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 Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 11:08 pm
Milky Way Galaxy
Styx Theta Cluster
Erebus System
Nepmos
MAKO
Alia checked the sides of the MAKO from a visual check and reassured herself that they were on stable ground before gunning the MAKO's powerful engine. The six all terrain tires spun in the loose dirt before finding purchase on the stone beneath. With a sudden lurch the M35 MAKO infantry fighting vehicle shot forward. The asari commando shifted her weight in the seat and pressed down harder on the accelerator pedal. The engine roared in response and forced the vehicle along at an even greater velocity than before. She opened up the MAKO's map and set up a long range scan. She input the transponder code for Doctor Hayes' ship. The IFV's map was linked directly to the SSV Iroquois and was updated regularly. Two minutes after she had entered the code, the location of the Doctor's ship showed up on the radar. She altered the MAKO's heading and pushed the pedal to the metal.
The MAKO roared over the ashen terrain, spreading a dense cloud of charcoal like material behind it. Alia pulsed the jump jets and propelled the IFV across a chasm. The MAKO started to come down too early so she engaged the Eezo micro-core, and lessened the vehicle's mass. Another pulse of the jump jets brought them safely to the far side. As the MAKO rocked from the landing, Alia's eyes jumped to the radar screen in her Helmet's HUD. There were hundreds of red blips signifying hostile contacts. She knew the reports and knew the situation on this planet. Rachni. The asari switched the safeties off on the MAKO's weaponry, as she knew they would be needed soon.
The IFV crested a low hill and chanced upon a scene of absolute chaos. The listening post was in complete disarray. All systems Alliance personnel who had been stationed there were dead. The only ship that remained on the planet belonged to Doctor Hayes. There was a large crowd of Rachni chasing what appeared to be a man on some sort of all terrain vehicle. She locked in the heading for the MAKO and engaged the autopilot. She linked the MAKO's targeting reticule with her HUD and engaged the scope. A minor feeling of vertigo engulfed her as the turret followed the movement of her head. She looked directly at the nearest group of Rachni and squeezed the firing trigger on the wheel. The MAKO was rocked backwards by the force of the 155mm mass accelerator cannon. A round no larger than a pea erupted from the muzzle of the MAKO's main gun and exploded in the midst of the Rachni. A cloud of greenish goo filled the air around the impact site as the Rachni turned to face the new threat. Alia cycled to the coaxial machine gun and opened fire. The rounds from the machine gun tore through the Rachni with incredibly precision. Alia switched off the autopilot and disengaged the scope. The targeting reticule remained on her HUD and she aimed while she drove. The turret swept back and forth, following the sway of her head. The main gun fired once more, vaporizing the Rachni it had hit. She brought the M35 in close to the doctor's ship, the large tires liquefying anything caught beneath them. The vehicle came to a halt in front of the ship and Alia sent the fire control to Red's station and moved to the hatch. She readied her Kovalyov IX AR and popped the hatch. Her helmet's faceplate had automatically sealed itself to protect her from the hostile environment. The asari commando slipped through the opening and fired on any Rachni that got too close. She walked calmly to the man whom her HUD identified as Doctor Thomas Hayes.
"Doctor Hayes I presume?"
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Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 10:55 pm
Milky Way Galaxy
Styx Theta Cluster
Erebus System
Nepmos
Mako
The Captain sighed.
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William the Conqueror Captain
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Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 11:14 pm
Milky Way Galaxy
Styx Theta Cluster
Erebus System
Nepmos
The Commander Sat
BANG
Listening Post Alpha
"Looks like I've got no choice..." The doctor hated it, there was one way off of the planet and it was surrounded by rachni. He clicked the ATV down into first gear and held the clutch. Revving the engine he grabbed the Rachni's attention, he was going to flatten them... if their acid didn't melt his tires to the dirt. A screech pierced through Dr. Hayes' helmet and rapped on his ear drum. Was this going to be it for him or was he going to make it to the ship? Would he live to fight another day? His thoughts and queries were cut short however as a large vehicle barreled over a ridge and crushed a couple of Rachni. An unexpected turn of events no doubt, but Dr. Hayes wasn't going to argue against anything saving his a** right now.
The vehicle began to crush the Rachni who had diverted efforts of getting into the Spirit and had begun fighting back, spitting acid at the vehicle. Dr. Halsey considered running if the Rachni didn't kill him whoever was in that vehicle wasn't just there to save his a**. Sadly, before he could move or act on the thought it seemed all of the Rachni were laid to waste and the vehicle was opening up.
"Doctor Hayes I presume?" the voice called to him, Dr. Hayes nearly shat himself as the asari warrior approached him. It was rare for anyone to meet or see asari warriors and usually they weren't there to make friends.
"Can I help you m'am?" he spoke back reluctantly. He had a bad feeling about what was about to go down.
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Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 11:31 pm
Milky Way Galaxy
Styx Theta Cluster
Erebus System
Nepmos
Listening Post Alpha
"I'm here on council business. Get in the MAKO. You're not going anywhere on that bucket."
The doctor's ship was, for all intents and purposes space worthy. Though the Rachni had made a definite attempt to enter the ship, and had severed some of the external cables. Regardless, Alia wasn't going to let the man escape. She slung her rifle and drew her pistol. Her aim was steady, and aimed at the man's forehead. There would be time for pleasantries later. They needed to get off this planet before it shook itself to pieces.
"That was not a request doctor."
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Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 3:55 pm
Milky Way Galaxy
Styx Theta Cluster
Erebus System
Nepmos
Listening Post Alpha
In the Mako
The Captain waited.
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Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 5:03 pm
Milky Way Galaxy
Styx Theta Cluster
Erebus System
Nepmos
The Commander Sat
BANG
Listening Post Alpha
"I'm here on council business. Get in the MAKO. You're not going anywhere on that bucket." Dr. Hayes barely even knew the asari commando that stood before him and he already had mixed feelings about her. In one hand she just saved his arse from a nasty fate involving angry Rachni and the doctor losing most of his body fluids, but in the other hand she just insulted his entire livelihood.
"Well miss commando that ship, provided the Rachni didn't fry her too badly, is my baby and despite what you may think about her she's probably one of the most advanced civilian ships in Citadel space." The doctor began to walk towards the ship, he was finally off of this rock, "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to my research, this little exploration is over for me." He turned his head from the commando, mistake number one. He continued to walk and heard a distinct clicking but didn't think anything of it, mistake number two.
"That was not a request doctor." One more mistake and he'd probably be dead so he stopped in his tracks. He looked back to see the commando had drawn her sidearm and was aiming for the kill. With that Dr. Hayes let out a brief sigh, "You couldn't just very well leave me be could you? Fine, I'll come with you," The doctor walked towards the asari, "But I need two things first. I need my ship to be secured, it is my livelihood after all, I don't want anything happening to her. Secondly I need to know why you're here for me, after all that is one of my rights isn't it?"
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William the Conqueror Captain
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Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 8:56 pm
Milky Way Galaxy
Styx Theta Cluster
Erebus System
Nepmos
Listening Post Alpha
Enough with the stuff that shouldn't be here
Whitfield climbed out of the MAKO. His square jaw was clenched. This was taking too long. He walked to Alia and Hayes, noting the Alia's pistol was aimed directly at the doctor. He kept himself ready to draw if he had to. The Captain was hoping it wouldn't come to that, but he couldn't be sure.
"Alia, get inside the doctor's ship and download all the information he's got. When you're done, get back to the MAKO. Hayes, help her."
Whitfield trusted he didn't need an introduction. Instead, he hailed the Iroquois.
"Joker, lock in on my signal and get ready to pick us up."
"Copy that Captain. Iroquois out."
________________________________________
Alia frowned and holstered her pistol. She didn't like the idea of staying on this rock any more than she had to. But orders were orders, and she had to follow them. Without arguing, she motioned for the doctor to lead. Her stress level was too high, so she focused on lowering it. There was no need for anything unsightly to happen.
"After you doctor." she said as politely as she could manage.
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Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 7:55 pm
Milky Way Galaxy
Styx Theta Cluster
Erebus System
Nepmos
Listening Post Alpha
"Hold on just one god damned second!" Things just kept getting worse for the doctor, he almost wished he had been left to his fate with the Rachni! Maybe he would have survived that... "First you're going to arrest me without telling me why, then you hold me at gun point and now you want me to simply download all of my life's work and give it to you? AND you want me to just leave the one thing I worked my entire life to earn on this planet where it is certain to either be destroyed by the Rachni or the planet itself?!" Dr. Hayes hadn't realized just how bad a day this was until that very moment. Everything seemed to snowball downhill from the unexpected readout during the full system scan upon entering system.
The entire situation was just s**t and Dr. Hayes didn't want to sit around for it all, "With all due respect Captain Whitefield, you're about as slow as an elcor if you think that I can comply with these orders sir."
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William the Conqueror Captain
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Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 10:05 pm
Milky Way Galaxy
Styx Theta Cluster
Erebus System
Nepmos
Listening Post Alpha
"Well, I could shoot you instead. The Captain's being nice, having me secure all of your data. In the event that you are ever released from prison, you can go back to your 'life'. Sounds fair right?"
She offered a quaint smile and stepped up to the airlock. The door was encrypted, but only with civilian stuff.
"Look, I'll tell you everything you want to know inside, I'm tired of shouting. But arguing like this is just taking up time. And don't have a lot of that right now."
The asari commando waited patiently for the doctor's reply. She had decided that it would be best to find a nonviolent solution to this situation. The MAKO's main gun continued to dominate the world around them, and she had to shout to be heard above its thunderous report.
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 9:02 am
Milky Way Galaxy
Styx Theta Cluster
Erebus System
Nepmos
Listening Post Alpha
Dr. Hayes had been beaten. He had no death wish so he didn't disobey any more commands he was given and simply followed orders, he hated it, but he did as he was told. "I really have no choice in the matter do I...?" He slightly nudged the asari out of the way and opened the door; there was no need to break into his own ship. He stepped in with the asari at his back, her gun leveled waiting for Dr. Hayes to try anything funny. He knew if he made a wrong move he'd be dead on the spot and that wouldn't be good for anyone. So without any further delay Dr. Hayes led her straight to the helm of the Spirit.
"Yuri?" The doctor asked, looking for his VI, "Let me guess doctor," The VI responded and the lights came on throughout the ship accordingly, "You want a status report on all systems, see how the ship is?"
"No actually Yuri, nice try though. I would like you to download all of my research onto the asari's datapad and put yourself onto a VI chip, you're coming with me, and we're leaving the ship behind."
"But Thomas," Even the VI knew something was awry, the doctor never left this ship behind unless he was ashore. The ones and zeros of his coding told him to display anxiety, "The ship is entirely space flight worthy! There are only a fe-" "I understand that much, however we're leaving for different reasons, so please if you would hurry, I want to get this done as fast as possible."
"Yes sir..." Yuri replied and without further ado went to work on the tasks that Dr. Hayes had set for him. It would take quite some time, years of accumulated research and knowledge stored in a VIs memory core wasn't something that one could simply port into a datapad. It had to be compressed, and if done improperly could destroy the data so he had to meticulously dissect the data, splice it into ones and zeros, then store it onto the datapad. When he was done with all of that he would then have to do the same process on himself but less compressing and more moving as the VI chip was designed to hold his vast amount of processing power.
"Now asari if you would," The doctor turned to face the commando that was forcing him to abandon his very life, "What exactly is it that Captain Whitfield and the Council need from me? Why can't you simply escort me and my ship back to the Citadel, after all you do have the most advanced ship in Citadel space. It wouldn't be that hard to keep track of me and make sure I don't try to sneak away in this old boat. And lastly, what is your name commando? I know Whitfield's, but yours escapes me."
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William the Conqueror Captain
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 10:03 am
Milky Way Galaxy
Styx Theta Cluster
Erebus System
Nepmos
Listening Post Alpha
Alia looked about the man's vessel. It was just another civilian modular freighter. Albeit this one had more computer equipment than she had every seen in such a ship before. He really was a scientist. Now if only she knew what it was that he was working on. She was slightly surprised to see a VI, especially one that addressed people on a by-name basis. This man was quite the enigma. His questions caught her off guard. She turned and raised her brows inquisitively.
"Alia Dhaleena."
She gave a faint smile before continuing.
"You're being placed under arrest for selling information to a known pirate organization while in Citadel Space. You have also been accused by the Systems Alliance of intentionally aiding terrorists. The same terrorists who destroyed the ExoGeni facility and killed Commander Shepard. You know your rights. And I would cooperate if I were you. Captain Whitfield is a Spectre after all."
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 10:51 pm
Milky Way Galaxy
Styx Theta Cluster
Erebus System
Nepmos
Listening Post Alpha
"Well Alia, I would say nice to meet you," The doctor moved to the nearest chair and sat. While the seat wasn't exactly comfortable and was worn from use it beat standing. "But given the circumstances I would have much preferred you, Captain Whitfield and I had never met." With the comment the asari smiled. While the smile was subtle and damned near impossible to see it was there, at least she had some sense of humor. That would make the trip back to the Citadel somewhat bearable.
He waited until the asari continued as she went on to explain just why he was under arrest, "...killed Commander Shepard." Now that was something that would grab anyone's attention. Commander Shepard was one of the most brilliant men in the history of the Alliance. His efforts might have single handedly proven that the humans were ready to become a part of the Council and that they were indeed trustworthy.
He slammed his fist down into the arm of the chair in anger,"How could you accuse me of that?! I have NEVER dealt with pirates my entire life. For Christ's sake I spent most of my life serving the Alliance military and you're trying to tell me that I worked towards killing their ace in the hole?! Now that has to be a joke!"
The doctor tried to wrap his mind around these accusations, none of it seemed logical. He tried to think of anytime he sold information, which was quite often seeing as it was his only source of income. Dr. Hayes took in a deep breath and sighed, "I haven't dealt with anyone outside of the System's Alliance and the Council..."
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William the Conqueror Captain
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Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 10:14 pm
Milky Way Galaxy
Dear Sarge...
Styx Theta Cluster
Erebus System
Kicking a** in Outer Space...
Nepmos
Listening Post Alpha
Wish you were here.
The asari walked to one of the bulkheads and leaned against it, focusing and prioritizing her thoughts. While she wasn't capable of thinking of a great many things at once, she was capable of pushing thoughts aside for more important ones. The good doctor was behaving just as Alia would were their positions reversed. While Hayes sat and pondered his life and his more recent decisions, Alia looked back at the conversation and how she had presented herself. The asari was ashamed to say that she had made a complete a** of herself. Part of her wanted to beg the doctor's forgiveness for her harsh words, but another part entirely wanted to continue punishing the man for bringing shame upon her. That was what scared her the most. The fact that she wanted to bring more trouble to this innocent man for exposing her own faults. It sent a shiver down her spine, although she concealed it easily enough through her armor. In the end she decided that it would be best to apologize and attempt to salvage whatever might be left of a civilized relationship with the doctor. She would meditate on this later. For now they had to get off of Nepmos. The Rachni coupled with the planet's history of sudden seismic activity didn't make for an inviting locale.
"Doctor, I... I apologize for my behavior, I realise now that I was, and probably still am, acting like an a**."
She said no more, because she knew that nothing else could be said. Alia couldn't change the fact that he stood accused of killing humanity's knight in shining armor. There was only one thing she could do, try to make the next few days of the Doctor's life as painless as possible. As it stood, only a handful of people knew of any connection that Hayes had to Shepard's murder. The Shadow Broker probably knew something, and certain elements in the Terminus clans were trying to get at him, not to mention the salarian STG that found out about him. The Council knew, and Whitfield, as well as Red. The Systems Alliance probably had people straining to find any scrap of information about Shepard's demise, but the Council could keep their secrets well enough. Anderson, the human Councilman was no fool. He wouldn't tell the Systems Alliance about Hayes until there was conclusive evidence that he was guilty. Even then he would brake the news as gently as possible.
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Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 12:36 pm
Milky Way Galaxy
Styx Theta Cluster
Erebus System
Nepmos
Listening Post Alpha
Aboard CSV Spirit
The asari wasn't one to mince words, or at least, it seemed so as far as Dr. Hayes could tell. Most military personnel were like that now a days though. More action, less questions. Just get the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible, and while Dr. Hayes didn't argue against their logic, as a scientist he had a nature to question why. He was naturally curious about everything, it was probably why he left the System's Alliance in the first place. People like him didn't belong anywhere except on the backside of a ship studying the FTL drive and making sure that when the Captain needed it, they had the power to move.
The asari stared blankly into the small spaces in the ship and it caught Hayes off guard. She wasn't searching for something, no, her eyes were wandering in thought. This was strange, but at the same time, asari were generally curious creatures as well, what with their millennia long life span they questioned roots of near everything and were probably more efficient at it than humans. Probably. It was hard to tell, humanity had the drive that no other species had, but he wasn't about to take anything away from the other races, seeing as they were all part of the same Council and all shared the same technology.
Finally the asari spoke again, but candidly, which was caught Hayes' attention yet again, "Doctor, I... I apologize for my behavior, I realise now that I was, and probably still am, acting like an a**." She seemed generally distraught with her own actions and while this didn't really change his opinion on the asari it did at least make her seem less hostile than before, which was a plus.
"Bah, it couldn't be helped I guess, the Council is rather pushy after all. The fact that they sent a Spectre though, and an asari commando? It must be coming from all the way at the top." A status bar flashed on the system display and Dr. Hayes turned, retrieving all of his data as well as his VI. His entire life's work was now in the palm of his hand. For a moment he considered crushing it. Destroying the data and sending a message to the Council, but of course, that would only incriminate him more and ensure he was put to death. Instead he simply stood and motioned towards the door, "We're all done here."
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William the Conqueror Captain
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Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 4:35 pm
Milky Way Galaxy
Styx Theta Cluster
Erebus System
Nepmos
Listening Post Alpha
Defending Mako / CSV Spirit
------Whitfield discharge a burst of fire into the nearest rachni, dropping it to the vibrating ground. It seemed that everything was starting to go to hell, and he did not want to be on the surface when it did. A rachni off to the Captain's left crawled from a burrow and screeched, just in time for Roland to turn and place a three round burst between it's eyes. It, like it's comrades, fell lifeless. He had lost nearly all of his patience, and he had almost lost his life before. The armor that he wore was burnt from the rachni's acid down to the last layer before his skin, in some parts.
"Alia, we need to go now!"
------More and more rachni bastards came from their burrows, attacking relentlessly in a seemingly endless onslaught. Roland gritted his teeth and felt them vibrate in his head. Even his vision was moving due to the surface. Loud explosions tore apart the larger of the rachni as soon as they crawled from underground, and for once he was grateful to have someone working with him. Whitfield took a deep breath and shot another one of the enemies six times before it went down.
"Yes, sir. I can set her down three kilometers from your position."
"Negative, the surface of the planet is hot."
"Like... 'exploding' hot, or 'enemy' hot?"
"I'm pretty sure both, Joker!"
------Whitefield killed two more rachni before Joker spoke back over the COM.
"Alright, we'll do a moving pickup. Get moving in the Mako and use it's hydraulics on my mark. ETA 5 minutes."
"Roger that."
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