Chapter Three
Kevin woke up with a slight jump at hearing Terra's automated response. "Be advised: We will be approaching Illium space in a matter of ten minutes."
The first thing he noticed before even opening his eyes was the blazing and crippling headache he had. He rolled over and fell off of the bed, smacking the cold metal floor with an audible thud just after Terra had finished.
"Augh! Yeah, thanks Terra. Shut up. Or down." It probably wasn't a command, but he had to try.
His head pounded. It wasn't the same as a migraine – light and sound didn't amplify the headache in the same ways. However, it tended to be so debilitating that he could do nothing but hold his head for a few minutes, if anything at all. He'd always wondered if that was what an L2 biotic felt when they flared. Grabbing his head, Kevin shut his eyes tight and groaned. Four everlasting and torturing minutes passed before the pain finally began to subside. That's how it usually happened. Four to five minutes of nothing but immobilizing pain, and then it resided enough for him to be able to function again. Even after that, the pain typically took hours to disappear completely. During that time things still seemed warped for as long as the pain existed, just not as painful as the initial five minutes.
He stood up and rubbed his temples out of habit. It never actually helped, but then again it was a psychological comfort. This had been happening more frequently as of late. Back when he was a late teenager, the spikes only came once or twice a year. More recently it seemed to come around several times a year, sometimes multiple times a month. Nothing ever curbed the intensity, either. No meds, no stims, nothing.
Hazily, he moved away from the bed and grabbed the sealed cube from off of the desk. He threw it into one of the large leg-side pockets and clipped it shut. After rubbing his face down and letting out a deep sigh, he grabbed a pistol and its holster from the closet and attached it to his belt. He paused as he took a moment to look at the pistol he grabbed. It wasn't any normal stock grade pistol, it was a pistol made by Kassa Fabrication, known for having top of the line products. Certainly not civilian's first choice, but a rich man would probably go for whatever looked the most expensive.
This was particularly good news to Kevin. A superior quality pistol like this meant he could modify it significantly since the materials are of a higher grade. Maybe he'd find something on Illium.
He made his way to the cockpit just in time to begin calling for a place to dock. He searched about the cockpit and found the communications terminal, switching it to the default local docking channel and immediately sending his request.
"This is the Kellius, requesting permission to dock." Kevin sat back and rubbed his eyes a bit before an asari responded.
"Welcome to Illium, Kellius. You are cleared for docking in bay A one twenty-five."
"Received, proceeding to dock A one twenty-five. Kellius out." A one twenty-five? Crap, that's a small dock for a ship this size, he thought. It was going to be a tight fit, especially since his ability to pilot a frigate in tight spaces was. . . Less than perfect. One could certainly hope it wasn't too crowded down there today.
He directed the Kellius through the docking lanes, heading towards the building where his assigned dock resided. Skyscrapers of impressive height sped by the sides of his ship, practically designed to keep anything larger than a car from maneuvering easily. Like huge speed bumps. Glossy exteriors reflected the serrated, yet serene horizon. It's too bad it's only late afternoon, Kevin mused. The scene is exponentially more breathtaking at sunset.
A few tight turns mixed with some shaky adjustments and the dock appeared around a last corner. The rounded bubble-like roof of the building housing the hangar unpleasantly reflected the hot Tasale sun right into his eyes for a brief moment, making him squint instinctively. That irritation quickly subsided when he suddenly had to focus on docking the ship. This dock wasn't as big as most others, and there was one other ship in the hangar. It could have been worse, but it would still be a tight fit. Yikes. Kevin ground his teeth together after a nasty close call; he almost knocked his port thruster against the outside corner. Luckily, the only casualties were a stack of large metal shipping crates. He should have guessed docking a ship this size would be harder than the shuttles fighter-sized ships he was used to. He could fly a ship well enough in open space, but he was certainly no trained pilot.
Finally docked, he proceeded through the airlock and out into the Illium atmosphere. The wall of hot and slightly more humid air starkly contrasting the pristine controlled environment of the Kellius hit Kevin square in the face. The change wasn't as extreme as it seemed, but it had been a while since he was last on an actual planet. He paused on the dock and took in a large sniff of air, distinctly recalling the carefully concocted scent of clean business and shady dealings like a pricey, mixed drink personally put together for you by the bartender at high class clubs and lounges. Shaken and on the rocks. It was something one tended not to forget, as just knowing this air could save a guy a lot of trouble down the road. Stepping away from his ship, Kevin peered at a holographic Nos Astra city map; he was rather unfamiliar with this port, and this area of the city in general.
I'm going to have to call a cab, he grumbled under his breath. My contact isn't anywhere near this place. Just my luck. Hangar A one twenty-five was in the south district of Nos Astra – one of five districts throughout the entire city. Nos Astra was easily one of the largest and most popular cities on Illium, and it showed. South district was known for borderline illegal dealings and a heightened police presence. Fortunately, he had just 'inherited' several thousand credits courtesy of Mr. Werner, so getting around shouldn't be hard.
Kevin stepped outside of the hangar and onto a large platform attached to the side of the building. On the far end of the platform was a console jutting out of the floor for calling in cabs for quick transport around the city. As he approached it, he saw the usual two options on the screen – one for automatic, unmanned transports, and one for cabs piloted by employed workers. Kevin selected the manned cab and looked upward towards the travel lanes as if a cab were to drop in right away.
There were several reasons why manned transports were more popular than automated ones. The first is that manned transports, while bound by certain laws and regulations for piloting a vehicle, generally were far more flexible with flight paths. Automated transports had preprogrammed routes using the travel lanes outlined by the city, and were very formal and centered. Drivers could cut corners, take shortcuts and use other means to make a faster drive, not to mention improvise if something went wrong. Another main reason for the popularity of manned over unmanned was that automated cabs deducted credits from your chit as you rode. It wasn't unheard of for the credit gathering system to be modified to provide certain individuals or groups with a few extra overcharged and stolen credits without the owning company becoming aware until it was too late. In manned cabs, the driver was responsible for charging the customer, whether the deduction was automatic or not. Any illicit change in the amount of credits received from passengers was illegal and meant a lot more trouble than losing a cab job.
While it wasn't right away, a cab did break off of the travel lane within the minute and landed next to Kevin. The classic cab, which had the door and windshield hinged at the back opened up and an asari looked up at him. He gave the driver an analyzing glance, along with the rest of the cab. Noticing nothing strange or out of place, he stepped in and sat in the back.
"To the eastern district trade range, please," he requested.
"Certainly, sir!" The driver smiled and shut the doors, with the abhorrent whine of the engines increasing in volume as they began to take off.
As Kevin sat back into the comfortable back seat of the cab, he thought about why he made himself get into the infrequent habit of checking drivers he rode with. Casually staring out the side window, a memory began to play back in his head in his boredom. . .
It was the fifth time he had been to Illium. He was pursuing his fifteenth contract in a span of a month on Illium, a notably higher number than most places – even Omega. Most were from various random contractors, and he believed only two of all fifteen contracts came from the same source. The thing was, all of these contracts were to take out certain members of a huge gang, or 'Protection Service Group', Eclipse. The Eclipse were particularly strong here on Illium, likely due to the fact that this planet bordered the Terminus Systems. Apparently they had been getting on a lot of people's nerves lately.
Kevin knew that such a high concentration of hits on one organization would mean trouble for him. It was only a matter of time before the organization picked up on it and would begin to target him specifically, but he just didn't know how soon it would show. He had already decided that his current target would be the last before he would have to leave Illium for a while. He got a lead on his last target, and he wasted no time in moving. Firstly, he needed to relocate. The marked individual wasn't in that district, so he hailed a cab.
The cab showed up rather quickly, even by Illium standards. The side doors opened with a resounding click and a short, well maintained hum. Inside, a stunningly beautiful asari with dark and ominous eyes asked him where he was off to.
"I'm heading towards the Teiser district of Nos Tarlas. Going that way?" Kevin casually asked the blue driver.
"Certainly," she happily replied with a smile and a nod towards the back seat. Without hesitation, he sat down quietly and the doors shut. A glance of something slightly out of place caused Kevin to pause as he pondered what it was he saw but he quickly dismissed it as nerves. He needed to keep suspicion down. Chances were that Eclipse was already keeping an eye out for him. The liftoff was quiet and smooth.
"So what are you heading over to Teiser for, if you don't mind my asking?" the asari asked. It was common for cab operators to ask generic questions during the ride.
"Financial business," was his vague answer.
"Is that all?" It at least sounded like a genuine inquiry.
"Yes."
"Oh. . ." Disappointed at the blatant lack of conversation, she focused on her direction.
"Sorry. I just make it a point to not talk about my financial business. People on Illium have a tendency to. . . Inquire into places they have no business snooping about, as I'm sure you know."
"Point taken, sir. I didn't mean to pry." Just like that, the conversation was over.
A few minutes later, they landed. Kevin looked about, knowing that they shouldn't have. The trip should have been at least four point six five minutes longer. Red flags went up all over the place in Kevin's mind and his eyes sharpened. The passenger seat in front of him backed up, pinning him and keeping him from quickly moving. The asari then quickly got out of the shuttle, even so fast as to leave the starter card on the dashboard. The doors shut behind her, faster than automated motors were designed to. Kevin watched her casually walk away from the vehicle, as if she achieved victory. That's when he noticed it. Dangling off of the starter card was a small insignia. A metallic circle, green with a large gold E imprinted on it, jagged and sharp. Eclipse. He shook his head feeling ridiculously stupid, but he wasn't about to let them just off him. He tried to open the door, but it wouldn't open from the inside. This wasn't just any old cab, it was a modified ambush device.
He then noticed a salarian and another asari come walking out from a nearby building. She had what looked to be a Armax Arsenal missile launcher. Bad news. But again, Kevin wasn't about to just let them eliminate him. He took a brief moment to concentrate, gathering dark energy and activating the element zero nodules in his body. Seconds later, a concentrated a biotic force was released from his left hand into the side of the car, leaving a large gaping hole. That got their attention real fast, and he could hear the distant beeps of a missile launcher locking a target.
Kevin's vision focused entirely on that missile tip just as it began to leave the launcher. Things seemed to slow down as the tension built, and right away he knew what to do. Having never ceased gathering dark energy to himself, he focused what he gathered into the tips of his right hand fingers and let forth another concentrated biotic throw, this time using a special curving technique he learned years ago during a specialized military biotic training regimen. The force of his biotics was pointed downwards, but curved upwards just before skimming the floor so that the resulting hit on the missile would not be dead on, but at an upward angle on the forward cone from below.
Halfway to its destination, the lethal missile was smacked upward at a ninety degree angle and its direction changed enough for the automatic homing systems to take over to attempt to fix the trajectory. As it attempted to correct the path between itself and its target, the missile curled backwards and performed a backwards flip to resume its horizontal course. Unfortunately for the launcher-wielding asari and salarian, the missile did not have enough height to complete the maneuver and landed smack dab between the two; exploding on impact. Those two Eclipse members were done on the spot – their kinetic barriers couldn't handle a point-blank explosion.
The cab driver, however, lived. She was thrown from the explosion, landing about two to three meters from where she previously stood. Kevin stepped out of the cab, straightened his clothes, and casually walked over to her. A bleeding head turned to face him, and her reeling eyes tried to come together to focus on the blurry image of the human from the cab. She gasped, rolling onto her back so that she could try and scoot away in vain – her limbs were beyond numb. This amused Kevin,, for some reason. Watching an asari helplessly try to crawl away from a doom she brought upon herself almost seemed ironic.
Kevin simply sat down next to her and waved an index finger side to side before her face.
"Such a tactic is insulting to me. Did you think I was a fool?" Dramatic language always made things more interesting.
She shook her head, of course. She looked so pitiful – all banged up and helpless on the ground. The human then revealed not a pistol, but an ornate black dagger and twirled it between his fingers a few times. There wasn't even any need for a pistol here. He pressed the broad side down on the lower portion of her calf and pulled it upwards along her leg, pressing down on the tip just enough to heavily fray or outright cut the tight black clothes she had on without doing much more than scratch the flesh underneath. It wasn't quite enough to expose her body, but that's not what he was going for. It was little more than a scare tactic.
She whimpered about halfway up her hip and Kevin paused, staring her in the eyes. She had tears now, whether from fear or from the pain of her injuries, he could not tell. He knew she was incapable of biotics at this point. She had to be able to move to perform those.
She muttered two words:"I-I'm sorry..."
Kevin's response was simple, "Tell that to your two friends there. You brought me to them."
He cracked a brief smile, mostly at the irony of the statement. Then he let the blade flow forth and embed itself into her neck at an upward angle. Her body convulsed for a split second before going limp and-
"We have arrived, sir," the driver announced, breaking his concentration.
He looked up from his daze to see that they had indeed arrived at the eastern district. He waved his inherited credit chit in front of the deduction device to pay his fee and got up out of the vehicle.
"Thank you, sir! Have a pleasant day." Another super-sized smile, almost too cheery for a cab driver. She must have been new.
"Uh, thanks. You too." Good lord she sounded like a VI, what with being all proper and cheery. Nevertheless, she offered him one more smile before closing the doors and taking off.
The landing point was a sort of central hub-like bridge branched between five or six different nearby skyscrapers. There wasn't much for support architecture except for several beams that ran the hypotenuse from each building to their respective side of the bridge. The view, though. . . It was fantastic. The surrounding skyscrapers weren't exactly close enough to block all the view and even looking down over the edge was a sight to behold.
Kevin knew he was here on a mission, however, and couldn't dwell long. Eclipse knew who he was, and they'd try anything to get to him after all the trouble he caused them a year back. He didn't think they'd have trouble remembering him, especially since he had taken a couple sparsely timed contracts on Eclipse members since then and likely kept their memory fresh.. He drew in a deep breath, turned to his left and started making his way into the nearest skyscraper, which had a roof that looked as though it had been shaven off at a downward angle and fixed with glass to close the gap. His contact, a volus named Verat Klarr, should be a couple floors down 'visiting' a few of the sales kiosks.
That money-grubbing agent better have his money. Kevin was in no mood to chase his creds today. Verat wasn't exactly known for being there when you were expecting him, and tended to keep your due credits when you 'failed to show for the meeting.' Luckily for Kevin, the stairs down were right inside the doors. No dealing with 'high class drunks' this time. That last time with the asari commando and the turian commander on shore leave... Ridiculous. He didn't even know turians could bend that way, or that asari used biotics for. . . such exotic purposes. Kevin shook his head to focus on where he was going and within a couple minutes he had reached the lower trade range of the eastern district on the fringes of Nos Astra.
He actually had to search, which was unusual in the sense that he could normally pick a target out of a crowd pretty well. There seemed to be more volus than he remembered here from last time, but it was not of his concern. Shops here ranged from normally illicit weapons kiosks, 'protection services' shops, an indentured service store and gambling of a few sorts. Bright and colorful lights on various areas on the walls, floors and ceilings dazzle newcomers and light up the place in a way that makes some of the citadel's wards look like a colorless prison. It was more crowded than the 'clean' look of the center district, where a lot of the white collar business tended to sit. The noise pollution, at best, was remarkably higher than up on the hub bridge. That was probably due to being such a tight, enclosed space inside the skyscraper. These lower levels had to be closed up in order to keep climate control working at optimum levels against the relatively hot surface of the planet.
Kevin searched as he walked, making mental notes of the people he passed by. Several volus, a bunch of turian, a lot of asari and even a couple hanar all moved chaotically around the lower trade range Unfortunately, none of these matched his contact. Did the little bugger make off with his creds? That thought never left his mind. The guy that hired Kevin is going to be pissed when he finds out that he's charging double for this insult.
He decided to give the crook a minute and leaned onto a kiosk as if browsing the store. Coincidentally, it just happened to be a weapons dealer, too. He spotted a 'prototype' accelerator pistol mod that this dealer likely wasn't allowed to sell due to rather tight licensing on that type of mod. The sales clerk was a volus, so Kevin gambled on the fact that probably had no detailed knowledge of the mod. The price reflected it as well, putting it around the same worth as a typical pulsar mod. Kevin decided to grab it, easily shelling out the seven hundred credits for the modification. He also bought a high powered phasic mod for about one thousand to accompany it.
As he browsed, he felt various figures pushing past him. Some were in a hurry and some just strolling by, attempting to navigate the lightly compacted crowd. It was only about a minute or so after he had made his purchase that an asari with deep blue stripes running from her mouth over her face and over her head-ridges approached him from behind through the crowd. She wore a green and white dress, almost typical of maiden-stage asari on this planet. He didn't look directly in her direction, so Kevin didn't think she knew he was watching. She didn't appear to have any weapons, but an assassin quickly learns not to underestimate an unarmed asari – especially when they happen to be an undercover commando.
She moved closer, presumably to get close enough so that she would not have to shout over the noise. It seemed his intuition was correct. She was searching exclusively for him.
"Excuse me, but do you by any chance go by the name Folner?" Red flag. An unknown person knew his name in the area of a contact he was to meet. Unconsciously, he already had a preemptive grip on his sidearm.
"Maybe. Who wants to know?"
"Someone in the central district wishes to see you."
"Assuming I am, what would this be about? I wouldn't be going anywhere with intel as vague as that," Kevin stated, crossing his arms and leaning back against the weapons kiosk.
She looked right and left and motioned for him to come closer. Recognizing this as a typical ambush position, Kevin simply tilted his head in obvious distrust. She sighed.
"It is in regards to your contact. I cannot tell you anything more here. Go see the information broker in the central district and she'll explain."
Before Kevin could ask her anything else, she backed up and disappeared into the crowd. He rolled his eyes, hung his head, and let out an exasperated sigh of irritation. Great. His contact got mugged, capped, or both. He just wanted his due creds for crying out loud. He tapped the side of the kiosk as he stood and got out of that lower trade range before something else happened. Back up to the hub he trekked, calling for a cab once he was outside. One of the great things about Illium – cabs were bountiful, cheap and tended to have drivers that were easy on the eyes. Automated cabs were available, but were unpopular and as such, less common.
"Hey human, where are you off to?" The way she said human sounded more like an identifier than an insult.
"Central district trade floor, please."
"Oh ho ho, manners.~ Right away, sir." She seemed pleasantly surprised by the simple fact that he said 'please'. Kevin got the feeling off-worlders didn't use the cabs because they wanted to anymore. A pity. He eyed the setup of the cab before stepping in and found it to be clean. Before he knew it, he was already landing outside the trade floor in the central district of Nos Astra. Exiting the cab, he waved the chit twice and immediately began heading for the doors to the trade floor, where the information broker's office was. Behind him, the asari driver called after him about paying her too much or something. Knowingly, Kevin simply looked back and nodded, distracted by this unfortunate – but not entirely unforeseen – turn of events. A genuine 'thank you' was heard before the cab took off.
Thankfully, this place was far less crowded than the lower trade range. It made tracking individuals much easier and allowed him to relax his nerves just a bit. He kept an eye out for his volus 'friend', but he was not anywhere to be seen. When he walked up to the information broker's door, the human receptionist called to him.
"Hi there, what can I do for you today, sir?" The friendly voice, trained for the job, was countered by the unmistakable fact that she was new. Her desk was clean. Not 'tidy' clean, but more to the effect of 'I don't have a lot to put here yet' clean.
"I'm here to see the broker. I was contacted over in the east district." Precise and to the point.
"Oh! Go on in, she'll be expecting your visit."
Without a word of thanks, Kevin simply turned and walked through the opening door, looking around a bit before stepping inside. One could never be too careful, especially when dealing with shadow broker agents. Behind the only real desk in the room overlooking the trade floor, an asari with a formal dress and deep green markings on her face poked her head out from behind the computer screen and stared Kevin down blankly for a brief moment before smiling and standing.
"You must be Kevin. Welcome." She held out a hand in greeting. Naturally, he accepted.
"You're not the infamous Liara I was expecting. Is this some sort of trick?" The potential for bad things to happen would just not end today.
"Sounds like you know a few things, Kevin. Be wary of what you speak here on Illium." Her smile by this point was a bit more forced than before. "Unfortunately, Ms. T'Soni had some urgent and permanent business to take care of a few weeks ago. I am here to fill the position of trade floor administration and information broker in her stead. My name is Tarla Morrahl."
"Well, miss Morrahl," Kevin sternly started. "As I told last time I was here, I am no newcomer to Illium. There is no need to address me as such."
"Indeed." She offered him a nice plush seat in front of her desk.
"So," Kevin continued, sitting down and steepling his fingers over his lap, "You have information on my contact? That worries me a bit, though I suppose it shouldn't surprise me seeing as how you both probably work for the same guy." Her face turned less than pleasant for a split second before she looked to the side and answered.
"My sources tell me he was ambushed in the lower trade range yesterday. The assailants were not visibly from any known organization. Possibly Eclipse mercenaries with their tattoos removed."
"Figured as much. A volus without bodyguards is like a ripe fruit waiting to be picked." He shook his head with a sigh and looked back to Tarla. He sat back, getting into a slightly more confident and relaxed position. "Funny how he's the only volus in recent memory to have gotten 'mugged' in the trade range," he pushed, the word 'mugged' coupled with the proper lifted hands and bending fingers to simulate quotation marks, "or in any relatively public area of Illium. So much for that promised safety, yes?"
"Illium is just as dangerous as any other Terminus bordering world, Mr. Folner. You know that as well as I do. Back to the reason I called you here for, I have received the pay you were to be getting, and I can forward it to your account immediately. Assuming you have proof of termination of the marked individual."
"Here, love," Kevin started as he pulled his new favorite credit chit from inside a pocket on his outfit and tossed it on her desk, "put it on here instead. As for the proof..."
He reached into his bulging right leg pocket pulled out the sealed box. He pressed a small button on the side and the top opened up, revealing the contents. He stood up and reached through the holographic monitor, placing the box on the desk right in front of her.
"There you go. A holo of the terminated mark and blood to match DNA files."
Tarla pushed the box aside with mild disgust without even cross-referencing the DNA and smiled, typing a few things on her computer.
"Very well, Mr. Folner. Payment of ten thousand credits to this chit, correct? Done."
"Pleasure doing business. Now if you'll exc-" He was cut off by an asari busting into the room, wearing a typical service worker's uniform.
"Tarla, you were right! The ship's configuration is sim-" She cut herself off when she caught a glimpse of Kevin standing right there. Her lips sealed up tight after that.
Kevin looked back to Tarla and she was silently mouthing words to the nameless asari who just entered. Said nameless asari simply looked at Kevin and nodded before backing up to leave.
"Where did you get that ship, Mr. Folner?"
"That information is worth quite a bit, Miss Morrahl. Not something I'll likely just let drop. Also, are your people snooping my vessel? That quite a trespassing suit if so." He folded his arms, beginning to slowly pace back and forth in front of her desk.
"No no. No one has been aboard your ship, Mr. Folner. The observations were merely exterior. And I can pay you quite a sum of credits for that information."
Two red flags, shadow broker agents scouting his ship AND removing his contact. This was getting way out of hand. He was already staying two red flags longer than he should have, now he worried. Why was the shadow broker even interested in him or his ship? Time to get the heck off of Illium.
"I propose a trade, Tarla. I tell you where I got my ship, and you tell me something of equal value." She hesitated a moment, evaluating just how valuable this information could be to her.
"Very well, Mr. Folner. What is it you wish to know?" She now equipped her poker face, as business was being done on an information level – her expertise.
"I want to know who Linus Werner worked for, and why he was targeted by the shadow broker." This seemed to be an acceptable trade to the asari, as she didn't hesitate long.
"Just one moment," she paused, deferring to her terminal for that information. She tapped the keys for a few seconds before drawing in a breath. "My sources tell me Linus Werner was working for the shadow broker himself, one of his top agents, in fact. He was targeted for assassination because it was discovered that he was a double agent for another organization, and that was simply unacceptable."
"Who was he a double agent for?" he asked, curious.
"That information, Mr. Folner, is worth more than ten times the information I just gave you. Now, where did you get that vessel?" At this time, her voice was far less inviting. Almost dark.
"That ship, the Kellius?" Kevin folded his hands behind his back and turned towards the door. "I acquired it from my last target, Linus Werner. After ending his life, his ship was the easiest of many options off of Omega, and certainly provided the most luxurious way out. Either way, the ship is now mine."
The asari looked down for a moment, brows furrowed as if troubled. He had turned around in just enough time to catch it before she quickly returned to her poker face, realizing he could see her momentary expression.
"That's a frigate sized vessel, doesn't it need a crew of at least ten? How did you get that here on your own?"
"five thousand more credits and I'll tell you," he said smugly.
"You work a fast game, Mr. Folner, but it is done." Kevin noted her willingness to obtain all information about his ship. It made him doubly uneasy. Normally information like this would undergo at least some level of negotiation.
"The ship is indeed a small frigate, but not so technologically old that it needs all ten to pilot it. Some of the systems aboard the ship are rather advanced for what I'd expect even on a wealthy civilian's vessel. Particularly in navigation and systems control."
The information broker brought a hand to her chin in thought and nodded.
"Thank you, Mr. Folner. I'm glad we could reach a settlement so quickly. Unfortunately, I am due to meet someone very soon, so I am afraid I must ask you to be on your way."
"Fair enough," he agreed, stepping forward to get his metaphorically fat stack of credits. "Oh and next time you decide to off one of my contacts, at least send someone who looks less like a seasoned biotic user, alright?"
Before she could really reply, Kevin had turned and started his way out. Before the door closed behind him, he could swear he heard her curse under her breath. As he turned to head down the stairs, the receptionist called after him.
"Thank you for your visit, Mr. Folner! I hope you had a pleasant meet with Tarla."
He paused and turned around just long enough to respond with a slight chuckle. "Oh yes, just peachy. Have a good day."
And with that, he was back down to the trade floor in the center of Nos Astra. This place was becoming more and more dangerous behind the scenes lately, not to mention the unnerving number of red flags just from today. He immediately made for the closest place to pick up a cab so he could get back to his ship before anyone else decided to scope it out. As he proceeded through the shipping area, he passed by an asari and salarian arguing over something likely rather trivial. Piece by piece, he began picking up on their conversation even as he kept moving. One particular part caused him to stop and look.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Dolannus, but there aren't any transports scheduled to leave for the Citadel today. You'll just have to wait like everyone else."
The asari was a typical dock worker, helping take care of the shipments that moved through the shipping area and probably had a good idea of transport services as well. The salarian though. . . Kevin knew that name. Dolannus. He had a contact on the Citadel with that last name, and they were good buddies. This was not the same guy, though. He wore a salarian Eclipse uniform, and his friend was definitely not Eclipse. He did, however, carry a military grade pistol with him. Not a standard Eclipse issue pistol. In addition, he sported the same back-turned 'horns' on the top of his head as opposed the the ones that simply curved and pointed together like most salarians. Tarsil Dolannus, Kevin's friend on the Citadel, said it was a unique family trait they are proud of and that they often came out on top in breeding arrangements because of it. Apparently such a unique trait among salarians was regarded as a pricey rarity rather than some form of defect.
"But I need to get off of Illium. Now. I can't wait for tomorrow!" At this point, the salarian was looking rather worried and kept pressing the asari for resolution.
"Then find a transport going somewhere other than the citadel," the asari spat, getting irritated. "There's plenty of other places to go, and a bunch of them are leaving today."
"But I. . ." He shook his head. "Fine fine, I'll just find some other desolate planet to curl up on, I get the picture."
The asari shook her head in frustration and simply walked away. "I don't get paid enough for this."
The salarian hung his head for a second before steeling his resolve and preparing to find another way off the planet. It was at this point Kevin stepped in.
"Your last name is Dolannus?"
Slightly startled, the salarian turned all the way around once before actually looking at Kevin.
"Maybe. Who wants to know?" His speech was fast and calculated, and he rubbed his fingers together in nervous anticipation of the answer.
Kevin put his hands up and they bobbed in front of the salarian. "Relax a bit. My name is Kevin Folner. Do you have a brother named Tarsil Dolannus on the Citadel?"
"Maybe. Who. Wants. To. Know?" He almost looked ready to pull his sidearm. Kevin would be ready for that.
"No one except me. I'm not working for anyone. At the moment."
"Kevin Folner, you said?" The salarian tapped two of three fingers on his chin. "Yes... Yes I remember Tarsil talking about you from time to time." He seemed to relax a bit.
"Hopefully not much," Kevin joked. "That guy tells some wild stories." He chuckled under his breath, shaking his head at remembering some of the stories he had been told.
"True, Tarsil does enjoy rousing a crowd with a good pseudo-fiction story." He let out a sigh. "Alright, I suppose I can trust you more than the other thugs around here. My name is Ralik. Ralik Dolannus. Tarsil is indeed my brother."
"You look a lot like him, you know that?"
"Normally I argue that he looks a lot like me, but you know Tarsil. He's older than me by forty-five minutes. So in actuality, I do look a lot like him."
"Actually, I didn't know that much, but hey. I do now. I overheard that you need a ride. Why in such a hurry?"
Ralik lightened up rather fast. "You have a ship then? Where is it?"
"It's docked in the southern district," Kevin said while flicking a thumb to the south. "We'll need to take a cab to get there. Why don't you tell me what's going on on the way?"
"Well..." Another rub of the fingers and a quick look left and right. "Alright, but let's move discreetly. I... I don't want to bring too much attention to ourselves right now."
And so they headed out of the shipping area and towards the best place to call a cab on this skyscraper – the nook loaded with cars outside the officer Dana's office.
"So why the discretion? You look awfully nervous, not to mention in such a hurry to get out of here. Someone after you?" Kevin pressed on the console to call for a driven cab, and no one came. Not right away, at least. He needed to opt for manned transport, since automatic cabs were easily susceptible to being hacked by the technologically savvy Eclipse gang.
"Yes. As a matter of fact, I believe a good portion of the Eclipse mercenary gang is trying to catch and horribly dismember me at the moment."
"Them again. But wait, you're in an Eclipse hardsuit. Aren't you one of them? Why would they be after you?" Kevin asked in a serious tone, again pressing on the cab call console.
"Well. . . The hardsuit isn't exactly mine, and I'll explain. I'm a field researcher and recon specialist. I was recently hired by the Nos Astra police force to help research a potential kinetic barrier upgrade for the non-asari personnel on the force. As I was researching, I came across a few recent messages passed along via extranet that someone on Illium was nearing completion of a prototype PCBT."
"Hold on a second. PCBT? I know CBT stands for Cyclonic Barrier Technology, but what is the P for?" Kevin was curious. He knew enough about tech that he could still get into decent conversations, even without fully understanding it all.
"Personal Cyclonic Barrier Technology," Ralik stated with a confident smile.
"That's. . . Impressive. I've never heard of that used on anything but a lucky few fighters and even fewer frigates."
"Indeed. It's a very advanced and power-hungry design, but could considerably decrease kinetic barrier failure in short firefights."
After seeing that no cabs were coming, Ralik himself activated the console . This time, however one came right away. They climbed aboard and specified their destination.
"Southern district, please," Kevin ordered. "As close to dock A one twenty-five as possible." He and his new salarian acquaintance settled in as the asari nodded and began to take off. This cab was an interestingly different model from what Kevin saw for years. The door on the side opposite the engine opened up without compromising the windshield, and it opened straight out and up rather than on a hinge at the back. The cab was practically brand new on the inside, it must be an upgrade for the Nos Astra Public Transportation Services.
Ralik then continued. "I too saw the great potential this had and deemed it an appropriate upgrade for the NAPF, so I sought out whoever was designing this technology so that I might possibly negotiate a contract to let the police also have this installed on their hardsuits. However, the more I dug for information, the more I came to realize that this was being done by the techs on the Eclipse mercenary gang. Worse than that, they had planned to use this new shielding against the Nos Astra police force when conflicts arose so that they might come out superior."
"Yeah, that's not good. Things are pretty balanced right now, but that would tip that balance for Eclipse – and not for the better of Illium."
"I thought as much myself. I did some data mining and surveillance on the information and found the design project was actually stationed here in Nos Astra. I had to. . . What's the phrase you humans use... Ah yes, 'jump through some hoops' in order to get detailed information on the location of the project, but I was able to mark out a rather small location – four or five buildings in Nos Astra's southern district – where I might find it. From there, I put my reconnaissance skills to work and picked out an asari and salarian who were part of the project but fronting as biotic amp sales clerks, attending kiosks."
"Where did you learn the skill sets for all this? I thought you said you were a field researcher." Something didn't add up to Kevin. There was a lot of background information that he felt was intentionally being left out.
"I'll get to that in a moment. Anyways, I followed the asari, due to the fact that they split up. They eventually met back up on a different building at a lower level. There's a general underground knowledge of that area being Eclipse territory, so there are a lot of guards stationed near there warning people to keep an eye out for trouble, so on and so forth. I'm not extensively trained in infiltration, but I still have more than enough ability to. And even then, the Eclipse base here wasn't well conceived as far as anti-infiltration standards go. All I needed was a good look at the blueprints for the tower and I had a more or less silent way in."
"By yourself? That's risky. That is, unless you really knew what you were doing."
"Like I said, I'll get to that. Once inside I picked out the salarian I had been following and waited for him to break off. He did, eventually, and I caught him while getting his Eclipse uniform on. That's when I struck. I acquired his IDs, uniform and omni-tool. Using these three things, I gained access to the central servers where the data for the project were being held. I had to copy his omni-tool authorizations in order to begin the download of the project files, as mine was not recognized by the system. Once I had a complete copy in my possession, I proceeded to delete the files the quickest and most systemically efficient way I knew how – a destructive virus planted within the kernel of the central server. Thus the project – among a lot of other data that the Eclipse probably wanted to keep – was deemed unrecoverable in a matter of minutes."
"Wow," Kevin laughed. "Talk about done and done. Brutally efficient, my friend. Obviously you made it out well enough."
"Initially I had little resistance. The Eclipse uniform and the fact that I was salarian helped me get at least halfway out without so much as a warning that someone was tampering with the servers. Unfortunately, my family trait caused someone to question my identification." Ralik took a moment to tap his backward pointed horns. "At that point it was a shoot and run situation, but without a flight off the planet, I knew I would be hounded until I was beyond their reach."
"And that's where I come in, I suppose."
"Precisely! And I am very grateful for it. You have no idea."
Kevin saw the asari wave to a passing car and took the moment to look outside. They were a little over halfway to the drop-off point, and he settled back into his seat. He turned to ask Ralik another question, but he was stopped by the distracting fact that the driver waved again. Now that he thought about it, when did anyone ever wave to other drivers? They moved too fast to recognize other people in their cars. He then was struck by the dire fact that he had been too distracted by his conversation with Ralik to give the cab a once over. Kevin leaned over from his seat behind the driver and looked around without catching her attention. He saw something he did not want to see. A small dangling Eclipse emblem.
She waved one more time. Ralik started to ask Kevin something, but was quickly silenced by a hand brought over his mouth. This situation just got critically worse, and Kevin knew it was going to get messy, fast. He got up and looked behind them out through the rear window of the cab and he noticed two cars right behind them, and a third pulling from the opposite directional lane to make a flat triangle formation with those other two.
"Please remain seated, sir. I cannot be responsible for unseated injuries while I'm driving." It appeared as though she hadn't noticed Kevin's sudden change of urgency.
Ralik did, though. He sat silent and waited for more information. Kevin put up three fingers out of sight from the asari and tapped the emblem on Ralik's hardsuit to point out what it was he was referring to. Lastly, he flicked a thumb towards the back of the cab to indicate where they were. Something needed to be done now, or they would end up in another ambush scene.
Kevin reached forward on either side of the asari's head and grabbed, quickly twisting the head to the right further than it was meant to. A stomach lurching snap caused Ralik to recoil a bit and the asari fell limp instantly.
"Oh my. . . Kevin, what are you doing? Hopefully something other than committing murder!"
"Ralik, take the wheel!" Kevin shouted.
"What? But I..."
"Just do it before we're embedded into a skyscraper! That asari is with the Eclipse, she was going to bring us to an ambush location."
"W-What?" Ralik was both surprised and annoyed at the same time. "So much for being discreet, Kevin."
Kevin pulled the asari deadweight from her driver's seat on the right side to the front passenger seat on the left side to make room for Ralik. The salarian promptly hopped into the driver's seat and kept the car steady within the travel lane. Having dealt with these Eclipse before, Kevin tuned the comm device from the channel for the cab company to the one that the Eclipse tended to use during operations. Suddenly, there was a lot more noise.
"The car swerved, should we move?" A human male's voice asked.
"Not yet, we'd rather they were brought to the preset destination first. You don't want every traffic cop on your rear." Female. Probably asari.
"Alright, then this will get their attention," Kevin said smugly while hoisting up the dead asari's body. "Ralik, open this door."
"You're insane."
"Just watch me work and keep the car steady." He pointed to Ralik and clicked his tongue twice. Sure it was confident, maybe even arrogant, but he wasn't the type to simply get cocky without reason.
When the left side door opened up he quickly threw the asari out, not even caring what was below. There was a good chance the falling body hit another car, maybe even someone walking below. Either way, it had the intended effect as confirmed by the chatter on the comm channel.
"Good lord, did you see that? E-base, we have a situation. The ambush cab has been compromised! Repeat, the ambush cab is now under the control of that freakin' assassin and that salarian!"
"Switch to the secure channel of thirty-four point eighteen, and unscramble with cipher algorithm nexus five! That wannabe assassin knows our channels, we don't want him listening in!" From the way it sounded, the female seemed to be the one running the operation.
"Unfortunately for them, I know just where to listen now." Kevin input the new channel and unscrambling cipher with a few beeps on the comm device and their unobstructed listening had resumed. Curses flew on the new secured channel, followed by some metaphorically pointed fingers and then the order was given by the woman in charge.
"All ambush units, move in on that car! Take that son of a- (static)- down!"
It was then that Kevin grasped the exposed frame of the car on the rear side of where the door would normally be and he leaned out, pistol aiming right for the lead car. Three shots in controlled, rapid succession, aimed at the heads of the driver and passengers. The car swerved violently, but regained control at the lead of the three. It didn't look like any bullets penetrated.
"Tch. Reinforced windshield," Kevin spat, disappointed that his shots didn't connect. "Their cabs are a bit more modified than I thought." I'll just need a different spot to shoot, he thought.
"Holy... We're taking fire! We're taking fire! Return fire immediately!"
"No big guns," the woman shouted, "We want to keep the commotion down for now!"
"Uh, Kevin," Ralik called, trying to get his attention, "How about taking a seat. I'm about to employ some evasive maneuvers."
"You won't have to. If they have reinforced plating and glass, then that means we do too. This is an Eclipse's cab, remember."
"Nevertheless, I'd rather not test that theory of yours! Hang on!"
The whine of their car increased in pitch as they gained speed. A lot of the other cars around them seemed pretty oblivious to their situation, at least until they passed them. At that point, the other cars dispersed away from the four speeding vehicles in order to avoid any collusion. Kevin was sure by then that at least someone had reported them as rogue vehicles causing trouble in the travel lanes. For now, however, that was the least of their worries. The doors on the three following cars opened up on the side and armored Eclipse members stepped to look out towards Kevin and Ralik in a similar fashion to the way Kevin hung on the frame looking back at them. The two mercenaries in the rear pulled out pistols, and the one in the leading car raised what appeared to be a basic assault rifle.
"Here comes the first volley, Ralik!" Kevin yelled, gripped the frame tight and ducking in, expecting a sudden change in direction.
"Understood, braking low!" Ralik informed as he slammed on the cab's brakes and tipped the wheel forward.
The car's pitch died rather fast and they slowed down almost fast enough to make Kevin lose his tightened grip on the frame. Bullets whizzed by and clanked off of the backside cab for a second or two until their altitude dropped sharply so that the pursuers flew overhead. This gave Kevin an excellent opportunity. When the mercs passed overhead far enough so that his line of sight wasn't obstructed by the opened door, he carefully took aim with his pistol.
"Targets broke low and are now behind! Fire, fire!" The man making these calls was beginning to sound more and more irritated with each passing minute.
Plink Clang Clang
Three shots at the vulnerable underbelly of engine of the lead car. He was hoping to disable their mass effected propulsion. It worked. The car he shot began to dive sharply towards the ground.
"Mayday, we're hit! Our mass effect field is offline and we're going down!"
"Nice shot, bloody-" A third voice, far more calm than the first male one.
"Stop screwing around out there! I'm sending you two more cabs with heavier munitions! You have authorization to use something with more punch! Remember, they are also in one of our modded cabs!"
"Kevin, they're sending two more after us with bigger guns. Also, it sounds like our current friends are bringing out bigger guns as well."
"Yeah yeah keep your panties on, Kera. We'll get it done while these kids play cops and robbers." Another new voice, a male human with deeper tone than the first and second. Probably from one of the new cars.
"Heftier potshots, huh?" Kevin twirled his pistol around his index finger. "I guess I can take that bet. See if you can get us behind them. I have another idea."
"I hope that this car is as resistant as you say, Kevin." Ralik pressed down on the accelerator and pulled back on the steering wheel. The cab began to whine again as they picked up speed and attempted to maneuver around a few innocent drivers to get behind the mercs. More shots hit their cab from up front, putting obscuring white spots all over the windows. What missed them likely hit another car. Traffic wasn't exactly light around here.
"They're behind us. Shoot em down with the missiles!"
"Missiles? Here?" Kevin wondered aloud as he started gathering dark energy.
His left hand began to practically shimmer with distorted light. Holding then onto the frontward frame with his right hand, he threw out a concentrated biotic throw to the left of the leftmost vehicle and caused it to curved right in order to hit the cab on the rear end broadside since the left door was still open.
Fortunately, Kevin's many training hours spent simply honing his aim paid off. The biotic force hit the merc car's backside and thrust their rear end into the other merc vehicle. There was a fantastic shower of sparks and several jumbled yells on the comm device. The whine of their vehicles had both become unstable noticeable by the fluctuating whine of the engines and they began to make a shaky decent towards the planet surface.
"Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiii-"
"Augh! Morons, what are you doing? We've lost mass effect field integrity! We're losing altitude!"
"Can't you boys do anything right? You're starting to piss me off!" The boss apparently wasn't used to losing.
"You're a biotic, Kevin? Excellent! Not to mention your aim is frighteningly accurate." Ralik spoke even faster than before, likely caught up in the intensity of the moment.
"Way too much practice, Ralik. You know where the hangar is, right?" He took this brief quiet moment to sit down in the passenger seat.
"...Not exactly. In addition, I believe it will be difficult to board our ship with a myriad of police officers swarming the hangar."
"What?" Kevin looked back and noticed at least five police cruisers chasing them down. "Ah crap. Well, we'll just have to be fast."
"Do you have a sight on their cab yet?"
"No, too many freakin police in the way. Don't worry though, I'll fix that right quick." It sounded like the new mercs were close.
"Uh, Ralik. Watch out for stray shots," Kevin instructed. He continued to watch behind them, wondering just to what extremes Eclipse would go to to take him and the salarian out.
Suddenly, the police cruiser formation scattered after two of center-most cruisers erupted in explosions. The ones that didn't get damage enough to lose altitude broke off and headed down a different direction. All of the civilians in non-automated vehicles in the area took off in a frenzied wave.
"Hahaaaa! Run, cowards! Oh hey. There they are." The last statement seemed as if the speaker knew where Kevin and Ralik were the whole time.
"Well, that takes care of that..." Kevin mentioned as he got up and returned to his post at the open door gripping the frame. "The hangar is over there, Ralik. See the building with the bubble-like round roof?"
"A popular architectural choice by both humans and asari as of late. Peculiar. I don't see the appeal," Ralik casually added with a nod and a slight change in direction.
Kevin leaned back outside to look back to see only two cars following them in the entire lane. His short hair danced about frantically in the high winds and a good deal of sound was drowned out by the white noise of the wind passing over his ears. He once again pulled out his pistol and he aimed down the sight, looking for something to take a clear shot at.
"There's our friends. Keep the car as steady as you can, Ralik. I'm going to attempt a very precise shot."
"No guarantees once the explosives start flying, but until then, I will do my best."
"Alright boys, lets light em up," the deep voiced male crackled over the comms device.
"We're dropping low," a second voice stated, presumably in the second car.
The doors on both cars opened up in a similar fashion to Kevin and Ralik's, but only one stayed at the same altitude as them. Kevin reasoned that it was likely the second car dropped so that they wouldn't be caught in any explosions. As the car at the same altitude closed in, a human wielding a missile launcher stepped out into view. His stance was confident and sturdy, hardly being affected at all by the wind from their high-speed chase. Kevin had two choices here – shoot the merc in the head and hope his shields weren't strong, or shoot the missile he's about to launch since the tip was exposed. The destructive capacity of the latter was greater, more practical and less likely to fail barring Kevin's aim, so the decision wasn't hard.
He aimed down his sight with a steady hand, focusing on the tip of the missile as the merc heaved it up and got ready to fire. Tension rose as the need for this shot to connect was absolutely critical. He took into account the wind from their current speed, and the distance at which his target kept at. He heard no beeps, but he saw the three lights on the side of the launcher begin to light up in succession. He only got one shot, maybe two shots before the projectile would be too difficult to track. He felt his head warm as the synapses fired at higher and higher speeds above normal, causing his perception of everything to slow down and his senses to heighten incredibly. One split second adjustment due to a small wind variance was made before he unreluctantly pulled the trigger.
In his head, he could hear himself analyzing the situation as it happened.
The gun fires. Recoil is minimal. I see the projectile leave the front of the pistol, distorting the light of Tasale as it travels beyond my ability to track it. The last and final light on the launcher illuminates and the missile is armed. The launch process begins, with small wisps of smoke exiting the side of the launcher opposite the user. Suddenly, the entire area is engulfed in ever expanding fire and noise. A husk of a cab starts to fall towards the surface, smoking and empty. Amidst the white noise and diminishing shockwave, I hear another missile launch. The second car!
Kevin's head quickly snapped in the direction of the other mercenary vehicle below them while instinctively gathering dark energy to himself, only in time to catch the puff of smoke from the launch falling away from the device. He knew he only had a couple seconds at best to do something before they would be partaking in the fate of the first car. Without enough time gather enough dark energy to deter the missile's direction with a curved throw, he released a straight on curtain of a biotic push at the projectile in a last and only ditch effort to keep from becoming a flaming pile of falling meat.
Unfortunately, the biotic wave was enough to detonate the warhead outright, causing it to explode just under a meter away from the back end of the cab.
The deafening explosion rocked their car immensely and shook Kevin from his 'heightened' state. He was thrown off of his feet and his back smashed against the ceiling of the cab before he came back down half onto the passenger chair and half on the floor.
He grunted loudly at the impact and his eyes rolled. Desperately, he forced his vision back into focus and mentally worked to bring his battered senses in order. Finally, he could barely hear the fuzzy and frantic voice of his salarian pilot shouting at him.
"Kevin, we're going down! I have minimal control of what propulsion we have! Just enough to fall forward rather than straight down!"
"Aim..." He coughed hard, feeling his lungs lurch in strained bursts. "Aim for the hangar..."
He steadied himself and attempted to at least get up on the chair. Numerous warning beeps and sounds were blaring out of the dashboard. It was pretty apparent that the damage was catastrophic. He looked up towards the back seat and realized that there wasn't one. The passenger side of the back of the car was taken by the explosion, and only a portion of the engine remained. Other than that, all there was to see was smoke, a couple withering flames and the scenic horizon of Illium. He flipped over and pushed himself to sit upright so he could sit properly and look at where we were heading. So far, Ralik was was right on target. The base of the building where his ship was docked was coming up, fast. His eyes widened, and he hoped this reinforced hull and glass would hold up against the impact, though after seeing what one explosion did to it, his hopes were fragile.
"Impact in five seconds, brace yourself!" Ralik did likewise by locking his arms at full length, pressing away from the steering wheel and into the seat.
"Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap crap crap crap!" The closer they got to the building, the more Kevin's eyes widened and the more he backed into his seat as well.
They tore into the side of the building like an armor piercing bullet hitting sheet metal. They had hit a window, and the glass – along with their own windows – shattered violently. When they hit the floor of the level they tore into, it didn't hold and it gave out underneath them instantly from the impact as they continued their fiery and destructive decent inside the skyscraper. As luck would have it, the floor they next fell into was just outside the hangar. This floor thankfully did not give out, and Kevin and Ralik felt the jarring impact in full. The mass effect barriers designed to prevent personal injury inside the cab had since failed, and the two passengers bounced about before the spectacular crash toned down to simply a human and a salarian in a flaming cab sliding across a floor outside the hangar. The cab and the floor screeched sharply as the metal surfaces ground against each other and sent sparks and smoke in every direction. They finally came to a jolting stop when they smacked into a thick support pillar in the middle of the hallway. Ralik was the first to say anything.
"O-Ow."
"Auuugh." Kevin was face down and had to roll over again to look around. Things were spinning. "Hey Ralik. . . Anything. . . Broken?"
"I... I don't think so, but I certainly hurt. Everywhere. I'm not fond of crashing. Remind me never to take joy rides with you ever again."
Kevin let out a hearty, yet suppressed, chuckle.
"Ow ow ow, don't make me laugh. Ow. Come on. This place will be covered in police, media and disaster aid groups in a matter of minutes," Kevin stated matter-of-factly while shakily trying to get out of the charred remains of their cab.
"Right. . . Let me just. . . Figure out how to move my limbs again."
As Kevin finally got upright and his hearing began to return to him, he heard the intermittent crackle of static mixed with cut off voices. Somehow, the comms device was still working.
"Got-(static) Down into-(static) building-(static) A goner!" It was the same deep-toned voice from before.
"Good. Now get-(static) base before the-(static) finds out you shot that son of-(static)"
Kevin frowned as much as his bruising face would allow. Normally he would opt to let them believe he was dead, effectively getting them off of his backside for a while. However, he knew they would figure it out once they saw his ship leaving the hangar amidst a crisis. This time though, he had to make it clear to them that he could not be killed that easily. The apprehension they might face as a result was worth it, especially since it would point out to them that he had access to their secure channel. He grabbed the miraculously functional communication device and check to make sure it was still tuned to their secure channel. He activated the receiver and pulled it right up to his mouth.
"You missed," was his short and triumphant reply. Satisfied, he then threw the comm device against what was left of the dashboard so he wouldn't have to listen to an attempt at a counter. This time it was definitely broken.
Ralik coughed heavily from the smoke, but he was able to get up and stagger his way over to the wall closest to the hangar. He held his right arm close to him, as if it might have been badly injured. As for Kevin, he was able to get up, but things were still blurry and the room swirled. As much as his body told him not to, he knew he had to get moving. A deep breath, another hushed exclamation of pain and several wobbly steps later, he was on the same wall as Ralik. Together, they hobbled their way to the door of the hanger. Luckily, it still opened despite taking a nasty hit from debris. They could hear the sounds of police cruisers and emergency response teams approaching the building, so their pace increased despite being strained as is.
Inside the outer hull door of the airlock, the decontamination process began. Just like the first time, it was short and sweet; it was less than a minute before they were inside.
"Ralik, can you fly a ship?" Kevin asked as he limped inside.
"Not one of this size, I'm afraid."
"Dangit. Alright, I guess I'll take the helm then."
"Alert: Unrecognized life form has boarded the ship," Terra's calm voice chimed.
"Shut up, Terra, he's allowed," Kevin stated, irritated. "No more alerts about unrecognized individuals."
"Acknowledged. Salarian DNA profile has been registered. Future profile registration will be automatic and will continue without alert. Please designate a name for this profile."
"Ralik Dolannus," Ralik added.
"Acknowledged."
"That's a rather vocal VI," Ralik bluntly stated. Still, he looked intrigued.
"Not my choice. It was already built in when I got the ship. Terra, get the ship ready for lift-off."
"Acknowledged. Prepping engines."
As Kevin sat down in the frontmost cockpit chair, he peered out the lower viewports to see Illium police and an asari SWAT-style response commando enter the room. They obviously heard his engines warming up and someone had ordered an instant lockdown. The large disc magnets that held the ship in place while docked refused to detach from the ship.
"Crap, they're trying to lock us down," Kevin audibly noted, wincing from his quick taps on the haptic interface. "We're getting out of here either way. Terra, regard all external access attempts as hostile."
"Acknowledged. Five attempts have been blocked thus far."
"Take a seat, Ralik. This might get a little bumpy." As soon as Ralik stepped into the slightly cramped cockpit, Kevin started a full reverse. Ralik saw his attempted move and sat down immediately, still holding onto his arm.
"I would advise against that. The docking-" The salarian's advice was cut short.
The Kellius kicked backwards and started out of the hangar rather quick. Looking into the spot they were just in, it was obvious that the magnets still had not detached. The arms that normally held the ship via magnet discs were still in position, if now considerably shorter and lacking those very discs altogether. The ends sparked and flashed before the arms retracted in a strained and broken stutter. Below the ship, the four now unpowered discs fell to the floor of the hangar with several noisy clangs. Still in reverse and moving too fast for his comfort level, Kevin employed an all stop and attempted to plot a way out of the dense forest of towering structures. Satisfied with a course, he punched on the thrusters before any more attempts to lock the ship down were attempted.
It was just about to hit dusk here, and the fabled Illium evening vista was as striking as everyone said it was. In all the times Kevin had been to this planet, he had never had the chance to actually get a look at the dimming evening horizon. Most of his contracts were mid day or deep night operations. Silhouettes of tall skyscrapers blotted out lines of shrinking sunlight, while others more to the side reflected it. Lights of all colors were becoming more and more visible across the entire surface of the planet, signaling the start of the night life. The beautiful view was fleeting, though, as it only took but a minute to rise above the point where it was a sweeping vista. Soon the legendary sight turned into a typical orbital planet view – which was nice in its own right but didn't hold the same level of awe. Kevin had his last view of Illium and now it is time to go.