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| - "What the hell is that thing?" Sharon asked, as the team tried to outmaneauver several hundred pounds of angry flying reptile. "Hopefully, it's not rocket-proof," Leoptos said, as she pulled an RPG launcher from the team's supply crate. She aimed and fired. It had been almost impossible to keep her arms steady, but the shot was good, aimed right at the beast's nose. They watched as the rocket sped its way towards the beast... and then exploded a few inches to the left of the right nostril. This had absolutely no effect on the beast. "Shit," Sharon cursed, "What do we do now?" Visin stared straight ahead, her hands clamped firmly onto the steering wheel. "I see an entrance up ahead," she said between gritted teeth. Everyone else looked forward and saw that she was steering them straight towards a glass wall. "Everyone hold onto something. This is going to hurt." She slammed her foot down on the accelerator, and the small transport craft gave an impressive roar. She then reach over and flipped a switch on the dashboard. "I've just turned off the stabilizers," she shouted "HOLD ON!" The craft was now hurtling towards the glass wall, but its trajectory had grown so unstable that it nearly flipped over several times. As they came within a few feet of the wall, Visin slammed on the brakes. The craft turned almost ninety-degrees on its back end as it collided with the wall, shattering the glass. For a few seconds, the glass rained down on them, and then they were within the city. Visin took her foot off the accelerater and reactivated the stabilizers. The craft bounced and turned like a tossed coin before finally coming to a stop. They watched as the beast came towards them, but suddenly an alarm went off. "WARNING! ARKALLION APPROACHING! ACTIVATE DEFENSES!" There was a pneumatic hiss somewhere far above them, then a crackle of electricity, and they watched as an arc of electricity hit the beast squarely in its chest. It roared in pain and began flying in circles, before finally collapsing on the ground. There was another pneumatic hiss, and a wall of steel dropped into place where the glass wall had been. After several minutes where everyone was catching their breath, T'Shar spoke. "I swear to the goddess, love," she said, turning to Visin, "If you ever do that again, I'll kill you myself." But there was no anger in her voice, and she embraced the other woman, kissing her full on the lips. Visin's hands moved to fondle T'Shar's breasts through her uniform. "Ugh," Leoptos groaned. "When it rains, it pours, I guess," Sharon responded, shrugging. "At least I don't have to worry about their jealousy." "Let's... give them some space," Leoptos suggested. They'd crashed into the sunroom of an upper-class residence, and they now moved into what appeared to be a dining room, with a large round table. Almost all of the furniture in the house was made of a smooth, polished material that looked like amber. Sharon ran her hand over the surface of the round table that occupied most of the dining room, finding it cool to the touch. "What is this material?" she asked. "Alanmaris, I think," Leoptos said, "It's a type of resin. Not very cheap." She had a look on her face like a child in a crypt. "Are you alright?" "I'm fine. It's just... my family came from this place... or part of it did, at any rate. My grandmother lived in this city until it fell to the batarians. She used to talk about it all the time, made it sound like something out of a dream. I never thought I'd actually see it for myself." Her reminiscing was interrupted by a high-pitched ringing. "Hello? Is someone there?" a voice asked. For a minute, they looked around, confused, before Leoptos spied a glass, Y-shaped device. She carefully approached it and tapped the underside. There was another sound, like feedback from a microphone. "Hello," she said. "This is Operative Leoptos, from Livis Company." "Arine?" Sharon noticed that the voice was strange, accented. "Hello, Siani," Leoptos answered warmly, "It's good to see you're still alive." "What are you doing here?" "A pair of human soldiers arrived at our camp a few days ago, looking for you. Me, Visin, and T'Shar escorted one of them out here to find you." "Humans? On Lorek?" Sharon approached the device. "Operative Dantius? This is Cmdr. Emmanuelle Sharon, of the Systems Alliance Navy. I've come--" "My mother sent you, didn't she?" Dantius asked, a hint of irritation in her voice. "Yes. She was worried about you..." "Worried? HA! Goddess damn her, I should have known she'd sent some jarheaded rube..." She paused. "You can hear every word I'm saying, can't you?" "Yes." "Shit. Arine? Are you still there?" "Yes," Leoptos said. "Can this woman be trusted?" "She wasn't sent here to kill you, if that's what you're worried about. She genuinely thought this was a rescue operation. So did I, Visin, and T'Shar." "Oh, Goddess," Dantius murmured. "I'm terribly sorry, Commander. I was unsure-" "It's alright." "Come meet me in the Column building. It's in the center of the city. It's a considerable distance, but you should be able to find adequate transportation." The Y-shaped device crackled, then died. "Is this some sort of telephone?" Sharon asked, looking at it curiously. "Yeah. Of course, this is stone-age technology..." Visin and T'Shar finally materialized from the other room. "Sorry we took so long," T'Shar said, "We were trying to salvage the transport." Leoptos gave a derisive snort. "Looking under the hood, were you?" "We got a call from Operative Dantius while you two were busy," Sharon explained. "She wants to meet us in the Column building." They all exited the house and found themselves in an enormous city. An entire neighborhood of what appeared to be upper-class houses stretched out before them. At least a dozen blocks away, the houses gave way to apartment complexes and condominiums of increasing size. "Good god, this city is huge," Sharon remarked. "How the hell are we supposed to find the Column building in all this?" "Well, this is just a guess, but I think it's the huge tower in the distance," Leoptos said. It took Sharon a moment to notice it. The Column building was at least a mile away, and so tall that she had to crane her head upwards several degrees to see the top.
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