Baria Has "Bar" Right In It

We head to the Dracon Trade Center where Baria Frontiers is located. This should be a walk in the park, I think to myself as I approach the doo-OH GOD THE BUILDING JUST EXPLODED.

*sigh*

Motherfucker.

I wish Liara had had some booze in her apartment I could've hit before coming over here, though I did get tanked in Eternity before going to her apartment so I'm still rocking a healthy buzz from that. Explosions have a way of sobering a person up. NOT ME THOUGH, I'VE GOTTEN USED TO EXPLOSIONS. 

That Asari Spectre tells me she'll go in from the top and I should work my up to the Baria Frontiers office from the bottom. Uh, okay. Whatever. I run past some shook up civilians and into the building where priority one is to check for things to loot. This datapad has some credits in it! So does this ATM! Excellent. I will also take this medigel for myself. You injured people wait for a doctor or something!

I find a dead civilian, killed curiously by gunfire and not the explosion. I mention this to Vasir (the other Spectre) who is like "oh this must be more than just an explosion." Ya think? Oh figured there was just a gas leak or something. I thought maybe some testing on some explosives had gone wrong. They do a lot of explosive testing here, right? Near the gas pipes? Just happens to occur as arrive looking for Liara as we hunt the Shadow Broker. I don't need Encyclopedia Brown on this case; I think I got a pretty good handle on it myself. 

I continue on into the Baria Frontiers office, where I notice that Liara was here as she has taken time to sign the logbook. I know that when I am being hunted by the agents of a mysterious unknown criminal, I take time to sign logbooks. They could chase me into a wedding and I would be like...Where is the guestbook? And I would sign it "Dizzy Shepard, Earth" and the couple would be confused later because they don't know me; I'm just using their reception as a place to hide. If they chase me into a bathroom, I will hide in a stall with my feet off the floor, carving "SHEPARD WUZ HERE" into the divider. The most important thing to me, when running from people is to leave a good trail with my name everywhere.

I don't have  much time to consider this though as I am quickly attacked by several of the Shadow Broker's agents. And they are using those annoying ass flashbang grenades. Oh they are extra annoying when you are totally pretty wasted still. I was ALREADY seeing double. You are making my vision and hearing exponentially worse. Thankfully Garrus and Thane handily take care of them, while I throw up in the corner for a minute.

Throwing up, while a sucky process, always results in me feeling just WAY better though. Wow guys, do you have some gum? Because aside from the taste of this asari booze and stomach bile in my mouth, I am feeling way better! What were doing? Oh yeah, looking for Liara.

We continue fighting through these assholes until we finally come across Liara's contact, only to see him get shot by a Shadow Broker agent. Oh god my reaction time is so slow why didn't I stop that? The agent is immediately killed by Vasir though, so I'm like, oh cool. I go to talk to her when Liara comes barging into the room, pointing a gun at Vasir.

Whoa whoa whoa, what's with the guns and the pointing Liara? She's a spectre and they've always been cool right? Wait. I seem to remember one that wasn't...Liara explains that Vasir tried to kill her and she's working with the Shadow Broker or something. I'm kind of startled by the sudden flood of information but ultimately we all point our guns at Vasir. 

She biotic smashes the glass and biotic insults Liara who biotic protects me and my squad and I biotic try to tackle (head up! lower the shoulder) who biotic falls out the window with me but biotic cushions our landing with biotics. Not that I need your damn cushion, ain't nothing getting through my bone weaves! Liara leaps out the window as well, and we take off after her. 

I yell back to Garrus and Thane.

GET DOWN HERE SOMEHOW!

UUUUH

THANE HAS BIOTICS! HUG EACH OTHER AND JUMP!

MAKE OUT A LITTLE!

I CAN TAKE A MINUTE TO WATCH I'M NOT IN A HURRY OR ANYTHING.

Apartment Hunting

The threat of the Collectors finally taken care of, I head upstairs to my cabin and cuddle with Garrus for like 4 hours straight. Slow, methodical, repetitive cuddling. On the bed. On the couch. Back to bed. Just cuddle, cuddle, cuddle.

Finally I decide to see what else in the galaxy needs to be shot/blown up/destroyed and remember that I had some info on the Shadow Broker that I was supposed to take Liara like, forever ago. Um, whoops.

Okay uh, let's fly to Illium and do this, I suppose. But I'm going to Eternity and getting a drink. And we're going there first. FIRST. Not afterwards. Well, I suppose afterwards too. Yes, we're going before, and afterwards, and if I get a moment in between doing stuff, we might swing by there sometime then too. 

I take my usual crew of Garrus and Thane, and head to Liara's office. Hey. How's it going? So...um, you wanna go get the Shadow Broker, or uh, whatever? I give her the info I have and she practically wets herself with excitement. She says to meet me at her apartment later and runs off, saying I can feel free to use her computer or something. I'm like sweet, I wanna check my email and show Garrus and Thane this funny video I saw earlier where this pyjak is sitting on a branch and then scratches its butt and then fall off the branch. 

Unfortunately, I can't ACTUALLY use the computer. 

Liara said meet her later so I assume that means it's okay to kill some time...at the bar. I drink a few drinks, listen to a few conversations and then decide that it's late enough to go to Liara's place. I head to a taxi terminal and I say, "car! Liara's apartment!" It knows what I mean and takes us right there. 

At her apartment I am, well, somewhat shocked to find that things have gone horribly wrong. Not completely shocked  because I've started to just expect a mess no matter where I'm going. I'm not sure if I'm unlucky or...I mean I was expecting trouble eventually, it just seems to be jumping me sooner and sooner on these little tasks I go on. 

Anyway, Liara's gone, shots have been fired through her window and there's another Asari Spectre there waiting for me. I'm all, 'scuse me, best Spectre ever right here. Let me through. They let me in, and I tell the other Spectre, Vasir, that Liara was expecting me and would of course, have left me a note. She wouldn't have just left, even if people were shooting at it. She'd put up a biotic bubble thing with one hand and awkwardly write a note with the other. She would! She would! 

Vasir's all, whatever, have a look around. So I do, while Garrus and Thane stand around by the door. I start by examining the window where the gun shots came through. Yep, those look like bullet holes all right. I turn around to check out the rest of the place and see a case displaying uh, most of my old armor. I uh...huh. She's got my old armor. What the...what else of mine does she have? I wonder for a second if maybe she has that Foo Fighters disc that's been missing since my ship got blown up, but it occurs to me that it's probably floating in space. I look around some more and head upstairs where hooooly shit this is a nice apartment.

Oh my god look at that fishtank. What the hell!? She has jellyfish! Jellyfish! Garrus! Thane! Go in Liara's kitchen and see if she's got any plastic baggies. We are taking these fuckers back to the Normandy. I ain't got no damn jellyfish.

After digging through all of her belongings and her underwear drawer and checking behind all the paintings for safes, I finally find a data disc where one of Liara's contacts asks her to meet him at the Baria Frontiers office in the Dracon trade center. Vasir is like "aha sweet!" and I'm little put off by her, to be honest. I grab Garrus and Thane though, and make for the trade center. I suggest we stop for drinks on the way.

But they tell me no.