A/N: Sorry this chapter is late. My life is starting to get kinda chaotic so I'm having a hard time getting the free time to type up chapters. I'll try to have the next chapter up sooner.
Enjoy!
After the ship had docked on Zakera Ward, Lance, Paul, and one of the two batarians went to find a safe house Aria had on the Citadel for any operations she had in Council space. Liselle and the another batarian went to get some supplies as they were likely going to be staying on the Citadel for a while. Lance created a program that would hack into the Citadel's security systems and make sure that their guns wouldn't show up on the scanners. The program was set to self-terminate after they got through all the scanners so there would be no trace of it.
The entire trip to the safe house, Lance glanced out of the corner of his eye to make sure the batarian wasn't trying anything. He could tell that the batarian was waiting for an excuse to shoot him, though that was probably because of the 'argument' they had on the ship before they left Omega. He decided that now would be a good time to lose him, as there was a big crowd in front of them.
He sped his pace up to catch up to Paul, who was in front of him. He discreetly nudged Paul's arm to get his attention before he whispered, "We should lose our friend in the crowd before we get to the safe house."
"Why?" Paul whispered back, glancing to the batarian.
"He's been bought off. Him and his buddy bugged my laptop."
"How do you know?"
"I removed the bug and I know you and Liselle wouldn't do something like that."
"I mean, how do you know he's been bought off?"
Lance hesitated, wondering whether to tell Paul about his 'friend' that warned him about the batarians. He decided against it, as he wasn't entirely sure how much M4A3E8 knew about him. "Found funds being transferred from an outside account to his."
"Shit. I need to warn Liselle."
"Wait till we lose this one."
"Right. Follow me."
Paul speeds up his pace slightly and Lance matches the change, but the batarian fails to notice the increase in speed, slowly falling behind. Lance follows Paul as he zigzags through the crowd, occasionally doubling back to throw off the batarian. They come out on the opposite side of the crowd after a few minutes and the batarian is nowhere in sight. They half-walk, half-jog, towards a flight of stairs and go down them, stepping down two steps at a time. Once the crowd is out of sight, they slow down and relax a bit. Then Lance asks, "Do those batarians know were the safe house is?"
"No," Paul replies. "Let me tell Liselle to lose the other one before she meets us there."
"Ok." Paul sent a message to Liselle before he and Lance headed to the safe house.
The safe house was out of the way, more to shroud its entrance than anything. They enter and Lance looks around. The room they entered was dark, but there was enough light to make out outlines of objects, mostly furniture and crates. Paul switched on the lights and Lance's eyes widened. The safe house looked like it hadn't been used in months, which it probably hadn't.
Paul opened one of the crates and pulled out a M-96 Mattock. As he examined it, Lance walked over to him to get a better look. The gun looked old, but it had been refitted to take thermal clips and likely had other modifications.
"Semi-auto," Paul said, admiring the gun. "Punch of a sniper rifle with low heat production. Thank you Aria."
Lance looked into the crate and saw that it was filled with copies of that very gun. He placed his laptop on a nearby table before he walked over to another crate and opened it. He looked inside and saw it was filled with M-6 Carnifexes and its variants: M-77 Paladins and M-11 Suppressors. He picked up a M-77 Paladin and examined it. It looked like a fairly expense pistol, and it felt pretty heavy.
"Nice choice," Paul complimented, looking at the pistol. "Well made pistol. Very accurate and packs a helluva punch too. What else is in there?"
"Bunch of Carnifexes and M-11 Suppressors," Lance replied, holstering his new pistol and placing the old one next to his laptop.
"M-11 Suppressors? Let me see."
Lance grabbed a Suppressor and handed it to Paul, who examined it intently.
"This could have come in handy on a few missions," he says, impressed with the gun.
"I'll bet," Lance agreed. "Anything from Liselle?"
"Not yet. Best get comfortable, we're probably gonna be waiting a while."
Lance nods and grabs his laptop, placing it on his lap as he sits down on a nearby couch. He opened it and powered it on before checking his email. There was another email from Aria. Lance opened it and it read, Your friend didn't tell us anything. He bit down on a cyanide capsule and killed himself. Also, looks like the plague in the Gozu district has been cured. I sent men in and they found dead vorcha and Blue Suns everywhere. And Archangel… seems like he just vanished. Every merc that was after him is dead, but there are so many bodies it's impossible to tell which one of them is Archangel. The mercs think he's dead and they are arguing over got the kill. Idiots.
"Huh," Lance said to himself. He read the email again before he decided to send Aria copies of the files he got: the dossiers, the ship blueprints, and the files on the missing colonies. After the files were sent, Lance went to /The_Messengers/ homepage and found it was unavailable. He refreshed the page and got the same result. Really? You've got to be kidding me. He then went to the first backup wiki and got the same result. Oh, now they've done it. He went to the second backup wiki and found that it was unavailable too. Then he checked the third backup wiki and saw that it was still running. Guess they didn't look hard enough.
He started a thread and titled it 'Payback.' He waited a few minutes and saw hundreds of names show up.
Several were asking what happened and a few others were saying how they wanted to kick the ass of whoever took down the homepage and two of the backup wikis. Then, he saw Vaenia and GaMeZ show up along with Ymir and Acid. When he saw their names, he finally typed, U guys want to know who to blame? It's Cerberus.
The thread seemed to stop entirely. Then someone typed, Y? What the hell would they go after us for?
Me, Vaenia, GaMeZ, Acid, and Ymir were hacking their files, Lance explained.
I tried to warn you, Thor typed.
U think this is bad? They attacked me in my apartment.
Again, the thread seemed to stop dead. Then Wolf typed, But, ur here right now. How'd u get away?
Had to kill em. Had a tail but I think I lost him.
Where r u? Thor asked.
A safe house. Can't say more than that.
Well, what's the plan? Vaenia typed.
Let's show em we mean business. Carpet-bomb the motherfkers. Hack any Cerberus database u can find and copy all their files, then brick em.
The thread erupted with responses like, Hell ya! and, Let's get those SOBs!
Lance waited until the thread calmed down before typing, Once u get the files, contact me and send em over. Work in teams and watch urselves. I'll be laying low for now, so here's a list of their front companies. Good luck!
Lance put the list of Cerberus' front companies up on the forum from a saved file and watched as everyone else teamed up and picked their targets. The teams ranged in size from pairs to groups of over fifteen. Lance, Vaenia, GaMeZ, Acid, and Ymir labeled the companies they already checked out and several teams had to change targets. After everyone was teamed up and had a target, they left, eventually emptying the thread. I guess history really does repeat itself. Go figure.
He couldn't help but smile at the fact that everyone was so enthusiastic about taking the fight to Cerberus. Then again, some of them had seemed a little too enthusiastic about it. He should have seen it coming though, as he let nearly anyone join. Now the problem was going to be how he was going to hide in the real world, as well as in the virtual one.
On Omega, he hadn't needed to sneak around and stay hidden. He did his magic from his apartment, where he thought had been safe. But he became complacent, at that's likely what got him to become careless about prying eyes. He was out of his element, so he had to rely on Paul and Liselle to help him stay hidden from Cerberus. It didn't help that he didn't like having to rely on others, which was why he ended up on Omega in the first place, because he didn't ask for help and ended up getting lost. But now, if he tried to rely on himself to keep hidden, he'd probably be found and killed, or captured. And the fact that he was forced to rely on a complete stranger for info despite the fact that he couldn't seem to get a straight answer only made matters worse.
He shook that all from his mind. He needed to focus on laying low while /The_Messengers/ did the mission he assigned them all. He couldn't help, but think that this was only the beginning. Of what exactly, he had no idea.
Lance eventually decided to take a rest since he had nothing better to do. And he certainly didn't want to think about Cerberus 24/7. So he closed his laptop and placed it back on the table, closing his eyes as he laid back on the couch, swinging both legs onto the table in front of him.
He woke a few hours later to a knock at the door. His eyes snapped open and he glanced next to him to see that Paul was passed out on a nearby chair. His hand went to his M-77 Paladin out of reflex as he got up and walked over to the door, pulling out the pistol and pointing it toward the door. He reached the door and hid his pistol behind his back as he opened it. In front of him stood two men dressed in black, both human. Shit.
"Who are you?" Lance asked, suspicious.
"Hello," the first man started, faking a smile. "We are doing a door-to-door questionnaire for those who are living on the Citadel for a limited period of time."
"You mean, 'temporary residents.'"
"Uh… Yes. That is what I meant."
"Yeah… not interested." Lance went to close the door but the other man grabbed his wrist, rather firmly.
"We insist," he said, still gripping Lance's wrist.
Lance shook him off before saying, "Look, pal, I don't know you and I don't want to. Go away."
He watched their hands as they both looked down and reached behind their backs, grabbing what, he assumed, were guns.
He didn't wait to see what they were grabbing, shutting the door before they could stop him.
He locked the door before turning around and rushing towards Paul. He shook him awake as he heard the two men trying to get through the door.
"Ugh… What?" Paul said, yawning.
"Get your ass up!" Lance ordered. "Cerberus is here."
"Son of a bitch. I can't just get a decent rest before trouble starts." Paul gets up and grabs his M-96 Mattock aiming it at the door while Lance aims his pistol.
They continue to aim at the door while they wait for the intruders to get through the locks. After a minute or two, the door flies open and the two men charge in, wielding M-11 Wraiths.
Paul is the first to respond, firing three shots into the chest of the first intruder, taking him down. He ducks as the second intruder fires at him before being shot by Lance twice. Once in the chest and once in the head.
They get down behind a couple of crates as five more men charge in, wielding Mattocks and Phalanxes.
"Damn it!" Lance swears as a bullet ricochets off the crate, past his head. "When the hell is Liselle getting here?!"
"Don't know!" Paul replies before popping out of cover to fire off three more shots, hitting another intruder. He ducks down again before he says, "Let me find out!"
Paul puts two fingers to his ear as Lance pops up and takes down another intruder and says, "Liselle, you read me? Where are you?"
Lance notices three more men charge in as Paul says, "We're under attack! Get over here as soon as you can!"
How many of these assholes are there anyway?