Session Three; Karansys
"It started with a gun-runner," Miranda explained as she slowly circled the couch, "He'd been trading weapons to Karnak in exchange for credits. Alteia and I picked him up on the edge of the Terminus systems, took him to a small planet called Kurlos; uninhabited, of course. Threatened to strand him there unless he told us what Karnak was doing and where."
Kelly blinked once, "What did he tell you?"
Miranda smiled, "Nothing much. All the transactions were done through a third party, he never even met Karnak. Not once. But he did meet the third party."
"So you tracked the third party."
"Exactly, Kelly," Miranda nodded, pacing around the room , "She was a Batarian, went by the name Aralkesh."
"What was her connection to Karnak?" Kelly asked, flicking through pages on her data-pad.
"They both came from the same planet, same city, in fact," Miranda said, running a hand through her hair, "Have you ever heard of Artkel?"
Kelly shook her head.
"I didn't expect so," Miranda smiled darkly, there was something predatory to it, "It was a Batarian mining planet; just outside the Terminus systems, inside Council space. The Batarians mined from orbit, using large sonar pulses to disrupt the earth and rock and reveal deposits of minerals and gases. Very dangerous technology, but also very useful."
"They'd, what, blast the rock away?" Kelly asked, confused.
"Not quite. Have you ever heard of people who would fish with dynamite or a shotgun?" Miranda asked, setting her hands down on the spine of the couch, "The gunshot or the explosion isn't what kills the fish, it's the shockwaves travelling through the water that pulverize their organs. Very messy, very painful."
"Gross," Kelly wrinkled her nose, "You're saying these machines worked the same way?"
"Similar principle," Miranda shrugged, "The sonar waves pulverized the earth and rock and made it easier for the ground teams to dig up precious minerals, which would be pushed closer to the surface; in theory, at least."
Kelly nodded slowly, "Okay."
"Of course, the sonar waves would be fatal to anyone on the surface, so they worked in six months shifts. One cycle would be dedicated to using the sonar waves from orbit, then the next would be sending in ground teams to dig."
"Clever," Kelly said, understanding.
"Batarian efficiency," Miranda snorted derisively, "Karnak lived there, before the mining began. When the mining did begin, everyone who could work was moved to the orbiting stations. Everyone who couldn't was relocated off-world. Karnak could work, so he and his family were put onto one of these stations, alongside this Aralkesh woman."
"So what turned a miner into a terrorist?" Kelly asked pointedly, setting her data-pad aside and placing the end of her pen against her bottom lip.
"The Alliance, of course," Miranda smiled again; that dark, twisted smile.
"The Alliance?" Kelly asked dryly, "That seems hard to believe."
"A group of Alliance cruisers, doing routine patrols. They spotted the stations in orbit and panicked. I guess they didn't realize what they were. The Batarians had two ships there protecting the stations from pirates. I don't know who fired the first shot, but the Alliance definitely fired the last," Miranda stepped around to the front of the couch and sat down, "Only one station survived and it was just a shell by the time the Alliance guns were through with it."
"So that's why Karnak hated the Alliance," Kelly said quietly.
"Yes," Miranda exhaled a deep breath, "Not a single Batarian in orbit survived. Karnak was on the planet as part of a dig crew. One of the stations misfired during the assault and sent a sonar wave down to the planet."
"Oh god," Kelly gasped, covering her mouth with her hand.
Miranda nodded solemnly, "Half the Batarians on the surface died screaming, their organs liquefied, the other half suffered thousands of debilitating symptoms between them. They only survived because they'd been inside the dig site's shielded main building."
"How have I never heard of this? Surely an atrocity like that wouldn't just get swept away?"
"There weren't exactly a wealth of survivors willing to testify," Miranda shrugged, "And Karnak and the other survivors were trapped there for over a month. They had some shuttles between them, but nothing capable of long-range travel."
"So this Aralkesh, she was another survivor? God that's awful," Kelly shuddered.
"Yes, she was something of a liaison for Karnak," Miranda clasped her hands in front of her and stared at them as she spoke, "Whenever Karnak needed something, she was assigned to get it."
"What was she like?" Kelly asked suddenly, gazing off into nothingness.
"She was a hell of a shot," Miranda said, leaning back, "And she fought like crazy."
"That's not what I meant."
"I know what you meant, Kelly, and I don't know what the answer is."
Aralkesh stood on the balcony overlooking the harbour. The balcony belonged to the Artellum Hostel, an intergalactic hot-spot for diplomats and foreign dignitaries. Alteia had laughed when they'd found out that Aralkesh was staying there. Miranda hadn't found it that funny.
Her rifle was propped up against window of the apartment she'd rented in the harbor district. The scope was trained on Aralkesh's balcony. She traced the crosshairs of the scope up Aralkesh's slender form, realizing how easy it would be to take the shot. From here, only a scant few hundred meters away, the bullet would likely not only pass through Aralkesh's shields, but probably her body too.
The police would probably find the slug embedded in the wall opposite the balcony if they were lucky. Or in the next room, having killed some young couple lying in bed, if they weren't.
She hated the harbor, hated the smell of the salt-water; hated the crowded, narrow streets and she definitely hated the stink of gutted fish that seemed to permeate everything. She pushed the thought from her mind and tightened her grip on the barrel of the rifle.
"Alteia, you see anything?" She said into the head-set she wore, "Aralkesh is staying put on her balcony. The seller must not be here yet."
"Nothing yet," Alteia's voice crackled in her ear, "Certainly nothing that could hold the cargo Aralkesh is expecting."
Miranda sighed and rubbed above her eye, "Okay, keep an eye out."
She checked the heat-readout on her sniper rifle for the twelfth time that hour and sighed again. Usually she enjoyed the weight, but this was different. Operation Forseti had taken on a frightening sense of urgency after the assault on Chisholm. The Illusive Man had been less than pleased with the end result. She could still see his cold, ice-blue eyes fixing her with that look of disappointment. It was one of the few times she'd ever seen him let an emotions how so readily like that.
'Miranda? You there?" Alteia's voice burst out over the comm. line, "I'm seeing something coming up the south street; some kind of APC or similar."
"Hold on," Miranda responded calmly, tracking the scope of her rifle back down from the balcony and along the narrow street to the south.
Sure enough, there it was. Trundling along between the narrow gap in-between the buildings, belching smoke and screeching with the sound of grinding axles as it roared along down the street. People scurried out of its way, pressing themselves flat against the surface of the majestic buildings that lined each side of the street.
What Karansys planetary development officials lacked in street building and location skills they made up for in extravagance.
"I see it," Miranda whispered back, "Are you in position?"
"Affirmative," Alteia said quietly, "I've got the charge set and ready, as soon as they hit the parking garage they're history."
Miranda's crosshairs bounced as she brought them back up to the balcony. A Krogan had joined Aralkesh there, his heavy armour glinted in the morning sunlight. They were both staring down at the vehicle making its way toward them.
"Hold up on that Alteia," Miranda said, a spike of fear travelling through her body, "We've got a problem."
"What is it?" Alteia's voice broke across the channel, the impatience in it clear.
"Aralkesh has a Krogan with her, probably a bodyguard to make sure the deal goes down right," Miranda swore quietly, drawing a bead on the Krogan's head.
"Shit," Alteia's voice said quietly.
"Hold off on the explosives, Alteia," Miranda ordered, holding her finger over the trigger of her rifle, "Looks like we're going to have to deal with that Krogan first."
"You got it, Miranda."
"Alteia and you had become close, I take it?" Kelly asked.
"Close enough for her to want to see the mission through, close enough for her to want revenge for being shot, I suppose," Miranda gently drummed her fingers against her thigh, "So yes, close."
Kelly nodded, "Understandable. Is that why you left her out of your report? Didn't want her to have a Cerberus file of her own?"
Miranda nodded, "I figured I owed her that much."
"So she helped you attempt to blow up a popular hotel?"
"Don't be so dramatic," Miranda said, "We only attempted to blow up part of it, and a light tank."
"Hmmm," Kelly rubbed her chin thoughtfully, "How exactly was that supposed to let you capture Aralkesh?"
"Easily," Miranda replied with a small shrug, then when she saw the look in Kelly's eyes she continued, "Aralkesh was buying something; a shipment of weapons, probably. If we blew it up, we figured we'd either draw her out, or cause her to flee. At which point we'd move in and capture her."
"But this Krogan ruined that plan, I take it?"
"Krogan are dangerous opponents, there was no way I was moving in until it was dealt with," Miranda explained, her voice hard and cold.
"How did you plan to do that?" Kelly asked.
"The old fashioned way."
Alteia's voice blared through her ear-piece, "The APC is going into the parking garage beneath the building, if we're going to take it out, it has to be now!"
"Alright, alright," Miranda said soothingly, "Give me two seconds, then detonate."
The first thing she felt was the recoil of the rifle jumping back against her shoulder. The second thing she felt was an immense sense of disappointment as the round ricocheted off the Krogan's personal shield. The rifle was an older model, one that had a charging handle that cycled the vent and released the heat build-up. She swore as she pulled the bolt back and slid it home.
The Krogan reeled back with the force of the shot; his head cracked against the doorway out onto the balcony and splintered the finely carved timber into pieces. Her second shot slammed into his chest and took his shields down. A second later, another movement of the rifle's bolt, and she put a third slug through his chin. The tender flesh there exploded in a shower of blood and shards of bone.
The Krogan roared something incoherent and gargled. Down below the crowded streets began to scream. He was still standing, whether through some miracle or sheer Krogan stubbornness Miranda wasn't sure. She cycled the rifle again, just as the explosives in the parking level went off. The shockwave and the sound threw her aim off, but she still managed to put the fourth, and final, round through the remains of the Krogan's destroyed mouth and throat. At the angle she was firing from the bullet exited through the back of the Krogan's skull; taking most of his brain with it.
The entrance to the parking garage billowed smoke and fire, she swung her scope around and aimed there just long enough to catch sight of Alteia sprinting in, her assault rifle slung across the shoulders of her hardened combat suit.
"It's fucking hot in here!" Alteia yelled over the comm. line, her voice half obscured by crackling flames, "And it looks like the supports are going to collapse any minute now, this roof isn't going to hold!"
"Those are load-bearing pillars!" Miranda responded, standing up and letting go of her rifle, "That garage goes it could take down the hotel with it!"
"Then better find this bitch fast!" Alteia snarled with a grunt of exertion, "Get in here!"
Miranda moved to the door of the apartment, pausing only to draw her own rifle from its place on her back before leaving.
"You blew up the Artellum hotel?" Kelly asked, incredulous, "That was attributed to a Terra-Firma extremist splinter group."
Miranda nodded slyly, "Yes well, The Illusive Man cleans up well."
Kelly's right eye arched upwards in a mischievous gesture, "Do you miss him?"
"No," Miranda said suddenly, too suddenly to be faked, "He was a powerful man, a principled man, but he'd become too self-absorbed for his own good. And the rest of humanities."
Kelly nodded, then reached around her desk and tapped in a command on her computer screen. The console came to life with a slight hiss, "There's not much in here about your relationship. But what there is, is intriguing."
Miranda shook her head slowly, deliberately, "Not now, Kelly. Not ever. Do you understand?"
Kelly's mouth worked itself open and shut twice before she could speak again, "Okay."
"Good."
She was inside the hotel now and moving up. The sign by the elevator had warned not to use during a fire emergency, she'd smiled as she passed it in favour of the stairs. It wasn't out of fear, but of the simple knowledge that if Aralkesh was coming down, she'd take the stairs instead of the elevator. There was less chance of being caught on camera in the stairwell. The door on the floor above burst open and two terrified young men rushed through.
They spotted Miranda and instantly stopped, her rifle barrel bounced between the two of them, "Get moving!"
One of them nodded, a panicked, frenzied gesture and then the two of them pushed past her and headed downstairs to the lobby, making sure to avoid stepping anywhere near her gun.
"I'm on Aralkesh's floor," Alteia's voice chimed in, calmer now that she'd left the garage behind, "Haven't seen anyone yet. Headed toward her room right now."
"Roger that. I'm on the stairwell, between the first and second floors, headed to you," Miranda replied, stepping quickly up the reinforced metal stairs.
She cleared the second floor stairs with practiced, ruthless efficiency. At the third floor she did the same. The third floor door almost exploded off its hinges. She ducked out of the way and dived to the side as it flew toward her, the edge of it clipped the barrel of her gun and tore it from her hands; both it and the door disappeared over the edge of the stairwell and fell down to the first floor. There was an ear-splitting clang as they clattered off the edges of the stairs and crumpled against the ground.
Aralkesh lunged at her, four eyes narrowed in concentration, two vice-like hands seeking her throat. She smacked the hands aside and kicked out with her leg. She caught Aralkesh in the stomach with the edge of her boot and sent the Batarian back, gasping for air. She leapt forward, bringing her fist around and swinging at the Batarian's head.
Aralkesh slipped under the blow, coming up behind Miranda, grabbing at her neck again. Her hands clamped down on the human woman's throat. Miranda gasped for air and drove her elbow backwards. Aralkesh didn't even flinch. She flailed her arms at the Batarian and kicked with her feet, desperately trying to dislodge her choke-hold on her.
Aralkesh shifted her weight, one of her hands let go of Miranda and moved behind her back. She wrapped her fingers around the handle of the knife she kept there and pulled it free with a quick tug. The blade came up over Miranda's shoulder and then stabbed downward at her heart. Miranda stopped it with an inch to spare, grabbing Aralkesh's wrist with one of her hands.
They struggled. Miranda battering Aralkesh's ribs with her free hand and Aralkesh choking and pushing the knife downward with hers. Miranda kicked at Aralkesh's knee, but the Batarian deftly moved her leg out of the way. The hand tightened on her throat. The colour of her face darkened and sunspots of black began to appear at the corner of her vision. She couldn't breathe, couldn't focus and certainly couldn't hold the blade at bay any longer.
So she did the only thing she could think of. She let her whole body relax. Her knees collapsed and her whole body slumped to the ground, slipping out of Aralkesh's impossibly tight grip. The blade whistled through the air, seeking her throat. Aralkesh hadn't expected her quarry to fall so quickly. But it had. Her own blade slipped through the air that Miranda had just been occupying and stabbed downward into her thigh. She howled in pain and tore the knife free.
She chased Miranda and Miranda scrabbled backwards on all floors. Miranda's back hit the wall. She gulped. Aralkesh stepped toward her and slashed downward with her knife. Miranda threw herself at the Batarian's legs and pressed her thumb into the wound there. Aralkesh screeched something unintelligible and drew her arm back for another slice, this one aimed at Miranda's jugular.
Miranda wrapped her arms around Aralkesh's legs in a bear-hug. Then, with nowhere else to go, she threw herself backwards down the stairs, dragging the Batarian with her. Aralkesh gave a surprised cry as the knife fell from her grasp and she spun head over heels. Her shoulder smacked into the stairs as the two combatants fell in a tangled heap. Miranda's nose broke against the first step she hit, warm blood splashed downward across the front of her armour. Her hand grabbed for the railing and missed. Her knuckles smacked against it and shattered. She screamed.
They slammed into the second floor stairwell together; both of them breathing hard and bleeding heavily. Miranda felt fatigue seep into every bone in her body. She propped herself up against the wall, her chest rising steadily in rhythm with her breathing. Her broken hand fell limply into her lap. She groaned as she shook her head, trying to bring herself back to full consciousness.
Aralkesh stood slowly, swaying unsteadily on her feet. She stepped gingerly over to her knife, limping, and stooped to pick it up from the ground.
"Stop!" Alteia's voice cried out and for a second Miranda thought it was a hallucination.
It wasn't. She stood on the third floor stairwell, aiming her rifle down over the railing at Aralkesh.
Through the blood and the pain and the broken bones Miranda smiled, "Nice of you to show up."
Alteia shrugged playfully, relief coating her voice, "Well who the hell takes the stairs anymore?"
Miranda laughed, then immediately regretted it as pain flared through her body.
"Good timing," Kelly observed jokingly.
"Alteia always had a flare for the dramatic," Miranda smiled, reminiscing.
"What did you do next?" Kelly asked, sitting up in her chair and leaning forward.
"The building was going down," Miranda tilted her head back and uttered a long sigh, "So we had to get her out, the cops would be there by now so the front door wasn't an option..."
"How then?"
"We jumped."
"Excuse me?" Kelly's face contorted into a bewildered grimace.
"We headed up a couple of floors and opened a window," Miranda said simply, "Then we jumped to an adjacent building through it, of course Aralkesh tried to escape when she saw what we were doing so we 'helped' her across with a little biotic persuasion."
"Ingenious," Kelly blinked once, stunned.
Miranda shrugged, "We ditched our armour and rifles and slipped out the back door. Then we found a car with a sizable trunk and loaded her in. We were out of the system by the next day."
'Then you interrogated her?"
"Sort of."
"Hmmm?"
"Let me explain."
Miranda pulled the stool closer to Aralkesh. Her bandaged hand and nose still hurt. There was fury in her eyes.
"Are you going to be difficult?" Miranda asked, her voice steady.
Aralkesh gave no answer.
Miranda gently reached forward and wrapped her good hand around one of Aralkesh's fingers. She snapped it in two with a flick of her wrist. Aralkesh swore in a guttural, alien language.
"I'm sorry?" Alteia said quietly from behind her, the barrel of her pistol pressed against the back of the Batarian's head, "My translator didn't catch that."
"I said," Aralkesh said slowly, "That fucking hurt."
"I'd imagine," Miranda nodded appreciatively, "Tell me what I want to know and I won't have to do it again."
Aralkesh fell silent again. Miranda's hand closed over another of her fingers. There was another snap. Another bout of swearing.
Miranda sighed, then she stood and pulled her own pistol free from her holster, "Have it your way."
She fired the gun into the wall and then pressed the steaming barrel against Aralkesh's knee. Aralkesh winced. Miranda pulled the barrel away, "How about now?"
The Batarian shook her head fiercely. Miranda fired another shot into the wall. Then another after that.
This time she held the barrel up to the Batarian's upper set of eyes, "Guess where this is going?"
Aralkesh's eyes widened in terror, sheer apoplectic shock coated her features as she desperately tried to pull free from the bonds that tied her to her chair.
"Tell me, what I want to know," Miranda said slowly, inching the smoking barrel closer to her top-left eye. A single tear slipped down Aralkesh's cheek, sweat collected on her brow. The heat of the barrel evaporated them both.
"Stop!" Aralkesh cried out, "Stop! Stop!"
Miranda turned the burning barrel aside, "Good girl."
"He's on Artkel!" Aralkesh cried out, "In the plains, where we used to mine! He said you'd know where it was."
Miranda leaned back, "He told you I was coming? He told you to tell me these things? Why did you resist?"
Aralkesh's head drooped forward on her shoulders and she breathed a long sigh, "I thought I might be able to prevent you from going after him, or dissuade you from killing him. You are going to kill him, aren't you?"
Miranda nodded, "He's a murderer."
"And a good man," Aralkesh retorted, sniffling slightly as she straightened her head.
Miranda nodded again, slower this time, "Maybe. That's not my business."
Then, with a curt nod to Alteia, she stood up and left the room, heading for the cock-pit of their ship.
The sound of the gunshot that killed Aralkesh was drowned out by the roar of the cycling engines.
"You killed her?"
"Yes. As soon as her role in Karnak's organization became apparent she became a target of Operation Forseti," Miranda explained, but even her justification sounded hollow.
"Then you killed Karnak?" Kelly asked, her eyebrows moving up.
"Yes."
"How?"
Miranda smiled wickedly, "I'll give you that story if you give me something in return."
Kelly rolled her eyes, "This is a psychiatrist's office, Miranda, not a marketplace."
"What I want is simple," Miranda said, leaning forward, "And well within your capabilities."
Kelly nodded slowly, hesitantly, "Okay."
Miranda's smile broadened, "Excellent. I'll see you tomorrow then, Kelly."
End Session Three