Chapter 29: Hardened

Shepherd and team were back on board on the Normandy, about to leave the Valhallan Threshold and the Migrant Fleet. Although they were successful in getting Tali cleared, it wasn't without its pain. The quarian was very silent since the ride back, no doubt thinking about what her father did. Tali spoke up. "I'm going to engineering, have some work to do…" Tali began to walk away until Shepherd grabbed her arm.

"You sure Rookie?" Shepherd asked. Tali smiled softly and put her hand on Shepherd's.

"I'm fine Wayne, a little work will keep my mind of stuff" Shepherd gave her a look of concern, not really convinced. "Don't worry, I'll be fine"

Shepherd sighed and let her go. "Okay, but if you need anything, call me…" Tali nodded and went to elevator.

"Onii-chan, I'll look after Tali for you" Lia said.

Shepherd nodded. "Thanks kid" Lia went to the elevator, and Shepherd faced Garrus and Kaiden. "Well back to the grind"

The team scattered. Garrus went back to his quarters to calibrate the guns, ever since they installed the Thanix Cannon for the Normandy, Gabby and Donnelly have complained about the extra work load they had to do to the systems. Garrus went to the terminal, and pressed a few buttons, the turian frowned. The engineer's work on the systems lowered the accuracy ratio on the guns, and he had to set up all over again. Garrus typed on the terminal and it beeped, guns were all good…until Gabby and Donnelly complain about something else. The turian cracked his neck; he was getting hungry, as he was walking the crew quarters for his rations until his omni-tool beeped.

"Huh?" Garrus looked at his omni-tool and saw he got a message, the sender unknown. Garrus snorted. "Probably another ad for enlarging a sexual organ" For the life of him, he'll never understand some of the scams these marketers put out, still it was strange for a message to not have sender name. And once more it was encrypted, an easy thing to past, Garrus opened the message and his eyes went wide.

'I heard you were looking for a man named Sidonis, if you want him look for Fade on the Citadel'

Garrus frowned. "Sidonis…" he growled.

Months ago-Omega Kenzo District

"And I win another game suckers!" A human said with a smirk. The Salarian and Batarian threw down their cards in frustration as the human man gleefully claimed his spoils. These were Garrus' men hours before that fateful event. "Better luck next time, boys!" Alexander Butler, was a human biotic and all around smart ass, sure his mouth could get him in trouble with the team, but push comes to shove he was loyal to the group. He joined the group because he wanted a better life for his wife and daughter, his pride and joy on this hellhole station.

The salarian crossed his arms. "That's seven games in a row, how the hell does he do it?" Slurek, was a former merc working for Eclipse before joining the group, he was loyal to Eclipse until he saw his group making deals with terrorists for more cash. Disgusted by how low his group would go for extra credits, he quit the group, but not before killing every single member of his former team. Slurek was the foremost expert on explosives in the group.

The batarian snorted. "I think he's cheating…" Braz, a former tech officer for the Hegemony until his conscience had gotten the better of him. He was one of the batarians that attacked Eden Prime during the Skylian Blitz, killing and taking people as slaves for profit until while looking for more victims came across an infant crying, a little boy, the slave market would pay top credits for infants. But something happened, for the first time he felt guilt, so he took the infant and defected from the Batarian government. At first, Garrus was reluctant recruiting him to his group, but when he saw Braz saving the life of his adopted son and several people; it put his worries to rest.

"Don't need to cheat, you guys just suck at poker" Alex said. He looked at the krogan cleaning his shotgun. "Zorbac, care for a game big guy?"

Zorbac scoffed. "Unless that game consists of cracking skulls, leave me out of it" He went back to his shotgun. Urdnot Zorbac the team's resident muscle, and the team loner, the krogan was a bounty hunter in his past, it was less about the money and more about the fight. However things changed when he was fighting members of the Blue Suns, he had gotten too cocky and was surrounded by YMIR mechs, until Garrus' crew helped him out. After the battle, Garrus offered membership but Zorbac refused until he was promised a good fight.

"We'll take you on" Two asari came up to the table. Oya and Rena T'Koa, the biotic twins, former asari commandos they were actually the easiest to recruit, they were like Garrus they had gotten tired of the red tape the Asari government had and went to Omega to change things. Of the two Oya was the one with the hot-blooded one, in contrast to the more reserved Rena.

"Count us in also" A drell and quarian came up to the table. Kila Raos, was the security consultant for a hanar ambassador on the citadel until he was framed for the murder of his client, a fugitive in Citadel space he went to Omega to escape persecution where he became a bouncer for Afterlife. One day, some Vorcha thought it would be a good idea to cause trouble, and they were shot in the head for their trouble, by Kila's sniper rifle. Impressed by his skill, Garrus offered him a spot on the team.

Lez'Vanya nar Omega was born on the station, her mother was Anora'Vanya vas Selani, exiled for giving sensitive defense schematics to batarians who had been contracted to upgrade the Flotilla's defense systems, but the batarians shared the schematics with a pirate gang, jeopardizing the Flotilla's security. Before she could be convicted, Anora'Vanya destroyed the pirate gang in a suicide attack, and was posthumously pardoned by the Admiralty Board. Little did the fleet know, Anora survived and seeing that she had nothing left from her old life, she built a new one on Omega, only to killed by a crazed quarian hating serial killer. Her daughter went to avenge her death and was found Garrus when Lez came close to being killed, from then on she stayed on the group's communication specialist due to her skill with tech.

"Now this is getting fun" Alex said. He then saw Garrus walking to the out of their base. "Hey, Batman care for a game?" Garrus sighed and looked at him, it was Alex's little nickname for him, apparently after some kind character from a book on Earth.

"Do you have to call me that?" he asked annoyed.

"No, but it's fun"

Garrus shook his head. "Whatever, can't Sidonis called, he got a lead on the Blood Pack" he said. "Once I get conformation, we hit their operation tonight"

Reina looked at him. "Blood Pack? Care for some back up?" she asked.

"No, if things go bad, Sidonis and I should be able to deal with it, stand-by for now" Garrus left to meet Sidonis. Lantar Sidonis was Garrus' second in command and the first person to join his team. They had met shortly after arriving on Omega, he found Sidonis in one of the lower levels of Afterlife, being beaten by an angry krogan affiliated with the Blood Pack. Garrus stepped in to help, and the two of them fight off the remaining mercs. Afterward, the two of them decide to form a team to fight off the gangs. After building their team, they significantly drop Omega's crime rate. Garrus went to an alley way in the Himlen district, a huge district near the slums, when he got there he waited for Sidonis, and waited and waited, but Sidonis never showed up.

"Well this was a waste of time" Garrus said about to get up. A shot rang out, and to the left and right of him were blue sun troopers. "Blue suns? What are they doing here?" They fired again, and Garrus ducked backed into the alley, when one of the mercs turned the corner Garrus let loose a round into one of their heads. The suns kept flooding the way firing at the turian, as time went by he found himself further away from where he started, it was because he was being led away. The alley was like on big maze and every corner had a squad of blue sun mercs waiting for him. It would be several hours until he could make it out of the maze and lose the blue suns. He took a shuttle back to find the base damaged and ransacked, a big battle had took place. When he got to the main area, his went wide. "No…"

Bodies were everywhere, mostly the blue suns, and not only that the bodies of Reina and Kila, multiple shots to the chest, with battle so intense the rest of the team couldn't get aid to them fast enough and they bled out. He went up the stairs and saw Sulreck draped across the ledge of the balcony, shot in the head. "Shit they made this far up…." In the living quarters, Zorbec and Lez were sprawled against the floor, it looked like they were first ones killed, and by sniper. The living quarters was by far the worst as he saw burn marks everywhere too big for heavy weapons, but not for gunships. In the center of the burned area, was Alex, Braz, and Oya, mutilated by somekind of machine fire, the turian shook his head, how did they take out their team so easily. Then Garrus had a sickening thought, where was Sidonis? All this death and his second in command was nowhere to be seen. Garrus opened his omni-tool to contact Sidonis, and all he got was message say 'NO SIGNAL', Garrus frowned he was either dead or the signal was blocked. As he was about to contemplate the possibly of a betrayal, he heard a large mechanical whirl and a gunship was staring him in the face.

"Fuck…" He would have to figure this out later.

Now

Garrus gave a dark grin, he didn't know if this was real, but if it was he had a chance to avenge his men and pay an old friend back for his betrayal. "Chambers"

"Yes, Garrus?"

"Get Shepherd, I need to see him…"