Desmond paused and looked back at Milenya.<span style="color: red">Yeah, whatever.</span>he agreed, tapping the barrel of his Mattock on his leg. He looked at one of the guards, a Batarian with an M-451 Firestorm in his hands, an M-8 Avenger on his back next to a M-100 Grenade Launcher. He was wearing very heavy armor with a half gorget on his left collar and cruel spikes protruding from his shoulders.<span style="color: red">See to it our <i>guest</i> doesn't get lost.</span>The Batarian stopped, looked at her, muttered something and nodded. Desmond looked at Firas.<span style="color: red">You on the other hand, come with us, and keep your mouth shut. We'll see just how much those two are actually worth.</span><br/><br/>Desmond went with the others out the checkpoint, Firas in tow. The Batarian with the heavy weapons remained. Although he didn't aim the Firestorm at Milenya, his posture remained alert.<br/><br/><span style="color: green">That way.</span>He gestured toward the nearest door into the barracks, indicating that she was to go first.<br/><br/>The Barracks' walls were lined with sleeping bunks, numbering near 25. There were an abundance of lockers, though any that were open and displaying their contents held only personal effects. Any weapons that may have been there had been taken, though one locker appeared to have a picture of an Asari being mounted by a Varren, while she looked back at the camera, smiling and giving the cameraman a common Asari hand gesture for "good time." Other pictures in the locker suggested that either the locker's owner knew this asari, or the asari was the locker's owner. A game of Skillian 5 was spread on one of the two small round tables in the center of the room. There was a large screen on the back wall that was playing Fleet and Flotilla XXX from ExtranetPlayground. The Turian lead had the Quarian starlet bent over a table, her suit split at the groin while he penetrated her. The sound was muted.<br/><br/>The Batarian pointed Milenya to a door at the far south east corner, which he opened. Inside was a single toilet stall and wash basin which were surprisingly well maintained and clean. The Batarian put a hold on the door, not allowing it to close.<br/><br/><span style="color: green">There ye' go princess.</span>He said, standing outside and watching, keeping the Firestorm firmly in hand.<br/><br/><br/>***<br/><br/><br/>The Batarian die-hard was on top of Ashana before she could react, blood gushing from his face onto her as he grabbed her throat, squeezing. He wasn't trying to apprehend anymore, he was trying to kill. Ashana, kicked and flailed as his fingers locked around her. Her face began turning an off tone dark purple-blue and her veins began to protrude, the Batarian snarling on top of her. The Asari brought her arms up clawing at his face, trying to get him to let her go, but he turned his head, closing his eyes to keep her fingers out of them.<br/><br/>The Batarian's head suddenly jerked down as Kala brought the butt of the gun down on him. Ashana coughed, grabbing her throat and gasping for air even as Kala hit the Batarian again and again until there was a clear indentation in the back of her head where his skull had buckled. Ashana rolled out from under the corpse, still trying to catch her breath, recovering.<br/><br/>The slaver under Shira ignored her order as she leveled the gun at him, still fighting for control of the pistol. To Kala's left there was a sudden rapid thudding of heavy feet on floor, and in the dark her peripheral vision didn't detect its source in time. The other slaver was back to his feet, sprinted at her, arm pulled. He threw a punch straight into the side of her head, other arm grabbing the shotgun. His momentum threw them to the ground, and he wrenched the weapon painfully from her hands, throwing it across the room where it skidded well out of reach.<br/><br/><span style="color: navy">"Kala!"</span>Shira yelled, looking. The moment of distraction was all the slaver on her needed. He jerked the gun down, sideways, and hit Shira in the face. She was stunned and he bucked her off him, grabbing the gun. He took aim, ready to fire when suddenly his arm buckled at the elbow, cracking and popping as it turned sideways. Ashana yanked his wrist even further back, shoving the opposite direction on his elbow joint. His yell of pain was silenced as the Asari grabbed his chin with one hand, his shoulder with the other, and dove sideways, throwing all her body weight into the torsion she put on his neck. The sickening crack as his vertebrae breaking and separating was the last noise he made.<br/><br/>Ashana grabbed the cuffs from him and ran to Kala. The Slaver slapped her and grabbed at her, gripping her throat and hitting her head on the ground. Suddenly the link between the cuffs was around his neck and he was being pulled off the Human girl, gurgling and grasping at the make-shift garrote. Ashana wrestled him to the ground and began pulling back on the cuffs, grinning insanely, her every muscle flexing and bulging as she strangled the man. She couldn't stop the rapidly growing wetness between her legs as she felt him squirm and struggle between her legs as she straddled him, felt the life draining from him. She yanked backwards with all her strength and gasped as she felt a wave of pleasure roll through her as his throat gave way and collapsed. She held him there for a moment, his body limp, head slumped over the cuffs around his neck awkwardly while a slowing blood trickle dribbled from his mouth.<br/><br/>Ashana let him go, taking deep breaths. Then she leaned down and whispered into his ear,<span style="color: purple">Mmm... that was good for me... was it good for you?</span><br/><br/>Shira had picked Kala up and set her on her feet while Ashana had been strangling the slaver, but now she looked on at Ashana in silence, not sure how to react to what she just saw. Ashana stood up from the man, the light coming in from the window reflecting off her wet thighs.<br/><br/><span style="color: darkorchid">A girl's gotta have some fun.</span>She said with a smirk.<span style="color: darkorchid">We need to mo-</span>A sudden change in the light made her turn, while Shira's eyes went wide. The airlock had opened meaning people were about to pass by. Ashana grabbed the dead body under her, dropped to the ground, rolling with the momentum to get the heavy corpse moving, and flung it toward the window. It skidded just below the counter which sat under the window. Shira grabbed the human with the broken neck and heaved him over to the same place. Ashana shoved the Batarian's body as she put herself under the window, Shira and Kala following. Ashana huddled there, completely silent.<br/><br/>She couldn't hear anything, but she could feel the faintest vibrations in the floor from many footsteps.<br/><br/>Firas followed the group of slavers out of the airlock passage into what he determined was the slave pens. The slaves all lined up didn't make the assertion difficult to make. He looked around, at the second floor above and the guards, left into a dark room with a long window. He paused looking in the window. There was a M-27 Scimitar laying on the floor in the dark with no sign of its owner.<br/><br/>He had to assume it was the remnants of Ashana's team making their move. He quickly looked away, not wanting to draw attention to the room.<br/><br/>The group of slavers approached the lines of slaves and Desmond made his way to the front.  He stopped, looked around.<span style="color: red">Where the <i>fuck</i> is the Quarian and Asari?</span>He asked, angry that they weren't front and center of the display.<br/><br/>The Asari slaver looked at him, then seemed to recall something.<span style="color: blue">Yeah... Yolik and all them took them in to get them prepped.</span><br/><br/>Desmond looked back.<span style="color: red">Really?</span>He looked at her.<span style="color: red">'Cause the rooms fucking empty. </span>The large airlock door leading to facility A began to open, lights strobing as the huge twin doors opened.<span style="color: red">Find them!</span>Desmond ordered.<br/><br/><span style="color: darkorange">Lose something?</span>Six people entered the base through the large airlock doors from the hangar. One was a slaver guard, the other five were most certainly not. Firas stared in bewilderment and felt a sudden surge of apprehension as he recognized the colors of the Batarian Hegemony. At the head of a delta formation the five Batarians formed was a Batarian so well groomed that seeing him in the base was jarring. The black and gold on his armor was pristine and polished, from his left shoulder hung a half cape indicating his caste and stature. The Emblem on his armor was unmistakable. Suddenly the entire puzzle fit together in Firas' head. The mysterious hidden base, the weapons and sophistication. Desmond wasn't selling to pirates or warlords. He was selling to the Hegemony, a practice the council had deemed completely illegal, but had been quietly carried out by the Hegemony none of the less.<br/><br/>Flanking the emissary were two Batarians on either side. Both well armed, and well armored. Firas noted that each carried Kishock Harpoon Guns, and their armor was configured for Blade Armor, which all four presently had active, as well as the infamous Batarian Enforcement Gauntlets. At their belts were rows of Inferno grenades, and on their forearms were the telltales signs of the so called "Ballistic Blade" emitters and Submission Nets.<br/><br/>Desmond collected himself.<span style="color: red">Yes. Something which I expect will be located shortly. Regardless... Welcome.</span><br/><br/>The Batarian looked down at him like one might look down on a beggar.<span style="color: darkorange">This is all of them?</span>He said, stepping past Desmond and looking at the slaves assembled. He kept his hands behind his back, and kept his distance.<br/><br/><span style="color: red">All but three, which we're having specially prepared.</span><br/><br/>The Batarian ignored him.<span style="color: darkorange">You. Raise your right arm.</span>He ordered one of the dressed human men. The man did as he was ordered. The Batarian looked at him, then away.<span style="color: darkorange">One of our colonies suffered an incident. I want laborers that can manage heavy loads.</span><br/><br/><span style="color: red">Sure. Few of these we pulled off a asteroid mining station that lost power. They're good for it.</span><br/><br/><br/>***<br/><br/><br/>Ashana slowly dared to peek over the counter out the window.<span style="color: darkorchid">They're gone... we have to move.</span>She looked at Kala.<span style="color: darkorchid">I don't think we can get far with everyone out there... </span><br/><br/><span style="color: navy">"What about that access way across the hall?"</span>Shira asked, crouching next to her.<br/><br/><span style="color: darkorchid">Maybe.</span>Ashana nodded. Shira quickly ran across the room to collect the shotgun.<span style="color: darkorchid">Kala...</span>Ashana looked at her.<span style="color: darkorchid">Kala, I need you to be strong, ok? You're the linchpin of this whole operation. Do you think what you need will be in that access way?</span><br/><br/><br/>***<br/><br/><br/>Outside the base Sorv waited on the hill, watching. The twin gunships continued to hover, the guards on the roof kept the attention firmly on them. He looked down to where Darion was waiting. They couldn't make a move without alerting something now.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>