As promised, here's the second half of the original first chapter.
Chapter Two: Making an Impression
Year: 2183
Location: Omega
"Do you have an omni-tool?" Liara asked as she and Ethan walked around in a marketplace brimming with activity. The dimly lit storefronts and neon signs resembled the places he had been to in the Mojave Wasteland, especially the Strip.
"What's that?" Ethan asked. "Are you going to explain, or do I have to find out at one of these stores?"
"It's…" Liara sighed before curling her lips in contemplation for a moment. "Yes, that would be better if I show you. And you need a translator if you don't have one."
"Yeah, good idea," he agreed.
The two approached a kiosk. A red-haired man wearing coveralls crouched down and tinkered with a pile of scrap metal on a bench, welding two flat surfaces together with a ring around it. The clerk's mask covered his face with sparks and the welder's intense light, not to mention the smell of metal and wire.
Ethan knocked on the table, and the man placed his tool on the floor and turned as he lifted his mask. He was pale with green, baggy eyes and a soul patch on his thin chin. He looked like he was in his early twenties.
"Hey there. How's it going?"
"It's been wonderful, really," Ethan replied. At least this guy also understood what he was saying. "The sights are gorgeous, and the people here are friendly." He shrugged while Liara rolled her eyes. "What's not to like?"
The clerk paused for a moment. "Well, this is the shittiest place in the galaxy. First time on Omega?"
"Yeah, you could say that. I want to buy something."
"What are you looking for?"
"A translator. And an, uh… an omni-tool."
The clerk blinked. He raised his finger before speaking. "You don't have them? You got here without them?"
Ethan realized if he told the truth, the clerk wouldn't believe him. "I got mugged. Bastards took my stuff and gave me this nasty concussion." He rubbed his forehead, pretending he had a headache. "I… forgot a few things."
Liara turned to stare at Ethan. "A concussion? Are you sure about that?"
The clerk's eyes went a little wide before he blinked. "Oh, uh, okay. Happens to everyone at this station. Except for that 'amnesia caused by massive head trauma' thing. But you look like you can handle yourself."
"Nobody's perfect, believe me."
"Anyways, you can use the terminal to buy what you need. Security reasons. You can see 'em everywhere at the Citadel nowadays." The clerk tilted his head to an orange screen at Ethan's right.
"What's the Citadel?" Ethan asked.
The clerk pinched his nose. "You are an idiot." He sighed, now realizing. "Oh, right. Concussion."
"I've had worse. Mind giving me a refresher?"
"The Citadel is the capital of galactic civilization," Liara explained. "They're represented by my kind, the asari, the turian, the salarian, and, recently, your kind."
"It's like the opposite of this shithole," the clerk replied." I'm sure you can figure out the rest. It had its fair share of problems, sure. Pretty mundane, from what I hear."
"So why can't you just leave?" Ethan asked.
"I would love to, but travel costs are high," the clerk answered. "Plus, I'm on a contract. Hopefully, it'll expire before I die, or some asshole kills me. Omega's a pretty dangerous place."
"Yeah. I got the picture." Ethan gazed at the terminal and tentatively touched the screen. After discovering it responded, he browsed the selection. He found a translator of high quality and an orange light that would fit over his forearm. "Hey, what's up with that wristband? Is that an omni-tool?" He pointed at the picture of the object on the terminal.
The clerk turned away from the shelf. "Huh? Oh, yeah. That's an omni-tool. They're multipurpose handheld computers. Everyone has one these days."
"So why would I need one?" Ethan had his Pip-Boy, so buying one of these things would be redundant to him.
"The omni-tool will also give you a kinetic barrier," the clerk answered. "It's weak, but it's better than nothing. It won't work against radiation and laser, temperature, slow-moving objects, like knives and sticks, and poison."
"Like this pistol here?" Ethan showed the clerk his new pistol.
The clerk brought his hand up to his chin and investigated the gun. "That's an M-3 Predator pistol. Heavy pistols like that pack a real punch against anyone with armor. They're mass accelerators, so they use metallic slugs, not bullets. They're accelerated by electromagnetic fields and enhanced by mass effect fields."
"What are mass effect fields?" Ethan asked.
"They are fields used by element zero, which releases dark energy when exposed to an electrical current," Liara answered. "It can increase or decrease the object's mass, with a positive charge increasing mass while a negative charge decreasing mass. But when a ship is moving faster than light, they can create static electricity charges. If you don't discharge that onto a planet's surface or its magnetic field, depending on the size of a ship, it'll go into the hull of a ship or a car instead and cause damage."
"Fusing bulkheads, destroying electronics, you name it," the clerk interjected.
"So it'll fry everything inside," Ethan replied.
The clerk shrugged. "Basically, yeah. Anyways, you can't fire your gun like crazy. It'll overheat. The new models use thermal clips instead, so you won't have to wait for the gun to vent out the heat."
"Maybe you two should've been teachers." Ethan smirked at his own joke. The clerk let out a chuckle while Liara smiled, clearly amused. He turned to the terminal and picked up the items he wanted. His eyes widened in shock when the screen revealed they cost a total of about 7,500. He expected something like a rare weapon or a suit of power armor to be expensive, not something like this omni-tool.
"Allow me." Liara stepped in and an orange light—her omni-tool—surrounded her left forearm. She tapped it with her right hand and the screen by the kiosk pinged.
"All right, here is your stuff." The clerk handed Ethan an eyepiece and a small, plain bracelet. "One Logic Arrest omni-tool and a Rosetta translator. Enjoy."
"Thanks," Ethan said, looking at Liara. "Do I owe you anything?"
"It's no problem," Liara replied. "Helping me further with finding my contact would suffice."
Ethan took the translator and the bracelet, fitting the translator over his eyes. When he turned it on, a holographic display appeared with shapes and lines flying. He looked at the bracelet now on his right wrist. Confused, he poked at random spots on the device, hoping it would respond to his prodding somehow.
"Button's at the side. It's easy to find," the clerk reminded him, pointing at a small, square button that produced from said spot.
Ethan followed his instructions, and an orange light appeared that enveloped his right forearm. "Thanks." His smile widened in elation as he messed around with the omni-tool, bringing up a paper-thin screen above the device. "Well, we better get going." He turned it off.
"Okay, see ya. Try not to die," the clerk called out.
Ethan and Liara sauntered out of the marketplace as he looked at the map in his Pip-Boy. He remembered passing by the nightclub earlier, making it a great place to gather some news from the locals.
"Any idea where your contact's at?" he asked. "Maybe the nightclub I passed by before?"
"Yes, it's called Afterlife," Liara answered. "I shouldn't keep him waiting."
Ethan raised an eyebrow at Liara. "You mean we, right?" he asked, to which the asari replied with an exasperated sigh.
After going through the manual on how to use the omni-tool, Ethan browsed a strange network known as the Extranet, trying to learn as much as possible on his and Liara's way to the nightclub, such as the giant, slouching elcors, with thick arms and vertical slits for a mouth, the avian-like turians, the blue-skinned, mono-gendered asari such as Liara T'Soni, the amphibian, grayhead-like salarian, and, of course, humans.
By the time he finished, much to Liara's annoyance as they had to stop every ten feet so he could find and process all this new information, someone large bumped into him, nearly sending him off his feet.
"Watch where you're going, human!"
Ethan looked before the lumbering alien stopped stumbling and turned around, revealing himself to be a large, reptilian creature with a crest on its head, tall as a super mutant. He resembled a gecko, but with the hump at the back of his head, and a… tortoise, perhaps. From what he could tell, this being was a krogan.
"What are you looking at?" he asked. He didn't speak in some alien language but in English. Ethan's translator worked like a charm.
Liara took a sharp breath as she stepped back. "Goddess, as if an angry krogan isn't bad enough, he's possibly drunk, too," she remarked. "We should be careful…"
The krogan frowned, his head tipping left and right. "Who the hell are you talking to like that, asari? I thought you would be as smart as you are pretty." He muttered something else quietly enough that Ethan's translator didn't catch. Whatever he said, Ethan assumed it wasn't polite.
"Somebody who met the welcoming party," Ethan answered. "Is that how you treat newcomers?"
Liara watched nervously, her eyes darting around as the unamused creature frowned, leaning closer to Ethan. "This is Omega. You got a problem with that?" he asked threateningly. Ethan gagged at the krogan's breath. Just what did he drink?!
"Yes, I do have a problem with—"
The krogan, without warning, grabbed onto Ethan's collar and yanked him off his feet, bringing him eye to eye with him. "Mind finishing that sentence, human?" he growled.
"Let him go!" Liara gritted her teeth, her raised hands balling into fists as her body glowed a dark blue. The krogan ignored her, his reptilian gaze fixated on Ethan.
Ethan felt a gun pushing against his ribcage. Considering the krogan's size, he did not want to test how tough he was with a single shot to the head with his pistol. With little time to waste, he pulled out his Bowie knife and struck at the edge of the plate.
In an instant, the smug look on the krogan's face turned into a scared one, and he cowered slightly. He put his pistol down. "Hey, calm down, human! I just want to go home in peace!"
Ethan sighed, relieved. "Okay. Good. Now, why don't you put me down and forget about this little incident?"
With no further resistance, the krogan did exactly that as Ethan pulled his Bowie knife out of his head plate and sheathed it. He narrowed his eyes and stared at the krogan's head crest, which the krogan scoffed sheepishly in response. "Whatever," he said before he paced and stumbled down the hallway.
"Are you okay?" Liara asked as he placed a hand on Ethan's shoulder. "I didn't think you could intimidate a krogan with a knife."
"I'm fine." Ethan smirked. "Not sure about that krogan, though. I'm pretty sure he'll have one hell of a hangover tomorrow."
Soon, they descended the stairs and entered the lower levels of Afterlife. It was filled with dark, colorful lights and loud, pulsating music. Looking around, he saw patrons of various species dance to the dark rhythms. Standing at the top of the bar was a pair of asari dancing in a seductive manner, reminding him very much of Gomorrah in the Strip.
"For the total reconstruction, the Citadel Council expects to spend approximately trillions of credits," he heard someone from a flatscreen television across the counter blared out.
"The Citadel Council? Are they the ones that govern the galaxy?" Ethan asked Liara.
"It's more of an executive committee composed of representatives from my kind, the turians, the salarians, and, two months ago, your species," Liara answered. "They don't run every part of the galaxy, though. Much of it remains unexplored. But right now, we have to focus on finding our contact."
It didn't take long for Ethan to spot who was most likely to be Liara's contact among the bar's patrons, sitting alone at the bar by the flat screen. Much to his surprise, it was the same hooded stranger who bumped into him earlier. Along with his hooded, sleeveless duster, the stranger was clad in layered, tan-green armor.
"Like that one over there?" Ethan asked, pointing at the hooded figure.
Liara looked at where Ethan was pointing. "I'm not sure. How can you tell that could be my contact?"
"The shady person wearing a trench coat to hide their identity?" Ethan retorted.
Liara pressed her lips together. "I see. If you're sure…" She sauntered to the hooded stranger while Ethan followed and sat down on a stool next to him.
"I apologize," Liara replied before she turned to the hooded stranger. "Things got in the way."
The stranger glanced at Ethan, who stood nearby with crossed arms in front of his chest. "Is he a bodyguard?"
"He's…" she sighed. "It's complicated. I helped him kill a batarian thug who was attacking him. He was hoping you have information on a way to fix some… device of his." She looked more closely at the hooded figure. "Since you know my name, I take it you're the contact?"
"Yes."
"Oh, gee whiz," Ethan commented sarcastically. "I never would have guessed."
"You have something to tell me about—" Liara said.
The hooded man shook his head. "No, not here." He scanned the bar before his dark eyes met hers. "Outside."
Neither Ethan nor Liara could say another word when he stood up and walked out of the bar. He wondered why the hooded stranger ended the conversation so soon. "We should follow him," Liara said to Ethan as she stood up and hurried out of the bar.
Ethan breathed in sharply, puffing his cheeks. "O-kay, then…" he said before catching up with the asari and the contact.
"It's not safe, walking around asking questions on Omega—even if you're from around here," the hooded man said as he, Liara, and Ethan crossed a bridge in the less populated part of Omega. Ethan glanced at one of the windows, seeing the distant stars blinking in and out in space. A giant asteroid field circled the station. He saw ships of various shapes and sizes traveling all over the station. "The information you're looking for wasn't easy to find—not even for me."
Ethan let out an annoyed scoff. "No shit this place isn't safe. We can handle ourselves—"
He couldn't say another word when the hooded man stopped in his tracks. He looked around before gesturing to the two before ducking into a nearby alleyway to his left.
Liara blinked in confusion before following the hooded man. Ethan scanned his surroundings before following the two into a twist of a circular hallway, the walls towering around him with dimming older lights. He didn't see anything out of the ordinary, but he had a feeling the hooded was into something.
"Are we being followed?" he asked.
"Yes," the hooded man answered as he lowered his hood. His scaly skin had a warm set of orange and green, reminding Ethan of a Lakelurk. At least he didn't try to kill him with a sonic shriek. From what he learned from the Extranet, this man was a drell, a reptilian species rescued from a dying homeworld by the hanar. "I'm Feron. Whatever you need, I can get information on it."
"That includes the commander?" Liara asked.
Ethan raised an eyebrow. Who was she talking about, he wondered.
"Dead. Or very close to it. It's hard to say. The body has been recovered, and in some kind of stasis pod," Feron explained. "If not dead, then certainly not alive." He shrugged. "I know you have come a long way. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news."
Frowning and clearly not what Liara heard, she crossed her arms. "I need—I need to see, Feron," she insisted. She looked away, her lip quivering slightly. "For myself."
"You're not the only one interested in finding Commander Shepard," Feron replied. "I suggest you let the dead sleep."
"Wait a minute," Ethan interjected. "Who's Commander Shepard?"
It was then he realized he wasted his breath as the two aliens gave him incredulous looks. "You…" Feron said uselessly.
"How do you not know who Shepard is?" Liara asked.
"You think you'd know her by her reputation, being human and all," said Feron.
"It's what I told Liara," Ethan replied, glancing at the asari. "I'm not from around here."
Feron grinned. "Aren't we all?"
Without warning, the sudden snaps and pops of gunfire forced Ethan to scramble behind the nearest wall, providing him with enough cover to not get shot. He should have seen this coming. It had ambush written all over it.
His new pistol now out, he tried to walk out, only for a hail of rounds stopping him, and he stumbled back. Something shattered like glass. Another round grazed the wall and hit his arm. He grunted in pain, his vision blurring for a moment.
A wave of pain washed over him. Through gritted teeth, he clutched his arm, blood leaking between his fingers like cracks forming in dried dirt. A moment later, the wound was stitched back together. The round, however small, did not dig far enough into his flesh to make his arm go limp. The bottlecaps he spent on the Monocyte Breeder and the Sub-Dermal Armor implants from Dr. Usanagi were well spent.
A blue blur surrounding his body confused him for a moment. Putting two and two together, and in connection to the glass-like substance that broke down earlier, he realized the omni-tool's shields had recharged.
He peeked, hoping not to get shot again. Ahead was a large group of humans, turians, and the four-eyed batarians. They wore blue-and-white suits of armor, carrying guns like the guards at the nightclub. Some of them even wore helmets, concealing their faces.
Behind him was Feron behind a large crate as he fired his Predator pistol at his perpetrators, with Liara next to him. She stood up, frowning, and balled her hand into a fist. A dark-blue aura surrounded her as she unclenched her hand and raised it above her head in quick succession.
A yelp brought Ethan's attention to a batarian that floated mid-air, his four eyes wide with terror, as a blue hue appeared underneath him and pushed him up to the ceiling. His allies opened fire on the asari as she extended her arm, and the batarian flew backward. She ducked back behind the crate, unscathed.
One armored shooter saw Ethan and turned toward a helmeted woman carrying a flamethrower with a large tank full of gas on her back. "Damn, we didn't get him. Remember: no witnesses!"
Ethan sighed and raised his chin. Great. Another bunch of idiots to deal with.
The woman nodded and moved towards Ethan. Taking advantage of the tank's exposure to gunfire, Ethan used his Pip-Boy, activating VATS—Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System. Peeking from cover, he aimed down at the sight of his pistol. According to its calculations, he had a decent chance of hitting the tank. For every shot, the chances go up slightly.
Time slowed down around him. Adrenaline rushed through Ethan's body as he fired three times at a rapid pace. Before the flamer realized what had happened, it was too late for her to react as the last shot hit the tank. The tank exploded in a fiery blast, engulfing her and two of the shooters nearby.
"Holy shit!" one shooter, another woman, barked. "Someone needs to take him out! Now!"
"On it," said a turian with white tattoos on his face, and blue lights appeared on his chest and his head. He approached Ethan with a bulky shotgun.
Ethan drew his Bowie knife and waited. When the turian was around the corner, he threw him against the adjacent wall. A struggle ensued as he thrust his knife into the turian. The turian attempted to push the knife away from his neck and dropped his gun. Ethan dazed the turian with a head-butt and stabbed him in the neck, dropping him.
More gunshots went off behind him. He turned to the drell, who was shooting back at their attackers. "Hey!" Feron shouted. "Get over here unless you wanna get shot!"
Ethan nodded while wiping the dead turian's blue blood off his knife. As he looked around for another weapon, he found a rifle attached to the turian's back. He yanked it off and immediately, it adjusted its size in his hands. As he inspected it, he found it was blocky, its barrel triangular. He smirked, finding it convenient somehow. He dashed out and fired at another shooter, a batarian, in three-round bursts, taking out his shields, and sliding behind a crate.
Ethan stood up when his shields refreshed and activated VATS again, shooting down more of the attackers in his direction.
"Who are these guys?" he asked loudly over the sound of slugs banging against the crate. He popped out of cover and grabbed an attacker that ran up to them, tossed him, and slammed him onto the ground. Ethan pulled his knife out and cut the armored man's throat, ending his life in an instant.
"Blue Suns. Mercenaries. Not the best kind of people to be around," Feron answered before standing up and firing a few shots at one of said mercenaries. "And I'm pretty sure a firefight isn't the time to ask questions."
"We can play Q&A after this if you like," Ethan retorted.
Feron ducked as a metal slug flew by, missing him by inches. "That's a good idea," he replied.
"At least we agreed on something." Ethan put his knife away and continued firing at the shooters.
No matter how many they killed, more entered the fray. Liara summoned a ball of biotic energy and formed it into a sphere in her hands. In a second, she launched the ball at the group in question, pulling those nearby toward it and flew around the object like they were like a string attached to a ceiling. Ethan and Feron focused their fire on the floating shooters as Ethan used VATS whenever he could. He ducked as one of them flew above him. He continued firing, with Liara firing her pistol at another new attacker running in on the scene.
One of the turians entered the fray with a large, bulky rifle in hand. Liara leaned out of cover and pulled off a new trick. A blue barrier appeared on the turian, preventing him from moving.
Without warning, one shooter dropped dead with a bloody hole in his head. "Sniper! Look out!" one other shooter, a dark-haired man with dark skin cried out. Another shot pierced through his head.
Several of the attackers got shot down. Feron ran first, dashing away. Liara came next, tossing away another one of the Blue Suns with her powers, and grabbed Ethan's arm, following the drell. None of them looked back as they ran.
"Which way?" Liara wondered.
"Somewhere safe, obviously," Ethan answered. "Maybe I can find one on my Pip-Boy."
Turning to another corner, the three came to a halt at the sight of three humans. Two hulking men in white armor, carrying smoothly shaped rifles, flanked a light-skinned woman with dark hair and a white uniform. Her fine, almost perfect facial features and well-endowed body made it hard for Ethan to tell if she was attractive or off-putting.
"Or maybe not," Feron remarked.
"Relax, drell. We're working toward the same goal: Finding Commander Shepard," the woman stated.
"Shepard is dead," Liara pointed out.
"That's what they say," the woman retorted, her hand on her hip. "But Shepard's beaten the odds before."
"Liara's not kidding about this Shepard being special," Ethan remarked as he stepped toward the woman. "So, who are you, anyway?"
The opposite three gave him confused looks. "I'm Miranda Lawson. Shepard's a hero, a bloody icon. And yet you have never heard of her?"
Liara sighed. "I'll explain to him. He has helped us so far." She turned to Ethan. "Shepard is…" She curled her lips. "None of us would be here if she hadn't stopped an invasion at the Citadel."
"Oh." Ethan nodded. "I've heard that she was killed in action not long ago. Terrible loss, if you ask me."
"Yes, that sounds about right," said Miranda. "This was... That was not what we expected."
"What do you want?" Liara asked.
"I'm here to take you to someone who's interested. He wants to meet with you. Work with us, and we might be able to resurrect Shepard."
Feron glanced at Liara, frowning as he folded his arms. "What's that supposed to mean?" Liara asked.
"Just come with me." Miranda brushed strands of hair from her face. "And you can bring your friends, too. We're not being choosy today."
The woman and her bodyguards headed off. Liara followed along, with Feron hanging back slightly.
"I have a bad feeling about this," the lizardman commented as Ethan caught up with him shortly after.
Ethan looked at Feron. "Well, let's see here. I got myself into a gunfight with you, and now we're working with a human supremacist group to find the corpse of a war hero I don't even know about." He couldn't help but smile at his idea of a joke. "Of course you have a bad feeling about this!"