#HuntingTime – September 7, 2013

Steve sighs. "Do you have anything we could use on there?" he asks and presses a hand against his hip. Blood from the grazing gunshot is seeping through his newly donned pants.

Darsk sets the guard's clothes down near Iressa and Renala

Renala places her omni-tool on the ground. "I've kept up to date with the tech," she says, "but the last time I did any hacking was years ago." She looks over the armor to check whether it's got an undersuit.

Iressa paws a little at the clothes before taking the top and fitting it over herself as inconspicuously as she can.

Tyranniac| The omni-tool would indicate several attempts at contacting them by Malarus.

Renala thinks for a moment. "Yeah, made a lot of creds doing that in my younger days," she begins. "I doubt these guys have a too difficult security system to crack, but I'll need a wireless access point."

Renala picks up the pieces of armor and her omni-tool, and walks over towards the cage, facing away from the others.

Steve nods a few times to himself. "Alright... At least it gives us a goal. Better than running around aimlessly."

Darsk speaks his thoughts aloud to no one in particular. "Getting out of here would be easy if we had our weapons and armor."

Renala | "Sure it's not where you found my omni-tool?" she says before putting said omni-tool on the floor. "Please keep your eyes off me while I change into the armor." Without as much as a glance to verify her request being heeded, she throws the plastic bag tunic off her and begins putting on the armor's undersuit. Again, she's facing away from the others.

Iressa averts her gaze to the floor as she continues to pull on the guard's clothes, not eager to look anyone in the eye while preforming this particular task. "We won't find what we need down here. It would be unreasonable to keep weapons so close to prisoners." After a moment of thought, she continues. "Then again, I won't say anything that suggests these are reasonable people."

Steve glances in her direction briefly before catching himself and quickly looking towards the ground. "I checked the room over. Other than the omni-tool, there was no sign of our gear."

Renala finishes putting on the undersuit. "Fair enough," she says as she carefully crouches to pick the armor pieces for the leg. "Maybe there's some information on their systems, like a memo." She puts on the pieces and continues onto the next part.

Steve nods. "That's our next move: get you into their system. Hopefully it'll point us towards our gear."

Renala eventually finishes putting on the armor and turns towards the others. "No pressure," she says jokingly followed by a badly supressed smirk.

Steve raises his gaze from the floor. "Well, no time like the present. Hopefully we can make some progress before they send another wave at us."

Renala picks up her omni-tool and enables it. "Let me just check something first..." she goes looking for a program to check for devices that can be wirelessly connected to, specifically the collars. "Oh, by the way, seems our turian pilot tried to contact us."

Tyranniac| The collars can indeed be accesses wirelessly. They have some basic protection.

Renala tries using some fairly versatile hacking program to crack security systems on the collar.

Iressa finishes up with the clothes, pulling a little at bits that don't feel quite right. She smoothes out the fabric and climbs to her feet, leaning still against the wall, but happy enough to be up after laying for so long. "What could he want to say to us?" She asks with a hint of venom, still under the assumption he had a hand in their capture.

Steve crosses his arms and nods at Iressa's comment. "I'd like to hear what he has to say for himself."

Tyranniac| The collar lets out a mechanical noise and falls off.

Renala lets out a satisfied smile as the thing goes off without issue. She walks over to Iressa and runs the same hacking program on her collar.

Tyranniac| Iressa's collar is disabled just as easily.

Darsk watches as the collar falls off. "Much better. How are you holding up, Ress?"

Iressa catches the collar as it parts ways with her neck, holding it up to inspect it more closely. "Well done, Renala. It seems things are starting to go our way." She muses, running her thumb over the edges. "Oh, me? Much better now. I don't suppose I have to ask you the same thing." She smirks, eyeing the Krogan's wounds as they continue to seep.

Renala disables her omni-tool and puts it in one of the armor's comparments/pockets. "Did any of you see any terminals on this floor?" she says. "They might have a wired network linked up to the extranet."

Darsk smiles at Iressa, happy to see her back to health. He returns his attention to his own wounds. "Do we have any of that medi-gel left? This might be a little worse than I thought."

Renala picks up the canister on the floor, and hands it to Darsk. "There's some left in it, I believe," she says. It's quite thoroughly stained with purple blood on the outside, but nothing near where the medi-gel emerges from.

Steve looks Darsk over. "Use it sparingly. We're not getting out of here without running through them. There's a good chance we'll be needing it again."

Darsk uses only the smallest amount necessary to cover the bullet wound in his shoulder, careful to conserve what's left of the second container

Renala takes a few steops towards the staircase. "We should keep biotic use to a minimum, though," she says, "or hope they got something not needing any preparation to eat."

Renala takes out her omni-tool and enables it. "I could try," she says as the taps on the interface to transmit over the channel Malarus provided. "Hello, anyone there?" she speaks into the comms.

Tyranniac| There is no response.

Renala tries again, "Anyone there?"

Tyranniac| There is less response.

Renala shakes her head. "Nope, no response," she announces what probably is obvious by now.

Steve folds his arms and sighs. "Well, at least that means he most likely didn't have anything to do with our capture. No point in trying to get in contact with us if he did. Hopefully he's still out there looking for us."

Renala nods. "And they might got a wired system connected to a surface-based transmitter," she says. "I'm going to check if the previous owner of this armor is still alive. We won't want her coming after us..." she says as she begins taking a few steps up the staircase, limping a bit even after the medi-gel.

Steve follows behind Renala, holding a hand over his side, his other tightly gripping the Locust.

Renala reaches the top of the stair-case after a few seconds, and looks around to see if the asari's still there.

Tyranniac| The asari is still lying on the ground.

Tyranniac| She is bleeding from damaged head-fringes.

Renala walks over to the asari and crouches beside her, and places two fongers on her to check her pulse.

Tyranniac| The asari has a pulse, but shows no sign of waking up.

Steve stands above the asari, watching Renala. "Looks like she's down for the count." he says.

Renala glances around for a rock or another blunt object. "She's got a pulse," she says. "I think leaving her alive would be too dangerous."

Tyranniac| There are some rock shards lying around from earlier biotic attacks.

Iressa watches the dou exit, waiting until they're out of sight to start pushing herself along the wall. She takes a few tentative steps, her legs still somewhat feeling the aftereffects of disuse. When she reaches Darsk, she runs her fingers along sides of his wounds, careful not to put pressure on any tender areas. "And I was worried this planet would be too boring for you." She smirks, carefully seeing that the medi-gel is distributed properly throughout his injuries.

Steve glances down the tunnel towards the central chamber cautiously before returning his attention back to Renala. "Alright, if you think she's worth the ammo..." he says, raising his Locust towards the downed asari's head.

Darsk heads up the stairs once Iressa is done tending to his wounds. He spots Steve aiming at the asari. "She's down! Don't waste your ammo!"

Renala shaeks her head as she walks over to pick up a shard of rock. "We don't have to waste ammo," she says. "Might not be the most painless way out, but Goddess knows what sort of pain her means of killing has inflicted."

Iressa nods, following after at a slower pace, inspecting the surroundings since they've changed while she was incapacitated.

Steve lowers his weapon and nods. "Sure you've got it in you?" he asks as he eyes the jagged rock, a smirk tugging at his lips.

Renala crouches beside the asari. "You saw her eyes go black, right?" she says to Darsk. "If I hadn't stopped her, you might have been braindead by now." She looks at the asari, holding up the rock, but she seems very hesitant to actually kill her.

Steve holds out a hand, wordlessly offering his assistance to Renala.

Darsk recalls his struggle with the unusual asari guard. He doesn't quite comprehend what happened. "Are you telling me asari can kill by bonding with someone?"

Renala glances down, and then hands the rock to Steve. "I... can't," she says. "Even if she's a monster..." She looks up at Darsk. "Some asari can," she simply answer him.

Steve listens to the conversation, but doesn't intervene. Taking the rock, he swiftly lowers himself to one knee and jabs it into the asari's throat in one fluid motion. After rising back to his feet, he plants the sole of his boot onto the portion of the shard jutting out, forcing it deeper into her neck. Without so much as a second thought, he turns towards to face Renala as the jumbled message comes over the omni-tool. "Is it Malarus...?" he ponders.

Darsk is unfazed by the violence, but appears disturbed by the action. "That seemed...excessive. Not entirely unlike killing someone while bonded, don't you think?"

Renala focuses on the omni-tool message and walks towards the central room, hoping the signal is better closer to it. She's near the doorway to the central room when she tries responing, "Hello? I barely got anything of that."

Iressa distances herself from the conversation and execution, holding the wall yet as she wanders down the tunnel.

Renala takes another steps, now standing at the entrance to the central room. "What did you say before I responded?"

Steve cracks his neck, grunting as it pops loudly before turning to face Darsk. "They would've done the same to us." he says, glancing down at the asari's body, "Why should we give them any better?"

Tyranniac| There is no response.

Steve stops just inside the chamber and holds at his side again. "No luck?"

Renala nods. "I going to guess he meant to say he'll leave by morning if we don't give any response," she says. "I'll try again." She walks over to the ladder and speaks into the comms, "Hey, did you copy? I repeat, did you copy?"

Tyranniac| There is no response.

Steve looks up to the top of the ladder. "When they took you away... Did you get any indication of how deep we are, Iressa?"

Renala sighs, and turns around, hoping Iressa has an answer to Steve's question.

Iressa follows his gaze upwards, "Deep enough." She responds. "I'm not optimistic you'll be able to reach anyone from where we are. And going up..." She pauses so the others can see her unenthused expression, "It's not going to be easy. Especially now that the compound is surely on alert."

Steve rubs at his forehead and blinks hard as another sharp pain shoots through his skull.

Renala shrugs. "Maybe something they don't want us getting to?" she thinks aloud. "Maybe our gear? Or an armory?"

Iressa furrows her brow, "That would be completely irrational. It's a possibility."

Steve shakes his head. "Guard said the armory was on the top floor." he sighs, "Hopefully they haven't stored our gear with their own yet."

Renala looks at Darsk. "How many people did you see down there, krogan?"

Steve sighs and gestures towards the hall. "We're not going to get anywhere standing around talking about it. Lead the way."

Darsk heads down the tunnel

Steve follows behind the krogan with a slight limp in his step, holding his Locust at the ready.

Renala nods. "I think it's our best chance, but you two know the floor better than me." She checks if there are any way to link her omni-tool to the armor, as it doesn't make sense if the armor had a wireless connection to it. She follows behind the other two, keeping pace even when dividing the attention between the area infront of her and the omni-tool.

Tyranniac| The omni-tool syncs to the armor without any issues.

Renala checks the status of the kinetic barriers.

Iressa follows behind at a distance, unsure of what else to do.

Tyranniac| The kinetic barriers are undamaged and have recharged fully. They are not very strong however.

Steve remains a few feet behind the krogan, following cautiously

Tyranniac| THe door at the end of the tunnel is locked.

Renala puts the omni-tool back to it's appropriate position and continue following the others.

Renala steps closer to the door while her omni-tool's interface flares to life. "Fair point," she says to Darsk. "Should I try getting it opened?" she asks noone in particular.

Steve lowers his weapon. "A trap...? I'd say it seems like they just locked the door. Letting us walk into a heavy gun emplacement seems like a far more efficient 'trap', big guy."

Renala steps towards the door. "Alright, might be a good idea to be ready for a surprise," she begins the hacking procedure to attempt breaching the door's security systems, and if successfull, unlocks it. While doing so, she builds up a bit of biotic energy.

Tyranniac| The door is successfully unlocked.

Steve takes up a position just behind and off to the side of Renala, aiming his SMG towards the door.

Renala lets her omni-tool's interface dissipate before hitting the open-button on the door's interface.

Tyranniac| The door opens, revealing a bandit sitting on a crate. She looks surprised but immediately scrambles for her machinegun and lets loose a deadly stream of bullets towards the opening.

Renala lets go of a throw field which she directs towards the machinegunner before takeing a good few steps back and to the wall where she would be out of sight of the machinegunner. Her shields are almost depleted.

Steve levels the SMG, aiming towards the bandit's center mass and fires a few shots off while strafing into the room towards cover.

Tyranniac| The gunner ducks briefly as Renala's throw field strikes the crate she's using for cover, causing it to slide a few centimeters. She immediately starts gunning again, laying down supressive fire on the entire group, but focusing on the exposed Steve.

Steve dives towards the nearest cover, hoping one of the others will lay down some fire on the gunner now that it's focused on him.

Tyranniac| The gunner divides her fire more generally in the group's direction when Steve makes it to cover.

Renala sends another throw field towards the guard before making her way back through the tunnel limp-running. Her shields are depleted now.