[OMEGA] Tech-Support (Closed)

Mekan looked up at the sign outside Shepard Memorial Hospital as he hobbled along on his shoddy legs. It had taken him hours to wipe the viral routines from them and get them disconnected (and in that time, he'd gone through some fairly extreme pain in the form of 'a physically impossible kick to the testicles'). Between the time spent wiping the virus, getting ready to move out (he was being evicted for shooting out that damned salarian's window (and stealing another tenant's car, despite the seeming urgency of the situation), and working up the money to actually replace his old hacking terminal (he'd been using one rented from Titan Corporation via their CEO, Nikolai Aleksanders) and then pay off the tab he owed Nik for the rented rig, Mekan had barely any time to work into his schedule for the OHO and his offer of pro-bono work.

Nonetheless, it'd serve as a good opportunity to network and find new job opportunities. And who knew? Maybe he'd make an actual friend or two. That used to happen all the time, and he was certainly lacking in those these days. His life in general had certainly taken a turn for the worst since Erszbat, and he knew it.

When in doubt, do good deeds, right? Paying it forward, helping people.

Right. Helping people.

He used to do a lot more of that.

With that thought, Mekan struggled on towards the hospital.

Once Mekan reached the doors, he'd be greeted by a pair of equally burly, equally bald Suns troopers, their rifles already trained on his head. The taller of the two spat out the remains of a cigarette and sauntered towards the batarian, never lowering their weapon for a second.

"Oi, Cruz!" the merc shouted over her shoulder, in a voice that most decidedly did not fit her butch appearance. "Whaddaya reckon? Actual patient this time, or just another battie drug dealer lookin' to rifle through the prescriptions?"

"Patient, you stupid twat!" the other Sun yelled back, visibly relaxing as soon as he got a decent look at Mekan. "Look at them fuckin' legs! No way that poor bastard can sneak his way in back - they'd hear him coming a mile away! It'd be bloody hilarious if 'e tried to make a mad dash for 'em, though."

"Oh yeah? 'Member the last time you said that? ERCS didn't kick you out for being too good at pulling security, asshat. Now you," the woman spat, addressing Mekan now. "You're a shifty-looking fucker. How 'bout yo--"

"Petra!" A new, exasperated voice joined the conversation as a frazzled-looking young woman with auburn hair appeared in the doorway. "Calm your tits! That's just Mekan - you know, the guy who very kindly offered to help us out with our tech? The one I told you to look out for?"

As Cruz snorted behind her, Lessina turned on him as well.

"And you can knock it off too, Cruz! Else I'll make sure we find you something extra shitty when you get something blown off in a firefight! In fact, go head down to Room 4 - one of your brothers-in-arms has decided he doesn't like the life-saving surgery we're offering, and they could do with some support in there."

Only when Cruz had disappeared inside and Petra had reluctantly returned to her post (glaring at Mekan the entire time) did Lessina finally turn to speak to her guest.

"Hey, sorry 'bout all the yelling," she said with an apologetic grimace. "The Suns had a little dust-up at one of the borders, so things are a bit hectic. And Petra's just pissed she missed all the fighting, so it's nowt personal - she's been doing that to everyone who looks at her funny... Anyway, Lessina Moore, pleased to meet ya in person."

She extended one arm for a handshake, silently steeling herself for the contact. Her fear was irrational, she knew it - Mekan wasn't going to hurt her. And it had been near enough two years since the riots. Even so...

"Shall we head inside? The offices should be fairly quiet, and I'll dig you up a drink. Anything you want? Coffee, tisane, I'm fairly sure there's some Tupari around..."

"Water, if ya got it." Tupari would just give him a headache when he crashed later; Mekan had been trying to kick the habit lately. Tilting his head to the left in a gesture of respect and putting on a friendly smile as he took Lessina's offered handshake, he allowed his upper set of eyes to wander over to the Blue Suns guard that was watching him. He visibly shivered a little. Suns always made him nervous. The Suns' reputation for war crimes and tidying up loose ends with a bullet to the brain-box didn't do wonders for his opinion of the mercs. Considering his circle of friends had consisted of turian terrorists, Terminus mercenaries, C-Sec officers who'd been kicked out for excessive police brutality and the occasional rampaging psychopath (along with a few other unsavory sorts), this was saying something.

The fact that he'd compromised one of their computer networks in the past and had always been moderately paranoid of eventual discovery and a reprisal certainly didn't help matters, but he'd learned to live with that. If they hadn't found out yet, they probably wouldn't after all this time.

Focusing both upper eyes on Lessina again and forcing his paranoia to the back of his mind, the hacker grinned in what he hoped was a non-menacing manner. He had the haggard look of one who didn't sleep often or well, possibly from working too much...or something worse, like nightmares. In spite of this, he was certainly putting on a good show of not being too troubled about it. "Mekan of Omega, proud to be at your service. And yes, before you ask, that is my actual name. Slave-caste, cultural thing, never liked it, long story." Waving a hand dismissively, he let go of Lessie's hand and hefted a small bag slung around his shoulder. It looked packed to the brim, and he probably had to struggle to bring it to the hospital, considering the state of his legs.

"Let's see if I can't solve your problem, shall we?"

Well, that wasn't so bad.

Lessina had been expecting worse - the usual shudder of revulsion and fear that accompanied a batarian's touch ever since that night. But there was... nothing. Maybe that was just because the other batarians who touched her were bar creeps or otherwise threatening, but nevertheless, the sheer surprise of it brought a lopsided grin to her face.

"Water? I'm sure I can find some of that, if I search hard enough," Lessina laughed good-naturedly. "The good stuff too, not that crap that comes out of the residential taps 'round here. I've lived in these parts all my life, and I've never been able to work out what that tang is. Not sure if I wanna know, to be honest."

Catching Mekan's glance towards Petra, whose eyes were currently burning a hole in the back of his skull, Lessina added: "Oh, and seriously, don't mind Petra. I know she's got the crazy look about her, but she's just hopped up on stims. Garrison Suns, y'know - might as well use that weekly ration even if you're just playin' guard. Should see 'em down at the Pyjak. Rowdy sons-of-bitches, but there's the odd good'un in there. Dunno if I'd count Petra as one of 'em, but... Well, she won't cave your skull in 'less you've been causing trouble with the Suns."

Lessina was well aware she was babbling as she led the way into the clinic (weaving around the gaggle of patients and hangers-on haranguing the flustered salarian at the desk), but she was kinda nervous. Patients she could deal with just fine - go here, hold this, stay still while I stop the bleeding - but this was different. She desperately wanted to make a good first impression; to be as accommodating and helpful as possible, so Mekan might not mind helping out again. And, well... Omega wasn't exactly conducive to developing those sort of skills.

"Hey, can I take that bag for ya?" she said after a few seconds, shooting a concerned look towards Mekan. "Looks like you're carrying a sack of bricks there. And no offence, but it looks like those legs are gonna start leaking coolant if you put too much weight on them."

Needless to say, thanks to Mekan's own upbringing on Omega, social awkwardness on Lessina's part was the least of his concerns. He was used to that. She's being nice. Make friends. Accept the offer.

Glancing down at his legs, Mekan noticed just how battered and junked-up they looked, especially after all of his poor treatment of them. Constantly smacking something to make it work tended to show. The cybernetics looked on the verge of falling off outright. He nodded in agreement. "Well, if you want, sure. Thanks." The batarian smiled and offered the bag to Lessina; a glance at the contents would quickly confirm that it's almost packed to the bursting point with nothing but computer equipment, extra omnitools, and spare parts. Whoever needed extra omnitools was dedicated to the job.

Mekan looked around at the patients and the poor salarian at the desk, then back. "So, you, er...You're good at this EMT thing, then? Good to know someone around here knows what they're doing. Omega needs it. You're doin' good."

The hacker then mentally berated himself. Right, 'you're doin' good.' DIPSHIT, YOU CAN COMPLEMENT SOMEONE BETTER THAN THIS. YOU ARE THE EPITOME OF SHIT, MEKAN. The self-deprecating thoughts were pushed away fairly quickly, but Mekan certainly had to admit to himself that he used to be better at this. He smiled at the human again, trying to emphasize that he meant what he said.

"Holy fuck, you really do have bricks in here!" Lessina cried, dipping comically to one side as she accepted the bag. "Now I'll be the first to admit I'm no tech goddess, but here I was thinking stuff was haptic interfaces and hard light stuff. But then, I guess something's gotta make all that happen, eh?"

That's right, Less', show your underwear right from the off. First rule on Omega, never let anyone know how clueless you are. Now he'll probably rip you off or something, you fuckin' genius.

Despite her inner monologue, Lessina didn't think Mekan was the type to take advantage of her. She hoped. Her gut instincts were usually pretty good - she wouldn't have lasted so long on Omega otherwise - but what if she was wrong?

... Nah. She'd taken people home who were way worse than Mekan. And besides, what did he have to gain from screwing her over? He was doing this out of the goodness of his heart, for all she could tell, and if anyone was doing that on Omega, they were worth trusting.

"Heh, thanks," she said sheepishly, blushing slightly at Mekan's compliment. Sure, elsewhere it might not have been much of one, but gratitude wasn't commonly expressed around here. Even the people she saved tended to berate her for not getting there sooner or some shit. "I wouldn't say I'm the best, but I'm competent, qualified and honest, which is more than a lot can say here. You'd be surprised how many sickos end up in the medical profession - organ thieves, just plain crazies, that fucker who runs FEMES... I'm just doing my bit for the people here. Which... probably sounds kinda arrogant, huh? Anyway, I'm just glad there are folks like you who appreciate it."

As she talked, Lessina led the way through a recently-repaired door that opened into a narrow corridor. Assorted offices and storage rooms were visible through the windows on either side, and one, labelled 'Controlled Substances', looked like it had recently been ransacked. It was only a short walk until Lessina punched in an access code and stood aside to let Mekan into a small room, mostly occupied by a desk and a static terminal.

"Anddddd I'm talking way too much, aren't I? Well, here's the terminal," she gestured towards the bulky machine as she hefted Mekan's bag onto the table. It probably wasn't as fancy or as powerful as Mekan was used to, but it did it's job. As well as you could expect for a terminal bought from a shifty-eyed salarian at the Vakkus Markets, anyway. "Quietest room I could find, I'm afraid. We mostly just use the one on the front desk, but I doubt you'd like to be out there with that rabble. And it'll get you into the network just fine. Want me to log you in? I mean, you could probably break in easy enough if half of what I've read's true, but it might speed things up? Or do you need to poke holes in the encryption... whatsimajig... thing...?"

Smoooooooooth.

Mekan nodded politely and smiled, managing to keep up with Lessie's rambling easily.

Right up until her mention of FEMES.

Nulisan...

The leader of FEMES had once been Mekan's roommate.

He'd also been his closest friend right up until the two had a falling out over Mekan working on a black-market tech project.

C-Sec had started snooping into it. Mekan had gotten off pretty much scot-free since C-Sec didn't actually find anything to pin on him despite their best efforts; batarians weren't anywhere near popular in C-Space at the time, and the war hadn't done much to improve that perception. But Nulisan had gotten angry over the incident and left, severing ties with the batarian in the process.

They hadn't spoken since before the war.

And then Nulisan went off the deep-end and started strafing apartment blocks.

He sighed quietly as Lessie continued to ramble. He was careful to keep it as quiet as possible; he didn't want to offend her. But his stance visibly shifted to what one would normally associate with quiet sadness in a batarian. His shoulders slumped, and his smile turned into a thin line stretched across his face.

Then he found himself in a small room with a terminal that, simply put, looked like a fossil. A particularly badly-damaged fossil. Lost in his thoughts, Mekan had neglected to really pay attention to most of Lessie's chatter.

Shit, she's gonna think she was boring you. That'll give off the wrong impression. SAY SOMETHING. IMPROVISE, YOU DIPSHIT, IMPROVISE.

"Or do you need to poke holes in the encryption... whatsimajig... thing...?"

"...Mmm? Sorry, I was lost in thought. You mentioned FEMES, and it got me thinking about the incident. Those poor people in those apartments didn't deserve what happened to them. And don't even get me started on those left homeless by the fighting. We don't need psychopaths like that running around. Omega's had enough of that." He shook his head in what looked like honest regret and disappointment.

Smooooooooooth.

"Anyways, your encryption." Mekan gently reached out to take his Bag-O-Computers from Lessina while simultaneously bringing up his OT user-interface. "First order of business, we need to take a look at any common pitfalls. Possible backdoors in your firewalls, whether or not your firewalls have been compromised already, whether or not someone's using your terminal to browse the extranet when they're supposed to be working, stuff like that. Check the extranet browser history on that thing, would you?" He pointed at the clinic's old, clunky terminal, his lower set of eyes fixed on his omnitool's screen.

"Damn right. I know the War fucked up a lot of people - PTSD, it's gonna happen - but there's excuse for killing a load of people just to save two others just 'cos they paid you. I mean, seriously, I've dealt with mercs that are outright hallucinating at times, and even they're not as bad as that."

Lessina was so caught up in her righteous anger that she didn't notice Mekan's subtle expressions. Not that she probably would have anyway - she could read human and turian body language, but batarians tended to be much more complex. She had the basics, out of necessity, but anything more advanced than the assorted head tilts was beyond her.

She did, however, notice his reaction to the terminal.

"Sorry again 'bout the terminal, by the way. Can't afford much else these days. Hell, I was reduced to begging on fuckin' CDN, of all places. As for the browser history, though? No problemo. Let's take a look here..."

Her fingers flew quickly over the haptic interface, a skill picked up over her years of serving as admin staff with medical assistance as a side. The fingertip implants were the only cybernetics she ever intended to pick up, and those she'd only got because the gloves tended to get ruined when you had to stop someone bleeding out in your office. Putting aside the fact that she didn't really understand what a firewall was (besides the fact you had to have one), Lessina scrolled through the necessary menus, bringing up the list of recently-visited sites.

... Well. That wasn't good.

No doubt Mekan was already engrossed in his techie business, but even he was sure to look up at the words scrolling past on the display. Citadel: XXX. The full collection of Asari Confessions. Ruck Humpers. Grim Terminus Alliance: The Movie. And those were just the tame ones. All streamed from increasingly dodgy-looking extranet sites.

"Oh, fuck you with a rusty spoon, Cruz," Lessina muttered, her face burning crimson even as she tried to cover it with her hands. "I told them not to let the muscle into the network, but noooooo... Boss says we all have to play nice with the Suns, since they're being so generous with the contract..." Grimacing, she turned to look at Mekan. "Hey Mekan, think I might have found Problem One."

A light, annoyed grunt came from the hacker's general direction. His upper set of eyes was fixated on his omnitool, his lower set on Lessie's terminal. "Yep." The way Mekan put it, it just sounded like it was another day at work for him.

(It was, but that's beside the point.)

"OK, first thing I'm gonna do is try and hack into your system and start running anti-virus and anti-malware stuff. Clean the bulk of the crap out of your system. Best way to test defenses is to compromise them, fix what's wrong, and then try to do it again and see if they hold up. This is gonna take a little while." He pushed a button on his omnitool and waited, staring intently at both his own screen and Lessie's terminal for about a minute.

There was no outward sign when Mekan secured administrator privileges. The whole process took less than sixty seconds.

"OK, that's not a good sign. Your security's pretty much worthless, and I'm saying that because it took me no time at all to get inside your network. I'm in right now, and I'm having a harder time hiding from everyone else in your systems than I am from your own security. This is more than a fixer-upper. I- Just a sec."

Mekan pushed another button his OT.


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Somewhere on the other end of the station, a certain cybernetically-augmented salarian began screaming in incoherent rage as he was kicked out of the clinic's network. "FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-"
--------


"There we go. Where was I? Right, lots of guys in your network. Kicking them out, then running the stuff." He was certainly good at 'dumbing down' the tech-talk.

He reached down into the Bag-O-Computers, opened it and began pulling out what looked like computer parts. A lot of computer parts, along with small portable terminals and spare omnitools. Strapping another 'tool onto his free arm, and setting up several screens in a small semi-circle around himself, the hacker spoke as he prepared his set-up. "If you guys want some better hardware, I can hook you up with stuff that's a bit more..." He glanced at Lessie's junker-terminal again. "Modern. Some of this stuff is gonna be a bitch to haul back, and some of it is stuff I've been looking to sell. I can hand it off to the OHO as a gift, if you like." The batarian put on that friendly smile again.

You're too fuckin' generous, Mek. He thought to himself bitterly. What, you think she's going to be all impressed because you're some ace-hacker with a shit-ton of computers you don't want anymore because you just got something better?

Sometimes, he was a little hard on himself.

Lessina winced inwardly as Mekan tore through the network. She'd known the security wasn't as tough as it should've been, but knowing it was this bad was... worrisome, to say the least. If news of this ever got out to the patients, particularly some of the more violently private ones... Well, let's just say Lessina and the rest of the staff would owe Mekan a lot more than a new set of legs if he made sure that couldn't happen.

She was mostly quiet as he worked, not wanting to interrupt what was surely a highly complicated process (though Mekan made it look remarkably easy). In fact, Lessina was quite fascinated by the whole process - so much so that she almost missed Mekan's generous offer.

"Wait, what? Seriously?" she asked when Mekan mentioned his excess hardware. "You'd just give them to us, no strings attached? I... I I I--" Lessina paused again, looking absolutely flabbergasted at the batarian's offer. She knew she shouldn't be so surprised - the response she'd had to her OHO campaigning had been overwhelming positive - but still. Generosity was hardly a commodity here. "We-- I mean-- Yes! Thank you!"

Unexpectedly, she pulled Mekan into a hug, forgetting for a moment her instinctive aversion to batarians. Her head was too busy spinning with the possibility of what the OHO could do with that sort of equipment - even basic stuff would be a lifesaver for some of the rougher member clinics, allowing much more rapid med-scans, retrieval of patient data, dosage scaling across species, even stock databases would be invaluable! And all because one guy was willing to help out...

All because one guy she was currently squeezing rather tightly was willing to help out.

Whoa, invasion of personal space much? Back off, Less' - you hardly know the guy! And he ain't just one of your bar pursuits - you're at work here!

"Ahem, I, er..." Lessina coughed awkwardly as she abruptly pulled away, gaze fixed firmly on the floor. "Well, I... Sorry 'bout that. It's just-- Do you know what we could do with that gear? I can't let you give it to us for nothing. I mean, we don't have much money to spare, but... Look, you gotta let me do something for you in return. Anything. Seriously, anything."

I stand corrected. She IS impressed. The batarian let out a light 'wheeze' as he was hugged. It wasn't the reaction he was expecting, but he wasn’t going to start complaining. Gratitude was hardly a commodity here.

Lessie's reaction was kind of overwhelming, but not so much that he didn’t start thinking about the upsides to his offer almost immediately. He was mostly proposing just some typical hacker/cybersecurity gear to help step up the clinic's network protection, but everything was computerized in one form or another in this day and age, and there was enough overlap for him to be of help in that field. It was part of why a hacker could be so dangerous. He wasn’t a doctor, but...A lot of his stuff could be repurposed...And he only needed just the one rig for work...

Before he knew it, his train of thought was on two separate sets of tracks simultaneously. Don't start, DO NOT START, YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO GIVE UP MOST OF YOUR SHIT-

Get an endorsement-

YOU ARE A DUMBASS, MEKAN-

You’re not using any of it and she seems like she could use it-

GODDAMMIT, NO-

Could do worse than accept her offer. I mean, fuck, you’re taking the new legs aren’t you-

YOU PIECE OF SHIT TALK ALREADY

After what seemed like an eternity (it was just a split-second, really, but it wasn’t like anyone was counting), Mekan finally shrugged, and smiled good-naturedly, managing to keep his cool and make it look like he wasn’t having any kind of intense internal debate. ”What can I say? This is what I do. But, if you really want to make it up to me, some endorsements from the OHO would be nice. I’ve been doing a bit too much black-hat work lately. A bit of white-hat work would be nice, and getting it from a legit group would make it look good.”

He let that hang in the air for a second. Then he clarified for the tech-illiterate.

”Uh, black-hat. That’s, uh, that’s hacker-talk for ‘bad guy hacking stuff.’ I do it too, so I know all their tricks. Don’t like it, but ya gotta pay the bills, y’know? I prefer white-hat work. Keeping the bad guys out.”

The two sets of mental train tracks merged again right around that point. ...Dumbass YOU CANNOT AFFORD TO GIVE ALL THIS GEAR UP.

That little factoid remained firmly lodged in the forefront of his thoughts. He couldn't afford to give almost all of his tech up. Not in his situation.

But, it'd go to better use here.