This logfile is imported from aitelogs2 and may contain errors or wrong timestamps.
#CollectorShip – January 3, 2018
Ehanis stops in her tracks as she hears the collectors in the chamber up ahead. "Movement," she whispers over comms, to update the turian. "Don't know how many, but I hear talking." A faint biotic shimmer sorrounds her as she prepares to make the potential confrontation short.
Zaylus stops alongside the asari, having heard the noises just as she identified them. He grips the laser drill a bit tighter and looks to Jattic.
The quiet hum of machinery can be heard in addition to the Collector noises in the room ahead. From the sounds there are several of them, and the chamber seems large as they near the entrance.
Jattic pauses as well. He gives a short nod to the asari and lowers into a crouch as he resumes his stalking, keeping his profile low as to avoid detection. Slowly and steady he moves, the unfamiliar rifle stock pressed against his shoulder. "Hold your fire unless we're left with no choice." he growls into comms, "We must not announce our presence any earlier than we have to. If we can remove the threat silently, we will do so."
Makk doesn't bother crouching. Not like it'd do much good. He opts to remain in the rear of the group instead, keeping an eye on their flank.
Oxaris stops in the room, sticking to whatever cover she can even though she is near invisible. Best to be cautious, incase these Collectors posses the ability to somehow see through her cloak. She acknowledges Ehanis' update with a simple two clicks of her internal comm and begins to cautiously stalk forward. She elects to watch for a moment, slowly shifting along the wall furthest from the beds. She stops once she is
behind the drone at the console, clutching to any shadow that may be present within the room. She silently blesses the gentle hum of the ship, masking her already delicate footsteps.
The two drones in the chamber with Oxaris seem preoccupied with their work, and show no sign of noticing her. It seems clear that they are doing something with the pods that have been placed on these metal beds, but what is less clear. The semi-opaque windows on the pods are not clear enough for Oxaris to see who, if anyone, is within them at this distance.
Ehanis crouches down in turn, eyes darting around for 'wall outgrowths' that can serve as cover. She keeps pace with the batarian, managing to walk quietly enough. "I shouldn't have said anything," she whispers into comms. Ehanis has no idea what the turian meant by the clicks, but at least it meant she was still alive. The biotic shimmer wasn't helping her concealment, but being able to react quickly was more
Zaylus crouches out of compliance with the group, though he doubts the collectors won't notice the group skulking past, krogan in tow. But he moves quietly and holds the drill at the ready, prepared for the shitshow to begin.
As Ehanis and Jattic beek inside the large chamber from the open tunnel they'd find themselves looking at a cavernous space that stretches considerably longer to the north than it does across, where the locked door is. Three large pipes full of unknown yellow liquid run from ceiling to floor in the middle of the room, illuminating it and likely producing a lot of the extra background noise. Along the western wall is a raised
walkway, while along the right wall, many crates are scattered about. The group of Collectors, at least seven in number, and armed, do not appear to have noticed them yet. The drones are grabbing and moving crates under the supervision another different-looking Collector with strange growths on its head. At the northern end is another open doorway, leading to another tunnel. The first pair of Collectors that grabbed a crate are
Jattic pulls back to the cover afforded by the doorway, pressing heavily up against it. "I count seven. Maybe more. There's no way that we exit that room silently. Should we enter, things will get very loud very quickly. Do things look any better your way, Oxaris?"
Ehanis is right behind the batarian, qucikly peaking around him to confirm his count. The biotic energy around her fade and she sighs. There's no way they'll be able to confront them without the alarm being raised, and there's no chance they won't send the swarm.
Oxaris slowly approaches the Collector at the console, keeping the other one in the corner of her eye. When she is within touching distance, she would deploy her omni-blade and plunge it through the back of the neck of the Drone at the console. Immediately after, her omni-tool would flare to life and she would deploy an Overload at the Drone by the bed to stun him for a precious few seconds. She rips her blade upwards
to tear it through the drone's head. Being only a step or two away from the second one, she would move sharply towards him, using her customised blade to cleave through the head of the other. All of this, within a few seconds. Cold, accurate, quick, as her training dictated. If her SMG was present, it would be a case of two sharp, muffled shots. But one would adapt in this scenario.
The attention of the Collector on the other side of the bed snaps up as the turian ghost materializes out of nowhere. With her blade in the neck of its fellow drone, which collapses onto the terminal, sliding to the floor with a quiet thud.. But the creature has no time to react before a debilitating surge of electricity runs through its body, causing it to spasm. A moment later its miserable life is ended as its face is split open
horizontally by a swipe of an omni-blade. Bug blood spill across the window of the pod as the dead drone collapses on top of it.
Oxaris spins to the other entrance as her blade cuts through the head of the creature, dropping to one knee as her second omni-tool primes another overload, watching the other entrance into the room. She watches, waits... and assuming nothing is coming, chimes in quietly over comms, "Two hostiles encountered. Neutralised. Pods here, investigating now for our people. No more movement as of this moment. Stand by, over."
Jattic nods to himself as the turian's voice comes in over comms. He grips the strange rifle tightly, his head angled to watch over the chamber entrance. "Standing by." he says, stoic as ever.
The three pods contain: Ilyna, Elena and an unfamiliar human that shows signs of heavy genetic modification. Sharp teeth, hardened skin, deeply sunken eyes and a strange jawline.
Ehanis backs away from the batarian and moves to meet up with the rear guard. They're probably not entering this chamber anyway, so she saw no point in being close to the doorway. "Standing by," she repeats on comms.
Oxaris chimes back into comms. "Ilyna, Elena and an unknown. No hostiles present. Fallback to me, we're securing this room. There is another exit this way, we will continue along this path. Keep it quiet." She lowers her omni-tool for a moment, looking to Ilyna before she looks around to see if these drones had weapons. If there are none present, she would advance to the wall next to the entry way, not yet progressing
down the hallway. If there is a weapon present... then same as above, only with gun. She would watch the corridor, waiting for the others.
Jattic once again nods, a bit more pep in his step at the good news. He looks over the others and waves a gauntleted hand back the way they came, implying they should set off. He remains where he is, ready to guard their flank should the need arise. "On our way."
Each of the two drones has what appears to be a compact SMG attached through means unknown to their hips, partly organic just like the rifles
Makk leads the way alongside Ehanis back toward the chamber they came from. After sweeping it with his Graal and verifying that it appears empty he continues up the ramp toward Oxaris.
Oxaris stoops to carefully take one of the SMGs, handling the weapon as if a bomb for the moment. If all goes well, she would proceed to do as above.
Ehanis nods and takes the lead along with the krogan. She doesn't bother being quiet once she's out of the hallway since she knows they've got all entrances covered and she's far too eager to get to the rescue to bother with the ceiling.
Halisi 's gaze turns back the way they came when Oxaris reports in the names of the ones she found. She is quick to get moving, but remains in the middle of the group, aware of her lack of armor. She doesn't dare speak up over comms since she's not wearing a helmet.
The SMG detaches from the drone only with some effort, strings of slime lingering behind between the corpse and the weapon as it is pulled free.
Jattic waits until the others have moved a good distance before backing away from the door. He keeps against the wall, alien rifle trained on the entry as he stalks back down the hall, covering their flank the entire way back to the previous room before lowering his weapon and falling in line with the others.
Makk enters the room where Oxaris is waiting, moving slowly and cautiously to reduce the inevitable noise he makes as much as he can. He observes the dead Collectors, giving the turian a respectful nod.
Ehanis walks up to the pods at a brisk pace when she reaches the chamber they were to meet up in, checking each of them before stopping at Ilyna's. She trails a hand along it in hopes of there being a mechanical means of opening it, since there's no way she's going to understand what's on the console.
Oxaris is crouched at the entrance to the hallway, just catching the Krogan's nod. She returns it, then goes back to overwatch. She's hoping that Halisi may have an inkling of what do here, since she brewed that cocktail that remove their paralysis.
Zaylus looks closely at the dead collectors, giving one indulgant "Heh" in recognition of Oxaris' kills. After enough delighting in the smashed bugs, he steps over to the pod containing the stranger, examining it curiously.
Jattic arrives in the back, inspecting Oxaris' handy work. He casts a glance back over his shoulder for a moment and then, barring any charging Collectors, returns his attention to the rest of his team. "I suppose we can rule out any sort of 'hive mind' considering nobody seems to be moving to check on these two..." he muses aloud, having worried that merely interacting with one of them may put the whole ship on high alert. A
part of him worried that just being on the ship may have alerted the Collectors. It almost seems.... alive. "Perhaps we have a better chance of keeping our presence under their radar than I thought."
The cocoon-like pod has no obvious interface, but trailing a hand along the edge of the chitinous hatch would eventually reveal a small crevice with a piece of soft tissue that, when pressed against, causes the hatch to slide open. The stasis gel drains back into the frame of the pod, leaving Ilyna to awaken. It will no doubt take her some time to come to, and she remains soaked in a lingering layer of yellow gel. She would start
Ehanis smirks under her helmet. "I can't believe that worked," she mutters, happy that fumbling around was the key to the puzzle. Her smile does fade as she watches her sister, as fear starts to creep in that her manual opening might have fucked something up. She says nothing about that, though.
Ilyna opens her eyes moments later, but she shows no immediate reaction to seeing her sister. For a moment, she believes this is just another dream; she can't be alive, she remembers drowning in slime and losing conciousness. Another few seconds pass before she inhales sharply, and a coughing fit follows shortly after.
Ehanis motions for her to be quiet, but her sister doesn't listen. She glances at Halisi, hoping she can help.
Jattic shifts slightly as the hatch begins to open, giving a relieved sigh as he spots Ilyna within. Maybe they can make this work. "Ah. The 'touch things until something does something' method. Perhaps an indication that you may be spending too much time around Wolfe.." he mutters, his usual batarian tone making it hard to decipher just how serious he is. Maybe this small victory motivated that stick a short ways out of his
Halisi hastily moves to Ilyna's side, helping her into a sitting position. "Just get it all out." she urges quietly. "It's okay. We're getting everyone out of here." she then says, activating her omni-tool simultaneously and running a basic scan while still propping Ilyna up with her other hand.
Zaylus watches the revival from where he stands, snorting lightly at the batarian's words- an assumed joke. His hand hovers over the pod like he witnessed Ehanis doing, but he stops himself, giving another hard look at the strange looking owner of this pod.
Makk glances over at the awakened asari. His gaze goes to Elena's pod. "How did you do that? We need to free the rest." he says, looking to Ehanis.
Oxaris holds the SMG tightly, trying to get to grips with the strange weapon. She continues to watch the corridor, not even bothered by the specks of blood on her armour. "Someone keeping our six covered?" She says over comms. "We can't wait here for too long, we don't know if they rotate their forces on a regular basis."
The biotechnological weapon behaves much like the rifle. It seems to obey well enough, its musculature and chitin unfolding when gripped, but it has that same unsettling sense of being alive.
Jattic steps forward, examining the pod of the person Zaylus is hovering about. "Leave this one." he says coldly as he looks to the turian. "We have no way of knowing how they will react to being awakened. No way of knowing if they'll attack us. No way of knowing if they're infected. Let us not lose sight of why we are here. For ours." His gaze returns to the pod's inhabitant. "They are not one of ours." And with that, he
resumes his position as rear guard per Oxaris' inquiry with an affirmative grunt, shouldering his rifle as he moves to take a position at their flank.
Ehanis sighs relieved once it's clear she didn't kill her sister by accident. She's about to respond to the batarian's joke (at least she took it as such) when the krogan speaks to her. That's more important. "There's a soft spot under the edge," she says over comms, gesturing to where she found it on Ilyna's pod. "Poke it."
Makk nods, and is quick to move to Elena's pod, feeling around until he finds the right spot and opens the hatch.
Zaylus doesn't take much convincing on this point, nodding hard and stepping away from the stranger's pod. He looks away and tries to not look again, instead focusing on Elena's awakening.
Ilyna manages to get most of the slime out of her system, and her coughing starts to slow down. "L-Li?" she asks the moment she's barely able to say anything between coughs.
Elena stirs as the gel drains and the hatch opens, before shooting into a sitting position, starting to cough up gel. She grimaces, looking around confusedly and straining to see. A gauntleted hand rubs at her eyes as the coughing continues. "F-... ch... fuchugh... shit..."
Oxaris , now armed, chimes over comms. "I'll recon ahead. Ensure that there are no units moving our way." She cloaks once more, starting to slowly advance down the corridor. She approaches the corner on the left hand side, aiming to peek down the corridor left and, if the door is open, right as well, trusting in her tech.
Ilyna sighs. "I'm...-," she begins to speak, but another cough interrupts her. Halisi and Ehanis are safe, but now she doesn't have Li. And Jason would have been by her side by now were he here. This is no time to rest, so she grips the edges of the pods and tries to get to her feet.
Halisi helps Ilyna out of the pod, one hand gripping her arm and the other on her back. The asari would find herself on sligtly wobbly legs, but it shouldn't take too long to adjust and regain her strength.
Jattic holds his position, keeping watch at their rear. "We are wasting time." he growls into comms as the seconds pile up, "Get them up and combat ready. We need to remain on the move. The sooner we find the others, the sooner we can leave this cursed ship."
Zaylus snorts in strained amusement, leaning against Elena's pod. "Shit looks nasty. Better cough it out of you now." He repeats Halisi's sentiment with little sympathy, glancing to the asari as she rises.
Elena clambers out of her pod on her own, falling to the ground on her hands and knees with a grunt and another series of coughs. She wipes a gauntleted hand across her mouth and stands up, her expression quickly turning to focused anger. "What's the situation?" she asks to anyone that will answer, feeling around for her weapons. She finds none, but to her relief she still has her omni-tool. She immediately starts to run
Ehanis nods at Elena's first words. "Couldn't have said it betteer myself," she says over comms, looking her way. She knows that Elena won't hear her. She grabs Ilyna's arm once she's out of the pod. "We should close the pods," she says over comms after hearing the batarian's complaint. "...and hide the bodies."
Makk nods in agreement with Ehanis, wasting no time in getting to work with the distasteful task of lifting one of the dead drones into Elena's now-empty pod.
The western corridor stretches out some distance to yet another chamber. No Collectors are currently visible within. The doorway to the right leads directly to a chamber that appears to be filled with pods. Again it seems to be empty. The eastern wall holds another door, but it is closed and locked.
Ilyna wobbles a bit, but with the help of Halisi and Ehanis she manages to regain her strength. "Thank... you," she says once the coucghing stops, her voice hoarse from the coughing. "Have you found anyone else?" She looks over at Halisi, and for a moment she wants to hug her, but now is not the time. That Ilyna is covered in slime has no bearing on that decision.
Zaylus leaves Elena to reorient on her own, appearing impressed by her quick return to focus but ultimately ignoring her question. Instead he goes to move the second corpse into Ilyna's pod.
Halisi glances over at Elena, her gaze falling as she turns back to Ilyna. "None of ours. They... took you, and all the humans. I was the only one that got away. We've gone undetected so far." she explains, keeping her voice fairly low, and looking to the others every now and then for any sign that they've spotted anything.
Oxaris waits half a second before turning into the room filled with pods. She sweeps her SMG around, footsteps gentle, movement graceful and quiet. "Room with pods. Hold position until I can confirm the room is clear," she whispers over comms.
Jattic maintains his position beside the others, giving a brief glance back towards Elena. "Fucked." is his only response at first to her question, his deep, guttural voice carrying a metallic tinge as it passes through his suit's external speakers. Once Halisi finishes speaking to Ilyna, he picks up where she left off. "We won't be granted the ability to roam freely forever. We must capitalize on our element of surprise and
free as many of ours as we can before they become aware of our presence." He gestures towards the SMG on the ground. "Prepare to move out on Oxaris' command."
There are no signs of Collectors in the room as Oxaris enters. A central pillar supports the room, and to the north, part of the ceiling high above opens up into a tunnel that seems to go vertically up.
Elena gives Jattic a sharp nod. "Got it." she says, seeming to adapt relatively quickly to the crazy situation. She takes a few steps away from her pod, looking down the corridor. "This is loco..." she mutters quietly, wishing she had all her gear.
Makk finishes dumping the first Collector corpse into the pod and closing it, moving on and helping Zaylus finish with the second one as well.
Zaylus nods silently at the help, finding the bug man more cumbersome to move than he anticipated but not willing to admit that. After tucking it away he closes up the pod, patting a hand against it in completion.
Ilyna frowns, recalling the glowing Collector's words, which now explains why she could be the only exception to their human preference. Her mind wanders to how she can get that excepted from the report, but she catches herself and pushes these worries back. There are more pressing things to concern herself with. "Goddess," she whispers. "We need to find them." She starts checking her own gear, even flaring her
Ehanis leaves her sister's side, and moves towards the hallway going 'north'. She takes cover by the wall beside it watches the corridor. It's not particularly useful when Oxaris is in the room ahead, but she was anxious to be doing anything other than waiting for the Collectors to find them.
Oxaris stalks around the room, slowly, carefully. Her gaze quickly snaps up to the tunnel, seeing if her low-light vision can grant any further details of what lies beyond. She spares only a quick glance to the pods as she passes, a cursory sweep to see who lays within. Once she is sure there is no hostiles present, she calls it in. "Clear. Numerous pods, looking inside them now. I have a tunnel that seems to sweep
The inspection of the tunnel does not reveal much of interest. It continues up beyond the reach of the low-light vision.
Jattic grunts another affirmative, but remains in place to make sure they're not come up on. "Let us move, then." he commands, barrel trained on the corner of the tunnel behind them. "We cannot wait here forever in hope that they simply don't find us."
Ehanis nods and quickly walks over to take cover where the hallway intersects, standing against the wall covering her from the still unexplored chamber.
Elena follows after Makk, having no knowledge of where they came from and what has already been clear.
Ehanis would spot a lone drone walking past the tunnel opening from the southern side of the room to the northern. It does not appear to notice her.
Halisi nods faintly. "We will." she says, conviction in her voice. "They took everyone alive for a reason. Let's go."
Ehanis raises her brows as she spots a Collector. "Movement," she says over comms. "Other big room." She takes another peek to ensure that the Collector didn't see her, and lets out a sigh of relief.
Ilyna sighs. "Yeah, let's go," she repeats and starts walking towards the others, sticking close to the side of the tunnel nearest Ehanis. She may have her biotics, but she's still feeling the exhaustion from protecting Li back on the freighter.
Oxaris remains cloaked as she falls back the way she came, moving around the corner just in time to spot the drone. She glances to the others, though it would nigh on impossible to spot her less one was squinting hard enough. That or her IFF paints her clearly for her allies. Either way, she waits a heartbeat before starting to recon down the corridor, slowly and surely. "Moving ahead, hold position. One drone." She
presses to the left wall, graceful and silent as she approaches the doorway. She makes to lean just a smidgen to track the moving drone, then glances to where it came, not moving into the room just yet.
Elena totally grabbed the SMG that Jattic pointed out. Obviously. She is currently studying it with a mixture of disgust and fascination as she moves up behind Ehanis.
Upon reaching the entrance to the new chamber, Oxaris would see that it is roughly equally sized in each direction. A long metal pipe filled with more yellow liquid runs along the southern wall. To the north a corridor leads upward. She arrives just in time to spot the drone head that way. She would also see a pair of drones carrying a crate pass by at the end of the corridor to the west. They are heading north.
Jattic pulls back to the hallway just beyond the pods once everyone else has moved on, but continues to watch their rear. "We need to pick up the pace." he grunts over comms, every passing second serving as another opportunity for them to be discovered. "There's no telling what they may be doing to the others."
Elena remains quiet as she stacks up behind Ehanis, still taking in this situation. She nods a few times to herself as she tries to get accustomed to the fact that her weapon appears to be organic.
Oxaris hums and chimes in to Jattic. "We're moving as fast as we can. Move up the corridor to your left, everyone immediately breaking a right when you enter the room and cling to the walls. Our only way is further up into the ship. Collector grunts are moving gear further up." She advances into the room, immediately heading into the direction that the lone drone went. "Stay quiet, hold fire. I'd rather we get as far
as possible before we announce our presence." She moves slowly down the corridor, matching pace with the drone so that she is no further nor closer to it. The Ghost keeps her stoic gaze focused, keeping aware of her surroundings and for the possibility of any hard to spot security measures.
Ilyna glances down at the weapon in Elena's hand after posting up beside her. "Can we trust their technology?" she asks in a whsiper. Ilyna has felt the power in those weapons last time, but she would not trust weilding it when the only thing familiar about it is the general shape. She glances at Halisi when she asks her question, and nods. "Yeah," she replies, still whispering. "I'm still... exhausted after the
Jattic sucks in a deep breath, a brief nod following. "...Copy." he says. The turian is right, obviously. But that doesn't calm the side of him that wishes to cave in the skull of each and every one of these creatures. He glances back to those further up and gestures for them to proceed before speaking through his speakers for the benefit of those without access to comms, "Follow Ehanis. Stay close to the walls."
Zaylus complies with the directions as he glances around the group, the increasing number only making him more uneasy.
Oxaris would find herself heading up and to the left as she enters the tunnel, briefly losing sight of the drone around the corner but soon regaining it. The tunnel opens up into a large chamber. Specifically, into a more confined area in said large chamber. A balcony of sorts, with pillars on each side of the entrance, and an organic 'railing' of chitinous material. She'd have to approach it to see what is beneath. The lone
Collector drone, which is holding a rifle, comes to a stop by the ledge, observing whatever is going on below. The clicking and chittering of several Collectors is audible, likely from below.
Elena follows closely after Ehanis, moving quietly despite her battle armor. She glances back at Ilyna and offers a small shrug followed by a whispered "Hell if I know..." She's glad she's wearing gloves, at any rate.
Ehanis nods. "Got it," she says over comms and moves out, doing her best to remain quiet. She sticks close to the northern wall, and only stops to peek around the corner when she reaches the doorway to the large chamber. She was uneasy; there could be so many potential hidden entrances for an ambush to break their stealth.
Makk does his best to remain close to the wall, but there's simply no way for him to press against it and remain out of view.
Jattic leaves some space between him and the others as he follows behind, continuing to watch their backside for any stray Collectors.
Halisi nods. "Say no more." she says, starting to dig around in her satchel until she produces a hypospray injector. "Suppose I don't have to tell you to brace yourself." she comments before gently moving to inject Ilyna at the neck. She'd feel an immediate rush of alertness, dispelling any lingering fogginess and restoring her energy.
Oxaris advances slowly down the corridor, watching the Drone all the way. As soon as she enters the platform, she skirts right, sticking to the walls and using the pillar as cover. She speaks softly into her internal comms, saying, "One hostile on a balcony. I hear more further on, but no eyes on. Not risking a takedown while it's possibly in view of others." She watches the creature from behind her pillar, counting
down in her mind to see if it possibly follows a patrol pattern or not. "Give me one minute. If it doesn't move, I'll need a distraction to draw it back towards you all."
Oxaris' instincts prove prudent. After about twenty seconds the Collector turns around, passing right by the ghost as it heads back the way it came.
Ehanis enters the room after having seen no hostiles in the chamber. She moves along the wall when she notices the Collector up ahead. She quickly steps closer to the corner and a biotic shimmer forms around her left hand. "Got one coming our way," she whispers over comms. "From where you are, Oxaris."
Oxaris 's mandibles twitch as the drone turns back and begins to head back. "Standby," she says over comms. She follows it a few steps, just as it turns right and is about to hit the second corner, she would decloak and both her blades activate, flicking to life in a blaze of orange. She would plunge a blade into its back to pin it, before the other swings in a vicious motion of searing fabrication to slice clean
through it strangely shaped dome. If the takedown proves fruitful, she would guide the body down softly with the blade still burning into it, before folding it back and announcing, "Clear."
The drone seems to hear a footstep just before Oxaris decloaks, starting to turn, but the blade to its back prevents it from doing so, and the follow up slice kills it quickly and cleanly before it has a chance to call out or bring its weapon to bear. The rifle contracts after falling to the floor as the body is guided to the ground.