Chapter 19b: The Justicar pt. 2

After getting out of the back alleys, they went to the volus merchant, Pitne For. He saw the team approach him. "Hello Earth-clan, how may I help you?" he asked politely. Shepherd crouched down and grabbed his suit, the volus looked at him with fear in his eyes, at least he thought so volus were much harder to read than quarians.

"Drop the act and start talking" Shepherd said. "I'm looking for info"

"What info is that?" he asked.

"Like why the Eclipse mercs are after you?" Kaiden asked with crossed arms. "And don't lie"

See that the team wasn't going to let him off if they don't get any information, Pitne For sighed in resignation. "I smuggled a chemical that boosts biotic power" he said.

"That's all? I don't believe it, there's more to this" Tali said.

Pitne For cleared his throat. "I, ah, might have forgotten to mention that the chemical is also…uh…toxic" he said sheepishly.

"What is this chemical?" Kaiden asked.

"It's called Minagen X3 and its very, very…um illegal. Anyone with biotic powers who is exposed to the chemical see a boost in biotic abilities." He said. "The higher the concentration, the higher the abilities, but too much and you die, a part the Eclipse found disagreeable"

Shepherd crossed his arm and frowned. "And you just so happen to forget? It sounds to me you fucked with the wrong people" he said. "But I can make this go away; just tell us about their base"

"It's a series of docking bays where they keep their private ships. They're well-armed and they have mechs"

"Nothing we haven't dealt before, what else?" Tali asked.

"They're all murderers. Every one of them kills as part of their initiation" he said "Now, I sense you want something more from me, what is it?"

"The Eclipse smuggled someone off world, I need the name of the ship" Shepherd said.

"I don't know their people's smuggling operations, but they must keep records of that in their base" he said. "I do have a pass card they gave me to bring my goods in. Well I had to return that one, so I made a copy"

"We'll be taking that" Tali said.

"What?! I need it for business" Pitne For said.

"And you need protection from the Eclipse, beggars can't be choosers" Kaiden said.

The volus sighed. "Take it…" He gave the team his pass card. "Just go the service elevator, on your right, it should take the base"

The team took the service elevator, the ride to the base was long and slow. Two years being dead, and they still haven't done anything about elevator speed. Shepherd almost had to smile; it was just like old times. "I'm worried about that Minagen stuff, their base has to be full of that stuff" Tali said. "You two be careful"

"We will, but maybe we use that stuff to our advantage" Kaiden said.

"Only one way to find out" Shepherd said.

Immediately outside the elevator a single LOKI Mech was waiting for them. Before it could attack Tali hacked the mech. Kaiden and Shepherd waited by the door, until Shepherd gave the signal and opened the door. Tali ordered the hacked mech to start firing on its allies and they responded in kind. Red clouds of dust came into the air. Past the door an Eclipse Vanguard and two LOKI Mechs charged in to attack.

"Kaiden, Stasis" Shepherd ordered.

Kaiden enveloped the vanguard in a stasis field along with the red cloud; Tali widened her targets and hacked the two mechs who then fired at their reinforcements. Shepherd used his singularity field to stop the reinforcements in their tracks; some of them fell off the ledge. The troopers that didn't get trap by the singularity field came in guns blazing. Tali summoned Chatika to shock the troopers and then she re-hacked the LOKI mechs to finish off the troopers. When Chatika expired, it exploded taking the mechs with it. After the battle was done, the vanguard was released from the stasis only scream incoherently in agony. Tears ran down her cheeks as her body convulsed in pain as she foamed at the mouth and then she went limp.

"Keelah…" Tali gasped. "That could happen to you and Kaiden"

"No wonder they're after him, this stuff is too much even for criminals" Kaiden said.

"Yeah, Kaiden activate your breather mask, we can't let this stuff get into our system" Shepherd ordered. Shepherd and Kaiden put on their masks and the team went on through the base. As they moved, Shepherd heard a whimper coming from the next room.

"Wayne?" Kaiden asked.

"Shh" Shepherd said as he opened the door. She heard a voice coming from the corner of the room.

"Oh, Goddess! Oh, Goddess, don't let them see me. If they see me, don't let them kill me. What am I doing here?" the voice whimpered.

"Come out, now" Shepherd said raising his gun. A young asari wearing Eclipse armor came out from the corner with her hands up. Her eyes held great fear, she didn't look like the merc type, she look like someone who stumbled up the Eclipse, still he had to be careful.

"Wait stop! I didn't fire my weapon once! I pretended to because the other Eclipse sister was watching, but I didn't really shoot" she said.

"You're in enemy uniform, kinda hard to miss" Shepherd said.

"I'm not one of them! I'm new! I thought being Elnora the mercenary would be cool, but I didn't know what they were like!"

"Somehow I doubt that" Tali said crossing her arms.

"What do they do here you don't like, Elnora?" Kaiden said.

"I thought we would be fighting around the galaxy fighting bad guys and stuff right?" She said. "But they, they just sell red sand and illegal weapons tech. They even smuggled an Ardat-Yakshi off-world."

"What's an Ardat-Yakshi?" Shepherd asked.

"It's something that was meant to be just a superstition, until now" she said. "It means 'demon of the night winds' the boss said that scary lady was one."

"Could she be the one Samara is after?" Tali asked Kaiden.

"Looks like it"

"Do you know what ship she left on?" Shepherd asked.

"Wow I have no idea, it was a few days ago and like I said I don't know. They didn't tell me anything."

Shepherd sighed. "This was a waste of time, come on" he said. As he turned, Elnora reached behind her and took out her shotgun.

"Wayne!" Tali said as she got out her shotgun. Shepherd looked back as Elnora was about to pull the trigger. "WAYNE!" They heard a shot and Elnora fell to the floor with a hole in her head. It was Kaiden who shot her.

"Thanks, man" Shepherd said. Kaiden nodded as he put away his pistol. The team moved on through the base fighting more mechs and Eclipse mercs. Despite their numbers, they mostly consisted of Sisterhood Initiates. Amateurs they didn't even bother to train, so they were mostly wiped out the team. Shepherd's team comes out on another docking bay on which a trio of LOKI Mechs fired at the team. Tali used her energy drain to turn one of the mechs into a empty husk. Kaiden overloaded the last two mechs to stun them and Shepherd curved his throw field and pushed the mechs off the ledge. Tali spoke up.

"I hear something…" Shepherd and Kaiden listened and heard a whirling sound. Then the whirling sound got louder, it was gunship. As soon as the team aimed for the gunship, the ship fired its missiles at team.

"Shit move!" The team fell back, as the gunship continued to fire at the team, they got to cover just as the ship dropped FENIR mechs. The dog-like mechs was going to try to flank them while the gunship tried to fire at them. Tali summoned her drone to divert the mech's attention away from them. Shepherd and Kaiden focused the gunship; they fired off warp fields to weaken its armor. The gunship just ignored it and kept firing making the team scatter; While running to new cover Shepherd aimed his pistol at the glass of the gunship and shattered it. Kaiden froze the pilot with his cryo blast; the gunship flew wildly in the air, hitting the sides of the docking bay. Finally the gunship fell out of the sky and crashed with a mighty thud. Tali's drone shocks and take down one of the FENIRS and Tali took out her shotgun and destroyed the last mech ending the battle. They made it to a room that was blocked by a strange volus that bumped into Shepherd.

"Well this is new" Shepherd said.

The volus glowed "I am a biotic god, I think things and they happen! Fear me, lesser creatures, for I am biotics made flesh" he looked at the team and raised his arm as he glowed. "Fear me!"

The quarian shook her head. "They pumped him so full of drugs, he's delusional" Tali said.

"Either that or he's just crazy" Shepherd said. "Who are you?"

"When I was mortal, I was called Niftu Cal, I was member of that fool's trade group" he said "poor soul is probably terrified that I have not returned."

"I doubt he's losing sleep, he seems like the type who would sell his own mother for a profit" Kaiden said.

"Bah! I will wreak a just revenge upon his people! But first…the leader of these mercenaries is in the next room" Cal said. "I will toss Wasea like a rag doll" As the volus continued to rant about his so-called godhood, Shepherd shook his head, all he could feel for the volus was pity, he was so out of it that he believed he could take out the rest of the Eclipse by himself.

"Or get tossed yourself, your too strung out to do shit" Shepherd said. "Why don't you take a nap?"

"I don't need rest, I will tear her apart! My biotics are unstoppable!" he said. Shepherd looked at his to companions and they shrugged. Shepherd sighed and tapped on the drugged volus. The volus fell with a soft thud. He got up looking dazed and confused, it may have finally gotten through that he didn't stand a chance. "But great wind, biotic god, I'm…I…What was I saying? I'm…tired, you may be right…yes…oh nap first…destroy universe later" Niftu Cal stumbled away.

Shepherd shook his head. "I'm too nice for my own good" he said in exasperation. Kaiden and Tali chuckled. "Come on"

The next area was a big room full of boxes and Minagen X3 containers. Inside was an asari with blue heavy armor and red markings on her face, drinking from a glass while reading data pad. She looked at the team as they walked in, ahe spoke.

"Everything's gone to hell since we smuggled that filthy creature off-world." She said. "First a justicar shows up and now you"

"Hmm, bad day that's rough, too bad I'm about to make it worse" Shepherd said.

Wasea smirked. "An arrogant little fuck, aren't you" she said. "I'm going to enjoy bringing you down a notch, while turn your head into a pulpy mass" She then threw a canister at the team, Shepherd and Kaiden canceled out her biotic field and the canister dropped to the ground. Wasea fired off warp field rupturing canister and causing it to explode. The explosion ripped opened the packages of Minagen X3 causing the field to turn into a sea of red.

"Get to cover" Shepherd ordered. Tali summoned her drone, Chatika, behind Wasea while Kaiden pounded her with warp fields.

"Wayne, reinforcements" Kaiden said. Several Eclipse Heavies and Sisterhood Initiates flooded in from both doors. The battle was chaos, canister, containers, and Minagen packages, due to the red dust, it made things much harder to shoot for both sides.

"Rookie" Shepherd said. Tali nodded and took out the Blackstorm projector on her back, while Shepherd took out his arch projector. Kaiden raised a barrier to protect them. They fired, the electrical shocks stunned and made the enemies heavy weapon blow up, while the black hole sucked in the enemies and cause an explosion, and made Wasea fall back.

"Shit" she cursed as she tried to throw a huge crate.

"No you don't" Kaiden said as enveloped the asari with a biotic field that ate at her. She screamed losing control of her biotics and the huge crate above fell on her, causing a sickening snap to her neck. The battle was over, and the team went to her dropped data pad.

"This must be the ship Samara was looking for" Tali said.

"Seems like, let's get out of here" Shepherd said. Shepherd and team went back to see Samara. She was next to the detective, mediating while Anaya was keeping a close eye on her albeit nervously. When she saw the team enter her office, her eyes soften no doubt happy to see them and hoping they had something to get the justicar out of her district

"Ah, Shepherd, you came back sooner than I thought" Samara said.

"I've got your ship, she left two days ago on AML Demeter" he said. "You're hunting a Ardat-Yakshi"

"Impressive, you have fulfilled your bargain and I will fulfill mine" Samara said. She looked at the detective. "I shall take my leave now that should satisfy your superiors"

"You're free to go, Justicar, it's an honor to meet you, even more since you didn't kill me" she said.

"I'll see you on the ship" Shepherd said. He then saw Samara bow to him. "What are you doing?"

"I must be sworn to your service, so that I am never forced to choose between your orders and the Code" She said as she started to glow. When she spoke it was deep, level. "I vow to follow you, Shepherd, until your quest is complete. Your morals are my morals. Your will is my Code."

"I never thought I'd thought to see a Justicar make an oath like that" the detective said.

"You're fortunate detective, not many get to see the oath of Summation" she said. She then gazed back at Shepherd. "If I am forced to do anything too dishonorable I will be forced to kill you when the mission is complete."

"I won't let that happen" Tali hissed.

Samara chuckled. "I believe I will not have any worries, your squad follows you loyally, especially your mate" she said. Tali blushed at the mention of the word mate. "It says a lot about your character, I will see you on the ship" Shepherd stayed a little longer on ground to give the detectives evidence to her investigations, he then moved to the trading floor, to see Liara. She was there at her desk working on the data she found.

"Oh Shepherd, w…what can I do for you?" She asked nervously.

"Relax, I just want to talk" he said. "I see your still working on the data"

"Yes, Nyxseris had quite the data mine, it will take while, before it can get me what I want" Liara said. She then lowered her head. "I'm sorry…."

"For what?" Shepherd asked with a smile. Liara looked at him.

"For keeping this a secret, for turning you over to Cerberus, for betraying you" she said sadly.

"Don't be, after talking to the others, and thinking about it, I should be thanking you" he said. "I got a second chance at life, I got to see everyone care about again, most people can't say that, so thanks"

"I…" was all Liara could say as tears ran down her cheeks. "Thank you; I don't deserve a good friend like you"

"No problem" he said with a smile. He then grew serious. "You still going to go after him, are you?"

Liara sighed. "Yes, I need to finish this for your sake and for mine" she said.

Shepherd nodded. "Alright, but when you find him, call us first, your friends are happy to help you"

"Thank you, I will" she said. Shepherd began to leave.

"Just one thing, don't become what you hate, I'm speaking from experience" Shepherd said looking back.

"I won't, I promise, and promise me you'll take care of Garrus, and tell him I love him" she said. "And I'm sorry for causing him pain"

"I will" Shepherd said. He walked away, leaving the lone asari to her hunt.