This logfile is imported from aitelogs2 and may contain errors or wrong timestamps.
#Aroste – August 11, 2014
Damien turns and nods. "I am. Damien Monroe. I'd come over and shake your hand," he says, gesturing to the harness. "But I'm currently locked in."
Halisi seems about to say something, but doesn't as Leah speaks up before her. She listens to Damien in silence.
Damien shakes Halisi's hand, nodding again since he can't show his facial expressions. He turns to the turian. "I dunno, how about starting with your name?"
Renala looks at the turian. "I haven't kept track of the going-ons at the agency," she says. "Besides, you could be Grumpy in a new suit of armor," she jokes.
"I'm guessing that's another turian," Calyx mumbled, rubbing his neck where the armor failed to protect and rolling his shoulders. He glances at Leah." Oh, yeah. You were that fed-up receptionist. Shouldn't you be filing papers?"
Leah scowls at the turian, looking unamused. "Great. Just what we needed. Another asshole." she sighs.
"Don't like assholes?" he asks, leaning back and fiddling with the Phaeston. "Don't work with mercs."
Renala smirks at Victoria's comment before enabling her omni-tool to run the nth check-over of her armor's systems.
Damien sighs, leaning back into his seat. "Look, I'm sorry. I'd rather not cause hostilities on the damn ride there." He looks to Calyx and offers his hand. "Pleasure."
Jason smiles as he listens to the dispute. "Ya know, I'm sure we're going to have more than enough shit trying to kill us once we get there. It's really not necessary for us to start attacking one another..."
The turian shakes it, giving it a strong squeeze. "Yeah, we'll see." He shrugs at Jason, but seems to agree. "So, not a receptionist, then. You a shooter like the rest of us?" he asks Leah.
Leah nods, her scowl fading away as she fixes her gaze on the turian. "Shooter. Biotic. Close-quarters-combat specialist. Whatever it takes." she says confidently, despite being more than a foot-and-a-half shorter than the turian.
Renala shrugs. "Just making sure everything's working as it should," she says. "The armor hasn't seen much use, the parts could have gathered too much dust or something."
Philip nods with a smirk and pats his armor vest. "Ain't got one of 'em fancy hardsuits. Not yet anyway."
Leah turns her attention to Damien. "Never hurts to have a few marketable skills." she says with a smile.
Philip ponders the question for a bit. "Served me well enough fightin' back raiders, but... only a couple of shots."
Leah furrows her brow, "Sounds like jealousy speaking." she says playfully, offering the man a wink, "But that's okay. You can hang back and keep playing on your little computer. I'll make sure none of the bad men get you." she mocks.
Damien chuckles, his omni-tool flaring up as he holds it towards her. "One flick of the wrist," he says. "And I fry your amp. In a few minutes, you tire as your biotics slacken and exhaust you. Then...", he deactivates his omni-tool and makes a gun motion with his hand at her forehead. "Boom. You're dead."
Leah nods a couple times, "Impressive." she says, "But, sweetheart? I could toss you out of this shuttle without moving a muscle before you'd even have a chance to lift your arm."
After about thirty-five minutes of travel, the shuttle approach Derraian territory, still on the mainland continent. They receive a transmission over the radio. "Derrai tower to unidentified shuttle," a nasal voice of a salarian can be heard. "You are entering Derrai Union airspace. Identify or alter course."
Damien chuckles again, leaning back. "Good thing I don't need to lift my arm then, isn't it... 'sweetheart'." His omni-tool activates as it starts to run prelimineary diagnostics.
Jason sighs. "So much for getting in quietly..." he mutters. He activates his omni-tool and links it to the kodiak's comms systems. "Uhh... Yeah... Sorry. We're suffering from a shuttle malfunction. We'd like permission to land nearby to assess the damage we've sustained." he says as he looks around the shuttle at the others and shrugs, as if to say 'I have no idea what I'm doing.'
The turian snickers and leans back. "Like anyone's gonna fall for that," he comments aloud, though makes sure he isn't heard.
Victoria shook her head ''We are having a few problems with the navigations. We would like to land to give us time to fix it and getting it working correctly.''
Damien looks to Halisi, shrugging. "Trying to bluff our way in." He looks back to Jason, before adding. "And it probably isn't going to work, so get your head in the game."
After a few seconds, a reply is heard, "Landing fee is 5,000 credits for unscheduled arrivals. Please head towards Derrai spaceport. Coordinates for shuttle platform 8 sent."
"It's not like we're actually going to pay," he answers with a shrug. "At least, it isn't coming out of MY cut..."
''Could we have the fee waved this time, I mean it is not like we intented on landing here. I mean this if we did know this was going to happen, we would have scheduled ahead.''
Jason tilts his head back and sighs. He puts on a fake, friendly voice. "Of course. Much appreciated." he says before allowing his omni-tool interface to dissipate, severing the communication. "Remember who's paying you 'your cut'." he says to the turian as he begins to remove his harness. With a sigh, he stands up and proceeds to the cockpit. He places a hand on the back of Victoria's seat and begins trying to work out just how far Platform 8 is from their target's coordinates.
Damien releases his harness, standing up and grabbing the hand rails above their heads. He holds onto it tightly as he shimmies towards the door. "I hate these things...", he mumbles, stretching his legs.
They approach the coast, but they wouldn't reach their target from the port on the mainland, and the island is quite far from the coastline.
"Last warning," the control tower officer begins. "Send payment or alter course." Just a second after, they might receive an alert that they're locked-on by AA guns, but no shots are fired.
"Uh, yeah, so about that offer where I'm allowed to jump out of the shuttle? I think I'll take it, now."
Jason sighs and reactivates comms. "Alright, jeeze. Calm the fuck down." he groans as he authorizes the payment on his omni-tool, "There's your credits."
Halisi looks up at Damien. "You... should probably sit down. No point getting injured before we've even landed."
The lock-on is lost, and the officer replies, "Landing authorized. Proceed to shuttle platform eight."
Damien turns and shakes his head slightly, though he speaks calmly. "I'd rather stand. Besides, if we got shot at now, doesn't matter if I'm sat or not."
Halisi furrows her brows. "An emergency landing in water is survivable if you're secure. Not if you're unconcious from a concussion, because you slammed into the wall."
"Oh, no, you better sit, come on, I insist," the turian tells Damien, patting the chair. "Wouldn't want you falling on to someone in all that armor, right?"
Leah let's out a deep breath as the response is heard over comms. "Dodged our first bullet and we haven't even landed yet... This is shaping up to go well."
"Oh, come on," the turian tells Leah. "Where's your sense of adventure? Besides..." Calyx mumbles. "Can't be worse than Sovereign." That's mostly said to himself.
Jason looks over his omni-tool, attempting to see how long it would take to reach their target destination from their current location. "Gimme a second, Monroe." he says. "Vicky... There's no way we're landing at that platform. It's quite a stretch from our target... I'm open to suggestions here."
Renala sighs relieved before chuckling. "Can't you just ask the the trigger-happy tower?" she suggests.
Leah levels her gaze on Calyx. "Sense of adventure? Trust me... After our last job, the last thing I need is 'adventure'."
''That anti-air guns don't give me a lot of opinions. This bucket could dodge some fire, but a fast landing in this would involve crashing.''
A plan? A plan for what? We have no information about what we're heading into. We're not getting to our target from that spaceport, that much is for sure.
Damien shakes his head. "Then don't go there. Follow the routine for now, then divert course and raise hell getting there. It'll take them some time to react."
I paid their fee. They think we're suffering from a shuttle malfunction. Fly low and continue to our target. We'll play it by ear and hope that it buys us enough time to get out of range of their guns.
''Well, if their control tower is down there near this platform. We could, take out their radar and anti-air.''
Halisi looks over towards the cockpit. "What-... what's going on? I didn't sign up for attacking innocent people!"
"Nonsense," the turian gasped. "There's no such thing as too much." He leans back and looks around, raising a brow-plate at Jason and the others. "Looks like our flight's been delayed. "I also vote not being shot at. Why don't we take a dive? They'll have a hard time tracing us underwater."
"Relax," he tells her, rapping a fist off of the Kodiak. "It may not look like much, but these things are built to last. Little water won't hurt."
Philip nods in agreement with Renala. "Come on, guys. We're not seriously debating this, right? Can't we just... find a ferry to the island or something?"
Jason furrows his brow at Victoria and nods in agreement with Halisi. "We're not here to fight an entire city, Vicky." He glances back at Calyx with a nod, "That sounds like a good plan, but I'm not sure how reliable this old bucket would be underwater." He looks towards Victoria, "What do you think? Not sure how much time we've got before they realize we're jerkin' 'em around."
Leah looks over at Philip. "I'm not a particular fan of laying siege to a hostile base without immediate extraction available."
"It's stay in the air and dodge missiles or that," Calyx put in, shrugging again. "I know my ships. Long as we don't dive too far, we're fine. It's the pressure we'd have to worry about. Unless this planet has water breathing thresher maws."
Philip responds: "Yeah, but if we piss of the people with the AA guns, how are we gonna get out of here?"
''I don't know how well this bucket will take water. But... I could make it look like the shuttle had a slight engine problem.'' She then looked at Jason ''This plan could also lead to a destroyed shuttle.''
Jason sighs. "We'll worry about that when we need to come back, Phil. Once we're off the coast, we can just avoid the mainland for our return trip. I wasn't aware they were going to be so trigger-happy." He nods at Victoria, "Sounds like the best we've got right now. Report a failure to the tower, let them know we're going down." He turns on his heels and proceeds back to the cargo bay, retaking his seat and harnessing in. "Get ready, Monroe." he says, glancing over at Damien with an uneasy look on his face, "If things go sideways, do what you can to buy us some time."
Victoria had a loud tch noise ''You do not want me to start there. Space has no pressure, water has pressure.'' She just shakes her head ''You do know this plan could also end up with us trapped at the bottum of this bed of water?''
Philip looks rather sceptical at the new plan, but he remains quiet, perhaps wishing he was somewhere else.
Jattic sighs. "She's going to drop us into the ocean." he says plainly, "Humans. First, the dumb one calls me ugly. Now, the incompetent one is going to get me killed."
"Don't dive to the bottom and we'll be fine." He harnesses himself. "I think." A look towards the asari. "Couldn't think of a single island fortress that didn't cover all sides. I'm telling you -- as long as we dip beneath the surface, we're fine."
''Batarian get your facts right, I do not want to go in the water in this bucket. The turian suggested it.'' She started to press a few buttons to get things ready.
Jason looks across at Renala. "At this point, my fear is that we're already on their radar. We don't need them getting suspicious and sending anyone after us if we suddenly back off. If we can convince them we've suffered a shuttle malfunction, it might keep them busy long enough for us to slip in, get what we're here for, and be gone before they even realize what's happened."
Damien stands ready, flicking his wrist. His omni-tool flares and his tech-armour springs to life, encasing him in the luminescent orange holo-armour.
Damien unholsters his Carnifex, holding it by his side and planting his feet firmly onto the ground.
Jason nods a few times in Renala's direction. "Yeah. Of course. I have absolutely no idea what we're doing." he admits, "But fuck... If we gotta go, what a helluva way to do it, right?" he jokes uncomfortably. After pondering it for a moment, he bangs a gauntleted hand against the wall a few times and raises his voice, "You better not fucking kill us, Vicky! You hear me!?"
"I've got some air on my suit," he admits, tapping his helmet. "Sealed. Good luck to he rest of you, though." Well, he wouldn't be drowning! Calyx seemed to forget swimming was impossible in all of that armor, though.
Damien ensures his helmet is sealed, cracking his neck. Numerous pops follow and he sighs. "That's better." He braces himself and tightens his grip.
Renala nods at the turian. "Good idea," she says nervously before putting on her own helmet hastily, sealing it, then checking the armor over with her omni-tool.
Halisi did not bring a helmet as the mission involved no off-planet elements. She just keeps gripping the harness as tight as she can.
Jattic doesn't bother putting his helmet on, believing that if the plan goes sideways, they're probably going to die anyways.
Victoria made contact with the port control again ''We are getting some problems here it might take us a bi...... DON'T TOUCH THAT!!!'' She yelled as the pressed the final button to begin this stupid plan. The shuttle then started to tilt forward and head towards the water fast. She continued pressing buttons to prepare the shuttle for impact, as the shuttle neared the water atleast 8 metres away she activated the front engines to make the entry into the water easier.
Damien internally swears and grits his teeth, preparing for the impact... and the most likely scenario of him slamming into the wall.
Philip is still in the process of listing off every divine entity he knows the name of in the hopes one of them will help.
The shuttle impacts with the sea surface with at a shake as the dampener does its best to conpensate. The shuttle is now underwater. The water is deep, and the bottom quickly fades from visibility as they drive forward.
Philip opens his eyes and lets out a relieved sigh after confirming that he is not, in fact, drowned.
Jason lets out a frustrated chuckle. "Oh, five-thousand fucking cre-..." he begins to bitch, but their impact with the water causes him to clamp shut.
Leah squeezes her harness tightly. After a few moments beneath the surface, her grip slowly loosens. "It-... It worked..." she says, almost more of a question.
Renala holds her breath for quite a while, only letting go when the others speak. "If we get out of the water, I owe you a drink," she says at the turian.
"Or two," he chuckles, rapping his knuckles off of the bulkhead again. "Like I said. Built to last."
Victoria levels the shuttle quickly, and keeping the shuttle at least 5 metres away from the surface ''Take the five out of the turian's check, or we could find some equipment to make up for it.''
Jason releases his harness and climbs to his feet. He slams the wall of the shuttle loudly and whoops. "I can't believe that fucking worked!" he shouts, hurrying back to Victoria's side, "How're we lookin' Vicky? Everything still functioning?" he asks, his eyes darting around the cockpit, "Keep on towards those coordinates."
Damien releases the harness and stands up, activating the tech-armour again. He holds a hand to the side of his helm and snarls. "Godamnit."
''Jason, if you want to take over. You can. But please don't pester me right now.'' She said in a rather blank tone ''First time doing this, so I don't know if this going well or not.'' She try to keep on course to the target.
Jattic narrows his eyes on Calyx. "That doesn't even make sense. If you're going to endanger all of our lives with such a stupid plan, you could at least attempt to make sense when insulting me."
''He can still drown in a sea of krogan dicks, for all I care right now.'' Victoria quickly added before turning her focus back onto flying/swiming.
Jason backs away from Victoria, giving her space to work. He lets out a deep breath as he returns to the cargo bay, "Little late to worry about all the now, Renala... Seems to have worked."
"Listen, dolls," he says, pointing at all of theme. "These things run on mass effect cores. They're military issued and made for surviving crash landings and explosions. Breaking atmosphere. That kind of thing. So unless that twitchy pilot of ours decided to nose dive in to the watery abyss below us, WE. ARE. FINE."
Jason stares at Calyx and blinks a few times. "I picked it up from a junker a few months ago for a few thousand credits. It had no doors and smelled distinctly like turkey. The fact that it even starts amazes me."
''You really want me to shoot you? Water and space is two different things.... You know what, not gonna do this now.'' She stopped herself from ranting and raving.
"We're flying, aren't we? Or -- pro-...pelling," he argues, looking over at Damien. "Friendly fire. Professional."
Philip detatches from his harness and gets up when he notices Damien. "Woah! Whoah! What the hell, man? Put that away." He says, putting a hand up towards the fellow human.
Leah reaches out, still held in place by her harness, "It's not worth it, Damien. He's an ass..." she glances at the turian, "But his plan did work."
''Stop playing with each other!'' She yelled ''Let me remind you, this is my first time flying a shuttle underwater, so I need focus!'' She said keeping her focus on her job.
Damien keeps it raised for a moment more, before powering it down. He snarls behind his helmet. "You're right. He isn't worth it." He looks to Phillip, staring at the man for a moment, before turning and waiting patiently by the door.
I apologise. That was unprofessional of me. Your plan worked, I'll admit... but keep your smart-arse comments to yourself and let the pilot do her thing.
Halisi is looking rather disillusioned with the state of the team - she's expected better of them after what she experienced on Ogofau.
Jattic seems to smile for the first time since they assembled. Well, whatever passes for a batarian smile. A sort of snarl. "You two can kill one another when we get back. We have a job to do."
''Alright, just about time to rise out. Get ready.'' She started to press the buttons on the console rapidly again.
Jason retakes his seat once again and begins looking over his Revenant. "Alright, enough everyone. We're fine. The plan worked. Keep your shit together and get ready to dismount."
Damien ensures his tech-armour is holding strong. He nods to himself and draws his Carnifex, running a finger over the Sun's logo. He looks to Jason and waits.
The shuttle surfaces successfully and the island can be seen 400 meters in front of them. It takes five seconds before they're contacted. "Aroste Tower to approaching shuttle," a turian voice can be heard. "You're tagged as potentially hostile, please alter course or negotiate landing."
Philip slams his head against the butt of his rifle, letting out a frustrated groan as he hears the radio.
Jason groans loudly. "Oh for fuck's sake..." He activates his omni-tool and patches in to the comms, "Requesting permission to land, Aroste Tower."
Victoria looked back at Jason ''Tell me if they want the full story.'' She said and quickly turn her head back to focus on flying.
"The shuttle port is on the east side of the island, sending coordiantes," he responds. "Landing pad three. We're keeping an eye on you." The coordinates for the mission site is on the west end of the island, which is closer.