Chapter 12 Imperator Wrex

"Payment, in full, up front. Bonus if she is extracted unharmed."

The asari bit her lip before nodding, "Acceptable. But we will not provide material or compensation for business expenses."

Wrex stood up nonplussed, "What do you take me for? An amatuer?" And he stomped off.

Easy money all told. Go out, locate an archeological digsite, and find Matriarch Benezia's daughter before the Geth, Humans, or worse, the Batarians, did. Real easy.

But that wouldn't justify laxity. He'd need to move, quick and fast since the planet had already come under orbital control of the Geth. Therum was a minor Human industrial and mining world. It produced petrochemicals and all associated goods, with said chemicals as its main export. This meant it was sparsely inhabited and lightly guarded.

Nothing in comparison to Eden Prime. Already, reports were in that the customs and containment force had been wiped out, and the garrison had fallen back to their anti orbit defenses.

All well and good for the humans, but Miss T'Soni had been part of a digsite well outside of what was considered civilization on that rock. An unfortunate fact for the good doctor, a big payday for Wrex.

He had a good day to make his way there before his target's chances of survival dipped into the point of fantasy. He'd been hired as a last resort, obviously enough, no one was close enough to move in to extract the daughter, if they even knew her importance, which meant he, an outside contractor, had met a mutual acquaintance through the Shadow Broker to make a desperate final chance to save her.

Wrex would be lying if he said his heart went out to Benezia, but there was a slight twinge to the girl, barely a beat. She was young and stupid after all, and the Geth attack was pretty out there in terms of possible scenarios.

But her danger was his gain. As long as he made a fair effort to retrieve her he'd still be sitting on a big fat fee. Getting her out alive was bonus pay. In all reality, Benezia's acolytes had hired him to get first recon on the situation, and revenge on those who likely killed her little girl.

It's why he was paid up front. They both knew he was the wrecking ball meant to ride or die.

His omnitool flashed, and some bad news came onto his ocular implants.

"Until further notice, a security lockdown has gone into effect, no ship may enter or leave the Citadel for the next GSD or until the revocation of this announcement."

Stopping in his tracks, Wrex looked down to read more of the news bite. It was vague, but he'd seen it before. Spectre work, usually associated with security threats to the citadel itself. It wasn't ironclad, there were ways off the citadel if you had planned in advance and knew the right people currently here.

Neither of which he had right now.

Annoyance flashed in his mind, until he got a new message, "Its Tela Vasir" was the header. And that answered a lot of his questions.

"We're going to have C-Sec take over from here Shepard. They'll keep me informed on their findings. In the meantime a lockdown has gone into effect. If anything comes or goes on this station, we'll see it."

Nihlus didn't seem as confident as his words implied, and he caught her look in the corner of his eye.

"We can't close the arms, and it'll take precious minutes to authorize firing on unidentified vessels. They also can't ground the air cars, rapid transit vehicles, and ferries." He clarified.

"This station is more loose than a sailor at leave." Shepard cursed.

Nihlus shrugged, "Yes, but its the best we can do until C-Sec confirms what we've found."

Alenko was standing nearby, waiting patiently to speak, and when the moment arose he took it, "Commander, we've investigated the Quarian bodies and found that they were not using their breathing apparatus, all indications point to them having fully developed immune systems, contrary to what records say they should have."

Shepard extended a hand and was presented with a tablet to peruse, "That's not correct is it." She admitted to her ignorance on Quarian biology, not unfairly. After all, they'd never been important enough to take note of before.

Nihlus spoke this time, "No, that's not normal. When the Quarians evacuated their space, they did so in a massive fleet fleeing the fighting. It's estimated they bombard all planets they had to evacuate, to slow the Geth advance. Ever since they've been barred from colonizing any planets. To prevent diseases from spreading in their cramped quarters they've donned clean suits for centuries."

Shepard looked up and cocked her head, but Alenko clarified further, "They also evolved with relatively weak immune systems ma'am, something to do with symbiosis with their natural homeworld being preferred over disease fighting. Before it just meant they'd be bedridden whenever they landed on a new world for a few days. But after said centuries of sterile living they've atrophied."

When Shepard and Ashley looked at him he waved a hand that had an omnitool's glow, "It's what the report says, ma'am."

Ashley editorialized on how it was odd that the Quarians had never colonized a new world to set up a central base of operations, but Nihlus clarified it was due to their amino acid difference making any worlds they could reasonably colonize being sought after by the Turians as well. This lead to the awkward realization that Turians would then kick them off any worlds they tried to take. Nihlus had nothing to say about the previous Quarian communities who had develop on Turian worlds pre-Geth War.

But Shepard focused on skimming the report. Once she finished, she looked back up to the security cam and stood in thoughtful silence.

"Right, we're burning daylight. Do we have any leads from these people?" Shepard interrupted the conversation on why the Quarians didn't just bite the bullet and setup on a normal garden world, if they were already going to be living in clean suits for practical purposes anyways.

"We still have that Doctor lead." Kaiden pointed out. Shepard looked to Nihlus who checked around on a Quarian body before standing up again.

"I've been tracking where the escaped ship went, and located it docking with the superstructure twenty meters upward." Nihlus waved his arm for emphasis, "My plan was to use the Normandy to follow after it, and have us take a shuttle to strike back into their depths. They'll be waiting for us this time, but we'll have a few tricks up our sleeves too." Nihus' omnitool flashed a map, showing the area the ship went, and his little tricks too.

Chora's Den remained a shithole even after a human bought it, Wrex thought.

Downing his ryncol he felt more than heard Tela step behind him. Not a mean feat considering the blaring music. He cocked his head so one eye saw her, "Well about damn time."

She smirked and indicated the Turian standing a few paces behind him, "This is Garrus, C-Sec."

Odd, but not unheard of for Tela to pick up a stray, "Well excuse me for not standing up." Wrex groused as he downed another shot of ryncol.

The two newcomers looked intently at Wrex. He had the bead on Vasir. Spectre, asari, bitch. She worked closely with the Shadow Broker on what she considered vital work toward maintaining peace and prosperity in citadel space. Firmly in the Broker's pocket, so deep, in fact, that she'd probably break her vows if he demanded it of her.

Now Wrex, Wrex was a mercenary and a freelancer. One that had been in the game long enough that the Shadow Broker came to him with work and not the other way around. But Vasir was always hungry and easily pliable for that next big gig. Although for her a big gig meant taking down a pirate king and a fleet of ships.

Strangely enough, Wrex knew Garrus, although only by reputation. Hotshot blow hard with, quote, a stick so far up his ass you could see it when he spoke, unquote. Though in this case, it must be pretty important for him to work with Vasir.

"I presume the lockdown came at a bad time." Vasir mentioned offhandedly.

"Just got a job that would take me to human space, lockdown came in after I left the room. Time sensitive, every minute here could mean the death of my priority objective." He slammed another ryncol down, and gave each of them an eye, "Get me off this place in one hour, or fix it so I can, and I'm yours for said hour."

"Call girl rules Wrex? I didn't expect you to go charging that high."

"It's a damn good deal for you Vasir, you get me for free. And if our paths align like I think it will, then you get me for a sight touch longer." Wrex countered, leaning in.

Vasir quirked her lips and nodded, then her omnitool flashed and the table brought up a holographic map, "Geth have been sighted on the station, trying to infiltrate it through domestic civilian drones. The plan is simple, we have a team coming in from the back, you're the door kicker."

Wrex nodded, perfect job for him, he'd get to have a bit of fun, and get the measure of the Geth. It'd been a few centuries since he went head to head with those flashlight-toting toasters. Best to get some new experience with all the advantages on his side.

Wrex pointed out the obvious flaw, "You sure they're just going to stand there and take it? They have to know they're vulnerable."

Vasir nodded, "An associate of mine interrupted them during deployment, and now they've fallen back into a corner. Why they didn't flee from the station and into a relay immediately is beyond me, but I think it has to do with my actual objective. We think they know they're on a suicide mission and are planning on seeing it through even if they die."

"What's their mission?"

"Not sure exactly, but it could be the elimination of an HVP, a Quarian named Zorah, a galactic expert on the Geth and how they work. I need her alive, and she's gone to ground. Until these Geth are dealt with, she won't show."

Garrus twitched, but remained silent. Wrex caught it but said nothing himself. Not the whole truth but enough for him.

Wrex leaned into the table, and it creaked dangerously, "Once these Geth are dealt with, that'll lift the lockdown?"

"Yes."

Well, that settled it for him, "Last question then. You said I'm the door kicker, what about yourself?"

Vasir smirked, "As soon as that Quarian shows her pretty little face I'm jumping on her and making sure neither the humans nor batarians get any funny ideas. Geth are bad enough without warships, and they have plenty right here."

Wrex didn't believe it'd go that far over a Quarian tech expert, but he did believe blood would be shed between Humans and Batarian combat teams if they got too many bright ideas and too many boots on the station.

"But you don't have to worry about that. Do this for me and you'll get a fast pass off the station." Tela sweetened the deal, making Wrex's choice obvious.

"Done."

Garrus looked to Vasir as they left Chora's Den, "So while he breaks things we're going to track down Zorah right?"

Vasir smiled, "Yup, I'm just waiting on getting the scanner from Spectre HQ to track down her scent."

"Scent?" Garrus asked, trying to keep track of all the new information he'd absorbed in the last hour.

"Yes, it's the first thing I did with the medical records. Quarians, due to their unique biology, exfoliate traceable chemicals through their sweat glands. We know she'd need space to establish a clean room, and has set up in the ventilation system. With that, we also know that most Quarians have left the Citadel making her one of the only Quarians here."

Garrus nodded, starting to get it, "Eliminating a lot of the false positives that would be sucked in." Then he hit the obvious stumbling block, "Then we just have to examine hundreds of square kilometers of station atmosphere. Even with your scanner, it could take a few days for it to be done."

Vasir nodded in agreement, "You'd be correct. But…." She prompted.

Garrus cupped his chin again, and thought, "Increasing manpower would decrease time to discovery to under a day. Nothing fancy just a wave of your omnitool and done."

"You're close. C-Sec maintains a system of atmospheric sniffers to ensure proper chemical composition for life. Remember that scandal a few years ago regarding the appropriations committee?"

"Which one?" Garrus quipped tastefully.

"The one where it turned out C-sec bought the atmospheric scanning models that could detect a drop of sweat in an atrium, instead of the more reasonably priced midline models."

Garrus picked up the line of thought and perked in realization, "Since she's outside of her suit-"

"Ding ding ding!" Vasir added.

Garuss waved her off, "Clever, Vasir."

The Asari shrugged, "You'd have thought about it eventually, in an after-action committee, after you used all your field offices to take manual readings themselves." She left unsaid that this same scenario had popped up before, and it had been discussed in a committee after C-Sec brute forced their way to find the suspect.

But Vasir needed to be more discreet. Immediately she hailed an aircar towards the Presidium, she'd need that scanner.

Author's Note

This chapter has been uploaded alongside 4 others, from This one to chapter 8. If you're confused that is why.