Mass Effect Mercenaries

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Dragonslayer Ornstein

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It has always been said best by Miranda Lawson, Omega what a shithole. it still and forever will be true in the hollowed out asteroid that so many call home. Drug dealers, bounties, bounty hunters, and of course mercenaries, they all come here for one thing and one thing only. Credits, credits make the galaxy go round most would say, they keep drink flowing, food on the table, and bring that someone you've had your eye on to bed. There is always plenty of work on Omega thankfully, but we really don't need to talk about this, you are here due to receiving a message by an anonymous sender, about being able to finally get off this rock and grab bigger and better jobs, it's finally time to make a name for yourself, Aria has summoned you and a group of other mercs, apparently she hasn't taken kindly to Batarian slavers within the Terminus Systems causing trouble for the Alliance. Fearing all out war and having Omega in the middle she sends a message to any and all available mercenaries in Omega to deal with them.

Xavier stared at the blinking light of his omnitool, he sighed and checked it, it was a message from the "queen"

To any of you that actually have a spine, I have a job for your ears only, come to Afterlife. You will be shown to one of the private rooms and will await further instructions there.

He couldn't help but smile, That woman is crazy as hell, and has the balls to do something like this. What could she be thinking? knowing that he won't get any answers here he get's up, tying his hair back and putting the helmet of his armor back on he tosses a few credits and walks towards Anto Korragan, Aria T'Loak's right hand man

"This the room to head into for the job instructions?" He asks looking at the Batarian with thinly veiled disgust, the batarian, giving Xavier a real look of disgust nods and waves his hand, with the door opening Xavier walks in. Being the first one to arrive he sits down and waits, the door closing and locking behind him.
 
Cassius Happened to be leaning against a wall in afterlife, though it was not in the section that Aria called home. It was instead in the smaller area, where commander Shepard had defended the honor of The Patriarch (or will, depending on where we are in the timeline). Suddenly his omnitool bleeped, signalling that he had received a message. Cassius looked down at it and read the message. He smiled when he read it, 'Finally, ' he thought to himself. 'This is my chance, time to put my slayer training to use.' Cassius went into the main area of Afterlife and went up to Anto. "I got the message, I want in." he said, giving off a display of strength and casting a glare at the Batarian. Anto glared back, like a wolf growling at his opponent, "In there." he said, gesturing to the room behind him. Cassius nodded and went into the room, dropping his show as soon as he did. He was always more of a paragon than a renegade
 
Life wasn't easy on his own. For starters, Raymond couldn't have picked a worse place to leave Eclipse than Omega. The doctor who fixed up his eye did a shitty job and he had to go to another, only to learn that the first had fucked it up beyond repair, so he had to get a cybernetic replacement, and that damn near drained his savings, leaving him stranded on this pit. Now he was cleaning gutters of Vorcha, busy work for new recruits and newbies back in Eclipse, meant to acclimatize them to the idea of getting shot at. The work was far below his skill set, but it was all he could get. Besides, he wasn't exactly good at anything else besides fighting.

He sat at the bar, mulling his choices over a cheap beer and slowly growing increasingly tired of watching the Asari dancers. On one hand, I could keep at this gutter work for a few more years and, so long as there's not major incident, slowly but relatively safely earn enough money to get me outta here. He sipped his beer, grimacing at the taste. On the other hand, I could take the undoubtedly dangerous job, make some decent money and never drink shitty alien piss like this again. He got up and headed over to Anto.

"Hey four-eyes, I'm in." Anto pointed to the room wordlessly. "Also, tell your bartender that human beer ain't supposed to be orange."
 
Harlow's biotics flared just a bit as a glass hit him in the back from some drunk to deep in the bottle to know to stop fell down, he sighed as he thought about his current situation. He was out of work since most mercs feared he was some agent for the alliance even though he was rather open about what he did before this life but they were still paranoid, he saw the message pop up and read it. "Hmm, sounds interesting." Harlow thought as he stood up and started to move. He walked up to Anto he thought his name was. "Meeting?" Harlow asked while looking the Batarian in the eye who threw a thumb out towards a door in the back, Harlow nodded in thanks before making his way to the door.
 
(sorry if its too long)

Hannah was immersed in welding a sheet of synthetic plating onto the unfinished geth before her, which hung loosely from the low ceiling of her apartment. It was an abandoned and shady place, lighted only by dust-ridden beams of orange light which pierced through half-open shudders. It was a place she dared to call her home.

It'd been over a month since she stepped foot beyond the confines of that lowly complex, opening the door on rare occasions to snatch meals issued to the address across the hall. She welded the finishing touches of the new part she fetched from a local salvager, it was the final piece of Roger's eye. Despite this exciting development, however, her funds were all but depleted. The pistol on a nearby dresser was illuminated by a ray of orange, and she wondered if selling it would yield enough credits for her to survive another year... then again, living on Omega with no means of defence would be suicide.

A pinging sound on her omni-tool queued in just as she began to lose hope. Aria, she knew that name. Everything Aria touches was trouble, Hannah had promised herself not to dabble in her affairs what-so-ever. But right now, she was in no place to deny credits. Walking uneasily into the small bathroom, Hannah washed her face, and glared ahead into a musty old mirror. "Miss Mallory, you're not actually thinking of taking that job, are you?", Roger's mechanical British voice called from the adjacent room.

She stared intensely into the icy blue eyes on the other side of the mirror... and with a huff, began gearing up.

"Oh dearest me, please do be careful", Roger exclaimed, still hanging limp from the ceiling. With an unsurpassed affinity with tech, she assured herself there wouldn't be anything she couldn't handle, and was prepared to face the unknown horrors which waited beyond the safety of her decrepit apartment. If there is anything she learned from the few years she spent as a part of galactic society its that woman are seen as weaker and less competent, and so she made sure to close and tint the visor of her helmet.

After spending about an hour wandering aimlessly amidst crowds of low-lives, she figured that the burly biotic a few feet in front of her was a mercenary, so she followed him from about twenty feet back. Watching from a distance, the stranger reached a door with a Batarian guarding it, then entered the room beyond without much ceremony. Hannah walked cautiously toward the door, but the Batarian was far less patient.

"Can I help you?", Anto questioned in a somewhat condescending tone. "Umm", she began awkwardly, "I-I'm here for the... meeting?". Not sure whether that was a statement or a question, he only snickered (or, at least, the Batarian equivalent of a snicker) and waved open the door. "I guess Aria's hiring anyone nowadays...", Anto remarks. Hannah glances at him one last time before sheepishly slipping through the doorway and into the unknown...
 
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Kronos had just arrived on Omega, having done a lot of Jobs in the Attican Traverse and Terminus Systems as of late. Mostly, he just wanted some breathing room after his last contract, especially since it involved going after Cerberus, who have been sticking their noses into the Terminus Systems as of late, and there were people who were sick of it, so they had hired him to take care of it. He looked over a Message on his Datapad. It was one from Aria. Another Job already. He's already had plenty of paydays, but it would seem this one would be more fun. After a few minutes, he put away his Datapad and headed over to Afterlife. Upon entering a particular room that he was directed to, Kronos just kept his mask on and waited quietly. He wasn't really one to talk unless he had something important to say, which was not often. He saw a few other Mercenaries in the room as well. Oddly enough, he did not see any Blue Suns, Bloodpack or Eclipse. Guess their hands were awfully tied up with whatever is currently going on in their worlds. He leaned against a wall and just waited for further instructions
 
Jay was startled awake by his omnitool going off with a new message, giving it a once over he was glad to see that he finally got a job, it had been a while since his last and he was starting to worry. He sat on the edge of his bed holding his head slowly waking himself up, once up he equipped his armour and grabbed his sniper rifle and pistol and headed outside to see what the day had in store for him. Jay left the apartment he lived in all his gear ready and he headed off to meet with who ever gave him the job, who knows he might get lucky and get a very nice score out of this.
 
Anto looked around, noticing no one else coming for the job, walks into the room and looks at the motley crew in front of him. "Alright you maggots sit down and get out of my way." He shoves past everyone, glaring at all the humies in front of him. He stands in front of the seats and waiting for everyone to take their seats, taps a few buttons on his omni-tool. A holographic image of Aria T'Loak appears. He looks over them and says "And keep it down while Aria explains the mission details." He barks to the group and nods to the image of Aria.

Standing atop Afterlife, as per her usual set up, Aria T'Loak stands in front of another of her Batarian underlings, his omnitool projecting the image to Anto's. She paces side to side, looking over the group of mercs sitting within the private room "Well so these are the mercenaries that have answered my call...slim pickings it looks like, Anto, if they screw this up and die I'll flay you alive." Aria is obviously nonplussed my the menagerie of guns for hire in front of her however she starts telling them about the job anyway. "I need something from you all, I need you to go into the Traverse and...as much as it bothers me that we have to do this, aid the Alliance and stop some of the wanton slaver operations of the Batarian people. It's gotten so out of hand, my informants have stated numerous times of plans to take planets closer to the Alliance center of power." Aria pause here as if to let that sink into each and everyone of them before continuing "Now I can not stand in open hostilities against the Batarian government, so I am enlisting you mercenaries to do what myself and many others cannot, and that is to raid the Batarian supply lines as guerilla insurgents deep in enemy territory. I enlisted this one in particular." She says pointing at Xavier who cocks his head and narrows his eyes "Because he has a ship for you all to use, a piece of shit, but still a ship to use for this type of mission. If you agree to the terms of the mission, one of them being you will be payed a queen's ransom in credits, as well as becoming infamous mercenaries, something all of you want.... If you decide to walk away, you die." Aria smiles is frigid, and it is clear in her eyes that if anyone backed down she would be furious and no doubt have Anto kill them where they sat.

Xavier shifted and stood up looking at the Batarian then towards Aria's holographic image, a dark smile played across his own lips as he kept shifting his gaze between the two "Well I know I don't have much of a choice anyway, owing favours sucks, where do i sign." He let's Anto scan him with his omnitool and looks to the others, he sends them each a written message on their omnitools. "Docking bay 15 is where the ship is, look for the frigate that badly needs a new paint job." It read as he walks out, the doors opening and closing behind him as he makes his way to his ship. He opens a channel with it "Alex get the ship ready, we're about to get some more crew members on the old girl." A more cheerful voice comes over the comm as his pilot responds "Aye Aye Captain." The bubbly cheerful girl didn't seem like much, but she was the best damn pilot he knew. Xavier sighs as his comm goes quiet again and puts his helmet back on, since walking out of the private room many patrons were giving him a wide berth, as if they knew that he was under Aria, or at least under Anto which made little difference to the denizens of Omega. He didn't bother checking if anyone would follow him out of the room, but did hope that they had the wherewithal to start heading out as well if they were taking the mission.
 
Blood dripped down from above, a red pool forming underneath the squirming quarian as he attempted to escape the biting metal cord around his neck. His suit was pierced and the face plate cracked. He was doomed but he still struggled, kicking and gagging as he tried to breathe but the metal only cut in deeper and getting closer and closer before it eventually began to cut into his jugular. More blood poured down his body and the kicking stopped to be replaced with death throws. Underneath the one responsible watched. Droplets of blood at hit is face and jacket but he watched none the less at his work. His hands were in his pockets, a phalanx pistol at his left hip and a folded locust at his lower back for him to grab with his right. Outside of that he didn't really look like anyone of importance, just a fairly young looking human with copper colored eyes and chocolate colored hair that would probably do with a shave by the scruff on his face.

Once the quarian's throws had died down, the man known simply as Ash, took his unblinking gaze away from the spectacle and down at the pool of blood, taking out of his pocket a handkerchief and a black cylinder. He wiped the blood away with the former and pressed a button on the latter so a mouth piece would form on one end of the cylinder. Once he was clean he placed the cylinder in his mouth, a blue glow lighting on the other end. A moment later he exhaled white vapor slowly from his nostrils, walking out of the secluded alley of one of Omega's civilian levels after reaching down, directly drain his credits from his account with a relatively simple hacking software and grabbing a carnifex pistol which had belonged to the late quarian. It did not matter any longer what the quarian did to deserve or did not to deserve his fate. It was over and done with and he would be found by some street thugs who would pilfer his belongings and some vorcha would probably grab the corpse to eat or something like the parasites they were.

That is when the notice from Aria came up, his omni-tool flaring up as he reviewed the message and arched his brow.

Now what would the crime lord of Omega want that she'd advertise on such a public channel Ash thought to himself as he read the message, deactivating the screen to see that the Vorcha were earlier than he had expected, in a large pack this time it seemed. He glared before sighing and let off a warning shot at them, seeing the carnifex explode one vorcha's kneecap, watching the rest scatter away before leaving the other end for them to have at the quarian corpse. He did not give them another warning shot.

~Later~
Ash was one of the last ones to arrive at the meeting, not giving Anto so much as a response as just showing him the message from his omni-tool and kept going, tailcoats flapping and the jacket rather covering the whole Cerberus paraphernalia. He listened to the Asari crime lord bitch, exhaling a few more puffs of vapor before putting the e-cig away and folding his arms. The forearms bulged a bit more than they should, as if something was underneath them. He leaned against the railing, looking up as the Aria hologram.

It seemed like she wasn't giving them much of a choice however, kill some slavers or die. Not really that bad of a deal if she expected so few to handle the situation so he headed off to Docking Bay 15 with the captain.

He took notes of the others.

There was Xavier, a merc wearing an N7 armor oddly enough and the owner of the bolt heap that they would be flying on.

There was a Cyborg that looked to be as bolted together as the ship that they were gonna be on.
A man who looked to be barely twenty and carrying a sword. He didn't seem like much.

There was a drell. That is really it in Ash's opinion.

A redheaded woman with frosty blue eyes. She, similar to the third man, did not seem like much. Out of place a little.

The last one that Ash took a note of was a man who carried a sniper rifle, a reserved man, similar to the drell.​
 
Harlow's mind wandered as he had already decided to go and now he was just waiting for Aria to finish her speech, he cared little for the self proclaimed "ruler" of Omega but credits are credits. He stood and turned towards the door to follow the owner of this ship that would be transporting them but he locked eyes with someone who had just walked in he saw the Cerberus emblem on the man if only just barley but gave it less than a thought, if they had sent one agent to attack then they were either to arrogant or to dumb to be a threat but this man seemed to be here on his own accord.

As Harlow left the room arriving at the 15th and he had to agree the ship was indeed a piece of shit but it flew and that was the most Harlow could hope for. He sat down outside the ship and got on the Extranet while he waited for the others to arrive.
 
Hannah hastily took the furthest available seat and evaluated the other mercs. She had hoped there would be at least one other female on the crew, but it was hardly in her place to be choicey given her financial desperation.

The majority of them, including herself, were quite withdrawn and kept to themselves throughout the meeting. Perhaps she would fit in after all.

The job itself sounded a little too combat-centric to be comfortable, she was hardly reliable with a firearm. The thought of declining the mission crossed her mind..., that is, until Aria threatened to kill any deserters. Since there was no turning back, she figured her tech powers, hacking ability and general know-how would provide enough support to justify her lack of raw combat experience. Judging from the appearances of several others, it was quite clear that the majority of the group were no strangers to the battlefield.

One particular set of armor bore a familiar crest, an ensign she had removed from her own armor a few years ago, an Alliance logo. Never having met a living Alliance (or ex-Alliance) serviceman, she wondered if he knew anything about the SSV Nero... just as she began analyzing his pale, slender face, the man stood up and broke the brief silence. Shortly after he departed through the doors of the meeting room, Hannah stood up and declared "I'm in", in a serious tone that seemed to defy her meek nature.

Being scanned with Anto's omni-tool gave her more power than he would realize. She left the room in somewhat of a hurry, trying to catch up with Xavier while simultaneously forging a false order on her omni-tool from Anto's account to have her pet geth, Roger (who remained immobile at her appartment), delivered to bay 15. She doubted Anto would notice or care about a few missing credits.

She thought about assaulting Xavier with questions immediately, but stalked him from a distance instead...
 
Raymond settled into the meeting room, wishing for something to wet his whistle with that wasn't the nasty orange beer he had had; the taste was lingering in his mouth. He was glad to see that most of the other people who showed up were human. He didn't recognize the race of the one alien that did show up. Guess I should look up his species after this, assuming it is a he after all... or even if genders apply.

The meeting started and Aria's hologram briefed them on a mission against Batarians. I get why she hired so many humans. We have little love for those slavers. Then Aria finished with her 'do or die' ultimatum, which made Raymond laugh out loud after her hologram faded. “At least she's honest, for an Asari. It looks like we don't have a choice. See you on the ship.” He got up and jogged after his new commander.

“So,” Raymond said, biotically stealing a bottle from behind the bar while the bartender wasn't looking, “You're my new boss then. All I have to say is don't tell me how to do my job and we'll get along fine. See you at Bay 15.” Raymond returned to his apartment and packed up his meager belongings into his duffel bag and headed to the Docking Bays. He didn't bother letting his landlord know he'd be leaving, he'd figure it out once the rent stopped coming in. Besides, one way or another, he was never coming back to this tenement.
 
Jay took a random empty seat near the front once he got into the meeting point, he waited for Aria to finish her big "empowering" speech to get them ready to die for her. Though it's not like any other leaders are any different, Jay was just lucky that he stayed behind everyone and didn't have much of a chance to be shot. He looked around the room to see who he'd be working with, each person definitely seemed interesting, we might all survive this, Jay joked to himself.

After the speech was finished he had no reason (unless he really wanted to die), had no reason to not do the mission so he decided to help out what ever way he could. Jay saw that some of them where following the person who was said to be the piolet so he followed along. While they were in transit he noticed the message that said that the ship was in dock 15, so if he needed to remember where it was it was there and his memory wasn't quite the best so every little helps he guessed.
 
Xavier sighed, the noise sounding metallic and menacing from his helmet as he touched the hatch for his ship, it opened easily enough thank whatever gods you wish to thank. Damn thing needed more than a paint job he had to admit, it was badly in need of either full maintenance or just getting dumped and sold as parts. He didn't like either idea, he had been using the smaller than average frigate for a few months now and the thing worked swimmingly when it wanted to. He turned towards everyone following and paused looking each of them up and down now, he knew some of them would recognize the insignia on his chest, as well as the ed stripe down his arm. But he didn't feel like acknowledging that particular can of worms so far and decided on welcoming them instead.

"Welcome to my junk heap, at one time she was as cold looking as her name, Ice, but months of hard labor and battles tend to turn even the prettiest beauty into scrap." As if on cue at the beauty part the bubbly and energetic pilot of the frigate peeks out from the hatch and sees Xavier talking with the others, she steps out and waves to everyone, her shoulder length charcoal hair tied back into a tight bun, and her slim figure snugly fit into a jumpsuit. Alexandra Darwin looked the complete opposite of her tall imposing captain as she gave a general greeting to everyone "Hi everyone glad to meet you, I'm former ensign Alexandra Darwin, ex-pilot of the SSV Druiminn, she was a fri..." "Enough." Xavier says exasperatedly "They don't need a history lesson with us." He pats her head, indicating he wasn't mad with her, and motions for the others to follow him. "I'm sending a map of the ship to each of you now, your rooms will be marked with an X, and the bridge marked with an O. Now after we get going I'm going to need to know what any of you can do on a ship, we're down to a skeleton crew here. " Xavier then turns to them and motions to the elevator "You all are set up with using the elevator to at least get to the living quarters, I'll set you all up to get to wherever you need to go after we set out. Ensign Darwin and I need to be on the bridge now." He says and nods to each of them sending them one last message on their omnitools, his own personal comm with text reading, in case you need anything else. And walks off with Alex in tow.
 
Harlow listened to the captain and looked at the map on his omni-tool, he saw his room marked on the 2nd level of the ship setting elevator for the 2nd floor first since he was the first in the thing. He decided that instead of being an ass and taking the lift by himself he would wait for some of the others to get in and select their floors along with his, hopefully this would start him off as at least as friendly to the rest of the people on the ship since it would be bad for his health to be fighting batarians along with people that didn't like him.
 
Hannah walked around the hull of the ship as Xavier made his introduction, taking mental notes of the ship's every feature and detail. From what she could tell at first glance, the old girl screamed of former glory, and was once a far more capable vessel than appearance let on. Hannah then rubbed her gloved fingers across a large rail gun scar below the cockpit, as if she was comforting a large wounded animal. She felt a deep sense of respect for this ship... its broken beauty brought back memories of her own former home.

It was around then that the sight of three vorcha transporting a large metal box to the rear of the ship broke her out of reverie. Roger.

She hadn't even asked Xavier if the poor old geth was allowed on board, and decided she would refrain from telling him anything for now. An unknown woman appeared from the hatch once Hannah returned to her place amongst the others. It was relieving to see another female on the crew, an astro-aficionado like herself, no less. Before stepping inside, she made a point to go over the ship's specs with this "Alexandra" once they got off Omega. The notion of a lacking crew made her somewhat excited, she would be honoured to take up the role of main mechanic.

Once inside, part of her wanted to storm both Xavier and Alexandra with questions, yet part of her was ready to head straight to the engine room (which, conveniently, was on the same floor as the cargo bay, where Roger would arrive) to give the ship a true evaluation. Experience proved that most people found her hard to listen to, and in a choice between people and machines, she always picked machines. And so, based on those facts, she scurried into the elevator after the burly bearded merc, who (despite his stoic appearance) was kind enough to wait for everyone, and would set the elevator to the lower deck once the others were settled.
 
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Jay stood near Xavier and listened to his introduction, he was a bit startled by the sudden appearance of the girl from no where. He looked around a bit trying to remember what the ship looked like any defensive weapons or something along those lines as he listened to the man. Once Xavier was finished explaining, he spotted the others heading to a lift so he walked over getting in with the two that were already in. He quickly checked his omnitool to see where he was going to be and pressed the second level button and went back to looking at his omnitool to see what the ship had available.
 
Raymond arrived in the docking bay just as everyone else was showing up. He listened to his new employer's directions and followed them, settling into his new home, rather grateful to have a room to himself. He tossed his bag inside and flopped onto the bed. Hmm, decently comfy. Better than the old tenement, but not by much. He reached into his bag and pulled oit the bottle he stole. A brief examination caused him to groan in disappointment. Thessian Blue? I thought I picked out something human. Oh well, at least I can drink it. He sat up and set it next to the bed before leaving his room to try to get to know his squadmates.

“So, seeing as we're gonna be spending some time together, I think it might help if we got to know each other. I'm Raymond, a biotic and I've been in the Alliance and worked for Eclipse. How 'bout you guys?”
 
Xavier moved to the bridge, Alex right behind him, she takes her usual spot in the pilot's chair, and Xavier takes his in the center of everything. He hits the shipwide comm "We're heading out, her royal majesty has graced us with a job and the place to be finally. I won't lie to any of you, it's going to be rough, but as long as we do what we've always done, we'll get out of this in one piece. We've got some new crew, other independent mercs like ourselves, give them a warm welcome. They'll be with us until we finish this mission, longer if they want to sign on. We're up against Batarian slavers. I doubt they have hegemony back-up but we're going to fly careful and cautious anyway, hit them hard and fast while on the ground, myself and anyone willing to join me on the ground will hit slaver bases hard. While the ship crew...with the limited armaments we have will fly in and take out any kind of ship defenses the slavers have. Even if they have a cruiser a batarian ship is nowhere near as powerful as even a slightly rundown frigate like Ice here." He sits back in his chair as Alex get's the ship out of dock easily and he gives her the first set of coordinates, he get's up "XO you have the bridge." he hears the normal aye aye and walks to the elevator, he was hungry and decided he'd hit the messhall for some chow and grab a couple hours of sleep in the eight hours it would take them to get to their first target. It was odd that Aria would be worried about Alliance retaliation, but on the other hand it could lead to all out war if it goes too far and that would be profitable for some, but Aria isn't really like that, she likes to paly it safe for Omega as a whole. He taps the button for the living quarters and messhall.
 
Through most introductions and to the ship boarding, Kronos was mostly quiet. Initially, he was just thinking about just taking care of the issue and then heading back into the Attican Traverse or elsewhere in the Terminus Systems, or go into his Pass Time of Hunting down Cerberus Operatives that are snooping around in the Terminus. That was always fun. Taking on Batarian Slavers...That was going to be fun. Since he was a little...shy...Kronos decided to head over to a spot on the Ship where he can just enjoy the view of endless space...At least until it was time to take up arms and fight.
 
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