Broken Image
(Laila Adonis)
Location: Kima District, Omega
"You have your own docks?" Ptolemy asked as we were given clearance to leave the crowded traffic of Kima. There was a shudder as our shuttle escaped beyond the station's own titanic barriers into open space itself, and all of us became about half of our original weight thanks to the overworked artificial-gravity generator in the ancient vehicle.
"It's a small operation, but suitable for our own needs," Khentu shrugged. "Most of our product gets put back on the Lifts for Kima's construction projects, or off to the Uppers to be crated and shipped out in the proper warehousing district up there. But we don't even handle that part of it; we put the finished product on the Uppers lift, and then get paid there. Some of it goes out as far as the Steel King's shipyards, and I even heard one shipment of our construction-grade stuff got shipped all the way to Illium."
Ptolemy gave the magnanimous nod of an experienced spacer listening to the naive farm-boy speak of the wonders that he had discovered over the next hill. Khentu snorted in reply, and turned back to face the transparasteel with the air of offended sensibilities.
We were outside the station proper and half-way down back to the Deep Docks when every alarm we had began blaring its klaxon call. Nervous glances shot around the small party in the shuttle, and some of the Arrows actually pulled their guns out, as if that would do them any good in a closed shuttle outside of Omega.
"Emrys," came the call over the comms. Jesse's usually even and calm tone was laced with sub-harmonics of barely-contained panic. "We are under attack."
"Who?" Khentu asked, and I smiled as I heard him keep his voice calm and even. "Pirates? Another gang invasion?"
"Deepers."
A cold chill ran through me, and Khen and I shared a look. Ptolemy on the other hand, looked confused.
"Mutated residents of the Deeps," I explained, broadly. "Quarantined from Patriarch's time."
The Arrows gave nods of comprehension for the most part, and I felt a stab of near-guilt the massive understatement. The whole truth, that they were horrible monsters from the Under-verse that would eat you as soon as look at you, seemed a bit much. It had almost been too much for the Legends to comprehend, and we had been fighting them since day one of our lift-collapsed exile.
"How many of them?" Khentu asked, and I could see a hundred plans already coursing through his head.
"Several hundred at least," came the tense reply. "They are moving in from Zone 9."
Khentu and I shared another look. That was more Deepers than we had seen since we had first secured the Arena. Whatever this was, it was no mere investigative foray or stray Deeper party.
"Perimeter defenses?" I asked.
"They have fallen," Jesse replied. "Apparently, they have some ability to infect our own soldiers and turn them into… something else."
"What the-?" With a visible effort, Khentu cut off the myriad of questions that were on everyone's minds. "Never mind, we're inbound now… Standby."
Our unarmed shuttle cleared the last bend, and immediately I could see the Arena defenses firing at… something. It looked like the sand beyond the outer plain had been stained black, and then both of us realized that it looked like that because of the sheer press of bodies coming forward at a run.
"Amun-Ra," I heard Ptolemy and several of the Arrows whisper next to us, and I remembered that this was the first time any of them had seen anything like the horrors that littered the Deeps.
"Don't bother with the landing pads!" Khentu called out to the pilot. "Set us down in the Training Field!"
"Yes, Emrys," came the reply, and the shuttled roared downward directly into the maelstrom of fire.
We had to skirt the roof of the giant antechamber in which the Arena sat, over the open killing fields we had cleared that were now swarming with Deepers. The zones of fire had been more than enough to hold back what Deeper packs we'd seen in the past, but this was on a whole other level. Spirits, from what little I could see, I wasn't sure our core defenses were going to hold at all.
"What I wouldn't give for The Bloody One," Khentu grunted as he reached for his helmet. "My right arm and my swinging dick, I swear to Osiris…"
"Oh, I thought you were going to give up something big."
Khentu paused at Ptolemy's retort, I was forced to stifle an unexpected laugh from escaping my throat.
"Fuck you," Khentu finally said, but I could tell that even despite the enormous gravity of the situation, he was doing his best not to laugh himself.
"Eloquent as always, dear brother."
"Stick close to me," Khentu said, pointedly changing the subject as the shuttle began to touch down,
"You don't know the way around here," he added by way of explanation, when a few of the Arrows seemed to take offence at someone giving orders to their Pharaoh. "Laila, get to the Comm Room and let the Talons and everyone else on Kima know what the fuck is going on."
"You got it," I stated evenly.
Now if only any of us actually knew what the fuck was going on, went unsaid between us.
Chosen Heir
(Ptolemy Emrys)
Location: The Grand Arena, the Deeps, Omega
"MAKE WAY!"
The Arrows of Knesset with me gripped their weapons nervously as we began making our way through a panicked crowd, comprised of every age, sex, and species imaginable. I doggedly kept my gaze and my focus on the crested helmet of my brother, and a blue tinge began to grow around me as I began preemptively charging my amp. The sound of gunfire grew louder and louder as we progressed, until finally we came around a final bend, and three figures came into view.
The first was a female krogan, who was drawing a shotgun from her back with one hand, while hefting a javelin, by the gods, with the other.
The second was a figure of a quarian who, by her heavy mask, backpack, and hood, appeared to be from the Flotilla. A pilgrim most likely, my brain told me, and then I was surprised again by the sight of her activating not only a biotic barrier around herself, but also launching a powerful attack into the throngs of… Deepers, so my brother and Laila had called them, pressing forward.
And the third was…
My heart seemed to either stop completely or launch into overdrive, I couldn't tell which.
"Tess!" I heard Khentu call out as he dove into the firing line. "Where is Alex?"
Alex…
My son…
Our son…
"Nursery!" came the answer, and Tess held down the trigger of her SMG until it whined helplessly in overheat, and then cast it aside casually in favor of a rifle that someone had passed her. She looked up, and our eyes met in a clash of stars and titanic energy.
"Don't just stand there, Tol!" she called out. "OPEN FIRE!"
It was like someone had dashed a bucket of ice down the back of my shirt, and I lifted my own rifle and opened fire in support.
"Spread out!" cried Abdul, as the smaller man ran forward with his knife out in one hand, and his heavy pistol in the other. "Pace your fire, don't let them overheat you!"
My Arrows sprang forward to follow him, shaking out into a second firing line and casting as much steady firepower as they could down-range. The effect of our heavier Harrier rifles was immediate, and the enemy suddenly grew much less enthusiastic about rushing forward, at least in this particular area. I stole a glance sideways as Tess was pulling a figure in Legends armor over the makeshift barricade.
This was not the frail, timid girl I remembered accompanying to the Doru Docks. There was a steely determination in her eyes as she locked eyes with the wounded Legend, spared a single glance at the wounded arm, then drew a pistol and put a round between his eyes in one fluid motion.
"WHAT THE FUCK, TESS?" Khentu's question had as much shock and incomprehension as I was sure our expressions did, beneath our helmets.
"He's been bitten," Tess said, as if that explained everything. Then she pulled off the Legend's crude helmet. "Look."
The face that revealed was human, but even as we watched, three tendril-like appendages broke through the skin of the forehead, falling limp on the ruined face.
"Fucking hells!" Khentu followed his eloquent observation with three more shots from his heavy pistol, ruining whatever was left of the head.
"Most of the mob coming at us were our own people, not three hours ago," the female krogan rumbled gravely. "In all my years, I've never seen anything like it."
"Khentu," came Laila's voice over the comms. "Ignatius and the other captains are gathered here, ready with a briefing. For now, it looks like they're falling back from all zones to prepare for another rush."
"The priest?" I asked, and Khentu nodded mutely, almost absentmindedly. Then his head snapped up in a decisive motion.
"Muerta," he stated evenly. "You hold them here. Chell, you come with me."
The quarian and the krogan nodded.
"Tol, can I ask your Arrows to help support here? At least until I can get this… fuck-fest organized? If you'd like, you can come with me, and be briefed at the same time as me."
I nodded quickly, gesturing for Abdul to take command in my absence. Quan folded his rifle and took up position behind me. If he objected to the Jackal's insistence at being included in this impromptu briefing, my little brother didn't show it.
"Let's go," my little brother breathed. "I've got to… figure out what the fuck is going on."
He spun on his heel and began walking down the corridor. The krogan, apparently Chell, followed. I breathed a small sigh of relief. Uncle Abdul and the Arrows would quibble if this Muerta tried to give them orders, but they would have been just shy of murderous if a krogan had attempted to do so. I didn't doubt for a moment that had been Khentu's exact train of thought, even in this moment of crisis.
A hand reached out and grasped my arm, and I turned to see that Tess had fallen in beside us.
"I…I…" she began, a glimpse of the old Tess coming back into her uncertain expression. "I suppose we're long overdue for a serious conversation."
I couldn't suppress the snort of amusement at the sheer understatement. I was surprised at exactly how much of me wanted to sweep her into my arms and lock her an embrace from which she could never escape. I wanted to drag her into an alcove somewhere and make love her to her for hours. I wanted…
I wanted to make up for the years we had been separated. I wanted to begin rebuilding what I had lost during those terrible days in Doru. Faces and names flashed before my eyes again:
Nobu.
Father.
Isola.
I shook myself, realizing that I had been simply staring for far too long. Slowly, I stretched out an armored hand and placed it gently over her own. Her nostrils flared, but I felt her muscles relax beneath my own.
"I suppose we do," I stated slowly. "It's… it's good to see you, Tess."
A hand squeezed my arm nervously.
"Same," she answered. "Same."
No other words were spoken during the short walk to the Legends' Command Center, but long before we reached there, I had made my vow to my ancestors and whatever gods or deities ruled from on high: In a single day, I had recovered friends and family that I had thought lost to me forever.
And I would never, never lose them again. Not while there was still strength in my fingers or breath within my lungs.
Omega's Child
(Khentu Emrys)
Location: The Grand Arena, The Deeps, Omega
I felt a massive migraine coming on as the bleak situation unfolded on the table in front of me. Almost half of our best fighters had been sent out with Nakmor Syed on an Eclipse contract job, along with the Fury. The other half of our picked soldiers were keeping the peace in Kima, scattered to the winds across the entire district. Even if I tried to get them all down here, Kima would fall apart when the various mini-gangs tried to take advantage of the chaos to thumb their noses at the Legends.
For the second time, it looked like I was about to pay a heavy price for assuming the Arena and the Deeps was my secure zone. Vast swathes of crimson spread across what little area of the Deeps we had secured, showing where we had either been overrun or lost communication, which almost certainly amounted to the same thing. Basically, we controlled the Docks, the Arena, and the tunnels between us and the Villa.
Though the gods alone knew how fucking long that would last.
"I have six ships in deep orbit," Ptolemy was saying as I brought my mind back to the conversation at hand. Quan hissed in disapproval, but my brother brought up his Omni-Tool, and the display in front of us changed to show a map of the entire system. A half-dozen red icons flickered from deep in the Asteroid Belt.
"Clear a space for us, and we'll come in, guns blazing."
I did my best not to let my shoulders sag in relief, for the most part unsuccessfully. I had half-expected Ptolemy to demand Tess and his son be put back onto a shuttle and leave on his insane crusade to reclaim Upper Doru. It was obvious that I was no longer in any position to object or offer him any alternative course of action.
But now, here he was, offering his… how many was it again… six thousand troops to support me in retaking my own territory. And with none of the superiority of the older brother cleaning up his younger brother's mess, either.
He has grown up, I thought, impressed almost against my will. I suppose we both have.
"I can have Jehu's squad clear a beachhead for you," I stated, and the batarian Legend captain nodded in reply.
Now Ptolemy's face fell, and his expression tightened. "That may be… problematic."
I got a sinking feeling in my gut. "Why?"
"There are a great many aliens in the ranks of your… Legends."
I felt my eyebrows try to climb into my hairline. Amun-Ra, this was not the time for Tol's stupid human-centric bull-
My own thoughts cut off as I realized the exact nature of Ptolemy's proposed reinforcements.
"Tol," I said slowly and my fingers pressed into my eyes as I willed, WILLED my brother not be as stupid as I was almost sure he had been. "Please tell me you didn't program your fucking mechs' IFFs to shoot anything that wasn't human."
Ptolemy's smile grew razor thin, and he and the Jackal high priest met the disbelieving gazes of the rest of the room evenly.
"I thought I would be using them to reclaim Lower Egypt," he shrugged finally, as if that fucking explained everything.
"Oh, for spirits' sakes…" Laila groaned, placing her hands over her own face in exasperation.
"In all fairness," Father Ignatius cut in, before anyone else could lose their tempers over the insane situation. "Down in the Lower Docks, everything there happens to both not be human and an enemy."
I blinked, and realized he was right.
Ptolemy straightened, and nodded in that smug way of 'Of course, I had planned it that way the entire time,' when we both knew he had done nothing of the fucking sort.
"I'll divert my ATLAS mechs toward the Arena," he said aloud, "and then we'll use the RAMPARTs as the point of a spear we send ahead of us."
"My Lord," Quan objected, leaning forward, unable to keep quiet any longer. "We could lose the entire force."
And any advantage to use them to reclaim Lower Egypt, went unsaid between them, thankfully. None of the Legends in the room beside Laila and myself had met the Jackal priest before, but that hadn't stopped the fucking racist from making an ass of himself in the half-hour it had taken to go through the briefing we had just concluded.
"These undead demons from the Under-verse are the true enemy, Beloved of Ra," Ptolemy stated, much more diplomatically than I could have done. "We must deal with them first before we can be free to secure any kind of future for the Arrows of Knesset."
The priest didn't look 'convinced' so much as 'mollified,' but at least he leaned back and offered no more objections.
"How soon can you contact your ships?" I asked, before the white-armored idiot could stick his foot further into his mouth. "And how soon can they arrive?"
"That depends entirely upon the quality of your communications equipment," Ptolemy stated drolly, and I rolled my eyes to show what I thought of his pedantic shenanigans.
"Fuck it; Barco, show my carefully-precise brother to the Comm Center and try and get in touch with those ships," I stated slowly. "At the same time, relay a red-alert to Red and the Talons. Tell them to get their asses in gear and send every able-bodied fighter south, if they want to keep their Queen's precious station intact."
"The gangs of Kima will never allow the Talons free passage through their territory," Laila stated as the two figures I had named left the room, followed, thank the gods, by the Jackal priest. Her tone was not one of objection, but simple statement of fact. "Not to fight boogeymen that they have never seen with their own eyes."
"They're not going to be able to object," I shrugged. "Because I'm calling a full muster of Kima District and taking the varren's share of their fighters to defend the Arena."
A stir of surprise went through the assembled group.
"Do you believe they will obey such a call?" Chell asked slowly.
"They will obey, or face the consequences," I replied forcefully. "Send up every recording we have of the Deepers, including that gods-awful clip of Jacobson mutating into one of those… things, and broadcast it to every screen we can. They'll fight the threat down here, or they'll die when all of us get turned into those things and come up the Lifts after them."
"I do not wish to be the harbinger of doom," Jesse cut in, "but if it looks like we're about to overrun, Aria will most likely blow the charges of the Main Lift."
"Of course she will," I nodded, trying to keep out all the dread I felt at that particular prospect. "Wisest course of action she could take."
"Then we must get the civilians moving through the tunnels and passageways back to the Villa and the Kima lifts," Ignatius mused thoughtfully. "God willing, if we can exterminate these vermin, the way will be clear for their return. Otherwise, they will be trapped here when the Lift blows, and this… mutagen seems no respecter of persons. Every single body that remains here is a potential casualty, and a potential enemy."
"Gods," I whispered, rubbing furiously at my eyes to stave off the oncoming migraine, "I hate thinking in terms of those kinds of statistics, but yeah, the priest's right. Tess, Ignatius, and Chell, I'm going to put you in charge of that evacuation. Get the old, sick, and children moving, and then put a gun from the Armory into the hands of every able-bodied fighter we got, and shove them into a firing line."
"This is going to get worse before it gets better, isn't it?" Tess asked, and her voice was thin and strained. A feeling equal parts guilt and pity washed over me: this girl had been driven out of every home she had ever had, either by poverty, war, or some combination of both.
"We stick together, Tess," I stated evenly, putting confidence that I frankly didn't honestly feel into my voice, "and we'll come out the other side alright, just like we've always done."
"Amen," Ignatius nodded soberly, and made the cross-motion that he always did when he was performing one of his rituals.
"Alright, people," I continued. "We've all got our marching orders. Let's get to it before the next wave of Deepers hits us. Remember, anyone so much as suspects one of those fucking orbs getting close, you run like a bat outta hell, sounding every alarm you can before we send every ounce of firepower that way to wipe the fuckers out. Let's be about it."
Assumed Stranger
(Oran T'Loak)
Location: Afterlife Club, Omega
"What the fuck is going on in the Deeps?"
Silence fell on the room, and the upper circle of our "family," otherwise known as the T'Loak clan, fell silent.
"In case anyone was wondering," Aria T'Loak stated slowly, and her voice could have frozen helium, "that wasn't a fucking rhetorical question."
I sighed internally, I wasn't stupid enough to do it aloud when Auntie was in one of these moods, and straightened from where I had been leaning against the wall.
"Near as the Talons have been able to find out through their information sources," I began slowly, filling the silence and ensuring my voice stayed calm and even. "Emrys and his Legends have stumbled across a goddess-fucked-ton of those… Deepers."
Aria's mouth became a thin line of contemplation, and then she gave a single, curt nod. "What further steps has Emrys taken?"
"He's locked down the Main Lift to the Arena, and is pulling in all of the regular Legends from Kima," Nyreen answered, her artificial mandibles moving in an involuntary gesture of concern. "In addition, he's ordered a full mobilization of the Kima gangs."
"How many of them?" Aria demanded.
"Near as we can tell?" I shrugged. "All of them."
There was a long pause, and then I saw that look in Auntie's eyes when she had made a decision. "Moklan."
"Ma'am?"
The batarian lieutenant's expression was drawn, and his mouth was set in a grim line. He had been viewing the same information as the rest of us, and had probably reached the same conclusions she had.
"Get the message out to any of our people down there," she barked. "Kandros, get your Talons into gear. If Emrys is pulling the Kima trash down to fight this..."
"This will be a perfect opportunity to seize more direct control of Kima," Nyreen finished for her. She was probably one of the few individuals in the galaxy who would have dared cut off the Black Queen of Omega in mid-sentence. "I don't expect much resistance by the local neighborhoods. Likely most of them will be relieved to have someone permanently in charge of their district, rather than the constantly-changing situation they're in now."
I brought up my Omni-Tool, relaying the messages to those whom I would have to get into gear in order to make this happen. Moving from the Talons' ranks into those of our newly-revamped Navy had been a welcome change of pace, but now I would have to arrange transport for this little not-so-hostile takeover of Kima by the Talons. As I was in the midst of seeing what shuttles I would have available, the room plunged from its normal dim, club-setting lighting into a deep, dark crimson.
"My Queen." The scratchy voice of the station's mildly insane AI thrummed, echoing from every speaker.
"Go ahead, Elder."
The station AI was heavily shackled, but the obviously fake subservience in the voice still gave me the creeps. "I have received a Priority One message from the human Khentu Emrys."
There was an audible pause in the buzz of the room's conversation.
"Put him through," Aria said after a moment.
"It is a recorded broadcast," the horribly-irritating voice intoned. "No opportunity for a reply was included."
I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes at the electronic pedantry and Aria jerked her chin impatiently. "Put it on the main display."
"As you command."
The holo-display revealed a human in heavy battle armor. The voice was garbled coming through the helmet, but there was only one human on Omega who had a helmet welded to look like a turian elder's crest.
"This is Khentu Emrys, of the Legends of the Deeps," the message began. "Authentication Code: Black-Yellow-Yellow-Niner-Seven-One. Case Janiris. I say again, Janiris, Janiris, Janiris. Emrys, clear."
Aria T'Loak closed her eyes and sucked in a deep breath through her nostrils. Case Janiris was the code relayed by Omega's commanders in one case and one case only: the presence of those never-to-be-sufficiently-damned black orbs.
Then the Black Queen of Omega straightened, and she gazed back at the frozen image of the human.
"Fuck.
Author's Note:
A holiday gift for all of my faithful readers/reviewers! I hope you are all well, and surrounded by friends and family.
My thanks to Katkiller-V, not only for the use of his AU-universe, but also for his awesome beta-reading/editing skills!
As always, your thoughts/ suggestions/ comments/ constructive criticisms are always welcome in either the reviews below or in my PMs.
Rock on, my friends!
EE-RAH!
Tusken1602