#Missing – March 25, 2014

(Enemy) Pilot keeps his hands up as he makes his way towards the shuttle door. He steps down from the cargo compartment and stands awkwardly in place.

Jason kneels down to check the body on the shuttle floor. Once satisfied that it won't be getting back up, he rises back to his feet. "Well, nice work I guess..." he says before activating his comms. "Looks like we're clear, Kim. Give the area a quick scan from your location and rejoin us. Jasper, come set the shuttle down near us."

Mendez glances over the lifeless bodies strewn about the ground. "I know it's in bad taste, but... We should take their hardware." he says.

Kim looks around for several seconds. "No more hostiles. I'm coming down," she states over the communicator before standing up, putting away her snipe rifle, and beginning the walk down the hill.

Renala nods and walks back out to the cargo department, holsering her gun while walking. She looks at the pilot. "So, what can you tell me about the people you work for?"

Zaylus follows his gaze. "Bad taste?" He says, confused.

(Enemy) Pilot laughs nervously, looking quite terrified. "I can tell you they'll probably kill me for this." he says, still holding his hands up awkwardly.

Mendez nods to himself. "You don't loot the dead. Bad energy." he says plainly.

Zaylus reaches up, rubbing the side of his head for a moment before muttering, "That... might explain a thing or two."

Jason hops out of the shuttle as he responds to Kim over comms, "Sounds good." he says as he takes a knee beside one of the humans and grabs the dead man's Predator. "Bad energy?" he asks, passing Mendez a glance as he struggles to suppress a chuckle, "You're shittin' me, right? Come on, gather up the weapons."

(Enemy) Pilot bites his lower lip and seems to consider it for a moment. "I-..." he begins before pausing. Finally he nods, "It's about 20 minutes out from here." he says, "The location is programmed into the shuttle. I can-..." he hesitates, struggling fgor a second, "I can take you there. But you have to give me your word that I'm free to go once this is over."

Zaylus lets the thought pass, snapping back to attention. He retrieves the nearest weapon to him, picking it off the remains of their once-adversary.

Renala nods. "You'll have mine, but he's the boss," she gestures towards Jason. "What do you say, Jason?" She has disabled her comms by now, but hoped he's been listening.

Jason glances back over his shoulder. "If he can get us there without trouble? He's a free man." he says, turning to face the pilot directly, "But after this, you need to get far away from here. I don't want to see you again. Got it?"

(Enemy) Pilot nods, but doesn't respond to Jason. He glances back at Renala. "I'm not like the rest of them." he says, sounding as sincere as someone can when they have no other options, "Really. All I do is fly the shuttle. Some of them... They're monsters."

Mendez approaches Torrik's body, but makes no attempt at relieving the corpse of its weapon.

Kim reaches the group and looks around at the situation, but doesn't say anything right away.

Renala nods. "Monsters?" she asks. "You're saying they're slavers? Because that wouldn't surprise me at all..." she glances towards the turian.

(Enemy) Pilot nods slowly. "But you're not going to be able to just walk in. We had a few escapes..." he begins, looking slightly embarassed at even being involved with any of this, "...a while back. They've bumped up security since then."

Kim folds her arms and stares down the pilot. "Oh? What kind of security?"

Jason nods to Kim as he walks to Mendez' side. He gives the large man a look and shakes his head in disappointment before reaching down and grabbing the Avenger. He listens to the pilot as he approaches the Redrock shuttle and waits for the doors to open. "How many more of you are there?" he asks, "And how well armed?"

Renala glances at the less-than-living human in the shuttle with a thoughtful expression, though doesn't ask right away. She instead walks into the cockpit and looks around for an interface she could use.

(Enemy) Pilot looks back and forth between Kim and Jason before answering. "There's always two guards keeping watch at the entrance. There's a surveillance feed, too." He then addresses Jason's question with a shrug, "About twenty. A few hardsuits and rifles, but mainly pistols."

Renala starts tapping on the interface, trying to bring up the nav-point, or points if there are more than one programmed into it.

Jason hops into the shuttle and begins loading up the Avenger and Predator as he listens to the pilot speak.

Renala frowns, though she was now ninety-nine percent clear. She returns out to the passengers' compartment. "Hey, tell me," she says. "Did the escape by any chance lead to a floor being blown up and a tunnel collapsing?"

(Enemy) Pilot furrows his brow as he turns to face the asari, hands still awkwardly up in the air. "Uhh... Yeah." he says, "Caused quite a bit of damage." he says, "Killed my brother, Will, too..." he adds, breaking eye contact with the asari momentarily.

Renala frowns. "Oh, sorry about that," she says. "We had no choice."

Mendez grabs the turian by the arms and begins to drag his body off the road. "Good." he grunts, "One less we'll have to deal with."

(Enemy) Pilot stares at Renala, mouth slightly agape. "...We?" he asks, "You did that?" he continues, looking around at the others. "So is that what this is about? Huh? Came back to finish the job!?" he shouts, lowering his hands.

Renala frowns. "You're blaming me for escaping, huh?" she says. "No, this doesn't have anything to do with that."

Jason hops out of the shuttle and takes a position beside the pilot, giving him a puzzled glance. "Calm the fuck down." he says, "Wish I could take credit for putting down some scumbags, but it had nothing to do with-..." he begins before hearing Renala. "Wait... What?" he asks.

(Enemy) Pilot stares quietly at Renala with a scowl. Finally, he just looks towards the ground. "Let's just get this over with." he says and begins marching towards the shuttle.

Renala steps towards the edge of the shuttle. "I checked the location, I've been there," she says. "Me and a few others worked for ExoGeni, getting some animal when his group of assholes knocked us out and brought us in for slaves."

Mendez moves on to one of the human corpses and grabs him by the legs. He begins to drag the body off the road as well, ignoring what's going on for the moment.

Jason stares at Renala with a concerned look on his face. "Wait, wait, wait... You work for-... Worked for ExoGeni?" he asks, 'ExoGeni' seemingly the only word he heard out of that sentence.

Renala nods. "Yes, but it was just a one-off job," she says. "They wanted some dangerous animal out in the swamp near the mine we're heading to."

Zaylus too holds off engaging in the discussion, and instead steps over to the krogan carcass, rescuing the weapon from its lifeless owner.

Jason holds Renala's gaze for a moment longer, but adds nothing to it. He grabs the pilot by the shoulder before he can enter the shuttle. "Jonathan Perkins." he says, a sudden change in his demeanor, "Did your little band of psychopaths take him?"

Mendez moves on to the next human's corpse, repeating the process and dragging it towards the grass.

(Enemy) Pilot doesn't turn to face Jason. Instead, he just shakes his head. "I don't know... I don't exactly ask them their names, okay? I just fly the shuttle..." he says before shaking off Jason's grip and stepping into the shuttle. He stops before moving towards the cockpit and looks back at Jason. "There were about ten of them..." he says, "Slaves, I mean."

Mendez dusts his hands off before approaching the slaver shuttle and begins removing the human corpse from it, repeating the process as with the others.

Renala frowns, as she has deliberately avoided asking about Perkins, but she couldn't blame Jason for asking. "Jason, mind if I check with someone about the krogan's shotgun after the mission?" she says. "It may belong to one on our team, and his friend might want to have it back if it's his."

Jason gives Renala a nod. "Do what you have to do." he says.

Zaylus holds up the shotgun in question. "Here, if you want to keep it somewhere safe. I definitely have no use for it."

Mendez moves to the krogan corpse and puts his hands on his hips. He's beginning to breathe a little heavy. "Toss that thing in the shuttle and give me a hand." he says, sounding more like an order than a request.

Zaylus sets the weapon just inside the shuttle, returning to the deceased krogan. He looks at Mendez somewhat skeptically.

Mendez looks down at the krogan corpse and back at Zaylus. "What's the matter?" he asks, "Afraid those puny bird arms might get a work out?"

Jason steps closer to the shuttle and Renala. "He said they have surveillance... Think there's any chance you'd be able to interrupt their feed?" he asks, "If we can get in and cause a little damage before they even know we're there... It would probably tip the odds in our favor a bit more."

Zaylus frowns, looking down at the massive beast. "Of course not." He answers absently.

Mendez gives a shrug and leans down, grabbing the krogan's arms, "Grab his legs. We don't need to move him far, just out of the road."

Renala hums thoughtfully. "I'll need an access point to try, at least," she says. "If they have a wireless connection for the cameras, or a terminal using them, I could send a command for them to shut down while resending a sequence of captured packets."

Zaylus leans down as well, getting a firm grip of the krogan's legs, and waiting for Mendez to attempt to lift the beast.

Mendez gives a quick tug, testing the krogan's weight. He tries to lift without much success. Finally, he just leans back and begins trying to drag it. It slowly begins to slide. "Push!" he shouts.

Zaylus attempts to shift the weight of the krogan over in the direction Mendez leads, unable to tell if his efforts will be in vain.

Jason sighs, "So you're saying we'll probably need to get inside to shut off the cameras... But to get inside we have to pass the cameras? Sounds like we're looking at a fight just to get in, then."

Jason blinks at Renala, clearly not understanding what that means, but he nods anyways. He activates his comms before speaking, "Yeah... We're about to load up." he says.

Jason looks around at the others. "Renala, Zaylus and I will go with our new friend. Mendez and Kim, go with Jasper and trail behind us."

Kim looks over to Jason for the moment and nods, then glances over to the other human. "Looks like you got demoted to back-up after that little dive."

Renala tilts her head. "Wouldn't two shuttles give them a heads up that it might not be the turian that returns?"

Mendez eyes the woman with a scowl on his face. "Dive? You stand in the path of a charging krogan and tell me how that works out for you..."

Zaylus lets the krogan go with a low grunt, ceremoniously brushing off his hands.

Jason raises an eyebrow. "I'm not trusting him..." he nods in the direction of the slaver shuttle, "...to get us home safely. If something goes wrong, I'd like to have another way home waiting for us." he says with a sigh, "But, you're right. We can use any advantage we can get." He gives Kim and Mendez a glance, "Alright, change of plans, you're coming with us."

Kim laughs heartily. "Hun, my job is to never get into those situations."

Mendez raises an eyebrow, muttering something about needing a new job. He marches towards the slaver shuttle and climbs onboard.

Jason hops on the slaver shuttle and activates his comms once again. "Jasper, Renala is going to send you a set of coordinates..." he says, nodding towards the asari to do so, "That's where we're heading. I need you to set the shuttle down near that location. We might be needing a quick extraction, so try and set her down close by."

Renala nods and walks back to the cockpit and downloads the coordinates to her omni-tool, then sends them to Jasper.

Zaylus gives one more glance at the krogan before climbing onto the shuttle.

Kim snickers at Mendez' back and climbs into the shuttle.

(Enemy) Pilot takes a seat in the cockpit, pushing past Renala. He wordlessly presses a few buttons, causing the shuttle doors to slide closed. He looks up at Renala. "Ready?" he asks.

Renala nods. "Ready," she says.

Mendez takes a seat close to the doors and pulls his harness on. "I'm just happy not to spend more time in that piece of junk." he says.

Jason takes a seat opposite of Mendez, but doesn't bother with a harness. "You feel safer in a shuttle being piloted by a man whose friends we just massacred than a shuttle with a little rust?"

Mendez frowns at Jason. "You're not helping things." he says, visibly tensing up.

Zaylus takes a seat on Mendez's side, chuckling dryly.

Renala takes a seat and pulls on the harness. "Well, if he tries anything...," she begins. "Anyone else in here that can fly a shuttle?"

(Enemy) Pilot nods at Renala and begins tapping at the interface. Within moments the shuttle begins to lift off, listing slightly as the thrusters come on, but smoothing out as it begins to move forward.

Mendez lowers his gaze towards the ground. He's beginning to look slightly pale.

Kim keeps her eyes trained on Mendez. "What, this is your limit? Already?"

Jason shrugs at Renala with a smirk, "How hard can it be?" he asks. Suddenly, he remembers the coffee maker and his smirk slowly fades away.

Mendez takes a deep breath as he continues to focus on the ground, "I just-... Don't like flying." he says, "Or heights... Or-..." he shakes his head, "All this talk of crashing isn't doing much to make me feel better!"

Renala frowns. "Hopefully we don't have to find out," she says.

(Enemy) Pilot sighs loudly. "I'm sitting right here..." he says.

Jason cocks his head at Renala, ignoring the pilot. "So... ExoGeni." he sighs, "How long ago was it?"

Renala hums thoughtfully. "Less than half a year," she says. "We were going to grab a... what was it called again? Hidreee.... Uh, something followed by 'lurker'. Animal that lives in the swamps, I think."

Jason nods to himself. "Was that your only experience with ExoGeni?"

Kim looks towards the cockpit. "Oh, believe me. We know. That's why we're doing this."

(Enemy) Pilot continues to silently scowl to himself.

Renala nods. "Yeah," she says. "So, why did you look at me like I was crazy?" She was obviously exaggerating.

Jason shakes his head. "No, it's just-... I've had some experience with ExoGeni." he says, shifting uncomfortably in his seat, "It was a-... I don't wanna talk about it." he continues, "Let's just say it's something that will stick with me..."

Zaylus gives Jason a breif look of skepticism, but simply leans back in his seat without attempting to interrupt.

Renala frowns. "I'm not gonna pry, Jason," she says, "but I get what you're saying. My job with ExoGeni was a one-time thing."

Jason nods silently and sits back in his seat.