Rigel crouched behind the ledge of a building as he utilized his new HUD, appreciating the numerous features that he'd never experienced before.
This thing can see electricity. I can see the power cables running through the walls and the outline of every person in that warehouse.
That's why we got the omni-tool first. Nova responded, soundly smugly pleased with herself. I told you dumping all those credits into specialized programs would be worth it.
You copied all the data, right? If we ever manage to make it back this stuff will be game-changing.
Of course, but considering we're still not sure how we got here in the first place, getting back seems like a bit of a pipe dream.
We'll try to figure something out later. Let's deal with this first, get a ship and head to that Citadel I keep hearing so much about.
Pulling out his new sniper rifle, Rigel zoomed the scope in on the entrance to the warehouse below. There were two heavily armed batarians standing sentinel, suspiciously sweeping their eyes back and forth across the street.
Including those two, that's fifty-seven hostiles. They're keeping the prisoners on the lowest level. I have control of their cameras and defense turrets. Ready to go whenever you are.
Rigel slowly breathed out through his nose as he scoped in on the guards below. Wait until I breach. I want as many of these guys away from the cells as possible. Take out any that don't come after me.
Copy.
There was a satisfying crack as Rigel squeezed the trigger on his rifle. One of the batarians fell over with a fist-sized hole in their sternum. The second one leapt away from their partner in shock, head whipping back and forth as they searched for the shooter with panicked eyes.
With a well-practiced motion earned through decades with rifles, Rigel refocused and dropped the second batarian before they could even shout.
An alarm just activated. Nova warned Rigel in his head.
Let it go. The less guards around the prisoners the better.
Rigel stood, slinging his rifle over his shoulder, tightening the strap to secure it. Stepping up onto the ledge, Rigel walked forward. Gravity claimed him and he plummeted towards the street below. Moments from impact, an ethereal glow swam across Rigel's body as he glided gracefully to the ground, already walking towards the entrance to the warehouse where he could hear a blaring siren sound. Ace spun out of its holster as Rigel brought it up in front of him.
"Show time."
X
Catherine Delany was huddled as far back into the cell as she could be, but the sheer mass of bodies imprisoned with her limited the distance she could keep herself from the bars.
She should have known it was too good to be true. Her sister had escaped the slums over a year ago and managed to eke out a living on the Citadel. From her constant communications, Cindy's life seemed far from glamorous, but keeping inventory in an alien salon was a far better living than dodging gangs and druggies with every step. When the small shuttle's price randomly dropped, Catherine jumped on the opportunity to finally join her sister on the Citadel. Cindy had said she could live with her until she got on her feet and even offered to get her a job working alongside her.
The reason for the reduced price became apparent the moment the batarian slaver ship had arrived. The shuttle had no weapons or security contracts in place to defend itself, allowing everyone on board to be captured with no resistance.
They'd dragged her into a cell, fitted her with a collar and chained her together in a line with everyone else who had only wanted to find a better life. Catherine had been forced to march for a full day across a planet she didn't even know the name of until she was forced into another ship.
She'd heard of Omega, but she'd never expected to arrive on the station built into an asteroid. From all the rumors and reports, it was a festering pit of refuse and depravity. Catherine's current condition confirmed what she'd heard was more than rumor.
"Hello, pretties." a batarian said with a crooked smile as he entered their prison, the door sliding shut behind him. He banged an electrified baton against the bars, laughing as several people around her flinched. "Your race is one of the most pathetic in the galaxy. You talk a big game, but take away your ships, your weapons, your armor? Then you're nothing but prey."
Seeming to love the quivering of the humans in the cages before him, the batarian sauntered over to a monitor at the end of the room.
"In three days, the surgeon will be here. He will place an implant at the base of your necks. The implant will be a bomb, powerful enough to sever the connection between your head and your body, but not destructive enough to harm anyone other than yourself."
Catherine heard a woman to her left whimper. A feeling of primal fear settled into Catherine's own stomach.
Even through the humiliations and atrocities of her ordeal, Catherine had held out hope. Hope that the Alliance would find her, that she'd be able to escape when the batarians got careless. But if they put a bomb in her head…
Tears leaked from Catherine's eyes as the full weight of her future came crashing down around her.
"Now." the batarian continued, an amused smirk on his face as he closely watched the reactions of the humans in the cage before him. "I'm feeling a little bored. Which one of you feels like losing some fingers?"
Everyone began scrambling to the back of the cage, tripping over one-another and shoving others forward to lower their chance of being tortured. The last man to be 'played with' was missing an eye and three of his upper teeth.
The batarian threw his head back and laughed deep and long. "Alright. Let's–"
A loud siren like a wailing mockingbird interrupted the batarian. His amused expression collapsed into irritation. Activating a few programs on his omni-tool, he raised his wrist to his mouth and said, "What idiot tripped that thing now?"
There was a pause as whoever he was communicating with spoke back. No one in the cage around Catherine so much as twitched, hoping to be beneath the notice of the batarian for the moment.
"Well kill him and get it over with. You'd think this was the first time a dumbass human attacked us thinking they were a krogan." Dismissing his omni-tool with an irritated flourish, the batarian muttered obscenities to himself as he turned to the console behind him. His fingers danced across the controls and the blaring alarm cut out. The monitor over the controls lit up with images of the interior of a warehouse.
Cameras. Catherine realized. She took in every detail she could see. Anything might be the difference between escaping and being a slave for the rest of her life.
There were six live feeds all displayed at once, sectioned off into rectangles on the monitor. The top right of the screen seemed to house the most activity. A small army of batarians were digging in behind cover, leveling weapons towards a closed, overhead garage door. If the facility was under attack, it was safe to assume that door was Catherine's way out.
Before Catherine could see anything else, the camera feeds were cut. All six cameras were lost to static.
The batarian cursed some more, pulling his omni-tool back to life. "Which one of you incompetent–"
The entire facility rocked on its foundations as an explosive booming sound filled Catherine's ears. The explosion was quickly followed by a hail of gunfire and screams.
"What is happening out there!" the batarian demanded, his irritation gone, slowly creeping panic rising in its place. More screams were the batarian's only answer.
With four wide eyes, the batarian looked up at Catherine's cage. "You!" he yelled, pointing directly at her.
Catherine panicked as she tried to scurry backwards, realizing she'd crept in front of her cellmates to get a better look at the camera feed. Before she could get too far, Catherine felt electricity violently coursing through her body as the batarian activated her shock collar via his omni-tool.
Having fallen to the ground in a convulsing heap, it was a simple matter for the batarian to enter her cell and drag her out, keeping his pistol trained on the other prisoners in case they tried to rush him.
Catherine was hauled to her feet and shoved forward. She felt sool metal press against her temple.
"Try anything and I'll kill you." the batarian hissed in her ear. "Now walk. Slowly."
Catherine took a shaky step forward, her arms locked to her sides. The feel of the gun against her head governed her every action. With the slightest misstep, she would be dead, and that thought terrified her into compliance.
The batarian walked her through the door to the room where she'd been held and through it. Catherine was greeted by complete chaos.
She hadn't seen much on the cameras before they'd been cut, but she had been able to determine she was being held in a fairly well-organized warehouse. That same warehouse was now in shambles. Shelves and crates lay in fragments on the ground. Blood and dead batarians littered the floor. Amongst the destruction stood a lone figure.
It was humanoid, though Catherine couldn't tell if it was a human or an asari because of its domed helmet. A pane of reflective glass hid the face of the wearer. Dark, armored robes hung from its body. A smoking pistol was raised in its hand, aimed directly towards her.
"Drop it!" the batarian yelled, thrashing Catherine about. "I'll kill her."
The faceless monster tilted its head, then disappeared. One moment it was there, the next it vanished in a flash of light.
"What the–"
Catherine felt herself be roughly shoved to the side moments before a loud gunshot erupted not a foot from her. Catherine's eyes numbly followed the falling body of her batarian captor as it collapsed limply to the ground.
Shivering in terror, Catherine looked up at the same dark-robed figure who had disappeared from the battlefield in front of her. How had he moved so fast?
The figure holstered his large pistol and reached up to his helmet. The helmet was removed, revealing a human man with chestnut hair and eyes. There was an easy smile on his face as he reached a hand down to her.
"I apologize for the rough treatment, miss, but I needed you out of the way. Are you alright?"
Catherine's lip quivered as a million emotions assaulted her all at once. She leapt at the man, throwing her arms around him and burying her head into his shoulder, tears already streaming down her face. "Thank you!" she sobbed into him. "Thank you."
The man just held her, gently rocking her back and forth as he let her work through her emotions.
Catherine inhaled a shuddering breath, stepping back from her savior and wiping her eyes on her torn sleeve.
"What do you say we get you and everyone else out of here?" the man said as he tossed her shock collar over his shoulder. Catherine hadn't noticed him removing it.
There was so much Catherine wanted to say at that moment, but all she could manage was, "Thank you."