PHOENIX RESURGENT
A Mass Effect Story by Vyrexuviel
Disclaimer: The author of this story does not, in any way, profit from the story and all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).
Omega. A line from an ancient 2D movie ran through Shepard's mind. "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy." Even so, Omega was relatively stable. The innermost section of the enormous station, the one closest to the ancient and long-disused mining platforms, was wholly controlled by the Blood Pack, a group of krogan mercs and their vorcha hangers on. Outer parts of the station were controlled by the Blue Suns merc group and the Eclipse, as well as other gangs, such as the Talons, who constantly vied for territory. The blood pack usually stuck to their area and didn't bother the other groups, save when they tried to muscle in on the krogan and lost a few squads in retaliation.
And over it all, like a queen spider in a steel web, sat Aria. Aria T'Loak. Shepard had met Aria a couple times, but she still didn't know much about the asari pirate queen. While she commanded power in terms of the number of guns she could order around, her intelligence network was unsurpassed, save, perhaps, by that of the Council's Spectres. And even then, she wasn't sure. She commanded the respect of most of the pirate captains that docked at the ancient conglomeration of spires, mining equipment, and habitat towers that formed the largest unaffiliated space station in the Terminus Systems, true power indeed.
Shepard stepped off the ship and onto Omega feeling a bit of disgust. After the clean sterility of geth ships and stations, Omega felt filthy. Still, she was lucky to be standing here instead of blasted to smithereens. Tali had argued vehemently with Legion all the way back from Freedom's Progress to the regional geth base. And the fact that the geth -had- regional bases caused a bout of mild paranoid hysteria to the quarian woman. Over the last few weeks, Tali had finally persuaded the geth that a stereotypical geth ship profile would be noticed instantly and fired upon without any chance to identify its non-hostile intent. So, when they reached the Quadrant 00101101 base, they found a new ship half-completed, along the lines that Tali and the geth had hashed out. Tali had at first been surprised, then suspicious, then slowly enthusiastic when the geth were completely open with her about the ship's construction and design, eagerly (for geth) accepting her refinements and improvements.
Shepard glanced back at the Zero-Eight. That's what Tali had dubbed it, as the eighth design iteration of the design session that she and the geth had had. It was small, about half the size of the Normandy, but had a sufficiently large drive core and a phenomenally efficient power source. It could run for nearly twice as long as the Normandy herself before it had to discharge it's drive core, and even then it could usually reabsorb about 25% of the discharge energy into high-capacity batteries. And her personal quarters had their own power tap. That alone had sold her on the design. It turned out that Shepard didn't really feel awake in the morning until she had had a good dose of power from the ship's power feeds, similar to how she had been a coffee-hound back on the Normandy.
After a salarian tried to welcome her to Omega, then a batarian informed her that Aria was waiting to see her, Shepard was somewhat curious. A glance over her shoulder at Tali produced no real response. The approach to Aria's bar was just as intriguing as the obsequious offer, then the peremptory order. Shepard's brow quirked at the three-story-tall animated display and stepped past the growing line. After all, if Aria wanted her bad enough to send a grunt to tell her at her ship... Sure enough, the formidably armed bouncer tapped the wide door's opening switch at her approach, letting her, Legion and Tali slip in despite the line. Some protests were cut off by the closing door, letting Shepard savor the pulse-pounding music echoing down the long corridor to Afterlife.
About halfway down, a group of batarians were hanging out. Shepard noticed them but didn't slow, at least not until one of them grabbed his pistol and stood up. Then she turned slightly towards him as he spoke belligerently. "What're you looking at?"
She let the moment spin itself out, a slight smile quirking her lips upward a teensie bit. "A sad man who's got no idea what he's up against, and only stepping up to the chopping block out of peer pressure." She turned more fully towards him, her eyes glowing faintly through her face-plate's visor at the man. "I can forgive ignorance, but not stupidity. Which is it?"
After a bit, the batarian, obviously a bit startled by the glowing eyes, stepped back a bit. "I...Fine. You're off the hook. For now." He turned slightly to his mates and motioned for them to follow, heading back the way Shepard came.
Tali watched longer, then turned back, "Still got it, Shepard." Shepard snickered softly and turned back to the corridor, striding through the door.
Afterlife was everything it had promised. Pulse-pounding music, asari dancers (Shepard had to tear her gaze away from one dancing around a pole atop the back bar that looked amazingly like Liara), a full circular bar and dozens of people. Alcoves had tables and booths, and everywhere, holographic flames licked and sputtered. Shepard turned slowly, then, glancing past the asari dancers, spotted a raised balcony, the glass walling it darkened to provide privacy. She turned slightly to Legion and nodded, taking a step around a turian patron and moving through the crowd with unconscious ease.
Tali trailed in her wake, with Legion behind her. Watching Shepard move through a crowd, it was damn clear why she was so nasty in a firefight. She had an unconscious grace and fluidity to her movements that made her seem more like water than a person, finding gaps and slipping through with a minimum of fuss. Tali was hard-pressed to keep up, especially with the patrons being rather surly towards a quarian. the Geth, however, got a wide berth, people, even the drunks, stopping and staring as the synthetic being strode serenely in the quarian's wake.
By the time Shepard had reached the stairs leading up to the balcony, Tali was quite flustered. Two turians had accosted her, mistaking her for 'special entertainment', and two batarians and a human had tried to draw weapons on the Geth, until Tali explained it was a remotely operated construct. For spur of the moment inspiration like that, she remembered how Shepard had fast-talked dozens of people over the course of the investigation into Saren's affairs. It seemed to work, the human wanted to know when he might expect to buy one, and the Batarians bought the line that it was a prototype for a new type of bodyguard-mech.
Shepard was looking amusedly at her by the time Tali caught up. She still wasn't sure what was up with Shepard's new look, but Shepard had made it clear she could see Tali's face inside her helmet, which for some odd reason had made the young quarian quite nervous. It wasn't as if Shepard had seen her with her suit off, after all...
The batarian guard stopped Shepard a few paces down from the balcony, and began scanning her. Shepard endured it stoically, but her lips twitched up when the batarian's scan came up with a red "Identity Unconfirmed". She murmured, "Aria, is this really necessary?"
"Can't be too careful with dead Spectres. That could be anyone wearing your face."
Shepard couldn't help a small smile. "Don't bother comparing your scans to my previous records, then. I'm Shepard, alright, I still remember the last time we met, Aria. I couldn't tell if you were trying to get into my mind, or my pants."
Aria still had her back turned, but her lips quirked up at Shepard's reminder of the last time they met. After the Batarian showed her the new scans of the woman claiming to be Shepard, she turned around. Shepard had decided that trying to conceal her changed appearance was going to be more of a hindrance than a help in the long run. She was starting to finally accept her new form, especially with the considerable advantages it offered. And if most people's reaction was an instinctual flinch backwards, that only helped her Spectre reputation. As a result, she got a good look at Aria's reaction to Shepard's new appearance, through the transparent faceplate of her helmet.
The Asari rocked back slightly, then leaned forward a little, eyes narrowing a tiny bit. "Well, that's a surprise..."
"A few things got rearranged when I died, Aria. But let's get to business, shall we?"
Aria sat, still giving Shepard a suspicious glare, but indicating one end of the U-shaped couch on her overlook. "What do you need?"
"Answers, mostly. I was told a certain salarian scientist, one Dr Mordin Solus, was aboard your station. I'd like to meet him if possible."
Aria leant forward a little, giving Shepard a cool, appraising glance, "The salarian doctor? I heard her was trying to help plague victims in the quarantine zone." She chuckled slightly, glancing away from Shepard. "I always liked Mordin. He's as likely to heal you as shoot you."
"How do I get to him?"
"If you -really- need to find him, take a shuttlecraft to the quarantine zone. No guarantee they'll let you in, though."
Shepard rose smoothly to her feet, turning away and heading toward the stairs down from Aria's platform, "Thanks for the head's up. I'll let you know how it goes."
Aria's lips quirk up slightly. "If things go the way they usually do around you, Shepard, I won't need a report. I'll just listen to the explosions."
Shepard chuckled softly, half-turning and gave Aria a wink. "I'll try to be a bit more subtle. See you around, Aria."
Author's Note:
OHHHHHH GOD, I'm so sorry for the long hiatus! Also sorry for the short update, this is what I had. It's unbeta'd, so please be gentle.
My muse and my beta seem to have flown the coop together, and I've got no one left around to poke me to write things down. It's maddening, as I've got all these ideas for later in the fic, and no way to get to them save slogging through the initial crap.
On a sidenote, anyone looking for a job as temporary beta, or even maybe -permanent- beta, if I can't get my original one back? Fair warning: I do expect my beta to poke me on occasion and remind me to write things down, usually on a daily basis. Anyone willing to do so, please gimme a PM!
Thank you again for your patience! Vyre, signing off!