The black vacuum of space surrounded the KSV Bloodline as it sped toward the mass relay, its sleek silver hull shined and its duel engines emitted a weak blue light. Inside the cockpit, it was dark except for the lights shining form the terminals and lights of the control terminal, the stars dotted darkness of space that could be seen outside from the pilot’s large visual window that was provided. In the pilot seat, a Krogan sat, his scorpion armor scared and beaten from age and countless battles, his face was still young and unscarred, but had the average angry look of a battle hardened Krogan.

“Mass Realy: 7 hours out…” a metallic voice came out from the control terminal, but the Krogan only grunted as its reply to the voice. After a few moments, the Krogan raised it hand to its face and breathed deeply, with a loud sigh, he reached over and began to insert commands. “Auto-Pilot engaged” the familiar metallic voice sounded off. With a grunt the Krogan slid down his has seat and again rested his face in his hand.

His upper back, low in the chair and his elbow was being held up by the arm rest. He sat there, motionless in the cockpit; the soft humming of the engines filled the room. The Krogan breathed heavily and his eyes became heavy, trying to gain some form of needed rest as his head comfortable rested in the palm of his hand. With a deep, wide yawn, the Krogan finally closed its eyes and began to rest.

The smooth feeling of the ships movements and the humming of the ship where relaxing, even though it wasn’t a normal feeling for a battle hardened Krogan who only knew warfare and the hells from that of their home planet. Even though it wasn’t a normal feeling for a krogan to take in, it was still something that made him feel more relaxed, he didn’t have to worry about what was going on around him, he felt, comfortable, knowing that he didn’t have to worry about anything right now.

Arne was stomping around checking things over in the engine room. They had been out of port less than two hours, and he had heard some kind of strange clunking in the drive core. Checking around he quickly saw the loose cable, and snapped it back into place ignoring the sparks. Turning around he stomped back into the living quarters. Varex was up in pilot seat, and Arne saw no reason to disturb him. He headed over to the food storage containers and looked inside. Letting out little more than a grunt, he quickly grabbed a steak, something that humans might cook, but Arne ate it raw. He would often eat when he couldn't quench his thirst for battle.

The navigation panel was located just behind the pilot's seat, and Arne made his way towards it now. Stomping up to the panel, he peered over it and marked down once again where they were headed. The contact had told them Noveria, and he noticed that they were still a few hours out of the Mass Relay.

Peering up towards his brother, he seemed concentrated on the instrument panel, so Arne headed back to the living quarters. Sitting down at the table, he brought up a mini quasar game. He oftentimes would fiddle around with this on long flights, and they had a little bit left to go before reaching the relay.

Arne was getting pissed off. The Quasar machine had cheated for the eighth time in a row, and he had just finished smashing the screen into bits.

"What the hell is taking so long!"

Krogan aren't the most patient folk, and Arne was no exception. He headed up to the front of the Bloodline to see where exactly they were. Before he reached the front however, he heard the tell tale beeping that sounds when a ship gets near a Mass Relay. Reaching the pilots chair he bent down towards Varex.

"We almost there? How long after we're through the relay?"

"We almost there? How long after we're through the relay?"

With a sigh and a growl Varex replied. “If you don’t have patients, how the hell are we going to last a trip that could be twice as long, hmmm?” He said with his face still planted in his hand. Slowly he opened his eyes and spread his finger to peek out at the terminal.

“We still have a few hours until we even get there, that beeping is the half way timer…” With that he closed his fingers and shut his eyes, but he didn’t completely fall back asleep, he knew Arne was going to argue more on the matter, so he readied himself for the next front of the argument.

"To hell with patience, I'm ready to rip this god damned ship apart! Gah, I'm done with you, when you decide to get off of your ass and speed this thing up, come get me."

Arne turned around and stomped back to the cabin area. Turning towards the weapons locker, Arne pulled out his shotgun and cleaned it. He was picturing the day two weeks ago when he had blown off a Salarians head with the very same weapon. It had been a quick mission. Just to pick up a bounty on some Salarian scientist. Putting the weapon back in the locker, he marched back towards the pilot area and sat in front of the map screen. He watched as their little dot slowly made its way across the galaxy towards Noveria.

"To hell with patience, I'm ready to rip this god damned ship apart! Gah, I'm done with you, when you decide to get off of your ass and speed this thing up, come get me."

Varex was becoming angry with his brothers attiude, he wanted to shout back at him, but he restrained himself from doing so.

At first Varex was surprised that Arne didn’t want to continue in the argument, but he just brushed it off and again closed his eyes, again trying to find some rest. With his eyes still closed, he yawned, his mouth was wide and the air intake was loud, with a grunt, he adjusted his back in the chair and fell back asleep, waiting for the destination alarm to it annoying ring.

[Three Hours later]

The hours past quickly as Varex continued to sleep comfortable in the pilot’s seat, the humming still filled the quiet and dark room that was the cockpit, the lights of the terminals dimly flickered and the stars pasted by slowly as the ship continued on its course. All was quiet, all was peaceful.

There was a suddenly blaring as the alarm finally rung its warning shriek, startled, Varex flinched and again yawned as he stretched. He gowned as the alarm continued its hollering, “Damn alarm…” he moaned as he lifted himself out of his chair and walked over to the terminal. Lights flashed and the noise continued until all of it went dead as Varex turned off the alarm systems.

With yet another growl he walked over to the ships comm. Systems. “Alright Arne, we are only 20 minutes out form the Mass Relay.” he said it will almost no expression, no emotion, he was still tired, and even when they did exit the Mass Relay, they still had another two hours of travel time to even get to Noveria. Varex couldn’t make the ship move any faster, it was already moving as fast as it could and if he pushed it more, the engines could over heat, causing more problems and a longer time period just to let them cool down.

Arne was beginning to dose off when the ships alarm gave off the loud twanging that he had heard before. He barely moved, as he continued to watch the dot move across the screen.

“Alright Arne, we are only 20 minutes out form the Mass Relay.”

Arne heard it over the comm system, and let out a growl. His brother didn't sound enthusiastic. Arne continued to watch the dot that was the Bloodline move closer to the relay. After the twenty minutes had lapsed, he listened as the ship's VI counted down the few remaining seconds.

Three, two, one, mark

Arne felt the twinge of motion sickness he usually felt when a ship jolted through the relay. Upon exiting out the other side, he decided to go talk to his brother about the plan of action when they reached Noveria. He headed for the cockpit, and sat down in pilot seat next to his brother. After a grunt of approval, he began to ask his questions.

"So Varex, how do we plan on approaching this Salarian businessman? We don't exactly know what he wants from us, and I trust Salarians about as far as I can throw them. We'll obviously need to smuggle our weapons in, and I assume that you're going to be doing the talking?"

Arne eased back into his chair, and let out a sigh as he waited for Varex's response. Arne had learned that his brother was much more calculating than he was, and far more patient about things.

"So Varex, how do we plan on approaching this Salarian businessman? We don't exactly know what he wants from us, and I trust Salarians about as far as I can throw them. We'll obviously need to smuggle our weapons in, and I assume that you're going to be doing the talking?"

“Hmmm…” Varex began “You know I like Salarians as much as you do, but we have to be careful, this businessman, is willing to pay us a large sum of credits. Ill move in to talk with him, I want to keep your distance and watch out for anything that might cause us a problem.” He paused to think about the weapon problem that Arne had just brought up, this wasn’t a simple fix problem, it was a problem that was going to be almost impossible to fix.

With a loud sigh, Varex again continued. “For our weapons…” he again paused to ponder on what they could do. “Well, when we land at Port Hanshan, we are going to have to disguises them with some cargo that we can order to have stored in the garage. After it is brought there we can head up there, get in, get our gear, and then head to Mezzanine and Hotel Bar.” It wasn’t the greatest of plans, but in the position they where put in, there wasn’t anything better without causing a problem with the local guards.

Arne sat silent and listened to his older brother. He had long learned to take the advice of Varex in most strategic matters. He had gotten them out of too many tough binds that Arne would have been killed in. Varex was smart, and calculating, Arne was often too hotheaded, and he knew it. He nodded as Varex gave out the plan for the meeting. After Varex had finished, Arne gave a grunt of approval.

"Your plan is sound as usual. I don't like Noveria, and those jackass guards have proven to be a pain in the ass in the past, however from our previous experiences of Hanshan, it shouldn't be too hard to bribe a dockworker to smuggle the weapons in. In regards to the Salarian, they're always trying to play the angles, I'll make sure that the meeting goes as planned. If anyone tries to mess anything up, I'll kill him."

Arne sat silent and stared towards to the front of the ship. Varex was thinking things over, and Arne wanted to make sure that he had nothing else to add before he went back and packed their weapons up in some cargo crates.

“Agreed, for how much they pay their dockworkers it well be very easy to bribe one to allow our gear to pass through they security unchecked, but…” Varex paused for a second to think about the garage guard, that night be a little harder. “The garage guard might cause us a little trouble.” He said he turned his head to face Arne. “The garage guards are paid very well for just standing around and doing nothing, getting in will be easy, but getting back out might be a problem…”

Varex leaned back in his chair, his upper back low down low, “We could try and bribe the guard as well, but it might take a little more then just a simple bribe…” he squinted his eyes and began to think on what they could do, but he could think of anything. With a sigh, he reached up and turned on the autopilot, “Alright, we are going to have to wing it with the garage guard.” He lifted himself out of his seat and began to make his way towards the cockpits door, “We better get our gear ready.” He said as he motioned his head in a waving manner, telling Arne that he was ready.

Arne stood up with a groan and stretched. Turning around, he stomped down the hallway towards the living quarters and his weapons locker. Entering his personal code, he took a look at his arsenal of weapons trying to decide which ones he could sneak into the Hotel Bar. He finally decided on his shotgun, which he would never leave behind, and a pistol. Both of these items he could successfully hide in his armor, and that would be necessary when dealing with the guards. He decided to leave the assault rifles and grenades behind.

With the gear in tow, Arne stomped towards the small cargo hold they had on board the Bloodline. It was normally used to smuggle various illegal cargoes, but it had been mostly empty for this trip. He found a suitable crate that was marked 'VH3829-Transmitting Equipment.' Pulling the crate down from the rack, he entered a code into the panel on the side, and watched the lid open up. He put his weapons inside the box, and waited for Varex to come with his before shutting the lid.

With his gear on his back and in his arms, Varex marched strolled the cargo bay. He found Arne with his gear already in the crate and waiting for his arrival. “Alright this should cover it.” He said as he placed his gear inside. “And, just in care…” he reached down and pulled a few grenades off of his belt. “These might be useful if things don’t turn out.” He carefully placed the explosives inside and shut the crates cover.

“Alright” he started “all of our gear is ready, now we should ready our armor.” Being ready for anything was Varex’s philosophy, anything that could happen, night happen, and he wasn’t willing to take a chance.

After watching Varex load his gear into the crate, Arne went and moved it towards the wall and strapped it into place. Walking back towards the living quarters area, he went back to the same locker that held his weapons, and pulled out his armor. He had earned this particular set after fulfilling the bounty on a Krogan's head. He took the Krogan's armor, and it had worked for Arne since. After putting it on, he walked back up to the pilot's seat, and pulled into the seat behind the cockpit. They were getting close to their destination, and Arne was getting antsy.

Varex watched as his brother left the cargo bay, he knew Arne was very bright at readying himself for a coming deal, he chuckled to himself was he watched his brother walk through the door that entered into the cargo bay and quickly vanished as the doors closed behind him. He stood there for a few moments, staring blankly at the door, with a quick blink he regained his train of thought and too walked towards the doors. It only took a few moments for him to reach the door and exit the cargo bay.

He made his way to his quarters; his armor still beaten and scarred for the last bounty they took in, it was a messy and brutal battle that could have easily been avoided if the Human had been a little smarter, “He probably should have had more then twenty guards to protect himself.” Varex thought with a grin upon his face, but it was already over and they had already collected.

The door to his quarters open, and he walked in, a locker was positioned against the wall on the far side. Without hesitation he walked over and opened it, inside sat a small repair kit, and quickly grabbed it. With the kit in his hand he walked over to the bunk and began to remove the damaged armor parts. He removed his left bracer, right shoulder guard, left thigh guard, his chest plate, and his right boot, he chuckled his rough Krogan laugh as he began to remember what had happened.

A human lay on the ground, pulling himself back as Varex advanced towards him with his gun at ease. The human was panicking; he was moaning in fear and begging for his life as Varex picked him up by his collar of his armor and held him up off the ground.

“Tell me where he is!” Varex shouted at the man.

“I don’t know!”

“I beg to differ, tell me where he is and ill let you live.”

Instantly the human pulled out a pistol he had concealed on his back and shot Varex in the foot. Varex tightened his grab around the man’s collar; he cocked left and starred off in the distance. He took a deep breath of and left out a small moan of pain and blinked his eyes rapidly for a few moments, until he turned back to face the human who couldn’t believe that the Krogan didn’t drop him and shout in pain.

“Not a smart move Human!” Varex said through a small gap in his lips that he spoke through on the side of his mouth; he holstered his gun, and punched the human square in the face with all of his might. The force of the punch knocked the man out cold, was the human hung limp Varex dropped him and continued on his search.

With a weak chuckle, he finished repairing the last piece of his armor, it still looked beaten, but there was nothing he could do about it. The reapplied the armor and raised himself out of the chair, and made his way back towards the cockpit.

He entered to find Arne, ready to go, ready for anything. “Alright Arne” he said as he sat down in the pilot seat. “We are pulling out of the mass relay in 3…2…1…” the ship shot out of the mass relay and reentered normal space. “We are making good time; we will land in one hour. We might as well eat some damned food before we rush shake down Port Hanshan” he had a pleased grin upon his face as he said the words.

We might as well eat some damned food before we rush shake down Port Hanshan



"Indeed, on both counts."

Arne stood up and headed back to the living quarters area where they had a tiny mess hall. He pulled out some meat that they had bought awhile ago. It was a jerky like texture, and lasted for a while. Sitting down at a long narrow table, he started chewing off bits of the meat, piece by piece.

"Y'know Varex, this shit isn't half bad."

"Y'know Varex, this shit isn't half bad."

"Ahhh..." Varex started with a long sigh "Ive had better. Hopfully after this next damned mission we might be able to buy some fresh food and maybe some upgrades for this ship." he stomped his boot down on the cold metal hull of the ship. He was eager to get some money back in their pockets, they maybe bouty hunter, but they still have bills and debts to pay.

"Hmmm," Arne grunted. The ship had served them very well, and had proved its worth in outrunning Turian and Alliance security vessels, but a little extra money to shore up a couple of things could always be used, the wiring was especially faulty.


"Varex, do you know anything about this Salarian, or anything about what he wants us to do? I've called a couple of my contacts, but nobodies heard of this guy, and in our line of business, everybody has heard of everybody else. I don't like any of those shits on Noveria, and regardless of what he wants us to do, we better make damn well sure that he isn't double crossing us."

"Varex, do you know anything about this Salarian, or anything about what he wants us to do? I've called a couple of my contacts, but nobodies heard of this guy, and in our line of business, everybody has heard of everybody else. I don't like any of those shits on Noveria, and regardless of what he wants us to do; we better make damn well sure that he isn't double crossing us."

With a chuckle, Varex began. “Unlike you informants,” he paused and leaned on the table to get a little closer to Arne. “I know a few things about this sneaky Salarian.” He slid back to a normal sitting position and took a bite of the meat. After a chew and swallow, he continued, “He is a scientist, he owns a large research facility somewhere on Novaria giving him high account of prestige, wealth, and has received more then just a few high standard awards for his successful researches and experiments. ”

Only moving his eyes he starred back up at Arne as he waited for a reply.

He starred at his brother, waiting for a reply, but decided to jump in and finish first. “What I’m thinking…” he took a bight of the meat “Is that there is something that he wants us to do, something he wasn’t to keep low profile, thus making us the better choice over that of the officials.” He said as he chewed his food, he paused for a moment to take in the dryness and odd favors of the meat. With a hard swallow and a deep breath, he again continued. “I have a feeling, if this is the case, that it might have something to do with his research facility.” Again he starred back up at Arne, waiting for a response.

((OOC: Soooo sorry that it's taken me this long to respond. I have been really really busy the last week. Work has sucked, and I've been having to spend a lot of time researching for a paper I have to do. Anyways, hopefully I'll be able to post more in the next week.))





Arne was thinking of a reply to his brother, when Varex decided to finish his thought. Arne sat and chewed on the food while he listened to his brother.

“I have a feeling, if this is the case, that it might have something to do with his research facility.”

"Hmmmm"

Arne disliked Salarians immensely, and Salarian scientists he disliked even more. Those scientists were some of the most backstabbing sons of guns that he had ever known. They cared for nothing but their work, and their own hides.

"Makes sense. He probably bit off more than he could chew, and needs to call on the Krogan to clean up his mess, sounds familiar. So, what is he researching up there? Prototype weaponry? New mods?"

”So, what is he researching up there? Prototype weaponry? New mods?"

Varex’s green eyes remained fixed on his brother’s as he asked his questions. With a grunt, he cocked his head to the side and continued. “Something far worse then that…” he paused for a moment and once again, his eyes starred back at Arne.“ He is a well rounded scientist, his creates Prototype weaponry and Mods, but those are only cover ups for what he is really doing. This Salarian is a biologist, from what I’ve heard, we are going into a situation that most mercenaries refuse to go, to a place of rotten flesh and blood…” his eyes where deeply fixed on his brother as he waited for a reply.

This Salarian is a biologist, from what I’ve heard, we are going into a situation that most mercenaries refuse to go, to a place of rotten flesh and blood…”



"He sounds like the type that brewed up the Genophage. Guess I'll be packing up those grenades that I was going to leave behind." Arne took another bite off the meat. "Hmph, it doesn't matter one way or another, because we need the money. This shit better pay well for what he plans on having us do."

Arne stood up and swallowed the rest of his food. Taking a swig of liquid from his glass, he turned back to his brother.

"Like I said Varex, we'll just have to watch ourselves on this one. It's easy enough to clear out mercs and pirates, but this sounds like something worse. But we don't have many options at this point, jobs have been scarce. Anyways, we've got to be getting close to Noveria, and we have to make sure that our ordinances are correct. You know the kind of sticklers that they have running traffic control. When we get 'em on comm, we've gotta make sure that have someone in the docking bay to take our supply crate."

Arne stood by the door and waited for confirmation from his brother.

"Like I said Varex, we'll just have to watch ourselves on this one. It's easy enough to clear out mercs and pirates, but this sounds like something worse. But we don't have many options at this point, jobs have been scarce. Anyways, we've got to be getting close to Noveria, and we have to make sure that our ordinances are correct. You know the kind of sticklers that they have running traffic control. When we get 'em on comm, we've gotta make sure that have someone in the docking bay to take our supply crate."

“Aye” he mumbled as he took ate the finally bite from hid meal. He quickly chewed and washed it down with some liquid and stood up. “Ill get the ship ready from the docking procedure; go double-check and see if our gear.” He made his way to the door and slid past Arne with a nod of approval. He walked out of the mess hall and down the corridors towards the cockpit.

He entered the cockpit and starred at Noveria through the cockpit window, it slowly grew as the ship sped closer and closer to its destination. Varex took a seat and opened the comm. link to Port Hanshan.

“Port Hanshan, this is KSV Bloodline, Permission to land?” he now waited for a reply on Port Hanshan’s docking offices.

Arne quickly walked back into the cargo hold. He made sure that their supply crate was securely strapped into a hold near to the cargo door. Re-entry could be a jumpy experience, and he didn't want their weapons to be in a jumbled mess when they get into port. Turning back, he quickly walked back towards the cockpit where Varex was contacting Noveria. He strapped himself into the navigator's chair near where Varex was sitting, and waited for them to get approval. He could see Noveria clearly on his view screen, and he felt something lurch in his stomach. He had only been there a few times before, and he found it to be cold and crappy. What made it worse was the fact that they didn't even know what the job was yet, only that it came from some kind of Salarian biologist.

Arne leaned back in his chair, and waited for Noveria to give approval.

((Sorry it took so long to reply, I didnt see the "new post" light!))

Varex noticed Arne through his peripheral vision; he glanced back at his brother as he waited for the contact. With a grunt of approval he turned back to the controls of the ship and slowed the engines. “Now we wait…” he said to his brother, but almost instantly as he said the words, Noveria’s comm. officer replied. “KSV Bloodline” he Officer said in a strict voice “Land in docking bay number three.”

“Understood Noveria control.” Varex replied in the same serious voice. With the docking under wraps he warmed up the engines and set course towards docks. “Let see what this piece of junk can do in reentry!” The older krogan said in a joking voice as the ship began to hit the atmosphere and passed through will no problems, as if it wasn’t there.

Outside the ship, the Noverian environment was windy and blinded with a blanket of blizzard snow. With little worries of the environment outside the ship began to slow, the relentless wind continued blow futilely, turning to knock the ship off course. Moments later the ship slowly pulled into he the port and finally docked with the Noverian station.