Author's Notes: Well, I'm back again with another update to Mass Effect: Remnants! I know there was already an action-sequence in the previous chapter, but I decided, hey why not give the fans another one? I know that all out-bursts of action sequences chapter after chapter can get a little boring but rest assure, there'll be non-action-centric chapters too.
I plan to mix things up a bit to keep things from going stale, rather than stick to a predictable formula of having an action-centric chapter, followed by a chapter centered on character interaction and stuff like that.
Well then, not to bore you with too much details, Chapter 10 ladies and gentlemen!
MASS EFFECT: REMNANTS
Chapter 10 - Another Typical Night in Omega
It's times like these when I hate myself for being right. Just who the hell is this human kid anyway? I grunt in effort as I struggle to lift a metal beam off of me. With that out of the way, I slowly claw my way out of the rubble that I'm buried in. A thick haze of dust hangs in the air, illuminated by the orange hue of Omega's nightlife that's spilling into the atrium from where its walls collapsed. I can literally feel my one of my two hearts skip a beat at the very sight of physical destruction before me. Again, just who the hell is this human kid?
The atrium's literally empty now although I can see a few vorchas combing over the upper levels, no doubt looting the place for any valuables that the patrons must have left behind in their mad dash for the exit. Dusting myself off, I make my way to the center of the atrium where the prone body of the human is sprawled. I doubt if he's going to be an immediate danger given his current state.
I flip him over onto his back to have a better look at this person who single-handedly brought a whole building down with sheer biotics alone. What's more interesting is the fact that he doesn't even have an amp, so how in the world did he generate a biotic field strong enough to tear through tons of metal and concrete?
"Hey kid, wake up. Can you hear me? Wake up," I give him a little shake but his head just lolls limply.
Don't know much about human physiology though but I can at least tell that's he alive, only just barely. He seems to be breathing, if the rise and fall of his chest is any indication. Given the punishment that's been dished out to him over the course of the fight and the strenuous effort that it must have taken him to conjure those biotics, I'm surprised that he's not dead yet. Guess the humans aren't as weak as they look.
"Looks like you have a quad on you after all, kid," I smirk.
The sound of primed firearms rings out from over my back and I turn around to face a squadron of Blue Sun mercs training their assault rifles on me. I must really be losing my touch if I didn't notice them sneaking up on me. One of them, a familiar-looking batarian, steps forward towards me.
"Tarak…So what is it that you want from me this time?" I growl at him.
"You know perfectly why I'm here, Ralak," he coolly replies, all four of his steely eyes meeting mine.
"I'm only doing what Vido wants from me as payment for the credits I owe the Blue Suns so I don't seem to see what the problem is."
"You don't see what the problem is?" he scoffs. "Take a look around you," he motions to the collapsed atrium behind him, "and tell me if that's not a problem."
"You bring some of the galaxy's most psychotic and blood-thirsty individuals to duke it out among each other and you know things like these are bound to happen. That," I point to the gaping hole in the atrium walls, "is all part of the cost of operations."
"No, paying these fighters the prize money and keeping the drinks flowing are what you call cost of operations! Bringing an entire building to the ground most definitely does not fall under that!" he raises his voice. "How do you expect us to run a profitable business if we have to keep on spending credits on rebuilding every single building that gets damaged every single night?"
"Then maybe you should have thought of that before staging all those fights in this flimsy little shack of yours, Tarak," I retort.
"Okay, I've had enough with this nonsense," he gestures dismissively. "Now tell me just what exactly is it that you're trying to pull this time, Ralak. Another one of your ingenious schemes to get out of your debts to us?"
I sigh, fast losing my patience. "Look Tarak, I promise you that I have absolutely nothing to do with this whatsoever. If you Blue Suns did a better job at screening your fighters, this wouldn't have happened at all."
"So now it's our fault? Would you care as to elaborate then?" Tarak shoots back.
"All I know is that it all started out as another normal night before Charn throws in this fresh-faced human kid into the ring."
"You mean that kid lying over there?" his eyes appraise the figure on the ground.
"Exactly. So Charn picks the wrong person to mess with and the kid just beats the hell out of his sorry ass," I can't help but grin slightly at the memory. That batarian finally got what he deserved. I continue on, paraphrasing as much as possible so I can get this crap with Jentha done and over with, "Karyllov hops in next but the kid throws just this one punch and sends him flying across the ring. Knocks the damn turian out. Might have even broken a few bones or two–"
"Wait," Tarak stops me mid-sentence. "You're expecting me to believe that this…boy over here went face-to-face with Karyllov and won?" he raises his eyes in skepticism. "And that he knocked him out with just one punch?"
Another sigh. Is he even fucking paying attention? "Doubt it as much as you want but that's exactly how it went. He was pretty riled up when I got to him, started spewing out crap like how we're being unfair and all. Hah! Where the hell does he think he is, the Citadel?" I thought of adding in the part where I start reasoning with him but I decide against it; no use in giving Tarak a reason to suspect me even more. "And now, if only your people did a more thorough scans for biotics, we wouldn't be standing knee-deep in our current predicament," I add with a tone of finality.
"What? Impossible! There's no way a biotic could make it pass our scans!" he replies incredulously. "They'd have picked up the amps for sure!"
"As you can see, your men most certainly didn't," I gesture at the debris lying behind me
"Crap." Tarak rubs his temples while his eyes wander around the collapsed section of the atrium. He lets out a deep sigh, "So, you're saying that this kid's biotics did all of this? Holy shit….Vido's not gonna like this."
"So there you have it. Now, if there's nothing else, can I get going? I'm just wasting my time sticking around here. There's a bottle of ryncol back home that has my name on it and I'll be there until you Blue Suns sort this mess out," I reply, the impatience clearly evident in my voice.
"Not quite, you're coming with us. I'm sure Vido will be interested in talking to you….and the boy."
"What?" I let out a menacing growl only to have the mercs' guns respond in kind at me.
"I know how tough you krogans can be, but I'd rather that you cooperate with us. As much as I want to see how a krogan can stand up to a hail of point-blank assault rifle fire, you're of no use to us riddled with bullets." Tarak turns on her heels to the exit. "Alright men, let's move out! Oh, and be careful with the boy. Vido will want to have him in one piece; he's barely holding together as it is. "
"Hey…..kid…..wake….up"
A dull sensation in my left arm stirs my consciousness back into being. Am I dead yet? I think I must be; I don't even feel as though I have a body to call my own anymore, just these wordless thoughts and musings running through my head. At this point, I'm too far gone to even tell where the dreams end and where the waking world begins. Dammit, my mind's all just a mess right now. A jostling in my left arm, as if someone's gently tugging at it brings my thoughts back into focus. I can only weakly grunt in reply.
"That's it, come on, don't black out on me now."
An intelligible voice emerges from the veil of white noise that clings stubbornly in my ears. My first instinct is to just hold onto the voice and follow its trail out of this limbo. Slowly but surely, I feel myself breaking through the cocoons of unconsciousness that threatens to overwhelm me again.
That was a bad mistake on my part. As I return into the waking world, waves of pain come crashing over every single part of my body imaginable. If pain could be made into a tangible material, I swear that somebody just dumped a whole bucketful of it all over me. I can feel my face contorting in agony and my limbs stiffening up in response to the searing pain.
An exasperated sigh, "I forgot just how frail you humans can be sometimes. Here, hold still. This will probably help." I hear a shuffling of sorts, a prick in my skin and then feel the warm sensation of pharmaceuticals being administered.
The relief of pain emanates from the site of administration throughout my entire body. Soon enough, the pain starts to slowly dissipate and I feel the muscles in my limbs gradually unclenching themselves. Eventually, sensation returns into my arms and legs although dull stabs of pain will occasionally shoot through them if I so much as tried to move them. Feeling well enough to muster the strength needed to open my eyes, I'm greeted by grey, dilapidated walls on all four corners of the room I find myself in. The musky, unpleasant stench of the bowels of Omega assaults my nostrils soon after.
I gag and almost throw up but manage to hold it in, only barely. This earns an amused grunt from someone next to me.
"Good to see that you're finally awake. Guess the medi-gel worked," a familiar krogan turns his gaze to me.
It takes me a while to piece the puzzles together and when the realization dawns upon me, I feel my blood go cold. Shit, it's Ralak.
I back away from him as fast as possible, much to the protest of my aching limbs. But I'm only able to get so far before my left wrist catches on something and sends me stumbling to the ground.
"Run as far away from me as you want, kid. You're not going anywhere. You see these things?" he holds up his right hand or talons or whatever it is to illustrate his point. Some sort of sturdy-looking cufflinks binds his wrist and the other end trails to mine….shit, we're both handcuffed to one another. I guess Ralak must have caught the incredulous look on my face. "I don't like it either but the both of us don't have much of a choice," he says, not the least bit fazed by the current turn of events.
Still a bit apprehensive of Ralak and his intentions, I open up my omni-tool as a thought leaps into my head. I punch up the communications display to contact Uncle Leo only to have static greeting me in kind. I try several more times for Nazreil's instead but the results are the same.
"Don't bother kid, the Blue Suns must have set up scramblers to prevent any external communications from being broadcasted or received," Ralak comments after several of my attempts prove unsuccessful.
Too tired to even put up much of a resistance, I resignedly accept the fact that I'm trapped here in this dank and dark room. Screw whatever it is that these people or the krogan have in mind for me. I can hardly even bring myself to care about them anymore, not in the state I'm in. All I want is to just be able to get back to Uncle Leo – to return home. So I slump against the wall next to Ralak and bury my head in my knees. Letting all the exhaustion and emotion well up within me, I cry for the first time in a very long while.
Everything's just happening so fast; a few days ago I was just another ordinary kid trying to get through high school back on Earth. Between there and now, I'm just swept up in a series of events that I barely even have a grasp on. First, I'm forcibly torn out of the only life I've ever known on Earth, and then I step foot on the Citadel. Sure, the Citadel was an awesome place until the bullets starting flying. After that, we barely get off the spacestation alive and somehow I find myself trapped here in this nondescript storage room in a little hellhole called Omega.
"Huh," the krogan remarks. "To be honest, this isn't what I'd expect from someone who lasted as long as he did in the ring there tonight."
I raise my still-bloodied and tear-streaked face to meet his. "Look at me! I'm just an innocent 17 year old kid who's gotten into something way over his head. I don't even belong here! What did you expect?"
"Heh, I thought as much," the krogan just muses over something as he absently stares at the wall in front of him.
"What?"
"Look kid, you be thankful that you're still alive and breathing. I've seen people like you before who're just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and most of them don't usually walk away with their lives.
"I, uh…..I'm not sure I follow."
Ralak lets out an annoyed growl. "All I'm saying is that Omega's a place that will get you killed, if you don't know your way around. And judging by what I've seen so far, you're definitely new here, aren't you?"
"Yeah, but –"
"But what I'm more curious to know about is where you learnt to fight like that. That, and how you managed to conjure a biotic field without an amp on you."
"Biotics? Just what are you talking about –"
"Don't play dumb with me kid. You're not from around here and yet you managed to take down 2 of Omega's best brawlers. How do you explain that?" Ralak fixes a questioning stare on me.
"I….." Truth be told, I'm just a dumbfounded as he is. What I did back there, even I don't know what brought it all on.
"Well?"
"Honestly, I don't even know," I can only weakly reply as I wipe the tears off of my face. I inspect the palms of my hand, hoping that they held the answer to how I even conjured these 'biotics' in the first place. "Speaking of which, just what exactly are 'biotics'? I've never heard of them before."
Ralak lets out an incredulous grunt. "You've got to be kidding right? Look kid, I can't tell if you're just faking it or being really stupid about it."
"Huh…what?"
"You remember how you brought down the whole atrium with that little display of yours?"
I strain to recall that memory which felt like it happened ages ago. But I do remember that pulsating sensation of energy coursing through me and how I lashed out with it. "Oh.."
Ralak only grunts with what I think must be affirmation. "In any case, I suggest we find a way to get out of here quick."
"Why's that?"
The krogan lets out a menacing growl of annoyance. "Kid, I'm gonna try to be patient with you for as long as possible because I know you're not from around here, so you clearly don't know how things are on Omega. But right now, we're being taken to go see the guy who runs the Blue Suns here on this hellhole. And if you have any idea on who he is at all, you can bet your ass that meeting him won't bode well for the both of us."
Given the unsavory character of just about everyone here on Omega, I can only assume that a guy in charge of this whole operation like Tarak wouldn't be all sunshine and roses. "Alright, so what do you suggest we do?"
"We sneak our way out. If it comes down to it, we're probably going to need to kill some of these mercs," Ralak replies bluntly.
I gulp, finally realizing the predicament of the situation. But still, what other choice do I have? Ralak's my only way out and I'll be damned if I rot to death in a hole like this. "So what's the plan?"
He takes a look around the room, contemplates our options before finally speaking up. "I don't have a hacking module to get the door open so we'll just have to wait for the guards to show up and bring us out."
"What do we do about the guards then?"
This earns me another annoyed growl. "What do you think? We overpower them, knock them out cold or just plain get rid of them, whatever it is that you prefer. And then, we get ourselves out of these stupid cuffs and get the hell out of here."
"Okay, it's not the best of plans, but it's the only one we've got so far. Well then, I'll follow your lead."
"Let's just hope that Jentha decides not to send her whole squad down for us. Things will get messy," Ralak says almost nonchalantly.
I just let that comment of his slide, not wanting to think about the gruesome fates that it would entail for those unlucky enough to get stuck with escorting us to Tarak. I struggle to sit upright but my aching body refuses to obey without a fight. At least the stuff that Ralak had administered to me is quelling the pain somewhat.
"You're not going to mess this up are you?" the krogan asks me, more annoyed than concerned with my well-being. "Because we've only got one shot at this. Screw this up, and you can kiss your sorry human ass goodbye when you finally meet Tarak."
"No, I'm good. Don't worry about me; I just need some time to psyche myself up." I reply through gritted teeth, trying not to show any visible signs of pain. Holy shit, do I really need to hurt these people? It's either them or me, I guess.
"Well, whatever it is that you need to do, just do it quick. I have a feeling that it won't be long now before they march on in through that door." Ralak motions to the set of locked doors directly opposite the room.
Minutes go by and I tense up, waiting for that moment to spring our escape. However, as minutes drag into what must seem like an hour, there doesn't seem to be any signs of our captors approaching. Gah, if Tarak doesn't kill me, the suspense will. However, after quite some time, I finally hear footfalls nearing the door.
"I don't suppose you could do to them what you did to the atrium, could you?" Ralak quips. "Now, just stay calm and wait for these bastards to get near enough before we get the drop on them, okay?"
Focusing on what I'm about to do next, I only nod my affirmation as I take deep breaths to calm my nerves. The red door display turns green and the door parts to reveal four armed guards all decked out in their Blue Suns armor. I gulp a little, realizing that the odds might just be slightly against us. Ralak doesn't seem troubled by their numbers at all, which unsettles me even more.
"Alright then, let's get the two of you moving! Tarak doesn't have all day, so move it!" one of the guards, a batarian, shoves his assault rifle into Ralak's face. I can tell from the glint in the krogan's eyes that he's about to introduce that guard into a whole world of pain.
Within a split second, Ralak brutally headbutts the guy and sends him reeling back. Blood just seemed to fly everywhere. Wasting no time, I knee the turian guard closest to me in his gut as he brings his shotgun upwards to fire on Ralak. I knock the wind out of him and kick the gun out of his hands. The physical exertion proves too much for me as I slightly double over in pain. Shit, now's not the time! I can already see him reaching for his sidearm before Ralak comes into my view, bum rushing the poor guard into the wall. The two guards that he'd dispatched are lying on the floor, blood running down their faces.
"Holy crap. What did you just do to the two of them?" I motion to the two prone figures.
"I sang them to sleep. What else did you think I did?" Ralak replies sarcastically. Ah, good to know he has a sense of humor at least. "Search the bodies and see if you can find the keys to open these cuffs!"
I do as I'm told, patting through the various pouches of their armor. I never realized how hard it is to do things like these with only one free hand. My search turns up empty. "I can't find it on these two over here. What about you?"
Ralak growls in frustration. "Nothing here either. Come on, these guys don't have the keys on them. They must be with someone else. Just grab their guns and let's go!" He scoops up a shotgun in his one free hand. I settle for just a pistol, seeing as it's the only thing I can fire one-handed and I thank God they didn't cuff my right hand.
"Wait, why can't we just shoot these cuffs off?" I ask, puzzled.
"Kid, they make these things to withstand even a krogan going through a blood rage. Bullets aren't going to work on them and besides, the gunshots are only going to attract more attention."
Cuffed to one another, we move rather awkwardly to the threshold of the open doorway. Peering out into the narrow passageway of what I assume must be the lower levels of some building, we find no other guards in sight. "Good. It'll take them a while before they figure out we're missing," and with that said, Ralak sets off for a well-illuminated passage on our right. Biting back the pain of my injuries, I struggle to keep up lest I be dragged along by the krogan.
"Do you even know where you're going?" I ask as we cautiously make our way down another corridor similar to the last. So far, the whole place has been one dimly-lit passage of leaking overhead pipes, strewn-around crates and grimy walls.
"No, but I'm just following the directions," Ralak replies with not so much as a glance over his shoulder as he storms off for what I hope must be the exit.
Great, the krogan I'm stuck with just so happens to be sarcastic too. I'm about to shoot off a witty remark too and that's when I notice the walls. Upon closer inspection, I see worn-away markings which are barely just visible amidst all the dust and grime that coated it. Judging by what little I can make out of the symbols, we seem to be headed for a stairwell that would take us up to the ground level after all.
"Get down!" Ralak hisses as he forcibly drags me behind the cover of some crates. "We've come this far, I don't need you screwing it up now!" I fall to the ground in a clumsy heap which sends a fresh ripple of agony coursing all over my limbs. I peer over the crates to see a whole squadron of mercenaries sitting idly in front of what looks like a cargo elevator.
"What's keeping them so long? It's just two guys; how hard can it be for those dumbasses to bring them here?" one of the batarian guards complain to the other. He then opens up a comm channel to what presumably must be the group of guards we've just dispatched. "Actus, quit screwing around and get those two prisoners here ASAP. I don't need another cut on my paycheck from that bitch Jentha again. Hey Actus, do you copy? Hello?" He tries again on several other channels most likely to only get the same results. He turns to the rest of the squad, "Shit, none of the guys are answering their comm. channels. Get down there and find out what happened!"
"Great going there, Guram. I told you we should just stick to the plan where we all escort them to Tarak but you just had to send Actus and his men instead. Now Jentha's gonna be pissed," a turian guard grumbles.
"Xelvast, just shut the hell up. I know what I'm doing," Guram angrily retorts.
No sooner than they start to disperse, a panicked merc rounds the corridor and runs up to the group. "Guys, we have a problem on our hands! The prisoners are gone! I found Actus and the guys all unconscious in the storeroom!"
"What! Damn it! Okay men, get going, search the halls and find those prisoners!" Guram barks out. He turns to a couple of the mercs, two humans and a turian, in the back of the group, "You three, stay back here and guard the elevator. If they want to get out of here, the elevator's the only way out!"
A flurry of activity ensues and the mercs march off down the corridors. I duck back into the shadows of the crates. "Crap. So, now what?"
"We bunker down here and wait till the rest are gone. Then, we take down those three at the elevator," Ralak replies in an almost casual manner which really starts to unsettle me.
I can feel beads of sweat slowly perspiring on my forehead, and I can't tell whether they're from the physical exertion or the cold fear that's tying a knot in my stomach. We're definitely not gonna be able to take those three down head-on seeing as how they're armed to the teeth while we don't even have a single scrap of body armor on us. So it looks like we'll just need to take them out one by one. "Okay, let's do this," I reluctantly mutter.
Ralak motions for us to move upward to another stack of crates closer to the elevator. We keep to the shadows and I thank God that the sub-levels are dimly-lit. Despite Ralak's immense and bulky stature, the krogan really knows how to be stealthy at times. We slide into cover of the crates without so much as a sound. Good, looks like they haven't noticed us yet. I just keep my gaze fixed on Ralak and psyche myself up to help him out whenever he decides to make a move on the guards.
We wait a couple of tense moments and just as I'm about to prompt him to get a move on, he reaches out over the crates and grabs one of the human mercs passing by. In one fluid motion, he one-handedly pulls him off his feet, over the crate and silences the guard with a crushing grip on his windpipe. "Well, that takes care of one of them," Ralak peers over the crate and sizes up the remaining two, "you get the guy leaning on the opposite wall while I take out the guy coming towards us." I nod my approval. "Ready? One….two….three!"
We both pop out of cover and I try my best to fire off a few shots one-handed. It's no use, the recoil sends those rounds off their mark but it's enough to send the turian scrambling for cover behind another crate. Meanwhile, Ralak's drops the other merc with several thundering roars of the shotgun. I see the guy behind the crate drawing a bead on us with his assault rifle while I uselessly squeeze off shot after shot, every one of them going wild. "Ralak!" I desperately call out.
In a flash, he appears in front of me wielding the dead merc as a human shield to protect us from the onslaught of bullets that fly our way. I see the armor's kinetic barriers visibly distort as it repels the impact of the shots. With a roar, Ralak charges forward and slams into the crate that the turian merc is behind, effectively driving him against the wall with a sickening crunch. The upper body of the unfortunate bastard slumps lifelessly onto the crate, pinned between it and the wall.
"That was way too close! What are you trying to do, kid? Get us killed? If you couldn't have handled him, you could have just said so!" he throws his one free hand up in exasperation.
"I'm sorry, okay? I don't know how to fire a gun….especially not at real living people!"
"Look," he pauses to collect himself, "if you want to get out of this alive, you can't afford screw ups like this. I don't know where you're from kid, but let's face it, you're on Omega now! Sooner or later, you're going to need to fire that thing and kill someone before they kill us!"
Ralak activates the elevator controls on the side wall, just in the nick of time too as I hear the the other groups of mercs rounding the corner. "God damnit, they got Darius!" One of the merc turns his gaze upwards to the elevator. "What are you waiting for? Open fire!" he exclaims.
The krogan pushes me roughly behind cover as soon as the mercs start firing. "That again, was a screw up. You need to start thinking on your feet, kid!"
"Look, stop calling me 'kid', I have a name you know! It's Nate! And secondly, I said I'm sorry. It's not my fault I'm not as good at taking someone's life away as you are!" I shout to make myself heard over the gunfire.
"Whatever, kid. Just promise me you're not going to slow me down anymore than you already are when we get out of here."
The elevator reaches the ground floor and we take a peek over the crates to make sure that the coast is clear. Thankfully, it is. I'm surprised that they haven't alerted the whole building yet as to our escape attempt.
"Stay low and follow me, kid. With any luck, we'll be out of here before those dumbasses can lock the entire building down," Ralak hefts the shotgun in his hand and takes off down another corridor. I can only limp along as fast as I possibly can to match his pace. Also, a part of me just doesn't want to give him the satisfaction of proving that I'm nothing more than a dead weight to him. Wherever possible, we duck into empty hallways and keep ourselves out of sight from the other mercs patrolling the building.
"You'd think the guards would sound the alarm now that we're broken free, eh?" I absent-mindedly remark to Ralak as we sit quietly in a shadowy alcove of a room waiting for a guard patrol to pass us by.
"We're either not as valuable to Tarak as we might think or somebody just doesn't want to let the whole base know of how he screwed up during his watch," Ralak replies matter-of-factly. "I'll worry about that once we're far, far away from this place."
After ducking and weaving through more corridors to avoid any unnecessary confrontation, we finally make it to a large storehouse area of some sort. Large industrial containers and other miscellaneous crates are piled up high across the span of one side of the room where we emerge from. Aside from several scattered machineries and forklifts, the other side remains clear as a path leading to the loading bay.
"There, that's the exit!" Ralak points out. I follow his line of sight and spot a large door next to the loading bay shutters, which so happens to be on the opposite side of the room from us.
"We made it!" I lean against a container to try to catch my breath from the exertion and to steady myself. Even with the medigel, the pain's flaring up so bad that I try not to black out.
"Don't let your guard down yet kid. The place is still crawling with mercs and I don't think they're going to just let us waltz out the door."
I take in the full surroundings of the storehouse and notice that the Blue Suns are everywhere. To make matters worse, there's no cover between where we are in the aisle of containers to the exit doors. We'd be riddled with bullets in no time if we walked out there in full sight of the other mercs. "Alright, so…. we create a distraction to get their attention and then make a run for it? How's that sound?"
Ralak tilts his head slightly to consider this proposal of mine. "You know what, kid? That doesn't sound like too bad an idea." Somehow, my heart just jumps a little at this approval of his, even if it's coming from the likes of a hardened criminal. "See anything that we could use as a distraction?"
I turn my gaze upwards at all the crates and containers stacked neatly above me, my eyes just scanning for something that'll hopefully jump out at me. I spot what we need and give Ralak a nudge to get his attention, "How's that?" My eyes lock on the conspicuous "Highly Flammable" label that is emblazoned on rows after rows of fuel cells that is stacked on the far end of the aisle.
The corners of the krogan's mouth twist into a wicked smile, "Kid, guess you're not as useless as I thought you were. I don't suppose you'd want to do the honors now, would you? You are one hell of a lousy shot."
"Not this time," I confidently reply. I drop into a crouch and raise my pistol. Straining a little with my cuffed left wrist, I use both hands to steady the gun and draw a bead on my target.
"Any time now, kid. Oh, and make those shots count. The guards are definitely going to come on over once they hear the gunshots. It's fine, there's no pressure on you at all," Ralak grunts a bit imprudently.
I pay no attention to that comment of his. Now if I can just remember what those tutorials on N7 Code of Honor had to say about firing a gun again. Ah, got it! I peer down the sights, loosen up my right arm, exhale and squeeze the trigger. I ride out the recoil of the first shot, and despite it sending out waves of new-found pain, I manage to pull the barrel slightly downwards to compensate for the vertical climb and give the trigger two successive pulls, repeating the motions each time. Three loud cracks ring out and I almost thought my shots went wide again until the fuel cells catch fire. Hell yes!
"I'd love to congratulate you kid, but if only you could shoot like that at things that are shooting back at you," Ralak sarcastically replies. "Come on, let's get ready to make a run for it. You feeling good enough on your own two feet or do I need to carry you?"
I glare daggers back at him to which he just brushes off. "No, I think I can run fine on my own –"
BOOM!
An enormous blast drowns me out as the fuel cells explode in a series of fiery conflagrations. The concussive force that hits me even sways me on my feet for a bit. A flurry of confused shouts and activity fills the entire room and no sooner than I've regained my footing am I dragged along by Ralak towards the exit doors. My feet scramble to find purchase on the ground and once I do, I just pound my legs as fast as humanly possible to keep up with Ralak.
All Blue Suns personnel in the vicinity scramble to investigate the source of the explosion, which leaves the loading bay shutters relatively unguarded. We make a beeline straight for the door with Ralak tackling aside any unlucky mercs to stand in our way. I chance a look back and spot our guard detail hurtling into the storehouse and pointing at us. Oh boy, does the batarian guard look mad. I get that far in my train of thought before the bullets start flying.
"Oh SHIT!" I instinctively duck below the hail of hot salvo aimed for us. We hurtle through the doorway to find ourselves on a main avenue in Omega's warehouse district. "Ralak! They're right behind us!"
"I know! I noticed when they started shooting at us!" he yells back in response. "We need to get back to the commercial or residential district. We can lose them in the alleyways and crowds."
"I don't think they're planning on taking us alive now that they're shooting at us, are they?"
"I'll bet our genius captors here haven't quite figured that out yet, even if they're just trying to immobilize us. You don't need much brains to be a gun-for-hire."
Without needing anyone to tell me twice, we just book it in the general direction of those districts. With the adrenaline coursing through my system, I forget all notion of pain as I just concentrate on trying to not catch a bullet in the back. I can hear the mercs in hot pursuit as attested to by the occasional bursts of gunfire aimed for us.
I squeeze off a few rounds myself to hopefully delay their advance. The shots go wild but I couldn't care less; I'm not going down without a fight. I lose track of how long we've been running. It could be minutes or hours but soon enough; the environs finally blend from the utilitarian and smog-choked visuals of the warehouse district into the shady hustle and bustle of the commercial district. There are more people in sight now which is a relief, but this also evokes a sense of déjà vu of a similar circumstance back on the Citadel.
"Excuse us! Get out of the way! Coming through!" I yell, more out of courtesy than actually expecting the crowds to step aside. Ralak on the other hand, just seems to plow his way through with little care for the people he elbows aside. Eventually, I give up on trying to shoulder my way through the crowd and just follow in his wake. It helps to be a living and breathing 7-feet-tall tank sometimes.
I look over my shoulder to see our pursuers struggling through the throngs of people to get to us. I'll give it to the Blue Suns, they're a persistent lot. We keep on moving through the crowd and dodging around various stall kiosks on the street but the sound of gunfire from behind me causes me to instinctively duck my head. However, the screams of terror draw my attention and I look back to see that the mercs are firing off warning shots into the air to disperse the crowds.
"Ralak! They're still onto us!" I yell over the shouting.
He takes a glance behind and pulls me into a nondescript alley. "We'll try to lose them in here. We might as well take advantage of the labyrinth of alleyways in Omega."
The narrow strip of the alley which we enter is dimly-lit and littered with trash, pools of filthy water and the occasional vorchas scavenging about. Even here, the ubiquitous night sky of Omega looks down on us from between the walls of haphazard buildings that make up the alleyways. We take twists and turns at various intersections, seemingly at random intervals to try to shake off our pursuers. No such luck.
"So they think they can try to lose us in here? They're not the first to try on my watch. Squads 1 and 2, lock down the perimeter to make sure they don't get out. The rest of you, on me. We're gonna comb over this network of alleys until we find them!" I can hear the batarian, Guram barking out orders from somewhere within the alleyways, the echoes reverberating all over making it hard to exactly pinpoint his location. "When I find them, they're gonna wish that they never fucked with me in the first place."
I turn to Ralak, desperately hoping that he has an idea to get us out of this mess. Seeing that blank look in his eyes doesn't bode well for the both of us. "Ralak, please tell me that you have a plan for this."
"Shut up, I'm thinking, I'm thinking!" he hisses, no doubt racking his brain to look for an escape route.
I grip my pistol tightly, frantically looking up and down both sides of the alley for any sign of the Blue Suns. Fleeting silhouettes of the mercs dance across the walls and the frantic patter of their footsteps grow ever closer. Damn it! We've come this far, and I'm sure as hell not about to give up now!
The click of a cocked gun makes me whirl around to face a shadowy alcove. A figure emerges from it, the gun in his talons pointed unwaveringly at Ralak's head.
"Get the fuck away from him," Uncle Leo growls maliciously.
Author's notes: Alright, Uncle Leo's stepping back into the spotlight again after two chapters of Ralak stealing the limelight. The old turian deserves some love too, okay?
Where the canon of the universe is concerned, I know that we meet Tarak who's the leader of the Blue Suns on Omega in Mass Effect 2, which is set roughly two years after the events of the first game. So, I think it's only fitting that he's still a grunt who needs to work his way up to the top of the command chain during the events of Mass Effect: Remnants. Oh, and that Vido's still hanging around as the baus of Omega. Unless I've gotten my facts wrong about the canon, feel free to point it out.
With that said, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and thank you so much for reading! I'll be seeing you guys with an update next week!