This logfile is imported from aitelogs2 and may contain errors or wrong timestamps.
#FreedomFalls – August 12, 2018
The human nods. "Then it's settled," he says and nods to the other human, who along with Lema heads over to the shuttle to check the equipment. "Mian works security around here, but I've barely ever seen Ehanis outside." He casts a glance towards the shuttle to follow his gesture. He shrugs, "They don't cause trouble... usually, which puts them above most neighbors I've had on this planet." He does not enter the apartment
Mendez glances towards Lema and the human as they begin to approach the shuttle, gaze lingering on them as he nods idly to the older man. "We won't take up too much of your time." he says, "We're only interested in getting to the bottom of where Ehanis disappeared to. Wasn't exactly an unannounced disappearance, so we didn't have much reason to expect any foul play. But when Mian attacked one of our people unprovoked when she came
looking for Ehanis-..." he glances back towards the man, explaining the events in a tone more befitting of someone simply going through the motions than someone with an emotional attachement to the situation- AKA: Mendez' standard tone, "...I'm guessing you can understand why it would set off some red flags." He nods towards the door, eyes remaining on the older man. "Mind if we get started?"
Jasper is stood in the passenger's compartment of the shuttle. As the others approach, he uses one scuffed-up boot to maneuver a crate out from under a seat beside the shuttle door and scoot it over towards the edge so the people can better access it. A few tools and odds and ends useful in replacing the door handle and lock are inside. Mostly odds and ends he keeps on-hand to maintain Redrock's office. "Ya'll gonna need a
Emma watches Lema and the younger human as they head towards the shuttle, and then turns briefly to look over the older man before taking another look at the surrounding area. She says nothing, and her face doesn't give much insight into what she's thinking.
He nods and enters the apartment, stepping aside while he looks around the room. "Come to think of it, Mian didn't come back to work after leaving for lunch today," he says. "Maybe she misses her roommate, and took out her grief on the first person to come along." There's a disappointed look on his face at the state of the living room. The apartment is the mess the Redrock team left earlier this evening, the only
difference being snow that's gotten inside due to the door being open while they worked on it. The heat has also been turned off.
Mendez gives a glance to Emma then nods towards the building before following the older man inside. "Maybe." he grunts, keeping his thoughts to himself about how it probably would've just been more beneficial to everybody- Mian included- had she just worked with Redrock rather than throwing a tantrum. The open door doesn't do much to alleviate the chill in the air, but at least they're out of the wind.
Emma leaves the street behind, letting her rifle compact and clipping it to her back as she steps towards the apartment door. She doesn't look particularly convinced by the man's proposed motivation. As soon as she's inside her gaze scans across the messy room, familiarizing herself with it since she didn't venture inside when they brought in Mian.
The young human nods. "The computer's fine, the sliders are fixed, but the old lock mechanism is a lost cause," he says, not looking up while rummaging through the toolbox for anything of use. "We've got a new magnetic lock that'll work with the computer, but it's going to take some time tearing out the old system and making space for the new one." He has picked out a few screws, but he has otherwise not taken anything,
The old man stays behind by the entrance. "I don't understand how they can live like this," he mutters while looking over the room for anything to point out. There are no notes, data pads, computers in the living room. There are two doors on the right wall. They're both closed, but not locked.
Jasper gives a couple of nods, seeming to perk up at the prospect of making himself useful. "You got it." he says, stepping over to the edge of the shuttle and stepping out. He joins in rummaging through the box, grabbing a few tools and sliding them into the pockets on his dirty jumpsuit.
Mendez makes no comment on the state of the apartment as he scans about the room for anything of interest. How others choose to live is of little concern to him. Instead, he passes a glance Emma's way. "Just a quick sweep of the place." he says, implying they get to work.
Emma is quick to respond with a nod, continuing to look around as she heads for the furthest of the two doors, stopping to open it once she gets there.
The door Emma opens leads to a bathroom, is a small room with dark tiles. There's a sink, toilet, shower, and a cabinet with a dirty mirror in front. There is a visible layer of dust on almost every surface. There are two towels hanging on hooks (and one on the floor) by the sink, but no clothes.
Mendez remains behind with the older man, waiting for Emma to approach the door before addressing him again. He lowers his voice, not particularly wanting to broadcast personal affairs during official business, eyes remaining on Emma as he watches her get to work. "You're making a big mistake if you allow whatever personal feelings you may have regarding Redrock to cloud your judgement on what's best for your daughter. I
understand your concerns- putting your daughter's well being in the hands of a mercenary doesn't look good on paper. But you won't find many out there with a bigger heart than Leah." He finally glances back at the man as he finishes up. "But you don't have to take my word for it. Talk with her yourself. See what she's about."
Emma 's nose scrunches slightly as her gaze wanders across the bathroom. She steps inside, going to give the inside of the cabinet a quick check.
The young human heads back to the door and taps on the interface to open it completely so there's space for both of them to work. There are parts placed on the inside for a new lock and its accompanying strike surface, but it's a few millimeter taller than the other one so the holes they fit into needs to be expanded slightly. The old lock is still there, but parts of it is broken off from being violently torn open. The
The cabinet is well stocked with cosmetics, soaps, toothpaste, toothbrushes, medi-gel and other basic first aid. There's still cosmetics there that's meant for an asari much paler than Mian.
The old man frowns as Mendez brings up Lema. He casts a glance towards her, wondering how Mendez knows that he's reconsidering her training. "I've been very lenient with Lema, letting her go to the city as long as she's home by seven," he says with a chuckle. "But after two dangerous situations in such a short time, you have to forgive me for being more careful."
Jasper looks over the locking mechanism and the new parts, adjusting his grease-stained old cap as he does. "Looks like we're gon' hafta open 'er up a bit." he muses aloud, one hand tucked into the pocket of his overalls. A small shrug of his shoulders follows. "Shouldn't be too big 'a deal." he decides.
Mendez gives a small shake of his head. "You've gotta do what's best for your daughter." he says, implying he understands the man's hesitation. "I'm not here to try and change your opinion of Redrock. We do our job. Whether you agree with it or not doesn't concern me." he says bluntly. His tone isn't confrontational or even antagonistic. Just matter-of-fact. "Just meet with her before you make any decisions." he decides on. It's
clear he's not particularly comfortable discussing personal matters while he's supposed to be working and he's quick to give a brief gesture about the room. "I should get back to work so we can get this over with and everyone can get home."
Emma isn't particularly familiar with asari cosmetics. Regardless, she makes note of the multiple toothbrushes, even though it may well be nothing. She closes the cabinet and leaves the bathroom to check the other door, glancing briefly over to Mendez and the human he's talking to.
The last door opens to the bedroom. The bedroom is not much better, clothes, and other items strewn around. Given the living room's state, that might not seen out of the ordinary, but it could also be the sign of someone packing in a hurry. Some of the tops lying around doesn't look like they'd fit Mian, though. The furniture in this room are two single beds on each side, and an open wardrobe on the wall where the door
The old man nods to Mendez. "We'll see when the dust settles," he says, keeping his response short to let Mendez get back to work. "Lema's not going anywhere before her arm heals anyway." He stays by the door, observing the mercenaries' search. They're probably more qualified to make sense of this mess anyway.
Lema frowns at the lack of conclusion about her biotic training, but she doesn't say anything, just pretending to not listen while watching them work on the lock. She is still outside.
Mendez merely gives a single, stern nod at the man's response. At the end of the day, his concern lies mostly with the good that helping the young asari will do Leah. But it's not his business and he has a job to do. Turning his attention back to the room he's in, he begins to slowly look about the living room for anything his initial scan may have overlooked since Emma seems to have the rooms under control.
Emma uses a booted foot to poke around the clothes on the floor, her gaze scanning the wardrobe once she gets closer to it. Upon spotting the datapad, however, she crouches down to pick it up and have a look.
The data pad screen shows up as soon it's held in her hand, the orange hologram lighting up the room slightly. There are two files on it, a picture labeled 'Sala Piros' and the contact info labeled 'Wenera Leren'. The timestamps in the file list reveals that they were copied over on the 25th of October. The wardrobe contains only clothes, most of which is folded and organized.
Mendez does not find anything that might be clue by looking around the living room, just more empty microwave food packaging, wrappers, bottles, and the occasional utensil.
Mendez turns up his nose in disgust- the first real sign that he possesses the ability to react with anything other than a stoneface- as he pokes about the living room. "Nothing out here." he calls out, glancing briefly over his shoulder in Emma's general direction.
Jasper has already started to get to work on widening the holes for the new mechanism, lowered to one knee with his focus fixed on the task at hand while the others do their thing.
The image file opens to show a poor quality picture of a sky-blue asari with yellow spots on her cheeks. The image viewer shows additional metadata that puts it 87 years in the past, but the location is unkown.
Emma studies the picture for a moment before heading out of the bedroom, showing the datapad off to Mendez. "Clothes are all over the floor, and I found this." she says, holding the pad out for him to take a look at.
Mendez reaches out, accepting the datapad. He studies it with a furrowing of his brow. "We'll take it in." he says, backing out of the picture to see if there's any sign of who the datapad belongs to- Mian or Ehanis. "Sala Piros is an asari we had a run in with a while back. Grabbed the bartender of the Respite. We managed to get her back, but that was the last I heard of it."
Emma listens as Mendez shares what he knows, giving a small nod of acknowledgement as her eyebrows furrow slightly. "Not friendly to Redrock, then?" she asks while glancing around the living room.
Mendez studies the datapad for a moment longer before shutting it down and looking to Emma with an unamused snort. "That's one way of putting it..." he mutters, not bothering to go into any detail about the PMC they were forced to shoot their way through in order to get Va'ynna back. Not his place. She can read the reports. "Confident there was nothing else worth taking a look at in there?" he asks with a brief nod towards the
Mendez gives a quick nod, hefting the datapad slightly higher in a gesture. "This will have to do, then." He gives a glance towards Lema's father, holding the datapad for him to see. "We're gonna take this with us. We'll make sure it ends up in Mian's hands once we're done looking through it." he assures.
The old man takes a look at the data pad as Mendez describes it to Emma, but he doesn't comment on it. "Good to know," he says. "You should also take some outerwear with you, because it looks like you forgot that when you took her in."
Emma doesn't seem particularly concerned with bringing a jacket for Mian, but she looks to Mendez to see his response to the old man's words.
Mendez also isn't the most concerned about Mian's well-being. She had the opportunity to work with them and chose, instead, to be an asshole. For all he cares, she can find her way home without shoes and a jacket. But bad public perception does nothing for Redrock and, potentially, reflects poorly on him. Not to mention, truthfully, he doesn't want to be responsible for reflecting poorly on Leah in regard to Lema's training. With
a sigh and a small roll of his eyes he gives Emma a small nod. "Find a jacket for her." he grunts as he tucks the datapad under his arm, glancing towards the door for any sign of her shoes.
Emma nods, making her way back into the bedroom and grabbing the first jacket she can find among the jumble of clothes.
The shoes and jacket are both by the door, and out of the way enough to not be too affected by the snow that's blown in. There is just a simple gray winter coat, so there's not much of a choice to be made there. Same can be said for the shoes: there are two pairs of shoes by the door, but only one of them is remotely appropriate for this time of year. Emma might find a few fleece jackets in the bedroom.
Mendez scoops up the winter shoes with his free hand as he gives Jasper a pat on the shoulder with the gauntlet holding the datapad to indicate his presence. "Think we've got everything we're gonna find. We'll wait for you out in the shuttle." he says. He starts to head out the door before thinking better of such an unceremonious departure and glancing back towards Lema's father. "Uhh-... Thanks for the help-..." he says,
obviously having to remind himself to try and be somewhat courteous before furrowing his brow as realization dawns upon him. "...Don't think I ever actually got your name, did I?" he asks, having mostly just been a stone sentry outside of Lema's room with little interest in doing much talking. Something as simple as introductions eluded them.
Jasper glances up at the large man with a brief, distant nod, his focus firmly on his work. "Mmhmm. Ya'll get ready to head out, then. I ain't gon' be much longer." he assures.
Emma grabs the jacket and heads outside, waiting near the door for Mendez as she watches Jasper and the others work on the lock.
"You're right," he says with a brief chuckle. "Tobias Lang." When they last met, he was in a hurry to see Lema so forgoing introductions to save ten seconds was a worthy sacrifice.
Mendez gives a nod. "Mendez." he says, his delivery as dry as ever. And with that, he steps out through the door and starts towards the shuttle, only passing Lema a brief glance as he points to her with an outstretched finger on the hand holding Mian's shoes. "Stay out of trouble." he says, his deep voice carrying over the wind.
Emma remains outside until Jasper has finished with his work, alternating between watching the darkness and the door-fixing crew.
Lema frowns as she looks up at the man. "I'm trying!" she says. "The last time wasn't my fault." Well, technically it is related to the trouble she got herself into, but she didn't do anything on that day to cause it.