"There's an ocean and he chose here to fucking crash land?" Maxine stood with her hands on her hips as Fel crawled from the wreckage of his skycar.

He decided to aim for a park and ended up hitting a few trees on his way down, the skycar burrowed halfway into the dirt like a half sunken ship with it's captain struggling to stay above water as he dug through the dirt and grass one claw-like hand at a time

"I guess we'll find out why in a minute." Sai'ira walked over to him and laid the turian over with her foot. With a garbled grunt he lay on his back Sai'ira didn't hear what he said, she just heard the shot. It made her jump as she quickly felt herself for a bullet wound then looked down, Fel was holding a pistol in his right hand. He went limp with no other sound, Max let out an exhale she had been holding in as she holstered her pistol. The wind picked up with the trees tossing and turning, a storm was coming.

"Shit! You stupid..." Sai'ira put her hand to her forehead she started to feel sore from the beating she took. "That would've been useful earlier." She nodded towards Max.

"He had a gun, and we handled it."

"I almost didn't." Sai'ira pointed to her knife wounds.

"I wasn't going to shoot my frie-"

"Yeah some friends."

"It's how things are done, they don't send enemies to kill you...they bring you in with a smile, like a lamb to slaughter."

"Oh Goddess, are you listening to yourself? That's messed up, you said Dh'elia treats her people like pawns, especially if they're not asari? Well what do you think she'll do to you?"

"You're welcome."

Sai'ira shook her head, " look I'm just trying to understand what the hell is going on, I'm tired of being surprised we need to be ahead of the curb. Besides you said it yourself Dh'elia and E'nea are old war buddies where do you think you fit into that ranking?"

"I..." Max's eyes trailed off for a moment, "I've got a place we can lay low and plan."

"Does anyone else know about it?"

"No one that would want to kill us." Max replied as she walked back to her Skycar.

"Great." Sai'ira muttered as he new metric for safe was 'no one who wants to kill her'. She looked back at Fels now lifeless eyes with a sigh she knelt down and closed them. "Find peace in the embrace of the Goddess." When she stood up she heard the sky rumble as the air became thick she clutched her side as she walked back to the skycar.

Far out on the edge of town where the skylanes ended and Max could fly how she wanted is where they went. Past the city strips and grids and well past the deep, industrial underbelly of New Horizon on the opposite coastline and much further southeast of the Pantheon they landed on a deteriorating patch of asphalt in front of a slightly less derelict garage with three ports one of them occupied. With the sun clouded as the rain began to follow the thunder at their backs, they approached the entrance - a small office outlet with a robot sitting behind the front desk, a basic secretarial android unit that looked like it was from 2197 even the DMVs on Earth use holograms. There was an old man reading a magazine from a stack on a beat up coffee table and before Maxine approached the android she turned around.

"Real quick."

"What now?"

"Before we do anything just know that Ashoro doesn't like people she lives out here for a reason, get me?"

"Does she have stitches? Because I don't think that extra dose of medi-gel is going to keep me on my feet all day." Sai'ira gently rubbed her side where Daelek slashed her, now that it began to rain she thought about how she left her jacket in the back hall of the pub.

"If you are seeking medical attention I can call an ambulance." The digital voice of the android rang from the office as Sai'ira shook her head.

"Uh, no thanks." Sai'ira replied as she followed Max into the garage where a pair of legs stuck out from underneath an old rusty van.

"Ash?" Max called as they approached, no answer. "Ashoro?" Still no response. Maxine sighed as she looked over to Sai'ira, shaking her head as she kicked Ashoros feet. The sound of tinkering underneath the van stopped and a copper hand appeared gripping the undercarriage sliding out was a minor surprise to Sai'ira as drell were rarely seen away from Kahje. She sat up and set her headphones carefully around her neck while removing a pack of cigarettes from her loose fitting shirt pocket.

"What do you want?" With a flicker of light flashing against her void-like eyes Ashoro stood up and immediately eyed Sai'ira.

"Want? Ash, can't an old friend just stop by and say hi?"

The drells frills on the side of her head moved as she raised her eye brows, blowing smoke from her nostrils. Then she looked puzzled as her attention turned to Maxine's skycar in front of the office after a long drag and eyeing the shuttle she turned back to Max looking more concerned.

"What did you do?"

"Ash-"

"Don't Ash me, your car's fine so you're either in deep or need something even more difficult."

"Listen we just need a place to lay low...two days at the most."

"Two days huh? What's her story?"

"This is Sai'ira-"

"Why is she bleeding?"

"Oh," Sai'ira looked down at her side she remembered thinking the cut wasn't that bad but now it began to sting, the medi-gel should've cleaned the wound but perhaps the extra hits to the head didn't quite help either.

"Don't worry doll, I can fix that too. I'm pretty much done with this anyway you can take her to my place." She eyed Sai'ira conspicuously, immediately distrusting her before she could get a word out Ashoro replaced the cigarette between her lips before walking towards the office.

Max motioned towards a back door, stepping outside Sai'ira expected to see a house or perhaps even a prefab but instead she saw a small shack attached to the garage. Max press her thumb to the side of the door and it opened inside was an entrance to what Sai'ira assumed was a bunker, two doors angled on a concrete slab in the floor that popped open as soon as Max waved her omni-tool.

"She knows that she's the lizard person right?" Sai'ira felt obligated to it out as they stepped into the bunker.

"Be polite I mean it, I know you like to tear up every establishment you enter but not this one, Ashoro and I go way back."

"Only the one's I get assaulted in." Sai'ira reminded her as they stopped in front of another door at the end of the staircase.

"Seriously?"

"Shut up." Maxine pressing her thumb against another scanner as the doors opened Sai'ira was pleasantly surprised as she half expected stacks of cans, guns, and medical supplies enough to last a nuclear winter. However the bunker itself was more of a clean adobe style house sporting some decorative house plants along with wood floors and a few polished support beams across the ceiling (most likely for style than actual structural integrity) the living room was a large oval connected with the dining room to her immediate right and a large fireplace to her left. Past the circular doorway was the kitchen with another android polishing the 'L' shaped counter. Sai'ira noticed that there was even a window built into the cliffside she didn't think they were that close to the shore, upon further inspection she saw a balcony that she wasn't quite sure how to access as there was no door.

"Hey no leaking on my floors." Ash said as she walked into the kitchen presumably from another entrance. "Comon I've got med supplies in the other room."

"There, I'm not even going to ask." Ashoro put the stich kit back in the case save for the needle that had to be sterilized of asari blood. The thunder was good close now, Ash was nice enough to give Sai'ira a towel to wrap around herself as she stitched her wound.

"You fix people and machines?" Sai'ira asled hoping off the retractable table in what could only be described as a vestibule filled with emergency equipment, even a few rifles sitting on magni-racks on the walls as well as a small sink that Ashoro began to wash her hands in.

"The hanar put a fair amount of time into our education. I'm a mechanical engineer by trade but took field medicine as a elective. Flesh wounds are fairly easy to understand once you diagnose the damage."

"Guess you're right."

"Course I am...er um...go ahead and relax, I've got a few spare clothes that aren't covered in blood lying around."

Ashoro left the room with Sai'ira following her into the kitchen and saw Maxine outside the window on the balcony watching the waves caught between the lightning and rocky shore below the balcony.

"Just wave your hand over the center." Ashoro said as she opened the refrigerator.

Doing so she watched as the window split in two and allowed for her to step through. Maxine tilted her head as she stepped out onto the balcony Sai'ira leaning on her right arm as the other elbow had just been bandaged she watched the waves with Max seemed more and more distraught by the hour with the storm becoming increasingly more intense they watched it unfold from the safe haven while they still could.

"Now that we're in the clear, please tell me that Fel wasn't lying and actually had access to the broker."

"He did." Fel's death complicated things even further at least where E'nea is concerned. Sai'ira was getting tired of barely making it through half of these 'encounters' and for some reason they all involved getting beaten up, the more she learned about New Horizon the more she saw that it's held together by backroom dealings and some pseudo-machiavellian code that all of E'neas gangsters keep like a bible. Ironically they all seem to regard it as much as the holy book as well.

"With Fel dead we'll have to find another contact." Sai'ira mentioned as Maxine's gaze remained on the waves crashing against the jagged shore and cliff base. She could see why someone would set up shop here especially if you didn't care for people.

"He ah, also told me to go to Kriek."

Maxine's head fell into her hands as she stood up from the railing massaging her temples. "You mean the city whose airspace has been seized by the Alliance?"

"Is it?" She genuinely didn't know then again a communication black out would also make sense as that is what normally follows seizing airspace that and perhaps E'nea wants it downplayed as much as possible.

"For the public It's a matter of conjecture, in reality the Alliance believes that we're making dreadnoughts without first acquiring treaties to do so."

"The Federation is an independent government, why or how would the Alliance have the right to do something like that?"

"You're over one hundred years old and you don't have an answer?"

"No, I simply don't attribute malice when ignorance or stupidity are easier answers."

"Shepard's razor?"

"Something like that, anyway seeing as we don't have a broker contact to strong arm...how do we get there?"

Max sighed as the balcony door slid open as Ashoro leaned on the door way folding her arms.

"I hope you guys don't mind but I ordered out, I don't get a lot of guests. Normally just Max so..."

Sai'ira watched as she compulsory fumbled for a cigarette, turning to see Max watching her carefully and with a note of apprehension as she ran her hand against the back of her neck.

"Say, Ash?"

"Fuck off I bought you dinner." Smoke leaving the corner of her pearlescent lips.

"I can cover that."

"Eighty-two creds."

"What did you get?"

"Delivery fees are a bitch." The drell shrugged.

Shaking her head Max replied, "can I borrow the Fox?"

"For?"

"Smuggling, we need to get to Kriek."

Sai'ira always thought that drell faces looked like they were carved from stone. Stoic in nature they're normally hard to read even though Ashoro seems more relaxed than the average drell. She born a sense of confidence that came with a knowledge of self that a surprisingly few amount of people have, Sai'ira found it to be a respectable trait.

"I don't know Maxy, you've uh, got a lot of back pay. Besides can't your boss just get you there?"

"Well...about that."

"If there's one hint of those gangsters at my god damn door you're out, no questions." She warned as she took a drag.

"It's just better that no one knows where we are right now-ugh." Sai'ira watched the frustration cross Maxine's face as she ran her hands against her face. "I have to call in, let her know what happened."

"I can wait inside." Sai'ira said walking back into the kitchen.

"If she's going to ice you tell her to at least do it herself."

"Not now Ash."

Ruen sat at the counter It was quiet and they couldn't hear Max outside as she spoke.

"What's you're stake in this anyway?" Ashoro asked her.

"In what? Kriek? or E'neas government?"

"Eneas government. That's a hell'va way to put it. I meant Kriek though, What's in Kriek? Aside from the Alliance blackout."

"As of today we're officially being pulled in multiple directions E'nea wants us to establish contact with the Shadow Broker-you know who that is?"

"I'm aware."

"Well he/she/it wants me to go to Kriek, as you know there's a travel ban thanks to the Alliance-er technically the council but it's all Alliance forces. This is all just some stupid power play anyway-Tom told me as much."

"Who?"

"A friend...I guess." She recalled the annoyingly awkward dance at the gala with him and began to wonder if the "friend" who didn't show was just some kind of ploy.

"Sounds like a duche."

"Kind of, yeah."

The balcony window slid open and Max stepped through looking distraught as she wiped sweat from her forehead.

"Jesus Ash, you have to keep it this hot in here?"

"I'm a reptile."

"Still... mind if I chill the guest room."

"You know where it is." Max stopped herself before turning to Sai'ira.

"Looks like we're stuck here for a few days. Dh'elia isn't happy about Fel so we're going to have to stay underground."

"For how long?" Sai'ira asked before Ashoro.

"Until Dh'elia decides to forgive and forget...a week? I don't know." Ashoro seemed to already forget the two day time frame mentioned earlier as she shook her head.

"Fine, Fine. Whenever you want the Fox, she's yours."

"Thanks." Sai'ira hadn't seen a genuine smile cross Max's lips once, but the wary smirk on Ashoros lips seem to do the trick. She stood up to follow, after all if they were going stick around she might as well get that change of clothes.