August 15th

This could go so wrong.

I was pacing restlessly at the spot the Blue Suns representative told me to be at. My hands were shaking as I checked my omni-tool for the seventh time to make sure I had all of my combat programs hotkeyed and ready, including the recently finished sabotage program. The three boxes of eezo were on the ground in the middle of the alleyway designated as the meeting place.

I checked my omni-tool again. They were four minutes late.

What if the Blue Suns told the Eclipse? What if the Eclipse are on their way right now? Fuck, why did I think this was a good idea?!

I heard footsteps coming down the alley and stopped pacing, deactivating my omni-tool and forcing myself to appear relaxed. Internally I was screaming at myself for agreeing to this.

They're going to shoot me and take the eezo and leave me to bleed to death and I'll have no one to blame but myself and this is a very, very bad idea!

A turian and batarian in Blue Suns armor turned the corner and stopped a few feet away from the boxes. They had assault rifles on their backs but didn't appear hostile. The turian crossed his arms and looked me over. I tried not to squirm.

"You're the one with the eezo?"

I nodded and gestured to the boxes. "They're right there."

The turian turned to his friend. "Check them."

The batarian knelt down to look at the boxes. He activated his omni-tool and to my great surprise what looked like a small omni-blade materialized, which he used to pry open one of them and looked inside.

I'd totally forgotten about omni-blades.

Think about that later, focus!

While I berated myself, the batarian carefully closed the box and stood up. "It looks legitimate. No signs of contamination."

The turian grunted, appearing satisfied. "Alright then, human. How about three hundred per box?"

My throat had a minor malfunction at the thought of nine hundred credits, but I quickly recovered. "I-uhh, yeah. That's fine."

The turian transferred the aforementioned amount to me, the batarian picked up the boxes, and they left. The entire time I was waiting for one of them to pull out their guns and shoot me but I was still standing afterwards, boxless and nine hundred credits richer. I walked out of the alley and into the streets in a daze. I had not been expecting that to work out.

And I completely forgot about omni-blades! How the hell did I forget that?

I made a mental note to start working on an omni-blade program and moved on to figuring out what to do with all of my credits. I listed off the things I needed in order of importance in my head.

Repairs for my 'tool. Corrective eye surgery. Gun. Armor. New clothes.

I would have normally put the gun before the surgery, but a gun was useless if I couldn't aim worth shit.

I decided to first head towards the nearest electronics shop. As I walked, I remembered that it was the same shop where I'd stolen two hundred credits from a salarian only a month ago. It felt like it had been years. I still hadn't seen Dream or Delirium since I first arrived in this universe. They were probably busy in the Sandman universe doing whatever it is they do, but if they had been so intent on me being here the least they could have done was tell me why. Instead I was left floundering, waiting three years for something I might not be able to change.

Thirty-five months to go.

"What can I- oh." The volus at the counter looked up at me as I entered the shop and made a noise of disgust. "Get out of here, human. I doubt you can afford anything I have."

"You'd be surprised, volus," I responded, putting venom into the words. "I need my omni-tool fixed."

"Ugh, you humans are so careless. Running around without a care for the things you break." He grumbled. "Show me."

I scowled, but showed the device on my wrist. The volus looked it over briefly, then turned on his own omni-tool and scanned it.

"Can you fix it?" I asked impatiently.

The volus answered with a tone one would use to speak to a child. "Yes, yes. You managed to hit it hard enough to loosen the transistor and one of the resistors is damaged, but I can fix your toy."

I sighed. "How much will that cost?"

"Seven hundred credits."

My jaw nearly dropped. "Seven hundred?! You're insane."

"No, I'm perfectly sane," the volus retorted smugly. "I'm also the only person in the district who can fix your omni-tool. If you want it fixed, you'll pay seven hundred credits."

I grumbled and made rude implications about his parentage, but I transferred the credits over.

"Alright. Give it to me."

I took the device off of my wrist and handed it to him. He pulled out a very delicate looking tool and carefully cracked open the casing. I rubbed the inside of my wrist nervously, feeling strangely naked without my omni-tool. I hadn't taken it off since I found it.

The volus manipulated his tool, which looked like and oddly hooked screwdriver, with a dexterity I hadn't thought possible with only three fingers. He pulled a tiny component out of the device and replaced it with a similar-looking one. After another minute, he closed it back up and handed it to me. "That should do it. Now, get out of my store." I was out the door in two seconds.

Outside the store, I put my omni-tool back on and activated it. There wasn't any immediately noticeable difference, but it did seem to run a bit faster. The thought of going back and punching the volus in his masked face crossed my mind, but I decided it wasn't worth it. Even if he was a dick.

Goddamn space pirate.

Last I had checked, the price for eye correction surgery was five-hundred and fifty. I stopped by the nearest clinic anyway to make sure, but the price hadn't changed. Dispirited, I went back to the apartment. Taren had apparently been waiting for me, because the second I walked in he approached me.

"What do you want, Taren?" Frustration leaked unintentionally into my voice.

My tone seemed to catch him off guard, but he answered nonetheless. "Just wanted to remind you that your two weeks are almost up. I'll need your rent soon."

"Damnit." I sighed, irritated. "Of course, take all my credits, it's not like had any use for them." I transferred the last of the money I'd gotten from the eezo distractedly, still mentally preoccupied with the volus that had probably overcharged me.

"There's no need to be rude," the batarian said, slightly reproachful.

"What?" I asked, slightly confused.

I finally took a moment to actually look at my landlord, who appeared to be less than pleased. "You don't need to stay here, if it's that much of an annoyance." His voice had a bite to it.

It was about then that I realized that I had fucked up socially. Again. I hadn't been talking to people very much and had managed to avoid situations like this where I inadvertently upset someone, but my luck had to run out eventually.

I opened my mouth to say something, an apology or explanation, but nothing came. Taren waited for a moment to see if I had any response, but when none came he walked away without another word. I retreated to my room.

So, grand total of the day, I made a bunch of credits, immediately used them all and pissed off my landlord. Great.

I reminded myself that it could be worse. I could still be starving and have an infected injury. It didn't make it suck any less.

I opened my omni-tool and tried to figure out how to program the fabricator to make an omni-blade.

August 20th

At least the damn volus didn't fudge up or fake the repairs.

As I siphoned another ten credits from an unfortunate shopper, I marvelled at how my omni-tool didn't freeze or restart once. Five days later and I still hadn't gotten used to it. I had suffered with the malfunctions for a month and the difference was astonishing. Work on creating or updating my programs went a lot faster when I didn't have to stop every few minutes or redo the last few lines. It was almost worth the seven hundred credits.

I was reasonably satisfied with my haul of seventy credits and started for the apartment complex, done stealing for the day.

As I walked past an alleyway entrance, I heard some scuffling, a thump and muted voices. I turned to see a krogan in orange armor pinning what looked like a quarian, the first I'd ever seen, to the alley wall. The krogan was literally growling and the quarian was flailing, trying to get the krogan's hand off of them.

The krogan, who seemed slightly familiar, was snarling. "You damn suit-rat! I should gut you!"

"Let go of me!" The quarian sounded female and in a fair amount of distress.

The krogan pushed harder on the quarian and she let out a pained gasp. "Not until you give me back my credits!"

"I told you, I didn't steal from you! I don't know how to steal credits like that!"

"So I just randomly lost ten credits with you standing conveniently nearby?! I don't think so! If you don't give me my credits, I'll rip that damn face mask off!"

I suddenly remembered where I seen the krogan. I'd stolen from him a hour ago.

This was my fault.

Getting into a fight with a krogan would be the stupidest thing I'd ever done, stealing from the Eclipse included. But this was because of me. My ethics were fairly flexible, corpse-looting and petty thefts were okay because it didn't harm anyone. And if it hadn't involved me I probably would have left already. I would have been sad about the quarian dying but I've already seen several people in this same position. It rarely ended well.

Walking away now, however, would be potentially letting this quarian die for something I did. That was unacceptable.

So I braced myself and did something very stupid.

I walked up beside the krogan. "Hey," I greeted casually.

"Help, pleas-", the quarian began before being cut off by the krogan squishing her again.

The krogan turned to look at me with big yellow eyes. "This doesn't concern you, human!"

"It looks like you're about to kill that quarian," I said calmly. "I'm not okay with that."

He snorted. "Oh yeah? And what are you going to do about it, ape?"

"This." I activated my untested omni-blade program and stabbed him in the side.

The krogan let go of the quarian, which had been my intention, and roared, taking a swing at me. That had not been my intention. I dodged the first blow but the second connected. I heard something crack and I went flying into the wall behind me, crumpling to the ground.

My whole right side was in pain. Everything was very bright and spinning, a sharp ringing noise echoing in my ears. From my position on the floor, I saw the krogan's feet approach me. There was a sudden loud noise and a rush of heat. I saw small pieces of what looked like the krogan's orange armor fall to the ground, burning The krogan turned away from me and ran out of my line of sight.

A moment later, a three fingered hand appeared in front of me and waved. It suddenly turned into two identical hands, then one again. A girl was talking. "Hey, human. You okay?"

Everything was jumbled in my head. Wow my head hurts. "I… wha? What're doin' witht three fingers? Thass weird. Youu can' hold pencils righ' that way."

"…I think you have a concussion," the girl said.

"Oh. Tha' might be why my head hurts soo much."

"Yeah. I'm gonna take you to a clinic, okay? I owe you that at least." The weird three-fingered hands tried to pull me up, but it hurt a lot.

"Ow! That hurts! Stopit."

The girl sighed. "Do you really want to stay on that floor? Come on, we should leave before that krogan decides to come back."

"…I like the floor." But I tried to get up. The girl seemed nice, even if she talked weird and had three fingers. She helped me stand. I almost fell over again, but she grabbed me and held me still. We started walking.

I looked at the cloth-thing on the girl's head. It was blue, my favorite color. It had swirly patterns. "I like your head-cloth-thing. It's pretty."

"Uh, thanks. I guess." Even with the ringing, I could still hear the uncertain note in the girl's voice.

We walked for a while. Everything was still spinning, but eventually my brain started to seem less like a complete mess. As my senses recovered, I was able to recognize the girl as the quarian. "Thank you," I muttered, "for helping me up."

The quarian looked at me, gleaming white eyes visible behind the glass of her mask. "You're welcome. What made you help me anyways?"

"I'm the one who stole from the krogan," I admitted.

She stopped mid-step, looking at me again. "Wait. So he was going to kill me because…"

Because of me.

I turned away from her. "I couldn't let you pay for what I did."

"Oh. Well. Thanks," she said after a long moment. We started walking again.

My body was in a considerable amount of pain. I suspected I had several broken bones. I was desperate to distract myself, and decided that talking was as good a way as any. "Hey, what's your name anyways?"

"Lera'Wayei nar Yolaris. What's yours?"

"I'm Shawna Brown." Brown wasn't my real last name, but it was close enough. I'd decided on using it weeks ago in case someone asked. "So, you're on your Pilgrimage then?"

"What?" She sounded shocked. "How did you know?"

"Your name has Nar in it," I pointed out, "not Vas."

"But how did you know about the Pilgrimage? Very few non-quarians know about it!"

"I read things on the extranet. Sometimes I learn interesting stuff." It wasn't a complete lie. "Did you know that the krogan Rite of Passage for Clan Urdnot is a ritual where they have to survive for about five minutes against a thresher maw on foot?"

Lera's glowing eyes widened. "…no, I did not. Keelah, that makes a Pilgrimage on Omega sound easy!"

"Why did you choose here for your Pilgrimage?" I asked. Talking was helping keep my mind off the pain and potential internal damage I had, but I also was kind of interested. I hadn't met many friendly people in my time here.

"Partly for the challenge, and because no one else was doing it. I'm regretting it now, but I can't afford to buy a ride off this rock."

I sucked a bit of air between my teeth. "Yeah, that sucks. Sorry."

She shrugged her shoulders. "It's my own fault. Nothing to blame but my own stupid pride."

Right about then we arrived at the clinic. Lera experimentally let go of me and I managed to stay standing. She nodded to me. "Okay then, you think you can make it from here?"

"Yeah." She started to walk away, but I called out to her. "Hey!" She stopped and looked back. "How about I give you my comm address? That way, if you get lost or want someone to talk to, you can call me. I know how much it sucks to be alone here." I activated my omni-tool and prepared to send the equivalent of my phone number.

Lera nodded after a moment. "Yeah. That'd be nice." She turned on her 'tool and I gave her the number.

"Alright then. I hope to hear from you."

She waved and left. I walked into the clinic, expecting to come out several credits short. I heaved a large sigh.

August 21st

The beeping of my omni-tool's alarm woke me up to a world of pain.

Which was to be expected. I had been punched by a krogan. Note to self: don't get punched by krogan. At least I knew now that the omni-blade worked.

The doctors at the clinic said I had broken my right arm, cracked two of my ribs, broke a third and sustained a concussion. They gave me an injection of something that was supposed to help the bones mend faster, wrapped my torso up, put a cast on my arm and sent me on my way a hundred and fifty credits poorer, which unfortunately had to come out of my food and rent savings. I needed to figure out how to make some cash, fast.

I very carefully sat up and reviewed my options. I had enough non-perishable food saved in my room for a few days, but it wouldn't last long. I needed to make at least three hundred credits within nine days.

I could try siphoning more credits, but as yesterday showed I'm not going unnoticed. Taking more would just get me in trouble. I could-no no! That was stupid the first time, and it's even more stupid now! What in the hell am I thinking?

Trying to steal from the Eclipse again was beyond ridiculous. It had nearly gotten me killed the first time, and now I was injured. The doctors had said I would be better in a week, the benefit of the bone-regenerative medicine, but it was still crazy to think about trying to raid a group of well-armed mercenaries like this.

Though, I could just watch them. Who knows, I could get lucky.

That would be so incredibly stupid, I'd have to be insane…

August 29th

"I'm insane," I muttered to myself.

I had been watching the Eclipse for six days after taking two to not feel like I'd been punched by a krogan. My bones had healed in that time, but it still ached. I had to tone down my exercise regimen to compensate, but despite that I was starting to notice the effect the regimen was having. My endurance when it came to physical exertion was increasing, which was all kinds of useful.

I was covertly watching an Eclipse warehouse, not the same one I had robbed earlier, from a nearby store. They were as well guarded as the other warehouse, six organic guards of various species and eight Loki mechs.

That hadn't changed in the six days I had watched them, and I had been about to just give up and focus on skimming more credits from shoppers when something finally happened. There was a sound, probably a large explosion, from a few blocks away. After a moment, gunfire could be heard from the same area. The Eclipse in the warehouse suddenly started moving around more, obviously anxious, until all of the organic guards and four of the mechs left the warehouse in the direction of the explosion. They hadn't come back yet and the gunfire hadn't died down.

This was the perfect moment to go in. Obviously the Blood Pack, Blue Suns or someone else was attacking the Eclipse, and the only ones left at the warehouse were four mechs.

This is crazy. It's perfect but it's crazy. I'm insane.

I argued with myself for a few moments about whether or not to go in, but I knew I could have a very small window of opportunity. If I was going to try this, I had to go now.

I left the shop and started towards the warehouse, queuing up my hacking program. As I approached the door, one of the mechs intercepted me.

"Halt. This is Eclipse property. Leave or you will be-" I fired off the program and the mech stopped in its tracks. The other mech, not registering any problem, waited silently while the program ran through it's five-second cooldown and was hacked as well. Ordering the mechs to follow me, I approached the warehouse and used my door-hacker on the lock. The door opened to reveal the other two mechs inside, pistols at the ready.

I ducked behind the wall and ordered the hacked mechs to destroy the ones inside. They marched in obediently and began firing. After a minute the gunfire stopped and I looked in again. The hacked robots were destroyed, but they'd managed to disable a mech and cripple the other. I walked in, stepping over scattered mechanical parts, and opened a nearby crate. Grabbing four boxes this time, I was preparing to leave when a thought occurred to me. Setting the boxes down, I looked around and found a mech's pistol. I put it in my pocket, picked up the boxes again and left.

I tried to make my exit from the warehouse as discreet as possible, but I thought a few people still spotted me as I left.

I must have a deathwish.

I walked at a brisk pace, eager to get away. Two minutes later I heard the gunshots from the merc skirmish stop. I sped up.

Half an hour and a few odd looks from Taren later, I was back in my room. I slid the boxes underneath the cot and sat down.

Feeling the hard shape of the pistol in my coat pocket, I pulled it out and looked it over. It was a dark red color and had the symbol of the Elkoss Combine on it. I felt along its body and found a button that, when pushed, made the gun collapse into an easier to store shape. I pushed the button again, and it folded out. I pushed the button repeatedly, fascinated with the mechanical movement.

As I set the pistol down next to me on the cot, my omni-tool made a strange ringing noise. The message that popped up when I activated it said I was being pinged for a communication. I accepted the contact, and a familiar voice came through.

"Hey. This is Lera."

I smiled.

[Edited 2/27/2017]