The Demon of Niacal (Event)

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Participants

Redrock

Asari High Command

  • Varena (Asari Commando)
  • Extraction Team

Binary Helix

T'Lara-Ambari Energy

  • Corporate Representative
  • Shuttle Pilot

Wildlife

  • Octo-Monkeys
  • Panthergators
  • Giant Insects

Thralls of the Ardat-Yakshi

Others

  • Hospital Personnel
  • Villagers

Summary

Welcome to the Jungle

In August 2183 Chief Linda Vasquez got the newly formed Redrock Agency its first job. It seemed straight-forward enough - killing a warlord who had risen to power amid corporate warfare on the asari world of Niacal. A high-oxygen world, Niacal necessitated the use of breathers, and thick vegetation meant a combination of flamethrowers and machetes had to be used to clear a path through the jungle. The team that was assembled for the mission consisted of several associates of Vasquez or her partner, Jason Wolfe, as well as a number of new mercenary recruits. A shuttle took the team from the spaceport to a T'Lara-Ambari Energy encampment where they set out on foot towards the warlord's stronghold. They had been given strict orders not to engage the forces of either corporation in the conflict zone - TAE and Binary Helix.

Trouble With Wildlife

The jungle quickly proved more dangerous than anticipated. Besides the oppressively thick undergrowth and hot, humid air, the team soon ran into trouble with the local wildlife. Monkey-like creatures, seemingly harmless at first, swarmed the group after being provoked by Jason, resulting in the death of the young mercenary. This was only the beginning. Vicious pack predators and a den of arachnid beasts assailed the team, wearing them down even if no one else was lost. Two were taken by unknown attackers in the chaos - Katrin, the quarian, and Rakk, one of the two krogan mercenaries.

The Village

Respite was finally found in a small, remote asari village that welcomed the exhausted mercenaries with open arms, treating their wounds and offering food and beds. What seemed at first like a blessing soon proved otherwise - in the morning the team leader, Chief Vasquez, was gone. Jason and Ilyna pushed the local matriarch for answers, and was told that the warlord's people were responsible. That she had demanded a sacrifice. It became clear as they spoke that the warlord was something far more. An Ardat-Yakshi, a demon of the night winds, capable of enthralling lesser minds to do her bidding and consuming the minds of others to bolster her own strength, and feed her unending hunger. With renewed urgency the team set out to save Vasquez, and the others, as it was becoming increasingly clear just what had happened to them. Repairing an abandoned corporate riverboat the team set out on the final stretch to the Demon's temple.

The Temple

The mercenaries faced resistance on their way upriver - deranged asari covered in warpaint and blood, wielding antique firearms. The Demon's thralls, ensnared long ago. The salarian mercenary was lost, but the team pressed on. Eventually they were forced to abandon the boat and go ashore, and they only survived the thralls' onslaught thanks to the intervention of Varena, an asari commando, the last survivor of a team sent to assassinate the Demon. She took the lead, helping the surviving mercenaries to organize an attack on the temple - an antique structure that had almost been reclaimed by the jungle. The Demon's followers numbered in the hundreds within its walls. Infiltrating the temple, the team managed to rescue Rakk and Katrin, but they came too late for Vasquez - she had already been sacrificed. Aoife, the team sniper, spotted her naked body discarded atop the temple, covered in ritual paint. As chaos and fighting erupted in the temple grounds, Varena dealt a deathblow to the Demon and called for extraction. A shuttle retrieved the mercenaries as gunships prepared to burn the temple, and the Demon's followers, to the ground.

The Aftermath

None of the surviving mercenaries got out of the jungle without scars. All suffered injuries to various degrees, and the memories of what happened would stay with them for a long time. Jason had carried Vasquez to the shuttle and brought her back for medical treatment despite the slim chances - few survive being ravaged by an Ardat-Yakshi at the peak of its power. Thanks to Jason's efforts she would eventually recover from the severe brain hemorrhage she had suffered, but both their lives were changed forever, and the dream of Redrock was greatly set back. In the end, what happened on Niacal would spell the end of an era, as Jason moved home to Earth to care for Vasquez, leaving the lives of their old associates.

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