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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."
 
"Heh, I have no idea. But I'm sure we can find our way at least somewhat closer to the hanger. At the very least losing Aptis should be good enough, even if we have to resurface and re-orient ourselves after a little while." He hadn't planned this out so he had no map of the tunnels. He was banking on Aptis giving up and leaving them alone, though it was possible that other forces could be sent down after them he supposed. Well, they'd deal with that if it happened. "If you think you've got a better knack for it then feel free." Gesturing to the tunnel ahead of him as he offered to let her navigate. That didn't necessarily mean she had to take point or anything, he was just attempting to make sure she didn't feel a need to remain silent and follow his lead. Kar was mostly intending to travel by a combination of instinct and visualization, picturing the tunnel entrance relative to the hanger and trying to choose directions with that in mind. It wasn't quite the same but growing up on Tuchanka had plenty of otherwise confusing piles of winding rubble to work through even to this day.


Aptis contacted Xilar as she watched the group head into the maintenance tunnels. She couldn't be certain but she felt that her presence had been known about then, that the decision was made specifically to shake her. The turian was known to be somewhat paranoid anyways so assuming that she was the basis of other decisions wasn't a stretch in this case. "They met with a krogan and went into the maintenance tunnels. They probably knew I was following them and wouldn't do well in narrow spaces. I'm not wasting my time scouring the city for wherever they resurface." As far as she was concerned Xilar could do with that information what she wanted but, personally, she had better things to do than waste her time flying around in a vain search. Her climbing, or flying, at these heights was against regulations anyway and could get her in minor trouble with the administration so, now that the chase had all but ended, she lowered herself back down to the streets to begin heading back.
 
Sera glanced around, taking the time to gather her bearings. "This way," she said after a few seconds doing so, gesturing down a path before leading the way. "We should be able to get back to the hangar before too much longer. Once we do, we can think about what to do next. I don't think we should press our luck on Noveria too much more. We're lucky that we got out without much incident."

Sera fell silent at that point, continuing to guide the trio through the tunnels until they got back to the ship. Once they were as close to the hangar as they could get through the maintenance tunnels, she allowed Kar to lead the way out of the tunnels and back to the ship, both herself and Velira making sure that nobody was following them. Indeed, with Aptis off the search, there wasn't anyone who was actively pursuing them. After all, Xilar had her own ways of tracking them without needing to do something as obvious as having someone physically keep an eye on them.


The meeting continued without much incident, Xilar doing her best to smooth things over with the others before the meeting adjourned. Once done, she contacted Aptis again. "The krogan is probably the Spectre. You chose wisely to not pursue them. I have my own methods to try to follow them indirectly, once I find out their ship's name. Once that is done, I will make the next step. Rest assured that you will be directly involved. I know you would like nothing more than to wrap those talons around the quarian's neck, and I want you to have the opportunity to make her pay...eventually."
 
Thankfully the travel through the tunnels went smoothly. There was no ambush or attack, despite them all staying on edge just in case, and Sera did indeed get them relatively close to the board's private hanger before he took the lead again to take them topside just in case anything was waiting for them. Again this proved safe as he brought them all back to the Pa'vex, passing through the security station within which the workers knew exactly who each of them were without feeling the need to stop them and double check.

When the trio got inside the airlock to enter the ship though, something felt off to the krogan and he lowered his helmet to sniff the air. To Sera this subtle action probably seemed a bit odd but nothing concerning. To Velira, however, there was little doubt she'd recognize the importance of sudden, odd behavior from a combat veteran. Instincts were often the difference between life and death. Kar turned to face the others and shrugged calmly. "Guess I'm still a little on edge." Brushing off the situation and relenting that he was mistaken externally, though he was anything but internally.

After this pause he began to turn again and tilted back with a groan as if stretching. Really he was building up power, power which he expended on a full-force headbutt towards the corner of the airlock. Kar was rewarded with the electrical crackling of a shield breaking and the solid, visceral impact of his headplate breaking through light armor and breaking bones in a grotesque fashion. He took a step back to survey his handiwork but knew that he had been, perhaps, overzealous. As the tactical cloak faded it revealed a human corpse, male and clad in a skin-tight suit that offered little to no protection from harm; as evident by the way his skull was caved in and his neck shattered from the might of Kar's blow. "Idiot." He said bluntly and without compassion. "Human's have a distinct smell and neither of you is one. Might have worked if they were turian."

Though, of course, none of them had any way of realizing that wasn't the only agent sent after them that day. He'd stopped one. No doubt others were yet to come, if they had not already managed to slip aboard somehow. Xilar had mentioned sending five with the expectation of four to fail after all...
 
Indeed, there was another infiltrator who was observing the trio, waiting for the right opportunity to slip on board without being noticed. After seeing the krogan effortlessly take care of the human, however, the turian felt like he was showing the better part of valor to not approach at the time. He had no intention of dying at this point, not even for Xilar's goals, whatever they may be.

Instead, he slipped out of the line of sight of anyone in the trio before sending a quick message to Aptis, who could then relay it to Xilar. Ship name is the Pa'vex. I have visual confirmation of three, including the quarian. Spectre has taken out one of the assassins. Recommend caution if approaching. Awaiting further orders."

Get on board if you get a chance. Do not engage unless the opportunity happens to open itself up. I simply want you to keep tabs on them. When you find out where they are going, inform Aptis so she can arrange a personal meeting on their arrival, That was the message given to Aptis to relay to the assassin.

After a few seconds hesitation, the turian cloaked again, slipping through the airlock while the trio were distracted by the human male.

For her part, Velira scanned the human, shaking her head slightly. "I don't know if we'll be able to identify him," she commented. "Not without a face to identify."

"He was an assassin," Sera pointed out. "Identification would have been a long shot, anyways. Especially if he was meant to be replaceable."

Before continuing onto the ship, Velira pulled out her rifle, gesturing for Sera to slip behind a crate and aiming up at the overhanging architecture in the hangar, firing three shots quickly. As she did so, a round in response was fired, hitting the ground just in front of Velira before silence fell again. After a long pause, Velira seemed to relax as she lowered her rifle. "That's two assassins taken care of."

Sera, meanwhile, still behind cover, sensed something was amiss. If they sent two assassins, three would have been just as easy to arrange. Before she could continue her train of thought, the crate she was hiding unsealed itself, with Sera scrambling away and turning to face what was inside. Instinctually, she activated a short range electronic signal from her omni-tool. If they were armed, she would disable the weapon long enough for Kar to respond.

That proved to be unnecessary, however. Sera's action had done more than disable the weapon, and how the crate had gotten past security was answered when the robotic unit inside slumped over the edge of the crate, briefly disabled. Without hesitation, Sera plunged her omni-blade into the head unit of the robot, disabling it completely. "Three. Do we want to place bets on more, or should we get out of here as fast as we can?"
 
He couldn't help but agree with Sera that identification would likely prove pointless. At best they'd get a hit that the man was an assassin which they pretty much already knew. Kar didn't have much chance to continue the conversation though as Velira spotted something and fired off a few shots before a single one was returned, though inaccurate and a parting attempt if the turian was to be believed; of which he had little reason to doubt her word. He drew his heavy rifle at the rustling of the crate but that too proved pointless as Sera was able to disable what revealed to be a simplistic but still dangerous robot inside before she finished it off with a single blade strike.

It was at this point that the krogan felt he needed to take charge of the situation lest things get out of hand, not to say that they weren't already. "Get inside and seal the doors. We'll get the crew to scan the interior and remain on high alert but otherwise staying here isn't a good call." He spotted one cloaked individual so he worried about others but nothing had caught his attention for the time being. Clearly this wasn't supposed to be an assault by the droid in the crate but rather an infiltration. Of course, any attempts to kill him or his crew onboard would also come at a cost of no backup but the potential for sabotage on a spacecraft was high. He had little choice but to trust his crew for the time being. Staying docked would only increase the risk of more people slipping onboard.

"Calius, get us airborne." He commanded as soon as all three of them were inside the command deck before moving to his chair and hitting the button for ship-wide broadcast. "All crew on yellow alert. Infiltration attempt. Report anything suspicious, even if it seems harmless, and do your best to not be alone." After which he barked out to the other few crew members that worked the bridge. "I want regular scans of the ship interior and increased maintenance check frequency. Breaking our shit could take us down far more easily than a blade in the back."
 
The crew did as Kar instructed, keeping an eye out for anything or anyone out of the ordinary as Calius took off, flying off of Noveria as fast as he could while following the proper procedures to avoid raising any more suspicion than necessary. Once they had left Novera, Calius simply idled outside of the planet, due to the lack of any real destination. Once he had somewhere to go, Calius would be ready.

While this was being done, only one infiltrator had successfully made it on board, the turian having had problems doing so himself without risking being spotted after the other assassins, and the droid infiltrator, had blown his cover. Instead, a salarian had made his way into the cargo hold. He had received the same orders as the turian infiltrator, and was well suited to do just as he had been instructed. Sabotage was risky even with the payoff of being able to do far more damage than individual strikes. After all, sabotages were impersonal, and anyone could fall victim to them. That was a problem when some of the potential victims were sacrificial, but one of the key targets was wanted alive.

Instead, the salarian kept himself hidden in a crate with a tracker. Wherever the ship went, Belia Industries would know, and when they landed, and where, they would be able to quickly take advantage of the situation.


Unaware of the situation potentially unfolding in the cargo hold, Sera approached Kar on the ship. "I couldn't get too much information out of the warehouse before we had to make a run," she commented. "Just about the only thing that I managed to potentially learn is that Aptis was just finishing up on...questioning someone, another human. I have video footage that could possibly have enough detail to make an identification, but how useful that is depends on who he was, and why he was being questioned."
 
While the ship was exiting the atmosphere Kar opened communications with the local administrator to explain the situation that just occurred in their hanger. A proper call was perhaps too much to ask for on short notice but he at least sent a recorded message explaining that they had been attacked and had defended themselves from assassins trying to slip on board their ship. He recommended greater security on their private hanger considering that was supposed to be at the use of the Noveria Board but otherwise left things at that. At the very least Kar hoped his message would help prevent Belia Industries from muddying the waters and making him, the spectre, look like trouble.

In any case he didn't relax with the possibility of someone having snuck on board but there was hardly anything he could personally do. The Pa'vex did have internal sensors which could scan for lifeforms, used mainly to help locate survivors in recovery tasks should the ship become damaged in battle or some other kind of accident, but such sensors weren't terribly useful at determining exactly who or what they detected. Even if they did scan a stowaway it was easy for that signature to appear normal mixed in with the other small blobs the screens would display. Not to mention Kar expected that anyone willing to come aboard a ship in this manner would have the means to hide themselves. He didn't outwardly share all this with his crew of course but all they could really do was remain vigilant and hope for the best right now.

With a small break in the tension Sera approached him to discuss what had happened and he turned his head to regard her. "It's more than I expected to find from this trip honestly. But, at this point we can't stick around. Even if we did I'm sure Belia wouldn't be giving us any opportunities to learn anything more." He paused and glanced around the command deck as if he would miraculously spot an assassin trying to listen in. The risk of being overheard would be present for a good while now but he couldn't just remain silent. "Pretty sure we caught Xilar exiting that warehouse around the time shit hit the fan. Still need to run her face but a female krogan in that same area seems a likely match. I'll run that human's face at the same time, see if the spectre database has anything on him, but we now have the trouble of figuring out where to go next with no direct leads and the risk of housing a stowaway." He didn't want to hang in orbit for too long but Kar wasn't willing to make a snap judgement just yet. He'd need some time to consider and was open to suggestions. Right now he could only think of calling the danger with a place he was familiar with such as Omega. Bait out an attack in hopes of dealing with it directly rather than allowing it to hang over their heads.
 
The Noveria Board received Kar's report, and did as could be expected for a bureaucracy to do. They filed it away with their superiors, making a note of the message and its implications, but at this point, they felt there was little that they could do. While troublesome, even if the attack could be directly linked to Belia Industries, even their actions didn't quite violate the board's standards. It was ugly business, certainly, but Belia Industries could argue that it was in their best interest to keep themselves protected from espionage, with proof of the hacking as evidence. Belia would still have to keep a low profile to avoid attracting more attention, but for the time being, their ground was shaky, but still there.

Sera sighed softly, running a hand along the hood of her suit as she responded to what he said. "It does seem likely that that was Xilar meeting with Aptis. It would explain why someone like Aptis seemed a bit...maybe not submissive, but definitely less in control in that conversation. Her file doesn't seem to suggest she's the type to take authority from just anyone, but she didn't seem to stand up all that much to the krogan in the video footage I gathered. I agree, for the record, that we need to get away from Noveria, and the sooner the better. We've been caught, and they were fairly quick to organize against us, it seems."

Velira spoke up next. "If we don't have any leads, we'll have to either find some, or deal with the stowaway risk. Either way, we can't stay in orbit around Noveria. Doubtless, Belia Industries is already working on flagging our ship, and they have deep enough pockets for many avenues to track us. I say we find somewhere to lead them that we can try to prepare a counter for. If they are tracking us, it is unlikely we'll be able to hide from them for long, if at all. Better to simply let them find us and deal with the problem."
 
"We can't just retreat to friendly space. Belia won't launch any attacks against us if they don't feel confident they can get away with them. Besides we can't afford to waste a bunch of time flying too far away from the space we need to operate from. It's a risk but I'm thinking Omega. There's no doubting that Belia's agents won't hesitate to be brazen against us there but I still have a few old friends there I'm sure and I know Aria hasn't forgotten me; whether she likes me is up for debate. Besides, we talked about trading information in such circles before so we'd be dealing with two pyjaks with one missile." It was ultimately his decision since he was, of course, the captain but he welcomed any debate about that idea if they had it. For his part Calius just silently tapped away at inputting the coordinates but didn't fully commit them just yet. The turian felt it was likely as Kar wasn't generally someone easily swayed from his beliefs but he also didn't dare act without a direct command.
 
"You have a point," Sera admitted. "Omega is a double-edged sword, but we might need to take a chance in order to get along further in our investigation. It's just a matter of whether your friends or their agents get to us first. That is, if we even get there without being noticed, which may be too much to hope for." Sera sighed, shaking her head. "We don't have a choice, though. We can't make our plans based on what Belia Industries might do, we just have to plan for what might happen."

Velira stayed silent, but it was fairly obvious that she was not going to argue about the idea of going to Omega. There were plenty of reasons to do so, and while there were some arguments against it, she didn't feel they outweighed the potential benefits. Belia Industries had fingers everywhere. Might as well go somewhere that wouldn't cause problems politically speaking if things got dangerous. Only one rule on Omega worked both ways.
 
With no major objections to his idea Kar went ahead and made the call, tapping a button on his chair to confirm the destination so that Calius could take them out of orbit. While a part of him was somewhat eager to return to an old, familiar haunt there was no denying that anything could happen when they arrived. "We will just have to be on our toes when we get there and try to make friends faster than Belia can. At the least we will have plenty of breathing room outside of council space." With the confirmation received Calius spoke up over the intercom that linked his forward pilot section to the captain's chair a fair distance back. "Only two jumps between us and Omega. Should be closer to three cycles though because the first jump is a big one. It's been a while though captain. Think you'll get shot at as soon as the airlock opens like last time?" Kar just shook his head, not bothering to respond to that tease. It was true but lacked a lot of context and he wasn't really interested in getting into all of that right now.

The krogan nodded to both Sera and Velira to indicate that their conversation was all but done for the time being as he understood it but wanted to remind them of the severity of their trip in parting all the same. "My orders go for you both as well. Don't walk around the ship alone until we can be certain we've dealt with any intruders." They technically didn't even know if they had one on the ship but it was far better to assume the worst and act accordingly. He hoped the trip would be without incident, that any action would occur on Omega, but only time would tell.
 
"Don't worry," Sera said calmly. "I won't go anywhere without Velira, and I'm sure she'll agree to the same. Hopefully, we won't run into trouble, but if we do, we won't be isolated." Hearing the time frame for the trip to Omega was slightly troubling. There wasn't much to be done about it, but it gave Belia more time to recover and plan if they somehow had reason to expect them on Omega before they got there. It wouldn't be a problem if Belia only learned about them as they arrived, given that they wouldn't be able to make the trip any faster, but if they had advanced warning, they could send a message to any of their branches on Omega and plan for an ambush.



Fortunately for the group, the salarian was not combat-minded. Infiltration had been his goal, and it had been a success. Rather than risk exposing himself by exploring and attempting ship sabotage, he simply kept to the cargo bay, using the crates to hide during the journey and keeping a tracker activated that was connected to Belia Industries. After each jump, he would send a new signal to Belia Industries that, while getting weak the further he got, would give them enough of a rough idea where the ship was to narrow down their possible destinations in real time.

Therefore, while they were not detected immediately on arrival at Omega in time for an ambush to be waiting for them, Belia Industries were quick to determine when they arrived. Kar, Sera, and Velira still had enough of a lead to potentially arrange for some extra protection or strike at Belia Industries before they were made aware of their presence on Omega, but that was on borrowed time.
 
The trip was nerve-wracking but quiet as no signs of tampering or injury came to light. Perhaps no one slipped aboard the vessel at all but he couldn't shake his concerns all the same. They arrived in system just shy of three cycles as estimated and Calius made the approach to Omega smoothly. Unlike other places there was no traffic authority or organization to landing so it required pilots to be more on edge lest they collide with another vessel. The Pa'vex slipped into an open dock that was relatively centralized within the asteroid and from there it was all up to them to make of this trip what they could. There were many things they could try and do while here but the obvious first stop was, well, obvious in that he best attempt to speak with Aria. At the least he could let her know that he expected trouble to follow him in.

Kar had run the images they'd gotten upon Noveria through his database during the flight and it confirmed that the krogan seen leaving was indeed Xilar. Most members of mercenary organizations such as the Blood Pack that were worth anything had profiles in the spectre database. Hell, he had enjoyed reading over the file they had upon him when he was initially inducted into the organization. The human that Aptis had been interrogating though was tougher to nail down. He'd been roughed up rather well and a complete match couldn't be made. However a few partial hits suggested that he was a relative nobody, likely a worker from one of the camps they fought through in the past. Maybe when they encountered geth platforms, or perhaps when they busted out Velira. Regardless of this uncertainty he wasn't too bothered as it seemed to be unimportant to their investigation as a whole. Though perhaps Sera would dig up something more interesting on the man with her contacts?

In any case he called both Sera and Velira to the command deck once more as he intended to meet them there for a brief discussion. Once both arrived he'd share what little information he actually had to offer for his part and proceed to focus on their next moves. "We'll want to try and speak with Aria, or one of her subordinates if she's not interested in talking with us right now. I don't much expect she'll be quick to offer us much assistance but she might be able to point us in the right direction to begin with. At the very least giving her a heads up that we expect to get jumped by agents of Belia Industries while here should help smooth over any complications. I've some contacts I used while running with the pack that I intend to check out. See how many are still alive and willing to trade information. We also might want to consider trying to hire some backup while we are here just in case things devolve into an open firefight. Or, failing that, paying off some of the local goons could at least minimize how many could get into Belia's pocket."
 
Sera's own contacts were trying to identify the human, but weren't having a lot of luck. He seemed to be on the lower end of the structure, if he was even part of Belia Industries directly at all. That meant that identifying him was likely a dead end in any case. You never caught a group off guard by identifying a foot soldier, and they probably lacked any connections in order to make an identification matter in that regard. It was always possible, but incredibly unlikely.

As they made their way to the deck, Sera and Velira both listened to Kar's brief discussion without surprise or interjection. Sera was the first one to speak after Kar seemed to finish what he had to say. "It would definitely be wise to keep Aria in the loop as much as possible. Nothing happens on Omega without her knowledge, and it would not be wise for her to be surprised by an action on our part. I don't have your sources on Omega, unfortunately, but I do know a few people who have set up shop here."

Velira was silent for a while longer, and when she spoke, her voice was uncharacteristically quiet. "I might know someone as well. He was here a few years ago, at least. He might know something. I'll need to talk to him alone, though. He won't talk to you, Kar, and I don't want him talking to Sera. Let's just say that some private detectives have standards, some do not. The latter can have more information, but less...discretion if you aren't careful."
 
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