Out of the Frying Pan

by Feriwan

Prequel to Firebase Ghost. Before Lina and Tarnik met, Lina was in an asari commando unit. On a mission that brings her to earth, everything seems to be going fine, until something happens that almost no one could have foreseen. Oneshot.

So new story, yay! Lina's prequel (to Firebase Ghost). Comments after the story.

and Disclaimer I don't own Mass Effect (ya don't say! If I did this would be canon and not fanfic duh)

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"Roger that, asari shuttle. You are allowed to come in for landing. Proceed to dock on landing pad 11."
Lina looked at the sprawling city from their shuttle. Humans were sometimes known for being ambitious. Las Vegas seemed to highlight that. It was a huge city, quite literally in the middle of nowhere. Surrounded by a relatively flat desert landscape, and almost always clear skies. They were able to see almost everything during their descent, from the giant casinos to the replicas of famous buildings, such as the hovering 1:100 model of the citadel. "Model" was a bit of an understatement: it was another huge hotel and casino that could house hundreds of people. She had heard that the city was even better at night, but they weren't here on vacation. They had tracked the splinter cell of an asari terrorist group across multiple colonies until they eventually followed them to Earth. The terrorists had different sorts of stolen goods, mostly including weapons and armors, but most important was the stolen prothean tech from Thessia. It had to be some top secret tech, because even their commando group hadn't been informed on the details during their briefing. It was left unsaid, but understood by the team of 4 asari commandos: the real reason of the mission was to retrieve the prothean tech before anyone else could, stopping the terrorists was only a secondary objective (though asari high command claimed otherwise). Wishing she knew more, but knowing it was pointless to wish for impossible things, she buckled up for the final atmospheric landing sequence.

Upon exiting the shuttle, they were met by a small group of humans dressed up in suits. One of them, a skinny, tall man with curly, black hair addressed them.
"Are you the asari SWAT team that was supposed to arrive? I'm Larry Gregori, the mayor of Las Vegas."
Lina was surprised her translator didn't activate: he was speaking the Galactic Trade Language. But on second thought, most politicians would probably want to speak a universal language.
"Look, I don't know what's going on, with all this…equipment you're carrying, but it must be pretty serious for the president to have to call me to make sure it all goes smoothly. You must have pulled a lot of strings to get that to happen, but I can tell you this. Cause any trouble and I will get you out of my city faster than you can say 'light speed'. Super-secret, alien special ops are not exactly good for business, you might get some people worried, chase them away. So do what you need to do and get out."
Lina's commander – Arseene – looked unamused, but tried to calm down the man.
"Don't worry, we don't have any business in Las Vegas anyway," she replied in GTL, "We're headed to Moapa." Lina had heard rumors that she used to be a negotiator for the police back on Thessia. Whether it was true or not, she seemed to have great non-verbal skills in convincing other people to do what she, or her team, needed or wanted.
"Moapa? Yeah, that's not too far. I'll have one of my men bring you."
"That won't be necessary. We can take care of ourselves."
"No, I insist. Let my men bring you."
There was a pause as the commander seemed to be considering it.
"You don't trust us to keep trouble out of your city, do you?"
"No, it's just-"
"Of course you don't. It doesn't matter, we already have ground transportation arranged. We are not changing our minds. Now move aside."
For a tense moment, the mayor seemed like he would object, but he finally stood aside. Arseene made a hand gesture and the team moved onwards to their transportation. Without looking back, she gave a warning to the mayor: "Don't try to follow us. We'll know, and you – or rather, your men – will be very sorry."

The ride to Moapa was rather dull. Lina had nothing to say to her squad mates – she was new, the youngest commando and she hadn't really made any friends yet. No one was following them, not that Lina expected the Mayor to try anything after Arseene's threat. There was always a chance that the terrorists knew of their arrival, but if they did, Lina didn't notice it. They arrived after about half a standard hour. Intel had sifted through massive amounts of data to not only give them the name of a company the terrorists used, but also a precise location where the terrorists were last heard from. All they had to do was get some information – by persuasion or otherwise – to get the exact location of the terrorists and their stolen goods. They pulled up to the office building, left their weapons in the vehicle and went in. It was a rather small office – Lina would have rather called it a shack – with just one man behind a desk. He was a bit on the chubby side – not overweight, as far as Lina new humans, but he could stand to exercise more – had short, shaven black hair and was formally dressed – for a human, of course. He looked up as the commando team came in and looked very surprised and confused.
"Asari? What do you… What are you doing here?"
Their translators had picked up what he said and fed it back to them, which caused his processed voice to be unsynchronized with his lip movement.
"We need to ask some questions," Arseene started in GTL, "but first: do you even understand me?"
"What was that? You might want to wait a sec, I need to check if I have any translators of any kind. Need to find out what the hell you're speaking first."
Arseene nodded at Fiseya, the team's tech expert, and she moved in on the man.
"Hey what are you-"
Before he could complain anymore, she put a translator in his ear. At least, she approximately put it in, because he seemed to move it around a little more once she stepped back.
"There, now you should understand us," Arseene said, switching to her mother tongue, something the translator could process.
"A little. I don't speak English real good."
"I thought the majority spoke it. Especially on this continent. What do you speak?"
"Umm, Chinese."
Fiseya was already tapping on her omni-tool and nodded back at Arseene when she finished the adjustments.
"Better?" Arseene asked.
"Yes, much better."
"Now we have some questions for you. Have any-"
"Wait, can I ask something first? Who do you women represent?"
Arseene was taken aback for a split second, she wasn't expecting the human to ask anything. She quickly recovered though, and answered him.
"We're here on… political business. From Thessia."
"I see. That's why you're wearing military-grade hardsuits."
"We-" Arseene tried to say something, but the human seemed to be growing confident and cut her off.
"Look, spare your excuses. If you're really sent by the government, you'd need a warrant for me to say something. If you were mercenaries, you'd pay me off. And if you were assassins, I'd probably be dead already. So which is it?"
Arseene turned away from the human and looked at the squad, contemplating for a moment. The human was too defensive to be an innocent bystander, he was probably hiding something. Arseene made a subtle gesture to Fiseya, splitting her fingers in two and moving to the side. Hack into the system. That meant Arseene was going to start improvising. Lina held her breath, as Fayere, the final team member, stood against the wall next to Lina.
"We are government agents, whether you believe us or not. And we don't need any warrant to get the information we need."
"Is that so? I know for a fact that I am a free individual, not only according to the United States, but also according to the 'Council', so unless you have a warrant or… something else, I suggest you leave."
The way the human looked at Arseene sent shivers down Lina's spine. He couldn't possibly be implying that -
"I see. Well maybe, I could arrange something," Arseene said, as she sat on his desk in a seductive pose.
Apparently, he could be implying it, and not only that, but her commander was going on with it.
"Hey, do you other pretty ladies talk? Or are you just going to watch?"
Fayere jumped into the improvised conversation while Lina stood stunned for another second. She knew no plan survived the enemy, but this was ridiculous, and the human wasn't even an enemy!
"I don't know. What would you rather have?"
"Well, the more, the merrier I say! What about you, sweet cheeks?" he asked Lina.
"Umm, well I guess I'm in," she said, while Arseene gave her a look over the human's shoulder telling her not to screw up.
"Well I'm sure we could definitely work something out this way. It's been far too long since-"
"Got it!" Fiseya interrupted.
Thank the Goddess. Fiseya had hacked there network, which meant they could drop the charade. Arseene got off the desk and asked: "What does it say?"
The human was confused at first, then got angry.
"Hey what's going on here?!"
Fiseya ignored him and responded to her commander.
"Mostly legit transportation and storage… Some briberies and other illegal activities out in a further range."
"Hey, I have no idea what that's about!" the human said, a bit too quickly. Fiseya ignored him and went on.
"And… Here! The terrorists apparently came recently and stored their goods… in this town's warehouse? Oh, Goddess, apparently a small group has been guarding it since it arrived!"
There was a silent moment while everyone looked at each other without knowing what they should do. Suddenly the human jumped out of his seat, but Arseene was quicker. She shocked him with her omni-tool and he collapsed on the floor.
"We can't have him warning them, now can we?"
"How do we plan to do this, commander?" Fiseya asked, looking at the collapsed human.
"Leave the human here for now. We can't take him with us, since he's not actually part of the terrorist group, but he'll be out long enough for us to get the job done. Fiseya, with this town's warehouse, do you mean the one connected to this building?"
"Yes, so they might now know we're coming."
"Damnit. Well, we first have to get our equipment from the vehicle. Then we'll storm them as we would anyone else. Let's hope they're not surrounding us as we speak… We all know what to do. I'll go first, make sure it's safe. Move out!"
Arseene opened the front door and ran to the truck, then motioned for the rest to come while she opened the back. The terrorists either didn't know they were here, or didn't have enough time to attack them yet. The other commandoes took their assault rifles with various attachments, but Lina stayed with her dual SMG's. She wasn't going to switch her accustomed weapons right before a fight. Then again, she might just never switch her preferred weapons.
"Commander, I have my scans of the building," Fiseya said, "There are exterior cameras – already disabled and put on loop, but they might have already spotted us – and an internal alarm, that'll be triggered by unauthorized entry. I'm trying to disable it now."
"Good, and try to hack their communications as well. Fayere, can you get a recon drone somewhere, so we know what's going on in there?"
"On it."
Lina felt a little sad that she had no special job. Hopefully Arseene just needed to get to know her strengths more. A few more missions together and they'd be a real team. Or at least, Lina would be a real member. They seemed to already be a real team without her.
"Fiseya, wait to actually disable the internal alarm until I say so. We might be able to use it," Arseene commanded, totally focused on the mission. Maybe Lina should follow her example.
"Roger that," Fiseya replied, engrossed in her omni-tool.
"I have a drone scoping from the outside, through windows at the top of the building. I don't think I could get a better position, unless I break through the windows, which probably would be just as alarming as the triggering the alarm itself. Sending the footage."
Lina's omni-tool sprang to life showing her the recordings from the drone: visual, infrared and many other options were available.
"5 contacts," Arseene noted, "One at the door, the rest spread throughout. I don't even think they know we're here. Oh this is going to be easy! Fiseya, keep the alarm trigger up and running. You, Fayere and I will break through the front door, getting their attention. Lina, you go in the service entrance from the office and take them from behind."
"Roger," she said, trying to be professional. It just made her feel less so.
"Okay move out! And Lina, wait till the alarm is tripped!"
Lina rushed back to the office and placed a breach charge on the service door. Then she checked her team's status, in case she wouldn't be able to hear the alarm.
Fiseya was hacking the warehouse's main door's locking system. It took her only a few seconds, and then the big doors started sliding open while a muffled alarm – obviously only meant to be heard only inside the warehouse – went off. That was Lina's cue. She activated her charge and the door was knocked inside the warehouse. She went towards the door, but realized it was a hallway and the door was now blocking her path. I should have known better she thought as she biotically flung the door back out the hallway. She went through to find a second door, checked that it led to the actual warehouse, not another hallway and placed a second charge.
She already could hear gunfire, but trusted her squad to be on the winning side. She blasted the second door and went through.
She didn't know if the blast was heard by anyone inside, but they didn't respond to it. Lina saw one terrorist on a catwalk above her, trying to give the other terrorists covering fire. Lina biotically lowered her mass and jumped on the catwalk, gunning down the terrorist. Before she could even look for any other enemy contacts, her team had taken the opportunity to take them all down.
"Wow," she said as she jumped down, still lighter than her normal weight.
Her team was already checking the corpses and smuggled goods, letting no time go to waste.
"Lina!" Arseene called from behind a crate, "Good work. I don't want to sound rude, but how about you stay outside and make sure no one comes in. We might have riled the locals, and who knows if there are more terrorists nearby. I doubt-" she was cut off by the sound of hissing gas. Behind Lina, one of the smuggled goods – some prothean tech Lina noticed – was reacting and letting out some gas. Just a moment too late, Lina saw a figure behind the gas. Next thing she knew, she was flying toward the wall behind the device. She quickly heightened her mass and threw a biotic force field in the opposite direction, falling to the ground so hard that it would definitely give her some bruises. But there was no time to rest. She looked up and saw she landed right next to the unknown figure, who turned out to be another terrorist. Taking the opportunity, she swept her legs under the asari, making her trip and fall. She got up as quick as she could and lifted the terrorist into the air, hard against the ceiling. The terrorist was taken completely by surprise and couldn't stop herself from hitting it with a loud smack, then plummeting back to the floor.
"Hold fire!" Arseene shouted. The squad all had their guns pointed, but no one pulled the trigger as the commander ordered.
"I think she's out. We can take her for interrogation. Fayere, check her and secure her. And Lina, you're doing pretty damn well today."
Lina couldn't lie, she really liked the positive encouragement. When she recently joined the team, she didn't know if she'd fit in or be good enough. But Arseene always made her feel welcome. Maybe there was a chance for her yet.

The cleanup didn't take too long. The terrorist was tied up, both with electro-cuffs and an extra pair of actual metal ones they found, along with a nerve-block against biotics, but she was out cold the whole time anyway. Lina stayed guard outside the warehouse, but other than a delivery boy for the neighboring warehouse, they was no real activity. She'd periodically get updates on smuggled goods that had been tagged and sorted. First the prothean tech, then various goods as Intel had said: guns, armor, drugs and so on. It was rather boring, compared to the short firefight. At a few hours past noon, Arseene helped her get through the many layers of Las Vegas airport security to remotely get their shuttle out of its docking bay. It had been left for a stealthy approach, but they now needed it for hauling as much prothean tech and other goods back to Thessia, while the remaining goods would be incinerated on the spot. While the shuttle was en route, the team started bringing salvageable objects outside, including the prisoner, while Lina stayed guard. A couple of minutes later, everything was set up and as if on cue, Lina heard the shuttle's drive engines overhead as it came in for a landing.
"It seems our prisoner is waking up," Arseene commented. The terrorist was finally moving some, but looking very disoriented.
"What's … who are you?" She asked.
"We're the commandos taking you hostage, and we'll be asking the questions here," Fayere replied. The terrorist took one more look at her captors, then at all the smuggled goods, and suddenly knelt down as if meditating.
"You certainly have a way with people," Lina commented.
"All part of my charm," Fayere said smugly.
"Hey, you guys see that?" Fiseya interrupted, "Look, over Las Vegas!"
Lina looked up and saw something she didn't recognize. It seemed like a group of huge dreadnoughts, but she couldn't recognize the design. They seemed to be pointing head first toward Las Vegas, moving downward. "What are those?" she asked.
"Oh no," Arseene muttered, barely audible, "This is not good."
"Why, what's happening?" Lina asked, instantly worried. If Arseene said something was going wrong, it was going horribly wrong.
"Shepard… he was right. I knew it."
"Oh, not your Shepard obsession again. Give it a rest!" Fayere said.
That was when a red beam came from the first dreadnought. Then more and more fired, right at the city. Even from the distance, Lina saw the model citadel crash down to earth. She thought she even felt a little tremor a bit after it hit the ground.
"This isn't a joke, Fayere! Those are Reapers! They want to kill us all, and they are many more like them. We need to bang out, now!"
Lina watched as Arseene headed for the shuttle, while Fiseya and Fayere went to get the goods.
"Fiseya, Fayere, I think it's too late for that! Get onboard-"
She was cut off by the terrorist who had stood up and opened her eyes. Lina noticed they were glowing green as the terrorist shouted: "For the prothean empire!"
Some sort of green biotic field flew out of the terrorist's body toward the pieces prothean tech, which started exploding one by one. Lina was too shocked to move in time, and was thrown off her back. She hit something, and everything went black.

Something shook Lina. There was something humming, but she couldn't tell what. Everything hurt, but that probably meant she was alive. She opened her eyes, but it hurt her brain too much and shut them again. Where was she? She felt a cold metal ground under her. Of course, she was in their shuttle, flying to Goddess knows where.
"Arseene? Fiseya? You there?" She instantly regretted calling out like that. She could still be in danger, there could be terrorists on the shuttle. But then again, She wasn't tied up or restricted in any way she could tell.
"Lina, you're awake!" Arseene said, from somewhere else in the shuttle, "I was just going to put you in a more comfortable position."
"I don't think that would help much. I feel like I had every single bone broken."
Lina opened her eyes – slower, this time – and saw Arseene crouched beside her, looking a bit concerned.
"What happened?" Lina asked.
"I'm not sure," Arseene replied, "I thought the terrorist was secure. It might have had something to do with the prothean tech. I thought we nerve-blocked her biotics, but it didn't seem to stop her…"
"But how?"
"I don't know! The terrorist somehow used her biotics and triggered a self-destruct. Now half my team is-" Arseene cut off suddenly.
"Half your team is what? What happened?!" Lina asked. Arseene just looked down, unable to talk. Lina looked and saw three charred bodies behind her.
"Oh, Arseene!" Lina said, and embraced her. She wasn't sure who needed it more, or if Arseene needed it at all, but Arseene held on to Lina as tight as Lina clung to her.
They sat there for a bit, hugging each other on the floor of their shuttle. Eventually Arseene pulled away.
"It's over," She said. "Our team is done and the Reapers are here. I'm quitting when we get back to HQ, starting alone and anew. You could maybe do the same, you have a lot of potential."
Lina was too shocked to speak for a moment. She finally found her words.
"But, you can't stop! I won't let you, we have to stay together. And what in the name of Athame is this whole 'Reapers' thing about?"
"It may be hard on you, and I'm sorry for that, but you have to let me go. I'm not fit to be a leader anymore, and I'll be more effective as a one woman team then having to get used to a new squad."
Lina didn't like it, but she knew deep down that she'd have to let Arseene go. She let out a deep sigh, and spoke again, trying to avoid the whole solo thing.
"So what are these 'Reaper' things, now? Those huge ships?"
"Ever since I heard of him, Commander Shepard has been warning us of the Reapers. Apparently, they're AI, in the form of huge dreadnoughts. Do you remember the geth attack on the Citadel? According to Shepard, the geth flagship was a Reaper. I always hoped he was wrong, but this proves he wasn't."
Lina didn't know what to say. She barely remembered hearing something about a cover-up of the Citadel attack, but now Arseene mentioned it, she knew again that it was about the dreadnought.
"But what do they want?"
"Galactic domination? To enslave us all? I don't know. I do know not many people do believe or want to believe in them, such as every established government. That's why I'm stopping. Our matriarchs would never let me fight something they don't believe in. This way, I can take them on on my own terms."
"Take them on? Are you crazy?! You can't fight a dreadnought single-handed!"
"Not really, but the Reapers do have foot soldiers. Those you can fight. And I think you should try it my way too. Chances are, if you don't they'll probably put you back in training. If you're lucky, you might be able to do some of the teaching. Think about it."
Lina slumped to the floor. This was probably the craziest day of her life. She didn't know if she wanted to quit, or if she even believed in the Reapers. All she could think about was how she screwed up, and how she wished it would never happen again. She barely knew them, but it felt terrible to loose squad mates. The worst part was that it could only go downhill.

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So yeah, I'm not dead, neither are my OC's. I'm really starting to like Tarnik & Lina. Originally they were just 2 random Mass Effect aliens, but now they are my Mass Effect aliens. Anyway, the title sort of sucks (it's not my strong suit, nor is writing in general badum tss!), but the title is what it is because of Tarnik's prequel story's title (3 guesses as to what it is), that will come (someday), and because it ever so slightly fit the story. I'm guessing it'll be about the same as this one (sizewise).

And sorry it was so slow, but I also like to read, but I can't really mix that too well with writing. Not only that, but I'm going to read Harry Potter again, so near-future writing will be very slow. And then there's the fact that it seems to take a lot of work and effort to make stories like Firebase Ghost, then I write something like Raven - Dragon Slayer in about 2 minutes and it gets more views (true story, currently it has exactly 1 more view), and that's a bit discouraging. But if I don't write, nobody will read it and Firebase Ghost has more reviews that Raven - Dragon Slayer (which I like more, of course). And now I have a tumblr with a few followers where I can do some shameless self promotion (and if you are a follower from Tumblr: hi!)

So review if you want, it encourages me to write more. Do you guys like Tarnik and Lina as well? should I do more of their stories, or should I get to my MEGA story about Commander Shepard and his wacky adventures during and after the series + my crossover idea? Also, do you like these short stories/oneshots? Should I split them up into chapters? Any questions, remarks, suggestions? Don't hesitate to tell them!

PS: I'll use my trusty frying pan as a drying pan!