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[Kel Riever]

Morgan kept his laughter to himself. Outwardly he simply shook his head and gave one glance at Anika, as if to say, I understand now. Meanwhile, Dahlia was pulling on her own orange engineer uniform over what she wore and making appropriate adjustments for gear.

When Dahlia was done, Morgan addressed the others. His tone was loud enough to be overheard, and he kept up the ploy. “Jess, Dahlia and I will make sure there are no Thresher Maw spores at one landing area. That’s the first place they would show up and then ship off again from. When we’re done there, we’ll send out a message on the omni-tools and meet back at the mecha-steeds.” Morgan nodded to Jess and Dahlia. The three of them headed out of the hanger on their own, towards the ship Jess had wanted to break into.

Getting to the landing pad didn’t take long. The pad itself was a simple tarmac clearing area with lights and a booth-sized control ‘tower’. On the tarmac, at rest, was a standard small freighter meant for atmospheric landings. Security at the ship, at least on the outside, seemed rather informal, with a chain link fence as the only barricade. All sorts of people were unloading cargo, and at first, Morgan saw no security guards. He thought that with most of the community belonging to the Drowned Aspire, there was probably not much need for outside security.

On closer inspection, however, Morgan noticed five security men standing by some of the freight that had already been unloaded. The crates they stood by were separated from the rest, specially marked with black labels. No one else seemed to bother with the security men, who kept an eye out strictly to protect the marked crates.

Aside from the ramp at the rear, another entrance was open nearer to the bow, providing another way onto the ship. No one was immediately nearby it, although the entrance could clearly be seen by any who bothered to look. The good news was that there was nobody that could be seen at the entrance near the bow.

[Cainhurst Crow]

Vayne crouched down as he looked at yet more soil, beginning to grow an appreciation for those salarians who took samples like this as a living. 'This is so...booooorrrriiiing.' vayne thought to himself as he pretended to scan more soil, trusting Irina to be able to sort out her mess. She was a funny one,that was for sure. And vayne felt a twinge of reliability to her blight, truth be told. It was a long time ago since he was trapped on a dead end rock with no way out, but it didn't mean he'd forgotten any less.

 

Hearing of the groups plan via comm chatter, vayne decided that since he was already close to the gunnery walls, he might as well help on that front. "Think I'm going to check out the soil conditions near the defensive wall. See if there are any structural weak points." he said to the group, letting them know what it was he planned and where he'd be headed.

 

Vayne made his way over towards the wall, looking around to and seeing some shops in what he guessed was the towns marketplace. Everyone was smiling with one another as they did business, folks chatting with each other as they bought food rations or hydration packs, a older and younger kid arguing with one another as they both pointed to a printed paper with vayne guessed news on it, the single floor shops stretching in a row, all the buildings surprisingly near and orderly, almost uniform with one another, down a single stretch of dirt ground.

 

'Everythings made to be so similar. Nothing like most colonies you see out here...;' Vayne thought to himself as he began to get closer to the defensive wall, bending down to pretend to take a soil sample. Vayne heard something from behind, footsteps coming, soft ones, without armor. 'So one of the locals wants to check up on me, huh? Alright, time to play the part.' he thought with a disgruntaled sigh. He didn't like putting on a front, not this one anyway. It was close to how he used to be, and he'd done a lot to distance his past from his present, only to get thrown back in hard.

 

"I hear you coming, human. What's it you want?" He asked, making his voice sound irritated, mostly because he was irritated, though for different reasons, "Can't you see I have some samples to collect. Your footsteps are contaminating my sample area."

 

"Oh I want something alright, Krogan." A feminine voice asked, vayne turning around and expecting to see a guard, only to stop as he saw not a guard, but a cultist civilian. She 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. Her blue eyes stared into his, fear in them, but also anger as well, with her hands on her hips and a glare aimed right at him, a deep scowl visible from behind the transparent re-breather. Zenon Karvar, the girl he'd helped save from the collectors, was standing before him, not looking too pleased to see him. "I want to know why you came here, that's what I want."

 

'Are you ****** kidding me!?' Vayne thought as his eyes went wide a moment before narrowing, remembering that he had to stay in character. "I'm here taking samples, to keep your ass from getting eaten by thresher maws." He said simply as he looked to her, eye locked with hers as he raised a brow, "There a problem with that?"

 

"Oh no, You aren't fooling me with that. I know who you are, and why you've come here!" She said as she pointed an accusatory finger towards him, seeming to grow in confidence as she spoke, "And the answer I got for you is the same I gave my Daddy before. I'm joining the Drowned Aspire, and he's not gonna force me out of it."

 

Vayne was silent as he blinked, a confused look on his face as he stared at her. A crowd had begun to gather as they muttered amongst themselves, looking to the girl. Finally, vayne looked her in the eye as she kept her finger pointed firmly at him, "Lady. I got no idea what you're talking about." he said plain and simply, not lying this time as he looked to her with a look of no comprehension on his face.

 

Zenon blushed a bright red and blinked in surprise, thrown off guard by the flat out denial before a angry look crossed her face, and she started up once more, "D-don't try to think you lie to me. My daddy paid you to take me back, like he did on omega, didn't he? He's always been a control freak and me making my own path for myself instead of his must have made him angrier then I thought." She said, almost sounding like she were trying to explain her own thought process then actually accuse vayne of anything. "I'm...I'm not ungrateful you know." she blurted out, seeming more and more incoherent by the passing word.

 

".....I don't follow." Vayne said simply, the townsfolk now all looking uncomfortable as he noticed one person point off, towards where what looked like a group of fresh cultists were coming that way, rebreathers giving them away as their tour guide he'd seen earlier close behind, a tanned asian looking women with black hair parted to the right wearing light yellow and green. "So you're grateful I did something with your dad, who you hate?" he said, sounding as confused in his voice as possible to sell his act of ignorance.

 

"NO! I'm grateful becasue you saved me! And then you tried to give me to my parents, but my answers no!" She said, throwing her arms up as if this was suppose to be obvious, "I'm just...just...I can't go back there. I can't go back to my daddy, or those pods...or those glowing eyes." she stammered out as she reached for her head, hands holding onto them as she fell to her knees, tears starting well in her eyes as she clutched her head hard.

 

"Zenon, I told you not to run off like that." The tour women said as she came over, leaning down next to zenon as she wrapped her hands around her, as if shielding her from the world, "You've got to stay with the flock. At least until the initiation is over." From the crowd, vayne could hear a mummer starting up as they began to disperse it seemed. Mutters of "I know that feeling" "Poor dears going through the phases" "Hope she rides it out okay." His eye narrowed as he stepped forward, looking to the women as the rest of the initiates worked to help clear out the onlookers.

 

"What's wrong with her?" Vayne asked curiously, wanting to sound more irritated than concerned as the older women stood, brushing some hair from her face.

 

"My apologies, My name is Judi Daily, I'm was showing new initiates around when this poor girl broke away from the group. Saying something about someone taking her away..." she said as she looked to vayne with a polite smile, dark grey eyes seeming somewhat dull and lifeless as she seemed to look through vayne, "You wouldn't know anything about that, right?"

 

"Nothing I can recall, no. She seemed to think I was sent for her. I don't even know who the hell she is." Vayne said, feeling sweat coming from his face as he spoke, half wanting to blame the heat but making no move to wipe it away.

 

"Her name is Zenon Karvar. Her father Calvin Karvar, is a wealthy investment banker back on Ilium, from what I recall. The poor girl must have had such a rough life there, she was much worse before she came here.

 

"Not the cold...make it go away...he can't make me, I won't..." she said as she started to rock back and forth in the dirt, still crying as vayne took a step towards her.

 

"Who can't?" He asked, before he was stopped dead in his tracks by Judi. She had stepped in front of him inhumanly quick, taking only the blink of an eye to be between him and zenon, that same hollow smile on her face as she blocked him from getting to her.

 

"Please..." she said, her tone still full of warmth but something about it clearly a command, "Zenon's been through quite an ordeal to get here. I will take her to father jeb. He will be able to help her." with that she turned around and marched over to zenon, gently helping her up as she looked vayne in the eye, her blue ones full of both fear and desperation as she started to mutter to herself, "Heaven Earned Lasting Peace...heaven earned lasting peace...heaven earned-"

 

"Hush now. You're safe now. Those creatures won't torment you any longer." vayne managed to just overhear as judy and her "flock" as she called it began to move the opposite way as him. Vayne stared as they left, eyes following the group as his mind buzzed with activity, a deep frown on his face. "I'll do it, child..." he said out loud as they long left ear shot, "This ones going to be on the house."

 

With that he turned around, heading towards the tower as his hand rested on his shotgun pistol, careful should anyone else try to come up from behind.

[Kel Riever]

More crates, Morgan worried internally.  They didn’t look like the crates on Omega. On the other hand, they were large enough to hold a normal sized human.  The Omega crates were outwardly more sophisticated, making no attempt to hide their function once it was known, but he wouldn’t put it past the Drowned Aspire to come up with a better disguise for whatever was being shipped.  Actually, in this case, what looked like it was being offloaded.

 

The crates deserved looking into, but the question was how.  Morgan doubted the five men guarding the crates would let electronic scanners anywhere near them, despite auspices of being Thresher Maw spore exterminators.  The only way to be sure of their contents was to scan them, or get the ship’s manifests, which were undoubtedly secured.  Both involved getting on the ship, and both were in Jess’ field of expertise.  It wouldn’t help if the guards took it on themselves to snoop around, or one of the crew happened across them while they were at work.  Morgan could take care of anyone on the ship with Jess, but the guards by the crates still might notice something.

 

Morgan looked to Dahlia, who had left her hood and goggles off.  Deep violet eyes, white facial markings that framed her eyes, young, wiry, and pretty.  Guard duty was nothing but boring for the most part.  And while any guard would be on to a distraction immediately, everybody lowered their defenses over time once they thought the threat was gone.  And the guards weren’t robots.  It might just take the equivalent of batting eyelashes and the right kind of conversation…

 

“Dahlia,” Morgan said quietly enough for only the group of three to hear, “your turn for a distraction.”

[Redbelle]

Jess followed the other two humming to herself. Seeing the crates and guards she said in a low tone. "Remember. We're maintenance. These shotgun jockey's are co-worker's but a right pest for us doing our work if they turn suspicious. So go in friendly and remember to act humble but annoyed at the nice men with the guns. Chances are we can just waltz right in since we're wearing what they'd expect maintenance to wear".

 

Jess then looked up at the freighter and tried to remember which varient model this was. Deck layouts were often standardised unless the ships were custom created in the ship building yards. This one might be one she was used to, in which case they could walk right to where they needed to be without much searching..... if not? Then perhaps still not alot of searching as the important ship functions tended to be where they made the most sense to put them. Which was practically identical to every ship of their size.

 

The crates drew her attention. If they thought something was important enough to shift off world then it was something she wanted to know about.

 

Jess pulled the mechanics tool belt around her waist tighter and brought her goggles down over her eyes. If Dahlia was going to act a a distraction.... better not allow roving eye's more candy distractions.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Dahlia pulled the zipper up on the left leg of her coveralls and then pulled it down so that it snagged near the top and she wandered away from the Jess and Morgan and closer to the two guards who were in their way. She threw her gloves on the ground, knelt and began fussing with it. Morgan and Jess were gathering materials and tools.

"Damn it!" Dahlia said, sat on the ground and threw one of her gloves. "Why now?"

One of the guards turned and went over to her. "You're Asari. What are you doing here?"

"I'm a maintenance tech. I'm new. You know Master Jeb's message doesn't only reach out to humans, and besides he needs competent techs to maintain his operations," Dahlia explained, "I'm one of those technicians. I'm really trying to make a good impression, and the zipper is stuck on my pant leg. Could you help me with it, please?" Dahlia made eye contact with such innocent eyes.

The other guard moved toward them. "Come on Ike, get back to your post."

"Back off, Earl. This will only take a minute," Ike started fiddling with the zipper. "This thing is really stuck, and you can't go in the area until it's fully zipped. Earl, get me a pair of channel locks out of the tool kit near our post, will you?"

"Samacen will kill us if he finds out about this," Earl said as he walked back toward the post's tools. He fumbled through the box and grabbed the pliers.

"Then make sure he doesn't find out," Ike said.

"Thanks. I really appreciate this." Dahlia said.

"So what's your specialty?" Ike asked.

"I do a little bit of everything. Electronics, HVAC, computers, plumbing. I go in and assess the problem and fix it. If it's going to require a specialist, I'll call for one," she replied.

Earl handed Ike the pliers.

"That sounds like how Jeb runs things," Ike said and smiled at her while he used grabbed the zipper with the pliers. "Starts the new ones out as generalists, then moves you into specialist jobs." The zipper moved. "There you go, and here let me help." He zipped it the rest of the way so it wouldn't get caught. "Now go on about your job...."

"Dahlia."

"I'm Ike, and this is Earl."

"Come on, Ike. We've got to return to our posts."

Dahlia put on her hood and goggles, and entered the structure.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Irina heard the ruckus and walked up to Vayne and Judi. "What's going on? Oh, hello Judi. I didn't know you'd joined the Aspire. I was wondering where you'd disappeared to. I thought you'd gotten lucky and got off this rock."

 

"No, I'd heard Jeb's message and joined. You should listen to him, Irina, but... I know how you feel about... closed communities," Judi sighed. "Anyway, the girl, Zenon, thought that the Krogan was going to take her away from here and return her to her father. She thought he was the same Krogan as the one she'd seen on Omega. He says he's not."

 

"Well... you know Krogan. They all look alike," Irina said and winked at Vayne, "No offense. But I can assure you, Judi, that before I took the job as guide for these thresher maw techs, I checked their credentials thoroughly. You know me, and you know I do that as a matter of routine. I don't like getting burned."

 

Judi smiled. "Thanks, Irina, that means a lot."

 

"It sounded to me like Zenon has been through a lot of trauma. May I speak with her?" Irina asked.

 

"No, I think I should take her to see Jeb."

 

"What's the harm, Judi? I've been through trauma, too, ya know. Ya know how much I hate to see harm come undeservedly to others. I'm not a raving banshee," Irina said.

 

"I really thing she should see Jeb."

 

"Afraid I'll take her through these walls?" Irina asked, "Can I ask how? I just would like to talk. I don't bite. What's the harm in talking?"

 

"I'm taking her to see Jeb, Irina."

 

"Zenon, if you want to talk, come find me!" Irina said and then muttered. "Goddam cults."

[Redbelle]

Eteon came in with her rifle posed at her midrif. Not wanting to seem untowardly aggressive but ready for anything, just in case.

 

She needn't have bothered.

 

A human spun around, spun so fast that the gun he had drawn from his holster went flying out of his grip and skidded across the desert floor a few feet. The human's mouth was open in shock as he stared, first at it, then at her as her rifle had begun moving till it was level with her chest. Then he seemed to strike a pose of contemplation as if either praying to his divine, or figuring out his next step....... or perhaps both as he looked up with a smile and greeted her.

 

Eteon reached up to her helm, unlatched a few fastener's and pulled it off while keeping the rifle braced against her. "Afternoon...... Looks like you had a bit of trouble there". She ran her eye's across the shuttle, her military mind looking for burns and scorches. Anything that would indicate this human had been attacked. "The nearest port's thataway..... or even closer..... there's one nestled in a cult compound  about an hour from here..... Care to tell me what your doing so far from either"?

[Redbelle]

Jess waited till they were out of earshot before bringing her goggles up. She smiled at Dahlia. "Very nice luv. Good thing the guards don't know jack about engineering. If we run across any in here let me handle them......". Jess paused. "That offer about learning engineering's still on the table by the way. Heck, with your life span you could learn as much as ten of me and talk rings around anyone on any matter".

 

The goggles came down. "Like I was saying. A win is a win. Good job. Now let's seal the deal so we can head back".

[Redbelle]

Jess led them in. Through the bow and up into the superstructure to come out into a corridor from a maintenance hatch. They bumped into a crewman who Jess grinned at. "Ello luv. you got any problem's you want taken care of while we're here"?

 

"Huh"? The crewman said, taken aback by their sudden appearence. His stance settled when he noticed the uniforms. "Oh, ground crew right? Well..... nothing I can think of.... the other's might....".

 

"Good good, we'll be on our way then. Lot to do". Jess talked over him. "You boy's have a nice day now. C'mon you two.... lotta to do on the workschedule".

 

With that Jess slipped past the crewman and walked on down the corridor deeper into the ship.

[Cknarf]

"The nearest port's thataway..... or even closer..... there's one nestled in a cult compound  about an hour from here..... Care to tell me what your doing so far from either?"

 

"Oh, you know. Just having some issues with the shuttle." He gestured at the wreckage behind him.  "I can fix it, I think, but not without parts."  The Kodiak likely wouldn't see space again, but with some eezo, and new thrusters it could very well be used for transport around Duellos.

 

"Names Frank, but friends call me Beans.  You know, like 'Franks and Beans'?" 

 

She responded with the Turian equivalent of a raised eyebrow.

 

"Oh right... It's a human food, Kind of--"  Frank stopped himself.  "Look, I'm in a tight spot here.  Wherever you're headed, it's got to be better than cooking out here. Mind if I tag along?"

[Kel Riever]

Dahlia’s distraction worked perfectly.  The guards outside were distracted enough that they didn’t question the asari’s legitimacy at all, nor did they bother even thinking to question Jess or Morgan as they entered through the door near the bow.  If anyone was watching the door by camera, it was possible that when the outside group of guards took Dahlia at face value, they didn’t bother checking in themselves.  And a good bit of fast talk from Jess had them past their first crewmember, heading down the freighter’s corridor. 

 

The small freighter was typical of its kind, with a long, central corridor flanked by modular cargo areas.  The only major difference was that being aerodynamically designed, space was at a premium, and everything was jam packed inside the ship, due to the hull’s smooth shape.  So instead of a typical, block like modularity, the freighter had a cylindrical fuselage, if you would, with each cargo modules fitting like a ring around the central corridor.  If full on cargo, it made for some odd bulk loading sometimes, but modern equipment could handle the odd way freight would be stored.

 

They walked towards the aft, passing what Jess’ familiarity recognized as ladders to the crew areas above and below, on to the modules.  Engineering, and on this particular model of small freighter, central computing, would be at the end of the ship, far from the main bridge at the bow.  The problem was with one central corridor, everyone in that corridor could be seen.  Along the length to the aft, four or five crewmembers were already visible, further along, loitering or traveling about.  It was likely that someone might think to question them.

 

Morgan pointed to the first door to a cargo hold on their right.  The three passed through into what looked like a lightly loaded bay with no one else in it.  Closing the door behind them, Jess pointed to one of the secondary portals leading to the next cargo module.

 

“We travel from cargo hold to hold,” Jess directed, “avoiding the main corridor until we are as far rear as we can get.  We’ll have a look on the way at what this freighter’s got.”

 

Morgan speculated, “Is there a chance we come across a terminal in one of the hold’s that will give you access to the ship’s computer?”

 

“A good chance, luv,” Stone answered.  “Every cargo hold is linked in somehow in case of an emergency.  But I need a full interface, not an emergency screen and terminal.  We’ll still have to double back on that corridor or another part of the ship meant for something other than hauling goods.”

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"Jess, you know we could get some help getting past these emergency screens," Dahlia said, "All it would require would be setting up a QE signal from one of our omni-tools to VERA, link her to the ship's system, and she could assist with this problem. She knows me, and I could ask her if she'd set it up for us if you'd like."

[Kel Riever]

Moving from cargo hold to adjacent cargo hold hadn’t been entirely useless.  First of all, almost all crew had been avoided.  Dahlia, Jess and Morgan had spotted exactly one crew member in the four holds they passed through, and that crewmember was deep in repairing a shipboard stocking rig.  He had waved at them like the three had been there every day before he delved back into his work.  Secondly, they had a better idea what was on board, even though most of the holds were empty or near empty.  The small freighter had hauled foodstuffs and maintenance gear for the Drowned Aspire compound, but also a rather large stock of weapons, as if they planned on arming every citizen.  The majority of the cargo was ordinary equipment, at least from a military point of view, but it was in the last hold that they reached where the crates started containing new computer hardware, survival gear, and an array of disposable hard drives on interacting with different cultures when encountering them off-world. 

 

Morgan had skimmed a Scimitar shotgun and about a thousand credits from data pads during the searching.  That didn’t compare to the money Jess or Dahlia were able to get from similar looting, but it was enough to keep Morgan going.  Meanwhile, when the group reached the final pad, Jess noticed something important. 

 

“There are none of those black labeled boxes on board.”

 

“Either they intend to load them,” Morgan suggested, “Or they are offloaded freight, ready to deliver to Old Man Jeb.”

 

In earnest, the three made their way back to the central corridor, after passing through the bays.  No one was nearby as they set foot in the main corridor once more, but a set of two, distinctly non-freight oriented, openings stretched off from the corridor.  Quickly, the three set off down the starboard side opening.  Beyond, a stairway lead down into core engineering, but prior to the descent, a door was labeled, “CPU: Authorized Personel Only.”

 

“That’d be our ticket,” Jess exclaimed and made to push the door open.  It was locked.  With a huff of impatience, Stone activated her omni-tool and began to work simultaneously with several hacking programs.  After only about twenty seconds, the door slid open by itself.  Jess went inside, indicating the others should follow.

 

It was tight inside.  The space for people to work nearby the CPU was no larger than a normal closet, and with the three occupying it, they were practically stacked on each other.  Jess was able to work a terminal inside, however, meant for interfacing with all core ship systems.  The pirate queen began to work on her omni-tool and the available interface, doing what she did best – hacking the system.

 

Morgan realized they were in a place they should absolutely not be if a crewmember came stumbling across them.  He positioned himself to keep an eye on the door and inadvertently rubbed up against Jess and Dahlia as he shifted for a better angle.  The whole confined space was practically claustrophobic. 

 

“I would take a shot and say this ship isn’t transferring only normal cargo.”

 

“That’s for certain,”  Jess responded, as she pulled out the schematic for the small freighter on a terminal display screen.  She used her readout to show Morgan and Dahlia what on her viewscreen, as the two looked over Jess’ shoulder. With a rapid hand motion, Jess opened up one of the cargo bays on the screen and brought up a manifest.  Instantly, each three from the group saw something very wrong with the manifest that came up, and the diagram accompanying it.

 

“Is that what I think it is?”  Morgan said, staring at the viewscreen.

[Redbelle]

Jess blinked and double checked. The information came back the same.

 

"Guy's.....". She hissed. "I'm guessing we've found our link between the collectors and the Aspire".

 

The screen held the shape of a humanoid form. Jess saw a video file attached and hit play.

 

A voice, low and manacing rattled out of the speaker and Jess punched the volume control to lower it, Even at low level's though, the voice was unnervingly familier. Like the voice she had heard on Omega when she had spoken to the Collector.

 

"You are tasked to assist our collection and form a new vanguard", The voice droned as the video stream showed what looked like collector armour. It switched to an exploded view and then figure of a human appeared. "Collection will commence in two stages. First stage. Remove those who are easily controlled and indoctinate into the mindset of the Reaper hive mind. These forms will be processed and converted to a new form to better serve our cause and replace lost number's of our current collector agents".

 

The exploded view of the armour began to slip over the form of the human while the humans face became pasty with blackened veins standing out. The video didn't make it clear, but it almost looked like the armour was fusing, grafting itself onto the figure even as the process zoomed in. Skin and the wet underside of the collector/human carapace did seem to melt into each other. Forming a bond of flesh where it became impossible to see where one started and the other ended. Video diagrams showed the armour releasing, something..... the jargon was medical. Elara would be able to make sense of it. All Jess could understand was adrenaline and pain suppresion.

 

Finally the helm, or face? Of the collector settled over the ruined form of the human and where once had been a recognisable member of her species, now stood an armoured hulk of a figure. No emotion or manner remained in the form Jess now saw. The video blinked out to what looked like a world. The kind colonist's gravitated towards.

 

"First stage completed. Second stage will be the collection and harvest of all remaining human life on the colony specified by our human agents. Citadel access to data copmrimised. Use of agent's and processing into replacement for current collector's deemed most logical means of maintaining the scedule. Human incorporation into ourselves deemed of vital. This cycle factor's in unforseen variables. Creation of human/Reaper must be completed before the cycle diverge's further from projected path".

 

Jess didn't know what half of that meant, but she knew that she had found what she was after. Naleena and Baldy would have the data she was after from the Aspire's mainframe. On this ship, she downloaded the co-ordinate's of every colony world this ship had been to. Once she was back at Baldy she would pull the data out and copy it to the entire team. Every colony world the Aspire visited was a target. A scouting of potential position's of interest to their opponent..... But which?

 

They were up against Collectors, but the message indicated that they worked for someone, or something else.

 

Reapers?

 

News of Reapers had been makign their way through the news networks of late as the late Commander Shepard had attributed the Geth attack to the Reapers. Citing the large, black ship as being one of them....... Were they real?

 

It wasn't important now. They had to...... Oooo what's this?

 

Jess highlighted the destination of the crates. They were slated for delivery to a place labeled West G:7. Jess chewed her lip.

 

"Morgan. Dahlia..... G:7, West.... sounds like some kind of location system. Any idea where"?

 

"Dummy". Dahlia hissed back. "That's a mine location system. Omega uses a variation in the Eezo mines".

 

"Then our next trip is down there". Jess whispered. "We've got alot of data, but we need to see what's going on with our own eye's. This is to radical to believe, or anyone else unless we grab something to prove it's all real".

 

"The crates.....". Began Morgan, then he sighed. "...... are guarded".

 

"Yep.... but they're also going somewhere. Keep an eye on them and we'll know where an entrance to the mines are. Heck, we said we needed to go down their anyway. Relating to that Thresher defence..... Morgan, If you weren't sitting on me I could kiss you for coming up with that nugget". Jess grunted as she shifted. "Speaking of..... You mind getting us out of this closet? I'm starting to wonder who ate all the pies"!

[Redbelle]

Eteon sighed. The human was in a tough spot and not hostile she decided. She walked to where his gun had fallen, picked it up, popped the heat sink and handed it back to Beans. "Turian military code states I can't leave my post..... then again, I wasn't officially given a post and I'm dying under this sun. I'm Eteon. Official go between and emmissary and all that..... I can take you back to town but then your on your own. I'm part of something here and it's......".

 

She'd been about to say it was getting dangerous but clamped her mouth shut so hard her mandibles clicked. The sun really must be getting to me, she thought. Even that much information was to much.

 

"Look, all you need to know is I need to be out here. But if we hurry I can get you there, then I can re-equip and get back out here. you don't need me holding your hand. I mean, unless you know how to refit a ship's armour without a space doc......".

 

Dammit.... she'd done it again.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Dahlia grabbed Morgan by the arm. "Don't you think it would be wise to get some kind of map of the mines before we head down there blindly? We could get lost easily, and if there's those things down there that you guys fought back on Omega we're going to be in deep **** with no way out. Understand?"

 

Morgan was taken back by the forcefulness of this young asari. She'd never been like this before. She'd always gone along with the plan. "So what do you have in mind?"

 

"We're going to be out of contact when we go down there, so listen to me. I'm going to go back to one of those terminals where we were getting Emergency Screens, and I'm going to set up a QE connection with my omni-tool with VERA and ask her to pull up the shipping manifest Jess asked for, and a map of the mines." She looked at them and said quietly. "Wait here! Both of you!"

 

Dahlia left them and went back up the corridor to a small vacant office with a terminal.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Irina kicked at the ground after Zenon was hauled off by the Judi, the new schoolmarm. She walked over to Vayne. "Look, I've got to find something to drink, after that. I'll be okay. I don't know what the f*** is going on. It's like she wanted to be here, but now she doesn't want to be here, yet she feels she should be here if you know what I mean. It's that cult mind set. I can't handle it."

 

"I know what you mean. Go on. Do what you have to do."

 

"Righto. See you in a about 15 minutes." Irina wandered off looking for the nearest watering hole. There has to be one around here. They can't live on "spiritual enlightenment dingos***. Then again I did bring a flask. Never leave home without it. And I need to be alone.

 

She disappeared into an alley.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Message sent: ..... am embedded with assigned group and I think I have finally gained their trust. The group is investigating the Drowned Aspire Cult masquerading as thresher maw experts. One of the group carries a particle beam weapon. Have eliminated one of the targets in town as assigned. Will make contact again ....

 

Message received: Acknowleged.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

In the small office, Dahlia was tapping away feverishly on her omni-tool and made contact with VERA via secure QE.

 

VERA awoke. "Dahlia? How did you get this access code?"

 

"I, uh, saw Naleena enter it when she set up the link when we were doing the pod analysis. Look, there really isn't time now. I... we need your help. Well, Jess and I need your help, along with Morgan."

 

"I see. I will have to report to Naleena to have her change the code after our conversation. You realize that? So make sure you cover everything you need," VERA said.

 

"I understand. VERA, I'm sitting at a terminal. I'm going to scan the terminal's wireless network frequency with my omni-tool until I have a match. Would you stealthily hack into the main system and get a shipping manifest, and then get a map of the mine for me, and load both of them into my omni-tool?" Dahlia asked.

 

"Okay, but you'll owe me."

 

"Why couldn't you be a simple VI? What would I owe you?" Dahlia asked.

 

"Hugs and kisses, darling. No really, I'm just kidding. This one is on the house, just because you've proven yourself resourceful, but I still have to tell the boss." VERA said.

 

"I... understand."

 

VERA tickled the computer system's security software and found several holes in it which she exploited and set up countermeasures to block it from making any alerts to the sys admins. She obtained several shipping manifests both outgoing and incoming, and a detailed map of the mines and downloaded them onto Dahlia's omni-tool.

 

"I'm done, Dahlia."

 

"Thank you, VERA."

 

"You're quite welcome."

 

VERA severed the connection and made contact with Naleena to let her know about the access code. Naleena changed it.

 

Dahlia exited the office and ran into a security officer.

 

"What are you doing in this area?"

 

"Systems diagnostics. It's part of my assignment. I have to make sure that all the wireless connections are in working order on every terminal. If they aren't I'm to make note and report the non-working ones to the Systems Administrator," she replied and saw the lavatory up ahead. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to check the lighting in the lavatories."

 

"Computers and lighting?" the guard asked.

 

Dahlia pulled off her goggles and let her purple eyes do the talking. "General maintenance. Lighting, electronics, HVAC, plumbing. All the small jobs. I pretty much catch everything that falls through the cracks. If the job is too big for me, I call a specialist to take care of it. Now I'm falling behind on my schedule. Master Jeb has me making a once over of this ship to make sure everything is in working order, and I'm supposed to give my report to him at the end of the day."

 

"I'm sorry I bothered you. Continue your duties." the guard said and then he went about his business.

 

Dahlia ducked into the lavatories just in case he turned around. She checked the lighting for fun. Flushed the toilets, then left and returned to Morgan and Jess.

 

"What took you so long?" Morgan asked, "If you'd taken any longer I was going to look for you."

 

"It was a good thing you didn't. There was a guard, and I had to check the lavatories as part of my 'general maintenance' duties so as not to break my cover," Dahlia replied and smiled at him. "Okay, let's link our omni-tools. Ready?"

 

Dahlia uploaded the shipping and cargo manifests along with the mine maps onto their omni-tools. "Oh, by the way, VERA just notified Naleena about the access code breach. I won't be able to do that again," she sighed.

 

"You had her access codes?" Jess asked.

 

"Yeah, I have a photographic memory." Dahlia said, "I saw Naleena enter them on her omni-tool when we did the pod analysis."

[Redbelle]

Jess smirked. "Your the poster child for 'cannot unsee' then. Okay. We're set. We need to get out of here. So let's go about some duties and sign off. Keep up the pretence and we're shielded..... but yeah. We're on the clock. I call it Jess's rule of swiping. The longer you take to do a job? The more time it has to go wrong. Flies in the face of the rule of planning but I'm not getting into that right now".

 

Jess dumped the locations of the colonies to the other's. "We need to get this back to the Audron. Someone needs to do this before we go into the mines. If things go bad we can't afford to lose this list. The Spectre will have his lead. They can shut down the Aspire.... if they can, and they'll be able to anticipate collector attacks.....". Jess sighed. "If they decide to move on the information. Either way..... guys...."?

 

Jess looked at them both. Trying to find a way to tell them that she would be leaving them soon. That she'd be returning to the Medusa. The words stuck in her throat and she grunted, trying to clear them. "Never mind..... Let's get off this barge".

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Irina came waltzing out of the alley after about 15 minutes, and rejoined Vayne. Vayne smelled some alcohol on her breath.

 

"Well, that took the edge off." she said.

[Cainhurst Crow]

"I'm surprised you managed to find a bar out here..." Vayne commented as he looked her over, seeing she seemed alright, sans the alcohol. "But whatever helps take the edge off, I suppose..." he said in silence as he began to make his way towards the defensive walls, area, going through the backstreets to avoid detection. If he and irina could knock out the weapons targeting system, or better yet power supply, it would certainly give them an edge.

 

"So...that Judi person...you know her?" He asked curiously, wondering if she could shed some light on a suspicion of his.

[Kel Riever]

It was inevitable; when something really important needed to be said, fate would make sure Morgan had no chance to say it.  Sure it applied to all the heavy conversations.  What amazed Morgan is it happened to all the trivial ones as well.

 

Before Morgan could stop her, Dahlia had slipped out of the CPU access door.  Following her would only make it worse.  Nobody working as a team would up and leave without warning, and Morgan blamed her impetuousness, adding to the file of reasons why she wasn’t entirely ready to be trusted with the critical tasks.  Of course, her reasoning was sound, and having a layout of anyplace they were going could be a lifesaver. 

 

QE, Quantum-Entanglement?  Jess didn’t react to the reference, or hid her reaction.  Even the way Dahlia was thinking left a lot of distance between the young asari in need of help that Naleena was supposed to have charge of, and the actually intelligent asari Dahlia was if let loose from her chains.  He had thought Dahlia needed to be given more to do and here she was, showing her actual ability.

 

Several minutes passed and just before Morgan really became nervous about what happened to her, Dahlia showed back up.  Her reference to access codes and having a photographic memory only confirmed, what Morgan thought about Dahlia; that the photographic memory line was a lie, she had obtained the access codes in a way she was not supposed to, and that it was basically because she was rebelling against Naleena, or probably any kind of authority in general.  It didn’t mean Dahlia shouldn’t be watched though.

 

When Dahlia was done speaking, Morgan gave her a look like he knew something was up with her.  But he said nothing.

 

Then of course, there was Jess.

 

And in that regard, Dahlia had completely foiled Morgan’s attempt to talk to her about what he knew was going on behind the Captain’s eyes.  More frustrating than anything up to that point, Morgan was actively sure that Dahlia was working to sabotage any talk between him and Jess.  Despite all the asari’s ability, and competency, she emotionally trailed in years.  Possibly not even accounting for the discrepancy between asari and human years.  Morgan had to keep his temper in check.  Jealousy had a bad way of manifesting itself in another.

 

Of course, it was his idea to bring Dahlia along.  There was nothing to do but make the best of it.  And Morgan was sure it would be a lot worse if Dahlia were somewhere else.

 

“Okay,” Morgan said with heavy emphasis to both Dahlia and Jess, “Nobody is splitting off anymore on their own without talking to me about it before they do.  And that rule starts right now.  Not unless you want to have me chase you down to the end of the universe and haul you back.  Don’t test me because you know I’ll do it.”

[Kel Riever]

Exiting CPU access did not go nearly as smoothly as entering it, or when Dahlia left before.

 

When Dahlia and Morgan stepped out first, a uniformed crewman was just on the other side of the door.  He looked cross.  “Exactly what the hell are you people doing to my computer?”

 

Morgan didn’t wait.  He immediately threw an uppercut.  And then he had to stymie a shout of pain as his fist felt like it hit a brick wall.  The man didn’t move, and seemed completely frozen.

 

“Sorry!”  Dahlia looked wide-eyed at Morgan as he held his striking hand.  “I put him in stasis!”

 

“How long until it wears off?” Morgan hissed.

 

“In a little more than ten seconds or so.”

 

Morgan nodded.  The seconds seemed to creep by, but when the man seemed to start moving at a slowed speed, Morgan belted him across the jaw again.  This time, the crewman’s face gave and he fell to the floor unconscious. 

 

“Sonofa…,” Morgan said, grabbing the crewman by the shoulders and hauling him back in the CPU room.  He saw the man had an ID tag clipped onto a pocket identifying him as a computer specialist.  “That’s not good.”  Morgan had to finagle the engineering suit covering his armor to get access to one of his storage compartments.  He finally pulled out his entire set of three FlexiCuffs, restrained the crewman’s arms, legs, and used the last set to tie the crewman to a heavy cable.

 

Luck was that nobody else came by during the whole endeavor.  Morgan closed the door on the crewman, and asked Jess to do her best to lock him inside.  “Hopefully he takes a long nap,” Morgan commented, “Now we definitely are on the clock.”

 

Morgan, Jess and Dahlia didn’t bother heading all the way to the bow again, but exited through the aft ramp where cargo was still being unloaded.  Nobody seemed to care much about the three leaving, and in minutes they were away from the landing area.

[Kel Riever]

On the way back to the mecha-steeds, not much seemed different in the compound, but the concern mounted in Morgan about an alert being raised.  He removed his goggles and hood while walking with Jess and Dahlia.  “What we found is enough that someone with more authority than us should contend with.”  Morgan purposely used vague language to throw off anyone listening in.  “We’re information gatherers.  Our job is done.” 

 

As before, the walk wasn’t long to the hanger where Jess had faked repairing Baldurjack.  Morgan got out of the rest of his engineer outfit, and moved close enough to Jess and Dahlia to speak without concern.  “I agree about heading to the Audron first.  Everyone needs to get out, even if the Drowned Aspire doesn’t want us to.”

 

Morgan pretended to examine data on his omni-tool while he went on.  He let his eyes rove to Dahlia briefly, but had them linger on Jess.  “Once we’re onboard, maybe each of us has a different idea about what comes next. But we’ve got to get there first.”

 

With the next few words, Morgan inadvertently let his guard down.  He felt as if a certain point of view he had built up over the years was on its way to being changed.  The feeling of resignation that normally challenged his optimism reared its head, but Morgan spoke without giving into it, like he usually did.

 

“Take it from a loner, it works best of we return together.”