Carchus leaned back in his chair and took a sip of his coffee. He looked at the central elevator. The elevator was just going down and transporting a group of three asari. Carchus sighed and wanted to take another drink of his coffee, but to his dismay he noticed the cup was already empty. He grumbled as he got up from his chair and walked to the other side of the room to fill his cup with fresh coffee.

Many a turian had mocked him because of his coffee-drinking habits. Carchus thought however that coffee was one of the best things the humans brought with them when they came to the citadel.

The turian walked back to his desk and after putting down his cup he flopped into his chair.

Alliance Service Chief Virtro S. Tugimora sighed as he stopped before a C-Sec officer's office door. His black hair was past his ears now; out of regulation. He looked down at his shoes. Scuffed. He was wearing full service dress (OOC: What Cpt. Anderson always wears). No officer epaulets on his shoulder, rather a stripped patch on his arms. The insignia for Service Chief looked like the US Marine Corps insignia for Staff Seargent, the only difference being the gold color with blue outline on the black background of his sleeves, rather than the gold color/red outline of the US Marines. His three highest medals were worn proudly on the his left side, with the Purple Heart being the highest.

Dammit!, he thought, The medal is dingy!

The Alliance Marines, a branch of the Alliance Navy, were allowed to wear berets with their uniforms, while everyone else had to wear the garrison or "flight" cap (OOC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrison_cap) or the service cap that mostly officers preferred to wear. It was rare to find an enlisted person who wasn't an NCO to wear a service cap, and even then, only Operations Chief's actually wore them. Virtro, being a Marine, had his beret tucked into the interior pocket of his jacket.

I bet it's all squished, now, Virtro thought. He had a bit of stubble on his chin. How horrible he looked!

In actuality, though, Virtro looked great. Only military inspectors during competitions would actually comment on his appearence, as his hair was not actually that long at all.

How am I going to ask this guy what I need to when I look like crap?!

Virtro swallowed, knocking on the door to Lieutenant Ventrallis' office.

Carchus was browsing trough the criminal records of a group of salarian scientists for no particular reason. Dr. Jezeel Ulas… It seems this guy has been conducting a great deal of illegal research on the citadel before fleeing to Noveria. He did AI research, it might be worth it looking into him. Then someone knocked on the door. Ah. The Lieutenant thought, Finally someone with some manners. Usually they just barge in and start asking what they want from me without even introducing… Very well. He pushed a button at the right side of his desk and the door opened.

“A human? Alliance navy?” Carchus thought out loud. “Enter; take a seat.” He said while motioned at a chair in front of the desk. He observed the marine while he had his hands clasped, as if he was praying.

Virtro nodded, sitting in the chair.

"Service Chief Virtro S. Tugimora, Alliance Marine. I'm here on behalf of Naval Intelligence. They--"

Virtro caught himself. He didn't like to be included in Naval Intelligence, because he was a Marine, but he knew he had to to stay formal.

"We, need your help."

The turian shifted his position and straightened his back. He looked the Service Chief in the eyes.
“And what exactly, Service Chief Tugimora, may I be able to assist you with?”

Virtro found himself looking down. He'd been raised on a human space station for most of his life, and the last seven years had been spent on Alliance frigates and groundside garrisons. He was still getting used to aliens.

You call yourself a marine?! Straighten up! Look him dead in the eye! Don't slack off here! The memories of his drill instructor in basic rang in his head. Virtro looked the Lieutenant in his blue eyes.

"As you know, the Alliance is running low on personel. Even lower still on people with the skills we require for this particular case: stealth and spying. We have our intelligence personel, but alot of our people are in and around Geth space." Including my sister.

“Stealth and spying?” Carchus clasped his hands together again. “It seems my years that I followed the profession before I joined c-sec aren’t as secret as I would like them to be. But anyway, what do you want me to do?”

Carchus looked at the marine from top to toe, he didn’t get to see an alliance marine often.

"Our intelligence operatives are pretty good at their jobs," Virtro remarked, straying from the original topic.

"Ahem. There has been recent Geth activity around our bases. We feel their reconnaissance could evolve into another full scale war. We need to conduct our own "reconnaissance" to see what they're up to. This could be potentially dangerous not only for the Alliance, but for all of the citadel races."

“I see…” Carchus said. He sipped from his coffee and looked at the marine. “Coffee?” he offered before continuing: “I’m not sure if I can help you Service Chief Tugimora. You see, I’m currently into a case here on the citadel and I can’t just leave it; I might lose my job and my rank as Lieutenant if I do. And besides: since when is the Alliance unable to solve their own problems?”

Virtro declined the coffee, shaking his head politely. Since when do Turians drink coffee? he thought.

"We've spoken to your C-Sec superiors, and they've, after a little resistance, accepted that this mission could save the entire citadel. As I have previously stated, we are running low on personel stationed around citadel and Alliance space, and we have very few people with the skills we need. This is far larger than just the Alliance, Lieutenant."

Carchus got up; he walked to the window overlooking the Citadel Security Headquarters’ atrium. For a moment he looked at all the people passing trough. Then he turned around to face the soldier again.

“All right… I’ll do it.” He said while sitting down and drinking from his coffee cup.

"Excellent!" Virtro exclaimed, putting on a fake yet real-looking smile. Virtro raised up out of his chair, extending his hand.

"You will, of course, be compensated for your services. We will send you tickets to board a civillian crusier destined for one of our colonies. From there, you will board an Alliance frieghter, which will take you to one of our cruisers. One of my superiors will mail you via extranet for more information."

Carchus got up, shook hands with the young man, and listened to what he had to say. He didn’t smile back, he simply nodded.

“Understood. And will I be seeing you again… Service Chief Tugimora?”

"Yes. I will be your....assistant, of sorts. I'll be on the shuttle to our cruiser. See you then, Lieutenant."

Virtro did an about face, executed almost perfectly, and walked out of the office.

“Goodbye Tugimora.” Carchus said before he sat down behind his desk again.
Right… He thought, I’ll nee to inform my subordinates of my absence and appoint a temporary substitute before I leave. He accessed his computer to send some mails.

OOC: Ok. I assume this will continue in another topic?

OOC: Yeah, I've got to do a bit of research before then, though. Online Classes. I'll post it in about an hour or so.

OOC: Okay, I'm looking foreward to it.