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"You sure you're feeling up to this, Lia?"

"Yeah. Getting a full night's sleep made a huge difference." Lia joined Chula, Quint, Dakka, and Yutani outside the airlock. "Though I really didn't intend to sleep twelve hours."

"Guess those relaxation sounds really helped, then." Chula laughed and opened the airlock.

"They sure did. Thanks for telling me about them." Lia stepped into the airlock, trying not to stare at Yutani as she passed...her, it, them, whatever. The geth platform was wearing a black cloak and hood over a black jumpsuit with numerous pockets. Lia almost shook her head. This stage of her Pilgrimage seemed to be getting more bizarre moment by moment.

But then, she realized, a geth wearing clothing would probably be harder to spot from a distance, and even closer up, one might not notice it with a quick, casual glance. And, of course, all those pockets would be useful.

"So, where are we headed?" Lia said as the rest of them entered the airlock.

"Omega," Dakka said. "We docked a few minutes ago."

"Wow, I didn't even feel the ship lock into the docking port."

"Creator-Chula'Raalga is an excellent pilot," Yutani said, and once again, Lia had to force herself not to stare. Hearing a female voice coming out of a geth platform was a little unnerving.

Actually, hearing a geth speak at all kind of freaked her out.

"I have my moments," Chula said with a soft laugh. "And please just call me Chula. I never created any geth."

"Acknowledged."

"And I'm just Lia."

"Acknowledged." Yutani closed the airlock, waited for it to cycle through, and opened the outer door.

Lia turned and found herself staring down a long corridor lit inadequately by strips of flickering, softly buzzing fluorescent tubes where the walls joined the ceiling and floor.

"So, uh, Omega? I've never been here, but I've heard quite a bit about it." Lia cleared her throat and hoped that her nervousness hadn't come through in her voice.

"We make pretty regular stops here." Dakka unwrapped something that looked like a purple brick, popped it into her mouth, and began chewing. She looked around for a trash receptacle, didn't find one, and held the wrapper out to Quint with a shrug. "Uh, would you mind...?"

He smirked, took the wrapper, and tossed it into the air. His Omni-Tool flashed as the wrapper left his hand, and the paper erupted into a fireball. It faded in an instant, leaving nothing but a fine powder drifting to the floor.

"That's hot." Dakka laughed and strode on down the corridor. "Anyway, we've learned that there's always money to be made here. And it's a great place to buy guns."

"So, you're mercs?" Lia started to follow, stopped abruptly and winced. "I mean, we're mercs?"

"Sort of," Chula said, sticking her hands into the pockets in her cargo pants and walking along beside her. "We're not like Eclipse or Blue Suns or whoever. We usually take on smaller jobs for legit clients, and whenever we can, we help people who can't help themselves."

"And make them pay us for our help?"

"Nothing like that. As an example, let's say we find someone who's being victimized by a gang--assaulted, threatened, intimidated, robbed, whatever. We'll take on the job gratis, and whatever money we swipe from the bad guys, we return what was stolen to the victims and keep the rest. Call it an alternative revenue stream."

"Ah. Okay. Guess I don't have a problem with that. Although stealing from the wrong people could cause problems later on."

Dakka shrugged and grinned. "They usually don't give a fuck once we're done with 'em."

"Ah. Well. Okay, then." Lia chuckled nervously and walked on in silence for a moment.

They came to a section of the corridor that had windows looking out on the space outside Omega. Dakka paused at one of them to check out her reflection, resting her hands on the M-300 Claymore on each hip. She tugged on the collar of her black armor, adjusting it ever so slightly, and continued chewing absently.

"Say," Lia said, "I can't help being curious about that stuff you're chewing."

"Bubble gum." Dakka grinned, blew a huge bubble, and popped it. "Grape."

"Ah." Huh. Okay. Lia shrugged and kept pace with everyone else. "So, are we here for anything specific? Or just looking for a gig?"

"We usually don't have anything set up in advance when we come here," Quint said. "It's usually not long before something comes up."

"Last time we were here, we ran across several prisoners who escaped from the Purgatory just before it blew up." Dakka stopped in front of a hatch and opened it.

"Ugh. Those bastards." Chula shivered. "We passed by an apartment door that had been forced open. Heard a woman screaming and other voices yelling. I charged in and found them looting the place and one of them trying to rape the human who lived there. Well, we didn't allow it to continue."

"One of them went after Dakka with a knife." Quint shook his head and laughed. "Last mistake he ever made."

Dakka shrugged. "All I did was punch him." Then she grinned.

"Well," Chula said, "in that case, technique was everything." She glanced at Lia and said, "She pounded him right on the top of his head. Shattered his neck."

"The word used in the medical report was, 'exploded,'" Yutani said.

"Keelah." Lia fidgeted for a moment. Obviously, the criminal had brought it upon himself, but still...ouch.

Quint grinned as they continued along the next section of corridor. "Is it weird for me to find that kind of arousing?"

"Now you tell me," Dakka muttered around her bubble gum. "You could've mentioned that a long time ago."

"Well, I never said never. I'm just still, y'know, trying to wrap my mind around the idea."

Dakka stopped, turned, and arched a brow ridge at him. "Ah, so, there's still hope?"

"Uh...well...never said never."

They turned a corner and passed through a set of double doors into a huge, open space filled with restaurants, bars, and stores selling who knew what, all haphazardly set up, a sort of makeshift mall. A mix of humans, batarians, elcor, vorcha, and salarians milled around or browsed merchandise in the stores.

Chula looked around and rubbed her hands together. "Let's see what kind of trouble we can get into today."

#

"Beautiful!"

Everyone nearby almost jumped out of their skin. Quint whirled toward Dakka and found her staring at an image on the kiosk monitor with an overjoyed look. In the corner of his eye, Chula twitched and reached for one of the many weapons she always carried under her black duster; she recovered quickly, though, and reached up to adjust the position of her outback hat. And Lia almost backed into an elcor lumbering past.

Quint slumped forward, braced his hands on the counter, and sighed. "Whatever it is, it'd better be beautiful. I'm too young to die of a goddamned heart attack.."

"What, you can face down a Colossus on foot without even blinking, but you nearly piss your pants if I get excited about a new gun?" Dakka seemed to forget about it immediately, turning back to the kiosk and pointing at it. "Look! Look!" She giggled.

Oh, boy. Quint stepped closer and took a look at the item on the screen. An enormous gun, of course, with six barrels. He read the details and nodded. "Liquid cooling system to prevent overheating. Very nice."

"Yeah--and check out its rate of fire." She clapped her hands like a child falling in love with a new toy. "Want." She tapped a command into her Omni-Tool, transferring the price of the weapon from her account into the shop's.

"Spendy little item."

"Worth it, though."

"Good choice," the batarian behind the counter said. "It'll be packaged and delivered to your ship shortly."

"Thanks." Dakka blew another bubble while she skimmed more merchandise. She stopped a moment later, tapped one of the images, and chuckled. "Ah, the new Fornax." She tapped her Omni-Tool again. "Heh heh. Downloading."

"You read that?"

"I wouldn't say I read it, but yeah." Dakka snorted. "Like you've never looked at one."

"Never said I haven't. Some of it's not bad. I have to skip ahead when I find any hanar or elcor in 'em, though. Just a bit much for me."

"I got into it before I left Tuchanka." Her emerald eyes took on a distant look as a semi-buried memory oozed to the surface, and her mood clouded over. "Since I was fertile, it was my duty to serve as a brood mare as soon as I was old enough. Not what I wanted to do with my life, but back then I believed the krogan were worth saving, so I went along with it. And y'know, somehow, the idea of some dude I'd never met before showing up the next morning to prong me didn't exactly blow my skirt up."

Quint tugged on his shirt collar. Dakka had never gone so in-depth with him about her past before. Granted, he'd only known her a little over a month. Which made it even weirder, now that he thought about it.

"So, I figured I needed something to get me into the mood," she continued after pausing to blow a bubble. "Found an issue of Fornax and tried it out. Worked pretty well. Figured I could just close my eyes and pretend it was this human in the current issue givin' it to me instead of some fuckin' chud that someone else decided I was gonna ride."

"Uh-huh." Quint looked over his shoulder at the others. Chula stood nearby, looking through the store's selection on another kiosk, with Lia beside her, both of them muttering to each other about Omni-Tool upgrades. And Yutani stood a bit farther away, looking around slowly, observing the goings-on around her, waiting for him and the others to finish what they were doing.

Got a lot to learn about the whole "command" thing, don't you? He shrugged and turned back to Dakka.

"Turns out I ended up having much bigger things to worry about. A rival clan attacked us before the guy even got there. A lot of us were killed, and I ended up with an injury that left me infertile. That's why I'm here; I walked away from Tuchanka and its entire population. If they won't stop slaughtering each other when their entire race is dying out, then maybe they don't deserve to survive." She frowned and shook her head abruptly. "Huh. How did a conversation about porn lead me down that particular mental mineshaft?"

"Uh...no idea."

"Oh, well. Moving on." She shrugged and kept flipping through the sample images on the screen. "Oh, I know these two; Dick Sizemore and Valeria Tarakkis. I've got all of their vids. I might actually read the interview in this one." She grinned and eyed the image for a few seconds.

"Seems you've got a bit of a human fetish."

"Dunno. Never gave it any thought." She glanced at him and smirked. "Didn't realize I had one until you caught my eye."

Quint raised an eyebrow and took a quick look at the images, just long enough to make out a human and a turian going at it. He turned away with a shrug, then turned back for a second look.

"Never thought I'd hear myself say this, but that turian's kinda cute."

"Oh, sure, the turian's cute, but I'm not?"

Quint rolled his eyes. "Never said you weren't cute. Though I never thought I'd use that word to describe any krogan." He put on a lopsided grin. "I gotta admit, the way you acted when you saw that gun was downright adorable."

"Finally--progress!" She finished browsing the store and stepped away from the kiosk.

In the corner of his left eye, Lia glanced at Chula and waved a hand at Dakka. Chula laughed and shrugged.

From somewhere behind Quint, a snarling voice bellowed, "You!"

All of them turned to find a group of batarians charging straight toward them. The one in the lead had scars all over the left side of his face, having apparently been burned severely not very long ago.

He was heading straight for Chula, Quint realized.

Yutani looked at Chula and raised her right eyebrow flap. "That did not take long."

Chula sighed and pulled her hands out of her pockets, but kept them near her hips, ready to draw any of her numerous guns. She shook her head and simply said, "Yep."

#

Dakka growled and stepped forward. "That's close enough."

"Well, look at this. What are you doing so far from Tuchanka?" The batarian sneered. "Go back to where you belong."

"Fuck Tuchanka!" She lunged at him, stopping and backing off only when Chula raised her left hand and shook her head. "I decide where I belong!"

The batarians whipped out an assortment of hand cannons and assault rifles. Dakka drew her Claymores and covered the mouthy one and his nearest mook, Chula pulled two Phalanx cannons from under her duster, and Quint readied his Omni-Tool for combat.

"Aw, shit," the batarian behind the counter snapped, reaching under the counter and grabbing an M-15 Vindicator. "Whatever your 'issues' are, take 'em somewhere else."

Most of the people around the two groups pulled out their own weapons and ran for whatever cover they could find.

"Uh, guys," Lia said, raising her hands slowly and taking a step back. "It's probably not a good idea to start shooting with all these people around. Especially when most of them are armed."

"We can take care of ourselves," the batarian shopkeeper growled. "But if any of your shots hit anywhere near any of us, we'll gun you all down."

"I have no quarrel with the rest of you," the scarred batarian snarled, moving closer to Chula, looking her over and smirking. "You're the one I'm gonna blow away. Though maybe not before I have a little fun first."

Yutani planted herself between him and Chula. "Step back."

"Keep your toy soldier out of this or I'll scrap it."

"Actually, she's not mine." Chula laughed softly.

Yutani's brow flaps dipped into a frown. "Chula is a member of my crew. If you have a problem with her, you have a problem with me." She nodded at something off to the right. "And with him."

Dakka risked a quick glance away and spotted Weyland emerging from a side corridor, wearing cargo pants and matching shirt under a hip-length black jacket. He gripped a hand cannon that appeared to be of geth design in his right hand, and his Omni-Tool was already active. He must have been monitoring the situation from the Sulaco, Dakka guessed. Or maybe Yutani had contacted him.

Yutani activated her own 'Tool and reached under her cloak for one of her weapons.

The shopkeeper raised his Vindicator and lined up a shot on the back of Yutani's head.

Dakka swung one of her shotguns around and jammed the barrel against the side of his head. "If your finger even twitches, I'll put your brains on the wall and the ceiling."

"Oh, Keelah," Lia moaned, glanced around, and ducked behind the end of the counter. "Note to self--buy guns. Many guns. Big ones."

"Before we all kill each other," Chula said, "I'd really like to know who you are and what your problem with me is."

The batarian snarled. "Virmire."

"Ah, okay. You're one of the pirates we were hired to chase off." She chuckled. "Guess I missed one."

"One of our Pyro squad was standing beside me when you blew his fuel tank. You can see what it did to me."

"Bit of an improvement, actually."

"You bitch! Just for that, I won't give you a quick death. I'll rape the living shit out of you and then sit back and wait for your fucked-up immune system to finish the job!"

"No." Yutani produced a geth hand cannon and jammed the barrel under his chin. "You will not."

"Yeah," Dakka growled, taking aim at his head. "Fuck you, Scarface."

"Hold on," Chula snapped before the batarian could fly into any more of a rage. "I have an idea. You and me, Scarface--hand to hand fight to the death in the nearest arena." She holstered her guns slowly and placed her hands on her hips. "Or are you a big pussy?"

"We cannot allow that," Yutani said, turning to address Chula without moving her gun away from Scarface. "Your safety--"

"It's the best solution. This way, the score is settled, and no bystanders are caught in the crossfire."

"You sure you wanna do this?" Dakka muttered.

"I took out several dozen of 'em single-handedly on Virmire; I can take this one."

Scarface burst out laughing. "Agreed! I'll fuck you right in front of everyone and I'll still be at it after you gasp your last breath!"

Reluctantly, everyone began lowering their weapons and backing away. Lia shuddered and walked over to Chula. Her glowing eyes narrowed, and Dakka could easily picture her lips curled in disgust behind her faceplate as she glared at Scarface.

"Evil son of a bitch. I'm not normally a violent person, Chula, but I'll make an exception in this case--I hope you rip his cock off and ram it down his throat."

"Well, I'd rather not touch his filthy little crotch, but I appreciate the sentiment." Chula shrugged and chuckled. "By the way, 'events' like this one attract a lot of gamblers, so be sure you guys place some bets. We could make a ton of money off this if it turns out the way I hope."

"Hmm, yeah, there's that, alright." Dakka laughed and clapped Lia on the shoulder, almost knocking her into the counter. "See? We told you that money-making opportunities never take long to come our way in this place. Hell, if any of Scarface's buddies are willing, I'll step into the octagon with any number of 'em, myself."

"Alright." Chula pushed the front of her hat down slightly. "Let's do this."