Mass Effect: Anomaly/Prologue

April 29, 2185

Omega, Outside Afterlife

"Agitated: the final time human, you are not welcome here." The Elcor bounced stated in a bland tone typical to the massive gray species. Quint DeGaine frowned at the Elcor, tilting his worn-out cowboy hat up enough to catch a glimpse of the Elcor, and the two Krogan right behind him, appearing eager for the chance to tear him to shreds. "Dat so?" Quint spat at the Elcor and took a few steps forward, stopping just in front of the bouncer's face. "Well listen 'ere ya big 'ol lug, Miss Aria T'Loak 'erself has been wantin' to meet with me PERSONALLY, and seeing as y'all been keeping me from enterin' into this here joint to let me conduct my business wit Miss Aria... you'd be breaking Omega's one, simple rule, and I don't think y'all wanna know what kinda shit that'll getcha in." DeGaine tilted his hat just enough so the shadows would cover his eyes as he folded his arms, waiting for the alien's response.

"Uncaring: We have not received any news regarding your 'business' with Aria. Menacingly: Take care of him boys." The two krogan slowly closed in on DeGaine who showed no signs of concern as he remained motionless with his arms still folded. Just as one of the krogan was about to pullout his shotgun, DeGaine whipped out his pistol and took out the krogan's legs, swiping the shotgun from his hands and then fired three shots at his face, painting the walls cherry pie red. The second krogan blindly charged at him and Quint grabbed the barrel of the shotgun before sidestepping out of the krogan's path and then whacking the krogan's knee with the shotgun, causing him to lose his footing and then tumbled over a railing, plummeting into the bowels of Omega's slums. Quint tossed the shotgun away "See what happens when ya screw around wit' me?" Quint grunted at the Elcor, who, despite not showing any physical indications, was clearly in shock of the display Quint put on. DeGaine strolled by the bouncer and entered into Afterlife to conduct his business with Aria.

Though he had done countless jobs and missions for Ms. T'Loak over the years, Quint could only count the number of times he had been within viewing distance of Afterlife on his hand, let alone being INSIDE of it. During his childhood in the slums of Omega, Afterlife was but a myth to Quint and pretty much everyone else on Omega, a dream only glimpsed in vids and datapads salvaged from either junkpiles, or someone's corpse. DeGaine had been to countless nightclubs and brothels in addition to several other cesspools of hedonism and debauchery, though none could compare to the decadent pleasures that Afterlife could offer. The club was aptly named as it roughly portrayed the themes of each organic race’s concept of, well, afterlife. Be it Humanity's Heaven, the Turian Spirit Plains, the Volus Olna Tzo and so forth, Afterlife was one of the few places in this galaxy where a person could expierence other-worldly pleasure. DeGaine walked down the entryway, passing a krogan bouncer hauling a passed out patron on his shoulder. DeGaine entered the club, and the first thing he noticed was the clientele; As this was basically the Pirate Queen's palace, it was naturally filled to the brim with pompous fops looking to cozy up to Aria T'Loak in an attempt to gain some sort of political clout on Omega, oblivious to the fact that the only person on Omega who had true influence was Aria herself.

An Asari walked up to Quint, her skin was a dainty teal color and she sported a very warm, welcoming facial expression. "Welcome Mr. DeGaine" she said to him as she bowed out of respect to him, she wore a small, black dress and the Asari equivalent of moccasins. DeGaine tipped his hat to the greeter "Suppose I should git to seein' Miss T'Loak 'bout now should I?" She nooded and motioned DeGaine to follow her, to which he agreed, DeGaine looked around at the sights of Afterlife, while he had been in Afterlife a couple times; he had never really spent enough time in the club to truly know if club lived up to its reputation. Was it the most popular place on Omega because of its amenities, or was it just because people wanted a glimpse of Aria, desperate for a longshot of power on Omega? Billions come to Omega seeking opportunity; expecting to make a fortune, and enjoy the luxuries of things like Afterlife, but when they arrive; they only find slums and a dead end future.

DeGaine scoffed at the thought as the Asari escorted him to Aria's private balcony. "Madame Aria, Mr. DeGaine is here" The Asari stepped to the side, DeGaine walked up to the stairs to Aria. He was immediately approached by a Turian and three Batarians, Aria's "body guards" if they could even be called that. "That's close enough... human." One of the batarians walked up to DeGaine, determined to deny the human his business with Aria. DeGaine huffed at the batarian, and gazed at him with an unconcerned look. "Moklan, if you don't step aside right now, I'll blast yer ass so far up ya head, it'll turn the ceiling whatever goddamn color ya blood is!" Moklan stepped back slightly, trying not to show any signs of anxiety. "I'd just about pay to see that!" A feminine voice could be heard laughing behead the gaggle of alien thugs. An Asari with a violet pigment walked down to DeGaine, it was none other than Aria T'Loak herself, Omega's one and only ruler.

"Ah, Miss T'Loak!" DeGaine removed his hat in a gesture of respect to her before shoving the batarian aside. "It'd be nice if ya bouncers were a tid bit more... cordial next time m'dear." "Do you want the job or not?" T'Loak faced DeGaine with a straight face; she was an expert at reading body language, though humans were still relatively... new to the galactic community, as was their sarcastic tone. DeGaine chuckled and put his hat back on "depends on the job, and how much you're willing to pay for it to be dealt with." Aria tossed an OSD towards DeGaine, which he caught with two fingers, it was a compact chip painted jet black with no print on it whatsoever. "Everything you need to know is on that OSD." DeGaine nodded, knowing that this was a high-risk, high-secrecy and most of all, high-reward job. DeGaine was used to getting his jobs through OSDs but the fact that Aria herself was giving it to him meant that it was something she wanted to keep under wraps.

As DeGaine exited Afterlife, his omni-tool began to beep, indicating he had a call incoming. He toggled the omni-tool activation button and brought the call onto screen. DeGaine could see it was Grizz, a turian member of Aria's "personal guard" and a frequent middle-man of deals between Aria and DeGaine. "Grizz here, Aria wants to you know two things regarding the job." DeGaine huffed and nodded in acknowledgement, "One, all details about the job are to be kept between you and Aria. Two, if you fail and didn't die in the process, you got until one of Aria's men takes you down to get off Omega." "Got it skull-face" DeGaine ended the call and then got into his skycar, heading back to his safe house.

As the skycar got off the ground, DeGaine set it to auto-pilot with a route to his safe house pre-programed in the navigation computer. It then adjusted itself to get on the proper course heading. The skycar rushed through the jungle of steels structures that seemed to sprout from the dark, bottomless bowels of Omega. There was always a thicket of red haze that sifted through Omega’s atmosphere, a common joke among Omega’s inhabitants is that so much blood has been shed for control of Omega that even the air has been turned red, but nevertheless it obviously didn’t have any adverse health effects, well, not for humans anyway. Quint thumbed a few icons on the dashboard and the windows of the skycar immediately tinted into an opaque black as he pulled out the OSD he received from Aria.

He analyzed it for a bit, the smooth, jet black chip wasn’t even half the size of DeGaine’s thumb and while he was used to receiving job details and contracts via OSDs, there was something very eerie about this one. What was with all the secrecy? Was there something so volatile that even Aria T’Loak was reluctant to be implicated in? While she was indeed at the seat of power of Omega, Aria was a businesswoman, not a warlord; she had built her criminal empire with her charisma and her network of connections, not with armies or brute force. So it was a possibility that she wanted to maintain an “image” of sorts, so much as not to show any weak points to would-be rivals seeking to dethrone her. It was in this way Quint had become one of Aria’s most valued hitmen, to a point that he was roughly Omega’s equivalent to the Citadel Council’s Spectres: He did whatever it took to get a job done, he got consistent results and he only answered to one person.

DeGaine scoffed and inserted the OSD into his omni-tool, which began scanning the small chip and started to display a data upload on the screen of the device. The upload completed, revealing a list of dossiers, criminal records and other transactions that have occurred lately on Omega. While the Shadow Broker was usually the Kingpin of the Information business within Council Space, Aria had a vice-grip on the information flow on Omega and she had eyes in every district of the hostile station. DeGaine opened up a data file concerning a mercenary gang known as the “Golden Sentinels” which was one of several hundreds of mercenary groups that sprouted up after the destruction of the “Big 3” a.k.a. the Blue Suns, Eclipse and Blood Pack at the hands of Archangel and Commander Shepard a few months earlier. DeGaine had done a few freelancer jobs with them before but was dismissed on accounts of his “barbaric methods and hedonistic lifestyle.” The Sentinels liked to take jobs from “civilized” clientele, usually corrupt politicians and corporate titans wanting to eliminate a competitor that couldn’t be dealt with through ordinary means. How this “civility” and “finesse” was supposed to help the Sentinels take over Omega was a mystery to Quint, but he couldn’t deny the fact that they were well equipped, organized, and always completed a job 100% of the way before accepting any payment.

DeGaine continued reading through to find a list of recent transactions between the Golden Sentinels and an unknown party looking to establish itself on Omega. DeGaine laughed to himself upon seeing a transcript from a discussion the Sentinels’ leader and a representative of the other party. It appeared as though the Sentinels’ leader promised that they would be able to establish on Omega without Aria’s knowledge or intervention. A lot of outside businesses and organizations looking to set up shop on Omega have to at one point or another deal with Aria T’Loak and she knew it, she also didn’t appreciate it when people tried do things behind her back.

However; things like this occur on a daily basis, why was this particular situation so important to Aria? The payment for this job was five times as much as any contract job he had ever done for her, it was obvious there was more going on than what she was letting on. DeGaine shook his head; it was an unhealthy habit for men of Quint’s station to try and play detective regarding the affairs of Aria. She had killed DeGaine’s last three predecessors for doing so. Besides, Quint already had a mutually beneficial relationship with Miss T’Loak: He offed her enemies and she rewarded him in more ways than one. The Skycar was nearing DeGaine’s safe house, and Quint then turned off the auto-pilot to take manual control for landing. Quint positioned the car above a large hole in the roof of the safe house and then slower lowered into it.

While Aria had offered DeGaine more luxurious and comfortable housing; DeGaine declined each time, preferring a derelict ware house in an old ship boneyard. There were multiple reasons for this choice of housing. One, it was in a hazardous part of Omega, which would allow Quint to lose any potential assailants pursuing him. Two, it was very isolated, eliminating the threat of unexpected guests. Finally, it was in such a location of Omega that Quint could easily access most of the station’s prominent stations and always knew he would have a consistent escape route if things went awry. DeGaine exited the skycar and the lights in the warehouse flashed on, revealing a vast, gray space. DeGaine had lived here for over a decade and had made several modifications to it, including a hangar, armory, and living space. DeGaine was a self-taught fighter pilot and occasionally has had to do jobs requiring some “fireworks.” He kept and maintained a reverse engineered T-61 Trident, an old Blue Suns gunship and a retro-fitted Turian fighter in his hangar. DeGaine navigated through a mess of tools and spare parts, before reaching a switch box and then flicked a few switches, turning on the warehouse’s main generator. A low hum could be heard throughout the warehouse followed by a gentle vibration as it spooled up.

DeGaine then went up the stairs passing multiple doors, before entering a dull gray one. He turned on the lights, to reveal a make-shift office. The office had a rusted desk covered in papers and datapads, in addition, it had an aged extranet terminal which DeGaine wasn’t even sure could be used anything besides as an oversized paperweight. However, the main purpose of this ‘office’ was for its jail-cells. Occasionally DeGaine had to bring his work home; in that he had to keep his targets detained before receiving payment, or used them as leverage to get increased pay. There were three narrow cells, though only one was occupied by a tied Asari criminal known only as “Qara.” Her skin was a pale blue tint and she had the smooth, gradual curves of blown glass. DeGaine had stripped her down to her undergarments to ensure she didn’t have any concealed weapons, which revealed a mural of bright, multicolored tattoos that ran from her ankles to her neck. She was on her knees, her hands bound behind her back and her ankles cuffed together. However, DeGaine knew that the only thing that was actually keeping her from turning him into a pile of bloody mush was the pulse emitter he installed on the back of her neck. The device was small, beige octagon that was designed to subdue criminal with biotic powers: whenever a wearer would try to gather eezo for a biotic attack, the device emitted a neural pulse, disrupting the flow of eezo in the body, and knock the wearer unconscious.

“So, any reason you keeping me outta the freezer or do ya like to see a girl on her knees?” Qara leaned against her cell wall in a provocative manner; like every other Asari, her deadliest weapons were not biotics, they were beauty and seduction. Quint glanced the convict, squinting to make sure she wasn’t trying gather her strength for a biotic attack; he had broken 5 ribs and dislocated his shoulder trying to wrangle her in, he wasn’t about to lose her because of something like using his balls instead of his brain to think. “Just makin’ sure you ain’t getting’ freezer burn, don’t wanna piss off my employer.” Quint set down an aluminum folding chair in front of Qara’s cell and sat down. “Come now, surely there’s something I can do to repay you for all of your… hospitality.” Qara cooed with thinly-veiled sarcasm. Quint removed his wide-brimmed hat, revealing a head of thin, slightly grayed, auburn hair, and a worn, battered face. He pulled out a cigarette case from his pocket and popped it open. He pulled out a cigarette and held it out in front of the cell door. Qara leaned forward, accepting the offer; he gingerly placed between her lips and put another one in his mouth, which was mostly hidden beneath a thick moustache. Qara held out the cigarette as Quint lit a match with the bottom of his boot, and then lit both cigarettes. “So, what do you want to know this time cowboy?” Qara took a puff of the cigarette, knowing how the offering of a cigarette is the traditional way bounty hunters in the Terminus Systems begin an interrogation.

“I wanna know every last bit of info you got on a gang known as the Golden Sentinels.” Quint leaned forward, exhaling smoke just in front of Qara’s face. Qara smiled, twirling the cigarette in her bound hands, “I know that they’re a joke of a group, more cut out for politics than they are the mercenary business.” Quint examined the dazzling array of tattoos that covered Qara’s body; some he recognized as mercenary insignias, others looked like they had been done in prison with nothing more than a pen and a knife. “A job contract I received from Aria a while ago stated you had involvement with the group, that you helped an outside party establish business on Omega… outside of Aria’s knowledge.” A well-constructed lie; Quint didn’t know if Qara had actually been a member of the Sentinels at all, but armed with the information provided by Aria, he would be able to tell if she knew something about it by gauging her reaction. Qara looked at DeGaine with a conceded, yet satisfied look “Guess you’re not as dumb you look” she laughed, taking a long draw from her cigarette. “I don’t know if the deal is still on, since you caged me up before the deal was finalized. As for Aria, keep in mind she turned her back on me; if I get paid, why the hell should I care about her feelings on the matter?”



 Qara then slid to floor, slowly exhaling as she did. Quint observed Qara briefly; she was unlike any other criminal he had interrogated before, whereas most of whom were begging for their life before Quint had an opportunity to ask the first question, Qara had remained calm and collected, almost as if she was accepting her fate. “When was the deal supposed to go down?” Quint leaned back in his chair, wedging hiss cigarette between two of his teeth. “’Bout 72 hours from now, in an abandoned factory down in the defunct Treyx Industrial Complex.” She stretched her legs out, her toes touching the opposite wall. “Why? You going on a little field trip cowboy?” She joked to Quint, displaying not even a hint of concern about what her captor had in store for her. “Treyx eh, one of Aria’s few failed business ventures, a fittin’ place to start for someone seeking to dethrone her.” Quint tossed his cigarette on the ground and stamped it out with his heel. “So, whatcha going to do with me now cowboy?” Qara grounded out her cigarette on the cell floor.

 Quint thought to himself; even with the all the info provided by Aria, there were way too many loose ends, it was clear Aria wanted to keep this issue in-house, normally she’d allow Quint to pass jobs like this on to mercenary gangs and move on to something bigger, but it would seem this was a lot more complicated of a situation and if these people were dug into an industrial complex, he was going to need some extra help. Mercenaries weren’t an option, as he’d have to put it down as a separate charge, which Aria’s bookkeepers didn’t appreciate him doing. He weighed out his potential options until he came to the dreadful realization that the only available extra help was in the cell right in front of him. “Were you on good terms with the Golden Sentinels?” Quint shot a look of curiosity towards Qara. She glanced at Quint before rolling her eyes, “Well, you humans have a saying, I think it’s something like ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back’ but anyway the ‘straw’ in this situation was them tricking me into being caught by you.” Quint smiled and pushed the folding chair aside, then knelt down next to Qara. “What if I were to tell ya I can provide you an opportunity for some good ‘ol payback?” Qara looked at Quint, confused. “I’d be all for it, but something tells you aren’t just gonna untie me and let me walk outta here ain’t ya?”

 Quint got up and pressed a few buttons on a panel next to Qara’s cell, causing her cell door to open. “I ain’t gonna sugarcoat things for ya, this job I got is looking like a one-way trip. I’d be a fool to do it alone and Ms. T’Loak wasn’t exactly clear on the details outside of an OSD card. You be a good girl and help me complete this job, and I might help you disappear from Aria’s shit list.” Qara smiled at Quint “I suppose I’ll help ya, beats being in this situation.” Quint nodded and pressed another button, causing Qara’s bindings and neural disruptor to pop off. She got up and rubbed her wrists. “Been awhile since I could move freely” she exhaled with a hint of gratitude. "Yeah, just don't get too comfy y'hear?" Quint put his hat back on. "Because something tells me we're gonna be in for a rough ride."