Vastatio Terrarium

Katarn was caught somewhere between reeling in furious disbelief, and cackling in triumph, as he forged through the howling blizzard towards his fast approaching comrades. The human had seemed to act as he'd predicted at first, but it was now gravely apparent that he'd underestimated this 'Thanatos'. The purpose of the exercise had been twofold from the moment of the idea's inception; discredit the Human Alliance in the eyes of the Citadel Council, and deal with, making an example of in the doing, some of the boldest malcontents amongst his race. As such, he'd begun making sounds of discontent amongst the SIU, before having to take his leave abruptly when his superiors purposely set those colleagues unaware of the scheme upon him, granting him the perfect backdrop to become a rallying point for the resistance.

The fools had made themselves known to him within a pitifully short time once he put out feelers to try and find the resistance. To begin with, much of what he did was intended to strengthen, expand and organise the resistance, although not so much that they would become difficult for the Hegemony's might to deal with. In the long term, it was a move not only to further establish his credentials as a key figure in the movement of malcontents, but to draw together as many likeminded individuals as possible before the jaws of the trap bit into those within its reach.

After almost a year, the time became ripe to deal with the next phase; connecting with the Alliance. It was done through some of Katarn's contacts in the Terminus Systems, batarian privateers with as fierce a loyalty to their species and their government as they had to themselves-and, fortunately, wit to match. Information-genuine information, Katarn thought sourly (it was one of the things that soured the elation of victory, but there had been no way the plan could have succeeded without it) had been the bait, the demand for munitions to prevent suspicion; apparently it was a human saying that good things always had their price, or something to that effect.

The humans were so eager to carry out the transaction, perceiving it to be a double victory for their species, that Katarn might have found it amusing, if the injustices that afflicted his species had not long since erased his sense of humour. The rendezvous had been proposed and agreed, the human had arrived and the SIU agent had activated the beacon to call in the coup de gras, before murdering Dal'resah to turn the base's attention inward, onto one another in fear and suspicion.

Of course, that was the point at which a perfect operation derailed spectacularly.

Katarn had assumed that one of the main criteria for Thanatos' selection for the operation was the fact that he was amenable to working with batarians, as it was a rare enough trait amongst a species that loathed his kin almost as much as they did them. He certainly hadn't anticipated the human taking control of the investigation with unopposable poise, or one of his so carefully cultivated malcontents turning on him the moment he killed the base's power again, even managing to escape the infiltrator with the tracer beacon.

Katarn had needed the human out of the way whilst he rectified the situation and plotted his next move, so he'd sent the human off in the opposite direction to the problem. Or so he'd thought; he'd been forced to send his one ally, his contingency plan, to ensure that Thanatos would learn nothing from his quarry, to ensure that no suspicion fell on him, whilst he murdered another of his subordinates. The investigation had to continue until the Hegemony's forces arrived, and had to be pulled away from a corpse that held the potential to reveal that threat. The risk put the Lieutenant on edge, but there had been no realistic alternative.

Only, his comrade had failed. Thanatos had somehow learned everything-not just the scheme he'd relayed to turn Katarn's only men against him, judging by the noises that followed Katarn as he fled, but the real plot, the one involving the fleet that was even now deploying troops on the ground to strike the final blow that would humiliate humanity and grant the batarian species its vengeance.

And yet, the batarian felt sure, the human's actions had been insufficient. Only one piece of irrefutable evidence had to reach his superiors and it would be too late. Besides, if the human had any sense, he'd be making good his escape now, before the Hegemony reduced his chances to nil.

Shepard stepped out into the icy maelstrom of air and broke into a run, the elements wrenching at the trenchcoat he wore and impeding his progress. Fortunately, his destination was not far.

Another scream rose up over the wind's dirge. An engine's whine. Katarn actually howled in triumph, his guttural voice lost in the tumultuous weather, and the rapidly approaching mechanical shriek that spelled victory...

Just not for him, he realised, as a shuttle materialised out of the white, emblazoned with the colours of the Systems Alliance, and, in spite of the natural interference, turned smoothly and touched down directly in front of him. Sidearm raised defiantly, consumed with wrath at the prospect of failure at this point, so close to his goal, Katarn advanced on the shuttle, even as the door opened, revealing the figure of Thanatos framed against the opening. Katarn opened fire without hesitation, sending round after round hurtling vengefully towards the lone human, even after he had retreated out of the batarian's line of sight.

Even consumed with rage as he was, the SIU was no fool: to enter that shuttle would be death. What's more, it would be unnecessary; Thanatos could flee and it wouldn't change the fact that the Hegemony would have the evidence they needed, or he could wait and be taken, or he could attempt a sortie and die. There were no other options, and all of them were in Katarn's favour. He had the metaphorical strategic high-ground, and he would hold it.

Except there was a blade at his throat.

The air to his right shimmered in his peripheral vision, and resolved into the form of the human, Thanatos. He wasn't wearing his mask anymore, however, and Katarn recognised that scarred, smirking visage. The Butcher himself.

"You!"

"Me." Shepard agreed, openly amused.

"You'll pay for this, for everything you've done to my species. The torment will be loud and long, and not even when you beg for death will your suffering be curtailed-"

"Why does everyone assume that I've got it in for your benighted species? It's nothing personal, you know. I'm just acting in my best interests, and it so happens that they clash with yours."

"Torfan. Elysium. Now here. You've made it personal, Butcher."

"May I remind you that these little encounters have always been set in motion by the actions of your own people? Really, you overestimate your significance. If you stopped dipping your fingers into galactic affairs, my colleagues and I would be only too happy to stop slicing them off."

A wild thought seized Katarn, one last hope, one final stratagem that could bring victory in spite of everything, a triumph undreamt of even in the conceptual stages of the operation. If he could just keep the human talking until his comrades arrived...

"Easy for humanity to say! You've been favoured from the start! You shoulder your way into galactic society, gain an embassy on the Citadel only eight years after a first contact with the turians that was hostile, and have the gall to say we intrude?"

"You have everything to learn of Darwin, it seems. I've only got time for a quick introduction, but it goes something like this-"

Thaddaeus flicked his wrist in a motion that sent the knife at Katarn's throat on a collision course with several key blood vessels, as well as his airway. Katarn reacted with impressive speed, however, and bent back away from the scything steel, allowing nothing more than a shallow, superficial gash, and brought his gun around to aim for his species' nemesis as he did so. Shepard reversed the slashing motion to block that arm, and raised the Karpov he held in his left as a contingency measure, pulling the trigger twice in rapid succession.

Katarn fell, by his own volition, gravity carrying him away from the trajectory of the assassin's projectiles and down into the snow's cryogenic embrace. He lashed out at the Butcher's legs, hoping to bring him down too, but the blanket of crystals impeded his movements, and the human leapt nimbly over the assault, avoiding it with ease and turning the leap into a movement that would carry his feet to the batarian's throat. The SIU desperately continued the motion he'd begun with his kick, twisting aside just enough to escape that danger and instead receiving an armoured boot to the skull as a concussive reward for his trouble.

However, Shepard's leap had brought his legs into range of Katarn's upper limbs, which he deployed in a similar but rather more effective manner, bringing the human down alongside him. Neither of them was inclined to tussle on the ground, however, and both scrambled to their respective feet. Now, Katarn was between Shepard and his shuttle.

Katarn bared his teeth in a sadistic snarl, enjoying his chance to get the better of his infamous opponent. Shepard remained impassive. Then, with the subtle flick of a switch, the air around him seemed to crystallise, leaving an empty patch of air in its wake.

This time, it wasn't the edge of a blade he felt, but the muzzle of a gun. And Shepard didn't reappear, he simply hissed in the SIU's ear

"This is Darwin. We adapt, we die, and the winner gets to live. There's no morality to it."

One detonation. Katarn's body, sans a large proportion of the matter previously constituent in his skull, slumped into Shepard's arms, and was unceremoniously tossed into the shuttle for later examination.

In the distance, the discordant howl of multiple vehicles joined with the wind's fierce keening. It was time to depart. The lone shuttle lifted off, and flew low, fleeing before the advance of those who needed only to detect it to inflict defeat, before bearing the human and his prizes off-planet.

"...Whilst the mission's outcome was not the one initially desired, it is my considered opinion that it could appropriately labelled as a victory. Admittedly, we severely weakened the batarian resistance movement, and lost the prospect of an ongoing stream of data from Hegemony space, but considering the ease with which the SIU were able to infiltrate it at the highest levels and twist it towards their agenda, it could be argued that that's no bad thing. I was also able to bring with me the munitions intended for the resistance, and all files that could potentially be useful from the resistance's mainframe, whilst leaving no trace of my presence and denying the SIU their opportunity to discredit the Alliance."

Shepard had relayed the facts surrounding the reason for the mission's... unexpected outcome with casual ease, concentrating more on Hogan's reaction, which appeared limited, to put it mildly. The Major was clearly out of sorts, and, as his superior, that concerned Shepard. Well, in so far as that it had the potential to adversely affect him.

"You did well." The Irishman finally said, his voice sour, almost surly. "You salvaged a mission that could have ended in disaster, and returned to us having secured a strategic profit."

"Whilst I can't say I was delighted to have been sent in with deficient intelligence, the scheme was well put together. The SIU isn't an organisation of fools." Shepard said, guessing the older man's error was at least one reason for his foul mood.

"Quite. You remember Kai Leng?" Hogan said, changing the subject abruptly.

"My memory is fully functional." Thaddaeus replied, attempting to avoid sounding testy.

His superior sighed. "It appears that your assessment of him was more accurate than mine." Shepard quirked an eyebrow, but prudently managed to restrain himself from commenting 'you don't say' aloud; Hogan was still his superior, and in a position of power over the N7. In any case, his expression said it for him.

"He attacked and murdered a krogan on his first assignment, a fairly routine operation, and hospitalised his mentor when they tried to restrain him. He was subsequently captured and detained, and has been sentenced to twenty years imprisonment in a high-security facility. The incident has been too well publicised for us to extract him, were we so inclined, and for the sake of deniability records have been altered to indicate that he was on leave."

A not entirely comfortable silence ensued. Neither man was interested in commiserations, likewise rebukes were unnecessary; Hogan had been at fault and he knew it. There was little more to be said on the matter, once one had excluded these options. After a minute, Hogan opened a compartment on his desk, and reached in to withdraw a pair of tumblers and the crystal decanter of Cointreau. The two professionals decided that they were content to drink in silence.