The Red Moon Collection - 1 - Starside

Chapter 9

Tilno District, Omega

Will's eyes slowly scanned the long, crowded street as he and Eleena stood on alert. His left hand hung lazily at his side while the other rested firmly on the grip of his pistol. Standing beside him Eleena was shifting her eyes along the rooftops of the buildings that surrounded the bustling marketplace. Will had learned by now to expect their foes at any moment and Eleena had agreed with the precautions without hesitation. They were both dressed from neck to toe in their combat armor just in case trouble arose while Kallux was inside a nearby garage dealing with his Kodiak.

The marketplace was as full and busy as the one that Will had met Eleena in just a few weeks prior, but this time every sudden movement or loud noise sent his eyes darting toward the location of the abnormality. It was unnerving to think that had the batarians been just a little faster both he and Shansa could have been killed before even leaving the Hyperion's hangar. He shook off the thought and refocused on the crowd. The closest stall to them was manned by a rather loud turian shouting to every passerby that they looked terrible and should invest in one of his "luxury" garments that Will could plainly see were covered in blemishes. He tried his best to block out the voice. As Eleena finished her current sweep of the balconies and walkways above them she glanced over to Will and gave him a nudge.

"Hey, there's a really great bar nearby we should stop by sometime." Eleena's eyes shifted back upward.

Will's expression narrowed slightly in confusion, but he continued his diligent watch. "We? We meaning...?"

"You know. Us, Shansa, Tul, Kallux. Whoever wants to come."

"Oh, right," Will responded. "I guess I owe everyone a few rounds. Assuming we survive the next few days, of course."

Eleena smirked. "I figured that part was implicit."

Will chuckled and took his eyes off the crowd for a moment to give her a sideways glance. "I haven't really thanked you properly for sticking with us." He grinned slightly and looked back out into the mass of people. "I mean, I know you're just here for the eighteen percent and everything, but it's still nice knowing you've got someone to watch your back."

The asari laughed at the eighteen percent remark. "I was mostly joking about that. You guys are alright. I'd say you're better than my last crew but that was such a fucking mess I don't know how you couldn't be."

"You really know how to lay down the sweet talk, you know?" Will's grin lingered.

Eleena shook her head with a small smile. "Does that much flirtation normally work?"

"Almost never," he replied with a chuckle. "But I'm sure it will someday."

Her amused look slowly faded as she finished her sweep once again. "You really think they'd try something in a busy market like this?"

"If you'd asked me before we left Omega the first time I'd probably say no, but I have a feeling they're getting more desperate." Will shrugged. "I mean, I still have no idea why they want this damned thing so badly, but so far they've been pretty upfront about the measures they'll go to in order to get it."

"True enough," Eleena replied.

A few meters down from where they stood a door slid apart and Kallux stepped out into the street shaking his head in frustration. Will caught a glimpse of him in the corner of his eye and waved him over. The krogan marched to them and leaned up against the wall beside Will with his arms crossed.

"It'll be three to five days," Kallux began without a greeting. "No way to get it done quicker."

Will let out a sigh. "Fantastic. Looks like we're doing this without the shuttle. Let's get back to the ship and see what Tul and Shansa have dug up."

Eleena and Kallux nodded as Will stood up from the wall and walked toward the flowing crowd.

"What exactly are they looking for?" Eleena hurried up to Will's left side as she spoke with Kallux coming up to flank him on the right. "You got a plan?"

"I might." Will teased. "I've got Tul looking for records of settlements on Logasiri and Shansa digging up normal trade routes and routine shipments to the planet."

After pushing through the sea of shoppers Will turned and led the group down a side street that branched away from the market and towards an adjacent and less busy avenue. After walking only a few meters down the hall the leader of a small pack of rather grungy looking vorcha that were lounging at the side of the alley gave them a growl. Kallux clenched his fists and stared down the vorcha as they passed by with a reciprocating snarl. The vorcha quickly averted his eyes and hunched back down into his pack.

"And what exactly are we planning on doing with this information?" Kallux continued to hold is eye on the cluster of vorcha as he spoke.

"Well I did a little research yesterday and nearly every settlement on Logasiri is a palladium mine." Will turned and led the group onto the street that would take them to the Hyperion's berth. "If these guys have a base of operations there then I'd bet good credits that they receive shipments from far different suppliers than the mining facilities."

Eleena nodded and glanced to Will. "So if Shansa gets her hands on these shipping manifests we can narrow down our search to places that are stockpiling guns."

"Not just guns," Kallux interjected. "Anything that wouldn't normally belong in a harsh environment mining colony."

"Exactly," Will replied. "They're after an artifact, right? They could be getting shipments from a lab equipment manufacturer."

"Well damn, it's almost like we know what we're doing now," Eleena joked with a confident smirk.

Despite the jesting manner in which Eleena had delivered the comment it made Will feel infinitely better than he had at any point up until then. He glanced to Kallux who seemed to be content with the course of action before looking straight ahead and continuing the march onward. The fact that the krogan did not object was a good thing as well. Will smiled as he and his two companions approached the docking bay where the Hyperion could be seen through the large viewports resting idly. Will noted with satisfaction that the massive cargo loading armature that they had used to offload Kallux's shuttle had been retracted. They stopped at the security door as it scanned for the ID of the human, asari and krogan before the heavy door blinked green and parted to allow them access to the small hallway connecting the ship's airlock to the station.

"So you two actually think this will work?" Will gave a quick look to each side as he stopped and his omnitool transmitted the security code to open the Hyperion's outer hatch.

"Sure. Why the hell not?" Kallux replied with a grin.

"It's a better plan than just waiting for them to come to us," Eleena added as they stepped into the decontamination chamber.

The door behind them shut and Will engaged the boarding sequence. "Good. Now let's hope we have the information we need."

As the inner hatch opened Will, Eleena and Kallux stepped in and turned down the hall to the crew's quarters where Shansa and Tul sat at the dining table working diligently on their datapads. Eleena crossed the room to the kitchenette and pulled a mug from the cabinet to fill with water as Kallux crossed his arms and leaned against the bulkhead of the doorway to the hall. Will stepped up behind Shansa and looked down to her tablet and then over to Tul's.

"What've we got?"

Tul'Sorrin leaned back in his seat. "I've got a list of all the known mining operations on Logasiri."

Will nodded. "Good." He glanced to Shansa and raised a brow. "Shansa?"

She let out a sigh looked up from her tablet. "The shipping records are pretty tight for a backwater mining planet." Her lips curled into a smile. "And the turian in charge the planet's traffic reports were quite happy to hand them over for only a few thousand credits. I've got data on tons of incoming and outgoing cargo vessels."

Eleena stepped up behind Shansa and took a sip from her glass. "Nice work. So how do we narrow things down?"

"Unfortunately none of Shansa's data indicates any facilities receiving unusual supplies," Tul stated. "However, there are five or six settlements that do not disclose the contents of their incoming shipments."

"So we have to check all six?" Will looked down to Tul and tried to hide his reluctance.

Tul shook his head. "Actually, that won't be necessary. While looking over the data I decided to take a look at export records. Almost every facility has extensive records of their palladium exports. Every facility but one."

Kallux chuckled and shook his head from the doorway. "And I always thought salarians were the clever ones."

"Sneaky? Maybe. Clever? Not compared to a quarian." Tul reached forward and slid his holopad over to his side where Will stood and tapped the screen. "Those are the coordinates. That's where we'll find them."

Will's eyes shifted from the screen of the holopad to Tul and then to Shansa. "You sure?"

Shansa gave Tul a glance to which the quarian nodded confidently. She leaned back in her chair and looked up to Will. "Positive."

Will could feel the energy in the room as he looked around to his comrades. It was obvious that they all felt it too. For the first time they had a target and were ready to take matters into their own hands. He looked to Shansa and smiled.

"Well helmsman, let's set a course for Logasiri."

The bridge of the Sha'Nash was dim and deathly quiet as Narek paced back and forth slowly before his command console. The bridge of his batarian designed corvette was centered around the raised platform that he stood upon to perform his duties as commander of the vessel. His watchful eyes drifted around the room to see the four other members of the bridge crew all seated at their posts in front of and beside him working in silence. The ship was currently lingering at the edge of Omega's asteroid belt while they waited for their scout's report. Narek's contacts in Omega control had already made him well aware of the fact that the Hyperion had not only docked, but had also already left and was making its way out of the asteroid field. His ship was fast enough to intercept the Hyperion long before they reached the mass relay and he was still thinking rationally enough not to risk an assault on the cargo ship while it was still near the station.

"Sir, incoming feed from one of the scouts," his comm officer reported.

Narek glanced down to his control panel and tapped a glowing green button. "This is Commander Narek. Go ahead."

"The ship has exited the asteroid belt and has set a course. It looks like they're preparing to enter FTL."

Narek took in a deep, slow breath and nodded to himself. "Transmit the flight path."

After a few second the navigation display blinked to life and grew into a plane showing the course that the Hyperion was currently traveling. Narek narrowed his eyes and looked over the display before shaking his head. They weren't headed for the mass relay.

"Where are you headed," he muttered under his breath.

Narek expanded the navigation report to see that the projected path of the ship would be taking the Hyperion out of the Sahrabarik System and toward Batalla.

"Logasiri..." His lips curled into a wicked grin.

The navigation officer turned to look up toward Narek. "Sir, shall I plot an interception?"

Narek closed the nav display and shook his head. "No. Get us on a parallel flight path and take us Logasiri." He stepped down from the command platform and walked into the hallway leading to his quarters. "This time they've bitten off more than they can chew."

Will sat on the edge of his bunk with his pistol in hand and the barrel pointed toward the floor. He raised the weapon and closed one eye with the other focused down the sights. Satisfied with the alignment he lowered the weapon and opened the small slider on the side to access the heat-sink. Will stared into the small cavity on the side of his Carnifex and let out a deep breath; he hadn't felt this mentally exhausted in years. Will closed his eyes and shook his head slowly in an attempt to build just a tiniest bit of energy. His eyes opened and refocused as he reached into the gun and popped the heat-sink out and into his fingers.

"Looks like we had the same idea."

He glanced up to see Tul walking through the door. "Just want to be on the safe side."

"Think we'll find them on Logasiri?" Tul pulled his pistol from his belt as he approached the table attached to the wall across the room.

Will shrugged as his eyes dropped from the quarian back down to his hands. "I hope we do."

"Good. Because I believe we will." Tul lowered himself into a chair and placed his pistol on the table. "You seemed rather put off by the recent series of events when we met. Something change?"

Will rotated the heat-sink in his fingers before sliding it back into place in his pistol. "Yeah. I think we might actually have a shot at getting some answers."

The quarian spun the pistol on its side so that it was facing him properly before disassembling the weapon into its major components with surprising efficiency. He picked up the first of the separated pieces and inspected it closely.

"I think we all want answers. Which questions are you hoping to find them for?"

Will closed up the small hatch on his Carnifex and stood up as he slid it into the holster on his belt. "What that orb in the cargo bay is, why they want it so badly and whether or not there's a way for us to settle things without more people getting killed."

Tul nodded as he listened and moved on to the second component of his pistol. "Good questions. I would have said the same thing."

The human looked to Tul'Sorrin as he meticulously handled and examined the disassembled M-3 on the table. Will crossed the room and sat in the chair opposite from him while Tul continued his maintenance.

"Mind if I ask you a question, Tul?" Will's eyes were focused on the quarian's dexterous fingers as he worked.

Tul remained silent for a moment until he had finished with his current inspection. "Ask away," he replied as he moved on to the next piece.

Will swallowed hard and drew a slight breath as he search for the proper words. "You've lived on ships for most of your life, right?"

The quarian glanced up and shrugged in consideration. "Yes. I'm not sure how much you know about quarians, but I hope that wasn't your only question."

Will chuckled lightly. "You've probably known your fair share of captains then."

Tul nodded and looked back down to the final piece of his weapon. "I've served under a few commands, yes."

"Am I doing this right?" Will asked bluntly. "Because I've gotta be honest... up until two weeks ago my leadership skills had rarely seen the light of day."

"If that's true," Tul started, "then you're a fairly natural leader."

"Am I?" Will narrowed his eyes slightly. "I still don't feel like I've done much."

The quarian nodded in satisfaction with the inspection of his pistol's components and began reassembling the weapon as he replied. "I haven't known you for very long. Keelah, if we had met under different circumstances I'd barely be able to call you an acquaintence. But so far you've been a solid leader. You seem to have a plan in mind at all times, which is good, and you're respectful to those who are following your lead."

Will smiled and shook his head. "Yeah, but you've got a pretty limited history to judge me on."

Tul slid the last piece into place. "I have a feeling we'll know for certain once we find the ones who can answer your questions. And don't be too concerned... you've only got all of our lives in your hands."

"No pressure," Will muttered. "I think I'm going to grab some sleep."

Tul stood from his seat and holstered his pistol. "Good idea. We've probably got another six hours before we enter the Batalla System."

Will looked up to the quarian and smiled appreciatively. "Thanks, Tul."

"Anytime, Captain."