I don't own the Mass Effect.

The Second Saga – Drums in the Deep

Watcher in the Water

Date: 04-25-2184

Location: Omega, Terminus

Captain Gelvus proved to be a silver plated Turian, though he'd replaced his traditional clan markings with streaks of black paint that mimicked Aria's own. Of course that wasn't the only thing he'd copied from his mistress. Arriving at his headquarters in tower four, I'd expected at least something reasonably militant, probably located near the docks and setup to coordinate a small army if required.

Instead... we'd been guided to a strip club, complete with a balcony overlooking the main floor where the Captain held court.

"Yes, we know they're on neshi." He shook his head bemusedly, obviously more interested in the dancers on top of the bar than in our conversation. "They're always on something or another. A few months ago it was slought, with the managers setting up fights in the streets. Before that it was jump and you could barely open a door without walking into an orgy. They'll find something else as soon as they get bored of it."

Grunting, I accepted a drink from the human waitress, entirely ignoring the fact that the pale woman was nude except for exotic streaks of body paint that accented her... assets. "You've tested for it then?"

"Why bother?" His words were accompanied by an amused glance. "I just told you they're always on drugs, it's all that gets some of them through their time in these forsaken towers."

Bray leaned forwards onto the table as well, all four of his black eyes narrowing. The three of us were it for this particular meeting, the remainder of my companions down at one of the club's bars while trying to glean what they could from the guards patronizing the place.

"Everyone we encountered in tower two was stumbling around." Aria's principle assistant growled, "That's more than the usual level of shit. I want tests run on all of the food in that tower by the end of the week."

The Turian rolled his eyes but waved a clawed hand towards a subordinate. "Get someone on that."

"Something tells me you aren't taking this seriously." I spoke the words as I drummed the fingers on my left hand on the table, my armored gloves making ominous clacking sounds with each strike. "And here I thought Aria would trust the defense of these towers to someone competent."

The comment finally succeeded in getting his attention, his mandibles quivering with irritation as he turned to face me. "Spirits save me from uppity humans. Fine. You want to talk shop, let's get this over with."

My lips pressed together tightly, and I shot Bray a look. The Batarian heaved a put-upon sigh. "No, Kean, you can't kill him. Gelvus, just tell me that you did everything that Aria ordered you to do."

"Yes." The Turian flanged, his glare entirely focused on me. "The docks are more than secure, and I've locked down all of the transit bridges to them except for the one you used from tower two. I've got three teams rappelling down the old transit tubes to check the seals, I still say that's the way she'll come in."

I offered a noncommittal sound. "Old tubes?"

"The lift we took is the modern system." Bray grunted in explanation. "The old ones end in the mines beneath tower one, they were shut down in Patriarch's day when he finished boring the tunnel for the new one."

"Would have been nice to know about those yesterday." I muttered before glancing at the Captain, "Much as I hate to agree with you, that sounds like her best route in. How far down have they checked?"

"They just got started this morning." The Turian shrugged, looking somewhat mollified. "I'm expecting an update before the shift change."

Well that was something at least. "All right, what about the main lift? Could she override it?"

"No." Bray, at least, sounded positive about that. "What about the incoming freighters and shuttles? Are you-"

"I have smuggling scanners going through each ship that docks," Gelvus interrupted irritably. "And a full squad confirming the passenger manifest of every shuttle that comes in."

Leaning forwards onto the table, I fond myself nodding slowly. "All right. I'm guessing you can throw an entire dock into lockdown easily enough as well?"

"Of course."

"Good." I blew out a breath. "Right, so that's the two likely routes in covered, what about the management? Your message to Aria said they were off?"

The skin around his plates tightened, his head shaking in what I thought was the Turian equivalent of a grimace. "Yes. They're always been self-serving little shits at the best of times, but lately they've been... off."

I frowned. "Off like partaking, or off like they've been bought off?"

"Both." He let out a quiet, chirping grunt. "Jerreth, the Salarian in tower one, my people found him talking to shit that wasn't there three or four times now. He wouldn't be the first person to overindulge on shit but I'd never heard of him touching hallucinogenic crap before. Too professional."

"Huh." Reaching up, I rubbed at my mouth with one hand, frowning at nothing in particular. "Any more of that kind of thing?"

Gelvus nodded, glancing between me and Bray. "A few other members of his staff, and the staff in tower three. Similar crap. Normally I'd say they're just in the middle of a fad like the rank and file, but..."

"They don't usually hit the hard stuff." Bray was also frowning. "You think others have been bought off?"

The Turian shrugged. "They're refusing to accept that anything's wrong, keep telling me and my people that we must be seeing things."

"Covering their new habit?" I asked.

A scoffing sound preceded his words. "So long as it doesn't interfere with their work, I don't care what they're doing. Neither does Aria, and if they got into the senior ranks they know that well enough."

"So why hide it..." There was a massive, heaving sigh as the Batarian pulled a cigarette out from a pocket. He lit it in sharp, irritable motions. "We'll need tests of their crap as well."

"Already did. Nothing." He waved a taloned hand. "That they're on something is irrefutable, but they're covering up whatever it is. I don't have any proof that they've been talking with the bitch either, but my best guess is that she paid off freighter captains to pass messages. On the watch for that now, so if she tries it again we'll be able to find out what he's been saying and who's responsible."

Shifting my hand up, I ran it through my hair as I sighed. "And passed messages was enough for her to convince them to addict themselves and start mass dispensing a new drug to the population?"

"Of course not." Gelvus shook his head irritably. "They're not that stupid and she can't possibly be that convincing."

I grimaced. "And even the management's... odd new habits aside, they're not doing anything to threaten the mining?"

"Or the docks." Another shake of his head. "That's why it's odd instead of a Spirits damned emergency."

Bray's face twisted as he let smoke drift out of his open nose. "So we're stuck waiting on something to happen."

"Sounds like it." I sighed. "What about the staff in tower two?"

The Turian shifted a hand in a small gesture. "Apart from denying that their people are on neshi, they're normal."

Bray and I both gave him flat looks, but it was the Batarian who spoke. "Do they think you don't have eyes?"

"I don't find myself caring much what they think." He stated flatly. "The only thing that matters is what they are actually doing, and right now that is nothing."

"So…" I sighed. "You're not going to do anything more than what you're doing unless they do something overt."

"What is there to do, human? I'm well aware of the tactic of inciting panic and then allowing your enemy to wear themselves out." The Turian shook his head. "That is precisely what I believe to be happening here."

It was a classic Batarian strategy, and one that my own species could be fond of at times. First, set off every alarm your opponent had and make it stupidly obvious you were up to something. Let them panic, brace themselves… and then do nothing. Go elsewhere and get something else done and wait for their paranoia and exhaustion to peak before coming back and hitting them right when they didn't think you were actually going to do anything.

"At the moment," He continued, "My measures are an inconvenience to my soldiers and to the population, but they are not overly stressful or energy intensive. If you can give me a clear sighting that Zero-One is here or that she's been fucking with shit, I'll put everything into lock down and call a full alert. Until then, business has to continue on."

Translation: He was covering his ass against Aria losing any profits from the mines shutting down, and didn't want to shut the district's business down and end up having nothing to show for it.

"Suppose that's as good as we're going to get." I stated, taking a small pull from my drink. The rich flavor of a Thessian Kiss made my eyebrows go up, the harsh brandy entirely hidden. Normally I didn't care for that particular mix, but the bartender had known what they were doing.

"It is." Gelvus shrugged, already turning his attention back to his dancers. Aria's assistant barked at him that we weren't finished, making the Turian growl as the two of them began to argue. It didn't take long for the Batarian to win the debate and begin interrogating him about what other precautions he was taking, confirming the messages he'd sent to Aria, and a host of other details that I honestly didn't care about.

Especially since the Captain's attentions continued to wander, his brief moment of professionalism vanishing thanks to a Turian dancer striding up to take the center pole on top of the bar. She wasted little time in removing what clothing she'd had on, the argument pausing as both of my companions focused heavily on her bold movements.

For my part, I could only sigh; Turian women weren't really my thing. Across the table, Gelvus and Bray began to absently bicker as she danced, but it was clear that their attention was focused elsewhere. So instead of wasting my time listening to them, I pushed myself to my feet, grabbed my drink, and headed towards the stairs.

The soldiers who were evidently around to escort their boss were professional enough to glance at me as I went past, their attention only returning to the dancers after they realized I wasn't up to anything more nefarious than going down the stairs.

Things proceeded more slowly once I got to the lower level. The place might not have been Afterlife but it was apparently extremely popular amongst Gelvus's soldiers because it was packed with off duty troopers who were busily engaged in drinking, gambling at stations set away in the corners, or otherwise relaxing and watching the dancers.

Getting through the crowd was as much of an adventure as it had been the first time. While the patrons mostly got out of my way and gave me some space to try and move through, the staff was drawn to me like I had magnets attracting them. Even without the markings on my armor identifying me as, well, me, the obviously expensive coat and plating identified me as someone with far more wealth than they were probably used to seeing in the closed district.

Dancers prowling the floor got as close as they could, trying to slow or lure me to the private booths set away in the sides of the club. Asari were the boldest, but also the easiest to ignore, while a Turian woman actually let her claws drift along my shoulders as I moved past her. Honestly the most disconcerting was a barely covered Batarian male, who offered me a demurely submissive stance that left me extremely taken aback.

Unfortunately he did so near the bar that my friends had claimed entirely to themselves, and Shyeel and Illyan were openly snickering as I managed to awkwardly wave him away.

"What's wrong Cie?" The other Reyja'krem grinned at me. "Not going to take him up on that?"

"No." I glared at her as I took the seat on her left, Voya snorting and shaking her helmeted head from her place on Shyeel's other side. "I'm going to be hearing about that for the next year, aren't I?"

"The next decade." She winked at me, "How'd the meeting go?"

I sighed into my drink, trying not to think about the kind of jokes she'd be able to come up with. "About as well as you'd expect."

"That bad?" Illyan rumbled, easily looking over our friends' heads. "No sightings or anything?"

"No." I shook my head and took a small sip from my glass, "Maybe another route in, but the Captain has a team investigating to make sure it's sealed. Plus the docks are apparently locked down pretty tight, we can check on that tomorrow."

"So that leaves what," Voya asked. "Meeting with the management staff?"

"Soon as we find a place to get some lunch." I answered with a nod, grimacing a bit before I dropped some of what I'd just learned. "Oh, and the management staff is the potentially hallucinating management staff."

Shyeel let out an irritated groan, her mirth fading as her shoulders slumped. "Tell me you're joking."

"No... They've apparently got their own drug issues." My head shook as I sighed, taking a longer sip from my drink. "At least, the ones in tower one and three do. The worst he said about the managers in tower two was that they're refusing to admit that anything is wrong."

"Sounds like this afternoon is going to be smooth sailing then." Illyan shook her head, "But we don't need to find food Cie, already ordered it."

I glanced up at her. "What did I get?"

"Jerush Filet." She grinned at my surprise. "I know right? Wouldn't expect a place like this to have the expensive stuff but apparently the Captain keeps a few good chefs on retainer."

"Probably so he can gorge himself while he watches tits bounce around." Voya muttered, her own irritation evident as she carefully inserted a straw through her mask. She wouldn't be eating good food, not in a public place like this. We'd have to pay her back at some point, maybe Shyeel and I could force Illyan to cook for her. That was always amusing to watch.

"I think he prefers his own species women." I jerked a thumb over towards the main bar, where I assumed the dancer who'd inspired me to leave was still giving them a show. "He all but started drooling when she showed up. So did Bray."

"Really?" The large Asari turned to glance in that direction, shaking her head. "Huh. Don't see it, I mean, tight ass sure, but the rest… never understood what Tris saw in Turians."

"I know." Shyeel groaned. "The spurs, and the chafing."

"We really don't need to hear this." Voya growled.

"Agreed." I muttered, only for both of the Asari to predictably ignore us as they started debating the pros and cons of sleeping with various species. It was a conversation we'd had to suffer through more than once, but they always seemed to find new ways to discuss the same things. Probably just to make sure that Voya and I stayed annoyed the entire time.

Thankfully the food wasn't long in coming, the Turian bartender throwing the plates in front of us and handing Voya what looked like a thickly blended smoothie. He, at least, was properly clothed unlike the rest of the staff, and if anything seemed relieved that the four of us had claimed his bar. Not that he actually said anything, but the relaxed manner in which he started cleaning things behind the bar spoke volumes.

The conversation, to my and Voya's irritation, largely remained on sex throughout the meal. Probably thanks to all of the barely clothed beings gyrating on poles or on top of tables elsewhere in the establishment. I was mostly able to stay out of it, thanks to not being stuck in between Shyeel and Illyan, and started going through my mail while they alternated between teasing and harassing an increasingly annoyed Voya by asking her what she thought of one dancer or another.

Flicking through my omni-tool, I sighed at the dozen or so messages from both Nynsi and Ayle. None of them were actually directed at me, but they'd felt the need to include me anyway just to keep me updated with what they were doing. For the most part that seemed to be Nynsi working out a way to smuggle Balak back to the Hegemony, while Ayle continued to get the main unit prepared to enter the war.

"Anything good?" Shyeel asked, looking around my shoulder.

I shrugged. "Ayle might have a mission for the main unit, a warm up raid out near the dark rim; taking out a mining operation supporting Ganar."

"Sounds…" She spoke around a mouthful of her own drink, "Simple. Anything for us?"

"No… huh."

"What?"

I rolled a shoulder. "Nothing from Red, or from Captain Elissa. I sent them both messages when we first got here… I expected to at least get something back from them."

The scarred Asari frowned. "That's the gang leader, and that Eclipse Captain you know right?"

"Yeah." I scratched at my goatee, puzzling over that a bit. "I asked them if they knew anything, and if they had time to talk with us once we were done here."

There was a quiet sound from my sort-of friend. "Only been a couple of shifts… still, weird that they didn't at least have an underling get back to you. Oh, reminds me, you heard from Washana lately?"

"Just before we left." Shutting my omni-tool down with a flick of my fingers, I pushed my plate away and waved the bartender over to get us the bill. "She's on Illium, in Nos Irrail and bored out of her mind trying to teach trainee medics."

"Poor maiden." Shyeel grinned bemusedly, "Maybe we should-"

"KEAN!" The music stuttered and then cut, everyone whipping their heads up towards the Captain's perch. The Turian was leaning heavily on the railing, staring right at us. His shouts continued even as I saw Bray begin shoving his way down the stairs and rushing in our direction. "The lift team found something! Time to work for a living mercenary!"

Fucking… well, at least we'd gotten some food in us first.

"Helmets on, let's get moving." My feet hit the floor as I spoke, the crowd rapidly clearing the space around us as our legs got moving. Bray met us near the door, all five of us emerging into the broad, circular hallway that ran around the ecology tower.

"Gelvus received an emergency transmission." Bray growled as we ran for the bank of lifts that would take us down to the transit level. "Indicating that the squad he sent to the old lifts found a breach in the top plug. The bitch could already be here."

"Shit…" Of course they had. Athame just couldn't give us a day or two to actually acclimate to this fucked up place and work things out on our own. "Did they find any evidence down there? Did the miners see anything?"

"No word." He replied, slowing sharply with the rest of us before smacking the summon button on the nearest elevator. "And no."

Illyan swore quietly, shifting herself around a bit, reaching back to touch the boxy heavy weapon slung across her back as if to make sure it was still there. "Athame's ass, how could they not have? Paid off?"

Bray seemed to hesitate for less than a second, just long enough to make me notice. "The guards would have gotten them all out of there before they started checking. As for before, she probably wouldn't have had to spend much to get them to look the other way."

"Bray…" I lowered my voice. "Athame's ass, this is not the time to hide crap."

"This is Omega. There is always time." He replied as the elevator arrived, all five of us quickly piling in. "It won't affect your mission."

Illyan shook her head as we began to plummet downwards. "And we're just supposed to take your word for it?"

"You don't have a choice Asari." A tight edge entered his voice. "I've got my orders from Aria, you don't like it, take it up with her."

The only member of my cadre swore quietly, her helmet shifting in my direction. I could only shake my head and shrug, concealing my own irritation as best I could. In any other situation, for a normal contract, I probably would have held him under the water a bit to try and get some answers even if it meant walking away from the mission. But here… shit. It was Krom's partner, and there was no guarantee we'd be able to find the bitch again anytime soon.

We just didn't have the time to interrogate him about whatever the fuck he and Aria were hiding. Then again, there was a chance, albeit a small one, that he was telling the truth and that it wouldn't actually affect us. Probably something to do with the actual mining process, something they didn't want the other Warlords to know. Fuck, maybe Omega was running low on eezo or something. If that was the case then it really wasn't relevant, and I didn't care what they were hiding.

Of course it could just as easily have been something far more important… shit. I'd forgotten how much I hated this station. Nothing was ever simple.

Further conversation largely died off after that, with our few questions about what we could expect to find boiling down to 'your guess is as good as mine'. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Gelvus also proved to be singularly unhelpful once Bray got him onto our communications channel. Zero-One, or someone else, had evidently started jamming his people, but he did at least confirm that he'd gotten another two squads into position to barricade the primary entrance to mine one.

It took us a good twenty minutes to get there, having to sprint across the enclosed bridge to get over to tower one, where we then took another lift down beneath the asteroid's surface. At one point it locked midway between two levels, forcing Bray to enter a personal override into the control panel in order to proceed further.

"Welcome to Omega's mines." The Batarian grunted once the doors opened. "Don't touch anything."

"I don't feel like being coated in… whatever the fuck is on that shit." Voya muttered as we followed him out into an expansive cavern. It was boxy, obviously bored out specifically to hold the piles upon piles of machinery that loomed over us in the dim lighting. They'd obviously been used, hard, for whatever their purpose had been, but were now coated in dust mixed with grease and oils and various other fluids.

"Good, stay away from it, this old shit needs to get moved over to mine three and we don't need it fucked up by tourists." A new voice cut in as an armored figure emerged from behind what might have once been a treaded mining laser. If he was unsettled by the fact that I and my friends all pointed our weapons at him, he didn't show it. "That you Bray?"

"Nux." Aria's assistant shook his head, "What did you find?"

The other Batarian jerked a thumb over his shoulder, more soldiers emerging from where they'd been concealing themselves as he did. They were all Batarian, and like their apparent leader, had covered their dark armor in as much grime as possible to better hide themselves. Of course a quick tap of my helmet's controls shifted my vision over to thermal, making them more than visible, but I'd give them at least some credit for making the attempt. "Come on, best to show you lot."

"I'd rather be warned ahead of time." I spoke over top of Bray's attempted to agree with him, pointedly not moving or collapsing my weapon. "If it's all the same."

Several of the soldiers started to raise their guns only to pause as Nux held a hand out. His own attention seemed mostly on Illyan and her boxy new toy that was not-so innocently pointed roughly in his direction. "Kean, as paranoid as your reputation suggests. I've got a breach in the top lift plug and what might have been a rappelling system setup farther down."

I grunted, relaxing minutely, motioning for everyone to lower their weapons a bit. "Not to the top?"

"No," His head shook, "Maybe to the second seal, but we don't have any biotics to judge if she could have made the jump from there, especially with all the crap in the way."

"What kind of crap?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Lift cables, pieces from the braking systems that were broken when they installed the plugs, pieces from the Pillars alone know what. Usual crap you get in rushed construction."

Shyeel let out an annoyed sound before muttering across our private comms. "I'd have to see it Cie."

Strangling the irritation took a lot of effort, but I managed to avoid cursing aloud as I nodded and started walking forwards. Bray gave me a pointed glare with all four of his eyes that I entirely ignored, focusing more on how the soldiers smoothly took up escort positions around us.

"I'm close enough to take at least two of them." Voya murmured, staying a good meter behind me while Illyan and Shyeel took up positions on our flanks, their own attention obviously focused on our escorts as well.

Rather than respond verbally, I shifted my left hand away from my body to flick my fingers in sign language, thanking her before instructing Illyan to focus on the leader. Her own hands were occupied lugging the mine launcher, but she shifted her helmet in acceptance as she settled her vision slit onto Nux and Bray.

Despite our paranoia, nothing untoward happened as we moved out of the machinery and into another open space. The remainder of the guards were present here, setup behind makeshift barricades with their attention entirely focused on a massive hanger-sized door that had evidently been installed to seal this cavern away from the remainder of the mines. It had been cracked open a good five meters, giving them a reasonable kill zone against anyone that tried to get out while also giving them enough room to easily get equipment in and out of the next area.

While our escorts peeled off to join the cordon, their evident leader led us on and through the door, speaking again as he did. "We didn't see any sign that the door had been moved since it was last sealed."

"Which was when?" I asked, glancing around the new cavern. It was more or less the same as the other, with a similar amount of crap that left me feeling oddly claustrophobic. "Wouldn't it be open for the miners?"

His helmet shook as he led us on. "This section of the mine's been closed off since the first sighting of that bitch."

"Athame's ass." Shyeel growled, "It's been closed longer than that, you think we can't see the rust on this crap? These machines haven't been used in years."

Bray let out a disgusted sound, "You think we keep the latest machines near a lift that we shut down? This is all backup equipment, only miners who come here are the ones who start it up once every few months to make sure it's working."

Illyan shook her head. "Aria's got more money than the goddess, why's she keeping-"

"We're not here to discuss the details of our operations." He cut her off with an annoyed snap, "Be lucky you're in here at all."

My lip twitched as our pace slowed, voices becoming more clearly audible as we approached our apparent destination. "This mine is bored out, isn't it? It's empty."

"We are not talking about this Kean." His voice lowered further as we turned around another decrepit mining laser, his feet abruptly stopping his four dark eyes narrowed.

Frowning, I stepped around him and Nux… and my own rising wave of paranoia finally hit the beach.

There was a short squad hard at work around a massive plate that had been thrown over a whole in the ground, the visible wreckage of elevator equipment all around to indicate just what it had been used for.

That was more or less expected… but there were two obvious problems.

One, their leader was an Asari, a purple skinned woman who was already turning to frown at us as we approached…and Nux had said that they hadn't had a biotic with them.

Two… the soldiers under command were still visibly trying to remove the slab covering up the old elevator shaft, making it entirely impossible for them to have radio'd an emergency message to Gelvus saying they'd found out anything.

"Nux?" The Asari asked, her tones ones of obvious confusion. "What are you doing-"

I had to give Bray credit, he had his own gun drawn and shoved into the other Batarian's neck less than a second after I had my own shoved against his right eye. Less welcome was the fact that he pulled the trigger where I didn't, leaving me coated in dark red blood and us without a prisoner to interrogate.

"What the fuck!?" The Asari shrieked, starting to draw her own weapon before freezing, her eyes going wide in horror.

It took me all of a heartbeat to hear the same noise… that of a massive door beginning to grind slowly shut.

Branded Survivor

As traitorous ambushes went, this one was pretty fucking solid. Even with all of us paranoid and ready to fight, we hadn't been ready for the levels our opponents had gone through. We'd barely had time to throw a desperate kind of plan together in the sprint back towards the closing door… and it wasn't much of a plan to be honest. Goddess willing it would buy us some time.

I grunted as Illyan handed me her mine launcher while I tossed her my Kishok, trying to unload some weight so that I'd still be able to walk after this. It was a bitch to do it on the run, but we managed to not drop either of the heavy weapons as we emerged from the rusting equipment to see the massive door sliding inexorably closed.

"Cover her!" Cie snapped as everyone else, including the local soldiers who were just as panicked as we were, starting blasting away through the opening at the same time as the men and women on the other side began to light up their kill zone.

Frantically remembering everything that I could about what I'd seen on our way in, I sucked in a tight breath before tightening my shoulders and focusing my biotics.

The cave whirled before I slammed back into existence on the enemy's side of the archway. Bullets promptly began to smack at my barriers, and I immediately flashed up and to my right before they could get a solid bead on me.

Exhaustion washed over me as I stumbled back into the galaxy on top of one of the wrecked mining vehicles. It took a quick series of impacts to my back to get me moving again, diving into the vehicle's bed to get out of their line of sight.

"I'm out." I groaned into my mic, "Trying to get an angle."

Silence greeted me, drawing out an oath as a quick check of my HUD confirmed that I was being jammed. Shaking my head, and reminding myself I didn't have time to worry about what everyone else was doing, I hefted the bulky weapon onto the rusted metal edge before poking my head up.

Strangely no incoming fire greeted the tiny motion, and I realized they must have thought they'd killed me when I'd collapsed forwards.

Muttering a quiet prayer of thanks for the small mercy, I jiggled Illyan's new toy around, trying to aim it. Cie had only had the time to link it to her armor's systems, so I was stuck using the crude sights he'd welded on to the side of the thing.

"Right…" I murmured to myself as I caught sight of my target, the machinery steadily working to close the repurposed hanger door and trap my friends within the mine. "…there."

As much as I liked to make fun of him, I'd give Cieran credit for making weapons. Tracered armor piercing rounds belted out from the main barrel, letting me correct my aim as I pushed the secondary trigger down. The orange discs of low-tech incinerate mines began spitting themselves free in rapid sequence, a continuous stream of explosions beginning to tear apart the equipment even as voices shrieked in alarm and fury.

I couldn't help but grin a little at the raw destruction, even though the mine magazines emptied themselves in a matter of moments and left me trying to slice apart crap with the gun proper. It seemed to be working, the door had shuddered to a halt, so that was one mission accomplished.

Now for the harder part… getting back to everyone else alive.

Worse, my alone time was evidently up; Incoming fire began to hammer at my cover, with more than a few rounds penetrating the thin skinned vehicle to slap at my barriers as I flinched.

Swearing, I heaved myself up for the brief moment I needed to throw myself out and onto the ground. Landing hurt, as did the weight of the stupid gun colliding with my chest as I hauled it with me, but at least I was back in cover for a breath.

I was scrabbling to my feet when I heard a new series of sounds over the gunfire, deep, ponderous footfalls accompanied my metallic groaning as if…

Darting forwards, I jerked my head around the cab just in time to see a combat mech finish shoving some kind of eezo hauler out of its way. The truck had to have weighed several tons but the mech didn't seem to have any problems with rolling the fucking thing aside like it was nothing more than a maiden's toy.

It was… shit, it was massive, Glitch wouldn't have come up to the bloody thing's waist. Four massive legs were propelling it with surprising speed, while a hunched, armored torso loomed above them. One of its arms pointed vaguely in my direction, and I barely hit the ground before a missile screamed past my cover to blow apart something behind me.

Another hit my own truck while I was trying to get up and run, the blast throwing me right back onto the ground as the footfalls drew closer. Grabbing the mine launcher, I tried to flick it over to the overload magazine only to see that a massive piece of shrapnel had torn into the guns's side..

So much for even trying to fight it then… time to run.

"Sorry Illyan…" Letting the wrecked weapon fall onto the ground, I scrambled to all fours and lunged out into the open. Forcing everything else aside, I stared at nothing but the, now slim, opening between the door and the wall before hurling myself into a third biotic rush.

I mostly made it, exhaustion roaring up as I stumbled and fell onto my belly in the middle of the archway. Covering fire that had been keeping my friends back instantly shifted to start hammering at me, my barriers collapsing under the deluge.

A massive hand seized me by the back of my neck, hauling me around the corner before they could get through my coat and armor as well, Illyan's voice rising in a shout. "You get it!?"

"Obviously!" I shouted back. She and most of the others were up against the door, using it as cover while Bray and one of the soldiers worked to bandage the Asari officer, who'd apparently taken a round. "Just for now though, and we've got a new problem!"

Bray let out a groaning snarl, glancing over from where he was working. "They've got one of the mechs, don't they?"

A heavy missile shot through the maybe two meters of doorway that was still open before I could respond, slamming into a scaffold that had been erected around some kind of burrower. Neither of the, apparently loyal, soldiers firing down from that vantage point managed to get away… leaving us down two more guns.

Grimacing, I glanced around again. Two more bodies were on the ground near where we'd first emerged from the scrapyard, probably killed in the opening moments. Our vague plan had been for me to buy us enough time to come up with a better breakout plan, but if we were already down four people… shit.

"Shit." Cieran muttered, "What model?"

"One of Patriarch's old Krogan designs." The Batarian flinched as another missile streaked past, this time impacting harmlessly somewhere in the background. "It's big, unstable, and only supposed to be turned on in case of a full fucking emergency. They shouldn't even have the activation codes."

"Athame's ass…" The human growled, shoving his way past everyone else before risking a quick glance around the corner. He'd barely gotten back before a round ricocheted off the floor, likely having been aimed right at his skull "Shit!"

"Is there another way out?" Voya asked, her glowing eyes flicking around. "And do you think you knocked the door out entirely?"

In response the massive thing shuddered and groaned, shifting ever so slightly before catching again. Everyone froze, though no one relaxed even when it stopped moving again. It was just a matter of time before they managed to get it going again, and even tiny increments would eventually leave us trapped in here.

"We… we could go into the tunnels, it would take us to the other mines." The Asari squad leader groaned as one of her subordinates frantically bandaged her stomach "Long walk."

"They'll have those sealed." Bray growled.

"Won't there be miners in the other sections?" Voya asked. "They can't all be with Gelvus, if we could convince them to-"

"The mines are empty, Quarian." His head shook irritably as he cut her off. "All of them."

All four of us just kind of stared at him, then Cieran let out a vicious oath even by his standards. "They're all bored out? Where the fuck does her eezo come from?"

"Her colonies." I shook my head as my brain ran ahead of his for once. "I'm guessing she found an eezo heavy world. The 'miners' must just be dock workers who transfer the eezo from one freighter to another to make it seem like it's still coming from Omega."

Bray's lips twisted in a snarl. "We can discuss this later."

"Agreed." Cieran muttered before risking another glance. "Shit... they're moving the mech towards to the door, I think they're going to have it just shove the thing along its tracks."

Illyan paused as she started to rise. "It's that big?"

"Fucker dwarfs a Ymir." He muttered. "Shyeel, any ideas?"

"Working on it…" I glanced over at Bray. "We need more firepower, don't you have a panic button?"

"Already hit, they're jamming it somehow because I haven't gotten an answering ping."

"Athame's bleeding azure…" Hissing, I stumbled to my feet and got over to where Cie was blindly firing off tech mines, trying to disrupt some of the desultory covering fire. "What are you thinking?"

"I think we're pinned in." I could practically see the storm swirling as he tried to figure a way out. "Shit, they'll be ready for you try and go out there again… and with the angle you'd be exposed to that fucking sniper before you could charge."

And what the fuck could I do on my own even if I went out there? I couldn't exactly run to get help, not if Gelvus had been the one to set us up. They'd have the lift locked down for sure, and even if I did somehow get up it they'd just kill me when it got to the upper levels. Or override the lift and smash it into the ground or something.

The mine launcher had been our only heavy weapon, and even with it I don't think we could have taken the heavy thing out, not with nearly twenty of Aria's soldiers blasting away at us at the same time.

"I think we're fucked Cie." I offered quietly. "At least, in this direction."

He was silent for a few moments, and then let out a hissing sigh between his teeth. "Get away from the door, get into cover. Illyan, Bray, help the wounded girl. Everyone else help me cover them."

While the two of them got the wounded woman up, I pulled out my pistol and joined Cie in providing at least a desultory amount of cover fire to make it clear that we weren't going to let anyone chase us.

"Lost the mine launcher I see." Voya noticed as she pulled up on my right, throwing an overload at a curve to hopefully annoy someone on the other side.

I grimaced. "Shrapnel tore it open."

Cieran's irritated mutter broke off into a pained exclamation when a biotic explosion hurled him backwards. My eyes widened as an Asari emerged from a biotic charge right where he'd been standing, her armor black except for where stylized flames had been painted onto her forearms and legs.

That was all the reaction I had time for before a biotic throw tore through my weakened barriers and hurled me bodily into Voya. We went down hard, cursing and tumbling as we fought to get to our feet. I managed to get my head up in time to see Zero-One, it just had to be her, execute the Turian soldier who'd been lagging behind us with a blast form a short-barreled shotgun.

Illyan let out an oath as she slung a hand forwards, letting Bray take the wounded woman as she through a gout of warpfire towards her opponent. The assassin avoided it with a nimble spin before hurling a much more concentrated blast right back at her, forcing the massive maiden to dive aside.

Athame's tits but the bitch was fast.

Cie was just getting back to his feet, and I was just extracting my legs from Voya, when she got to Bray and his injured cargo.

The poor maiden died more or less at once, the point-black shotgun round tearing through her feeble attempt to get a barrier up to protect them. I expected her to do the same to Aria's assistant, but instead she simply batted aside his pistol before grabbing him by the neck and turning to face the way she'd come.

Jerking my weapon up, I aimed in the direction she was looking and started shooting just as she flashed the pair of them across the cavern. Doing that with Cieran usually left me barely conscious, but the bitch merely wobbled a little before kicking Bray out through the, once again, shuddering door.

If she was bothered by my shots, or Cieran's now that he was aiming in the right direction, she didn't show it, simply letting them impact her barriers as she cockily strutted out and around the massive door.

Our last futile shots smacked into the metal as it clanged shut.

Flash Warning

Flash Warning::All Citadel Fleet Warships. SA prowlers have confirmed increased activity beyond the Persues Veil. The Geth may once again be gathering for a run through the Terminus and into Citadel space. Per Council decree, the fleet is now going to war footing condition two. Coordinate with member fleets in regards to relay blockades.

Next up is chapter 3: The Long Dark

And now this saga well and truly begins. Apologies for the long delay, writer's block and some… let's call them personal problems really sapped my motivation. Hopefully both will soon be done with so I can resume at full speed…

Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."

Thanks, Kat

Review Responses:

l8lnleylurker: She was aware of it, to the extent that they people in Zeta are largely always on something or another. Gelvus wasn't lying about that part.

SNicole25: He hasn't met Cessa, but she's out in the dark rim and is the weakest of the four Asari warlords regardless. But your point remains valid, took him four stories or so, but he's finally getting up there.

Tallygirl02: Those exact creatures aren't in the mines with them…

envy34: The hints to what is happening are already in place, more will be coming… and it's far more than just what 01 has been doing.

Lfan8: Lol, no overgrown Hanar, just a mech they had no ability to fight. Or maybe the watcher was 01… either works. As for Trena's abduction, it's not really related, but there's definitely a 'worst timing ever' factor there.

BJ Hanssen: Not quite, the plan is a little more subtle and nefarious than mere explosions.

Taryn: Always good to hear from a new reviewer, thanks for the kind words. : )