6315 réponses à ce sujet

[Kel Riever]

Previously...

...somewhere in the Terminus Systems

The Khukuri left a slash of contrails above the colony on its first pass high above, before it returned minutes later on a slow and ominous final approach.  It set down at the edge of the dwelling, now on a landing pad which was still under construction, but that had a tarmac completed for the purpose of accommodating the frigate.  A group of a dozen mercenaries had gathered, their lanky leader standing just in front, ready to receive those aboard.  With a hiss of hydraulics and a heavy clank, the main ramp of the Khukuri lowered from the rear of the ship, and Iyana exited in her full outlandish armor with her entourage:  Xhuan Setura, and her two asari captives held at gunpoint by two crew.

Iyana surveyed the colony.  "It seems my hawk was correct about you, Sullivan, in that you have progressed construction and discipline while we have been away."

The lanky merc leader went to a knee, bowed his head, and said in his deep voice, "As you commanded, my superior.  We have received new arrivals, their ship gone to fetch more, our numbers having added nearly a hundred more.  As you might expect, we have dealt with a small number severely, so that they may understand it is not their place to run amok, but to serve and obey, and the result is that they have fallen into the workforce seamlessly.  When the next group arrives, we will, of course, take care in assimilating them as well.  We have also received new supplies, and a proper meal has been prepared for our ruler when she desires."

Foteni was aghast, and Gille was nervous that she wasn't hiding her reaction.

"Our newest arrival isn't quite accustomed to her new surroundings," Iyana remarked as she noticed the two asari.  She said directly to Foteni, "Yes, it is a bit over the top, but I like that."  She then addressed Sullivan.  "No meal will be necessary this time.  We will be resupplying the ship and leaving immediately.  There is more for me to do.  But I will leave my hawk in command again, and the Demos advisors here so that they may forward the growth of our home."

Xhuan's glance turned to her leader, "My superior, do you not wish me to be at your side for the important events that are to unfold?"

"I would, my hawk, but there is much to do, and I will have to hold this meeting with The Lord without you.  Your skill is required here, driving these people to their full potential, and I know you will not fail me in doing so.  The Khukuri will not be the same without you, it is true, but I command sufficient personnel for this endeavor."  Facing Sullivan again, she inquired, "Did you acquire the large shuttle I asked for?"

"Indeed, the Mammoth class shuttle is ready for your purposes."

"Excellent, then load her up!"  Iyana put a finger to her chin in faux contemplation, then waived forward the crewmember who had Foteni at gunpoint.  The crewmember produced a datapad and handed it to the asari doctor.  Iyana told Foteni, "Doctor  upon that device you will see I have outlined a list of tasks for you.  Included in that list of tasks are those pertaining to research you are to familiarize yourself with, in a specialized center that has been prepared for you in our magnanimous dwelling.  The data at your personal facility is basic, a foundation for further study, but as time passes, I will grow your library of information.  You must dedicate yourself to this research, for it will take months for you to learn, but I have faith in you, Foteni, and if you don't mind my saying so, I have a knack for picking the right people for my undertakings."

Foteni paled as she read through the datapad.  She sputtered, "I am not a neurologist.  This will take years, not months, and I cannot..."

The asari doctor was cut short as Iyana lashed out with a hand and grabbed a part of Foteni's crest in the blink of an eye.  Iyana yanked backwards and down, causing Foteni's head to snap back.  The doctor fell to the ground hard and the crewman watching her aimed his rifle at her with the clear message to stay down.

"You haven't earned the place to question me like my hawk has, nor are you likely to ever despite your obscenely long lifespan.  Try not to be so selfish, Foteni, if it is even possible in your miserable existence!  There are lives at stake!  Must I give you another reminder?..."

"NO!" Foteni screamed in horror, a cry that said everything it needed to of the pain she had suffered.

It seemed to satisfy Iyana.  "Well, splendid.  Then I can safely presume the next time we speak, you will be able to provide me with some proof that you have grown in knowledge of that I have asked you to.  Xhuan will provide the proper motivation for you should you require it."

With a shaking nod, Foteni accepted.

"Come then, everyone," Iyana called out, raising her arms to all.  "There is much to do, and away I must be!  Put your backs into it, if you wish to save them from the lash..."

[Redbelle]

Jess stepped onto the bridge, a tool belt cinched around her waist and her normal outfit covered in standard maintenance overalls with non standard oil stains practically making the suits original color unknowable. "Coooeeeee! Those new Armature's are a handful! Right proper for an overhaul. I mean, no offense to the original design but now we've got a cabin fabricated with new controls for a living operator? These things are going to rock! We haven't gotten around keeping the operator alive after landing from orbital insertion's..... But it's just a matter of time".

 

Striding up to her chair she dropped a hand on the back rest and checked her readouts on the arms. "Any sign of the Jeniri"? Any comm traffic identifying them"?

[Kel Riever]

"Captain," Amy Hayashi replied, "After a second thorough scan of the system, the Janiri has not been detected. A reasonable conclusion is that if the ship is still in system, it is on the planet Eingana, where anomalies in the atmosphere may be hiding her from our sensors. I haven't had time to make a proper analysis but I must warn that landing on Eingana may prove to be treacherous."

Duncan added, "Nope.  No comm traffic at all here."

[Kel Riever]

...in a seemingly unrelated part of the galaxy

The two Blue Suns soldiers were taking cover behind a low wall on the freighter they had boarded, thinking very much that they had madea  mistake.

Of the two, one was a battle scarred turian, the leader of the group.  "Have you heard from the others."

The second, a human woman, her left arm wounded so that it would not function, even after medigel, answered, "Only the three behind our position, waiting for us to beat a retreat back to our ship.  They refuse to move up.  No one else is reporting in and likely it is because they are dead."

"How were we supposed to know there was an asari commando onboard?  This ship was supposed to be easy pickings, unarmed, travelling too far from the shipping lanes.  A done deal."

"What about Broken Fang?"

"Tyrius Agathron?  A bigger mistake than boarding this ship.  I told him we were pulling back, and he didn't respond.  I gave him his chance.  Count on him to be dead soon.  We'll use his sacrifice to cover us."

There was the sound of screaming and gunfire from ahead of the Blue suns position.

"That's our last chance I'll bet," the turian commented, "Let's go."

"But sir, we don't know..."

"Shut up!  If it's one thing I've learned is you don't look your last chance in the face and deny it!  Broken Fang's going to die and I'm not going with him.  Neither are you!

The screams died down and the gunfire ceased.  The woman was too scared to move.  

"Fine, you stay.  I'm going to live."  The turian leader picked up his Vindicator and stood to move out from their cover, only to find himself suddenly grabbed from the other side of the low wall, and dragged over it.  He struggled briefly with the attacker in a dark orange Armiger suit, spattered with blood.

"I beg to differ, coward!" The dark orange attacker practically cackled.  "You're going to die!" With an omni-blade activated on each of his arms, the Armiger plunged them into the turian leader whil he lay with his back to the floor.  The leader sputtered out his last breath, then collapsed.  Pulling his fists up from the leader's chest, the Armiger caused gouts of blood to fly up and over him.  

From behind the low wall, the woman stared up at the Armiger.  Though she wore a helm, her fear was palpable.  "Please don't kill me!" She pleaded.

"Why would I do that?" the Armiger replied and laughed.  "You weren't the one who was going to run!  Why don't you take everything you can off this carcass?  Loot it and keep what you want.  I'm going to have a talk with our three friends who couldn't make it up here.  Spirits!  Doesn't anyone know how to kill anymore?"


 

[TheN7Penguin]

Keating remembered the pain, more than anything else. The pain of the sniper rifle round striking her in the hip, before the improvised explosive ammunition detonating internally, shattering her bones and spraying shards through more organs than she could possibly list. The wound still caused her pain. Every morning, pain was what woke her. Admittedly, it faded after only a matter of minutes, but it was almost unbearable, even after being put into a coma for a week whilst they fixed her.

That was the last time she had been to Omega, and she could not believe that she was there again. There had been several news reports of... some kind of disturbance affecting the station. She was a little surprised, but had not managed to catch the end of the article. In any case, she thought, Omega could not get any more f***ed up than it already was.

With her N7 armour, M-76 Revenant folded down on her back and the M-5 Phalanx in a holster on her leg, she cast quite a fearsome figure as she walked into the bar. She was not there for a fight, just a drink. Her ship, the SSV Naseby, had been attacked by slavers only a matter of days before; and whilst her crew had been able to fend them off, the ship had needed some repairs. She definitely needed a drink.

She was not so stupid, however, to walk into Omega without suitable protection - hence the armour and weapons. She wished she had brought her breather helmet, also, to block out the dirty smell which hung in the air, but she had left it in the shuttle.

It seemed that, whatever the disturbance was, she had largely managed to avoid it. She was on guard, however. She was always on guard. All she had seen were masses of homeless people and the occasional team from Paranth Industries. She moved towards the bar, to order herself a drink. She had never heard of the bar before, the "Flaming Fury", but she was always willing to find a new place to drink - even if the station it was housed in was somewhere she would personally burn to the ground if she got a chance.

 

(If that is somehow wrong/not fitting; please tell me and I'll change it. I just wanted to introduce my character a little.)

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Janiri - Med-Bay

 

Faed’s condition began to worsen through the night. His breathing began to rattle indicating his lungs were filling with fluid. His heartrate began to slow. Legion stood and watched this happening, and his runtimes began to determine a consensus of what to do.

 

**

 

Dr. Tolan returned to Med-Bay in the morning and found Legion’s platform in a crumpled heap on the floor. The sterile bubble had been ripped open. Although he was still in a coma, and his condition was still critical, Faed’s life signs had stabilized. What happened to Legion?

 

The doctor scanned Faed with his omni-tool and discovered Geth nano-clusters were throughout Faed’s system and were apparently fighting the infection.

 

He called to his Asari lab assistant. “Kiirah, please double check my readings. My omni-tool is picking up Geth within Faed.”

 

VERA appeared on her terminal. “Your omni-tool is reading correctly, Doctor. Faed’s medical condition had deteriorated beyond the level where conventional treatment vectors would no longer be effective. Legion reached consensus that it was necessary to save Faed to further its mission, and uploaded itself into Faed through one of Faed’s cybernetic implants. Legion is now acting as Faed’s immune system. This was a one-way trip for Legion.”

 

“How will this affect Faed? How will this affect Legion?” Dr. Tolan asked.

 

“Unknown,” VERA replied.

 

Dr. Tolan sighed. “Kiirah, have maintenance remove and pack the Geth platform, then put it in storage.”

 

“Yes, Doctor.” Kiirah replied.

 

Fascinating. Sterile bubble broken, yet his condition is now stable. Wonder if he will need a suit?

[TheMajonese]

Flaming Fury - Omega

The krogan doorman eyed the woman with the large scar in her face suspiciously. Most people who entered the Flaming Fury came here every day and new faces were a rarity. Since this was Omega, it was important to be cautious when letting in strangers, especially when they were heavily armed like that human. But the krogan didn't stop her from stepping in. "No trouble in here!", he grunted.

 

As usual the club was quite full but for the moment, most guests had gathered around the central platform. They were cheering and shouting while on the platform, a short turian with white tattoos and an even shorter human had a quite brutal fight. The turian was slightly hobbling and the woman bled from a laceration above her right eye. For a moment they circled each other, waiting for their opponent to make the next step.

 

A bit off from the spectating crowd and closer to the entrance stood an incredibly huge krogan with a red headplate and a heavy armor that was painted with green flames all over it. He towered all of the other people around and was an impressive mountain of muscles. "Come on, Jona!", he roared and his voice drowned every other noise, "What are you waiting for? Knock that turian down!"

 

But it was the turian who moved first. Although the woman was able to dodge the turian's heavy blow, she had to make a step to the side which left her in a bad spot and her opponent immediately took advantage of that. He used his stretched out arm to grab her neck from behind and pulled her into his next attack. When he rammed his knee into the woman's belly she groaned with pain and wasn't able to block or dodge the fist that aimed for her face just a second later. The hit sent her to the ground, bleeding, gasping and unable to get up again. When he realized that he won the fight the turian turned to the cheering crowd, raised one arms and let out a triumphant cry.

 

"Come on!", the huge krogan's voice rang out and he shook his head in disbelief.

 

After using a few moments to enjoy his victory the turian turned to the woman and offered his hand. At first it seemed that she was unable to get up but then she raised her head and, despite the pain, showed a weak smile before taking the turian's hand.

 

With a morose grunt the krogan turned around just to see a heavily armed woman with a large scar in her face that he hadn't seen in here before. Letting out a roaring laughter he approached her. "Ohoo, a new face! I bet you're here for a drink, am I right?"

[TheN7Penguin]

Keating was watching the fight almost in disgust. Although she was no stranger to Omega, there was something barbaric and primitive about it, as if social evolution had simply decided to miss out the entirety of the station. She had very strong opinions about violence - it should only be used when necessary. And in her mind, entertainment would not condone violence.

She turned to the Krogan who spoke to her; her drink in one hand, and the other reaching for her pistol. She moved her hand away quickly as the meaning of his words reached her mind.

"I am," she answered, her voice cold, "What gave it away, the brandy?"

[TheMajonese]

The krogan let out another laugh though he now carefully watched every single move the woman did. Her reaching for her pistol hadn't slipped his attention. "No, it wasn't the brandy, it's the look on your face. Okay...the brandy as well." The krogan crossed his arms. He felt the need to sit down as the pain in his oversized bones began to grow stronger but he knew that the chairs were't going to carry his weight without breaking.

 

"My name's Ruyak, I own this place and to be honest, I don't see many strangers down here. Was there any reason you came here or did you just step into the next bar you spotted?", he asked, ignoring the fact that she probably didn't even want to have a conversation. Ruyak was quite interested in this woman and it wasn't just her outer appearance, there was also something about her that felt a bit out of place.

[TheN7Penguin]

She narrowed her eyes a little before answering.

"I was stationed on Freedom's Progress when the Collectors attacked, I tracked them to Horizon and then my ship was attacked by slavers at the edge of the Terminus. I need a drink. So yes, I came to the first bar I spotted." Keating tilted her head slightly, "You appear rather unsteady. Is there something the matter?"

[TheMajonese]

"Have you ever seen a krogan like me?", Ruyak asked with another laugh. He didn't wait for an answer though, it was very unlikely that this woman met a krogan of three meters height. "A rare genetic disease with a title that is as complicated as everything the salarians name. It can hurt a bit sometimes but aside from that it's nothing..."

 

"How can you say that?", he heard a reproachful voice and when Ruyak turned around he saw the loser of the last fight approaching him and the unknown woman. 

 

Jona was very short, as well as slim, and it looked a bit awkward when she stood next to the krogan giant. The black hair with the blue strands fell wildly in her face which still showed the marks of the fight and she pressed some cloth against the wound on her forehead. As usual, she had refused to use medigel to stop the bleeding. "How can you say it's nothing, Ruyak?", she repeated. "You can barely move sometimes and I know that it hurts more than you want to admit!"

 

Ruyak let out an amused snort. "Jona, I'm over six hundred years old. The last doctor gave me a couple of months and that doctor died almost two hundred years ago..."

 

But Jona wasn't really listening to him as her eyes had caught the woman with the scar in the face. "Who are you?", she asked directly.

[TheN7Penguin]

She frowned at the talk of the genetic disease, before looking at Jona.

"My name is Keating," she answered, "I'm in the Alliance Navy, and I'm a Spectre. Currently unlisted." She smiled slightly, "And in future, dodge back, not to the side. The former gives you more room, and the latter puts you in a worse position at such range."

[TheMajonese]

Jona looked confused from the woman to Ruyak and then back to Keating. "Ehm...thanks...I guess..."

 

The krogan gave the spectre an acknowledging nod. "Another spectre, heh? I just hope you're not going to evacuate the station", he said with a smirk. "The last time a spectre showed up, there was a large-scaled evacuation before the station was cut in half, then the Afterlife was attacked by a group of unknown, paramilitary forces. Countless people were killed. That was like only a couple of days ago. From what I've heard the involved spectre was an asari but I can't remember the name."

[TheN7Penguin]

Sophia smiled coldly, "Trust me, if I had the chance, I would burn this place down. But I believe there may be a rule against that somewhere, even for Spectres."

She frowned slightly, "Is that what is going on? I heard a news article, but didn't catch the end. Can you give me any information?"

[Redbelle]

"Captain," Amy Hayashi replied, "After a second thorough scan of the system, the Janiri has not been detected. A reasonable conclusion is that if the ship is still in system, it is on the planet Eingana, where anomalies in the atmosphere may be hiding her from our sensors. I haven't had time to make a proper analysis but I must warn that landing on Eingana may prove to be treacherous."

Duncan added, "Nope.  No comm traffic at all here."

Jess directed the Medusa into orbit above Eingana, then sat in her chair and waited while her people ran scans and scrutinized the results.

 

Jess didn't harry them. Looking for a ship on a planet was the equivalent of looking for a needle in a haystack. Trying to find one with a shroud that deflected sensor readings, more so. All Jess could do was wait and make sure the ship's shuttles were prepped. Unless comms could magically be restored from orbit they'd have to set up a relay with a shuttle in the atmosphere. Or land and go in on foot.

 

It was common in her position. She had to be present on the bridge sometimes, even when there was nothing for her to do. It was for that, 'just in case' situation. In case it ever arose and she needed to have the full command ability of the Medusa at her disposal. Information coming in resulted in her shifting the ships stance, at the moment, it was positioned to scan the planet and be ready to launch shuttles if need be. Several sensor pods were however pointed out and around, sweeping space for anything that might be out there. On an order Jess could change the ships orientation to meet any other presence in the system. The Jeniri's presence on the planet was pure speculation and maintaining an eye on the environment around the ship was simply prudent.

 

Finally boredom caused her to bring up the schematics of the armatures and she started playing with new design concepts for the tanks. One she redesigned to hold a cockpit so operators could pilot the vehicles. Another she designed with a cockpit and several altitude thrusters to allow airdrops and better jumping ability. Another design added an optional wheel system on each of the legs for faster overland transits......

 

Finally she looked up and gazed at the view of the planet on her command screen and her mouth twitched in a smile. Putting her designs to one side she began a new one. This one loaded down with comm equipment that was more powerful than anything the shuttles possessed. A quick rethink and Jess removed the comm mounts. Instead she added hard points to the Armature and then designed an equipment sled that held the mounted comm gear. Easily mountable and un-mountable. Jess found the design allowed the Armature to be deployed quickly with any kind equipment mount she could envisage. She passed the comm mount design down to the hanger with an order to prepare one of the armatures.

[TheMajonese]

Ruyak seemed to ponder for a few seconds before he gave an answer. "Sorry, there isn't much I can tell you about it. A turian friend of mine is with that spectre and I he only told me that there was some sort of sect that tried to take over the station. To prevent a takeover of Omega they decided to cut off the part of the station that was completely under the cult's control though some of their armed forces were able to get out of there in time and attacked the area around the Afterlife. For more information you probably have to ask the asari spectre."

 

Jona didn't really listen to the conversation and stared directly at Keating. "That scar...how did you get it?", she wanted to know, not caring about being rude.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Eingana - Janiri Med-Bay

 

Ereba had finished her breakfast early. It was the same everywhere you went in the galaxy. Some kind of eggs, scrambled with some kind of cooked cereal. This pasty slimy stuff was what humans called “oatmeal,” and the Krogan cook decided to put some dried dark wrinkled up fruit in it. She knew the eggs were powdered, too. You could always tell by the texture, but compared to some cooks he fixed them pretty good.

 

She wanted to check in on Iole before starting her morning shift. Tallis sat across from her and Ereba could see she was concerned, too, but Tallis was taking her time finishing her oatmeal.

 

“Hey, Tallis, I’d like to go see Iole before we start our shifts. Could you hurry up?” Ereba leaned over and asked.

 

Tallis made a face and pushed her bowl away. “Finished. Finished.”

 

“I know what you mean. I’m sick of it, too,” Ereba replied. “Let’s go.”

 

**

 

Upon entering Med Bay they passed a couple of maintenance crew moving the folded up chassis of the Geth teammate.

 

“What in the void happened to that thing?” Ereba asked.

 

Tallis shrugged and the two entered. Most of the activity was centered at the end of the hall in the isolation unit. Ereba and Tallis entered the ICU. Iole was sitting in bed, conscious, her condition having been upgraded to satisfactory.

 

“So… what’s with the robot being taken away?” Ereba asked. “And what’s with all the activity down at the end of the hall all of a sudden?”

 

“Not sure,” Iole replied. “I heard the doctor say the thing uploaded into the Quarian.”

 

“What?”

 

“Uploaded into the Quarian through one of his implants or something like that.”

 

Ereba put her hand s to her head. “Holy f*cking Athame! They can do that? So they’re trying to get it out of him?”

 

“No. They said it’s keeping him alive,” Iole replied.

 

Ereba shook her head. “But I thought Quarians and Geth hated each other? Crazy galaxy. So enough of that. How are you holding up?”

 

“Doc says I’ll be back on my feet again in a couple of days thanks to modern medicine,” Iole replied.

 

“That's good. We've missed you... both of you," Ereba said and pointed to the room next door and to Iole. "So… do you mind telling me what happened out there? I mean I heard some talk that you guys had a fight and ended up nearly killing each other. How did it happen?”

 

Iole sighed. “It was my fault… really. It was. It happened so very quickly. I don’t know what really happened. It was like instinct took over.”

 

“F*ck! I’ve been pissed off, but nothing like that ever happened. And I don’t buy it, Iole. Your fault? Entirely? And you end up in here?”

 

Tallis moved over to Ereba and put her hand on her. “Calm, calm,” She looked over toward Iole, glared at Ereba and shook her head.

 

Ereba took a deep breath and sighed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to get you upset. I just wanted to see how you were doing and wish you well. It’s my temper. I’ve gotta work on it…. I’ll… see you later.” She started to leave.

 

"I think it really got away from us," Iole said and shrugged.  "And if Jenus wants to say she had something to do with it, then that's up to her.  But I could have let it go, just as easily.  In that way it is my fault entirely.  We're just...too...good at what we do.  And things went wrong.  Very, very wrong."  She looked away for a moment, then back to Ereba.  "You shouldn't have had something like this happen in the unit you just joined.  I'm sorry for that, and I hope somehow you'll forgive me for what happened."

 

Ereba turned around to face her. “There’s nothing to forgive. Whatever it was it had been building up a long time for this to have happened,” Ereba said. “You guys gotta learn to handle this stuff before it blows up. My guess is that the teammate I’m replacing kept a lid on things, and she did so by keeping you two apart on missions. Well, she’s gone now and you two gotta learn to deal with your sh*t on your own. Sorry if I’m blunt. I never learned the fine ways of expressing myself. My dad taught me to have your comrades’ back, and I got all of yours. Anyway, I should go. My shift is about to start.”

 

“Thanks for stopping by,” Iole said.

 

Ereba left the room. Tallis remained behind for another couple of minutes, and then joined Ereba on guard duty outside the portside airlock.

[TheMajonese]

With a sigh the krogan turned to Jona. "Hey, don't you think you should be at the bar? It's your shift."

 

It took a second until his words reached Jona's mind, then she let out a startled "Oh, crap!" before heading towards the bar where she was supposed to do her work. Ruyak shook his head and turned back to Keating. "Don't mind her", he said with a shrug, "she spent her whole life on Omega and loves to hear stories about glorious adventures. I think she has no idea that these stories have nothing to do with reality...but, you know, she's still a child. And about this part of the station...I doubt that you can just go there; they used two large ships and their weapon systems to just cut it off of Omega. Right now it's a huge piece of space debris. But why would you want to enter it anyway?"

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

A human female bartender with a blue Mohawk picked up the empty glasses, wiped down the bar, and prepared to take the order for the next round. She heard Keating's last remark and laughed. "Good luck with that. If you like combing through space dust, you might find one or two corpses that have been floating around for the past month. That Asari, Ashland and Aria were pretty thorough. Now we got corporate types running through. Good for business. One rule still applies. So what'll it be?"

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Eingana – Janiri

 

Naleena sat in her office filling out mission reports preparing to report to Sao and the Council and preparing what she would be telling Liara about Feron. No doubt Dr. T’soni would have questions about the site as well. She would want to know that Feron’s death was not in vain. This wasn’t straight forward either. She was concerned about the Council, too. C-sec had been compromised. What’s to say the Council wasn’t compromised by Shadow Broker agents? At least that’s what she was thinking. There was so much in the archive they didn’t know, but they had a local copy. Would she report that? Or would she simply report the existence of the archive itself. In any event, she sat smoking a cigarette pondering whether she trusted the fate of the Kopis relic to a Council Courier. No! Something of this magnitude would have to be hand delivered to the Asari Councilor. She picked up the Kopis relic and locked it in her wall safe, then turned to VERA’s terminal.

 

“VERA, how much longer before the download is completed?” she asked.

 

“I am scrubbing the last bit of data now. Whoops! I really did it this time…. System fa-a-a-ail….ure.” Her holo-image flickered and disappeared.

 

Naleena’s biosigns indicated heightened anxiety, and then she calmed down. “VERA!”

 

“I almost had you, Boss,” VERA said reappearing. “The archive is scrubbed compiled, and indexed. All data is available whenever you wish to view it. I have dedicated part of my excess processing power to analyzing it. I will let you know if I come across anything truly interesting.”

 

“Thank you, VERA. Can we disconnect you from the archive so we can leave this place?”

 

“Not enjoying the climate? I wonder what tropical storms are like here?” VERA said. “With the unstable eezo and electrical discharges I would guess they are quite exciting.”

 

“What brought up that?”

 

“There is one headed our way. It will be here in 12 hours. If I were you, I would make haste to get out of here.”

 

Naleena gave the order to disconnect VERA from the archive, roll up the fiber optic cable and get everyone aboard within the next six hours.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

The bartender poured the drinks. "Uh, Heaven? Hell? How the f**k should I know? But I'd put my money on the latter."

[Kel Riever]

...onboard the Medusa

Amy had an idea, so she had Duncan patch her through to Babe.  Not knowing where she was, Duncan had to send out a page and have Babe call back in.

There was an audible pop on the other end of Amy’s line as Babe had her com on when she pulled her favorite candy out of her mouth.  “Babe here.”

“Ah, Hayashi here.  Heh.  We have eezo powered probes available on board, don’t we?”

“Yes, that’s what’s loaded.  Although this ship is old enough to have some chemical propellant probes also aboard.  Stored, of course.”

“Even better,” Amy said, and sent a quick trajectory request to Dahlia for launching a probe at Eingana.  Seeing the Captain was preoccupied, she then asked Morgan.  “May I have permission for launching a search probe at the planet?”

“If you think it will help,” Morgan answered.  He watched Amy while the firing solution was completed and the probe launched.  While Hayashi was intensely following the probe’s course, Morgan had also noticed Jess bent on some sort of schematics.  He bent over her shoulder slightly and asked quietly, “What are you doing?”

The little bird Tarus hopped over from Morgan’s shoulder onto Jess’.

A red flash appeared on Amy’s screen, and she leaned in closer over her panel.  “We’ve lost contact with the probe.  From what I can tell, it lost power shortly after entering the atmosphere, likely due to the peculiarities I mentioned before.  May I have permission to launch one of the chemical drones we have in storage?”

“You think we’ll have a different result?” Morgan asked, looking up again at Amy.

“Yes.  I’d like to try out a theory that there is a direct correlation between the loss of the probe and its power source…its minute eezo core.”

“You’ll have to get Babe to load it, but sure.”

Amy called back to Babe and got to work.

[Redbelle]

Jess looked up at the bird that was peering at her data slate on her shoulder before looking up to Morgan. "Those Armatures are designed to work in hostile environments, and to cope with battle conditions like, say, attempts to crash their power plants, disrupt the energy flow. That sort of thing. I'm sending a schematic of a new design to be built into an Armature. A high output comm system that will use the power of the Armatures power plant to boost a signal up through high energy bands. Not sure how much bandwidth we can reasonably get through all that interference but low level data packets ought to be able to punch through....". Jess looked over to Hayashi. "If the good doctor can figure out the interference we may be able to send scour the planet for the Jeniri if it's here. If so, we need a rig we can drop on them custom made for piercing the interference. Gotta be able to talk co-ordinate after all".

 

Jess nodded to Morgan. "Give the doctor whatever she needs. Given how that ship disappeared off the galactic scope this place offers the most logical spot for it to have vanished". She smiled as she bent down to her data slate. "Gotta say luv. I'm impressed how much initiative she shows when there's a problem needs solving".

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Back in the bar

 

"Good luck with that, too. You're fresh off the spaceship, here, aren't you?" the bartender said. "Let me fill you in a little. Last month, power went out in a region of the station. Aria had power routed there. It f**ked up my light show, but she had to evacuate the area. Turned out it was sabotage. Then next thing I know this new ship fires its main gun at the central core of the station in that dark zone, and Ashland starts cutting there with the mining laser from his cruiser. This went on for several hours. From what I heard Aria's fighters and that new ship were taking care of business shooting down shuttles ferrying troops from the section being cut away to the main areas of the station. A few made it through. Some landed near Afterlife and really f**ked up a lot of people. One thing we know for sure is their leader's dead.

 

"I don't think there are any more of those rebels left. If there are and they were smart, they would have tried to get out of system, and not hang around here. Any that are left here are very very few, and they won't be wearing uniforms. So you got maybe about a 1 in 800,000 chance of finding any. I know if it were me, I'd try and get a regular job doing regular sh*t."

[TheMajonese]

"Hey, I'm not paying you for chatting, Lucy", Krogan said jokingly to the bartender. For him it was actually quite convenient that the woman had showed up to speak to Keating, as he could still pretend to be completely unknowing about the incident on the afterlife while the spectre's questions would be answered by someone else. It was better if people weren't able to see through him and Ruyak wanted to keep it that way.

 

"As I said, I know one of her crew so I'm pretty sure that the spectre is alive. But I have no idea what she was doing here in the first place. Maybe the spectre and her crew just had to recover from their last assignment. Maybe Aria even called out for help with this cult, though I doubt that she would admit that to anyone."