Mass Effect: The Horizon [IC]

[Alliance]

There was something ethereal almost haunting about The Horizon. Now wandering in space with no true goal in mind, it felt as if the crew had been replaced. Lawrence sighed as he stared at the new crew funded by this strange organization. But they were the only ones, who were willing to find out about this mysterious disappearance. He looked over his dossiers for a moment and gave a brief sigh. None of these people seemed to be aware of the situation at hand. The Quarian whom had been waiting for him, to ambush into some sorta of impossible odds without any known information, was nowhere to be found. Instead his hand stuttered across the galaxy map and he made his decision on where to go first. There wasn't much to go on in either of them. He still didn't see how any of them would help in any manner.

His mind cautiously stayed idle for so long that he hadn't realize he had space out. Just staring out the galaxy map, a hand sized galaxy there in the ship. Almost like a child who wanted the toy of his favorite heroes.

The Quarian had slipped off, both curious about The Horizon and she wanted to make sure all safety measures were applied. Her expertise in tech would be their life saver. She must have known that this was a egotistical and narcissistic thought for she smiled underneath the helmet of her biosuit. She paused only for a moment to look at each and every terminal. Everything in here was good. Everything in here was intact and unharmed. And even though she was more aware of the threat than Lawrence, she was still both surprised and frightened.

She had finally considered her inspections full proof and made her way back towards the bridge. She didn't think much about the captain stuttering and leaning over the rails of the galaxy map. Instead she watched him from afar before slipping into her quarters, Lawrence no longer to be seen by her eyes.

Lawrence perked himself up both realizing a gaze and at the same time realizing he had to be a captain. And before he went anywhere he needed to establish his clear direction.

---

Location: Germinas, Attican Beta System
Building: Biogen Research Facilities


He didn't fight nor struggle, it's probably what made him the favorable of the subjects. There was always a man here, the same man. He knew he could feel something towards this man, but he never truly understood whatever stirred inside of him. They was something more complicated than his own process. He was certain it was some kind of feeling, but what kind of feeling he could never properly communicate consciously to himself. Like whatever he felt was stuck inside his soul. The man looming over him, while he was strapped onto the board, stroked his strawberry blond hair before fixing his glasses.

"Dennis," said a woman.

"Yes," Dennis said, "It's time to make history."

[Laughing Hyena]

Looking over the dossiers Lawrence would note the names and locations of each of them. Indeed there wasn't much to go on nor was much information given by Saturn. Only the fact of his blacked out memory and what he had known from experience and finally he didn't know what kind of information Al'talya might have. It might be a good idea whilst they were on their way to their destination to ask a few questions on the matter. Setting a course for the Citadel since two of the people on the dossier were located there, Lawrence would pay a visit to Al'talya's quarters. Although, if someone among the ship however has an issue that needs addressing and it would help the crew be more content, then obviously the Captain would listen to them as well.

Entering the door after notifying her she had a visitor he would go ahead and speak with Al'talya. Hopefully he would get some answers on the situation concerning his missing crewmen "Do you have a moment to talk Al'talya? I would like to know more on the circumstances surrounding my missing crew and the reasons behind it. I'd rather not go in blind." Lawrence said being civil and respectful to her so that there wouldn't be tensions between them during the mission. Once that line of questioning was done he would of course take a moment to ask "It's going to be a while before we get to our destination. I'd like to know more about you Al'talya."

(Paragon lines of Questioning.)

[Latooni Subota]

"Weeeeeell . . " The Quarian hacker was sitting in one of those lovely spinning chairs, leaning back and idly letting her legs turn her about. Her quarters were . . . surprisingly cluttered with machinery, little knick-knacks, and items from the new Homeworld and Fleet. Unlike her compatriots, she had picked up a habit of being a pack rat. You never know what things could come in handy, after all!

"I'm not sure I can tell you anything you don't already know about your comrades. The whole point of my role is to help you actually find that stuff out, and lead you to people that can help on the mission." At the Captain's interest in her, she giggled, clasping her three-fingered hands over her taut belly. 'How cute! He wants to know more about me.'

"Well . . . I was a member of the Fleet, rather than our new Homeworld, Captain. The Kali is a pretty sizable planetcracker, and one of the primary ships for mining out asteroids and small planetoids in order to get the raw materials necessary to patch up our ships and trade to other races for supplies. I'm pretty much the smartest person on that ship, so everyone is eagerly awaiting the end of my Pilgrimage so I can solve everyone's problems again. Really, it's hard being a genius. Everyone always needs your help with something." Something pinged a little . . off about her statements. Either that or it was just that accent of hers, and the 'feeling' that she was always smiling underneath that faceplate.

"And please, call me Al. Nobody pronounces my full name right."

[Laughing Hyena]

Lawrence looked at the extra machinery that looked like a neat mess of her quarters for the moment before he looked back over to her when she started giggling a bit like a school-girl back on the citadel when someone was paying attention to her. Paying attention to what she had to say he stands upright since he didn't see anything stable that wasn't cluttered up with stuff. "Alright Al. So what can you tell about all this stuff in your room? Never known a Quarian to carry so much." He wasn't upset about this stuff being on his ship but he wondered about if there was a point to it. He then would have a look over to her once more since she was claiming that she was the smartest person on that ship of hers, the Kali. He bites on the information just a bit with a slight smile. "There's a lot of confidence in your words. What have you done aboard the Kali?" Listening to her he had a look at one of the machines or objects that stood out more and turned his head back towards her when she had finished curious about her Pilgrimage "What exactly do you hope to bring back to the Quarians with your Pilgrimage?"

(Paragon responses once more)

[Latooni Subota]

"Oh, these things? I just pick up anything that might be useful. I've got . . . a medical scanner, a bunch of equipment for modifying small arms, a box full of grenades, some canisters of omni-gel . . . really just anything interesting." Al shrugged, spinning her seat around again. His interest was cute, and she could play the 20 Questions game. Not a problem!

"As for what I've done on the Kali? Pretty much everything. I'm checked out on piloting mining craft, I've repaired half the systems on the ship, improved half of that . . . Really, it's a shame i'm on Pilgrimage, because everyone could probably use me right about now. It'll take half a dozen techs to replace me, even temporarily!" The words were OBVIOUSLY fishy, but there were little bits that sounded like truth spread through everything, making it hard to tell what was a lie and what wasn't.

"I'm of course only going to do the most valuable thing to the Quarian race possible. I'm going to figure out a way to fix, or completely replace, all of our immune systems so we can live in any m-class enviroment like you humans can. They'll build statues of me on the Citadel for my humanitarian work, probably. But seriously, shouldn't we be getting to work? Have you chosen a dossier to go for yet?" The young lady turned on her Omni-Tool, bringing up a spread of files in front of her. Whoops, looks like that's the end of that subject.

[Laughing Hyena]

He had to wonder if Al'talya was an exile or such by the way she was talking. Like she was in denial or something or that they called her mad or insane and that it was impossible for her to do as she needed to do. His eyes were affixed to her as she spoke about herself and her pilgrimage. As she spoke about the dossier and how she was wanting to get to work on what needed to be done. "Actually I already have made a decision. Since two are located at the Citadel we're heading there first. I wanna know more about this soldier and this other Quarian. The faster we can strengthen the team the better chance we'll have later on." He would think on things for a moment before making a decision. "If there's nothing else then I should go."

(Neutral Choice)

[Latooni Subota]

"Hmhmhm, I see. Well, if that's your choice, then far be it from me to second guess you, my Captain. Feel free to go. I have lots of work to do! Buzz me if a problem comes up with the ship though, and I'll get right on it." Well, at least he was a decisive captain, if not a bit too friendly. The girl turned her back to the man, begining to pull tools from a desk.

"Well. Unless you were trying to make googly eyes at me. That's the human expression right? I swear, you humans have the strangest language! If that's what you were trying, might I suggest Turian wine next time? Turian biology is closest to Quarian, so their food and drink is easiest to adjust so it can be enjoyed! Hee hee!"

[Laughing Hyena]

He gave a slight laugh at her comment as he then says. "I'll keep that in mind but I was honestly just trying to get to know my crew better." With that Lawrence politely leaves the Quarian alone for now. As they had been talking the Horizon was entering the Citadel space. Hopefully they would find these new companions and also some answers. Hopefully there would be minimal problems with him returning like this.

(Paragon Path)

[Revenent]

(Sorry for the added delay. I've had a terrible week so far.)

Location: The Citadel, Serpent Nebula
Building: Quarian Science Lab, Presidium

Zettor sighed and turned up the shading in his environment suit's visor as he bumped shoulders with yet another Turian C-Sec officer on one of the narrow paths in the Presidium. If there was one thing he loved about working on the Citadel, directly for the council and the quarian ambassadors, it was the funding. If there was one thing he hated so much about it that sometimes he wanted to just tear his suit to pieces and jump into the bacteria-infected river, it was how damn crowded and bright it was always was. Every moment was like high noon on a garden planet in a bustling city, the artificial sunlight and noisy Citadel folk even penetrating the walls of his bed chamber when he was trying to sleep, a near constant droning in both his eyes and his ears.

Somehow, it even made him feel lazy when it was time for him to go to bed, even though those people that were still awake and going about their business probably went to their own beds while he was still working. At least on a smaller starship, everyone's internal clocks were in sync so you didn't have to deal with the confusion and constant daytime effect like you had in this part of the massive space station.

But now wasn't the time for that. As tired as he was and sick of the pretend sun piercing through his retina, it was his turn to bring in breakfast and the others tended to bitch if the person with the food took too long. He held the temperature-sealed food transport bag close to his side so as to avoid too many people or inanimate objects (or those in-between, like the elcor) bumping into it and risking one of the contaminant-sealed containers inside from getting knocked open. The last thing they needed when they were so close to the ideal treatment for quarian immunodeficiency was for one of their group to die of an infection. Their lead researcher, a brilliant quarian named Gron'Sevar, nearly died last month from someone not shutting the clean room door properly, so they were all a bit cautious these days.

Now walking through the uninhabited corridor that led to their lab building, Zettor heard a pair of unfamiliar voices echoing quietly from up ahead and slowed down, peaking through the glass door cautiously in case there was something happening he shouldn't interrupt. Inside, he saw a pair of armored figures, a human and a salarian, peaking into a vent that seems to have been ripped straight off the wall and arguing over something. Near to them was an island counter that was now covered with broken glass and nearly burned through in some places with plasma fire, while the area around it was burned with the occasional laser blast and had plenty of debris of its own. To the right of the counter, on the floor, he saw someone's head sticking out as they laid on the floor. He recognized the face instantly as a female quarian he knew only as Cala, her usually pristine visor now smeared with quarian blood.

Zettor gasped to himself and dropped the bag of decontaminated turian cuisine, which then smacked the floor loudly and caused both armored men inside the room to look his way. The scientist didn't need to to rely on his education to tell him to run at that point. He bolted back down the hallway and out into the Presidium, but found himself under plasma fire sooner than he would have liked. People shouted and scattered as the twin sources of the fire came out onto the open walkways and chased after their quarian mark, who ducked and bobbed around every bit of cover he could find, bits of plant and dirt and chunks of metal spraying up where shots just barely missed him. A handful of C-Sec officers finally arrived as he ducked away from them and disappeared down into one of the wards, the two mercenaries running back the way they came and evading their own pursuers in due time.