[Mass Effect: New Genesis] Part 2: Trouble at the Eris

[Coming soon]

((Funny that's what all the companions of this one say. HEY O))

((... feelin saucy))

Aashe was still in a bright mood when she was headed toward the docks. She had a bag full of groceries and supplies on one hip, and a purchase order for a shield modulator in her other hand. She was singing to herself, and old Earth pop song, causing more than a few looks as she swept through the Presidium Commons.

She paused briefly at the Banking Terminal to speak to Barla Von - it was all shop talk, making sure her investments were thriving, and to make sure she had enough credits on her for fuel, probes, and repairs while they were out in the sky.

Once the elevator stopped at the commons, she raised a hand to wave to a few of the dock hands who knew her by name. One of them, a younger man, blushed and waved back. She always appreciated that reaction. She scanned the area for Krieger, looking for him, and then toward her ship, she wanted to see what the Turian call signs looked like on the wings....

kreiger, in his tipsy state, noticed Aashe scanning the docks. was she looking for him or someone else? his instincts told him to ignore it, but something about this fiery red haired human had caught his attention. was it her attitude? was it the lack of info he could dig up? or was it as simple as her looks? What ever the reason, he was drawn to her and stood from his bench to follow her. He hesitated, pausing to see if Aashe even cared that he had stood as she looked back. Kreiger went to take a step but stopped to unseal his suit from earlier 'medical treatment' . He walked towards the elevator to at least try to talk with his 'soon to be' captain. Questions ran through him,"why do i even care about knowing this human? will her ship had adequate facilities for one such as myself? does she have a cellar? will she even care for my concerns?" he seemed to zone out as he thought and hadn't realized that he was standing next to Aashe in the elevator, ready to ascend.
"I...I wish to inquire about your ship"

She offered a bright smile to Krieger as he stood, and waited for him to join him before continuing on. He seemed to be struggling, as though he were in physical pain. She was left to wonder what happened. Quarian were given such a bad reputation, had someone attacked him?

She didn't voice her questions - it wasn't her place to ask. If he wanted to, he'd tell her.

"I... I wish to inquire about your ship." He said. She perked up a bit, The Eris was her pride and joy.

"My baby? She's perfectly safe, Turian design, that's her - over there." Aashe motioned with the hand that had the purchase order in it. "What would you like to know about her?"

They were ascending to the docking platform itself, and something in Aashe's gut tingled - like butterflies, but without any reason for her to be nervous. She turned her eyes from Krieger, looking over toward the platform itself, trying to decide if anything looked wrong.

"I simply wish to inquire...to ask regarding...oh Keelah."
kreiger slid down the rear wall to the floor, he then moved the hand holding his side, his knife wound had reopened and he was bleeding bad. he wanted to pump another round of medigel into the wound, but he knew he would OD for sure. he simply looked towards Aashe.
"Eris med bay...sterile is is not?"
he struggled to help himself back up, leaning on the doors of the elevator and falling over once more as the doors opened at docking level. a dockworker noticed and kreiger knew how this would look to the poor man. Blood smeared across the elevator wall, a quarian struggling on the floor and a well armed woman in the elevator with him. this was bad.
why had his wound opened? he had just applied medigel not 10 minutes ago, mainly as a pain killer but none the less. had Morlan sold him faulty medigel or was this attempted assassination? it wouldn't be the first time someone wanted him dead, but the meet with Corwin and an assassination attempt in one day seemed TOO coincidental, if he lived through this, he would certainly be bringing this forward with Corwin

Aivar, after 'his' meeting with Corwin, was hanging by 'his' ship, the Alornei. It was an extremely small ship meant for only one passenger, and was customized to boot, so its original design was long lost, but beautiful nevertheless, as the workmanship and sleek design was flawless. Despite its small size, it could go through Mass Relays without trouble.

'He' briefly wondered if it could fit into the Eris, which was docked next to 'his' ship, coincidentally. It was small enough for it. In fact, it wasn't that much bigger then one of those special shuttles N7s use. 'He' could ask the master of the 'he' supposed, provided that the owner even knew that 'he' was on this mission.

'He' took off 'his' helmet. 'He' was in fact a she, but did not identify as such. 'He' supposed 'he' should fix his armor, though it was pointless. 'He' kept breaking it every time 'he' used biotics.

'He' looked towards the sound of an elevator ascending, and put 'his' broken helmet back on. Time to meet the crew 'he' guessed.

When the door to the elevator opened, 'he' had noticed that a Quarian was in it, and a human. Now that was a sight that you never saw, particularly the Quarian. A bit curious, Aivar walked over, and saw that the Quarian was bleeding badly. 'He' didn't know if the Quarian was part of the crew for the mission, so 'he' hesitated before saying "Looks like you found out too late that they made a security update on medi-gel." He then looked at the woman "If you are part of the Eris, let's bring your friend over there." The sight of blood made 'him' tingle, the the soft glowing red in 'his' eyes, could be seen by both. Nevertheless, 'he' offered a hand to the Quarian.

Astila walked around the commons, being stopped by a few Asari and C-Sec agents that seemed to recognize her, as if she lived on the Citadel before she swore herself to the code. She smiled politely and spoke with them, reminiscing with old friends for a moment. She leaned over the glass platforms, enjoying the beautiful flowers and basking in the light. After a while, she hesitantly pulled herself away from the commons, heading to the docking bay where the others were.

"Krieger!" She said in surprise once his hand lifted. Her eyes widened in genuine alarm.

"Looks like you found out too late that they made a security update on medi-gel. If you are part of the Eris, let's bring your friend over there." The woman newcomer held a hand out toward Krieger, but Aashe wasn't going to have it. She didn't know who had attacked the Quarian - and she'd pulled a few too many 'helpful' cons in her day. They were always a great way to hide a needle full of poison. Could Aashe be kind? Sure... but cautious too. She intercepted the outstretched hand with the handles of the grocery bag, dropping the weight of the grocery bag neatly on the arm of the stranger.

"I'm not just 'a part of' The Eris, I'm her owner. Take the bag, there's medical supplies in there..."Aashe then offered her arm to the Quarian. She lowered her voice to a warm, soothing tone. "Put your arm around my shoulders, Krieger, we'll get you inside The Eris. I have a clean room in there you can use, you'll be okay."

Some of the C-Sec guards had already noticed the noise - Aashe made no move to stop them. If the newcomer had harmed her new squadmate, a few security guards would be a welcome addition. And she didn't see Krieger selling her out. Once Krieger had told them Aashe wasn't to blame, she'd offer a generous reward to the guards to assist in finding out who harmed him, and hopefully things would roll smoothly from there.

On its way towards the docking bay for future low-level reconnaissance, Blasto realized the patch of its body where the prosthetic mustache lay was beginning to itch. Inching its tentacle towards the mustache, Blasto noticed something quite peculiar. On the far side of the club's entrance, a human male was chatting with the little human offspring from before. Noticing the intricate armor, Blasto immediately recognized the male as an Eclipse mercenary. The itching feeling went away almost immediately.

What are the Eclipse doing out in this area of the Citadel? thought the Hanar to itself. And what interest does it have with a human kid?

Inspecting the kid further Blasto realized its earlier mistake. That kid at the bar was no kid. It was a man disguised as a kid. Clever bastard. He was one of the most notorious mercenaries in this side of the Galaxy. Known for murdering civilians when ransoms were paid, stealing crates from military shipments with its band of multi-organizational warriors, and once stole galactic sweets from the Primarch's newborn. Yes this mas was none other than Babyface Shorlegs. For all the ingenuity in his methods, you would think he could have come up with a more clever name.

Almost instinctively Blasto pointed its pistol at them. It could take them out right here, right now. So what if Babyface had recently done a secret agreement with C-Sec to help them take down rogue mercenary groups. All Blasto had to do was pull the trigger, maybe throw a grenade or two for extra precautions. The casualties would not be desired, but necessary. It then heard a voice in its head.

Badassfully, Blasto by the book dammit by the book. Begrudgingly Blasto put its pistol down. It did not usually listen to Bubin but this time it had a more important mission at hand. It entered the elevator and pressed the button towards the docking bay level.

"This one will come back for you Babyface. You cannot clumsily run away with those stubby legs for much longer" it said with what seemed like anger in its voice. Blasto could not forgive him. Not after that one incident. As the doors were about to shut close, Blasto gave one last look towards the mercenaries. It saw them both smiling as they stared back right at it.

Aivar really had not liked how the woman had done that, but 'he' didn't voice it, for the sake that this was the ship owner of the mission. 'He' sighed and waited for the woman to get the Quarian up and carried the bag to the Eris keeping pace with them. When the C-sec guards came near, 'he' didn't know how to respond to then. This wasn't Omega, and 'he' was pretty sure killing them would jepordize the mission. No, not at all like that hellhole. 'He' said to them "Nothing to worry about!" 'He' called to them, giving a grin, but 'he' was pretty sure it was an evil one, or messed up. 'He' wasn't use to dealing with humans or Turians. Now Batarians, 'he' understood. Bastards.

"So uh, what would you like me to do?" 'he' asked the woman helping the Quarian as they walked along. Helping the Quarian get patched up, or giving the Quarian medical supplies, 'he' didn't know what to do. 'He' had never really interacted with them except to buy parts from a shop or another for 'his' ship, but 'he' did know that their immune systems were bad.

He had done it all wrong. He could've said it better, worded things differently so as to make more sense. But he couldn't go back now and change what he had done. Maybe that's why Jeshua felt an added burden after he left Chora's Den. Or it could be the fact that he had to literally hold up stray beams to leave the area. Seriously, Jeshua thought, They might've done a bang-up job fixing the club after the attack, but they really need to work on the rest of the area.

He had exchanged messages with a contact/friend and they were set to meet and poll their shared findings. It's not like Jeshua didn't go in prepared; as of late, he never went anywhere without having as much in his advantage both beforehand and afterwards. Corwin didn't seem all that phased about his secret, but considering that the word itself nearly gave him a heart-attack earlier in the conversation was a dead give-away that Jeshua didn't even need the extranet to find curious.

It wasn't that unpleasant of a walk. Of course, Jeshua was stopped by a C-Sec officer who was suspicious of his so-called "lurking" in the wards, but that was dismissed quickly through a devious voice hack when he wasn't looking. Everything went smoothly after that, not like it wouldn't, but Jeshua was always on edge nonetheless. Never more so then when he met with his contact. He was never sure if she was going to kill him or not, what with the ghosts of their past.

"Did you find anything?" Jeshua started out. His contact, Araus, snorted - or was it a snort? Can turians snort?

"Nothing I need to tell you." Her face, painted with traditional turian battle paint, as seen better, more colorful days, but like on the run as a fugitive hacker never really gave you time to buy touchup.

"Ah, but if you weren't going to tell me, you wouldn't have met me here, would you?"

"Considering that you're the cause of my problems, I could easily have come here for ulterior motives, and I'm sure you're aware. But enough of that, you're not worth my time now, not when there are bigger fish to fry, as you humans would say." Araus paused, no doubt to peak Jeshua's interest in the last statement. It worked. "He knows Jeshua, that you were involved. You need to watch your back, before he rips it off."

"What would one angry krogan be able to do against moi?" Jeshua puffed his chest, mocking macho pride. On the inside he was freaking out, but anything to alleviate the tension.

"Always the same self-absorbed Jeshua. Have fun on your "trip". Too bad they don't have a real hacker on board, but I guess you'll do." Jeshua laughed, their banter common between the two.

"You could always join us. I don't think Corwin knew exactly who was gonna show up. I'm sure he won't think too much of it if you were to appear and join."

"No, no, he already made his choice. Just..." Araus put her hand on Jeshua's shoulder. "Keep on the lookout. You don't want to get blindsided." Then all at once her demeanor was as it was only a moment before. "Now, here is the info you requested," She finished, linking their omni-tools and transfering. "Good luck, I'll try to keep in touch. That is, if you don't die the first day." She smiled as only a turian could, and turned away to leave.

"Hey, we're in the same boat now. The same can be said of you." But she continued to walk away, appearing as if she didn't hear him, while Jeshua knew that she did.

Well, I have what I need, Jeshua said, looking through the dossier files he had been given. Time to go, I guess. And with that he set off, towards wherever Aashe had docked her ship. If only he knew where that was. Oh well, he'd find out soon enough.

Now changed into her yellow Justicar uniform, Astila walked into the docking bay, immediately spotting Aashe helping Kreiger off of the elevator. She noticed he was bleeding and knew that was very dangerous for a Quarians suit to even have a tiny tear. She instinctively drew her Carnifex, walking at an aggressive pace up to the two. "Who did this?", She asked, the only sign if emotion was the tone of her voice. Justicars notoriously tend to take the law into their own hands, no matter how small or large the injustice may be.

Kreiger calmed all by informing them of his ijury.
"this is a past wound, my suit is fine."
kreiger struggled to his feet as he put his arm around Aashe, grateful in a bewildered way.could humans be kind?
"I was stabbed a week ago by a krogan after he refused to pay for..." he paused, not sure whether to share, "for services rendered"
the C-sec officers came towards the elevator, he would have sold out everyone then and their to protect his own ass, but they were helping him, when they all could have left him to bleed out. He responded in kind by informing C-Sec that he had simply cut himself badly on 'routine vent repairs'.
" your, clean room, gah(clutching side once more), had better not have been bleached. bleach will kill me you know?"
it was clear that he was entering a state of delusion, his words no longer matching his mind.
Kreiger ignored the justicar for now as he saw suspicion cross her face as he lied to C-Sec and to her.this was an interesting development.He thought to himself as both he and Aashe limped across the docking bay, A human taking pitty on a quarian AND going out of their way to help, was i wrong about them? no, this is isolated and they need my skills. He then focused on staying alive until they reached the clean room.

Aashe held Krieger up and looked around at the others. "I'm no Medic. I can fly a ship, cook a decent meal, and weave a decent story. Best I can do when it comes to medicine is inject MediGel, and stick a bandage on it..."

The nagging feeling of something being "off" was still there - but it was completely overridden by the crisis du jour, the appearance of the unsettling new face, and the return of the Asari Authoritarian. Her hand was near the reopened, bleeding wound. She could feel the warmth of blood or infection near the edge of his suit. Aashe frowned, she knew he needed help...

After whatever reply was received - she'd hold her Omni Tool up to her lips. "Jarvis, open the door - and scrub the clean room. It looks like it's going to be getting some use again."

Astila nodded to him. If the Krogan had been around, she would have shot him. Seeing him struggle, she holstered her Carnifex and walked closer to them. "Aashe, we should get him to Huerta.", Astila said, grabbing Kreiger's other arm and swinging it around her shoulders to help him stand.

There had been a pit in Jeshua's stomach ever since he talked to Araus. He was worried that this day would come, but he wished he had time to prepare; now he could be ambushed at any moment, and the thought made him shudder as the elevator took him to the docking area. Araus' research had been thorough - though she had nothing on Corwin, at least nothing that Jeshua hadn't already painstakingly found himself - and she had Aashe's ship, the Eris, pegged in Docking Bay B-12.

He had just stepped out of the elevator when he saw the scene unfolding at the entrance to the ship. Aashe, Astila, and the - according to the dossiers, that is - "gender-confused "man"" that had shown up after Jeshua were dragging Kreiger aboard the Eris. Well that isn't good, Jeshua thought. He found it too coincidental that he was being hunted and now one of his soon-to-be crew members was being dragged aboard the ship as if he couldn't walk himself.

Jeshua looked around and darted for the nearest shadowy hinding spot. He waited for a few minutes but saw no one make an advance upon the ship. But they wouldn't, since I'm not on there. If anything, this is to draw me out. So he decided against approaching the ship normally, sticking to the shadows instead. There was a stretch, however, in front of the main doors, where he couldn't hide anymore. And if he wanted on the ship, he had to reveal himself for however brief a moment. It would be all a killer needed, however.

And Jeshua fought with himself until there was only one conclusion, one decision he had made: he would go for it, because he couldn't stay in the shadows forever. And so, with perhaps a lack of enthusiasm or confidence, he rushed himself out towards the door, hoping his instincts were right. And if they weren't ... it wasn't going to matter anyways. It would be a one-shot bullet, for an instant kill. No pain.

meanwhile in an enclosed room somewhere
Systems reactivating... starting diagnostic scans... "Platform is active no physical damage detected. Error cannot connect to Geth primary hub. Scanning area. Platform detects multiple signals 205 active mobile synthetic signals and 450 unknown signals. Search also indicates heretic signals in multiple local servers. Scans indicate countermeasures employed in area's systems to prevent hacking enclosure open without danger to platform. Enclosure is designed to resist/negate unit's weaponry. Checking for extranet connections. Disabling defensive firewalls. Creating dummy search routines. Connection established. Searching... sending distress signal using creator code. Entering hibernation mode to conserve power."

(Edit had to add more details)

Aivar entered the ship after them. It was sleek, and very functional, practical, just as anyone would expect from a Turian ship. 'He' followed them to the clean room. 'He' didn't know what to do really. Finally, 'he' cleared 'his' throat and said "I have medical experience, but I'm afraid I'm not that clean." 'His' armor charred from electrical bombs that 'his' biotics frequently contained. 'He' had bought it a few years back. It was suppose to withstand high electrical shocks, but 'he' guessed it was meant for the outside, not inside.

Within a couple of minutes Blasto had arrived to the docking area. Knowing full well that there would be no more need to blend in amidst the crowd, it found the nearest trash can and rid itself of the disguise. It inspected the area very thoroughly but found nothing out of the ordinary for a docking bay. It needed to locate its targets before it was too late. Time was a factor. Knowing not what to do, It decided the only course of action was to hum the traditional Hanar song for concentration. A beautifully complex ancient tune that was translated from ancient Enkindler texts. A rhythm poetry that had helped even the great Petardenalo give aid to the Hanar towards the race's first encounter of intelligent life. The tune went something like:

Dananana Inspector Hanar
Dananana NA NA
OOOH OOOOH

Blasto's mind was as clear as the fountain in the Citadel after the Hanar had thrown away those annoying fish that plagued it. No problems, no reservations, no more anger. Hanar serenity is one like no other. In an easier fashion than before, the Hanar slowly turned its body around the room to investigate for its target again. It then spotted them. Right there. Mocking it in their own manner. It slowly approached them and lightly tapped on the closest individual's shoulder.

"This one has found you", victoriously proclaimed the Hanar.

The man turned around not recognizing the Hanar.

"Can I help you?" asked the man.

Blasto stayed in place and knew just what to do. It was finally time to end this. After weeks of this unending task, it could finally be over within the next few seconds.

"Your family's stolen credits were found about three day agos. You can locate them in the C-Sec Offices" said Blasto.

"Oh well... thanks" smiled the man, as him and his family began to walk towards the elevator.

A mission well done. The fate of the Citadel's political state could have hinged on that man finding their spending money (not). One mission down, one to go. The Hanar now had to wait for that one group of mercenaries it almost forgot about to join up and leave for their mission.