The Starheld Compendium - Down to the Thieves Below
Chapter 1
Fayneer T'Lees – 2179
Sapheer District, Omega
Fayneer T'Lees glanced up and down the street. It was unnervingly empty for Omega. The asari looked to her omnitool to check the time and, after eying the street once again, turned into an alley. Her fingers were curled, hovering between an open palm and balled fist, and each step she took a was prefaced by a sweep of her eye from left to right. To say she was being more cautious than normal would be an understatement. Fayneer reached the center of the alley where she stood beneath a dim light occasionally flickering in the death throes of old electrical work slowly failing. She planted one of her boots firmly on the ground and turned to look over her shoulder. She was still alone.
She waited in the darkness as the sound of the city droned distantly from all around her. It had been a long few weeks. The Hyperion had been destroyed and both Welkinn and William Hume had been dead for many days now, providing her a lot of time to think. She had mourned for Welkinn, of course, but he had only been with them for a short time. William's death, however, had struck much deeper. He was a rarity as far as she was concerned: a good, respectable person. Perhaps a tad naive, but the truly good ones always were. But he had also had a strange tendency to inspire. While her original intent while serving aboard the Hyperion was to lay low and provide a helping gun to those who had saved her from Narenthus Antarian's indentured servitude, Will's sometimes bizarre altruistic drive had been rather humbling.
And now he was dead.
She had mourned both him and Welkinn as any friend would, but now she had work to do. Shansa and Eleena would most likely continue what Will had started, but Fayneer had made her own choice. The small flame of altruism that William Hume had ignited in her was to be set aside. Someday when she had real resources she may return and fan that flame, but for now there was a small fortune waiting to be reclaimed. When she was thinking clearly she was a businesswoman, after all.
"Fayneer T'Lees?" A voice asked.
She snapped her head up to where the voice had called from. In a window above her she could see the outline of a humanoid and the reflection of weak light that shone from his two eyes. The voice was unmistakably drell.
"Yes," she replied quietly. "And you are?"
"Your contact," the drell answered as he leapt to the ground.
T'Lees stepped back as the drell landed with a thud and brought his jet-black eyes to bear on her.
"My name is Callon," the drell said.
He extended a gloved hand in offering. Fayneer reached out and took it as a show of goodwill and nodded in recognition.
"And you already know my name," she said.
Callon nodded and retracted his hand. "Let's see it."
Fayneer raised her brow. "See what?"
The drell smirked and crossed his arms. "You know what I'm talking about. The earnest payment. Let me see the funds."
"Ah, yes." She activated her omnitool. "As you can see, it is all here. The remainder I will provide after we finished our undertaking."
It was almost every credit she had to her name. The majority came from an old, less secure business account used by Narenthus Antarian, but there was also some from the modest wage she had received from serving on the Hyperion. Even a few pawned pieces of her own belongings had contributed to the final tally. Callon stepped forward and looked at the omnitool screen searching for anything out of place. Seeing nothing he glanced up to her.
"Normally we don't do anything risky without the whole payment upfront," he informed her.
"I assure you, this will be a lucrative-"
He held up a hand. "I'm not looking to be convinced. Not yet. We've looked up your name. You've got a record and history that shows you keep your word for the most part. Plus the double scale payment you're offering sweetens things up quite a bit."
She nodded. "So, are we doing business together?"
"Tentatively," the drell said with a cool smirk. "First you've gotta pitch this thing to my boss and the team."
"Gladly," she said while confidently raising her chin. "Where exactly-"
"Follow me," he interrupted. "They're waiting in a bar a few blocks down."
The drell pulled up the collar of his coat and turned to walk down the alley while Fayneer hurried to follow at his side as he strode along at a brisk pace. He glanced over and broke from his cool and collected attitude for the first time to give her an intrigued look.
"That's an… interesting weapon," he said.
It took T'Lees a moment to realize that he was referring to the harpoon gun on her back. It was still very foreign even to her.
"It belonged to a comrade of mine," she informed him. "He and another friend were killed recently."
"Hmm. Sorry to hear it. We lost one of our team a few months ago in a bad raid. Crazy how bad things can go wrong in just a split second," Callon said.
T'Lees nodded. "Yes. They were both… good companions. I hope they have both found peace."
They stepped out onto the street and turned toward the busy center of the district. The area was still fairly sparse, but seeing a few pedestrians walking around them helped put Fayneer back at ease. Callon seemed to be a reasonable fellow as well. She had found his team by looking through some of the RMC records that Tul'Sorrin had saved as a backup before the Hyperion was destroyed. They had been approached to join the Collective when Kallux was just starting to ramp up recruitment, but had professionally declined the invitation. Whether it was due to monetary or philosophical disagreements, she was unsure. That said, the public list of services that Callon's team provided seemed to indicate that they were not opposed to taking an unethical approach to getting the job done.
"So you were part of some kind of team I take it?" Callon asked.
"Something like that," she replied.
"Why aren't they helping you out with this problem?"
Fayneer frowned to herself. The honest answer was that what she had planned was dangerous. Too dangerous for those she cared about. She feared that anyone associated with her may be in danger if the Thessian authorities tracked them down. The credits she was looking to recover were in relatively hidden accounts, but there was no guarantee that the commando team on her case had not discovered them. For all she knew accessing those accounts could lead to a handful of asari warships bearing down on her location within a few hours.
Instead, she gave Callon the partial truth.
"We were forced to go our separate ways," she replied. "I cannot say much more than that."
"Fair enough," the drell replied. "I'm not one to pry."
They walked for another minute or so without a word between them. Then, without any warning, Callon turned and stepped up a set of stairs in the front of a small landing. T'Lees walked up after him.
"Evening, Dol," the drell remarked.
A turian bouncer leaned against the wall beside the door. He nodded in acknowledgment to Callon and eyed Fayneer curiously as the asari and drell walked through the door. The interior of the bar was terribly dingy, as one might expect from this corner of Omega. Where most of the bars and clubs on the station used flashy light sequences and colors, this bar had only a few dim ceiling fixtures and the colored alcohol signs that lined the back of the bar. The music was a nondescript thumping that was just loud enough to obscure a conversation that might be happening at the table beside you. There were no more than a dozen patrons in the bar, three of which sat at a table near the far end of the room. They were sipping from drinks and laughing together. Fayneer felt her lips sink into a frown as she missed her friends. She took a deep breath and pushed the thought aside for the time being.
Callon lead Fayneer through the bar and came to a stop at the very table she had eyed upon entering. "Everyone, this is the client. Fayneer T'Lees."
The trio that made up the rest of Callon's team had been watching the asari since she and Callon had entered. They intrigued Fayneer immediately. At the center sat an incredibly large and muscular human. His hair was a brownish-yellow, cut close and proper on the top of his head while an enormous beard hung from his chin. A scar was slashed across his left cheek and nose, the latter having clearly suffered a small bit of structural damage in the attack. He was fully equipped in some of the heaviest yet antiquated-looking armor that she had ever seen. The stocks of a rifle and shotgun stuck up over either shoulder from the gun mount on his back.
To his left sat a turian female lounging quite comfortably in her chair with a drink in one hand and what looked like a small, metal cylinder twirling between her three fingers in the other. Her eyes were tightly narrowed on the newly arrived asari. Her markings were quite plain, with only a single blue stripe running from each eye up to the back of her face on either side. Her armor looked to have been customized to include additional gear mounts along her chest, upper arms and sides of her legs. On those mounts were quite a few small bundles of prepared explosives.
To the right was a batarian. Short, stocky, and narrowing all four eyes at the asari newcomer. His armor was covered in come kind of oil or grease, leaving Fayneer to believe he was the engineer of the group. Callon motioned toward a chair in front of T'Lees before sliding into the seat next to his turian companion. Fayneer pulled out the chair and placed herself in it with a confident and amicable expression on her features.
Nothing to worry about. She thought to herself.
Fayneer brought her hands to rest on the table and laced her fingers gracefully. This was nothing she had not done a million times before. The four people across from her were investors, and she had a business venture to propose.
"Fayneer T'Lees," the man at the center said boldly.
Her omnitool translator had picked an interesting accent to correlate to the human's that she had not heard in quite some time. It was prominent in the northern Pelannoa region of Thessia and quite pleasing to hear.
"My name is Brandte Ramsay," he continued. "Most just call me Ram. I'm in charge of these knuckleheads."
She held back her amused smirk at the nickname.
"A pleasure," T'Lees replied with a diplomatic bow of her head.
"You have already met Callon, our infiltration expert."
The drell gave her a nod.
Ram held his hand toward the turian woman. "This Seelyn, our explosives and heavy ordnance expert." The hand moved to the batarian. "And, finally, Lognus. Likes to shoot guns and fix things. Not always in that order."
"I am pleased to meet you all," T'Lees said with a smile.
"Damn right you are," the batarian grumbled. "And there's no point wearing that eyepatch to try to look tough. Especially not with that Armali accent."
Fayneer chuckled softly and brought her hand up to her face. She rested her cheek on the palm as though patronizing him with a charmed smile before lifting a finger up to expose the brutal scar and vacant socket where her missing eye used to be.
"I do not wear it for show and I have no interest in impressing any of you," she said warmly before lowering the eyepatch back into place. "I am here with an offer. But if I happen to impress any of you by the time we part ways, I would not be upset."
"Callon filled us in on your proposal," the turian woman said as she leaned forward. "We don't do partial upfront payments," she hissed.
"Not unless you've got something really good in store for us," Ram added. "So, tell us. What is this job?"
T'Lees straightened herself in her chair. "Callon tells me you have already done a bit of research. Of course, I do not know the full extent of what you have uncovered."
"All we have from official records is that you're wanted by the Thessian government," Callon informed her. "But there are also plenty of rumors around the underground circle that you're a fair businesswoman. At least when it comes to illegal arms trading."
"Can't complain on that front," Ram chimed in.
"I would like to think that is an accurate representation of my character," T'Lees replied. "I was recently betrayed by a business partner and locked out of the majority of my assets. Hence my inability to pay the full sum of your normal rate upfront. Luckily for me, that monster is now dead."
The four mercenaries shifted in various degrees of interest. The human at the center watched and listened closely. He was hiding his judgment well.
"Go on," Ram said flatly.
"I know of three accounts that were held in joint between a few people within his organization, all under false identities of course. But they have been locked down." She sat back in her seat. "I am afraid I have no way access them legitimately without the possibility of legal intervention."
"So hack into the accounts," Seelyn said. "Done."
"Not that simple by the sounds of it," Callon corrected her. "Business accounts shared between multiple owners are handled differently by the galactic trade networks when they go into a security lock."
Fayneer sat quietly, impressed at the drell's insight, and waited for him to continue. Ram looked from the asari to Callon and nodded.
"Different how?"
"There are many different networks that run the galactic economy," Callon explained. "The big ones we deal with on a day to day basis are the SAN, or Standard Account Network, and the BSN, or the Broker Service Network. The latter handles almost every extranet-based credit transaction while the former is the master for the accounts that you or I might have access to."
"But there are other networks?" Lognus suggested.
"Exactly. Smaller and more specialized," Callon affirmed. "One of those networks is used to store accounts that require investigation or supervision. There are millions or billions of accounts flowing in or out of this network's governance at any given time. Access to this network is… not easily attained. The closest someone could get without being an employee of the galactic trade network is probably the network server in a trade center."
Fayneer eyed the drellin fascination. She had only met a handful of his species in her centuries, but this one had already put the others to shame.
"You are very well versed in the inner workings of galactic trade," she complimented.
Callon smirked in satisfaction. "I learned a lot from my hanar proprietors when I served the Compact. The two I worked for the most were business owners much like you."
Fayneer gave him a coy smile. "Then I chose well when I contacted you."
"So what exactly is the damned job?" Seelyn asked. "I didn't ask for an econ lesson."
"I know what the job is," Ram asserted. "She wants access to that server."
T'Lees shifted her eyes back to the human. "Excellent deduction."
"And how exactly do we do that?" Lognus asked.
Callon chuckled. "You walk up to the server's interface." He looked around the table. "Guys, she wants us for a heist."
"A heist on one of the trade network offices?" Seelyn thought aloud. "Doesn't seem too tough."
"You might think so, but you'd be wrong," Ram corrected her. "I believe the trade offices on Omega have a contract with the Blue Suns for security. The Blue Suns don't half-ass their contracts with legitimate business ventures."
"As I said, all I want is access to the office's central server node," T'Lees informed them. "This does not have to be dangerous."
"If the Blue Suns are involved then I don't see how it's going to be easy," Seelyn said as she narrowed her eyes. "Now why the hell should we even be considering this? Especially when you're not even fronting the full payment."
"Because," Fayneer paused and swept her eye around the table. "I am prepared to offer you all double your normal rate as compensation after we have secured the funds."
"Double?" Lognus laughed. "We've done double scale jobs that were way simpler than this and they paid fifty percent upfront."
The asari sat up further in her seat. "I… was unaware. Callon seemed to indicate that this rate would be sufficient for-"
"Double won't cover it," the drell said flatly.
Fayneer's eye snapped to Callon. Damn him.
He had played her at her own game. Callon had pretended to be agreeable on the payment so she would be caught off guard when the negotiations came around. She narrowed her eye in gleeful acceptance of the challenge.
"Then I can do double and a half," she countered immediately.
"No good," Ram replied. "This is a big operation you're pitching here. I want a percentage cut."
"A percentage?" T'Lees chuckled and crossed her arms. "Absolutely not."
"And what exactly is so fucking funny about that?" Lognus asked. "We're helpin' you steal a huge chunk of credits. We deserve a cut from it if we're going to be carrying the weight."
Fayneer raised a hand. "First of all, you will not be carrying all the weight. I intend to be with and fighting alongside you for this entire operation."
"Oh, and I'm sure you'll make our jobs easier," Seelyn remarked sarcastically.
The asari turned her gaze to the turian woman. As tough as the turian acted, even she seemed a tad intimidated by Fayneer's burning eye.
"As a matter of fact, I am incredibly proficient in my biotics and more than capable with a rifle or shotgun." she snapped. "I may be a businesswoman first, but that does not mean I cannot rip the life out of someone who is threatening mine."
Ram cleared his throat. "We're not arguing your involvement. We're talking about payment. I want fifteen percent for my crew with a minimum of five times our normal rate." He smirked. "Just in case this account isn't as full as you think it is."
"Not one account. Three of them" she reminded him. "And I know exactly how many credits are in them. I saw the balances just days before they were put into lockdown." Fayneer lifted her chin once again. "I will give you five percent up to a maximum of five times your normal rate."
"Ten percent up to seven," Ram followed up.
Ten percent was not insignificant. But, these accounts held far more than the single one she had managed to access thus far. If they were to retrieve the entirety of the funds located in all three remaining accounts, the payment would most certainly reach the cap of seven times their pay rate long before it reached ten percent of the total haul. She smiled and looked around the table.
"Ten percent up to seven times your pay rate," she repeated. "I suppose that is fair enough."
The mercenaries shared a few quick, excited glances. Double pay scale may not have been the incentive Fayneer was expecting, but septuple? They would be fighting tooth and nail to finish this job when push came to shove.
"Then it's a deal," Ram said, extending his hand.
Fayneer took the mercenary captain's extended hand and shook firmly. "I will prepare the upfront payment, but let us plan to meet in eight hours for a logistical sync. We have quite a bit of planning to do, my friends."