Chapter 51
Omega, Sahrabarik system Late June 2166
“Approaching Omega now,” the pilot of Brotherhood of Steel frigate Crest of Honor relayed to the mercenary ship’s captain.
“Good work Lieutenant,” Captain Manitus Adration replied as he stood and looked over the rest of the duty stations. “Our employers have issued us the task of assisting in the retaking of Omega, let us not disappoint them.”
“Aye sir,” the bridge crew replied as they moved about their various duties.
“Sir, I’m not detecting very many enemy power signatures on the station,” the sensors officer relayed. “I’m seeing some AAA guns, but they seem to be firing on predetermined arcs.”
“What have our employers said?” Captain Adration asked.
“That we’re to escort our designated troop carrier to drop off and then break off for a recon patrol,” the comms officer replied.
“Then we do that,” Captain Adration stated. “But keep an eye on the situation in case anything develops. I don’t know about you, but that bonus looks really good.”
“Agreed sir,” the comms officer replied. “I’ll monitor communications in case something goes wrong.”
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“I want those AA guns down,” Nadia Winson ordered as the lower bomb bay of the Sting began to drop off the Krogan in their battle armor onto the station's surface.
“We’re not encountering any resistance,” Captain Bragus reported as he moved into the command and control center for the anti-aircraft gun that they were shutting down. “It seems they installed a VI and left.”
“Have the techs triple-check it,” Winson replied. “The last thing we need is to lose a bunch of troops to a large trap.”
“Copy that,” the massive Krogan replied. “Standing by for the technicians.”
“What have they done to Afterlife?!” Aria roared as she saw what had become of her nightclub.
“Exclamation: Aria, there is a note on the door, and it has your name on it,” Xalinos reported.
“Let me see that,” Aria snatched the note off the door and read it before crumpling it in rage. “Balak, I will have your head. Should we ever meet again then you are a dead Batarian.”
While Aria was ranting about the SIU general, Xalinos discreetly slid the note over to one of the Terminus Commonwealth members that had accompanied them as escorts.
“Let’s see what they’ve done to the inside of it,” Aria said after she had calmed down a bit. “If they destroyed my communications suite then I’m going to be truly pissed.” She flung open the doors with a flick of her biotics and walked into the building that had been rebuilt from a club into a fortress.
“Optimistic statement: At least the place is more defensible now.”
“I know, Xalinos,” Aria sighed as she replied to the Elcor bouncer and now her chief bodyguard. “But we’ll have to do some redecorating after we check on the secure eezo stores.”
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“There is nothing in the systems of the AA guns that would make them explode or turn on us,” the Turian Technician who was looking at the systems left behind by the Batarians said as he closed a program on his Omnitool. “I’ll take a look at the rest of them just in case, but aside from the copious amounts of porn that were on them. I don’t know who this ‘Lawson’ fellow is, but he seems to be featured in just about everything since the humans joined the Citadel.”
“So we’re good to power the AA guns back on and put them to use for Aria?” One of the Batarians that worked directly for the Asari asked.
“You should be,” the Turian shrugged. “I’d have them wiped and reset completely though before I’d try powering them up and using them. You never know if something is hiding in the system, Sometimes things can hide from a cursory inspection like the one I just gave.”
“I’ll relay that to Aria,” the Batarian sighed. “Let me know when all of the AA guns have been inspected. We’ll hire some more people to take an in-depth look later on.”
“I’m just here to get paid,” The Turian shrugged. “I’ll send it up the chain and get someone more qualified to take an in-depth look soon.”
“Thanks,” the Batarian said as he closed his Omnitool’s messaging system. “The boss is upset, but she said that it’s better to just leave them off for now until we can get some people in to triple-check everything.”
“Sounds good,” the Turian said as he packed up his gear and moved to the next AA gun. “Just send me a message if you need me to come back for something.”
“Will do,” the Batarian replied. “Thanks for your help.”
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In a small system on the edge of the Batarian Hegemony at the same time…
“It looks like our gambit worked sir,” the shadowy female voice said from behind General Balak as he sat in his office. “The Hegemony believes that we were wiped out to the last man, and the Terminus Commonwealth is confused as to why Omega had no garrison to speak of.”
“They can be confused,” Balak said as he reviewed the footage that he still had a copy of. “We’ll be returning to the Hegemony in secret in small groups, if we want our plans to succeed then we must do this properly.”
“The Shadows are in position,” the feminine voice stated. “We simply are awaiting the signal.”
“The Shadows are our last resort,” Balak replied. “You know that,” He sighed. “Besides, we have to allow them to reach their lowest point before we move in, otherwise it won’t work.”
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Conversation between Henry Lawson and Prime Minister Jack Harper, Estimated date 2164
“You’re certain that the spy software is undetectable?” Jack asked the Billionaire turned Pornstar.
“Absolutely,” Henry replied. “I based it off of something from the early twenty-first century.”
“What are you talking about?” Jack asked as he raised an eyebrow while puffing on a cigar.
“So, the terms and conditions of downloading Fornax onto an Omnitool, tablet, or any sort of computer says that we have access to the microphone, the video, and many other things that may be utilized with our virtual reality based porn systems. But, unless you’re looking very closely, you’re not going to realize that you’ve given us access to every single piece of data that you access on your omnitool. And when someone logs in, that data is sent to the Fornax servers and hubs here in the Systems Alliance. Which, given we have Intelligence agents on our payroll, they’ll sort through the data with VI assistance and pass it on to the proper agency to deal with said intelligence.”
“You’ve tested this?” Jack asked. “What if people actually read the terms and conditions?”
“Then all they see is the standard access for any other app made in the Systems Alliance by my company. After all, data mining to get more customers is an accepted practice in modern society.”
“Alright,” Jack replied with a sigh. “I’m going to hell for this, but I’ll set up a new branch for monitoring the data we get from Fornax, and we’ll have to start doing some research into advanced VI, that’ll be a lot of data to sort through.”