Vasquez returns several hours after she left, entering the lobby, and, assuming there's no one there, proceeding to the briefing room.
#RedrockAgency – August 18, 2014
Vasquez enters the corridor and proceeds to the empty office, tapping the panel and crossing her hands behind her back while she waits for the door to open.
Leah presses against the wall and climbs to her feet as the door slides open. She gives Vasquez a nod as she comes into view. "He's all yours." she says.
Vasquez nods at Leah while entering the room. She moves to the center while looking down at the salarian. "Has he given you any trouble?"
Leah shakes her head. "No ma'am. He's been pretty quiet. Sounds like he's not all that excited about revealing the location of Rellis, though."
Vasquez nods in response and moves a bit closer to the salarian, studying him for a moment. "Alright, Mr. Darennon... I'm sorry for keeping you here, I had some business to attend to. All I want is the location of Rellis... and you're going to give it to me, right?"
Jelvan looks towards the floor. "You're making a mistake," he says. "He is dangerous. Resourceful. Enemy you don't want."
Vasquez smirks faintly. "Well, you see... we're dangerous too. So I suggest you just tell us, and we'll worry about that."
Jelvan frowns. "You don't understand," he says. "He is part of something big. You may already be in trouble. Let me ask - did Teris escape?"
Vasquez shakes her head, looking a bit annoyed. "I don't know what the fuck you're talking about... and I don't care. We were hired to do a simple job, and that's it."
Jelvan sniffs. "Don't know his location," he begins. "Don't know the structure of organization we were part of. Any resources we needed, we got, but he was allowed to give us orders. Served us well so far."
Vasquez looks down at the salarian with a skeptical look on her face, but after a moment she turns around and then walks right out of the room, motioning for Leah to step outside with her.
Leah stares at Jelvan for a moment before following behind Vasquez. She leans against the hallway wall and shakes her head. "He's stonewalling."
Vasquez nods faintly and looks down the corridor for a moment, thinking. Eventually she speaks: "Look, I think we can get the information out of him if we need to, but I'd rather check if we can get what we need from the data we recovered first." She pauses and narrows her eyes at Leah. "You did recover data, right?"
Leah thinks on it for a few moments before nodding her head. "Yeah." she says, "Yeah, I think so. Jason instructed Monroe to grab a datapad and send him some files." she recalls, "So... The datapad should be in the shuttle. The rest would be on Jason's omni-tool, I guess."
Vasquez nods. "Keep an eye on him for a while longer. I'm gonna look over that data." She says, before heading off towards the shuttle bay while taking her omni-tool out and starting to type.
Leah rolls her eyes once Vasquez turns away, and gives a sarcastic salute before returning to the room.
Vasquez grabs the datapad once she reaches the shuttle bay, and then she goes to her office, taking a seat while looking it over.
I'd really like to get home at some point today. Can you just cut the bullshit and tell her what she needs to know?
Jelvan shakes his head. "Cannot tell more than I know," he says. "Would be fabricated. Useless. Waste of your time."
The datapad comes to life, showing a text editor with the following text: "I did the tests. This one's a negative, so keep looking. Dispose of her when you're done dealing with the intruders. And don't snatch them from council space worlds from now on; too many regulations for one of these to slip through the cracks. I'm out of here. –Teris"
Vasquez reads through the text, looking more and more concerned as she goes on. When she reaches the end she puts the datapad down on her desk and digs her omni-tool out of a pocket, looking for Jason's response and then downloading the attached file to her computer.
Almost all of the files are encrypted archives, including the file names, as well as the program that decrypts it, but no digital keys or hints at the passphrase can be found. There's only one readable file, timestamped fourteen seconds before Monroe downloaded it. "Movement Order," its title read, and its content is: "Please send the following two back to Karina T'Namri Security in Linissa. Prerix Falten and Sarian T'Dera." The sender address seems to have been ommited.
Vasquez sighs, scrolling through the files and reading the only one she can. After this she sits in silence for a moment before making an extranet search for "karina t'namri security".
The result is a fairly generic security company's extranet page. They're boasting that they're providing security for 5 establishments in Linissa, and still offering their services at a competitive rate for the city state.
Vasquez gets up from her seat after giving the encrypted files another look. She exits into the corridor and soon finds herself in the empty office again. She glances at Leah before moving up to the salarian once more. "Well, I've given you some time to think things over. You ready to tell me where he is?" She crosses her arms across her chest, looking down at Jelvan while she waits for a response.
Jelvan looks up at her. "Don't know," he insitsts. "Too secretive. Reason why no one knows organizational structure. No one know more than they need."
Leah sighs. "Are you seriously trying to tell us that you don't know where your own brother is!? Give me a fucking break." she blurts out.
Jelvan nods. "Yes," he states matter-of-factly before getting to Vasquez' question. "Never seen Teris before. Came to inspect asari prisoner. Heard her shuttle taking off while you were there. Don't know what she was testing for. Didn't ask."
Jelvan nods, again. "One. Brought there two hours before Teris arrived. Saw her on shuttle trip here, though."
Leah nods in response. "We got her out. She was with Philip and Renala. They were trying to decide what to do with her."
Vasquez glances at the salarian but adresses Leah first. "I want her brought in here for questioning." She turns back to Jelvan. "You capture people for this Teris? And you don't know why? I'm supposed to believe that?"
Leah looks at Vasquez for a moment. "Ma'am? You're gonna need to contact Philip and Renala about it. I'm not sure what they decided, but-... She was just a girl. She's probably terrified. I doubt she could be much help."
Vasquez snaps back to Leah. "What?! They were holding a kid? I-..." She pauses briefly. "Tell them to see if they can get her to tell them anything useful." She turns back to Jelvan and crouches down in front of him, bringing her quite close to the salarian. "I don't believe for a second you don't know anything about the work you're doing. Tell me where Rellis is."
Leah nods. "Right away, Chief." she says. She hesitates for a moment before continuing, "Uhh... I don't have their contact details. Mind sending them?"
Jelvan shakes his head. "Do not know," he spells out clearly. "Honest. Would be lying if I said a location. Even if I knew, it would be irrelevant already."
Vasquez takes out her omni-tool and sends a quick message to Leah with their contact info, while listening to Jelvan. When he finishes she nods with a smirk. "That's a shame. See, you're not leaving until we have confirmed Rellis' location."
Damien steps into the lobby, idly tapping away on his omni-tool. He remains in his armour as per usual, though his helmet is not on his person. A frown crosses his brow as he reads through a message, before powering it down and casting a quick look around the lobby.
Vasquez raises an eyebrow. "You're seriously just going to sit here and rot to protect him? Is it worth it?"
Damien sniffs, casually moving over to the briefing room entrance and thumbing the interface to step inside, assuming the door is closed.
Leah sighs as she reads over her omni-tool. "Renala says the kid's not talking much. Says all that they know is she's from a place called Armali, her name's Marissa, and her mother's name is Ethiana T'Evin." she says, glancing up at Jelvan, "Any of that mean anything to you?"
Jelvan shakes his head. "Don't know anything about the kid. Other than order to keep her until further orders. Teris' responsibiltiy."
Damien frowns. "Always this quiet?" he says to himself, unsure of what to do. He shrugs and moves towards Vasquez's office, pausing outside and raising his knuckles to the door. He pauses and lowers his hand, turning back to the briefing room and rubbing his chin in thought.
Vasquez lets out an annoyed grunt. "If you can't tell us where Rellis is... what can you tell us? Come on."
Damien walks back into the briefing room, giving a casual look over his shoulder and out into the lobby. He smirks to himself and shuts the door, turning and clapping his hands together. "Wonder if I can catch a game or two on this thing?" he ponders, walking over to the projector and searching around for a remote or something.
Jelvan thinks for a moment. "In the 5 years since starting our agreement, has exchanged equipment and mercs with 9 different security firms. Not sure which are still running."
Damien picks up the remote and raises it, turning on the projector and smirking to himself. "Alright," he mumbles as he flicks through the channels, searching for the Armax Arsenal arena. "Let's see what's on tonight."
Leads the company on Aroste. Sets up missions. Ask for equipment and people when we need it, send it back when we don't. Assume these other organizations has similar agreement.
The screen turns on, displaying a channel that discusses Asajura around-the-clock before Damien begins cycling through channels.
Leah looks over at Vasquez. "You know the second we let him go he's going to get in touch with his brother and tell him about us, right Chief?"
Vasquez nods, responding while still crouched in front of the salarian. "I know. Which is why we're not letting him go any time soon." A crooked smile spreads across her lips.
Vasquez stands up with a grunt. "You'll get food when you tell us something useful." She says before turning around and exiting. When passing Leah she nods for her to come with.
Damien's harrowing journey to find an Arena match is met with stiff resistance as he's forced to battle through news stations, trudge through long-running soap operas, and maneuver through a gauntlet of sitcoms. But his perseverence pays off. Battle-hardened and weary, Damien is rewarded with a glory that could only be experienced through the eyes of a man who fought for his reward. The Armax Arsenal Arena logo adorns the corner of the scre
Damien smiles to himself, flipping the remote in his hand and chuckling. "Finally," he says as he flops into a seat and kicks his legs up onto a desk.
Leah gives the salarian one last scowl before following Vasquez out of the room. Once outside, she releases a heavy sigh and leans against the wall opposite of the door. "You gotta be fucking kidding me." she groans once the door is closed, "Are you telling me we went through all that for nothing?"
Vasquez shakes her head with another frustrated grunt, her gaze slowly moving down the hallway. "I can't read salarians... don't have a clue if he's telling the truth, or just bullshitting us."
He has to be bullshitting us. You can't honestly believe that he has no idea where his own brother is. Or, hell, at the very least what's going on in his own facility.
Vasquez nods. "Oh, he definitely knows more than he's letting on, but... I'm not sure about the brother. Maybe... maybe T'Iavay can can decrypt some of the data we recovered. If not... maybe locking him up for a while will give Jelvan some time to... reconsider what he knows."
Vasquez reflexively reaches for her machine pistol upon hearing sounds of battle from the combat sim broadcast in the briefing room. She slowly lets go of the grip when she realizes it's not loud enough to be actual fighting.
Leah steps away from Vasquez as she draws her weapon. Once Vasquez eases up, Leah glances back towards the briefing room. "You alright, Chief?" she asks, giving a nod in the direction of the noise, "Just someone watching the games..." she assures her. With a sigh, she looks back towards Jelvan's makeshift cell, "You confident that the door's gonna keep him secure? I could pull an all-nighter if needed." she offers, hoping that Vasquez
Damien leaps up and punches the air in joy. "Nice." He lowers himself back down and continues to watch.
Vasquez nods a few times too many, her hand twitching a bit after she lets go of the gun. "Yeah, I-... yeah, I'm fine." She looks towards the door with a thoughtful expression. "I don't really think he has the guts to try escaping. We'll just lock the door up."
Leah nods in agreement. "Sounds good." she says, "So-... Guess that means I'm done here for now? At least until Renala works her magic on that data?"
Leah nods once more. "Sure thing, Chief. Contact me if you need a hand with anything." she says before returning to the briefing room. She stops just inside the door and glances at the screen. "Who's up?" she asks, slowly waltzing up beside Damien. She places her hands on her hip and studies the screen.
Damien answers, not taking his eyes off the screen. "Couple of turian brothers, trying to fight through a few geth waves," he says. "Doing pretty well."
Damien ponders his last answer. "Couple of tur- I mean two brothers, who are turian." He smiles sheepishly and shrugs.
Leah's eyes remain fixed on the screen as she nods to herself. "Mmmhmm." she says, slowly sliding into the seat at the desk beside Damien's, "Think they're going to make the leaderboards?" she asks.
Damien gives a quick shout of encouragement as the brothers bring down a juggernaught, before asking. "They'll be damn close, I can tell you that much. But they're too slow, too... precise. Y'know? Missing out on that time bonus."
Vasquez seems to consider putting a stop to the arena watching, but instead makes her way back to her office with a grunt.
Leah leans to the side, placing her elbow on the armrest of her chair. "What's wrong with precision?" she questions, "Get it right the first time, and you don't have to waste time fixing your fuck-ups later. Let me guess, you're more the type to throw it all at the wall and hope something sticks?" she asks with a grin.
Damien laughs, shaking his head. "No, precision is good. I like precision. There is, however, being too precise," he states, turning to look at Leah. "It's time consuming and in the heat of the moment, can be distracting." He gestures to the game. "Like these guys. Missing out on all the time bonuses."
Leah watches the match intently, nodding slightly at Damien's observation. "Any big names scheduled to make an appearance tonight?" she asks.
Damien shrugs, watching the match. "Not really. Some C-Sec cap is going to give it a go. Should be fun to watch... and there's me without my popcorn," he deadpans, smirking slightly. He cringes slightly as one of the turian's gets whacked by a juggernaught.
Leah sucks in some air and puts her hand up over her mouth. "Situ~ational~awareness!" she chants, "What is he doing!?"
Damien shakes his head in a mockingly disapproving way and tuts. "See, get me and a couple of guys from the Suns and we'd wreck our way through that."
Leah snorts loudly as she levels her gaze on the man. "Big talk, hotshot, but that's all it is. I'd love to see you in the arena. Might help keep your ego in check."
Damien turns and fixes Leah with an even look, jabbing a finger into her shoulder. "Lass, I've probably got more missions under my belt than half of the agency," he says, smirking. "Besides, you didn't see me and my guys. We could easily do that."
Leah rolls her eyes. "More talk." she says, staring harshly at his hand as he pokes her. She remains quiet, staring him down as if to say 'did you really just put your hands on me?' "You've worked here less than a week and you're ready to discredit the entire agency? Sounds like more bullshit to me." she says, "Besides, I've crossed enough Suns to know that they're much better at talking a big game than backing one up." she taunts.
Damien remains unphased by her dagger-filled gaze and he relaxes, humming a laugh. "Alright, maybe I am bullshitting. Maybe," he says. "Not exactly going to ever have the chance to prove it. And I'm not discrediting the agency. You all seem like decent people." He pauses.
Leah gives a shrug and relaxes in her seat a bit. "Pretty sure we've all... done a lot of shit. Kind of comes with the territory, ya know?" she chuckles, splitting her attention between the screen and Damien.
Damien concedes to that point with a slight nod to her. "Yeah, fair point." He remains silent as he watches the brothers mop up the last of the geth, shy of making it to the leaderboard. "What did you do before you came here? If ya' don't mind me asking?"
Leah seems to consider it for a few moments. Her smile fades away. "I did what I had to do." she says plainly, making no attempt to go into further detail. She stares at the screen, looking a bit distant for a few moments until the next match begins to start up, grabbing her attention once again. "Nothing worth talking about." she adds coldly.
Damien looks to her, reading her features for a few moments before nodding. "Alright, I won't pry," he says, leaning back into the chair. "We all have one of those."
Leah nods absently. "Ain't that the truth." she sighs. "So... What do you make of them?" she asks, nodding towards the screen. The aforementioned C-Sec captain is on-screen with a couple of officers at his side. They're getting ready for the first round to begin.
Damien looks at the C-sec officers, sizing them up for a moment. "Well, the captain looks like he can handle himself. Has the air of a professional. His buddies also look grizzled too so I think they have a good chance," he states. "Must have been a few survivors from the attack."
Leah raps her fingertips against the desk. "That was somethin', wasn't it?" she asks, attempting to make small talk, "Never thought the Citadel could get hit so hard."
Damien nods, looking off to the side. "Fucking geth...". He cringes at a thought and folds his arms, keeping his gaze averted.
Leah continues watching the screen as she speaks, "A lot of good people lost their lives that day." she agrees.
Damien turns back, his face set in stone. "Makes you think... if the council were that vulnerable... what makes us any safer?"
Leah shakes her head. "Well we sure as hell aren't safe out here. No question about that. With colonies just turning up missing out of the blue..." she shakes her head, "I mean, how does an entire colony just vanish?" she asks, still focused on the match as she speaks. She instinctively ducks her head to the side as a shot narrowly misses the C-Sec captain.
Damien watches the game, not noticing her instinctive duck. "Fuck if I know... I just hope my family will be alright."
Leah glances over at Damien and nods sincerely, "I'm sure they'll be just fine. I just hope they're able to figure out what's going on. It's a shame when you can't even feel safe in your own home anymore."
I know, right? Hell, Dad's a tough bastard. He'll protect mum and give whatevers doing this a caved face.
The door to the briefing room opens up, and literally everyone's favorite turian walks in. He's in his worn, black-painted armor, only a Phalanx at his thigh and a turian beer in his right hand. His brow-plate arches as he spots them, and Calyx wanders in, taking a drink and looking towards the screen with something of a contented sigh. "Movie night?" he asks. "What're we watching, Fleet and Flotilla? Gets me everytime."
Leah snickers lightly. "I'm sure he will." she assures him, attempting to be supportive. Upon hearing the turian, she swivels in her seat. "Oh..." she sighs, "Calyx."
"Yep." He shrugs and takes another drink, looking between the two of them. Calyx seems to drop his attitude some. "Not interrupting, am I?"
Leah glances over at Damien then back at Calyx. "Interrupting?" she asks, "Uhh... No? Just unwinding a bit." she gestures towards an open seat.
Damien looks to Leah and offers her a small smile. "See ya' around. If your ever in respite, I'll buy ya' a beer." He nods to the pair and gives a small wave to them.
"Yeah, well." He shrugs. "That was good work, you two. Back there, I mean. You with the overloading, and you with the... back watching." He steps out of the way for Damien to leave if he still wants to.
Leah raises an arm to wave Damien off. "I'm gonna hold you to that!" she shouts. She raises an eyebrow at Calyx. "Well, that was almost a compliment." she says with a smile, "I'll take it."
"Later." He watches Damien go then faces Leah again, nodding towards the screen and moving to take a seat. "So, what're we watching?"
Leah nods towards the screen. "Armax Arsenal Arena." she says, swiveling in her seat to face the screen once again. "Team of C-Sec officers." she adds, "Not doing too bad, either."
Leah glances over at Calyx, eyebrow raised, "This more of your bullshit?" she asks, a slight smile on her face, "I have trouble picturing you as a figure of authority."
"Yeah, me too. Maybe that's not why I'm military anymore -- or C-Sec, I gusss." He shrugs. "No bullshit, though."
He clicks his mandibles together and sighs. "That's why I left," Calyx mumbles, serious for once. He sets his beer on the table in front of him and idly spins it on its surface. "Loooot of people died that day."
Leah nods slowly a few times. "Still. You can't just pack it up and call it quits when things get tough, right?" she asks, still focused on the match, "Look at this guy." she points towards the screen as the C-Sec captain masterfully orders his team around, setting up a perfect flank on their opponents, "Somebody needs to keep the people safe."
"Somebody, yeah. But after seeing that..." He shrugs again. "That someone's not me, though. We all thought the Citadel was inpenetrable, you know." Calyx eyes the screen again. "Guess not."
Leah sighs. "No... I understand. Not sure I'd want to stick around either after witnessing the people I was there to protect die around me." She looks over at Calyx, "Wasn't your fault, though. I'm sure you guys did all you could." she says sympathetically.
"Yeah," he agrees in a way that seems to say that he's not convinced. "All that we could." The turian lets out another sigh then takes the bottle in hand again, pulling from it another time. "Anyway. No hard feelings. I know how I come across."
Leah waves it off. "Don't mention it." she says with a sigh, "You handled yourself well out there. That's what matters. I'd rather work with an asshole-..." she smirks and gives a shrug, "...no offense- that's going to get under my skin and hold their own in a firefight over someone pleasant to be around that's going to wind up getting me killed."
Leah gives a shrug. "Well... Don't mean to cut and run on you, but I probably should get home. Been a long day and I could use some sleep." She stands from her seat and pats the turian on the shoulder, "But I'll see you around, Calyx. Also, it's probably best if you don't get caught by the Chief drinking around here." she adds with a smirk, nodding towards his drink.
He blinks slowly and looks down, letting out a small chuckle. "I'll keep that in mind." To emphasize this, Calyx takes another drink, nodding to her. "Take it easy."
Leah shakes her head and lets out a short snicker as she starts towards the exit, giving the turian a quick wave.