Mass Effect Mercenaries

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Xavier got up quickly and looked around puzzled, his eyes could be seen within his helmet looking for the others and noticing them, he nods at Raymond and shakes his head "Thought this would happen...didn't think it would be either of these two though." He looks down and pats Raymond on the shoulder and walks to Ardent's body, he takes the young man's helmet off and closes the corpses eyes. "We'll get Cassius out of here, he needs medical attention." Xavier hears the radio cut in, hearing Alex's worried voice he answers "One KIA one WIA here, Alex catch your breath, get me in touch with Harlow."

Alex nods and get's the comms connected not saying anything yet "Harlow...we've got one KIA and one WIA here as well, mission fucked we're not far from the compound, we'll get there and then we'll try to salvage what's left of the mission on your end. Then head back to the Ice, we'll discuss what to do to salvage the whole mission after that. Guardian out." He says cutting the comm and shaking his head, some guardian...got two killed two wounded due to your inept blundering. He nods to Ardent "Take him with us for now, we'll set up a burial near the ship, I've got Cassius." Xavier was at a loss for now, the mission which should've gone without a hitch went tits up in no time.

Alex calms herself, taking many deep breaths "Sir got a message from Harlow as well for you, I've decrypted it and sent it to your omnitool, doing the same for Harlow." Xavier listens to Harlow's message and nods looking to Raymond "Let's head on to the compound then like we were planning...Kronos is KIA and Jay is WIA...looks like this was a bigger shit show then we'd realized."
 
Harlow approached the two batarians with his pistol drawn and motioned for them to get on the ground, they laid belly down into the soft earth underneath them as Harlow approached. He disarmed both of them of any weapons he was able to see before he cracked both of them in their heads to knock them out, Harlow was able to be downright monstrous in battle but he preferred to not shoot unarmed individuals if he was able to avoid it. H walked to the transport before running a basic electronic lock picking system to open the door but it seemed to need something more than what Harlow had to offer. "Hannah would you so kindly come over here and look at this lock I can't seem to get it." He called to her as she was still near the Mako as he was finding himself rather glad to have someone around who was tech savvy and the fact that she was rather easy on the eyes was a nice bonus but he would keep that to himself for right now. He walked and slid down on the side of transport with a heavy sigh as he let himself relax for a bit when he got a message on his omni tool from Kodiak team. "Same shit different day." The man though to himself as he read that Kodiak team was in the same situation as Hannah and he were in. He reached around and got in his pack and dug around a bit before finding what he was looking for, A small wooden tobacco pipe was what he grabbed. The wood was faded with an image of a tree engraved on the side he set it in his lap while he grabbed another item this one being a small tin that had two large letters on the lid, HW. Inside the tin was shredded tobacco, it was dark as earth but instead of the normal smell of tobacco no this tobacco was an aromatic made to smell and taste like peach and vanilla. Harlow packed the bowl and lit it letting the hard smoke roll down his throat and into his lungs, as he exhaled the smoke filled the air around him displacing the smell of burning flesh and death that surrounded the area replacing it with the pleasant smell of peaches and vanilla and as he waited for Hannah he leaned his head against the transport and thought.
"What a lovely day."​
 
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Harlow went to deal with the captives while she stood near the mako, scanning the area for anything interesting. A few feet in front of the mako was a datapad, seemingly thrown out of a window, it must have belonged to one of the researchers. Without picking it up, she ripped the last entry with her omni-tool and read it over. She only got past the title, Hypothesis: Viable Applications of Eezo on Flora, when her name sounded from Harlow's direction. Hearing her real name still gave her a slight chill, and she considered asking him to just call her Shock... but then again, she trusted him more than anyone at the moment. A hideous smell forced her to put on her helmet, as she caught glimse of the minefield of batarian corpses between the her and Harlow. On her way across, she made sheepish steps, carefully avoided anything sticky, and even hopped over a few limbs.

Harlow, on the other hand, seemed pretty indifferent about the whole situation; looking vaguely out into the sky, as the smoke concealed his rugged beard and bold features every now and then. A tobacco pipe, she recognized it, it something she's only seen on the vids. Quite ancient, really. Without turning her head, she stared at him from her tinted visor while continuing to walk at a modest pace towards the back of the transport. She nearly collided with the door, and cursed at herself quietly. "Right, the lock... uhm...", regaining her focus, she turned to face the small panel. The vehicle and its security, she deduced, were military-grade. Probably decommissioned, acquired by fraudulent means, then auctioned on the black market. It would take too long to override the security with an omni-tool alone, and it would be much too dangerous to blow it open with the mako. Hannah huffed, and adjusted her stance, tilting her head slightly, as she judged her options. When hacking couldn't get her by, she could always make use of her engineering skills. "Okay, uh, try not to look in this direction", she explained to Harlow, adjusting her wrist and fabricating the end of her omni-tool into a fusion cutter*.

"This will take a few minutes", she noted, her voice sounding somewhat robotic beneath her mask. Starting from the bottom left corner, and with a surprisingly quiet crackling sound, she began to cut along the seams of the door...


(you don't have to read this unless if you care enough about being canon-friendly)
*[spoili]As non-canon as it sounds plasma/fusion cutters and other such tools would be used in ship construction, this omni-tool's fusion cutter is, as far as she knows, a prototype. An imperfect one, at that. The design is similar to an omni-blade, but smaller, more precise and with its super-heated power concentrated to a small extended point. Due to its size, it wouldn't be very useful in combat.[/spoili]
 
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Harlow rolled his head to the side before quickly turning it back as the fusion cutter started up. "Right when she says not to look in that direction don't, got it." He thought as he rubbed his eyes while blinking out the spots that filled his sight. Smoke rolled out of his mouth from his pipe as he looked around the area and took a step back metaphorically speaking and saw the area around them, it was more of the same for Harlow an N7's life was never fun nor peaceful no matter what they did but it was best to put his mind off such things as they lead to dark thoughts and even darker consequences.
He pulled out his saber and a cleaning kit as it was still covered in batarian blood, he also took out the sharpening kit as well and began the cleaning and sharpening process to pass the time while Hannah worked her magic with the transport door as they waited for Kodiak team to get to them so they all were able to get the hell out of dodge together though he felt like this wouldn't be their last trial on this planet.​
 
"Wait, wait!" one of the humans barked, Dex trotted to a stop, "Stop, listen... Did you hear that?..." Dex looked around, and he did hear murmurs.... "talking, humans talking, from the other side of the compound", he gathers.

"What- wait how can y-" he was cut off-

"If there's even a slight chance we can save them, we're taking it", the technician boldly stated. The janitor gives the technician a look, and interjected on his behalf.

"Excuse my partner here, sir, his judgement is a little... marred". The technician then glares at the janitor with disgust and disbelief. "And you would, what, abandon them?", he asked fiercely. The lack of a response seemed to answer his question. "Fine then...", he shook his head, "I'll save her myself", he added before starting to jog around the building's perimeter, desperate to reach the transport on the other side.

Dex gave a long and crescendo'ed growl exuding his exasperation with these people. Technically, it was his job to make sure as many hostages got out as possible... So it technically was his job to not leave stragglers if at all possible. Though he still valued his own life- he knew when to cut losses, and not 'die for nothing'. Damn the Turian honor...

"Just... Just show me how to get there, and you can come along. But don't get yourself killed. My job is to get you out- but if you do something stupid, that's on you." He attempted to make it clear that he would help, but if the person gets themselves killed- he will hold no remorse. "I'm sure those Batarians won't be needing their weapons anymore."

The voice of Dex's partner sounded in his earpiece once again, "*static*-re in position, bird should be planetside in 25, what's the situation there?", he asked, his voice much clearer now.

Dex nodded to the voice coming through his helmet, and he responded. "Still wrangling these captives to get them out. Hopefully we'll be back in 25 for evacuation. Standby for update."

He then patted the Tech on the back of the shoulder- "Lets see if we can find those others, yeah?"

Quietly, the two traversed the hallways, though as they backtracked a bit, the Technician picked up one of the Batarians' pistol. "Just be careful. Have you ever had to use one of those?" Dex warned politely, but the Technician didn't seem to be listening... They started coming closer to where they were hearing these 'human' voices, but honestly, Dex, as a Turian couldn't tell much difference. The Batarians had naturally deeper baritones, but he's heard some humans carry similar tones before, too.
 
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Xavier, carrying Cassius in his arms, and Raymond beside him continue on their way to the compound. Neither one really talking, or wanting to break the silence as they move through the dense woods, it seems the woods and compound have been taken by their small group. Xavier's thoughts went to another heated battle similar to this, it didn't go as badly, but it did go to shit. He and his squad were on the receiving end of bad intel, bad intel that got three out of the ten members of his squad killed. Intel dropped the ball, big time, it had supposedly been just a simple mission, take out a few raiders then head back to Alliance HQ to get debriefed. Then an enemy ambush, a mix of biotics and infiltrators attacked them out of nowhere. They were lucky to get off the planet with only his squad back then. But here, in the present day, four casualties, two killed two wounded, and yet he felt worse then. Maybe it was because these were just other mercenaries, or the fact he didn't know them... be that as it may they were getting close to the compound. "Harlow, we're outside the compound now, walking in now." He says using his short range radio to get in contact with the others.
 
Harlow took the pipe out of his mouth and replied. "Hannah and myself are on the other side working on getting some captives free from the transport they're in." Harlow said through the radio to his fellow ex-alliance member before he emptied the pipe and put away his sword's maintenance and put his helmet on again allowing him to see how Hannah was progressing due to the polarizing effect the visor had. He walked next to the woman as sparks bounced off both of their armors. "How's the progress?" He asked Hannah, you know now that Harlow thought about it she had a Geth with her when she first got on the ice...he wondered what it was able to do. Harlow let his thoughts distract him from the terrible situation he and this team found themselves in. ​
 
Harlow stood next to her after replying to Xavier. Maintaining strict focus on the task at hand, she was slow to respond to his query. They both stood for a while in silence, hypnotized by the small light show of sparks as it made its awfully gradual progress around the door. Her arm was shaking, and she used the other to support it. Taking a break would waste valuable time. Looking back at her progress, she trained her eyes on the trail of blackened marks along the seams of the large blast door. "...60 maybe 70 percent", she finally murmured. When the time came, she figured, it would probably be best to have the rest of the mercs here to help calm this can of startled scientists. Considering the Ice's size, she wondered how we would even escort this many (~30) civilians off-world, let alone feed them...
 
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As the remains of Kodiak Team entered the compound, Raymond made a low whistle. "Damn, looks like Mako team did a real number on the place." He smirked as he passed the decapitated Batarian leader. "Well, beheading the enemy's leadership is always sound tactical advice, but this-" he snorted, "-this is pretty damn funny," he chuckled the rest of his sentence. He waited until they regrouped with Mako team before asking Xavier, "So, boss, what's next? We gonna bug out or are we gonna find some more four-eyed shits to stomp?"
 
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Xavier set Cassius down, he had done what he could to stabilize the merc and looked to the others. "I'd like to continue but, I don't know if Cassius would survive the ordeal. I'd like someone to take him back to the Ice. Hannah, would you mind." Xavier asks the tech expert, he takes a couple deep breaths "And tell me what kind of capabilities your friend has when we have a moment to spare. With our casualties here, and on our ship we'll need all the help we can get." He says through gritted teeth. He had to let go of his personal hatred for what the thing looks like, it obviously wasn't a geth, just looked like one...and he needed it's help, he needed any and all help they could get to salvage this mission. "I'm open to suggestions when it comes to what we plan on doing next, and speak your minds people."
 
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A final hiss sounded the completion of her incision. She glanced in Harlow's direction and spoke, "Done, but it's a tight fit. It might take a bit of a... forceful touch to get the door open". "Whenever you're ready", she added just as Xavier arrived. She was glad to see him alive, but decided not to vocalize it. After removing her helmet, she watched with wide eyes as Cassius' somewhat limp body was gently set down onto the ground. She felt even more uneasy when Xavier asked her to carry him back to the Ice, "Uh, yeah... sure", she responded quietly, still staring at his trembling body. His query about Roger regained her attention, "Will do... but um... right now we might have a bit of an... unforeseen complication", she vaguely noted, looking back at the transport door. Xavier would become aware of the civilians soon enough...
 
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Harlow ignored the other team in favor of getting the door open. He took out his sword and inserted it in the opening made by Hannah and pushed his biotics into the blade before he pushed against the handle, the door began to strain as it tried to stay shut against the force of Harlow's sword but his biotics along with the already immense strength of his blade won out in the end. As the door popped open and light streamed through he saw several civilians, some were obviously scientists while for some others it was harder to tell but one thing that was the same among all of them was the fear in their eye's. "All of you can calm down, the batarians are dead and my group and myself have been hired to push them out while also getting civilians out." Of course Aria hadn't said anything about getting these people or others out but these people didn't need to hear that, Harlow turned and looked at Xavier. "Your turn boss man." He said as he stepped away from the door while looking at Cassius after hearing Xavier ask Hannah to take him back to the Ice. "Xavier we got multiple wounded we are all gonna need to go to the Ice to get them back most likely using the Mako to get there." Harlow had heard bits of the whole conversation and assumed that Xavier was wanting to send just one person to the ship, it that was the case then that was stupid if Harlow had misheard then he was stupid but he was never one to think before speaking. He got a far away look in his eyes. "My body still hurts from all the PT I got from not thinking before speaking." He thought.
 
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Xavier shook his head, and using the private comm between the team he let out a low "Fucking brilliant...alright, looks like we all head back...that's a lot of refugees team, but I think we have enough room to at least get them patched up and taken care of." Taking his helmet off he walks over in front of the door and reaches his hand out, palm upward to the nearest refugee, he didn't want them to hear the metallic sound of the comm inside his helmet...they also needed to see for themselves that they were safe for the time being. Safe, not only with great cost to the team, but a team willing to show themselves to the refugees as well. "It's alright everyone, well get you out of here." The mercenary leader wasn't ready for what happened next, a lump forming in his throat as he heard the first refugee to speak up cry out.

"The Alliance, it's an N7, the Alliance is here everybody." similar cheers and murmurs came from inside the cramped truck and one by one Xavier helped them out of it, a cold, distant look within the stoic face of the merc. His words kept getting stuck on that damned lump in his throat, he kept trying to tell them that they were just mercenaries. This was one time out of many where he should've dropped his damned pride and bought his own armor, the red stripe and his N7 just felt like a traitor's brand right now. His voice, low and raspy, with little to none of the power he had before behind it, finally rose up when he grabbed ahold of the next refugee "We're mercs hired by someone hoping to keep the batarians from hurting our people...nothing more..." But the people didn't care, they were just happy to be saved. Xavier picked his helmet off of the ground and put it back on, within the private comm he tells his team "Load em up in the mako and any transport that might still work, and let's head out." He walks towards the compound, not really looking for anything, just needing to get some "air" away from all the refugees.
 
Harlow growled low in his throat as he saw Xavier's reaction to the N7 label, no matter what you did, who you killed or why you were always and N7. "All aboard the Mako, make room and double up if needed." He said to the noncoms as his anger bled through into his voice and the usual humor and light tone bled out he and Xavier would have words but not now, now was not the time. "Raymond, Shock please load the wounded onto the Mako and strap them down so they don't thrash around and hurt themselves if they do." Harlow asked trying and failing to keep his voice level but was failing even calling Hannah Shock rather then using her real name as he had been. "I'll drive this time." He said, he walked to and into the Mako drivers seat wanting the isolation for the moment.
 
The murmurs of the word 'N7' got her thinking, it's the first time she witnessed the extent of their positive reputation first hand (and on a non-alliance planet no less). They regarded Xavier as some kind of super hero. She wondered if the mysterious task of the SSV Nero was something equally noble...

As the various researchers and human staff pooled out, she made sure to avoid touching anyone, and just sort of stood aside and helped direct people. Xavier suggested the mako and Harlow agreed. "I'm not sure the mako would do us very well with this many passengers... perhaps we could each maintain and escort group of 10 on foot, while one of us carries the wounded via mako. The journey would be 43 minutes not counting rough terrai-", she cut herself short, looking down at her omni-tool. "Hang on... I don't understand... I'm getting comm chatter from inside the building... somehow", at this point, only Harlow and Raymond were in earshot, and Xavier was out for a stroll (in full view of the balcony). For all she knew, there were batarians inside the building just waiting for their chance to strike...
 
Ray was mildly miffed that Harlow was issuing orders, and not Xavier, but he let it slide. He loaded Cassius into the Mako and strapped him down. He was about to suggest using the Batarian trucks to transport the civvies out of there when Hannah warned them of comm traffic inside the building. Sloppy. Raymond raised his gun towards the building's main entrance and cautiously advanced. "Guardian," he radioed, "we have company, inside." Punching the door controls, he waited for the doors to open and reveal whatever was on the other side. If they don't open, Shock could always get them open,if she's worth half a damn.
 
Xavier growled under his breath, hearing the others talk about comm chatter on the otherside. He pulls out his hand cannon, ignites his shield and walks over to the doors, glowing that familiar aura of blue when someone uses biotics he kicks the doors, causing a large dent to form on them, he kicks two more times sending them into the opposite wall. Raising his shield as cover he walks into the compound "Get as many wounded out, Harlow, and Hannah, Raymond and I will handle whatever else is in here." Xavier then opened a private comm to Harlow and Hannah "I said grab another transport as well, one of the ones still working, that was an order." He cuts the comm and continues walking into the building, the other N7 would definitely take offense to that, and no doubt would have words for Xavier later. But right now he was focused on getting the refugees to safety and getting the rest of his team out of there.
 
Harlow got on coms to Hannah. "Grab one of the other transports, i'll send some people over when your ready. When we head out i'll take the front with the Mako alright?" He said over coms before turning to the transport space of the Mako and addressing the group filling up the Mako. "Alright people different set of plans, one of my friends will be taking one of the Batarian's transports. I need half of you to make your way to it when she is ready, any volunteers? *Several hands went up* Alright that's good, when I get the word that things are ready those who raised their hands head over until then just sit tight." He finished talking and turned back into the front of the Mako and started to check all systems to make sure the APC would be ready to go right away.
 
*"This is Dex, I've got three more civilians here and we're heading to EVAC." Dex spoke, hailing his comrades outside.

*"Roger that, we just touched down in a clearing to the south, and are picking upHe was standing against a wall next to a door-frame, peeking out to make sure no one was coming through the hallway that the door-frame lead to. They had found two more civilians in a walk-in freezer made for cooling and storing lab samples. Hefting himself off the wall, he stood upright, and raised his weapon to a more ready stance, the butt of the carbine barely touching his right armpit. Giving a universal 'come on' command with his left hand, he lead the civilians out toward the front door, which they were closest to. He didn't want to weave in and out to go through the back if he didn't have to.

As they approached the front of the building, they stepped over rubble from where the Batarians entered the front door, apparently using grenades in the first room as a means of 'shock and awe'. More voices came from outside. Dex motioned for his tailing civilians to get over to the wall next to the main entrance, and Dex himself bound over to the doorway, and took a knee. If more batarians were coming- he'd punish them for coming in the front doors-

Dex raised his rifle to about where he considered 'mid mass' would be for an average Batarian, his right shoulder against the wall, the doorway no more then two feet from the end of his raised rifle. Though he started to hear voices from outside. Something that sounded as if it didn't come from a Batarian... Several voices now... Lowering his brow, and tilting his head, he lowered his rifle slowly. Silently, he turned around to look at the civilians and gave a shrug, then he nodded his head, and held his hand out- signaling 'It's okay, i'll check it out'. At this point they obliged, and were just happy to be alive.

Dex stepped forward, and the front door, made of both glass and a heavy durable steel slid open. This wasn't of his doing- so he quickly popped his head out, leaning over with his rifle pointed toward where he was looking. It was a split second reaction, and Dex noticed it was certainly not Batarians. Surely, the militants he looked at would be raising vigilant curiosity- and likely would be met with weapons trained to him. It looked like an alliance conscript team. They certainly weren't with the slavers, as he saw the war truck cut open with other civilians inside.

"Whoah- whoah!" the turian barked through his helmet, his right hand was still on his carbine- with it couched against his shoulder, but his left hand flipped up- hand open. He swiftly stepped into full view of the humans, lowering his carbine's barrel to the ground, and his left hand remained up. "Accipiter Company." He stated loudly, his free company he worked for. Mostly Turian ex special operations doing bounty hunting work and other mercenary jobs throughout the systems. He stepped toward the humans and transferred his Carbine to his left hand, holding it by the foregrip, and waving for the two human and one salarian captive to come out.
 
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Raymond entered the building, encountering a surrendering Turian. "Hands in the air!" He barked, keeping his gun trained on the alien. "Drop the gun!" Instead of complying, the Turian just called out his organization. "Never heard of it." Ray growled, "Now drop the gun or I shoot." The turian instead nonchalantly held the gun non-threateningly and waved to people around the corner. Raymond was about to shoot him when some humans stepped around along with a Salarian. He eased off his trigger and lowered his gun, radioing the situation to Xavier, "Guardian, I have a Turian here with three more refugees, says he's with Accipiter Company, ring any bells?"
 
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