"Gods, this sucks," said the batarian to the turian next to him. Both of them were sitting down, for the first time in about four hours or so since their shift started. The turian, for his part, just nodded in agreement with his companion. They should have had at least a dozen more with them, preferably krogan, though since they weren't allowed on the Presidium, at least a few turians. Behind them, being carted off on a few transports was their labor so far, a few huge crates burdened with food, parts, and the other supplies that kept the Presidium turning.
Before the turian could give voice to a complaint, the lift began to hum, indicating an incoming car, and the two just sighed as they rose to get back to work. Then the lift stopped. Then it opened. Then the batarian and turian minds looking into the lift stopped, the two brains unable to adequately process what they were seeing. The thing in front of them, crouched down to fit into the lift, stepped out, huge feet slamming into the Presidium floor, though the material didn't even crack under the weight. It did vibrate, and both were forced to grab onto the boxes they'd been sitting on a moment ago, while staring upwards.
"Hmm," came a voice, as it looked around, finally looking down. They could see it clearly now, a huge, flat panel of a face. No eyes, no obvious sensors or mouth, just staring, and they wondered if it was about to blast them or some such.
"I have some friends coming down on an elevator from above. Do you know where they'd come out at?" asked a booming, feminine voice. The pair, looking at each other, then behind them to find that all the transports had already booked it, just turned back up to that face.
"The lifts from Bachjert Ward come out there. The elevators about two hundred yards in that direction!" shouted the batarian at last, pointing towards the arrival area. The huge thing looked over towards where he was pointing, and then turned back down to him, crouching down, nearly making them think it was going to collapse on them and crush them.
"Thank you," it said after a moment, and then rose upwards, and started off towards the transport hub. The two men watched as it walked away, most of the Presidium foot traffic quickly finding other places to be as those huge feet came down with thunderous booms on the floor. At last, it turned a corner, and then the booming footfalls faded into the distance, leaving the two to stare after it, then stare at each other for a few minutes, before the batarian rose to his feet, straightened his disheveled work shirt, and started to walk away.
"Hey! Where are you going!?" demanded the turian, as his brain finally caught back up to what was going on.
"Archos! I'm going to get drunk like never before. Gods willing, I'll get there fast enough that this memory will be drowned out by the alcohol," he said, as he made his way to a nearby lift. The turian, looking after the huge thing, suddenly rush after him.
"Make that a double order of brain bleach," he said as he got in, and the two abandoned their post for the day, both knowing they didn't get paid nearly enough for this crud.
OoOoO
"Fascinating. I feel the motion only slightly, though if I were to guess, we are currently moving at several hundred miles an hour," commented the shorter Terran as he looked out at the lights of the elevator. Ororian said nothing to him, merely facing forward, trying not to let mental images play across his mind of that Terran woman(He'd asked Hayes about Terran genders), literally crushing some politician under her foot, and then him getting blamed for it for allowing her down there.
Luckily for his nerves, the instant the elevator doors opened, he spotted her, standing there in front of them, at attention. Around her, as one would expect, were various members of C-Sec, as well as any of the usual rubberneckers that tended to visit the Presidium. The crowd was, luckily for them, standing well back from the woman, whose shoes weren't covered in blood, hopefully meaning she had avoided stepping on anyone in her walk to the elevators.
"Thank the Ancestors for small mircales," said the general to himself as his party came out of their elevator, only to be quickly approached by one of the C-Sec guards in a lieutenant's uniform.
"Stand back, this situation is under C-Sec control," he said, as he came forward, holding up a hand to prevent the party from getting any closer to unknown...thing, that had already scared half the Presidium into demanding a tactical strike against it.
"I'm afraid not, Pallin. This matter goes way over your head," said the general to the C-Sec agent as he stood aside for Mrs. Hayes to approach her body guard. The C-Sec officers did try and get in front of her, but when the giant thing leaned forward, most of them decided to see what would happen, from a safe distance.
"You know, I didn't really bring you here to intimidate the locals," said Hayes, her face broken out in a mischievous grin saying that, while not her plan, it wasn't unexpected.
"I haven't even said anything to anyone other than some workers around the lift, ma'am," she said, her voice booming in that odd Terran way, while everyone around the two just stared. It was an odd sight, the huge giant on one knee talking to the woman who was barely taller than her ankle.
"Well, just try to look a little less intimidating for a bit. Maybe take the helmet off for a while, and let them see you with your hair down," suggested Hayes, and Shepard looked around at those below her, before standing up and doing just that. Her helmet came free a bit more easily this time, without that hiss sound, so soon everyone below her was staring, some with their jaws almost on the floor. Most had assumed her to be some kind of mechanized weapon system or the like, but to find that there was a living creature beneath that armor was a shock.
"Is this any better?" she asked, looking around, trying her best to put on a smile. Her efforts, such as they were, proved to at least have some effect. No one looked to be calming down, but no one looked to be about to run or shoot her, so that was a positive change.
"It will do for now. Come on, we have to get to the Citadel Tower. They found a docket for us so we can introduce ourselves at least," said Hayes as she walked off down one of the paths of the Presidium, Exedore soon following behind her, running to catch up. Shepard then looked down at the turian party with General Ororian, all of whom nervously stroked weapons, until she motioned for them to follow the pair, which they did at just a bit of a quicker pace than decorum would have dictated, while she followed behind, taking slow, deliberate steps to keep pace with the rear.
Their journey was, luckily, short, as the elevator hub for most of the wards tended to be near the one that would take one up the Citadel Tower. Of course, the embassies of most of the known races were in the same area, and for much the same reason, ease of access. This meant that their journey was watched by hundreds of eyes, most of which would have normally ignored the party marching through with only a second glance, but couldn't tear their gaze away from the giant.
By the time they reached the elevator to the Council Chamber itself, they had acquired a large group around them. None were getting closer than a few dozen yards, in fact most would stop for a few minutes whenever the deep, green eyes of the giant passed over them. No shots were fired, and no one in the crowd around them made the slightest hostile move, all waiting to see just what was going to happen.
"What do you mean I have to wait down here?" demanded the giant in a voice that was at once calm, and at the same time dripping with threats to the turian at her heel.
"I'm afraid this is the only way into the tower, and it's not large enough for you. Even if there were, the Council Chamber itself would be a bit cramped for something of your size," shouted up Ororian, standing his ground against her.
"Well then maybe those Councilors should come down here, because..." she stopped as Hayes stepped forward, holding up her hand towards the giant.
"Now, now, I'm sure this is something we'll work out eventually. For now though, it would be a good move on our part if we followed their routine rather than ask them to change it, wouldn't you agree, Commander Shepard?" asked the brown haired woman of her azure haired counterpart.
"Ma'am, my duty is to protect you. I can't very well do that if you're out of my sight," insisted Shepard, and Amanda Hayes sighed, somewhat regretting her choice of protection, as a cadet would have just blindly accepted the order. The cadet would also have likely stepped on someone by now, so Shepard still won out in that department.
"General, you said this was the only way in or out of the Council Chamber, correct?" she asked him, and the turian nodded.
"Barring a space walk, which would require the entire Tower to be depressurized," he told her, and she smiled at him, before turning back to Shepard.
"You see, if you just wait here, and I'll be back shortly. If I do have any trouble, I'll contact you, and you can rip the Tower apart with your bare hands to get me back," she said, offering a scenario that made literally everyone who wasn't a Terran listening blanch a bit, as their minds gave them images of the giant doing just that.
"I will stand watch here then," she said, and assumed an at attention pose beside the opening for the elevators. With that out of the way though, Exedore presented a new puzzle for the turians.
"If this is where the political discussions begin, I suppose this is where I should take my leave," he told Hayes, with a very formal bow.
"Yes, I thought as much. You're going to go to those shops we passed to try and buy some new toys, right?" she chided him, and the shorter man chuckled at her.
"You know me all too well, Amanda. First though, I will need to find an exchanger to get some of these credits they trade with," so saying, he turned to the general.
"Would one of your men kindly escort me? I wouldn't want to impose, but I didn't see a map of this section in any of my preliminary data," he explained, and Ororian quickly assigned one of the C-Sec officers under his command to help Exedore with his quest, with a few silent orders to keep an eye on him, and protect him in case someone from an embassy got grabby.
"Good travels, Prime Thinker," said Shepard, and suddenly Hayes turned around, an annoyed look on her face.
"You make a big deal about wanting to protect me, and yet you just let Exedore wander?" asked the smaller woman, to which the larger just responded with a shrug.
"He's two thousand years your senior, and he's a Zentraedi, even if a small one," she said, as if that explained everything. Amanda just turned towards the man she'd been talking about, and he smiled at her in a way that one would a favorite granddaughter. For her part, Hayes just smiled back at him, before entering the elevator with the general, which then shot upwards into the sky. Soon after, Exedore turned a corner, leaving Shepard standing there at attention with her helmet at her feet, crowds still gathering around her, staying well back.
It was almost twenty minutes later that the first oddity happened. A small creature she had seen in her walk here scuttled past her. It didn't seem to even notice her, and the crowd parted as it passed through them, like they barely noticed it. She filed that away as odd, figuring the thing was either inattentive and hadn't noticed, or just something that didn't see well. Then she hard a crackling sound, and looked down to find one of the things messing with her boot, a small cutting tool in its hand.
"Hey!" she shouted, pulling her foot away, and then pointing her palm at it. The suit reacted as it should to her fingers splayed out as far as the could, the palm itself opening up and starting to hum a little as light could be seen building up inside it.
"What do you think you're doing?" she asked, and the thing only just then seemed to notice the boot had moved, starting to look around, before it put the tool it had been using back in its pack, and scurried off, as if it hadn't heard her.
"Hey! I'm talking to you!" she shouted, and watched it go through a now deserted part of the street, the crowd quickly running out of sight, as she kept her hand aimed at the thing, ready to fire.
"It can't hear you. That thing's a keeper," said one of the turians at her feet. She looked down at him, quickly remembering his armor from just a few minutes ago.
"Pallin, right?" she asked, crouching down so she was resting on her heels, as the turian nodded.
"Venari Pallin, Underlieutenant to the Executor. I'm pleased you remember me," he said, sounding like he actually meant it.
"I have a good memory for faces. What's a keeper?" she said, lowering her hand, the low whining sound coming from her gauntlet fading away as she resumed her post.
"Keepers are the maintainers of the Citadel. We don't know too much about them, but the things go about their business, cleaning, repairing, and otherwise making the place function perfectly. However, you can't get answers from them, no matter how hard you try," he told the Terran, who nodded, looking after the thing.
"Is there a way to keep them from trying to cut into my armor?" she asked.
"Just keep moving, they don't touch something if it's in motion," explained the turian, and Shepard nodded again, looking around. Her gaze finally rested on the water next to her. It looked to be some kind of artificial lake, with several large fountains in it.
"Is there anything living in that water?" she asked, and looking where she was pointing, Pallin shook his head.
"No, that water is part of the Citadel's reserve. It sits there until they pump it around and filter it for drinking or whatever else they need it for," he explained, wondering where she was going with this.
"Would anyone mind if I walked in it?" she asked him, and Pallin had to think about that for a second. Normally he would have chided someone who asked that, the filters and pumps of the lake being fairly strong, but the one he was talking to, even crouched down the way she was, she stood several times his height.
"I don't think so, but what are you going to do?" he asked her, and she smirked down at him as she got up, taking a step out into the water to find it was just about ankle deep to her. She then walked out into the middle of the lake and pulled part of her suit off. Of course, now that she held it in her hand, he realized it was something that had been stuck to her armor, rather than was part of it, as the silver sheen of the thing clashed with the overall black aesthetic of the armor.
He continued to wonder what she was about, when she flicked her wrist, and held the thing out in hone hand. It began to unfold then, the chink and click of metal against itself as slowly plates came out, and then locked into place, forming a solid surface. Two small handles then popped out of the side, keeping her hands away from the upper part, which he soon recognized as an enormous sword, a weapon that looked as long as the Terran woman was tall, and was probably just as heavy.
Then she began to move with it. Her form was a bit less perfect, probably due to the water that was up to her ankles, making her strides less measured, but she adapted quickly. The thing whistled in the air as it passed, and Pallin could have sworn he felt the wind from it a few times. He would have told her to stop after a few minutes, but then decided to let her keep going, as her sword danced, and most of the lookey loos began to hang farther back.
It took a few words to Citadel Control to get traffic in the Presidium rerouted around Shepard's display, but luckily, in that time, only one car had come close, and her sword danced around it, seemingly passing through it in one motion as she twirled the weapon between her hands, and then brought it straight up, the tip almost touching the ceiling of the Presidium, but falling just a few feet short, before she started the routine again, getting an impressed bit of applause from the crowd as she kept it going.
(Author's Note:
For those curious, Archos is what would later be known as Chora's Den in the Mass Effect canon.)