Mass Effect belongs to Bioware and EA.

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Torfan

The turrets were firing again. That could only mean one thing: The humans were coming back for another assault. Rikus checked his assault rifle just to be sure he had a fresh thermal clip. The weapon was brand new, the latest version of the venerable Phaeston assault rifle and the first to use the new thermal clips that had recently been introduced in Citadel Space. Rikus liked the concept. Being able to just put in a new clip and continue fighting was very convenient for anyone who had been used to ducking for cover and waiting while his weapon cooled down. Unfortunately, the transition had been very recent and he still had to get used to the idea of watching the clip to see if it needed replacing.

Not that it would matter in the end. Rikus was a dead turian and he knew it. United System Military assault teams had landed all around the colony two hours ago and the battle had not been going well. There were a fair number of soldiers on Torfan, if you could call them that. Mercenaries like Rikus, pirates, and slavers, many of the latter either current or former Hegemony military. Some were well trained or at least experienced, others not so much. What they lacked above all was cohesion and the humans had exploited that weakness ruthlessly. The first wave of Marines had hit the ground firing and, covered by the guns and rockets of their dropships, they had quickly overrun the handful of bunkers that were supposed to form the colony's outer defensive perimeter. Once those were secured they had regrouped, possibly expecting a counterattack.
That counterattack never materialised. Rikus could have told them that in advance. The small units in the outer perimeter had been left to rot. No-one inside the colony owed them much of anything and they certainly didn't intend to risk their lives to help them. As for retaking those positions, some attempt might have been made, if Governor Craldar, the colony leader, had been around to organise it, but the batarian was nowhere to be found and in his absence, there was no-one to organise the attack or persuade the various small-time leaders to cooperate.
So, the humans had been left alone, giving them the opportunity to take care of their wounded and catch their breath while the second wave of shuttles landed outside the range of the colony's limited defensive systems. That wave had been a lot bigger and, instead of just dumping groups of infantry on the ground, it had brought the wheeled combat vehicles for which the humans had become famous. Rikus had been too young for military service during the Relay 314 incident, but like all turians, he had watched the combat footage; not only the recordings made by General Arterius doomed invasion force during the initial fighting but also the news coverage that the humans themselves had recorded when they retook the planet. Even then, watching it from the relative comfort of a classroom, Rikus had been impressed by the menace that exuded from the large, ugly vehicles as they slowly rolled across the battlefield. Somehow their very slowness and primitive nature had seemed to make them more threatening than the sleek, streamlined shape of a fighter craft or a shuttle could ever be. In fact, they had so impressed the Hierarchy, that they had begun to develop similar equipment of their own, using the krogan Tomkah as a template. Now, facing them in person, Rikus had learned two things. One, they were as terrifying in real life as they had been on-screen and two, their slowness had largely been an illusion. In fact, they could manoeuvre extremely quickly when necessary and the humans had used that speed to maximum effect. The combat vehicles had charged forward while the dropships hovered overhead. Within minutes, they had reached the landing platforms and disgorged their infantry, which had proceeded to occupy the hangars and control tower. That was where Rikus had first seen action today. It had not been a pleasant experience.

"Back! Back into the hangar!" Rikus turned around without further prompting and ran, following two batarians and an asari, all that was left of the dozen mercenaries that their unit had started the battle with. Behind him, the ground shook as something, most likely one of the cargo shuttles that had been sitting in the open, exploded. From his left, the ominous shape of one of the human vehicles appeared. He didn't even try to shoot. Whatever else you could say about these monstrosities, one thing was absolutely certain: The armour on those things was too thick for assault rifles to penetrate and Rikus had no rockets with him. Something flashed at the front of the turret and a line of small impacts appeared on the ground in front of him, throwing up dust. By some miracle, the bullets missed him completely, but the asari was less lucky. Rikus would never know how many times she had been hit, but her biotic barrier collapsed within a fraction of a second and the rest of the bullets had torn her to shreds.

Rikus shook his head, trying to rid himself of that image. He was no stranger to the effects of modern weapons on living tissue, but it had not been a pleasant sight. Somehow, he and the batarians had managed to reach the safety of the hangar, but the humans had given them no respite. Their heavy guns had smashed the hangar doors open and infantry had poured in guns blazing. The mercenaries had fought back, reinforced by a few mechanics that had taken shelter in the hanger, but they were outnumbered at least three to one and the distribution of firepower was even more one-sided. Fortunately, there was an underground connection between the hangar and the main colony and one of the mechanics turned out to be something of a demolitions expert who had managed to collapse the tunnel behind them before the humans could pursue.

That had been pretty much the end of any resistance in the spaceport, which by now was fully under human control. The surviving mercenaries, as well as the colony's semi-permanent security force, had regrouped as best they could to wait for the inevitable assault. Unfortunately, they all knew that that assault was coming soon and could only end one way. If the humans wanted the colony, they could take it. The only remaining questions were: How long would it take them? How much would it cost them? And how much would be left of the colony by the time they were finished? With all of the planet, except for the colony itself, under human control, there was nowhere to run or hide, so the only choices were either fighting it out or surrender. One of the mercenary leaders had suggested surrendering but had promptly been gunned down by a batarian who might as well have had a sign 'Special Intervention Unit' painted on his armour for all that he pretended to be just another pirate. That had been the end of that particular suggestion. Most of the mercenaries would probably have been willing to risk surrender, but by now their numbers were severely depleted, whereas the batarian security guards were still near full strength. Even worse, the mercenaries came from half a dozen different organisations, they didn't trust each other and certainly couldn't count on each other for support. No, surrender was out. They had discussed using the slaves as hostages in order to negotiate transport off-world, but that idea had been rejected as well. For one thing, no-one knew how the humans would react to such a ploy. Neither the Hierarchy nor the Hegemony would have accepted that kind of bargain, but the policies of the Alliance of United Systems were still largely unknown. Rikus suspected that it might have worked, but only to a certain extent. The mercenaries might have been allowed to leave, but he found it hard to believe that the humans would be willing to let the slavers and pirates go. After all, this was a retaliation strike, not just a rescue operation. It was all academic anyway. Even though the governor wasn't showing his face, it was the batarians that controlled Torfan and for them releasing the slaves was simply not an option. They represented too much money.

So, now they were stuck, waiting for the humans to attack the colony itself. They had a plan, of sorts. They would defend the gatehouse for as long as possible. The door mechanism had been disabled, so the humans would have to blast their way in, which in turn would seal the airlocks behind the doors, slowing them down. It would funnel the humans into killing zones where the defenders could slaughter them at leisure. Even if they managed to break into the gatehouse, the humans would have to fight their way through a corridor to the colony itself. Once they were there, they would find themselves in a maze of underground passages and rooms, a deathtrap for any attacking force. This, so the plan went, would eventually demoralise the humans to the point where they would be unwilling to continue the fight.

And if you believe that I have some lovely woodlands on Tuchanka for sale. As far as wishful thinking went, this idea won first prize. One of the tenets of turian military philosophy was that you should never let personal antipathy get in the way of an honest appraisal of your enemies. Whatever the flaws of the Hierarchy's military strategists, and they had proven to have many, they had held true to that principle. Every young turian who had gone through military training since the Relay 314 incident had the details of that conflict drilled into their brains and while the instructors might dislike humans intensely, either for personal reason or just on general principle, none would have underestimated the human willingness and ability to fight. As long as humans saw a way to win, they would keep fighting and as long as they kept fighting, they were absolutely lethal. Here they simply couldn't lose, unless they failed to try.

And now they were making the first attempt. The handful of turrets outside the main gate were in action, shooting at vehicles that were partially hidden behind buildings or terrain features. One of the vehicles took multiple hits and came to a halt, its armour ripped open. It made no difference. At this stage, there were simply more targets than turrets and they were shooting back, silencing the defensive fire. Next, they would be coming for the gate itself.

-o-o-o-

"They're coming!"

Rikus threw a look at one of the few working monitors. The humans had spent considerable time blinding the colony. Most of the outer sensor network had been destroyed. Fortunately, a few small optical sensors near the still worked and gave them an idea of what was happening outside.

Humans in combat armour were approaching, crouched low, their weapons sweeping back and forth as they searched for threats. behind them, the vehicles had taken up positions, their guns trained on the colony entrance. They could have spared themselves the trouble. With the last defensive turret gone, the colony was helpless. From now on, any fighting would be done on the inside.

The first humans reached the gate and ripped open one of the access panels. That too was a waste of time. Those panels had been disconnected from the gate's mechanism, which could no longer be operated from the outside. Clearly, the humans understood that too because they wasted very little time fiddling with the locking mechanism. After a few seconds they gave up in disgust and Rikus could see, just from their posture that they were discussing the situation. Someone, clearly an officer made a short gesture and turned away from the gate, gesturing toward the waiting vehicles.

A few minutes passed without any change, then-

"What the fuck is that?"

Rikus sympathised with the other merc's statement. Several of the human combat vehicles were moving forward in pairs. Each pair seemed to have a large, boxlike structure fastened between them. As they rolled toward the colony, human soldiers stepped aside to give them clear access to the walls. The vehicles pushed forward, pushing the boxes all the way against the walls. Then the couplings disengaged and they reversed, leaving the boxes standing against the colony.

"OK, anybody? What the fuck are they doing?"

The optics had a poor angle, but Rikus could still see a little. Something seemed to be changing at the front as though some kind of foam was being used to seal the connection between the box and the wall-

Seal? Wait a-

"They're airlocks!"

"What?"

"Look!" He gestured at the image. "They're fixing them to the wall. Then they can cut their way in and have their own little airlocks on the outside. No need to open the colony to vacuum. And no need to force the gate. They're not even bothering to breach here. They're going to hit the colony directly."

"Fuck."

The defenders looked at one another. There were more than twenty of them here behind the gate, ready to turn the airlock and the room behind it into a slaughterhouse. Now, they were useless.

"Alright," One of the batarians said. "They're still close to us. We'll need to spread out and wait for them where they cut through."
He spoke briefly into his comm link. "We have the locations. Redeploying now. Not all of you. Six of you mercs stay here, guard the gate in case they try to come through here after all."

-o-o-o-

The noise of gunfire echoed through the upper level of the colony. Rikus could easily recognise the unique sound of the rapid firing batarian shotguns. There had been a lot more of that in the beginning. Now the dominant sound was that of bursts of extremely rapid automatic fire and it was coming closer. Clearly, the humans hadn't given up on the main entrance yet. They just intended to open it from the inside. One of his fellow mercenaries, who had been standing at the inner door cursed, fired a quick shot into the corridor and then jumped back into the room.

"They're here!"

"How many?"

"How the fuck would I know? You think I'm gonna stand there and count? I got the first one straight through the helmet, but there have to be more." He slammed the inner door shut. Unfortunately, that wasn't going to help much. The humans were approaching from inside the colony through the corridor that connect the entrance with the rest of the colony. Not only did that mean that Rikus and the others were cut off, but they couldn't even lock the door. That door could only be locked from the inside, where the humans were. Not from the side with the airlock.

The door swung open and a burst of automatic fire came through. Fortunately, none of the mercenaries had been dumb enough to stand directly in front of the door. Rikus pulled out a grenade and tossed it through the opening. There was an explosion and he could hear several screams.

Got some! Not that it will matter in the end.

Clearly, two could play a game. The next thing he knew a small, cylindrical object flew into the room and landed on the floor where it seemed to balance on one of its short ends. Almost simultaneously, the humans outside slammed the door shut.

"Grenade!" Rikus dove behind a cargo container. The grenade seemed to jump up and exploded. He watched in fascination as several small, needle-like projectiles buried themselves into the wall. The container kept him safe, but not everyone had been that lucky. Two of the mercs were down permanently, a third was wounded and the humans were not about to give them time to recover. The door swung open again and they pushed into the room. One went down, a second, but they were shooting back and the mercs simply lacked the firepower to stop them. As Rikus watched, the last of his companions crumpled to the floor. He fired a quick burst, cutting down the last human in the room and jumped sideways, hiding in the corner of the room, next to the door, ready for the humans to push forward once more.

Rikus waited. He had known from the beginning of the battle that there would be little chance for survival and now he was certain that there was none. He had few regrets. The chance of dying in combat was something that he had accepted the day he chose to become a mercenary. He had no family to mourn him, or be ashamed that he was dying in defence of a bunch of pirates and slavers. In the end, there were worse ways. Better to die in a real battle, fighting real soldiers, than in a bar brawl on Omega.

The first human came around the corner. Rikus' talon tightened on the trigger, but the human dove to the ground and kept rolling in a move that no turian could have hoped to duplicate. Even as Rikus fired -and missed- he felt his legs being swept out from under him, pitching him face-first onto the floor. The Phaeston flew away and he scrambled after it, just touching the weapon as the first bullet slammed into his back. Rikus ignored the pain, tightening his grip on the rifle as he tried to roll over and face his enemy, but suddenly the weapon seemed unbearably heavy and his body wouldn't respond properly. A second round hit him, then a third. A boot appeared in his line of vision and kicked the rifle away from him. From somewhere far away he heard strange words, spoken in a strange, alien voice.

"Major Kyle? This is Shepard. I'm at the airlock. The entrance is secure. We'll be opening the gate in a moment."

It was the last thing he would ever hear.

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Thanks to Hang Tuah for suggesting a chapter like this. I had planned to switch directly to the fighing inside the colony, but it's better to have the transition as well.

Throughout ME1, you keep busting into other people's facilities with minimum effort. In reality, most of your sidequests would have ended in failure, simply because those people would lock their doors. Forceful entry to a building in a vacuum requires either special equipment or blasting open the doors, but if you do the latter, airtight doors throughout the facility will close and you'll have to keep blasting them open.

The grenade with the spikes is something I copied from the movie Eraser.