5 Eclipsed

It's been around a week or so since I left Ilos and went back to Omega, and I'd say that things are going swimmingly, at least by Omega's free-for-all standards.

First of all, [Assimilation] had finally reached level two, and with it came a new description to the Skill itself.

[Assimilation] - Legendary Skill - LVL 2/10 (1%) [Active/Passive]

Allows for the assimilation of any technology you encounter to be incorporated into yourself. Organic technologies will be much harder to incorporate when compared to mechanical technologies.

Grants the ability to alter your morphology at the atomic level. This ability is dependent on this Skill's current level. At this Skill's current level, you can slightly manipulate the thermal temperatures of atoms. Your 'mass' can be used to repair and modify the user. You can currently hold 25m^3 of mass.

Speaking of [Assimilation], it got much harder to level when I reached level two. Whereas before I was getting one percent boosts to the Skill every time I assimilated minor objects, now I was getting only around half a percent or possibly even less than that for small items.

I can see why this Skill only has around ten levels now. Sure, it may not look like much to the untrained eye, but to me? This Skill would still have to be leveled even years from now. I may not even reach its final level or it's next evolution - assuming things like that exist - until I meet Shepard, and that would take me almost two years.

Maybe it's just like one of those things that's hard to learn or master. Sort of like magic in fantasy worlds. Actually, I've been wondering, why don't I have magic? Shouldn't magic be a staple of every RPG?

[You're a human; well, former human, but you get the point. You don't have magic because you don't have the affinity nor the capacity to use it.]

Troubling. I suppose a single person can't have everything. Although, biotic power is basically space magic, so maybe I'll just use that in place of it? I'd need an amp and an actual body for the element zero nodes though, but I could probably devise a workaround to that through some research.

Well, leaving quite-literal bodybuilding for another time, I strode over to the small table housing my armor and sat down at a computer with VI firmware installed on it. The application was quite simple, with it being vaguely reminiscent of the computer drivers I used to install my first graphics card during the twenty-first century. That being said, it was mainly just used to configure the VI that Vigil said I should put into my armor as an onboard computer, considering that its previous purpose of being a glorified cartographer was completely obsolete when you compared her to Vigil.

Apparently, Vigil had completely redesigned her code to better fit a combat analysis program. According to him, Combat VI's were used all over the galaxy for many reasons during the Prothean Era, and that hadn't changed much in the current cycle either when you considered that they were just too useful to pass up.

From scanning exotic flora and fauna to helping you lock onto targets, they were apparently standard issue for militaries these days. It seemed that I was just out of the loop a little and didn't have a VI Program to assist me. Dyno probably would've assisted me if I asked, but I'm not too comfortable with having a HUD in my vision at all hours of the day and I don't think he can perform to the levels that a dedicated VI can. Having a HUD in armor is understandable, just not when I'm in 'plainclothes,' so to speak. Maybe it was just human logic acting up in my subconscious, but it just wasn't my personal preference.

Checking over the driver yet again, I pressed the 'Apply' button on the holoscreen and looked back towards my armor. Now that the VI was configured and ready to boot up, I could finally restart my armor's systems and make sure everything was ready to go.

Looking over the metal plate that let me peer into the armor's main systems, I locked the sheet back into place and turned the hard-suit's power back on.

That was awfully easy, I thought as my receptor brightened.

"Virtual Intelligence installed." Vigil called over the link in my head.

From what the description of [Parallel Processing] told me, I could link my...software? Brain? We'll go with brain, but the point is that I can link myself with another intelligence to increase my own processing power. This also extends to the one that I end up linking with, which essentially is like sharing CPU cores or threads between two computers. It wasn't really that difficult to understand when you likened it to sharing processing power. I ended up asking Vigil to link with me so we could share our firmware and mutually improve on each other. He accepted, and I initiated [Parallel Processing] so that I could farm the EXP needed for the next level.

[Parallel Processing] - LVL 1/10 (21%) [Passive/Active]

Grants the ability to link with other intelligences to increase your own processing power, effectively giving you two minds to work on the same task. The current networking limit is one intelligence at a time.

It seemed to work pretty fast since it gave around three-percent worth of EXP a day, but I sincerely hope that it won't slow down in later levels. Maybe when I link with more intelligences I'll gain more EXP? Just some food for thought.

Flipping the armor over to face towards me, I dematerialized the hardsuit and re-equipped it. Scanning the area around me, I noticed that the suit's vision looked much sharper than before. Sure, it was a gradual change, but it was still better than the slightly blurred lens that my armor had used before. This suit wasn't exactly meant for use on land, after all. Perhaps I should have considered the fact that this was originally a diving suit that wasn't meant to be used in combat at all until Kenn retrofitted it. Although, in my defense, it was my only suit of armor at the time, so I had a bit of leeway regarding defensive choice.

Speaking of armors, I haven't decided on what to do with the [Ceremonial Armor of the Avatar Of Wisdom] yet. Sure, I could sell it, but what would I use the money for? I already have thirty-five million units and I don't need any more at the moment. In fact, my current capital was perfect for what I had been trying to do ever since I left the Pangaea Expanse. That is, becoming an information broker.

Now, considering what I knew of the Mass Effect Universe, becoming an info broker would be a profitable occupation for me, if not to gather information or simply as a hobby. With the information I had on the Shadow Broker as well, I could also gain some measure of protection if I played my cards right. If not, well…

Let's just say the galaxy is going to become a much bleaker place.

Heading inside the elevator and ascending towards the main deck, I sat in my chair and opened my omni-tool. After spending a few hours trying to come up with a way to actually become an information broker - there isn't exactly a class I can take on them, after all - I opted to practice a bit with census data and then move on to hacking minor competing companies and selling their data to each other.

What? It's a free market in this industry. Sure, some brokers were hired by companies to sell them data on uninteresting statistics legally, but where's the fun in that? Causing a corporate war was much more fun.

Although, I am going to need an alias for my new job, as well as something that I can use to hide my location and IP Address. Maybe I could get a VPN? It shouldn't be that hard to find one, right? Well, let's see…

~[o0o]~

After another few hours of searching, I had finally gotten a reputable provider and a higher-tier data subscription for my omni-tool. In Mass Effect, the extranet, which could be likened to a form of galactic internet, was made possible via comm buoys and lasers that were chained together around the galaxy. Of course, the bandwidth needed to forward trillions of messages across the galaxy was obviously a lot, which necessitated the use of bandwidth subscription services and priority tiers. Now that I had purchased one of the highest tiers available for civilian services, I could now browse the extranet at a leisurely pace as opposed to it taking as long as it did before.

As it turned out, there were actually two competing companies on Omega that I could use to test out my information gathering skills. The two establishments in question were an electronics store called Omega Electronics and a repair shop called Terminus Digital Repair. Apparently, they had started to produce omni-tool mods in an attempt to compete with each other, and rumor had it that some of these were supposedly 'illegal' mods that could give you a definitive advantage in a firefight. Not that the illegality really mattered on Omega or to me, but depending on the mods themselves, I might have to barter the data I grab for their blueprints and credits; that is if I can't get the blueprints when I inevitably hack them, of course.

Obviously, I'm going to sell the data and blueprints to both of the companies and watch them squabble about in confusion, but they don't need to know that, do they?

This job really does bring a measure of satisfaction. Was I always this much of a petty sadist?

Moving up out of my chair and moving towards the airlock, I set myself to work on finding the location of Omega Electronics and Terminus Digital Repair since I hadn't deciphered their exact locale when I was dissecting the rumor mill.

Time to get to work.

~[o0o]~

Hiding inside of the empty alleyway, I set my VI to work on scanning the store. As it turned out, Omega Electronics unfortunately had some pretty good cybersecurity, which made it so I couldn't just hack them and be done with it; all of my sneaking around would have to be done manually. Since it was almost closing time for the shop, I could easily slip in and grab anything I needed for my brokerage since I would be taking things that I would just end up giving to their competitors. If I had to steal any physically existing blueprints, then I could just pretend I was someone who had caught the thief and decided to give back the blueprints. If that failed, then I'll just ransom it off or something.

It wasn't a perfect plan, but this was my first job and I don't have any experience actually burglarizing to complete this operation seamlessly.

Once my VI had pinged me of its analysis being complete, I turned around and-

"Put your hands up, rat!" Said an armed batarian who had somehow snuck up on me with one of his friends behind him.

I'm being mugged, aren't I? Oh, the irony.

Acting fast, I dodged behind a dumpster and materialized an [M-6 Carnifex]. Popping out a thermal clip as I reloaded the weapon, I peered out from over the dumpster and noticed the armor the muggers had on; two regular red and black combat suits that looked to have kinetic barriers installed in them.

The first batarian fired his weapon at me, the rapid-fire shots piercing through the dumpster but never reaching my armor.

An M-3 Predator. Not exactly a great line-up for me.

The second batarian conjured a secondary suit of armor around himself with his omni-tool before extending an omni-blade from his wrist.

This position isn't advantageous for me. They have a larger cover than I do and I'm outnumbered.

Preparing an Overload, I peeked out from over the bin and noticed that the batarian with the omni-blade was also charging an attack on my systems.

Shit!

Crouching behind the dumpster just as it was launched, the tech attack missed my frame as it went over my head in a shower of sparks. It wouldn't have affected me beyond my kinetic barriers burning out for a few seconds and maybe me being slightly worse for wear, but those few seconds were crucial in urban warfare when you could get gunned down without a second thought.

Rolling out from under the barricade and pointing my omni-tool at my attacker's unprotected back, I launched my Overload at his shields. The attack hit its mark, making the batarian's barrier systems nonfunctional and making him cry out in pain as he was shocked by the voltage of my attack. Aiming my M-6 Carnifex at him, I shot.

A howl of pain resounded in the alleyway as the shots from my pistol pierced his left leg and made him fall to the ground. He didn't have a gun within reachable distance of his arm and pulling it out from his holster would only aggravate his wounds unnecessarily, which essentially put him out of commission for the rest of the firefight.

Venting the heat from my weapon as the remaining batarian fired at me, I charged up another Overload and proceeded to repeat the same process I had inflicted upon the other batarian, which ended up incapacitating him and damaging his kinetic barriers. Moving out from my cover, I took out my M-4 Shuriken from my storage space and aimed it at the now weakened batarian who was holding the M-3 Predator.

"You shouldn't have tried to mug me, you know." I said to him while picking up his heavy pistol. I didn't need the weapon in particular, so I just discreetly put it into the shop to be sold before awaiting the batarian's response.

"What do you mean? You looked like easy pickings." He growled at me. "No weapons on you besides that expensive-looking armor of yours. I could have made a fortune once I looted that."

"Oh? Well, tell me, who were you thinking about selling it to?" I asked while materializing another gun in my left hand to point at the other batarian as insurance.

"Why should I tell you?" The batarian said sharply.

"I'm the one with the gun in my hand, and I purposefully went for non-lethal shots. You can heal those legs of yours easily with skin grafts or medi-gel." I explained. "All I'm asking for is a favor."

"A favor? For what?" He asked.

"Nothing too serious. Just some information, you see." I said smoothly.

"...what do you want to know?" He asks with a scowling face.

"Oh, nothing that much in the grand scheme of things. At least to you. But, tell me; what districts do the Blood Pack, Eclipse, and Blue Suns operate in or police?" I indifferently gestured with my gun. "You can understand that I want to stay safe, don't you?"

He grimaced before opening his mouth and answering the rather simple question.

"Thank you." I nodded at him before tossing a pack of medi-gel at his arm. "And try not to mug anyone ever again. I'll know if you do." Turning around, I exited the alleyway and sighed not with exhaustion, but with a substantial amount of mirth and shock that I had just done that.

Even I surprise myself sometimes, I managed to think before I continued onward in my search.

~[o0o]~

Walking down the street at a middling pace, I finally stopped at an intersection that led to the Terminus Digital Repair Shop.

Finally.

Moving into the alleyway next to the store and hoping that no more batarians would stop me and attempt to mug me again, I stopped at the small backdoor leading to the backroom of the shop.

After obtaining the relevant information from the two batarians who had tried to rob me, I immediately went towards the Terminus Digital Repair Shop since those batarians had spoiled my motivation to sneak into Omega Electronics. Thankfully, the Repair Shop was basically defenseless against cyberattacks, which made for easy access into the shop.

Slipping into the backroom and quietly closing the door, I activated an ability I had only recently learned I possessed; infrared vision. As it turned out, all Geth Platforms could see the world through infrared vision, but it needed to be toggled on and off for it to actually work. Since my sight isn't organic, I had a wider range of options to see the world from, just like all Geth did.

Viewing the area around me in thermal vision was a unique experience, to put it simply. I could retrace the steps that the owner of this store took and see what objects he had been using most recently. That fridge in the back? Its handle was yellow and the fridge itself was an icy blue. That button able to power on that fabricator? It was covered in a faint orange. The lightswitch? A light yellow with traces of orange inside the wires.

This was the sight granted to me in infrared; the ability to retrace steps and view temperatures with but a thought. It was pretty useful for detecting people as well. Everything was just so much more vivid, but I still preferred seeing things normally since it wasn't as overbearing as seeing temperatures and things like that.

After searching the cabinets, tables, and shelves for anything useful and finding nothing, I went down into the store's basement. Scanning the sizable room with my infrared optics, I started looking at the places where the shopkeeper had been to the most within the last few days. The small dresser next to the door only held some equipment and wasn't anything particularly incriminating, The crate filled with omni-gel was almost empty and held nothing of particular value. The lone shelf at the corner of the room, however, was definitely out of place. All the other shelves in the room were situated on the right wall and were screwed into the ground, but this one was crooked slightly and wasn't bolted to the floor at all. It was almost as if something was there... which, of course, there obviously was.

Pushing the shelf aside as quietly as I could and folding back the carpet covering the floor, I found a locked safe with a holographic interface staring back at me.

Jackpot.

Opening my omni-tool and running a small hacking program on the safe, I attempted to bypass the strongbox's passcode.

After another minute of hacking, the safe was finally opened and I could see what was inside. The safe itself didn't actually have any valuables in it, with the only things left inside it being a small OSD and a few other things like birth certificates and photos. Nabbing the OSD and sitting up from my crouch, I closed the safe, adjusted the carpet's spot on the concrete floor, and moved the shelf back to the same position it was in previously.

Dusting my hands off and moving back towards the open door, I quietly dashed out of the room and exited the shop through where I came in.

Mission success. I'm glad that [Noticeable] didn't proc while I was in there. Maybe it's because the owner or their employees weren't home or something like that?

Shaking my head at the thought, I ran through the alleyways as I made my way back to my ship.

~[o0o]~

Sitting down at the computer terminal, I scanned the OSD for anything malicious before injecting it into the console when my scan read that it was benign. Copying the files within the OSD to the computer, I took out the drive before assimilating it into myself.

Oh, nice, just reached two-percent in [Assimilation].

Scanning the files I came across on the thumb drive, I carefully went through everything that was logged within the folders. Most of it was unimportant stuff like sales data or employee salaries, but the deeper recesses of the drive held the holy grail I had been looking for; the omni-tool mod.

Some sort of advanced omni-blade? Wait, no, a special program to modify omni-blades. Useful.

As it turns out, the mod I had been looking for was a modified omni-tool program that could edit the structure of omni-blades. If I wanted something like an omni-knife, then I could just draft a design for it, save it, and after that, I could flash-forge it at any time I needed that particular knife. My [Military Omni-Tool] didn't have this function, so it would be very useful for melee combat now that I had an omni-blade to use.

Although, the fact that military personnel couldn't edit their omni-tools startled me a bit. Did the galaxy seriously not allow that or was it just exclusive to people who passed basic training? I'm absolutely sure that the omni-tool I have on right now is a basic military-grade omni-tool without any enhancements on it, but maybe it was a standard-issue mod for seasoned soldiers that isn't meant to be given to greenhorns? If so, then I don't have much of a problem with that since it ensures operational security, but maybe I'm just looking too far into this and it isn't anything major.

Copying the program onto my omni-tool, I opened the editor and tried to make a simple knife out of the program. After a few minutes of rendering the object itself, the small knife extended out from my omni-tool.

Neat. Now I just need to make a big-ass sword and swing it around. Only then will my life be complete.

Closing the program and sitting up from the chair, I made my way over to the airlock and exited the ship to head to Omega Electronics.

Time to finish this up, I suppose.

~[o0o]~

Climbing up the ladder, I flash-forged a straight-edged prying blade and cracked open a vent leading into Omega Electronics.

This is going to be substantially harder to break into. These guys are a much larger company than Terminus Digital Repair, and they can afford actual security guards, unlike the small shop I was in before.

To be honest, this operation could go fifty-fifty in either my odds or theirs. On my side, I had a state-of-the-art cloaking device but was hampered by [Noticeable], while they had efficient security and cyberdefense and actual security guards. Sure, these guards weren't trained beyond maybe basic regiment tactics and such, but they still outnumbered me in comparison.

Well, let's let fate decide this one for me.

Looking through a small outlet embedded in the side of the vent, I caught sight of two guards walking together with a cup of coffee in their hands. Thankfully, tonight's graveyard-shift would last for a few more hours, which gave me enough time to fully scour the place for myself and take anything I needed for my mission.

Moving throughout the ventilation shaft for a few minutes, I eventually stopped above an empty room. Flipping the latches on one of the vents and unscrewing the brackets holding the covering in place, I slowly hoisted myself down from the cramped vents and landed on the floor of what seemed to be a break room. Activating my infrared vision, I concluded that nobody had been here in over an hour and that I was free to move around. Crouching slowly, I brought up a crude map that I had made of the lobby and what little I could see through the windows of the store. Apparently, I had gone rather far into the facility and would have to retrace my steps back to the vent or find a new exit for myself, preferably through a window or exit door.

Moving my body over to the closed door leading out of the room, I opened the door and peered through the infinitesimal crack I had made.

Clear.

Opening the door fully and closing it again, I decided to venture left and see what awaited me there. Truthfully, I had no idea where I was going, but the tactical cloak I had on would negate any chances of the security personnel witnessing me at a glance.

I should have scouted the labs more, but those two batarians stopped me before I could move inside.

Turning right from a white sign that read 'Research & Development,' I slipped into a vacant bathroom and let my cloak fade away as I waited for it to recharge. Once it was fully charged again, I resumed my search of the labs until I reached a dim room labeled 'Restricted Access. Authorized Personnel Only.'

You're just begging for me to break in, aren't you?

Scanning the haptic-adaptive interface of the door, I activated a bypass program as I attempted to hack through the door. Unlocking the door just as my cloak was about to run out, I shut it behind me immediately and hid behind one of the server towers right as a guard turned the corner and walked past the restricted access panel.

That was close. I think I'm in the clear now.

Exiting the small alcove, I scanned the room with infrared and found that the room had not seen much use in almost a day. Maybe the scientists got a day off or something? After all, Omega Electronics was a corporation that did develop its own hardware, albeit on Omega instead of on the Citadel or one of the many colonies within the traverse. It probably wasn't the greatest marketing tactic, but at least they had a monopoly on Omega that they were slated to keep for a long while.

Entering a side-room, I found myself in a corridor leading to another wing of the facility. Peering through the door, I found that the coast was clear and entered the laboratory. The room itself was filled with multiple terminals on the walls showing readouts of just about anything imaginable, from the room's temperature to the number of occupants within the room.

Thankfully, I was not on that list, most likely since I didn't have a heartbeat or any actual organic life-signs. Frankly, if I did have a heartbeat then I probably would have been discovered the moment I entered the facility. Thankfully, there didn't seem to be a counter for mechanical readings which meant that I was safe from being discovered through any sensors if you excluded cameras or line of sight vision.

Actually, now that I think about it, this wing doesn't seem to have any cameras. I had spotted a few in the hallways I was originally in, but those were facing away from me and this part of the base didn't seem to have any. Was it because the corporation didn't want anybody discovering they were making illegal mods? They had to keep up an image as an honest corporation, after all.

Of course, that didn't exactly work, considering that word somehow got out that both Terminus Digital Repair and most likely Omega Electronics were developing illegal mods, but these guys must be crazy for not placing cameras here. How did Terminus Digital Repair even keep up with this company anyway? They must have made some useful stuff.

Shaking my head, I walked forwards and went deeper into the facility. Entering a small office with a wooden desk and some photos of an asari and a salarian on the walls, I booted up the computer on the desk and was redirected to the main login screen.

Should I hack it or search for the password?

After a few seconds of thought, I decided to search for the passcode just in case the office had anything useful in it. The nameplate on the front of the door did mark this room as belonging to the head researcher, after all. There had to be something in here, if not the password or the location of the mods.

It took a few minutes of scouring the desk and the various cabinets around the room, but I ended up finding a small handgun that looked like a holdout weapon and a deactivated data-pad addressed to the occupant of this room. I ended up deciding to sell the small gun to the shop instead of keeping it since holdout weapons weren't integral to my current situation, but I did keep the data-pad. Unlike the holdout weapon, the data-pad seemed to have some much more useful information on it, and that was just what I gathered from reading the header of the document.

Skimming through the small data-pad, I figured out a few things about the computer's model as well as the fact that there were also some addendums addressed to the researcher directly. Apparently, the researcher had a history of acute memory loss and had to write things down to remember them.

What a coincidence. Well, I won't look a gift horse in the mouth when it's been so nicely given to me.

Strafing over to the chair, I sat down as I typed in the password, which was an extraordinarily hard to remember word-vomit of numbers and letters.

If you're designing a password meant for a person with acute memory loss, don't make it so hard to remember, company. This place has terrible employee service, I idly thought as I opened the computer's browser, which looked like some sort of unholy amalgamation of a space-age variant of Google Chrome mixed with Internet Explorer.

How is it that browsers have gotten progressively worse from the twenty-first century and onwards?

Doing the researcher a small favor, I install an ad-blocker and a remote file control program on the computer as I scour through her emails for information on the supposed omni-tool mod. With the remote control add-on that I had installed, I could manipulate anything on the computer from a distance, which meant that if this computer also had an overwatch program on it for the researcher's employees, then I could also hack them too. Of course, I wouldn't be able to hack anything beyond that, but it was still useful and I could use the data gathered from the company later.

Found it.

Clicking on the old email, I adjusted my scroll bar and read the document.

Omni-Tool Modifications Notice (5:24 PM GST, 2 months ago)

From: Head Analyst Niralint Barze <niralintbarze@extranetmail.com>

To: Head Researcher Falethe N'Cora <falethencora@extranetmail.com>

Ma'am, I cannot in good faith authorize this. You want us to forward our schedule to be due only a few weeks from now? These modules we've been developing have failed every test run on them and we aren't any closer to finding an affordable option for overclocked hacking or easier bypasses. We've been studying this for months, but we haven't made any progress towards it at all. Burke thinks he may have found something to use as a possible substitute for our progress, but it's only a theory right now. Said it had something to do with combatting artificial intelligences or rogue VI's. I have no idea how he's gonna test it, but maybe we could use it as a possible breakthrough, especially after the Geth Attack recently.

However, I implore you to NOT advance the deadline. We're understaffed as it is and we're running on a limited budget. If we fail, then most of us will lose our jobs and we'll probably never get them back. We can revolutionize tech warfare with this, we just need to get an extension. I don't care what it may cost, the only thing I want is your confirmation that this project isn't going to be swept under the rug and decommissioned.

Respectfully, Head Analyst Niralint Barze.

They were working on something for easier hacking and combat against synthetics? Not exactly an illegal modification, but they aren't wrong about it being revolutionary in the face of Sovereign's attack on the Citadel.

I'm still taking it though. The Geth have sort of taken a backseat ever since the death of Sovereign and I don't want my enemies to have another method of defeating me. I'll just steal it and then give it to Shepard and company once I get onto the Normandy.

Scrolling downwards, I read the next email that was sent from this computer.

Re: Omni-Tool Modifications Notice (10:21 AM GST, 2 months ago)

From: Head Researcher Falethe N'Cora <falethencora@extranetmail.com>

To: Head Analyst Niralint Barze <niralintbarze@extranetmail.com>

Analyst, your request has been authorized by my superiors. You are to be granted a weekly stipend of 200,000 credits for your project and your deadline has been extended to two and a half months from now. Additionally, a supply of mechanical test dummies has been shipped to the site and is slated to arrive in two days. Regarding Burke's idea, check with him and ask him about his personal thoughts on his hypothesis. After that, report back to me with your recommendation on if we should continue with his theory. Unfortunately, we cannot find any potential employees to hire currently. We will notify you once we have somebody with the correct qualifications for your project.

Good tidings, Head Researcher Falethe N'Cora.

I suppose it's good that the project hasn't been suspended yet. That means that whatever they were developing, be it better hacking programs or combative AI protocols, is still here and possibly finished. After all, these emails were sent two months ago, but thankfully this Falethe N'Cora didn't seem to clean out her mailing account very well.

Quickly skimming through the rest of the emails, I decided to head to the bottom of the page and start heading upwards for more recent information to use. Using a minor shortcut on the holographic keyboard, I inputted a search term and scoured through the ones containing the set phrase I had inserted into the shortcut. It was around a minute later that I finally found what I was looking for.

Special Containment Locker TC-6.

Marking all of the messages I looked at as unread, I powered down the computer and pushed the chair into the desk. Exiting the room and making my way down the halls until I reached the containment lockers, I bypassed the lock and closed the door. Uncloaking, I combed through the shelves and locked cabinets until I finally reached Special Containment Locker TC-6.

Powering on my omni-tool and running a decryption program, I opened the safe after a few minutes of difficult meandering with the safe's code. This lock was coded much more securely than the ones I was familiar with and needed a little more incentive to crack open, namely me getting a bit clever with the lock and using a small trick I had discovered to make my decryption easier to manage.

Hearing the safe click open, I grabbed the small drive - what is it with omni-tools and thumb drives these days? - and closed the container before heading back to the door. Cloaking my frame and opening the door, I looked to my left as I-

"One o'clock!" I backed away from the door as I heard a human call out in surprise. Rapidly shutting the door, I took cover behind the lockers and materialized a gun.

Ah, shit, I've been spotted. I thought there wasn't anybody in this wing though. The terminal I saw when I first entered confirmed that there were no active life-signs here. They must have been alerted to me somehow. Maybe there really were some cameras that I missed, I mused to myself.

The human put a hand to his ear. "I've spotted a possible hostile. Be on guard." I heard him say in a disciplined manner. Aiming my pistol at the door as I leaned around the row of safes, I activated my gun's reticle and waited.

"Breaching!" I heard the human call out before he opened the door with an assault rifle at the ready. Seeing an opportunity to fire, I discharged my weapon as fast as I could into his armor. Crouching behind a row of cabinets, I popped out a thermal clip just as the man returned fire even after I broke his kinetic barriers. Vaulting over my impromptu barricade, I aimed my pistol at his head as his armored body was pierced by my weapon.

Disengaging the thermal clip and inserting a new one, I dematerialized the gun and took out an [M-8 Avenger] as I inspected the man's armor.

Is that Eclipse? What's the Eclipse doing here?

In an attempt to understand what was happening, I comprehended him.

Name - Samuel Williams, Eclipse Trooper

Race/Species - Human

Rank - Mortal

Tier - 10-A

Alignment - True Neutral

Age - 28

Bio - Samuel Williams is a member of the Eclipse Mercenary Corporation. He was stationed here to perform the graveyard-shift for the Omega Electronics Facility, which was a front used to produce disposable income for the Eclipse and to develop technologies for their interests.

Thoughts - He is deceased and lacks any brain activity.

Well, I guess I know why this place was dealing with intelligence research then; it's the Eclipse. I'm honestly surprised that the STG hasn't done something with this place yet. Or maybe they have? Eh, it's not particularly important anyway.

Well, now that I just raided an Eclipse base - yeah, I'm definitely putting that on my resume - I'm probably going to be seeing attacks from them until the end of time. Here's hoping that they won't pull some sort of high-tech gizmo out of their ass and use it to incapacitate me.

Now that I had been discovered by the Eclipse, of all people, I couldn't sell their competitor's data to them anymore. Of course, now that I knew who was truly running Omega Electronics, I wasn't really planning on doing so anyway, but knowing my priorities is more important now.

Hopefully, with that overwatch program I've installed on the head researcher's computer, I could gather some more information from their servers and eventually use it as leverage if push comes to shove.

Moving past the dead body and running down the corridor, I ran towards the exit for the Restricted Access Door as an alarm blared across the facility in response to me fleeing the developmental labs.

I definitely missed some cameras. Fucking hell.

Entering the room with the multitude of server towers and banks of terminals lining the walls, I looked at the life-sign counter that was currently displaying '7' on it in a large orange font.

Oh shit, I need to get out of here.

Sprinting towards the exit door with reckless abandon, I leaned out from the now-open door and watched out for any hostiles moving my way. Spotting none, I turned to my right and ran for an intersection that I knew led to an exit door.

Sliding on the floor as I turned on my heel, I caught notice of three enemies moving towards me. "There he is!" A salarian shouted at me as his two companions raised their rifles. "Open fire!" The salarian yelled out.

Fuck, I've been played!

Acting on a split-second decision, I activated [Ward] just as the hail of bullets bombarded my kinetic barriers. Taking around a second to charge, the transparent boundary erected itself in front of me just as my shields ran out of power and my armor was chipped. [Ward] ended up not catching all of the projectiles, however, as some still found their way to my legs where my shields couldn't reach.

"He's a biotic!" The salarian's asari companion cried out as they all retreated behind some crates scattered around the hallway. Diving towards the corner where their bullets could not strike, I took out my [M-8 Avenger] just as my kinetic barriers began recharging. Peeking out from my cover just as the gunfire stopped, I aimed a perfect shot at the turian muscle who had originally chipped at my greaves, killing him instantly. Leaning my rifle towards the asari, she flared her biotics as she sent a shockwave of biotic force towards my current position.

Withdrawing towards the area behind me, I waited as the biotic attack rippled throughout the corridors and made a large crack on the wall opposite mine. Charging forwards, I materialized an [M-4 Shuriken] just as the salarian went out of cover and flash-forged an omni-blade. Aiming my weapon towards him, I fired without any regard for accuracy in such close-quarters combat, which immediately took him out of commission in a shower of lead.

Swapping out my weapon for the [M-3 Predator] just as the asari surged forwards with a singularity in her grasp, I rolled to my right and baited the asari into stopping at the corner of the hall. Unleashing a flurry of bullets into her armor, I tore through her shields just as the singularity zoomed past me and emitted a gravity well of sizable proportions.

That's four down then; the three here and the one at the vault. I don't think I can take on the remaining four-man squad that's still searching for me though, so I need to bail as soon as I can, I thought as I rushed out from my crouch and swiftly hurried down the corridor. Opening my omni-tool and bypassing the lock on the exit door, I stepped out into the grimy Omega alleyways and closed the door behind me just as my cloak ran out and the last fireteam turned the corner. I took one last look at the now locked door before booking it towards the nearest taxi hastily.

~[o0o]~

Plopping myself down in the pilot's chair, I turned on my omni-tool and materialized the hard disk I had borrowed from the Eclipse. Inserting the drive into the omni-tool, I pulled up a keyboard as I began to copy the information I assembled from my jaunt into a single centralized database. Installing a supervision program that was compatible with the overwatch application I put on the head researcher's computer, I connected my ship's mainframe to her corresponding network as I began to search through her files and managerial documents.

Omega Electronics, your data is mine, I chuckled as I scoured through the employee records filed away on the computer. Let's see, business projects, economic info, storage manifests, employee salaries, oh, I could cause a riot with this, I grinned.

As it turned out, the head researcher's computer did have a supervision program installed on it. With this data, I could analyze the Eclipse better than ever before and possibly do irreversible damage to their front companies. Of course, I'm not going to release this information to the general public any time soon, since doing that would give away my supervision program and wouldn't injure them to their fullest, but the time to strike would come. Eventually.

In the long-term, staying in the shadows and making sure that they don't discover that overwatch program was paramount when compared to fighting against them in a battle of corporate attrition.

Now that I had made myself an enemy of one of the galaxy's premier mercenary organizations, I would eventually have to fight both tooth and nail against them to survive. After all, I don't think a relationship like this could be mended so easily when I was obviously implicated in the robbery.

Besides, this was actually beneficial, believe it or not. The Eclipse produced some high-tech armaments and were all about fighting smarter, not harder, which fit my style of combat perfectly. Although, I can't deny that fighting does satisfy me a bit. I'm not an overly-crazy battle maniac or anything, I just enjoy the thrill of the fight even if I don't have adrenaline coursing through my nonexistent veins or dopamine racing around my body.

I don't have things like military-grade equipment or squadrons of soldiers to fight for me like the Eclipse, but one cannot deny that I am a fearsome foe. Or is that just my pride talking?

You know, I never thought I would come to enjoy conflict, I frowned. No, I enjoy fighting against conflict, not causing it. Two very different things, I rationalized.

Well, now that I had fought against the Eclipse, albeit indirectly, I had essentially declared a silent war between me and them through my skirmishing. Like I said earlier, beneficial, I repeated in my head. At the very least, I might be able to destroy them with some help. There's definitely a sympathetic group out there that would aid me in my little war, right?

Realizing that my notion had an incredibly inherent flaw, I shook my head. Destroying the mercenary companies would cause a massive power vacuum, at least for the Blood Pack and Eclipse. Zaeed Massani could easily mantle the Blue Suns without any problems, but that doesn't account for the other two.

Destroying the three main mercenary groups on Omega would ultimately do more harm than good. It was a sad reality, but it was necessary. The batarian who tried to mug me did tell me that the mercenary groups patrolled some of the districts on Omega so that nobody would sabotage the space station or do anything nefarious that would affect everyone's general livelihood, but it still didn't excuse the fact that they were only looking out for themselves. Well, most of them, at least. Diamonds in the rough, after all.

Sitting perfectly still for a few moments, I sat deep in thought as I weighed the pros and cons of various scenarios that would eventually lead to the power vacuum resulting from the fallout of me hypothetically destroying the Eclipse, Blood Pack, and Blue Suns.

To be frank, letting Zaeed take over the Blue Suns is obviously an absolute must. The Blue Suns would be much easier to take down with Zaeed's help and he would be grateful to me for helping him. Besides, I don't really like Vido Santiago all that much either, so we all gain something from taking them down.

The Blood Pack might take some time but they shouldn't be that hard to eliminate. After all, the only thing they're enforcing is professional violence. Maybe I could take over Clan Gatatog? No, that's a terrible idea. Being a clan leader who isn't a krogan is basically asking for your head to be put on a pike.

To be completely honest, the Eclipse are probably going to be the hardest ones to take down. With them having advanced technology and many biotic individuals in their ranks, they're a veritable force to be reckoned with and a foe that shouldn't be taken lightly, even though their priority level went down with the data I had stolen from them. Maybe, with some careful maneuvering, I could provoke the other remaining companies into destroying them and leaving the remnants of them suffocating in ashes, but that would be circumstantial and would take a ton of preparation to pull off.

If they did end up being razed by the other two companies, however, then I could siphon what I could from the ashes and rebuild it from the ground up. Only, this time, everyone under it would be working for me.

Of course, if I was going to take over the Blood Pack, Eclipse, and Blue Suns, then I would inevitably have to deal with Aria T'Loak.

Aria was...something, to say the least. She was obviously competent and had been ruling Omega as its tyrant for over two-hundred years, but she hasn't done anything to actually help the station in all that time. She was a necessary evil, sure, but she could at least be a little less evil than the people around her and actually attempt to help people.

There's so much that she could do to improve Omega and she just dismisses it, I scowled. I really hope I don't have to deal with her if I take over the gangs…especially with force.

Actually, that brings me to another thought. What would the crew of the Normandy think of me if I took the gangs over? I'm not sure about Garrus or Shepard since I don't know if Shepard went Paragon or Renegade here, but I might have to be careful around Garrus. Of course, I wasn't going to actually be doing anything that would cause harm to others, but I'm not sure if he'd think I'd mismanage the groups or something. His sense of justice, while incredibly admirable, was not something I wanted to get in the way of my impromptu war.

A thought for another time. That day is far from now.

Turning my head towards my omni-tool, I turned it on after hearing it ping me of the download's completion. Standing up straight and viewing the direct process for AI Hacking, I committed the initialization process of the program to memory and closed the omni-tool, but not before assimilating the hard drive and raising my [Assimilation] Skill Status to three-percent.

Opening my inventory and viewing my status, I took a glance at the experience gain I had gotten from blocking all those projectiles with [Ward].

[Ward] - LVL 1/10 (8%) [Active]

Creates a telekinetic ward that can stop all objects below 1kg. Has a cast-time of 1 second. If mass inside of the ward exceeds 2.5kg, the ward will break. Cooldown is equal to double the duration used with a static cooldown of five seconds, excluding cast time.

To be honest, I was definitely right when I said [Ward] was my most powerful ability. It had an infinite use time, no ramifications beyond the cooldown (and the subtle warning from the Game to not abuse it), and was generally incredibly useful if you excluded the cooldown period and the small surface area.

It's powerful, but it's got problems, I summarized as I summoned the ethereal shield yet again. Putting a stop to the spell, I took a look through my inventory before making a small checklist of items to sell to the shop.

Let's see, ten batarian corpses, an empty crate, five memory shards, and the Shot-Gauntlet, I noted. Putting each of the items up for auction, I sighed as I finally sold all of the objects to the anonymous customers of the Shop. I'm so glad that the Shot-Gauntlet is gone. I'm not sure why, but that thing was giving me the creeps. I wonder if any other Gamers are purchasing my wares, though, I mused as I took out a gacha token from my Inventory. Spinning the small object on its axis and maneuvering it through my fingers, I sat on the chair idly.

I still can't believe that I got six gacha tokens from that one mission to Ilos. I certainly hope that I'm going to be getting that much later down the line, I smiled. Or was this just a one-off thing? No, can't be. I'd get this much for storming the Collector Homeworld or something.

Turning the coin over in my hand and viewing the runic font printed on it, I shook my head and spun the token, making the arcane language carved into the token glow a light blue before the coin turned into dust.

[Number 2 Pencil] - Common Tool

A number 2 pencil from the twenty-first century. Its eraser is clean and its lead is sharp enough to write cleanly.

A number 2 pencil? I haven't seen one of these in forever. Does anyone even write things on paper in this day and age if you exclude engineers and architects? Although, I suppose that they would use pencils with a thicker lead than this.

Of course, there are probably people who do write using paper and pencil, but I'd imagine that's only on the homeworlds or some very select colonies. After all, space stations don't have the natural resources needed for paper and lumber might be hard to come by due to deforestation, so it's possible.

How has climate change progressed since the twenty-first century? I hope it's calmed down in the last two hundred or so years, I wondered. Opening the shop and storing the pencil inside there, I took out another gacha token and spun it.

[Heartstone] - Legendary Ore

An unusual molten ore suffused with the remnants of the Heart of Lorkhan's divinity. The divine energy within the ore is incredibly weak, but it is still enough to make the rock smolder even two centuries after the eruption of Red Mountain.

Oh my god. I just got a Heartstone.

Taking the small ore out of my inventory and placing it down on the table, I watched carefully as embers rolled off the rock like sparks. Quickly placing it back in my hammerspace, I paced around the room ardently.

Laughing lowly, I looked at the small ore placed within my storage space and sighed. With this heartstone, I could probably do a bunch of bullshit things I don't even want to think about right now, like giving myself magic or partial divinity. Although, I couldn't do any of that now.

In the Elder Scrolls, heartstones were - just like the rest of the verse - complete and utter bullshit. By just transplanting a heartstone into your body, you could give yourself a massive boost to your magical power and natural regeneration rate. Of course, I can't do that now since I don't have an organic body to use, but if I ever get one, then you know I'm going to put this down as a replacement for my heart immediately, consequences be damned.

However, I would have to be delicate with the procedure to make sure I don't accidentally rupture something important like my arteries, and I would need an assistant to help me affix the stone to my blood vessels or something. I wasn't sure if it even worked like that or not, but at least it was better than some vague magical bullshit. Who knows, maybe I could even put a Briar Heart in myself as well and just go all out. I certainly wouldn't mind.

Materializing the next gacha token in my hand, I used it without much fanfare and observed my next item.

[Pet Rock] - Common Toy

A useless pet rock. Have fun.

My optics dimmed as I narrowed my vision. Gacha, you ass, I scowled. Putting the pet rock into the Shop where it shall never be seen again, I waited for a few minutes before somebody finally bought the useless thing.

My best wishes to whoever bought you, pet rock.

Summoning another gacha token, I simply flipped it over as it faded to nothing and a new object appeared before my eyes.

[Pandora's Box] - Mythical Artifact

A box containing all the world's evils. However, at the bottom of the box lies humanity's hope and salvation.

Opening the box will grant you one Perk and one Flaw that are irrevocably equivalent to one another. The Flaw can be removed or turned into a Perk when applicable, but it is dependent on your method of removal or transformation.

Pandora's Box? Is it the actual box from the myth or just a representation of it? Wait, it couldn't be the one from the myth, since it would already have released all the world's evils. Or was this the box before Pandora was gifted it by Zeus?

Wait, do human deities even exist in this universe?

[No, they don't.]

Then it isn't the actual box. Or is it? Multiverse shenanigans are confusing. Well, either way, I don't think I'm going to open it right now. After all, I don't have a good reason to be so hasty and I could get a Flaw that utterly cripples me or something. At least in that case I'd get an amazing Perk or something like that, but it just isn't worth it right now.

I'm sort of scared as to what the Flaw could be, but also excited to see what Perk I'd get...but that's for later. Repeating the same process as I had done many times before, I spun the token and checked what I had obtained.

[Holy Water] - Uncommon Liquid

A small bottle of holy water (500mL) that can speed up plant growth, heal wounds, and purify people and objects.

Holy Water, huh? I sure have gotten a lot of religious effigies recently. From the Bible to this, you'd almost think that somebody is trying to tell me something. It does sound useful though, so I'm going to keep it for later, just in case.

Obviously, I can't use it on myself, but I can use it on whoever I need to when the time comes. Taking out my final token, I rolled the coin around in my hand and conjured my new item.

[SCP-055] - Rare SCP

An anti-memetic anomaly that censors itself from human memory. All that is known about the anomaly is that it 'isn't round.' Not to be within the range of SCP-579.

Uh, the fact that SCP's are in here kind of scares me, and the fact that anti-memetics are also included in the gacha is even more startling, but the fact that SCP-055 somehow got pulled is even more terrifying to think about.

Thankfully, it didn't appear outside of my inventory, which made it much easier to 'contain,' so to speak.

I'm not gonna have the SCP Foundation jumping on my ass, am I?

[No, you'll be fine. They're contained within their own multiverse anyway, and even I can't access them. It seems that this SCP was brought over by someone else who was visiting that particular cluster. No idea why anyone would do that, though.]

Thank god.

Vowing to never let [SCP-055] leave my inventory, I turned back to the archive I had compiled on Omega Electronics - and by proxy the Eclipse - and walked forward. I never ended up selling that information to Terminus Digital Repair, but this took priority over what I had originally planned.

"Don't disappoint me now, Eclipse." I spoke out loud. "There's work to be done."

~[o0o]~

On the other side of Omega, a passenger frigate docked into the loading bays of the vast space station. Exiting out from an airlock on the port-side of the ship, a turian in blue armor strode forward.

Walking down the red-lit corridor, he maintained a vigilant stance as his blue eyes darted about in caution. Up ahead, the hallway was almost empty, save for an elderly human couple and a feral vorcha harassing them.

"What a cesspool." The turian rumbled. "A station full of thugs and criminals kicking the helpless." He spoke with distaste. Increasing his pace, he overheard the ramblings of the vorcha and the cries of the human couple.

"More! You have more than that." The vorcha spat at the old man. "Give it to me or I wrap her insides around your outsides."

The elderly man gazed back in fright. "No, please, that's everything we have. We just want to leave; we aren't worth the trouble." He spoke to the vorcha with a trembling voice.

It's time someone kicked back, the turian thought as he stopped right behind the vorcha.

"This is not trouble, this is going to be pleasure!" the vorcha cried out while lifting a small blade.

The turian shifted his feet and hefted his fist. "You have no idea." He said as he struck the vorcha with all his might, making the knife go flying out of his hand and the vorcha crumple to the floor. Making sure to check whether or not the vorcha was still conscious, he lifted his boot and dropped it straight onto the vorcha's face, injuring him even more than he already was.

The human couple turned their attention towards him as the old lady spoke. "Thank you, thank you so much. We came here to find our son, We - he…"

The turian interrupted the woman. "Ma'am." He spoke with a clear, calm voice.

She inhaled minutely as she said, "You're an angel, sir, a real-life angel." She nodded and thanked him profusely for helping them.

He paused. "Something like that." He managed to say as the duo turned away towards the docks.

He shuffled his feet as he turned towards the door. "...a real-life angel, huh?" He muttered under his breath before entering the streets of Omega.

~[o0o]~

Fun Fact: Mordin Solus' facial expressions are based on Clint Eastwood. Everything from Mordin pursing his lips to the scars on his face is because Clint Eastwood was used as a model for Mordin.

So, special thanks to USSExplorer for recommending my fic on A New Player In The Force. His fic is great by the way, go check him out if you haven't already. He has also created a discord server specifically for his fic, and that is linked below. And to everyone just joining us, hello, and I wish you a Happy New Year!

Also, I posted a new fic! It's a crack-fic that I've collaborated with eleven other authors - yes, eleven - to make. You can find it on my profile. Just know that it isn't meant to be taken seriously at all. I hope you enjoy it.

Speaking of my new fic, I created a discord server for Music Gang Ruins The Multiverse (the crack-fic I made) and some other things as well. I can still be found on Shiro's server, of course, but I can also be found there. USS's discord is also linked directly below, along with the Shiro's Server and my own.

Shiro's Server: NCsCsWDG4d

My Server: jFY4BX9fnT

USS's Server: CEhPZuwhrw

So, regarding myself responding to reviews, I've decided that I'm only going to respond to ones that I deem important enough to respond to. Writing out every single review is just word padding and it gets pretty boring at times. If the review is just nonsensical or stupid, then I probably won't respond to it either. The same goes for really large reviews or ones with too much content in them. Sorry if you don't get featured, but I don't want to word pad too much. Heh, too much.

Alright, review time.

~[o0o]~

Ex-Prince FrostFang: I've played Destiny 2, just not the first game. I haven't played it since Beyond Light came out, however.

Slaggedfire: Aksis may be a geth, but he was still human for the vast majority of his life. You can't just get rid of those sensibilities instantly, you know.

Doomqwer: SCP Administrator can either be a normal influential man or an immortal godlike being capable of annihilating anything in the universe through the anomalies present within the Foundation. The power of the Administrator in the SCP Universe fluctuates based on your personal headcanon. Obviously, he isn't the SCP Administrator, but he is still powerful.

Ficeater96: These first few chapters are preparative. Aksis is a drop-in. No backstory, no background, not even a paper trail or a credit to his name. These chapters serve as a foundation for what I'm planning to build later on. Don't worry though, I am planning on having major characters come into the spotlight in the next two chapters, okay? This chapter just set up a major plot point for later chapters and I'm definitely going to capitalize on that, specifically with Garrus (hint hint) and maybe the Shadow Broker. The latter one is sort of a 'meh' idea right now, but Aksis won't be becoming the Broker anytime soon and for good reason. Just know that I've taken reviews like yours into perspective and adapted them into my fic, okay? :)

TorioWint: Thanks.

MattKennedy: I didn't take into account things like gold prices, but we'll just say it's because the galaxy is a large place and leave it at that.

Tony McNucklz: Seeing as you listed this review as being posted on chapter two, I'm led to believe that you haven't read chapter three, where it was directly explained why Mestolin was acting like that.

Ehbon172: Okay, I know what I was saying about large reviews, but yours is just too large to ignore. I might miss a few things but bear with me here. First, parts about the Administrator conquering universes. You really overestimate his power. The place he was conquering was just a capital city on a singular planet and was not an entire universe. He did kill an incredibly weak 'deity' (dude wasn't even an actual deity, just somebody worshipped as one) and did accidentally destroy an entire kingdom, but he wasn't destroying a universe or something like that. Moving on to AU elements, this is obviously taking a backseat. I just needed to introduce the concept of the drift to people and make sure that they knew this story had eldritch elements, as I know that turns some people off. Aksis will not be heading there anytime soon and the Administrator is trying to maintain the veil of secrecy between him, his allies (he does have some), and the people who manage what basically amounts to a divine judiciary. I won't lie, I didn't know where I was taking this fic when I first started it and your review seriously made me reevaluate my structure for this fic. Thank you for not being a flamer who doesn't offer any constructive criticism either. Have a nice day, my dude, and keep it up.

Neoacoya1: You underestimate the true power of [Assimilation]. Just kidding. Seriously though, [Assimilation] will get progressively more comprehensive as time goes on.

Odnan1997: I took the name Aksis from the Wrath Of The Machine Raid Boss in Destiny (the videogame). So it doesn't really hold that much significance. Yes, Kenn is cool and I relegated him to being a side character rather than a simple one-off character only present for a single chapter.

Night Shadow76: Yes, [Assimilation] can do that at higher levels. Omega is my only planned hideout spot right now, barring Hagalaz if Aksis takes over the Shadow Broker.

Right, that's it for the much shorter review responses this time. No idea when the next chapter is gonna be out since I'm binge-reading Man Off The Moon, but it'll be out soon. Have a good day, everyone.

-Draedon 1-2-2021.