The Adventures of the Lucen:
The VykurCorp Conspiracy
Chapter One: Morning Aboard the Lucen
Pulling her head out of the pile of junk food wrappers and bags, Nelanax Catonis woke up from her slumber. It had been a long night of watching awesome action vids, although everyone had left by midnight galactic standard time. She supposed she couldn't blame them, they just didn't have the stamina for a movie marathon like she did. Ah well, at least it had been a fun night. Vik had even prevented himself from going on about whatever systemic oppression screed he had brewing in his head. She still hadn't gotten Liara drunk enough to make her kiss her though. That Asari was almost impossible.
Nel briefly pondered whether or not she should get up. Her head still felt like it needed to go back to the pillow on the sofa. Then again, it was probably pretty late in the morning and chances were Liara would tell her to get up anyway. She needed to stretch her legs anyway she supposed. She pulled herself out of the mess of empty snack bags and crumbs that had formed around her. As she prepared to step down off the sofa she was careful to check with her foot there weren't any cans or bottles in her way. She learned the hard way to be wary of that when she tripped on one getting up.
It was times like this she briefly considered being less of a slob and throwing her trash away more regularly. That seemed like too much work for the moment though, so she pushed that thought aside, got up and headed towards a nearby mirror. She needed to be sure her face wasn't covered in crumbs or something else embarrassing. She would not go around looking like a idiot if she could help it. She smoothed her fingers across her face, following the red tribal tattoos that adorned it. The upside-down U with lines stretching out from to every corner of her face, an old symbol of an even older colony her family hailed from. The markings were a symbol of pride for all turians, but she took particular reverence in hers. She always made sure to touch up any wear or tear on it when she could. It was one of the few cleanliness rituals she took part in. Everything seemed in order today at least.
She finished with the mirror and opened her omni-tool to check the extranet for news. She didn't expect to find much info on their various activities, Liara was trying to keep them out of the limelight as much as possible. You weren't much of a Shadow Broker if you couldn't keep your business in the shadows.
It still felt weird to Nel, even after having a good while to soak it in. She was working for the Shadow Broker, well at least the most recent person to hold that title as she understood it. Liara had killed the last jackass who had owned that name and took his title. Thing was, barely anyone knew that, not even the other Shadownet Mercs aboard. They all thought she was his new right hand Asari and he was running this operation. It felt cool being trusted with a big secret like that, part of her liked to think it was because Liara was warming up to her. Course, she had told the others the truth too, so she wasn't that special. She hadn't done it lightly either, it was rebuild their trust with her, cement herself as the leader of this crazy crew they had aboard and bring them together as a team.
And they were a team, maybe not on the level of the crew of the Normandy were, but they did alright for themselves. It had been a rocky start of course, she knew that better than anyone. After all, she had come aboard this ship as both a former employee of their current adversaries and a secret addict. Of course, she hadn't been addicted to just any drug, but a synthetic one her own government had cooked up. Things went bad though, as they did with that kind of crap. People died, partially because of her, mostly because of the juice.
That was behind her now though, Liara had seen to that. The forced detox was excruciating, only slightly helped by some special treatments the medics gave her. Still felt like a waking nightmare working through withdrawal. Vomiting, muscle pain, skull-splitting headaches, and that was just the start. In the end, it was worth the pain though. She had taken the juice for so long, trying to compensate for things, be better a soldier and all that. Instead she had just become dependent on the stuff, it held her back. Now she was clean, no more juice. Of course, she'd be lying to herself if she said she never had the craving now and again. Getting sober was a process after all. She refused to go back though, she had a good thing going here on this ship, on this team. She wasn't going to put it at risk again.
As she scrolled through the regular boring old headlines, she eventually spotted a fun one. News on various colonies setting up for Unification Day, the biggest holiday within the Turian Hierarchy. It was Nel's favorite herself, the day the Turian race united itself once and for all. When the Hierarchy itself truly took form with the end of the Unification Wars. Her people had nearly torn themselves apart, bickering over petty colony and tribal rivalries. When the Hierarchy finally stepped in, they quashed the various separatist movements with ease, ending their senseless anarchy and rebellion. The age of infighting and separatism had ended, their people were reborn from the ashes of war. Ever since that day, loyal Turians all over the galaxy celebrated the unity of their people with reverence and pride.
From the sound of things, Palaven was gearing up for a major celebration in the capital city. Parades, speeches, military demonstrations, food, songs, dancing, Vids on outside holoscreens, air shows, and of course fireworks. It was still a few weeks away, but Nel could hardly wait. Sure, she probably couldn't be there to celebrate, what with her new job here and everything, but she could still watch the military parade live and the Fireworks would be recorded too. That was really all she needed.
The thoughts of the holiday brought to mind nostalgia and feelings of home. She wondered if she should act upon on them. Could it really hurt to send a vid mail or call? She shook the thoughts out of her head quickly. No, it would hurt. She had nothing to really say anyway. Maybe to her mom, but no one else. She was in no mood for disapproval or disappointing glares or whatever was in store for her if she did that. Nel had had enough pain in her life for the moment, she wouldn't add to it.
She turned off the omni-tool and brought herself back to the here and now.
"Breakfast would be good I guess," she considered. "Let's see what's on order for today."
She exited her room and made her way to the mess hall. When she got there, she found the place was currently taken over by the onboard krogan contingent. Watching the big humpbacked saurian-like creatures arm wrestle, butt heads and eat their food like giant messy toddlers almost ruined Nel's appetite. She just shrugged it off though, she could get her food and eat somewhere else if she wanted. Probably for the best, you did not want to get in the middle of a pack of krogan while they were eating.
She wasn't really afraid of them, it's just she knew they weren't big fans of her. Not many krogan liked turians, their species didn't have the best history. Her people kinda sorta sterilized them all. However, she imagined even with that animosity they were going to do anything to her except give her some unpleseant stares. These krogan were here for a different purpose, muscle against the real enemy they were fighting, one that was far more worthy of getting their heads smashed in than any turian.
As went up to the counter to get her food, she recalled who that enemy was. The Covenant, a group of alien races banded together under some religious doctrine. One that told them that they were the heirs to the legacy of their Gods and that humans needed to be exterminated. All in all, not the friendliest of bunches. Nel knew that firsthand, she had worked with some of them for awhile, specifically training some of their units. She hadn't known what exactly they were, specifically that they had come from beyond a wormhole that led to another dimension.
She also hadn't realized what she was getting into initially because she was recruited by a mercenary outfit and a military unit of batarians. The latter were a black ops unit who, and at the time she was unaware of this, were masquarading as a band of rogue terrorists. They actually had backing from their government, the Batarian Hegemony. The mercenary outfit was Blood Pack, which probably should've been a bit odd in hindsight considering that they were made of angry krogan in general. They had both allied themselves with the Covenant in some sort of pact. The Covies would help them out with their agenda while the batarians assisted the Covenant in their own. Said agenda was about them basically taking over the galaxy. Typical load of bad guy bullshit, right?
Except that was only part of the plan. Both groups were actually just pawns, here to sow galactic disorder and make things easier for the real threat. Evil aeons old giant machines of death called Reapers, who apparently were just about ready to make their comeback tour to slaughter and or harvest all life in the galaxy. So, typical xenocidal bad guy bullshit.
Nel had only learned all this by teaming up with Liara's crew. It was a rocky start, but they showed her that she was working for the bad guys, specifically that they were using slaves as medical test subjects. Big no-no in her contract, so she terminated it right there and joined up with the hot blue asari and her band of mismatched potential galactic saviours. Despite the fact Nel had initially shot at them a few times when they first met, they eventually warmed up to her and she in turn proved herself a valuable soldier in their cause. Well, once she dumped the juice of course, but still.
As she carefully moved through the rowdy gathering of krogan, she spotted the most significant one among their ranks. Urdnot Wrex, second in command so to speak of these fine soldiers. Although, if you asked one of the said krogan soldiers they'd say he was actually in charge. Whatever suited them, they probably wouldn't take orders from an asari, not directly anyway. They had to listen to Wrex though, he was the leader of Clan Urdnot after all. That made him the Chieftain of head clan among the krogan tribes on Tuchanka, their homeworld. Disobeying him would not be wise.
Nel mostly knew Wrex as the badass krogan who had helped Commander Shepard alongside Liara during that whole Rogue Spectre incident a couple years. How he had gone from mercenary to tribal leader she didn't know, but she did know he was a awesome as the stories claimed. When he and his men discovered the Covenant were messing with Urdnot's power base, they jumped at the chance to take them down.
It helped that the Covies were strong enemies, that was a big thing for krogan, finding a worthy challenge. Wrex had used that to convince a small unit of troops to come along with him and Liara in their mission to stop the Covenant and their newfound allies. To his men, Wrex was just leading a warband to take down a challenging adversary that threatened their way of life. Again, whatever made it easier for them to accept working with aliens, Nel supposed.
"Morning, Wrex," Nel greeted as she approached the krogan leader. "How's breakfast? It's the most important meal of the day, after all. It should at the very least taste good."
Wrex grimaced slightly at her. Yeah, he wasn't her biggest fan. Not because she was turian, but because he still wasn't really sure about her position on this team. She didn't take much personal offence, Wrex was pretty skeptical of everyone Liara had brought aboard. He had softened a little on them all, but she was still on his watch list because of her past as a junkie. Fair enough reason, she supposed. Then again, she knew it was really about watching out for Liara and not really about her personally. The asari and him were close friends. Nel thought it was something more, but Liara insisted it wasn't. She had initially thought that meant Wrex was fair game. No dice, because Wrex apparently would rather chop it off than ever consider the thought of sticking it in her.
Oh well, Nel didn't let that deter her. Krogan weren't the only ones who liked a challenge and she'd win the old reptile's respect eventually. That probably wouldn't lead to anything, but one step at a time.
"It's good," Wrex assured. "Although it doesn't nearly taste as hardy as the chow back home. I'd offer you some to taste for yourself, but different amino acids and all. You'd probably throw up."
"Probably," Nel agreed. "I'm not staying long anyway. Probably going to eat down in the rec room. Have you seen Liara by the way?"
Wrex just shook his head.
"She's been held up in her office for awhile," he explained. "Sounds pretty important. Chances are you'll hear about it before the day is over. So enjoy your food while you can."
A subtle hint that they might have a mission. Neat, Nel thought, she was eager to bust some heads open again. Nel waved goodbye to Wrex and he halfheartedly returned it. Well, it was better than an annoyed grunt. She decided to make her way to the rec room and away from the hungry krogan chowing down on their breakfast. No sense in bothering Liara right now, she wasn't in the talking mood when she was going over intel in her office. She'd check in with the asari later, right now she just wanted to enjoy her food in relative peace.
She didn't expect to arrive at the rec room and find there was a small crowd there as well though. They weren't a pack of angry krogan, but there was a sizable portion of them. Shadownet Mercs were Liara's main strike force for major operations. They were mostly pooled from ex-military or Colonial Militia from various species. Mostly human though, for being relatively new species to the galactic playing field they sure spread out fast.
Liara had recruited most of them after her hostile takeover over Shadownet had left a considerable dent in their forces. The guys aboard the Lucen were the ones Liara believed she could trust the most. They didn't know she was the Shadow Broker, but they respected her authority and were loyal to her. Even if they thought she was just the second in command, to them she was still the one who spoke for the real boss. Perhaps one day they'd learn the truth, maybe when Liara's position as the infamous Shadow Broker was a lot more secure.
The group in the rec room were currently surrounding another member of the ground team, a salarian in a sleek black outfit and helmet that was slightly swept back. This was Saya Empa, or as Nel called him, the badass ninja frog. Technically, he was only here on loan. He didn't work for Liara, he worked for STG. Apparently Liara encountered him on a mission and they basically sent him along to keep an eye on the operation they were running here. STG didn't like the Covenant making power plays in the galaxy anymore than anyone else did. If Liara was going to hit them they wanted to know what was going down obviously.
There were a few other things peculiar about Saya. For one he routinely fought with a sweet looking sword, the Shiakala. It was an ancient salarian weapon remade for the modern age, with a stronger, sharper metal blade that was further weaponized with an active electrical current that could be turned on and off. Might seem overkill, but when you consider that STG routinely went up against Krogan mercenaries who could shrug off a ton of shredder rounds from a machine gun, well then overkill made sense. Oh, it could also secrete a ballistic gel across the blade that could be spread onto surfaces and detonated remotely. All in all, Nel wished she had one. Or failing that, a gun that shot swords similar to it.
The other peculiar thing was that Saya was mute. Something about a pissed off asshole krogan crushing his windpipe. Took him a long time to recover, apparently cost him the chance of being a Council Spectre. Shame really, but it didn't seem to slow him down or find other ways of communicating. Nel got the impression he wouldn't have said much even with his voice though. Dude was a stone cold professional and he rarely made with the casual conversation, or what would amount to such a thing for him. If he signed anything with his hands or wrote anything down to speak, he would usually do so with Liara. Nel got the feeling he didn't think much of anyone else below his skill grade.
Although if this scene was any indication he had softened a little. He was playing a human game, checkers Nel believed it was called. Currently he was jumping over a few of the red chips with his black ones. Of course he picked black, she thought. She wasn't really sure on the rules, but given there were more black chips on the board then red ones the odds were that Saya was winning.
"How the hell did he get so good so fast?" One of the mercs whispered to his buddy. "He's never played this before."
"Must be the typical salarian super smarts," he replied.
The guy currently playing Saya soon lost his last piece and groaned aloud.
"You know, I'm starting to think not playing to the cliche was a bad idea," he admitted. "We really should've picked chess."
"Dude, none of us good at that one anyway," a friend replied. "What makes you think we'd be doing any better if we had picked that one? Now move over, my turn. I think I got a winning strategy"
Saya signed a few quick words. Remembering what Liara had forced her to memorize about Salarian sign language, Nel was able to figure it out pretty quickly. "So did everyone else so far," was the basic gist of his response to the confident Shadownet Operative.
Nel briefly walked over to the group, still a bit curious over all this. Saya never struck her as this social. Did he just really enjoy kicking other people's ass at board games this much?
"I figured you'd be meditating now, Empa," she told him. "What's with the humiliation lineup?"
"Hey, he's only beat five of us so far," argued one of mercs.
Saya simply signed a quick few words in response, "games keep me sharp" was what he essentially spelled out.
"Whatever floats your boat, I guess," Nel relented. "I hope no one's betting against you at this point."
"Hot streaks don't last, you'll see," one of the Shadownet mercs said with a bit of a glare.
Nel shook her head and decided to leave Saya to his game. At least with all of them so busy trying to beat one salarian at a silly kid's game it left a lot of open space for her to find a place to sit and eat. She would've just chosen a different table if she hadn't spotted Vik and Kayap sitting nearby playing video games on the holoscreen.
"Is this how you hack doors in the field, Vik?" Kayap asked, cocking his head at the screen.
"It's simplified for people who aren't computer experts, Kay," the quarian assured him. "It's a lot harder than just matching the right wires or scrolling through pictures. Now just keep healing that hacked turret, we'll be inside the server room in five seconds."
Nel could see they were playing some kind of kind of co-op infiltration game. Probably the latest in the "System Breaker" series, a bunch of games about a group of hacker freedom fighters trying to liberate their system from corrupt corporations by revealing the truth of said corruption. That seemed like the game that would be right up Vik's alley. The quarian never shut up about that kind of thing.
Vik was odd, even for a quarian. He said he wasn't an exile, but he had fled the Migrant Fleet of his own accord. She wasn't aware they could just do that. As far as she was knew, the guy believed he was being hunted by some galaxy wide conspiracy, or conspiracies, whatever she didn't pay attention to his rants. Liara probably knew more about what Vik's issue was, something in his past that went south very badly. She supposed she could understand how that was like.
Point was, whatever the reason, Vik believed in all sorts of messed up theories on how the galaxy functioned. Although, apparently, he was far more justified in believing those theories than most others. After all, they were fighting an galactic wide conspiracy between batarians and the Covenant. Nel still wasn't sure if him being right was just dumb luck though.
Her and Vik, well, they didn't get along too well. It was worse at the start of this though. She couldn't stand the preachy little anarchist, always going off about every fucking problem he had with everything. Governments, corporations, the media, wars, drugs, almost everything seemed to be part of a conspiracy. She probably didn't help things though, admittedly, antagonizing him constantly.
As time went on though, she kinda grew more respect for the nut. Yeah, he had problems, but she wasn't in that much of a position to judge him. Not after realizing that being a junkie didn't give her much leeway to criticize. Plus, despite his paranoia, he did watch her back more often than she probably deserved after treating him like garbage since they met. She decided she'd ease up on him a little, if only for the good of the team.
Vik still got along way more with Kayap, the most peculiar of this little squad. Like Nel, he had once worked for the bad guys. Unlike Nel, Kayap wasn't from around here. He was something they called an unggoy, a methane breathing stubby little creature that acted as the Covenant's cannon fodder. They gave them guns, kicked them onto the frontlines and let them die in droves to soften their opponents up. Kayap had been fortunate enough to survive all sorts of suicide runs until he met up with Liara during an operation that was targeted against her.
It ended badly for Kayap's squad, not so much for Kayap though as Liara took the poor alien in. He effectively defected and started helping her out. He wasn't the smartest or even bravest of them, but he could handle himself in a fight. Also he was strangely proficient with heavy ordinance, one wouldn't think so of the little guy but he could handle a rocket launcher pretty decently.
He didn't like fighting, but he liked Liara. The asari actually treated him with dignity, like he was a feeling thinking thing and not garbage to be thrown away. In return he was loyal enough to Liara, who had given him a shot at a better life, that he actually volunteered to fight for her cause. What a shock, Nel thought, being nice to someone instead of shitty made a more loyal and potentially braver soldier. The Covenant didn't seem to pick up on that bleedingly obvious bit of common sense.
Vik got along with Kayap mainly because, out of everyone on the ship, they could actually identify with each other better. Quarians weren't exactly a popular race among a lot of alien species for one reason or another. Both of them found some solace in their shared plight of feeling downtrodden and oppressed. So they had a lot in common, but Kay also listened to him more than others. Which kinda cast him in the role of teacher at times. Long and short of it, they just liked keeping each other company at this point. Nel was fine with that, whatever suited them. She just wished that Vik didn't fill Kayap's head full of the same crazy shit he kept spouting.
"System Breakers?" Nel asked, looking on over their shoulders.
"Newest release," Vik replied. "Just downloaded it. Good morning by the way, surprised you're up. Usually you sleep in."
"Yeah well, I'm antsy," she admitted. "We haven't done much of anything since we took that Relay Ship."
The Relay Ship was Nel's short name for the 'Inter-dimensional Communications Relay Vessel' that they had been hunting for a good long while. The search for it got them into a whole heap of trouble, but it was worth it. By taking it they had cut the Covenant off from their home base back in their original dimension. They wouldn't be able to get updates or request reinforcements nearly as fast as they could anymore. Liara though, she could talk to Commander Shepard, who was currently kicking Covenant ass over in their home universe. Technically, they didn't own the Relay Ship, that was the property of Omega Station crime lord Aria T'Loak. Liara had a lot of colorful contacts, the Omega Queen was not that surprising an addition to her list of acquaintances.
"We'll get something eventually," Vik assured. "I hear Liara has been in her office all morning."
"Yeah I know, probably talking to Shepard or something," Nel told him. "Any ideas on who the target is?"
"From what Wrex keeps saying, Liara wants to dismantle the Covenant and Batarian alliance," Vik explained. "I'm thinking we're hitting VykurCorp."
Nel rolled her eyes.
"You think or you hope?" She asked, only slightly incredulously.
"Considering they're apparently backing the Turian Separatist movements, I'm surprised you're asking me that," he said in curt response. "I figured you'd want a bigger piece of them."
VykurCrop was a turian mega corporation, one that was secretly supplying the Covenant under the table. Only recently they had discovered the plan was bigger than that. For some reason, the chief CEO at the head of this initiative, Spadivus Orukuri, was also supplying the burgeoning Separatist movement against the Hierarchy. Even after the Unification War ended some of them were still around, still clinging to the idea of a disunited turian people. Backward yokel fuckers that they were, they never had substantial backing. It was weird that a chief supplier of the Turian military was giving them guns. What Orukuri was doing, no one could say for the moment, but the consensus was it wasn't good for anyone.
"I'm just still not sure this is the entire company, Orukuri is a CEO on the board, but he's not the president," she reminded Vik. "Doesn't mean I won't kick his head in when we eventually catch up to him."
"Just be hopeful he doesn't get too far along in whatever the hell he's doing," Vik cautioned. "As much as I may have problems with the Hierarchy, the Separatist aren't much better with their general xenophobia."
This was a reminder to Nel that Vik wasn't so bad. At least they could agree on few things.
"Why do these Separatists hate the Hierarchy so much?" Kayap asked curiously. "They do something wrong to them?"
"It's mostly a bunch of stupid politics, Kay," Vik assured, his eyes still on the game. "A bunch of idiots a long time ago thought they'd be better off running their colonies their way without the people on the homeworld bothering them. Instead all the colonies started fighting each other until the Hierarchy decided to step in when they were exhausted and brought them in line. Another classic conflict where special interests trumped any real meaning behind the cause."
Vik's history lesson was not as glowing as her old history teachers had made it, but it was partially accurate. She didn't like that last bit though.
"Hey, there was a good cause," Nel reminded him. "One I think you'd appreciate, keeping the Turian people together."
"Through letting them kill each other until they're too weak to actually oppose you anymore?" Vik asked skeptically. "No offense, Nel, but that's not exactly a satisfying resolution to things. Your government didn't really address the problem, you just let it destroy itself."
"It worked, that's all that matters," Nel insisted. "The Hierarchy survived and showed everyone what their little revolution attempts were worth, practically less than shit. The Hierarchy remained united and won, simple as that."
"I'm just saying, you wouldn't have had as many separatist cells out there today if you addressed the reasons it ever got to that point," Vik informed her. "Offering more independence to colonies and better support from the home systems would have kept them from killing each other like they did. And that's just a few issues you could've tried to resolve. But your government chose subterfuge over actual diplomacy."
He was being unfair again, but Nel did not want to get into an argument this early. Besides, there wasn't much to argue over. They really could've done more to stamp out these Separatists in recent years. The Hierarchy was getting a bit lax in dealing with them. They weren't considered as big a threat as other things it seemed. Maybe that was the window Orukuri was currently exploiting.
"I guess you wouldn't be interested in celebrating Unification Day with me then?" Nel asked.
"Not really, sorry," Vik apologized. "To be honest, watching one of your vids is more than enough turian patriotism than I can stomach for awhile."
"Fair enough," Nel shrugged. "Thanks for at least giving them a shot."
"I'm nothing if not open-minded," Vik assured.
Yeah, she noticed, it was why he believed in every crazy friggin thing in the galaxy. She looked back to Kayap.
"As for your original question, Kay," she began, "We didn't really do anything to them, they just think they can run shit better than a central government. Not realizing that they can't really function on their own and have never been able to. They'll tell you it's about independence, but they really just want to be free to take out their petty grievances on one another."
"Oh, I get it now," Kayap reasoned. "It's a personal agenda advanced through lying about intention. Like how the big food companies try to act like they are more health conscious when in reality they're just using fear of obesity to get you to drink mind altering drugs that keep you consuming."
Nel looked at Kayap weirdly, and then shot glare to Vik.
"The actual fuck, dude?" She asked. "What in the hell are you teaching him?"
"I'm teaching him how things really work," Vik argued. "No one else will. It's not like you can trust the media, they're in on it. They purposely make educational channels report wrong facts and support junk shows like 'Intergalactic Visitations' to discredit anyone who actually talks about the truth."
Kayap suddenly turned around.
"Hey, that reminds me," he said. "Did you know that salarian genetic tampering happened a ton on Earth two centuries ago? They were failed attempts at creating a super soldier. It supposedly involved sticking things up people's butts."
"Oh spirits," Nel said placing her claw to her face. "You really are contaminating him with your crazy."
"Am not," Vik replied insistently. "I just want to be sure he knows these things. It's important."
"Yes, we all want to know about STG's butt experiments on humans," Nel said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "I'm going to eat before you make me prematurely throw up. Enjoy your game, you two. Hopefully the evil shadow government isn't monitoring it for use in training people to be like super hackers or whatever."
"Don't be ridiculous," Vik laughed. "They already have illegal AIs to do that for them. It's how they know everything at all times."
Sometimes it was really hard to tell if Vik was just humoring her. Whatever the case, she decided it was probably best to let him believe whatever he wanted. So long as his insane paranoia gave him the ability to hack doors and subvert security for them, she was fine. She was going to have to struggle not to think about humans getting stuff shoved up their asses. It would probably make for an interesting image in private, but not when she was trying to eat. There was time and a place for everything after all.
After her breakfast she started making her way to Liara's office. She didn't think she'd get to see her, but she'd wait outside the door until she made an appearance. The asari was getting ready for something big and she wanted to know what. To her surprise she didn't have to wait long, as Liara was stepping out of her office, data pad in hand. She quickly noticed Nel, slurping on her soda from a straw.
"Isn't it a bit early for sugary drinks?" She asked.
"Have you seen what's loaded into kids' cereals these days?" Nel shot back. "I think this is hardly the worst thing I could be having after my breakfast."
"Fair enough," Liara said as she shrugged.
"So what's happening, Doc?" Nel asked casually. "You've been in there all morning from what I hear."
"I was giving Shepard an update on things," she explained. "Inter-dimensional transmission is tricky so it took awhile. He's doing good by the way, mostly just trying deal with his own problems. I didn't have much to share save for an information packet I just received from Drothan."
Drothan was a batarian they met when they infiltrated Khar'Shan, the batarian homeworld. He was a Shadownet agent, one of the few on the planet. After the operation ended, he decided to come with them, figuring his future on Khar'shan was pretty much scrap after what happened. He was more than a little happy though, he hated the place and Nel didn't blame him, it was a shithole. He relocated to the Citadel and last she heard he was getting a new job at a very specific company.
"He's got something on VykurCorp then?" Nel asked.
"More than a little something," Liara assured grimly. "I might as well tell you now since you're here, I'll go over this in more detail in the briefing. The gist is, he was able to intercept a high level communique from Orukuri. He's apparently requesting some outside help on a project, Eclipse Sisters."
Nel was aware of that mercenary gang. A bunch of Asari crooks who mainly worked out of Illium. They were a branch of the mercenary company, Eclipse, but in general were only Asari. They were vicious according to reports. Anyone in an Eclipse Sisters uniform had killed someone to earn it. Not exactly a friendly bunch, but they were Asari so they were at least consistently super hot.
"Why is Orukuri reaching out to those sexy loonies?" Nel asked. "Doesn't he got enough mercs on his payroll?"
"It must be part of Balak's plans to increase their manpower," Liara surmised. "The Covenant doesn't like humans, so it previously limited their options. The Eclipse Sisters gang is strictly Asari though, they may be trying to cut a deal with them."
That sounded like something Balak would do after all the hurt they put on his forces. He was the Batarian running thing for all intents purposes. This Alliance was chiefly his initiative. Although it was pretty clear the Covenant were the real muscle. Balak was just kidding himself for now, thinking he was in charge because their agreement apparently gave him authority while the Covenant were in this universe. She suspected it wouldn't last, not if Liara kept hitting them this hard.
"So where are they headed?" Nel asked.
"That's the interesting part," Liara informed her. "It's a remote planet, mostly a desert of sorts in a mostly uninhabited system. From what Drothan was able to find, they've been moving a lot of men and material to it for weeks, a lot of heavy duty excavation gear from the looks of it. I think this is one of the dig sites we've been looking for."
One of the things the Covenant had a hard-on for in this dimension was searching for artifacts. Something about their Gods, the Forerunners, coming to this universe. Apparently, if they were to be believed, it was part of their once glorious empire. Since the Covenant believed they were the inheritors of this legacy, they really wanted what the Forerunners had left for them.
Supposedly, it was more than just an interest in history, these artifacts were powerful, dangerous, somehow connected to their war effort. From what they had learned, they had discovered a ship back home that helped them figure where to start looking for this junk. It had likely led them to the Relay Ship, which was proof enough apparently that they were at least right about the Forerunners coming here if the crazy different technology inside it was any indication. They were after something else, something far more dangerous than a big old phone that could call another universe. Liara hadn't known where to find one, until today of course.
"So we're gonna hit this dig site then?" Nel reasoned. "Sweet, what's the plan?"
"The plan is infiltration," Liara replied.
Nel just groaned the instant she finished. She did not want to hear that.
"I hate the I-word," she grumbled. "It's never as much fun."
"I know, but we don't have a choice," Liara told her firmly. "There's more mercs on this planet than we can reasonably handle. VykurCorp Security for one, but Drothan found evidence for both Blood Pack and Batarians being among the garrison watching over the place. With Eclipse Sisters on the way or already there I'm not about to risk a firefight."
"Fine," Nel sighed. "But how do we get in with all those eyes?"
Liara just smiled, a plan apparently already in motion.
"I've acquired a VykurCorp Merc suit for you, Blood Pack Armor for Wrex and an Eclipse Sister suit for myself," she explained. "I've already drawn up Identification Software for each of them as well. They'll see us as one of their own."
"How'd you manage that?" Nel asked.
Liara just smirked and Nel remembered.
"Right, Shadow Broker," she thought. "Stupid question."
Liara's smirk vanished as she got back to business.
"Vik, Kayap and Saya will sick out like sore thumbs," she admitted. "But we can use our disguises to get them past initial security. Saya's cloak should be more than enough to help him stay out of sight and we can cover for Vik and Kayap's routes easily. That is once we have a more detailed idea of where to go."
"What is our target anyway?" Nel asked.
"I'll need more information, but I imagine they have some sort of data hub there they're using to gather intel on the ruins," Liara presumed. "We did the same thing back when I was just an archaeologist, so they probably have a similar protocol. Also, if there are ruins down there, it's likely we can download information directly from anything that's still functioning. We can then bring it back to the ship and have Coda work on it."
Coda was their other defector, a funny looking sack of gas and tentacles called a Huragok that was like a living supercomputer. He mostly stayed below in the engineering department helping to keep the ship running. There was a lot of tech to keep him busy and didn't seem like he needed sleep. If any creature could figure out what those ruins were hiding it was him.
"So we sneak in, scope the situation and grab some data before anyone knows we're there," Nel listed off. "Seems easy enough. Bet there's a catch."
"I always expect a catch at this point," Liara assured. "I'll have a more detailed plan in mind once more intel comes in within the hour. For now though, I'm going to set course for this dig site and prepare a mission briefing. This might just be the thing we need to start our operation against VykurCorp. If they're running this dig, we might get more information on their overarching plans from their data hub if nothing else."
"You really think they'll have something on this whole Separatist plot?" Nel asked hopefully.
"Nothing too concrete, but we might get steered in the right direction," Liara elaborated. "Orukuri seemed particularly interested in the Eclipse Sisters before any other non-human branch of the Eclipse or Blue Suns. I imagine there is a specific reason for that."
Nel just grinned broadly as she spoke.
"Well you got the smartest sexiest brain out there, Doc," she said, trying to lay on the charm. "If you got a hunch, I'm sure it's more than a little accurate."
"Yes, thank you," Liara replied, slightly annoyed by Nel's attempt at flirting. "I appreciate your confidence in my hunches."
"And I appreciate that you let me stare at your ass," Nel added. "Another of your great attributes."
Liara sighed and began walking away while Nel kept leering at her rear end.
"I suggest you get your gear ready," Liara cautioned. "Otherwise you'll be up against the wall in two seconds."
"That sounds more like an invitation," Nel called to her.
"It's not and it will hurt very badly," Liara warned once more.
Nel stopped looking, reluctantly. She'd wear her down eventually. Liara was the consummate professional, but she wasn't made of stone. She was way too hot to be made of stone. She decided to check out her gear before the briefing, while also hoping that VykurCorp armor wasn't total garbage. Maybe if she did well on this mission she'd get her ass leering privileges reinstated. Maybe she'd even let her stare at her boobs too. It was a start. Still, it was going to be hard.
"Infiltration," she snorted. "Hopefully it ain't too boring."
AN: So, here we have the re-introduction to Liara's Team of Misfits. I split it off into a different story here because, well, last time things got bloated. This way, people can choose which story to follow, or they can follow both and get the complete story of the Wormhole Chronicles. But you don't actually have to READ both to know what's going on. Just know that Liara and Shepard's stories will reference each other here and there, think of it like my own version of the MCU.
This was a short chapter basically reintroducing everyone to the readers AND giving you perspective of one of the principal characters for this chapter of the story. Nelanax Catonis is a bit of a polarizing character for the readers. Some like her, some hate her. Honestly, I thought Vik would be that guy, funny how that works out. However, she's gotten a ton of depth over the course of the story and I felt like, given what this story will cover... it's only fair to continue her development. She'll always be a brash military gun-ho chick with a penchant for adrenaline and a love of sex in general. But there's a lot more going on this time. She's recovering from her addiction and a few other things are going to end up forcing to look deeper inside herself. The same is true of many of the characters of the good ship Lucen. I hope enjoy this little side adventure, and don't worry, you'll get the main story updates in a few weeks.
I think I'll retain my minimal thoughts on these chapters in these author notes here, because I don't have too much to say, especially about this chapter. I feel like seeing how you interpret Nel and the other members of Liara's crew and their actions for yourselves. In the meantime, please review and make sure to keep your eyes open for more updates on this story and others. You'll see them very soon. Thank you all again for your continued support and viewership.