Tim the Yeti
Alby47
Andreyich
Bugman
Three Steps Far
Eventua
Sotiras
Night Diamond
Kaithe Dame
AmongHeroesEdge of the Attican Traverse, 2184
Kori’Andh looked at the human woman named Shy in disbelief, “What? I didn’t- I couldn’t- Why would I even try and frame six heavily armed mercenaries at once?” She finally finished, clearly flustered. “You can look at the wreckage out there! It’s real enough!” She continued, pointing toward the open door of the cockpit.
“Hey,” she replied dryly with a shrug, “our choices are to be shot on sight or willingly give ourselves to you. Not much of a choice there. Though honestly, killing over five hundred people is going a little far.”
As she spoke, Shy’s head turned and followed Kori’s gestures through the cockpit, giving her a good view of the floating mass of debris out in space. Her lids opened up at the sight, showing two wide, pearly eyes.
“Holy shit. You guys did a number on them.”
Ardan Parvius let out a low whistle as he looked out of the view port at the devastation. “Looks like they rigged up the eezo core, at the very least. I haven’t seen that kind of devastation since I watched a Dreadnaught bisect a pirate cruiser.” the turian said, halfway between admiring the thoroughness of a sapper’s job and perturbed about the senseless loss of life. All to frame them? There’s no way they all had bounties on their heads at the same time this quickly for the ship’s detonation. Someone set them up, but who?
The quarian didn’t seem the type, nor the Volus; it’s not as if there were any way to restrain the mercenaries and they all had their weapons and gear. It was way too quick and thorough of a job for any slack-assed amatures to hit them with. Ardan turned to the Quarian and the others in the shuttle. “So, either of you know anything about our client, or if he’s even capable of something like this?” he asked. “Who could have possibly known about this and had information on all of us to plan something like this in such a short amount of time? It’s not like you can just sneak aboard a civilian cruise vessel like that in heavily guarded Citadel Space and do something like that without a lot of planning, connections, and logistics.”
“Guys, just trace back the signal.” Shy groaned, as if it was she was explaining something obvious. “They’re not frequency hopping and or using short transmissions, so it’s not like they’re hiding or anything.”
Kori anxiously fussed with her Omni-tool, for a few moments before speaking, “Look, I’m just the pilot. I don’t know anything about what the job was, I was hired through a middleman. The same as you six I assume.” The light on her mask blinked a few times, as if she had more to say. “It… It was the volus. Cherk. I can contact him if you want.”
“Right now our priority should be to get away.” Khosin spoke up, voice calm. “The rest can wait for the moment. If they were prepared to put a bounty on our heads so quickly, who's to say someone isn't en route already to capture us.” He said, turning to look at the pilot. “Once we are away, and sure that we aren't being pursued, we can contact Cherk.”
“Goddess…” came a voice from the back, an Asari strode over to the view port, taking a place beside the Turian. She too looked out at the damage, taking it all in - an expression of disbelief on her face. “They had absolutely no chance against whoever it was that did this.” She did not need to look upon it anymore and so she took steps back, finding herself beside the Batarian. “I’m inclined to agree with you, but where can we even go?” She folded an arm over her chest and propped her elbow on it and began thumbing her lip. Thoughts swirling through her mind. She couldn’t understand who would frame her. From what she could gather at a glance at the rest of the group, they were just as surprised too.
“Omega,” a soft voice said. It belonged to a human that had followed a short distance behind Naryxa, emerging from the gloomy lighting of the rear of the shuttle. Kyo Zhang, his black leather jacket looking shiny and crisp over his combat hardsuit, crossed his arms and his face was set into an even deeper scowl than his usual severe expression. Twin swords were sheathed across his back, long enough for their tips to reach his waist. “I believe the quarian. She doesn't know anything. That would be careless. Whoever did this is is not careless.” He spoke in clipped tones, direct and to the point. Kyo looked around at his fellow would-be criminals, his gaze lingering on Ardan and Khosin. Their presence made him uncomfortable. The whole situation was deplorable. He hadn't been so cautious and careful his whole career only to be suddenly thrown out of the proverbial airlock now. “Leave Citadel space. Go underground. Contact the volus. Work from there.”
“Pre-gunpowder cosplayer has a pretty agreeable plan. That shithole's where I call home, and unless the Citadel governments have a desire to start a war with the entire damn Terminus Systems over six fugitives, then we'll have all the time in the universe to start figuring this out.” Ardan said, shaking his head at the ridiculousness of a human wearing glorified dinner utensils as if they were real weapons.
Kyo glowered at him but said nothing. Shy snorted in amusement.
Ardan looked to Kori. “We have enough fuel to make it home, right? It might be wise to find a fueling depot in this very system so anyone who monitored our jump through the relay doesn't immediately see us jump the way we came. If we act like we have a purpose that wasn't that,” Ardan said, pointing at the dead ship in a deadly cloud of eezo fuel, “Will give us a better chance avoiding law enforcement.”
“Omega is the obvious choice, criminals accused of worse have hidden out in the Terminus systems before. The law won’t follow us there.” The Vorcha stated calmly through razor sharp teeth, staying a distance away from the other mercenaries in a seated position. His long claw tipped fingers clasped around each other as he spoke. Such death on that scale was the definition of overkill. There was no thrill in that, extinguishing innocent lives like that. He didn’t suspect any of them as the perpetrators of such an act, whoever did it likely long gone, or just another face in the panicking masses.
“Every second spent arguing instead of speeding through space only aides the law on our tail.” Zaash added, outwardly not showing much concern or shock. Panic helped no one here. He’d had a bounty on his head before, not for terrorism though. Truthfully he’d rather not spend the rest of his spectacularly short life in prison.
“We have enough fuel, I did the calculations myself just to be sure but, but I’ll bring us back around to the depot and top us off just so we don’t look suspicious.” Kori answered, still fumbling with her Omnitool and looking half-heartedly at Ardan. “Once we are back in the Terminus Systems I’ll contact Cherk and maybe he can shed some light on this.” The Quarian nodded in affirmation of her statement and walked back into the cockpit, not bothering to close the door this time, though when she crossed the threshold, she silently exhaled a breath she was subconsciously holding in. Denying a mercenary the chance for payment wasn’t known to be good for one’s health in her experience. Let alone six of them.
Naryxa was no fool, she watched the Quarian closely, her fumbling over the datapad - the way she retreated, her nod. She was nervous - the very fact of that gave the Asari a confidence that she knew nothing about it. She followed the young girl into the cockpit and closed the door behind her slowly. Whatever the rest of them were going to discuss would only further worry the girl. “Are you alright?” she asked, rather frankly but with a soft expression on her face.
Kori turned to face the Asari, not bothering to sit down yet. She felt more at ease at the mere presence of the other woman, even though she had no problem believing that the Asari had more combat experience than Kori’Andh had years to her name. “Yes I think so,” the Quarian answered, still playing with her hands anxiously, “I’m just a bit shook up is all. Seeing the ship… All those people…” She shook her head sadly as her voice trailed off. “I’m not used to seeing things like that.”
She listened while moving to the seat that should be taken by a co-pilot, and slowly she sat down into it, with a wave of her hand she invited the girl to take her seat too. “Take a seat, you’ll be alright. As for the wreckage, it’s not the first I’ve seen by a long shot, and it won’t be the last. It doesn’t get easier I’m afraid.” She sat relaxed in the chair, one elbow propped up on the arm. “But that just reminds us that we’re still good in here,” there was a warmth to her tone as she placed a hand on her chest. She may have been laying it on thick, but it truly was a terrifying sight and the Quarian was in shock - she needed to calm down in order to fly them safely out. “You’ll be alright.”
Kori exhaled through her mask and did as she was told. The Asari was right. She still had a job to do, and that was get everyone home safe. There would be time to think it over later, for now, she had to fly. The Quarian Pilot tapped on the control surface and the engines responded quickly as Kori’Andh deftly swung the ship around towards the fuel depot.
“Thank you for your kind words. I’m truly sorry about what’s happened. Believe me, I know what it’s like to be kept from your home.” She added after a few moments, the words not distracting her from guiding the ship up close to the floating fuel station.
“I know that it isn’t your fault,” she smiled and stood from the seat, walking behind Kori as she flew the ship. Naryxa placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “I guess that for now, Omega will be our home. How bad can it be?” She of course, knew exactly how bad it could be, but she let the words sound light as they pierced the tension. She thought to join the others, but all she could hear from behind the door was sassy back and forth. The cockpit was a better place to be while that was happening.
Kori gave a grim smile beneath her mask, even though she knew the Asari couldn’t see her face. “It’s not all bad there. I usually sleep on the ship though, just so I don’t get robbed blind in my sleep.” The Quarian said ruefully as she hooked the ship up to the fuel station and initiated refuelling procedures.
She thought about what the girl had said, she knew that Omega was a dangerous place - she had just never really considered it from the perspective of a Quarian, a young one at that. She herself had worked on Omega made years ago, she did not fear the place. “Hmmm, I can't say that you're missing much by doing so. It's not as if there are any landmarks of note. I had a small apartment on Omega for a while.” She smiled at the memory, “that was a very long time ago. I'd say close to 150 years ago...”
“A hundred and fifty? Keelah, I can’t imagine actually wanting to live on Omega by choice, let alone own property there.” Kori shook her head again, this time it was more lighthearted than the previous instance. “I’ve only been there a year and a half and I hate it. I just want to fly ships!” The talking distracted her from thinking about what had happened and soon enough Kori’Andh was gliding the Eyas back towards the Mass Relay that would take them into the Terminus Systems once again.
“Well, it wasn’t so bad for me - back then it was a classier place.” She emphasised the phrasing, it most certainly was not classier at all, Omega had always attracted the wrong kind of people. “I was there because I danced, and for some reason, nobody fucks with the dancers,” the Asari shrugged with a small chuckle under her breath. “Maybe when we get there, I’ll get you out of the ship and take you for a tour around my old stomping ground... “
“I don’t know, walking around Omega sounds dangerous enough. Seeing the dancers would be interesting though. Dancers are well respected on the Flotilla.” Kori explained as she tapped in the mass calculations and sent them to the Relay.
“He better.” Shy remarked as she reached into her bag and pulled out what looked like a bite-sized chocolate candy. She wasn’t much good with people, let alone alien people, but all of her interactions with Cherk thus far brought her to the conclusion that he probably did a lot of sketchy business with a lot of slimy types of people. Despite her accusations toward Kori, he was likely the one the rest of them were catching heat for.
“What do the six of us have in common besides getting hired for the same job?” She continued, talking through her mouthful of chewy chocolate and caramel. “Let’s be frank, all of this is on those two… or one of them, at least. Whatever.”
“Certainly not professionalism.” Ardan muttered, squinting at the slob of a human. How the hell did they ever discover space flight on their own, he wondered. “I still don’t rightfully know why you’re here, human. Maybe our employer had second thoughts after seeing what you slithered out onto the flight deck wearing and decided to cut his losses rather than risk embarrassment.”
He sat down on the bench where he’d been before, pulling up his personal datapad and the results of the clawball match-up he’d been unable to watch due to the lengthy flight time to discover that his life was well and right fucked. It wouldn’t do to dwell on it, but he sure wasn’t going to start enjoying the company he shared.
“Nice professionalism.” Shy parried. “You still don’t know what an engineer is and why a ship needs one? Oh boy...”
She mindlessly balled up the candy wrapper and tossing it in his direction, though the drag against the air caused it to fall a few inches away from Ardan’s instead of its intended target -- his chitinous face. Had he really not realized that she was wearing this when she met Cherk? Or that she was a total badass? It was amazing how lazy some of these mercs were nowadays.
She leaned back in her seat and stretched, her feet still propped up on the table.
So lazy. And thoughtless. Not quite in the offensive way, though certainly that too, but in the dumb way. Which was another way of saying lazy, honestly. Too lazy to think. Maybe if he spent two seconds considering the whys and how, then he wouldn’t be wasting his breath telling her how he didn’t understand something. Spending two minutes to find out who you’re working with would save a lot of stress-induced headaches.
That being said, Shy didn’t get stressed, so she didn’t really give a shit who she working with.
“Plus this bitch takes names and kicks ass.” She boasted, followed quick by a second jab. “You bring one gun to the table at a time, I can bring four. I don’t know how good you are at arithmetic, but apparently Cherk’s cutting more than one loss.”
“Cute. It doesn't know how to stop chattering, like all small animals that have no substance to back up their screeching.” Ardan said, not bothering to look up from his datapad. “Apparently better at counting than you are. Three guns on my person. Unlike you, I know how to use them.
“You look like the kind of person to buy a crap drone program for your omni-tool and act like you're accomplished when it does what the salesman told you it would. Literally no one is impressed by a boast, kid. Prove you aren't useless on the job, then we'll talk.” Only then did he look up from his data pad to look down upon the little shit of a human. “I've been doing this longer than you've been alive. Go back to your toys, kid.”
Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to provoke the type of reaction he was hoping for in the human. Instead of getting defensive, her deadpan, cynical expression had suddenly contorted into one of amusement. Shy began giggling until it erupted into genuine, unrestrained laughter interrupted by the occasional snort as Shy clasped a free hand over her face to try controlling herself. Her other hand started to point at him, but any attempts at trying to argue or criticize him were rendered futile as her outburst kept her from getting a coherent sentence out.
Khosin inwardly let out a sigh. “Great.” The Batarian thought. “Someone with an inflated ego and a racist. Perfect, just perfect.” The former pirate mused inwardly, shaking his head slightly. “We’ve enough enemies biting at our heels as it is. Could we try not to throw petty insults around? I suspect our lives will be miserable enough soon, we don’t need to make them even more so by our actions.” Khosin said, looking first at Shy and then at Ardan. He knew there was little chance for his words to resonate with either party but, even so, he still felt like it was worth to try.
“I-I’m… I’m sorry!” Shy howled. “I’m just… imagining discount Blasto trying to hold three guns at once! Just to prove a point! Ahahaha!”
Kori brought the Eyas into the mass-free zone created by the Mass Relay and the shuttle winked out of the system, only to reappear in the blink of an eye back in the Terminus Systems. She guided the ship safely out of the path of incoming ships, hooked them up to the nearest comm buoy and set the autonav system to take them back to Omega. Nothing more for her to do here, the Quarian stood up and headed back into the cargo hold, gesturing for the asari to follow.
Once the group was gathered back up into the hold, Kori held up her Omnitool. “Okay, let’s see if the Volus can give us some answers.” She poked a few commands on her glowing device and after a few moments the slightly-transparent image of a volus appeared over her hand.
Before his figure even fully materialized on the omnitool, Cherk’s voice cut through the initial bumps of vocal processing. “Hello, Cherk Sab speaking. How can I —” the volus’s voice cut off with a hiss of his respirator, “Oh, it’s you.” Despite being unable to read his face, there was a stillness to his form that could only be described as irritation. “Make this quick, I’m in the middle of something.” Cherk’s respirator hissed again as he began to tap something into his terminal. His figure shifted a bit as he finished his tapping, and he let his respirator sigh for him. “I see.” The volus placed his palms flat against the table as he considered something for a moment. “I can’t say I expected this, I hadn’t mentioned anything about destroying a luxury liner in the dossiers I prepared.”
“That is because we had nothing to do with the destruction of it.” Khosin said as he stepped forward. “We had just exited the Mass Relay’s corridor at our intended destination and then the Ecliptic Moonrise was gone. A moment afterwards, wanted posters for the six of us appeared on the extranet blaming us for it’s destruction.”
“Convenient that you’re not on the ship.” Shy commented dryly.
“Someone knew we were coming.” Kyo crossed his arms and stared at the image of the volus with a heavy dose of skepticism. “The six of us, specifically. And they knew when we were due to arrive. Who would have access to that kind of information, other than yourself?”
Ardan didn’t speak up yet, instead keeping his eyes glued to the viewport at the wreckage with a stern gaze. Let the others interrogate the Volus; he probably wasn’t going to be forthcoming with information even if he was involved. Instead, a thought passed his mind. “Might want to keep this short; who knows who is monitoring transmissions.”
“That’d explain why you’re contacting me so quickly. Aside from myself, only our employer would know details.” Cherk’s respirator sighed for him again. “Ardan’s right - we ought to keep this short. I’ll have something more tangible for you when you get back.” The volus didn’t touch the claims of convenience, nor did he touch much of anything else. Under his breath he said something about accountant work being boring anyway as he moved to turn his own communicator off. “If you need something on the way here, buzz me. I won’t answer, but I’ll make a few arrangements.” His respirator hissed again, “I’d suggest not contacting any friends or family for a while.” With that, the image of the volus fizzled out.
The Eyas shuddered as it flew into the hangar, the automated sequence leaving little for Kori to do. So she sat in the Pilot’s chair in awkward silence, watching the landing through her visor. The Volus hadn’t exactly been helpful, but she didn’t know what she had expected. Selflessness was a rare thing in the Terminus Systems. There was a final clunk as the shuttle touched down on the hangar floor. Kori’Andh stood up and went back into the cargo hold.
“We’re back on Omega, and safe for the moment. I’m going to go explain what happened to my… er, employer. I will also see if I can get you all a compensation job here on the station if you are interested.” The Quarian rubbed her hands together nervously again, “It’s the least I can do after what’s happened. Just meet me back here in a few hours. Feel free to sleep on the ship if you need to just, ah, don’t touch anything.” Kori let out a nervous laugh and exited the ship slightly faster than she had intended. She practically slammed mask-first into Gallienus, the turian lieutenant who she answered to.
Gallienus clicked his mandibles and half-held, half-grabbed Kori’s arm. “Well well, if it isn’t my little suit-rat. We have some business to discuss.”
Kori’Andh looked at the human woman named Shy in disbelief, “What? I didn’t- I couldn’t- Why would I even try and frame six heavily armed mercenaries at once?” She finally finished, clearly flustered. “You can look at the wreckage out there! It’s real enough!” She continued, pointing toward the open door of the cockpit.
“Hey,” she replied dryly with a shrug, “our choices are to be shot on sight or willingly give ourselves to you. Not much of a choice there. Though honestly, killing over five hundred people is going a little far.”
As she spoke, Shy’s head turned and followed Kori’s gestures through the cockpit, giving her a good view of the floating mass of debris out in space. Her lids opened up at the sight, showing two wide, pearly eyes.
“Holy shit. You guys did a number on them.”
Ardan Parvius let out a low whistle as he looked out of the view port at the devastation. “Looks like they rigged up the eezo core, at the very least. I haven’t seen that kind of devastation since I watched a Dreadnaught bisect a pirate cruiser.” the turian said, halfway between admiring the thoroughness of a sapper’s job and perturbed about the senseless loss of life. All to frame them? There’s no way they all had bounties on their heads at the same time this quickly for the ship’s detonation. Someone set them up, but who?
The quarian didn’t seem the type, nor the Volus; it’s not as if there were any way to restrain the mercenaries and they all had their weapons and gear. It was way too quick and thorough of a job for any slack-assed amatures to hit them with. Ardan turned to the Quarian and the others in the shuttle. “So, either of you know anything about our client, or if he’s even capable of something like this?” he asked. “Who could have possibly known about this and had information on all of us to plan something like this in such a short amount of time? It’s not like you can just sneak aboard a civilian cruise vessel like that in heavily guarded Citadel Space and do something like that without a lot of planning, connections, and logistics.”
“Guys, just trace back the signal.” Shy groaned, as if it was she was explaining something obvious. “They’re not frequency hopping and or using short transmissions, so it’s not like they’re hiding or anything.”
Kori anxiously fussed with her Omni-tool, for a few moments before speaking, “Look, I’m just the pilot. I don’t know anything about what the job was, I was hired through a middleman. The same as you six I assume.” The light on her mask blinked a few times, as if she had more to say. “It… It was the volus. Cherk. I can contact him if you want.”
“Right now our priority should be to get away.” Khosin spoke up, voice calm. “The rest can wait for the moment. If they were prepared to put a bounty on our heads so quickly, who's to say someone isn't en route already to capture us.” He said, turning to look at the pilot. “Once we are away, and sure that we aren't being pursued, we can contact Cherk.”
“Goddess…” came a voice from the back, an Asari strode over to the view port, taking a place beside the Turian. She too looked out at the damage, taking it all in - an expression of disbelief on her face. “They had absolutely no chance against whoever it was that did this.” She did not need to look upon it anymore and so she took steps back, finding herself beside the Batarian. “I’m inclined to agree with you, but where can we even go?” She folded an arm over her chest and propped her elbow on it and began thumbing her lip. Thoughts swirling through her mind. She couldn’t understand who would frame her. From what she could gather at a glance at the rest of the group, they were just as surprised too.
“Omega,” a soft voice said. It belonged to a human that had followed a short distance behind Naryxa, emerging from the gloomy lighting of the rear of the shuttle. Kyo Zhang, his black leather jacket looking shiny and crisp over his combat hardsuit, crossed his arms and his face was set into an even deeper scowl than his usual severe expression. Twin swords were sheathed across his back, long enough for their tips to reach his waist. “I believe the quarian. She doesn't know anything. That would be careless. Whoever did this is is not careless.” He spoke in clipped tones, direct and to the point. Kyo looked around at his fellow would-be criminals, his gaze lingering on Ardan and Khosin. Their presence made him uncomfortable. The whole situation was deplorable. He hadn't been so cautious and careful his whole career only to be suddenly thrown out of the proverbial airlock now. “Leave Citadel space. Go underground. Contact the volus. Work from there.”
“Pre-gunpowder cosplayer has a pretty agreeable plan. That shithole's where I call home, and unless the Citadel governments have a desire to start a war with the entire damn Terminus Systems over six fugitives, then we'll have all the time in the universe to start figuring this out.” Ardan said, shaking his head at the ridiculousness of a human wearing glorified dinner utensils as if they were real weapons.
Kyo glowered at him but said nothing. Shy snorted in amusement.
Ardan looked to Kori. “We have enough fuel to make it home, right? It might be wise to find a fueling depot in this very system so anyone who monitored our jump through the relay doesn't immediately see us jump the way we came. If we act like we have a purpose that wasn't that,” Ardan said, pointing at the dead ship in a deadly cloud of eezo fuel, “Will give us a better chance avoiding law enforcement.”
“Omega is the obvious choice, criminals accused of worse have hidden out in the Terminus systems before. The law won’t follow us there.” The Vorcha stated calmly through razor sharp teeth, staying a distance away from the other mercenaries in a seated position. His long claw tipped fingers clasped around each other as he spoke. Such death on that scale was the definition of overkill. There was no thrill in that, extinguishing innocent lives like that. He didn’t suspect any of them as the perpetrators of such an act, whoever did it likely long gone, or just another face in the panicking masses.
“Every second spent arguing instead of speeding through space only aides the law on our tail.” Zaash added, outwardly not showing much concern or shock. Panic helped no one here. He’d had a bounty on his head before, not for terrorism though. Truthfully he’d rather not spend the rest of his spectacularly short life in prison.
“We have enough fuel, I did the calculations myself just to be sure but, but I’ll bring us back around to the depot and top us off just so we don’t look suspicious.” Kori answered, still fumbling with her Omnitool and looking half-heartedly at Ardan. “Once we are back in the Terminus Systems I’ll contact Cherk and maybe he can shed some light on this.” The Quarian nodded in affirmation of her statement and walked back into the cockpit, not bothering to close the door this time, though when she crossed the threshold, she silently exhaled a breath she was subconsciously holding in. Denying a mercenary the chance for payment wasn’t known to be good for one’s health in her experience. Let alone six of them.
Naryxa was no fool, she watched the Quarian closely, her fumbling over the datapad - the way she retreated, her nod. She was nervous - the very fact of that gave the Asari a confidence that she knew nothing about it. She followed the young girl into the cockpit and closed the door behind her slowly. Whatever the rest of them were going to discuss would only further worry the girl. “Are you alright?” she asked, rather frankly but with a soft expression on her face.
Kori turned to face the Asari, not bothering to sit down yet. She felt more at ease at the mere presence of the other woman, even though she had no problem believing that the Asari had more combat experience than Kori’Andh had years to her name. “Yes I think so,” the Quarian answered, still playing with her hands anxiously, “I’m just a bit shook up is all. Seeing the ship… All those people…” She shook her head sadly as her voice trailed off. “I’m not used to seeing things like that.”
She listened while moving to the seat that should be taken by a co-pilot, and slowly she sat down into it, with a wave of her hand she invited the girl to take her seat too. “Take a seat, you’ll be alright. As for the wreckage, it’s not the first I’ve seen by a long shot, and it won’t be the last. It doesn’t get easier I’m afraid.” She sat relaxed in the chair, one elbow propped up on the arm. “But that just reminds us that we’re still good in here,” there was a warmth to her tone as she placed a hand on her chest. She may have been laying it on thick, but it truly was a terrifying sight and the Quarian was in shock - she needed to calm down in order to fly them safely out. “You’ll be alright.”
Kori exhaled through her mask and did as she was told. The Asari was right. She still had a job to do, and that was get everyone home safe. There would be time to think it over later, for now, she had to fly. The Quarian Pilot tapped on the control surface and the engines responded quickly as Kori’Andh deftly swung the ship around towards the fuel depot.
“Thank you for your kind words. I’m truly sorry about what’s happened. Believe me, I know what it’s like to be kept from your home.” She added after a few moments, the words not distracting her from guiding the ship up close to the floating fuel station.
“I know that it isn’t your fault,” she smiled and stood from the seat, walking behind Kori as she flew the ship. Naryxa placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “I guess that for now, Omega will be our home. How bad can it be?” She of course, knew exactly how bad it could be, but she let the words sound light as they pierced the tension. She thought to join the others, but all she could hear from behind the door was sassy back and forth. The cockpit was a better place to be while that was happening.
Kori gave a grim smile beneath her mask, even though she knew the Asari couldn’t see her face. “It’s not all bad there. I usually sleep on the ship though, just so I don’t get robbed blind in my sleep.” The Quarian said ruefully as she hooked the ship up to the fuel station and initiated refuelling procedures.
She thought about what the girl had said, she knew that Omega was a dangerous place - she had just never really considered it from the perspective of a Quarian, a young one at that. She herself had worked on Omega made years ago, she did not fear the place. “Hmmm, I can't say that you're missing much by doing so. It's not as if there are any landmarks of note. I had a small apartment on Omega for a while.” She smiled at the memory, “that was a very long time ago. I'd say close to 150 years ago...”
“A hundred and fifty? Keelah, I can’t imagine actually wanting to live on Omega by choice, let alone own property there.” Kori shook her head again, this time it was more lighthearted than the previous instance. “I’ve only been there a year and a half and I hate it. I just want to fly ships!” The talking distracted her from thinking about what had happened and soon enough Kori’Andh was gliding the Eyas back towards the Mass Relay that would take them into the Terminus Systems once again.
“Well, it wasn’t so bad for me - back then it was a classier place.” She emphasised the phrasing, it most certainly was not classier at all, Omega had always attracted the wrong kind of people. “I was there because I danced, and for some reason, nobody fucks with the dancers,” the Asari shrugged with a small chuckle under her breath. “Maybe when we get there, I’ll get you out of the ship and take you for a tour around my old stomping ground... “
“I don’t know, walking around Omega sounds dangerous enough. Seeing the dancers would be interesting though. Dancers are well respected on the Flotilla.” Kori explained as she tapped in the mass calculations and sent them to the Relay.
“He better.” Shy remarked as she reached into her bag and pulled out what looked like a bite-sized chocolate candy. She wasn’t much good with people, let alone alien people, but all of her interactions with Cherk thus far brought her to the conclusion that he probably did a lot of sketchy business with a lot of slimy types of people. Despite her accusations toward Kori, he was likely the one the rest of them were catching heat for.
“What do the six of us have in common besides getting hired for the same job?” She continued, talking through her mouthful of chewy chocolate and caramel. “Let’s be frank, all of this is on those two… or one of them, at least. Whatever.”
“Certainly not professionalism.” Ardan muttered, squinting at the slob of a human. How the hell did they ever discover space flight on their own, he wondered. “I still don’t rightfully know why you’re here, human. Maybe our employer had second thoughts after seeing what you slithered out onto the flight deck wearing and decided to cut his losses rather than risk embarrassment.”
He sat down on the bench where he’d been before, pulling up his personal datapad and the results of the clawball match-up he’d been unable to watch due to the lengthy flight time to discover that his life was well and right fucked. It wouldn’t do to dwell on it, but he sure wasn’t going to start enjoying the company he shared.
“Nice professionalism.” Shy parried. “You still don’t know what an engineer is and why a ship needs one? Oh boy...”
She mindlessly balled up the candy wrapper and tossing it in his direction, though the drag against the air caused it to fall a few inches away from Ardan’s instead of its intended target -- his chitinous face. Had he really not realized that she was wearing this when she met Cherk? Or that she was a total badass? It was amazing how lazy some of these mercs were nowadays.
She leaned back in her seat and stretched, her feet still propped up on the table.
So lazy. And thoughtless. Not quite in the offensive way, though certainly that too, but in the dumb way. Which was another way of saying lazy, honestly. Too lazy to think. Maybe if he spent two seconds considering the whys and how, then he wouldn’t be wasting his breath telling her how he didn’t understand something. Spending two minutes to find out who you’re working with would save a lot of stress-induced headaches.
That being said, Shy didn’t get stressed, so she didn’t really give a shit who she working with.
“Plus this bitch takes names and kicks ass.” She boasted, followed quick by a second jab. “You bring one gun to the table at a time, I can bring four. I don’t know how good you are at arithmetic, but apparently Cherk’s cutting more than one loss.”
“Cute. It doesn't know how to stop chattering, like all small animals that have no substance to back up their screeching.” Ardan said, not bothering to look up from his datapad. “Apparently better at counting than you are. Three guns on my person. Unlike you, I know how to use them.
“You look like the kind of person to buy a crap drone program for your omni-tool and act like you're accomplished when it does what the salesman told you it would. Literally no one is impressed by a boast, kid. Prove you aren't useless on the job, then we'll talk.” Only then did he look up from his data pad to look down upon the little shit of a human. “I've been doing this longer than you've been alive. Go back to your toys, kid.”
Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to provoke the type of reaction he was hoping for in the human. Instead of getting defensive, her deadpan, cynical expression had suddenly contorted into one of amusement. Shy began giggling until it erupted into genuine, unrestrained laughter interrupted by the occasional snort as Shy clasped a free hand over her face to try controlling herself. Her other hand started to point at him, but any attempts at trying to argue or criticize him were rendered futile as her outburst kept her from getting a coherent sentence out.
Khosin inwardly let out a sigh. “Great.” The Batarian thought. “Someone with an inflated ego and a racist. Perfect, just perfect.” The former pirate mused inwardly, shaking his head slightly. “We’ve enough enemies biting at our heels as it is. Could we try not to throw petty insults around? I suspect our lives will be miserable enough soon, we don’t need to make them even more so by our actions.” Khosin said, looking first at Shy and then at Ardan. He knew there was little chance for his words to resonate with either party but, even so, he still felt like it was worth to try.
“I-I’m… I’m sorry!” Shy howled. “I’m just… imagining discount Blasto trying to hold three guns at once! Just to prove a point! Ahahaha!”
Kori brought the Eyas into the mass-free zone created by the Mass Relay and the shuttle winked out of the system, only to reappear in the blink of an eye back in the Terminus Systems. She guided the ship safely out of the path of incoming ships, hooked them up to the nearest comm buoy and set the autonav system to take them back to Omega. Nothing more for her to do here, the Quarian stood up and headed back into the cargo hold, gesturing for the asari to follow.
Once the group was gathered back up into the hold, Kori held up her Omnitool. “Okay, let’s see if the Volus can give us some answers.” She poked a few commands on her glowing device and after a few moments the slightly-transparent image of a volus appeared over her hand.
Before his figure even fully materialized on the omnitool, Cherk’s voice cut through the initial bumps of vocal processing. “Hello, Cherk Sab speaking. How can I —” the volus’s voice cut off with a hiss of his respirator, “Oh, it’s you.” Despite being unable to read his face, there was a stillness to his form that could only be described as irritation. “Make this quick, I’m in the middle of something.” Cherk’s respirator hissed again as he began to tap something into his terminal. His figure shifted a bit as he finished his tapping, and he let his respirator sigh for him. “I see.” The volus placed his palms flat against the table as he considered something for a moment. “I can’t say I expected this, I hadn’t mentioned anything about destroying a luxury liner in the dossiers I prepared.”
“That is because we had nothing to do with the destruction of it.” Khosin said as he stepped forward. “We had just exited the Mass Relay’s corridor at our intended destination and then the Ecliptic Moonrise was gone. A moment afterwards, wanted posters for the six of us appeared on the extranet blaming us for it’s destruction.”
“Convenient that you’re not on the ship.” Shy commented dryly.
“Someone knew we were coming.” Kyo crossed his arms and stared at the image of the volus with a heavy dose of skepticism. “The six of us, specifically. And they knew when we were due to arrive. Who would have access to that kind of information, other than yourself?”
Ardan didn’t speak up yet, instead keeping his eyes glued to the viewport at the wreckage with a stern gaze. Let the others interrogate the Volus; he probably wasn’t going to be forthcoming with information even if he was involved. Instead, a thought passed his mind. “Might want to keep this short; who knows who is monitoring transmissions.”
“That’d explain why you’re contacting me so quickly. Aside from myself, only our employer would know details.” Cherk’s respirator sighed for him again. “Ardan’s right - we ought to keep this short. I’ll have something more tangible for you when you get back.” The volus didn’t touch the claims of convenience, nor did he touch much of anything else. Under his breath he said something about accountant work being boring anyway as he moved to turn his own communicator off. “If you need something on the way here, buzz me. I won’t answer, but I’ll make a few arrangements.” His respirator hissed again, “I’d suggest not contacting any friends or family for a while.” With that, the image of the volus fizzled out.
The Eyas shuddered as it flew into the hangar, the automated sequence leaving little for Kori to do. So she sat in the Pilot’s chair in awkward silence, watching the landing through her visor. The Volus hadn’t exactly been helpful, but she didn’t know what she had expected. Selflessness was a rare thing in the Terminus Systems. There was a final clunk as the shuttle touched down on the hangar floor. Kori’Andh stood up and went back into the cargo hold.
“We’re back on Omega, and safe for the moment. I’m going to go explain what happened to my… er, employer. I will also see if I can get you all a compensation job here on the station if you are interested.” The Quarian rubbed her hands together nervously again, “It’s the least I can do after what’s happened. Just meet me back here in a few hours. Feel free to sleep on the ship if you need to just, ah, don’t touch anything.” Kori let out a nervous laugh and exited the ship slightly faster than she had intended. She practically slammed mask-first into Gallienus, the turian lieutenant who she answered to.
Gallienus clicked his mandibles and half-held, half-grabbed Kori’s arm. “Well well, if it isn’t my little suit-rat. We have some business to discuss.”
