"[color=bc8dbf]This is similar to a Geth Drone. Mostly used for recon and stealth kills. Fragile but powerful. But if you require something a bit heavier, we can make further re-calibrations.[/color]"

Vella's purple eyes visibly widened as the Asari leaned forward to look down at the piece that Phalanx had presented to her, picking up the small drone and holding it in her hands.

"[color=6ecff6]It's so pretty! I really like the sleek curves on that design![/color]" Vella said as she moved her other hand to the piece as well, moving it about as her eyes darted about the drone; inspecting every little angle from every possible crevice; the Asari seemingly so fixated upon the little drone that in her mind she completely forgot about the towel wrapped around her as it unfolded and fell right off, leaving her in the nude as she studied the drone in a moment, as if possessed by it!

It took a while for Vella to begin placing the drone back onto the table, and her brain started registering the last part of the Geth's message.

"[color=6ecff6]You can make it even bigger?[/color]" Vella exclaimed in a suddenly hush tone, almost as if she was about to ask for the forbidden fruit.

As if she suddenly found herself in a conspiracy, Vella's eyes darted towards the door to the room, still shut and with no sound of anyone knocking or about to enter, and then back to the ever bright and innocent looking lamp-head that was Phalanx's strangely unnerving yet adorable face.

"[color=6ecff6]Just... how heavy can you make this combat drone?[/color]" Vella asked, leaning in closer, her voice lowered to almost a whisper.
"[color=6ecff6]What if, say, I was to go down to engineering and... sort out a deal to get the best parts. How big of a drone could you make do you think?[/color]"

*

The next day, Vella found herself with the rest of the team and crew, gathering in the hangar. She was wearing only her standard issue Asari leathers with their simple kinetic barrier system, the black leather with its gray white, hexagonal trim sitting tightly on her body like a second skin, her armor still in her locker. Although often referred to as leathers, the suit was hardly normal leather; it was more chemically treated plastic and specialized rubber elements to the point it could hardly be called 'leathers' anymore. It gave it a high degree of flexibility, and properly fitted, it was almost the same as wearing nothing at all.

Looking around the hangar, Vella felt at ease. Mostly.

She didn't mind the Turians. Although they made an effort to look like tough hardasses who were entirely incapable of understanding concepts like "emotions" or "compassion", Vella knew that behind their thick scales, most Turians were fairly emotionally stable. If anything, war & disaster seemed to be a healthy thing on the Turian psyche. Vella had heard that suicide rates among turians were never lower than when they were at war, ironically.

However, it was mostly the Vorcha that kept Vella at unease, and her arm drifting unnaturally close to the Acolyte pistol at her side.

Vorcha were aggressive, impulsive, short thinking; and as a society, incapable of forming any semblance of social order. Vella had been to areas populated mostly by Vorcha, and at those times, she had mostly looked down at dusty, crime ridden streets of disorder and chaos, through the camera of a remotely operated vehicle turret!
Having them on the same ship as the rest of the crew was ludicrous. She was confident that the Vorcha were just a ticking time bomb, and the only logical explanation for their presence here would be that the higher ups viewed this mission as too dangerous to risk the lives of some of their [b]actual[/b] fighter pilots.

She had to admit, if you needed cannonfodder, Vorcha were not a bad choice.

She just didn't want to be with the cannonfodder!!

[i]"[color=6ecff6]This is not the time for second guessing, Vel! Just don't call for air support during the mission, and everything is going to be alright![/color]"[/i]

Vella shoved the thoughts out of her head to focus on the briefing instead. She had missed the part about why the refugees were fighting against... someone... but she had heard the bit about there being a bomb, and that it needed to be diffused, and so naturally, raised her hand.

"[color=6ecff6]Yeah, uh, how do we plan on finding this bomb?[/color]" Vella inquired, turning towards Aegon.
"[color=6ecff6]Because if we don't know how yet, I may have a few ideas![/color]"