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

"Of course not, Spectre." The man's smile faded despite his calm words. "If you need to inspect our camp, I would be more than happy to show you around. I do not know what rumors you may have heard, but rest assured, we have nothing to hide here. Where would you like to begin? We can show you more details on what we are working on here, or if you want, we can show you our processes." As the human spoke, the turian next to him shifted his weight slightly, clearly feeling a bit uncomfortable with the situation. However, he kept himself quiet, letting his partner take the lead in the conversation.
 
"We'll need to see everything but will start with the grounds." While he assumed they'd jump at the chance to lead his group around Kar spoke like he was just going to start going on his own volition whether they liked it or not and, to back this up, turned and gestured to Sera and Velira to coax them onward as he started moving forward towards the encampment proper. Either way was a gamble honestly, there could be incriminating data that they could scrub while looking over the physical side of things or the inverse could be true instead.

Considering that they'd stolen mostly data up to this point though his instincts told him that it was more likely for something to be out of place, perhaps another intercepted shipment of Geth parts or maybe some metals mined from the planet illegally that were ready to be shipped off world. He'd move towards the closest structure, a large white tent, and take the initiative to start this little tour. Sure to have some enlightening commentary from the human if things played out like he expected.
 
The guards simply nodded, leading the way for the trio rather than allowing them to wander the grounds unaccompanied. "Of course, Spectre. We will be happy to show you how we operate in this sector."

He led the way into the tent, where several tables were set up in a somewhat ramshackle manner, set up to do the bare minimum necessary without any bells and whistles, as expected from a research camp that was clearly set up to be portable, able to be moved without much notice. That could be a sign that they were a completely legitimate research facility contract...or a sign that they were hiding something that they felt a need to be ready to take away if they needed to, without much warning. It was impossible at a glance to tell which option was the truth.

As she examined the minerals being analyzed at the nearest table, Sera silently raised her omnitool, scanning them to determine the exact minerals in the mix. While the human guard didn't show a reaction to her actions, the turian grew noticeably more tense, but still didn't say anything. "This is where we sort through any materials brought to us from the excavators, to determine what minerals can be refined and sent off-planet," the human explained. "Once we make that determination, we have a separate facility to do so. However, each mineral needs a different method, hence why we need to determine the mineral breakdown before we ship off the ores."
 
While Sera scanned the minerals Kar had an objection of his own, at least one born from his own understanding of the situation that this research station was supposed to be focused on. "Why are you even dealing with mineral samples at all? I was under the impression that the focus of all research camps on this planet were specifically pertaining to the parasitic microbes in the hopes of establishing larger areas for safe colonization." While obviously it could be the case that some companies had worked out deals with the Systems Alliance for 'side hustles' as it were to help make their assistance profitable it did seem like an odd circumstance to him all the same, especially when he knew that the Systems Alliance had claimed the planet and were rather strict about locking down most of the areas of the planet that held prothean ruins.

Applying a little pressure seemed appropriate though he doubted it would catch them in a violation so easily; he figured it could be explained away. Nevertheless he focused on keeping up the social side of things while idly scanning the rest of the tent exterior; leaving Sera to continue her scans. Even if she found anything linking loosely to the experimental alloys though he certainly hoped she'd keep it to herself while in the presence of the workers. Alerting them openly would cause more harm than good he felt.
 
"That is how we started, but with the finances available from our backers, Belina Industries has...expanded their horizons somewhat," the human explained smoothly. "We do still work on those microbes in other facilities, but there is no need to limit ourselves when we have the resources to improve our standings. The Alliance understands this, and as long as we do not interfere with their own operations, we have a mutual understanding."

Sera finished her scans, glancing at the results without making a comment. While it was fairly obvious that she had results from her scans, she was very careful to not reveal what she had found. She had come to the same conclusion as Kar in terms of the benefits and drawbacks of revealing her results openly. She'd get a reaction, for sure, but it might not be a positive one. If they had concerns about her scans, she'd be better off having them feel more paranoid over what she might have found rather than confirm any suspicions.

The turian finally spoke up for the first time, his voice somewhat strained, but otherwise sounding surprisingly calm for how tense he had appeared. "Should we show you where we do our microbe scans? Perhaps that will assuage any concerns you have about our extracurricular activities. We wouldn't want you feeling that we are being negligent in our duties, after all."
 
The explanation made sense to him of course but he outwardly did his best not to show much reaction on his face; a relatively easy task considering he wasn't very expressive by nature anyway. "I'll be double-checking that with them, though it makes sense to me." The small threat that he could use his authority to determine if they words were lies was given but not something he intended to linger on.

Once Sera finished her analysis he figured to take up on the turian's offer, not needing to put any more pressure on the topic of the mineral samples right now. "We'll need to see everything anyway. Lead on then." The comfort in which the turian seemed to derive from directing them to the microbe research was curious. On the one hand it could just be that he wanted them away from the minerals and what that could reveal, though it was also establishing that perhaps all of his suggestions would be towards things that he wasn't worried about. Kar made the decision to oblige him this time but would do all that he could to not follow the turian's suggestion next time.

The krogan would try to make a little bit of business-related small talk while they moved though, trying to see what they might reveal along the way while otherwise sticking to his own words about this being a full inspection. "I assume you coordinate microbial research with the labs of other companies on the planet since this work is for the benefit of colonization? At the least try not to focus on the same areas so that progress can be made more quickly?"
 
The turian nodded as the pair turned to leave the tent, leading the way to another tent, this one larger than the one they had just been in. As the turian had suggested, the equipment being used was indeed some sort of scanning technology. It was quite possible that it was indeed scanning for microbes, but it was difficult to determine at a glance just what was being scanned by the equipment, although the presence of several scientists indicated that either it was a legitimately scientific undertaking, or the company was willing to spend a fair bit of credits to hire scientists to do meaningless scans as a cover.

"This is where we do the microbe scans," the turian explained. "We do try to coordinate with other companies as much as possible, for the reasons you suggest. In addition, we also want to confirm that our findings match up with what other companies are discovering. If they do not, we need to determine if it is because of actual different microbe colonies, or a mistake in our equipment." As the turian spoke, he avoided looking at Kar directly, a clear sign of some sort of deception. He wasn't necessarily lying, but he wasn't being completely forthright, either.

The human guard spoke up next, as Sera approached one of the scanners. "Ma'am, I suggest you be careful. Even the slightest disturbance can make our readings inaccurate." The human guard seemed unwilling to actually stop Sera from doing her scans with Kar standing there, but it was obvious that her actions were making him uncomfortable.
 
He noted the discomfort from the turian but couldn't really do much to call him out on it for the moment, just filing the information away as another clue while trying to push forward with the investigation. Unfortunately for him this equipment and research was mostly gibberish to him. Sure he understood the base goals at play but microbial science was not a field he was, or ever would be, comfortable in. He hoped that Sera's scans would prove more valuable even if she likely was in a similar situation to himself and he spoke up to assure her to continue, and to quell the protests put out by the human. "She knows what she's doing. At worst you can blame me should any setback occur. I'm sure your superiors will understand considering the importance of a spectre's work." Work that he still wouldn't elaborate on further but was still assuredly enough justification for what they were doing here. Kar wasn't overstepping any lines so far so they had no real grounds to oppose him. Intentional sabotage was one thing but accidental couldn't be held against him in a matter so small even should Sera slip up in the process.

To distract the two individuals leading them around Kar turned away from the equipment and faced them squarely. "I'll need to see those transmission logs for the last few months. You can show me and these two can catch up." While splitting up wasn't often the greatest strategic decision the krogan felt it would present an opportunity by splitting the local attention. With less scrutiny might come some breakthroughs in the search, or might spur these people to actually try their hand at some kind of aggressive action. It was a risk to some extent but a calculated one, especially in such a meagre camp that surely couldn't have much in the way of strong weaponry. He figured that much of this visit would end up going without incident regardless and they truly were searching for the needle in the haystack as the humans would say, the one small thing that might be out of place, and if the turian was so shy in speaking of their communication with other research camps then perhaps such evidence was nestled right into the records of such discussions.
 
Sera nodded slightly in response to Kar's assurances. "Don't worry. I won't damage the equipment, or even touch it. My scans will be completely harmless. They won't affect any readings. I can guarantee that." As she spoke, she continued to work, moving from machine to machine, station to station. Velira followed her, mostly to act as a physical presence to ward off any potential threats than anything.

As the guards started to follow the pair, they stopped at the Spectre's request. It wasn't really a request, of course, at least coming from a Spectre. The pair hesitated only briefly before the turian spoke, his voice somewhat halting. "Of course. We will show you to our communications center. Just be aware that if your companions do anything untoward in our absence, we will be filing a formal complaint through our employer to the Council." With that, the two led Kar to a more secure building, relatively speaking. Rather than the tents that he had been shown, this structure was similar to a large mobile command center, with a CQC set up in the middle of the single room and several other short-range communication devices on the walls, as well as extranet terminals.

Tapping on one of the terminals, the turian glanced at Kar briefly, then at the human guard. "You'll have full access to our communications logs," he assured Kar before stepping back. The turian seemed more concerned than ever, the communications logs mostly seeming to indicate nothing out of the ordinary, with the communications between research camps and off-world to apparent family being the vast majority of communications. However, there were several messages that seemed to be describing something different. While using coded language to disguise both the subject and recipient, the messages seemed to indicate displeasure about the materials being sent for "repurposing", with at least one veiled threat if "results were not improved."
 
Kar stepped up to the terminal once he was given access and got to work sifting through the logs. Whatever others might think of him as a krogan, Kar was plenty smart enough to pair up his omni-tool right away to copy the information as quickly as he could all the while. In fact, he did this so smoothly that the turian might not even register the act. Though, even if he did, it wasn't like Kar was doing anything wrong regardless. Much of the data was junk of course, standard fare that was expected to find, but the curiously worded messages stuck out indeed and he quietly focused in on them for a few moments before pressing onward with a small huff. In addition to what he assumed were coded messages he also found what appeared to be scrambled code, glitches in the system, but when he looked on one for more than a moment he realized these errant communications were anything but errors; they were binary.

Kar was smart for a krogan but he certainly couldn't speak binary. He did, however, tune the parameters of his omni-tool to snatch those up as well rather than filter them out. Curiously noted were the locations these originated from as he guessed, but couldn't be certain just yet, that these were coming from areas of the planet well filled with the microbial symbiotes that outside life could not survive. To him this seemed like they were using geth platforms to help search the surface but it still made little sense. If they wanted robots to do so then they could certainly build or buy some for cheaper than trying to repurpose contraband geth parts. If his suspicions were correct then they had to be working with geth subroutines and programs, not just throwing VI into the shells.

Shaking off this potential revelation and knowing that he'd need a few minutes to download everything he needed, Kar opted to try and distract the turian by turning up the pressure. "These messages here. I assume these are talking about the mineral samples your team is taking?" With his usual dull tone and lack of expression the krogan tried to play dumb. "Something wrong with your array? Some of the wording is jumbled and not in standard compliance. You best get to fixing this system in case of any future inspections."
 
The turian grew more nervous as he listened to Kar's words. "We'll be sure to fix the system as soon as we get a chance. I'm sure we just got some data corruption, or some malfunctioning equipment. I'm not very well-versed in our communications system. I can use the terminal, but beyond that, I would need to hire some outside help to know what is going on if something were in error."

The turian intentionally focused on the second question while discussing matters with the Spectre. The first question was something that he needed a bit more time with. He was not a good liar at the best of times, and this krogan was certainly far from the best of times. There were specific orders about any information given out, and he had been told not to discuss the samples any more than strictly necessary, and to mislead when possible. He didn't know why, and wasn't paid enough to care. He just knew the risk if he did otherwise. Or any of the other guards.

"As for your first question," he finally began, "That is what those messages are about. We've been getting some odd readings, ones that we don't quite comprehend. We are communicating for more funding to get some help to examine our equipment to make sure that none of it is in error."

Elsewhere, Sera finished her scans of the equipment, quietly sending a message to Kar. I'm done here. I'm still collating the scans, but this is definitely a bit more than what they are claiming. This equipment has more to it than just scanning minerals and analysis. I just can't figure out what yet.
 
He huffed again at the responses given by the turian, seeming to accept them but leaving plenty of room for doubt by not openly responding. In any case the distraction from Sera's communication was a welcome one and worked out in his case as he sent a quick reply back. "Come join me at communications." That was all he sent to her for now as he spoke up to the turian. "My companions are on their way. I should be done here by the time they arrive. Then we can finish the rest of the camp so we can get out of your way." Truly he doubted there was much else to find here at this point and expected the other tents and prefab structures to go rather quickly by comparison. What he really wanted to be able to show the council was recordings of geth platforms active on the planet's surface but that was likely a lost cause and a dangerous thing to attempt nonetheless. He'd settle for more data to sift through for the time being as this was more than he had truly expected to uncover.

True enough once Sera and Velira rejoined him he'd grabbed everything of note and could move on. Nothing stood out to his eyes while looking through the rest of the camp, though perhaps the others saw something he didn't, and once the sweep of everything was complete he saw little point in staying much to the relief of both the human and turian males. "We're done here. Stay out of trouble and hopefully you won't need any more visits from spectres." Not that he had been willing to divulge any suspicions that he already had caught them doing anything illicit. Officially this inspection had been concluded without any direct infractions. Unofficially however, such things remained to be seen and were highly suspect.
 
Sera arrived at the communications center a short time after he had sent in the request, with Velira close by. The turian and human guard led the group through the rest of the camp. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, with the other tents mostly consisting of sleeping quarters, a mess hall, and what appeared to be a recreational area. Sera looked around each area, but she didn't see anything other than what the structured seemed to be. The data that they had retrieved might reveal more, but for the time being, there was nothing indicating anything being hidden in the common areas, at the very least.

With the Spectre's dismissal, the turian nodded slightly in understanding. "We will be sure to do that. As willing as we were to show a Spectre our humble camp, we do not feel the need to attract any further attention. Unless it is for a positive reason, of course."

Sera remained silent, but her body language intentionally showed that she was a bit suspicious of the turian's eagerness to see them leave. The turian, for his part, seemed to regain some of his confidence, but focused on Kar, not wanting to attract any further attention from the quarian.
 
Kar offered a small nod in parting from the two men and gestured for Sera and Velira to follow back to the shuttle. Once they were inside and safe from prying ears he'd open the discussion for what they found, or what they had suspected during the trip back to the Pa'vex in orbit. "Seems like these people are unimportant to the grand schemes of Belia Industries but they are certainly aiding all the same. Communications logs had coded transmissions using a simple cipher of some kind to mask the true intent. It also had point to point transmissions from the planet's surface... in binary."

The krogan let that implication settle for a moment as he focused on getting the right angle for atmospheric exit before continuing. "I'm willing to bet those mineral samples were similar to what they want for their bomb casings?" He asked while laying his assumptions bare. It wasn't much of a stretch to assume after all. "I think we will hang around a little longer in orbit. See if we can't intercept any transmissions or notice any visitors checking up on the camp after us."
 
Sera nodded slightly. "If it's in binary, I should be able to translate fairly simply. That said, I think it's pretty clear why they'd be communicating to anything on the planet in binary, and I don't think it's simple VIs getting the instructions. As for the samples, it is quite possible that they are similar, but it is nothing that would implicate them even if that turns out to be the case. We can prove that the samples originate from this planet, true. But they could easily deny having any connection. They have no control of what happens with the samples off-planet, right? Hypothetically, maybe they were robbed by space pirates. Corporate espionage resulting in a rival company getting their hands on some of the samples to frame them."

Sera began sorting through the data that she had gathered on the way back to the ship. "That's not a bad idea. I'll do my best to keep an eye out for any transmissions as well. The more people looking for transmissions, the less likely any are going to be missed, after all. I could also try to look through the ciphered messages, see if I can cross-reference it with any data I gathered after hacking the company on their dime."
 
"I'll handle the binary messages. As you said, it's a simple translation to run through the ship's computer. I'll give you first crack at the coded messages though. They didn't seem overly complicated at a glance but getting the cipher figured out completely will be important to our case if we ever hope to present the messages as evidence for anything. Calius can take lead on scanning for transmissions and any visiting vessels but you are welcome to assist him when you can. More eyes on the sensors can't hurt." Other than the very simple task of translating the binary messages that left Kar and Velira without much to do and he didn't want the turian to think she wasn't being valued. That was much the nature of marines though, a lot of waiting around for the next ground mission with only brief periods of action to break up the monotony. He knew Velira was fitting in fairly well with the crew so he wasn't all that worried but he did want to adress the situation all the same just so she understood his awareness.

"Can handle a bit more boredom, right Velira?" The krogan twisted around in his seat enough to glance back to her, his lips splitting just enough for a little smile that told that he was just joking around rather than trying to insinuate that he had any real concerns about her mental state or capability. The motion caused him to quickly wince in pain though, turning the grin to a grimace as he reached up to the scar on his neck in mild but fleeting pain before he shifted back to facing forward to alieviate it. At this point they had broken from the burning glow of atmospheric exit and were moments from catching up to the Pa'vex to dock and get settled in once more.
 
Sera nodded her understanding, looking at the ciphered messages and working on deciphering them to the best of her ability. "The communications here shouldn't take me too long to decipher. As I thought, they are using the same sort of language I was seeing during my time hacking them. I'll let you know when I finish, as well as any information that can be of use to the investigation. I can't promise too much, of course. They may not be the most experienced, but I doubt the guards and scientists would be openly discussing any ultimate plans and completely trust a simple cipher to hide anything that they were discussing."

Velira, meanwhile, chuckled softly at Kar's question. "Boredom is something any soldier learns to handle well. Even heading from mission to mission can leave moments of monotony, after all. And I was never the biggest fan of certain ways to relieve boredom, so I learned to just deal with it. Besides, it's not like being on that research station was all that exciting. Not even a shot fired." She was a bit concerned about the krogan's wince, but shrugged it off internally before much more thought as the shuttle docked. It was probably lingering stiffness and pain from the wound. Nothing to be surprised about, and probably nothing all that concerning either. He'd probably need something to dull or ignore the pain, but any actual damage was unlikely.
 
Indeed Kar was confident it was just a lingering ache and nothing serious. With the shuttle docked and the cargo ramp sealed they could leave the cramped confines of the shuttle and get back to the ship as it were. "Well, here's hoping we don't have to wait too long before getting some good leads." He'd go off to inform Calius of the general plan to remain in orbit, telling the pilot to try and shift them just far enough away from orbiting the research base that any approaching ships wouldn't come too close.

With that settled he'd uphold his end of things and plug in the binary data to the ship's computer to have it translated to a more readable format and settle in to relax a bit while waiting not only for that process to complete but for Sera to work on the coded messages and the mineral scans. They could meet up and share information together when that point arrived... assuming nothing else of importance arose from intercepted communications or a ship coming in for a visit.
 
For her part, Sera began to decipher the ciphered messages as she had said she would, while Calius pulled the ship away to the requested distance. There were no further communications from off-planet, which didn't exactly surprise Sera or Velira. After a visit from a Spectre, even a base with nothing to hide would feel a bit cautious about sending messages off-planet for a little while, after all.

It took a few hours for Sera to make much headway with the ciphers, but eventually, she did gain some information from them. As she had suspected, there were no "smoking guns", as it were, but she did manage to get some information that might be of interest to Kar. With that, she made her way to meet with him and share the information she had managed to gather.

In the meantime, the binary data simply seemed to confirm that whatever was receiving the data was more advanced than a general VI, with specific orders not only regarding mining processes, but methods of dealing with outside interference that seemed to escalate based on failures of earlier steps, trying diplomatic methods and subterfuge before escalating to potentially "violent removals" or "accidents".
 
Kar welcomed Sera into his room when she came to share their findings. He had long since stripped out of his gear and was back to wearing little in the way of actual clothing. Since he hadn't left his room since the return he was shirtless, leaving his upper body exposed to reveal the combination of thick muscle, leathery reptilian skin, and hardened carapace plating for the eye to see. Course this also left his fresh scarring more visible than normal upon his neck but it did look well-healed at this point, if still rather grisly all the same. His lower body at least had the typical pants of the crew uniform by comparison, though Sera already would know how any reasonably fitting clothing allow his bulge to strain out against the material in a distracting manner.

As she came into the quarters the krogan spoke up with his translations first, wanting to get it out of the way for what he suspected was the more important information that she'd uncovered afterward. "The binary messages are pretty straightforward. They are using the platforms, geth or otherwise since we can't strictly confirm in this case, to not only search for mineral deposits in the dangerous areas of the surface but also providing orders to shoo away any interference that might arise. Starting with more expected steps but quickly moving to things like sabotage, assassination, or outright murder. Even without the potential geth association these orders are pretty damning, though still likely to be buried in any legal actions. Another piece of evidence to add to the pile but still nothing we can really use to stick it to Belia Industries." He'd share the datapad with the translated messages so she could look at it while he continued to slowly pace back and forth near to the table in the 'living room' section of his quarters as it were. Sera had the run of the two chairs and the couch as she pleased for the time being.
 
Sera absorbed the information that Kar told her as she sat down on the couch, trying not to get distracted by his state of undress, even as she occasionally glanced at his bulge. "That makes sense. It does indicate even more that they are hiding something, although what they are hiding is impossible to say. As for legal action...you're right. The most we could say is that someone is giving the geth orders, but given that they use contractors, they'd probably just argue that someone went rogue, and this was the first they were hearing about it. Just as one possible defense."

Pulling up her omni-tool, and leaning back on the couch slightly in a way that made her chest push out, she gave her own information. "The cipher wasn't too difficult to break down. And while I was right about there not being a lot of damning information directly, what I did find was telling along with what you found. Essentially, whoever was sending the messages was making a request for more geth parts. Apparently, one of the geth had a run-in with something or someone, and was damaged to the point of needing a new power core. What's telling is where the message was sent to. I accessed the communication log information that we downloaded to cross-reference the receiving terminal numbers to any terminal numbers I, or we, had come across in our investigation. To keep it brief, the request was being sent to Noveria directly. It's one of the headquarter terminals."

Sera looked up at him again. "That said, it's quite troubling, obviously, but not a smoking gun. The fact that it was ciphered gives deniability. You and I know what it was saying, but they'd just be able to claim that we were making it up, twisting and replacing words to fit an agenda."
 
For his part he wasn't really paying so much attention to her positioning, nor could he likely even follow her gaze through her visor if he had wanted to. Kar was trying to think this out, having grown increasingly frustrated by lack of any clear progress. They had tons of situational, circumstantial, and quite frankly rather unhelpful information to suggest that Belia Industries was about to do some quite horrible things but precious little that they could act upon. As he listened to Sera's side of the information gathered from the visit to the encampment it very much felt the same, though it came back around to Noveria for a shadowed target that could push the investigation forward.

"Noveria likes to pretend they work with the council and the spectres but they drown everything in legalities to bog down anything they don't care to have discovered. The only way to get the help of their board is to convince them that the profit margins of Noveria as a whole could be impacted. Right now Noveria isn't being overrun with rachni so that seems unlikely. No, what we need to do is catch Belia with a shipment of geth parts directly to put pressure on them. Our investigation currently is a discreet one, not a public investigation. If we could nail them on something like that then galactic authorities could be involved, start squeezing Belia Industries all over council space."

It was at this point that he had the beginnings of an idea but no real idea how it could be accomplished and he stopped in his pacing to turn and face her squarely, his eyes noticably flicking down to the way that her breasts were jutting out from her reclining position on the couch before he drew them back up to her mask. "If we could scan their cargo somehow and confirm the presence of geth parts on one of their ships departing from Noveria, then board the ship and prove it openly, we would have leverage against Noveria and Belia Industries. I'm not sure how we could manage that though."
 
"I'm aware. I'm pretty sure even the attempt on my life went without any real notice. If something as blatant as that doesn't get the attention of the Noverian board, something as circumstantial as what we have wouldn't even give us the dignity of a dismissal. We've been lucky to be discreet so far without causing any incidents, and that is not a streak I think we should break until and unless we need to. And if we do end up needing to, I'd like to have at least some government on our side. I also think the geth parts angle is the best way to do something. That's pretty much undefendable legally. There are no loopholes to do anything but destroy geth parts."

As she listened to his suggestion, she stood up, her curves swaying slightly as she paced around. "Boarding the ship and proving it openly isn't the hard part, is it? You're a Spectre, you have the authority there. What you don't have is a way to scan their cargo. That's where I could come in. If we can find a ship before it takes off and get me on board, I could hide out in the cargo hold until the ship actually departs with a tracker just in case your ship is unable to keep up. I can scan the cargo when it's safe and record the findings, then share them when you board the ship."
 
He shook his head pretty quickly in response. Her idea came from a good place but he felt it was too risky. "We wouldn't know if they had parts on that ship until you were already inside then. If it was clean, or you got noticed before getting your scans, that could set us much further back. Could easily get you killed too." While Kar added that risk of harm as an afterthought in his words it wasn't that way in his thoughts. Risk was one thing, he was no stranger to dangerous situations and putting others in harm's way for some kind of benefit, but this seemed too unlikely to work out as she hoped. "Belia already knows we are coming for them. If I board a ship to get you off it and find nothing in the process they'll complain to the council. We'll get shut down quick at that point. Political shit but the council is like that. Just ask Velira."
 
"You have a point there," she admitted. "I doubt they are up to anything clean, but if we got unlucky and found one of their legitimate ships, that would cause too many issues. I'm also well aware at how much we are relying on the Council not interfering, which could easily change if we step on the wrong toes."

Sera sat back down, leaning back on the couch as she thought thoroughly about their situation. "It seems to me that the best option, then, is to know in advance which ships are most likely to have the geth parts to find. That won't be easy, but it might be doable. We'd just need to get tracking information to determine what ships are being sent where. At that point, it's a matter of determining where they'd probably be sending geth parts, and tracking any ships that are heading to those places. Once they land, we could always just observe visually to see if there's any indication of geth parts before we just jump in."
 
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