[Omega - The DeLuxury Hotel Suites] Showdown, 12 O'Clock High (Open For Bounty Hunters)

Omega.

The Specialist stared into his reflection in the dingy hotel room bathroom. The man splashed water against his face and took a deep breath. It was just under a decade ago that this happened- The brutal infliction that had robbed him of his identity- and each day the pain was like it had just happened. The man pulled a travel bag up from his feet and set it down on the bathroom counter and removed a synthetic mask, which he pulled on with a sigh. He also removed two Predator handguns, and a belt of ammunition.


"The post.. the post.." He murmured to himself, leaving the bathroom. Cerberus Daily News. Five Hundred Thousand credits. Mercenaries on the way. They're tracking you, he told himself. They're going to be here any moment now. He stepped up to the front door of the hotel room and locked the door with the wave of his omnitool.


In two minutes, the door was rigged with all of the grenades he had. The man dragged a chair across the carpet-less metal floor and sat it against the furthest wall from the entrance- It was there he sat down, training his guns at the door. There had to be a way out of this that didn't incur death or worse. He paused, sprinting back into the bathroom. He returned back to the chair and set his travel bag at his feet. Further thermal clips, both explosive and incendiaries.

Tears welled in the pits of his damaged lower eyelids.

Once the signal traced back to the hotel room, she knew that she needed to bring in a squad to deal with this. You don't go after a target backed into a corner without lots of help. The kill team consisted of seven AEGIS operatives, outfitted with room clearing kit. The team swept through the dirty hotel lobby, passing a credit chit to the front clerk. No need for her to go warning any of the residents, or be a witness for any retaliating force.

The team took the elevator up. Normally in case of sabotage, the proper procedure would be to take the stairs. However, this location was far too occupied for the man, who only recently checked in, to lay any traps in this pathway. The stairwell design meant that you could hear the echoed steps of anyone passing through very clearly anyway.

The elevator door opened almost soundlessly. The operatives filed out, each in turn checking the hall that led to the room for surprises. Their Chameleoine cloaks activated, long coats that hid their yellow painted AEGIS armor, reflecting the color and texture of the objects behind them. It didn't cover enough of them, or was accurate enough to create complete invisibility, but it was certainly useful in battle. One might get an edge, however small, as an opponent hesitates trying to determine your exact location in the confusion.

They reached the room. Now came the hard part. The transaction was public. Any persecuted sapient on the run would almost certainly have figured out that they were coming. What needed to be determined was the reaction of the target in question. Given the target's decision, as a C-spacer, to travel to Omega, hinted at desperation. Traps, almost certain, explosives possible.

"Vren. Search Drone, under the door."

Search Drones, a tool commonly used by police for room clearing, allowed the user to view the contents of a room without being in range of any threats that lay inside.

With a quick nod, the turian brought her Omnitool to full view, producing the drone. The disc shaped construct slid to the bottom of the door, the lights clearly visible to the occupants, an unfortunate drawback to drone design. The operatives stayed a reasonable distance away from the door as they did so. Not far enough away to be unable to respond, but not close enough to be seriously injured by a reasonable amount of explosives.

"I'll come quietly!" The Specialist yelled, holstering his sidearms into his jacket and closing his fingers over his palms- His right palm in particular, holding the detonator for the grenades. "Too many people have hurt and I only have quarrel with one person. I need to find Sarah Thompson. She took everything from me and I don't intend to harm any of you in order to get to her."

He spoke loud enough to be heard. "I'm the man you're after, right? Five hundred thousand credits? Did you ever stop to wonder why, exactly, a mercenary group would be attached to someone they don't know a full background check for? Doesn't this at all seem sketchy to you? Besides, he spoke of financial ruin- Who's to say that if he hired me, a 'Cerberus Operative', that he would pay you - Aliens - Anything in the region of Five Hundred Thousand? We're both being sold out- Me by a peer and you by a racist swindler."

He raised his closed hands into the air. "I highly suggest you consider the depth of the actions you're about to be involved in. Who are you? Blue Suns? Eclipse? Some drunken gaggle of idiots trying to make enough money for huff or red sand or whatever it is you people need to get through the day? You are involved in people you don't fully understand, just like your employer was with me. Please stop and think for a goddamned moment before you bust down that door and I trigger these explosives."

He spoke with his attention focused on the drone. "You're smart. You've got to be to survive in a job like yours, right? Then you have to be smart enough to listen to me. I'm not begging, I'm trying to communicate with you. You signed on with green in your eyes and you failed to see the wool that was being pulled over them."

A couple of thoughts raced through Niala's mind as the man spoke. For one, she remembered the first rule of Bounty Hunting

Never trust the target.

Even if he was speaking the truth, top priority needed to be put into restraining him. Details can be sorted out later. The other thought going through Niala's mind was

Don't try and gain leverage unless you know that it's going to work.

But she knew it was bad either way if those bombs went off. The target would not survive.

"Come outside and we can talk."

"Work with me. Work with me." The man spoke, repeating himself with stress. "If you tackle me, the explosives detonate. If you hit me, the explosives detonate. I'll come willingly if you just let me explain my position and what kind of position you're about to get yourself into. The men I'm with aren't as noble and innocent as they claim to be. I'm no saint either." He approached the door slowly. "I've killed people. I've kidnapped a pregnant woman. I've caused more than my share of undue suffering in my life and I'm aware of that."

"These men have no intention of keeping me alive. If they do, they'll chop my tongue off and sell me off to slavery and butcher my associate. I merely told them about my story and Peter Wilson- The man who hired you- Pulled the strings along to ruin that woman's life in return for my cooperation in future matters. I know I am a bad person. I know I probably deserve whatever I'm going to get."

"She took from me the chance to see my wife and son again. They were killed by the Reapers- I know you've lost many family members or friends just like I have, how far would you go to avenge them or avenge the life that you could have had?" His mask wrinkled. "The husband, the future children that may not exist? The wife that waited for you at home every night that you'll never see again? I don't give a damn that this is projection." He spoke at the door with rising irritation. "I was left for dead. The men I was left in the care of burned my face."

The Specialist took a deep breath and waved his omnitool in front of the door. "The door is unlocked. What happens in the next ten seconds decides if any of us walk out of this alive."

Shit.

Shit.

"Shit." Someone mirrored her sentiment.

They couldn't just give up enough credits to buy a new ship now. She wasn't going to put anyone else on the line for it either.

"I'll go."

"But-"

"I'll go."

She lowered her rifle. "I'm coming in, weapons down."

She walked through the opened door. "Okay, I'm here."

"Your name. What is it?" The Specialist stared forward, not blinking even once- The Asari wasn't Eclipse. No- It was probably one of the other Terminus groups that existed in his lapsed memory. "You and your team are going to escort me out of here as if I were a common bounty, bag-over-the-head. You are going to help me kill the man who hired you. In return for this, I will ensure that you get your payment as close to twice-over as I can. In return, I get his ship and I get passage to the Citadel." He opened his hands slightly- still holding the detonator to his palm with his thumb in clear sight, with a calm push of the right side of his jacket revealing a rigged explosive thermal clip using his left hand.

"Are we clear?" The man spoke with an authoritarian tone. Post a private message to him that you've captured me. Tell him to meet me with a company of what's left of his men here on Omega in a hangar. You have to be careful. He has men here that will attempt to assassinate you and seize me for himself without necessitating a large payout. Peter Wilson dies today or I die. Those are my terms. If you'd like to negotiate with the alternative, I need only press my thumb." His tone was flat and cold- his eyes focused on the blue woman in front of him.

"Niala." She listened to the man's speech, growing increasingly annoyed with this turn of events.

"And how exactly are you going to get close to a million credits on short notice?"

"That ship was worth twice that. A simple access of his account using my bypass algorithms installed into my omnitool and one transfer and you are one million credits richer. You can believe me or I can depress my thumb. How hard do you want to play this game, Ms. Niala? I'm playing all or nothing. My terms or you'll have to deliver me in a bucket with what's left of your limbs." The man wiggled his wrist, a grey-silver device in his hand with a button his thumb was pressed against.

There's a pause as Niala weighs her options.

It wasn't even about the money anymore. If she walked out now, well, she wouldn't walk out. There'd be at least serious injury with no compensation. Whatever he had planned would be much more complicated then the original plan, but if she succeeded, the risk would be well worth the reward.

She grimaces. "You crazy bastard. Fine, we'll do it your way."

"I'm glad we can see things on the same page. We're going to require three things. One, a hostage from the Acta Non Verba Omega branch, three arcologies away from here. Two, we're going to need a way to mute him-" He stepped past her, politely excusing himself, his thumb still on the detonator button. He pried one of the disk-like grenades from the wall and calmly flipped it through the air for her to catch. "- And finally, I'm going to need a set of armor. Your organization has a spare, right?" He turned, his tone softening. "Face concealing. Voice masking. Male, size medium."

"You need not worry about starting a war with the Omega branch or even Acta Non Verba. Once we are concluded here, there won't be enough officer-level members of the organization's Terminus branch left alive to run it properly. The PMC will slowly flounder and circle the drain before they're aggregated into other organizations such as the Blue Suns, and the Citadel branch has no interests in anything near Omega- And won't, given what we are about to do. Trust me, Niala. I may be a homicidal member of Cerberus but I survived this long and with all of this damage done to my body for a reason. You help me survive and you help me clear up this nuisance, and I give you my word you and your team will be massively compensated for your troubles."

"Fine then. Are we donating a new suit first, or are we going to start taking hostages and strapping explosives to them first?" She catches the bomb deftly.

Goddess dammit this is a shit situation.

The man scratched his chin with the detonator, his thumb pressed gently against the button without fully depressing it. "Hrm. I don't know. Let's do the armor thing first, that way we have the element of surprise. Besides, it's not really hostages, they're amoral private military scumbags-" He paused, turning to face her.

"No offense."

Her stare remained level. "Right. We'll call for a supply drop. We'll be outside when you're ready" she gestures at the room "cleaning out this."

With that, the operatives all vacated the floor and went out the front exit of the hotel in a quick fashion.

A few moments earlier and one level away, a blue and white shuttle lifted carefully from the street. The six heavily-armed batarians within didn't bat an eye as the shuttle blazed across the chaotic skylanes, remarkably leaving no trail of wreckage or destruction behind them.

"Are we confirmed? Do we know who we're dealing with?"

"Not one of the Big Three."

"Good enough for me. We good to go?"

"Affirmative. Bringing us in."

There was a chorus of deep-throated chuckles from the shuttle's back compartment as it set down barely a block away from where the AEGIS team was being blackmailed by a lone operative, just one of the hundreds of shuttles on the Omega streets at any given time. Red chains glinted in the dim light as the shuttle bumped to the ground and the six bulky batarians poured out.

"Hit the jammers as soon as we have visual on the building," came the harsh voice of the group's commander, even as he singled out three of the squad. "You three, take position, watch the exits while we move in. Let's make this quick."

With that, the small squad moved out in close formation at something approximating a jog, headed towards the Hotel just down the street.

"Yes, we have him. Bring the exfil vehicle in for extraction."

"Copy that Ma'am, shuttle inb-" The radio chatter dropped off immediately as the signal jammer took effect.

"Vren, I told you not to trip the jammer until my signal."

"That's not mine."

A pause, before everyone stopped and dropped into cover on the windows of the building overlooking the street, scanning for targets.

"Contacts, Blue Suns, close!" One of the human operatives yelled out.

A split second decision. Stand down and let them take this load off their hands, or go for the money pot.

"Engage, engage!" Niala said, bringing her Mattock up to bear against the batarians. "Nirik, secure the cerbie. We need to exfil now."

The sight of the raised barrels made the next decision easy - as the Blue Suns dropped into the nearest cover, be it alleyways, street debris, or the myriad shuttles scattered around the hotel entrance, Collar raised one arm and activated his omnitool. A bright red and white flare exploded from his arm, hurtling into the sky and then detonating with a blinding flash but no other obvious effects.

"Hold fire, hold fire!"

The command was meant more for the potential enemy than it was for his own men - slavers, even former slavers, knew not to turn it into a fight unless they had to. His men wouldn't open up unless they had to, but they wouldn't hesitate if it came to it. It all hinged on what the competition did next.

A decision on their part which should be carefully made, due to the blue-and-white shuttle which even now was responding to the flare, hovering above the Suns' position and training weapons on the AEGIS personnel as the batarian commander's voice came over loudspeaker.

"Let's have us a conversation, neh?"

Niala affirmed to the others. "Hold your fire."

This is good, enough time and HQ's bound to figure out what interrupted the transmission. Just stall.

Niala opened up her own omnitool, augmenting her voice levels. "Of course. Speak your mind."

From his position behind a parked skycar, Collar made a few hand gestures to his men before he started talking. These gestures were relayed around, and within seconds the batarian farthest from the hotel was making his way quietly but quickly away, moving from cover to cover out of the jamming field to send for reinforcements. The others, meanwhile, kept an eye on the hotel windows and entry which, with the shuttle covering the roof and windows from above, gave them pretty good odds if things went bad.

"Alright then. Captain Esarkhad Adar, Crimson Suns. We know who you've got, and we know what he's worth. You know who we are, you know what we can do. Seems like we should work something out before this gets ugly. Who'm I dealing with, here?"

"I'm Captain Niala Sornn, with AEGIS company." She looked up at the shuttle. A straight up fight would be losing with that kind of support. Bounding fall back to the rear exit might get them into the alleys where it wouldn't be of much use. But they were clearly watching all the exits. They were professionals. We needed time.

"How about you give us a cut of the bounty if we hand him over? It might be more expensive to take him by force, after all."