment, then holstered his sidearm, and activated the prototype cloaking device, before moving still faster in an attempt to catch up to the fleeing batarian, and hopefully find out what exactly he was up to, and how much damage he had already done, without having to waste time sorting through the lies an interrogation would drag out of him.
The N7 rounded a corner, and finally caught sight of the batarian, hurrying away from him and glancing behind him at frequent intervals. Shepard's visor vibrated softly by his ear at such a low frequency that no-one out of contact with it would know that it had occurred. It was warning him that his cloaking device was close to overheating its power source, after little more than a minute.
Suppressing the urge to curse aloud, Shepard dropped back behind the corner a mere moment before the device failed, and he re-materialised. The device was impressive, and obviously had a number of possible uses, but ideally it needed tinkering with to improve efficiency. Shepard leaned around the corner ever so slightly, and watched the batarian leave his line of sight, before continuing his silent pursuit.
To their credit, once they'd discovered how quickly the cloaking device would overheat its power source, the technicians working on it rigged it up to one that would cool within a minute, allowing for reasonably frequent use of the device-which was certainly fortunate for Shepard, when the lights came back on. The batarian stopped, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the change in the lighting of the environment, then rushed on, apparently discarding haste entirely, probably with the realisation that all surveillance devices would now be fully functional.
As such, he reached what was apparently his destination within moments of the base's power being restored; his own post, the observation post that held the readouts for the long-range sensors that were intended to provide early warning in the event of the cell's discovery by the Hegemony.
Now what do you want here? Shepard wondered internally, cautiously peering around the corner into the room, forewarned by the fact that all the noises associated with the batarian's flight had ceased. The fugitive was frantically entering commands into a terminal, glancing up occasionally at the screens in front of him. One of them flickered, and brought up the visuals from the base's internal surveillance devices. Instantly, Shepard activated his cloaking device, and took the opportunity to slip into the room and close on his quarry. He was muttering under his breath, in such a low voice that the words, repeated in a mantra, were practically indiscernible.
"-must find the human, must find the human..."
Shepard frowned, lingered in the shadows in a corner whilst he pondered what exactly the batarian wanted with him, before deciding that speculation was pointless and unnecessary when he had access to the alien in order to ask him. He would come to regret his hesitation.
He started to in mere moments, as a matter of fact, when, even as he stepped forward and reached to deactivate his cloak, a gunshot rang out, and the sentient that held his interest had the walls and screens painted with matter that ideally should have remained in his head. The hardware for the terminals was caught by an unfortunate ricochet, resulting in the screens going blank. Whirling to find the source of the shot, Shepard saw one of the other members of the cell holding a pistol, his features contorted with anger. Shepard shifted out of his line of sight before deactivating the cloak, keen to hold on to the advantage the device gave him.
"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?" He demanded roughly from immediately behind the killer. The batarian spun quickly, startled into raising his weapon. Shepard caught his arm mid-motion, and wrenched it into a painful lock before removing the pistol from the alien's grasp, and striking him across the face with it.
"Katarn instructed that the traitor be stopped from doing any more damage." He stated defiantly, with the strength of conviction. Shepard very nearly killed him there and then, but instead settled for another blow, this time a savage knee to the killer's midriff that left him curled up on the floor, his breathing hoarse.
"And that he be taken alive, idiot." The human all but spat. "How else do you suppose we'll find out what he was up to?" Shepard turned away from the dissident and strode across to the fugitive's corpse. There would have been no mystery in how the alien had died, even if Shepard hadn't been there to witness it. However, the creature's death no longer held any interest for the N7; he needed to know what the batarian had been trying to do in the moments preceding it.
The terminals would give no indication, and whilst there were alternatives, he'd need to know exactly what the victim had been accessing to avoid spending hours or possibly even days trawling through the contents of the base's computer network by himself. And he would do it by himself if he had to; Katarn and his people were most definitely to be regarded as untrustworthy. The dead alien's omnitool provided a reasonable place to start, although again Shepard knew he'd prefer to examine its contents in private. He ensured the cameras couldn't see what he was doing with a quick, casual seeming glance before ejecting the microcomputer's chip and pocketing it, before performing a quick general search of the corpse.
It revealed a lump within the batarian's clothing, the cause of which Shepard removed from a concealed inner pocket. He stared at it, partially in disbelief, partially in vexation. And he could now make a pessimistic guess at what he would find in the victim's history, and what the long-range sensors would pick up. What he held changed the nature of the events here, and his task, quite monumentally.
The object he had found was a tracer beacon.