The markets

Heading for the lower market district where I hoped to find some of my contacts I wandered through the streets of the Omega station. The buildings around me getting shabbier and the backyards visible on my way were stuffed with rotten filth, the reek growing in intensity likewise. The streets on my way were crowded with a variety of all races, who likewise changed in their appearance, some only clothed in rags, sitting in dark corners, others heading quickly in the direction of some business, and some groups of dangerous looking villains eyeing me suspiciously on my path. If not for my armour and weaponry I am not sure if I would have reached my destination, judging the gaze and occasionally side glances that followed my trail. Unharmed I reached the lower markets district which was humming with activity. I dived into the crowd, all senses on high alert " I won´t hear them coming, that´s for sure" quickly scanning my ever shifting surroundings for possible dangers. Reaching the first shop I wanted to visit, I entered the entrance room offering lots of technical gadgets, video games, and other stuff I had no interest in. A few customers were straying through the shop; the only salesman present was sitting behind his desk, wearing a rather bored look and occasionally glancing at the display before him.

I approached him with "Is the game Alea Iacta Est available?"

He looked at me suspiciously "No, it is not yet released, I can put you on the waiting list, if you want"

"No thanks, you´ve got some comparable stuff instead?" "I hope they´re still using this shit; otherwise I`m just getting myself into some trouble right now"

The salesman inspected the battle gear and the weapons I was wearing before giving me a skew smile and lowering his voice to answer my question "Well Sir, if you´re in need of some stuff like that you are wearing, I can arrange that shortly."

Lowering my voice likewise I specified my request "Armour devices and upgrades, if you got some special stuff beside the standards, also weapons."

"Please wait, I`ll be back in a minute" He dissolved into a backdoor behind his desk.

I pretended interest in some of the gadgets near the desk and waited, he emerged only two minutes later, "Here is your warranty receipt, Sir, we will inform you when it has been repaired" handing me a piece of paper with a handwritten note on it telling me the place and time of my meeting.

"Thank you, I hope it won`t be too long" With this I left the shop heading for the indicated point for my meeting but taking some diversions "Let´s have a look at this particular place, last time I met with these guys all went fine, but this was some time ago."

I reached the place from the opposite side the direct route from the shop would have taken me a couple of minutes before the due time. Using the shadow of a rusty balcony as cover I had a closer look on my surroundings. "At least two of them, a turian and a human, the latter one looks familiar, ok then, let´s see where this gets us."

I emerged from my cover, placing myself in front of the indicated building, the turian slowly headed in my direction, passing by closely while whispering "Follow me". His human fellow followed shortly behind us, keeping an eye on his surroundings. As he perceived my knowing gaze in his direction he gave me a curt nod, acknowledging my awareness of him.

We moved through several less crowded streets before the turian stopped in front of a backdoor to an old warehouse. He opened the door and invited me to enter the building "I hope you find what you are looking for, our tech specialist awaits you inside".

I nodded my thanks while entering the building, following a filthy corridor emerging into a vast quadratic room filled with military equipment of all kinds and origins. Another turian clad in the clothes of a technician awaited me, quickly inspecting my battle gear. "Welcome stranger, if you don`t mind we leave out the personal introduction and go straight forward to business."

I gave him a curt nod "That's fine with me. I'm preferably interested in armour upgrades and – if available – weapons not of the rack."

"I was informed about that, so let`s see what we have here. Looks like the light Colossus Armour mark IX, improved kinetic shields and some extra ammo containers attached to the legs. Something else of importance?" He summarized his investigation of my armour.

"You've got a pretty good eye there, only the visor I'm using in combat is of additional interest, a Treyarch TVX Mark IV".

"Mark IV? Well, the Treyarch is quite a good one, I can offer you the Mark V, but the improvement would be a only minor; a somewhat faster tracking device and a more precise motion tracker than your Mark IV. Regarding your choice of armour and visor you prefer a sniper rifle as main weapon?" He asked in return.

"Yeah, that's my best friend, for closer engagements I've got a Phalanx and a Shuriken"

"As a sniper it is always useful to stay out of attention, may I ask how much you intend to spend today, maybe I have an interesting proposal for you, absolutely new stuff, military development, not available on the free market, but, as you can imagine, quite expensive." He glanced at me inquiringly.

"My budget depends on the case, let me say that we're not talking about numbers with five digits if the offer is interesting enough" I replied circumventing an exact answer to his question, not willing to give away a possible initial price for a bargain.

"Fair enough. Well then, I am talking about a cloaking device which will be embedded in your armour. It allows you to vanish from sight by projecting your current environment surround you. An attentive pursuer will be able to see you as a blur or a haze in the form of your body, in darker areas or poor light you are almost invisible. The only drawback is the short duration of the cloak due to the high amount of energy needed without compromising the kinetic barriers. If you are moving you will have 6-8 seconds before the cloak collapses, without movement it will hold up to 30 seconds. Shooting or close combat quickly leads to a collapse, regardless the time, not to mention being hit. As I said, this is brand new military technology, no chance to get it on the free market. Not all armour types can be equipped with it, but your Colossus Mark IX certainly meets the requirements" He explained his proposal in detail, raising his brow in question.

"Sounds intriguing, 6 seconds are a lifetime for a skilled sniper to emerge from cover, lock onto a target, place a headshot and get back into cover. How much will this affect my budget?"

"Well, as I said, rather expensive, 225000 Credits including installation to your armour" he replied, seemingly curious for my reaction.

"Wow, that's certainly not a cheap one, but first let's see what else you may have in stock for me." I answered trying to keep my surprise hidden.

The turian smirked at me "Not talking about odds and ends here, are we? Talking about big things, reminds me of an M-98 Widow currently on stock, interested?

"I gave it a try once, way to heavy and nearly impossible to fire it without a rack attached to it. `Will break your arm when firing without it unless you are Krogan." I denied shaking my head.

"There are possibilities to reduce the recoil, but it stays a very heavy weapon best suited for defensive positions where you don't have to move." He nodded his acknowledgement "But maybe I`ve got another interesting offer for you. As a sniper I guess you prefer accurate weapons, maybe you want to replace your Shuriken with another SMG, wait a second."

He exited the room through a door in the back of it only to emerge a few seconds later, carrying a firearm of a distinctive shape I immediately identified as an M-12 Locust, a weapon I always tried to acquire, but never managed to actually get one. I hoped to hide my amazement well enough, accepting the weapon as the turian handed it over to me "An M-12 Locust, be sure you won`t be able to dig out a more precise weapon on full-auto than this one."

I checked to weapon for any damages, allowing myself a skew smile "You care if I test this one?

"It is in perfect condition, I can assure you, but there`s no harm in firing some rounds in our sparring room as we call it, follow me". He grinned, recognizing my amazement behind the facade.

We entered another vast room, half the size of the previous one, at the backside a couple of targets in different sizes were mounted along the wall. Hundreds of holes and craters decorated the wall where shots had gone amiss.

"Have fun" the turian simply said with an invitational gesture towards the wall, immediately leaving the place after I entered.

"Let`s see if this baby's reputation is well earned" Switching the trigger to single-fire mode I loosened a couple of shots while standing about 30 metres away from the targets. Not a single round hit the wall, most of them finding the bull`s eye. "So far the same as my Shuriken, let's add some reality". Switching the trigger to full-auto I started a duck and run alongside the room, reloading three times during the trail.

The turian entered the room, applauding my performance "Quite a display of accurate fire, I should show this to my Krogan companion, he won`t hit a Klixen on 20 metres, well, unless he gets hungry though"

I gave him a broad grin. "Love it." While inspecting the targets which now displayed some statistics, I tried to figure out the Locust' worth. "Well then, assuming you will exceed my budget with that one in addition to the cloaking device, give me a price for both, and be gentle, please"

"What about 290k for both, that is a discount of 20k on the weapon" He gave me a skew smile while looking at the Locust in my hand "Kind of a symbiosis the two of you, eh?"

"That exceeds my budget for sure, what about 240k, a considerable amount of money, and it won`t leave me a poor man-at-arms." Placing my first bid, already knowing that this wouldn`t be enough.

"You perfectly know that I cannot abate that much, same as you know that 290k was a little too high. Let`s cut it to the roots instead: 255k, accept it or leave it, unless you decide to take only one of the items in question." He stated.

I contemplated the offer, calculating my current reserves. "255k is a fucking lot of money, but this cloaking device is too tempting not to mention the Locust."

With a wry smile on my lips I accepted the offer "255k is fair enough, we have a deal then. How long does it take you to install the cloaking device?"

"Just a few hours, I can do that right away if you like, while you arrange the financial side with one of my companions. Let me arrange that while you get out of your armour" With that he left the room, presuming my acceptance.

"Sounds as if my shopping tour comes to a quick ending, I better be off for the lodge after this, otherwise I`ll completely exhausting my reserves. Anyway two great additions, didn`t expect to find something worth my money on the first occasion" I quickly got rid of my armour, feeling vulnerable in my underwear, waiting for the turian to return.

A couple of minutes later he came back, handing an overall to me "Take this while waiting for your armour, you don`t have to be embarrassed by sitting around in your underwear." He smirked at me. "My companion will be here in about 90 minutes, he has some other business to address beforehand. You can accompany me if you wish until he arrives." With that he took several parts of my armour and left the room again.

I quickly donned the overall and picked up the remaining armour parts, heading after him.

"Over here" he called from a room besides the sparring room as he had called it.

Entering the room I placed my load on the desk where the rest of it was piled already. "Here's the rest, I'm curious how the device is installed to the armour".

"It consists of a multitude of small parts which are flexible enough to be embedded below the plating of your armour. The centrepiece is the calculation device which is installed in the armours' core component." He showed me several pieces of the device, starting to arrange my armour at the desk.

We were talking some gossip while I waited for his companion and watching his skilful treatment of my armour "Why do you work for such an organization, with your skills you would be able to find an engagement elsewhere in a place with a higher average lifetime" I queried him besides a mostly insignificant but entertaining conversation.

He gave me a side glance accompanied by a smirk "The higher the risk, the higher the profit, and besides, a respectable work simply doesn`t pay off on the long run. Think about the price you just paid for this equipment, you think you would be able to afford it on a normal soldiers or technicians salary?"

I`m sure I wouldn`t, I pretty much know the average soldiers' wage, you can barely afford a decent life of it." I admitted his reasoning.

"There you go, and that's why I'm here. I'll stick to that for a couple of years from now and then retire on a decent planet of my choice" he told me while attaching another device below the armour plating.

"I must admit, I fear when it finally comes to that" a third voice added. A human of small stature entered the room, wearing an aura of self-confidence, his grey eyes issuing a piercing glance while approaching me. "He's my best technician, will be hard to replace him on this pisshole."

He offered me a handshake which I accepted "I was informed you bought some equipment and the amount is too high to be paid in cash, so should we settle this while your gear gets upgraded or do you want to stay and watch?"

"Thanks for the offer, but I've seen enough to be sure my armour is in good hands, so let's settle the affair right away" I replied while returning his gaze.

"So be it, please follow me, I've already arranged everything you just have to provide the details and we'll be done quickly". He stated before turning around and leaving the room.

The deal was settled quick and anonymous, after a short small talk the man left and I returned to the turian, who had nearly finished his work on my armour in the meantime. "Nearly done, gimme another five minutes and we'll be ready to give it a go." He told me when I entered the room.

A few minutes later he was ready as he had promised. "Ok, I activate the device now, only the breastplate will be affected currently, because the other parts are not connected yet" While saying these words the breastplate vanished on the desk, leaving only a haze the shape of it in the bright light of the working desk. "As I said in bright light you will be visible for an attentive eye, especially when moving, but it's quite astonishing anyway."

I was still looking in amazement at my armour, as the haze flickered and the shape returned to normal vision "Will be quite a surprise for an enemy not used to it, at least for the moment". "I must admit I'm impressed even while knowing what should happen"

He gave me the equivalent of a broad grin on a turian face "Didn't see it live yet, only on some vids, so you see me impressed, too. I assume you want to test it yourself, so jump into your armour and we give it a go."

I quickly got rid of the overall and assembled my armour "How do I activate it while wearing the armour?"

"Have a look at your Omni-tool; there must be a new icon available, see it? But wait, you said you're using a Treyarch visor? 'Guess I can update the software so you will be able to activate the device with it." He explained while showing me the icon on my Omni-tool.

"Sounds perfect" I replied while fetching my visor from the other equipment I brought with me, handing it over to him.

"Thanks, should be only a few minutes to go now" he said while taking and attaching it to a terminal besides the desk. "You can test the cloaking device in the meantime".

I activated the kinetic shields of my armour and headed for the sparring room. A couple of minutes later when the turian brought me the visor I still trained the use of the cloaking device, recognizing the short delay of quarter a second when activating it. "This will need some proper training, it gives you a feeling of dizziness if you can't see your own limbs while moving. Got to get used to it first." I told the turian.

"That was to be expected, but I'm sure you will be able to accomplish that having in mind your outstanding body control you displayed with the Locust." He said while handing me over my visor. "Try it, I installed the update and configured your visor to display a small icon on the lower left corner, you can rearrange it yourself to another place if needed."

Activating the device by using the visor I immediately felt more comfortable with that solution "Not necessary, it's perfect where it is, rounds the whole thing up."

"Job done then, you're ready to leave if you wish." He offered me a handshake, which was unusual for a turian. I guessed he had remembered that particular behaviour while his companion approached me. "It was nice to meet you, stranger, and good luck with your new toys, I'm sure they'll come in handy." He concluded assuming that I am satisfied with his work.

"Yeah, I'm sure about that, too. Thank you for the good work, and also good luck with your retirement, don't elongate your stay on this station too long, sooner or later it will hunt you down." I returned his words in kind.

"Will keep that in mind, stranger, unfortunately you speak the truth about this station, one hell of a place to live in, you should be happy to leave it as soon as possible." He replied nodding his head.