[b]Meanwhile… Back at the Communications Center[/b]

“[color=007236][i]Fuck![/i][/color]” 

Dex snapped her organic hand away from the sparked wire she was attempting to splice then tried again with more success. She was working on the physical terminal waiting for Drono to stabilize the generator. She felt a little bad for sending him out in the storm but knew their window was shrinking. It was only a matter of time before the smugglers caught onto what they were doing. Their luck wouldn’t hold out. She’d be long gone before they realized what she had done. As was her way.

Gunshots rang out and startled her into hitting her head against the underside of the terminal. Growling she pushed out from under the terminal and ran to the ladder leading up and out to the tower itself. Before she could yell another clap of thunder rattled the prefabricated walls but… She looked over her shoulder and the terminal didn’t flicker with the surge.

“[color=palegreen]Done here. Please tell me you can get it fixed now. I don’t like water. I can feel the bloody keppler syndrome already.[/color]” Drono’s attitude droned through her ears. A pause in the comms then he yelled out, “[color=palegreen]I really hope you got your shit working Dex![/color]”

“[color=007236]The systems are stable now enough for me to work! Thanks![/color]” She replied through the comms, Drono pulled through once again. Noting the clear distress and yelling in the background, Dex hailed Kasy and Khosin, sending support hopefully in time to quiet the noise.

“[color=007236]Dodnovran and Zela, Tenrom needs a hand. I’m still working on a special project. Be ready when the light goes green, communication might get shot to shit in a few. While you're at it, lend a hand to Kiv. He's drunk again.[/color]”

She dived back into the terminal, quickly working through all the physical barriers that would have slowed her hacking down. Within a few minutes she was finished with the terminal, she popped up then went to work her talons rapidly tapping across the orange keyboard. Eyes clear and focused. She ran her weakening programs while she broke through the initial firewalls. Several alarms turned the screen red and she continued regardless quieting the alarms before they broke across the network. She hummed through her sub vocals, concentrating.

“[color=007236]Probably poked too hard on that chink... What a sensitive system you have, smugglers.[/color]” She said to herself with amusement, relishing the push back a bit too much. She loved the challenge of a decent hack, a time limit and the fight of a struggling system. Her onslaught was ruthless. The VI tasked to defending the network hounded her every move. Trying desperately to pin her down. She hopped through servers with ease.

Every time the VI got close she slipped away into data mountains, disappearing amongst the code. 

“[color=007236]Catch me if you can.[/color]”

Leading the VI into false holes she buried it alive with garbage data dumps, a program courtesy of her days in with the Taetrus Separatists. She dumped enough garbage data to make Hierarchy security techs shudder after one look. Free to work she gained access into the auditory comms listening to the various reports from security and personnel across the compound. She isolated security reports, the noisiest being the ones about the drunk Krogan outside of the communication center. Not worried about Tonka, in spite of the reports escalating from ‘This drunk fuck!’ to ‘Armed and requesting back up!’ 

He'll be fine... Probably.

She muted those reports then listened to a team feeding reports outside the compound talking about making contact on Happy Cliff.

Dex’s heart rate doubled, her adrenaline spiking. That was where the Observation Team was set up. She pushed her efforts in securing comm lines for the Jury Riggers. She searched Kasy, Khosin, Drono and Tonka’s omnitool signals. Masking their comm lines as indistinguishable from the smugglers and personnel on site. Impossible to tell the difference unless you knew to recognize the tags from memory. A technician possibly would but Dex planned to lock access when she was done. Effectively crippling their ability to organize across the compound.

Moving next to the [i]Borealis[/i] she would need to connect with Iosif… She squinted at the line of code, his omnitool not present on the ship and his login being idle. She looked a little further and saw his ID on the Kite instead along with Tanya and Vellios…? What the fuck happened? She shook her head, the three of them being on the shuttle didn’t change the fact she needed to route through the [i]Borealis[/i] to make contact with the Observation Team. 

Reaching through their own systems to secure lines for all three parties. She saw to masking both the [i]Borealis[/i] and the Kite under serial numbers assigned to ships in the compound. Something that would throw off pursuers if they saw duplicates of their own ships in the sky. When she saw Haze and Serena’s signatures appear after reaching through the [i]Borealis[/i], Dex went for Serena’s initially expecting the most reliable connection but… something was wrong. Her omnitool signature was red and offline. Her worry increased but she remained focused and worked through Haze’s instead. She connected the entire team bringing communication line in a complete loop back to the smuggler’s communications center.

All their audio and transmissions went green to Dex and she grinned pressing her talon to her ear speaking to everyone, “[color=007236]We are all green for secure communications. [i]Borealis[/i], Kite, Observation Team, and Infiltration Team are now connected. What the [i]fuck[/i] is going on? Security from the compound reported contact on Happy Cliffs, Observation Team. Please tell me they’re taken care of.[/color]”

Dex had a growing unease, she surprised herself with how concerned she was but knew her attachment to the crew was growing and the thought of losing someone so early on opened up a nasty pit in her stomach. Serena being offline wasn’t right. Why the fuck was the observation team split up? 

Speaking next to others in the infiltration team, “[color=007236]I’ll be crippling their communications and sending the entire compound into the dark. Be ready to initiate sabotage on my signal. Tonk-[/color]” She stopped listening instead to a new report coming in from a lone guard.

Dex tapped a key on the board squinting at it’s tag. Volegnar. They were trying to make a report back to security, Dex intercepted the call and listened.

“Moving into the communications center, confirming suspicious male Drell and male Turian. Likely armed. Requesting back up.”

Subconsciously Dex’s hand swept up to the top of her head patting around the ends of her fringe. “[color=007236]My fringe isn’t that long… HEY![/color]” She snapped glaring at Volegnar’s ID on the terminal humming her irritation.

Dex found the guard’s location from her last transmission and she was inside the communications center presumably on her way to find Dex. No doubt going to stumble upon the bloody floor Drono left behind. The turian spy went to work setting up her final lockout sequence for the entire communications network, save for the lines the Jury Riggers were hijacking. Effectively arming it when they were ready to ruin the smuggler’s compound in its entirety. 

[b]BAM BAM BAM![/b]

The door was thankfully locked, Dex finished one last line of code then locked the terminal. She quietly stepped up beside the door waiting for the guard to enter.

“Open up! Open the fuck up!” The guard shouted through the door banging again, faintly hearing her attempt to key open the door with her ID. 

Dex initiated her cloak blending into the shadows, waiting patiently. Her breathing was even and quiet as was her heart. Focused once again. Her shotgun in her hands, her organic talon brushing lightly across the trigger. It would only be seconds now…