REQUIEM
CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
DECEPTION
November 1, 2185
1449 hours.
Cockpit, Explorer-Class Freighter MSV Ground Zero, Bahak System, Bahak Asteroid Belt.
Chief Scientist Amanda Kenson.
The Bahak System. Located deep in the Viper Nebula, the system was in batarian space, not far from the batarian homeworld itself, Khar'Shan. It had a total of five, totally unremarkable worlds, one sun and a huge asteroid belt, full of some of the biggest planetoids the galaxy had, which Kenson's Project Flagship, the Ground Zero, was now flying through, masking its signature from the batarian patrols that flew through the system.
The planets of the system was Clogon, Aratoht, Yunaca, Urmola and Bastzuda. The only planet colonized by the batarians out of all of them was Aratoht, and even that only had a stable population of three hundred thousand, all of which were mostly centralized around the capital of Ectah, and the multiple prison facilties that occupied the world, with Aratoht be labelled 'the center of batarian criminal housing.'
Aratoht itself was the worst hell imaginable; half the planet was shrouded in searing heat; no lava or volcanoes or anything, but was just unbareably hot, reaching temperatures that would make Therum seem tame. The other half of the planet was humid and largely covered in tropics, the planet almost resembling Pragia in how many times it rained. 'Tropics' was a term used reluctantly, as the jungles that once occupied it were now mostly gone, replaced by countless batarian prisons set up on the hellish planet.
The other planets were mined for resources by the Hegemony periodically, and Aratoht was largely shrouded in batarian patrols, which made what Kenson had to do extremely risky. She was acting as an undercover operative for the Alliance under the title name of 'The Project' organization. They had no IDs or psyches that related them to the Alliance, making them easy to deny all relation to the faction. To the galaxy, they were just civilians with guns, wondering into space they shouldn't.
The Project's mission; to find proof of the Reaper's existence and find a way to help Shepard stop them. It was ridiculous, and Admiral Hackett had only garnered the resources to fund them by a hair length, but he had done it, and now here they were. And in Kenson's mission to find that evidence, she had been lead to the Bahak System.
She hadn't found evidence, not really, but she had found the Bahak Relay, officially known as the Alpha Relay due to the fact that it was the oldest known relay in existence; dating back as far as billions of years old; of course, the Council wouldn't let the public know that, as it might raise 'questions' about a well-known myth; that the Protheans built the relays and the Citadel.
The reason she was so interested it was the fact that the Alpha Relay wasn't just linked to the standard relay network; it was linked to an alternate source. Many ships had passed through it, and the majority reached other relays but, occassionally, they would never pop up on the other side and would vanish, and while she doubted it was a second cause of the Omega 4 Relay, she knew something was up.
And her discoveries revealed something scary; the Alpha Relay was also linked to a relay outside the known galaxy, building proof that there may be Reapers waiting to activate the relay and attack, facilitating their return; and earlier than they should. This was troubling, and Kenson knew she had to put a stop to it.
So the Ground Zero searched through the asteroid field, looking for a sizable asteroid that was the same size as the relay for them to build a base on; a base of operations for their attack. Kenson knew what had to be done; the only way to stop the Reaper's arrival was to cut off their source of entrance; they had to find a way to destroy the Alpha Relay. And this, was no mean feat, for everyone knew mass relays were indestructible.
A myth Kenson was determined to prove wrong.
Despite the relays being made of strong alloys, she knew their was a way to destroy one, and she knew she would find a way. But first, she had to build a base. And to do that, it had to be somewhere in the system that the batarians would never find. An Asteroid was perfect; noone would suspect it. Destroying the relay however would have untold consequences; everyone saw what just one element zero explosion could do, and just one mass relay packed enough to supply the entire galaxy's armadas. An explosion of that size would be phenomenal.
But despite the risks, they ultimately had no choice. The Reapers couldn't be allowed to succeed. The survival of all life as they knew it depended on it.
Doctor Kenson was anything but a remarkable woman. She had simple tastes, and her field wasn't anything fancy either, even if it was now devoted to stopping the return of a race of god-like machines from intragalactic dark space. She was around forty-eight years of age, so she was far from young, and she had thick concentrations of mascara around her eye lids, with a thick mop of silvery hair to complement her dark eyes. She wore a simple, white labcoat, and her skin was peachy to the point of almost being white.
Kenson stood before the viewscreen of the Ground Zero, hands clasped behind her back. The Alliance had supplied her with numerous, highly-trained marines, all with repainted armor and helmets; all painted in black and blue. Her ship had a full battalion's worth of them, with a sizable amount of scientists to compliment them and workers. The lower decks of the ship contained the prefabs they would need to build the base; which in scope, was a massive facility. The Alliance had also provided her with fusion torches, apparently already guessing as to where she'd eventually put the base.
"Ma'am," one of the navigators called out, garnering the attention of Kenson as she turned to face him, her eyes meeting his.
"Yes?" Kenson replied in her motherly tone, the woman being known for how much of a overprotective sap she sounded at times.
"Scanners have picked up an asteroid of considerable size. Its about twelve kilometers in sheer length and nine in width. Round about the same size of the asteroid the batarians tried to drop on Terra Nova, Doctor."
Perfect. "Take us towards it; have two teams prepped for EVA insertion to begin prepping the fusion torches for deployment and usage. We'll want to begin very soon."
"One more thing doctor," the man continued, pointing at unusual readings on his terminal screen, "Scanners are picking up pulsating amounts of energy coming from the center of the asteroid; they pulsate every three minutes, it appears. Its definitely coming from a beacon of somekind, but the technology isn't that of any known species."
"Prothean maybe?" Kenson asked, curious as she leaned over the man's shoulder to peer at the console.
"Possibly doctor," the man stated, "Might be worth a look, ma'am."
Kenson smiled warmly, patting the man on the arm, "You're definitely right. Tell another team to suit up and take the drill down; I want whatever is transmitting that signal found and brought up. It might be able to help us. If the Protheans were as advanced as scientists claim, they might know just how to blow up relays."
"Yes ma'am," the man finished on a high note, turning back to his console and typing frantically on it, sending out the commands. Kenson looked to the door and nodded to the two Project guards at the door, giving them a weary smile, which they returned; Williams and Jackson seemed like a pleasant pair. They were the nicest marines in their entire battalion; people she had come to trust.
As she turned back around to face the viewport however, watching as the ship approached their designated landing zone, she knew a battalion of marines wouldn't save them from what was coming. They would stop the Reapers or die trying, even if the Council wouldn't act. Shepard was too preoccupied to help, so that left them; humanity's first and last bastion against the incoming horde. It was all or nothing.
The Arrival was coming. And Kenson was intent on stopping it.
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November 1, 2185
1521 hours.
Airlock, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate Normandy SR-2, Docked on Illium.
Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Chief Engineer Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, Information Broker Liara T'Soni, Justicar Samara, Flight Lieutenant Jeff 'Joker' Moreau, Yeoman Kelly Chambers.
Marcus found himself practically rushing into the Normandy's airlock, ignoring the looks of the multiple people around him, and waited for the decontamination cycle to run its course; Tali, Samara and Liara at his side, also waiting. He knew what the Shadow Broker was going to try and do. He knew that if he did it with Samara, the rest of the crew wouldn't be safe.
Finally, after what seemed to be hours of the decon system cleaning them off, the door finally shot open, allowing them to all rush inside the stealth frigate. They erupted onto the flight deck to find Kelly and Joker in the cockpit, practically waiting for them, with EDI's hologram hovering over her console, facing them.
They rushed over, Marcus removing his helmet and practically letting it drop to the floor as his eyes darted between the three of them; EDI was a hologram, so she displayed no emotion, Joker simply look tired and Kelly looked worried, along with tired, the yeoman still having not fully recovered from her ordeal on the Collector Base.
"Commander!" Joker exclaimed, not looking at all amused, despite his tone, "Took your time! The Normandy is ripping itself apart while you were playing around with that refinery! Seems like the Shadow Broker takes no time for R&R."
Marcus had no time to muck around with jokes. His look snapped to EDI, "What the hell is going on EDI? Just who has the Broker tricked in this fiasco?"
"Lia'Vael has vacated the Tech Lab due to a brewing confrontation between Professor Solus and Urdnot Grunt," EDI monotonely delivered in her feminine voice, "Kal has left the armoury and forced his way into the AI Core, and is now engaged in an argument with Legion that has reduced down to a confrontation as gunpoint. Jack has attacked Miranda in her office, and both are now engaged in violent argument. Kasumi has confronted Garrus in the Gunnery Control Station over supposed 'spying,' as Jacob has done something similiar to Thane, barging into Life Support. Madi is currently aiding Kal, and as far as I know, only you four and Kaidan have been saved the brunt of the Shadow Broker's cyber assault."
"Shit," Marcus cursed under his breath, immediately spinning around to face his team. Tali gave him a worried look but he shook his head, looking away from her and immediately marching down the flight deck, "I'll deal with this, starting with Mordin and Grunt. Someone's got to diffuse this chaos, and it'll be me."
"I'll try and get Kal and Madi to lay off Legion," Tali declared, marching down the CIC and moving into the elevator, hitting the button for the Crew Deck. He nodded to her upon her leave, storming through the box and into the Tech Lab, finding his two targets extremely quickly.
He found Mordin's desk had almost been torn from its bolted position on the deck and lifted over, only for the desk to hold steady. Mordin now stood behind, defiant and omni-tool raised, attempting to hold back the massive krogan supersoldier that now towered over him, claymore drawn and ready to blast the salarian to smithereens.
"Stop this madness!" Marcus roared, coming between them with his arms spread, turning to face Grunt's goliath form, "As your Battlemaster, I demand that you stand down!"
Grunt snorted, "Not until I've wiped the floor with this pyjak! Do you realize what he's been doing? He's been secretly trying to infect me with his modifed genophage! He thinks I might cure his little disease if I spread my seed around the females, so he wants to infect me! Please, Battlemaster, I must ask that you stand aside so I might color the walls green with his blood!"
"Krogan response to this predictable," Mordin sniffed, from behind him, omni-tool still raised despite Marcus standing infront of it, primed to launch a cryo blast, "However, assumptions false. He stormed into my lab, ranting about genophage, then saw personal project, thought it proof of his accusations. Left and returned with his shotgun. Been threatening me since. Reached a stalemate. Both parties in at disadvantages. Gone nowhere."
"Personal project?" Marcus asked, twisting his head around and quirking a brow. Mordin nodded, and pointed one of his three fingers at a jug on the almost uprooted table, and the spectre turned to face it, almost immediately recognizing it. Swirling around inside was a dark black liquid with the tell tale forms of sperm floating about inside.
He gulped, heat rushing to his cheeks as he turned back to Grunt, "Ah...Grunt...that's not...uh...shit. That's not...um...that's not a genophage virus strain. That's...its personal stuff." Didn't realize Mordin was displaying it like...like a prized specimen. I'm pretty sure Tali would want it kept secret. And I still haven't told her...
Grunt fingered the barrel of his weapon, looking unconvinced, "He could have modified; lied to you maybe. You have no way to know whether he's lying or not!"
"I know that the Shadow Broker is playing you. He's playing the entire crew," Marcus emphasized by placing a firm grip on Grunt's claymore and slowly pushing it down, the krogan soldier eying him suspiciously, "The whole ship is in chaos, and he recently tried to convince Samara to kill my mate," He looked Grunt directly in the eyes, "Don't you see? You kill Mordin, and the Shadow Broker's won."
Despite only being a few months old and the equivalent of a young baby in human terms, Grunt was matured enough to know that he had been deceived. After a few more seconds, he lowered his claymore, reattaching it to the clasp on his back, "Very well, Battlemaster. The Shadow Broker has played me for a fool, and I realize that now. Just one more thing though," he leaned in close and Marcus could smell the wave of bad breath coming from the krogan's maw, "I want to kill the Shadow Broker myself. Noone plays me for an idiot; noone."
"Glad you got here when you did Shepard," Mordin spoke up, deactivating his omni-tool and dropping his arm, Marcus lowering his own arms as he stood out of the way of his two colleagues, "Could have turned out bloody. Interesting that the Shadow Broker only now reverts to espionage and psychological warfare to attack us; should have used it before. Far more effective. Troops cost prohibitive. Useful, but expendable. Knowledge is power, I believe is a human saying. Very true."
He eyed the container for a moment and leaned in closer to the salarian for a moment, forgetting about the whole 'chaos on the Normandy' for a second as he whispered, "Just how...um...just how far have you gotten with...you know what?"
The salarian grinned, turning towards him, "Success in many ranges; won't be ready for a while, but results look promising. Maybe the first salarian able to help in creating reproduction abilities between different species. However, not as subtle as first thought. Assistant Vael discovered project. Ecstatic. Wanted to help. Allowed her. Has improved project expodentially. Quarian assistance far more productive."
Marcus nodded, shooting an awkward look between Grunt and Mordin, sighing in relief at noticing that the heated expressions had died from their faces, leaving them with calm features. Grunt nodded to Marcus and headed into the corridor between rooms, heading for the armoury. Mordin turned to the spectre and nodded, watching as Lia reentered the room.
"Its over?" Lia asked awkwardly and upon seeing them both nod, she sighed in relief, "Keelah. That was one heated argument. I honestly thought they'd kill each other. What did you do professor to anger Grunt so much?"
"False pretences," Mordin answered, simply motioning to the quarian/human reproduction experiment currently sitting on his desk, unscatched, "Will explain later."
Marcus nodded, turning to the door, "I'm going to try to settle this on the rest of the ship. It wasn't just you two Mordin; the whole ship is in chaos. It seems the Shadow Broker has taken a new turn in his war against us."
He didn't even turn around to acknowledge the nod Mordin threw his way, or Lia's hesitant stance as he rushed out of the tech lab, immediately making a mad run for the elevator. He tried to contact Tali to find out how things were going on her side, but there was no response. Must still be trying to get Kal and Madi to back off. He moved into the elevator and quickly hit the button for the Crew Deck, silently wishing the damn elevator would hurry up and reach its destination.
After what seemed like an eternity of staring blankly at the elevator doors, the box finally reached the third deck and he rushed out, immediately homing in on the Life Support area. He could hear intense yelling from behind him and immediately turned around to watch the door to Miranda's quarters shoot open, and Jack came flying out, landing ungracefully on the ground like a duck being tossed.
The powerful biotic convict leapt to her feet, screaming in fury as she stood up to her full height, wrapped in blue energy. Miranda rushed out, an equally pissed off expression on her face as she faced Jack in a full battle position, also covered head-to-toe in biotics.
Deciding this situation was far more urgent he rushed between the two of them, hands raised and glowing with his own biotic abilities as he made sure he stood between the two powerhouses, "Enough! I order both of you to stand down!"
"Get the fuck out of the way Shepard!" Jack snarled, a powerful biotic flare forming in her palms, "I'm going to smear the walls with this lying filth! She was involved with what happened to me on Pragia! She may not admit it, but one way or another, she was involved and I intend to make her pay!"
"That is an absolute lie commander and Jack has already proven how unstable she is," Miranda growled back, both women shooting each other dangerous glares, both promising death to the other, "She's a ticking time bomb waiting to explode and I'm going to have to disarm her! I have no choice, Shepard!"
"Stop fucking lying you slut!" Jack shouted, about to charge forward only to be pushed back by one of Marcus' biotic fields. She shot him a nasty glare as she noticed his actions, "Don't try to-"
"Miranda was not involved with what happened on Pragia!" Marcus declared looking at both of them with a strong, firm gaze; a gaze that made most politicians melt, "This is all a trap! The Shadow Broker is playing with our minds and trying to get us to turn on each other! Its true! He recently just tried to get Samara to kill Tali, and Grunt to kill Mordin! The same thing is happening all over the ship as we speak! Don't give in Jack; don't let your dislike of Miranda control your judgement. Killing her will only mean that the Broker wins!"
"He speaks the truth child," Samara's calm voice came from the side, the asari laying a reassuring hand on Jack's hand to calm her down, faltering the convict's dissolving glare, "I was indeed almost tricked into killing Miss Zorah and if you are not careful, he will trick you as well. We cannot allow him to win. We must be stronger than that."
Jack shot three glances between the justicar, Marcus and Miranda before eventually letting her biotics die off. Miranda did the same, relaxing her stance as they both stood there, waiting to see what would happen. Jack looked up and met Miranda's eyes and, as much as it pained her to say it, she apologized, "I'm sorry, cheerleader. Shouldn't have let my anger control me like that."
"For all it means, I'm sorry as well," Miranda reciprocated, "I can't let the enemy get the better of me like that. We won't let him win," with that, his XO marched back into her office, obviously moving to clean it up, door shutting behind her. Marcus turned around and let his biotics die out, turning to see Jack, fists clenched and fuming with anger.
"Now I really want to kill that fucking Shadow Broker," Jack growled.
"Oh, don't worry," Marcus replied in kind, eyes seething with anger, "I'll make sure of that, personally." This Broker has stepped well over the line. Its one thing sending his troops to kill me and my friends, but now he tries to get us to turn on each other? Unacceptable. He nodded to Samara and Jack as he moved past, watching as Liara came rushing out of the elevator, eying him catiously.
"Liara," he moved up to her, hands on her arms, "I need you to go into Life Support and settle the situation in there! Make sure Jacob and Thane don't kill each other! I'm going to try and diffuse whatever's going on between Kasumi and Garrus!"
Liara nodded, rushing into Life Support as he spun around and rushed for the Gun Battery, stopping suddenly as the medical bay doors shot open and Tali, followed by Kal, Madi and Legion, rushed out. He nodded to the four of them, seeing that Tali had disarmed whatever was going on, which left Garrus and Kasumi. As he approached, he saw the door was locked, with Kaidan outside trying to force his way in.
"Commander," EDI's voice rained in, always seeming to pick the worst of times to contact him.
"I'm busy EDI," Marcus replied simply, but apparently the AI couldn't get the hint.
"Someone is waiting at the airlock," EDI continued, "I think you might-"
"Tell them I'm busy!" Marcus nodded to Kaidan, the marine moving aside as the spectre raised his arm, activated his omni-tool and used a brute force program to hack into the locked door. The program was done as it entered the system and the door shot open, revealing Kasumi and Garrus in a very heated argument, the man having never seen Kasumi so angry; unless you counted the mission in Donovan Hock's mansion. Both of them were literally inches from each other's faces.
"-believe you'd implant cameras in my room! I thought we trusted each other! Why the hell would you implant cameras to watch me? Are you some kind of sick pervert!" Kasumi yelled.
"Because I didn't!" Garrus growled, jabbing a sharp talon in her face, trying to use intimidation to get her to back off, and obviously failing, "I have absolutely no interest in you or seeing you naked! Well, maybe I do have an interest in you, but I-well maybe I-actually, forget I said that! Look, my point is that-"
"So you admit to wanting to see me naked!" Kasumi shouted back, waving her arms in the air like a bird about to take flight, "Yo-you-well, maybe I feel the sam-you pervert! I can't believe-the nerve-do you know what I'm going to do to you? I'll...I'll...um..."
"Do what?"
"Oh, to hell with it!" Kasumi suddenly grabbed onto the collar of the turian's armor and pulled him closer, "You're only young once, right!?"
And, in a marginably unexpected climax to their heated argument, Marcus and Kaidan watched in stunned silence as Kasumi suddenly pressed her lips against Garrus' mandibles, the turian's eyes visibly widening at the sudden contact, unsure of what to do about himself. His arms hung limply at his sides as the petite thief moaned into the kiss before reality set in and she suddenly shot back, noticing Marcus and Kaidan, and gasped, eyes widening in horror. Seeing what she was looking at, Garrus practically froze to the spot, unable to move or speak.
After a few minutes, it was Kaidan who broke the silence, "Um...what a sudden turn of a events."
"I don't think that's what the Broker planned when he wanted to turn us against each other," Marcus mumbled, scratching the back of his armoured neck out of habit, "Not that I'm complaining about the resolution. Its about time this ugly son of a bitch finally caught a woman."
Garrus scoffed awkwardly, taking the opening the spectre gave to rescue himself, folding his arms across his armoured chest, "Hey, the women were all over me when you were still trying to start a relationship, you dense ape! I've just found one I plan on keeping."
Marcus chuckled, pleased with how this particular argument turned out, "Well, I can't say this wasn't sudden. Honestly...was this even developing? I mean, I didn't even see any flirting before hand so...damn. Talk about spontaneously romance."
"To be honest, it wasn't really developing at all," Kasumi noted, crossing her arms as she leaned against Garrus' console, "It just sorta...appeared. Call it a heat of the moment thing."
"Well I'm happy for you," Marcus addressed both of them, "Both of you."
"Thanks Shep," Kasumi winked at him, carrying a devilish grin on her face.
Garrus was barely able to conceal the grin on his own mandibles, "Thanks Shepard. You know...now I'll be able to see what all this romance stuff is about. You and Tali always got the icing on the cake, figured its time I get a shot at it. Now I'll learn what all this stuff about 'having something to come back to' or 'having something to fight for' is all about."
Kasumi giggled evilly, eying his mascular turian frame, locking her eyes with Garrus', "Hmmm...what do you mean to 'come back to?' This is just a fling Vakarian; I'm just using you for your body."
Marcus and Kaidan exchanged awkward looks while Garrus just blinked, unable to unhear what he just said. Kasumi wiggled her eyebrows before giggling again, obviously joking. Garrus laughed awkwardly with her, rubbing the back of his neck.
"You're so mean," Garrus inched a bit closer and bumped hips with the woman, "And I'm okay with that."
"Okkkaaayyy..." Kaidan barged in, not liking where that line of thought was going, "I think I'm going to have to stop you there before you two get too far away from reality and forget that two people stand here."
"What, you think we're just going to drop down and have sex? Men," Kasumi pouted, pushing Garrus away and inching away, turning back to grin, "Women like to develop the relationship; and somehow I don't think we're at the sex phase yet."
"Ah, such a shame," Garrus jested, "And to think was about to make out some more. You know, for a human, you taste good."
"I'll take that as a compliment," Kasumi replied, palming the door interface.
"You could take it apart to find some hidden meanings," Garrus quipped.
Marcus rolled his eyes, "Oh for the love of god! You're making me and Tali look sublt-"
A familiar, deep-throated voice cut him off, "Garrus finally got himself a female? Well its about damn time you got your ugly ass someone to breed with. And to think I was going to hook you up with one of our females. A pity."
Marcus, Garrus and Kaidan, stunned by shock and surprise, spun around at the speed of light to find the familiar tall form of a krogan battlemaster standing in the doorway, and it wasn't Grunt. He was massive, even by krogan standards, and easily towered over Grunt. His eyes were blood red with dark irises, a crimson headplate and a hunched appearence, body wrapped by battle-scarred armor and a claymore shotgun holstered the back of his hips, with a pistol attached to his side. A massive toothy grin was pasted on his features.
They seemed to all speak at the same time as they exclaimed, "Wrex!"
The krogan moved inside, Kasumi sneaking out under the krogan's huge, bulky form, seemingly going unnoticed as she entered cloak and disappeared, "Surprised to see me? Well, I'm surprised myself really. I really ought to be on Tuchanka."
"What caused the predator to come sniffing for some prey?" Kaidan asked, laughing.
Wrex snorted, "That runt of yours sent me a message saying you were fighting the Shadow Broker himself and that the Collectors are now nothing more than a history book entry," Wrex's grin only widened, "Don't know what you did to piss the Broker off, but you can consider me in this fight. And with Liara onboard, it'll be just like old times."
"Damn right," Garrus stated, nodding to his krogan brother-in-arms.
"Not that I don't appreciate you being here Wrex but..." Marcus spoke up, expression suddenly serious, "Who's leading the clans with you gone?"
Wrex sighed heavily, "A female; and trust me, the krogan are very unhappy about it, but I don't trust anyone else with the position. Wreav is just waiting for an opening so he can kill me and take back his seat as Urdnot Chieftain, and Uvenk wasn't the last of those 'traditionalist' pyjaks. So far, only this female, the Shaman you met, Grunt and a massive portion of Urdnot seem to believe your story. But I guess they'll all believe it soon enough."
"So, you here to stay?" Marcus asked, curious.
The krogan waved his arm, "As much as I'd like to kick some more Reaper ass at your side, my people are going to need me, whether they realize it or not. I wish we could fight side by side, but trust me, I'm of more use to you leading krogan armies than fighting at your side. Somehow, I think that's how its going to end up. All of us, split up and fighting alongside our respective armies. It'll be a glorious battle; one that the history books of Tuchanka will remember well."
"Well, the Reapers aren't here yet, and right now we've got an angry Shadow Broker wanting us all dead," the spectre pointed out, "And it would seem this information 'deception' operation of his didn't go quite according to plan. Most of the crew now know what the Broker is up to and are ignoring him, Garrus and Kasumi's argument turned into a relationship and his actions unintentionally gained us an old ally. Overall, I actually think this day turned out for the best, don't you think?"
Wrex shrugged, "If it gets the old squad together, then why the hell not? Of course this day turned out great! Now, if you don't mind, I think I'm going to need quarters for my stay here. I think I'll just go into that shuttle bay of yours; served me well on the old Normandy, why not the same here?" he leaned closer to the spectre, smiling, "Talking about the new Normandy; I like what you've done with the place. Doesn't feel quite as claustrophobic as the old ship did."
Marcus smirked, "New and improved, Wrex. She isn't the SR-1, but she's close."
"Nothing can ever replace Pressly and Johnson...or Adams," Wrex listed off, remembering all the crew members he could, "But I'm sure the new crew will be just as inviting. But from the looks of it, it seems I'm not going to like this red head yeoman of yours; far too...invasive, for my liking. Now, if you don't mind, gotta inform Grunt I'm here, and drop in on my little quarian niece while I'm at it."
The krogan made a hasty retreat, leaving the three men alone in the gun battery, unable to comprehend what had just happened. Attempted assassination. Crew chaos. Kasumi and Garrus got together. Wrex joined the crew. What had started as a pretty shitty day, and turned into one of the best they'd had since the Collector defeat.
"Well," Kaidan spoke up, clearing his throat, "That was interesting."
They all laughed, "Indeed," was all Marcus could reply with.
The Shadow Broker would be brisling with anger right about now.
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November 1, 2185
1548 hours.
'Humanity's Sanctum,' Upper Levels, Cronos Station, Anadius System.
The Illusive Man, First Lieutenant Geoff Dielheart.
"Give me details. Where do we currently stand, Lieutenant?"
The Illusive Man was fuming; current events had not gone well for Cerberus, especially in terms of the recent attack against Shepard and the quarians. Losing the Montgomery had been a major blow to his organization; their very first light cruiser and already it had been taken; not destroyed, but now flew under Migrant Fleet banners, of all the factions. Not only that, but an entire platoon of Cerberus commandos were dead, with Shepard, his quarian mate, Doctor T'Soni and Admiral Raan still alive. A failure of massive proportions.
He hadn't heard much from the Shadow Broker either, not since the incident on the Rayya, so it was a fairly quiet operation at the moment. On lighter notes however, the assault to take Omega and make it a Cerberus-occupied space station would begin soon; the first stage would involve getting the Omega divisions of the three mercenary groups; Blue Suns, Eclipse and Blood Pack, to launch a large scale attack on Aria's forces. Once both sides are severely weakened, the Illusive Man would deploy his newest toys; the Adjutants.
Due to the destruction of the Collector Base, the Illusive Man had very little access to their resources and therefore couldn't get his hand on any Reaper tech, but that didn't mean there was a lack of it. He had dispatched teams all over the galaxy to find areas where Collector activity was large, and even Aria T'Loak, the woman he was about to overthrow, had sent him husks; remnants of an assault she lead on Collector forces on her station a year ago. His teams had returned with more husks from Horizon, but were unable to find them anywhere else; not that it was needed.
The Husk and Scion corpses brought back were then dispatched to Avernus Station; Cerberus' key installation for the research of Reaper technology, and the one currently manufacturing the Reaper cybernetics he planned to install in his troops to make them stronger, smarter and faster; supersoldiers. Less than a week later, he had been sent a promising message.
The reason he had wanted the dead husks captured all linked to his ultimate plan of eventually controlling the Reapers, starting with assuming control over the Reaper's indoctrinated agents and their ground forces; as to which he had brought the full might of his contacts to bear, and with some of Sovereign's remains recovered, he was on the fast track to success; and the first stage to controlling them was to manufacture them.
Using a hybrid of Reaper tech and the cybernetic/organic metamorphosis used to create husks, the cell working on Avernus had reached a breakthrough and created the first non-Reaper made husk; christened as the Adjutant. However, from the images and information sent to him, this was unlike any husk seen before. It was a gigantic beast, easily towering over the biggest krogan, and almost on par with a yahg. It wasn't pretty either; the main body of it looked akin to that of a normal husk if it was ripped with muscle, with long scythes for claws, a strong upper body, and a rather large head that looked far too big for its body.
Its head was the most horrifying part of the creature; it had a large stem growing out of the center of its head, and two large, purple sacs attached to the side, akin to lungs, but were in fact an external brain of sorts. The creature's two eyes were located to the front and basically side by side, both glowing with purple ferocity that the rest of its body gave off.
The reason it was so unique was due to one feature; zombification. While many would list husks as 'techno zombies' or 'cybernetic walking dead,' they missed one feature that made them zombies; the ability to infect, and the Adjutant did not lack this. It was unexplained how the scientists were able to do it, but the Adjutant has a long series of tentacles on its back that extend and stab into the body of its victim, injecting it with Reaper nanites that are harmless one second, and then begin transforming the next. Within a minute, their victim is a Adjutant. A literal techno zombie, and they would soon be under Cerberus control.
Problem was that the Reaper tech made sure that the Adjutants still only reacted to Reaper command signals, and would be completely rabid if let loose; and while the Illusive Man developed a scheme to assume control over the Adjutants, he knew just the perfect place to unleash his new army of psychopathic zombies; Omega.
The Illusive Man's plan was to enslave a large population, have control chips planted in their brain, and then unleash the Adjutants on them. All the infected Adjutants would ignore Reaper signals and take only Cerberus commands due to the control chip in their host's brain, leaving Cerberus with an army of controllable soldiers. If that proved effective, he would then try it on more 'pure form' Reaper husks. And the thing with Adjutants is, it isn't species specific like husks are to humans; they can infect any species they wish.
Overall, the attack on Omega would go extremely well. The entirety of the Cerberus First Fleet and a total of forty thousand troops would be under Petrovsky's command, spearheaded by the pride of their fleet, the CAW Elbrus, bolstered by a vanguard of mindless, powerful adjutants. The entire plan was ready to spring into motion, and all he had to do was send the command.
Which he did. The Cerberus transport was now heading for Omega, and as of tomorrow, the battle for Omega would begin. And the Illusive Man and Cerberus would come out ontop and at the end of the week, Omega would bear the gold and white of Cerberus.
He had called on other investors for 'Project: Assimilation' as well, including the father of ex-First Lieutenant Miranda Lawson, Henry Lawson, the head of the Lawson-Fredler company, which was one of Cerberus' heaviest investors. Unable to keep himself away from anything that could potentially aid his own ambitions, Henry had been more than up to the task to tackle the indoctrination debackle. And as of now, the man was Cerberus. I lost you Miranda, but I gained your father. I win in the end, I'm afraid.
With a heavy sigh, the Illusive Man basically dropped his cigar into the ash tray next to him and grabbed his whiskey bottle, pouring more into the glass to his left and taking a sip, eyes still fixed on the holo screens before him, which were almost dull compared to the tinted light Anadius omitted. Geoff stood behind him, about to read out the latest reports.
"Anything you want to hear specifically sir?" Geoff asked, ready.
"Give it all to me in one bite," TIM replied instantly, waving a dismissive hand as he continued reading over the reports he was getting. Most were faring far better than the failure of the wet works against Shepard, but yet again, those projects weren't under the Shadow Broker's watching eye, which explained alot.
"Very well," Geoff replied, hitting something on his datapad and began to read off, line for line of information, "All manufacturing stations and companies have met your dead line and the first forty thousand pieces of the new armor has rolled out, fresh with Cerberus colors and logos, ranging from the Assault Trooper armor to Centurions, Nemesis', Phantoms, Guardians and Combat Engineers, all ready to be used. The Reaper implants are also ready, so you just need to start fitting your commandos with the armor; the next sixty thousand sets are in production now. All forty thousand commandos will be fitted and ready by the time the Omega assault begins."
"Fantastic," TIM found himself saying, enjoying the news that Cerberus' army had officially begun to grow, "How about the Rampart mechs?"
Geoff nodded and scrolled down the pad, "Due to the fact that the Ramparts are simply modified LOKI mechs with VI processors, the Hahne-Kedar factory has reported that an astounding force of 3,487 Rampart mechs have rolled off the assemby line and are being shipped off to Athens Station; the FOB you have designated for the invasion of Omega."
"Good," TIM dictated, "I want the full complement sent to Athens and any more that are made will be distributed to Cronos Station so they can be mixed with our forces. The Ramparts will not engage in the invasion of Omega; however, when we take Omega, Petrovsky has taken the idea of using them as a police force to keep Omega's inhabitants in check; a sound strategy that I have authorized. Anything else?"
"The Atlases are fitting well into our forces and have been given a few modifications for added effectiveness in combat. They will support our troops quite well, and a hundred of them have been sent to Athens as instructed. The teams are now focusing on building turrets; small ones that can be deployed by our combat engineers at a moment's notice. However, I think you'll be most interested in the status of Project: Eva."
"Continue," TIM replied in a unimpressed tone.
"The AI itself is complete, and the body is close to finished, with the scientists adding a few finishing touches, along with a few bits of Reaper tech to enhance its abilities," Geoff informed him, "They've sent an image of what the final product will look like, and I have to say, it looks unmistakenably human. Noone would know she's synthetic unless they dissect her or wound her."
An image of Eva appeared on his screen and TIM calmly examined it. He had to admit, he was definitely impressed. He had sent the scientists an image of what Eva Core looked like, and they had followed the specifications quite well. Her features were well rounded and smooth, showing a healthy, attractive human female in her late twenties or thirties. She had puffy, red lips, with a line of mascara around her eyes and dark green pupils.
Her eyebrows were thin and her nose small. Her breasts were quite large in size, which was the first oversight that TIM saw, obviously done by horny male scientists, and they were quite clearly larger than even Miranda's. Her hips were wide and seductive, with a thin waist line and a form-fitting labcoat of cobalt blue and milk white. Her hair was also way off from the orginal; where the human Eva had long, blonde hair tied in a ponytail, this Eva had raven black hair, curled up in a solid 'light shag' kinda style. Overall, it was an excellent imitation.
He minimized the image, "Very good; tell them I'm impressed by their progress, and when the project is complete, I want Eva sent to my office immediately for proper examination."
"Of course sir," Geoff continued, "I think you'll like this the most sir; the fleet. The entirety of the First Fleet is completed, comprising of one dreadnought, one carrier, three heavy cruisers, six light cruisers, eight destroyers, twelve heavy frigates, five light frigates and nine corvettes, with a fighter cover of sixty-eight fighters and fifty-two interceptors. What will follow is Second Fleet, Third Fleet, Fourth Fleet, Fifth Fleet, Sixth Fleet and Eighth Fleet. Petrovsky commands First Fleet, but as of yet, you have yet to pick admirals to lead the other fleets. These fleets will be lead by one dreadnought, and any number of battleships, cruisers, destroyers, frigates, corvettes, carriers or fighters you wish. As of now, fleet production will mostly spit out the same number of ships currently in the Alliance's arsenal, which is over two hundred warships, all manufactured in secret."
"A job well done," TIM congratulated, taking another gulp of his preferred alcohol, "That leaves with us with a total of eight dreadnoughts. That's one short of the Alliance, but that doesn't change much from where I stand. We've already got the Elbrus, so I christen the rest Lhotse, Annapurna, Gasherbrum, Ngadi Chuli, Nanda Devi, Rakaposhi and Pasu Sar. Make sure the names are passed on, and in that order, they'll be assigned to fleets."
"Done and done sir," Geoff replied, hooking the datapad under his arm, "Will there be anything else?"
TIM nodded. He had an idea for how to take out Shepard that didn't involve hitting him directly; only his family, or family-to-be. I can't hit him directly, so now I'll have to revert to plan B. I'll target his family; that'll get his attention while also landing a crippling blow to his self-esteem and morale.
"I want you to send a message to one of our agents in Alliance Naval Command on Arcturus," TIM ordered, "I want to know the location of a specific dreadnought; the SSV Orizaba. While doing that, I want you to have another platoon of our commandos ready to leave on a moment's notice. Have them take them take the CAW Malaysia and head to the coordinates I've designated and await further instructions."
"Very well sir," Geoff did so, but with a confused look on his face. After a while, he turned back to the Illusive Man to ask a question, but TIM could read his face easily, and knew what was coming.
"No, you may not ask why," TIM cut in, "While you're at it, tell Agent Leng to report to my office. I have a seperate assignment planned for him. Have a squad of our best hitmen assembled and have them report to Cronos Station immediately. I have a seperate mission planned for them as well."
Geoff nodded, bowed, and made a hasty retreat from the spaceous office.
A few minutes later, the doors to his office shot open again and the sound of footsteps echoed on the steel floor as they grew in sound until they stopped completely just behind him, the Illusive Man's attack dog standing mere inches behind him.
"Sir," Leng replied with the same thoughtless, cold, emotionless tone he always did, always giving the Illusive Man the thought of a machine, "You sent for me."
"That I did," TIM replied cooly. Never was the one for intelligence. He is terrible at leadership, and has a track record for disobeying orders he didn't like. But he's a brutal killing machine, noone could deny him that. If you told him to kill something, he'll do it. It doesn't matter if he makes steak out of his opponent, the fact is he killed them. Just hard to remember that he was once an N7, "I have a new assignment for you, one you might take immense joy out of. It involves Shepard."
As he turned around to monitor Leng's response, he noticed a shift in the assassin's usual stonewall expression. Never we have it. He always did have a personal vendetta against Shepard. He's never met the man or fought beside him, or even talked to him, so to a cursory eye, many might think he's hating for the sake of it. But I know this...man, and his reasons. He's an alien hater; I've seen how he kills humans compared to non-humans, and its alot less gruesome. His arguments are bitter, naive and rootless; and his hatred for Shepard stems from the fact that his lover is a quarian, his best friend is a turian, and the majority of his crew isn't even human.
Apart from that, the assassin made no response and merely waited expectantly for the next line of orders. With a nod, he turned back to look at Anadius, speaking as he did while his hand fumbled for a new cigar, "I want you to locate the Moori; its a Migrant Fleet vessel. Its currently left the fleet for routine resource collection, leaving it open for attack. I want you to take a ship, board the Moori, kill the crew and capture it."
Leng arched an eyebrow, or at least tried to with the lack of any, the black plates covering his eyes always seeming to bore into your skull, "What am I to do with a suit-rat ship? Its hardly worthy of becoming part of the great Cerberus Navy. Nothing but space junk."
"I don't intend to integrate it into our fleet," TIM deadpanned, placing a cigar between his lips and lighting it. Once done, he put the lighter way, puffed and took the cigar out, blowing out a cloud of smoke after it, "I want you to use it to infiltrate the Flotilla."
"Again?" Leng asked, sounding like a confused child.
"Yes, again," TIM replied, trying to keep his irritation in place at the man's impudence, "This time, I want you to locate a ship called the Tonbay and board it. Then, locate a woman named Admiral Raan; she should be in the ship's captain's quarters. When you find her; kill her. Don't bother with dumping the body; just kill her and extract as quickly as possible; no slip ups. You'll have a team of some of our best hitmen going with you, so the ship's marine continegent shouldn't be a problem."
"I see," Leng replied, nodding as his hands fumbled the sheath on his back, a sadistic grin flashing across his face, "Any chance to kill some of that suit-rat filth is a chance I'm willing to enjoy. I will not fail."
"I know you won't. An elderly quarian admiral is hardly a match for a fully-trained N7 assassin," TIM stated, making it clear in his tone that failure would be grounds to not just heavy embarassment, but would result in Leng becoming 'sidelined.' Not that he would actually follow up on it; Leng was useful in his own way, and as much as he was a pariah to leadership, he was an excellent hand-to-hand combat specialist, and would be perfect for this job, especially with his enhanced cybernetics.
Leng nodded, bowed and left, his steps not graceful or fluid, just calculated, predicted and machine-like; one leg after another. TIM didn't even acknowledge the assassin's leave, merely turning back to his screen and letting a reflective sigh escape his lips as news that the Cerberus research ship full of adjutants had just left Athens Station and had progressed to enter the relay, heading to dock with Omega.
He leaned back and continued to watch. The War for Omega had begun, and he had planted the seed. Without further delay, he sent the message that would send Omega's mercenaries to war with Aria T'Loak.
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November 1, 2185
1629 hours.
Dock, Dyuko District, Omega.
War for Omega, Battle of the Dyuko Docks.
Sergeant Kahlee Thorn.
"What do you mean we're at war? We're mercenaries! Eclipse. Not soldiers!" One of Kahlee's men, an asari vanguard, shouted from behind her as her squad moved forward and towards the dock area where a Cerberus research vessel was currently docked. Behind her was two salarian engineers, five asari vanguards, and five human mercs, all of them in the renowned Eclipse armor, full helmets and with numerous weapons ranging from pistols to assault rifles.
Kahlee rolled her eyes, moving forward as she shouted back in reply, "Haven't you heard? Aria T'Loak slipped up and now we have the advantage! Fighting's erupted all over the station and we've got Aria's troops backed against a wall! Only a matter of time before Patriarch's back in control!" It hadn't been long ago when the fighting broke out, Kahlee remembered.
She had been on coffee break after a successful red sand smuggling operation on the Citadel, and had been about to watch the TV when her company captain came rushing in telling her that Omega was at war. Story was that Aria T'Loak, the ruler of Omega, asari badass and overall don't-fuck-with-me kind of person had let it slip that she had been keeping Patriarch, a nameless krogan warlord who had been ruler of Omega before Aria showed up and overthrew him, as a pet and that he was the only reason she had any rule over the station.
Later, a squad of Blood Pack warriors had ambushed Patriarch in an alleyway and killed him in cold-blood, paving the way for open rebellion. For the first time since the Rise of Archangel, the three mercenary groups of Omega joined forces to take down Aria T'Loak and overthrow her. Noone knew who'd take her place, but they knew she had to go. And without Patriarch, it wasn't long before the station's inhabitants rioted as well. So began the War for Omega.
The main bulk of her company was currently fighting alongside another company, this one Blue Suns, and a horde of Blood Pack vorcha, along with the ocassional merc from the Grim Skulls or other mercenary companies (the Talons had remained suspiciously quiet, especially considering that Nyreen Kandros was a known partner of Aria's), was fighting at Afterlife, fighting Gavorn and Anto, Aria's top lieutenants, and their men to try and take the headquarters of Omega from Aria, who, for some reason, had yet to make an appearence herself.
But it wasn't long before Afterlife's forces were overwhelmed and the club was taken, leaving the rest of Omega open for the taking. And in the midst of the chaos, her company captain had seen the opportunity to start taking whatever credits he could find, and a recently docked Cerberus research ship was just the kind of vessel that would have thousands of credits worth of technology and equipment. That, and Aria had been snogging Cerberus for far too long, letting them have free rein on the station, and that had to stop. They had to set an example.
Kahlee would prefer helping kill Aria's troops, more imporantly Anto for the smug bastard's treatment of her when she went to speak to Aria, but this was her job and she was getting paid to do it, so she couldn't complain.
"Doesn't make it a war!" the asari shouted back.
"Shut your trap, Mevlia," one human woman shouted back, "Who cares what its called? It gets us money, so who the fuck gives a shit what we call it? Call it a fucking circus, or a Council meeting if you want, but it all adds up to the cha-ching of credits flowing in my palms."
"Excellent point," one salarian spoke in a conforming tone, "We are mercs, afterall. Still thought we should have brought at least a pack of FENRIS mechs. Or a YMIR. We have no idea what Cerberus has packed inside that ship."
"Not that it'll matter," Kahlee mumbled, "I'd rather be kicking Aria's ass from Omega to Thessia. If only I could see her bloody face. I've never seen an asari cry before, to be honest."
They finally reached the airlock door at the end of the corridor, and through the grimy observation windows of the docking corridor they could see the form of the Cerberus research ship, the vessel looking like a converted freighter, plastered with gold and white colors and a few token logos, courtesy of the terrorist organization they now planned to piss on.
She raised her avenger and took the rear, letting her squad assume the usual positions; engineers at back, asari at front with biotics ready and humans in flanking positions around the room, while she shot from afar. She wouldn't call herself brave, or particularly cowardly; she was just a little...afraid of open fights.
"Open the door," she barked, watching as the closest human merc to the door palmed the interface and it slid open.
They were met by an empty corridor with the lights dimmed. She frowned, wondering if the ship had been abandoned when the war broke out, but that was unlikely. Her squad activated their flashlights and looked to her for leadership. She nodded, motioning for Victoria to lead the way and to give the all clear.
Just as she set a foot in the darkness, a loud, inhuman screech echoed through the ship, sending shivers through all of them as they tightened their grips on their weapons and scanned the corridor frantically, but Victoria just moved forward, ableit cautiously.
Another screech. This one closer. Followed by three in sync, then five, then twelve, then...oh god...twenty. Twenty-six. Thirty-nine. Fifty. Eighty-two. They all rose in pitch, but Victoria, being the unintelligent ingrate she was, just kept going inside, like nothing was wrong, pretending to be brave and impress her squad as they all backed away, weapons raised, mutters of 'what the fuck is that?' and 'mummy' being heard. Kahlee inwardly screamed at herself to get her men to make a retreat to the safety of the hordes of mercs at Afterlife, but for some retarded reason, she stood her ground.
The screeches all sounded at once, in perfect sync, and they seemed to echo through her ears and body, blood freezing and heartbeat increasing as she heard it. So unhuman. Alien. Terrifying. Like a demonic yell promising a slow, painful and gruesome death. Kahlee knew something was coming, and it was going to fucking rip them apart. The screeches were like a cacophony, now right infront of them and she could hear the sound of a horde stampeding across the deck hidden off to the right swarming forwards, the smell of fear driving them forward.
She finally regained her wits, "Victoria, get the fuck out! Fuck this ship! I want a steady fall back to After-"
A scream, this time right infront of them, and they raised weapons, only to watch as red blood gushed out from the darkness and painted the bulkhead to the left of the airlock, thick and runny as Victoria's mauled body was flung from the airlock to land in a crumpled heap before them. One of the asari squealed and leapt out of the way, biotics wavering slightly. Her human squad almost broke ranks before they began firing into the empty space of the airlock, desperately trying to fend off whatever abomination killed their comrade. And as Kahlee looked at the three massive, gashes along Victoria's chest, which had effectively skinned her face and left her guts spilling out of her chest, she herself...screamed.
She couldn't do this. Hell itself was coming for them!
A screech and she looked up to see Victoria's killer leap from the darkness, hurling towards one of her asari mercs that tried to raise her biotics to combat the massive beast. It was originally a turian's body, but had been heavily modified by cybernetics to the point of being unrecognizable. Two purple eyes glowed with a hunger, long scythe like claws flashing in the light as the creature hurled forward, gaze fixed on its prey. Its head was massive, with two, purple sacs hanging out of its head like a brain, a stem coming from the center.
The asari was helpless as the beast's immense strength, being twice the size of a krogan, overwhelmed her and forced her to the ground where she could only look on in horror and scream as tentacles erupted from the creatures mouth and its maw opened, revealing a set of sharp, needle like teeth, before sinking them into the asari's neck, feeding on her purple blood as the tentacles fed on her. Kahlee knew what she was looking at. Zombies. Cerberus has fucking zombies!
Two more of the creatures emerged, followed by a few more, and no doubt, the entire horde was most likely arriving as well. Her team fled like frightened rats, firing pathetically behind them in a frail attempt to stem the tide of the coming swarm of demonic hellspawn. Kahlee inched away, but something caught her eye, and as she turned, she watched Victoria's corpse transform.
Her head expanded like air being pumped into a balloon and her small, delicate form grew, skin peeling away as muscles appeared, followed by the sound of beeping as cybernetics formed and latched on to major organs and areas. Her eyes shot open and glowed bright purple, and as Kahlee watched on, she saw one of her own men turn into...into...into one of those things.
By the time she was finally leaving, the Victoria she once knew stood tall, glaring at her with murderous intent...now part of the hellspawn that had killed her. And as she looked on, the asari that beast had ravaged in the neck began to transform as well, and Kahlee quickly ran, not wanting to share their fate. She heard their footsweeps behind her and she just kept going, almost screaming in terror as she felt the corridor shake with the sheer intensity of the horde's approach.
By the time she reached Afterlife, her men were completely overrun and slaughtered by the zombies and she screamed for help, watching as the Blue Suns protecting the flank turned around, gasped in shock, and raised their weapons, opening fire.
The opening salvo ripped one of the creature's apart, only to have another leap ontop of its cadaver and use it as a jumping platform to land ontop of a Blue Suns turian, hand swiping down and taking the turian's head with it as it growled like an animal, turning towards its next victim only for a Blood Pack krogan to blow its head off with a shotgun. But the fall of two of the insane creatures did not stem the tide of their relentless assault.
They charged forth like an unstoppable stampede, the mercenaries unable to stop the coming tide. Gunfire slammed into them, but barely stopped it, and within seconds, the beasts slammed into the Blood Pack flank, ripping vorcha and krogan alike apart in their random attack, limbs and blood flying all over in geysers of red, orange, blue, purple and green mist. And Kahlee only kept running. She fled from hell. From the gates of death. The pariahs.
But they would not get her.
"Wrex was a good bonus for our mission against the Broker. And, if I'm correct, that's the day the War for Omega began."
- Tali'Shepard pav Rannoch.
"Correct. But none of us knew that. The only thing important to us was our conflict with the Broker and Cerberus; and the Broker committed the worst crime he could against me; he targetted my family."
- Marcus Shepard.
A/N:
Sorry for the late chapter and the cliffhanger; but the next chapter will focus alot more on the conflict on Omega, while staying as close to Mass Effect: Invasion's verision of the events as much as possible, with a few changes. Next chapter will start with a joint Aria-Petrovsky POV.