Well, here it is… finally. I would give you a good excuse, but I don't really have any. "I have been playing video games." Isn't a very good one, is it? Either way, I blame Steam for having a summer sale. My wallet hurts.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter. It took me a lot of sporadic writing, but I believe I have a result I can be somewhat satisfied with.

This chapter has not been beta'ed


~Chapter 4~

Dromak was a Batarian captain. Not just a simple freighter captain, or even a regular military captain; no, he was a captain in the Batarian SIU. He had gone through the brutal training and come out as one of the best in his class. He was off the Warrior Caste, a son of the mighty family of Kur'sak. He owned dozens of slaves from every species. And yet here he was, on a human world, capturing slaves of all things. This assignment was far below him, but someone had to keep an eye on the Terminus rabble sponsored by the Hegemony- that someone being him, according to the SIU.

He sighed once more. This was too easy; outer colonies of the Systems Alliance always were. The garrison was too small to put up much of a fight, although the 'Human Ingenuity' as they called it was a bit annoying. Always finding ways to be a pain in his ass, those humans. The only thing that's good about them is their women, and they start to get boring once you've broken them.

He was shaken from his thoughts when a private caught his attention with a salute, his head tilted to the left, showing the respect - and fear - that he called up from his own soldiers. "Sir, we just got a distress call from one of the raiding parties we sent into the lands surrounding the colony. They reported that they were under heavy sniper-fire. We lost contact a minute ago, sir. I took the liberty to have an ensign preform a scan of the area, he reported no survivors."

The private sounded worried, which honestly didn't say a whole lot as the price of failure was well known amongst his troops. Yet for an entire party to go missing… and then there was that strange ship that had shot half his freighters out of the sky, appearing for a few seconds to fire a salvo or a barrage of missiles before disappearing into thin air. No one had gotten a good look at it, and the scanners didn't pick it up, so the officers had decided that they'd tell their troops that the colony simply had better AA batteries than expected. Better avoid panic to keep the rabble in line…

He sat down in the command chair of his cruiser and gave an order to the private, who seemed very relieved that he wouldn't be bit out, "This can't be a coincidence. Double the patrols around the slave pens and start loading them up; I want to leave as soon as possible."


A Batarian guard, not even important enough to name, was standing next to a door. Not a regular door of wood as I was used to, no, it was a fancy sliding door made out of metal. The only thing that stood out was that above the door was a sign, which somehow - don't ask me for the specifics as to exactly how - was translated into perfect English by the software in my omni-tool.

It was also my target for now. To disable this freighter in the most efficient way I had to destroy the engines, or so Threes had informed me. It seemed relatively straight-forward, we had done something like it back in Somalia, where we infiltrated a large freighter acting as a mobile base for pirates, smugglers and other scum like it.

Now, though, I didn't have a team of elite special forces operatives to help. I was alone, and I really needed to get used to it.

Luckily, I was wearing a state-of-the-art suit of armour. The active camouflage was something I needed to get used to next to being on my own. It was a surreal feeling, being practically invisible to not only the filth that owned this ship, but to myself as well. I can guarantee you that it is not easy to do… well, anything, really, when you can't see yourself. My HUD had thankfully quickly adapted to the active camo and - again, don't ask me for the specifics - somehow used sensors in the armour to show me exactly where what was.

Anyways, with the cloak working it was a piece of cake sneaking by the guards at the entrance ramp. As had it been to dispose of the patrols outside. The only downsides to the cloak were that when I moved too fast it would shimmer, possibly revealing my position to the enemy, and that It seemed to stop working once the plates were covered with something. I noticed this when my left arm was covered in blood.

It was not so much that it stopped working, no, it just didn't cloak any kind of fluid. Blood, paint; things like that could stick to the surface, rendering the cloak useless. Luckily the blood was easily washed off at s secluded stream, but regardless, it was something I needed to keep in mind.

My knife stabbed into the guard's throat, severing the jugular and spine. I tried to avoid the blood spatter as I pulled my knife out and lowered the alien to the floor. I couldn't avoid the clatter of armour plates hitting the metal deck, but it was sufficient to keep the slavers around the corner from investigating.

Threes quickly hacked the door and I moved into the engine room. There was a singular technician working on some complicated-looking piece of machinery. I snapped its neck quickly- a more painless death than it deserved, but I was low on time.

It was not for the first time that I wished Crow was here. I was okay with explosives, but he was good. No, he was a fucking artist when it came to making things go boom. Where he would probably have sculpted his explosive into the shape that would cause the most damage, I simply slapped a piece of powerful C12 on it, deciding it would be powerful enough to disable, if not outright destroy the freighter.

And there goes number five. I smiled contently, five out of eight engines sabotaged. There was only one problem; I had run out of explosives. Well, I still had some grenades - two frags, one smoke, and one incendiary to be precise, but I'd rather use those on the actual slavers. Oh, how I enjoyed watching them burn last time…

Either way, I would have to make sure I got the captured humans out of the blast radius. Hopefully the freighters exploding would cause enough damage to the remaining three to keep them from bowing up. I knew that was unlikely, though, so I'd have to designate those for an airstrike by Threes.

From what I was hearing over the Batarians' radio, the AI was doing a good job taking down fighters and shuttles, shooting a few down and then quickly disappearing before the AA and other craft could zero in on him. Even though it's strange talking to a floating ball, I was coming to greatly appreciate the help he had thus far provided. I probably wouldn't even be able to tell you this if he hadn't saved my life countless of times over the years.

I broke off my thinking on explosives when I exited down the ramp, where I stepped on the slightly muddy Mindoir soil, some dirt and mud sticking to my boots. I fucking hated this place… Not Mindoir itself, mind you, but the fucking swamp the fucking slavers had decided to land their fucking ships in.

I sighed in annoyance and started to slowly make my way over to the holding 'pens'. They were heavily guarded, and I had to stand stock still multiple times as a guard passed me. I was lucky, though. None of them seemed to notice the hovering blood spatters or the footprints left behind by boots that weren't there. I didn't need to worry about them seeing my shadow, since it was pretty cloudy, so I guess that's nice.

I crouched down behind a medium sized shipping crate, but I must've nudged it slightly, because one of the small crates stacked on top of it fell off. I cursed softly at both myself and the Batarians for not being able to stack crates correctly.

"Hey, Dophe, did you hear that? We better go check it out." Goddammit! Well, it's one way to get rid of 'em, I guess… I'm close to the pens anyways. I reached to my lower back, where I freed my combat knife from its sheathe. It was coated in the same stuff that the rest of my armour and weapons were, making it practically invisible to the naked eye.

I heard the boots of the pair slopping through the muddy ground. I counted in my head when the first one would reach me; 5… 4… 3… 2… FUCK YOU! I jumped out and pulled the slaver behind the crate, more blood covering my forearms and hands as I deftly slit its throat and muffled his scream.

The second guard rushed after him as soon as it saw its friend disappear, hoping to catch me. I flanked around the crate, coming up behind the startled Batarian. I paused as I heard it sob. For a moment the slaver seemed so… human, as it cried over its- his lost brother. I hesitated for a second, but shoved those thoughts to the back of my mind, reminding myself that they were kidnapping people and selling them like they were cattle.

I sneered- how human-like the Batarian may have seemed, he was still a monster, so I took it in a strangle grip and twisted its neck. I dumped the body on the floor, on top of its dead comrade. I had better things to do than think on morality and ethics towards other species right now, so I reprimanded myself for hesitating like that and continued on.

A wry smile decorated my lips. I could imagine the absolute hell Durant would've given me, had he seen me freeze up like that. There's an expression out there that goes a little something like this: "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." We made our own version: "Hell hath no fury like Durant scorned." Yeah, he was that bad.

Anyways, going off topic again. I was nearing the outer holding pens. There were only a few colonists here, but they all seemed in equally bad condition. There were a few girls in tattered clothing, holding on to others for dear life- I could only imagine what the slavers had done to them. I saw a few men trying to shield them as best as possible from the hungry four-eyed look one of the guards sent them. My eyes narrowed.

They were collared. Collared like animals. I didn't have a doubt that the collars were either of the shock or explosive kind. I wasn't angry. I was absolutely and utterly furious. I stalked up behind a pair of chatting guards and unclipped my hand cannon from the magnetic plate.

"I'm tellin' ya, once I get this raid over an' done with, I'm returning to my wife. She just had our second child, an'I want ta be there ta see 'im grow up." The other Batarian nodded and was about to reply when its head was blown off, covering both me and the other Batarian in its blood and brain matter.

The look of shock I its eyes was priceless. I almost felt sad to see it replaced with one of pain when I kicked it in the nuts and shot it in the knee, blowing the lower leg right off. I finished it off with a boot to the jugular as it squirmed in pain on the ground, not even watching it die before I turned to the remaining four guards.

They were backing off slowly, a look of fear on their faces as they raised their rifles at me with trembling hands. I grinned savagely, unloading three bullets into one of them, turning its chest into a warmed mess of armour and flesh. It was then that they got their wits - as far as they had them - back together and opened fire on me. I had exactly three shots left in this cartridge, enough to take them all out.

I sprinted towards them, the bullets being stopped or deflected by my shields and my visor clearing my vision by evaporating the blood running over it with electric pulses. I reached the first slaver, pistol-whipping it in the face and using my free hand to twist its arm, using the despicable being as a meat shield. The weak shields didn't hold out long. Its armour even shorter.

The few seconds of the slavers shooting their comrade did give me the time to kneecap one and shoot the other in the chest as its friends fell to the ground. Hmm, one bullet left… what to do, what to do… I chuckled, shooting the Batarian that was crawling on the ground, trying to reach its fallen rifle in the other knee.

I rolled it to its back using my foot, setting it on the slaver's chest afterwards. I saw the fear and anger in its eyes as I bent over and spoke with a voice modified by my helmet, "Hey there, buddy. You seem to have lost something." I pointed at the loose legs, one hanging on by just a few tendons. "Now, you're gonna give me the codes to unlock those fences and collars, or you, my dear Batarian friend, are going to find out what it means to truly be in pain before you bleed out, you understand?"

"Get away from me, monster! I will not be threatened by the likes of you, you kra'tash Reth'va Tal!"

I put some more pressure on its chest until I heard a rib crack. I looked it in the eyes again, noting no change in expression. I aimed my Maverick at its head, sighing, "Well, it's not that interrogation is the only way I'm gonna get the information, but I was hoping for some fun with you, my compadre. Either way, it's not worth wasting my time with you. Adios, ya dick." I said before I pulled the trigger and its head all but disappeared. I suppose hacking it is, then.

I attached the large sidearm to my thigh again, noticing the blood that had accumulated on my arms, chest, and head. Some of the colonists looked thankful, but the majority seemed frightened, shying away from me as I approached the bars of the pen. I disabled the lock, and stepped in, trying to somewhat calm the colonists down.

"Wh- what are you?" one of them - a stocky man with dirty brown hair - asked, his voice quivering.

Oh, shit, I forgot to turn the camo off! Once I had done so, and the floating blood had been replaced with armour plating (even though a lot of it was still covered with blood) they somewhat calmed down. "Hades." I simply answered, "I'm here to get you out."

I switched the speakers in my helmet off, talking to Threes privately, "You're sure you can do this?" I asked the construct, crouching down next to the man who had first spoken to me, holding him still as I looked over the collar. It seemed pretty complicated…

"I am a millennia old super AI, developed by the people who built the Halo Rings and the Ark. Yes."

"Alright, alright, no need to be a dick about it. Now what do I do?" I asked quickly.

"Scan the device, I will do the rest." The man tried to flinch away, but he was weakened and my grip was strong, even stronger than usual with the suit's internal exoskeleton, and my dull-black visor was quite intimidating, as it should be.

It wasn't long before Threes had hacked the horrible device and it opened with a clack, falling from the man's neck onto the ground.

His eyes widened and a lot of the fear he had for me vanished as I continued on to the next captive. There were around a dozen, but with Threes doing all the work it took me only a few minutes to get them all free. It was when the last collar fell off a girl's neck, that I realised something; I had no Idea how I was going to get them all back to the garrison. There was no way that I was taking them with me as continued to my final objective. Neither was I leaving them behind to be recaptured by the Batarians.

I looked at the prisoners, of which at least three seemed to be either military or former military. I gave them a once-over; while they were bruised and dirty, they were well-built and seemed alert. I then looked at the armoured bodies of the slavers.

A plan started to form in my head that might just work…


Meanwhile, back in the void, one 'Deity', or Overseer, as their actual position was called, was pacing in front of one of his colleagues. His restlessness was easily explained by the fact that the Universe he was supposed to watch over had experienced some ripples which were… worrying, for sure.

It was said colleague who placed her hand on his shoulder and tried to stop him, "Fonce, calm down, I don't see your twin wearing a hole in the floor. Here, have a drink." She said as she offered him a cup.

Fonce looked grateful, but worry was still deep in his eyes. "Thank you, Morrigan, but I will not calm down until I get the news from Lumira how our 'Verse is faring. My sister should have been back by now…"

Morrigan pulled the male half of the Force twins into a soft embrace, kissing him deeply on the lips afterwards. "Husband, there is no need to be so frightful. Need I remind you that your sister has made it through much worse than a simple check-up on some ripples? Now, how about we relieve some of that tension, shall we?" She said coyly, winking at him before turning around and walking into her own part of the void, not even looking to see if Fonce was following her.


And the plot thickens. Well, a little bit, I hope.

Also, cliff-hanger. I hope I'll be able to write more, but it will likely take a while. I have some real life things to take care of as well, and sadly that has priority over writing.

Please, tell me what you thought. I really appreciate any constructive criticism.

Cheers, Mac Gustah