Chapter 11: Assault

Afterlife (Omega)

Sirens started to sound as Omega erupted into chaos, on her throne the Empress of Omega was face to face with the Cerberus general. Aria cursed herself for taking her eyes off Cerberus, she should have expected the Shadows were working for Cerberus, but she had written them off as a simple upstart gang. The asari glowed blue at seeing her hated enemy, but the dark-haired human didn't look intimidated, instead he sat back in his chair with a smug look on his face.

"Cerberus…!" She hissed.

Petrovsky gave a cruel smirk. "Ah, so you have heard of us? I'm flattered"

"Don't be! I still haven't forgotten what you bastards did!"

"Yes, Liselle T'Loak, your daughter as unfortunate as that was to have to kill her, it was not personal" he said. "She was just at wrong place at the wrong time"

Aria growled at his condescending remark. "When you slit my daughter's throat, you made it personal" she angrily. "And now, you attack my station, you just declared war on the wrong bitch!"

Petrovsky chuckled smugly. "Your famed skills are impressive, but our Adjutants are unlike anything you have ever faced" he said. "I suggest you give up, I would rather not have any more bloodshed than needed?"

This time it was Aria's turn to laugh, he thought she would surrender just because Cerberus had a few shiny toys. What the general didn't know was that she would fight for her kingdom till last breath. "You underestimate me just how much blood I'm willing to spill…" Petrovsky smirked a little, he was quite amused by her confidence.

"If you believe you can win, I won't stop you, in fact I welcome it" he said.

"Once I deal with your toys, your ass is mine"

"We will see Miss Aria, we will see…" The comm shut off. The asari then looked back at the three leaders.

"You want my help, you got it, but I'm in charge, you don't like, you can fend for yourself" Aria said. "Any disagreements?" The three leaders shook their heads, Aria pulled up her omni-tool.

"Yeah Aria?"

"Garka, bring everyone, it's time for war"

Elbrus

After speaking with Aria, Petrovsky sat back in his chair. "I take it Aria didn't surrender?" a man asked. To his side, a tall brown-hair man in a navy blue and white Cerberus uniform walked up. Colonel Raymond Ashe, second-in-command of Petrovsky. He is a ruthless man with a deep hatred for aliens, and is willing to accomplish his mission at any cost, be it his own men or even civilians. Due to this, he is the perfect complement to the tactical genius of the old general.

"No Raymond, but it would disappointing if it was that easy" Petrovsky said.

The man scoffed. "Typical alien arrogance…" he said. "Why don't we just wipe them all out?"

"The Illusive Man gave us very clear cut instructions; he wants Omega and its resources so no destroying the station" he said. "Patience, Colonel, she won't be so confident when she finds out about the Adjutant's nasty surprise" Ashe gave a cruel smirk.

Omega

While Aria was getting together her battle plan, in another part of Omega, members of the Blue suns were fighting for their lives. They were fighting Cerberus' Adjutants and were losing badly. The Adjutants were creatures discovered when went to salvage the Collector ship from the Omega-4 relay, they were of reaper origins but reaper influence seemed weaker in these husk-like creatures making it easy for Cerberus to reprogram them for their uses. They had great biotic potential, but that paled in comparison to their other ability….

"What…what the hell are those?" one of them asked.

"Who cares? Blast them!"

The Blue Suns tried to fire on the enemy, but bullets bounced off of them. The enemy then returns the action with a strong shockwave that wiped out half of the Blue Sun troops. The blue suns held on for as long as they could, but they kept advancing and more were joining as their numbers shrunk.

"S…shit nothing's working, r…retreat!" The remaining blue suns ran away from the Adjutants, only for the creature to disappear and reappear in front of them. One of them broke away from the group and tried to escape, but the one of the Adjutants teleported in front of him and impaled the merc. The squad leader used the distraction to throw grenades into the group Adjutants to clear a path, and they ran out of the district.

"Let's get out of here!" the Blue Sun leader said.

"What about Steve?!" one of them asked.

"Forget him, he's dead now!" Little did the leader know, his man was not dead, but was changed forever. Adjutant released the human, he began to squirm and writhe in pain on the floor.

"WHat dId YoU do TO Me…..AHHHH!" Steve said in pain. The transformation was painful, first the mercs head glowed blue and swell to a large size, his face warped and split into tentacles. His armor ripped open, what was once his white skin was now a horrifying blue-grey skin with light blue veins exploding from his arm. Finally the transformation was finished with grey tentacles exploding from his chest. The former human was now one of them, a horrifying fusion of reaper teach and Cerberus science. The new Adjutant howled, with its new brethren as they continued on their rampage.

Afterlife

Back at afterlife, Aria just finished going over the game plan of flushing Cerberus off the station with the Blue Sun, Eclipse, and Blood Pack leaders. Although it was a rough start, eventually they got with the program, after all they did not want face Cerberus alone.

"Are we clear?" Aria asked.

"Crazy plan, T'Loak, if we get this wrong half of Omega will be one big fireball" Sedreis said.

"I thought you loved crazy plans" Aria said.

"Not when they could backfire on me" She said.

"Well I hope your engineers are as good as you say they are" Just then Garka and Grizz ran in. The turian and the batarian had panicked looks on their face as they ran upstairs.

"Aria! We got trouble!"

"Pipe down, what is it?" She asked.

"Boss you may want to see this" Grizz said activating his omni-tool. "Turns out there was a reason for that Cerberus guy to be so confident" Aria took a look at the vid, in it there were several people running from the Adjutants. The Eclipse mercs came in to fire at them, but were wiped out by one of them. Just as the civilians made to the door, a couple of the Adjutants teleported in front of them and they lounge at them, as Aria watched her eyes went wide, along with the three merc leaders.

"What…the hell…?" Vosque asked.

"Those Adjutants are no joke, if they get their hands on you, it's all over and you become them"

"A self-creating army…."

"And they disappear and reappear out of nowhere…" Grizz said. "Yeah and they're not just changing the mercs, they're changing everyone including civilians"

Aria frowned. "Still think my plan is crazy, Sedreis?" The other asari said nothing. Aria then looked at Grizz. "Any more good news?"

"The other wards are flooded with them; if this keeps we'll lose fifty percent within twelve days, maybe even less"

"Then let's go"

Omega

"Shit! They keep coming!"

Things had gotten desperate down in the wards, so much so that former enemies, Blue Suns and Eclipse were forced to work together. For a while it worked, they were forcing the Adjutants back, until they found out the abominations other ability, they could turn the dead. Their former allies charged at them, some of the mercs were captured and turned into Adjutants, the rest fell back until reinforcements came with the big guns.

"Send out the Heavy mechs!" Five YMIR mechs came out and mowed them with their guns and missiles. Around them, FENNIR charged at the husks while the LOKI mechs gave much-needed support. The Adjutants blasted the FENNIR mechs as they came, but were taken down by the LOKI and YMIR mechs. They were turning them back, and the Blue suns and Eclipse were pouring on the pressure.

"Engineers, drones!" The engineers summoned their drones to lock down the Adjutants. The drones went in and distracted the Adjutants while the heavy weapon users and the other took them down. From their side they could hear more howls and screams, more came flooding in started to overwhelm the heavy mechs. The howls were becoming increasing, and the number of their mechs were going down. "How are the turrets?"

"Thirty percent down!"

"Shit, already?!" Two of the Adjutants teleported and appeared behind the mercs. The leader's eyes went wide until the Adjutants were lifted up by a singularity field and blasted with a warp field. It was Sederis, Kreete, Vosque, and more importantly Aria.

"Boss!"

"Idiots, can't you do anything without me?!" Sideris asked.

Aria scoffed. "Bitch about your people later, all troops fall back!" She said. The mercs looked at each other and ran. Aria raised her comm. "Grizz, Garka are we ready?"

"Ready Aria, Overloading plasma compositors, okay you should get out of there" Aria nodded and fell back while the mechs slowed the enemies down. The door closed and an explosion could be heard.

"Well?"

"All cleared, nothing can survive a plasma explosion, except mechs" Garka said. Aria looked back at the Eclipse mercs.

"Leave the mechs in there, just in case our friends come back" she said. "Any more affected areas?"

"Our guys and the Blood Pack are getting pummeled in the Aion District" Grizz said. "Some of the civilians are helping to fight back in the Gozu district, they're pushing them back"

"Civilians are? Who's helping them?"

Grizz chuckled. "Nyreen and her Talons"

Aria groaned. Nyreen Kandros was the turian leader of the Talons. Unlike the group's previous leader, Nyreen has a strong moral compass and extensive military experience, traits which gave her the skills necessary to convert the Talons from a lawless gang to a highly disciplined operation devoted to aiding and protecting Omega's civilians. And once upon a time, Aria and she were lovers until they had a falling out on the direction of Omega. "That bitch…" she said. "Tell her we'll be sending mechs her way"

"Got it" The com opened up.

"Aria, Patriarch's here, all clear on our front, I thought you said they were tough"

"If you underestimate them like you did me, you'll be in trouble, keep focused"

"Whatever" the com closed and another one open.

"Sanak here, Kon district cleared, and I'm also sending some gunships your way Aria"

"Got it, send some to Patriarch, make sure my idiot trophy don't get himself killed."

"Understood" Aria and her team then heard some howls.

"Get ready, it's going to be a long night…"

Elbrus

Back on the Cerberus ship, Colonel Ashe and General Petrovsky were watching the whole thing. Ashe clenched his fist; the scum of Omega were making fools of them. "What the hell? They're starting to push the Adjutants back, despite their numbers" Ashe said. He then heard laughing. "General?"

"Very interesting, it seems I've underestimated Miss T'Loak" Petrovsky said amused.

"Sir, this is hardly a joke, our weapons are being turned back by a bunch of thugs"

"Calm yourself, the war is still early" he said. "Activate the Rampart Mechs"

"Yes sir"

Omega

"Fuck you!" Aria said causing a huge biotic explosion. The Adjutant tried to grab the asari, but was blasted apart by Sederis.

"Don't think I did it to help you" she said. "Only I'm allowed to kill you!"

Aria smirked. "You're welcomed to try"

"If you two are done playing queen bitch, we got more tentacle-heads to kill" Vosque said killing two more.

"Keetre burn you all…HAHAHAHA!" the vorcha said welding his flamethrower.

The engineers summoned their drones and turrets to pick off the stragglers. The battle was going well so far, until they heard a scream. Aria and the three leaders looked back; mechs came out of nowhere and slaughtered the engineers. Aria and her team were surrounded Adjutants and mechs she had never seen before. They looked like the LOKI mechs, but they were bulkier and grey, some had shotguns while others had a chainsaw like omni-blade. They came in slaughtering the mercs, and along with them were more Adjutants all coming for them.

"Mechs? You insult me, Petrovsky!" Aria said. Her eyes glowed blue and a huge biotic force blew away the Adjutants and the mechs. She scoffed.

"Let's go" Aria and team walked away to kick Cerberus off her station.

Don't fuck with Aria indeed. Omega is pushing back against Cerberus and the tide is turning, but will it be enough?

Find out next time. As always Review and Comment.