Short one, if you can forgive me. If you can forgive me for slowness, I suppose you can forgive brevity, right? Right. It's a warm up for big battles. As always, thanks for reading and commenting. Remember! Every time you comment, I write a little faster.

Ch. 19

"Are you nervous?"

"No."

"Not even a little?"

"No."

Butler shook his head a little and squeezed his rifle in his hands. "I'm scared shitless."

Sensat glanced over at the human whose expression was hidden behind the dark visor on his helmet. "You're never supposed to admit to that, you know. Part of doing insane stunts like this is deluding yourself."

Butler just shook his head, watching Tarak's home. Waiting for the word go. The house was more of an estate, built back in the old days when mining company executives were forced to stay on this rock for weeks at a time. The home easily had a dozen rooms, another dozen bathrooms, a big basement with a pool and a bar, and a wraparound balcony on the second floor. Sensat could see one of Tarak's men, a turian, strolling casually along the second story balcony, sucking on a cigarette with a sniper rifle dangling lazily from his fingertips. Archangel no doubt had him in his sights already.

Archangel ended up giving them six days to prepare for the attack. Today was the day. Sensat's team of three, himself, Butler, and Monteague, crouched in the darkness outside Tarak's garage. On the opposite side of the garage was Team C, comprised of Melanis, Ripper, and Mierin. They were going to disable everything they could in the garage, from pedal bikes to Tarak's pride and joy: a huge A-61 Mantis Gunship.

Sensat had been watching the compound almost non-stop for the past six days. He knew the name and face of every man and woman inside, what time the cleaning ladies came, what room Tarak slept in, his routines when he was home. He only took his eyes off the place to piss, eat one of the meals Melanis would bring him, or to change shifts with Butler. The drell got nights and the human got days.

The drell and the human both were low on sleep. Sensat had swapped with Butler again that evening, getting briefed on who was there, counting to make sure Butler was correct. He had to count twice before Butler left, then watched, ate a sandwich, took a leak, and imagined himself having a smoke. He'd lost track of two mercs once when his mind wandered. He recounted the heat signatures through his goggles, thought back on who was usually here at this hour, caught sight of a familiar face through the window and got a handle back on the situation when Archangel called for an update. After Sensat filled him in, it was decided that the assault would happen now.

Archangel's team had assembled in twenty minutes.

Sensat recounted the heat signatures in the Blue Suns base yet again, making sure there were no surprises. "Fourteen downstairs," he said again. "Twelve up."

"Against twelve of us," Monteague shook his head. "We're never this lucky."

Sensat shrugged, referring to his datapad. Archangel wanted to spare any innocents, and Sensat had managed to work out a name for every heat signature inside. Every one of them was a Blue Sun, every one of them was a killer, and every one of them would die.

Sensat suddenly found himself thinking about Dalia.

"I still say we blow it up," Mierin said over the radio. Sensat, Butler, and Monteague flinched. They were supposed to limit radio chatter. Besides, blowing a building up was no guarantee. Weaver had told an old story the first time Mierin suggested this, about a Hitler and a Valkyrie. Sensat hadn't really been listening, but Garrus agreed that a simple explosion wasn't good enough. They had to make sure Tarak was dead.

"Remember the abort signal," Monteague murmured, and the other two men nodded.

Finally, Archangel's voice came, low and robotic. "Techs, go."

Vortash and Ripper would be springing into action now. Sensat imagined Vortash's fingers flying over his omni-tool, cleaning out the Blue Suns bank accounts that they knew about. Ripper would be uploading a virus into their network. This would take five minutes. They practiced. They timed themselves.

Sensat tapped his own omni-tool, and felt Butler leaning into him as they both watched the countdown on the display.

Monteague whispered to himself in a language Sensat didn't understand. "Padre nuestro,
que estás en el cielo. Santificado sea tu nombre."

"You're freakin' me out, man, cut that out," Butler hissed.

"What's he saying?"

Butler shook his head while Monteague shot him a dark look. "He's praying."

"Really?"

"You can both go to hell." Monteague stared up at the base, then looked back at the countdown.

"Can you say it in bridge?" Sensat asked.

The doctor locked eyes with the drell for a moment, then said, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven." His face screwed up a moment, "Danos hoy-... Give us-... give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us."

Butler sighed loudly.

"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen."

"It's pretty, but," Sensat shook his head slowly, "I'm not sure I understand."

Monteague was silent, watching the numbers tick down. Finally he murmured, "It just means... help us and forgive us."

The numbers fell to zero. "Tech is done," came Vortash's voice over the radio.

"Now," said Archangel.

Sensat clapped his helmet closed and ran.