Noveria
Few people really enjoyed the blistering cold of the planet. The crew of the Audron was probably the most pleased coming into port, and though their commanding officer was feeling carefully indifferent about the arrival even he was relieved that they were continuing with their task.
Though from his expression and words few would be able to discern that. He seemed to be his regular self.
Regardless, upon landing at a port on Noveria and exiting his ship his barely-there pleasure was cooled by a shock of red hair. He stopped just at the end of the platform, on his right Callum and his left a turian Sentinel Gandas. Both held their positions staggered behind him and their eyes scanned the small crowd to look for any accessories to the man their Commander was eying. If they were paying any attention to the stocky man ahead of them they would have seen a smile warm like a fire being played through an LCD screen.
"So. The man returns at last." The red-haired man said as he sauntered over to the Spectre. His hands were in his pockets and despite the frigid air he was wearing simple jeans and a t-shirt, the wind spearing and lashing him to no avail. He barely showed any conscious acknowledgement of the other Turians, his eyes unmoving from Deidrus. "You motherf*cker." the word was hardly harsh, more like an amused expression stated after not having seen a friend for far too long.
"Jaune." Deidrus said, his eyes narrowed. "What business do you have?"
"The usual." The man pressed a hand to his heart and bowed slightly before standing straight. "I've been told to meet you... So we can chat." He spoke like someone unused to the forced pleasantries of social protocol, his consonants harsh and drawn out. He looked like he wanted to spit the words. Again, it did not hold any implicit malice aside from his seemingly bizarre distaste with having to make idle chat. For now.
"Of course." The Spectre knew better than to try and squeeze more out of the human. He was of the irritable sort, and though he was quick to forgive and forget he could easily be difficult when the opportunity presented itself. He enjoyed privacy, closed ears, the sort of thing any Shadow Broker operative would like. Even if he didn't work beyond the Shadow Corps RAIDs. Deidrus knew this, and spoke to his entourage without turning his attention away from Jaune. "Complete any required forms using the XO's ID. As far as they should be concerned we are a Turian Ship here to inspect Elanus Risk Control production facility CIX."
"Yes sir." The two turians relaxed slightly and without sparing a glance at either Jaune or Androkan sifted through the crowd towards the customs office.
That left the two men standing apart from each other. Deidrus moved first, brushing past the human and walking towards a place he hadn't been in the better part of years. A silenced room.
The two walked in the unique ambient noise of Noveria. Howling wind, cracking and freezing ice, arguing merchants and security officials while crews from the shipping companies chatted over food. It was a bizarre combination of the natural, the violent, the petty and the amicable which made this port one of the more 'appreciable' on the frozen planet. Juurgenvask was the name. Some bastardization of a bastard language of some humans years ago. Who knew what it meant, but for all the grit of Noveria there were still some parts where the shipping and the bureaucracy of the corporate it was a decent place to rest up.
It was also one of the few designated 'resting regions' for the more questionable members of the Shadow Corps. It was frequented by many of the men and women of the galaxy who caused the great unknown havocs, including Jaune, and during the destruction of the Noveria compound, Deidrus and his team. The barracks there provided one of the few places outside Geth space or the Shadow Sea not seeded with the surveillance of the broker, or so it was said. Whether such a claim could be verified it was impossible to know.
Upon reaching a house in one of the upper caverns of the rift network the space port Jaune began to speak, though not at length, about some of the happenings on the planet since Deidrus had left. They were little things, the unimportant, the meaningless, and Jaune was audibly irritated by the fact he was spending any amount of his time talking about the inane. He did so with some amount of patience, though when they entered the compound he cut short.
"Your b*tch of a woman is particular about her requests." He said, wiping off his hands on a towel handing from a coat rack near the door. "Says I'm not approachable. Who cares about that when I'm getting shipped out every third day."
He maintained the jovial tone, though he didn't seem to be kidding. It had the tinges of sarcasm which denoted an underlying sanity despite his seemingly sickened pleasant persona. Walking to an ice box down the hall from the main door he let Deidrus stomp off some of the caked ice, and once he had begun following he tossed the Turian a beverage. Canned, old fashioned in aluminum.
"As I was saying..." Jaune yawned as he took a seat and leaned back, the corner of his lips turned up slightly. "Your woman has been on my ass for the last three days to make sure you had everything you'd need for your little sexcapade with Cerberus."
Androkan was surprisingly unphased by the way Jaune spoke of CV despite the obvious disrespect. He was used to the man's way of carrying conversation and simply took his own seat. He didn't offer any words since Jaune was probably going to just explain everything he was going to anyways even without prompting. That was the benefit and problem of trying to get anything out of him. He would tell you what you wanted to know along with all the things you didn't particularly care about. The problem was, of course, the everything that you didn't care about. You had to tune into everything, not just direct the conversation. That required even more work, and when a man can entertain himself with his own voice it is never advisable to try and coerce him into speaking at any length about specifics.
That's just asking for more than you want. So you had to wait.
Deidrus opened the can and took a drink as Jaune began.
"I was out of Lae Ceo somewhere near the Vorcha homeworld a few days ago. There was some biological tech being developed by the BP, something based off of whatever was killing Turians on Omega a little while back. They didn't know what they were doing but had at least managed to find something which causes catastrophic liver failure in just about any creature which has a specific organ which filters blood. The Labs wanted a sample in a Vorcha corpse to see whether how well the pests adapt to what is effectively the bubonic plague of aerosols. Easy enough, find a testing chamber with a Vorcha in it, knock it out, open the gas. Done.
Turns out they have a particularly bizarre reaction. See, the gas makes it so that whatever species loses their ability to filter blood. Vorcha normally have blood-like stuff flowing through them so when the gas was introduced and the blood stopped doing what it was supposed to they did what they do best... Adapt. And let me tell you I'm happy that humans developed sweat, sh*t and ****** as completely different processes. The man started shaking but when he stood back up his body started making like... Owl pellets I guess? Of food or whatever and pushing it through their pores. Honestly worse than the time a salarian shotgunned tridium condensate without realizing it would ignite on contact with his stomach acid.
Anyways, bastard is gross as hell. I drag him out of there after zapping him with enough volts to make an elcor physically jump. Goes limp, drag him off surface, easy creds. Even if there were a few Krogan who took particular offense to my intrusion in their random stabs at what might be called science of you routinely sh*t on pieces of paper with the steps of scientific theory. They're now somewhere in a hole with a 'baby' thresher maw. Probably still alive since it was only the thickness of a shuttle. Not getting off that moon though.
So I get back to the exfil and CV's in my ear like syphilis in the brain of... Oh, I don't know. Some mobster. She's trying to cram as much in my ear about some things you'd be looking for and that you would probably be coming by here. Well, here you are and here's what she told me;
Cerberus has been testing something near O4. Don't know what, but they seem to be trying to activate the relay some other way than normal ships. No telling why, they just are. After that, someone posted a guy to your ship as general 'sh*t-stirrer'. He's your XO I think, some Hierarchy shot who turned out to not at all be worth crap in the network. They decided to post the guy in the hierarchy and said 'we'll call you later'. Which is the Broker's way of saying 'not worth the monitoring equipment to check if he's being straight with us'. Turns out he's a decent hard-ass-friends-with-splinters. Got onto your ship and has been causing trouble. Probably doesn't know he technically should be, just letting you know that his predisposition is technically something the big SB thinks works well when ruining missions. Y'know, captain-crew tension, being an ass to crewmates. That stuff."
That is too accurate to not actually reflect him. Deidrus thought to himself as he crushed the can and set it on the table.
"So drop him. Airlock him. Something." Jaune shrugged, the first normal action since his hands started moving to accent his play-by-play. "Aside from that, she said that I should tell you to watch your back. As if you needed to be told that when you did the equivalent of turning cold at the raging hard-on of the Shadow Forces. They thought you'd be blowing **** up for the next thirty years then retire for a ransom. Turns out you blow up a few things then go play Spectre some more? I know some f*ckers on our old team who would skin you for that alone."
There was something about Jaune which made Deidrus relax slightly, and he glanced out the window at the swirling snow off in the distance. He stood suddenly and looked to the young man who continued to natter on. "Thank you Jaune."
"Ah." The redhead stood and extended his hand to the Turian. "Of course. You know where I am when I'm not doing basically anything at all."
Deidrus hmph'd then let himself out of the building before beginning the trek back to the port. Allies... They're nice to have. The thought came with a sobering one. But not enough.
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