Garrus goes on a rampage. Can we get the Unreal Announcer here?
Read and Review?
Chapter Thirty-three
The Normandy, Bridge
Mordin relaxed as the stress bled off his frame before stepping off the elevator. He'd finally had the opportunity to send out his findings over the Extranet to the STG without the ship intelligence intercepting it. And now that his old employer had acknowledged receipt, he could go public, so to speak.
"Ah, Commander. Moment of your time. Urgent discovery regarding Collectors."
Pressly turned away from the bridge display and moved over toward the salarian. "What is it?"
"Communications records from Collector ship. Reconstructed messages," Mordin explained as he handed over a datapad. "Collectors alerted to Alliance military presence by third party."
Pressly's eyes narrowed. "And who is that third party?"
"Shadow Broker. Independent intelligence organization. Implications disturbing."
Pressly's brow furrowed. "Your civilization has a 'third party' independent intelligence organization running around with no oversight?"
"Difficult to track down, insufficient resources to spare," Mordin replied. "Deemed waste of time. Did not concur. Repeated objections. Requested permission to control or eliminate. Denied."
"Well I think they'll approve it now," the officer growled as he turned toward the secure communications room, clutching the datapad.
Omega, Slums
The turian thug frantically scrabbled on his hands and knees to get away from his pursuer. Utter terror gripped his mind as he remembered how his four associates had all died at once from near-simultaneous headshots.
A salarian and two asari in yellow Eclipse armor caught sight of the man. "RUN!" he bellowed. "HE'S COMING!"
The two asari looked at each other in confusion while the quicker-witted salarian ducked behind a wall and scanned down the way the other man had come.
"What's that racket?" a krogan rumbled, stomping out of a ruined residential building. "Get ahold of yourself, welp," he growled as he hoisted the frightened turian to his feet.
"HE'LL KILL US ALL!" the turian shrieked in his face before bolting past, tripping over a pile of debris.
"I'm not seeing anything," the salarian muttered, lowering his rifle. "What was he tal-"
Three wet smacks echoed off the buildings as the three Eclipse members dropped straight down with massive penetrating head wounds. The krogan blinked, stunned. He hadn't even finished processing the fact that the group was under fire before a large blue bolt smashed him in the chest.
The specialized slug of Element Zero had lost enough kinetic energy to remain inside his body, providing it the perfect nesting place for the second stage of activation. A small capacitor in the back of the slug, designed to fail upon impact, discharged its stored amperage into the Element Zero block, generating a pulse of dark energy that exploded the krogan from the inside.
Even against his better instincts, the turian criminal couldn't help turning around when he heard the impacts. He was just in time to stare in horror as the krogan vanished in an explosion of blood and liquefied tissue. Needing no further incentive, the man renewed his efforts to escape. Ten seconds later, he heard a new sound, faint at first, but growing louder at an alarming rate. A chill ran down his neck, and he turned one last time.
From two blocks away, the figure jetted across the artificial horizon, rifle firmly strapped to his back, on blue wings of death. He screamed and held up his hands in a futile attempt to ward off death as the figure rapidly descended upon him. The last thing he saw was the glowing blue baton in his killer's hand.
Omega, Aria's hideout
"YOU!" the angry queen of Omega snarled as Shepard walked into the gathering of henchmen.
"What did I do?" Shepard asked, taken aback.
"You brought him here!" the asari hissed, despite her injuries. "That fucking human psionic!"
Tali's eyes widened behind her face mask while EDI's holographic features reconfigured to show shock.
"A psionic here?!" Shepard gasped.
"Don't play dumb with me!" Aria hobbled over, flanked by several concerned bodyguards. "There's no way you humans would have a psionic running around outside your control!" The angry woman's body began to emit a dangerous blue glow. "You trying to take me down? Is that it?!"
"Aria, I have no idea what you are talking about!" Shepard fired back. "All I know is that Archangel's crew just got wiped out and I'm back to help him out."
"Or maybe you're here to finish me off, now that this 'Jester' asshole trashed me and my men!" Aria staggered, grabbing at her side. "Fuck!" she hissed, waving off one of her guards.
"What reason would I have to do that?!" Shepard demanded. "Why would we want to destabilize you when you're the one keeping the Terminus Systems in line? In case you haven't noticed, the Alliance has other things to worry about."
"You are the only ones with psionics," Aria growled. "Fuck if I know why you'd do it, but you're the only ones who could!"
Tali, EDI and Samara tensed up as Aria's men adopted a more aggressive posture. Shepard exhaled. "What will it take to get you to believe me?"
"You help me take this place back and kill that fucker," the queen of Omega replied coldly, "or the Terminus goes to war."
The Justicar looked on with barely concealed worry as the red-head considered her course of action. Goddess, I pray she doesn't…
"I have a platoon of assault troops on my ship," the captain announced. "I can have them deploy and reinforce your people. Then we can start taking this place back."
Aria gritted her teeth. Her distrust warred with the hard reality that her men were far understrength. As much as she would like to avoid getting involved with the Alliance military, she knew deep down that there was little chance of reclaiming her throne without outside aid. "No funny business," she warned.
"We'll need maps of the station and the locations of any assets you have," Shepard noted before hitting her comm. "Captain Silva!"
It took fifteen seconds by her count before the man replied. "Reporting ma'am."
"Marching orders."
"Yes ma'am!"
Omega, Blue Suns staging area
The attack was a tremendous surprise, not the least of which was due to some idiot stacking some volatile crates of pure Element Zero near some fuel cells. In their defense, the Blue Suns force had not been expecting any serious resistance after evicting the warehouse of its prior residents, Aria's cronies.
The massive detonation of the supplies being loaded onto trucks tore apart the side of the building and converted nine men into greasy smears on the pavement. Inside the building, a turian squad leader stared in horror as several bewildered Blue Suns members ran to the now-opened warehouse, only to be shot to pieces by rapid precision fire. Shaking himself, the turian reverted to his previous life as a Hierarchy corporal. "Under fire!" he roared into his omnitool. "Second squad, take the alleyways!"
Twelve men sprinted outside across the street splitting into three groups of four. One stayed at the corner and peered around while the other two moved down the alleys. Then a batarian in the first group flew back from a murderous impact to his solar plexus.
"Sniper!" a human yelped.
"Where's the rest of them?!" another called.
The second squad reached a junction in the alley when a blue bolt slammed into the second man in the lead. Once again, a slug of Element Zero emitted a wave of dark energy that mashed the four into pulp against the walls.
The three in the first group saw the blue streak and fired all at once into the distance. They saw a figure leap off the roof of a building far back before vanishing. "It's just one guy?!" a batarian breathed incredulously before he was sent flying into the flaming wreckage of a truck. One moment later, his shriek of agony tore across the area as he clutched at his shredded liver.
"Just one guy?" the turian squad leader repeated dumbly as the radio conveyed the wet sounds of two more men dying in succession. What in the spirits…
The third squad looked around nervously as the gunfire from their comrades faded into silence. Then something clattered at their feet. They all stared dumbly at the cylindrical object before their world turned white.
The seven remaining Blue Suns members inside the warehouse looked at each other in fear as the radio echoed with shouts of pain before four loud cracks silenced them. The absence of noise further unsettled them, and each man frantically swept the warehouse, in shock from the rapidity and brutality of the assault.
The door was kicked in and a humanoid figure rocketed in at astonishing speed, bodyslamming into a stack of crates before a blue flash erupted as the figure triggered his pulse shields. As he landed on the ground and rolled, the stack fell over, crushing an unfortunate batarian underneath a load of hoarded food supplies.
The turian squad leader froze when he saw the figure's helmet markings. He'd had the opportunity to lay eyes on the Hierarchy's vaunted Blackwatch soldiers before, and he recognized the unique features and markings that instantly singled out a Blackwatch spec ops soldier from the regular military forces. And as the figure turned to aim his pistol, he saw something else: the rank insignia of a captain. With the last of his men falling around him, he realized exactly who this man was.
Archangel. Garrus Vakarian, Captain (Major select) of Blackwatch, on special duty assignment to the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance group.
Archangel smashed his glowing baton into the last humans' chest, where a wave of blue energy blasted the man into the far wall. The criminal slumped, gurgled in a disturbing manner, and went still as blood began to leak out of every orifice. A hysterical scream of terror and a hail of ineffective gunfire drew his attention to the turian squad leader. He lunged forward, swinging the baton into the support column near the man, which exploded with another blue pulse, sending him sprawling across the floor as his rifle slid in another direction. He stalked over to the man who frantically tried to crawl away from him before planting almost three hundred pounds of armor, weapon, and angry turian on his lower back.
"WHERE IS THE BLOOD PACK?!" he roared through his helmet speakers.
"Ah-I-I-I-I, I don't know!"
"WRONG ANSWER!" The baton came down on the former soldier's knee, another blue pulse from the weapon liquefying the unfortunate limb. The turian howled in agony, clutching at the stump of his leg before a wave of nausea made him bring up his lunch, stained with blood.
"WHERE ARE THEY?!"
The turian coughed, dizzy from pressure injuries and massive blood loss. "The industrial area!" he gasped. "They're in the industrial area!"
The pressure on his back lifted, and then his world flashed blue.
Illium, Nos Astra
Miranda smiled as she lay her hand on the black cloaked figure's shoulder. "And what do we have here?" she purred, noting the slightest jerk in reaction to the unexpected contact despite her psionics freezing them in place. "A spy?"
The woman's mind raced as she internally struggled to break free. She'd thought she'd been perfectly concealed! And why couldn't she move?!
"To answer your question, I'm the one holding you in place," Miranda explained, "and there's no hiding from a mind-reader, Kasumi Goto."
The woman groaned internally. Psionics, of course… "I'll…keep…that…in…mind," she bit out.
Miranda laughed sinisterly. "You might not have a mind to keep after I finish with you. Now do you want to explain why you are spying on the T'Soni residence?"
"Followed…drell…was…investigating human…police…officer…"
Miranda frowned. "Do elaborate," she ordered.
"Shady…connections…to people…killed my partner…Keiji…"
Lawson snorted. From how you talk and what you're doing, I wouldn't call this Keiji your 'partner.' "And let me guess," she continued, "you followed this drell back here, and you got curious. Ever heard of 'curiosity killed the cat?' "
"Kill me…then…" Kasumi growled, her fingers twitching helplessly, "like you…killed…Keiji…"
"You've got it wrong there, Miss Goto," Miranda corrected her. "I'm Alliance Intelligence, and we would have had no reason to go after a pair of thieves in Citadel Space. Since it looks like we might be after the same people, what say you work with me, and I let you go?" A combination of ice-cold hate and relief was her answer. "Good choice."
Kasumi sprang away from the Alliance operative, unwilling to take her eyes off the woman after that stint of utter helplessness.
"Now, I assume there was a reason your 'partner' was killed by these people. "What was it?"
The thief clenched her fist. "We had a job before, and Keiji got a hold of some computer files he wasn't supposed to. All I know is that he looked through them, then told me we had to start running. A few months later, we got baited out on another job, and they captured and killed him."
"Who's 'they?' "
"Some small-time crony," Kasumi answered bitterly. "Works for a guy named Donovan Hock. The little guy isn't anywhere near important enough to know anything, but there was no way I could get at Hock by myself."
"So you started looking at other people," Miranda finished. "Why this police officer?"
"I've been tracking coded messages across the Extranet from mister small-timer to people across Citadel Space. This guy was one of them."
Miranda thought for a moment. There was the possibility that this woman and her lover had simply crossed a powerful crime organization unconnected with her investigation. But her instincts were screaming at her. Something about this was off.
Before she could make a decision, her earpiece beeped, signaling a communique from her ship at the spaceport. "Yes?"
"Agent Lawson," an unnamed officer at the other end greeted her. "New information from Captain Erin Shepard. The attacks on human colonies have been traced to some aliens known as the 'Collectors.' The Collectors were tipped off to the Alliance teams in the Terminus Systems by someone or some organization called 'The Shadow Broker.'"
"I see," she replied.
"Follow up on these leads, and report any useful findings. Advise prioritizing the Shadow Broker."
"Received, acknowledged and understood."
"Copy your acknowledgement. Good hunting, ma'am."
"Well," she turned back to the thief, "you said you couldn't get to this Donovan Hock by yourself. Suppose you had help?"
"What kind of help?" Kasumi asked warily.
"Unfortunately, I have other things to take care of. But I understand Matriarch Aethyta and Liara T'Soni have commandos and an information network at their disposal. And that drell you followed is working with me. Would that be sufficient for you?"
Omega, Industrial area
Of course they were waiting. Even a deaf man could not fail to miss the slowly intensifying smell of blood as he carved a path through wretched life and limb to his destination. And both vorcha and krogan had strong olfactory senses.
"Good feast tonight!" one vorcha cackled. "Much blood spilled!"
"Tear face!" another chimed in. "Rip filthy humans! Soft flesh!"
"Quiet!" a krogan ordered, glancing around with his Revenant machine gun at the ready. "The Archangel is coming!"
"Let him come!" Nord called over the radio net. "He dies today!"
Tightly focused eyes scanned through a darkened visor, lingering on each group of hostiles. More than sixty krogan and vorcha, all heavily armed, all in an open area. He grimaced slightly before tamping down on his hesitation. One way or another, they were dying today. Nord had crossed a big bright red line. A line made in the blood of his team members.
Something caught his eye, and he zoomed in with his rifle to see it. A plume of gas. For some reason, it seemed particularly significant, and he searched his memory for what it might be. Then he remembered. Drug labs. Much of the stuff brought in from around the galaxy was usually mixed on site, due to degradation of the product over time. For dealers to tout the best stuff, they had to know how to make it themselves. An abandoned industrial yard would have chemicals stored in abundance with which to perform the mixing or cutting processes, or in more rare cases to manufacture the final volatile ingredients that simply could not be shipped at all.
He began forming a plan in his head. Luring a bunch of these jokers over to a poorly maintained and potentially explosive drug lab would allow him a way to injure, if not outright kill, a good number of the Blood Pack soldiers. Not only that, the noxious chemicals released in the explosion would surely disorient or incapacitate them for a time. At the very least, even if they didn't fall for it more than once, he had a way to conceal himself.
With a vicious grin from inside his helmet, he began the slow trip around to the ideal point of execution.
Omega, Loyalist rally point
The best thing that could be said was that Aria's men took the interference of the Helljumpers phlegmatically. No one was stupid enough to challenge soldiers wearing powered armor and carrying energy weapons.
"We need to reclaim this central area," Silva said, stabbing his finger on the map. "If we take the center, we can split these criminals right down the middle. I guarantee my men can hold against the rabble on one side while we clear out the other."
"You only have so many of them," Aria objected acidly.
"Come off it, Aria," Shepard scoffed. "These idiots against professionally trained expeditionary troops with state-of-the-art weapons?"
"And suppose that psycho Jester shows his face?" she pinned Shepard with a glare. "You think your boys can handle him?"
"If they can't, I will," the red-head vowed.
"We should move the reclaim the civilian areas once we secure the central strip," Silva continued.
"Forget it," Aria shook her head.
"They're in the line of fire!" The marine protested. "The sooner we clear out the enemy, the better!"
"This is Omega, boy scout," Aria snapped. "First off, damned near everyone here is a criminal or soldier of some kind. Second, those areas were evacuated already. Anyone who is still there is either dead or terminally stupid. You can even see for yourself: no one is coming out. And if the little people aren't there, I guarantee you that Jester's men aren't there either. Retaking that area is a waste of time."
"You are leaving people to die," Samara noted with strong disapproval.
"You're welcome to go in there and waste your time," Aria retorted, "or you can forget those few and try to help the many."
"I agree with Mrs. T'Loak," EDI interjected. "This area," she gestured at the other side, "is far more important. It is where we should focus our efforts if for no other reason than to deny the enemy an opportunity to organize another attack. This is where the auxiliary docking stations are. We control the primary docks. If we take this, any potential outside reinforcements will be denied easy entry into the station. That means whatever we face on Omega right now will be all."
"And they know all that, which is why they'd be clustered around those areas," the asari finished. "They might not be professional troops, but they aren't stupid."
"Fine," Shepard grunted. "Where to next?"
"Ma'am," a lieutenant called, "you may want to look at this,"
"What?"
"I tapped into Omega's camera network, Shepard," Tali explained as she stood off the side of the portable workstation.
Omega, Industrial area
For the second time, a tremendous explosion rocked the area, earning a dark laugh. They actually fell for it twice, he chuckled as he fired his last special slug at a machine-gun nest, exploding two vorcha and one krogan and bringing the number of hostiles down to thirty.
"Hold your ground!" Nord snarled. "He's luring you idiots into traps!"
Well, that was his cue. He activated the thrusters on his HADES armor, hopping from his perch and angling toward a cluster of six hostiles, all looking the wrong way as he turned and fired his rifle in mid-flight.
Omega, Loyalist rally point
"Holy shit…" Silva breathed, in awe of the display of impossible marksmanship.
"Not bad for his third time using that armor," Shepard admitted.
"He's almost on the other side of the station," Aria noted with grudging respect, "and he got that far in two hours. I bet you he left a big trail of bodies from here to there if what you told me is true."
Tali, for her part, kept silent, hoping that Garrus hadn't bitten off more than he could chew.
Omega, Industrial area
Garrus took several deep breaths as he pulled the now-inert baton from the pulpy mess of a krogan's skull before reattaching the weapon to his armor to recharge. And then there was one, he thought darkly.
Much of Nord's confidence had evaporated as he witnessed the methodical slaughter of his pack. Still, he was no coward. And surely the Archangel's weapons were spent. He would have the advantage.
Garrus pulled out the krogan knife Wrex had given him and twirled it experimentally. Good heft, good balance, and a supremely sharp edge that he'd spent four hours whetting on the way from Tuchanka. He sheathed it, turned and scanned with his visor before locating the last heat signature in the area. Time to end this.
Nord kept his weapon pointed toward the entryway, and tensed as he heard footsteps. They stopped, just out of sight. Then the Archangel appeared, turning the corner and running straight at him. He pulled the trigger, unleashing a hail of projectiles at the turian. But Garrus simply dodged right before triggering a short burst from his thrusters. His dash turned into a rocket-propelled lunge. Before Nord could adjust his aim, he was bowled over by three hundred pounds of armed and armored turian.
Both rolled on the floor before scrambling up. Nord roared and lashed out with a hard right jab. Garrus parried to the side, grabbing the wrist before jumping up and mashing his armored knee down onto the fully extended elbow joint.
The krogan howled, and whirled around to backhand the turian, who merely staggered a few steps. It turned into a charge that ended when Garrus planted a low stabbing kick to the legs, tripping the krogan and sending him to the ground face-first.
Nord rolled to the side as an armored fist smashed into the ground where his ribs would have been. Garrus then launched himself into a tackle that prevented the krogan from getting on his feet.
Trained instincts kicked in. Garrus buried his fist in Nord's right eye, crushing the offending organ, before wrapping his fingers around the optic nerve and jerking.
Nord shrieked in agony and rolled over, pinning Garrus to the ground beneath him before slamming his crest plate into the turian's helmet.
Garrus windmilled his left arm free and jabbed the krogan hard in the lip before also freeing his right arm. Then with a wild swing to Nord's injured side of his face, he forced the krogan off of him.
Both warriors took a moment to reorient themselves. Nord glared with his one good eye while Garrus blinked away the blood in his face from smacking his head on the inside of the helmet. Then they charged each other again.
But this time, Garrus turned into do a back kick, firmly planting his armored heel in the center of Nord's chestplate. Surplus outdated armor versus Alliance mil-spec hazardous environment plating, it was no contest.
Nord's chest erupted in pain as his momentum was harshly arrested by the surprise move. His feet swept out from under him and he landed flat on his back with the wind knocked out of him.
Seizing the advantage, Garrus pulled out the knife and buried it in the krogan's abdomen, using his full body weight to force it through the damaged armor plating.
Nord screamed and flailed at his chest until the turian caught his left arm and rolled him onto his back before viciously wrenching his arm out of the shoulder joint. Then he took the opportunity to jump and land with his knees directly on the krogan's spine. He would be later disappointed to note that this only caused several slipped discs instead of snapping the spine, as if it mattered.
Then he got back up and walked in front of Nord's head and grasped the crest plate with both hands…
Omega, Loyalist rally point
"Oh ancestors…" Tali spun around, squeezing her eyes shut and fighting to keep her breakfast down as the system taps conveyed a screech of terror and pain.
"I didn't know that thing came off…" Silva muttered.
"Usually, people don't fight krogan up close, and they normally use a knife for that." Aria noted detachedly. "It's always messy."
Omega, Industrial area
Garrus took a deep breath, savoring the whimpers of the beaten krogan before slowly unhooking the baton, setting it to max power, and raising the crackling weapon over his head. "This…is for my team…you son of a bitch!"
Codex: Pulse Baton
While shock batons with electrical discharges are intended for riot suppression and non-lethal subduing of hostiles, the pulse baton is far more lethal.
Utilizing the principles of Pulse shielding, the weapon generates a blast of dark energy on impact, releasing a shockwave of chaotic gravitational force from the point of impact.
This weapon was designed by the Salarian Union and the Turian Hierarchy as a close-quarters anti-armor weapon, as the gravitic waves can pass through armor and cause severe internal pressure injuries to delicate tissue and organs. It was developed solely to counter Alliance advanced armor composites.
Codex: Nova round
In the years after Saren's defeat, the Salarian Union took the idea behind the Alliance's expeditionary anti-emplacement Nova mine and made it portable and deliverable from long range.
This round operates on the same principles, where a capacitor discharges energy into a block of Element Zero to generate an explosive force.
It cannot be manufactured through ammunition mods. This is a specialty round manufactured in extremely limited quantities, and requires a special rifle modification for use.
Usage against non-military combatants is illegal, barring Spectre status.
The Pulse Baton is somewhat inspired by the Gravity Hammer from Halo and the Power Maul from WH40K. Except it's a lot smaller.
The Nova round is a cross between the Nova mine and the Raufoss Mk 211 sniper round used today by specialized sniper teams. The Raufoss is a combination AP, Incendiary, and Explosive round. Steve Reichert used it to kill three militants behind a wall in Iraq with one shot.
But the Nova round is a lot more powerful. It doesn't kill with shrapnel. It liquefies soft targets.
Now just to clear things up with Garrus. When he left Blackwatch to become a Spectre, he went on a special duty assignment. This means he was detached from his unit without being retired or discharged. When he left, he was on the list to be promoted to Major. He can't accept that rank until he is finished with his time as a Spectre and returns to his unit. At that point, he will become a Major. It's not even a question.
But with his contacts and experience gained as a Spectre, he would also be a sure candidate for light bird colonel soon afterward. That would place him under Colonel Zyrene Hesker, the CO of Blackwatch. And when ME3 rolls around and a lot of senior leadership bites the dust, it could potentially make him COLONEL Garrus Vakarian, Blackwatch Commander. Potentially. I haven't decided yet.
And now we see Kasumi in the story. What do you think the raid on Hock's mansion will reveal?