This will forever be the longest chapter I ever write. The only two chapters that will get close are the Rannoch and Earth chapters. That's it.
Love y'all. Hope you enjoy and REVIEW. Helps me get better.
As a side note, my old laptop died on me after finishing this chapter. 6.5 years it was with me and worked amazingly the whole time. I didn't even break it, the motherboard died on me. May it rest in computer heaven.
POV: Garrus Vakarian
You know, if you had asked me a year ago if I would be meeting with Aria along with literally every other big player on Omega in her club today I would've laughed at you until I passed out. A year ago I would've arrested most of these people, now I'd just blow their brains out and be done with it. Couldn't though because of Aria's rules and she still ruled Omega at the moment; best not to piss her off too much. However, here I was and we were all here to discuss one thing. Well, for some of them it was two but for the rest of us whose hands were clean it was only one.
Aria was doing her usual spiel of announcing that we only live because she allows it and honestly I couldn't be bothered to give a flying fuck. This last week alone since the attack has shown that she didn't truly realize just how big of a hornets nest she had let be kicked. We have not only returned the favor the Mercenaries gave to us but have given back thrice fold in just a week alone.
That being said, Wynne was doing most of the work. No one knows where he is at the moment. Hell, Nyreen's best agents have found absolutely no trace of the man but everywhere he goes he leaves a path. Destruction, chaos, death, mutilation, brutalization and that was being kind. He left so many bodies in his wake and in so many pieces we stopped bothering to identify any of them when we came across a place he had been.
He has hit everything under the sun in the past week but he's been going after the Mercenaries the hardest. Absolutely brutalizing them at every turn and there were no survivors, some even looked to be executed. As for that though the Eclipse company has been the hardest hit, Nyreen thinks they barely have 50 members left on Omega after this week alone.
As for survivors in the past week there have been 10. All found in either a catatonic or in a state of a broken mind. Every single one of them babbling about the red eyes of a demon; the hunter of the night. I don't know what Wynne was doing to these people to elicit this type of response but from the burned and mutilated bodies I had a good idea. He was becoming their boogeyman.
Still, with the death that he was dealing he was also helping. Debts owed to drug dealers and sharks were disappearing, slaves were being freed at a record pace, traficking of all kinds were being put to a stop. He was a literal one man army and no one's been able to find or keep track of him the entire time. Not only that but he hasn't stopped, seven days and seven nights he's been rampaging and helping people. Some have even started to call him Omega's Champion.
Before I could continue that thought process Nyreen had sent me a message with an update on Wynne and his latest conquest. The first thing about the message was the picture front and center. The Eclipse Stronghold on Omega lay razed to the ground and Eclipse soldiers mutilated on the ground. Not only that but for the first time we were seeing our people again. The children that had been taken a week prior were there and alive. Although it was only 20 of the missing forty that was good for morale.
At the end of the message was a picture of a body and a note from Nyreen below the picture. Told me that we need to talk with Mordin about the body, he had taken samples of it and was disturbed as to what happened to them. I replied with a confirmation that I would be there as long as this 'meeting' was over and done with.
Now that I was actively paying attention though one thing jumped out at me. Only Tarak and Garm were here; Jaroth was nowhere to be seen. In fact there were no Eclipse representatives at all. Did that mean what I thought it meant? It had to and I barely suppressed the laugh. The psychopath had taken out all of the Eclipse band on Omega and done it in a week, holy shit.
"Something funny Vakarian?" Aria snapped at me but she had long since lost her fear factor to me and our people. We were too angry for that.
"Oh, you know. Just got a joke sent to me. Nothing to worry about," I said shrugging nonchalantly.
"Well, if it's funny enough to make you laugh why don't you share it with us," Aria prodded looking more than a little pissed. I couldn't help myself in my answer.
"The Eclipse."
"What?" Garm asked slightly confused but I saw the way Aria's eyes shifted. She knew exactly what I meant.
"The Eclipse are the joke," Tarak said with a straight face, staring at me. I simply gave him a small smile in return and for the life of me I really did wonder which one of the two had Girl. Whoever had her would die a painful death… and if she was already dead then Wynne along with the rest of us would make sure that they last just long enough to believe death is a better option for them.
"Regardless of the pathetic spawn that was the Omega Branch of the Eclipse Company we have bigger problems. The Geth are still right outside and even though our communications are going through no one is willing to send any type of help. Not to mention that all docking clamps won't release and hangar bays won't open. We can assume the Geth are behind both."
"Why should any of us care? They aren't doing anything. They are literally sitting there, they haven't even tried to come onto the station. Why should we care?" I was getting sick of this posturing by Aria. Yes, we get it; you're the queen bitch but I had better things to do right now.
"You should care because sooner rather than later Omega will run out of supplies," well that was news to me. Even if it was true it wasn't true for my people, we had enough supplies for half a year at minimum. Plus side of people trusting you, they give more to the group in a crisis.
"I'm not staying for this. The idiots below me will get themselves killed." Tarak spoke standing up and going to leave.
He made it two steps before he was hit from behind with a biotic Pull and then slammed into the ground by Aria. He groggily tried to get up before Aria raised her food and slammed him back into the ground. That being said, she could have killed him but didn't. That told me all I needed to know, she needed the stability of us alive.
Still, I had fucked with her enough already. I would rather wait this out and I did. Two boring hours later we were all done talking and it had amounted to jack shit, a total waste of time. However, as everyone left the Afterlife we got quite the sight.
We made it to steps outside the front door before a body dropped in front of us with a rope around its neck. I instantly recognized the body as Jaroth but it took me a couple seconds to realize what he was hanging by.
Jaroth had his stomach torn open and was being hung at the rafters by his entrails. Not only that but his left leg was missing below the knee and it looked like both his eyes had been violently torn out. Then there's the fact that it looked like he had definitely been tortured. Thing is though, I just couldn't find it in me to care. This piece of shit got what was coming to him.
"Excuse me," a timid voice said from in front of us. Looking down from the body a teenage Turian stood in front of us. "Which one of you is Mr. Tarak?"
"The Batarian," I spoke for them not bothering to look at their reaction.
"Ah, thank you. Mr. Tarak, you have a package," he then handed over a cardboard box to Tarak and took off. Tarak took the package and opened it up before cursing and walking away. I got just enough a look to see that they were Jaroth's eyes. This time I didn't try and stop my laugh, god damn Wynne.
Leaving them I made my way back to our base sending a message to Nyreen telling her I was on my way. She told me to meet her at Mordin's office. Getting there after about 20 minutes I walked in on Nyreen leaning against the wall, Kelli sitting in a chair and Mordin pacing around behind his desk.
"Ah Garrus, good you're here. Have info on body Miss Kandros found. Data… concerning."
"What is it?"
POV: Red Eyes; several hours earlier
The last bastion of the Eclipse. Decent sized building with plenty of places for an ambush on the inside. Too bad that it would matter. They'll be separated, disorganized, and alone. They can't stop me. Especially with the Geth helping and giving me complete and utter control of everything on Omega.
"Commencing assault," I said to myself.
Chucking a grenade and each pair of wall guards the grenades went off in their faces and they exploded in a shower of gore, never having the opportunity to dodge or anything; no shields got them eviscerated.
Running up to the main entrance it opened for me instantly. Running into the courtyard I was greeted with 10 Eclipse soldiers waiting for me all aiming at me. Diving into cover just as they fired I escaped with only one of them landing a shot on me.
Hitting my pulse to know exactly where they were I blind threw two more grenades and the screams they elicited after they went off was music to my ears. Popping out of cover I fired off two Overloads at the soldiers both hitting their mark. I didn't even bother going back into cover and just fired as soon as the Overloads hit. The Eclipse soldiers went down easily.
Running to the front entrance of the building I opened it up and immediately went about closing every door in the entire place. If they were in a room they were now trapped in there and if they were in the hallway then they were all mine.
Stalking down the left hallway a pair of Asari rounded the corner in front of me with their weapons raised. I wasted no time and hit them with a Sabatage rendering their guns moot before I charged them. Holstering my gun and pulling out both my knife and ax as I sprinted at them. The ax was a basic metal pole but the blade was the sharpened Krogan head plate I got a few months ago.
Either way as they saw me charge and realized their weapons were sabataged one panicked and ran, the other tried to fight. She went down almost instantly as my ax buried itself into her arm and she screamed in pain only to stop once my knife went through her throat. Putting my weapons away I drew my gun back out.
The Asari that had ran was pounding on the closest door pleading to be let in. Her pleas stopped abruptly after four shots directly to her face, three to break her Barrier and the final one to kill her. Walking up to the door it opened for me instantly and I opened fire on the two Salarians on the inside, never stood a chance.
The next room got the same treatment. Open the door, open fire, kill any survivors. Rinse and repeat. A few times as I slowly made my way across the entirety of the base I would run into soldiers in the hallways. None of them gave me much trouble, some didn't have shields and the few that did couldn't do anything against me. No cover in the hallways and my shields were the best out there, plus the Mattock hits like a runaway train.
I cleared the whole floor in barely ten minutes and then I went to the next floor. Proceeded to kill everyone there but I had a bit more fun this time around. Bringin the ax and knife out, which ended up giving my armor a new coating of their assorted blood color. That being said the Salarians always sprayed the most, it was annoying.
That floor was where I found the kids and people who had been taken. I had scanned the room and saw 20 signatures in the room. I prepped to breach the room but then stopped, no rooms that I had found could house 20 people with weapons and not be an absolute killzone. The Eclipse weren't the sharpest tools out there but they weren't idiots.
Opening the door slowly I got to see some of the kids and a few of the adults huddled up together. They took up almost the entirety of the room. Once I opened the door we all looked at each other silently before the kids sprinted at me and dog piled onto me. I took it with a grand smile on my face but eventually I had to get them off of me.
As I did that I got a view of the adults, they had tears in their eyes and I couldn't blame them. I had to tell them to wait there though and that I would be coming back soon. They nodded and took care of the kids but they were safe now. I was going to make damn sure that they stayed that way.
After that floor I moved onto the final one. And proceeded exactly as before but there were only a few doors and then a big one. I would bet all my money that Jaroth was in that one. Still, I eliminated everyone in the other rooms before I walked up to the big door. Taking a deep breath I hit my pulse and got two signatures back.
Opening the door I ran into the room taking note of Jaroth standing in the middle of the room before I took a sharp left and shoulder charged the waiting Asari straight into the wall. She went down like a ton of bricks. With her out of the way I dived towards Jaroth rolling along the way and got hit with an overload nearly breaking my shields but it wasn't enough to stop the viscous upper cut from the ground floor.
Although it was my human hand when it connected with his chin his neck snapped backwards and stumbled backwards. Grabbing him with my augmetic before he went any farther I hit him twice more in the face before letting him collapse onto the ground. His jaw was definitely broken.
Turning back around to finish off the Asari I didn't have time to react and she hit me square in the chest with a biotic Charge. Sprawling out backwards I rolled out of the way of her biotic infused stomp. Springing up I slammed my augmetic into her stomach cracking her barrier and knocking the wind out of her.
She didn't give in though and came right back with a haymaker but I deflected it and the next next one before stepping into her guard and elbowing her in the face. Her nose got bent at a wicked angle because of the hit and her eyes closed up on instinct after the hit. I didn't let her open them before I brought a knee straight up into her groin.
She gasped out in pain and left her defense open. This allowed me to grab her face with my augmetic and slam her into the ground, shattering her barrier. It would give her what would definitely be a nasty concussion if she had the opportunity to survive this. Lifting her off the ground with my augmetic still holding her by the face ready to slam it back into the ground and crack her head open I stopped as Jaroth woke back up but he was in no condition to do anything.
"Please," he got out looking at me with pleading eyes as he looked at the Asari. I snapped my eyes to him while still holding the Asari incredulous that he had the gall to say that.
"You, who are without mercy, now plead for it?"
"Please," he said again as he wobbly brought himself to stand. My response was to reach behind my back and grab my pistol before pointing it at his leg and giving him an amputation at the knee.
"Go F-" and then the Asari in my hand began screaming.
POV: Aria T'Loak
This whole mess was a complete and utter clusterfuck. It's been barely 10 days since Torchbearer went on his rampage. Well, I guess his new name is Red Eyes as the people and mercenaries are starting to call him. Apparently it was because his helmet's red eyes were the last thing that you would ever see. I wanted to believe it was a load of shit but when the entirety of Omega was starting to fear one man it was hard to refute that.
Not only that but he was absolutely destroying every business I had my hands in. From slavery to drugs he wasn't discriminatory and destroying and killing anyone apart of them if they didn't follow his 'code'. That being said, no one outside of Garrus and his people knew what his 'code' was. Made the people on Omega nervous.
Well, saying the people of Omega is a stretch. The people adored the man; there were even murals of the man starting to pop up. Most of the ones that we could find near civilian populations depicted him as a sort of conquering hero. The ones near mercenaries, drug dealers, traffickers or better known as the true people of Omega depicted him as a demon. A demon with bright blood red eyes.
Not to mention what he had started doing after Jaroth. Any type of leader he found; he would string them up somewhere, usually very public to the true people of Omega. All would be mutilated in some way shape or form. It was a message and one I could respect; I had done it when I had started out on Omega. It felt weird being on the other side of it but it was disrupting my business. And no one fucks with Aria.
I had hired some professional hunters to take him out after Jaroth got strung up by his own intestines. They were the best available on Omega right now. Though, none of them were alive. All four of their heads were sitting in front of me in a box that had been delivered by a messenger. A little note came with the box too; simply saying: Strike Two.
I was beyond infuriated by this. Not only was this fucker destroying my businesses and costing me money but he was now mocking me. This absolutely would not stand and I made to make this right but before I could do anything I was receiving a call. From Frank of all people.
"Hello Frank," I greeted.
"I had an interesting talk with Garrus Vakarian a couple minutes ago after my boy wouldn't answer my calls. I only have one question Aria, did you okay it?"
"Of course I did, he was fucking with me. No one fucks with Aria," Frank stared at me blankly for a couple seconds before shaking his head and hanging up. Before I could get angry at that Moklan came up to me.
"Ma'am, another one of those bodies showed up."
"Fuck. See if the doc can look at them, I want to know what's happening to them," Moklan nodded and then left me.
POV: Red Eyes; several hours earlier.
I really expected these Bounty hunters to be a lot better than what they were. Oh sure they were excellent at tracking me throughout Omega and had been on my tail the entire time but that was about it. They were doing it as old human hunters had, letting me know that they were on my trail and letting me run and finding me again. It boiled down to a game of exhaustion and they were looking to wear me down.
A decent strategy all things considered but something that wouldn't work here. All I had to do to deal with them was set up an ambush. Had to be smart about it though, they would recognize killzones and they weren't about to walk blindly into one. So instead I made one in an area that shouldn't have been one.
In a well light street I placed several trip mines in areas that could be used as cover and set up at the end of the street with my sniper out. All I had to do was wait for them to walk into the trap as they tracked me. However, I had already been lying in my prone position for a couple hours waiting for them. I periodically hit my pulse to see if they had caught on but nothing ever showed up.
Ah, there we go; they finally showed up. One human, one Krogan, and two Batarians. I waited for them to get into position and once they did fired my shot. With them being completely shielded, and they weren't shit shields, the Batarian I had fired at survived. However, they then did exactly what I wanted them to do. They ran into cover.
The cover that I had placed trip mines in on each side of the street. It took me one shot from my sniper, about five minutes of setting the trap and a couple hours of waiting but I had taken out three of the four Bounty Hunters with a single shot. The Batarian's had the bottom halves of their bodies ripped apart and they fell to the ground in pieces, dead.
The human wasn't as lucky; he survived the trip mines from the cover but only for a few seconds. Those few seconds were filled with agony as he screamed out in pain in the middle of the street. The Krogan on the other hand only got blown back by the explosion from the trip mines as he had been hadn't been as fast as the human getting to cover.
As he shakily stood up after the mines went off I stood up, my eye lenses glowing red. He caught sight of me immediately and I strode out of the building I had laid down in on the street level*. We stood there in the street facing each other for a few moments before he let out a bellowing war cry and charged me with his Krogan Warhammer raised .
I responded by simply dropping my sniper and pulled out my knife. Charging at each other with our weapons raised, we met in the middle. I went low and he went middle. Smoked my left shoulder and I could feel it dislocate as we met but it didn't matter, I had won. I was able plunge my blade into his foot and it was coated in the Rachni venom.
Holding my shoulder I stood up and turned around. The Krogan had turned around to face me as well with a victorious smile on his face and it stayed there but he did as well. The venom had done its job and he was paralzyed. Walking up to the Krogan I pulled out my pistol, put it against his throat and pulled the trigger.
He collapsed backwards dead. Now, how do I send this message back to Aria? Oh, I know; she wanted my head so she'll get a four for one deal. Bitch.
I set upon doing my work and called the same messenger I had used to deliver Jaroth's eyes. He arrived with a box just as I was finishing up taking their heads. He gave a disgusted look at the heads as I put them into the box for him. I gave him a big tip for not asking any questions. Good kid.
Now for Tarak; though I still needed to fuck up the Blue Suns a bit more before he would be a good target to go after. Guy had already holed himself up in their bunker.
POV: Garrus Vakarian
I sat in my apartment with Nyreen across from me as usual. However, instead of the usual glasses we had out to drink we were both drinking straight from the bottle. Though, if anyone knew the reason why we were both doing that they wouldn't have asked any questions. Instead they probably would've gotten a bottle of their own and joined us.
Mordin's data as he had called it had been, to say the least, down right frightening. That had been the first time he had found the body but in the week since then he had confirmed his working theory from the bodies. Out of the people that knew I was scared but Nyreen and Kelli were downright terrified of the implications and I couldn't blame them. Being Biotics I understood why.
"Garrus," I snapped my eyes to Nyreen. "How confident are you in Wynne's mental stability?" I hate to say it about someone whom I considered a friend but I truly had to think about that question before I answered it. Almost a minute of silence elapsed before I responded.
"Wynne is a religious zealot but not in the way of burning everyone who disagrees with him. He enjoys freedom and lets people exercise it but he truly does believe in God, his God, and tries to follow him as best he can. That being said he will not hesitate to kill you if you get in his way if he deems it necessary. Going on Wynne probably… no, is a Psychopath. For all that though he will never raise a hand to those he deems friends unless you try and stop him from protecting people he deems need to be protected."
"Do you think I'm safe?" I knew those two didn't particularly like each other but Wynee, would never try and kill Nyreen. Unless she gave him a reason to do so, and if she did I might side with him. Wynne, has a very distinct line you don't cross and it was one I could get behind. No children… ever.
"Yes. He'll never hurt you unless you make it his only option," Nyreen took a big swig from her bottle before nodding to me.
"Thank you… I think I'm going to go to bed. You?"
"I'm going to stay up for a bit. See if I can find a pattern in his hits."
"There's no pattern, me and mine have been over it for almost two weeks. He hits anything he wants."
"There's always a pattern Nyreen. Always is, no matter what," she shook her head before standing up and putting her bottle away.
"Don't stay up too long okay?" she said as she put a hand on my shoulder and went to our room.
"I won't."
As she went to bed I made my way over to my miniature work center. It really just consisted of where and when Wynne would hit places. The only problem was the exact same that Nyreen pointed out, there didn't really seem to be a pattern. It was completely indiscriminate bordering on insane. Like what you would see in serial killers who have gone off their rocker.
Taking another swig of my bottle I continued to look at the outlined places where he had hit. There had to be a pattern, there always is. However, there didn't seem to be any. Again, I took another swig of my bottle but before I could begin to look at the wall in earnest again my omni-tool ringed. Looking down at the caller ID Tali was calling me; fuck. Still, I answered the call.
"Yes, Tali?"
"Where's Aedon? He hasn't answered my calls," great. Exactly what I needed. A worried girlfriend.
"He's… busy Tali," that seemed to be the wrong thing to say as once I did Tali's whole demeanor changed. She went from apprehensive to absolutely furious.
"Where is he Garrus?" there was no questioning her tone. She was beyond mad.
"I don't know Tali. I honestly don't know."
"Then explain," her tone brokered no argument. So I did; I told her everything that's happened. I mean everything, in my slightly inebriated state I told her about everything that has happened in the two weeks since he went AWOL. Well, everything except for what Mordin had brought to us and the geth.
"So, that's why he hasn't answered my calls," Tali said after I explained everything.
"He hasn't even answered his mentor's calls, Tali. They view each other as father and son and he hasn't answered his calls. Don't feel too bad about it."
"I don't," came her immediate reply. "I just hope he gets the girl back safely. I could tell he truly cared about her."
"Would you be able to help me out here?" I asked before my brain could catch up to my mouth, damn my drinking.
"With what?" I took a deep breath before responding.
"He's been attacking everyone who could have had a hand in this indiscriminately. No one's been able to find any type of pattern. You got any insight as you are with him," Tali seemed to shy away at that before her body straightened up almost triumphantly and she responded.
"Have you checked the distance between targets?"
"Of course. He's not just going against the people that are the closest," Tali seemed to grin at this but I couldn't tell with her mask.
"What about approximate distances?
"What do you mean?"
"Start from the first place he hit. Then go 25%, 75%, 30%, 85% and finally 100% from the original target. Changing the jump off point every time the cycle ends."
I won't lie, I was skeptical as she said that. For her to come in cold out of nowhere and be right just didn't sit right with me. However, once I started looking at the data and her off the top calculations it started to make sense. The only thing that was an obstacle was the distance in which she meant for her percentages. It wasn't being done in kilometers, that's for sure. It wasn't in any Turian distances either… Miles?
I heard about Miles from an old human coworker of mine. Miles were an old way to measure distance in the country of America on Earth. Looking up the distance for miles and started comparing it to the distances he was going they lined up perfectly with what Tali said. Holy shit, he was using Miles.
"How'd you know?" I asked, looking at Tali.
"That is private," she looked sheepish as she said that but I didn't care. I needed to know.
"Tali, would you please tell me how you knew about the percentages?" she responded immediately
"I said them in jest."
"But they were right."
"Garrus. I will not speak more of this," and then she hung up. At least I got something out of this. Grabbing my gear I went to see if I was right.
POV: Red Eyes
Looking through the scope of my sniper I watched the little building that Blue Suns had been going to. I wasn't 100% sure what was in there as the ones that came out, came out with nothing. Either way it was a place that I needed to hit.
Getting the schematics for the place was easy too. A single floor building with a basement. It was more than likely a safe house for the Blue Suns but again I wasn't completely sure. It wouldn't matter soon enough anyways, they would all be dead and I'd be in the wind.
Checking the calibration for the range on my scope I made a slight adjustment on it before putting the crosshair on the head of one of the guards. Deep breath in and then out, in and then out; in and out. Find the place between the heartbeats and squeeze the trigger. The guard never saw the bullet coming and he dropped like a ton of bricks. Switching to the other guard I pulled the trigger again before he could react to his buddy dying and he got killed as well.
Getting up from my prone position a couple hundred yards away I put my sniper on my back and sprinted to the door. Standing to the side of the door I hit my pulse and saw that there were about 18 people inside. Seeing that someone was also pretty close to the door I hit my pulse again and saw that they were going to the door.
Bringing my ax out I waited for the door to open. As soon as it did I brought the ax down on their head. Indenting into the Batarians head I gave it a sharp tug and wrenched it free. Stepping over the body I put the ax away and went inside with my Mattock at the ready in front of me.
I shut down the place like I had done countless times before in these two weeks. As soon as I did every single door in the place violently closed themselves and the lights went out. My eyes then got brighter on the outside while my night vision activated inside my helmet.
Hitting my pulse again to know where they all were I went to the first room with only two people in it. Opening the door I opened fire on the two inside; an Asari and Turian who were still trying to get into their armor. My guess was that they had been fucking but I didn't care and neither did my Mattock. They were both dead before they knew what was happening.
Proceeding to the next room with four people in it I readied a grenade and opened the door before tossing it in and closed the door back up. After a second the grenade went off followed by a few screams of pain. Opening the door again one of the people inside had survived but he had a gaping chest wound from the shrapnel. I put him out of his misery with a single shot to the head, he wasn't going to live anyways.
Leaving them where they were I continued to the next room only to run into Krogan. As soon as he saw me, the glowing red eyes defeat the purpose of stealth, he charged me. Dropping the Mattock I ripped out my knife as soon as he hit me with his shoulder sending me skidding back on the ground. He went to stop on my but I was able to roll to the side but it put me in a position where I couldn't stab him.
Unable to do so I was unable to defend as he kicked my side with his foot. Grabbing onto the foot I whirled my body around and went to stab him and it found its mark in his ankle. He released a growl of pain before he went stock still. Smiling up at him from behind my mask I stood up, walked around him and grabbed my discarded Mattock. Before I could make my way back to him though another shot rang out and the Krogan fell backwards.
Stepping out of the way as the body fell I saw the neat whole punched right between the eyes. Not looking at the newcomer yet I raised my Mattock and put two more into his neck and then looked up. Standing there in his gear with his rifle out was Garrus.
"You good?" were the first words out of his mouth.
"Not yet," he knew what I meant. "How'd you figure the pattern out?"
"Tali," that checks out. "How did she know by the way, she wouldn't tell me."
"No hablo ingles," I wasn't about to tell him.
Turning back around I headed to the next room. Garrus didn't say anything more and was right at my back. Stacking up on either side of the next door I hit my pulse, three dots popped up. Nodding to each other I opened the door and we both opened fire, cutting down the three Batarians in the room.
Leaving the bodies where they lied we went to the next room and ran into three Turians in the hallway. They were just able to raise their arms when I hit them with an Overload, nailing all three because of their close proximity to each other. Once they got hit both Garrus and I opened fire and cut them all done.
That was the last of the excitement for this place. After the three Turians in the hallway it was just room by room. None of the building's occupants had even a slight chance. They all died quickly and for the ones that were prepared they got a grenade lobbed in their faces and they were no more. As we finished up the top floor we went downstairs.
Hitting my pulse as we got to the corner in the stairs I got a response. 20 yellow signatures, all non-hostiles. Putting my Mattock on my back I walked around the corner to see 20 people chained up with slave collars on and in 4 seperate cages. They looked like they hadn't had a proper meal in weeks and no bathroom breaks either, I was thankful for the mask there.
Going up to the first cage I opened it and then proceeded to undo the chains around the people. Once that was done I deactivated the slave collar and took it off of them. Turning around once that was done I saw that Garrus was just finishing up his cage. We both chose another cage and finished up quickly. When we were done I sent a message to Kelli telling her where to go to pick up some escaped slaves.
"Stay here, more help is coming," I spoke to them and left with Garrus right behind me.
A couple minutes later we were leaving the building together. We got maybe 50 feet from the entrance before Garrus grabbed my shoulder. Turning around to look at him he stared at me silently for a few moments before speaking.
"We've found some disturbing bodies. Is anyone else working with you?"
"No."
"Then it's you who's leaving those bodies behind."
"Yes."
"And the geth?"
"They owed me a favor," I couldn't see his face because of his helmet but I assumed there to be shock, outrage and surprise on it from the information. However, he didn't let it get to him.
"How did you manage that and why the fuck in the Spirits do you trust them."
"Ark Medicinals. Owing me a favor was a part of their pay."
"Again, why do you trust them."
"The Geth schismed Garrus. The heretics who follow the Reapers, and the ones who don't; they call themselves the True Geth. As for trust, have they done anything Garrus?"
"No."
"There's your answer. Are you coming or not?"
"You know I can't," I couldn't help but let out an audible sigh. I knew he truly couldn't, he had to lead our group.
"You won't find me again until it's over."
"You wanna bet on that?"
"5000 credits," I said immediately as I stretched out my hand to him.
"Deal," we shook hands and went our separate ways. For now at least.
POV: Garrus Vakarian.
It's now officially been 20 days since this insanity began and not once has he slowed down. 20 days he's been running around Omega straight and he's hit over 50 places, Nyreen thinks it's closer to 60 and we don't know about a few. It was frankly frightening that he didn't seem to be slowing down at all and to top it all off he's doing this all alone. Whoever has girl, something we still don't know much to Nyreen's ire, is going to suffer tremendously.
Either way Nyreen had brought me the confirmed numbers for his rampage so far during our meeting a couple hours ago. As of a couple hours ago Wynne had killed a total of just under 1400 people through a wide series of death dealing tactics. However, the number that he had released from either slavery, imprisonment or servitude numbered at just above 1100. He was saving almost as much as he killed. And that's not even taking into account the debts he's erasing.
Wynne was well and truly upsetting the balance of Omega entirely on his own. Which begged the question to Nyreen, Kelli and Vrul why he was working with us. Mordin and I had snatched onto the reason quickly when we discussed it. It was because this was his plan all along. He had been using us.
He never planned on letting those people get kidnapped or taken and he never planned on this truly happening. However, everything that we've built was his plan from the beginning. The reason he needed us was because he knew that he couldn't do it alone. So he sought us out and started from the ground floor and turned it into what it is now. I don't know if he ever expected it to get this far but it has. As much as I don't like to be used I just couldn't be mad because we were truly helping people.
As for everything that he's done too, we haven't been idle at all. We've been hitting almost as many places as he has and we've been just as brutal about it. From everything we've done Vrul was starting to become a well liked and well respected leader. For all that though he didn't let it get to his head and was never cocky or disruptive, he took orders well and was quickly becoming an excellent leader.
In these 20 days we've gone from controlling six levels to 10 and were about to control 12. If it wasn't for the fanfare of everything that Wynne's been doing people would've had some serious problems/concerns with what we were doing. As it was though Aria was too focused on Wynne and his continual disruption of her businesses to focus on us.
Moving on when I had found him that one night I had been able to make it back to my place without anyone being the wiser; or so I thought. Of course that leads us to now. Nyreen was sitting across from me with no drink in sight, just her as she stared at me silently. Neither of us said anything for a few moments.
"So, you found him," it was a statement instead of a question.
"Yes. I did."
"Why didn't you bring him back?"
"He wouldn't come Nyreen. You know he wouldn't."
"What about the Geth then? You find out why they're here?" Well, here we go.
"They owed Wynne a favor," silence hung in the air as she stared at me dumbfounded. She had an idea that it was linked to Wynne and his rampage but to have it confirmed had to have been a bit of a shock for her.
"Are you serious?"
"As much as I can be. You remember ARK Medicinals, the place on the Citadel he hit," she nodded her head. "Well, they were the ones that gave him that job. According to Wynne, a part of the payment was a Favor."
"What the fuck."
"My thoughts exactly," a silence hung in the air for a few moments before she began talking again.
"Why didn't you join him?"
"Someone has to lead this place," maybe not the most tactful way I could have put that. The look in her eyes said as much.
"I could've."
"Baby… as much as I adore you," God I'm a terrible sweet talker, "Everyone respects you but everyone also fears you. Leaving you in charge would be like letting the STG lead a Turian op. It just wouldn't work."
She stared at me silently, her eyes boring holes into mine but after a few moments she relented. Even if she didn't agree with me she could see the logic and on some level agreed with it. Which no doubt infuriated her.
"Fuck you," she finally spoke.
"Well, our bedroom isn't that far away."
One steamy session later we were lying together on our bed. I was happy with my performance even if it wasn't my best. Either way as we were about to drift off to sleep Nyreen's omni-tool lit up with a message. She looked at it for a moment before she got out of bed and got dressed.
"What happened?" I asked pushing myself onto my elbows.
"The Blue Suns are off the board of Omega and the rest our people have been found," Oh thank the Spirits.
"What about Tarak or Girl?" I was now out of bed and getting dressed myself.
"No sign of either but I'd bet everything that we'll be seeing Tarak soon enough."
"Fair enough. Let's go get our people," and with that we were out of our room and the door.
POV: Red Eyes several hours earlier.
Finally, I've whittled down the Blue Suns to practically nothing. They started with several hundred troops on Omega and now they're down to, maybe 70, and all of them were holed up in one building. That being said the place was practically a fortress but that mattered little to me. With the Geth backing me the hardest part of this would simply be eliminating the outer guards.
For the outer guards there were 12 in total. Thankfully none of them were Krogan but if I had to guess all of them had shields. Something I would need to consider as I approached them. There was a blindspot on the far side of the compound away from but it was mined to hell and back, getting across it wouldn't be worth it. If I had a team this would be a cakewalk but I had foregone that. Selfish and dumb.
Disregarding my thoughts I slowly started to make my way to the outer wall of their base. Using the shadows as heavily as possible with my eye lights off. It was torturously slow going but every moment I was creeping closer and closer to their base without their notice. It would take almost two hours to get to the blindspot under their lookout post.
Once there I unsheathed my knife and disregarded my previous stealth mode. Turning on my eye lights I sprinted up to the wall and ran up it leaping just as I felt my feet start to slip* and reached a hand out to the ledge of the wall. Grasping onto it with my augmetic hand I heaved myself up to the surprise of both lookouts.
Neither had much time to react as I was upon them plunging my knife into the closer ones neck. The other made to run but as I wrenched my knife out of the neck of the other I dived after him and grabbed onto his ankle. This resulted in him falling flat on his face with his gun in hand. When that happened his gun discharged right under his chin and blew his head off. There goes stealth.
Starting my omni-tool I accessed the building and put it completely into lockdown. With that done now I had to deal with the ones on the outside. Peaking my head our all other 10 of the guards were looking in my direction, all spread out too and none were close together. Dropping down below cover as they fired on my position I thought about what to do.
It took me a few moments to come up with a solid plan. Once I had one I began putting it into place. Putting away the Mattack I brought out my sniper and peaked around the corner at where I knew a soldier was.
Spotting said soldier in my scope I fired, the round splashing and breaking his shields but not penetrating them. Quickly firing another shot just as they ducked down I saw blood spray as I nicked the top of their head. The power of the round doing just enough to kill them.
Once that was done I put my sniper away and brought out the ax and knife. Sprinting to the other lookout tower I let my shields take the brunt of the soldiers barrage as I charged the two in the tower. Getting right to the edge of the tower I jumped in with my knife and ax held high and plunged them both into the Salarian desperately trying to activate his omni-tool. Wrenching them both out of his dying body I spun slamming the ax into the chest of the Human with him before my knife went through his eye socket.
With both dead in the tower I was now in sole possession of the high ground in the courtyard. Putting my ax and knife away I brought out my Mattock and began prepping a grenade. As I did that I hit a pulse and got a good look on where the soldiers were. Tossing the grenade over the railing cover I waited for a second before the explosion went off.
As soon as the grenade went off I popped out of cover and fired at the Batarian who had to leave his cover because of the grenade. He died to three well placed shots to his head. With that done I made to move my sites onto another Blue Sun when I saw an incoming grenade.
Snatching it out of the air thanks to literal decades of playing baseball was an easy task. As soon as the grenade was in my hands I hurled it back at the offender. The look of shock on their face was evidence and the grenade quickly removed said head. Not only that but it blew the next closest mercenary out of cover. Not to miss the opportunity I opened fire on the one who was now out of cover filling their chest with holes.
Ducking back under cover I put my Mattock away and brought the sniper back out. Popping up over cover again I zeroed in on a Salarian doing something with his omni-tool behind cover and fired. It his the top of his head, those tentacle things, and it snapped his head back from the force of the hit, the shields breaking.
Before I could fire another shot the lied on the ground completely concealing themselves in cover. Smiling at this I grabbed a grenade and threw it right at them. There was a loud scream of fear and then the explosion and they were dead. With only four left and all of them a good distance from each other I decided to push them.
Jumping down from the tower with ax and knife in hand I charged the closest one. Diving over their cover as I reached them I tackled them to the ground and stabbed my knife into their side. They let out a grunt of pain but were able to stop my ax from burying itself in their face. Letting go of my knife I used my top position, weight, and other arm to slam the back of the ax downwards into their face. They let out small gurgling noises as they died.
Leaving the ax where it was buried I brought out my Mattock and opened fire on the closest one forcing them to go back into cover before charging targets for the soldier the farthest away and peppered him a few times. Then I saw the lone Asari in the courtyard stand up and wreath herself in biotic energy and biotically charged at me.
Smiling to myself I dropped my Mattock and braced myself while reaching out my with my augmetic hand. As she charged at me I caught her face with my augmetic, the contact reverberating my whole body but I held firm. With her face in my hand and body going forward from the charge I reversed the momentum and slammed her head into the ground violently. Her barrier shattered and she promptly lost consciousness.
Deciding to end this now I picked up my Mattock and charged at the closest Blue Sun, a Batarian, firing the whole time ignoring the shots coming from the other mercenary. Getting to the Batarian I clubbed him across the face with my Mattock knocking him flat before pointing it downwards and ending his life with a single shot.
I didn't even bother looking at the remaining Blue Sun as I grabbed a grenade off my bandolier and tossed it at them. There was a cry of shock as they saw the grenade and they jumped away barely avoiding the blast. The pieces of shrapnel pinging off my shields as I made no move to get into cover. Facing the final Blue Sun I pulled the trigger down before they could do anything firing three shots straight to their face and they were dead.
With that all done I walked back over to the Asari who was now groaning in pain trying to push herself up to her feet. Walking over to her I put my boot on her back and slammed her back into the ground. Reaching to my back I pulled out my pistol and blew her brains out.
Once she was eliminated I left the courtyard and casually walked back to where I had started a couple hundred yards from the base. There I grabbed my flamethrower and brought it back to the entrance.
I wasn't about to burn the place down yet. Opening the front entrance I made my through the building. Finding only a couple of soldiers in the hallway; each was dealt with swiftly and deadly never truly having an opportunity to do anything to me. Taking everyone in the hallways out I started searching for the captives; I knew my people were here.
It took going down to the basement before I was able to find them. Getting to the basement there was a singular huge room with 41 signatures inside. 39 were yellow and friendly while two were red. Opening the door I got to see the remaining people of ours who had been taken all bound and with slave collars around their necks. Most were naked and the women… I didn't want to think about it.
However, what drew my eyes immediately upon entering the room was a Batarian raping a girl no older than 16 and his buddy waiting naked right behind him. Drawing my pistol I blew the head off of the one waiting. Never saw it coming. With the loud boom of my pistol announcing my entrance the Batarian rapist whirled around and stared at me in fear. Slowly walking up to him I punched him across the face sending him to the ground.
Reaching out my hand to the girl she quietly took it, tears streaming down her face in both relief and shame. Wiping the tears from her face I cupped her face with my hands and gently put my head against hers. Silently telling her that she was now safe; when she realized this she wrapped her arms around me and balled her eyes out. Deactivating her collar after a minute of letting her cry I helped her up and gently put my pistol into her hands.
"Do you wish to end him?" My hand was still on my pistol as it rested in her hands. The Batarian in question was now clawing against the door to the room, but it had long since been shut; he wasn't leaving.
Lifting her head to look at me in the eyes she nodded her head. Letting go of my pistol she held it in her hands before pointing it at the Batarian who had sense turned around to face us.
"Who the FUCK do you Humans think you are! You deserve nothing than to be below our boot, serv-" BOOM. "AHHHHHH"
The girl cut him off mid-hysterical rant putting a bullet right through his balls. The hollow point rounds eviscerating what he called his dick. Completely blew them off and I couldn't be happier at the timing. Though he was still alive and it seemed that the girl was a bit to shocked at what she had done. With her still frozen I tried to gently pry the gun from hands to finish the job but she jerked the weapon away.
"No… He suffers," her voice was so quiet I almost didn't hear her but I did and I agreed. Looking at the others behind me it seemed that they agreed too.
Leaving the girl to watch the Batarian suffer I went around and got every single one of my people out of their slave collars and chains. All of them had tears of relief in their eyes and a few of them even hugged me for everything. As for me I couldn't help the smile that graced my lips as I went around freeing them. These were my people who had trusted me and they were now free because of me. Good.
However, as I finished up freeing them Girl was not among them. Asking a few of them where she was most didn't know anything but a little boy did. One of the humans that had been with her when we rescued them. Told me that the Krogan in red had taken her; Garm. Next on my list.
Thanking him for that I got everyone up and escorted them out of the building. The Batarian had long since died from blood loss as we left but that didn't stop more than a few of them from kicking his dead body. I didn't stop them and instead ushered them out of the room and out of the building.
The older ones took care of the children and gave it their best effort so that the children wouldn't see the bodies in the courtyard. It wouldn't do much but I understood the sentiment.
Once everyone was outside I grabbed my flamethrower and went inside. It would be nice to say that it was hard fought with the flamethrower but it wasn't. Every single one of the Blue Suns was trapped inside their rooms and stood no chance against the German flamethrower. I would PURGE every single one of them with holy hell fire and none could do a damn thing about it.
I went through every single room until I found the last one. The one Tarak had to be in.
Putting down the flamethrower I hacked the door open and true to my guess Tarak was standing there with his gun out and pointed at me. As soon as the doors were open he opened fire but with my shields being how they were I simply walked forward tanking every shot until I grabbed the barrel of his gun with my augmetic and crushed it.
I then wrenched the gun away from him and clocked him across the face, knocking him out. Walking back out the room I grabbed my flamethrower and put it on before walking back into the room. Slinging the piece of shit over my shoulder I walked out of the building firing my flamethrower the whole time burning the place.
As I got outside I looked at the people I rescued and sent a message to Kelli telling her where to go. I then said goodbye to the people I just saved and left them. Before I could leave them though the same little boy from before grabbed my arm and muttered a Thank You. I nodded my head to him before leaving with my prize.
Several hours later I was in an abandoned building near the Afterlife with Tarak strung up in front of me completely naked. All four of his limbs spread out tightly against their constraints as he hung in the middle of the room. It was the same place I had done my work one Jaroth. Slapping him awake he looked around for a confused few seconds before he zeroed in on me.
"I ain't telling you shit," were the first words out of his mouth. In response I took off my helmet, with no makeup on, and gave him a slow and big smile.
"Who said I was looking for information?" he audibly gulped and I continued. "The real question is do you want to get through this alive or dead?"
"Alive," was his immediate reply.
"Good," I then went to work.
POV: Garrus Vakarian.
We had just finished another bullshit meeting with Aria. It was apparent to everyone there that she was no longer in any type of real control. At best she was now just a stand in for whoever came next it just boiled down to whoever that would be. That being said, the smart money was on my group.
It had been 21 days since this had started and we controlled 12 full floors of Omega. Over a quarter of the entirety of Omega. People were flocking to us in droves and even the small time mercenaries and gangs were siding with us. The ones that weren't were quickly and brutally taken care of.
So it was no surprise that people were starting to look at me for decisions to be made. Aria did not like that and tried to get the meeting under her control. If anything I allowed it but at the same time I couldn't care less. My whole goal was to make people safe and since I told Nyreen about why I couldn't join Wynne she's already taken lengths to put her in the good graces of the people. It was working surprisingly well already.
However as we left the Afterlife a body dropped down from the rafters with a rope attached to their foot keeping them aloft. The body was skinned, completely from head to toe whoever they were. The question of who they were was quickly answered when a Blue Suns helmet was dropped right after the body. Tarak, the leader of the Blue Suns on Omega, had been skinned alive.
Before I could even smile the same Turian messenger kid from Jaroth ran up to us and handed a small box to Garm. Before Garm could do anything else the kid took off running away from us. Garm, not caring for subtlety, opened the box for all to see and there inside were all four of Tarok's eyes and a note with big letters. Letters so big I could read it easily.
One for each of your balls.
POV: Councilor Sparatus
Over the past, 20 something days, we've been getting hectic reports from the Terminus Sector. Frankly, I didn't give a flying shit about it. The Terminus Sector was out of our control and shouldn't have been our problem to deal with. However, Valern had called an emergency meeting and now all of us were in the conference room. I did not want to be here.
"What is going on Valern?" I snapped at my Salarian colleague.
"Have info on Terminus Sector. Important."
"And why should we be concerned with the Terminus Sector? It is out of our control."
"Agent will explain. They are waiting," as soon as he said that the hologram in front of us lit up.
"STG Agent Ilok reporting sir."
"Report," Valern stated plainly.
"The entire Geth Armada has surrounded Omega and her Relay for the past 25 days. To keep cover intact have not been able to report," now that shocked every single one of us into silence. Even Valern looked completely taken aback at the information.
"Damn your cover. You should've reported this sooner," I shouted as I regained my bearings. Ilok, however, just stared at me silently before responding.
"No. This is my last report. I resign from STG," again that shocked us into silence. This time Valern was the first to regain his footing.
"Why?" was his simply question.
"Geth are here because Torchbearer asked them to be. I have served under him for several months now and have done more to help people here in those months than my decade plus in STG. This is my resignation," if we were all surprised at everything before then we were absolutely floored by this. Not only was an STG agent practically saying 'Fuck you' to us which was unheard of but the Geth were there because Torchbearer asked them to be. The type of power he held was something that could not be allowed to stand. He must be eliminated.
"You realize what you are saying?" Tevos said.
"Yes," was his curt response. I had to hand it to the lizard, he had some backbone at least.
"Do you have anything else to report?" Valern asked, the disdain evident in his voice.
"Yes. Just sent packet," sure enough we all got a information packet but when I turned to look back at agent Ilok his hologram was gone. Guess that was the last we would be seeing of him.
The data in front of me made absolutely no sense to me. The words just didn't translate to anything I had knowledge of. It all seemed way too in depth with science and speculation for me to actually make sense out of, the only thing I could make sense of was that it was centered around the Torchbearer. Looking at my colleagues Udina seemed to be in the same predicament as myself. Valern less so but it still looked like this data didn't make much sense to him. However, once I looked at Tevos that changed.
Councilor Tevos was a good woman, if a bit too stagnant for my taste but she was smart and amazing at politics. So to look at her and see only complete and utter fear etched across her face was a complete shock to me. It seemed that after I noticed her look the rest of the council looked at her seeing what I saw.
"Tevos. What does this mean?" and so she told us and all thoughts of the Geth fled my mind at the information.
POV: Mordin Solus
Another survivor of Wynne, another completely traumatized. Only babble comes from mouth, truly fearful of Red Eyes. Wynne's new name among the people. Some praise the name, most fear it. Most survivors will not make a full recovery for some time; true timeframe of recovery completely unknown.
To them Red Eyes is the Marauder of Omega. Demon, hunter, killer, night creature. If you see the red eyes it's already too late; that's what they say. Highly dangerous; fear for mental state of Wynne. Could prove to be too volatile to be proper leader again. Time will tell.
Though death count staggering. Into quadruple digits; impressive if mortifying. Still, has been conscious, no needless death. No civilians, people saved; good work. If incredibly bloody. Then there's the data. Concerning. Mortifying. Not yet completely confirmed, no witnesses to corroborate data. All dead or shell shocked; show great fear for anything red after surviving Wynne
Believe this is coming to an end. Eclipse eliminated, Blue Suns slaughtered, just Blood Pack left of big three. Already taking massive casualties in week since Blue Suns elimination. At least 100 dead, maybe more. Remains seem to have retreated to main base on Omega; waiting for Wynne to make his move before joining in on attack.
Only wonder if Wynne will approach for help or assault on his own. Previous actions show he will attack on his own. Will have to adjust for when it happens. Nyreen and Garrus are already pushing towards that.
Nyreen shown progress of true leadership. Not just STG style she had cultivated. Wonder how that will play out. Time will tell.
Then there are those who served under Wynne. Show signs of near fanatical loyalty; mostly in his closest. Personal squad and Krogan Vrul speficially. Concern evident in Nyreen and myself that he may turn after this. Become bloodthirsty, hugnry; his people will follow him. Hope it won't happen but countermeasures already in place. Time will tell.
POV: Red Eyes
Bury the Light; Devil May Cry 5 Vergil's Theme
Staring through the scope of my sniper I looked at the compound that was the final Bastion of the Blood Pack. They had retreated here relatively quickly after I started targeting them in earnest. Honestly, that was probably the best move that they could've made. Being able to heal fast and fight hard didn't mean much when I could just light you on fire and be done with it.
What was a bit surprising though was that when they all bugged out and went to their Bastion they left all their slaves and drugs. I wasn't one to complain and had freed all of the slaves. As for the drugs I took a couple of the inhalers and kept them on my person at all times. I still haven't had to use any of them yet but one day I would and I'll need them all.
As I looked through my scope a sense of unease came over me. There was no one in the courtyard outside the building. No guards, no turrets, nothing was out there and the front doors were open. I've been waiting and watching the outside as nothing has changed for the past three hours now and I couldn't help but feel that I should head inside. So, that's what I would do.
Standing up I put my sniper away before putting the flamethrower on and marched forward. Through the front gates into the courtyard, nothing changed and no one came out to greet me. My pulse wasn't even picking up anyone.
Entering the building itself there was a bloody arrow pointing to the right on the floor as soon as I entered. Deciding to follow the arrow for now I walked to the right while sending out pulses every second. At the end of this hallway there was another arrow pointing left and again I followed it.
There would be several more arrows all leading me to the basement which was where I started to get a response on the pulses. There were roughly 300 signatures all down there, all red. When I saw that I couldn't help but be cautious. I wasn't particularly afraid, they had all put themselves in one area and if I had to I would simply shut the place down and let them starve.
However, once I got to the basement it was an open arena of sorts with blood, brains and dead bodies splattered everywhere. With that, once I started going down those stairs to the basement I caught sight of every single Krogan and Vorcha the Blood Pack employed. Although, they were off to the side making a giant circle and in the middle stood Garm smiling victoriously at me. Fight to the death it is.
"Hello Red Eyes," he spat at me displaying confidence. Confidence I knew was born not of arrogance but through battles.
"Garm. Where's my daughter?" It wasn't a question. It was a demand to know.
"I don't know," just from the way he smiled at me I could tell he was lying. "But you shouldn't concern yourself with that. My boys have been working tirelessly these last few days and we've finally got it ready for you. Today, all of Omega will bear witness to your death. Every single screen across Omega is now watching us. They will know I killed you and they will fear me."
"Fight to the death then?"
"But of course. Traditional Tuchanka style, only melee weapons in open combat," he spoke grandly, gesturing his arms out wide. His Krogan and Vorcha shouting and hollering the approval of the move. This wouldn't be easy.
"Then when I kill you I walk free."
"You won't but you have my word to walk out of here unharmed if you survive," Good enough for me. I knew it was bullshit though and activated my omni-tool sending a message to Kelli on my location.
After doing that I set down my flamethrower before pulling out both my knife and ax and got ready. Before it could start though Garm tossed a canteen at my feet and pointed at my knife. Guess, it couldn't have been that easy. Picking up the canteen I washed the venom off the knife and tossed the canteen away.
As we squared up with each other Garm pulled a heavy looking club from his back and got ready himself. We stared at each other for a few moments, our weapons hanging in our hands, before we both charged at each other. As we charged at each other Garm enveloped himself in biotic light. I should've expected that.
Once we got close enough he swung his club horizontally. Sliding under the attack I slashed at his leg only for him to lift it up and kick me in the face, all in one smooth motion. Falling flat on my back as a result of the kick I rolled out of the way as his club came down on where my head had been.
Kicking his leg while still on the ground after my roll I hit my mark at his knee and he collapsed to one knee. Jumping up from my position I swung my ax at his face only for his club to intercept it. Then the bastard headbutted me and it sent me stumbling back a couple feet from the force of the blow.
As I regained my composure he was already on me with his club held high with the intent to bring it down on my head. I deflected it with my weapons but the resulting force of the blow caused me to let go of my knife, it was that or break my wrist. Still, it gave me an opening and I backhanded him across the face with my augmetic with the ax in hand.
When it connected his barrier rippled and cracked and it was his turn to stumble away. A look of pure shock on his face but he made the mistake of giving me time. It was only a couple of seconds but that's all I needed to pick up my knife and get completely armed again.
He charged me as I got the knife into my hand and instead of swinging his club or attacking in a general manner he threw the club at me. I had to dodge out of the way and I didn't see him coming. Garm dived at me tackling me to the ground.
I was able to slam my ax into his side burying it into him but it did little to nothing to stop him. With my ax buried into his side, I let it go and brought my hand up to protect myself. It didn't do shit against him, all his weight and strength right on top of me it didn't take long for him to break through my defenses. When he did he used all of his weight and strength to bring me the pain with his punches. One after another they rattled my cage until I could barely see straight and the world was getting inky.
Finally when the punches stopped coming and I groaned out a pain-filled moan. Then I felt myself being lifted up to face Garm. He gave me a vicious smile before rearing his head back and delivering a headbutt. Then another, and another, and another. Continually until I fell limp.
I looked up at the ceiling thoroughly concussed and then I felt the straps of my helmet come undone and my face was revealed. Standing above me was Garm smiling down at me holding my ax and helmet in hand, his side still bleeding from where the ax had been.
"How the mighty have fallen. You are nothing Torchbearer, Red Eyes, Marauder, Champion. Your names matter not, You have still died to Krogan superiority. You will make a good meal," he tossed my ax and helmet away as he said that.
He grabbed me by the armor of my chest and lifted me off the ground. As he did so I could feel the feeling in my body start to return. Even through the haze as he lifted me up my body refused to stop. I could feel the anger I had felt returning. The WRATH returned. I was not about to die here and another part of me could feel both the rosary and the coins trying to burn a hole in their respective pockets.
Lifting me up so he could cleanly bite into my neck I waited until he was solely focused on my neck. As soon as I had my opportunity my hands struck like lightning burying themselves into his eye sockets. Lifting up my legs I kicked him in the chest and flew out of his grasp with both his eyes in my hands.
"AHHHHHHH," Garm screamed, holding the bleeding sockets that had been his eyes.
Stumbling over to my ax I grabbed it before walking back over to Garm. He was just starting to calm down from his screaming when I, with the ax in my right hand, uppercut it straight into his groin. If his screams before were loud then they were ear-splitting now.
Lifting my left leg I stomped down on the mid-point of my ax violently wrenching it out of his ground.
"Where's my daughter Garm!" I screamed at him.
"FUCK YOU!" he screamed right back and in response. In response to that, I punched him across the face with my augmetic, his jaw visibly breaking upon impact. And he fell onto his back
"WHERE!" I screamed again.
"Ar-ar."
"Aria has her?" he began to violently nod his head.
"Thank you for telling me Garm," I stated the passion from before losing itself in my voice as cold fury settled in instead. "But to the rules of this duel, you cannot live. And I know you were the one to let the children be raped. So I will give you an ending fitting of a rapist."
I grabbed his right arm and wrenched it out of its socket before swinging my ax into his left shoulder. Then I knelt down next to him and grabbed his face with my augmetic.
"EMBRACE ETERNITY!"
POV: Garrus Vakarian.
Everyone watched the fight with both eagerness and trepidation. Especially once Aedon started to get beat down. I thought he was about to die, I truly did but then he pulled it off. He came back and we got to see what Mordin had told us. Let me tell you, it was not a pretty sight and it was not easy on the ears either.
As he screamed out Embrace Eternity, the Asari go-to, the entire essence of Garms biotics was violently expunged from his body and went into Aedon's arm before surrounding his entire body. It glowed a vibrant purple and the essence rushed into him. Garm screaming in pain the whole time it happened but neither us nor Aedon cared. We got to see Garm go through probably the worst end someone could go through.*
His entire nervous system was systematically destroyed and his brain was rendered to nothing but mush as the process finished. As it did Aedon stood up from Garms lifeless body, planted a foot on Garm's body and simply looked around at the entire congregation of Blood pack members. That seemingly had a more drastic effect than anything else; every single one of the Blood Pack members took a visible step back from Wynne.
The biotic power he had just taken from Garm swirled around his body sparking and glowing a bright purple. It sparked and released several small explosions around his body before receding and seeping back into Wynne. This gave us a good view of Aedon and plastered on his face was an absolutely bloodthirsty and euphoric grin. Then the eyes, to most they definitely looked jet black but to a sniper like me, I could see their true color; a deep crimson red. Like blood.
Mordin's theory had been proven correct. Aedon was a human Ardak Yakshi. An absolutely terrifying thought for all biotics, especially since no one officially controlled him. The galaxy is about to shit its proverbial pants.
"Aria… Strike Three," Wynne spoke before turning and facing the whole of the Blood Pack. "Let me pass or die the same as your pathetic leader."
They parted like a great red Sea before Aedon as he walked over to his gear and helmet. Picking them all up he left the building and we all knew exactly where he was headed. To the Afterlife.
Our entire group scrambled to get there before he did. Even the civilians rushing to get to the Afterlife. As everyone began rushing around though I had an epiphany. Ordering Kelli and Nyreen to round everyone up, civilians included, I ran to find Kyle.
POV: Red Eyes
Afterlife was right in front of me. I was so close to ending this, just a bit longer and I would have my daughter back and then I could find a bed and pass out for a week. Parking the air car I got out and started to make my way to the Afterlife only for a hand to grab onto my arm and stop me. Whirling around with my pistol already in hand I held off on pulling the trigger when I saw who it was.
"I have a plan. Trust me okay," Garrus said as he pulled me back into the shadows.
"How long will I have to wait?" I ground out.
"One hour."
"No longer," he nodded his head and then told me of the plan. I couldn't help but smile at it.
Exactly one hour later I was sitting in the rafters on the second level of Omega above where Aria sat. She had extra security with her but none of them had noticed me get here, pathetic. As for her security, five of her six guards were Krogan and I had reapplied the venom to my blade. This would be easy.
Still, I had to wait for the signal and Garrus had just walked up to Aria and took a seat next to her without asking or getting permission from her. He simply smiled at her as she glared daggers at him. If he was affected by it he didn't show it at all.
"Where's the Girl Aria?" I heard him speak. Aria simply snapped her fingers and out of her private room a Batarian came out with Girl held at gunpoint and a slave collar on her neck. Right then and there I wanted to jump down and murder them all but I held off. Garrus had a plan.
"Take the collar off her. Now," Garrus' voice brokered no argument. Again Aria stared daggers at him but gave a nod to the Batarian and the collar came off. Girl rushed over to Garrus and jumped into his waiting arms crying the whole time. It was getting increasingly difficult to hold myself back here. I wanted to kill every last one of them. KILL THEM ALL.
"We're done," Aria spoke dismissing Garrus but he didn't move.
"I don't think you know what's happening here Aria. Omega is no longer solely under your control. My group will be taking half the floors and you will give them to us free of charge. If you try to do anything to me or mine after the fact… well, you've seen what just one of us can do. We'll kill all of you and take it for ourselves. This is our only offer."
"Fuck you. I control Omega. I am the Queen. I am Omega?"
"Are you sure about that?" Garrus said before raising his hand and snapping his fingers. The signal.
I killed the power to all of Afterlife, reducing it to a black abyss of pure silence. Then out of the blackness and silence, a sea of red eyes appeared all over the Afterlife. Our people who had been heading into the club had been given glasses by Kyle. Glasses that he put his night vision variant on; the one that produced the red light. Letting every single person have red eyes.
As soon as they started to appear I dropped down from the rafters and sliced all of the Krogan before they could do a single thing. Paralyzed where they stood. The two Batarians got an ax to the head and a knife to the throat. When they were all down I activated my red eyes, glowing the brightest out of everyone as I stared down Aria.
"Last chance," I spoke waiting for her answer.
She tried to stare me down in the silence but it wouldn't work for me. Too angry, too pissed off. The fact that she was even given this chance was an insult to me but we had to do it. The fighting that would result would harm too many people. Something we were unwilling to do.
"You may have half the levels. Now leave, before I change my mind," as soon as the words were out of her mouth the lights and music came back on.
With that too Girl jumped out of Garrus' hands and ran to me. I immediately dropped to one knee and spread my arms. She jumped into them crying and she hugged me. I'm not ashamed to admit that I cried as well. I finally got my daughter back. No one else's. MINE. I had my daughter back and I would never let her go again!
I walked out of the Afterlife with her in my arms and Garrus beside me. Nyreen, Kelli and Vrul all joining us on the way out. However, as we were nearing the exit I felt the exhaustion of the last 29 days hit me hard. 29 days of little to no sleep, barely drinking, barely eating, and fighting life or death the entire time; I was beyond exhausted.
This all came to a head when we finally got out of the Afterlife. I was barely able to hand Girl off to Kelli before I blacked out.
POV: Pope Victor V
I watched the video of the boy and the Krogan over and over and I honestly couldn't stop the smile from forming on my face. He was starting to figure it out; from my informants too he was truly helping the people of Omega. I couldn't be happier that my bet on him has worked out. He's earned it.
"Quinten," I said out loud for my lead bodyguard.
"Yes your Holiness."
"Send a group to Omega. I want to hear what the boy has to say on the matter of the Reapers."
"You think they're real sir?"
"I do not know. What I do know is that if they are and I did nothing than I will have utterly failed god."
"It'll be done."
"Good… And Quinten," I said, getting his attention before could leave. "Get Cardinal Aventus in here. I wish to talk with him."
"Of course sir."
When he left I continued to watch the video. It has quickly gone viral across the entirety of the galaxy but it was a bit too early to see what everyone thought about it though. That being said from my people the video went viral only 22hrs after it was originally filmed, quite remarkable how quickly it went viral. However, as I watched the video more intensely this time I noticed something as he asked for his daughter's location. It was quick and only a flash behind him but there was something there.
I would spend the next 10 minutes watching those few seconds over and over trying to pause the video at the right time. Finally I got it right after so many tries and what I saw brought the biggest smile I've ever had onto my face. I truly had chosen the perfect candidate.
Aventus had one hell of a job in front of him to do. If I was right of course but I was right; I knew it in my bones.
15 minutes later when Aventus showed up and saw the part of the video I paused he didn't even hesitate at my orders. Within the next 72hours every single religious group in the galaxy would be here, at the Vatican. To discuss what I had just seen.
Holy fucking shit. How'd y'all like that! I have been waiting a WHILE to write that.
*1: Snipers generally lie in areas people don't expect. Like in a field or on the ground, getting up high just puts a target on you. They only ever get up high when they have no other choice. Watch Saving Private Ryan and you'll understand.
*2: Parkour run up a wall
3*: it looks exactly like the Bio Leech ability from Infamous 1-2. If I didn't have enough detail for it.
BTW, Warhammer 40K for the win. Love to see other fans here.
EITHER WAY, I HOPE Y'ALL HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND.