"Its Balak! I will kill that bastard this time." Shepard snarled under her breath. Her jaw tightened with rage.
She turned to Thane and Garrus, "You two get those hostages safe. He doesn't know we're here - for whatever reason. That's our advantage. Looks like if you move along the west wall you should be able to get there unseen. When you're in position, I'll show myself. It'll throw Balak and his men off-guard and give you the time you need. He hates me with a passion... I can keep him busy. Just be stealthy in taking out those two guards."
"No way, Shepard, that's crazy!" Garrus protested. "He'll just shoot you! Besides - its you, against all of them." He pointed with a claw emphatically toward Balak's troops.
"I'll stay in cover. Make him think I'm the one with the troops coming. It'll make him cautious. The last thing he wants is to get caught. He'll want to pull the same shit he did last time - trick me into letting him escape by putting the hostages at risk. Not this time."
"Damn it, Shepard." Garrus hissed. He was pissed, his mandibles moving anxiously. He looked at Thane for support.
Thane was focused intently on her face. Then he turned, studying the room carefully. Finally, he spoke to his teammates, "I don't like this situation - too many opportunities for error. Releasing the hostages should be easy, Shepard, but providing support for you once we are done will be quite the opposite. If you insist on this plan, attack from this location, so that you'll have access to the south exit for retreat. With the fire drawn toward you, Garrus and I can instruct the hostages to hide in cover along the north wall." As much as he didn't like the plan, he could see in her eyes that she was going to go through with it. The best he could do was try to force the battle into one that favored their success.
"Damn it!" Garrus muttered, in frustration. This was not what he was hoping Thane would say. He shook his head, crouched, and began slinking behind cover toward the west wall.
Thane hesitated a moment, looking at Shepard. She returned his gaze, her green eyes softening from the rage she had exhibited before. "I'll be careful. Let me know when you're in position to make the drop on the guards. Remember - I'll draw the troops' attention... but if those two guards start firing, this whole plan will go to hell. Silent and stealthy."
The corners of his lips turned up in a grin, "My specialty." With that, he moved silently off after Garrus. Shepard watched them until they had been lost from her sight. She turned to see Balak. It was impossible to assess his squad from this location, she realized. They were completely out of view now that they had relocated to the other entrance. She made the decision to move east, just a bit closer. She proceeded carefully, toward where Balak stood, still at what appeared to be the mine facility's main control console.
The batarian commander was furiously keying the console, obviously having difficulty with the human interface. He had a shotgun in one hand. She studied him. He appeared distracted, perhaps even worried. This would be to her benefit, she knew. He was ultimately a coward, and her previous meeting with him had taught her how he played. Now she was preparing to take away his one advantage.
Garrus finally had reached the northwest corner, and caught sight of the two guards. Crouching behind a crate, he signaled their location to Thane. Thane examined the area, absorbing every detail, putting it to memory. He then turned to Garrus, whispering, "I've got them. You wait for me to make the kill, and join me quickly to free the hostages." Garrus nodded. As much as the turian didn't like to just sit idly by, he knew that this was a task perfectly tailored for the assassin.
Thane crept silently around to the rear of the building, and scaled the wall with relative ease. His mind danced between memories. Swift, successful kills... different methods... his past mistakes...
Face-to-face. Neither moves. Dark alleyway on Omega. Acrid stench of waste; litter seeping from every corner. The moan of a drunk from somewhere in the darkness. Four eyes, glaring - unblinking, unafraid. 'Yeah, I know who you are. We killed your wife. I'd do it again, too. Her screams were exquisite,' the murderer sneered, raising a pistol. Knife hidden up my sleeve. My hand slashed out rapidly, slitting the batarian's throat with a single swipe. The pistol clatters to the floor, unused. Sticky, thick blood throbs from the gash, slithering in fat rivulets down the alien's shuddering neck...
Thane shook the memory off, remembering his intense desire for vengeance. Sloppy. This time would be perfect. His mind ran over the options quickly. Batarian necks were fairly easy to snap. A flawless, instant kill. Their vocalizations were produced in the throat, like most species. One sharp jab would silence his enemy. A swift underhand blow to the chin would finish cleanly.
Thane crawled across the roof, on his stomach, doing his best to keep out of sight. He was almost to the edge. Almost ready. "Amonkira, guide my hand..."
Balak started back toward the center of the room, watching his troops. Shepard looked over to the small building with the hostages. Thane was on top, crawling toward the forward edge, above the two guards. His green coloration suddenly seemed such a stark contrast to everything else in the cavern. Obvious. In the open. She cringed, glancing back over to the large group of batarians, hoping none would notice him. They were all focused on the entryway.
Over her radio, Thane spoke, hushed, "Ready."
"Do it." She replied without hesitation. Then she flung a biotic throw at Balak, knocking him face-first into the dirt. His troops spun around, shooting blindly. Ducking back into cover, she yelled over the gunfire, "Its over, Balak!"
Stumbling to his feet, Balak shouted back, "I've got a dozen hostages in a room with a damn bomb! I'm holding the remote trigger! Surrender yourself or they're as good as dead!"
Shepard glanced over to see Thane drop onto the first batarian guard, snapping his neck with uncanny precision. The other turned, surprised, and began to raise his gun. In one fluid step and sudden swing of his arm, Thane broke the batarian's forearm, forcing him to drop the gun. He moved smoothly, grabbing the batarian's face and slamming it into his knee. Just like that, the second batarian was down. Silent. Amazing. Perfect. She couldn't help but grin.
"Beautiful," she exclaimed over the comm. "Now, hurry!"
She grasped her gun tightly and stood over the cover, spraying gunfire. She made sure to stay in the open just long enough so that Balak could see who she was.
"Shepard!" he growled, "I knew I should have killed you last time. Now I'll be sure to personally finish the job."
"Oh please, Balak. You may have four ugly-assed eyes, but I'm willing to bet you've got no balls." The furious look on his face made it obvious that the insult was definitely not lost in translation.
He motioned wildly for his crew to surround her position. She tossed a singularity at a cluster, and peppered a second group with assault rifle fire, slowing their advance. With a mocking tone, "Are you so sure you want to do that? What with my troops coming in moments? Your desire for revenge may cost you your life!"
Balak growled and hissed orders, "Traven, you and your team keep guard at the door. Rakkar, proceed. This whore I want to murder myself." Half the team moved their attention back to the northeast door, nervously checking over their shoulders. Five others began advancing toward her position, followed by Balak. She quickly glanced at the building - hostages were running out, dodging down along the north wall, behind cover. It was working. Garrus and Thane were emerging from the building, preparing to come to her aid.
Suddenly, gunfire erupted at the northeast entrance. The Alliance troops had arrived. Everything became chaos, moving too fast for her to react. Shepard knew her advantage had just evaporated. Balak would be panicked now - unpredictable. He turned to her, pulling a control pad from his belt. "Fuck you, Shepard! These deaths are on your hands!" As soon as he touched the remote trigger, she saw an explosion erupt from the building in the northwest corner.
"FUCK!" She screamed, blasting Balak with a throw pulse, which he dodged by dropping behind cover. Several batarians moved toward her, and she soon found herself fighting for her life, unsure of whether her teammates were hurt. "Thane!? Garrus?! Are you there? Shit!"
There was no response.
On the other side of the room, Thane found himself knocked several meters away from the building by the explosion. His head was ringing, devoid of any actual sound. He looked up, and saw gunfire everywhere. Where was Shepard? He looked around quickly for Garrus, but couldn't see him. He scrambled forward, seeing his rifle a meter in front of him. Grasping it, he stood.
Garrus. The turian was lying slumped against some rocks 5 meters to the east. Was he alive, after being blasted that far? Thane saw him move, slightly. Yes. He would be safe there.
In a split second he analyzed the battlefield. At least a dozen Alliance soldiers, decimating the batarians from the northeast. Shepard, pinned in the southeast corner by perhaps six batarians. How did she get herself pinned on the opposite side of the chamber?? He ran, shooting as he vaulted himself over cover toward her.
Shepard's shields were taking a beating. She was playing a very deadly game of cat and mouse. Cats and mouse. One damn mouse. Fuck. Why haven't Thane and Garrus responded? She refused to accept that her teammates were dead. But she didn't have the luxury to worry about them at the moment - the batarians just wouldn't let up. They were advancing, far too close. Her shields began to regenerate; she popped out and took down another with a warp and gunfire. The return fire nearly stripped her shields again. How many? She thought she had seen maybe three or four more nearby. Most had turned to focus on the Alliance soldiers.
A batarian appeared out of the corner of her eye; she turned left to face him. He was right on her, with a shotgun. She flung him back with a throw field cracking his head against the rock behind him, but he still got a shot off. She vaulted over the crate behind her, her last line of defense. There was nowhere to retreat to now, only the wall of the cavern. Why the fuck hadn't she listened to Thane and stayed at the entrance, where she could escape. Shit. Her kinetic shields were at only ten percent.
"Kill her!" Balak bellowed, somewhere very close by. Suddenly another batarian came around the cover to her right. She warped him and rolled away, forced out of cover. She had to run for a better spot.
As soon as she gained her footing to run, Balak was right in front of her. He bashed her in the face with the butt of his shotgun, sending her stumbling back, stunned.
"Take this, you bitch!" he growled and he shot her in the chest, decimating the remainder of her shields. She felt a burst of searing pain, realizing that he'd breached her armor. She twisted to face him, raising her gun, knowing it couldn't happen fast enough.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of green somewhere in the middle of the room. Thwack. A sniper bullet sailed through Balak's sneering head right in front of her, exploding his skull.
Her face was splattered with hot, viscous blood. It burned in her eyes, her vision blurred. "Shit! I can't see, Thane!" Panicked, she threw a wide singularity in front of her, hoping it would protect her against another batarian's assault. She felt wildly for some sort of cover, while also trying to wipe the disgusting fluid from her eyes. "Thane, help!"
Thane had never heard her voice colored with fear, and it sent a chill to his core. He trained his rifle at the area she stood in, advancing quickly, searching for the enemy. "I have you, Siha." He was almost certain that another batarian was in the area. Perhaps two? He didn't know. All he knew was that he had to get there - and quickly.