Sahrabarik System.
Omega Space Station.
Afterlife.
Loud, upbeat music thundered throughout the nightclub as Shepard ascended the stairs to Aria T'Loak's balcony. Once Shepard arrived at the balcony, she was greeted with heavily armed and armoured Batarian mercenaries guarding Aria, who appeared to be dressed for a night of non-stop partying, which was a rather odd attire for a supposed infamous pirate queen.
Miranda, Savage and Jacob flanked the Commander whilst the rest of the Drones stayed at the bottom of the stairs, ready to fire at the Omega Queen's guards if they tried anything against their own Queen.
Shepard hardly cared about the criminal Asari's appearance or choice in clothing style since she had objectives to accomplish and individuals to recruit to the Normandy crew. Shepard walked towards Omega's current ruler only to be stopped by the Batarian mercenaries, who raised their weapons, clearly warning not to advance any further. Savage growled angrily at Aria's bodyguards yet withheld from firing upon the mercenaries as they've not taken hostile action against his Queen nor her companions.
"That's close enough." Aria T'Loak commanded coldly as the mercenaries kept their weapons aimed at Shepard and the rest of the Normandy crew. The Queen of Omega made a slight gesture with her head, causing Garka, one of Aria's most loyal and, more importantly, competent men, to step forward and wave his active Omni-tool at the recently resurrected Commander Shepard's body.
"Hold still." Garka requested, in a far politer tone than his employer, from The Omni-tool, a 3D holo-image of a human body appeared, which had little bits of data and biological information about Shepard scrolling near the holo images head. The Cerberus operatives stared at each other in a mixture of confusion and curiosity as they wondered why Aria T'Loak was having Shepard Bio-scanned by Garka. Savage glared at the Batarian mercenary, fully intending to shot Garka through the head and slaughter everyone in the nightclub if the scan proved to be dangerous to the Queen's health.
Speaking of Shepard, she wasn't impressed by Aria's actions nor Garka's. "If you're looking for weapons," the heroine of the Citadel pulled out a pistol that she'd been hiding from the mercenaries guarding Omega's Queen. "You're not doing a very good job." Garka blinked his four eyes in shock and disbelief as the scans showed that Shepard only possessed three weapons on her person, not four. The Batarian was utterly unaware that the pistol in Shepard's hand had a built-in miniature jammer that shielded it from being scanned by Omni-tools.
"Can't be too careful with dead spectres." Aria reasoned whilst Garka resumed scanning Commander Shepard after snapping out of his shocked state. "That could be anyone wearing your face." Shepard couldn't argue with Aria on that point with how advanced surgical technology has become over the past few millennia; anyone with enough Credits or medical know-how could change their appearance to match the galactic heroine. However, anyone dumb enough to try stealing Shepard's identity would've been hunted down by the Alliance and her old crew when they were eventually exposed as a fake.
The Commander stared at the scanning Batarian for a moment longer before going back at the Queen of Omega. "I was told you're the person to talk to if I have questions." Aria turned to face Shepard whilst Garka announced that the supposedly dead spectre's group was clean of any surface modifications or hidden weaponry minus the pistol that the Commander had been hiding away on her; person, of course.
"Depends on the questions," Aria replied as she stared coldly at the galactic heroine. Shepard's eyebrow raised slightly as she could already tell that Aria T'Loak wasn't the type of person to take shit from anyone or allow an insult to go unpunished. The Commander would've to play nice. She didn't want to cause another space station to violently explode nor have an infamous pirate queen gunning for her ass, especially not when her current targets were on Omega and needed retrieving.
"You run Omega?" Questioned Shepard, wanting to start with an easy question and hopefully get a good grasp on Omega's hierarchy.
Aria chuckled in amusement upon hearing the question while darkness bubbled within her eyes. The pirate Queen turned towards the pulsating heart of Afterlife and proudly proclaimed for everyone to hear that she was Omega. After the sudden proclamation of her status as the physical embodiment of Omega, she lazily sat down on the balcony's couch. "But you need more. Everyone needs more something. By Aria's bored tone, hundreds of criminals, slavers, mercenaries, and other lowlifes must come to annoy her every day for favours or gain influence on the newest deal. And they all come to me."
"I'm the boss, CEO, queen if you're feeling dramatic." She paused for a moment to stare with slight interest at Savage, who was silently standing behind Shepard, weapon held at the ready in case of any hostile actions taken by the inhabitants of Omega. "It doesn't matter. Omega has no titled ruler and only one rule." Aria turned her gaze away from Savage and stared coldly at Shepard, and spoke Omega's one rule slowly so that the Commander nor those accompanying her wouldn't misunderstand or forget it.
"Don't fuck with Aria." It was a simple rule and one that held terrible consequences for anyone dumb enough to break it.
"I've got a similar rule," Shepard coldly told Aria while her gaze shifted between the mercenary guards for a moment before returning to the criminal Asari. The guarding mercenaries glared at the galactic heroine yet refused to take any action against the Commander, especially not when Savage was glaring darkly at them. The Locust Drone's eyes gleamed with the promise of death and destruction to everything they were protecting if they tried anything against the Locust Queen.
Aria T'Loak smirked approvingly at the Commander while gesturing towards an unoccupied section of the couch. Shepard understood the Asari pirate queen's silent invitation to sit together as equals and thus calmly walked over to the couch, ignoring the hostile glares of the mercenaries, and took a seat right next to one of the most dangerous criminals in the entire Terminus systems.
"So, what can I do for you?" Aria immediately got down to business since she was sure that Commander Shepard hadn't stopped at Omega for some sightseeing of the local landmarks or partake in the gang wars that regularly plagued the space station. The saviour of the Citadel was on Omega in search of something, and the quicker Aria assisted the Commander in locating and retrieving whatever the hell she was trying to find, the sooner Shepard would leave Omega, hopefully, before anything of importance or value was destroyed in a gigantic explosion.
Shepard relaxed into the couch whilst ignoring an Asari stripper dancing behind the reinforced glass. "I'm trying to track down Archangel." If anyone on Omega knew where the vigilante was currently located or his current status, it would be Aria T'Loak.
Aria released an amused scoff upon hearing the vigilante's name. "You and half of Omega." The pirate Queen informed while giving Shepard a curious glance from the corner of her icy blue eyes. "You want him dead, too?" Archangel has pissed off nearly everyone on Omega since he arrived at the station. It wouldn't surprise Aria in the slightest if Archangel somehow managed to get Shepard, of all people gunning for his skull.
"Actually, I'm putting a team together for what's basically a suicide mission; he's on my list." Shepard felt some amusement when Aria stared at her with an expression that basically said that she thought the spectre was crazy to openly admit that she was going off on a suicide mission and that she wanted to recruit Archangel of all people for the aforementioned mission.
"You're going to make some enemies teaming up with Archangel," Aria warned the Commander after her mind finished processing the craziness of Shepard's current goals. "That's assuming you can get to him. He's in a bit of trouble right now." An understatement if there ever was one as the three most prominent mercenary groups on Omega was after Archangel's head. From what she'd heard from her spy network, the vigilante was trapped in his base of operations and wouldn't last for much longer, especially not when the mercenaries were actually working together to finish him off once and for all.
"What kind of trouble?" Shepard already knew about the mercenaries teaming up in an attempt to murder Archangel. Yet, given the vigilante's reputation with getting into trouble and pissing off everyone on Omega, it wouldn't surprise the galactic heroine that Archangel managed to get himself into another bad situation that didn't involve the local merc gangs.
Fortunately for Shepard, that wasn't the case. "The local merc groups have joined forces to take him down," Aria's icy blue eyes darkened with disdain at the mention of the local mercenaries showing that she wasn't exactly their biggest fan. "They've got him cornered, but it sounds like they're having trouble finishing him off." The tone used told everyone present that Aria held little faith in the mercenaries chances of eliminating Archangel. "They've started hiring anybody with a gun to help them." Shepard's eyes shined with interest as that could be her team's way to get to Archangel.
Aria must've known what Shepard was planning since she gestured with her towards a section of the nightclub where a Batarian wearing Blue Sun armour could be seen guarding a closed doorway. "They're using a private room for recruiting just over there. I'm sure they'll sign you up." The mercs after Archangel were getting desperate at this point and would likely hire anyone regardless of how under-equipped or green they were at fighting. However, the mercs wouldn't really care if their hired help died so long as they took the bullets meant for them.
"Thanks for the tip." Shepard thanked Aria for pointing her in the right direction to be recruited by the local mercenary gangs for the operation against Archangel. "What else can you tell me about Archangel?" The document sent by the Illusive Man was quite thorough. Yet, Shepard wanted another person's opinion on the vigilante and who better than Aria T'Loak, who has watched the chaos of Archangel's arrive at Omega from the relative safety of Afterlife.
"Not as much as I'd like," Aria admitted as she watched with dispassionate eyes as Asari dancers entertained the crowds down below. "He showed up several months ago and started causing all sorts of problems." A hint of annoyance was held within her tone as she spoke about Archangel's actions on Omega. "If you make your own laws, which everyone here does, he makes life difficult." Difficult was understating honestly since Archangel and his friends had made life on Omega a nightmare for the common criminal.
"He's reckless and idealistic." Aria gaze sifted back onto Shepard. "But he seems to know enough to stay clear of me." Shepard hummed thoughtfully at the information seeing how Archangel was wise enough to target the local merc groups while leaving Aria, the most powerful criminal within this part of known space, alone so that she wouldn't interfere with his battle against the criminal underworld. It showed that Archangel understood strategic warfare and knew the strengths and weaknesses of the criminals of Omega.
"Sounds like Archangel will fit right in with my crew." The original Normandy had been a band of misfits and crazy people that possessed a unique talent for pulling off the impossible and, more importantly, surviving against anything the universe could throw at them. Shepard wanted the same craziness and talent for achieving the impossible on the new Normandy, and judging by what she's learned about Archangel, he'd fit the profile of a misfit quite nicely. Now all that was left to do was save him from an army of pissed off and heavily armed mercenaries that wanted his head on a spike.
Shepard groaned since the resurrected spectre felt that by the end of this little rescue mission, there would be a lot of dead mercs and probably thousands of Credits worth of property damage. The Commander knew that she'd need to get to Mordin Solus after retrieving Archangel and get him on the Normandy as quickly as possible. Since every Blue Suns, Eclipse and Blood Pack member that either survived the battle or was lucky enough not to be at Archangel's base would be out gunning for her skull the moment they learn where she was located.
Speaking of Mordin Solus, Shepard should ask Aria about the scientist to learn more about him and the state of his current situation on Omega.
"Anyway, thanks for the info on Archangel," Shepard thanked while Savage's brethren below the balcony were distracting themselves by playing 'who can intimidate the mercenary bodyguards the fastest.' Judging by the nervous shifting done by the Turian guard on the left, it was Bone'Smasher, a Drone carrying a heavily modified assault rifle, who was winning the game. "But I'm also looking for Mordin Solus. Do you know where I can find him?" Aria raised a non-existent eyebrow at the mention of the Salarian scientist.
"The Salarian doctor?" Aria's tone was thoughtful as she quickly remembered the latest reports on Mordin Solus delivered by her spy network. "Last I heard, he was trying to help plague victims in the quarantine zone." A genuine smile graced Aria's lips as she recalled the few times she met Mordin Solus. "I always liked Mordin. He's as likely to heal you as he is to shoot you." The doctor wasn't a fool and knew when to cut his losses and kill the person that was a threat to himself and those he wanted to protect from further harm.
"What else can you tell me about Mordin?" Shepard curiously asked Aria since Mordin sounded to be a rather interesting individual. From what Aria's already mentioned about Mordin, he knew a great deal about medicine and how to fight back against anyone who might try anything unpleasant towards his patients.
"Used to be part of the Salarian Special Task Group," Aria revealed while sipping some expensive alcohol that had just been delivered by a trusted Asari servant. "He's brilliant and dangerous." The message Aria was sending was clear stay on guard around Mordin until his loyalty was confirmed. "Just don't get him talking. He never shuts up." The pirate Queen took another sip of alcohol, enjoying how it burned whilst travelling down her throat. "If you really need to find him, take a shuttle to the quarantine zone. No guarantee they'll let you in, of course."
"So basically, I'll need to search through an entire plague-infected area filled with scavengers, criminals and those infected by the plague to find him." Shepard got off the couch while Aria's predatory gaze never left her. "Huh, I can already predict Dr Chakwas will be yelling at me for a few hours after she learns about entering a plague zone without getting her expertise on the matter." The plague was supposedly safe for humans, yet that wouldn't stop Chakwas from voicing her concern for the Normandy crew's medical health and safety.
"I'm sure this Dr Chakwas will understand your reasoning for willingly marching off towards an obvious death trap," Aria said as her guards moved out of Shepard's way. "Oh, and one more thing before you go." Shepard paused at the stairs and turned to stare at Aria with curiosity shining within her emerald orbs. Savage stood next to his Queen whilst glaring distrustfully at the pirate Queen.
"Whenever you decide to return to the Citadel, I'd advise keeping whatever the hell your subordinates are out of sight from the Council." Aria T'Loak's eyes grew darker and colder than they were a moment ago. "They'll not take kindly to you hiding a new species from them and will probably take certain steps to remove you from the negotiating table when the time comes to meet their government." The Citadel Council were, at their core, a bunch of control freaks. They would never allow anything or, in this case, anyone from undermining their image of absolute power and authority over Citadel space.
Shepard was about to respond to Aria's advice, yet Savage was far quicker to voice his option on the matter of the Citadel Council. "The Locust Horde cares not for the options of some weak-willed politicians," Savage bluntly told Aria whilst tapping his holstered pistol with the tip of his finger. "Our sole goal is to serve Commander Shepard and eliminate her enemies." Since ignorance would better serve their objectives, the Drone leader was wise enough not to let Aria or the Council know anything regarding his Queen's connection to the Locust Horde.
Aria glanced between Shepard and Savage for a moment before shrugging with indifference. "Fair enough." The pirate Queen wasn't going to take offence on the Drone's views on the Council's courage and strength since she held similar beliefs. Shepard waited for a moment in case Aria wanted to add anything else. After a few seconds of watching the pirate Queen watching the Asari dancers entertaining the nightclub patrons, the Commander decided that the conversation was over and went downstairs, where the other Drones immediately moved to form an honour guard.
Miranda and Jacob walked over to the Commander from their position at a nearby bar. "So, what's the plan?" Miranda inquired as the Drones kept scanning the nightclub for potential threats. The loud music and clouds of cigarette smoke made it hard for anyone to see everything within Afterlife, yet thanks to their advanced senses, the Drones could tell that there were minor threats to the Queen and her companions. Of course, if anyone tried anything, they'd soon find themselves filled with enough mass accelerator rounds to build a small statue.
Shepard stared at the corner of Afterlife, which held the merc recruitment section. "We'll go after Archangel first and save him from the horde of bloodthirsty mercs that want him dead." Between the two possible recruits, she was after Mordin was the one in the least amount of danger at the moment and could thus wait a little longer to be rescued from the quarantine zone. "Jacob contact the Normandy and inform Zaeed to met us outside Afterlife. He'll be a great help against the mercs." Zaeed had worked with Omega's mercenaries before and would know how they operated and knew the best options to kill them when the time comes to rescue Archangel.
"On it," Jacob replied while activating his Omni-tool; a few commands were typed into the holographic device and seconds later, Jacob got a response from the scarred mercenary. "Zaeed says he'll be waiting for us at the exit by the time we're done with the Blue Suns recruiter." The Cerberus operative informed the group after deactivated the Omni-tool since having it online served no prepose. The preparations and planning for the Archangel rescue settled the Normandy crew went towards the Batarian guarding the entrance to the recruitment room.
"I hear you're recruiting," Shepard said to the Batarian Blue Suns mercenary guarding the entrance to the recruitment room. The Batarian glance at Shepard and the Cerberus operatives with disinterest. However, he tensed at the sight of Savage and the other Drones since he's never seen anything like them before in the Terminus systems, and it didn't help his nerves that they're packing a lot of firepower. Although given that they're here for the recruiter, it was safe to say that they're not going to cause much trouble, and so he simply gestured for them to entire the room behind him.
Without giving the metric a second glance, Shepard entire the room and was met with the sight of another Batarian Blue Suns merc talking to another mercenary. The Batarian recruiter told the human mercenary that he'd get his Credits after the job was done and not a moment sooner. The human mercenary nodded in understanding before leaving the room to head off to where the mercs were fighting Archangel; once the man was gone, the Batarian yelled for the next merc to step up. Fortunately, Shepard and her team were the only ones in the room.
The Batarian raised his head from the holographic console and immediately smiled in a perverted manner when he saw Shepard. "Well, aren't you sweet?" Shepard felt her hands twitch towards her weapons at the lustful tone the Batarian was using. "But you're in the wrong place, honey. Strippers' quarters are that way." He pointed to the location of the strippers' quarters, yet any lust within him died when Savage suddenly grabbed him by the throat and proceeded to lift the Batarian into the air with little effort.
"Shall I gut this insect for his disrespect, my Queen?" Savage asked while slowly putting more pressure on the Batarian's neck. The guard outside tried to intervene but was halted by the rest of the Drones whose weapons were raised and ready to fire at the guard if he so much as twitched in a way that they didn't like. Shepard felt satisfaction at seeing the perverted Batarian suspended in midair, trying desperately to breathe whilst Savage continued to crush his windpipe slowly. Yet, knowing that time was of the essence, she decided that the man had suffered enough.
"No, put him down, Savage," Shepard ordered, causing Savage to glance at his Queen for a moment before throwing the Batarian onto the floor. "Now that Savage has taught you a lesson in manners, I'd like to get back to signing up for the fight against Archangel." Shepard watched as the Batarian got up from the floor whilst greedily breathing in some much-needed oxygen. Once his breathing was back to normal, the Blue Sun returned to the console and typed in some commands resulting in some kind of holo-screen appearing.
"Right, so you're here to fight Archangel?" The Blue sun inquired, keeping his tone respectful as he didn't want to get his neck snapped by Savage nor face the wrath of the clearly enraged Drones flanking the heroine of the Citadel.
"Yep, I've got a score to settle with him," Shepard's tone was filled with fake hatred for Archangel as she wanted to fool the recruiter and the other mercs that she was just like them, a criminal that wanted revenge on the vigilante.
The Blue Sun huffed. "Yeah, you and almost all of the criminals on this station have a score to settle with that bastard." The Blue Sun's eyes narrowed with rage as he thought of Archangel and the friends that bastard has murdered over the past several months. "Anyway standard fee is 500 Credits each. You get paid when the job's done. If you die, your friends don't collect your share." If Zaeed were there, he'd have said that 500 Credits wasn't worth the price for becoming meat shields for the professional mercenaries. Then again, it wasn't like the Blue Suns, Eclipse, nor the Blood Pack were going to tell the hired help that they were using them as disposable bullet sponges.
The Blue Sun continued to type into the console. "You'll need your own weapons and armour," he paused to stare at the heavily armed Shepard and her crew. "Looks like you've got that covered." Jacob and Miranda snorted at the Batarian for stating the obvious. "And no, this does not make you a member of the Blue Suns, Eclipse or the Blood Pack. You are a freelancer. Period." The tone in which he said that indicated that he was asked about being inducted into the main merc groups so many times that he'd become sick of retelling people that they were only freelancers and nothing else to the three most powerful mercenary organisations on Omega.
"Any questions?" The Merc asked as he worked on the console. Shepard saw the opportunity and asked some questions about the mercenaries. It turns out that the main reason behind this assault on Archangel's base of operations was motivated by the loss of Credits and manpower that the vigilante had cost the merc leaders over the past several months. The Commander had even learned of the local Blue Suns, Eclipse and Blood Pack's leader's names Tarak, Jaroth and Garm respectfully. The most interesting detail was that Tarak was leading the entire operation and that the other merc leaders were willingly giving the Blue Sun ultimate command over their combined forces.
Another detail learned was that Archangel had a team before the mercs killed them and successfully cornered the vigilante within his own base. However, Archangel apparently planned that something like this might happen and had fortified his base to withstand a drawn-out battle, and if the recruiter was correct, then they've lost a lot of guys trying to get at Archangel. The plan of attack wasn't that great either since it was basically the hired help running at Archangel as a distraction while the real mercs tried to sneak up to the vigilante to end him once and for all.
The only good news that Shepard gained from this info was that Archangel was still alive and that the mercs were having a hard time rectifying that state of affairs. The Blue Sun also told her group that one of his guys would be waiting at the transport depot outside the club to transport them to Archangel's base.
With the needed info, Shepard made to leave the room only to pause when the door opened, and a teenager wearing common Omega attire walked in with a cocky grin and the area of a kid that didn't know what he was signing up for. The Commander watched as the kid confidently walked towards the recruiter, whose eyes shined with dark malice as he saw the fresh and expendable meat that the kid represented. It wouldn't surprise Shepard if the man allowed the teenager to sign on to the battle since he only cared about getting as many bodies to the fight against Archangel.
"Hey, is this where I sign up?" The kid asked the recruiter while Shepard stepped towards him, fully intending to stop this madness before the kid was killed by Archangel.
"You look a little young to be freelancing as a merc." The teenager turned and glared back at Shepard as he didn't appreciate her trying to stop him from signing up as a freelancer. The Drones growled warningly, yet the youth ignored them as he foolishly thought they weren't a threat to him.
"I'm old enough," he snapped before turning to the recruiter. "I grew up on Omega. I know how to use a gun." The Drones laughed at the boy since it was evident that he didn't have a kinetic shield generator nor possessed any type of protective armour. The teenager was more likely to die in the first few seconds of fighting, and that was them being generous to his odds of survival.
"You'll die a fool boy." Savage bluntly told the teenager after calming down from his laughing fit. "Archangel is an experienced killer and will end your existence long before you even hear the sound of his sniper rifle firing." The boy should just leave before making a bigger fool of himself or, worse, die fighting against an opponent that he doesn't stand a chance against in the first place.
"I can handle myself." The boy growled at Savage ignoring the sound advice of those that wanted to prevent him from dying. "Besides, I just spent 50 Credits on this pistol, and I wanna use it!" He pulled out an old pistol from his hip and showed it off like a trophy to the Commander. However, before he could say anything else, Savage grabbed ahold of the gun and, with his monstrous strength, crushed it into a ball of scape metal. The teenager stared with disbelief as the ruined pistol laid lifelessly within his hand, which was thankfully unharmed by Savage's inhuman strength.
"I think you should get your money back." Shepard grinned as she glanced at Savage with a silent thank you shining within her emerald orbs. "And trust me, kid. You'll thank Savage for destroying that pistol later." Without giving the kid a chance to reply, she turned and left the room, followed closely by Savage, the Drones and the two Cerberus operatives. The Blue Sun recruiter sighed since he just lost another body to throw at Archangel, and knowing that Tarak wanted new people as fast as possible, he told the kid to leave and dispassionately called for the next merc to enter.
The kid desiring to be a freelancer hadn't realised it yet, but he'd just dodged the grim reaper that day since, in a few hours, news of the Blood Pack, Eclipse and Blue Suns being completely massacred by Archangel would hit the stations news outlets. It would be the day that the kid thanked Savage and his Queen for saving him from his own stupidity and recklessness.