Chapter 4: Two Alliance Marines Walk Into A Club
1.
Omega was worse than Ashley could've imagined. And she'd imagined plenty since everybody on garrison duty in the Alliance would use Omega as a punchline for really shitty deployments. Squad's camping near a thresher maw pit? Well, hey, at least it's not Omega! Locals think human beings are a delicacy? Least it ain't Omega! Came face-to-face with some geth and saw your CO impaled on a pike? Shit, that's just a Tuesday on Omega.
Jesus Christ, fellas.
One of the unique things humanity had going for it was that, technically speaking, it wasn't under a unified government. The Systems Alliance Parliament had representatives from every nation on Earth and any colony that didn't declare independence, and was only as powerful as they let it be—again, technically. The Turian Hierarchy? Not so much—they dealt with separatists the way exterminators dealt with bugs. The salarians weren't so much decentralized as they were controlled by the most powerful families, who tended to be pretty chummy with one another to the point where the decision-makers were more or less consistent across their territories. You could say the krogans didn't have a unified government but nuking yourself to oblivion and back tended to do that (not that humanity hadn't nearly tried that out for themselves at a few points). It was hard to tell with the quarians; every time Tali tried to explain how her people's government worked it sounded like she was stoned.
The only other species that had a governing system close to what humanity had were the asari, and naturally the asari went way further as far as decentralization goes. Humanity had a few directly-deliberative enclaves scattered around—MAREZ still existed, so did Rojava, and Mondragon got pretty close to a direct-democracy before it accepted an invite to the Alliance Parliament—but humans had nothing on the widespread e-democracy of the Asari Republics.
All this meant that the rich nations (not colonies; none of them were wealthy enough to out-muscle a rich Earth-bound country) called the shots, and Alliance policy was whatever consensus the big-dogs could hash out, plus the few things here and there that the Prime Minister and their cabinet pushed through in the "best interests" of those same big-dogs. The flip side of this was that rich countries knew it looked bad on the galactic stage to have horrible, out-of-control poverty on humanity's home world; so while they'd never share power with a country whose GDP was less than a trillion credits, they'd at least pay for some clean water every now and again.
Ashley was thinking about all the places that got clean water once in a blue moon as she stared at Omega, which had probably made the word "clean" verboten under penalty of death. The whole thing was built into an asteroid (which, for some reason, meant upside-down skyscrapers) but that was no excuse for everything looking like it'd had engine oil spilt all over it. Every time she looked at a different part of the floor or the vent-filled ceilings or, holy hell, a window, it was like getting punched in the eyes with brass knuckles. Brown brown brown brown, and all the patches that weren't brown looked like they were moving.
Ashley looked over at Kaidan as they exited the small quote-unquote "spaceport" and saw that he looked like he was about to sneeze. Turned out he'd just saw one of those moving patches on something and had the same reaction as Ashley.
"Jeez," he said. "There're dumps and then there's whatever the hell this is.
"Never been here before, Alenko?"
"Well, this place probably makes the kinds of memories I like to repress so, who knows?"
"I've heard stories," Ashley said. "They can't all be true."
"Really hoping you're right, Ash."
Ashley stepped in some sludge and nearly lost the sole of her boot in the process. The sole of a boot that had survived walking inside a volcano. Jesus Christ fellas.
Shaking her leg and testing her steps to make sure she didn't fuse to the floor, Ashley said: "Intel says that the shuttle Shepard jacked is still here. If she's left the station, we can at least pick up a trail."
"Right," Kaidan said, moving around that same pile of sludge. "What's the move, here?"
"Find the biggest person around and start asking questions."
"Metaphorically the biggest, of course."
"You kidding?" Ashley pointed not so much at the distant upside-down skyscrapers as at the general mood of the space station. "To run a place like this, you'd have to be the actual biggest person around. Nobody's gonna follow the runt of the litter around here."
"You make a point," Kaidan said. He looked behind his shoulder, back towards the spaceport, and noticed a batarian leaning against a wall (god, that can't be healthy) and looking down at the floor. Had the posture of a hired gun looking to shake down people who got off the wrong shuttle. "There, that guy looks like he knows things—like who the biggest person around is."
Ashley took a look for herself and then nodded.
"Age before wisdom," she said. "After you."
"Excuse me, who's in charge around here?"
"That's what we're trying to find out, right?"
"Well since you're such a smooth talker, shouldn't you be going first?"
"Always knew you were a tyrant, L-T."
Kaidan was going to mention he was Commander Alenko, but stopped last second. The rank had existed for as long as humanity put armies together and, yet, he felt like he was stepping on Shepard's toes using it.
Ashley had already walked towards the batarian, though, so luckily she didn't notice the look he'd suddenly started wearing.
The batarian, on the other hand, noticed a female human and her male companion coming towards him, and the two humans saw him tense up like someone had just breathed on his neck.
"Hey, you," Ashley said. "My friend's too chickenshit to ask you this, but who runs the show around these parts?"
The batarian's four eyes looked them up and down, and then without even blinking there was a gun in his hand and it was dancing between both Ashley and Kaidan's heads. The two Alliance Marine's pulled their pistols out quickly enough that a random passer-by probably wouldn't've been able to tell who pulled a gun on who first.
"Easy asshole!" Ashley said.
"Jesus—you do that to everyone that asks a question?" Kaidan said.
The batarian narrowed his eyes. "Either you two are asking me that to start shit, or you're the dumbest people alive. Doesn't matter to me so long as you drop your guns and get on your knees."
Kaidan's brown raised. "You'd shoot someone just because you think they're an idiot?"
"I'd shoot you—you've got nice armour."
All four of the batarian's eyes were on Kaidan, which meant he didn't notice Ashley switch her pistol to her non-dominant hand and cock her arm back. The punch that came next sent the batarian head-first to the floor and his gun skittering into the same pile of sludge that'd nearly eaten Ashley.
"Answer the question, dipshit!" Ashley said. Her gun was now jabbed into one of the batarian's eyes.
"Owhowffffuuuuuuck…" the batarian said.
"You know how much I wanna quip right now?" she said. "You know how much I wanna say, huh, I've never heard of a person named Owhowfffuuuuuuck before? I'd love to but I'm tired and I'm pissed off, so the more you dick around the more this'll stop being funny."
"Go ahead and dick around," Kaidan said. "She scares me. But, she kills you, I can turn her in—then I won't have to deal with her anymore and I can finally sleep with both eyes closed."
"Ahffuu—just lay off with the gun and I'll talk!"
"You dicking around?"
"I'm not I'm not!"
Ashley pulled the gun away but stayed over the batarian. "Then who're we talking to after this?"
"Aria," the batarian said. "Aria T'Loak. S-she's at the Afterlife Club, just around the corner—y-you can't miss it."
"That better be the case,' Ashley said, "because if we're forced to find you again—"
"H-honest truth, y-you can't miss it! Please, please trust me on this—I-I don't ever wanna see you again."
"Good boy," Ashley said. She stood up and let the batarian scamper off elsewhere. Kaidan was chuckling, she was smiling…and then immediately realized that she was smiling over making someone piss themselves on a space station where robbing tourists was probably the only way that guy got something to eat every day.
Kaidan watched her face and started having the same thoughts.
"That went too far," Ashley said, shaking her head.
"Yeah um…well, he did pull a gun on us," Kaidan said. "Granted, yeah, kinetic barriers but instinct is instinct."
"Let's just get this done," Ashley said. "Cleanly, from now on."
"Don't beat yourself up about it, Ash. Like you said—tired and pissed off."
"That was just a joke."
Given everything that'd happened in a pretty short span of time, Kaidan figured it'd been one of those honest jokes that you claim is all in jest but really says a lot more about your state of mind than you'd prefer. But he wasn't sure Ashley was going to listen and he also wasn't sure of being tired and pissed off excused the fact that he'd failed to tell her to ease up, so Kaidan shook his head filed it all away as "first day on the job jitters."
They started walking around the corner and, yep, there was Afterlife Club: a massive metal pyramid with an equally massive cylinder stretching above it into the asteroid rock. The long line and the sign that said "Afterlife Club" helped too.
Kaidan looked at Ash and, to at least his partial relief, it looked like she'd put the batarian-thing behind her. "You think that's the place?" he said.
"Sure looks like hell to me," she said.
"Maybe the top floors are nicer than the bottom floors."
"Pretty sure there's only one half of the afterlife on this station."
A passing vorcha snarled at them and then vomited something purple all over itself before falling face-first onto the ground.
"All right, no argument there," Kaidan said.
They approached the line and with growing dread realized it was moving at about the same speed as an eclor with sleep deprivation…which made sense considering that the bouncer at the head of the line was an elcor, all ten and a half feet of muscle and shoulders looming over everyone.
"We're gonna be in the actual afterlife by the time this line moves," Ashley said.
"Be a hell of a business idea," Kaidan said. "Start up a club, but only the newly departed get invited in."
"Can't make a scene—not another one, anyways. Just wait it out?"
Kaidan shrugged. "Probably all we can do, unless you've stashed tickets somewhere."
Ashley was about to say, no, we just got here Alenko, when one of the batarian guards near the door started pointing at them and calling them over. Ashley and Kaidan tensed up, quickly checked to make sure their pistols were still on their hips (they'd only brought pistols with them), and slowly started making their way towards the guard. The guard's assault rifle hung loosely near his hip.
"You two looking to come in?" he said.
"Uh, yeah, that's the plan," Kaidan said.
"All right, here." The guard put his rifle on the ground and pulled out a data-pad and his omni-tool. "Some asshole spent big bucks getting VIP tickets and didn't collect, so happy birthday."
Kaidan and Ashley didn't move.
"You want 'em or not?"
"Uh, thanks," Kaidan said. "What for, though?"
"Yeah—the line makes me think you could scalp these and live like a king," Ashley said.
"That's what I was gonna do," the guard said. "But then I saw you beat the shit out of T'aresh over there." He motioned with his nose towards the spaceport, where Kaidan and Ashley had been accosted. "I fucking hate that guy."
Kaidan's brow climbed up to his forehead again. "Why d'you hate—"
"Just take the damn tickets!" the guard grabbed Kaidan's arm and before Kaidan could pull away, a beeping noise told him the tickets were now officially his property. "Nosey humans—can't even take a gift without trying to ruin it."
The doors opened and, with not much else to do, Kaidan and Ashley entered Afterlife Club.
"Kinda want to know more about this T'aresh guy now," Kaidan said.
"We should finish what we came here to do before we accidentally look a gift horse in the mouth," Ashley said.
"Hey," Kaidan said, "we'll get this done. Cleanly, like you said—from now on."
"Yeah." Ashley took a breath, ignored a group of leering patrons. "Let's go find this Aria person then. Ask her what she knows about a dead Spectre."
"Let's do it," Kaidan said.
Into the bowels of Afterlife they went.
2.
That'd been the plan the two of them had hit upon on the shuttle-ride to Omega—find the most important person on the station and ask them about dead people walking around. There was a twisted sort of logic to the plan that made sense on Omega even if it sounded incredibly stupid in any other context.
First: everybody else on the station was either so consumed with trying to stay alive day-in and day-out—or so consumed with making sure other people were consumed with trying to stay alive day-in and day-out—that they'd be no help in trying to track Shepard down. You had to go to the top because the top was the only place with access to security cameras.
Second: Omega probably worked on the same system that made intelligence services valuable—the more secrets you knew, the more cards you had to play. Whoever was in charge, if they were smart, wouldn't want word going around that two Alliance officers were hunting for someone wearing the skin of a dead Spectre, because that information could be used against the established order. An established order that, if it were to come crumbling down, would probably reform in a way that'd be very painful for whoever was Master of the Universe beforehand. There was a mutual interest in keeping things quiet.
Third: it was a hell of a lot quicker than playing "The Spy Who Snooped Through People's Trash" until the universe experienced heat-death or, in this case, the Reaper's attacked again and everything—this whole operation—was rendered completely moot.
So despite some objections from each participant, eventually Kaidan and Ashley reached a consensus. The biggest risk was that they'd thought things through a lot more carefully than whoever was in charge, but Ashley had said (and Kaidan didn't immediately disagree so that was a good thing) that if Shepard/No-Shepard was spooked out of hiding, it might actually be beneficial. This person would stand out like a sore thumb given how they didn't seem to care who or what got in the way of their path of destruction, and if they started running, it'd be all the easier to see them, even from a distance.
"We're doing this quietly in case it really is Shepard, aren't we?" Kaidan had said on the shuttle. "Just to give her a chance to explain herself? Before the whole galaxy comes crashing on her head?"
"We owe her that much," Ashley had said.
"Yeah…at least that much."
Kaidan guessed that between then and now, Ashley had decided to pick one option and stick with it. He didn't know what he preferred—if it was the real Shepard or just a lunatic that'd stumbled on her armour. And honestly, there was time to think about that later, like when they found this person…
When Kaidan and Ashley reached the main area of Afterlife—or at least the ground-level part of the club—they very quickly learned that, no, this person wasn't stupid and had, in fact, thought things through very thoroughly. A stripper or bartender or something—an asari in a skimpy pink dress—sauntered over to them and whispered: "Now that you're in—upstairs, the big office overlooking the bar. Better move before it gets violent."
And so move they did.
"Great," Ashley said. "They're expecting us."
"It's what we get for taking tickets from strangers," Kaidan said.
"They didn't take our guns, though."
"Maybe they're looking to keep it peaceful."
"Or maybe they don't see us as much of a threat."
The two Alliance officers walked up the steps, past a turian guard, and after rounding another set of stairs they found themselves in Aria T'Loak's office. Not private office—just office. A cushiony bench circled the window that overlooked Afterlife's main bar; right in the middle of this cushiony bench sat a purple-skinned asari in a white leather jacket and black leather pants. She looked like she had absolutely no time to accommodate these Alliance clowns and was only doing so for reasons that she'd never share with them.
Ashley and Kaidan approached Aria; her guards drew closer around them like a net made out of people.
"Two Alliance Marines, in full uniform, come walking right up to my doorstep," Aria said. "And how am I supposed to interpret that, hmm?"
"As a sign we're not looking for trouble?" Ashley said. "Since we only brought our pistols with us."
Aria smirked, looked Ashley and Kaidan over. "Honey—just about everyone on the station could eat the two of you alive. Anything less than a dreadnaught, and I'm not worried." She motioned to a batarian guard and he pulled out his omni-tool.
"Stand still," the guard said.
"I just told you we've got pistols on us," Ashley said.
"If I believed everything people told me, I'd be dead," the guard said.
"Watch where you're scanning or you'll be dead anyways," Ashley said. He wasn't some punk on the street; he probably got paid pretty handsomely, in fact. He could take a little roughing up, worst came to worst.
"Heh," Aria said, "that's a lot of bark. What about you," she looked at Kaidan, "anything to say?"
"Just that I love the décor. Reminds me of Blade Runner."
"And what's a blade runner?"
"Ah, you'd have to see it to understand. Words don't do it justice."
The guard's omni-tool beeped. He walked his way back towards the side of the office he'd slinked away from. "They're clean."
"So," Aria said, "with that out of the way—and with all of us now knowing how light you're packing—what the hell are you doing on my station?"
Kaidan and Ashley looked at each other. Then Kaidan stepped forward.
"We're looking for someone."
"Interesting," Aria said. "Well, I hope that this person isn't someone I employ. That would make things awfully messy."
"They're not. They're one of ours."
"Or they're dressed like one of ours," Ashley said, "which is a problem in of itself."
Kaidan looked back at Ashley, she nodded, and out came his omni-tool. He looked around to see if anyone other than the guards would had eyes-on (they'd probably keep quiet so long as Aria told them to keep quiet), then flicked his fingers over the holographic display until the video he was looking for appeared. It was the same one that Anderson and Hackett had showed them—the volume was off but the sniper's biometric readings were as visible to Aria as they had been to he and Ashley.
"That's who we're looking for," Kaidan said.
"A good enough reason for us to 'walk right up to your doorstep'?" Ashley said.
Aria paused, stared a good long while at the image. Her face wasn't readable—she seemed to always look pissed off—but she was clearly considering her options.
"It's genuine footage," Kaidan said. "We've got no reason to shoot a fake video and waste your time."
"Or our own," Ashley said. "We've got other shit to deal with and I'll speak freely and say that chasing some clown in lookalike armour—"
"You're talking about your disappearing colonies, aren't you?" Aria said. "Don't lie to me—I know how to tell when people are lying."
A pause. Eventually, Kaidan said, "That's what we're implying, yeah."
"Then yes, this is a good enough reason for you to be here," Aria said. She turned to look at Ashley. "Hate to break it to you, honey, but that's not a clown in a lookalike suit. That's the real deal."
"Bullshit," Ashley said. "Even if I thought that was Shepard, I've got no reason to trust you."
"That's true," Aria said. "Except Omega is the perfect place to conduct business transactions that the rest of the galaxy finds distasteful. Including buying and selling corpses." Aria had a smirk on her face at that point, but it very quickly vanished. "Take two guesses as to who's corpse passed through my docks nearly two years ago."
"Bullshit," Ashley said. Kaidan held up a hand (yeah all right fine, control the situation now, fine) but Ashley brushed it off.
"Answer me this, Alliance," Aria said. "If you had nothing to gain by showing me doctored footage, what do I have to gain by yanking your chain around?"
"Sick kicks?" Ashley said.
"I don't torture people unless I need something from them and they're being uncooperative," Aria said. "And besides that, if I'd known Shepard was on my station, trust me when I say that you'd've been shot dead before you even left the shuttle."
"Wait," Kaidan said. He held out a hand to keep Ashley back automatically, and he couldn't tell from the rough way she slapped it away if he'd intercepted her or if she'd objected to him feeling like he needed to play referee. "If you'd known Shepard was here? So you're saying this is news to you?"
"That's correct," Aria said. "Thanks for listening."
"You should know everything that goes on around here," Ashley said.
"You're right—I should." Aria glared at her army of guards. They wilted like dehydrated flowers. "So if Shepard is on my station, then she'd have to be using very special transit that I don't normally bother double-checking, since financial records tell me all I need to know about them anyways."
Kaidan and Ashley paused, shuffled on their feet. "And what 'special transit' would that be?" Ashley said.
Aria shifted in her seat. "Once upon a time, the Blue Suns were involved in a deal with a nasty-looking alien race to get their hands on a body. I didn't know what body it was at the time, except that it was Alliance and very, very valuable—and it all seems to fit together now, doesn't it?" Aria's face darkened. "Whoever—or whatever—brought Shepard back might have let her know about the Blue Suns. They might even want loose ends tied up, especially if they're going around abducting human colonists."
Ashley wanted to say (no, yell out—with punching and maybe a kick or two) that there was no proof—not a shred of it—that Shepard was with the Collectors. And frankly, neither her nor Alenko had any reason to assume Aria was telling the truth. But who the hell else could bring Shepard back? Maybe it was all a story spun by Aria, but…it did fit together.
So instead Ashley said: "Assuming we buy all this, are you gonna let us go after the Blue Suns? Or are you going to take offense to that?"
"A smart question," Aria said. "Lucky for you, I'm trusting you both that 'going after' the Blue Suns doesn't involve killing any Blue Suns. Am I being too optimistic?"
"Dead people don't do much talking," Kaidan said.
"They seem to do a lot more walking than I originally thought," Aria said. She looked at the footage of Shepard again. "I never knew your Commander, but she doesn't look like someone you want to fuck with."
"That's an understatement," Ashley said.
"Then you two had better start moving," Aria said. "Before she starts damaging my station. She doesn't look all there to me. Tarak, leader of the Blue Suns, is a bit busy at the moment, but maybe that's to your advantage. One of the guards will give you his location."
And that the guards did.
Ashley and Kaidan walked out of Afterlife Club and said nothing to each other—not a word. Everything Aria had told them—if it was true—was something they thought they'd have more time to prepare for. But here it was, staring them in the face, telling them to deal with it and process it quickly before it overwhelmed them and it was Mission Failure before the starting line had even been crossed.
"You all right?" Kaidan asked. Ashley looked like she was going to say something right away, but she clamped her mouth shut and stared straight ahead.
Eventually, she said: "First ever mission as an officer in the Alliance Navy. I would've stayed an NCO if I'd know this is what it feels like after the training wheels come off."
She walked away before Kaidan could say anything back.
3.
Agent Cleo St. Pierre had been station on Omega for the entire geth crisis and had to be told by her Cerberus handler at least once a week that she wasn't being punished. She was needed there, her handler said; Cerberus needed eyes in the Terminus System more than anywhere else. Cleo figured that was bullshit but who the hell was she to argue with a disembodied voice in her ear? Not like her handler (Cleo didn't even know her name; the voice just sounded pleasant in the way that scam artists sound like your best friend right before they drain your account) had any real control over the situation anyways.
But Cleo was a professional—she had to be—so when she saw her targets walking out of Afterlife, she quickly dropped into Observer mode and took note of the way they were walking and where they seemed to be going. She'd seen Lieutenant Commander Alenko and Second Lieutenant Williams entering Afterlife and assumed, right away, that they'd been talking with Aria; their posture and the lack of any chit-chat between the two of them, besides a terse couple of sentences, indicated that it hadn't been the kind of talk they'd hoped for.
"Not seeing anything that would say they know we're involved," Cleo said into her omni-tool, her direct line with her Cerberus handler obscured behind Omega's local newsfeed.
"You're sure?" her handler said.
"No, what? Course I'm not sure. I just got here. But you'd think they'd be talking about how they 'can't believe those idiots with the rachni and whatever are at it again' or something."
"You're not wrong," her handler said. "About the rachni and whatever. Just be careful who you say that stuff to."
"I am careful. I'm not dead yet, am I?"
"Stay focused here. What are they doing now?"
"Walking towards the market," Cleo said. "So, what exactly am I supposed to do? Am I just watching them or am I supposed to…I dunno, put up a roadblock and keep them stuck near the spaceport?"
"Both. You need to do the first thing to do the second."
"Yeah fine, I just wanted to know what my priority was."
"And now you do."
"Thanks a ton."
"Follow them, get in front of them, and keep them near the spaceport," her handler said. "Whatever they're after, they won't be able to get to it there."
"Got it. I'll just lay down some bear-traps."
"Do what you need to do. Once Lawson touches down you'll be officially transferred over to her."
And then the line went dead.
"Bunch of unfunny people, you all are," Cleo said.
She started trailing behind Williams and Alenko, trying to keep her mind off the fact that they'd been part of Shepard's crew not that long ago…and had utterly massacred a few Cerberus cells in the process.
And then a group of batarians cut in front of her and nearly pushed her on her ass.
"Watch it, human," one of them said. Cleo would've extended her middle finger had she not been outnumbered ten-to-one.
But then one of the batarians—a younger looking one with one of his eyes closed—pointed in the direction Williams and Alenko and said something to the effect of "that's the bitch," and as Cleo picked herself off the ground she watched the group sprint in the direction of the two Alliance Officers. They slowed down slightly, just when it looked like they were about to close the distance, and let Williams and Alenko move through a set of doors that lead downstairs towards the market. They waited, waited, waited, then the young one nodded and down they went, after Alenko and Williams.
"Oh what in the actual hell is this?" Cleo said.
She sprinted after the batarians, doing calculus in her head and coming to the conclusion that this whole life she'd chosen was completely and utterly stupid.
4.
Far away from Afterlife, down an Omega street with half of its streetlights working, a human male in an orange puffy jacket was busy checking the credit balance on his personal account. Anyone else doing that—at night, on Omega, in this region of the station—and they'd be rightfully called a suicidal moron. He knew, you'd be askin' for serious trouble even pretendin' to have money—screw checking your friggin account like you was sending a party invitation or somethin'.
Thing was, he had cover. Anybody still alive in this area? They knew he was a merc. More 'n that, they knew he was Blue Suns. You fuck with the Blue Suns and yous had whole fuckloads of guys on your ass, and those fuckloads of guys had fancy tech and big guns that could take out one of them Mako things the Alliance drove around. So really, he was doin' everyone else a service by not being more…flamboyant with his wealth. He coulda made 'em all jealous, but he was being restrained, see? He knew some guys—well not the turians cuz they didn't give two rat-shits about lookin' fancy—but some guys? They owned it. And they'd make sure you knew they owned it too.
So hey, nobody would've wanted to touch this guy anyways since he was such an upstanding type to start.
The figure that was watching him from the shadows knew he was Blue Suns too. The difference was, this figure didn't think he was all that upstanding, to put it mildly.
He also had information, and he'd be a useful way to spread word around that some people weren't as secretive as they wanted to be. And that something was absolutely, unceasingly coming for them. So this upstanding pillar of the community would still have to be breathing by the end of all of this.
The Blue Suns merc heard the concussive round but didn't turn around in time. It struck him dead centre in the chest and sent him flying into an alleyway, headfirst into a wall. Dazed, scared shitless, the merc looked around for his attacker but couldn't see a damn thing.
And then he did see a damned thing. It was a blue and black figure, standing over top of him, no weapon in sight but making it very obvious that it had weapons, plenty of them, and knew how to use all of them in intimate detail.
"O-oh Jesus Christ," the merc said. "A-archangel!"
"Heard your boss is busy planning something," Archangel said. He grabbed the merc by the collar of his jacket and lifted him onto his feet. "Let's you and I go somewhere warm and discuss what that might be, hmm?"
I know what you're thinking and, yes, I too am excited that Garrus is finally showing up.
The Blue Suns activity that Aria is referencing is from the comic Mass Effect: Redemption, though I can't remember how much Aria actually knew about that transfer. Truth be told, I wasn't planning on referencing anything outside the games (and since I don't plan ahead I have no idea whether I'll bring any more outside sources up either), but as I was writing out the scene she seemed to know more about what had happened to the Commander than I originally anticipated. And so here we are!
I also didn't intend T'aresh to start following Ashley and Kaidan either, but here we are.
And I also didn't intend the Blue Suns merc to talk like he's from The Sopranos but, when I accidentally put "you was sending a party invitation" instead of "you were sending a party invitation," it just seemed...right, I guess. So here we are with that too.
Don't let anyone tell you I know what I'm doing, because I don't.
Anyways, hope this was an enjoyable chapter to read too, and thanks for, uh, reading!