[Prometheus Plaza, Citadel] Triptych

True to the nature of its owners, Prometheus Plaza was more akin to a fortress than any of the other of hundreds upon hundred of corporate buildings on the station.

The towers (both the lesser and their Greater sibling), the almost park-like central square, the levels upon levels of offices; it was all very genuine. Very authentic. Honestly, most would never see the lie until it was shown to them. The reinforced sublevels. The military grade fabbers smuggled piece by piece through the Teeth. The private security. There were hidden labs, grand plans, a secret army.

And yet, for all that, it still looked surprisingly inoffensive (if a little careworn, but then again, rampaging Godmachines will do that).

The vast lobby of the central tower was bustling, the early morning rush in full swing. But still, Lanning shouldn't have much trouble finding where he needed to go.

He was, after all, expected.

First day of work, big day, big day.

Now, where was I supposed to go again? Left, then right, then left? Or was it two rights and a left. Or...wait, no, that isn't it.

Lanning walked through the crowds, wandering as he thought. He had made sure to give himself a little extra time before his day began, just in case. He couldn't just wander around helplessly wondering where he supposed to go all day, though. Drastic action had to be taken.

Walking up to a receptionist, he presented his ID card. "Hi. Lanning, W. I don't suppose you could direct me towards R&D...?"

The receptionist in question looked up from from his terminal a small, professional, smile firmly in place; even if his eyes were a bit bleary. In his defense it was still early and the cafinex hadn't quite kicked in yet, but he privately held every confidence that the veritable IV of the stuff he had mainlined during breakfast would pick him right up any minute now no seriously any minute now and oh sweet shitting spirits his head ached and

The turian blinked, then belatedly fished a disposable datachit from behind the desk, holding it to his terminal for a moment before passing it over after the chime.

"Apologies, of course Mr." he squinted, double checking the strip of Palaven standard on the marker "Lanning."

Mondays.

Even on an ancient planetoid sized space station hanging in the void:

they blew.

"Just scan that into your OT, the route to the lower offices is picked out in green and-"

"Thank you Sapiro but I think that I can handle it from here." A disembodied voice sounded right behind Lanning, full of calm self assurance.

Look over and there is nothing. A drone perhaps? An automated guidance system? Adaptive building VI? Or perhaps something darker, more arcane. After all who knew what life had been birthed here. What wonders or nightmares had been given form and thought in steel wom-

A rebreather rattled.

Look down.

Oh right

volus.

In a rather dashing (or at least he certainly thought so) silver and jet exosuit no less. The man politely extended one gauntleted hand up. "Apologies for missing you at the door. My name's Yaso Uor, we spoke on the comm the other day?"

"Sorry about tha-hm?"

William looked over his shoulder at the new voice and stared into space for a few seconds before the sound of a rebreather pulled his eyes down.

Right. Volus. Almost as inconspicuous as a Keeper if you weren't paying attention.

William lent down to accept the handshake. "Pleasure to meet you in person, Mr. Uor. William Lanning, but I guess you knew that already, hahah."

There was a pause as Uor (presumably) smiled and then belatedly remembered that Lanning wouldn't be able to actually see it.

"Heh, indeed."

Nailed it.

"Ah, if you'd follow me? Today's primarily about orientation and familiarizing yourself with co-workers, interdepartmental schedules, internal security measures not covered by the previous briefings-"

The volus talked a mile a minute as he led Lanning towards one of the banks of elevators, only pausing now and again to suck in another deep breathe of ammonia tinged mix and launch himself off onto another tangent. All the while maneuvering, squeezing, and, in some cases, outright forcing his way through the press of bodies. Managing to, somehow, get the two on board an almost full car heading down, at the very last moment.

"-robably find that there's a fair bit of difference between the datapackets you were given to familiarize yourself with, at least in terms of company culture and day to day operations. We're given surprising latitude in our work really, provided that basic policy is adhered to."

Eyepieces like miniature foglights turned up to the other man.

"Any questions for right now?"

The doors closed.

William struggled to keep up with Uor, both physically and verbally. Who knew that volus could waddle so fast? And while he was used to fast talking salarians, he'd never thought volus were even capable of the pace Uor kept. He must have some sort of new rebreather. I wonder if it was a company benefit.

Left. Right. Between. William managed to slide his way between most of the crowd, taking advantage of the wake in the sea of busy (and newly disgruntled) employees and visitors that Uor left behind him. Stepping into the unpleasantly cramped tram, it took William a few seconds to realize that his guide had stopped talking.

"Uhm, no, I don't think so." Had he gotten all that? He had, hadn't he?

A cheerful ding as the doors closed. Currently En Route to Hell, please turn your devices off and keep your sanity within the vehicle at all times.

Perhaps it was for the best that Lanning didn't have anything in particular on his mind. They got off as quickly as they got on, the partitions folding up to reveal a second lobby. Smaller this one, utilitarian. Not sterile or harsh by any means no, but so many of the small, delicate touches in the massive room above were absent here. This place wasn't for guests, the men and women who worked here didn't need that same brand of unconscious awe and amazement. Here the armed guards that were so discretely placed and positioned when in the public eye stood openly at their posts. Glowing orbs hovered just out of reach, their scanners flickering through the air. And, of course, there were the cameras, hanging clustered in the corners like so many ceramic bats.

One of the haptic drones swept by the pair and Uor's ID chimed in response, a second later Lanning's did too.

"Oh yes that reminds me, do remember to always have your badge on hand. It's a terrible hassle to get pulled out and have to get a new one."

Uor nudged the human into the flow of workers that steadily poured forth out the elevators. Some were in white coats, some in business casual, one or two were even in jumpsuits with the word "Security" threaded onto the shoulders and back. A veritable river of people blearily shuffling along, diverting here and there down side corridors, idly chatting all the while. The volus with the human in tow kept heading straight with a group of about a dozen or so others. A gaggle of asari, a pack of turians. There was a quick round of introductions: Lanning everyone, everyone Lanning; before finally arriving at the lift.

It was, of course, currently on the return.

Enough time for a bit of a breather in any case. And by breather, of course, I mean time for Uor to expound in great and manifold detail about some of his colleagues, Lanning's soon to be teammates. Broad strokes of their past products. It was all terribly fascinating and, if one were able to catch more than two in three words between the rattle of the mask and the dull roar of the decently sized crowd, it might have even been very interesting. Thankfully Lanning was spared the awkwardly expectant "so what do you think?" by the arrival of the next car. Uor cut off his rather animated monologue so that they could board. Smaller group this time and more breathing room to go around (thank the deity of your choice). Metal panels folded shut and down again they went. Down down down into the very bowels of the complex.

The belly of the beast as it were.

William looked at the guards. They blatancy of their positioning reminded him of the ERCS employees on Noveria, or the presumed STG at Aphin's. Unlike them, however, he got the sense that they were there less to menace and more because it was simply less expensive. At least, he certainly hoped so. A company that used armed guards to intimidate their own employees? He shoved the idea to the back of his mind as the drone scanned his ID.

He smiled a bit as Uor told him about keeping ID's on hand. "Rest assured, Mr. Uor-Or, uh, should call you sir? Um, either way, rest assured that I've formed a habit of keeping my ID on hand. Realizing you don't have it is a pretty unpleasant experience, after all, and not something I'd like to relive anytime soon."

He followed Uor to the lift, giving the expected responses at the introductions, nodding respectfully when appropriate. It was a bit uncomfortable being packed so close to people he barely knew, but he tried his best to focus on Uor's monologue. A few times he thought he caught a snippet of something interesting, but inevitably the other conversations would drown Uor out before he could get a completely coherent sentence. As it was, a collection of buzzwords and technical descriptions filled his ears, too fast to memorize and too disjointed to make any sense of. It was with relief that he noted the lift opening, and even more when so "few" of the group made its way inside. His relief lessened a bit as the doors clicked shut and they began to descend. One floor flicked by. Three. Ten. Wherever they were going, it was deep.

"Mr. Uor is fine"

For a few moments the only sounds inside the car were the muffled coughs and sighs of the other occupants, the steady, insistent hissing of the volus's respirator, and the soft chime of the interface as it counted down. There were pauses here and there, the people in front making way for those behind to deboard.

"You get used to it you know." He said in the relative quiet after the partitions closed for the umpteenth time and the car started up again, their number reduced to a mere handful now. It was impossible to tell behind the ceramic mask but his voice carried tones of a smile. "Working here I mean. The security and all that. Its-"

Another pause as the car smoothly slid to a stop, the last stop, and whatever else Uor was going to say was lost as the steady pressure of the other occupants of the elevator carried them out. A security desk. Heavy, almost airlock-esque (was that a word? It was definitely a word) doors set in the cardinal directions of the foyer.

Yaso hung back, letting the others go ahead, waves and greetings exchanged with the guards on duty. It was much more...ordered here. Not that the rest of the complex was chaotic by any means but this place, it had its own rhythm, it's own structure; one entirely different from, say, the blocks of offices and cubicles that made up accounting, or the sterile rooms of the bio-labs.

A word, neatly lettered above the doorways in galactic standard seemed to shift and flex, reformatting itself into a clearly legible english Engineering before morphing into Palaven Unified several seconds later.

"Ready Mr. Lanning?"

William stood quietly in the lift, moving aside as those behind him moved to exit. The silence was, in a way, pleasant, in a way that almost offset the feeling of being in a crowded lift.

"Oh?" He had had misgivings about the security, but Uor sounded genuine, so maybe it wasn't as bad as he-the doors of the lift opened.

William took a moment to examine the room as they exited, looking over the doors, the security desk, even the other employees funneling away to their respective posts. He had to admit to himself, even if they knew nothing else (and that he highly doubted, considering the heights the company had reached), they knew exactly how to appeal to the sensibilities of the employee. Ordered, efficient, clean. They'd have a hard time disappointing him after a showing like this. (Though I suppose if anyone has to worry about being disappointing in this case, it's me. Best not to forget that...)

"Ready, Mr. Uor."

The door cycled open.

The room, if it could be called that, beyond was big. Large. Cavernous. "Massive enough to be a spaceport hangar". Normal reactions didn't quite cut it (with the possible exception of "It's fucking huge") and all the ones that might have captured the sheer scale sounded unbearably pretentious. A technological dragon's den hollowed out beneath the metal mountain it may have been but few were those who could utter that with a straight face.

Suffice to say Engineering operated on a scale that dwarfed virtually everyone in it. Level after level of mundane offices, conference rooms, and what might have been dormitories stretched across the vast swathes of darker metal. Their faces were plated with glass, their interiors brightly lit; a pair of sheer, hyper modern, cliffs descending down to a flat expanse that was part factory and part workshop. Stairwells and elevators studded the smooth surface, leading to other floors deeper within. Assembly lines, testing chambers.

Yaso was already trotting ahead, along one of the walkways that lined the edges of the single, enormous space. Motioning for Lanning to keep pace.

"Holy shit."

(This place must go down to the fucking Foundations...) William didn't even bother hiding his shock at the scale of the place. He just stood for a few seconds, staring out into the vastness of the place. It was like the first time he had been in space, or seen the Citadel. It was-oh shit, right, his job.

He jogged to catch up with the volus. "Sorry about that, Mr. Uor. Just...yeah, sorry."

"Quite alright. It gets everyone the first time." He nimbly ducked to the side of the path to allow a salarian shadowed by a rather large mecha through. The tech gave the man gave a short nod of thanks and moved along; the hovering construct following, twisting it's head to study Lanning as it passed. Cold green eyes met his.

The volus moved along doggedly, hardly one to give up when they were so close to their destination.

"You'll be working with me and the others on Scorpio, little bastard that it is. Can't say how glad we are to have you on board really, manpower's always appreciated."

They swerved off the walkway and into the superstructure proper, modern, brightly lit hallways stretching ahead. There was an element of surreality to it all, to how ordinary this was, how everyone else took it so in stride.

Yes, yes, I live and work in the bowels of the Citadel in a complex that, all told, could probably count as it's own small mountain range. Now, about lunch?

More or less.

"We're based out of Block Three and don't worry, I'll key you in a guide later" thank God because there were enough twists and turns here to make an asari soap opera look like

well

like a turian soap opera.

"And here we aaaaaar-"

He stopped short which, really, wasn't exactly all that great considering there was now an excellent chance of him being a tripping hazard.

"What."

William ducked to the side to let the Salarian pass. The gaze of the mech was more than a bit disconcerting, if he was being completely honest with himself. It seemed far too organic a gesture for it to make. He mentally shook his head, and followed his squat superior.

"The Scorpio, eh? Sounds interesting. And, uh, thanks. It's nice to be involved in something again!"

Breathing a sigh of relief at Uor's promise of a guide (He'd lost track of where the hell he was seven featureless corridors ago), William trailed behind him closely. Perhaps a bit too closely, as he was too busy looking around to notice Uor's sudden stop in time to prevent-

"Oooof!"

William sprawled onto the floor in front of Uor, smarting. "Owww..."

"I...what? No. No no no!"

The hiss of a rebreather as the volus walked around the prone man, completely ignoring him as he ran towards his office or rather, more specifically, the armored men and women currently hauling boxes and crates from his office. A line of decidedly uneasy looking lab techs and engineers (Uor's team in all likelihood) against the wall, watching their terminals, data drives, and odds and ends from the office packed onto cargo carriers.

"I said NO! Put that down, right now no that-

Hey that's mine! Where are you taking that? I need-"

"This one apologizes for the interruption most honored Uor."

In retrospect it was somewhat odd that they missed the hanar, hovering serenely in the middle of the corridor, it's shining surface the color of the ocean at sunset. To be perfectly fair it's rather difficult for aliens to distinguish one hanar from another and most could be forgiven for assuming that this particular individual was merely on his (her?) way to work, passing through the corridors.

At first glance perhaps. At the second several key details became readily apparent.

The first: the way the security staff quietly, instinctively deferred to him, he was at the center of their movements and their helmets would tilt up, now and again, as if to double check that he (she?) was still there, still satisfied with their work.

The second was that Uor's train of righteous indignation had come to a complete and crashing halt about thirty seconds out of the gate.

"I...of course sir. I apologize for my outburst I was not informed that the relocation would be today."

"All is forgiven, it is of little consequence and responsibility for the inconvenience does not lay with you and yours. Occurrences within the foundry deeps necessitated a moderate acceleration of the schedule, thus our appearance before the appointed time." Lights and pastel shades pulsed and danced over the alien's skin, in time with the words.

Lanning sensed, more than saw it's attention turning to him as he lay there on the cool floor.

"This is your juniormost assistant correct?"

"Er...yes. Mr. Lanning this is Bolthasadosiq." No title, no occupation given. Uor did not elaborate and gave absolutely no indication that he cared to.

"Sir this is Mr. Lanning our newest member."

Lanning got back up, dusting himself off. More out of habit than because there was anything approaching dust, really, it all seemed very...

The context of the situation caught up with him. It was almost amusing how quickly the blood drained from his face.

"Hello. I mean, er," He cleared his throat. "Greetings..." What is it hanar called others? "Esteemed Bolthasadosiq. It's a pleasure to meet you."

A glow, a deep steady, cerulean. The inscrutable mass of tissue it had in place of a face shifted, queasily reminiscent of a worm or some other blind, eyeless creature questing forth. Tasting its environment.

"You are not ill met Junior Assistant Lanning."

The colors swirled, welling up beneath the skin as if it wished to continue but a chime cut it off before it got past the perfunctory honorifics.

One tendril raised up in the near universal symbol of "One moment please". It slowly lowered the limb back to the floor as the patterns of colors changed, bleeding and blending from pale greens to iridescent purples and rich blues and everything in between. The light display made only slightly incongruous by the almost total silence with which it took place.

At last the visual medley subsided and, abruptly, the alien moved to return back down the hallway. Not so much turning as flowing, as if the air itself was water. Abruptly it paused, the voice that same, nearly inflectionless tone it had been prior.

"Pardon this one for the interruption, it must withdraw. It apologizes for the inconvenience.

The other's choice of subordinates has been deemed satisfactory. You may bring Junior Assistant Lanning with you to the lower levels, security has been informed."

And then, just like that, he was gone. He was gone and Uor was awkwardly fidgeting, glancing back at the man as the Myrmidons followed their superior away, hauling the last of the containers behind them on hovering dollies.

"Soooooo..."

Hssk.

"Erm."

William glanced between Uor and the other team members. "I'm cleared for the lower levels, then? That's, um, good."

He watched the guards trail off after the hanar, vaguely wondering what had just happened.

This is good, isn't it?

"Right. Mr. Lanning. Right." A heavy, ammonia-laden sigh.

"I need you to understand something. We tested you on your aptitudes yes. But also your profile. Psychological you see? The point is..." he trailed off and suddenly there was something in the slump of his suited shoulders that just look so very very tired.

"The point is, I thought there would be more time. To acclimate you. I didn't want to just throw you into the deep end. But my boss. Well, you were here. So, it's fair, only fair really that I give you the choice. With the one important thing here I mean."

Shining, luminescent eyes looked up at him.

"You're not adverse to blackops work are you Mr. Lanning?"

"I..."

I can't do that, that's insane. Black Ops never go well, it's morally wrong, and me? In that kind of profession?

Didn't stop you with QoroQ, did it now?

That was completely different. I knew what I was agreeing to when I signed up for that.

And Peaol IV?

I-

Besides, you don't want to lose that nice paycheck, do you? Or do you want to go back to living in that shelter? Back to telling Howard and them that 'no, you can't, you're just too busy with work' because you don't have the credits to spare? Back to being stared at like some worthless leech by your former neighbors? Yeah, that sounds just great. You know what the best part is, though?

...What?

It doesn't even matter what I say. You've already made up your mind. You're just using "me" as an excuse, as justification for what you're about to say, because you can't stomach the idea of refusing. Agonize over morals and ethics all you want, you just don't want to find out what would happen if you said "no".

That's...I... William blinked. A glance over Uor's shoulders, a nervous tic.

"No, of course not. I'm perfectly fine with doing what's necessary to do my job."