Hope you enjoy and don't forget to REVIEW!


POV: Aedon Eyes

After the third encounter with Dashi and Vrul and Kelli pulling back with me I calmly commed Aria and asked if she wanted a piece of the action. She and her mercs were more than happy to take over for us and even relieved the more exhausted troops from Nyreen's line. Her trooks were not even close to the equal of ours but they were definitely more numerous. Which made up for their lack of overall skill.

Either way, it got my people and a good amount of Nyreen's off the front lines of the fight and back to where they could rest, recover and at least say hello to their family and friends. Many appreciated the gesture of what I had done though some still wanted to stay and fight, mostly the Krogans we employed. I saw nothing wrong with letting them stay to fight but as long as they didn't act rashly and followed orders. This meant leaving Vrul in charge of them, he didn't complain.

Anyways, once my men had been rotated back I got about two hours of sleep before I called for Nyreen and Aria to meet at the closest unoccupied and intact room that we could find. It ended up being on the first floor of the building I had killed Morinth in. A conference room opened up by the same person who had let me into the building to kill Morinth. Kid had taken upon himself to use the building as a shelter for the injured and the doctors were running around like crazy.

We paid them no mind making sure to get out of their way as they ran around and got to the conference room with little difficulty. Once inside I pulled up a holographic map of the entirety of Omega and began to mark down points on the map. Troop locations, Cerberus numbers, armor, mechs that I knew about; anything. Both Nyreen and Aria caught on immediately and began making their own marks upon the map with their omni-tools.

A couple minutes later we were all finished and the most accurate map of Omega was in front of us. With every current movement from Cerberus marked along with all their troops, armor and mechs. Both armor and mechs being next to nonexistent thanks to the mercs who had taken out their transport ships. However, looking at the soldiers we knew about there was far less than I thought there would be. We weren't just holding the line, we were straight up slapping Cerberus around.

"This is everything they have?" Aria asked surprise lingering in her voice as she glanced at me before looking to Nyreen.

"As far as I know," Nyreen nodded before continuing. "None of my people who have been at other possible entry points have reported anything and they've all been reporting in. Safe to say the Mercs using those mining lasers probably saved us a massive headache."

"They'll never know. They find out and they'll get ideas," I nodded my head in agreement. Cocky mercs were usually the ones who did the dumb stuff.

"How long until your group will be back to being ready?" Nyreen asked me after Aria had said her piece.

"Give it another hour or two. They were fighting for a good bit and I want them to be at 100% before we enact any plan. I'm assuming you have one if your asking?"

She nodded before falling into silence and playing with the holographic map for a moment. When it didn't do what she wanted it to she shrugged before pulling up a holographic map of the space out and around Omega. Showing all of the Cerberus vessels and surprisingly, a couple of ours still functional with mining lasers on them.

Those ships were far smaller and barely classable as a fighter but they still had mining lasers on them. Those lasers were far smaller than the big ones I could see floating around in space but they were still doing halfway decent damage. Meaning they would destroy another fighter immediately but wouldn't do much to an actual ship unless they did so repeatedly which they were. Cerberus was looking to be at barely 40% of their original fleet.

"This one right here," Nyreen poined to one of the larger ships at the far back of the Cerberus formation. "That's the command ship. All radio traffic originates to other ships and onto Omega comes from that ship. If we can get to it and take whoever is in charge we can snuff this out before it becomes a battle of numbers. We could win through utilizing Omega as a whole but we still don't know what they want and I'd rather not let them even have a chance of finding it."

"I agree but how do you propose we go about doing that?" Aria stated planing her hands on the desk. Just from the way Nyreen looked at both of us after Aria's question I just knew that whatever came out of her mouth I would not be a happy camper about it. Probably because it would involve me doing something incredibly stupid and risky; and I was proven right.

"There a few Cerberus ships that are still docked. I propose that we take one, and bring it back to one of their ships, as close to the flagship as possible, overload the engine and then use the escape pods of that ship to shoot ourselves straight into the flagship," I stared at Nyreen dumbly her words still being processed by my brain. That plan was one of the most insane and unique plans of all time.

"You are fucking crazy," was all Aria stated after she got over her shock at hearing the plan.

"It's either that or we let them land, get a beach head, get an HQ and a way to find what they want here. Something that I'd rather not do; it would also mean a lot more losses from our people."

"I don't like this, way to many things that could go wrong but the concept is good," I stated thinking it over. Maybe there was a way to modify the plan so it wasn't a one in a million shot. "How many times have the boarding shuttles went back to the fleet and how many have come from the flagship?"

"There's a decent rotation but from the flagship only one has landed and it was in my section," Nyreen stated starting to get the idea of what I wanted to do instead of her proposed insanity. "You could be waiting days for that moment."

"Better than what would essentially boil down to a suicide mission. The timing will have to be immaculate but I already got a team in mind for that and Kelli will give me good recommendations to fill out the roster. Which shuttle came from the flagship?"

"That one," Nyreen stated pulling up a picture of their entry point at a ship, one that was close to a few shelled buildings. "This will put a strain on us with you out of the fight. Your presence alone brings morale up, we can't just have you waiting for an opportunity that may not happen," I shot a look to Aria silently asking if the moral part was true. She gave a small nod of her head.

"We can weather the storm. If we go with your plan and it goes wrong my team is either dead or floating in space an easy target. That or taken captive," I could tell that she didn't like to admit that I was right in this case but we both knew it. She was also right though, waiting too long could be bad for us and the faster we finished this the better.

"Once your team is assembled you have 36 hours. No more, no less. If you don't get an opportunity then you proceed with my plan," I gave her a sharp nod and left with the intent to build my team.


Three hours later I had my team assembled above the closest entry point that Cerberus still had a presence in. Couldn't very well take a shuttle from a spot that had been destroyed by us, would be too obvious it was a fake. Which made this mission all the more difficult but this was never going to be easy regardless.

As for my team I had asked Kelli for her recommendations. She knew who would be the best for this position and there were a few faces that I knew personally. Anofu Tiek, Patus Barion, Ticus Carn, Yete Soona, Pamo Brakpork, Faif T'Zere, Jil'Xafor and our pilot Pequod. All good people and the others that joined us were from teams that Kelli personally recommended. I didn't have the time to learn all there names but I trusted Kelli to give me good operators. As for Pequod there were other pilots that would better suited for the combat portion but if things went sideways in space he's the only one I trusted.

As they were gathered in front of me they all stood at attention and were waiting for me to give them the brief. They had been told that they were selected for a mission to end the invasion but none of them had been told exactly what they were about to do. Probably the best option to tell them when they didn't have time to refuse. Cruel but I was going to be there with them every step instead of just giving them the order to do the mission.

"Our mission will be to get down to the floor near the shuttles that Cerberus used to enter Omega. There are a few buildings we will be using as cover. While we do so myself and Jil, our resident Quarian, will hack into their comms and wait for one of them to be requested back to the flagship. This will be our only shot to have a simple mission that doesn't involve pure insanity.

Either way, when we hear that we wait until they are near the shuttle and blitz them as best as we can. Stay low, stay hidden, and take them out as quietly as possible. We cannot be seen here and if we are the mission is scrapped before anything else happens. Once we've blitzed the shuttle and taken it out of Omega we will make our way to the flagship.

Upon docking in the flagship we are going to be taking over the ship. Patus, you will take three and destroy their engines; I want the ship dead in the water. Anofu, take Faif and Yete and steal as much information as you possible can on the ships servers. Ticus, three and secure the escape pods. As for the rest of you, you will be with me; we will be assaulting the bridge. Our main objective is to capture whoever is in charge of this and force them to surrender. If all else fails we must accomplish this. Is that understood."

"Yes sir!" they all chorused to me.

"Good, those who I gave assignments to come to me in five and tell me who your are taking. We move out in 15."

We had 18 operators in total and Pequod didn't really count, he was a pilot first and foremost. However, with the assignments I had given out we would only have seven to assault the bridge. Should be more than enough as long as we acted fast and violently before they knew what was going on. Still, this mission had me nervous. Too many things that could go wrong but that's just how it is; high risk, high reward.

Even with the nerves though I had faith that we would pull this off. My rosary burning with determination in my pocket at the mere thought of the mission. Taking the rosary out of my pocket I began to pray and what surprised me was that as I did so everyone joined me. All 18 of the people who had been selected joined me in prayer, all of different races and different upbringings. When I finished praying the ones I had given assignments gave me their teams.

With that out of the way we made our last second weapons checks before going to the hatch in the corner that would lead us down. I had used it plenty of times during my rampage on Omega; no one but the Geth, myself and Nyreen knew about it before now. Either way, as we got to the hatch I radio'd Nyreen and asked for her to push a bit to give us some cover.

A minute later the firing increased and I gave the signal for everyone to go down the hatch. Even with the fighting increasing below us we still had to go slow and controlled. There was no point in rushing when we absolutely needed to stay anonymous. It took us almost 10 minutes for all of us to get down but we did it without being seen and we were no more than 50 feet from the shuttle Nyreen had pointed out to me. God favors us here.

Once we were in position Jil and myself hacked into their comms basing the codes off the previous ones we had gotten into. It took us about 15 minutes to get into their comms and from there we waited. Swapping every two hours as we monitored their comm trafficking waiting for the word from the flagship for one of them to come back. It was a longshot that they would actually do it but whoever was behind this invasion would want to have a hands on report. I just knew they would, I had to believe they would or every one of the 18 people with me would be at risk of a true suicide mission.

So, that's how it went for the entire time that we were there. I would take the first two hours and Jil the next two and then we would switch off. While doing so everyone else got some sleep where they could and between our shifts Jil and I would sleep. It was arduous and nerve wracking the whole time dreading that we would have to go through with the insanity. It was the first time I was nervous that something could go wrong… I guess I just really wanted to get back to Tali and Iris. Sappy, I know, but they were the light of my world and I just couldn't accept a galaxy where I wasn't with them.

At hour 31 though on my shift it finally happened. The call came through that their general wanted the second in charge of the fight to report back to the flagship. Upon hearing that I started waking everyone up and telling them to be ready. Once that was accomplished we all waited and watched the shuttle in front of us for any type of movement.

A minute after the call a pilot came to the shuttle and started spooling it up and that's when I radio'd for Nyreen to begin another assault. She did so immediately and not thirty seconds later we saw a lone soldier running to the shuttle while the rest of the Cerberus soldiers covered him. Clicking my radio once all of us sprinted out of the building towards the shuttle.

Pamo, the sole Batarian of our entire company, got there first just as the soldier was making their way to the back of the shuttle to get in. He grabbed the soldier by the front of his armor and threw him to the ground and I was right there bringing my ax straight down into his face. As I did so the others of our group needed no orders and sprinted into the shuttle.

Grabbing the dead body of the soldier I dragged him into the shuttle just as Patus dragged the pilot out of his seat and stabbed the man through the head. Giving a nod to Pequod he took over the shuttle and we took off out of the entry point. I spared one look at the Cerberus soldiers down there and thankfully none of them looked back before the shuttle's back door closed. For now we were in the clear.

By a stroke of pure fucking luck too the verbal comms system had been destroyed. We would only be able to relay messages like all the emergency ones that Nyreen had been able to get for us. Covered perfectly by the push that Nyreen's men had done on Cerberus right before takeoff. God truly was favoring us here but we were nowhere near done yet.

Going out of Omega and into the expanse of space I felt vulnerable for the first time in a long time that didn't involve Tali. There were just far to many ways for this to go horrendously wrong but we stayed a course. None of our ships that were still fighting came anywhere near us because of either luck or they had been notified, it didn't matter.

As we made our way through space every Cerberus ship that we crossed brought new tension to the entirety of the shuttle. There was no way that we would be able to do anything if they decided to just fire upon us and that was what scared me the most. If I was going to die I'd much prefer to go down swinging then in some shuttle that I couldn't fight back in. Not what anyone would want.

Continuing on we made it past the first major section of Cerberus ships and then past the second with no problems. Then the third and finally we were at the inner circle and the Flagship was right there in front of us, mere minutes away. That's when they radio'd us asking for us to respond and go to the docking bay. This was the hardest part as we could hear them but we couldn't respond and we just had to hope they weren't overly paranoid.

When Pequod answered the hail with the codes that Nyreen had given us there was an uncomfortable silence on the other end. Tension skyrocketing in the shuttle until they told us to go to the docking bay where we would be met with a soldier who would take us to the general. Upon hearing that we all breathed a collective sigh of relief but now wasn't the time for that.

Turning and looking at all 17, not counting Pequod, of my assembled squad I gave the order for them to ready their weapons. There was no turning back for any one of them at this point and this was our best opportunity to end the invasion. Each and every one of them knew it at the moment.

So, when we finally docked we waited a moment for the back of the shuttle to open and we were shown three Cerberus service members and a commander waiting there patiently for us. They saw me at the front and the others behind me all with their weapons up and ready. None of the four even had the opportunity to open their mouths before we opened fire and ran out of the shuttle.

As we ran out of the shuttle I was shouting out orders to everyone and we began to clear the hanger of anyone. Most everyone in said hanger were engineers and the like of them but we couldn't take any chances with prisoners and gunned them down. Only two of them had any type of shielding and one shattered after a single hit from an smg, the other couldn't even block my AR's bullet from punching through and into their skull. In other terms it wasn't even a challenge to clear the hanger.

Once that was done everyone split up to do their jobs and I was left with seven others to help me assault the bridge. None of them were people I recognized but they all knew me and knew to follow my orders.

Getting to the main entrance door of the hanger it was already locked down. Deciding not to hack it I placed strips of det cord at the corners and grenades with them before getting into cover. The others did so as well and as soon as they were I blew the det cord and grenades. The door fell backwards with a 'clang' sound as it landed revealing a squad of at least 12 soldiers in front of us in the hall. Thankfully we were in the middle of the ship, where grenades were safe to us with near impunity.

With that in mind and with the knowledge that one of the soldiers with me brought his own grenades we proceeded forward. Suppressing, grenading, and advancing in that order repeatedly through the hall as we pushed forward. We were making excellent progress until they brought out their shield generators, at least two dozen in reinforcements and they started pushing us back.

Snarling at the turn of events that happened I overcharged my omni-tool and suite and fired off as many Overloads as possible down the hall at the generators. I fired off 12 consecutive Overloads, most of which slammed into a Cerberus soldier before they reached the generators. Still, with the close proximity of the hall each Overload hit at least three of them at a time. Even with their reinforcements and shield generators it was too much for them.

Their shields started failing even with the generators from the sheer volume and power of the Overloads I was firing about. My group was initially shocked by what I could do but they recovered quickly and patiently waited for their opportunity lining up shots. They didn't have to wait long either as once I fired the third consecutive Overload one of the soldiers shields shattered and he got a bullet through the skull.

With each following Overload a soldier or two of Cerberus dropped until they got smart around the tenth and got back into cover. This gave me all the opportunity I needed though as I gave the order with my right hand to the other soldier with grenades and he sprang forward tossing two where the shield generators were. As soon as the grenades went off the generators were no more.

With those damn things out of the way we started pushing forward again. Even on their flagship they had never expected for this to happen and it showed on how ill equipped the soldiers were. Most of their weapons were smgs made for close quarters and it would have been a good choice if they had been able to control the flow of the fight at all. They couldn't though as we literally blitzkrieged them.

Pushing straight down the middle and splitting their forces leaving the ones I missed as I pushed forward to be cleaned up by my soldiers. It didn't take long until we were out of the main corridor but I was now officially out of grenades, the other guy still had three of them. Either way once we were out of that corridor we had to go up some stairs and then it would be a straight shot to the bridge.

I went first on the right side up the stairs while a Turian in heavy armor and a shotgun went first on the left. Going up the stairs I put my AR away and opted for the Locust in one hand and knife in the other. Which turned out to be the right decision as an assassin ran down the stairs at me with a shortened blade.

They brought it down with as much force as they could muster but I simply deflected it with my knife before putting the Locust on their stomach and firing a good few times. They collapsed onto the stairs and for good measure I stomped on their head just to be sure. No idea what they were thinking going down a narrow hallway of stairs with a fucking sword, idiot.

Reaching the top of the stars I poked my head out around the corner and saw a decent amount of desks that could be used for cover. However, there were two turrets already deployed from the ceiling. Each of them pelting where my head had just been. Arming my omni-tool with Incinerate programs I dropped to a knee before poking my arm and head out again firing the program off at each turret.

The turrets again pelted where I had been this time draining my shields a bit but not breaking them. However, both my programs hit their marks and I took a couple deep breaths before fully stepping out raising my hand at the same time. The turrets took aim and fired immediately but my Wall caught all the bullets for almost 10 seconds and I sent it all back. Hundreds of rounds returned to sender.

Neither turret was up to the task of tanking that many shots and both subsequently exploded upon impact. Other than the two turrets it seemed that the rest of the soldiers, if there were any left, had retreated back into the bridge. Waving everyone forward and giving the order to get into cover they did so as I walked up to the door.

Hitting my pulse I got a response of eight signatures behind the door. Nodding to myself I began hacking the door, not enough grenades left for a breach. It was slow going as the man in charge had seen reason to bolster the bridge doors defences but it mattered not. Five minutes after I began the door flew open.

Every one of my team opened fire on the bridge hitting anyone that they could. Of the eight in there five of them were just tech workers and held no shields, all going down after a shot. Of the remaining three only two were visible and both seemed to be of the assassin variety of Cerberus troops. They tried to put up a fight but once we entered the room and began pelting their position while surrounding them they stood no chance. One went out trying to charge me and the other was just shot while they tried to move cover. When it was all said and done their was only one signature left alive in the room.

"Come out, now," I growled knowing where they were but not bothering to move to them. After a second of no movement an older gentlemen stepped out of the corner, he had been hidden inside a false panel but he couldn't hide from.

"Ah, Torchbearer. It is my apologies we aren't meeting on better terms."

"I don't give a flying fuck. Order the invasion off now," he opened his mouth to respond but I just growled behind my mask. "Now."

The man straightened his back and nodded his head as if he was taking an order from a superior; which he was. He opened his omni-tool in front of us and gave the order for all Cerberus troops to stand down. To throw down their weapons and surrender. Looking to one of the soldiers with me I did a double take real quick on him noticing that the man was bleeding and he wasn't the only one.

"Who's not injured?" only two of them raised their hands. "You two, tie him up. The rest of you come here," I had my first aid kit and started to get to work on them.

Of the five that were hurt they were overall lucky. Mostly just surface wounds that wouldn't be too much of a problem but two of them had bullets lodged in them. One in the shoulder and the other in leg. The fact that woman was still standing earned my respect. Either way, I told both of them to take it easy for now and radio'd the other teams on the ship.

"Report."

"All good here sir," both Patus and Ticus responded back to back.

"Faif needs medical sir. She's not out of the fight but she's got some burns that need to be addressed," I heard Anofu reply over the radio.

"All good on data collection?"

"Yes sir."

"Then get to the bridge. I'll help her. That goes for the rest of you as well, get to the bridge," a couple minutes later Anofu's team arrived and Yete was supporting Faif. Faif had some nasty burns on her neck and the shoulder pads of her armor looked partially melted; she probably had some burns underneath her armor. Getting her undressed I was proven right and treated it as best as I could. Medi-gel was generally for wounds and not burns but for now it would work as I had no burn cream or anything to help with that.

As I was helping Anofu, Patus, and Ticus' team's showed up and we all made ourselves comfortable. After dealing with Faif and seeing how the others were fairing I radio'd Nyreen and Aria to see if the order had been followed. It had and all Cerberus troops on Omega and in space had ceased hostilities. I talked with the two of them for a few minutes seeing what we should do and once we had a plan I hung up. With that information I turned back to the Commander.

"You will order all your ships to dock on Omega. Once docked all of them will leave their ships and board one of your medical ships, all of them except for you. In exchange they will be allowed to leave Omega space peacefully."

"I assume that is the best that I will be getting," I nodded. "Then I will give the order," and he did. In short order we were moving to Omega and had docked. Along with every other remaining Cerberus ship.

It took almost a full four hours after docking for the process to be done. Especially since some of the mercs not under Nyreen or my control weren't keen on letting it happen. A singular video from Vrul to the Krogan resisting and they submitted immediately, I don't know what he sent them but I had an idea that it had to do with myself and Dashi. Once the Krogan submitted though the rest followed.

From there it was just piling their soldiers and wounded onto the one ship. A very overcrowded ship to say the least but I will say that this was one hell of a win for us. Not only had we completely trounced a Cerberus invasion of Omega but we now had a halfway decent fleet to go along with it. Most, if not all, of the ships would need repairs but that didn't matter to me. It was a win.

At the end of those four hours when we sent the Cerberus soldiers away we waited until they hit the relay and disappeared. When they did hit the Relay the party started and it was an absolute rager. Aria even broke out the expensive alcohol for the leaders of the fight. Which included myself, Nyreen, Kelli, Ilok, Samuel, Vrul and a couple of her Lieutenants. During that time in which we were drinking together and everyone else was partying the video Vrul sent the Krogan began circulating across Omega.

I had been proven correct in my assumption that it was about Dashi and myself. It was a full on video from start to finish from where our fight started and ended when I brought my Halberd down on the final Cerberus soldier. It was good entertainment and had the side effect of instilling more fear in the mercs that opposed us. We may have had an alliance with Aria for now but that would end eventually. It was obvious to all of the leaders but for now we chose to ignore that and celebrate.

What I didn't expect to be a side effect of the video's circulation was the reaction from two of the present races. The Krogan on omega were singing my praises, literally; already coming up with battle songs with me being the central figure. I even heard mentions from an especially drunk Vrul that some of the Krogan believed I was a descendent of Vondok, the leader of their Rebellion. It was actually very flattering to be honest.

The other race was far less flattering. The majority of the Asari on Omega were now actively throwing themselves at me trying to bed me. Even so much as having the balls to come into Aria's personal chambers, where the leaders had moved after it got to hectic, and practically demanded I bed them. Something about creating beautiful and powerful children was the reason that they used the most as an excuse. I was at the end of my rope before Aria and Nyreen both put their foot down and banned anyone, on fear of expulsion from Omega, from bothering us without a real reason.

After that they stoped trying and we were left alone with the exception of a couple of visitors. Patus joined us and stayed at Kelli's side the whole time; I didn't know that they were still together. A provocatively dressed Drell female came in after and I never got her name but she planted herself on Aria's lap so I got the message there. The final visitor was Kalia Chidozie and she immediately went to Samuel and straddled him upon entering the room. She practically ate his face for a full five minutes before pulling back satisfaction written across her face before grabbing a chair and placing it next to him. I just laughed at that and his obvious embarrassment, Kalia looked like the cat that caught the canary though.

She was the last visitor and once she arrived the party in Aria's room really kicked off. There was a lot of heavy drinking and I don't remember anything about what happened that night after the three hour mark of Kalia's arrival. All I know is that I woke up on the floor of the room with my armor still on, a pounding headache, my stomach in turmoil and desperate need for water and food.

Thankfully I wasn't the first one awake and I smelled someone cooking food in the kitchen. Stumbling my way there like a blind fool I grabbed one of the stools and sat down lying my face onto the island in the kitchen. Whoever was making breakfast didn't say anything as they probably didn't notice me but after a few more shuffling feet and the scrape of a stool being pulled back along with someone plopping down in said seat they did notice us.

"You okay there boss?" I heard Kelli's voice from where the stove was but it was accompanied by an almost melodic chuckle. Popping open a singular eye I saw Kelli with the Drell from last night cooking the food.

"Water and Coffee please," I groaned out and from the grunt of agreement to my left whoever was next to me needed the same thing. Not long after they were put in front of me and I greedily drank the water, getting a refill instantly. It was again gone in an instant and replaced just as fast. Instead of downing that one though I sipped on it and the coffee eventually able to push up off the island and actually sit in the chair.

Samuel was to my left and Ilok was next to him. Both looking like they had been up for five straight days and just plain miserable. Kelli just shook her head at us as the Drell finished cooking the first batch of food, scrambled eggs, toast and sausage. Perfect for a hangover.

We spent I don't know how long gouging our way through all of Aria's food. The others joining us in their own time until everyone was eating food at either the table or the island. It was almost a completely silent affair and I believe eveyrone liked it better that way for now. There was no reason for us to be loud or do anything today, the entirety of Omega was probably hungover at this point. Besides the kids of course and even some of them were probably hungover as well.

We spent two hours just eating in silence nursing our hangovers from all the alcohol that we drank. None of us in any particular mood or anything remotely loud or bright, Aria even dimmed the lights to the lowest they could go while still being on. I'm pretty sure that was the drunkest that I've ever been and it seemed to be the case for everyone else. Though Vrul seemed to be the worse for it, the man had downed six bottles of hard liquor with only his Krogan physiology keeping him alive.

When those two hours ended though I said my goodbyes and went straight back to my apartment. There were a few people out and about at the moment but all were nursing hangovers but the ones that did notice me gave me kind smiles and thanked me. I reciprocated as best as I could but my mind and body weren't about it. Even after all that food, water and coffee the hangover persisted and didn't look like it would be leaving any time soon.

As I neared my apartment I glanced in one of the window panes near my apartment. What I saw in the reflection of that window pane caused me to stop and freeze up for a moment. In the reflection was myself, armor and all, but on my left and right was also me. Three of me all standing side by side.

"Hell of a thing we've accomplished in these few years," the one of my left said in a cold and calculating voice.

"Not done yet," the one on my right growled out causing the one on the left to snort and shake their head before seemingly looking straight into my eyes.

"We've always been here," the one on the left stated knowing my question before I asked it. "Aspects of you given form from your need of us."

"Protection," the right one growled getting a nod from the left one.

"Drive," the left one stated. "We are one and-"

"We are you," and then dissipated as if they were never there at all. Great, the voices are back; it's been a little bit. Shaking my head I continued on my way.

Once I got back to my apartment though Iris was waiting there on the couch bouncing her foot up and down. When she saw me she ran to me and jumped into my arms hugging me, I returned the hug before going to the couch. Telling her to select a movie we weren't going to be moving from our spot all day if I could help it. However, just as she was about to start the movie there was a knock on the door.

Answering it there was a Quarian Marine standing there in front of me. I recognized him as one of the few that I had helped train when I had been with the Fleet the first time but his name escaped me. What the hell was he doing here?

"Yes?"

"Sir, may I come in I have a message from Admiral Zorah," nodding my head I moved aside and let him into the room. Walking in he went to the kitchen before handing me a note. Seeing that I growled and looked back up to the Quarian.

"Whatever she wants to tell me she can do it face to face. I won't read anything over a damn note," I was admittedly fearful of what was on the note but I knew she wouldn't do anything stupid. Or at least she wouldn't do anything like what I was irrationally thinking was on the note.

"Sir -" he saw my face and instantly shut up for a moment before talking again. "I've been ordered to tell you that the Fleet has commenced their assault on Rannoch and have gone into full communication lockdown until the Admirality board decides otherwise."

"What else?" I knew he was either hiding something or still had something to tell me.

"I have been ordered by Admiral Zorah to stick with you at all times. In her words: 'make sure the idiot doesn't do anything too crazy," I just laughed. Yeah, that's my girl. Oh, I miss her already. He then handed me me a file chit that could be linked with my omni-tool. "She also told me to give that to you in case you miss her."

Immediately taking the chit I synced it with my omni-tool and turned away from the Quarian. On the file were pictures, a lot of pictures. All of a particular taste and I will freely admit that I did not know that Quarians had lingerie. She rocked every single one.

"Well, what's your name soldier as apparently you'll be my minder for the foreseeable future," I asked turning around and reaching out my hand to the guy.

"Nif'Namma sir. Call me Nif," he stated shaking my hand. As soon as we pulled our hands back Nyreen threw open the door to my apartment. I had my gun in my hand immeidately and Iris took a shot at Nyreen with her gun. Nyreen, thankfully, still had her armor and shields on, the bullet bouncing harmlessly off of them. She looked straight at me after Iris' shot.

"Batarian space just went completely dark. They're here."

Fan-fucking-tastic. Start of basically a holy war for the galaxy and I'm hungover, bold move.


Hope y'all enjoyed. Things are about to kick off!