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 Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 5:25 pm
She approached her post slowly, not wanting to let old Cato off the hook too soon. Besides, there was a bit of pride in her walk as she strolled through the Presidium grounds, taking care to walk with all of the power and dignity that she felt. Yes, it might only be a rookie's posting, the quietest part of the Citadel at the slowest time, but she was finally wearing the armor of a true C-Sec guard, not just what they gave to those shadowing or in training. Yes, it had already been a year since her graduation, but by the Spirits she'd made it!
Ignoring the beauty around her in this well manicured place, Aella didn't even acknowledge a Keeper as it passed her by, scurrying off to who knew where. Then again, who would? Though now she was very aware of the Turian who was staring at her. Even though Cato was leaning against the wall with his arms folded, she wasn't fooled by the lax position. He was an old guard, and the one who had spent the better part of three years training her. Meeting his glare briefly, she sped up her walk and nodded to him upon approach, pointedly ignoring the way his movements looked stiff as he straightened himself.
"'Bout damn time, girl. Thought I was going to die here."
Doing her best to keep a straight face, once she met his kind eyes her willpower folded and her mandibles flared in amusement.
"Drusus, if anything I'm here early. You and I both know that boredom never killed anyone, though you make a great show of sulking about it."
Though when his eyes narrowed to slits at her comment, she coughed politely and added the sir to the end of her jab that he was looking for. His look only hardened further for a brief moment before he chuckled, the deep flanging in his voice becoming more pronounced with his age. Aella relaxed visibly and shook her head at the old man. She knew he resented being stationed here, especially all he'd been through, but Cato Drusus was a lifer, someone who'd dedicated their whole existence to the Hierarchy, and he would be an officer until he died. Which was hopefully several years down the line, despite his morbid jokes. Still, she felt for him. Too old to be out on a ship, too young at heart to be in such an aged body.
Her thoughts were interrupted though, when he patted her shoulder and started to move on, only turning partially to causally throw over his shoulder a bit of a warning.
"Oh, and Tullius. Keep your eye out today. There's been a suit pyjak running about. Some damn kid on his pilgrimage I believe. Have fun with that."
Before she could ask him more about the matter, he was gone, and she didn't dare leave her post just to ask about some Quarian. She didn't even want to sigh over it, now that she was on guard her posture stayed rigid and her eyes sharp and fierce. She'd found that appearing as masculine and menacing as possible often saved her quite a bit of trouble. On duty or off of it.
But by the end of the first hour, she was already trying to pass the time by counting the passerby, or trying to put names to faces of some of the officials that were going about their business. Even with the forced night cycle, many ignored the diminishing light or the artificial scrolling sky's darkening message.
Slow, yes, but this was the magnificent Citadel. It never entirely slept, and it was never completely quiet.
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Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 11:51 pm
He made his way through the Presidium at a casual pace. It had taken months to get up here, taking his time now wouldn't change anything. Besides, if he was seen walking fast or running, C-Sec would probably end up stopping him with questions. That would take up time that he really didn't want wasted, and could potentially end his quest here. Looking down at his arm as his omnitool flared to life, he checked the map he had found on the Citadel network. The Presidium was fairly simple, there wasn't many ways to obfuscate a giant ring, but he felt it wise to check regardless. Lowering his arm as the omnitool faded away, he continued his walk, trying to act as if he belonged up here. Act casual, that was the key.
It had been almost four years since he left the Kemorya on his Pilgrimage, though he could hardly believe it, the 3 years he spent on Omega seemed more like a decade. He had originally set out for Omega in the hopes of being able to salvage some nice tech that could be applied to a ship, or even the entire fleet. Sure, Omega was a trash heap compared to other possibilities, but nobody really cared that he was there. He had doubts of being able to live as easily in most other stations. Even so, it was Omega after all, only the worst trash of the junk salvage made its way there. Still, he came across a fair amount of decent parts, but nothing that he felt was worth bringing back. Anyone could find an old kinetic barrier emitter, or a heavily used mass accelerator. Even the rare Geth parts that trickled in were so badly damaged it would be easier to just track down an active unit and take its parts, than try and get the salvaged part working again.
Still, his dedication to the task eventually paid off when he saw an eezo drive core big enough to power a dreadnought. Or, what was left of the drive core at least. He paid top-credit for that wrecked skeleton, salvaging what little eezo and valuable components the previous scavengers had left behind in order to recoup the cost a bit. The big payoff was when he found the identifying markings for the drive. Looking up the numbers was easy, but even then he had to double-check the result, as it traced the drive core to a Turian ship that was destroyed in the Relay 314 Incident. No collector would pay for the gutted corpse even if it came from the Primarch's own ship, but the list he found of ships lost by both sides was impressive, to say the least. With luck he would be able to find something salvageable that might bolster the Fleet, maybe even tech from the human newcomers.
The better part of that year was spent making as much money as he could, as quickly as he could. It wasn't easy of course, but the ship list garnered from the drive core came in handy. With it he was able to track down where each ship went, as well as where each valuable part wound up. Whenever one of those parts arrived in Omega, he was waiting for it at the dock with credits, ingenuity, and some luck. He had to pull what little strings he had come up with during his time, but having first dibs on the only vehicle in the station that could carry a sizable piece of equipment came in handy. The actual parts he didn't really care about, they were as wrecked as any other salvage. The profit came from putting his nose to the omnigrinder and doing all of the hard work to get each part back to usable shape. After that it was simply a matter of finding a buyer.
Refining eezo, scrapping one GUARDIAN targeting system and using the parts to patch up a drive core controller, anything that could be turned into good equipment. By the time he was done he was in danger of wearing holes through parts of his suit, but he wound up with enough credits to book relatively safe passage off of Omega, and eventually to the Citadel. With some extra of course, so he wouldn't starve once he arrived, as well as enough to purchase extra material to patch up his suit.
Kar'Hallarn snapped out of his memory, checking the map on his omnitool once again to make sure he hadn't gotten lost. The scenery of the Presidium didn't change much, so he could have easily kept going until he walked the entire ring. He turned off the omnitool in time to barely miss tripping over a Keeper as it obliviously went about its duties. Odd creatures they were. He had no time to dally with the 8-limbed insect though, and headed towards what he hoped was his destination.
He stopped in front of a seemingly innocuous part of the Presidium, other than the rather large elevator reaching upward through the false sky, which led to the Council Chambers. He was under no delusion that he would be granted an audience with the Council, but he didn't need to meet with all three of them...at least he hoped not. He looked around momentarily, spotting a Turian standing guard near the elevator, female by the look of it. The females still looked as menacing as their male counterparts though, so he approached her cautiously. He had checked his weapons at a C-Sec station, but there was no need to get himself kicked out for something stupid when he was this close.
"Excuse me miss, do you know how I would be able get in contact with Councilor Sparatus? I was hoping to ask him about some of the Turian ships destroyed or decommissioned from the Relay 314 Incident. If not, would you be able to direct me to someone who would be able to get in contact with him?"
The 'mouth' light on the front of his mask blinked in time with his native tongue, though he had no doubt that the Turian's armor systems would automatically translate it for her. If not, he had installed every major language in the galaxy into his suit, it would just take a few seconds longer to switch over the translator function. Being prepared and polite couldn't hurt, after all.
((HAVE A TEXT WALL heart ))
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