A/N: The follow-on Rasa chapter. Brooks may get her own, wrote this out of boredom. It wasn't gone over by the Editing Gang, so any mistakes are my own.
"It is 1430 local time, Agent Archais. We are in the initial approach lane for small craft at Indegon. Would you like to take manual pilot control?"
She blinked lazily at the glowing status panel on the wall of her cabin and nodded. "Yes. Activate our beacon and load up the cover comms, package eleven."
She sat up from the hard cot she preferred sleeping on, bare feet touching lightly on the smooth metal decking. The walls were done in black fabric, the ceiling in concentric circles of noise-suppressible foam. Padding across the tiny bunkroom into the bathroom, she pulled out a towel from the omni-fab and turned on the shower unit, stepping inside after hanging the towel on the silvery hook next to it.
Warm water slithered over her body, hard muscles and matte-gray cybernetic implants alike. A hundred scars littered her form, some faded and thin, others still ugly and raised – welts of darker flesh. She ran her hands through long flame-red hair and then shook it free, before soaping herself down.
A few minutes later, she stepped out of the shower unit, toweling herself off while running over the contract in her mind. A hacker had discovered certain detailed information on a Broker front operating in the Systems Alliance, and had sold some of the data to P. The Shadow Broker's own tech-savants had discovered the intrusion and the vulnerability was sealed, but the hacker was still at large.
The Broker did not want this information to get out, and oddly enough, neither did the Lords of Sol. Prince Aloxius, the Minister of Information, had himself gone through roundabout methods to have the Broker take care of the hacker permanently.
A wet-team had tracked him to Verida III, but were themselves ambushed by hacked mechs and overridden security turrets. A heavy combat team had pinned the hacker on Ursaan in Elcor Space, but the man had escaped again, this time framing the Broker's soldiers as being behind the murder of an elcor life-minder with faked trideo.
The Broker did not like loose ends, and did not like losing money on contracts, and so, absolutely detested loose ends that cost him money. Thus, she had been dispatched to take care of the situation more permanently. Tracking the slippery little bastard had been more difficult than expected, but with her contacts and skills, she'd found him.
When she did, it felt too easy. Indegon Station was an unusual place for a hacker to attempt to hide himself, given it catered to the indolently rich, and the entire job felt off to her. The usual hiding places of the hacker had been areas where he could vanish or hide among others, but he could never hope to blend in with the mega-rich.
No matter. She would find him, kill him, and then move on to the next target. If she found a lovely looking girl here she could even enjoy herself and indulge a bit before pinning it on the hacker.
The thought amused her.
She walked over to the cabinet built into the wall of the bathroom and touched a panel in a series of taps, the wall splitting open from above and below as racks inside rotated into view. Six human faces – four female, two male – stared up from gel-bed crèches, eyes empty and expressions neutral.
With a gentle tug on her own features, her face broke away, her long mop of hair following, revealing a blank, black cybernetic skull. Her face was nothing more than a flat articulated front plate pierced by advanced cybernetic eyes and a mouth of steel brackets. She set her features down and picked up another face, using both hands to set it into and onto her head.
Pale golden hair fell sullenly to her shoulders as her cybernetics hooked in and the myomer muscles of the face twitched in activation. Full red lips curved mockingly as crystal blue eyes blinked and then narrowed. She paused, pulling a set of false teeth – this one slightly browned, as if she smoked – and snapped them into place as well. She clacked her teeth and then ran through a series of exaggerated facial expressions.
With a touch on the small omni-tool built into her arm, she shifted through several vocal patterns, before speaking in a gentle, almost innocent lilting voice. "I wonder what kind of story he'll have for me to learn?"
Nodding at her reflection, she left her bathroom, moving across the tiny hallway bisecting her small pinnace. The room she entered was constructed in flat armaplast with a black tone, the walls pierced by lockers and racks, the floor edged in footlockers and heavy armored trunks.
From a footlocker, she pulled out a skin-suit of reinforced ballistic cloth, shot through with reactive stiffening panels and body-hugging plates of salarian laser steel, all blackened. Over this she tugged on an omni-gel combat vest and her combat slick-suit, all smooth angles of black and dark red. Thin, formfitting boots of hard black leather covered her feet, and black gloves with small pouches around the mid-arm-length cuffs went over her hands.
A pair of low-hung web-belts were draped over her hips, one with a pair of holstered SMGs, the other bearing a series of small pouches, vials, and a larger pouch on her left. A series of monomolecular knives were tucked carefully into thin sheathes on the sides of her slick-suit, and a coil of wire – glowing blue – with a cube on one end placed carefully into the belt pouch.
She gathered her loose hair into a ponytail and tied it off with a simple cloth scrunchy before reaching for her combat mask, the eye-plates snapping into the hidden magnets below her skin around her eyes and the black cloth covering her features, exposing only her hair. Another locker opened, and she pulled down a long, narrow rifle with a heavy black barrel and faux-wooden grips, an oversize recon scope bulking above the main weapon. It collapsed into a smaller shape and then she hooked it to her back before stepping out of the armory and forward into the main cockpit.
Indegon Station blazed above the swirled angry clouds of Inthe, a gas giant in the Varker System. A huge and clearly non-military construction, it was the main locale for swirl-racing – mass effect suspended glider racing in the storms of the gas giant's atmosphere. Gambling, high stakes deals, illicit and illegal pleasures… Indegon was where jaded human nobles and debauched asari maidens came together, where the more malevolent turian outcasts did business with the most ruthless salarian gangsters and the volus took a cut of all the profits and trading.
It was a place where you were either 'In' or 'Out,' and if you were Out, you were going to be thrown off the station. Possibly right into the gas giant below. There were no poor people here, no middle class – only the rich, a few skilled tech-savants, a swarm of truly nasty security personnel who were also usually well-off, and an army of service mechs.
She sniffed and sat at the control panel, triggering the comms system. "Pinnace VL-HH5 Krena contacting Indegon Docking Command. I am Lieutenant Misan Carpenter, Japanese Imperial Security Force, Solguard. My flight code is Zeta-Charlie-Omega-Five-Five-Kappa out of Port Misan. I am here to provide security to Lady Arisa no Naruhito Shinnōhi. I require docking, fueling, discharge, and I will be disembarking. I have a class VII weapons permit license, authorization JISF4445."
All of her certifications should check out, since they were all legitimate, even if the real Misan Carpenter was dead.
Several seconds passed before a tired and bored turian voice was heard. "VL-HH5, this is Indegon. We are confirming your codes. Please move to course one nine nine mark five tac zero to line up with approach vector while we check."
"Understood." She tapped the flight controls, moving the ship to her right and up until she was in line with the main docking port.
Another few minutes passed and then another voice came on, this one human, a cool male voice with a hint of a Japanese accent. "Pinnace VL-HH5. Redirect course to two one five mark zero tac five. You are being directed to hangar 9A, sublevel six, deck five."
She frowned. Her cover was to liaison with the small guard force for the youngest niece of the Japanese Emperor, and then to make contact with the tracking team, before moving in on the hacker. They were supposed to meet her at deck two, not five.
She shrugged. She had not been able to contact the team on the station due to comms security, perhaps things had changed. "Understood, maneuvering."
The voice answered. "You are clear to dock. Customs has been waived; please proceed to your assignment."
She leaned back into the seat, her fake features narrowed in concentration. That was not the normal procedure. While the Broker could always find ways around customs, she'd been fitted with the correct documents to bring her weapons aboard and had carefully made sure her pinnace was ready for a full inspection. Something was off.
A slow smile twisted her features, and with a small pair of clicks, she made sure the safety of her SMGs was off. "Thanks, Control. VL-HH5 out."
It took five minutes to reach the docking bay indicated by the control tower, outlined in flashing haptics with the doors open. The bay beyond was much larger than required for a pinnace, looking large enough to dock a light-cruiser, and – to her casual inspection, at least – was completely empty. The lights inside were on but not bright, and the far wall of the docking bay was illuminated only by the outline of the door in garish blue light.
She touched the ship down softly, three landing struts extending from the bottom to settle heavily into the crosshatched decking. With a tap of her fingers on her omni-tool she prepped her cloaking devices, then glanced at the status panel.
She waited for the hanger doors to shut fully and triple checking atmosphere and pressure before pushing the button to open the ship and lower the hatch stairway. Stepping down the narrow, metal stairs, she glanced around her as she finally reached the bottom.
She took four steps towards the far side of the hanger before the voice spoke. "You know, I was expecting something… more… from this encounter."
She internally triggered her cybernetic eyes, flashing from visual to infrared to UV and then to burst emission modes. Nothing showed. The hangar was empty, and there was no speaker system.
She tried for innocence first. "I am Lieutenant Carpenter of the Princess Guard. Are you my liaison?"
The voice came from her right now, chuckling softly. "You are Mariane Brooks, master assassin of the Shadow Broker. Don't be coy, it's really creepy."
The innocent look fell from her face, leaving an unusually blank expression and suddenly cold eyes. "If you're my target, this really isn't going to save you. You could just surrender now and make it quick. You haven't irritated me… yet."
The voice was above and behind her now, and she slowly turned, still seeing nothing. "Oh, I'm afraid poor Parker had an accident earlier. You know, mishaps happen all the time on space stations." The levity left the voice, even as it emerged from her right. "Problem is… well, the High Lords have really had enough of your boss's meddling."
She slipped her SMGs out from the holsters, eyes flickering in all directions. Empty racks, ready to receive cargo, loomed along the high walls. A series of He-3 tanks were embedded to the walls to her right, armored fuel lines neatly held in place with mag-clamps.
There was no cover to hide in.
"That's odd, given who's paying us for the hacker to die. And you are hardly the first person to try to kill me."
The voice whispered in her ear. "But I'll be the last."
She flung herself to the side, spraying a burst of rounds behind her. A fierce blue glow erupted from mid-air, even as her shots bounced ineffectually, small arcs of white electricity flickering in the air before fading to reveal a figure back lit by the lights of her own ship.
He wasn't a big man – thin, lanky, rangy-looking. He wore no armor or weapons, dressed in simple, black, soft cotton slacks, black martial arts slippers, and some kind of layered shirt. His face was blandly EuroJap, arched black eyebrows over aloof, amused eyes, a long thin blade of a nose, bloodless lips twisted into a small sneer, and slicked back hair.
His hands were covered with thin black gloves, and he spread them almost languidly. "I've waited a very long time for someone to be a challenge to me, and I hope you can keep up."
Her eyes narrowed and she slapped the controls of her slick-suit, before kicking back to open space. She faded from view as the visual camo engaged, her mind working furiously to plan how to get out of this.
She now faced the single most dangerous and lethal assassin the Lords of Sol had, a man who was one of the most feared biotics in space, the one and only biotic humans had ever created, rather than simply allowing to happen.
Tyriun no Kage, the Lord of Shadows.
She prepped a flash-bang and flung it in his direction, only to recoil as he flashed into blue light, emerging behind her and immediately erupting into blue radiance. Warpfire washed over her, even as she back-flipped and ejected a pair of poisoned darts at his face.
His hand flickered and the projectiles were stopped in mid-air before flying off in different directions. "Your weapons, I fear, cannot hurt me. You came expecting to kill a noncombatant hacker, not a biotic."
She skidded hard as a biotic lance of power clipped her, turning her fall into a rolling tumble and pulling a pair of glass vials from her boots as she got to her feet, flinging them at the floor. She triggered her internal breathing systems, even as pale yellow gases exploded out from the impact point of the vials.
Her eyes took in several locations and then she moved, even as more blasts of warpfire thundered in. The gas dissipated and no Kage shook his head. "Gas? I'm not stupid enough to get close to you, killer."
Her lips curved as she watched a counter in her HUD tick down, using every bit of her skill to avoid the lances of blue fire that continued to get closer and closer to hitting her. When it reached zero, she pulled out a vial from her boot as she threw herself into a roll and flung it in the direction of no Kage's position.
It shattered with a clink of gas, and then the air simply exploded.
Tyriun strengthened his barrier, then screamed as the blast wave shattered it and fire roared over him, igniting his clothes and burning his skin. He lost focus on his barrier as he hastily dropped and rolled, and in that brief span she sprayed his location with rounds from both SMGs.
He grunted as he was hit in the leg, even as he came to a stop, patting down his still smoldering sleeves. Pieces of his clothing had melted into his skin, and ugly burns were across his face. With a grimace of pain he got to his feet, blood seeping down his leg as he brought his barrier back up.
She smiled and shook her head. "You're really not very good at this, are you?"
He gave her a shallow smile. "Everyone gets one good hit. You had yours."
He clenched his fist and flung a pair of heavy blasts of blue power at her, chasing it with a wave of warpfire almost six meters high. It left him lightheaded for a moment, but that hardly mattered as there was no way she could dodge or survive.
The blasts hit and her image shattered, a simple holo-transmitter on the floor visible for a moment before his warpfire blasted it and the decking to bubbling ruin. His eyes widened as he realized what that meant before her voice lanced out from the side.
"You're not the only one who can turn invisible, but you need to pay more attention to positioning."
She erupted into view as her cloaking failed, a hard kick lashing out to smash into his face. He windmilled back, off-balance, as she spun and swept his legs from under him.
With a pulse of biotics he rolled to the side, dodging a blood-red omni-blade stab, countering with a plate of biotic force that caught her in the side. He flipped back to his feet as she recovered, and he flooded his body with more biotic energy, before biotically charging her.
He exploded into her, blue luminance flaring as they impacted, sending her flying. She landed on her hands and back-flipped, ducking under his kick, and blocking his knifehand. They moved faster than an unaided eye could see, his motions jagged and outlined in cerulean and cobalt, hers smooth and almost dancelike.
She caught his forward strike with a single hand, and his eyes widened. That was a forced biotic punch with enough force behind it to shatter a steel door, and she caught it like it was nothing. "Not too bad, let's see how fast you are, eh?"
The next thing Tyriun knew, he was flying through the air, only to smash hard into a cargo crate and fall to the ground. His chest felt as if several ribs were cracked, but he knew he couldn't catch his breath for long. With a snarl he splayed his fingers and called his biotics up, the air shimmering into a hazy barrier even as a pair of grenades detonated against it.
He exhaled, and lined his wall with warpfire before using a push on it. The entire biotic construct came apart in long jagged shards of compressed air, burning with blue energy, and he watched as she flipped and danced through them, kicking off of one to leap higher in the air and open fire on him with her SMGs. The tiny impacts hissed as they hit decking or his barrier, exploding into puffs of dark green smoke, and he hissed as he leapt back.
He pulsed a second push forward, blowing whatever that smoke was away, even while he hit her with a pull that drew her into it. As she lost her balance, he flung the strongest bolt of force he could at her, catching her in mid-air and sending her pinwheeling nine meters through the air to smash against the side of her own ship.
She merely dropped to the ground in a crouch, smiling softly. "Why is someone with your power working for the High Bastards of Sol, mm?"
He rolled away from her, and then knelt as he strengthened his barrier in her direction. He narrowed his eyes as he took in her words and then he shrugged. "They made me what I am. A hundred cloned children, biotic experiments, cybernetics, bionetics, drugs… I live and die at their sufferance. As do all humans."
The smile became a smirk. "Not all humans, no Kage. Pets, perhaps, but not hunters. It's a pity, you might actually have been a challenge in another setting. But the story of a pet isn't interesting. Time to die."
He looked at her in amused amazement. "I'm far out of range of your martial arts, and those SMGs can't hurt me. How are you going to do anything when I melt you and your ship around your head?"
"Like I said, you need to pay more attention to positioning. Farewell." Her voice was mocking, but she was firing even as she spoke.
He brought his barrier up, confused as she missed him entirely. "The hell are you—"
He heard impacts on metal and then a horrific screeching sound from behind him, and half turned. Only to realize he'd rolled directly in-front of the He-3 refueling tanks along the hangar wall, that she'd just shot with white-hot incendiary rounds.
He had enough time to throw up his defenses before the world erupted into fire.
– STG – STG – STG –
"How's he doing?"
The two men in expensive tailored suits stared at a third man, who was tapping controls on a haptic screen and wearing medical scrubs. He straightened and turned to face them, framed by the backdrop of stars out the window-port of the cruiser's med-bay.
"Serious, but stable, although it was tricky when you first brought him in. For him to have used his biotics to survive that level of explosion… well, it was unexpected. He's suffered extensive third-degree burns to his chest, face, and right leg, and fourth-degree burns – that is, down and into the bone – to his right arm. He's also suffered lung damage, smoke inhalation, and several broken ribs."
The older of the two men talking to the doctor nodded curtly. "I see. Keep in him in isolation until the Commissars arrive – and keep us informed, doctor." He glanced at the other man and left, shaking his head.
The doctor turned to the second person. "He hasn't regained consciousness, yet. But he should be aware and awake in a few more hours if you had questions, milord."
Prince Aloxius Manswell shook his own head, his hand stroking his chin thoughtfully. "Tyriun has never failed to kill an enemy, except when that target fled headlong or the person he was fighting wasn't worth his time. Did you find any clues as to what did this?"
The doctor shook his head. "Whatever was used most likely burned up in the conflagration. The AIS forensic team is still investigating."
The Prince nodded, then frowned. "…Alert me if he awakes before the Commissariat arrives."
He stepped outside to see the other man standing outside the med-bay of the cruiser, finishing a conversation on his omni. He waited for him to finish before speaking, his voice clipped and cool.
"Director Callins, we're not exactly pleased our best point man is nearly dead of third and fourth-degree burns. This was supposed to be a simple neutralization against a tricky but conventional assassin. Now we have a station with massive decompression, several dozen burned, and lots of visibility and questions from some very rich, influential people."
Callins smiled thinly at the Prince. "Milord, the target was the Broker's own top assassin. If the rumors are correct, she's murdered everything from war priestesses in their sleep to top-end cyborgs, and the only person to ever send her packing was a goddamned turian Praetor. No Kage is good – very good – but he's also an arrogant fuck who thinks biotics solve everything." He gave a sigh. "I told you this wasn't going to be as simple as sending out your boogeyman and hoping he could crush her. If you'd sent additional forces…"
Aloxius folded his arms. "That option was taken off the table. What Parker found was too hot, too close to both NOVENSILES and to the slave deals with the Broker. I'm guessing he wanted his loose ends cleared too."
Callins nodded. "Most likely. For the moment, at least, the breach is sealed. As for the rest, we'll see how Tyriun pulls through and make choices on how to deploy him from there."
Aloxius scowled. "And this… Mariane Brooks woman? We just let her go, wait and see what the Broker's reaction is?"
Callins gave a tired shrug of his thin shoulders. "That is more your decision than mine, milord. You can continue to pursue her, of course. But if I may be so impertinent to make a suggestion…"
Aloxius narrowed his eyes. "Yes?"
The other man turned away. "Don't."
– STG – STG – STG –
"Agent Archais, incoming primary transmission."
She looked at the features in the mirror – red hair, pale skin, thin lips, cold eyes – and smiled. "Route it to speaker."
A few seconds passed before a basso voice rumbled out of the air. "Parker is dead, I presume?"
"The Alliance made him and killed him. Verified that already. They tried to take me out as well. They sent the Lord of Shadow. Not sure if I killed him or not, I had to get away after blowing up an He-3 fuel tank on him since I holed the station and couldn't exactly stick around to check. They shot up my pinnace pretty good before I got out of range, so I'm at Rhes IX getting repairs."
"A clean-up team is en route, ETA: nineteen hours. Hold until they arrive, they will transfer your equipment, furniture, weapons, and fittings to a clean ship. Once that is finished, drop to zero contact posture for five weeks until we clear this incident. Once we're done, I'm sending you my most recent acquisition to… get him up to speed. A turian, Tetrimus Rakora."
She arched her eyebrow. "I see. Interesting. We'll see what his story is and if it fits. Anything else?"
Another pause, then the voice continued. "It would be unwise to engage in your usual proclivities towards entertainment, Archais. Zero contact posture means not getting more law enforcement on your trail – or a trail of dead bodies."
She gave an arch glance to the dark-skinned, black-haired girl on the bed, mouth open in a rictus of pained agony, limbs littered with cuts as she slumped in death, and the smile grew. "Sure thing. I'll be Black Rim-side. Not many humans there, and I'll be busy reworking my suit."
"Very well. Payment is transmitted. I will contact you when we're ready to move forward with Intercept. Broker out."
She sighed to herself, then shook her head and pulled out the basket of cleaning supplies from under the shelf. It would be best if the clean-up team didn't see anything untoward after all. She'd dispose of the body and pick another one up from the bars before they got here, and keep it cool until she was on her way.
"I wonder if one can actually last five weeks…"