EliteCommander

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"This is...troubling." Meesei said in a severe tone as she paused to consider the implications of this information, and how they should respond to it. The simple answer was to detain this Galsek for spreading dangerous misinformation and attempting to subvert the ongoing investigation. However, she feared the situation might not be so simple. "So Galsek has attempted to sabotage the investigation? I wonder if this was his intended goal, or if he just wanted Caleb to discredit me? In either case, this puts us in a difficult situation. He does not seem to have any new evidence to support Harriet, so he simply omitted the evidence which exonerated Oswall. He spread only part of the story in order to influence Caleb, and I doubt he will stop with him. But, it could be a dangerous move to detain him, as the others in Harriet's packs may start to believe we are targeting their leadership."

Meesei let out a sigh, leaning forward slightly as she clasped her hands together. "I wonder, does he act purely out of loyalty to Harriet, or has he been influenced by our enemy as well?" She commented as her gaze shifted straight to Caleb's eyes. "Caleb, no one has been able to find you for quite a while. When did Galsek give you this information?"

Mass Effect: The Face of Injustice

Avatar arrived at the space station on the third shuttle coming from the planet’s surface. The vessel bore no name of which the Council representatives had been informed, but a quick visual scan on approach had revealed some information on the station. It was an aging Scepter-class civilian transport developed by the ExoGeni Corporation twelve years after the end of the Reaper War. It was designed to be larger and cheaper than other transports, making it ideal for resettling and rebuilding efforts. It was 32% larger than a standard frigate, though modifications to this particular vessel to convert it into a space station had increased its size 5% beyond that. Based on schematics from the stock vessel, Avatar determined that it had four decks, with living space surrounding most of the core systems in the center. There was also a large, reinforced “panic room” near the core systems, though Avatar had no way of knowing if it was still present.

The meeting taking place on this station was in regards to the settlement on the planet officially designated as 2196 BH3, which had not yet received an official common name from any Council government. Although, it was virtually certain that the present inhabitants of the planet had named it. Records on these locals were sparse, so Avatar’s knowledge on them was close to negligible. They were all of Council races, but they were not officially citizens of any Council government. As the planet naturally contained dextro-amino based life, the majority of the population was Turian, though there were an unknown number of settlements which had cleared out areas to grow food for levo-amino populations. It was unknown if any Quarians were present on the planet. Despite the variety of inhabitants, all of the planet’s settlements, and indeed the planet itself, carried a low population. They had no unified government and were much less developed than most galactic civilizations. Therefore, it was the hope of the interested parties within the Council governments that they could negotiate the settlement of the planet, along with the integration of the present population, in return for resources the locals would need.

Based on the instruction it had been given thusfar, Avatar’s purpose on the station at present was minor. The primary focus of this meeting was for the Council’s diplomats to begin negotiating settlement and integration with the representatives from the planet’s scattered cities. All others who were not security were present simply to meet said representatives and answer questions they might have relating to their area of expertise. In addition, only those designated as security were permitted to carry firearms, so Avatar had left its weapons at the temporary settlement on the planet’s surface from which the shuttles were carrying all who were attending the meeting. Interestingly, despite the fact that the station itself was a minimum of fifty years old and was in a state of borderline disrepair, the weapons detectors on the airlocks were a remarkably new model, created only three years prior.

The meeting was scheduled to begin in two hours and thirty-two minutes in the largest room two decks down from the airlocks. Since it had the opportunity, Avatar elected to locate and speak to representatives from the planet, or some of the others who had arrived before it, to learn more about the present situation.

Mass Effect: The Face of Injustice

Avatar isn't young. Or old, or anything in between. What is age to a self-upgrading machine?

Also, I will be posting in ten minutes.

Mass Effect: The Face of Injustice

I think you're good, Echo.

Ashes [EliteCommander and Vesuvius00]

"Well...I don't know if I would call them my people. I mean, they are my species of course, but the Karisskan of Tel Nof are quite different from those of Amman. We do share a common background, but we split away from one another long ago." Tarentek began. He did not know everything about the Karisskan of Tel Nof, but he had learned some in preparation for his visit to their city years ago. "There are fundamental differences in our beliefs and the way we live our lives. We see our gods, especially Jhala, differently. For my people, as you know, we are called to develop a deep understanding of the world for the honor and service of Jhala, but the Karisskan of Tel Nof follow a different path, one that can change with their leaders. They split from our people by following their first king to settle Tel Nof. Since then, all of their kings and queens have had absolute authority over their people. They believe that Jhala imparts her wisdom on their monarch, so they serve as leader in state and in spirit. Still, those shared roots we have make them somewhat similar to my people, in a few ways. A lot of our social norms, like the way we behave and talk around one another, are similar, so I can be of help in that regard. They do trade with other cities, so they are accustomed to interacting with other races, and are...reasonably understanding when they make mistakes. Mostly."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei took in a deep breath. She had to give Caleb her evidence which exonerated Oswall, and unless he had gathered more proof of which she was unaware, then Caleb was not going to like it. "I learned about that potential opportunity as well. He would have been left alone with the waterskin, and it would have been an opportunity to poison it; however, my investigation also uncovered information which shows that he could not have been poisoned so soon in the day. Since we had access to the poison itself, we performed a test to determine how long it would take for it to kill. The test showed that Jerrick must have ingested the poison sometime during or after the meeting, not before. In addition, not only does Oswall say that he saw Jerrick drink from his waterskin after their training session, but Darahil confirmed it. Currently, we are in the process of performing a second test on the poison to confirm the results of the first. Unless the first test is proven false, then I do not believe he could have been poisoned before the meeting."

There was only a brief pause to gauge Caleb's reaction before Meesei continued her explanation. If Oswall was not the traitor, then there was no doubt that Caleb would have to face some form of punishment. For Caleb's sake, and the safety of the clan as a whole, she hoped that Oswall survived. There was no way that Oswall's packs would accept anything less than a severe punishment for Caleb if he successfully killed Oswall, and if he did survive, he could only hope for leniency from Oswall himself for his packs to accept a lesser punishment. For the moment, however, Meesei focused on seeing if Caleb had gathered any new evidence. "The reason I have accused Harriet is because she was alone with Jerrick's waterskin after the end of their meeting, as he had forgotten it in the meeting room. Not only that, but I caught her in a lie when I asked her about the order in which the lieutenants left the room. She attempted to claim that your mother was the last to leave, while multiple others confirm that Harriet was the last. Those are the reasons that I have accused Harriet instead of Oswall, but if you have gathered more evidence, please tell me. I want to uncover the truth, not just make an accusation."

Mass Effect: The Face of Injustice

I think your CS is good, Lucius.

Ashes [EliteCommander and Vesuvius00]

Tarentek nodded. "Hmm, and I suppose I can guess what your first major responsibility will be. It is only going to be a few more days before I'm ready to go. How do you feel about visiting a foreign city? I have been to Tel Nof before, though only once. As scouts, my squad was adept at crossing the desert terrain, so we were assigned to escort a diplomatic envoy to the city. It is smaller than Amman, or most of the surrounding cities, but it is still much larger than this village. It is built on an old Human ruin, a military base. Actually, it was a place where the Humans kept the airplanes and helicopters I told you about. Not even wreckage remains of those anymore, though. All of the metal was taken and reused in building up the city. Still, the Karisskan living there were able to recover quite a few weapons, and have since gathered more from the surrounding area. Amman often traded ammunition to them. They are well armed, which is one reason I believe that they will make for useful allies." He explained.

Ashes [EliteCommander and Vesuvius00]

"I'll settle for edible." Tarentek commented as he served Onyx her meal and took a seat himself. The parts of the meal were strange together, but at least they tasted fine if taken individually. "I suppose I'll just relax here tomorrow, as I wouldn't want to do anything to disturb your ritual. I understand its importance to you. So what will this change for you? I know that you'll become a prophet, and you'll be considered an adult, but what comes with that? Are there any changes you're particularly looking forward to? I remember once I started being considered an adult, there were some privileges I enjoyed gaining...along with a mountain of responsibilities I wasn't so thrilled about." He recalled with a laugh.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Like most rooms in the ruin, Vera's chamber was fairly simple, but there was an old wooden table with a similarly aged chair that Meesei could make use of. She grabbed the chair and moved it in front of the bed, just far enough from Vera and Caleb to give them an adequate amount of room, before taking a seat. "I can say that he was stable last I saw him. With some nontraditional techniques, I was able to mend the major vessels and stop the majority of the bleeding, and we brought him to a chamber where your surgeons can tend to him, so he is being treated. There are no guarantees, but, well, I have seen worse. His wound is survivable." She explained.

There was silence for a few moments as Meesei shifted her attention to Caleb. He was obviously overcome with emotion, but she could not tell if it was due to regret. So far, Caleb had said nothing that made Meesei believe Oswall was the killer. If he did have evidence, then she wanted to hear it, and if not, she would need to explain to him why Oswall was not likely the traitor. "Caleb, do you think you are ready to speak to me about this?"