Hauntings From The Past, Eden Prime

[Tempest]

Selena watched as the data chip slid across the table and rested her arm to her side as Zylar finished bracing and bandaging it but she looked up as she heard Asyla's question

"What...is a child doing here?"

She felt movement next to her and noticed Jonas almost curl up by her side: possibly in fear of the new person, she thought. She ruffled his hair to comfort him
"This was the 'difficulty' I was talking about earlier..." she answered Asyla "Caleb and myself found him stowing away in the cargo bay just before heading to the warehouse."
"We're trying to make him as comfortable as possible until we finish our mission here..." Zylar added "Then we're going to take him back to the safety of the Citadel." there were heavy footsteps as Gunner entered the room and folded his arms
"We're not babysitters." he grunted, Selena frowned: he'd obviously been listening into the conversation as he continued "But until we're finished here, he can stay with the mutt for company. It seems to be the only person it likes at the moment..." Selena looked down and noticed Gunner was right, the dog had now raised its head and was sniffing around Jonas curiously. Selena shook her head
"At any rate, you'll want to know what info we got from the batarian..." she pressed her radio "Caleb, lock up and come back to the lobby."
"Aye, Captain."

The doors opened and Caleb walked back to the others, sitting himself in one of the chairs in the lobby room, she looked over to him
"You may as well fill Fioro in, you and Gunner got the info first-hand after all..." he nodded and leant forward
"All right then...From what we can piece together we've found that the smugglers had an APC vehicle nearby and were smuggling goods from the warehouse to another base: their base, on the planet, about seven miles away from the colony." Gunner scratched his neck
"That's about all we managed to get from him though." Caleb pointed towards the door
"Hey, he's still in there if you want another go, but I think we're just flogging a dead horse..." he looked at the bemused alien faces and added "...to use a human expression."

(Ah, feels good to write ME again XD)

[Asyla]

Asyla impatiently listened to Richardson's explanation before seemingly relaxing. The fact that the boy had biotic powers, as evidenced by the sudden ruckuss when she posed the question, was worrying, though. Especially because it had seemed like such a strong reaction, given the quite harmless question that caused it.

Then Richardson called back that human from before, and... wait, Caleb? Must be yet another squad member.
But then Caleb returned, revealing himself to be Bryce Logan. And when this Caleb reported about the interrogation, he also used the name Gunner. Was that the krogan?

Giving a weak smile, she shook her head before resuming her attention to the matter at hand.
"But I think we're just flogging a dead horse...to use a human expression."
Asyla frowned, and walked straight past Caleb.
"I will take you up on that offer, Caleb.", she emphasized the name, and shot another worried glance at Jonas before leaving the room.
Pulling the male human after her, she headed towards the storage room, and had him open it again.
Ignoring Caleb for now, she headed straight towards the weakened batarian and pulled out her somewhat damaged shotgun, that had been nearly swallowed by the Ji'kata.

Aiming it at the batarian's thigh, Asyla snarled at him.
"What's the password?"
Panicking, the batarian attempted to pull his leg out of the way, but in vain. The asari sent a shot straight into the pirate's artery, before kicking him in the stomach. As he moaned and gasped for air, Asyla posed the question again, this time with a colder voice.
"Stop, stop, it's...it's...Theseus."
"No, it's not, that's an emergency code."

The batarian coughed up a clot of blood before crying out when Fioro shot the other leg.
"PERSEUS! It's Perseus..."

The asari smiled, before retracting her shotgun. Her instincts told her that he wasn't lying. Not anymore, anyway.

"Many thanks."

Then she grabbed him by the head and twisted it right around, sending a chilling crack through the room. The batarian went limp, and slipped away into death.

Wiping some blood off her knees, she turned to Caleb.
"Sorry for stealing your kill, partner."

Walking past him, she breathed out in exhaustion, allowing her weakness to show for a moment. But when Asyla reached the lobby again, that moment of weakness was over.

"The password's Perseus. We will do the old trick. Gunner and Caleb are probably the best choices as pirates. They will tell our story, just with a different ending. We ambushed them, and killed all of their friends, but Gunner or Roknak managed to subdue us. To interrogate us, you bring us to the APC and tell the driver the password. Judging from the pirates' performance earlier, I'd say they didn't really know each other yet, making the act of introducing you as pirates easy."

Holding her aching shoulder, Asyla looked around the group (while carefully avoiding eye contact with the biotic boy).
"What do you say? A weak plan, but the only one I got."

[Tempest]

Caleb watched as the asari cleanly snapped the neck of the batarian

"Sorry for stealing your kill, partner."

He waited for her to walk back to the others before taking in a breath and exhaling deeply, with the prisoner dead he reflected momentarily on the interrogation but snapped back and rejoined everyone else.

Selena replayed Asyla's emphasis on Caleb and Gunner's names and mentally kicked herself for letting real names slip accidentally, maybe it was everything that was going on that made her lose track...they were taking down pirates, trying to keep a young boy safe, she was attempting to build up trust with the dog and of course, she still had to try and keep Caleb's ex-Cerberus service record silent, which was proving more difficult every time seeing as he'd chosen to take up his nasty demeanour when interrogating the batarian.

Whilst listening to the plan, Selena couldn't help but bite her lip, a telltale sign that she was nervous and spoke out
"It seems like a reasonable plan to me..."
"What if they see through the ruse?" Zylar asked, Gunner grunted
"Their performance earlier was sloppy, unorganised. They should have expected an ambush and prepared for it but they didn't, I'd say Fioro's right on this one: they won't be able to tell the difference with either of us."
"Especially now that the last guy who saw our faces is dead." Caleb added, Selena stood up and nodded
"It's the only plan we've got, we may as well roll with it." she noticed Asyla holding her shoulder and tilted her head towards the turian "Hey, do you want Zy to have a look at that?" she added, concerned, after all they needed everyone to be at their best if they were taking down pirates.

[Asyla]

"It's the only plan we've got, we may as well roll with it."
Nodding, Fioro found herself a seat.
"It is decided then. We still got some time, so we might as well use the time to rest."
Asyla did notice how Richardson, or whatever her name was, reacted to her name emphasizing. So her theory about them using fake names was true after all.
"Some of you should stick with your aliases, I guess. If one of the pirates makes it out alive, or the situation goes all wrong, it's better that they don't know our real names."

Asyla closed her eyes for a moment, thinking.
"Hey, do you want Zy to have a look at that?"

She was surprised to hear that helpful offer, but she shook her head nonetheless.
"Not until we're inside that hide-out. It's better that we have at least injuries for them to buy this story of capture."
Giving Selena a warm smile, she added:
"Thanks for the offer though."
So the turian's name was Zy? Probably a nick name, though.

"Question: Did any of you feel like you were being followed? I got a feeling that...well, it's not a bad one, it...", trailing off, she eventually stopped talking. She made herself look like a fool, not a professional.
"Nevermind. I'm just exhausted."

[Tempest]

Selena nodded along as Asyla spoke, she was a little worried about her rejection of the offer of treatment for her shoulder, but if the plan was to work they'd need to suffer a little more to fool the pirates.

"Question: Did any of you feel like you were being followed? I got a feeling that...well, it's not a bad one, it..."

Zylar perched on the arm of one of the chairs as she trailed off and watched as Gunner tapped Selena on the shoulder and whispered something to her, leaving the others out of earshot temporarily. She shook her head
"No way, if he was to come after us he'd bring others with him..." he looked straight into her face, unflinching in his expression and she nervously added "...right?" Gunner shrugged and replied flatly
"Maybe, I don’t know.” Zylar’s mandibles wavered slightly, he realised what they were talking about
“You mean that Salarian from the Citadel?” nods from both his squadmates confirmed his suspicions and he stroked his chin “Well, we never removed the tracking device from the ship, it is possible he could have followed us." Selena stood up and moved her head to crack her neck
“If he is here it can’t be helped. Besides, he’s the least of our problems down here, we need to focus on what’s going on with these pirates first.” She glanced around her squadmates
“Okay, anyone who wants rest is free to bunk down for a few hours.”
“What about you?” Caleb asked, she shrugged with a smile
“Don’t worry about me, Rook. I have a bit of trouble sleeping so I’ll just run through some things in preparation for the mission, I’ll be ready to wake anyone who over-sleeps.” Zylar stood up and brushed off his knees
“If that’s the case, I think I’ll go and rest for a little while. I’m a tad, fatigued…”
“Shooting a few Mercs drain your energy, turian?” Gunner mocked, Zylar brushed off the snide remark and courteously bowed his head to Selena and Asyla
“Captain. Miss Fioro.” And left down towards the bridge and disappeared down a side passage to his quarters. Gunner followed soon after, Selena chuckling as the large mass of krogan seemed a tight fit in the thin passage, and then Caleb followed suit, leaving Selena, Asyla, Jonas and the dog in the lobby.

The dog eventually yawned and trotted off to its blanketed bed as Selena pulled a pillow and spare blanket from behind the sofa, placing them down by Jonas
“There you go, you try and get some sleep.” Although her thoughts silently pleaded “And please, don’t destroy my ship!” remembering his small biotic movements and large energy spheres from before. Then looked to Asyla “If you’re tired, we’ve got a guest bunk near the bridge…” she motioned down a lit side passage “Second on the left, make yourself at home.” She added before sitting at the rounded table in the corner, producing her Omni-Tool and flicking through files with her other hand: her wrist may have been injured in the battle, but she could still type fast with one hand.