Eclipse, Blood Pack, and the Blue Suns; they are Omega's major players. The only time you'll see them together is on the battlefield.
-Aria T'Loak CEO of Omega
Timmons' Descent, Paglaba
Skyllian Verge, 2177
A hot summer evening was in full sway on the colony of Timmons' Descent. It was the warmest time of the year, and Keira and Jessie were enjoying every moment of it, walking through the streets of the colony.
"You should really ask him out." Keira said.
"I know I want to!" Jessie exclaimed. "It's just..."
"Just what?"
"Well, what if Jack says no? What if he laughs in my face?"
"Are you really that afraid of this guy?"
Jessie brushed her hair away from her face.
"No—I really like him!" she said.
"Then just ask him out. I really don't see the problem here." Keira replied.
"That's because you've never had a relationship before, Keira."
"And I never will. At least for now."
The two of them turned a corner and walked towards the park. There was about two-dozen people there; young parents with their children running around in the grass, and other teenagers fiddling with their omni-tools on their wrists. A large combine tractor passed by the park and drove off towards the large wheat field that surrounded the colony. Keira and Jessie sat down on a nearby bench and continued chatting.
"I still think you should ask Jack out." Keira re-iterated.
"Could you go with me?" Jessie asked, innocently. "Y'know, just incase I pass out? You could use your powers to break my fall."
"I'll go with you, but I'll watch from afar. I have confidence that you won't pass out, and that I won't have to use my powers to catch you."
"Well, we'll see. I hope that—"
Jessie stopped mid-sentence and stared into the sky. Keira glanced over and tapped her on the shoulder.
"What'cha looking at, Jess?" Keira asked.
"Are we expecting any ships today?" Jessie asked.
"No...I don't think so. Why?"
Jessie pointed upward. Keira looked up and saw two large, discolored ships descending orbit. One of them had cannons on either side. At first, Keira thought it was the Alliance coming for re-fuel, but they didn't look like Alliance ships. It was then that she thought of the worst: slavers.
"We have to get out of here." Keira said sternly.
"Why?" Jessie asked. "I want to watch the ships."
One of the ship's cannons slowly rotated and aimed at the combine, passing the last of the houses. The cannon fired and a large streak of light flew through the air. The light slammed into the combine and erupted into a huge explosion, engulfing the surrounding houses in flames. The explosion caught everyone's attention, then all hell broke loose.
"We have to leave, now!" Keira yelled as she grabbed Jessie's arm and ran down the street, trying to push her way through the groups of fleeing citizens. The ship continued to fire slugs all around the city, destroying houses and killing the people inside. The other ship had landed on top of the park, flattening the trees and benches. A moment later, dozens of batarians, covered in armor and holding wielding guns, poured out. Two of them spotted Keira and Jessie and began chasing them.
"Who are these people?" Jessie yelled as she ran closely behind Keira.
"I think they're slavers!" Keira exclaimed.
"What? Why would they come here? We didn't do anything to them!"
"Maybe you should ask them? Keep running!"
The two of them ran back the way they came, around the corner, when Jessie tripped over her feet and fell to the ground. Keira stopped to help her up, just as the two batarians turned the corner. One of them shot a burst of rounds at Keira, and the bullets whizzed past her body, striking the ground behind her. Regrettably, Keira let go of Jessie and ran in the opposite direction.
The batarian grabbed Jessie by the arm and tried to pull her off the ground. Jessie screamed and wailed for help, struggling to get away. Keira stopped and looked back. She wanted to go back and help, but she'd surely be killed.
"This one's too much of a hassle." one of the batarians said. "Put'er down."
The other slaver raised his gun at Jessie's head and pulled the trigger. Jessie's body flew back from the force of the gun, onto the ground in a bloody pool. Dead. Keira began to tear up, but continued running in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, the batarians spotted her and began to hunt her down.
The streets were filled with panic, as everyone ran. The Timmons' Descent was under attack by batarian slavers, and Keira Kuroki, was running for her life as two slavers followed her closely behind. Living out in the Skyllian Verge system had always been dangerous, but in the decade it was even more risky thanks to the frequent slave raids based out of the neighboring Terminus Systems.
As she ran down the road, past the rows of pre-fabricated buildings, Keira saw other humans being hauled away by slavers, or the corpses of those who tried to resist capture.
They're right behind me! Keira thought as she ran, I've got to hide.
She made a quick turn down an alleyway only to find the path blocked off by shipping crates. Finding herself at a dead end, she quickly spun around, only to find that the two batarian slavers had followed her down the path. The batarians walked towards her, aiming their assault rifles and backing her closing to the shipping crates.
"Come here!" one of them yelled, "Now!"
Keira obeyed and slowly began walking toward the slavers. Sweat was running down her temples from her forehead, she was tired from running for so long.
"Hands up!" the other slaver snapped.
She rose her hands above her head as she approached the slavers. The first slaver went around behind her and pulled out a set of hand cuffs. He grabbed her hands and placed them behind her back.
"You'll be a good sell." the slaver whispered into her ear. As the slaver brought the second cuff to Keira's right hand, she remembered something, something that a familiar person taught her. Remember, three slow breaths before you start. The second cuff latched onto her right hand with a *click*, as the slavers pushed Keira out of the alley. Now or never, Keira thought.
As she stepped out of the alley back into the harsh sunlight, she stopped and began to focus.
"Hey." one of the slavers said. "No one said you could stop, human."
The batarian approached Keira from behind, and placed his hand on her shoulder. As he pushed her to get her to move, she closed her eyes and took three, slow breaths.
"Move, human!" the slaver demanded. Keira opened her eyes and quickly rolled forward and spun around to face her captors. There was something that the slavers didn't know about her: she was a biotic.
Before the slaver could react, Keira pushed her cuffed hands away from her, hurling a wave of dark energy into him, hurling him into the crates back in the alley. The batarian slammed into the crate, back first, breaking his spine.
The other batarian, stunned to see Keira glowing, immediately raised his rifle. Before he could aim, she quickly turned back to him and used her biotics to swing her arms in an upward motion and slammed the cuffs into the slaver's face with immense force. The batarian dropped the rifle just as it discharged two shots, causing the bullets to fly into the wall next to them. The slaver was crouching on one knee on the ground still dazed from the blow to the face from the cuffs. Keira walked behind him, and wrapped the chains of the cuffs around the slaver's neck, pulling them apart, and slowing closing around the batarian's thin neck. He gasped for air, and made stuttered wheezing noises followed by a series of violent coughs and gurgles. She pulled the cuffs back tighter around the slaver's neck, as his resistance grew weaker. The slaver tried to reach for the chain but it was no use. Keira twisted the cuffs one last time, when she heard a loud *crack* in the slaver's neck. The batarian went limp. All four of his eyes were dilated, and his throat had caved in. Keira pulled the cuffs off of his neck letting his body fall to the ground. My first kill, she thought to herself, not knowing whether to be thrilled or traumatized.
Looking back down the alley, she noticed that the other batarian was still alive, flinching on the ground as he tried to reach for his gun. She walked over to him slowly, summoning the last of her biotic energy. Standing overtop of him, Keira looked down into the eyes of her former captor. He was grimacing in pain, desperately trying to move, completely terrified of the young girl standing above him.
Keira stood there and stared at the slaver in silence. She wasn't sure what to do—she had the advantage over this guy. She thought about just leaving him so he die a slow and painful death. It would save her the energy of killing him herself. But he was one of the many slavers that'd attacked her home, and he was the one that killed Jessie. He had it coming. Keira's arms glowed once more as she punched the air above him, forcing dark energy into his head, smashing it open.
My second kill, she thought once more, there's no going back now.
She was out of breath, and tired after using all that energy for her biotic abilities, but wasted no time searching the bodies for the key to the handcuffs. She patted the slaver's torso until she felt a small piece of metal in the breast pocket of his armor. She fumbled it as she brought it closer to her, and knew just by feel that this was the key she was looking for. The slavers hadn't done a very good job at securing the cuffs on her wrists, not to mention the chain was about five inches long—way too much space for a prisoner to move their hands.
After a short few seconds, she was able to take the cuffs off her wrists, rubbing me to restore the circulation that was lost when she choked the slaver. Then picking up one of their assault rifles that she was very familiar with,—an Elkoss combine M-8 Avenger assault rifle—she ran out of the alleyway, leaving the two dead batarians where they lay.
Keira continued running through the streets, to her home. At sixteen-years of age, she was taller than most of the teenage girls in the colony standing at 6 foot 1, and all that work from farming had paid off giving her a strong build. Naturally she had dark brown hair, but she has dyed her left bangs with a streak of silver, with a pair of teal green eyes to go with it. Being seventeen and rather attractive, most of the young men her age had tried to ask her out at times, but she was never interested in relationships at all, and certainly not the farm boys on the colony.
As she ran through the deserted street, she tried to pull herself together. The streak marks of tears ran down her cheeks. She was traumatized from witnessing Jessie being gunned down right in front of her. Jessie had been a good friend, and she'd miss her dearly. Keira ran past a large building and caught a quick glance of it. It was her school...used to be her school; now it was on fire, and slowly melting. She remembered the good times here; hanging out with Jessie and her other friends, and teasing the other school boys. She was the only one on the colony with biotic abilities, so showing off her talents was always a good past time. But now wasn't a good time to think about the past—no matter how hard it was to let go. She had to get home and find her dad, Norman. He would know what to do.
Keira ran through the wheat field until she could see the house she shared with her father. As she got closer, the west side of the house exploded in a ball of fire. Keira was flung back by the shockwave, sending her five feet into the air and slamming her hard onto the ground. She quickly got up, her eyes wide as she stared at the flames that were now billowing from her home.
"Dad!" she yelled, as she ran towards the house. Suddenly, she could make our the silhouette of someone emerging from the flaming hole. It was a human. He was holding his side, partially limping while in a slight jog. It wasn't her father, it was someone else.
"Who's there?" Keira yelled, as she aimed the rifle at the man.
"Keira!" the man yelled back. "Put the gun down, it's me."
She lowered the rifle, relieved to see a familiar face.
"Logan." she said as she exhaled deeply.
Logan Stuart; a life-long family friend of Keira's. He was 18 years of age, and originally from Manchester, England, back on Earth. His parents were rich: billionaires that owned a large mining company that spanned from Mars to Pluto, and all the way to uncharted systems in the traverse. They were killed in a car accident when Logan was 15, so he decided to move in with Keira and Norman on the small colony, instead of continuing his parents' mining empire. And like Keira, he also knew how to fight.
She caught Logan just as he collapsed onto the ground.
"What happened?" she asked. She pressed a button next to the rifle's trigger, and the barrel, stock, and trigger folded into a small rectangular compact, then placed it on her hip.
"Your dad's in trouble." Logan said, grimacing from the pain in his side. "Batarians got to him."
Keira dragged Logan into the house and across the floor. They were in the kitchen, all the cupboards and pantries had been opened, and their contents strewn about the room. She laid Logan in the corner of the kitchen, sitting him upright along the wall.
"They're upstairs." Logan said. Still holding his side. "Be careful."
Keira pressed the button on the rifle again and it un-folded.
"Don't worry," she said, "I will."
As she took off Logan grabbed her by the sleeve of her shirt.
"One more thing." he said. "There's a human with them...working with them."
Keira nodded and took off towards the stairs.
A human? Keira thought. Why would a human be working with batarian slavers? And why would batarians even consider working with him? She quietly walked up the wooden stairs, trying not to make any noticeable noise despite the stairs' constant creaking noise. Once she got to the top, there was a hallway going in both directions. One of the doors to the left of her was blown open: her father's room.
"Looks like there's nowhere to run this time, Norman." a voice said from within the room. The voice sounded human. Keira crept up to the door frame just as a batarian emerged from the room. He immediately saw her and pulled out a pistol from his holster. Keira got up and swung the butt of the rifle at his face. But the slaver caught it mid-flight, and threw the gun to the ground. He punched her in the stomach, sending her down on her knees, then grabbed the collar of her shirt and lifted her up. He aimed his pistol at Keira's left kneecap and pulled the trigger. She felt a sharp agonizing pain go through her leg and up her back, and cried out in agony. The batarian then aimed the pistol at her right kneecap and pulled the trigger again. She screamed even louder as the pain grew even worse, almost more than she could take.
The slaver dragged her into the room, where two other batarians and two humans were standing in the middle of the room. Keira looked up from the ground, her vision was blurry from the pain, but what she could make out was the two slavers holding a man, and the other human standing in front of them.
"I found someone snooping around." said the batarian that was holding Keira.
The human turned around and looked at Keira, he smiled at her glance.
"This is your kid, isn't it?" he said. "Pretty thing you got there."
The man was wearing a suit. It really stood out compared to the armor that the other slavers were wearing. From what Keira could make out, he wasn't the biggest of men, but his true features were hidden under the clothes. He looked like he was in his mid-40s, with a scar going down his cheek, and a very bushy mustache. Not that Keira spent much time thinking about this for she immediately turned her attention to the man being held by the two batarians. It was her father!
"Dad!" she yelled. Her kneecaps were bleeding, and the pain had intensified.
"Keira!" Norman yelled back. He tried breaking free from the two slavers, but was met by a punch to the gut from one of them.
"Dad!" Keira yelled again. "You let him go!"
"Leave her out of this." Norman demanded. "This has nothing to do with her!"
"I believe it does now." the other man said. He took the pistol from the batarian who had shot Keira and fiddled with it in his hands.
"Now, would you care to tell me what happened to our deal?"
"I said it's off!" Norman snapped. "I'm not going through with it."
"That's not the answer I was looking for." the man replied. "You said you'd supply us with a subject. I plan on leaving with one."
He paused, as if he was in thought.
"Tell you what," he said finally, "You pay me in blood."
He cocked the pistol and pushed the barrel against the side of Keira's head.
"I take the kid; or she dies. How does that sound?"
Keira's and Norman's eyes met.
"There are plenty of other sources of biotic kids, but she's special." he explained. You have to the count of three to give me an answer, or I'll kill both of you. One!"
"Dad." said Keira. She looked down at the floor. She'd be dead in two seconds.
"Two!" said the man. He didn't even bother looking at Keira. She assumed he had done this type of thing before.
"Wait, Saul!" Norman said.
Saul, Keira thought, so that's his name.
The man eased his grip on the trigger.
"Not her." Norman said grimly. "Kill me instead."
"What? No dad! No!" Keira yelled.
"If you kill me, no one will know about the deal. Just...please, don't hurt her!"
"Dad! Dad, please!"
"It's okay Keira," Norman said softly, "Everything's gonna be alright."
"How touching." the man said, smiling.
He aimed the pistol at Norman's chest, and pulled the trigger.
*crack!*
His body flew backwards and slumped on the floor.
"Dad!" Keira yelled. "Dad! No!"
The man turned to her and cupped the lower half of her face with his right hand.
"Shame such a sweet thing like you had to see this." he said cheerfully. "Oh well. Just business ain't it?"
Keira felt something snap inside her. A swarm of emotions hit her. It felt like anger; hatred—just absolute fury. She felt the batarian's grip on her left hand was loosening. She inhaled deeply, once, and flung her hand out of the slaver's grasp and threwthe man back into the window behind him.
"Oof!" the man shouted, landing on the ground, and dropping the pistol next to Norman's body. The man was holding the back of his head, and for some reason that made Keira pull a small grin.
"I'm gonna kill you." she said angrily, but still smiling. "I swear, I will hunt you down and kill you!"
The man looked back at her.
"I'm sure you will, darling." he snarled.
He walked up to Keira and slapped the back of his hand across her face.
"A witch," he said, "That's what you are, you biotic freak!" he then turned to the batarians. "You boys can deal with the witch however you like. I'll be searching for subjects, elsewhere."
He walked out of the room, still holding his hand, leaving Keira and the batarians alone.
The two slavers that were beside Norman walked over to her.
"Should we take this one?" said one of them.
"Nah, too much trouble," said another, "You saw what it did to the boss."
"Could be worth a lot of creds though." the third one suggested.
"But the other humans could be worth double! Minus the biotics."
They all heard gunshots coming from outside the house.
"What was that?" said one of the slavers. "I thought we rounded them all up."
One of the batarians walked over to a small window adjacent to Keira and glanced outside. A moment later his head exploded as a high-caliber round from a sniper rifle punched through the glass, sending his body flying and landing next to Keira.
"Dammit." one of the others said in surprise. "It's the Alliance. They're here!"
Two of them unfolded their rifles, and quickly moved to the door.
"Leave the human." the second one said, as he ran out. "We'll get more of'em somewhere else."
The room went silent. Keira laid there, alone. Logan was probably dead—killed by those slavers, or by loss of blood. All hope had fled from her body, she couldn't move and the pain was now unbearable. She couldn't bare to look at her father's body, it would be too much for her. She felt herself beginning to black out.
"Keira..." a voice pulled her back.
She didn't know if she was hallucinating or if someone was actually calling her.
"Keira...are you..." the voice said again.
Keira rolled over slowly and was met by Norman's eyes. He was alive, but just barely.
"Dad," she said softly, "I'm so sorry." tears began to run down her cheeks.
"It's not your fault." Norman whispered. He raised his left hand and wiped the tears from Keira's cheeks. "It's my fault. I'm sorry...for all of this. There are things that you cannot be involved in—things I don't want you to be involved in."
He let out a weak cough and grunted from the pain of the bullet wound.
"But look what you did now...I'm so proud of you...you're becoming a better merc than me."
They both chuckled quietly, but the gravity of the situation was too much for Keira, watching her father drift away slowly. He was on the edge of life and death.
"Now...Aurora...is yours..." Norman said weakly.
"What?" Keira said surprised at the news, "But I can't-"
"Veradice will teach you..." Norman said. "Take Logan too...both of you will be in charge..."
"Dad, no" Keira pleaded, "I can't-"
"Yes you can..." Norman said. He grasped Keira's hand and kissed it,"You are my daughter...remember that."
His breathing decreased, and his eyes began to close.
"Make me proud...I love you..."
Norman closed his eyes slowly, and let out a small, small breath. His grip on Keira's hand went soft, and his body limp.
"Thanks dad," Keira said, trying to contain herself from having a mental breakdown, "I love you too."
Keira squeezed Norman's hand and closed her eyes, not caring if she bled out or if the house came down on them...she just wanted it to be over.
Two hours passed, when she awoke to the stomping of feet racing up the stairs.
"Hallway clear!" a male voice yelled from within the hall.
"Check the rooms for survivors." a female voice yelled back.
The stomping grew louder, when an Alliance soldier entered the room.
"I've got someone." she said. "Just barely alive from the looks of it."
The soldier looked at Keira and her eyes widened.
"Keira?" she said.
Keira opened her eyes and stared at the soldier's face. She smiled.
"Hey sis." Keira said.
Lisette Kuroki, the older of Norman's two daughters. To the alliance she was lieutenant Kuroki, stationed on a patrol ship in the Skyllian Verge. Lisette was three years older than Keira, and was almost twenty-one—her birthday was in a couple of months. She chose the life of a soldier, and had become one of the most skilled marines stationed in the Verge.
"Glad your still in one piece, sis." Lisette said. She glanced over at the dead batarian. "Did you kill him?"
Keira didn't respond, as Lisette propped her upright.
"Hey, it's over now. You can speak." she said.
Keira looked to her left, and Lisette followed. She saw Norman's dead body on the ground next to her.
"Dad." Lisette said softly.
"I'm gonna kill him." said Keira.
"Kill who?" Lisette asked.
"The one who killed dad!"
"Wait, so this batarian isn't the one?"
"It was some human working with the—ack!"
Lisette helped Keira on her feet slowly, but the pain was even worse in her knees.
"Agh! Dammit this hurts!" Keira yelled.
"Don't worry we'll get you the medical attention you need." Lisette replied.
"Don't you get it? Dad is dead!"
Lisette went quiet for a moment, thinking about how to reply.
"I do," she said calmly, "But I see the dead more often than I should. I can't let personal feelings interfere with situations like this. Right now, I need to tend to your wounds, I'll worry about that later."
Keira was disgusted at what she had said. Worry about it later? What BS was that?
"Where's Logan?" she asked.
"Your English friend? He's downstairs. Getting fixed up."
Lisette slowly helped Keira down the stairs into the Kitchen. Logan's wounds were being tended to by another Alliance soldier. He looked into Keira's eyes and didn't even have to ask about Norman to know what had happened to him. Lisette sat Keira down on the kitchen countertop, and pulled out a medpack from her armor's pocket.
"We'll get you off world when we're done here." Lisette said. "Bring you back to Alliance space."
Keira glanced over at Logan, and their eyes met again. She was still in shock, but in control—for now.
"You're in charge now." he whispered.
"I know." Keira whispered back grimly.
You say something?" Lisette asked, as she applied medi-gel to Keira's legs.
"No." she replied. "Just get us the hell off this planet."