[IC] Mass Effect: Stories of the Soldiers [Reboot]

[Mega Birb]

'Ah, Omega... this place is hell. Don't know why I stayed...'

Sicari Velinian stepped off the shuttle that had brought her to the heart of the Terminus Systems for probably the hundredth time, and none too soon. A Krogan that had been giving her a lusty look for the last few days on the transport got off after her, and promptly slid up behind the girl.

"Hey, lunch meat," The beast began, seductively scratching his ass. "How 'bout you 'n me head up to Afterlife 'n get a drink?"

The younger Turian pulled the Krogan into an alley with a surprising, wiry strength, and lightly touched her fist to the lizard's gut. "Think that second set of kidneys can handle cyanide?"

The unnamed Krogan shook his head, mostly out of confusion, causing the younger girl to back off and leave the alley. And such was Omega, where one could threaten a Krogan and get away with it.

Sicari, however, was here for business. She made her way up into Aftterlife, flashing a laminated pass to the bouncer and heading through the large door that marked the entrance to the club. She stopped in the entryway as her omni-tool pulsed, informing her of unread messages. She opened her inbox, then hesitated. Opening this email meant that she would have to follow through with the contract she'd found, and it was the very definition of high risk, high reward.

After a solid minute of internal debate, she opened the document. 'He wants me and a small task force to... wait, assassinate a Blood Pack official? Suns better be ready for the shitstorm coming after this...'

She closed the omni-tool and went into Afterlife proper, and quickly claimed a booth far enough away from the nearest dancer to actually keep everyone focused on the task at hand. She had no idea who would show up, but she had a feeling that they were going to be at least semi-capable.

[pyroman]

Tar typed away, using all six fingers to tap each button in the correct arrangement. He was housed up in a tiny little room off one of the corridors that led to the club Afterlife. The Vorcha didn't give him too much of a hard time when he passed through, especially when he was being escorted by his drones. Though they were parasites, they knew that he must have been a dangerous Volus to have survived in omega for more than a day, being, you know, a Volus. His type weren't really suited for such a harsh condition, but his armor sometimes served him well.

Suddenly, his actions were stopped. A glowing light from his wrist told him that a new, particularly interesting Omni-tool document involving a Blood Pack official. He calculated the outcomes of the death of a Blood Pack official. It wouldn't be good, and with another official to replace that one, Aria would have just the smallest bit of trouble handling and making sure that everything is perfectly flawless in the change of command. With the Blood Pack moving around and weakened, the Suns would have a field day, making even more trouble for the queen of Omega. The already sour relationship between the two gangs would get worse without Aria's figureheads talking to one another.

He tapped onto his computer again, looking up the feeds in Afterlife. With the information of the document, as well as the Omni-tool it was assigned to be delivered to, Tar sent a message to the recipient of the original message. He could easly find out who exactly it was, but he needed to make sure that they were listening.

Tap your glass twice." he sent the message to her Omni-tool, his unseen eyes focusing on each of the video feeds carefully to see who would move.

[Avanhelsing]

Ben usually was all for places like this. Wine, people, and song in one place were his kind of place. Everyone would come to a bar like this. It was so much fun to get whatever you wanted. The day had been going so well before all of this. He had woken up with his last one night stand. Some random gang member had been his last conquest. Ben really could not remember much of the night but he had thought that it had been a good night. It was not easy to remember all of them considering how long he had been here.

Course that had been the morning. Currently he was sporting a few new bruises from a fight earlier in the day. He had bet a good deal of credits that he could beat up a turien and he had managed to do it. It had been extremely difficult but he felt great now. He figured that bruises would look good for his "interview".

So now he was walking into Afterlife and for once it was not to pick someone up or get in a fight. Ben grabbed one of the dancers. The guy was not his type but Ben needed to scope out the area before he did anything else. Ben might not be the brightest in the room but he knew to never approach a contact first. He only had his pistol right now.

[Clol7]

Sasesesa, much later than most on the station, was woken by a strange message on her Omni-tool. The message was giving her directions for.... some kind of work, she really just flipped through it. 'Something something Afterlife, something something Blue Suns, something something dead Blood Pack peeps, meet in Afterlife for more info. By the way, you opened the message, so get your blue ass over there ASAP.'

So, while grumbling, Sasesesa walked off the remnants of last nights party on her way to Afterlife. The violet colour returning to her cheeks by each passing second, and by the time she arrived at the club, was as lively as ever, taking a seat near the bar.

After all, if this offer was bad enough, she might need a few more drinks to consider it over.

[Kingfisher]

“Oh, and -by the way- , it really wasn’t that ‘experimental’! I met some asari chick down in the slums who was willing to do it first time, no questions asked, so before you go running your mouth off about how much you do for me, why don’t you just-”

Yawn.

“Yo, we still on for tonight? Sick, man. Yeah, I got the sand, don’t worry. Same place as last ti-”

Dull.

“Keep your eyes open, Kuruck. The big man thinks the Suns are gonna try something.”

Helloooo, sexy!

The woman’s fingers glided over the holographic interface of her Omni-Tool, pressing down on its glowing orange buttons and panels. She isolated the call she’d been tracing, zooming in and pinpointing its point of origin.

“I dunno what, you varren-fucker. When was the last time the guys at the top filled us in? Just quit your bitching and report back anything unusual. Jormul, out.”

Laura Kaelin grinned to herself, slouching back across her lush red booth. The murmur of chatter and roaring of music hit her like a fist as she unplugged her headphones, but she was in too good of a mood to care.

Swatting a strand of red hair out of her vision, she pulled down her black bowler so that its brim obscured her finner features, before digging through the ribbons of data which were flooding through her Omni-Tool, in search of any mention of a job regarding the Blood Pack.

Bingo.

She zoned in on the document in question

How shall I spin this one?

There was always the opportunity to tip off the Blood Pack and see what that might earn her, but she had her own personal vendetta to settle with them.

Am I really gonna start letting feelings compromise a job?

She pondered that thought for a moment.

Yes, I am.

Laura typed like a maniac, tapping away at her Omni-tool, quickly composing the transmission in the relative quiet of her booth.

How many credits are we talking?- L

And send.

[Awesomoman64]

Of all the places in the whole damn galaxy, how did he end up here? Jason sat looking over the railing near the entrance to Afterlife. His last job was supposed to be a simple escort. Get a sleazy black arms dealer to Omega and then get a nice payment. No real danger just look tough and no one messes with you. Unfortunately once arriving here the dealer found he didn’t have the promised credits, but instead a YMIR mech ready to attack. The others that were hired didn’t last long, by Jason was able to take down the mech and had his pistol kindly explain to the arms dealer what happens when you cross him.

But now he was left on this rock with no way off. He was low on funds and this job was supposed to bring them back up. The only upside was the fact that jobs weren’t hard to come by on Omega, especially for someone with his skills. And sure enough just as he was contemplating what to do his omni-tool lit up with a message. With a sigh he opened up the message. ”Alright, let’s get this over with.”

“Hello soldier I heard about your encounter earlier yadda yadda could use a man of your skill blah blah I need you to meet up with a selected group and take down a Blood Pack official. Meeting place is Afterlife”

An assassination job? Those didn’t sit well with Jason normally, but desperate times and all that. Pushing himself off the rails he headed into Afterlife.

[Mega Birb]

Two new messages, the first being the one from Tar. In response, Sicari got up and made her way to the bar, as she hadn't ordered a drink to begin with. She noticed Ben on the way to the counter and detoured to him, checking the human with her shoulder to get his attention, then speaking, barely loud enough for him to hear over the bass from the amplifiers scattered throughout the club. "Left booth, Aria's Shadow." She was referring to the three enclosures that were directly under T'Loak's 'throne,' as far back as you could get in the club if you weren't on her payroll.

As she continued towards the bar, Sasesesa came into view. 'Too alert to be here at this hour, must be one of the others that got the message.' She came up next to the Asari and ordered a drink, a simple glass of Turian Brandy. "I know who you are. You'll find me in the back." With that, the busy Turian kept moving, holding her drink and using a single, free finger to reply to 'L.'

enough. too risky for messages. aria's shadow. -S. While she's normally a stickler for proper grammar, she wasn't about to continuously hit the Caps Lock button with only a stand-alone finger to do so. Sitting down once again, she set the glass down and tapped the side twice, her talon managing to produce a very serene sound when coming into contact with the object.

All that was left to do now was wait.

[pyroman]

"Good." Tar thought to himself. His eyes focused on the Turian as she went to go get a drink, talking to a select few others before setting the glass down and tapping it, as was his request. "She isn't against going out of her way to get something done." He was smiling underneath his mask. He wasn't the only one after her, but his dive into their backgrounds would commence shortly. He'd need to get a better look at them to find more on the people he'd most likely be working with.

"Thanks you for the signal." He started the message to Sicari. However, he grunted as a finger accidentally pressed an extra key. "Aria is not my friend, and a person of my appearance is sure to attract attention in Afterlife. Aria will not immediately kill me, but I cannot say the same for others in the club." He knew well that he was one of the few, if not only Volus on Omega, and his armor would surely get him noticed. "Vol clan cannot handle bar fights, especially one that could break out here, but I am watching."

[Saarebas]

Omega a horrid cesspool of crime, violence, and sin where the wicked thrive and the weak get walked on like stepping stones... a complete snorefest! Krieg had heard about the infamous Omega and all the bloodshed that happened here on a daily bases and jumped at the opportunity to come, I mean what Krogan in their right mind wouldn't? But what does he end up doing, he ends up getting hired by a small time human arms dealer that plays it so safe that the closet thing Krieg seen to action was when he had to toss out the jackass whos Pyjak got its crap on one of the weapon displays.

Krieg himself was currently drinking away his frustrations at Afterlife, unfortunately for him everything they had on tap was barely enough to give a Turian a decent buzz little alone a mountain of a Krogan like himself. "Damn whelp... grow a quad why don't you..." He growled under his breath before downing another shot, well a shot to him would of been a full glass for others.. His mind kept drifting back to his current employer, a small pudgy human with such nervous habits that he would probably piss himself at the sound of gun fire. "I need a real job, I'm getting a itchy trigger finger again." He continued as he downed another glass.

Just as the bartender layed out another round of shots for him Krieg's Omni-tool lit up, apparently he had got a message. "What does the little $#!+ want now..." He said, expecting it to be his employer, but much to his surprise it was a job offer, it as a rather simple one. Meet up with someone at Afterlife, head out and kill some Blood Pack leader, get paid. A wicked grin crept across Krieg's face as he scanned the message. "This is what I have been waiting for." He said, the blood lust practically gleaming in his eyes. He stood from the bar, downing the last of his shots in a quick series, and turned on his massive heals. "Okay, now where is the contact?" He thought aloud as he scanned for any faces that would look like the assassinating planning sort, which was quite hard seeing as everyone on Omega has that look on their face.

[Kingfisher]

Aria’s shadow

Laura made her way slowly through the claustrophobic jumble of sweaty dancers and horny patrons, moving with cautious elegance. The scents of cheap food and booze swirled round and round in her nose, whilst the booming rhythms shuddered through her.

She spotted the female Turian, with her tell-tale face tattoos and jagged scars, sitting by herself beneath the throne of Omega’s pirate queen.

Sliding between a pair of dancers, Laura strode over to Sicari, with her shoulders slumped in a nonchalant fashion, and her black bowler pulled down over her face.

“You come here often?” She called out, struggling to be heard over the obnoxious dance music as she cracked a knife-like grin.

[Awesomoman64]

Making his way into Afterlife. Jason kept his eyes open to try and find the group he’d be associating with. Trying to find the right scum in a pool of it was hard, but over the years Jason had picked up on a few tell signs. For instance the Turian who just got up but happened to forget a datapad that was almost immediately picked up by a Vorcha who brought it to another table, that was most likely a broker type deal going down or a one man assignment. Not who he was meeting.

His eyes then spotted a female Turian seated just underneath the so called ruler of this rock. Almost casually the Turian got up, bump into another human, whisper to an Asari while buying a drink, then sit down and slightly tap said drink twice. In an instant a woman got up and sat down in the booth. Subtle not to draw too much attention, but enough to draw those who were looking. That was most likely the group Jason was after, but he would have to make sure. Carefully making his way over thing not to bump into any dancers or patrons crowding the place. Standing outside the booth next to the Turian and looking the other way, he said in a hushed voice, “I’m looking for a few things to take out to my friends. This where I could get some blood packs?”

If this was the group, they would most likely understand the message. If not, then they were either not the right group or not smart enough to be working with.

[Mega Birb]

Sicari pulled her mandibles back in a smile, satisfied that there was someone showing up in person. Quite frankly, this was the most secure way to communicate nowadays. Virtually anyone could hack a communication channel, she had heard of a human child doing it last year. But back to the girl in front of her. The Turian took in every detail as she ran her eyes up the woman's body, pausing in areas of interest, mostly oddities such as blemishes or scars... a surprising few of them, and then the thick scent of perfume hit her. She almost gagged because of the overly-sweet smell, and she was guessing there was more than enough to survive Afterlife's usual scent of alcohol and tobacco and come across as strong. Looking back up, she noticed the bowler hat atop her head. "That hat in this age? You're aware those were mostly worn during Earth's Industrial Age and have since declined in popularity, right? ...It suits you, though." She added the compliment as an afterthought, though the broker was aware she sat in the position of power at the moment. "Please, sit. I'll start ordering drinks once everyone's here."

Then Jason approached and she couldn't help but roll her eyes in disgust at the hint he had dropped. "Do all humans do that? Or are you a special breed that doesn't know how to ask a question?" She activated her omni-tool, with the intent to reply to Tar as soon as she could... then something made her stop. The soldier in front of her had a certain air of confidence, something of a paragon energy radiating from him. On this rock? "Take a seat." She commanded, now writing to the Volus.

'Come in, make yourself look busy and no one will give you a second look. If someone asks, say the Turian you work for made a bad business decision and you're here to clean up his mess for him. Throw in an insult or two, make it look convincing.' She sent the message and sat back, arms crossed. The big Krogan looking for someone most likely wouldn't take a subtle hint to come over, so she simply waved to him to get his attention.

[pyroman]

Just great. A Krogan walked into the club with the obvious intent on looking for the Turian he was speaking to. There would never, ever be a time in which Tar believed that there could ever be the possibility of a subtle or stealthy Krogan. Now, it was only just slightly possible that the earliest traces of Krogan could have had some sort of finesse, millions upon millions of years ago, that is. The Krogan race is just far too funneled in this specific way to evolve any other way. The Genophage only made that worse, Tar believed. Whatever Krogan children that managed to scrape out of their mothers would quickly know of the virus that plagued their race and their race alone. It was a sad thought, but a truthful one.

He then looked to his Omni-tool, reading the message that Sicari sent him. It could certainly work. He could act as if the Turian that he worked for made a bad choice that involved someone in Afterlife. Of course, he didn't actually work for any Turians anymore, but he supposed that he would be soon enough. He would only talk about it if people asked what a Volus was doing in Afterlife, Omega no less. He shouldn't go spouting something like that around, especially with Aria's eyes and ears around the club in the places she couldn't physically see or hear. In the even that nobody asked him anything, which was unlikely but still possible, Tar would make himself look busy, but not important. He has a place to go, a person to talk to about something, but nothing that would tip any scales. Just in case, he would bring his heavy pistol with him. Having a gun was never bad on Omega, and you'd be a fool to talk five steps without something to defend yourself with. With that in mind, if things got hairy, he could also deploy his drones or a turret, creating a distraction while he himself escaped and used the video feeds and his drones to fight people. He couldn't face Aria, though. Oh no. That could mean certain death and non stop attacks from three gangs, one of which he would be hurting soon, and things would surely get violent.

However.... Another thought came to mind. If things did go well enough, he could trust in the Turian's abilities to play along in any situation, and it wasn't like she wasn't going to be leading him and telling him what to do anyways.

With that, he did not reply to Sicari, and instead walked to his door. The door opened as he approached, and Tar looked at the Vorcha that always eyed him as he neared them. He said nothing to them, not that he could, mind you, and walked down the lower corridor to the back entrance to Afterlife. He knew who Aria's spies were, those who were always there at the club, on the dot, in the exact same space, every single day. Some seemed like club goers, others looked like actual soldiers. It didn't matter, though.

Tar walked through the back entrance with his back as straigh as can be, and his unseen eyes looking about for the Turian he saw on the screen. He walked about as if he had business, looking at the other men and women that decided to get a piece of the action. Humans, an Asari, a Turian, a Krogan, and a Volus. It was an interesting team to say the least.

As he approached the table, he looked at Sicari. She was the one he saw through the camera feed. Pulling out his Omni-tool, he tapped a few buttons and activated a text-to-voice program. "Hello." The obviously robotic voice came from the tool, and Tar looked up at Sicari. "I believe that most of the negotiations have been... negotiated?"

[Saarebas]

"Where the fuck are you?" Krieg said in a low growl as his deep crimson eyes scanned the dancing and drinking crowd that filled the ever so elegant club of Afterlife. There were quite a few groups that the Krogan thought would of been the ones that sent out the contract just by the looks of them. One was a small cluster of Vorcha that were huddled together in a corner giving the rest of the crowd the usual dirty glances that Vorcha gives everybody, Krieg quickly ruled them out as the contract because the realization that Vorcha don't have the brain cells or the quad to put a hit out on a Blood Pack member came to him. The next group was a obvious squad of Blue Suns mercs, looked like they were off duty judging by the drinks they were downing and the Asari that was currently entertaining them. Again Krieg ruled that lot out for the sheer fact that any Blue Sun worth his metal would know to never hire a Krogan to take on the Blood Pack, chances are that they had some connections to them. The final group was the most unlikely, it was made up with a series of seemingly random races that looked like they were just pulled off the street. Krieg was about move his gaze elsewhere when the Turian sitting at the table waved him over. "You have got to be shitting me..." The Krogan groaned as it turned out that that hobnob of mix matched people had to be the ones he was looking for. Krieg made his way through the crowd, push those who weren't smart enough to get out of his way fast enough, until he reached the table that he was called to. "You the ones with the contract?" He said as bluntly as physically possible.