This time I won't even try to ignore my updating problems.

Hello, I'm back, not dead, not kidnapped or anything of the sort. Right, basically I haven't updated this thing for... 4 or more months now.

You have full permission to shower me with rotten tomatoes.

I'm a lazy bigot, you don't have to say it, but won't even make a promise that I will update. I don't want to make a promise that I can't keep.

I'll just say that I'll try, it's all I can do for now. Anyways, if you wanna hear more about my self-loathing it'll be present in the author notes in the back.

Sorry guys. But here's the next chapter.


December 23th, Unknown time
Omega, Eclipse Compound

Now before I say this, I wanna mention, that getting captured is not fun. You lose your will quite fast when under guard all the time.

But truth be told… I guess getting captured cleared my head a bit. Now I'm actually thinking instead of going on overdrive all the time.

I am still in Mass Effect, which is the stupidest thing I could ever hear myself saying… Well technically thinking, but I can't really deny that it didn't happen.

I am on Omega. Which is great 'n all because I'm basically in the middle of a hell hole, a criminal hell hole, mind you.

So, knowing that, it really doesn't help my resolve.

Speaking of my resolve it's slowly starting to dissolve… Heh, that rhythmed. I should write a poem, might keep my mind of this whole thing.

Anyways, I am being held captive by the Eclipse because I have information about my partners in crime. And I do have information… It's just questionable if I'll share it.

Anyways, I'd better think of something. I doubt that Nicolas is just going to bum rush the place and explode-rize everything to save me. I gotta find my own way out.

Hopefully it'll be sooner than later.


Sometime later

You know when you're thinking some really deep and emotional thoughts, someone has to come up and interrupt you. This time it was Kate, opening my cell door and stepping inside. I lifted my head to look at her.

She just looked back at me as she wordlessly dropped a box.

A few seconds pass and neither of us says anything. "And this is?" I start

"This is it." She responds.

I swear I never get a straight answer out of this woman.

"It being?" I try again.

"Your way out." The only reaction she gets is me lifting my eyebrow. "There's your omni-tool in there… and that's about it."

"So, you want me to escape… only with an omni-tool?" I asked.

"It's not like it hasn't been done before." She said.

True. But this is me we're talking about.

"Still would have been nice to have a gun or something." I said.

"Getting the omni-tool was hard enough." And with that she turned tail and started walking out of my cell, before stopping at the last moment and turned back to me. "And do try to not get shot." And she left.

Well... That's nice of her.

Got no time to think about it though, I have a box to search.

I stood up and walked over that the box. It's has an interesting grey color to it. Ain't that lovely?

I open up the box and I was surprised to see my omni-tool in there, I could recognize my little computer anywhere by now.

I quickly go through the procedure of putting my omni-tool back on. Flicking it open, I could only smile. Good to have it back.

I also saw my earpiece in the box, the one which Nicolai gave me.

...

That was a fun 2 minutes of sticking that up my ear.

Flicking open my omni-tool again, I noticed I missed a message. Not like I had a choice.

Opening the messaging, I was kinda surprised, but not at the same time. It's from Tim. Again. Feels like the only person I know. Except Nicolai of course.

Seems you got yourself into quite a situation. Captured by the Eclipse? Be sure to tell me how'd that happen.

Can't blame you. You are technically new here and Omega ain't the friendliest place you could have landed.

I'm attaching a few files to this message. First file is a map of the building. I'm sure you can think of a way out with that.

The second file is an omni-blade. Yes, an actual omni-blade. Thank me later.

By the way do hurry, they plan to brutally murder you.

P.S. Do message me when you get back. We got a lot to talk about.

-Tim

That… was unexpected. I downloaded the 2 files that Tim attached.

An omni-blade is something that could be useful to me. I mean it's a holographic thingy of death, I gotta have that.

Also, ganna need to read up on how it works. Right, anyways the map.

I open up the building's map… And it's smaller then I though.

Now there's six cells… Which I can guess I'm in one of them. The path from the cells leads up north, at least I think it's north, but if the guards are smarter then I think they would be it might be guarded. The path forks into two and goes off the opposite direction. There are rooms littered around the path, mostly small rooms, might be quarters.

An interesting thing to note is that there is a layout of the air vents on the map. The vents seem to be connecting almost every room together, but most of them go through the rooms.

Now that means I have an alternative to corridors… But if there are people in those rooms, I'm ganna have trouble.

The risk is high… But the priiize...

God, I'm horrible.

The building isn't big… One huge room, which is basically a requirement for enemy garrisons now and a lot of small one littered around the corridors.

I noticed that you can get up to the roof from the vents. Seems to be my best bet.

Right better pack up and prepare.

Still gotta install that omni-blade, it might come in handy.

Navigating my omni-tool I found the installer. Open it, click the big 'ol button labeled 'install' and then it's basically a matter of time.

I just had to laugh a bit, as I understood my situation. Here I was, about to go attempt a stealth mission, to sneak away from an Eclipse base. If you told me, that I would be doing this a few weeks ago. I would have questioned your sanity.

Look how fate makes fun of me.

Right, Omni-blade installed, gonna give it a test run.

Opening the omni-blade program, I could only smile. There we're a few options available for me. One of them is to incorporate my Overload into the blade. Make it all shocky 'n stuff.

I'll skip that for now.

Mapping the omni-blade to my hotbar, I opened it.

With a nice KCUNK! the omni-blade sprung out of my arm.

I had to stop myself and not touch the edges… from what I heard that thing can cut a lot of things.

Closing the omni-blade I mentally prepared myself.

'Shit's ganna go down, and you'll scream a lot. But don't die… You gotta live, at least for now.' I said to myself.

Stepping closer to my cell's door, I noticed that the lock was still… red.

Welp there goes that plan out the window.

I still touched the lock and in my surprise, the lock turned green.

"Okay…" I managed to mutter.

That was weird, but there's no time to think about that now.

I gotta get out. I need to get out.

I pressed the lock and was surprised to see it open without any resistance.

Peeking my head out the door I could see that the hallway was clear. Not a soul.

Thanking whatever god was watching me, I made my where to where I remembered was the entrance to the vents.

Seeing a small door like thingy with a few holes placed in the wall, I could only assume that was it.

Crouching down, I saw that it had a password lock. 4-digit, far too many possible combinations.

Just my luck.

I doubt I can hack that. Never even used the hacking program on my omni-tool.

Silently cursing, I started looking for alternatives. I could try to cut it with the omni-blade, but it's not like I know if it'll even cut it. Could be too thick.

Activating my omni-tool I noticed a datapad on the ground near the vent door. Picking it up, I started reading.

4829. Thank me later.

Well I'll be damned... That must be either Kate or Timmy.

Got no time to think on that right now, just gotta hope this thing works.

Four… Eight, Two, Nine.

With a little beep the vent doors opened up.

Tom, one.

Vent, zero.

Grinning, I slowly crawled in the vent.

It's ugly to look at. The vents blank and boring, barely lit (to be expected) and has a very grey-ish look to it.

Also, it's uncomfortable crawling on metal (again, to be expected).

I thought about opening my omni-tool and turning on the flashlight, but that could be a bad idea. People might see the light.

Crawling is as slow as you could expect, the Call of Duty and Battlefield games didn't lie.

Seeing an upcoming turn, my body went on autopilot and my mind drifted to other thoughts.

I still got no idea what the hell am I going to do. My plan is to get on the roof and… call Nicolai, I guess.

I could probably think of a better one, but I got none.

Approaching another vent door, I started hearing voices.

Which were not speaking English mind you.

Heard a very woman like voice and one of those batarian like voices.

Why can't I understand them? I have my omni-tool on, but-

Oh yeah, the translator is probably off.

Stopping in my tracks, I started fiddling with the mini super computer, before something exploded.

BANG!

The whole place shook, as I managed to keep steady (being prone, helps a lot).

The two voices started talking in a more panicked manner as my search became more frantic as well.

Translator, translator, trans… found it!

Boop

"-ttacking?" The woman said, sounded like a question. She's either human or asari, one of those.

Now that she mentions it. I do hear gunshots. And screams. And death. And generally everything I could imagine in a real gunfight.

"Check in with command." The batarian responded, as I heard multiple omni-tools open.

After a few seconds, the asari closed her omni-tool and stated. "It's them."

"Here? They're after that prisoner." The batarian said.

"Well then… Let's go get him." The asari said and I heard their weapons getting unfolded. Shortly after, they left the room and trotted off to somewhere.

Huh. Shit. I haven't seen any other prisoners except me. So, I can only hope they won't find me.

Crawling closer to the vent door, I saw that it had another code lock.

Crap… 4-digit again.

I can only hope that the last code works.

Four, eight, two, nine.

I saw a red light blink and the door didn't open.

Shit… Time for plan B. A.k.a start stabbing the shit out of the door.

Extending my omni-blade, I started cutting the door open.

Crude, but hopefully it'll work.

A few more seconds of cutting and the door flopped open. Thank god, the vent doors aren't too thick. I immediately crawled forward and entered the room.

The room was pretty small. A small armory by the looks of it. Had unlocked gun lockers, which was lovely.

Right, weapons first.

Heading over to the weapons locker, I instantly saw an Avenger assault rifle. Taking, that no questions asked. Good to feel something

Next up was a Predator pistol and a holster to go with it. Again, taking those as well.

Not having any magnetic locks on my clothes, I couldn't store the pistol, but luckily, I had the holster. So, yay me.

Equipping myself for combat, I thought about what was I getting into. There's no way I will be able to fight through every merc here. I ain't Shepard.

So, sneaking tactics it is. Time to be Sam Fisher, which should go as well as me trying to be Shepard.

Now I could continue to go through the vents and up to the roof, but I had no codes and I bet I make a lot of noise when I start slashing the door with my omni-blade. And let's not forget the fact that I'm going through all those room. I'm basically bound to meet someone with their gun in my face.

And there are people who are currently attacking the base. So, that must put them all on high alert.

I could also try to use the confusion and advance through the corridors. And while that is still risky, at least I can try to fight back then. Keyword: try.

I gotta choose, before time chooses for me.

Suddenly, my omni-tool started beeping. Oh, good lord someone is calling me. In the middle of a stealth mission. Great.

Clicking accept call, I reduced the volume of the call and whispered.

"Who is this?" I asked.

I was met by a few dozen gunshots and a thick Russian accent. "Good you're alive."

"Nicolai? Are you the one shooting shit, here?" By this point, most of my sentences ends in a question mark.

"Who else could it be? Me, Sedik and Emallia are coming to get you out of here."

I released a breath that I didn't know I was holding.

"I though you guys forgot about me." I said with a smile. "So, what's the plan?"

"We breached the compound with explosives, quite easy when they don't have snipers on their roof. And now we're making our way to the cells." Nicolai explained as I heard a few more shots go off. "Speaking of the cells, how'd you get your omni-tool?"

"Oh, I'm not in the cells. Someone on Timmy's payroll broke me out, gave me my omni-tool and said good luck. Currently, in an armory near the cells, armed and somehow not panicking."

"We're on the far top right side of the facility, anyway you can get to us?" Nicolai asked.

"Let me check." I said as I opened the map. Right so far top right side, that's quite a ways across and it would take a bit to get there, not to mention the enemy concentration on them.

"That would be a bit risky, considering the fact that there are far too many enemies in your direction." After a few seconds, I noticed something on the map. "Actually… There's a vent that leads to the roof near you. I could go up to the roof from my side, and make my way to that vent. It'll take a bit longer, but if you guys hold your location, I should be able to get there."

"Sounds good, we'll hold the line." That almost made me giggle.

"Okay, I'm moving." I said and ended the call.

Right, plan didn't change: get to the vent that leads to the roof.

Oh, how I love my life.


There it is. A chapter that went through 3 revisions and written in the spawn of 4 months. It's done. And I do gotta thank a few people for it.

First of all I'd like to thank the people who followed while this story was on hiatus. I'll now personally thank them.

Huge thanks to Oniele, Dark Lord Shawn, , ninjafox-yoko, Trident arrow. You guys helped me via murdering my phone through notifications and unimaginable mental pain. You guys have my everlasting thanks.

Course, I would also like to thank the people who reviewed during my 'active' time. You know who you guys are, but you still have my thanks. Yes, even the guests.

Right, I'll be heading off to at least start writing the next chapter, or else I'll go away for a whole year next time.

I'll see ya all later.