A/N: Thank you all for the reviews, favorites and follows!
Big thanks to Tuffet37 and KabiViolet for being my sounding boards/advisors and to KabiViolet for beta reading.
With its blue skies and lush vegetation, Zorya seemed deceptively pleasant at first.
Bau had landed the ship at a respectable distance from the refinery, hoping that it was far enough to avoid alerting the Blue Suns to their presence, and they'd been silently creeping along the forest path that was supposed to lead to their destination for the last twenty minutes.
The oppressive heat and the overabundance of eye-watering spores that floated freely through the air began to make progress a bit more difficult, but Shepard pushed on, periodically wiping the sweat off her forehead and blinking it out of her eyes.
Bau had taken point, relentlessly stalking through the undergrowth, with Shepard and Garrus following a few steps behind. They stopped every so often to check for security cameras or hidden guards, but had found none so far. That was good news; attempting to eliminate the mercenaries that had taken over the facility, capturing their leader, and freeing the hostages in one swell swoop was a risky operation, and the longer they could stay undetected, the better their chances were for success.
According to Bau's map, however, they were getting close enough now to come upon at least a guard or two, but everything was so quiet that Shepard couldn't shake the feeling that something was not right. The only living creatures they'd encountered until now were a few pyjaks that had scurried away upon their approach.
"I don't like this," Garrus murmured. "It's too peaceful here. I feel like we're walking into a trap."
Shepard nodded, but kept her eyes fixed ahead. "Agreed."
Bau came to a stop and brought up the interface of his omni-tool. "I can attempt to hack into their communications and see what they're up to," he said as he tapped on a few holographic keys. "There. I got it."
"Get out there and take care of them!" a voice, obviously used to giving orders that he expected to be followed without a word, bellowed in their ears as they tuned their comm channels to the frequency the Spectre had indicated. "If any of you retreat while the intruders are still alive, I'll kill you myself!"
"That's Vido Santiago," Bau said. "It appears that they know we are here."
Garrus raised his gun and scanned the area through the scope. "Nice guy."
Bau shook his head and turned off his omni-tool. "Not really. Move out and keep your eyes open."
~ooo~
They found the first bodies a few minutes later.
"These are old," Bau said as they examined the decomposing remains. "Santiago likes to leave his victims exposed to the elements as a deterrent."
"Charming," Shepard muttered under her breath.
"Not like I'd expect much from the head of a merciless gang like the Blue Suns," Garrus grunted, "but this is low. Can't wait to give this bastard what he deserves."
Bau left the corpses and started up the trail again. "First we have to get there. Let's continue."
As quiet as this forest seemed to be, the presence of the dead bodies was a clear indication that they were, indeed, in Blue Suns territory now. They cautiously pressed on, ready for an ambush at any moment, but came to an abrupt stop when the loud crack of a rifle shattered the peaceful silence. It seemed to have come from the direction they were heading, not too far from their location, and was quickly followed by the barrage of what sounded like an assortment of assault weapons and rocket launchers—and yelling. Lots of yelling.
Then, just as quickly as the battle had started, it ended, and everything fell silent again.
Bau slowly straightened up from the crouched position he'd dropped down into at the first sign of trouble. "Hmm. It appears that the guards already have a situation on their hands. This might make things a bit easier for us. Well," he added, scratching a spot above his right eye, "provided it's not an all-out assault by a rival merc band. That might actually complicate things a bit."
"It wasn't a long fight," Shepard pointed out. "It sounded more like a skirmish between two smaller groups."
Garrus loosened his tight grip on his gun, but kept it at the ready as he peered at the trail up ahead. "Or between a larger force and a small contingent. Either way, I guess we'll find out soon enough."
"Indeed." Bau waved a hand at the path and they crept on, listening for any more signs of trouble, but all they could hear was the sound of leaves fluttering in the wind and pyjaks' feet skittering on the ground.
It didn't take long before they reached the site of the battle. Whoever it was that had infiltrated the Blue Suns' territory, they clearly knew what they were doing. Every single body on the ground, broken and bloodied, wore the blue-and-white armor of Vido's mercenaries, but there was no sign of the invading party.
"Impressive," Garrus said as he examined the scene. "Not one loss for the other side."
"Professionals," Bau agreed. "Clean shots to the head. Signs of biotic powers as well." He pointed at a corpse that seemed to have been ripped apart by an unknown force.
Shepard's forehead crinkled into a frown. "Eclipse, maybe?"
"We'll see." The Spectre signaled for them to move out, and they followed him down the trail.
According to the map, they were getting really close now.
~ooo~
With the guards occupied (if not outright dead), their chances of getting caught in an ambush had significantly diminished. They picked up pace, abandoning their careful approach, and arrived at the gate house in time to catch a glimpse of the mystery intruders.
The fact that they turned out to be a small, two-person team was more than a little surprising.
"That's it? Two men caused all that damage?" Garrus whispered as they inched closer.
Shepard took a careful look through her rifle's scope. "One man and one woman, actually."
"That's a woman? But she doesn't have any uh, hair."
"It's shaved off."
"And what's that... thing on her body?"
The commander shot him a perplexed glance. "Clothes?"
She was actually being generous; the woman was wearing nothing but a pair of low-riding pants and a strap around her chest, but Shepard refused to acknowledge that small detail.
"I mean that colorful thing all over her skin."
"Oh. You mean the tattoos?"
"Shh." Bau raised a closed fist as he settled down behind a large rock and waved at the two chatterboxes to get in cover and stay there—quietly, if at all possible. "That's Vido Santiago," he whispered. He pointed to a balcony on the second floor, filled with Blue Suns, their guns aimed squarely at the people below. "He's the one without the helmet; the one who's talking to the intruders."
They watched and listened as the two parties hurled insults at each other. Eventually, the man in the yellow armor took off running to the left, raising his weapon and spraying the wall behind the mercs with a volley of bullets. As soon as he was in cover, he fired off another shot, and the gas seeping out of the punctured pipe exploded with a thunderous boom, sending a few of the mercs toppling over the rail and seriously injuring the others.
"You just signed your death warrant, Massani," Santiago growled and limped off, holding his side as blood trickled out through his fingers and painted his armor red.
"Massani." Bau rolled the name around in his head. "Ah, yes. Zaeed Massani. Co-founder of the Blue Suns. Santiago tried to have him murdered when he took over the leadership. He's probably here for revenge."
Within seconds, the space inside the gatehouse erupted into chaos as both groups opened fire and Massani hammered a valve with the butt of his rifle until he set off a chain reaction of explosions that incinerated the rest of the mercs. Unfortunately, it also set the whole place on fire.
"What the hell is he doing?" Garrus grumbled as they watched the smoke fill the air and billow out through the door.
"How should I know?" Shepard shrugged. "I'm not the one with the thermal scope. I can't see a thing."
"I think they're gone," Bau said when the screams had stopped. "We'd better follow them if we want to capture Santiago before Massani kills him."
"It wouldn't exactly be a loss," Garrus murmured. Shepard couldn't help but agree.
Bau shook his head. "He needs to stand trial for his crimes." He walked through the door and into the building, and they followed him through the smoke.
~ooo~
They were going to shadow Massani and his accomplice, letting those two eliminate as many of the mercs as they were able to on their way to Santiago, then incapacitate them once they got too close to actually killing their target. Afterwards, the three of them would finish the job, capture the Blue Suns' leader, tell the workers that they were free to go, and get out of there as quickly as they could.
The plan would have worked beautifully, if not for the unfortunate fact that Massani's little stunt and the resulting explosions had ruptured the gas pipes, and by now the whole refinery was on fire.
Even that might have been a negligible obstacle, especially with Garrus's thermal scope pointing the way through the flames and the thick smoke. What they hadn't counted on, however, was the workers getting trapped behind the automatically-sealed doors, unable to shut off the valves and escape the inferno.
"New variable," Bau hummed, rubbing his chin, as one of the workers that had run out onto a catwalk to beg for their help stood above them, gripping the rail and looking down with pleading eyes. "Stopping now to free these people would mean losing precious time. Santiago might get away, or Massani might execute him before we catch up. Continuing with our pursuit, on the other hand, would most certainly condemn the workers to an agonizing death. Which path would you take?"
His large eyes darted from Shepard to Garrus as he waited for their answers. The situation was unfortunate, but it provided him with an unexpected chance to assess the decision-making skills and moral compass of the candidates—something that was rather important when you considered granting nearly unlimited power to someone who might have to make similar life-and-death judgments in the future.
"Save the workers," Shepard said without hesitation.
Vakarian glanced up at the waiting man. As much as he was looking forward to capturing Santiago, sacrificing innocent lives for that satisfaction was—as far as he was concerned—out of the question. "I agree."
The Spectre gave them an approving nod. "I concur. Let's go save some lives then."
~ooo~
It took some running around in the dark, dodging the blaze and the falling debris, but eventually they managed to divert the fuel from the pipes and turn on the fire extinguishing system. With the flames sizzling out, the doors finally opened, and they watched with relief through a thick glass window as the workers fled the building.
As soon as the hostages were gone, Bau brought up his omni-tool to check his map and figure out the most likely route their adversaries might have taken while they were occupied with cleaning up the mess Zaeed Massani had left behind.
"They're probably heading to the landing pad," he said, his finger tracing the path on the glowing display above his arm. "If we follow these passages, we might be able to catch up."
They set out in the direction he'd indicated, down a flight of stairs, through some rooms, and along a few short corridors. The rattle of gunfire that periodically shook the structure was a strangely reassuring sign that the battle was still raging inside. Nevertheless, there was no time to dilly-dally now, so they hurried on, ignoring the occasional dead bodies littering the ground on their way to their objective.
They finally caught up with the warring parties in the large cargo handling area that lead to the landing docks.
The room was filled with angry shouts and the ear-shattering crackle of high-caliber bullets hitting their mark or ricocheting off the containers and equipment that filled the room. Massani and his partner were vastly outnumbered, but that didn't stop them from gaining the upper hand. They obviously had a well-established system of working together, the woman pulling whole groups of mercs out of cover with her biotics and floating them through the air, and Massani picking them off with his sniper rifle, or unloading a volley of bullets into their immobilized bodies from his assault weapon.
The tattooed biotic seemed to enjoy the fight as she charged recklessly ahead, screaming something about killing them all as she hurled men, boxes and anything not bolted to the floor out of her way with her impressive powers.
"Jack!" Massani shouted as he leaped over one crate and dove behind another. "Watch your goddamn right flank!" He raised his gun and blasted an advancing merc right between the eyes before he could turn his flamethrower on the young woman, then tossed an incendiary grenade into a side corridor, setting a cluster of Blue suns that were just about to emerge into the large room on fire.
Jack shot a glance at Zaeed over her shoulder with a feral grin, then she popped out of cover and threw another group of men straight across the room.
"How do you plan on incapacitating these maniacs?" Garrus whispered to Bau as they sneaked behind a large container in the back.
The Spectre patted his omni-tool in an almost affectionate gesture. "I have a program that could paralyze them for a few seconds—it's similar to a statis field. I just need to be close enough. If they were next to each other and I could get them at the same time, that would be even better."
They stole forward towards Massani's position. With only a few Blue Suns left, the battle appeared to be winding down, and Bau opened up his omni-tool to prepare his program. Shepard and Garrus kept an eye on the enemy, but so far none of them seemed to have noticed their presence. Their luck ran out, however, when they got too close to a merc hiding behind a low wall to their left. He snapped his head in their direction and brought up his gun to fire, but before his finger had the chance to pull the trigger, he fell backwards with a thud and a hole in his head.
"Nice shot," Garrus said. He fired off a round of his own, taking out another man that had made the unfortunate mistake of peaking out of cover.
Shepard acknowledged the compliment with a nod. "Thanks. You, too."
Massani swirled around, looking for the source of the sudden backup, and muttered a curse under his breath when he noticed the salarian aiming his omni-tool at him. He jumped up and took off towards the exit, peppering a couple of Blue Suns with his assault rifle on his way.
"Jack! Come on!" he yelled. The two of them burst through the door, leaving the few people that were still standing behind.
"That is... unfortunate," Bau murmured, switching to his sidearm.
As it turned out, that was quite an understatement. It took them less than thirty seconds to clear out the room, but before they could make their way to the door, a metallic box that had been sitting ignored in the corner until now unfolded itself into a YMIR mech. It rose up, guns at the ready, and began a steady march towards Shepard's location.
"Ah, shit. I hate these things," she groaned as she dove behind a low barrier. She tried to set up an overload, but as soon as she attempted to lean out to get a clear line of fire, it would relentlessly bombard her position, its ammunition tearing chunks of metal off the crate and sending them flying over her head.
Yep, there was definitely a well-founded reason for her hatred towards these mechanical monstrosities.
Bau, however, managed to fry the thing's shields, which Garrus followed with a precise headshot. At the telltale sound of the imminent detonation, they crouched down, covering their heads. In a few seconds the mech exploded, and finally everything fell silent.
Garrus stood up. He rested the butt of his rifle against his hip as he glanced down at Shepard. "You can come out now," he drawled, his mandibles spread wide in a grin.
"The damn thing just wouldn't leave me alone," Shepard grunted as she straightened up. "It's like it had it in for me."
"I think you hurt its feelings," Garrus smirked.
Shepard wanted to scowl at him, but she couldn't hold back a small laugh. "I guess I did."
"No time for chit-chat," Bau reprimanded them as he headed towards the door. "Let's go."
~ooo~
Vido was still alive, but just barely. He half-knelt, half-lay on the ground, bleeding, begging for his life as he stared into the barrel of the gun Massani was pointing at his head.
It was immensely gratifying to see him like this, but Zaeed had had enough. He was about to pull the trigger when the salarian and his companions ran out of the building.
"Stop!" Bau yelled. "Drop your weapon."
Zaeed raised his gun and pointed it at the group. "Who the hell are you?" Jack, who'd been standing casually by, straightened up from her slouched stance and followed his example.
Shepard and Garrus reciprocated by turning their weapons on the tattooed biotic.
"Jondum Bau. Special Tactics and Recon. This man," Bau waved a hand at Santiago, "is under arrest on Spectre authority."
"I don't give a shit about your Spectre authority," Zaeed growled. "I've waited twenty years for this."
Vido's pleading eyes darted to the salarian. Jail, he could survive. A bullet to the head—not so much. "Help me," he rasped. "Please—he's going to kill me."
The Spectre ignored him and kept his gaze on Zaeed. "I know what Santiago did to you," he said, trying to sound sympathetic. "He deserves punishment. But he also has a long list of other offenses that he has to stand trial for. I can assure you that he won't get out of jail for a very, very long time."
Zaeed's eyes narrowed into angry slits as he leaned forward. "Don't care. He needs to die."
Bau shook his head. "If you kill him, I'll be forced to arrest you for murder."
Jack let out a derisive snort. "Pfft. I'd like to see you try."
Bau went on, paying no attention to the young woman's remark. "Frankly, I should arrest you for setting the refinery on fire and endangering the lives of the workers. But if you let Santiago go, I'll allow you to leave."
Massani lowered his gun to aim it at Vido's head again. "No."
The next moment everything happened at once. Bau quickly brought up his omni-tool in an attempt to paralyze the two humans, Shepard and Garrus swung their weapons in the old merc's direction, and Jack let out a blood-curdling scream as she hurled out a powerful shockwave.
~ooo~
Things went dark for a few seconds as they were thrown back several feet. By the time they came to, Massani and Jack were gone and Santiago lay motionless on the ground.
Shepard sat up with a groan and looked around for her companions. Bau had picked himself up already and was on his way over to Vido's body, but Garrus still lay on the concrete floor behind her, stunned and unmoving. She vaguely remembered him grabbing her when they were falling, cushioning her body from the impact as they hit the ground.
She leaned over him and gently patted his cheek. "Garrus. Garrus!"
He slowly opened his eyes and blinked up at her. "Shepard. Are you all right?"
She let out a relieved chuckle. "I'm fine. Turians make surprisingly efficient buffers from hard falls. You okay?"
He flexed his hands and feet. Everything seemed to be in working order, and he carefully pulled himself up into a sitting position. "Yeah." His blue eyes darted back to Shepard as his mandibles flared into a wide grin. "Glad to be of service."
"Over here," Bau called out, waving his arm. "He's still alive."
Garrus's eyebrow plates rose up in surprise. "Tough son of a bitch."
They stood up and walked over to Santiago's bleeding body.
Bau administered some medi-gel and took a few readings with his omni-tool. "He's severely injured, but he's still breathing," he said. "We can still take him into custody."
"Or we could just leave him," Garrus rumbled.
"I've explained it already," Bau sighed. "He has to stand trial for his crimes. However," he continued, standing up, "carrying his body to the ship might not be the best choice under the circumstances. I'm going to get the Inandra. I think this landing pad is big enough to touch down here. You two, stay here and make sure that Massani and his friend don't come back to finish the job." He gave them a small nod and walked away.
Shepard and Garrus watched him leave, then they exchanged a sullen look and settled down for the wait.
