This logfile is imported from aitelogs2 and may contain errors or wrong timestamps.
#Omega – March 5, 2016
The place where Leah has been asked to meet by a potential informant is a bar at the outskirts of the station, in the turian district, where Aria's influence is lesser. It's located in a small plaza, with two footpaths going off in opposite directions from the plaza, a mixed assortment of residences and hideouts filling the metal walls of both paths. The plaza itself is home to a junk shop and another unmarked storefront (with sounds of
varren coming from within) aside from the bar, and above stretches walkways, pipes and landing platforms for over a hundred meters before coming to an abrupt stop at an asteroid rock ceiling. The signage of the bar is holographic, the alphabet used flickering between latin and turian. When recognizable to Leah it spells out "Popina".
Leah has done her best to keep a low profile since her arrival on Omega, remaining in the small apartment she rented under a name that holds no value to her. The price of buying a new life for her and her father has nearly emptied her savings, and it won't be long before she's forced to find a new source of income, but at least she knows her father is safe. For now. She keeps her head down
as she navigates her way through the plaza. Her hair is tied back into a neat ponytail which bounces against her blue hardsuit with each step. Her Mattock and sidearm are in plain sight. She brings her omni-tool up as she reaches her destination, checking the information sent her way against the sign before her. She mutters some words of encouragement to herself under her breath as she enters
As she steps through the door she's immediatly hit by a wall of sounds and smells. There is smoke in the air, perhaps enough to make the unaccustomed cough. It does little to mask the smell of vomit and spilled drinks however. There is loud talking from the various patrons - turians, krogan and batarians mainly, with a few humans, asari and salarians as well. Somewhere a krogan is laughing uproariously. There are a couple of screens near
one of the walls, and the booths beneath them are filled with people watching what appears to be a race going on outside the station. Behind the bar is a turian man with a mangled face - part of his plating and a mandible appears to have been pulled right off sometime long ago. In a booth near the bar, on the side opposite to the screens, sits a salarian in an armor suit that has clearly had its paint scraped off. His gaze snaps to Leah as
Leah scrunches up her nose and waves away at the smoke in front of her face as she enters. She quickly brings a hand to her face to cover her mouth as she's overcome by a coughing fit. She straightens up and does her best to recover, eyes watering slightly from the scratching in her throat, but the aromas that follow up the smoke cause her to second-guess her decision to come here. She slowly
crosses the room, careful to avoid allowing her gaze to linger on anyone for too long. The last thing she needs is to give someone a reason to act like a fool. As she reaches the counter, she leans against it with one hand and lifts her other slightly, attempting to signal the bartender.
Bartender moves over to Leah after pouring glass of green-glowing liquid to a nearby krogan. The turian looks her over skeptically and lets out a brief chuckle. "I don't think I have any... what do you call them? Cows! Yes! No cow's milk here, human. Are you lost?"
Leah blinks a couple times, the insult not particularly landing due to his butchering of the delivery. She rolls her eyes and points at a bottle of beer on display. "I'll take one of those." she says, resisting the urge to add 'asshole' to the end of her sentence. She gives a glance around, hoping whoever she's supposed to be meeting shows up soon before she has to deal with anymore of this
Salarian has apparently left his booth, and now appears next to Leah. "Drink for me also, Barcius. The human is paying."
Bartender grunts, and reaches over to grab a bottle of beer, placing it on the counter in front of Leah along with a glass that looks far from clean. A small metal cylinder is handed to the salarian. He looks at Leah, awaiting payment.
Leah raises an eyebrow as she glances at the salarian to her side. "Awfully presumptuous of you." she says, realizing the obvious implication of who he is, "I haven't even heard anything worth paying for yet." She fishes her credit chit out from a compartment in her hardsuit and slides it across the counter, her gaze still locked on the informant, "So? Tell me I'm not wasting my time here."
Salarian smiles, and grabs his drink. When the bartender has returned the chit to Leah he gestures for her to follow as he goes back to the nearby booth, shooting the krogan patron sitting by the bar a wary look before taking a seat.
Leah grabs the bottle, opting to leave the dirty glass behind with a look of distaste. She follows closerly behind the salarian, twisting the top to her drink off as she nears the booth. "So?" she asks, tossing the cap onto the table as she slides into the seat across from the salarian, "What do you have for me? And why did we need to meet here?" she asks, casting an uncomfortable glance
Salarian flips open the lid of the metal canister and then lifts it to his mouth, emptying the contents in one sweep before putting it down and focusing on Leah again. "The more people talking, the less is heard by unfriendly ears. A lot of unfriendly ears on Omega."
Leah brings her attention back to the salarian, giving a short snort as she lifts the bottle to her lips and takes a quick sip. "Uh huh..." she responds as she sets the bottle down in front of her, "That's pretty apparent. This entire station is like one long dark alley..." She sits back in her seat and stares expectantly at the salarian.
Salarian 's gaze darts between passing patrons and Leah as he speaks. "Cerberus. Dangerous people to be asking about. Good way to end up dead." He pauses for a split second and adds with a shrug. "Of course, lots of ways to end up dead out here." He seems to get back to his main point. "Are you working for someone? Or personal matter?"
Leah follows the salarian's gaze, becoming more uncomfortable each time his attention turns to another patron. "I-..." she begins to interject as he rattles on, but is unable to get a word in. "Yea-..." A worthy conversation-opponent! When he gives her an opening, she lets out a quick sigh. "Personal."
Salarian nods. "Hm. Of course. You've encountered their people then. Terrorists. Or labeled so by the Alliance." His gaze lingers a bit longer on a passing human, and he seems relieved as the man has passed. "Of course, out here you hear different things. About them and the Alliance, yes? Perhaps not so far apart. Perhaps connected. But you are not here for rumors. You want fact, yes?" He looks at her as if expecting a response, but
continues almost immediately. "Of course. And I have facts. I worked for the Eclipse. We've encountered Cerberus. Not on good terms. Captured one of their agents once."
Leah leans forward, resting her forearms against the table as the salarian begins to speak. She continues to try, and fail, at responding each time the salarian gives an opportunity. "Labe-.... Connected-...? Yeah-..." She sucks a deep breath in through her nose, out through her mouth, and responds once he finishes. "You-..." she pauses, narrowing her eyes on the salarian as she waits for
him to interrupt. After a second passes, she nods slightly and continues, "You can't possibly believe these psychopaths have some sort of connection to the Alliance, right?" she asks, as if it couldn't possibly be true. "You captured one of their agents? I just need a location. Some sort of central-... command?" she continues, hoping her line of questioning doesn't sound ridiculous or give
away just how little she actually knows about the organization, "I need these people out of my life. How much pull can they possibly have?"
Salarian blinks, and then gains a smile. "Ah. A location. I can provide that. For... proper compensation, of course. 4000 credits." He states plainly.
Leah visibly winces, bringing both hands up to her forehead as she slumps forward against the table with her elbows. After a few moments of silence, she nods against her hands."3700." she says through her hands, picturing the last of her savings drain from her newly built account, "It's all I can offer right now."
Leah lowers her gaze to the table, holding her head up with her hands. "How can you ensure me that this information is worth it?" she asks, obviously already sold. It's not like she has any other options. "How do I know you're not just going to sell me a load of crap?"
Salarian shakes his head. "You will not, until you go there. But the information is good. Scouted by the Eclipse after the capture of an agent. Copied the data when I left. Only other way of getting the information is through Eclipse. And they will demand more."
Leah slowly nods her head. "Fine." she says, already sounding defeated. "Now what do you have for me?"
The krogan at the bar lets out a loud, and disturbingly long, burp and slams his glass against the counter hard enough to shatter it. He then starts to laugh.
Leah sits up, bringing her head away from her hands as the glass shatters. Her attention snaps over to the bar. She lets out another deep breath as she spots the culprit, looking slightly embarassed at being startled by it. This whole Cerberus business just has her a bit on edge.
Salarian seems unfazed, and takes out his omni-tool, typing something into it, eyes moving rapidly across the holo-display. Leah should soon recieve a message containing a set of coordinates. "There. Now, credits." He holds out a hand to accept a credit chit.
Leah stares down at his hand, dreading that last lifeline she has to hand over. She removes a credit chit from her hardsuit and brings up her omni-tool. After a few moments of poking at the interface, it dissipates and she places the chit down gently into the salarian's hand. "There." she says with a bit of misguided anger towards the salarian, "Everything I have. Hope you're proud of
Salarian takes the chit, immediately withdrawing the money with his omni-tool. He looks a bit puzzled at Leah's final remark. "Proud? Not particularly. But alive-... ah. Sarcasm." He chuckles slightly. "Good luck. Bring friends."
Leah nods a couple of times to herself, lowering her head back to her hand once more. "Yeah, right... Thanks..." she says, lacking any and all enthusiasm. Her mind immediately jumps into self-preservation mode, sifting through any and all options available to her in order to make some credits.
Salarian drums his fingers against the table, giving Leah and awkward look as she remains by the table. "The transaction is complete. You may leave now."
Leah looks up at the salarian as he speaks, confused for a moment as to why he's still here. "3800 credits and I have to leave?" she mutters. She glances around, realizing how little she actually wants to remain in this place anyway, and slides out of the booth without another word to the salarian. She reaches for her hardly-touched beer but quickly decides to leave the crappy beverage
As Leah is on her way towards the door the krogan at the bar, clearly drunk judging by his walk, slides off his stool and heads towards the exit as well, but on the way he stumbles into Leah with, to a human, staggering force.
Leah is caught by the krogan's sideswipe and goes sprawling forward onto her hands and knees. She quickly scrambles forward and jumps up to her feet, a slight blue glow enveloping her as she twists around to face her assailant. As she comes face-to-face with the krogan, she pauses for a moment, staring him down like a deer caught in headlights. "Ummm... Excuse me..." she says as she realizes
the collision wasn't on purpose. The glow begins to dissipate and she instinctively steps off to the side, giving the krogan a wide berth.
Several eyes are drawn to Leah as she first collide in the krogan, mostly disinterested, but when the hints of biotic energy swirls are spotted quite a few of the nearby patrons seem more interested - and the bar seems to go almost quiet for a moment, before the krogan lets out an annoyed grunt. "Stupid human." he mutters and steps past her, continuing his way towards the door, almost tripping at one point. He's soon left the building.
Leah 's eyes dart back and forth over the crowd as the krogan makes his exit. Suddenly feeling incredibly self conscious with everyone staring at her, she takes a few steps back towards the exit and swivels on her heels to make her escape. She immediately lowers her head and begins power-walking away from the bar once outside, making a mental note to steer clear of seedy bars tucked away in
As soon as Leah exits the bar, two turians clad in red-gold armor carrying the mark of the Talons slide out of their booth after exchanging a quick glance with each other. One of them types a quick message on his omni-tool as they head outside, following the human.
Leah isn't oblivious to the tail. She is a capable soldier who has been a freelance mercenary for some time, afterall. She shuts her eyes tightly for a second and cusses under her breath as she hears the door open right after she has left followed by footsteps close behind her. As if she wasn't on edge enough without someone shadowing her... She doesn't bother glancing over her shoulder,
instead she merely picks up her pace a bit to create some distance and looks for the nearest footpath that might break line of sight with her followers.
The main path has an unlit alley to the left, walls on both sides of it covered in pipes and wiring running up the buildings. The two turians continue to follow her, matching Leah's pace.
Leah waits until the last moment to shift directions and turn into the alley. She quickly pivots to face the entrance and grabs her sidearm from her thigh, aiming it at the corner as the blue glow once again surrounds her.
The turians quickly traverse the last distance to the alley when Leah takes a detour, one readying his omni-tool while his companion - considerably larger than the average turian - unholsters a modded Carnifex. They press against the wall, just around the corner from the alley, still out of Leah's view. After a moment a combat drone floats into view, floating higher than where a person would come into view, and an arc of electricity shoots
Leah begins to shake uncontrollably as the electricity courses through her, causing her to expel all of her built up biotic energy unexpectedly. A nearby garbage can is hurled into a wall while Leah collapses to the ground and the grip on her pistol goes slack.
TallTurian rounds the corner, Carnifex raised. As soon as he spots Leah own the ground he seizes the opportunity, striking down with his right arm in an attempt to jab the taser at the bottom of his pistol grip into the undersuit of her armor.
Leah continues to convulse as another shock takes over her body. She bites down hard as loud, pained groan escapes her and her entire body goes limp.
TallTurian stands back up, keeping his gun trained on Leah while waving the other turian forward. "Sedative, quick!"
Florrus rounds the corner, a small injector in hand. He kneels down next to Leah and puts the injector against her neck, pressing the button.
Leah groans, blinking heavily as she writhes on the filthy ground. Her shaky hand slowly reaches out towards her pistol as the injector is pressed against her neck. Her eyes continue to flutter for a few moments and her hand falls against the floor as she fades from consciousness once the sedative begins coursing through her blood.
Upon waking, Leah would find herself sitting on her knees on a metal floor, facing a metal wall. Someone is behind her, in the middle of tying her hands up with a ziptie. "...be fine, she'll be out for another hour. You go back up the boss, the batarians seem in a bad mood." Another voice, perhaps recognizable to Leah as the large turian, can be heard responding. "Yeah, alright." A door is heard closing somewhere behind her a moment later.
Leah remains perfectly still as she listens to the chatter, attempting not to freak the fuck out as she blinks the fog out of her head. Another hour. Could they be talking about her? Did they underestimate how quickly she would come to? She scans around as much as she can without turning her head, attempting to get her bearings on where she might be before she tries anything. A few deep
Florrus finishes adjusting the ziptie around her wrists. "Theeere we go. You're a special one, aren't you? Biotics pay well." He says with a chuckle, patting her shoulder as he stands up, apparently talking to himself. Looking around in front of her she'd see nothing but plain, brown-gray metal walls - one straight ahead and one on either side - a small room. The room is bathed in pale light, seemingly from a lamp above. Her guns have
Leah feels the panic begin to set in as she realizes her amp has been taken. That's one advantage gone. Biotics pay well? Her mind mulls over the turian's words. Could they be slavers? Seems to just be the single turian with her at the moment, but there's no telling how long until his partner returns. Hands or no hands, she sucks in a breath and convinces herself that she needs to make her
move now. She quickly snaps into action, hoping to catch the turian off-guard before he becomes wise to her motives. She swivels on her left knee and extends her right leg, hoping to trap the turian's leg with a sweep and drag him to the ground.
Florrus is caught completely off-guard, falling to the floor with a clank. He frantically scrambles to unholster his sidearm, a Carnifex, with his right hand, while his left swipes in Leah's direction. Now that she's turned around she'd see the closed but unlocked door behind the turian.
Leah rotates into the sweep as it catches the turian and slips onto her side. Given the fact that he's reaching for a firearm, she's not particularly worried about being caught by his left. She slides slightly closer to the turian while on her side, her tied hands making the whole ordeal quite a bit trickier, and launches a follow-up kick towards his head with as much force as she can muster.
Whether it lands or not, her follow-up would be to attempt to kick at his right arm and keep him from unholstering his weapon right away.
Florrus is kicked hard in the head, Leah's enhanced legs producing enough force to to smash his head against the wall. A crack is heard as the tips of his crest break, and he goes limp just as the pistol is kicked out of his hand a moment after being unholstered, clattering against the wall and floor.
Leah wastes no time scampering up to her feet. It's off-balance and sloppy due to being unable to use her hands, but she manages it with relative ease. She glances around for any way of cutting the zip ties but, failing to immediately spot anything, sets up to try and simply jump straight up and bring her hands back in front of her by way of bringing them back under her feet. It becomes
immediately apparent that the hardsuit is going to make this a problem so she instead backs up against the nearest wall and slumps back down to the floor and slowly navigates her tied hands back around to the front of her. It's a good thing she's small. She sucks in a few more labored breaths and quickly crawls across the floor on her knees to scoop the Carnifex off the ground with her restrained
hands. It's awkward and inconvenient, but it'll have to do until she knows she's not in any immediate danger. She takes a position by the door and pauses for a few moments to catch her breath and psyche herself up. "Move your ass, Leah... Just open the door, you have to get out of here..." she mutters. With shaky hands, she taps the panel and tries to peek out to get a quick lay of the land
Outside the door is a short, empty hallway going left and right. To the right is a locked door, while there is one unlocked door to the left, and another straight ahead.
Leah pulls her head back into the room and presses flat against the wall as her shoulders rise and fall with each deep breath. She glances down at her wrist restraints, twisting and turning her hands in an attempt at seeing just how strudy they are. She gives one more cursory glance around the room for any sign of something she may be able to use to cut herself free.
Leah leans her head back against the wall as she attempts to figure things out for a moment. She bounces her head off of the flat surface a few times, uneasy over the prospect of stepping out into the hall. "Come on, you're wasting time..." she reminds herself. She rounds the doorway, raising the pistol in an awkward, unnatural grip due to the zipties. She consciously slows her pace, not
particularly fond of the idea of running headlong into more danger, and slowly creeps up to the door on the left side of the hall. One unlocked door is as good as the next, right? She passes one more glance back at the unlocked door, expecting it to pop open at any moment, before tapping the panel and lifting the Carnifex once more as she waits for the door to slide open.
The door opens up into a decently sized warehouse, containing only a handful of small crates and barrels. A series of metal-grate walkways run overhead, and a large fold-up door covers the right-hand wall, while there is a locked door directly opposite to where Leah is. In the middle of the room are a group of people - a human and a batarian, both in armor, are seated on small crates, on opposite sides of a small makeshift table made up of
a crate and a sheet of metal. Behind the human stands the large turian that captured her, and behind the seated batarian stands another, also armored, holding a Kishock harpoon gun in a casual stance. Accompanying the batarians is also a small-framed human woman who's wearing a simple cloth tunic. She's unarmed, and her arms are at her sides, gaze on the floor. The two seated men appear to be in the middle of a heated discussion. "Do
you see how well-trained this one is?! We're prepared to bring in an entire shipment just like that! This is valuable goods, well worth the price we're asking." The batarian sounds clearly annoyed. "I told you, our buyer doesn't care about training." the turian responds. "Well, maybe we should talk directly-..." the slaver trails off as he notices Leah in the doorway in the corner of one of his eyes. "What is the meaning of this?!" he
Leah shifts back and forth as the Carnifax dances over her potential targets. She swallows hard as she looks over the scene in front of her, wide eyed. 'Shit, shit, shit. Think, Leah.' She quickly scans back and forth over the scene. 'Human. Turian. Batarian. Batarian. Human.' She quickly goes over the scene in her head, her eyes locking on the obvious 'merchandise'. 'There's no way you're
fighting you're way out of this one, Leah...' she thinks as she sucks in another deep breath, '...But maybe you won't have to.' "Uhh-... Or... Or you could-.... stop wasting our time, you four-eyed cheats!" she shouts, not particularly confident. She hovers her pistol over the batarian, making sure to keep a tight grip on her weapon, lest her bindings give her away to them. She squeezes the
trigger, fully aware that the round will most certainly plink right off of the batarian's armor, and steps back into the doorway in to take cover behind the frame. She listens, barely able to concentrate over the beating of her own heart, and hopes she just lit a firecracker between the two groups rather than signing her own death warrant.
The seated batarian growls as the shot strikes his kinetic barrier. He immediately proceeds to flip the table and dodge down behind it for cover, sending the human on the other side tumbling to the floor and reaching for his sidearm. The other batarian, meanwhile, aims his Kishock at the turian, who returns the gesture with his Carnifex. "Woah, woah! Not one of our-..." He's interrupted as a harpoon punches through his throat, causing
blood to spurt over the flipped table as he collapses to his knees, gasping. "Gaddan you idiot!" The batarian leader cries out from behind the table, a moment before said idiot is struck by a burst of fire from the human thug's machine pistol as he scrambles away from the table and into cover behind a crate. The shots deplete his shields and he's forced into cover as well, crouching down behind a barrel. The human slave, meanwhile,
recoiled at the sound of the gunshot but remains in the same spot, not taking cover. Fearful eyes dart between everyone in the room.
Leah swings back into the doorway, remaining tight up against the doorframe to keep as covered as possible. She fires a set of three rounds at the batarian behind the barrel, hoping to take advantage of his unshielded state. She locks eyes on the slave once again and uses her pistol to gesture for her to get down. 'Geeeet down!' she mouths, fearful that saying it aloud may blow her ploy. She
pulls back into cover and looks down at her pistol, realizing quickly that she never checked to see how many shots were in it after picking it up. She rectifies that oversight.
The batarian behind the barrel is quickly dispatched as a shot from Leah's hand cannon punches straight through the barrel, and his head. The slave shows no real reaction to Leah's gesturing and remains standing in the middle of the room, although she hunches over a bit, flincing at every gunshot. She only starts moving once the batarian behind the table yells out a short command, not caught by Leah's translator over the sound of the human
with the machine pistol, who is now opening fire on the flipped table. She runs out of sight behind a stack of crates at the far corner of the room.
Leah lowers her head, remaining pressed up against the doorframe. She listens as the smg peppers the table and waits until the stacatto of gunfire pauses before poking her head out to get a lay of the land once more. Human behind a crate. Batarian behind a makeshift table.... unarmed?
As if on command the batarian pops up from behind the table, aiming his arm towards the crate that the human is behind, firing off an electrical net from his omni-tool, which wraps around the crate - and the human on the other side. He can be heard spasming wildly. The batarian, well aware of Leah's presence, returns to cover after a quick glance in her direction.
Leah has no interest in falling to the same fate as the human. Which means she's going to need to act fast before he has the chance to regain his bearings or, worse, before backup arrives. She charges out from her cover, firing a shot at the table to keep the batarian hunkered down. She reorients herself so she's not approaching the table head-on from the door in hopes that, should he pop
out to take another shot, that extra second or two to adjust his aim may give her the edge. Leah times out her second, and final shot, to give her enough time to make a few more strides towards the table. Should she reach it unimpeded, she delivers a kick into the table with all of the force she can muster, hoping to topple the batarian over.
Slaver pops out from cover just as Leah is approaching for the kick, firing off a poorly aimed blast of ballistic blades as she is far closer to the table than he anticipated. He backpedals rapidly and calls out another short command in batarian which the translator struggles with. The slave immediately comes running, and as soon as she's in range he grabs her by her arm, pulling her along as he starts moving towards the exit, trying to
Leah flinches and drops to her knees as the batarian pops up, her momentum causing her to slide across the floor until she's stopped by the overturned table. It takes her a second to process what just happened, but the sharp stinging in her left shoulder brings her up to speed real quick. She sucks in a deep breath through gritted teeth and looks down at the blade poking out between the
plates of her armor. She drops the pistol and grips the blade with both gauntleted hands, her eyes watering up as she holds her breath and tugs the sharp instrument free from her shoulder. A pained groan accompanies a spurt of blood that erupts from the wound. It doesn't take long for her suit's sensors to kick in and the soothing sensation of the medi-gel's application to wash over her. She
grits her teeth through the pain and gets right to work on sawing at her restraints. The moment her hands are freed, she scoops the pistol back up and bursts into a sprint after the batarian, a stream of blood running down her chestplate. Should he get away or call for backup, it would be a very bad day for Leah.
Slaver 's eyes all widen as Leah starts sprinting towards him, surprised at her burst of speed. He shoves the human slave at her and dashes for the door - and then stops dead in his tracks as he realizes it's locked. He smashes his fist against hte holographic keypad as if hoping that will open the door.
Leah catches the slave in her arms, stumbling slightly, but stopping the woman's momentum. She makes eye contact with her for a brief moment, immediately overcome by sympathy for this poor woman. She steps past the slave and lifts the pistol with one hand, aiming it at the back of the batarian's head. Sure, it's not loaded, but he doesn't know that! "Alright-..." she pants, "...That's enough!
Turn around!" she demands, gripping the blade tightly in her other hand in case he decides to attack her.
Astrid quickly averts her gaze from Leah's. She remains standing in place when the woman steps past her.
Slaver chuckles quietly while turning around. "You're out of shots." He states. "I counted." He raises his omni-tool at her.
Leah bites down hard as the slaver reveals that he's aware of her ammo situation. The moment his arm begins to rise, Leah shoots hers up, releasing the blade at the batarian and hoping to catch him somewhere in the head/neck/face. She immediately goes after his omni-tool arm regardless of the blade's result, attempting to get in close enough to wrestle his aim away.
Slaver is unfortunately not wearing his helmet, and is stabbed in the eye, which proves quite lethal. The suddenly dispatched batarian slides down the door, ending up slumped over in a sitting position.
Astrid 's eyes widen, and she looks distraught as she runs over to the dead slaver, kneeling down next to him and looking him over for signs of life with a fearful and confused gaze.
Leah lets out a deep breath and gains a confused look as she watches the woman. Rushing over to her side, she places her free hand on the woman's forearm. "Are you okay!?" she asks, lowering into a crouch and looking the woman over, "I'm soo sorry. You must be terrified." she continues, speaking quickly and constantly glancing back for any sign of more scumbags. "I'll explain later, but you
have to come with me, okay? I'm not with these sickos. They got me, too! I-... I'm gonna get you out of here." She nods a few times, suddenly feeling the weight of her words.
Astrid 's gaze turns to Leah, and she looks at the woman without really acknowledging her words in anyway - her clear blue eyes are filled with confusion still. She's a small-framed young woman, looking to be in her early twenties or late teens. Her pale skin is covered in scars, the most prominent of which is a net-shaped series of burns covering part of her shaved head and her left arm - and likely more that can't be seen. She has a
barcode tattooed on her right wrist and round symbol of archaic batarian lettering appears to have been carved and inked into her forehead.
Leah brings her hand up to the woman's shoulder and looks back and forth from one eye to the other. "Do-.... Do you understand me?" she asks, lowering her voice. She looks over the burns and scars as a saddened look washes over her face. "Please..." she persists, "We have to go. More of them will come..." She glances back in the direction she came from once more and stands up before returning
her attention back to the woman, hoping she'll follow suit. "Let's go." she says, extending a hand towards the woman.
Astrid shows no sign of understanding Leah, although she does stand up. Her gaze moves to the hand as she extends it, but the gesture is not returned, she merely looks at it in confusion.
Leah frowns, frustrated at her own inability to communicate with the woman. She grips the woman's wrist gently and gives her a soft tug in her direction. "Come on." she says fruitlessly, "Follow me." She finds herself enunciating heavily, as one does when trying to speak as clearly as possible, despite it making absolutely no difference. She attempts to lead the way back towards the netted
Astrid shows little reaction to Leah's words, but once her wrist is tugged she starts following along, shooting another glance at the dead slaver before walking along with Leah, keeping the same pace as her.
The netted human is still trying to untangle himself from the submission net, but is having little success as it keeps shocking him periodically, the sudden involuntary movements induced destroying his progress.
Leah continues over towards the man with Astrid in tow. Once beside him, she raises the pistol at him. "Stop moving!" she orders, "Where is my equipment, and how in the hell do we get out of here?"
Human looks at Leah, and the pistol. "H-H-Heeeeeelp." He's shocked mid-word, causing the elongated sound. "...and I'll s-s-s-how... y-y-y-y-y-you."
I'm not letting you out of that! Do you think I'm stupid!? Tell me where to go and I'll consider leaving you alive, you sick fuck! I'm sure someone will come along to let you out eventually. My gear and an exit. Now!
Human manages to gesture vaguely in the direction of where Leah was imprisoned. "D-D-Door in t-the hallway. U-u-u-u-unlocked. Y-Your things." He winces as another shock hits. "Exit c-c-c-c-code... t-... t-... two-two-t-..." He braces himself to attemp to say the code all at once. "Two-one-five-two." he blurts out as fast as he can.
Leah nods. "And where is the exit, exactly?" she asks, waggling the gun a bit to remind him of the consequences. "Is that it back there?" She gives a nod back towards the door the batarian was rushing towards. "What about friends? Anyone else poking around here I should know about?"
Leah scrunches up her nose and looks towards Astrid. "We should probably kill him, shouldn't we?" she asks for a bit of theatrics. She glares at the man once more before stomping back in the direction she originally came from. As she approaches the hall, she lifts the pistol back up, wincing slightly as a slight pain shoots through her shoulder. "You remind me of my cousin." she says in a
whisper to the woman in tow without glancing back at her. "On mom's side. Her name was Tara-..." she pauses and glances back at the woman briefly, "Can I call you Tara? At least until I figure out your name? Okay, you're Tara. Well, Tara, we're in quite a pickle here." she continues to whisper, hoping a bit of talking might calm her nerves, "...But we'll be fine." She slowly enters the hallway,
glancing back in the direction of her initial cell to make sure no new arrivals have shown up before trying for the door.
Tara does not react to or answer Leah's question, but continues to follow her, with a glance or two at the human in the net.
As the door opens, it shows the hall, just as empty as before, with an unlocked door to each side and the locked one straight ahead.
Leah approaches the unlocked door and reaches out with the hand holding the Carnifex. "Well, Tara, if my stuff is in here, we'll be sitting a whole lot safer." she says before tapping the interface and waiting for the door to slide open.
The room on the other side is the same in size as the one Leah was held in, but contains instead several crates. One crate lies lidless, and it is filled with thermal clips. Leah's gear is laid out on top of a closed crate.
Leah glances back at Astrid and a smile crosses her lips. Relief at last. "We did it, Tara!" she celebrates, still keeping her voice to a whisper. Sure, the gunfight probably advertised the complications, but there's no point in giving away her exact location to any stragglers. She releases her grip on Astrids forearm and rushes over to her gear. "I'm not even sure why you remind me of
Tara-..." she continues speaking as she holsters the Carnifex and begins to collect her things, "Maybe the hair? Tara went through a goth phase for a while. Shaved her whole head." She slots her amp back into her implant and instantly feels more confident at the power it carries with it. "Not that there's anything wrong with the whole shaved head thing!" she says defensively, casting a glance
Tara starts to look hesitant at Leah's exclamations, looking around as if unsure about what she should be doing. Her gaze refocuses on the woman and she seem to be bracing herself.
Leah holsters her pistol on her other thigh and loads up on her thermal clips. After ensuring a fresh thermal clip is in her Mattock, she holds it in one hand and returns to Astrid's side. "Alright, Tara! Time to get out of here!" she says enthusiastically. She steps back out into the hall and gives a glance back to ensure that Astrid is still following.
Tara seems further confused by Leah's enthusiasm, but as she realizes she's on the move again she stops bracing herself and quickly follows.
Leah keeps her Mattock at her side as she approaches the locked door. "Alright. Let's hope that slimeball wasn't just lying to buy time. Two. One. Five. Two." she says aloud as she inputs the code. She takes a step back and shoulders her Mattock as she waits for the red panel to turn green and for the door to slide open. The movement of steadying her rifle irritates her wound, causing another