|
Post by Eclipse Illium on Dec 17, 2015 3:20:30 GMT
Eclipse Headquarters was one of Nos Astra’s tallest towers - elegant and arrogant. There were no dingy back rooms where deals were conducted in furtive secrecy, but opulent foyers staffed by attendants in expensive dresses, VIs offering presentations of the corporation’s range of services, and officers like CEOs in perfectly tailored suits, meeting clients in suites decorated with authentic antiques and one-of-a-kind art, each private war they were negotiating condensed down to an annotated prospectus in a stylish folder.
Possibly it said something that Captain Naarada Avera had decided to be elsewhere for tonight’s meeting - the Eclipse tower was just part of the glittering skyline, seen through the gaps between Cold Claw district’s nondescript hab blocks and storehouses. Naarada waited in a booth at a corner cafe, where the usual patrons - shift workers and the working poor - cast nervous glances at her battle armour and weapons, and stayed well out of her way.
|
|
Druss Jorkakt
Explorer
Name: Druss Jorkakt
Race: Volus
Occupation: Security guard - Cision Motors
|
Post by Druss Jorkakt on Dec 18, 2015 23:48:35 GMT
Still unsure of where the more looser criminal elements of Nos Astra hung out, Druss had gone to the meeting in combat armour, seeing the asari by the cafe, the two standing out from the crowd with ease. Walking up to Avera, Druss would cough to get her attention, not exactly putting herself at the best position to negotiate her pay for the job as the asari would be literally looking down on her. "*hssk* You're the eclipse merc? Who offered the job, right?" She had brought a mere Avenger rifle and M-3 pistol for her weapons, but felt confident enough that this wouldn't be a set-up, given the public setting.
|
|
|
Post by Eclipse Illium on Dec 19, 2015 11:50:07 GMT
Naarada gave Druss an emotionless look, then gestured at the seat opposite her.
“Naarada Avera. Captain. Sit.”
She placed a small device on the tabletop - a privacy field - and activated it, then slid a data pad towards Druss.
“Standard contract for an Eclipse one-time hire,” she explained. “One mission, fifty hours max, payment flat rate or percentage, your choice. You won't be expected to fight, my people will handle that. You're EOD, whatever we encounter that needs disarming. And you agree to absolute confidentiality - you sign, you don’t repeat one word of anything you hear or see, ever. Understood?” She pointed to the pad. “Read it over if you want. No hurry. Once you're under contract, we talk specifics.”
|
|
Druss Jorkakt
Explorer
Name: Druss Jorkakt
Race: Volus
Occupation: Security guard - Cision Motors
|
Post by Druss Jorkakt on Dec 19, 2015 20:40:05 GMT
Taking a seat, Druss skimmed over the contract, quick to sign it. Work on Illium had been far slower than the volus had hoped, and this would be a much needed source of pay. Sliding the datapad back over to Avera, Druss was visibly eager to negotiate her payment. "*hssk* Yes, of course. But eclipse would have experts for this, right? *hssk* Why the third party-" Thinking better than to question the opportunity, Druss figured she'd ask as few questions on what the job was, the promise of credits now more of a priority than her ill-conceived spectre-quest. "*hssk* Whichever will pay more, of course. Where is this operation and who will I be working with?" Figuring that was enough to see if anything was fishy with the job without getting overly nosey. Looking back at Avera, Druss' emotions concealed under the suit, perhaps giving her more of an edge in the intimidation game, were it not for the short stature.
|
|
|
Post by Eclipse Illium on Dec 20, 2015 12:31:20 GMT
Naarada checked the contract before answering, then slid the data pad off the table into her satchel and glanced at the privacy unit.
“Flat rate, fifty K,” she said. “Or five per cent. Our conservative estimate gives you a six figure sum for five per cent. I know what I’d take. Either way, you cost me less than putting in for an EOD out of work pool - that way admin gets their noses in, Tech-Com takes an automatic percentage, I wouldn’t even put it past some pureblood office bitch to rush in her own team and steal the package.” She snorted a laugh. “Illium, right?”
She leaned forward and used her omni-tool to project a hologram of a light frigate.
“This is Flanker,” she explained. “One of our wetworks transports. During the Reaper War her team... acquired a copy of Denmark Vas’s personal database. He runs all the Blue Suns’ Terminus ops, if you weren’t aware, kind of a big deal. He wasn’t happy, long story short, got a bomb onto the ship, she went down in old Nos Astra. Owned by Reapers at the time, so not the kind of place to send in a work crew to haul the wreck out, you know? Intel had it that the crash site was razed flat afterwards anyway, probably making room for husk factories or whatever they did. Water under the bridge.”
She leaned closer and lowered her voice.
“Two days ago, I got reliable intel that Flanker’s shutdown core emissions were picked up by an automated structural probe run by NASRA - reclamation of the old city, you know? Those records got... quietly removed from their system, so nobody else knows. The ship is there, buried, and if the core’s ticking over, maybe intact enough that her cargo is as well. Heavy duty data module, stored in the ship's reinforced high-priority cargo module... good odds.”
She tapped a finger on the tabletop.
“The reason you’re here is that our intel says Vas planted a nanite self-construct core-buster on Flanker. Obviously something brought her down. but since she came down in one piece instead of a fine mist, it wasn’t the primary charge. Maybe one of the crew found the bomb and set off a secondary trying to disarm it, who knows? That’s why we need you. It’ll be a team of four: me, two of my people - firearms, and network - and you. You disable whatever’s left of the bomb, we do the rest, all four of us move up in the world. Any questions?”
|
|
Druss Jorkakt
Explorer
Name: Druss Jorkakt
Race: Volus
Occupation: Security guard - Cision Motors
|
Post by Druss Jorkakt on Dec 20, 2015 20:11:38 GMT
"*hssk* Understood. I'll take five percent then?" Looking over the hologram, she nodded, despite getting little information from the image itself. She still wasn't sure what was on this storage drive they were going after, and felt unsure to ask. Feeling it was worth the risk, especially given the 'off-the-books' nature of the job, she tried leaning forward, hands clasped together, again trying to appear 'professional' and not 'desperate for money'. "*hssk* Any clue why this server is so important? It all sounds like pretty old info. *hssk* I mean, why go after it?" If Naarada shut down the volus' like of questioning, Druss would still gladly accept the job.
"*hssk* And uhm, this network techie is reliable?" Thinking over what was said, Druss tried to recall the usual disarming strategies for the type of bomb she'd be up against, wanting the information fresh in her mind.
|
|
|
Post by Eclipse Illium on Dec 20, 2015 22:42:55 GMT
“Why it’s important?” Naarada arched an eyebrow. “Head of Terminus ops for the Blue Suns - all Terminus ops. Every one of his buyers, suppliers, contacts, every bit of dirt he’s got on his rivals and his own people, love letters to his favourite batarian trannies...” She grinned. “Even without the last few years in the package, give our politicals a free run at that database, and I guarantee you every Blue Sun from here to the Abyss will be looking for either a new career or a coffin. Worth chasing, you think?”
She sniffed at Druss’s followup question and nodded curtly.
“He’s one of mine,” she explained. “Not a requisition, my personal team. So’s firepower. We came through the war together. That all?”
|
|
Druss Jorkakt
Explorer
Name: Druss Jorkakt
Race: Volus
Occupation: Security guard - Cision Motors
|
Post by Druss Jorkakt on Dec 20, 2015 23:18:59 GMT
Laughing as she heard the bit about the batarians, she nodded her head, nodding in agreement over finding the server. "*hssk* How soon are we leaving?" The job itself sounded fairly easy, and getting contacts in eclipse, she realized, would be a valuable asset going forward. Too bad she couldn't use the mission as more proof to the 'spectres' that she was qualified to join their ranks, if only in her mind.
|
|
|
Post by Eclipse Illium on Dec 21, 2015 0:18:06 GMT
“Now,” Naarada said, standing. “No more talking until we’re secure, okay?”
She switched off the privacy field, picked up her satchel, and tilted her head for Druss to follow her. Parked a short distance from the cafe was a skycar, painted a drab grey, but an expensive model. The passenger door swung open for Druss, and Naarada got in to pilot the ‘car manually.
“Travel to old Nos Astra’s restricted,” she explained once they were in the air. “My tech guy is rigging an echo transponder to our transport so we’ll read outside the exclusion zone to the traffic grid. Should be done by the time we get there. I figured you’d agree.” She glanced at Druss. “I don’t ask questions without having a pretty good idea what the answers will be.”
The rest of the short trip was conducted in silence, and after a few minutes the ‘car set down outside a garage. Light was spilling out from the interior, where a salarian in Eclipse armour had an access hatch open on the side of another skycar - no luxury model, but a bullet-scarred armoured transport - and was frowning thoughtfully at his omni-tool. The only other occupant was a young asari, barely out of adolescence, tastelessly dressed like a girl who has snuck out of her parents’ house after dark to go clubbing, and just finishing reassembling an M-100 grenade launcher in her lap; the weapon seemed ridiculous in her small hands. Both looked up as Naarada and Druss entered and closed the garage doors behind them.
“Kin Lorta,” Naarada said, indicating the salarian, then the asari: “and Clemency. Ignore the whore wardrobe, she’s the best born killer on the planet.” The asari poked out her tongue at the passing insult to her fashion sense, and set the grenade launcher down amid a stack of other similarly brutal weapons. "People, Druss Jorkakt. We keep her alive, she keeps us from blowing up.” She indicated a weapons and supplies locker in the corner to Druss. “Take whatever you need. Go light on guns, that’s what Clemency’s here for. Athame's sake girl, get into armour. Wheels up in ten.”
|
|
Druss Jorkakt
Explorer
Name: Druss Jorkakt
Race: Volus
Occupation: Security guard - Cision Motors
|
Post by Druss Jorkakt on Dec 21, 2015 1:53:24 GMT
Druss nodded to the salarian and loudly dressed asari, taking an M-3 from the box. "*hssk* Clemency's an odd name for a thessia-clan." Sure it was insulting, but Druss wanted to see just how stable this very unstable appearing person was.
|
|
|
Post by Eclipse Illium on Dec 21, 2015 3:00:14 GMT
“Got it in the fighting pits,” the young asari said conversationally, pulling her top off over her head. “Crowds love irony. Get it? It means ‘mercy’. ‘S kinda funny.” She suddenly fixed Druss with an incredulous frown. “Turn around perv, I’m changing!”
“Miss Clemency is best let alone,” the salarian said quietly, standing near Druss while he topped up his omni-tool with gel and power packs. “She is exceptional at her chosen profession; you needn’t concern yourself with anything else.”
“All right people, load up,” Naarada called. Lorta shrugged and slid nimbly into the transport, while Clemency finished donning a suit of heavy armour custom-built for her size, fitted her various weapons to her back, and clambered in after her teammate. Naarada followed Druss in and again took the pilot’s seat, opening the door by remote and steering them out and into the night sky.
It took a few minutes to pass beyond the lights of new Nos Astra, and once in darkness the transport accelerated and descended to skim nimbly over the shadowed ground. Before long shapes began to loom on either side of them, but there were no lights or signs of life beyond single pulsing beacons fitted to the top of each tower: the ruins of old Nos Astra, what had remained when the Reapers left.
“Wicked,” Clemency breathed as they passed a large open space - the dim starlight and the ever-present glow from the horizon was just enough to make out a crater, a mile wide, smooth as glass.
“That’s where the Cloudtower blew,” she whispered, pressing the face of her helmet to the viewport as they passed by. “The old weather control master station? They never had time for a controlled shutdown when they evacuated, and the Reapers just ignored it. Eclipse commandos got in and rigged it to go catastrophic-critical. Killed a Destroyer with the blast.” She sat back in her seat as the crater receded from view, and turned enthusiastically to Lorta and Druss. “One of the commandos who survived the raid told me all the husks outside the physical blast radius got melted by the molecular shockwave - like, all the electronics that got implanted in them overloaded, they got immobilised like statues then implants slowly liquified the flesh right off them. So awesome.” Lorta rolled his large eyes as if he was used to this sort of thing from her.
“Coming up on LZ,” Naarada announced. Clemency huffed and pulled out a Mattock rifle, rechecking it quickly.
“Stay put a moment,” Lorta advised Druss as the transport thudded down. Clemency was first out, moving quickly for cover in a rubble-strewn landing pad, in which a number of emergency floodlights and generators had been set up, all darkened.
“Clear,” the young asari called, and Naarada and Lorta followed her, the salarian beckoning Druss along. The site had obviously been set up recently, as part of the ongoing effort to reclaim the old city, clear away the debris and ruins and all trace of the war, and make way for new Nos Astra to expand further. Beyond the inactive floodlights a number of earthmovers were parked, and there was a small lean-to with storage crates and portable computers for the work crews.
There was no sign of anyone else; surveying the scene through night-vision enhancers, it was difficult to make out the blue stains of blood here and there on the landing pad.
“This way,” Naarada said over squad comms. A construction elevator had been set up a short distance away, at the top of a shaft bored down into the ground. The Eclipse team moved quietly into the elevator, and began to descend.
|
|
Druss Jorkakt
Explorer
Name: Druss Jorkakt
Race: Volus
Occupation: Security guard - Cision Motors
|
Post by Druss Jorkakt on Dec 21, 2015 4:22:26 GMT
Checking over her equipment as the elevator descended, Druss tried not to be overwhelmed by the sight of the old city. Memories from Irune started to slam against her head, the not-so vertical volus taking a deep breath or two to collect her thoughts. Deciding not to play the total stoic on this mission, Druss raised a question. "*hssk* Expect any resistance?" She had to admit, Clemency seemed to know what she was doing, and her attitude was certainly a confidence booster. Still, the husk story was an uncertain thing. She either had a few screws loose, or she was just in an adrenaline rush for the mission.
|
|
|
Post by Eclipse Illium on Dec 21, 2015 5:00:33 GMT
“Hope so,” Clemency piped up.
“Unlikely,” Naarada added, as the lift slowly descended - first through rock, compressed debris, then through glimpses of half-collapsed floors and maintenance tunnels. “We controlled the source info, nobody else knows the ship is down here. Can never be too careful though. Scavengers get into the old city sometimes. Varren maybe. Even NASRA workers in their down time looking for something to loot ahead of the damage surveys.” She glanced back at her team as the lift shuddered to a halt. “If we do meet anyone, we’re not here to share.”
“As you say,” Lorta nodded. Clemency switched from her rifle to a Disciple shotgun as they moved out of the elevator, sweeping its barrel to cover the dark passageways. The salarian knelt to examine a squat object in a corner of the intersection - a small reconnaissance unit, armoured sensors and manipulator arms on a pair of treads - and pointed along a passageway.
“Up there. Signals fluctuating due to interference. Distance uncertain.”
“Let’s move,” Naarada ordered. “Druss, keep an eye on the area. Just in case. Scavvies leave traps sometimes.” She gave the volus a pat on the back and moved on.
The area seemed to have been a parking garage, although it was difficult to tell - floors had caved in on one another, leaving tilted, jagged openings between one area and the next. Someone had set up reinforcing struts at regular intervals, ensuring the ceiling didn’t collapse any further, but it was a claustrophobic trip, with everyone but Druss having to periodically crouch to get beneath cracked plascrete slabs bulging with the weight of rock on top of them.
“Cavity up ahead,” Lorta announced quietly. “One of the old generator stations. Or what’s left of it.” They had passed through some sort of joining corridor, through an opening torn in a reinforced wall, and were now on a metal catwalk covering coolant pipes, broken and empty. Clemency poked her head through a hatch that had half come off its hinges, and gave a low whistle.
“Hey volus,” she said, “you like climbing?”
Naarada waved Druss forward, to show her the path ahead - a vertical shaft, filled with debris at the bottom, and the remains of a detonated turbine still hanging above by the handful of support beams that hadn’t broken free. A reasonably intact ladder led to a catwalk halfway down, which circled the shaft to an exit hatch on the far side.
|
|
Druss Jorkakt
Explorer
Name: Druss Jorkakt
Race: Volus
Occupation: Security guard - Cision Motors
|
Post by Druss Jorkakt on Dec 21, 2015 5:48:49 GMT
"*hssk* That's a big drop. We're going down?" Receiving confirmation to her question, Druss slung her Avenger on her back, beginning the descent of the ladder. Aside from a few unnerving moments where the supports holding the turbine creaked uncomfortably loudly. Reaching the bottom, she flicked on her suit's buit-in night vision function, re-equipping her avenger, checking to see if the rest of the team had made it down. "*hssk* Hope we don't have to climb back up. Ladder might not be totally secure."
|
|
|
Post by Eclipse Illium on Dec 22, 2015 0:55:54 GMT
“Into the thresher’s belly,” Clemency joked.
“I’ll float you back up when we come out,” Naarada shrugged. “Won’t be elegant but it’ll work. Lorta?”
“We’re close,” the salarian reported, studying his omni-tool. “Exotic metal readings intensifying. Bearing locked to active tech.”
“Lot of static on sensors,” Clemency muttered as she ducked through the hatchway and moved in a crouch through the narrow crevice beyond it. “Some... Goddess damn it. Lorta?”
“We expected this,” Lorta replied. “Can't be helped.”
“Alright, light ‘em up,” Naarada sighed. “If salvage was easy, everyone’d be doing it... Druss, you got lights on that suit?” She and her team activated spotlights on the shoulders of their armour and mounted on their weapons. As Druss moved into the passageway beyond the hatch her night-vision system started going haywire as well, distorting the view in stomach-turning ways before finally giving up.
“I see the hull,” Clemency reported from up ahead.
“Anything that looks like an airlock?”
“No such luck,” Lorta said, scanning ahead, where a wall of curved black metal abruptly cut off the corridor. “Cavity on the other side. We can cut through.”
“Do it,” Naarada ordered. She glanced at Druss. “At least we know nobody got in ahead of us. Speaking of...” She detached a unit from her belt, primed it, and tossed it back along the way they had come - part-way through its arc it sprouted mechanical legs and latched itself onto the uneven ceiling, before unfurling a pair of gun barrels that patiently panned back and forth.
“Don’t want anyone coming up behind us,” the asari explained. “Once we’re inside, you’re up. Check everything, there’s no telling what’s in there. Nanotech bombs can build themselves nasty defences if you leave it alone too long, and this thing’s been down here years.”
Up ahead Lorta had been burning through the hull with his omni-tool, and finally there was a clang - deafening in the small space - as the metal fell inwards. Clemency ducked through first, ignoring the scorched scratches on her armour where it touched the cooling edge of the cut.
“Crawlway,” she called back. “Some kind of... conveyor belt, maybe? Leads further inside.”
“It’ll do,” Naarada decided. “Lorta, with me. Druss, in you go. Clemency, stay close behind the EOD, give her cover. Touch nothing.”
Inside the crawlspace Clemency awkwardly shifted to one side, leaving just enough room for Druss to squeeze past. The conveyor belt they were standing on made soft scraping sounds as they moved - thousands of tiny hooks set into its surface, rasping against the soles of their boots.
“This is sick,” the young asari breathed, sounding oddly excited.
There wasn’t anything that seemed dangerous - no monofilament tripwires, no sensors, no power emissions - and after a short while of awkward crawling the walls suddenly ended, opening into a pitch black space that seemed to absorb the spotlights shining into it, leaving visibility only a few metres.
“Everyone stay close,” Naarada ordered, clambering out behind Druss and Clemency, with Lorta following behind. “Lorta, any clue where we are?”
“Well-”
“Goddess!”
Clemency had advanced a few steps, and as her spotlight swung around it fell on a grey, dead face. Oily, gleaming metal had been worked into it, seeming to blossom like flowers in the cavities where the flesh had decayed away. The corpse hung in mid-air, supported by a spike driven through its chest from the floor; the implants seemed to have been spreading from it. Lorta turned up the power on his spotlights and swept the area, revealing more - row upon row of lifeless, rotting husks. Clemency, regaining her composure, cursed under her breath.
“We’re in the right place,” the salarian said dryly.
“So, hey, Druss,” Naarada said conversationally - although not without a slight tremor in her voice - “it’s possible I may have been less than honest about what sort of ship we’re in.”
|
|