Garrus Vakarian, Lower Wards, Citadel
Warzone. That was pretty much the only way Garrus could describe it. Afterall, he had seen a lot of them in his time with Shepard, afterall. And this. This was definitely a warzone.
"Boss...I'm seeing...one...two...looks like five different gangs here," The surprise in Garrus's voice was nearly overshadowed by the awe he felt. "When you Shepards go in, you go big."
Next to Garrus, Shepard stood, a deep frown on his face as he surveyed the field of battle. Or, as the residents would call it, 12th Street and Madison.
Human naming conventions are weird, Garrus though cheerfully, attempting to take his mind off the fact that they were certainly going into the mess. Can't just go with the standard grid. One twenty, by seventy eight point four.
"To hazard a guess…." Mordin slowly blinked his large eyes as he too looked around. "I would say that multiple gangs, separately, moved to intercept the original gang that broke the treaty. This in turn would have alarmed yet other gangs. Then things escalated when they came in contact."
"Yeah…" Shepard shook his head slowly. "Looks like they piled up farther and farther out. The bar itself should be five blocks to the east."
"Oh look," Garrus said, keeping his voice neutral. "It looks like Eclipse and Blue Sons have gotten involved."
As Garrus spoke, above the group a pair of Mantis Gunships screamed overhead. The one marked as Blue Suns desperately attempting to shake the Eclipse one.
Yet, despite the Sun's wild weavings, he quickly fell prey to the more disciplined Eclipse, who then banked off around a building.
"Well….That's joyful…" Shepard sighed as he turned away from the burning gunship. "Edi…."
"Yes, Commander?" the helpful AI answered.
"What's the team's ETA?"
"Tactical Officer Gerald has stated that he is busy, and cannot get there in time to be useful. Zaeed Massani, also is currently at the other end of the station, and will be doing his best to get there, though he doubts it will be in time to help.
Ms Lawson and Mr Taylor are together and should be arriving within five minutes.
I am currently unaware of the location of Kasumi Goto."
"I'm here," a lightly accented voice called from above, as a blurred human form decloaked as it landed a short distance from Garrus's group. "I was taking a look around, trying to get an idea of what we are messing with."
"And?" Shepard asked, with a deep sigh. "How bad?"
"Well…."
Hannah Shepard, The Seedy Tavern, Lower Wards, Citadel
"Bah…" the scarred Salarian grumbled as he tossed down his cards. "I got nothing."
Next to him, Kallesta huffed a breath through her nose as she scowled at her cards. Then after another moment, she dropped two on the table and held up two fingers to the dealer.
"Sure thing," Vetra nodded, her mandibles opened wide in a turian grin, as she pulled two cards off the top of the deck and passed them over.
Kallesta's frown deepened some.
"I…." the young human narrowed his eyes suspiciously as he glanced around at the other players. "Raise fifty credits!" With an overly smug look, the kid dropped the credit chits onto the table.
With an angry gurgle, Kallesta threw her cards down hard enough to knock over the small stack of credits that she still had in front of her. Then, uncaring, she drooped down in her chair, tightly crossing her arms across her chest and muttering. Her expression was what one might refer to as a 'thunder cloud'.
And she was probably pissed. Or so Hannah guessed. The girl had her throat slit, and her vocal cords severed bad enough that they were not able to be repaired, even with modern medical technology. Yet she still attempted to curse. In fact...that was probably the first sound that the girl had made in Hannah's presence.
As she was thinking, all eyes turned to her, staring. Waiting.
"Uh…" Vetra started, her eyes darting to the other players. "Hannah? It's on you."
"What? Oh!" Hannah nodded as she sat up. "What happened? Actually, I don't care. All in."
A chorus of groans rolled around the table as the group's attention turned to the kid. The only player still in the pot.
The kid, for his part, managed to keep a straight face, even a cold sweat erupted from his forehead. "I...I'm in!" he vocally exploded as his shaking hand shoved the last of his credits forward. "I got two eights and three fives!"
"Straight flush," Hannah smirked as she casually dropped her cards on to the credit pile. The kid's face slowly disintegrated, from a nervous, yet confident smile, to what looked like somebody had kicked his puppy. Does the fact that it makes me happy, a bad thing? Probably.
"Do we want to keep playing?" Vetra asked as she looked around the room, and the piles of bodies in the doorway and shattered front windows. "There might be some credits left on one of these guys."
"Nah," the Salarian grumbled, as he stood and stretched. "I'm going to get a drink and maybe a nap."
It wasn't the worst idea Hannah had heard. After all, it had been over two hours since the last group of morons charged the bar. They hadn't even made it across the sidewalk.
In fact, if it wasn't for the echoing reports of gunfire and the occasional explosion in the distance, the group might have assumed the gangs had killed each other.
"Yeah…"Hannah nodded. "A drink sounds pretty good."
Hestalia Shepard, Lower Wards, Citadel
"I don't care!" Hestalia snarled as she brought her face inches from the human C-Sec officer's face. "My WIFE is in there! I AM going to get her!"
To the man's credit, he managed to not step back, even as he wavered on his feet. "Ma'am, I can't let a group of mercenaries just walk into a police Conflict Zone! Please, step back and let us do our job!"
"Your job?!" Hestalia spat. "I don't give a damn about your JOB, ano comedanti! I don't see you moving a goddess damned inch!"
"Ma'am…" this time the man did step back. In fact, he stepped back twice. "The issue has escalated to an unreasonable level. Several dozen officers have been injured, and several dead. We are currently awaiting the C-Sec heavy crime unit. A Council Spectre has also been contacted and is on the way."
"Your Spectre can shove the whole station up their ano, for all I care!" Hestalia shoved the officer back as she turned toward the group of armed and armored asari that had been standing behind her, looking mean. Which was easy, they were Eclipse. They were mean.
"Solla, get the others. We are going in, in five." Hestalia pulled her armored gauntlets on as she began giving orders to her team. Something she never expected to have to do again, two years ago. "Brieam, make sure Kammalan doesn't get twitchy with the damned explosives. And Rachel! I saw that! You are not using incendiary rounds in an urban setting!"
Solla Doman
"Goddess!" Solla turned to give the hulking human woman a startled look.
Rachel was not your normal Eclipse merc. Even for an Eclipse merc. The human woman was huge, well over six feet tall. Rumor was she weighed in at close to three hundred pounds of solid muscle, and hate. Her hair was a raven black but cut in that weird short style that human combat troops seemed to have. Her face though...her face was beautiful. Smooth angles, perfectly symmetrical. Her eyes sparkled a green, and gold that would move a poet. If they didn't hold a lifeless lust for blood.
Most of the other Eclipse gave her a wide berth. At first, when she first signed on, the crew rode her hard, attempting to bully the human out. Until the human snapped. Solla, herself, was the poor soul that pushed it too far.
After popping the lock on the human's trunk and rifling through her things, Solla came across a small stuffed bear. Stabbing the bear and pinning it to Rachel's bed, at the time, seemed like a thing to do. Until the woman, literally, kicked down a steel door, rushed into the cafeteria and began beating the life out of Solla.
Solla's biotic shield, while not as strong as some, but she was still asari, held off the initial barrage, but Rachel had just continued to swing. She pounded on the shield, over and over, her fists were a blur. Her knuckles quickly split, but she didn't stop. Solla was so terrified that her concentration wavered just enough for the human to shatter her shield. After that….Well, nobody bothered Rachel any more.
"Rachel, honey," Solla slowly took the incendiary clip from the downcast human. "Let me put these away for you. We can go burn some Blood Pack in the lower docks later, okay?"
"Okay," Rachel huffed. Her voice was smooth and breathy. Solla was the only one who knew how beautiful it was when the woman sang. "Hey...Captain is punching some human in messed up armor."
"What?" Solla turned in time to see the blue flash of biotics, as a human man in damaged N7 armor get thrown back, and crashing heavily to the ground. "Eh, probably deserved it….."
John Shepard
It had been a rather smooth run, all things considered. The few people they encountered seemed to by low end gang members. John was rather glad for the small gift, it made getting where he wanted to go, that much faster.
"Garrus," John grunted. "Look, there is another truck. Looks like it can still move. Why can't we take that? It would be faster!"
"Because, it's damaged, and not ours. It would probably blow up and make the owner very sad," Garrus shot back, scowling darkly. "Besides, our little team has gotten a bit big."
Exhaling sharply, John turned back and surveyed the area. The deeper in they went, the more damage and destruction they came across. Now, seeing as how Miranda and Jacob had caught up, they were probably were too many to fit in most of the vehicles here. And if the damage and the sounds of battle that they were headed for, was any indication, they were going to need all hands on this one.
"I know," John sighed. "We just need to...oh, hey! Look!"
With a gesture, John pointed out the C-Sec line. Several police cars were lined up with a few civilian vehicles to for a simple barricade. They had even set up holo-tape to corden off the area. Not there was anybody stupid enough to come here to have a random look around.
A small group of nervous looking officers stood next to one of the gaps near the barricade. Around them, stood a fair sized squad of Eclipse mercenaries. Angry looking, Eclipse mercenaries.
In fact, it looked like the leader was furious about something. She stepped forward into an officers face and was yelling, as she gesticulated wildly. Even from this distance, it was clear that she wanted to pass the barricade. What struck John as odd though, was why they seemed to care what C-Sec wanted. From what he had seen of them, they were not exactly on the side of law and righteousness.
Then, the leader turned to her group and began issuing orders. It looked like the patience they had had snapped, and they would be going in, C-Sec or not.
"Dammit…." John groaned under his breath, before glancing at his team. "Okay, people, let's pick it up a bit. I'd rather not have those mercs shoot up the nice C-Sec officers."
A couple moments, and a short jog, later, John and company closed the distance as the Eclipse leader turned back to the officer she had been arguing with earlier.
"Are you going to try to stop us?" a very familiar voice snarled. "I would rather not waste the bullets, or more importantly, time, that it would take to kill you."
The man took a step back as he paled. "Ma'am...I'd...Oh thank Jesus!" the man yelled as he saw John coming up. "The Spectre is here. Deal with him!"
"I've killed Spectre's before so I don't give-" The Eclipse leader spun around, her face was a mask of fury. Her hand was glowing with the blue of her biotics as she readied to lay out the hapless idiot that may try to stop her. Until they saw each other.
"Hey...there….Dad…" John said awkwardly. His hand rubbed at the back of his neck, as he winced. "Fancy seeing you…."
That was when the charged fist of one of the more powerful asari commandos impacted squarely on the right side of John's face.
He remembered the flash of blue. There was some kind of pitiful popping sound as his biotic shield broke like a soap bubble. He caught a whiff of ozone that came with his armor's shields breaking. Then...he was about ten feet away.
Shaking his head, John tried to make the world into less than three distinct images. It was down to about two when a figure in yellow armor stomped up to him, gripped him by the collar of his armor and hauled him to his feet.
His vision was back to a single image as the armored figure of his father crashed into him. A hand wrapped around his head, dragging it down as she pressed her face onto his shoulder and sobbed. "My...baby...my baby….
Miranda Lawson
Turning away, Miranda quickly wiped away the tear that had managed to slip out. Then she coughed roughly and glanced up to see the hardened mercenaries, almost to a man, openly wept tears as they smiled at each other.
Looking over at her own team, she saw the gleam in Jacob's eyes as he watched, a stupid grin on his face. Garrus's mandibles had pulled tightly against his face as a soft, almost inaudible keening note came from his throat. It was a sound that stabbed at her heart, almost pulling more tears from her, made worse by the fact that she was probably the only person there that had the enhanced ability to even hear it.
Mordin nodded with what looked like a wide, for a slarian, smile. "Yes. Good to see mammalian bonds. Caring in cross species. Proof that we aren't here for nothing. Glad I came on trip. Feeling motivated." Then, turning to Miranda, he nodded slightly. "Give them a moment. We should speak with Eclipse. Probably should speak with C-Sec as well. They may have information that would be useful. Though, personally, doubt it."
"Yeah, *snf*," a choked woman's voice came out a small blur, as Kasumi decloaked, sitting on the floor. Her head was bowed so that her hood hid her face. "I, uh, *snf*. I lifted the data from one of the cops. They don't really know what is going on past this area. A Blue Suns group, maybe twenty men, went in about an hour ago. That's when things started blowing up. There is a Blood Pack recruiting station someplace in the cordoned off area, so that isn't going to help much."
"Alright," Miranda nodded before approaching the Eclipse. "So...who is in charge?"
"Ah," one of the mercs let go of the arm of a mountain of a human woman and turned to face Miranda, one hand wiping away the tears. She was probably pretty, for an asari, once. Now she had deep scarring over her right eye and around the socket. The eye itself looked like it was cybernetic in nature. Her nose had not merely been broken, but crushed flat. Now it looked like a nose made by a five year old with blue clay. She even had a cauliflower ear. "Well, Hestalia, but she is a bit...busy, so I'm the second. Name is Solla."
"Charmed," Miranda nodded, distinctly keeping Shepard and his...father...at her back. "I'm Miranda. We are working with Spectre Shepard. I assume we are here for the same reason."
"Heh, yeah," Solla chuckled. "Your boss's mom, our boss's wife. Was a little concerned when we heard about the Blue Suns and Blood Pack numbers. Not so much now, if your Shepard is any place close to ours."
"Yeah…" Garrus shook himself lightly as he joined the conversation. "Personally, I almost feel bad for the loden ach. But not really."
John, A Short Time Later
"Alight," John cleared his throat as he leaned against one of the C-Sec vehicles. "We have a rough idea at to the numbers of professionals in the zone. And coming in, I saw an Eclipse gunship take out a Blue Suns one."
"Correct," Hestalia nodded as she brought up the hologram of the area with her omni tool. "When we got here the Suns had just gone in and their air cover was just arriving. The gunship took out our transport before our air cover arrived, seeing as how we didn't expect that kind of firepower. C-Sec, graciously," Hestalia glowered at the officer that had joined the planning team. "They allowed us to bring in our gunship long enough to eliminate the Blue Sun ship. Then we had had to send it out before they were 'forced' to ground it."
"Hey," the officer, Jones, said, holding his hands up defensively. "There are certain lines, ma'am. Technically, I wasn't supposed to let even that through."
"Hn," Hestalia snorted as she turned back to her holo. "That delayed us, as you would expect. We know, at the moment, that the fighting by the Tavern, itself, had died down a while ago. The Suns and Blood Pack are probably dealing with each other, and the gangs have, most likely, killed each other off, got caught between the other mercs, or are hiding their asses."
"Yeah...That would be my plan too," Garrus chuckled. "If you look down this street here, the Tavern is at the end, directly inline with the road. It becomes a 'T' junction there. It gives the Tavern a pretty decent killing field."
Nodding Hestalia grimaced. "If only we had a quick strike vehicle, we could get in, grab Hannah, and pop back out."
"Yeah," John agreed, rubbing the injured side of his face lightly. "Terrain would be an issue for most vehicles though. From what I can tell, there are several points along the route that are blocked by wrecked cars or other odd barricades."
"Commander," Edi's voice came through. "Gerald is signaling. He seems to have an idea for you."
Raising an eyebrow, John glanced at Hestalia, then Garrus before shrugging. "Hook him in, I guess."
"Hey! Commander!" Gerald said, cheerfully. "Sorry I couldn't make it, But I got you some stuff to make up for it!"
"Uh,okay…" John scowled.
"Well, I was doing a game tournament on the Silver Strip when you called. But, you know, I am not good for that kind of thing," Gerald prattled. "But then I felt bad, so I made a couple calls, called in a couple favors. Oddly, not as many as you would expect, I mean-"
"Gerald," John growled. "You have thirty seconds before I have you spaced."
"Okay, okay, sheesh," Gerald pouted. "I got in contact with the Marine detail on the Orizaba. They are under lockdown, so that they don't draw attention to the situation. But they sent out a vehicle 'for servicing'. Should be there about….now."
Almost as if it was on cue, an alliance shuttle roared overhead. From the underside of the shuttle, a vehicle was dropped, as the shuttled banked hard and away.
The dropping vehicle fired retro rockets to slow it's decent, but still landed hard on it's wheels. All six wheels.
"Awwww…..NO!" Garrus cried as he threw his arms in the air. "WHAT THE HELL?!"
John grinned as the Mako bounced lightly and the door opened. "Gerald, you are so getting a raise."
"Hey, Vakarian," Gerald called gleefully. "Fuck you. That's for wiping my memory card!"
Jansen Michels, Blue Suns Commander, Lower Wards, Citadel
"Allright, Bron," Jansen sneered. "We can call a ceasefire."
Bron, the Blood Pack leader, frowned. Which always looked intimidating coming from a Krogan. "Fine," he said, shortly. "We take care of these idiots in the Tavern. Then we go back to killing you."
"Hah," Jansen spat. "All you will be doing is crying as we destroy you. But first let's eliminate these insignificant- wait…."
There was a roar of an engine. And it was getting louder. Was some idiot coming in with a vehicle? Didn't they kill all the stupid gangers already?
Then there was crashing, an explosion. The roar grew. More crashing. The roar became deafening.
"Wait…" Jansen yelled, waving frantically. "I KNOW THAT SOUND! IT'S AN ALLIANCE MA-"
Then, before Jansen could finish, the armored form of an Alliance Mako burst up over the small collection of cars and vehicles that the two groups had been using as a meeting spot.
The Mako's jets fired once, keeping the thing straight as it crashed down, crushing a group of Blue Sons and Blood Pack alike. It's wheels locked as it spun, kicking up the gore and ichor, spraying it over Jansen and Bron.
"Blood Pack!" Bron bellowed as he hefted his heavy auto cannon. "Destroy those fools!"
"No!" Jansen cried, but knowing it was too late. The Blood Pack leader had given into his frenzy. All the krogan could do now was try to kill the enemy. Jansen, however, was free to dive under a car.
As Bron and his remaining men opened fire, the Mako's turret swung around. Then, it fired a single explosive anti personnel round.
But one was all it needed. The Krogan and his men were shattered by the explosive, the bodies that hadn't been turned to a fine mist, spattered around the area, in meaty chunks.
"Dear God, in Heaven, Thank you for allowing me to live," Jansen began praying. After that, he knew he was the only survivor. Safe beneath the car. "I swear I will turn over a new leaf. I will give to the poor. I will help the sick. I will-"
Whatever else he was going to say was lost, as the Mako's tires spun, throwing up smoke as the tank shot forward. As it hit the car in front of it, the slanted nose crushed down the car down, smashing it into the ground. Then the wheels crashed down as well, ripping the car apart and scraping the underside along the ground before launching itself over the barricade and roaring off into the distance.
Hannah
"How is he?" Vetra sighed as she crouched down next to Hannah, as she bandaged the human boy's leg.
"Kid's lost a lot of blood," Hannah sighed as she wiped her sweat soaked hair off her forehead, but leaving a streak of blood behind. "Leg is gone from the knee, but I sealed it up with medi-gel."
"'M not a kid," the kid grumbled. "Name is Mouse."
"Really?" Hannah blinked at Mouse. "That's your name?"
"Was a duct rat as a kid," he grumbled. "Ya know… Mouse."
"Kids live in the walls of the station," Vetra nodded. "No family. Generally thieves, that kind of thing. I was one briefly, when I got stuck on the station. I was able to stow away on a freighter with my sister. They rarely get to be old enough to not be able to fit anymore."
"Yeah, well, I was good at it," Mouse winced as he shifted. "Hey...the Tole make it?"
Glancing over her shoulder, Kalletsa looked up from the salarian's body and shook her head grimly.
"Afraid not," Hannah sighed as she pat Mouse on the shoulder.
"Think they will try to rush again?" Mouse sniffled. The kid had been close to the Tole.
"Eventually," the Tavern's owner grunted as he passed the boy a shot of something dark that made him cough, but also took away some of the pain. The man was of few words. He never said two words if one would do. Or one when he didn't.
Hannah nodded as she accepted a shot herself. "Yeah, they will regear. We bloodied their nose too much for them to leave us alive now." Then tossing back the drink, Hannah's eyes shot open as she coughed violently. "What….the...hell….is...that…" she asked under heaving breaths.
"Whiskey."
"Hey…" Vetra cut in before Hannah could yell again. "I hear an engine….Loud. Like a truck."
"A truck?" Mouse scowled. "There is no way a truck could get through that mess!" He gestured out the window, indicating the smashed vehicles and bodies.
"Holy Shit!" Vetra stood as the roar became deafening.
Bursting over the top of the vehicles, an armored tank flared it's jets once before slamming down in front of the Tavern. It's wheels locked as it slid to a stop maybe thirty feet from the Tavern wall itself.
"They brought a tank?!" Mouse cried, throwing down his gun. "Screw it. I quit. They can kill me."
"No!" Hannah laughed as she stood up and moved to the window. "That's an Alliance Mako. Marines. I…"
As she spoke the side door dropped open, spilling out a beautiful human woman in some sort of catsuit.
"No!" the woman yelled, a thick accent from Earth. "No more!" The woman stumbled a bit as she then fell to her knees and threw up.
"Goddess, bless this one with your love, let this one see the Halls Of Saldaria, let this one…." behind the human, stumbled an asari, clad in the well used armor of an experienced Eclipse mercenary. Her, Eclipse mercenary!
"Hesti!" Hannah called, waving a hand as she scrambled to get out the shattered, body covered window.
After Hestalia, staggered, stumbled or crawled out a small menagerie of people. An injured turrian, a salarian in white armor and...a lab coat? Some more Eclipse. Then, at the end...Him.
"Oh come on, you babies," her John laughed, shaking his head. "You don't have to play it up so much. I know it was a little rough. I mean...MOM!" Glancing up, he saw Hannah, a wide happy smile split his face. He looked just as he did when left, saying he had a mission with Anderson. Right before everything happened and he was taken away. A bruise on the right side of his face gave proof. Hestalia had hit him. That means….
"Mama!" as Hannah slowly walked to him, John opened his arms and stepped forward, to hug his lost mother.
So she hit the left side of his face. As hard as she could.
Stumbling back, John slammed into the side of the Mako, The back of his head cracking against the armor.
As his hands grasped the back of his head, a hiss escaped him. The Hannah pulled her boy to her and smiled. "Welcome home. Asshole."
Looking up, John smiled that sheepish, lopsided grin. "Sorry I took so long, mama. I-" Before he could finish speaking, there was a loud *crack* of tied metal as the left from wheel of the Mako crumpled inward, dropping the nose of the tank to the ground.
"Boy…" Hannah sighed as she tightened her grip on her son's head until he began to slap at her arms. "You owe me a new tank…."
Asari Lexicon:
Ano Comedanti: Anus Licker. Derogatory, clearly.
Ano: Anus.
Turian Lexicon
Loden Ach- Doesn't translate well to most non avian species. Involves having something sticky and cold lodged within one's gizzard and interfering with digestion and causing a build up of gas. But with more of a disdainful contenation.
AN: I caught up to the stuff I had written ahead, so this one didn't have as much review. I will try to get ahead again, but I vow to not fall behind, now that I have my computer going again!
And I can get my ass out of Dragon Age...