[i]- Kovlov's House, Undisclosed location within the Terminus Systems -
- Five days ago -[/i]

A heavy-set human with a thick accent and a cigar between his lips sat in front of a computer, typing away on some job or another. Behind him were stacked crates upon crates of ammunition, weapons and modifications. The human was Ilya Kovlov, and this was Kovlov's House, the nickname given by associates of Kovlov to his central base of operations. Few knew of its existence, and fewer still its location. However, one of the people who knew of both Kovlov's House and its location within the galaxy was Henrik Andersson. He had been working with Kovlov now for the last 8 or 9 years, running guns beneath the noses of authorities throughout the Terminus region. However, as the years had gone by, it had become harder and harder to sneak through guns and equipment to other mercenaries and criminal gangs. For a long time, Kovlov thought it was just the Citadel finally cracking down on the influx of weapons into its space, but some eight months ago, he found out the truth behind the matter; Siame Industries, a PMC run by an asari matriarch, Rebekah Siame. Kovlov had lost several shipments of weapons in and around the Crescent Nebula, and all to the same company. To put it lightly, Kovlov was not pleased at this turn of events, and violently retaliated with attacks by his men on Siame holdings to try and teach Siame a lesson, but it had failed so far, and the shipment losses were rising slowly but steadily. But Kovlov would not give up without a fight - he already had The Enforcer on his books... why not let Henrik sort them out? And then word reached him of a new band of mercenaries being formed by one Tanya Carson and Kosso Irak... Henrik would find support there, for sure.

"You are sure you are good to go, Henrik?" Ilya took the cigar from between his lips and placed it into an ashtray on the desk, breathing out a cloud of tobacco smoke as he did so. "This can be very dangerous, you know what you getting into?"

Henrik took a swig from his whisky hip-flask. "You think I'm a novice or something, Kovlov? I know this business like the back of my damn hand. Besides, nobody fucks with the Enforcer and expects to fucking live. Not even you." Henrik had his Revenant in one hand and his hip-flask in the other, wearing as he did the standard Colossus heavy armour produced by Kassa Fabrication, and 'requisitioned' by Kovlov as a gift to the Enforcer for successfully hitting a rival's assets in the Omega Cluster along with a group of others. 

Kovlov gave a derisive laugh. "As if you have power to back up claim. Heh, never mind... You leave soon, Henrik?"

Andersson nodded. "Three hours time." Kovlov got to his feet and walked over to Henrik, placing a hand on his shoulder as if Henrik were Kovlov's brother, which, to Ilya, he was near as damn it. Kovlov looked up at Henrik and nodded once.
"You enter lion's den now, Henrik. I need Siame to suffer, but first, you must mesh with group, yes? You must learn group and how group operates. Then, I give you contracts, yes?"

"You, the Lotus and the Widowmaker." Henrik shrugged and took another drink. "If I'm lucky, I can probably... ah, what's the word... 'acquire' another contact in case we run out of work."

Kovlov laughed. "Hah! Yes, you will get more in group, I make sure of it, Henrik! In fact, I had message from Widowmaker this morning! Very interesting, especially for you and group, because she mention something about a bank on Ilium, you know?"

Henrik frowned. "Tell me more."

"Widowmaker said something about Titan Bank on Ilium! You know Titan Bank, the one that never been raided right? I have many assets in Titan Bank under other names, and I go to Titan Bank lots of times to get money and make sure nothing is bad with Titan Bank. Vault is very, very big, yes? Big, thick door which is hard to get through, but it has lots and lots of money. But I not sure if Siame has holding there. Widowmaker said she thought so, but I not confirm it yet, so I can't tell you if yes or no. But if yes, could be very useful in taking down Siame, yes? Hit money, no more wages, guards go on strike, company collapses like house of cards! Kovlov has his revenge on Siame, and things back to normal!"

Henrik gave a wry smile and shook his head. "The Titan Bank is impregnable. Not sure anything but an army could get inside the Titan and rob it blind."

"But you are one man army." Kovlov chuckled. "Now, go. Meet group and find out about them. I give you contracts when you ready, yes? You go to Cartagena."

[i]- Cartagena Station-[/i]
Henrik arrived on Cartagena in a shuttle Kovlov provided to see a shuttle explode in mid-space just outside the docking bays. Relying on the pilot to dodge the debris of the now-destroyed shuttle, Henrik gathered together his cases of belongings, including a case that held his guns and ammunition, donned his armour and waited until the pilot gave the all-clear to disembark. After the pilot had docked the shuttle, Henrik gave him a credit chit that contained 2,500 credits, and exited the shuttle carrying his cases of his belongings. Walking along the gangway towards the elevators to the arrivals area, he watched the shuttle take off, the pilot waving. Henrik smiled as he waited for the elevator to arrive to take him down to arrivals and checking-in. As he boarded the elevator, he looked about to see who was amongst the 'regulars' at Cartagena - not the usual crowd he mixed with, being a batarian-run station, but he hadn't encountered any issues as of yet.

As he stepped off the elevator, he looked about at the considerably-spacious arrivals lobby. He opened up his omni-tool and got hold of a map of Cartagena Station available on the extranet, before punching in the location of the 'Cartagena Inn', which was where he was to meet the group of mercenaries and criminals that comprised his latest group of comrades. No doubt they were expecting him. He made his way towards the Inn and out of the dock areas, into the residential quarters of Cartagena, whereupon he was confronted by three very angry-looking batarians. The leader cocked his head to the side - Henrik knew enough about batarian customs to know that this particular batarian was looking at him rather... disparagingly, to put it mildly. Henrik snorted derisively and made to push past them, but they blocked his way.

"You're coming with us, human." said the leader menacingly.

"I don't fucking think so, pal." Henrik swung his right fist at the batarian's head, striking him with a full fist on the temple, sending the unlucky batarian sprawling on the floor, whilst his two 'friends' backed away slowly. Henrik looked at the pair of them. "You want some, cocksuckers?" This sent them running for their lives, whilst Henrik walked over to the one on the floor, who was struggling to get to his feet. Henrik kicked him in the side to knock him on his back, before placing a boot on his chest, gradually applying more pressure. "You regretting this now, huh?" The batarian hissed and squirmed underneath Henrik's foot, which prompted him to place even more weight on the batarian's chest, causing him to cough and wheeze with the effort of breathing. After a couple of seconds, Henrik released the struggling man and walked away to the Cartagena Inn.

Inside the Inn, he saw a human woman - evidently Tanya Carson, from the description Kovlov had given him - and a drell male, who appeared to resemble Kosso Irak. This was the group. As such, he took his place at the table without a word and placed his cases beside his chair.