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

"...I mean, don't enslave him or anything..."

Fucking wet-blanket do-gooders. Even the competent ones didn't really understand profit.

"Fine," muttered Collar, gesturing for two of his men to bring the cripple aboard. "We'll use him to corroborate what we get from the other one. Cross-check it with traffic records, registration and so on - we'll be hitting their base within the next couple of hours, is my guess. You're welcome to take your cut and leave, or stick around for a cut of whatever we find there, but if you come along you work within our parameters. No exceptions."

By which he obviously meant "we are going to enslave every living thing we find there and turn this clusterfuck into as profitable a venture as possible, with or without you. Leave now if this is a problem."

The Hornet landed in another plaza about a mile out- The crew inside beside themselves with panic. "Those were the Blue Suns!" The pilot yelled. "They're going to be looking for this bird. I -" He pulled up his omnitool, opening up a communications line with the Mantis that had already fled. "Mantis pilot!"

His response was a solitary expletive from the Mantis pilot, who stared at the Blue Suns from the distance with his helmet's long-range viewfinder. The pilot got back into his gunship and warmed up the engine and primary guns. "Well. Okay. Looks like we're on our own, gentlemen! They're going to be looking for the vehicle so I suggest we all leave this as fast as we humanly can.

"I didn't sign up to fight no Blue Suns, man. I'm ex-Systems Alliance! I just wanted a fucking job!"

"You and everyone else in here. It seems we should have picked better friends. We have a chance to survive." The pilot removed his helmet and dropped it at his feet. He held up his tool again- Opening up the bay door of the transport. He broke into a sprint. "Every man for himself! Acta Non Verba is dead!"

The squad of loyalists glanced among one another, then fled the scene.

--

Bright was dragged aboard and shook his head and tried to wriggle free. "I gave you the money! I can give you more money! Don't kill me! I don't want to die, I'm just a fucking accountant! I only barely passed BT!" He was overwhelmed with panic and fear- Ideas running through his head, ideas of torture, ideas of enslavement, or worse.

Niala pondered this for a moment. No exceptions. Yeah, that just wouldn't do. She wasn't going to stoop that low. Not for all the money on Omega. She was in this for things greater then profit.

She lifted her omnitool to the chit, withdrawing her cut of the money. "I think we'll pass on this one." She hands the chit to the captain and steps off the shuttle, beginning to walk away.

With a shrug and a "Suit yourself," the grizzled batarian gave the order to lift off. It wasn't long before the shuttle was in the air, Neeru escorts keeping close.

"We've got the transport, landed in a small plaza nearby. Looks like the pilots ditched. No sign of the Mantis."

"Alright then. Let's go get ourselves a new ship - we can pull the flight logs. I love dealing with amateurs."

Moments later, the shuttle was coming in for a landing next to the larger Hornet, the Suns' two gunships circling above.

The ANV squad from the Hornet continued to flee for their lives- Apart from one soldier, who stopped to listen for the incoming Blue Sun pursuers. "Have to buy you guys some time! Keep running! Meet up at the hangar if you can!" He shouted at the top of his lungs. The man took a kneel and pulled the ML-77 from behind his back- The weapon extending and getting into firing mode. A rocket shell was locked into place and the man turned- his right eye looking down the sights of the missile launcher.

The shuttle was in sight. The man took a deep breath- And fired a rocket. "SUCK ON THIS, ALIEN BASTARDS!" He screamed at the top of his lungs- The missile creating a large trail of fire and smoke as it zipped through the air directly at the pilots.

Meanwhile..

The Mantis Gunship was in the air- the solitary airborne vehicle ANV now owned in this side of the galaxy. The vehicle zipped forward, the orange and green lights of readouts and sensors illuminating the cockpit. The pilot banked hard to the left and began to engage one of the escorts, peppering the other gunship with a burst of HEAT rounds.

There's a moment, during the landing process, where even a well-equipped moving vehicle shuts down the kinetic barriers. It's a precaution, mostly, built right into the ship VI to prevent accidentally triggering the barriers and shorting them out entirely when the vehicle gets too close to the ground. It's not a long moment - a few seconds where the barriers are down before they reactivate on the ground. It's very rarely a risk of any kind, and when unloading under fire a shuttle will usually hover a couple of feet up, letting passengers disembark under cover of those barriers. Whether because of their unmitigated success so far today or because their reports had indicated there was nobody around, the Suns didn't take that precaution today, and this was one of the very few times it was going to be an issue.

The rocket slammed into the armor plating on the otherwise-unshielded shuttle, which shook in place before settling onto the ground with an uncharacteristic *thunk*, the delicate landing process interrupted. Within, a chorus of curses rang out from the passengers, drowned out by the pained scream of the copilot as his instrument panel exploded in his face, leaving the front of his armor a charred mess.

Above, the pair of Neeru's turned to engage even as the Mantis' weapons fire bounced harmlessly off their active barriers, the slightly less maneuverable multipurpose gunships counterattacking from two different angles, making it as difficult as possible for the Mantis to avoid them both. Explosions and the sound of gatling cannons filled the air above the plaza.

In the grounded shuttle, the pilot rushed to his copilot's aid even as the side doors opened and the batarians within poured out, weapons raised. Even through the smoke and noise, it took them only seconds to locate the shooter and send a barrage of concussive rounds towards him, complemented by submission nets and a flashbang. The slavers didn't bother with the fleeing forms in the distance, all of which were well beyond ground pursuit range or accurate weapons' fire at this point. If the aerial battle ended quickly, the gunships could hunt down the stragglers. The ground forces had more pressing matters - such as the empty Hornet transport, itself worth more than the entire bounty.

An explosion sheared off the side of the Mantis' right wing, and with it, the propulsion system on that side went flying through the air and smashing off the roof of the landed Blue Suns shuttle. Spinning hopelessly out of control and spewing a black cloud of smoke, the pilot panics, punching open the emergency hatch just in time for the vehicle to smash into the ground just behind the Hornet- And explode violently, crushing the missile-launching troop with scrap metal.

The Hornet transport was fine- Apart from the rear of the ship now glowing red with heat from the nearby fire. An automated fire control system began to spray the surrounding area with foam, in a manner similar to a sprinkler system. A female VI began to speak over a loud radio. "Warning: Extreme Heat. Warning: Extreme Heat. Please exit the area in an orderly fashion."

Watching his men fan out and secure the area, Collar signaled for one of the gunships to unload it's squad. "We're going to need some fire suppression. Take care of it, make sure that transport comes through intact while we clear the area."

Moments later, another half dozen batarians were on the ground with portable extinguishers, protecting their new prize as surely as those with weapons. For his part, the Captain lit up a cigarette. Not a bad day, all in all.