A/N Standard disclaimer. Don't really think I need to do the whole thing by now.
Hello dear readers. Thanks for your patience. University life is stupidly busy but I think you will be happy to know that I reckless ignored my assignments to get this chapter done. I reckon I am going to be paying for that later but for now, meh.
So most of you enjoyed the slave market scene. Good to know. It was the first thing that I did that actually felt completely new in this story, as in, I had never seen anyone else do it before. So I am glad that it worked out. And the little bit with Garrus and Chellick seeing Die Hard, I could help but enjoy writing that in. I love that movie and I reckon that a person like Garrus would enjoy it too.
Comments:
Thank you too all the reviewers. I read every review and even though I don't reply directly, I appreciate each and every single one of them.
Deadtrooper – yeah you were one of my first followers. Thanks for sticking with me. Glad that I am keeping you interested. I thought of Gollum as I did it so based it off that a little.
Pteaset – wow. Thank you for binging on the story and reviewing every chapter. I am glad that you liked it. Welcome aboard.
Blueowl – wow I am glad that you are feeling for the whole crew. That's what I was going for and thank you for letting me know it was working.
Jotun – thanks for the ideas. Maybe something to work with. Will have to see how it goes later on. I think I can incorporate some of it for the later stuff though.
Dahakstaz – yes, there will be more time skips coming from here on out. Nothing too major though. We are not suddenly going to skip to the beginning of ME1. Plenty of stuff to do before then.
Random guy – considered it but not too seriously. Not at this stage at any rate.
On with the story!
…
CHAPTER 19 – GEAR CHECK
Heading towards Omega the second time was more tiring than I thought it would be. Not because I had been overly drained from training, or from a lack of sleep. It was more mental tiredness brought on by having to listen to multiple people being angry at me for being stupid.
The first one was Torrin who couldn't believe that I shot myself in the hand. He had gone so far as to question my sanity and called me a few choice variants of moron, along with some words that didn't properly translate from Palava to English. From the sounds of them though, I could guess that they were not meant for polite company. Still, the young turian couldn't disguise the relief at seeing us back in one piece.
The next was Aleria who had freaked out once she had been told by Torrin and had alternated between shrieking at me and worrying over me. I honestly thought that at one point she would refuse to let me off the ship and just keep me in biotic stasis at all times. I did manage to calm her down after a long while but she clearly wasn't happy for the rest of the day.
Liserias had just glared at me before reaching over and smacking me on the back of the head. The only part of that conversation that was really noteworthy was me saying "Don't do that again" and her replying "Then don't be stupid again". Needless to say, I didn't leave that conversation feeling like it was the last time I was going be hit over the back of the head by my turian medic.
Ely had been very vocal in her opinions on how stupid I was. Honestly, I didn't know the young quarian female had such a colourful vocabulary outside of 'bosh'tet'. Hectar at least had just shaken his head and gone back to work. Carlos had just called me crazy and left it at that.
Beau had promised more pain in my workouts. He claimed that "If you have the energy to shoot yourself then you have the energy to run all day". The way he finished that sentence actually made me think I was safer pretending to be a slave in front of the batarian noble all over again.
Still, the way that the other areas of my galactic expansion was proceeding was working out well for me.
Nelathie had managed to complete the plans for the orbital platform in its entirety. I had given her another bonus and told her to start working on a ship-based version that would fit the Hidden Enterprise. But there had been something that she had brought up that I hadn't really thought too much about. What happens if the rounds fired missed the target? Having a rounds more than five hundred tonnes flying through space at the speed of light wasn't the issue. The issue came in with the question: what happens if the rounds hit a planet?
It flashed through my mind that this was actually the issue that reared its head that led to Cerberus finding the reaper corpse in ME2. Somehow I doubted that the round that cored out that reaper was significantly less that the rounds my orbital platforms and ships would fire. And I was not exactly willing to have an accident that led to an extinction of a civilisation.
In the end, Nethalie and I talked to Horaxus about the issue. The old turian came up with the suggestion that we use the centre of the large round to either place a hidden eezo engine that would automatically drop the rounds out of light speed, or place a plasma based explosive device that would completely melt the MAC round after a predetermined distance or length of time. I suggested working on the plasma core first. It seemed like it would be the cheaper and more practical of the two options. Having to spend money on extra eezo to place another engine inside a heavy MAC round just seemed like it was going to blow out prices too quickly. The only real saving grace was that because the MAC rounds from the weapons I had Nethalie design were so much larger than any other heavy mass effect weapons around, it would actually be able to fit a separately designed core that would work purely for disposal.
Ely and Misol, the quarian that I had hired before the slave auction, had gone out and bought three more medium transports that would fit my specifications. They were all ex-turian vessels and came in at light-cruiser tonnage. So far, none of the ships were larger than my matriarch-class heavy transport so I was likely going to use that vessel as the flagship of my little fleet, whenever I got around to finishing the upgrades. Luckily, I still had plenty of cash to throw around.
Speaking of, the ships that I had all bought were now in line for upgrades. After Omega, I was going to be heading to Mannovai where I would be putting the Hidden Enterprise into space dock and exchanging it with the newly upgraded kirik-class ship I had bought earlier. The enterprise would be going and getting the weapons, shields and engine upgrades that the other ships were all in line to get. I had managed to talk down the salarian weapons company to give cheaper prices on all ultraviolet GUARDIAN systems by getting a massive group discount and promising future work when I got more ships. And I couldn't help but feel that Persei was already showing how useful she could be as, only yesterday, she had offered to come forward and negotiate with the salarians on my behalf. She had been a little nervous at the beginning but despite being out of the game for eighty years she had still managed to pull off an impressive level of dignity, poise and mental manipulation to drop the price from the two and a half billion credits, down to slightly over a billion a piece. I still don't know how she did it but I immediately offered her the job of my personal business negotiator. I couldn't think of an actual title, I just figured that she was good and that meant I wanted her to work for me.
The most unexpected thing was that my old project, operation Hearts and Minds, seemed to have grown a life of its own. Movie options had gone from occasional viewings, to a massive increase in small-vid sales. Something kinda like Netflix. There were movies that I owned the rights too and other old movies that came out of the works that some journalists and critics had gone after like moths to flame. The salarians had become fans of more calculated films like Twelve Angry Men and Imitation Game. Courtroom dramas were their thing but the comedies were completely lost on them. Asari generally preferred light-hearted movies and period pieces, which included TV series too. I had seen that The Tudors and Downton Abbey were now incredibly popular in asari space. The turians were, somewhat stereotypically, all into the war films. Saving Private Ryan, Gallipoli, Band of Brothers, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Bridge on the River Kwai, Dunkirk, American Sniper were all popular choices, with Patton also in the top 10 for older turians. Even the krogan had a list of favourite films out there. Jurassic Park topped the list every week, but Rambo, Rocky, The Terminator and, somewhat surprisingly, Crocodile Dundee were all in demand.
In fact, my favourite review for Rocky came from the same krogan that reviewed Jurassic Park for me.
"Rocky series: a gentle reminder for all krogan that no matter what the problem is, everything can be solved by punching it in the face."
That one had me chuckling. But all in all life is looking up. Now I just had to make sure that I lived through Omega a second time. Luckily I had a plan on how to keep me in Aria's good books.
…
Pulling into Omega the second time was a lot like pulling into it the first time. Aria had been warned that we were coming and she made sure that there was someone there to meet us, this time a salarian whose name was never mentioned. He was in armour but for some reason he seemed to find Jurt intimidating. I wasn't sure if it was because he was a krogan, the battle scarred armour, the scars on his face and hump, or the fact that an unconscious Bray was thrown over Jurt's shoulder without any consideration for comfort. Almost like a sack of potatoes.
"Ah, right," the salarian stammered. "Well, I believe you know the way. I will let you go."
I gave him a cheerful smile and Jurt and Beau fell into step behind me as we made our way to the nearest public aircar. The salarian took off, opening his omni-tool as he turned away. If I was a betting man, I would have put money on him giving Aria a call immediately. Not that it bothered me. It just meant that she knew that her bodyguard was imitating a boneless shrubbery.
A short aircar journey later found us making our way to the entrance of Afterlife; Jurt still carrying Bray unceremoniously over his shoulder, Beau with Bray's weapons on his back, in addition to his own. I took a minute to look at the line of people who were waiting to get in to the club itself. It was noticeably longer than when I had come in last time. There were also a few more humans and asari in the cue. I let the smallest of smiles curl the edge of my lips as I saw it and heard distinctly recognisable music coming from within the club. We walked up to the turian standing at the door, ignoring the protests of the people waiting in the line. I shook his hand and felt a slip of paper being passed into mine. I gave him a little nod and walked in, leading Beau and Jurt into the club.
As the music boomed around us I couldn't help it. I smiled. The music wasn't affecting me this time around and not only that, it was a club remix of Darude Sandstorm. I chuckled and read from the piece of paper. Before I left the club fully last time, I had gone to the turian bouncer outside and asked him to count how many people came in every day and how many people waited in line. I basically wanted to see if the music that I had given Aria had helped bring more people into the club. Turns out that I was right. Over the last two weeks there had been an increase of customers attending the club by about fifteen percent. I couldn't help feeling a little smug about that. Somehow, I don't think that Aria would be as amused about that as I would but hey, life is all about finding the little pleasures. If one of those pleasures was proving that one of my little experiments worked on the Queen of Omega then who was I to complain. Point to me.
I led the way through the crowd, leaving Beau and Jurt to follow in my wake, Jurt still hauling the unconscious Bray over his shoulder. There were a few odd looks but no one said anything. I idly noted that there seemed to be more humans in here than the last time I came in. I wasn't prepared yet to say that the music was the drawing card for them but I wasn't about to discount the possibility.
We finally made it through the crowded dance floor and reached the stairs at the back, guarded by the familiar turian with a Phaeston assault rifle. He gave us a look of disbelief for a moment as we approached before gesturing up the stares with a flick of his head.
"Are you sure about this?" Beau asked quietly one last time, barely audible over the thumping club music.
I nodded back without turning to look at him. I had some information that would get us out of a tight spot, if Aria decided to take offence at our continued existence for assaulting Bray. "Trust me," I said, just loud enough to be heard by my two crewmates. "Aria might not be happy at the beginning but she is going to be very happy we dropped by, even with her unconscious minion." I took a look at Bray who had remained on the dark side of awareness despite the booming atmosphere of the club. Jurt must have really hit him hard when we took him out of the brig.
I turned cheerful as we reached the top landing and met the same crew as before who were waiting to scan us. They took a confused look at Bray over my krogan's shoulder and exchanged visible looks of bewilderment.
"Come on lads!" I exclaimed with a grin. "Move out the way! Aria will be wanting the return of her little guard here."
The aliens all stood dumbfounded as we walked by them not the main office area. They didn't even seem to notice that we didn't remove our weapons.
We entered the room and immediately ascended the stairs. The four batarian bodyguards whose names I didn't care to get last time were far more responsive than the ones outside. We had only made it up a few steps before they had their weapons drawn and not quite pointed in our direction. I threw them a bland smile and walked up the rest of the stairs to stop at the top landing where Aria was watching us with a cautiously guarded expression on her face.
"Hello, Ms T'Loak!" I greeted cheerfully. "Where do you want us to drop this?" I gestured to Bray hanging off of Jurt's shoulder.
She glared at me for a long moment, obviously not appreciating the overly bright persona that I was projecting. I knew I was laying it on a bit thick but I figured that I might as well stir things up a little. I wasn't overly happy right now. Not since I had to shoot myself on Camala, to be honest. While I knew it wouldn't be safe to push things too far I wanted to relieve it by being slightly sarcastic. It was how I had learned to cope from my previous experiences. It made it more satisfying when the other shoe dropped, if the other party was sucked in to the routine.
Eventually she looked at one of her other guards and gestured to Bray with a flick of her head. Immediately he moved over and hauled the unconscious batarian off my krogan friend and started to drag him down the stairs. Looking back at me she gave another gesture to the couch, inviting me to sit down. I readily complied, making myself as comfortable on the couch as I could while wearing armour.
"So Mr Neilson," she began, her voice in that snappy impatient tone I remembered from both the game and my previous visit, "care to explain how my man ended doubling as a living scarf?"
I sat up brightly. "Well let's see," I said, bringing up a hand to count it off on my fingers. "First, I punched him in the face. Then I ordered Jurt here to knock him out. Then I had him locked in the brig. Then when we got here I punched him in the face again. And finally Jurt knocked him out and brought him here so that he wouldn't make a scene."
During my little speech I could see Aria's body tensing. As each of my points was brought up her glare became harsher and harsher as she steadily got angrier. If I didn't have a plan then I may have truly been concerned about talking this way. Then again, if I was truly afraid of her then I wouldn't have ever hit Bray in the first place. Not to say that I didn't have a healthy respect for her strength and abilities, I just wasn't afraid. To be honest, I hadn't been scared of pain since the dungeon.
"And what makes you think that I should let you get away with beating and imprisoning one of my people?" she demanded, her voice dangerous.
I sneered at her a little. "Well that depends," I replied, my voice losing its overly cheerful tone. "Was his attempt to have me killed his idea, or yours?"
Her tattooed brow furrowed slightly in confusion, broadcasting her answer. "What are you talking about?" she spat.
"I take it you know my disguise for the slave market?" I asked, relaxing more into the couch. It really was a comfortable piece of furniture. I imagine that if I wasn't wearing armour it would be even better. She nodded. "So him pushing me into a batarian noble while in my disguise, was that your idea, or his?"
Her eyes narrowed further. "That would not have ended in your death, unless it was the hegemon himself or his inner circle."
"Any time a human slave is involved in a perceived assault on a batarian noble the chances of death increase, which I am sure you know," I said.
"It still doesn't excuse your actions," she growled, her anger starting to grow again. "You assault one of my men, drag him on display through my station, bring him into my club and expect me to not think that you have disrespected me and broken the first rule on Omega?" She started to glow blue as she tapped into her biotics. "You have about fifteen seconds to convince me that this wasn't a challenge against me before I decide that your continued existence is a personal insult."
I gave her my best unimpressed look. "Oh, stop trying to be the hardass here," I said, hardening my tone. "We have something to talk about that is far more important to you than Bray being punched in the face for trying to get me killed."
Her glare itself was threatening death in the most painful ways imaginable. "And what would that be?" she hissed.
I turned to look around the office in the most casual way I could. "Liselle."
A very shocked silence lasted for about three seconds, during which time I kinda regretted turning to look out over the office at that moment because I wanted to see the stunned look on Aria's face, before a biotics-coasted hand launched out and grabbed my armour, yanking me back towards her with strength to rival Jurt.
"Do you want to repeat that?" she asked, her voice low and dangerous, promising pain if I said so much as one syllable wrong.
I gave a carefree wink at Jurt and Beau, who were watching me like hawks, before finally turning back to Aria's wrath-filled face.
"Let me go," I said calmly. "Cool yourself down, lose the attitude and we will talk like reasonable people."
Her jaw clenched tight and I could feel her hand squeeze tighter on my armour, giving out a squeak from one of the plates as it bent slightly. "Or I could flay you and get the answers my way," she growled.
I let the calmness slip from my face slightly and my expression went hard. "I know that Bray was taking photos of me when I was in my disguise on Camala," I said coolly. "I know that he would have sent them to you, which means you have seen my scars. So, tell me, what do you think you could do to me that hasn't already been done?" I let that sink I for a minute as she continued to glare at me. "Now, let me go, tell your boys here to stand down, then take a deep breath and we can talk things through. Or you can act like a krogan in a blood rage and learn nothing about why I know the name of your daughter."
The glare that she sent was impressive. I could probably only name about five people that I had ever met whose glare I would have found more intimidating, but I just stared back at her calmly, not letting her see any change in my demeanour. After all, I had some experience in acing down threatening people.
"Or I could strip it from your mind by force," she bit out, her voice like grated iron, the blue wisps getting stronger.
I shrugged. "You could try," I agreed easily. "But then you lose all future cooperation from me. Now, stop acting like a queen bitch instead of Aria T'Loak and let me go so that we can talk."
She gave off another growl and her jaw clenched. Her fist tightened even further and the plates high on my right shoulder actually cracked a little. Then, finally, she let go and pushed me back hard against the couch. I could see the guards visibly relax, though they didn't let go of their weapons.
"Fine," she spat out viciously. "Talk!"
"Once you calm down," I said, my voice still cool.
"You beat up my man and you expect me to calm down instead of killing you when you have knowledge of Liselle?!" she demanded.
I narrowed my eyes as I started to let my own frosty glare, developed over close to a decade of dealing with murderers, gang members, rapists and paedophiles on a daily basis, take over my face as I faced her fully for the first time. "You know what he did," I said, my tone soft but not losing any of the threat of violence that it carried. "The only reason that he came back alive at all was because he worked for you. If you had been anyone else in the galaxy, the only thing that you would have got back was his head in a box, dripping vorcha jizz from where his eyeballs used to be." I let my face harden fully, letting the full level of my glare show. "And trust me when I say that the jizz would not have been put there after his death."
Just like me, Aria did not flinch away from my glare, but stared evenly back at me while I could see the batarians shift a little uneasily at my threat.
"Well," she said, her tone noticeably calmer than it had been moments ago, almost seeming amused, "that was certainly an impressive statement." The glowing blue of biotic output died out finally as she sat back in her seat and looked at me appraisingly. "Not many people have the balls to talk that way to me anymore. You must be either crazy or have a death wish."
I raised a frosty eyebrow as I relaxed my glare. "Who says it isn't both?" I asked.
The edge of her lip twisted ever so slightly into a smirk for a second before she returned to glaring at me. "Sure. I'm calm now, see? Talk." It wasn't a request.
I looked back out over the office. The patrons at the tables on the lower landing had left at some point. I guess they had thought there was going to be violence and their self-preservation instincts had warned them that the area was likely not a safe place to avoid collateral damage.
"Have you ever heard of a group called Cerberus?" I asked.
There was a pause as she seemed to think about it. "I think so, but I don't know much about them," the asari replied. "They tend to stay clear of me. What's that got to do with anything?"
"They are a human supremacy group," I explained. "Started up as a quasi government-organised black ops group that was almost completely privately run, just after that little contact skirmish the turians started. They went rogue after they thought that the Alliance government wasn't doing enough to promote the so-called superiority of humanity. These days, they focus on several different tasks, such as surveillance and intelligence, sabotage and assassination, among other things like weapons development. They are still somewhat small compared to groups such as the STG but there are less restrictions and more demands."
"And I am guessing that they are the ones that told you about Liselle?" she demanded.
"In a way," I agreed. A complete lie, of course, but she didn't need to know that. "I have an inside man of my own that is feeding me information on some of the projects and such that they have going on. During his datamining, your name came up along with information, including genetic records, of the existence of Liselle as your daughter. They didn't have a confirmation on who the father is but they also found something that led them to believe that Tevos was the other parent."
The ever so slight tightening on the purple face told me all I needed to know. Tevos was Liselle's other parent. A well kept secret that she had been desperately trying to hide, apparently.
"And what do they plan to do with the knowledge of my daughter?" she growled out. Clearly the idea that Liselle was going to be part of someone else's plans was something she objected to.
"At this stage, nothing," I said. "At the moment the organisation is focussing heavily on gathering information and financial backers. I first heard about them years ago but never had to worry about them. I have a feeling that may have changed though."
"Oh?" she asked, tilting her head slightly. "How so?"
I gave her a wry smile. "Well, it turns out that I have made quite a bit of money over the last few months. That, plus me being a human, means that I get the feeling that I may have a sales pitch for me to become a donor in the future."
"And will you?"
I could help the derisive snort that came out of me then. "Hardly," I said. "Have you seen my crew? I am one of three humans on my ship. There are equal numbers of quarians and turians on my crew. Not the sort of thing that would fly in a human-supremacy group like them. Won't stop them from trying to be persuasive though."
She gave a slow nod. "And how did they find out about Liselle and her parentage?" she asked.
I shrugged. "Hell if I know. But if I was to guess… you know how babies work in the asari culture. Only one genetic parent, so that's easy to track. Other than that, my guess is an extensive background check that involved past associates and known relations. I was able to find out that you had her contact information. I guess it wouldn't be much more to assume a relationship. A little more guesswork and there you go."
She gave a single suspicious nod, though her face was no longer looking as hostile as before. "So what do you plan to do now?"
I huffed a sigh. "At the moment, I have other things that I am trying to sort out. A few plans that will give a few of my crewmates a lesson in catharsis. Other than that, I will be instructing my man to keep his ear to the ground. If your name comes up in any meaningful way, or Liselle's comes up at all in a place that he has access to, then I would be calling you direct. If you give me your info, that is."
She gave me a sneer. "What, no blackmail attempt? No threats against her?"
I smirked back. "I think you have me mistaken for someone else," I replied easily. "I actually want to remain on good terms with all the most important people in the galaxy. Your name happens to be on that list of people."
"Good to know." She hesitated for a long moment. "Keep me informed. I want to know everything that they have on Liselle."
I stood and gave her a grin. "You didn't say please."
She rolled her eyes. "Sure. Please or whatever."
I nodded and turned around. Behind me I heard Aria standing too.
"Oh and Neilson?"
I turned around and immediately felt my head snap to the side from the fist that rocketed into my cheek. It was stronger than I had expected from a non-biotic powered punch and I was grateful that the gene mods made my bones strong enough to not break from it.
I turned back to her slowly and raised an eyebrow. "Feel better now?" I asked mildly.
She shook her hand out. "Consider the debt for knocking Bray out twice paid in full."
I gave her a small grin and a small theatrical bow. "Indeed, oh pirate queen. Go forth and continue to enjoy Deadpool, the Saw series and the fifteen percent higher attendance fees that my assistance has given you." Then I turned and lead Jurt and Beau back down the stairs and into the club, relishing the ever-so-slightly stunned look on her face as I left.
…
Horaxes didn't even look up from his workbench as I entered his room. Not that it bothered me. I could appreciate a hard worker, especially when I am the one paying them. Plus I was letting the old gunsmith play around with a few new toys of his own creation, not to mention the upgrades to the weapons that I had asked him to organise.
"How are things coming along?" I asked from my position just inside the doorway.
He finally looked up at me and gave me a turian grin. It had taken a while but I had finally learned how to translate turian facial expressions.
"Very well, actually," he put down the tools that he was holding and walked over to a weapons rack that took up the left wall. There were only a few weapons there at the moment but I could see a large fabrication station working on a few more items that looked suspiciously like my AA-12.
"I have completed work on the old AA-12 and managed to create a working model that supports eezo tech. it was surprisingly difficult to alter such a versatile weapon from its weaker gunpowder form to modern standards." He rubbed his claws off on a dirty rag. "If the power gap wasn't so great, I probably wouldn't have even bothered."
He reached out and pulled a weapon that vaguely resembled the AA-12 from a weapons case next to the workbench. "Here is the first finished product," he declared proudly. "The SSA Butcher, created through Shieldstar Armoury. Eezo-tech's first fully automatic shotgun. Lightweight but extremely durable, the inner frame is made from stainless steel like the original, the outer frame is ultra-lightweight materials that provide the necessary structural support and durability that you would expect from a shotgun. The drum has been converted to having a rotating system of divisible heat sinks that can be individually replaced with ease. The top of the drum is the heat sink that is being used at trigger time. Then it will rotate through the drum down into an inert plasma coolant that disperses the heat far more effective than the current air-cooling system that most firearms use. The centre of the drum has a cooling motor to ensure that the coolant never builds up too much heat and it only activates once the coolant reaches a certain temperature and shuts off once the coolant has chilled again so it doesn't drain the power cell. The drum has twelve individual heat sinks that rotate while firing and the rotating frame is also stainless steel so it won't have any problems if it is knocked about at all. This beautiful machine can keep firing until the ammo block runs out without ever needing to take your finger off the trigger."
He rotated the gun and placed it back down on the bench. "The hardest part was the barrel and stock," he continued. "The original design basically had a spring that ran the entire length of the weapon to reduce recoil. That system doesn't work so well in a collapsible design. A hydraulic recoil system would weigh too much and is less effective so that was disregarded. In the end, I put in a multiple spring system attached to internal plates so that they never get displaced from each other, even when collapsed. The recoil from the mass effect field as it release the shot is transferred to the sliding plates inside the barrel, which then reduce the recoil through the springs to nearly nothing. This is now far more effective for modern tech but it has the drawback of being slightly more complicated than the original design when conducting weapon maintenance. So the anti-recoil system is effective enough to be able to handle an eezo-based shotgun, while now being able to collapse with ease like a normal weapon will.
"Lastly, to compensate for the lack of individual ammunition options that the previous design was capable of producing, the mods of the Butcher are built into the frame, just over the ammunition block. The options I put in are Disruptor rounds, High Explosive, or Hi-Ex mods, solid slugs or standard shotgun flakes. The standard setting will have a much lower range but it has the spread of a standard shotgun at a damage rating equal to a Master Shotgun VI. All in all, it can fire shotgun powered rounds at a rate of two-hundred-eighty rounds a minute and the solid rounds can go up to five hundred metres." He patted the grey stock affectionately. "This little beauty is beyond a Spectre-level weapon, my young friend. If I was you, I would make sure that this work of art never falls into anyone else's hands. Otherwise, the Council might declare usage of it to be illegal."
I nodded happily. The firing rate was a little lower than the original AA-12 but I wasn't going to complain. This weapon was a beast and would shred apart any shields that could fit on even the highest-level body armour like it was tissue paper. Horaxes was definitely a diamond find.
"Excellent work, my friend," I grinned at him. "I love to see the resulting work of a master."
"Oh, bless your plates, my boy!" he chuckled. "That weapon is likely the single most powerful weapon in the galaxy right now. There are other shotguns out there that have a higher damage rating, like the krogan Claymore, but their range will be limited and they will only last a few shots at most before they need to vent or they will overheat. Not to mention that their recoil will be like the punch of a charging varren in heat. This will never have that problem. And anyone that gets hit by this will be able to spend the last moments of their existence realising that they have been transformed into a fine mist."
He lovingly picked the weapon up and placed it back in the case alongside the bench. Then he picked up a familiar looking tube. "The old M-79 was the easiest to alter. I shortened the stock and made the barrel collapsible but most of the changes were to the ammunition. Due to the firing styles of the weapon, I kept it as a single shot weapon and kept most of the design the same. However, the stock will now store up the kinetic energy released in each shot and build it up to a carnage shot, much like the shotgun attachments. Five shots from this will give you the charge of a single carnage shot, so use it wisely. The rounds are still single shot breach-loaded exactly as they were before. This time though, not only do you have the standard round and the High Velocity, or Hive rounds, you also have the Hi-Ex rounds and the Thor rounds." He plunked four different grenade rounds for the M-79 on the workbench. He indicated a blue-tipped grenade. "The Thor rounds will give out nearly a million volts in a five metre radius that will short out any mech or even a geth, if the rumours are correct about their abilities. Hi-Ex has a blast radius of ten metres, so don't stand too close to the shock wave. Hive and standard are both five metre radius as well, though Hive will give you an extra hundred metres range on your shot. Really, none of them should be a problem though; in keeping with the original design, a round will not explode if the round has not travelled at least twenty metres from where you fired it. Anything less than twenty metres and all it will be is a rock thrown at very fast speeds. Still, a headshot would probably be fatal at that range so not a complete loss. There is a targeting crosshair that will be linked to your HUD so that you will be able to choose where your shots go with it too. No need to wonder if you are going to blow something else up by mistake."
"And how am I to carry the rounds?" I asked. "It isn't like I am going to have pockets on the hardsuit that will carry this for me."
"With this." He held up a cross bandolier that ran from both shoulders to opposing hips. "I had it work with Chop to ensure that you would not lose flexibility with them. Due to the improved nature of explosives, the modern rounds are significantly small than the old rounds and won't take as much space. This means you can hold more but they won't protrude as much as the old rounds would."
I nodded. At least with the cross bandolier, I would feel less like Chewbacca and more badass. I counted the pouches. I could hold twenty five of the grenade rounds, plus one in the gun. Not bad, though I would have to be careful for extended engagements.
"How about the minigun?" I asked.
He gave a chirping grunt and brought up an image on his terminal. "Once I had the idea of the rotating heat sink idea for the Butcher, I started to figure out how one would work for the minigun. Sadly, I don't think that there will be a small enough version that you would be able to carry, even with your gene mods."
I just waved him off. "I didn't expect that there would be."
"Indeed. However, I have managed to get one organised as a stationary gun, mounted as a fixed position suppression weapon. It fires nearly two thousand five hundred shots per minute. Individually the rounds would be fairly weak, barely above assault rifle standard, but the sheer number of hits that it can give out in such a short amount of time would compensate for that. So while a current mounted gun can only fire fifty large shots before it needs to vent, this can fire the entire block of thirteen thousand shots without ever having to take your hands off the triggers. I am still working on a portable system that would work for Jurt but I need to find a more efficient heat reduction system to what I am currently working with."
"Well, if anyone can figure it out, it would be you."
His mandibles flared in a pleased grin. "My boy, that's the reason you hired me instead of some incompetent moron."
"Damn straight."
…
Chop looked up as I walked in, surrounded by his surprisingly clean and organised version of chaos he called a workspace.
"Brock," he greeted. "Perfect timing. Just managed to finish the modifications on your hardsuit. Think you will be pleased with the work."
"If it is anything like your usual work I believe so," I replied.
He stopped and looked at me, head tilted. "Don't believe you have worn any of my customised armour yet," he stated. "Only the standard Colossus suit. While I did do some work on it, I cannot claim all the credit. Still, sentiment is appreciated. But moving on."
He walked over to a mottled grey suit of armour set up around a dummy, looking exactly how it would when I would be wearing it, minus the helmet. "Colossus light armour, infiltration customisation," he declared proudly. "Specially modified to be used for undetected insertion into a hostile environment, while still being armoured enough to get yourself out of there if things go bad. There are acoustic dampeners attached to the soles of the feet to ensure that there is no noise when the wearer dis walking slowly. It becomes audible to human, batarian, asari and turian standard hearing at a medium jog, while krogan, salarian, quarian and elcor can hear it at a light jog. Haven't been able to determine hanar capabilities, though speculate that a drell can hear a fast walk.
"As per your request I added your custom SONAR scanner that you had Hectar create into the helmet and made as a HUD that will not be too intrusive, and will not impede visibility too badly." He looked up at me. "Not entirely sure why SONAR was the name but will go with it."
Truthfully I went with the name SONAR as homage to the technology I used as inspiration. That and I couldn't think of a good acronym for Visual Instant Realtime Ultrasound Scanner, without giving off the wrong idea. I mean, VIRUS was cool and all but it gave off the wrong idea.
"Now," he continued, "so far as the actual suit goes, I have added one extra tech compartment in the back plate, giving you a total of three. Normally, there are only two and they both hold small shield generators. Now you have a third one and it holds something that I was able to pick up through… an unspecified associate."
Right. So likely illegal. So far so good.
Chop fiddled with his omni-tool and the suit flashed, then turned invisible, signs of an active cloaking device. I stared at it for a long moment before I let a pleased smile slowly build on my face.
"Active camouflage," Chop declared. "Not precisely legal for those outside of sanctioned government organisations. However, considering the work that you will be engaging in, I was able to procure a few base models. Of course, they were not quite at the level of STG usage, however I was able to run a few improvements on them. Once activated, your hardsuit will activate sensor jammers which will protect you from thermal detection, as well as the visibility spectrum. The system is set to recycle itself based on usage, so the more you move the harder it works to compensate. The harder it works, the shorter the running time before it needs to switch off and cool down. I have set a monitor for it on your HUD so be mindful.
"The last functional improvement was your suggestion in the right forearm bracer. It is a hidden retractable ten inch blade, diamond hardened edging. It also has a ballistic setting so it can be fired in an emergency up to fifty yards with enough power to pierce a Grade 3 hardsuit."
"Ok," I interrupted. "For comparison, what is my hardsuit rating?"
"Your infiltration set is rated as a Grade 5, purely because it is a Colossus-based set," Cop said. "Your medium armour is considered a Grade 8. Scale is determined on shields and barriers, not to mention armour thickness. Scale only goes up to 10, where the Colossus heavy armour would be classified."
I nodded. I hadn't actually seen that in the game. The rating system they went by was completely different. Now I would probably have to through and see what armours would be weak enough against the blade. For now though, I was probably going to need to focus on unarmoured parts of the body, or weak points, such as the neck.
"The final thing was your helmet," Chop continued. "The HUD has your shield strength, cloak meter and can easily swap back and forward to the SONAR setting. Once that was there I decided to not worry about other visibility modes, such as thermal vision. At least, not for your infiltration suit."
I picked up the helmet. I had asked him to model it after the Typhoon Ghost tactical mask that I used to have for airsoft games. I thought it looked sufficiently intimidating for field work. "Brilliant," I said with a small grin. "I can't wait to see it in action."
He gave me a big salarian grin in response. "I thought you would be happy with it."
…
I found Beau checking the gear in the armoury. He had taken over as the unofficial quartermaster whenever we weren't training. As a result, if he was on duty and not running me, Torrin and Hectar into the ground, then it was likely that he would be found in the armoury running inventory.
"Beau," I greeted as I walked in. "How are we looking?"
He looked up from a box of grenades that he was sorting through. "Boss," he returned casually. "Looking good. We should be fine to start operations once Hectar manages to get the blueprints."
It was just after we had got the data burst from Hectar's little trace program I had planted at the slave auction that we had started to organise for ground operations. It was a new level of detail that Beau was running us through. We had immediately disregarded any of the slave owners from Camala or Khar'shan as they had far too much security for an inexperienced crew to blood themselves on. Even Beau was adamant that we should stay away from them indefinitely. Jurt hadn't looked too happy but that was because we had found the batarian that owned Polisa. He was a wealthy merchant on Camala living in the capital Ujon and was friends with the well-known noble Edan Had'dah. The population was only small, slightly under three million registered non-slaves, but the eezo and industrial works meant that it was highly defended by the Hegemony. So I had taken another route. I sent a message for the batarian requesting a meeting on behalf of the fake turian I had represented at the slave meeting. I had only sent it this morning so I was still waiting for a reply.
"Good," I nodded. "We have been working hard for this. I want us to be as ready as possible."
"I know," he replied. "I want to do another day of blackout and infil drills before we go. Hectar is happy with the back seat while you, me and Torrin need to improve our coordination. The only problem is that Jurt keeps wanting to come in."
I nodded. "Yeah he keeps telling me the same thing. Luckily I have a new toy that Horaxus has which will be ready for his to play with before we get the Aratoht. He won't be useful in stage one but he will be useful later on. We just need to make sure that the special transports that we have ordered are ready at the Citadel like we asked. I want to have Misol and Ely go over them with a fine tooth comb before we leave to make sure that the STG has not left any special surprises in them."
"Agreed." He looked at me with a grin. "Besides, we have three volunteers from the residents group who want in."
I narrowed my eyes. "How did they find out?"
"Apparently they found out from Torrin after they saw us training and wondered why we were doing it," he grunted. "I am going to have to have a word with the kid in private. He needs to learn that there is information that is not that you just don't give out."
I nodded. "Just don't tear him down too much," I cautioned. "I don't want his confidence shot just before we launch." He nodded. "Now, these volunteers for ground operations; I assume that they are the two turians and the human that gave our slaver friends so much trouble?"
He nodded again. "Yeah. Names are Bolart, Octavio and Ted. All claim to have experience in field work and all three say that they owe us a debt and the batarians payback. They figure that they can settle both if they join up."
I felt my mouth tighten slightly. "What do you think? Can we trust them?"
He looked off to the side thoughtfully for a moment. "Yeah, I believe so. They hate the batarians, that's for sure. I think we can guarantee that they will be happy to take on ground missions with us. Not sure how disciplined they will be. Besides," he gave a wry smile, "pretty much every single one of those slaves you bought seem to think that they all owe us their lives. Some of the others are already talking about staying on. Something about how you were the only one that would give a damn about them."
I thought for a moment. It had potential. It was kinda what I was hoping would happen but I didn't need a crew of grateful but mentally unstable people. Still, it was one of the things that I had planned for so I figured there was only one way to determine whether or not this plan would pull through.
"Alright," I said, looking back at Beau. "Run those three through the training exercises. If they are good to go in the next two weeks then we can use them. I think it would give us the chance to do more. But they all need to be cleared with Selaen and her team before they can take part in ground ops. Make the simulations as real as possible to try and draw out any negative responses. Try and put some fake batarians in there too. Don't want them to freak out the moment they step on the ground."
"Right."
With that I left. I had no idea which of the former slaves would be staying with the crew after we hit the Citadel. But it was straight from there to deep space before we traded ships and made out way to Aratoht on my first ground mission. As that thought went through my head, I could already feel the thrill of anticipation.
It was going to get messy.
…
A/N Please review/Follow/Favourite as you please.
Next scene will be the first ground mission. Not sure exactly when it will be out but hopefully not too long. For those looking forward to some action, that's when it will start. Until next time!