The Terminus Systems were often described as the lawless part of the civilized galaxy. That definition wasn't entirely accurate. While it was correct there was no central political entity in this corner of the Milky Way, there was however, one in terms of might. The boundaries and inner workings of the many worlds in the Terminus Systems were a mystery to most people but one thing was certain :
If there was to be a ruler of the part of space that escaped the Council's authority, they were to be found on Omega. Whoever controlled Omega was the de-facto leader of the Terminus Systems.
The Omega station had quite an interesting history. From the outside, it looked like a giant jellyfish with its head as the asteroid that made this little world rich and powerful while the living parts of the station were attached to the rock and extended vertically to create more space.
It was rumored the history of Omega went back to the days of the Protheans – a long-extinct alien species whom many considered the founders of galactic civilization. It was their legacy, in the form of the mass relays and the Citadel that allowed the many species of the galaxy to live together. The Protheans had disappeared many millennia ago but traces of their presence on the asteroid revealed they had tried and failed to mine it.
Experts believed the asteroid's crust had been too thick in the days of the ancient aliens and thus any attempt to harvest its inner resources were destined to failure. Over time, that issue was resolved when the asteroid collided with another and the blow split it in half.
When the first companies later found its remains – still measured in a respectable piece of over fifty kilometers in diameter – they discovered the presence of massive amounts of element zero. The news had spread fast over the then-young galactic civilization and soon, countless entrepreneurs rushed to the asteroid and started exploiting it. An artificial installation was necessary to permit such an endeavor in the long term and thus was born the Omega station.
The details of the next centuries were lost to history but it was to be believed that as time went on, the unscrupulous miners who formed the core of the station attracted more of their kind and soon enough, criminals and mercenaries found their way to Omega.
Eventually, various factions appeared and fought for the control of this artificial world lost in space. The Council didn't have the means to ensure their authority over the station so the rule of the strong became word of law under the asteroid's dome.
Once one group managed to beat its enemies, Omega saw its first ruler. There had been many since and most, if not all, had been controlling the station with an iron fist.
According to the dossiers Cerberus made for Shepard, Aria T'Loak – Omega's current lord – was no exception.
Shepard would need to go through her if she wanted to get anything done on the station. Finding Mordin Solus was the priority – the salarian scientist was the key to their mission against the Collectors – but Cerberus' files also recommended another profile to recruit: A turian going by the name of Archangel.
The Illusive Man seemed insistent on recruiting that last person but Shepard had been given very little information about him. It was doubtful Archangel would prove to be a mere soldier. That, she could get by employing any mercenary she wanted. It wasn't her goal, though. She wanted the best and that involved people who had experience and military training. Cerberus had good operatives – Miranda herself was proof of it – but they lacked the discipline and rigor of a soldier who had seen battle.
The Illusive Man himself lacked such qualities. The plan he'd come up with involved curing the Collectors' freezing toxin and going straight through the Omega Four Relay to beat the dangerous aliens on their turf. 'Suicidal' was the right term for it. There had been little emphasis for research and preparation, two elements he had left on Shepard's shoulders.
The man had said it himself: Cerberus lacked people who were good at their jobs and came from the Alliance. It was part of the reason why he chose her to lead this mission and not someone already in his ranks.
Shepard may have been known for being rash but she wasn't going to go blind into a fight if she could help it.
Since Omega was a space station and the only thing surrounding it was a large mass effect field that prevented a collision with the pack of asteroids floating around it, the Normandy could dock without any issue. There wasn't even an authorization to request before docking like one would have to demand if they were in Citadel space.
Everybody could dock as long as there were enough ports available. If every one of them was occupied, the new visitors were out of luck – unless of course, someone with enough power on the station could be contacted to make room for them. Someone like Aria, for instance.
The commander waited in the decontamination chamber for the cycle to end. As per her request, Miranda and Zaeed were going outside with her. All three of them wore their armors and weapons, knowing better than to visit such a dangerous place without any protection.
Once the airlock opened, Shepard was greeted by the sight of a dark, quiet corridor. The ground tiles looked like they hadn't be moped in years and she swore there was a leak of fluids on a wall.
Out by the window, the Normandy was floating in space, her sleek curves gleamed under the few artificial lights of the station.
Miranda shook her head at the state of the place. "What a pisshole. I've been here on business before and I always felt I needed a shower afterwards. Even with the decontamination cycle."
"Heh, can't say I've had a better experience myself." Zaeed grunted. "You better watch yourself, Shepard. Lots of backstabbers around this place."
On the other end of the corridor, an armored figure emerged from the shadows. A batarian. Shepard could feel the snarl on her lips which had immediately formed. She had seen enough of them to recognize one even from afar.
At such distance, batarians didn't look much different from humans. Both species were bipedal humanoids but the batarians' skin was thicker and had a grey-brown tone to it. The main features of these aliens were the two sets of eyes on their skull, one right above the other. Coupled with what many thought were baleen in their mouth but were instead numerous, very sharp and thin teeth along with their lack of hair and a long column of holes that looked like nostrils in the middle of their faces, the batarians had become quite a recurring theme in Shepard's nightmares after Mindoir.
"You!" The batarian pointed a finger in their direction, holding a loose weapon in his other hand while he hurried on ahead. "Aria wants to see you."
Shepard stared at him, ready to seize her weapon if she deemed him hostile. Behind her, Zaeed and Miranda shared a look and shrugged. Their commander remained immobile.
"Heard me, humans? Get to Afterlife and find Aria!" the alien's deep voice barked at them as he came up to their level.
"I'll see your boss when I'm damn ready." Shepard's voice was quiet but the faint tint of anger colored her tone.
The batarian glared at her. "You don't want to get on her bad side, human." He growled. "Afterlife. Now!"
It would have been so easy for her to kick the weapon out of his grasp and snap his neck with her own hands but it seemed the man had other things to do because the next second, he turned on his heels and left them at his usual hurried pace, grumbling under his breath.
Behind her, Zaeed snorted. "That's some welcome."
Miranda seemed amused. "Told you."
"Come on." Shepard shook her somber mood away and strolled through the corridor, passing many occupied docking slots on the way.
It looked like the Normandy had used the last empty one of that part of the station. Maybe even of the entire station. The thought wasn't so far-fetched. Omega made up the crossroads of the Terminus Systems and with its almost eight million permanent inhabitants, the space-station was certain to always be filled with people.
By the end of the corridor, there were a small group of salarians slumped against the wall. Most of them were passed out but she saw a couple handing their hands out in a begging gesture. They looked miserable.
"Junkies." Miranda muttered.
Shepard couldn't quite tear her gaze away from them as they walked past the group. It was the first time she'd ever met salarians in person. She remembered her classes of xenobiology in the small assembled prefab units that had served as a high school on Mindoir.
Salarians were humanoid amphibians. They lived at a quick pace and died young. Their kind were responsible for many scientific discoveries in the galaxy and they were considered by many as the most intelligent species of the Milky Way.
It marked a stark contrast with how these salarians looked to Shepard. With their tall, frail bodies, their thin and long faces that ended in two protruding horns at the top of their heads, they reminded her of the typical alien representation humans had gone crazy about long before they knew of the existence of extraterrestrial life.
Their skin colors varied. Some were red, others grey or even green but what caught her attention the most was their eyes. The two big eyes in the middle of their faces. They were so large they seemed to want to pop out of their skulls sideways.
These same eyes were now looking at her with a mix of despair, sorrow and even fear.
Shepard looked away and did her best to ignore them. The narrow corridor gave way to a large open area akin to a square. Right ahead of them was a long line of people waiting to get inside a building. The writings above the gate were undecipherable to her. It looked like asari alphabet to her eyes.
Pinging her omni-tool, Shepard's wrist flashed and the translation appeared on the small holographic screen that had materialized itself on her forearm.
'AFTERLIFE'
"This is it." She told her teammates. "Aria's in there."
Zaeed scratched the side of his face. "How the hell are we gonna get inside?"
His eyes were fixated on the line of people sharing their sentiments in front of Afterlife. There was no doubt Omega was a multi-species world. The crowd before them was composed of turians, humans, batarians and even a few salarians. All of them were stopped in their progression by a bouncer who looked like an elcor to Shepard.
Elcors were a strange species. They were the shape and size of small elephants minus the ears and trunk. Talking wasn't their main way of expressing themselves but the pheromones they emitted could only be sensed and interpreted by members of their own kind so they had to use their voices when addressing other species.
Since they were unable to express their emotions without pheromones, Elcors had to state their feelings in words and doing so often amused other species. Their slow, monotone delivery didn't help them either.
"Hey, come on! Aria's expecting me!" A human in the crowd shouted at the bouncer.
The elcor remained rooted at his spot. "Annoyed. If she were, you would already be inside."
Shepard shrugged and glanced at Zaeed. "Aria wants to see us, right? Let's push past them and see what happens."
The three of them found no resistance among the people they bypassed when the onlookers realized they were armed. There were a few growls and murmurs of discontent on their way but nothing they couldn't handle.
Once they reached the end of the line, Shepard found herself face to face with the elcor. The alien looked down at her, his usual bored expression on his round face.
"Politely. I recognize you." he said. "Please go inside. Aria is waiting for you."
Shepard smirked when the elcor shuffled out of her way, his heavy steps creating small tremors in doing so. She had to admit, she didn't know it would be so easy.
The humans proceeded to climb the small steps under the discontent grumble of the crowd at their backs.
Once at the top, the large gate breezed open and the blaring rumble of music hit them like a wave. Afterlife seemed to be a popular club. There were people filling every part of the large circular room in front of them. Every gaze was drawn at the center where asari dancers and strippers were performing on an elevated scene, out of reach of any wandering hands.
Those who were not leering at the girls put on display were either too busy annoying their peers with drunken tirades or simply passed out after having one too many drinks while some people dug into their pockets to find anything that would catch their interest.
With its dark atmosphere and the incessant flashing lights that threatened to blind her at every turn, Afterlife felt more like a seedy club than the lair of the leader of a powerhouse. Shepard let out an unimpressed sigh and pushed past the crowd.
They were not the only people armed in this place, far from it, but nobody gave them any trouble. Shepard caught sight of a suspended platform that seemed to act as a loft looming over the rest of the club. She went past a bar on her side to approach the loft, catching the sound of more incoherent ramblings coming from the clients sprawled on their stood and gripping at their empty glasses.
"I think someone stole my wallet!" A turian laughed.
"One night! That's all I'm asking."
"Aria's so beautiful!"
Shepard paid no attention to them and headed forward to meet with a turian guard standing before a set of stairs that led into Aria's loft. The alien looked over the three humans and, without another word, stepped aside, giving them a sharp nod towards the loft.
The suspended platform was larger than she'd thought. To her right, there were a few tables. Humans and batarians were sat around them and stared at the new arrivals with suspicion. On Shepard's left, a row of couches was hugging the wall and above them a large tainted window that muffled the noise and allowed a view of the entire club.
There was an asari standing with her back to them, looking over the crowd of people downstairs. The alien's posture exuded calm and confidence and when she didn't turn around to address her, Shepard knew she was looking at the infamous Aria T'Loak.
"The woman of the hour has finally deigned visiting me, I see."
Shepard was taken aback when Aria finally decided to face them. She had known the crime boss was an asari – a mono-gendered species of females whom many considered attractive – but Aria had the kind of appeal of a woman who knew of the power she yielded and didn't shy away from it.
The asari were one of the wonders of the galaxy. By all accounts they looked like humans women with blue skins – the tone of the color varied on the individual depending on their parents. Their prominent feature was their lack of hair. Instead, asari had small and smooth tentacles that were always pulled back on their skulls, forming a crest on the top of their heads. The asari were looked at as intelligent individuals who excelled in artistic and cultural domains, a feat which many believed was due to their incredibly long lifetime, giving them time to hone their knowledge.
Shepard didn't know if one could consider Aria wise but she was said to have been in control of Omega for almost a century. If such rumors were true, the crime boss certainly didn't show her age. Aria was the most attractive woman she had met so far, a fact which threw the human off for a moment.
She had to force herself not to look the asari up and down to take her in. A difficult task when the alien's outfit only enhanced her physical attributes. With her black pants and white cropped leather jacket, Aria didn't look like the usual crime boss. The only hint of her true occupation was the kevlar chest guard she wore strapped to her body but even that, was revealing enough to excite Shepard's imagination.
She shook her head, berating herself for her lack of self-control.
"So you're the one who runs Omega." she said, her tone giving nothing away of her internal struggles.
Aria's mouth fell open, the faint lines of painting on her brow that accented her severe features now arched and a laugh escaped her. Around them, people had fallen silent. Shepard could see some of the batarian's ugly faces twist into grins and even laughed along with their boss.
When she regained her senses, Aria fixated her with a cold, hard stare. She motioned for Shepard to follow her and moved with grace back towards the window. A moment later, both of them stood side by side, Shepard giving her a confused glance when the glass embedded into the wall started slide down and the music blared through them.
Aria ignored her and rose her arms into the air. She closed her eyes and her head fell back as the first cries of the crowd erupted when they took sight of the asari. Downstairs, the horde of patrons were all looking up at them, their hands reaching into the air for Aria as they chanted her name.
A shiver ran down Shepard's back at the scene. Their shouts were booming in the club, overshadowing the music and she felt like she was being swallowed whole by the noise. Sending a glance at Aria, she noticed the asari was relishing in the moment, her mouth was open as if she were taking pleasure in the adoration of her person.
Shepard understood the appeal even if it made her uneasy. When Aria came down from her high and let her arms down at her side, she gave her a gaze the human wasn't prepared for. The asari's eyes glinted in the shadows of Afterlife, the only hint of frenzied craze Aria exuded through her usually composed self. Shepard could only call it for what it was, her lust for power.
"Get it now?" Aria's silk-like voice asked her. "I am Omega. This is my realm and I'm its queen. Here people are free to go about their business whichever way they like but at the end of the day, I am in power and I have only one rule."
She eased herself back onto her couch and stared up at Shepard with all the smugness of a woman who held all the cards.
"Don't fuck with Aria."
Her words snapped Shepard out of her trance and she realized she had been staring. She didn't know if asari had mind control powers but Aria definitely was hypnotic.
"That's just as well because my business isn't about you." Shepard straightened and regained some of her spunk. "I'm looking for two people and I was told you were the person to talk to."
Aria smirked and motioned for her to sit on her couch, albeit at a certain distance away from her. "I wouldn't expect anything less from you, Shepard."
"What do you know about me?"
"Enough to know we needed to meet before you did anything here." Aria replied. "Do you think I just invite anyone up there? No. I know the kind of person you are, Commander."
Shepard sat back on the couch, growing impatient. "What's the verdict?"
"I reserve my judgement." The asari stared at her. "For now, you're not an enemy, but neither are you a friend. I'll wait and see how useful you are." She slapped on the couch and sat up straighter. "State your business, Shepard and make it quick. I don't like waiting."
It was Shepard's turn to smirk. There was no beating around the bush with Omega's queen. "I'm looking for Mordin Solus. Perhaps you can tell me where to find him."
Recognition flashed in Aria's eyes. "The salarian doctor? He's got a clinic in the lower wards. I always liked Mordin. He was as likely to shoot you as he was to heal you."
"You speak of him as if he's dead."
Aria frowned. "He might as well be. I locked down that part of the station. There's a plague going on there and it's doing a lot of damage. I don't want that to spread... it's bad for business."
"Hold on," a third voice caught their attention. Miranda had remained silent until then but she couldn't keep the question that was burning her lips to herself. "You quarantined a genius scientist in a place where he's most likely going to die from a plague?"
A smirk appeared on Aria's face as she looked up and down the human. "It was his choice to stay behind, babe. He probably wanted to die feeling useful." she shrugged. "It's foolish but it's not my business."
"Can you get us in?" Shepard cut off the acerbic reply that was no doubt forming on Miranda's tongue.
"No."
Shepard frowned. "Why?"
"Because if I let you in, you might bring the plague back with you."
Aria's quick dismissal only fueled Shepard's frustration. Whatever happened, the human would get to Mordin with or without her but crossing Aria T'Loak wasn't something she looked forward to.
"Look." Shepard leaned forward, her elbows sitting atop her knees as she pinned down the Omega crime lord with a determined stare. "I need to get to Mordin Solus. I don't care how."
"I suppose I can make an exception."
She raised an eyebrow. "On what condition?"
"We've just met and you think you've already figured me out, haven't you Shepard?" Aria smirked. "Well, let's just say I have a little something you can help me with." Her pleasant tone turned cold when she addressed one of her guards. "Garka. Go fetch me Anto."
The batarian wasted no time getting out of her sight to fulfill her request as she watched him leave with indifference. Aria leaned back into the couch and closed her eyes for a moment.
"Aren't you going to give us any detail?" Shepard probed when the asari didn't seem to go on. Aria certainly wasn't very expansive when it came to giving out information.
"One of my freelancers has gotten himself into a bit of trouble lately. He's cornered and needs someone to get him out of here and it's going to be you."
Zaeed's gruff voice cut through the ambient music. "Funny, I didn't peg you for the charitable type."
Aria managed to look both amused and annoyed at the same time. "I never do anything without good reason. Archangel was valuable until today but I can't let him down now or my reputation will take a hit and I can't let that happen."
"Hold on." Shepard raised her hand. "Archangel? You said his name was Archangel?"
Aria's curious streak was picked. "I take it you know him?"
"He's on my list of people to recruit." Shepard nodded. "I was going to ask you about him after we took care of Mordin."
"Interesting. Then it's going to be a mutually beneficial trade. You're going to make some enemies teaming up with Archangel. I hope you know that."
"Why is that, exactly?" Miranda asked.
A deep voice echoed in the loft before Aria could answer. "The guy's pissed off half of the station trying to fight for justice. It took him awhile to realize there's no good side to Omega."
Shepard tensed. She had recognized the voice the second she heard it. There was no mistaking the tone of a batarian and she couldn't help her hand hovering on her weapon when the man approached them.
He was taller than his peers by quite a bit but his most striking feature was the paler tone of his skin that gave off a gray color she hadn't seen before. One of his four eyes was white instead of the usual black and she noticed the deep scar that ran from his eye-socket down to his cheek. There stood a man who had looked death in the eyes.
Aria's smile seemed to be fonder than before. "Shepard, meet Anto Korragan. You're going to work with him to save Archangel."
Anto looked at his boss. "You told them about our deal?"
At the slight shaking of Aria's head, Shepard knew something was going on. Zaeed picked up on it as well.
"Deal?" he asked.
"Anto's fate is linked to Archangel's. They've been working too closely together for the connection to remain private." Aria explained. "And since he's been a loyal right-hand for so many years, I agreed to let him go and spend his last few years away from Omega."
"I fail to see where this is going." Miranda interjected.
Aria's stare said everything. "If Archangel joins you, so does Anto."
Shepard leaped to her feet. "That's out of question!" she roared, catching Aria's guards by surprise. There was the telltale clicks of weapons being ready filling the room but the human was too caught up in her anger to listen. "I can put up with your politics Aria but I'm not going to work with a batarian!"
The asari appeared unmoved by her outburst and remained seated at her spot when she motioned for her guards to stand down. "It's non-negotiable, Shepard. Either you take Anto or you can forget about Mordin and Archangel."
Shepard gritted her teeth, her eyes locked on Anto's face. She was ready to jump on him and tore out his throat when she felt her heartbeat pumping to an unnatural rate. Somewhere in the back of her mind there were images of herself talking to Miranda and Traynor on the Normandy's second deck. She held her fist tight to try and keep the blur away from her vision.
"Shepard..." Zaeed's voice brought her back to reality.
Miranda was less diplomatic. "Cut it off, we need him."
In front of her, Anto remained rooted to his spot. His cautious posture made her realize he wouldn't be backing down before her but he didn't look excited either at the idea of fighting her. Suddenly, she realized she knew why his skin was so pale. He was old, older than anyone on Omega should be if they wanted to live any longer. Yet, he was here and he had been working for Aria for a long time.
Shepard grunted when she realized the officer in her was seriously considering accepting him on her team. A couple of days before, she would have shot him dead without a second thought but now she was on a mission. A mission that required experienced and talented people if she wanted to succeed and Anto Korragan seemed to fit the bill to perfection.
The old batarian was defiant when he spoke up. "So what is it going to be, Shepard?"
The snarl on her face was replaced by grim acceptance but even then there remained a hint of anger and hate in her expression. "You want to join us? So be it." There was an audible sigh in the room. "But if you ever try to cross me or disobey an order or even so much as disrespect any of my crew, I will crush you under my boot again and again until you die. I don't care how good you think you are. I'm better. Are we clear?"
Anto grimaced and huffed. "I'm well aware of your reputation, Commander."
She pursed her lips. "Then you know what I'm capable of."
Shepard wished she could undo her armor and slide a hand over her chest to feel her heart slowing down to a normal rate but it was impossible to do so without drawing the attention of her three companions with whom she was sharing a skycar.
Back at Afterlife, she was afraid she would suffer another panic attack during her altercation with Anto. The last thing she wanted was to show any sign of weakness to anyone on Omega, least of all the ruthless Aria herself. Perhaps she also feared showing a vulnerable side to her own teammates, Miranda being the first on that list.
Though none of that happened and she was happy to have managed to control herself, Shepard still felt a little breathless and her heart-rate had remained elevated until she took some deep, calming breaths when Anto finally led them to their transportation.
They were heading to Archangel's place where the man was pinned down by his enemies. Anto had taken the wheel, being the only one to know what was going on with the vigilante. Zaeed had taken the opportunity to sit beside him, thus saving Shepard and Miranda from sitting too close to the alien.
Neither woman was fond of him. While Shepard had personal reasons to keep her distance from any batarian, Miranda was a true believer in Cerberus' cause and even if she wasn't actively hating on non-humans, she wasn't crazy about them either.
Zaeed broke the tense silence of the confined space as he cleared his throat. "So," he addressed Anto. "What's this business between Aria and Archangel?"
The batarian's eyes never left the airway. "They never met in person. I was the go-between agent, though Archangel doesn't know that."
"So whose side are you on?" Miranda's voice came from the backseat.
Zaeed turned back to glare at her without much success but the batarian only seemed amused by the question. His deep chuckle reverberated in the car and only managed to unnerve Shepard.
"My own." he replied with obvious amusement. "I worked for Aria for almost forty years. She's a hard boss to please but if you do your job right, you get to see the benefits. I finished as her right-hand man. Until today, of course and if we manage to survive saving Archangel? I'll be on your side."
"So Aria really is that old, heh?"
"She is, yes. She was already in power when I first got onto Omega. Nobody really knows how long things have been that way." Anto explained. "Of course asari get to live for centuries but sometimes it feels like she's older than that. Much older."
"Ha, it still amazes me they can be that old and still look so good."
Zaeed and Anto shared a glance and a wicked laugh that had Miranda rolling her eyes and looking out the window in an attempt to evade their conversation. Shepard tore her eyes away from the spectacle of skycrapers zipping by them and focused on the two men.
"Enough." she growled. "We're on a deadline, remember? How long before we get on site?"
The steel of her voice brought back their discipline and Zaeed fell silent as Anto made for a turn. "Less than five minutes." he said.
"Good. Then you'd better tell us what going on down there and fast."
"Sure thing." The batarian nodded. "Archangel's holed up with whatever's left of his team in his base of operations. It's nothing much, just a small condo but it gives plain view to the bridge that cuts off the mercs from him. There's a lot of them against him but he can pick them off one by one from his position and get to live a little longer. He's a good shot."
"Doesn't look like that's going to save him." Miranda retorted.
Zaeed grunted. "So who did he piss off so much that they want to throw so many men at him to kill him?"
"Well, uh..." Anto fumbled in his seat. "He's got the three biggest merc groups on Omega going after him. That's the Blue Suns, Eclipse and the Blood Pack and they've made an alliance just for the occasion."
"I'm guessing Aria's got her hand in this somehow." Shepard suggested.
"That's right." he nodded. "She knew these mercs were getting too powerful on Omega and she wanted to take down their leaders and cripple them before they started to get smart and decide to try to overthrow her. But she didn't want to tip them off."
"And that's where Archangel comes into the picture." Miranda understood.
"I'm not a famous face on Omega so Aria had me give him 'anonymous' tips about the operations of the mercs so he could weaken them. Archangel's a bleeding heart, he's trying to fight for justice on Omega – whatever good that did for him."
Shepard sighed. "Moving on."
Anto took the hint. "Well he eventually managed to do a few hits on the targets I suggested – big names in the Eclipse and the Blue Suns. He did well for a time but when he had to kill the leaders, he failed. They were too well protected." He shook his head. "Then there was the bloodbath of his hit on Garm, the leader of the Blood Pack. Garm's not a thinker but he loves a good fight and nothing else and Archangel gave him one. The only trouble was that it happened in a populated area. Lots of civilians lost their lives that day and Archangel barely escaped with his own."
"It was a complete failure." he continued. "And it finally got the mercs realizing they had an enemy they hated more than they did each other. That's where we are today."
"So in the end, Aria's plan blew up in her face." Miranda summarized.
"No. Not really." Anto shook his head. "These guys lost most of their people in the last two days during their fight against Archangel. They've resorted to hiring freelancers to throw at him. If she wanted to, Aria could order her people to kill them all and that would be it. But she won't do it because first, they're not a threat anymore and second, if people realized she had a hand in this, other merc groups could start having ideas and nobody wants that."
Shepard sighed. "Great. We're now neck-deep in Aria's politics. Exactly what I wanted to avoid."
"We didn't have a choice, Shepard." Miranda replied. "If we want Mordin-"
"I know." The commander cut her off. "Anyway if Archangel's half as good as the batarian says he is, he'll be a good addition to the team."
Anto frowned but remained silent, preferring to guide the sky car to a landing pad trapped in an unsuspecting street. Once the vehicle's door opened, the echoes of a firefight could be heard in the distance. The poor lightning system didn't help them get a visual of the situation but Shepard judged they were a block or two away from the battle.
At least the noise seemed to have scared off any wanderers and neighbor from investigating the disturbance in the relative calm of the district. There was nobody in sight and even the windows were covered up. Shepard appreciated this new development. She didn't exactly enjoy having bystanders witness them doing Aria's work.
"What now?" she asked.
"See that building?" Anto pointed at a large ward that overshadowed the top of the skyscrapers in the distance. "The bridge is right behind it and so is Archangel."
"You said the mercs were looking for freelancers, right?" Miranda turned to the alien, a business-like tone having taken over her passive hostility towards him. "It might be a good idea to pass-off as ones to get inside. Do you think they would fall for it?"
The batarian snorted. "Of course. They're too desperate to be suspicious."
"Hold on." Zaeed said, raising his hands. "I ain't one to run from a fight but the freelancers are nothing more than goddamn canon fodder, remember?"
"Yes." Anto nodded. "but my intel tells me the freelancers are a distraction and the merc alliance is sending their own men in the tunnels underground that lead up to Archangel's place."
"Good intel, huh?" Shepard narrowed her eyes at him.
He shrugged. "I'm putting my own life on the line, just like you Shepard, aren't I?"
The human clucked her tongue. "That's commander to you, batarian." She turned to her other companions. "It might be a good idea to split up into two teams. One will take the meat grinder at the front and the other goes around the back. Both teams meet up inside Archangel's condo. Is that alright with everyone?"
"Sure." Anto was the first to reply and seemed to show no animosity towards Shepard despite her earlier dismissal.
Miranda did not hesitate either. "Works for me." she said, already grabbing the weapon strapped to her back.
"That's a risky plan, commander." Zaeed disagreed. "Even if the first team survives the initial assault there's nothing telling us Archangel's people won't shoot them dead when they get inside by the front door."
"Which is why I will lead the team going with the freelancers." Shepard assured him. "Miranda, you're coming with me, okay?"
The woman in question gave her a small nod. "No problem, commander."
Zaeed seemed even less pleased at the latest turn of events but Shepard cut him off before he could express his disapproval.
"You will head down the tunnels with Anto. He's under your command now." she mentioned the impassive batarian like he wasn't there. "Understood?"
The old Cerberus operative frowned, as if he were offended by the last word she had uttered. "Never been one to question orders, Commander and I sure as hell ain't gonna start now. Of course I understand." he growled. "But you better be careful when you get there. Both of you." he looked between Shepard and Miranda. "Because I don't want to tell the Illusive Man we lost you two to a bunch of fuckin' Omega mercs."
For once, Miranda's icy composure softened up and there was a small smile on her lips as she addressed Zaeed. ""We'll be alright. Don't worry about us."
Zaeed shook his head. "Well someone has to." he mumbled under his breath as he walked past the two women without another glance, his rifle already in his hands. The old man detached the dark helmet hanging at his waist and fitted it over his head. The light reflected on his visor when he turned towards Anto but they didn't need to see his eyes to see the fierce determination in them.
"So what are we waiting for here?! Let's go kick their sorry asses back down whatever shithole they came out of!"
The regular echoes of gunfire cut through the silence of the ever-lasting night on Omega. Shepard and Miranda walked through empty streets in the direction of the commotion as they shared the opinion that the Gozu district wasn't fond of distractions such as gun fights breaking into their routine.
Then again, this was Omega, even the safest area was filled with criminals.
"Are you okay, Shepard?" Miranda asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had settled between them when Zaeed and Anto had left for the tunnels. "I didn't want to ask before Anto but it got pretty tense back with Aria."
Shepard felt her teeth grinding together and made an effort not to send her a glare, preferring to keep on walking. Had the question come from someone else, she might have thought their concern for her was genuine but Miranda had a talent to always address her in a condescending manner.
"Don't sweat it, Lawson. I'm fine."
"Really, commander? You seemed rattled when Aria offered Anto to work with us."
A mirthless laugh escaped Shepard. "Gee, I wonder why."
"My point exactly." Miranda continued. "You have a history with batarians. I wouldn't want this to become another Torfan and I don't think you want that either, do you?"
The commander froze, growling at her in cold anger. "You're a bitch, Miranda. You know that?"
The cerberus operative scoffed and gave her a dismissing gesture. "I'm only making sure you are fit and able to fulfill your job."
Shepard leaned into Miranda's personal space in a menacing gesture. "I know exactly what the Illusive Man expects of me. I don't need his lapdog to remind me all the time that he's watching."
Miranda was about to retort but she was cut off. "Save it! Tell the Illusive Man whatever you want about me but keep your insinuations to yourself and let me do my job." With these words, she backed away and resumed her walk.
"Shepard-"
"No. I don't want to hear anything from you unless it's necessary. Are we clear?"
Miranda wanted to protest but the other woman was starting to distance her. She sighed. "Yes, commander."
Upping her pace to catch up with Shepard, both women did their best not to glance at each other, knowing it would only be the instigator of another argument.
They walked in silence through the streets of Omega, weapon at hand even if there was no immediate threat they knew better than to trust any appearance in the capital of the Terminus Systems.
Each step forward brought them closer to their goal and with them, the echoes of gunfire grew louder. A few minutes later, Miranda and Shepard arrived at the mouth of a cul-de-sac closed off by a vault door. They froze when they caught sight of movement ahead of them.
Shepard grimaced when she saw two aliens guarding the door. Vorcha, she thought. A sapient species whose homeworld was at the center of the Terminus Systems though they would never have left their planet if the batarians hadn't given them the means.
Vorcha stood a little shorter than humans but that physical drawback was offset by an above-average agility and speed as well as an incredible ability to heal quickly. These aliens were fast-breeding – a necessity considering they barely lived for more than two decades – which meant they tended to pop out in numbers wherever they set foot in the galaxy.
Above everything, most people only tended to remember what a Vorcha looked-like. They were a hot-blooded, aggressive species and it reflected on their appearance. With a vaguely triangular face, red-colored eyes and a set of razor sharp teeth as well as talons at the tip of their fingers, the Vorcha often evoked sentiments of fear and repulsion in whoever met them.
They would have made formidable predators if it wasn't for their sub-par intellect. Instead, they were treated like a nuisance by the other species of the galaxy and often ended up as canon fodder for various mercenary factions who took advantage of the Vorcha's innate lust for violence.
"They'd better not make any sudden moves." Miranda said, a note of disgust in her tone as she gripped her weapon a little tighter.
"Just let me do the talking." Shepard replied in a similar tone.
Vorcha had a worse vision than most other species. It wasn't until Shepard and Miranda had closed the distance to a mere twenty or thirty meters that the two guards noticed them. They scrambled forward, drawing their weapons at them as instinctual snarls escaped their throats.
"No more step, human!" One of them sneered, his nosy, aggressive tone grating on Shepard's nerves. "You are lost! Turn back now human, this isn't your way!"
She was glad the standard translation program in her omni-tool included the Vorcha's language otherwise she was quite sure they would have started shooting by now.
She tried not to stare at their ever-present grin of death - their teeth were never covered by any kind of lips - and tried to reason with the aliens.
"Are you sure we can't go inside that building? We're supposed to fight Archangel."
The Vorcha shrieked at her, sputtering his saliva in the air in the process.
"Leave! Leave!" he pressed, stabbing at the air with his weapon for emphasis.
"So what?" she challenged in annoyance. "Is that how you're welcoming any freelancer coming your way? No wonder Archangel's tearing you to pieces."
The second guard interrupted his peer's fit of anger by pushing him to the side.
"Stop!" he growled. "Let them go."
The other one snarled at him. "Garm said to close!"
Thinking fast, Shepard inserted herself in the argument. "We're just late, guys. Now if we could go through..."
"Yes." The second Vorcha nodded at her. "Freelancers are for the Blue Suns, they need them."
His colleague finally acquiesced. He turned his ugly face towards the two women and lowered his weapon. "Go inside. Quick!"
Letting a triumphant smirk invade the corner of her mouth, Shepard led Miranda through the door, glancing back at the Vorcha as it went close. One of them snarled and spit on the ground.
"Humans!" he growled before disappearing behind two plates of steel. His way to curse them, Shepard imagined.
"Well that was interesting." Miranda nodded.
Shepard hummed in approval. "Let's move on."
They were inside a long empty corridor adorned by a few doors on the side to break the monotony of the plain dark steel walls. Voices were soon heard, muffled by a door. It sounded like there was an argument happening close by.
Shepard decided to investigate and pushed opened the last door on the side wall. An immediate onslaught of curses filled her ears as she noticed a dozen people of multiple species clad in light blue armors surrounding a makeshift table.
"Get me those damn blueprints now!" It was the unmistakable tone of an angry batarian. The one gesturing wildly at his subordinates from one end of the table. His attention was soon caught by the couple standing at the threshold. "Jentha! Get me those freelancers out of here, for the sake of the Hegemony!" he raged.
A second later, Shepard and Miranda were pushed out of the room by another human. A redhead woman sporting the same kind of armor as the others, she looked none-too-pleased with them.
"What the hell are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with sergeant Cathka? The attack's going to happen in a minute, you should be out there."
Shepard did her best to fight against the urge to scratch the side of her head. "Right. We did, we just were looking for equipment. Just in case."
Jentha frowned. "You've already got all you need." she pointed at the weapons strapped to her back.
"Yeah, well," Miranda chimed in. "You never know what you might find."
The mercenary shook her head. "Look, I don't have time for this. Tarak is already making my life a living hell as it is, I don't need you two to add to it so you're going to go out there and wait for the signal, okay?"
Shepard raised both eyebrows. "Okay."
Jentha let out an exasperated breath and strolled back into the room with her colleagues, leaving the two humans alone in the corridor.
Miranda sighed. "That went well."
Her words prompted an eye-roll from Shepard who decided to remain silent and push onto the exit that gave way to a second, larger street than the one they came in from. There were a few barricades on the way and Vorcha crouching behind them, occasionally popping out of cover to exchange fire with an enemy that was out of her visual.
She walked up to a human clad in a full dark armor, pressed against the wall on the side of the barricade.
"Where do I find sergeant Cathka?" Shepard asked.
The man jumped and turned to face her, the expression of his surprise evident through his clear visor. "Fuck you scared me. What did you say you wanted?"
He had a deep baritone voice that reminded her of the typical accents that could be heard from the men in the old Hollywood movies of the twenty first century.
Shepard folded her arms against her chest. "Sergeant Cathka?"
"Oh… right." he said. "He's on the other side of the street but..."
"Thanks." Shepard replied, already taking a step forward.
The man extended a hand as if to catch her. "Wait, it's dangerous out there! You could get shot!"
Following the commander, Miranda laughed when she moved past him.
"So what?"
The two women crouched behind the turned over sky-truck that served as a barricade blocking the street. They rushed to cross the street and reach the other side as a few bullets flew over their heads.
When Shepard rose again to her full height, she was faced with three human men in custom armor standing in front of an inanimate helicopter.
"Cathka?" she asked once she approached the group. They didn't answer, instead they slowly moved out of her way, letting her catch sight of sparks emanating at the back of the helicopter.
Shepard walked up to the batarian making the repairs. That one was clad in the usual light blue armor that she imagined meant he belonged to the Blue Suns.
The man turned off his device when he noticed her. Tapping on the side of his helmet, his visor cleared up from its previously dark shade and he gave her a nod.
"Sergeant Cathka." he introduced himself. "I take it Salkie brought you here. Recruitments are closed normally but I won't spit on fresh blood. You know what we're up against."
"Archangel, right?"
The batarian nodded at her. "He's holed up in his apartment. He's been over there for more than a day, he's starting to make mistakes. The bad news is, you're going to have to cross an exposed bridge to get there and he's got a full view over it."
"A killing ground." Miranda commented. "Wonderful."
Cathka shook his head and walked over to his desk, depositing his welding tool on it and grabbing a cigarette, his uncovered face allowed him to slip one between his lips.
"Look nobody's forcing you to do this." he mumbled. "Walk off if you aren't happy with it."
"No, we're good." Shepard said, giving her companion a glare. "Just tell us what we have to do."
Cathka let out a puff of smoke in their direction. "Just cross the bridge on my signal and try not to die too quickly. That's about it."
Shepard grimaced and waved the smoke away. "So we're a distraction. You're not going to give us cover with this?" She motioned at the helicopter.
The batarian let out a surprised guffaw. "Me? Only Tarak's allowed to fly her. He'd skin me alive if I even tried. I'm just here to coordinate the attack and fix that thing. Archangel shot it up pretty bad the last time."
"Archangel took down a combat helicopter on his own?" Miranda asked, almost shocked to hear the nonchalance with which the batarian described the event.
"Yes. He didn't really do much damage but he knew just where to shoot to disable it and make my job even harder."
"Nevermind that." Shepard said. "You didn't answer my question."
Cathka threw his cigarette away in exasperation. "Listen human, nobody's going to give you any cover. You're just here to grab Archangel's attention long enough so that the infiltration team can break into his place from the back. Don't as-"
A holographic screen came to life on his desk, grabbing his attention. "Cathka we're ready, send the signal!" A voice said from the device.
Cathka touched the haptic interface of the screen and leaned over it. "Copy." he then turned towards the group of twenty or so freelancers standing on either side of the street. "Everyone, go, go, go!"
The mercenaries scrambled towards the barricade and already, the monotone rhythm of gunfire that had settled became a chorus of sputtering projectiles.
"That's your cue, humans." Cathka said, turning back to examine the helicopter. "Do your job and let me do mine now."
Shepard and Miranda shared a glance before the commander took hold of the welding device on the desk and approached the batarian.
"You're working too hard." She told him. "Here." Before he could answer she stabbed the tool through the vertical opening in the back of his armor from which the kinetic barriers normally found their source. A torrent of sparks erupted from the opening and Cathka trashed about, a loud yell of pain muffled by the sound of the weapons being fired over the bridge.
After a minute, Cathka slipped on the ground unmoving, a pungent smell of flesh being burnt filled Shepard's nostrils and she realized she had been staring at the scene in fascination, a thrill coursing through her.
"I take it that felt good."
Shepard blinked and noticed Miranda was giving her a strange look. The commander focused her attention elsewhere and cleared her throat.
"Anything you can do about this?" she motioned for the helicopter.
Miranda nodded and reached for her omni-tool. "Of course, Cerberus has a set of tools ready for this purpose. Here, the systems will overload and it'll explode should they try to use it." she finished with a satisfied smile.
"Good." Shepard coughed away the residual feelings she'd experienced while killing Cathka and walked in the direction of the bridge.
Drawing their weapons and turning off their safeties, Shepard and Miranda hopped over the bridge where a dozen freelancers were shooting at a balcony.
"Let's give these guys a surprise of their own."
The tunnels under the Gozu district were nothing more than standard corridors with air-sealing doors at regular intervals. These passageways ran right under the neighborhood and were designed to be used in cases of emergency. Omega being what it was, the tunnels were used – often for criminal intents – regardless of whether or not it was necessary.
It was in one of those that Zaeed and Anto were advancing with cautious steps in hope of catching up with the infiltration team sent in by the mercenaries hoping to break into Archangel's apartment.
"Mind if I ask you a question?" Zaeed half-whispered as they inspected another turn.
"It depends on the question."
The Cerberus operative glanced at his partner for a moment before shrugging. "How's it that Aria's considered the leader of the Terminus Systems when she's having trouble keeping hold onto Omega?"
Upon Anto's blank look, he continued. "That's the idea I got out of it anyway. She wouldn't need to play her games with Archangel or even Shepard to send them against her enemies if she was all-powerful, would she?"
"Heh, that's one way of seeing things." Anto replied with a smirk. "It's all politics. Her syndicate is the most powerful on Omega but she wouldn't survive if all her rivals banded together."
"Divide and conquer." Zaeed understood.
Anto nodded. "Yes, you can call it that. Most other mercs are too stupid to let go of their grudges and take a shot at her. She's just making sure they don't get too smart."
"Yes, I get that." Zaeed said. "But how is it she has authority over all non-council space despite that?"
"Because the Terminus Systems pledged their allegiance to Omega, not Aria. Whoever controls Omega controls the systems because no one else is capable of surviving a war with Omega. Well, the Council could, of course, they just don't want to." Anto explained. "Everyone on Omega benefits from the way things are. When someone somewhere in the Terminus Systems get too cocky for their own good, everyone on Omega make a temporary truce and go blast whoever's making waves. Then it's back to business as usual."
"And that happens often?"
Anto couldn't help the sheepish smirk creeping up his cheek. "The last time was when my government was trying to establish itself around here after the war with you, humans."
Zaeed paused his walk. "Oh… right. Sorry."
A full-blown laugh escaped Anto. "Don't be! I'd already left my homeworld long before. I have no allegiance to the Hegemony."
"Really?"
"Ah, I forgot you were with Cerberus." Anto said, his amusement leaving him. "I see why that would shock you. I'm even surprised you don't hate me."
Zaeed shook his head. "I just want to improve the condition of my people. I've got no beef against aliens."
Anto's four-eyed face sobered and he resumed his exploration of the tunnels for a moment with Zaeed hot on his heels. "And Shepard?" he asked. Does she have – what is it you said? - a 'beef' against me?"
"Not you in particular but yes. She's got her reasons and I won't blame the woman for that." Zaeed said. "If you want my opinion, you should try your best not to make any waves. She doesn't strike me as the kind of person who would endure any challenge without punishment."
Anto made an uncertain noise. "How well do you know her?"
"The commander? Hell I've only met her a short while ago."
"And you trust her?"
Zaeed nodded. "She was military. I trust her sense of duty towards her people."
The batarian mercenary wanted to add something to the conversation but his attempt was cut short when the echoes of voices filled her ears. Both he and Zaeed fell back on the instincts they'd spent decades honing during their harsh lives. The two men prepared their weapons and trotted closer to the noise.
A few turns away, they fell upon a group of fifteen or so people clad in yellow armors crouching against the walls before a vault door. One of them was standing and seemed to be giving direction to a couple of subordinates.
"That's Jaroth. Head of the Eclipse." Anto whispered pointing at the leader from his spot hidden at the other end of the corridor.
Jaroth, a red-skinned salarian sporting white facial paint – a trend exported from the turians who used those as social markings. It became popular in the galaxy notably amongst the asari and the salarians.
"Make it quick. The first wave is already underway." Jaroth said, his voice fast and nervous in the typical salarian way although one could hear the hint of condescension that set him apart. "Just weaken the bonds and set the charges. How many mechs do we have?"
"Just one." An asari replied by his side. She sounded young. "It's the heavy one, the rest were given to the Blue Suns."
Jaroth nodded, the movement was easily missed. "Let's hope they know how to use them." He turned to a couple of batarians using welding guns on the door. "Come on that's enough. Blow this cloacen door open and send the message to Tarak. I have enough of waiting around."
Zaeed tore his eyes from the scene to look at Anto. "I take it that door gives access to Archangel's lair."
"Yes, it's a backdoor into his building." Anto explained. "He must have sealed it shut to prevent them from getting through."
"Hence the charges." Zaeed concluded, looking back to the scene. "Well, I don't see Jaroth anymore. Goddamn it!"
"Forget him, get to cover they're blowing off the door!" Anto's voice strained to remain a murmur. He gestured for his companion to get down just in time.
The explosion was short but it echoed throughout the labyrinth of tunnels marking the turn of a long battle.
The door gave way to a narrow passage behind a staircase, forcing the mercenaries to expose themselves from an attack on their left flank as they came out of their tunnel to rush into a large open room overlooked from three sides by the second floor acting as a long mezzanine.
Shepard had positioned herself and Miranda on one end of the small passage giving them a complete view of the mercenaries' attack. She counted on the element of surprise and the cutthroat essence of the corridor to give them the advantage.
Her heart pounding in her chest, the human commander prepared her assault rifle when the explosion rattled the doors open and smoke poured into the building.
"Get ready!"
The first mercenary emerged from the hole. It was an asari. Pretty, of course, like most of them. She did not see the ambush waiting for her until it was too late. Her round face and the way her eyes widened gave her an air of innocence. She screamed and raised her rifle in Shepard's direction in a vain hope of saving herself.
The human's weapon bristled in her hands, a burst of bullets shattered the asari's barriers and bit into the ceramic of her armor, embedding themselves into her flesh. She fell backwards, her weapon slumping onto the ground into a puddle of purple blood.
"Fall back!" a batarian yelled. He didn't have the time to be surprised at the opposite effect his words had. A bullet fired from Miranda's gun hit him between his higher set of eyes.
Behind him, more of them were coming through in a disorganized fashion to try to escape an unseen attack coming from their rear only to fall into the humans' trap.
A torrent of mass-accelerated projectiles ran down on them. In barely a minute the massacre was over. More than a dozen corpses laid in their own blood and obstructed the door whilst Shepard and Miranda's weapons were still smoking, recovering from the high temperature their quick fire rate had generated.
Zaeed and Anto arrived the same way their victims had. The old Cerberus operative made a pause when the full view of his actions' result came into sight. He grimaced and went to great pains to avoid crushing any limb on the ground.
Anto didn't have the same consideration. He walked over the dead bodies without even glancing at them.
"Bloody hell, what a carnage." Zaeed shook his head.
Anto exhaled, bemused. "They weren't innocent bystanders. Don't lose sleep over it. They would have done the same to us if they'd been given the opportunity."
Zaeed spit on the ground. "Whatever. You two alright, there?" he addressed the women.
"Did you expect anything else?" Miranda raised an eyebrow.
"You never know." he shrugged.
Assuming her leading role, Shepard strolled past them towards the stairs. "Come on, let's not stick around. We've got to find Archangel before any more of them show up."
Zaeed looked back at the pile of dead bodies. "Let's hope he's worth all this."
The group of four made a stop in front of a closed door on the second floor that gave access to the room Shepard and Miranda had seen Archangel in whilst he was shooting at the freelancers on the bridge. That battle had ended since then and a relative silence had settled but there was no other way in or out of the room bare the window itself.
Shepard posed at the mouth of Archangel's refuge. She signaled for her team to imitate her.
"We don't know how he's going to react so act with caution." She told them. "I'm going in unarmed. Be ready for anything but remember we want him to work for us."
Pressing onto the haptic interface displayed on the door, the way was unlocked and she walked inside followed closely by Zaeed and Miranda with Anto trailing at the back.
Expecting a confrontation, the commander frowned in surprise when Archangel didn't pay attention to her, preferring to raise a hand signaling for her to wait as he focused on the scope of his sniper rifle aimed at the bridge below the window.
Seconds ticked by and the visitors shuffled at their spot as an awkward silence followed. Shepard took the occasion to examine Archangel with a closer look. She had noticed he was a turian when she caught a glimpse of him during the initial attack.
By many standards, turians were nightmarish creatures. The size of tall human males, they towered over most other species in the galaxy. They often wore ample clothes or large armors that concealed their bodies from any curious glances in public knowing that more than any other species in the galaxy, their physical appearances were the source of an unhealthy fascination.
When the first pictures of uncovered turian corpses started circulating among humans during the First Contact War, many people snapped and slipped into madness, some even turning to forgotten religious cults and preaching the coming rapture. Meeting the turians as their first sapient alien neighbor traumatized a generation of humans and left its mark on the Earth-born species. Even more than thirty years after the fact, many humans feared the aliens from Palaven.
Shepard herself would admit she had had a few bad dreams featuring them as a child when she was taught of their existence. She wondered who wouldn't be afraid of them at first glance. With their thin and elongated limbs that made them look like emaciated creatures and their long, thick fingered hands ending with sharp talons, they were bound to speak to the primitive fears of humans.
There was no doubt the turians were the apex predators of their homeworld. A lot of humans compared them to dinosaurs and birds, a result of the turians' avian features and vague resemblance to humanoid raptors. Although, their heads were found to have a cat-like vibe to some people, a feat that made them attractive to this public.
Seeing Archangel's profile as he leaned over the scope of his weapon, Shepard could see where these people came from. Although, he had an angular face, the shape of his mouth, small with one mandible on each side hanging down to his chin, gave him a feline-like appearance.
The turian's finger pressed on the trigger and a loud detonation filled her ears as the weapon recoiled into him. He looked over the scope to admire his work and gave a small noise of grim satisfaction. Putting his sniper against the wall, Archangel rose from his crouched position to face the group of four watching his every move.
Shepard noticed that although he didn't wear a helmet, he had a frail visor giving off a faint blue glow attached to the side of his face and covering one of his eyes. It matched the color of his armor.
"You missed one." Like any turian, his voice was flanged. It sounded like there was a second voice quietly rumbling in the background whenever he spoke due to a smaller additional set of vocal cords any turian had in their larynx. A remnant of their past evolution.
"Hm… fancy meeting you here, Anto." Archangel's eyes narrowed at the batarian. "You know I could have used your help."
Anto moved past the humans to approach him. "I'm here now, aren't I?"
The turian's mandibles tightened closer together. "It's too late. My team's gone, if you even cared. They're all dead. I could have used someone like you to get them out of here."
For the first time since meeting him, Shepard saw Anto looking destabilized. "I'm sorry, Garrus. The attack was already underway when I learned of it."
"Wait," Miranda broke the tense exchange between them. "Garrus? Garrus Vakarian?"
When Archangel nodded, Shepard turned to the other woman. "You know him?"
"By name only." Miranda confirmed, letting her hand rest against her hip. "He worked for Bartlett before his death. His recruitment file would have been passed onto you if we'd known where to find him."
"And it turns out Garrus Vakarian and Archangel are one in the same." Shepard concluded. "It makes our job easier."
Garrus gave Anto a glance before focusing his attention on the commander. "I was wondering why you were shooting the people after me." he said. "Not quite as dramatic as I was expecting but after all, mercs are too stupid to shoot their own people and make me think they're on my side only to stab me in the back when I let my guard down."
Zaeed grunted. "If that's what you thought we were, why didn't you take more precautions?"
"I was a little pressed for time." Garrus frowned. "Besides… if it had gotten that kind of trickery to take me down, I'd have gladly accepted and joined my team." He nodded at the handful of bodybags sealed up and resting behind the cover of furniture on the other end of the room.
It seemed Garrus's whole body sagged, his upper body tipping down a little. "I've been fighting for a day and a half straight."
Shepard walked up to him and put a hand on the rim of his armored collar that formed as a bowl around his neck and up to his chin. "Hey, I've got your back now. We're gonna get you out of here."
Garrus let out a mournful sigh and nodded. "Good. Because that's what it's going to take if you want me on your team."
She smirked. "You're not even curious about us and why we want you?"
"Ah!" The gap between his mandibles widened. "I'm not so picky at the moment. We'll see about that later. Anyway, what have I got to lose now?"
"So be it, then." Shepard extended a hand in his direction. "You can call me Shepard. These two are Zaeed and Miranda." she gestured at her companions.
The turian kept his eyes focused on Shepard's hands. She had the impression the casual human gesture had a special meaning to him. Eventually, he shook himself out of his trance and grasped her hand, the talons of his three fingers poking at her gloved hand and it was with a certain sense of gratefulness that he spoke to her.
"I'm glad to know you, Shepard."
A deafening explosion shook the entire building, breaking the relative calm between them. Shepard looked over to the other side of the bridge where a column of smoke was rising into the eternal twilight of Omega. She and Miranda shared a glance.
"That's the helicopter." The Cerberus operative explained to the others. "We set it to explode if they activated it. Looks like they just did."
Garrus was leaning over the ledge, his mouth left ajar. "Only Tarak was allowed to use it. Hm… can't say I'm going to cry for the bastard even if I would have wanted to put a bullet between his four eyes myself."
Zaeed glanced at him. "Got history there, eh?"
"Indeed." he nodded. "Anto sent me to kill him at his home one night. I was waiting for him in his bedroom with a gun in my hand ready to end his existence only… he was more careful than I thought. He came up with two guards armed with shotguns. I had to flee but not before I took the shot. I missed, it just grazed his arm but I heard it made him so paranoid he barely slept anymore and he killed so many of his own guys because he was afraid they would topple him. In the end he had so few troops he had to hire freelancers to attack me!"
Garrus's mandibles twisted in a way reminiscent of a smile. Shepard herself was amused until she heard the low rumble of Anto's voice.
"We should probably leave now. The explosion will occupy them for a while. That's an opportunity we can't waste."
Miranda cursed. "Looks like it had the opposite effect."
They all followed her gaze in the direction of the bridge where a mechanized humanoid fighter was put down by a computer-driven crane. The fighter rose at its full height and began advancing towards the building.
"YMIR." Zaeed growled.
Shepard's face hardened. "Garrus you stay here and grab its attention. The rest of us will go downstairs and kill it."
"Good luck." Garrus nodded at them as they made for the stairs.
"Come on, faster!" Shepard barked as she rushed into the lower level's main room. "We can't let it get inside!"
"Right behind you!" she heard Zaeed snap at her heels.
The bridge came into sight seconds later and the YMIR drone detected their presence in microseconds. It turned its weaponized arms towards them and fired.
Shepard and Zaeed leaped to cover just in time to dodge the first shots. "Anto, Miranda! Cover the other side!" she ordered after seeing the drone move towards the second entrance, its aim focused on them.
It was about to reach it when a loud detonation caught its attention. The mechs looked upwards at Garrus and fired another burst. It was just the distraction Shepard needed. In seconds, she prepared her team for a coordinated attack. On her signal, they jumped out of cover and squeezed their triggers.
Garrus fired another round at the drone and watched as its attention shifted from attacker to attacker in dizzying fashion. Even with its shields down, the machine's armor proved to be a challenge to pierce.
Thankfully, Shepard seemed to know what she was doing and she had each of her teammates pop out and take their shot at turns to confuse the drone.
It seemed to work. So far, the YMIR mech was caught in an unending dance between its four assailants and Garrus who fired once in a while to prevent its systems from calculating their routine and anticipating their next move.
With each shot, the drone's armor weakened and soon enough, their path would be clear.
He was relieved his rescuers had gone to such lengths to help him. There was no doubt in his mind he would have died either against the Blue Suns or the Eclipse or even a late charge by the Blood Pack. Garrus was still surprised he hadn't seen Garm yet.
He would have thought the merc leader would have been the first in line to try and kill him.
Garrus was about to fire another shot when a familiar voice in his back caught him unaware.
"If you want something done properly..."
He turned just in time to see a red-skinned salarian in yellow armor standing by the threshold. Jaroth! His eyes widened when he noticed his foe brandishing a rocket launcher at him.
"Let's see how you handle this, Archangel!" Jaroth sneered and fired his weapon.
Garrus jumped and tried to escape the target-tracking missile.
"Spirits!" he yelled before the explosion engulfed him.
Shepard left her teammates to fight the weakening YMIR mech when she had heard the commotion coming from the upper floor. She took the stairs two at a time and precipitated herself towards the room where Archangel was when she bumped into someone at the threshold.
Her eyes bore into the ones of a salarian mercenary. She saw the horror sweeping onto his face when his surprise gave way but it was too late for him. She already had the barrel of her handgun pressed under his chin.
"Don-"
The blast cracked his head open and brain matter sprayed against the wall. One lifeless body slumped down to rest against a rocket launcher.
Shepard twirled around to watch Archangel's unmoving form lying onto the dark tainted ground marred with a growing puddle of dark blue blood.
"Garrus!"
She did not hear the sounds of footsteps growing closer when she knelt at his side and turned him over. A torrent of blood was cascading down the right side of the turian's face, his visor shattered.
"Shit!" Zaeed appeared at her side and seemed as unprepared as she was.
Archangel gasped and writhed under them. His attempts at breathing only managed to produce a sickening gurgling noise.
"Just hold on, Garrus. We're getting you out of here!" she told him, trying to be firm.
"I'm going to find us a car." she heard Miranda's alarmed voice.
As Garrus' eyes shut close again and he lost consciousness, Anto looked over at him and shook his head, his expression filled with worry.
"He's not going to make it."