The Red Moon Collection - 4 - Fragments and Ire

Chapter 11

Dela Tower Apartments, New Estrana, Illium

Will stared Ralliston down with bitter but relieved eyes. At least the turian was still alive. The fact that Ralliston seemed to be utterly distraught and confused by Will's presence gave him far too much guilty satisfaction. Will, Ralliston, Vayren, Kay and Fynnis all stared at one another quietly, the three latter shifting their eyes between the reuniting pair.

Approximately twenty seconds later, Ralliston finally spoke. "You think I'm gonna fall for that?"

He whipped his rifle to attention and held the sights on Will's chest.

"Are you really going to kill me?" Will asked spitefully. "Not content with just stabbing me in the back?"

The turian gripped his rifle tighter. "How do-"

"Because I'm William Hume!" He interrupted. "Now put the fucking gun down!"

Ralliston seemed to fumble his words. "How did... how long have you..." He shook his head and spoke softly as though he was forced to urge his own words out. "We thought you were dead."

"Funny how many people thought so," Will commented with a sigh. "And some people still do."

"You haven't told me how," Ralliston pleaded. "We searched for weeks!"

Will felt a tinge of guilt for his previous indignation. No matter how angry he was at Ralliston, he seemed to have been truly upset by Will's loss. He took a calming breath and recomposed himself before responding.

"I was only in the debris field for a few hours. I got picked up by a Blue Suns slaving ship and thrown into a labor camp."

The turian looked as though he was trying to come to terms with far more information than he could possibly handle at once. "And you escaped?"

"I was rescued," Will corrected.

Ralliston looked over Will's shoulder to where Vayren, Kay and Fynnis stood patiently watching the exchange. They met the turian's gaze for a moment before he looked back to Will.

"And who are they?"

"Two of them are the ones who saved me," Will answered. "The third is an old friend."

Ralliston looked to Will and tightened the grip on his rifle before taking a few steps closer, slowly enough that he appeared to be still exercising caution. The turian's eyes finally came to rest in line with Will's as he stared him down.

"We spent days looking for you. And a few more weeks afterward looking for a body," Ralliston muttered under his breath. "I can't just take it on your word that you're really you. Not when you show up out of nowhere, armed and with three strangers on your flank."

Will looked back to Kay, Vayren and Ralliston as they stood watching. He let out a sigh and shook his head.

"Give us a few minutes," he asked of them.

Kay narrowed her eyes as she continued to stare Ralliston down. "Are you sure?"

"He's not going to hurt me, if that's what you're implying," Will assured her.

She nodded reluctantly and waved for the others to follow her. Together the three of them stepped past Will and Ralliston and through the door to the hallway. Will waited for the door to close behind them before turning back to Ralliston.

"Am I supposed to convince you that I'm really me? What do you want me to say?" Will asked with a shrug. "Do you want me to recite some of the things you told me in confidence? Or maybe that I know how you tried and nearly succeeded in betraying us?"

The turian looked away shamefully and dropped his gun to his side. "That.. that isn't-"

"Isn't what?" Will immediately interrupted. "True? Because I know it is for a fact."

"That isn't who am anymore," Ralliston corrected him. "Or at least... I'm trying not to be." He looked back up, barely keeping Will's gaze. "I know that I didn't deserve your selflessness on the Citadel. You or Eleena's. You two could have died just trying to save me. Hell, with a hit like the one I took, I would've just assumed I was dead and gone."

Will set his jaw firmly. "I've had a lot of time to think over the past two years. Sometimes I think I made the wrong choice saving your life." He paused for a moment and took in a deep breath. "Then I remember I'm not the kind of bastard who sells out his friends and shipmates for a few credits."

Ralliston nodded in defeated agreement. "Apparently I am," he admitted. "But like I said, I don't want that anymore." He paused briefly. "I'm trying to make amends."

"Yeah, by helping out Kallux," Will snorted. "I can promise you that's not gonna earn any forgiveness from me."

Ralliston met Will's gaze with exasperated eyes.

"Then why are you here?" He asked weakly.

"I'm looking for the others," Will answered. "Shansa, Eleena, Tul, and T'lees. Kallux doesn't know where they are and you're the only other person who might."

The turian's eyes brightened slightly. "You need my help?"

"No, I need your information."

Ralliston thought in silence before nodding. "Then maybe we can help each other."

Will narrowed his eyes. "I'm pretty sure I don't owe you a damned thing," he snapped.

"I can't help you unless you help me first," Ralliston argued. "Now are you going to at least listen to my offer or not?"

Will shook his head and stepped back. "Fine."

The turian turned and set his rifle on the counter of his kitchenette. "Why don't we sit down. I need to rest for a damn second."

He nodded toward the small table at the edge of the living area. The turian dropped into one of the seats and placed a hand across his face as he drew in a deep breath. Will watched him closely as he took a few steps to follow him and sit in an unoccupied chair. In all honesty, Ralliston did seem different. The turian he remembered had been cocky and downright arrogant at times. Now, something was holding him down.

As Ralliston finished collecting himself he dropped his hand and looked over to Will. "I'm in a bad place here, Captain."

Will frowned. "It's not 'Captain' anymore."

The turian nodded and glanced down. "I guess not."

"So what's the offer?" Will asked reluctantly.

"I've been here for a little over a month," Ralliston began. "The entire time I've been working to infiltrate the Eclipse. I've made some good progress, too." He hesitated and closed his eyes. "But I was a little careless a few days ago while pulling some data from my base's network. They know someone is stealing information from them."

"So you need help stealing the rest of it?" Will guessed.

The turian shook his head. "No. No, I wish it were something as easy as that. They copied everyone's omnitool records a few hours ago so they could determine who the culprit was. They'll know it was me in a matter of days. Hours maybe."

Will crossed his arms. "Sounds like you need to get the hell out of here then. Looking for a ride?"

"I'm not leaving yet," Ralliston argued. "If I can recover my records or falsify them in some way I'll be fine. But I need help getting there."

"You want me to help you infiltrate an Eclipse base?" Will said with a groan.

"I can handle the hard stuff," Ralliston quickly assured him. "The hack shouldn't be... too difficult."

Will shook his head. "If we're doing this then Fynnis or Vayren will be handling the tech. I don't need you fucking up something they could do in five seconds." He rubbed his forehead absentmindedly. "But first you're going to tell me what the hell I get out of this."

Ralliston averted his eyes. "If you help me, I can help you find Shansa and Eleena."

"How?" Will asked firmly.

"I... I know the names they're going by," he said quietly. "And I know that they're here on Illium as we speak."

Will nearly lunged forward. "They're here?" He demanded. "Give me a reason why I shouldn't beat the hell out of you until you tell me everything you know!"

"Because you're a good person!" Ralliston argued in return. "I know they're okay and that they're not going anywhere so you don't have to worry about them slipping away from you. But in a few hours I may be very, very not okay. I need help, Cap-... er, Will."

For a moment, Will wanted nothing more than to push the table aside and grab Ralliston by the throat until the turian surrendered what he so desperately needed. But he wasn't going to do that. He wasn't going to reduce himself to a violent animal to get what he wanted.

"They're okay?" He finally asked.

Ralliston nodded. "Yes. The crew kept in touch for a short while after you 'died.' It was actually T'Lees that told me the names they've been going by."

Will sat back in his seat and crossed his arms. "Alright. I'm going to help you with this. But if I'm not talking to Shansa and Eleena face to face within a week-"

"You know I can't promise that," Ralliston interrupted. "But it sounds like I'm your only option at this point."

Will grunted and looked to the side. "For someone trying to be a better person, you sure are performing a lot of emotional manipulation."

"But I'm not leading you into an ambush," Ralliston reminded him.

"I'm not holding my breath," Will replied doubtfully.

The turian shrugged. "One step at a time, right?"

"Let's get the others back inside. I should probably introduce you," Will said as he stood and walked toward the door.

He tapped the console to order the door open and smirked as he saw Kay, Fynnis and Vayren spin on their heels to face him. Will stepped to the side and held out a hand gesturing to the inside of the apartment.

"Come on in. We've got some planning to do."

"Do we?" Asked an amused Kay as she sauntered inside.

"That's right," Will replied. "We're going to pull Ralliston's ass out of the fire and he's going to help us find Shansa and Eleena."

"Oh, just what I wanted," Fynnis remarked flatly. "More work."

As the others entered the room they moved toward the living area where Ralliston still sat at the table.

"If it makes you feel any better, we're gonna be hitting the Eclipse," Will informed them.

"Music to my ears," Kay commented as she reached up and ran her fingers through her short black hair.

Vayren and Fynnis stood beside the table, both of them staring down at Ralliston along with Kay. Will closed the front door and walked up to the group with a reluctant smile.

"I should probably introduce you," Will mentioned. "Ralliston, this is Kay. She rescued me from the labor camp." He looked over to her. "And she's Shansa's older sister."

Ralliston blinked in confusion. "I didn't know Shansa had a sister."

"We thought she was dead," Will said with a frown.

"And I thought you two were dead," Kay added with a laugh. "My brain's still playing catch up."

Will smirked. "Same here." He nodded to the next person in line. "That's Fynnis. He also helped rescue me."

Fynnis and Ralliston simply exchanged nods of acknowledgment.

"And last but not least, we have Vayren," Will continued. "I told you about the Spectres we helped in catching a fugitive, right?" He nodded to the salarian. "Well this is one of them."

Ralliston straightened up in his chair as he looked to Vayren. "You're... a Spectre?"

"That's correct," Vayren answered.

Will held out a hand to present the final introduction. "And to the three of you, this is Ralliston Kitt."

The turian stood and nodded respectfully to them. "I can't tell you how much I appreciate your help."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Fynnis said with a laugh. "I'd like to at least know what said help entails before we jump on in."

Ralliston looked to Will and was met with a nod. The turian looked to the three new faces and placed his hands on the table.

"Simply put: the Eclipse group I've been infiltrating has information that'll tie me to the Red Moon Collective. When they find it they'll come after me and the RMC, I can damn near guarantee it." He looked to each of them. "All I need is a little help breaking into their internal network so we can modify the data they collected from my omnitool."

"You just gave them all the data on your omnitool?" Kay asked in disbelief.

Ralliston turned to face her. "I didn't have a choice. They called the whole unit in and downloaded everyone's data one at a time. If I'd refused... well, about fifty people would have been rather suspicious."

"Fifty people," Will repeated. "We're going to just try to push our way past fifty Eclipse mercs?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Ralliston answered. "I just need you all to create a bit of a distraction while I get into the network and-"

"Hold on," Will quickly interrupted. "Remember what I said earlier? If anyone is going to be hacking it'll be Vayren or Fynnis. You can help me and Kay with the distraction."

"I'll handle it," Vayren added. "I can't imagine their network will be a significant challenge. Plus, I doubt Fynnis here is as subtle as I am."

The group looked to Fynnis for an objection, only to be met with a shrug. "No arguments here. The guy's a fucking Spectre."

Will gave the turian a small smirk. "You know Fynnis, I can't help but appreciate your innate ability to not give a damn."

"Innate?" Fynnis crossed his arms and leaned back coolly. "That hurts. It takes a lot of work to be this irreverent."

"I'm sure," Will responded as he looked back to Ralliston. "So Vayren will take care of the hard part. How do we distract fifty mercs?"

"Shouldn't have to," Ralliston answered. "At least not that many. We have a raid in the factory district kicking off in about an hour. That'll occupy a good portion of our combat team."

Kay looked to the side and grumbled. "I was looking forward to knocking a few Eclipse heads in."

"I'd prefer to finish this as quickly and quietly as possible," Will reminded her. "I think we should just walk in saying we're looking to offload something illicit. Create a bit of a huff, try to draw as much of them as we can, and leave whenever Vayren has finished his work."

Ralliston shook his head. "It'd be better if you said you're looking to buy. The gang's overloaded with cargo from raids at the moment." He looked to Will. "On top of that, the leader of the group is deploying on the mission in about an hour. The second in charge, a turian named Prossala, is watching over the base while she's gone. She's rash and greedy. All we need to do is pretend like we're ready to throw down a few hundred thousand credits and she'll be begging to sell."

"That's not much of a plan," Vayren pointed out.

"No, it's not. But sometimes I like to roll with the punches," Will replied. "And in case you haven't noticed, we're short on time. Otherwise I'd love to indulge in some special tactics and reconnaissance."

The salarian gave him a joking glare. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. I am still on vacation, remember?"

"Seriously," Kay said mock-accusingly to Will. "Let the guy leave his work at work for fuck's sake."

After a small laugh from the group, Ralliston cleared his throat to request their attention. With four sets of eyes now on him, the turian took a small breath and nodded.

"Thanks ahead of time your help," he said plainly.

"Well you haven't given us much of a choice. Thanks usually goes to people who make a decision to help you out," Will countered sharply. "That said," he turned to face the others. "I do owe you three thanks. And you have mine. Sincerely."

"It's my pleasure to aid a friend in need," Vayren told him with simple nod.

Kay smiled. "Yeah. And I've also got my own stake in this by the name of Shansa, remember?"

Will glanced to Fynnis who shook his head. "I'm just here because of the free room and board on the Trueshot."

Kay grinned and punched the turian's arm lightly, which Fynnis waved off in feigned apathy.

"Alright, let's get going," Will declared. "Ralliston, you got a skycar?"

The turian laughed. "Are you kidding? My pay is barely enough to cover rent and food."

Will sighed and took a step toward the door. "Then it looks like we're infiltrating via the most intimidating way possible: taxi."

The building that housed the Eclipse's local base was far less decrepit than Ralliston's apartment building, leading Will to believe that the group was doing quite well for themselves in New Estrana. He looked down as the taxi descended toward the landing pad a few dozen stories up the side of the building to see a few inactive skycars parked near the nondescript entrance. In the back seat, Vayren's cloak fluttered as he was whisked into invisibility. Two Eclipse guards were sitting by the wide door with their helmets off while leaning against the wall, relaxed. They stared for a moment in what seemed like disbelief as the taxi settled down in front of them before grabbing their weapons from their backs as the door swung up and open.

"Woah, woah!" Will shouted as he held up his hands and stepped out of the car. "We're here on peaceful terms."

Ralliston quickly jumped out after him, still wearing his Eclipse armor, and stepped past Will. Upon seeing someone in their colors the two Eclipse guards, a salarian and human, lowered their weapons just enough to convince Will they were no longer an immediate threat.

"Relax," Ralliston said as he came to a stop in front of them. "I found some potential buyers."

The salarian looked to him suspiciously. "We weren't told to expect anyone."

Ralliston loomed intimidatingly over the much smaller salarian. "You wanna explain to Prossala why you turned them away? Let us in so I can introduce them and get the damn credits flowing."

The human guard activated his omnitool and waited before an agitated female voice broke over the small speaker.

"What?"

"Ma'am, Septarian just showed up with a few people. Claims they're interested in buying."

"Buying what?" She asked, still irritated. "And how many of them?"

Behind them, Fynnis and Kay had stepped out of the skycar and walked up to stand on either side of Will as he waited with a facade of impatience.

Ralliston shrugged and leaned forward to speak into the human's mic. "Anything. They seem pretty impulsive."

"And there's only three of them," the human added.

After a short pause the woman presumed to be Prossala responded. "Bring them into the warehouse. I'll be there in a minute."

The salarian guard stepped back to the door and tapped the console. "Alright, go." He looked to Ralliston and pointed a finger. "You take them straight to the warehouse, got it?"

The turian scoffed. "I know how to do my damn job," he replied. "You three, follow me."

Will, Kay and Fynnis casually walked past the two guards to catch up with Ralliston, all of them pretending to be somewhere between confident and oblivious to the danger of walking into a bunch of Eclipse mercenaries. The group stepped into a short, well-lit gray hallway with only a few doors on either side and one at the very end. As they approached the door at the end of the hall, Ralliston glanced over his shoulder.

"Did the Spectre make it inside?"

"I'm three meters behind you," Vayren answered over the comms. "Where is the nearest network terminal?"

"The warehouse is straight ahead," Ralliston replied. "Should be a few consoles scattered around the room."

The door in front of them pinged and slid open automatically as they approached, revealing a cavernous room that more closely resembled a hangar than a warehouse. The ten meter high wall on the left-hand side of the room was completely open with a few docking armatures extending out from the building and into the New Estrana sky. Three Kodiak shuttles were idling near the opening, two of them with an open door and half loaded with cargo. The rest of the room was filled with hundreds of crates and shipping containers, all stacked in only the loosest of organizational conventions. Will turned his wandering eyes forward as they stepped inside to see a group of at least ten Eclipse standing at the center of the room staring Ralliston and his guests down. The turian continued forward confidently and raised his chin with a laugh.

"Prossala, you are gonna love me," he declared.

A dark-skinned turian woman at the center of the Eclipse group narrowed her eyes. Her armor was indicative of rank, and her stature was damned intimidating.

"That remains to be seen," she responded sharply.

"Bumped into this guy and his buddies at the bar," Ralliston lied, very convincingly so.

The turian stepped to the side and nodded toward Will, Kay and Fynnis as they all approached the group of Eclipse. Will came to a stop a few feet away and extended a hand.

"Nicholas Black," Will said loudly. "I hear," he looked around, "and see, that you might have something I'd like to get my hands on."

Prossala's eyes wandered Will up and down slowly before doing the same to Kay and Fynnis. She took a single step forward, ignoring Will's hand, and flaring her mandibles confidently.

"That being?"

Will shook his head and pulled his hand back. "Anything. I came into quite a few credits last night in a friendly wager and I'm looking to convert it into some... material assets." He grinned. "I'm a bit of an opportunist."

The turian female shifted her eyes to Ralliston for a brief moment, who simply stood with his arms crossed and nodded slowly. Finally, she took in a sharp breath and shrugged.

"Mister Black, was it?"

"That's right," Will replied.

Prossala held her hands out to her sides. "It looks like we might be able to do business together. As you can see, we have a surplus on our hands."

Will looked to the group of Eclipse soldiers all standing at ease behind their commander. "So what do you have? I've got about a quarter of a million credits I'd be willing to part with."

The turian's eyes widened greedily, but quickly returned to their cool and collected state. "Better question is what don't we have. But as for what I need to sell..." She reached down and activated her omnitool. "I've got some guns and mods, some of the best either side of the Terminus. Plenty of drugs as well; Minagen X3, videlicet, some sinaxx, I think."

Behind him he could hear Kay exhale angrily at the mention of sinaxx. Knowing that she was already not happy to be in the midst of the Eclipse.

"Hmm," Will wondered aloud.

He looked down and activated his omnitool. Will opened his communicator to see a message from Vayren sent just over thirty seconds earlier.

I'm in their network. Searching for the files now.

Will cleared his throat and looked up. "I'd probably find more use for the guns."

"Then allow me to direct you to a large haul we... acquired from the Elkoss Combine," Prossala said as she pointed to a large shipping container a few meters away.

As Will, Fynnis and Kay turned to the side, Prossala grabbed her rifle and brought it to bear with the rest of the group following her lead. Ralliston jumped in surprise as Will, Fynnis and Kay all looked back and instinctively lifted their hands.

"Hey, Prossala!" Ralliston quickly objected. "What the hell?"

The turian woman gave Ralliston a harsh look. "I should be asking you the same question. Draw your rifle, soldier!"

Ralliston reluctantly grabbed his rifle from his back and took a step toward her. "I thought you wanted to offload some of our assets."

Prossala snorted indignantly. "You've got a lot to learn, kid." She took a step toward Will. "We can sell to business partners. Idiots you can lure into the base with a quarter million on their chit? Free credits."

"Hold on a damn second," Will objected. "We've got friends that you do not want to cross."

The Eclipse commander narrowed her eyes and lifted her rifle to line up a shot with Will's chest.

"That so?" Prossala looked back over her shoulder to her squad. "Light 'em up."

As the final word escaped her mouth a burst of flesh and blood exploded from her neck, accompanied by a single loud crack that echoed terribly in the hangar. Will immediately identified the sound of Vayren's sniper rifle. He, Fynnis and Kay had already changed stance to flee as Prossala had ordered her troops to fire and were bought precious seconds as the Eclipse spun in surprise, looking for the shooter. Ralliston turned to join the others as they darted behind a shipping container for cover. A few Eclipse soldiers had collected themselves within the few seconds of Prossala being hit and her body slamming to the ground as she grasped the gushing wound in her neck. They opened fire as Ralliston slipped into cover.

Will slammed his back into the shipping container and grabbed his rifle. "Ralliston!"

"I didn't know she was that unstable!" He quickly snapped back.

"We need and exit strategy," Kay chimed in urgently.

Will pushed aside his anger and pointed toward the door they had entered through. "It's about a dozen meters to the door. Think we can make it?"

"We'll be exposed the entire time," Fynnis reminded him. "And we'd have to break into one of the skycars. Taxi's long gone."

The shouting and loud shuffling of Eclipse soldiers was echoing louder around them.

"You need to move," Vayren's voice advised over the comms. "You have three on the left and at least two on the right."

"Shit," Will muttered. "Okay, everyone run-"

"No time, everyone stay down!"

Another shot from Vayren's sniper rifle rang out and impacted something on the ceiling behind them. A loud hiss billowed from a breached red pipe that the majority of the Eclipse squad looked up to curiously. Another shot rang out, this one striking the metal near the pipe and sending a few sparks soaring into the white mist falling from above. Before anyone could move for cover the gas ignited in a violent explosion, engulfing nearly a third of the room in the inferno. Will closed his eyes and pressed his back against the shipping container as flames licked around the corners, causing the entire squad's shields to flare and dip. He opened his eyes just in time to see the fire retract with billowing black smoke taking its place. Will drew in a sharp breath as he glanced to his HUD to see Vayren's shielding had completely vanished.

"Will!"

He turned with wide eyes to see Kay pointing off to her right.

"The shuttles!" She yelled. "We can take one of the shuttles!"

"We have to get Vayren!" Will immediately objected.

"I'm okay!" The salarian reported. "I'm on my way to you!"

"That Kodiak sounds like a damn good idea to me," Ralliston pointed out.

As Kay turned toward the opening of the hangar where the shuttles had been idling, a figure spun around the corner of the shipping container through the thick smoke. She jumped at him just as the Eclipse soldier opened fire, grabbing his gun and forcing it up and disrupting his line of fire. Kay ripped the gun from his hands and threw it to the side as Fynnis raised his own rifle and trained his sights on the Eclipse merc's head. Then, as though they had practiced the very motion a dozen times, Kay instinctively stepped to the side to give the turian a clear shot as he opened fire and killed the mercenary cleanly. As Will watched the scene unfold, Ralliston hugged his rifle to his chest and watched his corner until an invisible wisp darted through the smoke in front of them. Vayren's cloak crackled as it disappeared and revealed him. The salarian's armor was severely scorched, but still remained intact, save for a few areas where the underlay mesh had nearly burned through. Will had to imagine those areas we in severe pain.

"Are we leaving or what?" Kay shouted.

"Yes, go!" Will replied as he brought himself back to the current situation.

Kay had already started sprinting through the smoke as he answered. Fynnis was directly on her tail, with Will, Ralliston and Vayren forming up behind them. The sound of the idling Kodiak thrusters was nearly drowned out by the roaring fires on the other side of the hangar, but were loud enough to guide them to the still unoccupied shuttles. Kay looked between two of them before choosing one and jumping into the half-full cargo compartment. The others jumped in just as a few gunshots began to impact around them, indicating that a few of the Eclipse had survived the explosion. Fynnis darted past Kay and into the cockpit where he slid into the pilot's seat and began looking over the fight controls.

"Not the best at flying these things," he shouted to them. "Might wanna get that door closed!"

Will grabbed onto a rail on the ceiling of the Kodiak as the shuttle lurched up and out of the hangar. He leaned out just far enough to see the smoke and flames roaring from inside the hangar before closed his eyes and shutting the hatch.