Chapter Five: Kelly

The warehouse was almost empty for once, its former contents now being used to guard it, the overhead lighting free to reach the ground where before it was always in shadow. Only the walls had retained their dark tones. The scuff marks of walker treads on the concrete scored it from every corner, all headed to one direction.

The huge doorway that Kelly was walking through. Or, half-running through.

She had hoped to have time to do what needed to be done, but as she had ordered CAT6 to return to their base in Tuhi district, the fighting that had been raging all around had just stopped dead. Even the Eclipse had got a bloody nose on Kelly's own orders, yet their retaliation had not come. There were several possibilities about why this might have happened, all of them terrifying.

The mercs could have retreated to prepare for a station-wide assault. They could have agreed to stop fighting in order to share the prize. They could have expended so much materiel and so many of their number that they were weakened, which would also lead to Omega dropping into a war with itself as the smaller gangs and mercenary corporations vied for power.

Or, most horrific of all, Aria could have decided to intervene.

There wasn't time to lose. Kelly pointed to a spot in the middle of the floor, near the door. Behind her, grunting and breathing heavily, Zaeed Massani was dragged into view by two of her subordinates, a third supervising it. The bag over his head was grabbed and taken off, but his hands were kept bound. The man squinted, eyes adjusting to the changed light conditions, but otherwise seemed calm.

An act, Kelly knew. He was worried about something. Probably not himself, this couldn't have been the first time he had been captured like this. No doubt he had some confidence in being able to escape. She couldn't help but smirk at that.

The goggled Lieutenant Gardner looked at her over Massani's shoulder expectantly.

"These two, out," Kelly commanded, "Lieutenant, you stay. And close the doors."

"Yes, ma'am," replied Gardner, waving at the two enlisted troopers to get the hell out. They jogged out at once, knowing full well the Executive Officer didn't have much patience. Although that was simply a facade created by Kelly herself to better control them.

"Why not make it just the two of us?" Zaaed suggested, his tone dripping with sarcasm, "I'm sure we can find some way to entertain ourselves."

Kelly couldn't help but roll her eyes. Gardner spluttered a chuckle, shaking his head. "A real gentleman, this one," he said, "You sure you don't want him beaten?"

"I am a gentleman, and I wasn't implying anything bad by what I said," Zaeed insisted, "There's really no need to have me in restraints. You got me. As for beating me, if it makes you feel better..." The mercenary-come-terrorist shrugged, thinning his lips in apathy.

The man was attempting to provoke a negative response. Kelly reckoned it was to buy time, either for Shepard to escape or for the questioning to be interrupted by a third party. Cerberus, the mercs, it didn't really matter much.

"I'm in a rush, so here's what you need to know," Kelly said, "Gardner and I are from Langley, Virginia."

The mercenary's eyes lit up with amusement, and he broke into almost hysterical laughter.

"Civvies! God damn!" he cried, "I thought you guys had gone the way of the vinyl record; still around for style but useful to practically no one."

"The Terminus is a different story to Citadel space," Gardner growled, "We have a question we want answered."

"Yeah, you and every two-bit merc on the station," Zaeed replied, "You want Shepard. Let me save you the trouble: You can't have her. I have absolutely no idea where she is at the moment. Wouldn't tell you if I did. If you don't like it, I suggest you go out onto those streets and look for yourself. She'll find you eventually."

With a warm smile, Kelly noted his choice of words. She reached out touched his face.

"A gentleman doesn't lie to a lady, Zaeed," she said, looking up at him, "And an omission is too close to a lie for comfort. You don't know where Shepard is, right now, but you do know where she will be soon. The rendezvous point with Cerberus has to be somewhere on Omega."

The man tilted his head, conceding the point.

"A gentleman doesn't betray his employer either," Zaeed said in response, "No one would ever hire me again."

Kelly snorted slightly at his lie. Zaeed Massani had ceased to be a true freelancer a long time ago.

"We know you're a Cerberus operative now," she said, "So much for being a gentleman."

Mr. Massani clearly had a soft spot for the fairer sex, as he became distracted by something other than her words. Perhaps in an exaggerated way for a purpose. She slapped him gently and playfully on the face, hoping to exploit it a little. He smiled back at her, eyes moving where they shouldn't regardless.

"Should I feel bad for lying to someone who lies about who they are constantly?" Zaeed replied, "Miss C.I.A.?"

"You feeling bad about lying can be arranged," Gardner said flatly, "And I won't feel bad about it at all."

Zaeed laughed out loud, turning his milky artificial eye at the lieutenant. "I look forward to your enhanced interrogation," he said, "It's been so long since I've been … interviewed by a human. Might be fun to see how far you've come in Alliance space."

Garder took a step forward at the prisoner, while Zaeed turned to square up to him. Kelly clicked her fingers and pointed beside her, and the lieutenant immediately came to heel, knowing his place well.

"Good dog," Zaeed joked at him, "Can you roll over too?"

"Go fuck yourself," Gardner growled.

Kelly rolled her eyes. "Normally, I would let my friend here do what he was trained to do," she explained, "The dirty work of extracting every last piece of information we can from you. My colleague was right. This isn't Citadel space, and we aren't military. Unfortunately for us all, we don't have the time and we all know it. Unfortunate for us because you're unlikely to break before we're interrupted, and unfortunate for you because that makes you useless to us."

Zaeed stared at her, prepared for the inevitable in an admirable fashion. No fear, Kelly noted. Impressive.

"So what are you waiting for?" he asked, "I don't like getting shot, but it seems you've made up your mind. The waiting around is killing me."

"Interesting choice of words," Kelly said, "But there's something you either haven't considered, or don't want us to consider."

"That this would go a whole lot quicker if you started shedding bits of your clothing?" Zaeed suggested hopefully, "I don't think I could resist if that happened, darling. Black is your colour, by the way."

Gardner punched the man in the side of the head, and he went down to his knees, jaw clenched with the pain. This was followed up by a kick to the side, failing to send Zaeed sprawling on the ground but properly expressing the displeasure required.

Exasperated, Kelly shook her head. Massani had recognised that provoking Gardner was far more easy than provoking her.

"The possibility that you want to consider is what happens if or when Aria discovers we have you," she said, "That won't be good news for us, but it'll be even less good news for you."

For once, Massani kept silent, just staring up at her with his mismatched eyes and scars. Kelly stared back, resisting the urge to make some sort of triumphal gesture. She had him, but letting him know it might undo the effort made.

"If Aria comes here, you're in for a world of hurt," he said, putting menace in his tone, "I'll tell her all she needs to know about your little operation here. Best keep me out of her hands, eh? If you can."

Build the urgency, Kelly thought, get him believing that the aliens are coming right now to tear him apart. It might even be true.

"We can't," Kelly replied, "CAT6 is our front organisation here, but very few are … from Langley. If Aria's soldiers show up in force, they won't fight. Can't spend money if you're dead."

"A perspective I'm sure you appreciate," Gardner added.

"And I suppose you're doing this pro bono?" Zaeed said, looking from the ceiling to Gardner. He earned another cuff around the head for that one, well deserved in this case. The man was still dodging the question with remarkable stubbornness.

The omnitool on Kelly's wrist lit up, indicating a comms request from the soldiers outside. She nodded to Gardner, sending a link to the request on his own omni, before opening the channel.

"Executive, our pickets have spotted a convoy of shuttles and gunships coming this way," came the report, "Marked with the Omega icon."

A cold sweat began dripping down the back of Kelly's neck unbidden. It was too early. Way too early.

"Gavorn," Gardner said, "I hope."

"I think the time for hoping is over," Kelly said, before addressing her other subordinate over the comms, "Do not resist. Give the shuttles a landing pattern, and get the walker crews sitting on top of their vehicles, where the gunships can see them."

A relieved affirmative confirmed that the mercs outside were in no mood to fight off the foremost power on the station, even if they had had the numbers.

"It's Aria isn't it," Massani said gloomily, "Damn."

Kelly nodded as she shut off her omni again.

"You have a choice," she said, "Either you give us the information now and the Alliance gets to Shepard before your people, or you don't, and who knows who gets their first. Aria could get the intel out of you, or use everyone on the whole station to find Shepard first. Cerberus doesn't exactly have the resources to compete with that."

Massani hung his head, in annoyance more than anything else if Kelly was any judge. He hadn't foreseen this eventuality. He was trapped and he knew it. He just hadn't accepted it yet.

"It doesn't matter," he said, "If I tell you where Shepard is going now, you won't be able to get to her. Aria is coming, and where Shepard is going ... complicates matters where avoiding the Queen is concerned."

That was all the clue that Kelly needed. "Afterlife," she said, "Shepard is going to Afterlife."

The Cerberus agent raised his brow in surprise. Faux-surprise, perhaps.

"VIP Section," Massani nodded, "We're meant to meet with whoever gets sent to pick her up. Lawson and a team of deep cover spooks probably. No doubt their arrival is delayed because of the mess we made coming in. Assuming negotiations with the Alliance went well, they'd also be tagging along. Although whoever they sent will probably be bent in half by Lawson's biotics when she finds out you're trying to steal Shepard from us."

"She isn't yours to begin with," Gardner said.

Massani let out a laugh. "Isn't she?" he said, "Congratulations. You know where Shepard is going. Except you're stuck here in this bunker with no way to get to her before Aria or Cerberus does."

Gardner grumbled incoherently for a second. "He's right," the lieutenant said, "We take off in a shuttle, those gunships are chasing us the whole way, and Afterlife's GARDIAN batteries take us down before we can get close enough. To say nothing of the garrison."

Kelly spread her hands, working out the alternative in her head. "We don't have to go there ourselves," she thought aloud, "We just have to get her into friendly hands. And there's one person more friendly to Shepard than almost anyone else on this station."

Gardner glared at her, as expected. "We were told not to involve him," he said, "Too much personal baggage."

"No choice," Kelly replied, "It's either we break that part of our orders or Shepard could fall into Aria's hands."

She opened her omnitool again, and began typing a message to be encrypted into the background of a more innocuous transmission. Nothing too long, just the most important facts. That the person receiving this would likely be extremely surprised to hear that Shepard was alive couldn't be avoided. That he might even be angry at being left out of the loop, even for a few hours, couldn't be either.

"Who is this mysterious operative of yours?" Massani asked, "He better be good. If Aria gets Shepard, there's no way the Illusive Man is going to let that slide. I'm putting my trust in you here."

"Probably not a good idea," Gardner replied, "He isn't one of ours at all. It's Archangel."

Massani winced. "Archangel's a myth," he said, "Some name a bunch of vigilantes came up with to rally around. An 'I am Spartacus' sort of thing."

"He's very real," Kelly said, finishing the message, "It's Garrus Vakarian."

"The turian?" Massani said, eyes widening, "I've read the assessment report about him. Good choice."

"Actually, he's working for the Hierarchy out here," Kelly said, "So, depending on who is with him, the secret of Shepard's survival might be out by the end of the day. That won't be good."

"Better than Aria parading her around like a trophy," said Massani, "Or worse, selling her off to the highest bidder."

Kelly detected something entirely unexpected in the man's tone. Affection. How unusual.

"I think you're just underestimating Aria," Kelly replied, "But you may be right. We can't take the chance."

Massani closed his eyes. "Bloody wish I could," he muttered loudly, "Lawson is going to flay me for this."

"If she finds out," Gardner shrugged.

The high pitched whine of shuttle landing engines came through the door, followed by a silent alarm sending a red warning across Kelly's haptic interface. She swiped it away, trying to ignore the twist in her gut that it created, and sent the message to Archangel. The arrival confirmation came, but it seems that Vakarian hadn't opened it.

Too late to wait for a reply. Kelly ripped her omnitool off her wrist, ever conscious of the sounds of shouting outside. She took the powerpack of the thing out and threw it to Gardner, who had the good sense to pocket it. Next, the hard-drive. It was tiny, so she found a drain nearby and slipped it down the grate. Lastly, the omni itself, she tossed as far as she could into the far corner, where it would likely be mistaken for a discard.

Now only Archangel had the message.

Just in time too, as the doors to the warehouse began opening again, rolling and squeaking to the side. Kelly slipped on her armoured helmet and mask again, to at least maintain some idea that the interrogation that had just occurred was less personal than it had been. Gardner followed suit, for uniformity's sake if anything.

The exact person that everyone present had wanted to avoid like the plague stepped into the space. She did so alone, but the sight of turians, batarians, asari and krogan in heavily armed, large numbers hanging around outside meant she had absolutely nothing to fear.

Aria T'loak walked up to Kelly, Gardner and the still-kneeling Zaeed Massani with a serene, almost bored look. She was dressed in a sort of white gown cut to the waist, exposing much of her chest and back, with black combat fatigues and boots over her lower half. A devastating combination that contrasted strongly with her purple skin.

Kelly could appreciate it completely and promised to herself to do something similar, if she survived the events of the night. Another weapon for the arsenal of spy tricks.

Aria ignored Kelly and Gardner, and concentrated on the more famous person in the room.

"My my, Zaeed Massani," the Queen of Omega said, her voice echoing, "Getting yourselves into all sort of trouble."

"It's my job," Zaeed replied, "I guess you know by now that the Broker is after me."

"Tarak got caught by that incendiary grenade of yours," Aria replied, "He's suffering with some pretty bad burns at the moment, which meant all I had to do to get him to talk was slap him a little. Whatever did you do to piss off the Broker?"

Kelly held her breath. Massani's lie had to be perfect, or Aria would see right through it.

"Tried to assassinate him," Zaeed shrugged, "Put a nuke on his station. Rescued a Cerberus operative. Nothing personal, but you know the Broker. He's the vindictive sort."

Aria stared at him for a moment, scrutinising his face. Zaeed met the stare head on, betraying nothing. She betrayed nothing of her opinion on whether or not he was telling the truth, and instead turned to Kelly.

"You got the better of the Eclipse today," she said, "That doesn't happen often. They're furious."

Kelly cleared her throat, putting on the airs of a true mercenary leader as best she could.

"So what?" she said, "Were we supposed to leave a prize like this untouched because the Eclipse will be angry?"

The Queen's lip twitched upwards, approvingly, for a split second.

"You weren't sent the Broker's offer," Aria said calmly, "How did you find out about it?"

"Spies in the Blue Suns and Eclipse," Kelly replied, truthfully, "Neither pay their techies enough. Although I'm sure you know that."

Aria pursed her lips, before approaching Kelly. The Queen of Omega pulled off the face-mask and helmet on Kelly's head, and stroked her cheek with a half-gloved purple hand. Kelly could do nothing but stand stock still. Aria's biotic power was terrifying, and the subject of regular bulletins all over the station to keep everyone reminded of the fact. Resistance was death here.

"You are very self-confident," Aria said, "But then most of you humans are."

The first of the Queen's hands was joined by the other, as Aria caressed Kelly's pale white skin in a disturbing, possessive way. Kelly's mouth went dry, and she was sure that her suppression of her own fear had failed. Aria now knew something was wrong.

The purple hands curled around Kelly's throat, gently.

"I have lost much to human arrogance in the past few years," Aria continued, her tone becoming lower and threatening, "First, Cerberus seizes prime coreward real estate after your Alliance clears out the pirates there. The geth attack you, and you take the entire eastern Terminus with your new quarian friends. And as if that wasn't enough, you go and topple the Batarian Hegemony, cutting the demand for slaves by two thirds in a single month."

Aria's hands tightened around Kelly's throat, thumbs on her oesophagus. She could still breath, barely. She began to hear the sound of her own heart struggling to pump blood into her head, and feel the heat of her skin turning red. Gardner twitched his hand towards his weapon in her peripheral vision. Stupid. Kelly desperately used what little strength she had left in her right arm to wave him off.

The Queen of Omega leaned in, cheek-to-cheek. It was a strangely pleasant sensation, Kelly's mind thought, wandering as it was starved of the full oxygen it needed.

"Did you think I didn't know who you are?" Aria whispered in her ear, "Did you think I would let Alliance fronts run riot in my little kingdom? I might expect that from Eclipse or the other two big merc companies, but you are just too small to get away with it. Even if you weren't spies and saboteurs loyal to the people who have pissed all over me."

Aria squeezed hard. Kelly felt her consciousness fade away.

She began to have 'that' conversation with herself. This is it. This is how I die. Was it worth it? Was it worth dying for the cause? Was saving Shepard worth sacrificing herself? Her vision swam, the purple of Aria's face mashing into a kaleidoscope with the whites and reds of the background lighting for a moment. It began to get dark.

Suddenly, relief came. Kelly found herself on her side on the floor, life restored to her, sucking in the nasty air of Omega like it was pure mountain spring water after a death march through the desert. She rubbed her abused neck, and looked up at the Queen, completely amazed she was still alive.

There was a long pause, as Aria seemed to wait for Kelly to recover enough to be able to speak. She even allowed Gardner to kneel down and support Kelly, to hand off a flask of actual water which was downed greedily.

"Don't look too hopeful," Aria said, standing over her, "It isn't over yet." She looked to Massani.

"I'll give you both one chance," she continued, "The first person to tell me the locations of the other two souls the Broker wants to put in his personal hell gets to live."

The asari's eyes tracked back to Kelly. She stayed quiet. For one, she had no idea about any third person. For another, her mind still tired and reeling from the attack minutes earlier, she couldn't formulate a good enough lie to tell about Shepard. But the fact that Shepard's name hadn't yet come up in the conversation gave her a small sliver of possibility, and the only way to hold on to it was to keep her mouth shut.

She thanked her good sense for not having put Zaeed through anything he couldn't handle before Aria had showed up.

"Look, the Broker doesn't give a damn about Feron," Zaeed said loudly, "The frog was an errand boy, got me onto the Broker's base, nothing more. He got off Omega almost as soon as he arrived, he's long gone."

Aria grinned viciously, all canines. "A Cerberus operative pleading for the life of a drell," she said, "Things have changed."

Kelly realised that Massani really was the sentimental type deep down. First affection for Shepard, and now defending an alien despite his allegiance? She wondered how he would react to the death of either, her mind still unable to be kept from wandering in its fatigue. It was a strange thought to have, considering.

"You know god damned well why they have changed," Zaeed replied harshly, "Or didn't you notice the fucking squid-shaped dreadnought with a mind of its own flying around this part of space a couple of years back?"

"Yes yes, Reapers," said Aria with a dismissive flick of her hand, "You humans have a good expression for these problems; We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. If we ever do come to it at all. I am far from convinced."

Aria turned around and took a few steps back towards the doors. "The drell isn't on board," she said, turning around again with fresh evil in her eyes, "What about the other one? The human with the deadshot eye."

Kelly finally felt well enough to try and lie. "We don't know," she rasped, her hand rubbing the front of her throat, "This idiot sent her down a vent into the tunnels, she could be anywhere on the station or even off of it by now."

"Considering I set my defences to automatically fire on anything leaving the shuttle bays and docks, I doubt the woman has left," Aria said, moving closer again, "And no one is stupid enough to try and run the gauntlet. I've upgraded my defences to stop you humans from trying to topple me, like you did with the geth or batarians. Nothing gets off Omega while they're active, and everyone knows it."

"So she's somewhere on the station," Zaeed said, "How the fuck are either of us supposed to know where exactly?"

Aria strode over to the mercenary, grabbed him by the collar of his armour, and used her biotics to hoist him clear off the ground and into the air.

"Don't be stupid, Zaeed," Aria said, "You must have a place to meet her if you get separated."

"Yeah, I do," Zaeed grunted back, unperturbed by the display of power, "A place in Gozu that she won't go anywhere near now, because she knows that I'm either dead or captured. She'll likely just hide out until you are forced to lift the blockade of the docks, and she's very good at hiding."

Aria let out a groan of annoyance, and tossed the mercenary fifteen feet along the ground for his trouble, a flash of purple dark energy with it. Kelly grit her teeth at the sound of Massani thumping to the floor, knowing that must have hurt badly and feeling sympathetic pain on seeing it.

"It seems like neither of you have any answers for me," she said, "Or at least, won't tell me anything before the Broker decides to make his offer to others, complicating things."

Aria drew a pistol, that had been concealed at the small of her back until the flowing white fabric that covered it.

"Zaeed, you spoke up first with good information," she declared, "So you get to live today."

Zaeed glanced at Kelly, and back to the Queen. All he could do was give a small nod, and get to his feet, his hands being tied behind his back making that a difficult task.

Aria pointed the pistol at her. Kelly felt her body seize up. It was some monstrously modified Terminus model, with a blue icon indicating it was loaded up with disruptor capability. Her kinetic barriers would be useless at this range. She was going to die, and so soon after she thought she might live.

"Goodbye," Aria said.

But not to Kelly.

The Queen of Omega shifted her aim ever so slightly, and pulled the trigger. The mass accelerator pistol spat its microbullet past Kelly's head with a crack. Gardner fell forwards, the left lens of his armoured mask cracked and shattered, blood pouring out of the hole. His body twitched slightly, as the last remnants of life left it.

Kelly struggled to maintain control, unable to tear her eyes from her former colleague.

"He said nothing," Aria said, "Counting on you to deflect my questions. You succeeded. But there is a cost to defying me."

Her resolve finally breaking, Kelly stood up. "That man had been ordered to stay quiet!" she said, "If you know I'm an Alliance spy, then you know this won't be overlooked! Beat us, deport us, hell, even torture us, and you can escape unscathed. Killing us is something entirely different."

Aria laughed, heartily amused by the continued refusal to accept the reality of the situation. Even Kelly knew it was a pathetic retort. The Alliance certainly could have overthrown Aria, but the cost would not have been negligible.

"You humans really are hopeless," she said to Zaeed, "But that's why you're so entertaining. In small numbers."

The Queen crept up close to Kelly again, close enough to touch. "You have another virtue," she half-growled, "You females look just like asari. It's very erotic."

Aria grabbed Kelly by the jaw and belt, pressing herself against the spy.

Teeth into the side of her neck, hard enough to draw blood. Kelly gasped with the pain of the assault, not enjoying it in the slightest, struggling to push the asari off of her. That managed to stop the bite, but Aria did not move away.

"You lied to me," Aria hissed, "Or you didn't tell me the whole truth. That requires punishment. You are lucky I find you amusing. You are coming with me."

Kelly, despairing about what that might entail, felt the pressure and desperation rise in her head, like a kettle coming to a boil. She reached for her own pistol, holstered at the side of her thigh. The alternative was obvious; slavery was her future if she did not act now.

A hand reached out and grabbed her own, preventing her from moving her pistol more than an inch out of its holster.

Both Aria and Kelly looked to see that Zaeed had rapidly moved and stopped the action. He must have undone his restraints at some point, but only now thought it wise to shed them. Aria glanced downwards at his extended arm and hand, and saw the pistol. She plucked it away, throwing it over her shoulder with complete ease.

"You should do what she says," Zaeed advised the spy, "Better than dying, darling." His eyes were dead serious, sending fury to replace desperation in her mind.

"Is it?" Kelly growled, "Being this one's plaything? I am not a slave."

"No, you're a prisoner," Aria said, wrenching the human's head back by the hair, "Until I get the Broker's targets on this station or I know for sure they've escaped, I'm going to do whatever I like with you. You're going to comply... no, you're going to like it, because if you don't, the pirates and raiders attacking human colonies are going to receive my blessing. Good luck hunting them down without starting a war after that."

Kelly snarled insults at Aria, but the Queen ignored her.

"The Broker thinks he can do whatever he likes," Aria said, "Cerberus, the Alliance, the mercenary companies, everyone does. I can't help but think that everyone has lost their fucking minds. That everyone has forgotten who rules here."

Aria let go of Kelly, and smoothed down the front of her gown-top, before clenching a fist in front of herself, biotic energy streaming off of it in loose flares.

"There is only one law on Omega," she said, "Don't fuck with Aria."


AUTHOR'S NOTE: Apologies for the huge delay for this. Other things are getting in the way of my writing, hence why pretty much everything was on hiatus in March. Outlander's next chapter is almost done too, for those interested in that story of mine also. I also expect to FINALLY get started on the battle chapters of the First Contact War volume in my Wars of the Systems Alliance story, after almost a year of not updating it.

So, stay tuned for all of that.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Just a Crazy-Man: Thanks mate

KnightOfHolyLight: The canon doesn't exactly show C-Sec as a consistently competent organisation. In fact, it seems to be modelled on the corruption, incompetence and prejudice of the old NY and Chicago police departments. Although not quite on Baltimore-in-the-Wire's level.

Zaeed is one of my favourites, and he's under-appreciated. Probably because he's a relatively old dude. *shrugs*

Hannah will get her codex entry when her own perspective chapter comes along.

Apollonir: Well, a little comedy to break the HFY grimdarkishness is always good, I think.

All agreed on Zaeed.

CReaper210: Yeah, the quarians have the largest fleet in the galaxy. Since peacekeeping and border protection are parts of the role of the Citadel Council, they're more or less the only species except humanity that could join the Council in my opinion. Well, apart from the pre-curbstomped Hegemony, that is.

aDarkOne: This is a Humanity Fuck Yeah fic, for one thing. Humanity being awesome on some level is sorta a requirement of the genre. For another, I don't see how chapter three would provoke your response. Of course human intelligence agencies are well equipped to handle counterintelligence. The aliens made first contact violently, humanity got plenty of warning to keep their wits about them, and they discovered the mass effect in the midst of a world war in this canon, and so still have something of that mindset.

Ajp25: There's something of a game-story separation to be made here on both your Shepard points, I think. The games couldn't possibly portray the reality of the resources the Alliance could bring to bear, even in the central canon. Nor could they show the full backstory of Hannah Shepard or any number of other characters. That's the reason Bioware also releases novels, to flesh these things out in both Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

The arbitrary squad limit has always bothered me, to be honest. Having everyone along for the ride always struck me as being more realistic, so I didn't ape the game limitations in my writing.

As for the Reapers being scared, I think they'd press on regardless. They've had what, a million years to build up their numbers? They didn't hesitate against the galaxy-spanning Prothean Empire, they wouldn't against the current opposition either.

Thanks for reading this on top of my Outlander DA fics, always love it when readers grab both.

Kinnix Wolf: I love that you love it, haha!

It wouldn't be Omega in 2185 without Archangel. Although what Archangel is won't be the same, even if who he is remains so.