Helloooo! I'M STILL ALIVE! Yeah, it's been a while. A month and a half if I'm correct. Doesn't matter. Anyway, I'm back with a new chapter! It's been a very busy time for me. I'm still jobless, which SUCKS. I advanced to my second year of uni (this time all the essays TRIPLED in difficulty, which SUCKS) and... I don't know what else. I'm still single? Meh, not important. Anyway, I've been super-busy hopping from job to job and only finding shit, which makes me already regretting quitting the last job. It might've been shitty, but at least the paid, unlike some other places I've tried. In one place they asked me to work several days for FREE and all the money I earned went to the vice-director's pocket. How awful is that? I quit that job the next day. Fuck them. I don't do free.
Anyway, it took me ages to finish this. It was harder than I expected it to be. And instead of reading a certain story like I promised I would (Sorry man, will do it after I post this! :D), I've instead been writing this. Even then... I actually decided to cut the chapter in half because it was getting so long and I was just eager to post SOMETHING and because I encountered a small block that would've slowed me down even further. So here you go! Another rather long chapter. I don't why it is so, but I think that original content makes me a better writer. Look at how long the last 2 or 3 chapters were.
Anyway, for those who read these things, I won't delay you further! Enjoy the brand new chapter!
P.S: TITANFALL IS EFFIN' AWESOME! Yeah, it's part of the reason it took me so long to write this. Had to take breaks for so Titanfallin'. So if some of my fans have the game and are willing to team up for some top notch pro piloting, PM me or something and we could do something awesome like creating an 8-men team to kick ass in the campaign or regular multiplayer. Admit it, you want to do it too!
"For fuck's sake! Would you stop whining?" I say heatedly to Jorrun, who is sitting next to me. I would've yelled this, but we're not the only people in the shuttle and I really don't want to bother them too much. They look a bit suspicious. Not that we don't look suspicious ourselves but at least we're presentable. These guys are just shady, though considering our destination it just might be a requirement.
"I'm not whining," the turian replies evenly, trying to hide – and failing – the fact that he's offended by what I said.
"You are whining. You didn't shut up since we left the Citadel," Johnson piped in, supporting my side of the argument.
Oh and what a ride that was. Since there are simply no shuttles to Omega from the Citadel, we had to take a ride to Illium and then take a shuttle to Omega from there. And Jorrun was whining all the way. Every single moment of the ride. I didn't even know he had such a side to him!
"I'm sorry, but were you forced to come to this stupid mission?" he snaps at Johnson.
"You were not forced," I interject with a roll of my eyes before Joe would start a new tirade again. "I just asked you to come and you fucking agreed," and appealed to his ego a lot, saying that we couldn't do this without him and so on until he reluctantly agreed. "It's a bit late to have second thoughts, don't you think?"
"These are not second thoughts. I was against this whole plan from the beginning! Spirits, my life was perfect! I have a well-paying job, no one is shooting me on a daily basis and I don't have to watch out for C-Sec every time I leave my home... and then you come along and ruin everything by dragging me into this mess and I simply have to come along with you because you idiots will get yourselves killed without a responsible adult watching you over."
Tilben sniffed loudly, a small frown on his face. "I'm offended" he says, glancing at us. "Nothing wrong in helping a comrade," he remarks coolly, as if that settled everything.
"And what you said is total bullshit," Johnson adds with a smug look and an accusing point of a finger in Joe's direction, which makes the turian look at him oddly. "We've known eachother for years now. You grew up around soldiers and combat, you're a soldier yourself. Sitting around all day doing paperwork is killing ya with boredom," he explains with a small grin. "Don't deny that you've been wanting to get out more and do fun stuff."
Jorrun stares at the man for a long moment before sighing in defeat. "Fine. It is boring from time to time," he allows, refusing to look at Johnson, who is smirking in triumph. "but why Omega of all places?" he then adds, back to the tone of voice I now associate with his whining.
"What's your deal with Omega?" I ask. It's not a perfect place, hell, far from it but I thought that someone who had been in the organized crime business for so long wouldn't be that unnerved by such a place.
"Have you actually been there?" he asks me incredulously, as if not having anything against Omega is wrong.
"Not in person, no," I reply, mentally wincing at the small slip. Thankfully, they don't notice or care about it. "It's a shithole, that's what everyone says."
"It's a lawless shithole," he corrects me. "Organized crime on the Citadel is exactly that. Organized. You might not know, but pretty much every single criminal activity on the Citadel is linked in one way or another to one of the organizations, whether they know about it or not. There are certain rules, laws if you will, that everyone follows no matter what. On Omega? It's spirit-damned chaos. All the big players might say that they have things under control but that's bullshit. The Blood Pack can't care any less, the Blue Suns and Eclipse don't care as long as it doesn't affect their business and Aria, despite having a lot of influence doesn't care as long as it doesn't directly affect her business. That's the only rules that you can find on Omega. Don't mess with the Big Four and you can do whatever you want. Stab people for ten credits, murder people for less and steal all you want, just as long as it doesn't affect the Big Four."
Wow, that's a lecture. "Yeah, yeah. I know it all. Don't fuck with Aria and so on. But you didn't answer. What's your deal with Omega?"
"I've been there. Worked there too. Didn't like it," he explains shortly and then grimaces. "And I might've pissed off the Blood Pack a bit too much, if you ask me."
Oh? Now that is a juicy detail on the mysterious past of my turian friend! He never talks about himself. Though I'm not sure if I have any right getting angry about it considering that I never talk about myself either. It's a sort of unspoken rule between the four of us. You don't ask about eachother's pasts unless they want to tell it. "Is that so? What did you do?" I ask with a small, interested smile.
He looks at me with a small grimace, probably debating with himself whether he should tell me or not. "Err... I might have killed one of their leaders and about fifty of their members, but if anyone asks, I'll deny everything and say it's just rumors," he elaborates curtly, letting me know that I won't be getting anything more from him on this topic.
Whoa! Now that's some badassitude right there. Vorcha in the games are quite feeble so it shouldn't be that difficult to kill fifty of them, but how many of them were krogan? Considering this is not the game and there aren't silly combat mechanics involved, it's even more impressive.
Johnson leans in towards me and whispers conspiratorially, though loud enough so Jorrun could hear. "Don't be so impressed. He just used a shitload of landmines and hauled ass from there."
I laugh at that, which makes Joe glare at me and Johnson. "Alright. Shut up now. We still have a couple of hours before we reach Omega and I want to get at least some sleep today," he says with with that he pointedly turns himself in his seat so his back would be turned to us and attempts to make himself at least somewhat comfortable.
"That's just childish," I chide him, thoroughly amused by the behavior. "At least we won't have to hear your whining now, right?" I say to my other two companions, who lightly laugh at that, though in the case of Tilben, smile.
"Shut. Up," Jorrun growls with irritation, which probably dooms him for a couple of hours of trying, and failing, to get some sleep.
"I still think it's a bad idea," Jorrun remarks. Again.
"What else do you want us to do? It's not like we know where to start," I counter as I discreetly give the elcor bouncer 500 credits and enter Afterlife without any fuss. "If anyone would know anything, it's Aria."
We left Tilben and Johnson back in the shitty hotel room we rented – as someone who lives in a hotel I believe I'm qualified enough to say whether a hotel room is shitty or not – to prepare our gear while we went to solve our main issue: where Eva is.
We took only our handguns with us, since we didn't want to attract any kind of attention by going to Afterlife in full gear of armor and weapons. That would just send a wrong message. The plan is to ask Aria to tell us where they took Eva. If what everyone tells me is true, the she knows about everything that's going on here, so she would be able to give us a direction.
Now, there was one problem with that. Why should she? Thankfully, we solved that question back on the Citadel. Despite our... less than friendly terms, Ed reluctantly agreed to help us with that issue by throwing a credit chit with 100 thousand credits on it into my face for rescue-mission expanses. He was quite rude about it, but I can't really blame him for that. Either way, I have money to pay Aria for information and if there's anything left, even if we already have all that we need, we can stock up on extra gear.
Still, I'm essentially meeting royalty, figuratively speaking, so we at least have to look presentable. Which is why I'm wearing my sunglasses again – which I'm already regretting with how actually dark it is right now – and my long coat, which is cleaned of all my blood and the bullet holes are somewhat unnoticeable. They're just so small and I don't have time to fix them. Also, considering how some people were dressed on the way here, I'd say that a few tiny and barely noticeable bullet holes is okay.
We walk into the main room of Afterlife and... damn, it looks awesome! Same shitty music and lighting but... the place is just brimming with atmosphere! Dancers up on the elevated platform, lots of patrons standing by the rails watching them, some of them dancing on the designated dance floors, many more sitting on tables, drinking and chatting idly. The combination of these factors just created this 'bustling club' atmosphere that the Den never quite managed to reach. The music still sucks though.
I gesture Jorrun to follow me and we walk around the dancer's platform and move to where I remember Aria's balcony is. Her two bodyguards are there... Anto and... Grizz, I think. Not quite sure about it. I just might be right though, so far my memory never failed me when it came to relatively useless and bland information.
Alright Alex, you can do this. This might not be some self-absorbed rich brat, but you can still sell yourself as a professional. I have to show that I mean business and should be taken at least somewhat seriously. I don't want her to just brush me off since I'm essentially no one here. I approach the turian, named Anto I think. "Hey, I need to see Aria," I say, quick and to the point.
He just stands there, eyeballing me for a several seconds before he responds. "Is that so? What for?"
"I've got a business proposition for her," I say, casually handing him a credit chit with another 500 credits. He takes it without wasting time. "that she'll be interested in."
He eyes the credit chit for a moment before pocketing it. "Thanks," he says with a small nod. "Aria's busy."
If it was possible, I think my jaw would've disconnected and dropped to the floor. What the fuck. It always works! And he just took my fucking money! "I really need to see her," I insist, no longer trying to look easygoing. I'm genuinely pissed.
"Yeah, you and half of this station. Like I said, she's busy. Now beat it before I make you," he snaps back, gesturing with his rifle. Well, he's an asshole. No doubt about it. I take a few steps back, glaring at him as I do before I turn around.
"Well, shit," I breathe out with disappointment, looking at Jorrun. "You could've said something, you know?"
"And ruin that hilarious show you put? No thanks," he replies with a small laugh.
"Dude, this is fucking important," I snap at him. "couldn't you channel your inner crime lord or something?"
"And do what?" he asks back, not reacting to my anger. "I'm no one important here, just like you. If we were on the Citadel, sure, but here?"
Ugh, despite how annoying that is, he's right. Still, help would've been nice. And since when is he letting me do all the talking anyway? Usually he's the one to do that. Anyway... new plan. I need to get Aria's attention. She's obviously sitting there on the balcony, I think I can even see her from here. But... how? Do I yell from the first floor? No, that would just make look stupid and ignored. I need to interest her somehow... hmm, she owns this club, so what is the best way to catch the attention of the owner?
The answer comes easily and it makes me cringe. "Joe, we're going to do something incredibly stupid," I say to him, looking at him with hope that he'll follow through with the plan.
He groans. "Please tell me it's not suicidal," he pleads. I think about it.
"I'm... not sure?" I finally say as I search the bar and see someone that might work. He's wearing blue armor, so he might be a member of the Suns. I'm biased like that after all my experience with them. "It's a fifty-fifty chance that it'll work... or we'll get kicked out. Worst case scenario, killed."
"Do I want to know?" he asks me with a grimace as we both take a seat, my seat being to the right of the Blue Sun member. My attention is caught by the small terminal to my right so I don't reply immediately. It's the basic terminal used to order drinks but there's an addition to it. Music selection? That's new. I investigate.
Huh, there's an enormous song selection here and a 'current playlist' tab. I can pick any song I want for just 50 credits. Wow, that's actually pretty neat and I think I'll use it for my plan. I quickly sift through the categories until I reach songs that are human-made – I'm only familiar with them – and pick a fitting song.
Then it gives me the dreadful message 'Your place in the queue: 28' and another option below it: 'Play now: 500 credits'.
Wow, that's actually quite profitable. We should definitely install such a thing on the Den. It would earn a fortune. I look around the club for a moment, spotting around two more people who look like they belong to the Blue Suns. They're the only ones who wear armor with that color here, but who knows how many here are without armor? I guess I'll just have to find out the hard way. I press the 'Play now' option and pay for it just as the bartender approaches us. "You got a favorite poison?" the turian asks us just as Prodigy's 'Smack My Bitch Up' starts playing. I hear a couple of disapproving yells at the song switch, though one loud and approving hoot makes me smile.
I sift through the drink menu until I stumble on one drink. I snicker at the name. "Give me an Omega Gut Punch," I say with all seriousness, which is quite difficult, to be honest.
The turian snorts in amusement as well. "You're talking about the drink, right?"
I can't help it and laugh at that. "Nope!" I say and with that I reach over to the guy sitting next to me and slam his head into the bar counter.
There's a moment of silence where no one says anything and just stares at me with hanging jaws. The guy groans in pain and I slam his head into the counter again and this time he simply slides down to the floor. I glance back to see six guys stand up abruptly, two of them wearing Blue Suns colors. "You son of a bitch," Jorrun deadpans, realizing what my plan is. I shrug at him.
The plan is rather simple. If there's anything that catches the attention of the club owner, it's a freaking brawl in his club. In this case it's even better, since it's a brawl right under the owner's freaking balcony. There's absolutely no way that she won't see this. The only downside is that she just might throw us out... or outright kill us for making a mess here. It's sort of disrespectful after all. Let's hope she won't
I grab the shot glass the guy next to me was drinking and down it in one go, grimacing at the bitterness of it before putting it back down. After that, I turn around to face the guys who are quickly approaching me.
"I'm so going to kill you later for this..." Jorrun angrily growls at me.
"Hey, don't you think it's nostalgic? How we used to beat up drunk people and so on?" I defend myself while taking off my sunglasses and putting them in one of the coat's inner pockets. We both were bouncers at some point after all. Then again, these guys don't look that drunk to me.
"Still going to kill you..." he ignores my reminiscing.
"Hey! What the fuck was that?" The lead guy, a young and bald man yells at me as he approaches me. From the way his arms reach towards me, I can tell that he's going to grab me by the front of my coat.
Yeah. Right. I punch him in the face with a right hook. My fist slams solidly into his jaw and sends him spinning away from me, though not enough to actually drop him since he regains balance after a couple of stumbling steps. I'm actually surprised that I even landed that punch. I expected him to dodge, block or at least try to. Not that I'm complaining.
He regains his balance and charges me with a snarl with two of his buddies backing him up while the other three gang up on Jorrun, who took a defensive stand. So that's three for each of us. Huh... maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all...
The apparent leader of my group, the guy I already punched, throws a straight punch at me, but I weave to the right and duck under it, throwing my own punch into his unprotected stomach. The punch drives the air out of him and leaves him unable to defend himself for a couple of seconds. I use the opportunity and uppercut him in the jaw, making his head snap back and then shove him at one of his buddies, who catches him, which leaves him too preoccupied to help the third guy, keeping it a one-on-one fight.
Unfortunately, the third guy opts to tackle me instead of trading blows. He's a bit bigger than me and definitely weighs more so his tackle nearly knocks me off my feet. My back is slammed against the bar counter, which is fucking painful, and then proceeds to punch me in the ribs. I flinch from the first punch and then the second one, but I manage to retaliate by the third one, sending my own punch into his face and then grabbing one of the glasses that were left on the counter and smashing it on his head.
Surprisingly, it doesn't shatter, instead colliding with his head with a dull and painful-sounding thunk.
I kick him off me, making him stumble a few steps back and then toss the glass into his face before I shoulder tackle him in the chest, which actually does make him fall. Then a punch strikes me on the side of my head but I manage to somewhat move with the momentum of the hit and spin around to look at the attacker. It's the first guy again. He launcher a series of wild punches but I manage to block all of them with my arms or shoulder until one of his punches left him a bit too open which gave me a good opening to counter attack. I punch him in the nose, causing him to flinch and then finish it with a good kick in the groin. I was actually aiming for his balls, but it's good enough for me. He folds from the kick and I finish him off with a knee to the face.
I barely manage to see a punch from the corner of my eye but I manage to duck and quickly counterattack with a swift punch to the gut...
...and release a pained yelp when my fist collides with solid armor.
Goddamn! I glance up at his face – the bastard has a smug look on him – and quickly redirect a second punch with a slap to the fist and counter with my own punch. Sadly, this guy actually knows what he's doing and he moves his head out of the way, though not entirely. I still nick him on the cheekbone, but it's not really damaging or all that painful. I push him away to make some distance between us and take a few steps back to take stock of the situation.
Somehow the other two are still not out of the fight, though one of them is bleeding from his nose and holds his groin with one arm. This guy has armor, so that's an immediate advantage. The only places I can attack are the areas between the armor plates and his face, which is not that good if I only use punches. There's also the small fact that the armor – the hardsuit – does enhance his strength and speed somewhat, which would make his blows a bit more painful for me. And it's still three on one... well, two and a half on one. That guy looks like one good punch would be enough to finish him off. Either way it's time to even the odds.
I reach for my belt, where a small stick-like item is strapped, and grab it with an evil grin. With a whipping motion, the electric baton I policed from one of the guys I killed unfolds with an ominous shower of sparks. I give it a small spin, still grinning like an idiot.
The guy in the armor is no longer smiling.
This of course gives one of my opponents the incentive to take out a knife. Oh well, it's not a gun, so it's manageable. It's almost an unspoken law in clubs. If you fight, you do it with your fists. If you take out a gun, that's it. You're done. You take out a firearm, you're free food for the bouncers. I think they're legally allowed to kill you, or at least with just a small fine for the establishment, since they are essentially protecting the patrons. This is Omega and I'm pretty sure no one will even have the stupid idea of fining the goddamn Queen of Omega in the first place, so I'm certain the two bodyguards can do whatever the fuck they want. Sure, my baton – though from what I learned it's actually a repurposed slaver cattle-prod, rather popular among the more brutal and bloodthirsty slavers – is a weapon, but I think it's not dangerous enough for them to just shoot me.
You know, it's rather smart that in the future, all the furniture is bolted to the floor. Not a lot of things to use as a weapon here.
They come at me all at the same time, though the injured guy is lagging behind. The guy in armor, obviously the smarter one, stays behind the guy with the knife. I'm not that worried honestly, well, I am but I'm not panicking about it. I got the longer reach with my baton, which is still sparking awesomely with electric charges, so I'll manage to hit him anyway before he could stab me. The important thing is where I hit him.
The one with the knife lunges forward with the intent to stab me but I hop back and swing the baton. He immediately tries to retreat but the baton enhances my reach so it doesn't save him from the baton when it hit him on the forearm. He yelps in pain and drops the knife while I go low, reversing my swing and slam the very tip of the metal baton into his knee. This time he yells in pain and drops to one knee, looking up at me with fear. With good reasons too! I reverse the swing again and hit him on the head.
He drops down like a sack of potatoes.
The rest of the pause at that, looking wearily at my weapon. Oh yeah. I can totally understand them. I love this thing! For one, it's a metal stick you hit people with. It fucking hurts. Secondly, it shocks you too and I even tested it on myself – another point to my inner argument that I've finally went insane at some point. I actually poked myself in the leg with a stun baton – to see how it worked. It hurts. A lot. And then my leg went numb for a couple of minutes, which made walking difficult. I don't know what kind of battery is in this thing, but the energizer bunny silently cries in a corner compared to it. This thing is basically the most awesome thing I've encountered so far. Blunt damage, and it shocks you so hard you won't be able to do anything. Someone is trying to punch me? Well, good luck with that when you have a fractured wrist and your whole arm is spazzing the fuck out on you.
Still, it seems like the other two guys discard common sense and attack me anyway. I attack the armor-guy first but he steps back at the last second and I miss his head just barely. I jump back to create some distance between us just as the second one tries to tackle me. As if the baton is a sword, I move to the side and stab him in the shoulder. There's a loud crackle and a bright spark the moment the baton makes contact with him and like a freight truck that had one of it's front tires blown out veers to the side, stumbles and slams into bar counter head first, knocking himself out.
Unfortunately, at this moment armor-guy jumps me, grabs the arm the holds the baton and pushes me back to the bar counter. The moment my back hits the counter – again – he uses his free arm to punch me in the face while his other arm tries to wrench the baton from me. The fist hits me in the jaw and I can taste blood in my mouth. Probably cut my inner cheek on my teeth or something. He pulls his arm back for another punch but this time I angle my head down, so his fist hits me on top of the forehead this time, which should in theory hurt him more than me. Sadly, it's only a theory and it still hurts when your head gets punched. He rears his arm back once more and out of nowhere someone punches him right in the face, throwing him off of me.
A newcomer comes into my line of sight, slamming a vicious haymaker into armor-guy's face with enough force to make him fall to the floor. I openly gape at the newcomer. Oh. My. God. No fucking way. There's just no way that's him. "What the fuck?" I ask loudly, unsure if I'm questioning his presence of why he interfered.
"It's a goddamn bar fight!" replies Zaeed Massani – as if that explains everything – as he calmly kicks armor-guy in the face when he tries to get up. Oh my god! That voice! And he's helping me! Holy shit, I'm freaking out here! It's Zaeed fucking Massani! I'm unable to keep the grin off my face, which gets Zaeed to give me an odd look.
"Heads up!" I hear a cry from Jorrun and quickly turn to look. Joe apparently took care of his trio by himself, which doesn't surprise me since he's a badass like that, and he was currently finishing off the last one, a rather dazed looking guy who he was holding by the back of the neck. "Catch!" he yells and shove the guy in my direction.
Holy crap, we're tag teaming! I quickly switch the baton to my left hand and run towards the last guy, who is moving towards me in a stumbling run. Hell yeah, let's do this! Just before I reach him I pull back my right arm and get ready for impact. With the momentum we both have, the moment my fist collides with his face it's enough to send his head reeling back, but his legs kept going so the blow sends him into a sort of uncompleted backflip. For a split moment he hangs in the air completely upside down until gravity remembers to do it's job and he painfully drops down on his head. He doesn't get up after that.
I note that some of the people who were watching let out a loud cheering cry at my victory. Which is, frankly speaking, quite awesome.
"Hell yeah! High five!" I cheer, hiding the wince from my aching hand. Punching heads fucking hurts sometimes. Jorrun glances at my upraised hand, rolls his eyes and proceeds to ignore me. I'm not sure if I actually care at this point. Joe was never one for high-fives. And my hand hurts, so that high-fives would've been pretty bad for me anyway. I fold my baton and place it back to it's place. God, I love this thing...
And with that, I think all our adversaries are down. I look around to make sure but the sound of an unfolding weapon catches our attention just as I reach for my own gun. By the time I completely turn around I already have my pistol up – I can see in my peripheral vision that both Zaeed and Jorrun do the same – and aimed at the source of the noise. It's actually the first guy I punched, the front of his mouth completely covered in blood from his nose. I'm ready to start moving quickly to dodge shots but what I see simply stops me in my tracks, because it's quite the stupidest thing I've seen in a while. I'm not the only one it seems. Zaeed actually lowers his own pistol and folds it back before putting it away, saying something that sounds exactly like "Goddamned idiots..."
When the guy took out his weapon he apparently didn't expect all of us to do the same – I blame brain damage from all the blows to the head he took – so he did what he thought was a good idea. He grabbed the closest person to use as a bargaining chip, or a human shield... or whatever. Unfortunately, the person he picked was quite possibly the most awful choice anyone could ever make.
Other than the general 'Don't take out your firearm' rules in most clubs, there's another rule, no, law that is universal to all clubs in this galaxy. Unless you are specifically told that you're allowed to, you don't fucking touch the dancers. Simple as that. And for good reasons. Guess who this guy took as hostage.
So right now both Jorrun and I had our weapons trained on him and now both of Aria's bodyguards join in, only they have automatic weapons. Apparently the poor fella realized what he did with how panicked he appears to be right now. "Stay back!" he yells at us, attempting to drag the dancer away, who doesn't look that pleased. Actually, she doesn't look all that impressed by it either. If anything, I'd say she looks... disappointed.
Now, there's some actual good reason why you just don't touch the dancer without asking first – even then the answer would be 'no' most of the time – and not because then the bouncers will kick your ass. Most of the time the bouncers actually won't kick your ass. The reason for this is because most of the time, the dancer herself will usually want a piece of you first. Which is exactly what happens here.
The asari dancer flares her biotics in a moderate shockwave, not enough to damage anything but enough to throw the guy off of her. Before he could regain his balance, she spins around and tackles him to the ground, where she straddles him on the chest and gives him a single biotic punch to the face. There's a loud, meaty smack and a small splatter of blood from where her fist collides with his face – I think we all collectively wince at that – and with a disgusted grunt the dancer get up to her feet. One glance at the guy's face, which is caved in, tells me that he's dead.
"Wow. The girls on the Citadel aren't this... brutal," I remark to Joe as the dancer spits on the dead body and walks off with a huff. On the Citadel most girl will just kick your ass and throw you out, not outright kill you.
"Omega," is Joe's reply with a nonchalant shrug, as if that's all the answer I need. Actually, it really is. Omega is brutal like that.
Then I see that Anto, or Grizz... the turian bodyguard is approaching me. With his rifle pointed at me. Aw, shit. Please tell me something good. Please. He stops in front of me and gives me the turian equivalent of a sneer. "Aria wants to speak with you," he says to me in a manner than indicated he really didn't want to say it. He gives a quick glance at Jorrun. "Alone," he adds.
"Uh, stay here. Get a drink or something," I say to Joe, who gives me a bit of a worried glance.
"You sure?" he asks and I nod to him. "should I start another barfight?" he then asks in all seriousness. I'm pretty sure he's joking though. Doesn't stop the turian bodyguard from giving him a glare, which Joe expertly ignores.
With that he ushers me along to Aria's balcony. He doesn't say a thing to me, other than just telling me to 'keep moving' when we reach the stairs. Once I reach the top I finally get my first look at the Queen of Omega. She looks... the same, I guess. And bored out of her mind. Again, there's no graphic limitations here and she looks better than she looked in the game, but that's already a given by this point. That's as far as her looks go.
While she might look like she's incredibly bored on her incredibly comfortable-looking sofa, I can tell that she's at least interested in what I want for her, with the way her eyes trail my movements. I resist the urge to nervously look around in an attempt to spot any hidden bodyguards that might have their weapons aimed at me already. I need to look professional about this, to show that I'm not actually scared out of my mind right now.
She might look bored, but there's this presence around her. Not to mention her reputation. Her whole mannerism just screams 'You're here because I said so, not because you asked for it' and 'Just give me a reason to cut off your head'. She might do just that, simply because she wants to. She's fucking Aria, and on Omega you don't fuck with her... which I technically just did. There's a good reason I'm rather scared right now.
One of her batarian bodyguards comes over to me and moves his omni-tool over my body, obviously scanning me for hidden weapons or... whatever else he might be scanning me for. I move my coat a bit to expose my handgun. A show of goodwill will go a long way. At least that was what I've been told.
The batarian is apparently satisfied and he gives Aria a quick nod and I'm allowed to move closer. I stop just a couple of meters in front of her. I don't take a seat. She didn't offer me one. "That was a bold move," she remarks conversationally, her eyes roaming on my body, taking in all the details, briefly pausing on my face, most likely the bruises there. I look like shit, I know. "Though it was rather... entertaining, I'd much rather it not cost me paying customers," she continues in the same tone, but I can see the warning there. Don't do it again. She doesn't bother saying 'or else'. I give a small nod at that, to let her know I understand. "Now, Grizz told me you wanted to speak with me."
Huh, no introductions or anything. I understand why she doesn't introduce herself – only a total idiot wouldn't know who she is – but it appears that I'm not interesting or important enough for her to even ask who I am? I'm slightly offended, but I'm not going to remark on it. "Yes. I need information and you're the only one who can help me with that."
"Is that so? What kind of information?" she asks, no longer appearing to be as bored as before. She still looks rather disinterested but at least she's willing to listen to what I'm asking for. She casually gestures at the sofa seat in front of her and I sit there.
Alright, let's start this with something easy. Let's start with... polite? "I'm-"
"I know who you are," she interrupts me, leaning back on her seat. "Alexander Engelstein. You worked for Fist on the Citadel until Urdnot Wrex took him out, then you worked with Commander Shepard against Saren and his geth, Now apparently you work as a high-profile bodyguard. You can skip the introductions."
I try to hide how surprised I really am, but I'm probably failing. We've been on Omega for just a bit over an hour, and she already knows this much about me. That's utterly unnerving. I try to ignore it. "About two days ago my client was kidnapped by a group that I suspect is related to the Blue Suns, lead by a batarian named Belren Jath'ron, who is supposed to be relatively known in these parts. Well armed, a full squad of them. No insignias though, not that I expected any give how public their job was. Their destination was Omega and they should've arrived just about a day sooner than we did. I have no idea where to start looking for them and you are my best bet," I say, deciding to be honest about it. No point in lying about anything anyway. As I've said, they're only a day ahead of us so I suspect Aria should have some information about any armed groups that arrived in the past day. It's a shame that there are no shuttle that go directly to Omega. Unlike the kidnappers, we had to take a huge detour, which cost us a day, to get here. Hm, I need a ship. That would make everything so simple. "We're willing to pay for the information," I finish, slowly reaching – don't want to make any sudden movements – into my inner pockets to take our the credit chit and give it to her. She takes it and hands it to the batarian that checked me over. He then inspects it on his omni-tool, probably seeing just how much money I'm offering, and then hands it back with a small nod.
Huh, that's pretty neat. Communicating with nods like that. I'm honestly not sure how you can convey anything elaborate with a nod. Does he mean that I'm offering good money? That it's enough to pay for the information? What? Aria gives a small with her head and the batarian leaves.
"I've heard about it already. It's still on the news, especially you," she says, giving me another appraising look. "Nice work, though too reckless for my tastes," I bristle at that. Even Aria thinks I'm an idiot. Great. "So... Eva Fisher..." she trails off with a thoughtful expression.
"Yes, that's my client," I confirm. I patiently wait for her to say more... but she doesn't. She simply sits there, silent.
So we sit there for a long while. I have no idea what to say and instead wait for her to say something instead. Sadly, it doesn't seem to be in her plans. She just sits there, waits there for something and occasionally glances at me while looking thoughtful. I'm not sure how long it was, but by now I'm feeling incredibly awkward. If there's anything I hate, it's silence like this one, where two people just sit and say nothing. Then the batarian came back, which is what Aria was apparently waiting for. He hands her a datapad which she quickly reads before turning her attention to me.
"A day ago such a group arrived here, though they didn't dock in one of the public ports so we can't be fully sure of what they were transporting. They match the description, and the batarian you mentioned was with them," she says and hands me the datapad. I eagerly take it and look at what it offers.
There's a photo of a batarian there and I'm surprised that I can recognize the guy. I guess if you're angry enough, you can memorize any face. That's definitely him. I read the information beneath the photo. There isn't a lot, sadly enough, but it's still incredibly useful. Apparently, Jath'ron docked their ship in one of the private docks, which was apparently rented by some third civilian party. There's an address, a warehouse near the dock, which is apparently where they headed. Here's where the problem starts. That warehouse is guarded by the Blue Suns. Quite a lot of them. Estimated number is around twenty, but whoever made this report is unsure of the exact number, since they apparently switch posts every few hours. The Blue Suns apparently moved into the warehouse exactly two days ago, which falls in line with the mission of the kidnappers. It's possible that this warehouse is where they're holding Eva, or where the deal is going to happen.
"This is good information," I say and look up at Aria, just in time to see her toss the credit chit to me. I fumble slightly but manage to catch it without dropping it. I look at her in utter confusion. "What?"
"You can keep the money," she says casually. Holy shit, I just offered her a hundred thousand credits, and she just tosses them back at me. She sees my incredulous confusion and elaborates. "Though I won't mind if you bring back an autograph," she added with a small smirk. "I'm a fan," she adds with a shrug when my incredulous look increased in intensity.
I can only stare at her. Aria... is a fan. Of Eva. This is... this is... I don't know what this is. Wait, I actually do know what this is. The universe has finally decided to stop being neutral and now instead decided to just fuck with me. That must be it. "Alright..." I say at length, not really sure what else I can say to that. "Is there anything else?" There's no way she's doing this for free, simply no way.
"No, not at the moment. If anything new does come up, I'll contact you to let you know," she replies.
I ignore my thoughts on how she can even contact me in the first place and leave it at that. "In that case, thank you very much. I honestly didn't expect so much," I say earnestly, gesturing at the datapad. The fact that she didn't take the money goes without saying, no matter how suspicious it is. With that I stand up and pocket the datapad. For a moment I wonder if I should give a grateful bow for dramatic effect, or shake her hand but in the end I settle for the simple nod and smile combo and make my leave.
"Oh, before you go," she stops me. I turn around to look at her and I feel a chill go down my spine when I see the way she smiles at me. It has this unnerving 'I know something that you don't' vibe to it. "If you do rescue her alive and well... do tell her where you got the information from. That's all I ask for."
And with that she dismisses me. We stare at eachother for a long moment until I finally break eye-contact and leave. I'm no longer smiling.
So that's why she didn't take the money. Instead, I only need to tell the Fisher siblings exactly who gave me the information. That's my side of the payment. Pretty simple, but from some perspectives, totally worth it. For her at least. If there's one thing I learn from rich people is that money is sometimes not that important. For people who earn thousands by the hour money is simply a tool. Favors on the other hand... now favors was the real currency these people lived by. Snyder understood that well. Apparently, so does Aria.
By helping me save Eva without payment, she basically owes her now. It might be something nonsensical, or it might be something important. She's basically in Aria's debt now and I feel extremely stupid that it's because of me. The only saving grace is that the Fishers are not really that politically important, so Aria won't actually get anything important out of them. Maybe an invitation to a movie premier or something. Then again they do know some pretty important people. Who knows.
What worries me more is that I completely understood the second meaning of her request. It's my mess she's helping me solve. She's helping me above all else. Which means I owe her too. She can call in the favor whenever she wants and I'm not really in the position to refuse. Ugh, I totally walked into that one, didn't I?
What a dangerous woman.
I put all those thoughts to the back of my mind. I have a job to do now and I can worry about what kind of favors Aria might want from me later. I go down the stairs, completely ignore the displeased turian bodyguard – which I finally remember is named Grizz – and move towards the bar to break the news to Jorrun.
I find him at the bar, nursing something that looks like beer, just casually standing there, leaning on the bar-counter and looking thoughtful. Huh, they already cleaned the place. There's no trace of the body or the blood that was there when I left. "I'm back," I announce to him and take a spot beside him.
"How did it go?" he asks. "we're not going to get thrown out of an air-lock?"
"Nope. Not yet at least. Let's avoid starting barfights in this club for now," I reply jokingly. I hand him the datapad to let him see for himself.
He reads it quietly for a little while until he hands it back to me, left mandible twitching slightly to show his irritation. "It's good, but I honestly don't like the odds."
I frown at that too. "Yeah, they're not the best. But we've fought Blue Suns before and we're not too shabby ourselves. We kicked their asses each time in the past," I try to encourage him.
He scoffs at my attempt. "It's not that. It's different this time. This time we're on their turf. With this many people against us, they can easily just call for back up and with just the four of us? There's no way we can handle that."
I grimace at that. He's totally right. This is a rescue mission after all. Not only they can call for back up, they can just take Eva somewhere else while we're occupied with the twenty-something people that guard the place. Ugh, this is so frustrating! Just the four of us can't... huh. Unless I get more people. There's a thought.
I glance around for my target and spot him in one of the corner booths. Zaeed is sitting there, calmly sipping from his glass and looking at one of the dancers on the platform, a look of complete and utter boredom on his face.
Wow. That's freaking amazing. Only a real badass who saw everything there is can look at such scantly-clad women with a look of such boredom.
"Follow me," I say to Joe with a small grin and I lead the way towards the scarred mercenary. As we approach him he tears his eyes away from the dancers and look at us instead with a somewhat curious look. "You're Zaeed Massani," I say with a small grin. I can't help it! I'm just so excited. Not only he's a character from the game, but also he is a freaking legend in the mercenary circles.
"And you're the kid with the flashy stick," he shoots back. Okay, I'm slightly offended at being called a kid, but then again I am a kid to him. And he insulted my stun baton, which is offending me too. That flashy stick is freaking awesome! "What do you want?" he asks, leaning forward on the small table.
I take note that the way he sits, one arm on the table while the other is on his hip, in easy reach of his pistol. Huh, so he's ready to shoot us if I try anything. A bit paranoid, if you ask me. Then again, this is Omega. Well, luckily for us, I'm not going to try anything. "Just wanted to thank you for your help back there," I answer.
He snorts at that. "Think nothing it. They're just mercenary street punks. Someone else would've taken care of them sooner or later," he says with that awesome, accented, gruff voice of his.
"That's good. Now... I heard you got a beef with the Blue Suns," I remark, trying to sound casual.
His eyes narrow at me. "What's it to you?" he asks, his voice low and somewhat threatening.
"Whoa, I got nothing against that. You could say I have a grudge against them too!" I quickly supply before he starts shooting me. "I've just got a proposition for you. Mind if we sit?" I ask, gesturing at the empty seats of his booth.
He stares at me for a long moment, briefly glancing at Jorrun before nodding. "What's the offer?"
Hm, I guess I should start at the beginning. "I'm a bodyguard. A certain group pulled off a whole operation to kidnap her. We tracked them down to a warehouse on this station. This is where it gets interesting. The warehouse is guarded by the Blue Suns, so I figured you'd be interested..." I trail off, wanting to see if he's even interested in listening further. I know Zaeed is mostly a bounty hunter these days – a very good one at that – but he's known to take on some pretty impressive combat ops from time to time.
Zaeed hums in thought and rubs his chin. "Mission parameters? Give me more details."
Jorrun breaks into the conversation at this point. "Hostage rescue. It's a large warehouse, guarded by about twenty Blue Suns mercenaries, though estimations show that it's possible there's more of them. Exact number unknown. The main problem is that they might call for back up or simply move the target out of our reach," he explains quickly, falling into his military persona. I guess working with a professional brought that out of him.
"What's the size of our team?" he then asks and quickly brings us to a dead end.
Jorrun says nothing, but I do notice his almost-hidden grimace. I finally sigh. "Only four. With you it will be five."
Zaeed looks at us as if we're crazy. "Bunch of rookies. You want to assault an easily defensible location with just four people? That's practically a suicide mission."
I feel indignant at being called a rookie. "We're most definitely not rookies. We know what we're doing. We can take them on. Our main problem is numbers, which we're trying to solve now," I say. We're definitely not rookies and it's practically an insult to me. After Saren and all the shit we've been through I'd want to think of myself as someone at least somewhat experienced. And who said anything about assaulting the place? Maybe we can sneak in or something?
Zaeed looks thoughtful as he looks at us. "Fine. 500 grand. Half of it upfront and I'll join your mission."
I resist the urge to openly gape at him. Holy shit. We... don't have that kind of money. I should've known. Zaeed has a reputation, and reputation costs money. I'd guess he earns millions with how famous and reliable he is. He does have a reputation of getting the job done no matter what. Someone like him wouldn't cost less than what he's asking for. I can always ask Ed for more but... I somehow doubt he'd send me more and even if he did, it will take a time for the message to reach him, time we don't really have. I doubt Zaeed would want to wait. "We only have one-fifth of that sum," I say with a sigh. Damn, and I really wanted him on the team.
The bounty-hunter stares at us again. It's quite weird to look him in the eyes, with the whole discoloration and scars and everything. I don't want to be rude and stare too much. "Can't we come to an agreement?" Jorrun asks somewhat hopefully.
Zaeed rolls his eyes and sighs. "Don't look at me like that," he says to me, unimpressed, "you look like a goddamned kicked puppy," I scowl angrily at that. I totally do not look like a kicked puppy! "Alright. I've got a job here in three days and I've got nothing better to do in the meanwhile other than getting drunk. I'll give you a one-time discount since it's the Suns we're talking about. If we find anything worth selling in there, then I'm taking it. If you even think about double crossing me, I'll show you why my prices are above your pay-grade. How does that sound?"
I blink in surprise. He's... accepting it? Holy crap. "Err, you don't have to worry about that!" I quickly say. "we're not going to double-cross you or anything like that. You can take all the stuff you find too," I quickly add as well. "And it sounds perfect!"
"Then you got yourself a deal," he nods and offers me a hand, which I quickly shake. His strong grip nearly breaks a couple of my fingers but I think I returned it with adequate strength. I'm too excited to let the pain show anyway. By the Nine Hells and the 666 layers of the motherfucking Abyss. I hired Zaeed Massani. I hired Zaeed Massani. I... I just can't top that. I think I can't raise the levels of awesome any higher that that. I can't help but grin widely.
"Even though the odds definitely improved, I still think we need more than five people for this," Jorrun, ever the voice of reason – or perhaps he just hates it when I'm having fun – points out, essentially popping my bubble of joy.
"He's right," Zaeed offers his input.
I don't need Jorrun to tell me than we can't hire anyone else. All our funds went on Zaeed. I actually didn't even think about hiring any mercenaries for this. I'd rather work with someone I know who is reliable, rather than some random merc who I know nothing about. The only reason I even went with this idea is because it's Zaeed. Enough said. Of course, I always had an alternative, which I'm still going to pursue now. "I already have someone in mind, so don't worry about it. I'm just unsure of how many people he'll bring with him, that's it."
Jorrun looks at me oddly. "Since when do you know people on Omega?" he asks with a hint of suspicion. I brush the question off, pointedly ignoring it. He's not from Omega, so there's no point answering the question anyway. There's absolutely no way he won't team up with us. I get up from the seat and wordlessly gesture them to follow, turning on my omni-tool to write a message.
Time to visit an Archangel.
Aaaaand let's stop!
I originally planned the meeting with Garrus as well, but I decided to leave it for next chapter. Oh, and before you start wailing on me for mixing up Anto and Grizz... I didn't! I know very well who each of them are and how they are named. It's just that I actually did mix up their names by accident at one point until I checked it out a couple of days ago, and thought it will be amusing to do it in the story too.
So... yep! Aria and Zaeed. Two who cameos in one chapter... though it's not really a cameo. From this chapter it's fairly easy to tell that this won't be the last time Aria will show up in my story and Zaeed? Are you kidding me? He's one of the most goddamned awesome characters in the game, even with the relatively low character development they gave him compared to other characters. So him showing up again is a given. Not going to tell you when and how though.
So there you go. Another chapter done. Next chapter, as you might guess, will have the meeting with Garrus and then the rescue mission! It's going to be fun, that's for sure. Once again, I apologize in advance because I have no idea when it will be done. Life's a bitch at the moment and I'm trying my best to sort it out. Either way, thank you all for reading this story! Your support and reviews make me feel epically awesome! Keep 'em coming, haha! If you have anything to say, point out mistakes, tell me of your opinion or give constructive criticism feel free to do so! I gladly welcome all the feedback you give!
Until next time, Delvaro out!