Chasing the Stars ~ Omega, 2185 (In Progress)

Kalia tilted her head a little to the side as she looked up at Aleeta, laughing slightly, "Oh baby, I cant wait, I love crazy. Dont worry though, I learned my lesson. I think."
It was probably not a good idea to start annoying her future teammates, but still. She actually liked Aleeta. She seemed like someone she could tease and have a lot of fun with, even though she was very, very grumpy and very likely to end up killing her. High spirits didnt exactly seem common with anyone.

The way she saw it, she had a few options.

1. She could take the 10,000 credits which would be paid up front and run, and hope that the Black Suns or the people who would actually be doing the job wouldnt kill her.

2. She could do the job, be a valued member of the team and walk away with the 10,000 credits when the job was complete, and hope the Black Suns wouldnt kill her.

3. She could do the job, betray the team and walk away with everything, and hope the Black Suns or the team wouldnt kill her.

4. She could do the job, be a valued member of the team but gently push it towards fulfilling her own goals... like destroying the Black Suns. She would walk away with the money and have no one to try and kill her, while the team would walk away feeling the warm, cosy sensation of accomplishment. Everyone would be happy.

That being said, she needed a contingency plan. It was a well known fact that everyone on Omega was out for themselves, and she could just as easily be betrayed as she could be the one doing the betraying. She needed something to break apart the group if she had to, either as part of her betrayal or if she was betrayed.

Money. Money was one thing she could use. The Volus had said "Those terms are acceptable to me". He hadnt said "Those terms are great!" 10,000 credits was a lot of money up front, so what they were stealing would probably be worth double or even triple what the Salarian would spend on hiring people to find it. If the team happened to start thinking they were getting less than what they deserved, it could create some divisions between them and the Salarian. And a team without leadership would fail.

Or she could use herself as a bad example. Judging from the... mixed reaction her presence was getting, the only reason why she was still alive was because of the Salarian. He had been very welcoming in comparison. If she started to cause problems the blame for her being around would be the Salarians, because if it was up to the other members of the team she was fairly sure she would be dead. If they questioned her, they questioned him. If questioned him, they questioned his competence, and that would cause divisions, and a team without leadership would fail.

Or she could target the members of the team individually, and make them question each others loyalties and motivations. The sad truth was that, while everyone was out for themselves, they also didnt like other people who were out for themselves. She could play the Black Suns card, maybe secretly planting doubts in someones mind that another member of the team was an informant who was selling them out, maybe after something went drastically wrong, so when they were at their most vulnerable.

But how to gain their trust? That was pretty simple, really. In the eyes of the team, she had to be more than a thief who was wanting to betray them... which, of course, she was, but she didnt want them to know that. Telling the truth had worked before, maybe she would have to try that again. Or at least, spin a lie which happened to be close to the truth. But around her there was a Salarian, a Turian, a Krogan, a Volus and a Drell, and they would all probably want to see different things. The Salarian would probably want intelligence, the Turian would probably want honor, the Krogan would want brutality or straightforwardness, the Volus would be tempted by money and the Drell would want to see some kind of skill. Or so she figured, but she was probably being a little offensive using racial stereotypes.

She could seduce someone alternatively, if the opportunity came to pass. Looking around, none of the team were what she would consider good looking, although the Drell did look... intriguing, in a way. The Krogan was an instant no, she was rather attached to her innards and tended to like them not being completely annihilated. The Volus... as adorable as they were, it wouldnt be a great deal of fun... maybe some size issues. The Salarian probably wouldnt be interested, and while she had no issue with pretending to be bisexual with Aleeta in order to gain the trust of the group, the chance of that happening was seriously close to zero, and she had no idea what Aleeta's deal was, whether it was men, women, asari, vorcha...
Ok, she thought, Seduction is probably off the table.

She decided to talk. Just say something, anything. Maybe starting with the honesty thing.

"You know, Ive had guns pointed at me, Ive been threatened and Ive also been called a slut. This sounds like every job interview Ive ever had, actually."

She had no idea what it was about a tight fitting, black leather outfit that made people think she was a slut, but she didnt especially care.

"Speaking of which," she added, "Ill lay my cards down on the table and admit that what I showed you before wasnt a card for Omega Security Systems, it was a membership card to a strip club I stole. So, Im thinking, when the job is done..." she shrugged, "Just putting it on the table, saying we could. To celebrate. Right? Just dont ask why the two are connected. Jobs and strip clubs I mean."

The more honest she was, the more they would start to trust her. Or be less suspicious of her. Or at least not try and kill her. Any of those were good.

"I have a question," she pointed out, speaking louder than she had done before, "I stole something from someone who worked for the Black Suns, and before I knocked him out he said he would send a hit squad after me if I didnt pay him back. Tomorrow, that is. Heres my question... whats to stop them doing the same thing to all of us? What if we get caught, or seen, or captured on camera? Whats to stop them sending people to kill us? Even if we get the hell out of here and go somewhere else, they could still send an assassin no matter where we go or hide.
So... heres what Im thinking. The Black Suns are bad people... they deal in drugs and slavery, they ruin peoples lives... instead of breaking in and stealing one thing... why dont we do Omega, and ourselves, a favor and take them all on? And steal everything? Kick their asses, steal every credit they have and then we're free to go about our lives with no one wanting to kill us? Isnt that the smartest plan? We have a communicator... cant we... use it to track other people connected to the frequency? Wont we know where at least some of the Black Suns are and be able to use it to our advantage?"

Honor, brutality, money and intelligence. Perfect. There was probably some skill in there too.

"Oh, and before I forget..." she knelt down next to the Volus, her arms outstretched, "Can I have a hug?"


[OOC: this might touch on some plot points which Space Cowboy might not want to have... if so ill happily edit it to get rid of the bits about destroying the Black Suns

Also tagging Space Cowboy again ]

"Don't try anything stupid, human slut" Justice spat as Kailia spread her arms out in offer for a hug to the Volus. "This job will get me out of this hell hole and I believe Sal is paying good money. He may trust you but I don't. If you betray us or steal from us." Justice summoned a palm sized sphere of biotic in front of Kailia. "I'll fucking rip you molecule by molecule."

Normally Justice, wouldn't trust anyone but the human gave out bad signals. Kailia was obviously trying to play everyone, Justice hopes that he can stop her. Still the human woman with the skin tight suit that exposes part of her cleavage did say something about the Black Suns which intrigued Justice. "Now I agree with you that the Black Suns bring nothing but pain and misery to an already miserable place. If paid extra, I'm willing to find their hideout and take them out, take their credits. No one will lose sleep over a lost gang. Though this human slut may lead us into a trap, we'll see but if she is a traitor I'll do what I just said."

Justice chuckled at his statement, he just needs Kalia to be intimidated. Sal continued laying out the plan: "Now, one person can hack into their security cameras, where we can gain a view of the goods being delivered and picked up. Once the Black Suns show up, we swoop in and take their share, and wait for delivery of the other party's share. then we take that too. This will be delicate timing because we need to convince the Black Suns their drop is going as scheduled."

"Sounds good." Justice nodded. "I can sniff out the eezo and crush any Black Sun who tries to resist. I have no complaints about this plan. But like I said Sal keep an eye on the human."

Justice took a dark look at Kailia then took out his Shotgun and began calibrating it.

(OOC: SofaJockey )

"You know," Kalia said, "I've had guns pointed at me, I've been threatened and I've also been called a slut. This sounds like every job interview I've ever had, actually."

Aleeta had an immediate dislike for the human rogue, but she couldn't help but wryly chuckle. She also didn't mind her suggestion of wiping out the Black Suns entirely, if the opportunity presented itself. They were an awful bunch and taking them down would either leave her a hero or dead trying and, frankly, Aleeta was fine with either outcome.

At Sal's private message, the Cabal's eyes flitted over to him briefly in silent acknowledgment before turning to watch as he went over the blueprints and general gameplan.

"I'm no expert hacker," Aleeta commented, "but I should be able to assist with the security cameras. I could also sneak around the docks and set up some charges that I can remotely detonate if we need to pull attention away from us. Plus," she continued, holding up one of her small, round smoke bombs, "I always have these little beauties on-hand for last-minute get-away cover as needed. Tech, I like. Smooth-talking, not so much."

As discussions of the job continued, Aleeta heard the human female approach their Volus compatriot.

"Oh, and before I forget..." she knelt down next to the Volus, her arms outstretched, "Can I have a hug?"

The exchange did not go well as Delan clearly didn't want to be touched. Aleeta couldn't really blame him.

"So unless you want to leave with your entrails in a bucket, I decline, human..." (kss)

While Delan fixed a stare at Kalia, Aleeta interjected herself between the two, lightly but firmly grasping Kalia's upper arm to pull her up and away from both the Volus and his gun. "Rule Number One was never to follow and spy upon me again," the Turian explained. "Now we have Rule Number Two: don't touch my Volus friend. Period."

[OOC: Passes the ball back to GeneralXIV ]

Sal grimaced at Kalia's offer of a hug and the reactions to it. What was with humans and hugging? Perhaps Larry could explain it. He stood hastily.

"OK Enough!" he said, waving his hands. "Save it for the Black Suns. Fighting amongst ourselves is just wasting valuable time."

He looked Kalia up and down. "Human, I'm sure to other humans your 'assets' are valuable,"

"I can vouch for that" Larry said with a wink.

"But to other species not so much. Now, while the Black Suns are multi species, their top brass are Batarian. They loathe humans even when forced to work with them. There is a very low chance the buyers are human. Or Asari, the only other species that would appreciate your 'assets' as far as I know."

"That said, I'm not sure arriving in a low cut gown is good for your health, considering what we may be facing. Your call however. "

"I do like the idea of obtaining Black Sun armour though. I suggest we split up. Kalia and Aleeta can go find Kalia a change of clothing. Consider it a bonding exercise. Try not to kill each other. The rest of us can obtain Black Sun armour. Even if a few suits, we can use them to surprise the gang members that are guarding or moving the shipment."

He turned his attention to Delan. "Now, Volus, you've been dodging this issue so far. Don't think I haven't noticed. What do you see as your role in this? I'm not clear exactly what you are contributing."

[OOC After Delan's answer]

"Fine, I say we move if everyone is in agreement. Meet back here in two hours at the latest. Agreed?"

[OOC Tagging @tzeenchianapostrophe

OK Kalia and Aleeta can retrieve items and come back. The rest of us can attack a black suns safehouse that Sal knows about. This could take a few rounds but I don't want to drag it out.

The Black Suns safehouse has a sniper and an automatic turret guarding it, and bad guys inside, if someone wants to take us there. Maybe Kato. We need a suit for each species.

Larry is NOT going with them.
]

The Volus left the Salarian behind him, some distance from the Warehouse and paced forward towards it, a box of cleaning materials in this arms,
or so it would seem to the casual observer: some plastic containers with a cleaning cloth perched on top.

Delan was pleased, he felt he had addressed the Salarian's concerns earlier, and whilst he had been momentarily disappointed in his payment distraction having been called out, he admitted that the Salarian was sufficiently smart, and that was no bad thing in a partner in crime.

The Volus recalled the conversation: "Now, Volus, you've been dodging this issue so far. Don't think I haven't noticed. What do you see as your role in this? I'm not clear exactly what you are contributing." The Salarian had asked.

Delan had replied candidly: "I'm the last thing any mercenary band will expect to be attacking them, I'm agile for my size, a good aim with a rifle, and there are more ways to win a fight than just shooting, Salarian." (kss)

"Now, where's the kitchen? I need some plastic containers and some soap..." (kss)

Delan was working his way towards the Warehouse, not a beeline for it but slightly to one side so it looked as though the Volus would head on past through the Warehouse district.

The sniper on the balcony overlooking the doorway had clearly noticed him, but seemed to be exhibiting bored alertness rather than keen alterness. At least the sniper wasn't sighting his rifle, which was nice.

He was conscious of varying packing crates littering the access platforms in front of the Warehouses. He was often struck by how keen many races were to litter their open spaces with chest-high crap, or at least chest-high on a human. On Delan these obstructions usually came up to his shoulders. Regardless of that, they were more than enough cover for his gang-mates to utilize, so long as Delan trod the fine line between being obvious to a guard without causing a commotion that would interest those inside the Warehouse.

Aware that he was being watched, he stopped before heading past the Black Suns Warehouse, looked around, then looked up at the guard who was taking more of an interest now, raising his rifle...

"Is this the way to Harot's Warehouse?" (kss),  Delan asked, conversationally.

"Piss off, Volus" muttered the guard, rifle at the ready, watching Delan.

"It must be nearby" (kss), continued Delan, "the Elcor said it was down here past the residential district" (kss)

"I told you to piss off, I won't tell you again" the guard grumbled, now sighting the Volus.

"ok, calm down, calm down" (kss), said Delan, plopping his box of cleaning materials down near the door, though not close enough, Delan calculated, to trigger the nearby turret. "I've messaged Harot to come and get me, I'll be on my way and leave you be", (kss) accompanied by a few beeps of his Omni-tool.

Good, the thug looked more irritated than murderous, so Delan took things a step further.

"I'll just wait here for 5 minutes for him to fetch me" (kss), he said, sinking down onto the box, to use it as a stool, dislodging two containers, which rather unceremoniously glugged soapy liquid onto the gangway.

"Oh dear, let me clean this up" (kss) the Volus panted and started dabbing at the spill with his cleaning cloth, confident that wherever his gang-members were situated around the Warehouse, the guard was 100% focused on the stupid Volus cleaning up his mess...


(OOC: Not sure where next - discussion thread please...)

"With all of these rules? Its more bondage than bonding," Kalia sighed, "This is Omega. The idea is to have no rules, right? "Dont follow me", "Dont hug the Volus", "Dont buy that"... whats up with that? Its like a constant bitch contest with you, which Im winning, by the way. What happened to girl power, huh?"[/p]

Aleeta seemed to ignore her reply, and glanced around as if she was trying to see something. Kalia looked around too, but couldnt see anything out of the ordinary.

"Cloak. Go hide. Don't let them find you. I've got this," she said quietly.

She opened her mouth to ask why, and who they were, but she figured it wasnt the best idea. She pulled her hood over her head and activated her holographic visor before engaging her cloak. She didnt run, or hide like Aleeta had ordered, instead completely ignoring the rule about not following her. Maybe as a quiet rebellion against the rules and orders she was getting, or maybe as an act of concern. She couldnt tell which.

A short while later, Aleeta stopped. There was a Salarian, a human, a krogan and a turian blocking her path. At her distance, she couldnt tell what they were saying, but their armor instantly told her who they were working for. The Black Suns.

Kalia had a few options.

1. She could hope her combat skills exceeded those of the Salarian, the human, the Turian the Krogan... which they probably wouldnt, and save Aleeta, but risk exposing the plan if she was caught, followed or otherwise noticed.

2. She could let the Black Suns kill or take her, and tell the team that Aleeta had gone.

3. She could let the Black Suns take her, and tell the team where she was, and they could get her back.

As she thought about what she would do, they started to fight. Aleeta quickly took care of the Human and the Salarian, but the Turian and the Krogan were obviously proving more difficult. Because they were tougher. Not as soft.

Kalia made her decision and started to run over to help, dropping her shopping bag, but she spotted a second Turian closing in from behind with a heavy looking rifle. Changing direction slightly, she moved to engage him, thinking that if he turned the corner he would have the perfect view of the fight, and the perfect shot aimed at Aleetas back.

Aleeta probably wouldnt want to get shot in the back. She would probably say something along the lines of "Rule three: Dont let me get shot from behind" while recovering. Or she would be dead.

She landed a flat-palmed blow against the side of the rifle, which broke her cloak and knocked the Turian off-balance. She stunned him with a punch to the helmet, quickly twisting the gun from his grip while she had the chance. Before it had even hit the floor, the Turian tried to swing a blow at her head. She dodged it, grasping his wrist before he could retract it and twisting his arm the wrong way.

She made him slap himself on his helmet, which was a pretty harmless move. But, because his arm was twisted the wrong way... it broke. The Turian yelled in pain, and he drew his sidearm, raising it with his unbroken arm. But before he could shoot her, she quickly sabotaged his weapon so when he did pull the trigger, the gun overheated and didnt fire. She hit him in the face, and when he raised his hand to defend himself, she wrapped her legs quickly around him and brought him down with a reverse scissor kick. Kalia quickly drew her sword and ran it through his neck, between the join of his armor and helmet. She heard the Turian gurgle as she climbed to her feet.

She liked to avoid killing people as much as she could, but sometimes it was unavoidable. She pulled her sword out of his neck and sheathed it, cloaking again and looking for Aleeta. The area was clouded with smoke, making it hard to see anything, but it was clearing quickly. More Black Suns had joined the group, and she caught a glimpse of them hauling Aleetas unconscious body away.

There were too many of them, way too many. There was nothing she could do to stop them from taking her. But there was something she could do to get her back.

Reaching into a small pocket in her armor, she removed a small tracking device which she usually used for keeping track of potential targets for her to steal from. Pushing the small button in the center to activate it, she ran forward, dodging between the Black Suns to slip the device inside Aleetas armor, keeping low to avoid detection.

It was time to get the hell out of there. She fled, making sure she collected her bag on her way. She had to find the team.

[OOC: Space Cowboy your turn!]

(OOC: Listen to this music while reading our assault! XD)



Sal gave the signal to assault the safehouse. "Time to crash this party." Justice smirked cocking his Krogan Shotgun.

Kato quickly took out the guards on the rooftop and joined Justice as he advanced to the entrance. "Joining me eh Kato?" Justice smiled. "Fine then welcome to the party!"

Kato pulled a small explosive from his belt and placed on the door. "Be ready." He whispered as he prepared a flashbang.

Three seconds later, the door exploded and Kato threw his flashbang.

Time to kill.

Taking advantage of the confusion, Justice performed a Biotic charge at the disoriented and wounded Black Suns. Turning into a big ball of biotic mass, the Krogan charged hard and fast at the soldiers, throwing six of them at varying directions. For the remaining 8 Justice performed a shockwave, electrifying all of them.

"Intruders! Intruders in the safhouse!" Justice heard a Black Sun officer shout.

More reinforcements came and Justice began glowing a deep, dark blue shielding himself from incoming projectiles. As he advanced, Justice fired a couple of rounds of his Shotgun splattering a Batarian soldier with one blast and two more: Salarian and a Turian fell with multiple blast. As they fell weeping and writhing in pain. Justice charged in, smacking a Krogan guard with a Biotic bolt. He flew so far that he hit the concrete wall face first, Justice thought he cracked his skull judging by the looks of it.

With the help of his Biotic abilities, Justice lept a good 6 feet in the air and balled his fist which began to glow a big light blue ball. Desperate the Turian commander ordered her troops to focus fire onto the Krogan. Hoping that Kato can take of the stragglers, Justice absorbed a few hits as he landed his fist HARD onto the ground creating a massive shockwave which sent everyone flying and metal boxes which began to collapse on the Krogan Shaman. Justice pushed them away with telekinesis and took on the remaining stragglers who were pissing themselves.

"PLEASE WE SURRENDER! WE'LL DO WHATEVER YOU WANT!" One of them wept.

Justice laughed. "Hey Kato! We got people who surrendered to us! What do you want to do?" Reaching for his Omini Tool Justice contacted Sal: "Hey Sal what do you want me to do with the survivors? Kill them or let them go? Your choice?"

(SofaJockey )

After taking a small trip back to the safehouse to get the location of the Black Suns warehouse that the team was attacking from the Salarians computer, she finally arrived. And she was out of breath. From yet more running. There looked to be quite a few bodies.

She pushed open the door to the warehouse, seeing the team.

"Guys, Alee-"

She caught a glimpse of the Black Suns members and, out of sheer habit and surprise, punched the closest one directly in the nose.

Then she realized they had surrendered.

"Oops," she said, taking a step back from the Black Suns, "Guys, Aleeta has been taken. We went shopping and on our way back she was ambushed. I think. She told me to run and I saw her being taken away. I put a tracking device on her but it only works within a certain distance, and I havent been able to get a signal yet. We need to get her back, right? We need to find her and bring her back. Like now."

Justice felt a little woozy.

The Krogan used up too much of his Biotic ability again and he now feels like he wants to collapse. Still the only thing keeping him standing is Delan trying to sound like a badass, but ended up sounding ridiculous. "You sound too fake Delan. You sound like a baby Vorcha trying to act tough" Justice chuckled "ease off before you'll make our hostages laugh."

Sal apparently agreed as he took over the interrogation "Best to talk, friend. My volus friend only looks cute and friendly. The Batarian spat and said nothing. Sal shrugged and used his onmitool to send a jolt of electricity into the Batarian, knocking him unconscious. he moved on to the next one. "

"Poke him in the eyes!" Justice suggested "The Batarian believe that their souls leave through their eyes when they die. Some are pretty conscious about other people poking their eyes."

Just then Kalia rushed in with a panicked look. Before the group could react, Kalia punched the Batarian in the face much to Justice's delight.

"Ha! That's a pretty good punch looks like I may pull back on my Human slut comment!"

But Kailia had bad news, she explained that they went "shopping" and were in a battle with the Black Suns. During the ensuing chaos, Aleeta was captured. All of this made Justice suspicious of her again, but she doesn't look wounded in order to make the farce look convincing and she really looked serious. So either Kalia is a great actor or she really is serious. Justice decided he won't voice his concern for now.

"Looks like a search and rescue mission." Justice declared "It's up to you Sal, but I much rather rescue Aleeta. Let's look for some disguises!"

Justice walked to the Krogan he killed and began removing his armor.

(SofaJockey .)

Kalia wasted no time. She undressed quickly from her leather outfit, well aware that there were people watching. She set her bag down on the floor, and took the newly acquired business clothing from it, and started to get changed.

Her outfit was... a little different than the one she originally picked out. The one Aleeta hadnt let her buy. It was a strapless formal dress, and finished mid-thigh. Once she had the dress on, she removed a pair of fake glasses and put those on too, trying to make herself look as business-like as possible.

"What do you think, huh?" she asked, "Enough to convince someone?"

Of course it was. She looked great. She bundled her leather outfit into her thieving bag, but kept the visor just in case.

She strapped a holster around her thigh, and fit her M-11 Suppressor into it. Her sword was a little harder to fit, but she eventually managed to make sure no one could see it under her dress. The holster had a few spaces for ammo, so she placed a few thermal clips there, and fit the rest into her bra, because she had nowhere else. The dress was definitely lacking in pockets.

"I want to go and help Aleeta," she said, "As much as it hurts to admit it, I miss Dizzy. She was fun. She reminds me of my mom. Always telling me what to do, got pretty mad about nothing... I like her. Plus saving her life will show who is boss, which is me of course. So while most of you guys are fighting and shooting all the bad guys, thats something for me to do... right? Before I start fighting and shooting all the bad guys that is."


[OOC Space Cowboy ]

Sal had finished outlining the basics:

"OK, I hope you've all agreed on a plan for the approach. We'll be going in together, but what's our story?"

Delan had been assessing ruse probabilities:

• he'd hoped to pose as some kind of trader with Kalia as his business associate, but he was struggling with how convincing that would be...
• Pretend to be a Shadow Broker agent? No, far too dangerous.
• A lackey for Aria? Just as dangerous a ploy and easily checked.
• Some illicit off-Omega shipping? No, that would just require some palms greasing with credits, not thugs.
  (and there wasn't much on Omega that was truly off-limits)