Chapter 10
Omega's ports were always busy, filled with beggars and several people just trying to get off the station. An asari hurried through the crowds, holding the hand of a young girl as they went, hurrying the girl to follow closely. To the people around them, it was just another small family, determined to leave the station safely, find some place better.
"I have enough credits to get us a flight to Thessia. Things will be better there for us, its too dangerous for us to remain here." The asari spoke, continuing a steady pace.
At the words, the girl promptly stopped, ripping her hand free from the asari's. "No! I'm not going!" The asari turned to look at the girl, bewildered by the statement. She knelt, coming face to face with the girl, hands gently holding the girl's forearms.
"We can't stay here on Omega. Its not safe for you. We can go to my home world and live there together." The asari explained, concern etched on her face, battling the girl's look of determination.
"I'm not leaving." The girl repeated, she took a quick refusing huff, putting a hand on the asari's arm. "But you should go." The girl nodded. "This… this is my home not yours. You should go and I'll stay here… where I belong." The words that came from the girl's mouth sounded older, wiser despite her apparent young age, the asari only stared at the girl in awe at the explanation.
"Brill…. I promise I'll come back here for you."
The young twelve year old Brill simply smiled at the asari who raised her. "Don't make a promise, when you know you can't keep it."
Brill slowly opened her eyes, a small chirp from her omni-tool dragging her from the restless sleep she continuously found herself in. Compared to the previous dreams she had become cursed with, these ones were different, reminding her of times long gone. It was a good change from the bloody retelling of the last day in the Talons, but she wasn't so sure anymore. Brill's hand slowly lingered to her chest, grabbing the pendant she knew hid itself beneath her shirt, that was the day she had received it. Why hadn't she just gone on that ship? Brill sighed, slowly sitting up, rubbing her forehead with her hand and groaning.
A good few months had passed into Cerberus's occupation of Omega. To say things were going swimmingly would be a gross lie. Nothing was going well. The rest of the mercenary groups on Omega had either put down their guns, gotten killed, escaped the station somehow or, the least option, joined the Talons under Nyreen's banner. The latter option was the one they most looked for from mercs, but it was the one very few choose to do. With Aria now gone from the picture, the mercs became unleashed and with Cerberus running things now, the mercenary groups had no one they deemed worthy enough to listen to.
Until they met Nyreen.
Another chirp from Brill's omni-tool reminded her that it was still flashing new notifications. She opened the omni-tool, absently scrolling through the messages coming in. It had been happening the past few days, constant messages from an unknown sender with details of recently docked ships; it contained the callsigns, ID tags and designations on the ships that docked but nothing more. Previously, she would sometimes get shipping manifests from Nova, but these were different they looked like simply automated messages about arrivals.
Brill slipped her legs over the side of her bed, studying the ships coming in. Surprisingly, despite what had happened, the messages kept coming in. At this point, Brill had stocked it up to some automated system Nova had deployed before… everything, she had forwarded the system to Brill's omni-tool. It was the only explanation she could figure anyways.
Brill finally closed her omni-tool, glancing around her small room. It was the same small space she used to live in when she was a part of the Talons and it reminded her of better times, when things weren't this shitty. She kept the lights in her room dim rather than pitch black, but either way she was having trouble sleeping.
With Omega under Cerberus control, they decided to use whatever resources they could get to the maximum, running the drills on high, over working the generator producing Eevo and overworking the individuals in the mines. The extra work made the station that much hotter, with the generators running on maximum to keep up with the demand, the entirety of the station's temperature rose drastically. Although Omega was already a hotbox, the overworking machinery didn't make it any better.
There had to be some semblance of order, however, and Cerberus achieved it the only way they could think of. Scattered all throughout the regions of Omega were Cerberus mech droids now, protected by laser cutting force fields that only the mechs could safely walk through or risk losing a finger. Under Nyreen's rule, the Talon's decided to take control of order. Whenever they could, the Talons were destroying mechs, hacking security systems, disabling forcefields and just generally breaking whatever shit they could get their hands on. The civilians and workers on Omega only relished at the continued mayhem the Talons caused, it gave the people of Omega freedom and some spirit to rise against the Cerberus occupation. Even a few months in, they were still getting new members wanting to join and fight.
Brill fumbled around the side of her bed, finding her boots and slipping them on. Now that she was awake, and it was doubtful she'd fall asleep again, it was probably better to get her day started now. Satisfied with the tightness of her boots, she stood, adjusting her vest. Against the door to her room hung a chest piece of armor. With everything going on lately, it became necessary. It was a simple piece of light armor, clipping at the sides and sitting on her shoulders via two straps, but the chest itself was made with a reinforced synthetic alloy that could fend against a good amount of fire before it really started to hurt.
Brill grabbed the piece of armor, slipping it over her head and snapping the sides on. Another day in paradise, the thought made Brill sigh as she left the room. The lights in HQ were also dimmed, since most people were sleeping, trying to catch up on some much-needed rest after all the chaos that happens daily. She made her way down the levels of rooms arriving to the bottom, the center of the circling rooms. There was a circular display that showed them the mapping of Omega, something Nyreen used to help plan courses of attack and analyze where Cerberus was reinforced. A map that Brill happily provided when she rejoined them.
Brill headed straight for the display, keying a button as the holographic view of Omega appeared, the sudden brighter light making Brill squint. With each new scout report they updated the map, displaying recent activity. With a night's worth of scouting, there was plenty of new activity to investigate, exactly what Brill busied herself with, leaning towards the map as she studied the new activity.
"Up early again?" Brill didn't turn to look, her eyes still glued to the view, but she nodded her reply. Nyreen appeared beside Brill, standing next to her and studying the map as well. "So what does the night bring?" She asked.
Brill pointed at a lower region of the station, it was highlighted in red meaning increased Cerberus presence. "Gozu district, they keep increasing security in that area lately. I've been getting reports that our scouts can't get too close because of the amount of force fields, but its an obvious increase in Cerberus security. They have to be up to something there." Brill explained, her eyes narrowing as she observed the region. There wasn't much in the Gozu district, other than the fact that an alien disease once infected the area, but that was a long time ago.
"Could be, we couldn't know for sure unless we disabled those fields." Nyreen added.
Brill sighed, pulling back from the map to look at Nyreen. "Not going to happen." She rubbed her forehead again, her whole-body aching about its lack of rest. "They've gotten control of the civilian population around that area, with the number of fields there's really no access around there anymore."
Nyreen turned around, resting her back against the display, eyeing Brill who ignored the gaze. "Trouble sleeping?"
Brill kept her gaze on the map. "No, I'm fine." She said bluntly, reaching out to rotate the map around to see it from a different angle.
"You've become a terrible liar." Brill sighed once more, letting her gaze drop from the map as she lowered her head, backing away from the terminal to finally look at Nyreen's gaze, the turian resting against the terminal with her arms across her chest. The turian nudged her head towards her quarters. "You need to get some rest, I can't have you passing out when I need you."
Brill dropped her head in defeat. Although Nyreen was right, she knew the possibility of heading to sleep again was slim at best. "Let me just finish inspecting the scouting reports and I'll…" her voice dropped off as a new blip appeared on their holographic map. "Activity." Brill stated.
Nyreen stepped beside Brill, noting the blip that had appeared. The turian nodded, it was a request from a team for assistance, it didn't look like they were in danger, but it was urgent. "Go check it out, and keep me posted."
Brill nodded, pushing herself away from the terminal and quickly turning to leave.
"Brill." Brill stopped short at her name, turning to look at the turian, who tossed her a gun. Brill caught the gun in the air, not even questioning it and strapping it to her side. Brill nodded once more and finally departed.
Getting to the area the request was made was a lot more difficult then expected. Since Cerberus taking over, they decided to quarantine different sections of Omega in order to establish control. This involved setting up electronic forcefields as barricades to control the revolting residents on the station. It was proving effective when Cerberus started to implement combat droids that could pass through the forcefields, but it could never stop Nyreen.
Brill was able to bypass a lot of the quarantined sections to get to the group of Talons, waiting patiently for backup. She had expected some problem they needed to be solved, like some conflict that needed to be resolved, but when she joined them, she didn't expect to see three Cerberus troops on their knees with hands behind their heads. A few Talons turned to see Brill's approached, one turian in the group saluting out of respect. Brill nodded to the group as she approached.
"What exactly is going on here?" Brill asked, the Talons starting to relax now that Brill was there to sort things out. From the look of it, here were a few Omega civilians in the crowd, clearly upset that the Cerberus troops were still alive.
The turian who saluted earlier gestured to the Cerberus troops with their gun. "There was an altercation with these troopers and the civilians. They were trying to uphold order and we intervened before things to too violent." Brill approached the Cerberus troops as the turian spoke, eyeing them crucially. Most encounters were just the mechs, they hardly ever encountered actual Cerberus troops, much less living ones. "Thought it might be worth keeping them alive." Brill knelt in front one of the troopers, seeing him eye to eye.
"Good thinking." She noted, still eyeing the trooper, his eyes narrowing at her, a look of contempt. "I doubt any of you would willingly give information, without at least some coaxing." The trooper she was eyeing spit on the ground right at her feet to emphasis that she was indeed correct. "But I'm not really here to coax." Brill admitted. She wasn't here to gather information, what could they possibly provide that they didn't already know? Not like the Talons didn't already know Cerberus's plans for Omega. Brill stood back up, turning to the Talons that kept guard around them.
"None of you get it do you?!" One of the Cerberus men spoke, spitting in disgust, making Brill turn back, slightly curious, he locked eyes with her, a look of disgust. "The Reapers are here, they've already attacked Earth!" Brill turned her head to look at the reactions from her Talons and the civilians, most were confused while the rest were genuinely concerned.
Brill stepped towards the Cerberus trooper who spoke, arms folded across her chest. "And?"
"Cerberus is the best chance any of have at handling the Reaper threat!" The trooper spat, only getting a curious look from Brill. He looked at his compatriots before looking back at Brill. "We need Omega if any of you slime want to even survive." He emphasized his feelings towards them by spitting on the ground.
Brill knelt in front of the trooper, looking at the others kneeling along the ground, her eyes narrowing as she looked squarely at the one who had decided to speak. "Should have asked nicely." As soon as she spoke, Brill's hand flew to the gun on her waist and she jabbed the barrel into one of the trooper's knees. Brill didn't even flinch as she pulled the trigger and the trooper screamed out in pain, falling over as his kneecap exploded. "Now." Brill stood, wiping her gun of the blood that had splattered. "Anyone else have something to say?" She asked the other troopers.
"You BITCH!" The Cerberus trooper screamed, he had fallen back, clutching his busted knee in pain.
"Wasn't talking to you." Brill waved her hand at the screaming trooper, clipping the gun back to her waist. She looked back at the others who knelt in silence. "No?" She nodded, stepping away from the group to stand beside her Talons, spinning on her heel to look at the Cerberus troops again. "Problem for you here, is that this station is a home to us… what did you call us?" She pointed at the still grimacing trooper on the ground. "Slime? Not that great, you could have done better with that." Brill shrugged, glancing at the Talons next to her, one smiling and nodding. "Right? I've heard better myself, made better." Brill turned back to the Cerberus troops, eyeing them, biting her bottom lip in the process. "Still…. Interesting, I think I'm good." With that, Brill turns on her heel, leaving the troops on the ground, walking towards the Talons.
"Boss." Brill stopped, just as she passed the Talons, one of them making her glance over her shoulder at them. "What should we do with them?"
Brill took another glance at the Cerberus troops, one still on the ground grimacing at the bloody shattered knee cap. "Let the people decide what they want to do." Brill nodded, looking back to the Talon that asked. "Nyreen should hear about what's going on." The Talon nods his understanding, letting Brill turn away to depart the scene. Before she leaves the area, she can hear the distant cries of the Cerberus Troops as the people of Omega dish out their vengeance.
Getting back to HQ was uneventful but smooth at least. When Brill arrives back at the holomap, Nyreen isn't anywhere to be seen. Thankfully, a Talon standing over the map directs Brill to Nyreen's quarters, where she heads right away. Brill found Nyreen just there, sitting at a desk and mulling over all the reports coming in via a datapad.
"Nyreen." Brill starts, heading directly to the turian who glances up at her name. "There's something you should hear."
"What is it?" Nyreen asks, setting down the datapad she was just reading, her hands folding on top of each other and resting on the desk.
"I dealt with the issue. The guys caught some Cerberus troopers and they've been dealt with. Except… one of them said something. One of the reasons Cerberus took the station." Brill begins, Nyreen's eyes narrowing. "The Reapers are here. Said something about how they've already attacked Earth."
Nyreen's shoulders instantly slump, her eyes going wide. "You… Are you sure he wasn't lying?"
Brill folds her arms across her chest, nodding. "He had no reason to. He was telling the truth." She glances to the side, thinking about it. "We haven't had any contact with anyone outside of Omega since the occupation, it'd make sense. There's been increasing traffic from Cerberus ships going in and out. Not just scientists from across the Omega 4 Relay. Military ships coming in from the normal relay."
Nyreen's eyes narrow as she leans across the desk. "You're sure about that assumption?"
Brill rolls her eyes, looking back at Nyreen. "It's not an assumption." To demonstrate, she thumbs open her omni-tool on her wrist, scrolling through the automated transcript of arriving ships. "Before the occupation we had dozen of science ships coming in and out from the Omega 4 Relay. Standard stuff and I recognize all the ship designations from back then. A few months ago we started getting other ships in, designations I've never seen before. They're new, which only means they're coming from somewhere else other than the Omega 4 Relay." She closes the omni-tool, having scrolled through the list of new ships. "Not only that." She folds her arms back across her chest. "You know the fucker on the chair has been doing upgrades to the station. Why else would he be increasing the station's defenses so much? Unless he expects a fight from anything."
Nyreen leans back, drumming her talons on the surface of the desk as she mulls it over. She glances up at Brill after a moment. "For when Aria T'loak returns." She shrugs.
Brill quickly glances away, stepping away from the desk to walk and stare out Nyreen's window into space. "And you really think that's going to happen?" she states, her voice low and emotionless.
Nyreen's mandibles flicker with interest. "For someone who stole from the Queen for years, I'm surprised you don't expect her to."
Brill's eyes narrow at the view outside the station. Her eyes darting across the specks of ships among the stars. A silence falls between them as Brill stares out the window, prompting Nyreen to stand and walk to stand beside Brill. "What do you plan on doing if that happens?"
Nyreen cocks her head to the side, trying to eye Brill's expression at her question, but the human keeps her eyes on the space outside. "If what happens?"
Brill bites her lip, keeping herself facing away from Nyreen. "If Aria does come back." She takes a soft smooth breath, mustering herself before she finally turns to Nyreen, looking up at the taller turian. "What do you plan on doing?"
Nyreen's eyes narrow at the question, leaning forward slightly, almost looming over the human. "Why would you ask me that?"
Brill quickly looks away, taking a step back from Nyreen before looking back at her, shrugging. "Just making sure we're on the same page, to deal with problem."
The response makes Nyreen's mandibles twitch angrily. "You're lying."
The smaller human holds Nyreen's piercing gaze, keeping her place as the turian bares down on her, a tense minute passes before Brill finally speaks. "I'm not lying."
"Just telling part of the truth." Nyreen hisses. "I know how you lie, Brill, that's not going to work with me." Brill keeps her lips sealed, holding Nyreen's gaze before the turian finally pulls back sighing as her shoulders slump. "Fine. Keep the truth to yourself." The words makes Brill quickly relax, especially when Nyreen finally steps back, giving Brill some distance. "Just promise me one thing." Brill's gaze snaps back to the turian, surprised. "You're not going to do something to get yourself killed or hurt."
Brill hesitates for a second, looking away from Nyreen for a moment as she considers it, locking her gaze back with her once more. "I promise." Nyreen sighs once more, turning away from Brill, satisfied with her answer. Brill watches the turian slowly trot back to her desk, placing her hand on the corner of it. Brill turns away from Nyreen, looking back out the viewport into space.
"If what those Cerberus men said is true, we should keep a watchful eye. I can't imagine the Reapers coming all the way to the Terminus. If they've attacked Earth already, that means they're far off from here. We're at the outskirts, they would have attacked here first." Nyreen chuckles at that. "Of course, they probably have a vendetta."
Brill continues to watch the ships fly past as Nyreen speaks, most of it standard. Even if the Reapers were to come all the way to the Terminus, Cerberus had so far armed Omega to the teeth. If rumors were true, the Reapers are powerful, but Cerberus would be able to put up a fight on Omega's behalf, mostly because they need the station and the EEZO they produce. At least for now they had no reason to worry if the Reapers had reached their galaxy.
A flash of light from the Relay catches Brill's eye, her gaze narrowing at the ship that just entered in. A small ship in the distance, but a Cerberus cruiser no doubt, typical… except. The past few months have been regulatory, ships coming in and out of relay at… a regular occurrence. Brill's eyes narrow, not even having to double check her assumption… a unplanned ship was arriving through the Relay. "Nyreen…." The turian looks up, having stopped mid-sentence to look at Brill.
Brill watches carefully as the ship makes its approach, everything seeming perfectly normal despite the irregularity. Until the cruiser suddenly open fires on another Cerberus cruiser, obliterating the unsuspecting ship. Brill's eyes go wide, she side steps from the viewport, her palms against the glass as the attacking ship blazes past. Suddenly flashes of more incoming ships are visible around the Relay, dozens of them. "What?"
Nyreen is standing beside her in seconds, watching the events unfolding just outside the station beside Brill. The turian's eyes narrow critically. "Looks like the Queen has returned to reclaim her throne."
Brill's head snaps to Nyreen, the turian perfectly serious in her words. "What?" Brill looks back out, watching as the station's canons begin to open fire on the ship. The other ships that arrived now opening fire, but the battle isn't very successful at all. The ship quickly catches fire, plummeting towards the station, both making out escape pods being ejected from the ship. Many escape pods flying towards the station and colliding into the structure.
Brill pushes off the viewport, running, but a hand catches her arm, halting her advance. "No." Brill turns back, gritting her teeth at Nyreen. "Stay here and manage the Talons. Cerberus will be retaliating if those escape pods made it in one piece."
Brill's eyes narrow at the orders, shaking her arm free from Nyreen's grip, nodding reluctantly. "And you?" She asks.
"I'm going to find out Aria's motives." Nyreen steps back to her desk, picking up a jacket with a large hood from the desk. "Make sure we don't get caught in the crossfire." She slips on the jacket pulling up the hood before returning to Brill's side. "Get on the security cameras and keep me posted on Aria's location throughout the station."
Brill nods once more, exiting Nyreen's quarters along side the turian. Nyreen quickly departs, waving to Brill as the station map begins to light up in alerts, every Talon gathered around it completely lost. Brill runs for the holomap as Nyreen departs, waving off everyone's concerns.
"Cerberus is being attacked. Aria T'loak is back to reclaim the station. There's a fleet outside trying to get in. Escape pods are colliding with the station." Brill explains, pulling up her omni-tool to access what security systems she can. Even without a direct line, she at least had some cameras thanks to Nova's systems in place. Except there's dozens of cameras across the station, and all the viewscreens were beginning to fill with Cerberus responses. Brill lowers the omni-tool for a second, glancing at the Talons gathered around her. "Cerberus is going to respond to the attack. Get men where we can before they start barricading places and cutting off contact. Make sure no civilians get caught in the crossfire." She glances back at her omni-tool still scrolling.
A brief moments passes, before Brill glances back up to realize no one had quite moved yet. "The fuck are you doing? I said move! NOW!" Brill hisses, the order making all of them jump and scramble. "You two." She points at two Talons, stopping them dead in their tracks. "Stay at the holomap and deal with those who are still out on the field. I don't want them out there blind to what's going on. Keep them updated and make sure our line of communication doesn't cease." They quickly nod, returning to the holomap to do just that. The chaos having been dealt with, Brill turns back to her omni-tool, her right hand going to her ear and tapping an earpiece.
"Nyreen." She states, not even waiting for a confirmation. "I don't have a clear view but it looks like Cerberus activity is heading towards the Defense System Station. Their forces are converging in that area; Hangar Bay 28." Brill stops, finding a camera in the bay. A crashed escape pod still smoking and surrounded by dead Cerberus troops. "One point of entry, looks like they're moving fast."
Brill frantically tries to follow the path, finding whatever camera she can that leads from the Hangar Bay 28 to the defense systems. The first ship was shot down by the turrets, their target to get the rest of their fleet in would be to head there, but damn. Even as Brill frantically flips through cameras, she's met with hallways filled with dead bodies of Cerberus troopers. "They're moving really fucking fast. I can't pinpoint where they are right now, but-"
Something catches in Brill's throat, her chest tightening as her hands still, a security camera view having been just pulled up on her omni-tool. Even from the blurred connection she could still make out the figure on the camera, her mouth slowly opening, her breathing stopped the omni-tool shaking only slightly.
"It's utterly impenetrable—with it's own secret hangar and dock." Brill's feed is barely connected to the source, the sound coming out a bit garbled but clear enough for her to recognize the voice. "Independent power source, life support, munitions. You'll see." Brill clenches her hand into a fist, struggling for a moment and reminding herself to breathe evenly, blinking several times to relax herself. Her hands ceases their shaking, but the tightness in her chest remains.
"Aria, look!" Brill's eyes narrow as the voice of another comes through, but whoever it is isn't visible via the camera. At the words, Aria T'loak looks up and locks onto the security camera, brow lowering at the realization. The asari takes a step forward, raising her gun. At the sound of a gunshot, the feed turns to static.