A/N: I think this should be the last of the chapters where I must apologize about it being too rushed. Think I've played through Omega a dozen times at least, so I really didn't want to linger there for too long. Next chapter will make up for this, I hope, it's purely banter-y goodness.
And of course, we're picking up two of my favorite characters, Garrus and Mordin. You'll see a lot more of them in the upcoming chapters, especially Garrus. Oh, I suppose we pick up Zaeed as well, but... ugh, Zaeed. He's like the side-dish that nobody cares for. The broccoli in my salad, so to speak.
As always, thank you for reading and reviewing. :)
Chapter 10 - Omega, Of Archangels and Afterlife
And just like that, Morgan Shepard has a ship of her own to command. The amount of resources that Cerberus must have poured into building the SR-2 Normandy is likely staggering, and Morgan is overwhelmed and impressed with all the upgrades installed on board. No wonder Joker feels like a five-year old in a candy store, she thinks, making an inspection of the ship, getting acquainted with the crew.
They have talked at length with Joker about what happened after the destruction of SR-1. After recovering from his injuries, Joker had been temporarily grounded by the Alliance, so when the offer from the Cerberus eventually came, he had been more than happy to switch sides. Especially after they had shown him the new Normandy. It is a beautiful ship indeed. Sleek, silent, comfortable, powerful, lightning fast, Morgan thinks. But unlike Joker, I need more than this. I need more than a ship to buy my loyalty.
"Genuine leather," Joker comments, lazily stretching out in the chair as she steps onto the bridge. "Gotta love the civilian comforts of breathing seats on a military ship, huh, Commander?"
"Leather seats don't actually breathe," Shepard says. "They're really rather unhealthy in that regard. You're going to end up with one seriously sweaty ass."
"Gah, you're such a downer," Joker groans, as at the same moment the virtual AI of the ship announces her holographic presence nearby, confirming that the Commander's assessment is essentially correct. "Ugh, and there's the big drawback," Joker grumbles about EDI, the artificial intelligence. "It's like a ship's cancer."
Shepard isn't exactly thrilled with an AI either. There is a reason they are outlawed in Council space. And having spent months after months of seeing geth flashlights in the scope of her sniper rifle, she is more than wary of anything resembling artificial intelligence. Still, The Illusive Man probably would not approve of her spacing EDI's hardware, so Morgan has to settle with simply being cautious of the AI, who admittedly quickly proves to be very efficient and helpful.
At the CIC, Shepard meets a young brunette who introduces herself as Yeoman Kelly Chambers, her new administrative assistant. Her duties are to oversee Shepard's incoming, and likely outgoing messages, meaning subtle spy work, acting as counselor in monitoring the mental shape of the crew. She also considers it mandatory to from time to time remind Shepard that Cerberus is not only 'not as evil as you think', but even going as far to claim that 'the goals of Cerberus are noble at heart, even if our methods can be harsh'.
Shepard remarks that it seems like a weird scale of morality for someone with a degree in psychology, but Chambers deflects it with more propaganda. "Looking out for human interests, advancing human technologies, saving human lives, those are all noble ideals, Commander," she says, smiling earnestly. "Yes, Cerberus is pro-humanity, but that doesn't mean we must hate aliens. I love all asari, turians, salarians, krogan..."
"That's very nice, Chambers," Shepard says, feeling a little annoyed by the sickeningly sweet facade that Cerberus are trying to enforce. "Just tell me, why do all aliens we come across feel threatened by Cerberus if you are all so loving?"
Chambers does not reply, and Shepard moves on with her inspection. There are happy, smiling faces of the crew everywhere she turns, trying to convince her that serving Cerberus and Shepard is the best thing that has ever happened to them. At least the two engineers on the lower deck, Ken Donnelly and Gabby Daniels, don't pretend to even know anything about Cerberus. They are simply irritated with the Alliance for dismissing the Reaper threat, and they have chosen to be on the Normandy because it means an opportunity to serve Shepard, not interested in the policies of Cerberus in the slightest.
And finally she manages to find at least one person who hates Cerberus almost as much as she does. In the medbay, she is stunned to run into Dr. Chakwas, also here only because of her and the necessity to stop the potentially greatest threat to humankind in its history. As they speak, Chakwas is busy examining her poorly healed scars, promising to try and find some solution so that Shepard's chin doesn't appear cracked and stitched together from tiny pieces.
Lastly, Morgan decides to step into Miranda's office, mentally bracing herself for another dosage of Cerberus propaganda. And indeed, it is being laid on very thick. "Cerberus is necessary for humanity's advancement," Miranda claims. "It is our answer to salarian STG, asari commandos, units that are essentially the same as Cerberus."
"Except they are not dangerous vigilantes who don't answer to anybody," Shepard remarks.
Lawson is undeterred. Her trust in Tim is so complete it is reminiscent of mind-control. "We at Cerberus answer to The Illusive Man. Humanity could not ask for a better advocate of its interests, Shepard," she insists.
Yeah. A real devil's advocate, indeed, Morgan thinks. When Lawson starts to talk about her extensive genetic modification and how it makes her better than any average human in every possible way, Shepard just nods politely and eventually leaves Miranda alone, finally seeking refuge in her personal quarters.
And the captain's quarters on SR-2 are certainly something completely different from the old Normandy. Her cabin is gorgeous and huge, it comes equipped with a private shower and toilet, comfy bed, sofa with cushy chairs, a modern sound system with large collection of tracks, an intercom and even a large aquarium filled with koi fishes.
There is also a bottle of 47' Thessia Red that waits on the table, with compliments from Tim. She opens the bottle and pours in a glass, then another one, then another, desperately trying not to think of Liara, but instead concentrating on the dossiers before her. At some point, she has fallen asleep in the chair, there is an empty glass lying on the ground with a dark stain of spilled drink around it, and she literally jumps when Joker calls out to her over the comms to inform her that they have reached their destination.
Omega, a space station built inside a mined out shell of an asteroid, is a safe haven for criminals, mercenaries and terrorists unwelcome in the Council space, and also location of three of the potential recruits identified by The Illusive Man. They include the salarian doctor Mordin Solus, a mysterious vigilante who goes by the poetic name of Archangel and a rugged merc named Zaeed Massani.
Taylor and Lawson accompany Morgan off the ship, unwilling to let her out of their sights, at least for now. They quickly make contact with Zaeed, a glorified thug who The Illusive Man has hired with exorbitant sum of credits, believing he will be a valuable asset to the team. Shepard and her Cerberus watchdogs catch up with Zaeed as he is beating the living daylights out of a hapless batarian. They exchange a few pleasantries, and Shepard has difficulties hiding her distaste for Zaeed's ruthlessness and brutality. "You remind me a little of my old krogan friend, Urdnot Wrex," she says. "Though in comparison, I find you insultingly lacking in personality."
To Zaeed's credit, he merely laughs before replying that he hadn't expected the famous Shepard to be such a 'smart-mouthed' followed by a word that rhymes perfectly with 'runt' and 'blunt'.
Afterwards, to gather leads on both Dr. Solus and Archangel, their path takes them to the heart of Omega, the vibrant, pulsating and deadly dangerous locale called Afterlife. The irony of the name is not lost on Shepard, considering her own recent return from the world of dead. As she approaches, the elcor and batarian guards at the front entrance move aside, letting them in. She walks through the dance floor, members of all species wildly moving to the sharp techno beats, and she stops as she sees a young asari dancer that painfully reminds her of Liara. Lawson pushes her in the back, breaking her memories, directing her towards the private booth of the Queen of Omega, Aria T'Loak.
By all accounts, Shepard should hate someone like their hostess, the so called Pirate Queen. Aria T'Loak is a crime lord with near infinite resources at her disposal, her practices are likely deplorable and breaking at least hundred different Council laws that Morgan Shepard has sworn to uphold. Still, Omega is outside the Council's jurisdiction and if not for Aria T'Loak ruling it with iron fist, Omega would likely be an even more dangerous and brutal place, destroying itself in never-ending mercenary band wars.
After the initial suspicion of Shepard's true identity and several scans to prove she truly is who she claims to be, Aria ends up talking with her for a good while. Her information on both Solus and Archangel is solid and helpful, and in an odd way, Shepard ends up feeling a grudging sense of respect for the Queen of Omega. In her mind, she briefly wonders whether her liaison with Liara has not made her irrationally and positively pre-disposed towards all asari, especially ones as attractive and charismatic as Aria T'Loak. Beautiful she may be, but her name is not Liara T'Soni, Shepard thinks to herself.
Both missions to acquire the Professor and Archangel appear time critical. Mordin Solus has been locked up in a residential slums district, overrun by a mysterious deadly plague from which only humans and vorcha are safe. Not wanting to risk the plague decimating her mostly alien armies and perhaps endangering her own life, Aria's solution has been to cordon off the entire area, allow the plague to wipe out everyone inside and then later move in and purge the place. Considering Shepard needs Mordin alive, she will have to brave the plague and the desperate remnants of the merc groups shooting everything that moves within that district.
As for Archangel, he has somehow managed to tick off all the most influential merc groups of Omega, the Blue Suns, the Blood Pack and Eclipse, and they have united with a common goal to take out the annoying and disruptive vigilante. At first Shepard considers splitting her group in two and tackling both missions at once, but then she decides against it, the only one she remotely trusts is Taylor, at least he has some semblance of honor as a former Alliance soldier. Lawson is cold and enigmatic, and Zaeed is simply on a lookout for good opportunities for violence, caring little what he is shooting at.
In the end, rescuing Mordin Solus is more critical in the greater scheme of things, for without the countermeasure against the seeker swarms, their entire mission is doomed. Praying that this Archangel is crafty enough to hold out for a while longer, Morgan Shepard leads her motley crew into the quarantined sublevels of Omega, the scenery around them like after a massive riot, looters roaming the fire engulfed streets. Bits and pieces of information extracted from the very few survivors paint a grisly picture about the plague and provide horror stories about this infamous Dr. Solus. Brilliant and dangerous, as likely to shoot you as he is to heal you, some speculate he has spent time with the salarian STG. He has opened a clinic to help the plague victims in the middle of the district, and that is where Shepard leads her team to, mindful of the warnings that the last few armed groups approaching the clinic have been gunned down by Mordin, their bodies then left on display as a warning.
I kind of like the style of this Mordin, Morgan thinks to herself as they enter the clinic. Still, if I needed treatment, I'd still prefer Dr. Chakwas to tend to me, not a hyperactive mad salarian scientist.
Having spent several minutes conversing with Dr. Solus, or rather patiently waiting for him to stop talking, Shepard agrees with Aria's assessment that Mordin simply doesn't know when to shut up. Finally she manages to get in a few words to explain that she needs his help against the Collectors, kidnapping human colonists. Mordin seems intrigued by the proposition, even if he appears slightly suspicious of Cerberus involvement. On top of all that, he also refuses to abandon the clinic before the threat of the plague has been removed.
The salarian has his own speculations on the origins of the plague, and they surprise Shepard as well as reveal Mordin's interest in joining up after the plague has been taken care of. "Plague of advanced design. Suspected Collector involvement from the start," he speaks rapidly in his slightly high pitched voice. "Using vorcha to distribute it. Collecting data. No proof, but evidence fits theory."
As they talk, the vorcha suddenly decide that they are bored and this plague takes too long to kill its victims, so they shut down the environmental controls, meaning that the whole district will suffocate unless the system is re-enabled quickly. Mordin pushes a canister of what he claims to be the plague cure in Shepard's hands, telling her to hurry and do what she can to save the district.
Half an hour later, Shepard is busy punching in the activation commands to the last of the reclaimed ventilation systems. "Damn those vorcha, if I never see one of them again it will be too soon," she swears angrily. "Sodding galactic kobolds of the 22nd century, my ass."
"It is easy to dismiss them as harmless opponents, but their regenerative abilities can make them dangerous foes," Miranda says, idly inspecting whether her extremely form fitting light combat suit has sustained any damage in the wild firefight.
Zaeed walks up to one of the dead vorcha and with a wicked grin points his shotgun at the head, pulling the trigger. "Let's see him regenerate from that," he laughs, ignoring the glare Miranda sends his way as bits of vorcha brains land on her black boots.
"Jacob?" Shepard has finally finished tinkering with the ventilation system, and it appears to be fixed and working to its full capacity. "Double time back to Mordin and let him know that the plague has been taken care of."
"Of course, Commander," Jacob snaps off a crisp salute. "And afterwards you want us to join you?"
"Just take him to Normandy and help him get settled," Morgan shrugs. "I'm sure the three of us can handle the mercs and get Archangel out of there safely."
Jacob nods and rushes off, as Morgan and the others proceed back to Afterlife, hoping not to see Archangel's flayed corpse hanging above the main entrance as a pointed warning not to disrupt the delicate 'ecosystem' of Omega.
Fortunately, the news are good, Archangel is not simply just holding on, he is driving the merc groups to extreme lengths of frustration, forcing them to outsource cheep cannon fodder from the more desperate elements of Omega to work as distraction task force. This is a way in for Shepard and her group, hoping to use this opportunity in order to reach Archangel and then do all they can to protect the suicidal vigilante.
They spend some time around the merc base of operations, grilling them for information about the plan of attack, as well as more personal details on this mysterious Archangel. Nobody really knows much about him, he is an evasive as a ghost, but someone in the Blood Pack claims he is an 'uptight turian with a pole stuck up his ass'. Shepard laughs, remembering Joker's very similar description of her old friend Garrus Vakarian. Another merc in the Blue Suns base claims that Archangel is a 'turian vigilante who thinks killing mercs is a fun way to pass time'.
Suddenly, Shepard is no longer laughing. Surely it can't be Garrus, can it? she wonders, trying to convince herself that such coincidence would be impossible and that Archangel is probably some other uptight turian, after all there are no shortage of those to choose from. Still, I ran into Tali already. Damn, this galaxy can feel like a goddamn small place.
The plan of attack isn't very attractive to the freelancer forces. Their fate is pretty much to get horribly slaughtered on a very exposed bridge so that the true infiltration team can charge through and reach Archangel's compound. Shepard does what she can to decrease the merc chances of success, such as hacking a heavy YMIR mech and making sure it will turn on the Eclipse soldiers activating it. Zaeed uses an opportunity to ruthlessly electrocute one of the Blue Suns engineer's, working to fix a gunship intended to blast Archangel together with his hideout to tiny chunks.
After that, they launch themselves over the barricades together with a dozen or so other freelancers and charge in the direction of Archangel's building. As soon as they have made a few steps on the bridge, Shepard tells her team to open fire on her fellow freelancers, an order that leaves a bitter taste in her mouth. As the distraction team is quickly decimated between Archangel's bullets and their cowardly attack from behind, Shepard tries to reassure herself that this action was necessary, first of all, to protect Archangel, and secondly, to make sure the turian vigilante understands that they are on his side and does not snipe them together with the rest of the freelancers.
Their plan appears to have worked and as they quickly rush to Archangel's location, no more shots are being fired. They hurry up the stairs and enter the turian's hideout. The stance of the sniper in his dark blue heavy armor, the way he grips his sniper rifle, narrowed eyes behind the visor... there is no doubt in Shepard's mind any more.
"Garrus!" she exclaims, unable to contain her joy at seeing him. "What the hell are you doing here, trying to piss off everyone on Omega?"
The turian steps away from the window and lowers the sniper rifle. He sits back heavily on a table, carefully removing his helmet and revealing his face. It really is Garrus, though he looks like he's been through hell, starved and exhausted. "Shepard," he says quietly, as if still unable to believe it is her. "I... I saw you die, Shepard. How can you be here?"
Shepard doesn't care about acting with great dignity or control. She quickly charges a rather surprised Garrus and embraces him, desperately happy to have finally regained one of her old friends. "I was dead, Garrus, and then I was brought back... yeah, I know, this is the kind of story that sounds better when you're completely wasted..."
"Uh-huh," Garrus gives her a dubious stare, before nodding at her companions, Miranda in particular. "What's with the charming Cerberus bodyguard, Shepard?"
"Believe it or not, it was Cerberus who brought me back," Shepard quickly explains. "It's a long and confusing story, and one that will be best explained back on the Normandy. As soon as we get out of this mess you've started, Garrus."
"What can I say?" Garrus shrugs. "I was bored and decided to see if I can manage to make them all pissed off at the same time." Miranda unhappily mutters something about 'doing a too good job at it', making a twisted grin appear on Garrus' face. "What say you, Commander, shall we shoot a few mercs? If you can top my score, I'll know it's really you, Shepard."
Morgan's grin is equally wicked as she readies her sniper rifle. "Bring it on... Archangel!"