Cantenelli was surprised to see Darion remain when the others began leaving. He waited expectantly, Falkris giving him only a brief glance.<span style="color: Blue">Was there something else?</span><br/><br/>He listened to Darion's request, glancing at his omni-tool long enough to accept the incoming information. He nodded slowly.<span style="color: Blue">Well, I wouldn't worry about not coming back... and we'll do what we can to see to it you get a chance to settle things... but we need you here for -</span>He started, but stopped as Darion said that it wouldn't interfere. Cantenelli nodded again.<span style="color: Blue">Good to hear.</span><br/><br/><br/>***<br/><br/><br/>Ashana stopped off on the crew deck to discard her clothes, then returned to the elevator, getting on as Falkris emerged and headed for the lounge. Shortly after she arrived in the cargo bay, a sea of crewmen began streaming in from the elevator, either already in their underwear, or in the process of stripping down to it. It would have been a fun show, except for the pressure that everyone was now under. Shira'Va arrived shortly after, moving with purpose, though notably slightly off balance from the drinking.<br/><br/><span style="color: Indigo">Let's go!</span>Shira yelled, pulled the stack of suits and helmets from the firing range rack before sending it back up to the armory to be reloaded with equipment and sent back down.<span style="color: Indigo">Suits on, full seal checks!</span><br/><br/>Shira looked at Kala, putting a suit in her hands.<span style="color: Indigo">I have no idea what's going on - but if they're calling for us all to be combat ready then its not good.</span>She handed the rest of the suit stack to another crewman, then set the helmets on the floor and triggering the rack to return to the armory to be reloaded.<span style="color: Indigo">But this is standard boarding op procedure.</span><br/><br/>Even while they were busy putting everything on, the confusion and anger at being unceremoniously dragged from their R&R was clear. Ashana observed the lot, the tension that they shared. When the situation was explained, that attitude would change, she suspected.<br/><br/><span style="color: Blue">Alright,</span>Firas said, looking at the fire team.<span style="color: Blue">We do this by the numbers. Maethia and I are fire support and suppression. Sorv, Darion, you're sharp shooting.</span>He looked at Ashana, then Milenya.<span style="color: Blue">Ashana...</span>he started, giving her a serious look.<br/><br/>She nodded, knowingly.<span style="color: DarkOrchid">I know what I have to do.</span><br/><br/><span style="color: DarkOrange">Get them out of cover, or get rid of their cover.</span>Sorv added. Ashana nodded. He chuckled after a moment.<span style="color: DarkOrange">You know, if they're there. If not, then go ahead and walk in front of us.</span><br/><br/>Firas gave Sorv a look. He looked back.<span style="color: DarkOrange">Its for morale.</span><br/><br/>Firas couldn't help but grin. Ashana rolled her eyes but smirked.<br/><br/><span style="color: Blue">Milenya, I don't know your combat experience, so keep behind us and provide what support you can if it turns into a fight. </span>He added.<br/><br/><span style="color: DarkOrchid">Yeah... you're here to take a look at Prothean tech, not get shot.</span>Ashana said, looking at her.<br/><br/><span style="color: Indigo">Let's go!</span>Shira'Va yelled.<span style="color: Indigo">You've got 12 minutes to be ready to move!</span>Ashana looked back. The suits had all been distributed, and the rifles were coming down, being handed to those who had managed to get their suits on.<br/><br/><span style="color: DarkOrchid">Do any of you actually expect to find anything down there?</span>Ashana asked, looking at the fire team.<br/><br/><span style="color: DarkOrange">Oh, yes. There's probably hoards of unknown aliens that want to face rape us... then explode out of our guts or something.</span>Sorv joked.<br/><br/>Another minute later, the elevator opened, and Falkris emerged in full combat armor that bore the markings of a Turian fleet commander. He marched across the cargo bay to stand out front of everyone.<br/><br/><span style="color: Red">Listen up!</span>He yelled across them. The crew fell silent and watched, a few still tugging their suits on.<br/><br/><span style="color: Red">We have arrived at our destination of Zeona. However, we have so far received no return contact from the site we are approaching. On the surface is a freighter with unknown cargo, and unknown operability. Before the fire team,</span>he pointed,<span style="color: Red">can move onto the objective and accomplish their mission, we have to determine the safety of this freighter, at which point we will begin offloading and salvaging any and all valuable material! Crew Chief Taseer and Master Chief Shira'Va will lead a four man unit into the freighter to support and assess the vessel. All other hands will establish a defensive line in the bay under my super vision. If a hostile force is encountered, we will not let it aboard this vessel!</span><br/><br/>He looked across the group of crewmen.<span style="color: Red">Helmets and checks complete in 3 minutes, we're planet side in 10!</span>He put on his helmet, many others among the crew doing the same. Firas and Ashana followed suit.<br/><br/>Ashana opened her omni-tool, looking at a series of prompts to interlink with the suit. She blinked at it, hesitating to press anything. Sorv noticed her hesitation and walked over to her.<span style="color: DarkOrange">Here.</span>He said. Ashana extended her arm to him. He looked at the information.<span style="color: DarkOrange">Push that, and that.</span>He pointed at two keys.<span style="color: DarkOrange">It'll link the suit to the helmet and start the re-breather.</span><br/><br/>Ashana did as he said, and felt a slight draft of cool air moving around her face as the atmosphere was pumped in. She smiled behind the faceplate.<span style="color: DarkOrchid">Thank you.</span><br/><br/>When the guns had been doled out, Shira nodded to Taseer, who stepped out in front of the crewmen and started pointing. Kala was not among her selections.<span style="color: Navy">You, you, you, and you! You've dealt with guns before?</span>They all nodded.<br/><br/><span style="color: Green">Hell, I fire mine off every night thinkin' about you, boss!</span>One of the Turian men yelled, grabbing his crotch, prompting hoots and hollers from others among the crew who weren't taking the event as seriously.<br/><br/><span style="color: Indigo">Stow that shit until the job's done!</span>Shira barked, now holding her heavily modified M-27 Scimitar.<br/><br/><span style="color: Navy">Well congratulations, you're with the boarding party now.</span>Taseer said, motioning them forward.<br/><br/><span style="color: Green">Alright, what're we taking down?</span>One of them asked as the group gathered with the fire team. Falkris in the meantime ordered the rest to the front of the cargo bay to start assembling cover from crates, and moving the floor panels for more cover.<br/><br/><span style="color: DarkOrchid">We're not taking down anything.</span>Ashana said.<br/><br/><span style="color: Blue">This isn't a raid. And I would suggest you take this a bit more seriously.</span>Firas told him, coldly.<span style="color: Blue">We're not boarding some enemy ship to run off with the loot. Scans show nothing at either the freighter or the site.</span><br/><br/><span style="color: Green">Wait, what site?</span>Another asked.<br/><br/><span style="color: DarkOrange">You don't worry about the site. You worry about the freighter.</span>Sorv interjected.<br/><br/><span style="color: Blue">Neither show any activity, at all. The freighter looks to be powered down and according to the comm buoy, its been here for six days.</span>Firas continued.<br/><br/><span style="color: Indigo">So... its empty?</span>Shira asked, looking at them.<br/><br/><span style="color: DarkOrchid">That's what we're here to find out. Once we've cleared it, the rest of us are moving on the Prothean site...</span>Ashana glanced at Milenya.<span style="color: DarkOrchid">Hopefully with a ground vehicle from the freighter.</span><br/><br/><span style="color: Indigo">Alright.</span>Shira nodded in understanding.<span style="color: Indigo">I'll keep these pyjaks in line. </span><br/><br/><span style="color: Blue">Attention crew, we are entering the atmosphere in 10 seconds. Prepare to disembark.</span>Cantenelli's voice came over the comms.<br/><br/>Ashana looked up habitually, then down, taking a deep breath. Even with as many people as they had, there was an ominous feeling in her gut that she couldn't shake. But tied with that was the drive of curiosity to find out what was at that Prothean site that had driven a man who may have been a Spectre to blow up an entire ship full of people, gun down a Shadow Broker agent, then kill dozens more security guards. Did she even really want to know?<br/><br/><br/>***<br/><br/><br/>The earth was obsidian and rock, flowing like a river of black. Hundreds of miles away a roaring mountain of fire belched black smoke into the atmosphere, blanketing the sky in smoke so thick that light could not penetrate it. The very air was alive with the heat of the world, like a furnace that burned perpetually. Far on the horizon was a streak of yellow that seemed to encircle the blackness, the sulfur fields beyond giving an eery luminescence to the black sky and earth. In the distance, lightning arched from the roiling, turbid sky.<br/><br/>A dark shape sat, monolithic, and silent, it's form in conflict with the fluid darkness around it - built of sharp angles and flat planes. Its legs had cracked and broken the black rock beneath, flattening it under its colossal weight. Beneath the long head, protruding with windows like blank sightless eyes, it's bay door was open, a gaping mouth into a abyss of dark machine and metal.<br/><br/>Above, the clouds began to spark and writhe before a black ship emerged from within, lightning arching from the charge the smoke and ash had generated around it as it passed through. The gap it had left was shut just as quickly as it had been made.<br/><br/>The blue glow from its engines, shone off the ground as it descended closer and closer, settling at last beside the monolith, who's size dwarfed the new ship. Landing struts extended as the ship slowed, setting down tail to nose. Pistons and rails compressed as the ship's weight lowered onto the landing struts.<br/><br/>The cargobay door unsealed, the noxious atmosphere of the world outside flooding in, consuming the life breath of oxygen within. The door lowered until it became a ramp, the brilliant white light within flooding into the gloom beyond, illuminating the black rock and glass.<br/><br/>Ashana looked out the bay, and suddenly felt herself unwilling to leave the ship. The sense of foreboding had been eclipsed by the sheer magnitude of what she saw outside the ship, the hellscape that was as ominous as it was beckoning.<br/><br/>Even Firas was hesitant, needing to take a deep breath and grip his Revenant for reassurance.<span style="color: Blue">Alright.</span>He said, finding his voice resisting the words.<span style="color: Blue">Let's move.</span><br/><br/>He raised his rifle to ready and stepped forward, one footfall following the other until he was in a light jog, heading down the ramp of the bay door. His feet hit the black rock and felt the eeriness of how solid it felt, even though it looked as though the terrain had been roiling water that had been petrified.<br/><br/>He moved quickly, taking point with his Revenant. As they moved out from under the nose of the Acheron, Ashana looked up, and saw the sky far above and felt suddenly tiny and insignificant beneath it. She looked up at the freighter. It was at least twice the size of the Acheron, towering above them. On its side, reflecting in the light of cargo bay and engines was massive print on its hull which read "COSTAGUANA"<br/><br/>The group moved under the shadow of the freighter and Firas slowed, removing his left hand from the Revenant's stock and holding it out in a hand signal to slow. Ahead was the bay door, sitting open.<span style="color: Blue">Eye's open, weapons ready...</span>He said over the comms.<br/><br/>Ashana followed behind Firas and Maethia, next to Darion and Sorv. She felt wrong not holding a gun, even though one was strapped to her hip. She needed her hands free to use her biotics, but she couldn't shake how very much she wished she was holding it, wanting to feel the comfort of the killing tool in her hand. As they came closer and closer to the ship, Ashana couldn't escape the inane sound of her own breathing in the helmet.<br/><br/>Firas stepped slowly out in front of the bay, staying on the black rock at the lip of the bay door. Sorv moved quickly out beside him, aiming his rifle, ready to fire. Ashana stared into the impenetrable blackness of the ship, flexing her hands nervously. Firas waited for something, anything to move within the ship, any shadow to stir so that he could shoot at it. But nothing did. It was as motionless and silent as it was dark.<br/><br/><span style="color: Blue">Lights.</span>Firas said, flicking on the high powered light on the Revenant. Shira'va's fire team did the same, casting more probes of light into the darkness. Firas swept his rifle across the bay. It was very large, 70 feet in width. Inside were stacks of crates, varying from small to twice the size of a person. The crates were stacked in rows loading deeper into the ship.<br/><br/>Firas looked at Shira, pulling his right hand off the Revenant and motioning out, then in. Shira nodded and motioned to her team.<span style="color: Green">What the fuck does that mean?</span>One of them whispered.<br/><br/><span style="color: Navy">It means we're flanking right you fucking idiot.</span>Taseer hissed back.<span style="color: Navy">Now shut the fuck up.</span><br/><br/>The two units split, Firas moving with the fire team down the left most row, while Shira went right with hers. He paused as they reached the top of the ramp and motioned for Maethia to cover their back as they moved into down the row, putting one heavy weapon at the front, and one at the rear.<br/><br/>Ashana looked across the front of the bay. The rows were incomplete at the front. Parts were missing, crates having been offloaded. Situationed in the center was a moderately sized six wheeled vehicle with a wide cab. Next to it was a space for a second that was absent, while behind were flat bed trailers that could haul the larger crates.<br/><br/>The group started down the row, Firas on point, keeping his rifle ready for anything. Sorv, who moved in the middle of the formation next to Ashana and Milenya aimed up, looking at the high ceiling and lip of the top of the row of crates. He looked at his motion tracker displayed on his visor. Save the other team moving up the other side of the bay, there was nothing on it.<br/><br/><span style="color: Blue">Firas to Acheron, we currently have negative contact.</span>Firas noted. They approached a break in the row and he slowed, then aimed out around the corner. A light hit him, casting his shadow on the ball wall to the teams left. He looked across the bay at Shira'Va who had also reached the juncture from her row. Firas started past the break, further down the row.<br/><br/>They passed another break, the two teams again seeing only one another, then reached the back wall.<span style="color: Blue">We still have negative contact.</span>Firas updated the ship again as the two teams followed the back wall to its center, and the doorway leading into the ship. Firas looked down the bay to the open bay door they had come from. It had to have been at least 120 feet.<br/><br/>He looked at Shira, keeping his rifle trained on the open door deeper into the ship.<span style="color: Blue">It'll be too tight in their for both of us. Get to work checking on this. We'll head for the drive core and see if we can get it online.</span><br/><br/>Shira nodded, and started telling her team to fan out and check for any access ways into the bay. Taseer started down the rows, shining her rifle's light on the markings on the crate, looking for valuable equipment.<br/><br/>Firas nodded to the rest of his team.<span style="color: Blue">Its close quarters here on in. You ready?</span>He asked.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>