Invictus was a harsh planet. There was no way around that. It was a dangerous place, filled with diseases that targeted dextro-amino species, and the wildlife that harbored them was the main reason that turian colonies had the tendency to fail. Those that succeeded were stubborn, though, as they had to be, and the children born there wore tough hides and big attitudes.

Novitiria was one such child, but all the stubbornness that the colonists possessed seemed to manifest in her. This became abundantly clear when, rather than perform her civic duty and take up arms, she left on a merchant ship with no more warning than a note left for her parents explaining that she longed for more excitement than the turian military could bring...and that she thought the military was filled with filthy-fringed bare faces and she would rather face a hundred threshers than join up.

After such a charming parting letter, what she ended up with was mercenary work, and some very, very disgruntled parents. Mercs weren't honorable, and in the turian hierarchy, having a child who refuses to join the military was practically cause for banishment...at least, in the old days. Novitiria's parents, both respected researchers living on Invictus to investigate the uninhabitable jungle, were dishonored when their daughter left on Blue Suns ship, and proceeded to pour all of their efforts into their remaining child, a son named Baronius. Hoping that he would turn out better, they were relieved when he did what all young turians were supposed to do and became an officer in the fleet.

They hadn't heard from their daughter since the day before she disappeared.

"Novi, don't get cocky." a male turian growled, flaring his mandibles slightly in warning. "You're only here because we're pulling out all the stops."

"But I can do it!" the female hissed, staring up at her dark blue leader. "You just never gave me the chance-"

"Then this is it." her superior said forcefully. "Prove that you're not still that dumb kid we picked up on Invictus."

He turned on his heel, leaving Novi fuming. She had been in the Suns' lower ranks for years, ever since she joined them on Omega, never moving up the ladder to where she belonged at the top. They refused to let her do anything past demanding credits from civilians living in their district, throwing in the occasional patrol to keep her occupied, and it was infuriating. She knew she had more in her than that. During target practice, she hit every mark. When they were sparring, she almost always won-and when she didn't, she was close. She could put up a fight. If they would just throw her out there, give her a chance...

But now she was finally getting that chance she deserved. "Archangel," whatever the hell kind of name that was, had finally managed to piss everybody off enough to warrant a raid on his base, and Novi was determined to be the one to finally take him out. She had the skills, she knew she did. She had the guts, and now she wanted the glory.

And now they were all going to see what she was made of.

"Novi!" a batarian male shouted from across the room. The turian stood from her place among the crates in the corner and looked at him. "With me. We're moving out."

She picked up her SMG and her stomach did a flip. This was it. Her first real mission, and it was such a big one...so what if she was only allowed to go because the Suns were trying to take care of things without involving any other mercs or soldiers? It still counted. When it was all over, she would get to brag about the fact that her first mission had been successful, and that she had been the reason.

"Tarius won't let me use you as bait." the batarian grunted as Novi approached him. "Says it won't work anyways."

Novi snorted as loudly as she could to hide her irritation behind a mask of amusement. "Why, Dasin?"

"Why what?" he asked as they walked together to a group of human and batarians waiting at the elevator.

"Why wouldn't it work?"

He shrugged. "Tarius thinks Archangel is too focused. And too much of a pain in the ass. He wouldn't fall for it, he says. Guess he oughtta know, seeing as you're all turian."

They reached the others and the group stepped onto the platform, Novi's fringe reaching a good foot higher than the tops of the others' heads. Why was she the only turian there? It didn't feel right. Tarius was staying behind as the brains, as he usually did, but the others were all conveniently absent. There were plenty of turians that stuck with the Suns, and Novi patrolled regularly with quite a few of them. This was sketchy.

"Me? I think Archangel's in good need of a female by now." he and the others roared with laughter and Novi clicked her mandibles in annoyance. They were probably right; turians were very sex-driven, and a good portion of their society revolved around both the intimacy of mating and the casual fucking that took place amongst friends and peers. That didn't mean Novi had to appreciate the jokes, however.

"Guy's been holed up long enough." one of the humans said. "Bet he's gotten real lonely. Hey, maybe we should use you as bait. You've got a...what do you guys like so much? Supportive waist?"

"Not like he's coming out any other way," another said.

"Only if I get a promotion." Novi said flatly, her subharmonics hardly audible as she glared down at all of them.

"Ha! For killing him after, maybe."

"That's all I'd need."

The lift shuddered to a halt and Novi flicked her visor on, narrowing her eyes as the doors opened. She stepped out after Dasin, rifle on her back, SMG in her hand at the ready, scanning the streets as they crept forward towards the last area Archangel had been spotted in.

She tried to go over what she knew about him in her head. He was turian-hence so many jokes at her expense-and a better shot than anyone that went after him had been thus far. His only motive seemed to be the desire to take out mercs, and while that didn't seem like a good enough reason to be risking his life like this, it was certainly playing out in his favor so far. Nobody could touch him, which gave Novi the sneaking suspicion that he had a fleet background. Some kind of military bareface.

"We're going to thin out." Dasin said. "Novi, take the right. Anders and Smith are going middle with me. The rest of you-"

Novi didn't bother listening to his other orders. She didn't need them. Instead, she veered off into an alley that was barely wide enough for her to squeeze through, her eyes trained on the heat signals that her visor provided while her cowl scraped against the walls. She picked up some faint spots from inside the grimy buildings that she passed, but nothing big enough to be turian, and nothing out of the ordinary. Just some of Omega's poorest and most unfortunate citizens.

She pressed further, sticking close to the shadows once the alley opened up into a wider street. This was a race to see who would find Archangel first, and she was determined to win. She was the only turian among them, and that coupled with the fact that she knew this part of Omega well gave her a leg up, she figured. Whenever she patrolled, it was always near this area, and had practically memorized the dirty slums after so many hours of just walking and threatening.

When she found an arms dealer that she recognized, she grinned. She knew exactly where she was now, and there were only a handful of places that Archangel could hide out in for so long out there. She was almost standing next to the best one, she realized as she pictured a map of the district in her head.

"Novi, do you copy?" Dasin's voice sounded in her ear.

"What?" she asked quietly as she rounded a corner. Before her stood a dark building, squished between the others, an open expanse sitting before it and no sign of any back door. This had to be it; she had always thought it was abandoned, or a place for varren fighting rings to meet in. She had never paid too much attention to it, and looking back, she wished she had. If she had known it was such a prime spot for hiding out, she could have found Archangel a long time ago.

"What is your position?" Dasin asked.

"I'm next to the-" she was cut off as a bullet suddenly ricocheted off of her armored cowl, the clang ringing out much louder than the weapon that caused it had.

"Novi?"

She looked up at the top floor's windows as she broke into a sprint, stumbling behind an overturned crate. Archangel was watching, she was sure of it. Now she just had to figure out how to clear 200 meters of exposed ground to get to the best sniper the Suns had ever encountered.

"Novi!"

"C," she panted. "Quadrant C." She popped her head out to look at the dark windows, staying as low behind the crate as she could. There was no hiding now; even if Archangel hadn't spotted her, her white skin was standing out in stark contrast to the dark gray background, and while her armor was blending in well, her face was the perfect target.

"Do you have sights?"

"Not yet," she half lied. It was too dark. There was no way she could see him with her naked eye, and her visor was only managing to pick up a faint heat signature. She needed light. She didn't carry any flares, though, and by the time any rounds reached those top windows, the bullets would have cooled too much to give off a significant amount of light.

She had flash bombs, though.

She cursed quietly. She could toss one and take the opportunity to run, but it was going to have to be a perfect throw. That's the only way it could work, and she was only going to have one chance to get it right.

She pulled a grenade off her hip, flipped the trigger pin, stood up, and threw it as hard as she could before ducking down, her eyes trained on those damned windows. It collided with the wall, the resulting flash illuminating everything for just a moment, and as she jumped up to run, Novi caught a glimpse of turian fringe and the glint of a rifle in the very middle window. There he was.

She made it to the door and inside before Archangel had a chance to shoot at her, and as she stormed up the stairs, she desperately hoped his eyes were still too traumatized by the light to react in any way that would benefit him. Maybe he even got hit by a spark or some shrapnel. She knew there was a good reason to carry those bombs-they were usually reserved for Vorcha, but light could only do so much to them, and they were generally useless. Now she was grateful for hauling around the extra weight.

Trying to remember which room she had seen him in, Novi ran down halls and up stairs, finally remembering that she should probably tell Dasin where she was. As she reached the door she wanted, though, the shots she heard on the other side made her guess that the others had already figured out where to go.

Good. That meant Archangel was distracted.

Novi sucked in a breath and hit the access panel to open the door, only to have it slide open slowly enough that Archangel had time to greet her with a blow to the head. Her visor cracked and she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to keep any shards from penetrating them. The last thing she needed was to go blind at a time like this.

She stumbled back, the damaged visor flickering on and off, distracting her and distorting her vision. With gritted teeth, she fumbled with her gun, ready to shoot, until the bigger turian interrupted her with a well timed sweep of his legs under hers.

She fell with a shout, landing on her back. He reached for his gun and she quickly lashed out, grabbing his heel spur and yanking on him as hard as she could until he tripped and fell onto his front, one three-clawed hand clutching something at his midsection.

Novi finally had him. With some scrambling, she grabbed her gun before she righted herself and stood over him, pointing it at his head. Her hands were shaking and she felt blood trickling down her face. This was it.

She had never actually killed before. Sure, she had shot various creatures and people dozens of times, but never fatally. She had never watched anyone die, and certainly not by her hand. Now that she had a chance, she couldn't bring her hand to squeeze the trigger, and as she chastised herself for it and finally cleared her head to force herself to execute Archangel, he took the opportunity to raise the pistol he had kept strapped to his chest and shoot her.

The sound was earsplitting. Tears immediately filled her eyes as she fell, and pain flooded every space in her head. Novi collapsed, her body going limp as her vision faded in and out, in and out, black and not black, there and not. She didn't want to die. She hadn't done what she wanted to.

She had failed.

Archangel knelt down in front of her to take her guns, preferring to use the SMG on the mercs storming the building, and the last thing Novi saw was a pair of brilliant, icy blue eyes staring into her own.

Her vision went first. The world turned black, and those eyes went away.

She heard shots, but they sounded far away as her head spun.

Then everything went completely quiet.