HOLOCAUST
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN:
FIGHT FOR OMEGA PART ONE
August 7, 2186
1138 hours.
Abrams & Heplorn Clinic, Gozu District, The Apex, Omega.
Second War for Omega.
Doctor Daniel Abrams.
Daniel sighed, rubbing his temples as he read over the contents of the datapad infront of him. He had only just checked into the clinic an hour ago, his shift set to begin at 1030 hours every day, like clockwork. But that hadn't stopped his secretary from bombarding him with medical reports and appointment notifications the moment he walked through the door, the salarian's chipper attitude and ecstatic smile never failing to cheer up Daniel. Still, the amount of work he was laden with had certainly turned his day into another...what did he constantly call it?
Another day on the job.
It hadn't been a great trip to the clinic, either. His apartment was only two blocks from the clinic itself, having deliberately sought out housing close to his workplace so he could get there quickly: it meant he didn't need to leave all that early. Despite this however, he had been held up by a squad of Cerberus soldiers, who were now performing random checks on civilians for weapons, and Daniel had been unfortunate to be caught in their crosshairs. Funnily enough, Cerberus hadn't done this for several months: back when the Talon resistance was at its height, and heavy Talon activity swept through the Gozu district. The Talons had quickly withdrawn nearly a week in, or so Cerberus had thought, a few Talon sleeper agents left behind to keep an eye on the enemy behind their lines.
But now the random checks had begun again, and Daniel had to wonder whether or not it was in response to the UGC invasion. Were they winning? Cerberus seemed to think so, or otherwise they wouldn't be performing these random checks. And the type of check was different depending on the CO who ordered it performed: whether it be a simple patdown, or in unfortunate cases, a full strip search...and they didn't always wait for a private room before stripping an Omega citizen clean of their clothing. Thankfully, Cerberus weren't entirely brutal, only using force when citizens resisted, which was rare. They'd long since been conditioned against fighting back, knowing what consequences would be brought upon them if they did.
Luckily for Daniel, his search was a simple patdown, and they found nothing on him that would arouse their suspicion any further: he was allowed to leave, but his more paranoid side could have sworn one of them was watching him intently as he walked away. Yet again, it may have been due to the intensity of how he left: quick, long strides, the fast walk of someone who was desperate to distance themselves from whatever law enforcement they came across. Someone who had something to hide.
Suffice to say, he didn't look back, practically all but running to the clinic.
And now here he was, seated at his desk, reading over the third of the medical reports given to him. And the more he read over it, the worse he felt. There was no shortage of bad news on this station, but this one was far more personal. More deeply connected to his sense of individual performance.
He grew frustrated as he neared the end of the report, knuckles clenching around the datapad, skin becoming a pale white. Before he could break it, he dropped the pad, leaning back in his seat and exhaling explosively, hands clasped on his lap as he looked blankly at the wall next to him. The seat creaked as he leaned back in it, its spine not built to withstand leaning that far back. Before it could break, he leaned forward again, once again rubbing at his temple anxiously.
Dr. Beavter died of a heart attack last night...damn it, should have checked him into the hospital sooner. They could have done something...
Daniel had known this was going to happen. Even Mr. Beavter himself knew this was going to happen. But he hadn't expected it to occur so soon...his condition must have deteriorated worse than he thought. He didn't bother trying to call his family: no doubt they would blame him for his death or, perhaps even worse, believe it wasn't his fault. That he was somehow innocent of any wrong doing. But he wasn't. He had ignored the signs, promised Mr. Beavter time he didn't have. And now it had cost him dearly. He had collapsed at the wheel of his skycar on the way home, and before anyone could do anything...
Perhaps it was both lucky and unlucky that Mr. Beavter had taken out a Cerberus M35 Mako in his death, his vehicle having descended before Cerberus knew what was happening. The fuel tank was ruptured on impact, and the explosion had torn both vehicles asunder, leaving nothing remaining of Mr. Beavter's body. Still, the convenience of it made Daniel wonder if the attack had been deliberately planned. The official autopsy ruled it as a heart attack at the wheel...but the proximity of his skycar to a Cerberus motor pool had been far too coincidental to ignore.
Why was he flying so close to the Cerberus militarized zone? His home is in the opposite direction to the Apex, in the Styx quadrant.
Daniel began to wonder if perhaps Mr. Beavter's awareness of his ultimate fate had driven him to commit one last spiteful act. To spit in the face of his Cerberus oppressors, the ones who had recruited one of his daughters into their army. One last act of vengeance, however little impact the destruction of one IFV had on the larger Cerberus forces at play. If that was true, then Daniel was solely responsible for the man's death, and thus was not innocent at all.
But how the hell was I to know he would do that? There's a chain of reasonable thought. I assumed Mr. Beavter would want to say goodbye to his family. How could I be expected to know he would fly his skycar into a military vehicle? He never struck me as the type...
It hardly mattered now: a man was dead. Perhaps more importantly, one of his patients. And in that instant, his eyes widened, sitting up ramrod straight.
Oh no...what if Cerberus concludes this attack was deliberate, as I just did? No doubt if a simple doctor made this conclusion, professional military forensics will think the same. And what if they make the connection between patient and doctor...and conclude that Daniel...
He slowly turned to his desk, finding himself frozen in place and unable to move. Terror gripped his nerves, and he found he was now far more aware of his heart beat, the constant thump thump thump in his chest far more apparent. I mean, it would make sense. Some doctor with Talon sympathies utilizes a dying man to commit an act of terror on Cerberus troops. Its been done in the past. Some poor kid finds himself in the hands of religious 'freedom fighters', and the next thing you know, they're blowing themselves up under some tank.
If this was true, he had no idea what to do. With Mr. Beavter dead, he had no one to corroborate his innocence. Cerberus had no idea he was involved with the Talons yet, but it wouldn't be a stretch to say they'd likely do their research on him, find out about his consistent and daily outings to the local store, and then everything would go to shit. Soldiers would be sent to his door, he'd be arrested and they'd haul him off to some interrogation room, never to be seen again.
He found himself remembering that fateful moment a year ago, back when the plague had ravaged the Gozu district and the Blue Suns and Blood Pack were spilling each other's blood over it. He remembered the desperate look of the batarian who grabbed him, his putrid breath feeling his nostrils, the man's disgusting, bedraddled look enough to make him wince. Those batarians had intended to kill him, unaware that he wanted to cure them, not spread the plague. If it hadn't been for the timely arrival of Commander Shepard...
But Shepard would not, could not, rescue him this time. And he wasn't dealing with desperate, irrational thinking batarian refugees...he was dealing with a ruthless pro-human supremacist group.
He found his hands scrambling across his desk frantically, looking for something. Even as he looked for it, he wasn't quite sure what he was looking for. Datapads were knocked aside, some falling off his small desk entirely, and one hand shot out too quickly, knocking his lamp clean off the desk to hit the ground loudly. He cursed at the sound, knowing it'd likely attract attention. He threw open draws, notes and datapads crashing everywhere as she soon became desensitized to the noise he was making, no longer caring. Whatever he was looking for, he needed it.
And then he found it. Sitting near the edge, toppled on one side from his panicked throes, grinning upward at him with a cocked head. He picked up the figurine, his thumb resting ontop of Commander Shepard's plastic face. It dawned on him just how selfish he was being. He had forgotten about the one group of people who were in the most danger.
His family. His wife, and his five-year-old son. Damn it, how could he have been so blind?
I need to warn them! If I leave and Cerberus looks for me, my family are the first people they'll look for. I need to make sure they're safe. I'll go to our apartment, gather our things. Go to my wife's store, my child's school...I'll pick them up, and we'll get the hell out of here. If we're lucky, we might be able to reach the UGC, if I can find a way around the forcefields. They'll protect us, surely. That's why they're here!
He still couldn't believe just how stupid he had been...so sloppy! Maelon had warned him that working with the Talons would spell doom for him, but he hadn't realized just how deep the rabbit hole went. Out of all things that he'd slip up on, it had to be a patient's actions that he had no control over...stupid. So stupid!
I could ask Maelon for help: he is ex-STG, after all. Damn it, but would he even help me? He said he didn't want to get involved. Surely he'd be willing to put that to the side to help me? Would he be capable of that? To simply brush me off like I'm collateral? I mean, he is former STG...he'd know when to pick up a gun and when to turn the other cheek. Damn it...is there noone who can help me!?
He had really dug his grave this time.
Well, he knew for a fact that if he just stayed here he was guaranteed to die. Action figurine still in hand, he grasped it tightly before pocketing it, quickly opening up his terminal as he prepared to message his family. He typed up a quick message, short and sweet, knowing he would need to be blunt. Ensuring it was sent straight to his wife's exmail address, he sent it, quickly deactivating his terminal as he did, making sure it had completely shut down before switching off the screen. His attention then turned to the many draws of his desk that lay at his feet, exactly where he had left them in his hurried frenzy. He picked through them, taking what medications he knew he would need or possibly need and leaving the rest. As for the medications for non-humans, he left those where they were.
He opened his omni-tool, quickly performing a check on his chronometer. It was 1140 hours, just a few seconds off being exact. That gave him a few minutes at the very least to pack what he needed and get to his apartment. Of course, it was arouse suspicion almost immediately that he had only just arrived an hour ago, and was suddenly leaving for home again, but it was his hope that by the time Cerberus realized what was wrong, he'd be long gone. Now he just had to figure out how to actually get to UGC controlled territory.
I've got a skycar, so that shouldn't be too big a problem. The forcefields only really stop ground vehicles and citizens on foot from travelling between districts. Only individuals deemed important enough to be allowed skycars are given access to them anyway. Mr. Beavter was allowed one due to his age, so obviously Cerberus didn't see the point in prohibiting him from using one. As for me...well, being a doctor has its privledges. So the forcefields won't be a problem...what about their air patrols? No doubt they'll dispatch a gunship once they realize what I'm trying to do. They'll shoot me down. And if that doesn't get me, they'll probably have missiles or something.
On that, he would just have to improvize. He had little choice in the matter. This situation had come completely out of left field. He probably should have had a continegency laid out for this exact predicament at some point, but he'd never gotten around to it. What was it that Maelon always said?
Always expect trouble. Some STG mantra or something. Should have bloody listened, you fool. I was working with rebels...I should have known Cerberus would find out eventually. They always find out. They have spies everywhere, just like the Talons.
Yet again, its likely Cerberus still didn't know about his activities. Hell, it wasn't even a full blown conclusion to say that they would find him guilty of being a colloborator. It was just his paranoid gut feeling that they would connect Mr. Beavter's final act of suicidal homicide with the fact that he was a former patient of one Dr. Daniel Abrams. He had to assume that's the conclusion they would reach. So perhaps this was his continegency...
Its not a very good one, Abrams. I'm a doctor, not a bloody secret agent! I can't just drop everything when a cover's blown! This is my life. This is what I do! Stupid idiot, should have thought this through my more thoroughly! If I had been more careful perhaps...yet again, hard to really prepare yourself for a patient gone terrorist. If only my wife knew what I've gotten myself into...
His stupidity had put her in danger. Put his five-year-old son in danger. Reckless, stupid, irrational...
Damn the Talons for getting me involved. Damn them all to hell!
Maybe he'd get lucky...perhaps there was a stray chance he could ask for Petrovsky's leniency directly. To request clemency in exchange for giving them information on Talon operatives. Locations of their sleeper agents. Yes, Cerberus would be very grateful for that information. Perhaps then, only and then, would they let him live. Allow him to return to his life.
What a cowardly way to go. My family will be safe, but I will have become a Cerberus colloborator. I'll have sold out the Talons...and for what? So I can live? So my family can live? What kind of selfish, irresponsible, self-contained little thought process.
I'm no hero. I'm no martyr. I'm not going to die for them. I'm not going to sacrifice my family for them. I'm not Commander bloody Shepard. I can't be expected to put aside my personal life for the bigger picture. It doesn't work like that.
Stupid. Naive. Looks like I haven't changed much from when I worked under Mordin. Still the same naive little man who thinks he can save the world. Forget the Talons. Focus on your family. Besides, there's absolutely no indication that Cerberus would let you live. What if he lets one of his governors handle it? He shudders to think what would happen if Colwood got her hands on him. He's heard about the things she does to captured rebel sympathisizers. The screams. The dead bodies.
No, he couldn't allow Cerberus to capture him. There was simply no promise that they would offer him any kind of mercy other than that offered by a bullet to the head. He had to keep this discreet, strictly on a need-to-know basis to stop the pro-human group from finding out for as long as possible...until it was too late for them to do anything to stop him. Once he was in UGC territory...he was convinced he'd be safe. Then he'd meet Shepard again, tell him about the things he's done...he'd understand. Surely, he'd understand?
Gripped with fear, he stepped up from behind his desk, grabbing the backpack that lay next to his desk and stuffing whatever medication he could fit straight into one of its back pockets. He fiddled with the steel thermus next to him, sipping away at the last dregs of coffee that were contained in its depths. He slammed it back down, rather loudly if he was to chastize himself, and he continued slipping necessary items into his bag. Once he was sure he had filled it to capacity, he roughly sealed the zip, groaning as he lifted up the heavy item as he slung it over one shoulder, feeling the combined weight sag against his shoulder, causing it to ache briefly. He ignored it, pushing through it to sling the other arm over his other shoulder, before quickly checking the rest of his desk for anything else remotely important. He retrieved the stray credit chit lying on the aged surface, noting the amount of money on it.
2,000 credits.
He slipped it into his pocket, his attention brought back to the action figurine that was now situated there. He grabbed at it, squeezing it, closing his eyes as he let it reassure him. Everything was going to be fine. He was going to be fine. His family would be fine. He would go home, get them out of nowhere, and safety would be just on the horizon. They'd be gone before Cerberus could dispatch a team to 'pick him up for questioning'.
Turning, he swung towards the door at the front of his room, prepared to storm out of the clinic.
But then the green haptic interface evaporated before he could even reach out to tap it, the door sliding apart to reveal the form of a lone salarian standing poised in the doorway, clearly intending to speak with them. His white labcoat was rumpled slightly, but was otherwise clean. Big beady eyes locked with Daniel's instantly, emanating a look of surprise. Clearly, he hadn't expected his colleague to be leaving so early.
Maelon, being a salarian, recovered quite quickly from his surprise, "Dr. Abrams...Daniel...where exactly are you going in such a hurry?"
Daniel could have sworn he detected smugness in the salarian's tone. Was he hearing things? Is this what paranoia did to the senses? If not, how did Maelon find out? Or is this just his keen STG mind coming into play? With enough deductive reasoning, I'm sure he could probably put two-and-two together. After all, it wasn't too long ago that we had this conversation to begin with. Regarding the Talons.
He nodded, wiping at his forehead. Already giving away visible cues to the salarian, "I'm...going home. I, uh...don't feel so well."
To no one's surprise, Maelon stepped forward into the room, entirely unconvinced. The door shut behind him with a hiss, the locking mechanism clicking into place as the haptic interface reappeared, "Your face isn't flushed and nor do you look pale. If anything, you look...may I say it, Dr. Abrams? From one academic to another?"
Daniel exhaled exasperatingly, dropping the act. He knows. Of course he damn well knows, "You don't have to say 'I told you so', Maelon. I know I screwed up. I just need to get out of here before everything goes to hell."
To his credit, Maelon didn't smile. Obviously he understood Daniel's panic, "I warned you what would happen if you continued to colloborate with the Talons, Daniel."
"I know, alright!?" he barked, taking himself by surprise. It was apparent that he was more terrified than he initially thought, his blood pressure likely spiking from the amount of fear that was running through him at this moment, "I know! But right now, that doesn't matter! Cerberus will be after me soon, and I need to get away! I'm going home, to grab my family!"
Maelon just shrugged, crossing his arms, "And then what? You're going to run? They have forcefields all over the station. Where would you run to?"
"The UGC," he blurted out immediately, "I have a skycar. I can be within their territory in minutes, if I hurry."
"They'd have you shot down before you could even leave the Apex," Maelon dispassionately pointed out, "You'd never get close. We're in the heart of Cerberus territory, Daniel. They could have four missiles tracking you before your skycar reached its maximum velocity."
His fellow doctor's pessimism, or rather his realism, was beginning to grate on Daniel's nerves. He needed hope, not more dread, "I'll make do. Maybe they won't detect me. Maybe I'll escape before they can get a lock on."
The salarian sighed, rubbing at one of his cranial horns, "Daniel, there is very little chance of that. Let me reiterate: we are in the heart of Cerberus territory. Every single AA gun in the area is going to be on the lookout for unidentified aircraft. Do you really think they're going to miss one skycar leaving their zone at high speed? Even if you fly low to avoid their radar, troops on the ground will spot you. And I think a single tank or rocket launcher will suffice to put you down."
He felt tears begin to well up in his eyes, but Daniel them against his sleeve, refusing to allow the salarian to see him getting emotional. His heart was pounding, blood in his ears as sheer trepidation consumed him. He wanted to cry out, to pound his fists on the desk...he even had the brief violent tendency to punch Maelon in the face. But he didn't act on any of these tendencies, simply looking back at his colleague with nothing but pure desperation, "I...don't...I don't have...any options, Maelon. This...this is it. I've screwed up. I stay here, I die. I make a run for it, I'll die. What am I supposed to do?"
Maelon's eyes seemed to scan his face for a moment, as if trying to analyze the ups-and-downs of trying to help his human compatriot. Finally, he straightened up, standing away from Daniel's desk as his hands fell to his sides, "Cerberus is a pro-human supremacist group. I'm sure they'll go easy on you, being human yourself."
"That doesn't stop them from waging war on the Alliance!" Daniel spat back, lips quivering as he found his resolve falling apart. The bag's weight became more prominent, a constant drag on his sanity. He dropped the insipid distraction onto the desk, hearing it land with a loud thud. His legs felt weak, but he wasn't ready to collapse yet, holding his position firm and steady. He fixed Maelon with as firm a glare he could muster, which wasn't much, "Let's face it Maelon, they're going to kill me! And my family...oh god...my wife, my little boy...they'll kill them too! And there's...its all my fault..."
Maelon seemed entirely unsympathetic, "You're scared."
Yeah, no shit, Maelon. I guess with all your fancy special forces training you've got nothing to worry about. You could just shoot your way out. Not to mention you salarians don't have any concept of love or family. Reproduction is treated as a obligatory contract, not as a consummation of passion. He doesn't have a wife or a child he particularly cares about. How the hell could he know how I feel? I'm just a doctor. A useless doctor who couldn't even fight off a bunch of scared batarians with guns. What could I possibly do against soldiers?
I'm a coward. No way around it.
He remained silent, which was Maelon's cue to speak up again, the salarian clearing his throat, although he doubted he needed to do it for anything but simply catching Daniel's attention, "I...may be able to help you. That's if I was willing to help you."
He froze, his full attention now firmly fixed on Maelon, his eyes full of hope as he felt his shivering cease for a brief moment, "You...would?"
Maelon nodded, "You created this mess for yourself, so don't expect any sympathy from me on that point. But...I do have a safehouse under my apartment. Had it built after Mordin and the STG practically exiled me to Omega. Guess my old paranoia from my work in those days forced me to think radically. I've made many enemies with my work, most of them krogan, so I needed a quick getaway. Luckily, Cerberus knows nothing about it," he rubbed one of his horns again, the act making him look embarassed, "You're welcome to stay there with your family...at least until this blows over. After that...I'm sure the UGC will be able to help you."
"You'd do that?" Daniel asked, completely flabbergasted. He wouldn't say that Maelon was his enemy: not at all. They had a healthy working relationship, and both of them had worked for Mordin at one point or another, so they naturally gravitated towards each other. But their relationship was purely on the professional level: two academics meddling in the medical sciences, combining their skills to help the sickly and needy of Omega's slums. They weren't enemies, but by no means were they going to stick their necks out for each other. This act of charity from Maelon was...surprising, to say the least.
The salarian shifted slightly, but his eyes never left Daniel's, "You are my partner. Cerberus will no doubt come to me next when they find out you've gone missing. I'll be a suspect, but considering they know nothing of my safehouse, any investigation with me involved won't go much further than that. I've got nothing to lose by helping you."
Of course. Foolish of me to think he was doing this as a friend. He's looking out for himself. He's worried if they capture me, I'll blab to them about his work with the STG. Then his neck will be next for the noose. Still, don't look a gift horse in the mouth, even if that horse is only looking out for itself in the long run.
He couldn't think of anything to say. Here was this salarian offering him asylum and he was just stuttering like an idiot. Time was of the essence: he didn't have time to fumble around. Despite this, he found his hand reaching out to the salarian, a smile gracing his lips, "Maelon...thank you. You have no idea what this...just, thank you." My family. They'll be safe. They'll be alright. We don't have to make a run for it. And who knows? Maybe the UGC will come sooner than we think. Maybe the General will finally be defeated...
Maelon looked at the offered hand for a few seconds, incredulous. But seeing as Daniel wasn't going to lower his hand until he got what he wanted, the salarian exhaled and wrapped his three-fingered appendage in Daniel's five-fingered one, shaking it before retreating back to his side, "Don't thank me. Just...make it quick. I'll have to text you the lock code for my apartment. I can't be seen with you should the wrong eyes be watching. And I'll text the code via an anonymous extranet address, so they can't trace it back to me."
Covering his ass. Can't say I wouldn't do the same. "Despite what you think Maelon, I'm truly than-"
Suddenly, a loud set of beeps tore through the relatively quiet confines of the reception room outside, piercing through the walls and ringing in both Maelon and Daniel's ears. They both frowned at the odd interruption, and for a brief moment, Daniel thought Cerberus had arrived and he was too late to escape. Shoving this thought down, he followed Maelon through the door as they went to see what the ruckus was all about.
The noise only got louder as the last barrier between its assault was removed, blasting them at full force. His secretary looked concerned as he looked at the vidscreen in the top right corner of the room, which was now blank, the regular Cerberus News Network feeds interrupted and replaced with a band of blue across the screen: it was then he realized the grating noise was coming from the vidscreen itself. Numerous patients waiting outside Maelon's office also frowned, looking at Daniel and Maelon for an explanation for the noise.
Daniel walked up to his secretary, leaning down so that he could be heard over the cacophony, "What the hell is this!?"
The salarian shrugged, looking geniunely confused, "I don't know! Petrovsky was making his address on the CNN when all the feeds just went blank and this...noise started blaring! Its like everything's gone dark! Omni-tools, terminals, vidscreens...they've all gone blank and started making this noise!"
Sure enough, when Daniel went to open his omni-tool, he was quickly greeted by the undesirable screech, causing him to quickly switch it off. Well, he knew for certain this wasn't Cerberus coming to get him, so that was somewhat of a relief. But he couldn't understand exactly why this was happening. Had the feeds been cut deliberately? Were they having problems with the station's comm relays? Had the UGC sabotaged them?
"Perhaps its just a maintenance issue," Maelon piped up, echoing Daniel's thoughts, "This isn't the Citadel. Omega has ancient comm relays, and they aren't usually used this frequently. Its possible Cerberus has finally worn them out."
"Whatever it is, it better stop!" One of the turian patients across the room yelled, talons covering his ears, "Because I'm feeling the need to shoot something!"
Sighing, Daniel leaned back towards his secretary, craning his neck to be heard, "Shut it down! The vidscreen, the terminals, everything! Shut it all down and try and reboot the system! See if that fixes it!"
The salarian heeded his advice, tapping away at the holographic keys on the primary security terminal next to him. After a few moments, he threw up his hands in defeat, entirely vexxed, "Nothing! The entire system is completely unresponsive. Its like I've been locked out!"
Before Daniel could utter another word, the noise suddenly ceased its unending torrent. The room was left in silence, but as he looked up, he could see the vidscreen was still covered in that blue haze, sitting idly and doing nothing. Had Cerberus repaired the feeds? He half expected the words 'technical error' to appear with a golden hexagon to accompany it, confirming to them that this was indeed a maintenance issue.
Instead, a familiar 'O' shaped insignia appeared, with a vertical line struck through it down the middle: the insignia of Omega. It spun lazily across the screen, everyone in the room shocked at having seen the symbol despite its absence for such a long time. It was an insignia that had once covered the station, but it had since been replaced by the golden hexagon representing Cerberus, to cement their hold over Omega. To see it appear again was not only shocking, it was downright terrifying.
What the hell is this?
But what the insignia faded away to be replaced by was even more terrifying.
A single white, triple-crowned T, with a red ring around it, the insignia represented more like a hand painted gang sign than a proper flag of a military faction. But it was a gang sign everyone in the room recognized, as it had been painted on many alleyways, streets and buildings. It was one they saw in everyday life, a constant reminder of those who continued to fight for Omega's liberty. Those who opposed Cerberus.
It was the Talons.
The symbol spun lazily for a few moments on the screen and, on a hunch, Daniel opened his omni-tool. As he had correctly surmized, he was greeted by the same symbol, realizing that every vidscreen, omni-tool and terminal had been hacked to distribute the same message. The feeds hadn't failed, and this wasn't a comm relay maintenance issue. They were being hacked.
A few more seconds of near quiet passed, the symbol spinning away as if to taunt them with its presence. Suddenly, just as soon as it appeared, the Talon insignia faded away to reveal the face of a turian female with red facepaint in crimson body armor. She was turned to the screen, already speaking before her audience got a chance to process who they were looking at, "People of Omega, I am General Nyreen Kandros. You've probably heard of me...if you haven't, then allow me to introduce myself as the leader of the Talons. Your liberators. Those who fight Cerberus' regime."
There were hushed whispers among the patients, while Daniel's secretary, as well as Maelon, were now fixing the screen with solemn fixation, Maelon's arms crossed as he regarded the turian speaking on the vidscreen. Outside, the turian's voice could be heard much louder, sounding like an echo. Frowning, he pushed past Maelon and headed for the door exiting the clinic, tapping its interface and shooting out the moment they parted. He found himself frozen to the spot when he was greeted by the sight of the crowded space around him.
More patients waiting outside the clinic, including several walkabouts, were all clustered around in the hallway and watching with rapt focus the vidscreen that hung just outside, Nyreen's face on it being much larger due to the larger screen. He could see the Cerberus soldiers at the security checkpoint were working desperately to find out what was going on, with a combat engineer tapping away at his omni-tool ferociously. Obviously they were just as confused as to what was going on as everybody else was.
Daniel shoved his way through the crowd, grunting as their tightly packed bodies constricted his movements. He shoved his way through a group of batarians, who glared at him briefly before turning back to the screen. He could hear Nyreen speaking again, but he wasn't paying attention, only interested in seeing how far this went. He reached the checkpoint in no time, but was surprised to find Sergeant Gale was missing, with no centurion guarding the outpost, replaced by a pair of assault troopers and what looked to be a dragoon. Funny, he hadn't seen many dragoons in his time here.
Despite wanting to get through, he quickly realized they simply weren't paying attention, their priorities set on trying to figure out what was happening. In that brief moment, Daniel made the rather stupid decision of simply sneaking past them. Stepping one foot in front of the another, taking his time edging past them, he soon found himself on the otherside of the checkpoint, the Cerberus soldiers none the wiser.
Wow, they really are slacking on the job.
Shrugging, he jogged up the stairs and exited onto the streets of the Gozu district.
Woah...Daniel stopped as he saw that the crowds on the streets weren't any lighter, their presence having actually intensified now that he was out on the sprawling city streets of the district. Crowds of all species: krogan, turian, salarian, batarian, hanar, elcor, volus, humans...all of them had taken to the streets to observe this unexpected event, the words of the Talon general having them hooked, waiting to see what would happen next. Some Cerbeurs soldiers had even taken an interest themselves, while others moved around in squads, pushing their way through the packed concourse as they barked orders for the crowd to disperse. Some listened and began to walk away...most didn't. Cerberus didn't seem to do much about except to keep yelling. A few guardians were established on each end in case a riot broke out, combat engineers ready to deploy turrets should the situation seriously deteriorate. Seemed like a bit of a overreaction on their behalf.
But then Daniel looked up again, Nyreen's face coming back into focus as he took notice of her words again, "-believes they've won. They have you caged like animals, restricted from having the life that you want. They flash their insignias at you, and promise you food and water if you surrender. I won't lie. Petrovsky's been a kind dictator, as far as those kinds of people go, but is a Cerberus occupation really what you want for Omega? They are a pro-human military! Pro-human. Human interests are always going to take priority. Barely nine percent of this station's total population is human. So why would they occupy Omega, take away your freedoms and liberties, and pretend to be your saviors?"
The turian shook her head, "The Illusive Man wants Omega for its resources. And once he's done with those resources, he will abandon this station as quickly as he took it. Don't be fooled. Cerberus wants you to believe the Talons are your enemy, but that couldn't be further from the truth. We want to see this station returned to its former glory. Petrovsky would see this station choke. He'd rather us sit back and let the Reapers win. Well, no longer. The Talons have fought long and hard, months upon months of fighting in fact, and all of that fighting is reaching its ultimatum. As you've likely all heard, the United Galactic Confederacy has come to our aid. They are fighting Cerberus right now. Petrovsky would have you believe they are losing. That the Tuhi district was a major victory for Cerberus. That's a lie. The UGC has won a great victory, and soon, you will reap the benefits of their triumph. Because their triumph is your triumph. Do not forget that!"
Cerberus soldiers were removing themselves from the crowds now, finally coming to terms with the fact that their shouting was producing nothing. They were ordered to retreat, their forms breaking through the mass of bodies and forming a line behind the guardian phalanxes that covered each end of the street. Tension was brewing.
Daniel's attention was torn as he watched a krogan smash his fist through a holoposter, the propaganda reel of an angry turian Talon stomping on Omega fizzing out of existence as the krogan's strike destroyed its emitter. Shouts from the crowd itself began to fester: shouts of approval and discontent. Daniel didn't like where this was going, but was unable to tear his eyes off the vidscreen, "And just a few minutes ago, the Talons and the UGC have won the greatest victory of all! Those forcefields, the ones that have kept you locked and caged up? The same forcefields that Cerberus uses to herd you like cattle? My brothers and sisters, those forcefields are no more. Petrovsky's gates and fences have fallen. You have nothing to stop you from seeing your friends and family again. Nothing to stop you from crossing districts. The forcefields have fallen!"
Cheers were heard. Arms waved in the air in support of Kandros, while more posters were smashed and destroyed by unruly citizens. Cries of 'death to Cerberus!' were snarled into the air, followed by 'take Omega back!' Daniel ducked as he saw a stray bottle fly over his head, smashing into a small behind him, glass splinters and brown liquid raining down on the assault trooper the bottle had been aimed at.
Daniel's blood ran cold. He watched the trooper with a look of wide-eyed apprehension.
But the trooper simply bid a hasty retreat, his compatriots following behind as another bottle sailed through the air, missing them by milimeters. They finally merged with the Cerberus phalanx on the rightside of the street, a third bottle hitting the shield of a guardian in full, the glass shattering and scattering as it harmlessly broke upon the shield's surface. Daniel felt relieved he hadn't raised his weapon to shoot, or otherwise they may have had a riot on their hands. Guess Petrovsky had given them explicit orders not to shoot civilians.
Nyreen, undeterred by the violence happening around her, continued, "With the forcefields gone, my forces and the UGC, led by Captain Shepard himself, will be launching our offensive momentarily. I urge that you stay in your homes...do not attempt to fight alongside us! You will only make yourself a target for Cerberus! Protect your families: lock up your homes, do not let anyone inside! The final battle has begun, and you should not be caught in it! I repeat: please do not try to aid us. Even if you think you may be helping, you'll only be making our job harder. Do yourself a favor and hide as best you can! Let the Talons and the UGC liberate Omega. Let us finish the job we started! Cerberus will crumble, we promise you!"
The turian nodded one final time, her eyes focusing on the center of the screen as if to look her audience directly in the eye, "We will take Omega back!"
Moments later, her face disappeared, replaced by the usual spinning Cerberus insignia as the Talon transmission ended, returning control of the feeds to the pro-human regime.
Cheers echoed through the street, their cries causing goosebumps to prickle along Daniel's skin. A slight cold permeated him, and he backed against the wall behind him as he felt his legs weaken. In just a few minutes, his entire situation had gone from 'imminent doom' to 'imminent salvation' in no time flat. It wasn't long ago that he was worried a Cerberus death squad was coming to kill him and his family, and that he needed to reach UGC territory before they did...now, it looked the UGC was going to be coming to him.
He jumped when he heard Maelon's voice behind him, Daniel's head snapping around to see the salarian had followed him, arms crossed, "Looks like Cerberus is going to have bigger problems than one suicidal old man now."
Daniel couldn't formulate a response, simply turning neurotically to face the increasingly aggressive crowd. Their cheers had since downgraded to shouting and growling. Almost every poster in the area had been smashed now, and Daniel could see a salarian using his omni-tool to burn out a Cerberus insignia on one of the nearby walls. He then rushed over to another one, repeating the same process while Cerberus troops simply watched on, entirely helpless to do anything. They simply beat their batons against their shields, guardians edging forward as they urged the crowd to disperse with their belligerent behaviour. Evidently, it wasn't working, the congregation seemingly only getting angrier at the gestures.
"I..." Daniel mumbled, eyes darting back and forth at the scene before him, "I don't...this is..."
"A revolution," Maelon drawled, waving a dismissive wave of his hand. Daniel just turned and frowned at the salarian, who chose to elaborate, "Special Tasks Group has had its fair share of revolutions. Even started a few. Was there for one of them...the 2167 Thun Revolution, I believe. Very interesting. Blue Suns were unable to contain the situation, and the turian military had to step in. Six hundred people died for the riots were contained. The revolution was crushed, and the Blue Suns made Thun their headquarters."
"Do I even want to know what you were doing there?" Daniel asked, his fear temporarily forgotten.
Maelon just shrugged, "Doesn't matter now. What matters is what's happening now, and we're looking at a bloodbath. Situation is quickly deteriorating...next there will be riots. Cerberus will have one soldier who will be unable to restrain themselves...shots will be fired, people will die. And then the riots will begin. The revolution. And we will not want to be here when they do."
Daniel nodded, gulping. He fiddled with his hands, finding himself clueless as to what he needed to do next. Finally, he raised his head to address the salarian, acknowledging that he would need Maelon's help, "Okay, what do you-"
The door behind them suddenly opened, and he watched as the two assault troopers and the combat engineer from the security checkpoint marched out. The engineer seemed to be the commander of the higher ranking of the trio, because he stopped in his tracks suddenly, the two troopers at his flanks stopping with him. The engineer turned to Maelon and Daniel, and he was not happy.
"What the hell are you two doing out here?" the engineer snapped, glaring at them both through the golden visor of his helmet, "You should be in the clinic."
"The same reason you are out here," Maelon blurted out, Daniel shooting him a look of shock. Is he insane? Pissing off Cerberus is the last thing we want to be doing right now!
Unsurprisingly, the engineer didn't take kindly to that. He stepped forward until he was right in Maelon's face, staring him down, "You want to say that again, salarian?"
To Daniel's continuing agitation, Maelon didn't shut up, "Certainly. I'm out here for the same reason you are. To see the fun begin."
"That's cute, froggy," the engineer barked, and as Daniel backed away, he noticed with wide eyes as the soldier's hand drifted down to the M-25 Hornet SMG sidearm on his hip. In that moment, Daniel knew the soldier's intention, and he opened his mouth to shout a warning, but it appeared he needn't have bothered.
One moment, the engineer was reaching for a weapon, the next, he stumbled backwards as he screamed in agony. He was confused for a moment at that leap of logic until he saw where Maelon's hand was: hovering infront of his chest, three-fingered hand splayed out with his omni-tool glowing around his wrist.
The engineer shook violently as electricity danced around his armor, reaching every crevice as his systems were overloaded by the salarian's cyber attack. The engineer was so crippled that he didn't even have time to realize that his submachine gun was no longer on his hip, but now firmly in the grip of Maelon, who must have snatched it immediately following his initial attack.
There were two bursts, and two bodies flopped to the ground, holes drilled through their helmets. Blood pooled around the two dead assault troopers, their rifles resting on their chests, never having gotten to fire a shot. The engineer just kept shaking, helpless to defend himself as Maelon now turned the weapon to bear on him.
He pulled the trigger. The engineer's visor shattered as the round penetrated, head snapping back as his still shaking body collapsed to the ground, joining his two dead compatriots. Maelon lowered the smoking SMG, observing the barrel like an art collector admires a piece of art. He turned back to Daniel, omni-tool fading away.
Daniel's jaw must have been hanging open, as Maelon simply smiled, holstering the SMG on his side, "Are you forgetting I served in the STG? I fought at the Battle of Virmire. I even killed a few krogan."
Daniel sighed, shaking his head. Of course I knew he had military training, but I've never seen him use it before. That's...something else.
The sounds of gunshots must have stirred something within the crowd, because suddenly the shouts of anger and discontent intensified, roaring across the street. Daniel and Maelon's attention was grabbed by the event, snapping towards the focus of the commotion.
They were back to hurling objects at their Cerberus aggressors now, tossing broken bottles, bits of food and whatever other objects they could get their hands on to show their hatred of the soldiers lined up before them. Some of the crowd had dispersed, heading Nyreen's plea to remain in their homes, taking to their nearby houses and locking them up the moment they got inside. Some nearby stores shuttered up and closed, doing the same. But the majority stayed in rejection of the general's plea, choosing instead to vent their distaste of Cerberus in the street.
Apparently however, Cerberus had taken the sound of gunshots to mean that it was okay to retaliate.
Muzzle flashes followed as the Cerberus troops opened fire, the coughs and staccato beats of M-96 Mattocks and other assorted firearms tearing through the air to slam into the crowd. Many civilians fell immediately as their unshielded forms were left defenseless against the onslaught. Gas trails hurled arced through the air as tear gas was deployed directly into the seething mass to quell them, but all it did was worsen the situation.
As the guardians moved forward, finally tearing into the congregation with their M-358 Talon magnums, the swarm of angry civilians charged forward, hurling themselves at the Cerberus lines. RAMPART mechs were called in to try and strengthen their formation as a result, their shotguns blasting away at anyone who dared to get too close. Some civilians began to run for their lives, screaming and tripping over each other as they paved their way for escape. The sound of firefights erupted across the area, Daniel watching as a krogan and batarian ganged up on one lone trooper and tore his arms from his sockets, literally beating him to death with his own limbs. The batarian picked up his discarded mattock heavy rifle and fired. He was clearly inexperienced however, the recoil of the weapon combined with his shoddy aim causing it to ping harmlessly off a guardian's shield. He was gunned down moments later, with a trio of RAMPARTs having to team up to take down the krogan, their shotguns tearing him asunder.
"Like I said," Maelon muttered, "Riots have begun. You shouldn't be here, Daniel. We need to get inside before we're spotted. Its every man for himself now."
As the riots continued to get worse, gunfire and screams rupturing what little order was left in the district, Daniel began to back away, heading back through the door as he heeded Maelon's suggestion, ready to rush back to his clinic and lock the place down. Maelon wasn't far behind him, firing off a few shots as he was likely spotted by a Cerberus soldier.
As the door closed behind them, and the two continued their run back to the clinic, Daniel was left wondering if this was the end. Was this how society on Omega would collapse? A brutal and bloody battle to reclaim the station between its citizens, Cerberus and the UGC? Would he be caught in the middle? Would his-
No...I can't believe I forgot about them! Damn it Claire, I hope you're okay...stay safe. And Benjamin...no, its a kindergarten, they won't be stupid enough to take part in a riot, they'll lock it down. And I doubt Cerberus will open fire on children, so he'll be safe. I just hope Claire plays it smart and stays indoors. Nothing I can do for her now.
With luck, this entire situation would make it easier for the UGC to sweep the Cerberus forces aside. Somehow though, Daniel doubted that would be the case.
As he listened to the screams and gunfire outside, mixed with the panicked whispers and muttering of the people he was now herding into the clinic, Daniel had to wonder if it would take the bloods of hundreds of innocent people to secure victory against the pro-human supremacist forces of the Illusive Man.
He shuddered to think about it.
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August 7, 2186
1226 hours.
Second Street, Kima District, The Hades Line, Omega.
Second War for Omega, Battle of the Apex: Hades Line Offensive.
Battalion Commander Urdnot Grunt.
Shepard never stopped delivering glorious combat. Even if he technically wasn't the one delivering it at this very moment.
The war for Omega had certainly taken a turn for the worse in Cerberus' case. One moment, the Battles of the Rubicon had been raging, Cerberus and UGC forces exchanging the equivalent of slaps and meek punches at each other, doing whatever they could to ensure their troops weren't sitting idly on their asses. Cerberus had achieved some minor tactical victories, while the UGC scrambled to gain some of their own. That was difficult however when Cerberus was able to deactivate and activate forcefields of their own volition, allowing them to herd pockets of UGC troops into traps, corner them and wipe them out.
They caught on quickly, of course. Once General Golo, Nakmor Dreg and Walter Pike figured out what Cerberus was doing, they simply had their troops and armor hold defensive positions in areas of strategic importance across the Rubicon quadrant: Pike liked to call them 'Fortress Rubicon', apparently in reference to some human dictator back during Earth's 20th century that every hated. Unlike him however, these 'fortresses' were actual holdouts, and Cerberus' primetime assaults quickly slowed to a halt, to the point where they too had to bunker down and create their own mini-fortresses. After that, it was like flinging stones at each other, entire regiments of Cerberus forces wasting time twiddling their thumbs while waiting for the opposing to do something worthwhile. In the end, both sides just decided to allow aircraft sorties and artillery strikes pound their foes, both sides hoping to win their battle of attrition through simply bombing them into oblivion.
Then suddenly something changed. Cerberus made their move.
Without warning and seemingly without reason, Cerberus forces began to retreat. Geth recon units spotted kodiak shuttles ferrying Cerberus troops out by the dozens, with tanks and armor beating a hasty withdrawal through Omega's streets, all while a screen of Cerberus troops pretended that nothing new was developing. They had even watched as what seemed to be a company of an unidentified new type of Cerberus soldier, one in onyx armor with blue optics, were evacuated, followed by many more troops. It would take them a while to evacuate all their forces, but it was clear something was going on. And it was enough to have the UGC's commanders worried. Some even believed that Light Prophet had been compromised, and that Petrovsky had somehow gotten wind of the impending attack and was pulling back to the Apex.
Seeing an opportunity, Grunt couldn't resist taking advantage of Cerberus' lax attentions. Approaching the 'top three' UGC commanders (Golo, Dreg and Pike), he proposed taking his battalion of krogan soldiers and deploying secretly via geth dropship around the rear flank of the Cerberus force: then, while they were focused on evacuating, he could launch a quick and devastating strike on them. And, in the ensuing chaos, the Talons and rachni could press the advantage and launch a massive assault, hitting them before they had time to organize a response.
Pike had initially been against the idea, wanting to hold his Talon units in reserve for when Kandros needed them. Golo was hesitant at the idea, but it was ultimately Dreg who convinced them to do it, saying that, if it were successful, it would open up a clear path straight into the Apex itself: the beating heart of Cerberus' Omega. Golo and Pike had eventually capitulated, with Pike only committing a small fraction of his troops for the initial attack: if it proved to be doing well, then he would commit the rest. Golo would also have geth fighters fueled and ready to go should air support be needed, while Dreg moved to inform the rest of their forces to prepare for immediate attack on all fronts.
And thus the pandemoniac bloodbath began.
Grunt's battle plan had gone off without a hitch: far more successful than he initially reasoned. As it turned out, they had caught Cerberus at just the right time, just as they were beginning to step up their evacuation by deploying A-61 gunships to speed up the withdrawal. Under cloak, the geth dropships had rapidly deployed the 1st Aralakh infantry battalion, a total of 620 krogan commandos left within the unit itself, and had immediately set to work aiding the krogan troops, using its speed and airpower to focus on the shuttles and gunships.
Grunt had led the charge, his thunderous laugh sending a few Cerberus squads into a rout upon seeing 600 angry, blood enraged krogan stomping towards them in a stampede, an assortment of grenade launchers, heavy shotguns, rifles, submachine guns and even an M-920 Cain wielded between them all. The geth dropships had decloaked right above them, their siege pulses and automated plasma cannons immediately shooting down a pair of kodiak shuttles trying to leave, their flaming wrecks crashing down violently upon the streets below them, crushing waiting Cerberus soldiers below them. One of the A-61 gunships was caught offguard, and the pilot pulled a maneveur that massively overcompensated, dodging the geth air artillery but failing to take into account the building near him, having flown too low. Before he realized what he had done and tried to pull up, the right wing of the aircraft clipped the side heavily, causing the gunship to lose further control. Its momentum carried it straight into the building itself, smashing the wing and the stabilizer that had been on it. The gunship adopted a massive right list, before spinning out of control and crashing into the street below, crushing a parked kodiak shuttle under its weight before the resulting explosion consumed it and the many soldiers who had survived around it, flame and debris flying in all directions, some soldiers who were near the blast site being impaled by jagged pieces of discarded armor.
And the carnage was only just beginning. As the geth ships shot Cerberus shuttles out of the sky, Grunt and his krogan reached the Cerberus line. They had been scrambling to set up a guardian phalanx, but they had been too late and too disorganized, and the few that were formed were grabbed and tossed aside by the first wave of Grunt's men, one of them being caught by the tank-bred himself and his helmeted face stomped into the chrome deck, a sickening crack, followed by a loud pop signalling the human's skull had been crushed beneath his boot. He laughed, whirling around to fire his claymore point blank into the side of another guardian, the armor shredded as the powerful boom splintered into flesh, gouging a massive hole in his side. The guardian screamed, Grunt ignoring his cries of agony as he stomped past, seeking new targets. New kills.
Cerberus had gradually begun to form a counterattack, but it was only a few platoons, and none of them coordinated with the other to form a proper defense, and as such, were easily swept aside. Lacking air support, they were helpless as both krogan and geth alike bombarded them from the ground and the air, pounding them mercilessly. Blood and viscera combined with flame and ozone to create a proper sense of chaos: an atmosphere that krogan such as himself thrived in. He loved the drumbeat of shotguns blasting away fleshy humans, their cries for help from their comrades going unheard as their comrades too suffered their own form of punishment. One by one, shuttle by shuttle, company by company, Cerberus was annihilated. It didn't take long before Cerberus' artillery, a series of five M45 Goblins, fell to the krogan assault, the UGC choosing to capture them instead of destroy them. Leaving a few of his krogan to man the human-made war machines, Grunt and the rest of his battalion charged on, the men who stayed behind orienting the Goblins so that they faced the opposite direction...facing the Apex. They did not fire yet, not wanting to do so until they knew the UGC had the upperhand.
Despite the setback and the enormous casualties Cerberus wracked up, they were quickly learning. Coordination became more widespread, and his battalion's advance was finally stalled about a kilometer or so into the Cerberus rear flank. An entire regiment had formed up, with an M35 Mako positioned in the middle of the street to pepper the advancing krogan with its multi-role anti-infantry/anti-vehicle cannon. A few of his krogan fell as they tried to attack the vehicle to little success, and Grunt finally ordered a halt as his men took cover, whipping out their heavy weapons to return fire. Grunt had been annoyed at the delay, their stalled advance not boding well for whatever momentum they had. Emboldened by their newfound advantage, Cerberus troops moved into the buildings around them, raining down fire on the krogan from above, where their cover did little to protect them. Nemesi sniped from the rooftops and top storey windows, while engineers set up turrets in the streets to set up death zones. The dropships were forced to break off as missiles flew up into the air, ML-77 Dory missile launchers and MANPADS screaming up into the air as they tried to find targets.
But in their smug triumph, Cerberus had made a fatal mistake: they had turned their full attention to the krogan, believing the UGC had committed the majority of their forces to a rearguard assault. Just as Grunt had wanted...had anticipated. Shepard had taught him well.
A series of screeches and war cries pierced the air from behind the Cerberus lines, and many of their troops turned in alarm, screaming out orders for them to turn around. Grunt grinned.
The rest was history at this point. While the rachni and Talons stormed Cerberus' now exposed center, Grunt and his battalion had stormed the buildings, performing a house-to-house slaughter of Cerberus' support units. From room to room Grunt went, crushing the skulls of nemesis snipers while he beat the other soldiers into bloody pulps, alternating between using his bare fists and his shotgun. He suffered a few hits, but his regeneration took care of that, healing factor taking care of his superficial wounds as his blood rage quickened, turning him into a feral monster as his massacre continued, swatting aside the Cerberus 'supersoldiers' like they were nothing but toys, their attacks feeling like tickles to his hardened carapace.
One soldier had been brave enough to take a shock baton to a gun fight. Grunt had laughed, entertaining the fleshy's delusion of taking a raging krogan in a hand-to-hand fight as he holstered his shotgun and charged into the human's embrace. The baton slammed into Grunt's chest, the pathetic electric shock barely registering as heat in his lower abdomen. If anything, it gave him a warm, funny feeling...or perhaps it was the blood rage dulling his senses, as it always did. Either way, the human had his turn, and now it was Grunt's. He had wrapped his arms around him, bodily picking him up. His grip was tight, strong enough for him to hear the snap of the human's back as his spine snapped, the assault trooper screaming in pain, long and loud. Continuing to laugh, he turned and shoved the soldier out the window, glass panes shattering around them as he was sent tumbling several stories below. Roaring loudly, his voice carrying across the battlefield, Grunt unholstered his shotgun once more and jumped out the window after the fallen human, primed with adrenaline.
He landed on the fallen human, now knocked unconscious, with a squelch. His weight, combined with the height he jumped from, caved in the human's breastplate, parting the ribcage and the resulting explosion causing his organs to explode. Blood and intestines flooded out from the trooper's ruined torso, which was now almost literally pancaked. Bits of white bone shot out, one impaling itself on Grunt's cheek, where he promptly ripped it out, tossing it aside. Stepping off the human's corpse, enjoying the coppery smell of his blood, Grunt looked up at the horrified expressions of a pair of centurions near him. He must have looked quite the sight: a krogan, using their human comrade as a trampoline, his armor soaked in blood and canine teeth gritted tightly in a homicidal smirk.
Suffice to say, he introduced them to the reasons for his smile soon enough.
The Cerberus regiment was overwhelmed in minutes. Pike, true to his word, had seen the tide turning and deployed the rest of his men, Talon-emblazoned kodiaks roaring overhead as they landed and deployed additional Talon reinforcements. The rachni wreaked havoc, tearing apart anyone wearing white and gold armor. The Mako tried to escape by acellerating down the street, hoping to make a break for the Apex. Grunt was ready for it though, standing directly in its path as he whipped out his M-100 Spiculum and aimed just under the vehicle's undercarriage, where he knew the suspender was located...the weakest spot of the tank.
He fired three grenades directly into his target, watching as they bounced off the floor and ricocheted straight into the belly of the tank. He sidestepped, watching as the explosive force of three grenades detonating was enough to overpower the Mako's suspension and balance, sending its back shooting up into the air, its forward momentum furthering its flip. The pilot used the jump jets in an attempt to right itself, but this only worsened it, the added acelleration speeding up the capsizing tank. Grunt watched as it shot past, the Mako landing with a crash on its dorsal structure. Its main cannon was crushed underneath its weight, the vehicle screeching as sparks and dust were kicked up by it skidding across the deck. It finally stopped at a pair of nearby barricades, the flipped wreck smoking as its exposed undercarriage, now facing the sky, leaked fuel, the liquid dripping down onto the floor.
As Grunt approached it, now equipping his shotgun again, the hatch had popped open, one of the tank's occupants rolling out in a hurry. His claymore boomed, and the human's head disappeared in a cloud of meaty chunks. Kicking the corpse to the side, he primed a napalm grenade and tossed it into the tank's interior, holding the hatch shut with his boot. He continued to laugh as a muffled blast was heard inside, followed by screaming. Easing up his boot, the hatch popped back open as flames and smoke shot out, the oxygen inside the cramped vehicle having already been consumed. Grunt stepped back from the intense flames, watching as the pilot practically danced out of the vehicle, screaming and desperately waving his arm as fire ravaged him, blackening his armor as he was cooked inside it. Grunt just watched with mild amusement as the human flailed for a few seconds more before finally ceasing movement altogether, now dead. He turned and headed back for the Cerberus regiment, ready to continue the assault.
It was over within minutes. A few Cerberus units even surrendered, which was a first for the hated organization: never before had any Cerberus troops surrendered in battle, preferring to fight to the death rather than give up. Still, only a few actually survived to surrender, the rest having lived up to their Cerberus name and fighting to the gruesome end. Those that survived were taken back to Aria's bunker to be interrogated or kept as POWs, but for the UGC, the battle had only just begun.
Just as Grunt had been ordering their forces to dig in, he had received word from General Golo that Light Prophet had been a success: Shepard and his strike team had successfully brought down the forcefields, and wiped out the adjutants in the process, eliminating the danger they posed to Omega. EDI had informed them directly, and Golo had not failed to capitalize on the opportunity this held: Dark Prophet was now ready to enter its final phase. Golo had given the order, the UGC had deployed all available assets they had, and launched their second major offensive of the war. As far as Grunt was concerned, this was the war had really begun.
Cerberus don't have their forcefields to hide behind anymore. Now its just us and them...oh, this will be fun. To glorious battle! For Tuchanka!
Turns out saving those Goblins had really been the smart move. Pointed and aimed at the Apex, they were now in a perfect position to launch the opening salvos of the UGC's attack. High-explosive, concussive shells rained down upon the Apex from kilometers away, every single one of their captured, white and gold M45 Goblins emptying slug after slug into Cerberus territory, thirsty and craving the spilling of its former owner's blood.
Petrovsky lived up to his reputation however, and seemed to be fully prepared for this eventuality. And despite Grunt taking the initiative, Cerberus had still managed to evacuate a sizable portion of its troops, not to mention that they still had the majority packed tightly in the surrounding quadrants. As such, he had simply ordered these forces to congregate and surround the Apex, setting up a series of fortifications and defensive zones that Cerberus communiques and his colonels were referring to as the 'Hades Line'. Several regiments were committed to the defense, not to mention a sizable portion of armor and gunships. The UGC had lost the momentum they needed to smash through it in a direct assault, but despite Cerberus' superiority in numbers, they still had their ace in the hole. The geth and quarians.
Those clever little pyjaks had sent advanced recon units under cloak to scout out the Hades Line, and they had found a weakness. In their haste to reinforce their sectors, Cerberus had been forced to pull away troops from their only remaining air base, which they called Raymond Air Base in honor of one of their fallen colonels who was killed during the first war to conquer Omega. Given its weak strategic position, Cerberus had withdrawn troops to reinforce areas of more obvious importance, leaving behind unused tanks and vehicles to give off the impression of a larger force. Apparently this was a tactic a group called the 'Allies' had used during a 'Second World War' on Earth where they used inflatable vehicles and dumby armies to fool the enemy into expecting an assault in one area, only to be attacked in the other. In this case, Cerberus was using it for the opposite: to make the enemy think they were strong where they weren't. A sound strategy, but...
...the geth, being machines, had immediately detected that the vehicles were unmanned and that what few troops were there were too minimal to successfully defend it. Apparently Cerberus had even taken a few of their mothballed M28 Angel and M29 Grizzly IFVs (along with the odd M41A Smoothhound APC) and placed them in positions that would make them look prepped and manned. And given the air base stretched behind the Hades Line itself, capturing it would allow the UGC to spread into the Apex, and then spin back around to cut off the regiments from their reinforcements, effectively pinning them down and taking them out of the fight. It was an ambitious plan of attack, and naturally, Grunt had volunteered to spearhead it.
The UGC forces were split into thirds, with Grunt taking one third (nearly 7,000 troops) to assault the air base, while the other 13,000 began twin assaults along the Hades Line, keeping the majority of the Cerberus defenses busy and ensuring they couldn't immediately respond to Grunt's strike. Commandeered artillery, along with their own, opened up and the air was filled with the cacophony of booms and flashes as both UGC and Cerberus guns exchanged bombardments. Missiles, tracer fire and the roar of fighter engines filled the streets, followed by the permeation of explosions, shouts and gunfire. Raymond Air Base deployed several fighter squadrons into the air to engage the UGC's own air cover, neglecting to launch its remaining bombers as Cerberus was placed on the defensive...this would prove to be a fatal mistake, as Cerberus would soon find out.
Due to their need for secrecy, Grunt had to lead his forces on foot towards their target, not wanting to risk being spotted: and while the geth dropships had good cloaking abilities, there weren't enough of them to transport 7,000 troops straight to the air base. So, they were stuck having to march. As such, they were moving through a mostly empty Kima district, its streets abandoned. Civilians were inside, refusing to come out, while Cerberus troops had simply abandoned the whole area, falling back to their defensive line. However, what they left in their wake was something none of them had expected.
Despite being untouched by the war, the Kima district looked like a battlefield. Bodies were strewn across the streets, some of them piled up while others were spread out, all of them a mixture of Cerberus and civilians. Fire raged in one building from too many molotov cocktails being detonated, smoke and soot pouring out from its windows and reaching up into the sky, blotting out all light in its path. Blood leaked into gutters and drains, flowing across the street: mixtures of orange, red, purple, blue...it all made for a rainbow alotment of death and destruction. Nearby, a deactivated forcefield could be seen, its emitters torn from the ground as the civilians had likely dug them up to ensure it could never be activated again: rendered steel and iron rivets had been tossed around haphazardly, the metal plating tossed aside to expose the circuits and drain systems underneath. The air reeked of death.
This hadn't been a glorious battle. It had been a slaughter. Civilians and Cerberus intertwined, tearing each other to pieces in one viscious riot. An abandoned D-09 Atlas unit rested on its belly, likely having been shoved over by the enormous combined weight of dozens of rioters: he could see chunks of flesh and blood pooled around the Atlas' cockpit section, his observation being that the mech had been dropped ontop of Cerberus soldiers, its weight crushing them like grapes.
Grunt and his forces inched past the carnage, continuing their steady march towards Raymond Air Base, the sounds of anti-air guns and GARDIAN missiles pummelling the sky with flak, black puffs of smoke and debris erupting seemingly at random as blips in the air, narrowly missing geth fighters and interceptors as they ducked and weaved under and over the air shield. Blue Suns squads formed the front of their column, with Blood Pack and Eclipse not far behind, rachni soldiers and workers forming the center, Grunt's battalion in the back and some quarian combat engineers and geth primes making up the rest of their rearguard. And then, of course, there was the fleshy tattooed female and her biotic litter.
He liked her. She was strong, thirsty for blood and liked to rip Cerberus soldiers apart. And she was a powerful biotic...he had seen her in action at the Collector Base. He looked forward to seeing her toss these other fleshies around and tearing them apart.
As they rounded street corners, the level of violence got worse. Grunt could see a pile of bodies lined up in a line along the sidewalk, their torsos riddled with bullets as evidence that they were lined up and executed by Cerberus foot soldiers. Revenge for that was swift, as not ten meters from that, an assault trooper had been practically crucified into a wall, his body stripped of his SPARTAN combat armor and undersuit to reveal his naked skin underneath, laced with the telltale wiring and blue glow of military-grade cybernetics. His hands and feets had been nailed to the wall by hand, blood streaks leaking from his maimed skin. His bare body was displayed without obstruction, allowing them to see that the civilians, in their savagery, had messily relieved the soldier of his manhood. Even Grunt had to wince at the thought of that. These civilians had shown no mercy to their captors.
On and on it went: a walk through the lane of chaos and violence that permeated mass insurrection. The UGC had got wind of Nyreen's 'rise to arms' speech, and how she had intended for the civilian populace to take shelter and not get involved with the war. Apparently many had chosen to ignore her pleas, and the results were laid bare. It was clear Cerberus' retreat had been more about not being able to divert attentions: they couldn't combat rebellion and invasion simultaneously. What lay behind the Hades Line was likely the territories they had managed to subdue and suppress, while the ones they left behind were the ones they'd thoroughly lost control of.
Yet there was no evidence that either side had emerged victorious. No rioters looting stores and burning buildings, and yet no Cerberus troops racing to set up defensive positions or execute rebellious elements. Just silence...nothing but the shuffling of those who heeded Kandros' pleas and stayed inside, and the sound of marching feet as 7,000 UGC troops approached their goal.
Grunt didn't like it. His senses told him that there was every possibility Cerberus spies were lurking in these buildings, watching them and relaying their positions back to their forces at the Hades Line. What if, at this very moment, Cerberus had reinforced the air base and were lying in wait? Was he walking his men into a trap?
Bring it on. The Collectors laid a trap for Shepard a year ago, and we scattered them like roaches. I say let Cerberus make their trap...we will smash it! I am Urdnot Grunt, and I am krogan! As long as I have enough ammo, there will plenty of them for me to kill! The more, the better! Let them prove their worth in battle!
The march went on for a while. It took them about an hour before they were within visual range of the air base itself. Its semicircular hangar bays could be seen reaching up into the sky, doors wide open to reveal the many aircraft parked inside. Missiles and gunfire streaked into the sky from the anti-air defense turrets mounted on the roof, warding off any air assault. Luckily for them however, it did not seem as if Cerberus had made any move to reinforce this critically weakened area, the lack of barricades and the small number of troops confirming as much. They were only a few kilometers out, so Grunt ordered them to step up the pace. Wanting an update on their situation, he contacted General Zaal'Golo, "This is the First Assault Group to Assault Group Actual, what's your status? We're within striking distance of Raymond Air Base, over."
Golo's response was immediate, "This is Assault Group Actual, Cerberus is holding firm but we're keeping them pinned. We've captured additional Cerberus vehicles and armor and have repurposed them: even put to use some D-09 units they left behind. Progress is slow, but there are cracks developing. We've yet to use any of their forces being diverted, so it doesn't look like they've caught on to you, FAG."
He heard Jack chuckle at that, but the krogan didn't even bother to ask her what was funny about what the quarian had said, "Understood. We'll give them something to cry about. Heh heh heh." He cut off the comm, brandishing his shotgun with crisp malice. Those Cerberus fleshies don't even know we're coming. They think they're safe behind their little defense line. Heh, time to grind them into paste...
Another twenty minutes passed before had finally reached the street the air base was on. Its AA had since gone silent, the UGC air forces pulling back to Aria's bunker to refuel or simply to provide air support to the Dark Prophet forces on the ground. Either way, the guns had fallen silent, but continued to scan the sky, their LADAR and motion sensors searching for hostile IFFs. Even better, none of the Cerberus aircraft had returned to refuel yet, meaning Grunt's force wouldn't be spotted before they could launch their attack.
Pressing himself against a wall just infront of the main fence surrounding the air base (Cerberus had practically sealed off the entire rest of the street to make use for the impromptu air field with a large chainlink fence. Crude, but practical), he signalled to one of the quarian engineers, motioning him forward. He was the leader of the small engineering squad. The quarian ran up to him, small Arc pistol in one hand, "Yes sir?"
Grunt nodded to the AA guns up top, an idea springing into his head as a large smirk swept across his mouth. He was sure the quarian had shrunk back at the sight of it, "Those guns up there...they use IFF receivers to differentiate friendly aircraft from enemy, correct?"
The quarian nodded slowly, wondering where he was going with this.
The krogan's smile just grew wider, "Can you hack it remotely?"
The quarian begun to catch on to the supersoldier's idea, opening his omni-tool with a flick of his wrist. After a moment, he nodded eagerly, "Yes...they're operating on a global link generator, which allows them to peak efficiency. Instead of having every turrret run on a tightband network, which would require multiple generators, they simply have them operate on a wideband frequency. It makes them more vulnerable to hacking, but Cerberus will have compensated for that. I'd expect heavy firewalls."
Grunt turned to the squad of engineers and geth surrounding them, "But those firewalls are no match for a dozen quarian engineers and geth hacking it all at once, right?"
He could tell the quarian was smiling, "They won't have a chance."
"Good," he waved an arm at the turrets, "I want you to hack those turrets and switch their IFFs to mark Cerberus as foe and UGC as friend. That way their refueling fighters will get a nasty surprise..." he laughed, before turning to one of the Blue Suns commanders at this side, "You, you'll take a platoon of your men, some Eclipse and a few Blood Pack boom-squads and sweep around the back...you'll be hitting their fuel depot. Cause some noise...I want a big explosion."
The turian frowned, "Isn't that counterproductive? I thought we wanted the element of surprise?"
He nodded enthusiastically, pointing at the central hangar, "You'll be our distraction. The explosion will draw their attention while we breach this fence and swarm the hangar. They won't know what hit them. They'll be confused...and a confused enemy is a dead enemy."
The turian nodded, whatever expression he may have had hidden behind his blue visor, "You want a big explosion, you'll get it."
Excellent. Cerberus will lose their air support and we'll divert the majority of their forces to the far side of the air base.
He turned to the remainder of his unit, which included Jack and her students, along with a couple of primes, his krogan battalion and thousands of rachni troops, "We'll wait here. My men will begin carving a way through this fence. The fuel depot explosion will be our signal...once we hear it, the rachni will charge the air base ahead of us, and we'll follow up behind...rachni can move faster, so they'll cover distance more quickly. Once inside, your only job is to trash everything in sight...every single aircraft, and any Cerberus personnel you come across. Destroy it all."
"So tear apart anything that so much as bleeds white and gold?" Jack rhetorically asked. Seeing the krogan's nod in her direction, a massive smirk crossed her lips, the superbiotic turning to her students, hands cupping over her mouth as she yelled, "WELL THAT JUST SOUNDS LIKE FUN, DOESN'T IT!? What do ya say, you little shits!? Let's kill some Cerberus!"
"Yes ma'am!" the students roared in confirmation.
Grunt crouched down behind the chainlink, a three-fingered hand slipping through the metal wiring to grip it firmly. It begun to shake as one of his men got to work with his omni-blade, using the flash-forged energy to slice and melt a gap through the obstruction, the substance bubbling and slithering away from the intense heat bestowed upon it. The Blue Suns, Eclipse and at least three Blood Pack vorcha boom squads departed down the opposite street towards the fuel depot to carry out their alotted mayhem, while the quarians and their geth allies whipped out their omni-tools and got to work cracking the Cerberus anti-aircraft network. The plan would work, he was sure of it. After all, it was an inspired choice.
Its a plan my battlemaster would be proud of. They've given me the job of taking this air base and punching a hole in their lines...I plan to do more than punch my way through. I'm going to punch, then rip my way into it!
The krogan supersoldier could barely contain his excitement at the prospect of more violence and battle. His grip on his shotgun caused the plastimetal to strain ever so slightly, even though the weapon was made by krogan, for krogan. Naturally, it was designed to withstand their strong grip, especially that of the ancestral strength krogan once possessed before the genophage, and one that Grunt currently had. He eyed the air base as he felt his blood practically pound in his ears, filling his senses and consuming him in its omnipotence. He could smell blood, feel it running through his veins. He could see it, and taste it. Everyone of his bodily apparatuses seemed to go numb, as if in anticipation of the combat that was to come. Grunt was entering a blood rage, and he would soon need to vent it.
A few minutes passed, and the commando he had assigned to the fence finished his work, pulling away his blade and raising one foot to come crashing down on the brittle material. It collapsed with the weight of a feather, not so much crashing onto the deck as it did glide towards it. He had cut a large enough gap for at least three yahg side-by-side to step through, which was more than enough room. Grunt stood up and patted his subordinate on the shoulder, the krogan nodding at him in respect before pulling back, omni-blade evaporating as he brought forth the massive M-9 Usurper assault rifle wielded between his claws. Now they need only wait.
They didn't need to wait long. Mere moments later, a shockwave rocked the entire district, causing some of them to stumble in surprise. Grunt remained unfazed, his grin only widening as he knew what this meant. A plume of smoke and fire shot up into the sky in the near distance, at least half a klick south of their position. The explosion had been so intense that the heat could be felt from where they stood, the column of smoke so thick that it was black, the area behind it rippling with the heat and almost completely rendered invisible to the naked eye. And as was the case with large explosions, the sound followed seconds after, the thunderous crack likely rupturing the eardrums of those closest to it. It echoed across the districts, likely heard as far as the Styx quadrant.
There was the signal.
He didn't even need to give his orders. Everyone parted as they watched their seething horde of rachni charge past them and through the hole in the fence, swarming forth like a horde of angry fireants. Workers and soldiers, led by a biotically charged brood warrior, stampeded through the air base's perimeter, bringing themselves closer and closer to the air field as they moved with immeasurable speed.
Just as the last rachni passed through, the quarian from before, a male, stepped forward, omni-tool deactivating, "We've breached the last of the Cerberus firewalls, sir. Those turrets will be fighting for us within moments."
"Excellent," Grunt approved with a firm clasp of the quarian's shoulders. The suited fleshy winced from the pressure, but accepted the gesture with a simple nod. Slapping him on the back, he turned to his battalion, holding his shotgun up in the air as he roared, "FOR TUCHANKA!"
"FOR TUCHANKA!" was their thunderous reply. And then they charged.
The plan had been flawless in its execution, much better than Grunt could have anticipated. Like clockwork, the AA turrets ontop of the air base ceased firing the moment he had crossed the perimeter's threshold, their barrels and missile launchers freezing in place as they looked for their new foes and former allies. With the threat of air attack eliminated, he was free to lead the charge on the oblivious Cerberus defenders, who were in for quite the shock. They still weren't expecting the UGC to attack what seemed to be a 'heavily fortified position', not realizing that they hadn't fallen for that lie in the slightest.
As the rachni advance units reached the central hangar, they found little to no Cerberus resistance waiting for them. The barricades were completely abandoned, a pair of mortars and a single Steelhead anti-infantry stationary gun lying completely unmanned, abandoned by their operators as they rushed towards the explosion and the threat they perceived. As such, the rachni swarmed over these empty defenses, rushing straight into the hangar itself as Grunt and the rest of the column followed behind.
There was a boom overhead, and Grunt stopped to turn and look up towards the source. He watched as a Cerberus SX3 Thunderbolt descended from above, slowing down as it approached the air base to make its landing approach, likely to refuel. No doubt it noticed the massive pillar of smoke and fire bleeding out into the air, and had been warned of the attack. Not that it mattered, because once the fighter was close enough for them to make out its colors and classification, it was close enough for it to be in range of their AA umbrella.
One of the turrets above coughed, and a streak raced across the sky as a trio of missiles raced out to greet their ally turned foe.
The pilot took too long to perceive what this meant, and by the time he swerved his craft to avoid the missiles, it was too late. The first one struck it on its belly, and the fighter's shields burst instantly, shredded pieces of armor plating snapping off and smoke trailing from its fuselage. The second slammed into its wing, obliterating it and quickly causing the fighter to begin spinning erratically. The final missile hit it directly in the front, and the krogan watched as the entire aircraft erupted into a bright fireball, the pilot having no time to eject inbetween impacts. The fireball glowed fiercely with its intensity, the fighter quickly plummetting towards the ground as it broke apart in the air, pieces of its other wing and other remnants of the disintegrating vessel breaking off as it made its descent. Finally, it crashed somewhere nearby, just outside the base, a loud boom signalling its arrival.
Like he had said, the plan was going off without a hitch.
Turning back from the glorious display, he turned back and rushed into the hangar. The rachni were taking to their assigned task quite animatedly and with purpose, rachni workers swarming towards the parked bombers and interceptors lining the bay. The ones on the right actually had hoses plugged into their sides, likely having been in the process of being fueled up when the explosion had ignited. Evidence of this was that the hangar was not entirely empty.
What few soldiers were left behind to guard the hangar were quickly overwhelmed, the claws and acid spit of the rachni soldiers a blur of movement as they sliced and diced their way through their bodies, rearranging their body parts in clouds of blood and intestines. What few Cerberus personnel left were pilots and fighter jockeys, and they only had basic firearm training: as such, most of them made a run for their parked vehicles, while others fruitlessly opened fire on the horde only to be devoured all the same.
The rachni quickly ignored the pilots in favour of the vehicles they were running for. Grunt watched as workers quickly descended upon one parked Hornet bomber, their insectoid forms partly disappearing as they found their way inside the craft, dismantling it from within as they destroyed circuitry, weapon systems, disconnected fuel intakes...piece by piece, the vehicles were disassembled brutally and without the gentle touch of a mechanic. Their efficiency was methodical, but without subtlety. Their goal was to destroy, not preserve.
Within a minute, at least six bombers had been thoroughly destroyed, while a brood warrior was in the process of smashing an interceptor with its biotics, a series of warps and a singularity thoroughly tearing it apart, metal twisting and groaning as it was warped and sheared off. There was a scream from inside the cockpit: clearly one of the pilots had reached his vehicle, only to be rendered and turned inside out as the singularity consuming his interceptor took him as a victim. Bad way to go.
Muzzle flashes and gunfire ripped through the ruckus to riddle a rachni soldier, acid blood spewing across the floor as it erupted from the numerous gaping wounds in its chitinous side. A squad of assault troopers burst through a door at the back, followed by two more squads, immediately rushing out to take up an offensive posture, guardians moving up front to provide protection while more assault troopers begun to toss grenades at his forces. Their numbers were few however, and with 7,000 troops at his disposal, Grunt found little need to find them a threat.
Laughing, he rolled his shoulder back before suddenly thrusting it forward as he charged, shoulder clipping an escaping pilot in the chest, sending him flying up into the air. His ribcage practically shattered, a series of cracks signalling the broken bones, before Grunt brought up his shotgun, took aim and fired. The Claymore's slug slammed into the human's chest, blood and bone exploding from the entry wound to coat the krogan in a thick, hot crimson blanket. The human groaned as he fell back to the ground, eying the massive hole in his chest as his intestines pooled out infront of him. He meekly picked at a protruding bone, before slumping forward into a pool of his own essence. He stepped over the corpse, feeling his boot land on the back of the dead man's neck, crushing it underneath his weight, before he wracked the slot back on his shotgun, his blood lust unsatiated.
"Suppression fire, keep them back!" one of the Cerberus centurions across the hangar shouted, "Someone get Colonel Colwood on the horn! Inform them we've-"
The centurion screamed as a rachni soldier suddenly appeared, claws slicing at his leg. He stared numbly at the missing stump, collapsing to the ground as the soldier descended on him, claws slicing away chunks of flesh and plastimetal, uncaring for the body armor he was wearing. His subordinates opened fire on the rachni, but its acid blood spurted out like projectiles of their own, slapping one soldier square in the face. He pried off his helmet in a panic as the corrosive substance quickly ate away at the protective material, only for his head to snap back as a sniper round tore through his skull, blood and chunks of brain blasting out the other side as he fell. More of his compatriots quickly fell as their kinetic barriers failed, shotguns and assault rifles tearing them asunder. The rest of the squad fell back, some of them uselessly dragging the corpses of their comrades with them, as if they could be saved.
And so they run. The prey runs, and the predator continues the hunt! Ha ha ha!
Another pilot fell, so he simply brought up his boot and stomped down on their face. He relished the sound of crushed bone as the human's skull was viciously caved in, his cries cut short. Stepping away, the bloody remains of the Cerberus pilot's brains leaving a wet footprint on the deck, Grunt turned to see another pilot clambering up the steps to his fighter, desperate to get the aircraft into the air and escape the slaughter.
He focused his blood rage and charged.
The pilot must have heard him, stopping halfway to the top as he turned and saw nearly five tons of enraged krogan stampeding towards him. He flinched, turning back to his fighter as he reached the cockpit, diving into the seat as he quickly began his own preflight checks. He quickly primed the cockpit cover, watching it slide over him before he continued his work.
But he was too late.
Reaching the vehicle, Grunt didn't slow his momentum as he threw all the force he could muster into ramming the aircraft. He hit the vehicle's wing, denting it heavily from the impact and causing it to briefly lift off the ground and tilt, before falling back down. Laughing like a maniac, he brought up his shotgun and pumped three quick shots straight into the starboard engine, watching it cough and sputter as the rounds tore through the lightly armoured wing. The damage was superficial, and likely wouldn't do anything to halt the fighter's operation, but right now, the krogan's propensity for violence wasn't going to be stopped, no matter how illogical.
He reached up, dropping his shotgun ontop of the wing before grabbing onto its edge, dragging himself up. He watched the terrified, wide-eyed gaze of the pilot watching him as he climbed up: Grunt was a like a monster, and the pilot needed to get away from him regardless of the means. Possibly realizing his efforts to take off would now be moot with a five ton krogan weighing his vehicle down, he primed the cockpit again, watching it slide away...
...exactly the wrong thing to do.
With no covering to offer protection, the pilot was helpless as Grunt picked up his shotgun and fired. The first slug missed by an inch, slamming into the console infront of the pilot and sending sparks and chewed up pieces of metal flying around inside the confined space. The pilot yelped, but quickly recovered as they began to pull themselves up and out of the cockpit. Grunt didn't care, and once the distance was closed, he lashed out with his left foot. He watched as it hit the pilot square in the throat, sending him flying off the parked Thunderbolt, grasping at his neck as he wheezed and gasped for air, the sucking sounds almost sickening to listen to.
Cracking his neck, the krogan proceeded to prime a pair of frag grenades, timing it just right before dropping them directly into the now empty cockpit. He leapt from the vehicle just as they detonated, flames and jagged pieces of metal consuming him in a hellfire as the SX3 simply broke apart. Its flaming wreck lay in a sad heap, Grunt barely feeling the pain as flames licked at his armor and skin, twisted and wicked shards of metal sticking out of his back and arms.
He looked down at the pilot, grin dying slightly as he saw a piece of glass impaled in one of his eyes, having pierced his golden visor to pierce flesh underneath. Another piece of metal gaped out of his chest, a pool of blood expanding around him, while flames from the destroyed SX3 began to catch on his undersuit, slowly catching alight. Grunt just shrugged, turning away as fire rapidly consumed the corpse. He reached up and pulled the debris from his back, allowing his regeneration to do the rest. As for the flames...they hardly bothered him.
If anything, it seemed to make him all the more terrifying. The sight of a flaming, non-chalant krogan gunning down Cerberus pilots without mercy sent most of them into a fit, abandoning their vehicles entirely as they simply ran for their lives.
Run all you want. Its over.
Another squad of Cerberus troopers emerged through the door, immediately opening fire. Grunt's smirk returned in full force at the promise of more fleshies to kill, but the squad suddenly disappeared as quickly as they appeared, a freight train of liquid blue energy cascading along the floor to fling them aside like a ragdolls. Some of them hit walls at terminal velocity, spines snapping from the impact and killing them instantly. Others weren't as lucky, resulting in nothing but broken limbs, leaving them at the mercy of the angry rachni horde that tore into them like a angry horde of hornets.
"Leave me some kills too, would ya?" came a familiar female voice.
He just chuckled, "You need to keep up."
"Oh, get fucked you oversized frog."
Another centurion was picked up effortlessly off the ground as Jack's body glowed with dark energy. She flexed a wrist almost casually, watching as the soldier's body was bissected down the middle, blood geysering into the air before she tossed both sides of his torso aside like they were annoyance. She raised a pistol, emptying a clip into another fallen soldier who had been cradling a broken leg, the white bone protruding through his kneecap and screaming in agony before Jack put him out of his misery.
"I expected...more," Jack joked, shrugging, "I don't know...just thought these 'soldiers' would be more professional. These guys fight like rookies."
He knocked aside another assault trooper, but as he turned to fire, his claymore clicked empty, ejecting the thermal clip with an angry hiss. Reaching down to reload, he found he was now out of ammo. Growling, he simply turned the shotgun around and proceeded to bash the soldier's skull in with the butt, finishing as he felt bone crack underneath his fourth blow. Holstering the weapon, he pulled out his Spiculum, feeling the need for some extra explosive demolition.
"Fuck!" Jack barked, "Rodrigez, get your head out of your ass and watch your damn flank! We've got troopers, coming in from behind us!"
"KILL THE ALIEN SCUM!" The Cerberus forces from behind them shouted as at least two platoons worth of troops suddenly appeared at the hangar's entrance, descending with a flurry of their own violence. Combat engineers prepped to deploy their portable sentry turrets while nemesi took positions behind their abandoned barricades, sniper rifles searching for targets. A trio of dragoons glowed with biotic might, lashes forming in their closed fists as they outflanked Grunt's forces.
Their perceived victory was short-lived, just as it had been before.
Rockets and grenades suddenly pelted the Cerberus troops from behind, with at least two squads wiped out by the initial barrage. Moments later, dozens of soldiers clad in white and blue, orange and black, red and white armor emerged and opened fire. Vorcha boom-squads opened up with flamethrowers and ML-77 missile launchers while Blue Suns and Eclipse support units poured fire into them with a range of tech-based and conventional attacks. Omni-tools lit up as Eclipse engineers launched incendiary projectiles and EMP overloads, armor and shields respectively sizzling away from the brute force attacks. HEL-class drones dropped down from the sky to rain death from above, a range of micromissiles and chain gun fire providing a maelstrom of bullets and explosions.
It was a massacre, however you wanted to put it. Cerberus had been caught completely offguard, just as they had intended, and no matter how they counterattacked, they were losing. They fell, whole squads at a time, as they were completely surrounded, suppressed and annihilated. Their dead littered the hangar bay as more of them fell, and without anywhere to retreat to, they were forced to fight hopelessly against their prevailing enemy.
As the last assault trooper fell, Grunt appraised the battlefield. It had only lasted ten minutes, but in that brief time, his assault group had completely laid waste to the air base. The quarians were likely jamming communications, hence why Cerberus reinforcements had not arrived. The flaming wrecks of destroyed aircraft filled the bay with hot smoke, obscuring their vision. The destruction of these vehicles ensured that Cerberus had lost all of their remaining bombers, which just left the fighters they currently had in the air, which would soon needed to refuel, and would try to land, only to be shot down by the turrets that had been turned against them. Cerberus' air force on Omega was effectively history. UGC air superiority had been achieved.
Accessing his comms, he contacted Golo again, dropping his grin as he adopted a serious posture, "General, this is Grunt. We've destroyed Raymond Air Base. You wanted your gap, now you have it."
Pike's voice responded instead, quick to begin barking orders, "Do not let Cerberus plug that gap...take your forces and keep pushing. I'm sending Talon reinforcements toward your zone. Link up with them and head east. We need to cut off the Hades Line from the rest of Petrovsky's forces in the Apex. Harass their supply lines if you can, but that's your objective. Do not allow them to retreat."
Jack was next to speak, responding to Pike's orders as she cut off Grunt from doing so, "How many men does Petrovsky have on the Line?"
"We don't have exact numbers, but we estimate around 19 to 25,000 troops: the vast majority of his corps. We think he's holding back the remaining 5,000 to protect the heart of the Apex. That means he's vulnerable. We cut them off now and we stop Petrovsky from reinforcing New Order HQ. We can end this war now."
Before Jack could once again interrupt him, Grunt piped up, "We'll do it, just as long as there is plenty of Cerberus to kill. But we're not waiting for your reinforcements. We do that and we'll be wasting precious time. Time Cerberus may just need to realize what we're doing."
There was a brief pause, followed by Pike's answer, "Very well. My forces will link up with yours further along the road. Pike out."
Grunt turned to the rest of his forces, who had finished mopping up Cerberus forces and were eagerly awaiting his orders. This was it: the final push. In just a few days, Cerberus had gone from the kings of Omega to fighting desperately to hang onto it. And with the forcefields gone, they had finally lost the last advantage that they had: without them, Petrovsky's back was now firmly against the wall.
"Pike wants us to swing around and cut off the Hades Line," Grunt barked, his voice rising to an octave where it echoed off the walls of the hangar, "I say...WHY KEEP HIM WAITING!?"
There was a cheer that followed, the many krogan of the group holding up their weapons as they roared back with equal enthusiasm. Jack did the same with her students, getting them roused up for a fight. One by one, the assault group cheered as Grunt lead them outside, ready to continue their push towards triumph. Towards victory. Towards glory.
He hoped the battle continued to deliver.
{Loading...}
August 7, 2186
1157 hours.
Secondary Operations Chamber, Main Reactor, Dark Zone, Omega.
Second War for Omega, Operation: Dark Prophet.
Captain Marcus Lee Shepard, Military Advisor Garrus Vakarian, Chief Engineer Tali'Shepard vas Normandy, Major Kaidan Alenko, Second Lieutenant James Vega, Second Lieutenant Imogen Keeling, Master Thief Kasumi Goto, EDI, Soldier Javik, Moses, Shadow Broker Liara T'Soni, General Nyreen Kandros, Ruler of the Terminus Aria T'Loak.
He wasn't just angry. He was pissed off.
He had spent the better part of a minute standing over the console, hands clenching the sides of it as he watched the blinking lights indicating that energy had been successfully siphoned from the forcefields. The 'Dark Zone' had returned to full power again, areas that had been shrouded in darkness for nearly a year being introduced to the light once more. It was done. The beginning of the end for the war was in sight.
And it had almost cost them thousands of innocent lives.
He silently fumed, finally plucking himself from the console as he stood up, armor creaking as he straightened. He swept up his pistol, holstering it as he once again retrieved the pulse rifle from his back. He needed to shoot something...someone. He exhaled silently as he calmed himself, expelling the violent thoughts from his mind. It wouldn't do for him to put a bullet in the head of his ally, however much he wanted to.
He quickly exited the chamber, heading back to the secondary operations chamber, where the forcefield there had also collapsed. His thoughts were with the rather stressful situation he had been pressed with just minutes before, remembering every second with crystal clarity. Aria had wanted him to overload the reactor instead of re-directing energy from the forcefields, arguing that it was 'faster'. She didn't care that doing so could result in multiple districts losing life support, resulting in the deaths of hundreds, possibly thousands, of civilians. All she saw was the amount of Cerberus soldiers she'd be killing by doing so.
He remembered what Garrus had said about ruthless calculus, but this...this was something entirely different. This wasn't 'sacrificing the few for the many,' it had been risking cold-blooded mass murder simply to gain a tactical advantage. The very thought of it made him nauseous, repulsed by the idea of killing thousands of innocent people on the hope that Petrovsky may be among them, or at least lose a large portion of his troops. Ir was one thing to wage war, it was another to commit wilfull genocide.
She's a fucking lunatic. Totally unhinged. No limits, no moral complex. She doesn't care who lives or dies, just as long as she gets her throne. Utterly insane. How can I possibly help this monster take control? Perhaps Nyreen was right. And Petrovsky.
He had promised himself that he wouldn't let the General sway him, yet the man's words held a truth he couldn't deny. Aria T'Loak was a cancer that Marcus was essentially helping to infest Omega once again. Her hatred for Petrovsky, of Cerberus, and her incessant, primal need to 'reclaim her station', meant she was willing to kill anyone and everyone to make sure she got what she wanted. Such an ally was unreliable. Untrustworthy. Totally unpredictable.
She was a ticking time bomb.
The secondary operations chamber was in sight now, and he could see that his squad looked to have a handle on things. Destroyed RAMPART mechs littered the area around it, their mechanized heaps of metal and plastic lying around in the dozens, sparking and twisted. He nodded to Keeling as he passed by her, the N7 having remained behind to wait for his return. Noticing his arrival, she nodded back and stood up, walking backwards as her rifle continued to scan the area behind them before pivoting around and walking normally, rifle in an alert carry position, but her stance rigid in case she needed to return to a combat ready stance.
The rest of the squad was spread out across the operations chamber, in varying degrees of posture. Garrus was slumped against a support strut, Liara next to him and nursing a bullet wound in his side with medi-gel. The turian didn't seem to be in any excess pain, holding his sniper rifle in an upright position. Tali was next to him, arms crossed with her shotgun on her back, foot tapping idly as she watched the asari helping her turian friend.
Moses and Javik, as expected, maintained watched with a constant vigil, positioned on each side of the chamber, watching for hostiles. James and Kaidan seemed to be arguing over something, although Marcus couldn't tell what. EDI and Kasumi looked to be swapping information via omni-tool (more than likely ways how to deal with RAMPART mechs), and Aria was surprisingly back on her feet, her previous fatigue either forgotten or being ignored in favor of the asari remaining steadfast, M-11 Wraith at the ready. Nyreen stood beside her, looking to be holding a surprisingly civil conversation with her. About what, he wasn't sure, but he was just glad they weren't constantly bickering like they were before.
His approach didn't go completely unnoticed. A few steps inside, and Garrus' mandibles spread into a grin, holding up his sniper rifle, "Marcus...about time you showed up."
He shot Aria a brief glare, before turning back to his turian comrade, walking over to him as his squad turned to acknowledge his presence, ignoring everything they had been doing beforehand, "Sorry, I was a bit held up. You guys okay? Petrovsky threw a lot of shit at you."
Liara just tittered, wiping her forehead, and standing up, allowing Marcus to see the wound Garrus had sustained: a single, tiny hole had punched through his armor, and a small lick of blue blood had dried around the entrance. Obviously, it wasn't mortal, considering Garrus was now beginning to stand himself, wincing slightly at the discomfort, but otherwise looking fine.
"Have you forgotten the Citadel all those years ago?" the asari replied, raising an eyebrow as she crossed her arms, "Kaidan, Wrex and I held against an entire geth division while you chased after Saren. I think we can handle a few dozen mechs with shotguns."
He held up his hands comically, laughing despite his mood, "Well, excuse me for worrying," he turned to Garrus now that he was fully standing, motioning his head towards the superficial wound in his side, "You going to be to walk that off?"
He shrugged, regarding the wound rather non-chalantly, "I took a rocket to the face and you're worried about a bullet in my side?"
He sighed, exasperated, but unable to hold back a smile, "Alright, I get it! We're a group of badasses."
"Oh," Garrus muttered, the smirk on his mandibles barely contained, "...I guess I better remember you s-"
He raised a finger at the turian, cutting him off, "Do not let that go to your head, dino."
"Too late. Should have thought about that before you made me a spectre," he clucked, pretending to check his sniper rifle to ensure it was loaded.
"I am beginning to regret that," he jested, reaching out a hand to grasp Tali's shoulder as he smiled reassuringly at her, "Before you ask..."
"...you're alright," she drawled, shaking her head, "I don't know why I bother asking."
"Because you're such a caring wife?"
"Uh-huh."
"I'm fine by the way, thanks for asking," he sarcastically quipped, keeping his rifle lowered as he let his arm fall from Tali's shoulder, the quarian reaching behind her to grab her shotgun, watching the collapsed weapon spring to life in her hands. She just rolled her eyes, while Garrus just laughed.
His anger was almost forgotten as he was relieved that his squad was intact...almost.
Then Aria opened her mouth.
"We're all just fine," the asari snapped, Marcus turning to find her face suddenly infront of his. He felt his blood boil once more, mirth giving way to fury as he remembered her actions before...what she had tried to coerce him into doing. His fists clenched, eyes narrowing into slits as he glared back at her with such venomous vehemence that he could have melted the hull off a geth cruiser, "...despite your best attempts to have us all killed."
Nyreen was at her side in an instant, grabbing Aria's shoulder as she tried to pull her back, but the pirate queen wasn't budging, "Cut Shepard some slack, Aria. Shepard managed to save thousands of lives and all of us got out okay. He did the right thing. I applaud him." There was a hint of pride in her voice, the turian regarding Marcus with a great deal of respect. It was clear his decision had been well received on Kandros' end.
If only Aria was as grateful.
"Your soft heart almost got us killed," she snarled, having barely acknowledged Nyreen's presence, poking a finger at his chest, "Had you simply overloaded the reactor, we wouldn't have almost died. Instead you wasted time siphoning the energy away. The result would have been the same either way!"
His teeth gritted, he snapped back, stepping forward, refusing to be bullied into submission, "Wrong. Your solution would have ended with pointless deaths. Thousands of them. By siphoning the power, like we had originally planned, I stopped us from being responsible for a massacre."
Aria guffawed, holstering her shotgun as she slapped her thigh with jocularity, rubbing her forehead as she turned from him, shoving Nyreen aisde, "Oh, well its all okay then! As long as Shepard's conscious can rest easy, us nearly dying is okay. We almost ran out of ammo while you were off on your moral struggle! By overloading the reactor, we could have seriously devastated Petrovsky's forces! Perhaps even killed all of them! But you just couldn't put your damn idealism to the side long enough to do what was necessary."
He opened his mouth to speak, only to be cut off as Tali stepped forward, standing beside him, "Back off Aria. We were all here...we all knew what we were signing up for. Mark did what was right. Just as we've come to expect of him. Your posturing and temper tantrums aren't helping."
"Of course you'd defend him!" Aria dismissed, fixing Marcus with a cold glare as his wife was summarily ignored, "None of you will dare to criticize your perfect fucking captain. If this were my operation-"
Enough!
"But its not," he growled, his voice low but menacing as he enunciated every single word with a hiss, "You surrendered control of this campaign the moment you came to me for help. You wanted it, you're getting it. But if you expected me to simply let you carve a bloody path through this campaign, then I've got news for you...you're fucking delusional. Now I don't care what greviances you have with how I do things or my ideology, but as far as I'm concerned, we do not put innocent civilians in danger intentionally! We do not sacrifice thousands when it becomes inconvenient! We came here to liberate this station, not kill everyone on it in the process!"
Aria was undeterred, mouth opening to offer a retort, "You don't-"
"Shut," he poked a finger into her chest, the force of the shove causing her to stumble back slightly as his superior strength took her by surprise.
"The," he stepped forward again, shoving her once more. His anger flared, skin flushed red. Enough. I've had enough of this. No more.
"Fuck," his voice rose an octave as he took another step, another poke causing Aria to almost trip as she was repeatedly pushed back by the human spectre. Blood thundered in his ears, his fists clenching so tightly he could hear the material groaning from the stress, his knuckles turning a pale, milky white.
"Up," one final shove sent Aria stumbling against a pillar, and in one final stroke, he was inches from her, giving the asari nowhere to go. His arm snapped up, pinning her by the neck against the pillar, a slight strangled gasp emerging from her lips involuntarily in a moment of stupefaction. Every muscle in his body tensed up as he finally vented his full rage at the pirate queen for the things she had almost made him do.
"I've just about had it with your attitude," he verbally lashed, his red hot glare remaining unseen behind his helmet. Despite her weakened state, he could see her biotics beginning to brim, bringing forth his own to keep her pinned, his biotic light joining with hers to hold her in a stasis field, immobilizing her temporarily as he continued to berate her, "From the moment we landed, you've made it pretty clear that you'd see every single person on this station burn if it meant Omega would be yours again. Constant disregard for innocent life. That's not how I operate, and you knew that. You've met me in person, probably even read my dossier. I helped cure the genophage. I made peace between the geth and the quarians. Not once, during those two scenarios, did I ever contemplate taking the easy way out and sacrificing thousands to satisfy some personal whim. I have blood on my hands, I'll grant you that, but that blood comes with the tears too: I don't enjoy what I do. But you revel in it. You don't care. And that makes you dangerous."
Her eyes narrowed at him, finally granted the ability to form a response, "You won't kill me..."
The thought came to him before he could contain himself, his anger a raging tornado that could no longer be restricted, "...oh, but I'm seriously considering it. You're a menace. A loose cannon. And from what you just tried to do...I don't think you're particularly trustworthy either."
He saw her freeze for a brief moment, but then it disappeared as she adopted a stance of obliviousness. But he had seen enough to know that what she said next was a barefaced lie, "I don't know what you're talking about..."
The arm pinning her throat tensed further, cutting off whatever she was thinking of saying. He growled once again, feeling murderous thoughts flash across his mind as he considered and then dismissed them, "You're a smart woman, Aria. Don't insult your intelligence any further by lying to me, and don't insult mine. You know exactly what I'm talking about. You planned this from the very beginning. You had no intention of letting us simply re-direct the energy from the forcefields. You wanted to have your cake and eat it. You had the audacity to think you could pressure me into committing mass murder for you."
She shook her head, glaring daggers at him, "I did n-"
His arm tensed again, and a choking wheeze escaped from her restricted windpipe, "Say it."
"I will not be-"
"Say it," he snarled, spittle erupting across the interior of his visor. His jaw was clenched to tightly he thought his teeth might snap.
"You will not get me to-"
"Fucking say it!" he roared, his voice carrying across the entire chamber and causing his squad, the passive observers they were, to jump from the sudden shouting.
Aria replied with equal veracity, screaming back at him until her throat was raw, "Fuck you, Shepard!"
He soundlessly released the arm that was pinning her, letting her land on her two feet, only now discerning that he had been holding her off the ground, the asari refusing to show weakness as she straightened up, hands remaining at her sides instead of raising to rub her sore throat, bruising left behind from where his armoured arm had left its imprint on her tinged purple skin.
She didn't see the strike hit her until her head snapped back, body slumping against the pillar temporarily as she blinked in shock. Looking up, she saw his fist clench and unclench as it recovered from the punch, the captain fixing her with cold hatred as he regarded her, "Let me warn you Aria: I will not be taking anymore of your shit. From this point forward, what remaining control you have is now mine. Your forces follow my commands. You will follow my commands. Since you cannot be trusted to control yourself, you will remain with my squad until this war is over."
She shot up, the prospect of her authority being undermined by the human before her filling her with a new rage, the asari fuming, "You can get fucked, Shepard. That is not going to h-"
"Its happening..." he interrupted, waving a dismissive hand as he turned and walked back towards his squad, removing his rifle from its holster and letting it fold back into his hands, "...whether you like it or not. This is not up for debate, Aria. With those forcefields gone, almost every inch of Omega is going to turn into a war zone. And with so much chaos going on, I need to know you're not going to be giving orders to shoot everything in sight. And since I now know what you're capable of, I don't trust you enough to keep your cool. Now you can either fall in with that, or stay here. Either way, I own this show."
There was quiet as he let this stew with Aria, the N7 stopping and turning as he, his squad and Nyreen calmly waited for the pirate queen's response. Left entirely speechless and without a protest to utter, Aria was forced to think through Marcus' ultimatum, likely running scenario after scenario through her head where she could turn this around and end up on top. Somewhere inbetween, she must have finally reached the conclusion that there was no situation where could win this. If she tried to kill Shepard, his squad would gun her down, and that's if he didn't do it first. If she went with him and then disobeyed his orders, he would put her down anyway. If she tried to seize control, he had Nyreen's full support, so she'd have nothing but her own men to help her, and she was heavily outnumbered in that regard.
She finally cleared her throat, her voice low as she clenched her fists out of frustration, particulates of biotic light spinning around her fists but not collecting to form a powerful mass, "If I do this...what happens after the war is over? Are you going to screw me over, Shepard? Break the one rule of Omega?"
Yes. "No, I won't. You'll have your station. While the prospect disgusts me, I don't see any other option. So be grateful that I'm at least letting you have that."
Or perhaps not.
She nodded slowly, before finally giving in and moving to rejoin them, her posture strenghtening as some of her strong-willed attitude returned to the forefront, but with just enough humility to satisfy him, "Very well, Shepard. We'll do it your way."
He meekly acknowledged her capitulation before turning and addressing the rest of his squad, "How are we going on ammo?" Damn it, is Aria T'Loak in control of Omega really what I want in the end? If she's this reckless trying to take the station, imagine what she'll be like once she has control of it again. Is Aria T'Loak returning to power really what Omega needs?
Petrovsky's right about one thing. I'm definitely starting to think Omega might be better off without her.
"We're virtually depleted," Kaidan stated, motioning to the bandolier on his chest, which was currently emptied of clips, "Those mechs really soaked up what we had left. Ended up downing about sixty mechs in total. Tali, Kasumi, EDI, Moses and I have our omni-tool and tech-based attacks, but we had to overclock them just to keep them working, and my omni-tool isn't designed to be strained like that. That leaves biotics, and we can't last forever in that respect."
Marcus nodded, checking his own supply of clips. He had four left, which wasn't enough to spread out across the squad, and he doubted it would do very much to change the tide of a firefight should they be engaged again. If they could just link up with UGC forces topside, they could get a resupply before heading to join the frontlines. No doubt the final assault was in full swing with the forcefields now gone.
We're close. We could have this war over by the end of the day. A week, at maximum, if we took into account Petrovsky's tendency to pull aces out from under his sleeve. With that being said, it won't be long now...which means I'll have to make a choice pretty soon. Do I let Aria take over?
He winced, sighing silently where noone could hear his inner struggle. Fuck. If I let Aria take over, she could prove to be either an asset, or a burden. And she can't possibly promise that things will get any better under her reign. What if she proves to be just as bad as she had been before the invasion? Omega has been in shambles for centuries...nothing but violence, hatred and lawlessness...perhaps its time for new leadership. Petrovsky and Cerberus, despite being the enemy, finally showed Omega a level of order and prosperity that wasn't present before. Perhaps, under Talon leadership...
He spared Nyreen a quick glance, before turning back to Kaidan, "Very well then. We'll take what we have and just have to hope it'll be enough to tide us over until we get back up top. Thankfully, EDI was able to purge the remaining adjutants on this station, not to mention siphoning that power has restored power to the entire Dark Zone. It should be a cake walk to get back to our forces, and then we can join them for the final push."
He glanced at Nyreen again, the turian paying attention to his every word. She nodded in agreement, her Pugio pistol holstered due to a lack of ammo for the weapon, likely now relying entirely on her biotics. The turian spoke next, mandibles twitching slightly as she scratched them, "I've also been working with Ahz and your engineers to help crack Cerberus' communications network. They got me into the system, and I sent a broadcast just after the forcefields fell. I wanted to make sure we got the civilians out of the streets before the fighting started."
"A sensible goal," EDI piped up, complimenting the turian's decision, "UGC forces will have less to worry about now with civilian lives clear from the streets. The likelihood of collateral damage will have decreased by 84.1 percent."
"That's great," Aria dryly riposted, her arms crossed as her usual, flippant and careless demeanour returned in full force, "But if we're done with talking, the war is starting. And I don't mean to miss it."
Before he could speak, Nyreen stepped in, opening her omni-tool, "If the war has truly started, then we may be able to sneak in behind enemy lines while they're focused on the front."
Both Marcus and Aria frowned at that, but it was Marcus who replied, "What do you mean?"
The turian brought up a holographic representation of Omega, a small blinking blue dot indicating what she was talking about, "Petrovsky established the Apex with the knowledge that nobody would be foolish enough to venture into the Dark Zone. And with power crippled and siphoned for his forcefield network, none of the elevators down here would have worked anyway. So he had nothing to worry about...until now," a blue line trailed up from where they were...straight up into the heart of the Apex, "With power restored, there's an elevator less than five hundred meters from where we are that leads straight up to-"
"-the Gozu district," Aria finished, nodding. Noting the looks thrown at her, she simply rolled her eyes, stepping back on one leg to lean on one hip, "I don't know why you're surprised: I've had centuries to get familiar with every aspect of this station. And I know the layout of the Gozu district quite well. I had that district quarantined last year when we had that plague. I also know that its right next to the Dyuko district...where Afterlife is."
"Yes," Nyreen confirmed, deactivating her omni-tool, causing the holo to evaporate into nothing, "But more importantly, that's where Petrovsky will be. His forces will be distracted trying to push the UGC back. When we get up there, we're going to be dead center in the middle of Cerberus territory, with New Order HQ very lightly defended. Petrovsky won't be stupid enough to leave himself undefended, but Shepard and his squad managed to destroy the entire Collector Base against odds far larger, so I think we can do this. If we capture Petrovsky, we can force a surre-"
Aria just laughed, "Oh no, we're not capturing Petrovsky. He dies."
"We'll decide that later," Marcus firmly declared, dismissing Aria's comment, "We're not going to decide anything right now. First, we actually have to get to Petrovsky. Nyreen, you'd best lead us to that elevator," he turned to EDI, motioning to her omni-tool, "EDI, get us in contact with General Golo. Ask for a status update on our operations and where the assault's at. But make sure you minimize detection as much as possible...I don't want to risk Cerberus intercepting our communications and tracing it back to us. We'll need the element of surprise to pull this off."
The AI nodded and soundlessly got to work, omni-tool springing to life as her five-fingered hands got to work, getting ready to receive an update.
He turned to Nyreen, and gave a single nod, "Lead the way."
Despite being four hundred meters away, the squad quickly found themselves moving at such a steady pace that the time passed almost without incident. They quickly reached the elevator in question, all of them boarding it before Nyreen accessed its ancient circuitry and slowly, but surely, brought it online, the lift ascending up into the air at a sluggish pace...so slow in fact, that it would take them an hour to reach the Gozu district.
Plenty of time to think.
He leaned against the back wall, silent as he hung his head low, mulling over his previous thoughts. They festered in the back of his mind like a weed, doubt gnawing away at his emotional and ideological integrity.
What I'm suggesting...its nothing less than a coup. I mean, if I stop her and she never gets into power to begin with, its technically not a coup...I'll just never let her have power to begin with.
Yeah, what a great difference.
Damn it...if I let Aria have her throne, what promise do I have she'll remain loyal? She's completely unpredictable. Entirely unreliable. How can I trust someone like that to deliver what I need when the time comes? And what about Omega? Can I truly leave this station with the knowledge that she's in power? She's far worse than Petrovsky...he at least treated his people with leniency. She'll murder those that so much as cross her path. And the rule of law and order will disappear the moment she takes over...they act like lawlessness makes Omega attractive, but all it does is create a hellhole. Extortion, corruption, murder, rape, theft...they'll run rampant the moment she takes control.
Why do I care? I've never liked this place. Never had a invested interest in its future...
But Nyreen does.
He lifted his head slightly, eying Nyreen carefully. Her arms were crossed and her back was turned to him, pacing lightly back and forth as she likely ran numerous tactics on how to deal with the upcoming battle through her head. He regarded her carefully, and frowned.
She's a capable leader. She openly went out of her way to hack the entire station's mainframe simply to warn civilians of the impending battle so they could get to safety. Why do that unless she cared? Its clear doing that would be too much for someone who's simply looking to gain popularity: she actually gives a damn. She's ex-military, so she'd also understand the need for a proper defense force. Only thing she's really missing is the political know-how...but I didn't take that into consideration when choosing Anderson for councilor, so why should it count now? She could just as easily establish a democratically elected government on Omega...funnily end the tyranny that's turned Omega into the shithole it is now.
She's the best hope for this station. She's exactly what it needs. And as an added bonus...she can be counted upon. She's not reckless or stupid. She's a professional, and she knows when and where to apply force. She inspires loyalty, and she knows how to transform bad into good. She took control of a bloody drug cartel and turned it into a well organized paramilitary. If she could do that, she can turn a lawless station into a state. Omega could actually prosper. Omega could evolve.
His gaze flickered to Aria, and the pit in his stomach formed once more. Aria...she's got none of that. She earns loyalty through fear, not respect or trust. She prefers a more laidback, disconnected rule, which means she couldn't care less if a bunch of gang wars leave entire families homeless or wiped out. She's selfish, impulsive and infatuated with her sense of invincibility. She wouldn't know the first thing about running a state. She's a joke of a leader. A parody. She's not fit to rule, yet she seems to think she deserves it.
He finally turned away, lowering his head once more.
The choice is obvious. That's the worst part.
Nyreen should lead Omega. That much I know. But the part that gets me is...how to go about this?
All he really was certain about was that he wasn't going to make a decision about it now. He would need to discuss this with Nyreen later, after the war was over. Organizing a spontaneous coup in the midst of a war with Cerberus would be foolish, so they needed to eliminate that threat first before they could decide the future of Omega itself. He just hoped Nyreen was thinking along the same lines as him.
So its pretty much decided. Aria cannot be allowed to lead Omega.
It was nice to have some clarity, at least. But he had to admit he was a bit apprehensive at the idea of launching a coup de'tat. Is this how Udina felt when he organized with Cerberus to overthrow the Council and invade the Citadel? Did he feel justified in doing what he did?
Totally different situation. Udina was indoctrinated and Cerberus is undermining the war effort. Aria is an actual threat I can recognize. And unlike Cerberus, Nyreen is a far superior substitute to the original leadership. There's more to gain having Nyreen in charge.
He was shaken from his stupor when the elevator shuddered, and as he looked up, he realized the elevator had finished its ascent, Aria tapping the haptic interface and barely waiting for the door to slide open before she stormed out, her shotgun whipping up as she swept the area infront of her for hostiles. The squad piled out after her, and after a second, Marcus followed them, helmet pressed against the cool, sleek side of his pulse rifle.
That hour went by pretty fast.
He immediately recognized where he was just by rapid glance at their surroundings. It was hard for him to forget the Gozu district: after all, this had been where he had found and recruited Mordin little more than a year ago. A plague had ravaged the entire district, forcing Aria to seal it off and quarantine it. The virus had infected everyone but humans and vorcha (the latter of which were immune to disease anyway), which had punched a hole in a turian-dominated Blue Suns, who had owned the district and were its unofficial police force. As a result, the Blood Pack had moved in, resulting in a short but bloody war known as the Gozu Mercenary War: combined with the aftermath of the plague and its high death toll, Gozu had taken months to recover, and the Blue Suns permanently lost control of the district. Marcus and his team had decimated the Blood Pack forces trying to subsume it (who had been responsible for spreading the plague in the first place, which was Collector in origin), so in the end the Talons had swallowed it up. The Gozu district had only just gotten back on its feet by the time Petrovsky invaded with his army.
They were in some back alley maintenance block, the worn out walls, peeling deck plating and faded lettering on the walls indicating this room hadn't been occupied or used in some time: considering how ancient the elevator was, Marcus wasn't surprised. It was quite sparse, the room itself not particularly colorful or filled with items, being as barren as they came. The door ahead of them had no haptic interface, demonstrating to Marcus that it wasn't active or its power source had been cut. Either way, it was going to require some brute force to get open.
Taking point, he motioned for Moses to open the door, knowing the geth prime's superior strength would do the job. Giving him a simple nod with his optics, the prime stomped over to the door and crouched down, three-fingered hands reaching inbetween the two sliding sheets of metal and beginning to pry them apart. With a groan and a squeak, the two pieces of metal parted, a plume of dust exploding away from the disturbance. With a final heave, Moses wrenched them open, causing them to part lazily to their sides, leaving the way for them clear of impediment.
Marcus was the first to step through, rifle at the ready. Once outside, he found himself on an empty street corner, a CBD if he was to guess based on the seemingly never ending rows of shuttered and closed shops. A pair of skycars were parked to his left, although their owners were nowhere to be seen. A holographic sign labelled 'Apex Omnitools' was deactivated, its lettering dimmed and inactive. From the looks of things, the place had only just recently been abandoned: the area was too clean, too devoid of life, for it to have been anything but recent.
As the rest of his squad joined him, he could hear gunfire and explosions in the distance. The sound of it told him that UGC forces weren't too far away. Even as he turned to request an update from EDI on that situation, he was already receiving an answer, the AI nodding to his unvoiced request, "General Golo has stated that all UGC forces are currently engaged with Cerberus at an area called the 'Hades Line'. He also states that Urdnot Grunt has recently raided a Cerberus air base in the Kima district and destroyed it, and that his forces are now moving towards the Gozu district to outflank Cerberus troops on the Line. He believes Petrovsky has dedicated the majority of his forces to this. Around 20 to 26,000 troops, spread out over several miles."
"That leaves roughly a regiment behind to defend New Order HQ," Keeling stated, running the math in her head, "That's roughly 4 to 5,000 men. Still enough to pose a problem."
"Not if we're quiet," Kasumi shrugged.
EDI wasn't finished apparently, "General Golo would also like to inform you that they were able to eliminate at least a couple of battalions during an ambush in the Rubicon quadrant. They were able to catch Cerberus forces in the middle of an evacuation, and managed to capture heavy materials and armor. Numerous D-09 and M45 units were among them."
So we've got some of Cerberus' firepower and we're using it against them. That's good. "Good to hear. Inform General Golo that we've arrived back from the Dark Zone and that Dark Prophet is to proceed as planned. Find a way to punch a hole in the Line and push through to the Apex. We can't give Petrovsky time to form a plan of counterattack."
As they began to move forward, EDI spoke up once more, "Captain, Grunt is trying to contact us."
He nodded, motioning for her to pass it on to his helmet. After a moment, there was a crackle in his ear, followed by Grunt's voice, his tone joyous and enthused, "Battlemaster! I knew you'd join the battle eventually! The battle is going well, battlemaster! Its a pity you're missing out."
He grinned, finding it hard to keep a straight face at the krogan commander's enthusiasm towards wanton violence and destruction, "I'm sure you're more than making up for my absence, Grunt. I hear you're giving Cerberus a real hammering."
The krogan chuckled heartily, the boom of a shotgun almost deafening over the comms, "They're on the run, Shepard! Once we overran their air base, taking the rest was easy! I don't think they expected us to attack them from behind! Give it twenty minutes, and I think we'll have them running with their quad between their legs! Where are you?"
He shook his head, "Can't say, Grunt, don't know how secure this transmission is. Just keep pushing. Don't give Cerberus time to regroup!"
Aria's voice was suddenly heard over the comm as she intervened, "Head for Afterlife! We need to take Petrovsky down! The only way this ends is with him dead. We kill him, and Cerberus' forces will-"
He turned, shooting her a death glare. It said more than enough. Aria saw the look and stopped, but not before he turned back around and switched back to talking with Grunt, "Belay that order, Grunt. Focus on breaking the Hades Line. Then, go around and begin liberating the surrounding districts. The less Cerberus has under their control the less area they have to retreat to. We'll condense them into one sector, trap them and finish them off. Just keep applying force and this will all be over soon. Shepard out."
"Understood. We'll knock 'em, right on their ass!" The comm went silent, Marcus disconnecting the line immediately afterwards.
"Well, I guess that's sorted then," Tali stated, having taken position behind a nearby pillar.
"Indeed," he turned to his squad, taking a deep breath, "We're on the precipice, people. Let's pick up the pace. We've got one destination, and only one in mind: Afterlife. We get Petrovsky, and this all ends. Let's finish this damn war so we get back to the real one."
There was a range of acknowledgements, and Marcus turned back raising a fist and then lowering to indicate to his squad to move forward.
Today, change was coming to Omega. In more ways than one.
Marcus would be sure of that.
Author's Notes:
Well...that's it for a bit. Want to spend more time with Flashpoint for a bit before I get back into Holocaust again. Don't worry, we've only got two chapters left before I can successfully declare the Omega arc finished. For now though, I want to take some time to focus on the less full-on, more laidback nature of Flashpoint.
Until then,
Keelah Re'lai, troopers!
