The large krogan grunted as he shoved the loud-mouth human from After-Life, it was boring work, keeping the peace within Omega’s prime club, but it paid well enough for the moment, and he got the chance to dig up information on the Blood Pack while he waited for the next group of mercs who thought Aria’s laws didn’t apply to them. The human turned to shout something about his friends going to see the krogan soon, Barb didn’t care, and it had been too long since he had butted heads with some over-confident fools. Barkeep, the Elchor whose name Barb hadn’t bothered to learn, didn’t even turn to face the loud-mouth, he kept to his own duties, keeping the line with impatient and annoying people, a job Barb had tried for about five minutes before he had beaten three Batarians. Although he didn’t say it, or even show it, Helios Barb respected those who could keep their tempers when loud-mouths started up. By Kalros’ scaly ass did Barb want to fight with something, hell he’d even go with hunting some blasted Vorcha through the lower levels again. Turning from the human without a word, Barb set off back into the lively club, the usual asari were dancing away on their platforms or on the tables with customers, Moklan was lurking around one again, the Batarian was a creep that way, he liked to make others think he was a man of importance, but he was just another show of muscle for Aria, and he tried to use his “position” as a reason to get free dances with the dancers. Aria was still seated on that couch of hers, Barb could see the crest of her head visible from where he stood, and maybe she’d have another job for him, a real one this time.

“Moklan, keep an eye on the floor, I’m busy,” snapped Barb as the batarian lurking in the corner next to Jesabelle, one of the newer dancers, one who likely didn’t know Moklan for what he was.

“Whatever krogan,” muttered the batarian, his four eyes not leaving the asari.

	Aria had a number of guards, not that she needed them, Barb had learned that himself, the asari was not to be messed with on the best of days, and that had become one of her favourite sayings now since Barb had been planted on his ass by the Pirate Queen, with Patriarch howling in laughter with the now common law of Afterlife, hell of all Omega: “Don’t fuck with Aria”. Two tried to bar the krogan’s path, but Aria waved her hand, the pair separating for the large enforcer. He reached the foot of the stairs which lead to Aria’s couch, he didn’t dare put a foot in on those stairs, he wasn’t sure he could take another beating from the Pirate Queen of Omega.
“What do you want Barb?” said Aria, her tone telling that she didn’t really care.

“I want a real job Aria,” grunted Barb, opening and closing his fist as he felt his patience already fading for the turian standing behind him.
“You have a job, keep the peace in my club,” said Aria matter-of-fact like.

“It’s not enough, I need to hunt something, I need to fight something, a real fight, not this vorcha Maw-shit that you have us doing now and again,”

“Well I do have one task on hold, you remember a while ago that shoot up between the Blue Suns and some ragtag band?”

“Aye, what about it?” said Barb, he’d been cleaning that mess up for a while, the Blue Suns weren’t happy with the fact Aria didn’t push for more bounty hunters to find that band.

“Turns out they have a unique ship to their name. A former turian frigate, and the Blue Suns are offering a large sum of credits to take this from them, you get me that ship, with or without the crew, and I’ll get you back on Tuchanka, and with a few friends to help even the odds with your Blood Pack friends,” she said, looking up from the datapad in her hand.

“Really? You want me to repo some turian piece of shit?” said Barb, feeling the turian bristle behind him.

“Repo it or kill everything and hand the keys to me, I don’t care. Get me that ship Barb and you get your vengeance,” said Aria, standing up now.
Barb knew better than to argue with her on this fact, when Aria T’Loak stood, you backed the fuck up or got put on your ass for it. With a grunt of approval, the krogan turned on the spot, shoving past the turian again, the guard lost his grip on his rifle, the weapon bouncing down the stairs, the impacts jarring the trigger enough to fire off a couple of rounds per bounce. Barb laughed as his shields absorbed the impacts, and the rounds made some new decorative holes in the ceiling. No one really too notice of the shots, shootings were common-place on Omega, the turian hurriedly picked his weapon up, turning back to face Barb, his mandibles flaring as his anger took over his senses for a moment.

“Come on bird-boy, I could use the exercise,” whispered Barb, he could see the hatred in the turian’s eyes, even centuries after the Rebellions, and the turians hated the krogan almost as much as the krogan hated everything else.

“Dannick, drop it, I don’t need to deal with repairing anymore holes with your pay, Barb, either finish the job, or don’t come back, I don’t care what you choose really,” said Aria, not looking from her datapad again.

“One day vorcha-lover, I’ll get even with you,” growled the turian.

“Whatever you say twitchy, let me know in advance so I can give a fuck,” answered Barb, pushing past him again.

	After leaving After-Life and making his way through the slums of Omega Barb reached what had become his home of late, a small hab unit which was closer to the reactors than most, just as he liked the warmth, he kicked the annoying chair from the terminal that was installed against the wall. Leaning over the terminal he activated it aging power supply, the holographic interface flickering annoyingly, Barb slammed his fist against the side of the terminal a few times, the frame rattling with each strike before the interface straightened out and settled itself.

[b]>>> Communications: Omega Instant Messaging Service[/b]
[b]Sign In: BloodSun949[/b]
[b]Password: ***-***-*[/b]
[b]Welcome to Omega Instant Messaging Service, sponsored by Afterlife Exotic Dancers, the best damn dancers you’ll find on Omega.[/b]

[b]BloodSun949[/b]: Started a Chat
[b]>>>BloodSun949 invited iBrokerApp to Chat[/b]
[b]>>>iBrokerApp joined Chat[/b]
[b]iBrokerApp[/b]: what u want big boy?
[b]BloodSun949[/b]: need a location on a turian ship
[b]iBrokerApp[/b]: u know I hate pissing off the council races. itll cost extra
[b]BloodSun949[/b]: yeh yeh. cant be worse than last time
[b]iBrokerApp[/b]: sure it can. i can bring my wife this time.
[b]BloodSun949:[/b] ive got a quad, blue girl, i can handle 2 squishy asari
[b]iBrokerApp[/b]: promises promises. which ship u after?
[b]BloodSun949:[/b] aint got a name but its a turian frigate that was decommed. last heard it was held by some new merc group
[b]iBrokerApp:[/b] narrows it down i guess. ill get back to u soon big boy
[b]BloodSun949:[/b] sooner the better blue, pq is after this one
[b]iBrokerApp[/b]: well maybe ill take my time then
[b]BloodSun949:[/b] ull get it 4 me now, sooner i get that ship, sooner u get a quad
[b]iBrokerApp:[/b] tease
[b]iBrokerApp:[/b] ill get it 2 u within a couple hours
[b]>>>iBrokerApp Left Chat[/b]
[b]>>>BloodSun949 Closed Chat Session[/b]

	With a sigh the large krogan applied the OIMS to his omni-tool, setting it’s setting to loud he slumped into the remains of what had once been a solid metal bed, but now resembled more of Tuchanka than it should, the mess of bent bars and wrecked frame work twisted into various shapes, his movement clicked the large collection around his neck, and Barb pulled the chain-linked necklace from his head, the single tags of over three hundred former friends and comrades rattled in front of him, one side bore a name and race, a homeworld, the opposite side bore the blood red sun emblem that had been the symbol of the Red Suns, four large flames pointing north, south, east and west, while four smaller flames pointed to the inclines between directions, a single red circle smacked in the centre. It matched the symbol engraved in the shoulder guard of his armour, a symbol that he would carve into the skull of the Blood Pack warlord Weyrloc Saur. He could remember the faces of those he had grown to see as family, with every moment he closed his eyes, their last screams of pain and death filled his ears, their pleading faces taunting his closed eyes, demanding vengeance. Growling, Barb pulled the large collection back over his head, the tags clicking against his armour, it wouldn’t be long before he’d be on the hunt again, after settling up with iBrokerApp of course, every krogan had some way to relieve certain stresses, the asari technical expert who worked with Eclipse from time to time was one of his, as was her wife sometimes, although the Eclipse grunts weren’t always happy to be hearing their antics and often a new rotation would charge in expecting a lethal battle to be erupting within the asari’s quarters. Having a quad certainly gave krogan an advantage with most antics, but some asari, as Barb had learned, were just insatiable. With another growl, Helios Barb closed his eyes, the screams of the past, and the images of the lost filling his mind as his waited for iBrokerApp to get him the location of this stealth ship.

It felt like an age by the time his omni-tool activated with a message from iBrokerApp, but he gave thanks to whatever gods or fates that lurked in the void of space for the respite of listening to his family die once more. Turning over the channel, he activated the security protocols that iBroker had sent him the first time they had began trading services. Three of four blinked into life, indicating something was trying to gain access to the channel, three sets of numbers appeared on each seal, in total he only had ninety seconds to complete this exchange before the hacker learned everything they had spoken of. He signed into the OIMS again, noting that iBroker had a chat set up and waiting.

[b]iBrokerApp[/b]: dont know who is trying to hack me but theyre good. uve kicked a stingwing nest big boy
[b]BloodSun949[/b]: no surprise. 1k creds on blue suns
[b]iBrokerApp[/b]: ill take that bet on eclipse then
[b]BloodSun949[/b]: so where is it?
[b]iBrokerApp[/b]: seems its owned by a group called nova not much intel on them, think sb will know more, but sources say theyve got dealings on kahje
[b]BloodSun949[/b]: kahje? what they after there?
[b]iBrokerApp[/b]: got nothing. whatever it is its kept in the dark. all i know is nova is hanging around kahje so ud best start looking there
[b]BloodSun949[/b]: thanks then. ill see u when im back blue
[b]iBrokerApp[/b]: be careful big boy. nova had some scuffles to their name and what they did was impressive on paper
[b]BloodSun949[/b]: krogan blue. nothin else to b said
[b]iBrokerApp[/b]: hackers breaking the security. good luck
[b]>>> iBrokerApp Ended the Chat
>>> BloodSun949 Has Been Removed From Chat[/b]

Lowering his omni-tool, Barb thought about what could draw a merc group to Kahje, the drell were worthwhile foes, but Nova didn't seem to be one to recruit assassins, from what little information he had on them they seemed to be a mix of former Alliance, STG and other underworld elements. It didn't matter, his ticket to Tuchanka hovered somewhere near Kahje, so he'd best get a move on before they finished up whatever they had on that watery rock. His omni-tool beeped again, and he grinned to see the reservation number for a ticket to Kahje on a merchant ship appear in his name, iBroker was pulling out all the stops for his return by the looks of it, he'd have to repay the asari for that. With a grunt he hefted his bulky body from the metallic remains of his bed, pulling his Torrent rifle from beside the terminal and letting it fold against his back, his rugged Graal Spike Thrower never left his body, the weapon still folded near the base of his spine. His transport left in an hour, the joys of a hunt came with the drawbacks of travel, Barb personally hoped another krogan would be aboard this ship, he could use a good old headbutting match with one of his own kind. Walking from what had been his home for nearly two years, Barb sealed the door behind him, making his way to the docking area to find this merchant ship that was heading for Kahje, the [i]Destiny's Cousin[/i], an asari ship by the sounds, making a play off the legendary [i]Destiny Ascendant[/i].

"Ready or not, Nova, Barb's coming for ya," he grumbled as he stalked through the hallways of Omega.