Sorry for such a long delay. I was really struggling with this chapter. Enjoy! Remember, every time you comment, you get the next chapter free.

Ch. 17

Vortash would groan, but that would make too much noise. Everyone was making too much damn noise, that was the problem. He would have been perfectly content to spend the rest of the day in bed, waiting for the world to stop spinning, but Archangel went and called a meeting.

Before noon. What an asshole.

Weaver, the resident den mother, was in the little kitchenette, noisily whipping up a quick feast for the twelve men. In his infinite wisdom, he'd asked Mierin to help, and Mierin never works without music, so now that was adding to the din. It was some irritating salarian techno shit that was driving tiny daggers into the backs of Vortash's eyes.

Vortash sat at the huge dining table with his head in his hands, teeth gritted. Finally, he barked, "Headphones, Mierin!"

"What's that, Vor?" The salarian spun to face him with a grin, calling out a bit too loudly. "Did someone have a little too much fun last night?"

The batarian hung his head, hands over his ears. "I hate every last one of you and am plotting each of your demises, right now."

The drell was here, of course, and he slid into the empty chair beside Vortash, rubbing his back comfortingly. "All right?"

"Don't touch me."

Sensat grinned, lifting a brow, "Do you remember anything from last night?"

Vortash sighed, dropping his arms and looking at the blue-green man. "I remember walking into Afterlife."

"Nothing else?"

He paused, glancing over at Erash. His big brother had stayed out just as late and was looking a bit ragged as he nursed a cup of coffee, but it would appear that no one had drank quite as heavily as himself. "I remember now that it's a bad idea to drink a few hours after taking painkillers…"

"So you don't remember Kemani."

Vortash stared at Sensat a few moments, his brows pulling together. "What's Kemani?"

"The asari I introduced you to." Sensat's grin was slowly growing wider and wider. "The one that took you back to her place."

Vortash's mouth fell open. "What?"

"Kemani. She called me a few hours later and asked that I come pick you up and bring you home. You passed out in the car. You honestly don't remember? I was hoping to get some details. All you would say before you passed out was 'She was blue, she was blue all over.'"

Vortash stared at Sensat in disbelief, mouth hanging open. He finally shook off his astonishment, hissing angrily, "Stop, that is not funny, you are fucking with me. Erash?"

Erash blinked at his name and looked up. "What?"

"Kemani," Sensat said.

"Oh! Yeah, good job there, Vortash." He saluted his stunned brother with his mug, "We want details." He looked to Sensat, "You got any more asari friends?"

Vortash's mouth hung open again as he sagged in his chair. "Unbelievable…"

Everyone had assembled by now. Garrus stood waiting near the door, greeting his men as they came in. The humans were digging into a dish Weaver had deemed French Toast, the scent of which sent waves of nausea through the hung-over batarian. Krul stood glowering in the corner like always, while Melanis hovered near Weaver, waiting impatiently for him to finish preparing a turian dish of black pasta.

The most difficult thing for turians cohabitating with any race other than their own or quarians was the amino acids. The building blocks of turian cells and human cells were so vastly different that digesting one another's food could provoke a violent allergic reaction. Garrus, for one, hated this. Humans were far more adventurous with their cuisine than his own kind. The traditional turian diet was built on a staple of grains, meat, and vegetables without any kind of added spices or flavoring. A few courageous food companies attempted to introduce more variety by way of genetic engineering, but this proved to be a disastrous venture when most of these attempts resulted in irritating stomach ulcers among their consumers.

Black pasta, as Weaver called it, was the most readily available turian food on Omega, along with a turian version of tofu. Quarian merchants who shared the turian dextro-amino acid based anatomy occasionally stopped by with other freeze dried and sterilized produce, but this added only to quantity of choices rather than quality. Even now Garrus looked on enviously as the men drizzled a sticky sweet synthesized syrup over their food. He let out a sigh before pushing away from the wall and stepping closer to the large table. "All right, men, this is where we're at."

A hush settled over the group, aside from the rush of water as Weaver rinsed off the pasta. He dropped it into a bowl and handed it to Melanis. The young turian was quick to grab a pair of tongs and settled in at the table with everyone else with an apologetic grin.

Garrus cleared his throat, "I think everyone knows we killed Velig yesterday."

Ripper hooted, clapping Melanis on the back, "Finishing shot, right here." There was a chorus of cheers and congratulations.

Garrus nodded, holding up his hand, "And everyone that was there performed amazingly. It was a trap, it was an impossible situation to get out of, and we got out of it nearly unscathed. Amazing work, gentlemen." More enthusiastic cheers and hollering filled the little room while Vortash clapped his hands over his ears again. Garrus flexed his mandibles, adopting a serious expression. "It's time to go after Tarak."

These words were met with stunned silence. Sidonis spoke first, a disbelieving "What?"

"We're going after Tarak," Garrus repeated calmly. Tarak, the leader of the Blue Suns, the most powerful mercenary band on Omega. The only person Tarak answered to was Aria. He was a huge, powerful batarian with hundreds of mercenaries at his disposal on Omega alone.

"Are you insane?" Sidonis stared at him a few moments.

"We need to go after him eventually," Garrus lifted a shoulder.

"We haven't hit the Suns hard in months, Garrus," Butler shook his head, leaning forward. "He's hardly in a vulnerable position for us to go after him now."

Krul scowled, "We should have hit Garm again."

"He's gone underground," Sensat looked over his shoulder at the single-minded krogan. "Nobody's seen hide nor scale of him since that night we almost killed him. And Blood Pack's activities have just been random lately." The drell shook his head a little, "What about Jaroth?"

Garrus shook his head, "Chances are good that Eclipse operations are going to freeze while Jaroth deals with Velig's death, and he's going to disappear in the meantime. We have to work on the assumption the Eclipse intel we have is worthless now."

"So we go after Tarak…" Melanis said slowly as Garrus nodded to him.

Sidonis shook his head, pacing the length of the room, "You get lucky and you kill a merc leader and now you're getting overconfident and stupid."

"I think we can do it," Garrus said calmly, watching the other turian.

"I don't like it," Butler said, shaking his head, looking at the other faces around the table. "I'm… kind of with Sidonis on this one. It's suicidal."

Garrus sighed, resting his hands on the table, leaning forward, "I know. This isn't according to the plan. If we were still operating according to plan, we'd still just be attacking drug shipments or running sweeps of seedy neighborhoods. But they know what we do." He pointed to the door. "Eclipse knew our MO and they came damn close to killing us."

"We're predictable," Weaver said thoughtfully, folding his arms.

"Exactly." Garrus slapped the tabletop with his palms, straightening. "We need to keep them guessing. Keep hitting them. Never let up, not for one second."

"I'm in," Mierin shrugged, grinning a little. "What's the plan?"

Sidonis rounded the table, shaking his head and holding up his hands, "Right, we know you're in, Mierin." He was the team nut job, after all, a slightly unhinged demolitions expert. "I still say this is stupid. Twelve of us versus Blue Suns?"

"Twelve?" Monteague blinked, lowering his fork. He looked around the table, counting to himself, then threw the plastic utensil onto his plate, "God damn it."

"Not the Blue Suns. Tarak." Garrus leveled his gaze at Sidonis. "Cut off the head." He looked to the batarian brothers, "You two worked under Tarak, what do you think?"

Erash puffed his cheeks, grimacing in thought, looking over at the silent Vortash. As usual, he was holding his opinions until his brother voiced his. Vortash screwed his face up, before he finally nodded. "Something quick and under the radar. I like it."

"Me too," said Erash.

"An assassination," Sensat drawled. "Throw a nice big wrench in the works. Make life difficult for the Suns."

"We don't do assassinations," Krul grunted. "That is a coward's route."

"We kill the bad guys. Doesn't matter how we do it." Melanis craned his neck to look over at Krul.

"Yes," the krogan sneered, "that is how your kind operates, isn't it?"

Garrus massaged the bridge of his nose where the plates on his forehead met. "I get that some of you aren't on board with the idea. And I am open to other suggestions as to our next move." He lowered his hand and looked directly at Sidonis.

Sidonis was looking right back at him, eyes narrowed, mandibles twitching in frustration. Finally, he shook his head, arms crossed, "I don't like this, Garrus."

Mierin sighed heavily, leaning back in his chair, asking again in a sing song voice, "What's the plan?"

Garrus smirked a little at the salarian, nodding curtly as he slid a datapad into the center of the table, "We get him at home."

"Ouch," Ripper winced a little. "He won't like that."

"Got these schematics off his exterminator," Garrus continued. The datapad illuminated, a holographic display of Tarak's expansive home appearing over it. "When I say we take him out, I mean we destroy him. Cut off the power, disable all his vehicles, wipe out all his data, clean out his accounts, everything, take it all. If there is the slightest possibility that he gets out of that place alive, if we somehow lose him like we did Garm, I want him to be completely devastated."

Sidonis' frown deepened as his gaze flitted from the schematics to his commander.

"Vortash, Ripper, a huge part of this attack is tech, so I need you. I want you to get to work immediately on his files and his accounts. Have everything ready to wipe the night we strike. Which is going to be as soon as possible. Tonight, if we get everything in order."

"Jesus Christ, Archangel." Butler buried his face in his hands, staring at the schematics through his fingers.

"Mierin, what have we got demolitions-wise? How about a bomb?"

Mierin blinked, for the first time looking a little nervous about the operation. He cleared his throat, "Give me four hours to whip something up. Tonight? Really?"

"We need an attack that surrounds the place." Garrus continued as he drew a circle around the blueprint of Tarak's home with a finger. "Four teams of three, one from each direction."

"Fuck," Monteague muttered. The good doctor had managed to keep out of heavy battle.

"Krul and Ripper, you're our biotics, I want you on opposite sides. There isn't going to be a guard left alive. He hasn't got any kids or wife, so we don't need to worry about that. Sensat, I want you watching him all day today to see if he brings any girls or innocents home. If so, we abort." He leaned back, "Everyone got that? If you see anyone there that isn't Blue Suns you are to radio to everyone else and we abandon the mission." The heads around the table bobbed in understanding, a few of the men exchanging wary looks.

"Garrus," Sidonis spoke up again. "We're going to need more time than this to plan and prepare."

The turian shook his head, tapping the schematic again, zooming in on one of the rooms, "No, we don't, we can do this right now. North entrance. Front door. I want Krul, Erash and Weaver here first, you're Team A. Our heavy hitters. This is going to be the most heavily guarded, but it opens right into the foyer. Now that-"

"Garrus."

One of his mandibles jerked in annoyance as he looked back at Sidonis. "What?"

Sidonis' eyes narrowed, "A word." He motioned to the door with a hand.

Garrus straightened, scowling back at him, "Right now?"

"Yeah, right now."

Garrus huffed, "It can wait. The foyer," he tapped the datapad again, "opens up to the rest of the house, every room on the first floor can be accessed from here. This is the location we need to secure. Once Team A has gotten inside, Team B is to enter from the west side. The window here. Team B is Sensat, Butler, and Monteague. From here-…"

"Anyone here uncomfortable with the idea of attacking tonight?" Sidonis called out suddenly, turning to face the team. Butler's hand went up immediately, and, one by one, so did nearly every other hand in the room.

"If you would listen to the fucking plan for two seconds," Garrus growled.

"How much recon did you do?" Sensat arched a brow, looking over the schematic.

"We haven't hit Blue Suns hard in a month," Butler said again.

"More than a few hours of prep time would be preferable," Mierin drummed his fingers on the tabletop.

Garrus pushed away from the table angrily, "We are good enough to pull this off! We can do this; we can storm his place right now, just the twelve of us, and take him down with no trouble at all!"

"I'm glad you're so damn confident," Monteague crossed his arms. "You're going to get us killed."

Garrus leveled hard, dark look at Monteague, then another at Sidonis. Finally, he threw his hands in the air, pivoted on a heel, and stalked out of the room in a fury.

Sidonis lifted a hand to his face, letting out a heavy sigh. "Sensat, take Butler and run recon on Tarak, get his position, let us know what he's up to. Mierin, start that bomb. Vortash, see what you can hack into from here. We're going to need to pull this off at some point in time. Let's get to work people. Garrus!" The turian jogged out after him.

Sidonis found him outside, pacing angrily on one of the building balconies. The base had been an office building in its former life. Big rooms once held cubicles, planters still filled with synthetic ferns, and vinyl benches lined the walls. Garrus looked over at Sidonis as he approached, and he growled again, turning and walking away from him.

"The hell got into you in there?" Sidonis followed after him.

"We need to take Tarak down."

"What, today?"

"Yes, today!" Garrus spun back to him, slapping the balcony railing with a hand. "We aren't working fast enough. Nothing we're doing is making a damn bit of difference."

Sidonis frowned, shaking his head, "That's not true."

"We kill five mercs, five more jump in to take their place."

"We've only just started."

"We've been at this almost a year!" Garrus motioned with an agitated hand, pacing back down the balcony.

Sidonis scoffed, "For most of that time there were only five of us, Garrus. In less than a year, you've gotten eleven men behind you and every lowlife on Omega shaking in his boots."

Garrus paused, looking back at him, then shook his head, turning and leaning over the railing, looking down at the narrow bridge that led into the base. "Shepard did a lot more damage in a much shorter amount of time."

"You're not Shepard," Sidonis said with a sigh. "That scrawny human didn't stick around to clean up any messes left behind, just zoomed off to the next planet to take on the next group of assholes who needed to die. Us, we are sticking around. We're fighting a war right here. Hell, we're starting a damn revolution."

The other turian was silent a moment, hanging his head and closing his eyes.

Sidonis let out a long exhale, "What brought this on?"

"Nothing."

Sidonis watched him a beat of silence, mandibles flicking. "You really need to get this done tonight?"

"Sooner the better."

"I don't want you signing our death warrants if this is just you feeling sorry for yourself again."

"That has nothing to do with this." Garrus straightened, crossing his arms.

"It's still not your fault Shepard is dead."

Garrus did not reply, looking arms still crossed, staring out over the grounds.

"Give everybody time to prepare." The other turian lowered his chin, leveling a look at him. "When we are ready, we strike without hesitation."

Garrus grimaced, and then finally nodded. "I'm just frustrated."

"I know," Sidonis nodded back. "I just sent Sensat and Butler out to find him and watch him. Give 'em a week to learn his habits, get a count on guards at home."

Garrus smirked a little, "You after my job?"

"Hell no!" Sidonis cried, laughing.

Garrus shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingers. "We still need to jump on this as soon as possible."

"I understand. You've got a good team, they'll be ready soon."