#RedrockAgency – February 20, 2016

Victoria approaches the office of Redrock, wearing long pants and a brown jacket with a hoodie. The rain was truly an annoyance, but at least she would not be in it for long. As she approach the door, she noticed Leah walking out "Hey Leah, Jason is in right?" She asked just wanting to make sure he was in.

Leah quickly cocks her head to the side, still a bit jumpy after the recent firefight, but calms as she realizes it's Vicky. A tired smile crosses her lips and she gives a short nod. "Mmhmm. He's in his office." she says with a sigh, "Guessing he won't be around for much longer, though, so you might want to catch him before he heads out. Is everything alright?"

Victoria nodded "Yeah, everything is good. Just working on getting my ship back. So that might be happening soon." She gives a simple smile "I'll see you around, I better catch Jason before he goes." She gave Leah a wave and then moved to go inside of the building.

Leah returns the wave with one hand, pulling the other free from her jacket to wipe at her bangs. "Take care, Vicky." she says before stomping on her way.

Victoria sees that the lobby is cleared and moves onto the hallway to make her way to Jason's office. She sees that the panel to his office is red, she knocks on the door "Hey Jason, you in there?"

Jason glances up from his terminal, the expression on his face tired and grim. "Little busy right now, Vicky.... Is it important?" he asks, doing his best not to sound dismissive, but clearly not in the best of moods.

Victoria took a step into the office when the door opens, she has a quick look around before speaking "Nice office, need a little more personal touch." She stops for a second and thinks about how to continue "So, I finally have things ready to get my ship back. If Redrock still needs a ship."

Jason pokes at his terminal's keyboard a few more times as he listens to Victoria. "Hmmm?" he asks as he glances back at the woman, "Yeah, of course. Just-... a lot on our plate right now." he sighs. He glances over at the chair on the opposite side of his desk and stands up momentarily. (He is, in fact, wearing pants. Black fatigues, as per usual.) "Take a seat. I assume you've taken

Victoria takes a seat on the chair opposite to his desk. "That I have, it should not take longer than a day. There is quite a few weapons that we can take for ourselves, and that we don't need we can sell." She explained and paused noticing his frustration "Is everything alright or do we want to do this another time?" She knew by the tone of his voice that right now might be a bad time.

Jason sucks a deep breath in through his nose and exhales through his mouth. "No... It's fine. Sorry, just a bunch of other shit going on right now. Renala is in the hospital and I was just about to head over there to make sure everything is alright." he explains. He puts a hand up, realizing it may sound more dire than it is, "I mean it sounds like she's fine. Just a bump on the

Victoria nods "Yeah, that is a bit rough." This being the first time she heard about it. "Well, there was something else that I did not know about." She rubbed the back of her head "The first bit, Austin has managed to keep the ship here for quite sometime. The new captain is getting suspicious." She pauses again for a moment "Now this little bit, I only just learned. They have a hostage, trying to blackmail the guy back to his

Jason winces and reaches up, rubbing his forehead with a single synthetic hand. "Shit... So this is going to require a bit more finesse than recently thought. I assume you can provide us with a general layout of the ship, right? Can Austin give us a heads up on the hostages location? Last thing we need on our hands is collateral damage. I have enough things keeping me up at night as

Jason gives a shake of his head. "Too risky... We don't even know how he'd react. I think it's best if we work around him and then set him free once we've cleared any hostiles. No point in possibly opening ourselves up to another fight smack dab in the middle of our first fight."

Vasquez sits in her and Jason's room, on the edge of the bed. She's wearing a pair of plain dark gray pants and a light gray tank top. An Aite news broadcast is playing at low volume on the TV, talking about warring city states. Her eyes are on her engagement ring, she's spinning it thoguhtfully around on her finger, her gaze distant.

Jason blinks a few times. "Are you fucking with me?" he asks, "Tarkus!? Fuuuck." he groans. "Alright. As luck would have it, I happen to know the ol' jackass-..." he pauses, seemingly just now realizing what Victoria suggested. "Wait. Did you really just suggest we ransom a hostage off to their family!?"

Victoria shakes her head "I did not say we ransom him off, I just suggest that we ask for a reward for saving him. Up to them if they wanted to pay us for saving your ol' pal." She explained what she was trying to actually say to him. "So, this guy might be help us?"

Jason stares at Vicky for a few moments before rolling his eyes and giving a shake of his head. "Uh huh.. Sure you were. Anyway, yeah. We go way back. Get a location on him. If it's not too risky, we'll try and get a weapon in his hands. Assuming he's in any shape to fight, I'm confident he'd help us."

Leah re-enters the building and stops just inside, arms folded across her chest. She remains in place, stepping back and forth from one foot to the other as water drips from her clothes, forming a puddle beneath her. She runs all the scenarios in her head. There's no way she's getting out of this unscathed. "No matter what happens.... My dad is safe, right? You promised." she whimpers

Jason raises an eyebrow. "Ten plus engineers...? You mean onboard the ship? Are you sure we can trust these people? How do we know they won't just sell us out and lead us right into an ambush?"

Leah lowers her voice even more. "There's no way for me to get out of here without blowing my cover. You know this! I know this! If I can't guarantee my father's safety then what is the point of even going forward!? I've done everything you've asked! You can't expect me to be able to continue with a clear head if you can't guarantee me his safety. Please..."

Jason gives a nod and considers it for a few moments. "Then we go in assuming they'll be expecting us. You know the ship. You know your old crew. How many people do you think we'll need? Again, keep in mind the possibility that these people Austin rounded up might not be people we can count on..."

Jason furrows his brow. "What would convince them to side with us anyway?" he asks, "I mean, I get it... The current captain is a dickhat. But-.... They know they're gonna be out of a 'job'-..." he airquotes as he says the word 'job', "...if we succeed, right? Redrock certainly isn't in the business of attacking merchants and stealing their cargo... What did Austin promise these

Leah shuts her eyes tightly and takes a deep breath. "Where?" she asks, "Where am I supposed to bring her?"

Leah lets out a frustrated grunt. "I don't even know what you're asking of me!" she says, slightly louder than intended but still just above a whisper, "How can I decide how to approach this if you won't give me the information required to succeed? Do you want me to fail!? Is that it!?"

Leah runs a hand through her hair, causing water to drip heavily to the floor as she paces back and forth in a short line in the lobby. After a few more moments, she readjusts her ponytail and pulls her omni-tool from her pocket and goes to work.

Jason nods. "So you, me and seven others. That's doable." he agrees, "Alright, Vicky. Get me the floor plans and I'll start figuring out a timeframe to make this happen."

Vasquez descends the stairs within half a minute from Leah's message. She's put on her Redrock jacket over the tanktop, and heads right into her office after going down the stairs, moving over to her desk and taking a seat. She activates one of her screens and scrolls through some messages while waiting for Leah.

Leah shoves her omni-tool back into her pocket as she catches Vasquez entering her office. She follows behind a few moments later, entering the office. Still not entirely sure what's even expected of her, she begins to stall for time, hoping for some sort of instructions. "So... How is... everything?" she asks, looking around the office, "Since you've been back, I mean. Are you doing

Victoria stands up and offers Jason a handshake "I will get something worked out. But the longer we wait, the more suspicious the new cap gets and the possibly of your friend might not be able to help."

Jason reaches out and returns the handshake absently. It's not until his hand makes contact with Vicky's that he immediately begins to feel self conscious. "Right..." he says, giving her hand a quick shake before retracting his own synthetic hand, "...We'll get on top of it as soon as we can."

Vasquez blinks, a bit caught off guard, but soon regains a professional composure. "I'm fine. Plenty of work getting Redrock back on track..." Not wasting any time on socializing she asks: "What did you want to talk about?"

Leah bites her lower lip, looking a bit unsure of herself. "I-..." she begins, but immediately pauses. Her eyes begin to well up with tears almost instantly and she blinks hard, causing one to trail down the side of her face, "Shit. Fuck. Bitch. Ass." she releases a string of expletives, "This is so embarassing... I'm sorry..."

Vasquez looks rather put off, glancing around as if unsure how to handle the situation. "Mercier, I'm not entirely sure what-... uhm... is there's something you'd like to tell me?"

Victoria nods "Thanks Jason, I will owe you a lot if we do this." There was a smile on her face "I shall try to get everything ready, as soon as possible."

Jason gives a short, tired chuckle. "Don't mention it, Vicky. This would be a nice step for Redrock in general. Our own ship..." he smirks, "...But yeah. Whenever you can, send that info over. Take care, Vicky."

Victoria gave a nod and a smile to Jason "Will do Jason, I will let you get back to it then." She gave him a wave and started to move towards the door of his office.

Leah quickly reaches up to wipe at her cheek and sucks in another deep breath. "I know you've been out of the loop lately. I don't know if anyone has brought you up to speed..." she says, continuing to talk in circles as she attempts to breach the subject, "Has... Has anyone told you about Dami-... Monroe?" she asks tentatively, "He... just left...." she says, her voice getting quieter

Jason sits back against the backrest of his seat as Vicky exits his office. "Tarkus..." he mutters to himself with a quick shake of his head and a chuckle, "...The fuck did you get yourself into this time...?"

Leah nods a few times in rapid succession, her gaze lowering as she bites her lip once more. She uses her boot to poke at the leg of the desk a few times as she chooses her words. "He and I-.... We-...." She shakes her head, "I just miss him so much..." she finally manages to blurt out, a rush of tears following with it. Very real, very sincere tears, even if her intentions aren't

Vasquez stares at Leah, clearly surprised by the sudden outburst. She furrows her eyebrows and leans over her desk a bit, seemingly about to tell Leah off when something in her gaze changes rather suddenly. Her expression softens and she looks almost guilty for a moment. "Look, I'm probably not the best person to be spilling your guts to. But if you need to talk, I-... uh... I guess we

Leah sniffles a few times as she nods and wipes at her face. "Are-... Are you sure? I just...." she groans, getting frustrated with herself, "...I really didn't intend for this to be so emotional, I promise... I just wanted to see if you wanted to get a couple drinks or a bite to eat, that's all. On me, of course."

Vasquez considers this for a moment and then lets out a sigh, and nods. "Sure." She says with an attempt at a friendly smile. "I could use some time away from this place anyway." She stands up, pushing her chair back a bit in the process, and then shuts down her screen before starting to round the desk.

Leah takes a deep breath, already dreading what's to come. This woman is just trying to be kind and it's about to blow up in her face. Another thing to toss on the guilt-pile. "Thanks..." she says softly, adjusting her jacket as she steps out into the hall. A few more sniffles escape her, but she's mostly calmed down. "Soooo.... Do you have a preference? Respite is the easy suggestion,

Vasquez ponders the question while moving down the hall, popping her head into Jason's office for a moment. "I'm going out for a bit, you got things covered here?"

Jason quickly clicks at his mouse a bunch of times, eyes widening. "JUST DOING WORK!" he says suspiciously. "Oh, uhh.... Yeah, yeah. Of course. All covered." He furrows his brow as he looks up at her, "Where you going?"

Leah follows behind Vasquez but stays out of view of Jason.

Leah winces as she's forced to overhear the conversation.

Vasquez does not look amused. She lets out a grunt as she keeps walking down the corridor. Upon exiting the building she zips her jacket closed and glances at Leah. "There's a place one block over from the Respite that does a great varren kebab - you ever had varren?"

Leah happily follows Vasquez out of the building, pulling her hood up once they're outside to shield her from the rain. "Varren?" she asks, scrunching up her nose, "Is it even safe to eat them?"

Jason gives a shout as Vasquez heads off, "Love you, too!" and returns to his never-ending supply of videos featuring varren doing cute tricks once the coast is clear.

Vasquez heads towards the company car. "Who cares? It's the tastiest damn meat on in the galaxy." Upon arriving at the car she unlocks it with her omni-tool and slips into the driver's seat.

Leah continues to follow behind, rounding the car to the passenger's side. "I'll take your word for it... So what is this place?" she asks, "I-... don't get out much." she admits. "Between work and taking care of dad, I don't have a whole lot of time to check out new places to eat. And dad is a bit stubborn and set in his ways. He has no interest in trying new food..."

Vasquez starts the car up once Leah is in, and pulls out onto the road. "Grall's Foodshack. Nobody knows varren like the krogan." She says, heading into town as water sprays from the puddles they pass.

Leah watches out the passenger window, somewhat afraid to make anymore eye contact than needed, lest Vasquez figure her out. "Makes sense... They seem to spend an abnormal amount of time in the company of varren. Kinda skeeves me out, to be honest." she chuckles. "Sooo... Has Damien's brother spoken to you...?" she asks, both trying to keep up the charade as well as gather any information

Jason bursts into laughter as he watches a pyjack ride on the back of a varren, just the most unlikely of duos without a care in the world. They frolick and play in a meadow like the bestest of friends.