Your crew has been hired by Reenus Von Seur, a ruthless crimelord that has become the head of Omega, your mission is simple enough, disable a Salarian merchant ship and steal crate, no more information is given to your crew before you set out. The ramifications of this simple act will prove dire not only for your crew but for the entire galaxy.
The bright lights flicker on and off, a staple of earth's slums, much of the planet still lays in ruin after the Reapers attack, debris pile up on the side of the street resting peacefully against the crumbling husk of what used to be a building, over head the sky is dark and cloudy, rain was coming. Henry looks on at the flickering sign above his head, it reads "The Last Stop". Very few people are out on the streets tonight, a few people can be seen walking through the thickening fog that is common this time a year. Not delaying for much longer Henry steps into "The Last Stop", immediately he is greeted by a smoke filled room the size of a small apartment, behind the bar stands a gruff older man, by the looks of him it is apparent that he was a member of the military, the expression on his face is that of a man that has seen more than he ever wanted to see. He stands quietly cleaning a glass, scattered around the bar are tables that have obviously seen better days, most of the tables are filled with haggard looking men, most of which seem to tired or drunk to care about life. Towards the back of the room there is a small stage in which a lone Asari dances to the tune of some generic music, a couple people stand around the stage looking on, they are the only ones in the bar that seem to be enjoying themselves. Henry brushes the smoke away from his face and proceeds to take a seat at an empty table at the corner of the room, his back facing the wall.
After a couple minutes an older lady approaches him, despite her age her features are remarkable, her skin still soft and mouth perky despite the downcast eyes that obviously cover a lifetime of disappointments, she stands in front of Henry and asks him what he would like, without thinking much Henry orders a drink and the woman walks back to the bar, Henry scans the room, he patiently waits for his contact to approach him, he looks at the bar and notices the waitress speaking to the bar keep, the man sets down the glass that he was cleaning and looks at Henry as the waitress continues speaking to him. The bar keep completes the order and the waitress returns and hands out Henry's drink, the door opens and Henry turns to look a man enters around the bar a few heads raise but they quickly lower, not one of the regulars, Henry ponders, could be my contact, the man takes a quick look around the place before moving to an empty sit by the bar.
A half an hour pass and still no contact, around the room the mood reeked of emptiness, the Asari left the stage a few minutes ago and the men that were crowded around her scatter back to their seats, annoyed at possibly being burned Henry finishes his drink and prepares to step outside when he notices the waitress approaching once again with a drink that he did not order, she sets the concoction in front of him and places a napkin next to it, written on the napkin are the words "Drink it".
Sitting in the corner table of the haggard looking bar, Henry muses the life choices of himself and those in the room. The waitress looked like someone that once had dreams, ambitions and possibly even opportunities. With her looks she could've nabbed a rich husband back in the days before the Reapers arrival, or possibly even done a few films, as retro as that might sound. Clearly what ever she'd planned hadn't come true however, and it would appear she'd spend the rest of her life ekeing out an existence from this lot of drunks. That said, at least she could lay claim to being just a working girl, and not a -working- girl like the Asari on the stage.
A thousand year life cycle, and this was what majority of Asari decided to do with it... Henry mused. He had some basic memory of Asari during their 'Maiden' stage wanting to party and live wild, but really... for such an advanced species they had an odd set of priorities if they thought that dancing in some Earth bar was a suitable way to spend even a few months.
And that brought the line of thought to him... who was he to judge? All his life choices had led him to this moment: a moment when he was so desperate for a job he was seriously considering drinking the strange, likely roofie ridden drink so as to score it.
Studying the waitress, the napkin and the drink Henry tries to figure out if it's a test, or an attempt at drugging him.
Sense motive, spot or whatever? Try to see if something is amiss as downing a strangers drink in a place called 'last stop' sounds like a really bad idea.
Henry holds the cool glass and stares at it for a while, the blue liquid inside reveals nothing, condensation beads the outside of the glass, slowly dripping on his fingers. The waitress continues her rounds a tired look overcoming her otherwise fine features, at the bar the barkeep speaks to someone in a boisterous voice, Henry tries to coyly pick up the conversation however it is drown out by the sounds of the music emanating from the speakers. Everywhere else the patrons seem too caught up in their drinks to pay Henry any attention.
"Oh what the fuck. Ya only live ones..." Henry mutters to himself and downs the drink, handing the glass and napkin back before heading towards the door.
As Henry makes his way towards the door it becomes apparent that something is amiss, his head lightens and the room begins to spin, he grabs on to a nearby wall to steady himself, his vision quickly blurs and a ringing starts in his ears, it gets louder and louder quickly becoming unbearable, he tries to cover his ears to shield from the noise, but instead he falls, everything is in slow motion now he sees a blurry silhouette standing over him before everything goes and there is just darkness.
Henry awakes in a dark walled room he is laying down on a scratchy bed, he opens his eyes and is immediately assaulted by the room's light, he shields his eyes but it is to no avail, a rough voice says "Sensitivity to light is a side effect, don't worry it will go away soon enough, i apologize for the theatrics, but i needed to know you were serious." Henry tries to sit up but the man's hand gently pushes him back down, "I wouldn't recommend you do that just yet, you'll feel worse, just let your body return to it's normal state, it'll take a couple of minutes. The sensitivity to light will last longer, sorry."
The man drags a chair, the sound grating your ears, and places it by the bed before taking a seat. "Henry Stuart Douglas, Engineering Sargent, 328th Battalion, dishonorably discharged, 8 years ago, never convicted yet still dismissed, reason unreasonable casualties, a dozen of them, how am i doing so far?"
Even as he was quickly losing conciousness, Henry has the gall to mutter,"Called it" before feeling his face hit the cold concrete. He'd guessed this was going to happen, but it was a hell of a way to go... roofied in some Earther bar.
Much to his surprise and immediete displeasure he awakens however, feeling a throbbing headache and other aches all over his body.
"Not that well." He grunts, closing his eyes for a bit to slow down the throbbing,"If you'd wanted to get me on my back all you needed was to buy dinner. The drugs are so last century..."
"Last century or not, discretion is of the out most importance, we couldn't afford to be seen meeting, this way is much safer." As Henry's eyes begin to adjust to the light the details of the room start to become clearer, the walls are coated with years of dirt and grime, for the first time Henry realizes that there is another person in the room, this blurry silhouette leans against the far wall, this person seems much smaller than the person whom Henry is speaking with. The man with the gruff voice continues on as Henry attempts to sit up once more, this time the man did not stop him. Henry's head swims through the mental fogginess for a couple of seconds before the feeling goes away for good, "Our employers need someone to gather some information for them, this is to be done as discretely as possible, hence why we gave you a drug that will prevent you from seeing us correctly, for all intents and purposes we don't exist, from now on we will only communicate through encoded messages and dead drops, find the information for us and you will receive 5000 credits, a more than fair compensation for the work, any questions?"
Through gritted teeth and a pounding headache Henry concentrates on the images before him, for a split second his eyes come into focus for just enough to recognize the pair as the waitress and the barkeep from earlier, coyly he plays off this temporary moment of clarity.
The man looks at Henry for a moment before giving an answer to his question, "Extra services will not be needed at this junction of time, for the time being there isn't a who to track down, that is what you are being hired to find out. Tell me Henry, what do you know about galactic history? Do you know anything about the Pre Prothean era?
