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Post by Daughters of Nekarra on Oct 23, 2015 3:34:18 GMT
Druss found where he and Kianna - and Able - and Mantric - had fought, more or less; debris had collapsed the ground into an underground storage area, and if the asari was still there there was nothing left to identify her. Mantric was gone too, either escaped, or buried, and as Druss looked back, Varman’s troop had made itself scarce as well. In the distance, on an open landing pad attached to his auction house, a shuttle was powering up its engines, with silhouettes visible scrambling on board, and around the stricken colony's port blast doors were slamming closed, shielding the fortunate while their slower comrades pounded desperately at the metal, and other small craft were lifting off. One honeycomb segment of the atmosphere shield was barely holding now, just a hint of a glowing lattice flickering in and out of visibility - when that failed, Druss would shortly find herself alone on an asteroid full of corpses.
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Druss Jorkakt
Explorer
Name: Druss Jorkakt
Race: Volus
Occupation: Security guard - Cision Motors
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Post by Druss Jorkakt on Oct 24, 2015 21:36:34 GMT
There really wasn't any time to plan an escape, other than sprint for her life to Varman's ship, the volus sprinting/waddling as fast as she could towards it, trying not to get lost or crushed amidst the crumbling buildings. Blindly jumping through a dust cloud after a warehouse had crumbled, Druss found herself now sliding down the roof of Varman's former auction house, the volus almost at her escape, ready to run to it and jump in.
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Post by Daughters of Nekarra on Oct 26, 2015 2:49:38 GMT
The shuttle was within reach, the last of Varman’s squad scrambling inside after their master but the hatch still open for a few seconds, Druss made a leap - and collided with the auctioneer, who had had the same idea at the same time, and left the two sprawled on the pad as the hatch clanged shut with a final “Many regrets, my man!” from within.
“Eyeless son of a whore!” the auctioneer shouted as he pushed Druss off. He whirled around to glare at the volus, but evidently didn’t feel it was worth starting a fight at this point, as he just spat on the ground and slumped down, gazing back up at the retreating shuttle-
-which swerved madly as a frigate loomed up in its path, emerging from behind the lip of the crater and positioning itself right over the forming breach in the atmosphere shield, using its own barriers to keep the field stable. Varman - or someone on the shuttle - reacted by swivelling its turret around to bear on the warship, and suddenly it seemed Druss has been lucky not to get aboard as twin beams lanced out from the frigate and blew it out of existence.
And then a message echoed out of every speaker, comms console, and active omni-tool on the colony:
“This is the Asari Republics vessel Vanguard. In response to the clear and immediate danger to the population we are assuming emergency command of the colony. We have stabilised your air shield. Disarm all weapons, and ground your ships. Any launch will be treated as hostile. This is your only warning.”
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Rahi
Traveller
Name: Rahilan Eleis
Race: asari
Occupation: Huntress pilot
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Post by Rahi on Oct 26, 2015 2:50:49 GMT
“Crisis drones go,” Rahi ordered, turning to Tahlia. “Observation and interdiction. I want all the gang bosses down there staring down too many barrels to get creative and try for a hostage scenario.”
“You think they’ll keep quiet?” Saphne wondered.
“Tol Varman was a heavy hitter,” Rahi shrugged. “With luck they’ll take that as a warning. The smart one’ll reason we can’t make arrests, once the crisis is over. They can sit it out. Probably had enough damage for one day already.” She scowled at her command displays. “Pity we couldn’t have taken out that damned freighter earlier.”
“Not our fight,” Saphne said ruefully. “Colony survival overrides territoriality, but that’s as far as we can push our jurisdiction.” She took note of a signal from the surface, and nodded. “Ela’s signed in. Quite glad to see us, under the circumstances, even if it does mean abandoning the surveillance operation.”
“No kidding,” Rahi sighed. “Well, can’t be helped. How long until the task group gets here?”
“Four hours going by Aurora Convergent’s last update.”
“Okay. These people can’t cause that much trouble in four hours, surely.”
“No more than they have already.”
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Druss Jorkakt
Explorer
Name: Druss Jorkakt
Race: Volus
Occupation: Security guard - Cision Motors
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Post by Druss Jorkakt on Oct 27, 2015 20:39:43 GMT
Not long after, Druss was wandering the unstable remains of the auction house, waddling past broken cages and scavenging slaves, soon headed into the streets beyond, wary of any looters around, going back towards the warehouse where her brief firefight was. Looking around the rubble for the corpses, she hoped any locals would just avoid her and assume she was looting the place or looking for anyone trapped inside. In her mind, Deacon would want photos of the bodies, to confirm them as dead, or else her bit to become a 'spectre' would be all for nothing.
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Post by Daughters of Nekarra on Oct 28, 2015 2:35:06 GMT
The fires had gone out - a cluster of drones had spread out from the asari warship, projecting bubble barriers that starved the flames of oxygen one by one with mechanical efficiency. Apart from that it had simply continued to hover motionless in the ‘sky’, nobody on the ground feeling up to putting its threat to the test. Somebody had released a number of slaves somewhere, and with nobody to stop them they had released others, and so on, while their former masters wisely stayed put inside their sealed offices and grounded ships; some of the newly-freed vented their anger with shouted insults and hurled rocks, but so far no real violence had broken out. Everyone was holding their breath, waiting to see what the asari would do next.
Nobody paid Druss any heed - the looters here and there didn’t seem interested in the ruined buildings, with richer pickings elsewhere - so she wasn’t stopped. The debris had settled into a rough incline, with enough handholds to clamber down into the storage area the courtyard had collapsed into, and the volus wasn’t disturbed during her search. All she turned up, though, was a scrap of reactive fabric from the battlegear, stained with blue blood. Possibly good enough for a genetic print; it would just have to do.
~~~~~
Deacon looked quite different the next time Druss set eyes on her, a little way away from the Spacer’s Dive, chatting with a vorcha in Blood Pack armour in the shadow of an ad kiosk, which was being roundly ignored by everyone as it methodically cycled through newsbytes and promotions. Gone was the eye-catching business attire - now she wore battlegear of her own, with a rugged shotgun stowed on her back. Nothing too out of the ordinary for Omega, though.
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Druss Jorkakt
Explorer
Name: Druss Jorkakt
Race: Volus
Occupation: Security guard - Cision Motors
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Post by Druss Jorkakt on Oct 29, 2015 18:41:05 GMT
Waddling over to her once the conversation with the vorcha had ended, Druss would present Deacon with the fabric. "*hssk* She's dead. So's Mantric." Druss figured she might have heard about the rest of what had gone down, although her armour would give hints to a rough fight, a multitude of new scratches and a few dents where shots hit armoured plating. Druss waited for her response, tired but excitedly anticipating hearing she did a good job and would get a recommendation, barely thinking of all the other groups she angered on her way through.
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Post by Daughters of Nekarra on Oct 29, 2015 23:07:55 GMT
“Huh?” Deacon looked around, then down, and after a split second seeming genuinely confused gathered herself with a wry smile.
“Yes, we heard,” she nodded, taking the scrap of fabric and studying it. “I see. Hers, I take it? Well then.” She studied the blood stain a moment, sighed, then shrugged and tucked it into one of her belt pouches.
“Well we’ll send this off for analysis, of course,” she went on, “but we had people keeping tabs on the situation, so we’ve confirmed what needed to be confirmed. Mantric as well?” She pursed her lips, then gave a dismissive little shake of her head. “Shame - useful source of information. But sometimes you have to cut someone loose, I’m sure you understand.”
She gave Druss a calculating stare.
“And nobody identified you? Who you were working on behalf of?”
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Druss Jorkakt
Explorer
Name: Druss Jorkakt
Race: Volus
Occupation: Security guard - Cision Motors
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Post by Druss Jorkakt on Oct 30, 2015 2:58:20 GMT
"*hssk* No, not anyone still alive." Druss remembered yelling out Deacon's name, figuring all involved had died in the firefight or blew up in the shuttle. Leaning back on the news post, she'd quietly sigh, trying to read Deacon's expression and body movements with some minor skill, likely misreading, too tired to focus. "*hssk* So, did I do good?" Yawning, Druss half closed her eyes, leaving herself open to any attack by Deacon, trusting the asari enough to let her guard down.
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Post by Daughters of Nekarra on Nov 2, 2015 3:08:51 GMT
Deacon glanced left and right during Druss’s moment of distraction - but no, too many people. And was it really necessary? She had been planning to just not show up for their ‘post-mission’ meeting - careless of her to be around where she could be spotted, although she’d honestly assumed given the news out of Nuatan that somebody or other would have shot the volus in the course of it all. No need to waste a good exit strategy, though.
“Good enough,” she agreed. “Now we take the raw material - that’s you - and add training and equipment. You’ll have a lot of work to do over the next year; once you’re finished maybe you can tell me all about it.”
She glanced at her omni-tool as if checking the time.
“I’ve got a couple of people still to see here,” she explained. “Head to the old mining station in Ekura district, my ship’s docked on level 8. The crew will expect you, and you can get started picking out new armour and weapons and so forth.” She straightened to leave, then paused. “Mind your step down there, there are some vorcha nests not too far away - nothing you can’t handle, I’m sure. Council ships can’t just put in at the public docking bays on Omega after all.”
She gave her little salute again.
“Be seeing you.”
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Druss Jorkakt
Explorer
Name: Druss Jorkakt
Race: Volus
Occupation: Security guard - Cision Motors
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Post by Druss Jorkakt on Nov 2, 2015 21:40:40 GMT
Returning the salute, Druss started making her way to level 8, quietly wondering about what Deacon had said, finding it odd that she was supposed to receive training, but continued unless ambushed by any vorcha on the way there. Starting to think as she walked, doubt prodded at her brain, making a conscious effort to shove it into the back of her mind, Deacon's words now ringing with suspicion, a she closed in on the level 8 docks . . .
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Post by Daughters of Nekarra on Nov 3, 2015 2:33:48 GMT
It’s an easy thing to tell oneself that they’re over-thinking things - letting silly little doubts run rampant in the mind, blowing all out of proportion - but there comes a point when one has to face the fact that they’ve been had. In this case, that point was a couple of metres past the section bulkhead, where the old docking airlock came into view... and clearly hadn’t been used in years, its access screen dark, undisturbed dust and grime layered onto the ridges in the door and the gantry leading to it, and through the streaked viewport to one side, the far end of the docking arm jutting into very empty space.
~~~
Several districts over, Ventris Calisle - who really shouldn’t have indulged her nostalgia by calling herself Deacon, but nobody besides an asari or a krogan would remember the spy drama serial that was her childhood favourite - was embarking; no stealthy Council courier, just a commonplace passenger liner, and she just one of a few dozen travellers shuffling along in line as the ship’s VI greeted them one by one and directed them to their seats under the less-than-watchful eye of a bored security guard.
She reflected that the whole episode would make rather a fun story - a little vague on the details, since she only knew what the news nets were saying about Nuatan, but obviously the little volus had led the batties who owned Traxi straight to Ekela, and then nature in the form of a pack of trigger-happy mercs with grudges had taken its course. But then again, perhaps best not. Ekela, if she hadn’t been dead, would probably have been regretting telling her ‘friends’ about the volus blowing her cover on Illium, so all in all, better to let sleeping varren lie.
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Druss Jorkakt
Explorer
Name: Druss Jorkakt
Race: Volus
Occupation: Security guard - Cision Motors
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Post by Druss Jorkakt on Nov 3, 2015 21:16:45 GMT
Druss was crushed by the realization, anger seeping into her veins as she saw 'Deacon', logic kicking in for once, as she decided not to pursue her. Kicking the ground, she turned around, figuring she would go back to the Spacer's Dive, or perhaps somewhere fancier, to get her mind off recent events. As she walked along however, several sets of glowing eyes peered at her from the dark shadows, the sounds of vorcha hissing echoed through the area. Reaching for her shotgun, she checked the heat sink. Well, it's no bar but it'll do for now . . .
-End
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