March 6th
2186
12:12 PM
Aboard the Lincoln; Deep space.

The news broke three days into their journey through space. At the insistence of Melissa, and some urging by Zero and Tarya, Kral had stopped off at a comm buoy. He complained about "wasting time" and "the cargo not being worth as much after," but he still navigated to it.

Melissa had written a letter to her parents, urging them to leave Earth, that the Reapers were coming and it wasn't safe. She realized how crazy it must've sounded, but it was the only way to explain her being missing, as well as attempt to warn them about the dangers. Anxiety about Reaper attacks set everyone, especially Melissa, on edge, so when activity at the comm buoy was buzzing, her heart skipped a few beats.

"Why are there so many ships connected to this buoy? Kral, take us in closer and see what this is about," Melissa ordered.

"Ha! A little girl trying to give me orders. That's hilarious!" Kral said. Strangely, he still delved the Lincoln closer in and found a space to hook up to the buoy. Reports came in almost instantly, flooding the information reception system. Despite the cramped cockpit, all four members huddled around the shining holographic monitor next to the pilot chair. Tarya gasped. Zero's "eyebrows" started flailing. Kral's eyes went wide. Melissa started to tear up.

Reapers had made it to Earth. The war was on.

Melissa sprinted out of the cockpit, through the gaping, white hallways, past the small CIC, and into the information distribution room. The Lincoln had been made as a scout ship, so having top-of-the-line information systems was vital. As she was running, she primed her omni-tool and set the message to her parents at the top of it.

Melissa powered up the short-range message transmitter and swiped her omni-tool over it. The short-range transmitter was capable of taking information and messages directly from sources touching it and tight beam it to any nearby accepting node. Useful for comm buoys, not so much for scouting or fighting.

Her message was automatically transmitted through. A short minute later, a green light appeared on the monitor, telling her the message was received at the destination. She waited for a few anxious moments before a call came through. Melissa was reluctant to answer, for even after three days of floating around in space she still has not come up with a good enough excuse as to why she left. After a few seconds of deliberation, she finally picked up.

"H-hello?" Melissa's voice squeaked out.

"Melissa? Oh thank the spirits, you're alright! Where the fuck have you been? You were reported missing for God's sake!" Her father's stern voice echoed, several seconds before his image appeared as a hologram. He was in a fancy Armali business suit, obviously just back from a meeting at work, or perhaps during one. Melissa was shocked, her dad never swore.

"I..." Melissa started to choke up. "I didn't mean to hurt anyone! I didn't think I would be missing! I just wanted to be safe, and someone took me there. The Reapers are coming! The Reapers are on Earth right this very instant!"

"Yes, me and your mother are well aware of the situation on Earth. Why the hell do you think we're so frantic to find you? Where are you? Are you even still on Illium?" Her father said, clearly on the verge of breaking down.

"N-no, no, I'm aboard a ship. We're at a comm buoy, in the Exodus cluster, in Utopia. I left Illium a few days ago with 3..." Melissa thought for a moment. "With 2 other people, on board a ship one of them owns. I left the hospital after receiving a dire warning. It's true too! The Reapers really are here! Where are you and Mom? Are you guys safe?"

"Goddammit Melissa, have I ever told you not to go places with strangers? Well, disappearing for 4 days aboard a spaceship with people you've never met before to escape a threat that in all likelihood wasn't going to materialize definitely counts!" He took a deep breath, then paused for a moment. "Me and your mother are safe, for now. We're on Illium. We were talking to the police to try and locate you. I didn't have time to change out of my suit before leaving for Illium, so I'm stuck here with just this. We... we're going to find some lodging here, see what we can do from here about safety. As much as I want you home with us, if you're safe that's all that matters. I still don't trust the people your with, and I am still real angry about you disappearing, but the circumstances have proved to be too dangerous to do anything other than survive, even if that means you being away for a while. Good luck, and check in as frequently as you physically can." At this point, tears were streaming down Melissa's face. Her father had never talked to her like this, not once in her life.

"I will, Dad. And thanks for being okay with my admitted negligence. You know I took these Reaper threats seriously, and I wouldn't have done this had I thought they were less of a threat. And please, please be safe. I'll do my part to be safe as well. We're about to leave the comm buoy, I need to sign off. Goodbye. And Dad, I love you."

"I love you too Melissa. Goodbye." The hologram image of her father faded into nothing. Melissa collapsed onto the ground in front of the decoder console. She hugged her knees close to her and cried. She thought about the things she didn't tell her father, the things it would be for the best that he didn't know, like the geth aboard, the fact that the ship is Alliance and stolen, or the fact that its captain is a krogan smuggler with several hundred kilos of Illian red sand aboard. After a moment, she got up, calmed herself down, and walked back through to the cockpit. After a few moments of silence, Kral piped up.

"Anyone else need to beam a message out? We're running low on fuel, and I'm running low on money and patience." After a moment, it was Tarya that spoke.

"Well, what the hell, I'm probably in it for the long haul, I'm gonna go send my resignation letter." After a few minutes passed, she came back to the cockpit looking giddy, presumably over the fact that she just quit her soul-sucking day job. Kral pulled the ship away from the comm buoy, and headed towards the mass relay in the system. His contact for the red sand was in the Hoc system in Sentry Omega, on Virmire. Kral's customers were often petty drug lords, or gangs hoping to get an edge. The contact for a small gang was there, and they were Kral's prime buyers.

After getting more long-range transmissions about the state of affairs on Earth and around, Tarya got to thinking. She talked to Zero about it, and they both agreed it was a good plan. They both went to Melissa, talked about it, and she reluctantly agreed it was a good idea. The three of them gathered in the cockpit, semi-nervous at their suggestion.

"Kral-Thorak. We have a proposition for you." Zero said.

"Go ahead..." Kral said, cautiously.

"The Reapers are killing a lot of people. There is a lot of destruction going on, and there are a lot of Reaper ground troops that need to be killed. Obviously, the navies of everyone are a little tied up at the moment, but that doesn't mean we can't help, right? There are already reports of small fire teams deploying themselves into hostile territory to get things done. We should do that," Tarya said.

"Ha. Haha. Hahaha! You want me to spend all my money so we can get killed in battles that aren't our business? That's funny. You're a funny person, little asari." Kral laughed.

"Well, we were thinking you could take the profits from your, uh, business meeting soon and get some weapons and armor, and we can train. What were you planning on doing with the money, anyway? The Reapers have effectively shut down commercial trading, or any kind of luxury items. The most you can do is buy weapons and armor, which you were honestly probably just going to buy anyway, am I right?" Melissa argued. Kral thought about it for a moment.

"I really wasn't going to buy anything other than armor and weapons, no. Hmm. I'll tell you all what: if you can secure other sources of income as well, I'll think about making all of us battle-ready and getting us killed in battle."

Tarya, Zero, and Melissa all quietly cheered back in their bunks about being able to fight and contribute. They went to sleep, hoping that the "business meet" would be over by morning and they can stock up and train tomorrow.

Wow look at that I finally updated. Go me.