Aria's story
- 395 years ago -
"Better luck next time,"
Message sent, Aleena slumped back against the rear wall of the station commander's personal escape shuttle, not feeling the cheer that she had just implied. That had been much, much too close for comfort. She stayed put as the ship began its pre-programmed course through the wreckage, completely exhausted.
The fight had taught her a lot, but mostly it had taught her what not to do, namely not taking on a Krogan like that again. She'd thought she'd been so clever, picking the battleground of their confrontation so that she might have the upper hand. But the specialist sent after her had shot his way through every single defense she'd had in place. And when he had finally run out of ammo he'd just wiped out the local merc bands so that he could 'borrow' their arsenal instead.
It had all begun with a bad debt she racked up against the- well the Salarians. That had been a catastrophic mistake on her part. They had paid for her weapons and training, given her everything she needed to get started at first but then had come the requests, and later the demands. Steal this, take that merc job, help eliminate him. The tasks seemed random and completely pointless to me, but my sponsors refused to explain their motivations to me.
It was when I found myself putting my own life on the line again to assassinate a politician that they had ordered me to put into power six months earlier by taking out all of his competition that I finally decided I'd had enough. It was reckless and impulsive but I abandoned the job and tried to lay an ambush for one of their operatives the next time they came to visit me.
The operative fell into the trap easily enough but they didn't seem particularly concerned to be captured. The Salarian explained they had always known this was a possibility and that they had generated a paper trail, from their accounts to the shell company I used to buy my gear and weapons that implicated me in the theft of funds to fund domestic terrorism. He warned me that unless I released him immediately the information would be leaked to the Citadel authorities in the next eight hours. It was when he also added that thanks to my transgression they would be trebling the fee I owed them and thus the length of time I would be under their thumb that I chose to blow his brains out.
A crazy move in many ways but actually it was the Salarians words that had got me thinking again. My original plan had been to try and capture one of their people and torture them until they gave me a means of finding the rest of the group so that I could wipe them out (far as able to determine this would never have worked as he didn't have the information I needed).
But learning about the Salarians intention to frame me made me wonder if I wasn't going about this thing entirely the wrong way. All I needed to do was to draw on my knowledge from years of working for them to work out a way of exposing their own criminal activities to the Council. With any luck, the fallout would be enough to allow me to disappear in the chaos.
Going through my missions one by one I finally came up with a Volus by the name of Jul Kadir. The man was a politician that the Salarians had invested in heavy but whom I knew from our interactions to be a cowardly little pyjak. I assumed that pressuring him to give me solid evidence that could incriminate my former employers would be a piece of cake. Then Urdnot Wrex walked into the picture.
Urdnot Wrex, proud former leader of Clan Urdnot up until his self imposed exile and well renown mercenary for hire. I knew the Krogan personally from a few jobs we had worked on together over the years, in fact I even thought of him as a friend. But I knew from the moment the Volus hired him that he wouldn't hesitate to kill me. He respected me far too much to treat me any differently.
So instead of trying to reason with him I suggested that we meet at a neutral location, a space station of my choosing and settle it there and then. If I'd managed to kill him my plan would've succeeded, no merc would be stupid enough to take a job that had gotten Wrex killed.
As the shuttle turned again and the broken debris of the station swung back into view I was reminded just how well that plan had gone. In some ways I was glad, I hadn't wanted to kill that crazy Krogan anyway. But now I had no choice but to disappear and start again somewhere with nothing no my name but the clothes on my back.
There was never any doubt where I would have to go, there was only one station in the galaxy where I felt confident the Salarians wouldn't be able to find me. The only question was what to call myself. Then out of the window, I spotted a recognizable piece of debris from the station, a nameplate, badly scorched. Only a few of the letters were still readable: A, R, I, A.
- 4 years later -
"So what do we have here?"
The voice was amused and good humored, you could even make the mistake of calling it 'fatherly' if you were stupid. It was the voice of a man who knew he didn't need to sound angry, intimidating, or commanding to maintain his authority. He had enough power that putting effort into displaying it would only have detracted from his strength. I could respect that.
"She's one of madame Drissel's dancers sir. If you like her I could probably arrange a private session otherwise I was going to dump her back in the streets," reported one of the Turians currently gripping me painfully by the shoulder to show he they had me captured. I briefly contemplated breaking his wrist but restrained myself with difficulty. The time for impulsiveness would come later.
"I like her a lot better than I do you right now Parnak. Leave us for now, and if you ever imply I need your assistance to obtain my entertainment for the evening again then we'll have a conversation you won't like at all," the large Krogan retorted before waiting for them to all file out of the room.
"Apologies for the manners of my lieutenant, clearly he wasn't raised properly. I trust you know who I am?"
"You're the Warlord of Omega," I replied, dipping my head in respect to show I understood who I was dealing with.
"Spare me your false reverence Asari. I already know more than you realize. You set up that whole arrangement to try and gain my gratitude."
"That's... Not the way I would've put it," I replied, trying to turn aside his wrath without angering him by making pointless denials. He seemed surprised.
"And how would you describe your actions? I know you put Jol-Lan up to this little ambush," he stated, his tone slightly colder than it had been.
"The weapons dealer your friend bought from was one of my agents."
He explained, to my confused expression. Ah well, that made things trickier, I decided to drop the innocent servant act and go for broke."
"Jol already wanted you dead before I ever entered into a relationship with him. I simply convinced him that you had grown soft in your old age. That he'd be better off trying to kill you outright instead of slowly whispering in the ears of your men, spreading false rumors meant to poison your whole organization."
His eyes narrowed, particularly at my description of him having gone soft.
"It was a useful lie I could get him to believe. After some particularly energetic sessions of persuasion, he was ready to make this rash attack against you."
"He was clearly a fool at the end but never so stupid as that. It must have taken more than that to make him take leave of his senses."
"What can I say? I threatened to take away something he'd become accustomed to enjoying."
"And I should take your word for it?"
"I can show you how persuasive I can be if you'd prefer," I offered, but to my relief, he declined.
"Just tell me why I should keep you alive, Asari."
"The name's Aria T'Loak and I saved your life."
He snorted derisively, clearly unfazed by the idea of facing Jol-Lan alone.
"And I can give you the names of all his co-conspirators. Despite the fact they abandoned him when he decided to move against you directly I still thought you might be interested to know their names."
I held up a datapad in front of his face, it was everything I had left to bargain with. I didn't hesitate to hand it over when he asked me to.
"Not too many traitors, but more than I'd like, to be sure. Parnak will have to be made an example of as a warning to the rest of them," the Krogan mused.
"But what do you want for this?"
I smirked and let my gaze fall onto one of the club's gambling tables.
"Deal me in."
- 98 years later -
We landed on Afterlife's lower level, with my fingers still gripped around his sizable throat. I was covered in blood, both my own and my enemies and I was in such a bad way that I assumed it would be fatal if I didn't get medical help soon. But I wasn't going to let this Krogan get the better of me, I had come too far to let anything but death stop me now.
Most of the club around us had been reduced to rubble during our battle. The bar was smashed, the lights were either broken or just barely flickering and a fire was spreading rapidly across the dance floor. Not to mention the hole in the ceiling we'd just fallen through (one of several I might add).
Luckily Ungol Kurl was in no better shape than I was, damn Krogan had to have more bones broken than I could count by now but he still wouldn't just die.
"You're a fool Aria, we had a good thing going until you had to give in to blind ambition and greed."
"Greed had nothing to do with it old man. Good as you are you made mistakes, you get sloppy on occasion. Omega needs a ruler that lacks these... weaknesses."
With a massive effort, he created a biotic field that threw me off him and across the bar. It was only my own biotics that ensured my flight ended gracefully and not with a broken neck. Still, I knew he had to be weakening, he'd already wasted a huge amount of power trying to smash me into a pulp (achieving no more than ruining a perfectly good drinking establishment).
"And you believe that you can do better without me? I always believed you would inherit it all one day but I can't say I'm impressed by your betrayal."
"This is the day that I take power on Omega. I don't need any validation from you Kurl."
"The young never listen to the advice of the elders and old mistakes get repeated time after time. So be it, but you still have to defeat me little one."
After this little speech, it became obvious he had been stalling, trying to buy some recovery time so that he could go back on the offensive. With a roar he charged straight at me, unleashing as many biotic attacks as he could muster in my direction. Unfortunately for him, I'm not some meek prey that he could intimidate. Instead of hesitating or backing off I simply upped the strength of my barriers and charged straight in.
Everything seemed to explode around me as he poured the last of his biotics into an artillery barrage designed to finish me off. For my part, I focused on my defenses and on moving as swiftly as possible as I sought to close with him. Inevitably we met in the center of the club, where we could both only pray that our confrontation would be finally decided.
He swung at me first but again I ducked under the blow that would have cracked my skull wide open and blasted him back with my own biotics. Pausing only for a split second, he drew another shotgun (the third I'd seen in his hands since the fight began) from its hiding spot behind the ruined bar and began firing at me from near point blank range.
Three times my barriers held up against the accelerated impacts of his weapon before I managed to get close to him again. By this point, they were almost utterly depleted so in desperation I kicked out and managed to knock his fourth shot wide just before it was loosed. But it wasn't enough to stop him long, in a couple of seconds he would bring round the gun again to finish me so I had to press my brief advantage. Moving forward and grabbing the gun in one hand I vaulted over the bar and pulled hard, slamming his gut into the obstacle I had just avoided.
He seemed to reel back for a moment but only so that he could swing his weight forward in a classic Krogan headbutt. Caught by surprise I could do nothing as I felt the heavy plate of his crest smash into his forehead. I stumbled backward feeling dazed but I was soon forced to defend myself as Kurl came striding forward intent on finishing the job. I fended him off as best I could with the only weapon I had to hand but slow as he was from his injuries, his superior strength was winning out.
Before long he had snatched the shotgun from my grasp, reversed in his hand in but a moment, and aimed it back at my head ready to fire. It was a shot that would never come as, making use of his distracted hands, I poured all the last reserves of my strength into a single biotic punch, aimed at his chest. I had hoped it might stagger him, throw him off balance, but instead he dropped the gun and started coughing desperately as he clutched at his chest. I only found out later that I had actually crushed one of his hearts, but regardless of the cause, it was clear he was finished.
Dropping to his knees, he wasn't even able to speak the last few words on his mind, but looking at his face I could tell what they would have been: Kill me. I stood above him, confident in my victory, imagining the final biotic strike I was about to make that would end his miserable life.
But I hesitated, and not out of pity. Looking down at him in that moment, helpless and beaten I realized I would be missing a far more useful opportunity. He had ruled Omega, had commanded the fear of everyone who mattered on this rock, and I had beaten him. More than that I had broken him, and that's what I needed the others to see. And any time they entertained thoughts of knocking me off my throne, they could look at their former ruler and be reminded of just what I'm capable of.
All hail Aria T'Loak, the Pirate Queen of Omega.