Cantenelli watched Milenya, unblinking, as she told him her intentions. His stoicism became more critical, a disapproval. He broke his gaze from her, his eyes wandering to the nearby screens and he nodded.<br/><br/><span style="color: blue">Well Doc, </span>He began with a heavy sigh,<span style="color: blue">you are of course welcome to stay on until we find a port more suitable for you - but it is my intention to keep us as far away from that damn thing as possible.</span><br/><br/>The human headed for the door, pausing as it opened. He withdrew a credit chit from the pocket on his uniform, giving it a little wave.<span style="color: blue">Your cut of the slaver base.</span>He set the chit down on the nearest surface and left for the CIC.<br/><br/>Falkris watched from behind the window in the med bay as Dr. Beruut changed his bandaging and checked how his bones were mending. The old Turian inscrutable as ever.<br/><br/><br/>***<br/><br/><br/>Taseer guffawed at Kala's response, turning to a nearby console and continuing her work.<span style="color: navy">"I'd be happier playing with your pussy while a Krogan went to work on my back end."</span>She smirked at the reaction, playing the torturer to the human girl. Though in truth, Kala's shyness was something of a peculiarity to Taseer, one which she insisted on prodding like a scientist observing some oddity of nature.<span style="color: navy">"Oh, like you didn't enjoy it. You need to cut loose. Gets awful boring in an engine when its running correctly, you know? Sex is a great way to pass time."</span><br/><br/>Taseer frowned, opened a diagnostic on the console.<span style="color: navy">"Check conduit 6 on the Helium compressor."</span>The system indicated it was only hitting 80% efficiency, sending Taseer in a fit of muttering when Kala informed her.<span style="color: navy">"Fucking stupid shitty Salarian second hand... Add a compression conduit to the list of shit we need to buy when we hit planet side. I swear to the goddess every 6 weeks those fucking things just.... Hrgmm."</span><br/><br/><span style="color: navy">How'd you get all shut off about sex, anyway?</span>She asked after several minutes of work on the console.<br/><br/><br/>***<br/><br/><br/>The Kassa Rep nodded, looking at the armor.<span style="color: darkorange">Listen, Darion, I don't mean to be rude here, but this stuff comes with a price tag. Do you have the money to meet it or are we just window shopping here?</span><br/><br/>As soon as Darion told the man, his entire demeanor changed. He laughed and nodded, relieved.<span style="color: darkorange">Fantastic. Shit, half the people that come in here couldn't afford anything we've got.</span>He patted Darion's shoulder and directed him to walk with him.<span style="color: darkorange">Don't sweat that 900 grand thing. Its mostly just a line to scare off the tourists. To be honest manufacturing methods have seen a real renaissance in the last couple of years. That whole Geth thing at the Citadel? Changed modern combat- well hell I don't need to tell you that. Thermal clips, heat exchangers, scram rails, 'Eezo pocketing - all came from reverse engineering Geth tech. Its made manufacturing almost ten times more efficient so no more million dollar armor. </span><br/><br/>He led Darion past the desks and hexagonal offices where various Kassa Fabrications representatives were busy.<span style="color: darkorange"> And you don't want Colossus, man.</span>He chuckled.<span style="color: darkorange">Its basically a dinosaur. </span><br/><br/>They stopped a large solid blast door. The rep entered a code and the locking rings rotated, the holo-interface turning green and opening along with the door. He walked Darion down a line of cases with various parts numbers.<span style="color: darkorange">I would like to introduce you to a very special friend of mine.</span>They came to a wall with 6 rows of broad doors. The rep entered a number into one of them. The door slid out on a shelf and inside, tightly fit in a foam pad was a set of armor. The grey armor plates were set upon a black bi-woven mesh. The armor was pristine, virtually untouched, and unlike those in the case, it was genuine.<br/><br/><span style="color: darkorange">This is Aegis. Its new, and when I say new, I mean state of the art. It's contracted to the alliance's N7 division, heard of them? First generation of the new personal, integrated combat defense systems. It can absorb an order of magnitude more kinetic impact than previous armor. It comes standard with the medi-gel mesh. Its modular design allows for integration of various armor elements, Kassa or otherwise. Even among the new modular armor coming out, Aegis has the highest stopping power of any defense system. Losing your shields isn't a death sentence anymore in one of these. Every suit is custom tailored to its buyer. Its also got a list of optional features and upgrades as long as my arm which I would strongly suggest you consider - a lot of them will make the difference between life or death in a bad situation. And the best part?</span>He leaned toward Darion with a grin.<span style="color: darkorange">Starts at 175.</span>The armor looked remarkably similar to the armor worn by the agent Darion and the team had encountered on Bekenstein in Vega's tower.<br/><br/><br/>***<br/><br/><br/>The Bazaar, a trade post for mercenaries and privateers. So much of Illium was about the glitz and glam, the facade covering up the down and dirty to make it look nice and clean, but not the Bazaar. It was raw, unrefined, like its clientele. Stalls were erected in a blank floor of the tower, like a warehouse, struts and infrastructure laid bare - but much of the trading was done merc to merc. Mods picked up on a scav job, sold right here. Weapons that weren't needed anymore, sold right here whole or parted out. All trading was non-licensed. If you had weapons to sell that were still hot, The Bazaar was the place to do it. No one  knew where they gear came from, and no one cared. It took work to find what you were looking for, but the cost was always going to be lower than retail, and with fewer strings attached.<br/><br/>Sorv and Firas stuck together. They'd been to places like this on the fringe, on Omega. Illium was different, but only just. There were no Blood Pack, no merc groups considered uncivil, but plenty of banners were present. Blue Suns, Eclipse, CAT6... most were independent though, some working out of scav freighters and deep space probes looking to pick clean lost voyages, others working private security. If you looked hard enough, you could even find the occasional collector looking to snag a rare gem. There was more control about the place than on Omega. Illium Security was present to break up any scuffles. But still, Firas and Sorv stuck together. Killers remained unpredictable and temperamental, even when restrained.<br/><br/>Sorv tapped Firas on the shoulder to get his attention and pointed to a vendor. The Turian nodded and followed the Quarian, side stepping a large Krogan arguing with a Turian while an Illium Security officer stood to the side moderating. Sorv approached the vendor, a Batarian in a monocle visor. He had a small display setup with a few mod cases set out and a large locked crate to the side.<br/><br/><span style="color: darkorange">"Hey you got any old ZX-2 scram rails?"</span>Sorv asked, looking over the mods present.<br/><br/>As Sorv and the Batarian began negotiating, Firas looked out at the crowd. He observed the credits and gear changing hands, a hundred deals going down at any minute. It was a prime location for a thief, he knew too well. Someone looking to swipe a mod or a credit chit while attentions were occupied.<br/><br/>He needed a few replacement parts for his Revenant, the weapon having been given a thorough beating in the slaver base. Even with such a large sum of credits at his disposal he wanted to get what he needed cheap. He needed new armor as well, and it never hurt to have credits to sit on in case something went wrong, either.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>