I don't own Mass Effect, nor will I profit from this story.

Chapter 9: The Adversary

This kind of meeting shouldn't be held this long after sunset.. I don't care that we only just got the blueprints an hour ago.

One of my hands ran across my face in exasperation as I stared at the readout on the main table in front of us. "This is a fucking nightmare."

"I hate to agree with you," Che'hat, Re'hats more dour twin, grumbled, his jowls shaking as he sighed. "But in this case a 'fucking nightmare' is probably understating things."

Xerol glanced severely at us both, his cane thumping irritably. "You are not helping. Control yourselves or go elsewhere."

I nodded tiredly, "Sorry." Still a fucking nightmare.

The object of our consternation was the the floating image of our target. Apparently the facility where the slaves were being 'rehabilitated' into something resembling health before being carted off to the highest bidder. If we could take it, preferably with some of the high ranking officers alive, we'd have all the ammunition we needed to get the Eclipse called in like the cavalry.

Assuming the cavalry was made up of a few thousand angry, murdering Asari led by a total psychopath.

In a perfect world, there would even be enough evidence around to convince I-Sec to move in as well, and maybe something that would warrant Aethyta being able to convince the Council of Thirty on Thessia to send in the Justicars, or for her to call in a favor a Spectre apparently owed her. Any of those would work to at least keep the Eclipse kinda sort-of honest.

Of course, that's all a fucking pipe dream if we can't pull this off.

The compound was massive, apparently it had been a water treatment facility that had been decommissioned when a newer one was built a mile or so away. But rather than be demolished, the True Sons had slipped in and bought the place, probably at their master's behest. It was definitely big enough to hide what they were doing, with more than a dozen buildings occupying the grounds.

"My rookies cased the place yesterday." Marn grunted, "They've got people dressed up as private security, that gray armor like those True Suns were wearing, all over the place. At least twenty of them in sight at all times, figure triple that total. And that's just the external guards. We have no idea how many Blue Suns are actually inside."

"Or True Sons." I pointed out tiredly. "If there's anywhere they'd give the kids actual weapons this would be it. And if there's enough of them.."

"They could overwhelm us." Nynsi patted my hand in agreement. She'd managed to calm down over the last few days, fully I mean, and I wasn't sure who was more relieved; me or Xerol. "Uncle, even if we bring in everyone.. all six squads, our reserve staff from the mansion, and what few mercenaries you know on planet.. we can't put more than seventy guns on the ground."

"If that." His cane twisted in his hands as she stared at the image with his upper eyes, the lower pair flicking across our faces. "But we might not have a choice. I-Sec cannot support us openly, and the proof Aethyta needs to bring in her own support lies within."

Re'hat grimaced from his brother's other side, leaning back in his chair. "It's going to be bloody boss. We're going to lose people on this one."

Everyone winced a bit at that. We'd been lucky since the mansion assault. A few wounds, a few nicks and bruises.. but no major injuries or deaths. Of course, we hadn't really had to fight the actual Blue Suns since then, and they'd been almost entirely responsible for the people we'd lost in the attack here. If we had to go up against equal, or superior, numbers on ground of the enemy's choosing.. we were in all kinds of trouble.

"We have to think this through then." I spoke up again, keeping my voice level. "Look at it from every angle."

Xerol turned his full gaze to me. "Kean? Do you wish to run this one?"

A hand ran through my hair as I tried to think. I might not be the best in the fight yet, but planning, thinking, that I could do dammit. "I can take it, but I'll need to think on this with Ghai. Preferably with Trena, Nyn, and Marn in here as well. How long can you give us?"

The latter three, the last in particular, looked at me in surprise. Which only grew when Xerol contemplated me for a long moment before nodding.

"It will take me a few days to bring in the outside help, I'll forward my Harath'krem their information." he let out a quiet sigh, lower eyes closing tiredly. "The morning after next I expect a briefing on your plan, with our attack planned no later than the end of the week."

"We'll be ready, Uncle." Her hand squeezed mine as she spoke, "If you may excuse us? I think it best that we adjourn for the evening. We will accomplish little as tired as we are."

"Of course. Re'hat, as Marn will be occupied, you will be commanding the mansion's security. Che'hat, please see make sure that Yrrich is fully capable of handling his team.. V'Rae is not quite sure he is fully over his illness yet." he pushed himself upright, leaning heavily on his cane as he did so. "Ah, I had almost forgotten. I received confirmation from the Citadel earlier today. They've brought Iyate out of her coma and is awake and responsive."

"Knew that bitch was too stubborn to die." Trena shook her head while the twins both laughed. "What about that girl that saved the ape, Ran-whatever?"

"Rane'li." Nynsi corrected her primly. "Is resting comfortably with some of Aethyta's people watching over her."

Comfortably was probably an overstatement. I'd only talked to her once over a call, and she'd been going stir-crazy in her hospital room, stuck on her stomach so that the doctors could keep working on her back. We'd both thanked each other for what had happened in the garage, made small talk, then the docs had made her cut the call.

Still.. good to know that they'll both be all right in the long term. Rather not have more people that I know.. well, I don't know Iyate, but Xerol named her his Harath'krem for a reason, rather not have her die.

"Good of her to live." Marn chuckled, "Always enjoyable to hear stories about your grandfather."

Xerol shook his head, but there was a smile on his face all the same. "Indeed. Now, I will allow you all to rest."

The meeting broke up slowly, the various squad leaders talking quietly with one another as they rose to follow our host out. For my part I stayed still, yawning into a hand as Ghai rose to push Trena's hoverchair closer to my and Nyn. Marn, seated opposite me, waited until everyone else had cleared out before talking.

"All right Kean, we're not exactly best friends here. Why did you want me on this?" Which was largely true. I'd always been polite with her, and she'd never really antagonized me, but we were acquaintances, coworkers, at best.

I blearily focused on her. "You're the only actual soldier of the six squad leaders Marn. The twins and Horthan were all freelance mercs, but they're not used to this kind of a fight. Plus I've seen you whipping those Turians into shape, you're a pretty good leader on your own."

The unlovely female crossed her arms. "Flattery won't get you anywhere."

I waved a hand, "Call it an honest opinion."

Her head tipped slightly to the left, "Fair enough. Well in my honest opinion, we're fucked here."

Trena, who had been digging her pipe out of a pouch dangling from an armrest, shook her head as she lit the thing. "Not helpful Marn."

"Not helpful, sure, but look at this." A hand snapped out to indicate the various points, "Here, here, and here, sniper nests with more than a mile of line of sight. That looks like a full sensor suite hidden into that water tower, which means we're fucked if we try a rapid assault. Combine the two and we have to land a long ways off, then come under fire the entire way in."

"It's a water treatment plant right?" Trena mumbled around her pipe, smoke slowly curling as she puffed at it, "Pipes?"

"No." I sighed, "We can't be that lucky. They have to have sealed those off to stop any of the slaves from trying to escape. I suppose we could check, but I'm not hopeful."

Nynsi leaned in a bit, and tired as I was I still couldn't resist glancing down at her chest. Which earned me a kick to the shin, which was totally worth it. "If we cannot sneak underground, what about over it? If we could hijack one of their slave imports, or food haulers, and attack from the interior.."

"Risky." Ghai grunted. "Communications."

She winced but nodded, accepting the point. "Right, the warehouse raid. We'd have to jam their radios to take the trucks, and that would alert them. Where does that leave us?"

"Totally fucked." Trena sighed, "And not in the good sense of the word."

"Marn," I gestured at the water tower she'd indicated, "What if we took out that sensor suite?"

"They'd probably have backups if it was a military unit.." her voice trailed off for a moment before she nodded slowly, "But it's possible that it's their only major cluster. It's the only building with sufficient height for the coverage they'd want."

"Uh huh.." My fingers manipulated the image, pulling it back until I could highlight the nearest major traffic routes overhead. "This stream goes almost directly over the facility, the Nos Astra to Nos Irrail corridor."

Everyone else leaned in a bit to examine it, and Trena nodded slowly, a hand pulling her pipe from her mouth. "Bombing run or airdrop?"

"Anyone actually have experience jumping out of shuttles?" When Marn snorted, I let my lips twitch, "Didn't think so. We rig up a shuttle as a bomber and take out that tower. No reason for slaves or anyone important to be in it, right?"

"There shouldn't be." Nynsi nodded slowly, "I would expect my mother to be in the main building itself. As the largest structure, it's the most likely place for them to process the slaves. I cannot imagine her or the other Blue Suns wishing to be that far from so many potential problems."

Marn cut in before we could get too much positivity going, "Assuming that we can modify one of our shuttles in that way, which will be a massive pain in the ass in the time frame we're looking at, and find a smart bomb capable of hitting that target.. then what? We drop in, guns blazing, and get cut to pieces the moment we land?"

My Tarath'shan quickly rose to my defense, "I am not hearing a better idea Marn, and we had not reached that point yet."

"Quiet." Ghai growled, "Both. Late, get to sleep."

"She's right. Let's hit our beds and come back to this tomorrow morning." Trena covered a yawn before extinguishing her pipe. "And at least we have on idea at the docks."

The Batarian squad leader inclined her head to accepted the point, then quickly rose to depart. Nyn and I quietly said our good nights to the two Asari as the four of us exited the room after her, us heading left towards Nyn's chambers while Ghai pushed Trena right, taking her back to the hospital rooms.

"How long you think she's going to be stuck there?" I wondered after we'd split up. "She's going insane in that chair as it is."

"Another week, perhaps." Nynsi moved closer to me, a hand finding mine. "Though I will admit to not looking forwards to her freedom."

"Yeah.." Couldn't really blame her for that. She and Trena had never really gotten long, not since the first day they'd met. And if fighting for their lives together hadn't made them like one another, nothing probably would. For the most part, I'd contented myself with neither of them physically harming the other. "You all right Nyn?"

She blinked all of her eyes slowly, "Why would I not be?"

"We're about to go and find your mother, and probably either torture her until she tells us what we need, or outright kill her if we can find the intel elsewhere." I watched her carefully as I spoke, "I mean, I know she's apparently a bitch, and that you hardly know her, but still.."

A shoulder rose and fell slightly, "Cieran.. as you say, I hardly know her. I have no memories of her as my mother. My uncle, as well as Iyate and Ghai, have been the only family I have truly known in my life. As far as I am concerned, Yi'ren ul Shaaryak is merely an exiled family member too stupid to know she is no longer wanted."

My lips twitched, "And you're pissed off about the whole suitor thing?"

"Yes." Her teeth showed as she growled darkly. "And that."

I squeezed her hand gently, "Not happening."

"Of course not." she agreed, "I'd never let him live through the first night. Of course, that would assume that you didn't kill him long before that time."

"Would murdering your fiancee in cold blood count as being noble, or not?" I made a show of frowning. "I mean, protecting your honor and all that, but also.. well, you know, murder. Probably extremely messily and violently. And not quickly either."

She chuckled, leaning over to kiss my cheek as we approached her doors, "I would consider it a most noble thing."

"So long as you would." I let our hands separate as I opened the door for her, holding it until she'd passed. "Although it does bring up something I was meaning to talk to you about."

Her head titled as she glanced back at me, patiently waiting for me to lock the door before following her into the bedroom. "Something tells me this will be an unpleasant conversation."

"Possibly." I grimaced slightly, "Nyn.. I'm your Harath'krem. That means something to you."

"And to you."

"And to me." I agreed, "But.. I mean, how much pressure are you going to come under to.. well, find a male heir for the Shaaryak?"

Her back stiffened slightly as she understood what I was getting at. "You're worried that you would become my.. bit on the side. My alien consort for when my husband is away."

I winced. I wouldn't have actually said it like that, but I'd have been lying if I hadn't started to worry about it as I understood more about Batarian culture. Apparently their views on women were very.. old fashioned. Like Xerol had told me, his little enclave here were very much out of the norm, largely because they didn't have much of a choice with how few Batarians were on Illium. Nynsi would still have had some power even in the Hegemony, as Xerol's only heir, but the moment she was married she would lose most of it.. and as soon as she had a male child, she'd have lost the rest.

And while having a Harath'krem as her lover wouldn't be that out of the ordinary, her Harath'krem being a human very much was. If she ever did get married to one of her own people, us still being 'together' would become very risky for us both.

And face it. You couldn't stand to be her bit on the side, having to share her with someone else.

"Cieran.." her voice held something unusual: uncertainty. She glanced away slightly as we stood in the entryway to her bedroom. "My uncle has.. approved of us so far, but even so.."

"No." I blame it on being tired, but my mouth ran ahead of my brain, saying what was there even if it probably wasn't the smart thing to do. "Nyn, I'm your Harath'krem. That means I'm yours. But you're also my Tarath'shan, and that means that you are mine."

She blinked rapidly, "Cieran, that's.."

"How it is." My hands found her waist and pulled her tight against me, her dark eyes widening slightly as I did so. "I'm not property. I'm Harath'krem. And I do not share."

There was a low, pleased sound from deep in her throat. "And if my Patriarch insists?"

Fingers slid up her back, following the protective plates up her spine until I could wrap them around the back of her neck. "He can insist all he want. So long as I'm you're noble warrior, you are mine, I am yours, and there is nothing else to discuss."

Warm hands drifted up my own body, one of them tangling into my hair so that she could pull my even closer. "I've never heard you so.. possessive."

My lips twitched. "Get used to it."

"I intend to." I leaned in and licked her lips slowly before gently biting her lower one, pulling back as she pressed against me. "Now, the bed tonight."

She chuckled pleasantly, "As you say, Harath'krem."

The next morning found the five of us once more sitting in the briefing room, various drinks held in our hands as we brought the relevant images back up. Of course, we'd have already gotten started if Trena could have just kept her bloody mouth shut about certain.. things.

"Nice marks there ape." My friend snickered, "Maybe you should try bending her over so she can't bite you next time."

I rolled my eyes, and tried not to strain the right side of my neck. "Ghai, hit her please."

The commando just sighed, shaking her head at the both of us as she tried to focus on what we were supposed to be doing.

"Like she'd take your side. Seriously, little Shaaryak, is he that good, or is that just a Batarian thing?"

Nynsi growled, fighting a losing battle against the flush darkening her skin from its light teal to a deep maroon. "Can we please discuss the matter at hand?"

"For the love of the Pillars, yes." Marn groaned, taking a long drink from her tea. "I don't need the details of your inter-species relationship. No offense you two."

I waved a hand, "It's the eyes, I know. Anyone have any good ideas to lead us off with? Excepting you scales. You don't get to talk until you're thinking with your head, not your azure."

She barked out a laugh, tipping her head, "Not bad ape."

Ghai sighed. "Focus. Please."

"Right.." Nynsi gave Trena a severe glance before nodding, "Our initial strike should probably include the bombing concept we discussed yesterday. That should eliminate their main sensor suite and allow us to attack them directly from the air."

"Which still means making a hot landing in nothing more than lightly armored air cars and old shuttles in the middle of an armed compound." Marn, obviously relieved that we were back on track, shook her head. "Which is better than getting blasted out of the air, sure, but it just changes where we get killed."

I grimaced, but nodded, and tried not to grimace again. Trena's teasing or not, Nyn really had done a number where my shoulder and neck met on the right side. It would probably scar.. not that I really minded. "Fair. So, once the sensor grid is down.. we don't have the time or patience to take the slow, haunting route."

Trena frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well, if we had the time, we could take out the sensors, get them all paranoid.. and then do nothing. Wait for them to fix it, hit it again. Do it a couple of times, maybe lurk at the edges of their sight.."

Marn nodded in approval. "That's a standard Hegemony tactic when attacking an isolated compound with limited numbers. Massive psychological pressure on the defenders, keep it up long enough and they start to crack. But they could call in reinforcements, and transfer personnel out, so not really effective here. Plus, sooner or later Chacksin and more Blue Suns are going to show. We've got to get this handled before they can."

"Yeah." I sighed. "Whatever we do it has to be fast. Take out the sensors, get jammers in place to stop them from screaming for help, then.. fly in and somehow not die. The last part is the issue."

Ghai frowned, then silently reached out and tapped a few points. "Our sharpshooters." The rest of us cocked our heads or leaned in as she worked out her thoughts. "Take out snipers. Suppress entrances here. Here."

She settled back, manipulating the image to place green icons where she'd indicated. A moment later, blue columns of light showed the various places that they would each have to cover. By and large they'd be able to watch most of the areas we'd need covered, but..

"We'd need at least a full squad, plus them." I waved a hand, "Any of Xerol's mercs have heavy weapons? Light machine guns?"

Nynsi quickly brought up her omni-tool and flicked through a few of the data pages that Ghai had forwarded to her. "Yes. Two of them, plus one of Chom's people has a light machine gun. An older model, but sufficient for suppressing fire."

"So shift these sharpshooters.. to here, here, and here. Put those guns in their place for suppressing fire." My excitement rose a bit, feeling a bit more in my element in this kind of thing. "At least one, or two more guns with each one of them. That'll give us this entire area at the base of the main structure to set down in."

"Yes." Ghai nodded firmly. "But interior. Unknown enemy count."

And just like that most of the excitement faded. "Yeah."

"Take and hold. Raid?"

Nynsi glanced at me with one set of eyes while the others looked at Ghai. "As much as I believe that my Harath'krem and yourself would like to free those people.. I believe a raid would be the safest option."

The idea of leaving all of those slaves, however many were there, wasn't exactly a welcome one.. but she was probably right. The best way for us to keep as many of our people alive as possible would be to smash in, grab her mother and everything we could carry, and then smash our way back out.

"We'd have to find the control center, main offices, whatever, as fast as possible." I sighed, reaching up to rub at my temples. "How many people would we have on touch down?"

"With how many we'd have to leave to cover us outside of the compound, maybe four squads." Trena shook her head, "Figure at least a squad to cover whatever bloody door you lot go in through, leaves you the rest to find that goddess damned bitch."

"Eighteen to twenty people." Marn flicked the image with a long finger. "What's the interior look like?"

Ghai manipulated the image for us, letting the exterior walls grow translucent to highlight the halls and rooms snaking through the building.

"What are you thinking Marn?" I frowned as the woman's eyes narrowed, both sets flicking across the image.

"Here, these pools. Place in some prefabricated walls, and you'd have pens ideally suited to containing their slaves. With the walkways above, they could have minimal guards watching them. If Yi'ren wanted to keep a close eye on her investments, and the guards.. here, management control offices." The rooms in question were set on the second floor, overlooking the main treatment area. It would definitely have quite the view, that was for sure. "The problem is our route. We can enter this entrance, and follow this hall. But as soon as we break through these doors, we're in the open until we can cross that open ground around those pools to reach the stairs leading up to the office spaces."

I winced, judging the distance, and then winced again. "Twenty meters?"

"Twenty five." Trena corrected me, her fingers drumming on the desk. "That's a long ass run under fire ape."

"Maybe.." Bringing up my own omni-tool, I shifted the image slightly, frowning the area. "I'm not seeing much cover for them either, it's a pretty open area. Could I fit through that hall in my armor?"

Nyn glanced at the dimensions before nodding, "You could. Distraction?"

"Distraction." I agreed. "Give me at least a squad to help cover you, and all the doors leading in an out. We go in first, I draw their fire, whoever's team you give me takes them out. Probably need one of Aethtya's engineers, or two of them if she can spare them for this, and we'll start sealing the doors."

Ghai nodded slowly. "Potential. Back-ups?"

The rest of us sighed, and settled in for a very long day. The size of the compound caused problems through the entire process, to absolutely no one's surprise. In the end, pretty much of all our planning amounted to "if shit really goes wrong, get the fuck out and we'll try again later". We didn't bother breaking for lunch or dinner, instead having Nyn call the kitchen to bring us up food. The other squad leaders also drifted in an out throughout the day, making their own suggestions or comments. That eventually culminated in Xerol himself showing up just as we were polishing off the food we'd gotten for dinner.

"I have heard that you have made good progress." Our host slid into the room, his gray suit as immaculate as any other I'd seen him in, "I do not suppose you'd be comfortable going over what you have now, rather than in the morning."

"Why not?" Trena let smoke curl out from her nostrils as she spoke, "Come one, we've still got some food."

"You certainly do." He chided, lower eyes glancing significantly at the mess of crumbs and debris surrounding her. "And thank you for the offer, but I have just come from a dinner with Captain Vasir."

Nynsi's upper eyes glanced over at her uncle, "Did you now, uncle? What was the occasion?"

"The occasion being her sister is on her way to Illium." Everyone went fairly still in alarm at that, "Apparently Aethyta was able to call in her favor after all."

Trena lowered her pipe, licking her lips nervously. "There's a Spectre on her way here? I thought Aethyta needed intel before she could even try to call her in."

"Indeed." I got the impression that Xerol was far more unsettled by the news that he was trying to show. "Apparently circumstances have changed, although Aethyta either will not, or cannot, tell me what has. All things considered, I would prefer it if our operation would be completed before her arrival."

Which was smart of him. I had no idea if Spectre Vasir was already the Shadow Broker's bitch or not, but getting our own hands on all of the evidence before she could take it for herself was definitely a good idea. Plus, while she was less likely to just kill any of us if we pissed her off than a Justicar would be, the option was always open to her. Better to have this wrapped up and completed, with a copy of whatever we found already waiting for her. A full copy too. Emitting anything would definitely be a bad idea in this case.

It's probably the Broker that got her to drop whatever she was doing and head this way.. not sure if that means that he knows what's happening here and is trying to stop it, or if he's got some other game plan. Fuck, not like I can do much about it either way.

"So I'm guessing you want our timetable moved up?" I asked, pretty sure that I already knew the answer.

"How soon can we make this happen?"

We all glanced at Ghai, who frowned for a long moment. "Shuttle modifications, two days."

"Shuttle modifications?" Xerol blinked rapidly, "You're going to have to explain this."

And so we did, mostly letting Trena and Nyn do the talking. Marn and I chimed in from time to time, letting Ghai stay as quiet as she liked. By the time we'd managed to cover the main plan, our various backups, and now our concerns over not being able to bring in the outside help we'd hoped for, it was again late at night.

"What's the projected casualty count?" Xerol leaned back heavily in his chair, his suit coat removed and thrown over the back of it to reveal a plan black undershirt. I was still having some issues with that, it was the closest thing to casual that I'd ever seen him look like since I'd med him.

Ghai grimaced, her lips twisting. "High."

"One in six, minimum. Probably higher." Trena clarified, "That's assuming we're not looking at more than equal numbers in there, and that everything goes off without a problem. We can get our wounded out from the cover teams on the outskirts and the doors all right, but the team going in.."

"Understood." he sighed. "I'll authorize double pay for this one, and remind everyone to have their wills filled out correctly."

It really hit me then just what we were doing. I mean, you 'd have thought it should have earlier, even last night, but all of the planning.. was well, hypothetical. Like a game we were playing, preparing for a particularly hard mission in some shooter or a real time tactics scenario. But when he said it like that.. this wasn't a game. This was very, very real, and I was about to be stuck in the second most dangerous assignment. And Nyn was probably going to be in the most dangerous one, with Ghai.

I let out a long breath, finding my companion's hand under the table so I could squeeze it gently.

One of us, hell, maybe both of us could actually die on this one. That's.. not a fun thing to think about.

Nynsi's hand squeezed mine back, a tiny smile making her lips twitch even as she listened to her uncle and Marn ironing out a few more details.

No.. neither one of us is dying on this run. I might not be able to do much, but that's not something I'm going to let happen. We're going to smash our way into this bloody place, grab her goddess damned mother, and drag her kicking and screaming out of there. And we're both going to make it back without any problems.

And if I kept telling myself that.. maybe it would actually happen.

Next up is Chapter 10: The Assault

So, this chapter is almost entirely planning and setup for what's going to happen in the next few chapters. Although as everyone knows, the best laid plans etc etc. This is largely to provide context as to just how dangerous this mission is in comparison to what's been happening earlier in the arc, as well as to establish that while he might not be that useful in a fight yet, there isn't anything wrong with Cieran's brain yet.

It also starts to show that Cieran and Nynsi are getting fairly, well, serious with one another. And like I said, while that might not be all that noticeable to everyone else right now, what with fighting for their lives and all that, their lives are going to start getting pretty complicated once things settled down and other people start to clue in on how invested they've become in each other.

Rather than sort-of describe what's happening in the next chapter, as it's probably pretty obvious, I'm going to tease the remaining chapter titles for the arc as well:

Chapter 10: The Assault

Chapter 11: The Enemy

Chapter 12: The Wrath

Act 3's title has already been spoiled on my profile page, but once this act is done I'll also be posting the working title of Another Realm II there.

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

Author's Fun Fact: The Mercenary Bands

To be honest, in ME2, and to a lesser extent in ME3, the merc bands are kind of just.. there, mostly as mooks for Shepard to massacre. But they were also everywhere, and I'm using that as a bit of an expansion point for them. This may also help provide some context when the Blue Suns or Eclipse come up in conversation.

Blue Suns & Eclipse: These are effectively governments made up entirely of military forces, plus the support required to allow them to function. They are subordinate only to Aria, and only then when they would rather not have to fight her or her subordinate warlords. Each of them fully controls worlds in the Terminus, possess fleets of their own, and has assets in the Traverse. The Eclipse is headquartered on Illium, but the Blue Suns actual home base is unknown to anyone but their top leadership.

The Blood Pack: Much closer to their in-game appearance, the Blood Pack don't actually have a unified leadership, or much unity at all. Instead they're more of roving bands of Krogan and Vorcha led by whatever Warlord happens to be the strongest, most cunning, or most ruthless. They are not above fighting and killing each other to prove dominance, or simply because they were bored that day. This makes them extremely unpredictable and dangerous.

Review Responses:

griezz → To be honest, the 'wounds' are more on Cieran's side. Humans aren't quite as.. robust or thick skinned as Batarians, let's leave it at that :).

Ranger Station Charlie → You'll see plenty of the suit in the next few chapters, and there's going to be more about the side-effects of being yanked from one reality to another later on as well.

guest - That's definitely on his list of 'things currently being suppressed.' Illium itself isn't helping. By human standards, yes, Xerol is definitely a crime lord by most definitions of the term, but by Illium's law, he's a perfectly legitimate businessman. How Cieran, and people who aren't from Illium, deal with that dichotomy will be explored in later chapters/stories.