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[Redbelle]

Jess looked around at the low tech that presented itself and shuddered.

 

It was her worst nightmare. Something approaching an actual Amish community. Only here and there she saw signs of technology that was modern. Fabrication of the buildings, clothes showing seamless stylisation. She noticed then.... none of those who appeared to be a part of the community wore rebreathers.

 

Guess they don't need them if they have facilities cloe to hand. She thought.... But still, she wouldn't have expected a total absence. And none of them seemed to be suffering for it.

 

Jess shook it off and focused on the tech angle. She needed to find a server. Or a guy who was willing to spill his guts. A ship flew overhead and landed behind a walled off section where she saw the top of the ship settle. A landing area?

 

Oooooh, this place was a wealth of possibillites!

 

Assuming she had been right and that there was a connection between these people and the Collectors.

[Kel Riever]

Nudging his steed, Morgan moved near Naleena and Anika, who were apart enough from the rest to speak to under his breath, though there was no escaping a good eavesdropper.  Nevertheless, Morgan suggested to them, “I can look after the Captain.  She’ll be safe with me.  And Dahlia seems competent enough to hold her own, but she might need a little room to stretch.

 

“We can split up, as long as we’re in communication with each other.  Irina wants to find her tools.  Maybe Vayne can go with her.  And the two of you might just get more done by yourselves, especially if it involves a little breaking and entering, if you know what I mean.

 

“Jess had her eye on that ship.  I’ll go with her.  Dahlia could come along.  We can meet back here when done, right by the newspaper girl.  Sound good?”

 

Morgan couldn’t help but think he might have made a frying pan into the fire suggestion, but Naleena and Anika clearly preferred to be together, in a way that might be more helpful than if they were split from each other.  And Vayne seemed to have more affinity to Irina than anyone else.  Morgan felt out of sorts, but hid it.  He’d need to deal with whatever was going on, and if it led to trouble, it would be kept away from the others. 

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Irina was still speaking to Morgan before he rode over to Naleena. "What I'm saying, Morgan, is that something doesn't smell right. It's not just about my tools. I mean, look at this place. I'm all for being able to make things out of what's available. I've used my three months leave from work as a block and gone walkabout without my rebreather to adapt to the atmosphere, hunt and live off the land, and I don't need my rebreather anymore. You may think I've got a few roos loose in the paddock, and maybe I do."

 

She sidled up close to Morgan and spoke softly. "When you were in the Alliance, did you ever do any recovery work with cults in the colonies? I did. I've seen the aftermaths. Trust me, they always go bad. So yeah, I think I'll start checking the local vendors, and chat up the locals. If you don't mind I'll take Vayne with me. He'll give some cred since people here know me as a local, and I actually know some of them or have at least seen them when they were in town. Others, I've never seen before. Just take what I said under advisement, and watch your back. It looks like the Asari at least came packing some heavy artillery. We might need it."

 

Morgan nodded at Irina. "Thanks for the heads up." He nudged his steed toward Naleena.

 

***

 

Naleena puffed on her pipe and leaned slightly to Morgan and spoke quietly, "Between you and me, I don't think Dahlia really likes working with me anyway. It's pretty obvious from the way she mouths off. Yet she cooperates with you and Jess. Student and teacher or whatever requires chemistry. There is none of that between Dahlia and I. So just work with her. I trust you."

 

***

 

Dahlia overheard Naleena, and she was happy. Or whatever? Am I that obvious?

[Cainhurst Crow]

Vayne gave a nod to morgan as he tromped over to irina, "So, shall we get started, Ms Irina?" Vayne asked as he came by near her, "I'm sure we can search for your missing parts while assessing this little enclave for possible dangers. Don't want those maws to have easy access, now do we?" He asked as he came closer, now riding next to her as his voice lowered, so that only the two of them could hear.

 

"This isn't my first rodeo with cults. Believe it or not, Krogan can be very zealot believers if we're convinced enough..." Vayne began, his tone of voice serious as he looked around, "I've seen what cult and cult like organizations can do, more then I'd like to more people then I'd like..." he cracked his neck as he looked towards one of the towers, giving a smile and a nod before he turned his head back towards irina, his smile slightly lessened and clearly a bit forced.

 

"And one of the rules I've learned, is to keep your voice down and your words watched. Cause its not just the walls you need to worry about having ears." he said as he leaned back a bit on his steed, "Now then, let's see about catching your thief. No sense not helping this fine community rid itself of a few undesirables. Am I right?" he asked in a more normal tone, as the people walking around could hear them in earshot. Looking around, the crowds of folks milling about, it was almost eerie the amount of folks simply going about without rebreathers, any one of them capable of eavesdropping should they decide to.

 

The whole thing made vayne on edge, and the chance to beat up a criminal sounded quite tempting right about now.

[Kel Riever]

Morgan squinted at Naleena, catching her subtle insinuation.  Of course he simply said, "Thank you...," letting his last word linger in the air, before he maneuvered his steed away.

 

With another thank you to Irina as Morgan passed her, he rode next to Jess and near Dahlia.  "Why don't the three of us get a closer look at that incoming craft that caught your eye, Captain," Morgan proposed.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

After Vayne spoke, Irina nodded at him and answered while smiling at the natives. "Yeah, I agree. Let's help out this community. Have you calculated the matrix we need to cover for the thresher maw spore analysis?"

 

"Yes. First one is by that store with the 'Salvage' sign," Vayne pointed.

 

"Let's get started then."

 

The two rode up to the store front and dismounted. Vayne did his tech thing on the ground outside while listening to everyone, and Irina entered the store.

 

A balding, elderly man with gray hair faced her. He wore a plaid flannel shirt and denim jeans. Not synthetic fabric either. Jeans made out of real plant fiber. His face was weatherbeaten and his eyes were a clear blue. He had a waddle under his chin. "Welcome to Gibson's Salvage. I'm Gibson. Don't reckon I've seen you around before."

 

"We just arrived. My name's Irina. Pleased to make your acquaintance." Irina approached the counter. "Do you mind if I have a look around?"

 

"Suit yourself." Gibson said, "What brings a pretty girl like you to Duellos? Was it interest in the Drowned Aspire?"

 

Irina began to walk up and down some of the aisles, "Actually I'm part of a team doing a survey of the soil for thresher maw spores."

 

"Thresher Maws?"

 

"Yeah. My partner is outside taking soil samples. See we've had a lot of off world traffic come in, and a lot of it has been to the DA. You're getting quite popular."

 

"Really?" Gibson asked and smiled.

 

"And thresher maws can live pretty much on any world. Their spores can attach to anyone and as soon as they land on a world, if their ship doesn't have proper quarantine procedures in place, boom! Another world gets infected. We're trying to keep Duellos maw-free," Irina said, "You'll thank us later."

 

"I'll thank you, now. I heard those things get huge and spit acid."

 

"And you'll be glad to know my partner is a real expert on thresher maws," Irina said.

 

"He is?"

 

"Yeah. He's a Krogan. They're native to his world. He told me he had to survive ten minutes of a thresher maw attack for his rite of passage to adulthood." Irina replied. She was picking up stuff looking at it and putting it back down.

 

"You seem to be looking for something. Can I help you in any way?"

 

She continued to browse. "I'm... looking for a... specialty set of tools, actually. I wouldn't think you'd keep anything like that on the shelf, because they'd be something someone would perhaps steal. At least outside these walls someone would try to steal them because they're quite rare. You don't happen to have anything like that, do you? I'd give you a good price for them."

 

Gibson put his glasses on and studied her face. "Wait a minute. You're from around here. You're from the town. Yes, you're from the town. You're the one with that fancy bike. People have seen you hunting and living off the land here. Much respect young lady. But you said you were with a tech team. You lied to me."

 

"Actually I didn't. I signed on as their guide."

 

"I'm sorry that I accused you. I shouldn't speak like that and make false accusations. Jeb says not to do those kinds of things. I'm tryin' but sometimes I fall into my old ways," Gibson said, "You know, you might want to try the Zeke's Hardware about four doors down. It's just past the doc's office. He sometimes gets specialty items like you might want. You know his son used to be a bike racer?"

 

"Really?"

 

"Yes, indeed. He was one of the best on Eden Prime before the Geth raid. Luckily only a small portion of Eden Prime got hit."

 

"What's his name?"

 

"Bobby. Bobby Downing."

 

"Thank you kindly, Mr. Gibson. If there's anything I can do for you, just holler."

 

"No, you makin' sure that we're free of thresher maws is enough," Gibson said.

 

Irina waved, turned and walked out of the door to where Vayne was playing with his omni-tool. She approached Vayne who was knelt down taking picking up bits of dirt.

 

"About time you got out of there," Vayne said, "Did you find out anything?"

 

"He didn't have them. Seemed like a nice old man. Name's Gibson. He's seen me around town. Told me to check Zeke's Hardware. I laid the thresher maw stuff on pretty thick, and you being an expert on them.... You did fight one in your rite of passage right?" Irina asked quietly.

[Cainhurst Crow]

"Had to survive in the varren pit for my rite." Vayne said as he stood, shutting off his omnitool as he stretched his back a bit, "Wrill, born and raised. Not much there for life, even by thresher maw standards. Had to kill one after it ate some of my crew once though, tried to drag my whole ship down before I blasted off its hood." he commented nonchalantly as he looked around a bit.

 

"So where's this Zeke's place then? Might as well make sure we do a proper sweep and all. Hopefully we don't find too many possible P.O.E's, if you know what I mean." Vayne said, curious as to whether they were going to get lead around. As he looked around though, he suddenly came to a stop as he blinked in surprise, a shocked expression crossing his face.

 

"What in the verses novas?" Vayne said, using an older pirate slang as he stepped past Irina without acknowledging her. He looked ahead, accross the street where some apparently new congregation members were being lead about. Almost all of the new members wore rebreathers, but one in particular caught his eye. It was a human girl, fair complexion, had to be in her late teens, blond hair standing out in the desert environment, streaks of color dyed on one side of her long hair, tied in a more conservative haircut. She looked towards him, blue eyes lingering on him a moment with something akin to fear as she quickly looked away, moving in closer to the flock of new arrivals.

 

"Stupid Girl..." vayne said as he watched her moving with the group, conflict evident as he wondered whether to turn away now and move quickly or move over to her right now and throw her over his shoulder, "Burdenous trouble brewing bad investment, what the heck is she doing here!?" he half muttered, half hissed, as he watched her leave.

 

Zenon Karver, The frozen girl from omega, and the person he was original paid to rescue. What in the seven hells was she doing here?

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"Well, Vayne, as far as these people go, you had to survive a thresher maw attack for ten minutes. I've heard about Krogan having to undergo horrible things for their rites. Shepard told me about an alliance commander who survived a maw attack on Akuze before the Batarians hit Elysium. I figured why not use that. It sounded like something the Krogan would use. Sorry about that," Irina laughed, "I hope I didn't insult you."

 

"Nah, don't worry about it. One clan actually does that." Vayne looked around the camp, muttered some  and noticed the girl. "Stupid girl! Burdenous trouble brewing bad investment, what the heck is she doing here?"

 

Irina looked at the girl. "What is it, Vayne?"

[Redbelle]

"Sounds like you've read my mind luv". Jess replied to Morgan when he suggested they go after one of the landed craft. "The problem's that we don't get to go anywhere there's a risk of oh oh, company".

 

Jess  had spotted a large dark skinned man bearing down on the group. Like the older ones amoung them he wore no rebreather and his bald head shone under the sun.

 

"Eyah, Brudda's, Sista's. Welcome yah one and all". His voice was melodic yet bass and rumbled like a storm. "This be your new home till ya decide otherwise. Or yah decide to move after yah seen the light yah"? He chuckled. "Forget what you think yah know o this place. Your here to learn if this be somewhere you want to be. Yah mount's can stay o'er by the wall. Yah won't be needing them here".

[Kel Riever]

Morgan walked his mecha-steed to the nearby wall and dismounted after making sure a personal code was entered for a lock.  The group was, for better or worse, now inside a walled compound and it seemed to matter little to have his steed as long as they planned to stay.  If they needed to leave, well, a steed wasn’t a gun.  At least his wasn’t. 

 

Coming back, Morgan stepped up to the large, bald man who wore loose fitting tan pants, high boots, and a fire orange, judo Gi like jacket with no shirt underneath.  Playing along seemed like the best option.  Morgan extended his hand and introduced himself.

 

The man smiled broadly and shook with his own stocky hand.   “Good to meet you, Morgan.  I’m Samacen, but ya call me Sam.  Old Man Jeb has me run this and that round here.  We have all ya need.  Maybe after ya have a look round, ya come up for a meal.  Compliments of our hospitality.”

[Redbelle]

Jess saw the dark man bee-line for man and shake his hand in a firm grip. Samacen? She thought. He came across as a number two. Someone who kept the day to day grind going. Jess set her steed into standby as she popped in the security code she'd devised earlier. The steed shuddered as the holo display fizzled, then came back as the steed shuddered and whined. Jess made a show of cursing and punched the same code in that triggered a shudder in the steeds actuators and made the screen fizzle again, running into new code that when triggered a second time, triggered what looked like a total shutdown as the lights went out and the steed's legs collapsed down on top of itself.

 

"Damn it"! Jess cursed, kicking Baldurjack with a resounding clang. "That dealer's a cheat! A liar! A screwball fraud! Brand new my backside this things a pile of.....". Taking a deep breath she leant forward and rested her hands atop the metal body. "Okay... okay it's not all bad. I just need some tools, a garage. Somewhere I can get this thing up and running. Some computer power. Maybe a mainframe. Something to scan the coding lines".

 

Setting herself back on her heels she turned and gave an exasperated greeting. "Eh luv. Jess. This crew's engineer and maker of beastie basher's. We got the reports. We're here to see about your problem". She ran a hand behand her neck. "Speaking of problems luv..... I got one in this pile of junk. Anywhere I can rig it to some hardware? Kinda need it to run more than five minutes for the return leg".

[Redbelle]

Samacen raised an eyebrow. "Problems? I see yuh problem but wadda yah mean our problem? Cause we don't want no problem's here. We offer the solution to life's woe's. That be why yah endured the night of Duellos ya? Ya earned yah place to hear what we have to offer". His face was guarded. He looked at them, obviously starting to wonder who they were beyond seekers arriving at their gate.

[Kel Riever]

Morgan pulled out his inner double-talker.  He wasn't the best at it, but with Jess in on the ploy, he had conviction that wherever he'd falter, she'd pick up the slack.  "She's speaking of the problem with Thresher Maw's that you have, or rather are about to have.  With enough forewarning, there's a lot you can do to prevent them from showing up, but there are no guarantees, and all it takes is one..., and well nothing you have her now is going to stop a fully grown Thresher Maw from reducing your compound here to a pile of rubble.

 

"Jess is our resident expert on systems that can put down a Thresher Maw.  They have other uses for defence as well, but of course this isn't about that.  We're here to help you prepare yourselves for what lies ahead."

 

A spark seemed to go off in Samacen's eyes, and Morgan wasn't exactly sure what he said caused such a sudden enthusiasm.  But when Samacen spoke, he seemed almost enthralled, "Brudda, if ya here to help with dark times, then I gonna getcha what ya need."

[Redbelle]

"What we need is to figure out what this stretch of land has that we can use to discourage Threshers from the area". Jess said. "Threshers come from Spores. Good at surviving deep space and re-entry. Citadel claims found a ship from back when this place was getting started. It left Tchunka without the proper Quarantine protocols employed and had to stop off at a planet for an emergency airscoop after their air recyclers broke down. Later on a seismic suvey probe picks up activity consistant with Threshers".

 

Jess shock her head. "That ship came here and the council aren't taking chances. They want every occupied facility on the planet protected while a kill team search for anything that could be a Thresher. If this goes wrong we're looking at a total planetary evacuation".

 

Samacen frowned. "We be not leaving our home for anyting. We overcame the atmosphere. We overcame those who told us we couldn't make a home here. We fought hard for our land......".

 

"Not saying it's going to come to that luv". Jess said holding up her hands to forestall any more outpourings. "I'm saying we're covering the bases. This planet's a tidy little nest egg for the council. Last thing those boys and girls need is a Thresher Maw bloodbath on the news. So! I assume you've got geological charts? Excavation survey's? I need to see waht kind of land I'm working with to see where the best place for a thumper can go".

 

"Thumper"?

 

"Big kinetic hammering system. Pull's Thresher's to locations away from where people live. Which won't do much good if the land your on carry's your footsteps. Look. It's complicated. But Thumpers are a first line defense and cheap to install. A just in case system that you can fall back to if a Thresher makes itself known. If the kill team confirms a Thresher and kills it then that'll be that. But if the Thresher's mature and sporing then we need to talk about digging in underground electrical wire fencing that'll hold back one till it grows beyond twenty years and.....".

 

"Krogan's kill Thresher Maws"? Samacen said. His expression oddly gleeful. "We'll just learn to do de same. Duellos is our forge. We are de metal. And should you decide to stay? You shall be tempered.....".

 

"Speaking of tempering luv..... Can I get a workshop for my steed? I gotta do some outside survey's later".

 

"Surveys"?

 

"Survey's, samples, the whole nine yards. Which I'll get behind on if I can't my steed working".

 

Samacen looked over the group. His eye's falling on the Krogan in his armour. Seeing Vayne seemed to convince Jess's story was on the level. "If you friend is a mighty Thresher hunter then how about he talk to us about how to kill one? You can then use a hanger. Has the tools you be needing I think. Guards will make sure you don't be going nowhere where you'll be hurt. Landing field's a dangrous place".

[Cainhurst Crow]

Vayne looked to irina, face now stuck in a frown as he watched zenon disappear within the tide of folks walking to and fro. "I've seen someone who shouldn't be here...someone I was paid to keep out of a place like this." Vayne said as he looked a bit shaken, blinking as he tried to shake off the feeling he'd just gotten. "My job is as a merc and private investigator. I got paid to look into a missing persons report on omega and ended up stumbling onto something big. It's how I got roped into this bad of miscreants in the first place..." he said, careful not to reveal too much, just enough so that maybe she'd see his concern.

 

"Person I was paid to find was locked up in a stasis pod, along with a bunch of other folks, whose last known location was some form of pro-humanity rally being hosted on that station. Shouldn't need to tell you how weird that sort of thing sounds. I recovered her from stasis and sent her parents a line saying I'd found her. And now, she's here..." he said as tapped his fingers nervously against his armor, "And I can't figure out for the life of me, why or how."

Vaynes back had been facing the others as he looked towards the crowd, and the sound of someone approaching. He turned around to see someone coming up towards their group, asking about how to kill a thresher maw. Vayne closed his eye as he worked to clear his thoughts, getting into the right frame of mind so he could,

 

"Heh, you lot? Kill a thresher maw? Nobody told me this place had such a sense of humor." Vayne said as his eye opened, looking at Samacen with a grin on his face, something about it though was dark, almost sinister as he chuckled softly. "No offense, human, but it takes teams of krogan with specialist gear, gear that would break your bones using, to take down just one adolescent, let alone a full grown sporing adult Maw." he said as he crossed his arms, looking skeptically to the unusual speaking human.

 

"Maw's love low atmospheres and high levels of radiation, things this planets got plenty of, given the way you lot ditch your ships out here." Vayne commented, knowing full well what abandoned ships tended to do when their radioactive materials leaked. "Easy food for them, though only when growing up. Full grown, they can eat just about anything easy; minerals, solid rocks, organic life and matter, perfect for them. Makes things like mines especially prime targets for em, cause of how loose the hard to eat through rock and compacted soil gets. Hence the danger your precious little community might find itself in." He said as he looked about, opening his arms and motioning to the ship about them for emphasis.

 

"Killing ones never easy, last person to do so on foot, was a couple hundred years ago. And that old krogans the one leading our race right now. IF, and I do stress if, you were to even think about killing one, you'd need a way to attract it to a place you knew, for certain, it'd be. Then you'd need the big guns, tanks with anchoring lances and cables more then a foot thick to keep it from going underground, make it stuck and slow. Heavy ones to, not your ***** footing makos or grizlys you humans like so much. Then you gotta shred it, as it were, blasting the inside of its mouth to get to the real soft and acidic meat. Course you'll lose a couple folks to the claws, a lot more to the acid, but it'll weaken it enough that it won't break free of the cables before you get heavy artillery on it to finish it off." As vayne spoke, he walked just a bit closer and rose up just a bit straighter, so he was looking down and right into the eyes of Samacan, a unnerving amount of concentration in his single optic orb as he bored into the human.

 

"About 5 krogans die, per a single thresher maw killed. And something you ought know about thrsher maw, when they die." Vayne said, his voice a low and haunting whisper as he spoke, "They release more spores, which if you're really not careful, will anchor themselves to whatevers in the area. That means your tanks, your armors, your weapons...or even your flesh and bone." He said the last part hauntingly as he took a single step back, looking as if he were regarding the man before him critically, like a military commander would a private, "I've lost good men who go to visit their friends graves, only for a maggot maw to melt out their innards like paste. Almost lost a whole ship and half her crew not anchoring one of those beast and trying to take it down with just artillery fire."

 

"So if you think your folks are expendable like that, be my guest and fight the maws. Iffin you want em alive, and unscarred for life though? I suggest you do what we say, and leave it to the professionals to help you."

[Redbelle]

Samacen looked up into the face of the battlescarred Krogan. "We and all do not shirk a challenge that comes to our front door ma man". He said. Though he sounded far more uncertain than before. "If we be gettin these Thresher's we be knowing how to fight them. Same as any who think they can take our home. As for what you say? This place be built on a mine. Empty rock with what dem Citadel types think is valuable. All gone. Except for the people who dug them out for them. And when they were done they left us behind and we resolved to take up the challenge of making this place our home. I do no doubt they are as bad as you say. But do not doubt that if we can we will fight". He took a step back. "I have to take this to Ol'Jeb as he'll be wanting to know.  I'll be assigning people to watch over ya. We do not allow those with no business in our message free rein in our home".

 

And with that, he turned and made to leave.

[Kel Riever]

“Hold on,” Morgan said as he made a gesture for Samacen to stop. “Nobody said anything about ‘no business in your message’.”  If Morgan couldn’t hide his expressions, he’d be rolling his eyes to the point they’d pop out of his head.  The concern was this man going off and possibly alerting a number of people, including what sounded like the head of the compound, about what the group was up to.  And digging into questions could bring up answers that were bad.  Better the devil you know…, Morgan thought, Or barely know…

 

Morgan did his best to put on a disarming tone.  “You can obviously handle yourselves.  We’re just telling you everything that we can, like you asked.  We understand that you can’t have people have free reign in your home without being watched. That’s fine.  Maybe you can take us to a workshop, tell us about your message on the way, and we can keep talking about Thresher Maws.”

[Redbelle]

Samacen nodded over and several of the cultists who were watching. Unlike those who wore plain apparel, these men wore light body armour. And though they held no guns. Each had a shock baton and a radio device clinging to them.

 

"I like to talk about my work too man. But someting like dis? It's gotta go to da top. We'll get on de radio and confirm who you all are. Till then, you can have de workshop. Would'na want you to.......".

 

"Radio satalite's drifted again Brother". One of the light armoured figures said. "The software's glitching the positioning jets".

 

"Well den fix it"!

 

"We're..... having trouble".

 

Samacen sighed. "Okay.... Then just send a runner to town. Only take four hours there and back and......".

 

"Four hours"? Jess interrupted. "Sorry. Couldn't help overhearing. Let me have a look at the problem. I'm good with coding".

 

"Thought you were a Thresher engineer"?

 

"Thresher engineer, steed maintainer, starship engine specialist. I have a broad base seeing as the skills are transferable. You have a coding problem? I can fix a coding problem. It'll take less than four hours to fix".

 

But more than four hours to figure out how I messed up the rest of your comm systems. Jess thought gleefully. She loved problem solving.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Naleena and Anika were still nearby Jess, Morgan, and Dahlia, and were on their way away from them. Naleena heard what Samacen said to them, turned and whispered to Anika, "Well, there goes any idea of snooping around this place. Not that snooping was a possiblity anyway."

 

"Is that a reference to my height?" Anika asked.

 

Naleena gave a dismissive look to Anika. "Come on, you know that you're not exactly stealthy, but that can be an advantage considering the fact that your partner has a long duration tactical cloak. Don't be so defensive about your height. You humans can be cruel to one another when one is outside of the standard deviation. That goes for both tall or short. You're proportional, and beautiful. And no one knows you like I do. I wish to bond again at our next opportunity."

 

Naleena observed that most people were focused on Samacen, and she pulled Anika into an alleyway. She took the Collector Particle Beam off her back and handed it to Anika. "I know you and Jess rode into the camp with only side arms trying to be non-threatening. I took this off one of the Collectors. You should carry it. It'll look like a strange assault rifle on you. It's a heavy weapon so keep that in mind. I'll look less threatening now with only my sniper rifle and pistols. No one will be threatened by my wakizashis. Plus I'll be able to move into tight spaces easier."

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

The small crowd and Samacen turned away from Vayne. Irina approached, squatted down where Vayne was taking samples. "That man wouldn't know if is his arse was on fire. They're the most dangerous kind, and the most nosy. Be careful," she said in a quiet, very concerned tone. "There is something I've been meaning to ask you since we're on the subject of thresher maws."

 

Vayne looked over at Irina. "Yeah, go ahead."

 

"I'm kind of a mythology buff and I read a lot. Yeah, yeah, I may not look it, but look at that sh**hole of a town. I'm not going to spend all my spare time in the saloon, so I read. Earth stuff got boring, and I thought I'd educate myself a bit on the other races. I found the Krogan fascinating," She said.

 

"What's so fascinating about the Krogan? We live on a bombed out rock that's almost uninhabitable." Vayne replied.

 

"That's just the point. You had a thriving civilization. Then a nuclear war. We almost had one a little over two centuries ago. Your people somehow survived, and the Salarians take credit for 'uplifting' you to fight the Rachni. Then there were the Krogan rebellions. Then the genophage. Yet you survive in spite of all that," she said, "But before that, in the ancient times before you built your great cities, I saw references to great hammers built to summon thresher maws and Krogan riding them into battle. I would have loved to have seen that."

[Redbelle]

Anika hefted the weight of the particle accelerator in her hands that Naleena had handed her. She smiled. "You had me at.... I know you".

[Redbelle]

Samacen gave the man who had given him the news about the satalite a hard look. "You, take her to de control room. Do not let her out of your sight. The rest'o you who'er with her. You can go to de workshop in de hanger area. Take her steed yah? Now where the rest o you at mon"?

 

Turning he looked around and saw a few people had disappeared. "Where did dey go"?  He barked at one of the light armoured guards when Anika walked out from an alley. "Hey! I told'ja not to go wandering off"!

 

"I needed shade to inspect my gun". Anika told him patting her new particle accelerator. "I like my guns. This one might cut through a Thresher".

 

"Might"?

 

"Hasn't been tested yet".

 

"Looks". Samacen narrowed his eye's. "Look's like someting....... I ave to go. You people. Contact me if they want to go somewhere. I have to shepard the rest of the lambs who have come to the embrace of our flock".

 

And with that, Samacen walked away. He walked to the other group who had entered the compound  and outstretched his arms as his melodic voice rose and caught the thin atmosphere. Pointing to the main ship he ushered them along wiith the help of other lightly armoured guards. But couldn't help glancing back at the alien SMG and rifle Anika wore.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

This should have gone before RB's last post.

 

Dahlia listened as Morgan spoke to Samacen. "Samacen, please. We didn't come here for a confrontation with your group or to disrupt your activities. We came here to do a survey. Go about your activities as you normally would. We have no interest in taking anything that does not belong to us. You have returned to the old ways anyway, and from what I'm seeing I find it quite... beautiful.

 

"You mentioned 'dark times ahead.' Why don't you tell me about them?"

Modifié par sH0tgUn jUliA, 02 juillet 2014 - 06:50 .

[Kel Riever]

Previously...( http://forum.bioware...res/?p=16807598 )

 

 

Cluster unknown, System unkwown, aboard the Medusa

 

Luscious Kennedy had made a point to putting on his best clothes and staying dry.  He wanted every bit of the occasion that was about to happen to sink in.  Well, except for the one shot of whisky he had just to take the edge off. Just outside the airlock for the cargo hold, Luscious counted the precious seconds before the front bay would be pressurized and ready for entry.  He glanced at Oda, and the brawny Stron, who were next to him.

 

Oda hissed, “This is mutinous!”

 

“The mutiny was yours, Oda.  I have always been the rightful captain of the Medusa since my brother died.  It has been a stain on you and every one of this crew who followed Stone against my wishes.  This is about justice, and when that harlot shows up again…”

 

Stron clenched his fist, but Oda held his arm.  “How dare you?  After the tolerance she has shown to you,” Oda said, more shocked than anything.  “If it weren’t for Stone we would never have made it after Rasgul was gone.”

 

Sneering, Luscious leaned in towards Oda.  “I forgive you for your ignorance.  If I had been captain as I should have, you wouldn’t be plying the shipping lanes for your last credits to retire.  You’d be done already.  And I would have happily let you go, you pain in the *ss.”

 

“These people aren’t going to take over, Luscious,” Stron said angrily.

 

With a smirk and raised eyebrows, Luscious turned to the enforcer.  “Oh, is that so?  And what would you fend them off with?  That vessel out there is a warship, faster and with more range than this pirate vessel.  She’d break us to pieces bit by bit if you didn’t do what I said.”

 

“You’re willing to die just to satisfy your ego?”  Oda turned red.

 

“I’d die before I let my rightful place be taken by a bunch of misguided cutthroats!”  Luscious was now clenching his fist in front of Oda’s face.  “When my people come aboard, there are going to be some changes around here!  I will make the Medusa the ship of respect she was under Rasgul.  I will be the king that guides her bow!”

 

Oda was stunned into silence.  Luscious spoke the truth.  There was no fighting the frigate which had come for them out of deep space.  The Medusa was hostage to Luscious and his betrayal.  If only Oda could have anticipated how underhanded Luscious was, he would have left him to fend for himself on a forgotten planet after Jess had left.  He would have accepted the consequences, at the very least for the crew.

 

The hesitant voice of the Medusa’s com operator sounded through a speaker above the airlock.  “Two Kodiak shuttles have landed.  The cargo bay is pressurized.  You may enter.”

 

Luscious punched in the code to open the airlock, and rushed through.  Oda and Stron, armored and armed though their guns were holstered, passed through next, with much less enthusiasm.

 

“Oh no,” Oda exclaimed, when he saw inside the bay.

 

A score of mercenaries had disembarked from the two shuttles.  At their fore was a krogan in navy blue armor, who snarled as they entered.  It was a boarding party heavily armed and ready for a fight.

 

“Welcome to the Medusa, my new hires!”  Luscious was beaming with anticipation.  “I am Captain Luscious Kennedy, and as my personal guards, you will help me restore order on this starship.  Order that has been a long time coming!”

 

Silence was Luscious’ response.

 

The beaming turned to a nervous smile.  Luscious encouraged, “As soon as we’re done with putting things right around here, we’ll get to your payment.  And celebrate!”

 

With heavy footsteps, the krogan stepped up close to the three, though he left room for Luscious to view one of the kodiaks.  A shrug of the krogan’s head over his shoulder indicated Luscious should look to the doorway of the visible shuttle.

 

From the Kodiak, a woman emerged in outlandish armor.  It seemed to shift in scintillating metallic violet hues, and left what appeared to be bare, porcelain, perfectly smooth skin in what Luscious thought were all the right places.  From her back sprung six long black blades, apparently with some dorsal attachment that let them spread out like exotic, sword like spines.  And wearing an elongated helm, with a tinted visor that was clear so her face could be seen if one tried hard enough, she looked like a…

 

Luscious stopped.  It was too good to be true.  The woman walked towards him as if she had come out of a dream.  She took off her helmet as she approached, putting a gloved hand through her bleached white hair.  Piercing blue eyes stared at him, but then scanned Oda and Stron.

 

“Who are they?” The woman asked.

 

Luscious recaptured his grin.  “This one was the first mate.  The other is…nobody.”  He stifled a laugh, as she saw the woman study them with cold curiosity.

 

The woman addressed Oda and Stron.  “I am Iyana.  Bow before me.”

 

Fear gripped Oda.  He knew that Luscious had made a horrible mistake.  Dropping to his knees, he motioned for Stron to follow. 

 

Stron refused, clenching his jaw in defiance.  “I don’t answer to anyone but the rightful Captain of this vessel.”

 

The krogan’s fist snapped out, cracking Stron across the face, breaking his jaw and sending him to the floor.  Stron’s crumpled body bled where he had been struck, to pool on the cargo bay deck. 

 

Iyana made a satisfied hum.  “Why wait?  I think we should celebrate now.” 

 

~ ~ ~ ~

 

Sometime later, aboard the Khukuri

 

Vivid Green eyes stared at the light grey bulkhead of the plain, meager practice room on the Khukuri.  A warship with limited space available for amenities, stripped down further by the demands of Iyana, yet there was space devoted for a dedicated training area. 

 

Exactly the Spartan environment Xhuan Setura relished.

 

To her, Xhuan saw beyond the bulkhead, and beyond the ship.  Seldom was she allowed solace to train and hone her martial abilities, but Iyana had granted her the time as reward for the flawless execution of her plan.  Xhuan’s formidable superior and Golt were both overseeing their newest acquisition, Jrudek was acting command, the crew was functioning like a well-oiled machine, and Xhuan was…

 

Alone.

 

Xhuan’s mind wandered the myriad realms of its imagination.  Each thought that passed was tempered as dictated under the rigorous ways of Selipse, the long forgotten art of combat lost eons ago in favor of the more modern trainings of the asari.  If Xhuan had never met her master during her time as a member of the Serrice Guard, she would never have become who she was now.  As body, consciousness and spirit met in a rigidly controlled harmony, Xhuan recited words within her mind that were the prelude to her session.

 

All strength,

All might,

All power.

Transcend existence.

Perfect combat.

 

Balanced with one foot in front of the other, Xhuan lowered herself to pick up two curved blades at rest on the floor next to her.  She lifted one in each hand, and began her kata.

[Redbelle]

Samacen looked back as he heard the young Asari of the group call out to him. "You wish to hear of de dark times? Come with me sister. We have alot to tell you of".

 

"Sorry luv. She's needed on my steed". Pleaseshutuppleaseshutuppleaseshutup! Jess screamed in her mind. Samacen was wary. His body language told her. The sudden shift from friendly to seeking to get away from them.......

 

Only he hadn't called out the guard..... which made him one of the smart ones. The intellectural's who wanted to know exactly what he was up against. The fact he was a lousy actor was to her benefit but the rest of her group?

 

They'd noticed the same shift. They were trying to hard to keep him with them. It was odd and in oddity lay attention. They now had Samacen's. But while both groups knew the other was..... acting wierd, neither knew enough to know what that might ensue.

 

Jess knew she had to kill that satalite and needed Samacen disarmed enough to let her near it otherwise......

 

"Lady.... I think you should tend to your steed. The satalite will keep while we send a runner to town".

 

Well there went the slow and sure approach.... unless?

 

"You sure luv"?

 

"I'm sure".

 

"Cause I'm happy to take a look".

 

"Won't be....".

 

"That the antenna"? Jess interrupted looking up at a wiry piece of metal supported by scaffolding on the side of the ship. "Look's a bit beat up. Maybe that's your".

 

But Samacen was gone. Jess smiled as if nothing was wrong and turned to the others. "Right then luvs. Let's get Baldy here back into order. You there luv". Jess pointed to one of the armoured men. "You have a rig to carry this thing"?

 

"At the hanger". She shorter one said.

 

"Lets go get it".

 

As the group moved, Jess skipped ahead looking down some of the rear of the buildings until finally she spotted an empty one and pointed. "This way"? She said, darting inside. The moment she was in she hit her Omnitool and popped a small glowing orb that abruptly shroaded itself into nothingness which she planted on the floor. Her Omni tool was off and she was moving forward as if nothing had happened when one of the guards ran to the entrance of the ally.

 

"Hey"! Not that way"!

 

"Not this way"?

 

"This way"!

 

"Why didn't you say"? Jess tutted as she walked back and brushed past the guard. "You people need signs up for us out of towners".

 

Both walked to the hanger's where they were given a space and Jess got to work pretending to fix Baldurjack. She activated her Omnitool and pretended to read through the steeds computer code. In fact, she had activated the stealth drone she had planted outside. The guards weren't that well trained and had left her alot of space to work as she scanned around with the drones camera. It was clear. She made the drone move. It would look like a shimmering effect in the air if anyone saw it so it wasn't ideal to simply fly it past the people but she managed a route that took it to what she thought was the orbital attenna sticking out of the ships old comm array.

 

She worked quickly. First she flew the drone up the side of the ship and nestled it next to the comm array. Next she scanned for transmissions and found one. Hacking through the encryption was laughably easy and Jess managed to see whatever the comm tech in charge of satalite recovery was seeing. She saw the satalite and sent a piggyback ping, asking it to send her it's data on a similar ping. The data arrived five minutes later. By that point she had Baldurjack's chassis open and was twiddling bits whle making tutting sounds. Looking over the satalite she saw the error was a recrring mathematical miscalculation and she corrected it. Whoever was in charge of fixing the satlite must have cheered as suddenly the positioning jet's fired, pushing it back so that soon it would be back in place to signal the town.

 

Typing a message quickly, Jess sent a message to the Audron. Then piggybacked again to go into the comm system and changed the default address from the towns administration centre to Audron's comm specialist.....

 

Aelias was going to go nut's if they got away with this.