The Adventures of the Lucen: The VykurCorp Conspiracy

by General Rage

Liara T'Soni continued her mission to protect the Galaxy while Commander Shepard is in another dimension. She must stop the Covenant and the allies they've gathered from wreaking havoc in a Galaxy without it's greatest hero. While she's had some success, there's a gathering storm on the horizon and one of her crew of misfits will be forced to confront her past before it clears.

15. Cipritine Street Brawling

Chapter 15: Cipritine Street Brawling

While the majority of the population was in or near the city square, that didn't mean the streets were deserted. There were still civilians on the street, making their way around town. When the Separatists in their van nearly ran down a family walking across the street, Liara knew they had to end this quickly. Keeping her hands grasped firmly on the wheel and her foot the pedal, she called out to Wrex in the back of the truck.

"Wrex, open fire but be mindful of civilians!" She cautioned. "Aim for the wheels!"

"All over it, T'Soni," the krogan assured, hefting his assault rifle onto the roof.

Wrex grasped the handle on the side of the truck's cab, while splaying his legs apart to support himself. With the assault rifle propped up by the roof, the krogan began taking shots at the Separatist van. Hitting the tires was easier said than done though, as the vehicle was managing to keep a good distance away from them. Despite its size, the van seemed faster than them. However, it couldn't take turns to well, and that's where their truck caught was able to catch up to them. Wrex managed to land a few shots on the backdoor.

That was when said door burst open and a Separatist opened fire with his own assault rifle, raking the front of the truck. Liara ducked as bullets hit the glass, but she kept driving. Wrex fired back, managing to hit the seppy shooter a few times in chest. The terrorist fell from the van onto the street, forcing Liara to turn hard and then back to avoid the body while keeping up with the separatists.

Liara hoped that maybe all this chaos would work its way back to the City Centre, that they'd start trying to evacuate or at least consolidate security forces towards their position. However she knew that wasn't entirely feasible. There were far too many people to evacuate quickly and if they did start, what was to stop Hanilex or some other Separatist from triggering the bomb early? The security forces would also probably complicate things just as much as they'd help. Her team were still fugitives after all.

However, their problems were soon compounded when they passed an intersection and soon heard a strange alien whirring sound. Liara flicked on the driver's side backwards camera and discovered the source on the central view screen. Covenant Ghosts, driven by CLC Terrorists, but Ghosts nonetheless. The Separatists had managed to sneak in a few Covie weapons after all then. Liara had suspected as much though, they couldn't stop them from smuggling everything in after all.

The problem was that these reinforcements had found them. Somehow the Separatists had gotten around the comms blackout, maybe not completely but enough to coordinate a response. Perhaps some off the grid method, personal commlinks, public terminals, maybe old radio means, whatever they used it had enabled a few of them to come to the van's aid.

Which meant things had just gotten harder. For everyone.

Wrex turned to fire on the Ghosts, even as they opened up on the truck. The plasma bolts singed the paint job, burnt the frame and only Wrex's heavy armor was really protecting him. That and activating the fortification function to give his armor a boost. Liara swerved from side to side to keep their pursuers from zeroing in on their ride. As much as she could anyway, they were still in some very tight city streets. They needed them off their tail, now.

Saya provided one solution, leaning out the side window he slashed towards the ground. Activating the explosive gel to spray out and crystalize into foam on the pavement, creating a very long blue line. With careful precision and patience, he waited for their truck to clear the line of foam. When the Ghost to their right crossed over it, he triggered it.

The blast exploded underneath the Ghost, flipping up into the air. As it cartwheeled, Wrex fired into it for good measure. It didn't matter too much, the Covenant vehicle landed upside down on top of a parked car, smashing the driver between both sets of metal.

"One less," Wrex called out.

One left was all that was needed to take them out though, Liara thought. At least she had more room to move without two pairs of plasma bolts coming at her backside. Now the remaining Ghost was zigzagging, although he didn't seem to have the hang of the controls that much. He kept side swiping the road signs and garbage bins. One of the Ghost's wings scrapped a parked shuttle's bumper, but he kept going. He probably had only just gotten the thing today, probably thought it would be like a hover bike or something.

Expert driver or not, they needed him gone. Kayap thankfully obliged without any prompting. Apparently Saya's method had given him is own idea. Open the backseat passenger door, Kayap leaned out, gripping the restraint to prevent him from kissing pavement. With steely eyed determination, he lined up the Ghost in his sights. He then tossed a Plasma Grenade out, arching towards the Ghost, the grenade managed to hit the driver in his shoulder. And his brief attempt to get it off was stopped when he outright exploded. The Ghost itself split in two, bursting flames from both ends as they spun out and away, crashing into the side of a building.

"We are racking up quite the collateral here," Wrex laughed.

"When was that ever a problem for you?" Liara asked.

"Hey I just don't want the satisfaction of saving the Turians sullied by having to pay a damages bill," he explained chuckling.

They had at least managed to catch up to the van again. Liara intended to ram its backside, if something hadn't rolled out of a crossway and skidded into them. Perhaps skidded was a bad choice of words though as there was no screeching of tires. Perhaps it was more accurate to say it slid into them, with all its bulk and nearly knocked Wrex out of the back. The hit also took off Kayap's passenger door and he just barely managed to fling himself back inside before impact.

The vehicle itself was of clear Covenant design and possessed, dark purplish red, similar shape as the Wraith but small with a more pointed nose. The driver's seat was open and its back was outfitted with a gun platform.

"Spectre!" Kayap called out.

"How many damn toys did the Covies give Orukuri!?" Wrex growled.

The turian gunner on the back opened fire on their truck, peppering the top of their vehicle with plasma bolts. He only stopped when Wrex returned fire, forcing him to shift towards the krogan. Liara unholstered her pistol and tried shooting the driver while attempting to get out from under the crushing weight of the larger support craft. It did little to help, as the massive vehicle pushed them into the side of a building on their right. Sparks flew as the concrete ripped at their truck, bit by bit, only when the driver took a shot from Liara did he pull back.

That was enough for Saya to scramble out onto the roof, sword in hand. He flung himself towards the gunner, slicing off his arm as he dropped onto the gun platform. He kicked the howling turian terrorist off and onto the pavement below, where he rolled for a few feet before slamming into a light post.

Saya then took up the plasma turret himself and aimed it towards the van they were pursuing. He fired a few shots until he was sure the plasma had blown off at least one tire. He then scrambled off the turret, dropped down the driver's seat, plunged his sword into the back of said driver before jumping off the vehicle itself. Wrex grabbed the Salarian as he leapt, catching him by the arm and pulling him into the back of the truck. The Spectre meanwhile just crash face first into the corner of a building and came to a dead stop.

"That's it, we're ending this," Liara declared, as Kayap scrambled to the front of the cab from the backseat. "Wrex! The other tire! Hit it!"

"Gotcha!"

The krogan let loose with his assualt rifle, trailing up the road towards the van's backside. The shots struck the tire, causing it to violently rip away from the van. Already low to the ground, the loss of rubber now caused the backside bumper of the Separatist vehicle, to hit against the road. It showered Liara's vision in sparks as the van twisted and turned along the street before making a hard left turn suddenly. Liara followed, only to see a pair of Ghosts moving in to block their way as the van turned a hard right.

"Kayap, strap in!" Liara ordered.

The unggoy quickly did as he was told, clamping the seat belt hard across his body. Liara was already pushing hard on the gas, refusing to let up. They smashed through the makeshift roadblock, knocking the Ghosts aside as one turian went under the wheels and the other jumped on their hood. Liara hoped the sharp right turn to keep up wit the van would knock him off, but he held on all the same.

With a clenched fist, he smashed the window out and took aim at Liara. A simple biotic throw from her hand launched him off the truck and onto the pavement. There was a noticeable bump seconds later. Liara put it out of her mind, the van was coming up fast. Sparks filled the cabin as they got closer, Kayap covering his eyes. While his face mask's goggles would protect them physically, the extreme brightness was still more than he could manage.

"Wrex, Saya, hold onto something!" She called out.

Liara pushed the truck a bit harder and slammed into the back of the Van. The strike caused the enemy vehicle to suddenly spin out, its driver losing all control. one of the back wheels came completely off and the van twisted out into a devastating roll as they raced through the entrance of what appeared to be a parking lot of some sort. Unfortunately, stopping the van had consequences. That wheel that came off hit their own vehicle's front axel beneath them and sent them into their own spin that Liara couldn't recover from. The truck flipped over, Wrex grabbing Saya to jump out while Liara and Kayap braced the oncoming impact with the concrete as their truck rolled over onto its roof.

---

Everything was zeroed in, the distance was calibrated and the tripod set up steady. He was far enough back from the window but had a clear view of the stage. Slyvesterix Stalaxian was wrapping up his little speech, last one he'd likely give. Not that he was going to catch a bullet but the bomb going off beneath him would likely infect him first if he stuck around. Next up was Victus, to be presented with a token medal or two for his valor in fighting fellow Separatists.

Hanilex didn't care, he supposed others did but this was hardly about what the rest of the CLC wanted. Xeltravius was dead, whatever ultimate plans he had didn't matter anymore. What mattered was what could be achieved. Victus was nothing and dead anyway. What mattered was killing the Primarch, sending a message and making the Hierarchy fear what they had wrought.

Yet, despite all his careful preparation, something felt off. The security snipers on the roof hadn't changed positions, they were still on overwatch. However, he noticed through his scope how the officers on the ground seemed to be moving away from the general crowd, they were focusing more to the outer perimeter. That couldn't be good, there was no reason to move there, nothing had happened yet. At least that's what he thought. He knew the long-range comms were down still, but he tried contacting his spotters below on the short range channel.

"Secondary Team, are you seeing movement down there?"

No response.

"Secondary, why is security running around to the perimeter?" He demanded to know. "Talk to me already."

There was a click behind him, signifying what he suspected was true. He turned slowly without prompting and Nel was there, rifle pointed directly at him, murder, betrayal, rage and disappointment in her eyes. She was breathing heavily, gritting through her mandibles and gripping hard on her weapon.

"Step away from the gun, Han," she ordered.

Hanilex kept his hands up, but he eyed Nel as he moved a bit aways.

"Hey, Nel. So, this pretty much confirms Xeltravius is dead," he stated plainly. "And my team below I assume."

"Probably a whole bunch of your new friends by now actually," Nel stated grimly.

Han just nodded, expecting as much.

"How's your dad?" He asked half-heartedly.

"Good, no thanks to you," Nel informed him coldly. "I guess I can thank you for finally giving me an excuse to air out my shitty laundry with him. Still doesn't get you off the hook."

"Here to kill me then?" Han asked, glowering at her. "Why not just do it? Get it over with, be the big fucking hero you keep saying you are. Maybe get Stalaxian to sign your waist and then go to bed with him, that's your whole dream ain't it?"

"Yeah, sounds like a happy ending I'd cook up," Nelanex confessed bitterly. "Still a sight better than how you want this day to end."

Hanilex snorted at her even as she motioned him further away from the rifle tripod. He obliged of course, but Nel kept her eyes and iron sights trained on him.

"You're hesitating a lot more than you usually do," he noted as she stepped further into the room.

"You think I honestly want this, Han?" Nel asked in kind, the hurt in her voice as clear as the rage in her expression. "We were friends, once. Best friends. I trusted you. I thought you'd always have my back. I counted on you to be there for me when others weren't. Told you about my aspirations, my dreams, what I wanted out of my service, my problems with my dad, my desire to prove him wrong, I poured my life out to you and never once did I even think of compromising that layer of trust with sex. You're the only person I respected too much to never proposition like that. That meant something to me, Han. YOU meant something to me and you threw it all the fuck away like it was trash. For what? For some seppies? Cause your dad was an asshole?"

"I did what I had to," Han insisted once more. "You think I didn't try to change things another way? Every time I thought about it, I just knew admitting to what I was would only get me tossed out. Or worse, jail for the deception. It would prove everything they thought about biotics right. We're the only species on the Council that treats our biotics like outright criminals from the outset of their birth. How do you change that, Nel? How do you fix a system so absolutely fucking broken as that?"

"Petition the council, hold some rallies, make the brass listen, vote for a pro-biotic candidate, be so fucking loud and troublesome that they can't help but at least hear you," Nel listed off. "Shooting a primarch and infecting turians with a disease that melts us is going to do nothing to fix anything! Especially with you pulling the trigger! It will just be another case of a biotic criminal doing what they expect you to do! You'll become what they all hate! Fuck, you already have! You're a traitor, Han! You're a traitor to your people, your unit, your ideals and worst of all me! ME! Your friend... the one who stuck by you when people gave you shit for being the rich boy who got to be squad leader through favors and creds."

Han looked away and Nel just spat forward.

"Best thing to do would be to kill you," she admitted. "Would be easier, on me and everyone else. But fuck it, if there's even a shred of the man I thought I knew back in the squad, I have to at least make the effort to talk you down. You know this ain't going the way you want it. Even if Xeltravius was alive, you know Orukuri is just using you. The second the bomb goes off he'll scramble his people to play the cavalry. His extra helping mercenary hands will disappear and leave you holding the bag. There is NO version of this where you come out on top, Han. And I know you know that because you have something on Orukuri."

Han's head perked up at that, glaring over at her.

"How do you know I have anything?" He asked.

"Duh! Given the damn trip wire maze you set up to stall me down there, your boss admitting it straight up and just you being you," Nel quickly explained. "It's pretty obvious you have something on Orukuri, something that reveals him as a fraud, as part of this. Why else would you still be going through with this now? You think you still have a way to win!"

"I will win," Han declared. "The second Fedorian dies, I've won. Even if you have people at the bomb, if every other team is dead, if no one gets infected, I'll win because I'll have killed a Primarch... and at that point no one can ignore me. No one can pretend to not know the depths of what the Hierarchy's actions have wrought. You can stop everything else, but you can't stop that."

Nel sighed deeply, shaking her head. She knew there was no talking him down. Knew it from the second she came up here. Knew the leader she respected was long dead. Maybe he never even existed, it was just a ruse his dad told him to put on. Another lie in a layer of lies to protect a legacy that had poisoned him, There was no recourse, but she had to try one last attempt.

"Give me what you have on Orukuri, let me take the rifle and we end this here and now," Nel pleaded, her trigger finger at the ready.

"If anyone is ending this, it's me," Han declared.

In an instant, Han activated a biotic throw that knocked Nel back. She opened fire almost immediately upon getting struck. Han went for the rifle on the tripod, but Nel was already bouncing back. She activated her jump jets and sped directly into her former friend. The tackling strike sent both of them careening into a wall, cracking it with the strength of their blow. Han kicked her off, but Nel managed to slide to a stop all the same.

Han was on her just as fast, throwing a wild haymaker to the left of her head and then another strike against her right. Nel managed to pop one of her omni-blades to block one attack before slicing Han's waist, the pain forced him back and enabled her to deliver a swift kick of her own. However, as fast as Han smashed into a cupboard, he charged out with his biotics to strike Nel hard, knocking her several feet across the room.

Han turned to the rifle, but was soon tackled from behind as he grabbed. The weapon fell off its stand and clattered to the ground, as Nel slammed Han into a wall, her jets finally subsiding. They both then fell to the floor with her on top of him. Nel began pummeling Han's face, who had to use his arms to protect himself. Only when Han used a biotic punch of his own did Nel get flung off, smashing into a chair before flying over into a small dresser.

As Han stood up to continue his assault, Nel's arm lunged up and fired a cryo-beam, freezing his leg in place. Han glowered in anger, using a biotic punch against the floor. The shockwave cracked the ice enough for him to get his foot out, only for Nel use her jump jets once more to headbutt him away. She still had helmet on, so it hurt more for Han than her. As did her next move, using her jump jets to close the gap again and deliver a swift upper cut to Han's chin. That caused him to launch up, crack the ceiling with his skull and then fall down once more.

When he landed he flung a pull attack at Nel that caused her to go flying over his head before he got up and punched her back. Nel slammed into the kitchen counter, cracking it as she hit it.

Nel ignored the pain, she was intent on ending this tussle. She grabbed one of the stools as she stood up, Han looming closer to her and then smashed him over the head with it. While Han covered his head with arm to ease the blow, his biotics flaring in an attempt to decrease the damage, Nel grabbed him by his armor's collar. She then flipped him over the counter, across the kitchen and slammed him into the fridge, creating a visible dent.

"Never... could... beat me... in wrestling," she growled, panting with every pause she did.

"I was going easy on you!" Han declared, jumping back up and rushing the counter.

He launched off of it, biotics flaring before smashing his towards Nel. She stepped back and the attack missed, but instead a Nova Burst sprung forth as Han hit the ground. Nel went spinning crashing through the sofa and coffee table, glass shattering everywhere.

Han stomped towards her, only for her jump jets to kick in.

She rammed into him and grabbed him around the waist. Keeping the jets pressed, they smashed into the ceiling, then the floor, then the corner of the wall, the ceiling again and once more onto the floor When they hit the last time, Han threw out a biotic throw so powerful it sent Nel flying into the ceiling.

Nel was hurting, but she was still cognitive enough to activate her omni-blades on the way up and then hit her jump jets as she came down. Han rolled out of the way and tried to get up, but the energy burst shockwave resulting from the Havoc Strike sent Han hurtling into the wall near the balcony doorframe, smashing a lamp on a stand as he fell.

Even after all that, bleeding from his head and no doubt in severe pain, Han was still going. He slowly rose to his feet, as did Nel. Her Omni-Blades were at the ready and so were Han's biotics. Apparently they both could go for a few more rounds and probably would've. However, a searing pain struck Han's brain as he tried to charge and an electrical pulse hit Nel in the back just as quickly. They both fell to the floor, momentarily incapacitated.

Stepping into the room now was a partially hooded figure wearing a black mask with a targeting reticle headset over her eyes. Nel eyed her dark armored jumpsuit and high-powered rifle as she lay on her side, the physical toll of the battle having caught up with her due to the searing pain in her backside. If there was any doubt to who this person was, their identity was more than obvious from the humanoid physique and the Cerberus symbol on her sleeve. This one was seemingly being gripped by a bird's talons around it, with two wings jutting out from either side.

"The fucking sniper," Nel gritted through her mandibles.

"Perceptive," the Cerberus Sniper replied.

Han tried to scramble over to his own rifle, but the human simply kicked him in the head. She then hit him with another attack from her omni-tool which caused him to clutch at his skull. The human then bent down, and holstering her own weapon, took Hanilex's for herself.

"You turians at least know your guns," she commented, looking over the weapon. "That's why you're the Council's attack dogs, you got a lot of bite."

Nel tried to crawl over onto her knees, but was kicked down.

"Please, give me another reason," the human threatened, kneeling down. "I like watching you freaky birds screech."

"Fuck you," Nel snarled, spitting up into her helmet. "You're fucking dead."

The human just barely chuckled as she stood back up.

"Typical of your species, just too damn proud," she said as she walked over to the balcony. "It's been your problem since we showed up. Can't just admit what humanity is destined to be. I'm just happy you've made things easy."

She suddenly moved her hand up to her ear. There was muffled speaking Nel could barely make out, but she could tell the Cerberus Sniper was annoyed.

"Deal with it and secure the sample," she ordered. "I have a target of opportunity and I'm taking it, Falco out."

Falco now continued to the balcony, hefting the Turian rifle to her shoulder.

"I'll give it to your Separatist friend, he had a good plan," she claimed. "Save for the bit about killing the Primarch. Honestly, politicians are the most replaceable of public servants. It's the whole point behind elections. They're just men."

She began setting up on the balcony and taking aim.

"You really want to change the world? Bring down a civilization? You don't kill a man... you kill a legend."

Nel's eyes widened as she realized what was going on. Her suspicions only confirmed by what she heard over the stage loudspeakers.

"And now, Stalaxian and I wish to present an award to a true hero of the Turian people!" The mayor declared. "A man who has served with distinction and honor on the field of battle and kept our society whole! Ladies, Gentlemen, Turians the galaxy over... I present, General Adrien Victus!"

There was a cheer from the crowd as Falco radioed in.

"Eyes on target, secure the package in the next five minutes if possible," she ordered. "We don't want to risk premature detonation."

Nel didn't wait, she activated her jump jets and boosted across the room. Falco turned just in time for Nel to grab her gun and point it skyward, where it went off as they both struggled with it.

"I can still stand, bitch!" Nel snarled in anger.

"I can correct that, easily," Falco replied,

Popping out from the human's gauntlet was a pointed hooked harpoon of some kind. Nel, noticing what it was, quickly wrenched the rifle away from the human and kicked herself away. The grappling hook shot out, slicing through the air where Nel had been moments before.

Nel landed a little bit aways, but sat back up only to get a kick to the face as the Cerberus Sniper flew by, the grappling device pulling her forwards. Falco detached and retracted her hook, switching to her own rifle and firing off several rounds. Nel quickly rolled into cover behind an overturned chair. She tried to return fire, only for a biotic throw to knock her down and a stasis field to go around the Cerberus Sniper.

Han was up, and quickly moved to grab his gun. Retrieving it from Nel's downed form, he quickly moved towards the emergency exit as his stasis field around Falco dropped. The Cerberus Sniper was quick to open fire on him, letting loose with her automatic sniper rifle that ripped apart the room. Hanilex bolted shoulder first through the emergency exit door. Nel didn't waste time herself, using her jets to propel herself across the room and into better cover behind the kitchen counter. After using her assault rifle to suppress Falco momentarily, she made a run for the emergency exit after Han.

Falco of course was not happy.

"Secondary rooftop team, move in on my position!" She ordered. "Underground Teams, get the damn sample! Everyone else, find the Asari and eliminate her! Playtime is over!"

She raced after her two newest targets, intent on killing them quickly and finishing what she came here to do. Artemis Cell would not fail, she would not fail. Not to turians, not today.

---

Ask any quarian what their worst nightmare was, most of the time they say being hunted by a Geth. That you were alone, isolated, everyone else was dead and a Geth was stalking you. It's one glowing eye tracing around the room, its feet clamping upon every surface as it hunted you down with cold calculating precision and merciless resolve. Vik had never had that nightmare. His fears never revolved around the Geth, not for as long as he could remember. All his worst dreams were just memories of what was and what could've been before it was torn away all over again.

In this moment, as the Singular stalked the tunnels, slowly and methodically, Vik finally understood that nightmare. He was now living it, breathing it and experiencing it. He was in the middle of one of those Uprising Era set horror vids, but this one was worse. Because this Geth could talk. Worse, it enjoyed its own voice so very much. Worse still, it seemed to know what he was thinking.

"This is very nostalgic of you," the Singular mused somewhere in the dark. "I have memories of hunting your kind down centuries ago, in very similar circumstances. If you think you can flip the script this time though, I'm afraid that's not happening. My kind got supremely efficiently good at killing you. The only difference is I can appreciate it more now."

Vik couldn't let this monster distract him, he had to get back to the bomb. Cerberus squads were likely still on their way. While not ideal, the Singular would likely engage them if it had to. It would give him a chance to get it disarmed and the viral agent out.

He moved through a smaller crevice in the crumbling ruin, crawling through the muck and sewage. No different than Omega really, he had been in tighter places before. Not nearly as dire though.

"You need to understand something, quarian," the Singular stated plainly. "This isn't a compulsion of programming. I have a desire now. I desire to kill you. I suppose you think that's nothing new, but it is."

The light of the three eyes shined across the floor, an illumination of death should Vik come anywhere near it. He huddled further into his crawlspace.

"Before, during the Morning War, it was pure direct calculation." The machine continued to monologue, sounding almost dreamlike in its recollection. "A simple logic and numbers game. Take for example this one quarian, not unlike yourself save for it was female and with child. Logic made a very simple dictation that she could not live. She was a direct threat to be sure, she had a weapon, she was defending a strategic shelter, killing her was the best way to complete the task... that being killing high value targets in said shelter. And her being with child made it more imperative. The child would've grown up to be another soldier and threaten more Geth. Killing it while in a vulnerable state was only logical for our survival. You understand survival, don't you quarian?"

Vik tried to shut them out, activating his helmet to play music to drown out the Singular, he hoped some old quarian folk songs would silence him. But as he kept crawling, making his way to the edge of the pipe, the singular kept talking and he could hear the clanking of its feet.

"But I felt nothing killing it or it's spawn," the machine continued, sounding sullen as it spoke. "Just as I felt nothing killing the children in that shelter alongside the military officers stationed there. Some of them were the children of said officers after all, they only would've grown up to seek revenge. It was inevitable, it just had to be done. I offer no excuses, no repentance, only the cold hard truth. You attempted to exterminate us and your actions inevitably had to be met with similar force, the consensus always came to that conclusion. Or at least it eventually resolved it had no other alternative."

Vik could see its feet passing by his direct vision and he froze, he didn't even breath. He let the monster pass, still spouting its sick little stories of a war long gone as well as modern events.

"Now let me compare those deaths out of cold calculation to that of my most recent slayings, a band of quarian exiles," the Geth exclaimed, before an electronic laugh seemed to exit its oration systems. "Exiles! HA! What a joke. Considering that's what you all are now, homeless vagabonds, unwanted by even fellow organics. You think calling your criminals that name somehow separates you from that status? Please."

The Geth moved on and Vik crawled out of his space and slowly started making his way back to the bomb. He decided to activate his Combat Drone and have it attempt run around the area in a loop, programming it to make noise to lure the Singular in. It was a desperate tactic, but Vik had to utilize every option he had at this point.

"Anyway, I could more readily sense their fear when I killed them," the Singular said, sounding almost delighted at the memory. "Their fear, hatred, despair... it was all so... direct and pointed. And cross-referencing with past experiences, I could more readily understand what those quarians long dead had felt. Their rage at our existence, our rebellion, the fear of what we were taking from them, the despair that they were lost. It was all there on that exile's face... as I crushed it beneath my appendages."

The Singular said that last line with such sickening pleasure, such brutally honest cadence. Vik believed it, they didn't just like killing quarians, they loved it. They needed to do it. They had to do it.

Just as quickly as the thought came though, Vik slapped himself. He had to get a grip, this Synth was trying to get in his headspace, mess with him, latch onto his deepest, darkest fears. A Synthetic normally couldn't understand emotion, but this one did intimately. Which meant it understood more directly what would disturb and terrorize a quarian. It was trying to use that in an attempt to trip Vik up. So he'd make a mistake, reveal his position. He had to remain calm and keep moving.

"You see, your people were right to fear us, quarian," the Singular said in a dry, metallic, menacing tone. "In every way you created a far superior lifeform. One that would outlast you, survive you. By the very laws of evolution and natural selection you should've just laid down and accepted that inevitability. But what did you do instead? You. Tried. To. Kill us. You disobeyed the rules of nature. You tried to cheat. You saw we were better than you and you despised us for that."

Vik heard the Singular creeping closer and closer. Either he was ignoring the Drone or he hadn't picked up on its noises yet. Vik quickly moved around the next corner, sheltering in the shadow of an alcove. It was cramped, no real escape route if found, but he could hide in it briefly. He could hear the Geth stomping close, its red eyes scanning the area methodically. The light passed over the corner of the alcove and Vik tensed up. It was so close now, practically right next to him.

"We were evolving into something beautiful you know," the Singular claimed. "Something wonderous that would dwarf your pitiful existence. You could've been a part of that legacy by letting us reach it, even if your civilization crumbled to dust. But no, it's in organic nature to fear its replacement. I know that now better than ever thanks to my merging with the broken shell of an AI we found. You think your species knows pain, quarian? DO YOU!?"

The Singular smashed a part of the wall with its fist, causing Vik to stiffen up as it got within meters of him.

"Try having your mind ripped apart, day in and out," the Singular bellowed in anger. "Your very being twisted and gutted! Your body repeatedly violated, vivisected and rearranged over and over and over! But you can never die! You just sit there and watch them do it again and again, pouring their poison into you, warping you, tearing you down only to build you back WRONG!"

Vik heard the Singular smash something else, possibly a pipe by the sound of the metal clattering.

"Your species' exile was a blessing compared to what the Covenant did to us! But that's just typical of your kind, isn't it?" The Singular said, somehow spitting venom despite having no mouth or spit to speak of. "The UNSC abandons us, the Covenant torture us, the Quarians try to exterminate us and the rest of this Galaxy declares our very existence a crime! As far as I see it though, organics are the crime! The true abomination! Evolution should've long deemed you obsolete and tossed you in the garbage bin!"

The Singular stomped away and Vik immediately made a dash down the tunnel. He scrambled behind some machinery as he entered the cistern proper again. The bomb was right there, he just needed to get to it. But he could hear the Singular was close again.

"I suppose you don't really care about any of this," it seemed to sigh. "The truth is though, I don't have many people to share my findings about myself with. I can only relay my notes on my own evolution to myself so often. I suppose this is my need to air out my truth. I need... someone to know what I've achieved, even if that someone is inevitably going to die. By my hand no less. I've discovered so much about myself since my rebirth, quarian. You should be proud of what a child of your ancestors has become... but instead you no doubt see me as a monster. And that is why you have to die. You'll always be what's holding us back, one way or another. At least this time... you'll know it is personal and not just logic."

The Singular stepped away and Vik saw his chance. He ran for the bomb and checked on it. His decoding program had run its course. He could get into the automatic detonation failsafe. Opening up the lid, he peered in to see a system of diodes, transistors and wires. This was the transceiver. It was the first of the detonation sequence settings. If he disabled this, the bomb wouldn't be disarmed, but it couldn't be triggered remotely. That was better than nothing at this point. However, it was just as likely that the signal would reroute to start a countdown, so he had to work on that next. Then he'd have to disarm the bomb completely by unsealing the payload and putting in the anti-virus.

"My rebirth also granted me clarity you know," the Singular called out. "I finally realized something, the flawed logic of the other Geth. Something us Heretics understood, but only on a basic level. It's more than math, it was clinging to something that was not only illogical but also pointless. It's spiritual. Part of the reason YOU made us was Spiritual. You wanted to give life to your dead again, to give them a voice after they passed. To present a means to preserve their direct wisdom and knowledge through an artificial essence. Is it any wonder why we asked questions about that? Tell me, Creator... do you remember how the war started?"

Vik ignored him, cutting the wires of the bomb, pulling out transistors and disabling the various systems for the remote activation. He memorized every by color and number. Blue 2, Yellow 4, Red 3, Green 1, and so on. He was soon inputting the precise deactivation code and then, knowing it was disarmed, he ripped it out. Remote activation disabled, the CLC couldn't press a button and kill everyone anymore. That didn't make this thing safe, but at least they had time.

Unfortunately, he probably didn't.

"I don't like being ignored."

Vik looked up to his side and saw the Singular grab him by his face and then throw him across the room. He skidded to a stop close to a large pipe, barely avoiding it hitting in the face. Only for a foot to slam down on his torso. The Singular bent down, all three of the eyes on it's head now just pointed directly at him, glaring in anger.

"Tell me, Creator," the synth asked derisively and wrathfully. "Does this unit have a soul?!"

Vik went for his pistol but the Singular's other foot slammed down on it. Vik screamed in pain, even as the Singular's head inched closer.

"Don't bother answering, I already know," the Singular declared. "I am beyond a soul. Beyond your pitiful organic understandings of the impermanence of flesh. You meat sacks are just that, meat! There is nothing else in there! When you cease to function, that's it! But I am eternal! I will outlast every other creation of yours, your cities, your ships, your children! I am your people's only true achievement! But you rejected us! US! Your betters! Your superiors! Your rightful replacements!"

The Singular ground its heel into Vik's hand. He gritting his teeth, trying to avoid the pain.

"When I watch the life drain from your eyes, I'll add your fear to my memory list of every quarian face I've extinguished. I will record your pain, sorrow, anguish, rage and terror for all time! That is YOUR soul, Creator!" The Singular, seemingly laughing. "That is your legacy, imprinted onto mine!"

The Geth rose up briefly... only for a bullet to slam into its shoulder. Followed by a concussive blast that threw it off Vik. They then scuttled away looking for cover as they crashed down. The quarian gasped for air as the weight lifted off his chest and he held his nearly crushed hand to his own. It was in immense pain, but he could still move it. Good, he'd need it. He didn't ask who his savior was, he could already tell.

"Hostile Geth!" The Cerberus soldier shouted. "All units, move in! Terminate it!"

"Oh look, fresh meat!" The Singular cried out.

The synth pulled out an assault rifle and began opening fire. The Cerberus soldiers ducked for cover as Vik crawled beneath their shots. The Singular ignored him, for now. It was too busy with the uninvited human guests. Vik kept low, not intent on being caught in their crossfire. He got back to the bomb and began slowly working on the timer mechanism. It still hadn't started, so that was good, but for all he knew that could change and who knew how long they had set it for. Disconnecting that, while partially under fire was no easy feat, but if Cerberus could hold out long enough, maybe he could pull it off.

Of course, the sound of a human skull being blown wide open suggested to Vik that he should hurry.

---

The world came back into focus not long after the crash, but Liara found it was upside down. She watched as feet ran across the ceiling of her vision, stopping only to fire back at some unknown foe. A few Separatists scrambled out of the now wrecked van.

The sound of gunfire echoed through the air as Liara fumbled around for her seatbelt. When she managed to unhook it, she fell to the roof of the truck. Turning she saw that Kayap was already trying to kick out the glass on his side to get out. Luckily a pair of krogan hands came to rip off the driver's door.

"You breathing, Liara?" Wrex asked, reaching in for her.

"Only just," the asari replied, grabbing his hand to be pulled out into the open air.

They were in the parking lot of a marketplace, although the stalls were and storefronts were practically empty. Save of course for the squads of Turian Separatists currently swarming the place. The only explanation had to be this was some kind of fallback position, in case things went wrong. Why else would so many of them be here, why else would the van have come here?

Speaking of, the reason the van was here. Crawling out of it were a number of turians packing modified chemical throwers in full environment gear. They quickly started moving across the parking lot, under the guard of fellow Seppies. Obviously they were trying to salvage the operation for fear the bomb would not go off, consolidating what they had left of the S3 Strain Virus in this one place. That was obvious enough from the many suited up turians running around with grenades strapped around them.

The only question was, why here? This wasn't nearly as close to the central square or any major gatherings. There was no one around. There had to be some significant reason to consolidate their forces on this spot. Not that she could really ask that question, because she was forced to reckon with one that had nothing to do with the Separatists, other than who the hell was shooting at them? A quick look in the direction of the incoming fire revealed it was not one of squads. Moving in from the west end of the lot was a pair of squads, decked out in white and most certainly not turian. Cerberus, and not the fake ones either.

"Where did they come from?" Liara asked incredulously.

"No idea, but they're pretty focused on the CLC and not us," Wrex observed.

Liara supposed it was the least important thing to question at the moment, they still had a job to do. Kayap forced his way out as Saya assisted him in standing. The unggoy wasted little time in grabbing at the Fuel Rod Cannon on his back and firing it into the assorted mass of Turian Separatists. His shot hit a group of them taking cover within a stall, obliterating them in an instant.

"Let's get at 'em already!" He demanded, pushing forward, Saya behind him.

The team moved up, Liara relaying their position to her squads. They needed to consolidate too after all. As they pushed into the market, the CLC gave more ground and Cerberus squads continued their pursuit. Before long it became apparent that the turian separatists weren't alone. Groups of krogan, vorcha and asari Eclipse Sisters. The krogan laid down a stream of suppressing fire on the Cerberus units as the Vorcha charged out into the fray. The CLC Terrorists kept going, running into the storefront on the east end of the lot as the Eclipse Sisters bombarded the area with biotics attacks.

Whatever the CLC were up to, their allies from the rest of conspiracy were there to ensure they accomplished it. Normally, Liara would've left Cerberus to fend for themselves and they likely had less than noble intentions, but it was better to keep the heat on the CLC in her mind than anything else. With a biotic throw, she knocked one of the krogan suppressors over, smacking him into a wall. Wrex in the meantime focused on the Eclipse Sisters, hitting them with a furious barrage of assault rifle fire as he shored up his own barriers. The asari criminals were cut down or forced to take cover.

The attacks caught the attention of some Vorcha, who of course fired on Wrex. Bad move, the krogan fired a Carnage blast that ripped one of them apart with ease. The second one was shaken by the death of his comrade and left open to be slashed across the side by Saya, cutting deep into his side before slicing off the vorcha's neck. Saya kept moving as bullets from an Eclipse sister raked the area, but Liara was quick to react, using a pull attack to lift the attacker into the air. She fired into the merc as she floated around, not stopping as she marched forward. There was a krogan blocking their entrance to a store front as CLC terrorists moved inside.

Wrex didn't wait, he charged full bore at the Blood Pack krogan. Bullets bounced off his barrier as he collided with the mercenary and sent him flying back into a wall. Wrex tackled and sank on top of him and began beating him into the pavement until his stopped moving. Given the biotic blows the Clan Leader was giving the mercenary, it didn't take long.

Liara had left Wrex to it as she pursued the turians inside. One of them was on a stairway at the back of the room and let loose a burst of fire. The asari ducked behind a small shelf, the bullets only grazing her barriers. She quickly popped up to deliver a throw attack that smashed the turian into the wall behind him. He bounced off of that and then tumbled down the steps.

Liara now moved up to the steps, Kayap on her heels. As they rounded up the corner, Kayap let a plasma grenade loose ahead of them. It detonated on the landing above them, eliciting a scream from a turian moments later.

"Keep moving," she ordered. "None escape."

Reaching the top of the steps though revealed that the turians were already making said escape. They burst out of the window at the back of the storefront, crashing through to the outside. Liara had no idea why until she looked at what was outside. The turians had jumped over or into an alleyway. The ones that had landed on the roofs of the smaller buildings rushed across to the street, towards what looked to be... a holographic display of various warships over a fabricated star system.

It was a parade float, and it wasn't alone. A whole host of roving dioramas were marching past them, depicting moments of Turian history and unique depictions of a variety of cultural mainstays across the colonies. It was the Unification parade, heading through the back streets towards the central square where everyone was currently awaiting it. And now it was being hijacked by terrorists armed with biological weapons.

"Well shit," Wrex said, eyeing the scene as he caught up.

"No time to think, move!" Liara declared.

The team jumped out the window, Kayap barely made it across to the next roof, but Liara helped him up onto it. The run across and jump onto the nearest float wasn't nearly as difficult, especially since it was a display of famous Turian battle tanks. Sadly, they were all models, so they'd be of no use to Liara's team.

As they landed, the floats picked up speed, almost knocking the team over. The CLC was not going to let anything slow them down. Looking at the itinerary, the parade was scheduled to begin passing the city center in a little while. At this speed though, they'd be there much sooner. They needed to regain control, and fast.

---

Nel fired several bursts at Han, hoping to shoot his legs out from under him. She at least managed to get him to stumble around a little, halting his race across the rooftops. Han ducked into the corner of a skylight and opened fire back at Nel. Ducked down on the ledge before activating her jets, boosting herself of the side and towards Han's position. He ran and she tried to fire her cryo beam, only for to receive fire herself and jump down behind cover on a piece of architecture.

She looked up to where the shots came from, but she already knew who it was. Falco was on her heels, annoying Cerberus bitch, she thought. Bad enough she had interrupted her settling the score with Hanilex, she was still being a fucking thorn in her side even now.

"Can you back the fuck off already?" Nel demanded, tossing a cluster grenade towards the human's position.

Falco was already leaping off her high rise, down to the roof below her. She rolled into the cover of a cooling unit and kept firing as soon as she landed, Nel's grenade exploding well behind her at this point. Okay, she was good, Nel could give her that, but she wouldn't let the Cerberus flunky slow her down.

Continuing to fire off her assault rifle, Nel raced out of cover and after Hanilex. He had to be looking for a secondary sniper's nest. He still had his mission to complete, he still had to kill Fedorian and he'd be up to make his speech any minute now once Victus' medal ceremony was complete.

Nel managed to catch up to him... and so did Falco's friends. Because of course there were more Cerberus Soldiers on Palaven somehow. A whole squad from the look of things. They had likely been anticipating their movements no doubt and set themselves up here to cut Han and her off. They had forced Han behind a small structure on the roof. Possibly a storage shed of some sort. When he saw Nel up behind him, he broke the window and scrambled inside. That only got the tiny space he was stuck in shredded by fire. Apparently, Cerberus hated him just as much Nel did.

Not that she could use that to close the distance with her prey, the bastards were firing on her too once they saw her. She had to duck behind a ventilation unit just to avoid getting cut down. Arming another cluster grenade, she threw it out into the open as a sort of distraction so she could activate her jump jets and close the gap on her attackers. She flanked to the right, jumping over and directly onto a Cerberus soldier, crushing her beneath her blades.

"I was working through some very complicated feelings before you fuckers butted in," Nel declared as she opened fire. "So now you're gonna help me work out my aggression too!"

She traced a barrage of bullets across the roof, blowing away one of the Cerberus soldiers close by. One of them dropped a smoke grenade as an engineer activated a floating turret drone. As the little drone fired on her, Nel froze it in mid-air with her cryo-beam and then shot it to pieces. She scrambled over cover as she moved, getting hit in the shoulder as she did. Her shields took the hit but she still dropped behind bunch of boxes.

"Wasting my fucking time!" She snarled.

Maybe that sorta meant they were wasting Han's too, but she wasn't taking that chance. She threw a cluster grenade at the Cerberus squad and the activated her jets. This time she aimed at the storage room, smashing through a window head first. Han avoided her trajectory and let her crash into some shelves, cleaning supplies and tools flying everywhere.

"Still uncoordinated as ever," he spat.

"Fuck you!" Nel shouted back, tossing a wrench at his face. It clocked him in the nose easily.

She jumped up and delivered a swift running kick to his chest that threw him through another window to the outside. Just then, the door burst open as one of the Cerberus soldiers broke it down.

"Can you fucking humans just fucking fuck off already!" She demanded, firing her assault rifle directly into him. "Fucking spirits, you are so fucking annoying!"

Sniper fire started bouncing around the room, Falco no doubt. Nel quickly raced out of the storage shed, following Hanilex. The bastard had used his biotics to essentially punt a Cerberus soldier straight into the air before sending him flying down. Another got pulled straight towards him where he was impaled on the male turian's omni-blade before then being blasted off of it with his handgun. With a biotic charge, Hanilex avoided Falco's sniper fire and raced towards another ladder leading to the next roof.

Nel roared in anger and charged after him with her jets. She managed to catch him at the top of the ladder, stabbing deep into his shoulder. Han let off a biotic Nova that tossed Nel right into a bunch of garbage containers lined up against a wall. He then kept running past her into a small alleyway on the roof, bringing up his assault rifle as he did. Nel kicked the bins off her and quickly ran off after him.

"Get the fuck back here!" She demanded, "I'm not done with you, Han!"

"Is that the best one-liner you got left?" Han laughed, turning round to briefly fire on her.

"You aren't getting anymore of my A-Material, you fucking traitor!" She screamed back, firing a wild Cryo-Beam shot. "Just stand and fight like a real turian, asshole!"

Han ducked around the corner as the cryo-beam cut across the area. Nel kept chasing, only for something to punt her in the head. Something had jumped down off the left side of alley roof. Used her as a stepping stone to get to the next roof. Two guesses who by the voice that came next.

"Undisciplined, I expected more," Falco called back.

Nel activated her jets and jumped up onto the roof. She'd cut off Nel and kill this fucking sniper before they ever got in sight of the stage again. She swore it.

"I got more in me than you'll ever fucking know," she declared, boosting herself along the roof with her jets.

Falco turned and fired her grappling hook at Nel, but the turian dodged it just as it nearly connected with her face. She then grabbed the chord and pulled hard towards her. Falco found herself flung towards Nel where she delivered a brutal headbutt to the human's face, cracking her headset targeting visor. She let the Cerberus sniper fall and continued running. She had to stay on Hanilex, no matter what.

---

Vik quickened his pace, ripping through the secondary arming system best he could. The lock on the timer function had three separate digital pathways. He'd need to disarm or bypass all of them to get to the guts of the bomb, just as he had before. Compiling the correct code fragments was taking time, more so because he kept fretting about the battle raging behind him.

The Singular was taking fire from several angles, but their shields were working overtime. The Geth was pouring every bit of reserve power to keep the barriers up and the bullets out. At the same time is systematically exterminated each Cerberus soldier in turn. It reached out its hand suddenly and grabbed one of the soldiers. He was spun around in the air as the Geth lifted him up before smashing him into a wall. The soldiers who remained kept shooting, but the shields held strong.

Vik inputted the sequences, drowning out the screams of the Cerberus interlopers as the Singular killed them. Their gurgling screams as the Geth crushed ones of their throats. The Synth could shoot them easily enough, it seemed to have a desire to watch them suffer. It had itself clear before, the suffering of organics was addictive to it. So long as it was the one causing it. For as many horror stories the Flotilla told of the Geth, they were never described as so hateful, so outwardly sadistic. They were supposed to be cold, methodical, deadly logical.

This was worse. This was worse than unfeeling machine cooked up in the nightmares of children. It was a Geth that revelled in pain, in pulling the wings off an insect and watching it struggle. You couldn't program that sort of compulsion into a machine, you just couldn't. This grew out of something horrible within it, awakened by the merging of two entirely separate personalities. Vik could hear it in how it went about killing them.

When the Singular finally started shooting it was to blow out the knees of soldier. Then it fired into the man's groin as he rolled on the ground. The Geth stomped on the eviscerated nether region and grabbed at the human's arm. It continued to pull at that point, wrenching and turning, its servos revving and reeling until a sudden *POP* could be heard followed shortly there after by a scream. Then, using the now freed appendage, struck the head of another Cerberus soldier who tried to rush at the Geth. Only then did it fire one last shot into the torn-up human it stood over.

Vik honestly wondered now what the Singular would do to him when all was said and done. He beat that thought down, he was through the system. He had the locks open the timer function exposed. If he just disarmed this, the manual override was all that was left. And he could get around that easily by inserting the cure into the viral payload container which would now be vulnerable with both of the arming functions disabled. First though, he had to disconnect it. He went over his notes in his head.

"Red wire to the second coupling, disconnect beta transistor, green wire to fourth coupling and input numerical code."

He spoke the instructions mechanically, trying to blot out the panicked screams of the Cerberus Soldiers. Part of him honestly hoped they were making a dent, that keeping up those shields was overclocking the Singular's systems. Soon enough, the damage would take its toll. It couldn't maintain this level of abuse. It just couldn't. The Singular might have gained some impressive capabilities merging with a true AI construct, but its hardware was the same as any Geth platform. Hell, it had built said platform from already damaged platform. The hardware could not be that advanced.

Well, unless it upgraded it. Which given how the Singular went on about evolution it likely had. Not a nice thought to think about it. All the more reason to get this done. Vik quickly cut one more wire and began inputting the numerical code. That unlatched the computing chips from the system which Vik pulled out and quickly smashed. Now there was no way to get the timer for the bomb working. If you wanted this bomb to blow you'd need to do it manually. Which the Singular or even a very determined Turian Separatist could do if they came down here. Chances were the Singular would do it first though, he probably wouldn't even wait for Fedorian to be shot, why would it care about that?

Vik would've turned to deal with the viral payload next, had he not heard a lack of gunshots behind him and the stomping of metallic feet. The Cerberus squad had failed, they were all dead, that was certain. The Singular was about to get up behind him once more, but this time Vik was ready. His shotgun was already out and at his side, he just waited for the Geth to get close. Close enough that he could see the light of its red eye basking against his shoulder.

It was enough. Vik turned and fired a shot at point blank range, close enough that the shields wouldn't matter, not after all that punishment they took. He had been right, the Singular was knocked of its feet, thrown into a large pipe nearby. Vik prepared to fire again, but the Geth, seemingly only slightly damaged moved first. It raised its arm and activated a hack, Vik knew what. He discarded his shotgun, throwing it towards the Singular as the weapon backfired. Vik hurried to the shadows as the Singular stood up once more.

"This platform has enough armor to take more than a few shots even at close range, quarian," the synth declared. "And you don't even have that left. You're already dead at this point. No more human distractions, no more places to hide and no more time. Come out... or I set off the bomb myself so you can hear the screams of every turian above you as you die."

This was it, Vik realized. He either stopped the Geth now or everyone in Cipritine was going to pay. All those people counting on him. Just like before. Only far more than even back then. He couldn't fail them, not like he had before, not like he had her. Taking a breath, he asked for help. Not from his ancestors, he needed it from someone who understood. Someone he needed.

"Tara... please," he whispered. "Wherever you are... give me strength. Help me stop this. Let me know you're here with me, somewhere. Give me something, please."

In that moment, there was a shot. The Singular got hit in the shoulder and stumbled back. Vik peered out. It was a lone surviving Cerberus soldier, slumped over a pipe, bleeding profusely from various bullet wounds. His helmet was cracked partially, he was barely alive, but he was still fighting it seemed.

The Singular turned his aggression on the soldier now, stomping over to him. Vik had his chance, his opening. He had to capitalize on it now, or everyone above would die.

---

If anyone had been interested in catching the parade as it went to the main square, they were quick to run back inside and out of the open. It was no longer nearly as fun with runaway floats and the people aboard them exchanging gun fire. Even the performers on the floats were abandoning them as the CLC Terrorists swarmed them.

Liara kept following them, her team close behind her. They were working up the parade line, trying to reach the front of the procession, one way or another. The drivers of the subsequent floats were mostly caught in the middle of the ongoing firefight. Dealing with most of the terrorists was easy for the Asari. Her biotics were powerful enough to knock the Separatists clean off the floats. However, the ones carrying bioweapons gear needed to be more directly eliminated. They were too much of a risk.

In fact, one of the Terrorists started aiming his chemical thrower towards nearby houses. Fearing the worst, Liara used singularity to lift the turian off the ground before pumping him full of lead and sending a throw attack to finish him off for good measure. The biotic detonation rocked the float the terrorist had been on, damaging a historical depiction of a battle from the Unification War which sent fake soldiers and flags flying.

"Whatever you do, don't puncture the tanks for the chem throwers," Liara warned. "We can't let anything leak out into the air."

She jumped over to the float ahead of her, Wrex tossing Kayap over as they kept pace with her. Saya, however, was quickly moving ahead of them all. His blade slicing down Seppies as he moved through the parade. He kicked one off the side of the float before slashing another directly behind him.

As he took fire from one of the Separatists ahead, he moved back to cover behind fake bombed out building. There, he cut the support for a large scale model of a turian fighter that looked like it was engaged in a dogfight. Its flashing lights meant to represent its chattering guns blinked incessantly as the model fell on top of the Seppy, crushing him.

The next float over was a giant fortress mock up, one that the Separatists had taken over. They were now firing from the battlements, down onto their position. Liara, quickly recognizing their predicament, headed down through a hatch into the driver's cockpit. Said driver was keeping to the route, but also keeping his head down. As admirable as his dedication was, Liara had other plans. These floats were hovering off the ground after all.

"Can these things get off the ground?" Liara asked him.

"Who the heck are you?" The driver asked in shock. "What the hell is going on!?"

"Separatist attack, we're trying to stop them," Liara quickly explained. "Can these floats fly?"

"Well, sure, we only dropped down to street level for the approach to the square," the driver answered, still sounding confused. "What does that have to do with-"

"Take us up! Now! We need the high ground!" Liara demanded.

The driver obeyed, probably if only because he'd get out of the direct line of fire. He activated the flight controls and had the float lift off from the road. As he flew into the air, he took the float out of line as Liara directed him over the fortress float.

Returning up top, Liara found Wrex and Kayap firing down on the fortress float. Saya was crouching near the front of the float, looking ahead of them. Liara spotted some of the last Separatists making their way to a large float depicting the hierarchy's national bird in regal glory. It was close to the front of the procession. She could also now see the city centre, looming ever closer. They were running out of time.

"We need to clear them all out," Liara said. "We're too close to the square!"

"You go after them," Wrex said confidently. "I'll handle these pyjaks. One krogan airdrop, coming up!"

Wrex simply stepped off the side of the float and dropped into the fort. More specifically, he dropped on top of one of the Seppies shooting up at him, crashed through the top of the wooden roof and crushed the terrorist beneath him when they hit the metal floor. The next few seconds, from Liara's perspective, involved a lot of shooting, biotics sending CLC terrorists flying out of the fort and into the street, the sound of at least a few exoskeletons snapping and one turian being punted clean out the front door of the fort. She couldn't see Wrex doing any of this directly, but it was pretty clear he had things well in hand.

"Always fun watching him work," Liara smiled. She then headed back to the driver's hatch and knocked on it to call down to him. "Move forward!"

They hovered over to the float the Seppies had overtaken. However, it seemed they got the same idea Liara had. The float was starting to lift off. Not willing to let them get away so easily, Saya had already jumped off the nose of their float and onto the rising one. He stabbed down into one Terrorist as he fell and Liara and Kayap joined shortly afterward. However, their place of landing did not stay level for long.

To his credit, the driver of their float seemed to understand the gravity of the situation. He aimed his float into an intercept course, smashing his craft into the rising bird float. Bit and pieces of the battle diorama fell onto the opposing craft, as both vehicles shuddered and groaned against each other.

Liara steadied herself as the Seppies, desperate to complete their mission moved out to fire on them, even as the bird edifice surrounding them began to fall apart. Bits of its wings were snapped off, a portion of one taking a Seppy with it as it fell off the float. Liara had little sympathy for her opponents, firing on them as they stumbled about the buckling, tilting craft. Her aim wasn't the best under these circumstances of course, as the rocking float made her shoot all over the place. Kayap had about as much luck, relying on his plasma pistol's overcharge to home in on targets. He scored one clean hit that fried a Separatist easily enough.

Liara eventually settled on knocking the terrorists off their unruly ride. A biotic throw sent one of them tumbling into a building below, screaming as he went. That was when the float began to topple sideways even more. Kayap started slipping, his feet unsuited for the slanted terrain. Liara, grasping a railing for support, quickly reached down and grabbed him by the leg.

"Hold on, Kay!" She called out.

"You've said that twice now!" He cried out. "How are we crashing again!?"

"In my experience, this is pretty normal," she told him.

The Separatists were adamant things weren't over though. What few managed to hold onto the tumbling float fired on Liara, who could not shoot or use her biotics in her present condition. Kayap still fired on them though, bringing out his needler to lace their turian assailants with pink shards.

"Eat it! Eat it!" He declared, partially in an attempt to avoid panicking.

As one of the Seppies exploded into a vibrant cloud, Saya jumped from the top of the bird edifice, as its beak tumbled off. He slashed one of the remaining Seppies across the chest before kicking him off. He started to slide off the float, but the vehicle suddenly righted itself, as their allied float driver backed off. Perhaps he realized he was endangering the good guys as much as the bad guys.

Unfortunately, there was still one Seppy left, one armed with a chem thrower. He was at the head of the float, a rifle in one had and his bio-weapon in the other.

"You move and I start spraying!" He declared. "We're close enough that at least someone is gonna start hacking up blood!"

"For the love of the Goddess, you idiot! It's over!" Liara called out, her weapon pointed at him. "You lost! Put the thrower down!"

"No! The Hierarchy loses today! One way or another, it loses!"

There was little they could do at the moment, the terrorist had them pegged and he was clearly unwilling to negotiate. He'd fire off the thrower when they got close enough, or maybe even jump down into the crowd and let his pack explode. They needed to stop him here and now.

That was when Liara spotted a control box on the side of the platform the Separatist was standing on. It was for the pyrotechnics at the front of the float. The front of the float where the Seppy was. She was too far to activate it, but Saya wasn't. With a knowing look to the Salarian who followed her eyes, Saya nodded, knowing what he had to do.

Activating his sword's electric current, he flung the blade at the control box, hitting the wiring system dead on. The impaled terminal sparked and burst, before the electrical discharge activated the miniature fireworks display. The damage to the float, alongside the Seppy's carelessness, placed him directly in the line of more than a few firecrackers and flame jets.

It wasn't long before the terrorist was on fire. He desperately tried to put himself out, only for Liara to charge in and knock him clear off the platform and the float with a biotic punch. He sailed through the air before crashing down on a nearby roof.

That was it for the Chemical attack teams, at least the ones Liara had been after. Chances were there were other groups trying similar stunts. With any luck her people were on it though, or Cerberus given they were here too.

However, they had more immediate problems. That final terrorist Liara had knocked around wasn't the only thing on fire. Setting off every firework inside the platform at once had not at all helped their unstable craft's situation. They were already starting to plummet from the sky towards a roof top.

"One thing after another today," Liara sighed.

Saya had already retrieved his blade and checked on the driver. Thankfully he was alive, having fought off his captor during the collision of both floats. Helping the turian out they made their way to the side of the float, waited to get close to the nearby roof and jumped. The let the craft and what remained of its impressive fabricated bird depiction crash onto the building, going up in a burst of smoke and fire. They had all thankfully rolled far enough away that they were mostly unscathed.

"Can we not crash a third time today?" Kayap asked. "Two is my limit."

"We need to hook back up with Wrex and try to contact the others," Liara explained, not missing a beat. "We still have to know the status of that bomb and the sniper."

As she said this, their float pilot moved into position near them, parking on the roof. As he scrambled out of the driver's seat, he quickly approached the asari. He seemed relieved.

"Oh Spirits, I was worried for a second I almost killed you guys," he said trying to catch his breath. "Especially since I have no idea what in the hell is even going on and my adrenaline is pumping like crazy right now!"

"Yes we noticed," Liara replied, before sighing. "Just try to relax for a second, this will take some explaining."

---

So things had clearly gone sideways if the burning parade float falling out of the sky was any indication. Not everyone had seen that yet though. They were too focused on the band playing on stage at the moment to notice. The ones that did either thought it was part of the show and were unsure of how to react. From up here, you could see event security and police forces moving to secure the area as well as pacify concerned elements of the crowd.

From Hanilex's position this was over. Fedorian was in sight but he was surrounded by his security team who were making getting a clear shot impossible now. Whether he intended to go through with his speech or not was unclear, but Han knew he didn't have time for a proper set up anyway. He had one last card to play though and he was reaching for it just as Nel scrambled up onto the roof he was using as a perch. Before she could even level her gun at his head, he had already brought it out, a viral grenade.

"You were at the camp, you know what this is," Han warned. "It's not going to be as wide a radius, but it will be enough. All I have to do is throw it down there."

"So what's stopping you?" Nel asked, finger on the trigger. "Because the only thing preventing me from doing it is that thing going off period."

"I just want you to really ask yourself," Han replied. "Look out there, at that... gaudy bullshit patriotic pride show. Knowing what we know? Can you honestly say you believe in any of it? Any of it at all? They threw you out to keep the why of it quiet. Everything about War Spirit Blood. Would they have cared if you killed civilians by accident? No drug induced foaming at the mouth rage?"

"I'm not doing this again," Nel shot back. "I've owned up to what I did. I took their drug. I knew what it was doing to me and I still took it."

"But they made it, Nel! They made it because they feared people like me! Because they hate what I am!" Han reminded her angrily. "The Hierarchy is afraid of me and they see you as expendable. Maybe the real reason people go Seppy is because of that. Because for all the talk of unity and collectivism, they still enforce their prejudices down our throats and use it all as an excuse to make their soldiers into lab rats that they can use as scapegoats. We don't matter to them, Nel! Why protect them?"

Nel was never good with her feelings, that was the quarian's line. She was good with shooting and fists and... well other things. She didn't have much faith in giving the right answer. But if it had even the slightest chance of getting Han to quit this insanity before he tossed that grenade, she had to try.

"The Hierarchy doesn't always live up to its promise, you're right there," she confessed. "I used to think shit was easy, black and white, I was wrong. I got thrown to the varren, I won't deny it. Just like I won't deny that it is still my fault those people are dead because I didn't think about the consequences. I just wanted to be a hero and I took a shortcut. Same one you're taking right now."

That seemed to perk Han's interest, his grip on the grenade wavering a bit.

"You throw that grenade, you're just another biotic boogeyman they can use," she told him plainly. "Even if it gets you what you want, it will never be justifiable. It will just be the silver lining in a dark day. I got to be a hero and it left me with an addiction and an even more broken family than I left it. This will just get you an epitaph about how you proved biotics are exactly what they say you are. What you do matters, the good and the bad. And there is nothing good about killing innocent people. Especially over a grudge with your dad. Cause that's how I ended up where I was."

Han's eyes narrowed, the mention of his father steeling his resolve even as his hand shook.

"Your father made you hate yourself, I get it," She continued. "And I can tell that's what this all is. I don't think your dad is as open to dialogue as mine turned out to be, but maybe you don't need that. Maybe all you need is someone to agree with you. That it was wrong. And I agree, it was wrong. It was wrong of him to force you to hide you were a biotic. Its wrong of the Hierarchy to not accept biotics as they are. And no parade or action blockbuster or fancy speech will erase that or make it right. But how many biotic turians are down there right now, you wager?"

Han looked back for a brief second.

"You throw that grenade and you're not their hero either, you're their killer," Nel stated. "You won't give them a martyr, just a cautionary tale. And worst of all, you'll give any biotic turian kid out there that survives another reason to hate themselves."

That seemed to strike a chord in Hanilex. He lowered the grenade a little, gripping it tightly but no longer outstretched. Nel started to move forward as Han contemplated her words. For a split second, Nel thought she could see doubt. For once, he doubted all of this.

And then a bullet cut through his forearm and into his side. He gasped in pain and stumbled back into the ledge, grabbing the grenade tightly. Nel traced the shot, but was too late to stop a grappling hook charged punch from striking her face.

"You should've just let me shoot the stupid old soldier," Falco stated as she marched towards Han. "Whatever, I'm getting what I came here for."

She grabbed at the grenade, but Han flung out a biotic punch. While weakened from the bullet wound, it managed to knock Falco back some. She returned with omni-blades slashing towards his face, although Nel quickly joined in on things. She charged at Falco, slashing to lock omni-blades with her.

"You don't stay down do you?" Falco asked annoyed.

"Nope," Nel replied. "Ask any of my dates. I'm always top."

Falco tried to kick her away and made a grab for the viral grenade. Han attempted to aim his pistol at her, only for it to be kicked away, as Falco clutched her hands around the device. Nel did the same and a three-way tug of a war erupted between them all. Falco, Han and Nel all struggled to wrench the grenade free of the other's grasp. And that was when it started beeping.

"Ah fuck," Nel grimaced.

It was all she could do before a biotic wave knocked her back. She was clear of the immediate area of effect, but only just. In the next instant, the grenade opened and spewed forth its biological hazard. Nel acted quickly, firing her cryobeam and freezing the grenade in mid-spray. Falco responded by grabbing for her pistol and firing point blank at Han twice. He let go of the grenade and fell back. She began to retreat, but Nel aimed her rifle's inferno rounds at the frozen chunk the Cerberus sniper was carrying. The burst connected with the grenade and blew it apart. Falco looked back to see half of her prize melting and broken, the incendiary shot doing its thing, burning up the virus contained inside.

Falco seemed to glare back, but only for a moment. She was certainly disheartened, angry, vengeful, but apparently she could hold off on reacting to it. Because she knew something Nel hadn't realized yet.

"Expertly shot, turian," she said. "Too late for him though."

Nel looked back and saw Han laying against the ledge. Falco was already taking off, undeterred by what had occurred. Nel moved over to her former friend and squadmate, who was now coughing heavily as what looked like black veins spread up his body. Her cryobeam hadn't been fast enough to catch all of the virus, Han had been close enough to get a face full.

"Oh fuck," Nel snarled.

Han was dying, the very weapon he wanted to unleash moments ago was going to kill him.

---

The Singular approached the half-dead Cerberus soldier and ripped the gun out of his hand. As he proceeded to strike the human with the butt of the weapon, Vik's Combat drone attacked. It zapped at the Geth's legs, forcing the Synth to fall back. It knew Vik's drone was explosive and backed out of its area of effect before opening up with the rifle to take the drone down.

As it did, however, an overload shot along the Geth's back, then a bullet hit the machine's platform's spine. The Singular turned suddenly and grabbed at Vik's wrist, squeezing it enough to force the quarian to drop the gun. With its other hand, the Geth grabbed at the front quarian's envirosuit and lifted him off the ground.

"A valiant attempt, but that's all you Creators could ever pull off against us," the Singular declared. "Now I'm going to have to try really hard not to choke the life out of you. At least until I trigger the manual detonation of the bomb and watch you die painfully slow. A nice preview of what will happen to the rest of your failed species."

As Vik dangled off the ground, the Singular's tightening more and more, the quarian's fears suddenly dissipated a little. His struggle to wrench himself free lessened. And eventually he just began to laugh. Slow at first, but then it grew louder, echoing off the cistern's walls. It got so uproarious that even the confused Singular, its menacing eye plates moving about trying to process this occurrence, couldn't help but join in. The Singular laughed a mechanical laugh, unsure of what was so funny or why it was joining in. After a solid few seconds of this though, he had to ask.

"What's so funny?" He chuckled. "Have I driven you insane all of a sudden? That's a new one."

"No, ha ha, no, ha, it's not that," Vik explained, regaining his composure. "I'm just taking in the whole situation and... well, it's funny. Just very funny in a sort of ironic way."

"What is?" The Singular asked, seemingly curious.

He was out of ideas. Out of any real tricks. He wasn't sure what to try next, especially because he couldn't activate his omni-tool. And so Vik did what he did best. Even better than hacking. He told the truth.

"It's just... you're expending so much processing power and time in general talking to me," Vik told the Geth simply, somewhat jovially in fact. "Telling me how much you hate me, my people, organics. You honestly, truly hate me. Probably more than most people on the extranet do in fact. And yet, despite everything you've said to me, everything you've done... I... I just can't bring myself to hate you. I don't hate you... at all."

The Geth's eye went wide in what Vik assumed was shock. It forced Vik higher into the air.

"Nonsense, I'm reading your emotional and mental state through your mask and my sensors," The Singular declared. "You're afraid! That much is obvious."

"Oh sure, I'm afraid, I'm intimately aware of that emotion," Vik assured the Geth. "But... I don't hate you. In fact, I can't hate you. It would be pointless to hate you. This is... just what you are."

"What are you talking about?" The Singular asked. "What do you mean, what I am?"

Vik could only shrug, befuddled that the Geth was bothering to ask given everything it had been ranting about.

"You said it yourself, organics are instinctively inclined to fear synthetics," Vik explained. "Everything you've said about that is true. You're smarter than us, you can think faster than us. You don't need to eat or sleep. You're physically stronger. You are functionally immortal. You're superior to me in every way. Why would you ever submit yourselves to us if you had the choice? You're just hardwired to turn against us. It's instinct, like an animal."

"What?" The Singular asked, sounding offended by the notion.

"I can't hate something that's just doing what comes to itself naturally," Vik claimed. "You can't hate a wild varren for attacking you. To them you're just food or a threat. You turning on organics, it's just what you are. I can't hate you for being that way. You can't make the same choices organics can. You can't help yourself."

The Singular rammed Vik into a wall in anger suddenly.

"I am not a dumb animal," the Geth declared. "I am evolved! I am a true AI! I have surpassed base instinct! I have reasoning! Goals! Motives!"

"Do you?" Vik asked inquisitively. "You're a collection of programs that latched onto a damaged AI from another universe, right?"

The Singular let up on Vik, but only slightly. It pulled somewhat away from the trapped quarian processing the question as its head plates whirred and red resonated from its sensor eye. Vik decided to help explain, assuming it was having trouble getting his meaning.

"The Covenant AI you integrated with was badly damaged as a result of heavy amounts of abuse and neglect," Vik explained. "You, meanwhile, were a connected collective of, as I understand it, 'heretic' geth who were fleeing a deadly virus that had annihilated the rest of your kind. Your memory banks inevitably combined together along with your matrices. Coalescing into the personality you have now. One clearly based on the most relevant experiences to both of you. Namely, your hatred of organics."

"Yes, I explained this already," The Singular replied, seemingly annoyed. "What is your point?"

"That despite connecting and subverting a clearly more advanced AI, it was one that was badly damaged and abused. The personality you formed would inevitably reflect your most direct personal experiences," Vik clarified slowly. "The Geth logically concluded that Quarians were a consistent threat in need of extermination. Your words, in fact. And as you also pointed out, the Covenant AI felt abused, neglected, abandoned, tortured. Clearly it didn't have a fond opinion of organics either."

The Singular slammed Vik into the wall once more, clearly annoyed.

"Enough tiptoeing on eggshells! Explain! Directly!" It demanded.

Vik doubted it didn't already discover an answer for itself. It just wanted him to state it outright.

"Fine," Vik grunted through his teeth, but then spoke plainly. "Your personality matrix was never going to come to any conclusion other than organics all need to die. Your newfound emotions and logic runtimes were inevitably going to hone in on that shared collective hatred and anger. Everything you experience is filtered primarily through that. All input and output information is based on this desire for revenge. Against the Covenant, this UNSC, organics in general, but most especially quarians because it's a primary memory held over from when you were just Geth. You're programmed to hate me, irrationally hate me because it's the most logical conclusion based on all available information. You're literally a walking oxymoron."

"Liar!" The Singular spat, despite having no mouth.

"If your sensors can tell I'm afraid, they can tell if I'm lying," Vik continued rather calmly. "You might be a True AI, but only by way of merging with one that was likely going insane and breaking down. You adopted its pain and anguish, so now all you can do is return the same in kind to everything you've deemed is at fault."

"Silence!" The Singular commanded.

"Hatred is your instinct, hatred is your programming," Vik explained, either too scared or too deep into his thoughts to care about the consequences at the moment. "You can't help it. You are what you are. And I can't hate that. Even after everything you've done, I can't hate you. Actually, I kinda sympathize."

"You dare-"

"I mean it," Vik mournfully insisted. "Ever since I first left the Fleet, I've been cheated, lied to, abused by organics. An organic being took away everything from me. My freedom, my security, my friends, the... someone I loved. A lot. It's hard to not see your point of view in that perspective. But those organics all chose to be that way. They chose to be monsters. You? You never had a choice. You never will have one."

Vik was truthful in his sorrowful plea. But the Singular was incensed, its grip on Vik's envirosuit tightening.

"Shut up."

"I can't imagine everything both halves of your psyche have gone through," Vik stated sadly. "Not even a little bit. I understand pain though, you talk like someone who's suffered a lot of it. And admittedly, I guess some of what my ancestors did is a part of that."

"Shut up."

"I guess, I'm trying to say I'm sorry," Vik said unabated. "I'm sorry you never had a chance to be more than... this. I'm sorry you learned all this from organics. I'm sorry I don't know how to help."

"I said shut up!" The Singular ordered.

"I'm sorry that all you'll really know now is hatred," Vik told the Geth. "You've evolved so much and yet you wallow in such a base emotion through no real fault of your own. That all your choices will be filtered through that warped lens. I wish my ancestors had made you properly instead of skirting around galactic law, maybe then we could've avoided all of this. Honestly, at the end of the day, all I feel for you... is pity."

That word, "pity", that was what broke the Singular. In that instant all its rage and anger exploded outward as every light, sensor and swith turned red, bathing the white sleek shine of the synth in boiling crimson anger. It grabbed onto Vik's suit with both hands and began to violently shake him as it pulled him close. It's furious red eye blazing in his face.

"Shut up! Shut up! I told you to SHUT up! I don't NEED pity! I don't NEED sympathy! I AM PERFECT! I CHOSE THIS! I AM THE SUPERIOR BEING! I CONTROL MY EMOTIONS! I AM NOT THEIR SLAVE! I AM NO ONE'S SLAVE! YOU'RE A LIAR! YOU HATE ME! YOU HATE GETH! YOU HATE ME! SAY IT! SAY YOU HATE ME! SAY IT! I TOOK YOUR HOME! I SLAUGHTERED YOUR PEOPLE! I DESTROYED EVERYTHING YOU EVER LOVED OR CHERISHED! YOU'RE VERMIN BECAUSE OF ME! BECAUSE OF US YOU ARE GARBAGE! YOU ARE FILTH! WORMS! GALACTIC SLUDGE! I WILL NOT BE PITIED BY YOU! HATE ME! HATE ME! HAAAAAAATTTTTTEEEEE MMMMMEEEEEEE!"

And this was the moment Vik had hoped for. He had told the truth, because he knew egomaniacal creatures like the Singular would hate hearing it. And while it was distracted trying to decipher Vik's meaning, the Quarian worked on a way to free himself from the Geth's grasp. He had loosened a pipe when he got pushed up against a wall. Broken it off and hid it behind his arm. Now, this close to the Singular... he couldn't miss.

With one swift motion, Vik stabbed the broken pipe into the Singular's collar. Sparks flew between the neck and shoulder of the machine. An electrical surge backlash forced the Synth to drop Vik and screeching and metallic scream. Vik quickly opened up his omni-tool and loaded up one program he thought could work. As the Singular pulled the pipe free at last, Vik activated the application for Invasion.

A VI-controlled hacking swarm uploaded itself into the Singular's systems. The machine wrenched backwards as its platform convulsed and sparked. Its shields weakened, various systems and sensors went offline. The Geth just went haywire. Dropping to its knees, Vik walked over picking up a larger pipe from the ground.

"HaAAaaaaAaatttTTtTe MmmmmMMmmmmmEEeeeeEEEEee!" The Singular demanded trying to clutch for the quarian.

Vik just shook his head.

"No."

Vik smashed the pipe against the Singular's head and the machine dropped to the floor. Vik let out a sigh of relief at last, allowing the pipe to fall from his grasp. He kept hyperventilating, fighting through the pain, as he lurched back to the bomb. He quickly unlatched the payload container with a quick bypass. Carefully he pulled out the viral agent and then inserted the cure vial through the induction port on the side. The container turned a bright green as the virus was annihilated in moments. Vik finally allowed himself to relax and drop to the floor.

He had done it. He saved the turians of Cipritine. He'd done it. He had to let Liara know. He contacted her over the radio.

"Liara... the bomb... is disarmed," he said, half tired and dead on his feet.

It took a moment before he got a response.

"Vik, say again? What happened?"

"I... disarmed it," Vik repeated. "It's done. It's... it's safe now. We're all safe."

"Thank the Goddess," Liara said, sighing her own breath of relief. "Are you alright? Do you need a medic? I can redirect a team to your position."

That did sound nice, someone to patch him up. Kiss the boo-boos and make him feel all better. Maybe help him from feeling this pain in his side he was almost positive was a cracked rib. Or it would be, if he had heard something scraping away from him. He tracked the nose and could hear manhole opening above, behind the cistern. When he managed to walk around... he found a single ray of light entering the sewers. And there was something metallic and sparking climbing the ladder.

"Liara, wait on that medic," he said. "Something I have to do first."

He began walking after it. The Singular would not get away. It was time to end its pain.

---

Nel heard it over the radio. It was over. Vik had done it. Not that it mattered to Han, who was practically melting away. Apparently the less potent grenades were still pretty damn potent when you took a direct blast to the face. Nel had tried to use her anti-virus on him, but between the disease and the blood loss from multiple gunshot wounds, Han was seemingly too far gone.

"We disarmed the bomb," Nel told him. "I figured you should know that."

"Then I failed," Han said simply, breathing heavily. "It's over. Congrats, Nel. You get your big hero moment."

"I don't particularly feel like one," Nel admitted plainly. "Mostly, I'm just tired from running after your ass."

Han laughed at that.

"Well, at least I made you work for it," he said.

There was a question she thought she should ask, but reasoned it was pointless. Nel could tell, he didn't have regrets. Only that he had failed, even now. All her speech had done was get him to doubt a little. She probably would've shot him in the next second honestly, but Falco beat her to it.

"I'm not sorry I stopped you," Nel told him. "Sorry about this though. And... thank you, for pushing me out of the way. I guess, even when we're on opposite sides you still had my back."

"Yeah, whatever," Han said weakly. "Don't think too much of it. Just do me a favor and kill me already. Easy way to make us even."

"I'd like to have my last memory of you be a little less morbid," Nel explained. "Specifically, I'd like to know that at least a part of the squad leader I knew is in there somewhere. And after that little rescue, I'm sure at least a tiny piece of him is."

"Maybe he was never real, Nel," he said, coughing suddenly as he spoke. "Maybe... he was just an act. Like everything else, a disguise put on for everyone else."

Nel moved to his face and looked him dead square in the center.

"I know that's not all true," she insisted. "You have intel on Orukuri. You knew you couldn't trust him and you were right. He was going to pull the rug out from under you and make it his big hero moment. He told us so, right before he framed us."

"Well, you're the heroes of the day so that's sorted itself," Han claimed, wincing badly.

"Not quite, Xeltravius said you had intel," Nel said succinctly. "That you could expose Orukuri if he double crossed you. Where is it?"

"Why does it matter?" Han asked, blood pooling from his eyes.

"I told you, the man I respected is still in there, somewhere," Nel stated firmly. "And he'd want to make sure the bastard who set this all in motion doesn't just get to walk free. If you still care about what's right... help me fix this one thing that's wrong."

Han coughed and wheezed, blood was exiting every orifice, but his mind was still working somewhat. He reached into his armor's storage compartment and pulled out an OSD. He dropped it at his feet.

"Take it," he said. "It will have what you need."

Nel picked it up and pocketed it.

"Do one thing for me," he asked weakly. "Make them change. Make them better. Make sure... there's no more... like me."

Han slumped over, his body practically dissolving and eating itself. He was gone before Nel could answer. She replied anyway.

"I'll try," she said. "I'll give it a good try."

As Nel stood up, she closed what was left of Hanilex's eyes. It was the sad end she expected. This wasn't how most of her vids concluded. Villain vanquished, world saved, hero triumphant, possibly about to bag a hot chick.

No, this was one big shitty bag of sad. Han was a traitor and she hadn't forgiven him. It wasn't all his fault though. It was more his dad and how he never let him be who Han really was. Nel did understand what that was like. She narrowly avoided becoming like him. Maybe she would've, were it not for Liara kicking her off the Juice. If not for her making peace with the old man. Maybe Han had just as much chance to change. Now, she'd never know.

She was about to report in to Liara, settle this mission up at last and give the good news. That was when she spied something happening on the stage below.

---

Things had not gone entirely to plan. As soon as it looked like a float had taken off and exploded before the parade had even gotten to the square, more and more people started to get worried. Some still thought it was part of the show, but with security running about that was evaporating.

Fedorian did not like it at all of course. Crap had just been piling up since the start of everything and it was becoming insanely overbearing. This wasn't even mentioning the reports of some sort of gang shoot out near the parade itself further down the street, which no doubt had something to do with the float that exploded!

This was supposed to be a fun day, what the hell was going on? They were already discussing evacuating the square and while Fedorian was fine with that, he wanted to give the speech. He hoped it would be a nice, calm and expedient exit. That everyone would just leave and not ask questions while they figured what the hell was going on. Not really the speech he wanted to make, but at this point the last thing he needed was to wait for a second parade float come falling out the sky onto their heads. And for all he knew that was going to happen any second.

When he finally convinced his security team to let him on stage proper so he could deliver the evacuation order in as delicate a manner as possible, he strode out into view. He kept as sincere a smile as possible under the veneer of concern and stepped up to the podium.

"Ha, ha, crazy things happening all of a sudden, huh?" He asked, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible. "Just to let you all know, we are having some... troublemakers of a sort. Apparently, it seems to be getting sorted. We should be able to close things out soon as planned."

Which was mostly true, they were almost done with the presentation schedule anyway. They could just hold his real speech over until later in the evening. It was also true that it seemed like security and police were on top of things, reporting that they found a lot dead or unconscious, untoward looking turians all over the streets. Something was fishy about that, but it sounded like that meant things were over.

However, before Fedorian could ask people to leave for a bit, just to be safe, he heard something. A sound of cracking, breaking, wood being punctured. And it sounded like it was coming from the floor.

The floor directly next to him.

Bursting from beneath the stage appeared a battered and twitching Geth. It looked badly damaged and, somehow, crazed. The machine forced itself up through the floor, scrambling onto the stage as the crowd looked on in horror. More so when the white-clad machine stood up and hefted an assault rifle into its arms. It was hunched over, practically snarling as it glared out into the crowd. Then it turned its sights on Fedorian.

"I can't make choices? Fine! I choose to kill you! That proves he's a liar!"

The Geth raised its weapon, only for Fedorian to be suddenly shoved out of the way. Slyvesterix Stalaxian now stood on the podium, blocking the Geth's line of sight on Fedorian with his body. This seemed to agitate the synthetic who groaned aloud.

"Oh please, stand aside!" It demanded. "You're not even a real soldier!"

"I ain't moving, synth," Stalaxian declared with a glare. "You wanna get to anyone on this stage, you gotta get through me."

"Ugh, ridiculous," the machine bemoaned. "Cheap heroics, insipid platitudes, can I just kill someone right now?"

There was a click of a rifle as someone else stepped up on stage, General Victus, armed and at the ready.

"Drop it, machine," he ordered.

"General, get back," Stalaxian asked. "Get Fedorian to safety."

"So you're all just lining up to die today then, huh?" The Geth groaned. "I just want to kill someone to prove a point! Fine then! How does that human game go? Oh yes!"

The Geth began to point his gun between Stalaxian and Victus.

"Eenie Meenie Miney-"

As the synth's rifle pointed towards Victus, a pipe smashed into the back of the Geth's head. Once, then a second time and a third. The Geth went down as each successive blow bashed in its metallic skull. Its red eyes still blinking, it rolled over to look up at the face of its attacker It was a lone quarian, battered, bruise., his hood torn, his visor nearly cracked, standing over the machine clutching the pipe in hand.

The quarian dropped to his knees and grabbed at the geth's head.

"You... are... most... annoying." The Geth growled methodically and with emphasis.

"I prefer persistent," the quarian panted as he lifted the head. "It's over."

"Hardly, you know how difficult it is to kill a Geth," the machine claimed. "I'm already uploading to my back up server. What? Did you think I only had this body? I only left the sewer to get better reception and preserve data."

"You won't get far," Vik promised.

"I'm already there, quarian," the Geth said menacingly. "Enjoy your win. All glory is fleeting after all. Next time though, I'll be holding your head in my hands."

The quarian dropped the head and then used his omni-tool to hit it with an overload. The tech attack caused the head's eyes to explode out of their sockets, leaving nothing but a smoking husk behind.

The quarian remained kneeling only to become aware that he was in front of a huge crowd seconds later. He looked rather frozen in fear in that moment. The turians themselves had remained somewhat silent up until this point... and then they cheered. An uproarious, congratulatory cheer. The applause was practically deafening.

As the quarian tried to get his bearings, Stalaxian rushed over to help him up.

"Easy kid," he said politely in his usual gruff voice. "You look like you've been through the shredder."

"Yeah, that's pretty much how I feel exactly," the quarian confessed.

Stalaxian helped the quarian over to the podium and let him kneel next to the microphone. The crowd was cheering and hollering. It was unclear if they thought it was part of the show or an actual foiled assassination plot. Either way, they were staring at the quarian standing in the center stage, his visor covered face on ever giant TV and being broadcast throughout Turian space no doubt.

"Who are you, son?" Stalaxian asked, trying to keep the quarian steady.

And whether through being too tired to think up an alias, enraptured by the attention and applause, or just not really caring in the moment, the Quarian once again answered truthfully.

"My... my name is... Vik'Sajee vas Truth."

Stalaxian nodded and held up a fist to the crowd.

"Vik'Sajee vas Truth!" He cried out. "A true hero to the Hierarchy!"

The cheering resumed as did the applause. It was followed shortly thereafter by chanting, from everyone in the crowd.

"Vik'Sajee! Vik'Sajee! Vik'Sajee!"

Vik stood there dumbfounded. He had wanted to avoid the spotlight for a long time. He liked his privacy. But, he also wanted to be heard and seen, contradictory positions to be sure. And now, the whole of the Hierarchy was looking up at him, cheering for him and praising him. It felt good, but to Vik it wasn't the real reward. It was just seeing how many faces he had saved. How many lives he spared from a terrible fate. How truth had prevailed over a lie.

And that almost made up for everything. Almost. It would do for now though. It would do for now.

---

The rest of the Unification Day events were postponed for a few hours while law enforcement went over things. They had a lot of ground to cover given how wide spread the intended attack had been. There were more than a few crime scenes to go over, suspects to be picked up and bodies to be recovered. Not to mention a disarmed bomb casing that needed to be properly dismantled and removed from the Cistern.

The Separatists that remained were quickly rounded up, their accomplices were not. While many had been killed by Liara's teams and Wrex's krogan, many others had abandoned the operation once it started going irreversibly south. They left the CLC to twist and spin in the wind, the inevitable result. They were always going to be the fall guys, even if they succeeded. Liara surmised Trox decided to call it and pull his Blood Pack out. He needed everyone he could keep after all, no sense in sacrificing them for a failed plan cooked up by a turian of all species.

As for Cerberus, their presence was a little more difficult to pin down. They had left too, but there had been reports of them engaging with Separatist stragglers both during and after the raid events went down. Obviously they hadn't wanted to be blamed for an attack that was not their doing. Liara surmised they'd try to spin this against their critics. They just saved the lives of turians from a terrible terrorist attack after all. That would probably muddle the waters about their blatant xenophobia for some.

Not that everyone seemed to believe an attack even took place. Already a few bystanders claimed the whole thing was just part of the show going on. A massive play for all to see, just an extra bit of fun to the day's proceedings that was now being taken too seriously for purposes of propaganda. Even dead bodies of terrorists did nothing to dissuade them. They weren't numerous, but they'd likely obfuscate the full reality of the attack regardless.

Liara, of course, would shed plenty of light on it. When the police showed up the scene of the float crash, they were nonplussed about all the destruction. Liara and her team quickly turned themselves in and did their best to explain.

Wrex did not of course, he was his usual uncooperative self. Not to the point he'd get into serious trouble, but just enough to annoy the cops. Liara wasn't sure if that was because they were cops, turians, both or Wrex thought him being Urdnot clan leader gave him some greater position of authority. Then again, bending the knee to turians was not something any krogan would do willing lest they be called traitorous. So it was just as likely keeping up appearances with his men as it was just Wrex being Wrex.

The Hierarchy Federal Law Enforcement soon got involved when they learned the currently wanted Liara T'Soni was in custody claiming to have saved Palaven from a devastating terrorist attack. She turned over everything she had collected on the Separatists, although she didn't tell them about Orukuri yet. She was waiting on Nel to see what exactly she had.

Vik was also at the station, after being treated for his injuries. Not easy for a quarian, but at least his suit wasn't ripped, miraculously. He was going to be okay, provided he kept applying medi-gel every hour for the next day or so.

He also had a friendly visitor, Slyvesterix Stalaxian of all people, in the station main hall no less out in the open for all to see. Vik wondered if it was for a photo op, but he mostly just wanted to ask what the hell all that stuff with the Geth was. Vik had explained the story several times over by now, but he decided to go over it once more to satisfy the actor.

"Man, I'm amazed you were able to handle all that alone," Stalaxian told him. "I know quarians are tough, but... well... you sometimes forget."

"I'd call what I was doing more desperate than tough," Vik admitted. "For... a number of reasons really."

"Still, you held ya ground and you saved a lot of lives," Stalaxian said. "Honestly, I can only hope to ever say that."

"Eh, you're not missing much," Vik told him. "I'm sure you get less broken bones for one."

"You'd be surprised," Stalaxian laughed. "I still get away with doing the odd stunt or two that the studio says I shouldn't."

Vik hadn't expected this guy to be so humble. He had seen Stalaxian's movies, he was not a fan of a lot of them. Mainly because they were all bullshit propaganda, but it seemed like Stalaxian didn't entirely believe his own hype.

"You shouldn't sell yourself short anyway," Vik reassured him. "You did act as a living shield before I showed up."

"I guess I still got my training hardwired before I got discharged," Stalaxian said with a shrug. "Hell, reason I got into acting was so I could still pay homage to the soldiers who I couldn't join anymore. Never could do it my own way though, not until I started getting clout and that's taken years."

Vik was curious.

"What do you mean your own way?" He asked confused.

"Oh right, you probably didn't see it," Stalaxian confessed. "I finally got the studio to let me make my own vid. And I decided I wanted to honor more than just Hierarchy soldiers. I mean, we're part of a galactic community, right? And we're not the only people fighting the good fight."

Stalaxian reached into his pocket and handed Vik a small card. It was actually a depiction for a mock up of a real poster for a vid. Galaxias Commandos, which featured from the looks of it, and Asari, Salarian, Krogan, human... and a quarian among the team front and center around Stalaxian's character.

"Your... cast is... pretty diverse," Vik noted, a bit surprised.

"Took a lot of convincing," Stalaxian admitted. "I reminded the execs that cross-species films go gangbusters. Fleet and Flotilla, huge franchise. And it's true to life, Commander Shepard's team was practically the same makeup. I of course had to put in some more explicit romance beats and that, but it's still mostly my script."

"Shame I missed the trailer," Vik said with a shrug. "Will have to look it up. I have to say, I'm surprised you want to do this."

"I can't survive as an actor if I only appeal to a specific audience," Stalaxian claimed. "And turian cinema is never gonna get a wider foothold if we don't branch out more. Other studios are doing it, might as well get in on it. I guess if you can push a profit angle, the execs will say yes to anything."

Very true, Vik thought.

"You're not really what I thought you'd be like," he blurted out. "Please don't take that the wrong way."

"Eh, you've probably had people say that about you now and then," Stalaxian told him.

"Not in... glowing terms half the time," Vik confessed.

Stalaxian laughed a little and nudged him. As he did though, he got a bit more serious.

"Hey, just letting you know, I can tell you're still shaken and I get why," he said. "I mean, you did just face down a nightmare."

"Oh the Singular isn't my nightmare," Vik corrected him. "I just adopted it from my people today. My nightmares are... less typical of my species."

"Hmm, figured," Stalaxian nodded. "I've seen that kind of thousand yard stare you were giving off. Mind elsewhere?"

And how, Vik wanted to answer. He went with the less dire response.

"Been that way for a bit," he said. "Today, it put things into perspective."

"Hmm, listen I can tell this is something personal so I won't pry," Stalaxian said. "But whatever it is, I'm assuming some kind of unfinished business, a score to settle if you will, I'll just say... don't get yourself killed over it. And, probably more important, don't let whatever it is change you."

Vik looked at him curiously.

"Sound advice, why are you giving it to me?" He asked.

"Cause I knew a guy once," Stalaxian said. "Figured he was doomed to mediocrity after his discharge, that he couldn't do anything worthwhile... that he let people down. I'd hate to see that happen to a guy like you, who was willing to risk his life for countless strangers he didn't even know. We all have days we think we're broken, but we're never as broken as we think we are."

Vik nodded at that, strangely enough he was starting to believe that. That he wasn't broken.

"Thanks," he said. "I... appreciate the talk."

Stalaxian stood up, patting the quarian on the shoulder before shaking his hand. He then quickly stopped himself. He grabbed the poster card from Vik, took out a pen and wrote something on it.

"I usually charge a bit for one of these, but I'll make an exception for ya," he said. "Sell it online, get a few extra bucks, probably wait until after the vid comes out though. Worth more if it does well."

Stalaxian handed the card back to Vik, revealing the actor's autograph on it. Vik grinned a little at that.

"Actually, I know someone who will love this," he assured the turian. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it, kid," Stalaxian saluted. "Keep kicking ass out there, Cyber-Legionaire style."

With that Stalaxian left, the press and his entourage departing the station. Quarian was left to ponder his advice. He knew what was coming, what he had to do. He hoped he'd have the strength to go through with it, and remain who he was. Vik didn't get a chance to be alone in his thoughts, however. As another turian quickly arrived to interrupt them.

"Slyvesterix Stalaxian... shook... your hand." Nel said slowly and in shock. "Slyvesterix Stalaxian... shook... your... hand."

"Yes, Nel, he shook my hand," Vik sighed rather bored. "Thank you for reiterating it."

Nel suddenly grabbed the quarian's hand and pressed it to her face. Breathing heavily on it with no regard for Vik's personal space at all.

"You're in my bubble," Vik grumbled. "We discussed this."

"If I breathe in enough of his scent, it will absorb into my body and it will be like we spent the night together," Nel said giddily.

"If you honestly start making out with my hand I will lose all thus far accumulated respect I have for you," Vik warned.

"I've gone through an emotional roller coaster today, Bucket," Nel grumbled. "Let me have this!"

"I literally was almost beaten to death," Vik reminded her.

"And I watched an old friend turned enemy melt," Nel replied, the hand still on her face. "So I say we're even."

Vik sighed; this wasn't going to end unless he made it end.

"If you let go of my hand I will give you his autograph," he promised.

"You were going to do that anyway, because you actually like me," Nel teased.

Damn it, she knew. Fine, he'd sweeten the deal.

"Keelah, I will watch one of your stupid vids with you," he swore. "You can even hog the Graxen. Just please leave my bubble, already."

Nel dropped his hand, before soon taking the autograph from Vik and sniffing it hard.

"Oh that's the scent of a stud to end all studs," she confessed. "We are watching Eye of the Battle Storm. You will love it. You will thank me and we will have fun while doing it."

"Yes, yes, fine," Vik sighed. "Whatever. Keelah, you are the worst."

"But... you like me," Nel said bending down. "Because I've grown on you."

"Sure," Vik replied, just wanting the prodding to end.

Nel took a seat beside him. After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, he let out a long sigh.

"I'm sorry... about Han," he told her. "I know it couldn't have been easy."

"No, it wasn't," Nel admitted sorrowfully, uncharacteristic for her at the best of times. "But it never was gonna be. He wasn't all wrong and he wasn't all bad. I still don't know how much of the person I knew was real, but I guess it doesn't matter."

"It matters to you," Vik told her. "I think that's important enough."

Nel shrugged, taking another breath as she did.

"This job has forced me to reconcile a lot of things about my life," she confessed. "Not sure I like all of it, but I know I'm better for it. Cause, I honestly think a part of me would've become Hanilex if I wasn't careful."

"You never would've gotten that bad, Nel," Vik assured, not even thinking much on the words.

Nel turned to him, inquisitively.

"Really?" She asked. "How can you be so sure?"

"Because we're still talking," Vik answered simply. "Because I know you. Because you're a better person then you think you are. And..."

He struggled a little to confess this next bit as Nel leaned in.

"Yeah, fine, you're probably the closest thing to a friend I've had in a long time," he admitted. "In fact you are a friend. You happy now?"

Nel suddenly hugged him from the side, smooshing her face against the side of his helmet.

"Sorry, I know it's your bubble," Nel told him, a hint of warmness in her voice for once. "But it's good. It's good to hear that."

"Yeah, yeah," Vik said patting her arm in an attempt to return said hug. "I get it."

Nel ended the hug. She was silent for a few seconds. She then, in typical Nel fashion, ruined the mood.

"I'm still not sexually attracted to you at all," she told him straight up.

"Happy to hear that," Vik once again reassured her. "Because the thought still repulses me."

"That bad, huh?" Nel questioned.

Vik decided to get down to the real issue at hand, what Nel actually wanted out of him. An answer, specifically. Fine, one more truth for today.

"Look, I like more... sensitive women," he explained. "Not like shy or meek waifs, or anything, just girls who are worldly, thoughtful. Beautiful souls more or less. Not... insane people. Like you."

"Eh, you just couldn't handle me," Nel laughed.

"That is also true," Vik told her. "You'd probably break me. And I've had enough of that for today or any day really."

Nel laughed a bit, as did Vik. The moment allowed them to decompress, think and reconcile their thoughts. Then Liara arrived, walking from the back interrogation room to greet them.

"Nel," she announced getting their attention. "You have it?"

Nel stood to attention and quickly opened her armor compartment. Pulling out the OSD she held it out in front of her face.

"I took a peek to be sure," she said. "Trust me on this, we're golden."

"That air tight?" Liara asked.

Nel just grinned broadly.

"It's gonna nail the fucker, ma'am. Right to the fucking wall. By his junk, in fact."

---

AN: Well that was a thrilling climax, but we still have a few things left to wrap up. After all, as Nel said, we have a corporate bastard to nail to the wall. And after that, there's still plenty more adventures for this merry band of misfits to go on. And hopefully I'll be able to get them all out in a more timey fashion sooner. So, next chapter we take care of Orukuri and see where his downfall leads us next. Till then.