A/N:

I'm sorry to have delayed this. My back was somewhat better for a while, and has gone back to worse recently, and the end of last year was a mess. I've managed to put this chapter together, it's mostly a sort of 'how did we get to this mess' that the NEXT chapter will cover, the actual fighting.

Bonus if you can ID the game Avrensis was from without using the Internet.

Thanks to the Editing Gang for their usual bang-up job, and to several of them for pointing out much needed clarifications. They deserve more credit than I do.

As usual - go review Living an Indoctrinated Dream by Aberron and Total Eclipse: An Asari Commando Novel by RED78910.


'I'm never letting you drive again, Sheep. Death only made you drive crazier than before.'

- 'Archangel' to 'Butcher', during the Archangel's Ascent incident.


Lochinvar Avrensis did not, on most occasions, have much opportunity to reflect on what he did for a living.

A massive man, towering over most other humans, Avrensis was once heavily involved in shipping concerns. In his youth he'd studied all manner of computer technologies, and was the first to combine the concepts of espionage and corporate sabotage with shipping and hauling. He'd stir up rumors, plant evidence, hack records, and generate situations where his just-in-time fleet of small, nimble hauling vessels were perfectly placed to take advantage of it all.

His business and life had nearly ended when he had gotten tangled up in the fall of Tyriun no Kage, and had drawn the wrath of the Lords of Sol for aiding in the escape of no Kage's own information network. Yet despite being hounded by Commissars and other agents of the High Lords, he had managed to survive and even thrive by shifting himself to Omega, and his line of work to something besides shipping.

These days, Avrensis was commonly considered a hacker, but that term failed to encompass the totality of what he actually did. He was a hacker, an information broker, a technological assassin and most of all, an investigator. He solved or created problems as needed, put information from various networks together in one place, and most importantly, acted as a final line of defense of some of Omega's secrets.

His abilities were augmented by the cloud of near-AIs slaved to his systems called the Chorus, and it was only due to their constant work and his oversight that agencies like the asari Seekers or the Alliance's Silver Legions had not cracked Omega's cyberdefenses long ago.

Since he'd arrived on Omega he'd been an important factor in aiding Aria maintain her fractious control of the station, sniffing out plots. With the rise of the Shadows in Aria's standing he'd fallen out of favor in some ways, given his prices – but when the Shadows and its network of hackers had been utterly destroyed by Archangel, and the resulting data breach had threatened Aria, he'd found himself in work once more.

All in all, he considered himself fairly secure. While not indispensable by any means, being vital to Aria's interest was about the best one could hope for in her domain. That didn't make him any more comfortable around the asari. She was dangerous and simply too unpatterned and spontaneous for him to get a good read on, and more often than not the tasks she assigned him were equally dangerous. Worst of all, Aria simply had too many other irons in the fire for Avrensis to believe that, were he to become some sort of threat to her, she wouldn't simply act to have him removed.

Which meant, on occasion, he acted in ways counter to her interests, if it meant enhancing his own security, which lead to the conversation he was now engaged in. As he gazed sourly at the curvy figure of the asari across from his multi-tiered desk, however, he paused for a few seconds to remind himself that he got into these kinds of situations because he was the best at what he did, and that his security had a price.

His massive fingers plucked a fresh cigar from the cherry-wood box atop the desk, long practiced motions with the cybernetic thumb slicing the tip off before he lit it. He exhaled a cloud of smoke and leaned back, frowning. "I'm fully aware of the situation, I assure you. I've done what you've asked. Not that it was easy, mind you. Or safe. Aria tends to take a... dim view of certain activities."

Relli's Kiss leaned back against the wall of the small office space, glancing at the multitude of haptic screens hanging from the ceiling, or projecting from the desk itself. "If it was easy, I would have been able to do it myself. What have you found?"

The big man shrugged. "A number of things. I haven't pinned down who the Archangel is or his exact location... which in and of itself tells me several interesting facts. It means he has a very good hacker, that he didn't even start his activities until he was in a position to leave no traces of where he operated from, and most of all – your boogeyman is not some random hastitim who has lost his mind."

Relli's Kiss ran a hand over her crests. "What I need are specifics, human, not conjecture."

Avrensis sighed, tapping his computer. "Very well. I've examined all of the attacks so far. The vast majority of them occur in the upper parts of the Lowers, with small attacks in the Black Concourse itself. None of the attacks have taken place in the mining districts, the docks, or the Heights. Nor have there been any indications of operations in the older mining tunnels. That implies – given the lack of superstructure in the Heights and the old mining areas – that Archangel is definitely operating out of the Lowers."

The asari frowned. "And why not the mids?"

Avrensis tapped another control, displaying a wire-frame of the station. The outline glowed in red and silver, the lower sections of the station with large blank areas. "Simple. As you know, I have access to Aria's security networks. These include scanners at the transition tunnels and the main aircar traffic tunnels, optical cameras at most major intersections, and scanning systems at places of interest."

He gestured. "Since the mids connect to the docks, they are the most highly scanned and watched section of the station aside from the Black Concourse itself. There's no way he could operate there. From what I have been able to gather, there is only 8% coverage of the lowers and 25% of the Heights, but over 92% of the mids because they link to the docks."

Relli's Kiss nodded. "I see. But... he could still be operating from there, couldn't he?"

Avrensis shook his head. "No. There's simply nothing showing it. We have fragments of images of the Archangel in action in the Lowers. We have a partial scan of him when he hit the Black Concourse. We have that bit of footage when he hit the Heights. But not a single frame of him in the Mids. More importantly, the mids is fully known. We know all the buildings, all the warehouses, everything. Aria built it all out in the past fifty years."

He paused. "There is most certainly some kind of access path we're not seeing, which explains how he got into the Heights – but I doubt it could be big enough stage from." He tapped the map again, and it glowed where he tapped it.

"The Lowers? Less than 60% is fully mapped and known. There are older ruins near the Bottom, hundreds of old warehouses and other buildings that aren't on any maps, and so forth. I understand your people are telling you he has to be operating in the mids or out of the docks to receive external support, but there's simply nothing showing he's getting external support."

The Eclipse lieutenant folded her arms. "So how do you explain how he's been able to stay off the radar so cleanly? Where are his weapons coming from, that armor, his people?"

The big human suppressed a sigh, pulling up more figures. "Analysis of the hits has provided a great deal of information, most of which your people overlooked due to its disconnected nature. There are three things I looked at – the nature of the hits themselves, the ballistics reports, and the lack of physical evidence."

He folded his hands on his desk. "Whoever Archangel is, this is not some para-military operation, nor the work of a random nut. Military ops don't give a shit about 'evidence', they don't take into account how forensic analysis works, and they don't bother to cover their tracks this much – neither do hastitim. The nature of these attacks – from out of stealth, always either from sniping distance or close-range with surprise, using very heavy weapons – they probably sound like special ops."

He pulled up a map of the hits. "But on closer inspection, that falls apart. They are always careful to take shots where they rarely leave impact ballistics on walls or decking. With the exception of the blast at Vallus Towers, they have never – not once – even wounded innocents. They are paranoid about leaving behind any hint of physical evidence. And they know exactly how to avoid the standard monitoring sensors. That implies law enforcement, not soldiers."

Relli's Kiss gave a small laugh. "You're saying this is a cop?"

He shrugged. "I don't see any other method this could be happening by. I can't pin down much, but given the Archangel is supposedly turian, C-SEC fits the bill. Special Response, most likely." He tapped the desk again, bringing up reports of some kind.

"As to the evidence found, we only have the weakest of ballistics to go on. That is, due to a lack of hard impact sites, mostly inconclusive. However, based on the depth of impact, blood spatter and the like, I'm fairly certain that none of the weapons used in the hits were light."

She unfolded her arms. "Heavy weapons are expensive and hard to ship, and most require military training."

He nodded. "True. Our cop is probably also ex-military. But the only turians that are not "ex-military" are those still in it. And that's not the point. Heavy guns like Claymores, Widow Rifles, Revenants – whoever is using them had to have cybernetic augmentation. Not light shit, either – mil-spec, probably. They'd need regular maintenance at a full-service clinic. Unaugmented types simply can't fire these kinds of weapons with the accuracy we've seen."

He tapped a haptic screen. "There aren't too many full service cybernetic shops in the Lowers. Solus, but he's off-station – and there's a lot of traffic through there. Mithar. Halaksin, Ripper."

Avrensis puffed the cigar and offered a thin smile.

The asari inclined her head. "Interesting. My people will look into it... although Aria's greenshits are already watching the cyberdocs. I had wondered why... and that's just more proof he works for her. Anything else?"

He nodded. "I've run the numbers. I'm not sure what kind of suit the Archangel uses, but there aren't a ton of turian battle-suit pilots who then went into C-SEC that aren't active now. I've cross-referenced them and... well, there's a problem."

She frowned. "Problem?"

He exhaled. "Over a hundred matches, and they are all dead. Most of them died in the First Contact War and the rest died during the Benezia Incident or shortly thereafter. Six are still alive and I've hard-verified they are nowhere near Omega and never have been – more to the point, five of those six are Blue Suns and the last is in a hospital on the Citadel."

He placed an OSD on the desk. "This is what I've been able to compile. Your target is probably a younger turian with C-SEC experience. Definitely a sniper, and there is more than one shooter. They have at least two people with very good hacking abilities and some level of medical treatment or doctor capabilities. They're operating out of someplace off the main ways of the station, something defensible but with easy access to the unmapped outlying work spaces."

The asari took it and smiled. "I see. And my second request?"

Avrensis grimaced. "He's arriving in fifteen minutes at the docks, L-323. He has been doing some digging of his own, I believe."

The muscular asari pushed off the wall and tossed the big human a credit chip. "Your fee. And a bonus."

Avrensis arched an eyebrow and slotted it, then smiled. "...One more thing. Bonus for a bonus. I've heard chatter on the Broker Network that the Broker is... unhappy... with how things are transpiring here. He's sending in a Level 9 liquidation team lead by Tazzik to wipe the Archangel out."

Relli's Kiss laughed. "And he thinks Aria will let them aboard?"

Avrensis shrugged. "She let you lot aboard. To be honest, I'm not really able to talk about that except to say you should probably expect them to make it on board rather than not." His face was unexpressive, but Relli's Kiss could read between the lines well enough.

"I... see. In that case, I have someone to pick up and some explaining to do to my allies. We'll be in touch, human."

She left, and after a few minutes Avrensis touched his desk. "I need a team to field strip and search this facility. Once we're clean, move everything to Facility Six and booby-trap this place. You have fifteen minutes."

Avrensis then slotted an EMP charge into his computer stack, frying it, before getting up and heading out the door himself. He didn't trust Relli's Kiss not to sell him out or to place spy nano in his office and wasn't about to take chances that she'd been followed.

If you had enemies really out to kill you, after all, it wasn't really paranoia.

O-TWCD-O

Preparations at the base were moving at a frenetic pace as Shepard walked towards Operations. Another transport of crew – carefully vetted – had arrived, along with additional supplies. The pinnace they would use to travel to Omega was being refitted and prepped, and they'd be ready to launch in under two hours.

She entered operations, her mind mostly focused on the coming mess, and glanced over to find Trudy. "Any updates?"

The ex-AIS officer sighed and pulled up a mass of windows full of video and scrolling text. "They're closing in. Six skirmishes and firefights in the past day, most in the Lowers, the poorest part of Omega. From what we've seen they're flooding the area with everything – spectrals, hunting varren, omni-drones. They've offered not just bribes but a Blue Suns security force to protect the area from future gangs if people will give up information."

Shepard grimaced. "Wonderful. So getting to... wherever he is will be a cast iron bitch. What do you think our chances of getting an air-truck or two in there are?"

Trudy shook her head. "Hard to say. If Ms. Goto isn't exaggerating and she can get some kind of approval clearance from Aria herself... it should, in theory, be easy. But we've been monitoring comms as closely as we can. And while nothing hard has gone out the Blue Suns have mobilized almost fifteen percent of their manpower and hardware in the past seventy-two hours, and Eclipse units answering to the lieutenant on Omega have responded heavily as well."

Shepard nodded slowly, then shrugged. "Ooookay. And... sorry? Not seeing the importance, except that we have more dirtbags to shoot on our way in and out."

Trudy gave a thin, hard smile. "Aria has traditionally prevented large amounts of heavy ordnance and manpower not under her control to enter Omega, and since the Burning has been very hard line on controlling the number of warships in strike range of the station. The Archangel, however, has so infuriated them that they basically gave her an ultimatum – let us clean him out or we take our gangs off this station and do business with one of your warlords and rivals."

Shepard folded her arms. "That sounds like Aria may be a bit upset with these gangs... and probably Archangel too, if she ended up letting them on board."

Trudy nodded. "And I'm worried the situation may get worse if things go like I think they will." She smiled. "So... with that in mind, I had an idea I wanted to run past you."

Shepard held up a hand. "Tell you what. I'm going to see how Goto is doing in medical – they said she'd be good for walking at least. I'll get Miranda, Dr. Solus and Goto, and we'll meet you in the ops meeting room. Pull what you need together to fully plan the op and we'll brief everyone at once."

Trudy nodded, and Shepard tapped her omni. "Lawson. Ops has a possible strike plan. I need you to gather Mr. Pressly and Doctor Solus and meet me in Ops Planning, I'm going to get Goto. Status on the Normandy?"

Miranda's voice was a touch tired sounding. "According to Pressly and Tali'Zorah, it's... acceptable. There were some internal shock damage readings from taking STS missiles back on Korlus, and Tali is still in the outer pressure hull with Kiala looking to see if there was any separation between the hull and the Silaris plating. Functionally the ship is fine and has been re-armed."

Shepard nodded."Go ahead and prep to leave in a few hours. Things are getting hot and ugly on Omega and it won't be long before they localize this Archangel, and then he's going to be paste. I'd rather have him out of there before the place goes up in flames."

Miranda's voice was droll. "Trust me, Shepard, so would I. The last Burning was chaotic enough. Meet you in five."

She clicked off even as she headed for the elevators to medical, tapping a different line on her omni-tool to switch commlink channels. "Doctor Sedanya?"

"Here, Shepard."

Shepard entered the elevator, the bone-white and black framed doors swished shut behind her silently, as she tapped her destination. "I'm headed your way now – we're going to have to get moving on the Omega situation and we need some input from Ms. Goto. How's she doing?"

Sedanya's voice was calm."For the most part, surprisingly well. I removed all bone shards and did what I could with regenerators and cultured smart-tape wraps made of her own cells, but to be honest, I'd be happier if I went with cybernetic replacement for the whole leg. There's minor necrosis in a couple of places I had to clear out with laser scalpels and the femoral artery still has weakened walls. One of the main valves in the saphenous vein is also not working, so her blood flow is off."

Shepard grunted as the elevator stopped and opened out into the lab. "Right over my head, doc. Can she walk?"

A hesitation, then Sedanya spoke. "Yes. Carefully."

Shepard sighed. "Put her in a lift chair, then. I'll be there in twenty seconds."

O-TWCD-O

Ten minutes later, Shepard sat down at the rich conference table with a fresh mug of real coffee and glanced around. Trudy sat towards the middle of the table, inputting data into her portable comp unit.

Goto was still in a lift chair. Wearing a loose black shirt and without her hood made her look smaller and younger, her eyes wide and flitting over everything.

Solus had set his coat aside, showing he wore a one-piece white bodysuit with integrated armor panels and instruments in the arms, and was flitting through a pad rapidly.

Pressly and Miranda sat side by side, the older man frowning at something Miranda was showing him on a larger padd, some kind of wire-frame.

Finally, at the end of the table, Zaeed Massani lounged back, adjusting something in the wrist section of his cybernetic arm with a small metal tool.

Shepard sipped the coffee and smiled faintly. "Alright." She glanced at Trudy. "As I said, we need to prep on hitting Omega and getting Archangel out. Normally, that wouldn't be an issue, but according to Trudy, there's now a station wide manhunt going on and way more Blue Suns, Eclipse, and Blood Pack than there were two weeks ago."

She leaned back slightly. "We need to figure out how to do this, and Trudy says she has an idea, so..."

The ex-AIS agent gave a nod and tapped a control on her comp, displaying a crisp shaded wire-frame of Omega. "Based on what bits of information Doctor Solus has given us as well as what we've monitored from the Blue Suns comm network, it is our belief that Archangel is operating in one of the three Lowers 'zones' of Omega – Gozu, Vefu, or Niftu."

Pressly arched an eyebrow. "Lowers?"

Trudy nodded. "Omega is split into five sections. The base – these jutting towers – are the Lowers, sometimes called the Bottoms or the Pits. Poorly mapped and even more poorly maintained, they are residential, bulk warehousing and urban industrial districts. Above them is a band of asteroidal rock worked into docking ports and warehouses known as the Mids. The actual docking creches and piers extend out from the Mids, and the Mids has a small residential section – mostly for ship merchant captains and highly paid specialists."

"Above the Mids is the Heights, these more modern towers and constructions you see below the asteroidal cap. This is where the higher-class residents of Omega stay, as well as most of the commercial districts and what passes for tourism sections are. Above that, from a flat plate at the base of the asteroidal cap and mining throughout its bulk is the Mining District – where they mine eezo, bauxite, iron, and where most heavy industry is done. These long piers are shipbuilding creches."

The middle of the wire-frame flared. "In the middle of all of this is a thick band of armored metal – according to the scans the AIS did of it a few years back, the material is the same stuff the Citadel is made out of. No one is sure who built it originally. The mining operations and most of the rest of the baseline construction was done during the Prothean era, but dating this stuff shows it to be a lot older - millions of years older. It's practically impenetrable to direct attack - and most efforts to take it apart to make armor out of it failed as well."

Shepard arched an eyebrow, thinking about the process Trellani described in how her warp sword of such metal was formed. "Yeah, the stuff is very tough. But if it really is the same, then that implies the Reapers made it. No one ever fucking investigated this?"

Trudy shrugged. "From what I understand the original scouts who found Omega were not from the Council, but turian exiles. The primary interest in Omega for many years was the easy to mine eezo... and then the outcasts were overrun by pirates who took the place as a stronghold. I'm not sure when they found the Black Concourse, but it was certainly during the aftermath of the krogan Rebellions."

Mordin nodded. "STG had strong interest in Concourse. Sent several teams in centuries ago. Most technology stripped, entire areas heavily damaged. More interested in what damaged metal than contents." He paused. "Citadel sent Spectes and STG teams at intervals to investigate, but nothing of use found. When Aria took over...teams investigating killed, sent back in pieces."

Shepard shook her head. "You're telling me the goddamned Council let a bunch of pirates simply hold onto a Prothean mining station with tons of eezo and possible ancient tech? And then when Aria took over just let her HAVE it?"

Miranda gave a sour nod. "The Council put a moratorium on many types of research and expansion after the Second Rebellions, and the number of outcasts generated by the last of the Unification Wars in turian space was... not small. Capturing Omega would have required a full military invasion from the turian, asari and salarian fleets and horrendous casualties."

Trudy nodded. "There's also evidence the AIS found that - at least until Aria came along - the Council had a cozy relationship with the krogan who ran the place. Certainly they preferred to have criminals and the like in the Terminus and harassing independant asari, turian or other colonies than in the Black Rim or the inner sectors."

Shepard shook her head again. "Shit like this is why I worry about the Council being fucking indoctrinated." She paused. "Mordin, what kind of crap is in there?"

The doctor sighed. "Currently, residences and business. Gambling, nightclubs, bars, and drug dens. Very upscale, high security. Many sections sealed and closed by Aria."

Kasumi nodded. "Afterlife, in particular, is very controlled - no one gets past the third floor. I've tried getting into the sealed sections, but most of them are under hard vacuum. The few I got into are full of machinery and lots and lots of Aria's green-armored troops."

Trudy shrugged. "In any event, we're not going anywhere NEAR the Black Concourse in person, so it really doesn't matter, except in how the station is laid out."

She ran a finger along its length on the wire-frame. "The Black Concourse runs from the Mining area HQ to the very bottom of the Mids, and inside it is where the truly wealthy and powerful stay – like a dark version of the Presidium. It's basically a damned city in and of itself, and at the center is a seventeen story armored command center that doubles as a nightclub where Aria rules from - Afterlife, which Ms. Goto referred to earlier."

She exhaled. "As I said, all information we have so far indicates Archangel is operating somewhere in the Lowers. As of this morning, all searches for him in other areas of Omega suddenly stopped, so someone knows something."

Trudy bit her lip and continued. "As I was explaining to Shepard, due to the fact that Archangel has hurt them so badly, the Big Three – Blue Suns, Blood Pack, and Eclipse – demanded Aria let them hunt Archangel and bring in additional forces to do so or they'd leave to work for another warlord."

Zaeed made a dismissive tsking sound. "Bint should have let them go. But I'm guessin' she didn't, didn't want to look weak?"

Trudy nodded. "Correct. Instead she allowed them to bring in over five thousand additional troops, heavy armored vehicles, battle-suits, even combat gunships."

Solus looked up frowning, and Goto sat up straight, then winced. Shepard merely looked confused. "It's one guy, or a best a band of guys. They need a goddamned army to stop him?"

Goto smiled wanly. "Archangel has massacred more gangers and mercs in the past year and a half than anybody else but you, and without a starship. For seven months he was killing ten or more every single day, and when he took down the Twelve Bells he killed off two thousand mercenaries, bangers and slavers in a single night with three bombs and crashing an eezo transport. And they're going to be gunning for him on his home turf."

Miranda sniffed. "I begin to see more clearly why the Illusive Man is so highly impressed by him. But if that is the situation, then I assume Aria thinks these extra forces will be slaughtered by Archangel and thus no threat?"

Trudy nodded. "Most likely she's gambling on that. Except it may not be a safe gamble. Most of the thugs Archangel has run through have not been the elites. The smaller gangs he took out, like the Bells and Talons, were hardly using military hardware, and his attacks against stronger forces have been assassinations, not open fights. If they can localize Archangel and pin him with gunships and battle-suits he's going to die."

Shepard glanced at Pressly. "Thoughts?"

He folded his hands together. "I think the situation is a pretty big mess. My main concern is how much this will affect us being able to rescue him. Even if we went in with everything we had we couldn't crack Omega's defenses, so we'll have to sneak in and out. Ms. Goto says she can get us in with the help of Aria... but if these people are going to try and take her down later, that may in and of itself make us a target."

Shepard nodded and looked back at Trudy. "Is that going to be an issue?"

Trudy shrugged. "It might. Depends... mostly on how quick the gangs plan to pivot on trying to take her out. The comms intercepts we've detected don't show any sort of pre-planning for that... but Tarek, the local Blue Suns commander, is well known for being able to reorient his forces rapidly."

Zaeed shook his head. "Aria, the old girl, has gone dumb in her old age if she let Tarek run around with that many men to play with. He and Aria never did get along, and God knows who is running the Eclipse now."

Trudy shrugged. "Our comms indicate it's Relli's Kiss."

Zaeed grimaced. "Christ and Victor in a guddamned sidecar, this is gunna be bloodier than fucking Gravalax. Relli's Kiss is so fucking crazy even Jona Sederis thinks she's loony."

Shepard arched an eyebrow. "I'm not up on Omega... politics... so the issue is... what?"

Solus blinked rapidly. "Blue Suns antagonistic at best to Aria. Dislike policies, feel restrained in operating in Terminus Systems, family conflict with Aria's servant batarian families. Aria careful until now – especially after Burning – to keep local forces low. Small numbers. Not a threat."

He glanced at the wire-frame. "In current situation, sufficient numbers of soldiers to overpower Aria, take station. Relli's Kiss member of ancient asari death cult, unlikely to back down. Aria cannot back down or loses mystique." He inhaled sharply. "Situation unlikely to remain calm."

Shepard shrugged. "So Trudy said. I still don't see the problem. If there's chaos of that level aboard, won't it be easier to sneak past?"

This time Goto shook her head. "No, Taicho. It's not just the fighting. Both P. and the Broker have been eyeing Omega for... decades. So have other warlords who only serve Aria reluctantly. It has been a delicately balanced house of cards for some time now, and it almost toppled in the first Burning."

She made a wavy gesture with her hands, eyes bright. "Now, the myth of Aria's invulnerability is gone, and if the gangs find Archangel and proof he was working for Aria, the entire Terminus will go up in a civil war. The Citadel will get involved, the Broker will get involved..."

Solus nodded. "And completely disrupt and distract from Collector issue." He exhaled. "If Archangel found, doesn't matter who he worked for. Suns will generate proof, topple Aria. Suspect Eclipse will not go along at that point. Broker likely to get involved. P. also. Chaos. And if warlords unite behind different groups... war."

Shepard frowned. "So... Trudy?"

The agent nodded. "Aria is NOT stupid. She knows this – she probably knew it the minute she approved them to bring on more people. She's going to be holed up deep in some bunker in the Black Concourse and gathering her people together to fight them off. At the same time, she really can't afford to let this revolution even happen."

Trudy glanced at Goto. "If we can get in contact with her, removing Archangel from play entirely and having the Butcher be seen as allied to him or even in charge of him would pull pressure off of her. Right now, the Terminus thinks Aria is using Archangel to winnow out threats, and he's been clever to stage things to go along with that. Aria has stated more than once she's not using him, but people won't believe that. If the Butcher shows up and pulls him out, though, people will start saying maybe he was just there to cause trouble – to turn people against Aria."

She smiled. "As a bonus, if we kill off enough of their leaders the whole plan to attack Aria will probably fall apart and she will owe us. And with those leaders weakened and Aria in power once more, that means we might be able to parlay her owing us one into something useful – Aria, according to rumors, hates the Collectors... and at some point we'll be coming back to that system to take them down."

Shepard sighed. "Okay, so that's the... what, political half of this mess? We're still at a big fat zero on how to find this guy before the gangbangers post him up. Thoughts?"

Trudy shrugged. "We could always have Goto ask Aria. She might have more information about Archangel – and even if it's dangerous for her to guarantee our safety in the Bottoms, surely she can get us information or maps about how to get into the districts without having to fight our way past gangers."

Goto scratched her head. "Aria-dono dislikes having to deal from a position of weakness and will usually refuse to do so."

Trudy nodded. "Yes – unless there is no choice and refusal leads to a worse result, which is what the gangs did to her. We only have to spin this as where she wins no matter what outcome happens."

Shepard sighed. "And there's no way we can take better advantage of this mess to get Archangel out? Turn them against Aria now rather than later?"

Goto and Solus both shook their heads, the thief speaking. "The amount of hate – and fear – the gangers have for the Archangel is... scary. Like I said, he killed literally thousands of them, Taicho. He made them look weak – and he killed many of them mockingly. They have lost their pride and if they don't kill him now they are terrified they'll be next. I think most also are convinced he is working for Aria... so they have to put him down first before going after her."

Shepard grimaced. "Fuck. Fine." She glanced at Pressly and Miranda. "If this is going to be as stupid as I suspect it is, we're going to have to fight our way in, assess the situation, medevac the wounded, and hold the gangs off long enough to get out. We can load up the pinnace with combat robots, for more ground firepower, but we won't have any other real support coming with us. So wherever this mess goes down, we have to have a way to get in and out quickly."

Miranda nodded. "Do we have any good idea of where Archangel actually is? Even which district?"

Trudy shook her head. "No. Blue Suns are moving in more people to Niftu, they've pretty much gone top to bottom over Vefu already. Gozu is a harder slog because some of the local gangs are saying the Suns and Blood Pack are using this as an excuse to grab territory."

Solus spread his hands. "Archangel unlikely to operate in Gozu. Clinic there, know district well. Interactions with his people always done at clinic... poor tradecraft to operate from same district."

He paused. "Cybernetics in people I worked on for Archangel often turian style augments. Likely work of Ripper, turian doc. Lives in Vefu. Might have connection."

Shepard exhaled. "Alright, if that's the only possible lead we have we'll have to go with it. Vigil?"

The sphere popped into existence. "Ah, a delightful gathering of the droll. What menial task have you found for me to do now, meatbag?"

She rolled her eyes. "We need to find Archangel on Omega. The only lead we have is a cybernetic doctor know by the nickname Ripper."

The sphere pulsed and a few seconds later pulsed again, rippling and deforming into a sheet of metallic mist that slowly coalesced into the profile of a turian with wide plates, thin mandibles and a cybernetic eye attachment of some kind. "Ripper. Garask Vialokian is his actual name. Served for forty seven years as a maintenance tech and forward combat engineer for the Final Line before discharged after severe injuries in conflicts with the Blood Pack. Retired to Omega almost fifteen years ago and operates a low-cost cybernetics maintenance clinic in the Vefu district. Records indicate he was relatively high in the meritocracy for a self-educated cybernetic doctor."

She nodded. "Can you get us a commlink, secure?"

The mist collapsed into a sphere. "I can attempt it. Omega's networks are a warzone and filled with enough black datatraps and AI logic bombs to be a challenge." There was a few seconds of silence, and then Vigil's voice sounded again, dripping with contempt.

"There's some kind of peyote-smoking primitive data tap on his comm lines. How quaint. Mm. Oops. Think I just killed some hacker."

Pressly shot Shepard an alarmed glance. She merely sighed. "Well?"

Vigil pulsed. "The connection is ready – voice only, and make it quick. It won't be too long before someone notices you've commed this person and then his life will be very short indeed."

She glanced at Mordin. "You've met him? Do the talking."

Mordin glanced around, then made a slight motion of surprise as the sphere pulsed. "Ripper."

"Ah, yes. This is Doctor Mordin Solus, from the Gozu Clinic."

The gritty voice on the other end gave a rusty sort of chuckle. "You've been gone a while, doc. Things have... gotten pretty bad. I had a referral from that case I sent you, old friend of yours, he's in a bad way. Infection."

Mordin's eyes narrowed. "I see. En route back to Omega now. Need location to... perform house call."

There were long seconds of silence. "That's... a problem. Be a vakar's hinds to get him to your place, true, but... pay me a visit when you get here and we'll talk."

Solus glanced at Shepard, who nodded. "Yes. Tomorrow. I may have friends who wish to help with your situation – and my friend's boss."

The voice on the other end took a hard note. "Let's talk face to face bout it first. Ripper out."

Vigil killed the signal. "...I do not think anything on Omega could have detected that, but as a precaution I am attempting to sow chaos in some of the Blue Suns datanets."

Shepard nodded. "Can you get anything from the networks from here?"

Vigil pulsed slightly. "Bits. All of the surveillance is mostly laser, fiber or optronics, so no remote hacks are possible. I'm all over the station nodes of the extranet but all of the gang sites are hardened. I could break in very easily, but while I can stop them from stopping me I can't stop them from noticing such a thing... and killing the remote link physically."

Shepard nodded. "Keep to a quiet role and see if you can pull up anything – security cams, rumors, crap on boards, whatever." She glanced at Trudy. "So, here's our plan, then. We leave as soon as we can move – load the pinnace with medical equipment and combat bots. Transition to Omega, Normandy follows full stealth."

Shepard glanced around. "By the time we get to Omega, they'll either have found him... or they won't. If it's the former, then we go with the plan." She glanced at Goto. "You get Aria to at least let us dock somewhere and scare up at least two, preferably three air transports – box trucks, haulers, whatever. While you do that, Mordin will make contact with this Ripper guy to try to get us a location. If possible, get him the fuck out of there if he is part of Archangel's team."

She paused. "Grunt will go with you to help keep you safe."

Turning to Miranda, she smiled. "You will be the rep to talk to Aria along with Goto about getting more intel or a clean path to whatever district he's operating out of, and to let us get him out. If she wants cash throw it at her."

She leaned back. "Once we get the vehicles and Mordin is back with us, we go in. We'll assess what the fuck we're going to do once we're on site and see the situation, but the simple method is to go with two teams. One team – myself, Grunt, Zaeed, Tali, and Jack – will go out into a different district and start fucking with the gangs. Once they realize the Butcher is on the station they will go apeshit."

Zaeed snorted. "Understatement of the year."

"While we're doing that, Mordin, Sedanya, and the rest of you will focus on getting to Archangel and getting him out on the pinnace. We'll draw the rest of the gangs towards the docks and the Normandy will pick us up in shuttles while spraying the area with GARDIAN fire to keep shit off of us, then immediately go stealth."

She exhaled. "That's if things go good. If they don't, then by the time we get to Archangel he'll already be under attack. In that case, we don't need his location. Goto will comm Aria to see what she can do and if we can get our hands on air transports. We'll move to the location via those transports."

Shepard paused to think, and then nodded to herself. "We'll have three teams. One team is heavy assault. That's going to be myself, Grunt, Zaeed, and the two DACT. We go in first, draw the enemy attention and do as much damage as possible."

"Second team is support team. Miranda, you'll lead that, with the rest of the Marines, Tali, Kiala, Dost, Jacob and a bunch of the mechs. You are to get into wherever Archangel is making his stand and reinforce his position, and make it secure for us to fall back. The engineers will setup omni-screens, turrets, drones, mines – anything to make it harder."

Shepard glanced at Mordin. "Doctor, you and Sedanya, with a minor handful of remaining bots, will be the medevac team. Stabilize and treat whoever is wounded and get them out. Jack will be with you to cover you if things get hairy."

She turned back to Pressly. "I need a very high explosive eezo-fuel-air bomb ready to go – that will be our goodbye card. The plan is simple – we go in, assault team hits, support team digs in while the medics prep any wounded for evac. Assault falls back while the support team opens up with suppressive fire, and we set the bomb. Robots stay behind to cover the evac as we pile in – Archangel's people take the place of the bots in the trucks we use to get there – and we pull off."

Her fist fell on the table. "The bomb goes off along with the self-destructs of the bots, wiping any evidence and hopefully killing more of the fuckers."

Miranda nodded. "What if Archangel has already prepared an exit strategy? What if he refuses to cooperate?"

Shepard shrugged. " Look. I don't know all the angles going down on Omega, but I do know when a guy starts a fight like that, he isn't worried about how to live past the finale. I'm thinking they don't have a good way out that they're willing to take, or that they don't have a way out at all. If they want to all fucking die fighting slavers then there isn't much we can do about it except pull out and try not to get killed, but let's hope it doesn't come to that sort of shit."

Pressly nodded slowly. "Another concern is extracting if the situation is hot. Even with a big bomb they will pursue the air transports... and Aria is unlikely to appreciate us crashing the docks in either scenario."

Shepard nodded. "I expect getting OUT is going to be complete fucking fun. I'm hoping Vigil will be able to fuck up enough things and hack enough stuff to get us a way out – if not, I'm not beyond shooting my way into the first ship I see and blasting it out to get in range of the Normandy. Once we're aboard the stealth system should let us get away clean."

Zaeed chuckled. "Risky, bloodthirsty, crazy. Works for me." He glanced up. "A lot of the Suns – and probably the Eclipse girls – will not even want to try to take on the Archangel and the Butcher, not even tossing me into the guddamned mix. You may wanna toss one of your scary ass videos into the extranet as we go in."

Shepard nodded. "Objections? Thoughts?"

Trudy shrugged. "It's not the most elegant operations plan I've seen, but we are hardly working with a clean environment."

Shepard nodded. "Alright, let's get moving then – I want to be ready go to in no more than two hours from now. Pressly, have Joker test all the combat systems and swap our stock missiles out for suppressive shrapnel STG missiles."

Pressly nodded, and Shepard stood. "Let's get to work."

O-TWCD-O

Tarek folded his arms and looked out over the expanse of the Lowers, frowning slightly. "Still nothing?"

Next to him, Jentha shook her head. "Nothing since this morning, when Vren's team fell out of contact and we found them down by the entrance to Gozo in pieces. This is a nightmare. We've lost sixty fucking scouts and the day isn't even over yet."

He nodded, picking up the magnoculars and looking out again, scanning the air-car traffic pattern with a critical eye. "The fucking trackers are useless. The varren aren't picking up a scent." He lowered the device, eyes narrowed. "Which only means his flunkies must not be operating openly anymore."

Jentha opened her mouth to speak when there was an explosion in the distance. Tarek's head snapped in that direction as he tapped his omni-tool. "Report!"

There was an agonizing scream and the sound of more explosions, before a panicked voice broke in on the comm channel. "He's here! He's here! Vetha and Corsus by the water exchangers! We can't – "

Another explosion, and the signal cut out. He stepped down from the railing, down to the makeshift haptic-top operations table. He tapped the location and looked at the readouts of his nearby forces.

Jentha bit her lower lip. "Too far out, sir. Nearest squads are ten minutes away..."

He growled and nodded. "I know. Damn him. We've been at this shit a week, and even if we've slowed him down we still haven't stopped him. And we're losing money every day – we had to cancel six contracts to bring in enough people and equipment."

He glanced up as a pair of sleek aircars touched down near his open-top APC, the form of Relli's Kiss stepping out. The asari was dressed in her usual body-hugging leathers, her eezo whip curled around her right arm. She was accompanied by, strangely enough, a salarian in a long black leather coat, with his eyes concealed behind a wraparound visor.

He toggled the back ramp, and she walked up the narrow ramp into the top section, giving him an appraising look that never failed to make his skin crawl. "We heard the explosions... what's the damage?"

Tarek glanced over to the table, shrugging. "Another squad. Down by the water pumps, there's enough catwalks and dark areas there that you could hide for days and not get caught. He's just fucking with us now."

She gave him a narrow smile. "Well, we've had enough of his antics. We've put together enough pieces of the puzzle that I'm confident we can pin him down a bit better now. And since we're going up against a killer..." She gestured to the salarian next to her. "...We've brought our own heavy hitters."

Tarek grunted. "A salarian?"

The salarian gave a shallow bow, his voice deeper and somehow smoother than most salarians. "Yes. My name is Shift."

Tarek managed not to recoil. Shift was a terrifyingly famous biotic assassin, exiled from salarian space and the STG for crimes unknown. A master of biotic 'waking meditation', Tarek had seen videos of some of his work, especially one where he'd battled and destroyed a heavy armored gunship with nothing more than biotics and acrobatics. Many considered him nearly as dangerous as Tyriun no Kage back in the days when that monster still lived.

"I... see. This is good. Although I was under the impression you worked for the Citadel Legion of the Blue Suns, not Eclipse."

The salarian shrugged. "Ginnister Vosque did not want to pay my rates... and he has taken in Vido Santiago. I do not think that is a wise choice of actions, given our old friend Zaeed's likely reaction. I frankly grow tired of the day-to-day grind of mercenary works, as like to be challenged as well... hunting the Archangel himself is a good final act before I retire from this business, I think."

Tarek snorted. "And how would you plan to hunt him? We've had chemical sniffers, hunting varren, hackers, packs of wandering patrols, even some Eclipse joy girls sleeping about looking for rumors. We have found nothing."

Shift tilted his head. "You are playing his game. He wants you to look, to spread out, so that you are vulnerable. He is known to be operating in a sealed environmental suit, so you cannot track him. He has to have associates who do not have access to such, or who are distinctive enough to be remembered, and the fact that you have not found them means they are being careful or remaining at where they are based out of."

Tarek growled. "Yes, I know this."

The salarian shrugged. "But you are overlooking something more fundamental."

Tarek folded his arms. "And what is that?"

Shift gave a thin twitch of the mouth that might be a smile. "The nature of his terror. The main reason the Archangel has been so successful is due to that battle armor he wears. No one has really lived long of enough to get a good look at it, but the Blue Suns did manage to put together some minor footage of the suit in action."

Shift lifted his arm, tapping his omni-tool. "I had a chat with an old turian battle-suit pilot. From the bits of footage we have, he believes the Archangel is using some kind of heavily modified SKYTALON battle-suit. The standard weapons load is missing, and it has clearly been upgraded for urban operations."

Tarek rubbed at his scalp. "And that tells me what? He's some Deathwatch assassin?"

Shift shook his head and gestured. "Not at all. The Deathwatch wouldn't use such a thing. This appears to be a custom job – hardly surprising, as such suits do not come out of nowhere. There is a manufacturer that alters them for certain... special uses."

Relli's Kiss spoke. "My own sources say that whoever is doing this is more likely law enforcement than pure military. The attention paid to the evidence left behind and the not killing civilians parts point to that. Deathwatch could care less about casualties."

Tarek glanced at Relli's Kiss, then back at Shift. "A cop. Huh. That... explains a few things." He frowned. "When you say special... what kind of special?"

The salarian glanced down. "The rumors place the work as something done for P. We can't confirm that. We do know, however, that the manufacturer was investigated about two years ago, several non-turians working in the company were indicted and executed for smuggling some of the suits out of the Hierarchy to 'criminal elements' for resale."

Tarek narrowed his eyes. "And you think the Archangel is using one such suit?"

Shift nodded. "My own research shows that at least one merchant in the network of Edat Kurass was known to have such an item. I'm still having data trawls run on his purchases, but one thing is very clear – he WAS on Omega."

He tapped a final set of control on his omni. "Once I have a name we can see if anything turns up about his operations or properties. He was rumored to have kept himself legally clean... so I doubt he was one of the Archangel's victims. So either he sold this to the Archangel... or he died and the Archangel found it. Either way, if we can locate him and his property we will have a good lead to investigate."

Tarek nodded. "...That is a good line of inquiry." He glanced over at Relli's Kiss. "Any more surprises?"

She shrugged. "A few. The hacker I spoke to is convinced that Archangel and his team have cybernetics, because the weapons they use are so heavy. That means he needs a professional cyber doc, and there are not many in the lowers. Aria's been watching them closely, and I suspect we need to take a look at them ourselves."

Tarek nodded. "Huh. Makes sense. Solus, you think?"

She shook her head. "Solus left off-station a while back and still isn't here, and he is very high profile and visible. I doubt it. It's one of the chopshops, probably Halaskin given how much he had problems with the Shadows back in the day. Ripper and Mithar both have the Blue Kiss, so it's harder to bust them up and ask them questions."

Tarek shrugged. "I'm not really worried about a few greensuits. Anything else?"

She smirked. "Yes, actually. Apparently the Shadow Broker has an interest in this mess as well. He's sending a wetwork team to Omega... lead by none other than Tazzik himself."

Tarek's eyes widened. "...By the Pillars. Is he insane? Aria will – "

Relli's Kiss snorted. "Aria can go warp herself. We all know damned good and well Archangel works for her. It's fucking obvious. That should tell you just what she has planned for us in the long run. I say why wait? The Broker doesn't turn on his own people, the Broker pays well and above all else the Broker has no interest in trying to run Omega – too open for his taste."

She gestured around. "And we both know the Blood Pack's days are limited. Jona hates them, Okeer is fucking dead, and Wrex is taking charge on Tuchanka. This station is ours, if we just take it."

Tarek frowned. "That's still easier said than done. Aria has a lot of power. I've gone along with this idea of yours, but none of the warlords have responded."

The asari's smirk only widened. "Yes... but with the Archangel dead and exposed... and with us having a good excuse to bring a lot of extra manpower and equipment to Omega... we have a window to strike. The warlords are still leery after the Burning, and they're not going to take a stand until they see we have a chance." She smiled wider still. "And Aria has no idea my girls are inside her dancers."

Tarek said nothing, but merely turned to look out over the broken urban landscape of the Lowers. "...Let's concentrate on taking down Archangel first, then we'll see where we stand. I'm certainly not opposed to the idea. But Archangel is costing me too much to ignore. Despite your confidence in the forces we have, I don't think he's going to go down quietly and quickly enough for us to just take Aria out in the aftermath."

Relli's Kiss caressed the length of her eezo whip and gave him a smile. "Leave that part of it to me. You focus on bringing down the Archangel - you are correct, he is the more significant threat. When it comes time for us to consider our next steps, we'll see how much we have left to fight with."

Tarek didn't know what worried him more - the fact that she was making rational sense or the way she was stroking that eezo whip.

O-TWCD-O

Garrus lurched to a stop inside the small bay where he got out of the SKYTALON, blinking fatigue out of his eyes. Melenis was quiet as she helped him to sit down and began unbolting the shoulders of the suit, grimacing at the blood spattered over everything. "Bad?"

He gave a weak nod. "Took some pretty hard hits this time. Without cover fire from snipers and hackers keeping the drones off me, things are rougher." He winced as she pulled the shoulder sections off, reaching up to his neck to rub where the helmet chafed.

Melenis knelt to work on the leg segments. "Butcher put out another video. Angel thinks you need to see it."

Garrus flicked a mandible. "What did she blow up now?"

Melenis smiled faintly. "That's just it. Nothing yet. Here." She tapped her omni, triggering a small view-screen on the wall, while she moved behind him to unhook the arms.

The video, like all of the Butcher's videos, was crisp and free of any distortion. It showed what looked like standard security cam footage – from inside the Black Promenade, some distance from Afterlife.

"You think that you are winning, scum of Omega. You think that you have harried the Archangel enough that you can kill him, if only enough of you cowards can gather in one place and cease pissing yourselves in fear long enough to actually pull a trigger rather than drown in your own blood for once."

The image shifted, to one of several figures in an open-top APC... who looked alarmed after seeing himself on the broadcast, and then looked right at the camera. The Butcher's voice was chilling and taunting. "I see you."

"I am coming."

"I have slain Okeer, who died like a whelp, unable to beat an asari in single combat, I put your Last Stop to the torch, killing thousands, I put three hundred thousand to the sword and orbital bombardment on Umlor. If you think your pathetic few thousands on Omega stand a chance, stay and fight me. If not …"

"Run while you can. The Archangel tried to bring you justice, and a chance to turn from your vileness. I only bring you death."

Garrus leaned forward, as Melenis pulled the chest section away, then stood to step out of the rest of the suit. "I'm not sure if that is a good or bad thing, to be honest."

Melenis lifted the first of the armor pieces up, carrying it to the sonic sink. "If she's coming here, and she knows we're in trouble...she might be able to help us."

He grunted. "Maybe. I don't have a good feel for her motivations…"

Angel's voice broke in over the commlink. "Garrus, when you get unsuited, come to the comms room. It's Ripper."

Garrus tapped his omni-tool. "On my way." He glanced over his shoulder at Melenis, then headed off in the direction of the comms room.

The former warehouse had been segmented and reinforced over the past year, and more heavily in the past three months. The basement – mostly storage areas – had been sealed with heavy blockades of metal and concrete and turned into a workshop and armory. The main floor had a series of heavy barricades and an entry tunnel with switch backs for defense, opening into a main common area with a kitchen and eating area off to the left.

As he came up out of the basement and past the kitchen, he saw the rest of the first floor. The far side was taken up mostly by doors leading to small living areas and the couches and haptic screen in the main common area. He took the staircase up to the second floor, which was split between the medical area, the comms and sensor lab, and an upper room overlooking the approach bridge that was a mix of lounge and possible sniper perch.

The comms lab was, as usual, full of hacking equipment, bits of computers, comms gear and the like. Weaver sat in front of one bank of haptic screens, working on something in code, while Vortash and Butler were adjusting something on the big comms array setup.

Angel stood in front of the comms screen, frowning. Garrus noticed the man's thin beard had gone almost totally white in the past year, and new lines and wrinkles marred his forehead and the flesh around his eyes.

"I'm here. What have you got?"

Angel nodded briskly. "New set of comm intercepts for one – the Eclipse is bringing heavy hitters. The only one we've got hard ID on now is a salarian mystic and biotic named Shift. Very dangerous, definitely more than Melenis or Mierin can handle in a biotic fight."

Garrus nodded. "How bad is it? I just got back from a long run in Gozu again, took out most of their scout teams."

Angel shrugged. "Bad. We've gone over the bridge with enough ammonia and pine oil that there's no trace... but sooner or later they'll review the maps of where they have looked and start poking around where they haven't. I figure... three days, max. Vefu is almost completely searched, and given how hard you're hitting them in Gozu that will probably be next, but they have a LOT of people now."

Angel pulled up an image on the screen, that of an old model turian battle-suit. "They also have six old RAPTORFALL suits. Not anywhere near as tough as your SKYTALON, but there's six of them and they all have heavy weapons. We've seen snippets of comms that suggest they also have some heavy mechs and Tarek brought along a damned heavy gunship."

Garrus nodded. "...I can probably bring down two or three of those battle-suits, but if it turns into a running fight with all six they can take me apart." He sighed. "And the escape plan?"

Angel grimaced. "It still doesn't look good. Butler's spent the past ten hours working on the shuttle – we can at least get it moving. That stack of older mechs in the basement – we got fifteen of them working, and Krul is hard welding the spare armor suits we have onto them so it looks like there are more of us than there really are."

He tapped his omni and a map of the immediate area popped up. "The warehouse is at the end of the third-level shelf. There's an access shaft that heads straight into the upper parts of Gozu here." He gestured to the wide open space off to one side. "Assuming we can keep them tied up enough, we can blow through that port in the shuttle and hit the mainline traffic link to the mids."

Garrus sighed. "Aria's people will take us apart there – no place to hide."

Angel smiled. "That's why before we do it, we stop the shuttle and get out in those access tunnels you found that aren't on the map. We fly the shuttle into the mids and let them blow it while we walk around the lower section and come out at the docks. It's going to be an ugly rush to the ship, but we think we can make it."

Garrus nodded. "Erash isn't any better though, and we never did hack through the ship's controls."

Angel smiled. "We know. What we're hoping, though, is that it won't matter. The ship has a better medical room than we do, and once we're aboard – if people buy that we blew up in the shuttle – the heat should be off for a while. If we can get a message to a doc we trust then they can just come to the ship with no one the wiser."

Garrus thought about it and then flicked a mandible. "Might work."

Angel tapped something on his omni. "The second thing is Ripper sent us a message on the tight beam laser link. He said Mordin Solus contacted him out of the blue, says he'll be on Omega tomorrow and is working for someone interested in helping. Solus wanted to know where we were when Ripper told him Erash was sick, but Ripper didn't trust the commlink to say it out loud. Says Solus will visit his shop tomorrow."

Garrus nodded. "Is Ripper still under Aria's observation?"

Angel sighed. "Yes. But oddly enough, Solus' clinic isn't. If we can get Solus here and he can treat Erash... getting out is a fuck of a lot easier."

Garrus' voice flanged slightly. "Maybe. The Butcher is also claiming to be coming here. What do you think of that?"

The big ex-Marine turned away from the console to face Garrus squarely. "Honestly? No idea. No matter what kind of face you put on it, what she does is different than what we do. We did this to protect the people. She's out there butchering anything that pisses her off. And she was making statements about you a while back like she knew you."

Garrus flicked a mandible, rolling his shoulders as he did so. "I know. And it has me... curious. All the rumors say she's flying an invisible ship and one of the stories says she has a quarian with her. I can't help but wonder if that's an old friend of mine, Tali'Zorah."

He turned, staring out the open doorway and out into the common area. "In any event, if she does come here that will take pressure off of us, so it's a good thing. We need all the help we can get at this point."

Angel sniffed. "Amen to that. We've got as much plating and drop turrets in place as we can, and we've got weapons set out. I've told everyone to stay armed and in their armor until... well, something blows up. They could find us at any minute at this point." He paused. "I think you should get some rest and then not do any more sorties."

Garrus turned to look at him. "Why?"

Angel gestured to where Butler was still working. "Without Erash we're being outhacked. Losing a lot of coverage from the security cams and more and more commlinks are going dead. At this point we have no way to back you up out there...and that suit won't help much in a fight with a powerful biotic. Better to get rested and finish digging in."

Garrus shrugged. "In that case, why not go ahead and make part of the escape run now? Move Erash and a few others to the ship – "

Angel shook his head. "Can't. Right now there's still Blue Suns and Blood Pack all over the docks, and they're moving people into Niftu now. Besides, we still need to finish the engine overhaul, and that will take a day to make sure it works. We can't afford the shuttle going down."

His voice lowered. "Plus, we'll need every person we've got here to hold this place."

Garrus sighed. "...In that case, I'm going to eat and get some sleep. Wake me up if you get another message from Ripper." He walked out of the comms room, and Angel turned back to helping Butler work on the comms system.

As Garrus came down the stairs, he saw Mierin, Vortash and Montague watching the haptic screen. The even-voiced and immaculately painted turian reporter on the screen spoke in even tones.

"More chaos today on Illium, where a local fusion reactor suffered some sort of catastrophic failure after reported gunfire. The Reclaimed Sisterhood, a group of asari outcasts working together to counter the more outre elements of Ilium's culture and long rumored to be connected to the Sisters of Vengeance, were completely destroyed when the reactor went up in an explosion that leveled six sky-towers. Reports on the scene place the casualties at well over a hundred thousand dead, with tens of thousands more badly injured and irradiated."

The asari sitting next to him had a grave expression on her face. "Officials fear that the number of dead will skyrocket in coming days due to said radiation and injuries with radioactive shrapnel. Salarian and Volus relief and rescue teams are on the way, as well as the Human Red Cross. So far, the leaders of Illium have not stated a need for disaster relief, but the Council is prepared to dispatch additional assistance."

The turian nodded. "As for who is behind this, investigators are still searching for the causes - and perpetrators - of the explosion and have drawn in several Spectres to lead the search. The head of the Ilium Trade Relations Board believes the explosion was most likely caused by clanless separatists seeking to counteract the influx of members of the Thirty buying up properties. Six members of House Vabo were killed in the explosion as well."

Vortash snorted. "So much for the Sisters of Vengeance. This is why it's unwise to piss directly into the Broker's face."

Mierin shot him a sour look. "The Reclaimed did a lot of good on the streets of Ilium. They were very critical of the Broker and of some of the corporations, but... I doubt they were behind the Sisters. The Reclaimed were never violent, and the Sisters were very messy."

Garrus sat down wearily, and his voice was wry. "You push someone long enough and far enough and they can end up doing anything."

Mierin shrugged. "Maybe. How is it out there? We heard you blew up some stuff..."

Garrus leaned back. "Bagged most of their scout teams, but it's too hot to do anything else. Angel wants us to dig in hard and wait for them to come to us."

Vortash grinned, displaying his needle-like teeth. "Excellent. I grow tired of waiting."

Montague gave him a sour stare. "Some of us do not wish to be vaporized just yet." He turned to face Garrus. "The traps on the bridge and the main approach are ready, and the explosives in the access tunnels are set if they find them. I also rigged up some supply caches in the surrounding districts, so if they do any scavenging they'll eat a box of hi-ex."

Garrus nodded. "Good. How are we on food?"

The Frenchman shook his head. "We have enough rations to last another month, although there are more dextro than levo. As for real food, enough for a good meal tonight and one more tomorrow. The evaporator and water recycler are in good shape."

Garrus leaned back. "...Then all we can do is wait." He glanced at the news, showing a story about the Shepard Memorial Flame on Dirth, and then looked away.