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#RuinsOfRakhana – September 30, 2016
Ilyna is almost at the door when he catches up to her, only stopping on his second call for her to wait. She stares at him, a scowl visible on her face. If only he knew how much Ilyna has tried. She wasn't going to let him deflect this issue onto her. "Then you shouldn't have made that promise," she snaps. "And I know she doesn't care because I talked to her." She gives a long sigh. "But it doesn't matter," she says. "I quit, and so
does Ehanis." She turns around and continues on her way out of the mess hall. She was done with him, with the agency.
Seriah smiles faintly, still looking around the quarters. "[Thank] a." she says, and after a moment's thought adds: "Ara... ara fara ale [windows]?"
Nathan stirs idly in his sleep, his hand freeing itself from under the covers to swat at the air in unconscious thought. He mumbles something about bugs before his hand flops back onto the bed with a thud. He smacks his lips once and drags the covers closer to his chin.
Jason simply stares in disbelief at Ilyna as she goes off on him. Is his friendship with her worth so little that she would toss it aside over a single misstep? Regardless, the look on his face says it all. If hurting him was Ilyna's intention, then mission successful. He places a hand on the doorway and swings out into the hall after her. "I admitted I made a mistake, Ilyna." he calls out after her, "There's not much more I can
do other than apologize. If that's not good enough-...." he shakes his head, "...then I don't know. And I don't know what happened between you and Vasquez, but I know I do care, regardless of what you might think...." He sighs as the distance between them grows and he has to raise his voice to be heard, "...I thought after everything we've all been through together, you wouldn't need to be reminded of that." He bites down
as he considers going after her for a moment but quickly thinks better than to keep the argument going. She was angry and it's understandable. Maybe she just needed a little time. "If it's what you want, then I can't stop you, Ilyna. But I hope you reconsider...." he adds with a sigh before lowering his head and gripping the doorframe once more.
Korio tilts his head to the side for a moment as he attempts to decipher what she's asking. "....Windows? Oh, you want to know if there's any windows on the ship? I'm sure there's a viewport somewhere. But-.... I am not sure where." he admits with an apologetic shrug, "I'm afraid I am not familiar with this ship's layout. However, if you would like, we could ask around." he offers.
The Eclipse mercenaries glances at Jason as he walks after Ilyna and starts raising his voice in the doorway, Jake leaning over to say something quietly to Mahmoud while they all eat.
Seriah glances at the door and then looks to Korio, placing a hand over her own chest. "[I can look]. A fion fio aruoyn an [rest]." she says with a small nod before standing up, her pace rather slow as she heads for the door, unaccustomed to just about everything about the situation. Clean air, clean clothes... and there's no sand anywhere in sight. Surrounded by aliens. Strange day.
Ilyna does stop upon his question. Maybe she was unfair. He is her friend, but he's crossed a line that hurt her deeply. "You knew this was wrong, Ehanis knew," she sobs, though it might be difficult for him to hear what she's saying. "I thought I could trust you. Why hide it in work documents? Why didn't you tell me directly?" Deep down, she knew she was unreasonable, but this had hurt her deeply. Not to mention her meeting with
Vasquez, that certainly didn't leave her at a good starting point for this. She doesn't continue walking yet, however.
Jason sighs, bringing a hand to his head as he takes a few steps down the hall. "Ilyna..." he says softly, "I didn't hide it in work documents. I was telling the truth. I didn't put this job together. I found out the day we were heading out that Ehanis would be joining us. I'm not denying the fact that I should have went and called you right there and then, but like I said.... What was there to do at that point? We had a client
waiting. It was too late to hunt for a replacement. And, besides, Ehanis wanted to go. So I figured it would just lead to a problem that didn't need to happen if I called you. It was stupid and I should have called you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I just-..." he shrugs his shoulders as he continues towards her, stopping just beside her and leaning against the hallway wall, "...figured we would go. The job would go off without
a hitch. We would be back. No harm, no foul. I made a mistake, Ilyna, but I never meant to betray your trust."
Korio offers a short bow of his head. "Rest would be nice, yes." he agrees, "Though it does not seem to be coming to me so easily right now."
Ilyna frowns, but she stays put. She's still hurt by this, but maybe it wasn't his fault. Maybe he can talk to Vasquez for her. Tears are trickling down her cheeks. "I... I'm sorry, Jason, I shouldn't have... shouldn't have," she begins, and turns towards him. "Promise me...," she takes a deep breath, "promise me: never agan."
Jason props up a lopsided smirk, extending his arms out as he leans in, offering the asari a hug. "I think this might be something that requires a little more discussion, Ilyna..." he says. "There's too much going on to just boil it down to something so simple, you know? You need to talk to your sister. And we can sit down and figure all this out, okay? If you don't want Ehanis going on jobs, then we need a hard line right there,
because she sure as hell wants to be out there. Talk to her. Let me know what kind of agreement you guys come to. Worst case scenario we keep her locked down on one of the security gigs for alllll eternity, but she needs to be in the know on this, okay?"
Ilyna takes the offer without much hesitation, because she very much needed a shoulder to cry an. Somewhere to hide her face if an employee were to see her like this. "I... I just want final say on all of her assignments," she mutters between sobs. "That doesn't have to mean... have to mean she's stuck in security jobs." After all, Ilyna did approve the Illium job, even if she regretted it considering what happened to Ehanis.
Jason wraps the asari up in a hug, happy to put the issue to rest. At least for now. "I'm sorry..." he repeats, "But we'll figure it out, Ilyna. I promise." There was a lot more that needed to be considered regarding Ehanis. But now probably wasn't the time to get into all that. No point in stirring up discussion about it when neither of them are in a very good place. Time to get their heads on straight was required first.
Ilyna gives a weak affirmative hum, but she doesn't say anything more as she buries her head in his shoulder. She didn't realize how much she needed a shoulder to cry on. Maybe it was time for her to get someone to help her and Ehanis reach an understanding, because her earlier attempts hasn't worked.
Another two hours in FTL. Enough time for everyone to get patched up, clean and fed. Perhaps an hour or two of sleep for some. Vasquez has claimed the crew quarters to hold a debrief, having Vicky send the ship's crew out beforehand. Steve is still in the infirmary however, on account of the severity of his injuries. The Chief is currently standing near the doorway of the quarters, looking around at the team sitting and lying in
Nathan has begrudgingly awoken from his sleep. He easily could of slept for the rest of the trip and then some. But, when the Chief calls a meeting... He remains in his bunk, the covers covering his lower body. He sits shirtless, propping himself up with both of his pillows to form a comfortable backrest. Nathan sends a scathing glare to the IV drip, wishing above
anything that he didn't need the blasted thing whilst he slept. After all, the man liked to move around in his sleep. Having something tug at your skin everytime you move a fraction is unbearably annoying.
Renala is fast asleep, her covers barely pulled over her. If she has been woken up, she won't even have remembered it. The drell omni-tool is lying below the leg of the bunk, and her own is still glowing around her right arm. It is dimmed and only showing the login form, however, which includes the picture of her and her daughter.
Jessica is atop her bunk, back against the wall as she stares into her omni-tool interface, showing little interest in whatever Vasquez has called this meeting for.
Korio still has not managed to get to sleep, though he's doing his best to remain attentive as he sits at the edge of his bed and waits for the debriefing to begin.
Jason has spent the past couple of hours in the mess hall, chowing down on whatever he could get his hands on. After that time on Rakhana, he's so hungry he could eat a pie.... Yuck. He enters the crew quarters behind Vasquez and looks around. As he spots Renala, he claps his hands together, which produces an unnatural 'thunk' rather than a normal clap. "Rise and shine, Renala!" he calls out as he takes a seat at the edge of an unclaimed bunk.
Ehanis hasn't even slept in the last few hours, but that's not for a lack of effort. Though, that's not apparant to the others. She sits up in her top bunk and looks down expectantly at the the leader. A snicker escapes her when the other asari is woken up by Jason.
Ilyna is standing by the elevator door, to quietly listen in on the meeting. While her talk with Jason has considerably improved her mood, she was still angry at the chief for her complete and utter lack of understanding.
Renala sits up quickly, frantically looking around the room. She lets out a deep sigh when she sees the familiar crew quarters around her, finally reconnected to reality. "What is it?" she groans. This must be urgent, she figured, but that didn't change how tired she felt. In her last job, her being woken up in the middle of the night meant something had gone to hell and it couldn't wait until morning.
Vasquez clears her throat, lowering her arms as she looks around at them. "Alright. You've all had a chance to... settle down, get patched up, recover a little strength. I know you all want to rest, and I'll let you get back to that soon enough, but first? I need to know just what the hell happened down there."
Jason having already given Vasquez the run down of how they ended up in their predicament back at the shuttle, gives a look around the room to leave the floor to the others first in case any have anything to voice.
Jessica sighs loudly and her omni-tool interface dissipates. "Is simple. Stupid pink blob tried to kill us because of his dumb artifact. We did not die so easily. Now he is dead. We meet some stupid drell who tried to kill us because of-...." she shakes her head, "...I don't know why. We did not die so easily. Now he is dead-..." she frowns, looking off to the side, "...I think? Is dead, yes?" she asks, looking around to the
others. She doesn't await a response, however, and merely shrugs instead. "You show up. Now we are here."
Vasquez glances briefly at Jessica, but says nothing, clearly waiting for someone else to be a bit more informative than that.
Nathan glances to Jessica at her rundown. He looks to Vasquez and nods slowly. "Yeah, that's the shortened version." He sighs, rubbing his bleary eyes. "All was going fine until the jellyfish asked us to kill the scientist. We refused, so they shot her and fled. We killed most of them." He waves a hand idly in the air. "We then spent the next few days trying to
survive and ran into paralytic bugs, giant man-eating bugs, a lone survivor drell woman who really doesn't like her shit being touched and Kell and his people." He sighs. "They helped at first... ish. Gave us food and water. But, in the end, it was Seriah who helped us the most." He glances over to Ehanis, his brow furrowing slightly. "Problem was... Steve,
Ehanis and I were... not so believing. So we hoofed it to Kell's compound with some weapons we found, aiming to do a trade for more food, water and hopefully a car." He shakes his head, turning to look back to Vasquez. "It... went pear-shaped quick."
Renala lifts up her omni-tool arm, appearing a little confused for a moment when it's already on. "You don't have to take our word for it about the client," she says. "I recorded it." Satisfied with the file, she initiates a transfer of the video file to Vasquez. It shows the entire conflict with them from before Namira was shot until a few minutes after Jason and Ehanis managed to stabilize her.
Vasquez listens to Nathan with a few small nods. "I'm going to need some context to those names..." she says before looking to Renala with a raised eyebrow. "I wasn't going to accuse you of anything, T'Iavay. But good. It doesn't look like any of Zelyner's people made it off Rakhana, but at least we'll have proof we didn't start anything if the authorities start asking questions."
Korio looks to each member of his team as they speak before turning his gaze to Vasquez to chime in. "Seriah is the drell who assisted us." he says, "She is the one who came with us. Kell seemed to be a leader of sorts who maintained a compound on Rakhana. At first, it seemed as though he was interested in forging a friendship of sorts with us. Even gave us water and food. Seriah warned us, however, that these were merely scouting
tactics and he was more than likely preparing for an attack." His gaze moves to Nathan, then Ehanis before settling back on Vasquez. "I was not along for the attempted trade, so I am not sure how it ended the way it did. But Seriah seemed very afraid of Kell, so it does not surprise me that he attacked."
Ehanis nods along with Nathan's description of what happened. "Kell wasn't interested in trading," she says. "His goons bound Briggs up and took him to a cell." She frowns, fearing the chief might not believe her. She wasn't lying, but she didn't have any evidence to show for it other than her account of events. "We tried to get him out, but we were outmatched. Our only option was to flee or get picked off by their sniper, and he
Jason sighs, giving a nod to confirm their stories. "Seriah led us to the Eclipse ship where we met up with Jake, Mahmoud and Plara. They took us in. Gave us food, water, and a place to get out of the sun. Renala was able to rig up their comms equipment to get that distress signal out and-... Well, that pretty much takes us to when you guys showed up. Kell must've followed the beacon, too. He brought Steve, requesting our
surrender in exchange for sparing his life and-.... And then you, Ilyna, and Victoria saved our asses."
Renala nods, and lets her omni-tool's interface dissipate. "Which I'm almost certain they will," she says. "The hanar is dead, and Namira was really close to it." Not that she knew how Namira was faring now that she had proper medical attention by a professional. When Jason is done speaking, she chuckles. "Your timing couldn't have been more perfect."
Vasquez listens in silence to the explanation of events. She lets out a heavy sigh, but does give Renala a small nod, and for a brief moment a grin tugs at the corner of her mouth before disappearing. She takes a deep breath. "I look out for my people. All of you. This wasn't our first rotten client. It's an unfortunate reality of the business, but it's sure as hell a reminder for me to be more vigilant when getting
contracts. It was a bad situation. But you pulled through." She looks around the room, a serious look on her face. "You all did good out there."
Nathan lowers his gaze, biting at his lower lip before mumbling, "Not all of us." It's evident on his expression that Steve's words speared through his mind and he wears the brand of coward with a shameful persona. Logic dictates that he really had no other option and he wants to believe that. But could he, as a person, sleep soundly at night knowing that he left
Ehanis scoffs as she overhears Nathan's mumble, but she doesn't comment. At least she thinks he's talking about their choice to leave Steve behind, as the trade itself wasn't really his idea. She nods to the chief, and offers a small smile.
Jason glances to Nathan as he speaks. "You did what you felt you needed to do, Ten." he says with a nod, "I don't doubt that for one second. Shit isn't always black and white out there. You guys had to make a difficult choice." Would he have made the same choice? Probably not. But he certainly understands why they did. "And it all worked out in the end. Steve is safe, we're all alive... Who knows how it would have ended if you
had done anything differently. Can't beat yourself up over that shit, alright?" he continues, hoping to at least bring a little comfort to the man despite knowing damn well that if their roles were reversed, he'd be beating himself up as well.
Jessica listens silently, but doesn't have anything else to offer after Vasquez pretty much dismissed her elegantly delivered description of the events.
Nathan offers Jason a small, but forced smile. The words do little to alleviate his mood, however and he turns his gaze back down to his covers.
Vasquez raises an eyebrow at Nathan's comment, but elects not to press further when Jason speaks to him. "I will expect full reports filed by all of you once we get back to Aite, but is there anything else I should know right now?"
The jellyfish and his escort are all dead. I blew up his second hand man, but... we lost the artefact. Whoever killed the jellyfish when he fled, they took it. I'm guessing Kell's people.
Renala shakes her head and lies back down, more than eager to get back to sleep. Hopefully this time, she's not going to get interrupted within three hours.
Jason sighs at the idea of more paperwork. "You got it, boss." he says sarcastically, though passes a tired, wary smile her way. He gives a nod to Nathan. "No sign of the artifact when we arrived. Was just a wreck..."
Vasquez nods faintly, taking a last look around before saying: "Alright. You can all get back to your rest." she says before heading for the door. "Come with me." she says with a glance to Jason.
Jessica finally chimes in again. "For the record, I knew he would not survive out in the desert." she says proudly with a nod, as if it may earn her some points. "Was fucking soundstorm. Was no way that stupid blob was going to make it."
Jason grasps the edge of the bed and pushes himself upright with a grunt. "You got it." he says as he follows her through the door. "What's up?"
Vasquez heads down the corridor for a bit before stopping, letting out a sigh. "Figures things couldn't just go as planned for once. I really didn't see the hanar double-crossing us..."
Jason gives a shrug of his shoulders as he takes a position against the wall. "It's our luck. Should probably expect it by now." he says, giving a short, humorless chuckle. "Turned out to be some sort of religious zealot. Legal or not, he was taking that artifact and didn't care who he had to kill to make it happen. Did we at least get payment up front...?" he asks, looking the tiniest bit hopeful despite knowing their luck will
Vasquez looks at Jason in silence for a couple of seconds before a small grin creeps up. "Actually... we did. We got the money. Everyone's alive, if a bit beat up. I'd say it's a win, all things considered." she says with a shrug, leaning back against the wall.
Ehanis hops off the bed, and slips into the simple sweatpants. Sleep wasn't going to happen, and she was getting sick of the twisting and turning. "I'm going to grab something to eat," she announces to nobody in particular before she starts making her way out of the room.
Ilyna has been quietly listening to what happened, her expression unchanging. What Jason said had given her a lot to think about, unlike Vasquez who just made her feel worse with every word uttered. It's only when Ehanis is leaving the room that she starts moving, though she seems hesitant to follow at first.
Nathan has pretty much sunken back into his bed, fluffing up his pillows and laying his head upon them. However, he ends up just staring off towards the other bunks, his gaze blank for the moment.
Jason raises an eyebrow as he stares at Vasquez. "I don't know if I'd use the word 'win'..." he groans, "But point taken. At least we didn't get stiffed on the bill this time. But, fuck..." he continues with a shake of his head, "...We're all gonna need some time off after this one, Linda. You see how banged up Briggs was? Been a hell of a week..."
Vasquez nods as her expression fades. "Yeah... I know. And you'll all get it. I'm just... saying it's not a complete loss. And Dr. Halisi seems confident that Briggs will recover in time." She puts a hand on his upper arm, but a brief frown crosses her face when her fingers brush against the synthetic surface, and she slides it up to his shoulder instead. "No more jobs before the wedding, alright?" she says as her smile
Ehanis nods to the bosses as she passes them on her way to the mess hall, but neither her nor her violet shadow says anything. As they enter the mess hall, Ehanis decides to break their silence with a harmless question: "How have things been at home?"
Jason brings his hand across his chest, pressing his hand atop Vasquez', his smirk growing into a full on smile. "That's the plan. I-..." he trails off as Ehanis passes by, offering her a nod in turn. Given that Ilyna is following, he offers her a nod as well, thinking better then to strike up a conversation with her right here in front of Vasquez considering there's obviously some bad blood between them at the moment. He watches
as the asari disappears into the mess hall and then lets out a deep sigh, turning his attention back to Vasquez. "It sounds like something went down between you and Ilyna while I was gone..." he says, his smile fading away, "Whatever it was, you need to try and fix it. You know that, right? She's our friend. One of the few people who have stuck with us through all this crazy shit..."
Vasquez lets her hand fall back to her side, glancing after Ilyna as her smile fades. She nods faintly. "Yeah... I-... I wasn't expecting it. I get that she's worried, but-... that's no excuse for the shit she said. I don't want to see her go, so hopefully now that Tioran is back safe she'll apologize, and we can work this out."
Jason sucks in a deep breath and tilts his head to the side. "Like I said, I don't know what happened... But I got the impression that whatever you said really got to her, Linda. Maybe you should go and talk with her. Soon. And-..." he winces slightly, "...maybe it wouldn't hurt to get the ball rolling with an apology of your own." He quickly raises his hands, palms outward towards her, "I'm not taking sides!" he quickly spits
out, "I don't know what happened. I don't know what was said. I'm just saying... Come on. Are you really ready to let some pride get in the way of repairing a friendship? Look at everything the three of us have been through together. She's just worried about her sister. People do and say things they don't mean when they're worried. I think it would go a long way if you just showed her that you care."
Vasquez shoots Jason a glare at the suggestion of an apology, but lets it go fairly quickly. She glances at the mess hall door again. "She made it pretty clear how much she thinks I care... but yeah. I-... yeah. I'll talk to her. Once we're planetside again." she says with a faint nod.
Jason allows his smile to return. "Great. Because it just wouldn't seem right if she wasn't at the wedding. She's family." He brings his hands to Vasquez' waist giving her a tug towards him for a hug, "So... You know.... Do this for me. I don't play the 'do this for me' guilt card very often, so let me have this one." he adds through his grin.