Just so y'all know at the end of last chapter we were 7 months into the 2yr break between ME 1 and ME 2. By the way, we will be on Omega until the start of ME 2.
Biggest chapter to date btw.
POV: TorchRed Eyes
It's been just about 3 months or so since I got to Omega and all things considered it's gone very well. Of course there have been a few bumps in the road but it has gone as smoothly as it possibly could.
First and foremost the orphanage that I had suggested has been up and running for over two months now and it's been perfect. There's a couple former teachers in the area who currently help out at it teaching the kids and taking care of them. Not to mention that the kid's truly want to learn, it truly was heartwarming to see for some of those kids.
The ones that had their families killed or had been abandoned were the ones that trusted us the fastest. The ones where being on the street was all they knew took longer and we still didn't have some of their trust. They were starting to come around at the notice of the orphanage was gaining some headway.
That little expansion also gave us access to a few warehouses. One of which now housed my ship along with Nyreen's. Hers had definitely seen far more mileage than mine and was far better equipped, offensively at least.
That wasn't all however. We had found an old incinerator and we were using it to discard the trash and gunk everywhere, making for a much cleaner area. That alone seemed to win a lot of popularity with the area.
Plus we set up a sort of soup kitchen for the homeless and it doubled as intelligence gathering. I wasn't about to use the kids if I could help it but the homeless people were more than willing to spy for us if it came with free food and shelter. It still surprised me that no one else bothered to use the homeless this way.
It didn't come without its own set of problems though. When word got out about the orphanage and shelter in the area a couple of local gangs tried to muscle in and collect money from them. Even tried to push drugs on some of the kids and we were having absolutely none of that shit.
The first gang to try something was called the Rejects or something like that. I didn't bother learning their name after they tried to push drugs onto the kids. Once we found out about that it took 2 hours to find out where they hung out and another 6 hours to decimate them. We left none alive and burned their hideout to the ground. I stayed behind to make sure that none made it out alive.
They weren't the last though and only a week later a small time merc company tried to make the orphanage and shelter pay 'taxes' for being in their area. It was a Vorcha company that did it and I ended up learning a bit about Vorcha during that 2 day fiasco. In the means that Vorcha were a 'Might makes Right' type of species meaning that they followed the strongest.
We systematically whittled their company from 40 strong down to 20 before approaching them. We just wanted them to fuck off and leave our people alone but they were adamantly against the idea. Negotiations broke down quickly and their leader challenged our leader to a fight to the death.
Garrus took the lead there and fought the Vorcha leader one on one. Killed the leader after a couple minutes and when he did the remaining vorcha pledged themselves to Garrus. It was a weird thing to witness in all honesty but I wasn't complaining. We absorbed our first mercenary group and they were all vorcha.
They were hard to control and for the most part we kept them near the orphanage and shelter. Say what you will about them but when Garrus gave them an order they were damn near fanatical about following that order. So keeping them near the shelter and orphanage was the best thing that we could've done with them. The kids and homeless took a couple weeks to get used to them but they have.
After that we started to grow. Not exponentially but we were growing and in those three months we've gone from a small team of 12 to almost 50 people working with us. Garrus, myself and Nyreen were at the head and the pseudo bosses of everyone. Garrus took care of most things and was the figurehead; he still went on jobs with me every now and again but he spent most of his time making sure everything was going right.
I was the one who went on missions which mostly amounted to a lot of destabilization missions. In simple terms I went in and generally raised chaos for other merc groups. Taking their supplies, food, money, and destroying their drugs. If they had slaves they were released and all would end up with us.
Some of those slaves were actually working in our group now but most spent their time working jobs in are area trying to get enough money to buy passage back home. Some had already gotten home while others were still working on it. A few, I had heard, were thinking about staying around to help with the kids or because they had nowhere else to go.
Speaking of slaves we had basically purged all the slavers in our immediate area and were well on our way to doing it for the 3 floors above and below us. People were starting to fear us and with good reason. We were merciless and were more than willing to get our hands dirty to do what needed to be done. However, I think that most of that fear was directed at Nyreen and not us.
When Garrus had told me that she was our info specialist and scout I believed him but not to the degree she's done it. Every single group that we would hit she would already have someone on the inside feeding us information on where and when to hit. Not to mention that she destroyed 3 gangs by herself without firing a shot, just some well placed tidbits of information and they were fighting each other to the death. I'd be lying if I said that didn't scare the crap out of me.
That being said, I still didn't trust Nyreen. Oh, I trusted her to watch my back in a fight and to give us the best information for a mission but I didn't trust her fully. I just kept remembering that she had been in a relationship with Aria and that she could be reporting everything we did to her. It wasn't helped by the fact that she was actively seducing Garrus. I wasn't 100% sure if they were bumping uglies yet but they were well on their way.
Then we had my augmetic arm. I had been studying it the last couple months to try and find out exactly what happened when it touched biotics. I knew that it was basically an early warning system against them but they way that it reacted with Biotics was still weird. Nyreen had volunteered to help me out in that respect but I didn't trust her enough yet. The rest of our biotics were Asari and I hadn't known them long enough to trust them either.
Which resulted in me having to test it out during missions. That resulted in me finding out that when it made direct contact with a biotic it weakened them. I still hadn't figured out everything that went along with it since I couldn't study it full sail but it was enough for some guess work. I talked it over with Garrus and we had a few ideas but nothing concrete yet.
Pushing past that the breakdown for the last three months went as follows. We had established an orphanage and homeless shelter, the shelter doubling as an information network. We went from a company of 12 to pushing 60 from absorbing gangs, other merc companies and from freed slaves who joined us. The whole area we were on, roughly ⅓ of a floor, was indisputably ours and people were helping in the community and it was safer than any other part of Omega. And finally one of the three in charge was actively seducing our official leader while, possibly, being a spy for Aria.
All that brings us to the present day where I was currently stalking a slaver. They had gotten smarter and more cautious in the last three months because of my attacks on them. With me for this mission was Sidonis and Kelli T'vela, an Asari Matron who had been a commando before being captured by Batarians and sold into slavery. She'd been a slave for almost a 100 years and was by far the most brutal soldier we had at our disposal except for maybe me. She blamed her Krogan heritage for that. She had also essentially become my Sergeant in the two months she's been with us, she kept everyone else in line if I wasn't there.
Regardless, Sidonis and Kelli were the exact two that I wanted for this mission. Sidonis had tracked down the slavers with help from Nyreen's network and already had a number of soldiers inside for us, 24. As for Kelli, this was an extermination mission and anyone we found inside their hideout that wasn't a slave would be dead within the next hour. It should be an easy mission all things considered as from Nyreen's info none except for the leader had shields. And it was only a three floor building; top, main and basement floors.
Right now, I was about 50 feet from the main entrance of their hideout watching the front guards from an alleyway. Kelli was waiting at the side entrance and Sidonis was on top of the building waiting to drop down. They would wait for me to enter the building and gain everyone's attention before hitting them.
"Commencing assault," I spoke through the radio, raising my Mattock and firing two shots into the head and neck of the respective guards. The one who got the shot in the neck gasped and gurgled on the ground clutching at his neck as I walked to and over him as I made my way to the entrance.
Not wasting any time I Spartan Kicked the door open. It slammed into someone violently coming back at me but I lowered my left shoulder and took the brunt of the door as it bounced off me. As soon as it bounced off my shoulder I got a look at a Batarian who was lying on the ground in front of me dazed. He raised his hand pleading as he saw me but I didn't hesitate putting a bullet through his skull, slavers don't deserve mercy.
Moving into the room adjacent to the entrance there were 4 more soldiers scrambling to get up and grab their weapons from the table as they ate. A singular human, two Batarians and one Turian were in the room and all died within a second. Each with a bullet through their brain.
As soon as they were dead I heard a bellowing voice from inside the building. Guessing their leader had caught on I clicked my radio and two simultaneous explosions went off. Kelli and Sidonis both had breaching charges on them so it was easy to tell who had just caused the explosions. Stepping back into the hallway I continued down the path before happening upon another room.
Hacking the door open I saw children chained to the wall with the ground covered in their shit and piss. The kids, eight in total with 4 humans, 1 Turian, an Asari and 2 Krogan kids, looked terrible but as soon as their eyes landed on me I saw flickers of hope in their eyes. Hitting my pulse to make sure my floor was clear I saw that Kelli was dealing with the remainder and none were near me so I addressed the kids. Getting down on a knee in front of them I stared at them for a second before speaking.
"We'll get you out of here, just wait a bit longer. Can you do that for me," none of them said anything for a few moments before a little blonde girl stood up and stared at me.
"We can," I smiled at her determination.
With that I nodded and then left the room, noting the room that they were in. The moment I stepped out the door the wall about 20 feet in front of me exploded as the body of a Turian was flung through it. The body impacted against the other wall and plopped down on the floor leaving blood stained on the wall. Looking at the hole Kelli stepped through wreathed in biotic power as she smiled.
"You having fun?"
"You have no idea boss."
"You find any slaves?"
"No, you?"
"Yeah, I marked the door so we'll get them after. How many have you got?"
"Four. You?"
"Seven. Let's move," and so we did and as we started to move Sidonis' voice came through the radio.
"Top floor is clear. Six are down," that's 17 so seven left including their boss.
"Get to the main floor, we'll regroup and finish up the soldiers in the basement then."
A minute later Sidonis came down the stairs and grouped up with us as we made our way to the stairs. Walking down them with me on point we got to the basement with a singular door impeding us. Hitting my pulse again I saw the remaining 7 hostiles on the other side of the door and no other signatures.
Gesturing to Kelli she nodded and brought out another breaching charge. I then took out two grenades and handed onto to Sidonis. We all backed up a couple feet from the door and Kelli waited for my signal. Clicking the radio once she blew the charge and both Sidonis and I threw our grenades through the door, mine going left, his going right.
Once the grenades went off we all charged through the door with me on point. Once we were through the door I noticed that there were three bodies lying on the ground with multiple limbs missing. Another two were slow to get up and both got a bullet from me and Sidonis. Another popped out of cover only to get hit by a Warp from Kelli and got attomized.
Knowing there was another one, and probably the leader, somewhere around here we kept our guard and waited. We didn't have to wait long as a roar came from our left and a massive Krogan charged at us from behind some cover. He batted Sidonis aside like he was a ragdoll before shoulder checking me to the ground and continued at Kelli.
She threw a Throw at the Krogan but he was enveloped in his own biotic shield dispelling the throw. Then he reared back a fist and attempted to clock Kelli. She blocked the initial punch but with the power behind it she stumbled and wasn't ready for the follow up punch. It connected her stomach and I swear she was lifted off the ground for a moment before she retaliated in kind.
Spinning on her toes she delivered a spinning kick to the krogans head making him stumble a foot or so away from her. Not staying on the ground I came from behind and slid down to deliver the hardest punch possible with my augmetic hand to the Krogans right ankle. As soon as my arm made contact his barrier shattered and my fist connected with his ankle snapping it like a twig.
He screamed in agony for a second but that's all the time he had. Kelli grabbed his headplate at the sides and biotically wrenched it off in one smooth motion. His screams became shrieks of pain as he tried to cover his exposed brain but it didn't last long. He got a singular bullet through his brain thanks to Sidonis. At that, it was over.
"Thanks boss. Sidonis," Kelli said, nodding to us both before looking at the headplate she still held in her hands. "Freak sharpened his headplate."
"Really?" I hadn't ever heard of a Krogan doing that. Kelli nodded before handing me the headplate. Sure enough the headplate was sharpened.
"I'm gonna keep this," that got raised eyebrows from both Sidonis and Kelli.
"Why?" Sidonis asked. I shrugged my shoulders before responding.
"Never seen it before. I want it," they both exchanged glances before shrugging. "Let's go get the kids."
They both nodded and with that we left the bodies where they lay. I strapped the headplate to my leg as we went back up the stairs and to the room with the kids. Opening the door to the room they huddled in the corner afraid but when they saw me they relaxed. The little blond girl jumped forward in front of the group and hugged onto my leg letting out weak cries.
Bending down I picked her up and held her in my arms as Sidonis picked the lock on her chains. He then proceeded to do the rest for the kids and while he did that I called Garrus for a ride. We weren't about to escort/carry these kids all the way back to the orphanage. That was asking for trouble.
We walked out the front door of the building with the kids in hand. I had the little girl and both the Salarian children in my arms while Kelli had the other three humans and Sidonis had the Asari and Turian kid in his arms. A couple minutes after we got outside an air car landed in front of us and we all piled in. Our driver being an old Turian fighter pilot in his twilight years; he was a good man.
After we all piled in we made our way back to our base and specifically the orphanage. The old Turian dropped us off and we all walked into the orphanage to drop off the kids. They all got taken by the caretakers there except for the little girl who had spoken for them. She refused to let go of me and after a couple of minutes of struggling to get her to let go I gave up.
She was wrapped around my chest and had her head buried in my shoulder as she wrapped her arms around my neck. Leaving the orphanage with her I got a message from Garrus to get to the command building. A small little hovel only Garrus used outside of when we have meetings. Heading there with the girl still stuck on me I got a few looks and awe's from the locals who saw me.
Getting into the hovel and into the room we used for meetings I was greeted with Garrus and Nyreen talking to each other quietly. They did that a lot recently but I wasn't one to pry, as long as it didn't impede their judgment and it was genuine I didn't care. If either of those two started to occur than I would voice my opinion but for now it didn't matter. Even if I didn't like it.
"So, he does have a weakness?" Nyreen stated as she saw the kid still clutching onto my chest.
"Aren't all children our weaknesses?" I responded as I sat down in the last remaining chair and turned to Garrus. "What's up Garrus?"
"Why do you have a Krogan headplate strapped to your leg?" he asked after a few seconds of silence.
"I wanted it."
"Okay… Nyreen, take it away."
"A new drug hit the market last week and it ain't a pretty one," she stated putting emphasis on the word 'pretty', "From what we've been able to find and piece together you would know most about this drug Torch." I cocked my head to the side.
"Explain."
"Garrus informed me that you have some previous criminal ties that could connect to the new drug. Be that as it may, the new drug works similar to the drug you know as Crack. That's all we've been able to find out really, no one else has been willing or able to talk so we were hoping you could shed some light on this," I released a breath I didn't know I had been holding in as she finished.
"How similar to Crack is it?"
"One of the only homeless humans to talk after witnessing it said he hadn't seen anything like it since he was in a Crack Den on Earth."
"I can't say anything without seeing the drug in action but if it's being referred to as Crack for the other species we should do everything we can to get rid of it."
"How bad is it?" Garrus asked.
"If it's anywhere close to actual Crack then you could take half the skull off of a Krogan and they'd still have more than enough time to kill and eat you."
"Then we only have one option, total annihilation. Any objections?" Garrus asked as he folded his arms over his chest. Neither myself or Nyreen said anything against it. "Good. Nyreen, I want the production centers marked and mapped out within the week. We won't be able to deal with all the dealers but for now Wynne you'll go after those that we know about. Nyreen will give you the information."
Both Nyreen and myself nodded as Garrus stood up and left the room. Once he had left we both stared impassively at each other before she worked on her omni-tool for a quick couple of seconds. Once she was done my omni-tool lit up with a notification that I had gotten a new message. It showed me the locations of all the dealers that we knew about, there were only three. All three were independent dealers too so they wouldn't have any support other than themselves, easy to take out.
"Let me know when you find the Lab. We can't hit the dealers beforehand in case they move the Lab because they get paranoid."
"That's acceptable, have a good day Torch."
"You as well Kandros," both our tones were icy and conveyed contempt between each other but we did respect each other, if only for our abilities in the field. That was acceptable to me. Standing up from the chair I rubbed the back of the girl who still clung to my chest.
"You want some food girl?" she pulled away from my chest and looked at me innocently for a few moments.
"Yes," she whispered out. Barely loud enough for me to hear even with how close we were.
Leaving the room I made my way to our shelter where most of the food was served. Going inside everyone gave me a wide berth, especially since I had a child on my chest. In record time I had a meal for both myself and the child. Sitting down at a table at the far end of the room in the corner I gave the food to the child and kept a little bit for myself.
Within moments she had devoured all the food in front of her before turning back around and latching onto my chest. I chuckled at the turn of events and took my time as I ate the food that was provided. I got a bit smaller of a portion than usual but it wasn't bad, it was still filling.
However, it seemed that the child wasn't done. She took every single scrap that I had and made sure that she ate it. It was endearing in a way and looking at her I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. However, when she was done eating she looked at me with eyes I had never seen. Eyes that yearned to learn and become better, the type of eyes that I knew I possessed; it was weird and I couldn't help but wonder if this is what my Mentors saw when they saw me.
When we finished our meal I stood up with the little girl still clinging to my chest. As I left the shelter I asked her if she wanted to go to the orphanage to be with the other kids. She shook her head adamantly and poked me in the chest with her little fingers. Shaking my head and smiling at her act I brought her to the small apartment I had been staying in at one of the buildings in the area.
Getting to the room I gently pried her off of me and put her down on the couch before going to the kitchen. Grabbing a water out of the fridge I went back to her and offered her the drink. She devoured the water in mere seconds and just held onto the bottle as she sat there on the couch looking aimlessly in front of her. Sitting down next to her I patted her head and rubbed her head.
"You're safe now," I took off my helmet, still with makeup on, and gave her a small smile. She gave me one back.
"What's your name kid?" she receded back into herself at my words and stared at her water bottle for a few moments before turning back to me.
"I don't remember," she whispered out. I felt my heart break a little at that.
"Would you like one?"
"I want to choose," she stated sounding confident in herself for the first time. I smiled and gave her a nod. That was all we said to each other and not long after she fell over on the couch away from me and was sound asleep. Looking down at her small form I smiled again and grabbed a small blanket for her. As soon as I had put the blanket on her Garrus was calling me.
"Yes?"
"Get down to the meeting room now. Aria is here," wonder what took her so long.
"I'll be there in a moment."
Putting my helmet back on I left a quick note on the door for the girl in case she wakes up before I get back. Then I rushed back to the meeting room and got there in record time. As I got there Aria was sitting on the third chair with a Krogan and Batarian bodyguard behind her. I simply went in and got behind Garrus and Nyreen.
"Let's skip the small talk. You have my property."
"You'll have to be more specific," Nyreen responded immediately and I definitely gained some respect for her in that instance.
"You raided a slaver today," she spoke looking at me. "He had sold me some little Krogan kids, hard to find. I want them here. Now."
"Do you have proof of sale?" Nyreen was taking the reins now and neither myself or Garrus were going to take them from her. Still, as a response she snapped her fingers and the Batarian opened his omni-tool and sent us some documents.
"This is a contract saying you have reserved the property, not paid for it. This is not a proof of sale Aria," Nyreen spoke after looking at the documents for a couple seconds.
"Are you really going to play this game with my Nyreen? I wonder what would've happened with us if you had that much spine back then," Aria mockingly said at Nyreen. To her credit Nyreen didn't even flinch and neither did Garrus, guess he knew.
"You still allow slavery and participate in it, and you cheated on me. It was never going to work. Kindly fuck off Aria," Aria chuckled at that before shaking her head.
"Are you sure you want to play it that way?" Nyreen and Garrus looked at me. I nodded my head, and Nyreen nodded back before turning and nodding at Garrus.
"Yes," was all he said. Aria let out a long sigh before standing up and leaving without saying a word.
"That went surprisingly well," Garrus stated after a minute of silence after Aria left.
"She was testing us. She wanted to see if we would bend or not," Nyreen stated, her eyes never having left the way Aria left.
"And since we didn't bend?" I asked taking Aria's abandoned seat.
"I don't know, everyone always bent before us. Probably a bounty on us and what we've built. We need to tell everyone to prepare," Nyreen said more to Garrus than me.
"I'll take care of it. Nyreen, keep an ear to the ground for what she might do, otherwise keep your focus on the drug. I don't want it spreading," with that Garrus stood up and left the room. Presumably to let all the workers at the shelter and orphanage know along with the strike teams. Once he left I turned to face Nyreen.
"Don't act like you didn't know about me and her. It's why you don't trust me," Nyreen stated harshly. Guess she was a little shaken, not that I blame her; Ex's suck.
"Is it in the past?" I asked, gaining a glare from the woman.
"Yes," she growled out. I believed her too, she had those small little pinpricks of tears in the corner of her eyes you only get when you're incredibly angry. Exs are always able to do that to you, especially when you cared.
I didn't respond and simply left the room. Made my way back to my room and when I entered the girl was still sleeping. Smiling a little at her I made my way to my bed and passed out. The next morning I was greeted with a message from Nyreen saying that her, Garrus and myself now all had bounties of 2 million. Dead or Alive. Insultingly low in my opinion.
That's what I thought until I realized what she might be doing. That bounty wasn't high enough for the heavy hitters to actually bother to follow through with it, especially with Garrus and I's reputation. However, it was enough for the desperate to give it a shot. That more than anything would be a hassle and innocents would be hurt, she put the bounty that low to influence the desperate to attack us. Smart. Or maybe I'm just being overly paranoid.
A couple days later I had grabbed Ilok Geban, a Salarian veteran merc who was one of the first to join us, and Samuel Rodgers, a human mercenary who joined us with Ilok, to attack the dealers. They were the two that were always called for pure stealth/assassination missions. They were supremely effective at their jobs.
Nyreen had found the place where they were making the drug and we were going to hit it tomorrow morning so tonight we would be hitting the dealers. Since they were independent dealers and alone each of us would take a single one.
It was a bit surprising that there was only one Lab currently working on the drug and it was all alone in a secluded part of Omega. However, from what Nyreen said it was still in the early stages in getting a foothold on Omega. Which didn't bode well for the rest of the galaxy but if we could eliminate this Lab Omega would be safe from it for a while.
As for the fallout of Aria putting a bounty on Garrus, Nyreen and I nothing has really come of it yet. The people in our own camp already knew why we had one on us and adamantly refused to do anything over principle, none of us like slavery. As for the other mercenaries on Omega they didn't want that type of heat.
They would have to attack through a zone that everyone was armed in and everyone respected us. Plus there was the fact that a lot of the older mercenaries thought that 2 million for even one of us was too low to risk it. We were all highly dangerous in our own right and worth more than 2 million if they were going to risk the fight.
That being said Frank called me once the bounty had been posted and congratulated me on getting a bounty put on me by Aria. Said it was, more or less, a right of passage for the best mercenaries out there. Said he even had one in his earlier days. Tali, on the other hand, when I called her for our weekly talk did not take it lightly. She was worried but I told her it would be okay.
Moving on I had told Ilok and Samuel about who their targets were and what to expect when they went to their targets. They both listened intently to my brief and when it was over we all left to kill our respective targets. Mine was some Salarian named Chorban.
I knew where the guy was and set up across from his apartment with my sniper rifle and waited. When I set up my sniper he wasn't in his apartment and didn't come back for a while. He wasn't back until almost midnight but when he did get back he didn't last long. As soon as he closed the door to his apartment I took my shot. It punched through the glass window and through his head painting the wall behind him a lovely shade of red and grey.
Putting the sniper onto my back I made my way over to the building and up to his room. Hacking my way in I looked around for a bit before finding his stash of drugs. Most of it was stuff I didn't recognize and decided to just burn it all. That being said he did have 3 already rolled blunts in his stash. I quietly pocketed those before burning the rest.
With my job done I made my way back to our base. I was the last one to make it back but it didn't matter all that much. Once I was back Nyreen and Garrus greeted me and pulled me aside to talk. All we did was go over the plan for the assault on the Lab and who would be in charge of what.
It boiled down to this. Since the lab was heavily fortified with about 50 soldiers protecting it plus whoever was actually making the drug we would take it relatively slow. Also considering, of those 50 eight of them were biotics and over half would have shields. A decently sized force to fight.
As for the Lab itself there wasn't anything special about it. It was a single story building with, according to Nyreen, at least 2 floors of basement. It's own internal power system so turning off the power wasn't going to work unless we got to it in the Lab itself. From what Nyreen could gather too they were highly paranoid and expecting a fight.
Regardless of their preparedness Nyreen and I would lead the first wave at the lab. My job would be to kill the perimeter guards and anyone on the first floor. Nyreen's group would be focused on information gathering. If we failed in our jobs or got discovered, Garrus would be leading the main assault force that would be waiting only a minute's sprint from the Lab. All in all, it was a solid plan.
Exactly an hour later we were all in our positions around the Lab and were getting ready to move in. Nyreen sat next to me in an alley observing the Lab and taking down notes. There were more guards on the outside than she predicted, there being 10 instead of six. It wouldn't matter either way.
The only problem would be the 2 snipers on top of the building that we would need to take out first. We already had Sidonis and one of Nyreen's people, a Salarian woman Jigum Jaua, on it. They both had the silenced variant of the M-92 Mantis SR and as soon as we were in position around the perimeter they would take the shot.
Looking over to me Nyreen nodded and I gave the signal to my guys. I had Ilok, Samuel and Kelli and we would be taking the left side where there were two groups of two. All four of those soldiers being Drell which was a bit surprising. Either way we slowly got into position where the Drell couldn't see us.
Samuel and Ilok were with each other while Kelli was with me as we were situated behind one of the broken down air cars in the street. Nodding to them I clicked my radio once signalling the time to start the attack. At that I saw both the snipers drop like a sack of bricks and one of their guns fell off the building clattering to the ground.
This had all the guards turn their head toward the noise and we acted. Kelli hit one of the Drell it a pull and caught the soldier as he flew towards her. I didn't bother looking to see what she did as I charged the Drell who was already bringing up his radio as he spotted the downed snipers. I tackled him to the ground and shoved my knife into his throat.
He died quickly and I looked over to where the two Samuel and Ilok were supposed to take out. One had a throwing knife sticking out of his neck while the last one was in a wrestling match with Samuel. I ran to support Samuel but before I could get there the Drell kicked Samuel away and brought his radio up.
"We're under at-" I didn't waste any time as soon as he got the words out and shot the Drell in the face.
Looking to where Nyreen's group was dealing with the other four guards I saw that they had the same thing happen. However, two of them were able to get their radio's up and to their mouths but one got stopped in a stasis, the other one didn't. He got enough words out to make sure they knew we were coming.
"Garrus, we've been made. We're moving in though, come now," said through the comm channel to Garrus. I didn't bother waiting for his response and gave the hand signal to the door.
Nyreen didn't look happy at the turn of events but it is what it is, now we adapt. Getting to the front entrance I hit my pulse and saw that there were about 12 soldiers on the other side. Nodding to Kelli, she went to the door and set up a breaching charge. While she did that I took two grenades off my bandolier and handed one to Nyreen.
We stood in front of the door and I gave a nod to Kelli, she then blew the door. Once the door was blown Nyreen and I chucked our grenades in. Once they went off our group piled in with Nyreen and myself taking up the rear.
As soon as I entered it was already a full sale fire fight but we had shields and only 8 of them did. The four of them who didn't have shields were already dead or dying on the floor while the rest were still standing. Then one of them wreathed themselves in biotic light and my arm started to hum.
Without thinking I threw a punch forward with my augmetic hand just as the biotic disappeared. They charged at me but went straight into my fist. I felt their biotic power shatter as did their face at the same time. They dropped straight back down violently head first, the back of their head breaking open against the floor.
It wasn't without consequences though, I felt my whole left arm go numb all the way up to my shoulder. At that I dropped into cover behind one of the boxes and waited for feeling to return in my arm. I wasn't about to sit it out completely though and popped up a couple of times spraying the soldiers I could with my Mattock while I held it one-handed.
Not a minute later the soldiers defending the area were all dead. Garrus would show up just as we were finishing up the fight with about 20 soldiers of the main force. Once he was there he took command of the situation. Plan stayed the same, it just wasn't able to be done perfectly.
With that the feeling in my arm returned and I got to be on point for the entire force taking the left stairs. Nyreen would be on point for the force going right.
Going down the stairs on the left with Kelli at my back I barely made it five feet down the flight of stairs before a grenade bounced off the wall and in front of us. Kelli, thinking fast, put me into a stasis and hit behind me as the grenade went off. A couple people behind us had their shield hit by the shrapnel but otherwise everyone was okay.
Kelli then brought me out of stasis and tapped me on the shoulder to continue. So I did down the stair and hit a pulse on the way down. There were a lot of signatures all either looking at us or at the other stairs. Taking a peek around the corner I was relieved to see that there was at least plenty of cover to get behind. Only problem was that a lot of the defenders were already on the other side of that cover.
Taking three grenades off my bandolier, leaving me with only 2 left, I handed one to Kelli before priming the other two. Throwing the first around the corner just so it would go over the nearest cover I didn't wait for it to go off before following it.
As I ran around the corner I pulled my Mattock off my back and threw the other grenade to the left as the first one went off. The shrapnel pinged off my shields as did the shots from the defenders. Sliding into cover I shot a couple times to my right where a few soldiers were hiding behind boxes and a pillar.
Not waiting for the others to join me I charged the pillar while I kept up the fire and pulled out my knife. Whirling around the first pillar I made to stab the soldier I knew was there but got punched in the face by them. It rung my bell a bit but they hadn't expected the durability of my helmet and pulled their shaking hand back.
I then renewed my assault with the knife against the now identified Batarian. He blocked my stab with his shaky hand the blade punching clean through his palm. Wrenching the blade to the side instead of following the blade with his hand and arm like I anticipated he let the knife wrench itself out. Severing two of his fingers in the process.
He then cracked me across the face with the butt of rifle and jumped back. Both of us raised our rifles at the same time and fired at each other but that was his mistake. My gun and armor/shields were a lot better than his. Three shots to the dome later he was dead and my shields were at quarter strength.
At that I took up cover behind the pillar and looked to where the stairs were. Kelli along with Ticus, a former Turian gang member, were behind the cover I had left. Two other humans by the names of Kyle and Ron, were on the other pillar across from me. At the stairs I saw the bodies of Cowop and Yete, a Salarian and Drell who had joined us a week prior, lying on the ground bleeding out.
Peeking out from cover I fired off a few shots at the first defender I saw. A Vorcha who had popped out and he got a single bullet to the head dropping him instantly. Getting back into cover I grabbed another grenade. I tossed it into the middle of the room near a couple boxes.
What I noticed a little to late when I threw the grenade was the small containers next to the boxes. They were ingredients you use to make Crack and Meth and very volatile. I had enough time to shout "Cover" through our radio before the grenade went off and the ingredients increased the explosion.
I felt a rush of heat and shrapnel flew all around me behind the pillar. A few seconds later I peeked my head around the pillar and saw a mess of limbs and blood along with scorch marks from the explosion. Stepping out of cover I went to the center and around the rest of the cover in front of me.
It wasn't a pretty sight but there were a few defenders who survived the blast but barely. They were so close to death it was a mercy when I put a bullet through their heads. As I walked forward Nyreen came from the other side doing the same as me. We shared a look and I silently conveyed with a shrug of my shoulders I hadn't intended this. She shrugged right back before going back to her group.
"Sound off. Who's alive?" I asked through the radio. I got a good amount of affirmatives but not everyone. Kelli came up to me as I walked back to my group.
"Cowop is dead. Yete is critical but doc says he could survive if he gets him to an actual doctor."
"Granted, anyone else?" she turned around and gave the signal to the doc by Yete before turning back around to me.
"Nyyr, Terso and Rudia all got caught by the shrapnel and are dead," Fuck. Nyyr, an Asari, was barely 100 and very young by Asari standards. She had been really promising as a soldier. Terso was a Turian veteran, good hard nosed man and always dependable. Rudia was another Turian, fierce woman with a heart of gold. And all were dead because of me.
"Any other injuries?" I asked pushing those thoughts out of my mind. I made a mistake, a big one in my mind, but I couldn't focus on it right now. I hadn't intended to do it.
"All superficial. The rest will be fine."
"Good. Make sure the men are ready to move in the next couple minutes. We aren't wasting time here," she nodded before spinning around and going over to the rest of the group.
As she went about her business with the others Garrus came up to me from the stairs. He gave me a look through his helmet that I could tell meant he wanted me to explain.
"Chemicals used to make Meth and Crack. Highly volatile, didn't notice until the grenade was out of my hand," he was silent for a moment before slapping me on the shoulder.
"Mistakes happen. They knew the risks."
"Doesn't mean it's acceptable."
"I know... Push through it, they need you to lead."
I nodded to him before going over to my group. Kelli was already getting them up and ready and when I got there she let me take over. I wasn't the best at this whole leading thing but I made do. Either way, a few words to them and a meaning that we were already close to the end of the assault and they were all ready to go.
In the middle of the room there was another small set of stairs leading to a pair of double doors. As my group got to the stairs Garrus had Nyreen's group link up with mine as he took the rest on his side. Nodding in between each other I hit my pulse and saw that there was only 8 defenders left. Against our now 23.
Giving a nod to Garrus I ran down the stairs with him right behind me and barreled through the doors. As soon as I was through the doors they poured fire on me but my shields took the brunt of their assault as I got into cover, Nyreen joining me an instant later. From what I could see there were four humans, two Turians and two Krogan left.
As the rest of us rushed in the two humans dropped almost instantly their shields shredded by the overwhelming fire. The Turians got into cover by I was already flanking with Nyreen at my back. We poured our fire into the two Turians and one dropped within a second. The other tried to change cover but was cut down by the rest of our group as he did so.
That left the two Krogan who were, surprisingly, at the back of the room. Turning to look at them they were both in cover and there was just a hint of smoke. My mind instantly jumped to the conclusion that they were smoking crack as either a power up or something I didn't know. What I did know was that it wasn't good.
"Garrus, their smoking. We need to be ready," Garrus didn't bother responding to me and went on the overall groups comm channel.
"Back up, prepare to focus fire," as he said the words we all backed up and both Krogan popped out of cover and charged us.
Krogan are not a particularly pleasant species to look at; in any situation. However, these ones were far worse. Their eyes bloodshot and dilated, their lips cracked all around and their teeth a viscous shade of yellow. Not to mention that they looked hungry.
Still, for all that I knew that they could be killed and I was the first to fire at them. Nyreen and Garrus immediately after me and after them everyone else. Their shields went down almost instantly and their bodies started to become shredded from the sheer force of fire but they would not stop.
Even after one of them had their arms blown apart but our shots and the others leg was eviscerated at the knee. Eventually the one with the shredded arm made it to me and I really regretted not coating my knife in the toxin at that moment.
It swung its shotgun like a club at me and I barely had enough time to prepare for the hit. It connected with the armor plating on my right arm if I didn't have my gene mods my arm surely would've been broken. As such it just sent me skidding away.
However I was given no rest as the Krogan had seemingly forgotten about everyone else firing at him and charged at me. As he ran at me the others were pouring firing into him but he just wouldn't stop. As he neared I was able to roll out of the way as his shotgun indented itself into the steel floor. He grunted trying to get it out for a moment before disregarding it and dived at me as I was getting up to one knee firing at him.
As he was in the air towards me I knew I wouldn't be able to dodge. I didn't have to worry though as he was hit with a biotic Throw and was slammed into the wall next to me. Looking to where the throw had come from Kelli gave me a nod and continued to fire at the Krogan as he slowly pushed himself up.
Saying to hell with it all I put my Mattock away and pulled out my last grenade into my real hand. Running up to the Krogan as he slowly started to push himself up I slammed my augmetic fist into his jaw, shattering it. This left his mouth hanging open and that was all I needed, I threw the grenade into his open mouth.
It lodged in his throat and he had all of a second to look surprised before it went off and his face and head exploded. Not knowing if they had finished the other Krogan yet I pushed through the pain in my aching body and got up. Only to see the other Krogan unmoving on the ground with half of his torso missing.
However, that lasted all of a second before, unbelievingly, before it started to knit back together at an alarming rate and he started to get back up, even his eviscerated leg was slowly growing back. All of us shared a horrified look at the reanimating Krogan before Garrus' voice rang out.
"Open fire!"
So we did. We didn't stop until the Krogan was separated into several parts from the sheer weight of fire alone. Even then Garrus ordered us into cover before he brought out a grenade and put it into the mouth of the dead Krogan. He then ran to cover and got into it just as the grenade went off.
With it all done Nyreen's and I's group went to the back of the room where there was another door. Hitting the pulse there were only 6 signatures inside so we breached hard and quick. We didn't need to have worried though, it was only the cooks and none were armed. Everything looked like what you would see in a Crack or Meth lab but except for the fact that there was bits of Red Sand and a small box labeled Element Zero.
These crazy fucks were making a Crack, Meth, Red Sand and Eezo hybrid drug. Yeah, they weren't walking out of here alive. Lifting my left hand off my rifle I gave the signal and we all opened fire on them. As soon as it was over I turned around to my group and was pleased to see that none looked to be questioning their actions.
"Clear," I stated over the radio. A second later Pamo Brakpork came into the room with his backpack of explosives. He was the sole Batarian we currently had. An explosives expert who spent most of his life on Omega and before had been a slave himself in the Hedgemoney before escaping. He hated slavery and that was only reason he was still alive.
A few minutes later he gave us a nod and we all left the room. When Garrus saw us he called for the retreat but we weren't going to leave the bodies of our own. I personally carried Nyyr's body on our way out.
When we got out and and good distance away from the lab Garrus gave Pamo a nod and he clacked his detonator. The building exploded outwards but we were far enough away and in cover so it didn't affect us. With it away from any really populated areas we were okay with the big explosion too.
With our job done we piled into the aircars we had used as transport and made our way back to our base. When we got back took the bodies to our base and had a small funeral for all of them. The rest of our group, that had been left behind to defend the orphanage and shelter joined us upon hearing the news.
A few shed tears but I didn't. I was more disappointed in myself than anything, they shouldn't have died but I got them killed… It wasn't my fault and I couldn't dwell on it. However, they were the first ones who died in our group. At least it meant something, we couldn't allow that drug to spread, especially after seeing the effects on Krogan.
At the end of the small funeral they were brought to the incinerator. We put their weapons in their hands and then put them into the incinerator. All of us praying to our respective god or gods that they found peace in the afterlife.
With that done I left and made my way to my apartment. Opening the door I began to pop off my helmet when the little girl peeked her head around the corner. Smiling to myself I fully took off my helmet and smiled at the little girl. She sprinted and latched onto my leg. My smile brightened and I reached down and picked her up.
"I'm hungry, you want some early morning breakfast?" I asked as I brought her to the kitchen.
"Yes!" she squeaked out excitedly.
And that's all she wrote. Don't forget to review, it helps me bring a better story to y'all.
Red Eyes: T-minus 2 chapters.