Chapter 15. Whatever Happened To Captain Haliat


14. June 2388 AD, Plutus System, HSASV Lake Trasimene

He continued filling his backpack with demolition charges under the somewhat confused look of the petty officer in charge of the Lake Trasimene's armory. He grabbed another one as the woman raised an eyebrow.

"I'd hate to be whoever you're going after." she said, looking at the list he had given her to retrieve the next item he required. "I mean, you obviously know what you are doing, but that's a lot of explosives."

He closed the armored backpack, by his count filled with twenty charges each one capable of a surprisingly big explosion and pulled one strap over his shoulder as he turned to face her, his helmet not yet obscuring his features.

"Need to blow up something big." he replied as he reached for the M-83 in the petty officer's hands. He fixed the submachine gun in place on a carbine attached to his backpack before beginning to grab magazine after magazine. "Maybe I'll have to shoot a lot of things as well." he explained as he closed the magazine pouch.

"You wrote down ammunition for a SIS-8, yet not the actual gun." the woman pointed out, more likely trying to keep the conversation going than actually believing him to have forgotten something.

He decided to go with it, after all, people rarely talked to him, the reputation of his profession acting as a deterrent to just about anyone. After all, Section 13 had been classified to the general public right until they had been given autonomy during the Fringe Wars. He had preferred it back then, people would only look at him as an HSAIS agent, not a living weapon.

"Brought my own." Rei replied as he pulled the customized weapon from it's holster strapped to his right leg, grabbing a pistol magazine from the desk and putting it into the black gun, his grey, armored gloves pulling back the slight after making sure the safety of the gun was still in place. "Don't leave home without it." he added, trying to sound as friendly as a man getting ready to commit violence could.

"So that's everything on your list. Grenades, ammunition, demolition charges, one M-83." the petty officer read of the tablet. "I think you're good to go. Good luck out there."

"Thanks. I'll try not to scratch the paint off of your M-83." He picked up his helmet, the black tainted visor reflecting the light of the ceiling lamps into his eyes, causing him to squint a bit before turning it around and looking at its inside, weighing the grey piece of equipment in his hands, a scratch at it's left side marking his recent brush with death. Then he turned the helmet left, revealing a stylized, black crosshair engraved into the helmet, the symbol serving as a reminder to his humble beginnings as a marine sniper. Everyone had to start somewhere and it was always good to remain connected to one's roots.

He threw one last look at the petty officer, who at this point was already busy taking care of other things, and pulled the helmet over his face, replacing Specialist Tao Rei with 'Ryōshi', his face disappearing behind the visor that had stared into deaths face countless of times.

Tao walked out of the armory, his destination being the hangar bay of the Lake Trasimene. A shuttle would take him to surface of Nonuel, using the volcanic ash clouds to cover its signature from any potential pirate sensors. Once on the ground, he'd enter the pirates base through an adjacent tunnel, ground penetrating scans of the scout frigate revealing a poorly secured, though somewhat long corridor leading inside the dormant volcano.

He jumped into the already floating Kodiak, closing the door behind him.


2130 CE, Plutus System, THS Umbra

"At least we won't be spaced this time." Galviat said as he gave Desolas a hand while entering the shuttle. "Mark my words, I shall have my vengeance against Tanilus Veltax."

"Galviat, I think you might be the only turian I know who'd prefer fighting in a volcanic inferno to peacefully drifting in space."

"This again?" Lieutenant Callius questioned. "You've been over this four times in the last two hours. Stop bickering and run a last minute check." she ordered.

Desolas sat down in the shuttle, locking the door in place to ensure that their atmosphere wouldn't vent and ran the last diagnostic scan the Lieutenant had just suggested. Everything was perfectly calibrated, excellent.

"Haliat might be down there." he began, interrupting the argument between Veltax and Galviat. "Remember the plan, use the tunnels to enter the volcano base, track him down, find out everything he knows about these artifacts, kill him, paint the target for the Umbra and get out of there before the batarians arrive."

Galviat sighted, "Knowing our luck, the batarians will arrive the moment we touch down."

"The Umbra is monitoring the area, if any batarian ships drop out of FTL, we'll know." Desolas replied, "We don't know what the pirates have been doing with the artifact, however we can assume that they'll share the cybernetic implants we found in the corpses of Tunae Prime."

The shuttle shook as it began to descend into the ashen clouds of Nonuel, the pilot most likely trying his best not to lose control of the craft in this hostile environment. Even with his costum suit of armor, Desolas doubted he could last longer than a day on the surface. The shuttle began to slow down as the pilot addressed them.

"Landing zone just up ahead, you'll have to get out quickly. The entire area is unsuited for touch down."

"You heard him." Desolas rose from his seat, grabbing onto a rail at the ceiling of the shuttle's crew compartment. "Let's finish this, once and for all."

He received three energetic 'Yes, Sir.' and opened the door the moment the pilot gave him the go ahead, the temperature indicator in his HUD skyrocketing as the hot air of Nonuel rushed into his face. The view that greeted him was unexpected. Nonuel's purple sky, dotted by large, black ash clouds with rays of Plutus's blue light shining through them as lighting cracked in the distance, would normally have been a sight to behold in its own right but Desolas couldn't enjoy exactly pause to admire the unique beauty of this place. His mind was set on the task ahead.

He jumped out, his armor preventing his feet from catching fire as they touched the ground and he immediately began to walk to the cave entrance they had previously mapped out through the use of the Umbra's advanced sensor array. The tunnel, not unlike the one they used on Jartar, was already visible from their landing side and after a short trip, the unit stood in front of their entrance.. The general began to walk inside the mountain it, his personal guard following swiftly. The light from Plutus began to grow scarce the further they moved inside the tunnel causing his helmet to do what it did in situations such as these. Then, just as his night vision turned itself on Desolas halted his pace, raising a fist to signal his unit to stop.

He lowered the arm to point at something on the ground, something he had only spotted due to an old Blackwatch saying forcing itself into his memory.

The careful hunter watches where he steps.

Looking down at the small crack in the floor, he took a step back and turned towards the Lieutenant, the temperature indicator in his field of vision climbing even further than when he had first opened the door.

"Scan the ground, I've got a bad feeling about this." he said as he took another step back, now focusing on the crack and noticing the waves of hot air clashing with the 'colder' inside of the cave, dancing around each other.

"This volcano is not dormant." the Lieutenant replied, her tone incredibly professional given what her next words would be. "We are standing just above a chamber filled with magma."

"It's gonna erupt soon, isn't it?" Veltax asked.

"Incredibly soon." the Lieutenant replied as she looked at the readings displayed on her omni-tool.

"What are we talking, days?" Desolas asked, still staring at the crack. Somehow he expected the next word.

"Hours." the Lieutenant replied. "By the end of the day, the entire mountain side will be flooded in lava." she sighted, "Even worse, atmospheric interference is picking up. Nothing short of an emergency beacon will reach the Umbra right now."

"It will also alert the pirates." Veltax commented. "Great."

"The batarians called it dormant, didn't they?" Galviat injected. "How could they screw up this badly?"

"The batarians call anti-slavery laws discriminatory." Desolas countered. "We have to keep moving, watch the ground in front of you, one wrong step and you'll crash right through the ceiling of that cave. Even your armor won't save you then. Single file, follow my path."

Carefully moving forward he calculated each step, his unit mirroring his every move just as he had ordered them.

"Lieutenant, the moment we are clear of that chamber, you inform me." Desolas said as he narrowly avoided stepping on an incredibly small rupture in the ground, only his sharpened reflexes preventing him from setting down his foot as he saw the faintest sign of hot air at the last possible moment.

"The chamber will be underneath us right until we reach the end of the tunnel, I'm rather certain this was intentional on their part, Sir."

"You don't have to watch for intruders if they burn up in a sea of lava." Galviat commented. "Surprisingly smart."

"Magma." she corrected him. "It's called magma as long as it's underneath the ground."

"Whatever you say, Ma'am."

Desolas, most likely thanks to walking right in front of him, heard Veltax whispered complaint about how they should just get a room but chose not to comment on it, instead focusing on the path ahead, his temperature indicator slowly climbing down, his armor having to work less hard to keep him alive with every step.

"We're almost through." Lieutenant Callius commented. "Just a few more paces."

Desolas however remained vigilant, almost didn't mean they were in the clear. It meant that if they lost focus now they'd burn up just shy of safety. Continuing his stride, he once more spotted something he didn't expect.

Lying in the shadows, just outside of the tunnels exit was a corpse, damaged, brown armor carelessly strapped over his torso, an old batarian shotgun laying just out of reach. Stepping closer the first thing he realised that in spite of Nonuel's incredibly toxic air and the lack of oxygen generators in the area, the salarian wasn't wearing any sort of helmet. The pirate's face was incredibly pale, almost as if he had been dead for weeks, the only indicator that he hadn't been being the still fresh blood running from a big wound in his neck. The dead salarian caused something to surface inside of Desolas's mind, the pictures of the fallen pirates retrieved on Tunae Prime appearing in his memory as he looked at the corpse.

He took a closer look. The blood was off as well, instead of the acidic green usually seen leaking from injured salarians, this salarian bled blue, almost like a turian but not quite. The naturally big, black-brown salarian eyes were nowhere to be seen either. Instead three smaller blue dots orbited a black center replaced them. Desolas also recognized the fine blue lines, glowing dots clearly visible, running under the pirates skin. He looked just like Haliat had appeared in the last few video logs. Desolas stepped forward, the lieutenant now giving the all clear regarding the sea of magma, and spotted something else.

Running from underneath the armor, he could make out small tubes appearing out of the salarian's torso and once more leading into the pirate's arms. Arms cut up by defensive wounds, large pieces of flesh torn out by a blade, one tube cut in half by a cut of the pirate's killer.

Desolas pointed at the corpse, causing Veltax to raise his Phaeston as the general approached the body to remove the chest piece of the pirate's armor. Kneeling down he undid the locks on the armor and pulled away the plate. The moment he had done it, Desolas stared at a small blue circle, reminding him of a battery.

"This is not as crude as the implants on Tunae Prime." he said as he dropped the brown piece of armor next to the corpse. "This is more advanced."

"They are getting better at adding these thing to their bodies." Lieutenant Callius commented as Veltax kept his rifle aligned with the dead salarian. "What we found on Tunae Prime resembled the work of a 'doctor' on Omega, this already looks like it was done by someone with basic understanding of operating on salarians."

"Now I'd hate to interrupt the two of you, Ma'am." Galviat said. "But shouldn't we ask whatever happened to that guy?"

Just as Desolas rose from his kneeling position next to the corpse he saw the faintest imprint in the ash, a partial boot profile visible only to the keenest of observers becoming visible.

"Whoever did it went the same way we did." he said as he once more lifted his own assault rifle. "Let's find Haliat."


Fifteen Minutes Earlier, Nonuel

It reminded him of hell if he was honest. The fires raging in the distance, the lighting cracking down from the sky as he jogged towards the entrance of the cave tunnel, all of it added to the picture. Only the bright sky somewhat reduced the impact in Tao's mind.

Turning on the night vision included in his helmet, Tao drew his pistol from its holster on his leg and began to advance into the darkness. He walked a couple of meters and came to a halt as he felt the vibration in his feet and saw small pieces of the ceiling fall down on the ground as the whole area began to shake.

"So much for dormant." he mused. The sensor technicians of the Lake of Trasimene hadn't even bothered to try a thermal scan, the hot atmosphere, the even hotter smoke clouding it and the general volcanic activity making it a pointless endeavour.

Had they tried, they might have spotted the heat build up.

Having grown up on one of the most volcanic active regions back on Earth, he was more than aware of the signs predating a volcanic eruption and right now most of them began to manifest themselves around him.

He continued his march through the cave for a few more meters until his armor's computer began to furiously inform him of a temperature spike, his shields beginning to absorb the heat suddenly appearing from underneath him. He looked down at his feet, black ash already staining the grey metal, and noticed the cracks in the ground.

Tao Rei sighted. Why could things never been easy?

Not only was the volcano he was trying to get into not dormant, no. That wasn't enough. His route into the volcano happened to be situated just above a pool of magma that could flood said route at any given moment. This mission had gotten a lot more complicated in a very short amount of time.

Stepping over the crack, which most certainly hid a large body of magma just waiting to build enough pressure to cause an eruption, he decided to move up his time schedule, he simply couldn't risk giving the pirates, who were bound to be aware of imminent eruption, the chance to move the Object Omnicron again. Waiting for the batarian assault was no longer an option.

He picked up his pace to the absolute limit of remaining silent and crept through the darkness, his HUD helping him make out a source of light ahead. He kept moving, aligning his pistol with his eyes, already expecting the universe to throw a group of pirates right in his path, because right about now the only thing that could make the situation even worse was losing the element of surprise.

He came to a sudden halt when he saw something that should've been impossible. A lone salarian, not wearing any sort of protective head gear, stood with his back turned towards Tao. The specialist ran a quick scan, revealing the air to be just as toxic as on the surface. There was no logical explanation as to why the pirate was alive.

Specialist Rei reached for his knife as he holstered his pistol, his intention to silence the impossible salarian as quickly as possible. He crept up on his target, who was by all means standing as still as humanly, or perhaps rather salarianly possible and grabbed a hold of the pirate's head, covering his mouth as he jabbed the tip of his knife in the salarian's neck, twisting it and ripping it into the direction Tao himself was facing.

Normally, this should've killed anything short of a krogan.

To say Tao was surprised when the salarian turned his head, blood spurting out of the neck wound, and grabbed a hold of the knife, was no understatement. Tao, caught up in his adrenaline fueled movements, still noted that the salarian's eyes looked strangely familiar. Ripping the blade backwards and cutting deep into the salarian's hand had no visible effect either as Tao jumped backwards, just narrowly avoiding the grasp of the pirate. The specialist shot forward and slashed at the salarian's arms, blood once more leaking from the wounds as Tao's blade caught some sort of cable, cutting it in half in the had the effect he desired in the first place as the pirate dropped to his knees.

As Tao stared into the pirate's still glowing eyes, he understood why the pirate had been able to survive in the toxic atmosphere without a helmet. The Object Omnicron they had stolen was already doing the one thing Section 13 knew it could do. Making organics more resilient by adding cybernetic implants into their bodies and judging by the lack of crude scars, it had done so for days. Object Omnicron, as far as Section 13 suspected, was capable of learning and capable of two ways of altering physiology. It could either do it crude and fast or precise and slow. The most likely theory was that the more often it altered someone in a crude way, the faster it got in doing it precise and the less need it had for resorting to the crude way of doing things.

He placed the knife in its holding on his chest as the images of the last time he had seen something like this danced before his eyes, monstrosities of flesh and metal in various states of being processed chasing both Specialist Harper and Specialist Rei through a forest on Shanxi, a well timed explosion destroying the source of their abilites and causing them to become catatonic just long enough for the specialists to clean up. Most had looked like the pieces had simply been forced into them by someone pretending to be a doctor while few had been subjected to a less crude way of insertion.

However even they had looked cruder than this salarian.

The Object Omnicron they had found on Shanxi had been dug up by mistake, only being active for precisely 89 hours before being destroyed by a rapid deployment of Section 13. Less than four days.

This thing had been active for over ten days.

He had to put a stop to this before it reached whatever next phase it was shooting for.

His eyes moved to the entrance the dead salarian, now merely a husk of his former self, had looked at. It let to an extension inside the volcano overlooking a plateau. He could make out a series of tents, a few prefabs and a freighter on it. Light from the Nonuel's star shone through the volcano's open summit and reflected of a piece of metal built into the volcano's inside.

The complex.

Noticing the rising levels of lava at the bottom of volcano and the narrow passage leading towards the plateau, he withdrew a charge designed to burn a hole into any sort of metallic wall from his backpack and secured it in his utility pouch, locking the bag rigged to his tactical kit once more.

"Time to earn your living, Tao." he whispered to himself as he began to climb down the trail, a single rock coming loose as his foot touched it, the small piece dropping into the lava below and burning up in an instant.

At least they weren't shooting at him.

Yet.

Getting back would be the hard part because by then they would most certainly shoot at him.


Present Time

Desolas stepped past the corpse and into the entrance it had leaned against. The night vision in his helmet shut itself of as he stared at the base situated in the volcano's crater, a plateau coming out of the mountain's rock glowing orange as the lava level grew dangerously close to it. Desolas immediately spotted several corpses lying around tents, prefabs and noted that a freighter was just about to tip into the pool of liquid stone, a loose piece that could break away at any point being the only thing standing in his way.

"See that door?" he asked his lieutenant as he pointed at the metal structure reflecting light into his eyes. A large burn mark clearly visible where someone had broken into the complex by force.

"Yes, Sir."

"Get ready for a little climbing." he said as he stored his Phaeston on his back and looked at the narrow passage leading towards the plateau. He looked at his gloves, the profile imprinted on them meant to assist in climbing clearly visible.

Blackwatch chose the sword of a people native to Palaven's mountains for a reason. Climbing was something they took pride in.

Leading by example, just as expected from any turian officer, Desolas placed a hand on the wall of the volcano before setting a foot on the passage, making sure it was stable enough to carry him.

When he didn't fall down into the sea of lava, he kept going, keeping a pace fast enough to avoid putting too much pressure on a less solid piece of rock but staying slow enough to calculate each of his moves. He turned his head towards his unit, the three personal guards somewhat behind due to Desolas informing them of their climbing trip just seconds before starting himself.

As he began to move his hands once more, a quake rocked the volcano, causing Desolas to lose his footing, resulting in only one of his arms holding him in place as the rocks underneath him crumbled and vanished in the orange pool of lava that was slowly but steadily rising from the bottom of the volcano. Desolas, in a fit of adrenaline and pure instinct, managed to grab a hold of a hole in the wall created by the quake, pulling himself up with the combined strength of both of his arms.

Close call.

He turned his head around to see his unit still in one piece, the ground underneath them somewhat more resilient than the small strip he had been on when the earth began to shake. The general kept moving, the solid ground of the plateau growing ever closer and the twisted nature of the corpses lying on it becoming more evident with each step he took. He could spot batarians, asari, salarians, a turian and even a couple of vorcha. All shared the cybernetics seen on the salarian as far as he could tell though some were less refined than him but his focus was captivated by the pirate sharing his species with Desolas.

His first foot touched the plateau and he swiftly moved towards the dead turian, having to confirm if it was Elanos Haliat or just any other turian.

He kept his Phaeston pointed at the corpse and kicked him, making sure that the pirate was actually dead. When no reaction came from the supposed corpse, he turned him around to stare at a face that shared the fine blue lines and general disturbing features of Captain Haliat but other than that looked nothing like the Blackwatch officer, the coloration of his plates and the shape of his mandibles vastly different from his target. Relieve washed over Desolas as he set his eyes on the door leading into the mountain, the black scorch marks standing in sharp contrast to the silver metal of the complex's entry.

He moved up to the hole that had been cut into the metal using some sort of incendiary charge and leaned into it, his Phaeston pressed tightly into his shoulder, ready to fire at anyone who could spot him and allowing him to take a better look at the situation in front of him. The entry was connected to a ramp which led down to a hallway with grey metal plates lining the inside of the complex.

His first impression was that there had been a fight. Someone had breached the door, caught those inside by surprise, as evident by the two pirates which had fallen with their backs still turned towards the door, three more pirates killed by precise shots through their necks and heads, one batarian stabbed through the lower set of eyes with the bayonett of his own shotgun.

This had been a brutal and effective breach, most likely by a team the size of his own.

He was torn out of his thoughts when Veltax spoke up.

"Sir, I've found shell casings." he said as Desolas turned around to catch the brass object.

"Humans did this?" he asked as he looked at the corpses spread across the plateau before turning back towards the hallway.

"Seems like it."

"We have to reach the artifact before they are exposed to it. They don't know what they are getting into." Desolas realised as he climbed through the scorched opening, just big enough for him to fit. He began to walk down the hallway, something drawing him deeper into the complex with each step.

"What was that, Lieutenant?" he questioned as a cracking echoed through the complex.

"Those are magma chambers giving in to the pressure. Sir, the volcano could errupt any minute. If the pressure continues to build at this rate, this area will be gone in less than twenty minutes." she warned as the unit moved through the metal hallways, the sporadic corpse and shell cassings littering the way.

"Haliat is down there. I need to see this through." Desolas replied. "His knowledge is too valuable. Get them out of here, Lieutenant. I can do this on my own. Go back to the landing zone." he stated as he kept walking through the corridors of the base, a somewhat dismembered pirate causing him to awkwardly step past a disconnected arm trying not to slip on the blue blood-like substance covering the floor. He kept moving, leaving his unit behind him as he walked through a hallway filled with corpses

"Damn these humans sure as hell were angry." Galviat commented from behind, causing Desolas to halt, confused by the presence of the turian who should've turned back.

"Shrapnel dug in the wall." Veltax said while pointing a finger at the damaged metal frame built into the mountain. "Shock and awe tactics, they threw stealth out of the window in favour of speed."

"Probably realised that the volcano is about to drown this place anyway. No point in sneaking if you're on fire." Galviat replied, his tone somewhat tense as a tremor traveled through the ground, causing him to press his hand against the wall to keep himself from falling.

"Didn't I just order the three of you to leave?" Desolas questioned as he turned around. "I said that I need to see this through, none of you need to be here."

"We're your personal guard, Sir." the Lieutenant argued. "Not leaving you behind."

"A hunter doesn't abandon the pack, General." Veltax added.

"Beats floating in space." Galviat chuckled.

"We have to hurry then." Desolas said, a single respectful nod directed at the choice his unit just made before he began to pick up his pace.

Coming to another door, this one stuck in a state of opening and closing due to a corpse blocking it's path, Desolas came to a halt as another quake, this one feeling different and way more intense, caused him to fall to the ground as the lights went out in the corridor. With the walls shaking and the earth moving, Desolas managed to avoid being crushed by a piece of rebar falling from the ceiling by rolling out of its path mere moments before it smashed down where he had just been.

"Lieutenant?" he asked as he picked himself up. "I thought you said twenty minutes."

"That wasn't the mountain." she said as she got up herself.

"What do you mean it wasn't the mountain, Ma'am?" Veltax questioned as he pulled Galviat up from the ground.

"As far as I can tell, that was a mass accelerator round fired from low orbit." the Lieutenant explained.

"The batarians?" Galivat sighted as he checked his rifle for damage. "They have to show up now?"

"They'll turn this place upside down any minute now. Batarian doctrine calls for an orbital strike just before a drop." Desolas figured. "Let's go."

Desolas forced the door open before walking through, a small room overlooking a bigger one through a window revealing itself to the general. Located just outside of the window was something he could best describe as an altar. The lights were dimmed in what looked like it had been the command center of the pirate base and tables had been moved to create a podium in the middle of the room, right below the only working ceiling lamp. Underneath that light Desolas could make out one of the reasons he was standing on Nonuel in the first place.

The artifact, it's purple shape illuminated by the ceiling lamps, captivating the attention of every single pirate. Kneeling around it were rows of pirates in various states of cybernetic enhancement, all of them focused on the sphere located on the platform in the center of the room. Then his eyes spotted a hooded figure walking up to the artifact, raising its arms and causing the cloak to slight down, revealing one metal arm and another, distinctively turian looking one.

"Haliat?" he questioned as he took another step forward, raising his Phaeston's scope to the turians back. He was about to fire when the turian turned around and spotted him in an instant, snarling at the pirates who suddenly turned around and lifted their weapons. Desolas was saved only by his training, his desire to kill the turian and his confusion as to how he had even known of his presence almost overshadowing his instinct to throw himself into cover as the bullets began to shatter the glass he had just stood behind.

The one glimpse he had gotten of the figure had confirmed what he had already suspected. Haliat was here.

He crawled underneath the hail of bullets the pirates were unleashing on his position as his unit moved up to support him. Peaking out of another part of the window, he began to return fire as a biotic barrier started to block out the somewhat inaccurate suppressive fire the pirates were laying on the Blackwatch unit.

Desolas sent a burst of mass accelerator rounds out of his Phaeston, hitting an asari in the shoulder as she made a move for better cover. However instead of immediately dropping down in shock, the pirate kept walking for a few steps as the same blue liquid he had seen several times already leaked from the wound. The pirate slowed down, her self preservation apparently not fully active and turned to face Deoslas, her rifle coming up incredibly fast even though he had just injured her shoulder. For her unusual reaction she received another round through her brain as Desolas seized the opportunity. Apparently whatever they had done had made them more resilient, normally an asari wouldn't just walk of a round tearing through her shoulder, let alone be able to lift a rifle after a Phaeston tore through it.

He heard the thudding of biotic powers as Lieutenant Callius threw one pirate across the room with a practiced set of motion. The unfortunate cybernetic batarian was about to pick himself up but before he could do so, Veltax finished him of as he rose from his own cover, firing a series of rounds into the pirates upper body before sending the killing blow to the head through the barrel of his Phaeston. Then the turian threw a grenade, blowing up a group of pirates and destroying the last working ceiling lamp in the process, causing Desolas's night vision gear to turn on again, the familiar green filter outlining targets for him.

Meanwhile a vorcha was decapitated by Galviat's sniper rifle, the turian's aim as precise as the day Desolas had recruited him for his personal guard. The sniper shifted his attention towards a pirate standing close to the artifact, apparently trying to move it, only for the round to bounce of a biotic barrier projected by another asari pirate.

"Switching to phasic rounds." he informed his unit over squad intercom before peaking up again to point out what Desolas had already seen. "They are moving it!"

Then Desolas saw yet another strange thing, a lone human jumping across a command console while firing a submachine gun at the pirates with one hand, a disk leaving his other hand and causing a detonation near the artifact.


Meanwhile

His plan had been somewhat accelerated due to his rather loud entrance into the compound but things had been under control, the pirates had been distracted, he had managed to sneak into the command center through an adjacent room. The artifact had been in reach, the pirates too captivated to realise that a specialist was slowly preparing the entire command center to collapse in one fiery explosion. He could've just retreated, blown the place to hell and be done with it. Even his timing had been on point, an orbital strike marking the imminent arrival of the batarians to distract the pirates.

It had been a solid plan.

At least until a turian fireteam had started to shoot up the place, alerting all pirates captivated by the Object Omnicron to their presence and causing them to start moving his target.

Now he found himself leaping over his hiding spot, a Mark-14 digging itself into the lower back of a pirate standing near the artifact, tearing him and the people close to him apart as rounds from the M-83 punched holes into one rather crude looking, asari victim of the Object Omnicron.

Tao slid across the ground, rounds tearing over his head as he kicked the feet of a pirate of the ground, pinning the deformed face to the ground before firing several rounds right up the vorcha's mouth, razor sharp claws trying to open the armor on his arm in the process. The pirate stopped to struggle after the fifth bullet finally managed to kill it, Rei rolling to the side while using the vorcha as a shield and switching the magazine of his M-83 before he once more began his pursuit of the Object Omnicron. He sprayed rounds at the people carrying it, only for them to bounce of the barrier projected by yet another asari who had replaced the last one killed by a turian sniper. The group of pirates, still led by the hooded turian, made an effort for a series of stairs just as Tao dodged a batarian swinging his shotgun at him like a club. The specialist, his shields slowly depleting as other pirates realised he was actually there, fired a ground into the kneecap of the pirate before shooting him in the back of the head. His instincts told him to jump into cover and moments after he did just that, four pirates began to shoot at him, covering the retreat of their comrades and his target.

From his position he could see how the turians began to drop down from the room they had been in, his night vision gear allowing him to see the one heading straight for him as the other three began to pin down the pirates still remaining in the command center, his assault rifle pointing to the ceiling as he delivered an impressive sprint. The turian threw himself into the cover, Tao moving to the side to give him some more space.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he questioned as the turian leaned out and fired of a burst of his rifle.

"You don't understand what you're getting yourself into, human." the turian began. "Evacuate your team, the pirates are in possession of a weapon capable of manipulating people."

"I don't have a team." Tao said. "And I know exactly what that thing is, which is why I am here to blow it up." the specialist raised the detonator.

"The destruction of the artifact is our goal as well. However the turian in charge of these pirates knows things we need to learn." the turian argued. "I propose we join arms."

"As long as the Object Omnicron ends up in pieces, I don't care how it happens." Tao said as he got up from his cover, the last pirate in his sight. A series of rounds tore through the air, blue blood stains appearing behind the salarian as the M-83 finished him off.

He jumped across his cover and set his eyes on the stairway the pirates had used to flee. It was leading upwards, most certainly to some sort of landing platform, and by his count they had at least 30 seconds on them.

He began to increase his speed as the turian he had just met motioned for his unit to follow him, their heavier footsteps echoing through the now silent command center. He reached the stairs and began to climb them, taking multiple ones in rather large leaps, his heart beating faster as he came towards a corner.

Time slowed down as he saw the fist, belonging to a krogan altered by the Object Omnicron, coming towards his face. The blow would be fatal, the alien's strength most certainly increased by cybernetics. His skin, like with anyone that came into prolonged contact with an Object Omnicron, had fine blue lines running underneath it, his eyes replaced by the already familiar pattern. The krogan's fist closed in as Tao jumped backwards, his M-83 beginning to fire rounds that couldn't quiet punch through the pirate's armor at the creature. He felt himself connect with the wall, the fist just short of making contact and rolled sideways, the sound of turian gunfire only flaring up for a short moment before one turian, this one the sniper of the unit, was slapped aside by the creature, smashing into the lone female, at least Rei was pretty sure it was a female turian, of the group before she could power up her biotics, the purple ripples disappearing the moment the bigger turian was thrown into her, the soldier losing focus of her biotics in favour of catching her team mate. However the force of his noticeable heavier body smashing into her caused them to stumble back onto the stairs, not able to break their fall in time.

As the two rolled down the stairs, only three people remained standing. The leader of the turian unit, the one that had approached him, managed to get off a few shots before the angry, more resilient, modified korgan simply grabbed the assault rifle, not even flinching as the rounds tore into his hand and arm in the process, and ripped it from the turian's hands.

Moving to the defense of his leader, who dodged a punch just as Tao began to make his move, the last remaining turian tackled the krogan to the ground, drawing a curved knife from a sheath with the inted to drive it through the krogan's skull. He got surprisingly close, only stopped as the pirate's already injured hand shot up, the blade cutting straight through the skin and muscle but the sheer strenght of the krogan's arm stopping the blade centimeter's in front of his face, the blue, blood-like substance dripping into the pirate's face before he pushed the turian of himself, the blade ripping out of his hand in the process.

Before the krogan could get up and make a move to crush the turian's head, Tao had already made his.

The specialist, using the distraction caused by the turian's act of bravery, jumped on the krogan, a pistol in one hand and his knife in the other. Jabbing his blade into the softer, if one could talk about 'soft' regarding krogan skin, part of the pirate's neck, he pressed his SIS-8 against the pirates forehead, pulling the trigger again and again, each shot causing more blue liquid to cover his hands and forearms. Tao didn't believe in overkill, however he also hated to take a chance in situations such as these, therefore he kept squeezing the trigger until the last bullet left the barrel of his pistol.

When his gun clicked empty, he pulled the blade out and went to reload, halfway expecting the krogan to grab him and throw him like he had done to the two first turians, both of which were walking up the stairs now, one clutching his arm which looked like it had been twisted a bit too far in the wrong direction.

"Lieutenant Callius, Galviat, are you hurt?" the turian leader questioned as he lifted his Phaeston, only to realise that the front of the gun had been damaged beyond repair for now. He secured the gun on his back as the two turians approach him.

"I'm fine. Mostly." a high, flanging voice declared. "Galviat's arm is injured though."

"Veltax?" the leader questioned.

"The blade with my name on it hasn't been forged yet, General." the turian, a blue, krogan fist imprinted on his chest, replied with a cough.

That caught Tao by surprise, a general leading a fire team? Interesting. There was no time to think about the role of a turian general within a special operations unit right now though.

"They are getting away." he stated as he once more began to climb the stairs, reloading his submachine gun as he picked up the faintest sound of gunfire. "Sounds like the batarian's arrived." he noted, already rushing up the stairway.

The turians, even though bloodied, followed him up the stairs.

"Activate the emergency beacon Lieutenant." he heard the general order. "We'll need pick up soon."

"What about Haliat?" the officer questioned.

"We'll reach him in time." the general replied. "How are you getting away from here, human?"

Specialist Rei activated the transmitter on his left wrist and the wrist watch like beacon started to transmit. "Lake Trasimene, I'll need pick up in five. Be advised, I found some turians and the volcano is about to erupt. Over."

"Repeat your last. Over" it came through his radio.

"The volcano is not dormant, it's gonna torch this whole place any minute now. Better hurry up." he said as he reached the end of the staircase, a silver door already opened to reveal a long hallway ending in something that resembled a hangar. Roughly half way through, several pirates were carrying the artifact with a hooded figure heading the file formation.

"Haliat!" he heard the turian leader roar as he began to fire his pistol at the pirates, dropping one who had apparently not even bothered to turn on his kinetic barrier, with a precise headshot. After his pistol overheated, something Rei personally saw as one of the major disadvantages of the mass accelerator guns, the general snatched the rifle of the injured turian before advancing, his unit trying to keep up as the leader rushed through the corridor, his sense of self preservation apparently being overruled by his determination to completing his assignment.

Tao, being human and slightly slower than a turian of similar training, went into a mad dash as well, his aim to reach the Object Omnicron before the turian came into contact with it, his shouts of warning while he sprinted after the turians apparently either inaudible, ignored or in vain.

The pirates however split apart, with roughly half of the group turning around, intend on stopping the turian's charge, two of them falling prey to his assault rifle before they closed the distance. The turian general dropped another pirate, the rounds of his mass accelerator opening up the salarian's skull just before he tackled an asari, smashing her into the wall before jabbing the same curved blade Tao had seen used by 'Veltax' into the asari's skull with incredible force fueled by anger and adrenaline. Letting go of the asari, he raised twisted to fight a vorcha, only for that particular pirate to be thrown into the direction he had come from, the biotic lieutenant taking him out before his claws could touch her general.

Tao entered the fray a mere second after the turians, shooting his M-83 at a batarian pirate, cybernetic implants making him even more repugnant than usual, the bullets punching through the considerably less resilient skeleton of the alien. The batarian dropped on one of his knees as the rounds destroyed parts of his brain, the specialist jumping off the ground, one leg pushing himself of the batarian's knee and another using the fallen pirate's shoulder as a jumping board before he could collapse.

"Go, we'll take care of them." he heard Veltax declare as he wrestled with a bigger batarian. "Get Haliat, destroy the artifact!"

Flying through the air, Tao managed to get a shot of at the hooded turian, the round grazing the figure's arm but once more causing not even the slightest reaction of pain or fear. Sticking the landing, Tao simply kept running, the turian general swiftly catching up with him, their target mere meters away from them.

The human specialist and the turian general, both getting faster with every step, fired at the last remaining pirates, most of which were by now bleeding but still pushing carrying the artifact forward, and caught up with them just as they got into the hangar, Nonuel's now completely black sky dominated by a lone batarian ship hovering hundreds of meters over the ground.

The hangar was half way dug into the volcano, a large door opened to the outside, batarian drop shuttles deploying squads of their External Forces as they struggled against the rest of the pirate band, most as far as Tao could tell, crudely enhanced by the device now right behind them.

"Don't touch it!" both he and the general cried at the same time, looking at each other in the process.

The momentary distraction was all the hooded figure had needed as he shot forward, grabbing the general by the throat with a metal arm. Tao raised his M-83 only to have the figure slap it aside and punch him in the face, a visible crack appearing as the helmet's HUD began to inform him that its integrity was compromised. He couldn't take another blow like that.

"You are blind, Desolas Arterius!" the turian called Haliat snarled at the general who was struggling to remove the metal appendage closing itself around his throat. "Don't you see? They can improve us."

The general reached for his curved blade, jabbing its tip into the figures torso just as Tao tried to slash his own knife at the modified turian, failing to connect as his other hand shot up and grabbed the specialists wrist mid-air with impossible speed.

"Don't you see how weak you are?" he questioned as the general kept stabbing the knife into the turian's body, failing to weaken the enemy's grip and coming ever closer to passing out from a lack of oxygen, his thrusts growing weaker with each time he withdrew the blade. "Bound by the limits of your flesh, holding onto it because of misguided beliefs."

Tao dropped his knife, the turian caught up in his monolog, and caught it with his free hand as he felt parts of his wrist break from the incredible force the turian could apparently muster.

Rei put all of his strenght and all of his hope into the next move.

A swift cut, a precise cut, a powerful cut. He would tear his knife, capable of punching through armor if enough force was applied, into the turian's plated arm, trying to achieve even the smallest amount of wiggle room, just enough to free his other arm.

However before he could hope for that, a powerful quake rocked the mountain, a piece of the ceiling falling down on all three of them, all three, Desolas and Tao freed from the modified turian's grip as he jumped away, narrowly avoiding being crushed.

But the mountain didn't stop it's onslaught there, parts of the floor underneath the artifact beginning to glow orange as the modified turian rushed towards it.

"There's a magma chamber underneath it." the turian realised as his unit finally caught up to them.

"Evac is one minute out General." the Lieutenant said. "Volcano is going critical."

"Get there, we'll take care of this." Tao injected as a similar message echoed through his own radio, Desolas nodding his affirmative at the specialist's statement.

They stared down Haliat as the three turians rushed past them, using the confusion caused by the quake in both the pirates and batarian forces to their advantage.

Desolas was the first to make a move, launching himself at the other turian with only his knife and a desire to kill.

Tao went left, firing his pistol at the turian but the rounds simply bounced of the metal talon Haliat raised to protect himself.

Desolas reached the turian and instead of going for the torso like his previous situation had forced him to, managed to slice its tip across the turian's face, blue blood flowing down from the cut.

"Your actions here change nothing. Our path has been set for millennia, there is nothing we can do to fight it!" he declared as he swung at Desolas, the turian rolling under the punch and grabbing a hold of the heavily modified opponent.

"Listen to yourself, this is not you, Captain Haliat!" the general shouted as Tao struggled to get a clean line of fire, another quake interrupting him from squeezing the trigger in fear of shooting his ally. He felt his footing turn loose, jumping aside as parts of the hangar gave in to the heat underneath, sinking into a pool of lava and causing the entire part they were standing on to tilt, forcing Tao to magnatize his gloves in order not to join the hangar's fate.

"Haliat is dead." the turian declared, shoving Desolas of himself as he saw the artifact slide towards the lava. "No!" he shouted as he jumped after it, his organic arm grabbing the sphere as his inorganic claw dug itself into the metal, stopping him shortly before the heat of the pool would cause him to catch fire.

Desolas, a single magnetize glove saving him from falling into the hellish pit, stared at the turian as Tao began to climb up.

"Captain Haliat." he began, "You're still a soldier of the Hierarchy. Your deeds do not release you from the oath you took."

"Haliat is dead!" the turian repeated in a deep voice. "I am merely a servant of the Harbinger now."

"The cause you serve is that of the turian people!" the general countered.

"There's no future in that cause, it's futile." the turian replied as the lava began to rose, unable to move up as one of his hands was occupied holding the purple sphere.

"Ryōshi, the shuttle is almost here, where are you?"

"Twenty seconds." Tao replied as he reached the top, looking down at the stare off between the turian general and the turian monstrosity.

"Elanos. A hunter knows when his time has come."

The look on the turian's face changed as his legs started to catch on fire, the sentence apparently holding a very strong meaning to both of them.

"Thank you, General." the turian said in a shift in his voice, the low tune disappearing in favour of a softer somewhat pleasant flanging. "From the shadows we preserve the light."

The general nodded one final time at the turian before he closed his eyes, the blue vanishing.

Then the claw withdrew itself form the metal, Haliat alongside the Object Omnicron falling into the pit of lava and being consumed by it in an instant, no cry of pain escaping his mouth.

Tao waited for the turian to make the climb, reaching for his hand and pulling the general up.

"You'll get out?" he called as the two began to run through the hangar which started to collapse behind them, batarians and pirates joining them as they too realised the imminent eruption.

"Yes." the turian replied as Tao spotted both the familiar shape of a HSA shuttle going in for a landing and a turian one already picking up the three members of the general's unit.

Tao split away from the turian, his eyes set on the green Kodiak touching down at the end of the rocky part of the hangar, satisfied that he wouldn't leave the turians to burn. He took a running jump, leaping off into the opened door and the shuttle took off as soon as he was inside. The crew member simply looked at him as he closed the door, the sight of the volcano's top starting to spew more lava than he had ever seen and a turian shuttle flying of into the opposite direction being the last impression he ever gathered of Nonuel.


Codex: Turian Blackwatch

Founded at the dawn of the Turian Hierarchy, the Blackwatch serves as whatever the Primarchs need it to be. The elite special operative teams are skilled in anything ranging from the infiltration of space ships, carrying out raids behind enemy lines to leading frontal assaults against suicidal odds and coming out on top.

Trained in the mountains of Palaven, they draw their tradition from the natives of the region, going as far as using the Mexta, a curved blade designed by the indigenous population of the Hinalius Mountain Range, trainees are subjected to rigorous training at extreme heights to improve their overall physical conditions. Details about the training methods employed by the unit are classified to the general public.

It is however known that a series of ancient saying are drilled into the recruits in a way that they surface if the situation requires it. It is believed that this is done through constantly exposing the recruits to extreme situations while the sayings are read to them.

The exact strength of the Blackwatch is unknown although command structure, deployment range and its classification as a legion make it reasonable to assume that roughly 3000-6000 turians serve in the unit at any given time with an unknown number of reservists having completed the training, living as 'grey men' inside turian society, ready to deploy the moment the Hierarchy calls on them to serve again.

In late 2394, after almost six years of discussing the matter with the Hierarchy's central command, the 79th commander of the Blackwatch, General [redacted], was given permission to spearhead an exchange program between human and turian special forces, selected recruits of each unit being sent to train with their counterpart.

This program marked the first time in galactic history that the Blackwatch opened its doors to outsiders, previously turning down asari commandos, STG recruits, batarian SIU members and drell assassins for various reasons ranging from 'biological differences' to 'Not needing any more targets for shooting drills' (regarding the batarian offer in 2093 CE). It is unknown as to what drove the 79th commander of the Blackwatch to break the long standing tradition of only accepting turian recruits.


A/N: (Date 7. October 2017) So... for some reason this chapter was completly fucked up by and I had to reconstruct it entirely by going from an earlier draft. I think nothing got lost in the process but on the offchance that something doesn't match the chapter, it's because the side screwed it.

Jesus christ, I wonder how long this has been this way. :o