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Their contact was a Batarian man named Tarak, hidden in the back of an alleyway and dressed in a thinly armored matte black combat suit that covered him head to toe. Even his eyes were only just visible through the mostly opaque black of his helmet's visor, and watched them warily as they came down the alleyway. His Predator hung at his side, arm half-slackened in a way that his training told him was meant to seem disarming even though his arm could snap up and to the ready in an instant. He held his M7 in much the same way, albeit across his armored chest rather than at his side, with the fingers of his off hand wrapped loosely around the weapon's front grip.
"T'Loak." The alien practically snarled, turning to the ODST a moment after and grunting an even less respectful. "Human."
"Talon." Aria snapped back with the same kind of animosity he'd shown both of them, plus change. Crossing her arms, she cocked her head and explained for his benefit, "Just a bit before Cerberus hit the station, the Talons were real up and comers. Little do-gooders in the light, ruthless in the dark. Just like Archangel was, back before he and his little gang were wiped out."
"Say what you want, T'Loak. But the only reason you're going to win this fight is because of us, so maybe save it." The woman only shrugged and made a 'get on with it' motion with her hand, earning a tired sigh from the other alien. Shaking his head, he turned and pressed a hand against the wall, pushing it back on hinges that he couldn't see. "Come on, then. Got shit to do."
The access hatch let into a thin, dark tunnel that he could scarcely see in. He blinked to ping his VISR system and winced at the broken, fractaling result. It drew a grunt of pain and an instinctive step back, hand coming up to manually deactivate the VISR system and other flailing to get a grip on the nearby wall so he wouldn't fall. Blinking away the spots and blinded, he flinched at the hand on his shoulder, one arm grabbing the attached wrist and other grabbing for his Krogan knife. Blind and in the darkness, and so close, the M7S would be nearly useless aside from spraying fire and hoping it worked out.
"Relax, dumbass." Aria grunted, yanking her hand free and forcing him past her, pushing him along with a hand on his shoulder. "I know a blind man flailing when I see one. What happened, Doe?"
"VISR is fried. Dragoon must have done it when he hit me." He answered with a grimace, knowing how unlikely it was that he could get it fixed anytime soon. A painful loss, to be certain. But one he couldn't do anything about for now except for closing his eyes and waiting for his blindness to fade. "It flashed in bright fractals. I won't be able to see for a few minutes, probably."
"Sucks to suck." Was all the woman would say, sliding her hand off the metal pauldron and onto the exposed undersuit nearer his neck. The better to steer him, he knew from his own training on VIP extraction.
Ten minutes later, he blinked his eyes open and could see, albeit barely, in the dark of the hallway. With a grunt of thanks he shrugged the woman's hand off and released the handle of his knife, trading the weapon's Krogan grip for the Human one of his M7S and following silently behind the Batarian. The halls they passed through were ancient and, sometimes, clearly made for creatures smaller than them. A dozen times they had to crawl through small access hatches or ancient, broken ventilation connections. And half that many times, the Batarian stopped them to find ancient, sometimes partially rusted shut hatches hidden behind walls of piping or slabs of concrete.
All he could tell, really, was that they were steadily progressing up. It was a gradual process, and he could only barely tell it was happening, but he still could. But where up there could they be going that was secure?
"We're headed towards Afterlife…" Aria realized suddenly, the Batarian turning a look on her a sthey walked, peering over his shoulder. "No, not to Afterlife…" She smiled, looking at the Batarian with narrowed eyes, "You shits found my safehouse, didn't you?"
"More like a bunker 'n a safehouse." The Batarian grunted with a small shrug, "But yes. We were a week out from an attack to dethrone your purple ass when Cerberus showed itself."
"Rather dumb, telling me about your plan…" Aria murmured, mind no doubt racing with other things as they walked. Contingencies to cover, who knew about it and which would have told Talon, the works. He could see it in her face. "But of course, I know you know about that bunker and have access to it, so now you know that you can't use that plan. Do tell, though, how did you-"
"One of the techs you hired to make it and bring it up to code. You hired nineteen, killed seventeen, and lost two. We found one of 'em and bought the information." The Batarian answered as they reached a pip covered wall and he knelt, Omni-Tool glowing as he set to work opening yet another hidden hatch. As he worked, and under his breath, he grunted, "Fat lotta good those credits did him back in the Hegemony, though. Did the deal a month 'fore the Reapers showed."
She only shrugged and chewed on her lip in agitation and, if he had to guess, anxiety over something. What it could be would remain a mystery, though. Any conversation that could have been had was cut off by the screeching of metal as the pipes gave way, sliding in on hidden hinges. Several sets of hands came through from the other side, pulling it open as they pushed the heavy bulkhead.
The first thing he saw when he was through were fortifications. Sandbags and broken furniture heaped in a semi-circle that reached up to the ceiling, bristling with rifle barrels stuck through whatever gaps they could find. The weapons were random, with Avengers mixed in with Phaestons, Mattocks and even a few Harriers. Just as random were the aliens around them, who had pulled the door open. Humans, Asari, a couple Turians and even more Batarians than he'd expected to ever see after what had happened to the Hegemony. Though in truth it made sense that many would go to places like Omega, given their lack of trust for the Citadel and the Reaper infestation elsewhere in the Terminus.
"Seal the door and get to work." A flanging, clearly Turian voice ordered as its owner pushed through the helpers that had come to open the door. Thinner than any turian he'd yet seen, and with far less on its head, he took it for a female.
A female whose voice had made Aria stiffen beside him, jaw set and eyes hard. As the woman reached, she ground out, "Nyreen Kandros."
"T'Loak." The alien woman grunted, head cocked to the side and flanges pulled back in what he had long since started taking to be a Turian smile. "Good to see you. How's the throne feeling under you right about now?"
"Nyreen…"
"Nice and comfortable?" The Turian pressed, turning her head to the other side mockingly and smiling, teeth bared. An action that added threat and mockery to her smile. Both of which were only furthered by Aria snarling and refusing to answer her. Finally, the Turian shrugged and turned, motioning for them to follow her through the bunker, "Come on, then. No reason to waste our time. Unless you want to delay getting your throne back."
"Point taken." The Asari snarled, rolling her shoulders and letting her Biotics crackle threateningly.
The bunker itself was rather simple, by the standards of what constituted a bunker. Their entrance was a rear one, and well out of the way, which let into storage. Shelves like those found in stores lined the place, filled up to a third in everything one needed for refitting an army. Which the Talon had seemingly taken full advantage of the surplus of ammunition and armor, fitted out well as they made their way through. And all of them, amusingly enough, took some modicum of joy in seeing Aria bristle at having been so thoroughly robbed of her weapons and armor.
Though it wasn't the most mature thing to be amused by, he couldn't help the hidden smirk that spread across his face.
The next room was a wide working and living area, one side dominated by workbenches and retooling tools and the other filled by cots and detritus. This, he supposed, was where the Talon soldiers rested and prepared. For how long, he could only guess, based on the tension in the air and the state of the room. They were led through it and through yet another door at the back, and into a room ringed by terminals crowded by their workers and dominated by a large holographic projection table. On it, a glowing map of their area waited, lit in a ruddy orange. Their bunker was highlighted in green and, a dozen feet up and several blocks down, another location had been lit up in blue.
It was labelled 'Afterlife', their objective on this station and where they could end this small war.
"Alright then, I'd like to keep this brief." The Turian, Nyreen, grunted as they reached the holotable. Flicking a talon she ordered her aides to give her control of the terminal and gave them a look. "We don't have a lot of time, so save your questions unless they are damn important."
"Can I ask why?" Aria cut in, immediately throwing the Turian's request out the window and smiling for how purposeful it was. The Turian's mandibles clicked in agitation and the woman smirked, baring her teeth as always in a display of amusement as much as in a threat, "You all look comfortable here. Why the big rush? Enjoy my food, my water, my guns."
"Because, Aria," the Turian snarled, "every minute we waste the people of Omega station die. Reapers, Cerberus, looters, doesn't matter."
"Stop my bleeding-"
"I would if I could, T'Loak. And the station would be better for it." The Turian snapped over her shoulder, the sharpness drawing eyes from around the bunker. Nyreen waved them off though, sending them back to their tasks with the simple gesture, "But I need your manpower and your alliance to save this station. So we're allies."
"Can we get on with it?" John interrupted, stepping forward to lean on the holotable across from the Turian woman. Aria's eyes narrowed but he explained anyway, staring her down from behind his visor as he did. "We have work to do, and the Coalition can't hold forever if it's defending against the station and defending against attempts by Cerberus to break the siege. And all the while, these resources aren't fighting the Reapers."
"You're right. I'm sorry." Nyreen grunted, a note of mourning and contrition in her voice. Raising an orange, glowing arm, she began to talk, talons flicking across keys as she did. As she did, red lines spindled out like a web around the bunker, crawling around Afterlife and then striking in towards it. "My men will use the access paths to spread out around Afterlife. We launch an all out attack on the surrounding Cerberus emplacements. In part to cover our attack on Afterlife, and in part to distract from it."
"A blitz. Rush the club and take the throne back by force." Aria grunted, giving Nyreen a look, eyes narrowed and a frown stretching across her face. Quietly, she asked, "Do you even know what kind of defenses are in Afterlife? What Cerberus has done along the way to it, whatever that might be in your little plan?"
"Petrovsky keeps a guard of a dozen troopers, four Centurions and a pair of Guardians with him at all times." Nyreen answered simply, shrugging and giving the woman a small shake of her head. "Besides that? He could have a damn battleship cannon aimed at the door in there for all we know."
"Gee, that's a lot to go on…"
"Yeah, well, we've done our best, T'Loak." Nyreen snapped, giving the woman a hard look and turning back to the ODST. As though she expected him to be a more rational person to talk to, or just hated Aria, she explained, "We seize Petrovsky and force him to yield the station. Then you and the Coalition can take the system, and we can start cleaning out Omega properly."
"Yes, because I'm sure you consider me and mine clean."
"Not by a long shot, but you're better than Cerberus or the Reapers. Not by much but, eh, a shot in the leg is better than one in the spine." Nyreen answered, avoiding the Asari's bait like a woman born to it. Or a woman who had simply spent enough time dealing with it to have learned to do it well. Giving the Asari a look, the woman nodded, "If you're set in the plan, then you can get some rest. I'll handle the minutiae and we will move out in the morning."
"Straight track to Afterlife, and your throne. Minimal risk, surgical strike. Cut the head off the snake and be done with it." The ODST pushed off the table and gave the self-made hierarch a small shrug. "Seems straightforward enough. Not easy," it never was, he knew, "but simple and straightforward. If my recommendation matters, then I would recommend we move forward with the Talon plan."
"Fine." Aria grunted, "But this ends with Petrovsky's grey matter giving Afterlife a fresh coat of paint."
"Hackett wants him alive." John pointed out dryly, earning nothing more than a dismissive wave of her hand. Head still aching from earlier and having none of it, he stepped forward and shook his head, "Aria, this ends with you on your throne. Don't throw that away just so you can get some petty revenge with your own hands."
"He took my station-"
"And we're going to give it back to you." John grunted shortly, "But we need Petrovsky to finish Cerberus. He's our only lead whose head won't explode when we start questioning him."
The Asari was quiet for a long, long time before she grunted and nodded. Turning to leave, she grunted, "Fine then. Blitz through the front door, give me my throne, and get the hell off my station with your little package." Shaking her head, she called back, "I'm finding a quiet corner and a ration crate. Keep your people off me or I'll smear them across the wall."
"She's as fun as ever…" Nyreen murmured once the woman had been gone for a minute, and her distant demands for a ration crate had ended. Thankfully without any gunfire or Biotic explosions that he could make out. Relieved for it, the Turian sighed, "I don't know why the Coalition agreed to work with her… It won't end up well for anyone but Aria. If that."
"The Coalition needs a force here to control and rally the populace. To the Coalition's knowledge, Aria was the only one that could accomplish that." He answered simply, crossing his arms and heading for the door. Across the room he spotted Aria, back to him and lounging on a couch across the room, eating her way through a ration crate. Turning back to her he grunted, "But that isn't the case after all, is it? No, and I suspect there's someone more stable that we didn't know about."
"How do you mean? Wait." She asked, flicking a talon and ordering her men away from them. With another, she called him closer and he approached, standing next to her with his arms around his chest and his eyes on the door. "Now talk. What do you mean?"
Quietly enough he knew no one could hear even if they wanted to he explained, "Aria is a wildcard. And I have a job to do here on Omega station."
"Getting her throne back for her." Nyreen nodded, mandibles flicking in question. "Correct?"
"No. My job is to secure Omega system for the Coalition, and pursue whatever ends best enable the Coalition to hunt down and eliminate Cerberus. Petrovsky's capture, alive, is a requirement for the second part of my objective." The Turian blinked at his words, head angling in question, exposing her throat in what he knew from his reading to be a subconscious show of trust. So she was listening, then. Good. "If I can't trust Aria to do that, then I can't trust her to have the Coalition's back after the Reapers and Cerberus are beaten."
"Thinking that far ahead?"
"Mhm." Not really, of course. His priorities were on the Reapers and Cerberus both, but a wise soldier always had an eye on the future. And with an easy solution to hand… "Now, Talon Commander. Are you willing to listen to my offer?"
"Prepare the plans and get the unit assignments finished." She ordered, eyes locked on his own through the depolarized visor of his helmet. A chorus of affirmations carried around them both and she turned her gaze back on him. "What kind of offer do you have, then? And if it includes stabbing Aria in the back, you better have a damn good plan."
"It does and I do." He nodded, holding up a finger to silence her when she made to speak. In as firm a voice as he could channel, he ended with, "But only if she refuses to give us Petrovsky. I need you to be completely clear on that. And I need you not to make a play if she decides to play ball."
"I've heard of you, you know. That man from another dimension or whatever." The Turian answered quietly, eyes searching his and his face for whatever they could find. When she found whatever she could, if anything at all, she asked, "You were special operations, weren't you?"
"I was." Special operations was Turian speak for 'black ops' he knew from his readings. Luckily, even though the name was different, the roles were the same. Or close enough to the same for his needs, at the very least. "And in the interests of Earth and her colonies, I do whatever it takes to get my job done. And besides, would Aria do any different in my shoes?"
"No. No she wouldn't." He didn't respond, letting the Turian stew in his offer. Finally, she nodded and quietly murmured, "I'm in. On your terms, just like you said. If she won't give you Petrovsky."
He grunted and nodded, turning to leave. He made it four steps before stopping and turning back to the shocked looking Turian. "I'm low on ammunition for my M7S." He grunted quietly, "I need a weapon."
XxX-XxX-XxX
A hand on his shoulder woke him up a handful of hours later, Nyreen standing over him. Gone was her hood, replaced by a black helmet with two red talons painted along the bottom of it, along the line where her jaw hinged to her skull. He grunted and sat up, letting her pull him up and press a weapon into his arms. He lifted the blue oval in his arms to look at it but her explanation preempted his looking, "An Avenger. Medium engagement range, fitted with an Omni-integrated sight and anti-armor rounds. My own, special rifle."
"I'm flattered." He grunted, meaning it. To many Turians a specially modified rifle had a sort of soul within itself. One tied to its wielder.
That she was willing to lend it to him meant she was trusting him. The double meaning was not lost on him, either. It was a weight in his hands, in fact, regardless of his quipping. The same kind of weight as he felt resting on his shoulder and emblazoned on his chest. Quietly, he raised his arms, leaving the rifle to rest across his shoulder blades and turning to the alien woman. "Thank you."
"See that it gets back to me." She grunted simply, turning a look on the men behind her rapidly readying themselves for the coming fight. Quietly, she asked, "If you have to do it, can I make a request?"
Odd as it was, and as impossible as it might end up being for him to meet it, he nodded. "What is it?"
"Make it clean." Was all she said, voice cracking under strain he couldn't place. Before he could do more than narrow his eyes in question, she turned, striding away and raising her voice. "Talons, hear me and heed my words."
At her words, the men and women stopped their work, turning all attention on the woman. Even Aria, blinking, turned to her. Back straight as steel, the Turian began to speak. "For months, Cerberus has held our station in its grip. Civilians have vanished, non-Humans have been pushed into labor camps if they say anything, and our resources have been strangled out of us. If we resist, they cut the oxygen supply and choke us out. All the while, we have fought them. Sabotaged them, freed laborers, stolen back supplies. By now, it's as natural as breathing."
"So," she flicked her talons and two long submachine guns sprang to their full on her waist, the woman plucking them from their homes with a smile, "let's make one more smash and grab. Shall we?"
"For Omega!" A Human cried, face hidden behind a heavy helmet and armor painted in Blue Suns colors. At his call, the room thundered a matching cheer and the warriors turned back to readying themselves.
"Ten minutes and we move." She called out, "When this is over, I'm buying all of us a round. Or twelve."
Fifteen minutes later the three of them emerged onto a wide avenue, the Trooper leading at the front and Aria in the back. His heavier armor made him a more ideal point man, for obvious reasons, even if his VISR system was down and he wasn't as capable of a scout. Instead of pinging with his VISR to track signatures through the wall and up the street, he was relegated to the more old-fashioned method of kneeling at the corner and poking his head around.
"Five troopers, no supplementaries." He grunted, watching them in formation around a building, one of them carrying a heavy riot ram and trying to beat down the door with it. The lack of Centurions or Guardians was an oddity, but one he relegated as having to due with the siege across the station calling on the more specialized units. "Distracted. Attempting to gain entry to a building."
"And the street itself?" Nyreen asked, "The barriers blocking the way?"
"Down." He reported, eyeing the pylons just past the troopers. Occasionally they would spark weakly and try to reform, but nothing came of it. Quietly, he asked, "Your doing, Kandros?"
"My people, yeah." Her tone was hard and sharp, and told him not to press her for any more information than he'd already been given. Raising her Omni-Tool, lit in red rather than orange to minimize the light factor, she took a breath and said, "The operation begins across the district in fifteen seconds. Five minutes after, we advance up the street as fast as we are able to. Aria and I at the front, Biotics free."
"Yep."
"Yes, Ma'am."
True to her words fifteen seconds passed and the Cerberus troopers stopped what they were doing, hands pressed to the sides of their helmets as they listened to a report. After hearing it, three of them turned to jog off while the other two set back to work on the door. Two minutes later the door gave way and the Troopers stepped back, raising their Hornets and preparing to breach.
"Not today." He grunted, stepping around the corner and raising the modified, blue Avenger.
Twin bursts of five ripped through the air and down the street. One slammed into the closest trooper's helmet, carving through and into his skull. Had it not, the force of the rounds snapping his head to the side and breaking his neck would have. The second went more astray, rounds punching into the Trooper's head, shoulder and neck, ripping a hole in the latter that ended the poor man.
"What are two minutes, hey? Fuckin' soldier boys, I swear, totally impatient. The lot of you." Aria grunted as the two Biotics rose and stepped past him into the street. Over her shoulder she called back, tauntingly, "You wanted to start early, Doe, so keep the hell up!"
"Hmph." He grunted, jogging behind them up the empty street without a word.
"Right at the coming corner. There's a Cerberus barricade there, we'll smash through 'em." Kandros called back as they ran up the street, headed towards a large four-way clogged by cars that had been stopped there for what looked like days.
Long enough he could see dust on them, whatever the case.
Rounding the corner they came face to face with a Cerberus checkpoint. It was built like a police barricade would have been and manned by a half dozen Cerberus troopers. These were armed with Hornets as well, serving a policing rather than combat roles just like the nones before had been. They didn't hesitate to open fire on them as they rounded the corner, though, rounds sparking off their barriers for a single second.
Inside the second second the air tasted of electricity, twin balls of Biotic power hurling by him at high speed and slamming into each other in the opening left to allow vehicles through the checkpoint. The resulting explosion ripped the barricades, and men, apart in a blue supernova that lasted for only a heartbeat. In its wake was left a steaming circle of devastation not unlike a Wraith plasma explosion, bodies at the edge smoldering and smoke curling up from the burnt concrete.
If he was asked, he'd have happily said he hated the reminder.
"Just like old times." Aria practically purred, giving the Turian a look and grinning ferally, "Fun times, weren't they? Back before you ran off to play hero, I mean."
"District block ends just ahead, less than a city block to go." The Turian grunted shortly, ignoring Aria entirely and taking off as fast as her long, Turian legs could carry her. Which, it turned out, was fairly fast.
Another block passed by in an empty blur, Cerberus' forces so thinned out that they didn't see another soul as they ran. Neither, though, did they see any station dwellers. Wherever they had gone to, he didn't know, aside from that it certainly wasn't here. At the end of the block another massive wall spanned up, high above them like the other times he'd come to the end of a habitation block. Here, though, the door wasn't sealed and manned by dozens of angry Reapers.
Instead, as the door hissed open, he came face to helmet with a trio of Troopers. Surprised, they hesitated for the briefest moment, before Biotic Throws hurled two of them away at such speed that when they hit the concrete beyond the door, he heard their wet crack. He slammed into the third bodily, shoving him back and slipping a leg between his own to shove him down the stairs behind him. As he tumbled, the ODST sighted him, rifle bouncing as he did until he found a good shot and sent a burst into him.
The access way didn't let out onto another avenue, it turned out. Instead they descended the steps into a marketplace. The only sign he could read said 'Harrot's Surplus Supplies', which had been boarded shut by heavy metal plates and left abandoned. Two more Troopers rounded a corner past the stairs and two more Biotic cannonballs ripped through the air, slamming them into each other with enough kinetic power their bodies broke around each other and left them in a ball of broken, knotted limbs.
They kept up their pace, rushing through the market and around a corner to a closed metal door. At it they stacked up, taking the moment to breathe before the last leg of their pseudo-infiltration. While they did, their Turian comrade rattled off, "Five troopers down. Petrovsky should have half a dozen more and the rest inside, unless he diverted them elsewhere. The Centurions and Guardians and we should be through."
"They'll be there." Aria sneered, shaking her head, "Little weasel would never leave himself exposed."
"On my mark." The Turian grunted, setting her weapon on a hip and flexing her claws. After a long few seconds she rose, slammed a hand against the release and surged through. A pair of Guardians waited on the other side, their backs to the door. One fell to her talons, ripping into the backs of their neck just under their helmets and severing their spine. The other died even more mercilessly, hurtled to the side by a Throw and sent careening over a ledge into the miles of empty space to fall through before he died.
"Centurions!" She grunted, sinking to a knee and vulnerable as he and Aria stepped up behind her.
He leveled his borrowed rifle on one, pouring fire on it like water from a hose onto a fire, rounds sparking across the soldier's body. His shields sparked as he turned, stumbling and jerking as the duo tried to react. His shields failed before he could do more than spray fire into the wall over their heads, and a moment after he fell himself, rounds carving through armor and into flesh and bone. As he fell his partner hurtled towards them, flailing through the air and surrounded by Biotic energy.
He met his end on Turian claws, Kandros grunting as she took his weight and turned, letting him slump off her. They wasted no time, even to let her flick the blood of her claws. Instead they pushed on, towards the door. It chimed and slid open as they approached, another pair of Troopers stepping through with Guardians formed up in front of them defensively. As they had at the barricade, the two Biotics hurled their projectiles and let the Element Zero mortar strike eradicate them entirely.
At last, they stepped into Afterlife. Or rather, its entry hall, headed for the door. The far door chimed open and three Centurions rushed in, Harriers pouring fire down on them. In answer, Kandros projected a Biotic wall before them and he drew an explosive from his canister, hurtling it ahead of them and detonating it in their midst. Two died outright, bodies reduced to pulp and metal against the wall on their right side. The last, missing and arm and staggered, was hurled back into Afterlife by a Biotic Throw.
Inside Afterlife didn't resemble the club he'd been told it was. Instead, it was a control room, dominated by terminals, communications arrays, and the like. The skeleton of a club could be discerned, the vague outline of a bar visible to one side, but that was all. The private box to the right had been changed as well, glass covered in cables and monitors.
At the top of the ramp stood an old man in a Cerberus uniform, hands held up in surrender. Before they could do anything, he called out to them, "I have already spoken with Admiral Hackett to tender my surrender. He approved of my conditions for it, and my soldiers are standing down across the station."
"You think you can just surrender?" Aria snarled, storming ahead of them with Biotic power crackling off her. He gave the Turian a look and she nodded, turning to watch the door. And, pointedly, not looking to see how things would play out.
Petrovsky flinched at the duo's, backpedaling into the control room as Aria reached him. Frightened, he stammered, "L-Lieutenant Commander Doe, I've surrendered! Hackett promised me safety in exchange for- Ack!" His words were cut off by Aria's fist in his stomach, doubling him over and letting him collapse in a heap at her feet.
"I don't give a damn if you've surrendered to them!" She snarled, reaching down to drag the man up and turning to hurl him against a command console that looked out on the former club. He collapsed over it and turned, catching a fist across his face from the irate woman which broke his nose. Rearing back, she smiled, fist wreathed in Biotic blue, "Go to hell, Cerberus-"
"We need him alive, Aria." He grunted, silently praying to whatever god might exist, and those he was sure did not, that she would listen.
Willing as he was to do what needed to be done, he didn't fancy killing the woman. She'd saved his life, after all, and they'd developed a decent rapport. Slowly, he collapsed his borrowed Avenger and set it aside before stepping around on her left side, resting his left hand hand on the shoulder whose arm held the Cerberus commander down. The other he brought back, fingers relaxed, to rest behind his waist where she couldn't see it behind his body.
Quietly, he urged her, "Please, Aria. You made an agreement. Keep your word."
She seemed to consider his request for a moment, chewing her lip in that way he'd learned meant she was considering whatever had been put before her. Finally, though, and sounding genuine, she apologized, "I'm sorry. But I can't just let him go after what he did. To me, to my station. I need this, John. Please."
"I understand." He nodded, depolarizing his visor so she could see a friendly face. Swiftly and fluidly, knowing she would have been focusing on using her Biotics to beat the general, he turned. Glowing orange, his right arm snapped in, Omni-Blade dagger burying itself in between her ribs and curving up into her heart. She only flinched and he sighed, "I'm sorry, Aria."
"And I thought we were getting along, too…" She grunted, releasing the general and staggering back off his blade.
With a flick, the weapon vanished and he stepped past her, kneeling as she fell so she wouldn't collapse and more gently laying her down. She was dead long before he laid her out, folding her hands on her sternum to hide the wound, but he didn't care. He owed her at least this kindness after betraying her.
"We were." He grunted shortly as he rose and turned to the general, who himself had staggered towards the door. Grabbing him by the neck he dragged him down the ramp and shoved him into the Turian by the door. When she looked towards the command booth he answered her question. "Omega is yours, Nyreen. Rule well, and don't stab the Coalition in the back."
"I won't." Was all he waited to hear, turning to leave with his hands curled into tight fists at his side.
Outside, he sat on the stairs that led up to Afterlife and sighed. To himself and no one else he murmured, "You did the right thing. She was too erratic and untrustworthy to be trusted to lead in the Coalition. And Petrovsky is an easy way to find the next Cerberus base to hit."
All were good justifications for fact.
None made him feel any less like a murderer, though.
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So.
That happened.
Forgive me?
Regardless, my thoughts on the Omega Arc. I'm largely unsatisfied with it. I'm more of an organic story writer, so I only ever really plan out the overall gist of an arc. The major events. Character deaths, major scenes like the Rookie's speech to the Krogan or Aria's death. NORMALLY this results in a very organic story run and I like it. But the Omega arc, I feel, wasn't good for this. In future for such long arcs, I will FAR more tightly plan what I want to happen. Or maybe I am simply being too hard on myself, as I sometimes do.
If anyone has constructive suggestions on tweaks to this, toss 'em at me.
XxX-XxX-XxX
Human Dragon :
Thanks~!
