CHAPTER THREE: "BEYOND THE BOUNDS"
January 17th
The combined Alliance-Citadel Fleet convoy had left Kena slightly later than expected; according to Jane, the Cerberus attack had thrown the original schedule into total disarray, and several ships worth of military personnel and civilians who were intending to either set up shop on Kena or accompany the fleet to the Citadel had to be accounted for. Still, Nihlus figured, an extra few days to shore up OPSEC and keep an eye out for any Cerberus threats in the area wasn't going to hurt, and he had spent the extra three days hanging out with the Demeter's crew (who were, as far as he could tell, almost entirely composed of troops Castis had met aboard the Solar) and making sure his crew were both doing well and staying out of trouble. Jane's combat team had also gotten new transfers; Nihlus hadn't had the chance to speak to them beyond simple greetings since they were all apparently training in the Demeter's hangar or sim pods, neither of which he figured he should be observing without permission.
Once they'd left, the journey was an easy one, and Nihlus sighed in content as Valtha brought the Lightspear down into their docking bay. "Good to be home," he said, as the Lightspear's gears lowered and the bay's clamps engaged.
"Yeah, nothing like getting ready to have a bunch of robots drill your skull open and-"
"-Itok, stop," Valtha said, glaring at the salarian who had just popped into the cockpit.
"Sorry," Itok said, frowning. "I wasn't trying to make fun of your situation. Just...you know. Wanted to lighten the mood."
"I'm not that worried," Nilhlus replied, shrugging. "Once they've got all the scans and stuff, the binaries are gonna spend days poring over the sims, making sure I won't get turned into some half-dead robot or something."
"Okay, well, you're a very optimistic person."
"Unusual for you to so negative," Larix said, limping up to the cockpit.
"Dunno. This whole prothean, precursor, ancient evil civilizations stuff gives me bad vibes. Don't like it."
"That's fair, I suppose," Nihlus said, his expression one of distaste. "You'd think if you were a super-advanced bunch of folk you'd try and make your answering machines not, I dunno, kill the people listening to it."
"Bunch of assholes. Explains why they're not around anymore," Itok said, his tone only slightly cheerier. "Friends probably got tired of dealing with'em."
"That's more like it. Valtha, we'll be down in the hangar when you're done."
"Sounds good. Shouldn't take more than a minute or two."
Nihlus, Itok and Larix took the elevator down to the Hangar to find Ultina and Raetor both sitting on the couch; Raetor got up as he noticed the others. "So? What's the plan for today?"
"I need to get a brain scan - already booked one at Chalua Hospital, then deliver that to one of the big Alliance ships. After that they're running some tests and then I'm all done. I was gonna go visit Viiste and see if I can't go buy some new guns or something. You guys wanna tag along?"
"No can do," Valtha said, coming out of the elevator. "I have to make sure Quarian vas Dumbass here doesn't try to bolt those extra guns we have laying around onto the ship."
"Yeah, speaking of that," Larix asked, "did you ever figure out what you wanna do with those?"
"I'm feeling very attacked right now," Raetor said, shaking his head. "I stripped down two of'em to keep for parts, just in case, and I'm selling the rest."
"How much are you losing on this?" asked Nihlus. "I know that technically it's your money, but, you know."
"I'm actually making money! I managed to find a buyer - bunch of guys I've sold to before, actually."
"Okay. You'll forgive me for being surprised," Nihlus replied, grinning. "How much?"
Raetor cringed slightly. "Uh...two credits."
Itok burst out laughing from behind Nihlus, and Raetor crossed his fingers at him. "Blow it out your ass, Itok."
"Well, at least we're not losing money. So long as everything worked out in the end, right?" Nihlus shrugged, and patted Raetor on the back.
"Such low standards," Itok said, pulling a futon out of one of the supply crates and flopping onto it. "Masterful magnanimous merchant Itok Kazus brings in the big haul - and a kickass couch, which everyone seems to approve of - and I didn't even get a prize for it."
"Your prize," Larix said, shuffling over to the couch and easing himself into it, "is me not throwing you out the airlock for running your mouth."
"I'm feeling very attacked right now," Itok replied, as he booted up a game on his omnitool. "So, you stopping by back here before heading out to buy some new guns?"
"Yeah. The ship I gotta stop at, the Gravitas is parked in its own hangar - think it's two down from us."
"Shit, that's the giant one, right?" Raetor whistled. "Didn't think it'd need an entire hangar to itself."
"I mean, that one's almost as big as the Frontier," Valtha replied. "Damn thing looks like a brick - wonder how it handles."
"Spirits. Does it ever weird you out that, you know, we did the whole contact thing, like, less than a year ago?" Nihlus asked to nobody in particular.
"I dunno," Itok replied, not looking up from his game. "It's kind of crazy, sure, but in the grand scheme of things it's probably not that weird."
"First contact's not a minor thing, man," Larix said.
"Okay, whatever. You people keep arguing over this, I'm leaving." Nihlus lowered the ship's hatch, only to stop as he saw two C-Sec officers - a batarian and an asari - waiting at the bottom of the ramp. "Uh, hi there, officers, can I help you?"
"Spectre Kryik?" the batarian asked, stepping forward. "I'm Kophim, and this is my partner, Isena. We're here to speak with one of your crew members, a Mr. Kazus?"
"Oh, spirits," Nihlus grumbled. "Is he in trouble?"
"Not yet," Isena replied, "but we came here to, ah, provide some legal counseling. Compliments of Captain Vakarian."
"Castis sent you?"
"Yup," Kophim said, shaking his head. "You mind if we head on in and talk to him?"
"Of course not. Should I be there for this?"
"Wouldn't hurt," the batarian replied.
The three walked back into the hangar to find Itok, Larix and Ultina watching an Alliance show of some sort, using a supply crate as a makeshift table. They noticed Nihlus returning with the two officers in tow, and Ultina got up. "Nihlus! Officers, everything alright?"
"We have to speak with Itok," Kophim said as Itok's head snapped up.
"I didn't do anything illegal," Itok said coolly. "I've even got the paperwork."
Isena sighed. "Look, we're here - on our off-duty time, I might add - because Castis wanted to tell you that a bunch of the stuff you've been importing is about to become illegal to bring without a license."
"Like what? Cheetos never hurt anyone," he said stuffing a handful of the strange orange sticks into his mouth.
"Nobody's mad that you've been importing cheese snacks. The booze? That's a little less okay," Kophim said, "but you had to have known this was gonna happen."
"Shit. Any word on when this is happening?"
"Act passed in the Lower Council last night, so it probably won't be officially enforced until the beginning of next month," Kophim replied. "Covers narcotics, alcohol and stuff like that."
Isena pulled an OSD from her armour and tossed it it Itok. "Read it and don't say that C-Sec doesn't help, alright?"
Itok scanned the disk and began to read.
Dear Itok Kazus,
It has recently come to my attention that a certain salarian entrepreneur has been taking it upon himself to import goods from the Systems Alliance with the purpose of reselling said items at a higher price. This is, of course, legal, but recently passed acts will soon be filling loopholes that you may or may not have been using to get controlled substances like alcoholic beverages and Alliance-legal stimulants past customs without any issue.
Purely out of respect for Nihlus, I figured I ought to give you a warning; I imagine working for a Spectre leaves little time for reading the news. I assumed that Nihlus would be annoyed if he had to bail you out of jail because you didn't know importing alcohol was illegal.
Tell Nihlus he owes me one,
Castis Vakarian
Nihlus watched as the two officers leave the ship, read over the letter again, and scowled before walking over to the ramp controls and sealed the ship. "I don't like this," he said, turning to Itok.
"Whaddya mean? Owing him a favour?"
"I mean, it's generally not a good thing to owe cops favours," Ultina said, pausing the show they were watching. "Even if they are cool. It's just bad form."
"No, this isn't right. Something's not right. Why send his officers to tell you something he could have done via a message, or in person himself?"
"That's kind of a stretch," Itok said, shrugging. "Dude's just probably busy doing cop stuff."
"I still don't like this. Where's Raetor?"
"Went to go meet the guys he's selling the extra ship guns to," Larix replied.
"Okay. Keep that OSD, you guys - and Raetor, when he shows up - take a nice, hard look at it. Make sure it's just a message. I've gotta go get those scans done and maybe swing by Castis' office."
"You alright, boss? You're being awfully paranoid," Larix pointed out.
"Yeah, I know, but I've got that itch in my fringe. Besides, if it's nothing, I get to go say hi to a friend, and if it is something, well, I'm being proactive."
"Well, alright. Hey, let us know when you're done being a weirdo and go gun shopping," Ultina said. "We figured we could grab some new gear too."
The next two hours passed by without event; most of it was spent waiting in line at Chalua hospital for a free doctor. Scans obtained, Nihlus made his way to the hangar reserved for the Gravitas, and did his best not to gawk at the massive, brick-like ship anchored at no less than twelve points in the bay. The hangar itself was full of Alliance personnel who were offloading crates, setting up small self-assembling structures and generally milling about. Unsure of who he was supposed to speak to to get aboard the ship, he simply approached the nearest group of soldiers, who were standing around a self-assembling building and chatting amongst themselves. One of them noticed Nihlus and said something to a binary who had a short length of fur attached to the back of their head. "Hey," the binary said, her faceplate flashing as she jogged up to Nihlus, "this area's off limits to civ- wait, you don't look like a civ."
"No, actually, my name's-"
"-oh, shiiiiiiieeeeeet," the binary said, managing to fit well over eight syllables into a word that his translator thought should have one, "you're that Nihlus guy! Right?"
"That's correct," Nihlus said warily as several of the nearby soldiers suddenly looked up from their work. "Would one of you be able to show me to the medbay?"
"Shit, right, figure you'd want to keep things cool if you're on your way to the doc," the binary said, making a shooing gesture with her hands at her (presumably) squadmates. "Sorry, we heard you and your squad fucked up a bunch of doggos, five on thirteen. People've been itching for combat footage and a chance to meet the crew that did it." The binary set off at not-quite-a-jog, leading Nihlus through the crowds of soldiers; Nihlus saw that many were finished setting up their prefab-buildings and were now either offloading more crates from the ship, or unpacking ration kits and eating in and ontop of the new buildings. "Name's YK, Yoko."
"Sorry, Yoko," Nihlus said, following the binary towards one of the Gravitas' open ramps. "I've got a busy schedule today; otherwise I'd be more than happy to hang around and chat. What's a 'doggo'?"
"Oh, Cerberus takes their name after this old earth mythological three-headed animal called the dog."
"I've seen those online - four legs, kind of fluffy?"
"Yeah, so doggo's a pretty common word for the bastards."
"What're all the buildings out here?"
"Temporary barracks, field kitchens, bathrooms and whatnot. Gravitas just got back from a long haul, and lots of the folks who were onboard before us new soldiers got transferred were cooped up in there for months. Nice to be able to get out and stretch your limbs, I think."
"Wait, you're not setting up shop here, are you?"
"Nah. We're here for, like, two days tops while we offload all this junk - most of it's civilian stuff that we got paid to ship while the brass figures out how to control regular civilian traffic in and out of Alliance space. First contact and shit and here we are playing space trucker. Yeesh." Nihlus did his best not to laugh as the pair boarded the ship proper and stopped at a small guard post set up just past the ramp. "Dorian," Yoko said to the guard, "I'm escorting Nihlus here to the medbay."
"Oh, shit, Nihlus? Nihlus Kryik, guy who-"
"-yes, took down a bunch of Cerberus Pilots. With my squad," Nihlus said, shaking his head. "Am I going to be able to live this one down?"
"Fuck no," the human guard replied. "Besides, you oughtta milk this shit for as long as possible. If it was me people were buying drinks for no way I'd say no. Anyways, Yoko, tacnet says primary medbay's been closed off, some dumbass caused a spill or something. Secondary - you know how to get there."
"Thanks, Dorian," Yoko replied. The interior of the ship was as spartan as any of the Turian Army's, and despite there being no small number of soldiers outside the hallways were actually quite full of personnel moving boxes, and otherwise looking occupied; after a quick elevator ride, Yoko pointed down a corrdior towards a set of double doors marked with the Alliance medical symbol. "Right in there - I'm sure they'll have someone escort you out."
"Thanks, Yoko," Nihlus said. "Been a pleasure."
"Oh, please, it was nothing," the binary replied cheerfully. "And hey, if you do have that combat footage, pass it out to us grunts! We'll make good use of it!" She disappeared down another corridor, her strange fur-ponytail thing bobbing as she went.
Nihlus threw open the double-doors and found himself in what was unmistakably a medical facility, complete with curtains and white decor. It was massive compared to the one aboard the Broadshield, though all but two of the fifty odd beds were empty. Several doctors were sitting at terminals, and one turned to face Nihlus as he entered.
"Ah, Spectre Kryik." The doctor, a human male with black skin and hair that resembled strands of an asari's crest, grinned and beckoned at Nihlus. "Come on, get over here - we've got medical history to make."
Making medical history, Nihlus reflected, wasn't very exciting. He'd been told to lay down in a metallic tube with a transparent top tucked in a side room, and the tube had sealed for about five minutes while the doctors took readings and recorded data. After that, he'd been thanked for his time and escorted by one of the personnel back outside. Despite being the only turian in the hangar - there were a few salarians and asari at the far end speaking with some soldiers - he was surprised at how little attention most of the soldiers in the hangar paid to him. He stopped to speak with a few for a minute or so, and politely declined signing the weapons of several grunts. A few minute later as he neared the exit, Yoko and her squad waved at him from the top of a prefab building; he waved back, and he shrugged as several of Yoko's squadmates began, as far as he could see, high-fiving.
After a quick elevator ride out of the hangar area and an air-car ride later, he found himself in the Presidium at the C-Sec Headquarters building. He entered, and walked over to one of the secretaries - a turian woman - that he vaguely recognized. "Spectre Kryik - I need to speak with Captain Vakarian as soon as possible. Is he available?"
The officer looked at Nihlus for a moment before checking her terminal, then nodded. "One moment, please." She tapped at her omnitool a few times, waited a moment, then checked her terminal before nodding at him. "He's in his office and says that he's more than happy to make time for you. He also said you knew the way?"
"I do," Nihlus replied, "though if it'd make everyone more comfortable I'm more than happy to go with an escort or surrender my firearm."
"No need," the secretary said.
"Alright. Thanks." He made his way upstairs to the fifth floor, exited into a hallway full of offices, and walked over to Castis' office before knocking.
"Come in, Nihlus!"
Nihlus entered to find Castis scrolling through pages on his terminal with one hand and scarfing down a sorvin; Castis stuffed the last of the wrap into his mouth, did his best to stifle a belch and sighed. "Sorry, Nihlus - busy day today. Come in, have a seat - I'm glad you got my message." Nihlus sat down and was about to clasp arms with Castis when the officer suddenly made a cutting gesture, then locked the door from his terminal and scanned the room several times before sitting back down, pulling four jammers of various make from his coat and placing them on the desk.
"Spirits, Castis-"
"-listen, Nihlus, I don't know if we have a problem right now and that in and of itself is scaring the shit out of me."
"What?"
"Nihlus, we've had twenty-six people go missing in the last two months."
"People go missing all the time, Castis. It's not nice to think about, sure, but it happens."
"Uh-huh. And all of the people who went missing are salarian?"
"Targeted? Doesn't expl-"
"-and all of them were returning from the Alliance."
"Wait, what? There've only been, like, three trips open to the general public."
"Yes."
"Timeline?"
"Reported missing within a week after getting off, either by passengers, co-workers, friends or whatnot. Earliest one was within two fucking hours of landing."
"Okay, this is weird, but...not impossible?"
"We don't have hard evidence on all the cases, but several that are impossible. Cam footage of people walking into bathrooms with only one entrance, or one-way-streets. and just disappearing. We investigated a bunch of these people and while it all looks fine, something's off. I can feel it. Everyone who's disappeared is...too clean."
"How so?"
"Businessman, twenty, works for a trading company. Apartment looks normal. All the booze is half-finished, but the lids and caps are dusty. He's got two terminals, but one's eight years older than the other and totally empty. No crimes, worked the same job since he arrived on the Citadel. Nothing's wrong, but at the same time something is. Or another one - omnitool repair shop owner, twenty-eight, works from home. Apartment's clean, 'cept there's no sign of wear on ninety percent of the tools in the apartment. None. No scratches, no heat marks, no fingerprints. One box was still sealed. Another one: private tutor, fourteen. Lives in the Presidium, terminal wiped itself when we tried to do a check. Handgun under her pillow, shotgun in the bathroom, shotgun under the sink. All legally purchased. This keeps going on and on."
Nihlus simply looked at Castis, then sighed. "Oh, spirits."
"Yeah."
"STG?"
"Anything this weird? Guarantee they're involved somehow."
Nihlus simply stared into space for a moment before shaking his head. "Fuck."
"Exactly how I'd put it." Castis scratched at his fringe and groaned. "Listen, Nihlus, I have no idea what to do about this. Investigations either run into impossible situations - like the bathrooms - or we get the same info. 'Don't know the guy, kept to himself, real friendly but didn't know lots about him.' That leaves two options: one, STG, two, I have no idea. I don't like spies and I sure as shit don't like being in the dark about things."
Nihlus exhaled. "I want to help, Castis, but I can't see how."
"Not asking for your help - but if you do see anything that explains this mess, pass it up if you can?"
"Will do."
"Also a warning. Something's going on and I'd hate for anything to happen to you or your crew. Stay safe, alright? And here," Castis said, passing Nihlus an OSD from his coat. "All the info we have right now. Set to auto-wipe after an hour, so make backups if you need it."
"You too, Castis."
Castis turned the jammers off and placed them back in his coat before unlocking the door. "Anyways," he said in a cheery tone, "I know you're busy and I am too - we should catch up some time, alright?"
"Yeah - I'll let you know when I have some time off," Nihlus replied happily. "See you around!"
Nihlus left the C-Sec headquarters and made a beeline for the private hangar where the Lightspear was parked; the ramp was up, and he entered the ship through the side access hatch. Nobody was on the main deck, so he descended to the hangar to find Itok, Raetor and Valtha disassembling a ship-mounted gun while Larix and Ultina napped - on the couch and a futon, respectively. Itok looked up and waved when he saw Nihlus.
"Oi! Boss! We going gun shopping?"
Nihlus groaned. "Everyone get cleaned up and meet on the CIC - I've got some real fun news you're all gonna love."
"...and that's the last of the victims." Nihlus sank into a chair next to the holoboard a while later and rubbed at his eyes. "Spirits, I thought this would be weird, but not THAT weird."
"You asshole, I didn't love this at all," Larix grumbled. "What the fuck are we supposed to do about this?"
"I mean, Castis did say that we should just keep an eye out," Ultina ventured, "and besides, it's probably the best we can do. Unless you lot wanna play detective."
"Hell no," Itok said, shaking his head. "This shit stinks of-"
"-don't you fucking say it," Raetor interjected.
"Look, we're all thinking it. This reeks of time fuckery to me," Itok said, kicking the wall he was standing next to.
"Don't kick my ship," Valtha said.
"Sorry. But seriously." Itok made a digusted face and closed his eyes. "Doesn't it make sense? I mean, as much sense as time travel can."
"You got any proof?" Nihlus asked.
"No, but it's a terrifyingly convenient explanation."
"Okay, but we can't start applying explanations just because they're convenient," Raetor noted. "Otherwise we fall into the trap of, like, everything being due to time travel."
"Who says it isn't?"
"Oh, fuck, we are not going there," Valtha said. "Please."
"I mean, I'm not trying to be an ass about it," Itok said, raising his hands. "I'm being dead serious."
"That's...I don't like that," Nihlus said after a moment.
"What, me being serious? Or the...time...stuff?"
"Both." Nihlus swore under his breath several times, then got up. "Well, alright. I don't think any of us are qualified to really play weird-shit-detective, and even if we were I don't think there's much we could do. Just keep an eye out for anything weird."
"You know," Larix said, "I'm honestly kind of wishing you hadn't told us any of this."
"Better to be alert, I'd say," Ultina replied. "No point in hiding from this stuff."
"Okay, so can we go gun shopping now?" asked Itok. "I'd like to buy guns and try to stop my imagination from drowning me in existential dread."
"You know what? That sounds like a fantastic idea," Nihlus said, sighing. He tapped his omnitool, linking it to the main holoboard's speakers, and waited until his omni lit up.
"Edote and Keli, Bespoke Gunsmithing. This is Viiste, how may I help you?"
"Hey Viiste-"
"Oh, goddess, is that you, Nihlus? You never visit!" There was a thumping sound of some sort followed by Viiste pounding on something. "Hey! Ishera! It's Nihlus!"
"Nihlus? Really? Is that you?" asked the other asari, her voice slightly muffled. "Hey! Where've you been? You never come here anymore!"
"Spirits, you two, it's been, like, two months, tops."
"Yeah," Viiste replied, "and you spend more than most customers do in a year. You and your crew need some more firepower?"
"Yup. You guys free for a consultation?"
"We're booked until 4PM, but we'll close the shop down for you guys after that. Any of your guns need servicing or you want them checked up, you can drop them off now. Sound good?"
"Perfect. See you in two hours." Nihlus terminated the call, and sank into the chair next to the holoboard. "So, two hours to kill - what do you guys wanna do? Anyone hungry?"
"All that talk about time travel and stuff kind of killed my appetite," Larix said sadly.
"Can we not talk about that? Come on, let's just go get something to eat," Valtha replied. "Staying on the ship isn't gonna do you any good."
The group grabbed their firearms and tech tools, and left the Lightspear, each carrying a double-sized rifle case. They made their way over to the private hangar's garage module, loaded their equipment in the back of Nihlus' trusty old Economy Ten, and piled into the car. Nihlus drove the vehicle towards the Zakera Ward, relaxing as best he could with his crew fighting over the music selection, temperature controls and loudly arguing about which snack food was the best to consume while drinking. Doing his best to tune them out, Nihlus parked the car in a private lot reserved for customers of the block of stores E&K was attached to, and got out of the car. After retreving ther cases from the trunk, it was a quick walk to the store; inside, Viiste and Ishera were each speaking to customers. Neither said anything to Nihlus or his group, but Viiste nodded at Wrex, who was, as usual, standing in front of the entrance to the staff-only area.
"Kryik." Wrex looked at Nihlus and his group.
"Wrex."
"Mmm. Just slide the cases behind the counter."
"You got it." The group did as they were told, and waved at Ishera and Viiste; Wrex simply smirked and made a grunting noise.
"So," Nihlus said as the group reconvened outside the store, "where to now? We've still got over an hour. Lunch, then we piss around until it's time?"
"Fine by me. We're close to the Lawson's, right? Wouldn't mind stopping there for food," Valtha said.
"Do they have dextro stuff?"
"Yeah, I think so," Itok replied. "The company they partnered with owns a bunch of smaller restaurant chains - their food court should have some familiar stuff."
"Alright, fair enough. What about the lines, though? I've heard they're pretty bad. I know it's been a few days since they opened, but still," Nihlus said.
"Well, we can go take a look," Larix offered. "Lawson's is, what, corner of Ajax and Z-3? Tons of stuff around there."
The group took an air-shuttle down to Ajax Crossing, disembarked, and simply stood outside the station's doors. The Lawson's was smack-dab on the corner of the two major streets that branched off from where they were standing; as far as the eye could see were long, snaking lines of people waiting to get into the store. Several staff comprised of people of all races from both the Citadel and Alliance were standing around the lines, directing movements and stopping people from trying to run into the store; there were two distinct lines, Nihlus noted, with a sign hanging over each displaying an estimated time. The entrance for the store itself had an estimated time of 3 hours, while the food-court-only line was at 2.5 hours.
"So. We're not going to Lawson's," Itok said, shaking his head. "Fucking hell, you'd think people would, I dunno, be at work or something. They don't even close - why show up at, like, 3 in the afternoon?"
"Maybe because some people don't want to line up for lunch at midnight?" Larix replied. "Come on, why don't we just go to Sancti and grab something to eat."
"We always go to Sancti when we're in the neighbourhood," Raetor grumbled. "Why don't we ever try something new?"
"Dude, we're almost never 'in the neighbourhood,' not to mention that they're the only place around here that is clean, good, clean, fast AND isn't overpriced as shit," Itok replied.
"We're not exactly hurting for money," Ultina pointed out.
"Sure, but it's the principle of the matter," Raetor said.
"Whatever - we'll go to Sancti, I'll buy you something later if that means you'll stop complaining," Itok said.
"Score. Anything's good if you're not paying for it," Raetor said cheerfully.
Their lunch was, if not exemplarary, more than acceptable, and Nihlus patted his stomach after finishing his meal. He drained his fourth cup of tuppossa and checked his omnitool and swore as he saw that it was 3:55. "Guys, we're gonna be late," he said, scowling. "Come on, finish your food and let's go."
Itok, Raetor and Ultina had all finished their meals; Larix was still slowly chewing through a sorvin wrap and Valtha's soup was almost finished. Valtha lifted the bowl up and drank the last of her lunch, but Larix simply looked at his wrap and sighed. "Alright, I'll get it to go."
Nihlus settled the bill at the counter and left a generous tip before the group sprinted back out to the transit station and returned to E they arrived exactly at 4:01.
"Ah! Right on time," Viiste said, waving to the group from behind the counter.
"One minute late," Wrex rumbled. "By my count."
"Whatever, Wrex," Itok said, walking up to the counter with the otherse. "Miss Edote, Miss Keli, a pleasure as always," he said in an exaggerated drawl, bowing slightly.
"Such a gentleman as usual," Viiste replied, feigning a swoon. "You scoundrel. Alright, who's up first? Or are we doing a group consultation first?"
"Group," Nihlus said, nodding at Wrex; the krogan lumbered over to the door controls and shut the store's gates before locking the manual latches attached to the floor. "Okay, so we fought a bunch of Cerberus Pilots - got to field test those custom upgrades you did for us."
"Well, you're all standing here," Ishera noted, "and as far as I can tell none of you are missing any body parts. Did they work as you wanted?"
"Better, actually," Larix replied. "Our issues were caused by tactics, not by our gear - but we were hoping you guys help us engineer some improvements now that we've tested them all in combat. Itok, Raetor, you guys wanna go first, cover the tech stuff?"
"Yeah, sure," Raetor said. He waited as Viiste pulled their two weapon cases off the ground and placed them on top of the counter; she let Raetor and Itok unlock both of them, and both asari women made tutting noises as they examined the firearms and fabricators within.
"You two," Viiste said disapprovingly, as she lifted Itok's handgun out. "Devlon Venomstrike, SUAF variant, 2120 model? I thought you were crazy, carrying your old service pistol, and now you've gone and picked up an older model?"
"Had to," Itok replied. "My old service pistol wasn't big enough, not enough room in the receiver for the mods I wanted. Same goes for the shotgun."
"Goddess," Viiste said, as she set the handgun down and picked up the shotgun; she aimed it away from the group, deployed the weapon into its firing mode and raised an eyebrow as the weapon didn't extend a barrel or a stock. "Custom job?"
"Elanus Thundershock for the base, cut the barrel down and beefed up the accelerator with one from an Elanus Typhoon. Had to skeleton the rest of the gun as much as I could to make up for the added weight, then add a counterbalance in the grip to make sure everything balanced out right."
"Well, all I recall you asking for on the last set was more firepower and a faster firing rate - stuff you could probably do in your sleep," Ishera noted. "Anything you'd like this time?"
"I was going to try and lighten the accelerator setup, but with the Typhoon out of production and the company not releasing fab files for that line of guns anymore I didn't want to risk it out in the field. If you could figure that out for me, that'd be great - our fab kits on the Lightspear are good but they're not as precision-oriented as yours."
"And the handgun?" asked Viiste, setting the shotgun back in the case.
"It's basically my long-arm - could you do a multi-stage barrel setup linked to the FCU and ROF-range settings? The low rate of fire was fine for long-range stuff but I need to be able to dump rounds quickly as a backup."
"Of course. Your omnitool?"
Itok shrugged. "No need - built it from scratch myself last month. Thing's a mess internally but I'm the only one who knows how it works."
Raetor nodded. "Yeah, seriously. I tried looking at the internals for inspiration once - huge mistake. Took me half an hour to get it back together."
"Well, easiest one first," Ishera said, scribbling a few notes on a dataslate before shutting Itok's case and placing it underneath the counter. "Raetor?"
"Okay, my gear's more or less the same - home-made pistol using the Elanus Storm receiever, and a cut-down Flotilla R&D Vengeance as a sort of PDW. I thought I could get away with not having a dedicated long-range weapon; if you could put that same multi-stage barrel you put in Itok's handgun into my Vengeance that'd be fantastic."
"Easy job, won't take too long." The two asari chatted amongst themselves for a moment, then moved Raetor's case under the counter. "Alright, next up, Valtha." The asari pilot's case contained two shotguns and two pistols; Valtha simply shrugged.
"I haven't really needed to upgrade these, but if you could give them the usual once-over, maybe upgrade them with whatever parts are new on the market, that'd be great."
"You keep this up and we'll be finished with this work in less than a day," Viiste said.
"Well, don't get your hopes up," Larix said. Wrex helped place Larix and Ultina's cases up top; they both contained a rifle and handgun each.
"Alright," Ultina said, "that twenty-burst you build? Perfect. Works fantastic - we killed those Pilots easily with it. If you could boost the sink so we could do more of those with less cooldown, that'd be perfect."
"Hmm. I don't know how much more we can do," Viiste said, picking up Larix's rifle. "Phaeston 2040, Special Forces issue, right? Here, look." Ishera unrolled a small workmat on the counter and placed the rifle on the mat. "Okay, so you've got vent-lines running across the entire top of the gun, essentially, right?" She tapped her omnitool and popped the shell of the gun open, revealing its internals; she ran her finger across a long, metallic tube wrapped near and around the barrel assembly. "This entire section is a cooling sink; all the internals and engines are on the bottom. Even with all the modifications we've made, this thing's out of room - unless we start merging new sections of receiver shell onto it, we'd have to remove something to add more space for sinks."
"Shit," Larix said, shaking his head. "Damn thing's heavy enough as is - I'd really rather not, you know, add more bulk. Gotta stay light and on-the-move if we're gonna fight Pilots again - hell, even with all our lightened gear I still got shot."
"What about ejectable heatsinks?" Wrex said suddenly, from the corner of the room.
"Wait, what about them? They're a stupid idea," Ishera said, distaste obvious. "You switch it up to an eject system, you have to sacrifice regular cooling. Come on, Wrexie, you know that."
"Don't sass me, ma'am. I'm saying, like, a hybrid system. Wouldn't that work?" Wrex shrugged. "Just an idea."
"I mean, sure, but then we'd have to gut the entire upper receiver and rebuild from scratch, then revamp the entire engine system so make up for the weaker base cooling. But you guys specifically wanted something that had a lot of punch and a high sustained fire-rate, so that breaks that rule." Ishera frowned and looked thoughtful.
"Could you build a system that, I dunno, combined Alliance-style magazines with our tech?" Raetor asked, his tone curious. "Like, the gun's normal, except you could have a slot where we could jam in a spare heatsink; the gun would work normally, but if you wanted to let off a twenty-salvo and then cool the gun real fast you could eject that spare sink and put in a new one?"
"Nobody makes quick-eject heatsinks that have parity with fixed ones," Viiste said, tapping a finger on the table in thought. "We could fabricate them, but each one would have to be custom made - not to mention that we'd be here for ages trying to work out how to do it, plus time for sourcing parts, designing it and stress-testing 'em too."
"Would it even be worth it? Keeping track of sink-reloads would be a whole other thing to keep track of during firefights," Nihlus said. "And while we're not strapped for cash I don't want to know how much, like, a bulk crate of custom-fab sinks on the cutting edge of weapons development would cost from you guys, let alone anyone else. Not to mention, what happens if you eject the last sink? Then, what, you're stuck with a gun that doesn't cool properly?"
The room remained silent for a moment before Viiste simply shrugged. "I mean, it's worth looking into. Ishera and I will see if we can't come up with some sort of prototype on our own end, but it won't be happening for a while. Give us some time - we can check with our contacts to see if anyone else has any ideas, too. What about your handguns? I thought I told you two to upgrade from these," she said, dangling both pistols from her hands with disgust.
"Excuse me, I'm very happy with my old service pistol, thank you very much," Ultina said in mock anger.
"Okay, but that doesn't mean it's not rubbish," Ishera replied. "Nobody in their right mind would keep an Armax Arsenal Brawler-50. Nobody."
"Then why are they standard-issue for Turian SF? Eh?"
"Larix, just because something's standard, doesn't mean it's good. Lowest bidder, right?"
"You'd make a lot of SF folks mad with that sorta talk," Ultina said, crossing her arms.
"Look, Armax is great with everything else. No clue how to design a handgun." Viiste tapped her omnitool and the wall behind her slid open to reveal a wall of handguns; she selected several, and placed them on the counter. "Look - plenty of designs, all more ergonomic and boasting better shot-to-cooling numbers than your Brawler-50s." She picked up a pair of blue-purple pistols, sleek and curvy with a rounded grip. "Serrice Stellaris, asari Commando-exclusive issue. Adjustable impact type - good fit for your guys' conc-heavy style - and plenty of cooling fins and vents. Sink runs through the entire gun, so while it runs hot you'll get way more shots on target before having to cool." The two turians took them and mimed drawing, aiming and firing the handguns before setting them down. "Or these. Haliat Gladius, brand-new. Came out last year, limited printing," she said, handing the pair each a thin, angular pistol. "Same styling as the Brawler-50, but smaller and easier to handle."
"Ah, why don't you two head to the range in the back," Ishera offered, "so we can help Nihlus out?"
"Fine, fine, we'll get out of your way," Larix grumbled, as Viiste led the him and Ultina into the back room.
"So," Ishera said, pulling out Nihlus' case, "let's take a look." Inside was a heavily scratched and well-worn rifle; its white paint was almost entirely gone, revealing the dull metal below. Several sections were off-colour, seam lines visible where they had obviously been added on after manufacturing, and the scope mount had been hacked off and replaced with a backup sighting system. "You still using your Raptor?"
"Yup. Tried switching back to a Phaeston like Larix and Ultina, but I just couldn't get used to it. Ended up getting Itok to mod in an automatic fire mode for it on top of the salvo-mode you put into it as a test."
"Hrm. Well, regardless of comfort, you're going to run into the same problem as those two - there's no room left in this thing for a sink boost or anything."
"I'm not attached to it specifically," Nihlus noted. "Just like the ergonomics - if you could fabricate a Phaeston with a similar layout I'd take it," he said.
"I'll do you one better, Nihlus." Ishera pulled a weapons case out from behind the counter and set it down, unlocking it; the box unsealed with an audible hiss to reveal a black-red rifle that looked like a larger, slightly bulkier Raptor. "Prototype rifle, developed collaboratively by Armali, Elanus and Turian Army R&D. This is the Revenant Alpha - being tested as an all-in-one replacement for the Phaeston and the Raptor. Shares 90% parts compatibility with the Raptor, with the other 10% compatible with the Phaeston; just as easy to maintain, same weight and general ergonomics as the Raptor but with a larger reciever-"
"-meaning more room for upgrades," Nihlus finished, carefully taking the rifle and shouldering it. "This is everything I have ever wanted in a primary. How'd you get this?"
"It pays to make friends in high places - and besides, with so many prototype of these things being made and destroyed in testing, it wasn't hard to pick one up. You'll take it?"
"Of course - with the usual upgrades, please. I was also hoping to replace my handgun," he said, gesturing at the beat-up Armax Pugilist. "Thing's getting old and frankly I should have replaced it years ago."
"Nihlus. The best for last," Ishera said, opening another one of the wall-mounted displays. She pulled a wooden box out of the display and gently laid it on the counter before reverently running her fingers across it; the box was etched with a carving of a turian and a krogan clasping arms. She opened it slowly, revealing a massive - it was at least double the size of Nihlus' Pugilist - handgun with a silver-red paintjob. "This," Ishera said in a near-whisper, "is the Magnus Arms Carnifex. It hits the market next week, and you have the honour of being one of its first operators. Triple-set custom-fab cooling sinks that run through the weapon. Eezo balancers made on contract by Serrice. FCU with adjustable rate of fire. Fast-cool setting with deployable sink fins. Lethality rating that outclasses any other handgun on the market by a factor of ten. This, Nihlus, is the future of handguns."
"Spirits," Nihlus said, gingerly picking the weapon up. It took him a moment to get used to the weight and heft of the handgun; he mimed drawing and aiming the pistol a few times. "This thing is a lot lighter than I thought it'd be - not that this thing is light, by any stretch," he said.
"Take it."
"What?"
"Just take it. It's yours, Nihlus." Ishera smiled at Nihlus and patted his hand as he set the gun back in its case. "You'll make better use of it than any of our other customers."
"Yeah, and you'd better not break it," Wrex said, scowling. "I wanted to buy it."
About two hours later, the bill was settled, coming in at an estimated one-hundred sixty-two thousand credits - the bulk of which was paying for R&D on the new heatsink system and Nihlus' new Revenant.
"That," Itok said, "is a lot of fucking money. Dude, we've spent less on ship guns for the Lightspear."
"Can't put a price on quality?" Raetor offered.
"Well, I know it's a lot of money, but think of it as an investment on your own safety," Viiste said with a wide smile. "Oh! And before you go- we have a treat for all of you. One our second trip to the Alliance, we made some friends and developed ties with some ones we'd met previously; on the last one, we finalized some deals."
"The point is," Ishera continued, "we're both cleared to - provisionally, until further contracts and negotiations are held - import certain Alliance guns which are purely chemical based and modified to fire less-lethal ammunition. We have a whole bunch of deactivated or disassembled weapons we're working on, but we've got three guns you can shoot in the back. Come see!"
The group all returned to the firing range; Viiste disappeared into a backroom and reappeared a minute later with a case covered in locks. Ishera and Viiste both began using the biometric locks and punching in passwords on their omnitools, and a moment later the case opened to reveal three guns - two rifles, and a handgun.
"These are, in order, the Wonjae V-47 Flatline, standard-issue for frontline regulars in 20FP, the Lastimosa Armory R-301 Carbine, standard-issue for frontline regulars in 42FP, and lastly the-"
"-holy shit that's a SMART PISTOL," Itok nearly shouted. "Do you guys have tracker rounds?"
"We have exactly one magazine's worth of less-lethal tracker rounds - that's twelve rounds. That's it," Viiste said, nodding sagely. "The Lastimosa Armory Smart Pistol, Mark Two. This specific gun was carried into combat between nine to eleven FP, when it was traded in for a Mark Three; this gun was then purchased by its original user and kept as a trophy. Not sure how it ended up in the shop we bought it at. Beautiful, isn't it?"
"Okay, so I know you two have incredible buisness acumen, but how'd you manage to buy this?" Raetor asked.
"With money. A lot of it. You think your guns were expensive?" Ishera noted. "This thing cost more than twenty-two thousand Citadel Credits. The single magazine's worth of bullets were purchased for a 'small' price of one thousand three hundred Citadel Credits."
"Spirits," Ultina said. "So...we don't get to shoot it, I'm guessing?"
"Of course not," Viiste said, smirking, "that gets saved for when one of you lot - or some other friend of the family - gets married or has kids or something. But we did rig it up to work in the simulator, so while it won't be as exciting as firing the other guns it'll still be a taste of the crazy designs the Alliance has."
The group spent the next hour firing the two asari's guns; Nihlus particularly liked the feel of the Flatline despite it not being designed for turians. Even more enjoyable was the simulated Smart Pistol; despite only using it for a few minutes, and its (simulated) projectiles having a lengthy lock-on and time-to-impact target even at short distances, his mind began to race at the possibilities a railgun-pattern Smart Pistol like the one Jane had used on the Citadel could offer to his and his squad's tactics. He was about to stop his crew from attempting to purchase the handgun when his omnitool went off, showing the caller as from Chalua Hospital.
"Hello, is this Nihlus Kryik?" the asari caller asked.
"It is," he replied.
"I'm calling regarding your, ah, upcoming surgery. I have a representative from the Alliance with me, and we have important information to discuss; we'd appreciate it if you could make your way here as soon as possible, though if you're not free at the moment we'd be happy to schedule something."
"I'm free - I'll be there as soon as possible. Shouldn't take more than half an hour or so." He looked up and cleared his throat. "Guys, I've gotta head back to the hospital - I'll see you people back on the ship, alright?"
"Hospital? Is everything alright?" Viiste asked, her expression concerned.
"Yeah, I'm alright - just a checkup thing I gotta do."
"Well, take care anyways, and it was nice seeing you again," Ishera said.
"We'll grab your stuff for you," Itok said, waving. "You taking the car?"
"Nah, makes it easier for you guys to stash the stuff in the car on the way back to the ship. I'll transit." Nihlus made his way out to the front of the store; Wrex was reading something on his omnitool, and grunted as he noticed Nihlus leaving. He got up and unlatched the door, then turned to Nihlus.
"Kryik."
"Wrex." Nihlus nodded at Wrex, who nodded back; it was a short walk to the nearest shuttle station, and fifteen minutes later Nihlus found himself outside Chalua Hostpial again. He entered the building, spoke to someone at the intake window and was directed into the rear of the hospital. Arriving outside the meeting room he'd been told to go to. He knocked and a human voice told him to enter - he did so, revealing a room with a conference table where several doctors, both from the Citadel and the Alliance, were seated.
"Ah, Mr. Kryik," a binary doctor said, "please have a seat wherever you'd like." Nihlus sat down, and sighed.
"Good news, I hope?"
"Actually," a turian doctor replied, "fantastic news. With the help of time-dilated binary experts, your own brain scans and our own medical knowledge, the surgery shouldn't take more than an hour or so. You'll be implanted with a modified version of the standard civilian port; for now, it'll be a one-way transfer of information."
"That way," a human doctor continued, "there'll be no way for the port to cause any damage via information flow - we can only scan and extract memories. Plus, it'll make any future upgrades - should you decide to get them - easier to install. Preperations for the procedure will take a few hours at most."
"We will need you to make sure you don't eat or drink for about six hours before the surgery," the turian doctor continued. "Do you think it'd be possible to fulfill those requirements for tomorrow?"
Nihlus sighed. "Yeah, I can do that. My schedule's totally free."
"Excellent," the binary doctor said, clapping his hands together. "If all goes well, we should be able to have you out the door tomorrow evening with a brand new port installed. Please be at Chalua Hospital tomorrow morning at 10AM; we'll aim to have you in pre-op by noon."
Nihlus simply grumbled in acknowledgement and left the room.
