Mess. Disaster. How to spin this, I wonder?

Zelaria Cetari rushed back to her apartment on the Citadel Presidium, ignoring the panicked crowd that seemed to alternate between rushing to the bomb site and running away from , the crowd seemed to simply flow around the slender woman, almost as if they didn't notice her. More likely, however, the crowd simply took her as one of their own, another person caught badly off-guard. What had happened, however, was all too obvious to Zelaria.

She should have seen it coming. Having a well oiled machine was easy, if all the cogs were small and local. Once the machine grew, expanded, it was all too easy to lose track of a cog, or have a spanner drop somewhere and blow the whole thing to smithereens. Much like the Council chambers, actually.

No time to panic, however. Zelaria was in damage control mode. If this was a machine, there were flames somewhere, wreckage, but machines could be fixed. This situation was no different. Shame about the Council, but they were replaceable. As was anyone who dared to break away from the group, as this Eclipse had seemed to do.

Activating her comm station, Zelaria leaned over, clearing her voice before speaking in a rather high-pitched voice. "This is Nasari," she said quietly, dropping her handler name as a way to ensure that someone recognized the urgency of her call enough to not overlook it. "In case you haven't heard, there has been a disturbance on the Citadel. One which, I might point out, was NOT sanctioned by anyone other than a splinter group. If we don't get a handle on this immediately, we are going to have some significant problems. Should I return to base?"

xXxXxXx

At a station orbiting Casses, Zelaria's call was received, and immediately understood. The man on the other end had, of course, already learned of the situation. Zelaria was far from the only agent he had working around the galaxy. That made his next decision a lot easier to handle. "Of course, Nasari. Return to base immediately. We will be waiting for your report, as well as your new assignment."

Once the call was disconnected, the man sighed heavily, shaking his head with annoyance. This is only a temporary setback. I still hate setbacks. Pressing his intercom, he gave a message to his secretary. "You know who I'm waiting for. Send them in."

A tall, wiry human with red hair and a bushy red beard entered the room. He wore black tactical gear and a sniper rifle slung across his back. "Harding. But I think you already knew that. How can I help?"

The man behind the desk stood up, looking over Harding quickly. "How you can help remains to be seen, but your task is simple...in theory." The rather fit, muscular human crossed his arms behind his back, pacing back and forth as he spoke. "In case you have not heard, there was a bombing on the Citadel Presidium. To be precise, the bombing was at the Council chambers. The Council was in session, and the councilors themselves are missing, presumed dead, along with quite a few diplomats."

"The problem is simple. We did not authorize the bombing, but someone who we were supposedly working with was responsible. My agent, who we will call Nasari, was close on hand, and saw several Eclipse armors just before the blast. These Eclipse were wearing full armor, including helmets, making it impossible to identify them. However, Nasari was able to plant a tracking beacon on one. The problem is, Nasari is an agent, a valuable one. By no means irreplaceable, but if we are going to track the beacon down from her signal, she will need some muscle backing her up. That is where you, and possibly others, will come into play."

Harding unshouldered his rifle and checked it over. "Number of possible hostiles? What am I wading into here?"
The man sighed. "The number of hostiles, as well as what you are getting into, depends on how large this rogue group is. Nasari's initial report indicates that there were 6 Eclipse on site. She's on her way to this station as we speak. Her first-hand account should be able to give you a bit more data."

Harding met the man's eyes. "Well then."

He snapped the rifle's bolt.

"I guess all I need to know is where to plant my boots."

"Nasari has the tracking data. She offered to send it, but that would simply cause problems if it were intercepted. It is fine and all to encrypt data, but the best encryption is an agent keeping the data close at hand when feasible. As it is, any direct attack will likely have to wait until Nasari arrives at the station with the data."

The man smiled slightly. "Of course, that shouldn't take too long. Nasari's ship is quite advanced, so she should be here quicker than you'd expect."

"Alright. Guess my boots are right where they belong." Harding took a seat.

After a bit of waiting, a tall, slender figure walked into the room where Harding and the man were sitting. Nodding slightly towards Harding, apparently friendly despite the body-concealing armor and helmet they were wearing, they placed a datapad on the man's desk.

"This is everything I know about the incident, as well as the attackers," Nasari said quietly, but loud enough for Harding to hear her as well. "For the sake of my...ally, I suppose I should summarize. I spotted three males, two females, and one unknown leaving the site quickly just before the bombs went off. From the way they were acting, I found them suspicious, so I placed a tracker on the female turian. The males were two humans and a krogan, with a female krogan and a salarian joining them before splitting off.

As I could not pursue, I simply made my way back to my apartment, filed my report, and came here. Any questions...?" She turned around to face Harding, head tilted slightly as she waited for a response. Harding thought for a while, staring down at his weapon. "Female salarian and krogan... rare. Strange. Don't like it. When you say "unknown..." You couldn't make out the sixth? Did you have any visual at all?"

Nasari sighed slightly, shaking her head. "I apologize. I was unclear. The krogan was female, but I couldn't make out the gender of the salarian, hence the 'unknown' gender. Believe it or not, even a salarian generally needs to have more than just a body build to go off of to determine another salarian's gender. Whatever the salarian was, they had some sort of armor on, concealing everything about them other than their build."
"Mmm. Salarian's on the down low," said Harding. "I.D. unclear. Don't like that either. No, sir-ee. Don't like it. Anything else I need to know?"

Nasari shrugged, holding up her omnitool briefly. "I'm still waiting for the turian's signal to settle down. She seems to be jumping from port to port right now, making it hard to get a fixed location. Other than that, I suppose you should know about your partner." Stepping back, she held up a gloved hand, which proceeded to glow dark green. "I'm a biotic salarian. There aren't many of us, and most of us are encouraged to work intelligence, which is how I ended up here. I tell you this to make one thing clear: I can handle myself most of the time, but I shudder to think of the political fallout if I were to be badly harmed."

Hammond scratched his beard. "Mmmm. Also rare. I like it, though. And don't worry: if there's a problem, I'll just fix it. Sound good?"
Nasari chuckled slightly. "Assuming the problem is that easily fixed. It rarely is in my line of work." As her omnitool beeped, she glanced down at it. "How interesting. The turian has landed on a planet by the name of Valaris. It's a pleasant enough world, but nearly abandoned. The only things there are factories, meant to remain out of the purview of the Council. Similar to Noveria, but with a much nicer climate, and not even the pretense of corporate care."
He stood, shouldering his weapon again. "Are we to head out, then?"

Nasari nodded quickly, moving out of the room. "Yes. If you have a ship you'd rather use, feel free to go to it. However, my ship is quite big enough for the two of us, with room to spare."

xXxXxXx

After a surprisingly quick flight, Nasari landed on Valaris, stepping out of the ship quickly. The area where she had landed the ship was well-grown, with several dark purple bushes and trees near what seemed to be a rather rapidly moving river. On their side of the river, within view, was a factory, although not one that seemed to be currently active, given the lack of movement.

Standing by as she waited for her partner, Nasari double-checked the tracker's location. It still indicated the turian was inside the factory. That made Nasari nervous. Salarians liked having the jump on the enemy. Confronting one was supposed to mean that she had already won. That bombing has changed quite a lot.

Harding stepped out leisurely, taking in the sights. He eyed the factory.

"Should have landed on the other side of the river. Once we're across, want me on the roof?"

Nasari thought carefully, looking at the factory steadily, before shaking her head. "I think we would be better off getting to the factory first. I should be able to gauge their defenses then, and decide the best course of action. It's tempting to split up, take a two-sided approach, but if one of us encounters more resistance than we expected, that could be a problem."

With that, Nasari crossed the river quickly, the stream no deeper than her knees. Stumbling slightly as she got out on the other river bank, she laid down on her stomach, moving slowly for a few seconds before stopping entirely. Frowning, Harding took a moment to remove his socks and unshoulder his weapon before following. He joined her on the cool ground, leveling his rifle at the facility. "Strange..." said Nasari, "there's movement, but only a little. Either everyone is further in the base, or this place is extremely under-guarded."
"I count... four outside? You?"

After some further focusing, Nasari nodded, standing. "That's all I count. Four guards. Two on the roof, one at either entrance. Of course, that implies that we'd be foolish enough to use the doors, rather than the windows."

Timing her movements quickly, Nasari moved up to the factory, avoiding the eyesight of the guards on the roof. Harding waited behind, watching her advance. Once there, she looked through a window, then placed her hand on the wall. Lightly enough to not be heard, but moving enough for Harding to observe, she tapped the wall once. She's there. Alone. I really don't like this.

He gave a small thumbs up, before pointing to his rifle, then to the roof guards. He mockingly held his hand to his ear, indicating that he was waiting for a reply.

It seemed he wanted to know if he should snipe them or not.

After some thought, she shook her head. No need to draw any more attention than necessary. Quietly, she placed a hand on the window, focusing as the window was surrounded by a dark green glow, promptly followed by the glass pane simply floating out of the frame and settling on the ground silently.

Harding rose to a crouch and moved over to join her, fast and low. "You know, you could have just walked in through the front door." The turian spoke suddenly from the window, not looking over at the pair as Nasari froze slightly. She wasn't very far inside the building, and they could see and hear her just fine. "After all, my guards are there to keep people out I don't want to find me."

Harding, now only three meters away, froze in mid-step for a moment, before snorting with laughter. "You got fuckin' had," he helpfully told Nasari. Nasari sighed, standing up fully. "I don't think so. I just think my tracker was noticed."

The turian raised her talons, clapping slowly. "Congratulations. You've figured out how I knew you'd show up. Next question is, why didn't I simply disable the tracker? The answer is because I wanted to see who they sent after me. And it seems I got the salarian biotic and...well, whoever your partner is." Turning around at last, the turian was unarmed, and fairly muscular, with deep purple facepaint to indicate her allegiance to Eclipse.

Harding shrugged. "Just a guy who's wondering how much manpower you're willing to lose to kill us if you try.

...Because it would be a lot. Several dudes. Now, I think you don't want to try that, at least not yet. But I just want to make sure you know where we're standing. You can finish sizing us up and order us dead... but you will drop first, and then I will kill at least your two favorite guards." He smiled jovially and opened his arms, as if for a hug. "Now let's negotiate!"

The turian chuckled, raising her hands in mock surrender. "I told you, these guards are not meant for you. They are meant for others. That I want to keep out. I thought I made that clear. As for negotiating...Something tells me that's not what this is about."

Nasari shook her head. "You're right. This is about the Citadel bombing. We know you were there. We want to know who else was. Their names. Where they are."

The turian sighed, resting her hands on the table in front of her. "Well, that will be a problem. You see...If I don't tell you, I'm dead. You or your gun nut friend will take me out, even if I return the favor on one of you. On the other hand...telling you will kill me eventually."

"Well now if you're so convinced we're going to kill you, why not use the guards for us exactly?" Harding asked, stroking his beard.
"Because I feel that you should know what you are up against by coming after the bombers. Besides, I didn't say you would kill me. I'd say that if you wanted to, you'd be able to do so regardless of what I try."

"Smart gal." Harding turned to Nasari. "Alright, now what boss?"
Nasari groaned, clearly frustrated. "I don't think we have much choice. She's not going to tell us anything..." Nasari suddenly glowed dark green, grabbing the turian and pulling her out the window and tossing her onto the ground, pinning her down. "Not here, at least. We'll have to take her with us."

Groaning, the turian looked up at Nasari and Harding. "You should think real carefully about that. I'm not saying you leave me here, and I definitely would rather live. But you see...I'm not the one in charge, and all things considered, I'm pretty small-time. My boss, my...master, if you will...he's the big game, and you do not want to fuck with him."

"Hmm..." Harding said pensively, drumming his fingers on the barrel of his rifle. "Y'know it's interesting. Everybody has an opinion on what you look like." He spoke to the turian. "My employer here is telling me you look like a target for capture. You're telling me you look untouchable. I disagree with both." He turned back to Nasari. "You know what I see when I look at her, boss?"

He drew close, whispering in Nasari's ear so the turian couldn't hear. "I'm seeing bait. Use the little fish to draw in the big fish. She stops reporting in, her employer sends someone to check up."

Nasari nodded, whispering back. "I agree with your idea. I just think we should make sure we know what we are getting into." Kneeling, she grabbed the turian by her wrists, standing her up. As the turian tried to pull away, Nasari pinned her hands down with her biotics. "You are coming with us. Tell me more about this master of yours. Tell me what to expect."

The turian laughed, but not out of humor. Instead, her laugh was hard, quite cynical. "What should you expect? Well, he's a turian, some of the time. He's much, much worse if he's pissed off. Either way, you should expect to get fucking slaughtered, along with everyone in your base if you even think of leading him there."

"Well... perhaps you're exactly the person to talk us through setting a trap for this butcher of yours. Your life may well depend on it."

The turian chuckled, shaking her head. "My life is fucked anyways if I let you two take me into custody. It's forfeit at that point, and he'll be happy to collect. As for a trap, you'd better have an army of specialists, with a lot of heavy weapons and men to sacrifice, because that's what it will take. A trap to ambush him will just piss him off."

Glancing at Nasari, she smirked just a little. "He'll like you. He likes the small ones."

Harding raised an eyebrow. "Maybe you're right, and we are hunting a tiger with a slingshot. Or maybe you're exaggerating, or even lying, to throw us off." He faced his boss again. "I would still suggest that a decent trap - on our home turf, with a large number of reinforcements and sufficient intel - could handle anything. But if you have another play in mind...?"

Nasari sighed softly, placing a hand on her forehead as she thought about the situation. "If we need more intel, that will be tricky. We don't even have a name to go off of. Just...Master. That's hardly a name. 'Oh, Master! I know exactly who you are talking about. He's based out in the Orion System.'"

Harding chuckled. "Well, we have all the intel we need right here," he said, indicating the turian. "She hasn't weighed her options yet. If Master really is so guaranteed to kill her, then she has a better chance, no matter how small, of survival if she helps us take him down." He gave her a sideways glance, as if challenging her to correct him.

The turian sighed, looking at the ground. "You actually have a point, for someone who doesn't know what he is getting into. I'll tell you what I know, although it isn't much. As I said, I was pretty low on the totem pole. This was my first real big job, and the first time I even saw him. Now, tell me, what do you want to know? His name? Because I only ever called him Master. He didn't like me calling him anything else."

Harding smiled, and kneeled in front of her. "Let's start with the basics. What can he do? Weapons? Biotics? Tech? Does he travel with bodyguards?"

"He's more of a tech person, I guess. And he has no bodyguards, most of the time, because he doesn't need them. As for weapons, his favorite weapons are his bare hands. He loves strangling. I don't know what it is about that, but if he has the option, he will straight-up choke anyone who's upset him. He does have...other weapons, though. When he gets pissed off, and transforms...he can fire off this laser beam, obliterates people."

Nasari rolled her eyes, sighing. "Forget it, Harding. This bitch is going to say whatever ridiculous thing comes to mind. She doesn't want to say shit, because she wants us off-guard."

Harding narrowed his eyes and stroked his beard, genuinely unsure whether to believe her or not. It was quite fantastic, but she had little reason to lie. "This laser... describe it in more detail. Appearance, sound?"

The turian closed her eyes, thinking carefully. "It's big...bright red beam. There's a sort of roaring sound when it's fired off. I don't really know how to describe it further."

The turian grunted as Nasari kicked her flat, pinning the turian to the ground with a foot on her chest. "We don't have time for your fucking bullshit! Either tell us the truth, or we'll have to find someone who will!"

"Actually..." said Harding, "I know my weapons, and that sounds a bit like a Tha-" he stopped before he said any more in front of the prisoner. "Tell the truth maybe... don't like that, though. Mm-mm, no, don't like that at all. Alright, moving on. These are augmentations in his body? I assume unmagnetized and EM resistant? Would be nice to have a target with such easy weaknesses, but seems unlikely..."

The turian groaned, but responded to Harding's question. "Heavily augmented, and they are definitely resistant to electromagnetic pulses. Magnetization in general...I can't say for sure, but I highly doubt he'd overlook that major of a weakness. He's very fond of proving stronger than others, of being better than organic...Although he does have a soft spot in a way for the female species. Not much, but I've known him to get a little distracted at times."

Harding thought this over carefully, stroking his beard. His eyes seemed to light up suddenly, as though an idea had occurred to him. "Boss, I think there's a lot we can do with this, and a lot more we can learn from her... but it's getting cold out here, and it's very exposed. Her guards could spot us. I say we rustle her back up to base, and continue this there. It should buy some time before this fire-spitting turian comes after us. Time to set our trap."

Nasari growled slightly, but stepped back, pulling the turian to her feet. "We'll get an ID on you, girlie, while we take you back to the base. You'd better start thinking of some hard truths to tell while we are on the way back." With that, Nasari forced the turian to march across the river, putting her on the ship.