This logfile is imported from aitelogs2 and may contain errors or wrong timestamps.
#Miner'sRespite – August 16, 2015
Steve is seated in the security office, going over the information found inside Aylena's car. He sighs as the music starts. "Shit." he mutters before clicking the second track. "Shit." He clicks the third, "Fu-... Really!? Get some taste, Aylena..." This trend continues until he double clicks the eighth track.
The media player gets the right metadata up, like title, artist, length and all that, but once it's supposed to start playing, it stops and the media player pops up an error saying the audio is in the wrong format or corrupted.
Steve furrows his brow and looks over the properties of the file, checking to see if the file size and such are all consistent with a song, or if anything is noticably out of place.
The file size is about half what it's supposed to be for a song of the same length in the format used on the rest of the disc.
Steve starts up the previous song once more to make sure it wasn't just a fluke and that everything is working right. Once the song begins playing, he scratches at the back of his neck in confusion. He isn't the most tech savvy person out there, so he's not entirely sure what that could mean, if anything... But he does happen to know someone who might. He projects his omni-tool's
Renala answers the call after about five seconds. "Hey," she says, and almost immediately asks, "There's a party going on at this time of day?" A chucke follows.
Steve snorts, "Oh, yeah. The lamest party Aite has ever seen." he says as he reaches over to pause the song, "Just Aylena's shitty taste in music. I was going over a disc I found in her car. Mostly just music, but one of the files seems a bit off. Was wondering if you could come down here and take a look at it. I don't know much about that sort of shit, so it could be nothing. But
Renala hums. "I can take a look at it," she says. "I'll be there in a moment." She immediately ends the call.
Steve shuts off his omni-tool and glances around suspiciously. He looks out through the security room doorway down the hall. After a moment, he rolls across the room in his chair and shuts the door before restarting the song and slightly bobbing his head to the beat. The perfect crime.
Renala walks downstairs, clad in a leather jacket over a blue top, and approaches the bar. She exchanges a few words with Va'ynna before being let through, and she makes her way down the hallway to knock on the security office door. Steve would probably have seen her coming on the cameras.
Steve stopped the music once she entered the hall and stood to open the door. He's wearing his unpainted hardsuit. His helmet, SMG, and pistol are all sitting on his desk near the terminal. "Sorry to keep calling you down here." he says, "This sort of thing is beyond me, though." He gestures towards the terminal and takes a seat at the edge of the desk so she can have the chair, "Guess
Renala shrugs. "It's no bother," she says. "I don't have work until tomorrow evening." She takes the seat and looks over the file list. "Which one is it?"
Steve taps a finger against the screen. "The eighth track." he says, "Just displays an error. Says it's either the wrong format or corrupted. File size ain't consistent with the others, either."
Renala sends the file over to her omni-tool and opens up a program to read the file byte-by-byte. She scrolls through it and looks on it thoughtfully, bringing up another hologrphic screen to look up any 'magic numbers' and other identifying traits.
Steve merely sits in place at the edge of the desk watching, but not understanding anything. "So?" he asks, "Anything there?"
Renala frowns, and brings up a third holographic window that shows many short lines of text with an occasional long one. "I think there's an executable program in place of the expected audio," she says. "I would be careful about running it if it's not the owner who put it there."
Steve gives a short shrug. "What's the worst that can happen? Virus? Who cares, load it up on the terminal. Not like there's anything valuable on there besides security footage, anyway." He glances over at Renala momentarily, "Speaking of which... I ran back through the security footage after uploading pictures of our little friends that I grabbed with my omni-tool... Seemed like that
was their only stop in the Respite. Didn't see them making any calls or anything, so hopefully that means there was no time for them to report back. Looks like it was just recon that got out of hand..."
Renala nods. "What if they were supposed to call back at a certain time lest be assumed killed?" she asks. She makes a copy of the 'audio' poriton as a standalone file. She launches it, but it shows no sign of doing anything. "Let's give it a minute and see what it does."
Steve gives a nod, "I mean, if they don't report back I'm guessing whoever sent them out this way will assume they're dead regardless, agreement or not. But at best that puts Freedom Falls on the map for 'em. At worst? A couple of gangsters died on a dangerous planet. Might just go entirely unnoticed." He gives a shrug, "Just need to keep our eyes peeled and play it by ear. Not really
any other choice-..." he pauses for a moment, "...Cept runnin'. And I gotta be real honest here, Ren, I'm not a fan of putting on the runnin' shoes for the rest of my life. Figured this shitshow of a planet would be the last place they'd come lookin' for me so if they found me here, they'll find me anywhere. Much rather weather the storm and hope whoever it is orderin' this operation
Renala nods. "These giants weren't around just forty years ago," she says. "Maybe you'll outlive the gang." She glances at the various monitors, but the program still hasn't shown any signs of doing anything.
Steve watches the monitors as he taps his fingers against the desk absent mindedly, "They keep sending people after me and that's a given." he says with a snort.
"Couldn't wait any longer, couldn't you?" a low-bitrate voice sounds from the speakers on the terminal, but no video feed shows up.
Steve snaps his attention to the terminal and he leans in a bit, furrowing his brow. "Wha...? What's that?"
Steve narrows his eyes on an arbitrary spot on the desk as he tries to listen closely. "Was that it...? There was nothing else?"
"Correct," the voice says. It's a female voice of an asari or human, but the low quality makes it impossible to identify. "You have questions?"
Renala types on the terminal and looks around for a way to do just that. "No, this program expose no settings, and the problem could be on the remote end."
Steve sighs loudly. "Well, this is no help. It's definitely out of place on a disc full of music, though." He looks over at Renala, "Any idea why that would be on there?"
"Aylena is safe, but unable to contact anyone on Aite for the moment," the voice says. "She is not happy about the car."
Steve leaps off the desk as he realizes it's actually speaking to him. "The fu-... It can hear us." He leans in closer, "Where is Aylena?" he asks.
"She wants as few people as possible to know that," the voice says. "Someone is coming to step in for her, but they are delayed."
O...kay. Well there's a lot of people worrying about her here. We'll keep it on the hush, but it'd be nice to know what the fuck is going on.
Steve nods absently a couple times. "Okay. And.... who is this person? Why did she have to leave so suddenly? If you can't tell us where she is, you can at least tell us that, right?"
"Aylena did not want anyone following her or knowing where she went," she begins. "That's the long and short I can give you now. Kanaya D'Inea will step in to manage the establishment." A pause. "Was there anything else?"
Steve sighs loudly. "No. That's pretty much it. Just... glad to know she's safe, I guess." he says. "Oh, and the car is totally on her. If she would've just told someone she was leaving instead of just disappearing, it never would've happened. I was just doing my job!" he says, sounding somewhat defensive.
"It was her who hid it there," the voice says followed by a chuckle. "Doesn't mean she won't be angry about it when she's going to spend hours fixing the thing." And with that, the transmission stops, noticable by the lack of a low static that persisted during the 'call'.
Steve slaps a hand against the top of the desk and stands up straight. "Well, there you have it. Mystery solved. Aylena is into some shady-ass-shit and had to go on the lamb." he says, "Suppose I should go tell Va'ynna so she stops crying herself to sleep." he sighs.
Renala stands up after shutting off programs she opened on the terminal. "Sounds like she's sending a relative," she says. "Maybe she's willing to talk about what's going on."
Steve gives a nod. "Maybe. Sounds like she doesn't want to be found right now, though. And that's fine with me. My job is to make sure nothing happens to this bar. What she does in her free time is her business, right?"
Steve gives a slight shrug. "Between looking into this Aylena business and scouring as much of the security footage as I could for any sign of my 'previous employers'... I've kept pretty busy these past few days. Couple small scuffles in the bar, too, but nothing too major. That's about it. What about you? Everything been alright on your end?"
Renala sighs. "I'm still getting used to working night shifts," she says. "I'll be at work tomorrow evening again, unless I've got your weekday names wrong."
Renala shrugs. "It's pretty quiet," she says. "I'll probably have to get used to it.... I heard Leah got hit pretty hard on that job."
Steve gives a quick nod. "She wasn't walkin' by the time we met back up with her squad. Saw her march in here tonight on the cams, though. Looked like they were able to fix whatever was going on with her. That whole job was a shit-show, though. Miracle any of us made it off that rock." He shifts a bit, leaning against the desk once more, "You should've seen it, Ren. If you thought
the mining colony was bad...." he lets out a whistle, "...Fuckin' army of those creepy things. Far as I could see, just a field of 'em."
Renala frowns. "I told him it was a bad idea to pursue this," she says, and has most likely told him before. "I'm not looking forward to the when we're going after the chief."
Steve sighs and shakes his head. "She's dead. I haven't been told anything about any sort of follow up, but mark my words: If we're going after her, we're going after a corpse. Nothing left behind on that planet could've survived. Matter of fact, that whole place should just be wrecked from orbit so nobody ever steps foot on it again." He grips the edge of the desk with his gauntleted
hands. "Literally, a field of them." he repeats, "Like a hive of insects just climbin' over one another to get at us. She was a tough chick, and crazy to boot, but no way she survived that."
Renala sighs. "What a shame," she says. "I liked her. She'd rather fight impossible odds than give up that lousy salarian when Rellis' people first came for him."
Steve shrugs, "She pulled a gun on me after having a few too many, so as far as I'm concerned, she can rot for all I care." he says coldly, followed by a quick chuckle, "But she was definitely a fighter. That's for sure."
Renala nods. "I can respect that," she says. "Taking the agency off-world for some unnecessary heroics, though...." She shrugs. "I've probably said enough about that," she adds with a chuckles.
Steve nods along. "Ah well. What's done is done." he says. "Focus from here on out is just to make sure I don't get my ass shot off due to their incompetence." he adds with a chuckle.
Renala smirks. "If Jason hasn't fired me for what I've said so far," she says, "I'll just keep telling him what I think whenever he's about to do something stupid."
Good... Maybe you can talk some sense into him before it's too late. Someone needs to get through to him...
Steve shakes his head. "Too damn stubborn. In the end it's just gonna be his funeral, so whatever..."
Steve pushes away from the desk, "Would be nice to have someone in charge with a good head on their shoulders rather than a deathwish." he says with a sigh. He starts towards the door, "Gonna go let Twitchy know she can stop worrying."
Renala nods and starts walking out of the room, too. "I'll see you around, Steve," she says with a smile before continuing out to the bar and towards the exit.
Va'ynna is standing behind the bar, looking around for anyone to serve, but she's otherwise not occupied.
Steve reaches out and gives the asari a pat on the shoulder as he walks beside her down the hall. "Appreciate the help, Ren." he says. As he reaches the bar, he takes a position beside Va'ynna and places his hands atop the counter. "Got some good news and I've got some bad news for ya, kid." he says, actually quite oblivious to how old Va'ynna actually is.
Va'ynna is a bit startled as Steve talks to her, but turns towards him. She is a bit tense. "What... is it?" she asks.
Steve raps his fingertips against the top of the counter rhythmically as he looks out over the bar. "Aylena is fine." he says, "But it seems like she does have something going on. Something that required her to pack her shit up and get out of town quick. She didn't want us to know where but-..." he nods, "Like I said, she's fine. And I'm sure she'll be back soon. In the meantime,
Va'ynna nods. "Oh," she says, not sure how to react at first. "Do you know... when she'll be here?" She pauses for a moment. "Thank you... for letting me know."
Steve gives a shake of his head, "Not specifically. Just that she was delayed. I can't imagine it'll be much longer though." he says. He awkwardly pats Va'ynna on the shoulder, then pulls his hand away, then rethinks that decision and returns it to her shoulder and allows it to linger for a moment as he tries to be comforting. "You uhh... gonna be able to manage until she gets here?"
Va'ynna tenses a bit at the touch, but calms down after a few seconds. "I... think so," she says, "but the... kitchen will be closed. Regular deliveries will still... happen, though, but I can't... make payments or anything like that."