Jax awoke in the shuttle, the heated blankets wrapped around him were beyond snug, even on the metal floor. He looked around briefly to see Kelly's gorgeous mop of red hair as she was curled into his chest under his arm. Jax remembered, and then smiled as he kissed the top of her head gently and rolled her off him to stand. He stretched, wishing he'd taken the time to get out of his bodysuit that constricted his muscles so tightly. He checked the ships stores, Garrus had brought over a pack of supplies for him to load up with before the new mission. Jax filled and fastened the holsters, admiring the grip on the new carnifex, seeing as the old was probably floating somewhere in space right now.
"Is it time?" Jax heard being asked behind him.
He turned around to see Kelly just rising, rubbing her eyes with her short hair adorably out of place. "It is" he confirmed. "I'll start my shift at Afterlife soon, the attack is to occur sometime during it. Keep this shuttle locked down, we may inspire a stampede of people trying to escape by any means necessary."
Kelly nodded. "I'll keep the engines warm. Come back safely."
"I will" Jax promised. "I've got something to live for." He shared a smile with Kelly before he hit the locking release and the door opened. It was early in the afternoon by Omega's standards, the post work rush would soon fill Afterlife. Jax wasn't sure if the increased civilian traffic would be appealing or inconvenient to Aria's plan. It was time to see what kind of ruler Patriarch's reprisal would shape her into being.
It didn't take him long to get to Afterlife from the shuttle pad, something about being strapped with weapons and explosives made most people step out of his way, and attracted the gaze of the rest sizing him up for a fight. Nevertheless, Jax reached Afterlife's lower level unimpeded and made his way to the bar. "Clear out Patriarch's old private room" he told Serra, "you may want it for yourselves and your girls" he said, indicated the bartenders. "Tell anyone you particularly like not to come in tonight."
Serra nodded and set about preparing the bar. If everything went off without a hitch then there wouldn't be any conflict at all inside Afterlife but of course, things rarely were ever so uncomplicated. Alerts buzzed his omnitool indicating the others beginning to confirm they were in position. He slid in one of his earpieces and listened into the channel. "Everyone's in position" Aria said, seeing them all keyed in. "Now remember, our best weapon is the element of surprise. Patriarch believes I'm currently still on board the Normandy orbiting Omega right now and that Archangel is dead. Let's show him how wrong he is. Ahz?"
"Linking you into Omega's emergency channels now" Ahz radioed from the Normandy, he and EDI working to hack the frequency station wide. "It's all yours."
"Vakarian?" Aria invited.
Garrus and Shepard shared a look. It was time to change Omega for the better. "Scum of Omega" Garrus said, his voice echoing across the station. Every loudspeaker, every omnitool, every radio, they all broadcasted directly from him in this moment. "Did you think you had seen the last of me?"
Inside his war room, Patriarch leaned forward to the screen displaying the frequency. "Who is that?" He demanded his followers.
"Did you really think you could kill me?" Garrus taunted. "Me, the scourge of Omega's gangs. You didn't kill me" he said.
"Sir!" A krogan called up to Patriarch. "The audio frequency is now trying to upload an image; shall we block it?"
"No" Patriarch replied, seething. "I want to know who this new player is." The screen flickered for a moment as the frequency line was a replaced by a golden emblem. It had been scuffed and discoloured by what appeared to be some brutal wear and tear but the winged image was certainly discernible. "Archangel" Patriarch realised.
"You just pissed me off" Garrus continued, his voice crystal clear from Afterlife down to the engines.
Across Omega, the amount of communications activity suddenly exploded, from social media through to hard wired merc communications. One pink salarian, an Eclipse captain who was the last of a set of triplets, was particularly enflamed.
"You can either come and fight it out now, die with some dignity or you can run and hide and die screaming as I drag you out of whatever corner you find shelter in. Either way, you'll all fall eventually, I have a bullet with every and every one of your names on it. Omega is your territory no more, I am your reckoning" Garrus taunted, "uploading my coordinates now, let's finish this." The frequency then began to loop numbers over and over.
"Well, that was certainly theatrical" Aria remarked.
"And effective" Ahz reported, "I'm picking up viral spikes all over the station of encrypted transmissions, anything in blue, yellow or red armour is mobilising. You didn't just kick the hornets' nest, you hit it with a krogan maw hammer."
"Come and get me" Garrus replied, the sound his sniper rifle being cocked audible in his communication.
"Bray, Anto, as soon as the front of Afterlife is clear, you have the green light" Aria ordered. "Establish barricades and set up barriers, I want you soaking up as much attention and fire as you can handle."
"Standing by" Samara replied for them.
"Be ready Jax, I'll be kicking down your door immediately after" Aria warned.
Jax simply opened his communication and let the music play through in acknowledgement. To actually reply, he'd have to raise his voice to speak above the music and he couldn't risk being overhead.
Garrus heard the music and couldn't help but attempt to smother a grin as the music instantly brought to mind images of waving arms everywhere from dancers, and whatever Shepard would attempt to do in kind, he'd seen drunk krogan more graceful.
"Not a word" Shepard irritably mentioned from beside him, clearly catching on to where his train of thought was taking him, the memory also giving her flashbacks.
Garrus chuckled, then sharpened quickly. "Heads up," he said, his visor already zooming in. "We've got incoming." His sight honed in a skycar making directly for the building from in front. Garrus watched it intently, following it with his rifle before pulling the trigger. A burst of flames exploded from the engine as the round perfectly shot into the intake as the skycar listed badly with one engine down before dropping out of the air, hitting the ground and disappearing in a fireball. "The next group won't be so stupid; they'll land well back out of range" Shepard said.
"I know, but that was satisfying" Garrus said. "First kill shot goes to me."
"Are we counting our kills now?" Shepard asked teasingly.
"Only if you're not afraid you'll lose" Garrus replied with a small smirk, running another calibration on his scope.
"Alright Vakarian, you're on" Shepard said, letting loose a concussive blast and knocking down a squad of troops rounding the corner. "Try to keep up."
"Try not to fall too far behind" Garrus replied, his finger clenching the trigger.
"The mercenary guilds have engaged Shepard and Archangel; Anto, Bray, you're up" Aria ordered.
Bray nodded, bracing himself to run out into the street. They would take the most casualties at the beginning trying to set up cover, after that it would be a battle of attrition. He looked at his team, the biotics would establish barriers while the rest would build physical blockades to resist gunfire, the biotics could not be expected to hold on for long against the firepower out the front of Afterlife. Anto's team were in the houses across the street, they would turn the alleyway into the firing zone, funnelling all the attention towards them. Spreading out and attacking from multiple zones was a tactically superior move but it would likely also cause reinforcements to be called onto them and expose a larger rear to counterassault, as well as risking Aria's discovery before time.
He opened the door and looked across to Anto, holding up a fist. Most batarians would feel some sort of anger, being so surpassed by a younger sibling, but Bray only felt pride. Anto always had a chip on his shoulder, it made him intense, but he had been smart enough to use it where it benefitted him, mostly. Now they were going to lead an assault together, the two brothers united under Aria in Grizz's absence. This was it.
Anto counted down on his fingers to his older brother. Three… two… one.
Bray ran out to a dumpster, laying down fire with his assault rifle. He killed two vorcha and a batarian before they knew what had hit them, trying to take out as many as he could to scatter them before they regrouped. He heard the familiar warping sound of biotics manipulating reality as their teams came out, putting up fields. Anto rushed into cover beside him as they concentrated fire one the closest of the turrets, trying to dissuade any of Patriarch's troops from trying to take it. It wasn't effective though, a human making a run for it amongst the fire. Bullets ricocheted off the turret's protection plate as he made it to the turret through sheer dumb luck, and opened fire. The barriers lit up brightly under fire before a hole was blown through. Bray heard the squelch for them ripping into flesh, turning to see an Asari fall dead to the floor, her stomach gushing purple bluish blood. The turret moved against the next, blasting a hole clean through the turian next to her. By now, the turret had caused enough damage to rally Patriarch's men as they activated generators and took to their own cover. More fire added to the first turret as a third and fourth biotic was ripped apart by gunfire, exposing more of their troops similarly cut down. The streets were quickly becoming painted with a mosaic of blood. "We're getting slaughtered!" Anto yelled, "we need more support for our teams to set up cover!"
The racket of bullets ricocheting off the metal street walls suddenly stopped as if on cue. Bray and Anto looked to see Samara taking a position in the middle of the street. Her assault rifle had been sheathed as she directed power with both of her hands, her eyes bright and teeth bared through the sheer effort of excising so much raw power. Bullets made ripples in her barrier like drops landing in water but none made it through. "She's giving us an opening!" Anto yelled. "All squads, engage! Establish your positions now!" More doors opened down the street as barricades were quickly erected from concrete barriers, steel panels, the doors from private homes even. The street soon became littered with refuse as walls were quickly put up, transforming the street into a series of trenches. In a single minute, a peaceful, unoccupied street now was a war zone that could be heard for miles. Samara's exertion was wearing thin as she grunted from holding the fire back, her barrier beginning to be pushed back.
"Any biotics add your strength!" Bray yelled, "give us as many moments as you can!" The barrier's retreat was slowed but not stopped.
Anto tapped his shoulder. "Time for us to fall in behind big brother, the barrier's not going to hold."
Bray nodded as Anto dropped away from behind him, retreating into the first trench. He turned to follow but a hail of bullet fire made him hesitate for a second and the barrier shrank past him, cutting him off from the protection of the barriers. "Bray!" Anto roared as his brother hugged back into the corner, the world around him exploding yellow with sparks from ricochets.
"Anto, Bray, how are we doing?" Aria asked.
"Bray's pinned by turret fire" Anto replied, trying to lay down cover fire off his own but the suppressing firepower was far too great, "the rest of us are holding steady for now."
"Dammit" Aria cursed. "Make sure his men keep in line, I'll need time to get shit done."
"Well then get on it quickly" Anto replied. "We're set, our position is solidified but we lost a lot of troops getting to this point so far, we may have lost the numbers advantage too."
"Roger that" Aria said, exiting Jax's home and making for the lower level of Afterlife. "Jax? Be ready, I'm coming to you now."
Jax took his hand down from his ear and nodded to Serra. She understood the signal, ushering her waitresses out from behind the bar, the normally open private room where Patriarch had once resided now firmly locked. Jax spotted a turian getting rowdy, angry that the bartender had left before finishing his drink. "Time for you to go" he told the turian, who was now hammering on the bar, gathering further attention to the growing fact something was amiss, the amount of Asari maidens in the bar suddenly dropping dramatically. Jax had no intention of giving away their play. He grabbed the turian by the shoulder but the turian brought his arm around and gave Jax a hard shove to the chest, knocking him over. More and more patrons were watching now, the fact something strange was happening was undeniable, and it was a short distance upstairs for news to travel. Jax quickly got back to his feet. The turian was busy looking for another bartender as Jax grabbed again, this time ready for resistance. The drunk turian went to shove him away again but Jax caught the turian's arm and twisted it, forcing the turian's head to slam down on the bar. The turian's forehead bounced off as he crumpled to the ground, leaving a wet blue flower on the bar. "He scared off the bartenders" Jax said to the watching crowd, gesturing to the empty bar. "Now my boss will be pissed." He looked to see a human trying to take advantage of the commotion leaning over the bar to swipe a bottle. Jax grabbed the unconscious turian's glass and threw it at him, hitting his outstretched hand. "She'll be pissed at you more" Jax warned.
The human looked around, rubbing his wrist. "Where is your boss anyway?" He asked.
"I'm back you fuckers!" A voice said, breaking through all the other noise. Jax watched as everybody in the room stiffened; they all knew that voice. "My name is Aria T'Loak and I am still Omega" she called. "Anyone care to try and prove me wrong?"
A krogan reached for the shotgun holstered at the small of his back and Aria threw him across the room with a lash of biotic energy. She crossed the room and unholstered her own. "Bad move" she told him, putting a round through his head. A batarian behind her pulled out his own pistol, pointing it at her but Jax was behind him. A gunshot went off as Jax put a carnifex round through the back of his head.
"Anyone else?" Aria asked.
The rest had the sense to run as Jax and Aria left the two bodies in their wake. Jax opened the corridor to Patriarch's war room with his employee ID and they quickly made their way there. Jax checked his comm updates. Less than half of Aria's original force was remaining but on the positive side, Garrus and Shepard were being equally as efficient as decimating the mercenaries, if not more so. "Can we end this quickly?" Jax asked, keeping up with Aria's purposeful strides.
"Patriarch was the toughest fight of my life once" Aria replied, "the years and the toll of the damage may have weakened him physically, but it has also sharpened his mind immensely." They came to the door to Aria's old Afterlife, now Patriarch's war room. Evidence of the renovations were immediate, the door was locked and much studier against damage, the aesthetic was also far disparate from the hazy pinkish red neon lights around them. Whatever was on the other side of that door was going to be unfamiliar territory to the both of them. "He'll have thought of nothing but that fight, and with a home field advantage, he'll hold most of the cards" Aria said bitterly, repulsed by the new decor. "What we have is raw power and a shitload of anger to expend."
"I'm fighting for more than just revenge" Jax said, wiring the charges.
"Then I expect you to fight just as hard" Aria said. "Patriarch's smart, none of his kraant have shown outside which means he knows that's not the real fight, he'll be prepared for us."
Jax opened the lid on the detonator for the breach charges as he also activated a concussion grenade. "It won't be enough to save him" he said, pushing the trigger. The door melted behind an explosion of sparks and dust. Everything from that moment on felt like it was moving at a million miles per hour.
Two sniper bolts flew out the vantage point and found themselves buried in the chests of an Eclipse squad, one penetrating completely through and killing the soldier right behind her. Shepard grimly smiled as she ejected the thermal clip, loading another when she heard it, the faint beeping of breaching charges. Shepard sheathed the sniper in favour of her assault rifle and wheeled around as the door exploded, emptying the clip into the smoke and hearing the screams of pain as evidence of her instinct. Shepard moved to the door, holding off the Blue Suns squad entrenched in the corridor, Garrus shooting now as fast as his sniper would allow, the flow of mercenaries ever increasing. They needed Archangel dead, and now they were too far invested in terms of their body count to throw anything less than everything at them. Shepard loosed a concussive blast down the hallway and took the opportunity to finish off the soldiers knocked off their feet, her shields holding steady for now. That was when the windows shattered. Garrus wheeled around but his gun clicked uselessly, out of ammunition. Shepard fired another concussive blast down the hallway to hold them off as she ran towards the window. Two mercies rappelled in through. Shepard tried to shoot them but her own weapon jammed. She threw the assault rifle at one and withdrew her shotgun, knocking him off his feet with two shots, staining the blue armour red. The second has recovered from the hit with the rifle but not as Shepard unleashed a furious kick, knocking him back out the window, screaming on the way down. She was aware of Garrus pulling her sniper rifle off her back, using it to kill the first Blue Sun trooper to advance into the room through the corridor. Shepard stormed for the doorway as the second came through and blasted him off his feet but the third got a lucky shot, hitting her shotgun and knocking it out of her hands. Shepard grabbed his helmet with her hand as she pulled her heavy pistol, pressing it to his gut and clenching the trigger. She pushed him back into the corridor as she continued firing, using him as a human shield as she cleared the rest of the corridor. The body jerked around violently as it absorbed bullet after bullet for her, the hole in the stomach growing ever greater as Shepard kept firing, aiming through him to kill his compatriots. Shepard pushed the body all the way through the corridor, giving the body one final shove to the ground as she hit the lock on the corridor entrance. She looked at Garrus and he shook his head; they were clear for the moment. Shepard rested, putting her hands on her knees for support as she took heavy breaths. Blood dripped off her breastplate and ran down her greaves. She checked her shotgun and shook her head in disgust, the bullet had cracked the firing chamber, it was useless scrap now. She retrieved her assault rifle and began to disassemble it, looking to resolve the jam before the next wave hit.
Garrus took an exhausted seat next to her. "Shepard I don't mean to be a bad turian but unless we come up with something soon, I think even we may be in trouble."
"We just have to hold out" Shepard maintained. "Once Aria and Jax kill Patriarch, his forces stand down and then come to our aid."
"I guess we're at the bottom of the shit hill" Garrus cracked, making them both give tired smiles to each other.
"I guess so" Shepard smiled. "But there's no one I'd rather be here with." Her hand found its way into his where she squeezed.
"Neither would I" Garrus said, returning her comforting grip. He looked through the scope of Shepard's sniper, surveying the wasteland of bodies they had so far wrought. "Heads up, they're readying themselves again."
"Wonderful" Shepard remarked, clicking the last piece back into place on her assault rifle and give it an experimental shake. "I was getting bored just then."
Anto risked a look over the barricade and ducked again quickly as turret fire scorched past overhead, decapitating two vorcha beside him. Anto cursed as he checked the squads reporting in, barely a third of their assault force remained. Bray was completely hiding now, the turrets taking shots at him had whittled the dumpster down, chipping away at the metal. Bray was forced to pull his knees up into his chest and hug as close to the wall as he could, bullets whistling past his ears. His luck wouldn't hold out long. Anto fired another futile burst before being forced back into cover. They had an inferior position, inferior firepower and now likely inferior numbers.
"We need to fall back!" A turian yelled at him. "We're getting decimated!"
"We will hold our position as long as Aria needs us to!" Anto ordered back fiercely. "If I see anyone leaving the battlefield, I'll kill you myself!"
A pair of humans running back caught his eyes. Anto growled, had they really just heard his threat and decided to risk it? "What are they…" He started but was cut off. A massive explosion had occurred from behind them.
"It's Patriarch's forces!" The turian yelled. "We've been flanked; they've cut off our rear!"
"Set up a defensive position!" Anto ordered. "We will hold this alley!"
Bullets started streaking overhead from every direction. a turian stood to return fire and was instantly cut down, bodies littered the streets. Pools of blood of every shade were joining and mixing on the alley floor. Samara tried to lift a barrier but a lucky shot hit her hand, putting a hole clean through it. Samara grunted, trying to hide the pain but it was evident as she fell clutching her hand, her weapons empty. Anto risked another look to Bray, the bullets were edging ever nearer, forcing him to hide in the foetal position. He risked a panic look to Anto, his black eyes wide in terror. Death was not meant to slow, an extermination, this was slaughter.
A second explosion from the rear guard pulled Anto's attention. This explosion had been further back, in the middle of Patriarch's forces that had outflanked them. Anto could hear the sounds of their screams, what was going on? Another explosion, then another, and then Patriarch heard different type of scream. A scream of battle, a rallying cry. One of Patriarch's men, a krogan, stumbled back as bullets punched through his torso before falling over, revealing a surge of charging troops behind him. Anto narrowed his eyes, those weren't the Patriarch's men, they were…
A skycar screamed overhead, barely ten feet off the ground and in the driver's seat, tossing out explosives, was Grizz.
Anto waved as Grizz manoeuvred the skycar around a hail of turret fire before making another bombing run. Grizz's troops flooded forward into positions on the barricades where the corpses had once been, offering renewed fight. Anto leant his firepower in support but Bray was still pinned. Aria was right; even with the numbers advantage now firmly in their favour, Patriarch's defences were dug in, this had always been a distracting tactic, there was no way they could take Afterlife, and it was that inability to push any further forward that was going to get Bray killed.
Anto gritted his teeth, the metal left above Bray's head was sheared ever lower until the turrets swivelled away and opened fire on a new target. Anto turned as Grizz made one last run, slamming the skycar straight into their defences. It cleaned up the first turret and sent it flying. A human was unfortunate enough to be caught between the heavy turret gun and the blast door to Afterlife; he sank to the ground leaving a bloody smear on its surface.
"Come on!" Anto yelled as Bray seized the moment, running back to join him in cover.
"Where's Grizz?" Bray asked.
Anto looked back to the front of Afterlife. The door to Grizz's skycar was slightly ajar as Grizz leaned out of it. Blue blood was running down his face, it dropped from his lips and was soaking his chest from the turret fire that had punched through the skycar's windscreen. A human stepped up to him, raising his weapon. "Any last words?" He asked Grizz.
Grizz looked back Anto, smiling a bloody grin. "Long live the queen" he declared, pressing a button.
Anto's eyes widened. "We need a barrier, now!" He yelled as Grizz disappeared in a massive fireball from the explosives still in the skycar. The shockwave shunted him over but he had the protection of cover to protect him from the flames. Only Bray didn't. "Bray!" Anto yelled, climbing back up to see his brother standing unharmed, covered in a blanket of protective biotic energy. Anto turned to see Samara, struggling on her feet but still standing, her teeth bared as she held the field for a moment longer before letting it go, breathing heavily with blood running down her arm. The front of Afterlife was virtually gone, a massive blackened scorch marks covered with dozens of pockets of small flame, Patriarch's men were dead. Anto jumped the cover and ran to Bray, checking if his brother was alright. Bray waved him off, despite drawing so much fire from Patriarch's forces he was relatively unscathed. Anto turned to Samara. "Thank you" he said in a rare acknowledgement.
Samara nodded. "I have expended much of my strength; I will need to rest a while before I am ready to move on."
Anto nodded. "Stay with her" he ordered a squad before moving to the front of Afterlife, where Aria and Patriarch were surely battling now. "Explosion's taken out the door," Bray said, examining it with him. "There's no way we're getting through."
Anto nodding, accepting the judgment. "Aria, we're clear" he radioed, "do you require further assistance?"
"We could certainly use a hand!" Shepard radioed, "fire support would be very welcome right now."
Anto looked at Bray. "We're on our way" he radioed, "hold tight, we'll hit them from behind and crush them." He gestured and his men followed his lead, making for the available skycars left abandoned in people fleeing the section in a panic. He hoped helping Shepard would not come at Aria's expense.
Aria yelled as she was thrown back by an explosion, hitting a table and rolling back over it to hit the floor. Whatever hope she'd had that Patriarch would take her on in a fair fight had been in vain; he'd been waiting for her and had set up a veritable bunker in his already domineering war room, complete with slots one could fire from whilst protecting the shooter's safety. He and his kraant were inside it, using grenade launchers to try and kill her or otherwise keep her at a distance. It had been an annoying successful tactic so far.
The next grenade fell short of her, Aria on her back kicked the table over and shoved it with her legs against the grenade. It shielded her deftly from the blast, although she was forced to duck and roll as the table went flipping back over her head. It had been stupid to hope to have goaded Patriarch's pride; she'd not let him have any since she'd taken his throne, the small taste Shepard had given him had spawned an addiction to power, but the century of shameful humility had given him perspective. He knew she would crush his last heart in an instant; he had grown older and weaker over those years while her biotic strength had only grown. Instead, he was using his status to his advantage, using his modifications to her throne room to elevate his advantage. Aria ran from the next one, sliding into cover next to Jax on the far side of the room. "Any bright ideas?" She asked.
Jax shook his head. "Patriarch has his kraant at firing positions at every angle on that thing; it has no blind spots."
"Then we need to cut out some eyes" Aria growled, "give me your pistol."
"You have a shotgun" Jax protested.
"Exactly" Aria replied, "I need to something accurate from this range." Jax handed it over and she checked the thermal clip before reinserting it. She gave him her shotgun. "On three" she told him as a grenade perfectly arced their cover and landed just in front of them. "Three" Aria said as they both jumped out, escaping the blast radius. Aria saw the grenade launcher being aimed at her, she aimed back and pulled the trigger. The grenade had barely exited the barrel when Aria' s bullet collided with it, triggering its detonation. The krogan inside was thrown backwards, missing a good portion of his chest and head.
She heard an enraged shout from inside and gave a smirk; if she couldn't goad Patriarch's pride, she would appeal to his rage. "Get out there and kill her!" She heard a shout. A door hissed open and half a dozen massive krogan ran out. Jax was waiting for them. Aria's smirk only grew more satisfied and bloodthirsty as the shotgun cleaved through armour and flesh like a buzzsaw.
At the end of it, it was just them and Patriarch sitting alone in a locked bunker. Aria approached the door and gave it a light knock. "Are you going to come out?" Aria asked.
"You never knew how to rule Omega with strength" Patriarch accused weakly, "you just sate the wolves with dancers and drinks to keep your title, no one would dare challenge the strength of Omega with me in charge, I brought a force to Omega like no one has ever before, you just made it docile."
"If and when someone does come for me" Aria told him, "they will regret it. Maybe not the day they attack, maybe not even the week, but I will always come back for them. Now are you going to come out and die like a krogan, or stay in there and die like a rat?"
"You'll never have the satisfaction" Patriarch declared. he entire room suddenly rocked around them as the lights dimmed and brightened. "What the hell was that?" She radioed.
"Patriarch has a control console in there" Ahz reported, bringing up a display of the station with wide eyes. "He's just shut down Omega's mass effect fields."
"What?" Aria demanded. "But without the fields, Omega will be torn apart."
"Exactly" Ahz reported. "I think he plans that if he can't have the station, no one can." The room shuddered again. "Without the fields up, Omega is a sitting duck to all the asteroids out there in the system" Ahz stated, "and the station's size is pulling them in."
"Can you override it?" Aria asked, hammering on the door.
"Not from here."
"Joker!" Shepard yelled in between bursts of gunfire. "Use the Normandy, blow every asteroid you can apart, focus on anything coming for the more densely populated areas, we need to buy more time!"
"Uh, there's another complication Commander" Joker reported hesitantly, seeing the alert flash on his dashboard. "EDI's showing a reading; the Omega-4 Relay is powering up. I think we're about to have company."
"The Collector vessel is of a significant size" EDI reported, "based on this and the massive amount of energy displaced by making a mass effect jump, I calculate the force expended may be significant enough to destabilise the station."
"It'll wrench Omega out of its orbit" Joker said. "You either then crash into the asteroid belt or into the sun. Either way; everyone on the station dies."
"I'll kill the son of a bitch before he takes my home from me for good" Aria seethed. She looked at Jax. "Kill him."
"If I destroy the console in there, there's no stopping what happens next" Jax warned.
"If we don't get in there, everyone dies anyway" Aria argued. "Don't use demolitions" she told him. "Smoke him out." She nodded at Jax who pulled the pin on the incendiary grenades and pushed them through the firing holes. They both ducked as they exploded, spurts of fire erupting from the slots. Above the roar of the flames, they could hear the screams of Patriarch within. The door suddenly opened, Patriarch must have hit the command prompt as he fell against the console. Aria and Jax looked inside; it was a bath of flames saving for the writhing krogan inside. Patriarch's krogan regeneration abilities were straining, Jax watched as patches of flesh under his burned away clothing struggled to crawl back and heal, only for the flames to burn it away again. It was an agonising, horrific, torturous way to die. Aria stepped inside, using her barrier to reflect most of the heat as she stepped over his shrieking body to the console, fizzling in and out of static but still with basic functionality. "Ahz?" Aria radioed. "Giving you full operational control, fix my station now."
"And the Collector vessel?" Joker asked.
Shepard gritted her teeth, the Normandy had been unable to dock, it was slow on fuel and power, both of which they would need to take on the Collector vessel which would be topped up with both coming from their home world. "Disengage Joker, fall back to a safe distance."
Joker's exhale served as their reply. They both knew by giving that order, Shepard had abandoned another colony to the Collectors' mercy, but it was the right call. "Roger that Commander, over and out."
Jax heard the footsteps behind him and turned. It was Shepard and Garrus. They were both bloodied, their armour bearing a litany of new bullet scratches and breathing heavily, but they were otherwise fine. Bray and Anto were removed behind them. "It's over" Jax confirmed as their eyes fell upon Patriarch, or what was still left of him at this stage.
"What should we do with him?" Garrus asked, indicating the suffering krogan.
Jax looked back again, seeing Patriarch. He thought of all the dead needlessly harmed for Patriarch's thirst for power and vengeance, how many had suffered. He thought of his mother, clawing for breath as Patriarch turned off her environmental life support without a second thought. "Let him burn" he finally spoke.
Shepard felt uneasy at the sentiment. "Aria?"
The triumphant Pirate Queen of Omega's eyes were bright, both with pride and the reflections of the flames. "I couldn't have put it better myself" she replied.
"Are you okay?" Garrus asked Jax.
"I'm fine" Jax said, understanding Garrus' concern. "Whatever acts this mission now requires of me, I will commit without question." Life had taken plenty from Jax ever since Archangel's demise, but it had also given him things back as well, in the most unexpected of places. In this moment right now, there was plenty to mourn but with everything he had accomplished, Jax felt something strange; balance.