Vega kept his cool as Firas reacted. A slight rise in his eyebrow and hint of surprise on his face as all that he betrayed.<span style="color: DarkOrchid">Wonderful,</span>Ashana thought,<span style="color: DarkOrchid">This is exactly what we need.</span>She kept quiet, only looking briefly at Darion and Firas. Normally she would have been inclined to scold them, but not today. Not in front of this Vega and his staff. Trying to act like some kind of leader wouldn't benefit her here.<br/><br/><span style="color: Blue">That's alright.</span>Vega's nonchalant grin reappeared as Firas apologized.<span style="color: Blue">Its understandable given a man of your background. And yes, you'll have plenty of time to get acquainted with the equipment. We've got until tomorrow night at 6:30 before the party begins.</span>As Firas mentioned attire, Vega's grin broadened.<span style="color: Blue">Its funny you should say.</span>He looked at Firas, Darion.<span style="color: Blue">We've got just that.</span>He winked at Ashana.<br/><br/>Vega led the group out of the workshop then out of the facility, back into the daylight of Bekenstein.<span style="color: Blue">We're going to be heading to one the manufacturing zones now.</span>He waved at a man sitting on some kind of wheeled vehicle that had two rows of seats along it, facing outward. The man, dressed in white and black nodded and sat down at the vehicle's wheel, and pulled up. Vega sat down on one of the seats which could only have fit two. Ashana considered sitting next to the human, briefly, but decided to take a seat on the opposite row, with her back to him. Firas and Darion wouldn't then be forced to sit next to one another.<br/><br/>Once the others were seated the vehicle started moving, the smooth road passing under them at a moderate speed. The vehicle passed by the row of fenced in six wheeled vehicles with the cannons on them. Vega nodded and pointed.<span style="color: Blue">M35 Mako. They were pretty common a few years ago, but the alliance has decided to have them retrofitted. Apparently, being able to climb a 300% grade wasn't good enough, so we're breaking them down to allow more firepower and defense over mobility.</span><br/><br/><span style="color: DarkOrchid">Does your company make all of this?</span>Ashana asked, her voice raised to speak over the whirr of the transports engine.<br/><br/><span style="color: Blue">In the traditional sense, no. While we do design and develop products on our one, most of our contracts are for modifying, co-developing, testing, or manufacturing.</span>Vega answered.<br/><br/><span style="color: DarkOrchid">What do you mean by manufacturing?</span>Ashana continued, trying to use the conversation to hopefully divert the tension from Darion and Firas - and men always loved to talk about their toys. Asking questions made Ashana seem interested in him. In all her professions, that always meant more credits.<span style="color: DarkOrchid">Why don't the weapon designers manufacture it themselves?</span><br/><br/><span style="color: Blue">Well cost, mostly. A lot of design groups don't want to invest in the massive amount of equipment and facilities necessary to produce their designs on a medium to large scale. I've already got the facilities and equipment, so they choose to pay me to manufacture their gear. It saves them money and makes me some. They can then have all the testing and license acquisition and certifications done here.</span>He said, the small measures of pride in his voice confirmed that Ashana's tactic was working.<br/><br/>The transport passed a loading dock into another facility like the one they had just left, though as they passed the large doors, Ashana saw vehicles inside instead - tanks, one man gunships and the like.<span style="color: Blue">How long have you been doing this?</span><br/><br/><span style="color: Blue">About three years.</span>He answered. Ashana's eyes widened. Three years didn't seem like enough time to amass an operation like this.<br/><br/><span style="color: DarkOrchid">Three years? </span>Ashana voiced her surprise.<br/><br/>Vega chuckled.<span style="color: Blue">The industry has been good to me.</span>Ashana detected a slight change in his tone, but she couldn't see his face so she couldn't make a judgement from it. Vega kept his half smile up while he paused.<span style="color: Blue">When we first started, every penny I made from the small contracts I had was spent on expansion. For the first year I could barely afford to keep my employees paid. But, expansion lead to more contracts, which led to more expansion until now, today, you have this.</span><br/><br/>Ashana nodded. She didn't know enough about the weapons industry to know if that was plausible or not, but she didn't know. Perhaps the operation was seeded by an inheritance from a wealthy parent. She didn't know, and shrugged. She didn't care. Vega was clearly wealthy and, compared to the wealthy on Omega, the man was a saint.<br/><br/>The transport pulled up in front of another large compound. Vega hopped off and Ashana followed suit. He opened a side door and led the three into a facility that was decidedly louder than the R&D building. The moment Ashana walked in she knew the building to be the manufacturing unit Vega had claimed it to be. There was very little open space, save for a few aisles that passed between rows of equipment working away at fabricating weapon and armor components.<br/><br/>Vega led them along one of the walls then through another side door. They had to stop at this one while Vega flashed a security badge across its interface and entered a pass code. The door unlocked with a solid clang then opened. Beyond was a stairway down into another of the bunker like subterranean levels. Instead of a workshop, though, were rows and rows or racks with black cases in all manner of sizes on them. Vega led them down the rows, taking several turns until he stopped at one such rack. He pressed a button on the rack's face and a solid table slid out of it from below the cases. Vega grabbed one of the cases and placed it on the table, then spun it to face them and opened it.<br/><br/>Inside was a formal suit, well tailored. Ashana raised her eyebrow and glanced at Vega who nodded.<span style="color: Blue">Go ahead.</span>He said. Ashana reached out and ran her fingers across the black coat. It didn't just look well tailored, it was.<br/><br/>Vega smirked.<span style="color: Blue">This actually is one of our personal designs. You'd be accepted at any formal event for the rich and successful. Its skin was tailored by a company that is paid a great deal more money for their formal wear than is sane, but when your rich, everything has to be expensive, I suppose. But!</span>He said, raising a finger in accentuation. He opened the jacket, exposing its lining. Both of Ashana's eyebrows went up this time.<span style="color: Blue">The suit is actually armor. The body of the suit is comprised of a high density pliable mesh. It won't stop anything but low power pistol rounds, but it will slow them down dramatically to reduce lethality. In our testing, we managed to knock an M-92 Mantis' lethality from 80% down to 42. But, that's not even the suits actual defense.</span>He ran his fingers across a tiny holo-emiter on the jacket's inside pocket and a display popped up. He pressed a button and the display disappeared. Thin lines on the jacket's interior lit up blue for a moment as the suits shield activated.<span style="color: Blue">This is the real fun part. The suits built in emitter probably has more strength than your armor. Its purposely designed to stop a round fired from the M-98 Widow, though it will only be able to stop one of those. It's market purpose is to prevent assassination.</span>He nodded to Firas.<br/><br/><span style="color: DarkOrchid">How is that possible?</span>Ashana asked looking down at the jacket.<br/><br/><span style="color: Blue">With very expensive next generation miniaturized generators. The price will drop as the tech begins entering the mainstream and production becomes more efficient, but this suit, at the moment, costs just over 10 million credits.</span><br/><br/>Ashana's jaw dropped.<span style="color: DarkOrchid">Ten million? For this.</span><br/><br/><span style="color: Blue">Yep. Its mostly for well paid dignitaries, government officials, or just the paranoid rich.</span><br/><br/>Ashana looked at the rack. There were at least a dozen similar cases all lined up.<span style="color: DarkOrchid">How many do you have...?</span>She asked.<br/><br/><span style="color: Blue">Enough for every one on the security detail for the party floors.</span>He nodded at Firas and Darion.<span style="color: Blue">And add two more onto that once we have your measurements. You'll be getting these fresh off the line.</span>He paused.<span style="color: Blue">Not to keep, though.</span>Vega laughed.<span style="color: Blue">It will just be for the event.</span><br/><br/><br/>***<br/><br/><br/><span style="color: Indigo">Smart move.</span>Shira said as Sorv dropped the bag of medical supplies.<span style="color: Indigo">You're on a ship. Its in space.</span>Was her only answer to his questions.<span style="color: Indigo">And it wasn't very polite to begin banging on our newly replaced window, so why should I be polite to you?</span>She said, her synthesized voice angry.<br/><br/><span style="color: Blue">Shira.</span>Cantenelli's voice sounded over the med labs comms.<span style="color: Blue">Please escort Sorv to the bridge.</span><br/><br/>Shira stared at Sorv through her visor then slowly stepped aside, and nodded for him to move out in front of her. She kept the shotgun trained on him, and made sure to keep him a full pace's distance from her.<br/><br/><span style="color: Indigo">Stand in that corner.</span>she ordered as the elevator opened. She stepped into the corner opposite. It was tight quarters leaving only a body width between Sorv and the end of Shira's shotgun. The elevator doors and it began to ascend.<br/><br/>Above, in the CIC, Falkris and Cantenelli waited, watching the elevator.<span style="color: Red">I believe it would be wiser to play nice to this Quarian. If he has his guard up then dealing with him should we decide to dispose of him will be more difficult.</span>Falkris said.<br/><br/>Cantenenelli nodded slowly.<span style="color: Blue">Maybe. We'll see.</span>They waited for the elevator to arrive with Sorv in it.<br/><br/><br/>***<br/><br/><br/><span style="color: Navy">Alright...</span>Taseer said, looking at the mess of components in the panel above her.<span style="color: Navy">I'll assume you've run a few bypasses in your time.</span>She opened her omni-tool and approached Kala. A schematic popped up and Taseer uploaded it to Kala.<span style="color: Navy">This module isn't registering correctly,</span>she pointed to the schematic, then reached up and pointed into the mess above.<span style="color: Navy">and its connection is right there. I want you to disconnect it from the lines to isolate it. Give it a few minutes then reconnect it. Hopefully it will sort itself out when trying to reintegrate. Now, you'll have to do a bypass, not just a disconnection, and its hardlined in so bypassing it with the omni-tool won't get you anywhere. I'll be above hunting down the damage reports. Hopefully they'll be there. It shouldn't be too complex, just take your time. The last thing we need is to accidentally stick the wrong connection into the wrong port and blow out half the electronics on deck.</span>Taseer nodded and gave Kala an encouraging smile then left.<br/><br/>A few moments later her voice popped up on Kala's omni-tool.<span style="color: Navy">I'll see about getting you more access to the ship's actual design schematics. The captains fairly protective of this stuff though. It took a few weeks with my previous team before he let them see anything substantial. Since my team is now down to one, I think we'll be able to coerce him sooner.</span><div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>