Lunar Eclipse (ME) Atroxa x AndyRisner

[Atroxa]

Artemis walked slightly hunched, forced into an awkward carriage thanks to her hands being cuffed behind her back and a C-Sec officer holding onto her arm tightly, pulling up slightly. She was limping just slightly, favoring her right leg, and she had a split lip, with her left eye beginning to darken and swell. Despite the cuffs and the state of her, Artemis was smirking, and there was a jaunty energy to her steps. Green eyes glittered with satisfaction and amusement, and she walked along with her captor as if she knew where she was going as they maneuvered through headquarters. She stumbled slightly though and her boots scuffed the floor as she began to turn right towards the holding cells and the officer escorting her dragged her back and they kept walking straight instead of turning.

The smirk was gone, and Artemis narrowed her eyes and gave the officer a suspicious glare. ”Where are you taking me?” She asked. The officer didn't answer her, just kept walking, forcing Artemis along with him. ”Hey asshole are you deaf or something? Where the fuck are you taking me?” She snapped at him. The officer answered her by slamming her into the wall, her head ringing and spinning from the impact. He didn't say anything, just kept walking, Artemis going along quietly this time, fighting off the disorienting effect of having her head bounce off the wall.

They seemed to finally reach their destination, the door sliding open as the office pressed his badge to the security device. The room was bare, with only the tell-tale one way mirror breaking the monotony of white walls. There was just a table with a few chairs on the floor, and that was it. An interrogation room? Artemis hesitated before the officer pulled her in then pushed her towards the table.”Have a seat.” He told her, unlocking her cuffs and releasing her before he walked out. Artemis stood there for a moment, rubbing her wrists, which were red and irritated from the cuffs. She sighed and looked at herself in the one-way. Her copper-red hair was a mess, sticking out at odd angles and sticking to her face, the tips dyed a dark turquoise, and her eye was darkening by the minute. She'd be pretty if it weren't for the injuries to her face.

Artemis walked over to the table, pulling out one of the chairs, and sat down, propping her boots up on the table. She wondered what this was about, why she was in an interrogation room for a bar fight. This was far from the first time she'd been arrested for such incidences, she knew the procedure, and this wasn't it. Artemis was a small woman, only 5'5”, with a lean, athletic build, long limbs, with feline curves that gave her the look of a predator rather than some busty home-maker. She was stronger than she looked, and fast, she was good in a fight, and could handle a gun thanks to her upbringing in a military family and her own time in the military before she'd been dishonorably discharged. Her real skill though, her calling in life, was piloting. Artemis was a damn good pilot, one of the best, and yet she found herself forced to squander her talent running drugs and guns for Eclipse. What a waste.

 

[andyrisner]

Tolaris looked at the data once again, his mind taking all the details that were passed on to him, half a gig-byte was dedicated to Artemis Chase's criminal record. Weeks ago an informant, that he used often to follow the drug trade, told Tolaris to look further into this criminal, citing that she was the lead Eclipse member pushing Hallex into the Citadel. After he dismissed such accusations, she had a record that suggested she was a drug runner and C-sec wasn't going to waste credits taking down a small time guy. However two days later, a double homicide of high ranking Blood Pack members in Chora's Den put her back on the radar.

The pale white Turian rubbed his brow again, frustrated at the evidence that was in front of him, it smelled dirty and he couldn't understand why. Adding to the fact a Volus attorney had show up the second he requested to have her interrogated instead of sent straight to a cell.

"Hrk...Officer Quin -hrk-I'll telling you-ahrk- I won't allow you interrogate client with -hrk- due process" said the small lawyer, point his finger at him. Quin looked down, still unable to believe that Doloran Fin, a high profile lawyer, was actually here defending her. This peeked his curiosity even more, so looked at fellow Turian to distract the lawyer for a bit.

"Avan here will talk to you about the legal issues, while I get something to drink and the proper paper work for you to fill out" lied Tolaris, walking quickly past the Volus, who tried to follow but was cut off by Avan. Thanking his friend, he walked quickly into the interrogation room, his boots clicking with every step.

"Hello, Miss Chase, my name is Tolaris Quin and I have many questions for you" he said curtly, his dark blue eyes taking in the woman he was already very well acquainted with, at least with on paper.

He turned his head to the side a bit, noticing her feet were on the table, her posture telling him that she was going to stubborn, but since he had very little time he ignored it for now. He placed ha finger on his pale white face tattoos, shaped like three triangles radiating from the center, giving her a chance to take the lead of the conversation.

 

[Atroxa]

Artemis glanced over her shoulder as the door to the interrogation room opened and a pale Turian in a C-Sec uniform walked in. She quirked a brow at him, a smooth, aged scar cutting her eye brow in half, but didn't take down her feet. If this guy were her mom, she'd have her feet off in a second, but he wasn't. She crossed her arms, an Alliance tattoo on her right bicep and a black, tribal-style sun on her left, and leaned back in her chair, her expression a mixture of boredom and defiance. One good thing about not being in the military anymore was that she didn't have to hide her contempt for authority.

She pursed her lips, ignoring the stab of pain that caused her, as he spoke, and narrowed her eyes. “Oh yeah?” She answered. “Well I've got a couple for you too. What the hell am I doing here? Since when does getting into a bar fight result in an interrogation? Did the guy die or something?” If that fight had gone bad and the guy she'd gotten into a fight with had ended up dead well... she was screwed she guessed. Some fifty people had seen them fighting, and he had definitely come out of the confrontation worse off than Artemis. She knew she'd probably get slapped with an assault charge, but if he was dead...

A suspicious inkling in the back of her head told her that she was here because of her profession. She'd been out of the military for nearly two years, and working for Eclipse for one. She was small time, smuggling drugs and weapons onto the citadel on her ship along with other cargo from Illium. She hadn't gotten caught yet, but she wasn't stupid, C-Sec knew, they watched everything. The trick was making yourself not worth the time and money to pursue. Eclipse was smart. They weren't a bunch of thugs like the Blood Pack or the Blue Suns.

But Artemis didn't know why she was here, she didn't even know that a lawyer was here to defend her. Probably some dirty attorney on Eclipse's pay roll.

 

[andyrisner]

Tolaris took note of the alliance and eclipse tattoos on her body, not many mercenaries kept any ties to origins. He had to admit he liked that though, to carry on the spirit of your old comrades was a good quality among Turians. However, he kept his reservations, knowing that a few tattoos did not make her different.

"I have no clue about what happen to that guy and the bar fight isn't why you are here. You are here for a double homicide in Chora's Den five days ago" said Tolaris, leaning back and letting that information settle in. He had learned long ago that humans had a variety of expressions that gave them away. Between eyebrow movements to the manner they held their body, he could tell with good accuracy their general demeanor.

"Add to the fact your finger prints, DNA, and there's video of you at the scene of the crime I can just send you away for just the murder...however can you guess what we found all over a shipment of Hallex," said the pale turian, pushing a pictures of the evidence to Artemis, " but that's not all, there's also a witness that can tie the murders and the drugs to you, he says that you are the big boss in charge of bringing Hellix for the Eclipse."

Tolaris watched her carefully, he knew he was pushing her hard with the evidence but experience was telling him otherwise. If she was the drug lord that their "witness" said she was, then Artemis would start plead bargain or at least ask for her lawyer. There was too much evidence and any DA could prosecute with not problem, what he wanted to see if his hunch was right. Was she just a scapegoat for something much larger than drugs.

 

[Atroxa]

((ooc: actually the sun tattoo has just always been a part of her design, it's not an Eclipse symbol these are two drawings I've done of her, though her design in this rp has changed a bit http://kiraiko44.deviantart.com/art/Lean-Mean-Flying-Machine-335155576 http://kiraiko44.deviantart.com/art/Hella-Good-355438356 ))

Artemis had mixed feelings about the Alliance these days, she had had loyalty to them ingrained her from childhood, her parents were both retired from the military and her brothers had all enlisted. She had too. But now... well, there was some resentment there now no doubt. And she didn't see herself letting go of it any time soon. Artemis could hold a grudge, when some one fucked her over, she never forgot it.

Her expression was still one of boredom and annoyance as Tolaris started to speak, but she blinked as he said something about a double homicide. She just stared at him, trying to work out what he'd just said. A double homicide in Chora's Den... and they were fingering her for it? “What?” She asked, her voice a little shrill. “You're kidding me right? This is some sort of joke.” She took her feet down from off the table and stared at the Turian, her expression flickering back and forth between confusion and annoyance, her posture stiff.

Her green eyes went a bit wide as he talked about evidence putting her at the scene of the crime. That she could be put away for murder, as well as smuggling drugs onto the Citadel. She snatched the pictures from him, staring at them, then tossed them back on the table, standing up. She leaned on the table, palms flat on the cool metal surface, glaring at him eye to eye. “Look dude, I'm about as high up on the totem pole with Eclipse as a messenger boy. Yeah, I smuggled in some Hallex, but I'm no boss. And I'm no murderer. Only people I've ever killed were when I was still enlisted and that was with the canon mounted on my Trident.” That was a slight lie. She'd killed people since she'd been discharged, but she had only killed a few people face to face, and it hadn't been in the last few days. “I go to Chora's Den, sure, and I was probably there five days ago, honestly once I get my feet on a dock the days kind of start to blur together. But I'd remember if I killed anyone.” She snapped at him. Honestly, she didn't know what to think of all this, she was torn between starting to freak out and being suspicious that they were trying to scare something out of her. Well she didn't know much of anything, she was purposefully kept out of the loop in case of stuff just like this. She couldn't tell what she didn't know.

 

[andyrisner]

((OOC: yeah I messed that up XD I read sun tattoo ad assumed it meant the eclipse logo))

The Turian watched her carefully, his eyes darting to different parts of her body as she spoke in her defense. All of it seemed natural, suggesting that she was at least telling some sort of truth. Her explanations also did concur with his ideas, so adding both of these things he was willing to believe her. Then it hit him, why the specifics of her tattoos didn't show up in the records, even though they had video of her in Chora's Den.

"I'm willing to believe you and this is why" he explained, his long fingers grabbing one of the data pads. He grab the video of her "actions" in Chora's Den, enhanced the image, showed it to her.

Like he expect, even though the camera was at bird's eye view, there was a one shot where "Artemis" turned, so that her shoulder was in view; there was no Alliance tattoo on her shoulder. However, the second he was going to speak again, the door slammed open.

"Officer Tolaris, what are you doing with my suspect? While I did appreciate your help, I don't have to remind you that I am the lead detective on this case..." berated Nolan. Detective Nolan was a new addition to the force, like many other humans added since Counselor Udina was appointed. 

Tolaris took all the evidence he had into a neat pile, doing his best to keep a passive tone in his voice. He didn't trust human males that much and Nolan was one of the main reasons for it; greed and ambition seemed to be hallmark of his gender. He looked at Artemis, did his best impression of what humans called a wink, then went to speak to Nolan.

"I'm sorry, Detective, but it was my partner that brought her so I reading the charges ...but it seems as though Miss Chase has called for her lawyer, so we can not ask her any questions" Tolaris said smoothly, grabbing the human by the arm and pulling him out of the interrogation room. 

The Volus pushed passed them, eager to get to his client, so as he passed, Tolaris swiped his omi-tool over the round lawyer. He learned from a elder detective how to place small tracers on people, though it only allowed for audio for an hour, it worked perfectly for this situation.
------------

"-hrk- Hello Miss Chase -ah- I will be your legal -hrk- counsel... a fellow friend of ours sent me" wheezed the Volus, sitting in front of her. 

 

[Atroxa]

Artemis gave him a very doubtful look as he said he believed her, “Oh yeah?” She scoffed. She didn't get to find out why he suddenly claimed to believe her though as the door behind her opened, Artemis straightening to look at a human officer. Guy seemed like a real ass hole. She crossed her arms and glared at him. Tolaris was right in being suspicious of human men, of course not all of them were power hungry assholes but in her experience, the ones who became cops were the kind of guys who were just bullies in high school and liked having some sort of power over others. Sure there were good cops, but they seemed few and far between.

She looked back to the Turian as he spoke, her eyes narrowing slightly as he seemed to wink at her. She couldn't be sure, maybe it was some Turian gesture she was unaware of, she didn't talk to them much. Artemis blinked though as he spoke, opening her mouth to argue, mostly out of reflex since she was a) an argumentative person and b) dislike cops, then closed her mouth quickly with a soft click of her teeth as she realized what he'd said. Okay. That was weird. She wasn't going to fuck up her chance of avoiding being pinned for murder though so she just watched them go, arms still crossed.

She looked at the Volus as he entered, pursing her lips as she watched the door close behind the two officers. What in the world was going on? First he was saying she was being accused of murder and they had enough evidence to put her away no problem, then he was saying he believed she was innocent and lawyered up for her. Something wasn't right. This whole thing stunk of a frame job or a set up, but by who she wasn't sure. Either some one really had framed her for homicide or the cops were making it seem that way for some ulterior motive.

Artemis looked back to the Volus as he sat down and spoke, sitting back down as well. “Yeah? Well, mind telling me why I'm being accused of a murder I didn't commit?” She snapped at him. “And how our friend knew to send you here when I was arrested? What the hell is going on?” She demanded, rubbing the right side of her face to help alleviate some of the slowly building pain from her black eye.

 

[andyrisner]

The volus looked around for a bit, as though he was waiting for something to happen. Suddenly his body quivered as though he shocked with electricity, a glow of yellow covered his body and the disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

"-hrk- Sorry for that...its typical procedure to kill all C-sec tech -hrk- for a bit when I deal with your company -hrk- now your employer sent me so that you would -hrk- cooperate with this" said the lawyer, lazily pulling out a small data pad for her to look at.

It explained in fine detail, that Artemis would plead guilty for the charges and with the Eclipse help they get her a plea bargain. If she agreed to take the fall, then she would only be in prison for 10 years in a "very comfortable prison". However, if she didn't cooperate, then they would make sure that no lawyer would touch her.

"Now, I hope that -hrk- wasn't very complicated for you earth-clan, to put it simple -hrk- just signed the data pad and you won't go to jail forever" he said in a condescending tone, it was obvious he was just acting before.

 

[Atroxa]

Artemis blinked and flinched away a bit as the Volus seemed to be electrocuted for a moment, glaring at him suspiciously. She relaxed a bit though when he explained that he was basically disabling any bugs or other devices left behind by C-Sec. She took the data pad from him, glancing it over, her face growing darker and darker with every word her eyes took in, until she had a look of contained fury. It broke though as the Volus spoke.

“Fuck you!” She snarled, hurling the data pad at him. “And fuck Eclipse! I am never being some one's scape goat ever again.” She leaned on the table, leaning close to the Volus, glaring at him with her teeth bared, her eyes full of venom and hate. “You listen to me you asthmatic midget. You think Eclipse is my only connection? You're wrong. And they're wrong. Now, you've got five seconds to get your fat ass out that door before I put you through that one way.”

Artemis had no true loyalty to Eclipse. It was a job, and it paid well enough that she had little problem over looking the fact that it was illegal. That and some tame, blue collar job working as cargo transport had just been too incredibly boring to appeal to her. Maybe it had been a mistake. Well, obviously it had been a mistake. But she wasn't going to spend ten years in jail for anyone, especially not Eclipse. She didn't know what she was going to do, but she wasn't going to take the fall for them, she wasn't going to pay for some one else's mistakes ever again.

 

[andyrisner]

The volus looked between offended and shocked, at least what could be considered those two thing when one was in a suit. He made small huffing sound, grabbing the data pad and turned to leave from the table.

"Your funeral, earth-clan, the eclipse -hrk- will bury you with the evidence" he chuckled, swiping his identification over the door. It opened to reveal Tolaris, on the otherwise with arms crossed.
-------
Tolaris knew something suspicious was up the second his bug suddenly stop responding. He walked quickly to the security room and spoke to the guard there.

"There was a small outage a few minutes ago, but that's because a vehicle crashed into a transformer nearby, we are running on our backup generator though" said the guard, reassuring that nothing was wrong with the feed.

The turian looked at the screen and like the guard said, Artemis and her lawyer were casually looking over documents. That's when the bug suddenly started up, static almost deafening in his ear piece.

"I'll be back, but thank you for your help" said the pale Turian, messing with his omitool, as he walked back to the interrogation room. He was at the door when his bug finally filtered out the static.

"The Eclipse will bury you with the evidence" was the last sentence the bug was able to transmit when it finally gave out. Whatever the lawyer did finally killed his bug, but Tolaris had his suspicions finally confirmed. However, he lacked the proper evidence to exonerate Artemis, so for now he had to keep his mouth shut. Thinking of a plan he, took his datapad and typed on it.

The volus open the door, just as he arrived to it, deciding to keep his demeanor the same to smaller alien, he just crossed his arms, expecting the volus to kick him out. 

"Unfortunately, Miss Chase -hrk- has forgone my legal advice for now, you may continue your -hrk- questioning" said the small lawyer quickly, exiting the room. Tolaris raised an eyebrow, but continued silently towards Artemis. Things were working out better than he expected.

The turian took a seat and placed a datapad in front of Artemis, it was open to a word pad. On it was written a small sentence.

'Play along, I know that you are being set up by the eclipse, but since I don't know how deep this is, caution is advised"

"I just got word from security, there was crash nearby that has compromised the station, so we will be taking you to another station" said Tolaris, making sure that his body was in front of the camera. This would buy them thirty minutes, how long the drive would take, enough time to talk alone about what happened. 

 

[Atroxa]

Artemis glared after the Volus, scoffing as he spoke. It was a brave face though, she felt a small lead ball of dread roll into existence in her stomach. What was she going to do? She was distracted though as she saw the Turian officer from before, Tolaris, standing on the other side of the open door. She frowned slightly and leaned back in her chair, refusing to let her nerves to show, and crossed her arms, watching him. She still didn't trust this cop, she didn't trust anyone right now. She just wanted to get to a phone, make some calls, try to pull her ass out of the fire.

She quirked a brow though as he set a datapad in front of her, leaning forward slightly to read it. Her brows furrowed and she gave the Turian a suspicious but unsure look, obviously wondering what he was up to. Sure, she'd play along, what choice did she have? But she didn't like this. Any of it. How did she know he wasn't lying? She sighed and leaned back, looking away from Tolaris as he spoke, frowning to herself. Well, what did she have to lose? If he was telling the truth maybe she could avoid going to jail or prison, if he was lying, she'd go there anyway.

So she stood up and held out her hands to accept the cuffs she knew were coming. “Yeah, alright.” Artemis muttered, sighing again. The fury she'd felt at that stupid little Volus had waned quickly, as her anger was prone to doing (her anger was always bright and violent, but short-lived), and now she just felt tired. And a million other things, but she only allowed herself to register her exhaustion, she fought back the fear, the shame, the disappointment. She'd gotten herself into another mess, and she had no idea what to do about it.

 

[andyrisner]

Tolaris placed his handcuffs on Artemis, leaving enough slack so that they would not hurt her. The turian did feel bad for her, though he knew her past from the records, she did not deserve the backstabbing...in turian culture that was a lowest thing you could do. He led her out of the station house, only stopping to fill out the proper work so that he could take Artemis to another location, taking advantage of the frantic staff that was trying to get all of the systems back up.

"Once we are in my vehicle, we can speak freely" he said quietly, roughly grabbing her arm and ushering her out the front door. He knew there was cameras all over the office and front door, so he had to play his part correctly. There was no going back now, in a few hours C-Sec higher ups would receive the request and even though they would likely approve of it, Tolaris could not leave her in their hands.

Once near the vehicle, he took off her handcuffs but put her in the back seat, apologizing and telling her that cameras in the front gate would catch her in the front seat. He started his engine, a low hum in the background, and thanked that C-Sec budget cuts had forced the removal of dash cameras to be on all hours.

"A month ago, two reporters turned up dead near Zakera Ward, while the official story is that killed each other during a scuffle to get an inside scoop with a popular actor, I heard from a fellow officer that they had dirt on C-Sec corruption" started the pale turian, looking back at Artemis every so often with his rear view mirror.

"Add to the fact that an informant I know has been prodding me to look into C-Sec and Eclipse ties, I think I have an idea what is going on; I believe that C-Sec higher up are rubbing shoulders with Eclipse drug runners. You are just a fake 'high profile take down', basically if the public sees that we are doing our 'job', we get funding and Eclipse get to continue their drug deals" explained Tolaris, finally letting his suspicions out for the first time to anyone. He knew that corruption was a given in any government but to finally see how deep it went, disgusted him.

 

[Atroxa]

Artemis went with the Turian, quiet for once and uncharacteristically subdued, she was too distracted to feel like being a smart ass right now. Her mind was racing a mile a minute, trying to figure out what she should do, who she should call, how she was going to get out of all this. She didn't know what this officer wanted with her, he seemed friendly, but that could all just be a front for all she knew, trying to get her to lower her guard so he could get information out of her or get her to say she'd killed those men. She left the station with him, giving him a suspicious look as he said that they could speak freely when they were in his vehicle, not fighting back when he grabbed her arm and took her to the police car waiting outside.

She sat in the back, leaning her head back and staring at the ceiling of the car, frowning to herself. Artemis didn't look up as he started telling her about some reporters in Zakera Ward being killed, that it might have been C-Sec officers who had killed them because they had dirt on some corruption in the ranks. She lifted her head though as he told her what he thought, that C-Sec and Eclipse higher ups were rubbing shoulders and making deals, getting paid off to allow Eclipse to make their drug runs without being hassled. Well, that explained a lot. Artemis had been wondering why it was so easy to smuggle things into the Citadel, supposedly one of the most secure places in the galaxy.

Artemis looked at Tolaris's pale face in the rear view mirror, narrowing her eyes a bit as he said that she was just being used to make it look like C-Sec was doing their job, when they were really being paid to let Eclipse smugglers slip through the cracks. She wasn't great at reading Turian expressions, but she got the impression he was disgusted, probably disappointed. “Yeah, never pleasant to find out the system you trusted isn't what it appears to be,” She sighed and leaned her head back again, “What am I supposed to do about it? If they're really corrupt you're not going to be able to prove I'm innocent, they won't care.”

She frowned and let out a groan, running a cuffed hand over her face. “My dad is going to kill me,” she muttered.

 

[andyrisner]

The turian looked back again at Artemis, his mandibles dipping downwards a bit, she really looked like a child when she ran her hands over her face and mentioned her father. It sort of hit Tolaris then, she was actually a person with feelings, a family, with ties to the world around her; she wasn't just a criminal as he had once believed. He parked the vehicle in a nearby alley, and opened the back door.

"Here, you don't have to wear those anymore " he said softly, running his omni-tool over her handcuffs, which fell to floor of of the car. He moved away from her, intentionally leaving a space that lead out of the alley behind him. The area was very deserted and there was no windows that could look out of to see them. Tolaris had used this space before to talk other informants that refused to be seen by their own colleagues talking to a police officer.

"You are free to go... however if you want to join me, join me in the front , we can clear your name and probably do some good by taking down these bastards" he said carefully, his dark blue eyes locking on to hers to show he was serious of what he said. Though he was fairly sure she was going to stay and fight with him, he wanted to give her the choice to do so.