Several more shots rang out as the Salarian pointed his gun behind him and fired randomly. The ISF officer, now charging after the Salarian with her weapon drawn kept shouting and waving at the civilians nearby to get down or run. They had reached the core plaza of the shopping district. It was a hollow ascent all the way up to the highest levels lined with balconies and glass walled elevators.<br/><br/>Gilax had to slow the Asari down. The elevator would take him to the roof, but there was no way he could survive the ascent if she was on his heels. The officer lifted her gun and fired several rounds dangerously close to Gilax, they were at best warning shots. Even if they weren't, the blood running from her palms down her forearms made any accurate shooting difficult, and so did the shaking from the pain of gripping the pistol.<br/><br/>Gilax quickly diverted right, briefly obscuring himself behind a tall planter. The ISF officer lowered her gun slightly, and as she did, the Salarian appeared again and opened fire at her. He got a pair of shots off before the Asari brought her gun backup and started firing back, though it was hopeless, he was behind cover and she was in the open. She squeezed her the grip of the pistol and ground her teeth against the pain and fired several more shots, no longer playing games. She was aiming to kill Gilax. The rounds tore past his head, and the Salarian felt a sharp sting the top of his head, but he was left standing. He fired several more shots, one of them at last connecting.<br/><br/>The ISF officer screamed and dropped her gun as a bullet smashed into her thigh. The round spun straight through skin, muscle, and bone and emerged on the other side, ricocheting off the floor, leaving a blood skidmark. The officer fell, clutching her thigh, only to feel another sharp stab of pain below her left shoulder as another bullet found its mark.<br/><br/>Gilax grinned maliciously and ran for a nearby elevator as it reached the ground level. Two Asari civilians were chatting happily, blissfully ignorant of the gunfight that had taken place below them.<br/><br/><span style="color: Olive">Out!</span>Gilax shouted at them, brandishing his gun.<span style="color: Olive">Get out!</span><br/><br/>Confused and suddenly terrified,  one of the woman quickly exited and stepped aside. The other was frozen in place, terrified beyond reaction at having a gun shoved in her face for the first time. Gilax didn't wait for her to exit. He got in the elevator and struck the top level key then grabbed the Asari woman by the throat and put the gun against her head. She found her voice suddenly and screamed as the doors closed. Gilax got behind her and pulled her body against his, making sure that any ISF bullets sent his way through the glass front panel would have to go through her first.<br/><br/>The elevator ascended and the Asari woman began sobbing. Gilax shoved the gun against her head even harder, leaving an imprint of the still warm barrel against her skin. His heated and rapid breathe against her neck mad her sob even harder.<br/><br/><span style="color: Olive">Shut up!</span>He shouted at her, though it helped very little.<br/><br/>His head had begun to sting and Gilax felt a cold trickle running down his forehead. He pressed the back of his gun hand against his forehead and withdrew it. Blood. The ISF officer's shot had come dangerously close to killing him. Gilax growled in anger and frustration and dug his finger's into his hostage's throat.<br/><br/>Onlookers were visible at every level. Blue and purple faces gasping and pointing, looks of shock and horror at the woman in the elevator with the gun against her head.<br/><br/>The elevator pinged its arrival and Gilax spun the Asari around to face the door behind them. He took the gun from her head and pointed it forward, hoping to see another ISF officer to shoot. Instead he saw an Asari speaking with a Human woman.<br/><br/><span style="color: Olive">Move! Fucking get out of the way!</span>He shouted and fired a shot upwards. The shot resonated through the little lobby and the many people in chair or enjoying meals at tables all retracted and started getting on the floor.<br/><br/>Gilax moved as quickly as he could, keeping the Asari in front of him. He could feel her cool tears running across his fingers, and the sting of his own blood in his eye was growing. He swept the gun around every corner as he approached the glass doors to the huge landing pad that was the buildings roof. He reached the door and looked out. Nothing.<br/><br/>He grinned and threw the Asari woman to the floor before bursting through the doors in a full sprint. He vehicle was near, and with his free hand he fumbled in his side pocket for the activator. He could hear the distant whining of sirens. They had probably reached the bar by now.<br/><br/>He managed to tug the key out and hit the start button. His car sounded a loud pair of beeps and he redirected himself toward them. He could see it not too far from where he was. He hit another button and the doors lifted open, awaiting his arrival. Gilax smirked as he drew close, he was going to get away.<br/><br/><br/>***<br/><br/><br/>As Kala returned to the ship, she was greeted by the sounds of conversation from the cockpit. Mickey sounded like he was discussing landing arrangements with someone over the communications. Credits were mentioned several times, and a particular note was placed by the pilot on keeping the repairs off the books. Along the gangway and past the command terminals and captain's perch, Falkris' hawk eyes followed Kala. He never spoke a word, but his stare never once faltered. The distrust in them was not hidden, either.<br/><br/>The elevator ride was unusually quiet. Only the faint hum of the elevator's movement was audible. When the door opened, however, the familiar resonance of a ship's engineering deck filled Kala's ears. Before her was the wide slanted panel of damage resistant glass looking over the very large cargo bay of the ship. The deep resonance of the engine grew stronger as she passed through the airlocks to the rear Engineering. Another airlock later and the pulsating of the Mass Effect core was no longer interrupted. It was loud, and rhythmic, like the mechanical heartbeat of the ship.<br/><br/>A panel in front of Kala had a readout of schematics on display along with error reports and damage warnings of a number of modules in the fuel lines and exchanger conduits. Airea was could be seen bent over on the translucent floor plates that led to the large cavity in the back of the ship where it's enormous Mass Effect core sat, humming and vibrating at nearly undetectable frequencies. It was singly the largest core Kala would have ever seen.<br/><br/>Airea herself was on her hands and knees in a rather compromising position beneath the railing running alongside the walkway where 5 large fuel lines were bolted and mounted on either side. The connecting conduits for them were all released and raised, and Airea's omni-tool was running over lists of information while she examined some unseen facet on the back of one of the lines.<br/><br/>As Kala spoke up Airea paused her work and looked back.<span style="color: Navy">Just a second.</span>She said and continued to examine something before reaching up and grabbing it and tugging with a grunt, forcing some movement out of her hips and ass which was set neatly before Kala.<br/><br/><span style="color: Navy">As no one has told you about this ship, I get to fill you in.</span>She said as she slid back under the railing and stood up. She looked Kala up and down for a moment before giving a slight sigh of resignation.<br/><br/><span style="color: Navy">I don't know what shit heap you were flying on before, or what other shit heap you were flying on before that, but the Acheron is the kind of girl that gives as much as she gets.</span>The Asari began, walking back to the console with the schematics. She struck a few keys and with a loud hiss and snap the couplings all latched themselves back onto the fuel lines.<br/><br/><span style="color: Navy">Under normal circumstances someone like you wouldn't be let anywhere near this deck.</span>Airea looked around as she continued to work on her console.<span style="color: Navy">There is an incredible amount of experimental technology right here. Lucky for you, though, we're in a bit of a bad position.</span><br/><br/>Airea shut down the console and turned around, opening the airlock and walking through it before turning left immediately and heading down the small set of stairs that read SUBDECK on the wall beside them.<span style="color: Navy">I had a fairly capable group down here until yesterday. Now it's just me.</span><br/><br/>Airea passed through the right lighting at the base of the stairs into the subdeck, where the rhythm of the core was subdues by the occasional hissing and beeping of a dozen other systems. She activated a console on the wall then waved Kala back. Once she was clear of the translucent floor panels, the Asari hit a key and with a loud hiss, the two that Kala was previously standing on parted then lifted open. As they opened, a module of equipment raised from below. Airea began opening several containment latches before pulling a panel from the cylinder at the heart of the device.<br/><br/>Once the panel was free, Kala could see what was inside. It was an exchanger, albeit a very large one. It took portions of energy being emitted by the core and recycled it into other usable sources, and then redistributed it. This one, however, was of a foreign design.<br/><br/><span style="color: Navy">The damage reports from earlier were mostly for show. Honestly, what caused most of the damage wasn't the acceleration or weapons discharge, it was the incompatibility issue that you will find to be very common on this ship. The design looks Turian but it's actually not. The Framework is Human.</span>Airea ran her omni tool over an interface on the exchanger and it linked with the device, giving a readout of technical information on it.<br/><br/><span style="color: Navy">Shes got Turian parts in her, Human parts, Asari parts... hell, some of the weapon's manifolds were designed by the Salarian STG.</span>Airea input some data on her Omni-tool then locked the panel back onto the exchanger and lowered it back down.<br/><br/><span style="color: Navy">Most all of the technology is highly experimental. The Captain and Falkris don't talk about why this is, but I can tell you that each of these things was designed to do a single job extremely well.</span>She looked at Kala for a moment before walking over to a compartment protruding upward from the floor and sitting down.<br/><br/><span style="color: Navy">The issue, as any mechanic would know, is that Asari parts don't like working with Turian parts, which don't like Human and so on. Well, we usually have a whole array of system in place to make sure everyone cooperates. The last time this ship was flown, these systems were off. Half of our work now revolves around repairing the damage that was done by this mistake.</span><br/><br/>Airea got up and walked back up the stairs. She went back into the room adjacent to the core and continued down the walkway into the core. An unknown fog rolled off the giant shimmering silver orb and congregated lightly at the base of the cavity.<br/><br/><span style="color: Navy">The Acheron's core is much larger than most ships in her class. We can reach speeds well above our class very quickly. Once we hammer on the throttle, almost nothing can catch us.</span>Airea smirked.<br/><br/><span style="color: Navy">Come on, I'll show you our weapon arrays.</span><br/><br/>Airea walked around to the elevator, but instead of taking it she opened one of the two stairways that straddled the elevator and jogged up. The top opened into the Crew Quarters. The Medical and Engineering bays were to the right and left. The Salarian doctor was visible in the medical lab through the panes of glass. He looked quite busy poking through containers of medical supplies above the exam tables.<br/><br/>Airea led Kala straight ahead, past a large dining table and up a very short set of steps to a walkway. Along the wide oval corridor that surrounded the walkway were a series of sleeper pods. In military vessels they were present to give crew shifts a rapid sleep cycle to prep them for their next shift.<br/><br/>Airea opened the airlock to the gunnery station and Kala was once again greeted by the low humming of a Mass Effect core. Oddly enough, sitting right in front of her was another core, though this one was far smaller and had a series of thick cables running from it downward.<br/><br/><span style="color: Navy">That's right. We have two Mass Effect cores. As far as I know, we are the only ship ever built that has two.</span>Airea walked to the console along the railing ahead of them and began opening up information.<br/><br/><span style="color: Navy">This is a dedicated core for our weapons. As you can imagine, having their own core means that we can output more power into our guns than any other ship in our class. In fact, our hitting strength at full burn is equivalent to most cruisers. Most ships have to shoot through Kinetic Barriers to get to the hull. When the Acheron pulls out her tits, there's not a frigate I know that has Kinetic Barriers that can stop her. Hell, at high enough current we can cut enemy frigates in half entirely with one shot.</span><br/><br/>Airea walked from the right and pulled a panel from the floor. She grunted in frustrated acknowledgment of her fears.<br/><br/><span style="color: Navy">Take a look.</span>She said and sat back.<br/><br/>Inside was the compartment for what Kala may recognize as the weapon current conduits. The conduit, nested between two large cables, one running under the floor to the core, and the other running presumably to the guns. The conduit's labeling was black, and appeared to have burnt off. The interface nodule was completely fried, and the conduit itself was warped, all signs of an overload.<br/><br/><span style="color: Navy">The catch with all that juice is that frigate class equipment can't handle the load.</span>She nodded toward the conduit.<span style="color: Navy">That's what happens when we fire at full current. We have two backups for when things go to hell, just in case.</span><br/><br/>Airea got down on her hands and knees again and grabbed the two grips at either end of the conduit and pulled. The conduit didn't move. Airea grunted and heaved one more time, with a satisfying, and slightly worrying crack, the conduit came loose and Airea yanked the heavy device up on the deck.<br/><br/><span style="color: Navy">If they fired again on this conduit, this thing would have been melted to the cables and we would have had to replace the entire line. This time, fortunately, the fusing was minimal and we should be alright.</span>She reached into the breach and ran her hand over each side of the now exposed cable.<br/><br/><span style="color: Cyan">Alright, everyone buckle up we're on our way to a new dock.</span>Mickey's voice sounded over the ship's comms. The gradual shift in gravity was hardly noticeable as the Acheron pulled away from the docking sleeve and began to slowly move across the skyline toward it's new destination.<br/><br/><span style="color: Navy">Once we get settled in and the requisitions are met we can get to work. Until that happens, though, it's just you and me. </span>Airea got up and leaned against the railing in front of the core, crossing her arms under herbreast suppressing uniform.<br/><br/>***<br/><br/><br/><span style="color: DarkOrchid">Sinister?</span>Shira was slightly perplexed by the other Quarians question. It took a moment for Shira to assert why somone would ask her a question of such a nature.<br/><br/><span style="color: DarkOrchid">Ah, you have either not been in the Terminus long... or you have been here too long.</span>She appraised the Quarians's armored suit.<span style="color: DarkOrchid">And I would guess too long.</span><br/><br/><span style="color: DarkOrchid">I take it you've been to Omega, then. Such a place can quickly turn a hopeful pilgrimage into a desperate fight for survival. Do not worry,</span>Shira said with a smirk,<span style="color: DarkOrchid">On Illium, they are much more polite when trying to steal from you.</span><br/><br/><span style="color: DarkOrchid">I am Shira'Va Vas Acheron, formerly Vas Meedra.</span>Shira introduced herself.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>