"Going out to a club wearing the stupid, brand-new, fantastic armour that makes me look like an ugly boy," Shepard muttered as she walked to the airlock, settling her chest guard so it sat a little more comfortably. The new armour smell remained, but it rubbed in places her Mantis hadn't, and all those places were lodging complaints in triplicate. Her little toes in particular felt as though they were preparing litigation.
"Damn armour." She let out a sigh and flopped onto the seat at the weapons console to wait for the rest of the team to arrive. "I love you, but I hate you."
"Problem, Captain?" Joker asked, turning to look over his shoulder.
"Meh, probably just a case of all work no play, Brother Joker. No big deal. I'll find my way back to the Enkindler's light." She tugged at the chest guard again. As much as she hated the super-molded ones, sometimes looking like a tomboy wrapped in layers of camo ceramic, metal and polymer got old. Sometimes it didn't hurt a girl's ego to feel pretty . . . or, failing that, female.
"Okay," Joker said, holding up his hands. "I won't pretend to understand. I'll just nod and back away slowly."
"The Enkindlers blessed you with wisdom, Brother Joker. Hallelujah," she said, a smile cracking through her grumpy facade.
Ash arrived, looking absolutely stunning in a simple but elegant black dress with sheer, draping sleeves, and a knee length skirt. Her makeup was flawless, and her raven hair flowed in glossy waves to her shoulders. Raking frustrated fingers through her tangled curls, Shepard resisted the urge to punch the gunnery chief. It wasn't Ash's fault Shepard hadn't bothered to put on a little lipstick.
Shepard nodded to Nihlus and Garrus as they strode up discussing turian fleet strength and their chances against the Reapers. She pushed herself out of the seat to join them at the airlock. Pausing just behind the pilot's seat, she let out a sigh and leaned down over Joker's shoulder. "It's just . . . sometimes it would be nice to go to a club looking like a woman rather than a teenage boy. I'm sure you can't relate." She smiled at Tali as she, Wrex, Kaidan and Jenkins wandered up the CIC.
"Hey, I'm all about the pretty, Shepard." He lifted his chin and stroked his beard. "Come on, tell me this isn't a thing of beauty."
Letting out a huff of air, she chuckled. "Stunning in a way I can't even articulate, Brother Joker." She patted his shoulder. "See you later."
She stood in the doorway. "Well, it looks like the gang's all here. Okay, Wrex and I'll go in first, plant ourselves at the bar. Sparky and Jenkins, see if you can find a way to lurk out front without looking like you're lurking. Ashley and Tali should have no problem whatsoever getting in. Nihlus and C-Sec, you bring up drag, keep an eye on the back exits." She looked from one to the other, seeing resolve and an eagerness to get their mission moving forward. That she completely understood.
"Okay, the panic word again is Bal'Nara." She looked to Tali. "You still have your tracker and bug from earlier?" When the quarian nodded, Shepard let out a decisive huff of breath. "Well then, let's get moving. Wrex and I will head in first. Give us twenty to get in the door." She stepped up to the door into decon. "Good luck tonight, folks."
She spun a little as she felt someone step up behind her and nearly smacked her nose right into Nihlus's mandible.
"Anyone who looks at you and thinks teenage boy," he whispered low enough for only her to hear, "needs corrective ocular implants." His breath ruffled the fine hairs around her ear and the nape of her neck, sending shivers of gooseflesh down her arms. She ducked her head to rub her ear on her shoulder and stepped away.
"Nihlus, we talked about this." Tossing a frown over her shoulder at him, she shook her head. "Although I appreciate you trying to make me feel better, this is neither the time nor the place." She met his eyes for a second, then ducked through the door.
Once through decon, she and Wrex made quick time down the length of the docks and into Omega. The sound of the terrible club music started as soon as they stepped through the doors at the base of the stairs leading from the lower market area up to the club. Shepard winced. "Sweet baby Jesus, what was I thinking? How do they even know if the song changes? It all sounds exactly the same."
Wrex shrugged. "I just drink until the music sounds better."
Shepard chuckled. "Luckily I can turn down the ambient on my aural implants, so drinking myself into a stupor won't be necessary."
Shepard looked up at the giant neon sign: Afterlife, palace and court of Aria T'Loak, the pirate queen of Omega. Shepard felt a little dubious about running an op in the territory of such an unknown quantity, but the place and crowds were big enough to get lost in.
She stepped up to the back of the line outside the door. "Crap, this is going to take longer than twenty minutes," she grumbled to Wrex. Cocking a hip, she crossed her arms. "If it takes longer than ten, I'll call off the next team until we get past the door goons."
They'd been waiting in line for less than five minutes, when a batarian walked up to them. "Captain Shepard?"
She nodded, but held herself wary. "What can I do for you?" Beside her, she felt Wrex bristle, turning into a four hundred kilo living, breathing thunderstorm at her elbow. She laid a hand on his upper arm and gave him a tiny shake of her head.
"You don't need to wait in line. Go ahead in. The door guards know to let you through." A toothy smile accompanied his wave, indicating they should move on through to the front.
Shepard stared at him for a moment, wondering if that much good fortune constituted a gift horse that she should be sending to a dentist for a full work up. "Thanks," she replied at last, nudging Wrex out of line. As much as she hated being pulled out, questioning it too much would only draw more attention to them.
Another batarian nodded them through the doors and into a corridor lined with seats and flame holos along the walls. "Guess the only afterlife on Omega is hell," she muttered.
"Sounds about right," Wrex grumbled. "I've been a merc a long time, but no matter how bad things got, I always avoided this hole like the plague."
"Hopefully we're out of here in a couple of hours. Meanwhile, let's get something to drink and see if you've got the moves, old man."
He coughed out a harsh laugh. "You haven't got what it takes to make me dance, Shepard."
She arched a brow at him as the inside doors opened and the music slammed into her brain. "And what's that, Wrex? Creds to stuff in your armour? A sexy enough belly dancing outfit for you to wear?" She leaned back and looked him up and down, a lascivious grin curving her lips. "Damn, I bet you fill out one of those like nobody's business."
The krogan just harrumphed at her and started pushing through the throng to the bar. "I'm going to need a few drinks to survive your sense of humour, Shepard."
She laughed bright and full, the gloomy mood from earlier lifting. "You wouldn't believe how often I hear that."
"Yes, I would." He lifted a hand. "Ryncol. Make it a triple."
Shepard started to rebuke him, but someone grabbed her shoulder, turning her. "Human, Aria wants to speak to you," a voice like tank tracks running over gravel called, close enough to her ear for his wretched breath to make her gag.
"No, I'm pretty sure she doesn't," she replied, lacing her words with enough spit to back him up. "Tell her thanks, but no thanks. I'm just here to drink."
The batarian bumped Shepard in the ribs with the muzzle of his assault rifle. "You don't refuse an invitation to talk with Aria."
Shepard rolled her eyes and folded her arms, leaning back on a cocked hip. "Or what? She and I do a quick draw in the middle of main street at high noon?"
The batarian just sneered, an ugly curl of his lip that showed a plethora of pointed teeth. "More like I put a bullet through the middle of your forehead and toss it in an alley for the varren."
"What? My forehead? Why would the varren want my forehead? There's no meat on a forehead." She frowned and turned to Wrex, who made a perfect study of 'Who me? I've never seen this crazy woman before.'
"Your body." He jabbed her ribs hard with the assault rifle. "Move it, comedian. Aria's waiting."
"Someone thinks mighty highly of herself, doesn't she?" She looked over her shoulder at Wrex. "Keep your eyes peeled." He gave her a vague nod as if indulging the crazy woman, and she turned back to the batarian. "Lead away."
The crowd parted for her escort, so the jostling as they made their way across the club and past the bar was minimal. Shepard had heard of Aria T'Loak, of course. Urban legends of her ruthlessness, how she kept order on Omega through threat of sheer brute force, abounded. Shepard had never put much stock in rumours because of all the crazy ones circulating about her. Still, she felt how the entirety of Afterlife kept one weather eye on the booth hanging over the back of the club.
"So, you're what all the fuss is about?" a voice as smooth and sleek as a panther asked when Shepard reached the top of a second flight of stairs. An asari with an Omega worked into the back of her jacket stood looking out over the crowd, the queen watching the jesters frolic
"Fuss?" Shepard shook her head. "I can't see why anyone would raise a fuss over me. I'm just a medium-ranked, hothead Alliance grunt."
The asari turned, a sweeping motion meant to impress with both her power and grace. Shepard just let out a little sigh, but stayed frosty, feeling the thick vein of ruthlessness hiding under Aria's calculated serenity.
"Are you, now? That's interesting, considering that you've become the number one topic of the council's behind-closed-doors meetings." She stepped forward and looked down on Shepard. "And here you are, on my station, conducting operations to flush out Blood Pack kidnappers."
Shepard chuckled. "Well, if we've been that subtle, I guess I know why we haven't met with success." She crossed her arms and cocked a hip, the natural stance helping calm the flutter in her gut. "We'll have to work on that."
Aria smiled, a pretty, if smug, expression on her elegantly chiseled face. "Oh, you've been subtle, I just make it my business to know why everyone is on my station. The Blood Pack is clueless, just . . ." She pressed her lips together and cocked her head a little. ". . . cautious. Saren makes very . . .." Sitting, she crossed her legs, settling on her couch. ". . . graphic examples of those who fail him."
The corner of Shepard's mouth lifted, almost as if of its own accord as the asari pinned her with a frank stare. Blinking with measured cadence, she waited for Aria to make the next move, to reveal her intentions.
"You're not going to ask for anything?" Aria asked, trying to become transparent behind a mocking smile. "No boon to ask of the queen?"
Shepard pressed her lips together, affecting the same thoughtful, searching expression the asari had worn a moment before, then shook her head. "No. Can't think of anything." The tip of her tongue snuck out to wet her lips, then she ran her top lip between her teeth, looking around as if waiting for something to happen. After a second, she flipped to her other hip. "Was there something I could do for you?"
Aria chuckled. The sound did not come off as a laugh, the low, throaty tones barbed with hooks that reached inside and insisted that Shepard let herself be reeled in. "I merely wanted to see for myself the terrible Shepard who has the council in such an uproar."
Shepard straightened and held her arms out, her stomach calming completely. It had all just been about threat assessment. "Well, here I am, in all of my terribleness. Are you sure you weren't hearing about Nihlus? He's the Spectre. I'm just his tagalong. I carry his gun case, remind him to take his vitamins, mop the sweat from his brow, that sort of thing."
The Cheshire smile stayed firmly in place. "I am . . . familiar with Spectre Kryik. He's provided me with a great deal of entertainment over the cycles. He's a known quantity, although I'm sure the poor thing is just devastated over Saren's betrayal." The smile faded, the asari's eyes narrowing as she continued to hold Shepard's stare without breaking away longer than to blink.
Shepard forced her face to remain passive despite the churning in her guts provoked by the many ways she could think of that Nihlus had provided Aria with entertainment. She gave the asari credit for a good play. Unable to get the mark to ask for a favour, next best move was always to go for the gut, check for weaknesses.
Aria's lip turned up at the corner in the smallest of smirks. "I admit, even I didn't see that coming. Those two spent a lot of cycles joined at the hip."
Resisting the urge to laugh, Shepard nodded. That was an intentional cheap shot, so she let her amusement bleed through her gaze and nowhere else. "They were tight, but Nihlus is bouncing back. He's a professional."
"Aren't we all?" Aria nodded once, a regal dip of her head. She let out a breath and shifted on the couch, posing. "No, you're the unknown in this puzzle. Orphan, street rat, war hero, and malcontent." Her smirk spread a little, and she lowered her head to look up under heavy-lidded eyes. "You don't know quite what to be, do you?"
A misread? Intentional or unintentional? Or truth? Shepard shrugged the last off, lifting her shoulders a centimetre and dropping them. "I'm what you see before you, Aria. No great mystery to unravel here. I'm just trying to help Nihlus find Saren and stop him from doing something really stupid." She straightened. "You might want to consider helping him out with that as well. A queen without a kingdom is just a sad mannequin in a discount warehouse of what used to be."
"Reapers. I've been hearing that word a lot these past weeks." Aria motioned toward the couch adjacent hers.
"Thank you, but I need to get back to my date. You know how krogan are." Shepard shrugged helplessly, and gave the asari a slow, tilted bow of her head. "It's been a pleasure to meet you."
Aria's smile flashed the barest glimpse of teeth, more predatory than ever; its purpose to obfuscate and intimidate. "And you, Shepard. Good luck capturing Saren."
Shepard turned and trotted down the stairs without looking back. Even the tiniest glance back over her shoulder would tell Aria far too much, so she controlled her expression and movements precisely until she found Wrex.
"Where you been, Shepard?" Wrex asked, downing what smelled like diesel fuel, but must have been ryncol.
"Aria wanted to compare dick sizes." She gestured to the bartender. "Cranberry juice, please." Looking back at Wrex, she grinned. "Hers is bigger." She did a casual scan of the club, finding Tali and Ash right away, Garrus and Nihlus a few moments later.
When the turian set the bottle on the counter, Shepard swiped her credit chit. "Thanks." She twisted off the cap and upended the bottle. The juice caressed and teased her tongue, as sweet and crisp as a frosty autumn morning. She closed her eyes to savour it, moaning low and deep with pleasure. "Sweet baby Jesus, that's good stuff."
"What is that? I feel like I should be giving you some privacy." Wrex peered into her eyes as she lowered the bottle, having drank half of it. "You going blackout drunk on me, Shepard?" He studied her through narrowed eyes as if waiting for her to fall over.
"It's fruit juice, Wrex. I won't be getting drunk at all. I'm working." She bumped him with an elbow. "How about you? Am I going to have to carry you home?"
He laughed, two loud, harsh coughs of sound that cut through the rhythmic dissonance of the background music to resonate in the pit of her stomach. She grinned as it filled her with a warmth she wouldn't have expected. Wrex thumped her on the shoulder, driving her into the floor like a post-pounder. "Vakarian says you're strong, but that I would have to see, Shepard. My left arm weighs more than you do."
"Not the right one?" She grinned, wide and easy then reached up to rub her shoulder. "Don't underestimate me, old man. I'm scrappy." Chuckling, she nodded toward a table in plain view of Ash and Tali. "Come on, grab another drink and let's go talk."
Wrex gestured to the bartender to repeat their orders, and paid for them. "You trying to get in my armour, Shepard?"
Laughing, she started to push through the dancers. "You're way too much of a handful for me. I like my men -"
"About seven feet tall and spiky with blue markings on their faces?" Wrex finished.
Shepard's brows migrated toward her nose as she spun to face him. "C-Sec?" Shaking her head, she course corrected, spotting an empty booth in the corner. "We're not like that, Wrex. Don't be spreading rumours." Sliding into the booth, she pushed the table back to make room for the krogan.
He shrugged. "I'm not, but the crew pretty much agrees that if you aren't already bumping the hump, you will be."
She jabbed an elbow in his side. "Bumping the . . .. What does that even mean?" She snapped a hand up between them as he opened his mouth to answer. "No, don't. I don't want to know." Leveling a stern finger at his nose, she leaned in, her eyes narrowed and shooting darts. "You hear that crap, you squash it. Instantly, or I will, and I guarantee no one will enjoy my method. It involves pointy-toed boots and airlocks." She uncapped her bottle and drank, her movements hard, almost robotic. Why was everyone so damned concerned with what went on between her legs? "Don't you people have anything better to do than speculate about my sex life?" She leaned back, wriggling down into the couch.
He thought for a moment, then shook his head. "The cargo bay is pretty boring."
The corner of his mouth twitched, and she laughed, shaking her head. "You are a pain in the ass, old man."
"Part of my charm." Sliding her unopened bottle of juice over in front of her, he downed the last of his drink and leaned back, turning toward her a little to rest his elbow on the table. "So, if you aren't trying to get your hands on my equipment, what do you want to talk about?"
Feeling a hot flush rising up her neck, Shepard focused on opening her bottle and taking a drink. When her blush settled a little, she turned in her seat to face him. "I've got the feeling something's up with you. You've been even more of a grumpy old bear than usual the last few days." She shrugged and twitched her lips a little to one side. "What's going on?"
He stared at her, one eye narrowing as if sizing her up, deciding if she could be trusted. After a minute, he grumbled. "These Reapers, Shepard." He took a belt off his fresh drink.
She just nodded and waited for him to continue. Wrex possessed a surprising thoughtfulness, and she found herself not just obliged to hear what he had to say because he was a member of her crew but eager to hear it.
"These Reapers," he repeated, "are the enemy that my people were born to fight, Shepard." He took another drink when she answered with a smile and silence. "But the salarians and turians snapped our back with the genophage. We used to be proud . . . strong. Now, we're just hired thugs."
Shepard shifted a little, sinking into the couch. "The genophage interferes with the hormones that sustain pregnancy, right? Most pregnancies end in spontaneous abortion or stillbirth." When he threw a nod and a grunt at her, she opened the space between them a little. "Is work being done on a cure? I heard on the news that Binary Helix was supposed to be looking in that direction."
"No one's interested in curing it, Shepard." He laughed but it was a harsh bark of disgust. "Not even most krogan. They leave Tuchanka and never go back." Red eyes glared into hers, daring her to say or do something stupid. When she just stared back, waiting for him to get where he felt comfortable getting to the point, he sniffed, the corner of his mouth quirking. "We're weak and scattered, dying out faster than we can breed, and it's not the genophage killing us."
"You need a unifying force," she said, more to herself than him. "Someone or something capable of pulling your people back home." She flashed to her conversation with Alenko
"When my father tried to murder me . . .." He watched her until she nodded to let him know she remembered him telling her. ". . . I was the leader of a small tribe. I was trying to rally the clans, encourage my people to stay on Tuchanka, concentrate on breeding and growing our numbers for at least one generation." He shrugged, rolling his shoulders a little. "Jerrod, my father, was one of the warlords who survived the war with the turians. He wanted us to keep fighting. Turians, salarians, one another . . . it didn't matter as long as we were fighting."
"So, he invited you to the clan gathering to shut you up, one way or the other?" Shepard asked, looking up to check on the other teams. Across the club, Ashley and Tali had gotten up to dance, and seemed to be having an almost unprofessionally good time. She grinned, glad to see it. Shepard finished off her juice and slid the bottle to the far side of the table before turning her attention back to Wrex.
Wrex nodded. "When he realized that I wouldn't join him, his men attacked, leaping from the graves of our ancestors like krogan undead. They killed all of my men within a few minutes, and I was forced to retreat, but not before I buried my dagger in his hearts. That's why I left, and why I can never go back."
Shepard shook her head. "No. There's been something going on with you, and it's not reminiscing over the bad old days, Wrex." She shifted, moving a little closer, inclined toward him. "You're thinking you need to go back, aren't you?"
He grunted and shoved that idea aside, dumping the last of his drink into his mouth. "I've been thinking of an oath I made to my father's father." He flipped his hand toward the exit. "It's the end of the galaxy out there, Shepard. You know it, and I know it, and I'm sitting in the belly of your fancy ship, wasting time when I should be setting my affairs in order."
Shepard kicked him under the table. "Bullshit. Wasting your time." A grumbled rolled like rock from her throat. "Does it take 600 years or so to learn to feel sorry for yourself like that?" She took a slug of the cranberry juice. "You have something you need to be doing, just tell me what it is. We'll get it done, and then get our asses back to making sure it's not the end of the galaxy."
He harrumphed at her, giving her that one brow cocked stare. "You believe that, Shepard?"
She harrumphed right back, her spine rigid, her jaw set. "Damn right. What bloody choice do we have, Wrex? I don't have time for quitters. You say your people have given up. Well, are you prepared to join them or do something to change things?"
He loomed over her, glaring down at her as though he wanted to charge her right then and there, slam her through the wall behind them. After a moment, he relaxed back into the seat, a dry chuckle acknowledging her successful ploy. "All right, Shepard. After the rebellions, krogan weren't allowed armour or weapons. The turians confiscated my family armour. I told my father's father I'd get it back."
Her eyes on Tali and Ash—they'd caught the attention of two krogan in tell-tale Blood Pack armour—Shepard nodded. "Do you know where it is?"
He followed her stare and turned, but kept his eyes on his drink. She followed suit, guzzling down the rest of her juice. Her radio squawked twice in her ear, and she nodded. Nihlus and Garrus were on the alert as well.
"Turian scum by the name of Tonn Actus has it. He collects relics from before the rebellions, has warehouses of krogan artifacts stored on bases all over the Traverse." He jerked his head toward the krogan watching Tali and Ash. "They're going to move."
Shepard reached up and opened a channel. "How are things out in the 'not a VIP' line, Sparky?"
"Boring, ma'am. Does it look like something's going to happen?" Kaiden replied.
"It does. Be ready." She played with her bottle then looked at Wrex, trying to keep things casual as she spoke to Kaidan. "Our other friends are watching the back exit, so be prepared to run around through the market area and circle in on the back side."
"Roger that."
"Shepard out." She opened a channel to Ashley. "Chief, separate yourself a little. Let's see if we can get those two to take the bait." She leaned back and crossed her arms and ankles. The krogan weren't playing the slightest bit of attention to her table, so she felt pretty good about her cover. They, however, looked a little too obviously not interested in Tali.
Ashley moved over to a table, striking up a conversation with a group of asari sitting there. The krogan must have been waiting for the opportunity, because they edged in, one scooped Tali up with a hand behind her and they just barrelled straight toward the back door. It happened so quickly and so slick that Tali barely even got out a squawk before she hit the back stairs.
"They grabbed the bait, but took her out back, Sparky." Shepard elbowed Wrex but he was already moving. He wriggled out of the booth and strode for the back. On the other side of the bar, Ashley and Nihlus jumped into motion as well. Shepard followed Wrex, allowing him to clear a path for her.
"Hey there, Red," a human man grabbed Shepard's arm. 150 proof breath smacked her in the face as he spun her around. Flinching back, she tried to step around him, but he wrapped his other arm around her neck and stumbled into her. "You're pretty."
"You're not." She tried to go around him again, but he stumbled into her, pushing her back. Grabbing his wrist, she twisted, wrenching his arm around behind him. He fell forward into one of the asari dancers, spilling her drink all over her and the turian she was speaking to.
"Hey!" The dancer spun around, grabbing the drunk by the collar. "Watch it." She met Shepard's eyes. "Is this idiot bothering you?" She slugged the turian on the elbow without waiting for Shepard to answer. "Aidan, escort this loser out."
"Thanks." Shepard pushed the drunk toward the turian, eager to be rid of him and get after Tali.
"Hey! Bitch!" Even though he didn't seem to know who to address his insult to, the man swung a wild blow aimed at Shepard's head. She ducked under it and sidestepped, the blow slamming into a batarian's jaw.
Then chaos. Absolute, utter chaos, violent and bloody. Shepard ducked between flailing bodies and dodged blows, just trying to scramble her way to the door. A massive, three-fingered hand seized her shoulders and slammed her down onto the bar like someone trying to beat a rug. Stunned, she barely managed to block and throw aside a roundhouse that would have shattered her jaw like spun sugar. The krogan combatant stared at her for a moment with hazy, wavering lack of recognition as his fist connected with the bar top instead of Shepard. He pinned her legs to the front of the bar with his bulk. Winded, Shepard fought to wriggle loose as she ducked a flurry of punches coming at her from both sides.
"I don't have time for this!" She slammed a fist into the krogan's jaw. He shrugged it off. Her hand didn't. Shaking out the pain, she kicked her feet, managing to drive him back a little even as he swung at her like a blind gorilla.
"Wrex!" Garrus yelled on the radio. "Turn around. Shepard's in trouble."
Shepard dodged her assailant's unsteady blows effortlessly as his frustrated growls grew louder and more menacing. After punching the top of the bar ten or so times, he howled in drunken rage. "Hold still!"
"Yeah, that's going to happen." Shepard laughed. "You're pathetic, go find someone more your speed. I think I saw a drunk passed out at one of the tables." The realisation of her mistake dawned about the time his massive, toothy face pressed into hers, snorting like a bull. But then he turned away, presumably to pick on someone his own size and a whole lot less agile.
Letting out a sigh of relief that she didn't admit to herself, she reached up to radio Garrus and Wrex to leave her and go after Tali. Her hand didn't quite reach her ear before massive hands grabbed the front of her armour and yanked her off the bar, flinging her like a football at the vid pillar in the center. In surreal slow-motion, weightless, she flew over the heads of the brawlers, turning her shoulder into the screen. As she bounced off, she looked down at the long drop to the lower level of the club. Landing on the bar ten metres below looked like a painful option. Wrenching every muscle she owned, Shepard stretched out, snagged the railing with one hand on the way down.
"Vakarian! Grab Shepard. I've got this!" Wrex yelled, disappearing into the sea of bodies, heading in the general direction of the back door.
"Ow, goddamn it!" Swinging her free arm a couple of times, Shepard managed to get enough momentum to grab the railing with both hands. Not that it mattered because two seconds later, Garrus 'Caveman' Vakarian reached over the railing, grabbed her by the back of her collar and her belt, hauled her up, and set her on her feet. Too grateful to be free of the brawl to bother yelling at him for manhandling her, Shepard sprinted toward the back door. It led to the lower level of the club, and for a moment, she lamented not just letting herself fall.
A painful shortcut is still a shortcut.
Garrus right beside her, she ran down the stairs and through a door into a dark seating area where small clusters of people chatted. None of the patrons seemed overly affected by watching a young female dragged through their midst, kicking and screaming.
"Did they even come this way?" Shepard twisted, running sideways for a second. "Did two krogan come through carrying a screaming quarian?" Most of the people didn't even look at her, but one asari pointed along their path. "Thanks for the apathy, brothers and sisters." She took the lead down another long flight of stairs, calling back over her shoulder. "May the Enkindlers' pointy-toed light bless you in the ass."
The stairs ended at a door into the lower club. "I was thinking that this is a strange way to bring her," Shepard said, racing around the left side of the bar, dodging dancers. "But no one seems to give a crap." Gawkers stood around the bar, watching the fight above, the din drowning out even the music. As Shepard ran past, a body dropped through the same gap she'd nearly taken a few minutes earlier, crashing into the bar. Shards of glass pinged off her armour and blood splashed against her face and neck.
Okay, glad I didn't take that route now.
"Lower profile than dragging Tali kicking and screaming out the front," Garrus replied. "A dive like this, no one's going to step up to stop them." He made an angry rumble. "It's a meat grinder, not a club."
A door at the back led into the alleys behind the markets, and they made their way back around to the docks. Shepard hit the top of a long, wide flight of stairs, puffing a little. She lowered her head to check her omnitool for Tali's tracker, her ears barely registering the sound of gunfire before huge, heavy fists punched into her shields, driving her to the ground. Giving her head a shake, she looked up, seeing two Blood Pack vorcha and a krogan firing at her from the end of a long row of shipping containers.
"Where the hell is Wrex? He couldn't have gotten that far ahead of us," she called, the last word coming out as a high pitch squeal as Garrus grabbed her, hurling her bodily behind the nearest container. She slammed into the metal with a hollow, ringing thud, bouncing back a little. She shrugged Roger into her hands and pressed her back against the corrugated wall, easing her way to the end to peek out.
"Are you okay?" he called, his voice tight. He ducked out to return fire.
"Yeah, didn't get past my shields." After switching to incendiary ammunition, she launched her drone in behind the krogan, distracting it.
"C-Sec, whittle down the krogan, I'll take the vorcha." He grunted his agreement, overloading the Blood Pack warrior's barriers then switching out his assault rifle for the sniper. Shepard hammered at the vorcha, using three round volleys. One went down, but another took its place.
"Pyro," Garrus called.
"You hit him with overload, I'll sabotage his tank. Shouldn't be anything left but chunks." She ducked out to check her drone still had the krogan occupied. A blast of flame erupted in her face, luckily still at the extreme of the flamethrower's range. She threw herself back and raised an annoyed eyebrow at Garrus. "1 … 2 … 3."
They both leaned out at the same time. Their omnitools flared, flames roared toward them, then with a boom that made Shepard's ears pop, the vorcha turned into chunks of blood, bone, and meat that rained down over their heads.
"Dammit! I'm not wearing my helmet." Shepard picked a long string of something she hoped wasn't intestines out of her hair and threw it aside. "You might have mentioned he was in range, C-Sec. Next time, give me a range."
"They're bugging out." Garrus looked to her before bolting, but sprinted off the moment she nodded.
Dodging between shipping containers, they worked their way up the docks, the krogan and last vorcha steadily gaining ground. At the edge of every container, one of them ducked out to check for ambush, then sprang back into a run. Container by container, Shepard felt their chances of catching the Blood Pack dwindling.
At last, they came to a large corridor between sections.
Shepard looked both ways, but saw nothing. "You go right. I'll take the left." She made it five containers down before staccato roar of gunfire echoed from Garrus's direction. Glancing back, she couldn't see him. Damn it, he'd gone into the damn maze.
A harsh, male bellow of pain threw her heart up into her throat, and she spun around, her boots slipping in the grit underfoot. She sprinted back down the line, peering between containers without nearly enough caution.
Good way to get your head blown off, Shepard. Dumbass.
"C-Sec? You okay?" she called ahead of her. She rounded the end of the line of containers to see him pushing himself up off the concrete.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he said, grunting as he scrambled up off the floor with enough energy to slow her pulse. He glanced back, a thin trail of blue rolling down his face, then took off. "They doubled back down this row."
She bolted down the space, arriving just in time to see Garrus slide around a corner further into the tangle of metal and open doors. "At least I'm not chasing him across a human colony," she muttered, racing after him.
She caught up with him two rows over, completely lost in the maze of narrow corridors and endless containers. Garrus peered around the end of a shipping box then dashed out. Shepard turned the corner to follow him, but he threw himself back, nearly knocking her off her feet as his boots slid on a slick patch of pavement. Grabbing hold of the container with one hand, Shepard grabbed him under his arm with the other and yanked him back in time for a rocket to explode against his shields. Two more flew wide, turning the box behind them into a tangled metal pretzel.
"Thanks." He leaned against the metal, panting hard for a moment, then ducked out and ran ahead.
Shaking her head, she followed, calling up Tali's tracker on her omnitool. They didn't have time to let the Blood Pack lead them on a merry chase across all of Omega. They needed to be there if Tali got into trouble.
Ten metres ahead, Garrus ducked into a door, calling back, "They went in a container up here."
Shepard ducked inside the container in time to see Garrus hit the back wall and turn back, utter confusion in his eyes.
"What? Oh damn." Spinning around, she leaped toward the door, but it slammed in her face, the latches screeching into their brackets. She slammed her fists into the door, then her shoulder, but it stayed solidly, stubbornly closed. Spinning around, she glared into Garrus's eyes.
"No goddamned way." Stomping over, she slapped the heel of her hand against his armour. "You're a fucking jinx, C-Sec." She looked along the walls for any other way out before she allowed the words to form. "Sweet baby Jesus, we're bloody locked in here."
I wonder if Aria finds herself sufficiently entertained.