Nora swept her gaze across Afterlife, inspecting each lifeless corpse littered around the room, making sure they actually were lifeless. Once she ensured she was the only living occupant inside the club, Nora ascended the staircase at the rear of the bar, and followed Laura's trail into Aria's escape tunnel.
She walked a short distance before she found her comrade, recovering from an explosion, if the lingering scent in the air and scattered remnants of Aria's body were anything to go by. Nora gazed at Laura, bemused. "Why didn't you stop her?"
"Why would I? It's not like it could kill me." Laura responded.
Nora simply hummed, and stepped past Laura, who stood. "We should tell Nyreen our mission was successful, give her a chance to take control before panic sets in over this."
Laura nodded. "Yeah. The sooner we do that, the sooner we can get out of here."
The two proceeded down the escape tunnel, deciding that going out the way they came in might lead to more problems they didn't need. Once they reached the end of the tunnel, they found themselves deposited in an abandoned hangar, with a small pleasure craft its sole occupant. It seemed in this instance, Aria had chosen practicality over ostentatiousness.
They scanned the perimeter of the hangar, looking for a door leading back into Omega, but found none. Evidently, the only way out of the hangar was to use the small ship before them. Nora gazed at the ship dispassionately, noting that it was barely able to fit just one of them inside. The other would have to hang onto the hull while they flew to the rendezvous point.
Laura approached Nora's side. "So what? We draw straws or something?"
Nora huffed, and stepped inside the ship, having to crouch so low her knees almost touched the floor. Laura shrugged, and dug her claws into the hull, punching holes through it, and hung on as tight as she could. Nora powered up the ship, and initialized the launch sequence. Laura grunted as she felt herself being pulled into the air, and she tightened her grip as the ship accelerated out of the bay.
Nora checked the coordinates to the rendezvous point, then guided the ship towards the hangar bay nearest to it, taking a moment to deactivate the alarm blaring thanks to Laura punching holes in the hull.
With nothing better to do, Laura patched into the comm network used by Aria's thugs. Thanks to Serina sending the station into lockdown, they still didn't know what happened to Aria, and only a handful of them were able to try to get into Afterlife. It would be hours, at least, before they found out, more before they could actually do anything about it.
The ship slid into the hangar, and Laura pulled herself free, rolling to a stop while the ship landed. Nora stepped out, and the two proceeded through the hangar, ignoring the civilians that had been trapped in the hangar. Serina unlocked the door as they approached, and a few of the civilians bolted for the door when they saw it open. The Hunters moved through the station, Serina unlocking as many sections as she could, taking care to avoid releasing Aria's troops.
They arrived at the rendezvous point, located within one of Omega's many abandoned maintenance passages after nearly 15 minutes, and they found Nyreen pacing anxiously. "Is it done?" She asked reluctantly, as if saying the words physically hurt her.
"Aria is dead." Nora said coldly. She raised her Ancilla, and sent Nyreen the locations of Aria's guards that remained trapped. The Turian's eyes flickered over the display of her Omni-tool, then she turned her gaze towards her troops. "Alright everyone, get to these locations and round up as many of Aria's people as you can. The sooner we secure the station, the sooner we can make things right." Her soldiers nodded, and moved to carry out their orders. Once the last of Aria's loyalists was captured, Nyreen, with some support from Laura and Nora, would build the structure necessary to facilitate a peaceful regime change.
The second the door to the hospital was torn from its hinges, Kara burst through the door, and fired four rounds, two each, into the guards standing inside the room. The Krogans bony head plating forced her to aim for their eyes, causing the water inside the delicate organs to flash vaporize, resulting in their eyes popping inside their skulls.
The rest of the team followed closely behind, Jack first, then Rocket, Shepard and finally Mordin. They stepped past the deceased guards, and moved deeper into the building. Kara briefly paused as she received a message, and relayed it to the rest of the team. "Maelon is on the fifth floor. Damage to this structure means getting there will be difficult."
"I didn't sign up for easy." Shepard commented. "Let's try to move quickly."
Kara nodded, and they carefully moved into the next room. As Kara gazed across the space before her, she thought it reminded her more of a mall than a hospital, with multiple floors of long walkways interconnected with bridges, and rooms lining the walls. The layout made her fur ripple, there were too many positions where shooters above them could fire upon her squad.
She was quickly snapped back to reality when she felt thundering footsteps reverberating through the floor beneath her, heralding the arrival of more Krogan. Nearly a dozen more, as well as two dozen supporting Vorcha. The newcomers took up positions surrounding Shepard's team, and a Krogan wearing heavy (and expensive) armor on the platform above and parallel with theirs approached the edge of his walkway, peering down at Shepard's team with contempt.
"Before we kill you, what the hell are you doing on my planet?" The Krogan demanded.
Shepard stepped forward, mindful of the fact that there were dozens of guns pointed at her. "We're here to find the cure to the genophage. We know you have it."
"So, you seek to destroy our future."
"No." Shepard pointed to Kara. "She gave Maelon the data he needed to make a cure. We want to help you."
The Krogan's eyes shifted to Kara. "If that's true, then we'll show our gratitude by giving her a quick death, then we'll take our revenge on the rest of the galaxy."
"Wait!" Shepard barked. "Most people in the galaxy see Krogan as the victims because of what you've been through. If you attack, you'll lose their support. You don't need to start a war!"
The Krogan snarled. "What we've been through? What would you know of our suffering? Of the mountains of children who never lived. Of the countless mothers who felt death growing inside them, and the fathers who died knowing we had no future. But now, we do have a future, and we'll pave the way with your bones!" The Krogan roared, before firing at Shepard. Before the Human could react, Kara wrapped her arm around Shepard, and placed her body between the Human and the volley of fire, her shields absorbing the rounds.
"I knew that wouldn't work." Kara said flippantly.
"Then why didn't you do something?" Shepard asked, mildly annoyed.
"Because it wouldn't hurt to try." Kara responded, before spinning again to bring her rifle to bear on the enemy. Kara ignored the Krogan for the time being. They were the biggest threat, but her weaponry wasn't as effective against their armored hide as it was against the Vorcha.
She fired seven times, killing six of her targets and wounding the seventh. Kara moved away from the rest of Shepard's team, drawing fire away from them as she did.
Jack used her biotics to yank four Krogan over the edge, and sent them plummeting half a dozen floors before they reached a sudden, messy stop. The Krogan leader snarled, and, using his own biotics, he yanked Jack over the edge, eliciting a string of expletives from the Human. Kara spared a glance over the edge, and spotted Jack using her biotics to slow her descent to one more survivable. She turned her attention back to the immediate threat, and fired half a dozen more times, the plasma bolts blowing off the limbs and heads of her targets.
Kara heard a roar from across the chasm, and she shifted to see one of the Krogan begin to charge at her, leveling his shotgun and firing as fast as the weapon would allow.
Her shields absorbed the brunt of the attack, leaving them at ten percent strength when the Krogan reached her. He attempted to ram his shoulder into her, but she sidestepped the charge, and seized his arm. She spun, attempting to redirect her opponent over the edge of the walkway, but he reacted by stopping dead in his tracks, dragging his feet across the floor, and his momentum caused his body to wrap around hers rather than be thrown over. The Krogan adjusted his shotgun, and fired point blank into Kara's gut. She roared, and tightened her grip on his shoulder, crushing the bones, then threw him off her, sending him over the opposite railing, and onto the ground below.
Before she could recover, she felt a new threat bearing down on her. She swiveled to face it, only to feel the impact of what could only be described as a train slam into her. Kara was thrown into the wall behind her with such force, the stone wall cracked and shuddered, nearly collapsing on top of her.
She snarled as she scrambled back onto her feet, catching a glimpse of the Krogan Warlord who'd attacked her as he readied another biotic charge. Kara waited until the split second before he lunged at her again, and activated the plasma blade in her Ancilla, pointing it straight at the oncoming Krogan. Unable to change direction mid attack, the Warlord skewered himself through the midsection with the blade.
Kara effortlessly pushed the corpse off of her, and pulled her weapon from his fried innards. She was about to re-engage the remaining forces, until a sudden eruption of chaotic, swirling biotic energy erupted amidst the hostile position, sending stone, and bodies, flying.
Before the dust settled, Kara could hear Jack roaring with anger, unleashing biotic attacks on those still living in a terrifying reprisal, ripping apart any Krogan or Vorcha in sight. Kara hissed in irritation. That level of destruction was unnecessary, and collateral damage could destroy what they were here to save.
Once Jack killed the last hostile (by creating two singularities, the competing gravitational forces ripping the Krogan in half), she crossed the walkway to regroup with Shepard's team, mumbling angrily to herself.
"You good Jack?" Shepard asked.
"Fuck off." Jack spat back.
"I'll take that as a yes." Shepard muttered to herself.
Kara was about to rejoin the team, when she felt what she had previously thought to be a corpse begin to move. She turned, and watched as the Krogan warlord struggled to move. "I-I won't… let you…" He sputtered, barely able to speak, let alone move.
Kara tilted her head as she regarded him with a sympathetic look. It was a testament to the resiliency of Krogan anatomy, as well as this particular individual's strength of will, that he had survived his stab wound, even if barely. His insides had been fried, and he was still clinging to life. Kara knelt, and drew a knife as the Krogan stared back at her, fury in his eyes.
"Like my comrade said, we're here to save your people, not destroy them. When we're done here, the Genophage will be cured, and your clan will survive. You can die knowing your people will have a future." Kara said, allowing just enough time for her words to sink in, before finishing the Krogan off. She wasn't as familiar with Krogan expressions as she was with Human ones, but she could have sworn the Krogan looked almost happy when he finally died.
She wiped the blood from her knife, and regrouped with the rest of her team as they moved deeper into the hospital. They faced no further resistance as they progressed, much to Rocket's surprise.
"You'd think with what they're doin' here, they'd have more guys workin' security." He said, shifting his grip on his weapon uneasily. Jack and Shepard nodded in agreement, but Mordin shook his head.
"Secrecy best security. Strong presence would indicate something valuable, make tempting target for others. Guards we encountered most likely elite forces."
"Not elite enough." Jack muttered.
"Give 'em some credit." Rocket remarked. "We are some of the biggest badasses in the galaxy." He continued.
Shepard quietly agreed. If Jack hadn't been there, things could have gone very badly. Kara had been preoccupied with the warlord, leaving the rest of the team suppressed, and vulnerable.
They walked a short distance further in silence, before Kara and Rocket began to sniff the air intently. "What is it?" Shepard asked.
Neither Kara nor Rocket answered, they simply moved to one of the doors on the right side of the hallway they were in, and opened it, revealing what looked like a morgue. Inside were the remains of several Krogan. The rest of the team followed Kara inside as she moved into the room.
"Who were they?" Rocket pondered aloud.
"Maelon's first volunteers." Kara responded as she came to a stop beside one of the corpses.
"Why would they agree to be some sick fuckers test subjects?" Jack asked.
"The Genophage caused unimaginable damage to the Krogan's collective consciousness. Most of them became nihilistic after, believing their species didn't have a future." Kara placed a sympathetic hand on the lifeless woman's head. "If there was even the smallest chance that Maelon could cure it, the women here were ready to die for it."
Mordin listened in silence, before he approached one of the other bodies, and, to Shepard's surprise, began to recite what sounded like a prayer. "Rest, young mother. Find your gods, find someplace better."
"I didn't know you were religious." Shepard commented.
Mordin inhaled deeply. "Work on Genophage… complicated. Led to much soul searching, questions regarding morality of work.'
Kara snorted. "Isn't that amusing, the doctor who killed millions having a crisis of morality."
"Genophage doesn't kill, simply prevents growth of nervous system in fetus. Didn't kill anyone with work." Mordin said coldly, his words sounding almost hollow.
"A technicality." Kara huffed. "Would you like to know what pregnancy is like for a Hunter? We're blind, so we rely mostly on detecting vibrations through the ground and air. And these senses are so sensitive, a pregnant female can actually feel the life growing inside her, even when it's barely more than a collection of cells. I was intimately aware of my children's development inside me." Kara moved towards Mordin, looming dangerously over him as she spoke. "If they hadn't been allowed to live, because some fucker decided they were too dangerous to be given a chance at life, I'd be just as angry as the Krogan."
Mordin's eyes flicked from Kara, to the body behind her. "Ran countless simulations, Krogan too aggressive, too expansionist. Something had to be done."
"A necessary evil is still evil." Kara said firmly. "The bodies here are just a handful of millions who died because of your work. You can tell yourself all the self-justifying lies you want, doctor, it doesn't change the fact that what you've done was beyond horrific. Complete extermination would have been more merciful than what you subjected them to." Kara hissed. "Besides, if we want to have a chance at defeating the Reapers, we need the Krogan, which means your work must be undone."
The Illusive Man read the report before him intently, feeling his ire rise as he did. Nearly half a dozen Cerberus bases of operation had gone dark in the past week, and investigations conducted by his operatives did little to shed light on what had happened.
Computer records were wiped clean, and autopsies and damage assessments of the bases themselves indicated that the weapons used by the attackers were consistent with Alliance special forces. But if the Alliance was responsible for the attacks, he'd know. His informants would ensure that. It could be that the Salarian Special Tasks Group was responsible, but Cerberus operatives weren't amateurs, many were former special forces themselves. There'd be some evidence left behind if it was them.
Without any recordings of the attacks, or any survivors to question, the Illusive Man was left with only one viable option to confirm his suspicions. He closed the report, and brought up Miranda's numerous briefings regarding Project Lazarus. Shepard's body had sustained extreme degradation by the time Cerberus got their hands on her, but in spite of that, the project was successful. They had brought a dead woman back to life.
And if the autopsy reports were to be believed, there were plenty of candidates left in far better condition than Shepard was. He removed the cigar from his lips, and exhaled slowly. But one of the conditions for bringing Shepard back, was she had to be exactly the same as she was before her death.
But that wouldn't really be a concern for Kai Leng.
Samantha and Machiko stepped off the dropship, and into one of the Citadel's many docking bays. After their mission to clear out the Cerberus base on Eden Prime, they received a communique from the Citadel Council regarding Sovereign. Laura and Nora were too busy on Omega to respond, and Kara was preoccupied with Shepard's mission against the Collectors. Which left Sam and Chiko to play diplomat.
They waded through the crowds populating the wards and presidium, before taking the elevator to Citadel Tower. Sam watched as the lake grew smaller and smaller as they ascended, before the door behind her finally opened, and she turned her back on the admittedly beautiful view.
They climbed the several sets of stairs leading to the Council, and after receiving further directions from a secretary, proceeded to a secluded room at the side of the chamber. They entered the room, and came to a stop when they stood before the three aliens, the door closing behind them. The Asari councilor looked up from the computer terminal in front of her after a few moments of silence, then dipped her head in greeting. "Thank you for agreeing to meet with us. We have news to share that we couldn't risk over remote communications."
The Turian Councilor continued. "Our investigation into the ship Sovereign was slow going due to the sensitive nature of the project, and the fact that we had to compare its technology to recovered Geth tech."
"And our investigation confirmed Shepard's warnings. Sovereign was not of Geth origin." The Salarian Councilor finished.
"And what are you going to do with this information?" Machiko inquired.
"That thing tore through our defense fleet like it wasn't even there. Who knows what would have happened if your fleet hadn't shown up." The Turian Councilor responded, gazing at the other Councilors for a moment before continuing. "We're going to have to ramp up military production considerably."
"And Kara refused our offer to receive an Embassy. We need to know that we can count on you in the war to come." The Asari Councilor added.
"You can." Sam said firmly.
"To what extent?" The Salarian asked. "Military, economic, technological?"
"We've already conducted projections of the Reaper invasion. We'll have facilities ready to receive refugees and provide them with enough of everything you'll need. We'll try to help as much as we can."
The Turian Councilor was silent for a moment, before speaking up. "Just between us, how bad are those projections?"
Samantha and Machiko gazed at each other for a moment, their expressions dour. "We're dealing with an armada of AI's of unknown size, that have successfully and repeatedly cleansed this galaxy of advanced intelligent life, and we have no idea how long they've been operating. This war will be worse than anything any of you have ever seen." Samantha said
The mood in the room wasn't bright to begin with, but after Sam finished talking, it grew considerably darker. With nothing left to say, the two Hunters left, leaving the Council alone with their thoughts.