Chapter 4: Ambassador's Residence

Garrus forwarded the message to the Executor along with his report, which he labeled as URGENT. Then, realizing he was already in a market, he decided now was as good a time as any to purchase some ammo mods. As the mods were universal with all standard Council weaponry and easy to add and remove from all guns, he decided to buy several of the best ones he could find and modify the rounds of all his weapons. He placed an incendiary mod on his sniper rifle so it would be better for piercing armor, a disruptor mod on his assault rifle as he figured that it would have a good chance of giving him an advantage against Protoform and an anti-personnel mod on his pistol for the same reason. Then he went off to pursue the ambassador.

After a quick check of his omnitool, Garrus knew that the day had ended for most of the officials in the Presidium District, and so the ambassador would, most likely, be at his home, which was a few streets away from the embassies. Garrus took a Transit car from the Tayseri Ward marketplace over to a street corner near the ambassador's residence, and calibrated his guns on the way.

The building was unremarkably ostentatious, like every other building in the Presidium. It was grand and uniformly Prothean, with shielded balconies to prevent people from falling over the side, or breaking in. The windows appeared to be the same material used in spaceships and probably did not open, and if they did, they were likely shielded as well. The roof extended beyond the reach of the mass effect fields that kept the atmosphere within the Citadel. Garrus imagined there was also cameras that had already warned the ambassador of his presence.

His omnitool notified him of a new message from the Executor informing him that he was to bring in the ambassador for questioning. Of course he was to bring the ambassador for questioning, Garrus knew the obvious reaction to evidence of breaking the Citadel Conventions. He was also to wait for backup, but Garrus did not want the ambassador to have time to fortify his home. Also, he was sure he could bring him in himself.

The Prothean walls were blast proof and the door was reinforced, like every door in the Citadel. Even Protoform, whose massive strength had rendered personal shields and all but the best armor pointless, could not tear through the structure, just merely leave some impressive cosmetic damage before tiring and leaving to find an easier meal. But the door was also electronic like every door in the Citadel, which meant it was vulnerable to hacking. And Garrus had become quite good at hacking since he became a spectre.

After hacking the surprisingly easy door, Garrus entered the richly furnished foyer, and knew something was wrong. The foyer, the three grand staircases that flanked the front and sides of the foyer, the unshielded balconies of the upper floor, the side rooms, were all without movement. Garrus immediately became suspicious as he had never known a wealthy Presidium dweller's foyer to ever be completely empty. There were always some servants at work. And the door was far too easy.

Garrus's scanner registered some unusual activity from the top of the front stairs and immediately dove to the left behind a staircase. Just as he hit the ground, the unmistakable sound of rapidly fired rounds making impacts filled the room. Garrus shields flickered from shrapnel. He looked back and saw tiny bits of metal stuck to the floor and holes torn through the grand furniture from the ricochets.

Garrus glanced out from behind cover to where the shots came from and saw a ceiling mounted turret at the top of the front staircase. He ducked back down as it fired towards the general area of his head. Motion sensing, Garrus thought as he pulled out his assault rifle, he'd have to be quick. He readied his omnitool with an overload and fired it towards the far end of the room without breaking cover. As the turret fired at the projectile, Garrus jumped up and shot the turret with his rifle. The disruptor rounds made short work of the turret which fried after taking a quick burst of fire.

Garrus heard some shouts and he ducked back down behind the staircase. He checked his omnitool for the positions of the voices and snuck a peek in the general direction. The upper floor now had five batarians who wore the standard armor of the Batarian Hegemony military. Manufactured by Batarian State Arms, recalled Garrus as he examined their equipment though his visor. He could see that they were all armed with rifles of their own and that their armor ranged from medium to heavy, with one lightly armored. Their rifles were raised so Garrus felt he had reason to assume that they could not be reasoned with. He put away his assault rifle and pulled out his sniper rifle.

Hidden where he was, he examined each of the batarians through the scope. One raised his omnitool and spoke into it and Garrus heard the ambassador's reply come out of it, "Well, find him! We cannot allow the Council to know-"

Bam! Garrus fired and the head of the batarian who was speaking to the omnitool sported a dark hole and red was spattered upon the wall. The batarian fell and Garrus quickly lined up a shot with another batarian before dodging back further into cover.

The remaining batarians soon began firing around his former position and two rushed down the staircase to find him. Garrus swapped his sniper rifle for his assault rifle and circled around the underside of the staircase. He saw two batarians were facing away from him and opened fire. The shields crumpled and within seconds, so did the batarians.

As Garrus dodged back into cover, a shot rang out from above. Sharp pain blossomed in Garrus's right shoulder. He could still move his trigger finger and found the final batarian on the upstairs balcony and opened fire. Incredible pain want through his shoulder and his shots went wild in the general direction of the batarian. Garrus blinked away the tears and looked around for the batarian.

After several moments, Garrus stepped out of cover and stormed up the front staircase. He swept the immediate area for movement and found none. A quick count of bodies revealed five dead batarians.

Garrus checked his shoulder and found it to have a darkened blue mark. Armor piercing rounds, Garrus guessed. He found a fine, light synthetic cloth throw draped across a nearby armchair. After checking it's make with his omnitool, Garrus picked it up, tore it into strips and used it to pack his wound. He then looked around and found a nearby doorway to a room he suspected the batarians came from and readied his assault rifle.

Garrus stepped through the threshold and the door sealed behind him. A familiar voice spoke, "Spectre Vakarian, I have been expecting you." Garrus turned and found batarian ambassador, Jath'Amon, sitting in a hoverchair under a large dome shaped shield flanked by two turrets and with a rocket launcher in his hands.

"Oh Spirits…" said Garrus.

******************** Ambassador's Residence: End *******************

Talk for reader:

The ambassador was tipped off that the authorities know of his actions. The reason his security force is so tiny is that he was just received the tip not long ago. Garrus's cowboy cop actions actually did prevent the ambassador from fortifying the place or from slipping out of the Citadel before anyone could stop him as he had no time to either. That said, Garrus's plan was stupid, and he got shot for it. Though really I just wanted a fight scene.

If you are wondering why he doesn't just use medigel, Mass Effect canon specifically states that medigel is a human invention, which actually technically violates the Citadel Conventions but is far too useful to outlaw. Because of the Council races pretty much just following the footsteps of the "Protheans", it is incredibly unlikely that they would develop this on their own.