Author's Notes: This is my new story, I'll be taking my time on it unlike my old story, The Odd Ones Out. TOOO is pretty much over unfortunately, due to a lack of interest in it anymore. I hope to make up for it by making a better, more well-written story to replace it.
I'll take any critiques in the review section. Any feedback at all is helpful and appreciated.
...
Rain pelted the icy rocks around me, leaving a dull, blurred reflection on their darkened surfaces. It wasn't very often that I got to see rainfall, and it was even less often I got to set foot on a planet that actually supported life. It was cold, the kind of cold that goes straight to your bones. No amount of extra layering or padding would ever prevent it from annoying me. Still, I had to focus.
The target was an information transaction between a turian arms dealer who goes by the current name of Solaik Railon and a local Blue Suns unit led by some human called Sydnor. They were scheduled to meet in this location several minutes from now. My job was to wait for the meeting, and take them all out after the information has been decrypted. No survivors.
Solaik was the first to arrive, landing his modified Kodiak shuttle in the designated field. He got out, accompanied by four mercenaries. All of them but one were turians, the standout being a large, fully armored krogan. That could possibly present a problem. They were all well armed, holding heavily modified M-76 Revenant LMGs. If push came to shove, they wouldn't hit anything at this range.
The Blue Suns arrived a minute later in an old Mantis gunship. Four of them quickly filed out and moved into an organized line. Two turians, a human and a batarian. The turians sported M-27 Scimitar shotguns, while the other two had M-8 Avenger rifles. As with all Blue Suns, they wore identical armor. Sydnor walked out of the gunship shortly afterwords, sporting a set of fully-charged tech barriers.
A constant stream of micro-adjustments streamed over the corner of my HUD as the scope compensated for changing wind speeds and possible distance vectors. This weather was playing hell with the custom settings on my compensator. I shut it off, instead electing to do this the old-fashioned way. I took aim again without interference as the two leaders approached each other.
"So... do you have it?" Sydnor asked with crossed arms, unaware that I was listening in. He looked fairly confident in himself, but then again most humans I ran into seemed to have large egos. The fool wasn't even armed. "I don't have time to screw around, my boss is looking to get this information as soon as possible."
"First you show me the money. Then we can talk about the information." Solaik quickly deflected, annoyance filling his face. He was dressed in nothing more than an orange jumpsuit and a combat vest. He may not have had much protection on, but he had one of the biggest scowls I had ever seen on a turian.
With a simple scowl, Sydnor reached into a pouch attached to his belt and withdrew a credit chit. On it was enough money to buy a small ship, $175,000 Citadel Standard (CS). I didn't often question my jobs, but I did have to wonder what kind of information was worth such an obscene amount of currency. I banished the thought from my head as I refocused on my objective.
Solaik snatched the chit out of Sydnor's hand, causing him to jump back slightly. Sydnor's men all pointed their guns at Solaik in reaction to the quick movement. Solaik's men did the same, before he held up his hand. They lowered their weapons as the Blue Suns did the same.
"This will be a good transaction." Solaik remarked as his displeased expression softened slightly. He removed a slim metal container from his vest, holding it close to himself as he looked back at Sydnor. "This shell contains the OSD. The code to open it is 0451."
That was enough information for me. As Solaik held out his hand to give the container to Sydnor, I detonated a series of demolition charges I had planted in the meeting spot beforehand.
Lucky for me, the two sets of charges I planted happened to be underneath both ships. Solaik's ship erupted into as shower of sparks, fire and metal as one of the charges ruptured it's mass effect core. The initial blast instantly killed two of his men, and the latter explosion knocked the other two, a krogan and a turian down.
Sydnor's gunship had one of it's thrusters blow clean off by the charges, causing it to quickly pitch towards port. It landed belly up, and exploded. One of Sydnor's men were killed instantly, but the others were still in good condition. It took less then three seconds for that to change. I fired my M-9 Widow, turning one of Sydnor's men into purple paste.
All hell broke loose from there. Both sides opened fire on one another and scrambled for what little cover there was in the clearing. I fired again, taking the arm off of another one of Sydnor's men. Solaik's krogan merc charged forward in a rage as he was put down by a well-placed shotgun slug. Another shot rang out from my rifle, this time taking out Solaik's last remaining merc.
Solaik fired his Carnifex at Sydnor's last man, killing him with a well-placed shot to the cranium. It was down to the two of them. Sydnor fired wildly at Solaik with a rifle he picked up as he dodged between pieces of cover. In a dumb move, Sydnor tried to give chase but was instead greeted by three shots to the chest. The first shattered his shields and the other two pierced his armor.
Sydnor hit the ground like a rock, going stiff. He was either already dead from a shot to the heart or one of his lungs had collapsed. Solaik got down on his knees and drew a knife, presumably to finish him off. I fired one last shot, blowing his head clean from his shoulders. His body slumped down, falling to Sydnor's side.
With all the targets eliminated, I collected my rifle and walked down the stony hill. The blood of both sides had begun to run over the shiny layer of ice that covered everything in sight. The freezing rain pelting me was only more visible as the fires from the wrecks illuminated everything in sight. I picked up the blood-covered container, placing it inside my backpack.
I quickly drew my pistol as a loud gasp for air could be heard. I turned to see Sydnor still on the ground, staring up at the sky.
"Who... a-are you?" He asked without looking at me, blood seeping from his body.
I responded to his inquiry by shooting him once in the face. I figured it was more of a mercy killing by this point, anyways. I picked through Solaik's pockets, taking the credit chit he had received. To the victor goes the spoils.
After hiking away from the meeting site, I opened my shuttle's miniature decontamination room. I took off the extra coat that I had worn, putting it and my other loose items inside a separate decon machine. Once the sequence was done, I entered my small but cozy cabin. My shuttle was an old troop transport that had been heavily modified. I turned it into my own private, traveling home. Nick-knacks lined every nook and crevice that could be seen, gathered over the years. I liked how homey it was.
I plopped myself down on an expensive leather seat I had recently bought, reclining to work out the kink in my back that had once again reared it's ugly head. After it disappeared, I pulled my hood back and removed the mask, taking in the fresh, recycled air. It was always nice, being able to take the thing off ever once and a while.
Setting the helmet down on the desk, I stared at it as I often did after missions. I had to take into account that this was all people ever saw of me whenever I was outside of my ship. Back on the Flotilla, this would have been considered one of the highest forms of art and expression that any one quarian could have. The suit and mask, while initially donned as a necessity, had unwittingly become a large part of our culture.
I still pondered what my own mask said about me. While any human, turian, or asari would look at this and see the markings as damage or scratches, in reality they told a story of pain, love, and death. Every mark, every symbol, every scratch... every one of them was their own story. That was always the thing I appreciated about my people... they wrote everything on the wall. What that writing meant...
My thoughts were interrupted as the smaller decon machine beeped, signaling that it had finished it's cycles. I grabbed the chit first and foremost, placing it in my safe. I'd have to burn that money later. The second state of business was the container, which had been completely dried and decontaminated. I stared at it, wondering once again what was so important about the information inside of it.
While my job was to deliver this unopened to my contact on Illium, my curiosity was becoming harder and harder to resist. I finally gave in, plugging the code "0451" into the container. It opened, revealing a small OSD. It was barely bigger than the tip of my finger. I plugged it into my omni-tool, itching to see what I had gone through all this trouble for.
It was a large data dump of some type, but it was heavily encrypted. Whatever it was, there was a lot of it, because there was petabytes of content on this little device. There was no point in trying to decrypt it, the encryption looked like it was at least military-grade in strength. I disconnected it and placed it back in it's container, locking it with the same code.
Lightning struck outside, quickly obscuring the cockpit in a bright flash of light. I sat down in my old chair, turning on the communications array.
"This is Evela, I have finished the job." I said after establishing a connection to my client.
"Very good, Ms. Evela." The scrambled voice on the other end said with a sense of satisfaction. "Is the package still sealed?"
I pondered the question for a split second before replying "Yes." I figured they wouldn't be able to tell the difference, especially since I didn't change the code.
"Good. Bring the package to Max Collins, our contact on Illium. You will be paid upon delivering the package." The voice explained, as coordinates were simultaneously sent to me. "He will meet you tomorrow at 8:00 in the Amitron Club, third floor."
With that, the transmission ended, leaving nothing to trace it. Not even an echo remained of the signal.
I didn't like the prospect of working for someone who didn't even divulge their face, but the money this job was offering was too good to pass down. Still, these guys were pretty serious about the little OSD, and I wasn't going to risk another death order from any other groups by refusing to deliver it because of a feeling.
With my new orders, I fired up the engines and sped away from the cold planet.
…
Six Hours Later
With plenty of time to spare before my meeting, I decided to make another stop at Omega, one of my favorite "hangouts." The place may be a cesspool of murder, greed, and filth, but there was no better place to get your hands on the latest black market equipment. I pulled into the confines of the station, resting in a private shuttle bay my old human friend Calvin Windham rents out to me.
Calvin was a rare anomaly here on Omega; he was a human that you could trust. A tall human in his late forties, he had "salt and pepper" hair and a long scar going along the side of his jaw. He's a former member of the Blue Suns who left after a major shift in leadership occurred in the group. After his exodus, he used his gained knowledge to set up a successful body armor business here on the station.
He and I met when I came here after leaving the Flotilla. He helped me learn the ropes of mercenary business after he saw me kill three turian muggers with nothing more than an old pistol. As silly as it seems now, if it wasn't for him, I may have never survived my first month away from home.
As luck would have it, Calvin happened to be around when I hopped out of the shuttle. He was standing next to a pile of crates waiting to be shipped out.
"Hey kid, how's it going?" He asked, smoking a cigar as his old, archaic jukebox next to him played music. "Still getting yourself into trouble?"
"Come on, you already know the answer to that." I replied sarcastically, fist-bumping as we always did when we greeted. "Besides, what fun would the world be if I played by the rules?"
"Amen to that." He agreed, flashing one of his big smiles. "So, what brings you back to Omega on such short notice? I would have bought you some lunch if I knew you we coming for a visit."
"I'm just stopping by to burn a little money." I answered, flashing the $175,000 credit chit I had retrieved.
"Jesus, where did you get that much money?" He asked, looking rather surprised.
"I took it from someone who won't be needing it, don't worry." I replied with an unseen smile. "Maybe I could buy lunch instead?"
"I'd have to be crazy to say no to that." He agreed without another thought, as he threw on a coat and we left.
Knowing all too well what Omega is, I always made sure to keep my sidearm held close when walking around here. There aren't many quarians on the station, and there are even fewer female quarians. The more depraved elements of the station would see that as something they could take advantage of, but if that threat ever materialized, they wouldn't be a threat much longer.
I wore a long, gray cloak that reached down to my knees. It made for a subtle and unassuming outfit, fitting my hood well. Calvin wore an old, leather jacket that had belonged to his father. It helped complement his size.
"Heh, I finally pinned my finger on what you look like!" Calvin announced with another smile. "You remind me of Jedi when you wear that cloak."
"What's a "Jedi?" I asked, obviously confused by his statement.
"Oh, that's right, you haven't seen that." He retracted, now thinking of an explanation. "It's from an old movie series called Star Wars, where these warrior monks called Jedi would fight these Dark Jedi called "The Sith" with these cool laser swords called lightsabers."
"Sounds interesting." I replied, now thinking of the technology that would be needed to make something along those lines. I eventually gave up after deeming it impossible.
About ten minutes later, we arrived at The Hungry Krogan and ordered our usual menu items. Mine may have come in a tube, but it still tasted better than anything else on the station. It was Yusai, a turian "lunch" item that had been reduced to a paste and heavily filtered. It tasted vaguely sweet, and helped make my stomach feel better when ill.
Calvin always got this thing called a "cheeseburger", a piece of cooked meat with cheese and a human vegetable called "onions" between two pieces of wheat-based products. I never understood the appeal of it, especially since he always complained about them being "better back home." While I could imagine the appeal of such a product, I would never try it.
"So, have you had any luck lately?" He asked, taking a sip from his drink.
"With what?" I asked, the vague nature of his question eluding me.
"Findin' your brother?" He clarified, eating a fried slice of "potato" between statements. "You're still looking for him, right?"
"No, I still haven't been able to find anything on Meir." I replied after pausing and thinking about it for a few seconds. "It's been four years, Calvin. He's probably dead."
"Aw, that's no way to think about it." Calvin reflected, focusing completely on me. "There's always a chance that he's still out there."
"Maybe, but that chance gets smaller every day." I said with purposely added bitterness so he would drop the subject.
I didn't want to think about my brother anymore. Calvin's optimism wasn't going to have any effect on me, I firmly believed my brother was long dead by this point. Four years is a long time for a loving member of your family to abruptly cut contact with you.
"So, you feel like tellin' old Calvin what you've been up to as of late?" He asked with one of his big, goofy smiles. "I could stand to hear a good story after the week I've had."
"What's been wrong on your end?" I asked, suddenly interested. If it was something I could help with, I'd always offer to "straighten it out" for him free of charge.
"Oh, nothing violent or nothin'." He replied, waving his hand dismissively. "Aria herself hired me to install the new gen IV kinetic barriers into the armors of all her "employees."
"She trusted you to do that?" I questioned, genuinely surprised.
"Yeah, one of her enforcers, that turian Gavorn, frequents my shop. He must have put in a good word for me." He explained, folding his arms behind his head. "I don't really mind, seeing as how good the pay is, but hot damn it takes a long time to install new barriers for that many people."
He then leaned forward, focusing back on me.
"Ok ok, I'll tell you what's been going on with me." I caved, knowing he would just keep asking. "I've spend the last week hunting down some data for a well-paying client out near Illium. Just a few hours ago I finally got my hands on it."
With that, I took out the cylindrical container and showed it to him before returning it to my backpack.
"I have to deliver it tomorrow." I finished, sucking some more paste out of the tube.
"Who is this client of yours?" He asked, leaning forward with his elbows on the table.
"To be honest, I don't really know." I answered, looking back at him as his face began to turn. "I know how you feel about knowing the identity of your client, but the money is too good to pass up."
"Of course you know how I feel about that!" Calvin said with sudden, but controlled anger. "Damn it, girl, I told you to never accept jobs from anonymous clients!"
"1,000,000 CS, Calvin." I said matter of factly, quickly changing his expression from one of anger to disbelief.
"Wha-... what is that thing? Why is it worth so much?" He asked in a slightly more gentle voice as to not attract anyone the attention of anyone else.
"Inside the container is an OSD with a wealth of information." I answered, leaning forward. "I don't know what it is, but whatever it is it must be important because that thing has military-level encryption on it."
"That may be a lifetime's worth of money, Evela, but something like that isn't going to be chased by just one person." He cautioned, looking concerned. "There are powerful people after that OSD, and I'd get rid of it as soon as possible."
"I can't take that risk, Calvin. It's too big of a score to just throw away." I said defiantly, folding my arms as he leaned back.
"Fine then, but I don't want any part of that OSD." He wrapped up, standing up and throwing his coat back on. "Once you leave the station, I don't want you back in my home until that thing is gone."
"There's no need to be paranoid, Calvin..." I tried to reason, as he flipped back around to face me.
"There's a perfect need to be paranoid, that thing is trouble and I can feel it." He said with finality, looking me straight in the eyes. "Goodbye Evela."
Without another word, he turned back around and left the restaurant, leaving me by myself. While I didn't like seeing Calvin upset like this, I had to stick to my guns on this. 1,000,000 CS is enough for me to leave the mercenary business and maybe even buy something good to bring back to the Fleet...
"No."I thought, expelling that thought from my head when I remembered my mother. I either found my brother or never returned... and I think I already knew where that was going.
With my tubes emptied, I retreated under my cloak and left the restaurant. I entered the markets, checking out the batarian vendor. The batarians always sold interesting things, all of it illegal, but that was of little consequence to me.
"Gortauq, how's it going?" I asked, getting his attention.
"Oh, hello Evela." He returned, walking over with a datapad in his hand. "Nothing much has happened. I'm sorry, we still haven't gotten that shipment of grenades you wanted."
"Damn." I exclaimed, crossing my arms.
"I need to get my hands on a new supplier, my usual contact has given me nothing but junk as of late." He explained before his eyes widened. Whether it was out of fear or surprise, I didn't know. "Um. I gotta go, sorry Evela."
He quickly ran off back into his shop, as I turned around to see two of Aria's men behind me. One of them was Gavorn, the other was Grizz. Turians. They were both holding rifles. Everyone here on the station knew who worked for Aria, and everyone also knew she didn't take shit from anyone.
"Evela'Zadie?" Gavorn questioned, looking down at me.
"That's right." I confirmed, ready to spring into action at any given moment. I knew that Aria must have sent them, and I wasn't going to take any chances.
"Aria would like to see you in Afterlife." He said, instantly surprising and confusing me all at once.
"What for?" I asked, still ready for anything to happen.
"She has a job offer for you. she's heard good things about you from Calvin Windham." He explained further, causing me to tense down slightly. "I'd meet with her soon, Aria isn't one to wait for long."
"I'll... consider it." I answered slowly, as Gavorn handed me an Afterlife VIP pass. Then the two of them walked away. I let my heartbeat return to normal before processing what just happened.
"Why would Aria want to see me?" I thought to myself, still standing in front of Gortauq's vendor. "Did she know about my package, or did she really want to offer me a job?"
Even if I wasn't sure about what she wanted, I didn't have much choice but to go and see her. I'd have to be stupid not to, considering I just got a direct invitation and a free VIP pass. I suppose it was time to give Afterlife a visit.
…
30 Minutes Later
Enter into YouTube:
/watch?v=Fxa3J-g0hc
I stood in front of Afterlife, seeing the giant hologram of the asari dancer flicker in front of me and the line of people waiting to get in. Even from out here I could hear the loud club music blaring, shaking the ground beneath my feet. It was an interesting feeling, one that I didn't get to experience very often. I walked past the large line of people, flashing my new VIP pass at the Elcor bouncer.
"Indifferent: Go on, Aria is expecting you." He said in his monotonous tone of voice.
"Thank you." I replied, as the door slid open revealing a longer hallway with projections of fire on both sides.
I had to admit, from what I had seen already, Aria sure knew how to run a club.
I entered the main room, seeing the place was packed to burst with people. The majority of people were either crowded around the bar or the railing that bordered the center dancer platform. I looked up to see Aria's private booth overlooking the entire club. She was staring directly at me.
I took that as a sign to hurry up.
I walked up the stairs into the booth, the music dying down. Aria was still facing the main floor, looking down at the club-goers. She slowly turned around, looking me up and down for a few seconds.
"So you are Evela." Aria remarked, a curious expression on her face. "I've heard a lot about you. Tell me, is it true you single-handedly killed Robert Lunsden and his whole crew of mercenaries?"
"I didn't come here to make small talk, Aria. I'm here because you want me here." I redirected, causing one of her eyebrows to raise.
"Straight to business... I can appreciate that in a woman." She said with a smile, inviting me to sit down. "So, you must be wondering why I invited you here."
"The thought had crossed my mind." I confirmed, leaning forward. "What does the most powerful woman on Omega want with a small-timer like me?"
"I think you know exactly what I am talking about." She said with a small glare. She knew.
"What's your interest in the package I picked up?" I caved, knowing there was no way I could bullshit Aria.
"It's more of a passive interest." Aria explained, leaning forward. "I deal in all sorts of things, including information. The Shadow Broker could have a field day with what is on that OSD of yours."
"How do you know all this?" I asked, still surprised that she knew so much already. "What do you know about this OSD?"
"All I know about it is that it came from an old Cerberus research facility destroyed awhile ago on Noveria." She enlightened, ringing some bells in my head. "Any classified information on Cerberus is worth a lot in the black market. You stand to make a lot of money from that little OSD."
"Are you offering to buy it from me?" I inquired, suddenly more interested.
"I am. I'm offering you 750,000, plenty for a single mercenary of your caliber." She offered, leaning back again. "I also know it's a better deal than any other ones you may have received."
"How would you know?" I asked, a little bit angered by her confidence.
"Because unlike some other elements here in the galaxy, I don't plan on backstabbing you." Aria said with reassurance, looking me in the eye with a smile. "Other people will kill for that information, I won't."
"And why wouldn't you just kill me after taking the OSD for yourself?" I questioned, leaning back. "You are the most powerful person on Omega, what's stopping you?"
"I wouldn't do that because I respect you." Aria said, springing more surprise from me. "You killing Robert and his mercenaries made things a lot easier for my men. I owe you for that, even if you didn't do it for me."
"I see..." I remarked, looking down at the ground. Aria's offer did seem pretty solid, but that 1,000,000... "I can't accept your offer, Aria, as generous as it may be. I already committed to another client."
"Have it your way, there's no skin off my back either way." Aria disregarded, her face becoming serious again. "My offer stands in case you change your mind. Just remember, I warned you."
"I'll keep that in mind." I finished, standing up.
Aria then quickly grabbed my wrist, causing me to flip around to face her.
"By the way, you have a great ass." She said with a chuckle and a smile, letting my wrist go. I was thoroughly surprised and embarrassed at the same time, but didn't show it.
With that, I walked out of the booth and left the club, pondering the information I now had. If this thing was Cerberus, than in could be worth even more than my first client was offering. Still, It was the best source I had at the moment, so of course I was going to focus on it.
I returned to my shuttle, speeding away from Omega. My next stop: Illium.