Mass Effect: Hired Guns

Arinlarkan system asteroid belt, Omega Nebula


The MSV Man-O'-War stuck out like a sore thumb at the Pyadu station docks, not in the least because that region of docks was half-empty. The monthly mining freighter was parked several bays down, where it had been for the last two galactic standard days, and probably would be for another one before its holds were filled with palladium. Two bays down, a number of shuttles, transports, and battleships with the Blue Sun insignia sat in storage. As the Man-O'-War had approached the station, Captain Ekulo had looked out the window, speculating which one of them was intended to be his.

This trip had been months of careful planning in the making, and it was the final part of the conniving hanar's plan to trade up from the aging Man-O'-War. He had strategically taken some contracts near Blue Sun territory, until he struck it big with some saved passwords and a dead lieutenant's omni-tool. With his login credentials, he was able to weasel his way into financial records, and he had found damning evidence that Senys Bessin, one of the divisional higher-ups, had been stealing resources by falsifying combat loss records. A bit of blackmail later, and he had a meeting set up at the old station. From here, everything would theoretically be simple: hand over their copy of the data, receive the registry for a brand-new spaceship care of the Blue Sun, and fly off having profited greatly. At Ekulo's request, none of the crew was to remain on the ship during the exchange; this was the Blue Suns, after all, and sending just one person out would be far too risky.

Pyadu station itself looked like a starstruck admirer of Omega who had tried to follow its path to success, then managed to get it all wrong. Like Omega had started out, it was built into the side of a large asteroid, but to mine palladium instead of eezo. The station had prospered for some years and enjoyed rapid expansion, until an accidental explosion sent the largest portion of the palladium deposit out into space in chunks. The original corporation abandoned the station and sold it cheap to a Batarian startup, which failed and sold it to yet another startup, where it finally passed to its current owner. Currently, it was less situated for mining its own asteroid and more for reaching out to the neighboring ones. That strategy seemed to be improving the lot somewhat, but the minerals were still poor. It was no secret that the real reason the station stayed afloat was the Blue Suns paying to use its facilities as an arsenal and general storage.

The crew now stood outside the manager's office, on a broad boardwalk where the shops were supposed to be. Only a few were actually in business, much less open at the time; otherwise, it was more or less a ghost town. Ekulo and Senys were on the other side of a window (presumably a bulletproof one, knowing mercenary precautions) talking over details, while the rest of the crew looked on, several armored guards for the Blue Sun standing guard between them and the office. It wasn't readily apparent whether Ekulo was doing his nervous or excited tentacle-fidget, but Senys at least looked calm.

What they doing?, wondered the pilot, who hadn't stopped fidgeting since the crew had arrived. Kla's near-solidly dull pink eyes rolled in their sockets, possibly in sync.

The lights and metal floor-walls-ceiling were comfortingly harsh, though probably not for anyone who'd ever lived someplace like a garden world or actually anyplace with a garden. It lent the rank of cobalt soldiers an appropriate degree of shiny menace.

Both at once, the vorcha hoped that something would happen and that nothing would go awry. At any given moment, at least one was apt to be satisfied! Frankly, considering the arms on display, the latter was probably more important.

Oh, but how it wished it were slouched in its chair out in inter-system space, far away from any sort of... organized, human-run mercenary company. Somewhere nice, between stars.

Hardly anyone else seemed to appreciate the old jellyfish, though, so here they were. Too bad. They knew a perfectly nice young lizard-lady who kept it working mostly fine!

Kla's wandering gaze paused for a moment, either out of fondness or because it had lost its train of thought. A subtle and touching expression, by all applicable standards.

The human run mercenary organization put Bere on edge basically immediately. He'd done work with them in the past, yes, but that was always on more mutually beneficial terms. He could tell that blackmailing the biggest organized mercenary company in the galaxy was nothing short of an absolutely terrible idea, but his token pleas with the captain had gotten him nowhere. He paced slowly around the boardwalk, keeping within a short distance of the captain. Occasionally as he passed the other members of the group, he'd raise his hands as if to say something, before shaking his head and continuing to walk.

I hope he knows what he's doing., he thought simply to himself. The Blue Suns were everywhere here, and if anything actually went down they'd already be surrounded. He made a mental note to ask the captain about what would happen to the old Man O'War, after all, Bere could see about buying off of Ekulo for a discount. Though if Ekulo was paying any attention, he'd probably refuse on the grounds that it'd result in Bere leaving on his own path.

Eventually he stopped, checking the window once, before turning back to the others. He once again struggled for something to say, knowing that any sort of warning would already have been understood, and this being nowhere near the time for casual conversation of any sort. Still, it would help pass the time between now and whatever happened next.

This is going to work out, this is going to work out, this is going to work out.  No matter how many times she thought this to herself, the feeling was still there.  In the back of her mind, the paranoid distrust of Batarians.  The captain was a great Hanar, she owed him a lot.  But there was just somethings you don't do.  And that was deal with Pirates, Bandits, Thieves, or those who lack morals in general.  The called themselves mercenaries, but the mercenaries were only the people that did the dirty work.  This Senys... He wasn't a merc.  He was a leader.  A leader that lead the guns-for-hire to do atrocious things just to make a quick buck.  The best deal for them is the one where you are a slave, or, did she dare think it, dead.

She did her best to shut off that dark voice in the back of her mind, and just watch the captain in the biggest haul of the last century.  A new ship.  History was being made, the captain was in the process of blackmailing one of the highest members of one of the largest mercenary groups in the galaxy.  She desired to go back to the ship and break out the Fine Hanar Liquor, when this was all over.

She was constantly checking her omni-tool, making sure there was no immediate change in their surroundings; poison gas, or a shuttle coming in with another squad of heavily armed troops.  Paranoia.  That was how you survived in this galaxy.  That was also how you ruined perfectly good deals.  She just hoped she didn't mess up and react to nothing.

Suddenly her mind swam to the ship.  She did wonder what would become of it.  She knew every inch of that ship as well as she knew every inch of herself, and a few others.  She wasn't sure if she would miss it, the hunk of rust and stripped bolts was not a great ship.  But she had bled for that ship, and there were quite a few of her memories on that ship.  Not that she couldn't remember them at will, but the thought of never having anymore memories in that ship... it filled her with more unease.

Calm your mind, Metis.  If they strike, they will strike quietly and quickly, until they have the advantage.  Then they will revel it in and in your agony.  So she stopped thinking about the ship and anything that could go wrong.  She only watched the actions of the men around her, and analyzed them for even the smallest warning of open hostility.

These were the kinds of operations that she liked. Infiltration, deception, bargaining - high risk and high profit - it had all the perks and dangers that the asari enjoyed required nearly all the tools that was hers to utilize. These jobs were what got her blood running and acted as a testament to her skill. Unfortunately, Ella wasn't given the opportunity to witness the fruits of their hard labor in retrieving this piece valuable information. Discover a scandal on Senys Bessin and then use that to blackmail a high ranking member of the Blue Suns? Yes, yes, yes! There was part of her that didn't like this though. Their captain sat alone in their office without any form of protection, guide, or escort? They were outside to act as back up or to make a quick get away if needed, but there also lie the concern of the captain's safety and the safety of the evidence if things were to go wrong.

The Blue Suns were ruthlessly efficient and discreet... and they were also paid very well for what they do. Naturally, a horde of sweaty men after her own heart. But there also lacked the kind of communion one had in a ragtag team of nobodies on a single ship much like themselves. No real touchy feely kind of communion for the most part though: everybody knew everybody's favorite drink and let each other be generally speaking. While she appreciated the money oriented mindset in the organization, she wouldn't be allowed to freely do as she pleases and instead be forced to take orders from some stiff white-collared criminal benefactoring halfwit of a scapegrace while he drank ryncol from a diamond glass - all whilst being pleasured by an asarian prostitute. Her kind truly didn't have any form of dignity sometimes.

But that's where she drew the line. She had so much more freedom and respect while on Ekulo's ship. The Man-O'-War was falling apart, true, there was a time that they pissed off a crew of pirates and escaped, only to be tracked down because they left a nice and obvious trail of nuts and bolts behind them (fortunately the drell, Metis, came along and rectified that issue), but that's why they were here! To put the old girl out of commission and to have a new ship carry all the burdens of their inevitable misadventures.

Despite her confidence in their mission, being surrounded by mercenaries reminded her to remain suspicious and keep her guard up. She checked the pistol on her hip, as well as the omni-tool on her wrist. Both were secure and functioning normally. If something were to happen, they'd run guns-a-blazing, but by the goddess, they were going to get a damn ship. Even if they'd have to steal it. Have Ekulo pilot one ship and the vorcha the other so they can get out of here and transfer the supplies on the old ship onto the newer one later.

Ella leaned against the wall near no one person in particular, her right foot propped against it with her knee sticking out in front of her. Her arms were folded and she sighed, feeling particularly impatient. If only the hanar could conduct business a little faster. She could practically feel the tension of the others while they waited.

Modain, having only recently joined up with the band of mercenaries that, oddly enough, were led by a Hanar, of all things, was a tad curious about why they were dealing with another group of mercs for a ship. The fact they traveled mainly in the Omega nebula wasn't helpful, but the jobs they got payed well enough, and allowed at least some travel. At the very least, he could see more of the nebula. Although, Omega was the foremost place of interest, certainly, but sometimes you needed to get away from the seedy underbelly of intergalactic civilization. That was where the colonies came in. Colonies were all over the place, not restricted by anything in particular. Although, to be recognized as a colony, it took a certain something. Registration, perhaps? Modain hardly cared about the paperwork involved. But visiting colonies was always an interesting time. Every colony for every species is different, and that made them all interesting learning opportunities.

He contemplated the blade at his side, kept in a repurposed weapons case he'd found and strapped to his side by a synthetic weave belt. It had an old, worn look to it, which, despite his limited understanding of human history and culture, made him think it was certainly authentic, as the man who had sold it to him said. Yet it made him feel slightly odd. He hadn't seen it used with his own eyes, and he wished try it out himself eventually. Still, he tried focusing on the matter at hand. The Blue Suns guards weren't hard to miss, but then, they distracted Modain from the situation at hand. It felt wrong, for whatever reason, to be dealing with them like this. Regardless, the hanar captain was doing it.

Turenk looked around the room, sizing up each of the Blue Suns. They were all anonymous under their helmets, but he could tell many of them were giving him the "krogan" look. Not the look krogans gave other people, but that half-wary, half-condescending look like they expected him to spontaneously lose control and murder his squadmates and then them. He didn't mind being making people anxious, that was for sure. It was just the people assuming he was a mindless brute that annoyed him. Of course, predictably, all of the people who were nervous appeared to be the low-rankers, judging by the quality of their weapons. The higher-ranking members seemed smug, almost bored, and they had Turenk nervous. If there was one thing he knew, it was to never underestimate a smug opponent.

He turned to the quarian wandering about the group. "Something on your mind?" he asked, half to Bere, and half to the rest of the group if he didn't respond.

"Several things, but I'm sure the most pressing is that we're blackmailing a man inside of what is essentially his own space-station." said Bere bluntly, throwing his hands up as he finished it. He knew it didn't need to be said, they all felt it, it showed on their faces... which was probably why he felt the need to say it, to be honest. "It doesn't help the captain let himself be taken away from his backup. In the several seconds it would take me to wait for you to do your thing, and smash through that window, we could lose him. And well, he's the one paying for us all to even be here, right? I'd prefer I not lose the paycheck."

Bere moved slowly over to a railing and leaned over it, briefly trying to ignore what was going on. He was too prepared for the worst case scenario, after all. There was always the chance their doublecross could be less violent, like being not at all given the ship. That was at least as likely as them starting a firefight anyway. After all, Ekulo had brought a Krogan, and the blue suns did not appear to be similarly endowed with might.

Turenk nodded. "Yeah, I don't like it either. There's a lot of trusting going on here." Ekulo had always been clever, but often his touch with reality hadn't been the most firm. "We've just got to be ready for anything and hope it..."

Turenk's voice trailed off as Senys drew a suppressed pistol, his expression stone-cold. Two of Ekulo's front tentacles raised defensively, trying to push the barrel to the side as another tentacle went to his own pistol. But Senys was unimpeded. The gunshot went off like a car door slamming, even through the glass. For a brief second, Ekulo's body, unprotected by a hardsuit, rippled and turned inside out as the bullet ripped through him. The various pieces either fell to the floor or sprayed across the ceiling and walls, high-velocity impact proving immediately catastrophic to the hanar's hydrostatic structure.

Senys looked back through the glass, making brief eye contact with the crew as he raised his hand to his earpiece and issued a command. The guards' guns all started coming up to the ready position, and it would only be a brief second before the bullets started flying.

Several benches and doorways nearby provided some cover, and the way was mostly empty between them and the ship, for the moment. However, it was about a hundred and fifty yards to the docking port, and the area was going to be crawling with Blue Sun shortly.

Ger'tak noticed something was wrong moments before it happened, but there was nothing she could do. The vibrant colours of Ekulo's momentary confusion and close following demise almost made her sick to her stomach. The short shock almost made her panick and miss the audio transmission that followed with commands to spring the trap. She couldn't stop the transmission, but a quick worm in the system made the doors a little buggy. It might just buy them some time before all the Blue Suns on the station got to their location. Even so, they still had to deal with the complement currently raising their weapons to "tie up loose ends".

As the rest of the group did what they did best, she dove under cover in order to provide support the only way she really knew how. The problem would be to mass hack the Blue Suns suits, as they were almost all different models, and usually even different manufacturers. Hopefully her team could take cover and fend them off until she could do something to give them an edge.

The pistol came out. The pilot's stance shifted - from 'standing' to 'fleeing'. A moment passed.

Spattered around was the captain's constituent jelly, and over there were the human's jellies. Kla could just make out the whites.

Kla ran. This was not a safe distance. Hardly any one down this corridor was, certainly not any practical one. Macroscopic biological organisms had certain limitations on their rate of travel that tiny chunks of metal did not share.

The vorcha arrived inside the doorway, this neatly coinciding with the passage of a burst of 'bullets' through the volume its torso had occupied a half-second prior. Kla pressed its back up against the cold metal and whimpered, the sound of its pulse nearly overwhelming that of the passing fire's wake.

It clutched a forearm to its chest and tapped away at the lurid orange holographic keyboard. Its eyes remained fixed on the opposite wall. "You guys, you guys," it whispered, just close enough to the microphone to be heard over the battle. It counted as a battle if they were able to fight back, yes?

"I get us out. Need everyone with." Pause. Breathe in-out-in-out, and so on and so forth. "They thinned?"

Kla's head flicked leftwards, gauging its best route - across a couple of benches, but very exposed. No good without a hesitation, a mandatory cooldown, a temporarily significantly reduced volume of fire. Their job is to create that. Then to survive it.

"We run for it? Say ready."

Or 'rubbish', if that'd work better. (The pilot was not risking anything that it hadn't before.)

Ella was momentarily distracted due to the rambling of the rest of the crew. Turenk was the first to break the silence - who was pretty talkative for a krogan - but the question asked had to be the most axiomatic query of the century. Doubts were a given in this situation and denying that would be a fool's errand. Fortunately there was Bere, the quarian who spoke the mind of likely what was the rest of the crew, and more personally, the mind of Ella herself. It was unnerving not to be in there and ensured that the transaction went in smoothly and be there in a firefight should such a thing arise. But the most rotten luck of all was the loud bang that had come from the other side of the window, at which point the asari's head swung around to find out what was going on, only to find the surreal image of her captain's translucent and luminescent innards gruesomely sprayed across the window around fixated around a scorched blast mark. Overwhelmed by confusion, the only thing she could say was an audible swear: "what the fuck!"

She barely had time to formulate her thoughts or register the death of her captain before she heard shuffling and a couple sets of footsteps behind her. Instinctively, she whipped around bringing her face to face to a Blue Sun mercenary that held her at gun point. Just as fast, she grabbed the merc's arm and twisted it as well as herself behind them and pressed her back firmly against the wall as she ripped away the pistol from their grip and sticking out her newly acquired firearm to shoot at the other mercenary while using her hostage a mortal shield.

The shot was well placed as it had found its mark on the Blue Sun's neck beneath their helmet and before the mercenary she had in the arm lock could struggle loose, she brought her free shooting arm and wrapped it around their head, jerking it back with as much force as she could muster. She snapped the enemy's neck and dropped the limp body onto the ground near her feet - the whole string of actions were done so quickly and fluidly it may as well have been a dance - but all she could think of right now was regrouping with the crew. She hurried over near Ger'tak's side and kicked over a bench before tossing her the Blue Sun's pistol before unclipping her own from her belt, taking cover behind the bench with the alert eye of a hawk.

"Take this." She said, her usual snarky tone having considerably been tempered given the dire circumstance, and instead took an air of command. "Whatever it is you're doing, do it quick! It's only a matter of time before we're swarmed."

But what about Ekulo? No, no! He was gone, there was nothing to take back! But the chip, the blackmail! That aside, the least they could do was get payback on the bastard that killed Ekulo. 'Ugh, but I'm letting my emotions get the better of me.' She thought. She could at least acknowledge that much; she understood as well as anybody that they didn't have time to waste here, and they weren't good enough to take on an entire army of mercenaries, no matter how bad of a shot they were.

The vorcha pilot's voice had sounded over the comlink that had come from the omnitool gadget on her wrist. She was agitated enough as it was given everything and the fact that they had to leave now was indisputable. She brought her wrist to her face and pressed a button with her chin before hissing back the response. "We'll be ready as soon as Gert is done tinkering with whatever it is that she's doing!"

Modain had been considering the question posed by the krogan before a loud bang and some quite colorful viscera distracted him. He knew it had gone wrong. You don't deal with a merc company by blackmailing, he knew that now. A shame the hanar hadn't thought of any real precautions, other than the crew he had, and in the moments between the death of the captain and the potential death of the crew, most were dumbstruck or running.

In a situation like this, anyone else would've run, tried to save their own skins. Modain was a turian, and his first instinct was not one to run, but to help the others get out in any way they could. That instinct formulated itself into a plan of action, one he knew he'd probably regret. In those few seconds as the Blue Suns ahead of them were raising their weapons, Modain knew what he would do.

His first move was to draw the sword, to finally see it in action, and to, hopefully, get them all out of the current situation, considering they were, to use a human saying, "like shooting fish in a barrel". He got the blade out just as the two Blue Suns readied their weapons, and, realizing he had no more time to consider his actions, he swung the blade as hard as he could at the nearest Blue Sun, aiming for the relatively unarmored neck. Not caring whether he killed or wounded or even hit the man, he moved to the next one and swung a clenched fist at the man, before attempting to turn and flee, hoping his distraction helped the others to run or to get ready to fight.

Bere had been for the most part distracted, holding a conversation with the krogan, when all Hell broke loose. Of course like the others, he discovered what had happened only after the fact. A bang, the sound all too familiar to his normally honed reflexes, it took him a moment to even consider what had actually occurred, and by then, the Hanar was now but smeared where he formerly floated. Bere blinked at the scene, his left arm moving to fiddle with the orange glow of an omni-tool over his right, as the rest of the group swung into action. Another blink, blue suns dying, people shouting, and another...

Time slowed just the tiniest bit as a sharp prick pierced Bere's arm, directly above a vein, and combat stims flooded his nervous system. Truth be told, Bere was only a decent at this soldiering business, but he made use of chemical assistance to ensure he was at least as good as hiring someone else in the field. The aged assault rifle made its way now into Bere's grip, as he turned to face the direction of the venerable ship they would need to reach to be free.

"I'll cover you!" he simply shouted into the comms blindly as he opened fire on any blue suns blocking their path. His aim was not to hit, so much as to suppress, though one was cut-down before he could make his way to cover.

Recalling what Kla had said, he replied swiftly with "I'm ready when you are", as he slid into cover of his own, trying his best to keep the mercenaries from sending more lead towards his group.

Several Blue Suns dropped in the initial wave of gunfire (two to Ella, one shot by her own hand, and the other from friendly fire, one to misjudging Bere's suppression fire), but that still left about eight standing. Two of them ducked behind planters on either sides of the waiting area and started spraying SMG fire from around the sides of them, aiming primarily at Turenk and Modain, who were the farthest from cover. One more, who had been roughly in the middle, appeared to be getting on a comm of his own as he got behind the left-hand planter. The rest crouched and advanced in a wedge formation, heading for closer cover. Two were roughly midrange, occupying a doorway and taking turns popping around the door to fire shotguns at Ella and Kla. Another took partial cover behind a sign, leaving about a foot around his feet exposed, but covering his upper body. The last was crouched on the other side of Ger'Tak's cover; whether Ger'Tak was aware of this while she was trying to hack was debatable, but he could be seen from anyone with a position on the other side of the hall. Bullets were now flying in both directions, and the fight was officially on.

Modain's sword struck one, meeting only a slight slowdown from the kinetic barrier. However, the reinforced weave of the hardsuit's soft parts for the most part held firm against the cutting edge. The cut drew blood, but the result was hardly fatal. Modain's fist met a similar lack of barrier resistant, stunning the man briefly long enough that Modain could take cover. The man struck by the sword had a more significant reaction; he assumed that someone presumptuous enough to attack him with a sword was going to be using an omni-blade, or at least something modern enough to kill him through the hardsuit. His reflexes weren't quite fast enough to deflect the blow, but after he was hit, he stood dumbfounded, checking the wound with his hand and wondering why his head was still attached.

~~~~

The gunshot rang in Turenk's ears, and he reached for his own gun in response. He'd been afraid something like this might happen, but he was hoping it would perhaps be more like a ransom, or a more ambiguously fatal wound... it would be stating the obvious to say that this was possibly one of the worst-case scenarios. Next to him, the turian pulled a one-two melee before heading in the direction of cover, which gave Turenk a chance to pull a trick of his own. One Blue Sun was checking a neck wound, so the krogan grabbed him about the neck and hauled him backwards as a batarian shield, fighting the merc's gun arm with his free hand and pulling the trigger when it was pointed vaguely in the right direction. The merc withstood several shots before going limp and letting Turenk point his gun more accurately, but his own suit was suffering under sustained gunfire that, frankly, was going to have a hard time missing.

The pilot tallied its crewmates and the crumpled or face-down Blue Suns as best it could, lacking any real ability to peer around the corner. What it saw seemed promising.

Then it tallied the seconds that had passed whilst the engie did her thing, and the seconds since its last contact with the krogan or swordsturian.

Cirrus Kla compared these counts against its current estimate of how soon it would die.

(It would die alone and craven when a merc rounded the corner with a shotgun and shot it in the gut/lungs/throat/face. Its broodmates would be very disappointed with its performance, and never let it hear the end of it. Even though they'd be terrible hypocrites for it.)

Whatever the lizard-lady was doing would have do get done on the go. "We ready now!," Kla decided, every other word punctuated by the sound of scattershot striking wallstuff.

The vorcha bolted for the docking port, unencumbered save by its padded vest and a few garments of cloth and circuitry. Its arms (bare of glowing bracers) aided its locomotion across the occasional seat-shaped obstruction.

It repeated the hatch code over and over again in its head, preparing itself to semiconsciously produce the corresponding pattern of muscle movements. And if the Blue Suns nearby intended to greet it, then let Bere'Riat send its reply.

She finished the last few important lines of code into the system. A green indicator with a checkmark popped up. YES, she had access. Now to find... Wow right at the top. 'station_dock_me_stg = .99', she changed the .99 to a .01, scanned the file a bit more and then changed the access code. MUYAHHAHAAH. Wouldn't take effect until she sent the file... Hmm... "Guys, We got twelve seconds before they break through the doors I sealed, I've got a solution but it's going to throw everything into the air. I suggest you hold on and find a good spot so that you can jump to the ship. Goes into effect when everyone is in position." No one but the people on her comms and maybe anyone close enough to hear would this. Moments after she said this though, a sound of knocking came from the other side of her cover... son of a--. She grabbed at the gun that had been thrown at her earlier. She had to re-position anyways, she didn't have a clear path to the ship.

She rolled a meter or two, getting behind a large, probably heavy container. It had a good clear path to the ship, though she hoped she didn't misjudge it. Then she waited, hoping everyone could get there before the 12 seconds was up.