September 28th 02:11 2184 CE
The catwalks. That was how the slippery bastard was getting around, well two could play at that game. For weeks, he'd been hunting Archangel and company. Garm had vorcha spies spread across the entire station. Yet it took ages to merely pinpoint how the guy was skulking around Omega, much less catch him while he was vulnerable.
Until recent months, Garm had a nice setup, easy creds, all the blue azure he could want. And the asshole was ruining it. At this very moment, he was supposed to be in bed with Myret, an unbelievably hot little number employed at Afterlife. But thanks to Mister Jack Ass, Weyrloc Guld himself ordered the Archangel menace dealt with. And so he found himself surrounded by a pack of stinking vorcha who could barely string two thoughts together. They made excellent cannon fodder, yet pitiful company. Not to mention their pathetic hygiene caused them to smell like piss and shit.
At least lady luck had been on his side tonight. He'd pinpointed Archangel's location, and the situation couldn't be sweeter. Merely two combat capable squad members were with him. The rest of the group consisted of a cripple and two female civilians. That noble fool would stop at nothing to protect the women and with such a small force, the turian would fail miserably. Once he was desperate, angry, and stupid he'd be easy prey.
"Alright. There they are. No survivors, not even the women. We're not here to play, I want them put down fast."
"Raah. What about Archangel?" One of the vorcha hissed.
"He's mine. I'll separate him from his squad, keep him busy. Vrik and Pok will be with me. The rest of you wretches are assigned to his team. They're soft but the curly haired male is trouble. Put him down fast."
"The human?"
"Are you morons fuckin' serious? Yes. The human. Aside from a crippled batarian and the turian, who is Archangel himself, they're all human."
"Got it Garm. Don't worry I'll provide these dimwits with proper direction." Gere offered his reassurance.
Garm nodded to his second in command. The krogan was young, bit of a hothead, but a good fighter. Kid had potential. And after years of tutelage in the art of war, he could trust Gere would take care of business.
"Alright, when they turn the corner, we unleash hell on his squad. Remember. Goal number one is to separate Archangel from his team. You deal with them then join me."
Garm, flanked by fifteen of his finest vorcha, descended from the catwalks. He nearly landed on Archangel himself. A pity the turian's reflexes were so sharp. A second's delay and his neck would've snapped in two, putting an end to this nonsense. He heaved the turian from his companions with the flick of a wrist. The trap had worked perfectly. Archangel's team was in disarray, he could hear their frantic screaming as they scrambled to retreat, cutoff from their commander. Perhaps he'd be back in time for a little nookie with Myret after all.
"You play so beautifully hon. What do you plan to do with it?" Nalah, one arm hooked on Frank's elbow, was chattering beside her.
"I dunno. Record stuff. Make money." Jane shrugged. There was something odd about Garrus. She could see the tension in his neck, the way his head cocked as if he were listening for something.
A pause. Garrus unlocked his pistol's clip ever so subtly. What was….
The next thing she knew, massive shadowy figures filled air. Crashing metal on metal. Jane saw Garrus dodge only to be caught by a whirl of biotic energy.
"Converge on the girls! Don't let them near!" It was the last order any of them heard as Garrus disappeared under a haze of blue, followed by a krogan warlord and several vorcha body guards.
They raced backwards, Ripper pulled Krul from his chair in the nick of time. Half a second later, white foam and black leather erupted around them. A grenade blew blew the chair to smithereens as they took shelter behind a concrete planter. Thorny branches pulled at her hair.
Vorcha were on every side. There had to be at least a dozen of the creatures. Certainly more than she could count in a few scant seconds. Either way, there were too many. Way. Too. Many. She popped her head over the concrete box in an attempt to survey the area.
"Damnit Jane stay down." Krul bellowed, pulling her to the ground. The batarian was crawling forward, laying down covering fire while simultaneously attempting to maneuver drones. Despite his best efforts, the mechanical balls were being disabled faster than he could replace them. It wasn't sustainable.
"You need help!" Jane spun around wildly. They were surrounded. Not just by vorcha but two massive, well armored krogan were approaching and she was fairly certain no one else was even aware, caught up in the chaos surrounding their direct vicinity. Krul was on his belly, putting up as much fight as someone with merely one working leg could. Nalah clearly had zero combat training. Frank was growing frantic, trying to protect both his wife and herself. Ripper was the only one holding his own, and with the imminent krogan charge, that was about to change.
She'd grown stronger over recent months. Gained weight, began rebuilding muscles that had wasted away during her time aboard those abhorrent slaver ships. And for the first time in years, with adrenaline pumping through her veins, she could feel biotics prickling just beneath her skin. Muffled certainly. The inhibitor did its job well. But she'd pushed past it before. It'd been years, yet the situation was deteriorating rapidly. She had to do something.
"Frank, don't try to follow. Nalah." She turned to the terrified woman on all fours, gasping as if the station had suddenly become devoid of air. "Keep your head down."
"What the hell are you doin' girl?" Frank grit out between shots.
"Getting us out of this."
She gripped the air, summoning the warm, tingling strength that had lain dormant for far too long. White hot pain erupted in the back of her eyes. She bit it downed, swallowed it whole. They would not take this squad, the only people she had left to care about. A barrier blossomed in front of her and she charged, quickly making her way to their sole defender on the front line. Ripper turned to her, the whites of his eyes glowed against the blue.
"You's… a civvie... I … thought."
"No time. I got your back. Two krogan on our left."
Half a dozen vorcha surrounded them. Ripper's shields were flickering, she could feel the static charge popping next to her. That couldn't be good. She wasn't accustomed to fights with fancy tech involved, merely barriers, skin, and bone. Not waiting for his death to find out, she reached into the abyss and drew power from the very depth of her being. Pain threatened to overtake her as she captured them both in a protective biotic field, then lashed out, throwing the two nearest cretins against a propane tank. Ripper finished them off with a well placed shot. It felt as though the explosion rocked the entire district.
"Crap crap crap. Are you guys sill alive?" Garrus's frantic voice broke through the static.
"Janes gots some moves boss."
"What?! She's fighting?! This guy is blocking me from returning. Killed the asshole's vorcha but ..."
"No time. Ripper the krogan." Jane was acutely aware of just how strained her voice had become. Her entire body was wracked with pain, the sharp burning was threatening her very consciousness as she struggled to maintain the dual barrier.
She glanced to the side, they were within range of the giant lizards now. Bullets alone wouldn't stop them, and her attempts to hurl them to the ground were futile.
"We's need that burnin' shit!" Ripper shouted over the cacophony.
Krul immediately turned his attention from the vorcha as his drones, equipped with pyro attacks, pushed into the chaos. "On my signal Jane." A few moments passed before the batarian was satisfied with whatever invisible force was preventing her biotics from making a dent. "NOW."
Her arm shot out, flinging the krogan into a cement column with a satisfying smack. One howled. "Bitch cracked my plate! Oh you're gonna die slow."
"Garm said no playing!"
"Don't fuckin' care."
Ripper attempted advancing but a trio of wretched scavengers emerged, forcing him back into her protective barrier.
"Jane, the moment you're charged, toss the vorcha in the air, I'll occupy the krogan. HOLD TIGHT. This is gonna be rough." Krul had taken command with the ease of slipping on an old shoe. "Frank shoot from cover until they're sky high then blow them to hell. Do not let that barrier fall Jane."
Once more, she thrust out her arm wrenching the vorcha from behind a collapsed pillar, allowing Ripper and Butler to finish them off. A breath later she could hear Krul's voice booming across the coms. "Keep up the pressure."
As another pair attempted to replace them, she flung them to the floor. Without a barrage of bullets interrupting him, Ripper pounced. Most of the vorcha were gone, yet the krogan had taken to smashing the drones beneath their feet, one managed to incapacitate Frank with some sort of shock grenade. Nalah barely rolled away in time. Their only respite was a momentary argument that erupted between the massive lizards over which dumb fuck brought the wrong grenades. Now the krogan were advancing on Ripper's flank. Jane wobbled. Spots flooded her vision, a sea of bright green was rapidly engulfing her sight.
Not yet.
Clenching her teeth, she brought both arms forward, summoning every drop of strength left inside and unleashed it in the krogan's direction. The encasing warmth of biotics washed over her before departing. There was a thud followed by Krul shouting 'charge.' The sounds of an omni blade slicing through rough flesh and a triumphant cheer.
Sensing victory, she dropped the barrier and fell to her knees. The world was etched in green and yellow. The taste of blood dribbled into her mouth.
"We … we did it." Jane panted while bringing a hand to her face. The slick, sticky feeling of blood immediately greeted her.
A nose bleed. Worse than before but that wasn't surprising. Clearly, a full on fire-fight with an inhibitor took more than her previous encounters with the blasted thing. A deafening ringing erupted inside her head. Shit. She quickly moved a hand to her ear. The hair that had regrown was soaked in syrupy liquid.
Memories during their tumultuous escape rose to the surface of her mind. Wrenching Sciffy's hand away. Pushing the child from the skirmish. Blood, blood everywhere as she slaughtered the brothel guards like the rabid pit-fighter she was beaten into. Their pitch-black eyes widening in shock when she slit their throats. Yeah. Not such a helpless little girl after all.
Suddenly, the glaring green became a blaze so intense she cried out. And the world went dark.
"Oy Jane!"
Was that Ripper? Sounds were stifled.
Strong hands pulled her from the floor, a muscular arm beneath her knees. "Boss? Boss? It's Jane. We's goin' to Mordin."
Garbled response
"No. ….They're
…
dead."
Her head was sheer agony, the ringing had grown too loud to decipher anything else. She squeezed her eyes shut. Spasms were overtaking muscles. Their jerky movements were out of her control, yet years of conditioning kept her silent. She clenched her fist, feeling the needle like sensation spread to the tips of each finger.
The next thing she knew, Mordin's rapid speech reached out from somewhere above.
"Jane? Jane? Can hear now?"
"Uh huh."
"Holy sheet. You's awake?" That was definitely Ripper.
"Unfortunately."
"How many fingers?" Mordin made a snapping noise a few inches from her face.
"Never been this bad before…."
"Done this before? Used biotics with inhibitor chip?"
"How else would I be alive?" She felt herself slump over, despite being told otherwise, the arm that was supposed to hold her upright disobeyed. Then again, for all she knew, it wasn't even there. Everything, aside from her head, felt like jelly.
"Open eyes! Count fingers. Urgent Jane. Need to focus."
"Can't see anything." She felt the fast paced salarian freeze.
"Should be fine. No worries. But need surgery. Daniel!"
"Yes sir?"
"Prep OR. Need to remove inhibitor chip immediately. Shifted to occipital lobe."
She felt the wheels beneath the bed roll across concrete floor, little bumps as they crossed cracks in the terrain. Mere minutes passed before they halted. Thin fingers fastened a mask over her face, while stroking her hair. The smell of antiseptic and cold. The steel table. It brought her back in time.
And the present world drifted away.
The moment Garrus and Garm heard the cheer, a spark of understanding passed between them. The krogan's men were dead. He had zero back up, and soon, Archangel's squad would descend like locusts.
The warlord tried to flee yet sharp turian reflexes, honed under Shepard's guidance, lead to a break neck chase. Garrus nearly had the krogan pinned when a frantic call burst across the coms.
"Boss? Boss? It's Jane. We's goin' to Mordin."
He stopped dead in his tracks. "She's hit? Are you pinned? Thought the hostiles were terminated. I'm coming hang..."
"No. They're all dead…."
"The hell you lookin' at boy?! You gonna get her outta here or what?" Krul bellowed. There was a squealing sound of damp boots running across a smooth surface before the batarian's voice returned. "She saved our asses. We'd be dead if it weren't for her. I was gonna have the women run for it, buy them time with our lives, when that crazy kid charged."
"I'm on my way, nearly there. How bad is it? And how the hell did she even fight?"
"Biotics. Why the fuck didn't anyone tell me she's biotic?"
"That doesn't answer my question! How bad is it?"
"I'm not a fuckin' doctor! How the hell should I know? But I'm guessing she has an inhibitor chip? Now I've seen some shit in my day, but I never witnessed someone use biotics like that with one. That kid's insane."
"Damnit. How about the rest of you? Any injuries?"
"We're fine, a few scratches."
"Alright. I'm on my way to The Gozu District, going to make sure the way's clear for them." Garrus scaled the nearest building, surveying the path towards Mordin's clinic.
"Who was that asshole? Did he get away?"
"He's gone. They were Blood Pack. That krogan is a freak of nature, his regen is off the charts."
"Fuck."
"Looks like we got their attention… a little too well."
