Sutori-Artifex back with another chapter of Masscreed! I'd like to apologize beforehand for the ninja hiatus. I've had a lot on my mind about whether or not I wanted to continue this fanfiction. Reading through it, I can kinda see where I'm screwing up. The canon characters aren't getting enough attention ala OC Favoritism and I'm trying to break myself away from it. Some of the situations fueling loyalty missions are kinda absurd in my opinion. I don't know if my continuity is holding up or not, but I feel like I made some big mistakes. I want to correct them. I also want to reward you guys for being followed and favorited for so long and for sticking through the hiatus. Here's some detail on my thought processes when making the Assassin OCs and A.U. elements.
This time we're diving into the very last loyalty mission chapter. I promise this one will be a good one. I spent a while preparing, thinking of what to do. So today, we'll be dealing with the Assassin Apprentices, Lora, Frederico, and Eleria. I haven't really established their personalities as much as I would have liked.
To be honest, Frederico and Lora were expendables from the start, but you guys seem supportive of them, despite their quirks. A sort of "Odd Couple" duo, the Brazilian and Volus were added for the sake of diversity in the Original Character group. I made them something of a "love-hate" couple as a joke, thinking I could get a quick laugh from it. The two of them are weaponsmithing prodigies in the making, spending a lot of time and some of the Normandy's metal resources to create special hidden blades. They're essentially this story's equivalent of Leonardo da Vinci, making new schematics for the heroes to use. This chapter specifically details what happens when schematics for several special blades fall into the wrong hands. Chekov's Gun has been loaded. That's all I'm telling you.
Eleria T'Geya, the Asari sentinel, was, if you caught the first version of chapter two, supposed to be a fan-voted character. It was either her, a male Quarian soldier, or a female Salarian infiltrator. What few fans I had back then chose Eleria T'Geya for her well-roundedness in combat and personality. When I created the characters of Jurdon Skarn and Garz, I felt the need to create a Romeo/Juliet subplot. Plus, Asari-Krogan pairings were handled well in the games in my honest opinion ( Charr was so adorkable :3 ) and I wanted to give it a shot for the sake of testing my ability to write a strange Krogan character.
Alexander Clarke… Gary Stu as he might come off sometimes, was designed to be a powerful, leader-type character whose weaknesses are exemplified in his personality. While he may not seem challenged by the plot NOW, he's definitely got a lot coming for him in the near future. I needed a catalyst (terrible pun because we do not talk about that thing. Also In-Joke) for a much larger project ahead of me, which I'll show you guys once I'm done with the Omega-4 Story Arc. I designed the character to be kinda like a wine cellar. He's tough to get to if not invited, and what lies within only gets better and stronger with age. Although, handle him incorrectly and everything will turn into "vinegar," bitter and miserable. A full-ranked Assassin, he will fight and die for the Creed, but soon learns that fighting Templars is nothing compared to the horrors the Reapers have in store. He'll fall apart in 3…2…
I had to decide what his backstory was, though, and how he could be connected to noteworthy ancestors for ANIMUS experimentation. So that was a bit tough.
I wanna see how p!$$3d tumblr can get with me over the fact that he's a Handsome, Muscular, White, Blue-Eyed Male American protagonist. Come at me, SJWs.
Kairee Antar, the product of an imagination able to interpret the Book of Genesis from a scientific standpoint but unable to think of a good name, was my answer to the lack of Lady Turians in the Mass Effect Trilogy. When designing her, I had a lot to consider. Her name was originally Kailee, but I IMMEDIATELY thought of Kahlee Sanders and I threw that name out faster than Mordin Solus can talk. So in my infinite wisdom and intelligence I slapped on an asian accent and called it a new name. Ingenuity ladies and gentlemen.
After naming was complete I had to take a side. Like the design of female Sangheili (Elites) from the HALOverse, there are two schools of thought on what the females of the Turian species would look like. One, the more popular one so far, believes that female Turians A.) have crests either similar to males or somewhat different but existant, and B.) do not have mammary glands (breasts). The other, the less popular of the two, believe that female Turians have crests and breasts (Lord smite me now for that horrid rhyme). There IS a middle-way party that claim they have breasts and no crests. That party however is the least popular of them all so I hear. Bioware seems to have taken that "Breasts No Crests" standpoint and made it canon so WHOOP-DEE-DOO. I aligned with the second standpoint I made that God-Awful rhyme by accident for. While I do respect and completely understand why Party A believes what they do, I decided to give a major minority some love. That, and it's pretty much canon thanks to Bioware, only I'm throwing on Crests/Fringes. It provided room for jokes earlier in the story (thanks to Kenneth Donnelly), can still be scientifically explained (though it might fall into the Squick category. Thank God Alexander doesn't care eitherway), and wasn't done for sexualization purposes. It's not like I wrote that she had a DD cup size or something along those lines. If I had, and I detailed that, this would've been a lemonfic by now, and since it's not, tough luck, horny 12 year olds of the world (If you have to know I imagined her with a modest C. I don't like divulging these little details without actually having it in the story, so consider this knowledge a luxury).
To counter Alexander's happier upbringing (his parents are still alive and still married unlike 90% of all protagonists in every story ever), Kairee played to the cliché of having a parent die. The other parent disowned her, but I decided to fix this over a good reconcilement conversation and the dead carcass of a Templar Grandmaster. Speaking of Coracia she has yet to receive that One-Shot love I've been promising you guys. Damn, let me get right on that (o_o)… Anyways, Kairee is the psychologically strong woman, who, despite having every reason to want revenge on the Human race, denounced petty revenge in her respect for an entire race. I originally depicted her as this bubbly, adorkable geek-girl for human culture, but she ended up getting to be a bit darker than originally intended. I just went with it. Being the psychologically stable one, Kairee is the woman on whose shoulders Alexander, the unstable one, can cry on.
Their relationship was born from three things. The sheer fact that the likelihood is so low given their backstories, I wanted to beat the expectations down… the fact that the two have a long history together and now, on the verge of dying horribly to the Collectors, are spending what they feel to be their last days together in love… and I like interspecies romances (but that's not important :p)
As for A.U. derp… well, there are two Shepards because I really didn't want to choose between Broshep and Femshep. I liked the idea that they could be siblings. As for why they're both Paragons? They worshipped each other as kids and the personalities of the other rubbed off of them. John can be a bit of a Paragade at times, but ultimately is a Paragon. Jane is just designed to be a sweetheart in this fic.
Ashley and Kaidan both survived because Two Shepards = Split the Team Up on Virmire. I wanted to see what an AU featuring the two would be like. I also didn't want to play favorites.
Wrex is on board because… Wrex. Just… Wrex. Do I need a reason when I can say "Assassins Are Good At Politics?" Well… maybe I do, but bear with me.
Joker being a YouTuber was a joke between me and some friends on this site, and the Let's Play B.S. was born from my desire to manifest it, if only to sate my subscribers on this site. It's only semi-canon. It's important when it needs to be important but the stuff he does doesn't always affect the main story. It can be referenced in one-shots or it can be made fun of in the main story, but other than that, it's not a huge deal. All in good fun. I had a lot of fun writing that Cards Against Humanity skit… both of those chapters. Last part's coming up soon. And I mean Blizzard's "Soon."
I've got a lot of Chekov's Guns to load and fire, a lot of characters to try and give equal treatment to, and a plotline to finish off. Sooo…
Oh well, I've blown enough of your time up with Out-Of-Story Expositionary C4. Enjoi.
Normandy SR-2 (Docked to Citadel), 2185
After the almost-disaster concerning the Collector Cruiser, the crew thought it safe to return to the Citadel and dock there for the night. Without the fear of any remaining Collector viruses messing with the ship, John Shepard was able to get a good night's rest.
That was, until, he heard a banging on his door, sometime in the small hours of the morning. "John, it's me, Alexander!" a voice called from behind the metal door.
With a groggy groan, John picked himself up and out of bed, waving the locked door open with his Omnitool. "What is it, something serious?"
Alexander walked hastily into the room, clearly stressed. He brushed his hands over his head, through his black hair, blinking rapidly. "They're… they're gone. All three of them. They must've escaped sometime during the night," he said.
"Who's gone, what happened?!" John said, becoming a bit panicked himself as he ran back to his closet to throw on some casual attire.
"Irzia, Skarn, and Garz. They all booked it during the night. Only Skarn managed to leave a note addressed to Eleria. I'm not even going to question that, I'm well aware he's sweet for her, but that's not the point. They easily could've stolen a lot of important equipment or data from the ship!" Alexander explained. He compulsively unsheathed and sheathed his hidden blades, itching to stab something in his fury.
"We're on the Citadel, they couldn't have gotten far, right?"
"I already alerted the Brotherhood, here. But they could be anywhere at this point."
"Alex, it's a pregnant female Krogan accompanied by two heavily armored guards. They should be easy as hell to spot," John said, consoling the Assassin.
Alexander sighed and tried counting to ten in his head, calming down over time. "You're right… whatever was stolen, we can get back… hopefully."
EDI's voice then broke the brief silence following his statement. "Commander, I was unable to access any live footage of their departure. I can't recollect anything that happened between the hours of 1:00 AM and 3:00 AM Universal Earth Standard Time."
"…Cerberus," John and Alexander muttered under their breaths in unison. Great minds think alike it would appear. "Anything else, EDI?" John inquired.
"Frederico Corado is in the middle of tearing up the armory at the moment looking for something. Mr. Taylor is attempting to stop him…" she said, then she paused. "Commander, Frederico and Jacob are currently in a biotic deadlock at the moment. Recommend you come down here."
John and Alexander both groaned and entered the elevator down to the CIC Deck. They turned right and entered the armory just in time for a rogue M8 Avenger to go hurling past John's head, firing into the wall once it hit the ground. He shouted out repeatedly, using his biotics to smash the deadlock between Frederico and Jacob, forcing them apart. The former cursed in Brazilian Portuguese, to the confusion of all three other members of the crew present. "What the hell is going on in here?!" John, who had not had his morning coffee, barked.
"I'm just tidying up the armory, having finally had the chance to get to it, when Frederico blows in here and starts tossing shit around trying to find one of his damn datapads!"
"Those fucking Templars stole one of my datapads! Lora and I had been working on a special blade for over three weeks, and I kept the blueprints for three of them recorded on a datapad, which I explicitly remember leaving on the sniper rifle table!"
"What, perfecting that dumb tazer blade?" Jacob complained, giving him the evil eye.
"That was the last design. The one I'm scared of losing is… God, I don't want to say it, EDI might pass it to the Illusive Man!"
John sighed and placed his hand on Frederico's shoulder. "The Assassins are tracking down the runaways as we speak. They can't possibly get very far."
EDI again interjected. "Incoming communications request from a blocked address, Commander," she said, sounding a bit suspicious of the request.
Alexander quirked his brow. "Might be a Den Leader…" he mused.
John threw his hands up and shook them at the ceiling, before begrudgingly marching off to the Briefing/Communications room. "Patch me through!" he ordered as the briefing table receded into the floor.
"Make that two messages, sir. One is from the Illusive Man. Shall I patch them both in?"
"Give me the blocked request first!" he ordered.
The image of Master T'Lona appeared before him as he was scanned quickly by the ship's QEC system. "Shepard… I was hoping to speak to your Brotherhood representative… Mr. Clarke? Oh well, you are the Commander. I bring ill tidings," she explained, rubbing the back of her neck.
"Don't even have to guess: The Templars escaped?"
"It was a disaster. Those Krogan started a Goddessdamned firefight. C-Sec got involved shortly before Assassins arrived on the scene. It was a three-way deathmatch on the Zakera Ward. Two footpads were shot and killed by C-Sec and over seven C-Sec officers were gunned down, four by the Templars, three by our Assassins. Five dead civilians caught in the crossfire and eight wounded by a poorly tossed incendiary grenade. They escaped using a drop shuttle piloted by Templar Vindicator Lilis Nyxanni. They dropped a datapad, but it was wiped. The surviving Assassins got the bodies and the datapad before C-Sec could intercept," Master T'Lona explained, sighing deeply and holding her head miserably.
"That's terrible… you have any idea where they could be going?" asked John, who cracked his knuckles, eager to fight.
"Not a clue. We haven't been able to send out any ships to hunt them down. The entire station is on lockdown. Expect C-Sec to swing by your ship, I'll try to delay them, or contact Councilor Anderson to get you clearance to leave. We managed to track the data from the pad. It was indeed wiped from the datapad, but it wasn't destroyed; it was emailed out to a recipient in the Terminus systems. We tracked it using cookies."
"So it wasn't a very secure email. It couldn't have been sent to the Illusive Man or any other Grandmasters."
"That is a logical assumption, Shepard," the Asari Assassin said, pacing back and forth. "It could have been sent to a friend, or potentially to mercenaries in need of some new weapons…"
"I've seen the standard hidden blades in action. I know how deadly they can be even in this day and age. We can't risk letting our enemies stand between the Normandy and the Collectors with special blades."
"…special blades?" Master T'Lona asked, perking a brow, "How are you aware of the contents of the datapad?"
"Apprentices Frederico Corado and Lora Baan were developing new hidden blade designs to pass the time on transit between missions. They must've left the datapad where the Templar captives could loot them."
"…intriguing. Recover them and tell me more about them, later. Anything else to report?"
"Apparently Jurdon Skarn, one of the Templar Vindicators responsible for the attack, left a note for Eleria T'Geya. It was handwritten on paper in some archaic language, presumably Asari."
"…an intellectual Krogan, Templar at that. Well I'll be damned…"
"Hey, credit where credit's due…" John subtly admitted to himself, shrugging.
"Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted," Master T'Lona exclaimed, dropping the call.
The next caller was the Illusive Man.
"Shepard," he said, taking a puff of yet another cigarette.
"Tarlungs," John quipped, crossing his arms.
"I don't appreciate the namecalling, Shepard. Do not forget who restored you to life."
"Alright, 'Jesus', tell me then why EDI's cameras were offline when the Templars escaped from the Normandy?"
"An order issued directly from me. I'm not stupid, Shepard. Not nearly enough to trust you to release them yourself. I'm watching the reports from various Citadel news stations. It was a shame that the carnage occurred at all, and I will reprimand Garz, Lilis, and Skarn for their wanton massacring of civilians and C-Sec."
John growled, but smirked. "Yeah, your Templars are truly geniuses. They even remembered to take the Apple of Eden. Oh wait," he said… going Renegade, it seemed.
TIM's eyes widened, but the rest of his face and his voice remained deadpan. "…you would be right about that, assuming you were sarcastic about that… I haven't received the Sur'Keshian artifact…"
"Look, Illusive Man, this, on top of the Collector Cruiser being a blatant trap, I'm beginning to doubt your ability to guide us through this mission."
"I know what I'm doing," TIM replied, scoffing at Shepard. "You doubt me because you cannot comprehend my intentions. They're greater than you, and they're greater than me. If I need to lie to you to get you to successfully complete this mission, I will lie to you."
John scowled at TIM, but eventually relented. "This isn't over… but message me when you have anything new to report," he sighed, hanging up.
He hated working with that man, and he was sure that most of the crew was on his side of the matter at this point. Even Miranda was beginning to have a couple of doubting words here and there when asked about the Cruiser incident.
He could practically feel the end of this mission coming closer, and a sense of dread filled him. It was time to decide whether or not to focus on the mission, or recover the stolen blueprints. After the situation in the Armory diffused, he got to sit down and chat with Frederico, who argued his case. Getting back those weapons meant the world to him. The Brotherhood practically saved his life and helped him make something of himself. They scratched his back, and he believed that the time had come to repay the favor and scratch theirs. The good man John is, he promised to retrieve the designs if at all possible.
The Assassins disembarked to join up with Master T'Lona's investigations on the Citadel, leaving the Normandy crew to itself. C-Sec did eventually show up, but Miranda, who remained polite and calm, managed to handwave away and deny their concerns to the point where they simply up and left, unable to find anything of interest.
Having suddenly found the free time while the Assassins got the necessary details for their mission, John ventured down into engineering to pay a certain Quarian a visit. Tali'Zorah had been working diligently maintaining the status of the Drive Core when she felt the toned arms of her commander wrap around her waist. A sudden gasp left her, but when she realized just who it was, she calmed down, turning her head to face John. "Well, good morning, Shepard," she said, nuzzling her visor against his cheek.
"Well, it's definitely been an interesting morning," he said, sneaking a peek at her console where she had been working. By no means at all was he an engineer, but that didn't stop him from looking.
"Oh? Heard that the Krogan escaped… word gets around," she said, shrugging, and leaning back into John's embrace.
"We'll take them down soon enough. Jurdon Skarn left us a decent clue, and we're working on getting back some things they've stolen from the Apprentices."
"Oh, they stole something? Those bosh'tets better not have stolen any of my tools…" Tali swore, breaking free from John's embrace to rummage through her nearby toolbag. John gave her some space, and in a minute, she decided that nothing of value was lost, even if something were missing; she had all the necessary tools for work, as far as she could remember.
John chuckled, "I don't think they were interested in those things, Tali," he said. "They stole some blueprints the Apprentices had been working on up in the armory."
"What? Why would they want those?"
"Weapons, Tali," John deadpanned. Apparently she wasn't in the know as to why Frederico was bumming her for materials.
"…that answers the question as to why Corado wanted a 'fine-linked, 4.572 meter chain…"
…what? John quirked a brow, now curious himself about this weapon. "The hell did he want with that?"
"No idea, but it sounds dangerous, so I can see why you'd be concerned," Tali replied, rubbing her shoulder.
"Well, when they acquire the details we need to go out and find the people who currently have the blueprints, I'd like you to come along," offered John, who put his hands on Tali's hips and pulled her closer to him.
She rested her head on his chest and cooed. "Perhaps. I can tag along on your team, I guess."
John smiled and hugged the young Quarian, who returned the embrace giddily before returning to her console. "I'll let you get back to work. I myself still have things to do. It was great talking to you!" she said.
John chuckled. "It's been fun. I should go, now," he reiterated for the engineer, taking his leave from the deck. His thoughts centered on the task ahead, assuming there could be a task ahead.
[Location Redacted, 2185]
"I cannot believe you!" screamed the Asari Vindicator, who flared up with pulsing, blue biotic energy as she held her head in object frustration. "You left a love letter to the enemy?!"
Skarn sat in their shuttle, humiliated as the scornful eyes of his colleagues death-glared him and berated his stupidity. Garz was next to speak. "The mere fact that we were both even alive when we were born is a miracle in itself, not to speak of the fact that we share the same mother…" he began, leaning forward, staring his brother down, "But mark me, you will be lucky if you come out alive from the thrashing you're about to receive…"
Lilis smirked and crossed her arms. "Deserved, too. He's been too much of an impediment on our mission, anyways. He's either not doing enough or doing too much to hinder the Normandy. All we're to do is shake the Assassin's resolve and dog their steps, not get wailed on for a morale boost, or get them killed and jeopardize their own mission," she explained, reasoning with an already-in-agreement Garz.
"…step out of the shuttle," Garz said, trying to use a calm voice with Lilis. The Asari smirked devilishly at Skarn, who maintained his own composure as she stepped out of the shuttle, slamming the door behind her. As she walked, she opened her omnitool to check her email as the sounds of wet, bloody punches, roars of both fury and agony, and the clanking of breaking armor from inside the shuttle escaped and filled her ears. He was fighting back. A great way to receive even worse beating from Garz. Hopefully being pummeled half to death would ensure that Skarn becomes more aggressive on the battlefield.
A curious little note appeared… A Thank-You email… she opened it, making a brief hm sound, nodding in approval when she read the contents. A Blue Suns leader had received the documents attached to the email covertly sent on the Citadel, just before Garz started that horrid firefight. They were all going to get in trouble for it, most assuredly, but they could just pass the blame onto Skarn. He was good for things like that, if anything.
As the shouting ceased from the shuttle, Lilis deactivated her omnitool. All things were going well… now the Blue Suns just needed to find a buyer in the Order to retrieve those documents…
Normandy SR-2, 2185
It had been several hours since the incident on the Zakera Ward, and the Assassins had been absent the entire time. Anderson called, alerting John to the fact that he now had the right to depart from the Citadel at any time. Most of the crew had dispersed and went off to shop or socialize once they realized that the Assassins weren't simply running a brief errand.
Even Joker left his post… said he needed some things. He ended up returning with several datapads all with now ancient codes for obscure games. He reminded himself to ask where the crippled pilot actually gets those things. John could recall quite explicitly that it took his mother years to put together the collection of archaic human culture that made up the Shepard twins' childhoods. He knew that he got his vids from Jane's collection. Hell almost broke loose the last time he did that and it surely will succeed the next time he tries it. Especially if it's The Room. Oh God, why did Jane still have that damn vid?
John had been cooped up in his cabin for most of the day, wondering when the crew would return. Then it dawned on him, that he could just order them all to come back now… but he didn't want to be that guy.
…
Screw it. He opened his Omnitool and prepared to send out an alert when EDI's voice called out over the intercom. "Shepard, Mr. Clarke has returned," she said, and before one could blink, Shepard was in the elevator headed down for the CIC. He met Alexander waiting at the Galaxy Map.
A nod to Kelly Chambers and she dismissed herself, leaving the two to talk alone. "What have you to report?" John asked, and Alexander uncrossed his arms and stepped down from the Galaxy Map.
"Blue Suns in the Terminus. Some leader named Rethe Bramkalok… probably Batarian," Alexander replied. He waved his Omnitool in the Galaxy Map's general direction and a pinging light marked the desired destination.
"Omega?"
"Yes, actually. After discovering the recipient – don't ask how we did it. Assassin Magic, yes, I'm going to be that guy – we began tracking his whereabouts and his contact information. Omega Assassins are already on the case, working closely with rivalling mercenary groups and with… the local brothel. Apparently this guy thinks Frederico's invention is going to make him rich, so he hired some… escorts, for himself, his party, and their contact, whom they're selling the blueprints to. Little did he know that they're on our side."
"Sounds like we have this under control," John replied, scratching his head, "So then tell me: do we still have to go down there?"
"I would. Not only would it boost morale but we can stick it to the Illusive Man. It's obvious he's tied to this somehow," the Assassin said, stroking his beard thoughtfully.
John nodded affirmatively and took his leave, so that he could ready himself for the mission.
Jane Shepard was entrusted with selecting the teams this time around. She had to keep in mind three things.
Firstly, she had to select a stealth squad. Someone who could infiltrate, eavesdrop, and pick off lone targets.
Secondly, she had to select people for a group that would be capable of finding and recovering the stolen data.
Thirdly, she had to choose a fireteam for when this inevitably devolved into sweet, senseless violence. Things did blow up around them, after all…
She was looking over her Omnitool, wondering who to send an invitation to, when she bumped straight into Garrus on the way out of the mess hall. The two staggered away from each other, and immediately asked if the other was okay. "I'm fine, thanks, my apologies, I should've been watching where I was going," Jane said, smiling.
"Well, you have an excuse. I have no idea why I bumped into you. My apologies," Garrus said, dusting off a shoulder.
"You are a good foot taller than me," Jane jibed. Garrus chuckled and shook his head. Oh, this woman… "Hey," Jane said, remembering what she was up to, "So John's got another assignment for the crew, he wanted me to handpick people for a multiteamed mission on Omega."
Garrus grumbled, "I'm supposed to be dead… well, Archangel is, at least."
Jane wasn't swayed. "Well then they won't be expecting you to snipe them out of existence, now would they? I need nine people, bare minimum, to help out, and John and I are already going. Three for each team, and you're perfect for infiltration!"
Garrus tilted his head and thought on the subject. "You make a decent point. Can I think about it?"
"Sure thing. Just be up in the briefing room when John calls us in," Jane replied. As Garrus was about to leave, she stole a brief kiss on his mandible and walked off, leaving him stunned.
"Hey… maybe I will tag along," Garrus finally said, to Jane's amusement as she entered Miranda's office.
It was a rather lengthy, awkward silence, in the briefing room. Frederico stood in the center of it all, guilty of having played a part in even having to carry out this mission to begin with. He kept a straight posture and tried to look serious, however it was a hard-to-accomplish feat given that nine other people in the room all had eyes on him, like it was his fault… and it kind of was. He did leave his plans out in the open.
"Oh whyyyy are weeee waaaiiittiiiiinng?" said Kasumi Goto, in a cheery, sing-song voice.
"Alexander," John deadpanned, before becoming silent once again.
After another awkward minute, Alexander finally entered the room with a note in his hand. "Sorry, Miranda demanded I spend time starting the last Memory Sequ- why is everyone staring at Fred?" he said, quirking a brow and handing the note slowly to John, who read it. A late pass. What was this, middle school? He rolled his eyes at Miranda, who wasn't around to see his reaction. He handed the note to Jacob, who threw a successful "three-pointer" into the trash-can on the other side of the room. He did a small fist pump as Alex took his place next to Kairee. Definitely middle school, John thought.
After a brief introduction, the team selection began. Alexander, John, and Jane were the usual, go-to team leaders. Alexander was in charge of the infiltrators, taking Kairee and Jack with him. John would have control over the fireteam, comprised of Garrus, Zaeed, and Frederico. Jane, Kasumi, Lora Baan, and Jacob, would steal the data back from the Blue Suns. Why Jacob was here nobody but Kasumi knew. The bubbly, young, Japanese thief had something to do with it, clearly.
With their teams arranged, the mission was green-lit.
Omega, 2185
Disembarking, the three teams went their separate ways. Infiltration, codenamed "Phantom Squad" were tasked with discovering the meeting place of the Blue Suns. Predictably they headed straight for Afterlife, to speak with Aria. The pounding house music rumbled through the air as the three Assassins walked through the entrance tunnel. Dozens of dancing lowlifes crowded the floor. With his hood over his eyes, Alexander shuffled through the crowds, making his way to Aria. Her Batarian guards lifted their shotguns and he and his own team froze. He stared Aria down, seemingly unafraid. He cocked his head towards the guards, silently requesting that they stand down.
"Maybe if you put your hood down and stopped playing superhero, my associates wouldn't question your presence," Aria quipped, chortling lightly to herself. She still waved them away, however, and Alexander sat across from her. "So what is it that you must bother me with, now?"
"Have you heard anything about a weapons dealing on Omega, as of late?" Alexander inquired, leaning forwards, elbows on his knees, hands clasped. He eyed the Pirate Queen from behind his visor and the shadow of his peaked hood.
She scowled at him, but eventually relented. Her face softened up as she replied, "Perhaps. It's not like there are about five going on at this very moment or anything…"
"A specific one. One without weapons but blueprints for a weapon. What's the status of that one?"
"A weaponless weapons deal…" Aria replied, righteously skeptical of that prospect. "You want Rethe Bramkalok, on the Kenzo District. Rumor has it that the stupid Batarian thinks he's struck diamonds with some design for a melee weapon of some sort… one of yours?"
"An apprentice's, actually, was designing a Special Blade. He's torn up about the whole thing, so we're getting the designs back for him. That, and I'm not risking letting whoever's buying the designs build one and use it against us," he explained.
"You see, there's a problem," Aria said, holding her hand up, "You think I actually give a shit. I don't. Spare me the backstory, I gave you what you wanted."
Alexander let off a hmph and stood up, bowing respectfully before the Pirate Queen Aria. He took his leave with his squad to meet back up with the other two teams at the bar. "Kenzo District. We can find them there," he said, as soon as he sat down. John Shepard nodded and pulled up his Omnitool, looking over a map of the station.
"I'll send Phantom Squad to shut down security systems and take down Rethe and his lieutenants. Do it quietly. I'll move Fireteam Delta outside. On the sound of gunfire we'll rush in. In the chaos of the battle, we'll send Larceny Squad in to recover the stolen data," John explained, drawing up the plan on the spot and whispering it to Alexander. Alex shook the Commander's hand, subtly accepting a tracking device from the man, and took off with Phantom Squad.
Phantom Squad: "Assassinations are My Specialty!"
The first thing Phantom Squad had to do was meet up with a contact who could escort them to Rethe's hideout. Unfortunately for Alexander, that contact was on his list of undesirables.
He sighed as he caught sight of a scantily-clad human woman leaning against a lamppost, next to an Asari and… was that a Drell? He blinked, remembering hearing something about the hallucinogenic properties of Drell skin-oil. He shuddered… it was that kind of party, huh? Approaching the human, he cleared his throat. "Whence cometh the lilt of the nightingale in the twilight of summer's warmth?" he said. Poetic gibberish often served as a way to discern between contacts and randoms in convenient locations.
"Heralds the coming dark from the southwest," the Drell woman replied.
The human woman blew a bubble with her gum and smirked. "Alright, big boy," she said, halving Alexander's dignity on the spot, "You want us to take you to Rethe?"
"That would be nice, yes, and I'm taken for your information," Alexander replied, narrowing his eyes as he looked her up and down. Her lingerie didn't even bother covering anything that needed to be covered in public, and the Asari didn't even have a top to speak of. So they weren't from Afterlife or any place similar.
She smirked, looking between him and Kairee, who defensively clutched the human man's arm and glared. "We have two ways of going about this. We can have these two ladies infiltrate with us… I know this woman would fit in well," she said, looking right at Jack.
"Fuck you!" she spat. Kairee's death glare only intensified, making a powerful NO obvious.
"Or we could drop you all on the roof…" The Drell, the only somewhat "modestly" dressed woman in their group, suggested. The human woman shrugged and threw away her gum, off the side of the railing – presumably to the bottom of Omega – and walked off with her posse of prostitutes. Located nearby was a black skycar, more like a skyvan. The human woman opened the driver's seat door and climbed in, starting up the vehicle. Hesitantly, the Assassins plus Jack entered the back of the vehicle. As the Asari and Drell hopped in the middle seats, Alexander drew a throwing knife and began to toy with it, twirling it skillfully between his fingers.
"Are you really that nervous? Not like they're armed or shit," Jack mumbled to Alexander, who only returned an expressionless glance from behind his hood and visor. He held onto Kairee's arm with his free hand.
"Back in the day we had classy brothel mistresses and Romanis who knew how to drive a Byzantine wild. Now? I'm almost certain that the human's stripname is Sprinkles," Alex whispered.
The human in question snickered and turned around, "It's Stormie just so you know. The Asari is Lexus and the Drell is Nautica."
Kairee thusly applied her hand to her face. "That's Omega for you," she muttered. She knew specifically what Alexander was referring to when he spoke of "classy brothels."
Stormie brought the skyvan off the ground and piloted it away from its parking space. It was unusually quiet outside, Alex noted. There was not much traffic at the moment, so the flight went smoothly. "So, this is the second time I've been on some shitty infiltration team. When is it that you people are gonna get it: I don't like hiding around and waiting to fight?" Jack inquired, clearly upset with her task.
"Biotic crowd control. I might be biotic myself, but you're practically a biotic goddess. We need that should we be discovered… like last time we were on an infiltration team."
"Fuck that," Jack swore, rolling her eyes, "The moment you get caught I'm raining hell on these mercs."
"Fair enough. We're jumping out of the van by the way."
Kairee sighed in relief, "Thank you, I'm just fine in this armor, personally."
Lexus shrugged, "You might like some of our outfits."
No response was had. Better not to engage. When Alexander scored this alliance, he had in mind the kinds of brothels his personal hero associated with, so he was really feeling disappointed.
The flight continued for about five more minutes in total silence, except for the sounds of the skyvan's systems. The two assassins had their battle plan laid out, and Jack simply brooded, ready to punch something. She eventually couldn't hold out any longer, her patience dwindling. "Come on, are we there yet?" she asked, more like demanded.
Nautica turned to Stormie, as if silently asking the same question. "Aaaannnndd yes. We're about to come over head. Just jump out, we're parking in the front of the apartment," Stormie said.
"Later bitches," Jack said, kicking open the back door and leaping out of the skyvan. She used her biotics to glide back on course, falling onto the building and tumbling forwards. She checked her surroundings. It was dark, dimly lit by electric lighting. It was a lavish rooftop, complete with a view of the Kenzo district and a swimming pool – which would come in handy here in a second – to her left.
Alexander leapt from the skyvan, performing a straightened swan dive into the swimming pool, which proved deep enough to survive a dive into. Jack quirked a brow, reading the height of the pool as 10 imperial feet. From that height? "Leap of Faith" indeed. Kairee followed him seconds after, and the two swam (though the latter had some difficulty) to the shallow end of the pool. Climbing out, Alexander shook himself off and recalibrated his visor. After snapping his fingers with a smile, he joined Jack at her side, looking over the front of the building. Stormie's skyvan had parked. A Blue Suns grunt, Turian, approached and opened the back door, which someone had remembered to close. Nautica and Lexus hopped out. Alexander snickered as he watched the Turian look inside the van, confused. No dextro for him it seemed.
Out in the distance, another skycar skulked in the shadows, on a platform adjacent to the one which this building was located on. Fireteam Epsilon followed them here. Larceny Squad had to be nearby. Time to get to work. Alexander tested his blades and drew his M11 Suppressor. He slid a thermal clip into the gun and holstered it. His Automattock was too noisy, thus, he neglected to bring it along. Kairee carried with her an M11 Suppressor and her modified Mantis rifle, silenced for effective, quiet urban combat. Jack had a Scimitar shotgun and Carnifex handcannon. She was the last resort and first to enter heated combat; a marine corps to John's army.
After a weapons check, Alexander held his team up for one moment longer. Jack noticed his irises flash gold as he stared at the floor.
"Whoa, what the fuck's with his eyes?" she asked as he held a finger to his lips.
He was completely and utterly silent, as he looked down at the floor. Faint, fuzzy silhouettes populated the building's lower levels. He scanned the floor, painting targets to himself with a point of the finger. "Rethe is with bodyguards in what I think is a salon… his contact has yet to arrive it seems. A count of five bodyguards. All are Batarian from the look of it…" he said quietly to himself.
Jack couldn't even curse, she had yet to see this ability from Alexander. She just eyed him incredulously. "Right… let's get inside," she said, moving ahead of the Assassin pair. Alexander followed Jack with Kairee in tow. The lattermost squadmate kept her sniper rifle out as the three descended the staircase to the third level of the three-story building. Keeping his sense up, he stopped the two women and stared through the door. Human mercenary guarding the door. No witnesses. He opened the door and as the mercenary turned to aim, he was greeted with a long, slender blade through the throat and a hand on his face. Alexander used his foot to trip the mercenary, throwing him back-first into the floor. Sheathing the blade and flicking the blood off his gauntlet, he walked forward, cuing his accompaniment to follow him. The third story of the building was more like a promenade around the sides of the room, with fancy, glass and wood railing keeping one from falling off into the second story. Another staircase on the other side of the room had no guards and led down to the second and first floors. Rethe was in a lounge on the second. He sat, talking to Lexus, with a cigar in his hand… and his helmet off. He was flirting, clearly, and was such an easy target…
No, not yet. They had to disable any security systems, first.
Cameras… cameras… none on the third floor, nothing of interest was on this floor, so no surveillance was required. The second story had to be well-watched... precisely why the security "office" would be on this floor. No basement, the first story served the purpose quite well, and was the likeliest location of any bedrooms or barracks. Scanning the room, he gestured a flat hand, fingers pointed towards a door on the far left of the room. A little room that filled up the corner on the opposite side as the door that led down to the second floor lay beyond the door. Like most doors these days, it was made of metal and slid open when approached or a code was punched in. The three silently crouch-walked to the door. Kairee set to work hacking through and Alexander aimed his gun in the direction of the guard.
The door opened and he went to take his shot. An onset of pain in his head, however, caused him to flinch. He missed his shot and cursed, in Turkish. The guard went to alert the other Blue Suns in the building, and would've succeeded had Kairee not drawn her pistol and fired a quick count of two shots into the female human mercenary's forehead. She stood straight up and leaned back… then forwards as she faceplanted onto the ground, blood pouring out from the front and back of the head. Kairee pushed the body out of the way of the door and sat Alexander down in the bloodstained chair and examined him. "Are you okay? What was that?!"
Alex held his head in his hand, wincing in pain. "I don't know what it was… I'm fine, now, thank you for asking," he said, in Turkish.
"…what the fuck?" said Jack as she looked over the various cameras.
Kairee patted Alexander on the shoulder repeatedly, knowing precisely what was going on. "What name do you answer to?" she asked, looking Alexander in the now blue eyes.
"A-Alexander…" he said. He hissed through his teeth as he felt another surge of pain sweep over his brain. "B-bleeding… effect. Goddamnit Miranda… you said this shit wouldn't be a problem anymore!" he swore. He took deep, careful breaths and regained his composure. His accent was thick, and an amused Jack snickered at Alexander's expense.
"Still think the accent's sexy, Antar?" the Normandy's resident Psychotic Biotic asked as she deactivated the security systems. Alt+F4 works every time!
Kairee glared at Jack and continued tending to Alexander. Security was down. Alexander held a finger up to the earpiece of his visor and contacted Kasumi. "Security is down. There are still guards… we're not spotted just yet. Move in and take what you can," he said. He received the A-OK from the young thief, and dropped his hand to his side. He was feeling weak, things were getting a bit fuzzy. Memories that were not his own poked at his mind and conflicted with his own memories. Whose face was he looking at right now? Kairee's… right, right. It took time, but he was slowly and surely recovering.
Note to self: Do not use Eagle Sense extensively.
Larceny Squad: "Not Everyday I Re-Steal the Stolen."
"Give me one good reason we brought the Volus along?" Jacob complained. The group of four were hiding in the bushes that decorated the small yard of the building where the deal was to take place. "Why are we even doing this? So what if somebody wants to buy a special blade?"
"To answer in order of priority," Jane whispered, "We're doing this for Frederico and Lora's sake, and because I know what they're capable of. If these weapons fall into Templar hands, the Brotherhood will be back on the track of destruction."
"I'm Cerberus you know," Jacob replied.
Jane huffed, and thought of a comeback. "Your Illusive Man sent you into a trap."
Jacob rolled his eyes, but conceded her point; he was pretty doubtful at this point. Besides, he got invited and he didn't turn it down. But, now that he had been sorted onto the team handling the theft, and had been paired with a Volus and a woman with a strange crush on him, he had second thoughts about the assignment. "Doesn't have much to do with the Collectors, does it?" he asked.
"Hhkkt. Your daddy issues weren't very Collector related either. Hhkkt," Lora retorted.
"Touché…"
Kasumi, who was cloaked at the moment, carefully watched the oscillating security drone over the backyard door. It went dark. Good. Phantom Squad took security down. No traps or cameras for the Blue Suns. Kasumi rolled out of the bush and scaled the wall, followed by Jane. The two peeked into the windows of the third floor. No guards, but two bloodsoaked corpses were present. Jane waved to Jack, who just barely saw her out of the corner of her eye. She ran over to open the window, and pulled Jane inside. Kasumi climbed over to Jane's window and rolled in, still cloaked. "Thanks, Jackie," she said, uncloaking for a brief moment, to announce her presence to Jack, before cloaking again.
"Yeah, Alex fucked something up in his head or something, he keeps alternating between English and Not-English," Jack complained.
"Bleeding Effect?" asked Jane.
"Whatever the hell it is, it prevented us from carrying out any assassinations. Didn't want to piss off the Blue Suns and have Alex bitching about how his head hurts."
"Nice."
As Jane and Jack helped Jacob and Lora into the building, Kasumi jumped the railing and landed silently in the second floor lounge. Though nobody could see, her expression changed to one of displeasure the moment she saw Lexus providing Rethe with a lap dance. Worst part of it all? She had to swipe the datapad from under Rethe's nose, as it was located on his desk…
She walked across the tatami, slowly, as to note make any noise. She noted that the Blue Suns congregating in the area would surely take notice. About ten of them in the spacious second floor lounge, kitchen, and dining room area. Stormie and Nautica kept a handful distracted, but not all of them were immediately concerned with them. The Fridge Horror thawed and Kasumi noted that there were ten Blue Suns, and three call-girls. *Shudder*
Carefully placing her hands around the datapad, she began to slowly slide it across the desk. Nobody was seeing anything. Fantastic. Kasumi looked for her chance to escape. She picked it up and decided to just book it at that moment. Stormie caught the floating datapad from the corner of her eye. Running a hand down the side of a Blue Suns mercenary, she feigned flirtation when in reality, she pulled the pin on his tactical grenade. It burst into smoke and flooded the kitchen and dining room. Drawing the attention of any remaining guards, they got up and left, ignoring the missing datapad.
As for the Blue Suns, those who were stoned ala Nautica's skin decided that the smoke was a part of the tease, and were incapable of resisting when the Drell slipped a combat knife from her boot. Each Blue Suns mercenary dropped like flies in the smokey haze, including those who came only to investigate the smoke.
From the corner of his eyes, Rethe noticed the smoke flowing into the lounge. Thinking nothing of it, he smirked, under the impression that it was, indeed, part of the show. Lexus knew what was up, however. She removed the wrapping from her arms and proceeded to wrap them around Rethe's eyes. Kinky.
As Rethe settled into this new development, without warning, Lexus nimbly flipped over him, pulling on the wrappings, and dragging him back. Now he began to panick, knowing that something was wrong.
He would soon be silenced by a bullet from Kairee's sniper rifle, a splatter of blood leaving both the entry and exit holes in his head. Lexus stood back up and re-wrapped the cloth around her arms, spitting on the Batarian's corpse.
Jacob and Lora jumped down from the third floor. Just in time, too. Blue Suns mercenaries who were wondering why the conversation upstairs had gotten so quiet had poured into the room. Lora overloaded their shields, and Jacob tossed a Pull field, yanking one off her feet. She was riddled with bullets, working as effective human cover as the two jumped behind Rethe's desk and tipped it over. Lora, drawing her Katana shotgun, held it over the desk (which she was merely a foot taller than) and fired, as soon as the floating corpse moved overhead and dropped with a pathetic thud behind them. Jacob laughed and created a Barrier for the two of them, standing and firing his Carnifex into the group of now dispersed Blue Suns. With Lora's help overloading shields, the mercs were dead inside of a minute.
Kasumi had long since returned upstairs with her prize, uncloaking. Jane took the datapad and cheered to herself, before contacting John. "We have the datapad!" she said, looking it over. She stopped. A look of horror overtook her face. "Scratch that…" she said.
Attached is 1,500,000 Credits for the Blade Schematic. We thank you for your cooperation. ~Your Buyer.
Fireteam Epsilon: "Let's Try Not to Start World War IV, Shall We?"
The mission was going well. Well, it was going pretty swimmingly, because Fireteam Epsilon was practically useless at the moment! John, in his inability to drive anything, sat in the passenger seat while Zaeed took the wheel. Garrus sat in back with Frederico, aiming his Viper rifle out the window towards the building. He was scoped in, eye trained on the interior of the building that looked vaguely like his own hideout in the Kima District. This one was a bit different in that it had a pool on the roof, however. Nice touch. "Larceny Squad's moving in…" Garrus said as he saw Jane tumble into the third floor. Their platform was slightly elevated, allowing them to look inside the building's front windows.
"Y'know, I once did something similar to this…" Zaeed said, leaning back in his seat. "A team of six, this time, however. We all had to pose as concubines to steal back a prototype weapon, rather than a schematic. It was a Goddamn WMD you hold in your hand, as well. The head had to be an actual woman. Shi turned out to be a fuckin' XXY. Got the squad killed when shi revealed hirself, I shit you not. I was the only one to make it out alive. Had to use the prototype to blow the place to hell, too! You should have seen it!"
Another one of Zaeed's "Sole Survivor" stories. John quite enjoyed those. He couldn't relate… yet. However they always seemed to kill time. Frederico's face was priceless. He was horrified, clearly so.
"I could've lived without hearing that last detail about the concubine head," Garrus remarked.
"We men do not like 'surprises,' so… can't exactly blame the guy who killed your squad," Frederico admitted.
Zaeed gave him a long, stern stare. "…neither can I," he too admitted.
They sat in silence for approximately seven more minutes.
"John, we have the datapad!" Jane's voice called out over the comms systems of the Fireteam's armor. John exchanged cheerful glances with his team and was about to reply when Jane spoke again. "…scratch that…"
"What? 'Scratch that?' What's that supposed to mean?!" Frederico asked from the backseat.
"…he's already sold the schematics," John realized. "Garrus, do you see anything?"
Garrus looked down towards the entrance, where a couple of skycars were parked. "No… nothing yet," he mumbled. He stopped scanning the area. "Hold on. Someone's leaving the building. Tall, human… black armor with a recon hood, gold lighting… feed the description to Alex, see if he recognizes the color scheme. I know Vindicators wear silver and gold," Garrus stated, finger tensing on the trigger as he tracked the armored man. He carried a datapad in his left hand and he was making haste for a vehicle.
"Alex, if you're there right now. There is a man in black armor, with gold highlights and lighting leaving the premises. Templar?" John inquired. He too could see the man fleeing the scene, now. Why hadn't he left earlier…? Did he know there were people there? He had to have been planning this in advance…
"Templar 'Darkstar,'" Alexander answered, after a moment of thought. "Mostly infiltrators. Whereas Vindicators are offensive specialists, Darkstars can utilise our own penchant for stealth against us. No wonder they want these blade schematics. They could figure out what we make them out of! Kill him as soon as you can!"
Garrus stepped out of the skycar, approaching the edge of the platform and taking aim. As the Darkstar struggled to open his skycar, looking about frantically, he stopped and stared into the distance. Blue Suns mercenaries followed him close behind, guns raised and ready to fight. One handed the Darkstar an assault rifle and pulled out his SMG. The Darkstar kept his suspicious, yet empty, stare focused ahead of him.
"I think this mate saw me," Garrus muttered to the side. Zaeed started the engine out of caution. Before one could blink, gunshots hit the platform under Garrus, and the doors of the car behind him. He staggered back into the car, "Yep, definitely saw me!" he said, closing the door. The Darkstar climbed into his own vehicle and sped off. As Zaeed drove to pursue him, he could see Larceny and Phantom Squads leaving the building. Alexander had recovered apparently, as he was one of the first to leave.
Jack charged towards a Skycar operated by Blue Suns and, after hijacking the driver's seat and shockwaving the passenger off of the platform, she opened the doors for Kasumi, Lora, Jane, and Jacob. Kairee climbed on top of the skycar and drew her sniper rifle, aiming forwards as the skycar lifted off. Ah… magnetic boot modifications…
Three scantily-clad women left the building. A human, a Drell, and an Asari piled into a skyvan with Alexander climbing in back. With three skycars in pursuit of a single, black, sports skycar, Hell was bound to break lose. Zaeed looked to his left as he lined up with the skyvan and Jack's skycar. He chuckled, a wide grin crossing his face. It grew into a genuine laugh of excitement as he floored the gas pedal. John stuck his upper body out of the window, aiming his recently acquired Revenant machine gun at the escaping skycar. Garrus leaned out of his own window with his rifle, and Frederico climbed up onto the roof of the skycar, magnetizing to the roof. His arms flared with biotic energy, and he was ready to fight!
Kairee lined up a shot with her Mantis rifle, and fired into the spoiler of the skycar, tearing it off of the vehicle. She cursed under her breath, having missed her intended target. Lora aimed her Omnitool towards the Darkstar's skycar and a burst of electricity surged throughout the vehicle. It began turning over, nosediving downwards several levels. The three skyvehicles in hot pursuit nosedived as well, trying to go after the Darkstar. He regained control after a moment, and pulled the vehicle together, putting it back on its proper course. The changes of direction shook Kairee, and Frederico. Inertial compensators made the hard turns easier for those leaning out windows, but nonetheless the threat of falling out was real.
Frederico threw a warp into the skycar, striking its rear propulsors as John let loose with a flurry of bullets, striking the rear of the vehicle as well. The Darkstar changed tactics and began driving in a serpentine motion to escape hostile fire.
"Damn it, someone pin it down!" Zaeed roared, holding the wheel with one hand, shooting his Predator backup pistol at the rear window of the skycar. The skyvan carrying Alexander hit the nitro and flew over the skycar. Alexander kicked open the door, activated his hookblade, and flipped over, hooking the floor of the van with his hookblade and swinging onto the hood of the skycar. He panicked and fell, tumbling to the roof of the car when a Blue Suns mercenary, a Turian, opened fire with a Locust SMG. It fired quickly enough to drop his barriers, and he almost fell off of the skycar.
"Alex, be careful!" Kairee, John, Jane, and Zaeed all cried in unison. Kairee fired a bullet just over Alex, hitting the hood of the skycar. Smoke began rising from the engine and she pumped her fist. Target hit! Garrus emptied his thermal clip trying to break off the doors of the skycar, successfully taking off the passenger seat's door. The objective was to grab a man and throw him out. Nautica rolled down the passenger window of the skyvan and aimed a pistol out of it, firing into the windows of the Darkstar's door. He was forced to nosedive once again to try and evade the Assassins and Normandy squadmates. Alexander had barely hooked onto the smoking rear of the vessel in time before flying off. The Blue Sun Turian aimed his SMG at Alexander and fired towards his head and chest. The Assassin responded by throwing his cloak over his face. The shielded cloth saved his life! When the hailstorm of ammunition ended, Alexander removed his cloak from his face, drawing his M11 Predator and firing a shot into the chest of the Turian. It damaged his shields considerably, and he ducked back inside. His hookblade was tearing through the metal of the skycar; he couldn't hold on much longer. He resigned to his failure and retracted the blade, going spread-eagle to increase wind resistance. The skycar Kairee stood atop flew by him, and a three-fingered hand gripped him by the hood, pulling him onto the skycar. He magnetized to it and breathed a sigh of relief.
Kairee smacked him straight in the back of the head for his stunt. "Don't you ever do that to me again! Do you know how worried I was?" she shouted, taking another sniper shot at the skycar.
The skycar turned to its side, threading the needle through an oncoming obstacle. It managed to clip off the driver seat door however, sending that projectile into the skyvan the three courtesans were piloting. It struck the hood and sent them flying off course. Meanwhile, the other three cars had to fly underneath to escape a fiery demise.
"Shit! We'll regroup in a second assuming we don't crash!" Stormie cried out. Alexander managed to hear them and he nodded. He lifted his arm and threw a shockwave towards the Darkstar, bumping into their skycar and rolling it over. To prevent flying in the opposite direction, the Darkstar cut the engine and let the car tumble, before starting it up again and turning sharply to the left.
"Is anyone else thinking of Fast and Furious right now?!" John cried out, firing another volley of bullets towards the escaping Templar.
"You too?!" Jane replied, aiming her N7 Hurricanes out of the window, brushing past Jacob to do so. She spent the thermal clips and retreated inside. The smoke was obscuring the Templar's vision, and he started to panic, driving erratically from side to side.
Frederico launched a singularity and Jacob threw a Pull field, which opened up in front of the Templar and tugged at the back of the skycar respectively, yanking the hood cover off and causing the car to slow considerably as it had to fight to escape the event horizon and pull field. It broke free when Hawking Radiation took hold, however, and the black hole disintegrated. The hood cover flew towards Frederico. Determined and fueled by rage, he threw a wicked punch and a pulse of energy was thrown just ahead of him, blowing a massive hole in the metal sheet, knocking it further upwards and preventing it from hitting the hapless apprentice.
"Shit, Corado's pissed!" Jack remarked, eyes wide at his rage-filled, roaring face. She was supposed to be the crazy biotic…
Zaeed and Garrus fired concussive blasts, both of which impacted the bottom of the Templar's vehicle, knocking out some important machinery. Smoke enveloped the skycar and the Blue Suns mercenary ducked his head out to breathe. "Land this damn thi- GLUK!"
The mercenary was shot in the face, courtesy of a shotgun blast from Lora Baan. She pumped her Katana shotgun and smirked behind her mask. The Turian tumbled out of the car and free-fell down Omega. Zaeed pulled up over the Templar's slowing car, and John abandoned ship, landing on the smoking engine. He rolled into the car and began wrestling the Darkstar for control of the wheel. A punch to the jaw from Shepard as only he can do it, a kick to the hip from the Templar. John almost fell from the vehicle, but grabbed the sides of the door-frame and slammed his boots into the head of the Darkstar. He flew out of the skycar, taking the datapad with him. He landed hard on the roof of a Gozu district shop. John drove the skycar upwards, then jumped out. As he fell, he rolled over, back facing the ground, and charged a biotic blast. He threw the shockwave forwards, propelling himself closer to the ground at a faster speed. The shockwave finished the skycar and detonated it as Zaeed piloted his car under John. He landed and dented the roof, but survived, regardless. The two skycars landed on rooftops adjacent to the one the Templar crashed on. The courtesan van returned shortly after, sputtering out and barely making it onto another rooftop. The small army piled out, and Alexander, Frederico, Lora, and Kairee leapt across the gaps between rooftops. Civilians below were in a panicked rush to escape with their lives, and it was likely that Blue Suns, Eclipse, or Blood Pack would be called in to fight whatever threatened the pseudo-peace. The Templar tried to crawl away, pitifully groaning and squirming across the ground. Alexander kicked him onto his back, then kicked off his recon hood. The human underneath smiled and tossed him the datapad. "You're too late… but a consolation prize for making it this far," he taunted.
Frederico yanked the datapad away. The schematics were there, every one of them. He sighed and hugged the pad to his chest. "What do you mean, 'too late?' it's all there!" Alexander shouted, attempting interrogation. Kairee had looked up, curious about the fate of the detonated skycar. Her eyes bulged, and she threw herself and Alexander out of the way. Frederico instinctually jumped back as shrapnel from the destroyed skycar came tumbling down. The body of the car tumbled wildly down past the shop, but shrapnel still had yet to strike.
The Templar laughed like a maniac as scrap metal struck him right in the throat. A splatter of blood burst from his mouth, his eyes bulged as intense pain moved through his spine. Instinctually, he tried pulling himself away, out from under the shrapnel… and only ended up pulling his body off of his nearly severed head, making it fully severed. His body went limp, and the onlookers, sans the jaded Zaeed and Jack (the latter of which applauded the grisly display) took a cautious step back. Other, more harmless pieces of metal, either hit or missed the rooftop. The three Assassins who dived out of the way picked themselves up, to be greeted by the bloodbath in front of them. Alexander rubbed his throat. "Well, that's definitely not how you get ahead in life…" he one-liner'ed. Kairee's attention immediately went to giving her boyfriend an incredulous death-glare. He shrugged. "What… lightening the mood… no?"
"C'mon… we got what we came here for," John somberly said, turning and leaving. "Joker, we're headed back," he said into his comms.
Normandy SR-2, 2185
Frederico immediately put his schematics in his footlocker once he got back on board the Normandy, then left for the Briefing Room for the debrief.
John stood at the back of the room, arms crossed behind his back. He was smiling, happy to accomplish the mission. Everyone involved was gathered around the briefing table, each invigorated by that high-speed chase. "That was textbook, everyone. I want you to know how proud I am of each and every one of you," he said.
Frederico arrived and took his place between Alexander and Lora. "Thank you all, on behalf of Lora and I, for getting back our schematics," he said, bowing his head reverently.
Alexander took a position next to John and briefed his Assassins. "Your performance today, Lora, Frederico… was nothing short of incredible, both of you. For your assistance, and in recognition of your work as bladesmiths, I am promoting you to footpads. You will receive armor upgrades and access to combat tutoring at the Assassin Bureau the next time we visit the Citadel, should you wish to take the upgrades," he said. Frederico grinned and snuck a high… low, five… three, from Lora.
"Congratulations you two," John interjected. "Do you mind sharing with us what exactly you were working on when the schematics were stolen?"
"Uh, yes. I did some research… and back in the 1800s, an English Assassin named Jacob Frye used a hookshot hidden blade to quickly scale rooftops. They've fallen out of favor in the modern world, so I set out to improve their design…"
"Titanium chains…" John murmured.
"Sim, precisely, sir," the new footpad replied, "Chainblades. Launching a hidden blade that can split up into prongs, making an effective hookshot. I wanted it to be able to support a person's weight so they could use it to scale walls more effectively. It is currently designed to be easily retractable, allowing for quick and safe recovery. Also, I wanted it to be ambidextrous, so you could use two at once."
Alexander thought about the uses of that special blade. "That's incredible, actually. So like a rope-dart you can use to climb and swing around?"
"Exactly!"
"I'll pitch the idea to Master T'Lona as soon as I get the chance!"
Frederico smiled, clearly enthusiastic about the offer.
"Hhkkt. Remember that I helped too. Hhkkt. Thanks for all of your assistance. Hhkkt. I'm heading down to Engineering if you need me. Hhkkt," Lora said, waddling out of the room. John soon dismissed the rest of the team. He himself stayed behind.
It's too late.
Why was it too late?
…what were the Templars up to…?
Hey, thank you guys for reading my story! Drop a favorite on this story and follow it if you haven't if you wanna see more!
I'm REALLY proud of this chapter. Especially that car chase scene oh my God. Remember to leave a review telling me what you think of the story. Since it's relevant to the Author's Note at the top of the story, feel free to leave a review commenting and critiquing the characters of Alexander, Kairee, Frederico, Lora, Eleria, and the Templar Trio!
Sutori Artifex signing off. Expect to see some more Joker's Let's Play in the near future too o3o!
EDIT: I forgot to include Tali in the teams during the latter half of this chapter. Headcanon this: She had an unexpected complication with the drive core or an engine or something. I screwed up too hard for too long to fix it. XD