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 Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2012 6:56 pm
 Kar'Hallern x Aella Tullius Mouse x Rain Start Date: April 8th, 2012
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: Sun Sep 09, 2012 6:57 pm
Gin Rin 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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Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 7:58 pm
Another hour.
Annnnnnnd another one.
Aella bent her knees to keep the blood flow going, as discreetly as she could, she had appearances to keep up after all.
Her mind started working it's way down well-worn paths, old fears and worries mostly, but she did her damnedest to refocus on goals and aspirations. Back in boot camp she had the delusion of maybe going for CID, but her first year on and only a few crime scenes in had broken her of that. Maybe IA? But that didn't sit right either.
The hardest part about trying to turn down a different road in her mental circles was perhaps she had no idea what to do now. Stay in C-Sec? What else was there, really? Not that she was complaining...
Ok, yea maybe she was complaining. At least a little. But by the Spirits, at least she was making something of herself. First daughter, and First born. There was quite a bit riding on her shoulders, and she had already tweaked the acrocanth's tail in taking a position on the Citadel as it was.
If she wasn't on duty, she probably would've sighed.
Aella didn't have long to wait for something else to focus on though, old Drusus had been good on his word. Technically Quarians had no business being on the Presidium at all, but dealing with them was always a bit of a slippery issue. Any physical contact with a Quarian could potentially be called out on as 'undue force', since even the slightest tear in their suit might literally kill them; and yelling at citizens never looked that great on a resume`. For Aella this was going to be quite a test of how well she could keep it behind her teeth; especially since she wasn't known for being subtle.
She made the tactical decision to ignore him completely. With any luck he'd scurry away into some other guard's beat and she wouldn't have to worry about anyone's pockets or chits. Of course, that wasn't meant to be. Her mandibles snapped tightly to either side of her jaw, a clear sign or irritation that was on par with a human grinding their teeth, as the male approached. Aella pointedly refused to make eye contact, instead looking over his shoulder at the scenery. Until he spoke, anyway.
Oh s'kak, it can talk.
Not that she understood a word he said, but her VI chewed it up and spit it back out in Galatic for her and Aella had to fight to keep her composure. He had to be messing with her spurs on purpose, no one was that blind to procedure. Still, what could she do? For all she knew this was some joke Cato had cooked up, or was even some test or another. She resigned herself and tried to dole out the words slowly, despite the fact his VI could probably handle a standard conversational pace.
"Councilor Sparatus handles issues pertaining to the Hierarchy at the Turian Embassy. You would have to schedule an appointment to speak with him, or one of his assistants."
Technically she should've offered to show him on a map where that Embassy would be, but frankly his assumption in being of importance enough to discuss matters to the Councilor, on the recent incident no less, somewhat galled her. Besides, what else was AVINA good for? Considering the topic absolutely closed, she promptly went back to ignoring him. Loudly.
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Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2012 9:54 am
Kar was getting the feeling that this Turian didn't quite like his presence...for some reason. He was just asking for assistance, wasn't that part of their duty? The way she spoke though, treating him as if he was still in a bubble, very odd. He waited until she had finished her reply, and a little more for his VI to translate everything for him, digesting the information for a bit before coming up with his next step. Well, his next stop was probably the Turian Embassy so he could talk to this Sparatus guy himself, maybe this would be a short and uneventful trip through the Presidium. He'd have a lot of fun telling the others on the Kemorya about his little adventure, it was rare for Quarians to get up here.
Pulling up the map on his omnitool, he scrolled through it until he found the embassy, a little embarrassed that he didn't think of it before. No help for it though, it wasn't as if he was a dignitary that was up here all the time, he was a tourist as far as he was concerned. Letting his omnitool fade away again, he addressed the guard once more, no reaction to her attitude towards him in his words.
"I see, I will try the Embassy then. Thank you for your time, miss."
That said and done, he turned in the direction of the embassy and set off, hoping the Councilor was a more agreeable sort than this guard. The distance wasn't that long, and he hadn't already passed it on his trip to the elevator, so it wasn't as if he had just blindly wandered around the Presidium or anything...
Checking his map to make sure he had arrived at the right place, he looked up at the secretary (he assumed at least), before approaching her desk. The Asari behind it looked at him oddly, as if she'd never seen a Quarian before, though that didn't really surprise him. He repeated his question, shorter this time since the secretary seemed very busy already.
"Excuse me miss, do you know how I would be able to get in contact with Councilor Sparatus?"
The secretary's reply was short and to the point, further drilling home the 'busy' part of her job.
"I'm sorry sir, the Turian Embassy is closed for the night. You'll have to come back in the morning to see the Councilor."
Well that was a let down, he didn't even think anyone slept on the Presidium, not with all the people running around it at all hours. He sighed inwardly and thanked the secretary for her time before turning back the way he came, to the only other contact he had made so far. Why wouldn't she had told him the Embassy would be closed, did she dislike Quarians that much or something? He shook his head, not sure if he really wanted to find out.
The return trip to the Council Chamber's elevator was uneventful, he did stop to watch a Keeper for a minute, it didn't do anything interesting in that minute though. Making his way down the last ramp, he approached the Turian guard once more, and as luck would have it, it was the same one. It would be more complicated if he had to explain his situation to a completely different guard...
"Excuse me, miss? You directed me to visit the Turian Embassy to speak with Councilor Sparatus? The secretary there informed me that they were closed for the night..."
He trailed off without really asking a question or for further assistance, hesitant to provoke the Turian to...whatever she might do.
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Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2012 3:06 pm
She let out a slow breath through her nose in relief as he turned and left, watching him for a long moment to make sure he was heading in the right direction. Not that she would've stopped him if he was going the wrong way, or anything. She had to admit there was also the mental nod that his intentions were honest. Which was just as confusing as his suspicious behavior, in truth.
What was a Quarian doing asking for the Turian Councilor anyway? Her eyes narrowed as she tilted her head to track where she'd last seen him, thinking. It wasn't that she didn't remember what he said, she just wasn't sold on his answer.
She bent her knees again to ease the ache, turning over the meeting again in her head; the over-analyzing a product of boredom as much as scrutiny. By the time the suited male made his way back to complain to her, she'd had ample time to let the gears turn beneath her fringe.
Though idiocy of his statement made it difficult to start questioning him, as she'd intended. Instead, she had to fight the urge to narrow her eyes and huff at him.
"I would think so, since the Councilor is only Turian, and would need to sleep at night. However; you might be able to contact the Salarian Councilor at this late hour, he tends to go through his appointments at an appreciable clip and might have a sooner scheduling available."
Aella mentally congratulated herself for being so diplomatic, despite her very base and aggressive urges. She did not handle stupid well. Though while she glared down at him from her slightly higher vantage point, Aella's mandibles suddenly flared before she could stop them. Damn, hopefully he didn't know enough about Turian physiology to understand the tell.
It was the equivalent of a jaw drop, though a very slight one. Things were starting to click into place for her, and though she didn't have any hard evidence, there was just too many inconsistencies and odd questions to be innocent. Cato said the Quarian had been seen around, and now he was wasting time on the Presidium when it was obviously after hours, more than likely gathering intel of one sort or another. Maybe mapping out schedules, debating when it would be best to set up a terrorist attack...
Her only real question now was what to do about it. No proof, just gut instinct. And if she ignored it and later her suspicions were proven correct she'd be pinned with the blame no doubt. If she took it to her superiors right now, they'd just laugh her off. Maybe give her extra paperwork for 'wasting' their time.
No, there was only one answer to this, and it wasn't one she particularly enjoyed the idea of. Breathing in slowly, she closed her eyes for a moment to prepare herself.
"Perhaps if you are set on approaching the Turian Embassy, you'd do well to have a spokesperson; a Turian, in particular. Would you be opposed to discussing why you must see the Councilor? I might be able to help if I can present your case."
Raising a finger in the Turian gesture for silence, she added as an after thought.
"When I'm off duty, of course. I cannot afford a long distraction for obvious reasons."
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Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 3:57 pm
He blinked behind his mask, tilting his head to the side slightly, unsure how to respond to such a statement. Certainly it was his own fault for not realizing that the Citadel did keep some semblance of normal hours, but again, why hadn't she told him the first time? And what was the deal with trying to pawn him off on the Salarian Councilor? He might get an appointment, sure, but then he'd probably have STG operatives tailing him until he returned to the Kemorya. That wouldn't be the best impression to give to his future captain...
"Why would I want to see the Salar-"
He tried to protest her attempt at dismissing him, but went silent as she spoke again. For all he cared, the flaring of her mandibles was just an 'Ah ha!' moment, not that he was well-versed in the nuances of other species either way.
It wasn't as if her next question really made any progress either, but he was running out of options. He had no immediate idea of when the Turian embassy would be open, and he could only delay so long on the Presidium before someone would realize that his pass had expired. And if he was caught, it would make it that much harder to get back on the Presidium for an appointment.
"But what woul-"
Crossing his arms in front of himself as she interrupted him again, he looked down and to the side, weighing the paths. On the other hand, if he took her offer, it might make his mission that much easier. It wouldn't make much sense to refuse, especially from someone who might be useful for a future contact.
Nodding to himself, he looked back up at the Turian for a moment, then pulled up his omnitool and quickly scanned for someplace suitable to meet at. There was...Archos nearby, but he passed over it after reading the description. Asking the Turian to meet him at a 'gentlemen's club' probably wouldn't be a good idea, especially since she was an officer. The only other one that really caught his attention was Flux, which had apparently just opened. It seemed like some mix of bar and casino, but beyond that didn't seem remarkable. Shrugging lightly to himself, he looked up at the guard and made his suggestion.
"I suppose that would make the most sense, no harm in having a Turian's help. In that case, how does Flux sound? It's relatively close to the Presidium, and I can give you my link so we can arrange a time, if you'd prefer. Or...I guess I could also just wait for you there, fewer logistics involved."
Kar lowered his arm, letting the aerogel interface of the omnitool fade away as he looked up at the guard again. If this went along as planned, he might be done and out of this place even sooner than he had initially thought!
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Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 2:46 pm
After his constant attempt at talking it was odd to see him fall silent after her offer. Perhaps he was uncomfortable being seen with a C-Sec officer, or he had something to hide. Her eyes narrowed slightly before she caught herself and forced her body to relax. At least a little. Until his head jerked and he brought up his arm. Aella swallowed the overwhelming desire to pounce on him, assuming he had a weapon of some sort. No, she was getting way too worked up over this. It was almost enticing though, the faint scent of a trail, the thrill of a puzzle for her to solve. This is why she'd wanted to go into CID, despite her parents' wishes.
Not the thought path she wanted to take right now.
Shifting her weight from one foot to the other, Aella watched as he tapped away at his omnitool's aerogel screen, pulling up information apparently. He scrolled a bit before suggesting Flux, an interesting choice to say the least. She hadn't heard much about it, which was sort of suspicious to her. With the old bars C-Sec already knew which ones to keep and eye on and she would've known who to reach out for help; but Flux hadn't worked up a reputation yet... one way or the other. She would need time to scope it out before the meeting, and perhaps call in a favor or two. Again, she fought the urge to huff at him. He certainly wasn't making this easy on her, was he? Still, she didn't know what to think of him agreeing to the meeting. A ruse? Setup?
Trying her damnedest to keep the aggression behind her teeth and keep her voice level, she looked down at him as if to glance at the aerogel screen before speaking.
"I can do that. In two days' time."
She held up a finger in the Turian fashion for 'silence' anticipating his negative reaction.
"That is the best I can do with my schedule. If you're willing to trade comm link codes, I can message you later with an exact time."
It would also give her time to prepare, as well as a valuable piece of info on him she could run through and see what hits she got off of it. Not that his omnitool looked to be of the high-end sort (which would've just convinced her that it was filched), but they could trace calls and such and she'd get a better idea of what she was walking into.
Aella couldn't decide if she should be nervous or excited, but that predatory rush was starting to make her blood sing. This could be the big break she'd been hoping for, and at the very worst she would've taken care of the pyjack problem. Not that Drusus would pat her on the back or anything.
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Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 3:11 pm
Kar could hardly believe his luck, he was going to get help with the Turian Embassy, from another Turian of all people! But...two days? He glared at her through his helmet, though only briefly, in case she could see into the tinted mask better than others. Nearly vocalizing his objection, he caught himself before completing a full word, hoping her VI wouldn't be able to translate it.
Two days. Two whole, ancestors save him days before he could talk to the Turian about what he had spent the better part of four years trying to accomplish. Kar sighed behind his mask, forcing himself to calm down. He was so close, that the two days would have to suffice. At least she wasn't giving him a time months away, right?
"I can manage two days, if I must."
Pulling up his omnitool once more, he quickly sent his link code to hers, starting to feel uneasy taking up her apparently busy schedule.
"I look forward to discussing this, and thank you again for your assistance."
With that he nodded politely towards her and turned to head back to the wards access corridor that he had come in through. Kar walked a little faster than usual, aiming to get off the Presidium before he was caught with an expired pass.
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