Chapter 28
"Oh, are you finally awake now?"
I opened my eyes slowly, my head still buzzing from the effects of the gas. Soon as I did I was greeted by a view of a sizable portion of Omega. Endless streams of ships of all sizes whizzed between the outer docking platforms, which hung down from the edge of the main asteroid like a row of stalactites. In fact, I was on one of the platforms myself I decided, having worked out the perspective based on the sight that greeted me beyond the vast window. Inside one of the security offices by the look of the room I was in. And predictably I was also once again tied to a chair.
The voice that had spoken was Melnar again, one of the last people I wanted to see. He was sat down on a chair next to mine, watching me closely. I groaned slightly and feigned a return to unconsciousness.
"Oh suck it up princess, it's not like you're the only one having a bad day. D'you have any idea how hard it was getting you out of there with a busted knee?"
I opened my eyes again, this time noticing (with a small spark of satisfaction) the bandage wrapped around his leg.
"Very, I'd imagine. How'd you manage it?"
He shrugged slightly, though I could've sworn he looked pleased with himself.
"Omega's got more secret passageways than is sensible."
I nodded slowly, trying to decide what my best approach for getting out of here would be. Melnar was hurt but there was bound to be more Salarian commandos between me and the exit. Having experienced firsthand just what they were capable of, I decided to stall while I recovered to full strength.
"Why?"
"Hmm? Does it really matter?"
"I'd still like to know," I replied, giving him a look that very clearly said 'wouldn't you?'
"Sure. Yeah, okay. If you must know our boss cut a deal with your old one."
I sat bolt upright, preparing to strike.
"Hey easy now, all I have to do is hit this control and you'll be zapped with a feedback jolt on your amp twice as strong as the last one. Besides don't worry, Cerberus very much wants you alive."
"Why would you even agree to work with the Illusive Man? All of his pro Salarian comments over the years, I suppose?"
Melnar gave a snort at that remark.
"It doesn't matter that he hates aliens or even if he hates Salarians specifically, for that matter. We're not a part of the Salarian Union anymore. We're in it for ourselves and Cerberus is willing to give us what we want in exchange for you. The rest of the galaxy be damned."
He sounded bitter, frustrated at the decisions of his superiors. There was an opening there I hoped.
"And what is the League getting out of the deal?" I asked politely. He snorted in response.
"Power, of course, same as always. Everything we do is about hovering up more influence or technology. For this little deed in particular? The Illusive Man has promised to divide the Terminus Systems between us, once the war is over."
"Is that it?"
"Isn't it enough? One woman in exchange for dozens of star systems?"
"Assuming you can trust your new 'partners'," I pointed out.
Melnar shook his head slowly.
"Cerberus doesn't have the strength left to hold onto the entire Terminus own its own anymore. Not since Aria won back Omega from them. They need allies."
I wasn't quite sure how the League was able to delude itself into thinking it could hold on to so much territory either but I didn't bother to mention it. No, I had a far more devastating ace up my sleeve.
"Do you know how Cerberus intends on ending the war?"
"I never needed to. Boss says that he's examined their plan closely and thinks it has a better chance of working than anything the Alliance can do. If that's his assessment then... Well look it doesn't matter who we have to work with if there's some chance of them stopping all this."
Not that the League ever considered raising a hand to help win this themselves. Still, it made a strange kind of sense. Salarians like their wars won before they even begin. They rely heavily on their technology to transcend the conventional war doctrines of their enemies. Seen in that context the League's support of Cerberus wasn't quite so crazy.
"But I know. Last time I visited the Normandy the crew let me know what the Illusive Man told Shepard."
"Which was?"
"They're looking for a way to control the Reapers. To reprogram them or something so that they do what they want."
Melnar's eyes widened in shock and disbelief. I could see at once that I had him.
"But that's... Crazy. If they fail, or if the Reapers adapt and manage to get free somehow... It could all start up again. We could lose everything."
"And if they do succeed then Cerberus will control the single most powerful fleet in the galaxy. Remind me how confident are you in that alliance?"
Melnar swore softly under his breath. His face was so aghast, his whole manner so defeated, that I think he would have fallen to the ground had he not already been sitting down.
"I never wanted- It wasn't supposed to-"
The shock of the revelations had left him slumped in his chair but now he turned his face upwards toward mine, looking me in the eye.
"Where did it all go wrong?"
I didn't speak, unwilling to disrupt his train of thought.
"This wasn't ever what I wanted y'know. When I started everything was so different. Top of my class in school. Fast-tracked for the special training scheme, I was meant to join the Special Tasks Group. I was going to serve my people, to be among the best of the best."
"What happened?" I asked as he trailed off.
"Oh, the League arranged for me to be kicked out while I was still a cadet so that they could recruit me instead. All seems so obvious now, but I was a kid at the time. I thought they were just another branch of the military. That I'd gotten a chance to redeem myself for not making it into the STG. And by the time I found out it was too late to leave because of course, the truth is that at first, I didn't even want to. I was so stupid back then, so wrapped up in the old stories. The League of One were once legends to my people, to be part of that..."
"And now?"
He looked back at me again, his eyes having wandered off into the distance as he reflected upon his life choices. Now that the shock was wearing off it had suddenly been replaced with raw, wild fear. What was I asking of him? What was I expecting him to do?
"I- I have a family Lawson. The League knows about them. If I help you, they- You know what they'll do."
Another family threatened. More innocent lives put on the line to keep control of those few whose skills were the tool by which these maniacs could enact their evil schemes. It seems everywhere in the galaxy the story remains the same.
I knew what I should say, the words leaping into my consciousness just as I had been trained. I knew that I should be making promises for their protection at that moment, claiming I would move heaven and earth to ensure their safety. Or that I should be pointing out that if Cerberus got its way they might still be under threat, as they reshaped the galaxy with the limitless power that control of the Reapers would give them.
'You must always be prepared to say whatever you need to in order to get your target to comply with our goals. If you bulk at the manipulations you must present in the field, you are at best an ineffective agent and at worst a fatal liability.'
The words of my old Cerberus instructor came back to me from years ago. But for the first time in my life, I chose not to. I couldn't push this man into putting his family in danger, not even for Oriana's sake. Maybe I was growing a conscience finally or maybe it was as simple as the fact that I was no longer fighting for a cause. When I worked for Cerberus decisions on this rarely weighed on me at all. I trusted my superiors judgment when they told me that the price was worth it for the good of the cause. Now I was fighting for just one family and weighing it against the value of another. I was just about to accept his decision when he interrupted me.
"There could be a way."
"Melnar-"
"No listen to me Lawson, you're right. It's taken me a long time to remember who I am but I have. And I know a way that we can destroy the League forever. If we pull this off then they'll never be able to threaten you, my family, or anyone else ever again."
Before I even had a chance to ask how, he had stood up (albeit carefully, it was clear his leg was giving him some trouble) and cut through the bonds tethering me to the chair. For a moment I wanted to try and talk him down, to remind him of his responsibility to his family but when I looked him in the eye it faded. He knew exactly what he was doing. There would be no stopping what I had started now, all I could do was to hang on and try to make sure it didn't end badly, for either of us.
"Follow me and keep quiet. The others are still downstairs making the final preparations but we have to be careful."
He led me out of the security office, down a couple of flights of stairs along a dark corridor. The area had an unkempt, behind-the-scenes kind of vibe to it. The stairs were bare metal railings, the walls bare save for the occasional scrawl of graffiti and predictably the lights flickered constantly almost as if by design. As we reached a group of bare metal doors he paused for a moment, clutching his knee and I moved ahead, approaching the nearest.
"Wait, not that one! The one next to it," he whispered urgently.
"Why what's back there?" I whispered back.
"It's some of the delegates. The ones that defected obviously."
"Shouldn't we find somewhere else then? We don't want them hearing anything suspicious," I whispered quietly.
"No need. Vorlak killed them all. You can go in if you want but I'm afraid you might find it rather grim."
He caught my look as I stepped into the correct room (which turned out to be a rather dilapidated staff kitchen).
"Yeah, I know. It's all gone to shit around here."
We made ourselves comfortable (insofar as that was possible) and Melnar went over to the large window on the right side of the room.
"So mind telling me what we're doing here?"
"Good vantage point," he replied slowly.
"Take a look down there, what do you see?"
I stepped over to the window and looked. Clearly, it had been built as the main landing platform for this docking station. If you thought of the structure we were in as a large column hanging down from the underside of Omega's asteroid, then we were looking at a section that had been cut out of it so that small ships could fly in.
Below us stood a large circular platform, large enough to house about four standard shuttles or one quite small cargo ship. It was surrounded on three sides by the walls of the column rising up around it, within which all the offices and other associated infrastructure of the small dock resided (the room we were in included).
Now all the shuttles were gone, and the docking gates sealed. Instead on the platform, someone had built a large crude ring, which the Salarians were still currently working on while Vorlak looked on from an elevated position.
"The fight's going to happen here?"
Melnar nodded.
"Aria's due to arrive in the next few minutes," he confirmed.
"What about all Vorcha and Varren?"
"Warm up event to wear Aria down before the real fight starts."
"Doesn't sound very sporting."
"Vorlak insisted on it, said he wouldn't agree to fight if they weren't in place."
"I thought the fight was his idea?"
"Hardly. Taking on Aria head to head? Even that psychopath isn't too keen. He only agreed to it because they threatened to leave after what he did to the delegates. The boss was furious about that."
"Not what they had planned?"
"They promised him free reign to run the campaign as he saw fit. Boss hoped that his ah, unusual tactics would scare Omega into submission. That was the plan at any rate but I don't think any of the tops guys really understood who we were dealing with."
"It's interesting but you still haven't explained what our plan is," I pointed out.
"Well, it's kinda complicated. Look you've seen the guys my Boss has got working for him, what was your assessment?"
"I can't say I've had much opportunity to observe them too closely yet, particularly as you've been avoiding a direct fight. From what I can tell they seem well equipped, highly trained, dedicated-"
"Dedicated? Try obsessed to the point of suicidal. Trust me these guys are serious fanatics. Which leads me to my point-"
At that moment he was distracted when a new arrival walked onto the scene. Flanked by T'Roth on the one side and Bray on the other was a certain purple-skinned Asari, dressed for battle and with murder in her eyes.
Aria was here.
The fight was on.