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Tip of the Iceberg: A Mass Effect RP [TBM and Lord DreamCrusher]

Sera and Velira both reached the command deck at about the same time. Unsurprisingly, Sera seemed to still be a bit shaky on her feet, but she didn't let it slow her down, or draw any attention to her current situation. Velira, naturally, seemed to be not just at her full strength, but eager to get started on whatever they were doing on Noveria. As Kar spoke, both of them listened carefully as he brought them up to speed.

"If they have anything to hide, I will find it, don't worry." Sera spoke quietly, but confidently. "I'll also do my best to not be spotted. As you point out, Aptis is one thing, Belia Industries catching on is quite another. I do recall what happened last time they caught me, and that isn't something I want to deal with again. Much less the official fallout if they decide to complain about it to the Board. I'm assuming they don't want us interfering with one of their shareholders any more than strictly necessary."

Velira, meanwhile, remained quiet for a bit before speaking. "I can definitely keep an eye on Sera. I just want to make one thing clear. I will not do anything to antagonize the company unnecessarily. If things get dangerous, though, I can't guarantee there won't be casualties, and I would rather them be on the other side. I won't antagonize, but I won't hold back just to make the Council or the Board happy."

Sera seemed somewhat uneasy at Velira's words, but kept her mouth shut. She knew that Velira was probably remembering what had happened during their last big gunfight, and wanted to avoid a repeat incident. She just hoped that Velira wouldn't jump the gun, so to speak, in an effort to prevent such a repeat.
 
Kar nodded in response to Sera's words and didn't openly react to her somewhat shaky gait but certainly filed that away in his mind all the same. It wasn't much a surprise of course, he'd damn near broken her body during their night of fun, but it certainly reinforced the reason why he was sending Velira with her even besides the fact that Belia was as likely to respond harshly should they be found out. In any case Velira spoke up with concern about her mission and what was expected of her, wanting to clarify a few things, and Kar let her speak her mind before raising a hand as if to calm her.

"I don't expect you to just get shot at, captured, or otherwise impeded without defending yourself. If they come after you in any way, respond accordingly and keep yourselves safe. Just try to make sure you aren't perceived as the aggressors if such a thing happens. Also, as you can see, I'm fully equipped so if things really do get heated I can respond to back you up. Don't hesitate to call for me if you feel it's needed." While Sera did shift a little on her feet at the thought of confrontation, not that he could truly discern the full reasons why, Kar at least hoped that his words would be of some reassurance. He wanted everything to go smoothly and for this trip to prove fruitful to some degree, even a small one, but mostly he just didn't want it to be a disaster. They had other options to turn to if necessary for information but he matched Velira's desire not to see either of them hurt or killed... for perhaps a little more than just professional courtesy in the quarian's case now but that was beside the point. So long as everyone was careful here Belia Industries would be hard-pressed to justify a firefight in the streets even to the Noveria Board. Hopefully they didn't feel desperate enough to push such limits anyway.
 
Velira nodded once in response to his words. "As long as we are in agreement that things may get dangerous, and that if they do, I will not allow anything to risk the mission or our lives. I'm not going to make trouble, but I will respond to it as much as necessary. Hopefully, we won't need to use any force, but it's better to be over prepared than under."

Sera spoke up again. "I think we have about even footing with Belia, even with them having the field. They don't want us discovering anything, but at the same time, they have to worry about the Board if things get too hairy on Noveria. It's a lot harder to hide something on-planet than it was for them to work on a remote research station, after all." Sera hoped she was showing more confidence than she was feeling. Belia would have to worry about justifying actions to the Board, but that wasn't exactly difficult most of the time, especially if they made it into a he-said, she-said situation. And the "she" wasn't able to say anything, because Belia had silenced her forever.

Dismissing that train of thought as best as she could, Sera straightened herself up, ignoring the internal groaning of her body. "We'll take as little time as we need to in order to get whatever information we can. Aptis won't notice us, or if she does, it won't be in time to do anything about it."
 
They were in agreeance and so he didn't feel the need to carry on the conversation any further between himself and Velira. Sera on the other hand spoke confident words but the fact that she was still here and not rushing off headlong without a second thought suggested she was amping herself up more than anything. He was a krogan but he wasn't a fool; he could recognize such antics as he'd seen them plenty before. Nevertheless he wouldn't call her out on it and he wouldn't be assigning this task out if he thought the risk was too high. There would always be some risk, sure, but he wasn't asking them to get inside Belia's holdings directly, just a little digital snooping.

"Just take a look at this warehouse first and see what you can find. Try to avoid trespassing if you can, just to be on the safe side with the board, but use your best judgement all the same. I trust you both to handle things and keep me informed. I'd rather you turn up nothing then get in over your heads. We can adjust the plan depending on what happens." Unless either of them had any objections he made a point to turn and focus his gaze back on the handful of image screens fed to the ship. In his opinion they'd spoken enough and all that was left was to act. He still hadn't gotten any hits on Aptis since she went inside the warehouse but that didn't necessarily mean anything at this point. She could just be inspecting some supplies for all he knew, though that seemed like overkill for the turian's skillset. This operation would either turn out to be very boring and uneventful or everything would go sideways in a hurry. Very rarely did a stakeout fall somewhere in the middle as per his experience.
 
Sera left with Velira to get to the warehouse as quickly as they could. Aptis had quite a bit of a lead on them, and there was no telling how much longer she'd be in the warehouse, nor was there any indication what she was doing in there. She'd been in there for quite some time, so most likely whatever business she was in there for was at least close to wrapping up. Sera was definitely not in favor of being caught doing anything untoward, especially by Aptis.

Once they were at the warehouse, Sera and Velira got into position. With Velira standing guard, Sera began hacking into what she could access outside of the warehouse. It was safer to avoid trespassing, after all. While Sera wasn't able to get too much information from communications, at least nothing that seemed out of the ordinary, she did find at least one thing of interest.

A new screen appeared on the ship's feed, showing the inside of the warehouse. It seemed to be a live feed, with Aptis herself visible on camera. The room that the camera was in seemed to be set up almost like a morgue...or a torture chamber of some sort. Whatever had happened there was over, it seemed, dark red blood on the table in the center of the room as Aptis washed off her talons in a sink. As she did so, a krogan entered the room, approaching Aptis. Wearing a long robe that concealed her body, the krogan was large even by krogan standards, and it didn't seem to be purely muscle, indicating that while she was definitely still quite strong, the krogan likely had spent time in administration of some sort rather than anything physical. As the pair conversed, the camera feed also picked up the audio, albeit without nearly as good quality as the video.

"He didn't know anything," Aptis commented before the krogan could speak, not even bothering to turn around. "I made sure of it. All he knows is that some Spectre is investigating us because of that quarian. Which we knew already."

"We have more pressing matters," the krogan commented, her voice as gravely as Aptis' was smooth. "You've been here more than long enough to be tracked. Not just to Noveria, but to this warehouse. If the Spectre is even half-competent, he's already found his way to Noveria."

Aptis shrugged slightly, turning around as she shook water from her talons. "And if they are? What do you expect me to do about it? Or what are you going to do about it? I can't attack someone that isn't there."

The krogan let out a short chuckle. "They'll be here soon, if they aren't already. Just keep an eye out for them. This warehouse isn't exactly hard to find, and neither are you. I'm counting on it." As she spoke, the krogan glanced at her omnitool. "I have pressing business elsewhere. Remember, if you spot anyone who isn't supposed to be there, don't get fancy unless they are wearing an environment suit. If they are, draw it out." With that, the krogan left the room, moving somewhat quickly, but not exactly rushing.

After she left the room, Aptis shook her head slightly, then seemed to check something on her own omni-tool, then spoke again as she connected with someone. "I don't know who or what it is, and it could be a false alarm, but we have a proximity alert on the northeast side, just out of our private area. Clearly, if it is legitimate, someone who is trying not to trespass."

Sera paused as she overheard from her own feed. "Time to go," she commented to Velira, deactivating her omnitool and making for the path out.


In a private car, as she was being taken to another location, the krogan contacted a private number. "Find me any ship that's landed recently, and make sure that when it leaves, it has one more passenger than it came with. If you have to send five assassins, it's the cost of business. I'd rather have 4 mistakes and one investigation ended prematurely than let them get away."
 
Back on the ship Kar spent his time messing with the various camera angles scattered around the area of the warehouse in the hopes that he might spot Aptis if she tried to slip out from the warehouse in a different direction. The cameras themselves had no audio, visual feeds only, and their placement was so seemingly random that it made little sense to him. Thankfully Calius was helping him sift through the feeds to create a sort of map of where they actually had sight to in the public spaces of the city. In the end Kar figured that he had found some other angles that should show any other exits, though they didn't look upon the warehouse directly and would rely on the different streets and alleys connecting to where the cameras were located. Only the front door to the warehouse was visible to him, which was exactly where Sera and Velira had crept up to in attempt to do a bit of hacking.

It was around this point that one of his camera feeds noted something interesting. From a back alley that he believed connected to the warehouse came a krogan, a female one as he could tell at a glance despite how minor the differences between genders were for his people. She was big and bulky, probably a fair bit older than him but moreso from her size he knew she was capable in combat. Most females stayed on Tuchanka and kept to traditional roles as mediators and, well, breeders. There was nothing stopping a female from leaving though and those that did often bulked up to standards more or less that matched their male counterparts even if the females tended to have slightly shorter and slightly thinner proportions all the same.

It wasn't Aptis, and thus he couldn't try and track her movements through the city without breaching his agreement with the board, but that didn't mean he couldn't take a closer look while she remained in-frame; zooming in to get the best view then lens would allow so as to grab a few stills to run through recognition software. It was a long shot but some part of him suspected this might be Ganar Xilar. If it was, well, he didn't want to let her slip by without getting a good image of her for the future. Just about the time she was stepping into a car and departing however, Calius alerted him to the movement at the front of the warehouse as Sera and Velira ran off as fast as they could.

"Everything okay?" He spoke as he keyed their comm frequency, trying to check in that they weren't in any immediate danger. Though, from his vantage, he was soon able to see two armed guards come out from the main doorway and look around. These two didn't give chase but it was quite likely that they could see the girls dipping around a corner, though to how much detail he wasn't certain.

Although the alarm could have been a fluke Aptis wasn't one to ignore it and she hurried to get geared up in order to respond. It would take her a few minutes to don her armor and grab her weapons, double checking that they were all in working order, but she'd arrive at the front entrance not too long after the guards. "What did you find?" She snapped in a tone that recommended no deviation from her question. "We saw two people leaving. They turned that corner. Didn't get a clear look at either but one was a Quarian for sure. Easy to recognize their environmental suits." From behind her helmet Aptis snarled, not at the guards themselves but at the fact that the quarian was back and causing trouble again. How she'd savor getting her claws on that one to finish the job that the first assassin should have handled. "Stay out front in case they double back and get an engineer to check the terminal out here. Figure out what they saw."

With that said she took a step forward and kicked on her jump jets, boosting up into the air and falling down onto the roof of a nearby building. She couldn't so openly strike in the streets of the city but she could still try and track these two. Maybe get a chance to take them out or maybe follow them back to their ship. Either way she wasn't going to wait around when she could take some measure of action. Though she certainly wasn't aware that Kar watched as left the building and that he and Calius were now furiously trying to keep up with her movements through the city through what cameras they could manage to get an angle on her elevated positions.
 
The guards were very quick to respond to Aptis' orders. They knew better than to do anything less than their best for the turian. She didn't tolerate anything less, and her intolerance tended to lead to poor consequences for anyone who disappointed her. Before long, an engineer was checking the terminal to see what they had found access to. After only a few minutes, the engineer contacted Aptis. "They found some comm logs, nothing with much of interest. However, they did manage to get some camera feeds from inside the warehouse. As far as we can tell, they only managed to get the last conversation you had with the boss lady. That's why they were so quick to leave."

Sera responded to Kar's message. "We got detected. Proximity alarms were apparently set up a bit further than I expected, outside of the business perimeter. They were apparently planning on someone staying outside of the boundaries just in case, and it also sounds like they expected us to follow them here. Or at least someone did. Female krogan. Can't say more, trying to make sure we aren't followed back to the ship."

Unaware that Aptis herself was following them, but having planned for someone following them as soon as they had heard that they had been detected, Vilira and Sera decided on a doubly risky plan. Rather than head directly back to the ship, Vilira and Sera ducked through various back alleys, keeping an eye out for cameras to make sure that Kar only rarely lost sight of the pair on brief occasions. On one of those occasions, the two made an even riskier decision. As the pair left the back alley, they went in different directions. Vilira headed towards the docking bay, while Sera made her way through further back alleys. Sera had sent the information she had managed to gather to Velira's omni-tool as they were running, and now if they were being chased, whoever was following them would have to either pursue the data to the ship, or try to catch the quarian that had become a thorn in Belia Industries' side. They couldn't do both. Beyond that, the only thing either could do was try to avoid their pursuer until and unless Kar could get in a position to assist.
 
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While she hopped from rooftop to rooftop, working to try and locate her prey, Aptis was somewhat relieved with the news that was presented to her from the engineer. It was frustrating, sure, but by her own memory there was little shared between them in that conversation that the quarian could hope to use. Nothing of true value seemed to have been stolen, though that hardly cleared the girl of her other crimes. "Acknowledged." Was all she replied as her focus needed to remain on her search. With her aerial vantage it didn't take long to locate the pair but she was intent o remaining patient rather than rushing in, contrary to her nature and past training. If she messed things up for Belia Industries that would be the end of her.


Between the frantic movements of jumping between camera feeds Kar was pleased to hear back from Sera, though Velira should also be on the same frequency right now to hear the exchange. It was clear that the quarian was somewhat panicked as she filled in the details and quickly stopped speaking. From his viewpoint the two ladies split up and, honestly, it was all the krogan could do not to slam his palm into his face. This was no time to overreact and he had to try and get them both back on track. "No don't... ugh... split up." He took a breath and centered his thoughts before speaking again to the two of them with as much calm authority that he could muster, trying to get them to not only hear his voice but to heed his words. "The guards aren't following you, only Aptis is. Both of you meet up here..." He rapidly sent coordinates for a junction that both Sera and Velira could make it too without issue. In his mind splitting up was bad, though the idea of not leading anyone to the ship was a good one all the same. "... then head to here, together, and catch your breath. I'll meet you there to reinforce. Trust me."

The second set of coordinates was to a somewhat remote section of the city on the opposite end. It would take them past where the board's private port was, though not via any path that was particularly close, and lead them to an area where there were no camera feeds. If Aptis knew the area, and he assumed she did, then she'd take that as an opportunity to strike. Hopefully she'd not know about him though, or his capabilities, and he could surprise the turian and drive her off. Kar had no illusions of defeating Aptis here and now, the mobilty afforded by her jump jets was way too great to keep her pinned down in any place that she didn't actively want to be, but he believed he could at least make her retreat with the help of Sera and Velira and levy this attack against his people to apply more pressure to support his investigation. True, the lack of cameras would be a lack of evidence but there was no doubt that local authorities would respond once shooting started.

As he pushed himself up from his seat and made for the airlock he shouted to Calius in the cockpit. "Keep following Aptis as best you can! Keep me informed if you notice anything important!" He'd need to hurry to make it to the rendezvous point in time but he'd make it; he knew his limits. Kar just hoped that this little ploy he came up with on the spot, an ambush for the ambusher, would work as well as he expected. Not like there was much time or chance to do anything but something rapidly thrown together in the moment.
 
Sera and Velira both received his coordinates to meet up again, and promptly made their way to them without any further argument. Part of it was the tone of his voice, but that didn't completely explain why both of them were so quick to respond. In Velira's case, she was in full military mode at this point. This was a tactical retreat, in her mind, and Kar was her commanding officer. When your commanding officer gave you an order, you didn't question it, you simply followed it. Any doubts you had would either be addressed later, or express themselves as valid or invalid. There was no room for disobeying the orders, however.

Sera, meanwhile, simply respected Kar too much to doubt him or his tactics. He'd not steered them wrong in the past, and knowing they were up against Aptis herself in this chase was concerning. She glanced around as she ran, but couldn't see Aptis on the street level. That meant either Aptis was a more skilled tail than she had given the turian credit for, or she was following them from higher ground. Sera suspected the latter, based on her knowledge of Aptis' training. If that was the case, there wasn't much hope of losing her through misdirection. Sticking together and coming up with a last minute plan was about all that they could do.

Once the two women were reunited, they made their way to the second set of coordinates, but it wasn't as quick going as it could have been, Sera's night with Kar catching up with her. Velira eventually wrapped one hand around Sera's arm somewhat firmly, pulling the quarian along to prevent the latter from falling behind. This, however, also forced Velira to slow down slightly to prevent Sera from literally being dragged behind her.

As Sera and Velira were making their way to the ambush spot, Calius did his best to do exactly as Kar ordered before he left the ship, switching between camera feeds to keep an eye on the quickly moving Aptis.


In the middle of her commute to the meeting she had referred to, the krogan received a private message from one of the higher-ups she had been on the way to meet. It was informing her of one of the guards reporting the disturbance at the warehouse. Keeping herself as calm as possible, Xilar contacted Aptis directly on a private channel that only the two of them knew about. "Aptis. I don't need you to say much, if anything, but listen to me on this. Keep tailing the interlopers, by all means, but do not engage unless you are sure that there is no risk. We are on increasingly thin ice with the Board, and the last thing we want to do is crack it. If necessary, we'll let them go off-world for now. You are capable of following them at that point, surely?" Xilar's voice grew cold. "If this situation causes complications rather than ease, you'll become dangerously close to being a liability. And you know how I...get involved in dealing with liabilities."
 
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"Understood." She replied to the krogan. Playing the long game and remaining patient was not her style. As a Havoc she had literally trained to charge head-first into well-defended positions and break through after all. Still, Aptis knew that Xilar's warning was one that she'd be more than willing to back up and the long-term thoughts of this whole plan still outweighed any short-term satisfaction that the turian would take at eliminating these two. She wanted to argue her position and express that she could take them out quick once they were in an area that was not surveyed but knew that would be pointless. With Noveria's board involved and unhappy with the company, well, Aptis hated having to walk on eggshells on this shithole and could resign herself to accepting that there would be another day.

She continued to track the pair to a small courtyard that she knew was off the grid so to speak. It seemed perfect for an attack, quick and easy, and she reached for a grenade from her chest but stopped with the reassuring metal cupped in her palm. Her instincts told her that something was off, though her mind couldn't place what. It was odd that the two stopped, sure, but the quarian could barely move at this point and was either dreadfully out of shape or carrying around some injuries. No, this felt too convienient and she trusted her gut to hold back. Xilar would get her wish, surveilience only; this time.



Ultimately Kar ended up beating the girls to the location which was troubling, though it did give him a chance to look around and find a spot to hide himself somewhat. While stealth was not his forte in the slightest he hoped Aptis wouldn't be looking hard enough around the area to find him before jumping on Sera and Velira... assuming Aptis intended on attacking anyway. He was aware that she could just be tracking the pair but that seemed less likely from what they knew about the disgraced turian. In any case he was out of the way and tucked around a corner with plenty of shadow but still opportunity to look over the courtyard he'd chosen in haste. With no updates from Calius indicating anything had changed, and no sounds of battle in the distance, he could only assume that Sera was slowing them down. Something that was confirmed when the duo did arrive, Velira literally holding the quarian up and bringing her along. Kar felt a small tinge of guilt for her trouble but, at the same time, hadn't really told them to run or anything so he felt they were pushing themselves more than needed.

He waited, not making his presence known to the girls but he did send a small ping through their communications to let them know he was aware that they had arrived, assuming they didn't get in touch with him more directly. But, while he heard the telling burn of Aptis' thrusters faintly arriving in the vicinity somewhere above them, no attack came despite the delay. A few minutes ticked off before it became clear that no attack was coming and he had to think of a fallback now so that they wouldn't just walk back to the Pa'vex with Aptis in tow. It didn't take him long to pivot but the thought that came to mind wasn't the most pleasant one perhaps as he stepped out from his spot to meet up with Sera and Velira, fully aware this would reveal himself to Aptis that was certainly watching from one of the rooftops. Thankfully he had his helmet down at least to make identifying him a little bit harder.

"She's not going to attack. Maybe she saw me already, maybe she never intended to, but now we have to get out of here without leading her to the ship." He said calmly over the com channel. Despite being in the sights of a dangerous warrior he wasn't worried, he was epxerienced enough in conflict to recognize her paitience or hesitance. "Come with me, you two. Take it easy." And he proceeded to slowly lead them out of the courtyard and a couple of blocks away to one of the many entrances to the maintainence tunnels that ran below the surface; walking calmly and trying to ensure they both kept to a comfortable pace. Sera would remember these tunnels well no doubt from the last time she was on the surface, though this section was a ways away from where Kar had showed up to first save her. "I doubt she'll follow us down here. Too cramped for her wings."
 
Sera continued to lean on Velira as they listened to Kar explain the new plan to get back to the ship without Aptis being able to follow them quite as easily, at the very least. Sera was definitely familiar with the maintenance tunnels, although her last experience with them had been far from ideal, to say the least. Pushing the thought out of her mind, she slowly pushed herself off of Velira as they entered the maintenance tunnels. "You have a good point," Sera commented, walking carefully through the tunnels after Kar. "These tunnels are also tricky to navigate if you don't have the layout or knowledge of where the paths lead. I'm presuming you at least have the former available. If not, I should still be able to guide us back towards the hangars. I got a lot of use out of these tunnels while between jobs here."

For her part, Velira remained silent, but faced away from the pair, only glancing back at them on occasion to make sure she didn't lose them. Other than those glances, she was careful about watching their back. The tunnels were fairly straightforward, other than the twists and turns, but that just meant that Velira needed to do her part to make sure there was no ambush at an inopportune junction. Aptis probably wouldn't follow them, as Kar had noted. Havoc troops and tight quarters did not work well together, and Aptis was smart enough to not pursue them in an environment that didn't favor her style. That didn't mean she was out of options, though, and if anyone was sent in to flush them out, Velira felt it was important to be prepared.


Just before meeting with her private Council, as she saw the other bosses of the organization, Xilar sent a request to a clerk at the docking office. If any ship departed within the next solar cycle, she wanted to be informed of the ship's name. As an incentive, she had a fair amount of credits attached to the message, with a promise for double pay if the information provided was useful to her. She expected that if the quarian and her allies left the station, they'd take care to use a private hangar, but Noveria had layers of bureaucracy even there. It was impossible for a ship to just come and go without leaving some sort of paper trail, as Xilar was well aware. Getting the information was just a matter of knowing who to bribe, and how much they'd want. There was little that couldn't be solved on Noveria that way. The situation was becoming more annoying than she had anticipated when she'd sent that assassin after the quarian, and she was ready to deal with it in due time, and in the right place.

With that taken care of, Xilar kept her private channel open for any reports from Aptis, but stepped into the meeting, looking around at the other 4 members of the meeting. "Apologies for the somewhat late arrival. Just as I was leaving for this meeting, the quarian girl apparently got spotted at the same warehouse our head of security was cleaning up a loose end, and I had to make some arrangements to try to handle the matter delicately. I am aware that our position here on Noveria is shakier than it should be, and I do not want to disturb it any further unless we need to."
 
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