Edited by a person of many names Blood Raven AKA TimedRaven117. Go check out his story Mass Effect: X-Com Theory!
~[==|==]~
Fact Finding Mission Part Two
Phoros, Asari Republics, Citadel Space 2659 GS February /28/2331 AD
Lokia was irritated to know she was going to have a Spectre tailing her for the trip. She wondered just how long the Asari had been following her? Probably the moment she entered Citadel Space. It was going to be even more difficult to get information on these Biotics if she was going to have a babysitter around. For the time being, she just needed to play it cool and keep this Spectre from finding out too much about her, not hard. Well except for that Batarian letting off an unearthly scream and his eyes exploding as she killed him with her mind. That was awesome. Scared the crap out of everyone on the ship, no one DARED approach her after that.
Speaking of.
"Yo, Spectre Ederra, where's the nearest hard suit shop? I don't want to be stared at."
It had been a relief when the ship finally landed on the planet, looking forward to getting off it and trying to lose her tail, namely getting a disguise and getting away, but Ederra was good having immediately tailed after her. Lokia guessed she was using a spy suite and likely a tracker placed upon her person, combined with the street cameras. I mean she didn't exactly blend in. Not with these stares. Fucking christ were all Asari perverts?
Or maybe SHE was the pervert? Gah, leave the philosophical nonsense to General Carl "Fucking" Jenkins. He'd eat this shit up
"There's a tailor's store down the street from here, it mainly caters to Quarians, but they also make high end hard suits for Asari." Lyerra explained.
"Excellent I'll be right back then." She announced as she marched to the store. Entering the building it was a pleasant place, with a bored looking asari at the counter. She wouldn't admit it but she LOVED the smell of antiseptic, she grew up on Io, and like all extra planar colonies required, she and her family had to keep their home as clean and neat as possible. The risk for fire otherwise was too great to allow even one day without purging the room of dust. The smell of antiseptic was universal, and despite the new world stink, or for those who never left their home, the stink of a world that has a different gas composition, it was pleasant reminder of home, 'I wonder how Ashley's doing? Last I saw she just majored in engineering.' The pleasant memories of her first girlfriend made her smile, which the asari at the counter misrepresented to be towards her. It had been years since she saw mom and dad, or Ashley for that matter, she had probably moved on, which was expected after she got pulled into Paranormal Affairs, but it still hurt a bit knowing they couldn't have maintained such a relationship. Purging her mind of such thoughts it was best not to be distracted on an alien world such as this.
"Uhh, Hello, Welcome to Nat'Yasha Nar'Urllia's one stop shop for all your Quarian and hardsuit needs. What can I do for you?"
"Well as you can probably tell cause you're STARING AT ME, I need something to blend in, otherwise I'll get stopped by mobs of you looking at the new alien. No this is not a gene mod to make myself look differently, I'm Human." She explained, reminding none too subtly to top staring.
"Oh I'm sorry, so insensitive of me. Is staring bad in your culture?" The Asari asked as small talk as she moved over to to the many racks of hardsuits.
"Biologically if you stare for more than ten seconds into my eyes, it either means you REALLY want to kill me or REALLY want to fuck me. Either of which makes me extremely uncomfortable on this world. Staring in general also makes me feel uncomfortable and out of place, humans being social animals like to fit in. By staring at me constantly it makes me… well feel like I'm not fitting in." Lokia explained carefully, making sure the translator was getting it all right. She hadn't had enough time to learn Sari which was the Asari Trade language.
"I see, well are you here for business or pleasure?" The asari took on a business like tone.
"Business, but I also want to dress to impress."
"Alright, may I take your measurements."
"You may."
"Raise your arms out, yes like that. Move your feet to the icons, thank you." A scanner came down from the ceiling, it was holographic, which never ceased to amaze Lokia at how well their holographic technology was built seamlessly in. But it also was hard to understand... anything really, and after seeing the omni-tool she had immediately discarded it as impractical as lightweight laptops that had expanding screens and tablets were already extremely popular in the Federation
"Measurement complete. Our automated VI has chosen a selection for you to choose from, step off the measurement pad and you may view it in full holographic. Any other parameters you want to include?"
"I'm on a budget, nothing to bright, and something that's comfortable and that I can wear over my clothes. While I'm not going to be living in the suit, I'm likely going to wear it wherever I go. Oh and I don't have an omni tool, and I don't plan on getting one soon."
"Well that narrows it down considerably." The Asari commented, and only ten suits were before her, half were in just one prime color.
Looking at them all she found one that was vacuum grade, comfortable, simple to use, and mostly mechanical, "Can I get this in tan?" The color changed. "I'll take this model, can I try it on first?"
"Of course." Pulling a suit off the rack it was in a sealed package. Disappearing into the back cleanroom, taking off after taking off her trench coat, the hardsuit was made of some strange material, not rubber of plastic, but it stretched to conform to her curves, but not too tightly so that it made her undersuit uncomfortable. But she would need to ditch her shirt, pants, and boots for it to be comfortable. Doing so, she was only in her full body armored undersuit. It fit to her snugly. Taking her kitbag which was a rolling duffel she opened it up and carefully folded her clothing before placing it in. Putting on her black leather trench coat she looked in the mirror. And she thought she looked dapper as fuck. She liked the helmet, it was an EVA style helmet, with a full transparent view that obstructed nothing, but could also activate a variety of tints to cover her face.
Bringing up her hand to look at her watch she paused for a moment. "Fuck." This would require some getting used too.
~[==|==]~
Finally after thirty minutes in that admittedly nice and refreshing store, she got a slightly armored hardsuit and had everything in order.
"Alright so what's the name of this scientist you're scheduled to meet with?" Lyerra asked from behind the Paranormal Agent. Who jumped into the air like a cat and made a sound not dissimilar to one.
However those thirty minutes were well spent as no one was giving her a second look, only looking at her strange trench coat and not her body. "My first meeting is with a... Doctor Cherise Diala," she said after checking her notes.
Spectre Lyerra Edaria nodded, "D'Iala." She corrected, "Smart move getting the suit. Phoros is renowned as a tourist hotspot for maidens. I believe the closest approximation would be uh, 'Hormonal male teens'. Piece of advice you may want to be careful, there a lot of Asari who take pride in getting new and interesting notch's on their bedpost," she stopped and considered something, "being from your government's Military Intelligence they did tell you about Asari right?"
"Thanks for the warning..." Lokia replied, thinking, with perhaps a bit of regret, 'There's no way in hell I'll be a damn notch for some horny alien...' Commander Potts would have her head otherwise for fraternizing with the locals. A HUGE no no after certain problems with bug infiltration, not to mention the Coven. Then she heard the Spectre asking about the information she'd been given. "They told me a little about the Asari. Have biological readings, typical behaviour, and that Codex report. However I have no practical experience with you people, and we're wary of aliens at the best of times."
"Good." Lyerra replied. Lokia didn't have to be psychic to know she made a mental note.
Hearing what the Spectre said made Lokia at least hope she would be able to get some distance between herself and the Asari once she was meeting with the Doctor. Having an extra set of eyes on her would make an already difficult task that much harder. "I can take care of myself if I need to... but I'll make sure to be careful. I'm not defenseless after all." She slightly opened her trench coat to show the holster attached to her and the baton under her gun, "Let's see a horny maiden stay that way with 75,000 joules and swift hit to the chest," she joked lightheartedly, "kept all the hormonal male teenagers in highschool off me just fine."
Edaria nodded with a slight smile, as the hover cab they hailed took off with them in tow. It was a five minute journey, but they weren't running late. Paying for the trip, Lokia looked to the spectre, "Can you stay in the lobby? I don't want to send mixed signals."
Lyerra nodded. While it wouldn't be perfect, after all the Spectre likely already had audio bugs in place to overhear their conversation, and the STG too most likely. She was pleased to hear that the Spectre would be staying in the lobby at the very least. The two made their way into the lobby of the building, and after informing the Asari at the front desk who she was there to meet, Lokia made her way to the elevator toward the floor she'd been told the doctor was on.
Lokia was enjoying a moment of solitude as she went up the elevator, having pulled out the owner's manual to her new hardsuit, "Oh sweet it has magnification too?!" She said aloud, she was still young, just past her mid twenties, she reserved her childish moments like playing with the settings on her suit for moments of solitude like this. It was nice to know no one was watching her for the moment. As she played with the settings on her faceplate, making a rainbow swirl of colors form on it, which was both for pleasure and to hide her face in the guise of playing with her suit.
She closed her eyes, remembering her assignment. She had been sent primarily to learn about Biotics from an expert, while also getting a foot in the door open in the field for future operatives. She opened her eyes when the elevator chimed, and the door opened directly into the waiting room for a lab. The moment she stepped out of the elevator, she immediately noticed how warm the room was. She was covered by the environmental controls on her undersuit and hardsuit, 'That can't be very good for samples...' She thought to herself as she looked around.
Lokia took a deep breath, wondering if an air conditioner was broken or if the Asari just preferred it warm. Sighing in at the desk, she was informed of which room D'Iala was in. Despite being able to see in the door, she knocked first before she entering. "Doctor D'Iala?" Lokia called out, lowering her tint on her helmet so it was totally transparent.
The doctor was your standard Asari blue, wearing a form fitting lab uniform, and her feet up on her desk as she worked on a datapad, "Yes?" Doctor D'Iala asked, looking up from her pad.
Lokia gave a polite smile, "I'm Special Agent Lokia Tromblay of the Federation. I'm here on behalf of the Federal Government to interview you about Biotics."
Doctor Cherise D'Iala nodded, lowering her feet she, motioning for her to sit down, "Ah excellent, and right on time too! I wasn't informed much beyond a basic overview more in depth than what you'd get in the codex. So if you don't mind I have a school children's course prepared on some data discs and I'm willing to give you an on hands course. How much time do you have?""
Lokia nodded with a smile, "Excellent, I'll be recording backup film done with personal observations as well. Do you mind if I do that? Uh, I'm also armed at all times." She asked politely.
"Not at all. But I'll have to have an editor go through it, since we do have some classified projects being done in this building, I'll have to inform you that you should be near me or my assistants at all times, and to do as security personnel say in the area. For your weaponry we only ask that its gets registered with security, and that you abide by our laws on self defense. Is that fine?"
"We'd do the same thing Doctor D'Iala." Lokia affirmed with a nod.
"Alright well let's begin with what you know."
"We don't know much, but we know it has to do with Element zero being exposed to the nervous system while in utero, which allows nodes of the material to form in the nervous system which connects with the brain. As the individual grows older they can start to use its mass affecting properties for a variety of combat techniques, but non combat techniques are very rare as the level of fine control with biotics is just not there, and likely to never be there without deliberate genetic tampering. Which among the Council is a big no no."
"An excellent textbook knowledge on the subject." D'Iala praised. Looking at her wrist she oohed, "And it's about lunchtime, you mind if we go get something? I can help fill in more detail while we're out."
"I don't mind at all. I just got off the ship basically but I can eat as I decompress…. Did that translate right?" In Human Vernacular, "decompressing" after a pressurized space trip was the term given for someone's body getting used to the different atmospheric pressures of a planet, especially an entirely alien planet. In the Federation, ships typically adjusted their pressures and time cycles slowly to allow the occupants to get used to their destination, vitally important time for the soldiers in transit. The Citadel had a different philosophy by just having a preset "Spacer" pressure and time keeping that was universal for everywhere across galactic space for safety reasons, except Volus ships, but that was the Volus.
"It translated I think. Anyways." Standing up the two left the room and entered the elevator.
"I also know that Eezo is formed in supernovas of stars and pulsars. Previously the Federation hasn't had much need to investigate those parts since we've been a bit preoccupied."
"Yes, I can tell, you just ended that decades long war against those bug creatures right?"
"Indeed we have, finally, we're even demobilizing finally. A lot of people were getting antsy with the military having so much power."
"Oh is that bad in your culture? You kind of have the stereotype of all being big military types ready and itching for a fight."
Lokia chuckled, "It's considered bad to have one part of the government have absolute control for longer than a year. But the war was a true emergency, and it had to fought with everything we had."
"So what different kind of a abilities could someone with these Biotics possibly have?' Lokia asked. "I know the basics but we don't know much more than that they can get pretty powerful."
The doctor nodded, "Ah, power power power. It's always about power. Well to be honest, it's not all it's cracked up to be. Not everyone is strong enough to use it for combat, more than half of the Asari population don't even manifest below average levels of power without even the most basic of amps, which are really expensive. And only a top 5% of our people can use Biotics in combat situations. Now large population about 34% can be trained for it, but in general most asari don't enhance their abilities past basic schooling." D'Iala then explained at length about several powers that had been catalogued as possible for schoolchildren, and how in order to grow stronger biotically, one must use their biotics like a muscle..
They had just sat down, with D'Iala having a platter of what looked like sushi, and Lokia had a bowl of some greenish blue steaming soup with what looked like a cracker sprinkled on top. They mutually spent several minutes enjoying their food, with D'Iala being kind enough to share one of everything of her own with Lokia who reluctantly tasted it. Not bad she thought, could use some wasabi, and the soup could stand to be more spicy. It went on for several minutes and Lokia spent time going over her recorder. When she had finished her soup, and D'Iala was looking to start her dessert. Lokia looked over her own files, she decided to see what the Asari thought of something she had. "Could you take a look at this?" she asked before showing the doctor the file on Blue Death. Lokia wondered what she would say about it.
D'Iala took asoop of her dessert before taking the files and inserting the chit into her oni-tool. Swallowing, she paused for a moment, "Ummm, what am I seeing?"
Lokia sighed, "The information I'm about to share is still top secret, but that's not going to be for long. We had no idea what it was before. We've only see the more... lethal side effects exposure to it has had. The bugs have been throwing rocks with this stuff at our colonies for a while now. You can see why this is so important for us to understand."
"I see. This is new for us, no one ever thought to throw eezo rich asteroids to inhabited worlds, but if your reports are true, then I'd imagine many millions of your people were exposed to the mutagenic and carcinogenic effects of eezo, not to mention millions of tons of vaporized rocks." She mused after looking at the pad again.
"I do have more questions, and I would love to see your demonstrations and hear you're lectures, but I'm just a simple field agent, they'd be wasted on me, but getting this information and any preventative measures would be vital to saving lives and hopefully giving those affected as normal as possible lives. In the end anything you can share with us would save lives." Lokia explained..
~[==|==]~
Black Cross
Southern Terran Federation, 2662 GS January /30/2331 AD
William Lee relaxed as he cleaned his rifle, when he first got roped into this gig, he thought it all a bad idea, sure fighting aliens was what he did, but fighting them with aliens with less support than light infantry platoons? Yeah he was sure their merry little band would get savaged by some Skinnie snipers and give up the merc life. Instead the Skinnies got their asses kicked by the Federation forthwith, the bugs were gone, and he and Elizabeth got an easy deployment. Hell it was better then easy it was productive. Colonies here in the south and in the system alliance were still scared as hell, and hadn't changed their rates. Which meant their little band had made a hefty sum. Enough that they had been able to hire a merchant marine ship to take them from contract to contract, and a viking drop ship. Though he tried to convince Janane Kyarev they should replace it with a Redhawk drop ship. They could make very limited FTL jumps, and it at least allowed them to be ready to bug out in case of an emergency, like their ride gets destroyed by raiders or something along those lines.
Sighing, he looked over at Elizabeth sleeping in her dog bed. The neo dog was having a great time with all this. She got to by the aliens mascot, and got pampered by all the Asari. Which he couldn't really complain about either, the extremely similar look between the two species apparently made him very exotic for the Asari girls. A bit too easy, as his natural Terran… no no no, his natural HUMAN paranoia in these matters kicked in and he did some self medical and social checks, finding that they weren't metaphorically fucking him over. He's survived long enough to know that if a lay is too easy, something's wrong. Like "He raped me" wrong.
Which was good, he probably wouldn't have stayed this long out of prison if he didn't have that natural instinct, being quite the ladies man if he said so. And after studying the Asari society and history, it suddenly made a lot of sense as they were his people's equivalent of horny teenagers. And he apparently had extra spice applied to him since in their culture mating with other Asari was heavily frowned upon, so him being so aesthetically close probably added to pf sex appeal for the "forbidden fruit."
He certainly had a good time, especially a man of his distinguished age, and it certainly was an interesting perk of the job.
Grerloc Gox had used some of the money he got from the work to buy a couple of neo dogs. Course being an Alien he couldn't get his hands on the military versions of the dogs, which meant no lasers, AI assistance -a still well kept secret in the Federation-, or anything like that. They were still a strong genetically modified breed of dogs. Large, intelligent, lacking only aggression towards humans. Grerloc had made headlines on some colonial worlds for the iconic picture of Terran dogs serving a Krogan master. Some good, some bad. Most of the time it was met with the cuteness factors, which was good.
So far they had no trouble in their travels beyond the initial hiccups. Military Intelligence had been through in their background checks and informing William that he was solely responsible for their actions as their sponsor. After signing a waver they were off. They only saw a little action in the waning days of the Skinnie war, a Skinnie raiding team had attacked the planet they were garrisoning on. No deaths on his team but they'd only hit a small scout team, the main force had ground itself against the defenses before buggering off.
This had disappointed the girls, but the pay was nothing to laugh at afterwords. They'd gotten a good contract after the war with the systems alliance to run security work on the Tesla'Vir Alliance border as security. Having a human in the eam was remarkably good in opening a lot of doors in security work. And that's was what Grerloc and Janane wanted, nice safe, and fortuitous work. While it wasn't as glamorous as war, nor as rich in spoils as open combat, but a lack of wars meant they would have to leave the Federation to the Terminus, and they found the current state of affairs suited them for a few years and then they decided to do some more exploring in terran space. Something that he had vehemently voted against.
Which lead them to their current predicament. A much older man had come up to him and told him to leave the aliens while he could. At first he assumed it was some old xenophobe so he had ignored it, but the old guy continued by saying that their merry puny merc band had infringed on Black Cross space and had taken a contract they had their eye on. That was setting off alarm bells throughout William's mind, and when he informed Janane and Grerloc, their own as well. The Black Cross, as he explained, was a mix between pirates, freedom fighters, and mercenaries for this neck of the woods. And after the Skinnie war put an end to almost the entirety of Skinnie slaving and piracy, they were out of a job. Taking this assignment was essentially taking bread from their mouth. Now there were two ways to send them off, leave immediately and resign from the commission they had on this little world, or pay off the Cross big time.
They chose the best choice, and left immediately.
Grerloc had immediately asked if they could fight, and William nearly laughed him out, fighting the Cross wouldn't just get them shunned by the local community, it would get them all painfully killed. And so it brought him to the current thought about getting a redhawk dropship.
A history lesson, for those uninformed (namely, alien) individuals in his little band. The Skinnies had started raiding the Federation at the turn of century, and the Federation had reacted badly. No one talked about it anymore thanks to the bug war. But the Federation at first had not believed that first contact was established with a slave raiding alien species. For five years the Federal council had dismissed the attacks as just failed colonizing efforts, and because most of the attacks happened on independent colonies, the Federation had no jurisdiction, and gave even less of a shit on what happened to them anyways.
Quite literally the colonies could have been running rape farms and sacrificing each other to dark gods as long as they didn't annoy or interfere with official Federal matters and planets. This of course made them both extremely attractive to certain fringe groups, and nightmares for most of the general populace. Many colonial efforts died on the vine with their people, even more got their basic industry up only to get consumed by corporations and be stuck in perpetual debt slavery, and live in company towns with company stores. Some became good places to live, but most died or were owned by the corporation and were essentially hell to be on. While most wouldn't admit it in the Federation, Ronald Sanchez did good by subsuming all those colonies under the Federation and putting them under Federal law.
That was until the attack on the Cash System, those planets were on the edge of what was now being called central, and were officially part of the Federation. Then the Federation officially took what was going on seriously, but half assed the response. One should keep in mind the Fleet as it exists now was in its infancy. So lacking the outright fleet assets to patrol the edge of their territory effectively. They instead decided to offer the people of the unofficial colonies the chance to fight back, they gathered a whole new army group from a single world, and once they were trained and outfitted in '12.
For the most part it all worked out, even the dumb idea of keeping units and fleets together based on planet of origin in order to maintain unit cohesion and seemed to make them fight harder. Then the White Cross brigade went to Brightsky in '13. They went there to stop a Skinnie raid in progress, they arrived and the Captain of the fleet ship offered there help to Brightsky… and were told they didn't need help. So the captain gave orders to pull out since the Federation use to not force itself on anyone. Riverfield changed that up of course. The problem here was the White Cross was from Brightsky. No one knew exactly what happened, but the White Cross mutinied, the first and only time in Federal history, and went on a rampage. Attacking Skinnies and Federal troops sent to bring them back to Earth for trial, they captured dozens, and then hundreds of ships sent against them. Of course that's not big in the grand scheme of things now, but at the time it was hugely significant. Almost unprecedented really, and it wasn't until the officer and enlisted turnover at the second bug war when people stopped defecting.
A few years later during the bug war the Black Cross arrived on the scene with a manifesto and secret base, better technology, more ships, localized economy, and even a founding myth and fathers. So began their Robin Hood esque career helping the planets in the south for payment or looting planets that didn't take their offer when they could. All the time staying one step ahead of the Federation or outright outsmarting them. Conspiracies and fiction abound of spies, advanced communication technology, or something. The pattern continued until '24 when the Black Cross was caught in the Ad Leonis system. It was a spectacular failure for the Navy, with a third of the fleet sent to crush them captured by the Black Cross, with the rest scattered severely damaged or destroyed. That ended the formerly peacetime Sky Marshal Petra Valdo's career, began Sky marshal Riverfield's, and finally made the Federation sit up and pay the Black Cross some real attention, mostly not positive as the bugs were an existential threat.
They were the bogeyman of the south for their ability to defeat the Federation, as he thought before, conspiracies abound, ties with the Skinnies as some of the weapons on their ships appeared to be of Skinnie make, colonies and possibly other entities supplying them with Federal equal tech. Hell he wouldn't be surprised to hear that the System Alliance had ties with the black cross Brightsky was part of that government now. Makes sense with the Cross' reputation for protection payments providing actual protection. Federal ships didn't touch the Black Cross, too afraid, or not stupid enough, to take on an equal foe for no reason. And the Black Cross minded their own business themselves not bothering Federal ships or troops. Certainly an interesting form of cold war.
Seeing the red light on his computer, William stood up, which roused Elizabeth who stared as he went to the console. "Lee here, outpost 1 please report." Outpost 1 was a fancy title for the lone Asari on the bridge.
"Um this is the Captain speaking… we are fucked… A Black Cross Destroyer is out there, and it's demanding to let them board for Federal inspection. Listen I'd fight them without hesitation if they were Skinnies but… It's fucking Black Cross. And Lee, good buddy, they know exactly who you are as I quote, 'The blue Amazon brigade, the 'rex with the dogs, the Xenophiliac and his pet laser' unquote."
"...Fuck!" William finally spouted out, strapping his armor on and grabbing his gun before rushing out into the hallway where the others in his group were waiting.
"Lee, 'the is hell going on?" Janane asked when she saw him coming.
"Black Cross. And they're looking specifically for us. Now this is just a destroyer, so for all we know it could just be a 'friendly reminder' to never come back, they could be here to drag us away, or equally unlikely as the last, offer us a job. Point is, if we don't shoot they'll likely send us away with a pat on the back and a threat on their lips."
"What should we do?" Janene asked open endedly. She had gotten used to Lee's local knowledge and Grerloc's wealth of experience.
Lee shrugged, and Elizabeth spoke for him, "Staand at paaraade in da loodin' bay for 'em, an' welcoome 'em as ef noothing were oot o' da oordinaar'. Et'll certa'nly gave the boording t'am a keck."
"Certainly give them a memorable time as we kick their ass." Greerloc said semi confidently. Indeed, the asari's biotics would come in handy in the enclosed space and would definitely take the Cross members by surprise. However in order to win this fight they'd need to board the Destroyer and take it out.. Not exactly feasible for seven Asari, a Krogan, three neodogs and an old human merc.
"Hey, Lee?" The captain's voice came over the intercom now, "They're on their way, whatever you're planning better do it fast."
"Tell them we'll meet them in the transfer hanger." Looking to the team he nodded, "Gear up for void and keep your nerves down. They may just want to talk." Lee said optimistically.
They marched to the transfer hanger typically used for in space transfers of ship to ship, typically holding host to a small freighter and if the hanger crew were particularly negligent, stacks of crates and equipment. Of which conveniently they were particularly negligent today.
"I want everyone in plain view in parade formation, let's not give them cause to be jumpy." as he said that the intermediate air lock engaged and depressurized, looking to it he saw the converted assault shuttle, it looked to have formerly been a Redhawk but was now sporting some unofficial mods and equipment, in particular the paint job held a shark smile on the nose with various geometric markings on the side as if tattoos.
It was tense to watch as Lee took the forward step with Grerloc and Janene flanking him, it was best if held to be in charge, Janane's grasp on English was shaky at times, and Grerloc wasn't who you want toed handle din matters where he couldn't use the full force of his size to good effect.
The chamber repressurized and the Black Cross stepped off the assault shuttle and they numbered at least three times their number, and they were all in powersuits. Their powersuits were all painted black, with a raised white cross on their chests made of metal. However their leader looked a lot different and was flanked by two lean and scary looking guards.
The intermediate airlock door opened and they all walked forward in step. Lee thought that impressive, and it showed these weren't conscripts or some civilians given military training, these were the genuine article.
"Oh man. Do you know how hard it is to get you guys in a place I can talk with you without being overheard? Hint hint captain, if I get word you hear a word of this exchange past this moment I'll add your skull to my collection." The man was big, and while his visor was currently tinted black, his deep voice sounded a lot like Barbados accent. To Lee that is. He was wearing a modified M4 power suit, and a god damn black fur cape.
His two bodyguards were even more exoticaly dresed, wearing the same M4s, but with an unknown helmet design that showed a blank curved screen, which were currently showing cartoonishly drawn smiley faces, panting and their tongues out as if hungry. The sharp teeth that would occasionally be seen as the lips were drawn back didn't help with that thought.
The Asari kept their cool, and so did Grerloc and Janane. Lee took a few steps forward and stood at rest, "I welcome you on our humble vessel, to what do I owe the pleasure and to whom?"
"General Csaba Hinds, Retired Captain Lee I presume?" The Black Cross leader said with a slight flourish of a bow.
Lee stiffened into attention, "Retired Captain William Lee, yes. What brings you all the way out here, to this tiny little merc band?"
"Relax captain, we're all friends here." As if to prove the point, the man reached up to his helmet, disengaged the seal, and removed it, showing he was indeed black, a deep charcoal black, with his pearly white teeth shown in a carefree grin and his eyes showing through the darkness. He was handsome, in that roguish exotic kind of way, the kind of man woman, and some men, dreamed would take them away in the middle of the night to go on a life changing adventure. William had an eye for such things, which he had grown used to taking advantage of. He was a ladies man after all.
Williams moved to rest and removed his own helmet, having it rest in his left arm, mirroring Csaba.
At an unspoken signal the two both approached one another and stopped in the middle of the anger, and after a moment of sizing one another up, neither backing down, they both relaxed and shook hands amiably. "If that's a case, a pleasure to meet you General, I'd have made dinner and opened a bottle of whiskey, but I'm afraid you came in a bit unannounced.
"Indeed we did, and I apologize for that. So incredibly rude of us. Perhaps the whiskey can be saved for later? For now we must attend to business and be off." He said in his deep accent. The two took a step back .Both men were in ta battle of will and the aura around them necessitated such move."But first-" He left off meaningfully.
"I'm so sorry, rube of me that is, let me introduce my team." Lee said with a slight laugh that Csaba joined in.
"I like you already Lee."
The two marched up and Janane and Grerloc had put away their weapons and waited in a neutral stance, "Old friend Lee?" Janane asked teasingly.
"General Hinds, may I introduce the official signer of my paycheck, Commando Commander Janane, a hundred year veteran of innumerable conflicts and former acolyte of Matriarch Guythera, a well known theorist in war and politics." Lee introduced Janane who stood at a pretty good imitation of Lee's attention and then offered her hand.
Csaba took it daintily and bowing slightly kissed it. Much to the flattering of the Asari who had only seen something like that in human movies.
"And next we have the Krogan himself. The diplomat of our group believe it or not." Lee introduced Grerloc, who nodded a gruff affirmative. Csaba smiled, donned his helmet, walked up to the krogan, and while Csaba was a big man at nearly seven feet, Grerloc was taller still. Didn't stop him from taking a firm grasp of the lip of Grerloc's armor and smacked his head into Grerlocs. Everyone, the Asari, Lee, and Grerloc himself was stunned as Csaba took a step back. The only people not stunned was the neodogs who immediately started to growl at Csaba.
"So did I do it right?" Csaba asked with evident mirth as he chuckled.
The stunned silence from Grerloc mutated into amused roars of laughter from the Krogan. This caused the entire room to relax immediately, "It's been centuries since ANYONE's had the quad to do that to me." The krogan spoke out in bursts of laughter, before offering his hand to the man who shook it firmly, "But for future reference, head buts are a show of conflict egging on, insult, or a sign of respect depending. Its ahhh, how you humans say it? 'Locking horns'?" Removing his helmet again, Csaba was smiling wide.
"Well now I know for certain! Certainly pleasure to meet a good natured fellow such as yourself." The two neodogs were circling around their pack leader protectively, but Grerloc and Csaba paid them no mind.
Making a movement with his hand his two bodyguards approached, "Meet my hands as it were, Xiang and Dullahan." The two bowed when their names were called, and it didn't make them any less freaky, one was named after a language and the other was named after the mythological headless horsemen. Yeah, we can either do this with words words or we take your head.
"Now that introductions are out of the way, onto business. You see, we're in a identity crisis at the moment, the Skinnies are nominally allies now, piracy and slaving at an all time low on the Federation and Hegemony border. And with a lack of that we're out of a job, out of our defining purpose. That is until, we heard about somewhere called the Batarian Hegemony. Heh hehe , It's a wonder, why are all slaving species calling themselves "'hegemonies'?"
"Now Lee, what's your position in all of this? Translator? Fixer? Local guide?"
"A bit of all of the above."
"Very smart of them to find you then, now imagine if they had tried to breach the market with no local guide?"
"I can't imagine they'd get far past the first Federal checkpoint I found them at.: Lee took a moment to look very thoughtful, "I think I know what you're asking."
"Yo want some locals?" Janen said aloud.
"As it were, we'd love to make some initial contacts in the area, who to trust, who to kill on sight, who to hire ourselves too… you see Janane, Grerloc, and all the rest of you blue amazon squad. We. Hate. Slavery. We hate the slave takers, we hate the process, we hate the humiliation of the affected, the degradation of society it inflicts upon all, the commoditization of people is sick and disgusting. We want to end that. Yes while you think," He ahems to affect his voice so it sounds more dainty like an Asari, an impossible task for a men of his manliness, he'd make the Old Spice guy look cuddly, that brought a smile on Lee's face, "'Oh! General Hinds, you lovely man, whatever can the Black Cross do to a society that has existed for ten thousand years with slavery and caste system?' And I'll say," here he makes his voice sound normal, but somehow more heroic, "'I guess I'll just have a lot of four eyed skulls in my collection now.'"
He smiled at them, and Lee couldn't help but feel the infectiousness of it, he could see why he was general.
"Well, I have no love of the Batarians, or two bit mercs who take slaves for the extra cash. But here's the important bit, what's the pay?" Janane asked with an evident smile.
~[==|==]~
Author note: AND CUE DRAMATIC MUSIC!
L4: old short story been hanging around thought I'd get them out, anyhow we moved past this book to Terran Federation Counterstrike, do a look on space battles or Fanfiction for it if you've been waiting for the next chapter, because you have 4 waiting for you. Remember we update every first of the month, and halfway through the month. And we typically release the chapter early on Space battles .net when we finish it.
BloodRaven: This chapter was fun, got to expand on some old characters and create some new ones, while also tying in some plot points in the new book. Lokia is the brother to Edmund Tromblay, who we saw earlier and is an admiral in Counterstrike.
Also the Xiang and Dullahan was completely an on the spot pun. I hope I don't need to explain it :P
L4: no but you need to ask forgiveness from the reader for using a pun :P