Chapter Text
Hegemony and Flotilla Book One: Traitor
Four months after the Geth attack on the Citadel.
1
Her pilgrimage was not going well. Had Sia the chance to start over, she’d have gone anywhere else. If she’d come of age in the last couple of months she’d have gone to the Citadel. There might have been a lot of work cleaning up after the Geth attack, and who knows what they might have left behind in the computers? Instead, she chose Omega. Everyone warned her what Omega was like. She thought they were exaggerating. Surely it couldn’t have been as bad as they said? That attitude lasted three days. Four years later, she was still stuck there.
It seemed like a good idea at the time. She had been chasing some idealistic dream of helping the downtrodden residents of this ancient, impoverished mining station. The flotilla was impoverished, and that brought everyone together. People helped each other to survive. She was told that wasn’t the galactic norm, but she never quite believed it. Her white suit, with light blue and gold-patterned cloth adornments looked particularly out of place among the bleak rusted metal and meteoric rock. Now, it was dulled and caked in four years of dust and grime.
Instead of helping a downtrodden people, she found herself in four years of hell. What credits she set out with were lost in scams or overpaid for necessities. Near the end of her first month, the last of them were taken at gunpoint. Sia was trapped, unable to afford transport to anywhere else. She’d tried to find work on merchant vessels, trading services for transport. She didn’t care where they were bound, anywhere had to be better than this. But she quickly discovered people didn’t like Quarians very much.
Those captains initially interested in hiring her had hoped to make use of her people’s legendary engineering skills. They were not enthusiastic when she told them her expertise was in software, not hardware, and especially not starship maintenance. More than a few captains accused her of simply wanting to steal their cargo. She took whatever work she could. Her latest job was the worst yet. She worked in one of Omega’s eezo mines, using her relatively modest engineering abilities on basic drill maintenance.
“Sorry I’m late…I was held up by….” Sia started explaining to the foreman, a Batarian named Tohral. He wore armour. As far as she could tell, its only purpose was to make him more intimidating as he shouted at the workers.
“I really don’t care.” He interrupted. “It’s coming out of your pay as usual. You’re lucky I don’t flog you like the others.” He said, tapping his hand on a barbed whip he hung from his belt.
The one time this damn immune system’s helpful. Sia thought to herself.
“Yes, sir.” She answered quietly. When dealing with Tohral, she’d learned it’s best to act small. He was the sort who enjoyed the power he had over his workers. She bit back a snide comment. As much as she’d enjoy it, she once saw him break a Human worker’s arm for that.
“Drill four’s clogged, and I think Salarian what’s-his-name’s lungs have finally given up. Don’t come back till it’s going again, suit-rat.”
“Yes, sir.” She answered again. This was the only work she could find at the moment. At least the only conscionable work. Drill maintenance. Everyone saw her suit and assumed she could fix anything. She wasn’t completely incapable, but people saw a Quarian and expected a miracle worker.
Her coworkers were either those too down of their luck to care that breathing eezo dust would shorten their lives by decades, or Vorcha who lived short lives anyway. No one working near the drills could afford protective equipment, and it was cheaper to replace workers than protect them. In that, Sia reluctantly admitted her suit was helpful. Though her filters were needing more and more maintenance as the weeks went by. She wasn’t sure how long she could keep this job up before they gave way entirely, and she couldn’t afford to replace them. She earned just enough to survive off nutrient paste, and slept in crawlspaces, vents and other areas she could stay hidden.
Sia left Tohral’s office and went up the stairs to drill four. She followed the tunnel the drill had carved over the last few weeks. The drill itself the size of a large shuttle and left a tunnel so large one could comfortably fly one through. Several of her Vorcha coworkers were in the tunnel. They looked at her as she walked past, but they mostly ignored her. Even they learned making trouble for other workers brought on the whip. They were going about their own work, moving mass-effect-lightened carts of ore down the tunnel, away from the drill. There were a few non-Vorcha around. Often Humans or Batarians with no other options. They tended to be resigned to their fate, and their rapidly shortening lifespans. As Sia started getting close to the drill, she stopped. The ground was vibrating, she could hear the engine rumbling and the deafening noise of rock being ground down. The drill was going.
Workers here never helped each other, no one would have done the job Tohral gave her. He wasn’t usually wrong. If he said the drill was clogged, it was clogged. She was nervous about going back to Torhal and saying he was wrong. At least she should inspect the drill to make sure there was nothing else going on. It was then that she noticed the other workers were being especially quiet. Tohral was strict, but he didn’t care about noise so long as it didn’t impact productivity. Sia turned around to see what was going on. There were a group of dark-dressed figures approaching. As they got close, she saw they were both armed and armoured.
They all had the body shapes of either Humans or Batarians. Their armour was black and unmarked. They wore closed helmets with tinted visors that only covered a narrow slit where a human’s eyes, or a Batarians lower set of eyes would be. Three of them had assault rifles, the one in front had a shotgun. Sia was standing near the middle of the tunnel. From this distance it was hard to see if they were walking towards her, or if she was just in the way. She began walking as casually as she could towards the left wall. The group turned slightly. They were coming for her. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but she didn’t like this. She looked down and started moving towards a group of Vorcha by a cart. They looked at her, then the approaching group and made themselves scarce.
“Sia’Taen nar Moreh?” Their leader called out as they got close. His voice gave him away as Human. Their use of her full name worried her. She stopped telling people her clan and ship names the first month she was here. It was around the time she stopped thinking anyone would care. Everyone in this mine just called her ‘suit-rat’ or ‘suit-scum’. None of them ever bothered learning even her personal name.
Sia looked down the tunnel towards the drill, then back at them. “I’m sorry, I don’t know who that is. I’ve got work to do.”
“Work? As you can see, the drill’s working fine. We understand you’re an expert on VI and AI software. We have a real job for you.”
Sia’s eyes narrowed. She stopped telling people that by the end of her third month. It was the moment she realised all anyone wanted her skills for was extortion and financial crime. The sorts of work that would get her killed on Omega. These humans knew far too much about her.
Sia looked back at her coworkers. A human in the distance was pretending to not notice any of this was happening. She was tempted at the prospect of a real job, but her gut was telling her this was wrong. She eyed their weapons again. None were pointing at her, but each of the humans had their fingers near the triggers. Each was standing firm on the ground. Each of them also had an electrical stun-baton at their side. Sia suspected whoever they were, whatever they wanted, that they weren’t about to take ‘no’ for an answer.
“I think you’ve got me mistaken for another Quarian, if you’ll excuse me.” Their leader aimed his shotgun at her, the others followed suit.
“There aren’t many Quarians on Omega. There are no other Quarian women on this decrepit rock wearing bright blue and gold cloth, who speak with that accent. Come with us now, Sia’Taen.”
That set off even more alarm bells in her head. The science fleet liked to train their children to be scientists, who’d usually pick other science ships to settle on after their pilgrimages. Given two centuries, and that sort of insular society had developed an accent of their own. There were Quarians in the other fleets with that accent, but it was far more common on their science ships. Sia’s accent was distinctly science fleet, like her parents’, like their colleagues, like that of Admiral Xen herself.
“Look, I’ve got a job to do and Tohral doesn’t like…”
“We paid that four eyes enough replace you three times over. Batarian scum only care about lining their own pockets.”
Sia looked around. A few Vorcha were watching, but they entertained more than anything. Her suit had no barriers. She wasn’t a soldier. She received only the most basic training they thought a scientist, daughter of scientists would need. At least her father had insisted on fitting her omni-tool with basic overload and weapon overheating functions when she insisted on Omega. Sia didn’t like her chances. If she was going, she’d at least put up a fight first.
“Tana’Vael vas Lorai, patron ancestor of protectors, grant me yours this day.” she silently prayed. As fast as she could, Sia activated her omni-tool’s holographic interface, and got slammed in the gut by the back of the Human’s shotgun. She collapsed to the ground, surrounded by the laughs of these humans, and the distant Vorcha. Within seconds, she was blindfolded, wearing manacles and being led…somewhere.
Six days had gone by. Sia was still locked in her cell, a room half the size of her family’s quarters in the flotilla. The walls were thick, laminated glass. Sia had a decent amount of experience with the Humans of Omega. They tended to be the same sort of scum as everyone else here. Rough, ill-mannered and just as untrustworthy as the Batarians. The more heavily armed, the rougher and more ill-mannered they tended to be. These Humans were the most heavily armed she’d ever seen, but they were very different. They were organised and disciplined. They never identified themselves. None of them told her their names, nor who their group was.
Their weapons and armour were more advanced than anything Sia had seen before. Over the last six days, all they did was repeat their demands, threats and attempts to negotiate. They wanted her to break through the security of a particularly well-encrypted data file. They refused to tell her what it was, or where they got it. Despite their threats, they seemed to know enough about the fragility of Quarian immune systems to not do her any direct harm. They needed her alive. They knew it, and so did she. And so they played a waiting game. Even after rationing, Sia was almost out of nutrient paste. She knew it was only a matter of time before hunger compelled her to give in. She would have already, if they hadn’t been so insistent that she doesn’t ask what the file was, or where it came from. That bothered her more than anything else.
Sia had always been observant. Quarians tended to be. A byproduct of being a social people who were unable to see each other’s faces. Sia was observant, even for a Quarian. She’d tried counting the number of her captors based on the small details that differentiated them. One had scuff marks on his shoulder he couldn’t remove. One was significantly taller than the others. There were two women. One of them looked stronger than any of the men. One man always fidgeted when he sat guarding her cell. Their leader was the only one to show his face.
He came by a couple of times. He wore clothing instead of armour, in the style of the more well-off humans she’d seen on Omega. He was thin, middle aged with short dark hair and a thick but tidy moustache. He always stood bolt upright. Even the guards slouched from time to time, but he didn’t. He spoke with an accent very similar to that of Admiral Koris. She found that strange at first but eventually dismissed it as a quirk of her suit’s translator. The first time he came by, he offered enough credits to pay for a ticket to any port in the terminus systems. Sia was seriously considering that, until he followed it up by threatening to have one of the guards smash her visor and leave her to die from infection if she didn’t.
He was spoke with an air of dignity, even when he was threatening her. None of the others ever spoke in front of her. The last time he came by was that morning. He had asked how much longer her suit’s nutrient paste and water recycler would last. Sia didn’t answer. Her people evolved to live on a hot, arid planet. Their water requirements were somewhat less than most, but she’d only last another couple of days before her recycler couldn’t produce enough water to stave off the early effects of dehydration.
With her omni-tool taken she didn’t have a lot of options, but she wasn’t powerless. On the first day, she’d started working on her suit’s internal computer. She could access it through a control panel on her wrist, but there was always a guard outside her cell. Working only when they were distracted was agonisingly slow, and some guards were distracted a lot more often than others.
She quickly realised that pace was getting her nowhere, so instead she reprogrammed her mask’s ocular sensors to be able to type lines of code using only movements of her eyes. It was still agonisingly slow, painstaking work. It was taking hours to do what she could in minutes with an omni-tool, and the constant mistakes from such an awkward way of programming were getting on her nerves. It wasn’t until this morning that she finally got into their network. Now, Sia could see through their cameras. She suspected she had access to the lock on her cell door as well. She confirmed that there were eight humans, though the camera network didn’t cover their whole compound. Unfortunately, their data files were too heavily protected to hack with this clumsy method. She had begun to wonder if this was yet another idea she hadn’t properly thought through.
Sia began her hourly ritual again, looking through all their camera feeds. From the front exterior camera, it looked like she was in a free-standing structure in a district on Omega that was laid out with open streets instead of winding corridors. She saw nothing different to last time. Black-armoured Humans patrolling. Night shift personnel sleeping. As far as she could tell, all her captors were human. She stopped her spying as her suit’s clock turned to 1430 hours Omega time. Right on cue as normal, her guard changed over. Just as normal, neither spoke to each other in front of her. There was a part of her that admired their punctuality.
This time it was the guard who slouched a little more than the others. He was the quickest to grow bored of guarding her cell, and the quickest to playing with his weapon. The best one for what she wanted to try. She needed him distracted. Just for a minute, and she had another skill she could make use of.
“Hey, glad to have you guarding my cell again. What was your name? You didn’t tell me last time.” Sia was talking deliberately fast, and deliberately high pitched. She’d practiced a few tones over the last few days, this one seemed to grind at them the most.
“You know I always liked you, though not as much as that one with the scuffed pauldron. You know, you remind me of Janu. She was always a bit of a pain, if I’m honest. Always liked to show off her suit’s upgrades. “Ooh, my father develops suit software”. She was always acting like she was better than us “Oooh look Sia, my suit can translate Hanar script” as if that would ever come up….
There was this one time, Kael caught her being particularly nasty to me. So, he hacked her suit to play Krogan music on full blast whenever she tried talking. Somehow, I ended up sharing the blame for that. Can you believe it? Kael tried to say it was all him, but we both ended up having to spend after-school time on garbage detail. My parents were not happy with me. The captain wouldn’t show it, but I’m pretty sure he found it hilarious. I suppose you know what that’s like, don’t you? Disappointing your parents, I mean.”
His fidgeting was growing more frequent and intense. He closed one of his fists, then started studying his gun. She was glad he was disciplined, or he’d probably start beating her right now. She wouldn’t have been comfortable trying this if she hadn’t spent days testing their discipline more and more.
“Janu’s older than me, finished her pilgrimage already. She’s still sending me passive-aggressive emails. Can’t you kidnap her instead? She still acts all high and mighty, like she’s better than the rest of us. We can’t all have the best suit upgrades the science fleet can scrounge up Janu! I think Toro had a thing for her just before they went on pilgrimage. Can’t imagine what he sees in her. “Some people are proud of their suits.” he’d probably tell me. Honestly can you believe him?”
By the end of her rant, Sia received the satisfaction of her guard covering his helmet’s audio-receptors with his hands as he stared down at the ground. She couldn’t resist one final jab “You are such a good listener. There’s so much more gossip I want to share.”
She did wonder how far his discipline would go, but it worked. He was trying to avoid paying her any attention. Sia activated the line of code she’d prepared, and her cell unlocked. Then she locked it again. He didn’t react. He didn’t notice. It worked. Now what? Sia thought to herself, her heart sinking. She was suddenly starting to wonder if this was yet another plan she hadn’t thought through properly. She could see everything, she could unlock or lock the doors, but she had no idea how to get past eight armed, disciplined guards.
Sia had another look through this compound’s camera feeds. The coverage wasn’t complete. She had nothing from wherever their leader spent his time. She had been listening to their com traffic since she’d infiltrated their system. Not that there was much of it. They kept radio silence besides cryptic updates in a code she didn’t understand from time to time. Scanning the external and internal cameras again, she didn’t see much this time either. Usual foot traffic walking past the front door, a group of Vorcha in the distance. Bored, she continued cycling through the feeds and almost passed over something odd in a storage room. A small circle of the metal floor had started glowing red. She couldn’t see any obvious cause.
Suddenly, the voice of her abductor was shouting over the comm. “TIC, repeat TIC. Multiple Tangos: Venezuela, by Foxtrot Delta. All Meat-Eaters go Kinetic.”
Sia had no idea what any of that meant, but his tone sounded urgent. Her guard stood up. It was obvious from the indicator that her cell was locked, but he manually tried the door to make sure. Satisfied, he sprinted out the only exit from the makeshift brig.
She cycled back through the other camera feeds, trying to work out what was happening. The group of Vorcha she had seen in the outside the front door were now taking cover. They were firing a scattered assortment of weapons at the door and windows and taking fire in return. Something seemed off about all of this. Vorcha had a reputation for violence, but they usually picked easier targets than a compound full of heavily armed Humans. She cut back to the storeroom feed. The red glowing spot now looked like the flame of a plasma cutter, working its way through the floor. Someone was cutting their way in.
This was her chance. She had to get away. She wasn’t keen on being found by either the Humans, Vorcha or whoever was cutting their way in. Now that she wasn’t being watched, she could work through their network much faster with her suit’s access panel. Within two minutes, she locked everyone but herself out of all the cameras and door locks.
Sia didn’t know where she was going. The cameras in their network weren’t listed in any particular order. But this was the first chance she had to escape in six days; she might not get another. She ran out the brig’s door and entered a corridor which split ahead and to the left. She was blindfolded when she was brought in. She didn’t know what was waiting to the left, but she could hear gunfire from ahead. She stopped, hesitating. The gunfire was coming from the front door. She hadn’t seen another entrance on the cameras. The path to the left might lead to a back door, but if there wasn’t one, she’d only get herself trapped deeper in the compound. It was then a door down the passage to the left opened. One of the human commandos came rushing out, still trying to put pieces of his armour on as he ran. He still didn’t have his helmet on, but it looked like the human with the pauldron scuff. He raised his assault rifle.
“What the hell? Back to your cell suit-scum, before we find out just how long you can stave off infection with a bullet hole in your leg!”
Sia then saw something else. A strange ripple in the air behind him. She saw a small part of the ripple envelop his throat, something moving too slow for his kinetic barriers to block. Then there was a spray of blood. The human fell to the ground as the rippling effect gave way to a taller and bulkier armoured humanoid.
His body, hand and knee shapes gave him away as either a Human or Batarian under his heavy armour. He was a tall, bulky example in either case. His helmet was sealed, with a black tinted glass visor covering the entirety of his face. At first, she thought his armour was metallic, it was painted a metallic maroon, but scratches and dents revealed a more advanced ceramic composite underneath the paint. It seemed like whoever designed it wanted it to appear much cheaper and less advanced than it really was. Sticking out of his pauldrons, gauntlets and breastplate were long, sharp blades. She couldn’t imagine what use they could have, other than intimidation. The armoured figure wiped the human commando’s blood off of a large kukri knife about the length of her forearm and placed it in a sheath attached to the front of his left shoulder. He had two weapons collapsed on his back.
“Who are you?” he barked. When he spoke, his voice gave him away as either Batarian, or a Human with a modulator.
“I…” Sia couldn’t think. She’d seen some brutal things on Omega, but not someone’s throat cut right in front of her. She tried to slow her breathing. “I’m a prisoner. I just escaped my cell.”
“Right…yes…I should have guessed from his words “back to your cell”. Cerberus don’t usually take prisoners. They wanted you to decrypt something didn’t they?” he asked, his tone suddenly a lot calmer.
“Yes. Who are you? and what the hell is Cerberus?”
“No time. Paid some Vorcha to take a few pot shots out front. Doubt they’ll stick around long. These people stole that file from my employer. Help me recover it, and I’ll make sure you’re compensated.”
“I…maybe. What is it?” She asked.
“No idea. But it’s probably not the sort of thing you’d want to fall into their hands” he said, kicking the dead Human.
Sia stood for a moment, unsure what to do. This person made her uneasy. His odd fixation on knives and blades wasn’t helping. He looked like a mercenary, or a pirate. Brutal and violent, but oddly he was one of the more polite people she’d met on this damned rock. She considered her options. She didn’t have many. If he had to pay Vorcha to serve as a distraction, he was probably working in a small team, or alone. At least he’d be easier to escape than eight guards.
She needed to test him. “I don’t know….” She answered.
“Then feel free to leave. Though the Humans are concentrated by the only door, and I don’t recommend the way I came in.” His use of the word ‘Human’ confirmed to Sia that he must be Batarian.
“Why not?” she asked.
“Because you’ll trigger every lethal trap I set up.” He answered with a dismissive hand wave.
Sia stared, bewildered that this…whatever he was, would lay traps through his only escape route.
“When you put it that way…. Assuming you’re telling the truth, and you are simply recovering something stolen from your employer. Fine, I’ll help but you better not be misleading me.”
“Good. If they thought you could decrypt it, you’d probably break through their firewall a lot faster than I could.”
“Oh, I’ve been in for days….”
The helmeted figure stared. Sia wished she could see what his expression was. Sia bent down to the human and plied their omni-tool off their arm, fixing it to hers. She then picked up his assault rifle. She’d never fired a gun outside of a shooting range, and never at a living target. Sia had never trained for combat. She was a scientist. If nothing else, at least she wouldn’t feel so defenceless.
After a moment, the armoured figure responded “Ok then. Since you’re holding that weapon wrong…follow at a distance, keep yourself scarce and try not to die”. Before turning to go, he picked a small disc from his belt, lifted the human commando’s body slightly and placed it under.
“What’s that?” She asked
“We’re outnumbered. We need any advantage we can get.” He answered. She wasn’t sure what he meant by that. Sia didn’t like any of her options. She didn’t like being in the presence of whoever this was. But worst of all was the thought of going back into that cell. At the moment, following him seemed the least bad of an array of terrible options. At least he hadn’t threatened her yet.
Over their comm she heard the orders continue to come through, most of them just as cryptic. As they got half-way down the corridor towards the sounds of gunfire, the comm activated again.
“Oscar 4 located. Assessing vita….” Sia jumped slightly as a small explosion sounded behind her.
“What the hell was that?” She demanded.
“Thinning their numbers” He responded. He had the distinct tone of someone not understanding her complaint.
“That’s monstrous” Sia remarked, realising he’d placed a motion-activated explosive under the fallen Human’s corpse.
“These are not good people. The galaxy is better off without them, not to mention how they kept you prisoner. What difference does it make whether I gun them down or kill them with traps?”
Sia wasn’t sure how to answer that. It felt wrong, but she struggled to put into words exactly why. The unknowns were eating at her. She needed to know more. Before she could voice her concerns, they came to the end of the corridor. To their left was a closed door, on the other side was the sound of gunfire.
The Batarian made some gesture with his hand which Sia didn’t understand. A closed fist, and a motion backwards. All she could think was to keep back. The armoured figure opened the door and seemed to abandon caution, charging through shotgun in hand. There were four human commandos on the other side. One on either side of the front door, and two behind a barricade five metres back from it. There was a fifth on the ground, bleeding heavily from several holes in his chest.
Sia peaked around the corner. It looked like the Vorcha were starting to pull out. She saw at least four bodies lying just beyond the door. The guards were so distracted by the active combat, they didn’t notice the red-armoured Batarian was virtually on top of them. He opened up with his shotgun twice at point blank range. The first shot tore through the barriers of one of the humans behind the barricade. The second splattered the barricade with pieces of his skull and brain matter. The second human spun around, but before he could bring his assault rifle to bear, two more shots at close range tore his head apart as well. The Batarian’s shotgun started alarming, his rapid fire had overheated it. Sia’s brief marksmanship training had taught her to always aim for the centre of mass. She wasn’t sure why he insisted on making headshots. The two Humans by the door spun around and took multiple rapid-fire hits before he ducked down behind the barricade. A few of the shots impacted his barriers, Sia noticed electrical discharges before they fell. She’d never bullets which carried a charge like that before.
The rest of the shots impacted his armour. It was dented in several places, in a couple close together he started slowly bleeding. He didn’t seem particularly bothered. His armour must have slowed the bullets enough to make them shallow wounds. She almost envied that. To be wounded, without needing to spend a week sick and bedbound.
The two Humans by the doors split. They lay down suppressive fire as they slowly advanced in opposite directions. Most of the poorly aimed shots went wide, a few impacted his cover. The Batarian quickly applied medi-gel to each of his wounds.
Sia could see what the Humans were doing. Alternating suppressing fire, they kept him pinned while they moved to encircle him. Sia activated the omni-tool. A brief scan showed an overheating programme on the quick-access screen. She launched its tech-mine at the closest human commando and his weapon started clicking instead of firing. She ducked back around, then peered around the corner once more. It looked like he was too focused on the Batarian to notice her. Just as she thought she’d turned the fight around, the human pressed a button on the side of his weapon. A red, glowing cannister dropped to the ground. Within two seconds, he’d loaded another cannister in its place and continued firing. Some sort of ejectable heat sink? She wondered. She’d never seen anything like that before either.
Sia aimed her assault rifle around the door frame and started firing at the closest human. She’d never fired a gun larger than a pistol. She wasn’t prepared for the recoil and sprayed a large number of bullets at the target, up the wall and finally at the roof. Two shots impacted his barriers. He spun around. Seeing her, he lowered his assault rifle and started glowing a shimmering blue. Sia felt a massive impact on her chest as she was thrown against the wall. The impact knocked the wind out of her, and she was left gasping for air.
When she looked up, the red-armoured Batarian was sprinting towards her. Sia tried to move but couldn’t. All she could do was gasp. Everything hurt. The armoured figure didn’t run far. After rounding the corner, he lay prone on the ground, shotgun at the ready. Silently he placed a hand over his helmet’s visor. Another gesture she didn’t understand. She was still trying to decipher what it meant when she saw him fade from view again. Sia had just started getting a hold of her breathing when she heard a high-pitched clink of metal on metal, followed by deafening bang and blinding light. For a moment, her whole world was a blinding light and deafening ringing in her ears. As her vision began to return, she saw the two humans dead in front of her.
The Batarian stood up. “Relatively low numbers teach Human military to fight careful. They tend to hurl flashbangs around blind corners before advancing.” He held out a hand to help her up. She ignored it and got up on her own.
“These people are Alliance military?” She asked, her head still ringing.
“No…Not anymore.”
Ghorren activated his omni-tool. The blades on his armour broke back down into omni-gel, absorbed through tubing into his reserve tank.
“Don’t even get me started on how many hours someone would have wasted programming your converter to make those pointless knives.” Sia muttered.
“Oh, and to think I was about to offer you some of your own....” he answered. Sia hadn’t interacted with many Batarians other than Tohral, but she knew enough to recognise their sarcasm.
“With how crowded our ships are? I’d be an accidental mass murderer…”