Mass Effect: Terminus

Gerard Kalgard

He did not question the Asari's command nor hesitate to enact it. If she wanted to take the mantle of leadership then he wasn't going to sabotage his chances of getting out alive by denying her. The Salarian could go to hell if he had a problem with this. A Salarian can only make your life miserable for a couple of decades before they croaked. An Asari would torture you for the rest of your pitiful existence.

As he stood by the other human, however, he became uneasy. Clearly this man was a biotic, which made him nearly as dangerous as the Asari. For now, his best bet was to pretend to ignore the other man and do his job. Everything could be sorted out later.

The Salarian stared her down. Asari, so entitled, so pompous. And the perfect person to wear the gigantic target on her back, of being the designated leader of a band of misfits and murderers. He found it humorous how she ordered the men about, not even a thank you or by your leave! She was the one in the prison, he was her rescuer. Maybe he should have let her rot and cut his losses? Elvis shrugged and let it drop, not time for these thoughts at the present time.

"Other plan taking the time to come up with a plan in less than two days, and risking my own well being to implement it, and put together a team with hardly enough time to scout them out. Could not make the same mistakes as last time useless thugs. One Turian, known successful bounty hunter, and a Batarian, Blue Suns veteran. The fact that he did not die in the meat grinder of an organization told me enough that he would be suitable. The two humans we picked up on our way through the prison. The male is an engineer, we needed one, and the female is a worthy sharp shooter." *inhale*

*Exhale*

"Your welcome. Now, other than rigging one shuttle for a crash landing. I also fixed one for our escape. Though the A.I. is very very simple, not enough time to write something else, we will have to use the prison's own landing pad, since its was the easiest to program. Though that means we would haveto go through many guards and prisoners also making there way there."

Talk-talk, order-order with a dash of killing. So far things were going fairly well besides for the obvious fact that 'subtly' is a foreign concept to Boitcs. He often wondered why they complained so much about mistreatment, 'oh hey, I can crush people with my mind and totally NOT die from a grazing shoulder wound. Oh woe is me' Ken thought in the most mocking tone his mind could conjure.
His internal mocking was however interrupted buy Kiares ordering him to pull up a map of the area. Simple enough, and he did agree to help her as far as getting off this rock. After hearing her warning about him showing up he made a bit of a show by decloaking right next to her as if he had always been there.
"Sure thing Kiares." He said in a rather relaxed tone. While he had a lot of martial training, military respect had not been something tought to him.
His Omni-tool flared to life, a 3d print out of the building appeared as fast as he hacked the network. The network was fairly old and pretty easy to get into really.
"There are two ways to get to the landing zone from here." He said as he tapped his omni-tool, two paths glowing in slightly different colors, one red, one green.
"The fastest way is to go through the lock up and head left, a straight shot through security to the landing area. That will however probably be heavly guarded with whatever remains of the guard forces that are not scattered. Also that will probably be where any Rioting prisoners are heading aswell." He gave an idle shrug as he moved on.
"The other way is to head up a couple of floors and circle around this way through processing, coming out the way they bring most prisoners in. It will probably be less guarded, a couple of grunts with a few drones at best. However they will have the advantage of cover while we will be in a narrow hallway with little cover." He gave another shrug
"Both ways have their pros and cons, depending on what route you choose I can offer some ideas. This is all assuming that when I hacked the doors earlier to open our cell doors but keep the main doors from closeing holds out much longer. As long as they don't have a talented tech it should hold. If not I'll just have to counter hack it again." He said with nod. He took a moment to look over the rainbow of races they had at the moment, Humans, Batarian, Turian, Salarian and Asari. All the races that sit on the councel plus one Batarian and a Quarian. What a group.
He turned to Kiares, whom he assumed by the way she acted was still in charge, and waited for her order.

The black-armored human remained silent, standing patiently. Either route would do, and it became clear they were going to successfully leave the planet. Fortune had been favorable today.

Gerard Kalgard

Great, a Quarian. While Gerard held no ill will towards the Quarian or his people, they had a knack for being tech experts, which put Gerard in the awkward position of seeing his perceived usefulness diminish. Hopefully the Quarian was not an engineer, as that would reduce the human's prospects of escape dramatically. He was not about to rely on the good will of the Asari or the Salarian.

When the map came up, he inwardly hoped that they would take the more heavily-guarded but shorter path. Honestly, any prisoner with common sense would be heading toward the landing pad; and if they didn't hurry, those prisoners would end up taking the shuttle for themselves. What would be the problem with the dangerous path? They had eight highly trained, mostly-expendable warriors that encompassed each combat discipline at their disposal. If this would not suffice to get past the guards, then they were doomed already. However, as he was not in any sort of position to express his views, he kept these thoughts to himself.

He breathed a sigh of relief when the Asari's decision concurred with his judgment. This also gave him an opportunity to get an omnitool, some ammo, a sidearm, and actual armor. That would make things run all the more smoothly.

Fehln Davris

Great, now he was being ignored by both parties. He had expected at least one of them to tell him to fall back in line or threaten him, but that whole time is of the essence thing only now decided to kick in with his boss and their target. Then the asari, Kiares if he had heard his boss correctly, called out to someone from her end of the hallway, and a quarian turned off his cloak. On instinct he aimed the shuriken at him, only lowering it when he was sure that he was not a threat and indeed on their side.

He grudgingly followed the Asari's orders if only to get some answers out of his boss. "Sir, I have to know, why is it that all of a sudden you've gone from leader of this operation to following this asari like she was here to begin with?" yes the decision she made was a sensible one when considering the prisoners and how they would all be heading for the landing pad, and they would only be able to deal with the longer path if he and the sniper managed to keep the guards down while the others got to cover, but still, to just fall in like that, the salarian hadn't told him everything.

Kayne idly flexed his armor's pointed fingertips. Taking a few silent steps, the quiet human took his place near the Quarian. His priority now ensuring Ken'ara's safety, he idly scanned the area from time to time, remaining alert.

Sashryn Velentor

After approaching the group, Sashryn sized up the one who seemed to be the new leader of the group. An Asari. So that's who they're here to rescue. Strongly built, wears little armor. Biotic. Might be an easy kill if she wasn't expecting me... thought the young woman to herself. Not that Sashryn had any plans on killing the blue skin, but she had made a habit of analyzing people in such a way. It kept her sharp.

Having listened to the conversation, Sashryn decided that she had best keep any opinions about the plan to herself, even though the Asari had made allowance for ideas. Personally, Sashryn would have preferred to take a slightly longer route that was less defended, but she didn't know if time would allow for that. Besides, the majority of the group were aliens who might have poor opinions of humans. If she started chiming in, they might decide she wasn't worth keeping around, and that wouldn't do. So she kept her mouth shut, and fell in line behind the others.

He patted the Turian on the shoulders, "I came to rescue the captain of the crew Turian. Loyalty is a boon in our industry, I trust her well enough to see us through a job. She trusts me to keep things running smoothly. She is a good tactician when she wants to be, I have a more crude approach to things as you might have noticed, but she can be sharp. Make no mistake though, I am by no means some grunt, I guess you could say I am a very valuable second in command. Let us finish what we came here for Turian, more credits will be in it for you" With that he fell in line with his orders.

*Inhale*

Let the asari wear the target for now....Until I decide otherwise who should.

Fehln Davris

Captain? The asari with the mask of a crazed beast was the captain? Yes the salarian he could picture as a second in command, but while the asari was good she looked as though she was nothing short of one of the psychopaths he put away. They were among one of his higher paying job offers too, so if nothing else, he could get some decent credits off her, maybe get a decent hunt in if she proved to be worthy enough.

"Well this is the first solid job I've had in months, so it's not like I can back once this is over anyways, might actually be good to have a steady source of income instead of searching the extranet for the next big score," he relented, falling in with his boss.

'Keep the Quarian alive' those words played through ken's mind, mostly due to seldom he has ever heard anyone utter it. The ironic thing was he felt more like a target with the others 'guarding' him as they were. It was somewhat distracting so he tried to push it away from his mind, but his hands were getting twitchy. As such while the others grabbed their gear from the lock up he went back to hacking, After having some fun by switching lights off in the Security room and flushing all the toilets in the entire building he hacked into the cameras in an attempt to see what was waiting for them.
"You might want to take a quick look around the lock up, the guards took most of the high end stuff but there might be a few odds and ends that can be used to credits. Up to you though Kiares." he tapped his omni-tool, opening the door at the far end of the lock up so they could move on. Switching back to the cameras he noticed two guards cautiously making their way down the hall to their position. Ahh, about time, this will give me a chance to streach my legs. ken thought.
"Pardon me for a moment." he said as he vanished, cloaking on the spot.
He slipped passed the mess of people in the lock up and turned down the hall way, walking quickly and quitly as he approched the two guards. He let out a short whistle, to which both guards turned to see, nothing but an empty hallway. The guards looked at each other, one said
"Must be hearing things now." The other chuckled, but the chuckle turned into a gurgle as a blade materialized in his throat. At first it looked like just a hole opened up, but as the blood dripped from the air Ken's stealth wore off, it was a shame that attacking always deactivated it. The other guard stared, wided eyed for a moment before trying to turn and fire. Turning on his heel, Ken pulled his blade free and sent a swift kick to the second guards head, knocking him off balance as his shots hit harmlessly on the back wall. Stepping up ken sliced the guards hand, disarming him. The guard cried out in agony as he looked at his arms that now ended in bloody stumps. One more slash and Ken relived him of his pain, watching as the guards head, helmet and all, rolled away. Smiling under his mask Ken cleaned his blade and returned it to his sheath. Cloaking again he swiftly returned to his position next to the Biotic human. The entire venture had taken him almost a minute flat, seems like his time in hear had not dulled him much.
Smiling, though no one would notice under his mask, he spoke to Kiares.
"The way to the security room should be clear for at least the next three hallways."

Kiares


Upon Ken’s suggestion to search lock up for valuables, Kiares agreed, but stressed not to take anything heavy enough to hinder them in a fight, seeing how credits only benefited the living. She herself only grabbed a new omnitool. Not that it did her any good now, before she got time to reprogram it for her personal needs, but you could always need one of those.

When they left lock up geared up and ready, she was a bit conflicted about the lack of suggestions she’d gotten. On the one hand, she should be happy about nobody question of challenging her orders. On the other hand, it could also signify a distressing absence of innovation and improvisation ability in her current team. That however was a concern for later.

Then the Quarian pulled his vanishing act, only to reappear with blood on his suit, gleefully telling them that the way was free. She threw a disapproving glare his way that promised We’ll talk later.
Now they had arrived at a point where the hallway they were in took a curve to the left. Once that was crossed, the would be able to see the security hall in the distance, and by the sounds of it, the guards had entrenched themselves there, doing their best to keep the door that had “Landing pad” written on it at their back and the attacking prisoners at their front.

“Quarian, as soon as we have visual, turn of the lights for thirteen seconds. Everybody who has a gun and night vision reduces the enemies’ numbers during that period. Once the lights come back on, hopefully blinding some people, the Batarian will further increase the chaos with an inferno grenade. That’s our signal to make a run for the landing pad. Once our assault has commenced, Turian and my main objective will be to reach and secure the entry point to the landing pad. Quarian, Batarian, human sniper and engineer are tasked with suppression fire/tech. Same counts for Elvis and human biotic, only that once we’ve secured the door, it’ll be their task to defend it until everyone has gotten through it.”

Kiares eyes narrowed, her voice getting colder than usual:
“Let’s bring salvation.”

Sashryn Velentor

Deciding that searching the lock up for anything useful would be a good idea, the young woman entered the room and looked around. Spotting a stack of thermal clips, she grabbed three and attached them to the belt her holster was attached to. She shouldn't need that much ammunition, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to have it.

Taking another look around the lock up, she weighed her options. A prisoner outfit did next to nothing to protect her, but the armor the guards wore would only hinder her. She certainly could carry any more weapons, and grenades weren't her style. But something in particular caught her eye that she knew they would need. After moving several misplaced weapons, she lifted up several packs of medigel. After spreading some on her own wounds, she called out to her ally, Gerard, before tossing him one. The wounds on her arm hadn't been severe, but they could hinder her accuracy. Taking an extra pack, she attached it to her belt and grabbed one more item, an omni-tool. She would need to reprogram it once given the time, so as to suit her special requirements.

After collecting all that she needed, Sashryn exited the room and stood next to the Asari. After wondering whether or not she should bother, Sashryn decided to bring up an idea she had.

"Ma'am, my Raptor's scope has night vision capabilities. If you give me a short amount of time to fire on them by myself after the lights go out, I will be able to kill five or six of them in the same number of seconds. Firing alone will alow me to guide their reactions, something I can't predict with everyone firing. After I finish firing these first shots, it would be prudent to continue allowing the others to open fire."

Kiares

Six in six seconds? That girl (or was it a woman? So hard to tell with the short lived species) was either a valuable asset, or suffering from the same bravado many other humans suffered since the end of the great war. Whatever the case, bullets would be flying, and that was all she needed for now.
“You may have that time. Ken, the lights.”

Harus snorted, it mattered little if the Asari was their leader, so long as he left this rock alive with the pay he'd been promised. Now that the Quarian had cleared the way, all that remained was for their 'team' to break through the defences of the guards and reach the landing pad. To make things a bit easier, the Quarian was going to kill the lights, giving them time to pick off as many as they could before bringing them back on. He'd also been instructed to make use of an inferno grenade to add to the chaos, and, as luck would have it, the Batarian had one left.

With that, the Batarian simply waited for the fun to start.

Gerard Kalgard

The lockup contained plenty of valuable things. Being without basic equipment for so long makes one quite thankful for the bear essentials when they stumble upon it. Gerard applied medigel to his wounded arm, picked up some ammo and a side arm, equipped basic guard armor, and even made off with an omnitool. Now he was back in business. No more tackling armed opponent's with his fists or taking metal slugs to the flesh. If there was one thing being locked up for so long made the former Cerberus agent, it was bitter. Bitterness was converted into anger rather easily, and that anger was about to find many a hapless target.

Upon forming up with the rest of the group outside the security hall, Gerard halted and listened carefully to the Asari's plan. It seemed reasonable enough. Enacted properly, they could escape with very low -- or, God willing, zero -- casualties. He furrowed his brow disapprovingly when he heard Sashryn's claim that she could drop six of them within six seconds, however. Was it even possible to adjust aim and fire that quickly from moderate distance? Perhaps it was if a couple of them were right behind the other. Regardless, either she was exaggerating her abilities or she was deadlier than Archangel. Neither option made Gerard happy.

Still, it was best to focus on one's own abilities, rather than critique the actions of others. His weapons were not modified with night vision capabilities, which meant he would have to wait for the light and dash forward, which meant his survival depended on whether or not the guards were adequately affected by the chaos. From that point, he could either coordinate with his allies, taking down shields and weapons as necessary, or use incineration and his own weapon if caught in a position where fending for himself took priority. As for trusting the biotic and the Salarian to hold the door and cover them until they got in, Gerard was not pleased with the idea of placing his life in their hands -- especially when they had no real obligation to see him live -- but they were the most logical choices.

Well, all the planning and preparation had been completed. It was only a matter of time now before the attack began. All he had to do was wait for the lights to go off, then count to thirteen...

Complying silently, the quiet human awaited the Quarian's termination of the lights.

Ken had already been working on several other hacks while they finished filling out the plan, he did catch sight of Kiares throwing him a hell of a look. He shrugged, not much that could be done about it, he had just been doing the job he thought he had been asked to do. After filing one hallway with riot foam he turned to the others, it would seem that they were ready.
"Alright then, let's get this party started!" He said as he dramatically pressed a light on his omni-tool. Shutting off the lights. He drew his Carnifex with his left hand and readied himself. He could easily have switched to night vision on his visor, but for only 13 seconds there was no point. He counted down, focused on the timing along with adding as much of a surprise as he could.

Sashryn Velentor

So, the Asari had accepted her proposal. The young woman almost began to wish that she hadn't. She had done this kind of thing before, taking out multiple targets in the dark, but that had been a maximum of four people. Nonetheless, she had little choice this time. The reason she had flamed she kill six was in large part to make a good impression on the team. If they decided to leave her here, well, she would probably take her chances with the swamp. And also in part to establish a bit of respect, fear even. She would be a young woman traveling in space with a bunch of men she doubted she could trust. And if anything happened, Sashryn didn't know if the Asari would do anything to help. Having them know that she was deadly might just keep them at least somewhat respectful of her. Assuming, of course, that she could pull this off.

She took her position and waited for the lights to go off. She had discovered some time ago that she had the ability to put herself into a state of intense focus and ability for a short time. She couldn't hold hold it for long, as she held her breath so as to increase accuracy as much as possible, and holding it would cause her ability to decrease substantially, becoming worse than when she is in a normal state.

Raising the scope to her eye, she set it to night vision and waited for the lights to go out. As soon as they went out she fired on the one closest to the entrance, getting a headshot. Hearing the man go down, the others tried to get away from him, stumbling over each other in the dark. This allowed her to take down two more, both closest to the door. She then moved to the ones farthest from the door, shooting one through the neck and another under the arm from the side, causing the bullet to pass through both of his lungs, and most likely his heart. Sashryn took one more shot, this one aimed at a man in the middle. Instead of striking his neck, where she aimed, it glanced off of his shoulder, injuring him, but not badly enough to hinder him much. Sashryn lowered the gun with a grim expression on her face. She hated missing, and she had lost her focus. Nonetheless, with five down and one injured, she hoped to have made her point. And she needed to reload.

Gerard Kalgard

Not bad, he thought. Five down and one injured wasn't bad. The injury proved she was fallible, but in the engineer's mind this was the perfect balance of lethality and human culpability. She was dangerous enough to have as an asset, yet she would not be the sole source of reliance and could be removed if necessitated by circumstance. This was as it should be.

As the lights went out, shots came from the general location of his comrades for a mere six seconds, despite the clearly stated thirteen second time period, how odd. The Batarian hadn't bothered, as his own weapons lacked the range and accuracy to actually hit anything in darkness, aside from a wall or perhaps a Volus on stilts. But, as walls weren't living things that posed a threat to him under normal circumstances, and there was a distinct lack of stilt-possessing Voluses, his ability to accurately hit those targets in darkness was not applicable to the current situation.

As the lights came on at the designated time, however, Harus was forced to direct his thoughts towards more important matters, the foremost one being slaughtering the guards who'd decided to prevent their escape. To rectify this, the Batarian promptly loaded his final Inferno Grenade into the launcher, aimed it in the general direction of the centre of the guards' defensive position, and pulled the trigger. As per usual, a fiery explosion followed moments after. "Best make this quick, we've got a shuttle to catch, after all."

Gerard Kalgard
 
Well, that figures. Everyone quietly went along with the plan with nobody bothering to point out the critical flaw. Why would the Salarian fail to inform the Asari that his team lacked night vision capabilities? Gerard himself only had a shotgun and a sidearm, so even if he did have night vision he, like the Batarian, lacked the range needed to be useful. As for the rest of the team, the only one who would be able to do anything was the Turian, and apparently he lacked a scope for whatever reason.
 
On the bright side, Sashryn was still able to do her damage and the ensuing lack of any follow up did little to delay the Batarian from transitioning to his phase of the plan. Gerard hated giving credit to a Batarian, but his quick reaction may have salvaged the operation. Best not to let it go to waste.
 
The human engineer used the distraction created by the infernal grenade to dash forward and take point, sliding into the nearest bulwark for cover as shots began flying. His job was to lay down suppression, so that's what he was going to do. After taking a quick glance in order to note enemy positions and environmental hazards, he had his plan of action. He brought out his omnitool and with a quick motion overloaded a canister. The volatile container proceeded to explode violently, knocking back and severely injuring two adjacent guards. His allies would be able to finish them off with relative ease if they wished. After this was done, Gerard took his shotgun and fired at the nearest guard, who responded by ducking into cover. That was fine; the target was suppressed. Hopefully the others would pull their own weight, though honestly the only ones who had yet to prove themselves in Gerard's eyes were the Salarian and the Quarian, the latter of which would be useful even if he did turn out to be combat ineffective.

Fehln Davris

As the lights came back on, his attention had instantly gone to the work of the female human and her rifle. Five dead and a sixth mortally wounded, not bad he supposed, but there was room for improvement, especially with the one wounded guard that was just sloppy. He would have killed all six of them, maybe a seventh with some luck and his focus. Now was not the time for his pride, now was the time to get out of here.

"Good effort human, but you're not the only hunter here" he activated his tech armor, bringing his pistol up and stepping out of cover, slowly advancing on the guards while looking down the sights of his rifle with his scoped eye. His first shot finished the guard the female human had wounded, while the second and third dealt with the two that had been wounded by the human engineer. He was about to start on the guards that had taken the brunt of the inferno grenade when they finally got over the shock of the ambush and began opening fire on him, being the only target out in the open.

He slowly walked towards some nearby cover, firing off the remainder of his clip at the guards in a way that would at the very least keep some of the bullets off him, managing to kill at least two more of them before he finally took cover, his tech armor having finally run out, along with his shield. He looked down to find another bullet having punctured his armor, maybe two if he wasn't looking at one of the older ones. Now it was up to the Asari and the rest of the team to begin their assault, he wasn't about to stick his head out, even if he activated his focus.