Time Skip, A Week Later.
Terminus Systems.
Sahrabarik System.
Omega Space Station.
Docking Bays.
"Ah, Omega, the only place in the galaxy where Gang Wars and criminal activities are considered the local pastime." Shepard gazed at the slum-like state of the docking bay whilst stepping through the airlock connecting the criminal infested station to the Normandy. The Commander's current teammates were the next ones to come through the airlock equipped with personalised armour and their weapons held at the ready. An understandable precaution as Omega was a central hub for the criminals of the known galaxy.
Savage and a squad of nine Drones followed shortly after the Cerberus operatives; however, unlike the Lazarus Space Station or Freedom's Progress, the Locust Drones were now equipped with metallic armour covering only the chest area. The reinforced metal chest pieces that made up the armour possessed glowing blue highlights, which was caused by the miniature kinetic shield generator hidden within the centre of the armour. On the middle of this new armour was the symbol of the Locust Horde, which only the inhabitants of the Normandy would recognise.
The civilians standing nearby the airlock were quick to get away from the docking area once they saw the intimidating forms of the Drones, who glared at anyone that wasn't a part of their Queen's entourage. Shepard internally winced at the sight of people running away from her team and vowed to have a little chat with the Drones to tone down the intimidation tactics when around innocent civilians. However, such talks would've to wait as they've got work to do, so she, Miranda, Jacob, and the Drones started to head further into Omega.
Although, they didn't get very far from the airlock before a shifty Salarian wearing a dirty and very old suit walked directly into their path. Savage and the other Drones glared with disdain at the Salarian, displeased that he had the nerve to bother the Queen whilst she was trying to find and recruit talented individuals to her team. If the Salarian was intimidated by the Drones, he was doing a remarkable job not showing it as he just smiled at Jade Shepard and the Cerberus operatives.
"Ah! Welcome to Omega!" The Salarian greeted with a cheerful tone which caused Shepard's eyes to narrow in suspicion as this guy was acting far too nice for someone that lived in a place like Omega. "You're new here, aren't you? I can always tell." Savage growled as he saw through this vermin's little game; the Salarian was probably going to try and trick them out of their Credits and then disappear before they even notice the deception. The Drone leader was about to ask his Queen to allow him and some of the other Drones to take care of the little rat. However, a heavily armed Batarian showed up, looking none too happy to see the Salarian.
"Oh…Hello Moklan!" The Salarian shifted nervously on the spot as he greeted the heavily armed Batarian, who glared with annoyance at the local scavenger. "I was just." The Salarian tried to explain or just make up an excuse for his current actions, yet judging by the growing annoyance within Moklan's four eyes; the Batarian wasn't going to put up with the bipedal amphibian's antics for a second longer.
Moklan growled at the Salarian "Leave, Fargut. Now." The tone Moklan used told Fargut that he wouldn't ask so nicely a second time.
"Of course, Moklan! Whatever she wants!" Fargut agreed with the scary Batarian as he didn't want to anger Moklan or, worse, get on Aria T'Loak's bad side. Fargut bowed to Moklan and then ran the hell out of the docking area before he did something to enrage the Queen of Omega's favoured enforcer.
Once Moklan was sure that Fargut was gone, he turned to address the newcomers. "Blasted Scavengers." Moklan's tone suggested that he had to deal with Fargut's kind far more than he'd like. "Welcome to Omega, Shepard." He greeted with a slight bow of the head, never taking his four eyes off the famous Commander Shepard nor the heavily armed Locust Drones, who were snarling at the Omega enforcer. Moklan had never seen their species before today, and the Batarian was going to keep his guard up until he knew how dangerous the Drones were and how to counteract them.
"You know who I am?" Shepard raised an eyebrow upon hearing that Moklan knew her identity. From behind the resurrected spectre's back, Miranda stared at the Batarian with suspicion wondering how the enforcer or his employer learned that Shepard was coming to Omega.
Moklan scoffed whilst appearing to be amused by the Commander's surprise. "Of Course. We had you tagged the moment you entered the Terminus Systems." The Batarian enforcer revealed since tens of thousands of spies reporting to Aira daily, learning about the Normandy showing up in their territory was practically child's play. "You're not as subtle as you think." That was true since appearing within the Terminus Systems onboard a replica of the Normandy was basically screaming to the whole galaxy that Shepard was alive and coming to the Omega Space Station.
"Aira wants to know what brings a dead spectre to Omega." An understatement as spectres, especially Commander Shepard, had a well-earned reputation of shit exploding around them. "I suggest you go to Afterlife now and present yourself." Moklan's tone conveyed that it wasn't actually a suggestion and more of a command.
"Our Queen doesn't need to listen to the commands of a lowly servant nor the false Queen he serves." Savage sneered at the enforcer while his brethren marched forward and created a protective circle around the Queen and the two Cerberus operatives. Moklan glared at Savage for insulting Aira T'Loak, the Queen of Omega. Such insults weren't usually tolerated by the Batarian nor those that loyally followed the Pirate Queen. Yet, for the sake of avoiding a fight he couldn't win at the moment, Moklan decided just to ignore what Savage had just said.
"Afterlife. Now." Moklan growled out before turning around and walking down the hallway.
"Well, that could've gone better." Shepard sighed as she stared at the end of the hallway where Moklan had just exited. "Savage, for the sake of our current objectives, can you please not antagonise the criminals living here." Shepard didn't like to be ordered around by an infamous crime queen, but for the sake of finding those she wished to recruit to the Normandy, a certain amount of diplomacy was needed to be conducted with Omega's ruler.
"As you command, my Queen." Savage and the other Drones bowed in reverence. "We shall try and tolerate the false queen and her servants until the time comes when you shall no longer need to be diplomatic with Aira T'Loak." There can only be one Queen in this universe, and Savage wouldn't allow the false Queen that ruled over Omega to pretend to be superior to the Locust Queen. Hopefully, Aira will one day cross the line and infuriate his Queen to the point where war would be unavoidable, and Savage prayed that he'd be here on Omega to put a knife into the Asari's back.
"That's all I ask." Shepard nodded with satisfaction and started to walk down the hallway. As she went through the docking bay EDI, Normandy's artificial intelligence voice came through the radio informing the Commander that Dr Mordin Solus was located in a clinic within Omega's slums. However, the Salarian scientist would be rather hard to get to as the slums were currently under quarantine. It was unlikely that her team and Drone escort would be able to get inside the slums without Aira's permission.
EDI also told Shepard that the three significant mercenary gangs on Omega joined forces to deal with Archangel. A mysterious vigilante that Shepard wanted to recruit to the Normandy team, who has remarkably gotten the mercenaries that honestly hated each others' guts to put aside their differences so that they might violently murder Archangel. EDI suggested that she head over to Afterlife and try convincing Aira to tell Shepard anything she might know about the vigilante and the reason why the mercenaries want to kill him.
Shepard goaded at the information since getting into a quarantine zone and finding Mordin wasn't going to be easy. Saving Archangel from the mercenaries that wanted to bathe in his blood was likely going to be even worse as the three major mercenary groups weren't just going to let her take the vigilante without a fight. As Shepard contemplated on how she'd save both possible recruits from certain death, she saw at the end of the hallway a person wearing yellowish armour manhandling a Batarian that seemed mere moments away from passing out from fear.
It took a few seconds, but Shepard finally recognised the man as the mercenary/bounty hunter Zaeed Massani a person on one of the dossiers given by the Illusive Man. Zaeed was considered to be one of the best mercenaries in the known galaxy and had a near-perfect record when it came to completing his missions. Shepard knew that having such a skilled fighter on the Normandy would make taking on the Collectors much easier and increase their survival odds.
"Hey, you Zaeed Massani?" Shepard questioned the mercenary while ignoring the Batarian that was begging for help. Zaeed kicked the Batarian and ordered him to shut up before turning around to gaze at the Commander, revealing a heavily scarred face complete with a milky white eye that indicated that Zaeed might be half-blind. The mercenary's eyes shined with recognition when he saw the heroine of the Citadel standing before him.
"Yeah. That's me." Zaeed replied whilst staring at the Drones standing behind Shepard for a few seconds. The mercenary had never seen their specie's before yet chose not to ask about them as he wasn't getting paid enough by Cerberus to care about a new species appearing on the galactic stage. "You must be Commander Shepard. I hear we have a galaxy to save." The idea of saving the galaxy was a new one to Zaeed. However, if this job allowed him to get revenge on that traitorous bastard, he'll do anything to get the mission done.
"I assume you've been debriefed." Shepard nodded as the mission did involve stopping the Collectors. She hopes he was debriefed; otherwise, Shepard would've to spend a few hours getting Zaeed up to speed on the mission, and those few hours were ones the Commander couldn't afford to waste.
Zaeed grunted. "I've done my homework. Cerberus sent me everything I needed to know." Of course, it seemed that they decided to leave out the part of a new unknown species that would be helping them take down the Collectors.
"Good, that will save us both some time." Shepard's eyes shined with curiosity. "By the way, what's your relationship with Cerberus?" Zaeed didn't seem the type to believe the same human supremacist bull shit as Cerberus, so whatever relationship the mercenary had with the organisation definitely wasn't based on shared beliefs on humanity's place in the galaxy.
Zaeed stepped forward with a neutral expression. "Easy, Cerberus is paying me a lot of money to help you on your mission. That's the long and short of it." Shepard stared back with suspicion as money couldn't be the sole reason he was joining the mission; there had to be another reason why a mercenary like Zaeed would willingly work for a person going on what was basically a suicide mission.
"Not many mercs would take a suicide mission for the pay." An understatement as mercenaries mostly cared about money and living long enough to spend it.
Zaeed smirked. "Most mercs don't get an offer like the one Cerberus sent me." Zaeed turned back to the whimpering Batarian, leaving Shepard wondering how massive the offer must've been to get the mercenary to join the Normandy crew. "This mission doesn't sound like good business. But your Illusive Man can move a lot of Credits." Sadly true as the Illusive Man possessed an insane amount of Credits, the Lazarus and Code L Projects were just two examples that Shepard could think of that showed the colossal resources that Cerberus had in their possession.
"Fair enough." Shepard's eyes went to the downed Batarian. "However, my contacts told me we're picking up one man. Not two." Zaeed glanced between the Commander and the Batarian before huffing in amusement.
"Batarian delinquent," Zaeed explained as the aforementioned delinquent shivered in terror on the floor. "Pissed off someone rich enough to hire me to go after him. And for my 'bring 'em in alive' rates, even." Shepard winced as that meant that the person that hired Zaeed was someone from the Hegemony ruling caste. If they wanted the delinquent brought back alive, it meant that the poor whimpering Batarian currently getting hit by the mercenary was going to face a fate far worse than death when this rich person got their hands on him.
Zaeed kicked the Batarian's face again, and by the sound of bones breaking, the delinquent's nose was now broken. "Tried to lead me on a chase all over the Systems." The mercenary sounded amused by the Batarians attempts to escape capture. "He should have known better. These people always run to Omega." Shepard agreed because when it comes to running from an enemy hunting, you like an animal; the absolute last thing you should do is try hiding in the location where thousands of others are also trying to escape their own pursuers
"What's going to happen to him?" Zaeed raised an eyebrow at the question concerning the fate of the Batarian before answering.
"I'm going to turn him in for the bounty. Don't much care what happens after that." Zaeed knew that the delinquent was going to die when his current employer got ahold of him. After that happened, the only question was how long and painful the rich Batarian wanted to make the delinquent's final moments within the galaxy.
After hearing his honest answer to her question, Shepard offered her hand to Zaeed. "Good to have you, Zaeed." They shook hands. "We have a lot of work to do." From this conversation, Shepard now knew that Zaeed Massani was a professional and would do his best to get the job done.
"That's what they tell me." Replied Zaeed as he removed his hand from Shepard. He also gestured to the Batarian delinquent to get up with his pistol. "I assume the Illusive Man told you about our arrangement?" Shepard turned to glare at the two Cerberus operatives behind her to demand an explanation, only to pause when she saw the confused expression on both Jacob and Miranda's faces. It appeared that the Illusive Man hadn't trusted them enough to inform her teammates about an arrangement made with Zaeed.
The Commander turned back to the mercenary. "What kind of arrangement?" Suppose this arrangement endangered Normandy's crew. In that case, she'd either have to convince Zaeed to either terminate the contract or find another way to get whatever the mercenary wanted to be accomplished.
"Picked up a mission a little while back, just before I signed on with Cerberus. I thought you might be interested." Zaeed explained while his eyes suddenly darkened with what Shepard recognised as hatred. "You heard the name Vido Santiago?" Zaeed asked which Shepard moved her head negatively as she's never heard of an essential person with that name before. "He's the head of the Blue Suns. Runs the whole organisation." The Commander made a mental note to research the Blue Suns leader when she had the time back onboard the Normandy.
Zaeed continued to explain his mission. "Seems he recently captured an Eldfell-Ashland refinery on Zorya and is using their workers for slave labour. The company wants it dealt with." Shepard's eyes narrowed as she definitely wanted to stop Vido Santiago, as slavery was one of the few things that could cause Jade Shepard to lose her temper. The Blue Suns stationed at Zorya had better start praying to their gods as the Commander intended to send the mercenaries off to the afterlife to meet them.
"I'll make sure we get that done," Shepard promised as killing slavers always made the galaxy a slightly better place.
"Good." Zaeed's tone was pleased yet held a subtle bloodlust that told that he was looking forward to getting to Zorya for some unknown reason. "Get it out of the way so we can concentrate on being big goddamn heroes." Without warning, the Batarian delinquent tried to run for the airlocks Zaeed was going to shot the runaway in the leg. However, before Zaeed could fire the pistol, two of the rearguard Drones lifted their weapons and fired at the Batarian's legs blasting pieces of bone and muscle out of the delinquent's body.
The Batarian screamed in agony as blood started to pool around his downed form. The two Drones that shot the delinquent went over and picked him up by the arms, completely ignoring the pain the Batarian was currently experiencing. Zaeed stared at the two Drones for a moment before just grunting and started to walk towards his bounty.
"Thanks for the help," Zaeed thanked the Drones holding up the wounded Batarian, who just nodded in return. "I better turn this thing in before it starts to stink." Zaeed grabbed the Batarian by the collar and began to drag the poor bastard to the agreed drop off point. "I'll be locked and loaded next time you're ready to get some killing done!" Zaeed yelled back to Shepard before disappearing with his prisoner into the heart of the Omega station.
Savage stared at the exit where Zaeed had just gone through. "It was only for a few minutes, yet I can already say that I like that human." The other Drones agreed with approving nods ignoring the disbelief shining within Miranda's eyes. She believed that the Drones hated anything that wasn't part of the Locust Horde or loyal to Shepard. Jacob was also shocked yet chose not to comment on the Drones liking Zaeed Massani as it wasn't his place to tell the Locust who they should like or befriend.
As for Shepard, she just grinned at the stupefied expression that Miranda was making. "I'm sure that you'll get to know Zaeed better during our mission to stop the Collectors Savage," her face morphed into a cold and professional expression. "However, we're currently wasting time, Aira is waiting for us at Afterlife, and I'd rather get this meeting over with as quickly as possible." Mordin and Archangel were in deadly situations and needed rescue before either the mercenaries or plague killed them.
The group made sounds of agreement as getting to the meeting with the Queen of Omega should be done as swiftly as possible. Shepard walked through the hallway exit revealing the massive market and habitation hub that served as Omega's beating heart. Nearest to the exit Shepard had come from was the nightclub Afterlife, with a powerful-looking Elcor guarding the front entrance. A massive line of people stood before the Elcor, probably wanting to get inside the nightclub and enjoy all that Afterlife has to offer.
Target in sight, Shepard went towards the entrance to Afterlife and went inside without trouble from the guards stationed at the front just behind the Elcor. A short tunnel was what greeted the Commander and her team when they crossed over the entrance. The usual visitors of the nightclub stared with hints of curiosity and fear as Shepard walked downed the tunnel whilst being escorted by Savage and his kin. After Shepard entered Afterlife, she and the Cerberus operatives serving as teammates were met with loud music, flashing lights, the smell of alcohol, Asari maidens dancing seductively on a stage and just the general feeling that this place was the life of the party.
From her location, Shepard could see an Asari watching over the entire nightclub from a balcony, figuring that must be Aira T'Loak, the infamous pirate queen. The Commander started to head towards the balcony while the Drones kept anyone from getting too close to their Queen. Once she arrived, a Batarian guard just glared at them and bluntly told Shepard that if she wanted to talk to Aira, then she should just go up to the balcony and speak to the ruler of Omega. The Drones growled at the disrespectful mercenary, yet Shepard ordered the Drones not to start anything and then went up the stairs, which would take her to Aira T'Loak.
It was time for the two Queens to finally meet.