The room smelled horrible, though that would only be readily noticed by those species that had any acute sense of smell. Though for most everyone, that fact went largely unnoticed, or if it was noticed, the occupants of the room didn't really care. The walls of the cramped room were lined in rust streaked metal, and large metal crates served as tables and chairs for the assortment of rough and tumble visitors who graced the blackmarket under A136. Human music rolled through the room as a constant background to the din as a beautiful, but rough and tumble woman sang a mournful sea shanty about an astronaut blasted out the airlock freezing to death in his space suit as he looked on at the beauty of the universe.

At the bar two tall Drev bartenders used all four of their hands to prepare drinks for their waiting customers ranging anywhere from, Human, to Kree, to Celzex. Rockus laughter filtered up into the air as men and women gambled with ten sided dice,, and strange glowing chips. The floor below their feet was stained and mottled with unknown substances which had likely never seen mop. When they moved it wasn't uncommon for them to flash mechanical enhancements, a hand here, or an eye there, some clearly lost to accidents, others.... Perhaps replaced on purpose.

In the throng it wasn't even uncommon to see alien/human couples blatantly and proudly interacting with one another without garnering so much as a sideways glance from those around them

Drinks poured, staining the bar till the metal rusted and the wood ran dark.

At the side of the room a table sat raised slightly away from the others surrounded by stained and rotting curtains, and at that table sat A Drev. The armor she wore was half Drev and half of medieval human make. One of his shoulders was covered with a metal pauldron and armor that went all the way down one arm. Leather straps criss-crossed her chest. Next to her sat a woman, with beautiful, wavy, honey-blonde hair and bright red lips. She wore mostly black, and a long leather coat.

When she leaned back she rested her large boots on the table spinning a playing card between two fingers.

The Drev looked on into the crowd, her eyes scanning over the people that thronged before her, people and aliens alike, an unwashed mass, looking and waiting for her target, and AH, there he is, just the person she had been told to expect.

He was tall, though the clothing he wore blended so seamlessly into the crowd, he wouldn't have garnered much attention, especially not here.

He wore a dark brown jacket with a grey cowl pulled low over his face. He kept his head down, though she noted the slight bulge at either hip where he likely concealed two weapons.

Which he reached forward, she saw the glittering of a metal gauntlet, either that or a metal hand.

On his shoulder rode a furry little Celzex, though it's once bright fur had been stained mostly grey and black, probably from some horrible accident.

Beside her Beatrice leaned forward, her red lips parting in a smile, "That him?"

"Yes it appears it is."

She went to stand, but the Drev pushed her back down, "I already have men on it."

Beatriss frowned, her full red lips puckering down into a pout, "You never let me have any fun."

"There will be time for you, yet."

They watched as the figure pushed his way through the crowd and took a seat at the back of the room. Without, it seemed, any prompting a waitress scurried form the darkness and set a drink down before him. Credits exchanged as the woman vanished back into the crowd.

Two fingers moved forward from the edge of the room, pushing their way through the crowd.

They would have been impossible to pick from the crowd if it wasn't for their purposeful strides forward.

The figure took a sip from his drink, only the bottom of his chin visible under the hood and part of his right cheek covered in a mechanical mask.

Behind him, the two figures had moved into position. One man reached out to rest a hand on his shoulder, but fast as a striking snake the stranger grabbed the man by the arm tugged him forward and slammed his head painfully into the tabletop knocking him cold almost immediately before snapping to the side blocking a punch by the second man, and then elbowing him directly in the throat.

The two men hit the ground in seconds.

"Not bad." The Drev muttered in open admiration, and Beatrice looked up at her with an open expression of jealousy. The Drev smiled slightly, the corners of her mouth turning up in the familiar human expression. She liked when Beatrice got jealous.

The sudden brawl had hardly stopped the debauchery taking place around the rest of the room . That was until the Drev, Jeea, rose to her feet and clapped once.

All around her, the entire room seemed to part like the red sea, and at the very end of that part was the man and the two prone bodies.

He did not flinch, barely even seemed surprised as he stood, and walked into the center of the room.

"We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way."

The man raised his hands, "That depends entirely on you Jeea." his Drev accent was impeccable, that surprised her.

"Captain Kall, your skills as a warrior impress me,"

The man smiled under his hood, "Than you are easily impressed."

Jeea snorted slightly, "Come, sit."

He hummed deep in his chest, not dissimilar to the sound of pleasure so common among her people, "Pity, I was so looking forward to the hard way."

She waved the otters away, and the music began to play again as the man crossed the room and slid into the booth next to her and Beatrice: who was still pouting, her arms crossed, two long knives held in either hand.

Geea leaned forward and took a better look at the man, with half his mechanical face, mechanical hand and plunging hood.

"You don't make yourself as difficult to find as I would have assumed."

He leaned back in his chair as his Celzex companion hopped onto the table. Beatrice ed it with some measure of malice, but even she knew not to mess with a Celzex. It was more than likely the thing had friends, and if it had friends, it also had pirated Celzex weapons.

"Kall.... That is a Vrul name isn't it."

The man shrugged, "Could be, though I thought Vrul names tended to have five letters and not four."

Geea grunted, either way, "Your reputation precedes you, Captain, which is strange considering you haven't been on our radar long."

THe man waved over the waitress for another drink, "I make it a habit of keeping off people's Radar, but you would know all about that." he glanced around at the bar, "Aren't you concerned that holding operations here will get you noticed by the GA? Last I heard the UNSC had done some operations on this planet."

Beatrice snorted.

Geea shook her head, "A day long visit by the UNSC's favorite pet Admiral hardly counts."

Beatrice spat at the floor making a face, "The GA's little pet, i would like to cut off h-"

Geea held up a hand, "Now, now Beatrice, it's not the Admiral we are angry with. He is simply a figurehead, a representation of everything that is wrong with the GA. As far as I know he isn't so horrible." She reached out a hand and placed it atop the other woman's, "He did advocate for a cause near and dear to our hearts."

Beatrice Made a face, "Still don't like him."

The man across from them shifted in his seat, "I hardly see what this has to do with me. Me and my crew try to keep a low profile. GA or Anti-alliance doesn't matter either way. We just want to make money and keep to ourselves."

"And is piracy generally part of keeping a low profile?"

The man crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat, "I would hardly consider it piracy.... I like to think of it as.... Liberating materials already doomed to be misused."

"That sounds like piracy but with more steps." Beatrice muttered.

Geea held up a hand, "No need to get defensive here friend. It's not like the rest of us are law abiding citizens." A couple more waiters and waitresses moved forward to refill their drinks, one of them trailing her hand suggestively across the captain's shoulders.

"We are just here to speak to you, and maybe hire your crew."

Captain Kell leaned forward slightly in his seat, the mechanical face plate glittering in the light above, "Alright, and what is this job of yours."

"I want you to Kill Admiral Vir."

There was a pause the silence between them filled with the rolling conversation from the rest of the room.

"You want me to what!"

"You heard me clearly the first time."

The man stood nearly tipping over his chair in the process, "That's it, this conversation is over."

Beatrice grabbed him by the arm and forced him roughly back into his seat. At That moment, the people sitting at the nearest tables turned around, throwing back their coats to reveal large, and surely illegal submachine guns.

Captain Kell took a seat, hands raised slightly.

Geea leaned forward, "Just hear us out."

"I'm not a hitman or a mercenary. And the last thing I want to do is put that kind of heat on my people especially not Admiral Fucking Vir, do you think I am insane! I've never even done that sort of job. I steal shit, that's it. I am no killer."

Geea waited for the man to finish his little tantrum before she continued, "And that is precisely my point isn't it. No one knows who you are, no one knows who your ship is. In fact, your ship doesn't have a beacon, which means you are not properly registered with the UNSC or the GA, meaning that they cannot track, find or know where you are."
Captain kell began to laugh, "Are you fucking serious. Killing him while he is on-world is one thing, but killing him while he is off-world is a completely different can of worms. You would have to be able to board his ship, the motherfuking OMEN, the most advanced spaceship known to man or alien with Celzex weapons, and Vrul shields. Oh yeah, and let's not forget that he has an entire fucking clan of Drev onboard, a shitload of marines, oh and lets not forget one of those drev is a SAINT."

Geea leaned forward, "Someone does their homework."

Captain Kell laughed, "Does my homework, more like reads the news. He's got the media crawling up his ass half the time. If it isn't a picture of his dumbass on a magazine cover, than its a viral video of some asshole marine on his crew showing off all the dumb stuff they get to do onboard."

"See, that is exactly the sort of thinking we need, and we know your ship. We know it has the most advanced boarding capabilities in the known universe regardless of whether you are trying to hide that fact or not. If anyone can board his ship and take care of his men, then it's you." She pointed at the Celzex on the table, "Powerful friends, and with our help, I have no doubt that we could do it.

He shook his head emphatically and crossed his arms over his chest, "I don't understand, I thought you said earlier that you liked him. He did help the LFIL." he glanced between the two of them suddenly unsure that he had read them correctly. He had, but she did enjoy watching him squirm.

"I like the man as a person. He honestly does seem like a nice guy, funny, charming, awkward in an endearing way. But this isn't about my personal feeling of the man, this is about my beliefs as a Drev, this is.... Political, and sometimes good people have to go to make way for something better."

Captain Kell held out his hands, "I guess I just don't see your vision, business is going very well for me right now. I doubt I would profit from the collapse of the GA. I can really only see this getting worse for me."

Geea frowned, "The GA has taken over my homeworld to mine our holy battlegrounds. It has taken away the traditions of my people."

"Didn't the traditions of your people recently change."

Behind them, the room had sprouted into a rocus crowd of dancers as the woman began singing about the queen of Pirates.

Geea crossed her arms, "This isn't about the saint, she is doing what she can for our Drev in the way she believes is best, but I believe there is a better way. I will follow her religious traditions as I believe in the old ways, but I also believe that our home planet should not have been desecrated by the GA in the first place." She waved a hand around the room, "The GA has too much power and far to much influence, one of these days the idea of a democracy is going to fade away until they take all the ower for themselves, and, I for one, will not be ruled by a tyrant."

Captain Kell didn't seem impressed by her argument, "The GA has existed as a democratic republic since long before the Drev and the humans were involved. What makes you think that they are going to change so rapidly."

"Because I know humans."

Even though she couldn't see his face, she could almost guess at the slight raise of his eyebrow, "Oh really, you know humans do you? How fascinating, tell me more."

Beatrice snorted.

Geea glowered at him.

Beatrice smiled "Se not wrong." She grinned slyly, "She really does KNOW humans rather well."

Kell tapped his fingers on the table, "Knowing someone in the biblical sense is hardly knowing humans. Admiral Vir is likely helping to keep the democratic nature of the GA against humans and otters who might try to change that, so forgive me if I See nothing good that can come of this." He stood again this time doing his best to ignore the armed men and women on the next table over.

"How about enough money for you and your to retire to a small moon on the other side of the galaxy." he paused and turned to look at her.

"And I should believe you because?"

Beatrice reached under her chair and pulled out a holopad sliding it across the table so he could see, "Take a look for yourself, Half of that upfront, and then half after we take out Vir, payment drops if you hurt the Saint."

Eyes still obscured, she had trouble seeing his face, but after a moment he nodded, "Alright, I can take you up on that offer, but if you fuck us over, I will make you reget it." he turned to look at her one last time, "Meet me at the dock when you're ready. If I am going to do this, you better be damn straight that I am not going to do it alone.