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[sH0tgUn jUliA]

“Preflight check is complete, Commander,” Flight Lt. Jorril reported to Commander Selani.

 

Commander Selani picked up the intercom to Engineering. “Release docking clamps. Power up the engines,” she ordered. “Lt. Jorril, set course for the Sahrabarik Prime relay, destination Vahallan Threshold.”

 

“Aye-aye, Ma’am,” Jorril replied and entered the flight plan with Omega traffic control.

 

“Medusa, do you copy?” Selani asked.

 

“We copy and are preparing for departure.” Dahila replied. “Engines hot, docking clamps released, and we are on our way.”

 

The sound of the clamps releasing was heard throughout the ship, and the Janiri pulled away from the space station. Upon clearing the debris field, Jorril set speed to flank and would make relay transit in approximately 3 hours. The Medusa followed close behind.

 

Relay transit to the Vahallan Threshold went without incident: 2000 km drift for the Janiri and 1500 km drift for the Medusa. Upon arrival into the binary star system, course was set to the Paz system by FTL. Upon arrival in the Paz system the Janiri dropped out of FTL into sublight with stealth systems engaged. The Medusa, of course was logged as a merchant vessel.

[Cainhurst Crow]

As the Janiri and Medusa came out of FTL, the sight of the lone planet Garvug within the Paz system was eclipsed by an odder, and more ominous sight. Within orbit of the planet appeared to be 2 vessels, Cruiser class, which hung in the space above the icy plant, along the equator line. However, accompanying the 2 cruisers and staying farther away from the planets orbit, was a much larger vessel.

 

It was the size of a dreadnought, but clearly lacked the armaments to be one, instead possessing a massive stretch of space along its length, which housed many, many, star-fighters. The carrier had along its side, the corporate symbol any familiar with the company or private military work would recognize, the unmistakable logo of ERCS on display for them to see. The cruisers meanwhile sported a different marking, appearing to belong to Sonax Industries, is the corporate logo on the side was any indication. All of them were silent as they stayed poised above garvug, like a collection of predators waiting to pounce upon the sickly looking world that was Garvug.

 

The pollution was clear, even from space as thick discolored clouds hung over odd colored icy oceans below, the equator appearing to almost cut the planet in half with its visible water and snowless land masses. And in the center of it was Dhazil, a sole industrial patch visible on the planets surface, its light flickering in the darkness of space upon the planets surface, as it orbited into daybreak slowly. However, until the ships could touch down, there was little that could be seen. None of the vessels seemed to turn to look at the new arrival, however a hailing message came quickly for the Medusa.

 

"Attention unidentified vessel. This is Captain Chase, of the SSV Morgan. Identify yourself now. I repeat, Captain Chase of the SSV Morgan. Requesting identification. Please Respond."

 

They didn't seem to know the Janiri was in system yet, no means of visual contact with the new vessels, and relying on sensors to tell them that someone had entered the star system.

[Redbelle]

Anika sat in the back compartment of the Kodiak with the others. Her newly refurbished armour gleamed white once more. The broken armoured sections replaced and the whole system overhauled by Kolme. It was like new. Better even. All the strength's of new armour with none of the teething troubles of breaking in a new set.

 

She sat looking at a pad Jess had given her. It's blank screen mirroring her face as she sat lost in thought. The farewell with Naleena had tugged at her heart strings and she was already missing her. Jess's warning's of how their long distance relationship could work had given her some time to mentally prepare but......

 

'Nuts to this. It's not like we're ever 'that' far apart'. Anika activated her comm and connected back to the Janiri. "Anikaa to Naleena for private conference please". She told the Communication Officer.

 

As she waited she popped on the pad. Read it, and groaned.

 

Heya luv. About the goods in the luggage compartments. Don't get caught in customs is all I'm saying. Don't tell Frank. He's got a lousy poker face. And before you ask Volus alcohol isn't poison if you take it in small shots! I don't care what they say about the ammonia content! Details enclosed. Their paying a fortune for this stuff! Eat this message when your done. I ran out of explosive charges.

 

Anika closed her eye's and sighed.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Dahlia alerted Jess as to the incoming communication. "Jess, there's a Captain Chase of the SSV Morgan of ERCS. He wants us to identify ourselves. You have a gift of the gab. I think you'd keep him busy. Also our sensors detect two cruisers"

 

***

 

Naleena walked briskly down to the shuttle bay and tapped her comm piece. "All team members report to the shuttle bay and prepare for launch."

 

"I am on my way," VERA said. "Also, you have an incoming call from Anika. Do you wish to take it? I should advise you that there is a carrier and two cruisers in the system, and that we are running silent."

 

Naleena sighed. "I can't right now. I would give away our position. Once we are on the planet, I'll make the decision. You can advise me of the ship's status, right?"

 

"That is correct," VERA replied. "Do you want your Black Widow or Mattock for this mission?"

 

"Mattock and Locust. Wait, you're getting my gear?" Naleena asked.

 

"You seem to be in a hurry. I am at the weapons locker retrieving my own. It is efficient," VERA replied.

 

"And you're not just kissing up to the boss hoping for a choice assignment in the future?"

 

"That would imply emotional reasoning and would be a less effective use of my processors. I would not do that."

 

"I see. Very well, I'll see you at the shuttle, and thank you."

 

"You are welcome," VERA said.

[Kel Riever]

...onboard Frank's shuttle, en route to Earth

Since the Kodiak launched, Molly had only uttered the words, "Still making friends, Frank?" when the Kodiak passed the technician giving him double fingers.  At least until the point where Frank started asked his question.  "Lucy Anna?  Lucianna?  Sounds like it might be French," Molly answered.  Frank was a good distraction from staring at Anika's gleaming white armor, which shamed her own.

Morgan raised an eyebrow, as he saw Anika look at a datapad, close her eyes and sigh.  He turned to Frank then.  "Luciana? That doesn't sound right....at least it isn't near New Yor...oh, maybe you mean Louisiana." He gave a laugh.  "It isn't exactly walking distance but in the scope of the galaxy, it's on the same side of the planet.  Hopping a sub-orbital shuttle might take an hour or two?  That's my guess."

Molly decided to pull up next to Frank in the Kodiak's co-pilot seat.  "You'll like it, I think, Eli.  We all will.  I haven't lived on Earth since I was fifteen, and I wasn't near New York.  It's a pretty amazing city by any standards.  Maybe not The Citadel, but, there's something about it, like being home.  Even for a lot of us humans who weren't even born there, I hear, from others."  Molly spared a glance back into the passenger section to Morgan and Anika.  She smiled.  "Wish we had time for a tour, not just of New York.  I'd love to get over to Europe, and then go all the way around the world to the East.  Shanghai, I hear it's something else!"

There was a light blinking on the control panel, discreet, not an alert light.  In fact, Frank didn't remember an alert light being in the location it was, far to the left and down on the display.  On closer appearance it was green, and was actually an arrow, pointing down.  

Frank followed the direction of the arrow and noticed something unusual about his control panel.  Underneath the main dashboard, near what was a zone where no controls were located, something was poking out just barely catching the interior light.  On closer inspection, he saw it was a datapad, attached below the dash.  

~ ~ ~ ~

...aboard the Medusa

Babe flung her hair back and threw an arm across her forehead.  She was thinking for a moment about taking a break, but that gun malfunction really bothered her.  After fetching a cool glass of water and draining it, she put her blowpop back in her mouth and made her way to the gun.  Babe didn't make mistakes on installation, it wasn't her thing.  A faulty part, was the only conclusion she could come up with, though it wasn't impossible to imagine she hadn't quite secured something.

After popping the hatch, Babe descended the ladder into the hard point.   She'd sent a message to the com that she was on it, and assured Jess that there wasn't going to be a problem should they need the gun.  Based on what was happening in the system, this wasn't the time for a malfunction, but Babe was confident in one thing and that was her ability to keep the Medusa's guns ready.  When she finally stepped off the ladder into the short and narrow mini-passageway to the gun, she stopped dead in her tracks as she saw someone sitting in the control chair.

A woman, clothed head to toe in pink, looking like she was lifted off the pages of an old western, was in the control chair, her back to Babe.  She held aloft a wire, with separated plug and connector.  With a heavy drawl, she said, "I knew you'd come a'runnin' when something you loved was in trouble.  Dont you fret none, cause you can just plug this back in and it will be right as rain."

"Who are you?" Babe asked, partially vexed but relieved there was no real problem.  

"Miss Priss, dear," the woman answered.  "They say you're a sight, so I've been curious as to what all the fuss is about.  I wouldn't a made a deal of it if you didn't try avoiding me so much.  Now, let me take a look you."  Miss Priss swiveled the chair partially and turned her head so she could get a glance at Babe.

Babe twisted her mouth in sarcasm.  "You think you could have picked a better time to pull this stunt?"  She was waiting for the standard stunned reaction, and was already preparing her retort.  Instead, she watched Miss Priss' eyes get wide, then wider and wider until they literally looked like they were going to pop out of her head in shock.

"It's YOU?!?!?!" Miss Priss said, completely jolted.

[Cknarf]

"Huh."

 

Frank pulled the device away from where it had been mounted. He held it up over his shoulder.

 

"Any of ya'll missin' a datapad?" He asked the others. "No? Alright, then."

 

Let's see what we got.

 

Frank activated the datapad, and waited for something to happen.

[Kel Riever]

Molly glanced at the datapad briefly, but it didn't register for her as anything much, so she went on with her conversation.  "Frank, this shuttle, well, you're pretty good at what you do, but in a pinch, if we need to get out of somewhere fast, do you think it's good enough to go?  The repair work, I know you didn't do it, even if you got a once over on it.  I'm probably a bit paranoid but what can I say?  Part of my job, I suppose.  Hope it doesn't bother you..."

In the meantime, the datapad began scrolling a message:

Beans,

Do you know I finally found out what that meant, Frank?  Sure, I could have looked it up on the extranet before, but when I met you...well, that fateful day when it was basically my fault that I blasted you out into the air and had to make amends quickly...anyway I just assumed it was one of those warrior logos.  Maybe a battle cry.  Fearsome, like, 'Skulls!' or I don't know, a call sign like 'Maverick'.  Don't even ask me why I was thinking Maverick.  Typical 'Death from above' stuff.  When I did find out, I laughed.  Not at it or you, but because I love that name!  Beans.  It's so...you!

You make me laugh, Frank, in all the right ways.  Well, maybe sometimes the wrong way but I never worry about it with you.  I meant it about before, sorry.  I'm not always comfortable in my own skin.  Thick crested.  I'm one hundred twenty years old, you'd think I'd have learned a thing or two about people I like and how to relate.  I'm a clod, okay?  I can't even get along with someone I've known for thirty years.  So if you can find a way to forgive me for being, well, okay a bit jealous.  Maybe a bit, well, whatever you want to call it.  That thing that I do badly.  I'm sorry, I apologize for it.

Let's go back to the fun.  The video games (you cheater ; ) ).  Talking guns.  I like guns, maybe too much!  And if that isn't enough, like you need something more to think about while you're on that trip far away, I'll be thinking of you.  If you get lonely, or want to talk, and can send me a message, go for it.  And if you can't, and your stuck waiting, too much time on your hands, no where to go, alone, well hopefully this can keep you company:

There was an icon indicating there was an attachment to the message.

Molly looked over at Frank.  "Come in, Eli.  You there?"
 

[Cknarf]

"Hm?" Frank looked up. Molly appeared to be waiting for a response of some kind. "Yeah... me too." He agreed with whatever she may or may not have said, before turning his attention back to the datapad. He moved his finger to the screen, and pressed, causing the attachment to open.

 

Frank cleared his throat, and adjusted the datapad so it was facing a little more towards him. At a certain angle, one could still possibly catch a glimpse of the device's reflection in his polarized visor.

 

"Well, Mols. I guess we'd better get goin'." He glanced over, then back to the datapad one last time, before setting it face down. "Gotta go get that family, and get 'em to safety ASAP!"

 

Frank focused back on the controls.

 

"We'll be at the relay in... soon. We'll be there soon."

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

On the Janiri

 

VERA-Geth entered the locker room near the shuttle bay with her Widow holstered to her back and Locust holstered to her… waist carrying Naleena’s Mattock and Locust. Irina, Ereba, and Tallis were in the locker room at one end with Essul and Vayne at the other.

 

Irina gave the Geth platform a wide berth as it entered. “So this is VERA?”

 

“So the boss says,” Ereba replied while she was getting out of her coveralls.

 

VERA-Geth stopped and laid Naleena’s weapons flat on one of the benches. “I assure you that I am VERA. Legion is still downloaded inside Faed and assisting him in his survival.”

 

“Pardon me if I seem a little uneasy, but we fought against Geth during the battle of the Citadel,” Ereba said. “They really tore up the place. Zakera Ward got the worst of it when they swarmed through that relay monument. And they were going to let in more giant killer machines? Sorry if I’m not ready to trust you yet. But the boss says I gotta fight alongside you, so I fight alongside you.”

 

VERA-Geth cocked her head. “I understand your concern. I do not want to give you cause to function less than optimally.”

 

Ereba looked a bit puzzled.

 

Tallis patted her back.

 

“That’s her way of saying ‘don’t worry, I’ve got your back.’” Irina said.

 

“That colloquialism is accurate,” VERA-Geth replied.

 

Ereba laughed. “That’s good to know, especially since we’ll both most likely be in support roles judging by your weapon,” Ereba said and showed VERA-Geth hers.

 

VERA-Geth took Ereba’s M-98 Widow in her hands and looked it over. “While the two are similar in design, yours is about half the weight and fires a slug one quarter the mass at the same velocity. Still it is quite effective,” she said and handed it back to Ereba.

 

Ereba looked like she’d been spanked.

 

“So, VERA, you’re saying ‘mine’s bigger’?” Irina asked.

 

VERA-Geth tilted her head. “That colloquialism is also quite accurate; however I meant it in a literal sense,” she said and handed her Widow to Ereba. “This rifle is not designed to be fired by organics. The recoil from a single shot would shatter the bones in your shoulder. Rounds fired from it will penetrate lightly armored ground vehicles. However, it suffers from a reduced rate of fire. That is something that I will look into improving.”

 

The weapon's weight and feel astounded Ereba, and after lining up a couple of shots, she handed it back to VERA-Geth. "Sweet."

 

Irina was fastening her boots. “I still can’t get used to that voice, VERA.”

 

“I have asked the boss to get new voice synthesizers for this unit should this experiment be successful,” VERA-Geth replied.

 

Naleena arrived in the locker room. She removed her coat, opened her commando armor and slipped additional flexible armor sheets in the chest and back areas.

 

“So boss, what’s the plan?” Irina asked.

 

Naleena moved back toward Essul since she was having difficulty with one of the sheets. “Help me with this, please?” she asked and Essul slipped the sheet inside the pocket in the commando armor. “I told Commander Selani to take us in quietly around the south pole of the planet to within 300, 000 km. Dhazil is in the southern hemisphere. Then we’ll launch and I’ll FTL the shuttle to a point inside the atmosphere of Garvug at an altitude of 1 km. Ordinarily it’s a dangerous maneuver, but we have a VI on board. We’ll exit FTL at a velocity of 300 knots, engage visual cloak, drop to an altitude of 100 meters above the surface to stay under radar and approach Dhazil.

 

“Vayne do you have an LZ picked out?” Naleena said and fastened her armor.

[Cainhurst Crow]

"One shot shatters the shoulder, huh? Took 4 to do mine in..." Essul commented as he looked towards either sniper rifle, weary of either. He loaded his kishock harpoon gun and cazador smg, usual weapons as he brought out his pre-mission medication dose and injected it into his neck in silence, feeling the numbness creep along his nerves.

 

He went over to help naleena with her armor while vayne approached, giving a leery look towards vera-geth as he brought up his omnitool, displaying a simple map layout for the others to see, "We're landing at one of the old abandoned airfields near the border of Haliot territory. It's far away enough that we won't risk getting shot down by Haliot's damned fortress..." As he spoke, a layout of Dhazil appeared, a collection of what looked like rather desolate pre-fab and stonecut buildings all around a rather larger circular structure, 3 large towers coming out from it and making it visible throughout the area. Far away, in what looked like a more rundown area, blocked from view by 4 surrounding square structures, was the airfield, a number of older looking vehicles around it "Most of Dhazil's population lives underground, the surfaces either too cold in the winter months or too polluted to stay up there year round. As such, there's not usually a lot of eyes up on the surface, say for the Vorcha of course..."

 

The map expanded, large columns of space extending down like inverted skyscrapers, the largest of all being the Haliot Fortress. "However, we'll still need to watch out. Corporate forces have been reported massing near the outskirts of Dhazil, loading off weapons, artillery, and vehicles. Dhazil may not have a lot of people living on the surface, but they got enough AA guns hidden all throughout the area to turn any fighting down there fast. We're all gonna need to be careful with how we use our weapons and how we present ourselves. If we don't, we could all end up dead from the locals, or the corporate forces...or both...The graveyards here...right on the goddamn boarder, 3 clicks north of our location..." a small red dot lite up a mostly empty looking space, with many abandoned looking buildings around it.

 

"We can't risk flying there or we'll be lite up. So...we're gonna have to get there on foot." With that said he looked around to the others, wanting to make sure they understood the gravity of the situation.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"Those empty buildings.... they look like the perfect place to set up an ambush," Naleena said.

 

VERA-Geth interrupted. "This rifle's scope can detect heat emissions through walls if they are not too thick."

 

"That could come in handy," Naleena replied. "I'm going to put you on the spot, Vayne. How solid is Haliot Wrund's hold?"

[Cainhurst Crow]

"Honestly? Not very..." Vayne explained as he looked back towards the map he was displaying, "Haliot's got the krogans support, half the vorchas, and a few turian gangs. But the corporate forces have a vorcha named Kyll they've propped up as the legitimate president after their failed coup. He's a puppet, but one who knows his place, and he's got the other half of the vorcha, and a lot of the human and turians on garvug on his side..."

 

"The locals are split, but there's the outside back up to worry about as well. If it comes down to it, Haliot's gonna need all the ships and AA guns to repulse a full scale push, and even then he could still lose. And the corporate forces appear to be mounting up, just for that. Given all those odds..." He said as he looked to naleena, dead serious, "I'd say he's 50/40 solid..."

[Kel Riever]

...Local Cluster, Sol System, arrival aboard Frank's shuttle

“WOW!”

Molly caught the image on the datapad reflected in Frank’s visor.  She turned bright red and stared straight ahead at the dashboard monitors for a long moment.

Finally, when she recovered, she looked back at Morgan, then Anika, and finally to Frank again, though not directly at him.  “Wow.  It must be nice to have someone who cares about you.”  She hated what she said and hoped it didn’t sound too pathetic.  You have your job, Molly.  Get Jen, Keith and Rosanne back safely, it’s all you need to do.  Molly felt herself slide down her seat as Frank lined the shuttle up for a jump through the Relay.

~ ~ ~ ~

Arrival in the Local Cluster, as the Alliance liked to call it, went without incident, though as Frank came out of the Relay transfer, the Kodiak’s scanners lit up.  There were well over a hundred ships at the arrival point, and while many of them were merchant vessels or liners, the vast majority of them were members of the Alliance 1^st Fleet.  Steadily, the Fleet made its way towards the Charon Relay, at least most of it was.

A frigate from the fleet was conducting policing duties for new arrivals.  Frank saw on a monitor the standard greeting protocols, including a ‘Welcome to Alliance Space’ message.  The frigate was near a large freighter, a water tanker, and looked like it was in position to pay more attention to it than other ships in the area.  But as the Kodiak came into range along with other small craft, the frigate pulled away and Frank received a message directly by com.

“This is the SSV Gallipoli.  Kodiak shuttle, please stand by for external scan.  Maintain course in your current heading and await possible further instruction.”
 

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"VERA, have your passive scans picked up any chatter between the two cruisers? Have you been able to identify them?" Naleena asked.

[Redbelle]

Jess paced about her command deck as the call came through.

 

Gift of the gab huh? Well I can't fault that. Leeeesseeeee...... All those ships and a powder keg waiting for them to stroke them trigger's......

 

Jess pulled herself up to her full height. "Duncan! Open me up a channel to one of those ships.....". She paused to consider. "Make it, not the lead ship".

 

Duncan looked up surprised. "Cap'n, comm traffic shows which ship is the lead.... But you want to talk to one that's not the lead"?

 

"Yep". Jess let the confusion play on Duncan's face for a moment before prompting. "Get me a line luv".

[Redbelle]

Communications officer Bobby Collins was enjoying the relative peace and quiet of the fleet formation they were in. The SSV Morgan, that their own ship, the SSV Kirkwall sat next to in a box formation, was handling the bulk load of comms traffic being the flag ship of the fleet. The Kirkwall's VI was handling most of the internal and external communication so he when the VI asked him how he wanted to assign a new comm port he was surprised and sat up straighter in his chair.

 

"Where's the origin"?

 

"A ship".

 

Bobby rolled his eye's. "Which ship? Tell me which ship the signal is coming from".

 

A moment's hesitation told Bobby the VI was processing what should have been an instant response. The formation was so close to each other that VI to VI handshakes would have given their systems the information the moment he asked for it.

 

"The K&Q free trading vessel Medusa". The reply came finally.

 

Bobby raised an eyebrow and looked over the system watch logs. Their sensor systems officer had indeed caught sight of a new ship entering the system and had forwarded the sighting to the ships watch officer and the captain of the Kirkwall.

 

Bobby suppressed a groan and focused on his display. Bad enough he'd been napping. The only thing worse than napping was being caught doing it. He commed the watch stander. "Sir, we just received a request for communication with the ship that just entered the area".

 

The cut glass English feminine voice that came back sounded business like in it's tone. "Inform that ship that all communication with the fleet is to be forwarded to the Morgan Leftenent".

 

Bobby bent to his task, and was surprised to find the request repeated back to them again. "Sir..... They just requested communication with us again".

 

"Did you signal them about the Morgan"?

 

"Yes Ma'am".

 

"Repeat the message and if they do it again relay the signal to the Morgan".

 

Bobby nodded feeling relieved, finally, someone had taken the heat off him form having to decide how to handle the incoming communication. He repeated his last message and then began setting up a relay when another message arrived. This time in text format.

 

'Message. To SSV Kirkwall. From K&Q FTV Medusa. Please get your drunk ass comms man to press the little button marked connect will you? We've got business to get on with'!

[Cknarf]

“You know, it looked way better from a distance.” The readouts from Kodiak’s kinetic barriers fell from 100 to 84 percent, before slowly walking back up. “Ugh. All this goddamn bullsh*t floatin’ around…”   Frank shook his head. "Ain't gonna be nothin' left for these a**holes to scan if we're out here dickin' around much longer."

 

“This is the SSV Gallipoli. We heard that."

 

"Yeah? Well, hear this." Frank grunted a little bit, as he tried to forced a fart.

 

"Go ahead, Kodiak. We're all ears."

 

"Never mind."

 

"Thought so. *brrrrrrt*"

 

"Oh, real f***in' professional, man." Frank jammed a thumb at the mute button.

 

“How you wanna do this? We can go scoop up the fam, or land at the port and take a cab. Either way, we’re prolly gonna need to refuel before we leave again.”  Frank glanced at the HUD. “Sh*t, I don’t know. Maybe not. Anyways, I’m already patched into LaGuardia ATC. Sounds busy as sh*t right now.”

 

He looked back at Morgan from the cockpit.

 

“Your call, man. They's yo peeps.”

[TheMajonese]

Omega, a few hours earlier

The five people that met between the empty crates in an abandoned warehouse could hardly be any more different. The most noticable of them was of course Ruyak with his abnormal size and the unique armor he wore. Such meetings usually took place in bars or restaurants but since Ruyak couldn't sit on normal chairs he never visited such places. Besides, in here, nobody was going to bother them. This was very important for somebody like him. Information was power and on Omega, Ruyak had a lot of it. Even though he hadn't any interest in messing with Aria, it was best if that asari didn't know anything about him. From what he had heard, she could become quite paranoid when it came to power on Omega.

 

Then there was Frank Hamann, the human veteran from the First Contact War, sitting on one of the crates and humming the melody of one of his drinking songs. It was hard to tell how much alcohol he had drunk before coming to this meeting. Next to Frank stood a short salarian who was visibly nervous and looked around as if he was searching for an escape route through the warehouse.

 

And then there were two turians who had just arrived, a man and a woman, both slightly taller than average and wearing heavy weapons and armor. The female turian stood a bit off with crossed arms, while the other turian shook Ruyak's hand.

 

"Good to see you again, Curas, and it seems you are finally intrducing me to your wife!", the krogan laughed at the turian who just grinned back at him. "But you are not going to tell me her name, are you?"

 

The turian just grinned innocently and then turned to his wife. She glared at him and Ruyak before giving the short answer "Anivia".

 

With another laugh Ruyak patted Curas' shoulder and gave the turian woman a wink before turning back to the others. "You might be wondering why we are here, so I'll just start straight ahead. A while ago, a good friend of mine showed up here on Omega. He was on a spectre's team and they were actually the ones who defended the Afterlife after these cultists had turned it into a warzone. I'm speaking of Arian..."

 

Curas eyes widened in surprise and Anivia let out a snort. "Arian? He was with the Blue Suns, right?", she asked and the krogan nodded. "I thought he was dead."

 

"Not quite, he left Omega for a while", Ruyak replied. "His wife Sivia attacked him, stabbed him with her knife and tried to kill him. So he had to kill her. At least that's what he told me. When I arrived at their aparment I didn't see any bodies, just the blood on the floor. Arian killed his wife but then he just left Omega, he didn't carry her dead body with him. So why couldn't I find her corpse?" He raised one hand and presented a tiny object between two fingers. "And instead I found this inside the bedroom."

 

Ruyak gave his find to Curas who examined it closely. It was a short transparent needle with a small capsule inside it that was partially filled with some yellow liquid. The turian gave Ruyak a questioning look and tilted his head slightly.

 

The krogan crossed his arms. "At first I thought that someone tried to poison Arian and Sivia in their apartment. You know, Arian managed to make a few enemies on Omega. But now that Arian told me what really happened, I knew that it had something to do with this needle. I gave this thing to several of my contacts on Omega but none of them could identify what was inside this capsule. Then I asked him about it..." He nodded at the salarian who winced when he realized that the krogan was talking about him.

 

"And what is it?", Anivia wanted to know and couldn't hide her curiosity.

 

"Tecost-blood...", Ruyak answered her question in a dramatic voice and laughed at the confusing look in her face. Then he turned to Curas. "You know what it is, right?" The turian nodded and his mandibles twitched.

 

Anivia rolled her eyes. "What is...Tecost-blood?"

 

But instead of Ruyak, the salarian answered this time. "Tecost are large fishes that live on the asari world Niacal. The term 'Tecost-blood' is actually misleading, Tecost don't have blood. The substance is extracted from their brains where it serves as regulation mechanism for the neuronal activity of certain areas of their brain. Unclear what other specific effects this substance has on the fishes. On sapient species even small doses have terrible effects. Increasing heartbeat and blood pressure, headaches, anxiety states, increased aggression, paranoia, hallucinations. The body thinks its in a fight for survival and triggers appropriate mechanisms which is either trying to flee or to fight to the death. Excluding vorchas of course."

 

The krogan showed a grin. "Dr. Viss Fulus, I saved his ass a few times so he agreed to help me with this." He became serious again. "You know what this means?" Curas nodded again but both Anivia and Frank seemed to have no idea what the krogan was talking about.

 

"Scheiße, how about telling me what the hell this means?", Frank wanted to know.

 

"This means that someone tried to kill Arian by poisoning his wife. She probably hallucinated and thought that he was threatening her, Arian told me that they had an argument before. At some point she lost her nerves and attacked him. Just think about this; if Sivia had killed Arian, who would have suspected that someone else was involved? Imagine someone breaking into their apartment while they're sleeping, this person could easily poison Sivia and then just leave again."

 

"But something went wrong", Anivia remarked. "You found that needle..."

 

"Yes, something must have gone wrong, maybe one of the turians woke up or maybe the person we are searching for isn't quite as skilled as we think he or she is." Ruyak sighed. "But whoever did this wanted to make absolutely sure that nothing leads to him or her. We're on Omega, criminal persecution here is nothing compared to Citadel space. This person could have just shot Arian in the head, that would have been much easier, because obviously, the plan with the Tecost-blood failed as Arian is still alive and Sivia is dead. Which leads me to the other reason of this meeting."

 

The krogan turned to Frank. "I'm leaving Omega for a while which means that the Flaming Fury is yours again, at least until I'm back."

 

With a grin the human shrugged his shoulders. "So now that I'm running the bar again, we will finally be back in the black", he joked and suddenly became serious again. "You want me to have an eye on Jona?"

 

Ruyak nodded. "She won't like being left behind but I can't take her with me."

 

"And were are you heading?"

 

"That depends", the krogan said with a look at Curas. "There are still many open questions about this. Where is Sivia's body? Who is behind this and why? And is Arian still in danger? I know for sure that this is much bigger than it seems because, you know, I have a sense for this. Curas is an old friend of mine and he probably is the best hitman I've ever seen. I asked him to do some research and he already found a promising lead that could answer a few questions. That's where we're heading." The turian gave an approving nod but still didn't say a word.

 

 

 

Janiri, prior to the arrival at Garvun

So far Arian had managed to avoid most of the other crew members. He always went to the mess hall when most of the other crew members were already gone and spent the rest of his time at the gym or in the simulator. Whenever he met someone he just glared at them so he wasn't bothered with anything. By now it seemed that most crew members even tried to avoid him but he wasn't going to complain about it.

 

He was on the way back to his quarters to get some rest before the Janiri would arrive at their target destination when he got a message on his omni-tool. At first he wanted to ignore it but he saw that it was from Ruyak at opened it. As all of the krogan's text messages, it was very short.

 

 

Arian, read this carefully:

There was a link to an extranet article about something called 'Tecost-blood'

 

Be careful, somebody tried to kill you! 

 

I know there are better birthday presents but that's all I have.

 

 

Arian blinked a few times at the last sentence and wasn't sure if the krogan was serious about this but then checked the date on his omni-tool. It actually was his birthday. He had never celebrated it anyway but it was still weird to completely forget about the time. How old was he now? 30 years? At the moment Arian wasn't even sure.

 

He read Ruyak's message over and over again but it didn't make any sense to him. Maybe he turned crazy over the last months, the turian thought before opening the extranet article. While reading through the article his face darkened and his muscles tensed. Then he deactivated his omni-tool and clenched his fists. Maybe he stood there for a couple of minutes, maybe just for a few seconds while his mind tried to make sense of what he just read.

 

When he finally reached his cabin, Arian fell down on his bed and couldn't move any more, his mind completely empty and a sharp pain in his chest.

 

 

 

Janiri, present

Sivia had been an artist who had loved to custumize weapons and armor for her and Arian. And of course there had been her faible for fictional creatures of all different cultures and her fascination with violence. She had shown Arian pictures of the mythical beasts that were called 'dragons' and he could remember her excitement at the look of the flying, fire breathing creatures.

 

Of course the armor that Sivia had gifted Arian resembled a dragon. It seemed to be an usual custom painted mercenary armor but it was much better than that. Sivia had been a perfectionist when it came to such things, the armor wasn't just designed to look good.

 

Each part of it was formed to resemble a dragon's extremeties and its surface had the colour of human blood, an extremely dark red. The gloves and boots ended in talons that didn't just look sharp enough to be used as weapons. Even on the knee and ellbow parts of the armor were short blades that could be used as weapons. The helm which was designed to look like a dragon's head, ended in several long spikes that covered the wearer's own crest of horn.

 

Even though the armor wasn't as heavy as the ones Arian usually wore, the additional mobility that it provided was useful enough to compensate the lack of protection. But most importantly; Sivia had created this armor just for him. For someone of his size it was quite hard to find a good armor that he could wear without problems, most of them just didn't fit which could even mean an impairment of his movement during combat. But not this one, it fitted perfectly, it gave enough protection, offered good mobility and even had blades attached to it so Arian didn't even need to bring a combat knife with him. It didn't even look ridiculous, unlike many other mecenary armors that Arian had seen during his time on Omega. For him this dragon armor was just perfect, even though he had no idea what dragons actually were.

 

When Arian entered the locker room where the others already were, his rifle in one hand and the helm in the other, the first thing that caught his attention was the geth platform. He knew that this thing was VERA but that didn't mean that he was feeling any better about it. For him it made no difference if this platform was controlled by geth or VERA, he didn't trust any of those machines.

 

"Hey, any chance we have any heavier weapons than this in the arsenal?", Arian asked Naleena and pointed at his Phaeston.

[Kel Riever]

...on Frank's shuttle, passing Pluto, which still may or may not be a planet.

"LaGuardia...better than the other ports.  Plan on more bureaucracy than your used to, and a heavy port fee, but at least they know what they're doing over there.  Not like Philly, where you wouldn't be allowed to even touch your own shuttle for refueling with the union.  I'd say get everything ready to go when we land, fuel, a check, any repairs we need.  The family's regular people, so we should make it a good flight back.  Adding three more in here is going to provide a whole new dynamic."

Molly knew what Morgan was talking about.  The Severns, finding out Morgan was alive, all that decompression talk...it could get intense in an enclosed space, even with level headed people.  She trusted the Severns; they weren't going to have some sort of incident while on board with scuffles or any of that nonsense.  Let alone how stupid that would be with Anika and the rest of them nearby.  But emotions could run high without any physical altercations, and the three non-family members were going to likely witness some uncomfortable interactions.

"Good thing there isn't anything illegal on our shuttle," Molly said, bringing the conversation back to the customs check.  She was worried she'd have to step into the conversation with the Gallipoli, but what were the chances of Frank talking to someone just like him?  Apparently a lot higher than Hagen had anticipated.

[Cknarf]

"Oh, there is. They just ain't gonna find it." Frank leaned in a bit, and whispered. "It's in my butt."

 

((Like this, Maj. Easy!))

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"I am picking up that one of the cruisers is called the Kirkwall. It seems that Captain Stone has responded to the SSV Morgan's hail directly to the Kirkwall. That is not logical." VERA said. "The Kirkwall's VI seems to be confused since the reply should have gone directly to the Morgan."

 

Naleena smiled. "Good one, Jess," she commented. "VERA, Jess is 'screwing up' on purpose. It's buying us some time."

 

"I understand."

 

Naleena got on the hardline communications. "Commander Selani, begin maneuvering into position."

 

Selani replied momentarily. "Aye-aye, Ma'am."

 

Arian had arrived in the locker room and inquired about a heavier weapon than his Phaeston.

 

Irina heard him and showed him her modified Mattock. "Check this. It has semi-automatic, burst fire, and full-auto modes. But be careful to compensate for the recoil in full auto. It kicks up and left quite hard because it wasn't designed for that. It was a home-made mod. The boss likes it, but she favors semi-auto," Irina said. "Or... if you prefer to get up close and personal, there's this," she took out her 12 gauge double barrel shotgun. "I can show you quick loading techniques. It's an old fashioned weapon, but effective. Ask Golt.... Oh wait, you can't. It took them a while to scrape his brains off the ceiling of the Medusa."

 

Naleena glanced at Arian and nodded.

[Cainhurst Crow]

"Heh. Nice..." Vayne said with a laugh, overhearing Irina's joke and not helping but crack up at that. This mission was a heavy one, and some levity helped to clear his head.

 

Essul meanwhile was silent as the grave as he stood with his arms crossed, in the corner of the shuttle. His army-green armor on and helmet sealed per usual as he waited for them to make the jump.

 

/////////////////////

 

"Kirkwall. This is captain chase of the Morgan. Your communications VI appears to be malfunctioning. Over..." The diversion was working, as the VI did its best to comply with its order. It sent relay warning after relay warning to the Morgan, yet each one never seemed to connect them to the mysterious ship.

 

"SSV Morgan, this is Mithrado Aulus of the Adamant. What's the status of the unidentified? Over..." The turian captain of the large carrier inquired as it held course, "Is the target hostile or not? Over."

 

"Stand by Adamant. We're still assessing the situation." Captain Chase responded as he let out a frustrated sigh off comms, "Just our luck...Someone diagnose the VI and figure out what the hell is happening." He ordered.

 

All the while, no one had noticed the Janiri, nor the shuttle, making their way towards Garvug undetected.

[TheMajonese]

Arian had no idea who Golt was so he ignored that last remark. "I won't need a gun for close range combat", he just said and looked at Irina's Mattock. The weapon had certainly more firepower than his Phaeston but at the cost of a tiny thermal magazine and a much slower rate of fire. It wasn't really effective at pinning enemies down. Arian knew that he had very specific demands when it came to weapons and armor but he probably learned that from his time in the turian military. "Guess I have to get something the next time we're on shoreleave", he muttered.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"What exactly are you looking for, Arian? A light machine gun?" Naleena asked. "Have you been checked out on the Hellbringer?"

 

"Yeah, the NAA Hellbringer. I think it's named after Hellia, ancient goddess of the underworld. It's an older Asari weapon left over from our expansion days. They've tried to phase it out several times but someone in the brass keeps saying that you never know when we'll need it," Ereba said. "You've seen Iole sling it around. It’s based on a Gatling gun, but we found a way of making it lighter. It still weighs about 14 kg; straps around the shoulder with quick release clips. Nos Astra Armory did a sweet job of balancing; adjusting that with mass effect fields to minimize kick, and it fires 2000 rounds per minute of high velocity armor piercing mass accelerated 5.56 mm rounds. They also solved the speed ramp problem. It kicks right in. It uses liquid eezo dichloride in addition to thermal clips for cooling. And it has a built in motion tracker. Not too many commandos carry one because it tends to slow biotic recharge time. But trust me, while biotics are nice, the girls here don’t mind having that baby backing them up. If you see one on the market, buy it. They’re worth the 100000 CR for the base model.”

 

Tallis made a sweeping machine gun motion with her hands and laughed.

 

Ereba continued. "Basic ammo pack is 4000 thermal clips in a backpack."

[TheMajonese]

Arian snorted and avoided rolling his eyes. The asari, her name was Ereba if he recalled correctly, sounded like a saleswoman trying to sell him the machine gun. "I don't have to care about biotics", he said. "And the weight shouldn't be a problem either. Sounds like a good investment."

 

For this mission on a planet with krogans and heavily armed corporated forces, his Phaeston with the armor-piercing mod was still good enough but Arian should really consider getting something heavier for future missions.