Ghosts that Linger - NOVERIA, Open

[mindightfox91]

A soft pinging noise could be heard in the elevator. Opal lifted up her tentical. It was William Chernow.

"Opal has my shipment arrived?" He said as an image of him appeared on her omni-tool.

"Yes Mr.Chernow, this one please to say it has. Do you want this one to make the arrangements to have your shipment taken to you?"

Chernow nodded,"Yes, Opal that would be preferable. I also want to see you personally at my labs."

One of opal's tenticals twitched at him saying he wanted to speak with her in person.

"This one is not fond of the cold Mr.Chernow. This one would prefer it iff we met at the main port." she said

Will shook his head,"Do you want me to stop being one of your clients and shop else where?"

Opal did reply at this suggestion as he was her highest paying client.

"I thought not, If you want me to continue purchasing. You'll meet me at Peak thirteen. Arrange for transport to have someone take you here to see me. I expect to see you here tomarrow mid afternoon. If you do not come. Our dealings will cease. I look forward to seeing you."

William smiled with a smug grin on his face. Then the transmission ended. Opal lowered her tentical slowly and felt upset. He luminescence changed from her normal blueish-purple to a pink and purple. She didn't like the situation he put her in.

Opal was aware that her transmission was loud and that the too humans in the elevator could clearly here. She was also embarrassed by her client's words.

Now she needed someone to drive a tansport for her to the base and she needed to get william's cargo on the transport as well.

[Enterprise1701]

"Of course you'd always tell me the truth." Hunter affirmed with a reassuring smile.

"Well, maybe version of the truth, with some important parts left out, an overemphasis on the more mundane bits, mixed with a lil' misdirection that makes people think what they've heard isn't really what they have heard."

Clearing his throat, he casually shoved his hands into the front pockets on his flightsuit.

"or to put it another way not tell the truth and... lie..." he trailed off, almost failing to complete his sentence, as a particularly loud omnitool conversation could be overheard. Didn't the Hanar have their own version of an earbud? He coughed uncomfortably, but did his best to remain casual at the mention of red sand. Best to avoid any kind of association with that particular jellyfish.

"So," he turned to Washburn again, "Nice weather we've been having eh?"

[Doc Shaftoe]

Halleck chuckled at Hunter's thinly veiled attempts to play along, though his eyes lost their humor when he overheard he hanar's conversation. Despite the suprising rudeness in an overly loud conversation like this, he couldn't help but identify an avenue of approach. This jellyfish was in contact with Chernow, and Chernow was still on the planet. That was fantastic. Smug bastard. Six months of chasing leads was finally starting to pay off. Plans began to crystalize in his head.

"ATIR," he subvocalized, "get me the plans for the peak 13 facility. I don't care what you have to do to get them."

"Understood."

There was no point in hiding it anymore. This hanar was going to lead him directly to Chernow. And Chernow would lead him to Cerberus. From then on out it was simply a matter of climbing the ladder to reach the man in charge. Systematically dismantling whatever Cell he found in the process. That should be enough to draw the Illusive Man's attention.

He turned to Hunter and forced the spare pistol into his hand while the hanar was still preoccupied with its call before turning to the jellyfish and clearing his throat.

"Excuse me, but I couldn't help overhearing that you needed transport. We could take you out there. For a small fee of course. See, my associate and I are pilots, and we could take you out on a shuttle, seeing as how the weather's reasonable right now."

All that was left would be to acquire a shuttle. Or use Hunter's ship. Either option was acceptable to Halleck at this point. Hunter probably wouldn't like it but too bad. He could always buy another one.

[mindightfox91]

Opal was still thinking how best to travel when that solution fixed it's self.

When the human infront of her responded to her,"This one would be most pleased if the pilots would take this one to Peak 13 with it's cargo. This one would gladly pay the pilots to take this one there. Mr.Chernow is not expecting this one until tomarrow. So this one will see the administrator about renting a transport cargo shuttle. I will have it ready for tomarrow.
This one suggests to stay in the hotel until then."

She said to the man then extended her Tentical ,"This one is pleased to meet you both. People here on Noveria call this one Opal."

[Doc Shaftoe]

Outstanding. Things were moving along nicely. This hanar would take care of most of their problems. Additionally, if he could get a room in the hotel for himself and Hunter, he could brief the man. Maybe make it easier for him to play along or have an exit strategy if things went south. Despite not really caring about what Hunter felt about the situation, he did owe the man an explanation. As well as the 25,000 credits he'd promised him. Not an alltogether outlandish sum considering Halleck's chosen line of work. In addition to having the savings from Jim Lilly's years of government police work, he'd become an up and coming name in the circle of high-paid mercenaries. The kind of men you went to if you needed something handled discreetly. Not that he had any qualms with doing things publicly.

When the hanar extended a tentacle, he took an involuntary step back and his muscles coiled, ready to strike. He wasn't the mindless bigot he'd been while he served Cerberus, but that didn't mean he had to like Aliens.

"Forgive me if I don't shake. Call me Wash, and this is my boss."

He said, nodding to Hunter. Before the hanar could reply, ATIR whispered in his ear.

"I've acquired partial blueprints of the Peak 13 facility, and with your permission I'll reserve a suite for yourself and Mr. Hunter."

"Do it. Something with a view."

"Of the ice..."

"I like windows."

"...Alright...Done. Your ice watching room is reserved and paid for, courtesy of Cord-Hislop Aerospace."

[mindightfox91]

Opal retracted her tentical at the man taking a step back ,"Very well this one will meet you early tomarrow mid morning in the garage with the transport. This one bids you both good night ."

The elevator stopped opened up and Opal floated towards the administrators office.

[Enterprise1701]

As a pistol was shoved in his hand, Hunter looked at it like it was made of napalm, uranium, and orphan tears. Whipping his head to to Washburn, Charles gaped, flabbergasted at being handed a weapon in the middle of a place like Port Hanshan. Remembering the Hanar on its omnitool, Hunter quickly and discreetly slipped it in an inside chest pocket and pulled the front zipper on his flightsuit all the way up to his neck.

Before Charlie's nerves could settle, Hoban started talking business with the hanar - specifically about transporting her and her load of red sand to Peak 13. Not willing to condradict his partner for fear of breaking cover, Hunter simply nodded affirmativley, made "mmhmms" and "yeps", and generally did his best to look like he was onboard with Washburn. Despite this effort, Charles still looked and felt like he was about to demand to know what the hell Washburn was thinking. Lucky for him, he didn't need to be a practiced actor to fool a Hanar. Well, as far as he knew. They don't have faces, right?

"Forgive me if I don't shake. Call me Wash, and this is my boss."

"Chuck." Charles replied in an even tone, "You can count on us to be discreet."

"Very well this one will meet you early tomarrow mid morning in the garage with the transport. This one bids you both good night ."

As Opal floated out of the elevator, Charles smiled inauthentically, and waved goodbye weakly,"Yeah, same to you, fella."

His expression soured the moment the lift doors automatically closed.

"So," Hunter inquired pointedly, "We're red sand smugglers now? Got any other bright ideas?"

"Oh, wait!" He exclaimed, with his finger in the air as if he'd thought of something brilliant. "I've got a gold one. Let's walk around with guns in our pockets. That one'll go over real well."

[Doc Shaftoe]

"Funny you should mention that Chuck, seeing as how you brought the Cargo here in the first place."

Halleck turned to face his partner, dispensing with the disguises. His face lost the warmth and his eyes turned predatory. There was no humor behind the green pupils. Just cold precision. He took a step closer to Hunter and glared at the other man. There was nothing but cruel efficiency in his voice.

"Listen to me very carefully and you might live long enough to get paid. William Chernow works for Cerberus and I'm going to find out what he knows. That hanar is going to get us close to him."

He brought up a picture and dossier file of William Chernow on his Omni-Tool and inverted the image so Hunter could see it.

"Once we get to Peak 13, I'm going to ask Chernow some questions in his office and you are going to make sure that no one bothers me. Do you understand or do I need to write it down."

[Enterprise1701]

"Funny you should mention that Chuck, seeing as how you brought the Cargo here in the first place."

With a gulp, Hunter backed up against the lift wall, almost jumping out of his skin when the handrail bumped him in the lower back.

"...me? I think you got the wrong guy, Washburn. I don't smuggle red sand."

Charles had intended for that last part to sound firm and absolute, but he came across shakey and uncertain.

"Listen to me very carefully and you might live long enough to get paid. William Chernow works for Cerberus and I'm going to find out what he knows. That hanar is going to get us close to him."

"I thought I was bringin' some chump necktie mercenary in to do some corporate espionage. You know, steal the latest ziploc baggie-"

Not bothering to dignify Hunter's cowardly dithering with a response, Washburn brought a man's picture up on his omnitool, flipping the image upside-down. This 'William Chernow' looked charismatic, but not enough to be a politician, and seedy, but not enough to be a criminal. A bit of an older, thinner dude, he had all the trappings and affectations of a man desperately trying to hold onto his youth. He looked well-groomed and well-dressed, but appropriately deprived of sleep as one would expect from a red sand tweaker.

This guy was with Cerberus? That human-supremacist terrorist group. This was becoming too tall an order.

"Once we get to Peak 13, I'm going to ask Chernow some questions in his office and you are going to make sure that no one bothers me. Do you understand or do I need to write it down."

"I've got a better idea," Charles retorted as he made the mistake of putting his hand on the elevator controls, "I'm out. I got you this far, but this is it. I'm not some desperate Omega merc-"

[Doc Shaftoe]

As soon as he saw Hunter's hand reach for the door controls, Halleck snapped into action. He grabbed the other man by the neck and slammed him against the wall by applying pressure to the trachea. It would hurt. A lot. As the pilot recovered Halleck lifted him up with his left hand and drew his Whedon revolver with his right, placing the twin barrels characteristic of all modern firearms directly under Hunter's chin.

"The only reason why you're not dead is because you're more useful to me alive. But if you try to cross me again I will kill you. Do you understand me?"

[Enterprise1701]

With not even a chance to finish his sentence, Hunter found himself slammed against the the wall. His limbs and side registered some pain, but it was drowned out by the death grip on his trachea. The pilot hadn't even finished flopping to the ground like a ragdoll when Washburn lifted him by the shirt and shoved a Whedon revolver in his throat.

"The only reason why you're not dead is because you're more useful to me alive. But if you try to cross me again I will kill you. Do you understand me?"

Charles foundered slightly as the world started spinning back into focus, as if the phyiscal surroundings had moments earlier rotated out of sync with the gravity. He found himself looking down the wrong end of a set of iron sights right at Washburn's expressionless mask. With a forceful exhale, he closed his eyes and steeled himself to reply in an at least halfway dignified fashion.

With a controlled breath, he pulled his bacon an inch or so out of the fire;

"Clear as crystal."

Breathlessly, he watched Washburn's eyes, waiting for any indication that he was going to shoot him. Having his brains blown out in an elevator wasn't the way Hunter wanted to go.

[Doc Shaftoe]

He pulled Hunter's face close to his and glared through him. This man was just a coward, working for credits until the danger got real. Pathetic. He dropped Hunter and took a few steps back, all the while keeping his pistol trained on his "fellow" human.

"ATIR, lock the doors. We need some privacy."

"Understood. Locking doors."

The VI didn't even bother to hide, projecting its voice through the external speakers built into the Omni-Tool. Its announcement was followed by a clicking sound made by the elevator's sliding doors.

"I like you Chuck, otherwise I would have killed you and dumped your body on the flight over. Your ship's security was easy enough to hack, and I could have changed the crew roster at any time. I just wasn't feeling very bloodthirsty. So I'm going to tell you a little story. I want you to listen, because it's very important that you understand what I'm about to tell you."

He placed the revolver back in his back as a sign of trust. Although it was clear that he could probably still kill, or cripple, Hunter while unarmed.

"My name is David Halleck. I was born Sixty-Eight years ago on Earth. I fought the turians at Shanxi for the Alliance, and served them for six years. After that I killed for Cerberus for another twenty. I did the jobs that no one else in Cerberus was willing to do. I crossed the lines that most wouldn't. I cleaned up after them and I made sure that events happened the way they wanted them to. I was very, very good at my job Chuck. But I started to see the futility of Cerberus. So I left. I changed my name and identity and became a cop on a mining colony. I killed and shot more people than I arrested in the fourteen years I worked as a colonial Marshal. And then I went to Omega and changed everything again. For the last fourteen years I've kept tabs on Cerberus Chuck. It should have died when everything was exposed, but someone is keeping it alive. I'm going to find out who. And I won't let you or anyone else get in my way."

He swiped his Omni-Tool over the control mechanism and the doors unlocked.

"You can either help me or not. But you don't want me as an enemy Chuck. Now are you in or out?"

Not that it was much of a question.

[Enterprise1701]

Washburn pulled Hunter's face up to his own. He didn't have much choice except to look the older man in the eyes as he dismantled him under his gaze. Just when it seemed like he was subject to further physical assault, Hunter was unceremoniously dropped. He nearly fell on the floor, but was able to catch himself by taking hold of the handrail.

With a not insignificant amount of pain shooting through his limbs, Charles staggered back to his feet, putting his palm on the elevator wall for a few seconds of support. He heard Washburn address some kind of VI, or maybe an associate via intercom. The doors locked with a mechanical 'chink'.

Still in a state of shack, Hunter almost totally missed what Washburn had to say next. At least he bothered to establish a pretext of not wanting to kill him. Still, it didn't come close to comforting him, or even allaying his frayed nerves. His eyes hawkishly followed the whedon revolver as Washburn placed it back into hiding.

As Washburn - or Halleck, rather, unloaded his life story, it all fell into place. This man had been all over history, on the wrong side of things for decades. Halleck had been close to unreadable since Hunter had met him, but his single-minded, focused description of his time with Cerberus - and his pursuit of it, was telling. This was the driving force for everything this man has done in the past few years. And he was willing to steamroll anyone who got in the way.

"Look, I get it. Nobody likes Cerberus. I don't think this is my fight. I don't want to do this, but I'm in anyways. That wasn't a question and you damn well know it."

He half-expected to recieve a lashing for the candor of his last statement, but he didn't have much to lose at this point. Either Halleck would shoot him or he wouldn't.

[Doc Shaftoe]

"Good."

With that one word, the facade of warmth was back in place. The doors to the lift opened and he led Hunter out onto the plaza. The spartan design of Port Hanshan coupled with the faint gurgling of the streams that lined the place made the entire compound feel larger than it really was. Massive windows dominated one of the walls and served to help illuminate the drab decor. Lighting along the paths cut into the concrete did little to distill the feeling of entering a prison.

Halleck led his unwilling accomplice into the lobby of the only hotel in Port Hanshan. Normally you could only stay if you were a corporate account holder. Thanks to ATIR's intervention, they now had an account with Cord-Hislop Aerospace and a nice room on one of the upper floors. Something with a decent view. Why did Halleck want a view? Why not? It wasn't like anyone was hunting them. Yet.

The lobby of the hotel shared the austere decor of the mezzanine but with warmer lighting and the occasional expensive painting or sculpture. Halleck quickly checked in and drove the duo to the elevators. Once they were safely inside their room he dropped the guise. Not entirely becomming the cold, remorseless individual who had threatened to kill Hunter in the elevator, but not exactly becomming a friendly person either.

"I've swept the room for bugs and disabled the ones I've found. The problem should come up as interference from poorly calibrated devices. As long as you don't leave the room, they won't be able to fix them. You should have complete secrecy for the time being. Also, I've sent a message to the hanar, Opal, informing her of where to meet in the morning. The executive lounge downstairs, 0915."

"Good work ATIR."

Halleck sat on one of the beds and dropped his pack. The sling bag was heavy with stolen equipment. From the motion sensors he'd stolen to pulse grenades and a few high explosive grenades pilfered from the Blue Suns. There was an MRE, a pair of gloves, and a hardcopy picture of three young men standing around a table with beers in hand celebrating something. An older man and a woman flanked the trio. The entire troupe was smiling. He sighed before speaking.

"Rest up. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day."

[mindightfox91]

Opal floated back home to her apartment she rented after she was done talking to the administrator making arrangements for the cargo to be transported to peak 13. Once she was inside and closed the door and turned off the lights going to sleep.

Early the next morning she had the cargo delivered to the garage and packed on the flat bed of the transport that she had been given to use for shipment. The Transport was a large snow tank designed to carry things to the hot-lab bases. She tapped her omni-tool and sent messages to the two pilots that she had hired and would be waiting for them below the hotel in he bar area.

After she was done she went to wait in the bar ordering a Hanar liquor. she dipped one of her tenticals into the glass and sipped like a straw. She watched as the snow fell against the glass making it a beautiful view of the mountains.

[Doc Shaftoe]

Sunlight cut through the stone colored room with blinding intensity. Halleck hadn't slept much the previous night. He was haunted by names and faces. People he'd known, people he'd saved, and people he'd killed. Humans and aliens alike. People he knew that he would never see again. And even if he did, they wouldn't recognize him. How could they? He had changed too much.

The older man glanced at his sleeping partner. In truth, he was sorry to have involved Chuck Hunter in this. The other man had been right when he'd said that this was not his fight. It was a cruel thing to force one's motives and conviction on another. He wasn't entirely sure what he would use Hunter for at Peak 13. The man obviously knew how to use a gun. No one who ran supplies to Omega didn't. The question was could he be trusted? Trusted not to turn David over to the Alliance or even over to Cerberus. Hunter was the only person in the galaxy that knew who Halleck had been and what he had done. He was a liability. One of Halleck's own design.

David looked down at the photograph of Franklin's family. They were... strangers. His brothers had both been killed. Gerald had been killed on Eden Prime during the geth attack. Thomas had been killed after Shepard had been resurrected. How did he know? It had been easy enough to put the pieces together. The lack of a corpse for the funeral, the billions in funding diverted to life-saving technologies. Extraordinary amounts of money funneled into building a new stealth frigate. A replacement for Shepard's Normandy. That had all been nearly twenty years ago. He'd been tasked with cleaning up some of the loose ends in the Lazarus Cell. And he'd had to assassinate individuals within the Systems Alliance to keep the pressure off of Cerberus. A year spent operating covertly...

His parents had died shortly after Shanxi. The family photograph was the only reminder he allowed himself. He had no other family. No children or cousins. At least none that he knew of anyway. None who would help him. Travis Franklin was long-dead. A victim of Omega. Halleck was all that was left. And Halleck was just as alien as the creatures that Franklin had killed for Cerberus.

He carefully placed the photograph back in his bag and threw the strap over his shoulder. The triangle-shaped bag was meant to be attached to combat armor while still allowing the use of a collapsed weapon on the back. He'd modified it into a kind of sling-pack. He'd opted for this design because he could slide the bag around his body to access the equipment inside rather than needing to take the entire bag off.

His Omni-Tool chimed as Opal's message reached him. Halleck didn't respond. There was no need. The two men would be down shortly. He kicked the foot of Hunter's bed.

"Get up."

[Enterprise1701]

Hunter quietly followed the older man out of the lift, despite his heart feeling like it was about to blast through his ribcage. To his surprise, Halleck didn't order him, in some underhanded way to walk in front of him. Apparently Halleck didn't mind having an armed man he'd just beat up and threatened walking behind him. Being surrounded by ERCS security probably helped provide him with insurance - he wouldn't need to carry through on any threats to Hunter to ensure cooperation.

Charles quickly shook his head, denying the stray momentary consideration of shooting Halleck in the back, or clambering away from Halleck and getting the hell out of dodge. Thankfully, despite a load of adrenaline still swimming around in his head, he was able to ignore his fight or flight instincts.

Despite being a rather inconspicuous fellow, Hunter did attract a small bit of attention - he still nursed his sore limbs nervously, and close up, there were some red marks on his neck from a bit of rough treatment in the lift. With his inconspicuousness somewhat compromised, he attracted the attention of a nearby ERCS security officer, who seemed to have been simply lounging around up until this moment.

The ERCS 'cop' seemed to be curious as to what exactly the damage was. Without pause, he uncorked the bottled response he'd come up with back in the lift.

"It's a hickie-"

The turian arched an inquisitive browplate at him,

"Love bite?"

The guard looked into the distance, as if he were formulating some new plan for the evening, "Human chicks really do that?"

Satisfied at the result of his fib, Hunter smiled. Not knowing what else to say, he respectfully nodded at the guard, and caught back up with Halleck.

The lift ride to the hotel was silent. The walk to the front desk was silent. The next lift ride was silent. There really was nothing to say, of course, from a logical point of view, but his irrational human brain was getting freaked the hell out by the whole situation.

Wordlessly, he followed Halleck down the hall and into the room. As his elder inspected the room and received a report on all the actions it had just performed autonomously for its master, Hunter selected the bed furthest from the window. If some nutter from Cerberus decided to shoot Halleck in his sleep, it would probably be better not to be in between Halleck and the window.

Charles pulled off his boots and unzipped his flightsuit, shimmying out of it, and dropping it unceremoniously in a pile at the foot of his bed. Now clad in nought but his skivvies, he slipped his legs under the covers, pausing to stare out ahead.

"Rest up. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day."

There didn't need to be any prompts. He already had reason enough reason to sleep. The sooner this was done with, the better.

[mindightfox91]

Getting a little impatient of waiting for her pilots Opal pulled her tentical out her drink. With the glass held in her grip she deposited it on the stone bar counter.

She tapped her Omni-tool to check on her shipment being loaded on to the flat bed transport snow-moblie freighter. Opal's color changed as she was happy to see her cargo was loaded safely. Now she had to deal with her pilots that she had hired.

Opal headed down the lounge area and up the ramp to the upper level to the hotel. With a swish of the glass doors she went into the lobby heading for the clerk who wasn't there at the moment.

Opal tapped the lobby desk chimer and a few moments later a Salarian Clerk came out from a door behind the lobby desk smiling.

"Greeting, Welcome to the hotel. How may I be of service to you?" He said pleasantly

Opal lifted her tentical tapping the names of the two she was looking for ,"This one would like to notify the pilots that this one is waiting for them here in the lobby."

The Salarian nodded ,"Right away I'll tell them." then he slipped out from behind the counter and went to the turbo lift.Opal hover away from the counter and floated next a potted plant.

The Salarian reached the floor the two pilots were at and went down the hall and stopped for a few moments to look out at the clear morning skies that were very rare on Noveria. He smiled then continued down the hall stopping at the correct door tapping the room bell door.

[Doc Shaftoe]

Halleck and Hunter passed the salarian greeter as he rushed to the lift. There wasn't any point in stopping him. It was odd that he'd go to deliver the hanar's message in person. Most hotels notified their guests via comm messages. He made a mental note of the oddity and continued with singular focus, pressing past a group of turian businessmen to meet with the hanar. The jellyfish pulsed and floated, its tones shifting ever so slightly. The thing was probably annoyed. Too bad. The jelly's feelings weren't a factor.

"Morning Opal. You get the shuttle?"

He was all business. Nothing betrayed his true purpose or the "tense" conversation he'd had with Hunter. In fact, a faint smile was dancing across his face. He was still no closer to accomplishing his goals than he had been six years ago, but the potential was there. And sometimes potential was all that mattered.

[mindightfox91]

Opal looked at the aging human ,"This one has indeed acquired transport, but it is not a shuttle. There is a storm coming and the Current administrator will not aurthorize the use of a shuttle for it would be dangerous to fly it in the coming storm. This one has already had the cargo loaded on to the transport this one has rented for use on a flat bed transport snow-moblie freighter.

This one has to leave very soon as this one's employer will not hire it if this one is late."

Opal said to him and started floating down the ramp for the garage.

"This one will wait for you in the Garage." she said then she departed.

This post has been edited by mindightfox91 on 23 July 2011, 05:17 pm