Chapter 11 - Prevarications and Deceptions

A/N - Hit two major milestones with this story, 50 reviews and 100 favorites. Thanks to all the readers. Hope you all continue to enjoy.

Also, got the results for my first poll, and the winner was… Psyker abilities! With a total of 97 votes from 55 voters in the poll, Psyker took a healthy lead and never lost it. Psyker won with 42votes, Precision came in second with 22, Damage squeaked out a third place with 15, beating Flanking out which only got 12 votes, and finally, in the back and needing a nap, Stealth came in dead last with only 6 votes.

Also the new poll is now up, so run over and take a look, and drop a vote.

Just an FYI, all of my source books are from the late 90s, being from 3rd edition. So if the information seems wrong, toss me a PM or review (from your account otherwise I can't respond!) and I will address your issues.

'For the Emperor!' - Every human, ever.

Arlas frowned, stretching his limbs as he rose from the meditation circle in the armory of his lander. It had been almost a week since they had finish rescuing the asari, and it had been mostly uninteresting, cruising through space to wherever they were going next. At first they had lingered in the system they had picked up the asari, but after two days they hadn't detected a single geth on the planet or the local solar space, so they had departed. Just now, he had been knocked out of his psyker meditations by the ship lurching from faster than light travel. How the mon-keigh's dull senses missed the universe thrashing as they accelerated or decelerated was still a mystery to him even after a month.

*The Twins have requested you for a preliminary briefing*

He simply sent his affirmative at Yol'Pvera's announcement, before quickly heading to his room, and throwing on his Warlock tabard, grabbing his pistol, and heading for the communication room. This tabard was almost purely black, with the craftworld's sigil emblazoned in gold in the center, and dark red and green sigils for protection, wisdom, guidance, and direction subtly woven into the fabric. The secondary sigils had no actual power, but to an eldar they proudly displayed his expertise and shrines. Done making himself modest by the prudish mon-keigh standards, he headed for the meeting room.

A short wait later for and then on the elevator, and he was the last to arrive in the meeting room. The Twins nodded to him in greeting, before looking around and speaking. "Alright, everyone is here. Let's get this brief started."

Arlas frowned and looked over the mostly empty room. Only Ghost, and the human male and female were there with him. "I can fit everyone in the lander. Why is the whole team not here?"

Jaclyn glared at the eldar. "Because not every mission calls for bringing every possible gun we have. And because if something happens to your ship, we need to be fight effectively despite only having room in our vehicle for four others along with me and my twin."

Arlas simply stared at the more volatile twin, but the softer twin had no intention of letting them turn the brief into a fight or dominance spat. "We have enough people for the job at hand, and if we need more the Normandy will land to provide them, or we can take them in your lander. The mission is not so complex that we can't bring them up to speed before departing."

After a moment Arlas nodded, and Joannis continued. "The next mission is in the Macedon system of the Artemis Tau cluster. We got a call from the Citadel as we were finishing our sweep for the geth on Therum. An asari diplomat named Nassana Dantius used her connections, and discovered we were headed to the cluster, and got our contact details. Apparently, she had an estranged sister was in the area, and her ship was hit by pirates, who kidnapped her and demanded a ransom from her."

She paused as Ashley gestured for permission to speak. "Begging your pardon ma'am, but isn't this C-Sec and the Asari Republics' problem? We should be hunting Saren, not rescuing every asari that gets a hangnail or hunting down every criminal with a gun."

Jaclyn snorted in amusement and nodded. "Good point, but the problem with that is that we have no further leads on Saren currently. Dr T'soni was a dead end, though denying him her expertise and getting it ourselves is a good start. The Salarian Task Group, Spectres, and Systems Alliance Intelligence have no further leads for us, and if the species specific intelligence agencies have heard anything, they haven't bothered to spread the news. So we are currently at an impasse, and this will only cause four days divergence from an optimal route back. Besides, earning the goodwill of a high ranking asari diplomat can really only be a good thing."

Ashley gave a reluctant nod, before leaning back in her chair. Joannis waited a moment, before continuing. "Now, we did some research, and while you are quite right, Ashley, in that C-Sec would normally handle something like this, in this case our contact erred, and paid the ransom. However, the pirates didn't release the hostage, and instead made another demand. Since C-Sec procedures include not paying hostage takers, she couldn't go to C-Sec without causing herself to be censured. We did some background checks, and there is a known pirate gang operating somewhere in the area, and have been for at least half a year."

The Twins went over what little was known, and had the group start preparing their weapons, but the Twins did mention that the planet was not inhabitable, and asked Arlas to prepare his weapons appropriately, which meant to not bring the melty gun. They didn't want the hostage dying because he got trigger happy and blew out one side of the base. Not that he was going to listen, but they had asked.

A couple hours later and a few more lurches, he was working on one of the pulse laser for the lander when he heard the ship system. "Specialist team members Icivia, Kaidan, Ashley, and Arlas to the briefing room. Icivia, Kaidan, Ashley, and Arlas to the briefing room."

Arlas was up to his elbows in the laser, and swore into his helmet, before pulling one arm free and activating his omnitool. It took a couple tries, but he quickly opened a line to the Twins. "Arlas, doing some repairs to the lander. Will be a bit late."

After a second, no doubt the Twins were sharing a look, he heard the door to the room they were in open, and they replied. "Just leave the line open, we are leaving in fifteen minutes anyway."

The door could be heard again, with the two human soldier's voices in the background, and the briefing started. He didn't bother listening, too focused on ensuring the pulse laser was realigned properly, but that only took a couple minutes to fix, and then a few more to reseal the compartment in the wing. Finished with the repairs, he listened to the briefing, leaning against the wing. It was fairly dull, going over the single prefabricated habitat that the pirates used as a main base, with a couple small ships nearby, barely big enough to threaten a fighter in his opinion. Once again, the diminutive nature of the local's ships made him shake his head, and they talked like those ships were impressive. God and Goddesses knew what they would think when the fleet arrived, with its ten kilometer long battleships and eight kilometer long carriers, or Crone forbid, the craftworld itself, in its three hundred kilometer long splendor.

They would drop in the armored personnel carrier, and proceed to the base, wipe out the external security and then clear out the interior while the Normandy landed and secured the two large fighters and the freighter the pirates had. They expected no more than twenty individuals total, including the single hostage. He ignored the rest of the briefing as the Twins went over it in exhaustive detail, rather than simply trusting their warriors to do their jobs with only minimal instruction. Barring adaptive guidance from the leading Farseer as the situation went fluid, of course.

He grabbed his fusion gun, long rifle, blade and pistol, before heading to wait at the human's lander. A few minutes later, the rest of the ground team assembled, and started to climb in, until Jaclyn glanced at the eldar. She frowned, before moving toward him. "Is that the melty gun?"

He used his normal monotone voice, though the prank was starting to wear thin for him. "Fusion gun. But you are correct."

She crossed her arms, and glared up at him. "I know we told you not to bring it, because we don't want to drag a hostage back to the Citadel in a body bag after you blow out a side of the building."

Arlas stepped around her, heading for the back entrance of the APC and his seat. "Then the body may languish here."

He heard someone hissing their displeasure behind him, but he took his seat with only a pause to glare at the physical straps. Tied down like some mon-keigh cargo. He couldn't help the snort of distaste. "How typically mon-keigh."

He had thought he had been quiet, but the angry twin was close enough to hear him and rounded on him. "Call us monkeys one more time and I am throwing you out the damn airlock!"

Arlas realized he might have been using the word more than was wise, considering he was on a tiny ship in proximity with almost three dozen xenos. However, the word didn't seem to be the problem, but a similar one in her own language. One he still had no context for. "I did not call you or anyone a monkey. I said mon-keigh. But now that you have said something, what is a monkey?"

She paused, and glared at him, before a cough in the pilot seat caused her to relent. "What does mon-keigh mean?"

"What is a monkey?"

She swore at him, before passing him to gunner's position, and sitting at the turret. Kaidan was sitting at the third seat, going over several screens, leaving him in the back with Icivia and Ashley. He turned to Ashley. "What is a monkey?"

She gave him a cheeky grin. "What does mon-keigh mean?"

A sigh preceded his explanation. "Depends on the usage, the speaker, and the recipient, but the most common meaning is 'being of a species to be exterminated.' Less common meanings, in order of most to least, include 'one who is mentally stunted,' 'primitive,' 'unwanted illegitimate offspring of an unwed nicassar female, 'and finally 'species that are not Eldar.' Though it can be used in ways to lessen the impact, such as a warning to a child or brash comrade or a humorous insult."

Ashley's eyes had gone wide, and then narrowed. "And which have you been using it as?"

He simply sent his amusement to the entire group, before finishing strapping himself in, and leaning back. "What is a monkey?"

Her reply had to wait, as Joannis abruptly flung the transport out the back of the frigate, and Jaclyn typed away at her omnitool. As the noise and shuddering abated, Jaclyn finished, and turned her seat to him. "You didn't answer the question."

He noted everyone else suddenly checking their omnitools, but when glanced at his, he failed to see anything. "Why do you ask a question to which you already know the answer?"

The twin glared at him, before turning back to the console, ignoring him. He noted the twin in the driver seat finishing another message, but this time no one reacted. Arlas glanced at the humans, before sighing. "Well, what is a monkey?"

He didn't get an answer, only a feeling of grim satisfaction from everyone in the transport, before suddenly the thrusters cut in. A moment later they bounced rather hard, and he swore to himself as the transport skidded to a stop. "Never again. Next time I am bringing my sub-craft."

Rather than repeat himself, he leaned back, and brought up his omnitool. After a second, Kaidan leaned over, and tapped something on the controls, and suddenly Arlas' omnitool beeped an error. "Kaidan to Joker, commander wants all communications to go through them for the rest of the mission, over."

Arlas turned and stared at the human male, before chuckling softly. "Well played, humans, well played."

Everyone but Joannis turned and gawked at him, as he had finally dropped his monotone. "What? You thought that was my real way of speaking?"

He issued another chuckle, before leaning back and getting comfortable. A difficult thing, as the mako lurched and bounced over every crack and tiny rock, each one making him renew his oath to use the Vyper next time. Twice they stopped so the Twins could jump out, but they simply dropped a glowing marker by some metal deposits, likely to be picked up later. The craftworld had smaller ships ranging out to do the same.

The journey took nearly a half hour for the human APC to make it to the area immediately around the base, where they stopped. Kaidan stayed in the APC to monitor his displays, while everyone else climbed up the nearby hill to look at the base. Fine silica dust, driven by the high winds, lashed at the team as they stared down at the pirate base, ensuring it was as the scans had detected it. The Twins started talking with Ashley, but Icivia watched as Arlas pulled out his rifle, dropped to a crouch, and aimed at the base. "What are you doing?"

Arlas ignored her, simply counting as he aimed at each of the six pirates outside on patrol, two in sniper towers that offered elevated nests for them to observe the surrounding area, while the other four stood out of the wind, one in the lee of a tower, the other near the door, another near the edge of the habitat, and the last loitering near one of the fighters they used. After aiming at each one three times, he sent to the Twins. *I can clear the hostiles outside before they get an alert off.*

That announcement got everyone's attention, and they stared at him for a moment, before the Twins nodded. "Fine, do it. Everyone else-"

Whatever else she was going to say was cut off as Arlas stood, the last target already falling to the ground. *Done. Might I suggest moving faster?*

Icivia just stared down at the base, and everyone quickly joined her to look at the six guards now lying or draped across the ground or their nests. After a second, the Twins shook themselves out of their shock. "Everyone, Mako, now."

It took less than a minute to get back into the Mako and down into the camp. Jaclyn sent a message to the Normandy that the exterior of the base was clear, and they could come down to start securing the site. They all jumped out, and Kaidan got to work bypassing the alarms and any traps on the door, and getting it to open. While they waited, all the women wandered over to the nearby corpse of a guard, a turian now missing most of his head and helmet courtesy of a shot from the eldar's long rifle.

It was a grisly sight, bits of blood, bone, brain and gristle splattered about the corpse, sticking to the turian's armor and the wall behind him. For Arlas, the damage was as it should be, though he was surprised the helmet had exploded; he had slotted the shot through the turian's visor which should have shattered the visor, not the whole helm. But the rest of the group was looking at the damage with a kind of horrified fascination he saw most often in mon-keigh civilians examining a corpse, not supposedly hardened military operatives. "What is surprising about the body?"

Ashley glanced back, and shook her head. "I thought that was a laser weapon, not a high caliber rifle. But this damage is making me think otherwise, except for the lack of evidence of a shot. Specifically a hole in the wall behind the body."

He smirked, sent amusement. "This is a laser weapon, yes."

Ashley's confusion was apparent even without the light reading he usually used to determine what the more exotic races were feeling. "Huh, I was expecting a small burn mark, maybe with a hole in the center."

He actually laughed. "That is remarkably naive, and ignorant of the truth of laser weapons."

He paused to wind her up, but before anyone exploded, he resumed. "Lasers work by delivering a massive burst of heat energy to the target. The one thing that all life my people have discovered has in common is that it is at least forty percent water, stored in small sacks in the body. When the laser hits the target, all that heat gets added into the body, the water erupts into steam, which requires approximately fifteen hundred times the space as the water used to need. Bone is only somewhat resistant to the sudden heating, but the sudden heating is still too much for most species. Hence, you get a fairly large wound, with considerable gore and damage."

He gestured to the bodies around the pirate's base, before nodding to the entrance. "Would you like me to scout the insides? I can do that while we-"

Alenko suddenly spoke. "Got the door, sorry about the wait, remarkably good security here. Must be what the pirates are spending Nassana's money on."

Arlas turned back to the Twins, and waited for them to start leading again. The Twins shared another look, and gave him another tingle of low level psyker energies being used (something that was driving him mad as he could not get a sense that they were even latent psykers at any other time), before turning to him. Joannis didn't sound enthusiastic about his offer. "Are you completely sure you can get in, secure the hostage, NOT blow out a wall, and hold the location until we get in and clear the pirates?"

He started to offer a pithy response, realized they were going to give him what he wanted, and quickly came up with a different answer. "I believe I would be more useful doing that than trying to fight with the rest of you. I am a forward scout, not a front line combatant."

She sighed, before nodding. "Fine, we'll wait in the entry room. Contact us if you find the hostage or they find you."

He smirked behind his helm, before following everyone into the airlock. Once they were through the airlock and into the first room, he moved away from the group, and empowered his cloak, before warp jumping through, REALLY hoping no one had shoved anything against the other side of the door or was looking at it.

He landed on the side without losing any pieces or gaining any attention, and relaxed. *Jumped safely, reconnoitering now.*

The chamber was a Crone damned mess. Crates and cargo boxes strewn haphazardly about the room. He could see a balcony overlooking the room, and a couple doors on the far side of the habitat, one on his level, one above. A few slow movements got him high enough to look around, and he began reporting what he saw to the ground. *Room is full of scattered cover, half height, full height and ceiling height, multiple paths through, ware flankers. Two back rooms, no angles, doors closed, might contain hostage or pirate leaders. Eight, no ten, pirates, one asari, two krogan, three turians, one salarian, three human. Asari on second floor balcony, both krogan on the ground floor. Two snipers on balcony. Moving to find target.*

He took his time moving around the room, having to be careful to avoid moving so fast the cloak changed settings from concealment to distortion and sticking to the sides of the room. The journey still took a few minutes to carefully move around the room, though he was being careful because he wasn't sure if anyone had an x-ray or thermal mod on their helmet. Such equipment was rare back home, but very annoying to discover, when it wasn't nearly lethal. He reported to the twins his status once he was in position and waiting for the door; a minute later one of the turians stalked into the room. He took a quick look inside, ready to dive in and get started, but all that was in the room was a set of bunks and lockers.

He frowned, before reporting. *Three more pirates, all humanish. Lower floor back room is lockers and sleeping quarters, more than a dozen beds. Moving to top floor.*

He only had to avoid one person on the narrow staircase, so the trip only took a moment to get to the top floor. A quick look around showed both snipers sitting on crates, idly chatting as they cleaned their rifles, and a single turian leaned on the railing. The asari was walking toward the second floor room while looking over the balcony, and he hastened to stay ahead of her, taking a risk of the mon-keigh spotting the fluttering of his cloak as it tried to conceal him. He managed to get into the room before the asari, and frowned.

This room was clearly the leader's room, containing a desk, private computer, armor stand, locker, a storage compartment, and a single bed, larger and more decadent than the barely functional ones below. He watched the asari lock the door, and then she stretched, and set her weapon the desk, before stripping the light armor plating off her skin tight bodysuit and putting it on the stand. He rolled his eyes in his helmet, deciding to NOT tell the group the details of this incident. Last thing he needed was the nickname voyeur, or pervert, or whatever. *Second floor room is the leader's room, the asari. No other asari in the base. I will capture the leader and ensure her survival while you kill the rest out.*

He glanced at the locked door, before stalking forward, ignoring the idle thought that he needed a weapon for non-lethal takedowns. Singer had tried to offer one, but he hadn't expected to need it. He took a moment to get behind the asari tapping away at her omnitool at the desk, more interested in whatever she was doing than on her surroundings. A quick strike later, she was unconscious on the desk, and he was cleaning the a small purple-ish blue blood stain off his rifle stock. *Pirate leader down and room secure. Attack when ready.*

He then pulled his mental senses back, and waited. While he could monitor the fight with them, it left him in danger of being attacked by warp creatures drawn by the slaughter back home, or worse being stunned as whoever he was watching died, and the link tried to drag him with them. However, issues such as those were not really an issue since the warp was so quiet and still here. So he had no idea how well the fight was going, other than the noises coming from the pirate leader's omnitool and someone beating against the door for a moment.

Ten minutes after he told them to go, he heard the door chime as it unlocked, and he leveled his long rifle at the door. His caution was unneeded, as Ghost stepped through the door. He lowered the rifle, and pulled the asari from her chair, throwing her over his shoulder before heading for the exit. "Where did they want their prisoner?"

Ghost did a double take at the prisoner, before glancing at the armor on the stand, and then laughed. The turian took a moment for her to get herself under control before she took the prisoner and secured her wrists with some glowing bonds from her omnitool. She then pulled a device off her hip, and snapped it into place against the base of the asari's skull. Ghost then put a mask on the asari's face, and carried her out, still chuckling to herself.

Arlas watched with a shrug, and almost made it to the door when he heard Ghost call out to the rest. "Apparently Arlas has an asari, dominance, and kidnapping fetish. Stripped her down to her undersuit, and was carrying her out on his shoulder like a barbarian."

He froze, as the rest of the group laughed, and Ashley made a comment he didn't catch through the sudden surge of barely controlled bloodlust. Instead, he took a deep breath, pulled out his sword, and went turian hunting. Perhaps butchering her would improve his mood.

A/N - The upgrade poll is now closed, and a new one is up. Go take a gander, and let me know what your thoughts are.

Also, send in questions for a intermission chapter I am setting up, called 'ask Arlas.' If you ever had a burning question for an Eldar, I will answer it. Some of the questions might even be added to the actual story.