"Involuntary consumption of hallucinogenics." Kurik answered, while looking through his omni-tool. "I am experiencing a rather unpleasant headache, but I am fine otherwise."
"I am here." He sent her his current location. "Awaiting orders."
There was another notification from an unknown contact. He opened it.
"Spirits..."
Kurik recoiled a bit at the photograph that he had received.
Chris carefully moved towards the corner and hoped the others to be right behind him. Seems like there's another party going on..., he thought while staying close to the wall before he peeked around the corner.
In the dim light he spotted a couple of humans and turians that were getting drunk and having a party. After watching them for a few moments Chris got an uneasy feeling about the group of people they had to approach if they wanted to grab that protoype. Just by watching them for a few moments he could tell that they probably were a group that was just out for alcohol, drugs and violence. And the fact that they were meeting in an abandoned tower was no good sign either. Maybe it was even a gang though Chris didn't spot any gang symbols.
"There's a whole bunch of them", he whispered to the others, "and I doubt that we can just talk to them. But maybe we could create a distraction while one of us sneaks in and grabs that protoype without anyone noticing. Does one of you have a cloaking device or something?"
Juric followed Chris up to the corner, staying just behind him. He was able to hear the sound of the party much more clearly now but still couldn't see them. "I'm not really the subtle type. I think you way might be better but what where you thinking? How we gonna get these people out?"
He glanced back at Tolema, eyes questioning if she had any ideas. He would have liked to simply just walk in and knock their heads together and let Tolema grab the prototype but he couldn't see how many of them there where. They also could have weapons and while he fancied his chances it might be easier to follow Chris's plan.
Darya spoke in a low voice. "I can stasis one."
"Well, if anything else, It won't be dull..." Menos said simply as he looked towards Isis, curious as to what it was she was doing, assuming it wasn't just the drugs having an effect on her, "All I know, is we messed up with what we were doing at first. We went after one of you guys, but we should have helped instead. So we're trying to help now. Our help, just happens to involve taking on a company called Ariake and Capella..." he said, looking towards isis to see if he was losing her.
"I also could spray the area with bullets. Your choice." Darya said again in a low voice drawing her Lancer.
"Not sure if we should start a fight, they seem to be armed as well", Chris remarked. "Besides, if possible, I'd like to do this without having to kill anyone."
Arcadia paced outside the skycar, her 'operations center' now for several hours. "Kurik, if you can, please come on back to me. I'm awaiting the arrival of a new team member and I also must await the events transpiring from the hotel and retrieval of the prototype." Activity around the lot had subdued, the groupies reduced to a handful of hard core types. Checking her chronometer, Cadi saw it was well into the wee hours of the morning, though with the constant 'day' cycle of the wards, it was difficult to tell it otherwise.
~ ~ ~ ~
Tolema took a bit of initiative. "I can cloak and at least get a good look before we decide on anything. Give me a couple of minutes."
With a soft electronic sound, Tolema disappeared. She was able to return well within the two minutes she'd asked for.
"I counted seventeen of them, all members of a gang. They're pretty well armed, I'd say most have a pistol, some have rifles and a few even have shields. Quality of the weaponry seems low, nothing military grade. The leader is a, ah, robust turian, if you know what I mean. They're sitting on the covered furniture, and the leader is sitting right on the chair that I hid the prototype under. I don't think they know it's there. They seem pretty drunk with the idea of getting even more inebriated, but that's going to take some time. I don't know they'll be any easier to deal with then, but we can wait, or we can try something else. The problem is Seirenes is getting on their bus in about 6 hours and leaving for port, for their next destination."
~ ~ ~ ~
Isis pulled herself up slowly from her relaxed position, carefully moving her Les Paul out of the way. She sat up on the edge of the bed, stretching her legs out and crossing them. Menos saw that she looked exhausted now, very unlike the woman who'd been on the stage, delivering song after song as if there was no end to the music.
"I can smell when Tolema and Aoide are up to something, and when that green-eyed girl who was with you left, I knew this evening would turn to s**t." Isis sighed. "Don't take this personally, but why should I care? You...I'm sorry I don't even remember your name, or got confused...or they, want to use me for what? This is going to f**k us up, somehow, isn't it? Don't you think maybe I should be the smart one and stop this before it goes too far?"
"En Route." Kurik replied, promptly closing the lewd image and permanently deleting it. He brought up a map. "ETA ten minutes."
--------------------------------------------------------------
After a short ride via taxi, Kurik arrived on foot a bit later.
Darya spoke again in her indoor not loud enough for someone else to hear voice. "Well, another idea, then. Tolema, you are Asari and can turn on the charm. You have a TC. You could serve as a distraction and lure these drunken louts away. So perhaps you play dumb, and do that and when the gang or at least some of them is occupied going after you, we go in, take care of the rest, and take the prototype. I mean who is going to give a f*** about a bunch of dead thugs?" Darya said. "Then the ones chasing you will hear the gunfire and come back for us, and we'll be gone by then. We'll meet you at a rendezvous point with the prototype."
Tolema did not hide her look of displeasure. "I can't even tell you how much that is not my thing, but I do get your point. If you all feel strongly that's the way to go, and there's some sort of plan, then all right, I'll do it."
~ ~ ~ ~
Arcadia stared at Kurik. She wasn't sure but she thought he was walking with a slight lean to the left. "Shall I ask? Or shall I not?"
"No offense, but I doubt that your band could pay enough credits to make me do that", Chris said to Tolema, supporting her previous statement. "Although they might be a bunch of violent, drunk idiots, I'm not going to slaughter them for being at the wrong place, just to get hands on that technology." The stubbornness that he shared with his sister appeared in his voice. Seventeen of these people were going to be a problem but killing them would be only an option for Chris if it was about surviving.
"But creating a distraction is a good idea. We could use anything to create a loud noise somewhere nearby. If we're lucky, a few of them will go and check for its origin and if it's a small group we could just surprise them from behind and knock them out. If most of them decide to go we could just let them pass instead and then storm the room where the prototype is, grab it and get out. For that part we could use flashbangs."
For Chris there was no doubt that there would be fighting but he wanted it to be a one sided fight that was over before a single deadly shot was fired.
"I would rather not discuss it further."
Kurik received another message.
His mandibles twitched, and his jaw dropped a little. He set his omni-tool to silent.
"This will end with us getting that prototype, one way or another. While it would be simpler to just grab it and go they have guns and I find it's always better to be the one pulling the trigger rather then getting a bullet to the chest." Juric cared little for these drunken idiots. He had killed better people for much less.
"What ever we do, lets get it done." He was far more in favour of just taking the prototype by force but seventeen might be a few too many for even him to take on without the others.
"Menos..." Menos said to isis, letting her knew what his name was, "And as for repercussions....it could, or it couldn't. I'm not one for telling the future..." He said, not faulting her for having her doubts. They were perfectly valid, in his eyes, completely logical for a person to feel, but that wouldn't stop him from trying at least.
"What I do know, though, is Ariake's gonna let a lot of folks who got hurt by them and their subsidiaries get blown away in the wind, hoping everyone forgets. I don't really like that idea, and my colleagues don't either, so we're doing our part to try and help stop that from happening..." He said, trying to explain things in a way that wouldn't come off as off putting or patronizing, "I'd wouldn't mind hearing your view on things though. I got more then enough time to lend an ear." He offered, curious what her outlook was on this whole thing.
"Okay, here," Tolema hissed. "I am more than happy that you all sound like you can put these people in the ground if it needs to happen. But maybe Chris is onto something too; a trail of bodies is no good for anyone if it can be avoided, because after all, murder is in fact illegal on the Citadel...even if some people deserve a good killing. I'm going to go ahead and provide that distraction, so everyone get ready and, well, here goes nothing! If we have to split up, we'll meet back at the hotel."
Tolema reactivated her cloak and moved around the corner, up to the entrance to the lounge, staying far enough away from any of the gang members who might make a quick grab at her. She deactivated the cloak, hidden in the corner by the entrance, let her cloak recharge, then stepped into full view.
"What the void are you all doing here?" Tolema asked, as if suddenly coming across the gang by surprise. Her voice sounded startled, but very unthreatening.
There was a quick shuffling amongst the gang members who could react swiftly enough. Two of the gang immediately aimed pistols at Tolema, while several more eventually fumbled around long enough to get their sidearms out.
"Hey, take it easy," one of the humans said, "I think she's alone. You come here all by yourself, pretty thing?"
Feigning shock, Tolema said in a stuttering fashion, "This is private property and I'm the building inspector. Now if you don't cooperate, I'm going to get C-Sec up here and arrest you all."
The turian gang leader of wide girth mocked, "How are you going to call C-Sec when one of my crew will come over there and put you face down on the floor first? You've come to the wrong place lost and alone. Maybe you can come on over here and let us do this the easy way."
"I think she likes the easy way," another of the gang members said.
"How many easy ways do you think she could handle at the same time?" yet another chimed in, laughing.
Tolema's eyes went wide as she pretended to be horrified (it wasn't hard) and then ran for it.
"Get her!" the turian leader shouted.
~ ~ ~ ~
Isis looked like she was going to get up, then she did a fairly good job of seeming to purposely sit back down on the edge of the bed, though Menos could easily see right through her that she was unsteady from whatever chemicals were running through her body.
"F**k, sorry that's the cost of having a good time," Isis remarked as in turn, she seemed to be able to tell she wasn't fooling Menos. "Menos, what do I know? Not a lot. Not for what you're asking." She made a flourish with her hand again, this time staring at the back of her fingers as they moved. Then she stopped as if the movement no longer entertained her and put her smoke down in an ash tray. "I don't want to be the one who stops things, but this is a band and I want to help people. We're already in it, aren't we? That's what I'm hearing you say, Menos. We're in it already, I know we are because I can hear it, and I feel like I'm completely f**ked. Call me pathetic but I was going to tell your friend about it until she took off."
Isis contemplated for a moment while Menos gave her whatever space she needed to figure things out. There was a twitch from the nose of the black, pig tail haired guitarist, and then she said. "F**k everything, it doesn't matter anyway. Tell Aoide she can do whatever she wants. Just leave me the f**k out of it." Menos could see the fight leave Isis, and her tired look became even more so. She lay back down next to her guitar and cradled it. "Go ahead Menos, before I change my mind."
"Okay, these guys aren't heavily armed. There's eight of them left plus their boss," Darya said quietly. "Tolema just gave us the opening. We go in with our heaviest heat out, and mean business. Disarm them, order them up against the wall, grab the prototype, and back out. If any of them gives us sh*t, shoot that one in the leg. If they want more, kill 'em."
Chris waited with Darya and Juric for Tolema and her pursuers to be out of earshot. He was confident that the asari could handle the thugs on her own since her job was just to run and not to fight them. And if they were fast the remaining gang members weren't going to be much of a problem.
He redied a flashbang and quietly moved back to the corner to have a quick look into the room. "This will give us the time we need", Chris said and showed the grenade to Juric and Darya. "Juric, you should cover us while we grab that prototype, in case any of them still tries something. If things go well it will only be a matter of a few seconds and we have that prototype before the other gang members are back. This would save us the ammunition."
Preparing the grenade he nodded to the others before he bent around the corner and tossed it directly into the group of gang members, then he stepped back to not get caught in the blast. The thugs immediately spotted the flashbang but it was already too late for them to react. The second the grenade exploded with a deafening bang Chris jumped around the corner, his Mattock ready to fire and stormed into the room.
Juric followed Chris into the room, taking out his Carnifex as he did. Upon entering he quickly took stock of the room. All the occupants were clucking at their eyes, still blinded by light from the flashbang. Juric placed himself in the doorway, watching each of the gang members in case they went for one of their weapons when they regained their sight.
"Grab Tolema and the prototype and lets get out." he moved his gun back and worth between the thugs as they slowly started to recover from grenade.
In the room, most of the gang members left were doing some version of clutching their eyes and crying out while failing miserably in their attempts to see something. One was reaching for his gun, and then managed to drop it on the floor, whereupon he made a blind run for it, straight into a wall. Many more were simply trying to get away by crawling.
One exception was the leader, the turian of wide girth, who stood up and shouted, "Pick yourselves up, he shouted, while blinking rapidly to try and see what was going on. "Pick yourselves up and take whoever that was out!" The turian drew what looked like a badly maintained Carnifex heavy pistol, and took aim wherever he thought a target was. He fired, the gun making a loud retort in the enclosed space.
When he spotted one of the gang members trying to grab his dropped gun Chris gave him a hard kick to his side that send the human on his back, completely disoriented and unable to get back up.
The turian leader then drew his attention with the orders he gave and Chris turned around just to see Carnifex pistol pointed in his direction. The first shot hit his shoulders and despite the light armor plating which prevented the bullet from entering his body, the impact was still heavy enough to throw him back. Chris groaned with pain and quickly stepped to the side; the next shot missed and instead hit the wall behind him.
The turian was still affected by the flashbang and wasn't able to react fast enough. Chris just ducked to avoid the third shot from the Carnifex. "Get that box!", he shouted and then brutally kicked at the turian's knee before using his rifle's stock for a heavy blow against the leader's head.
The turian was down before Juric could pull the trigger on his own weapon. He gave Chris a quick once over and upon seeing he wasn't badly hurt he turned back to face the other still blinded thugs, keeping his gun trained on them as he moved towards the chair where Tolema said the prototype was. Juric crouched down, searching the chair in hopes of finding what had been hidden there.
After a few seconds of fumbling he felt something, stashed underneath the chair at the very back. Grabbing hold of it Juric stood back up, taking a moment to study the small cube shaped box in what he assumed the prototype was stored. "Ok, let's go." As he turned he noticed one of the gang members had recovered and was going for his weapon. It was one of humans , reaching for his rifle but as he groped for it Juric's foot came down on his hand with a audible crack. The man let out a strangled cry, clutching at his broken hand as the krogan lifted his foot, knowing the thug wasn't going to be using it any time soon. "Come on, before any more of these guys try something."
Menos was somewhat at a lose for words, not used to dealing with people rawly and emotionally like this. Despite his bravado, he tended to be somewhat cold, and even a bit stunted when it came to dealing with emotions.
"R-right..." Was all he could think to say as she gave the go ahead, backing up a bit before he stopped, sounding a bit shaky as he spoke, "I'm sorry for this...if it helps, we're gonna try to help a lot of people as well..." He said before he ducked out, not sure if it was the right thing and almost not caring, all he knew was he didn't like what he was feeling when talking with her and bailed as quickly as he could.
He walked towards someplace, menos couldn't really think what, a table was all he saw as he put his hands down on them and simply stared down towards the fine details, fingers tapping as he worked to mentally realign himself and his sense of dread and guilt. Why couldn't she have been defiant or stuborn? Going in there and seeing that person, it wasn't the type of emotions he'd prepared for.
He closed his eyes, and took in a few deep breathes, calming down as he got ready to go give Aiode the news.
Darya fired a few bursts of suppressing fire from her Lancer as the team regrouped and retreated.
While the three ran through the building back to the skycar, Juric carrying the prototype, Chris used every corner to stop for a second and check for any pursuers. Getting into the room and grabbing the box had only taken a couple of seconds but there still was a chance that some of the thugs had already recovered and were now taking up the chase, besides there were more gang members around. But it seemed that the flashbang and Darya's suppressive fire had been enough to scare them off, at least for the second.
"Tolema, you hear me?", Chris contacted the asari, "We have the prototype and are now on the way back to the car."
Retour en haut