POTENTIAL EMPLOYMENT CANDIDATE
DEXURET NORATUS
STATUS: ON-GOING INVESTIGATION

NOTES: Potential leverage found within connections to family and coworkers. Candidate would prove more effective fully aware and motivated. Further investigation required.

>FILE TRANSFER COMPLETE
>CONNECTION ESTABLISHED

*****ENCRYPTED TRANSMISSION******
PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE
PARTICIPANTS:
DR. JORICK DEMANGA – DEXURET NORATUS

DEMANGA: Dex! Where have you been?

…

DEMANGA: You always check-in.

…

DEMANGA: Dex, when you said you were going after Medus, you went radio silent. What happened? You better not be dead! I swear if you’re-
NORATUS: I’m here! Jorick it’s all right!
DEMANGA: What the hell Dex! You asshole! I’ve been waiting to hear back from you for weeks.
NORATUS: I know I know, I’m sorry Jorick. It’s just… this whole fucking thing is just ruined. I don't know what to do anymore.
DEMANGA: What happened?
NORATUS: The bastard killed himself. I was a few hours too late.
DEMANGA: Spirits Dex…
NORATUS: It doesn’t even fucking matter anymore. I’m done with him, I’m done with spying.
DEMANGA: You quit working for Gal?
NORATUS: Yeah… He took it really well though. I was hoping I could fight it out with him but as always he gets it.
DEMANGA: If you’re going to be wondering the Terminus you might as well come visit us on Palaven, Thyreen and I miss you.
NORATUS: I miss you two as well. I just…
DEMANGA: Need time? You’ve let Medus consume your life for years, come back to us.
NORATUS: I’m sorry Jorick...
DEMANGA: No, you have to let it go! There’s no more excuses!
NORATUS: I can’t-
DEMANGA: Please Dex. Just come see us we’ll help you get better.
NORATUS: It’s not that simple!

...

NORATUS: Gotta go, some pissed off Bloodpack mercs spotted me in their weapons cache. Fucking cloak.
DEMANGA: DEXURET NORATUS, WHAT HAVE I SAID A MILLION TIMES OVER. GET THAT STUPID THING FIXED!
NORATUS: I’ll check in later, promise. Love you!

…

DEMANGA: Love you too.

*****END OF ENCRYPTED TRANSMISSION*****

Each bump in the road made the drell shift lightly in his seat. But he was used to bumpy travel. He didn't even open his eyes to look at the bickering of their turian squad. So many turians in one place, one could mistake them for a c-sec unit. That idea amused him, then unsettled him. He was pretty sure the C-sec file on him was about a mile long at this point. Not that the would ever be able to prove jack all. He wasn't sloppy, not even after his spine nearly got severed by a bullet. It was this assurance that let him stay calm even as they headed down a road towards a lair filled with pirates. Not any pirates, Bartarian smugglers. They were a nasty lot. He had refused to do buisness with them more then once. Trafficking of people was one of the trades he never touched. To much colleteral, to much that could go wrong. To many screams and cries for help. He closed his eyes and let the hum of engines, screeching and squealing from years of neglect and misuse. To a person who spent most his youth sleeping in a engine room or gunners station, it was a lullaby. Unbidden, the memories drifted onto the front of his mind.

-------------Dreaming-------------

They were staring down a ramp. The Salarian dressed in a heavy set of armor, looking at two groups of four Bartarians below him. The salarians gear was all red, almost to the point where you'd mistake him for The Blood Pack. The Drell next to him, a younger, spryer Drono was dressed head to toe in carcoal black, light armor. The two eyed the group below them with entirely different facial expressions. The Drells face was one of barely contained excitement.

”You know this is completely insane.” Dronos partner in crime said, the Salarians voice full of sceptsism and worry. ”You know you are very unusual for a Drell. I thought you were all suppose to be calm and collected. Perfect little citizens.”

”And I thought Salarians were obsessed with being more savy and intelligent then other species. And here you are, slumming it with a Drell outcast who wasn't good enough for the Compact.”

”Yes. So I keep being reminded.” The Salarian replied dryly. ”Still. You can't possibly wan't me to accept this plan as anything else as suicid-” Drono cut him off. Holding his hand up for silence as he fished up two flashbangs. He seemed to calculate something in his mind. Then he spoke, a smile on his lips as if something terrible and flashy just played out in his minds eye.

”They are Bartarians. We off a few and spring some slaves while looting and the humans will hold us a parade.” Drono said with a wry grin on his lips as he seemed to have come to a conclusion. Hooking his thumbs in the springs of the two grenades he moved over the the ramp.

” They aren't exactly known for their even tempers and forgiving nature. They won't forget this.” Yestin, as the Salarian was called, warned his brash companion. The Drell just grinned at him.

”That is why we hit them so hard they don't know what or who hit them. Now. Watch and learn.” Drono tossed the grenades forward and slightly to the sides. They bounced down the steep ramp at increasing speed before tumbling onto the floor perfectly between the feet of each group. There was a single moment of calm, and then there was screaming.

-----------------------------

Drono woke from his daydream as they came to a halt. A halt that banged his head painfully against the cramped cars interior.

[color=PaleGreen]” We should shoot whoever handles infrastructure after we off the pirates.” He mumbled as he watched other pile out to fix whatever stopped them. He let the Turians deal with it, they seemed to be way to eager about this. Not eager as in giddy little children, but they were all so very miltary. All about that quick action. Albeit he could appreciate the preffesionalism of it all, it also reminded him that he was very much the opposite. He was languid, quick to speak and undiciplined. A massive contradiction compared to what everyone assumed was the nature of a Drell.

His breathren had a reputation of spirituality and calm. Of introspection and dedication. He was happy with being a outlier in all of this. Had he been accepted int the Compact he likely would have turned out as all the others. But he had not, and his impulsive nature had landed him here. For better or worse. Another bump in the road convinced him it was for the worse. With his now tilted away from the machines inners, tryingt to avoid another repeat. He noticed the Krogan return with the others. As the Drell watched Tonka get back into the truck, he tilted his head further."Tonga right?" He asked. He wasn't exactly bad with names. But it didn't do any harm to double check this early on. "You'll be my eyes in the scope. Right?"

"Tonka." The krogan corrected, cramming himself in across from the drell and making life very uncomfortable for one of the asari next to him. His Volkov rifle was in hand and resting folded between his legs on the floor, making it quick to deploy in a pinch. He regarded the drell for a moment before offering a slow nod. "Yeah. Being stronger than everyone tends to give you steady hands. This thing feels like a toy compared to what I used to carry. And you're the one who's going to scout ahead?"

"Tonka. Right." Drono nodded, mentally slapping his forehead at his little blunder. "Right. I'm our cloak and daggers type I guess. Well. No. That's wrong. The spy is more at home with that stuff. I'm the guy who make people run screaming because a Exectutioner bullet just took out a chunk of their best friend from out of nowhere." The Drell grinned, a wry look on his face. "Speaking of making people run. How the hell did a field-medic and trained vanguard end up with this bunch?" The Drell said as he turned his eyes to Alex. "Tonka here is complaining his rifle is a kids toy compared to his usual gear that would likely take out a cruiser on it's own. What, pray tell, do the human come packing with. Aside from apparently being biotic I mean"

Alex had been checking over her own weapon while the chatter in the truck had droned in her ears. The vanguard had put the helmet back on once the party had decided to start moving, and thus had taken the time to think to herself.

When the Drell had begun to mention her, she focused back in and looked up at the alien. Words didn't come from the human as she looked between the Drell and the Krogan as her thoughts raced from one side of her brain to the other. Then, she finally spoke a few seconds later, "Medical school is expensive and boring. I was headed to a program for Biotics to try and become a full doctor, but Mindoir happened. I owed a friend a favor, ended up here." She decided to stick with the truth. She wasn't sure what the males would have known about her nor what information they would pass along. She had no secrets to keep, and hoped that her private life would stay that way once that fact was made clear.

"As for my weapon, I brought an M-7 Lancer. It's an assault rifle that I squirreled away a while ago. Reliable, light to carry, low ammo maintenance." The glowing blue visor tilted as she managed to convey an amused tone through her helmet's outside comms relay. "Deadly without much kick when used right. It won't be turning heads into soup, but that's what my biotics are for."

"Ah. I feel safer already" Drono said dryly. He could certeinly approve and relate to being bored and seeking out adventure. It was what had landed him in a career of smuggling and running from the authorities. "Myself." He said as he lifted his executioner Heavy Pistol in front of himself. Admiring it. It had clearly been made to look a little less bulky, and it had a longer barrel. "I got me a Executioner Heavy Pistol. Pried it off the hands of a Blood Pact member years ago. Pistol High-Caliber Barrel for that extra bite to. Because nothing says 'stay down' as a extra high caliber round from the galaxies single most powerful pistol. Kicks back like a drunk Krogan however... No offense meant, Tonka."

"Hanhe-Kedar, standard Alliance issue. Not a bad piece, I've used one a few times. Don't care for the ergonomics, but it's robust enough to keep working even when everything else craps out." Tonka said approvingly of the Lancer, holding of one of his over-sized hands to emphasize the point that grips designed for human use weren't universal. "Don't care much for the crap the Blood Pack cobbles together. Too crude, cumbersome, and prone to malfunction because what do you expect when a bunch of vorcha cannon fodder are told to put together anything more sophisticated than a piece of furniture. Sure, the Executioner packs a good punch, and I promise you it was the idea of one krogan wanting another krogan dead with minimal effort, but you're kind of an idiot for running around with just that pistol and nothing else. One shot isn't a lot when you're waiting for the damn thing to cool down when a swarm of varren come to rip you limb from limb. Pick yourself up a rifle or shotgun, you'll be happier and live longer for it."

The stubborn side of the Drell Smuggler wanted to tell the big beefy meathead of a species that was the Krogan, how much it all boiled down to flare and shock. The pragmatic side of him however, told Drono that Tonka had a point. "...Point taken. I generally rely on my tactical cloak and quick thinking to confuse them in between shots. That. And I generally only pick fights I know I can win."
"Yeah, take it from someone who's been around for longer than most people and their parents, sometimes the fight picks you. Either you're ready when that happens, or you're dead. When someone starts shoving a gun or six in your face, your options are limited to what you have to shove back. Thus, precision rifle and an assault rifle. If it walks, I want to have the power to kill it on my terms. I'm sure Alex here gets that. Humans tend to like a good scrap, I've noticed." Tonka interjected, looking expectantly at their human companion.

She was loathe to pick a side, but she had to admit that Tonka was right to a degree. "Obviously, I'm speaking from the viewpoint of a front line soldier. But I have to agree with Tonka. It's also one reason why I carry an assault rifle rather than a shotgun. My job is to get in, kill as many mooks as I can, then get out. As a soldier, I had to bring home as many of my fellows as I could. So sometimes I needed to lay suppressing fire. Couldn't do that with a shot gun or a pistol." The woman rubbed the armor of her right forearm. "I wouldn't have been able to protect a hastily built medical camp in the middle of a combat zone with my biotics, a pistol or a shotgun. I couldn't afford to have a rifle that wasn't reliable or couldn't keep enemies down. I needed to kill, quickly and efficiently...mop up the ones my biotic didn't kill outright in as little time as possible."

"The Executioner isn't all that bad, but when you don't have tech or a cloak, such weapons aren't practical. But, in the end, it's up to you. You can take up a rifle or stay with the pistol. Either way, I'll be watching your back or patching you up the best that I can."

Drono threw up his hands in mock resignation. "Right. Right. I'll see if I can't steal one of the pirates bigger guns." He glanced at his Omni-tool. "We should hit Mission site any second now." He looked up towards his two comrades in arms. "We'll see just how effective I can be with this thing... Tonka" With that, he looked over to Haze."You. With me" He said as he hustled out the back.

An Hour Before the Truck Arrives

_{Collab between @Bright_Ops @Sundered Echo, @The Grey Warden, @Hank and @Fallenreaper}

When the groups were divided and the tasks assigned, Vellios' attention turned over the names mentioned. Only one stood out: Kasyra Vas Ryushei. It was vaguely familiar but the last time he had heard it, she was apart of another ship and the Vas had been a Nar. He had no idea why though as he hadn't met that many quarians willing to explain their culture, either while traveling as a merc or within the military. His eyes studied the alien slightly for several moments, his hands making sure his guns were completely strapped on, before breaking off on his way toward her.

He let his lips pull up into a smile then made a casual remark in a teasing tone. "Well, Kasyra Vas Ryushei now? If I recall right, your name wasn't Vas Ryushei last time we met. As for cooking, I hope your skill hasn't died since we last met."

The scarred turian was expecting the same cold hearted and icy personality he had first met back on the volus' merchant frigate.

"Of course it hasn't" Kasyra stated. Despite the fact that she didn't know if her own statement was true, her tone implied it was incredibly rude to even ask.

"And thats a very astute observation." She said with biting sarcasm. "Though I'm sure you have no idea as to the significance. So did you track me down to cook another meal for your family? Because I'm sure that there are at least some Turians who know their own culture enough to match me."

Kasyra's bitterness was brought on by a combination of feelings. On the one hand, she did not want to chat with anyone until she had seen them in combat at least once. Mostly to find if they were going to die quickly or not. Another reason was that with the recent loss of her crew, the idea of even being around other people was decidedly unappealing. And to top it all off, Vellios' very presence reminded her of a time in her life that she absolutely loathed. Actions that had, in the end, led up to this point and the events of the past week. A biting tongue was simply a way of coping.

Vellios wasn't surprised really that Kasyra was as bitter, sarcastic and bitchy as he remembered. It was part of her charm. He visibly flinched at the mention of his family, especially in the way she so callously mentioned them, causing him to quickly attempt to alter the subject. The quarian, after all, didn't realize his own family had been murder over four years ago. He had been about to answer with a correction when the gentlemen Vorcha interrupted.

He hadn't meant to overhear what was being said between Vellios and Kasyra, but the heated bitterness that fueled the quarian's words made ignoring what was being said hard. Duuka sighed a little as he carefully glanced down at his Terminator I rifle while he considered his options. He could have just ignored the arguement that was going on between the quarian and the turian but considering the fact that all three of them were soon going to be working their way through slaver infested tunnels... At best they wouldn't help each other, at worst there would be a 'accident'.

Hoping to at least somewhat calm Kasyra down somewhat, Duuka took a deep breath before he spoke up. "Having the Vas in your name means that you are considered a crew member of the Ryushei. If it was Nar, it would mean that you were born on the ship." There would be people across the galaxy that would have paid good money to see Duuka prounce the word 'Ryushei', but Nar and Vas were easy enough to say.

"Sorry for dropping in, but tensions are starting to run high and angry people with guns are a bad combination. Can we at least pretend to get along until after we've dealt with the slaver scum?"

Kasyra was genuinely surprised to hear the teams token Vorcha, of all people, explaining Quarian culture. Once again she was happy that her mask hid her face so effectively, ensuring those around her wouldn't be able to tell just how much it had surprised her. She was about to reply, then he continued. Her surprised expression rapidly transformed back into a scowl.

"Oh you don't need to worry about me." She began, tone now somewhat condescending. "I'll watch your back, so you can watch mine. I plan on living and getting paid, and thats a lot easier to do when the enemy has things that aren't me to shoot at and get shot by. We dont have to like each other to be an effective team."

She didn't like being told to calm down, especially not by a Vorcha, who was guaranteed to be at most half her age, more likely significantly less. What could he possibly know of the world? What could he possibly know of loss? Not enough to lecture her, that was certain.

"That explains a lot. Not many quarians were willing to trust and share information about their culture, which is fine as it's not their job to satisfy the curious." Vellios replied to Duuka, recalling the Vorcha's name easily enough, then added. "If you're worried I'm going to take offense, you're worrying over nothing. It takes a lot more to get under my carapace than some harsh words and sharp remarks. Besides we've already met about eight years ago."

He then turned to Kasyra, his voice a bit more serious than before. "As for tracking you down to cook for my family, there's actually two things you probably should be updated on: One, I didn't even know you were going to be here. And two, my family was murdered over four years ago. So I don't think I'll be hiring you for any family meals in the future."

His eyes watched her reaction though he still expected a rather icy reply, possibly even a nasty quip or remarks at his family's death at worse. Likely something that might send him over the edge of calm and into shooting the hell out of her, but it would have to be a pretty damn nasty one. Inwardly, he was hoping Kasyra would've had enough respect for the dead, turian or quarian, not to insult their memory. Tiberian, his son, after all had been bit of a fan over ships later on that if the quarian hadn't vanished, he might've had asked her for advice over the model.

Duuka expression morphed from hopeful to annoyed as Kasyra kept talking. Despite the fact that it was partly synthesised due to the suit, he could still hear the smug condescention in the quarians voice and read it in the way that she held herself. Maybe he shouldn't have gotten involved in the conversation in the first place...

Turning to look at Vellios, the look of annoyance changed into something more curious as the turian told his tale. The mention of murdered family hit something of a note for the vorcha, but he felt that it was a much different tune then the one that Vellios was singing. "I am sorry for your loss. I would like to say that I understand what it feels like to lose your family but I don't; While it is possible that once Si returns to the fleet that I will never see her again, it's not the same as losing them forever..."

Looking down at the ground, Duuka seemed to reflect on some dark truth before he seemed to perk up again. "So what do you think the slavers have hidden in their mineshaft? I'm betting that it's where they keep the slaves they haven't sold yet."

"Of course it is." Kasyra stated by way of reply, making it sound like the question was not worth asking because the answer was obvious. The words were just to cover her need to process what Vellios had just told her though. His family was dead? The parallels to her own life brought the reality of events crashing suddenly down upon her. A visible shudder ran through her body, and she squeezed her eyes shut to try and stop tears, thankful as ever for an all concealing mask.

Her hands formed into fists and a tone of steel came into her voice. She didn't have time to breakdown now. "They'll be free when we slaughter these slaver scum." She did her best to focus on the idea of cutting down the slavers, pushing the image of her dead crew-mates out of her mind. Later she might talk to Vellios about it... Or maybe she'd avoid him, but now was not the time.

Marco Castillo haven't talked for a while, because of the fact that he was the only human on the team. A turian, a quarian, and a vorcha were in the same team as Marco. Despite not talking, he heard what the others said even known he was checking out his weapons. It wasn't the fact that he didn't want to talk, he didn't know went to talk. They were going inside tunnels with their guns and each other.

When Duuka asked how slavers would be hidding in the mineshaft, he waited until Kasyra was done speaking and then finally. "They were scared and worried that the Alliance would be looking from them. All that matters is that we bring Kapan Nasa’kor to justice, alive." Marco spoke up as he looked away from his weapons and towards the group.

He didn't know what they were going to say back to him, but he spoke up and said his answers towards the vorcha. He knew him from the kitchen earlier, the name was Duuka or something similar. It was interesting to be next to a vorcha, that wasn't living within Omega. As for Vellios and Kasyra, he didn't know them very well too besides the fact that they knew each other before.

"I don't know, I get the feeling there's something more to it than meets the eye. Not all pirates are the stereo type stupid most bounty hunters and mercs encounter. Some live a long time because they are smarter then they look and underestimating them is the last thing you want to do." Vellios cautioned as he looked at Marco, noting the human speaking for the first time since entering their little gathering. His hand rubbed the back of his scarred neck as he recalled his own encounters and experiences with such pirates. He would be lying if he denied this situation made him a bit uncomfortable, despite his excitement over the possibility of the adrenaline rush ahead. ' Let's hope this job doesn't have any unexpected surprises our deceased employer failed to note in his memoirs. Salarians are slippery bastards some times and most are secretive to boot."

"Oh, something going horribly wrong is almost assured. No plan survives contact with the enemy after all." Duuka chiped in, looking between Vellios and Marco as he said it. "Still, we wouldn't be here if we weren't willing to take the risk."

Vellios nodded.

" I agree with that logic since plans are usually the first to go up in smoke during a gunfight, though I hope our infiltration team can handle their job and not get shot. Those mines would be rather hard to navigate and I'm assuming, since no additional information has been discovered on what's happening inside, that any nosy, party hard teenagers on Omega haven't been able to crash there. Despite it being a dangerous, abandon site, the allure wouldn't have stopped me as a stupid, reckless teenager. Though can't say much has changed really. I guess we'll learn if there's any dangers there or not first hand." He chuckled then rested his hands on his hips as he pondered a moment. "So, any ideas how we should approach this? Other than not get shot?"

The turian was obvious curious if they had any leadership and tactical genius among their little group, not really wanting the responsibility.

All the Omni-tools in the group came to life simultaneously and Mirage's voice was projected through them. "What you could do, if I may offer some advice, is wait for the support team to infiltrate the administration building. The human female, Tanya, is aiming to give me a direct line into their security systems. Whatever intel can be gained from that might give you guys an edge down in the tunnels." His commentary was devoid of the usual acidic sarcasm; he knew these guys had the most dangerous job in the entire operation. They could use all the genuine help they could get.

"Thanks for the advice, Mirage. Just tell us when to start the attack and where Kapan Nasa’kor is located." Marco said as he listened to his Omni-tool for Mirage's voice. He kept looking around as there wasn't really anything to do besides look into his datapad; but, he would be on that later.

Despite the mission's hazy details, Vellios kept his mandible quiet. He had a nasty feeling he was likely to get shot in this mission, his mind wandering to the last group Serena and him had been with. They didn't last very long as he made a mental note to wander off to talk with his only ally among this ragtag group, ensuring she would have some medigel on hand in that event. Already he was detaching himself from the group who seemed to have other things on their mind, a fact he knew was understandable, then added with a tone surprisingly voided of sarcasm.

" Nice to see we have it all sorted out then. Let's hope no one gets shot. However, if our arrival here was any indication, the day didn't start off too well." Letting those words linger, he walked off.

"Just stick together, watch each others backs and don't do anything stupid. It's not hard." Kasyra said acidly. In her experience it actually was quite hard for a lot of people, unfortunately, but that was why she had such heavily reinforced shields on her suit.

The transport came to a jerky halt, whether it was from the unpracticed hand of the driver or from the vehicle’s aging drive train was unknown. The team dismounted, finding themselves in a tunnel some distance away from the compound, and began last minute preparations for the assault. Tensions were running high, and almost immediately some of the team found cause to bicker, prompting Tonka to roll his eyes as he stepped out with Drono and Hazan as they departed to scout the compound ahead of the team. Before he left, he overheard Tanya speaking to Mirage over the Omni-tool, “I’ll patch you in as soon as the assault team gives me the go ahead to head into the administration building. In the meantime, I have a perimeter to secure, over.”

Leaving the team behind and finding himself marching towards battle always gave Tonka a sense of focus that was hard to find elsewhere. The krogan said nothing to the drell and turian that were leading the way, instead focusing on the features of the section they were in. The outpost was remote, pretty far removed from the more developed regions of the asteroid station, and access and egress was often a series of tunnels that variably opened up to wide open areas with views of the Omega skyline or larger caverns with high ceilings. When they reached the opening leading to the mining complex, Drono and Hazan hurried off towards an overhang overlooking the administration building. Tonka headed the other way, looking for a scalable surface. Finding some jagged handholds and a large enough outcropping for him to sit, the krogan moved towards his to-be perch and activated his tactical cloak, grabbing onto the rocks to test their stability and beginning his ascent.

The krogan listened to the other scout team summarizing the situation over his helmet’s communication hub, and paused his climb when the cloak’s power dissipated, leaving him exposed. Something moving was a hell of a lot more visible than something stationary, so on the odd chance a particularly vigilant sentry happened to look his way, their eyes wouldn’t be drawn towards the lumbering movements of a large bipedal tank-like alien scaling the natural formations. With the cloak recharged, Tonka continued and only had to pause once more before reaching the summit to his destination where he had a low crawl into position, finding a half-decent recess to lean into. Pulling his rifle free slowly, he got into position, resting his elbows to his knees and he began the survey of the compound.

When he overheard Hazan remarking they needed to find a sniper perch for him, Tonka spoke. “Way ahead of you. Already set up.” The krogan said, slowly scanning the environment. He hit a prompt to start recording video through his optical sight and record his dialog. When he compiled the footage he wanted to get, he would send it en mass to the team’s networked omni-tools, courtesy of Mirage’s intrusive shittiness.

“Observations on the warehouse. There is a fenced in yard against the rockwall that seems to be acting as a storage area for old mining equipment, most of it looks like it hasn’t moved in a while. There’s a few repurposed vehicles, it looks like a pair of loader trucks that have been converted to technicals, they’ve been uparmoured with metal plates and have front and rear facing machine gun mounts, as well as rows of seating in the bed. I’m guessing this is how they get to and from their frigate or down into the mine. There’s a few other vehicles, but they’ve been stripped of parts, it looks like. There’s about three sentries, armed with rifles, patrolling the yard, and about four workers doing various activities, looks like side arms on their hips.

“I can’t see inside the warehouse, there’s a pair of large bay doors. There may be vehicles inside, and it could be where they’re stockpiling equipment and contraband, so check your fire. I recommend a team hits the yard at the same time as the administration office, unless someone is carrying around anti-armour weaponry I don’t know about. Disable or take control of the technicals, those guns might be useful for holding down chokepoints. Exercise caution when entering the warehouse, we don’t know what’s inside.” He said, his voice steady. Tonka moved his sight towards the worker housing, checking each of the visible windows in succession.

“Lights are on in about 4 of the windows on the worker’s quarters, curtains drawn for another 12. Doesn’t look like the windows open, hard to tell if any rooms are disused. Downstairs bar looks pretty lively, I count 12 patrons, can only see a few weapons but count on them being there. If you get a chance to take one of them alive, try to get some intel on how many of them there are. You probably don’t want to get caught up in a room to room fight in such a large building, so maybe find a way to draw them all out if you can. That’s all I can see from here, you are clear to approach. They won’t know what hit them.” Tonka said, transmitting the data packet to the connected omni-tools. Each member of the team would get a copy of his video and voice transmission. The krogan resumed his vigil, tracking for any new movement.

Minutes later, after reviewing the data Tonka had sent, Tanya closed down her omni-tool and turned to the team. “Alright, so that’s what we’re up against. A bunch of largely drunk and ill-prepared assholes who aren’t suspecting a thing. I vote we get as close as we can before the shooting starts and start stacking the administration building and warehouse before launching our assault, Serena, Josef and I will hang back at the perimeter and move in to secure assets when we’re sure nobody’s making a break for it. I recommend the assault team splits into two teams, and let’s keep Dex and Alex from being the first ones through the door. I don’t know where we’re going to find another pilot crazy enough to pilot the Jalopy, and if one of us gets shot up, I’d rather the medic stay in one piece. Alright? Let’s go earn our pay cheque.” She said, pulling the Vindicator rifle from her shoulder by the buttstock and deploying it before it sat in her hands. Nodding to Josef and Serena, the trio fell in loose formation and headed down the shaft towards the objective.

Tanya’s helmet was awash with information, including the indicators that Drono and Hazan had marked for the team. The entirety of the Borealis team moved with the resolve of a platoon moving into combat, although it was clear different doctrines and levels of experience kept them from moving entirely as a cohesive unit. This mission would likely make or break them, and Tanya was hoping for the former. Soon, the complex came into view as they rounded the corner. Tanya gestured for Josef and Serena to move right as she took off left towards the warehouse, diving into a prone position as she approached, crawling towards where she could see past the building and into the yard. The 3x magnified sight on her rifle gave her plenty of authority in putting rounds downrange, and she’d possibly be the one who stopped anyone from making a break to the two technicals. The teams moved into position, and began to stack up along the buildings, so far remaining undetected. When everyone was in position, Tonka’s voice came over the comm channel.

“Execute.”

Partial data recovery from the personal records of Is’sha Skasan
Date: 01/17/2172 CE
Accessing Audio File #77492

Beginning Audio Playback

I: Hello?
C: Ms. Skasan.
I: Ah, Ms. V’dore. I wasn’t expecting to hear from you so soon.
C: An unexpected opportunity came up. Regardless, I have the data you asked for. I can transfer it to you once I have received the second half of my payment.
I: Yes. Um, about that.
I: Unfortunately, due to… recent events, I’m afraid I won’t be able to pay you at this time. However, with the data you acquired, I should be able to pay you in full, with interest, without much delay.
C: … I see.
I: I trust that won’t be a problem?
C: I will see you in a few days.
I: Ms. V’dore? Ms. V’dore!

End Audio Playback.

Accessing Video File #4461
Location: Personal Residence of Is’sha Skasan, Nos Astra, Illium
Beginning Playback

*chime. A pale blue asari approaches the door of the residence*

I: “Coming! Goddess, what else do those varren wan-oh!”

*door opens to reveal Subject standing outside in full combat gear*

I: “Ms. V’dore.”
C: “Hello Ms. Skasan.”
I: “What, uh, what are you doing here?”
C: “I am here to deliver the data you hired me to collect.”
I: “I see. You didn’t need to deliver it personally.”
C: “I disagree. We needed to discuss your proposed changes to the contract.”
I: “I… see… This, um, isn’t the best time right now. Perhaps we could arrange another time to-“

*Subject places her hand on the door frame*

C: “I insist.”
I: “… very well. Please, come in.”

*Subject and Skasan enter the residence common area and sit down across from each other*

I: “I trust that you have the data with you?”
C: “I do.”
I: “Very well, let’s see it.”
C: “Do you have my payment?”
I: “No. I explained to you-“
C: “Then I cannot give you the data, Ms. Skasan.”
I: “What? But-“
C: “The contract stipulated that the data would only be provided upon final payment.”

*Skasan becomes visibly agitated*

I: “I don’t have the money. Those backstabbing idiots have all my assets tied up in litigation. I didn’t expect them to move this fast.”
C: “Your poor choice in business partners is not my concern. What is my concern is that you hired me to do a job, and now I expect that you complete the payment we both agreed upon.”
I: “I just told you, I don’t have the money! But I can use those files to get it!”
C: “That isn’t what we agreed upon in the con-“
I: “Then change the contract!”

*Silence. Subject draws her pistol and begins scanning it with her omnitool*

C: “Ms. Skasan. Do you know what the most valuable tool in a mercenary’s arsenal is?”
I: “What are you- what does that have to do with-”
C: “Her reputation. It is what determines the type of jobs that are available to her, and it is invaluable during contract negotiation. You hired me, Ms. Skasan, because of my reputation for guaranteeing the successful completion of the job that I am hired to do. You also did so with the knowledge that I do not appreciate it when my employers are unable meet their contractual obligations; for example, payment.”
I: “Are you threatening me?”
C: “Not at all.”

*Subject holsters her pistol*

C: “The contract did not specify a time or date by which payment was to be given. I am content to retain possession of the data until such time that you are able to pay for it. This visit was simply to give you a second chance to pay my fee. Unless you are able to do so, I will take my leave.”

*Subject rises and begins moving towards the door*

I: “But… but… if I don’t have those files I’ll have to start from scratch! It’ll take years before I can build up that kind of money!”
C: “That is your concern. I will check back with you periodically.”

*Skasan rises and begins to pursue Subject, becoming increasingly agitated*

I: “You bitch! Do you have any idea what I could have done to you!”
C: “Save your threats, Ms. Skasan. If your previous statements are true, then there isn’t anything you could do that would intimidate me. And I know you're bluffing, because if you weren’t we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Furthermore,”

*Subject stops and turns, drawing her pistol and aiming it at Skasan, causing her to stop and back away with her hands raised*

C: “It would be in your best interest to rethink your options here. I do not accept threats very well.”

*Subject holsters her weapon and turns to leave.*

I: “Wait! Wait! I... I can pay you!”

*Subject stops and turns to look at Skasan. Skasan turns and looks towards the residence’s second floor*

I: “Pamela! Get down here!”

*After a few seconds, a human female, approximately twenty years of age, enters the common area*

P: “Yes, Ms. Skasan?”

*Skasan turns back to Subject, visibly angry, and slumps her shoulders in defeat*

I: “Take her.”

*Subject remains silent, appearing to look between Skasan and the human*

C: “Excuse me?”
I: “Take her. Her contract is worth approximately 75,000 credits, half again what I owe you. It’s the only thing I have right now that will cover it.”

*Subject appears to consider the offer*

C: “So that I understand, you are offering to complete our contract by turning over a contract of an indentured servant?”
I: “Yes.”

*Subject falls silent again, then turns to the human*

C: “What is your name?”
P: “Pamela Orion, Ma’am.”
C: “Why are you contracted to Ms. Skasan?”
I: “That’s none of your busi-“
C: “Quiet. Answer the question.”
P: “I-it was part of an agreement that my father made with Ms. Skasan, in exchange for a loan for his business.”
C: “What is the duration of your contract?”
P: “Ten years.”
C: “How long have you been contracted to her?”
P: “Almost a year now.”
C: “What do you do for her?”
P: “I cook, maintain her residence, and just about anything else she needs me to do.”
C: “Those are very broad terms.”
P: “My father did not know very much about indentured servant contracts, and we were desperate for the money…”
C: “And you freely agreed to the terms?”
P: “Yes.”
C: “Hmm.”

*Subject falls silent again. The servant moves nervously, and Skasan appears impatient*

I: “Well? Do we have a deal?”
C: “…Very well. Your proposal is acceptable. Once the contract has been transferred, I will give you the data.”
I: “Fine. Wait here.”

*Skasan departs upstairs, returning after a few minutes, holding a data card*

I: “Here. There’s a brokerage not far from here. Give them this and they’ll confirm that you’re her owner. Now give me my files.”

*Subject accepts the card, scanning it with her omnitool. She remains silent as she appears to review the information, Skasan growing increasingly impatient. Subject nods and gives Skasan a second data card*

I: “Finally. Now get out.”
C: “Goodbye Ms. Skasan.”

*Subject draws her pistol and fires two shots into Skasan’s chest, causing the servant to scream and jump back in shock. Subject approaches Skasan’s body and fires a third shot into its head, then holsters her pistol, takes an image with her Omnitool, and picks up the fallen data card*

P: “Y-y-you…”
C: *speaking into her Omnitool* “The job is done. Sending you the data now.”

*Subject falls silent for a moment, then nods and removes a small object from her waist*

End of Playback. Remaining data was too corrupt to be recovered.

>>Shadow Broker Files
>>File Directory; Personell
>> Potential Recruits
>> Subject, Drono Laken
>> Known Associates; Yestin (Salarian Smuggler), loose affiliation with a number of Smuggler networks.
>> Occupation; Drell Smuggler and Bounty Hunter.
>> Pros; Quick Thinker, Adaptive, Effective, Unorthodox, Has medical and personal conditions that makes him easy to manipulate.
>> Cons; Unpredictable, Violent, Distrustful. Possible loyalties with Hanar homeworld still intact despite obvious resentment.

>Following is a exerpt from his medical records, intercepted from one Josephine Sharpe, at the Green Hearts Clinic. A human run clinic that >saved Dronos life.

Date XXXX/XX/XX

>Patient Log 1; Pre-Surgery

We discovered the patient outside the clinic doors. Traces of blood indicated his dragged himself to our door by his own volition. Remarkable will to live. Patient have suffered injury at the hand of a close range, small caliber handgun. We have prepped him for surgery but our lack of experience with Drell biology might serve as a problem. Patient have remained remarkably lucid throughout surgery-preparation. Demands we keep his presence and survival secret.

>Patient Log 21; Post Surgery, Day 2

Patient is resting under intensive monitoring. We managed to remove the projectile and most of its splinter fragments after three hours of surgery. We fear for the worst, the patient have acquired severe nerve damage and his Drell biology has handled the infections poorly so far. There is increasing chance of spinal damage as result of the rampant bacterial growth. We believe whoever shot him might have dosed him in something post-entry wound.

Yet, The Patient insisted on staying awake for most of the surgery. Not that we had that much of a choice, this clinic has no prior experience with Drell. We were unaware how his body would react to the application of painkillers.

Patient showed remarkable pain tolerance and calm throughout the operation. But past out almost immedietly after the wound was closed and dressed. We were afraid he might just have given up. It is clear he trusts nobody here, and despite my insurance that not a word will escape these halls, I think he is terrified of being found in a weakened state. He sleeps with his gun still clutched in his hand.

>Patient Log 28; Post Surgery, Day 13

He is awake. He is remarkably talkative for a Drell. And even more so for a post-trauma agent. Complains about intense pain in his upper back. We fear his spine has sustained more damage them we had previously discovered or anticipated. We are giving him a experimental concotion of painkillers and anti-biotics.

>Patient Log 36; Post Surgery, Day 26

Patient is unable to make a full recovery. He has sustained life altering damage to several parts of his spine it is a wonder he can walk. The infections will return due to a compromised immunity system. The concoction seems to work to stave them off for now, but he will likely have to return periodically.
It is not a cheap treatment, but the Patient claims to be able to pay for it all.
>Patient Log 40; Post Surgery, Day 30

Patient have left the clinic. I still find him a remarkable individual, having such a strong will to survive. But I recognice those eyes anywhere, Drell, Asari or Human. He's driven by dark and violent impulses. The Drell as a species possess a unique sense of memory, I can only speculate as to how powerful a memory being shot in the back must be. Whoever he is hunting, should be very afraid.

Warehouse Assault: Group 1

_{Collab between @Heat, @DJAtomika @Sundered Echo, and @Fallenreaper}

The tactical display in Kasyra's helmet flickered on as information flooded in. A camera feed displaying the Krogans scope view appeared to the side, hostile counters and readouts of her suit status crowding around the edges. As if she didn't have enough data on hand, a transparent map view also appeared, as well as weapons status displays and a dynamic reticule. To one unexperienced with such a busy HUD, it would've certainly been overwhelming, but Kasyra was used to this. It was customised and personalised with various alerts to ensure she could make the most of the data even in the thick of battle.

She identified the structures as being the most likely locations for the thickest fighting, at least before they entered the mines. Without waiting to see who might come with her, she began to head towards the warehouse, planning on sneaking as close as possible before engaging anyone. She was most effective at point blank range, and preffered not to be engaged until the terms of the fight were in her favor. Fortunately, the wire mesh of the fence seemed rather old and, like many things on this dump of a station, low quality.

She suspected she could get through the fence quickly and quietly by cryo blasting a section of the mesh and exploiting its brittleness to make a hole.

Valiss peered through the target area through her rifle scope. This situation was the perfect one for her to show off her unique set of talents. There were mutliple avenues the team could take to succeed, several of which fit in with her commando training. An ambush seemed like a brillant tactic, they could go loud and proud, tear a hole in the wall and storm in one the alcohol dazzed filth or go with something quieter. The advice to split the assault team into two pleased her, she worked better in a smaller group.

She decided to follow the quarian, the quiet approach seemed to be the one she was going for. Valiss couldn't let her go it alone, goddess forbid she had a puncture in her suit or something terrible. The asari silently slid in alongside Kasyra, her voice emitting quietly through the speaker in her helmet.

"I like your thinking, my biotics work best on surprised foes. They won't know what hit them when we do it. I'll follow you right in." Valiss said, smiling within her helmet, the expression hidden on anyone looking at her from the outside. She clenched her rifle tightly, though she probably wouldn't use it right away with the initial strike. Biotics suited that perfectly.

Like both the girls, he had read all the data given to him by his previously hacked omnitool. It was more than enough and better than prior missions he had to admit, slightly impressed while he pulled out both his blades. He examined them for a moment, flipping and testing the weight in how they moved easily within his trained talons. Both were curved and wickedly sharp, they were weapons designed to both hook and slice flesh from bone with the least amount of effort on his part. His heart rattled in his chest quietly when his adrenaline tingled inside his core causing him to smirk in excitement at the rush. Naturally his icy eyes lifted up and caught an image of the two female's shapely backs as Vallis slipped in beside Kasyra. Not the worst view in the world actually. Unlike most the team, he willing chose not to wear a helmet and instead had a comm ear and speaker near his mouth in addition to the visor over his one eye.

He knew something was likely to happen, something more likely interesting. Following his instinct, Vellios stepped in close to catch Vallis' quietly talk to the quarian. If he didn't know better, which he wasn't sure he did really, it could've almost been mistaken for a flirting exchange of words. Careful not to startle either of the deadly females, Vellios made sure his steps became decidingly slightly louder to betray his presence to the two trained killers. They might've not realized it was on purpose though.

"You two lead, I'll follow if you don't mind this couple becoming a threesome?" Vellios said, his voice smooth as silk surprisingly. His crested head turned to Kasyra's direction and narrowed his eyes before he spoke to her. " What are you thinking in that head of yours?"

His blades were held at his side in the relaxed position.

Kasyra had known all along that Vellios was behind her. Thanks to her map and the networking of omni tools curtesy of mirage, she could see the positions of the entire squad. She was pleased to see she had some back up, especially biotic backup. It'd make getting through the fence easier if it turned out to be better made than it looked, and if there were any hostile biotics they might not immediately go for her. Biotic defences were her biggest weak point and she knew it.

She inwardly groaned at his banter then replied, not bothering to lower her voice. She had already set her suit not to relay her voice outside of the comms. "That you should shut up unless you have something useful to say." She didn't honestly expect him to follow her snapped demand but it also wouldn't really bother her. She had had overly chatty squad members in the past, and knew how to zone them out if needed.

"There's plenty of time for silence when I'm dead, until then, be thankful I'm talking. It means I'm still alive to cover your ass." Vellios replied, not taking her comment to heart. He had been treated much worse and still he stood, merely having scars to show for it. When Kasyra and Vallis moved, his movements relfected those of a predator as he kept close to the pair navigating the warehouse grounds.

It did not take long to reach the fence, the pirates were not even looking this direction, assuming that everyone would only approach the obvious front entrance. She selected a short range setting for her Cryo Blast before pointing her glowing omni tool at the fence.

A blue-white burst of matter, Bose-Einstein condensate as the humans knew it, sprung from the tool and burst over the mesh of the fence. It was almost silent, except for a slight tinkling sound as moisture int he air froze instantly. The metal of the mesh was supercooled, making it brittle. Normally she would kick out the frozen section herself now, but she had a biotic present. No point in wasting energy when she could get someone else to.

She had all the usual acid in her voice as she replied, even when speaking to the Asari."I dont care about silence, I care about a busy comm channel when there might be important info on the comm. We can chat all you like later. Now, Vallis, if you'd like to excercise that wonderful power of yours on this harmless fence, we can get to the killing part sooner."

"Done." Valiss replied as she rose a free hand towards the now frozen fence. Her frame glowed blue for a brief moment as she pushed it away, careful not to put too much force behind it and create unnceccesary ruckus. That part was child's play, she couldn't wait to use her biotics on some enslaving scumbags.

"Now now you two, no fighting yet. Save it for our victims." Valiss added, smirking at the comments between her two companions. He didn't need them tearing holes into each other's armor, only the slavers.

"So what exactly is the plan here? We should ambush them, punch a hole in the wall, charge in and take them down. Quickly and cleanly. Sure it would alert the whole facility, but they'd think we're the only ones hitting them." Valiss said as she pitched in her idea for the operation. The scum they were going to cut down were dulled with alcohol and laziness by this point, an ambush would be perfect.

"Awww, but mom..." Vellios said with a smirk, his tone clearly teasing as his icy eyes twinkled. "She started it by being a bitch."

"I am actually old enough to be your mother." Valiss quipped back, bringing up her extreme lifespan. A cocky smile on her face as she said the words. In her people's terms she was young, to almost every other race she had already outlived member's of their species.

"Great grandmother more like." Kasyra's sarcastic, scathing voice added.

If turians could shift and wiggle their eyebrows, Vellios would've in jest though he did chuckle at Kasyra's addition." See, I knew you had a sense of humor Kasyra."

Each movement Vellios made was controlled and full of purpose with little energy wasted, like it was precious source worth expending when he needed to. His voice being the only expection naturally. " Be glad you weren't because I was a bit of a wild child. Though some of it wasn't by choice mind you and that's a conversation best left discussed another time when we're not risk of getting shot at first. Maybe over a drink? First round would be on me."

Part of him was curious if his suspcious were correct that the woman might not be exactly what she seemed. Namely the way she talked, moved, and just some aura about her screamed a preferrance to woman though he had been wrong before. It didn't hurt to try either way.

"I wouldn't mind having a drink with you, but it won't lead to what you hope it will. Honestly, you remind me too much of my father. He was a turian too." Valiss replied as she followed the rest of the group. The batarian made his prescense known, adding one more to their team. Three's a crowd, four is a party.

Vellios nodded, then smiled visibly showing he was still going to enjoy it. He decided it was best not to mention that she remind him of his therapist or he was likely in for a ton more questions from not just her, but the others as well which then would get him shot. Mercs, in his epxerience, weren't too fond of the mentally unstable and most usually came to their own negative conclusions after hearing he had been in therapy off and on throughout his life. No one trusted a diseased varren not to turn on them.

What no one had noticed was the lone, red highlighted guard ambling towards the team. While they bickered and delayed their entry, the red diamond grew ever closer to their entry point. The guard, a batarian, noticed the fallen section of frozen fence and stopped in his tracks.

"Hey, what the- "

His exclamation was promptly stopped as a blur tackled him from the side. The batarian struggled underneath the black mass as it raised a knife and plunged it into his throat. A taloned hand gripped the handle and yanked it one way while the other hand twisted his head the other. A sickening crack broke through the silence, followed by a gurgling as the batarian bled onto the dirt.

Hazan pulled his knife from the corpse's neck, wiped it clean on its shirt and replaced it in its sheath on his back. He pulled his shotgun from just above it and unfolded it as he stared at the trio.

"Are you three just gonna stand around and compare ages or are you gonna get in here? We have a mission, y'know."

"Unlike you, I can multitask Haze and am moving while I talk." Vellios quipped then added in a more serious tone. It was a tone that usually called attention and stated clearly it was best not to ignore him. "Besides, when I'm silent then I suggest you start worrying. Especially if you get caught in my crosshairs. Chatter keeps me grounded, keeps tabs on my teammates' condition even when they are lying and mind in the present. Understand?"

He couldn't begin to explain how many times he had realized something was amiss by the way someone spoke during chatter, a fact that was so much harder to determine when radio silence was in effect. Seemed some habits still remained with him even after he had tried to put the Haides behind him. As much as he wanted to trust everyone would do their jobs and keep to their tasks, being a merc that had survived this long meant you never fully took anyone at their word right away. At least until they proved it with a few missions. This group was still new so expecting that level of trust was a naive and stupid habit to start taking up now.

Kasyra had been entirely aware of the approaching Batarian as he came closer - it was impossible to miss such a thing with the sheer amount of tactical data right in front of her nose. She was preparing her omni blades to dispatch him when Haze sprung out and cruelly and swiftly killed him. Kasyra both approved of the efficiency and disapproved of the fact she'd missed out, as well as the following comment Haze made.

"Fine, Vellios." She began. "Chatter if you have to, but make it relevant information damnit. Like what you can do, sightings of hostiles or suggestions on advancing. Plenty of time for stories later." She spoke as she advanced, quickly crossing the gap to the nearest piece of machinery, keeping low as she went. Her Carnifex heavy pistol was drawn in her main hand, and she was ready with a variety of tech attacks should they be spotted before closing to ideal range.

"I say we get inside the warehouse as fast as we can and dispatch those drunk fools. Once thats secure, we can move into the other buildings or the mine, depending on how the other teams are going." Her tone had become surprisingly business-like now.

"Just as long there's chatter, I can handle that." Vellios chirped almost once they were through the fence. Nervousness, excess energy and lack of connection with the crew before the mission were already seeping into his actions making him look less like the war vetern he was. He had never had this issue when he served with his unit since they were a tightly knitted crew but with mercs, it was a whole another aspect he was still adjusting to.

Seeing Kasyra move, her figure low and quickly jumping from cover to cover, Vellios' hand jerked to his comms hastily. " Haze, think you and Tonka could take out the moving targets? Most likely the stationary ones are jacking off while doing their tasks and won't be covering as much range. They will be easy to avoid though if any of them get nosy, but please give us a heads up before one of you pop him. We don't know how often they report in about their task progression and a functional drunk will notice when too much time passes. Think you can handle that?"

The continual need to move and shift helped some. It kept the twitchy and anxiety feelings over the upcoming events from building up, his form purposely falling behind the two females when he ducked behind the nearest vehicle. This allowed them a bit of distance while he surveyed the surroundings. His hand had already switched to a pistol in the event he had to cover Kasyra's ass as his mind shifted from chatter, thanks to the additional tasks, and noted a stationary target turning unexpectedly toward Kasyra's destination direction. "Batarian batting his pretty four eyes your direction,Kasyra. Think you or Vallis can take him out quietly while Haze and Tonka deal with the sentries? If not just pause there, I'll get him with a distaction while you two move ahead toward the warehouse. Either way, we'll try to snag the comm for Mirage to hack. It might give us another edge."

"I got him." Valiss replied as she noticed the potentially troublesome target. Seemed the quiet approach was the one the entire group seeked. As such she holstered her trusty rifle, freeing both of her hands. She paused as she waited for the guard to turn in a different direction, as soon as he did Valiss was on him. With both of her palms firmly around the surprised guard's neck, she twisted it powerfully, an action she had done many times before.

With a crack one more target was down for the count. Then she carefully placed both hands on the now corpse's shoulders and pulled him back with her, towards her partners. She dropped him near them, away from the sightline of any guards who happened to look in their direction.

"I'm sure we can find a comm to hack into on him. They could be running communications through omnitools, something that also can be hacked." Valiss said as she looked over the dead batarian. It appeared she taken him down cleanly, a stationwide alarm had not been tripped which was a positive sign.

"[color=dustyrose]Nice job Vallis. And Mirage, can you pull any data up from the downed gaurd's omnitool logs or communication devices?[/color]" Veliios asked in a curious tone, then slipped to the next truck unseen when a Batarian sentry several feet away turned. He sharply inhaled when he jerked into cover quickly, his feet skidded a bit across the metal ground as he waited a moment. Any slowly gain ground was being lost causing him to quietly curse. His talons tightened on his blade in his hand until the carapace seemed strained past comfort then shifted away, not willing to compromise their presence. "Haze, all yours.There's a sentry several meters from my location and coming my way. I got two pretty girls to catch up with, have fun."

With that, he jerked into the next piece of cover, a dismantled car, when he spotted Haze was in position and made strives to catch up with his chosen group.

"No problem."

Following just behind the group, Hazan watched them easily dispatch one more guard. He knew Vellios had to catch up with Kasy and Val, and technically he wasn't tagged to them either. Talk about freedom.

He saw the contact in his visor, the little red diamond slowly expanding as the Batarian walked towards them. He saw Vellios move away to his left, shifting upward on the other side of the bank of vehicles they'd chosen to hide behind.

That meant another kill for him.

He dropped to the ground and slid underneath the truck he was behind. Hazan watched his HUD as the red blip slowly moved closer. As it approached the truck, he saw the Batarian's boots clump by. Unnoticed, he waited for the guard to move past the truck, then slid out from the other side, swung back round and got behind him. His knife hand stabbed the blade into the back of his neck, and as Hazan held the guard's head with his free hand, he tore the blade out sideways and then jammed it into his throat and yanked.

The corpse gurgled and dropped like a sack, and Haze caught it in his arms. He rolled it underneath the truck he'd slid out from and sheathed his knife.

"Taken care of."

As he drew his shotgun again, he checked his HUD. No enemy contacts stood out, and the little blue triangles that marked his fellow teammates had moved onward and forward. He nodded to himself and moved away from where they were going.

"Right fellas, y'all are clear. Have fun, I'm gonna go move around the perimeter, neutralise the sentries. Catch ya'll later."

"Thanks Vallis." Kasyra said as the Asari took down the nearby Batarian. She would not have been able to close the distance on him to take him out quietly herself, as her only quiet method of killing was her blade.

The remaining, no doubt soon to be dead, sentries, were all focused on keeping an eye towards the outside of the area, leaving her with a relatively free run to the warehouse door. Reaching it quickly, she waited for the others to catch up so they could breach all at once.

She switched to the general comm channel to report on their status. She didn't want to start a loud and obvious assault until the team was entirely in position, and gestured to the two following her to make sure they didn't rush into the warehouse yet."This is Kasyra. We've reached the warehouse door and are preparred to breach. We will begin as soon as everyone goes loud."

@Deartrickster & @Hellis

"This is Kasyra. We've reached the warehouse door and are prepared to breach. We will begin as soon as everyone goes loud." Kasyra's announcement gave them the green light to move in.

Where some people were tactical masterminds or hardened war veterans. The drell known as Drono was neither. He was not a veteran who fought during the thick of it. He was not a strategist who spent his time refining attack plans. He was a smuggler, quick witted, unpredictable and often reckless individual who spat in the face of conventional thinking. He blamed it on not being accepted into the compact. Those who knew him since old, would likely have pitied Dex. When one ran with Drono, one better be prepared to have everything one knew about fighting. While their tactics and sound tactical thinking to be challenged.

"Dex, right? You're our cloak and dagger lady...turian. Is it lady? Either way, I bet you know how to not get shot and how to do things the smooth way."

Dex watched the short blue drell approach from her peripheral. While she had been watching Haze brutally dispatch his targets, his earlier clutzy loss in balance seemed to disappear.

Dex had noticed Drono was certainly unlike most other drell she had met previously. He had this restless energy about him. She had been listening to Drono and Haze's comm chatter earlier while they did recon. Haze seemed to have little patience in regards to Drono.

She took his assertions in stride not really bothering to address it, "To put it mildly yeah. So long as you can keep up with me, then we shouldn't have a problem." Her tone was even while her eyes took in the administration building.

"That administration building is where we're going to find our pay checks. Based on the recon you and Haze completed along with Tonka's observations we can safely bet that one of them is holed up in there." Dex pointed to the building getting straight to business, "We need to sneak in take care of the guards then when our assault teams attack the warehouse and housing unit we can move in when everyone's attention is on the gunfire."

"I like that plan. The less I get shot, the better my day goes." Drono nodded. It was true, he was very fond of the idea that he wouldn't participate in a giant firefight. This had led him to talking to Dex. Underhanded, sneaky fighting was such a unappreciated art form.

"Let's get moving, the others are waiting for our set up. You take left and I'll go right." Dex said gesturing to move forward.

She dashed out from behind the truck skirting out of sight initiating her cloak. Her eyes were focused on the patrolling guards she had a trick up her sleeve to take care of the two quickly and quietly.

Drono moved after her, letting her take the lead. His gun was in his hands, the weight of it reassuring in his grip. His feet moved once more with almost no sound. He had been called a footpad before, a old term for bandits and thieves who were known to move silently. He lived up to the moniker. Motioning to those on the left side, he grinned. "They're mine," Then his cloak activated.

Sliding into cover she peeked out from behind it, noting Drono's distinctive shimmer veering off to the left. Pulling back the material on her prosthetic hand she waited for the guard's back were turned away. Whispering over the comms, "Time to raise a little hell."

Swinging her legs over the cover she dashed up to the guards using incinerate to take out the Turian without a sound. The heat was intense and bright while the guard's desperate attempts at screams burned up in his throat. Like a whip taking on the next guard, a human, in one fluid motion connecting her knuckles into his abdomen the distinct crackle shocking him into unconsciousness. She straightened then quickly went to their pockets searching for anything they could use. She found a couple inferno grenades attaching them to her hip in case they needed them.

The Drell's movements weren't far behind. He matched her pace but not quite her tech. His trick was much cruder. As the two guards had only a split second to react to the sudden bright demise of their buddies, the first drunk was Batarian. Drono struck against his neck with enough force to break it, paralyzing any call he might have tried to make. His friend on the other hand, a human, froze as the bludgeon was pressed to his temple in the form of a oversized handgun.

"Shhhh. No screams now. How many inside?"

"Uh uh!" The guard stammered still processing their ruthless attack. "I don't know!"

"Oh?" Drono said in sarcastic drawl. "I am sure, I can make you remember."

"..Ah don't shot. I know.. there is a couple of guys upstairs. Doing the books for the Blue Suns lady."

"Bl... Blue Suns? You sure?" Drono shot Dex a look. She shrugged watching the guard closely.

"Y-yeah! The boss is up there going over it right now!" He replied twitching away from the end of his barrel. "Pl-please I don't want to die."

"Stay. Put." Drono almost rolled his eyes as he said it. It always helped to look bored or annoyed when dealing with threatening others. Made him seem that much more cold hearted.

"O...Oh... 'kay. Look. I don't wanna die." The human pirate said, his eyes darting around nervously.

"Look at me, I am going to knock you out. You are going to be all passed out and safe, because we are nice people like that. Right?" He looked to Dex once more, nodding towards her tazer.

She let the electric current crackle again for emphasis. "Knock him out then we can move in."

"Your wish is my command." Drono smashed the pirate with the heavy gun across the temple, and the human went out like a light. Of course, Drono wasn't sure he'd wake up. He might have hit him hard enough for a serious concussion. He really didn't like slavers, snitches, or having to deal with the Blue Suns.

"After you." Drono motioned for her to go ahead. She was the closest to a heavy the two had and Drono really disliked getting shot.

She initiated her cloak it blinked then phased out a couple areas over her body not completing its coverage, "Stupid thing." She hammered her wrist a couple times before it shimmered back in place.

Her omnitool glowed to life while she bypassed the locks on the door. It's security was minimal and it opened within seconds. She peered in not spotting any enemies. She gestured for Drono to follow. Crouching low she entered slowly searching for security cameras. When she spotted them she waved her omnitool in their general direction picking up their signals. She wiped their presence from the feeds replacing them with static images of an empty floor.

Dex opened up the general comms noting to the others, "Drono and I infiltrated the administration building. Disabling the local security cameras for now, they'll be ready to use when Mirage has control of security."

"You really ought to have that fixed." Drono noted, his own cloak didn't have any problems. It shimmered and made him meld with the surroundings. He picked up the human guards submachine gun, not really caring what model it was.

She mumbled defensively, "It's fine, you wouldn't believe me if I told you how many times I've been told that."

As they stalked in, the lower floor was blown out office space without a single living thing there. Up the stairs was dark all the way, indicating the same. Just as Drono had observed from the outside earlier. He moved up the stairs pressed against he wall, slowly ascending. He peeked over the last few steps. All clear.

He stepped up. "Alright. All clear so far." He said in a whisper. Dex had followed him up the stairs as quietly as she could. Confirming for herself the way was clear. Her ears strained to listen to the apparent movement going on above them.

"Okay as soon as that gunfire starts we can take care of who comes running out first and surprise them. If it's our target we can capture them without a single gunshot." She pointed to the staircase across the floor, light was flooding out of it. "If all of them come down the stairs at the same time we can at least incapacitate them. Take out their shields or kneecaps." She pulled her Roskenov Viper off her back setting her disruptor ammo.

She pressed her ear piece then spoke with confidence, "We're in position and ready for the fireworks."

"And I brought plenty of firecrackers..." The Drell unhooked a flashbang.

The Warehouse

It was strange the sentries hadn’t walked by in a little while. The technician looked around from the refueling cells he had been preparing to charge the technical with and noticed his friend wasn’t anywhere to be seen, which was unlike him, or any of the other sentries for that matter. The technician recalled his friend had less than an hour after his shift, and when he were restless and bored, he moved around a bit more to alleviate the tedium. Something felt wrong, that much was clear.

Drawing his sidearm, a cheap submachine-gun that was as compact as an automatic pistol, the technician began to move around, looking towards where he’d seen his friend moving to. It didn’t take long for him to find what was wrong, however; by the technicals a pair of boots were immediately visible when he rounded the side of the truck. Also apparent was a turian staring back at him, shotgun in hand.
“CONTACT!” the batarian shouted, aiming his weapon in a long burst as he activated his tech armour, trying to move into a better firing position. The two other technicians in the yard drew their weapons and began to move towards the warehouse, not knowing the threat that they were facing.

Inside the warehouse, a mechanic working on one of the three skycars purchased by the company hit his head off the undercarriage at the sudden burst of gunfire. Cursing, the batarian pulled himself out from under the vehicle and grabbed his Avenger assault rifle, taking note that the 8 guards were already gearing up, 4 of whom were situated around a table playing a card game. From the foreman’s office up the stairs, a booming voice came down on them hard. “You four, off your asses!” Three-Eye Vallak thundered, he himself charging a heavy Revenant machine gun as he took charge of the fighters. “Secure the transports and find out what the hell is going on out there. Hos, get that turret up and running!”

Another of the batarians ran along the upper catwalk to what looked like a makeshift pillbox with crudely welded metal plates as rudimentary protection. However, mounted in it was a military-grade turret that had been secured on the black market some time ago. Its traversing mechanism was slow and it skipped gears, but when on point little else could put the same amount of vehicle-shredding firepower on point quite like it. Vallak just hoped that Hos wasn’t such an incompetent shot that he’d tear up the crates of narcottics the gang was planning on shipping out to prospective buyers.

The four batarians ready, one of the bay doors began to open when Hos gestured his turret was online and on point. The four made their way outside carefully, weapons at the ready.

Administration Building

Upstairs, a very irritated asari was checking her omni-tool, noticing her access to the security systems was compromised. “What kind of operation do you think you’re running here? You assured me your systems were secure, top of the line.” She said, her voice cold as ice.
5 of the Twin Stars were upstairs with her, most of whom looked uncomfortable to be there. The leader of the bunch didn’t back down, however. He opened up his omni-tool and tried to raise the men downstairs. “Tale’k, report. What’s going on down there? We lost systems access.” Silence hung heavy in the air. “Tale’k, report.”

“Your operation is compromised. You,” the asari in Blue Suns armour said, shoving her finger at one of the batarians. “Clear the data and get it on a module, ASAP. You’re getting me out of here safely, or this partnership with the Blue Suns is becoming immediately hostile, understood?”

The batarian nodded nervously, getting to work. The leader was busy commanding his own men. “You two, get downstairs, find out what’s going on.”

“Belay that.” The asari commanded. The batarians waited.

“Grenades first. We’re not taking chances. If it’s nothing, charge me for damages. If there’s someone down there, then you can thank me later.” She said.

The three batarians nodded in agreement, plucking fragmentation grenades from their belts.

“One at a time. On three. Three, two, one…” the leader said, throwing his explosive down the stairwell, followed by the next two in sequence. Three explosives detonated. The asari turned to the batarian at the console. “Do you have my data?”

“Right here.”

“Let’s move. Now.”

Housing Block

Heads begin to turn towards the window, the distinct sound of gunfire barely penetrating the loud music. While some of the batarians set their drinks down in curiosity and concern, most figure one of the idiots had a negligent discharge of their firearm. The bartender’s pockets are getting heady with credit chits.

Dex crept up from her spot in the stairwell using a desk as cover. When she heard the very distinct metallic noises of a grenade bouncing down the stairwell she froze then without another thought to react she dove behind one of the cubicles closest to her, knowing the desk would do little for cover. The first grenade exploded scattering shrapnel in every direction; it tore through the thin fabricated walls tearing into Dex’s shields. Without waiting she dashed back to the stairwell where Drono had been smart enough to duck for cover. The second explosion knocked her into the stairwell face first. She cleared a few steps then landed hard rolling to a stop by Drono’s feet. The wind thoroughly knocked out of her. The third grenade went off followed by stomping boots.

Her ears rang while getting knocked around left her dazed. She pushed up from the floor grunting irritably. “They didn’t appreciate me sabotaging their security.”

She reached for her rifle then manually rebooted her shields; they took a nasty hit sitting at 65% functionality.

Making eye contact with Drono, adrenaline pumping fire into her veins, “Before you ask, I'm fine. They want to play with grenades, so now it's our turn. Let's fuck them up." She pulled off one of the infernos she had on her hip holding it up for him to see.

'Clink' wend the grenade. That sound, he could have heard it while drunk and he would still recognize it. 'Clink.' Another step. Another bounce. His brain fired on all cylinders as he doubled back, away from the damn noise. It was only a second later the thing bloomed into flame and shrapnel. Drono threw himself to the side. Shrapnel made walls into swisscheese but missed him as he had been more fortunate then Dex in his position. He winced as she bounced clear down the stairs. But despite it all he still quipped. ”I hate slipping down stairs. Don't you?” Then, as the third grenade went off and feet could be heard, he peeked around let out a staccato burst into the doorway. Yelps and angry screams followed and return fire hailed down.

He waited for them to stop. Then immedietly followed Dexs idea of returning fire with some grenades of his own. His throw was hard, and it was aimed with a experts eye. He activated the sticky function as he threw, and instead of the grenade bouncing of the wall, it stuck, right next to the frist bartarian. Then the flashbang exploded in light, chaff, and concussive force. The first bartarian hit screamed ,clutching where Drono assumed his ear was, only to stumble and place his foot to far out. He went down the stairs alot harder then Dex had.

”Such slippery stairs. They really ought' to do something about them.” Drono mused as he placed a single executioner round into the stunned Bartarians head. Up ahead, the others were still clearing their eyes and groaning. All but one voice. A female voice, one that was mighty pissed.

”You useless pieces of shit. Step aside and let me show you how it is done.” The voice was so filled with rage and disdain that Drono wondered if its owner meant to shoot her own allies. He peeked and let out another burst up the staircase only to register a purple glow. And then he was bounced against the cieling and down onto the floor.

”THROW YOUR DAMN GRENADES!” He yelled in a fit of not so suave panic.

With the rest of the crew arriving and having sorted themselves out into teams, Tanya wondered how much of a junkyard dog fight it was determining pecking order before they agreed on a plan of attack. While she kept her eye trained through the sight on the four workers in the yard, she periodically glanced at the four-man assault team worming their way towards the gate, with Kasyra, the quarian, going on point. That surprised Tanya somewhat; she knew the quarian boasted of being a marine, but the idea of someone who could potentially die if their suit was breeched leading an attack seemed somewhat crazy, but she was coming to associate most of the crew with crazy. Vallis fell in beside her, offset to the side to… chat? Tanya couldn’t hear anything over comms, so it definitely wasn’t a transmission. Maybe the asari was paranoid about a signal getting intercepted, but that seemed unlikely. Vellios took up the third position, probably not arguing with the two women because he was likely inspecting the outlines of their asses rather than practicing any sort of situational awareness, and Hazan, after his initial recon, decided to tag along with them, shotgun in hand. All in all, a pretty robust group that hopefully was careful about their infiltration. When the group had breached the fence, Tanya opened up a comm channel with her own team.

“Alright, ladies and Wank Tank, I trust you’re in position. When the shooting starts, we’ll pop the drones, let Mirage knows he has a couple pairs of eyes, and then all we have to do is keep any bastards from running.” She said, watching Hazan pull a blade from a guard’s neck. He’d saved the team from a potentially catastrophic fuck-up. “Best way to do that, I think, is to put the genie back in the bottle by hitting the source, hard. I’m looking at these two trucks, and honestly, I’m getting some ideas. Iosef, you commandeer one of them, move it into a good covering position, and use the gun to suppress anyone who tries to leave that worker housing unit. Serena, you and I are going to find whatever the fuck is flammable in that warehouse, load it on the other truck, and set it on a ramming course with the tavern. We turn that ground floor into a bonfire, and the entrances should be easy to cover until the others are done clearing out their structures.”

Like Tanya, Iosif would occasionally shoot a glance towards the four-man team on their way to breach the fence. Two turians, an asari and, well.. Iosif was about as intrigued as one would've expected to see a quarian marine in action for the first time. Granted, Rael had brought them up once or twice, but his late partner had always been somber when it came to talking about his own people so that you barely got the picture. Maybe exile from the only place you could call home would've done that to him, he supposed. Gaze passing over the two trucks stationed in the yard, he only barely caught sight of Hazan tackling the stray guard and plunging a throat into the batarian's neck, which helped in boosting his confidence in their ability, or at least Hazan's at any rate. Iosif's focus then shifted back towards Tanya as she ran through her spin on the plan and he quickly affirmed her suggestion to commandeer one of the trucks with a simple nod. Passing his gaze over it, it became clear that this wouldn't have been a difficult task. Pirates like these had a tendency for using cheap and simple vehicles with weaponry haphazardly slapped on as opposed to expensive but equally disposable ex-military hardware.

Getting to the closest truck and getting it moving would be easy enough, as would taking the reigns of one of those conveniently mounted MGs, it seemed. The fear was back. Serena could feel it, like a lump in the back of her throat, slowly spreading throughout her body. It was an old friend, a constant companion during her life in San Pedro and when she was sneaking into enemy bases to hack or steal their data. It was a sudden spike during battles, rushing through her like a storm. It was a constant voice in her ear when Vellios was gone during his fight matches, when he was busy on missions not with her, or when she woke him up. The fear was something she could deal with, and had been operating with, her whole life. What she couldn't deal with, however, was not knowing if or when things were going to go to hell and Vellios was gonna be in the middle of a firefight.

She watched with apprehension as Hazan killed the first batarian, holding her breath even after he succeeded. If you die, you sarcastic turian bastard, I'll ressurect you just to kick your ass. She let out a shaky breath, focusing on what Tanya was telling her.

"Make things go boom. Leave drones behind, then go kill things. Got it. Simple and direct." She hoped the fear wasn't showing to badly. She didn't want to have to explain to them both that she was fine, just terrified. "About sums it up, alright, on my lead... wait.

Tanya paused, noticing the one yard worker beginning to patrol. Moments later, the bastard opened fire towards Hazan's location and beginning to retreat. Things had quickly begun to go pear shaped.She tapped into her comms to raise Alex. "Alex? We need you over by the warehouse. Hazan might have been shot, and I think things are about to get more interesting. Alright guys, move!" she ordered, firing a trio of 5 round bursts at the two retreating technicians. The shielding shimmered on one of the workers, giving out under the barrage of sand-sized metal shards tearing through his defenses.

Through her optics, Tanya watched as the batarian's unarmoured chest became riddled with dark blood spots and viscera exploded out of the exit wound. The other batarian dove to the dirt, ineffectually trying to return fire as a group of armoured and well-armed guards emerged. The engineer flicked her left hand's fingers in sequence and Shithead fabricated in front of her. It soon took off towards the group of batarians, firing a trio of microrockets at the group. Tanya didn't want to see how that was going and picked herself off of the dirt and began to move towards the trucks.

"Haze here. I got compromised. I'm setting off an explosive distraction in the vehicle yard. All teams, use it to your advantage." Hazan's voice suddenly cut through the comms like a knife through butter.

Tanya blinked, taking in what was just said. One of the trucks promptly exploded, causing Tanya to stagger from the sudden flash and reflexively shield herself from shrapnel, most of which bounced harmlessly around her or off her shield. The turian responsible soon was sprinting away from the excitement and raising Tonka on the comms.

"Tonka! Think you can get the guards pinned down once they get to the vehicle yard? The road looks really empty! Could set up a cross fire or some shit there with the other guys!"

"Negative, that explosion seems to have stirred up the fighters in the housing block. Wait one." the krogan replied over comms, and a loud crack of heavy gunfire filled the air. "Caught someone peaking out a window, might have been a sniper. I'm going to try to keep as many as I can from leaving the block, the rest of you make yourselves useful and clear the other buildings." he said, firing off another shot.

"For fuck's sake, Haze, more than five bloody seconds next time!" Tanya snarled over comms, firing a burst at the guards, one of which had his leg torn off from Shithead's rocket. The drone was circling quickly above them, drawing somewhat ineffective gunfire. Tanya's rifle barked again, and one of the guards' shields shimmered from the impacts, forcing him to take a prone position. Tanya sprinted towards the remaining vehicle, baseball sliding into cover as rounds kicked up dirt around her.

"Iosef, your call on this one. Either we turn the remaining technical into a siege ram like our original plan, or we can commandeer it and make use of the gun." She said to the Slavic man over the comms, flinching as rounds began to impact close to her, one of which hitting her leg, prompting her to fold in tighter. She realized quickly that she wouldn't be able to hop on the machine-gun without exposing herself.

"If one of you guys can distract those bastards, I can get suppressive fire downrange. I'm pinned."

Alex had been watching as the group split themselves and began to move towards their assignments. The vanguard had decided to wait until her services were needed, and busied herself with a video game in the meantime. When she was hailed over the comms, she had begun to rush towards Hazan's last known location. When she saw the male though, he was on the same side of the fence that she was and he seemed to be going somewhere in a hurry. She hailed Tanya over the comms,

"He seems fine. I'll get you a distraction though. Make the most of it, yeah?" The biotic said before she quietly made her way towards the batarians that laid siege to the trucks. Alex's body would become a visible bright blue and violet glow to Tanya before she seemed to disappear in a bright blue cloud of biotic.

One of the batarians with the microlaunchers slammed head first into the wall next to him and exploded into a mess of blood and organs from the strength of the impact.

She quickly pivoted as her arm shot forward and her biotic formed a blue whip like length, slamming into the batarian near the group in front of her. His microlauncher went flying away, just as he did into his buddies. She felt the sting of bullets impacting her barriers, which set her helmet's HUD blinking as her barrier levels lowered.

Alex brought her other arm into an overhead slice with her full body weight as she reached behind her back with her right to draw her weapon. The biotic lash returned and slammed heavily into the ground near the group that was firing at her. The lash impacted the still staggered batarian on its way to the ground.

The tip Smash landed on the batarian and two of his fellows that had been helping him up. The resulting quick mix of biotic and residual eezo the first attack had left behind triggered a sizable explosion which engulfed the small group of three. Alex's arm twitched as she flicked her wrist so that the rest of the Smash lash landed on another batarian. The male went flying, towards a second group of pirates that were still shooting at Tanya. She fired off a few shots at the group as the body soared towards them. When it passed a wall, Alex Biotic Charged it, and ducked into cover behind the sturdy structure. She panted for breath as she felt her barriers raising back to full then leaned out to take some pot shots at their enemies. She poked out to Slam a microrocket armed batarian into the ground. Alex smirked when his fellows turned in horror at what remained of their friend, then shot a few more shots to rip apart an unarmored enemy. She ducked back into cover and patted herself down quickly. Good, she still had those energy bars in her pocket.

"Tanya, you're clear!" she called out. She leaned back further into cover, as she panted hard and tried to shake out the aches in her muscles. "Just make the most of it, this ain't something you'll see often." She said with a chuckle. Gathering herself, she leaned back out to fire off a few shots then grunted as a few rounds hit her barriers. She leaned back, "Kinda wish I'd paid attention to grenade work back in basic..." She muttered to herself.

@DearTrickster & @Hellis

---

Dex watched Drono get slammed from ceiling to floor with the asari's biotics. Feeling a little regret for not being more prepared, at least to deal with biotics.

Dex peaked up over the cover catching Drono's panicked shout, ”THROW YOUR DAMN GRENADES!”

"Cover your eyes!"

"A BIT BUSY!" Was the only response she got.

She always wanted to try this, even if her target's shield was tough the combo might be enough to rip through it. A few taps on her omnitool prepared incinerate then with a liberal throw she aimed the grenade over Nariyna's head. When it reached its peak in the arc her arm whipped out then detonated it with her tech.

The light was blinding, the grenade backed by a fiery catalyst rained directly down on her head. Dex waited a few beats then peaked up over her cover the smoke and fire made it difficult to see. A couple of the nearby windows were smashed open by all the explosions, the smoke drifted outward.

The flames were so very bright. Red, and white and all so very, very hot. The wave of kinetic force coupled with white hot flames burst out in a bloom of violence. It washed over Drono, and he idly thought that maybe, just maybe, that was it. Then the shimmering purple of a biotic shield ebbed as Nairyna T'Raza stepped out of the flames. It was clearly not done just yet. It had just begun. Asskicking was in Dronos very near future unless he did something.

Rage flowed off of Nairyna when she made eye contact with Dex through the smoke, finally able to recognize who had been causing her momentous amounts of trouble. Nairyna visualized ripping the turian's head clear from her neck. Her attention turned back to Drono the equally troublesome Drell hiding behind cover.

"Drono, you're alive right?" Dex's voice snapped him out of his post-pinball-drell state. He focused on her voice as he picked himself up. Everything hurt.

"Somewhat." Drono said as he dragged himself to cover. "Somehow I have yet to break a single bone. I like to consider that progress!" He gave her a thumbs up as he hid behind cover.

"You are starting to annoy me now." Nairyna spoke over the crackling sound of fire. "But at least you spared me the trouble of killing these incompetent fools." She tossed a charred bartarian down the stairs. Drono raised what would have been a eyebrow, had he not been a reptilian species.

"Severely overestimated the grenades...Let's see how much is left..." Dex grumbled then pulled up her tactical scan, it read Nairyna head to toe giving her a good idea of how much of her shields were left. Twenty-five percent remained while there was a particularly large chink in her armor, a well placed shot could take her down.

"So, let bygone be bygones?" Drono asked, checking his gun and shield as he did so. His shields had taken quite a hit. His newly acquired SMG was still in one piece, as was his Executioner.

"You've got her attention. Her shields are weak right now, we want her alive long enough so we can get intel out of her. We still have no idea where our targets are or what kind of deal they had with the Blue Suns. There's a risk we're painting a target on our backs..." Dex whispered urgently into her comms. "My taser is still recharging..."

"Sure. Just step on out without your guns." Nairyna answered dryly. "If you survive 20 minutes of 'Toss the Drell', you are free to go."

"Ohhhh. She knows how to banter." Drono said as he fished out another grenade, motioning for Dex to be ready to follow up. The first thing he had learned was to keep his mouth independant from his actions. It was the best way to distract others. While they focused on the banter and his annoyingly snappy mouth, he used his hands to do things under table, such as priming another flashbang beside his frag grenade.

Dex stared at his hands then shook her head, "Overkill." She hissed over her comms.

"No such thing." The now visibly excited Drell whispered back. He did put down the grenade, despite his obvious eagerness to get his revenge.

Nairyna glared trying to anticipate which one would attack first, she wondered if they were alone or had come with backup of their own. A turian and drell working together as they are seemed like an unlikely pair to be running around.

"What did the Asari say to the Drell?" He asked as he set the settings just right. If this failed, he would die looking like a idiot. If it worked, he would possibly live and feel a little more smug than usual. He was still doing the flashbang. He had to do the flashbang.

"Wh-" The Asari started. It was clear she wasn't used to so chatty a opponent.

"Ow, my eyes!" Drono yelled with a crazy, death head grin as he tossed the flashbang over head with all his power. It went sailing across the air. While Nairyna focused on the flying object he aimed, shooting a single shot of his oversized gun. The bullet hit her square in the chest, her shield took the hit. Split second after the shot hit her, the flashbang stuck to the biotics arm. The dumbfounded look on her face would stay with Drono for the rest of his life.

"You got to be ki-" AN explosion of light blasted right into her eyes. The pain had to be unbearable, and Drono felt a pang of sadistic satisfaction.

"Ahhhhh my eyes!" The Asari lashed out blindly and as luck had it, bowled Drono over once more. Sending him tumbling backwards. She was however, less than composed and her eyesight was shot. The batarians who survived were trying to back her up, but they were not going to get out of cover anytime soon. Not with Dex around. No doubt they could still smell the comrades toasty, charred bodies.

"Ugh... I.... was... almost right." Drono groaned, hoping Dex could pick up where he left off. She seemed like the type to quickly get a handle on things.

Dex lined up her shots firing in sequence directly hitting behind both of Nairyna's knees. She went down like a ton of bricks letting out a bone chilling cry. Dex turned her attention to the couple of batarians remaining hitting whatever limbs were sticking out. They stumbled out of cover right into her line of fire with a pair of headshots. Standing up from her cover she switched from her rifle to her shotgun waiting for any possible targets. Nariyna writhed on the floor her screams grating.

Drono's back was killing him. The biotic had certainly done his spine no favors by slamming him around. He just hoped it was only the pain of bruising it, and not his condition acting up. As he crawled up to his feet, he heard Dex fell the others. Good for her, being a goddamn badass. He could feel his discs grind together as he considered early retirement.

Dex offered her arm for him cautiously keeping an eye on the downed asari.

He took her arm with a grin. He limped over, staring down at her. "I hate biotics. Well. Unfriendly biotics."

"Not a huge fan of fighting them either especially in enclosed spaces... You did well back there. Showed some considerable restraint even after she tossed you around." Dex patted his arm.

"Yeah. I think I will avoid pinball machines for the rest of my life. Revenge is better wasted on real bastards. Like Salarian Smugglers." He grunted as he knelt over the Asari, poking her with his gun.

"Damn. You got her good."

"Viper's lack considerable stopping power so a few good shots and down they go. If we do run into any salarian smugglers you get first dibs." Dex laughed. "Let's see what she's got."

Sticking the end of her shotgun barrel against Nairyna's abdomen she warned her, "Try any last ditch effort to kill us and you'll be left to bleed out. Are we clear?"

"Ff-fu-fuck you..." She hissed, blood streaking her cheeks.

Dex shrugged not wanting to waste time arguing with someone who would be dead at the end of their conversation. Waving her omnitool over Nairyna's picking up it's data with a fairly indepth sweep. Noticing immediately a module of data recently received. Dex stood back up then placed her shotgun on her back again. With her hands free she dragged her to lean against a wall removing her weapons off her back. With a second thought before diving into the data Dex disabled her communications.

"Keep an eye on her while I open up the intel. I was hoping to find at least one of the targets here." She motioned to Drono.

"I don't know. If they aren't here. I bet they were rousing the boys up with some speech or some shit. Proper pirate style. They are semi-democratic you know. A Captain can be challenged for his position. Gotta keep the crew happy." Drono said as he looked the Asari over. "What's in those Blue Suns marked containers I wonder..."

Drono wandered up the stairs where some of the crates were being stored, possibly evaluated for worth and content.

Opening one of the metal crates he peered inside and gave a low whistle "Damn..." His smugglers brain was making quick calculations. The crate was filled with plastic vials, marked neatly with little blue H's. He seen those before. High-end narcotics."Holy.... This is a fortune..."

"It belongs to the Blue Suns. A small time crook like you could never move it without getting shot in your goddamn sleep." Nairyna hissed spitting out a glob of blood. Despite the pain coupled from her knees and eyes, she still proved to be rather chatty.

"Damn right. Bet it is chemically marked and everything. Pure designer narcotics." Drono mused.

"Probably what the Twin Star's crew was storing in the warehouse as well." Dex said reading through the intel still.

"I thought they were pirates not smugglers. I feel almost bad, shooting the competition without as much as a smuggle related quip." Drono closed the crate returning down the stairs.

"You're both dead."

"No we are not. This stuff brings you too much heat. The Blue Suns don't need the trouble it would take to chase us over this. I mean, yeah. Eventually you will get around to it, sure, but we are just bounty hunters and you got caught in the crossfire. You got sloppy and your non-syndicate affiliates were goddamn morons. We are here for the pirates and their ship. Not for you or the narcotics." Drono shrugged. He enjoyed being the one with the upper hand. He always had. Being able to lecture a fellow crook was bonus.

"Hey, Dex. What do you got?"

Dex watched him lecture Nairyna he seemed to be revelling in the chance to rub her nose in her mistakes. She replied with an even tone as if reading off a grocery list, "Nairyna T'Raza is known infamously as The Ambassador, this isn't her first go around with working with the small time bands of pirates or slavers. According to some of her older logs she's responsible for the Twin Star being handed over to the Batarians in the first place." She glared at T'Raza. "Unlike Kapan and Zallak the Blue Suns will notice she's missing."

"Speaking of, where are they T'Raza? We know they're here in the compound." Dex asked her voice dropped a few degrees below freezing.

"I'd answer the Turian lady if I were you. You 'naded her. She doesn't take that lightly."

"Getting drunk. I knew the Batarian would mess this up." The Asari mercenary snarled.

"Which one? Be specific." Dex growled pulling out her shotgun pressing it directly on Nairyna's abdomen again.

"Cool it. No need to point a barrel at me. I am subdued." Nariyna tensed. Drono noted she had relaxed somewhat before the shotgun had been reintroduced to her abdomen. Acceptance and experience showing on her face, she was either stalling or simply playing towards survival.

"Then start talking." Dex didn't budge she knew if she let off the pressure Nairyna would have no reason to talk now that she knew they wanted her alive.

"Kapan is looking over the main housing."

"Where is Three Eyed Zallak?"

"Is that what you call him? He should be with the others at the warehouse. Looking over the bulk. He has been making sure the boys are behind him. They were all going to celebrate the payday." She frowned. "A party you guys have interrupted."

"Speaking of party, seems it has started." Drono said as gunfire and explosions rang outside the building, from multiple locations.

Nairyna bowed her head in defeat, when she woke up that morning the last thing she expected was to have an operation she brought from the ground up to be ruined completely by a group of nameless mercs. If she survived the day her reputation and name would surely be dragged through the mud.

They approached the windows taking a look down on the chaos ensuing below.

Dex raised the team comms, "Drono and I have cleared the Administration building. We've captured a Blue Suns operative working closely with the Twin Star crew. Three Eyed Zallak is in the warehouse while Kapan Nasa'dor is in the housing unit. They're storing high grade narcotics in the warehouse, marked and procured by the Blue Suns."

Curiously she looked to Drono who looked like he aged a few decades with the way he was holding his back. "You look like an old man the way you're holding your back. Need me to knock a few discs back in place?"

"Unless you are a licensed doctor or a really talented masseuses, I will politely decline." Drono waved her off, gritting his teeth as he straightened up properly. It didn't feel like it was anything outside a whole lot of bruising and sore muscle. It didn't feel like he was slowly being smashed again and again over his vertebrate. He took that as a sign of fortune. "Thank you anyway." He smiled.

"Drono and Dex?" The Asari mumbled. Drono stiffened. Shit. She had heard his real name. "I hea-" Her voice was cut off by a bullet smashing the wall next to her head. "Look at that, my finger slipped..."

The biotic didn't speak after that. She just gave them a constant, angry glare. Unable to see but still able to look menacing.

Warehouse Assault: Group 1

_{Collab between @Heat,@Sundered Echo, and @Fallenreaper}

“Contact!”

Kasyra heard the unmistakeable sound of a Batarian voice shouting, followed almost immediately by gunfire, an SMG of some sort by the sounds of it. Not long after that the sound of a Batarian being savagely beaten made its way to her. She immediately noted, thanks to her comprehensive HUD, two marked contacts heading towards the warehouse from the yard. “We’re being flanked. Vellios deal with the two behind us!”

Vellios’ eyes glinted with a hint of madden delight as he spoke, his head jerked to the rear where Kasyra directed him. His mouth curled up into a smile at the thought of violence then quietly spoke. “On it and so much for stealth, eh?”

Quickly he shot off and split from the group, his figure heading to deal with their unwanted guests.

Kasyra slipped easily into ordering the Turian about, not out of any particular desire to lead, but rather to ensure their little squad wasn’t going to be stepping on each others toes. By the time the grenade went off, destroying a nearby truck, she was already springing into motion.

“I’m not waiting on you Turian!” She replied to Haze as she turned and stepped around the warehouse door - straight into almost a dozen angry Batarians. Instinct took over immediately as she raised both hands to shoulder level, Omni-tools glowing. Making The appropriate gesture, a snap freeze blast was triggered, the Omni-tools spraying near absolute zero particles in a wide arc over all the Batarians on the ground level. Those with shields, seven of the eight guards, would find themselves merely chilled slowing them for a time before the ambient room temperature alleviated the unnatural effect.

The two lacking shields, one guard and the mechanic, were less lucky however. The supercooled particles contacting their flesh were sufficient to freeze them solid near instantly. While it wasn’t necessarily fatal if it only affected limbs, freezing their unprotected heads typically ensured they were dead. Both of them went motionless, statues coated with the supercooled white particles.

Of course, the Batarians reacted on instinct too. As Kasyra scrambled forward, a myriad of impacts were shrugged off by her shield. As she slid into cover behind some of the crates, she noted the flashing warning on her HUD ‘Shields at 10%.’ Breathing a sigh of relief that they had held, she activated her shield boost to rapidly restore them.

Their cover was blown as the action began, Valiss grinning underneath her helmet. She would enjoy ending these slaver’s lives, they were the dirtiest filth of the galaxy, anyone that enslaved others. She had followed Kasyra’s path, when she noted that several of the guards had been frozen she took action. Her form glowed a fierce blue, then she quickly rose her free hand and threw one of the guards into another.

As the biotics took a hold of the frozen figures, their structural integrity collapsed suddenly and violently, showering the area around them with a hail of supercooled shards and yet more near absolute zero particles. The cryo blast as both statues collided scythed through two of the nearby guards shields.

She had put a great deal of force behind the action, she was about to launch another attack when gunfire rained down around her. As her shields absorbed some punishment she threw down a biotic shockwave, with no time to really aim it, she just really shot it into the general direction of her enemies. The asari dove towards cover near where the quarian had gone.

”We need to take out that turret but it’s pretty well covered. Might need someone to flank around it,” Valiss said into her comm link as she clenched her submachine gun tightly. ”Just tell me who or what to hit with my biotics, can really ruin their days with the right hit placement.”

Meanwhile, Vellios was already set on dispatching the two Batarians. His eyes flickered down and traced their incoming paths, both seeming fixed on interrupting his teammates heading into the warehouse. That was something he couldn’t allow. His feet slapped against the metal surface and sped himself forward while his hand reached for a smoke grenade down at his belt, immediately ripping it from its holder. Hearing a slight click when he activated it, Vellios smirked when he shot it to the far right where he knew the farthest target was coming in from.

As the device rolled and twisted about the ground, it gave a loud hiss then flooded part of that area within a thick, white smoke clouding anyone’s vision nearby. Not missing a beat, his adrenaline kicked in causing him to dart forward just when the Batarian that spotted him raised his hands. Pop, pop. Two shots were all the alien got off when Vellios’ knife arm came forward with a shot right at the muzzle side. The blade flew flawless into the male’s hand causing him yell in pain and briefly compress his finger, his aim off by a few inches. The turian had already activated the defense matrix programmed by Serena (who made some nifty additions to increase his survival rate in at least one of his toys) causing his outside to glow a distinct orange from his omnitool in stage one.

The bullet clipped his shoulder, but instead of penetrating his armor, it rocketed off into another direction thanks to the shield. In a smooth movement he had already readied his other blade then cut the distance down in a few seconds. With him close, his right leg flipped out and caught the Batarian’s left causing it to collapse with a sharp blow to the side. The alien cried and lifted his gun again, only to have Vellios’ own gun arm hook through the elbow. He pulled it forward then embedded the blade into the elbow joint with a sound twist. Ignoring the bleeding from his prey, he then cut upward along the muscle and twisted his omnitool upright and around the gun to face the Batarian’s head. He released a dead center Ballistic Blades into the face.

Blood splattered across the air while the headless body crumpled into a heap.

When he finished the first, the second was fully engulfed in smoke, blinded by the grenade Vellios had tossed earlier. Though, unlike Vellios, he didn’t have a radar to help him navigate through it. His hand formed a small Cain Mine Trip, made from his omnitool, and held within his hand. It was about the size of his palm but dangerous depending on how long he let it charge, his feet bolting toward his new target. His figure vanished into the white in an instant while the batarian fought to get clear.

Naturally Vellios aimed his entry to line up as his hand released the Mine, ready to stick it to the nearest skeleton frame. However, he made sure his silhouette was seen. When thug fired into the turian’s direction, he ducked down. On the way to cover, his hand slapped the mine to the side and made sure it was pointed away from his location. When the Batarian edged toward his it, the mine would go off with a loud boom.

Hearing the popping dangerously close to his crest, Vellios hunched down and reached for his cyro rounds. He unsnapped them from his belt as his wrist turned about to click them in, securing it in place. His legs moved around, pulling him about the car’s other side while the Batarian moved in and thinking he had the advantage. Stupidity was his greatest mistake, Vellios thought while he kept low enough to prevent himself from being hit and moved to the frame’s back side, away from the explosive. The Batarian walked right into it tripping the laser light and causing the mine to go off with a loud bang.

The Guards on the floor of the warehouse were in chaos as they were buffeted by Tech and Biotic attacks, and Kasyra noticed they were taking a lot longer to get into cover than was healthy. Of the six still standing, only three of them had reached cover. One of those in the open had activated tech armor, but another of them was one of those whose shields had been destroyed by the Cryo detonation. Kasyra peered around her cover just enough to line up a shot with her Carnifex. One squeeze of the trigger and the Batarian fell to the ground, clutching at his throat and gurgling.

It was then she noticed that the return fire was surprisingly light given how many hostiles they were against. Neither the man with the Revenant nor the emplaced turret had opened up, and the only fire reaching her was coming from the men on the floor, all of whom were using small and not particularly destructive weapons. It took only a moment for her to realise that they must be trying not to damage whatever was in the crates she was hiding behind. “Stay behind the crates, whatever is in them is valuable to these scum.” She said over the comm to those nearby.

Though the realisation was a pleasant one, Kasyra didn’t trust it would last once the battle started turning against the pirates. With that in mind, she reached up and threw a Cryo Blast at the emplaced turret. It wouldn’t effect the Batarian manning it, there was too armor for that, but striking the gun itself would interfere with the weapons temperature monitoring. Though it wasn’t quite as useful as superheating it, supercooling it would still stop it in its tracks as mechanical parts failed to respond correctly.

Valiss had peeked over cover as her eyes watched her partners expertly take down their assailants. Everyone that had joined the maiden voyage of the Borealis had to have been trained in the art of combat That was a relief to the asari, the last thing she wanted to have happen was for her to be the only one on the ship that knew their way around a gun.

”I got that turret under control. Its armor can withstand bullets but it won’t last long against my biotics.” Valiss said cockily into her comm link. Even if she wasn’t able to get right to it or the fool manning it then she would still find a way. They were in a warehouse, and with a trained biotic the environment was just another weapon.

The dangerous asari rose out of cover, confident that she wouldn’t be hit in the brief moment she was exposed. She shot a dangerous looking glance towards the turret then with a ferocious grunt she extended her free hand as her form glowed the menacing blue which indicated her biotic ability. A blast of biotic Warp came from her hand, launching towards the turret. She followed up with another as she aimed to pound a hole into it.

Vellios’ cain mine had dispatched the Batarian with some ease the moment the fellow set off, it exploded. Red blood, guts, and other grisly bits were sent flying by the power alone. After the spray had cleared, there was blackened and twisted metal left on the vehicle’s outside where it went off. Strangely enough, Vellios’ back hurt like hell mostly thanks to the vibrations sent through frame he pressed against. During it, he thought he felt something brush by and shields were down for the moment but he ignored the sensation as he pulled from his shabby cover back toward the building.

His claw reached over his communications as he listened to instructions given by Kasyra then smirked. He flipped over to state his condition and his recent kills, “Two hostiles down, through be careful… one’s a sticky mess. I’m heading around the building back, if anyone’s heading this way then meet me there and we’ll head in. I’ll have a few...surprises waiting.”

With that, the Turian skirted toward the destination as he reached down for his knife and sheathed while still keeping on route.

Kasyra smiled gleefully as she watched Valiss’ warps tear through the armor around the emplaced gun. It was far too long since she had seen a skilled combat biotic at work. The man on the turret was probably panicking as his weapon refused to fire and the armor protecting him was eaten away.

Of course, during the moment she was appreciating the sight, she didn’t notice the Revenant toting man on the catwalks move around to get a line of sight on her. There was a sudden burst of sparks enveloping her, the low shield warning once again flashing on her hud as she was hit with an Overload.

She spun immediately, simultaneously lowering herself further into cover and threw her own hastily aimed overload straight back at the Batarian. He had been about to open up on her with his Revenant when he was sent staggering back in a shower of electricity, his shield bubble collapsing.

Kasyra fired her pistol at him several times, aiming to suppress more than injure. Though it had the desired effect, the Batarian scrambling back towards a safer position, it left her gun beeping an overheat at her. Not only that but, her shields were low and her Omni tool was still recharging its boost capacitor.

A smirk appeared on the pretty asari’s face as she hammered the turret’s defenses. Her biotics were doing something, though she never really doubted for a second that she wouldn’t be able to tear through the plating. With another showing of biotic strength she hit it with a third Warp, this proved to the be the final straw as a sizeable hole appeared. The gunner inside had a surprised look on his face, or a look of terror, no mercy for him.

She raised her weapon up, holding the submachine gun steady as she squeezed the trigger. Maintaining the recoil like the trained professional she was Valiss focused her aim on the hole. Shots rang out, hitting true as she watched the gunner go down. With another smirk she turned away, that problem was solved.

”Turret is out of commision.” Valiss said, her voice spreading through the commlink as she relayed the deed she had just done. Her eyes snapped to the sound of gunfire, the big gun wielding batarian’s shields were down, with another movement of her free hand she used her biotics as she aimed to pull the batarian towards her. Kasyra wouldn’t mind the assist.

Kasyra’s smile returned as she heard Valiss report on the gun being neutralized. Biotics were definitely good to have around. The smile took on a downright vicious element when she noticed the Asari biotically yanking the Revenant wielder over the railing and off the catwalk. For a moment, he hung in the air, unable to react.

Then, with a shriek, he fell.

To his credit, he landed, not sprawled on the floor, but in a crouched position with one knee on the ground. Right in front of Kasyra. When he looked up at her, she noticed something different about him. One of his four eyes was put out, ugly scar tissue covering over the place it used to be. This was Zallak three eyes. And they needed him alive.

Her gun was still overheated, her omni tool was still recharging most of its capacitors, and she didn’t have time to tune a cryo blast to non lethal levels. Fortunately, she needed none of those things.

A pair of glowing omni blades deployed as she dropped her gun. One, on her right arm, was the standard issue omni blade, a long, thin ceramic held in place by mass effect fields and sheathed in the orange glow of the safety hologram. The other, on her left arm, was made up of two curved sections making it suitable for slashing or stabbing. What made it truly stand out though was that it was the color of ice, and was clearly supercooled, the vapor wafting off it making it clear to see.

Zallak simultaneously stood and swung at her with his right fist, deploying a traditional omni blade as he did so. A great deal of force would be behind the strike, and Kasyra could tell he expected her to move backwards. Instead, she stepped sideways inside his reach, bringing her own omni blade around to stab into his arm as he swung. The thin stabbing blade pierced the armor of his forearm with ease. He shouted in pain as it slid through and out the other side, Kasyra deftly detaching the blade so it would remain in place, crippling his use of the arm.

He reacted quickly, stepping back with one foot and soundly kicking her with the other, sending her staggering away. On his left arm appeared a vicious Submission Gauntlet, a popular weapon among Batarian slavers. Kasyra knew that if that hit her, it would break every bone under its considerable impact area. She’d be finished. Probably dead too.

She steadied herself and stood in front of him, her back to a crate, her remaining omni blade held ready at her side. She made no move to dodge or counter him as he charged the Gauntlet for a spine shattering strike, simply staring him down and waiting for the moment... The moment a hint of a smile curled his thin lips - the last moment to dodge before she was crushed by the strike.

A quick sidestep to his left where he could not easily redirect the thunderous blow left her mere centimeters clear of sudden death. His strike followed through into the crate that had been behind her, rupturing the side and pulverizing whatever had been inside. She knew what to do next. Her knowledge of Batarian biology let her know exactly where on his torso she could strike without damaging anything important. Her cryo blade swung in to strike at this spot on his back, piercing the armor and sinking deep into his flesh where she once again detached it.. He grunted as she landed the strike, standing still for a long moment as his insides were chilled to a near standstill, before slowly slumping forward onto the ground.

Kasyra scrambled back into cover as the Batarians who had been holding fire while their boss was engaged in combat suddenly had no reason not to shoot her. It was then that Dex’s transmission came in, letting Kasyra know that this was definitely Zallak. As if she really needed confirmation after he came so close to ending her several times.

She switched to whole squad comms and spoke, trying to retain a triumphant note in her voice despite news that ruined her mood accompanying the transmission. “I got Three Eyed Zallak. He’s down in the warehouse - he’s gonna need medi-gel and restraints in an hour or two or he’ll die, so don’t say I didn’t warn you. Bosh’tet kicks hard, so watch out if you plan to wake him up at all.”

"Haze here. I got compromised. I'm setting off an explosive distraction in the vehicle yard. All teams, use it to your advantage." It all happened so fast, as situations like this were wont to do. Iosif winced as one of the trucks exploded in a glow of sudden, bright light - before recoiling yet again as a loose piece of shrapnel from the blast skimmed off his suit's kinetic shielding. Would be nice to have an advance warning in future, he noted.

"For fuck's sake, Haze, more than five bloody seconds next time!"

Tanya's clear, unmistakable voice barked at them over the comms seemed to indicate that she shared his sentiment - though they had bigger problems now. Peeking out from his prone position, he lined up the optic of his M-8 within a few feet of one of the guards and opened up with a burst of fire in conjunction with Tanya's movements, aiming to give her a little covering fire as she made her way to the technical that hadn't yet been trashed. Once he'd seen her make it, he let up - though he had little other choice when relativistic grain-sized metal projectiles were shooting overhead and all around him.

"Iosef, your call on this one. Either we turn the remaining technical into a siege ram like our original plan, or we can commandeer it and make use of the gun." He only just made out her voice over the comms, yet his response was practically drowned out by another close-call that grazed his shield and made it ripple with a numbing, resonant buzz, forcing him to stick his head back down again, instead of moving like he'd hoped to. "If one of you guys can distract those bastards, I can get suppressive fire downrange. I'm pinned." From here, Iosif could've had a shot on the four-eyed bastards but every time he tried to peek out from behind cover for more for a split-second, he felt more relativistic shots whizzing past his head, far too close for comfort - it seemed one of the bastards had seen him and knew exactly what they were doing.

Luckily, the two alliance vets found their salvation in another; "He seems fine. I'll get you a distraction though. Make the most of it, yeah?"

This time, when he took another chance and peeked out from behind cover, he bore witness to the bright, blue biotic glow that subsequently reduced one of the pirates to a cloud of red mist, then another, then watched as she formed some kind of whip and proceeded to deliver a painful lesson on why biotics weren't just for show. In the chaos that ensued as she drew their concentrated fire, Iosif seized the opportunity, pulled himself from the dirt and pressed on to another point of cover whilst others remained awe-struck, firing in short bursts in an effort to keep the enemy's optics down rather than sighted in on him. He was closer to the truck now, and could spot Tanya still in cover behind it, conveniently positioned just below the mounted machine-gun turret when a snap idea quickly came to mind.

"Tanya, take the MG, got an idea!" Iosif blurted at her over the comms, keeping it short and simple. A faint glow erupted from his forearm as his Omni-Tool came to life, before his gaze fixated on the driver's access point on the technical. He leaned out from behind cover, followed it up with another burst, then made a frantic, desperate sprint for the driver's seat and all-but dived into the technical, only for a lucky shot to punch through a gap in his shields at the last minute and graze his thigh. "Blyad..." That one fucking hurt, but the adrenaline kept him going - he hissed and grit his teeth through the pain as a quick application of medi-gel kicked in, before his Omni-Tool glowed once more as a favourite app of his got to work on jumpstarting the engine.

"He seems fine. I'll get you a distraction though. Make the most of it, yeah?" Alex’s voice came over the comms, somewhat crackly due to the interference of the biotic field. True to her world, the vanguard medic was soon engaging the batarians, drawing their attention in the most devastating manner possible. Peaking out to ensure the coast was clear, Iosef came over the channel.

"Tanya, take the MG, got an idea!" he said, and Tanya caught sight of him leap-frogging between cover towards the vehicle. Well, here went nothing. The engineer hurried around to the bed of the vehicle, leaping up to grab the siding and landing with her foot on the oversized tire, and in another quick motion had cleared the side, landing rather ungracefully on one of the bench seats that had been crudely bolted to the truck bed and hitting the deck on a knee and her elbow. The low profile wasn’t entirely a bad thing as it kept her from getting picked off from a stray shot, and she moved forward towards the mounted gun, some turian-made thing that looked large and cumbersome. Activating the weapon, its stock shot backwards and barrel assembly extended. A cushion on the back of the turret ring gave her position to rest her feet on the two pedals that traversed the ring left or right. As she was adjusting to the new weapon, Iosef cried out an expletive as the door slammed shut.

Looking towards where the sound of gunfire was coming from, Tanya traversed the turret to the 9:30 position and took target of a group of the batarians rushing out of the housing complex. There were seven of them, some of whom were clearly quite drunk. One of the more competent ones was on a knee and firing steadily at the truck, and was a likely candidate for the one who shot Iosef. Tanya gritted her teeth, buried herself into the stock, and opened fire on the group. The muzzle flash on the gun was so great that blue flame blinded her ability to see and she only caught fleeting glimpses of where the rounds were kicking up dirt. Two of the batarians, however, were caught in the salvo and the heavy rounds of the heavy weapon tore through their shielding and buckled their armour, ripping ragged chunks out of the their bodies.

The others began to spread out, sprinting for whatever cover they could find. “Iosef, you alright?” Tanya asked, walking more shots towards the larger of the fleeing groups. “Hang in there, we’ll you patched up. How bad is it?” she asked, genuinely concerned. What he did was a brave risk, and it would be a damn shame if anyone were incapacitated, or worse, their first outing as a team. There was no time to think about it. Seeing that the warehouse’s fighting was now indoors, only Twin Star bodies outside, Tanya prepared to send shithead after her targets when a heavy sounding shot rang out and dug into the plating of the vehicle, just left of her chest. “Fucking hell!” She exclaimed, surprised. The sniper’s shot had peeled back a considerable amount of metal, her mind flashing back to Lewis, behind a collapsed wall with his own sniper rifle, saying he had a visual on a sniper, when suddenly...

When the second shot rang out, she flinched, expecting the worst. Instead, Tonka’s gruff voice filled her headset. “You look away for two seconds, and some pyjaak is suddenly shooting from the window you cleared. You alright?”

Tanya found herself breathing heavily, sweating despite her suit’s air condition. She knew if her hands weren’t locked on the heavy gun, they’d be shaking. “I’m… I’m okay.” She lied, trying to will the ghosts to vanish. There was no rhyme or reason of why Mindoir decided to come back to her, and the only respite she had was to try to push it away. “I’m guessing I owe you a drink.” she replied, counting to ten between bursts of machine-gun fire, the heavy gun making a satisfying low fire rate chugging sound.

~~~

“Or ten. You’ve never seen a krogan drink. Heh.” Tonka said, drawing back the manual charging handle to vent the rifle’s heat. When the indicator faded from orange to blue, the krogan resumed his watch. So far his tally was five, most of those window dwelling scum who lingered a seconds too long. A human proverb came to mind, curiosity killed the space cow. Tonka always figured the animal in question resembled Klixen or Keepers more than the bovine creatures that humans had back on Earth, the dumb-looking things, but there was no denying that the generally harmless space cows were prone to stealing from settlers, for whatever reason, and caught a bullet for their troubles. Stockpiles of pilfered goods had been recovered in stashes near grazing grounds for the animals, and nobody knew why the hell the space cows wanted their ill-gotten gains to begin with – there was still a debate if they were even sentient or not.

As Tonka’s mind wandered, a batarian face peeked out from behind the bar’s counter in his sights. He slowly squeezed the trigger after taking a long breath, and on the exhale he watched as the batarian’s eye disappeared in a ragged gash and the wall behind him was coated in a chunky red spray. The bottles of liquour, now covered in viscera, were still quite drinkable, were one willing to overlook the previous owner’s last contribution. As he scanned the bar, his eyes caught sight of an all too iconic white and green chunk of metal.

“Shit.” He muttered, pushing himself from the wall and scrambling to move from his position, tipping over the side of the ledge and beginning a descent that was a rough set of slides and bounces off the rock face until he planted hard against the ground, his rifle cradled in his arms. As he looked up, a rocket exploded off the wall where he’d been moments before, showering chunks of rock in all directions. A fist-sized chunk bounced off his helmet, prompting the krogan to curse. A fun fact about shielding was it did nothing to stop low-velocity projectiles, such as those dislodged from a rocket propelled grenade’s blast radius, and the krogan was grateful for his armour’s plating and his own natural resilience. Getting to his knee, and shaking his beat-up rifle free of dust and debris, he raised the comms. “Tonka to all signs, I lost my vantage point. Advancing on foot to share a few words with the pyjaak with the anti-armour weaponry. Iosef, recommend you get that pile of bolts and rust moving, or you’ll be picking shrapnel out of your ass for the next three weeks.” He said, sprinting hard towards the fence, the force of his impact and the combined weight of his body and armour creating a sizable bend in the metal that it sloped enough for the krogan to begin to climb over. It was time to get his hands dirty.

Things turned very south, very quickly. Serena dove behind the nearest cover as one of their trucks exploded into a showy fireball that represented nicely how well the team's first attempts at sneaking were going. We can't even sneak up on drunk pirates. Great. Bullets began to come from alarming directions (and, more importantly and far more alarmingly, in her direction) and Serena pressed a couple buttons on her Omni-tool, activating her Sentinel Armor. Sure, it made her a far more obvious target, what with the glowing yellow armor and such. But given that pirates were shooting anything that moved and a good deal of things that weren't, Serena felt better with an extra layer of shields over her original ones and her armor. "Del! Activate protocol 'Tres Amigos!'" The combat drone beeped in reply, splitting into three smaller drones. Before she sent the three mini-Dels into battle, she made sure she knew where all her companions were. Lest Del accidentally shoot while they were trying to move.

Alex, after turning several Batarians into impressively horrifying piles of gore, was hiding behind a wall in another building. Iosif was making his way slowly over to the remaining truck, where Tanya was hiding. Suddenly, slowly was gone and he was sprinting towards the truck after shouting out he had an idea, only to catch a bullet. "Alright. Good news, I know exactly where everyone is, and I know where I need to go! Bad news, it's across a very hostile battlefield and I'm not entirely putting my trust in the fact that they have everyone distracted or pinned down who would love to shoot me. And they've already shot Iosif." Serena talked to herself, largely out of habit. It helped her focus and calm her nerves.

"I swear to God if I get shot I'm demanding that Iosif, Vellios, anyone else who gets shot, and I get a bigger share." She muttered, turning to Del. "Okay Del, Protocol Exterminate. Parameters: Anything that's a pirate, but not anything that's a Batarian. We do have that friend whose picture I showed you. Don't shoot him." The drones beeped in unison before rising up from her cover and zooming off, mini gatling guns going off as they found targets to attack and dodge response attacks from. One covered the building Tonka had been forced to abandon, while the other two simply found whichever pirates weren't in good enough cover.

Serena briefly sent a message to Mirage. "All three of my drone is out, feel free to take control of one and shoot things. But I swear, if you get one of him injured or destroyed I am making you pay for every penny of the repair. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to run for my life." With that, she crouched into a ready position and throwing a barrier around her body. Serena took a deep breath thought, Vellios' insanity is rubbing off on me., and then ran for her life towards Tanya and Iosif.

"ShitshitshitshitshitshitSHITshitshitshitshtiSHITshitshit...."

She continually chanted that word, voice rising in pitch as she felt a bullet ping against one of her shields until she practically collided into the truck and dove in next to Iosif. Relief flooded through her (She had made it, she was alive, thank God for excessive shielding!), quickly fading away at the realization the truck wasn't peeling out and that they were still in one position. One very open position. Where the pirates now knew they were all at. "Isoif, buddy, how is it going? You heard Tonka, right? And we're getting ready to go right now, right? Because being blown up is very low on my list of 'things to do on first mission.'

"Look at that, my finger slipped..."

Dex flinched when Drono pulled the trigger. The bullet buried into the wall directly next to T'Raza's head, shocking her into silence.

Dex's eyes flicked to Drono he seemed rather pleased with himself now standing upright. His restless energy still came off him though now it didn't spell trouble for her. Despite his flare for eccentricity, she found herself trusting it. Life sometimes threw grenades instead of lemons, Dex only hoped that she could count on Drono next time it happens.

“I got Three Eyed Zallak. He’s down in the warehouse - he’s gonna need medi-gel and restraints in an hour or two or he’ll die, so don’t say I didn’t warn you. Bosh’tet kicks hard, so watch out if you plan to wake him up at all.” Kasyra's voice pulled her attention away, the quarian marine confirmed Three Eyed Zallak's capture. Relief spread through Dex's chest.

Dex looked back down at T'Raza despite the scare her blinking was out of sync, Dex snapped her talons in front of her face with no response, "T'Raza stay awake we've got more questions for you." Dex said then watched her pass out. Between the shock and use of her biotics, it was a bad combo for making anyone pass out. Blood oozed out in all directions from T'Raza's knees, the shots she sustained were clean through. Dex counted T'Raza lucky. Opening up her omnitool she applied one of her medigel to T'Raza's knees stopping the flow of blood. It only left her one for herself.

So much for relying on cloaks and daggers... I haven't seen this much fighting in a long time.

With a sigh she stood back up digging deeper for more information. Dex hoped to find where the Twin Star was docked or any other information they could use to give them an edge. More sensitive information like docking records or shipment receipts were locked behind a nasty firewall. The more Dex tried to punch a hole the more it forced her out. Breaching it would take more time than she had to get through it.

"I'm going to give our 'all knowing' and wisecracking hacker a call, Drono. Assuming he hasn't already heard everything." She said drily. "I'll pass on security access to the cameras to you, I'm going to assume that the rest of the pirates are distracted but just in case they rush in looking for help..." A few keystrokes later the camera feed appeared on Drono's omnitool, "You know what to do."

Giving him a significant look she turned her back carrying on up the stairs.

Dex stepped over the charred bodies wanting to get a better look of the chaos carrying on below. The smell was cloying at best between the smoke and death it would be enough to make anyone gag. Fortunately, for Dex it was a smell she had grown accustomed to. When she reached the window she caught sight of a biotic energy zipping across yard, taking a guess it must of been Alex. Biotics were fascinating in their own right, she counted themselves lucky to have a force like her on their side.

The top floor office of the administration building was an absolute mess, grungy and rundown with age. The Twin Star crew had set up what looked like a board meeting table in the center of the room. It was strewn with bottles, cans, half eaten food packets and the odd data pad. Stacked in the corner she saw the crates Drono had been poking around in. Scanning over the data pads nothing of importance seemed to be on them. Her eyes drifted over to what looked like a security terminal still active.

Her talon drifted up to her ear then raised Mirage over the comms, "Hey Mirage, I ran into a tough firewall on T'Raza's omnitool I'm going to send it your way. I'm sure there's some good information in there. I can set you up a hardline for security while we're here-"

An explosion made her jump back from the window throwing herself over the table, her body reacting before her mind could. Tonka's voice confirmed he lost his vantage point.

"Fuck." She swore under her breath her heart rate spiked, she clutched at the edge of the table. Between drones blowing up in the hangar and grenades, explosions seemed to be the general theme for the day.

Taking deep breaths she recomposed herself, "I-I can set up a hardline for you Mirage, open your eyes. I'll be bringing T'Raza back to the truck to tie her up, there's probably a bounty on her head as well." She sent him the info packet while making a copy of it for herself. Her shoulder throbbed with anxiety. Dex was rarely surprised by much, her expectations were low and she always expected the worst from people and situations. Sneaking under the cover of a shitty cloak was one thing. Open firefights? Getting shot was the only expectation.