Chapter One

An Eye for an Eye

Chaos interrupted the normal hustle and bustle of Omega's marketplace as Aria's goons charged after a certain misfit. That certain misfit was Taryn Shepard, the famed ex-Alliance Navy Commander. Who was now slumming it with terrorist, slavers, and pirates and naturally they hated her guts.

They even shouted some profanities at her as she tore through the marketplace, knocking over the odd few who were unfortunate enough to get in her way. Shepard shot a glance over her shoulder; Aria's goons mowed through the crowd, running down anyone who got in their way and they looked like they enjoyed it too.

She felt a pang of empathy towards the not-so-innocent bystander who unexpectedly received a punch to the temple from a mean looking batarian. Then she suddenly felt a shiver run down her spine as she realised the same batarian was gaining on her.

Sooner or later they were going to catch her, so Shepard had to act fast if she wanted it to be the latter. Fortunately, she had her wits handy and an Omni-tool.

Shepard sped up her momentum to her breaking point. Trying her hardest to multitask, she started priming her Omni-tool to overload – snapping her head between her tool and the path in front of her – not wanting to trip and fall prey to the thugs chasing her. However, her Omni-tool took far longer priming up than usual.

She mentally cursed the vendor who sold the tool to her. "The best on the black market, my ass," Shepard thought sourly.

Her only option was to push on. Luckily, there was a fast transit near the entrance of the nightclub, Afterlife, and that was her best chance to weasel herself out of this situation. Stealing a skycar would be a walk in the park; a good wallop of Omni-gel would do the trick. However, Shepard wasn't the best shuttle pilot, so crashing and burning was a possible outcome.

The beep from Shepard's Omni-tool pushed that thought to the back of her mind. The corners of her lips curled upwards. Swiftly, she swung her arm around, forcing her body to do a 180, and released the bolt of electricity that had built up from her Omni-tool.

Shepard landed hard causing her to fall onto her behind and, surprisingly, the shot struck home. The electricity surged through the batarian's body, lightening him up like a Christmas tree. It wasn't a millisecond when the overload power chained from the batarian to his friends.

Shepard grinned madly at the scene in front of her. The goons seized up; clenching their jaws, their fine hairs stood on end, the smell of smoke was overpowering. She had seen vids of lightning striking people, but it didn't beat witnessing the phenomenon up-close.

Volts of crippling electricity running through their bodies seemed to do the trick as Aria's henchmen collapsed in a heap – moaning and rolling in pain on the floor like a crude symphony.

"Woah," Shepard breathed – her mad grin still stuck on her face.

She peeled herself off the ground with ease. After dusting herself off, Shepard strode over to the smoking pile of trash. She cooed softly at the 'sleeping beauties' before slamming her heel down on each of their faces, rendering them unconscious so she could search them without being rudely interrupted.

Sadly, Shepard didn't loot much. A credit chit and a small ceremonial dagger were all she found. Cocking her head in curiosity, she examined the latter. It didn't look expensive; it was only a simple blade with a wooden hilt. Shepard assumed it was sentimental to the batarian she stole it from, due to the batarian words engraved on the blade.

Shepard didn't find any other weapons on the thugs which was strange especially for Omega. Everyone carried a gun on Omega. She guessed it was a good thing; it meant the boss didn't want her dead – yet.

"So was she going to have me maimed instead?" Shepard questioned no one in particular. "Hmph, better than being dead." She concluded with a shrug before shoving the dagger and credit chit into her back pocket.

Nonchalantly, Shepard strolled away from the scene – disregarding judging eyes on her back. She had no care for their opinion. She would do anything to get off this damn rock and would have no regrets. She was sick of it.

The doors leading out of the marketplace opened with a swoosh, allowing her to pass through. The first thing to catch Shepard's eyes was the nightclub's bright red neon sign which never failed to give her a headache.

As Shepard rubbed her temples in annoyance, she briskly walked straight ahead towards the fast transit deport. After stealing a skycar, she was hoping she could keep a low profile while trying to find a ticket off this asteroid.

When the fast transit deport caught Shepard's eyes, her face brightened up. However, Shepard quickly mentally kicked herself. She wouldn't allow herself to get her hopes up, but she couldn't help feeling a little relieved after every step she took.

However, Shepard stopped dead in her tracks when a menacing war cry rumbled through the station. She snapped her head towards the war cry's point of origin. Her heart leapt to her throat.

Shepard swallowed hard. She didn't think this day would get any worse, as she had a staring contest with Aria's trophy krogan, Patriarch. Who was bellowing about something? Shepard mentally shrugged, he was probably shouting about the size of his quads.

After he finished boasting, the old crime lord charged with a roar.

Anyone else would run at the sight of the krogan, but not Shepard. She held her ground and gritted her teeth in anticipation as a cold sweat ran down her back.

It wasn't long before Patriarch was only a few inches in front of Shepard and she immediately regretted keeping her ground. Shepard tried to swerve around Patriarch, but the krogan swung his meaty arm around and smacked her square in the face.

Shepard stumbled but quickly regained her balance. However, the krogan charged again and slammed his body into Shepard before she could defend herself.

The air felt so cool against her body as she flew through it – it was like a dream. She was an extinct bird of prey – a bald eagle – soaring through the sky, calculating and alert for her next meal. She was free.

Bang! Pain rippled through her body. Clenching her teeth, she crashed into the hard floor, and she snapped back into reality.

She gasped for air. Shepard's head felt groggy and the pain in her chest – she couldn't describe it. It hurt when she breathed which forced her to take shallow breaths. A cracked rib or two, possibly. She inhaled deeply and blocked out some of the pain. She had to keep her mind clear.

Her head throbbed as she lifted herself off of the floor. Shepard struggled to keep her balance at first, but after her dizziness subsided, she stood firm, all the while trying to keep a wooden face.

"Hah! Finally! A real opponent worthy of a fight." The krogan boomed eagerly – smacking his over-sized fist into his equally over-sized hand.

Shepard wasn't sure if it was her headache or Patriarch that made her feel queasy. All she knew was that if she suffered another hit like before it was unlikely she would get back up again. Shepard kept her calm. She wouldn't let herself become panicked.

Analysing her surroundings, she noted her opponent was five meters in front of her – give or take. A gun would be useful. However, she left all her gear in her apartment. Even so, a pistol wouldn't help her much against a charging krogan. Although, armour would have saved her a helluva lot of pain.

So what could she do? Dodge until he grew tired? No, eventually he would end up wiping the floor with her. Wait! A switch clicked in Shepard's brain. She still had that dagger in her back pocket. It wasn't much, but she had to make do with what she had.

She smirked as she subtly reached into her back pocket. "I am an N7 for a reason," Shepard stated – the words rolling off her cocksure tongue.

Once an N7, always an N7.

Patriarch growled. Or laughed, it was hard to tell. Then he abruptly started to charge towards Shepard for the third time today. She couldn't say she was startled.

Shepard acted swiftly, first, whipping out the dagger. Then she quickly jumped to the side as he charged past. The sudden movements jarred her ribs, but she was mostly unscathed. She swerved around. Shepard grimaced from the action and unconsciously supported her ribs with her free hand. She knew she wouldn't last long in her condition; she needed to finish this and fast!

Unfortunately, Patriarch wasn't letting up. However, he was too close to Shepard to charge. So instead he threw some wicked punches and Shepard somehow managed to duck and dodge all of them.

Any other day, Shepard would have thrown a few punches of her own. However, she couldn't let the krogan get a punch in. She had already tasted one of his hits; another could knock her out or worse, kill her. That was not something she could risk. So instead she waited for an opening.

As luck would have it, she didn't have to endure any longer; the krogan lifted his head high. Shepard knew what he was going to do next – he was as predictable as the next krogan. As he brought his head down hard, Shepard thrust the dagger into his left beady dear-like eye with a sickening squelch.

It didn't stop the krogan's head from crashing into her own, though. As their heads collided, Shepard heard an ear-splitting crack instantaneously followed by a sharp pain originating from her nose. She felt a weakness in her knees. It was a strange feeling of fatigue. She tried her hardest to stay upright, but a powerful jab to her gut obliterated her efforts.

Then she was engulfed in darkness.

TBC