The shuttle craft didn't even have time to touch down before its two passengers leapt out of it, landing on the heavily corroded rooftop as gracefully as they could given their narrow window of opportunity. Miranda waved a hand at the pilot, giving him the clearance to return to the Normandy's shuttle bay before any trackers picked up its presence, leaving both her and Kasumi on their own, without so much as a glare from Garrus's sniper keeping a watchful eye over their progress. All they had was company was the ambient red glow of the Omega skyline.
Hunting down Blood Pack bases was hardly Miranda's idea of a good use of her vast talents, but she was never one to voice her complaints when it came to Cerberus intel marking targets. Instead of continuing with their investigation into the disappearance of human colonies at the hands of the Collectors, the Normandy had been pulled away from its duties by Cerberus command to seek out and deal with the Blood Pack. The mercenary group had recently turned their attention away from their usual activities, focusing instead on piracy.
Miranda didn't care what the Blood Pack did when they found themselves short on contract work, nor did she take any interest in the seizure of shipments of red sand that were intended for the Illium marketplace, along with a the near destruction of a handful of Salarian science vessels that just happened to get in the way. It wasn't unheard of for the main mercenary organisations to diversify their credit making ventures, boarding ships to swipe their cargo was always a high risk, high reward scheme, keeping them well trained and well paid when work dried up.
But it certainly became an issue when the Blood Pack started to grow bolder in their pursuit for financial gain and a boost in reputation amongst their rivals. Stealing shipments of red sand soon grew into the targeting of vessels transporting heavy weapons, typically those destined for the Terminus systems. When that wasn't enough, they turned their sights towards far more tantalising targets, attacking ships directly affiliated with the Alliance and the Turian Hierarchy. It brought far more attention to their shadowy deeds, but even the threat of intervention from the likes of the Turians wasn't enough to cajole them into stopping.
But it was when they started to set their eyes upon Cerberus freighters that the Illusive man decided to act. The very nature of Cerberus's secrecy meant that their transport lanes were kept slim, just to avoid drawing any unwanted attention from the Alliance. It kept their operations on a need to know basis, but it had the knock on effect of making their freighters vulnerable to those with ill intention. What started with a few small shipments of material goods soon expanded into the theft of highly classified technology, the likes of which wouldn't normally find their way into the open market for some years to come. Once their proprietary technology started to crop up on the black market, Cerberus had little option but to send a personal warning to the Blood Pack.
Miranda opened her omni-tool and used its scanner to assess the first few floors below them, searching for any signs of life within the abandoned warehouse. An orange grid appeared on the surface of the roof, highlighting any hostiles occupying the floors below. She let out a relieved sigh, glad to see that their intel had correctly predicted the lack of a significant defence force within. The odds weren't completely on their side, but Miranda just hoped that Kasumi's tech wizardry would draw some of the heat off them as they navigated their way towards the objective.
"We have a clear line to the storage area," Miranda confirmed, using her finger to draw a line around the three dimensional map, highlighting the areas where they faced the least possible resistance, "if we stick to this path we might just be able to avoid a conflict."
"Aw, I was looking forward to getting to use my pistol for once," Kasumi pouted, following the path Miranda had set out closely, paying special attention to the various access panels that could be found along it. "But being the tech specialist is fun and all, but I always miss out on the action."
"Given that we're looking at this place being guarded mainly by Vorcha, I think avoiding conflict would be ideal for both of us," Miranda replied, deactivating her omni-tool once they were both confident they could stick to the route. Withdrawing her pistol from her thigh holster, Miranda readied herself for whatever was waiting for them. "Are you clear on what you're doing?"
"First, disconnect the security systems to make sure the pyros don't try to cook us alive," Kasumi counted with her fingers, tapping her lip thoughtfully. "Second, assume control over the facility, locking the Blood Pack out of the automated defence systems they have in place. Then we finish with an explosive finale. Is that about it?"
"And us being as far away from this dump once it ignites, I'd keep that one in mind," Miranda reminded her, leading the way towards the entrance to the stairwell, "I don't want to get caught in the blast radius. And I most certainly do not want to piss off Aria, we have enough problems to deal with without having to worry about her sending her goons after us."
"If it's a hit and run job you need, then you've brought the right woman," Kasumi grinned, covering Miranda's rear as they made their descent, "the Blood Pack won't know what hit 'em."
The stunning duo swiftly made their way down the stairs, forced to take a few leaps of faith when they encountered sections of the warehouse that had experienced a collapse due to centuries of wear and tear. Miranda moved with a feline grace, landing a series of fatal shots to any of the mercenaries foolish enough to allow her to sneak up behind them. Just seeing the poor state of the structure left Miranda surprised that it hadn't simply collapsed in on itself before their arrival. Miranda reasoned that if the decrepit warehouse was the best thing the Blood Pack could afford to use as a base, then their financial situation was far more dire that she had expected, making it all the more important for them to be scared off before they accelerated their piracy operation.
A few well placed biotic blasts cleared any debris that threatened to encumber their rapid progress. Once they could no longer rely on the warped and buckled stairs, Miranda made the decision to alter her course slightly. Timing a perfect jump to the concrete surface below, Miranda used an unsuspecting Vorcha to break her fall, snapping its neck with her powerful thighs in the process. Kasumi shot Miranda an impressed look when she made her own descent, using the steel rope hanging from an old crane to rappel down.
"I can think of many worse ways to go than having those thighs around my head during my last few living moments," Kasumi smirked, helping Miranda back to her feet, dropping a charging Varren that loped towards them.
"I'm glad I could make his departure a pleasurable one. The vault should be beneath this level," Miranda searched around what had once been a docking bay, which still possessed the various pieces of lifting equipment and loading vehicles from its better days, "the beacon says they're beneath our feet. But the plans for this warehouse made it clear that this was the ground floor, this place wasn't designed to come with a basement."
"Must've dug one themselves," Kasumi suggested, using a few of her own modifications to her omni-tool to scan for cavities in the seemingly solid floor, jumping over the prone form of the Varren, preoccupied with the sensor as it measured the density of the ground beneath her feet. "They've got the equipment, even if its all banged up and in dire need of repair."
"No wonder they're always in desperate need of credits," Miranda folded her arms, keeping her dazzling blue eyes honed in on the shadows of the dimly lit loading bay, hovering her finger barely an inch from the trigger of her pistol, "they waste their ill gotten gains purchasing the deed to crumbling infrastructure and spend God knows how much of it excavating the place. It's a mystery how they haven't been absorbed by the likes of the Blue Suns yet."