Chapter 18: The Fall of Omega
Elbrus
Petrovsky and Ashe were watching the battle for Omega unfold; it had been three months since the initial invasion of the space station. It was thought the battle would be quick due to their weapons and the fact that Omega was a station of disorganized thugs, the reality turned out to be much different. The residents of Omega were holding their own, and worse they were pushing them back, as it turned out, Aria T'Loak was not called the Empress for nothing.
"Sir this is bad, we losing ground fast" Ashe said. "It won't be long until Omega is a lost cause"
Petrovsky stayed relatively calm, but it was obvious he was getting annoyed. "The war isn't over until the last bullet falls"
"Then what is your suggestion?" he asked.
"How do you defeat a kingdom?" Petrovsky asked. "You kill the king, or in this case the queen"
"But if the queen's too strong?" The old general gave a cruel smirk. "Scorched earth…what do you need me to do?"
"Buy me time, Aria will learn to fear Cerberus"
"Permission to take the Dragoon Squadron?"
"You have it" Petrovsky said. "Have fun, 'Devil of Shanxi'"
Ashe gave a sadistic grin and glowed blue. "Of course general" The Colonel walked out of the room to get his team ready, while Petrovsky opened the com.
Omega-Ashla District
Screams filled the air, as civilians were running from the Adjutants, a human child tripped trying to escape and the husks came close until it was gunned down by the Eclipse mercs giving the boy a chance to run. A lone Asari ripped through the husks easily; Sederis was in the Ashla District, the most populous district on Omega on damage control ordered by Aria. She truly hated that she had to take orders from her rival, and that put Sederis in a foul mood but fortunately she could take it out on the enemy. "Send out the mechs, crush them!" Sederis ordered.
One after the other YMIR mechs dropped out of the sky and activated. They then ripped the Adjutants apart with their rocket fire and guns. The asari glowed blue and launched a shockwave in the middle of the Adjutant horde, cutting their numbers. The Adjutants climbed over their dead and continued their attack; some of them shifted over to the left flank and infected some of Sedris' men. Before the former eclipse mercs could finish transforming, several pyros burned their former allies along with the Adjutants, they screeched as they were burned alive. The LOKI and FENNIR mechs took their place at the left flank.
One of Sederis men came up. "Sir, the rampart mechs are tearing up alpha squad in the east wing, they need reinforcements"
"Send some engineers and some heavies to deal with them" she said.
"Sir" A rampart mech came up to Sederis and lifted by the asari and tossed like a rag doll into the approaching Adjutants. The Pyros came up ahead and blasted them with a stream of flames while the YMIR mechs backed them up with rocket fire.
Sederis scoffed. "The sooner we're done with this area, the better…I don't enjoy babysitting"
Luzu District (Omega)
Meanwhile Darner Vosque and his blue suns were cleaning up the district. Despite the Adjutants numbers, they weren't intelligent and that was giving Omega a fighting chance. "Heavies, at the ready! Fire!" he ordered. The Blue sun heavies lined up in a row and fired their weapons, and cut the Adjutants numbers in half.
"Engineers, lock them down" Vosque said. The engineers held out their arms and drones appeared and floated up to Adjutants stunning them with their stun weapons. At the top of the apartment balconies, Blue Sun snipers picked them off one by one while the heavies continued to blow a hole in their numbers. One of Voaque's men walked up to him.
"Sir, we got a message from Sederis, she's sending LOKI mechs our way" one of his men said. "Including some reprogrammed ramparts"
Vosque smirked. "She keeps this up and I may forget to kill the bitch" he said. "Get those mech on the front lines, now!"
Afterlife
Back at Afterlife, Aria was on her throne directing her troops; so far they were pushing back Cerberus troops out of some of the districts. But it was a slow process, for every Adjutant they kill, two more take their place. The Rampart mechs, weren't much a problem as they were being reprogrammed to fight for their side. Her men came up to her. "Give me a status report" Aria said.
"Sedris' men are holding steady with only twelve casualties and six turned" Grizz said. "Vosque is almost done in his area"
"Our men?" she asked.
"Patriarch has met up with Kreete's group and are clearing the Strom district as we speak" he said. "Garka, was in trouble in the Gozu district, but the Talons came in with back up and are turning the tide."
"Nyreen again…I hate to say, but I guess I owe her" she said. She then heard footsteps approaching. Aria looked at the stairway reading her biotics; he then saw batarians gripping a much blooded Sanak. He was a mess, his armor was practically wrecked, one of his mandibles was torn off, and his leg was shot to hell and bleeding, he was lucky to be conscious.
"Aria, we got trouble!"
"What is it?"
Himlen District-Moments ago
The district was a bloody mess, as hard as he and his men tried, Sanak's platoon was wiped out. They had killed all of the Adjutants in the district, and were waiting for further instructions from Aria until they were ambushed by a squad led by a Human in white and black armor. He thought he and his squad could repel them, but they were overwhelmed by their strange biotics, in just a short time everyone was dead, except him…
"Shit!" He said as he coughed up his blue blood. He then felt a hard stomp on his battered leg. "AHH!"
Ashe scoffed. "I can't believe we're losing to scum like you…" he said. "Oh well, it won't matter in the next couple of hours"
Sanak gasped in pain, he trying hard to keep conscience. "What are you talking about?"
Ashe crouched down and faced him, he never seen a person with such cold eyes before, not even the most battle-hardened of his people had eyes like him. He didn't have the look of a warrior, but the look of something much worse, a sadist, a murderer. "Tell me turian, do you know what scorched earth means?" he asked. "What am I talking about of course you do, you had practice on Shanxi"
"Crazy bastard, what are you talking about?"
"Get Aria here"
"Like you can defeat the Empress…" he said with a pained laugh. "The arrogance of you people is becoming so suicidal, that it's funny"
Ashe glared at the turian and gave him a swift biotic kick in the ribs. Sanak landed hard against the wall "Instead of taunting me you should take this offer, it's prolonging your already short life" He walked away.
Omega
Aria frowned. "What's his game?"
Sanak coughed. "I don't know, all he was babbling about was something about scorched earth, he didn't seem worried about his army" he said. "All he wanted was you"
"Well he's got me" She said walking away. Grizz spoke up.
"Are you sure, boss? This reeks of a trap" he said.
"A Cerberus colonel is on the station, and he can lead me to that asshole" she said. "I'm not passing this up"
"Boss, just be careful, he and his men uses a weird kind of biotics" Sanak said. "We couldn't escape it, even in cover"
"Noted" Aria said. She then looked at the batarian. "Patch him up"
Elbrus
Petrovsky continued to wait for the signal, until he heard one of his men speak up. "What is it?"
"We received some word from on our man on the ground and it's interesting information"
"What?"
"It seems the Empress has friends in dark places, those reinforcements that seemed to come from nowhere, we found the source"
"Who?"
"The Shadow Broker"
Petrovsky frowned. "Contact the Illusive man" The man saluted.
"Yes Sir" He then heard a beep from his console.
"This is Cerberus crusier, Behemoth, awaiting your orders general"
"This is Hades, awaiting your orders"
"This is Anubis, awaiting your orders" The order requests came flooding in at rapid pace. The old general gave a smirk.
Omega (Himlen District)
Aria came to the coordinates that Sanak gave him; he saw the bodies of the turian's men and some civilians around the area. The Cerberus operative picked this area to intimidate her, Aria scoffed at his pathetic attempt, she's seen centuries of death some more unspeakable than others. "So you finally came, I was wondering when you were coming" Ashe said. Aria turned around and saw her target, the colonel and surrounding him were his men all decked out in the same white and black armor as him.
"Where is that old bastard?" Aria asked.
Ashe smirked. "Beat me and we'll see" he said. "Attack!" The Dragoons charged, from their hands came yellow glowing tendrils, one of them swung their arms and the asari dodged, but when the tendrils collided with the ground a small shockwave pushed her back. More of them attacked, swinging their biotic tendrils, Aria couldn't afford to dodge and just summoned a barrier to take the blow. When the tendril struck her barrier, she was blown back and hit the wall. Aria got up and growled, she threw a warp field at the one of the dragoons, but when it hit, the field dissipated.
"What?!"
"That's the newest line of armor from our R&D division, absorbs the some of the strongest bioics around" Ashe said. "You'll have to do better than that" A blue lash came from right side, and she dodged it, barely and it cut a stone block easily in half. Aria glared, at the man as he retracted the tendril back to his armor with a grin on his face. The human was enjoying Aria having trouble with his men. "Oh, and watch your pretty little head…" Aria got out her assault rifle and fired at then while getting to cover, but bullets flew off of them like it was nothing.
The Dragoons counted with another lash, Aria dodged but was pushed back by the shockwave afterwards. The others followed suit, and the asari dashed to cover using her biotics. "Shit need to think of something" She looked around and saw a canister near them and shot it. The canister blew up and sent one of them falling back. "One down…" Another lash came at her and turned her cover into rubble. She ran out of cover towards other canisters, before she could get there another lash hit just in front of her, she glared at Ashe.
"Uh-uh! We wouldn't want you to play dirty now" The Dragoons were closing in on the asari and with no cover she was a sitting duck. Aria growled, she absolutely refused to be embarrassed by this pathetic human, she survived centuries of hardship before and after she became leader of the station, she wouldn't Cerberus make a mockery of her. Her eyes glowed blue and a huge biotic force appeared and blew away the dragoons. Ashe went from a smug smirk to a shocked look on her face. "What?!"
"You little fucker, you messed with the wrong bitch!" She said raising her arm. Another force blew away the ledge Ashe was standing on. She walked towards the downed human.
Ashe groaned. "That's not possible, the armors were designed to take biotic attacks!"
"Then you got some testing to do, unfortunately you won't get that chance" Aria said. Before she got to the human, the station shook. "What the hell is that?" her comm beeped.
"Aria we got trouble, Cerberus has called multiple ships, and they're targeting us"
"What?!" As she was speaking on her omni-tool, she didn't notice a lone Adjutant sneaking up on her. She heard a howl and ducked out of the way, however Colonel Ashe was not so lucky.
"Nonono…..NO!" Ashe yelled as he started to transform into an Adjutant.
"End of the road…" Aria glowed blue and a huge biotic field appeared when the smoke cleared, only a crater was left. Aria sighed, but then her comm beeped, it was Petrovsky.
"You!"
"So you defeated Colonel Ashe, impressive Miss T'Loak, but this game is over"
Aria growled. "Fuck you, it's not over, until you're dead!"
"Stubborn asari…you have nothing left, right now I have fifteen Cerberus cruisers all aimed at this station" He said. "If I want to, I could destroy Omega floor by floor…"
"You wouldn't…"
"I was willing sacrifice my second in command, the man you just killed, I think can erase this miserable cesspool" Petrovsky said. "You have an hour to make your decision"
"Shit!" Hours later after much debate, many of her men had wanted to continue fighting, but Aria knew differently there was no way to continue fighting. The Empress of Omega had lost; four hundred year of being in control was down the drain. Her omni-tool beeped, and Petrovsky appeared smug from his victory, it pissed her off.
"Well? Your hour is up, you decision" the human said.
Aria gritted her teeth. "You win…I…give up Omega"
Petrovsky smirked. "Wise move, Miss T'Loak…wise move"
Elbrus
Back on the ship, as he watches the asari and several of her men leave her beloved station; he had gotten a call, the Illusive Man. "Congratulation on your victory, General" he said.
"Of course sir, unfortunately, we had lost Colonel Ashe, and half of the ground forces had been decimated" he said. "They put up more of a fight than I thought"
"Acceptable losses, we can always rebuild…" Illusive Man said. "Round up the humans, add them to the super soldier program"
"Sir, and if there is any resistance?"
"Then restore order"
"And what about the Shadow Broker?" The general asked.
"Do not worry; I have others, to deal with this…" Petrovsky nodded as the Illusive Man disconnected, the General looked out the screen as Aria's ship became smaller. He knew this was not over; Aria was as stubborn as she was formidable, she would find a way to recover…and when she did, she would try to recover the station. When that happens, he would be ready. He opened a com.
"This is General Petrovky to all ships, I want ships on the outer perimeter to patrol the mass relay, the rest of you are to patrol Omega, if you have any soldiers to spare I want them on the station to keep order, and I want it done yesterday"
Aria's Ship
The gang felt defeated, victory was in their grasp, and at the last minute it was taken away. Grizz sighed. "So what do we do?"
"We go to the Citadel" Aria said. Grizz and Garka blinked.
"No offence boss, but I doubt C-sec and the Council are just going to waltz in" the batarian said.
"You'd be surprised how much pull I have outside of Omega" She said. "Now get back to work"
"Yes ma'am!" Aria went to her cabin, and stared at Omega as it got smaller and smaller from view. Her biotics then started to flare up, from the rage she felt at losing her kingdom, the glass of water near her shattered from her biotic force.
"Enjoy it while you can, because I will get it back…."
Omega has fallen and Liara is next!
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