by Colin Cook
hooded head down to Shepard as he spoke.
"Spectres are an ideal, a symbol. The embodiment of courage, determination, and self-reliance. They are the right hand of the Council, instruments of our will," the Asari
continued, raising her head proudly. The Turian Counselor placed his hands behind his back, setting his jaw and standing tall in classic military rigidness.
"Spectres bear a great burden. They are the protectors of galactic peace, both our first and last line of defense. The safety of the galaxy is theirs to uphold."
With a genuine smile and a sweeping hand gesture down to the Speaker's platform, the Asari finished the momentous proclamation.
"You are the first Human Spectre, Commander. This is a great achievement for you and your entire species."
Closing his eyes for a moment, Shepard bowed his head in deep respect.
"I'm honoured Counselors."
"We're sending you into the Traverse after Saren. He's a fugitive from justice, so you are authorized to use any means necessary to apprehend or eliminate him," the
Salarian stated.
"Do we have any leads that might help me find him?" Shepard asked with a cocked eyebrow.
"We will forward any relevant files to Ambassador Udina," the Turian said with a nod over to the Ambassador.
"This meeting of the Council is adjourned," the Asari stated with finality before she and her fellow Counselors turned and departed.
"There you have it. The first Human Spectre knighted right before our eyes," I stated with a firm clap of my hands as I sat up straight.
"I thought it would be at least another decade before the Council would even consider accepting a Human," Haxon remarked as Udina and Anderson began speaking to
Shepard about the various things he would need before beginning his chase.
"Well with this over, and Shepard now inadvertently giving us everything we need, I think its time we got out of here and headed back to the ship."
Quickly standing up and moving back across the roof to the area I had landed on when I first got up here, I extended my left arm and activated my grappling hook.
"Are you sure you want to try this again?" Haxon asked as the Serrated Dart-Head from Hell snapped out from my gauntlet.
"I think I'm just going to swing across this time. When I come overtop of the soil beds, disengage the dart-hook and allow me to fall," I instructed as I aimed up toward
the top roof of another walkway on the other side of the sitting area surrounded by trees and bushes, pressing the fire button and shooting the dart across the distance
into the wall far up ahead of me. With a tight breath, I leapt from the roof, swinging through the air on the grappling-hook's cable like Tarzan. As I glided across the third
vine covered level of the soil beds, Haxon caused the serrated edges of the dart head to fold back up into their main body, which in turn allowed me to retract the cable in
a flash and fall down onto the second soil bed, softly landed sprayed out on my back within a thick cluster of bushes and exotic flowers.
"See, that wasn't so bad, and still nobody…" I began as I sat up on the crushed plants and started brushing myself off. Suddenly however, a faint whine briefly came out of
my left gauntlet, accompanied by an erratic flash of pixeled light racing across the surface of my body.
"…Saw me?" I finished with a frown. As I patted myself down in confusion, a thought came to mind that caused me to stiffen in apprehension.
"Haxon, please tell me…"
"The cloaking device is malfunctioning, everyone can see you now! It appears to have suffered damage that must have been accumulating since the Citadel's Defense
Turret shot us down!" Rolling backwards into a crouch farther within the bushes, I kept my head down low as I peered through the thick crisscrossing foliage, eyeing
several people chitchatting in the sitting area just one soil-bed down from me.
"Can you fix it? Remember we're still Number One on C-Sec's hit list," I whispered quietly before ducking my head even lower under the branches surrounding me, having
just sighted a squad of fully armoured Human Chamber guards move into the area.
"The more I look into it the more damage I'm finding, this'll take a bit longer than some of my other patch jobs. I'm sorry Axel, this could take me a good ten minutes to
fix properly," the A.I. apologized as he reviewed the beat up device. Giving an understanding nod, I squinted my eyes a bit as I summed up each guard that was ushering
any politicians or civilians out of the sitting area, while others were poking the barrels of their assault rifles into the shrubbery of the first soil-bed in search of something.
"No worries, I just need to find something to cover my head with," I said before a small smirk crept across my face, my gaze zeroing in on one guard in particular that
had just sat himself down on a bench close to my position.
"And I think I just found it." Employing as much stealth into my movements as my Army training had given me, I slowly advanced through the greenery down to the first
level.
"There's no sign of what caused the scream over here. Lets move the search up one level," one of the helmeted and armoured guards said to the others after they had
completed their sweep of the sitting area.
"You guys go on ahead, I'll catch up in a minute," one of the guards said with a wave of his hand as he tiredly sat down on one of the area's benches, resting his back
against the first level of soil-beds that ran behind him. As he did so, he laid his rifle down beside himself and pulled his helmet off his head. Laying that down too, he
reached to his belt and pulled out a small container filled with cigarettes.
"Come on Frank, not now. We just got our first Spectre finally, don't you think we should put a little extra effort into today's shift to show the Council we actually
deserved that," one of the men asked over to the younger guard with a gesture up to the Council Pit. Frank merely stuck the cigarette in his mouth and casually pulled
out a lighter from his pocket.
"Everybody's got their vices Bill, and I haven't indulged mine all day. Don't worry, I'll be with you guys in a bit," Frank said over to the other guy as he ignited the lighter
and placed it at the tip of his cigarette, holding it there for a moment before a wisp of smoke began to roll up. All the other guards just sighed in annoyed defeat, some
shaking their heads with distain as they turned and began making their way out of the area.
"Just make sure nobody sees you," Bill commented over his shoulder on his way out. Frank merely chuckled as he sucked in a breath and exhaled a cloud of smoke,
basking in the relaxing feeling of the nicotine that was beginning to run through his system.
However, that feeling was abruptly shattered as a large metal scale covered arm flashed into existence and wrapped tightly around his neck!
Frank's eyes bulged as the arm squeezed tighter, cutting off his flow of air and preventing him from crying out. Dropping his cigarette, the guard grabbed on to the
attacking arm with one hand, desperately trying to pull it away from himself while he extended his free hand out to Bill and the others as they continued walking away
from him. Even as he tried forcing a scream or a gasp to gain his fellow guards' attention, Frank's attacker roughly clamped their second hand over his mouth and nose,
snuffing out the small choking noises coming from his throat. After a moment of struggling, Frank's eyes widened in paralyzing fear as Bill and the other guards obliviously
walked away until they had disappeared from view, leaving him completely alone and without help in the deserted sitting area. Then quite suddenly the guard's mysterious
attacker began pulling him up from the bench into the bushes of the soil-bed!
Despite his rapid thrashing and kicking, Frank could only manage a weak
scream against the gloved palm of his assailant as he was dragged out of sight deeper into the
multi-coloured foliage.
"Have you done this before?" Haxon asked in alarm as I roughly threw back my weight and pulled the panicking guard into the thickest most concealing part of the
shrubbery, grunting slightly as I turned over and forced him onto his front.
"In training, dozens of times…" I began through bared teeth, fighting against the man's struggles as they started becoming more erratic, dodging my head from side to
side to avoid his flailing arms as he tried reaching back to grab me.
"In real life, only once or twice," I finished, pressing my left knee into his back and pulling myself up slightly, making the guard painfully arch his torso and fuel every last bit
of strength he had left into pulling my arm away from his neck.
"But you do know how to do it without killing him?" Haxon asked quickly as the guard began to slowly weaken in his fighting, his throat letting out a raspy wheezing
sound.
"The trick is in restricting the carotid artery for the right amount of time, that way they'll fall asleep about a minute before they die, giving the attacker enough opportunity
to let go of them before its too late," I ground out as I put all of my own strength into the final constriction, tightening the grip my left hand had on my right arm so that I
was correctly squeezing the before mentioned artery. For another second the guard continued weakening until his hands finally fell away from my arm, the wheezing
sound coming from behind the other hand I had clamped over his mouth and nose becoming a constant background noise.
"Relax. I'm a doctor," I whispered into his ear through my own labored breath, followed soon after by the guard's entire body going limp.
For a moment I held him tightly to make sure he was knocked out before releasing my grip on his neck and pressing two fingers against the artery I had restricted.
"Sleep tight pal, and thanks for the helmet," I said with a small smile as I felt the thumping of the guard's pulse against my fingers, showing that he was still alive and well.
"So: soldier, fugitive, pirate, Iron Man, intergalactic traveller, and now…doctor? What exactly haven't you achieved in your life?" Haxon listed off humourously as I quickly
pushed through the leaves of the bushes and climbed out of the soil-bed into the open space of the sitting area.
"Well I'm not actually a doctor, that was just a line I picked up from a Sherlock Holmes movie," I said with a chuckle as I looked around the area, seeing no witnesses
within incriminating range. Turning back to the bed, I picked up the guard's assault rifle and tossed it into the shrubs, followed by the remains of his cigarette after I picked
up the smoking death stick and crushed it against the bench.
"Smoking kills anyway, Frank. It's a disgusting habit," I said loosely over to the bushes the sleeping guard was lying in, stooping down and picking up Frank's helmet before
quickly sliding it over my head.
"It's a bit tight but it should do," I said with a wince as I shoved the smaller fitting helmet down over my face, looking out ahead of myself through its clear slit visor.
With my identity now safe for the moment, I began briskly walking out of the sitting area into the main stretch of the Chambers. Straight up ahead, Darren's taxi was still
patiently awaiting my arrival, with the enthusiastic hippy beckoning to me through the windshield at the moment. However I chose to stop for a second as I saw the other
hover taxi that had originally brought Shepard and his crew begin to rise up overtop of the pink tree they had parked beside, the Commander's side-profile visible in the
front seat through the window. Tracking it with my eyes, I watched the taxi screech off through the air down the length of the Chambers, disappearing from sight as it
banked left and exited through one of the many Air Traffic entranceways built into the ceiling.
"See you guys soon," I said to myself with a chuckle as I thought back to the Replicator Dart that was tracking Shepard at this very moment.
"Maybe not as soon as you think," Haxon said forebodingly, causing me to frown and look around for what he meant. Right away I froze as I saw it, my muscles
tightening in apprehension. Across from me on the other side of the Chambers, questioning random citizens and politicians with a detachment of C-Sec agents flanking
them, were two people I hadn't been expecting to see again.
"Well, I guess Alec's 95% odds actually paid off," I said with an impressed cock of my eyebrow.
It was Bailey and Chellick!
Both the Turian and the Human looked just as ragged as they had the last time I had seen them, except now they had a nice addition of dark soot marks covering their Tshirted
uniform and armour, most likely left behind by Alec's surprise explosive.
"I'm detecting roughly twenty additional C-Sec agents fanning throughout the Chambers, they'd get to us before Darren would have a chance to take off. What're we
going to do?" Haxon asked as he pointed out the multi-racial squads of agents that had also begun to question people in the area.
"We're going to cause a distraction. And I have just the thing in mind," I said slyly as I saw one of the elements for my new plan leaning against a nearby pillar.
Walking casually with my hands placed behind my back, I began quietly humming a slow-paced tune as I came up behind a pair of Chamber guards leaning against that
said pillar, both of them fully immersed in conversation. With the deftest of hands, I easily brushed past one of them and slipped his compacted Kessler pistol from his belt,
spinning around and moving away before either could become suspicious of my presence.
"What are you going to do with that?" Haxon asked quietly as I activated the pistol and kept it hidden behind my lower back. Without answering, I passed close behind a
nearby Human civilian of similar height and build to me.
Then without warning, I pulled the trigger several times, firing out multiple rounds from my back into the floor next to the two of us!
As screams from startled civilians and politicians materialized in response to the sudden loud noise, I quickly spun around and shoved the smoking gun into the back of the
man's belt before anyone could see me, jumping away from him immediately with my hands held high in a dramatic show of frightened surrender.
"OH MINE GOD!" I shouted in the best and most guttural German accent I could manage to disguise my voice, jabbing a shaky finger at the startled man as he ripped the
stolen Kessler out of his belt and stared at it in wide-eyed horror.
"HE HAS UN GUN! HE IS UN KRAZY MAN! SOMEONE STOOP HIM!" I made my voice boom out across the Chambers, catching the attention of every civilian and agent
now looking this way.
"Hey! That's my gun!" barked the Chamber guard I'd slipped the gun from as he fervently began searching for his sidearm on his empty belt. As he said this, he and his
partner along with a dozen other Chamber guards all began charging toward the panic stricken man holding the weapon.
"What? No! Wait! Its not me!" the innocent man began saying frantically to the sprinting authorities, dropping the Kessler and spinning around in a circle with his hands
stretched out before him.
But even as he begged, he soon gave out a yell of fear as the guards ganged up and pounced on him from all sides, submerging his body with their own in a harsh Football
style Dog Pile!
Just before that happened, I had sprinted out to the center of the Chambers near the pink tree that a confused but grinning Darren was still parked beside, frenziedly
jabbing my arms back to the incident going on behind me.
"It is he! It is ze terrorist Axel! He vill kill us all! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" I shouted to everyone, viciously shaking
my head and raising my hands over myself like a fearinduced
maniac.
I grinned widely behind my stolen helmet's facemask as a collection of screams and shouts rose up and shook the very walls of the Chambers, the entire population of
civilians within the area turning and dashing in random directions!
"Suuuuckerrrs," I chimed to myself in my normal voice as I watched Bailey and Chellick struggle against the dozens of people scrambling past them, while most of the CSec
agents they had brought began suffering through the same trouble as well.
"Come on dude! Let's get outta here!" Darren's voice suddenly called to me over the chaos, coming from the urgently waving driver as he opened up the taxi.
"That's the best suggestion I've heard lately!" I commented before breaking into a sprint over toward him.
"Stop that man!" Bailey's voice ordered to anyone nearby as he recognized my armour from across the room. Luckily there was only one Turian guard standing between
the taxi and me.
Ripping Frank's helmet from my head, I drew back my arm and pitched it like a baseball at the oncoming Turian, catching the man in the face and dropping him to the floor
with a cry.
"Axel, STOP!" Chellick roared out from off to the side as he broke through the hysterical individuals running back and forth in front of him, bringing his drawn pistol to bear
on my fleeing form.
"GO! I shouted to Darren, diving headfirst into the backseat of the taxi at the last second before Chellick began firing rounds after me, several of which tore into the
upholster of the car's interior. With a smack of the button that re-sealed the taxi's doors and roof, Darren's fingers flew across the controls, blasting the hover car up into
the air and lurching us forward into a screaming acceleration down the Chambers. Both the hippy and I flinched as sparks began shooting up along the taxi's exterior hull,
Chellick and several other Turian agents unleashing a sporadic barrage of weapons' fire on us before the taxi flew out of range and disappeared through one of the
Chamber's Air-Traffic exits.
"Cease fire! Cease fire, they're gone!" Chellick barked to the other Turians over the gunfire and screaming surrounding them.
