Yes they are effective and morally questionable, but I don't think many of the parties involved are particularly concerned with that.
Chapter 2.3 Version 2: Spoilin' For a FightJack looked at the REV8 in the freighter. It had repaired all of the damage it had accrued in the escape while they had traveled to Omega. With its microfabricator, he had been able to supply it with scrap from the cargo holds of the freighter while they were in transit. It was as ready as it could be.
He checked the pistol at his belt and the assault rifle that Zaeed had given him. "Well, let's get this show on the road."
"Yeah, Zaeed gets grumpy when he hasn't killed anyone recently, and I'm pretty sure Saren and Alma get like that too," Kasumi replied.
"I don't get grumpy," Alma said from where she was practicing using her psionic force field in combination with her new shield belt while at the same time holding onto her Teddy Bear.
"Don't encourage her," Saren ordered, standing with his retinue and robots.
"Aye, it only makes her worse," Zaeed said from where he was checking his laser rifle, assault rifle and grenade launcher.
"I'm not that bad!" Kasumi objected, twirling a goblet from the Turanic restaurant in her left hand as she held her pistol in her other, practicing her aim on a crate on the other side of the cargo bay.
"From what I've seen so far? Yes you are," Jack told her. "But you shouldn't let that hold you back, embrace it."
She turned to him and grinned. "Finally someone who understands! I knew you'd be great addition."
"They've yet to prove they can fight," Zaeed told her.
Kasumi sighed and looked at him, shaking her head. "Didn't they escape from an Armacham prison, killig their way out?"
Zaeed shrugged. "There are plenty of ways for something like that to happen, it doesn't tell us how useful they'll be," he sighed, "But I've already harped on this and he's got a REV8."
Jack nodded. "Damn right I've got a REV8. Just keep Alma safe and we'll clear out these bastards."
Alma spoke up then, frowning. "If we want to crash the auction, then we need to make sure that there is as little warning of our attack as possible."
"Yes, we wouldn't want all of the good stuff slipping away," Kasumi mused. "Thoughts?"
"We'll want to attack the auction as quickly as possible," Jack said.
"Getting through her defenses fast is our problem though," Zaeed said. "We can't just sneak in your powered armor."
Jack glared at the grizzled veteran for a moment. "My mech can break through enemies fast."
Kasumi leaned back on her heels and hummed in thought as Zaeed replied, "But can it cut through them fast enough to reach the auction before any merchandise escapes? No it can't. Aria's club is a fortress."
"A technical expert could assist us by subverting her security measures," Alma suggested. "I personally have only limited skill in that for now, but it would be simple to solve this problem."
One of Saren's people spoke up then, "It would mean turning your focus away from using your powers. We have hacking specialists and two additional teams that will be moving into position to attack other entrances." Jack could feel his powerful aura and knew that this Turian was Saren's psychic.
"I'm good enough, but having someone hang back to focus on support would be good for our team to have," Kasumi said. "Even with your capabilities, we should pursue every advantage we can manage to get our hands on before we start the mission."
"We have contacts, but none of them would be able to help us against Aria this quickly or cheaply enough to make it worth hiring them," Zaeed replied. "They're too gud damn afraid of that woman."
Saren spoke up then, "It isn't a significant loss if some of the items at the auction escape, I'm only after one."
"But we want them, and having more competent help will make this go smoother," Kasumi replied. She looked at her three team mates. "I think Meegor might be able to help us out with this, there might be someone he could put us in contact with on short notice."
"There is a technical expert who caught our attention and who works for Meegor," Alma informed Kasumi.
"Really?" Kasumi asked as Zaeed grunted. "Well, I suppose an interview couldn't hurt."
~+~B:F/M~+~
"Hello again, Tali'Zorah," Alma said to the nervous Quarian.
"Oh, uh, hi," she replied. She turned away from her workbench overlooking an old frigate being disassembled to look at the other people on the deck. She had been somewhat hoping that the two extremely dangerous humans would leave her alone. Apparently they had decided to return with a small army.
"We wanted to hire you to help us against a pirate and a slaver," Kasumi said.
"What? How?"
"Oh please, you're the daughter of one of the Admirals of the Migrant Fleet, Meegor has only praise for your technical abilities and there's no way your father didn't make sure you had some experience with combat before you left, so you're coming with us, stopping a very evil person and getting paid a lot of money!" Kasumi explained.
"We need a techie," Jack added.
"I don't know about this…" Tali said.
"Listen, you'll just hang back with Alma and Zaeed and help me hack things," Kasumi reassured her. "You three will only get into the thick of things when it's time to loot."
Alma tilted her head to the side and shifted her grip on her Teddy Bear. "We believe that you would be a valued addition to our team, even if it is only on a temporary basis."
"Just because I'm a Quarian doesn't mean I can hack anything," Tali objected.
"But your technical experience suggests you can," Kasumi replied.
"And there's your Pilgrimage to look toward," Zaeed commented. "We're going to be stopping an pirate's auction of ancient artifacts and art, even if you can't use any of that, it'll give you the money you need to get something to bring back."
"Yeah, and we're working with a Specter on this, so we'll make sure you're safe," Jack assured Tali.
"It's a good deal Tali, you should take it," Meegor told her. He nodded to Zaeed and Kasumi. "I know them, and while they can be a bit reckless, I trust them as much as you can trust anyone in the Terminus."
She turned to him questioningly and he nodded encouragingly. "Okay, I'll join you, but we need to talk price first."
"Good girl," Meegor said. "You're learning fast."
Kasumi nodded. "Talking money is a good idea, so what should he pay you?" she said, gesturing to Saren.
"She's your Quarian," he growled in response.
"Do you want our help?" Kasumi asked. "Because we can always knock over the Armacham offices or something and let you crash the auction on your own."
"She would be a potentially useful addition," the Turian psion said, condescension clear in his voice, "but it remains to be seen if she can actually contribute anything or if this girl will simply get in the way."
"I won't just get in the way!" Tali, annoyed at his attitude, protestedas she accessed her omnitool. The Turian's barriers flicked for a moment, before returning to invisibility. "I don't like violence much, but this is a military grade omnitool and I have the training to use it, so you will pay me, and pay me well."
"If you want good pay, you'll have to earn it," Saren told her.
~+~B:F/M~+~
The Afterlife was Aria's club and the center of her power in Omega and the rest of the Terminus, as well as the galaxy. The club itself was large, reaching from floor to ceiling of the fifty meters of vertical space in the sector and extending above and below it. Holograms of fires and silhouettes within them danced along its walls while sculptures of abstract art with figures chained to them hovered in from of it. Dance beats thudded out through the reinforced walls of the club and hundreds gathered outside of the main entrance.
The concourse outside of the Afterlife, Aria's club and palace in Omega, was large and open with large pots and dividers which were clearly designed to serve as cover for the defenders of the club. The openness of the concourse, even with the numerous stores and the taxi service station, was too open for attackers to easily approach. This kill zone was set up so that any attackers would be vulnerable to the dozen or so turrets on the club itself, the three hundred Replicas in positions around the concourse and the surrounding sector, the hundreds of combat drones on patrols, the one hundred twenty-eight heavily armed and armored soldiers guarding the club's entrance, and the thirty-six heavy mechs that were held in reserve in the garage just under the main entrance to the Afterlife.
"How are we getting through all of that?" Tali cried out in protest.
"Shh, its okay Tali, here, look at this to take your mind off it," Kasumi said, swiping her omnitool over Tali's.
"Calm down? Why should I – wait, is-is this what I think it is?"
Kasumi gave her a vulpine grin. "Yes it is."
"…I can work with this."
"Told ya."
Their group had to pause and wait at the far end of the concourse due to the fact that Aria's enforcers wouldn't let Jack's mech anywhere near the club entrance and were eyeing it suspiciously. This was acceptable however, especially with Alma's wide area destructive abilities available. As far as Jack could tell, the only one deeply concerned with the idea of collateral damage was Tali, but presumably she'd grow out of it.
Saren and his people were continuing onwards to the club's entrance, none of the guards willing to start a fight trying to stop him. After all, even someone with his reputation for incredible levels of destruction wouldn't be crazy enough to try and take on Aria with just a handful of people, so someone as important as a Specter could be allowed to approach closer. Saren's other two teams had moved in stealth to their starting positions already and were waiting to strike at a side entrance and the airway into the garage for hover cars entering from the sections below.
Saren managed to make his way through the guards and cut past the long line to enter the club and began to ascend the two hundred fifty six steps to the large doors. His retinue had spread out away from him, ready for action and Aria's soldiers were tense as well.
An Elcor in powered armor with shoulder mounted cannons stomped down to meet Saren. They met in the middle of the stairs, a largely open area with soldiers in cover at the top, bottom and sides of the stairs, all of them ready to act at a moment's notice.
"Polite: Greetings Specter," the Elcor said.
"Patch me through to Aria," Saren demanded.
"Smug: She is already listening," the Elcor told him.
"What is it Saren? I don't have time for another of your paranoid rants or threats, I'm a busy woman," Aria snapped through the speakers
"Hand over the artifact, Aria," Saren demanded. "I don't make threats, only promises."
"I'm the same Saren, so here's the deal: you will either buy the artifact you want, or you can fuck off, and if that's beyond your meager capabilities, then my people can help you with that."
"It was stolen and you know the penalty for possessing a psionic artifact stolen from the Citadel," Saren stated. "If you don't cooperate, this is it, there will be no more hiding behind blackmailed councilors or bribed officials or other proxies. You have caused trouble for too long; this is your last chance."
"Funny, I was just about to say the same," Aria replied. "I really hope you don't cooperate by the way. That way I can mail Desolas your head. I think it'd make a nice birthday present, don't you?"
"It wouldn't be as good as yours," Saren snarled as he continued scanning the surrounding area and Aria's forces.
"You're right, my head is pretty awesome, as your brother, mother, and sister already know – well in your sister's case knew, since she's dead," Aria replied. "Now, are you going to leave your weapons and your lackeys and enter my club, or are you going to make me and a lot of people very happy by committing suicide by Aria?"
Saren aimed his two arm-mounted LMGs and opened fire on nearby soldiers on either side, his Flayer system activated to quickly blast the Elcor into pieces, and missile pods on his shoulders fired into the soldiers and drones in the surrounding area.
"Suicide it is!" Aria cried out ecstatically. "I will skullfuck your corpse Saren!"
~+~B:F/M~+~
Alma felt the rising tension and fear in the distance as Saren approached the entrance, the crowd gradually realizing that they might not want to be near the line of fire when a fight broke out. They weren't able to get out in time. Not that their group wanted them to get away. As they'd discussed on the way to pick up Tali, Alma's aura could be very potent in turning crowds against themselves and each other. They hadn't mentioned this to Tali'Zorah for the obvious reason that she probably cared about that sort of thing.
Alma was aware of Jack's discomfort, but neither Zaeed or Kasumi were more than slightly bothered by the plan and what it entailed. Saren had encouraged it when he heard of it. In fact, his psychic would have done something similar if he wasn't under fire.
Alma reached within for her burning anger and her old fear, and then she pushed, the psionic energy of concourse mixing and blending with her wellspring of hatred and anger. As she did this she felt a strange energy permeating the concourse. Her power spread across the entirety of the battlefield over the course of a half minute as Saren biotically charged into a cluster of soldiers unfortunate enough to be anywhere near him and he gunned them down quickly. Clusters of small missiles arced back and forth across the battlefield as Saren's retinue ran into and through cover in order to kill as many soldiers as they could.
Alma could feel the nervousness from Tali, the determination from Zaeed and the anticipation from Kasumi. She couldn't feel Jack because of the REV8's psionic shielding, but she knew he was there. She could also feel the fear rippling through the crowd as anger began to overcome it.
"I am ready, open fire," Alma told them. Then she pulled together more psionic strength, readying for the next step and selecting a large cluster of Replicas.
She waited several moments more as Jack stormed into the thick of the battle, opening fire with his laser cannons and sending a barrage of rockets into a piece of statuary, thoroughly destroying it.
Eventually she was ready enough so she sent out the tearing wave of psychic energy which rushed out,, breaking tile and rending apart Replicas before she drew back what psionic energy her rending wave managed to sweep up. She felt the trickle of knowledge that came from harvesting, before focusing on picking off dangerous individuals such as ones carrying heavy weapons or piloting a mech.
~+~B:F/M~+~
Saren roared behind his helmet as he blasted apart another of Aria's meant shields. As if these thugs could stop him, him. Nothing stopped him, especially not petty pirates playing politics.
Now, he was doing what he excelled at: killing.
He dove over a ferrocrete barrier and into a heavily armored and laser armed Replica, hitting the Replica guns first so as to fire them into the Replica as quickly as possible. By the time Saren slammed into the Replica and onto the ground, it was dead. Seeing a soldier backing towards cover as he fired an LMG in Saren's direction, he grinned. Another target.
Saren leapt towards the soldier, biotically charging and colliding with the soldier in an explosion of biotic energy. The soldier went sprawling and Saren sent a micro missile into the man's head before getting hit with a laser cannon. Reflexively, Saren biotically charged away from where he was being hit and turned to see a squadron of six large, bulky mechs with large guns trained on him.
Saren grinned and leapt towards them, releasing several fusion micromissiles into them as he laughed.
~+~B:F/M~+~
Jack was not suicidal, which was why he had been reluctant to begin this fight to begin with, but seeing the sheer chaos that they were already causing, he knew they had a chance, maybe not a big chance, but one none the less.
"Tell me its ready girls!" he called out across their team channel.
"Almost there, draw the turrets' fire or they'll kill Saren's people!" Tali responded over the comms.
"Got it!" Jack replied as he turned his mech towards the firefight at the far end of the concourse. Saren and his retinue were in the thick of the fighting, surrounded on all sides by enemies and bodies with Saren himself jumping off of a mech just as a landmine he had planted on it exploded. From the distance and the fighting, Jack couldn't tell if any of the retinue had died, but he presumed that there were probably mostly intact.
In between him and that fight a riot had broken out due to the psionic anger permeating the very air of the concourse. And unlike the riot he had seen in the Human city he had called home before the experiments, these people were all well-armed. 'Alma shouldn't have brought up the idea,' Jack thought to himself. 'Kasumi and Saren don't seem like they'll be a good influence on her.' He mentally shrugged. 'Well, too late now, I should focus on the task at hand.'
He focused on the turrets on the Afterlife and sent laser blasts at each of them, trying to draw their attention without destroying them. This worked about as well as he could have hoped, in that they all began to focus their fire on the mech, reducing its shields in seconds and damaging the mech with the combination of ultraviolet lasers, anti-armor cannons, and missile launchers.
"Oh shit, its working! DO IT NOW!" Jack cried as damage alerts started rapidly pinging on his mech's HUD.
"Just a few seconds more!" Tali replied, agitated.
"In just a few seconds my mech and I will be dead!" Jack angrily replied as he desperately tried to get the cumbersome mech to dodge, failing all the while.
"You'll be fine, don't worry about it so much," Kasumi told him just as a cluster of missiles blew apart the REV8's right leg, causing it to topple over. She winced.
"Fuck you Kasumi!"
"Soon-to-be-dead aren't really my type," she replied to him, still working away at her omnitool, before turning to Tali, "so we'd better save him I guess."
Tali pressed a final key on her omnitool and released her mental connection with the systems she had interfaced with. "That's what I was doing," she said as the turrets turned on Aria's forces.
Zaeed looked up from where he was using his sniper rifle to pick off Replicas and drones. "Will you stop yammering and actually contribute, Kasumi?"
She snapped a quick glare at him before looking back at her omnitool. "I helping Tali, and messing with the club's internal systems," she said before looking up from her omnitool. "Done, that'll delay them. Now let's go kill things," she said as she pulled out her two SMGs and vanished from view having activated her cloaking system.
After a moment, Tali said, "Don't look at me, I'm busy turning the station against Aria."
Zaeed grunted and went back to shooting enemies.
~+~B:F/M~+~
Five Replicas ran up behind cover to flank the three enemies at the far side of the concourse from the Afterlife. The three enemies were a sniper, a powerful offensive psion, and a technical expert. Of the three the psion was designated the highest priority, then the technical expert, and finally the sniper.
Another had been present, but had engaged stealth systems and was as yet undetected. One of the Replicas was designated overwatch to look out for the stealthed hostile while the others focused on their priority target, two ready to fire grenades and two ready to fire lasers.
Suddenly the two with grenade launchers registered something piercing their shields and armor, white hot monomolecular blades. An instant later the blades fired out of their chest plates with explosive force, shattering and sending white hot shrapnel flying.
As the remaining three turned their attention on where their comrades had died, a barrage of phased rounds rushed through the Replica on overwatch's shields as it managed to get its own shots off in the direction of the stealthed attacker. The assault rifle burst bounced off of the barriers of the attacker, revealing a humanoid form. The opponent jumped over their cover to the other side as the three remaining Replicas continued to fire on her. The wounded overwatch Replica paused when it noticed a large, round object on the ground near it and the other two Replica. It instantly identified the object as a grenade and leapt away, pinging the other two with a grenade alert and requesting assistance from nearby allies.
Unfortunately, it would not get the chance to be reinforced as the grenade went off a microsecond later, killing the Replica and severely wounding the other two. The survivors opened fire towards the other side of their cover, but their opponent had apparently shifted position. They did however attract the attention of the enemy sniper however, who took out anther of the Replica with a head shot.
The last of the Replica ducked behind cover, only to feel burning pain in its chest as the stealthed enemy stabbed in in the heart.
The last words it heard were its opponent speaking in a female voice, "Too easy."
~+~B:F/M~+~
The REV8's microfabricator and autorepair systems were amazing. Having lost most of its right leg and part of its left arm, as well as having significant chunks of its armor dangerously melted, it had still been able to restore functionality in just over three minutes. During that time, Jack had been able to use the mostly functional left arm of mech to pick off enemies while he sat sideways.
He did not particularly enjoy this, especially when someone decided to throw a canister of some incendiary onto his mech. The incendiary was powerful enough that what missed and hit the floor had somehow managed to burn holes several centimeters deep in less than a minute. On further consideration, Jack noted that if it was deep enough for him to notice, then it was actually probably more than just a few centimeters. Whoever had decided to use that in a space station was insane just for having it at all.
And most of it was on his mech.
"Tali! How do I get this incendiary off my mech?" Jack called out over their channel.
"…uh, well I think it's actually being held off the armor by your kinetic barriers, so just stand up now that the knee is repaired. But it'll probably burn itself out eventually; the fire is a chemical reaction after all."
"Got it, thanks," Jack replied as he commanded the mech to move its arms and legs so that it was standing upright. The insane incendiary slid off of the kinetic barriers and began burning more holes into the floor. "Let's wrap this up before this stuff burns a hole into the vacuum, okay?"
"Technically there are several sections beneath us, so even if they lasted that long we've got time," Tali replied.
"Cool."
"Yeah, and I've hacked into their drone network so I can set them to attack everything, but it looks like what I pulled with the turrets won't work," she told the others.
"Why not?" Zaeed asked after shooting the head off of another Replica.
"Their security is too tight, the commands simply don't exist at this level and going down into the binaries to pull it off would take long enough for them to stop me."
Alma sent out another psionic shockwave, tearing apart an aircar and causing another to crash into a holographic display and explode. "Your proposal is acceptable," she said on the channel. "We should not waste time."
"She's right," Zaeed added. "Aria's got thousands of people on this station, so even if something's happening elsewhere we'll get swamped if we wait too gud damn long."
"Okay, done," Tali said as the air and ground drones suddenly started treating the Replicas and each other as hostiles. While the volume of fire directed towards their and Saren's teams decreased, the overall volume of fire increased as desperate fights for survival sprang up practically everywhere. One Krogan Replica even went into a blood rage and started crushing the skulls of its Human Replica compatriots.
"We need to keep moving, I can practically hear the loot escaping," Kasumi said as she rushed while stealthed into a firefight between enraged residents, Replicas, and hacked drones, firing bursts into the most dangerous opponents first.
"She's the stealth expert?" Jack asked in clarification.
"She can handle herself in fight," Zaeed explained. "And it's easier to kill someone if they don't see you coming."
"Well, I guess that makes sense," Jack replied.
"Yeah…" Tali said, not quite agreeing.
Jack piloted his REV8 across the concourse, sending out missile barrages into any large clusters of Replicas, drones or hostile Omega residents he saw. Unfortunately the mech was running low on mass for repairs and missiles so he focused on making slow progress so that he could use lasers to focus down enemies while providing modile cover for Zaeed, Alma and Tali, who had taken out a shotgun and was using to fire wildly into the barriers, displays and stalls which lined the edges of the concourse. This was a reasonable action as occasionally a Replica or drone would come out of cover there and fire on them, before getting put down by either Zaeed, Alma or Kasumi. Tali herself also made a respectable showing against their enemies as well, taking down one drone that Jack saw and likely more.
While under other circumstances the Replicas and soldiers would have quickly dealt with the rogue drones, the fire support of the turrets combined with the sheer ferocity of Saren and his people meant that they couldn't mount an effective and organized defense, resulting in most withdrawing into the garages by the time Jack and the others reached the stairs to the main entrance. Unfortunately for them, they were simply running into another kill zone as that was the entry point for the second of Saren's teams. To the side of the stairs on top of a mound of charred and ventilated corpses was Saren, his formerly bone white armor now colored with various shades of blood from across the galaxy where it wasn't scorched by laser fire.
"Took you long enough," Saren said, annoyed.
"Sorry about that," Jack said through the mech's speakers, "we'll try to keep up better in the future."
Saren dismissively turned towards the main doors of the Afterlife, large thick blast doors designed to withstand most anti-armor weapons wide enough for well over two dozen Elcor to walk in side by side. "Now that we've seen to the statuary, it's time to knock on Aria's door. I already have people working on manually accessing the systems over there." He pointed to where three Turians were prying pieces of the wall off next to the main doors.
"Do you think you can open the door from your omni?" Kasumi asked Tali. "We need to make this fast."
Tali gulped. "I think I can manage, I should know in a minute."
"Good," Saren said as he turned to survey the concourse.
~+~B:F/M~+~
The first team of Blue Suns mercenaries arrived halfway through the battle and seeing the sheer chaos and carnage, decided that perhaps waiting like they had been ordered was the wiser course of action.
After all, playing with weaker prey was much more fun.
~+~B:F/M~+~
Aeni staggered through the streets of Residential Sector 31 muttering to herself and clutching something in her hands. Loeru, her friend and fellow Asari, walked over to her as the crowd maintained a slight distance with the obviously unstable Asari.
"Aeni, what's wrong?" Loeru asked as she stepped next to her friend and she finally made out what Aeni was saying.
"Make us whole, make us whole, make us whole, make us wh–"
Loeru, worried that her friend was having a bad trip, put her hand on her friend's shoulder and shook it slightly while saying "Aeni, its me Loeru, are you okay?"
Aeni stopped muttering and looked into Loeru's eyes and held up what she was holding, a detonator. "MAKE US WHOLE!"
Loeru barely had time to react before the bomb went off, spreading death and paving the way.
~+~B:F/M~+~
A/N: So I've rewritten the dialogue and some scenes. I hope you like this chapter.
~+~B:F/M~+~