MASS EFFECT DESCENCION: CHAPTER 10

2183 Asteroid X-57, Terra Nova

"What do you think of this one?" Charn nonchalantly asked his friend as he reshuffled the stack of cards in his hands to figure out what he had.

"You mean us hitting an asteroid?" Sh'sk shrugged as he also checked his hand. "I guess Balak knows what he's doing." The two were sitting in their tightly packed sleeping quarters. Both sitting on the edge of their cots, just a few feet apart from one another. They had a few hours to kill before their destination, so they decided to play a few hands of cards to kill the time.

Charn glanced slightly up from the top of his cards to eye his friend suspiciously. "Still can't believe you now support the cause. Killing your old man really did push you over the edge."

Sh'sk narrowed his eyes. "Say that again." His dad's death years ago on Torfan still left its mark. Since that time, he engaged in Balak's terroristic attacks on random human colonies. A lot of their battles were bloody and some were met by heavy resistance. The Alliance was ready, but that didn't deter their commander. Their last battle gave Sh'sk a deep laceration on his face from a soldier's knife that would eventually lead up to a scar.

Charn held up his hand calmly. "It's still business. Balak said this asteroid we are going to will promise some slave opportunity. Finally, ready to get back into the business."

Sh'sk replaced one of his cards from another from the deck that was on the floor between them. He knew he had a lousy hand and it seemed the replacement really didn't change his position. He kept his face neutral and relaxed a little on his bed. Throughout their years together, Charn never really bluffed his way through cards and Sh'sk knew that. Sometimes, he was easy to read. "Still strange that Balak wants to hit an asteroid. Just how many humans are on that thing for us to grab?" The question was obvious. Something else was going on. But what?

"Well you know whatever Balak wants, he gets." Charn exchanged two cards.

"Seems like it."

Hours later, their rover came to a halt up on a hill near an outpost. Their scans revealed the outpost was the closest structure and there were several larger compounds off in the distance with what appeared to be, active fusion torches that was propelling the asteroid slowly on a predetermined course. The only question was, why were the humans transporting an asteroid?

"We have three lifeforms inside." Charn scanned the building as he, Sh'sk and Balak stepped out of their rover.

"Listen up. We have you surrounded. Come out and I won't blast your sorry lives to oblivion." Balak announced as he stood near the building. They could hear shuffling inside and muffled sounds of scared voices, but no indication that they were going to comply with the order. Their commander was growing impatient. "I'm going to count to three." Charn and Sh'sk exchanged silent looks as they watched on. "One…two…" A beat. A smirk spread across the black lips of the batarian. "Three…" He then nodded to Sh'sk. "Blow it up."

Sh'sk sighed as he reached into his travel pack and took out a small explosive device and walked up to the door. Attaching the device, he armed it with his omni tool and set the timer for ten seconds to give him enough time to clear. Beep…. beep…. beep…the device slowly began to count down from ten. Standing behind the rovers, the batarians looked on. Just as the final beep sounded, the bomb went off and the structure rocked violently as flames engulfed it. Shrieks of agony filled the air, but were quickly silenced. Balak smiled again as he looked on. "Pity."

"Three good assets." Charn grumbled from the loss of stock.

"Relax." Balak placed his hand on his shoulder as he walked past him to re-enter his rover. "There are plenty of humans below." His four eyes eyed the area below where they were that housed the first structure they came across with the fusion torch. "This asteroid has given us a better opportunity."

"What's that?" Sh'sk watched on, trying to follow his leader's thought process.

"We are going to end this war with the humans. We will make them scurry back to their galaxy like the insects that they are. I will not attack the nearby colony of Terra Nova. I will wipe it off the planet."

"How are we going to do that?" Charn was completely lost in their conversation.

"We will use these fusion torches to ram this asteroid straight into the colony of Terra Nova. The Alliance will not be able to stop us. No one will."

Reaching the first building, Balak motioned two others of his followers to unpack crates from one of the rovers. Sh'sk was standing next to Charn, who was knelt at the door, trying to use his decryption program to unlock the door from his omni tool. He saw the batarians approached and lifted his eye ridge. He knew what were in those crates, but what was Balak's intent?

A satisfying beep came from the lock a few moments later and the door whished open. They could hear timid murmurs from inside. Balak grinned, bearing all his teeth. "Release the varren."

Sh'sk grabbed the arm of the closest batarian before he could comply with the order. "We don't need them. We could round up the humans ourselves." Varren were beasts that the batarians normally used for hunting and guarding. They were a bit larger than a standard large dog to humans. Blood thirsty and hard sometimes to control once their attack started.

"There are plenty of the vermin to scrap up on this pathetic rock. These humans need to be taught a lesson. Blood will be spilled today." Balak removed Sh'sk's hand's roughly.

"I thought this was a slave run." Charn interjected with joint concern.

"And it will be…" Balak hissed threateningly. "Now…release the varren." He barked at the handlers.

The crates opened with a simple entry code and the pack of four varren ferociously growled as they sprinted out of their confinement and into the structure's bowels. Screams could be heard as they sprung out their game. Then the horrible sound of flesh being torn apart. Sh'sk gave Charn a look of concern after Balak entered. Charn didn't say anything and began to follow, but Sh'sk pulled him aside. "I don't like this."

"Like we have a choice." Charn swatted him away, keeping his voice low. "There will be more for us to grab in the next structure."

Once the carnage was over, Balak patted one of the varren's on the hand with a joyful smile and looked on. The entire area was a bloodbath with body parts and their precious pets battling over what meals were left. The leader of the group then made his way up to the second level where a console was found that seemed to be one of the fusion torches controls. Sh'sk followed him silently as he wanted to get away from the disturbing scene below and the smells of death. "This one doesn't seem to be online. You think you can alter its settings?"

Sh'sk stepped forward to inspect the console closer. The panel seemed easy enough to figure out and he could reprogram it with his omni. "Doesn't seem like a problem."

"Do it now."

Sh'sk then realized what Balak meant earlier when he said he was going to wipe the nearby human colony off the planet. Balak was going to use the three fusion torches to propel the asteroid at a faster rate and rocket it straight towards the colony itself! Balak noticed his hesitation. "Remember what those humans did to your father on Torfan."

"I remember..." Sh'sk growled lowly. He was still bit uneasy by the new directive.

"Then do what I say or I will gut you myself." Balak placed his face right in front of Sh'sk as his eyes met his. "There's no one here from the military to save you from my wrath this time. I can make you disappear out here."

Sh'sk squared his jaw and then turned towards the console to comply with his request. He had to get to Charn. He should have never rejoined the Batarian External Forces.

After hitting the rest of the infrastructures, the rest of the humans that were on the research project team that were leading the asteroid closer to their world for study were rounded up and placed in the larger compound for housing until it was time to depart. Charn pulled a woman's arm along as she was walking too slow their quarters. "Inside, hurry up."

"Hey, don't hurt my sister!" A male rushed at Charn to pull the woman away.

Sh'sk used his biotic implant to quickly gather just enough dark energy to shove the male away from his friend and into a wall. The impact was not enough to cause any real physical harm, but just enough to let him rethink his plan. He was quickly recaptured and ushered inside with the others. The woman glared hard at Sh'sk as the door closed in front of her. "This isn't our entire research crew. Where is the rest of them?!" She demanded through the close door.

"Dead." Sh'sk flatly replied.

There were several loud gasps and then crying from within the hold. "All humans accounted for." Charn reported to Balak who watched on.

"Good. And the torches?"

"All active and up to full power." Sh'sk monitored his omni.

"In a few hours, we will crush the human resistance and we will take back our lands. We will drive the humans out of our territory once and for all. We do not need council aid. We do not need pirates. They have all failed us. We do not need anyone but ourselves and no one will stop us."

Two hours later, Sh'sk and Charn were on guard duty when an alarm chirped on his omni tool. The data indicated that now two of the fusion torches were showing offline. Earlier, when one went offline, Balak ordered a squad to go check it out when the responsible unit was not responding. The squad never returned and now something just wasn't adding up. Surely, all the humans were accounted for. Was there some rogue group hiding away? If so, what possible firepower could they have to go up against them? "What now…" Sh'sk radioed out the sector two unit. "Everything okay there?" There was no response.

Charn glanced inside the prisoners' room to see one of the females near the back of the group with her back turned to the door. The rest of the humans were standing in front of her as if they were trying to hide what she was doing. "Something's up." Charn opened the door. "Get away from there!"

Sh'sk rushed to the door with his rifle at the ready to see the girl being pulled away from a console. Was she was communicating with someone outside the compound? Their raised voices alerted Balak. Angrily, their leader shoved a male human that was closest to the door down to the ground on all fours. Taking out his pistol, his four eyes glared at the yellow haired woman and he aimed the gun at the male. "Who's shutting down the torches?" The woman hung her head somberly as her eyes drifted over to the male who was cowering below the batarian. "I won't ask you again," Balak's voice lowered threateningly from the lack of response. This time, the woman turned away to keep her eyes from the scene that ultimately was going to happen next. Seeing this, Balak shot the man in the head, instantly killing him. "Find this problem and deal with it," he bellowed as he turned to look at Sh'sk and Charn.

Punching the throttle on the rover, they tore through the asteroid's terrain as they made their way to the station that housed the remaining torch. They had to get them all back online and stop whoever was trying to turn things around. "What happened to the rest of them?" Charn asked out from the rover's passenger hold where he and another companion of theirs, named Bakis sat.

Bakis shrugged. "Maybe they deserted. Damn traitors."

"Too many to desert at one time. Why would they? Things were going to plan." Sh'sk stated the obvious. The batarians didn't respond just as the fusion torches were going offline. There didn't seem to be any type of radio disruptors. Most likely, they were dead. But were the scientists the culprits? Just as they neared the compound, he noticed an unknown rover that appeared to be Alliance made was stationed just outside the building. "Shit…we got company!"

Charn jumped out of his seat to look out the small window that was placed near the driver's position. "The Alliance?! How the hell did they…"

"It can't be that many of them. It's just one rover." Bakis brought up.

"He's got a point, plus, we will have the upper hand." Sh'sk countered as he slowed their vehicle up to the door.

"Then let's see who it is." Charn exited first.

The facility was quiet and they could hear the echoes of combat boots among the metal flooring from the upstairs. Charn signaled for them to be quiet as they entered the open area. The footsteps were getting closer and outstepped three heavily armored individuals: two humans and one turian. The turian's appearance threw them off. Why would a turian be working for the human Alliance? Were these pirates? They didn't dress in the normal attire you would see from them. The male, probably the alpha, had a close military cut hairstyle with light green eyes. His demeanor was very dominant and he eyed them cautiously. The female also seemed to be some sight of military and she had a look of hate in her eyes. The turian also looked at them with a distrustful nature. Charn held his hand up to stop them where they were. One wrong move and this could end violently. Sh'sk just hoped Charn knew what he was doing by meeting them out in the open like this. Even with his biotics, he wouldn't be able to pick all of them off before he took a bullet. "Don't come any closer. We can do this the hard way or we can do this peacefully."

While Charn addressed the team, Sh'sk kept his hand on the trigger of his weapon. He eyed each one, but noticed that the turian who had a grey skin color with blue eyes, was eying him carefully. Sh'sk sized him up and held his form. He listened quietly as Charn spoke to the three. It seemed as if Charn was considering the idea that they could walk away from this without a body bag if they turned against Balak and left. It was obvious that the rest of the team that arrived on the asteroid, not including the ones in the main compound, were slain by the new arrivals. They had no qualm to doing the same to them. But turning against Balak was a death sentence, unless he met his fate. His thoughts were disrupted when his friend glanced his way for guidance on how to handle the situation. Sh'sk nodded his head in acceptance of the terms that the man was giving them. It was better off than dying that day on the rock they were standing on.

The ship shook as it took off and began its climb away from the asteroid. Sh'sk programmed the flight plan to head to the closest relay while he pondered in his head where they could go. It seemed that once again, he was on the run. It seemed like he was destined to be a rogue. Camala was a lost cause with the mining facility and Torfan was destroyed. Where else could he go?

Charn was pacing back and forth nervously in the tight space passenger hold. "Who was that guy? Why the hell were they there?"

Sh'sk saw a blip on his radar identifying a nearby large vessel. Pulling up the identification credentials, the ship registered to be the SSV Normandy. "Fuck…. found that guy's ship. He's a damn Spectre."

"Spectre?" Charn stopped and the blood drained from his face. "They have one of those?!"

"Heard Spectres were hardcore. Why the hell did he let us go?" Basik asked out loud. "Is he going to have their ship fire on us?"

Sh'sk turned his focus back on the radar. "It doesn't seem so. They haven't turned their position. I'm sure they know where we are."

"You think Balak is dead?" Charn tried to relax back down in his seat. It seemed the idea of a Spectre going up against Balak became a positive note.

"Has to be." Sh'sk grunted.

"We should let the hegemony know about this. Balak may be stranded there." Basik brought up as he stood up from his seat.

With his back turned to him, Charn pulled out his pistol and shot Basik point blank in the head. Blood and brain matter splattered all over the wall and floor. Sh'sk instinctively leaped from his chair and drew his own personal pistol and aimed at Charn. "What the hell are you doing?!"

Charn dropped his pistol. "I trust you, Sh'sk. Not him. Balak will want our hides if he lives and learns we left."

Sh'sk holstered his gun once more. "We can dump his body at next port." He sat back in his chair. He trusted Charn, at least for now. If he lived sharing a transport with a Krogan bounty hunter, then he could make it their next docking.

"You know Camala is out of the picture…" Charn reminded him.

"I know that." Sh'sk snapped as he looked at the screen with the upcoming relay in view. "We are going to Omega."

"Heh. That pisshole? Why? I never really trusted Aria."

"My brother is there and may have ties. We could have protection."

"It's worth a shot."