The Roekaar ramped up their attacks in the badlands, recruiting from the ranks of the frightened angara who fear the exposure of their cluster to other races. The Jardaan's help in the matter felt like a betrayal to the Roekaar, who considered the Heleus Cluster their home and only their home. The Roekaar didn't faze Reyes Vidal. He dealt with the angara extremists almost on a weekly basis with his logistical planning for the Heleus Military. The newest threat that had yet to name itself held his attention.
Abductions were common, and they could be blamed on any number of threats. The kett still terrorized the Heleus Cluster, though not as rooted as they once were. The Roekaar liked to execute people publicly as a warning toward the Milky Way races. That adversely affected any hope they might have of the angara people generally believing them an acceptable ally and provided the Jardaan with plenty of research on extremists born of xenophobia. Occasionally the Outlaws or Collective took each other prisoner.
Reyes Vidal still needed to know what happened to his missing agents. He needed to escape the port after being holed up in it for months. The déjà vu of entering the Badlands granted him a rush of relief as he shed his title as leader of the Heleus Military logistical management and became Reyes Vidal, third rate smuggler. He probably should stop calling himself a third rate smuggler if he wanted people to take him seriously. He should call himself a first rate leader, if he was going to be honest with himself. The Heleus Military trusted him, and he delivered. He impressed people, earned their trust. That did things to him that he never expected.
It made him want to do more. To be more. To be the Reyes that his mother raised and loved, not the Reyes that he turned into.
Sorry, Mother, He prayer-like apologized to his mother 600 years away. He took up smuggling to help her. She'd been a first generation biotic and her exposure to eezo had started to adversely affect her health. He traveled to Heleus Cluster like a coward to avoid watching her degrade in her later days. He promised her that he would be a good man. What he didn't tell her was that he already immersed himself in smuggling.
He didn't believe that he was capable of being the Reyes that his mother raised and loved. The best he could do now was account for his people, especially when they were some of his best people and the most trusted by the Angara. Khara K'jal joined him after he started managing logistics for the military. As a former Resistance member, he wanted to do more than spy and kill kett. He wanted to properly ensure the kett were unable to operate within the Heleus cluster. Reyes had been so impressed with him that he made Khara the leader of the first group that would work significantly with the Angara, adding the two Salarians and turian to his cell after careful consideration.
Vidal wanted answers, immediately answers. He'd been spoiled in that manner by working with the Heleus Military.
The land rover available to him eased him through Varren's scalp without any trouble. He stopped by Sulfur Spring to speak with resident miners of Ditaeon. The people, already familiar with him, welcomed him into their homes and answered his many questions about Khara K'jal, two members of the Caewan clan, and his closest turian adviser, Flora Cantilus. Most of the people hadn't even heard of his people, and the mayor of the outpost offered to send a few people with him to help look for his missing people.
" You'd think Christmas would change his name by now," One of the miners joked. " With a name like that, he's asking for trouble," Howell Craik remarked to the other minor, Mansen Wells. Both men worked on various mining planets in the Milky Way and as miners in the Heleus Cluster, they were discovering more inhospitable worlds that had mining bases on them. Only the brave and foolish became miners, and the miner's lifespan expectancy was lower than that of pirates. They lived for the thrill of the adventure, which also lead them to the Heleus Cluster.
" No more than Foster Addison. Foster must've been a foster child if she wears that name with pride,"
" We're all foster children now," Reyes heard himself say with well timed humor. Both men laughed at him, because in the face of darkness, laughter saved their sanity.
Accepting the help of two armed guards, Reyes then ventured north-east toward Haarfel. Haarfel's small Daar offered nothing new to the growing, empty narrative. The Angara there didn't trust them enough to offer up any helpful non-information, and he spent the rest of the day crossing every known group of settlers and second wave colonists that were tasked with building cities, pushing technology beyond the current limitations, and figuring out where to find the resources necessary to cement their existence on the habitable planets. When he returned to Kadara Port, he found several angara in his private room at Tartarus. They looked like Resistance by their ragtag armor and uncommon collection of weaponry.
He placed his handgun on the table next to the customary bottle of Kadara wine. He'd have to buy more homebrews soon, as his collection started to disappear whenever his on-again-off-again love interest, Lindy Allers, visited. He heard that they had a new brew that tasted something reminiscent of an asari wine and wanted to surprise Lindy. " I always welcome company," He greeted with his usual non-committed charm.
" K'jal is traveling back to Voeld. The others are missing or dead. Sloane's work," One answered as if this were the average talk of water acidity and how to make a better filter.
His heart sank. His face remained a handsome mask that managed to convey a modicum of concern without the anger.
" K'jal will turn his reports over to the Resistance, and the Resistance will share it with the Heleus Military,"
Again, he couldn't believe his ears. Why were they reporting this to him? The Resistance wasn't exactly wholly supportive of the Collective any more than it was supportive of the Initative. They all may be one military mind, but they were not of the same heart.
" We have a small force in Kurinth's Valley. The Resistance supports the Heleus Military. The Outlaws are not our allies. The Collective is," His skepticism must've showed because the entire group rose to their feet almost in perfect unison. He wished half of his recruits were as in tune with each other as they were each other.
Reyes Vidal at least thanked his unforeseen luck that he had allies willing and capable of providing information when he could not dig up information from the many settlements on the immediate grounds around Kadara Port. " To who do I owe my best regards?" He had been keeping tabs on the turian that he learned was called Galerius. His contacts on the Nexus were soon to supply him with a last name, but they had to navigate a wall of security that erupted out of nowhere seemingly overnight.
" No one," The last man answered as they filed out of the room. After they left, Reyes settled down and leaned back in the booth. The massive obstacles at his feet humbled his grand plans for action.
If the support and claims of Galerius wasn't suspicious enough, he'd been stonewalled elsewhere too. Elaaden, once a haven for the slippery and conniving, now turned into a place that supported law and order. Even Morda seemed to be more friendly, if that was possible. A friendly Morda promised some devious plan in action, a plan that he knew nothing about and needed to investigate immediately. With Sloane Kelly acting strange, even Kadara wasn't 'normal'. It seemed the only planet not in some transformation of societal shift was Eos.
Eos currently supported a growing revolution among its populace. It went from being an outpost to one of the first Heleus Cluster sprawling populations dynamically growing. The races that lived at Podromos started building their own set of laws that uniquely permitted them to survive without sacrificing integrity while allowing for growth. Forgiveness had become their mantra. He admired the liberal minded approach to tackling problems, with the conservatives, clinging to the Initiative's vague outline for how to handle criminals, decided to join the Advent. The Advent's alliance with the Initiative rested on a gentleman's code of honor enforced by a verbal and written agreement.
Even with the slight differences on Eos, there wasn't any bureaucratic tape holding most people from the truth. The Pathfinders often made it their mission to be as honest as necessary with the people, a much appreciated behavior choice by everyone but the bureaucrats and occasionally an overly concerned citizen. Elaaden turned into a Bureacratic haven and Kadara still served as a war zone for the Outlaws and Collective. Havarl housed the Roekaar, a thorn in everyone's side but the Angara. Aya, as the home world, had been completely denied to Reyes. He didn't know much about Voeld personally due to his dislike of any wintery type weather. His people on Voeld had more trouble traveling the planet due to its weather than they did any other planet.
He let out a low whistle. The challenge was before him. He needed to weasel his way in somehow like an adhi. Like an adhi he had to use his cunning and good instincts to dig deeper into the Heleus Cluster and root himself like the Kett. He was Reyes Vidal, the man his mother raised – the infallible leader of the Collective.
Now if only he could embrace that belief.