The Red Moon Collection - 2 - Three Phantoms

Chapter 3

MSV Hyperion, Docking Bay E-19, Omega

Will and Kallux stood in the doorway of the cargo airlock with their arms crossed and shoulders leaning against the wall as they watched the Spectres haul their heavy trunks of equipment aboard. They had managed to fit all of their equipment into one container each, but Will had to imagine they both weighed a ton. Still, the Spectres brushed off Will and Kallux's offers to help from wherever they had been staying and elected to take two trips. Corsin and Vayren let out a grunt as the second heavy trunk was dropped down beside the first and they looked up to Will.

"That's it," Corsin informed him.

"Great," Will replied with a curt nod.

He turned and pressed his finger to the control panel that shut the outer airlock door and began the decontamination sequence. Vayren glanced up as the white mist filled the chamber.

"I didn't expect this ship to have such a robust scrubbing system," the salarian commented.

"It's got more than that," Kallux added. "We've modified the cargo bay to better fit our work." The krogan took a step toward them an extended a hand. "Kallux, by the way."

Corsin accepted the gesture and nodded professionally. "Well met. If Vayren's observations on your crew are correct, you might be the first krogan I'll actually be able to work with."

"I'll take that." Kallux narrowed his eyes slightly. "I've had more insulting greetings."

"Agent Rentarius and I haven't been working together for very long," Vayren began as he shook Kallux's hand after Corsin released it. "Otherwise he would know that my observations are always correct."

The inner door hissed and slid apart. Corsin and Vayren stepped up to the threshold of the airlock and looked across the large room. At the very center was the Kodiak and its docking mechanism which kept it secure. Beyond it, on the far wall, was the row of lockers and weapon racks that had also been a recent addition. On the forward wall were the workbenches and storage devices that had been a part of the ship since as long as Will and Shansa had been on the crew. After the crew had installed the "armory" on the port-side wall, Kallux had moved all of his equipment that had once been on the forward wall and left Eleena to stake claim to all of the precious space. By now, a few months later, the entire forward wall was covered in tools, spare parts and other engineering paraphernalia.

Corsin nodded approvingly. "This is actually rather well organized. And the shuttle has had some modifications as well, it appears."

"Quite a few, actually," Will stated as he stepped from the wall to one of the trunks. "Let's get this stuff in. We've got five lockers you can choose from."

Corsin and Vayren turned around to see Will and Kallux positioning themselves by their trunks and hurried to assist them. Corsin grabbed onto his crate-sized locker with Will and, despite the weight, they hoisted it up with relative ease. Vayren and Kallux did the same with theirs and followed the human and turian into the cargo bay as Corsin eyed the row of lockers. He decided on the aft-most locker after walking a few steps past the Kodiak and guided them to his choice promptly. Will and Corsin sat the trunk down in front of the locker and small weapon bench that accompanied it as Kallux and Vayren did the same directly beside them.

"You two want the tour now or later?" Will crossed his arms as he watched the Spectres examine their work-spaces briefly before looking to him.

"Now," Vayren replied. "I'd like to get a feel for the layout."

"I've got some work to do," Kallux informed them as he approached his own workbench. "I'll sit out the tour."

Will nodded in affirmation and motioned for the Spectres to follow him as he turned and headed toward the door on the aft wall. "The ship's not terribly complex," he admitted. "It was one of the first human designs during our galactic expansion."

Corsin nodded to himself as his eyes scanned the interior of the cargo bay carefully. "I noticed. It doesn't resemble many other human silhouettes."

"This thing was designed when the stars were still romantic and mysterious," Will stated with a hint of sadness. "Before we really knew about everything out there." He looked over his shoulder with a smirk. "Like you."

"Sorry for the disappointment," Corsin mused.

"Not everything was a letdown." Will grinned as they stepped through the door to the engineering compartment. "Eleena, you in here?"

"Yeah, hold on!" Her voice sounded from down the small hallway leading to the port thruster.

The Spectres filed in and observed the workings of the engineering compartment as Eleena hurried into the center chamber, wiping her hands on her jumpsuit as she entered. The asari placed her hands on her hips and glanced to the turian and salarian before turning her attention to Will.

"How's the work going?" Will peered over her shoulder to the port thruster as he asked.

"Almost done. We should be ready to fly in a few minutes." Eleena gave him a smirk. "Assuming you let me finish my work."

"We won't linger," Will assured her. "But I think you all should probably get introduced properly." He stepped to the side and nodded to the asari. "Corsin, Vayren, this is Eleena, our engineer. She's also a damn good shot and rather potent biotic."

"'Rather' potent?" Eleena crossed her arms and gave Will a glance.

"Very," Will corrected with a smirk.

Corsin gave a nod and looked her up and down as if assessing her strength. "I look forward to seeing you in action."

"And I look forward to seeing your skills in person," Vayren added. "Not just on security vids."

"Uh, yeah." Eleena looked between the two Spectres before returning her attention to Will. "Mind if I get back to work?"

"Go for it," Will replied with a smile.

"Thanks." She gave an acknowledging nod to Vayren and Corsin as she turned and headed back down the cramped passageway.

Will motioned the Spectres along as he stepped back through the door to the cargo bay and walked toward the forward hall.

"Not the most personable member of the crew I hope." Vayren muttered.

"She's plenty personable if she trusts you," Will informed them. "You've just gotta earn it."

"Can't say I disagree with that," Corsin replied as they stepped into the forward hall.

Will turned to the left and into the crew's quarters where Tul'Sorrin sat at his workspace. The quarian had claimed one of the unused walls of the room to fill with a computer system he could use for information tracking, surveillance and his own personal work. Tul sat in his chair tapping away at the holopad that extended from the row of monitors, unaware of the others as they entered behind him. Will eyed the quarian as he crossed the room to the kitchenette and retrieved a glass to fill with water while the Spectres stood by the door and observed the room the same as they had done to all those before.

"Working on something?" Will asked as he filled his glass.

"Just some translator work," Tul answered as he leaned forward to examine the closest screen.

Will turned from the kitchen and took a large gulp of water as he stepped up behind Tul's chair and looked over the screen. "Anything specific?"

The quarian nodded and made a few quick corrections to a line of code. "Yes. Asari to krogan." He swiped a window to another screen as if to save it for later. "Trying to weed out this bug in my colloquialism algorithm."

"What is this, exactly?" Corsin asked curiously as he walked from the doorway to where Will stood.

Tul glanced over his shoulder to see the Spectres and shook his head. "Oh, my apologies." He locked his system, stood and turned to face Corsin. "I'm an omnitool translator engineer. Though it's mostly just something to kill time now."

Vayren crossed the room to join them. "Interesting. I assumed you were merely the technical expert for the team."

"Well I suppose that is my role with the crew." Tul extended a hand to whichever Spectre would take it. "Tul'Sorrin vas Hyperion. And you are Corsin Rentarius and Vayren, yes?"

Corsin took the hand and gave it a single, firm shake. "Good memory."

"So I've been told," Tul stated as he released the turian's hand and took hold of the salarian's.

Will crossed his arms. "Tul'Sorrin is our main strategist. He spends a lot of time on recon and sometimes stays back on the Kodiak to coordinate our missions."

"I have a feeling we will be working together quite a bit," Vayren informed the quarian. "I work primarily as an infiltrator. As you can imagine that requires a certain level of technical knowledge."

Tul'Sorrin gave Will a glance. "Do you realize how much easier our reconnaissance will be with Spectre authority to get into private databases?"

"I can guess," Will replied as he finished his glass of water and handed it to Tul. The quarian looked down to the glass as Will turned and headed to the doorway.

"Yes, well," Tul began as he set the glass on the table beside him. "I look forward to working with you." Tul'Sorrin nodded to the Spectres as they turned to follow Will out.

"Likewise," Corsin replied as they exited to the hallway.

Will motioned to the door across the hall. "That's the bunkroom. There are five empty beds so you're welcome to whichever you'd prefer."

Before waiting for a response he turned and stepped up to the cockpit door. Inside, Shansa was lounging in the pilot's seat with her feet folded up underneath herself as she read over a long list of pirate attack reports. Will ducked his head in and tapped her shoulder with his outstretched arm.

She gave a small jump and turned quickly to look over her shoulder. "Oh! Hey!"

"Hey," Will smiled. "Come out for a second, I wanna introduce you to our... illustrious guests."

"Sure!" She spun the seat and popped to her feet as Will stepped back into the hall.

"Vayren, Corsin," Will looked from the Spectres to Shansa. "This is Shansa Fischer, our helmswoman and navigator."

"It's nice to meet you!" She gave the turian and salarian a warm smile. "Thanks for not arresting us, by the way."

Corsin's mandibles twitched in amusement. "So you pilot the ship. What about the Kodiak?"

"Most of the time," she answered happily. "It was pretty easy to get a feel for."

"I've flown a few myself." Vayren crossed his arms. "Easy to fly is not how I would describe them."

Will placed his hand on Shansa's shoulder and grinned. "Shansa isn't your average pilot."

Shansa's cheeks flushed slightly and her foot tapped absentmindedly. "Don't over-hype me! I don't want a reputation I can't live up to."

"If you can fly this obsolete thing then I'm sure you're ahead of the curve," Corsin complimented smoothly.

"Heh, thanks." Shansa glanced to Will. "So do we have a destination?"

"Actually, I think we were about to discuss that," Will replied as he looked to the Spectres. "What do you say?"

"Yes. We have limited time." Vayren's black eyes stared to Will expectantly.

Will looked back to Shansa. "I'll let you know as soon as we've got something."

"Okay." She waved to the turian and salarian. "Nice meeting you!"

"The same to you," Corsin replied.

Shansa turned back to the cockpit door and ducked through as Will quickly headed to to the bunkroom with the Spectres in tow. He stepped through the door and walked to the large table the crew had installed at the center of the previously barren room. Will rounded the table and placed his hand on the surface and the built-in holographic control panel.

"Holo-projector is here if we need it," Will began as he activated the projector at the center of the table. "We usually use it when we're looking through schematics or blueprints for infiltration. We also watch vids on it before bed sometimes."

Corsin stood on the opposite side of the table and nodded in approval. "I'm becoming more impressed by your resources every minute."

"I agree. Truth be told, I was rather apprehensive about the idea of hiring a group of mercenaries," Vayren noted as he stepped up beside Corsin.

"We try to be a bit more than just your average merc company." Will smirked as he subdued his pride from the compliment. "So, where do we start?"

"First, I should lay down everything we know." Corsin let out a sigh. "Which, sadly, is not much. I've been assigned to this case since Antarian sparked the civil war on Sharkeer four months ago." He paused briefly. "Vayren was added to the mission just a few weeks before we made contact with you. The Council decided the mission had increased in urgency after... Antarian instigated a war on a second world."

Will blinked and placed his hands on the table. "Two wars? You didn't mention that when you were trying to get us on board with your mission."

"It is still a sensitive issue," Vayren argued. "We could not tell you every detail of our assignment before you'd even agreed to assist us."

"How is he doing this?" Will looked to either Spectre and shook his head. "How do you even know Antarian is behind it?"

Corsin let out a frustrated sigh. "The Council supposedly has evidence supporting these claims, but they are unwilling to release it."

"That's fucking ridiculous," Will laughed. "How can they expect you to do this when they're holding back information that could help us find him?"

"They have their reasons," Vayren assured him. "Our job is to find Antarian, not argue with the Council about how. And if the Council had information that would help us find him they would not be holding onto it."

Will rolled his eyes. "Alright, fine. Corsin, you were saying?"

The turian nodded. "Before Vayren was added to the assignment the only leads I had were the locations of two of Antarian's weapon manufacturing plants. I've already been to both of them and I recovered the location of a possible third during my investigation."

"Great, let's start there." Will looked to both of them with a nod.

"That's not all," Vayren quickly interjected. "I did some digging after my reassignment and turned up a bit of interesting information. Are you familiar with the Council Demilitarization Enforcement Mission?"

Will shook his head. "I can't say I am."

"The CDEM is the unit in charge of security in the Krogan DMZ. They have the right to search and document anyone that travels to or from the Aralakh Relay." The salarian grinned slightly. "During an info sweep I found something in the CDEM's records. Ships registered to Antarian made regular deliveries to Tuchanka for years, and I know where and to whom their cargo was delivered. The only thing I don't know is what was in that cargo."

"That's great, but how does that help us?" Will raised a brow.

"It doesn't," Corsin replied flatly. "We should head to the facility I discovered."

"I disagree," Vayren argued sternly. "You uncovered no useful information at the first two locations; it's time to try a different approach. And if we find nothing on Tuchanka, your plan remains as an option."

The Spectres looked to Will. He sighed as he realized he would be making the majority that they had agreed upon.

Will looked down and took a deep breath. "Tuchanka. We'll head there first and see what we can find."

Corsin sighed and nodded. "Fine. Tuchanka it is."

"Excellent." Vayren smiled to himself.

"I'll tell Shansa to set a course as soon as Eleena's finished her work on the thrusters." Will walked around the table to where the Spectres stood. "Assuming you two are ready."

Corsin laughed and turned for the door. "Ready? We're Spectres, Captain Hume. We're always ready."

Will had to repeat himself twice when telling Shansa to set a course for Tuchanka. The Hyperion had only made a handful to journeys into Council controlled space since Will and Shansa had taken over, and both of them were excited by prospect. After the ship had disembarked from Omega and Shansa had locked in a flight path to the relay she, opened up the star map and began looking over the Aralakh System carefully. Even now, hours later, she continued to read through navigation charts and Citadel Travel Advisory Reports in search of every last scrap of knowledge on the system. Will had partaken in the research for a few of those hours before leaving Shansa to her investigations and heading off to the cargo bay.

He exited the forward hall and looked around the large room in search of a conversation. Kallux stood over his workbench, diligently tweaking the mechanics of his gear as though he was the adjustment of a capacitor away from unlocking a level of power never before reached by a shield generator. Earlier Will had gathered Kallux, Eleena and Tul to inform them of their destination and was met by slight apprehension from Tul and Eleena. Kallux, curiously, remained silent as Will assured the asari and quarian that Tuchanka was their most promising option. The fact that Kallux had neither openly approved of nor rejected the course of action did not sit well with Will. He bit his lip slightly and crossed the room to where the krogan stood over his workbench.

"Making any progress?" Will eyed the scattered components in front of Kallux.

The krogan smirked slightly as he made a tiny adjustment on an exposed circuit board. "You know the answer to that."

"Why do you do it then?" The human turned and leaned against the locker beside the krogan. "You spend a lot of time taking this stuff apart and putting it back together."

Kallux inspected the circuitry carefully before picking up a piece of metal casing and placing it to cover the hole in the shield generator. "I find it relaxing. You could call it a hobby."

"You know there's plenty of gear around if you want to get your hands on something new," Will suggested with a smile.

"Kind offer," Kallux replied sincerely. "I wouldn't want to cause any damage, though. Especially if it's you, Eleena, Tul or Shansa that might pay the price."

Will shrugged. "I'm not using my old set of armor. I'll grab it from the storage locker later."

The krogan glanced over to Will. "I... sure. Thanks."

"So, we've got our first mission set," Will mentioned. "Tuchanka."

Kallux looked back to his workbench and nodded as he picked up the shield generator and placed it onto a rack containing five others just like it. He adjusted its placement very slightly before turning to face Will and crossing his arms.

"Tuchanka," Kallux repeated with wandering eyes.

Will glanced over his shoulder in search of whatever Kallux was looking for. The cargo bay was empty.

"How long's it been?" Will raised a brow as he looked back to the krogan.

"Four hundred years?" Kallux narrowed his eyes slightly. "It might be closer to four hundred and fifty, now. I lost track."

"You lost track?"

"I left the planet and my clan on fairly bad terms," the krogan answered with little emotion. "Since then I've had no reason or desire to return."

"Oh," Will furrowed his brow slightly. "I'm sorry. I probably should have spoken to your first before deciding on a course of action."

Kallux gave a small shrug. "I don't object to the idea. Like I said, I didn't have a reason to return. Now I do."

Footsteps rang out from the forward hall as the Spectres walked into the cargo bay, nodding and talking between one another. Will looked over Kallux's shoulder and caught sight of the turian and salarian before looking back to the krogan and leaning in closer.

"I don't know how a turian and salarian are going to go over on the krogan homeworld..." Will looked up to Kallux worriedly.

"If worse comes to worst we can send them back to the ship," Kallux grinned. "I'm sure you, me and Eleena can handle things on the ground just fine."

"I wouldn't object to that." Will glanced toward the Spectres as they approached. "I'm counting on you to have my back down there, Kallux."

Kallux narrowed his eyes and nodded. "I've got your back as long as you've got mine, Captain."

"You, Shansa, Eleena and Tul can count on it." Will nodded in return as the Spectres passed, talking between themselves. "We're meeting to discuss the mission an hour before we hit the Aralakh relay. I want you there."

"Wouldn't miss it," the krogan replied with a grin.

"Good." Will straightened his jacket and stepped past him and back toward the forward hall. "But for now, I've got some old armor to dig up for you."