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Bold Italics indicate Reaper internal speech
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A Second Butcher
Location: THS Indomitable
Time: 0800 CST
date: 18th March 2184
"What do you mean we can't talk to the Primarch?!" Saren yelled as he slammed his fist on the console. He was currently situated in the CIC of his dreadnought, the THS Indomitable, with him were Liz, Ashley and Garrus. Captain Anderson had come along with Kaidan, Jacob and James. Saren was currently communicating with General Adanius. "As I stated Arterius, the Primarch is currently in a meeting of the highest importance, he's not available to speak right now," Adanius responded to the outburst. "Highest importance?" Garrus cut in, his tone doing nothing to hide the immense frustration he was feeling, "we have the location of the slavers headquarters, this is the chance to take them out for good, and to rescue all the people who were taken. Spirits, what could be more important than that!" he practically yelled the last bit. Adanius fixed him with a glare, "you're doing a poor job of instilling proper discipline into your subordinates Arterius," he said, scathingly while turning his gaze back to Saren. Saren glared back at his fellow General, "I was actually going to say the exact same thing. We have the location of the Terminus clans' main headquarters." Adanius' eyes narrowed, "and how did you acquire this information?" he asked. Saren clenched his fist, he knew what the racists bastard would say as soon as they told him that, he let out a sigh before responding, "Lieutenant Shepard was able to place a tracking device on one of the enemy vessels, that we let escape." Adanius looked over the assembled group, "and, where is he?" he asked. Saren was getting extremely tired of this façade, "he also stowed away on the ship, he is currently heading there as we speak." Saren gritted his teeth as Adanius gave a light chuckle, "you're assuming the human is still alive," he said, mockingly. "What makes you think he's not?" Anderson spoke up, defending his subordinate. Adanius turned to him with a scowl, "Shepard is not a trained infiltrator, I find it highly unlikely that he's remained undetected." Kaidan and Anderson both had to stop themselves from laughing, if only this Turian knew that John was one of the best in the Galaxy at infiltrating highly secure locations….and then demolishing them. Kaidan then frowned slightly, Shepard had successfully maintained contact with Miranda through the ghost bandwidth, so they knew he was alright. And if the Hierarchy didn't want to help them, then Cerberus would eliminate the threat, but it would be extremely difficult for John to return to the Alliance if that happened. "My brother is a trained N7 operative General," Liz said, "he may not specialise in infiltration, but he has been trained in it." Adanius looked at her with a sneer, "forgive me if I do not have such great faith in your 'human' training programs," the contempt evident in his voice. Saren slammed his fist on the console again, "dammit Adanius. We have a location. We have an operative on the inside. We may never get another opportunity like this," Saren exclaimed. Adanius glared back at him, "nevertheless, I will pass on the message to the Primarch as soon as he is available. That is all," as he terminated the call.
"Spirits damn him!" Garrus yelled, "there are people that need rescuing, does he seriously expect us to wait?!" James gave a chuckle, "I just thought it was natural for Turians not to give a damn," he said. Kaidan winced internally as many of the Turians on the bridge including Garrus turned to glare at James. Seeing all the looks he was getting, Vega simply shrugged his shoulders, "what?" he asked sarcastically, "it's not like you, or any other race, cared when humans suffered this kind of thing…. for years," his tone turning cold, before turning back to sarcastic, "oh wait, you're usually the ones buying us." Seeing the Turians tense up, Kaidan shot James a quick glare, not that he didn't agree with the sentiment, but provoking a fight now wouldn't help anyone. Garrus let out a sigh, "I can't blame you for thinking that," he admitted, causing some other Turians look at him in surprise, "maybe we do deserve this." He then looked back at James with a serious expression on his face, "I know your people don't have any reason to trust ours, but trust that there are people we want rescued as much as you do." James returned his gaze, unconvinced. "As much as we do?" Jacob asked rhetorically, "I really doubt that." Garrus turned to the other human, he paused, as if wondering if he should say these next words. "My sister was stationed at Regidos," he started, "she wasn't among the survivors or the dead. I don't know if she's even alive. But this is my only chance of finding her," he said, his tone full of conviction. James and Jacob couldn't respond to that, Anderson stepped forward, "a loved one torn from our grasp, their fate unknown. Sometimes the lack of knowledge can be worse," the captain turned to look at Liz, "It's a situation I'm sure you can sympathise with Lieutenant." She looked down at the ground sadly, she understood Garrus' pain all too well, she felt same way when John had been taken, and again when her sisters were kidnapped.
Anderson then looked at Saren, "but what you seem to be forgetting is that even though the Hierarchy is unwilling to provide us reinforcements, they did not outright forbid us from pursuing the enemy ourselves." Everyone looked to him, surprised. "Indeed," Saren stated, "and I'm sure that if I requested it, Victus and several others would assist us in this endeavour." He looked back at Anderson, "and I'm certain that if I give the authorisation, we could require additional reinforcements." Anderson nodded, "certainly," he responded, understanding what Saren was getting at. "But Sir," one of the nearby Turians spoke up, "we have no idea what kind of opposition we could face. How do we know the forces we assemble will be adequate?"
"We don't," Ashley said, "it's true, we're going in blind here, but there is a soldier who is risking his life behind enemy lines to give us information and an advantage. I thought that was one thing our species shared, the belief that we don't leave a man behind," her volume increased as she continued to speak.
Many of the Turians on the bridge looked, slightly surprised by her outburst. "Her statement of the situation is accurate," stated Saren, "if any of you doubt the chances of this mission's success and wish to leave, then I will not hold it against you." He then took on a fierier tone, "But that does not change the fact, that there are thousands of people in need of rescue and this may be our only chance to save them." Saren let that statement hang in the air for a moment before the assembled Turians found their resolve, several of them nodding their confirmation to stand with him. Saren nodded back at them in appreciation, "then all forces prepare. Set a course for Torfan." Liz, Ashley and the other Turians saluted before falling out. Anderson and three Alliance marines started to leave as well before Anderson stopped, "head back to the shuttle. I'll meet you there." The three looked at him quizzically, before they relented and left the CIC.
Anderson turned back to Saren, "something you want tell me Anderson?" the Turian asked. Anderson could only look at him with a grim expression, "the event she warned us about Arterius…. I think it's about to happen," he stated, simply. Saren's eyes widened in fear and his entire body froze, he shakily turned around while massaging his face with his talons. "Spirits help us all," he whispered.
000
Location: Torfan, Slaver fortress
Time: 1000 CST
date: 18th March 2184
In one of the store rooms of the criminal fortress, a Turian grabbed a couple of dextro nutrient bars before heading back out, he'd failed to notice a figure ducking behind a crate at the other end of the store room. John peaked over as the door shut, ensuring that he was alone. He had considered snapping the slaver's neck, but he remembered that he had come too far to be discovered by something as simple as that.
He successfully remained hidden during the journey from Akuze, he'd even been able to disembark and find another hiding place successfully. He had gotten in touch with Miranda, who in turn confirmed his location. When John first heard that he was on Torfan, he was shocked. First the planet where his mother became the Lion and now the world where his father had become the Butcher, this felt like to much of a coincidence. He quickly pushed such thoughts aside and focused on his goal.
He had been scouting out the fortress, learning about its defences, any information that would be useful for planning an attack, whether that attack would come from the Alliance or Cerberus. Although Miranda had confirmed that the Alliance and the Hierarchy would be launching an attack, despite their limited numbers. John was genuinely surprised that the Turians were willing go ahead with it, although it presented a few problems for him. Mainly he had to ensure that he left no evidence of his powers behind, 'why do you concern yourself with that?' The voice of the entity rang in his ears, 'soon the day of reckoning will be at hand and there will be no reason to hide who you truly are.' John wanted to rebut, but the truth was it was right. The devices were in place, ready to be activated at the touch of a button, and when they were, the need for such secrecy would evaporate. But before it happened, they needed to shatter the connections between the council races. That was one of his main targets here, he knew that there were those within the governments of the Citadel races that must be collaborating with the slavers. He was going to find evidence of it and show it to the entire Galaxy, show them that they'd sold out their own species and others, it would destroy any camaraderie their peoples had. John had located the fortresses main control room, containing both its main servers and controls for its automated defences, unfortunately it was too well guarded for him to get inside.
He was currently finding his search for his second objective more frustrating. The location of the slaves that had been brought here. He believed he had found an elevator that might lead down to where they were holding the slaves, as it was almost as heavily guarded as the control room, but he hadn't seen anyone coming or going. No slaves being transported, not even any sadistic bastards going to 'sample' their merchandise. He was starting to get concerned.
Another strange occurrence, was the number of arrivals the fortress was receiving. John had seen multiple ships docking and many infamous criminals disembarking from them, some he'd even recognised from the vid log he had recovered on Elysium almost a year ago. The leaders of this cabal were gathering, the question was, what for?
He was brought out of his musings as he received another message on the ghost bandwidth. "Reinforcements will be there soon," came Miranda's voice.
000
Location: Torfan, outside the base
Time: 1100 CST
date: 18th March 2184
Liz ducked behind a rock as a high velocity slug skimmed past her head, "dammit!" she yelled before leaning out of cover and firing with her pistols, taking out two nearby Batarians. Next to her, Kaidan stood up and cast a singularity, causing a Turian slaver to float in the air, completely helpless as Kaidan gunned him down. Several yards away Ashley was crouched behind another rock next to Garrus. Several groups of Alliance and Hierarchy soldiers were scattered around, taking cover. Liz gritted her teeth as she peaked around her cover to catch a glimpse of the imposing form of the slaver's headquarters. There could be no question, this was the place where the slaver attacks had been co-ordinating from, the problem was it was a lot more than the outposts they had raided. The fortress had been built with impressive fortifications and heavy defences, including a small army of combat mechs, to increase the already significant manpower.
The Alliance and Hierarchy forces had been able to land on the planet, and they had managed to deal some casualties to the slavers, but the minute their ships had appeared in orbit the majority of them had retreated into the structure. They had immediately started pushing towards it, but the unfortunate truth was that they didn't have the necessary forces to breach the walls, the fortresses AA guns prevented any air support, and there were enough turrets and enemies firing down at them to turn any squad that tried to advance into Swiss cheese. They had already taken considerable casualties just getting this close.
"We can't advance any further!" Liz yelled over the gunfire, she turned to Kaidan, "have you gotten in touch with my brother?" Normally Liz would have upheld military protocol, but calling him Lt Shepard would only make things extremely confusing. "He said he was going to give us an opening any second now," he responded. "Any second, is taking a lot longer than it normally does," Liz said. "Loco has never let us down before, he won't start now," James Vega yelled from his position. Liz was about to respond that she also had faith in her brother, but a second later, a massive explosion erupted from the wall, blowing a sizeable hole in it, and demolishing the platform on which several slaves had been standing.
For a moment silence seemed to rain over the battlefield as the dust settled, Liz quickly snapped out of her stupor, "we've got a breach, this is the chance we need to establish a foothold! Come on!" She yelled, rallying the troops. They yelled in response and immediately began charging towards the breach. They were able to get a good deal closer, before the slavers on top of the wall were able to reorganise and began to open fire on them again, soon being joined by several coming from the breach. Liz immediately raised a biotic barrier in front of her, trying to cover as many of her squad mates as possible. She was soon joined by both Kaidan and Jacob, providing significant protection to their forces, but some were still mercilessly cut down. Deciding to take revenge for their fallen comrades, Garrus took aim with his sniper rifle, and fired off several shots while still running. His aim was true and half a dozen slavers soon fell dead with clean headshots, "scoped and dropped!" Garrus yelled in triumph.
[BGM start: 'Coin for the Ferryman' by Nickleback]
As Liz continued to advance, she noticed the number of enemies gathering at the breach was increasing rapidly. 'This may be our only chance to take this place, I'm not letting everything John did go to waste,' she voiced internally and activated a biotic charge. She slammed into the enemy lines, sending a couple of them flying, she fired her pistols, taking down several of the slavers near her. Another Batarian tried to open fire at her while her back was turned, but she saw him out of the corner of her eye. She jumped into the air, spinning round and gunned him down while still in mid-air. She landed back on her feet, while delivering a biotic shockwave into the ground, knocking all the nearby enemies back. Seeing that her heat sinks had been exhausted, she ejected them, before skilfully grabbing two more from her belt and throwing them in the air, while manoeuvring her pistols, so they landed in the slots. She fired several shots into a Turian's gut, blew the brains out of another Batarian. She rolled to the side to avoid a shotgun blast, courtesy of a Krogan, she returned fire but the shots were ineffectual against his heavy armour. She ran towards him and ducked under a right haymaker, and now she was closer, she opened fire on his exposed face. The Krogan attempted to move out the way, but one of the slugs skimmed across his face. And he let out a loud growl as he staggered away clutching his now bleeding eye. She was about to finish him off when she saw three slavers form up, reacting quickly she smashed the face of a Vorcha with the butt of her pistol, and while he was concussed, she grabbed the wretched soul and used him as a meat shield, protecting her from the initial volley, and allowing her to return fire with one of her pistols and quickly cut the three of them down.
She heard a roar from behind her, and saw the, now one eyed, Krogan, charging at her in a full-blood rage. She was about to bring her pistols up again when the Krogan received a biotic fist to the right side of his face from Kaidan Alenko. The others took advantage of the distraction Liz had created to pour through the hole in the fortress wall. Having a moment to breathe, Liz had a look around, and noticed that it was some sort of garage, with several armoured vehicles parked inside.
The Krogan slowly pushed itself back to its feet and turned to glare at Kaidan. The large reptile attempted to charge at him, but Kaidan reacted faster and used his biotics to lift him into the air, before slamming him down with enough force to break his neck. Not pausing to take a breather Kaidan unholstered his assault rifle, erected a biotic barrier around himself and proceeded to engage the other enemies in the garage. He killed a Salarian, then a Turian, he noticed another group of slavers using a tank for cover, so he cast a singularity, the miniature blackhole pulling them into the air and his sites, so he could fire several quick bursts taking them all out.
Ashley slammed her rifle into the face of a Batarian, knocking him to the ground and finishing him off with a quick burst. She readjusted her aim and took out two more slavers. She quickly ducked behind cover, as a small group opened fire on her. Not wasting a second, she primed a grenade and threw it at them. They didn't have time to scream before they were consumed in the explosion. Using the distraction, Ash charged out of cover and opened fire, cutting down several slavers, still distracted by the explosion. A large Batarian came at her from the side, delivering a biotic punch that would have likely taken her head off had she not ducked in time. She narrowed her eyes as she backed away from her new opponent, who sneered at her. Bringing up her rifle again, she fired a concussive round. It soared towards the Batarian, who merely grinned as he erected a biotic barrier, protecting him. But that was when he learned that it was only meant to distract him. A fact he realised when the smoke cleared, to reveal her right in front of him. In a panic he swung wildly at her but she was easily able to duck under it. She kicked out with her leg, hitting him in the knee and forcing him into a kneeling position. Not stopping, she shot back up, grabbed him by the collar and kneed him in the face, sending him onto his back. The Batarian barely had time to wipe the blood out of his eyes, to see the human woman aiming her assault rifle at him, and firing.
Garrus had swapped his sniper rifle for a his Phaeston assault rifle and was currently ordering his troops into a defensive line. He opened fire with his own weapon, cutting down a Vorcha and a Batarian. Unfortunately, a moment later several of his men were cut down. Garrus turned in the direction of the shots to see a Salarian, operating a remote turret. The amphibious slaver gave a sinister grin at Garrus, who quickly ducked behind a vehicle, just as the turret opened fire again. Garrus looked to the bodies of his fallen squad mates and growled. Picking his moment, he fired an overload, causing the turret to short-circuit. The Salarian looked at it in shock. Due to this, he failed to react as Garrus charged at him, the Turian delivered a right hook to the Salarian's face, sending him staggering. Then he fired a burst from his assault rifle, killing the slaver.
James and Jacob were working together with the other Alliance soldiers. They both fired away with their assault rifles, cutting down several slavers. Jacob cast a biotic pull, sending a Turian flying towards him, James clotheslined the airborne slaver, knocking him to the ground, then proceeded to curb stomp his head. Seeing this, several other slavers tried to open fire on him, but Jacob reacted quickly and jumped in front of his friend, erecting a biotic barrier to protect them both. Looking at the assembled enemies, James primed an incendiary grenade, and threw it around Jacob's barrier. The slaves screamed as they were engulfed by flames.
Kaidan killed another slaver with single headshot, suddenly his instincts flared up. He spun around to see an Asari, leaping towards him, biotic energy crackling around her as she made to deliver a punch to his head. Kaidan's eyes widened, she was already too close dodge. Fortunately for him, her attack was interrupted as Liz performed a jumping kick, her foot colliding with the Asari's midsection and knocking her to the side. Liz landed back on her feet and stared at the Asari, who snarled at her and quickly jumped back to her own feet. The Asari pulled a canister from her belt and crushed it, it seemed to release red gas that she inhaled. The Asari roared as the biotic aura around her intensified and she charged at Liz. Liz knew, that she couldn't take her head on, especially now that she had been enhanced by red sand. She held her position until the last possible moment, then just as the Asari was close enough, she activated her biotics and jump flipped over her. She landed lightly on her feet and quickly began to spin round, drawing her combat knife was she did so. The Asari also started to spin around, and she turned to face the human, just in time for the knife to soar through the air and embed itself in her throat. For a few moments the Asari choked, as blue blood began to pour down her chest, then she fell forward.
[BGM end]
Liz retrieved her knife and turned to see Kaidan, staring at her with wide eyes, she smiled at him in response. Suddenly realising that he was staring, Kaidan shook himself out of his stupor, "nice moves," he said. "Pretty good yourself," Liz responded, "Alenko right?" she asked. "eh yep," Kaidan said, still partially stunned by her skills. They quickly looked away from each other, and finally realised that all the enemy's been eliminated.
"General Arterius," Garrus said into his comms, "we secured an entry point into the fortress. Send all available force to my location."
"Excellent work Vakarian. Secure that position and await reinforcements before advancing further," Saren responded. "Sir," Liz activated her comes, "request permission to try and rendezvous with my brother. He's likely going after the slaves or the leaders, and he could use all the help he can get."
"Understood Lieutenant, once reinforcements arrive, you and Vakarian try and meet up with him, a small group should be able to get through the fortress relatively easily." Saren paused for a second, "take Williams with you," he stated. "Alenko," Captain Andersons' voice echoed through the comms, "go with them as well, make sure to bring our boy home." "Yes Sir," Kaidan responded.
000
John had made his way back to the control room. He grinned as he saw the number of guards had reduced slightly, no doubt diverted to help repel the invaders. John took a deep breath, and then jumped out from behind the corner, he raised his assault rifle and opened fire. Two of the guards fell, as high velocity slugs overwhelmed their kinetic barriers and tore through their bodies. The final guard tried to bring his own weapon up, but John slammed into him with a biotic charge, knocking him into the wall. Before the slaver could regain his senses, John grabbed him by the chin and broke his neck.
He knew that anyone inside the control room would have heard the gunfire. He held his omni-tool up to the door, he was surprised at how advanced the cyber defence software was for a slaver base, it was on par with military installations, but it still wasn't good enough to stop him. As soon as the doors opened, he rolled to the side, as two slavers inside, opened fire on him. John simply let them exhaust their heat-sinks, and when they ejected, he leaned out and gunned them both down.
Having eliminated all hostiles, John walked over to the control consoles, He grinned as he saw security vids showing Liz, Kaidan and the others securing the garage area, the charge he planted had provided them with the opening they needed. John turned his gaze back down and brought up the controls for the automated defences, and swiftly began typing away, altering their programming.
000
The figure who had brought the Terminus clans together, stood in front of a monitor. The recipient couldn't be identified, but the silhouette revealed it to be a Turian. "He has been able to acquire authorisation for your ship to approach the planet," the Turian said, "but he has concerns about the location of this meeting." The figure didn't immediately respond, "it is a relatively isolated location where neither I or anyone else who will be there has considerable influence. He has nothing to complain about," the figure shot back scathingly, "if you are only here to voice your master's whining, then tell him we will meet at the scheduled time," with that he terminated the call.
Another explosion echoed in the distance, causing the figure to growl, it was time he departed this place. As soon as he had eliminated any loose ends.
The figure's attention was drawn to the sound of rapping on his door, groaning in annoyance he allowed a Batarian to enter, "sorry to disturb you boss, but the ringleaders say that if you don't speak with them right now, they're getting on their ships and leaving," he explained. The figure shook his head in annoyance, before addressing his subordinate, "I'll go speak with them now, tell any of ours to fall back to the Subjugator."
The figure swiftly made his way through the halls of the fortress. He soon found his way to a large meeting room, and entered to see the ringleaders of all the slaver groups he had brought into this alliance, of course recent conflicts with both the Alliance and Cerberus had reduced their numbers. Each leader was surrounded by a group of their own men as well as multiple security mechs. They all turned to glare at him as he walked in. After a tense silence one of the leaders decided to speak up, "this whole plan of yours has completely gone to shit. You promised us easy scores and protection! But all it got us was our men being massacred by psychos in metal suits, and the Alliance and the Hierarchy coming down on us!" the slaver ranted, causing several others to voice their agreement, but the figure was barely paying attention to them. "Now even your precious little headquarters is going down. We are cutting our losses and getting out of here!" he continued to yell. "You didn't call me here just to waste my time with this shit, did you?" the figure asked, annoyed. The slave grinned, "no we're here to pay you back. For wasting our time," he unholstered his pistol and pointed it at the figure's head. The figure didn't react, instead he was looking past them towards the LOKI mechs, as their head slowly lowered.
000
Liz, Kaidan, Garrus and Ashley had made decent progress, getting through the fortress. After reinforcements arrived at the entry point, Garrus quickly ordered them to begin engaging the main slaver forces, while he and the three humans went to find John. Jacob and James wanted to come with them, but Kaidan had been able to convince them that a smaller group of four would be able to meet up with John faster.
Unfortunately, the four of them were now pinned down by a group of slavers, reinforced by a significant number of LOKI mechs and even a YMIR mech. "Any ideas?!" Liz asked her squad mates, yelling over the gunfire. Before any of them could respond, the stream of high velocity slugs suddenly ceased. Curiously, Liz peaked around the corner and saw that all of the mechs had stopped firing, the slavers were looking at them puzzled. Suddenly the mechs reactivated and immediately began to open fire on the slavers. Completely caught by surprise, the slavers had no chance to fightback, some tried to drop their weapons and surrender, but the machine still cut them down.
After all the slavers were eliminated, the mechs deactivated again. Liz stepped out and looked at the scene of carnage before her, "Guess Johns not just waiting around for us to rescue him," Ashley joked. Liz didn't respond as she looked down at the bodies.
000
John pelted down the hallway, any other person would likely be struggling for breath, but with his inhuman stamina it felt like a light jog. His destination was the elevator that he believed led to the slave holding area. He was concerned that the slavers would attempt to use them as living shields to secure their escape. He had assigned a group of the LOKI mechs to watch the elevator after they had eliminated the guards, but that wouldn't do anything about the guards patrolling the holding area itself.
He quickly ran up to the elevator door, hacked the systems, and rode it down. It descended fast, but to Shepard it felt like ages. After what felt like an eternity the elevator doors opened. Shepard immediately raised his assault rifle, ready to fight, as he stepped out. The area consisted of a massive cellblock, with enough cells to accommodate several tens of thousands of captives. Shepard lowered his rifling in confusion as he realised that there were no guards here, in fact there was nobody here at all. All the cells were completely empty. John couldn't understand what was happening, 'where the hell are they….I know we've been driving them back and rescuing a lot of prisoners, but there should be some here….hell, in the raids on the Citadel worlds they acquired over five-hundred-thousand new captives, at least some of them should be here,' he thought out loud, he shook his head to refocus his thoughts and turned back to the elevator, 'the leader of this pack of scum is here, the one who brought them all together, I'll find and beat the answers out of him,' Shepard growled internally.
000
Back in the conference room, the figure launched a powerful biotic singularity at a YMIR mech, ripping through the machines heavy armour plating and eventually causing it to explode. The biotic aura around the figure vanished, that had been the last of the mechs, they were no longer in any immediate danger. He observed the conference room, bodies covered the floor, both organic and mechanical. "How the hell did this happen?!" he heard a yell from behind him. He turned to see the only other three living beings in the room. The last surviving slaver leader, a Batarian, and two of his underlings. The figure looked at them for a second, then without saying anything, he pulled out his pistol and shot the two underlings dead. The leader's eyes widened in shock, and he quickly glanced at the bodies of his two subordinates, he turned back to the figure only to see he was now right in front of him. The figure grabbed him by the throat and lifted him into the air, "what….what you?" the Batarian tried to choke out. "You were correct, this little 'alliance' is over, and now it's time to deal with any loose ends." The figure then gave a dark chuckle, "truthfully, those mechs just saved me from having to do it all myself." The figure then then projected a biotic field around the slaver's head and contracted it. The Batarian screamed as his head was turned into a red pulpy mass.
The figure dropped the corpse to the floor, but then he heard the sound of a weapon being prepped from behind him. "Turn around slow you son of a bitch," the figure recognised that voice, it was a voice he loathed. The figure slowly turned around, and indeed there stood Jonathan Shepard. "All right as much as I want to paint the walls with your damn blood, I have a few questions that ne…" John trailed off as he finally saw he who he was looking at.
The man responsible for bringing together this alliance of slavers and pirates. The man responsible for all of these attacks, all the death and destruction. It was that Batarian Spectre. Balak.
"It's you. All this time it's been you," John said, still trying to understand. "Yes, you being here is just as big of a surprise to me, but I guess it also makes sense," Balak said, before he clenched his teeth in anger, "after all, there isn't a human in the Galaxy who has interfered with my plans more than you, save the glowing eyed freak." John kept his weapon trained on the Batarian but he gritted his teeth in anger, "all of this, all the suffering, I could have prevented that," he said, "I could have prevented it all if I'd just killed you that day in the arena!" he yelled.
Balak smirked at him, "true, but you wanted to revel in the defeat of an enemy," his sneer intensified, "a trait we share," he said mockingly. John almost pulled the trigger at those words, but stopped himself as he reminded himself, he still needed the location of all the captives. "You talk pretty confident for a man who has lost everything. It's all over for you Balak," John growled at him. The Batarian's smug grin didn't waver, "actually I'm just getting started." John's eyes narrowed, "what the hell are you talking about, your little alliance is finished," he declared. "Them?" Balak gestured to the corpses, "they were just a means to an end, they've served their purpose." Balak turned back to the human, "you cannot hope to comprehend the true scope of my plans Shepard." "What plans?" John asked. Balak gave a mock thoughtful look, "part of me want to let you live long enough to find out," his face morphed back into a snarl, "the rest of me, really wants to kill you."
With a flash of blue, he launched himself at John with a biotic charge. John was able to raise a biotic barrier in time, but the force of the impact still sent him sliding back several feet. John tried to bring his weapon back up, but Balak was faster than he expected. The Batarian launched a biotic right hook at John, who leaned back to avoid it, but it still ended up knocking his assault rifle from his grasp. Seeing that his opponent was disarmed Balak tried to pull out his own weapon, but a spinning kick from John knocked it to the ground. The two opponents then began to grapple with each other, despite the Batarians ferocity he couldn't compete with John in terms of strength. Balak tried to deliver a left haymaker to John's face, but the human was able to skilfully block it and then deliver a jab to the Batarian's face sending him stumbling backwards. John didn't let up; he grabbed him by the collar and kneed him in the face sending him onto his back. Balak wiped the blood off his face and jumped back to his feet. He went to re-engage, but stopped as he received a message on his comms and put his hand to his ear. John couldn't hear what was being said to Balak, but from the look of annoyance on the Batarian's face, he wasn't happy about it. "Consider yourself lucky Shepard," he said, then he threw something.
A blinding flash engulfed Shepard's vision, when his sight finally returned, Balak had vanished. Shepard groaned in annoyance; he had expected the coward to run as soon as things turned against him. He activated his omni-tool, and smiled. The tracker he had planted on Balak during the fight was working. Shepard quickly picked his rifle back up and ran after the slaver.
000
As the quartet continue to make their way through the hallways of the fortress, they encountered no resistance, but they did see dozens of bodies, littering their path. Whatever had happened, there had been no intent to take prisoners.
Liz approached a T-junction….and almost ran headlong into her brother.
Both of them froze, staring at each other, "Liz, Ash, Kaidan what are you guys doing here?" "We came to find you," Liz responded. John looked at her slightly confused, "why?" he asked. "Well maybe we were a little worried about you wandering around an enemy fortress….. completely by yourself," Ashley interjected sarcastically. "Well as you can see, I'm fine," he responded spreading his arms, "I take it the explosion was a big help?" he asked, with a small grin. "Hugely," Garrus said, the Turian then gestured to some nearby damaged LOKI mechs, "the mechs you're doing as well?" he asked. John scowled slightly as the Turian addressed him, "with their forces distracted, I was able to sneak into the control room and reprogram their automated defences," he said coldly.
John's omni-tool began flashing, he looked at it and his eyes widened, "dammit," he yelled, as he started sprinting back down the hallway. "John wait," Liz called out to him, as her and the others began running after him. "We need to rescue the prisoners," she said. John just kept running as he responded, "there aren't any prisoners here." "What?" asked Garrus in disbelief. "At one point they must have held tens of thousands here, but all the cells are empty now. There wasn't any information about where they were sent on fortresses servers." John elaborated. "Then how do we find them?" asked Kaidan.
"I ran into the man responsible for this entire alliance…just as he finished killing the last of his associates. He was able to slip away. But I was able to plant a tracker on him," John explained. "Why would he kill his own allies?" Liz asked. John's eyes narrowed, "he claimed that they'd served their purpose, that he had much bigger plans. And I don't think he was bluffing."
"Did you learn his identity?" asked Garrus. John gave a dark chuckle at that, "yeah. The Batarian Spectre Ka'hairal Balak," he said. Their eyes momentarily widened in surprise at that, "make sense," Ash remarked, "who else but a Spectre could do all this without anyone realising."
As they continued running, they soon came to a hanger bay… just in time to see Balak board one of the small cargo freights and take off. "Damn it," John muttered, "now what?" Kaidan asked. That's when John noticed another ship, still on the ground, but John knew it likely wouldn't be for much longer. "The four of you head back to the others, I'll use that ship to continue pursuing Balak," John stated, as he began to move towards the ship.
"What!? No," Liz yelled as she grabbed his arm, "you're not doing this alone." "I'm gonna agree with her on this one John," Kaidan added. John didn't look back at them, but Liz could feel his body trembling slightly under her grip, "I can handle this better on my own," he said, through gritted teeth. "None of us doubt you can farm boy," Ashley said, "but you're not on your own now, and were not gonna let you take all of this on yourself," her tone serious.
"They're right Shepard," Garrus added. John turned to glare at the Turian, "the last thing I need is some Hierarchy's stooge slowing me down," he said, with hostility. He expected Garrus to flinch back, but instead the Turian merely sighed and looked to the ground, but then his face turned serious, "my sister was taken by slavers, and the only lead we have on saving her is Balak. So you're out of your damn mind if you think I'm gonna stand back."
John's glare intensified, but such thoughts were soon put aside as he heard the sound of the ship's engines firing up. He groaned in frustration, he knew bringing them along could make things a lot more complicated, but if he waited any longer, they would miss their window. "Don't get in my way," he said coldly, and ran towards the ship.
They barely made it by the skin of their teeth, but thankfully the five of them were able to get themselves into the cargo area of the ship unnoticed by the crew. They quickly hid themselves among the crates as the ship took off.
000
As they rose through the planet's atmosphere, the infiltrators were able to make out glimpses of the space battle via a large observation window. The Hierarchy and the Alliance forces seemed to be finishing off the last of the slaver ships. Unfortunately, they did not have the necessary forces to completely blockade the planet, thus the ship they were stowing away on was able to slip away from the battle almost unnoticed. As they approached the edge of the system, they could make out something in the distance, as they came closer, they saw that it was a dreadnought class ship. "As soon as we get on board, we find a better place to hide, then we find Balak," John stated.
000
In his personal quarters Balak slammed his fist on the table, "I had him, I've waited almost 3 years to get my revenge on that damn human! Why did you tell me to abandon the fight?!" he yelled. The silhouette of his unknown associate was displayed on a screen in front of him. "Perhaps because I had zero belief in your chances of prevailing against him," the figure stated, unimpressed. Balak sneered, "I could have killed him!" he shouted. "Yes, because you were so successful last time," the figure stated, clearly growing impatient. Balak tensed up even further, the figure let out a sigh, "your infantile obsession with revenge against him has blinded you to the opportunity this situation affords us," the figure stated, as Balak looked down at the tracker John had planted on him resting his hand.