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[Redbelle]

The news came in fast and kept on coming as Amy sat in the edit suite, cutting together her story when a noise came from outside the door. A short, overweight, heavy set man with a firm jawline and receding hairline barged in and stopped only to shut the door behind him as Amy raised an eyebrow.

 

"Steve, no. The workers will wonder". She drawled as Steve turned to fix his eye's on her in a way so intense that it often melted the employee's of the building who worked for him. Sadly, she also worked for him too.

 

"You better start ex-pah-laining yourself Babylon before I get called by the council again and asked why it tis.... that one of mine is asking questions about confidential mil-lit-tary matters about h'wone of their ships"!

 

Amy frowned to repress the smile of amusement her boss caused whenever he spoke. He'd come from Earth. The poorer end of London and spoke with such pronouns that it was often hard for her to listen and not need a break to let the giggles out from inside. As it was though, he effectively controlled the content she produced and could kill her story if she didn't get him on board.

 

"It's a hot story Steve. And it's getting hotter. I was embedded on a ship....".

 

"And we'll talk about where you went all of a sudden believe you me.... But I most certainly want to hear why it is you think I shouldn't be asking for your access card and a four week suss-pension! Your not above the ruuules Babylon"!

 

"It was to good an opportunity to miss....". Amy lied. Not wanting to go into detail about how a woman called Babe had turned her entire world upside down. "....I got access to a ship that in turn has access to a new, state of the art warship funded by the council. No one's talked about it. Not what the design is for. Who get's to run them? How much did they cost? How does this affect the balance of power of council race military? Did human funds go into their design and manufacture? Where are they building.....".

 

"Yessss, yessss. Get to the point Babylon".

 

"My point is that when I was aboard the other ship I got the low down on what was going on. Then when I went over to that ship recently, I was attacked".

 

"WHHHHAAAAAAAT"! Steve bellowed his mouth hanging open. "What did you do this time Babylon"?

 

"Nothing. I went to see the commanding officers who were over there and they left me locked up in a room. I had to yell to get someones attention....".

 

"Why didn't you use a comm Babylon"?

 

"Restricted to on board, authorised personal only. I got out though. An Asari let me out. Then another one came along and we started walking.....".

 

"This isn't neeeews Babylon".

 

"Then a Batarian appeared and tackled me to the ground".

 

The silence suddenly loomed in the room as Steve stared at her. Blinking rapidly he reached into his jacket pocket and brought out a cheap looking cigar that he simply held. A habit he had developed over the years when events had the potential to develop she knew.

 

"A Baaar-tar-ian.... Onboard that ship".

 

"Yes".

 

"Did you find out what for"?

 

"No....". She began.

 

"Then the stories worthless Babylon"!

 

"I....".

 

"Where are your sources"?

 

"I have a sound recording from my gear I captured....".

 

"It's no good without visual's....".

 

"And I have certified medical evidence that I had none of the injuries before getting on that ship and a Huerta Docter has confirmed the injuries I sustained had to have happened between getting on and coming straight here".

 

"It's to thin Babylon"!

 

"It's enough to start digging"!

 

"Do you know what will happen if we don't turn up something hard and concrete? If you don't have it this will land us in the courts going back and forth and cost us a foooort-une"!

 

"Steve..."!

 

"It's the flippin Coun-cil Babylon. You think they don't know how to fight dirty"?

 

"One of the solider's involved was seen later breaking Citadel traffic law with an accomplice and endangering civilians"!

 

"Then make that your story! Don't go picking fights you can't win Babylon"!

 

Amy felt her anger start to get the better of her. "Those people are meant to be our protectors Steve! We entrust them with equipment that could blow apart cites! We give them skills and knowledge to make them dangerous to those we deem dangerous! They are meant to serve us and yet lately..... It seems to me that they've been serving themselves! Being held to no account! No standard! Nothing! And I got attacked because of it! You know who got the big four eye'd Yeti off me? Another human! If she hadn't come by I don't know what would have happened! Me! Powerless in the grip of people we're supposed to trust! Only apparently we can't even trust our reporters going aboard one of their brand new ships and not coming out without getting roughed up and intimated"!

 

"Your getting to invoooolved Babylon"!

 

"Well that's what I have to do to get the stories! Because if we don't break this! If we don't find the truth.....! Whatever comes next will be on us because we didn't sound the alarm when we saw the warning signs that the biggest and most influential member of the council races is taking what we give and giving it up to a race who has blantently stated they want all humans dead and apparently now have Asari backing! What else Steve? Are the Turians on board with this? The Salarians? Udina would have kicked off about this if he knew! Is he in the dark? Are the other's shutting our representative out? There's a war going on in the policy making board room and we don't know it and it's trickling down, top to bottom Steve and I need to get to the bottom of it"!

 

Steve looked at her. Then sighed. "So your assualt is just the opening salvo"?

 

"Damn right. The camera guys took my interview while the bruises looked good and fresh. We'll get the sympathy demographic right off the bat and the questions we'll be asking will shake the foundations enough to make other's start to wonder what their council is hiding".

 

"They'll come after you. I can't gaurantee your safety".

 

"Just make sure they can't take our material's. Copy it and spread it out. Right now, any reaction that's hostile that comes after the broadcast will only support our case. Especially since I'll be making sure I have surveillance on me. Anyone comes after me, if we catch them on film. Then we'll have further supporting evidence.....".

 

"Haaard evidence Babylon". Steve said, pointing his finger's at her with the cigar still clutched between them. "If you want to pull the trigger on this then make sure it's not a house of cards. Or it'll be over before it begins".

 

"I can get it"!

 

Steve's shoulder's slumped. "See that you do. Noooow..... I've got more calls to take". With that Steve departed leaving Babylon to look at her cut together material and she sighed.

 

He was right. She needed more. Something concrete. Something no one could refute. And she suspected she knew just he person to go to.

[Redbelle]

Essul heard the com call from Anika, nodding as he got on his own. "I...I'll be right there. Essul out." He said as he hung up. The Babylon Incident, thst was one way of putting it he supposed. Drying himself off, he made his way through the ship to meet witg Anika.

"I suppose you're wondering about why I was so...harsh, with the reporter. Am I correct? " he asked, having known thst was likely what it was she mesnt by his perspective. "I'll say this before I continue. I had been led to believe Ms. Babylon was a threat to the ship. An infiltrator who may have managed to harm one of the members of this crew...when I realized my mistake, too late, I did my best to calm the situation. "

Anika nodded as she wrote on her pad. Then looked up at Essul.

 

"So you believed her to be a threat to the ship. Could you detail to me what led you to that conclusion? You say you believed her to be an infiltrator? What did you do both before and after you decided we had an intruder on board"?

[Kel Riever]

Onboard the Medusa

There were a lot of crew members in the forward hangar bay of the Medusa.  In fact, almost everybody was there standing in two ranks, except Dahlia, Sherie, Doctor Hayashi, and of course the people who had gone with Naleena to visit the Consort.  Morgan, Dogger and Aelias were there, standing in front of the crew.  Even Duncan was in the ranks, though he wasn't technically on duty anymore.  In fact, Marshal, Duncan and Mister Charles were standing directly in front.

Morgan's face was deadpan.  He turned to Mister Charles first, leaning in, his voice quiet but sharp enough to be heard by all in the hangar.

"Have you got anything to say about that breach of security you felt the need to transfer around by blabbing it all over the ship?"

Mister Charles did not look happy.  "No, sir..."

"Morgan!"

"No, Morgan!"

"You want to be on this ship, right?  Because if you don't, I can send you right out the door here, onto the Citadel, never to be seen again.  I'll have to explain what happened to Miss Priss.  Do you want that?"

"No, Morgan!"

Morgan motioned to Dogger, who handed him a large, old-fashioned broom.  It even had a wooden handle.  Morgan handed it to Mister Charles.  "Then sweep the light off the deck in here."

Mister Charles looked confused.  "Morgan?"

"Do you see all the light covering the deck here?  It's bright, shiny.  Sweep it up until there's no more light covering this deck.  Begin now."

Mister Charles looked around, took the broom.  He looked towards the main light controls and took a step towards them.

Morgan shouted, "Did I say touch the light controls?  Or did I say, sweep the light off the deck?"

"Sweep the light off the deck, Morgan."

Morgan motioned to the deck, and Mister Charles started sweeping vigorously.  Then Morgan stepped up to Duncan, who looked a lot worse than Mister Charles.

"You!..." Morgan started to shout, then thought to himself.  He turned to Aelias and whispered for her to get him something.  She promptly ran off.  Then he addressed Duncan again.  "Forget it, Duncan, I'm done yelling at you.  And you can't get off this ship until the Captain comes back.  I could just throw you in the brig, chain you to a wall or something, let you drink out of a dog bowl.  If you don't want that, you're going to do what I tell you to when Aelias comes back."  Eventually, Aelias returned with a small-ish potted tree Doc kept in medical for decoration.  Morgan took the tree and handed it to Duncan.

"You will keep this tree alive.  You will carry this wherever you go.  You will take it to meals, you will take it to sleep, you will take it to the latrine when you go.  If someone asks you why you're carrying this tree around, you will tell them, 'It's to replace the oxygen I stole from everyone else!' "

Duncan took the tree, and stared at it dumbfounded.
 

Marshall couldn't help it.  He laughed, though he tried to stifle it.  Which ended in him spitting through his lips and laughing anyway.

Morgan turned a cool gaze to Marshall.  "Hilarious, is it?  Down on the deck and beat your face!"

Marshall got scared, fell to the deck, and punched himself in the face, hard.  There was a lot of wincing from the ranks of the crew.

Morgan sighed, squatted down over Marshall and said, "Beat your face means do push ups.  Do twenty push ups and we'll see if you're laughing after that."

Marshall started doing push ups. 

Of course, Morgan had to turn away and so did Dogger with him.  Both were hiding the fact that they were about to die laughing themselves. 




 

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

The Citadel

 

Commander Selani looked at the clock and put out the word to everyone who was ashore to head back aboard the ship, an prepare for departure. She also notified had VERA notify Aelias of their departure and destination.

 

"I am to inform you that the boss, Captain Stone, Babe, and Priss will be traveling to Armali and will meet us there," VERA said. "The Medusa may accompany the Janiri or remain here at The Citadel. Or if you prefer, Medusa command staff may travel with the Janiri to meet Captain Stone. In the latter case, for security purposes, it can be arranged for the Citadel Tower to lock helm controls, preventing the Medusa being launched."

 

****

 

Silean Nebula - Nevos - Naleena

 

Jess, Priss, and Babe stood together in the botanical garden talking about the events. Babe seemed a bit quieter than usual. In fact, everyone did. This wasn't your normal interaction with the Consort. I sent a message to Matriarch Syra and used Sha'ira's name. While Aria said Syra owed her, I didn't want whatever baggage was attached to that tagging along with my request. I told Syra that I would be on Thessia and asked that she make time in her schedule to see me, mentioned that the meeting could take a while, and gave her my itinerary so her assistant could find a spot satisfactory to both of us.

 

Then I wandered over to see Jess. "It would be a shame if we didn't take advantage of the beach below while we're here," I said. "There's about four hours of sunlight left. Then we should be off. I have business on Thessia. I can take the three of you to Armali. The Janiri and possibly the Medusa will be there. From there you can secure passage to The Citadel or hang out. The Janiri will be in dry dock for a week.

 

"I'd suggest making the trip if only to secure the Armali Council resale license which will give you access to all sorts of equipment: omni-tools, bio-medical equipment, and biotic related equipment. You can only get this license on Thessia."

[Cainhurst Crow]

Vayne let out a sigh of frustration as he watched Tallis get Arian's attention, looking around nervously as he whisper shouted to the two, "Would you two stop that and listen to me!?" He said as he looked between them. "I need to get back to the Janiri and hide there until we leave. ****'s hit the fan and I can't afford to-, Crap!"

 

He spotted it in the crowd, the color red. He didn't even take any chances as he rushed away from the stairs, turning a corner and entering one of the shops. He entered and turned the corner of the entranceway, pressing his back to the wall and out of immediate sight.

 

Down the hall, were 3 individuals in red armor. A krogan and two turians, which walked through this area of the wards, seemingly not caring who spotted them. Leading the group was a turian who went into a shop, audible from down the way.

 

"Hello Sir. Joram Talid. I'm here to ask you about any unusual activities you might have seen since the humans began moving in." The bloodpack guards waited outside, looking about the area as a few stores down, vayne was tucked away and sweating bullets, his hand on his gun.

 

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Essul cleared his throat as he began, standing at attention despite technically outranking Anika. He felt comfortable talking like this, and he didn't feel a need to change old habits now.

 

"I was walking down the hall when I noticed two guards stationed outside of the lounge. I went to discuss what they were doing here, and engaged in small talk. We had went away from the door at first, and that was when I had heard shouting coming from down the hall. Me and the guards rushed to the scene, only to find the lounge empty, and no sign of anyone around..." He said as he closed his eyes, knowing the next part would be hard to believe.

 

"I had believed that, given that the door had been previously locked, and nobody was around. As well as the raised voices, that one of the crew must have opened the door, and something must have happened to them. Our recent missions, as well as previous encounters with individuals like Iyana made me believe this reporter could have been an agent of hers. I believed Naleena might have detained her for interrogation later, based on this assumption....I drew my knife and sprinted down the hall, believing time was of the essence. In my panic, I managed to spot the two and ordered the reporter to get on the ground..."

 

His face scrunched up a bit as he recalled events, remembering something odd that occurred. "I spotted Ms Babylon with Jenus. When I ordered Babylon on the ground, Jenus shoved her to the ground first. I assumed it was self-defense, and took the initiative to pin her down using crowd control methods I was trained to use in the BSIU for arresting potentially dangerous individuals. Once we began to talk, Babylon drew a mace can and sprayed it in my eyes. That was when the others got involved in detaining her, and when you arrived on the scene."

 

"Had Jenus not shoved her to the ground, I would not have determined her to be a confirmed threat..." He answered, as a look of concern was on his face, "Which makes me wonder  why she did so, instead of trying to defuse the situation? Why didn't she say anything?" He questioned aloud, not having the answer himself.

[TheMajonese]

On the citadel

 

Arian wanted to react to Tallis when he saw Vayne trying to hide inside one of the shops as soon as the blood pack guards showed up. With a snort he turned back to the asari. Whatever was going on, he knew that there was no way to get away from this situation. But he was also aware that he kind of owed Vayne something after the krogan had tried to find him after he had get lost on the citadel after the failed assassination attempt.

 

He carefully watched the blood pack members and their leader, Joram Talid. For him, the name was like any other, he had never heard it before. The problem was that Arian had no idea what kind of problem Vayne had with them. "Keep an eye on them", he said to Tallis and nodded towards the mercenaries. "I will ask the krogan what's going on." Arian already began to head for the shop in which Vayne had disappeared but then he turned around again.

 

It was a weird moment when he looked at Tallis and couldn't help but ask: "You got that?" Then he realized how ridiculous his question was and left without waiting for an answer. Of course she got that..., he thought when he entered the shop. Something is wrong about her but it's not that she's stupid...

 

Arian casually moved through the shop as if he was looking for something but he didn't pay any attention to the things that were sold here. "Is there a reason you are running away from them?", he asked Vayne when he was close enough to the krogan to be heard by him without having to raise his voice. Then he suddenly had an idea himself. "Is it because they are blood pack?"

[Cainhurst Crow]

"Yeah. Situations a bit complicated but...let's just say the blood pack want me dead. And much as I'd like to fight my way out, I can't. Not without risking some bystanders getting hurt..." vayne said as he cursed to himself.

"That political hack over there...I know about him. He's a crook running for ward intendant. Using blood pack mercs as paid protection and running an anti-human platform..." Vayne explained as he looked out towards the doorway, "If I could get him distracted, I could maybe slip past them."

" I can help." He heard from behind him, turning around quickly as he saw a human standing at the counter, apparently the shop owner.

"What do yoy mean?" He asked suspiciosly, not exactly having much excuse for it since he was in the humans shop.

"That bastards extorted my store every week ever since he began his campaign. C-sec won't do a damm thing about it, or they get protested as anti-alien. If it gets that bird bastard back, I'll show you a way out of here..." he said as he went behind the counter, "come here...it's this way."

Behind the counter was a large vent, "This place is one of the vent systems. Duct rats use it to try and sneak in here once in a while. You can use it to get away."

[TheMajonese]

"Are you sure about this?", Arian asked as he looked at the vent, the doubt in his voice evident. "How is a krogan supposed to fit in there?"

 

The other thing was that Arian didn't really trust the shop owner but he didn't know how to tell Vayne his concerns without the human being able to hear every single word.

[Redbelle]

Anika's brow furrowed as she listened. "Wait, wait..... Jenus shoved her to the ground first? And they were together when you first spotted them"? Anika leaned back, rubbed her eye's and muttered "Always our illustrious boom commander. So please tell me if you think this summarisation is correct.....".

 

Anika leaned forward and steepled her fingers. "You happened across two guards who left their post to have a conversation with you and when prompted to return by a vocal disturbance.... you found the lounge empty. As you said, your mind was, shall we say, distracted by recent mission events and immediately assumed a possible worst case scenario..... You then went after the source of the disturbance, without calling it in..... I assume the guards would have taken that on themselves so not an oversight.... unless they didn't..... I'll add it to the investigation. And by the time you got to where you saw Jenus and this woman, I'll take it you assumed she was the person in the lounge. You tried to take control of the situation by ordering the woman to submit to military authority.... At which point, Jenus took her down herself. Leading you to back up her play which you had already assumed was the right course of action".

 

Anika held her hands out to the side in a helpless manner. "I won't ask if you think you did anything wrong sir. This went very wrong. And there were ways it could have been avoided. By your account however I can't see anything wrong with what you did..... Even if it seems a touch over the top. You assumed a threat to the ship in a situation you knew nothing about that occurred because the guards allowed themselves to leave their post. You then set about to contain the situation.... I can only hope that knife you drew was intended for self defence because to a non military.... seeing a Batarian coming at them with a knife doesn't leave much to assume intent.... But it seems to me the last person who could affect any control over the situation was Jenus. And she just exacerbated the situation"?

 

Anika shut down the tablet and stood. "It's to early to pin the incident down to anything sir. But it sounds like to much action and not enough thought is behind this incident. This event occurred due to no one having the right information. No one, that I yet know of, sought to inform the bridge and an aggressive posture was assumed before it was called for. I'm not ready to point fingers. But I think this is a case we can all examine and ask ourselves how we could have done something differently to get a better result. It was your call though sir. You were there. You did what you felt you had to do". She paused. "A few questions though..... Did the guards move away from the door on their own? Or did you ask them to step away? Likewise, when you learned the lounge was empty... did you order them to call the bridge? I didn't see them pop up in the scene report so I imagine they stayed guarding an empty room..... And did you order or were told by Jenus after Ms Babylon was brought to the ground what was going on? The door log shows a pass-code was entered from the other side of the door from Babylon so someone let her out..... Any thoughts on those questions you'd like to share with me sir"?

[Cainhurst Crow]

"I ordered them to send an alert out to the rest of the ships security to look out for Babylon. And to search for any missing staff..." He said as he looked away, embarrassed, "I had thought, since no one was there, she might have taken a hostage..." He said as he looked to the ground.

 

"I...called them away, to talk. It just sort of happened, we talked and we started to move away from the door to not block the rest of the hallway..." He admitted with a sigh, shaking it as he spoke, "The fault lies with me for escalating things and over-reacting. I should have known better...It's supposed to be my duty to know better." He said, blaming himself for this screw up.

 

At the mention of the password, Essul looked to anika with surprise, "Someone let her out...Jenus asked if Babylon was an infiltrator after she shoved her on the ground...I have questions for that asari. But...that doesn't change that I should have done more to know what I was dealing with."

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

"Those vents are huge. Big enough for a Keeper to fit through. So it aught to be big enough..." The Shopkeep said as he looked to the others, "I usually keep it covered with some crates to keep kids from sneaking in here."

 

"But why stick your neck out for me? You don't even know who I am..." Vayne asked as he looked to the human curiously. This was a lot to do for a total stranger.

 

"I told you, I hate that Talid bastard, and his blood pack muscle. But outside of that, it seems like your in some trouble..." He said with a nod, "And I can't right let someone wait in my shop to die. Not without losing some sleep at night."

[Kel Riever]

Tallis seemed to weigh the shopkeeper's words, trying to find if she believed them or not.  But either way, she was going with the other two whatever they decided.  Tallis hadn't bothered to answer Arian, because she was used to being second guessed.  Most of her ability she felt she had to prove to people anyway, that's how it always was.  In that regard, she was doing her job, keeping an eye out on the Blood Pack mercs. 

"Hurry up.  Hurry up," Tallis encouraged.

[Cknarf]

Spoiler

And then Johnny was there! He suplexed Talid and both of his krogan body guards!

 

*John Cena theme*

 

Sanves

 

Daliax had assembled her entire security detail on the front lawn. There were about thirty in all, mostly turian, aside from a handful of humans, and a small squad of asari commandos. Each of them looked up to the balcony, quietly waiting for their boss to arrive. Strangely, the head of security, Brehlix, was nowhere to be found

 

Eventually, Daliax gimped her way up to the railing, and addressed them.

 

"Thank you all for coming." She began. "As you know, I've been called upon by the council to do some... spectre sh*t, or something, I don't know. I'm sure it's real important."

 

There were a few audible chuckles from below.

 

"I'm not really one for speeches, so I guess I'll just get to the point." She took a deep breath. "You're all fired. Goodbye, and good luck. I thank you for your service." Daliax turned, and disappeared out of sight.

 

"Daaaaaaamn, she did ya'll dirrrrrtyyyyy!"

 

The security staff were stunned at their sudden termination, looking to each other like 'did that really just happen?' Before any were able to voice their displeasure, she returned.

 

"Nah, I'm just fuckin' with ya. Someone has to look after all of my sh*t while I'm gone. Brehlix!"

 

"Ma'am?"

 

"Bring 'em in!"

 

From the west, came a line of four delivery vans.  The security team watched as they set down carefully on the lawn several meters away.

 

Brehlix emerged from the lead van along with an asari, and pulled the rear doors open, revealing several large crates. Without saying anything, he pointed with two talons at a pair of guards, and gestured for them to unload the first van.  He did the same with the other three.  The asari guards, able to read the words on both the vans and the crates, became visibly excited.

 

The first crate was opened by a pair of turians. From it, one of them withdrew a bottle of amber liquid, with a label marked with a red band.  He looked up to Daliax, as if waiting for further instructions. Brehlix snatched it away, popped the cap off with one of his talons, and held the foaming beverage high.

 

"Before I go, there's just one more thing I want you to do..." Daliax leaned slightly over the railing. Looking down at Brehlix, she nodded.

 

Much to everyone's surprise, the normally straight-laced turian downed the entire bottle, and tossed it aside.

 

"Spectre Gavian has ordered me, to order you, to-- *burp* consume every last drop of alcohol within the walls of the complex by tomorrow morning."

 

Someone might have been fiddling with the sound system.

 

"I'm going to miss all of you incompetent f*cks, I really am. Now go!" Daliax commanded, thrusting a talon forward.

[Kel Riever]

Morgan

Morgan was walking along the Medusa's main spine passageway towards the bridge after the 'meeting' with the crew in the hangar.  Aelias was walking next to him.  Further ahead was Duncan, carrying Doc's small-ish tree carefully to his cabin. 

"You should be able to trust the bridge, Aelias," Morgan said to the turian, "But this isn't necessarily a military crew.  You'll have to learn when you'll be able to trust some people.  Until then, you're going to have to control the information that comes in here better.  When it comes to the Spectre, that's something only Jess, Dahlia, you and I should know for now.  Eventually, you'll have a bridge you can trust.  All right?"

Aelias nodded.  "I really had no idea that it would spread."

Morgan understood, and he tilted his head in Aelias' direction to indicate so.  She clearly still felt at least a small amount of guilt and they continued without talking.  The silence had Morgan start to think about Amy Babylon and her whereabouts.  He was pretty sure he had a good idea where she was, but the question was whether to pull out of the Citadel without her on board.  If it wasn't Jess' sister, he wouldn't have thought twice about it.  But as it was, he wanted to confirm with Jess at least.

Opening his Omni-tool, Morgan figured to just ask Jess if she wanted Amy to come along in a message.  He typed away and sent it, hoping Jess would reply before he was forced to make a decision.
 

[Redbelle]

It was several hours when reply came back and when it did, Jess had sent a picture along with the message with the tagline. Wish you were here.

The message read. "Get her on board. Leave a honey trail or whatever. But make sure she's aboard. Might be hard if she's decided to switch to a new story but remember she's a media trained PR rep and we are her safe little hole in space to keep an eye on the Janiri.

Rough on the Janiri front. I swear this isn't the first time I've heard the name Jenus. Anika sent me a heads up and she says she's compiling an investigation. Help her if you can. I want to know whose nuts to need crush in a vice when I get back. Going to be awhile getting back so keep things in order and I'll see if Asari make fudge to bring back.

Toodles!

Jess"

[Cknarf]

Sanves

 

Frank sat on the steps leading up to Dax’s front door. At this point, the party had moved indoors. Most of it, anyways. Some of the staff had apparently moved to the sprawling back lawn for a little target practice. Either way, the front porch was the quietest place in the whole compound, and Frank used it to check his messages in relative peace.

 

As he was scrolling through Longbow’s bio, a pair of guards had stepped out for a smoke. Frank didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to them. Until an asari noggin’ appeared over his shoulder.

 

“Whatcha readin’?”

 

Frank was startled by her sudden appearance.

 

“A message. Nosy ass.” He rotated slightly.

 

“Longbow, huh? Somethin’ else, ain’t she?”  A grizzled looking human poked his head over the other. The beard on his face put the pathetic fuzz that had formed on Frank’s face to shame.

 

“Apparently.” Frank rotated back the other way.

 

“You’ve never heard of her?” The asari asked, sounding rather surprised.

 

“I’ve heard a few things.”

 

“She’s basically the next Ro.” The human took a seat next to him.

 

“I think It’s a little early to be making comparisons to Tara, but she’s definitely got a bright future ahead of her.”

 

“Too bad we ain’t gonna be around to see it, huh kid?” The man chuckled, giving Frank a firm elbow.

 

“Yeah…”

 

He offered Frank a cigarette, but he declined.

 

“Suit yourself.” He placed it between his lips and lit it with a well-worn zippo.”I was at Astella in ‘77.” He said, as he exhaled. Frank waved away the smoke with his hand.

 

“No sh*t? Were you very close to the crash?“ The asari asked from the other side.

 

“Nah, I was takin’ a p*ss. Would have been, though…” He took another drag. “My section got hit with quite a bit of debris, and it wasn’t just parts of the bike, if you know what I mean.”

 

“Gross.”

 

“You know, Tara wasn’t the only one killed in that accident. You might see mentions of it in old articles, but you’ll never see it in the vids.” The man shook his head. “Poor kid. She was young, couldn’t have been any older than 80. Ended up getting taken out by the helmet of all things." He snapped his fingers. "Lights out. Just like that."

 

“So like, was her head still in there, or…”

 

“I doubt it. The forces involved in crashes at such speed are sometimes so great that the helmets don’t always stay on. But then again, they aren't normally so violent, so there very well may have been some 'remnants'...”

 

“Why didn’t the protective barriers stop it?”

 

“There weren’t any on that section of the track back then.  It was considered a ‘low-risk’ area at the time. Even so, some of the big stuff makes it through the KB’s once in awhile. That’s why in some sections you’ll see actual fences. Nothin’ like a good, old fashioned catch fence to stop chunks of flaming wreckage from crushing spectators…”

 

“Who ended up with it?”

 

“With what?”

 

“The helmet.”

 

“Some lucky fan, I suppose...”

 

“Yo, that’s macabre as f*ck.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Inside

 

“I… don’t. I haven’t danced for… Keelah, it’s been decades!” Adir laughed, while showing off his best moves in between a pair of asari  “I hope I am still alive in the morning, so I can *hic* remember this!”

 

Kira was putting on a show of her own, the only way she knew how.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

On the roof

 

Daliax was laying on her back, and enjoying the nighttime skies over Sanves, one last time before she went back to work.

 

“Any word on Quintus?”

 

“Hm?” She turned to see Marius walking over, and sat up. “Yeah.” She tried to stand, but that sh*t wasn’t going to happen. “Fuckin’... leg. A**hole.” She grumbled, sitting back down.

 

“Well?”

 

“It’s not looking good.” She shook her head.

 

“What’s the deal?”

 

“They managed to extract the projectiles. All but one.”

 

“So? I’ve got a couple in here still, and I’m fine.” Marius touched at his chest.

 

“Well if you’d let me finish…  pr*ck.”

 

Marius gestured for her to continue.

 

“As I was saying, they managed to get all but one. If they tried to remove it, they likely would have killed him right then and there. It’s in a tough spot. But that’s not the big issue.” She looked up briefly. “The shooter was using polonium rounds.”

 

“F*ck.”

 

“Yeah, f*ck is right.” She shook her head again. “The way I see it, we’ve got two options.  Either we have ‘em operate anyway, and risk killing him now… or we don’t, and... well, watch him fade away."

[Kel Riever]

Morgan

Morgan was really regretting where he was going.  He'd seen the picture Jess sent and was still shaking his head.  But it was what she'd asked (and to be fair he'd offered) that had him tepid.

There was the office Morgan had been at.  Amy Babylon's.  There seemed to be a lot of activity.  Out of politeness he hit the door chime.  There was no immediate response, so he hit it again.  No one on the other side of the glass front wall of the place was responding, too wrapped up in whatever they were doing.  So Morgan tried the door.  It was open, and he went in.

A young, intern type, passed by.  Morgan asked, "Miss Babylon?  Can you..."  The man was already gone.  Another young woman came up, and he couldn't help but reach out and grab her arm gently to stop her.  "Pardon me, I'm sorry, can you direct me to Amy Babylon?  Is she at her desk?"

After the young lady got over being grabbed (very quickly, she seemed actually happier to not have to move on with wherever she was walking off to.  "You have to have an appointment."  Then she seemed to second guess herself.  "I'll tell her you're here, Mister?..."

Morgan gave her his name and she smiled, a sort of trying to get attention just for the sake of getting attention smile, and went off to let Amy know he was here.
 

[Redbelle]

On one side of the desk, Amy stood, watching the crag face totem pole of a man sitting on the other side somehow begin a process that, on vid channel news, gave him the appearance of a volcano in human form. She'd had no choice though. She'd needed a way to cut through the red tape. He could provide that.

 

Unfortunately, Udina could be hard to convince. Though even now as she watched she saw the machinations behind his eye's as he considered how to best turn this around to his favour.

 

"Out of the Question"! He thundered. "I cannot simply override the council and order a ship under Asari command to release footage to a journalist"!

 

"I have the audio". Amy retorted. "The news agencies have already been informed. At this point we don't need the visuals. We have what we need to press ahead".

 

"What do you have"? Udina demanded.

 

"You can see it on the news tonight. Along with every person on the Citadel. Terra Firma's been kind enough to pay for mobile vid screens in place in the poorer area's of the Citadel so rest assured.... We'll see to it that as many people as possible are given the chance to watch the news".

 

"You realise you are putting the TerF's presence on this station in jeopardy with this stunt"?

 

"When a member of the media is assaulted....".

 

"There's no proof"!

 

"....Threatened and then let go with no recompense or contact by senior authorities to say they will investigate and take action, I see it as a public service necessity to shine a light on the Asari military to see what we find. Simple fact councillor. WE have a story. We will run it. You can either have us tell people you cooperated or hid evidence from them..... I mean, I would love for you to actually do something seeing as I'm one of the people your supposed to be representing and keeping safe and if a journalist can't even walk down the halls without coming under attack from people in uniform then I hate to think what the people back at home will say when the story makes it's way to Earth's airwaves".

 

"Are you Blackmailing me"?!?

 

"I'm saying that my job is to report what is happening. If you won't fix the problem I'm reporting on then you are part of the problem. And thusly, a part of the story. It's your choice councillor. I'm going to report this story regardless of what you say or do. But what you say and do will affect what I inform people you did, or did not do. Really, I think we both know what the right thing to do is. The only question I have is, will you do it in time before the story airs"?

 

"This is unacceptable"!

 

"Can I quote you on that"?

 

Udina glared at her. "I can of course put your request to the Asari delegate and see if she will take your case forward....".

 

"I'm ready to press charges in the civilian court on this matter councillor. I've had excellent legal advice and a judge who tells me they can keep this out of the closed military court by filing the proper paper work which I did four hours ago. It's all there, ready to be acted upon. At this point all the council can do go against the civilian court of law and show the people that we live under the thumb of an undemocratic government who can do as they please away from the system governments of each's respective home world".

 

"You are playing a very dangerous game young lady".

 

"We don't play in the reporting business councillor.... We just tell it how we see it. If you don't like the messenger, you ought to consider changing the message".

 

Udina's face appeared to turn beet red at that last remark when Amy's omni-tool went off. She looked down as she read a message and then looked up. "I have an engagement back at head quarters. I think we were nearly done. Is there anything you wish to say? On the record"?

 

Udina's glare did nothing but intensify as Amy gave him a polite smile. "Then I'll expect the footage tomorrow. The Asari delegate may not hand it over of course.... But I'd hate to give an impression on air that Tevos runs rings around this office.... Good day councillor".

 

Amy turned and walked out of the room, her heels clicking on the decking as she went. She had to admit, her time with Babe on the Medusa had given her a more thorough understanding of how to dress to get the effect she'd been relying on focus groups to give her. Her business suit was now simple. More form fitting and hugged in the right places to accent her femininity. The heels to added a few extra inches to her height. She'd have to change out of it of course back at HQ, where an intern had told her she had a visitor.... A very important visitor.....

 

Hmmm, maybe she'd leave the heels on for that meeting.

[Cainhurst Crow]

Vayne looked down to hole, back to arian and back to tallis. He let out a sigh, "Dammit..." The krogan said as he looked to the shop keep, "Thanks for this..." He said, and took the plunge, thumping down into the duct as he looked back up to arian.

 

"Good luck. Tell tallis she's got my thanks as well..." Vayne called up as he ran forward through the ducts under the ward floor. The shop keep looked to arian, unsure if he was going to follow or not.

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

"It's interesting you say that..." Machaera said as he tossed out the omnitool to Parrathan's feet, the colonel looking down to it as he looked back up to the cyborg, "Do you know what that is?"

 

Colonel Parrathan looked down to the omnitool, his face as cold as stone as he glanced back up to Machaera, "It's an omnitool. What's that got to do with this?" He asked as he glanced towards the others in the base. He was nervous, sweating bullets on the inside, but on the outside he was clam and ready.

 

"Yes...quite a nice omnitool at that. Not standard issue either..." Machaera said as he looked back up to the man, "One of your men had this....did you know that?"

 

"Is that so? Perhaps that's where your investigation should look into then. I didn't know anything about that sort of thing..." Parrathan said as he crossed his arms, "For now though, I'm sure we can continued your investigation inside. Maybe the computers have something you could use, huh?" He suggested, wanting this conversation moved quickly.

 

A slight buzzing noise filled Machaera's comms, as did the others. No one else seemed to react to it, and besides an annoying background noise, it had no effects on the trio as Machaera smirked to himself.

 

"I think not, Colonel...I think I'm seeing what's going on here..." Machaera said as he began to approach the man slowly, "This omnitool...couldn't have been bought without someone here being tipped off...security screening would have picked it up. Nothing happens on these bases without the one in command hearing about it either...so, you claiming to not know about this?" He said as he stepped onto the omnitool, "I am doubtful...truly, doubtful, of that..."

 

"And I think this conversation would best be had inside, Captain Fayyar...As a colonel, I implore you to take my advice. Before you do something we'll both regret..." He said, knowing that getting him inside and stopping him from prying into his own person was key. Not when he did such a good job at keeping things so laxxed here. Perhaps he could lock him in the room with the leviathan, make sure he went mental before reporting the loss to high command.

 

"Why? It's such a lovely day out here...." Machaera said as he looked up to the sky, truly it was quite picturesque despite the bases current condition, "The Sun's Shining....The Birds are out...yeah, day's like this really are great places to talk..." He said as he looked to the colonel, "So...why don't you talk? All about where these infected omnitools came from?"

 

"Infected?" Parrathan asked, his face dropping just a bit as he asked. They ran scans of these omnitools, they had all come up clean during the purchase. There was no way they could have infected the systems, could they?

 

"Corrupted data...clear signs of some sort of malware infesting the data files...." Machaera said as he looked back to parrathan, "If I had to take a guess...I'd say it infected your systems before this attack took place." Just then, one of the drones being used to survey the damage sputtered and veered hard right, crashing into a wall as its operator ran to try and recover the damaged drone.

 

Parrathan's face was one of confusion, before it slowly turned to anger. "That....That lying ******...She was part of this..." Parrathan said as he scowled in anger, gritting his teeth as realization dawned on him.

 

"Who tricked you, Colonel? I'm sure she's mocking you now as we speak..." Machaera said, Parrathan's face growing uncomfortable at this conversation as machaera spoke more, "I'd love to pay her back for you, Colonel...just give me a name to work with."

 

"Stone...Captain Stone, of the Medusa. Her and her lot sold us some goods. That harpy must have done this to turn a profit..." Parrathan cursed as he saw his out. Yes, he just needed to point the finger where it belonged, on the humans who'd done this in the first place. If he did, he could turn this whole thing around. This man only cared about obeying the hegemony, all of his kind did. He'd have to listen to his superior officer now.

 

Machaera nodded, closing his eyes as he looked to the side, "Thank you, Colonel Parrathan...that's a lot of good info for me to use...." He said as he looked up towards the sky.

 

"Y-you'll make her pay, right? The sooner the better and all of that? Find out whose she's working for?" Parrathan suggested, smiling nervously as he tried to press this advantage, "You'll need to hurry if you want to catch her trail. No need to waste your time here with such a lead...." Even if he were detained, he could still slip out of this one. Enough people on this world owed him favors that he could walk a free man as soon as this man was off world. He'd go into hiding, maybe head to Illium and cash out the credits he'd stashed away in case things here went south.

 

"...It really is a nice day...isn't it?" Machaera asked as Parrathan blinked in surprise, "Seasons are changing. The animals are out...nature in action, facilitating change. Doing its best to combat the inevitable harsh reality of winter..." He said with a calm smile.

 

"What the hell are you talking about?" Parrathan asked in bewilderment.

 

"Day's like this...people like you and I..." Machaera said as he looked towards parrathan, opening his red glowing eyes as his hand went to his blade. Parrathan was going to say something, when machaera zipped to the other side of him with his biotics, the colonel forzen in place as machaera stood back to back with the man, whispering the rest to him, "Traitors like us...aught to be burning in hell..."

 

Parrathan sank to his knees, falling forward as his head rolled away from his shoulders. The men around them were in a panic, many drawing their weapons and training them on Machaera as he spoke loudly for them to hear. 

 

"Lay down your weapons! Your Colonel was traitor, he admitted to his crimes before an acting member of the Internal Affairs Security Division ((IASD)). As is my duty under the Corriddhan Accords, I executed him as is my duty to the Hegemony..." He said as he leveld his blade to the group, everyone backing up as he spoke, everyone backing up as a step as he did so, "As of now...your actions are being recorded and transmitted to my ship. And by extension, the higher authority of Khar'shan itself...Your commanding officer was found to be a traitor...if any of you so much as give me a sideways glance the wrong way....I'll consider you their accomplice..."

 

The men seemed to get the message pretty quickly. **** with Machaera, and they'd be dead. Try to kill him, and they'd be tried and made into slaves. Nobody wanted to follow their colonel's footsteps, and each and every man folded, lowering their weapons and cautiously approaching.

 

"Now that we've established a proper pecking order..." He said as he stepped over the decapitated body, "Show me all the data from this system. Everything that can and cannot be recovered..." He said.

 

This place would give its secrets to Machaera, and he would put them to good use. Even as he spoke, Ren'Danna was editing the footage his eyes transmitted, sending a fake and much more agreeable transmission to his ocular feed for the higher ups to review. As far as anyone outside of this place would know, he was acting as a loyal and dutiful member of the IASD.

 

And as long as they thought so, Machaera could act with impunity. All the better, since he could get as much information as he could from this place. After all, influence was a door best opened, with the right amount of secrets to use.

[Kel Riever]

"I wish we could make an example out of at least one more," Tyrius said under his breath.  He bent over the decapitated body.  "There has to be at least one more who deserves it in here."  Sticking out a talon, the turian poked the head so it would roll, face staring back at him.

Falling Leaf had remained calm, but she was surprised at the speed and lethality of her employer.  It wasn't noticed by the others, but her hand was millimeters away from her Karpov heavy pistol.  When the other batarians stood down, she still kept it close until she was sure the threat had subsided.  Then she moved to make sure she was at Machaera's side.

[Redbelle]

The meeting with Essul had come and gone and Anika was sat at her terminal again looking up the code that had opened the door to the conference room. The answer came out after a moments pause.

 

Jenus.

 

Sighing, Anika closed her eye's. She knew she'd have to ask sooner rather than later. In a way it was good that it be sooner she supposed. At least it kept the number of people involved down to two so far.... Not counting the two guards. Or the systems operator regarding tagging Babylon as a system asset to be kept track of......

 

Or Naleena who put her there.

 

Anika leaned back, stretching her neck as she yawned. She'd been at it for awhile but knew she couldn't sleep till she was done as she gave a final stretch and reached for the comm.

 

"Anika to Jenus. If you have time I need to talk to you. Are you free"?

[Kel Riever]

Morgan

The intern came back.  Now, apparently, the intern was interested in him.

"Oh, Miss Babylon is free to see you.  This way, please."

Morgan realized it was because the intern now thought he was someone important.  She smiled at him before she did her best rendition of a person trying to be ten years older than her actual age, and let him to Amy's office.

The intern walked right through the office doors that slid open, as if she'd accomplished a great victory by bringing Morgan to Amy.  She proudly stated.  "Miss Babylon, as you requested!"

Morgan looked at Amy.  She had on a different suit, but there was this look she had that Morgan had seen before.  He dreaded that look, but he had a job to do.  "You look busy, Miss Babylon," he said to her.

Then Morgan realized the intern hadn't left and was staring up at him.

Jenus

Jenus had just gotten out of a quick shower in the crew stalls.  Cold water, cold enough to wake the dead.  That was how she usually showered when she wasn't with Irina.  As soon as she'd gotten into her casuals, the call came in on her Omni-tool from Anika.

"Daughter of a...," Jenus started to curse, but then stopped herself.  There was a curiosity why Anika would be calling.  She stuffed the ire in her voice and answered, "Sure...better catch me now before we get under way.  I'll probably be busy soon.  Catch you in a minute or two."

And within two minutes, Jenus was knocking for Anika, black and scarlet body suit crisp and clean as she was.

[TheMajonese]

I'm never going to follow him in there..., Arian thought when he watched Vayne jumping down the duct. Even though he felt like he had to help the krogan, this certainly didn't include wandering around in some tunnels. He hated it to move through narrow hallways. He wasn't exactly claustrophobic...but as a soldier, these tunnels were among the worst places that he could imagine being in. No cover and almost no possibilities to evade or flank potential enemies, the lack of reliable light sources didn't make things any better. Especially for someone as tall as him. Arian didn't know how large these maintenance shafts were but he wasn't eager to find out.

 

"I think...I stay outside...", he said and rubbed the back of his neck. "I could keep an eye on this turian and his blood pack guards and tell you were they're going so you don't leave the duct right next to them...if that helps."

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Janiri - Selani

 

Commander Selani was aware of the incident with the reporter aboard the ship. Displeased would be putting it mildly. The Spectre was on Nevos so the problem fell on her shoulders. She felt that what the Spectre did was unprofessional to say the least, but perhaps she had her reasons. Babylon was no longer aboard, and that was another problem.

 

She sat in her office looking up Amy Babylon on the extranet and discovered the woman was a real piece of work and associated with Terra Firma Party. That in itself was bad news. But how did she get aboard? What in the void happened to security? There were a lot of questions.

 

Selani pressed the button on her terminal. “VERA, who was involved with the Babylon incident?” she asked.

 

“That would be Spectre T’sarius, Essul Ran’perah, Yeoman Triana, Specialist Serenia, Commando Stasia, Irina Sloane, and I should point out that Anika has been conducting an investigation into this matter,” VERA replied.

 

“I just know Babylon is going to cause trouble for the Asari Navy,” Selani replied, “That’s her m.o., to blow everything out of proportion, especially when it comes to relations between us and humans. She’s probably in Udina’s office complaining right now. I don’t even want to think about if this makes the 24 hour news cycle.  That means trouble for me. We’re in damage control mode. I want some butts! Have the lot of them assemble in the conference room.”

 

Damage control –minimizing the impact of the event on the crew and team. VERA thought and she thought about ways that could be done.

[Redbelle]

Anika looked up at Jenus where she sat. A tablet in her hands that she was reading. "Thanks for coming. I'll keep this brief. This is about the reporter who was aboard and what happened to her. No one has the full facts yet. Your override code was used on the conference room door she was inside having been locked from the outside. I'd like you tell me in your own words, how you came to meet Babylon. What you were doing before that meeting, and how events transpired up until the point where Babylon was no longer in your immediate vicinity...... In your own time".

 

Sitting back in her chair, Anika raised the tablet and opened a new file. Ready to start taking notes.

[Redbelle]

Amy gaze Morgan a long, appreciating look as she chewed the nail of her little finger before she to noticed the intern still lingering. Looking up at Morgan with Doe eye's as she gripped a file in her arms. The expression she wore made Amy feel a pang of jealousy flash through her.

 

"Haven't you got something you should be doing"? She asked harshly. "That file. Shouldn't it be somewhere right now? And while your out get two teas..... Unless you'd prefer coffee". Amy added to Morgan, the sweetness in her voice returning as quickly as it had left when she'd addressed the intern. "I'm flattered you came all the way here to see me. Alas, the news cycle does not rest and neither can we who feed it. So much news happening and so much to scoop the competition on and WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE"! She suddenly barked at the intern who had not left her spot but was now looking torn between staying near Morgan and going to do Amy's bidding".