Chapter 6: Knowledge
Once the C-Sec officers had broken through the door, they quickly took charge and arrested the ambassador, and recommended Garrus visit the infirmary immediately. Then, they practically pushed him into one of the C-Sec hovercars and drove him to the nearest hospital. There, the doctors tended to his shoulder while he was loopy from anesthetic. At some point, a particularly solemn faced salarian doctor told him something grave and important, but Garrus had a hard time paying enough attention to what the doctor was saying: he was too busy wondering what exactly was in the anesthetic he had been given and idly speculating where he might find some more. Then the door opened to Garrus's private room opened and Executor Pallin entered, and happiness of Garrus's high was gone.
Upon comprehending the Executor's visit, Garrus swallowed and said, "Sir?"
"What were you thinking charging in there?" The Executor sounded angry.
"I couldn't let the ambassador get off the Citadel. C-Sec was taking too long-"
"Spectre Vakarian! Did you even listen to the doctors?" Interrupted Executor Pallin. "You are not going to be able to hold a rifle again."
"I was enjoying whatever they put into my IV too much," said Garrus.
The Executor blinked. "Maybe I should be happy you will be stuck behind a desk from now on."
"What?! I am perfectly fit for duty!"
"Did you read this?" Executor Pallin picked up the datapad that was hooked to the hospital bed and waved it, "because according to the doctors, you tore the muscles and nerves in your right shoulder beyond repair. You are lucky you have the ability to move your right hand at all."
"I can still use my left just fine," retorted Garrus.
"Are you listening? The regulations exist to keep things like this from happening!"
"Like preventing a criminal from escaping?"
"Preventing crippling injuries, Vakarian!" The Executor sighed, "How are you going to be of any use in the field if you can't aim a gun?"
"I'll learn to shoot left-handed."
The Executor sighed. "Indeed, definitely happier you will be stuck behind a desk."
"I was as good as C-Sec officers are with their right hands." Garrus's words sounded slurred even to himself.
"Vakarian, it's not all matter of capability. With your 'Lone Varren' antics this was going to happen eventually. Even if you can get your skill with your left to match your former ability with your right, I am not certain you should be out in the field."
"But Executor-"
"Spectre, even if you can train your left hand sufficiently, my report is going to say that you shouldn't be in the field without a partner, so if you are so desperate to get yourself killed, go find yourself someone as crazy as you to watch your back. I'm also telling the Council that you are on a much needed vacation. I suggest you use that time wisely."
After that, the Executor delivered the standard "Get Well Soon" message and left, leaving Garrus to wait for the doctors to give him permission to leave, which was unfortunately, long after the anesthetic wore off and the ache in his shoulder returned. They didn't give him any of that anesthetic when he checked himself out, probably on the insistence of the Executor, and so Garrus was left to deal with the pain with much some less potent pills.
With a quick check of his omnitool, Garrus found a message from the Council thanking him for his hard work, wishing him a pleasant vacation and that if he regained his skills to please resubmit a portfolio for evaluation to return to active duty. If. Garrus sighed. He knew he would be able to be a great marksman with his other hand, but probably not as good as before. He really wanted to begin training his left immediately, but the doctors were very insistent that he not try to fire any guns until his muscles healed sufficiently. At least he could maintain his weapons' calibrations. And maybe do research and alleviate the gaps of knowledge he had accumulated since the beginning of his career.
And so he found himself back in Anitoch Square of the Tayseri Ward standing outside the Museum of Galactic History, which was advertising a vorcha exhibit, of all things, on the massive vid-banners that were positioned strategically about the front of the Museum. He shrugged and went inside, after all, no matter what the feature is, there was going to be some general exhibits that remained for those who are uninterested in the feature.
Garrus entered the museum and found the place fairly quiet. After he got past the scanners and scales in the entrance, he found that there were only a few patrons visiting the museum. He wondered about until he found a young asari employee directing patrons to areas of interest. A quick question about where he might find some recent history and he was directed to vorcha exhibit, of all things, where apparently there was something about a "Heshtok Extinction."
When he arrived at the main he found Captain Balak and his two men examining a rotating hologram of a planet and listening to a recorded asari voice.
"…homeworld of the vorcha. In the year 2023 Council Era, a routine scan of the planet returned alarming results. Half of this world showed little activity aside from large number of unknown life forms. A closer inspection later that year revealed these life forms to be variations of Protoform. The vorcha military proved to be ineffective at repelling the invasion and by the year 2027 Council Era, the entire planet fell to the Protoform. Today, Council scans seem to indicate the only life forms still alive on Hashtok are Protoform," said the emotionless asari voice.
"Wasn't expecting to see you here," said Garrus behind the captain, who turned around and faced Garrus, then nodded.
"Why not? I said we wanted to take in the sights," replied the captain. Garrus had to think for a moment to understand the odd use of take in.
"Enjoying yourself?" Garrus gestured to the hologram.
"This thing is worse than that Avina," the captain scowled, "whoever programed these things seems to be of the opinion that it's the vorcha's fault their homeworld got overrun with Protoform."
"Been arguing with the holograms I take it?"
"They phrase everything to make the Council races sound blameless and any efforts to pry out another side of the story gets: 'I'm sorry, that is beyond the parameters of my programing.'" The captain's impersonation of the Avina VI's voice was uncannily accurate. "I'm completely convinced I don't like tourist VIs."
"They do seem a little biased," conceded Garrus.
"Hah, earlier, this one here," the captain gestured towards the hologram of the planet, "compared the defenses of the Citadel to the defenses of Heshtok. Which is not only a ridiculous comparison, but also completely ignored all of the most important factors to instead brag about C-Sec."
"What important factors?"
"The obvious difference between the Citadel and Heshtok is that one is a space station and the other is a garden world."
"And how is that a factor?"
"Space stations, because of their nature, impose limits upon Protoform. They have limited space which means that there is less to secure. Also, they have much smaller populations in comparison to garden worlds, which means that there is less for the Protoform to eat."
"The Citadel has checkpoints with scales and scanners all over which enable C-Sec officers to quickly identify and kill them.
"But C-Sec mostly forgot about ways to get around the checkpoints, like ducts and catwalks, which are all over the interior of the Citadel. This place is filled with hidden pathways which the Council races have never explored because of the alarming tendency for the explorers to disappear. I imagine whatever unknown defenses litter those pathways are what should get most of the credit for keeping the Protoform from gaining a foothold here. They seem to force the Protoform to stick to going through the checkpoints. But everywhere else, this oversight leads to huge security breaches."
Garrus's omnitool received a message, but he ignored it. "You mentioned that space stations impose limits, but I wouldn't imagine that a space station is that limited in things like food and space. They tend to be like cities."
"Enclosed, cramped cities," replied the captain, "Protoform gain the mass of whatever they eat and never become full. On a space station, this means they have to diet to avoid outgrowing their environment. But on a planet, especially a garden world, the easiest way to put this is to say that there is no upper limit to how massive Protoform can get."
"So when the VI mentioned variations of Protoform…?"
"It likely meant that, if the Protoform on the Citadel are like krogan, then the ones they had to deal with on Heshtok are like thresher maws."
"Spirits…" said Garrus as he imagined a thresher maw sized creature running amok on the Citadel.
"Yes," said the captain.
"You seem very knowledgeable about this."
"I do a lot of border patrol. There is some disturbing stuff out there."
Garrus's omnitool received another message. "One second," said Garrus. He checked the sender, then opened the message:
To: Spectre Vakarian
From: Officer Chellick
Re: Get Out of There
Get out of there and open that message from the techs.
Garrus blinked and reread the message to be sure. "Uh, I got to go," he said and he turned around and walked quickly to an empty exhibit. There, he searched his omnitool and found the message from the techs. It said that they reconstructed a security vid from Torfan that had downloaded onto one of the ship's computers but noted that there was no sound. The techs attached a copy to the message. Garrus opened the vid.
The vid showed the interior of a room. There were many armed batarians and many dirty gray objects in the room. Garrus recognized one of the batarians as Captain Balak. Then an asari moved within one of the objects and Garrus realized that they were cages.
An unknown batarian with unfamiliar weapons in sling-like holsters that wrapped around his armor walked into the room to the captain and they spoke. They turned towards an entryway and three batarians came into the room, each pushing a cage on a hoverlift and weapons in sling-like holsters. The unknown batarian opened one of the cages and a being whose species Garrus had never seen before crawled out and stood upright.
It was bipedal, and as tall as the batarians with a very similar build, but it had a face remarkably similar to an asari with brown skin. Its head had a covering of hair on top that was darker than its skin. It wore clothes that were also in shades of brown that looked to be some sort of animal hide.
The being cowered before the captain, who then grabbed its arm and dragged it towards a table that had something on it. Garrus saw being's hands only had four fingers. The unknown batarian followed behind. The captain stopped and started gesturing towards the other batarians in the room. Then most of them left through the doorway the unknown batarian had come from, which then sealed closed.
The three batarians who were wearing similar holster-slings as the unknown batarian shifted into the black armored forms of Protoform and kicked the remaining cages they had brought in at the largest group of batarians that remained in the room. The cages exploded into masses of black tentacles which impaled the batarians and pulled them in, and then reformed into more armored Protoform.
The Protoform that had kicked the cages each pulled rifles of unknown make out of the holsters and opened fire onto the remaining batarians. The rifles shot bursts of red light which went straight through the batarians and hit the wall.
The captain reached for the shotgun holstered on his back. As he pulled out the shotgun the unknown batarian's body transformed into a black armored form and his arm became a blade which he shoved into the captain. The captain twitched and was absorbed into the black armored being.
"Well," a familiar voice behind Garrus took his attention from the vid, "Looks like we've been discovered."
******************** Knowledge: End *******************
Talk for reader:
Sorry my chapters are woefully short. I don't have much time to work and ensure my updates are posted weekly on Tuesday. I am also sorry for any spelling and grammar issues, I am my own beta.
No medigel = all injuries are as serious as they are in real life.
Garrus may work with C-Sec and therefore under the Executor, but Spectres are still Spectres and the final say goes to the Council. Therefore, the Executor writes reports to the Council about whatever missions Garrus takes part in.
I hope I have sufficiently answered your questions about how the Protoform in the intro seemed to be a bit "nerfed." The Protoform on the Citadel are unusually weak as the scales impede them from traveling freely without dieting. As their power (and "health bar") is proportionate to their mass, and their mass is heavy (and they are completely without biotics) the scales reveal them every time they "fatten up." Security is really tight on the Citadel, despite the Council still having their heads in their anuses like canon. For instance, even though the C-Sec mostly forgot about things like ducts and catwalks that are all over the interior of the Citadel, the Citadel itself has automated defenses designed for the express purpose of keeping organics out of its secrets. These defenses are quite effective at keeping Protoform from using alternative means of bypassing checkpoints. Therefore, the Protoform on the Citadel have approximately the same mass as whatever they are impersonating. Places where security is lax (everywhere else in various degrees)… Protoform do not have an upper limit on how massive they can get and they are highly adaptable. Andwhile they have limits, the Council does not know what most of them are.
There are more reasons why the Protoform in the intro was weak but as they are relevant to the plot, I will not cover them in a footnote. Please don't ask anymore.
If you think they are still nerfed, look up Heshtok on the wiki.
Also, please don't ask about Alex or Pariah. That information is also plot relevant.